Nostalgia

Arriving at the Palace

“Twilight, it’s time to get ready to go.” Cadance’s voice called out as she knocked on Twilight’s door.

Twilight moaned and poked her head out from under the bed covers. She glanced out the window and gasped when she saw that is was already mid-morning. “Oh my gosh, I slept in!” She leapt out of bed and threw open the door. “Cadance I’m so sorry that I overslept.”

“Whoa, calm down Twilight. We still have another hour before we have to be there.”

“Really?” asked Twilight “but that’s so late in the morning”.

Cadance grinned and said “one of the perks of being a princess is that you set your own hours”.

Twilight allowed herself to relax a bit and walked out into the hallway and made began making her way to the upstairs bathroom. “Even so I shouldn’t have been so late in getting up; I never sleep in this late.”

“You don’t, but I would have thought being a librarian would have fairly comfortable hours, considering that you live in the library.”

“Well I’m not comfortable getting up so late. Unless I’m deathly ill I’m always up by five o’clock and the library is always open at six on the dot.” Twilight replied as she began to brush her teeth.

Cadance started at her for a moment. “Twilight, who in Equestria goes to the library at six in the morning?”

Twilight shrugged, “you never know, somepony may want to start the day with some research”.

“You are the only pony that would do that,” laughed Cadance.

Twilight scowled at Cadance before rinsing out her mouth. “I’m just being considerate. And I’m sure I’m not the only pony in Equestria who can appreciate a morning research project to begin their day. Why just last week I was starting out my morning with a bit of light reading with a book discussing the history and development of Haygelian metaphysics and it introduced a number of concepts that I hadn’t previously considered. Naturally I wanted to learn more so I grabbed all relevant material and spent the whole morning studying and critiquing it all. Oh it was so wonderful.”

“Uh-huh” was all Cadance could muster in response to Twilight’s idea of a fun little project. “Well I’ll leave you alone for now. There’s still some food left for you downstairs when you’re finished up here. After you’ve had breakfast we’ll be ready to go."

“Mmhm” Twilight responded as she was washing out her mouth.

Twilight was eating a quick breakfast in the kitchen although she took care to chew each bit forty times as she once read was healthiest. Cadance was also at the table doing a crossword puzzle while she waited for her to finish eating. Her mother then walked into the kitchen to get something to drink.

“Hey, has Daddy left yet.” she asked.

“Yes.” Twilight Velvet replied “he had an early morning class to teach today.”

“Oh, alright.” Twilight replied a little disappointed.

“Poor man, I don’t think he got any restful sleep last night.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well this news about you not getting our letter about the move has got him in the sulks, you know how he gets.” Twilight was indeed familiar with her father’s occasional bouts of depression and found it upsetting that she might have triggered this one. “That reminds me, Cadance, do you and Twilight have any plans for lunch?”

An aggravated looking Cadance looked up from her crossword and said “Not really, I guess that I would just have lunch with Celestia and Luna, assuming she chooses to join us.”

“In that case, Twilight, I was thinking that we might have lunch with your father to cheer him up a little, would that be alright with you?”

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

“Thank you Twilight, I had wanted to get your brother to join us as well but sadly he’ll be busy with the royal guard all day today so it’s just going to be the three of us. But that’s alright I suppose, it’s been too long since your father and I have been able to spend time with just you.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. She finished the last of her breakfast and said “I’m ready to go Cadance.”

“Alright,” Cadance replied as she stood up. “Do you still want to read this” she asked Twilight Velvet.

“I already have.” she responded.

“Good,” said Cadance as she chucked the newspaper into the trash quite forcefully. “Those puzzles cheat anyway, let’s go.”

“What do you mean, how could a puzzle cheat.” Twilight asked.

“For example, there was one asking for a six letter word and there were only four blocks. How is anypony supposed to solve a crossword like that?”

“Are you sure you weren’t mixing up the vertical and horizontal numbers?”

Cadance froze and it seemed as if every muscle in her body has stiffened as hard as a rock, her left eye began to twitch rapidly. She raised a foreleg to her chest and took a deep breath then slowly breathed out as she extended it outwards. Then, looking as bright and cheerful as ever, said “let’s go or we’ll be late” before trotting towards the front door.

Twilight looked over at her mother with a confused look. “What was that about?”

Twilight Velvet levitated the newspaper from the trash and into the recyclables before saying “From what I can gather she and your brother were playing twenty questions on the train ride from the Crystal Empire. Apparently she couldn’t get a fairly simple one and now she’s hypersensitive about anything which might suggest a lack of intelligence on her part.”

“Oh, well I better go, where will be having lunch at?”

“At that bistro on the university campus you use to go to all the time.”

“Alright, I’ll see you at lunch time.” Twilight then took off after Cadance.

Twilight and Cadance arrived at the palace grounds and the hustle and bustle of the staff preparing for the upcoming celebration. Both the gardens and the ballroom were a buzz of activity. Various ponies gave respectful bows to Cadance as they were going about their business. After working their way through the cleaning staff and construction workers they arrived in the throne room where Princess Celestia was busy attending to the day to day management of the palace affairs.

