Celestia gently stroked her chin, interrupting her wild thoughts.
"But I didn't do anything either..."
Twilight Sparkle looked at Celestia with grievance and self-reproach, tears slowly sliding from the corners of her eyes. It made Celestia's heart ache, but she felt helpless.
"If you think like that, then as your teacher, my responsibility is the greatest."
Celestia never expected that she would only be away from Canterlot for half a day—even if it was a business trip to Ponyville right next door—only to return and find that her eldest apprentice had run away, her second apprentice had shut herself off, and now her youngest apprentice was falling into self-doubt.
At this moment, Princess Celestia looked just like a desperate university counselor.
"Regarding friendship, you still have a lot to learn, and the same goes for those two. This is something I cannot teach you; it is something only friends can teach you."
Celestia gently stroked Twilight Sparkle's mane, and while speaking, she quietly cast a spell on her and Spike that would make ponies fall asleep.
"If you are willing to believe in the bond between you, then what happened today will never be the end of your relationship, but the beginning of a journey for the three of you to become better versions of yourselves in the future."
"Friendship..."
Celestia caught the two little ones as they fell asleep, carried them to the bed, and carefully tucked them in.
Next, it was time to deal with the biggest problem.
In such a short time, the information Celestia had obtained wasn't much more than what Twilight Sparkle had, but relying on her understanding of her three students, she had deduced the general course of events.
Celestia had long been aware of Sunset Shimmer's intentions toward the crystal mirror, but she had tacitly allowed Sunset Shimmer's probing and had ignored the dangerous behavior of the two ponies sneaking into the restricted section.
Just as she had sensed the connection between Twilight Sparkle and the tree of harmony, she also knew that the crystal mirror was Sunset Shimmer's destiny.
However, she only knew of such destiny nodes; before fate arrived, she couldn't be sure how the process would unfold or what consequences it would bring. Therefore, she chose to remain silent, observing the path of destiny as a bystander.
When they had inadvertently discovered the crystal mirror earlier, the reason Celestia chose not to tell them about the mirror was because Sunset Shimmer's temperament at that time still needed tempering—in other words, the time was not yet right.
But in the process of interacting with Aurora, Sunset Shimmer had gradually changed. She had made significant progress in how she treated other ponies; such a pony, who had been full of thorns, would now show her gentleness and patience when facing other ponies.
This made Celestia feel that Sunset Shimmer was ready to welcome her moment.
It was just that, looking at it now, this process had not been smooth sailing.
Aurora's emotional breakdown was something Celestia had not anticipated.
This child gave Celestia the feeling of her name: Meteor. It was as if she were a visitor from beyond the sky, having accidentally descended into this world, mysterious and brilliant.
She was a variable that could not be precisely calculated; Celestia could not see a trace of her destiny, but her existence had indeed injected a new vitality into Equestria, and it was precisely under her influence that Sunset Shimmer's personality had undergone a positive change.
And she, too, had undergone some changes in the process of interacting with The foals.
Celestia didn't know the full story, but since something had happened that could cause the extremely rational Aurora to have an emotional breakdown, it meant that before Sunset Shimmer left for the Human World, the two of them had erupted into an argument due to some misunderstandings, casting a shadow of rupture over this farewell.
This was a conflict that inevitably occurred when rational personalities dealt with emotional issues. The rational party's desire for control would make the emotional party feel slighted, while the emotional party's sense of entitlement would make the rational party think the other was being unreasonable.
Regarding this, Celestia was also powerless. After all, if she could handle such things, Princess Luna wouldn't have had to go to the moon in the first place.
As of now, these were only Celestia's speculations; she needed to listen to Aurora's troubles before she could offer her advice.
At this moment, the rain had stopped. Floating in the air, Celestia gazed at The House of Academic Studies in the distance, waiting quietly.
After seeing the lights inside turn on, she descended to the doorway and gently rang the doorbell.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"