To My Ever Faithful Student
My first MLP fic, read if you like.
To my ever faithful student,
I would be very grateful if you would come up, alone, to Canterlot to visit me this weekend. It is very important that you arrive.
Your Teacher,
Princess Celestia
Twilight read through the short letter for at least the hundredth time as her chariot flew up into the sky. True, it had been a while since the Princess and her had seen each other, but such a direct invitation seemed out of place for her. What really made her wonder was the note that asked for her alone to go up. Normally the princess would have asked for Spike to come up with her.
Needless to say, Twilight had spent the rest of the week freaking out. Had she fallen too far behind in her studies, or maybe the Princess hadn’t liked her last letter or worse, maybe Celestia thought she wasn’t fit for being a bearer of an element of harmony anymore! She had brought these worries up to her friends, and they had tried to understand…tried.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to worry about the small things after that whole time travel thing,” Spike chided, shelving one of the many books Twilight had pulled out to study.
“Of course, but this isn’t a small thing, this is Princess Celestia! I don’t think she privately meets with anypony unless it’s to talk about something life changing.” Twilight yelled, continuing to pace back and forth in her study.
“Oh come on Twi, you’re her number one student, I bet she just wants to give you an award or something. Hey, maybe it’ll be a party!” Spike added, his eyes brightening.
“There’s gonna be a party! Where?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, barging in through the library door, “Cause I haven’t heard about any parties, and if Pinkie hasn’t heard about it then it’s not a party, it’s just a thing where people try to have fun but can’t cause they need Pinkie!”
“Breathe Pinkie, there isn’t a party…at least, I don’t think there is, I just got this letter from Princess Celestia,” Twilight grabbed the letter with her magic and lifted it over to Pinkie.
“Oh woooooow, it sure sounds like it’ll be important. Oh, maybe it’s a surprise party that such a great secret I don’t even know about it yet!” Pinkie deduced, ever exuberant, “I’m sure it won’t be anything bad.”
“Maybe…argh! No offense Pinkie, but I need to talk to someone a bit more…serious than you. Spike, entertain Pinkie while I’m out,” Twilight pulled the note back and headed out the door.
“Wait, what?” Spike paused, his eyes dilating in horror as pinkie opened up an endless supply of questions on him.
After leaving, Twilight had decided to first go see Applejack at her farm, that pony was always assured to have a level head about any situation.
“Well I don’t know Twi, it seems pretty farfetched fer the Princess to take your element away just ‘cause she disliked one of your letters,” Applejack bucked one of her trees, the apples falling neatly into the buckets resting below.
“But just in case, do you think there’s anything I could do so she won’t disown me form the elements of harmony?” Twilight pleaded, her gaze burning a hole into the letter, as if she could divine some hidden meaning from the words.
“Well how ‘bout you stop fretting and go up to Canterlot as the amazing confident pony we all care ‘bout?” Applejack offered, a smile gracing her face, “I don’t think Celestia could ever disown the Twilight I’m friends with.”
“Oh, thank you Applejack,” Twilight didn’t know what to say.
“Y’all got nothing to thank me for, it’s jus the simple truth,” smiling happily at her friend, Twilight waved goodbye and headed off, much relieved.
For about twenty minutes.
After those twenty minutes a little thought entered her head. Just because Applejack thought that she was a great student was true, didn’t mean that everypony thought it was true. In fact, since Celestia spent all of her time up in Canterlot, there was no way she could know everything her friends knew about her! Maybe she could still fix this, maybe she could write another letter, the best letter ever! She could fit all her knowledge of friendship into it and maybe if it was well written enough, the Princess could forgive her! Her plan set into motion, she charged off for the library.
Unfortunately, as soon as she entered through the front door, she saw that she wouldn’t have a chance to write the letter. In front of her were all of her friends, worried looks on each of their faces. After a terse moment of silence, Rarity stepped forward.
“Darling, little Spikey said you were absolutely frantic over a letter you received from the princess.”
“Yeah,” added Rainbow Dash, “he said you might need us to help stop you from freaking out and stuff.”
