Being Special

by Taranth

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna
Length: 6689

After her research is rejected by Celestia, Twilight tries to find where she failed her teacher

After working on a major project for the betterment of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle brings her work to her mentor and princess for approval and funding, and her proposal is rejected outright without explanation or sympathy.

Devastated by Celestia's refusal, Twilight tries to determine whether she has failed her work or her teacher - and wonders what her special status and talent is worth.

Published 2012-11-06 05:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-06 05:50:01 UTC

Rejected Proposal

I thought I had something special with the Princess. A connection. An understanding.

I never thought I'd need it. I wasn't planning on using it. I was barely aware of it.

My work had nothing to do with it.

But if there was ever anything special there... then why...?

Maybe it's somehow because we had something special?

If this is what happened... was it really worth being special?

~-~-~-~

It is perhaps a testament to the somewhat... fluid nature of the natural laws of Equestria that something as simple as 'night' can have so many different sides, depending on where one is, how one is feeling, and - of course - the whims of its caretaker Princess.

If one was to be stranded in the wild lands, terrified of monsters roaming far from the protection of the cities, night-time could be a terrifying place where one could barely see one's own hooves in front of one's face, and every noise somehow becomes amplified and twisted to something larger, more dangerous. Alternatively, in the quaint villages dotting the landscape, the very same darkness is a comforting blanket, wrapping around the houses built alternately with ordinary and outlandish styling, bringing to an end the hustle of the day and giving time for rest, relaxation, and family.

In the gardens of Canterlot, however, so high in the mountains and close to both the near-full moon overhead and its incarnation in royal pony form, this night was barely dark at all. Though it could never be compared to the brightness of day, the cold blue-white glow illuminated every leaf with a crisp edge, true darkness only evident under overlapping shadows. The colours were muted, but the beauty of the gardens was merely altered from under these conditions, not lessened - they had been designed by extremely talented ponies over centuries with this exact effect in mind, though they might not have understood exactly why until only nine years ago, with Luna's return.

As the moon rose to its peak overhead on this particular night, however, there were no ponies appreciating the way the daytime's riot of colour had blended seamlessly into ethereal wonders. No romantic walks were being held right now between the flowers, no artists looking for inspiration in the night; the gardens were empty except for the occasional nocturnal animal, some few insects, and the cold, still night mountain air.

Well, truthfully, there was one pony.

But she was there in body only, in fairness. Her mind lay elsewhere - on her desk in her room with diagrams and calculations scattered across every surface, from floor to the very ceiling; in a great construction composed of clouds carved into walls, pillars, walkways and machinery, lit by flashing lightning and glowing rainbow pools; and most of all, in an enormous hall, standing between tapestries and statues before the Princess of the Sun, as with wings raised and stern countenance, she said...

"No."

She didn't really register where she was, truly, only that it was a place of relative solitude, and nothing like that hall. Nor did she realise how long she had been there, for it had been daylight yet when she had first fled here. If pressed, it would have taken her time to remember how she had gotten here in the first place, if she could be convinced to care.

The shivers and complaints of her body at remaining in one place, so exposed to the night's chill, and the fact that she had already been short on sleep before a long and trying day, and had missed dinner to boot - all of these were ignored in favour of emotional misery, sobbing with a throat ragged from mild dehydration and hours of crying, and wiping tears away from red, stinging eyes for the thousandth time as she tried to focus blearily on the papers in front of her - papers that had been so carefully organised this morning, every sheet freshly transcribed on parchment, not a drop of ink out of place, not a crease or blemish - now every one scrunched, some even torn, and all tossed around her in an arc, stained with tears, grass and dew.

--Updated process for generating lightning simultaneously while forming clouds--
--Creation of enchanted tools for greater automation--
--Improved formula for power output and ease of weather distribution--
--Concentration of the liquid rainbow--
--Overall increase in efficiency of 500%--
--Further opportunity for improvement--
--Timetable for creation, installation, testing, and training--

Titles and snips of sentences jumped out at her as she stared at page after page in the few seconds she had while her eyes could focus before they blurred out again. She didn't take in a single one of them - after all, even before she started, she had had nearly the whole thing memorised, and while she had been here she had gone over it enough times that she could likely reproduce the entire thing from memory, down to the most complicated diagrams. Now she was down to staring blankly at one sheet after another on automatic, barely even hoping that she would find what she was looking for.

