She added one last mark to the page, one last dot, and it was complete. At least, that part of her story was. Even after all these centuries, writing down even just a summarized version of that day caused the memories to flood back to her, bringing forth so much emotion, so much pain. Celestia realized that the page was blurring, and quickly backed away so that her tears would not stain the pages. She could not allow her dear student to realize the state in which these memories put her. Tear stains would cloud her judgment, but Celestia knew that her motives were not purely political. Her death—if she was to face it tomorrow—would be hard enough on Twilight. She’d rather give her the comforting lie that she was at peace in the end, rather than filled with regret.

But she must make Twilight understand the whole story. She had put off this undertaking long enough, and it was now imperative that she complete it before it was too late. Luna would be unwilling to defend herself and Celestia’s faithful student wouldn’t be interested anyway, but Twilight might understand if her teacher explained things, even posthumously. Celestia wiped away her tears with her pastern and breathed deep. She felt that directed calm wash over her, and she was ready to continue.

When Celestia had finally set herself to the task of writing down what Twilight needed to know, her mind had been so filled with the memories of her escape, as well as the pain it brought, that she hadn’t been sure if she could banish it from her mind. Even if she could have banished it, Celestia doubted that she would have been able to bring it back after the fact.

Now that she had let the memories flow from her mind to the paper, now that that weighty matter was complete, she could set her mind to other duties.

But the duty of putting to words the lives Luna and she had lived would have to wait. First, she needed to leave at least something of an explanation to Twilight for this book. Celestia flipped back to the pages she had left blank, the pages that were to hold the first part of her final message to the unicorn that had been like a daughter to her. Once more taking in a provision of air, Celestia put quill to paper.

This letter was… different than any other she had written to her student before, but she hoped that Twilight wouldn’t notice, at least not until after she had managed to free Luna from Nightmare Moon’s grasp.

After that, there was no doubt in her mind that Twilight’s thoughts would come to this book once again.

This book that she still needed to write.

Checking to make sure that the ink of her letter was dry, Celestia flipped past the pages explaining, in as little detail as possible, the time from the attack to her escape into the tunnels. Resigning herself to the task before her with a sigh, she readied her quill to once again join her in her duty.

Author's Note

Okay, you guys have been waiting long enough for this. It isn't that long in the first place (just over 700 words), so here it is after the second round of editing. I still haven't had any of my beta readers go over it, but if they find something that should be altered, I'll change it and update this on Sunday.

If any others find something, then feel free to send me a mail and I'll take your suggestions under consideration and, again, I'll let you guys know down here on Sunday.

That's April 28th, by the way.