Day 81, May 30th, Wednesday

Today I got a little over two dozen letters, most of them being from different newspapers and in email format to my public ambassador email that I forgot I had, journals, or other reporters asking me to consider granting them an interview. I probably should have expected this after my appearance at the Canterlot Day of the Fallen ceremonies. Most of them seem to be curious, though a few had even managed to reference that I was in the reports of the ponies that had come home. Several requests of them seemed to be hoof-written. To me, that spoke just as much of their interest by effort involved or professionalism, but maybe that’s from being raised in an era where internet wasn’t common in households until nearly high school. Great… I’m old school already and I’m not even 40! Just wait till I get to 512 or something!

I’m not sure if I want to do an interview yet, or am ready for it. I made an appearance on the public stage at the Day of the Fallen, but I’m also nowhere near trained enough for public interactions of that level on my own yet. I barely managed the social gathering that Celestia and Luna hosted with a small group! Granted, there was no pressure and it gave me a glimpse into what I will have to be to actually interact with them properly, but this was going to be a move in ‘the game’ where many things could accidentally make waves.

~~have I mentioned I hate the game~~ sigh. I will not let this journal get negative!

Having said all that, we also had the court date today. It was interesting, seeing what things would come up to the attention of a princess, and yet it was extremely familiar. The pompus lower houses and their requesting taxes for their projects, today’s most notable example being for funding for a “public” swimming pool just behind their main estate of course, only to then insist on rules that exempted most ponies from being able to attend.

The more serious examples, however, showed me how difficult the real decisions can be. I felt like the issue at hoof was difficult to solve without knowing what all the options were as I listened, but Twilight took it in stride and came up with a method to investigate before she would give an answer. I learned that one of the most valuable parts of making decisions at this level is the levying of time to reach a secure position, or at least prepare for how to give the answer. It highlighted how if one isn’t educated in the appropriate fields, it would be easy to be persuaded by their given details to see their point of view.

As much as this is interesting in learning how to be a princess, I must confess a kind of guilt to not bringing up my family more in my journals. After all, am I not a mother first? I suppose it could be argued both ways, but I was encouraged to focus on being a parent more than ruling until Twilight came along after all.

So, on to talking about my family to make up for it then! My foals are still cute, playing around and making a mess with all their toys. I’m starting to understand why some parents don’t bother cleaning up after their foals except on one day a week, if that, unless hosting some event. It’s been easier to leave the living room more or less the way the foals want it, and clean everything up on Sunday instead. Magic is definitely something I’d almost want to require as a parent, makes things so much easier… Actually- Idea…

What if I were to find a way to make more of the bracelets like what I gave Nightfall, so ponies could do the more mundane tasks with magic? … actually, that’s a bad idea. Minor telekinesis was used by Night to do more than move stuff around like a quill, cutlery, or chairs like I had wanted. He used them for all kinds of other things, even using a belt of knives to fight with. It doesn’t have any more advantages than someone with hands, save one, it’s not predictable or limited to the motion a hand attached to an arm, but this could be misused by criminals for far more devious things, especially when ponies don’t realize magic could be used because the pony is a pegasus or an earth pony…

Well, so much for that idea. I’d better go to bed, I’ve still got training and I’m told I have exams coming up too. At least it has gotten easier to sleep with my foals with me. I don’t suddenly wake up when they latch on... and why do I get the feeling someone will read this other than me or Stalwart and be like ‘tmi princess!’... anyway, bed. Good night.

-in hastily scribbled ink- Oh! Note to self: Check with a therapist or the doctors at the Psych place to see if it would help treatments or hinder them if a magic item could help give an actual voice to the voices ponies like Tulip are hearing.

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Day 83, Jun 1st, Friday

Today is a big day for us! Our foals had started babbling and almost got to talking by the time they laid down for their nap! They’d generally been quiet, listening to Stalwart and me playing our games together or reading out loud to them for their bedtime stories, and they started trying to talk back to us. I know every parent probably gets this feeling, but they were so adorable as they tried to talk to us! We started talking back with them, emotions riding high, but their speech only kept getting better the more we talked despite my expectations that they should only be able to babble until closer to one or two years old.

