From forever, with love

Winter’s night was cold and starless. The wind had become a gale, and in the sky dark and ominous clouds were scudding by, shrouding the light of the full moon and casting on the ground grotesque and hurried shadows that added to the knobbly shapes of the barren trees. From time to time, showers of icy sleet pelted down, making the ground wet and slippery.

Two cowled alicorns alighted silently in front of the graveyard entrance. They looked at each other, nodded, and each one threw her hood back, disclosing the heads of Celestia and Luna. Then Celestia gently pulled the iron gate, that slightly grated, and both trod in. They walked slowly along a large alley, the soaked earth squishing under their hooves, then turned right into a smaller path. They had progressed about fifty meters when they stopped. A few yards ahead, in the middle of the path, a dark and indistinct shape was squatting in front of a massive marble tomb. Celestia made some further steps forward. “Twilight?” she called mellowly.

“Shove off!” bleated the voice of Twilight. “I don’t want to speak with anypony, especially not with you.”

“Twilight,” pleaded Celestia. “Listen to me. I have come to beg forgiveness. Will you ever pardon me?”

There was a hush. “Why?” asked Twilight feebly. “Why did you this to me? I need to know. I loved him with all my heart, and now what’s left from him? A cenotaph. Void. Pain. Sorrow. An unbearable sorrow…”

“Twilight,” sighed Celestia, “I’m afraid there is no satisfactory answer to your question. The best I can say is that I sent you back in time because I had to. Because it had already happened, Twilight, more than a millennium ago. Unwillingly, you’re already part of Equestria’s history, and history cannot be changed.” She took a deep breath. “We alicorns like to think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in Equestria, and in a sense, that’s true. But there are things that transcend even our immortal lives, such as fate and time.” Even he above, in his cozy lair on the rim of the world cannot change that, she thought privately. “Time is a river that flows unceasingly from past to future, carrying all things away in its waters, and there is no stopping or reversing it. The best we can do, as alicorns, is to swim to keep us afloat, and behold new beings appear upstream, briefly stay abreast with us, and then disappear forever downstream. Even we, with all our might and magic, have to abide by time‘s rule, and it is a cruel and ruthless tyrant. However gruesome and heartbreaking for me, I had no choice but to do it and face the fallout. It was not the cause, Twilight. It was the consequence. The logical consequence of this fateful day so long ago.”

“It is no solace,” replied Twilight. “You speak of it so rationally. You never loved anypony as I loved him. You cannot understand what I feel…”

“It’s not true,” protested Celestia, “I swear it is not true. What do you know of my life? I admit I resolved well before you were born to stop getting involved in pointless relationships that were sources of brief happiness and everlasting mourning. But centuries ago I did love some ponies as much as you loved Starswirl. My heart is not made of stone, Twilight, I’ve been through the same ordeal, again and again, until one day I was left so downbeat I decided it would be the last time. And now you know, too, what I meant when I said, before you departed, that our eternal life was blessed and cursed at the same time…”

“Had you warned me it was so excruciating, I would not have accepted it,” Twilight said.

“But you did and there is no reneging.” She paused for a short while, then resumed: “You know Twilight, things weren’t easy for me, neither. I lost a dear friend, and every hour since that awful day I have been feeling the weight of your curse. I had to live with the horrible idea that I somehow caused his death, even though I had done nothing. I had to abandon the Canterlot castle because I could not stand the sight of the window through which he jumped anymore. Luna accused me of ruining the life of those I cared for, and when she finally transformed into Nightmare Moon and I had to banish her, I couldn’t help but thinking it was partly for this. In our epic battle, the castle of the two sisters was destroyed, so I had to move back to Canterlot and make it my everyday residence, and that was a double whammy. Then there was you, Twilight. I knew you would be born and you would accomplish great deeds – how could you have been an alicorn otherwise? – but when exactly, I had no clue, since you hadn't specify it. So I decided to create the Royal school for gifted unicorns, guessing that you would surely apply. Every time I visited it, I patiently scrutinized the applications forms, looking for a Twilight Sparkle, until the day I found the letter your parents sent. The rest you know as best as I do…”

There was another hush. Gushes of wind were blustering against the bare branches of the trees, which were keening sinisterly amidst the desert graves. “I am fatigued, and don’t want to speak about it anymore tonight,” declared Twilight at last. “Good night!” She stood up, and disappeared in a dazzling flash.

Celestia turned around, joined with Luna and both made their way back towards the main alley. “It will take time,” said Celestia, “but eventually I’m positive she will overcome her grief. There is too much joy and optimism in her.”

Luna nodded. “She will have to, any maybe sooner that even you expect it.”

“Why do you say that?” replied Celestia suddenly intrigued.

“You didn’t notice?” asked Luna to her sister.

“Notice what?”

“Well… I don’t know… Maybe it’s the millenium I spent on the Moon that has rendered me more sensitive than anypony else, including you, my sister. Now, when I am sufficiently close to somepony, I can somehow perceive their physiologic state. It’s not a spell, it’s automatic, like an additional empathic sense. I can easily tell ponies in good health from sick ones, and even guess the seriousness of their illness…”

Celestia halted and looked worriedly at her sister. “What do you mean? Twilight is sick?”

“No, no. At least, not in a conventional sense,” answered Luna.

“Then what is it?” asked Celestia impatiently.

Luna didn’t answer; instead, she resumed walking. After four steps ahead, she stopped, turned to face her sister that had not moved and was watching her go. “She is… pregnant,” she confessed, as she unfolded her wings and got ready to fly off.