Celestia's New Assignment
The Flip Side of the Coin
by Drmythbusters
It was a calm day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Twilight Sparkle was sorting her books for the 60th time this week in her library. Yep, just a regular day in Ponyville. The sun shone through the window as Twilight rearranged the books from alphabetical-numerical to alphabetical-chronological with her magic. Books flew around the library via telekinesis and were carefully placed in their proper place on the shelves. Spike, her baby dragon assistant, was helping her by reshelving some of the books that were misplaced, which wasn’t that many, but was still important. “Twilight,” Spike whined, “Are we almost done yet?”
“No Spike,” the purple unicorn answered, “We still have the books under S,T,U, and V.”
“Do we even have books titled with V?!” Spike asked annoyed.
“Not sure,” Twilight answered, “But it's always safe to check.” Spike groaned.
“Twilight, why do we have to do this every time you-”HERG! BLECH! Spike was interrupted by his sudden dragonfire burp, which curled up into a little ball and turned into a scroll. The scroll was made of the highest grade of paper in Equestria and beared the Royal Sisters’ seal. Twilight dropped everything, books falling to the ground, and precariously caught the scroll with her magic.
“Spike! It's a letter from the Princess!” Twilight exclaimed. She opened up the letter and started reading.
“Really? I would have never guessed a scroll with the Royal seal would have been from the Princess,” Spike deadpanned. Twilight gave an amused annoyed look to Spike and started reading aloud:
My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,
I have sent you this letter requesting that you and your friends come to Canterlot as soon as possible. I have summoned you because I have started a new policy that involves the Elements of Harmony, and therefore I require you and your friends to help me in this endeavour. The next train will be coming in three hours, so get your friends ready to go to Canterlot. I expect your stay to last, at most, a day. I am nottrying to test you on anything.
Your Teacher,
Princess Celestia
As soon as Twilight finished the letter, she took five seconds to realise what just happened. After realising it, she got a incredibly stressed look on her face, and ran around the room, throwing books and notes into her saddlebags. “Um, Twilight, what are you doing?” Spike asked.
“Packing my notes,” Twilight answered, “Got to study!”
“Twilight, she just said this wasn’t a test,” Spike told the stressed out unicorn.
“Yes, but she never said she wasn’t going to quiz me on anything!” Twilight told him, “I mean she's Princess Celestia and my teacher for pony’s sake! It's not like she wants me to go to Canterlot for anything other than a test!” Spike facepalmed.
“Twilight,” Spike tried to comfort the unicorn, “She is not going to test you! She said she needed the Elements and you for a policy, not a test. Besides shouldn’t we go and get the girls to get them ready to go to Canterlot?” Twilight calmed down a bit.
“Your right Spike,” Twilight agreed, “It probably won’t be a test,”- Spike was relieved- “but I can’t be too sure.” Twilight continued packing books and notes. “After I’m done packing, I’ll go get the girls.” Spike grabbed Twilight and started dragging her towards the door.
“No! you're getting them now!” Spike ordered, “Come on!” Spike opened the door and started dragging her out of the library. Everypony in the surrounding vicinity turned and watched what was going on, much to Twilight’s ire. She then broke free of her assistant's grip, straightening her mane and brushing some dust off her shoulder
“Ugh, fine,” Twilight groaned, “I’ll go get them.”
She then teleported away to Sugarcube Corner. She was then greeted by an energetic pink blur, which surged towards her at physics defying speeds. Right before the blur was going to collide with her, it came to a dead stop, and revealed to be Ponyville’s premiere party pony, otherwise known as Pinkie Pie, covered in flour, batter, and frosting. “Oh hey Twilight! Whatcha doin’ here!?” Pinkie zoomed away while talking, going to a counter with a bowl of batter, “I was here making cupcakes and all of a sudden I see this bright purple flash and I was like ‘what’s that flash there!’ so I went up to it and it was you and here you are with me making cupcakes!” Pinkie flew around the room, putting ingredients in batters, sweets on more sweets, and being a miniature tornado of sweets, baking goods, and hyperactivity.
Twilight refixed her serious expression after Pinkie’s random onslaught of speaking. “Pinkie, I’m here to-”
“Oh you’re going to help me make cupcakes!” Pinkie grabbed Twilight and threw her in a baking apron that came out of nowhere,“Thank you! I mean, I’m really running behind on this for Dinky’s party, but I don’t know how! All I do is take a little bite of each food to make sure they're good or not,” -she gestured behind her, to a mound of cakes and cupcakes with massive chomp marks in them that took up 90% of the food- “but they all come out not big enough for the party! So I keep making cupcakes and cakes and then you show up and I’m like ‘Hi Twilight!’ and you’re like ‘Hey Pinkie, lets make cupcakes together!’ and then we go and make cupcakes and-”
“PINKIE!!!” Twilight screamed, interrupting the mare, “I’m not here to make cupcakes with you,” Twilight told Pinkie, much to her disappointment, “I’m here to tell you that Princess Celestia has requested that we come to Canterlot. The next train is in three hours and you should get ready.”
