My Princess
Twilight Sparkle packed her trunk with a heavy heart, placing her books in the bottom. She had been living in the library for so long she'd nearly forgotten that all of the books on the shelf did not belong to her—the few volumes she owned didn't even fill half the trunk. She seemed like a bad student for owning so few books, but then, she wasn't a student any more, was she? "You've learned all you need to learn," Princess Celestia told her a few weeks ago. About magic...and about friendship. "It's time to come home."
Home. Canterlot hadn't been home since she moved out of her parents' house. Even when she came back to visit, she was always happy, even a little relieved, to come back to Ponyville. She thought she would always be there. But her Princess needed her in Canterlot, at the castle.
"Come back to me," Princess Celestia told her. "It's time." Time for what? She hadn't said. Twilight had nervous flutterings in her stomach just thinking about it. Would she be given an important role in the court? Advisor to the Princess maybe, or as a royal wizard, like Starswirl the Bearded? (Before his mysterious disappearance of course.) The Princess always told her she was special, and destined for great things. Why, no one had apprenticed directly under the Princess in recorded history.
She could do anything with magic—anything. She could disappear and reappear at will, anywhere in Equestria. Transfiguration was as simple as levitation, and she could do alchemy in her sleep. She could make a flower grow in dry sand, and she didn't need wings to fly. The only person in Equestria to know more spells than Twilight was Princess Celestia herself.
"Spike!" Twilight called. "Do you have the list?"
"You've got everything, Twilight," Spike called as he climbed the stairs holding her checklist. He was tall and gangly now, not a baby any longer, but as sweet as ever. His phoenix, Piwi, flew after him. He checked off the book titles as she added them to the trunk, and then all of her clothes. She smiled with each carefully folded frock. Rarity had made every one of them. After that came photographs of her friends, all the little keepsakes she had collected over the years. She felt tears begin to prickle in her eyes.
"I don't want to leave them Spike," she said softly, trying to will her voice not to waver.
"I don't either," he said. "But this is what you've always meant to do. This is why you came here in the first place. To learn more so you could go back to the Princess. You're special Twilight."
"I don't feel special," she said, and it was true. She never flaunted her abnormal talents. When she did have to use them in public she was always appropriately humble. And even though she could wink from one end to Equestria to the other, she liked taking the train. At least, that's what she always told herself.
"C'mon," Spike said. "Let's finish packing and get over to Pinkie Pie's. Your going away party is going to be something else."
8888
It was something else, and after the entire town went home the remaining six ponies sat around together with the remnants of the punch and cake. Twilight stretched out on the floor and looked across at Pinkie. She was wearing three party hats and at one point some streamers had been wrapped around her body. Twilight smiled. Pinkie Pie and her parties...she wondered if she could get her up to Canterlot to plan palace parties sometime.
Rarity was dressed to the nines, looking prim and pressed even at the early hours of the morning. "Exquisite punch," she was mumbling in a half-yawn. "Absolutely exquisite." Maybe she'd had a bit too much punch. Twilight grinned at her too.
Every one of her friends was so special to her, and she would miss them so, so much. "I don't know what I'm going to do without you," she said.
"You'll be okay," Applejack said. "You're going to do great out there."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said. "And we'll come visit you."
"Since I've launched my new line, I'm going to be in town a lot. You can put me up in the castle," Rarity said.
Fluttershy blushed when she spoke. "You're the best, Twilight. We're going to miss you, but we're not going to stay apart for very long. We could even come with you, if you wanted, just until you get settled."
"I couldn't ask you guys to do that," Twilight said.
"You don't have to ask, silly," Pinkie insisted. "We're your best friends."
"And that means that even when we're cities apart," Applejack said, "we'll always be with you in your heart."
Twilight knew she was going to cry now. "Oh, you guys are the best friends a pony could have!"
"Oh, Twilight!" Fluttershy said, and before she knew it all five of her friends were pressed around her, giving her a group hug. Her friends were right. She was going to be just fine.