Didn't Twilight think this way with the whole magic kindergarten? I'm not sure that Sunset did this to herself, even if it wasn't something Celestia did the people around her could be the cause.
I think it is a mix of causes.
Highly intelligent, motivated and ambitious ponies with no peers, + immortal possibly divine mentor who probably struggles relating to other people as anything but babies, + society that treats the said mentor as infallible and perfect, + desire to prove themselves worthy, + feeling you are not (because how could you be?)...
It all adds up.
With Twilight, Celestia seemingly learned to be more, forceful, with the whole "learn friendship" thing, and even then it seems to have required either precog level foresight, or insane amounts of luck, or both.
Sunset overthinking everything as usual! Love to see it! Let us hope this goes better than...well the whole thing up to this point I guess? Can´t be lower than rock-bottom...right?
I've been tearing up over here cuz I'm having flashbacks to my undiagnosed ND AUDHD childhood.
My brains see's SS as ND af, trying to interact with a beloved (yet still resented) NT authority figure, and world, without enough explanations for things. Having to figure it out on her own, thru trial and error, after error, after error and came up with perfectly logical reasonings given what information she is provided.
And I mean alllll the information, especially all the unconscious messages. Body language, tonal messaging, mask operation and use, etc., without proper context.
No wonder the Trespasser was so much easier to talk to. Word choice has exact and specific meaning! They actively attempt to establish what exceptions may cause a difference in response... And they don't just leave things open to interpretation.
Amazing.
It should be noted that not properly showing she cares about her loved ones es a pretty major contributor to Lunas issues, as well as twilight later on. And it was a running issue for twilight too, not just in the first episode. Celestia being bad at this is a very Canon supported take.
Though being a particularly powerful unicorn and being particularly bad at social interaction is also a theme with sunset, twilight and starlight.
As a reference for how easy writing for this currently is: the next chapter is ready, but as I am a horrible person, I'll restrain myself to daily updates at the fastest.
(It'll probably slow down over the weekend, though. I have a 20-minute presentation on Monday + exams on Monday and Wednesday.)
"The results of realizing that her personal student resorted to a life-threatening ritual that summoned a terrifyingly powerful primordial monster into the world in the belief that it would please her after she made harsh judgments and rash decisions based on a misunderstanding of the situation, and indeed, that she has been making errors of judgment almost since she met you."
My expression did not become any less baffled. I'd expected Her to say something along the lines of, 'quality entertainment,' not an attempt at a helpful response.
I admit it's kinda frustrating that nobody has just point-blank told SS that she's deeply misunderstanding the situation? Like, Celestia is apologizing now and making some amendments, but she's not actually clarifying anything. That comment about everything being a test? Keep the apology sure, because the Queen definitely did have the position of authority...but at least make it clear that SS has also been deeply and constantly misunderstanding things too.
To be fair, it isn't just Sunset that thinks of almost everything as a test after being under Celestia's tutelage, just look at Twilight and her neuroses...
To be fair, it isn't just Sunset that thinks of almost everything as a test after being under Celestia's tutelage, just look at Twilight and her neuroses...
If two of the children you adopted early in life, with a fair bit of time between them, turn into workaholics, both have a degree of superiority complex and issues with never being good enough...it isn't the children that is the problem.
If two of the children you adopted early in life, with a fair bit of time between them, turn into workaholics, both have a degree of superiority complex and issues with never being good enough...it isn't the children that is the problem.
Luna has a similar inferiority complex problems and I suspect that the reasons for it became even more pronounced after Celestia gained a thousand years more experienced than her. I really understand fanfiction that have Luna just leave for some other world.
If two of the children you adopted early in life, with a fair bit of time between them, turn into workaholics, both have a degree of superiority complex and issues with never being good enough...it isn't the children that is the problem.
I admit it's kinda frustrating that nobody has just point-blank told SS that she's deeply misunderstanding the situation? Like, Celestia is apologizing now and making some amendments, but she's not actually clarifying anything. That comment about everything being a test? Keep the apology sure, because the Queen definitely did have the position of authority...but at least make it clear that SS has also been deeply and constantly misunderstanding things too.
