The Sun Won't Come Home

by bahatumay

Chapter 5

Early the next morning, Twilight woke up and discovered that there was a blanket on top of her. She leaned in and sniffed it, and she could smell Celestia's scent on it. She had found her and placed it on her sometime during the night.

Just like a mother would.

And in that moment, Twilight knew exactly what she had to do. She lit her horn and teleported to inside the house, and headed down the hallway. She nosed open the door to Dysis’s room, and quietly shut it behind her.

One eye flickered open at the sound, and it was quickly followed by the second. Dysis sat up, shocked. She balled her fists and scrubbed at her eyes, but when she opened them again, the pony was still there. “No way,” she breathed. “It’s you! You’re Twilight Sparkle, aren’t you?”

Twilight nodded.

Dysis began bouncing on the bed while still remaining seated. “You are real! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!”

“I am,” Twilight said.

Dysis stopped vibrating only long enough to begin asking questions. “Where did you come from? Ponyland? Unicornia? Did mommy bring you to life? Did she? With her stories?”

Twilight smiled. “In a way. We all owe your mother a great deal.”

“Who? Your friends?”

Twilight nodded.

“Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie? Rarity? Fluttershy? Applejack? All of them?” Dysis asked.

Twilight nodded. It sounded strange to hear her friends’ names spouted off by someone who had never seen them before.

Dysis paused and frowned. “Where are they?” she asked, looking around as if expecting them to enter too.

“They couldn’t come this time,” Twilight said. “I’m here because I wanted to see your mother.”

“Why?” Dysis asked.

“Because your mother is a very, very special pony. Your mother Celestia is probably the greatest pony that has ever lived. Ever. And I owe her so very, very much. We all do. So please, Dysis, never, ever forget that.”

Dysis nodded, slightly confused.

Twilight walked closer and rested a hoof on her chest, gently laying her back down. “But it’s still time for fillies to be asleep,” she whispered as she leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She lit her horn.

Dysis’s joy at being kissed by a unicorn didn’t fade, but she did yawn as the sleeping spell gently took her away. “But I’m not even tired,” she protested.

Twilight merely smiled as Dysis slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Celestia felt a gentle nudging of her shoulder, and she shifted slightly with a light groan, unwilling to wake up just yet.

“Celestia?”

Celestia frowned and scrunched her eyes closed tighter even as her mind ran through the various possibilities. Her children would have called her ‘mommy’, so it wasn't them; her husband would have called her by one of his endearingly awkward nicknames and placed his hand on her stomach, so it wasn't him; but it was someone who knew her by her full name, so that meant…

She opened her eyes, and there stood pony Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight nodded slightly and fidgeted a bit. She levitated the folded blanket onto the foot of the bed, nudged it so it wasn't uneven, and then finally spoke. “I’m…” She swallowed once. “I’m ready to go home. Thank you for letting me stay with you for a while.” She gave a small smile as she turned to leave. “You really do have a wonderful family.”

Celestia slowly sat up. “Wait,” she said. “I’ll help you. Just let me get my car keys, and I'll take you somewhere away from the city.”

* * *

Twilight chewed thoughtfully. "So this is a french fry?" she said, the words sounding unfamiliar on her tongue.

"Yes," Celestia said. "Do you see now why they're so popular?"

"I guess I could get used to these," Twilight said, popping another into her mouth.

Celestia chuckled. "I did say they were good," she said.

Twilight frowned as her fingers hit paper. She looked inside the paper basket and found that it was empty. She jumped slightly as Celestia held out her basket.

"I can always get more," she said. "Besides, it's an exotic experience. Why not splurge a bit?"

Twilight nodded graciously and with a muffled, "Thanks," she resumed eating.

When she'd finished, Celestia stood up. "You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," Twilight said, brushing the salt off her front and standing up. "Let's go."

She stepped out of the car, and one bright flash of light later, there stood two ponies.

Together they walked into the center of the pasture, away from the corrals where the horses stood grazing. One gave them a passing glance before returning to his feeding.

"So this is it," Twilight said, turning to face Celestia.

Celestia nodded.

Twilight chuckled nervously. "I never was good at goodbyes..."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Is that all?"

"I guess? Were you expecting something else?"

Celestia shrugged. "I did expect a bit of... resistance before you left, to say the least."

Twilight sighed. "I thought about it," she admitted. "I thought of many things I could do, really. Everything from arranging an 'accident' to bringing you all back with me; but since I then wanted to bring Richard too and that would have dropped our collective odds of a successful dimension travel to 4.16 percent..."

"Wait. So that means your chance of arriving here in one piece by yourself were..." Celestia quickly did some mental calculations, and her jaw dropped. "One in seven?"

Twilight shrugged, even as her cheeks colored. "Well, any odds sound bad if you say it in that tone of voice," she defended herself half-heartedly.

Celestia pondered this. "And the other six possibilities?"

"Almost evenly split between ending up in the wrong dimension and spontaneous combustion."