Of course, I should laugh because they could say “Zera” just fine, surprising us and we feigned offense, but they started saying ‘momuh’ and ‘daduh’ a few minutes later, so I think we could forgive them. They squealed in happiness when we came together and smothered them with attention, and I'm almost positive they do feed on our emotions some, or at least are sensitive to it. Probably stuffed Zera full of love from the events of the day. I’d joke that’s the real reason Chryssy assigned a caretaker to our family, to gather all our love, but it’s not like it’s doing any harm to us after all.

I’m sore from all the workouts of the day, but that really made me smile and nearly glowing for the rest of the day. It wasn’t as fast as Violet began speaking I hear, but I don’t really mind. I... I just realized, I need to figure out when their birthday is based on both calendars! Let’s see, I know I ascended around February and the commander came over around March or April, but their birth got accelerated and they joined our family late May, but then we went to the commander’s world by August and then it warped back to March for their time... So that’d mean their equivalent birthday over here is around January now... hm. No idea how we wanna handle that right now, I’ll deal with it later.

Oh, I also had sent off the question I had a couple days ago to the psych building that PFC Tulip was at. Not sure if I’ll get to work on the relic in question, but it’ll be good to ask the experts first to keep them in the loop.

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Day 85, Jun 3rd Sunday

I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, and now that the foals are napping so I can finally write about everything so far. Beacon is babbling in his sleep like always since they started (he’s so adorable!), but I decided that I will go forward with the interview. I thought about avoiding the spotlight because of my inexperience, but that decision had already been made when I joined Twilight at Canterlot and stood on the stage. Now I should be looking at it as a decision to either give them information and guide their queries about me, or let them guess what I’m like and let rumors build and potentially dictate my actions for me.

I choose the first option, hands or hooves down. No way do I want rumors build or let others dictate who I am or what to expect out of me! So of course, now I had to figure out who it was that I wanted to interview with.

This choice is nowhere near easy. Not only is there their own equivalent partisan parties, called Traditionalists and Modernists which I equated as similar to my home world’s political divisions, but each one seemed to have a bias between the existing three princesses as well!

Here’s my dilemma:
If I went with a single group for an exclusive, it would show a great deal of favor with the one group and toward the way it allows its bias to be shown. Getting multiple reporters together isn’t any easier either! If I grab a paper that leans Traditionalist-Celestia and another that’s an Modernist-Luna leaning group, I could be accused of holding up a stereotype. Reverse it to Modern-Tia and Tradition-Luna, and then I might be considered a contrarian or not appeal to the broader audience since the audiences generally have Traditionalists lean to Tia while the Modernists lean Twilight and Luna.

In the end, accepting just a single group just did not seem like a good idea. I decided the best route would be a Traditionalist journalist from Celestia and Luna both, while the Modernist leaning paper would be a Twilight bias. It’s not a perfect plan, but it would appeal to about two thirds of the population as far as I can estimate. At least the Luna one I chose is really close to being just about the events with minimal biases shown.

Here’s to hoping my letters asking for a coordinated interview between the three groups are well received. Writing an email with hooves was not easy, let me tell you that… And now I remember I could have used changeling shapeshifting to get hands. Dammit, why didn’t I think of that sooner! Ok, enough ranting, focus now… Stalwart says they were each written well enough and should be received well since I tried to tailor to each of their niches. We will see… After all, they are going to each have some time to do their one on one interviews. It’ll be an exhausting day, that’s for sure.

Anyway, I’m still drained and tomorrow I still have all of my classes and exercising like usual again. Good night.

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Day 86, Jun 4th, Monday

Stalwart told me everyone’s completed their Guard training and Nightfall’s been given his patrol route and partnered up with a pony named Blue Star for his patrol route in Canterlot. His training route was something he enjoyed, despite the graveyard shift. Storm and Night found a place close enough for both their needs. Storm is still working at Castle Friendship, and Night will work his patrols.

I hope it works out for them. Night was really cold and distant on the Day of the Fallen. Still, it’s not any skin off my back and more his loss. At least Storm seems to be warming up to me, or not having any issues with me anymore. Not sure why, but I’m not complaining! Stalwart is relieved that Night is giving us some distance too. Apparently he’s been testy of Stalwart. Thankfully I know how to help cheer him up!