Exhausted physically and mentally, beyond coherent thought, even if what she sought had been circled in red ink she would likely not have even seen it. The idea of stopping was simply inconceivable - it had never occurred to her mind at all.

However, dedication, single-mindedness, and even magic have their limits when faced with the frailty of the flesh, which was quite open to the idea. The concept of stopping still hadn't reached her mind when her eyes closed again to blink away the stinging tears, and only got halfway back open before closing again as if weighed down by barbells. Seconds later, the same weight pulled down her head as well, and did not rise back up.

It wasn't until a good twenty seconds after Twilight Sparkle lost consciousness that the papers stopped flicking across in front of her muzzle one by one for her perusal, and floated down, released by her magic and moved now only by her snores.

She was too exhausted to even dream, which was the best thing to happen to her since she had woken that day.

~-~-~-~

When Twilight awoke, her mind was not yet focused enough to remember the disaster that yesterday had been, and thus her body leapt on the opportunity to provide an extensive checklist of complaints that had gone ignored up to this point.

In no particular order: her limbs were cramped, her back twisted, her fur damp and matted, her whole body freezing cold and shivering, she was starving and incredibly thirsty, every orifice on her face felt like somebody had taken sandpaper to it and then stuffed it with cotton wool, her horn had the burning ache of overuse, she had a splitting headache, and several unpleasant itches throughout her body. Overall, it promised thorough unpleasantness until she moved.

With a sigh, she stretched out her limbs, whimpering as her body protested further - shut up, this was your idea - and tried to ungum her eyes enough to open them and determine where she was. Her hooves brushed against grass and paper as she stood up shakily, trying to shake off the fuzziness in her head. Her eyes finally pried open and saw nothing but a bluish blur. Scowling, she blinked again and again, rubbing a hoof across her eyes and wincing at the raw feeling, before she finally managed to get some clarity in her vision.

It was night still, and she was out in the gardens. Her mind nudged back into her body's demands, insisting that it was probably important to know why she was here before she went any further, and while her body put up a solid fight on the matter, her mind was well practised at overriding it.

She looked down at the scattered papers, and it took only seconds for everything to come rushing back with a crash of adrenaline. Within moments, the panic was building up again, her body tensing to as if to run away from a threat that had no true physical component - her own failure, and the disappointment of her mentor. The proof that whatever special thing she thought she had, if she truly had it in the first place, was now gone.

Pumped with energy and without any real outlet for it, she once fell back on instinct, frantically gathering together the papers and smoothing them out as she muttered inaudibly to herself, tears once again threatening her vision. Once she had all that she could see, she started away from the indent her sleeping form had made in the grass, automatically searching for more papers, anything to keep her mind and body busy and away from the--

"...Twilight Sparkle? Oof--"

She registered the voice a few moments after she ran into its owner, her papers hitting them first before she followed a moment later. In her current state, the unexpected impact unbalanced her completely, leaving her sprawled on the ground with no idea what had just happened. Trying to clear her mind enough to focus again, she looked up, seeing...

...Seeing a dark blue pony's face staring down at her in concern, surrounded by a wavering in the night sky, as if viewing the stars through a hazy distortion. It took her a long moment to realise that she wasn't seeing the sky at all, at least not directly, but an etheral mane that mimicked it, rendered nearly invisible against the sky from her angle.

"Princess Luna!" she cried, or at least tried to - for what came out was closer to a thick "Prnc-" followed by a string of coughing. Luna's eyes widened in alarm, and her horn lit up slightly as she looked over Twilight's form, examining her with her magic.

"...Oh dear... what has happened to you?" She nudged Twilight slightly to right her, then with a sweep of her horn, the dark blue of her magic swept across the garden suddenly, sweeping the grass before contracting and pulling back in before her, having collected and brought together the early morning dew, which she then deposited into a glass she conjured from thin air. Handing it to Twilight gently, she smiled as the unicorn grasped at the glass frantically, and held it steady for her. "Gently, gently... little sips."

Twilight had never known water to taste so good in her life, and the struggle not simply try and gulp it down was considerable. When she had finally finished with the glass, she tried to stand again, and to her own surprise found herself floating entirely - looking up, she realised that Luna had carried her across the garden some way, towards one of the large fountains nearby. The princess smiled and put her gently back on her feet, and she gratefully moved over to the pool and stuck her face straight in, gasping and pulling out almost instantly at the sudden shock, before using the water to clear her face and senses, not to mention drinking a little more for good measure.

