A Night that Lasts Forever
A Night that Lasts Forever
High above the world, side by side, two ponies looked out over the world under their care. They watched as the sun gently kissed the horizon. It’s gentle light bathing the smattering of clouds dotting the sky in a deep purple hue. Like a painters brush strokes the darkening light wove through the sky from cloud to cloud, balancing the purple hue with bright oranges and passionate reds. The colors slowly fell asleep as their mother dipped below the horizon. The mother of the night rose on the other side of the world, her nocturnal children twinkled merrily to life across the sky as she rose.
The two ponies leaned into one another, smiles of bliss and contentment etched across their muzzles. The eldest of the two, a large white pony wearing a golden torque and a small golden tiara closed her eyes and the world calmed before she gently pulled away and her younger, lavender counterpart turned to her. “It can’t be time already.”
“Twilight.” She paused for a moment her nostril flaring as a wind tousled her mane. She looked at her lover with half lidded eyes, memories pulling the corners of her lips up into a smile. “Do you remember how it all began for us?”
Twilight stared out across the twinkling stars. Each one reflecting a different answer in her eyes until a smile spread across her face. “How could I ever forget.” She looked at Celestia, her expression thoughtful. “Why are you asking about it anyway? I thought I proved to you I had gotten over my insecurities long ago.”
A gentle sound like small bells flitted across the wind as Celestia shook her head in amusement. “It’s not about that, it’s something else. For you, all this began quietly. But for me, it began long, long ago.”
“I used to tell myself it began when I saw you at your brother’s wedding, but then, I would be making a lair of myself. The strength you showed that fateful day; I saw it first when you were a child.” A lump formed in Celestia’s throat as she ruffled the feathers on her wings. “That first time you surged, when everything was coming apart around you and there was nothing you could do. All that fear in your eyes wasn’t fear for yourself. You were afraid for the teachers and your parents and everyone else in the building. I knew then you were special, I just wouldn’t understand how special until later. The strength you showed that day, there were brief glimpses of it but I never really saw it in you again until your brother’s wedding. At the wedding when you showed me a glimpse of that strength again, it made something inside me stir. The things you made me feel that day, I thought my ability to feel them had left me when I banished my sister.”
A maroon blush and a bashful smile bloomed across Twilight’s cheeks. The small mare turned her face away in a small attempt to hide the new color in her cheeks. “While I appreciate that Tia, I wasn’t that great. I mean really, I was a mess.” Twilight chuckled lightly to herself. “I went off the deep end and rushed in without any proof beyond my own intuition.”
“That, right there, is exactly what I am talking about.” Celestia’s pointed to Twilight excitedly. “You knew something was wrong and without any fear of what may happen you did everything in your power to correct it.” Celestia’s head fell, pulling the mood down with it. “I failed you that day but it also forced me to reminisce over all you had done.” Celestia looked up and let the smallest of smiles cross her lips. “That night, I spent a lot of time thinking about what you were to me because of how I had treated you. As you know, we didn’t have a chance to meet up in anything other than a professional capacity for quite a while so I had no chance to explore this with you sadly.”
Stray thoughts slowed Celestia to a pause before they moved aside to let her continue. “After that my heart was moved again during the battle with Tirek. I was so afraid of what would happen to you but then you rose above him. You lost your home, but you gained so much more. That night, while consoling you, was when I stopped lying to myself. I knew that night without a doubt you had stolen my heart.
“I, I remember that night.” Twilight shuffled in place, a bright blush coloring her cheeks. “Back then the logical choice would have been to go to my mother but I chose you. It’s silly when I think about it now but back then I told myself I chose you because you were like a mother to me.” Twilight bumped a wing against Celestia. “We both know that’s a lie though, even if at least one of us didn’t then.”
Celestia pulled her lips in and bit them to suppress a stubborn chuckle fighting to escape. “Well well well, perhaps there is something of an Oedipus Complex in you after all.”
Twilight pretended to reel back as though struck. “How dare you accuse me of such a thing. At least I don’t wish to bring my siblings with me to a share a bed between me and my lover.”
The color drained from Celestia’s face to make room for the bright red color that overtook her features. She coughed into her hoof and turned away as she held her wings tight to her sides. “It was a joke.” Twilight stuck her tongue out. “Moving on. As you know, I did not confess that night but I kept my feelings hidden. Those feelings, they were content to remain hidden until Pinkie’s wedding. Standing before Pinkie and her husband, it took everything I had not to lose myself in the beautiful mare that stood by her friends watching proudly as the mare who brought happiness everywhere she went found her own happiness in another. I had always known you were a beautiful mare, but that day, the emotions budding in my heart colored you in a light that I had not seen another in since before my sister’s fall.”
Twilight’s cheeks warmed and she rubbed her left hoof against her right. “I am not that beautiful, at least compared to you, Tia.”
