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

by shysage

Ch.7, Letter to Lu(na)

Maybe ten minutes after she had headed into the Audience Hall, Cel (Princess Celestia) sent Mildred to come find us. We were standing alone by now, right outside the big doors to the Audience Hall. Mildred led us back into the Audience Hall. It was still dim.

Cel was up on the raised platform talking to 'the child', and Mildred walked quickly up the steps and rejoined them. My Stallion and I just waited right inside the door, talking together quietly.

I had to be amazed at this. Our amazing girl, a Princess no less, was taking time with another 'nopony', it seemed.

Mildred soon headed off with the mare, and Cel called us both up to her. She led us through the short hall, and didn't even make it into her bedroom before she broke down and cried.

My Stallion and I cried with her. We were all hugging tightly.

We cried for half an hour maybe, and she only spoke once. "I miss my sis--" was all she could say. We cried together for another half hour maybe.

Then we all tried to calm down.

Still sniffling, Cel asked "How long can you both stay?"

Before we even had a chance to answer, Cel said quickly "Nevermind, that isn't fair to you... A month would not feel like enough for me... But when do you both think you should leave?"

I had absolutely no clue how to answer this, and just looked at my Stallion.

"Cel, we will spend tomorrow with you, but we should probably leave the next day" he said quietly.

"Well, that's more than I expected. I just need to keep reminding myself that I can always use the Portal Beacon again if I need you." Cel said this, still with a hint of disappointment.

We all hugged tightly a few more minutes at this point.

I was pretty sure my Stallion and I BOTH wanted to stay with Cel for a long time. But our place was the present, and we didn't want to effect the past. My Stallion's words wisely reflected that caution.

I was pretty sure this dumb magical 'contest' was extremely draining on our girl. She seemed exhausted.

Still crying softly, the three of us walked into her room, and lay down on our bellies on her nice thick rug. Cel was in the middle of course, and she was soon asleep.

"Stallion, I love you, you are amazing. I couldn't have done this alone..." I said quietly what I felt, and was still near tears.

He moved to my side, and hugged me, and I was soon weeping softly. I think my Stallion is the only pony who could... I needed him close. We just wept softly together for a while.

He moved back over next to Cel again, laying on his belly.

It was quiet for a few minutes, then my Stallion said, also quietly

"Still, a wicked bully who can re-appear at any time is just scary... I doubt we have seen the last of him... And it will still be almost 1000 years before Cel gets her sister back to help..."

We were soon asleep too.

---

I think we all woke up at the same time the next morning, and it seemed early to me.

We were soon sitting together, hugging tightly. Cel and I wept softly. The love and devotion we felt...

But I think that having that 'dumb contest' done made a huge difference in our girl. I am also pretty sure that this precious Princess felt much safer with mom and dad around.

My Stallion has no magic or other powers, but I certainly feel at a loss without him. He is 'just' the Canterlot Recorder, but his presence is very comforting to me. Maybe Cel felt something similar, I don't know.

Cel got up and walked around her bedroom, and pulled some ropes, and drew back curtains on four huge windows, and the early morning light poured into her beautiful room. I really think that's how our girl felt inside this morning.

We sat together and hugged and cried a little more after that.

Our day together quickly began, and it was amazing. I think Cel did a lot of things she had wanted to do recently but couldn't.

We ate breakfast together, then Cel had one of her commanders send for the other commanders. Cel met with them for maybe an hour in the Audience Hall.

She left us in her bedroom while she met with them, and this was fine.

My amazing Stallion... He was quickly laying on his side on the rug, and I was just as quickly up against his chest and neck, weeping softly. We didn't feel this was a problem, Cel had seen this before, and 'nothing else' was planned or happened. My Stallion knew this was peace for me. I think he knew I needed this.

But after a while, I smiled and said this "Stallion, we are together and alone, is that safe?"

He just laughed and said "probably not..."

Cel walked in and quickly laid on her belly next to where our heads were. I didn't ask, but I almost think it helped Cel to see mom and dad hugging like this. I don't know.

Well, I did remember last time Fluttershy and I visited our parents. Watching our mom and dad hug was amazing, so maybe...

We were soon laying on our bellies facing Cel, and we talked a little about our day.

Soon after, we headed out the doors of the Audience Hall. Cel walked us quickly over to the corner of the Audience Hall to our left. She asked the guards to back away some, then she spoke quietly.

"Our plan is to build this Hall out of White Marble, but it will be a while before we can do this.

"Even though you can't see it, we have started the foundation, and laid the 'corner stone'. It is a simple White Marble block with mom's Cutie Mark on it, and some other writing.

"At some point, Equestria needs to learn the role the Shila has played in the history of the realm.

"And mom, you need to understand that I simply could not have stood up to Dark Melvain by myself. If you had not intervened, I would have been dead soon after he started pushing the collision towards me.

"All the guards think I did something to Dark Melvain, and he needs to think that too, so I can't change that.

"But I lament that we were not able to celebrate your role. Some day we really need to.

"I just hope I am still alive to be present for that.

We all just hugged and cried together.

I couldn't help that I was the 'Shila', the Phantom Alicorn. But recognition is not something I even hoped for, not any more. Like I said, my preference is to be my Stallion's Mare.

