Nostalgia

So Well Remembered

Princess Celestia walked with her new apprentice in the royal gardens. The purple filly excitedly told her all about what she had learned from the book she had assigned her to read over the weekend. The princess was quite surprised at how quickly her young student had finished it. She had figured it would take a filly as young as her almost the whole month to read that particular book. But if there was one thing that Celestia had learned since taking Twilight Sparkle under her wing it was that the young unicorn was anything but ordinary.  “Thank you so much for giving me that book to read” said Twilight.

“You’re very welcome Twilight” replied Celestia. “I’m pleased that you enjoyed it so much.”

“Do you think next time you could have more books I can read? Um…I don’t mean to sound demanding, it’s just that after I finished  that one there wasn’t really anything for me to do for you until our next session and it seems incredibly inefficient for me to spend so much time doing nothing productive.”

Celestia was baffled that somepony so young could be such a workaholic. Celestia smiled and said “Twilight you shouldn’t think of your studies as a matter of production and efficiency.”

“But I want to be able to do more for you if I can and I know I can.”

“But it’s not about me. The reason you study is so that you can gain the knowledge you need to become what you’re meant to be. My only role is to guide you along that path. That being said I do think some accelerated study might be good for you so I will give you a few extra books for you to read. Are you sure you can handle the extra work?”

“Yes, I promise to do my best” proclaimed Twilight.

“I’m sure you will, for now let’s continue our walk. There are many plants which grow here in the garden that were mentioned in the book read. What can you tell me about them?”

The excited filly began looking around at the plants around them to find some to talk about. Oh, that one is a Hibiscus Alponacimus, it can be mixed with Malsprig extract to make a potion that can temporarily change the color of your coat and mane. Ooo, and over there is a…” she continued running up to one plant then the next tell all she had learned about its properties and what it could be used for. A smile was brought to Celestia’s face at seeing her student’s excitement at sharing all of her recently acquired knowledge. She had had to do quite a lot of smiling for nearly a thousand years, but this was one of the few times it was a sincere smile. Being the sole ruler of Equestria during that time tended to produce such levels of stress that would drive most insane, and on top of that it was a burden which she had to suffer alone. She had met and buried more friends and loved ones than can be believed. She made a point to experience the joys of friendship and the comfort of companions. But of course they would all die within a span of time which had come to be nearly nothing to her and these were particularly painful moments for her. She could take no comfort in believing that perhaps they might meet again in some unspecified and poorly understood afterlife as many did. Whether such a thing is true or not doesn’t matter to her as she will always remain behind. For her these ponies, who were so precious to her, are simply gone. However she refused to allow her pair control over her. She knew better than any other ever could what sort of monster one could become if one allowed her despair to rule her. She instead chose to continue trying to always live for the moments like these in the garden, feeling happy for her companion’s happiness. It is only a moment which will soon be over and with time may disappear completely from memory, and she will inevitably have to feel the pain of watching this one grow old and parish as so many have before and as many more will after. But it is precisely this which makes this moment with her so very pernicious. “Princess Celestia?”

“What is it Twilight?”

“What’s that thing” Twilight asked pointing toward a stone rotunda which was tucked away in some inconspicuous corner of the garden some distance.

Celestia felt a slight constriction around her heart. The memories associated with that structure dampened her mood. However she kept up a cheerful demeanor as she always did. “That’s a little building I had built a long time ago for somepony I care about very much, who had to go away a long time ago.  I suppose you could say it’s something I owe her, or rather something she deserves to have when she comes back.”

“Is she going to come back anytime soon” Twilight asked while looking up at her mentor with eager eyes.

Celestia smiled her sincere smile again. She was reminded of the day when she first met Twilight after she had calmed her down enough for her to regain control of her magic. She had sensed that there was much more to this young filly than an unusually high amount of raw talent.  What she had spent the past thousand years hoping and wishing for she could now say with confidence. “Yes, I have no doubt that she will come back very soon.”