SS seems to run almost half her worldview on assumptions, and it most definitely proves the idiom true. She's an ass, and the sooner she gets whacked with a clue-by-four the better. Especially since she's arrogant and demeaning enough that it'll probably take some time to actually sink in.
At this point in the story, I'd say the only being around that SS respects enough to take at mostly face-value regarding herself is the Voice...and they certainly aren't going to be fixing this comedy of errors themselves.
No, I expect the Voice is perfectly happy to tell Sunset what she's missing once Sunset manages to ask the question. The trick is for Sunset to manage to ask the question. The problem with Sunset is that she has a mental image of the world and especially Celestia, and she interprets everything in light of that. She's terrible at understanding what Celestia is saying, she hates Cadence, and she doesn't respect anyone else.
Take Friendship literally being Magic: it would take a lot of work for Celestia to make Sunset understand that you literally need friends to power it. Part of the problem is that Sunset will say "Oh, you need friends to power it," and figure that Celestia means you need a team of five other equals you're really good at working with in order to power it. And even that will be hard for Celestia to explain, given that she only has the example of her and Luna to work with -- two Alicorns.
Celestia has tried to explain how important friendship is to ponies, and yet Sunset just sort of rationalizes it away in such a way as to make it so that Sunset herself doesn't actually need to engage with it or change her behavior.
I never knew how much I needed this fic until I started reading! Love the charters and the drama and the snark. Eager for more confused mother-daughter bonding while a ceiling Celestia Voice is watching.
Munching popcorn in anticipation!
Celestia has tried to explain how important friendship is to ponies, and yet Sunset just sort of rationalizes it away in such a way as to make it so that Sunset herself doesn't actually need to engage with it or change her behavior.
What were Sunset's odds given all the precautions she took? We were told that doing the ritual at all in Equestria improved her odds from 11.1% to 50% chance of success (only 16.7% to get an actually reasonably friendly Outsider though) but I'm curious as to how much using her own blood and timing it for the anniversary of Luna's banishment improved her chances.
could only find blatant propaganda about the 'unstoppable magic of friendship.' Obviously ponies did better when they had a support network to rely on; that went without saying.
Oof, so close and yet so far. Still did better than Twilight though, she didn't seem to catch that at all even though she had actual near-peer study buddies!
On a somewhat related note, Twilight's probably coming into the picture within a couple years, possibly sooner. That's gonna be FUN for Sunset.
As I'd suspected, agreeing seemed to be the right answer.
[...] (Celestia tries to explain it isn't a test) [...]
What was I supposed to say to that?
[...]
It was the right thing to say
Celestia's really bad at this, and you have Sunset's "everything Celestia asks of me is a test" mentality done really well here. She seems to have it even worse than canon Twilight!
Right, Sunset was a Ward of the State when she was in the orphanage and remained a Ward of the State while living in the castle, no real change there! Twilight probably saw her parents at least once a month or so, maybe even as often as most weekends! Or at least, they saw her, she might not have looked up from the book she was studying for her next test.
The next several minutes were wasted on little more than a confused jumble of thoughts and self-recrimination. I'd previously resolved to let Celestia pursue whatever moods struck her, and then lashed out within mere minutes. Now she was all-but guaranteed to avoid me for at least a few days, probably longer, and it was all my own foalish fault. All I'd had to do was weather with a fake smile what she claimed she hadn't intended to be a test for once, and she would have been happy to spend the rest of today teaching me. Now her mood would be tainted by my outburst, and tonight might be the only 'time she could spare' for weeks.
Apparently, Voice did not find my brooding to be sufficiently entertaining.
"To start off, you should know that becoming an alicorn is not going to be immediate, even with me helping," She began unceremoniously, leaving me mentally scrambling as I adapted to being spoken to out of the blue. "In many cases, I will recommend preparatory actions that will support your position once you are an alicorn. Additionally, ascension to alicornhood is a process that effectively changes its requirements should a given pony know about the original criteria. This is one of the primary reasons that Princess Celestia refused to tell you about them, and although I disagree with her execution — you resorting to Outsiders really does say a great many unkind things about said methods — I do support her underlying reasoning."
