Alone ( You Are Not Alone )
Another Day Has Gone
A melancholy Celestia settled on the pearl white cushion in front of her framed marble window. She sighed as she looked out on the rainy view of her city. The weather matched her mood; gray, glum and as downcast as the cold fall rain soaking Canterlot. The ticking of the clock filled the silence of the study, reminding her that there was no pony else to talk to. She wondered if the weather where Twilight was was any better. She wondered where Twilight was and why she hadn’t written as of late. She could not get the mare off her mind no matter what she did. The very same mare that she had sent on a goodwill mission across Equestria after the business with Tirek had been dealt with and, though she dared not speak her heart’s desire to anypony, the mare that Celestia pined for. Celestia looked down at her gardens with a sigh, her eyes lingering on her roses. Having her love so close and yet so far was much like her Neighpon Thorn roses - she would look all she wanted, but never would dare touch. Casting her heavy tiara and other overwrought vestments of gold and jewels to their proper resting places, the Princess laid her head down and and thought of how many years it had been since she had had a true love. Setting aside her mask, the regal -face- that everypony saw from her and expected, was hard to do at times.This secret burden weighed upon her more and more each day that Twilight remained gone on her mission to teach Equestria more of the magic of friendship.
If she were honest with herself, Celestia knew she had been fooling herself for a while now. Twilight might take up this line of thinking and come to resent Celestia for it. Celestia smiled wistfully, idly scraping a hoof across the granite floor and remembered how proud she felt She’d long had a crush on the bookish unicorn-now alicorn- the ease at which her learned, her eagerness to see more and her helpful soul. But Celestia had her doubts about letting herself be so open, so she always found more reasons to bury her feelings. They were teacher and student. It wouldn’t be proper for her to start a relationship with another pony so removed from her in age. It was a potential abuse of power. The list went on and on.
She’d considered confessing to Twilight once she joined the ranks of herself, her sister and her niece as alicorns, but she was concerned that others might get the idea that Twilight had only ascended because Celestia had planned it all out and desired a mate.
Indeed, she’d even been worried that Twilight may have thought that Celestia had some grand destiny planned and plotted out for her. Deciding that the day was getting late on her, Celestia made her way to her bedroom and laid down on her oversized bed cushion . Celestia’s mind and heart were exhausted after another trying day in court. The nobles’ constant bickering and mewling had worn her down. Her longing for Twilight left her drained. She curled her body on the cushion so her back was to the window, her magic snuffing the candles that lit the study. Celestia slowly drifted off into another fitful sleep, but not before she let a simple, three word prayer slip whispered from her muzzle “Twilight…come home.”
Unbeknownst to the sleeping mare, her prayers were heard.
Half a world away, Twilight Sparkle’s ear twitched. It felt like something was calling her, but she shook it off as homesickness. She sat on a cherry wood bench, waiting for a waiter to bring her coffee. She had already eaten breakfast with the Griffonia diplomats at a Trottingham hotel, but the service there had lacked the dark rich caffeine laden drink that the mare prefered to start her day off with. So she had trotted down to a local cafe called Bright Eye’s Breakfast. It looked nice and cozy, with plenty of books on the wall, board games on the well worn shelves. So she had ordered a cup of coffee called an “Eclipse”. The description listed for it made it sound like something that she would enjoy. After a moment the waiter- a young unicorn with a light blue coat that reminded her of the blue in Celestia’s auroral mane- sat the cup of coffee down with a clink and trotted off, leaving her alone with her thoughts and the steaming coffee.
Twilight took the warm drink in both hooves and looked down into the dark coffee. She sighed. Being reminded of Celestia always led to thoughts of how her early admiration of her teacher had turned into something more intense, but it was always dismissed by Twilight as something impossible. No way would Celestia be able to love a simple-looking mare like her-even if she prefered mares at all. And that wasn’t even getting into Twilight’s faults: her obsessive compulsiveness, her anxiety, her need to be correct, faults so glaring that she had convinced herself that she would be no one’s love.
She took a long drink from the cup of dark and somewhat bitter coffee to steel her nerves. Twilight sat breathing in and out, trying to once again forget the longing and want in her heart. Even writing to Celestia had proved to be stressful to the youngest alicorn; she had half written scrolls littering her saddlebags to prove it. She had never finished one, even though she knew Celestia would be confused and maybe even hurt by the lack of contact. Twilight never could find the words that she wanted to say, so she would just crumple the scroll up and start anew. Twilight had been around the older mare long enough to see beyond the serene and sometimes unsettling mask. She knew that Celestia felt distanced from her ponies. That was one of the reasons that Twilight had always tried to write to her former mentor- to bring her into her life and share as much as she could.
After finishing her coffee and paying the bill, Twilight made her way back to the suite that she had in Trottingham Place having to go through a blizzard to get there. Once she had shaken off the wet snow from her coat and placed the scarf that Rarity had knitted for her on the rack by the door, the alicorn noticed a simple letter on the corner of her bed. With no name on it, no stamps and no marking as to who it was too or from. Taking it cautiously in her magic, Twilight opened the letter and read the words written on the paper before her eyes. They were words that she could barely believe.
“Twilight Sparkle, your feelings are shared. We have heard your dreams and we have heard hers. She’s hurting and she needs you to calm that which wounds her so. Let her know. ‘Tis better to try then to act too late. “
Twilight took the words, turned them over in her mind and decided to make a change. Now that she knew that Celestia needed her, she couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore or hide behind her excuses. With a nod she took up her quill and paper.
“You are not alone. I am here with you; though we are far apart , you’re always in my heart, I loveyou, Celestia,You are not alone…”
Feeling that she had finally put her heart’s words to paper, Twilight took up the letter and she sent it speeding along the magic lay lines to Canterlot and to the room of her sleeping love using a mail spell that Luna had taught her to ease the burden on Spike. She set about, packing for home as soon as the letter had left the room. “You are not alone” she said with a determined smile.
The next day, Celestia awoke from her troubled and not -so- restful sleep on the cushion to find a letter waiting for her, a letter scented with the coffee and book scent of her most favored little pony. She tore into it and read what the missive had to say. With a true smile, Celestia looked up. Her day was brightening at last.
Author's Note
This is my first pony fic so please be kind! And thanks for taking the time to read this drabble of mine .
