Twilight Sparkle scraped her hooves against the cobblestone. The tallest tower of the Canterlot Royal palace had to be some, what... five hundred feet up in the air? Normally, Twilight would have been able to recite the exact height of the Palace and all its dimensions, but she was rather... preoccupied currently.

Looking out from the top of the tower, all of Canterlot was basked in a late afternoon glow. It was rather beautiful, and despite how many times she had seen it before, Twilight enjoyed every moment of it.

She sighed, and closed her eyes.

***

“Mom, dad!” The little lavender filly was bouncing around excitedly in the partially destroyed schoolroom. “I got it! I’m gonna be Celestia’s personal student!”

The two adult ponies glanced at each other, and began to laugh. This truly was a great day. Celestia joined in with a few chuckles shortly after, and the small freshly hatched dragon blinked in the rubble that a larger version of him had created just moments before.

***

“Oh, so you think you’re better than us?” Twilight was backed into a corner by a small group of four other fillies. “Just because you're the princess’s ‘special student’?”

“No, I don-”

“You’re not better than any of us just because you can do a few fancy tricks!” The leader, a pale yellow mare with a blue mane done up in a bun at the back, spat. “You’re just a creep.”

“A weirdo,” a pink filly with a blonde loose mane commented with a snicker. Twilight curled into a ball, a tear falling down her cheek.

“Aw, you gonna cry now?” The leader laughed, and her little posse followed suit. “C’mon girls, this little weirdo nearly ruined the school. Watch out, she might cast a GROWTH spell on you!”

Twilight sobbed harder, but not by much. She did her best to keep it under her breath.

***

“The way they treat you is unacceptable!” Her mother put down a plate of breakfast before her, Twilight sighing as she pushed the daisy’s around telecentically. “How long has this been going on? A month? Two?”

“Since the beginning of first semester,” Twilight mumbled.

Her mother’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Twilight, that was nearly two years ago! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Because you would have made it worse!” Twilight gave her mom a forlorn gaze. “And besides, I know you’ve been in a fragile state since Shining left for the guard...”

Her mother chuckled nervously. “Fragile state? Who’s in a fragile state?”

Twilight stared at her mother stoniley for a moment, before the older mare broke down and hugged her daughter. “I’m sorry... it’s just that the Royal Guard is such a dangerous job... what if your brother never comes home?”

“We’ve been over this so many times,” Twilight whispered, almost bored. “At least he’s not actually in the army. The only time he’ll ever see any battle action is if someone attacks Celestia or Canterlot outright.”

“I know...” Her mother sniffed, drying her eyes with a hoof. “But nevertheless, these last eighteen months have been so hard on me...”

“He sends a letter every month.”

“But one month he didn’t!”

“That’s because it got lost in the post!”

Her mother smiled weakly, and Twilight attempted to smile back. “I suppose you’re right... but can you blame me?”

Twilight’s eye twitched slightly. “I suppose not.”

***

“There you are, Twilight! Moondancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?”

Twilight looked over at Twinkleshine, a fellow unicorn. Her light pink mane blew a bit in the breeze.

She was on the precipice of an important breakthrough! Besides, Twinkleshine had never really been there for her...

No, today was not a day to be bothered on any account.

“Oh, so sorry girls... I’ve got a lot of studying to catch up on.”

***

The pink pony gasped as loud as she could, and bolted away. Twilight gave the retreating equine a confused look, but thought nothing more of it.

Later, though it ended up that she was hosting a party for Twilight. And it didn't stop there. Party after party, smile after smile, laugh after laugh.

***

“So, what can I do you for?” The orange freckled pony asked inquisitively.

Spike snickered in the background, but Twilight ignored this.

Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat, and promptly responded to the pony before her. “Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.” She paused to take a breath before starting up again. “And you're in charge of the food?”

“We sure as sugar are! Would you care to sample some?”

“As long as it doesn't take too long...”

Applejack jumped over to an old rusty triangle and clanged it as loud as she could before hollering “Soup's on, everypony!”

***

Nightmare Moon cackled over the defeated form of Twilight Sparkle.

“You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!” Her evil laugh resonated through the entire palace ruins, chilling Twilight to the bone.

The commotion of all five other ponies talking over another reached Twilight’s ears, and in that moment a spark lit up in her eyes.

With an excited gasp, Twilight turned to Nightmare Moon with a smug grin on her face. “You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here.”

***

“Really, darling, you could use a spa treatment!” Rarity said, looking over Twilight with a slight look of disgust on her face. “I mean, honestly, and you say you’re from Canterlot...”

Twilight giggled. “Rarity, it’s fine! I was never one for spas anyway...”

“Oh, but I simply must, my dear! It would be rude for me to ignore somepony so obviously in need! Come on, it shall be my treat!”

Twilight sighed, giving in. “Well, I don’t see the harm in it...”

***

Twilight Sparkle cringed as a blue-and-rainbow blur sped past. Levitating up the watch before her, she yelled down to where the rainbow blur had gone. “That’s exactly 2.2 seconds faster than last time, Rainbow!”