“You had grown into a fine young mare, that hadn’t changed but I was truly seeing it for the first time at the wedding. There is no denying the beauty you have come to possess.” Nostalgia took a moment to play across Celestia’s face, the corners of her lips curled up into a smile and she tilted her head to the side with half closed eyes. “The way you carry and hold yourself radiates confidence, something we both know you sorely lacked as a child.” Both of them chuckled slightly. “To see you standing there with that happy smile on your lips while your friend united with another in matrimony, it was a stunning sight to say the least. I wish I could have stayed for the reception but sadly as you know I had business to attend to back at the capitol.”
Celestia paused, allowing herself to get lost in the memories that were bubbling to the surface of her mind. After a moment she sighed happily. “Do you know how overjoyed I was when you came by later with a slice of cake for me? You stayed the night and we talked, long into the night. In the morning you remained on my mind, though you had left without a word but I was not saddened because I kept remembering how we had talked. We had talked as equals instead of teacher and student, it made my steps light and heart warm.” Celestia smiled wistfully. The joy in the memories flooded out across her body releasing all the tension in her muscle better than any massage ever had. “That night faded from memory a little over the following months and though we met on occasion I never acted because I did not believe it right.” A tinge of sadness danced at the edges of Celestia’s voice as she spoke. “Countless lifetimes had steeled my resolve, I could not love. If I let myself love I let a piece of myself leave with whomever I had loved when they invariably passed on. I locked away everything I felt deep inside my heart and hid behind kind words and casual smiles. The time we had spent together though, it hit against my resolve like water against a stone; slowly wearing away at the obstacle before it.”
Twilight tilted her head to the side as she looked out into the garden below them. Her eyes lingered on the fountain and the water cascading from the top and tumbling into the basin at the bottom. “I understand, to let yourself fall for someone, it’s the hardest thing a pony can do.” Her eyes moved away from the fountain and out into the world. The distant lights of Ponyville a tiny hazy glow near the edge of the horizon. If she squinted she could almost see the forest on the outskirts of the small settlement and her castle near the lake. Her gaze drifted towards the edge of the glow, the edge where one of her cherished memories lay. “It’s called falling for a reason, you have no control over it and you can only hope that you are caught before you come to a very sudden stop. There are some wounds that can never be healed if you fall too hard and are not caught.”
Celestia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Of course you’d understand, you always do.” Twilight smiled and nodded. “Applejack’s wedding, that was when I took the next step towards you. It was during the reception when you, in all your beauty, approached me and asked if I might join you on the dance floor. I will not lie. I was quite surprised, pleasantly so I must add, at the adeptness with which you led me on the dance floor.” A teasing smile wrapped over Celestia’s lips. “It was not long before that that you were a spastic dancer that many feared was having a seizure whenever the mood took you into a dance. I digress though, to be held in your hooves as you led me about the dancefloor. I had not, until that moment, realized how much you had grown since becoming an alicorn. I remember that night as one of my most cherished memories.”
Blushing and rubbing her front hooves together Twilight opened her mouth to speak but Celestia lifted a hoof to silence her. “I know what you think of your dancing but it truly was horrible when you were younger.”
Twilight stuck her tongue out and harrumphed. “It was just ahead of it’s time.” She turned away and stuck her nose into the air. “I bet if I danced like that now the nobles would turn it into some sort of fad.”
Celestia let out a short barking laugh and covered her muzzle with a hoof. “Excuse me, that’s just...it’s sad but true.” Celestia chuckled a little more before resuming her story. “Following that wedding we found a lot of reasons to see each other. From simple research assistants to just having tea to catch up; we took whatever silly excuse we could find to spend time together. Perhaps I am naive but I still lied to myself and deluded myself into thinking it was just friends getting together but my heart knew it was more. Those times were wondrous and I cherish them dearly but all things must end.”
Twilight nodded somberly. “I think I know what comes next.” Her wings ruffled as she took a long shuddering breath. Her gaze returned to the glow of Ponyville and she moved a little closer to Celestia.
“Indeed,” Celestia lowered her head, “it was Rainbow Dash who moved our relationship next. Such a somber event seems an odd place to have one’s relationship grow and change but for us it did. We mourned the death of Rainbow Dash together, one of the greatest fliers of her generation taken from us so suddenly. Accidents happen but it hurts nonetheless, and for you, I cannot imagine how much it must have hurt. You loved her more than any of your friends and she was taken from you so suddenly.” A tear fell down Twilight’s cheek and Celestia caught it on the tip of her wing. She then wrapped that wing around the saddened mare and pulled her close, kissing her gently on the forehead just below her horn. “Even now it brings tears to your eyes. The night you were informed when you came to me, I saw you at your weakest. I know you didn’t mean for it to mean as much as it did but to know I was the pony you went to at your weakest, it let me know how important I was to you.”
Silence fell over the balcony, bringing with it sadness. For a while Celestia just let Twilight remember her old friend and all that had happened between them. Celestia pulled her head back and looked down at the mare whose tears had slowed. “Feeling better?”
Twilight nodded as she wiped the tears from her cheeks before giving Celestia a peck on the lips. “I’m sorry, please continue.” She offered a weak smile. “I don’t think she would appreciate it if I ruined a night like this with tears.” A weak chuckle escaped from Twilight. “Continue with the story, I am curious where you’re going with it. It’s not often we reminisce like this and I am rather enjoying it, sad memories aside.”
