Author's Note: This story takes place a few years after Defenders of Harmony, thus fitting into the same universe and the same events of Alexandria the Great. If you haven't read either of them, I suggest you do so, just to give you background on the OCs used in this story. Anyway, read and review, if you enjoyed or have suggestions for me to do better.

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Celestia

Celestia Simmons, Future Princess of Equestria. Has a ring to it, doesn't it? Well, that's what I'm going to be. Well, me and my older sister, Luna. As soon as we finished our studies, me and Luna would take our place on the throne, next to our mother and father. Assuming, of course, me and Luna passed Mom's rigorous training.

"Alright, do you have the image of what you want to summon in your head?" said Mom.

"Yes." I said, concentrating on my target.

"We got it." said Luna.

"Good. Now, will it to come to you." said Mom. I closed my eyes and focused on bringing my item to me. A bright yellow light enveloped my horn, a dark blue surrounding Luna's. I extended my right hand, Luna doing the same, as we summoned our item.

POP!

In my hand appeared a golden crown with six purple gems near the tips. My sister grasped it as well, confirming my suspicions that we were both going for the same thing.

"Girls, give it back." said Mom. "I thought I told you not to play with my crown."

"But you told me to grab something I wanted. I wanted your crown." I said, placing it atop my bright yellow, orange-tipped mane.

"So did I." said Luna, yanking it from me and placing it on her head. She ran her hand through her blue and black hair. "Looks good, doesn't it?"

"Looks better on me." I said, grabbing it and putting it back on me. Mom snapped her fingers, causing the crown to flash into light. Mom twirled her the crown around on her finger disapprovingly.

"And it'll look best when you guys actually become princesses." said Mom.

"I still don't see why we have to study." I said, crossing my arms. "We're already amazing. We could take a spot on the throne now, and we'd be great rulers."

"No. I don't want you guys to be rushed into this before you're ready."

"We are ready." said Luna.

"That's what I thought, until I actually became princess. I thought I could handle it, me being Princess Celestia's prize pupil, but when she gave it to me, I almost lost it."

"Always talking about The Old Celestia." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Don't talk about Princess Celestia like that. Show her some respect."

"Okay. I'm sorry, Mom." I said. "I just don't like it when you bring her up."

"I know, I know, I should probably stop. I know you know this, but I named you two after her and her sister."

"Yes, and that's cool and all, but you should treat us like us and not them." said Luna. "We're going to be better than them, anyway."

"Don't get ahead of yourselves. Celestia and Luna, the old princesses, they were more powerful than you could imagine. They controlled the sun and moon."

"We could do that stuff too. We just don't." I said.

"You could raise the sun?" asked Mom skeptically. "How about you raise your grades first?"

"Mom, we got perfect As on all of your tests." said Luna.

"Well, you should've gotten an A+." said Mom.

"Don't you have a tour to get ready for?" asked Luna. Mom looked down at her watch and yelled in panic.

"Oh my goodness! I'm going to be late! Where's your father?"

"Right here, Twilight, relax." said a pure white unicorn with ginger hair and emerald eyes, who had just melted through the crystal walls. Luna and I, never missing the opportunity, dropped to one knee and bowed.

"Prince Conjure!" we called in unison.

"What's up, baby girls? Stop calling me 'Prince'." said our father, the Prince of Equestria. "I don't like it. It makes me feel more important than I actually am."

"But you are important, Daddy." said Luna. "The four most important ponies in the universe are sitting in this room."

"You three, maybe, but I'm just another Random Joe." he said. "Honey, you're going to be late."

"I know! I lost track of time waiting for you!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry, totally my fault. I was asleep."

"Well, can I trust you to stay awake so you can finish the lesson?"

"No way. As soon as you leave, I'm going to summon a La-Z-Boy and pass out." he joked. "Don't worry about it. Just go."

"Are you sure you have everything in place? Do you know the lesson plans?"

"Twilight, I'm the one who wrote the lesson plans." said Dad, rolling his eyes. "I'll handle it."

"Okay. I trust you." said Mom, although her voice sounded very untrusting. "I'm leaving now."

"Try not to bore the kids into oblivion."

"What?! I'm not boring! All I do is speak about the importance of organization and keeping a strict, regular schedule."

"Bo-ring!" said Dad. "Maybe you should talk about the Princesses."

"That reminds me. I had a dream about them last night."

"Really? What'd they say?"

"Nothing much, just checking in on me. I think they're worried that I might be cracking under the pressure."

"You've been doing good for the past 20 years or so." said Dad, looking at his watch. "Get out of here! You're going to be late!"

"I wanted to talk about it, because they seemed uneasy about something."

"We'll talk when you get back, okay?" said Dad. He snapped his fingers. Green haze surrounded Mom.

"Okay, Conjure, but I'm holding you to that." she said.

POP!

My mother burst into light, disappearing from the room. Dad pulled up a table from thin air, with a tea kettle, some small sandwiches and three teacups.

"Fancy a spot of tea?" he asked, gesturing towards the table.

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Luna

Luna Simmons, Future Princess of Equestria. This goes without saying, but that sounds so perfect, don't you think? It seems natural, which makes sense, since I'll be ruling Equestria soon. As soon as I turn 18, four short years until I take the throne next to Princess Twilight and Prince Conjure. Poor little Tia will have to wait a whole extra year. But until then, it was tests and tea. Sometimes they were one in the same.

"Fancy a spot of tea?" asked Daddy, gesturing for us to take a seat at the chairless table. I squatted down to sit, and a little stool appeared beneath my butt. Celestia and Daddy did the same.

"What are we doing today?" asked Celestia, accepting a cup that my father handed her. He passed one to me, then poured a third for himself.