Soon she was feeling, if still somewhat unpleasant and uncomfortable, at least alive again. Luna had waited patiently, settling beside her in the grass and not saying a word, watching with an expression hovering between concern and bemusement.

Twilight gave her a somewhat guilty look, and chuckled slightly. "...I guess I..." She coughed once, but only a little. "...I kind of look like a wreck, don't I..."

"Methinks your friend Rarity would faint at the sight." Luna answered dryly, barely a hint of her ancient accent remaining, after so many years back amongst modern ponies.

"Yeah... I'm sorry, Princess. Thank you."

"You are most welcome, Twilight Sparkle. I do remember it was not so long ago our positions were reversed in such a situation - although admittedly, I was not quite so... shall we say, ragged? And you had somewhat more idea of what ailed myself at the time, than I do here and now."

The pointed statement hung in the air, a distinct invitation to share. Twilight winced, looking away from Luna, and the silence stretched on.

Seeing the mare seemingly about to cry again and not ready to talk, Luna sighed gently. "Is it something to do with this?" Luna levitated over the stack of crumpled paper. Twilight glanced over, then nodded slightly, sniffing. "May I?" A long pause, then another nod.

Luna gestured Twilight over, leading her to take a position up against her side while she read, raising a wing for her. The younger mare resisted the thought for a long moment - it was a very personal way to snuggle up against a Princess, and though she had done so many times with Celestia before, it had mostly been when she was much younger - she was a well and truly grown mare now! But in her current frame of mind, a hug sounded fantastic, and she was still freezing. She soon settled in beside Luna, the wing falling over her like a blanket.

For some time she lay there, snuggled in against the larger mare and feeling like a filly all over again, running to her mother after some tantrum or another. It almost seemed silly in hindsight now - only not quite, as she still flinched from the memory of that moment in the throne room, trying not to focus on it as she felt the warmth of Luna's body seeping into her ice-cold fur as the princess tried to put the mess of pages back in order and read through.

"This is very impressive, Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight jumped at the sudden voice, having half-drifted off. "The work you have done here... you have a very solid understanding of pegasus magic and processes for a unicorn. How long have you been working on this?"

"A couple of years now, on and off..." She muttered slightly. "It's just been a side project of mine..."

"I didn't know you were interested in weather production."

"Well, I keep hearing complaints that the factories are understaffed these days... there seem to be more and more complaints about weather off schedule or not properly under control. I got curious since I had been to Cloudsdale once, and seen it there, and thought maybe I could have a look at how it worked... I had a trip to the gryphon lands, and they had way more advanced weather technology to make up for what they lack in magic, and I saw a few places for improvements..." Wheras once Twilight's voice would have been full of excitement and enthusiasm as she described her studies, now it was little more than a bitter muttering.

"And you-- oh. I think I see what happened." Luna's face fell and sighed deeply. "Let me guess. You didn't tell my sister about this... until today."

"Well, it wasn't really part of my study on friendship for her, just something I was working on, so I didn't want to bother her with it until I was sure it would work!" Twilight quickly became more animated, soon surging to her feet as she ranted. "I was sure I thought of everything! The magical formulas are sound, the new safety procedures cover all the new equipment, the processes are sure to involve ponies at every step so the magic of care isn't lost. I tested everything with my friends, and I talked to some of the pegasi at the weather factory too, even they couldn't see anything wrong with it! They were really interested, said it might save us from having to start importing weather from outside Equestria soon! And, and then I took it to Celestia for approval and funding, and she just... she just said... no."

She seemed to just deflate, curling up on the grass again and sniffing. "Just... no. With this look like... like stone, I haven't seen her look at me like that unless, unless I've really screwed up. I thought that... I was something special to her, but she just looked so... I tried to ask her why, and she just said..." she sobbed slightly, "she said I needed to go right back to my foundations. I don't know what I did wrong! It all made so much sense, and it was going to help everyone, and now it's just... wasted time and the Princess is mad at me and I have no idea what I'm doing anymore."

"Oh no..." Luna sighed, her wing holding Twilight's shaking form close to her. "Poor Celestia..."

