Princess Celestia had received many unusual requests in her long life. Nobles were always where the most 'unusual' requests would originate from; no matter what she could always count on there being one rather eccentric pony whose petitions could only be met with a polite smile, even kinder refusal, and the wave of her hoof so her meeting with the next petitioner could begin.

None of these had ever broken her composure or caused her to stop in her tracks, the last rays of an Equestrian sunset already bleeding from the walls and falling to shadows on the floor.

Not a single Faithful Student had ever surprised her so.

At least not quite like this, she thought, glad that Twilight Sparkle could not see the momentary flicker of dismay across her face when the princess recalled the final deeds of the last pony to bear the title of Faithful Student and where her stubborn nature had led her.

The little filly that stood behind her, dramatically bathed in shadow cocked her head to the side and blinked as the first swathes of moonlight began to overtake the many-windowed corridor.

"Princess...?" she asked cautiously, voice lifting in a timid crack at the end as she stared at the ageless goddess that was her new teacher.

The light on the princess' horn died once the moon was visible in the sky. She regained her composure immediately, after all if this filly were to live in the castle Celestia would need to be able to speak to her gently as a teacher, even more gentle than the image of a monarch she presented to Equestria and its allies. She tried to think of the last time a student of hers had been so young - Twilight's parents had certainly instilled an unnatural ambition in their daughter for her to be pushed to even attempt the School For Gifted Unicorn's exam at the age of nine - but she dismissed the distraction and replaced her uncertain expression with a soft smile and turned to look down at Twilight Sparkle.

With her darker coat she almost blended into the shadows, so the princess conjured a simple werelight of gold aura as kind as she appeared to help her little student see in the dark halls. The shadows retreated, but still continued to dance upon both their faces as the bobbing werelight mixed with the last meager light of the evening.

In seconds, night reigned.

"Yes, Twilight?" Celestia asked softly.

"Did I ask too much? I-I know it's only my second night here and when I was trying to finish unpacking my books I found this-" Twilight levitated a hefty novel in front of her face like a shield. "-and... I'm sorry, Princess. You probably have something better to do and-"

"May I see your book, Twilight?" Celestia asked, taking it upon herself to interrupt when it became clear the filly was struggling to explain herself.

Twilight nodded sheepishly and passed her book to the Princess, who eyed the cover coolly while Twilight anticipated her reply, partly stunned at how forward she had been. Everypony knows that nopony bothers the princess and here she had just requested that-

"A Crinkle in Time?" Celestia questioned, trying to see the faded gold-leaf letters in the dark.

"Almost - it's my favorite book, Shiny used to read it to me all the time!"

"And you would like me to read it to you?"

Twilight looked at the floor. "Yes," she admitted. It had sounded so silly when she had first asked and even sillier now that the princess was holding her book.

Celestia flipped over the book, glancing at the illustrations on the back. Like the letters on the front, they were faded as well and the book's summary was unreadable in the dimly lit hallway.

"Well, Twilight I must admit that there is a problem here. Do you know what it is?"

Twilight studied the carpet very carefully.

"Do you think I can read this in the dark?"

Twilight looked up quickly, violet eyes wide with surprise. "Really, Princess? This isn't a joke?"

Celestia offered her student a small smile and then nodded down the hall. "You are my student, Twilight Sparkle. Getting to know you is something that's important to me."

Twilight looked as if she was about to protest or question something - and Celestia was thankful when she didn't.

Celestia closed the door behind her carefully waiting with her lips pursued in a dark room until even the echo of her hoofsteps had all but left her mind, a single word taking up the mental space where the dying melody had been.

Different.

It was a word that had caused so much strife for Celestia. They - her and another pony dear to her heart - had been different to the Tribes and for it, Celestia and her companion had suffered. Her companion... Celestia would think of her differently as time wore on. Her different thoughts and behaviors would lead her to be shunned by her own nation and-

Celestia swallowed and the quick recollection of a possibly-true prophecy vanished. She might need them later, though part of her wished that she might not, for the sake of Twilight Sparkle and her novels of vegetable gardens and missing fathers.

And still part of her wished that words once dismissed as prattle could be true for the sake of some greater balance and the things and ponies swept up in it: broken hearts and missing sisters.