I faintly frowned as this new information wriggled its way into my worldview. Voice was absolutely right; Her words did make a horrible sort of sense, and at the same time, Celestia's methods were awful. Would it have killed her to tell me that she couldn't properly explain without jeopardizing the process? Saying that she couldn't tell me just wasn't enough, not when Cadance was around to reveal that as a lie.
Ignorance also explained how even weak-willed Cadance had managed to avoid crumpling any of the times I'd tried to pressure her into telling me how she'd ascended. Her half-incoherent story about a love-stealing witch certainly wasn't the most important part; concentrated love could provide a magical catalyst, certainly, but it wasn't enough on its own. I'd checked with similar concentrations of stockpiled magic.
"However," Voice stressed. "I can say that one requirement is related to your 'Special Talent–' and have I mentioned how wonderful it is that you ponies have that included as part of your magical physiology? Because it is simply adorable. Absolute cutest and most benevolent piece of specialization-enforcing magic I have ever seen."
"Considering their physical manifestation is called 'Cutie Marks,' I suspect someone might have agreed with you," I said, fighting back the urge to tell Her to hurry up.
It was a good thing I kept my mouth shut, because She got to the point a moment later. Rushing Her would only have induced alienation and slowed the lesson further.
"At any rate, you already fulfilled that part of the criteria via the very ritual that summoned me. The other requirements were not fulfilled, and under ordinary circumstances, every step would need to be completed at the same time. Luckily for you, I was able to 'affix' the feat so that you can complete the other requirements whenever, rather than needing to complete every prerequisite all at once."
My nostrils flared as I resisted the urge to growl.
"That would be a lot easier if I knew what they were."
"It absolutely would not," Voice disagreed. "Refer to previous about the requirements changing to be more difficult if you know about them. I would be surprised if Celestia hadn't tried to tell other ponies how she ascended, and as you can see by the lack of other alicorns, informing others hasn't exactly worked out for her."
I huffed and dropped the point. Voice had already told me more than Celestia, I would give Her that, and She had to know that I was smart enough to extrapolate.
For that matter, what She did say turned out to be more than expected. "Related to your Special Talent," while the ritual had been the single most involved piece of magecraft I had ever performed. Logically, then, ascension would require that a pony manage a feat nearing the pinnacle of what their Special Talent could possibly accomplish, or at least something exceptionally impressive.
Perhaps most importantly of all, telling me this much finally answered why Cadance had been able to become an alicorn. If her special talent was 'love' or matchmaking or something, she had probably just gotten lucky enough to fulfill these mysterious criteria while foiling the witch, restoring emotions to the ponies they were stolen from, and coincidentally assisting with 'True Love.' Pony populations were certainly much higher than they were a thousand years ago; it stood to reason that somepony would eventually stumble over the requirements through sheer chance, even if all of them had to be fulfilled at once.
"Did you know you always assume the same scowl when you're thinking about Princess Cadance?" Voice asked, breaking me out of my fuming.
"I do not!" I reflexively denied.
"You do," Voice confirmed. "I would, quite frankly, classify your relationship with her as a problem. Not for any reasons of empathy, which I'm sure Princess Celestia has told to you at length only for you to find those reasons insufficient."
I nodded, still seething. I wasn't going to be nice to the pony who'd stolen my spot. Frankly, my life would have been much better if she'd never forced her way into it. Celestia would still have expected me to meet high standards, I was sure, but at least she would have been around to help me with those rather than expecting so much self-study. Or, worse still, group lessons at her School for Gifted Unicorns. When those instructors proved themselves incapable of containing the products of my spells, they only confirmed that they didn't deserve to be my instructors at all.
"Ignore ascension for a moment," Voice ordered, casually demanding the impossible and expecting me to bend like reality so often did for Her. "Thanks to my assistance alone, you are already guaranteed to be sharing at least a few thousand years with Cadance. Believe me, no matter what you think of her, immortality does strange things to people. Competence is a matter of time."
"Cadance," I said flatly.
"'Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,'" Voice agreed, perfectly imitating the last time I'd said Cadance's full name.
