A Broken Sea of Ice

As it turned out, that wacko bug had interrupted a wedding of all things. As if the invasion itself wasn’t evil enough. My bad mood didn’t last long, though. After all, a glance to my right where Celestia had yet to let go of my side and was resting her head on my shoulder contently was always going to bring a smile to my face.

After the festivities had passed and a round of showers, everyone I had freed from the cocoons personally along with the newlyweds had gathered in the dining hall.

“Alright, buddy, who are you and why is Princess Celestia so clingy around you?!” The rainbow-maned mare asked bluntly, getting most of the other mares to roll their eyes or shake their heads in exasperation except for the purple mare who sighed.

“Rainbow, while I would normally be mad about you being so tactless, I think being blunt is rather appropriate in this situation.” The mare’s words were accompanied by a glare in my direction.

Celestia looked back at her with a fond smile.

“Twilight, my dearest student, didn’t I ever tell you why I had never pursued a relationship, despite your occasional attempt on Hearts and Hooves day?” She gave a small giggle at the blush on her apparent student’s face.

“Ummm, no, I don’t think you ever did.” That sobered up my beloved, and so she cleared her throat.

“Ah, my apologies then. It seems that an explanation is in order.” Celestia sighed, “This began about 30 years before Luna’s banishment. We had been, at that point, rulers for at most a century. We believed that we had seen just about everything there was to see.”

“Indeed,” Luna continued, “That was what we thought until the storm came. It struck without warning, with no input from anyone. That wasn’t the first time, though. There is always a storm like that every few centuries or so. In fact, if I remember right we’re about due for another one, aren’t we sister?”

“We are, but that is a topic for another time.” Luna nodded in agreement before Celestia picked the story back up, “Anyway, we immediately ordered everyone to the underground shelters and called on the weather teams to help disperse it as was our established method of dealing with these storms. This time, however, the storm was even more severe than usual. A tornado appeared in the center of town, lightning strikes destroyed several buildings, and the rain created floods that scattered the rubble further.”

“It was to the point where we ourselves had to fly up and try to help the weather teams. We fought it for hours until the storm began to act strangely.” Luna spoke again, “The rain began to be absorbed into the tornado, to the point that it became a waterspout. The floodwaters rose and formed a sphere inside the spout before lightning struck the sphere. That caused a figure to come flying out at high speed towards the ground. My sister, the noble soul that she is, flew down and managed to catch the figure before they hit the ground.”

“That figure...Was me.” I began my part of the story now, “I didn’t remember much of my life before that point at the time, just my name. Anyway, when I opened my eyes and saw Celestia as the sun shined down upon her, I asked if she was an angel before I passed out.”

“Percy was badly injured. He looked as if he had come out of a warzone.” Celestia said with a slight blush at the memory, “I was one of the main caretakers, as most of our other medical forces were helping to treat any injuries on ponies who had been caught in the storm before they could reach the shelters.”

“Over the time we interacted, Celestia and I slowly began to fall for each other.” I said, my smile soft in remembrance, “It wasn’t instant, hell it was slow as a sloth thanks to me being denser than a rock. When I was fully healed, I would have left, had Celestia not confessed before I could go.”

“I remember that moment,” Luna said with a mischievous smile, “You tried to get the words out for at least a minute before you decided that actions would be louder and kissed him on the lips. The looks on your faces…Ha!”

Celestia and I were both blushing tomato red, which brought giggles from the mares and a chuckle from the lone stallion at the table.

“Things were great, at least for a while. Then Nightmare Moon appeared…” Luna trailed off, her face one of shame as she lowered her head. I reached over and put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s not your fault, that damn monster possessed you and corrupted your mind. If you had been in your right mind then you never would have done it.” I said with a comforting smile, before turning back to the others, “When Nightmare was on the verge of being defeated, she decided that she had to have the last laugh. She cast a spell that forcibly brought my memories to the surface and forced me to relive the worst of them repeatedly. Considering that most of them were particularly traumatizing, my mind snapped. I would have done severe damage, and probably could have killed a lot of ponies. I couldn’t risk it, and so I flew out over the sea and dived into the deepest crevice I could find before binding myself to the bottom with chains of magic that even I couldn’t break at that point.”

“I followed him as far as I could and saw where he fell.” Celestia began to finish up the tale, “I’d thought that he was dead, and so I honored his memory every year on the day of his ‘death’ by dropping a bag of-”

“Sakura and rose petals.” I interrupted, getting a wide-eyed stare, “I remember. Every year, even in my fractured state, I saw those petals fall into the depths around me. It was one of the main things that gave me hope and kept me going in my attempts to pull myself together. It may have taken me more than 1000 years, but you still never forgot me.”

My smile became watery as I put my other hand on Celestia’s, “You could have moved on, I would have understood. Instead, you stayed loyal to my memory and that means everything to me.”

Celestia smiled with tears in her eyes as well and embraced me. With that, the floodgates opened, and we began to let the feelings we had been holding back run free. The grief of separation and the pure joy of reuniting with our beloved other halves. It took a few moments for us to calm down, and at that point, we noticed that the others had joined in on the crowded around us and joined in on the hug. My smile widening, I pulled back and wiped my eyes as Luna put a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m convinced, such a level of emotion could never be faked. I’m sorry I ever doubted you Perseus.” She said with a soft, apologetic smile.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Luna. It’s only reasonable that you were skeptical.” I replied with a nod.

With that, everyone returned to their seats and we began to enjoy a happy dinner that began with introductions before being filled with nothing but happiness and joyful conversations.