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Illusion of Choice · FiM Minific ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 400–750
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Why Don't You Tell Them?
“Why don’t you tell them?” Twilight asked quietly, looking though the steam coming off her tea at Princess Celestia.

“Tell them what?”

Twilight sighed, setting down her cup with a quiet clink on the tray. “This morning, while I was out walking around Canterlot, a filly walked up to me and asked what she had to do to have you make her into a princess?”

“And what did you tell her?” Celestia asked, smiling a little smile.

“I told her that it was really tough, and that you needed to spend a lot of time studying, and making friends, and showing leadership, and trying new things.”

“That sounds like a very reasonable answer,” Celestia said, lifting her tea in her magic and taking a quiet sip.

“That’s not it. She thinks you made me into a princess!” Twilight pointed her hoof across the table accusingly.

“Well, I did, technically speaking.” Another sip.

Twilight sighed again. “You know what she meant.”

Celestia’s cup floated back down to the tray. “I do.”

“So, why don’t you tell them?”

“Who says I haven’t?” Celestia smiled enigmatically.

“Please.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’ve read the papers.” Twilight’s horn glowed as several folded up newspapers floated up and fell onto the table with a quiet thump before she began to read out loud.

“Twilight Sparkle Earns Her Wings.” Twilight cleared her throat. “Yesterday evening, Princess Celestia elevated a fourth pony to the status of princess, bestowing her student and protegee, Twilight Sparkle, savior of Equestria, with wings.”

Twilight flipped to another paper. “This is the second time in ten years that Princess Celestia has raised one of her subjects to alicorn status, after Princess Cadance earned her horn after defeating Lady Prisma.”

Twilight slid that one to the side, revealing a third. “‘Why hasn’t she made any of us into alicorns?’ wondered one high-ranking noble, on the condition of anonymity.”

“Oh, Blueblood." Celestia chuckled.

Twilight let the newspaper fall out of her magic before setting her hoof on top of it. “Everypony thinks you made me into an alicorn!”

Celestia rose from her cushion and walked towards her balcony. “I know.”

“So why don’t you tell them?” Twilight asked, tilting her head as she rose from her own cushion to join the larger alicorn, hooking her hooves over the edge of the railing.

“We did, once,” Celestia said quietly, gazing down on the city streets, ponies casting long shadows over the cobblestones as the sun sank towards the horizon.

“Really? When?”

“It was a long time ago. Luna and I had just ascended to alicornhood – the first ponies ever to do so, to the best of my knowledge.” She chuckled quietly. “Of course, the idea of the alicorn was ancient, so perhaps there was another, long ago. But if so, they left no record of their presence.”

“So why did you stop?”

Celestia’s eyes followed a family – two foals, a pair of older ponies, and a weak-kneed grandfather as the slowly walked down the street far below. “How many ponies can become alicorns, Twilight?”

“Well, you need to discover a new source of magic, right? So, I suppose as many as there are sources of magic.” Twilight blinked. “Are you worried that we’ll run out of magic?”

Celestia shook her head. “Tell me, Twilight: how many alicorns did my knowledge – and the knowledge of my sister – ever create, in all the decades we shared it?”

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it, licking her lips. “I’ve never met one,” she said cautiously.

“That is because there were none. For decades they tried – and for decades, they failed. As far as most ponies were concerned, it was a false choice. And so, they chose not to believe they were capable of it.” Celestia waved her hoof over the edge of the balcony. “Nopony wants to lie on their deathbed and know the only reason their last breath escapes is that they weren’t good enough. Or worse, than their loved one only died because they were a failure.”

“So you just lie to them?”

“I simply let them believe what they wish, and let those who would aspire to eternity do it on their own, though perhaps with a slight nudge here and there to guide them.” Celestia smiled at Twilight.

The younger alicorn rested her chin on her hooves, looking down at the city. “It doesn’t feel good enough.”

“What would you do differently?”

Twilight looked away. “I don’t know.”
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