“Stop slouching, dear, I need to put your necklace on.”

Twilight shook herself out of her trance. Her mother placed a hoof under her chin, and gently lifted her up. Twilight’s eyes stayed to the floor.

The Royal Canterlot University had just finished for the semester, and, to celebrate, the committee had organised a company dinner for all high position lecturers and their families to attend. Night Light, a highly regarded member of the board, as well as a respected canterlot elite, was expected to be there – and, much to her dismay, so was his daughter, Twilight Sparkle.

“Your father wants to make a good impression tonight,” Velvet said, clasping the pearl necklace at the back of her daughter’s neck, “Many of the elites will be there, and they’re dieing to hear about this personal pupil of Celestia herself.”

“…Me?”

Velvet sighed, “yes, you.”

“I…” Twilight swallowed, “I-I don’t think I can talk to people…”

“You don’t have to give a speech dear, you just have to hold some conversations.”

“I-I know, but… I mean…Isn’t it a better use of my time t-to be, you know, actually studying…?”

“Networking is important too. You’ve been studying for far too long today anyway, you need to relax.”

“But….”

“But?”

Twilight bit her lip, not meeting her mother’s gaze. Velvet studied her daughter’s face, trying to analyse the situation.

“You’re anxious again.”

Twilight still didn’t look up. Velvet gave out a long, exasperated sigh.

“For goodness sake, dear, you shouldn’t be anxious. You talk to Celestia every single day.”

“That’s different….”

“It’s the same.”

“It’s not…” Twilight finally looked back at her mother, shaking slightly, “What if I say the wrong thing? What if they don’t like me? Or I fumble over my words, or if I make a poorly timed joke, or-”

“You won’t,” Velvet said sternly. “You are the daughter of two Canterlot elites. You won’t mess up, and you won’t ruin anything. The only way you’re going to get past this silly little fear of yours is if you face it head on.”

Twilight broke her gaze, and looked down again. Her throat felt tight, something rising deep in her chest that she couldn’t swallow. She stayed focused on stopping her tears from escaping.

“Are we clear on this?”

She nodded, unable to open her mouth.

“Good. Now, chin up again, dear.”

————————————————————————————————————————————————

A lot of Twilight’s anxiety comes from a fear of failure, and the idea that she has to live up to the expectations of both her parents (who definitely pushed it on her A LOT) and Celestia herself. Though she eventually gets over this fear of social functions/speaking in public/etc (because as we know in canon…she luvs to lecture lol) but that anxiety is ever present and is what drives her to be the hero in most dangerous scenarios.

Velvet isn’t a bad mother… She’s just a bit wrapped up in her own world and doesn’t really know how to handle her children’s emotions or problems. This all kinda changes when Twilight comes out and things do get resolved, but it will always have a lasting effect on twilight’s psyche.

Twilight is a young teen/preteen here and reminds me of 13 yr old baby gay me. i didnt mean to project it just kinda happened hghgdhkbfd