Author's Note
This story was inspired by the cover image, which I had to resize the heck out of in order to upload it to Fimfiction. Visit the source to see it in all its glory.
One-Shot
“Look, Princess Celestia, I drew you!”
Celestia glanced down at a spot on the top of her front left leg to see that - sure enough - there was a drawing of her, on her. The caricature had a single giant eye in the middle of its face, upon which was an expression that was somewhere between dumbfounded and just plain dumb. The mane and tail were scribbles, and the cutie mark was missing, but Celestia simply smiled and nodded.
“I see that, Twilight,” she replied. “Very nice work.” She glanced at her flank, where another drawing was taking shape. “What about this one?”
The filly shook her head and held up a blue pen. “I’m not quite finished with that one yet.” she applied the pen to Celestia’s fur and scribbled around her cutie mark. “Since I don’t need to draw a sun, I’ll just fill in the sky.” Her tongue poked out of her mouth as she continued, only stopping once the area around Celestia’s sun had been completely filled in. “There we go; now I am going to add some foreground features.”
“Oh?” Celestia asked, her voice carrying an almost motherly tone to it. “What sort of ‘foreground features’ did you have in mind?”
Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, I definitely need a tree,” she said. “And I was also thinking about a building, maybe a house, to complete the look. Back at home, I like to go out when the sun is shining, sit under a tree, and read a book… or two.” Her face scrunched up, and Celestia could almost hear the gears in her student’s head turning. “Make that a book or four; once I get started, it’s quite hard for me to stop.” She looked up at her mentor. “This picture helps to remind me of my home and family.”
Celestia’s expression softened even more than it already was. “I know you miss your family, Twilight, but don’t worry; Hearth’s Warming is only a few weeks away, so you’ll most certainly get to see them again. Focus on your studies, carry on as normal, and those weeks will fly by as fast as a Wonderbolt.”
Twilight nodded. “You’re right, Princess Celestia.” she switched to a pink marker and began drawing a tree. “But the problem is that I really enjoy my studies here at the school, and I equally enjoy being your student, so that means when I’m at home with my family, it’s you I’ll be missing. And then, when I come back, I start to miss my family again; it’s a really awkward circle.”
Celestia giggled. “I shall miss you as well, my student, but you remember that our time together will come to an end at some point; there are many other colts and fillies who I could be mentoring in the years to come. However, I have no doubts that you, Twilight Sparkle, will go very far and do me proud.”
Twilight wiped a tear from her eye, accidentally marking her face in the process. “Thank you, Princess,” she said. “Now, I’m almost done with my drawing.” She added some leaves to the tree she’d drawn and set about drawing a square house with a triangular roof, four rectangular windows and a square door. Completing the look, Twilight added a window box with some daisies. “All done, Princess!” She clapped her forehooves eagerly. “Do you like it?”
Celestia looked down at the drawing, its childlike simplicity reminding her of her own fillyhood, and times spent with her sister. She forced herself to repress the memories that came bubbling up, lest she be reduced to tears in front of her student. “It’s very nice, Twilight,” she said. “Maybe you should take a photograph of it for posterity; this is water soluble ink, after all, so it will disappear the next time I have a shower.”
Twilight shook her head. “No it isn’t,” she replied. “These are permanent markers I’m using.” She held one up for Celestia to look at. “See?” Celestia stared at it in shock for a moment before Twilight started laughing. “Only joking, Princess; of course I would never use the permanent markers! If I should take a picture of anything right now, it ought to be the look on your face.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “Yes, Twilight, very amusing.” Twilight stuck her tongue out cheekily as Celestia gestured to a nearby shelf. “There’s a camera there you can use to take your photo; I’ll get it developed for you later.”
“I can do that,” Twilight said. “I know the school has a darkroom, and I’ve always wanted to see how it works; Flash Focus says he can show me how the whole development process works, if I can bring him some film.” She rushed over to the shelf, using her levitation spell to float the camera down to her. “And, wouldn’t you know, there is only one shot left in this camera!”
“How convenient.” Celestia nodded. “Very well, Twilight, you can take the camera to Flash Focus after we’re done here.”
“Okay.” Twilight held the camera in her aura and lined up a shot. “Adjust the focus… tweak the zoom… enable the flash… wait, do I need the flash? No, I shouldn’t, because it’s nice and bright in here already.” There was a click as she pressed a button. “Right, flash disabled… focus looks good, zoom is perfect… okay, Princess, smile and say ‘Cheese!’”
Celestia smiled. “Cheese!”
A blinding flash took her by surprise as the picture was taken; she blinked a few times to clear her vision, but still felt as though she could see the flash firmly embedded in the back of her retinas.
Twilight blushed profusely as she ejected the film from the camera. “Sorry, Princess!” she said. “I guess the flash was already off. Um, I’ll just take this down to Flash Focus now, shall I?”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, Twilight, you may; we are done for today, anyway. Make sure you get to your next lesson on time after dropping the film off, and I’ll see you at the same time tomorrow, okay?”
Twilight put her pens back into her saddlebag, perching it on her back. “Okay, Princess, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waved and left the room. “Bye!”
Celestia waved at her retreating form. “Bye, Twilight.” she then turned to face another pony who was waiting patiently nearby. “Sorry about that, Tally Up, but I was not expecting you so early; we can go over your budget plan now.”