“Canterlot! I love Canterlot!” Pinkie squealed, “Do you think its a party or a parade or a get-together or something else totally super awesome?!”
“No Pinkie, I don’t think it's a party,” Twilight said to Pinkie, who became disappointed again. “I do know that you need to get ready to go to Canterlot.”
“Get ready? Okay!” Pinkie then bolted around the room. Five seconds later, the kitchen was spotless and Pinkie was clean as a whistle.
“Um, Pinkie,” Twilight began to ask, “how did you- It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.”
They began walking outside Sugarcube Corner, the sun was shining gloriously down on Ponyville. It was a peaceful and beautiful day. CRASH! That is until Rainbow Dash crashed into a table right next to them. “Ow!” Rainbow Dash picked herself up off the table, “Oh hey guys!”
“Rainbow Dash, thank Celestia I found you!” Twilight told her, now not having to search for the rainbow pegasus for the next hour. Rainbow normally hangs out around town, but she’ll be all over the place: Napping in trees, clouds, you name it, she probably napped in it. But that’s what made her hard to find: she was always somewhere different and/or hard to get to if you didn’t have wings.
“What’s up?” Rainbow asked, getting back up into the air.
“Celestia has requested that we come to Canterlot for help with something she’s doing,” Twilight explained, “Could you go get the others so I don’t have to go looking for them all?”
“Sure thing!” Rainbow took off towards Sweet Apple Acres, probably to tell Applejack.
“Well, that saved me a couple hours!” Twilight said as she started walking back to her library, “I guess I got some time to kill.”
“Nope!” Pinkie told her, “The author going to be deploying a scene transition in a couple seconds to advance the plot.”
“Pinkie, what are you talking abo-
Three hours later, Twilight and the others were all waiting for the train at the station. Twilight assumed that weird comment from Pinkie earlier was just Pinkie being Pinkie, seeing how nothing happened after she said there would be a ‘scene transition’. Pinkie was currently bouncing around the train station with seemingly no purpose, Applejack and Rainbow were currently hoof-wrestling to pass the time, Rarity was sitting on a bench, drawing dress designs while she waited, and Fluttershy was taking a nap, and sweet God it was adorable. Like a ‘puppy and a kitten being in the same slipper together’ adorable. Twilight was busy studying from ‘The Baltimarian Report of the Elements of Harmony: How can They Impact Society Socially, Economically, and Politically from 1000 Years of Absence’. It was a light read to pass the time, but it was still good. After Rainbow lost for the 15th time against Applejack, she frustratedly flew up to a cloud and took a nap up there instead. Applejack then walked over to Twilight and sat down on the bench next to her. “Hey Twilight, what you’d say this was for again?” Applejack asked, deciding to strike up conversation with Twilight, afraid that she would put in one of them fancy shmancy scientific words that none of them understand. Maybe Big Mac, cuz he knows dem fancy mathematics.
“Princess Celestia said that she was creating a policy that involved the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight answered, “What the policy is for or what it does I have no idea.”
They soon heard the screech of the train as it pulled into the station. Everyone got up and started boarding the train. It was surprisingly empty for a train going to Canterlot in the middle of the day, so they had a whole car to themselves. On the trip to Canterlot, the girls speculated on what the policy could be.“I think Celestia might be trying to weaponize the Elements,” Rainbow suggested, “I mean they’re the most powerful weapon in Equestria for pony’s sake! She might want some added security.”
“I think Celestia going to try and study the Elements,” Twilight theorized, “I mean, we know so little about them except for how they work. Other than that, we know next to nothing about them. What do you think Fluttershy?”
“Oh, um, I’m okay with whatever you guys think it is... I mean, if that’s what you want you know,” Fluttershy whispered.
“Honestly, Ah think that the Princess has another monster for us to beat, and she just didn’t want us to freak out,” Applejack added.
“Well, whatever it is, we’ll know it very soon,” Twilight noted as the train pulled into Canterlot Station. The city was in pristine condition, but had seen better days.
They passed through the common district, where it was mostly residential and had a few small businesses. Ponies went about their daily lives, but they were constantly being cautious, always looking behind their back. The city had just gotten rid of a serial killer two months back. The serial killer was behind bars, but the city was still terrified. You could see it in their eyes. They trotted past a newspaper colt for the Equestria Daily, hearing him yell, “Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read all about rumors of the Smiler killin’ in prison!” Truth be told, it was selling like hotcakes. Anything to read about the killer that ravaged Canterlot.
