Guilty as Charged - Epiloguesby The Equestrian GentlecoltChaptersEnding 1 - The StudentEnding 2 - The ExileEnding 3 - The AuthorEnding 1 - The Student"You are a fool, dear sister." The silky voice of the Princess of the Night slid into the bedroom between the pattering of rain against the window and the howling of wind outside, even as the princess herself coalesced out of the shadows of the storm. Celestia looked up from where she lay before the crackling fire in the hearth to meet her sister's eyes with a slight frown. "I don't know what you mean, Luna." "You know exactly what I mean." The shadowy figure stepped forward, towering over her sister. "A thousand years you were gone, a thousand years I was alone--again!--and for what?" "You know full well why I did it, Luna," Celestia answered gently. "The wound needed time to heal. Equestria needed time to heal. My presence would have only worn at the scab." "Equestria needed time to forget, you mean," her sister spat. "To forget your involvement. To forget that it was you who stole our Twilight Sparkle from us." Anger flashed across Celestia's face, but then it was gone, quickly replaced again by her serene mask. "It was not my hoof that took her life, Luna." "And I made them believe that. For a thousand years I manipulated the story of the Lost Princess. I told it and retold it until your sins were buried with the passage of time. Until they were ready to welcome you back with open hearts. And what do I get for a thousand years spent ruling alone in your stead? What do I get for a thousand years without the sister who I had only just been reunited with?" "You get a healed Equestria and a healed sister, Luna. The wound in my own heart needed time too, you--" "I got a mare who had learned nothing from her mistakes! A mare who still clings to the past. But did you tell your dear sister? No, of course not! You hid it, because you're ashamed!" Luna's voice rose as she spoke, and her wings flared outward as she towered over her sister, her mane snapping angrily as if caught by the wind outside. Celestia shook her head. "I was going to tell you, Luna, it just hadn't come up. Really, you need to calm down. You're letting your passions get the better of you." "I think it's your passions that we should worry about, dear sister." "Now, Luna, that's not--" "Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?" A new voice broke into their conversation, barely above the pounding of the rain. The princesses turned to see a young, blue-coated unicorn filly watching them from under the bangs of her tousled magenta mane. "Is everything okay? I thought I heard shouting." Celestia's impassive expression melted immediately into a gentle smile. "Everything is fine, Evening Star. Princess Luna and I were just talking." "Okay. Can Miss Smarty Pants and I sleep with you tonight?" The filly held up a ragged doll that she had been carrying across her back. "She's scared of the thunder." Celestia laughed lightly and lifted a wing, and the filly trotted over and nestled snugly against her side. "Of course you can." She looked up again into her sister's eyes, which were now filled with undisguised disgust. "All wounds heal with time, Luna. And it's high time that I realized that and stopped keeping myself so distant from our little ponies." She leaned down for a moment to gently nuzzle the young unicorn at her side. "Don't you agree, my faithful student?" Ending 2 - The ExileThe air stinks of antiseptic. The ancient white alicorn wrinkles her nose, flapping her wings half-heartedly, as if doing so might ward away the unpleasant smell. "I hate hospitals," she says with a sigh. "You would think that after seven thousand years as a princess, they could have at least found me a dignified place to die." The room provides no answer but the quiet beeping of machinery. Celestia shoots the device a glare, but she's used up the last of her strength in vaporizing the last three, and her horn emits nothing but a few sad sparks. The doctors have been very patient with her, all things considered. She's still royalty after all. "Tell me what happened next," her companion prompts gently. Celestia's ears twitch; the voice is naggingly familiar. "I... don't want to talk about it," she says, pawing a hoof against the sterile white sheets of her bed. She knows she's being childish now, but surely even a princess can be allowed to spend her final hours in peace. "Please?" her companion asks. "You'll feel better if you do." Celestia doesn't have the will to refuse. And, suddenly, she finds that she doesn't want to. I left. I didn't stop to pack anything, or even tell anypony where I was going. I just spread my wings and flew, as hard and as far as I could. I didn't stop until Equestria was beyond even my sight. A thousand years passed