"Wha... Poor Celestia?" Twilight suddenly surged up, self-pity switching to anger in a flash, pulling away from Luna and glaring. "I've been sitting here like this all night because she couldn't even give me a reason why my project isn't even worth considering and the first thing you say is poor Celestia?"

"Shhhh, calm, calm. I apologise, that was thoughtless." Luna shook her head slightly, raising her wing again. Twilight didn't move or speak, her stance aggressive and her eyes demanding an explanation. Luna smiled slightly.

"If it makes you feel any better... I expect that my dear sister has likely had as little rest as you have this night. You have... prodded an old wound on her, Twilight Sparkle, though you had no way of knowing this. And you caught her by surprise, also, I would judge. She does not hate you, nor is she disappointed in you. It is not your fault."

"...Then... you know why she said no?" Twilight's anger had melted away like snow under those words, replaced by concern and curiosity - she had never really been capable of feeling much negative about her teacher and Princess, after all.

"I do, yes."

"Why? Is it the safety concerns? Did I get something wrong in the construction? The formulas? The--"

"None of that. I haven't gone over every last bit of it, Twilight, but I have absolute confidence that your ideas and calculations are correct. I'm sure if we put your ideas into action, then fifty years from now, our factories would be producing vastly increased quality weather, and meeting every demand that came to Equestria without breaking a sweat - possibly even exporting out to the neighbouring regions..."

"Exactly! That's exactly what I was trying to--"

"...if it wasn't likely to destroy Equestria in ten years."

Twilight's jaw hung open in mid-speech, staring at the Princess's perfectly serious face. Her mouth worked a couple of times before she managed to close it, get her thoughts in order, and reply.

"What?"

"Admittedly, that may be a slight overstatement, and things may have changed somewhat in the last thousand years, but I can guarantee you that that is what is on my sister's mind. I think she would have let you down more gently if she knew it was coming - at least, I hope she would have."

"What do you mean? I... oh Celestia, I didn't think of how it might be used that way! With increased production of lightning clouds... and the rainbow concentrate could be... weapons? I haven't studied that at all! Oh no, how did I--"

"Calm, Twilight Sparkle. No, weaponised weather is not what worried my sister." She paused. "Well, it might feature in her concerns, but it's not the central one. No, think about what she said - go back to your foundations."

"Foundations? But that would be what... my formulas? The factories themselves? The need for weather in the first place? I--"

"Oh, sister, I have no idea how you do this..." Luna muttered fondly. "No, not the project foundations. Your foundations. What is your primary study?"

"...Magic itself. And Friendship, I guess? I don't--"

"Both are relevant here. You do not... actually have any friends who work professional weather, do you?"

"I've spoken to plenty of people in the factories! I've got a few friends in there..."

"Spoken to, perhaps. But I doubt you have seen them more than a hoofful of times, and rarely to do anything but talk business, and I right?"

"Well, there's Rainbow Dash--"

"Who was using it as a stepping stone to the Wonderbolts. She doesn't count."

"...I guess not, but I don't see what that has to do with this..."

"Alright, a different approach then. You said you got some of your ideas from the Gryphons?"

"Yes! They were having real trouble with their weather. They just don't have the same knack for it that pegasi do, they never have... but recently they've been working on new technology, it's really fascinating, and it's improved their weather production efficiency to the point it's actually caught up with our own - and they're improving all the while! While we're still using most of the same processes we did centuries ago..."

"Which means that not as many gryphons are required to work on the weather, correct?"

"Yes! Their population isn't as high as ours, and they don't have earth ponies and unicorns to do the other jobs, so it's come in really handy for them."

"New question. What do ponies have that gryphons do not?"

"What?"

"What do we have that the gryphons lack?" Luna repeated, patiently.

"Ummm... hooves? Horns? Princesses? I don't know! A lot of magical power! The ability to eat grass!" Twilight guessed wildly, confused.

"Every adult pony."

"...Adult... what, you mean cutie marks?" She twisted to look at her own. "Well yeah, gryphons don't have them, but..."

"If a gryphon is no longer needed to work at the weather factory, because there is a new machine that does her job for her, then she no longer has a job. She will probably be unhappy for a while, and there will be complaints made and efforts taken, but there will be new training she can do, and new jobs she can take on."

"But..."

