Equestrian Service

Alone, Princess Celestia gazed out from the comfort of her castle’s balcony as the radiant sun began to descend beneath the horizon, her eyes wandering with thought and contemplation.

It has been many moons since she had first taken Twilight Sparkle under her wing as her personal protégé. She could remember that day when she made that critical decision in absolute vivid detail. How could she ever forget the intense, sheer quantity of magical energy crackling through the air around the keep of her castle on the day Twilight came for the entrance examination? Or how Twilight was actually capable to hatch a dragon egg with just the strength of her magic at such an age?

Until then, she never witnessed any unicorn having such a level of ability and especially at such a young age. But she knew she needed to guide this new student of hers well, else she may turn to the other side, like…

She grimaced slightly at the thought of her former, renegade pupil, as her eyes chose to stare blankly at the cloudless sky. Ever since her old pupil abandoned her, she had always been questioning herself; were her actions justified, fair or even legitimate? Was she at fault for what her old pupil became? Could she have done something more to guide her back on track?

Bowing her head down slightly, she sighed. For a long time, she already knew that her past decisions, no matter how significant, influenced the pupil who turned her back on her to pursue her own warped path. This revelation simply shattered her heart and scarred her conscience deeply as she assigned the blame of what had happened to her pupil to herself.

She clasped her eyes shut. She was still trying to grapple with accepting the reality of things but she knew she had to move on to live in the present. There was always a constant battle of emotions that fought constantly in her heart whenever she mulled over the events of what had happened but she had to let go, no matter how hard that might be.

She tried to calm herself down as she suspired yet again. As she exhaled, her eyes instinctively opened to reveal the view of the rising moon emerging from the horizon as the sun was just about to disappear from below the horizon, bringing in another surge of emotions gushing into her spirit as she remembered who was left abandoned on the lifeless, desolate surface of the moon.

Why did she have to banish her own sister there? Was there another way to convince her own sister of the errors of her selfish ways other than to expel her, denying her of their kinship? Why didn’t she empathise with her sister then? Why-

Princess Celestia shook her head vigorously to dispel the seemingly endless questions and thoughts that came crashing down for her mind to ponder. She needed to clear her mind of such thoughts before it deviated away from the matter she really wanted to deliberate alone. Yet, she realised that she could draw some parallels to her past experiences to help her in her decision making. After all, the past offered her insights into how she could handle the situation in a more appropriate manner that, at least, would not be viewed as a mistake.

Twilight had many similarities with her old pupil of hers, especially pertaining to their unquenchable thirst for academic knowledge in school, causing them to be somewhat aloof among their peers. She firmly believed that Twilight, like her former student before her, needed to build a strong network of friends that could support each other in trying times and learn as a collective group.

This was the pivotal decision that Princess Celestia needed to make. She knew that there was an exceptionally special and unique group of fillies in Ponyville she thought would make great friends with Twilight, though she was so incredibly hesitant to send her away. Her mind was about to go berserk with the bottomless amount of excuses it was more than capable to come up with to convince her to reconsider her decision, but her heart was firm on making a concrete decision that she would agree to today. There would be no more delays, postponements or reconsiderations; the decision must be made today for she had already given herself many dozens of moons to mull it over.

“Your Highness!”

Appalled by this sudden disturbance, she turned around to face one of her royal guards stationed in her castle rushing to her hurriedly. “Sorry, but I must have time alone; other trivial matters can wait.”

“I have sombre news from Northern Equestria…it has returned!” the royal guard proclaimed, pausing briefly to catch his much-needed breath. “And it’s too late, it has already retaken the Crystal Empire!”
“What? How?” Princess Celestia exclaimed immediately, shock written all over her face. “Never mind, send for a reconnaissance squad to scout out the northern regions immediately and locate Princess Cadance!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”