“I tried to tell him not to worry, that I’d talked some sense in ta you, but he jus’ wouldn’t listen,” Applejack brought up, “he was jus’ overreactin’, right?”
“Well…I started thinking that maybe the princess might not think of me the same way all of you do, she’s barely ever in town, so maybe she really DOES think I’m a bad student and is going to take away my element of harmony!” Twilight explained, sounding more frantic as she explained it all.
“Oh my, taking your element away?” Fluttershy said, “That just sounds awful. I can’t see Princess Celestia doing that to you.”
“Yeah, like I was telling Spike while you were gone, it’s obviously a super-secret-thirty-part-surprise-party! Each part is meant to lull you into a false sense of security before they spring the party part! At least, it’s what I would do,” Pinkie giggled.
“But, on the off chance it isn’t a party, and for some reason the princess is upset with you, just know that we will always be here for you,” Rarity consoled, putting a hoof on Twilight’s should for reassurance.
“Of course, and if Celestia does want to take away your element, just give us a call and we’ll be up there in a jiffy to knock some sense into her!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, miming a punch as she hovered in midair.
“Rainbow Dash…” chided Fluttershy.
“What? It’s true,” Rainbow Dash grumbled before settling back onto the floor. Twilight was once again rendered speechless.
“You all would really do that for me?” she finally managed to say.
“Ab-so-lutely! We could never let our friend down,” Pinkie Pie said, happily bobbing up and down.
“We will always be here for you darling. Now can you just promise us one thing? No fretting or worrying until you meet the princess all right?” Rarity asked gently.
“Yeah, just try and relax…and you can always come and talk to us if you start worrying,” Fluttershy added.
“Thank you, everyone,” Twilight replied, walking forward and grabbing everyone together into a group hug.
With her friends’ words behind her, Twilight had managed to avoid panicking for the rest of the week. She was even able to calmly walk onto the chariot, ride up into the clouds, and step off into the wonderful city without a single bit of worry entering her mind.
Before moving on she stopped to take in the sights, as always. The city never ceased to amaze her, with its spiraling golden towers stretching into the sky and the way the creators had wound the various rivers through the city perfectly to create a beautiful backdrop of bountiful waterfalls. It was truly a marvel of engineering.
Finally, she realized that she couldn’t stand around gawking, she had to see Celestia. Trotting down the main walkway, Twilight held her head high, she could do this, and there was no need to worry.
Then she ran into Princess Luna.
Luna trotted happily down the paved road, greeting anypony she saw, who all simply stared, looks of shock and wonder plastered on their face. Turning her head, Luna managed to catch sight of Twilight.
“Twilight! We are so pleased to-” her voice suddenly boomed, echoing through the city, before she managed to calm down, “Um, I mean. Twilight, it is so good to see you, my sister told me to be expecting you.”
“Really? Um, did she happen to say why she invited me up here?” Twilight questioned, feeling a hint of nervousness sneak into her head.
“Well, no actually. All I know is that it must be very important. She even allowed me the duty of raising and setting the sun today,” Luna explained, “I think the reason she wants to meet with you must be very important.”
“Oh…okay…” Twilight muttered, her nervousness growing a bit.
“Well I hope you and my sister have a good time together, bye!” all smiles, the younger princess walked away, leaving Twilight much more worried than before.
“Calm down Twilight, just remember what your friends said. The Princess cares about you, I’m sure she just want a…slumber party…yeah,” Twilight tried to convince herself, unsuccessfully. Realizing she didn’t have anywhere to go, she took a deep breath and headed onward.
Soon, she found herself in front of the doors to the Princess’s chamber, and she couldn’t bring herself to knock on the door. She would raise a hoof, stop, take another turn around the room, and then try again. Around the sixth or seventh attempt, a voice called out from the room.
“Twilight, are you going to come in, or should I give you another hour?” Celestia’s voice carried a mock-seriousness to it, and Twilight couldn’t help a small smile come to her face.
“Oh, I’m sorry princess,” she gingerly pushed opened the door, edging into the room, “I was just nervous.”
