//------------------------------//
// Paradise Lost 
// Story: True Love Never Dies (Cancelled) 
// by ocalhoun 
//------------------------------//

Should I tell her today? Twilight glanced again at her former mentor, quickly glancing away again. Even that quick glance sent her heart racing. She couldn't risk being seen.
She turned back to the Wonderbolts air show and watched diligently, but her mind still focused in an entirely different direction. The lovely white alicorn next to her drew her thoughts relentlessly.
Celestia occupied her every thought, and haunted her every dream, but Twilight had known her too long. Even though Twilight was an alicorn princess herself and equal in stature, even though she had the perfect opportunity, she still couldn't say it. There she was, the one mare Twilight had ever looked up to, ever loved, sitting right next to her in a private royal box, and she still couldn't say anything. How could she confess something like that to a pony who mentored her from foalhood on?
A flash of movement right in front of the booth snatched her attention back to the show. A quartet of pegusai rocketed away, continuing their dive right over the heads of the audience below.
Twilight hadn't missed noticing the distinctive rainbow-colored tail of one of the flyers. She let a slow, warm grin spread across her face. If Rainbow Dash could finally make it into the Wonderbolts, then maybe Twilight could finally live her own dream.
She risked another glance at the regal mare beside her.
Celestia's eyes were still riveted to the show, but Twilight couldn't shake the niggling suggestion that her former mentor already knew. She had never been able to hide anything from those piercing violet eyes for long.
Yes. Today is the day. I'm going to tell her.
Twilight's chest heaved. What had she just done? She glanced to the side again, too fast to see anything, too fast to be noticed. 
Celestia didn't seem to have moved at all.
Twilight's legs trembled. Sweat began building up under her coat. It was suddenly very hot in their little booth. But her resolve didn't waver. She could be strong. She would do it. She would finally ask... and she would to it tonight.
The immediacy of it all brought a wave of nervous nausea, but Twilight fought it down. She knew she wanted nothing more than this.
A flash of red pyrotechnic brilliance shot out from the arena, reflecting for a moment against the two mares. It must have been the grand finale. All the Wonderbolts – including that very special one with the rainbow mane – swooped down and hovered in front of the crowd, taking their bows.
It was impossible. How could two hours have already passed?
Twilight glanced to her side. Royal guards were already approaching to escort the Princesses back home, Celestia to her royal chambers and Twilight to Ponyville. As soon as they entered the booth, her private time with Celestia would be over, for who knows how long.
Now or never.
“Princess...”
Her magnanimous smile couldn't hide the hint of disappointment in her eyes. “Twilight. I told you, we're equals now. Please don't call me that.”
Twilight winced. Glancing away. She always slipped into her old habits when she was nervous.
The guards would be here any moment. There was no time to waste.
“Celestia?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“I...” Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could she be freezing up now? “I...” Twilight gritted her teeth. The words were aching to get out, trying to push their way past her, but she just couldn't let them.
Celestia's smile faded. Her head tilted ever so slightly to the side. “Twilight?”
“I love you, Celestia!” 
Twilight's eyes shot open wide without seeing anything, and she froze. What had she done? Those words had been dying to escape so long, but now that they–
Soft white lips pressed against her. A strong white hoof curled around behind her neck and drew her in close.
Twilight's world tumbled out from underneath her. Her eyes went dark, or had they just closed? Her dreams of this moment, her endless fantasies, didn't desert her though. She reciprocated, wrapping her hooves around Celestia's back and pulling their bodies together.
It could have been a second, it could have been a thousand years. Twilight couldn't tell the difference, but finally, the two mares separated.
Twilight glanced around. Who might have seen them? The two royal guards stood rigidly silent at either side of the booth's entrance. Everypony else still milled their way out of the Canterlot stadium. She turned back to Celestia, her eyes wide. “Pri– Celestia... what–”
“You can't imagine how long I've been waiting to hear you say that, Twilight.” She pulled Twilight in close again, pressing them together, and spoke in a gentle whisper, just behind Twilight's head, “I love you, too.”
The warmth from Celestia's chest flooded Twilight, and finally, finally, that drive, that need to be with her was satisfied. Twilight's legs trembled. Even the ground beneath her seemed to be shaking.
A scream broke out from the crowd... and another. Twilight ripped her eyes from Celestia and glanced out into the crowd. Ponies ran back and forth over the arena, just a few at first, but the panic quickly spread. The shouts and screams doubled every second. And the earth still shook.
Twilight looked back to Celestia, only to see her own fear mirrored, but quickly replaced by a resolute stare.
Right. We are princesses of Equestria. Whatever it is, we can handle it. Twilight nodded to Celestia.
The two alicorns rushed out of the private royal booth, into the swarming crowd.
The royal guards stationed there did their best, but even they couldn't prevent the occasional panicked pony from bumping into the two princesses.
Twilight looked all around for the source of the panic, but nothing was out of place. She glanced back to her former mentor.
Celestia stared upward with a wince in her eyes and a deepening frown.