From here, we walked across the meadow, slowly. It was another nice, sunny day.

Cel walked us over to the far edge of the 'top step' that Canterlot is built on.

She mentioned something to the guard nearby.

Then she grinned, and asked us if we still liked to fly.

Our girl jumped off the edge laughing. My Stallion and I suspected this is the first time she laughed in a while...

We followed her, of course.

We were quickly on a slow glide, together, down to our old 'home'. My Stallion and I had done this a few times, and we knew the way. Still, we followed Cel.

Well, so did 8 Pegasus guards who followed behind us by maybe 100 feet. They followed us everywhere.

We flew over a considerable garrison still in 'Coptol', then landed on the road near our old 'house in a tree'. The Sequoia was still intact, there was just not many green branches at the top.

The guards landed too, and Cel told them to stay on the main road. Then we walked down the small hill to the river, and into our old house.

It looked pretty much the same as it did 350 years ago, except that it was totally empty. That didn't matter, we were quickly crying together.

Cel mentoned a few memories, but we all realized that this should wait until Lu was with us. This would be a while...

But we did cry together, and hug for some time.

Cel went and got the guards, and we then walked the short distance to the 'meadow of flying', which also looked almost the same as we remembered.

For a little while, we just sat closely next to each other, and gazed out across the Oats. Evidently Oat fields like this were how Canterlot got it's food.

We soon took to the air, our next stop was Cloudsdale. It was a good workout for all of us. Cel mentioned that she just hadn't been able to fly much recently. We could easily understand why.

Being up in Cloudsdale in the past again was just bazaar. I had grown up here, after all. Still, I am probably the only 'Cloudsdale native' who had actually seen this cloud bank completely vacant. And even now, most of the development up to this point was on the side closest to Canterlot, but they was clearly expanding. There was a lot of room left.

Cel led us to a fenced off area, a simple circle maybe fifty feet in diameter, and stopped. The fence was low, and there was just nothing inside the fence. I blushed. Cel said softly "Oh, mom..."

My Stallion smiled, and hugged me tightly. I love him so...

But I don't understand how Cel knew...

By now, it was late afternoon, and we flew directly back to Canterlot, again followed by 8 more (different) Pegasus guards. We soon landed in the meadow outside the Audience Hall.

We just wandered around Canterlot a while more and talked some.

We stopped for a drink at the pool in the back next to the cave. I just sighed.

At one point, my Stallion said quietly "Cel, I really like your city."

Cel's response was pretty quick, still she spoke slowly. "Dad, this is Equestria's capitol city. Nothing around me even belongs to me. Even I belong to Equestria. None of this bothers me. The only thing I even 'had' was my sis..."

We both understood Cel's point, but thinking about her sister made Cel cry again. We just cried with her. It was just sad for us to realize that Cel had almost a thousand years ahead like this...

In theory anyway, my Stallion and I would soon be 'jumping' into the future, past 1000 years of Equestria's history, past 1000 years of Cel being Princess by herself. Cel had to endure all these years... alone... This just seemed so unfair.

We cried together for a little while.

---

Dinner was good, of course. We noted that Equestria was taking good care of their Princess.

After eating, we headed into Cel's bedroom.

Cel laughed, and said she had to do some 'magical writing' for a little while, but she didn't laugh for long.

My Stallion and I were sitting on the rug next to each other, as Cel used her magic to write a letter or something.

Her writing project probably took Cel far longer than she anticipated, and she cried a lot while she wrote.

Cel didn't ask us over, so we stayed on the rug, sitting together, even though she was crying...

But I think by the time she was done, both my Stallion and I suspected what she was doing. We ended up weeping softly too.

In a little less than an hour, Cel got up, and used her magic to bring something over. She was still crying softly, but she spoke anyway.

"Dad, this envelope holds is a letter to Lu. I think you will see her before I do, and I want you to give this to her for me. Then both of you give her a hug for me."

My Stallion changed into a people, took the letter with his hand, and put it in the back pocket of his jeans, then he changed back into a pony.

We were quickly hugging and crying together after this was done.

Tomorrow would bring the inevitable separation to all of us, and we could not escape that feeling.

We cried and hugged together the rest of the evening.

We finally fell asleep late. Our girl was between us of course.

---

I brushed my girl's hair again the next morning, and we were both crying the whole time. Then she brushed mine...

Well, we would all cry together the whole morning.

My stallion told me later that we probably could have stayed another day, but this would have just prolonged the pain we were all feeling.

Cel even said at one point that us leaving would be hard on her, but she knew we loved her deeply, and she also knew she could use the Portal to contact us should Dark Melvain return.

Mid-morning found us in front of the Portal. We were still crying.

We hugged some more...

Cel said we should go. This was probably best for her.

My Stallion and I changed to people, climbed the steps, and stood in front of the Portal.

My Stallion said quietly "Cel, we will always love you, remember that."

Cel bolted up to the platform for one last hug... It was a pretty long hug.

Then she went back down.

I took my Stallion's hand, grabbed the rim of the Portal, still crying...

I squeezed the frame.

There was a bright flash, and we were gone.