"But every pony has a special talent, and a cutie mark. If the weather factory efficiency was improved as much as you say, then at first, everything would be wonderful. They would catch up on their backlogged work, then everything would be smooth for a few months, maybe even a few years. Then they would start realising that they didn't really need that many ponies working there, and could save some bits by not having as many workers on staff. I'm guessing we probably would only need a third the number of ponies currently working there. And suddenly, we have thousands of ex-weather ponies across Equestria who have not just trained their entire lives on their job..."

"It's their special talent." Twilight stared off into the distance, understanding. "They have to do it. They can't just start a new job, because it's what they DO."

"Perhaps some of them have talents which can be used in other professions. Some of them might not really have special talents for weather at all. But all of them are going to be out of a job. There'll probably be all sorts of new jobs opening up from this - but a lot of them are going to be for unicorns, to enchant the machinery - and even if they're not, if their special talents don't fit... well, how would you feel if your special talent became worthless? Your talent is a bit of a unique case, of course, but try to imagine it from another's point of view."

Twilight thought about it, imagining a place where instead of building a machine to assist with weather creation, she had made one to help create clothing - so easy that anyone could create masterpieces. At first, her friend Rarity would love it, creating dresses more wonderful than ever before - but if everyone bought one, then they would all create their own dresses at a whim, and her special talent for making beautiful, unique dresses would be...

Worthless.

The thing that made her special would suddenly make her worthless.

"...I think I see why you were asking me if I had any friends up there..."

"I hope you can understand where my sister is coming from..."

"Yes, well... actually, no." Twilight frowned, her analytical mind coming back to the fore now that her panic had subsided. "You said this was an 'old wound' for her. What did you mean?"

Luna sighed, and stared off into the distance, where the moon was now coming close to setting. "The reason that what I just described to you is not common knowledge... and why Celestia is always very cautious about such innovation... Celestia never told anyone about this. She practically had it wiped from recorded history. All for me..."

"Hmmmm?" Twilight leaned in, clearly drawn by the idea of lost knowledge. Luna smiled back, offering Twilight the position next to her again.

"Celestia didn't want this spread around, but it is my story, and I think you can take it. Still, for my sister's sake, I would appreciate it if you did not pass it on?"

"I promise." Twilight made a series of gestures ending with careful application of hoof to eye, then giggled slightly at Luna's bemused look as she moved back next to the night princess, letting the wing settle over her again.

"Well, the story goes that, a thousand years ago - and a bit more now I guess - Princess Luna grew bitter and lonely, for ponies shunned the night and frolicked in the day." Her voice took on a slightly lecturing tone as she quoted the old mare's tale, and she rolled her eyes and waved a hoof as if to cover the rest of the tale. "True enough, but the order of things was actually a little different. Yes, that's how it happened, but ponies didn't start shunning the night because they were afraid of it, or because they didn't like it.

"They avoided the night out of protest, because they were angry with me."

"What?!"

"When we first took charge of Equestria, it was... a much harsher place than the one you know now. Ponies had to work harder, lives were shorter, and harmony was hard to come by at times. The three tribes had joined together, but things were far from ideal.

"The Earth Ponies, as you might imagine, had the worst of it. Their job was to grow food, and nearly every one of them was involved in it one way or another, but it still was never enough, and everyone was always hungry. Farms, as you know them today, were just beginning to be really conceived. There were entire families of Earth Ponies whose dedication and special talents were simply in farming rocks - the right kind of rocks and dirt, in the right places, moved by hoof, so that other ponies could use the ground afterwards."

"...I think I've heard of them... I mean, my friend Pinkie Pie comes from a family of rock farmers."

Luna raised her eyebrows. "Celestia told me there are some ponies who still keep to those old traditions... I had thought she was pulling a prank on me. The process is thoroughly unnecessary now.. but ponies will be ponies, and I am hardly shocked to hear that Pinkie Pie is related to strangeness. Regardless.

"Part of the problem was that the earth ponies were struggling so hard just to get by. So many of them were required to get together and work just to produce enough food for everyone that nopony had enough time to consider ways to improve things. The pegasi were naturally no help at all, and the unicorns even less, so I took up the job myself.

"Celestia did most of the day-to-day - if you'll excuse the pun - work, keeping Equestria running at status quo, while my task lay in designing improvements. I studied with experts from earth pony, pegasus and unicorn alike to find ways to make things better, but I was never so proud of anything as I was with my work in farming.