She hoped that 'different' wouldn't be wrong this time. That Twilight Sparkle would not wind up in stone. With a shaky breath as her prayer she wanted Twilight Sparkle to never know the vices of power that could steer her to hurt others so that only one like Celestia could ever stand in her way.

And with the knowledge of after all these years there would be no more tears to choke back lest those words be true... she wished that Twilight Sparkle would not be different enough to be impossibly far away from any who hold her dear and that they might never have to strike out her name until she barely clung to memory.

She did not want Twilight Sparkle to be that kind of legend.

Celestia did not want Twilight Sparkle to be different.

After all was done, Celestia locked the door, sealing it with a tap of her horn and watched as the ripple of gold extended from her horn before she moved on to lighting the room. In no mood to light any proper lamps or risk a true fire, she lit her horn and a group of werelights - all as gold as miniature suns - swam in the air, bobbing like a school of fish.

Or a sky full of stars. Celestia tried not to close her eyes and remember the filly who would create dozens of eccentric and unusual uses for blue lights like arcane fireflies. Instead, she drew her focus to wall-to-ceiling shelves of bookshelves each neatly packed tomes that any polymath of magical fields and skill would likely sell their souls for.

They were not hidden away and rotting in some derelict cellar, but the public had no access to them. These books weren't Celestia's, but in keeping the most... interesting selections from the library of her old home these books had become hers and hers alone.

Nothing in them was truly forbidden - just advanced, even for the time they had been published at. Most of their value was not in their original content, the text written in them was not what was advanced.

Carefully, Celestia levitated a book from the place where it had gathered dust for so long and began to flip through a few pages. She bit her lip as she looked at all the scribbles and margin notes. She glanced at crossed out paragraphs replaced with scrawled codes, pictographs, and mirror writing that spelled out half-tested theories and notes of cautious speculation and estimates.

She remembered the pony who wrote them - she was the one Celestia could never forget. While she hadn't been some great archmage or any renowned scholar, Luna's notes were sure to have merit. After all, her sister had made many observations and magical experiments of her own, though they had lacked the formality and some of the adherence to the stricter rules of magical study that Celestia favored.

But if she could decode some of the things her sister wrote...

Celestia drew a sharp breath when her coat came in contact with one of the werelights, warming her white coat briefly.

She laid the book down on the table without a word and located a small wooden end table overshadowed by the many bookshelves that towered over it. From a small drawer she withdrew a blank notebook, an inkwell, and quills.

Her habit of biting her lip a certain way had never vanished after all these years, only lessened. It meant that she was worried about somepony.

Somepony very special, who at long last might have a chance to come home if Princess Celestia made all the right moves.

Quill scratches were the only sound in the small library, filled with an incomplete collection of private tomes that the sun princess struggled to decode even a few lines of. She stared at the holes that marked missing words in entire sentences.

Closing her eyes, she thought of the young Twilight Sparkle asleep in her bed, a few chapters of her favorite novel no doubt infecting her dreams while a single word haunted the princess: different.

Twilight Sparkle was different - she had as much potential as any other student of Celestia's, maybe even a bit more if her cutie mark was to be taken into consideration. None of the Celestia's previous curriculum would suffice for this Faithful Student. She'd need to incorporate something more effective magic theory - an altered version of Luna's research would do nicely if she could make it compatible with her teaching methods.

This time, Faithful Student would mean something.

Celestia stood outside Twilight Sparkle's chamber, a hot mug of coffee adorned with a smiling sun grasped in her magic, along with a notebook of ideas for magic exercises and a textbook of standard magical theory. It wasn't anything that could be found in a public academy - any pictures and a majority of other visuals had been reduced to make room for text. The princess had looked over the materials she had chosen late into the night and knew that they would work for testing Twilight's ability.

She took a short sip of her coffee, wishing she had added a little more cream. The image of a sun on it only smiled up at her in response. She rolled her eyes - once - at the foalish drawing. It may have been cheesy, but she still liked it.

Celestia reached out a forehoof and knocked again. The door was flung open and the coat of magenta magic over it faded and dissolved, revealing a little filly hugging a doll with bright, spotted pants and a clock to her chest.

"Did I sleep in?"