before I returned. I don't... remember much of that time. I remember grief, and an overwhelming guilt. Even now, when the tears have long since run dry, the guilt remains as strong as ever. And my poor, poor Luna. She woke up that evening to the most terrible news that any pony could ever receive. Her dearest friend dead by her own sister's doing, and that sister flown away to nopony knew where, for nopony knew how long. I don't know how she survived those first few years. Yet she waited for me, eternally faithful to her sister despite all of her sins. I could not have asked for a better sister. My poor, faithful Luna. She took control of my sun when I left. She had to. But she was strong, and she wrestled it into the sky every morning, even as she lowered her own moon. And, as weary as she became from the task that I had left her, she wouldn't stop there. She couldn't. She took the Throne of the Sun, ruling over our little ponies in my stead. Even as I retreated from our kingdom, nursing the wound in my heart, my strong, wise sister kept them on the right path. It was because of her, and her alone, that Equestria did not fall into ruin because of my foolishness. It was a time of great sadness for our kingdom, but it was not a dark time. Indeed, once thrown into the role, Luna turned out to be a ruler of as much wisdom and temperance as I had ever been. Probably even more. And it was because of her, and her alone, that I was welcomed back with open hearts by our little ponies on the day of my return. The tale of the "Lost Princess" had been told and retold over the centuries until no hint of my part in the tragedy remained, and I could see her hoofwork in every word. I didn't deserve their love, but I accepted it. I didn't deserve her forgiveness, but I accepted it. I took control of the sun once again, and after some time, I even dared to rule again beside my sister. But some part of me never returned from that journey. I sometimes think that part of me never left the theater where we held that sham of a trial, the rapist sitting in judgment over the murderer. I was always distant after that, never letting anypony see me without the mask of the Princess. And I never took another student. Because, even if I were to forgive myself, I could never have the forgiveness of the one pony I truly needed it from. Tears she thought had run dry long ago begin to fall as the old alicorn lowers her head. "Twilight..." she whispers. Within her mind, she clutches at the image of her faithful student: a worn, tattered memory, blurred and distorted by centuries of imperfect recall, but no less beautiful for it. A strong, wise young mare with sparkling eyes and a pure, innocent heart. The friend she should have had. The lover she should never have taken. If only... "I'm here." Celestia looks up in confusion as that familiar voice speaks again, then her eyes widen in disbelief. The haze of age around her most precious memory shatters and falls away like so much cloudstuff, burned away by the reality of the unicorn before her. "And I forgive you." Twilight Sparkle's eyes are gentle as she smiles down at the ancient princess. Celestia leaps to her hooves, the weariness of her body forgotten. Tubes jerk taut and needles slip free of their places as the alicorn struggles to free herself of the trappings of her infirmity. "Twilight!" she cries out joyously. Then she grows serious as the full gravity of the situation reaches her. "Does this mean that it's really time to go?" Twilight nods once, gravely. Celestia slumps, but it's a relieved gesture, as if the weight the world has finally been lifted from her once-mighty back. Which, truly, it has. "You came for me?" she asks her former student. Twilight Sparkle smiles. "I did. I've been waiting." She offers a hoof to her mentor. "It's beautiful on the other side. Come on, I'll show you." Celestia smiles, but her eyes go to the window. "Thank you, Twilight. But there is one last thing I must do before I go." "Of course," Twilight replies. "I'll wait for you there." With a final shake of her body, Celestia dislodges the last of the patches and needles that tie her to the machines around her. A device begins to sound an alarm, but she vaporizes it with a flick of her head. Surely, the doctors will forgive a dying princess one last indulgence, after all. She throws open the windows of her room and, without another moment's hesitation, she leaps out. Great white wings spread wide once more, and she soars upward. And as she reaches the peak of her flight, high in the blue dome of the sky, the shackles of mortality fall away. In that moment, she is once again Princess Celestia of the Sun, as bright and powerful as her celestial charge's shining rays. Then light blazes across the sky. Ponies all across the kingdom