Twilight followed her gaze up to the crest of Canterlot Mountain.
Deep black smoke rose from the rocky peak, billowing out even more as another tremor ran through the ground beneath Twilight's feet.
“Princess!”
“I see it, Twilight.” Celestia's wings flared out.
Twilight tensed up for a jump into the air. “You think we can stop it?”
“No.”
Her momentum faltered, and her leap into the sky faltered. Twilight stared back at Celestia. How could she abandon hope for Canterlot so quickly?
“I think I can stop it, Twilight Sparkle. You must help with the evacuation. Make sure my little ponies get out of the city safely.”
“I can help!” Twilight pressed herself forward. “I can do this!”
“I know, but I can't lose you.” Celestia laid a wing across Twilight's back. “Not now.”
The reminder of the moment they just shared warmed her core. She wasn't ready to let go of that, not yet. “We'll get Luna. We can all do it together.”
A blast of black smoke shot from the mountain, shaking the foundations of the city.
Celestia glanced back up at the peak. A sullen red glow lit up the bottom of the cloud now. “There's no time!” Celestia took flight, hovering just above Twilight. “Go! Protect the city!”
Twilight stared up as Celestia soared away. Her legs trembled with the need to follow. She knew where she belonged – at Celestia's side. But she would never go against her teacher's wishes.
She stomped her hoof down and searched the arena. She would do what she had to. A few ponies still ran around. More cowered in corners or under seats. The ones she needed though, they still stood in the center of the arena's field, staring at the mountain.
With a violet flash, Twilight teleported right into the middle of their formation.
Of course Rainbow Dash was the first to respond. She darted to the front and snapped a salute. “Your orders, Princess?”
None of the other flyers questioned their most junior member. Most of them just kept staring at the flakes of ash falling around them.
“We have to get these ponies out!” Twilight pointed a hoof toward the valley below. “All of you, split up, find all the ponies you can and get them moving into the valley, as fast as they can. Go!”
“You can count on us, Princess!” Rainbow winked at her before turning to the other Wonderbolts. “I'll take the arena. Everypony else, fan out! Come on, we've got ponies to save!”
Rainbow's brash voice roused the team from their shock. One by one, they saluted and flew off.
Twilight gave her friend a quick smile before she, too flew away. Her first day with the Wonderbolts, and already, Rainbow was calling the shots. That pony was destined for greatness.
A slam right next to her knocked her onto her side, and kicked her back into reality. A smoking-hot boulder bigger than her laid in its fresh crater, just inches away from where she had been standing. She had to get moving.
Twilight teleported up above the arena and hovered on her wings. Where else did ponies need help?
Smoke rose from one of the big theaters on Clover Street. She knew that had to be her next target. She flashed trough another teleport to the front of the building.
The screams here echoed through the streets, and ponies ran in all directions, appearing and disappearing in the ever-increasing cloud of falling ash. The theater building towered above Twilight, five stories high and decorated in the gilded style only Canterlot could pull off. A huge hole gaped in one side though, and smoke billowed from it. Debris from the crash littered the entrance to the building, trapping the ponies inside.
Without hesitation, Twilight pulled her magic into herself and cast a complicated pure-breathing spell. No trouble for her, of course, and it made breathing in the ash cloud easier anyway.
Another small rock landed in the street and rolled to Twilight's feet. It hissed and steamed, as if trying to warn her off. Not likely.
She teleported inside the building, just behind the entrance, and used a blast of telekinesis to clear the doorway.
As soon as the dust from her blast began to settle, the crowd of ponies inside began to pour out. None of them wasted time speaking, but Twilight did catch a few grateful looks.
Thick black smoke roiled along the ceiling, and came from deeper inside. Her job here wasn't done yet.
She ran through the smoke, breathing easily thanks to her spell. One doorway at a time, she fought her way closer to the source of the screams.
The building groaned, and another tremor shook the foundations of the city. This place wouldn't last long.
Finally, she found the source of the screaming. A blue unicorn mare ran frantically along in front of her, screaming incoherently the whole way. Twilight had to strain herself, but she caught up with the mare by using her wings to give her an extra boost. As soon as she made contact, she teleported out, taking the mare with her.
The mare fell to the pavement outside the theater, sitting on one of the chunks of stone blasted from the doorway. She shook her head and glanced all around.
“It's okay, you're out,” Twilight said, patting her on the back.
The gentle pat sent the mare into a fit of coughing. Tiny puffs of black smoke came out, and the mare hunched over, eyes squinted shut.
“Now, as soon as you feel better, you need to get out of the city. Take the road – the trains and airships are probably already full.” If they were still intact at all. Twilight winced. This evacuation was going too slowly. There was no way she could get everypony out in time. She prepared for another leap into the air, ready to find her next–
“I can't!”
Twilight spun back to face the mare she just rescued. “What's wrong?”
“I–” The mare broke into another fit of coughing, each cough sounding more strained than the last. “My foals are in there!” She stood up and wavered back and forth for a minute. “I have to–” She coughed again. “Have to find them!” Before Twilight could say anything, the mare ran back into the entrance of the theater.