"You only slept in ten minutes, Twi-"

"T-Ten minutes...?" Twilight's eyes flashed with slowly dawning horror. "How much did I miss?"

"Nothing, Twilight-"

"Will I have to do extra credit assignments to make up for this?"

"You didn't miss anything-"

"I haven't even started my lessons and I'm already failing!"

"You aren't failing anything, Twilight Sparkle."

The little filly loosened the choking grip she had on her doll. "I'm not?"

"That's right. I came up here to give you a reminder that lessons were starting today. I imagine you'd want breakfast as well, and I'm not one to withhold pancakes from a little filly."

Normally, the Faithful Students of Princess Celestia always jumped at the chance to eat a rich breakfast prepared by the staff at the kitchen - renowned chefs who happily catered to the tastes of the sun goddess with their culinary talents - but Twilight Sparkle wrinkled up her muzzle instead.

"I'm not failing anything."

"That is correct," Celestia repeated, adjusting the position of the notebook from last night, lest it fall to the ground and the papers within scatter onto the floor.

"Princess, if I'm not failing... how come you didn't tell me?"

Princess Celestia smiled kindly and suggested that they go find Twilight something to eat, her right eye twitching once.

Twilight Sparkle was different alright.

Sunset Shimmer scowled and quelled the embers of aura forming on her horn. The thirteen year old filly took a deep breath - one of disbelief rather than exhaustion - and looked Princess Celestia directly in the eyes.

"What do you mean 'that's it'?"

Celestia brushed a few cinders off her withers and remained aloof. "I meant exactly what I said, Sunset. I don't need to see any more of your spell. You failed this test."

Sunset blinked back ash-induced tears and shot the princess an icy gaze. "What's wrong with my spell?"

"I asked if you could hit all the targets on the tarp above us with a no more than three bolts of fire maximum." She nodded up to the tarp, punctured perfectly in all but the last target. Each hole was like a wound in some brightly colored flesh, the frayed edges bleeding ashes down on the goddess and unicorn below, the majority of the stuff settling on the head of the latter like a crown.

"I used one bolt of fire for all of them - I was able to control the flame perfectly and-"

Celestia cut her off with the a wave of her hoof. "You are too arrogant, my Faithful Student."

Sunset pulled back from the princess' reach. "Too arrogant? There were nothing in the rules you set down that I couldn't do this! I practiced that spell for weeks-"

"Are you suggesting that you looked to bend the rules of this assignment for your own pleasure? The rules exist for a reason, Sunset. Why do you continue to seek to disobey the rules I have made for your education?"

A small spark too light next to Sunset Shimmer, but she angrily stopped it out with a forehoof. "Of course there's rules! Magic can't exist without rules... but the rules you've been teaching me by... they're beyond rigorous, Princess! They're... They feel wrong! You never give me anything to challenge myself and I've been wasting so much of my potential... I wanted to challenge myself, since you won't."

"Sunset, you are not here-" She swept a wing to indicate Canterlot Castle behind them. "-for the purpose of being challenged. You are my Faithful Student because you have power that you need to learn to keep in check and have proven that you have enormous potential which-"

"What's the point of me having the potential to do anything if I never put it to use?! I don't feel like a Faithful Student at all - I'm not learning anything other than rules! Your rules, that's all I've really been learning, my own cutie mark tells me I'm supposed to play with fire - it feels right!"

"Sunset-"

"Am I just some sort of trophy to you, Princess? It doesn't feel like being a Faithful Student is meant to be anything at all, after all what's the point? You keep acting like me - or one of the previous ones - are supposed to be the best of the best when it seems like all that being a Faithful Student entails is prestige and more library privilege. Oh, and I get to ogle at myself in some stupid magic mirror."

"Sunset Shimmer," Princess Celestia cautioned, her tone stern and almost cold. The spitfire of a filly ignored her warning.

"The last Faithful Student became a college professor and died old and... just a portrait in the halls of the castle or a name to have on a guest list. If we're so special then why did Gusty just... fade from everything?"

"Sunset, Gusty did not 'fade'-"

"I feel like I'm just supposed to be some kind of ornament instead of a real pony."

Celestia looked appalled. "You are a real pony, Sunset. Why would you believe that you weren't?"