In other news, I got a reply from the Canterlot psychologist in charge of handling PFC Tulip’s case. Their response was educational, but boiled down to it being a generally bad idea. Schizophrenia, Tulip’s hearing her squad, is generally handled by proper medication to help with the brain’s synapses misfiring and using traditional therapy to help them determine fiction from reality. Now, the potential upside to the idea was it could help with some degree of access to their subconscious, but can accidentally validate the voices that they hear which may be poor or faulty reasoning.

I wrote up a letter accepting their information, thanking them and let them know I’ll be delayed in visiting again due to various reasons like my education, but would ensure Tulip would get a good long letter on Sundays that I miss.

With all that settled, I felt exhausted. I’ll have to share the info with Twilight at some point, see what her thoughts were on the feedback, but the hardest part would be when. Twilight’s been super busy and dinners with the royalty are becoming less frequent, though I still try, perhaps I should try to learn from some of the other nobility.

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Day 87, Jun 5th, Tuesday

Well, busy day today. I got news on my electronics, I got responses from the newspaper groups, and my foals are being as mischievous as ever!

So somehow, despite a rather thorough disassembling of my electronics and somehow putting them back together without any damage (I’m blaming/thanking magic.) and they have some working emulators and converter units for just about everything. That was incredibly fast work, wasn’t expecting any of them back for years! I know they had some help because of the ones I already had on my computer, and that made everything a lot faster from seeing the various engine details that needed rebuilt, but I wasn’t expecting the hive to have it all done in just three months!

Anyway, everything’s getting reinstalled in our home while I’m gone and we can play some of the things I grew up with if I want! … I mean, I hardly have the time, but some games are begging for me to relive or show off to Stalwart if he’s interested. Who wants to bet he’ll enjoy the shooters like most boys? (I shouldn’t tease, I’m guilty of enjoying a few myself)

We’re working out plans for how to distribute copies of the games, pricing and the like. I still hesitate because it’s me profiting from the work of so many others, and yet the logic of the hive is difficult to argue against. The ponies of this world can’t play the games otherwise, it’s not as if the original creators were going to come along or be able to start distributing products here themselves, and it all has the added effect of providing entertainment to the masses and coins for funding whatever projects I wish to pursue. I have no idea what that will be yet, but I like the idea of pairing games together, grouping them and trying to sell them at a rate appropriate to the markets’ standards. I don’t want to keep the funding for selfish projects if I can help it though, that still feels like crossing a line.

Movies are being copied too, though I’m more wanting to have them distributed more freely. Not sure why I’m making the exception for movies, but it otherwise seems right for me. Like, the movies show the culture I came from a lot more easily in my opinion. Granted, my library missing a bunch of movies a lot of people back home loved just from not being aware or interested in some, but a good fifty or so movies is still nothing to sneeze at! At least the ones I love are able to be shared… though I can’t help but wonder what the reactions of ponies will be when they see movies about space battles or dwarves and elves and humans and the like… Ok, definitely going to a showing if it goes into theatres so I can see crowd reactions. I don’t want to miss that! I wonder how many ponies will dream of being jedi or Starfleet officers after the showings…

Ok, enough about my games and movies… Newspapers of course were asking if they could have exclusives instead, offering various things like my choice on subjects to cover, or a small compensation package to accommodate my time. I stood my ground, sending notices to all three. I made sure I was as polite as possible, something about appreciating their offers, but I wanted to work with the best from multiple perspectives to show that I wanted to show how much I valued alternate or conflicting perspectives because of how it can bring the truth to light more easily. Stalwart said it was written fine, but I still worry it could have been written better. I was nervous about the idea of them recording the conversations for better note taking and for uploading to their equivalent of the internet, but I wanted to be transparent, for better or worse. Regardless, my answers are written and sent and it’s really late tonight. I should get to bed.

Day 88, Jun 6th

Well, I got my notice about the Summer Sun Celebration today… It seemed like it was going to be a pretty normal day, sometimes whiney and yet happy foals, a hard workout, more lessons, and would round it off with a nice dinner with a visiting princess…

Dawn walked in to the dining room, pleased to see she was being joined by other princesses. She was finally feeling confident and comfortable in the public dining scene and the warm summer air was kept at bay in the castle. She looked over to the table, and saw Celestia at the table, smiling softly at her.