"Myself and my wonderful, loyal team... we designed tools. Created spells. Techniques. Found and tested new types of food. Brought everything together. It took me years, but it was one of the most amazing projects of my life. And when it was done, when everything I had made was put in place, we had the best harvest we'd ever seen. We had all the food we needed and then some. Nobody went hungry. It was a happy time, and I was so proud... and just like you, I hadn't considered that that success might have a special meaning to some ponies.

"We had a feast, myself and Celestia and all the ponies who had helped put it together. And we had been so proud, so happy, that everypony had food, we did not realise that everypony was not as happy as we were. And while we feasted, riots broke out in Earth Pony communities across Equestria."

Twilight gasped at the thought, and Luna nodded grimly as she continued. "Whole familes had been put out of work, forever - their special talents simply weren't required anymore. If they had been gryphons, perhaps, they might have learnt new talents, talents that came with the bountiful food crops - baking, storing, trading, building, even art and science - but we ponies don't have that option.

"At first they had struggled against the matter peacefully, and then after that, at least subtly. The new tools would mysteriously break, requiring the farmers to call back the old ways to get the job done. But the tools were easy to fix, and suspiscion soon rose, driving rifts in the community - none of which we saw in time. On that night, the displaced ponies broke into the farms of those who still had their livelihoods, and destroyed the tools that had replaced their special talents. They held hostage the food that had been harvested, and demanded that things go back to the way they were.

"The unicorns and pegasi were aghast, as they did not understand the true depths of the issue - only that the earth ponies were threatening both the immediate food supply, and the future one, for they had quite reasonably come to expect such bounty would continue. Many earth ponies were just as shocked, but soon realised that they would get caught up in the crossfire as well if the other two races turned on them, and out of desperation sided with the renegades. Equestria nearly broke apart entirely, and it is only due to my sister's very quick politicking that it survived at all.

"But what did not survive were the changes I had made, and the tools I had created - and my reputation. The earth ponies saw their way of life had been threatened, the unicorns and pegasi saw all the promised improvements vanish, and after they had already had a taste of them too. Nobody would give my ideas another chance, and they all blamed me for the whole fiasco.

"It became the fashion to shun the night-time - the daytime is for working, they would say, and those who are about at night might come across silly ideas. A couple of generations went by, and the fashion became tradition. Celestia... I am sure she tried everything she could, but it was never enough, and I could not be said to have helped, as I was being bitter and difficult as well... She could not force ponies to like me, to like the night. Myself and the ponies, we fed on each others' shunning. And... well, I guess you know the rest."

They sat in contemplative silence for a long time after that, Twilight digesting the tale. Finally, it was Luna who spoke again, her voice soft.

"When you are as old as we are - especially Celestia - you soon find that many situations remind you of others you have been through in past. Sometimes this can be endearing, or irritating, or confusing if you aren't paying attention. But seeing somepony you love and respect come forth, showing diagrams and ideas, and explaining how this will change Equestria forever..." Luna leant down to nuzzle Twilight gently. "The way my sister sees it, the last time she said yes..."

"It started down the path that led to losing her sister for a thousand years." Twilight finished, distantly.

Silence again, as the moon crept ever closer to the horizon. The two of them lost in thought, imagining Celestia's mind. It was often easy to forget that the Princess could not be ready for everything, could still be surprised. It happened rarely, very rarely, and when it happened she could cover it well, but behind the immortality, magic and experience was still a pony mind with pony emotions, without omniscience or omnipotence.

"I guess... at least I know the reason now." Twilight sighed, picking up the papers again. "It's just... sad to know that Equestria's never going to change, I guess."

"You should not go as far as to say that." Luna chided gently.

"What? You were saying..."

"Change can happen. And indeed it does! One of the first things Celestia did once I was strong enough to fly again was to take me on a tour of the new Equestria... with specific focus on the farmland." Luna smiled fondly. "To show me all the tools I had designed in use... seeing enormous orchards and farmland, being each tended often by a single family, where previously a small village would be needed to tend land a quarter the size.

"It is all a matter of time, Twilight. Instead of introducing it all at once, she began to push the improvements a little bit at a time. As less ponies were required to do each job with each new generation, less of them gained the requisite special talent for the task. She said she would swear that sometimes it would start to happen even before the improvements were introduced, sometimes - and this whole matter started because the factories are understaffed, did you not say?" She winked.

"But how can she..."

