Celestia and I

This chapter is done by f0xhole, the new author. All credit goes to him for writing this chapter. Enjoy!

The sun shone through a crack in the curtains as I awoke; a yawn escaped my lungs as I tried to stretch my arm out, only to find it trapped beneath Celestia’s muzzle, her hooves around my chest. It was hard not to smile, even thinking of the awkward circumstances that brought us back together- she was just too beautiful as she lay there, the sheets rising with her breathing.

I tried to edge my wrist free without waking her as I felt the pins and needles starting to creep up, but a sudden movement let me know that it was in vain. Celestia shuffled her head and opened her eyes gently. As we caught each other’s eyes, a caught a glimpse of a tiny smile and blush in her fur, an expression I had no doubt mirrored my own.

Her face fell into a slight grimace as she removed her front leg from my body. “Just so that you know, Nick, I’m still very upset about what happened. This…” she gestured to the bedsheets. “…does not erase that. Everything I said last night still applies, understand?”

I nodded meekly. “I know. But…” I hesitated. I knew I had to be careful going forward from here on out. I’d already screwed up once, and I had no intention of doing so again. “…I…I really do love you, Tia…” I trailed off as she glared at me; I guess I had lost ‘nickname privileges’ for the time being. “Celestia, I want to make this work. I want us to be together again, but…I’ll understand if you don’t want that anymore.” I tried to look away, but Celestia put her hoof over my cheek, preventing me from moving.

“Nick, I DO want that. I told you, EVERYTHING I said yesterday is still true today. I want us to get back on track together, but…I need time.”

I tried to smile even as I fought back a tear; really, it was better than I could have hoped for. “Uh, I don’t suppose you’re hungry, are you?” I asked as my own stomach began to grumble.

Celestia giggled; oh how I wished I could hear that wonderful sound every day of my life. “I suppose we should get up then, shouldn’t we?”

Walking over to the doorway, I turned back to find myself face to face with the solar princess. “So…” I stammered. “Eggs?”

“Please.” She smiled.

We walked down the hall together, trying to avoid any awkward moments. So it was only natural that that damn cat would rush in from kitchen and trip me up, sending me sprawling face first to the ground. Wiping the frayed fibres from my tongue, I looked up to see Celestia with her hoof over her mouth trying not to giggle. “Well, I’m glad my pain brings you some comfort, Princess,” I muttered. In truth though, I really was glad that some of the tension had been eased. Perhaps I’ll refrain from strangling that cat the next time I see it, after all.

“Oh, come now,” Celestia chuckled as she held a hoof out and pulled me up. “I’m sure you would have done the sa...” Celestia’s stomach growled, interrupting her.

“Oh dear, not even out of Equestria for one day and you’re already losing your Princess charm,” I said, trying not to crack a grin. Celestia’s only response was to poke her tongue out at me, and trot past, pulling a packet of bread out with her magic.

I pulled the eggs from the fridge and started frying them up, smiling; just joking around with Her made me feel better about us being able to work everything out in time. I heard the toaster go off behind me, and saw Celestia walk over to the table from the corner of my eye. Once the eggs were cooked through, I brought them over and served them up, dipping some bread into the yolk.

Celestia glanced up at me as we ate, quickly looking back down at her food when she saw that I was looking at her as well. She kept opening her mouth as if to say something, but just went back to eating instead. I didn’t think was possible to actually ‘hear’ silence, but the awkwardness of that moment made me realise just how untrue that assumption was; incidentally, silence sounds an awful lot like being royally fucked.

…in the bad kind of way, not in the ‘last night’ kind of way.

“Celestia, I…”

“Nick, I will be returning to Equestria this afternoon. Alone,” she said, her eyes still focused on her plate. Her tone and expression were so neutral I almost thought she must have meant to ask for the salt and gotten confused.

“I…what?”

“Please do not think that this has been a rash decision on my part. I believe that the two of need some time alone to contemplate this matter, and I have come to a decision.” With that, she got up and nodded her head towards the bedroom. I staggered out of my chair and followed, hoping against hope that she wasn’t saying what I thought she was.

