Celestia stared at the unused bedchamber. It was untouched as it had been so many times before, although now it was being maintained by the maidstaff. She looked at the well-worn desk, the alchemical display that had been set to the side of it, the bed that hadn’t been used in years now, complete with the plushie that Celestia herself had resewn together after it had been blown apart in a fruitless display of power that had been meaningless then and now, she was sure, an utter embarrassment to its owner.
The sun princess blinked away the tears that threatened to come. It had only been a week since Sunset’s return to the world she called home, and Celestia missed her greatly. And why not? She had loved the young unicorn, enough so to have planned to formally adopt her before their acrimonious split and Sunset’s move to the human world. And after Twilight’s encounter with her last year, the princess had finally hoped that would bring her wayward daughter back to her.
But that hadn’t happened. Instead, Sunset had found a life with a family…the family of that world’s Twilight Sparkle, and had become so important and beloved to her that she now considered them her family; indeed, she’d returned to Equestria only to save the human that she considered her sister…even if it meant that she would be killed by Celestia for her past crimes.
“Crimes” – quotation marks and all – that Celestia had long forgiven. “Crimes” that Celestia had never foisted upon her child, and when they finally reunited, Celestia had hoped that she would have Sunset back, to finally adopt her and place her on the path she should have been, the path that Celestia’s faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, had already achieved.
But that wasn’t the case. As soon as the cause had been discovered – and a few other things, aside – Sunset had announced her return back to her home, to return to her family. Though she didn’t show it, the words broke Celestia’s heart. In the depths of her feelings, she had three children:
Her niece, Cadance, who she’d had a large part in rearing even before her ascension;
Her protégée, Twilight, who gone farther than any unicorn in history, even Star Swirl himself, and had ascended, just as expected;
And then….
And then….
And then….
Celestia ran from the empty room before the tears came.
“Celestia?” Luna’s voice rang out in the darkness of the solar bedchambers. “Are you here?”
“I wish to be left alone right now,” came the voice from the shadows.
“No,” was Luna’s reply. “For one, you know I can see in the darkness. Two, the sun was supposed to set thirty minutes ago, and you get fussy if I start the process without you.”
“Go ahead,” the answer came. “I’m okay with that today.”
“Really? Is that what you want? To sit here and sulk while life goes on? Just because Sunset has chosen her own path?”
Celestia sat up as if wounded. “Luna, I—”
But the look on Luna’s face was one between disappointment and understanding. “Do you think me blind, sister? Do you think any of us so? You love her, sister. To you, she is your daughter, and she will always be so.”
The tears from earlier finally came for the sun alicorn. “And yet she chose another to call her mother – one not even of her species.”
“No, but one that has accomplished in a single year that you could not in your twenty-odd years of life with her, am I right? Is that what you’re feeling? Do you hate…well, I assume her name is Twilight Velvet as well…for taking Sunset in and giving her what she wanted most? Or are you angry with yourself for not taking the step you should have?” Celestia reacted as if she’d been slapped, and Luna continued. “You were the sole ruler of Equestria at the time, sister. There should have been nothing that would have prevented you from formally adopting Sunset.”
“But the no—”
“No, do not use that excuse on me, Celestia.” Luna walked forward, looking at Celestia, never releasing her look of reproach. “Did the nobles speak out against your ascendancy of Cadance – and did you care what they thought? You certainly didn’t bother with public opinion in what you’ve done with Twilight, even though she’s deserved every plaudit and praise she’s had. So why not Sunset? She was there before either – she’s the same age as Cadance, if I recall correctly – and yet not her?”
“It wouldn’t have been right for me to take favorites.”
“Lies. You were just afraid of failing her as a parent – and you created a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Luna stepped forward. “After all this time, do you know what she wanted more than anything else? She wanted a family. She wanted what she never had. She thought ascending would be a means to please you, to finally prove worthy of being your daughter.”
“She never had to prove that to me!” Celestia cried.
“But did you tell her – really tell her? Or did you leave it in cryptic statements and half-truths that you usually reserve for the nobles? Cadance was used to that, because she came from the minor princely houses. Likewise, Twilight’s family is nobility and so she’s had some experience with that. But Sunset was an orphan – you had no idea of the life she would have led, or what her parents led. Even the title you gave her was never really explained…or have you ever really told her that it was a title only, with no true baronial responsibilities or even land?”
Celestia looked at Luna, as though she were utterly stunned. “Luna…I….”
“Furthermore, when you had the chance to ask her to stay – beg her to – you offered her the ambassadorship to humanity, again, a pointless position, given that Sunset’s currently hiding her existence from the humans, with no set date as to when she will reveal herself to them – or even if that’s a good idea at all?”
“You know that’s not true, Luna! I only offered her that when it became clear that she wasn’t going to stay!”
“Again, more lies. Face it, Cellie, you taunted her with everything. You set her up to want you as a mother…but you could nev—” Luna was suddenly recoiled by an ivory hoof striking her across the face. “I see I finally got your attention.”