“It is fun isn’t it. Remembering the biggest moments of our budding love, before it became what it is today.” Wrapping her wing over her smaller love she nuzzled Twilight gently. Celestia turned her gaze from the small mare wrapped in her wing and looked into her sister’s night sky. She traced a few constellations with her eyes as she moved through her ancient memories to her newer ones before she found her place in the story again. “Your friend Fluttershy took it the hardest when Rainbow passed but she too found love through it. A young Wonderbolt was there for her and after a time they too announced a wedding. It was beautiful ceremony and even though she was gone Rainbow was given an honorary position and had a seat reserved for her. Again I was able to see you in a ravishing dress and again you invited me to dance. I feel foolish for never trying to get intimate with you outside of weddings but there is something special about a wedding. The joy in the air and the love floating about makes one bolder than they would normally be. That atmosphere, it gave me the courage I needed to make the next move.”
“I can’t say that first kiss was spectacular.” Both Twilight and Celestia blushed at the memory. “I was out of practice and you, well, inexperienced is the best way I can say it. The emotion was there though. The following months long silence worried me greatly, had I gone to far, pushed you away with my forwardness.” Celestia’s wings twitched, the feathers fluffing up a little before settling down again. “I will not lie Twilight, I was terrified at the prospect of losing you over what had happened at the wedding. Thankfully, you proved my worries baseless. You hadn’t been out of contact because you were appalled but because you were confused and unsure. Coupled with a local problem you took the time to gather your thoughts before letting me know what was on your mind.”
Twilight nodded. “I was barely able to focus on the problem, you haunted my thoughts and dreams. I think there might still be a few documents with doodles of you surrounded by hearts filled away in the Ponyville townhall.”
A momentary silence fell before Celestia snickered ever so lightly. “You are far too adorable, my love.” A warm and content smile played across Celestia’s face as she pictured the forms before she moved on with her story. “What came next was perhaps the happiest surprise I have ever had. I had been waiting desperately for a letter but instead you came to say it in pony. You knew what needed to be said could not be said in letter and so instead came to visit me. Though our relationship remained largely unchanged after that night something underneath the surface of our relationship had changed drastically. Both of us had been made aware of something we had previously been trying to deny and while I did not want to, you were afraid not to. Though you were afraid you agreed to try and meet me more often but sadly time made fools of us both.” Celestia sighed and shook her head before perking up again.
“Thankfully Rarity announced her engagement and with it, the perfect way for us to meet again.” A warm smile traced its way across the face of both ponies when they remembered the night. “That dinner with her fiance Coco Pommel, we did not talk much during but afterwards, we enjoyed that wonderful walk through the town. When we bid each other goodnight, I felt as though my heart would break. It felt as though I had lost you somewhere. Though it had been great to see you I felt this strange distance between us. We had talked everything over almost two years before and yet this strange distance had grown between us in the time that had played us for fools. I remained hopeful though and you proved that hope correct at the wedding.”
Twilight blushed and shifted nervously and then gasped as Celestia pulled a black velvet box from under the table they had shared dinner at early that evening. “More accurately after the wedding. When you found me in the gardens, hiding from you. That second kiss we shared, that’s when I knew this night would happen.” Slowly the box opened to reveal a golden necklace with a stone matching the central star of Twilight’s cutie mark with a stone matching Celestia’s mark at it’s center as the pendent. Twilight’s eyes dilated and she inhaled sharply. A shaky hoof rose and poked the pendent tentatively, as though afraid it might vanish if it was checked. She hesitantly looked back to Celestia, her expression begging for this to be true. Celestia nodded in response. “I have loved you for years, long before I even knew it myself. That love has grown through every trial you have overcome and every moment we have spent separated by distance. I don’t want that distance anymore though, I want you here with me. Forever.”
“Tia, are you...” Before her question was finished the necklace was wrapped in a golden glow and lifted into the air. The simple clasp was opened and the chain was wrapped around Twilight’s neck, an almost inaudible click was heard as the clasp was closed. Twilight almost stumbled as the weight of the pendant fell around her neck. She lifted the pendant in her hoof and stared at in awe.
“Twilight Sparkle, my love, would you do me the honor of marrying me?” Celestia shifted nervously in the silence that followed. Twilight’s gaze was riveted to the necklace and she stood stone still. “Twilight?” A tinge of worry coated Celestia’s voice and she rose to her hooves. Carefully she reached out and poked Twilight in the shoulder. “Twilight?”
The hoof had barely made contact with the frozen mare before joy burst forth from Twilight and she seemed to explode into action. In a single moment she moved from where she had stood motionless to wrapped around her fiance’s neck in a bone crushing hug. A single long high pitched sound issued from her lips but if one took a moment to listen closer they could hear a single word repeated endlessly. “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”
Celestia wrapped her front hooves around Twilight, returning the hug with a bit more gentleness. With a bit of effort she was able to pull Twilight away enough to give her a warm kiss. “You are so adorable.”
Twilight's wings wrapped around Celestia and she pulled her in for a deeper kiss. “And you are the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.”
Author's Note
Thanks to my editor Sonicontinuum.