The mockery inherent to my last use of Cadance's full name did somewhat dampen my anger. Only somewhat, though. Every time ascension ever came up, Cadance was there, taunting me without even trying.
"…Did Celestia put you up to this?"
This much was enough to earn another giggle in Celestia's voice.
"No. I bring this up because I know you are going to require convincing to agree to my next proposal, and even more to take it seriously. You are offended by what you perceive as Cadance's incompetence, correct?"
"And her absolute refusal to correct it," I agreed. "She would rather bury her muzzle in a romance book than a foal's primer on the magic she remains terrible at. So even if 'competence is a matter of time,' which I'm still not convinced of, it's going to take a long time in her case."
"I understand."
Do you? I wanted to demand. You are, by our standards, an absurdly powerful Outsider. You were born with more power than possibly an entire city of ponies combined.
Then again, there was that comment about being buried at the bottom of a dark pit for a few centuries. If She considered that to be an annoying detour that she went along with solely for the sake of a 'payoff,' it would definitely be best for me to assume that She really did have Her own share of experience and hard work to back up Her claims.
"However," Voice continued, "I would like to note that Cadance's environment has proven actively hostile to self-improvement. She has to catch up on a great deal that you already know. As she is a beginner at an age where experience is expected, her early steps are liable to be the subject of relentless mockery. Princess Celestia is one of the few tutors who would not subject her to negative feedback in response to self-improvement, and Celestia is obviously overworking herself to avoid thinking about painful mistakes."
Wait, what?
I could have hit myself. Fleeing from her problems would explain so much about Celestia; despite all her vaunted wisdom, it seemed she still fell into the same traps as so many other ponies. Still, if she really was overworking herself on purpose, that only made me more furious at how she never had time for me. I didn't care if it had simply turned into ingrained habits at this point. She should know better.
"Cadance has had more than enough time with Celestia to remedy that," I said bitterly.
"Any time Princess Cadance spends with Celestia would be split among multiple subjects, and in many cases, likely the art of pretending to be competent rather than true proficiency."
I'd had enough. Frankly, I didn't care if it might be harder for Cadance to catch up than it had been for me to learn in the first place. Celestia treated her as though she'd already earned far more than me simply because she was an alicorn.
"Are you trying to get me to forgive Cadance's incompetence and ignorance?" I demanded. "Because that's not going to work."
Celestia would have dithered about for another ten minutes rather than say 'yes,' including a lecture on not being rude to your teachers. Voice jumped straight to the point.
"I am trying to get you to understand it as a precursor to encouraging you to tutor her in unicorn magic."
I stared blankly at her. Anything I could possibly say to that was far too rude to be pointed at a powerful Outsider, prior benevolence or not. Celestia had originally tried to get me to teach her, and the resulting explosive argument had convinced all parties involved that it was not worth the trouble of trying.
Eventually, I settled on a safe, "I am not convinced, and feel very underwhelmed."
Voice once again borrowed Celestia's giggle. I suddenly had to wonder if that was the only example she had to work with. It wasn't as though I giggled very often at all, and Voice's idea of pony-watching was apparently 'watch Sunset sleep.'
"Tutoring Princess Cadance, if you can refrain from making the experience miserable for her, is the sort of formative experience that she would remember for centuries. Every time she cast a spell, she would remember that you taught her what she needed to do so. It is the ideal method of mending bridges between you two and instilling lingering gratitude at the same time. You are both immortal. Some minor efforts on your part now will reap benefits in the coming millennia, provided that you can avoid ruining your efforts via a subsequent return to hostility."
I didn't know what was worse: that Voice actually had a pretty good point, or that I couldn't think of any counterarguments that didn't make me sound like a petty brat. Having a good point didn't make me want to do it any more, though.
"Also," Voice added, "I would like to teach you some magics I can guarantee you do not know and for which the criteria would be fulfilled by this. The Chain of Knowledge is a school of magic that requires teaching lower-level magics to a peer before you are magically eligible to use the higher levels. You don't need to go as far as an apprenticeship, but I can already say that whatever you have done to date is not enough to fulfill the criteria. Successfully teaching Cadance would be."