“Nervous? Oh there is no need for that Twilight…in all honesty I am the one who should feel nervous,” Celestia glanced away, trying to avoid eye contact.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“After the wedding…” Celestia paused, something Twilight understood, the changling invasion was a terrible event for Canterlot, they were lucky it hadn’t been much worse, “After you and your friends had left, I realized I owed you an apology for not trusting you.” Twilight watched her with rapt attention, so Celestia continued.
“At least, that’s what it was at first…but then I realized just how much I have to apologize for,” she finally admitted.
“It is difficult to be a ruler, every choice I make has repercussions that effect everypony in Equestria. When Nightmare Moon…when my sister was going to return, I sent you off, with no knowledge at all, to find the Elements of Harmony. I had no fear that you would fail…but it was so hard to send you off to fix my mistake,” Celestia paused, a look of shame gracing her face.
“What happened to your sister wasn’t your fault! She was overcome with resentment due to only having the duty of the night, you can’t blame yourself for that,” Twilight said, worried, she had never seen the princess like this before.
“But I can Twilight, I most definitely can. I should have been able to tell something was wrong with her; I should have been able to help her before it was too late. But that is not the worst part. When Luna fell, when she became Nightmare Moon, I was forced to use the Elements on her. Even with all of their power, I was not able change her back. I don’t know why, maybe it was due to Luna having a connection to the Elements…or maybe I had just lost faith in myself for letting things become so terrible. Either way, all I could do was force her into exile, costing me a thousand years without my dear sister.” Another pause.
“Princess…” Twilight started, she had no idea what to say.
“And after that, the elements abandoned me; they fell to the ground as simple stones. Without them, though I did not realize it at the time, the prison around Discord began to weaken, and that too became another problem of mine that you and your friends had to face.”
“But we were able to defeat him and seal him back in stone,” Twilight argued, remembering her final showdown with the strange creature.
“Yes, but after so much hardship for you and your friends. I asked Spike after the confrontation and he told me how close you came to leaving Ponyville, how Discord almost corrupted you. I was so glad to learn that my plan to send you your letters worked.”
“And still, after all of your hard work. After you saved our land twice, after all of your hours spent learning lessons about friendship and helping me with research into other matters, I still betrayed you. When you accused Princess Cadance in front of everyone, I abandoned you just like everyone else. I should have trusted you, I should have done something, anything, to see if your suspicions might have been correct, but I simply ignored you. For all of my grievances against you, I have something very important to say to you.” Celestia bowed her head towards Twilight. “I must apologize, not only for failing you as a teacher, but for burdening you with my past mistakes.”
“Princess…I cannot accept your apology,” Twilight said after a moment’s hesitation. Hearing this, Celestia’s face seemed to darken with gloom.
“I understand Twilight, would you like for me to arrange a chariot back to-”
“I cannot accept it because you have nothing to apologize for!” Twilight stopped her, a reassuring smile on her face. “I could never resent you for trusting me to help save ponyville. True it can be a burden sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I’m your number one student after all. As for the wedding…yes, it was hard to see you ignore my suspicions, and I was upset. But I can’t bring myself to stay mad at you. Just looked at how it turned out, the changelings were driven out and Canterlot was saved.”
“But I failed in my duties, I let those creatures fool me, and because of it you and your friends were put in terrible danger.” Celestia argued, though the gloom had lifted from her face a little.
“Well just promise that if I accuse another pony of being a horrible bug-winged monstrosity you’ll believe me,” that brought a smile to Celestia’s face.
“Of course, I promise.” With that, Celestia stood up and stretched, “Now then…I suppose that is enough moping about for today, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Absolutely Princess,” Twilight agreed with a bright smile.
“And since I have you here, would you to spend the rest of the day with me?” Celestia offered. “It has been far too long since we had time to be together.”
“Of course! Can we check out the library first? There are some books in there I know I’m going to need for my research.” At a nod from the Princesses head, Twilight rushed out of the chamber. Watching after her, Celestia could not keep the smile off of her face.
“Thank you so much, my little pony.”
I know it's not that great, but I just had this image of Celestia being distraught over sending Twilight directly into danger multiple times, then not trusting her at a vital moment. I tried to get the tone of the characters to fit as best I could, but I'm still not sure. Let me know what you think and how I could fix it.