The pegasus flew back up to the unicorn, smiling all the way. “Hah! I knew I had it in me, I’m only the awesomest flyer in all of Equestria!” Rainbow Dash landed next to Twilight, patting her on the back. “Thanks for timing me, I can’t ever got the watch to work! For some reason, everytime I try to use it, they stop.”

Twilight blinked, confused, then grinned. “Well, it was my pleasure to help!”

***

Twilight knocked her purple hoof across the cottage door, and a pink-maned pegasus poked her head out.

“Who is it? Oh! Hello, Twilight,” Fluttershy said with a shy smile. “What brings you over?”

Twilight turned around to show a very ill looking Owlowiscious lying limply on his side, cradled on the unicorn’s back His feathers were molting, his beak was covered in a dull yellow gunk, and his eyes were barely open.

“I’ve been pouring over my medicinal textbooks, but I can’t find anything in them to help him!” Twilight’s eyes darted around, her discomfort and worry painfully obvious.

Fluttershy immediately shot out of her house and scooped the sick bird up in her hooves. “Oh, don’t worry Twilight! I’ll make sure poor little Owlowiscious gets better right away!”

Twilight smiled a smile that conveyed genuine thanks to the pony before her. Fluttershy smiled shyly back, before disappearing into her cottage.

***

“I’m sorry,” Princess Celestia told her student. “But with your new duties as a Princess, you won’t be able to spend very much time with your friends from Ponyville.”

Twilight’s expression fell, her gaze on the ground. Celestia trotted over to her, a large white wing wrapping around the newly Alicorned pony.

“Now, I know it’s hard, but you’ll still get time with them.”

“It’s not that...” Twilight looked over at her teacher. “I’ve got all the baggage of an alicorn now, correct?”

“Well, yes.”

Twilight continued to gaze piercingly at her mentor. “And that includes immortality, correct?”

Celestia opened her mouth, but closed it again as soon as she recognized where her student was going with this.

Twilight dropped her gaze back to the floor.

***

A small tear fell from the corner of Twilight’s eyes. She nearly lost her hoofing, but the large purple wings on her back spread out and balanced her, almost automatically.

She looked down at the ground so far below, then glanced back at her wings. She was being pulled away from her friends because of those... abominations on her back.

With a final shuddering gasp, Twilight leaned forward and plummeted headfirst off the side of the tower, the wind whizzing past her exhilaratingly.

Princess Celestia inhaled deeply, and concentrated on slowly guiding the sun down below the horizon, aiding its gravitational descent through space. Her mind tended to wander during this period of the day, and right now was no different.

Much was on the solar controller’s mind. The current rebuilding of the Griffon Kingdom, the troops hunting down any Changeling remnants, and of course, the current dilemma of Twilight’s new powers.

The soft clop of a guard approaching nearly startled Celestia, but she had spared a glance over to the entrance just at the right time. The guard, however, was not expecting the princess to be looking over in his direction, and stumbled a bit when he saw her gazing at him.

“Yes, what’s on your mind?” The princess addressed the guard.

“Um, well...” The guard looked somewhat confused. “It’s Princess Sparkle...”

“What about her? I sent her up to the tallest tower to have some time alone with her mind, I figured she’d need it with all the chaos going around.”

“That’s just it,” the guard said rather lamely. “She’s jumped.”

Celestia stared at the stallion before her, unable to understand what he had said. All at once, her mind clicked, going into overdrive. She leapt from her stance, and bolted out the room, galloping as fast as she could to reach Twilight.

Twilight fell, reaching speeds faster then most she had ever experienced. The ground was growing ever closer, her speeds ever increasing. She wondered how long it would be until she hit terminal velocity. Would she even get that fast before the ground rushed up to meet her?

Even in the wake of Discord’s destruction, she had been reminded of all the good times with her friends, the power of the friendships she had made.

Twilight felt a small sinking in her stomach as her speed stabilized. She knew she had hit as fast as she was going. The ground would become her partner in a matter of moments.

They stood by you at the wedding, at the Crystal Empire, and all the times in between. Is this your penance to them? Is this how you repay them?

“No,” Twilight whispered aloud. Her wings shot out, catching the wind beneath them. She pulled out of the free fall in a magnificent swoop, her hooves almost touching the ground as she pulled herself upright. Her velocity brought her to the gardens, where her novice flight skills allowed her to tumble into the ground, flopping around in a mass of purple fur and feathers.

Twilight lay there, not knowing how much time passed between her fall and the arrival of the other. All she knew was that when Celestia alighted her side, she felt herself perk up a bit.

“Twilight! My student! Are you-”

“I’m not okay,” Twilight said, staring into the grass. “I promise.”

Compared to you, there’s not much time left. But won’t that make it all the sweeter?

The two shared a silence for a few moments before the former unicorn broke it once more. “But you know? I think I will be.”

Twilight flipped around, laying on her back, her wings out in odd angles. She was staring back up at Celestia’s regal white body.

Twilight Sparkle's face broke out into a smile.