Celestia carried the basket carefully in her aura as she made the journey through the castle to her private bedroom. After the chaos this mornings entrance exam for her unicorn school had caused, she was looking forwards to a nice rest...she had earnt it!
Twilight Sparkle, and the dragon hatchling that the filly named Spike, had caused quite a bit of damage as well as raised a certain amount of panic in the streets. Celestia had to change her entire day to make sure the repair crews we sent to repair the school, and various government offices put the populations mind at rest.
For Twilight Sparkle to hatch the egg, let alone grow the baby dragon into full size beast, was astonishing to say the least. She was looking forwards to teaching that filly, along with another promising student called Sunset Shimmer, and with the thousand year anniversary of her sisters banishment approaching it was about the right time. Currently both filly’s would stay with their parents but Celestia would soon arrange rooms in the castle for both so the real training could begin.
However, there were more immediate concerns. Checking with the sky it was time, Celestia set the sun whilst raising the moon. After all the years she was starting to struggle to control both, the moon seemingly getting ready to rebel against her wishes. With her twice daily duty out of the way for another day. the alicorn needed some down time and the item in the basket was about to get her undivided attention.
One of the nurses had followed Celestia from the nursery where Spike had been taken for the day. When they arrived at her private quarters, Celestia opened the door. The nurse went to follow her ruler into the room when the princess extended a wing to block her path.
“Have all the items I asked for been placed in my room, Ms Nightshine?”
“Yes your highness” the pegasus nurse replied softly.
“Then you are dismissed for the night”
“Are you sure?”
The Princess smiled warmly at the nurse “Have no concern, but if I need any help I will send a guard for you.”
The nurse nodded and walked away. Celestia closed the doors to her private sanctuary, and gently lower the basket onto a stand that had been set up. She stacked her shoes neatly at the door before trotting over to the basket.
The hatchling was awake and Celestia gently picked him up in her aura, and lowered the newborn dragon in the middle of her large bed. The princess lay down on the edge of the bed looking at the whelp sucking on it’s own tail.
“Well, this was unexpected” She spoke to no one in particular, although she was looking directly at the newborn creature. “Your egg was hundreds of years old, and was dead when we found it.”
She levitated her crown off her head and over to her nightstand, but didn’t take her eyes of the baby. “You know what that means? It means you shouldn't really be here!”
The dragon heard the soft voice off to the side and turned his head towards the sound. Celestia smiled as the purple dragon with green scales eyes looked around before settling on her face.
“Why hello there little one!” she spoke in the motherlymotherly tone she used with many of her little ponies.
She slowly crept towards the baby, making sure that she didn’t move too quickly and startle him. Nopony alive had ever looked after a dragon before and so Celestia decided that he would have to stay at the castle for now. Twilight was upset she didn’t get to keep her ‘baby brother’, but it was explained she was too young to look after it herself. Celestia promised that she, and the castle staff, would care for the dragon in the meantime.
“My name is Celestia, and your name is Spike. A brilliant little pony called Twilight Sparkle hatched you today.”
The baby dragon just looked blankly at the creature in front of it and continued to suck it’s tail.
“You are a dragon and not many ponies know how to look after one. I have been around for a long long time, and have spent much time living with dragons. So me and my nurses will look after you well!”
Spike tail popped out of his mouth and the creatures arms and legs started wiggling in the air. Celestia slowly moved herself so she was propped up on the bed by cushions, and floated the dragon towards her until she was cradling it in her front legs.
“We will have lots of fun together as you grow up, you and I. Whilst the nursery will look after you in the day, I’ll find time in the evenings to spend time with you, teaching you to crawl and walk, how to breathe your magical fire.”
The young dragon gently clutched Celestia’s mane in his tiny claw, his eyes locked onto the large eyes of the giant pony holding him. But the little dragon showed no signed of fear, just curiosity.
“And one day, I will have to give you up to Twilight. For you see, she is the one that hatched you and your fates are now bound together.” Celestias eyes began to mist up a little “I will make sure she treats you well, young whelp. I’ll teach her the proper way to care for you - it’s not all fun and games as you will need a lot of discipline.”
“You see, as a dragon you will have an urge to grow quickly, hoard and turn more violent with age. A dragons teenage years are much worse than the average ponies...except without the issue of acne.” the princess giggled slightly to herself “However, with a loving teacher you instead can grow slowly and mature into a much more rounded dragon...one that can use his powers to do wonderful things.”
Celestia smiled down at the whelp that seemed to be paying attention “So, sometimes it will seem like she is being harsh on you. But she will love you like a younger brother, and big sisters always look out for their younger siblings!”
Celestia peered up to the moon for just a moment and a small tear leaked from her eye and added sadly “Mostly”.
The dragon sensed the mood change in the creature holding him, and he reacted by moving his arm towards it. The little claw just gently booped the alicorn on the nose, causing her to focus her eyes back on a whelp and a smile to appear.
“You are a brave little thing aren’t you?” as Spike wordless stared into the eyes of a pony who had seen a great many things in her life. She held the dragon in her hooves, rocking him backwards and forwards.
The whelp started to yawn and Celestia realised how late it actually was. She carefully carried Spike in her aura and laid the dragon baby down in the crib. Using her hooves, she tucked a blue blanket around the creature to keep it warm and instinctively leant in and placed a kiss on Spike’s forehead.
As soon as she realised what she had done, Celestia had a paign in her heart. She walked back to her bed and flopped herself down on it, caught in her own thoughts. Despite having a young child in her room, it was merely the same cycle as before.
Each of her students became her charge for a while, and a very familiar relationship grew with each of them. Mostly fillies, although the occasional colt, would come to think of her as a second mother and for a few years she would have a young pony to guide. Not only in their studies, but also find their way to becoming a fine mare or stallion.
But then they left - be that to move home, a job away from Canterlot or even if it was only in death. And then the cycle could begin again but in one way or another they would leave...always leave...it was inevitable.
And thats why she could never take a mate.
Bringing a foal into the world would fill her heart with so much love and joy, something that despite being alone in the world she still had so much of. Like any parent, her love would know no limits and thats why she couldn’t do that to herself, and to the foal - to bring life into this world knowing she would outlive it. And as the centuries passed, and time wore on, there would be a day where she would no longer wake up with her child being the first thing on her mind,
Having memories of her own flesh and blood fade...no, that would be a terrible thing. Losing a child would be heartbreaking, but forgetting that child would be the day she no longer had a heart.
So alone she would have to stay. Well, alone with her pet phoenix as it was one of the only immortal creatures in the world beside the alicorns. Philomena had been raised by the princess from a young chick, the closest she would ever get.
She looked over to the sleeping dragon whelp again and the pain resurfaced - the filly that she would soon be guiding through her studies would also have the joy of bringing up a young child, and maybe when she was older even her own foals. And because of that Celestia was extremely jealous of Twilight Sparkle.
That night one of the creatures went to bed crying, but as unlikely as it seems, the baby was sleeping peacefully whilst the pony wept tears of sadness...
“Celestia, are you okay?” Spike asked.
The alicorn princess snapped back to the present time, where she and Spike were ‘imprisoned’ by the Rock Lobsters.
“Are you okay, they didn’t hurt you did they?”
“No, of course not, I was just thinking about something, thats all!”
Spike looked around the cage “Me too...it doesn't seem very Royal to me”
Celestia suppressed the giggle that was building, because she knew they were safe. It was satisfying to see how far Spike had come since that first night - no longer a helpless little whelp, she knew that with her guidance they would get out of there. For that was her role in life, to guides others on their paths through the world...but never to have a child of her own to do the same.