"I'm not treated like one, maybe? I don't want to be a good filly who stays at your side forever."

"Sunset, who is telling you these awful things?" Celestia took a step toward her Faithful Student, and Sunset took one away from the sun goddess' advancing shadow.

"Actions speak louder than words, Princess. You told me that. I wonder if it's really true."

"Sunny-"

"Don't call me that, you're not my grandmother!" Sunset shrieked, she turned away and began to storm back towards the castle, a stray wave of magic rippling across her coat and down to her hooves as she galloped faster and faster, the black jacket she always liked to wear flowing in the wind.

Celestia looked around the hedge maze pavilion and sighed, brushing a few ashes on the ground with her wingtips, pushing them under a topiary wall until everything looked clean again. She quietly began to clean everything up again and in ten minutes it looked as if nothing had happened and she began her flight back to the castle.

Dear Sunset,

I have allowed you your space tonight after your outburst this afternoon, even if it is not an incentive that I would normally permit. I understand that you are frustrated with your studies and the speed of your progress. Acting out is no way to express this, nor is withdrawing from the open hooves of other ponies a proper way to cope.

After tomorrow, I would like to see you start to open up and begin to focus less on yourself. Your worry will fade as you communicate and your pride will be able to transform into something healthier. I will not allow a Faithful Student to have behavior that is so destructive.

You are going to begin to make friends. I am not going to discontinue your studies, but they will not resume until you have made at least one friend. Have you ever talked with Princess Cadance? I have seen the both of you talking at the past two Summer Sun Celebrations, and think that you two would make great friends. She may be older than you, but she is gentle and good at telling jokes. You two would have a hard time not getting along.
By dawn, I do think you will reconsider the harsh words that you spoke to me. I may have forgiven you for them, but they were unnecessary.

I know that you are a very smart young mare but the extent of focus you've devoted to your studying is unnatural. There is more to life than the mastery of magical arts and the solitary state you've withdrawn to since you arrived from Tall Tale is not acceptable. I understand you enjoy your studies, but power is not something you should be seeking.

Your astronomy books no doubt put great focus on their illustrations of the sun - some for the sake of style, some to flatter me - but somepony long ago once told me that all the stars were just suns far away. Ponies have managed to make telescopes to confirm her words to me, but I find the gesture to be long overdue.

Sunset, I know you want to be the sun and light all that is around you.

Nopony is the sun. Not even I am truly like that, and I cannot bring myself to think of myself so highly. You are not the sun, and contrary to how I may be styled neither am I. All of us are stars, Sunset and one day, I know that you'll learn this lesson.

Your Teacher,

Princess Celestia

Princess Celestia stood outside the same room that a young Twilight Sparkle would call her own. She was a couple minutes early, but wanted to see if Sunset would try to make any offer to reconcile before ushering her off to breakfast and switching their conversations to social concerns instead of magical matters.

A moment passed and she still waited. Sunset was most likely applying the black cosmetics she liked to wear and would be out shortly.

Celestia sighed and rubbed her eyes with a forehoof, taking another sip of coffee from her mug of some plain color between slate gray and purple that had reminded her of twilight skies.

Her gilded shoe knocked upon the door. Once. Twice.

When no reply was given she promptly pushed the door open with her hoof, and found it gave away easily.

The letter she slipped under Sunset's door last night was still there, but it was kicked aside slightly. Had Sunset exited her room at some point in the night?

She looked in Sunset's bed, pulling away the covers like a young foal might rip off a bandage. The only color beneath the pale blue sheets was the soft gray of shadows from the bed's canopy.

"Sunny?"

"Twilight, no! The fate of Equestria depends on you being able to defeat-"

Cadance was cut short as a young Twilight reached out and grabbed the cardboard airship from the shaky grasp of Cadance's magic, yanking the passenger out of the cardboard container-turned-afternoon art project. The little filly collapsed onto the checkered picnic blanket, clutching her doll to her chest.

"No, no, no!" she squeaked as much as her little lungs would allow. "Smarty's not evil! She has to be the hero!"

