At the Behest of the Heavens: A TTIGRAAP Tale

It is now the evening of the same day. Rose had taken some time to refresh himself with a shower and a good, long nap. Celestia had been kind enough to allow him to rest in her bedroom, and he is now walking back out into the main sitting room. His hair is slightly mussed but otherwise, he feels remarkably refreshed after the double dicking down he afforded his other teacher earlier in the day.

Celestia smiles as she sees him emerge from her room, knowing that he would be going back in all too soon. This time with her in tow. “Well, good evening, sleepyhead.” She teases gently in that soft, kind voice of hers. She seems to have been waiting for him to awake, there is a platter on the coffee table in the sitting room upon which sits some nice, hot-looking tea in two cups. A kettle between them likely contains more.

“Mphhh…yeah, thanks, Celestia.” He says in a still somewhat groggy but pleasing voice as he goes to sit in the chair opposite her. He uses his magic to try to straighten up his hair a bit. It had been a bit harder to manage ever since it started doing that thing where it waves on its own, but he’s been managing fine enough. “Thanks for letting me have a bit of time to recover. I was er…pretty beat after all of that erm…exercise…”

She chuckles softly at his awkward phrasing, waving at him nonchalantly with a hoof. “Oh Come now, I’ve been around the block myself once or twice. And I certainly know what the two of you were getting up to. I mean, I even got to actually see some of it.” She says with a small smirk as she sips at her drink. Here, sit down with your dear old mother for a bit and let’s talk. It’s been so long since we’ve been able to talk face to face like this. You know how much I used to adore our breakfast sitdowns…” She says, seeming a little sad as she reminisces over the past.

He nods and takes a seat opposite to her, smiling and trying to reassure her. “Yeah, I’ll admit breakfast feels a little bit less complete without the two of you there,” he says, rubbing at one of his forelegs with the other as he speaks. “Have you ever considered visiting? You know the castle is always open to you as a guest if you wanted to stay for a day, or two….or several.”

She giggles softly at his sweet little invitation, placing a hoof beneath her chin and playfully pondering it for a moment. “Hmmmm, Well, I suppooooose if you really miss me that much I could make some time to stop by for a while. I’m sure Luna would be happy to accompany me. Though it would be a shame if we missed bingo night…”

He gives a small cackle at this and smiles a bit wider. “Just as quick on your hooves as ever, Celestia. Please, never change.”

“Oh, you have nothing to worry about there. When you start getting around my age, you find that change comes less and less readily. Soon you'll be looking back on your life and it’ll be as if nothing about you has changed at all in decades.” She says almost a bit sadly as she smiles down at him in that doting, concerned way he was all too familiar with. That look that said that she just wanted to put him away in a nice cozy room and keep him away from all of the burdens the world had to offer him.

Honestly, there were days when he wished he could simply surrender himself utterly to those eyes, to indulge her deep yearning to nurture and protect as he had in his earliest days at the castle. But he is a stallion with far more responsibilities now, and many more years and experiences behind him, and to indulge her would be to insult the culmination of all of her hard work in caring for him as well as she had. Through all of her faults, she truly did care, and he would never stoop so low as to succumb to his weakness and shame her, even to grant her dearest wish.

Though perhaps, he can pretend with her, just for today. Pretend like he is still that vulnerable, helpless little colt she saw his ass when he first arrived and allow himself to be swept up in her embrace one more time.

“I hope that those days are still a good ways off for me, Celestia. As much as I do admittedly wish things could stay the same. Or even sometimes, I wish they could go back to how they are. You aren't the only one who has things they miss about the past you know.” he says as he looks up at her, responding to her doting gaze with a wide-eyed, vulnerable look. One he had not given to her in many years, and one he had not meant more than he did now in even longer.

As he meets her eyes that way, her own widen slightly and her breath catches in a fetching, almost eager manner that belied her hopes as her cheeks turned a soft, subtle pink that barely registered against even the softest tones of the color that normally graced her creamy fur. “R-really now…? And what might some of those things you miss so dealy be, my…dearest son?”

He smiles sheepishly at the term of endearment, but more so in the tone it was used in. it was affectionate of course, but gently dripped with underlying tinges of desire and invitation that only a master of subtlety possessing the elder Princess’ years of experience could layer together meaningfully. He responds slowly, looking down at the teacup he held in his hives. “Well, I will admit that you always did make me feel very…safe, and comfortable around you. You always seemed to know just what to say, and just how to comfort me when I needed it most. I guess I just sort of miss being your…what did you use to call me…your little rosebud?”