"Good evening Dawn. I hope you don’t mind that I decided to join you since I was in the castle."

"No, very much no." Dawn grinned as she took her seat. "I've rather often enjoyed when you or the other princesses join at mealtime.”

"Yes, I do apologize we do not get to meet often, but royal duties do call to me and my sister." She chuckled.

"Of course." Dawn said with an understanding nod. "I still treasure what times we do get. How have you been?"

"Oh, I have been well as I can be."

"Glad to hear it." Dawn smiled, hesitating as she saw Celestia nod and a sour taste reminding her of sadness seemed to float over the air.

"So, what of you? How have you been? I’ve read Twilight reports, but I’d like to hear it from you."

"Certainly. My lessons have been going well, learning more every day, and my physical fitness test is coming up a few days before the summer sun celebrations." Dawn said.

"Ah, yes.” Celestia said with a smile, the sour note becoming slightly more noticeable, “From what I am told you will pass with flying colors."

"We will see…" Dawn said nervously. "From what my trainers say, I hold myself back too much by being too timid."

"That is what Twilight believes as well." She nodded smiling at Dawn with amusement.

"I try to laugh at the irony of being my own worst enemy, but it provides a good goal to pass. If I can manage to look past my flaws and fears, I can perform much better because of it." Dawn nodded.

"Quite,” Celestia nodded, “we are all often our own worst enemies, sometimes to the point we don’t see what is right in front of our noses until it’s too late."

"And that is the best time to listen to others, to keep ourselves in check to avoid it, right?" Dawn asked, feeling a bit of worry as the sad note increased again.

"Hmm… Yes, yes it is." She said shaking her head a bit as if clearing something.

Dawn frowned, trying to hide it and hold back her worry at possibly reminding them of worse times.

"Are you alright?" Celestia asked.

"Yes, just fearing I had triggered a memory of a less pleasant nature." Dawn said.

"Oh, no, no. It’s fine. I just get a bit somber around the time of The Summer Sun Celebration, that’s all."

"Somber?" Dawn asked, blinking.

"Hm?” Celestia asked, looking at Dawn for a few seconds before realizing, “Ah, so you haven’t reached that part in your lessons yet, have you?"

"No, I haven't." Dawn said with a shake of her head.

"Well… while most have forgotten the meaning of the day, The Summer Sun Celebration marks the day I defeated Nightmare Moon and celebrates my victory over her." She said.

“Oh.” Dawn frowned empathetically, "normally I'd say 'I see,' to show my understanding, but that is... that must have been harder than words can say."

"Quite, to see ponies celebrating me banishing my own little sister. While she has returned and the day now marks my reunion with her, I still have trouble with it marking my single greatest failure, not just as a ruler, but also as a sister." Celestia said with a sigh, getting an appearance that showed she looked old. Not just old like an elderly mare, but a true age that showed the mental wear of centuries of good and bad times, "If Mother were still alive, I could only imagine the disappointment she would feel in me failing to care for Luna."

"And the relief for their return and making amends." Dawn said to try comforting them, "I doubt there's anything I can say that you haven't heard already, but if there's anything you would like me to do, I will."

"Just… enjoy the day. Outside of the announcement of the night activities, I spend the night with Luna and just… enjoy her being there." Celestia smiled sadly. "Yes, I have and yes, mother would be happy she returned, though that still doesn’t make up for me failing to take care of her like I promised."

"Oh." Dawn said, nodding as she tried to think of what to say on the matter, any way to celebrate... but she was an outsider, and she knew if she could have her family back and supportive, shed only care about them being together.

"What is it Dawn?"

"Realizing how arrogant it must be for me to try and come up with something to help you both celebrate, when you both already would have had plenty of time to consider options and find out what you want… I had to admit to myself that if my birth family wanted to reconnect with me, I'd only need them present too. Everything else would be extra."

She nodded. "We usually disguise ourselves and walk around whatever city we are in and just enjoy being together before going off to just talk."

"Good." Dawn said, thinking, "Still, if there is anything you like that I can do for it, let me know, all right?"

"Just enjoy the festivities." She said smiling, starting to get a mischievous look. "Who knows? We might even drop by while out and about … never know."