Cadance blinked her lilac eyes, pondering what to do before tugging at her blue bow into place, as if readjusting her mane could improve her creative thinking. "I thought you wanted to be the hero-"

"No, I'm not brave enough to face that," Twilight whispered, pulling Smarty closer to her chest and waving a hoof in the direction of the lunch box sized construction that Cadance had placed her doll in. Twilight's tiny forehoof trembled with fear as her foalsitter's gaze followed the gesture.

"What's wrong with the ship?" Cadance asked. "It looks just like the one you saw with Shiny and me yesterday."

"Nu-uh," Twilight pouted, "The one I saw with you and B.B.B.F.F. wasn't like that one... it's scary!"

To remedy her confusion, Cadance withdrew the only cure-all she had from the picnic basket next to her - a large bag of sour keys, and began to nibble one of the candies in thought.

She could handle Twilight Sparkle, sure the little filly was gifted - her parents hadn't been able to keep her in any grade above magic kindergarten since she took to all the materials too quickly and was too inept at socializing to not have her homeschooled.

Cadance was an excellent foalsitter, under her care and minimum tutelage Twilight Sparkle had only been the cause of three out of the five arcane fires in the family's kitchen that occurred in the past year.

She knew exactly what to do.

Her life was together.

By the tenth sour key, she realized she had no idea what to do.

"Uh, Twilight?"

Twilight lowered Smarty Pants from her face when she realized Cadance wasn't going to be absorbing the sour keys at such an ungodly speed any longer.

"Yes, Cady?"

"Just what is so horrific about the ship I made you?"

Twilight's somber gaze met Cadance's confused one, she leaned closer and whispered carefully, with all the seriousness and terror the precocious filly could muster: "It's not to scale."

Cadance blinked and eyed the bag of sour keys once more. Twilight gulped when she noticed this.

"Yep," her foalsitter chirped, "Makes sense. Not to scale. Got it."

"We could always buy a model one from the fancy stores. Shiny had one, but it broke." Twilight looked shifty at the last statement, but chose to continue when Cadance didn't react. "I've been saving up some bits for new books but..."

"But what?" Cadance asked excitedly.

"I have a birthday coming up," Twilight finished with a grin, the warm May winds sweeping through the park and stirring her neat bangs.

Cadance knew foals. She knew when they wanted something and she would have bet a wing and a foreleg that if she caved into Twilight's expectant purple gaze that she would be taking the first step into turning this little tyke into a little tyrant.

She already had a birthday present for her anyway...

"That's nice, Twily. I'll be sure to remember that, but right now I don't have the bits-"

"Shiny says you have an entire store of bits for emergencies."

"Yes," Cadance admitted. "But it's for emergencies-"

"Shiny says you consider owning under twenty-six pairs of leg warmers a crisis."

Cadance nodded vigorously. "Could you imagine the horror, Twily? A world without leg warmers is like a world without sunshine."

"...Everypony would die?" Twilight skeptically offered.

"Exactly!"

It was Twilight's turn to blink, and just as she was about to reply she heard two voices coming closer, her small ears pricking to find their source. Cadance too, looked over to the two ponies approaching and smiled at Shining Armor and the princess. "Hi, Shiny! Hi Auntie!"

Celestia nodded and Shining Armor started chatting about something with Cadance, who rose from the blanket her and Twilight had been playing on after waving to the filly with the promise to come back soon.

Twilight nodded and nervously tilted her head up to look at the goddess in front of her. Celestia didn't notice the little filly at first, and her shadow swallowed Twilight Sparkle, Smarty Pants, and their picnic blanket.

"Good afternoon, Princess Celestia," Twilight offered, bobbing her head in a slight bow. She had never been this close to the princess before, and if she didn't know better she'd say that the princess looked a bit sad...

And then she saw her nod and smile. Twilight couldn't imagine a mare so beautiful and kind upset with anypony or anything good and kind, so she smiled back.

"What is your name, little one?"

"T-Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

"And you are Shining Armor's little sister?"

"Yep! He's really good at magic - have you seen his shield spells, Miss Princess?"

Celestia laughed softly - so softly that the sound would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for the change in her features. However, Twilight was too young to detect the hollow tones that hinted at an unspoken grief held by the princess. "Yes, I have seen your brother's shield spells. They are certainly quite admirable."