look up, raising hooves to shield their eyes from the blinding glory of their princess's final gift to them. Warmth, peace, and love seem to surround them as the light radiates outward, then slowly fades. An alicorn has returned to the earth. Somewhere in Equestria, a foal with both wings and a horn takes her first breath. And on the other side of the veil, two friends sit down for doughnuts and coffee in an old shop that once stood in Canterlot, watched over by a tan, brown-maned unicorn stallion with a gentle smile on his face. Ending 3 - The AuthorThen Celestia delivers her judgment. The last inches of the scroll closed with a final-sounding rustle of parchment, and Celestia peered over it at her student with an unreadable expression. Twilight shifted nervously in her seat, ears pinning uncertainly. "Do you... do you like it? Never mind, that's a stupid question. Of course you don't. It's a terrible story, terrible things happen, you probably think I'm a terrible pony for writing it..." "Twilight." The mare's babbling halted as soon as her mentor spoke. "Walk with me." Celestia stood from her place, and Twilight followed her lead silently. They exited the private library and turned west, down one of the multitude of hallways that crisscrossed Canterlot Castle. It was empty except for them and the occasional guard. "You were very brave to show that to me." Twilight studied her hooves. "It... seemed like the right thing to do." "It was. And so was writing it in the first place." "It... was?" Twilight looked up in surprise. Her mentor's expression was serious, but not disapproving. In fact, there might have even been a hint of pride... no, surely that was only her imagination. "It was," Celestia confirmed. "Although I would recommend against trying to publish it." A wry smile crossed her features briefly. "Other ponies would certainly get the wrong idea." Twilight laughed nervously. "O-of course." Celestia paused, inspecting her student for a moment, then brushed a reassuring wing over the young mare's back before she resumed her walk. "Everypony has great darkness in their heart, Twilight. You are not alone in that. Even I have desires that I must never act on. It's simply a part of equine nature." Twilight looked up, searching her mentor's face for any sign that she was joking. Surely, she must have been joking. "No you don't," she asserted, but it was more question than statement. Celestia just smiled sadly. "Of course I do, Twilight. If I am a good pony, it is because I don't act on them, not because they aren't there." "You're a good pony." Twilight was certain of that, and her voice reflected her conviction. Celestia laughed and leaned down to nuzzle her affectionately. "I am. And so are you. No, Twilight, don't argue, you really are. But the darkness in the heart of even the purest pony can fester if left unchecked. And do you know what one of the best ways to put reins to that darkness is?" The question was obviously rhetorical. Twilight shook her head silently. "Writing. By letting our imagination run free, we expose feelings that we have been hiding even from ourselves. We may find ourselves confessing, through the mouth of another pony, to thoughts and desires we didn't even realize we had." They stepped through a grand glass door that opened onto a west-facing balcony and came to a stop. Above them, the sun was just beginning to set. Celestia met her student's eyes, and Twilight stared back raptly. "The story you wrote wasn't about me," Celestia continued. "Nor was it about Joe, for that matter. It was about you." Twilight confirmed it with a quiet nod. "And it's not about me taking you as my lover." Twilight shook her head quickly. "I know you wouldn't really--" "I know you do. But the point wasn't whether I would." Celestia paused, and Twilight knew that she was being prompted. It was a another test, like almost everything Celestia did was, in its own way. "The point was... that you could," she ventured, and she knew that it was true as soon as the words left her mouth. "Precisely. Because what you wrote is true; I have great power over you. If I wanted that of you, I could take it, and you would do nothing to stop me." Celestia leaned in closer, and the light of the setting sun shifted, casting one side of her face into shadow. Twilight stepped back, suddenly nervous. "Y-yes..." "And maybe you thought to yourself, 'What if she did want it?' " Celestia's face grew closer, the ruddy light eclipsing her features. "Maybe you thought, 'What if she took it? What would I do? What could I do?' And you though maybe, just maybe... you wouldn't... mind." Twilight realized that their muzzles were almost touching. Suddenly, her story, her innocent little story about something that surely couldn't really happen, flashed through her