Celestia looked up from some paperwork to see who had entered “Ah, good morning Cadance, and Twilight what a pleasant surprise to see you today.”

“Good morning” the two of them replied.

“So what brings you to the palace today my faithful student?”

“I thought I could help with Princess Luna’s birthday party.”

“We would both love to have you involved in planning the party, but we already have plenty of ponies on the planning team so I’m afraid there’s nothing for you to do.”

Cadance approached the throne and whispered to Celestia “I told her of Luna’s uneasiness about the party; she wishes to help her to be personally prepared for it.”

Celestia nodded then turning back to Twilight said “on second thought I believe my sister is interested in an additional party advisor, somepony more familiar with contemporary celebrations. You would of course have to make your proposal to Princess Luna herself but I’m sure she would be happy to have you.”

They were interrupted by a unicorn stallion entering the room and greeted both of the Princesses. Twilight was struck with a sense of déjà vu by his presence. He had a periwinkle colored coat except for the area on his flanks where his cutie mark, which was a white comet, appeared, a mane the color of Royal Purple, and his eyes were silver.  Twilight was certain she had seen him before, or at least somepony very similar to him, but she could not recall when and where she would have seen him. She was distracted from her train of thought when he began speaking with Cadance. “Princess Cadance, the planning committee has compiled a catalogue of formal ware for the Princess. I took the liberty of selecting a few designs I believe will best suit her taste if you care to look them over yourself.”

He levitated a folder to her but Cadance shook her head and said “That won’t be necessary, I trust your judgment.”

“Very well, I’ll just submit these for her to look over.”

“Before you go let me introduce you to Twilight Sparkle, a friend of Princess Luna’s, she's here to help her with preparing for the party” she said motioning toward Twilight.

The stallion looked toward her and Twilight could tell by the look in his eyes that he seemed to recognize her. “I knew that I’ve seen him somewhere before” she thought to herself.

“Twilight, this is Charming Comet, Princess Luna’s Aide-de-camp, you’ll be working with him, should the Princess decide she has need of your assistance that is.”

Charming Comet took Twilight’s hoof in own and giving it a kiss said “It would be an honor to work with a friend of the Princess.” Twilight said nothing but shook his hoof response. “I’ll be going to see Princess Luna presently if you care to follow me Miss Sparkle.”

“Twilight” called Princess Celestia as she descended from her throne “a moment please.” Twilight followed her to a corner of the room out of earshot of the other ponies in the room. “Twilight, I appreciate very much your offer to help Luna with her uneasiness over the party, but there’s something that needs to be understood. If anypony asks you your just serving as another party planner. You are not to discuss you true role nor may you discuss any problems or issues Luna have with anypony other than Comet, Cadance, or myself.”

“If you say so Princess, but why all the secrecy, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“It’s for Luna’s sake, the whole point of publicly celebrating of her birthday is to demonstrate that she is my equal in leadership and worthiness of respect. To do that the ponies of Equestria must believe that she fully meets any and all expectations they have of a princess. As it stands now her lack of visibility in leadership has served to hurt her credibility. Up to now we’ve been easily able to pass it off as her trying to catch up with the times, but we can only do that for so long, but back to the point. If word gets out that she is experiencing any kind of emotional or psychological setbacks the ponies will panic, they might think Nightmare Moon is returning, and things may get…violent.

“I’m sure it’s nothing like that, she’s just nervous and unsure of herself is all. It’s no different from that first Nightmare Night in Ponyville. She wasn’t sure of what to do but it wasn’t as if she was just miserable about being in there.”

“She tries never to show any weakness to anypony, but I know for a fact that she was a nervous wreck that night when she left. She’s been like that for just about every societal function in which she would be expected to play a prominent part in. She was never this way before so I’m worried that this is a symptom of something more serious.”

“Do you really think so? I mean it’s not unreasonable that she would have trouble adapting, she is a thousand years out of her element after all. Not even a pony like you or her would be able to do that overnight. Given the extreme nature of the situation she probably won’t fully readjust within a normal pony lifespan.”

“There’s more to it than just having trouble adapting, there are other things as well. It’s not just social events that she’s uncomfortable with. Since her return she’s become an almost total recluse. She spends almost all of her free time cloistered in her chambers, she hardly ever speaks to anypony outside of necessity, and whenever we are together there’s a tension between us that never use to be there.” Celestia became very sad looking and after a moment added “Though I suppose that shouldn’t be unexpected given what I did to her”.

It shocked Twilight to see her normally graceful and refined mentor this way. “But Princess Celestia, you only did what you had to do.”

Celestia looked directly at her. In her mentor’s eyes she saw what looked to be a flash of anger that was quickly suppressed by a patient understanding look. At last the white alicorn said “I’ve been telling myself that for a thousand years and yet...never mind. Regardless of the necessity of what I did was it still doesn’t change the fact that I hurt her badly. Not even I can imagine the sort of pain she’s been holding onto since her return." Celestia took a moment to regain her regal composure. “I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to be your client am I? Anyway just be aware that there’s more to this than simple shyness and that nopony else is not to know about it.”

