Forsaken

by Iron_Hooved

The day of the Summer Sun Celebration Part I

"Rainbow Dash, wait up!"

The cyan pegasus came to a stop and hovered in midair, turning around to look at the source of the familiar voice. Behind her, four ponies and a dragon were hiking a particularly steep hill, huffing and puffing as they went along.

Rainbow Dash batted her short wings anxiously, giving a longing look towards the castle standing before them, a couple hundred yards away. "C'mon guys! I want to get there sometime today!"

Twilight Sparkle couldn't help but roll her eyes at her. "Rainbow, the party doesn't start till tonight, I see no particular hurry in getting there."

The filly's eyes widened in disbelief. "No hurry?! The Wonderbolts are going to be there and you say there's no hurry?!" She demanded indignantly.

"Just like they were at the gala, and remember what happened then?" Twilight reminded her.

"Yeah, but this is different. Everypony's invited and there aren't going to be any snobs hogging their attention all night long! Uh...no offense, Rarity," she added hastily with a sheepish smile.

"None taken," replied the white unicorn in a dignified tone.

"Besides," Rainbow Dash continued, ignoring Rarity, "Pinkie Pie's already there!" She complained, gesturing towards a small pink dot skipping merrily across the castle grounds.

Sure enough, about a hundred yards away Pinkie Pie was hopping excitedly all over the place, like a rabbit on steroids, dragging a canon from a rope in her mouth. Rainbow Dash might have been the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, but that didn't mean she was the fastest pony, not by a longshot.

They group trekked a couple more grassy hills, towards a cliff where Canterlot Castle stood at its edge. The structure was built right against the rocky side of a large mountain, half of it suspended over the abyss beneath it, towering high above the clouds. A wide stream poured down the mountain and around the castle, ending in a large waterfall that flowed endlessly into the depths below. A drawbridge had been built over it to allow access to it, and on top of it a white mare, possessing both wings and a horn, stood with a benign smile aimed at them. This alicorn, clad in a golden chest piece and tiara incrusted with matching amethysts, was none other than Princess Celestia.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil!" Exclaimed the Princess with unmistakable delight. "It's good to see you and your friends again."

Twilight and company returned her greetings with a low bow. "Princess Celestia, it's an honor to have been invited to stay with you."

"Oh, not at all my dear student," she replied, slightly shaking her head. "It's lovely to have you all here with me at a time of celebration. I hope your studies on the magic of friendship have been going well?"

Twilight exchanged a significant look with Spike and felt her face flush as she gave the Princess an embarrassed grin. "Uh...well, sort of."

"Perhaps we might talk about it later? I suppose you will be wanting to get settled into your rooms," suggested the alicorn in a calm and reassuring voice, tossing her ethereal mane aside as she turned around and led them through the gates.

Twilight trotted up right next to Celestia and opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. It would be best perhaps, if she waited until they were alone to talk. Apparently the Princess noticed this, for she acknowledged Twilight's concerns with a tiny nod before moving on.

The suites were all located in the West Wing of the castle, which also happened to be the side that was suspended over the chasm below. Each of them stood individually, at the top of the towers that made up that section of the structure. An external spiral staircase allowed access to the top of each tower, where a tall set of double doors barred entrance to a splendid bedroom complete with a four poster bed, a wardrobe, a full-sized mirror and it's own bathroom.

After finally leaving each of her friends in their respective rooms to unpack (it took some time to get Fluttershy up the stairs to her room as she came down with a sudden new-found fear of heights), Twilight and Spike followed Princess Celestia into their own.

With a delicate gaze, Celestia addressed the baby: "I'm sorry about this, but could I have a word with Twilight, in private?"

Spike took no offense, he gave nod of understanding. "Of course your highness," he said, and left the suite.

"Now then, was there something on your mind Twilight?" Asked the Princess in a casual tone, checking outside the windows for eavesdroppers.

The plum filly stared at the ground and began tracing circles on the rug with her hoof. "Uh, about the conversation we had last time...."

The Princess gave a prolonged sigh and wheeled around to look at her. "Yes, I feared it'd be something like that."

Twilight looked up at Celestia and continued unabashed, "Are you sure about this Princess? I mean I hardly think—"

The sun goddess lifted an imposing hoof in signal for her to stop. Twilight ceased talking at once and her gaze dropped to the ground once more.

"Twilight, you know that I value your diligence and trust your judgment despite the fact that you are still a young filly..." she intoned.

"But—"

"Which is why," she spoke louder still, drowning the sound of Twilight's protests, "I need you to trust mine. You're an intelligent filly and a talented unicorn, but you lack experience. Your doubts are not unfounded, but I'm afraid you set too much in store by the contents of your books rather than acknowledging what's right in front of you."

"But how can you be so sure—"

"Twilight, remind me why it is that I sent you to Ponyville in the first place?"

"To stop Nightmare Moon from taking over Equestria and bringing about nighttime eternal?" The filly suggested.

Celestia shook her head solemnly. "I sent you to Ponyville because, despite your considerable talent, you have a knack for brooding over the the smallest details, rather than taking your time to enjoy what's around you," she explained. Twilight gave her a quizzical look, but Celestia pay no heed and wrapped a slender forearm around her neck. "You have spent most of your life with your head buried in books, and so you have neglected one of the most important aspects of your education, my little pony."

Twilight reeled from shock. 'Neglecting her education? How in Equestria was it possible that she had neglected her own education, when she had spent more time than anypony else perusing every book the Canterlot library could hold? Surely the Princess was mistaken'.

