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.

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