“I LOVED HER – I STILL DO!” Celestia screamed. “I WANTED NOTHING BUT THE BEST FOR HER!” Celestia collapsed onto the bed, tears streaming uncontrollably. “I wanted to keep her safe from everything. To prepare her for the day she would have to face off against you, just as Twilight eventually did. But I wanted to keep her safe – just as a mother should. Is there anything wrong about that?”
Luna shrugged off the slap her sister had given her, and her alicorn stamina rendered the slight bruise gone virtually within the moment of it having been made. “But you did everything necessary to be a mother to her, sister…except be a mother.” Luna looked into Celestia’s lilac, tear-stained eyes. “I know as little as you do about the life that Sunset has lead in the years she has, except that Twilight Velvet has been there for her in the very ways you were…but also through the hard parts, too – and she did not take in a small girl, but an adolescent, by their standards.”
Celestia was silent, but then a soft sob came through her. “I want her back.” She looked at her sister, sure as can be. “I want my daughter back!”
“It is too late,” Luna replied. “She has a destiny now, one you never planned for her, but one that you indirectly set her on. And though she loves you still – that much is obvious, and it will never change, you know this – she has a mother now.”
“But it still doesn’t feel right,” Celestia replied. “I’m leaving her in the hooves – hands? – of somepony I don’t know and cannot really be sure of.”
Luna nodded. “Then there is only one pony who can answer that.”
“You asked to see me, your majesty?” a voice asked.
Celestia returned the smile. “You know you needn’t call me that. Aren’t we friends?”
The unicorn nodded, her gray and purple mane shaking as she did before she gave Celestia a smile, her blue eyes shining in response. “Sorry, dealing with other nobles and minor royals keeps me on my hooftips, Celestia.”
Celestia looked at Twilight Velvet, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor’s mother, Spike’s mother in all but paperwork, and Cadance’s mother-in-law. She’d been a fixture around the palace since her earliest days as an intern in one of the secretarial offices in the palace, and had worked her way up since, earning the baronial title Celestia had given her…and had won what Velvet would have considered a much more important prize: the heart and troth of Night Light, then a promising young professor at the Royal University. In the time since then, Velvet had worked herself into the position of head of the Crown Program for State Welfare, overseeing education and similarly-important needs within the realm, while Night had become the head of the Crown Astronomy Program, now fully-vested under Luna’s patronage. It was said that the family of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had been around long the palace long before either had been born – and those comments weren’t exactly wrong.
“I was hoping we could have a small chat about something, if you don’t mind.” The sun alicorn gestured to her tea set. “Would you care for some?”
Velvet eyed the set suspiciously. “My latest report’s not overdue, unless….” She suddenly facehoofed in understanding. “Which one of my foals is to blame?” Needless to say, she took her role as a parent very seriously, Celestia noted, even though her foals were both adults – and Spike, agewise, was already close to that limit.
“None of them, Velvet. Actually, this is between me and you – and it is a matter of Crown Secrecy, so I would appreciate if you told nopony, even Twilight, Shining, Cadance and Spike.”
Velvet looked at Celestia worriedly. “This…this isn’t like you, Celestia. You’ve never asked me to keep secrets from them.”
“I know, but this is a…personal matter, you could say, and you are involved, at least indirectly. And I am not asking you this as your sovereign, Velvet. This is a mare-to-mare issue.”
“I…see.” Velvet smiled awkwardly, and said, “Well, if that’s the case, sure. Chamomille?”
A few minutes and an explanation later, Velvet looked aghast. “And you’re saying there’s an alternate universe version of me – one that isn’t even a pony – and that took in Sunset Shimmer…and has adopted her as her own foal?”
“Let me see if I got the image right,” Celestia said as her horn lit up, “I only got bits and pieces from what the mirror showed.” A small glimmer of light began to surface on the table, rising and taking shape, and changing colors at some points. A few seconds later, it was done, and a small image of Twilight Velvet appeared, though to the unicorn it was both familiar and discomforting at the same time.
“Her name is Twilight Velvet, as you likely surmise. She is, if I recall correctly, the assistant director of the Equestria County Department of Child Services, in Canterlot, a city in a place called Equestria County, California, in a nation called the United States, on a planet called Earth.”
“What? That’s me?” And as Velvet looked on, more forms began to form around the strange being’s image, eventually becoming other bizarrely similar shapes as well.
“She is also the wife of Night Light, a physics professor at California State University, Canterlot. They’ve been married for about thirty years now, and have three children: Shining Armor, a police officer in Canterlot, who is married to his wife, Cadance; Twilight Sparkle, a teenager attending high school there, and Spike, their eight-year-old son.” Celestia paused. “And now they’ve taken in Sunset Shimmer as well.” After a few more seconds, a form corresponding to Sunset appeared.