mind, and her eyes widened in horror. She froze, unable to move to escape the monster that had somehow replaced her beautiful, gentle teacher. Celestia pursed her lips, and another emotion lurked just beneath the surface of her expression, fighting to escape. Then... "Boo." Horror turned to surprise, then to confusion. Twilight fell back onto her haunches and stared at her teacher as that hidden emotion bubbled to the surface and burst forth, erasing the shadows and chasing away all traces of seriousness on the older mare's face. It was laughter. Bright and cheerful, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, Celestia was laughing. Soon Twilight joined in, first with an embarrassed chuckle, but quickly moving on into full-fledged mirth. It hadn't even been that funny, but the relief, the feeling of sudden lightness as her fears and worries were washed away, were more than enough to send her into fits of laughter, finally leaning against her mentor's side for support. Eventually the laughter became giggles, then chuckles, and then it faded into a comfortable silence between the two. In that silence, Celestia laid a wing over the unicorn beside her, pulling her against her side and smiling gently at her. "You are stronger than you think, Twilight Sparkle," she said. "By writing your fears, and daring to bring them to light by showing them to me, you've dealt them a blow from which they will never recover." Twilight smiled up at her. "I do love you, you know, Princess." Celestia returned the smile. "I know. I love you too, Twilight. And one day, when you have become more than my student, when we stand together not as teacher and pupil but as equals, I hope that love will blossom into friendship as well. And then who can truly say what it might become, if we find that we both want it to? But for now..." Twilight knew it was another of Celestia's little tests, in that gentle way of hers. But she had no need to pause to give this one thought, because the answer was written in joyful lettering across her heart. "For now, you're my beloved mentor and I'm your faithful student. And that's the most wonderful thing there is." "I couldn't have said it better myself, my faithful student." And so they laughed, and lay together on the balcony, the little purple unicorn nestled against her princess's side under her great white wing, and watched the sun set as beloved mentor and faithful student. And it was the most wonderful thing there was.
Ending 1 - The Student"You are a fool, dear sister." The silky voice of the Princess of the Night slid into the bedroom between the pattering of rain against the window and the howling of wind outside, even as the princess herself coalesced out of the shadows of the storm. Celestia looked up from where she lay before the crackling fire in the hearth to meet her sister's eyes with a slight frown. "I don't know what you mean, Luna." "You know exactly what I mean." The shadowy figure stepped forward, towering over her sister. "A thousand years you were gone, a thousand years I was alone--again!--and for what?" "You know full well why I did it, Luna," Celestia answered gently. "The wound needed time to heal. Equestria needed time to heal. My presence would have only worn at the scab." "Equestria needed time to forget, you mean," her sister spat. "To forget your involvement. To forget that it was you who stole our Twilight Sparkle from us." Anger flashed across Celestia's face, but then it was gone, quickly replaced again by her serene mask. "It was not my hoof that took her life, Luna." "And I made them believe that. For a thousand years I manipulated the story of the Lost Princess. I told it and retold it until your sins were buried with the passage of time. Until they were ready to welcome you back with open hearts. And what do I get for a thousand years spent ruling alone in your stead? What do I get for a thousand years without the sister who I had only just been reunited with?" "You get a healed Equestria and a healed sister, Luna. The wound in my own heart needed time too, you--" "I got a mare who had learned nothing from her mistakes! A mare who still clings to the past. But did you tell your dear sister? No, of course not! You hid it, because you're ashamed!" Luna's voice rose as she spoke, and her wings flared outward as she towered over her sister, her mane snapping angrily as if caught by the wind outside. Celestia shook her head. "I was going to tell you, Luna, it just hadn't come up. Really, you need to calm down. You're letting your passions get the better of you." "I think it's your passions that we should worry about, dear sister." "Now, Luna, that's not--" "Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?" A new voice broke into their conversation, barely above the pounding of the rain. The