"She has kept a close eye on technological development for centuries now. Most ponies with an idea come to her, or to the universities, long before they reach the point you have. She can encourage the slow path, or turn ponies onto new, safer ideas before they get there. She controls the funding. And sometimes, she just falls back on the fact that she's the Princess - she hates doing it, especially to someone close like you, but it's still pretty effective. It's pretty scary sometimes watching her at work." Luna laughed. "I remember the first time somepony came to her with a fully realised idea since I came back, these two unicorns with some giant machine that made cider! They even had a full song and dance number to sell it. It made pretty good cider, too, and it also harvested... and it wouldn't have taken much effort at all to turn it to other farming chores, or other crops. In ten years, it would have been the farmers' crisis all over again.

"She refused funding. The two of them were already well in debt for building their machine. They didn't take it well, but you can't second-guess the Princess. She felt horrible about it afterwards, but she let them keep the one they had. I do hope they managed alright after that..."

"Alright enough..." Muttered Twilight, who rather suddenly found she had a song stuck in her head and a craving for cider. "But it's still worrying. The Gryphons have technology that can almost match our magic already in many fields, and they're always improving. We're going to be left behind."

"We've been ahead for hundreds of years, Twilight Sparkle." Luna smiled sadly. "Perhaps someday gryphons will build technology that will move the sun and moon... but I don't think that will come for many centuries yet, so I wouldn't be too concerned if I were you.

"Our cutie marks, and our special talents, give ponies a great advantage in our lives and our magic. But it's long been said that there is no power without a cost. Sometimes that cost is simple, like the time and effort spent to learn it. Sometimes it's more complex. Every pony gets a special leg-up with their special talent, but sometimes being special can hold you back too. Who knows? Maybe if we fall far enough behind, we might decide to do away with special talents altogether. Nobody knows what the future holds."

"Well, I doubt Pinkie has a Pinkie Sense for that, anyway." She said thoughtfully, then shook her head hard for a moment as if to banish the somewhat depressing thoughts, and changed the subject. "So you think it's still worth trying this out?"

"Oh, definitely. I want to see it in action. I think we should be able to get it sorted out within your lifetime." Twilight jumped slightly as Luna suddenly moved beside her, pulling the wing off her back and slowly getting to her hooves, stretching out. Twilight smiled quietly to herself - there was something strange about seeing an Alicorn stretching, like any other pony who just got out of bed, only twice the size. It was just one of those 'normal pony' things that seemed to clash with their image.

"At least started. I should probably apologise to Princess Celestia."

"I guarantee you, she will hear none of it. You have done nothing wrong, Twilight Sparkle. But I think she would be happy to know you were well, and hold no hard feelings. Come along, we shall go together, as soon as I am done."

"Done? What do you... oh." She nodded in understanding as Luna's horn shone darkly against the night, pushing down the moon the final steps for the night. Even as she did, the sky lightened suddenly as the sun jerked its way above the horizon, without fanfare or show.

As sunrises go... that was possibly the most boring I've ever seen. Twilight thought to herself. She felt a slight twinge of guilt at that, but at the same time... it made her smile a little, to see with her own eyes a sign that Celestia still cared about her, and had felt strongly about what had happened. Not that she doubted Luna, of course, but seeing it with her own eyes was important. She still had something special.

It was a new day, and a new opportunity. It might not be quite as much opportunity as she had hoped, but she could at least start something today, and know that it would become something greater.

She laughed suddenly, realising that this was probably what earth ponies felt like when they worked their magic. A tree you planted today might not grow fruit for years to come, but you still planted it today, even if not for yourself, for your children, or your grandchildren, or even just for the rest of the town. After all, if you didn't plant the first seed, nothing would happen at all. She had spent all her life as a unicorn seeing immediate results from her work - perhaps there was plenty left for her to learn yet.

As the Princess and the Student worked their way through the castle towards Celestia's quarters, already she was thinking of ways to change her work so far, to spread out its effect, to study which areas could use the most immediate effect and which would benefit from a longer-term approach.

She was the faithful student of Princess Celestia. She was the bearer of the element of magic. But most importantly, she was one of countless ponies with a special talent which she would use to the best of her ability, and enjoy every minute of it.

Perhaps, as Luna had said, the day might come when the ponies might find their talents to be more of a hindrance than a help.

Twilight Sparkle wasn't ready to give up being special just yet.