I gave up on trying to conjure a counterargument and tried to scowl at the Outsider. It was far harder than it normally was. I'd known She would help me with my ascension, but that apparently meant teaching me exotic magics, too? I had no intention of complaining about that. Otherworldly knowledge was one of the primary benefits ponies tried to bargain for, and Voice would be providing it as a side effect.
"You could have led with that," I halfheartedly groused.
"You would still spend half of every lesson sniping at her if I had," Voice disagreed. "You would fulfill the magical requirements, and completely miss out on the opportunity to make her grateful as well."
My nostrils flared. Again, she was right. Damn it. At least she was a much better teacher than Celestia, providing logical reasons rather than 'it's the right thing to do!' Still, actually helping Cadance? The last time I'd been left alone with her, I had suffered a humiliating elemental discharge from sheer hatred and anger.
…Which, come to think of it, was probably yet another reason that Voice was pushing this asinine plan rather than just having me become a temporary teacher at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Possibly the primary reason even if She hadn't brought it up. Emotions had powerful effects on magic, and negative emotions strong enough to make me lose control, albeit with compounding factors, were a major weakness.
"Fine," I sighed, dismay still losing the fight against the prospect of learning novel magics. "I'll try, at least. If she isn't willing to learn, though, I'm not wasting my life on trying to cure her laziness."
"The first few lessons are effectively guaranteed to be slow, as she will be more focused on protecting herself from expected attacks than on actually learning," Voice cautioned. "Demonstrate that you are now safe to be around, and I expect you will be pleasantly surprised. Not to the point of matching someone with a Talent for magic such as yourself, but still better than you are fearing."
Definitely not. If nothing else, at least the inevitable failure of this plan would finally make Voice share my opinion of Cadance's work ethic. Maybe my opinions of Cadance in general, too — although that might be a bit much to expect from an alien Outsider.
...Okay, for that matter, I suddenly hoped it was too much. Voice feeling hatred for anypony could rapidly become problematic. I hated Cadance and wished Celestia had never found her, but I didn't want her dead. That Voice shared a modern pony's aversion to "extinguishing stories" was only a small comfort in that regard.
"You're doing your Cadance scowl again."
Oh, come on! I was actually concerned for her well-being this time!
"Considering the subject of our conversation, I think I'm allowed to!"
Over the next several minutes of silence, it did gradually occur to me that Celestia would probably be thrilled to hear that I was willing to try tutoring Cadance. I wasn't sure that I should actually try to bring it up, though. Doing so might provide short-term benefits and alleviate the damage from my snapping at her, but when Cadance inevitably refused to take her studies seriously and drove me away again, I would be the one to take the blame. No, it was probably better to just go directly to Cadance.
Roughly twenty or thirty minutes after Celestia first departed, a brief knock sounded at the door, but I didn't bother telling the pony outside to come in. They wouldn't be able to hear me on the other side of the wards, and I was certain that they would open the door momentarily no matter who it was.
Sure enough, the door swung open some ten seconds later. For a moment, I thought that the pegasus-sized white form in the doorway had to belong to a nurse. The next moment, I noticed the nine boxes she carried — three on her back, and three on each wing — and assumed that Celestia had been called away after all. That she had decided to send food and an apology via messenger, once again placing other ponies above me even after she'd promised me lessons on my new magic.
That flash of disappointment died when I noticed the pink mane of the 'messenger,' combined it with a Cutie Mark of a sun peeking out from behind black clouds, and connected the dots. Admittedly, I only connected them because of the way reality had blurred a few days ago and made Celestia appear pink, but it still fit.
"Princess?" I incredulously burst out.
The pegasus giggled, a light little tinkling that was far different than Celestia's and momentarily made me doubt my own suspicion.
"Correct. Hello, Sunset! How do you like Spring Hail?" Celestia asked — playfully?