princesses turned to see a young, blue-coated unicorn filly watching them from under the bangs of her tousled magenta mane. "Is everything okay? I thought I heard shouting." Celestia's impassive expression melted immediately into a gentle smile. "Everything is fine, Evening Star. Princess Luna and I were just talking." "Okay. Can Miss Smarty Pants and I sleep with you tonight?" The filly held up a ragged doll that she had been carrying across her back. "She's scared of the thunder." Celestia laughed lightly and lifted a wing, and the filly trotted over and nestled snugly against her side. "Of course you can." She looked up again into her sister's eyes, which were now filled with undisguised disgust. "All wounds heal with time, Luna. And it's high time that I realized that and stopped keeping myself so distant from our little ponies." She leaned down for a moment to gently nuzzle the young unicorn at her side. "Don't you agree, my faithful student?"
Ending 2 - The ExileThe air stinks of antiseptic. The ancient white alicorn wrinkles her nose, flapping her wings half-heartedly, as if doing so might ward away the unpleasant smell. "I hate hospitals," she says with a sigh. "You would think that after seven thousand years as a princess, they could have at least found me a dignified place to die." The room provides no answer but the quiet beeping of machinery. Celestia shoots the device a glare, but she's used up the last of her strength in vaporizing the last three, and her horn emits nothing but a few sad sparks. The doctors have been very patient with her, all things considered. She's still royalty after all. "Tell me what happened next," her companion prompts gently. Celestia's ears twitch; the voice is naggingly familiar. "I... don't want to talk about it," she says, pawing a hoof against the sterile white sheets of her bed. She knows she's being childish now, but surely even a princess can be allowed to spend her final hours in peace. "Please?" her companion asks. "You'll feel better if you do." Celestia doesn't have the will to refuse. And, suddenly, she finds that she doesn't want to. I left. I didn't stop to pack anything, or even tell anypony where I was going. I just spread my wings and flew, as hard and as far as I could. I didn't stop until Equestria was beyond even my sight. A thousand years passed before I returned. I don't... remember much of that time. I remember grief, and an overwhelming guilt. Even now, when the tears have long since run dry, the guilt remains as strong as ever. And my poor, poor Luna. She woke up that evening to the most terrible news that any pony could ever receive. Her dearest friend dead by her own sister's doing, and that sister flown away to nopony knew where, for nopony knew how long. I don't know how she survived those first few years. Yet she waited for me, eternally faithful to her sister despite all of her sins. I could not have asked for a better sister. My poor, faithful Luna. She took control of my sun when I left. She had to. But she was strong, and she wrestled it into the sky every morning, even as she lowered her own moon. And, as weary as she became from the task that I had left her, she wouldn't stop there. She couldn't. She took the Throne of the Sun, ruling over our little ponies in my stead. Even as I retreated from our kingdom, nursing the wound in my heart, my strong, wise sister kept them on the right path. It was because of her, and her alone, that Equestria did not fall into ruin because of my foolishness. It was a time of great sadness for our kingdom, but it was not a dark time. Indeed, once thrown into the role, Luna turned out to be a ruler of as much wisdom and temperance as I had ever been. Probably even more. And it was because of her, and her alone, that I was welcomed back with open hearts by our little ponies on the day of my return. The tale of the "Lost Princess" had been told and retold over the centuries until no hint of my part in the tragedy remained, and I could see her hoofwork in every word. I didn't deserve their love, but I accepted it. I didn't deserve her forgiveness, but I accepted it. I took control of the sun once again, and after some time, I even dared to rule again beside my sister. But some part of me never returned from that journey. I sometimes think that part of me never left the theater where we held that sham of a trial, the rapist sitting in judgment over the murderer. I was always distant after that, never letting anypony see me without the mask of the Princess. And I never took another student. Because, even if I were to forgive myself, I could never have the forgiveness of the one pony I truly needed it from. Tears she thought had run dry long ago begin to fall as the old alicorn lowers her head. "Twilight..." she whispers. Within her