Dawn chuckled lightly, "Well, thank you for the lesson. I will make sure I try. I briefly wonder if there was a summer sun celebration, why couldn’t there be a lunar moon one, but that makes sense."

She nodded. "Yes, while the meaning has changed somewhat it is still marking of a specific event in history and I do hope there is never a need for a Lunar Moon Celebration."

"Well… not for the same reasons." Dawn admitted, "More like a celebration of something like what ponies can enjoy about summer nights… I’m not helping my case, am I?"

"I do not think ponies need reminding of what they have done for centuries." She chuckled. "I do appreciate it though, and I know Luna will as well."

"Thank you." Dawn said, glad they knew what she was trying to do.

Celestia eyed her. "So, I am curious as to why you’ve not asked about my and Luna's parents since I mentioned them."

"I didn’t want to be rude in prying. I'm curious, but Twilight hasn’t brought up hers or asked much about mine, so I followed the precedent she seemed to set."

"Twilight doesn’t really talk about some things unless asked. She doesn’t care about talking about them, they just don’t come up in normal conversation." Celestia said and smiled at her. "However most people that hear about my parents are either curious about them, or surprised I have them."

Dawn chuckled, "I might get that response later, but considering I had parents and Twilight did, I figure you both would. I am curious but didn’t want to push. If you want to share, I'd be glad to listen."

"Normally, I do not, but seeing as Twilight trusts you and you will be working closely with us, as well as don’t have idolized views of us, I do not see why not. Ask what you’d like I'll either answer or ask you to ask another if I don’t feel comfortable answering."

"So, who were your parents? What were they like?" Dawn asked.

"Well, their names were Cobble and Sweet Treat, Cobble was my father and Sweet Treat was my mother. Honestly, I know I am biased, but I’d say they were the best parents we could have had." She chuckled

Dawn smiled, "that sounds nice. What would they do that made them the best?"

Celestia sighed and the good cheer left her, and she spoke with a lot of hesitation between parts of her speech. "They were both Unicorns, obviously, seeing as we lived in Unicornia, but you see… Me and Luna, we were born alicorns. We still aren’t sure how but… those times were… different… alien to modern times

“I was born a few years before Luna and-" Celestia hesitated again, then sighed. "‘Freak,’ ‘abomination,’ ‘affront to nature’… Those were just some of the things our home village called me. We were effectively mutants as far as the village was concerned, and the only reason our parents weren’t driven off was because of Father's years of built up goodwill and reputation.

“They were still driven from the village to a small hut outside of town, and most people never wanted to deal with them for selling us things we needed. About the only one who regularly dealt with Father was the trade shop that was beside his old horseshoe cobbling shop they lived in before I was born, now abandoned.

“They were best friends, practically brothers before I showed up. He became cold to Father, but never closed his door on him, nor did he ever say any bad words about us and it became well known to keep ones mouth shut when within earshot. Trinket was no small stallion and he had served in the army for a time. He was the closest thing to a family friend our parents had and without him we wouldn't have survived…

“But… what makes them great was… if they’d just… dealt with us… They’d have been allowed back into the village and treat it as if nothing happened… but they refused to.

“They raised us as best they could, despite the situation and protected us… The only time we were ever really hidden was when traders were in town, we’d have to hide in a cabinet while Father went to trade with them as fast as he could before the towns people spoke to them and told them of us. It was the only way to trade.

"They sacrificed everything for us and cared for us, doing their best to teach us what we needed. Flight was the hardest thing. Unicorns knew very little about pegasi and they didn’t know advanced magics, just the basics, but when we showed skills in magic, Father did all he could to buy books on the subject… I don’t think he could read most of them, but he tried his best." Celestia sighed. "They worked themselves to death for us, eventually getting sick one winter and… didn’t make it.'

Dawn frowned during the story, ears drooping and her eyes getting misty in empathy. She nodded, not sure what to say as she thought, 'Reminds me of some parts of the changeling history... not the same, but... damn that’s hard.'

"Mother made me promise to look after Luna, as I was the oldest, Luna was just becoming a teenager.” Celestia explained, “After they passed, there wasn’t much in that village for us. We were hated, ridiculed and mistreated. Honestly, I was shocked when we started trying to pack things that Trinket showed up with saddle bags filled with food, camping gear, and everything we'd need on the road, even Sepi, the Unicornian currency… My only guess was he expected us to run away at some point and wanted us to have what we needed. He never said a word to us… just handed us the bags and walked back off into the snow toward town.