By the time I reached my room, Celestia was inspecting the section of wall across from the bed, running her hoof across it. “Yes…yes this should do,” I heard her muttering.

“Celestia, what did you…” The rest of the sentence got caught in my throat as Celestia horn glowed, the wall lighting up in response and I held my hands up to shield my eyes from the blinding radiance. Once I felt the light dim, I lowered my eyes and gasped at what I saw. Where a blank wall had previously been, I could now see…well…not much. A large rectangle of darkness sat upon the wall, with a golden shine embroidering its boundary, which, to be fair, looked pretty…pretty, but it’s hard to make nothing look impressive.

“What IS that?” I asked, surprised that Celestia’s only response was to giggle like child.

“Well, I suppose from a certain point of view, it’s an artificial barrier that divides points in space as defined by their function for the purpose of convenience.”

“…buh…?”

Celestia laughed. “It’s a door.”

“That’s…okay, but…” I felt a weight on my shoulders as I tried to compose my thoughts. I turned to see Celestia smiling, her hooves around me in a light embrace.

“I’m going home, and I want you to follow me.”

“But…” I hesitated before continuing.  “I thought you were going to go back by yourself?

“Yes. And I want you to stay and think about whether this is what you really want. And…think about whether you really want to follow.”

“Of course I…”

“Nick.” Celestia looked at me firmly. “One day. It took you less than one day from meeting my sister to be unfaithful, and I want you to spend the same time thinking this over. If after that you still want to see me… Well. You know I’ll be waiting.”

I sat down on the bed, trying to avoid looking anywhere but my shoes. “So… you’re leaving, then?”

Celestia stretched over and nuzzled my cheek, smiling. “Hmmm… not just yet. I wouldn’t mind taking some rest before returning; and I’d like it if we could just spend some time together before I go.”

I did my best to smile as I returned the hug. “That sounds wonderful.”

“That would be 8-2 to me, no?” Celestia giggled as she put her controller down, lifting a glass of water with her magic.

I sighed as I leaned back into the couch. It was true- with all that had gone on, it was hard to concentrate on the games. It was hard enough to remember what we were even playing, and I was doing poorly (not that I would have done much better, I suspected, if I had been concentrating).

Looking out the window, I saw the orange sky beginning to dim. I wondered if Luna was also bringing the sun down in Equestria, but immediately shook that train of thought off. “So Celestia, I guess it would be alright if you stayed for dinner before you went?”

She giggled in response. “Well it’s a little early for that, don’t you…” She trailed off as she looked around the room. “Oh my. It has gotten late, hasn’t it? Well, I suppose I could stay just a little longer. I really do need to leave soon though; it wouldn’t do to have ponies worrying so soon after I got back.”

“Yeah, I guess…Wait.” I stopped, and felt Celestia bump into my shoulder. “How did you get back to Equestria in the first place? And get back here again?”

“Hmm?” Celestia looked up, distractedly. “Oh, I just used Luna’s trace across the leylines that intersected the worlds to find bearings in the ethereal plane, and then followed that to reach Equestria; from there it’s a matter of finding the direct route instead of having to search…”

“Magic, got it.”

Celestia snickered in a very un-regal like manner. “Yes, indeed.” She nodded her head toward the kitchen. “Shall we?”

A few minutes later, the two of us were munching down our sandwiches. As Celestia finished her last bite she stood and nudged me to the bedroom. “I’m sorry Nick, but I really have to leave now.” I nodded sadly, and she came over and gave me one last hug. “I hope I’ll see you tomorrow, Nick,” she said as she kissed me gently on lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Tia,” I whispered. She gave me a sad smile as she turned and walked through the gateway, leaving me on my own once more.

I stood staring at the doorway for several minutes before crawling into bed, not even bothering to clean up in the kitchen or change into pyjamas. As I lay there, alone for the first time in months, all I could think was that the cold and silence of the house felt far harsher than they had before Celestia had come into my life.