mind, she clutches at the image of her faithful student: a worn, tattered memory, blurred and distorted by centuries of imperfect recall, but no less beautiful for it. A strong, wise young mare with sparkling eyes and a pure, innocent heart. The friend she should have had. The lover she should never have taken. If only... "I'm here." Celestia looks up in confusion as that familiar voice speaks again, then her eyes widen in disbelief. The haze of age around her most precious memory shatters and falls away like so much cloudstuff, burned away by the reality of the unicorn before her. "And I forgive you." Twilight Sparkle's eyes are gentle as she smiles down at the ancient princess. Celestia leaps to her hooves, the weariness of her body forgotten. Tubes jerk taut and needles slip free of their places as the alicorn struggles to free herself of the trappings of her infirmity. "Twilight!" she cries out joyously. Then she grows serious as the full gravity of the situation reaches her. "Does this mean that it's really time to go?" Twilight nods once, gravely. Celestia slumps, but it's a relieved gesture, as if the weight the world has finally been lifted from her once-mighty back. Which, truly, it has. "You came for me?" she asks her former student. Twilight Sparkle smiles. "I did. I've been waiting." She offers a hoof to her mentor. "It's beautiful on the other side. Come on, I'll show you." Celestia smiles, but her eyes go to the window. "Thank you, Twilight. But there is one last thing I must do before I go." "Of course," Twilight replies. "I'll wait for you there." With a final shake of her body, Celestia dislodges the last of the patches and needles that tie her to the machines around her. A device begins to sound an alarm, but she vaporizes it with a flick of her head. Surely, the doctors will forgive a dying princess one last indulgence, after all. She throws open the windows of her room and, without another moment's hesitation, she leaps out. Great white wings spread wide once more, and she soars upward. And as she reaches the peak of her flight, high in the blue dome of the sky, the shackles of mortality fall away. In that moment, she is once again Princess Celestia of the Sun, as bright and powerful as her celestial charge's shining rays. Then light blazes across the sky. Ponies all across the kingdom look up, raising hooves to shield their eyes from the blinding glory of their princess's final gift to them. Warmth, peace, and love seem to surround them as the light radiates outward, then slowly fades. An alicorn has returned to the earth. Somewhere in Equestria, a foal with both wings and a horn takes her first breath. And on the other side of the veil, two friends sit down for doughnuts and coffee in an old shop that once stood in Canterlot, watched over by a tan, brown-maned unicorn stallion with a gentle smile on his face.
Ending 3 - The AuthorThen Celestia delivers her judgment. The last inches of the scroll closed with a final-sounding rustle of parchment, and Celestia peered over it at her student with an unreadable expression. Twilight shifted nervously in her seat, ears pinning uncertainly. "Do you... do you like it? Never mind, that's a stupid question. Of course you don't. It's a terrible story, terrible things happen, you probably think I'm a terrible pony for writing it..." "Twilight." The mare's babbling halted as soon as her mentor spoke. "Walk with me." Celestia stood from her place, and Twilight followed her lead silently. They exited the private library and turned west, down one of the multitude of hallways that crisscrossed Canterlot Castle. It was empty except for them and the occasional guard. "You were very brave to show that to me." Twilight studied her hooves. "It... seemed like the right thing to do." "It was. And so was writing it in the first place." "It... was?" Twilight looked up in surprise. Her mentor's expression was serious, but not disapproving. In fact, there might have even been a hint of pride... no, surely that was only her imagination. "It was," Celestia confirmed. "Although I would recommend against trying to publish it." A wry smile crossed her features briefly. "Other ponies would certainly get the wrong idea." Twilight laughed nervously. "O-of course." Celestia paused, inspecting her student for a moment, then brushed a reassuring wing over the young mare's back before she resumed her walk. "Everypony has great darkness in their heart, Twilight. You are not alone in that. Even I have desires that I must never act on. It's simply a part of equine nature." Twilight looked up, searching her mentor's face for any sign that she was joking. Surely, she must have been joking. "No you don't," she asserted, but it was more question than statement. Celestia just smiled sadly. "Of course I do, Twilight. If