The Princess of... Friendship?
Celestia’s eyes widened at Day Court; it was finally happening! The guards watching her know that gleam in her eye, she was either about to do, or has already done, something she probably shouldn’t have. They couldn’t stop her if they tried, but they could at least start closing down Day Court for the time being to lessen the amount of ponies it might impact. Before they could act, however, Celestia lit up her horn and disappeared.
“…and another thing, I can’t believe the amount of disrespect I’ve been shown by your guard, I mean, my bodyguards would have never allowed…” One guard sighed and began pushing this noble out of the room, he didn’t even notice he wasn’t in Day Court anymore.
“Day Court is temporarily suspended for a D rated issue. Refreshments are available in the Ballroom if you wish to wait here until we figure out more.”
Celestia appeared in the Alicorn’s pocket dimension, one created to store all the magic of the Alicorns. She can see her own memories floating by and she smiles at a few, but as she walks on, she sees another’s memories, that of her student, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle was an interesting young mare, always so invested in the world of solitude that she sometimes forgot the outside world was a thing. Though, that’s not exactly an accurate description any more, is it? If what she felt was correct, Twilight’s grown to be a bit of a social butterfly, so much so that she’d been Ascended into the Princess of Friendship. She wonders what kind of reaction Twilight will have to this place, to her ascension even. Celestia shakes her head, there’s only one way to find out.
“YES! YES! HAHAHA! I DID IT!”
…Out of every possible reaction, that was not one she was expecting. She really hopes Twilight didn’t do anything stupid, she made a bet with Luna that she would figure out the spell without any issue. In hindsight, perhaps that was a bad bet to take seeing how she did it in Ponyville. Sighing, she makes her way over with a smile, watching the… strange memories on the walls. She doesn’t remember some of these letters, a lot of these seem like they would have been friendship lessons, sure it’s hard to remember all of them but- IS SHE KISSING RANBOW DASH? Something was up, there’s no way Twilight wouldn’t have told her something about a budding- and she’s kissing Rarity now too. Rainbow Dash is there but she seems more confused than jealous, strange. Right, that’s enough looking at the memories, it’s time to figure out what exactly is going on.
“Welcome Twilight…” Celestia says with a warm grin, walking to the newly made Alicorn.
“Hi, Celestia! I figured out how to get in here, just as you said! Oh, right, this is a new one. Here, scan me with a magic detection spell and you’ll understand what’s going on!” Twilight spoke quickly, Celestia could barely keep up. Being a little flabbergasted, her body moved automatically and she casted the spell which only made her more confused.
“You… have alicorn magic, yes. That is why you’re here.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, “Oh, I do? Nice. That’ll help, but what else did you see?”
“Nothing. Should I have seen something else?”
Twilight’s eyes widen a bit, and a calculating look pierces Celestia, she’s thinking very deeply about something, but she can’t tell what, “Try it one more time. I need to confirm something.”
“Are you alright Twilight?”
“Please, just cast the damn spell.” Profanity was new, and she said that in such a commanding way; what happened to get her this way? Regardless, she does as she’s asked, if only to try to understand why she’s acting so strange, but the results are the same.
“Twilight, there’s nothing abnormal with your magical signature, is something wrong?”
The newest Alicorn takes a step back, her eyes slightly glassy, she looks like she’s about to cry.
“I’m free…”
“What? Twilight, are you-“
“I’M FREE! Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Twilight jumps into Celestia, hugging her and begins to sob freely… She can’t tell if it’s happy or sad tears.
A beat or two passes as she just sobs. Celestia’s put her forehooves around her, hugging her tight as she cried out whatever problem she had. She’ll open up later, but for now, Celestia is content to let her rest.
“Okay, that’s enough of that.” Twilight pushes away from Celestia with tear stains on her coat, “Sorry, I’m usually much more controlled nowadays. I guess I just… wasn’t ready for that.”
“I understand,” She did not, “but if I may ask, what exactly was it that caused such an emotional outburst from you? I understand becoming the Princess of Friendship may seem like a lot of responsibility, but if you’re here, then that means you have what it takes.”
Twilight tilted her head, “‘Princess of Friendship’? What? Why would that be my title?”
Celestia can’t ever remember being so confused in her life. “Did… you not ascend because of your connection to the elements? Solved some particularly heated issue between two of your friends? Accidentally switch your friend’s cutie marks with each other and have to convince them that the jobs they have now aren’t the ones they want?”
“That was specific.”
“I’m spitballing, but again, what happened? Is it anything we can prevent from happening again?”
Twilight gets a mischievous glint in her eye, “Oh, I can answer that second question!” With a blink of an eye, a pile of papers Celestia recognizes as the ones she sent to Twilight not too long ago as a gift appeared in her magic. Seconds later, a fire burst around them and they all turned to ashes. First the memories, then the swearing, and now burning historical documents? There was seriously something very wrong here.
“Twilight Sparkle, I am going to ask one more time and I expect a proper answer. What happened to you. You are not acting like the pony I knew just a few days ago and I wish to know why. I know there’s nothing affecting you magically, I would have seen it with the spell earlier, so it has to be mental. I’m trying to help you, Twilight. What’s wrong?”
Twilight frowned and sat down. She thought for a minute before speaking back up, “…No.”
“No?”
“No, I’m fine. Sorry about that. I just… I’m not ready.” She couldn’t argue with that. As much as she wanted the information out of Twilight, if she wasn’t ready to speak, she never would until she was.
Celestia sighed, “Very well then. But please, when you are ready, come talk to me, I will always make time for you, my faithful student.” At that, Twilight smiled a bit. A genuine smile this time. That’s progress. With a final flare of magic, Celestia returned to Day Court where she was met with the guards who were busy escorting ponies out of the room. She sighs. She forgot to tell her guards what was going on. Again. Yet another mess to clean up, seems like she’s had quite a few of those recently. She wonders for a moment if she’s gotten careless, perhaps she should speak to Luna later about checking in on each other and passing it off as a “I’ll help you get acclimated to the modern day systems.” situation.
But for now, the only thing on her mind is the newly made Princess of Friendship.
Author's Note
You know, I meant to share what exactly happened with Twilight and leave the details for another time but as it turns out Twilight doesn’t want to share just yet so I’ll respect that.