"He works super hard on them, Miss Princess!"

Celestia nodded in response, her attention briefly wavering as she watched some of her subjects strolling in the distance, Cadance and Shining Armor among them.

Her expression remained flawlessly calm despite her heavy heart and she looked over at the young colt. If he weren't already a gaurd in training... would he have what it takes to be a Faithful Student?

No... he isn't bad. Shining Armor is humble and kind... but something's missing...

Holding back a sigh that she wouldn't risk anypony hearing, she turned back to devote her attention to the little blank-flanked filly who had been talking to her.

"What about you, Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia asked, centuries of experience as a ruler steering her thoughts in the direction of idle chat. "Is there anything that you work hard at?"

Dragging her hoof through the grass, Twilight lowered her eyes and remembered what her parents had told her about boasting and how unhappy it made them. Twilight certainly didn't want to make her parents unhappy.

"No, not really. It's not that I'm lazy or anything, Shiny just works so much harder in comparison... he's going to make a great guard in the future, Princess!"

"I'm sure he will," Celestia responded, an easy smile gracing her features as she recalled her conversation with the easy-going, talkative youth.

A moment later, Cadance's voice called her away and she dipped her head in a brief good-bye nod to Twilight Sparkle, not knowing that they would meet again when the filly's name had all but faded from her mind...

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

In your time as my Faithful Student you have accomplished many thing that have made me proud of you. Your skill in magic is one that has so much potential just like the others did

I know that you will continue to study magical practice and theory, heading toward a brilliant future - one where I wish to see you continue to excel and never stop learning about the things you love.

You've grown into a lovely young mare under my tutelage and I know that

Please don't fail me in Ponyville and heed my advice to

After all that you have done so far, I'm sure you'll succeed at whatever you set your mind to - even if that task is making friends in Ponyville. Your humility and earnestness will ensure that you and Spike find yourselves in good company. Friends aren't as out of reach as you think, and they will help guide you on the journey that you find yourself on.

If you aren't the one meant to wield

There is no doubt in my mind that you - but not you alone - will be able to accomplish more than you have given yourself credit for. The history books that you love to read may soon have their pages marked by a very familiar face - one surrounded by her friends and smiling widely.

Ever since you were a little filly, I had begun preparing you for this task. I knew that there were some things I could not teach to you as I could teach you other subjects. There was no map that would lead you to friendship.

That - friendship - was what I wanted you to have the most - what would determine whether or not you passed a test that has been in the making for one thousand years. While you have grown out of the stage where you spoke to none but Smarty Pants, your brother, and Cadance you failed to pick up on any cues that marked the point where your brother and my niece - perhaps even your future sister - began the next stages of their lives, where little fillies could not always be tagging along.

I know that you hardly enjoyed any of my prompts for you to be enrolled in a few classes at my School for Gifted Unicorns, but if you knew what I knew would be coming if you were to look closer at the sky it was necessary to get you to begin to learn how to talk to ponies your age - Spike and I were not proper companions for a growing filly - and though you may not have liked Moondancer, Lyra, and some of the others very much, I do think that you'll be able to understand what I have done and why...

Twilight Sparkle, I am a very guilty mare because I could not care for somepony who needed my help the most - somepony I should have always been there for and have never stopped missing - and they suffered because of my actions. You have no doubt heard the some of the countless and secretive speculations of where I am from and if I am the sun itself, or the hushed whispers of why I have only the sun upon my flank-

...Have you ever thought of what it would be like to be separated from Shining Armor? Truly separated, unable to help or-

Time is like a knife, Twilight Sparkle, even if you hold it at a distance it will eventually cut you when you aren't careful...

I miss her terribly and I may have numbed myself to some of this feeling... and the initial feeling of the impact may be gone...

Sometimes I cannot tell if the fire of regret or the numbness of what my grief has become is worse.

There was never meant to be one Alicorn goddess ruling Equestria and I have aimed to use everything in my power to change that and to make this land one that truly represents order and harmony.

Because of something ugly I had once been... and the ways in which I did things that only hurt the bond between us, sawing it to pieces instead of a more merciful single strike or fight to cleave our kinship in two... I hurt a mare who couldn't bear to be a single star. She was different like you and couldn't be what was expected of her I'm ashamed to say that even I wanted this once and pretend to be a star - some distant sun - when she was meant to have her own sky... and because of everything that happened she tried to go through me to get it.