Twilight was discomforted by Celestia’s unusual display of apparent uncertainty in herself. “Of course I’ll keep this a secret, and I’ll do whatever I can to have Princess Luna prepared for the party. Though if what you say is true then I’m not sure what I can do in such a short amount of time.”

“I know it a lot to be called on to work with all at once, but I have complete faith in your abilities. Now I must get back to work. If you need any assistance just ask Comet, he'll be able to help you with anything you may need.”

Celestia returned to her throne and to her work. Twilight walked back toward the center of the room where Cadance and the periwinkle unicorn had been talking. She was thinking over what Celestia had told her and planning out what sort of approach she should take. “Miss Sparkle.” said Luna’s Aide-de-camp “If you would follow me I’ll take you to Princess Luna now”. The two of them left the throne room and began to make their way toward the west wing of the palace where Luna’s chambers were located. “Princess Cadance filled me in on the situation, if you need any assistance at all don’t hesitate to ask me.”

“Thank you…um,” said Twilight forgetting his name for a moment. “I’m sorry, it’s Charming Comet right?”

“Please, just call me Comet. I don’t know about you but I find my first name to be rather pretentious.”

Twilight stifled a chuckle but couldn’t help but grin. This had been exactly what she had been thinking of his name herself. “Sorry.” she said when she noticed him looking at her.

"Don't be." he replied.

Twilight was again wondering about how familiar looking he seemed to her. Finally she said “I’m sorry, but you look familiar to me. Have we met before?”

Comet looked momentarily surprised to hear this. He then said “Sort of, but you won’t remember me.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was years ago, back when we were still children.”

“Go on.” Twilight goaded.

“I was a student at the Canterlot Magic Academy, and we bumped into each other a couple of times whenever you were there.”

“I guess that’s possible.” Twilight conceded. She had done quite a bit of studying at the Magic Academy when she first became Princess Celestia’s apprentice despite the fact that she was technically too young to enroll as a student. “Still I don’t get why you seem to remember me when I can’t quite remember you. I didn’t go to the academy all that often. Since I was learning directly from the princess herself I didn’t bother ever taking any classes, and after she granted me unlimited access to the royal library I never had any reason to back the academy again.”

“Well, you were Princess Celestia's personal protégé. You left a much bigger impression on us than I’m sure any of us at the academy left on you. Besides the two of us never really talked so I wouldn’t expect you to remember me at all. I’m honestly surprised you recognized the way I look, I recall you always having your eyes glued to a book.”

"I guess that's reasonable. Still it can't be just your appearance that's sparking my memory, are you sure we never talked or anything?"

Comet shook his head. "No, we never said anything of consequence to one another. Besides I'm sure that we're different people than what we were back then."

"Yeah" replied Twilight, knowing that this was certainly true in her case. After a brief silent Twilight said "So Comet, could you tell me a little about yourself? If we're going to be working together we should get to know each other, don't you think?"

"I suppose", he said. "Let's see, as you know I am Princess Luna's aide. I have served in that capacity for a little over a year now."

"I was thinking of something other than a job description."

"Such as?"

Twilight paused and thought a moment. She hadn't really thought about what she wanted to know about him specifically. The first thing she could think to ask about was his cutie mark, which was a white comet. "What about your cutie mark, what does it mean?"

Comet was silent for a moment, apparently thinking over how best to explain. At last he replied "I've always imagined comets as being kind of like explorers. They travel around the galaxy observing a learning about things we can only speculate about. Just like a comet is very good at learning about the cosmos I have a knack for gathering information. So I guess you could say my special talent is research."

"Really", Twilight asked rather intrigued. "What kind of research?"

“Well, all kinds or research. It’s not so much the subject matter that interests me it’s the thrill of gaining new knowledge and using it to improve myself, and perhaps even helping others to improve themselves.”

“I know exactly what you mean, I feel the same way!”

“So I've gathered", said Comet with a smile. "I've heard quite a bit of your infamous, midnight study binges, Miss Sparkle.

“Please just call me Twilight. It makes me uncomfortable when ponies call me Miss.”

“As you wish, Twilight", he said. He seemed to be as happy as her to do away with the formalities. We’ve almost arrived at Princess Luna’s private chambers; remember if there’s ever anything I can do to help you with the Princess don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I won’t”, she said. It was refreshing to meet somepony who shared her passion for learning. Although she knew that her friends and family loved her it was frustrating for her sometimes, knowing that they saw her love of learning and sharing her knowledge as an odd quirk. It was nice meeting someone who didn't think so. "I look forward to working with you."

“Likewise.” replied Comet.

With that Twilight refocused on task of preparing Princess Luna for the party. Twilight was hoping that it really only was nervousness that Luna was struggling with. She wasn’t certain she was even qualified to do the job if Luna really was suffering from the sort of issues the Celestia feared she was. She at last thought to herself “I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it.”