Celestia blinked. "You were that desperate to find me?"

"I wanted you to come home." Twilight sighed. "But I learned something, prin- can I still call you 'princess'?"

Celestia cracked a smile. "If you wish."

"I learned that you're already home."

They stood like that for a brief moment before as one they crashed together in a hug, wings and forelegs wrapped tightly around each other.

"I'm going to miss you so much," Twilight said, fighting back the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Me too," Celestia whispered back, fighting to restrain tears of her own.

They remained like that for a few moments before Twilight pulled back. "Your kids are going to wonder where you've gone," she said, roughly wiping a foreleg against her face. "We'd better get going."

"Right," Celestia said, lighting her horn. It glowed with that familiar golden light. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I am." Twilight frowned. "If you don't want to get caught in the effective radius, you'd probably better step back," she warned. "Starswirl's magic distance over force equation might be helpful here."

Celestia smiled. She had forgotten that equation long ago. "And how far should I go, Twilight?"

Twilight sighed, not entirely enjoying the answer. "You'll need to double the power and stand precisely 100.52 rods away."

Celestia paused, knowing that that would leave Twilight standing alone in the middle of the field. She felt a slight pain in her chest, knowing that her last view of her former student would be her standing by herself, all alone; but she knew that there wasn't any other option. She nodded, and flew back the required distance. She landed and lit her horn, with that familiar golden glow.

Twilight scrunched up her face, calling upon the darker magics, and her horn lit up in shades of blacks and purples. She took a deep breath, then nodded, and Celestia fired.

* * *

* * *

Spike had remained in the laboratory, sleeping on a small cot that left his legs, tail, and wings hanging over the side. Though he had been told numerous times that it was not safe or healthy to be here, all it took was a simple smile to remind the ponies that it was not safe or healthy to try and dissuade a dragon from doing what he wanted, either.

He jumped as an explosion rocked the night, sending him and the cot tumbling through the air and crashing to the floor and sending a tinny ringing through his ears. He looked up, squinting against the little fires that had started, and saw Twilight, laying on the ground, a deep scorch mark burned into the ground around her smoking body.

“Twilight!” he shrieked, rushing over and resting a claw on her forehead and neck. Her face was warm, and her pulse was elevated, but she was definitely alive.

Her eyes flickered open. “I made it, then?” she whispered with a groan as she attempted to sit up.

“Yeah,” Spike said, fighting back the hot tears of happiness forming in the corner of his eyes. He hid them by wrapping Twilight in a hug and wiping them on her mane. “Did you find Celestia?”

“I did.”

Spike quickly ducked for cover, pressing his claws over his head. Then he straightened up and looked around. When it became apparent that there was no other alicorn appearing, he looked down. “Is she coming back?”

“No, Spike. She's not.”

Spike’s jaw dropped. “What happened? Is she…?”

“She’s fine; she’s just... not coming back.”

Spike frowned. “But…”

“She's happy where she is. And, I suppose, if I really loved her, I'd be happy that she was happy.”

Spike paused. “You're not happy, are you?”

“Not in the slightest!” Twilight said cheerfully. “I don't know if I'll ever be completely ok with it, and to be honest, I’d probably rather have eaten a whole bucket of Mareuga Scorpions than have left her there. But I've learned many things about friendship through the years, and I'm sure I'll come to terms with it eventually.” She wrapped a foreleg around Spike's waist and began walking. “Come on, Spike. Let’s go talk to Luna and then get something to eat. I'm pretty hungry. Would you believe that there is not a single place to get hayfries in her dimension?”

“No,” Spike said in disbelief.

“Not a single one! They fry potatoes there instead! Potatoes!”

Spike took a dramatic step back and rested a claw on his chest as if deeply offended. “How barbaric!”

“I know! But they’re actually pretty good when they’re covered in salt. They also have these taco things, and those are absolutely delicious, and they have some strange inventions like self-propelled metal carts and large noisemakers that sound like a hive of bees and these tiny colorful blocks that all stack together…”

Comments

[Taliesin of the Forest]

[Aurora Dimmet]

That hurt my heart.

[duckboy416]

encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQarXygwPPrSeYQBt-hL6r-0CPSONWpgsasEM49EiUnIhNs8Be34w

[Misdirection01]

Everything from arranging an 'accident'

So I did enjoy this fic, but I'm disappointed Celestia stayed behind. Oh well. Nicely written.

[StormyVenture]

Eh. Unsatisfactory ending with what seems like an invented impracticability to try and smooth it over. It's hard to imagine any resolution here except the one Twilight wanted that would leave her (Twilight) with anything but closure and a gaping hole in the heart... oh and 15 years of wasted time. Here's hoping these extra "chapters" include a conversation with Luna and maybe her friends.

Because if they don't, they really should. This may be a neat and relatively tidy ending, but it still has loose ends

[Luminous Lead]

large noisemakers that sound like a hive of bees

Especially when the world cup comes along.

[M4Tiger4014]

......... Well I have a new #5 story of FiMfic.