Ivory Tower

by Ice Star

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Drama
Length: 1130

Princess Celestia made a promise she wasn't sure she could keep.

Princess Celestia made a promise she wasn't sure she could keep. Now that she is back in Canterlot, she must come to realize the unthinkable — that this is the first day of her life without Twilight Sparkle.

And it's something she has to try and be happy about.

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Published 2020-09-23 22:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-09-23 22:30:01 UTC

Just Moments

Destiny must always be kind because there can be no destiny that does not bring good to those who are without evil. I do not believe that destiny would ever wrong me, and yet I cannot imagine I could see one of the ultimate sources of which good can be judged through anything less than a rose-tinted view. Unfortunately, it appears my glasses have slipped. It is unfortunate, seeing as this is the day when they ought to be glued to my muzzle and inescapable. There should not be even a second’s misery upon me. Not today, never today.

It is the last pale night, and what is supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

Only now, joy is my partner in a dance that has swirled away for somepony else. Even if it is only just, for now, this is that second. I know this is my fumble, and like all my fumbles, you are blind to them. Twilight Sparkle, I have left you on a chariot with the one mare I never thought I would see again, the Princess Luna.

My eyes are drier than the San Palomino desert, and I have had the faintest, distant notion that they should not be so. Yes, I have cried in public, a mythic, unheard-of thing for me. I wept when I saw Luna, and for once I did not try and stop myself.

But should I weep for you too?

The chariot could have held three, you know. Four, counting Spike. It is not as though I had not meant for that. What would you think of me, if you could know every meaning behind my words? If I were to speak plainly to you, would you marvel at how unlike myself I would be? Twilight Sparkle, I can't not imagine you speaking to me in any other way but how you present to me. I cannot imagine any world where you would ever see me as the light of your life.

Perhaps I teased you too much and stacked too many bits on the side of words I only half-meant. Oh, my Faithful Student, it is not that I never meant for you to finally make your own friends, I just did not think you would leave me for them. Never in a million mortal lifetimes would I ever thought that you would not have been in the chariot with me, smiling and scribbling away notes in my shadow with Spike as Luna and I spoke.

I need you, I want you, and this is all too soon. On March 30th, you and I got to celebrate your birthday together before afternoon duties called me away. I finally got to know that the little filly I plucked from the most unheard-of entrance exam results had become of age and that you were taking fine steps into your first year of marehood.

Perhaps if I knew that mere months later you would not be studying with me in Canterlot, I would have never written that little line. Maybe I would have kept assigning you social projects on the side, like what you had with Minuette and her friends. You were destined to be my little Spark of Magic, but you are still a Faithful Student, and nowhere near the graduating age. Yes, you may be studying still, but to be away from me was not my wish. Of all my Faithful Students, you are the youngest, and saying yes to giving you up to Ponyville feels like a betrayal of both of us — and yet the part is all mine.

That silly old library is not even decorated properly. For being the residence of one of my Faithful Students, it is just woeful in how plain it is. I feel like I am shoving you into a closet with mud pulled straight from the uncivilized murk of Hayseed Swamp by letting you stay there. A responsible mentor would immediately be commissioning the proper furniture for you and Spike.

Instead, I have a moment to mourn you, though you still live, and stand upon my balcony knowing I will no longer be burdened with the moon. It is one of the greatest mercies I can imagine, to be relieved of it, and yet I can’t help but feel that something about this day came at a price or something like it.

And that price ended up being you, Twilight Sparkle.

I did not know if you would fail when facing who I could not, and Sparking what is stone to me — and has been for ages. I would never tell you such a thing. I would not ever give you the burden of theatrics and worries that you have never seen from me, you who have always kept me as an idol more than anypony else — more than I, when I need to find a face of serenity to put on in the toughest of times.

I need you to still be running around the castle halls. When I awake tomorrow, I need to see you already studying for exams that I will only begin to outline for you next semester — and for no other reason except that you want to, that you had to will yourself to rise with my sun to plant your muzzle into a book. Tomorrow, yours is the face I require to see when I introduce Luna to the kitchen staff.

I cannot hear you in letters, I am still surprised at my own promise to all that you wished — for Ponyville, for friends I had no hoof in, for a new home with Spike, and for being away. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow I will have to have you right where I left you, in Canterlot, because I cannot fathom you leaving.

You are Twilight Sparkle of Canterlot, my Faithful Student, daughter of Twilight Velvet, and Nightlight. You are the younger sister to Shining Armor and the elder to Spike the dragon.

Now, you are the Element, the Spark of Magic. Though it may take just moments for your letters to reach me by dragonfire, I will feel all the miles each time my hoof touches them. And every time I do, I will wish with all that I know that these ivory towers of mine will not change too much without you.

Author's Note

I've been writing so much about Sunset and Princess Celestia that I decided to do a little speed write about Twi and Tia. It's just something to keep the writing muscles going while I've been working on midterms and revisions for other stories. This will be one of the stories I'll be including in printed horse stuff too.