He does not need to look up from his beverage to guess at her expression. Excited, but hesitant to press the matter, eyes doubtless a fraction of an inch wider than is appropriate to match her normal calm, controlled demeanor as he hears her breath audibly hitch at the way he practically purrs out the old pet name. He slowly brings the cup to his lips and sips, giving a satisfied hum. “Mnnnn nothing like a nice hot cup of tea to get you up in the morning. Except maybe a cup of coffee…”

“Hm, I will have to politely disagree there.” She says with a small, wry smile as she brings her own cup to her lips and sips softly, catching to the game now. It was not a matter of if he wanted to indulge, but simply when they would finally walk together into her bedroom to do so. “My dearest little Rosebud, you know that your mother will always be happy to allow you to bask in her embrace. I will always be there for you if you need a place to rest your weary head and dry your tears.” She says in a gentle, matronly tone as she continues to observe him. “What we will be doing here tonight is simply an extension of that intimacy we already share”

She sets her teacup down again and smirks a bit more obviously, raising an eyebrow. “Granted it may be an…unconventional extension, but if you have lived as long as I have without venturing outside of convention now and again you have certainly not been living so much as simply existing while being alive. Wouldn’t you agree, my Princeling?

“I-I suppose you have a point there. I have certainly had some unconventional moments in my own journey, and I imagine I will have quite a few more before the end of it…” he says, it now being his turn to blush. His coat, though far pinker than her own, did a much poorer job of hiding his considerably heavier blush. The silly colt should know better than to think to combat a roaring blaze with a simple candlelight.

She decides to press her little offensive “So then…Speaking of unconventional, How was my sister hm? I will admit I am a bit jealous that she got to go first. And Second” She says with a slight playful digging tone to her otherwise soothing, gentle voice as she looks him slowly up and down. “I imagine it went well? It must have, I can still smell the grapes on you even after your shower. That unconventional little romp must have gotten you both quite hot and bothered, yes?”

He chokes slightly on his beverage at the sound of this teasing remark from the former Diarch. He thumps his chest wide-eyed and flails a bit before managing to swallow and respond. “I-it was excellent, yes. She er…certainly put me through my paces. I haven’t gone into rut that way since Applejack jumped me on our five year anniversary with the…erm, sorry, I am sure it’s a bit inappropriate to be talking about my encounters with other mares, given the circumstances…” he says sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his head with one of his hooves and smiling at her apologetically.

“Oh no, Rose. It’s fine. Really, you should enjoy these things while you can. You are in the flower of your youth, if you will forgive the pun,.” She says with a small chuckle as she observes him with a gentle, motherly pride on her face. “You only get to be less than a century old once, after all. Before you know it, all of the pleasures the world can bring you will slowly become more mundane. Your power will grow as your connection to the physical becomes less important to you and you turn inwards. It is rewarding in its own right, of course, but what you have now is special to an immortal. Savor it while you can.”

He blinks slowly at her little lecture, feeling a bit less at ease than he had before she started. “Uh…yeah. I’m honestly still not really used to the whole idea of living forever. I mean, I’m still in my thirties. Even if I were mortal I would still have more than half of my life ahead of me.” He says as he looks down at the ground for a few long moments. “I still have so much I wanna do with so many ponies. It’s just hard to imagine life without them, o…or wanting to live without them, you know…?”

She falters as she sees him suddenly downtrodden by his own thoughts and realizes that the direction of the conversation has become less conducive to her initial teasing. She takes a different angle, the angle he needed her to take. The one that would all but surely seal the deal.

As he continues to look down, he feels a comforting hoof come to rest on his shoulder. He looks up to see her, the mare who had taken him under her wing so many years ago, smiling comfortingly at him in that same way she always had. In that same way she likely always would whenever he was down on himself. “My faithful student. No, my dearest Son,” she says, taking her hoof from his shoulder and cupping his cheek gently. “That is exactly what I mean, treasure those feelings while you can still feel them in their full intensity. Don’t let a day pass by where you don’t embrace the fullness of your own joy, or despair, or hope, or sorrow…or love…”

She slowly leans forward, pressing her lips to his own gently and humming as she strokes his mane soothingly. As her wings close around him he feels as he always had in that position. Comforted, safe. He leans into the kiss more deeply, wrapping his hooves almost needily around her neck and drawing the two of them closer until their chests pressed against one another firmly. He clings to her, giving a soft mewl against her lips as she utters her own low, content moan at the feeling.

When their lips separate, both of their faces are flushed, his more than hers. She chuckles softly as her horn begins to glow, her aura encompassing him.

He squeals with surprise as she lifts him in her arcane grasp and carries him back towards her bedroom. “Mnnn, you’ll have to forgive my eagerness, Rose, but it’s been far too long. Momma needs this.”

He blushes heavily at this, his member already beginning to unsheathe sheerly at the tone of voice she took with him when those words left her mouth. “Y-yes Mom…” he says simply, obediently relaxing and allowing himself to be carried as he makes a small silent prayer to the powers that be that he will come out of the other end of this with his pelvis intact. It is mostly a matter of course however, he knows it will be fine.

And if it wasn’t, Celestia would do what she had always done.

She’d make things better, even if only a little.