"Well, I thought we'd have some tea, then we could get into some poison work." he said.

"Alright." I said, taking a sip.

"Or is it that we'd do some poison work involving tea?" he said, placing his still-full cup back on the table. Celestia and I swallowed our tea before we realise what he meant.

"You're joking." I said.

"First step: Identify the poison. Did you notice anything funny about the tea?"

"Um… It seemed slightly cold." said Celestia.

"Good. A poison that lowers temperature. What else?"

"It was tart! A slightly bitter taste!" I said excitedly. I loved my Dad's lessons. Mom was a great teacher and all, but she didn't very often throw us into things like this.

"Nice. That should narrow it down. Chilling and bitter. You got it yet?"

"Frost Poms!" said Celestia and I together. Just then, I could feel an eerie cold ran through my entire body, from my hooves to my freckled face. The Frost Pomegranates were taking effect.

"Excellent! Now, what do you know about Frost Poms?"

"Deadly fruit." said Celestia.

"Fast-acting poison." I remembered.

"We have about 2 minutes." reported my sister.

"Antidote is pretty common, its… Watercress!" I outburst.

"Fantastic! Where are you going to find some watercress?"

"I don't know!"

"Sandwiches!" said Celestia.

"Huh?"

"Dad always makes watercress sandwiches with tea! It's really posh and cliche, but it serves our purposes." said Celestia, grabbing a sandwich. She shoved it in her mouth and handed me the plate. I felt my fingers freeze and my hand became a lighter, icy blue. I ate the sandwich and instantly felt warmth enter my body. My hands grew hot and the original dark blue color returned.

"Excellent! You girls make me proud!" said Dad.

"Thanks, Daddy!" I said, jumping up and hugging him. "That was fun!"

"It so was!" laughed Celestia. "What do we do now?"

"Uh… I actually don't have much planned." he said sheepishly.

"Really?" I said exasperatedly. "Daddy! You promised Mom that you'd have a lesson ready!"

"I do, I just don't want to do it." he said. "Wanna go hang out? Be normal people instead of the royal family?"

"No." I said. "But, out of curiosity, where are we going?"

"Wherever you want. Next stop: Everywhere!"

"Why? Shouldn't we be studying?" asked Tia.

"You guys are really, really clever, and your studies are very important, but sometimes you need to relax. When was the last time you took a break for an hour, just to rest your brains?"

"Last night!" I said.

"Honey, last night you ate dinner then took a three minute combat-nap. I hate to break it to you, but that doesn't count."

"Fair point." said Celestia. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I have to say it was educational so your mother won't get on my case, so let's follow her tour. I'm sure she'll say something interesting about the war."

"Sounds like fun." I said, leaning against the crystal wall. I pressed my back against it and felt myself fall through. It felt as though I was moving through a wall of… mayonnaise, I guess. It was an odd sensation, spreading your atoms like that. It was the only way to get in and out of the training room. Mom had the room designed with no doors, no windows, no feasible entrances, in fear that one day, Tia or myself would be attempting a spell, and something goes horribly wrong, destroying the castle or hurting somepony. Of course, no such thing ever has, nor will it ever, happen, simply because me and my sister are too talented. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but every spell we've ever attempted, we've completed with master expertise. Even this extremely difficult spell, a spell that even took our dad a few tries, we mastered on our first attempt.

"I still can't believe how quickly you're learning." said Dad after he'd fallen through to the other side. "I remember like yesterday when I had to keep a constant magic-suppression spell on the entirety of both castles, just to stop Celestia from starting whirlwinds in the kitchen and to stop you from setting your sister's diapers on fire!"

"Those were the good ol' days." I said, snapping my fingers. The hem of Celestia's yellow skirt caught flame. Without panic, she snapped her fingers twice, extinguishing the flames and covering my hair with sticky cotton candy. I cleaned out my mane and gave her a smile, just to let her know that I acknowledged her skill and that we'd finish this later.

"Enough of that." said Dad, leading us through the halls of the Crystal Castle. We made our way up the long staircase to the main entrance, then started to look for the group of Ponyville students. We politely walked around the memorials to the original princesses, when I had an idea.

"Don't you have a copy of Mom's schedule?" I asked. "Knowing her, she's sticking to it without a second deviation."

"Good idea." he said, summoning a sheet of parchment with his horn. He scanned it quickly then led us to the cafeteria. Apparently, it was time for lunch. Celestia and I walked in silence, quietly playing our secret little game. I'd start a small spell, then she'd counter it to work in her favor as I tried to prevent her from doing so, and so on. Whoever completed their spell, won the point. First to five points wins. I was about to break the tie and win the match when we arrived at the cafeteria area. Tia and I were too focused on our game to look up (I had just turned her bouquet of roses to a bundle of snakes, which became a fruit bat.) so all we heard was the screaming.

"Give them back!" yelled some melodramatic filly.

"Or what, Lizard Girl?" asked another, very annoying sounding girl. "What are you going to d-" She was cut off abruptly, as if somepony had hit her.

"You should deal with that, Dad." said Celestia, turning my butterfly into a toad.

"Yeah, yeah." he said. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Give it back or I'll be enjoying some barbeque pony for lunch! I'm part dragon, so it's not technically cannibalism." shouted the first voice.

"Oh no." said Dad. He snapped his fingers, surrounding us with a green haze, signifying that we had a few moments before being teleported. "Wait for me."

"What's going on?" I asked, letting the toad drop to the floor and hop away.

"That's Alex." he said. "I'll talk to you in a moment. Just wait for me and don't leave the training room."

POP!

We reappeared in our training room, just how we started. I looked at Celestia with confusion and we had the same thought.

"Round two?" I asked.

"Of course."