Velvet looked at the group in front of her. They looked so bizarre, and yet…she knew it was her family, albeit through some sort of carnival funhouse mirror. Even the position this Velvet held, if the unicorn understood Celestia correctly, corresponded to her own. And from seeing how Sunset Shimmer fit in with them, it was clear that she was a part of their family, and that she was happy.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because she took from me my foal…I lost Sunset,” Celestia said, her eyes threatening to tear as they had the day prior. “Not that I didn’t deserve it. I failed at being a mother, Velvet. And now I sit here and I mourn what I’ve lost, knowing that I will never have my child back. And I can’t help but be insanely jealous at that Twilight Velvet.” Velvet gasped in surprise, and Celestia amended, “Not you, of course.”
“I should hope not!” Velvet countered. “You know, I never understood what you saw in Sunset Shimmer, and maybe that’s just my biases as Twilight’s mother shining through. But, again, why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because I was hoping you’d be the one pony in the world who could explain this to me,” Celestia admitted. “Because, truthfully, not even I can understand this.”
“Well, that’s easy, Celestia. Have you considered that you were never meant to be Sunset’s mother?” The sudden look of surprise on the alicorn’s face indicated that, no, she hadn’t thought of that. “Well, let me put it this way: how do you feel about Twilight?”
“I love her as though she was my own, you know that,” Celestia answered, “though I would never even attempt to interfere with the life you have with her. She is your daughter, not mine.”
“And yet she has said repeatedly that you’ve been a mother to her in a metaphorical sense,” Velvet pointed out. “It’s because you were a mother figure, one to be there for her at times and in ways I could not be. Maybe, this was the role that you were meant to play for Sunset as well; it just hurts more because you wanted what you could not give her – and this I understand.”
“You do?”
“I love Spike. Words cannot say how much I consider him my son. And yet…he can never be, because of the way the adoption laws are structured in Equestria.” Celestia looked at her with surprise and Velvet quoted, “Section 18, paragraph 2a of the Crown Adoption Law of 863 states, and I quote,
‘Only like shall adopt like. While circumstances will allow for such mitigating and emergent circumstances, those shall only be considered on a need by need basis. For it is such as to be considered by Her Divine Majesty that it is the right and duty that Unicorn shall raise Unicorn, Pegasus shall raise Pegasus, and Earth Pony shall raise Earth Pony. Likewise, those of foreign birth within the realm shall be acceded to those of similar blood, but only to those and those forthwith.’
So my husband and I cannot formally adopt Spike because of the law…and, for that matter, neither could you adopt Sunset.”
“But that…but I didn’t write that law!” Celestia gasped. “Admittedly, I should have checked Family Matters’ work, but at the time I thought her to be the best pony for the job back then. Besides, you know I would never separate loving families, Velvet!”
“I know. I tracked it down the other day, because I wanted to bring it to your attention; I was certain it would be the only way to change the law, so that other foals and the like never have to suffer such unfair treatment – a zebra can raise a pegasus with as much love as a diamond dog can a griffin.”
“Or two unicorns a dragon?” Celestia replied, a hint of a smile on her lips.
“Absolutely. But changing the law to suit your needs, just for Sunset’s sake, would have been seen as a gross abuse of the law, just for your desires, even if you didn’t know about it. And even still, you continued to love Sunset and give her the life you could. It was simply that she was never meant for that lifestyle.” Velvet looked at the image of the strange creature before her that was Sunset Shimmer’s new form; she was laughing and wrapped in the embrace of a female being similar to her that clearly corresponded to Twilight, as well as a third female, a black-haired one that Velvet wondered who her counterpart here was. “Or any life as a pony, if these images are true.”
“So in the end, I lost her, is that what you’re saying?”
“No – what I’m saying is that you gave her love and care, and a chance to find her destiny, even though it didn’t seem like the one you wanted for her. And in the end, you still love her, support her and are happy for her, right?” When Celestia nodded, Velvet smiled.
“That’s what a mother’s supposed to do.”
Celestia went to her bedchambers that night a little more certain than she’d been earlier. Admittedly, Velvet’s words had been of no comfort to her, but instead a certain realization that Celestia knew she needed more than placations and comforts. And besides, Velvet was right.
I cannot say that I am truly happy for how little a place I play in her life now, Celestia admitted to herself, but in the end, I am happy that she has finally found a place for herself.
It was then that a flare of magic flickered in the room, a blast of cyan magic, and a slip of paper wafted down onto her bed. Celestia was there to read it at once:
Celestia felt rivulets of joy and warmth course through her as she read the letter. Even now, Sunset still thought of her and missed her. She wasn’t forgotten.
The sun alicorn crawled into the sheets and fell fast asleep.
Within the dreamscape a princess played patiently with a tiny maize unicorn foal, the former patient and loving while the latter was jubilant and boisterous. The filly giggled at the tricks Celestia’s magic performed as the alicorn explained to the young Sunset that someday too, she would be able to do things like this.
Watching from afar within the dreams, Luna smiled. You’ll always cherish the time you had with her, Cellie, Luna said to herself. And so does she.
Author's Note
Just a little something that came to me today at work. Not sure why, but I hammered it out.