“I must say,” Rarity said as they walked past a shop, “if they’re selling out of newspapers, this ‘Smiler’ character must be quite the read.”
“I’ll bet,” Twilight replied, “Seeing how he is one of the few serial killers that’s been in Equestria, like ever. I heard he crushed the Stalliongrad Slaughter’s record of 21 ponies and racked up over 100 ponies killed.” The others gasped at such a statement.
“Now I definetly know why they’re so enamored by this,” Rarity said, “If somepony terrifies the ponies enough, they’ll want to know everything he’s doing.”
They continued on into the upper class district, where the top echelons of Canterlot society lived. Surprisingly, there were few ponies outside today. It was the middle of the day, and the streets were barren. They could hear their footsteps echoing down the street, it was that quiet. “Hey, where all ‘dem Canterlot stuck ups go?” Applejack asked confused. As they walked through the district, they walked past the radio store, currently playing Everfree Radio.
“As the common ponies of Canterlot start going back to their normal lives after the serial killer known as the Smiler,” the radio announcer broadcasted, “the upper class of the capital remains locked up. This is because of the recent assassination attempts and bombings of high class Canterlotians by the terrorist organization known as 'The Wretched Ones'. The Wretched Ones have targeted members of the upper class such as Sapphire Shores, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, and Prince Bloodblood. For all except the last one, I express my deepest sympathies. They have been rumored to have threatened the Royal Sisters and the Equestrian government. A source exclusive to Everfree Radio has confirmed that the Royal Guard has caught a high ranking member, and is currently in jail on cement road.”
“Gosh,” Applejack said as they continued down the deserted street, “a serial killer and a terrorist organization?! Where does Canterlot find these people?”
“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed, “Where does Canterlot find these meany McMeaner Pants?! I mean it's not like there is some omnipotent being that can control every action everypony will ever make and shape the world with a typing of multiple buttons!” Pinkie then winked at a brick wall, as if somepony was watching them.
“Pinkie Pie, you are so random and weird,” Rainbow told the pink pony.
“Come on girls, settle down,” Twilight ordered them as they neared massive, wooden gates, “We’ve arrived at the palace.”
The Royal Castle, even through all the violence that ravaged Canterlot, still had a amazing glean to it. The spire rose up and touched the heavens, and maybe they did, seeing how the Sisters controled the Sun and the Moon. The marble walls gleamed in the sunlight like gold. Everything about the castle was magnificent. And that was just the outside. As two Royal guards opened the 20 foot, agarwood doors, the girls gasped by the sheer beauty of the inside of the castle. The columns stretched as far as the eye can see, and farther up than any bird or pegasus would dare to go. From the stained-glass windows, the sun let in a beautiful rainbow of many colors, shaped into the epic adventures had by champions of Equestria. Most them involved, surprise, surprise, the Elements of Harmony. A long, red carpet stretched down the corridor towards a massive staircase. It seemed to travel on for at least a mile. At first, it seemed that had to travel that long corridor to get to the Princess, but they were relieved when they saw a bright, golden flash, and the Princess appeared in front of them. The girls kneeled before the Princess. “Thank you for coming,” Princess Celestia greeted them, “and I understand that the walk from here to the castle was a long one, so I shall teleport us to the Elements to save time.”
There was another golden flash, and they were all at the top of the staircase at the end of the corridor, in front of a locked door. Now, seeing how Twilight was the only one accustomed to teleporting, the others were disoriented by the sudden change in location. Twilight knew the effects of first time teleportation: nausea, headaches, confusion, loss of balance, sudden epiphany of how insignificant and small you are compared to the vastness of the universe, etc. After a couple minutes, and after Rainbow stopped vomiting out an open window, they were ready to continue. “Ah don’t understand why we couldn’t have just walked there,” Applejack complained, “Would have saved us the trouble of that.”
“Would you rather have that or a two hour trek down the corridor and up the stairs?” Celestia quipped as she started walking towards the locked door.
“Point taken. Those the Elements?” Rainbow asked. Celestia unlocked the door with her horn. The door opened to reveal a locked chest embedded with crystals and gems.
“Yes,” Celestia answered, “Girls, I need to tell you something about the Elements. Before Luna’s..... banishment, the Elements of Harmony were commonly used outside of battle to help reform ponies with wicked hearts. After I lost Luna’s half of the Elements, I could no longer do that. However, seeing how the Elements have returned and have solidified their places within you by defeating Discord, I have decided to renew that practice.”
“So you want us to go to evil ponies and reform them?” Twilight asked, “A very good change of pace from just blasting them with it. But where would we even find them?”
“That’s the thing I thought you might have a problem with. You see, Equestria is a lot larger than it used to be, and we can’t go after every wicked pony due to basic rights. So, I decided it would be used to reform dangerous criminals.”