“I secretly went back there and found two graves where the shack used to be, so I assume he buried mother and father after we left… We traveled around for a while, learning what we could. The cloaks Trinket gave us hid our wings so we looked like slender unicorns to most… It… made things easier."

"Wow… I … I don’t know what to say." Dawn said sadly, trying to keep under control

Celestia nodded, continuing. "Taught myself to read and Luna as well and found we had knack for magic… When… things were starting to get heated between the Unicorns and Pegasi. There was a call for volunteers, in case things became… difficult… as Loyal Unicornians, and after much discussion, me and Luna joined up and… needless to say we ran into… difficulties. After a display of our magic, we were sent into basic training, along with many others, though I know we were given more difficult tasks by the trainers, ‘keeping it fair’ they called it." She scoffed.

Dawn nodded, reaching to her mother to keep her empathy in check. She rather badly wanted to give them hugs and her sadness on their behalf was getting out of hoof.

Chrysalis checked what was happening and hugged her daughter. 'Ah yes… This is one of the reasons we see the Sisters as friends. They have experienced the… harshness of ponies.`` Chrysalis informed her, trying to keep Dawn from getting too invested.

"Anyway, we graduated top of our classes, despite the opposition, even got noticed by Princess Golden because of our marks and… surprisingly she did not mistreat us. She was curious about us, not in a malicious way, more we were something she’d never seen or heard of. She wished to learn… She was one of our first friends and pretty much earned our loyalty as proud soldiers of the Unicornian Army." She said, slowly sitting straighter, stiffer, like a soldier’s discipline returning from ages past.

"She had us transferred to her personal guard so she could speak with us often, and I must say, nothing bad happened besides a few skirmishes, as always. That was from the fact we needed the pegasi and them us… It was… nice."

"I'm very glad you managed to get a better time after all that… I…" Dawn said, hesitating as she tried to control her emotions once again, hoping the worst was over.

"Yes, it was.” Celestia consoled, “We served for a few years before… Well, I met a stallion and sort of wanted to go… Luna had wanted to explore the world, so with Golden’s blessing, we returned and I settled down with Shield Wall in a nice place near the edge of Unicornia’s border while Luna went off to explore the country… Heh… even had a couple of foals." She said smiling with a look in her eyes that seemed to focus on something far beyond the dining hall as she took another bite of her food, mind nearly a million miles away. "Life was good till… I learned something about myself I hadn’t known."

Dawn stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt, feeling like she knew the answer, 'her immortality…'

Celestia sighed again. "After… that… when I suspected things… and once I had it confirmed, I went looking for Luna. I found her to the north and… traveled a bit. I would keep an eye on my foals till it… it became pointless… I was a stranger to my family… Luna and I continued to grow.

“We knew if our growth would be bad and… We decided to leave… We left Unicornia and traveled even beyond the Earth Pony Lands to the unknown… We walked on to see the world together. We found many wondrous things… The beginning of the Griffon Kingdoms, the Yaks primitive society that was still developing, all of these places we watched from afar as time passed and we grew.

“Our manes began changing and… we would just watch the world turn… We didn’t even know about The Exodus till much later, and by then, The Discordian Era was just beginning and we were just trying to keep our heads down for a time."

Dawn nodded, realizing she could barely understand beyond what similarities the changeling history had with some emotions of their journey, yet it couldn’t be the same.

"It wasn’t until we found a caravan of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, all working together that we realized things had changed, and… Well, our training taught us to protect those in need. Then, well, we tried to find a way to deal with Discord and… the rest is history… more or less."

"I… I don’t know what to say." Dawn said quietly.

"It is why I do not usually talk of it except with a select few." She smiled. "But I figured it would help you understand why… What happened to Luna… it nearly killed me, I was so distraught. I let others spin the story however they wanted and… I know they meant well… by the time I realized, they spun me out as some hero and Nightmare Moon as some monster… it was too late to fix it. Everything had been common knowledge, and to contradict it would… the trust in the Throne would be damaged. For centuries, I had to pretend I had some sort of victory over a monster, and not a failure to my sister…"

"I want to hug you both quite badly after that story… even though I know it does little good." Dawn admitted.

