As the warmth of the nearest star radiated light-years away from the Earth, Celestia wandered through her garden. A maze of hedges, and trees; flowers and plants. She had been granted a small reprieve from her daily duties by her dear sister, on this, the 1,234th anniversary of her creation.
This ritual she had performed every year for almost 200 years, and the young immortal had never once grown tired of it. She always enjoyed the single day off she was awarded every 364 days, with her sister filling in for her on day court duty. Celestia would, likewise shoulder her sisters ruling burden in several months; and Celestia was happy to do it. She knew the feeling after all...
That was something that Celestia felt very seldom the last millennia or so: empathy. Sure she could easily feel sympathy for most any pony. But it was one thing to feel sorry for another entity, and to understand what another is feeling. Death for instance. She could feel sympathy for one of her subjects' having to come to terms with it, but she herself could not grasp the enormity of such a concept. She could not feel the way her subject feels; knowing that no matter what he/she does, they will never be able to escape death's soft, cold embrace. Celestia had been in mortal peril many a time, but she knew each time that the only reason she was in peril was because she had made the decision herself, furthermore that safety was only a few short wing-flaps away.
She soon arrived to where she had always seemed to arrive. She did not consciously guide her legs down the path to here, and yet, she always knew she'd end up here. Toward the back of her rather large terrace, was a rather steep hill. Not unmanageable to climb with legs alone, but a moderate strain to do so. She enjoyed the workout none the less.
As she reached the top of the slope, the hill flattened out and was soft with luscious green grass. The hill continued on for a small measure of land, then sloped back down into the great distance downward that was the mountain. In the center of the hill's top sat a sight that was so familiar to Celestia, that she could remember it better than she could remember her own age... a cherry tree.
To any passing pony, nothing would seem amiss about this beautiful plant, accept that it appeared to be rather large for its species. This was because of its age. This particular tree was as old as the castle that now stood in the background as Celestia looked up into the vibrant pedals that graced the old, gnarled branches of the cherry tree. Celestia had first discovered the barely noteworthy landmark while inspecting this very mountain for a place to build her new home after Luna's downfall. It had only appeared a tad younger than it did now, with not so many knots and twists in it thick trunk.
She meandered on over to the base of the tree and slowly lowered herself until she sat on the aged roots that protruded from the ground around the tree. She regarded her young, and yet old hooves briefly before removing her golden boots, crown, and neck-piece, and placing them beside her. She then dared to look up.
Every single time she set her eyes on the scene before her, it instantly took her breath away. As the slope descended downward and eventually leveled off, Celestia boar witness to the vast rolling planes, peppered with smaller mountains that composed the surrounding landscape. She saw the clouds, both above and beneath her; rolling, flying, pouring over one another, and dissipating into themselves to continue the cycle. And finally, Celestia saw her little ponies' villages and farms, cottages, and communities. This was decidedly Celestia's favorite view in the history of her existence.
This was, in short, her present to herself. An afternoon far away from prying eyes or drifting voices, a quiet place... her place. Where she could disregard the fact that she was a ruler for one day and think without the weight of a nation on her shoulders. And so she thought.
She thought about her sister, and the inner demon that she had battled with and still does battle with, and the weight that that must burden Luna. She thought about her former student, and now fellow princess, who's new castle she spied amid the other sites below the gigantic alp she now sat upon. And Celestia thought about how she felt a slight twinge of jealousy toward the castle that Twilight had been granted by the innate magic of friendship forged into the land with the unity of the 3 races.
Celestia found herself chuckling at her own baseness. "The oldest being in Equestria," she said out loud. "with a foalish envy. How regal of me"
A soft gust of wind blew and shook the branches of the cherry tree gently, blowing cherry blossoms from the aged old tree into the open, free air above the vast land. Celestia looked on as the stream of pink little pedals drifted along freely without a care in the world. And the ruler of the nation felt one of the best emotions she had felt in the entirety of her existence: contentment.
Celestia was at peace under the shade of her old friend as she watched... the cherry blossoms fall...