I hurt the only family I have, and she bit back with as much fury as she had and it got her-

It took her absence to make me realized that I loved my family and should have always kept it that way, when my own actions helped to tear us apart.

The only force that can save her is one that I no longer believe in after what they did to her can no longer control, and it is only through your actions that order and peace could really return to Equestria.

I changed so much for her: ponies thought differently then - and not the more acceptable kind that she was, but an ugly and cruel different. No matter what, different is always dangerous but

Equestria was not a place that would be recognizable to you, even your history books - all history texts - are but a pale imitation of past horrors. The land is truly filled with life.

I changed.

I waited because-

You, Twilight Sparkle, are the only Faithful Student who showed any true potential as the key I would one day need - your magic surge and tell-tale mark were all I needed...

But the other Students? The ponies who only get portraits and prestige upon graduation...?

They were scholars, well-trained, cream of the crop... but I never established the Faithful Students to be anything more than distractions until...

They were not heroes, Twilight, and none of them would ever be able to succeed, to learn the true secrets of magic...

I needed a hero-to-be in the form of somepony like you, but not for my sake...

For Luna's sake.

Your Mentor,

Princess Celestia

The moon scarred with the image of an all-but-forgotten goddess loomed over the city of Canterlot and the last traces of a cool summer night's breeze swirled past the spires of Canterlot castle. Even though the moon was high in the sky, Princess Celestia shook in cold that wasn't there as she sat on her tower's balcony, a thin line of enchanted sunfire dancing on the golden rail and casting dramatic shadows on her face.

She sat not because she was tired, but because her legs wouldn't stop shaking each time she tried to stand, so Princess Celestia sat and added the last few lines on her letter to Twilight Sparkle, who was now likely to be asleep in Ponyville's Golden Oak Library where she had arranged for her Faithful Student to stay.

Even for Celestia, it was difficult to resist the urge to look up at the sky where four of the stars had already begun drawing themselves to Luna, bit by bit, in order to finish the spell. Celestia bit her lip - stopping only when she tasted blood and it became harder to breath the more she tried to hold all second thoughts at bay.

Part of her was still screaming with some kind of fragile, mad excitement at the prospect of seeing Luna... or whatever might be left of her... that caused something vital-feeling inside of her to threaten to burst. She held back as much emotion as possible, but twin streams of tears still managed to squeeze their way out of her eyes, and however much it hurt she tried to swallow the few hiccup-like sobs that had threatened to escape her until they only escaped her in coughs.

She would see her sister again. Celestia would beg if she had to, if that's what would keep Luna from hurting anypony and buy Twilight Sparkle some more time.

Once the last flourishes of her signature were added, Princess Celestia rolled up the scroll and sealed it. She then placed it off to her side, gold aura flickering nervously and threatening to die and drop her letter. Somehow, she managed to set it down carefully, as if she were afraid the paper would make a noise that would startle somepony who wasn't there.

Next to her was another sheet of parchment, the inkwell she had been using, and the only unbroken quills she had left. The rest lie around her, broken and snapped when she had applied too much pressure in her hurried writing.

There were two letters she would need to write tonight and it was only when Princess Celestia managed to draw a single breath, shallow and hoarse did she look up at the sky and the paths of the stars, now in motion...

She had so little time left to write now.

Celestia took one more breath. It was deeper, but sputtering, almost as if it were her last. For an undying being the concept of a last breath... it was absurd to think that she would have one. Yet, right now Celestia was very, very afraid that it would be her last breath... at least for a long time.

Princess Celestia's jaw clenched and unclenched. It was all nerves. She felt lightheaded. The summer air was freezing and the start of a cold sweat had appeared on her forehead in this ungodly cold - she felt as if she had been plunged into ice water.

Making as much use of whatever time she had left, Princess Celestia moved to her second, blank piece of paper-

-and then she stopped to eye the confession she had written to her Faithful Student. A heartbeat passed and she lifted the letter, dreading each second of silence she held onto it. Then, with a single motion, she cast it into the flames and watched it burn.