The disguised princess performed a quick, bouncy circle turn without dropping or even especially jostling any of her cargo. The already impressive feat was made even moreso by its seemingly weightless nature. When a pony temporarily transformed into another being, they either needed to convert magic into false mass, shunt it elsewhere, compress, or expand. This requirement was one of the primary reasons that, say, sensible unicorn mares never tried to turn into earth pony stallions. Barring a level of magical expenditure beyond most ponies, we would become weaker by increasing our size, not stronger. Similarly, unicorns trying to transform themselves into alicorns would lack any tribal magic that they had not already been born with; their wings would be vestigial, and their hooves utterly devoid of the gifts granted to earth ponies.
Either Celestia was using pegasus magic to effectively reduce her compressed weight and make her appear as light as a normal pegasus, or unicorn magic to manage a perfect transformation. Either way, it was an incredible feat of magical expertise presumably performed on the fly. This, despite all the grief she caused me, was one of the main reasons that I had never tried to look for another teacher. Celestia seldom ever felt the need to show off even a small fraction of what she could do; she accomplished marvels of magic as easily as other ponies breathed, and almost as casually.
"I thought Spring might help me get into the right mindset for our lesson," Celestia said cheerfully, "and I found her to be quite helpful in helping me avoid being mobbed."
The pegasus-shaped princess nudged the door shut with one hoof, once again without jostling her cargo. If somepony had told me that Spring Hail was a mailmare entrusted with fragile, important packages, I would have believed them.
I tried to to find something familiar in Princess Celestia's body language, tone, anything. Beyond the easily-dismissed similarities in appearance, there was nothing. Princess Celestia was all calm, serene grace, the unattainable standard by which most unicorns, and a great many other ponies, defined beauty. This pegasus form of hers displayed none of that. There was undeniable skill and confidence in her movements, but it was the casual fitness of a high-level athlete or physically active showmare.
"What do you think?" Celestia asked, trotting toward me as she started to slide the various bakery boxes atop the cushions surrounding my bed.
One package, with an effortless flick of a wing, even arced directly onto the small unoccupied space of Voice's cushion. The Outsider seemed to be as impressed as I was. If nothing else, I didn't think I'd ever seen her quite so happy, the fake mare stretching her lips as far as they would go without her outright breaking pony anatomy. It was a strange expression to see on my own features, made moreso because she couldn't have imitated me to manage it.
I barely needed to think about my answer. Which was good, because I could barely think at all, still stunned by Celestia's appearance.
"If you're trying to break my brain," I told Spring Celestia seriously, "it's working."
Just—how? This was not one of her extensively rehearsed masks honed by over a thousand years of governing. I couldn't even say this was a similar act. Even Celestia's masks had their cracks, and Spring had none. If I hadn't been given a pile of context clues to help, Spring could have shown up to tutor me for a day and I would have had no idea.
I didn't know what to think of it. If I went solely by the difference in behavior, I would have said her new behavior had to be fake. But Celestia didn't, couldn't, act like this.
Spring giggled once again, the sound remaining consistent with the last time but still different from that of Celestia. Moments later, she seemed to catch sight of my expression and realized that I wasn't joking. The humor soon evaporated over several seconds.
"Would you like for me to change back?" Celestia asked solemnly.
This was more familiar ground, but at the same time, not. She was clearly making a deliberate attempt to assume her normal behavior on a far different pony. That she had to make an effort rather than it being effortless was telling. That the switch wasn't instantaneous and instead took several seconds, even moreso.
It seemed increasingly likely that Celestia was diving so far into her persona that she might as well be Spring for the duration. I had no idea what to think of that. If she'd been doing the same thing with a 'princess' persona, shouldn't her masks have had fewer cracks? Until she'd deliberately dragged herself back out of character, Spring was perfect. But if Celestia could do away with masks altogether, and in so doing, become the perfect pony princess that she wanted everypony to believe she was — why didn't she do that all the time?
"I promise you," Celestia added, "my asking is not a 'test.' It would defeat the purpose if this form makes you uncomfortable."
I barely even needed to consider her offer before shaking my head. If she thought being in the form of a pegasus would help me learn that type of magic, I utterly lacked the necessary experience to disagree. I could get over the cognitive dissonance induced by her appearance and behavior.
"No, it's fine. It was just surprising, that's all."
