The Roses of Princess Celestia
It was that night again. It was dark and glorious; a full moon stretched across the sky in a blue effulgence; shining on a dutiful princess ambling towards an odd-looking door at the end of the hall, in her lonesome.
The immaculate goddess cast magic upon the door to unlock it. It creaked open, revealing a staircase leading down into darkness, allowing the majestic princess passage. She strode down the stairs and reached the base, then she stared at a peculiar door requiring a unique spell.
The door was old and rotted with a symbol of a vase with roses etched into the wood. Her Radiance gazed at the door in solace, buried deep in thought.
The sun princess took a deep breath and exhaled, her horn glowing an odd blue and uttering an incantation.
Illustrious light of the annals of my history, elucidate my mind and bestow upon me access to more troubled times; reveal to me my past.
It was a spell of recollection. The door shifted and creaked open to allow the sun princess access into The Room of Remembrance. It is space intentionally blocked off that only Princess Celestia can enter.
It was a small room, dark, and warm. It would be vacant if it wasn't for a desk, an unlit torch above the desk, and the vase with roses, however, they were different colors.
Princess Celestia approached the roses and lit the torch with her magic. The sun princess then loomed over the roses with a look of guilt and sadness before closing her eyes.
Each rose within the vase signifies an event that had an impact altering Princess Celestia's life. Profound as that sounds, these roses are not happy or cheerful.
Red Rose: a rose Princess Celestia keeps within the deepest chamber where not even her sister, Princess Luna, is allowed to tread. The rose is from the past and signifies a pony by the title of Epoch.
A close friend of Princess Celestia in her younger days, the Epoch pony was a scholar who paved the path to new forms of magic that are used in modern-day Equestria. At one point during Princess Celestia's life, possibly amid her coronation, she had to banish her closest friend, for an evil took hold.
The red rose is Princess Celestia's inexperience to revert her friend to normal and it stays in the castle's deepest chamber as a stark reminder of her failure.
Ashen Rose: a rare rose that grows only in the Dragon Lands, the ashen rose is kept in the deepest chamber where none are permitted, except for Princess Celestia, to set a hoof inside. The rose signifies a pony who became one of Princess Celestia's first friends when she was a filly.
The last of his kind, a stallion wandered the scarred and barren lands by himself until the young Princess Celestia approached him and sought to be his friend. She crafted from her mother's jewels a necklace to give the lone wanderer as a symbol of their newfound friendship, which the stallion accepted as his most prized possession.
The ashen rose is timeless, like Princess Celestia, who regrets her immortality as all of her friends will pass on while she persists. It signifies loneliness.
Black Rose: a personal rose kept locked away from eyes that aren't Princess Celestia's. The rose is from her middle years and it signifies a pony, the first pupil, that felt betrayed, and, in turn, caused a betrayal.
A prodigy who wanted to learn more and more about magic felt betrayed by Princess Celestia, who repeatedly impeded the prodigious pony's growth. Princess Celestia took everything that had to do with magic away from the prodigy, but this had only caused frustration and resentment.
The prodigy took a trail down to a forbidden place and found a tome of darkness. She had read its contents and slowly became changed, by her own volition, and sought to show Princess Celestia her folly, but it didn't come to be. They fought, and although Princess Celestia nearly perished, she won in the end and confined the prodigy away within the earth.
The black rose is Princess Celestia's overbearing fear that caused more harm than good. She drove the prodigy, which she loved like a daughter, to desperation and sin, and thus, blames herself for her daughter's descent into evil.
Blue Rose: a rose kept secret from the world that is stored within a chamber that only Princess Celestia is allowed entry. The rose is the most recent as it is around 300 years old. It signifies an event that Princess Celestia will come to regret all her life.
The Frozen North, a land of ice and frost, was melting because a thief stole a gem that kept the land from thawing. After Princess Celestia, the king, and queen of the Frozen North reclaimed the gem, an avalanche was barreling towards a village called Boreal Hills.
The queen stopped the avalanche with all her magical might, but the amount of magic she used left her weak as she fell to the ground, dying from exhaustion. The king could not use magic to save his wife, but Princess Celestia is the only alicorn at that time who could use a sacred white magic spell that could revitalize anybody's vitality as long as the target was alive.
However, casting the spell did not work no matter how many times Princess Celestia struggled. In a matter of minutes, the queen was lifeless. White magic requires an obscene amount of strength, and Princess Celestia wasn't as strong as she was in her youth, and too weak to save the queen.
The blue rose signifies death and frailty. If Princess Celestia was stronger, she would have prevented the death of the queen of the Frozen North.
Regretfully, it is the only rose that wilts.
Reminders of her failures ground Princess Celestia in reality; a truth that she is no god. You can't fix everything, you can't right your wrongs, and you have to live with that. Your failures are forever.