I am a good pony, it is because I don't act on them, not because they aren't there." "You're a good pony." Twilight was certain of that, and her voice reflected her conviction. Celestia laughed and leaned down to nuzzle her affectionately. "I am. And so are you. No, Twilight, don't argue, you really are. But the darkness in the heart of even the purest pony can fester if left unchecked. And do you know what one of the best ways to put reins to that darkness is?" The question was obviously rhetorical. Twilight shook her head silently. "Writing. By letting our imagination run free, we expose feelings that we have been hiding even from ourselves. We may find ourselves confessing, through the mouth of another pony, to thoughts and desires we didn't even realize we had." They stepped through a grand glass door that opened onto a west-facing balcony and came to a stop. Above them, the sun was just beginning to set. Celestia met her student's eyes, and Twilight stared back raptly. "The story you wrote wasn't about me," Celestia continued. "Nor was it about Joe, for that matter. It was about you." Twilight confirmed it with a quiet nod. "And it's not about me taking you as my lover." Twilight shook her head quickly. "I know you wouldn't really--" "I know you do. But the point wasn't whether I would." Celestia paused, and Twilight knew that she was being prompted. It was a another test, like almost everything Celestia did was, in its own way. "The point was... that you could," she ventured, and she knew that it was true as soon as the words left her mouth. "Precisely. Because what you wrote is true; I have great power over you. If I wanted that of you, I could take it, and you would do nothing to stop me." Celestia leaned in closer, and the light of the setting sun shifted, casting one side of her face into shadow. Twilight stepped back, suddenly nervous. "Y-yes..." "And maybe you thought to yourself, 'What if she did want it?' " Celestia's face grew closer, the ruddy light eclipsing her features. "Maybe you thought, 'What if she took it? What would I do? What could I do?' And you though maybe, just maybe... you wouldn't... mind." Twilight realized that their muzzles were almost touching. Suddenly, her story, her innocent little story about something that surely couldn't really happen, flashed through her mind, and her eyes widened in horror. She froze, unable to move to escape the monster that had somehow replaced her beautiful, gentle teacher. Celestia pursed her lips, and another emotion lurked just beneath the surface of her expression, fighting to escape. Then... "Boo." Horror turned to surprise, then to confusion. Twilight fell back onto her haunches and stared at her teacher as that hidden emotion bubbled to the surface and burst forth, erasing the shadows and chasing away all traces of seriousness on the older mare's face. It was laughter. Bright and cheerful, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, Celestia was laughing. Soon Twilight joined in, first with an embarrassed chuckle, but quickly moving on into full-fledged mirth. It hadn't even been that funny, but the relief, the feeling of sudden lightness as her fears and worries were washed away, were more than enough to send her into fits of laughter, finally leaning against her mentor's side for support. Eventually the laughter became giggles, then chuckles, and then it faded into a comfortable silence between the two. In that silence, Celestia laid a wing over the unicorn beside her, pulling her against her side and smiling gently at her. "You are stronger than you think, Twilight Sparkle," she said. "By writing your fears, and daring to bring them to light by showing them to me, you've dealt them a blow from which they will never recover." Twilight smiled up at her. "I do love you, you know, Princess." Celestia returned the smile. "I know. I love you too, Twilight. And one day, when you have become more than my student, when we stand together not as teacher and pupil but as equals, I hope that love will blossom into friendship as well. And then who can truly say what it might become, if we find that we both want it to? But for now..." Twilight knew it was another of Celestia's little tests, in that gentle way of hers. But she had no need to pause to give this one thought, because the answer was written in joyful lettering across her heart. "For now, you're my beloved mentor and I'm your faithful student. And that's the most wonderful thing there is." "I couldn't have said it better myself, my faithful student." And so they laughed, and lay together on the balcony, the little purple unicorn nestled against her princess's side under her great white wing, and watched the sun set as beloved mentor and faithful student. And it was the most wonderful thing there was.