Celestia nodded, then paused. Now that I was watching for it, I could see the rapid shift in body language as Celestia again submerged herself into the persona of Spring Hail. Calm gave way to enthusiasm, the slow inevitability of ages traded for the barely contained movement of a weather factory. Even watching it happen, the shift didn't become any less bewildering.
"The first thing to keep in mind when dealing with pegasus magic," Spring began, "is that freedom is its natural state of being. I hesitate to say that it wants to do anything, for to do so is to attribute foreign emotions to magic that is yours. It is, however, most easily used to help ponies follow their hearts."
As she spoke, the pegasus neatly pulled a package open with her wings, cut the fruit-filled cake inside into bite-sized pieces, and impaled a piece upon a fork, all within the space of five seconds. Lifting that piece up to the level of my head was done as smoothly as any other motion, and without any pause in Spring's lecture. I was glad that she wasn't making a big deal out of needing to help me eat, but at the same time…
I want to be able to do that.
For once, the thought didn't provoke a stab of jealousy or resentment. I was so often upset in part because Cadance refused to properly make use of the gifts she'd been given. Spring most certainly did with every motion. If Cadance could manage such feats of dexterity and finesse, I would never have gotten on her case about refusing to learn how to eat and write via telekinesis.
"The pegasus legions of pre-Equestria antiquity demonstrated what pegasus magic could do if tempered by discipline and wielded by ponies working in concert. They were the first to break the backs of hurricanes, a feat that ponies had previously decried as completely impossible. Commander Hurricane's name was not mere posturing. That they were eventually overwhelmed by Windigos should not be considered a sign of weakness, but an indicator of just how terrible relations between the tribes had become, and by extension, how much the Windigos had been empowered.
"Whether you choose to focus on personal discipline, freedom, or a combination of the two is a personal decision, but not one that sets your path in stone — an inescapable path, too, goes against the nature of pegasus magic. A combination is often best, I've found. I tended toward freedom in my younger years, and as that type of magic is easier, it is what we will begin with. Your current lack of wings is less of a concern than you might believe; every pony is capable of emitting magic from any part of our bodies, and lacking the crutch of wings may help you establish habits that will help you once you have them."
It took me a moment to realize what Spring had so casually dropped into the middle of her lecture. It was a good thing I wasn't the one holding the fork, because if I had been using my hooves, I might have dropped food straight onto the floor. Though her behavior might be vastly different, this was still Princess Celestia, and she'd just — casually spoken as though my ascension was a certainty. No you aren't ready, no refusal to even help me take steps toward that route, just implicitly agreeing that it was inevitable and acting accordingly.
"Admittedly, we will need to avoid you using your hooves or horn as crutches, but those would be easier to overcome later. As a unicorn, your first instinct will be to send the magic to your horn. Please remember not to manipulate any of your magic until you are recovered. Once you are, we could indeed focus on the inevitable lightning production should you wish to go that route. Mobility, however, will be the focus of our first lessons…"
Forget the princess mask. Why didn't she spend her time like this instead? Spring seemed far more genuine than Celestia ever was.
For all that they are an Eldritch being, voice seems to get Sunset quite well. That said, I have to wonder whether they chose to teach Sunset chain of knowledge for its own benefits or in order to have an excuse to get Sunset to interact with Cadence.
Heavy the Head, Sunset Guilt and the weight of Responsibility is Celestia Sovereign of Equestria.
Spring is Her putting aside all of that becoming for a short time the mare who was worthy of Bearing the elements of Generosity, Kindness, and Magic once.
For all that they are an Eldritch being, voice seems to get Sunset quite well. That said, I have to wonder whether they chose to teach Sunset chain of knowledge for its own benefits or in order to have an excuse to get Sunset to interact with Cadence.
Probably a mix of both, it is significantly likely that part of the magicks she is gonna teach her have something to do with either friendship or harmony, requiring a bond to be even usable
As such she would need to have a bond with Cadence, or at least someone, in order to be able to learn the magicks
That would be in part to help her reach alicornhood, since being in touch with your emotions and having bonds are prerequisite, by teaching her Magicks that need them in order to work she would start looking for such bonds of her own, which is necessary for the process to work
