With an annoyed sigh, Rose slipped her crown off her head and plopped down onto her bed with a huff. It was days like this that she wondered why she had ever agreed to this.

Even with her earth pony stamina, she was exhausted. Igniting her horn, Rose started a fire in the fireplace. The warmth helped her to some degree, but not as much as it usually did.

"Why did I ever agree to be Celestia?" She grumbled to nopony in particular. There was no answer, and it made her heart clench with the silence.

There hadn't been an answer for five years.

Velvet had finally succumbed to her age not long after she had passed the role of Celestia to Rose. While the magic she had once held had kept her alive and spry for longer than either had expected, the time had finally caught up with the unicorn.

And it was days like this that Rose missed her more than ever. Not just as a friend, but for her counsel as well. Who better to advise the new Celestia than the old one?

Her other advisors were competent in their own way, but none had known this burden, as well as Velvet, had. Now Rose was all on her own when it came to things like this.

Her efforts to get Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns changed to a school for all ponies were being denied at every turn. The E.E.A. did not seem to have a problem with the idea.

But the Canterlot Elite was being particularly obstinate, saying that it was a tradition that the school only be a unicorn only school and that she was spitting on its role.

Rose rolled her eyes at that. She didn't have a problem with what the school was. But it was out of date now as it stood. Finding the next Element of Magic was one thing. But it stunk of tribalism for her.

And if there was one thing Rose hated more than anything, it was something from the Three Tribes Era. She had gotten quite a bit of it when she had first come to Canterlot. A Pegasus in a unicorn city tended to stand out.

It hadn't helped that the last three to bear Celestia's name and all she was, had been unicorns. The memories hoofed down to their successors didn't really reveal why that was. But Rose had been glad to break that cycle.

At times like this, Rose wished she could go to her family or friends for help. But she couldn't. For all intents and purposes, Rose Petal had vanished from Equestria five years ago, tasked with something from Princess Celestia herself, that nopony could ever know of.

To her family, she might as well have been dead. And Rose hated every second of it. She longed to tell them, to share her secret with them, and quit hiding behind this mask.

But even she knew what that could unleash. If word got out of who and what Princess Celestia really was, Equestria would be thrown into chaos, and who knew what could happen then.

Rose sometimes wondered if whoever had created the regalia she wore, had known of what it would do to the pony who wore it. She couldn't get an answer from the regalia itself that was for sure.

Nothing in it had ever said of where it came from, who made it, or even if Celestia had ever been a real pony herself. If she had been, had she ever known what would happen to those who bore her name and powers?

Had she even had a choice in the matter? Rose hoped she'd had. She couldn't bring herself to think of Celestia ever being that cruel. But she had been wrong before.

And that brought her mind back to another thing she had begun to notice, as she pulled herself onto her bed and looked down at the collar and shoes she wore.

Maybe it was a side effect of having worn them for so long now, but the regalia had begun to feel more and more like a natural part of her body. Rose didn't know what that could mean, or even if that was normal. She had never thought to ask Velvet about it.

Oh sure, she could take the regalia off fine, and nothing bad had ever happened because of it. But every time she did, it felt like removing a piece of herself. She felt naked without the full ensemble. Even raising and lowering the sun had become more and more natural for Rose.

"Is this normal?" She asked out loud. "Am I supposed to feel like this? It feels right all the same. Did the others ever feel like I do?"

No answer came, but her regalia seemed to glow a bit brighter for a moment, as if in confirmation. Rose rolled her eyes at the thought. It was probably just a trick of the light.

Igniting her horn, she slipped the collar off from around her neck before settling it down on her nightstand, allowing her to be her Pegasus self once more. The shoes she kept on for the moment. Rose liked the sense of height and majesty it gave her.

With a sigh, she stood up once more. Sleep would not come easily to her tonight it seemed. She had too many things on her mind, and her patience was beginning to wear thin on it.

Rose hated having to do it, but if the Canterlot Elite kept up their whining and complaining, then Princess Celestia would put her hoof down, and remind the lot of them who the ruler of Equestria was, and why she allowed them to exist at all.

She giggled at the thought. It almost made her wish they would continue to do so. She hadn't exercised her full powers and put ponies in their proper places yet. Maybe it was time Rose Petal stopped playing nice, and become Princess Celestia more and more.

If she was going to be in this role for a long time, then Cosmos dammit, she would not let her first few years in the role be known as the time she rolled over and listened to a bunch of backward idiots. The thought alone made her giggle like a school filly.

Maybe it was time to set aside Rose Petal and be Princess Celestia.

So I have come to a decision. This will not at all follow what the prequel story did for many things. Twilight Sparkle will eventually learn the truth of course.

But the leadup, and the outcome, will not be the same. This is now an Alternate Universe take on the original story.