Celestia chuckled, trying to bury her emotions for the empath, but bitter notes permeated the air. "It is fine Dawn. Time heals all wounds they say, and I will come to terms with it."

"I..." Dawn hesitated, thinking, 'Time doesn’t heal wounds, only makes scars fade, and even then, they never go away…'

'Only if you don’t let it Daughter.’ Chrysalis warned, being mildly stern with Dawn, ‘If you refuse to let go of the past then it will weigh you down for all eternity.'

"But enough about back then. Please tell me how are you finding Equestria?"

"So far, it’s been good. It reminds me a great deal of the world I was born in, just with ponies instead of humans." Dawn said, trying to put the heavier items behind her for now.

She chuckled. "It is semi-based off things Twilight brought back with her from a human world, at least the technology is."

"Yup. That’s what she told me anyway." Dawn agreed. "It’s almost too familiar in some ways to where I keep expecting to see humans around the corner."

Celestia chuckled.

Dawn smiled gently at the favorable response. "Well, beyond that, things are going well. Pound Cake has agreed to get me started on baking and confection lessons after the celebrations settle down."

"Oh that is good, baking is a wonderful pass time." Celestia said happily.

"I hear you are a bit of a confectionist yourself, is that true?" Dawn asked.

"Maaaaybe." Celestia responded coyly, "I may or may not have been baking since I was 10."

"Heh." Dawn smiled, "favorite thing to cook?"

"Cake… cloud cake more specifically."

"I'll look forward to learning how to make that then." Dawn smiled, "is it also a favorite to eat or no?"

"Why else would it be a favorite to bake?" Celestia chuckled again.

"Just checking," Dawn chuckled with, "for all I know it’s fun to make but isn’t as enjoyable to eat or is too sweet or something."

"Oh no. It’s quite literally the perfect baked good… though I may be biased."

"Maaaaybe." Dawn smiled, using her own response against her. "I suspect I'll enjoy fudge, but that might be too heavy for long term snacking."

"Maybe." Celestia replied neutrally.

Dawn smiles and slowly lets the smile fade into rest, "I really enjoy our talks Celestia. Thank you for letting me."

She nodded. "I enjoy them as well. Feel free to message me any time."

"I will try. My hardest obstacle has always been myself, fearing I might be interrupting with idle things when I could be being more productive." Dawn said, "It’s a lesson I am still learning, and might take some time."

"Well, emails luckily can be answered when available, and don’t interrupt anything." Celestia chuckled again.

"... Why do I keep forgetting we have emails!" Dawn said loudly, laughing at herself. "Gosh, I’ve been without so long I just… I don’t even know why!"

Celestia chuckled more at Dawn’s outburst, confessing, “I admit, it took some getting used to."

"I shouldn’t have that excuse though," Dawn said, "I've had email access since I was about thirteen. Does it really only take two years to not be used to it anymore?"

"Yes,” Celestia said seriously, “habits don’t last if they can’t be used."

Dawn snorted at herself before giving a smile. "I will do what I can to remember my options."

She nodded. "It will take time."

Dawn smiled, simply enjoying their time together as the conversation lulled.

"So, when are you due?" Celestia asked, doing her best to keep a straight face.

"Due?! Due for what?" Dawn asked, internally panicking getting heavy deja vu at Celestia using the same words. Her mind quickly flashed to when her Tia had said those same words after she ascended to princess and she was being told she was pregnant.

Celestia burst out laughing. "Oh that does work." She said between bits of laughter. "Twilight told me about how you learn of your pregnancy and I simply couldn’t resist."

Dawn blushed deeply, her ears turning a deep red on the inside, and she suppressed a whimper as she replied, "no fair."

This caused Celestia to chuckle. "Perhaps but I could not pass up the opportunity."

"Oooof course not." Dawn said with a facehoof.

Celestia simply smiled at her

Part of me feels like I should have known all along, that my not knowing was a horrible thing to be corrected, but I really shouldn’t feel that way. It was a lesson that sometimes there’s far more under things than what most see at a glance, something you’d think being with the changelings would have taught me anyway. I’ll try my best to enjoy the celebrations, but also find some way to honor the real reasons behind that day, something positive of my own like they have.

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