The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 8 -- Dark Melvain

by shysage

Ch.67 (Back Home) Pure Devotion, Part 2

Coming back to Equestria Present is usually very hard. I know even saying that makes it sound like we do this quiet a bit. Well, I guess, thanks to one hideous bully, we have.

Leaving our amazing daughter is the hard part. For over a thousand years, Cel (Princess Celestia) has had to rule Equestria, alone. Shysage told me later that this last visit was YOE 943. That meant Cel had a little over 400 years to wait before she would get her sister, Princess Luna back to help her. That alone still seemed so harsh.

I have seen Princess Celestia from both sides. Everypony else in Equestria, it seems, sees the most amazingly strong leader who has lived forever, and is extremely wise, and never is out of form. And some bristle at the thought that Equestria's Princesses would have any other needs, let alone a mom and dad...

One of the reasons Princess Celestia of Equestria is great is because of her enormous capacity to bottle up her own feelings inside, to continually make the sacrifice necessary to pack away years of pain until it can all be safely released. Cel and Lu are both like this.

I... Cel and Lu's family feel so honored to be able to be there for our amazing girl when she has to cry, when she can no longer carry what she feels.

...

When we left Cel this last time, we were bleeding too...

Before activating the Portal, Shysage was almost hysterical, and I didn't think that would stop all of a sudden when we came into the Present. But to be honest, I almost didn't leave too. The three of us were heart-broken for our girl... Princess Celestia of Equestria; leaving her sobbing on the floor like that was the hardest thing I ever did.

When the Portal planted us back in the Present, the three of us changed back into ponies, and pretty much fell to the rug and just cried. Well, we were sobbing loudly. Maybe Fluttershy and I were almost hysterical just like Shysage. We all loved Cel a lot...

Well, the only thing the three of us could do was cry... Fluttershy and my Twins joined us quickly, as did the Shyna Twins. Twins and family, they were all soon quickly crying with us, the same way.

Soon everypony in the room was crying too. The three of us couldn't talk, and nopony had any way of knowing what had happened.

And I noticed quickly that the amazing, soft Twins music had followed us into the Present. I am not sure why. Well, this was supposed to be Twin time. And maybe it was after all.

...

We have written before (I think) that Lu, well Princess Luna, has something like the Twin Link, but with the realm of Equestria. This allows Lu to respond much more quickly to events that occur in the kingdom; she senses them as they happen. Of course, this makes Lu very well suited for watching over Equestria at night. She doesn't need the light to see, to sense what she needs to sense.

Well, I think Lu is the reason for what happened next.

After we had all cried together, almost uncontrollably, for maybe ten minutes...

Cel and Lu, and their Twins, walked quietly but quickly into the Library, then over towards us.

...

Two Air Coaches had to leave Canterlot, in the middle of a cold Winter night, probably over an hour ago, for this to happen. We had not even left for the Past then...

But knowing only they had to come to Ponyville in the middle of a cold Winter night, of course they were concerned.

...

Shysage and I sensed Cel's presence immediately, put up our heads and looked at her.

Cel saw my hairpin, sorted through her memory some, then fell to the floor, right where she was, and curled up into a ball, just like she was when we left her... Cel cried heavily.

Fluttershy, Shysage and I, we bolted quickly over, laid on our bellies; the three of us put our heads down right next to Cel's, and we cried heavily too. Well, Shysage and I both ended up hugging Cel as we cried with her...

Principal Celestia felt this immediately and joined us, and Lu and her Twin did too. Our Twins had followed us over, and after that Princess Twilight and her amazing girls just spread out around us.

Twenty four devoted, loving ponies gathered close around Princess Celestia of Equestria and cried with her...

...

And on that cold winter night, crying together with Princess Celestia of Equestria...

I realized...

This vile bully from the past had exacted a heavy toll from Shysage and I, and that still hurt. And he hurt Cel a lot too.

...But those repeated trips to the Past had allowed Shysage and I to just as repeatedly visit with our girl, ruling Equestria alone and by herself, to share her pain, to help her carry that part of her load that nopony else was allowed to see...

...And Shysage and I brought that pain back here, to Princess Twilight and her amazing girls, and they shared it with us, just as they were right now...

...

Over a thousand years of 'Princess Pain', spread around the loving hearts in this room...

Such pure devotion is just hard to fathom...

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Author's Note:

chapter title: Pure Devotion, Part 2 (part 1 is ch. 21 of Chronicles of Summer Rain)