Twilight shook her head and prepared to take off, but behind her, the theater groaned again, and a crack ran across the facade. The whole building shook, and the top floors began to slant inward.
No. She wouldn’t let that happen. She dug deep into her magic, halting the building's collapse with telekinesis. She used the repair spell she had mastered while masquerading as Mare Do Well to begin patching the building back together. The damage was extensive. This wouldn't be fast.
A scream of “Princess, help!” made Twilight glance down the street.
Dozens of ponies cowered under a large bridge under the street, and a white colt stood pointing at one side of it. He called to her again, the same voice she heard the first time.
Another blast from the mountain shook the city. Twilight barely maintained her grip on the theater, and she watched in horror as the cracks on the bridge spread. Above, a huge black boulder fell... straight towards the bridge.
She had to make a decision – an ugly decision – and she had no time to think about it.
The sound of the huge boulder smashing into the bridge above reverberated through the ash clouds. Twilight released her hold on the theater, and she froze the boulder and broken shards of the bridge just above the heads of the ponies hiding beneath.
Behind her, the slow crunch of the collapsing theater drilled into her soul. She could swear she heard a couple tiny screams cut off suddenly.
She screamed, squinting her eyes shut, and she flung the pieces of the bridge away towards the mountain in one pain-fueled burst. She turned around and stared at the smoldering heap of rubble where the theater used to be. It didn't matter how justified her choice was. She had blood on her hooves.
She cringed away, unable to look any longer. All around her, screams filled the streets. The tremors from the mountain shook everything, and burning rocks of all sizes rained down without warning. She could barely see through the softly falling ash.
There was no time to evacuate. Unless she did something to stop the volcano itself, Canterlot and all the ponies in it would be lost. It didn't matter what Celestia's orders were anymore. It had to be done.
Twilight flew up again, even higher, ignoring the cries for help around her. A dark shape loomed in front of her, and she banked to the left just in time to avoid a huge boulder crashing down. Another one came in, too fast to dodge, and nicked her right wing, singing off a few feathers. 
She winced, thinking of what that rock would have done if it hit her elsewhere. This was no good. She needed to be able to see. Twilight pooled her magic again, heedless of the expense in energy. She sent out a blast of force in all directions, shoving the ash aside.
A huge spherical empty space surrounded her now. Below her, she could just make out the tops of a few of Canterlot's taller buildings. The screams just muted into a single dull roar at this altitude. Above, she could now see the falling rocks with ease, giving her plenty of time to dodge them.
A huge boom buffeted Twilight back. She looked to find the source of it just in time to see a huge plume of new ash intrude into her sphere. The volcano must be just below there and–
Twilight’s eyes went wide when a white pony intruded into her sphere near the blast. Celestia circled around the volcano, sending a constant stream of magical energy from her horn towards the source of the smoke. Twilight's heart lifted, and she cast a telescope spell to get a better look.
Her hopes died when she saw the expression on Celestia's face.
Celestia glanced toward Twilight, and then she looked down at the rooftops in the town.
As the bottom of the ash-free sphere slowly fell, more and more of Canterlot was exposed. It wasn't pretty. Buildings fell to shambles everywhere, and ponies ran back and forth in every visible street. More disturbing were the ponies who weren't moving.
Celestia looked back down at Twilight, still perfectly focused in the spell's view. She spent a moment looking longingly at Twilight before she shut her eyes and grimaced.
No. No, Twilight wouldn't let her do that. Not now. Not when they had so much to lose. She pumped her wings, flying up to the Princess. She couldn't let her sacrifice–
Celestia folded her wings and arrowed into a sharp dive. The further she fell, the more her horn glowed. She became a streak of golden light, too bright to look at.
Twilight pursued her, savagely beating the air with her wings. She tried to teleport, but she couldn't summon the energy, not after how much she'd already expended. She had to catch Celestia before she– Oh, no. No!
The gleaming streak shot into the column of smoke from the volcano.
One more reverberating boom resonated from the mountain, then everything fell eerily quiet. One by one, the last rocks in the air struck the ground below. Twilight could hear each one. Even the voices of the ponies below trailed off as they all listened, no doubt trying to figure out what the sudden absence of the mountain's rumbling meant.
With one last, desperate surge of magic, Twilight blasted a hole through the ash cloud, straight to where Celestia would have landed.
An empty crater cooled where her former mentor should have been. No ash clouds or smoke rose from the mountain... and no Princess did either.
Celestia was... gone.
A cold knife stabbed into Twilight's chest. Her legs felt numb, and her wings faltered. Celestia was gone. It couldn't– She couldn't be...
The air began to rush past Twilight. She couldn't breathe, much less fly. How could she go on without Princess Celestia? How could she lose her now?
Twilight cast her most powerful barrier spell. She didn't care if it used up the last of her energy. She didn't care if the overload left her helpless for weeks. The light of her life had just burned out, and nothing else mattered. All she wanted to do was curl up and hide.