A soft smile adorned the mare's gentle face as she looked her student in the eye and saw the confusion that she held. "Meeting other ponies, having fun with your friends, taking a break once in a while... these are all part of the integral education a pony needs."

'Oh, that...'

The Princess let go of Twilight and wandered over to a nearby window, opening it in full with her magic. "When I first met you I knew you had enormous potential Twilight, and so I took you in hoping to have a hoof in your upbringing."

A couple memories involving turning her parents into potted plants and aging Spike into a full-grown dragon flashed across Twilight's head. A guilty grin momentarily split her face, but she shook it off and continued listening.

"But the more time I spent watching you, the more worried I became that you were too much of an introvert. I knew you had the talent and the ability, but by granting you a special status within my school and keeping constant interaction with you, I'm afraid I made you grow dependent of me. I just couldn't help it, I mean... you were so... adorable!" Celestia cooed, turning around and nuzzling Twilight's cheek.

"Oh, please don't," muttered Twilight, her whole face burning red, though making no attempts to resist her.

"Oh dear I'm doing it again, aren't I?" She teased on, lifting her hoof up to her mouth to cover her obvious grin at Twilight's embarrassment. "Though in all due seriousness," she resumed, adopting her solemn tone once more, "I couldn't help but feel that I was responsible for you not being able to socialize with the rest of the students."

Twilight gave her a sad look. "But Princess... that wasn't your fault at all."

"Oh but it was Twilight," Celestia assured her. "By spoiling you and allowing you to be around me all the time, I made you all the more reluctant to play with other ponies. Rather than let you drown yourself with books day and night, I should've been more firm and encouraged you to act like the rest of the foals. In making you my protégé I made you into an exception and so I built this invisible barrier around you that no one could penetrate, no matter how hard they tried."

"I was merely being stubborn—"

"No, you were reacting in the only way you knew how to, and so I was responsible for letting you," the Princess corrected her with a tone of finality. "And that's why, when I received your letter detailing your findings on Nightmare Moon's return, I knew you had been pushing yourself way too hard again and decided to take a gamble."

Twilight stood there in silence, wondering where she was going with all of this.

"I sent you to Ponyville, as far away from myself as I could, in the hopes that, thrown into an unknown environment, you'd be forced to interact with other ponies. And so when you met your friends and defeated Nightmare Moon, and you asked me if you could stay in Ponyville with them, I was elated. I knew then I had finally made the right choice."

It was true that Twilight hadn't been much of a socialite, but this had all been a year ago. What was the point of bringing this up now?

"Twilight, you have always been a powerfully talented unicorn, I will never tire from saying that. It just so happens that you are incredibly modest as well, a rare quality gifted ponies often lack, but your modesty borders on the line of diffidence. And so, just like you shied away from the prospect of making friends, so you shy away from this matter as well," she finished with a grave look.

Twilight looked severely troubled. She bit her lips and mused things over in her mind before answering. "Princess, this is just so much different from what you've asked me up until now. I'm not sure I can do it..."

Celestia sighed again. "This is precisely what I mean Twilight. You never even give yourself a chance before you decide you can't do it!" She said, with a slightly annoyed tone.

Twilight was becoming more and more flustered by the minute. "But what about Princess Luna? Couldn't you ask her to do it?" she suggested, a sudden tone of panic in her voice.

"Luna has her own royal duties to attend to, and I'm afraid she has quite enough on her plate already, after a thousand years of isolation. There really is no other pony I can trust to do this Twilight," she said, with a pleading look in her eyes.

Twilight felt herself under tremendous pressure under the gaze of this kind and gentle goddess. Princess Celestia had always been a source of love and inspiration for her, only this time around she may have been asking for too much. Yet she couldn't help but feel that she'd be poorly repaying her if she refused to do it. The Princess trusted her, believed in her in spite of how little confidence she herself had, perhaps she knew best after all? Celestia had never disappointed her or let her down since she'd known her, and so, though she had the urge to kick herself for doing so, she found herself considering the possibility.

"Let me think about it."

Princess Celestia smiled and nodded. "I expect your answer tomorrow morning, until then I shall leave you with your thoughts." With a bow, the Princess departed out the door.

Comments

[Iron_Hooved]

Been a while since I wrote such a short chapter, but I'm starting classes tomorrow and chances to update are going to become scarce. Rather than waiting to finish a 7k word chapter I'm going to split this particular chapter in about two to three parts. These will be the events detailed at the beginning of the fic and they are all flashbacks. I thought spreading them out could help the speculation a bit more concerning Twilight and the Princess. Hope you have fun theorycrafting as I gotta go to bed early tonight.

[Nox]

I'm guessing she wanted Twilight to raise the sun or something...

[shadowflame2000]

313949 lol until i read that i thought i was on the wrong fict

[Jm4573r]

314355
I am thinking the same thing, but I have been wrong about something like this before.

[kladdos]

GAAAh i want to know already what she had to do and what happend exactly!
good chap. though

[Delta Gamma]

No, I'm thinking she asked Twilight to investigate a conspiracy... or something fairly innocent but related to the rest of the story.

ΔΓ

[TheOwlWBU]

Do I smell a Batman gambit by Celestia? This chapter makes me think so, for some reason.

[shadowflame2000]

i just noticed how long this fic was and ive been reading it for a while

[DrunkenClouds54]

313949 You should really put these warnings in the beginning of the chapter so it wouldn't confuse people like it did with me. Throughout the entire chapter, I was thinking 'This has to be a dream' and 'It's probably what happened before!'

[Csquared08]

So close to finding out what that conversation was, but yet so far...