[Chapter 13] Best Laid Plans
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Twilight couldn’t feel her body as she walked towards her princess. Everything felt so surreal, like it was just a vivid dream that she had yet to wake up from. Step by step she inched herself closer as her emotions began to rise until they finally spilled over. Twilight rushed over to the unicorn, shutting her eyes and squeezing out a flood of tears. She threw her arms around Celestia, rubbing her face into her chest as she sobbed, unintelligibly muttering words of sorrow and pain.
“Princess-” Twilight sobbed.
“It’s just Celestia now,” Celestia calmly corrected. Lovingly stroking her hoof through Twilight's mane.
“What is this?! Where were you?! What’s going on?!” Twilight screamed as she continued to cry in her frustration. As her tears left her eyes, however, they started to float up into the sky as if the laws of physics followed their own rules here. She didn’t pay much attention to it however.
Celestia let out a heavy sigh as she contemplated where to begin. After several tense moments of holding her student and quietly shushing away her pain, she pushed Twilight away gently until she was able to look into her eyes. "Twilight, please calm down," Celestia cooed like a mother calming her child. "We don't have much time."
Twilight looked up at her mentor, fruitlessly wiping at the relentless stream of tears. She tried her best to quiet her crying so that Celestia could talk.
Celestia looked around at the world in its blue tint. “This is the true nature of the magical state,” she began. “While it gives you access to an untold amount of power, it is also a link to every Element of Magic that came before you.” Around the pair, the faces of dozens of unicorns appeared, watching the two silently from a distance.
“I... I don’t understand,” Twilight began, watching the peaceful faces of the unicorns around them. “Were you hiding here this whole time?”
“No, Twilight. I've been here, but I'm not hiding. This is something like an afterlife. I’ve been here for about fourteen years now, but it only feels like a few days. It’s more like an extended sleep that I only wake up from when I’m needed. I cannot leave, but I can still communicate with you and Luna through the magical state.”
It was all so much to take in, but Twilight suddenly remembered her sister she had just lost. At that point, nothing else really mattered to her anymore. “Well what about my sister? Can I save her?"
“I never meant for things to go like this,” Celestia sighed.
Twilight gave her an accusing stare. “How did you mean for things to go?! How much were you in control of?!”
“Nothing!” Celestia retorted before regaining her composure. “Maybe I should start from the beginning. When I was born, I was given a gift. This gift let me see the future. Many futures. Nearly every future. It was a heavy burden that I had to endure. It never went away, but after thousands of years, I learned to become accustomed to it." Celestia took a moment to collect her thoughts. "I was given a prophecy once. After many centuries of predictions, I saw somepony who would fit that prophecy. I saw you. I saw your power. I saw you become the Element of Magic. But for almost a thousand years thereafter, I never saw you become what you needed to be; not until I created this plan.” She looked down to Nova before shedding a tear. "I did set the wheels in motion for everything that had happened, but I never predicted that she would exist.”
Twilight looked back to Nova, first with sadness, and then with anger. “I’ll save her! I have to.” Twilight stated.
“You can’t.”
“I have control of the elements now,” Twilight scoffed. “I’ll just go right to the past before she dies and protect her.”
“Twilight, she will die. Again. In a different way.” Celestia let out another heavy sigh as she considered how to explain the difficult concept. “Nova came to be in this world because you disappeared. When your parents heard word of your disappearance and presumed death, they grieved as expected. However, I never predicted that in their grief, they would choose to have another foal. I guess in order to protect her, they never told her the truth about you. They didn’t want her to get mixed up in magic.”
Twilight looked down to the picture she still held. In it was a family photo of her parents and Shining Armor, but in the spot where Twilight should have been, Nova was standing. A single tear dripped down onto the photo. “I don’t understand. Why can’t I save her?”
“Because, Twilight, in a world where you exist, she can’t,” Celestia explained. “Her birth was the result of your death, and if you aren’t dead, then she becomes an anomaly. A mistake. That’s the trouble with time travel. In all honesty, the only way to save her from her fate is to ensure that she is never born by returning to your time to set things right. I know it's harsh, but there's really nothing else you can do.”
“There was only one future that I planned for you,” she continued. “You were supposed to reunite your friends and use their friendship to learn to control your element so that you could come back to your time. Nothing more. In all honesty, I never knew that you could control all the elements by yourself without becoming an alicorn first.”
Twilight looked at Celestia in confusion. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘first’?”
Celestia raised her head up high with pride in her student. “Twilight, your whole life, I've been preparing you to be my replacement. It is your destiny as the Element of Magic, just as it was mine and Luna’s four thousand years ago. But Luna and I, we weren’t given a choice like I am going to give you. Your future may have been directed this way, but I will at least give you the decency of the truth and a choice.”
“You didn’t think I would have accepted the responsibility of being the princess?!" Twilight scoffed. "Of course I would have accepted the responsibility! If it’s my responsibility, then I must!”
“Twilight, there is a price you must pay in order to become an alicorn. One that you would not accept had I not sent you here to show you a world without the sun.” Celestia waited for the inevitable response to her choice of words.
“Wait, you sent me here?!” Twilight barked. “But even if you wanted it to happen, it was an accident. I lost control."
“Alas, while it was an accident for you, it was my actions that caused you to lose your focus. In a carefully calculated action, I performed a sonic rainboom that would break your concentration long enough for you to lose control,” Celestia revealed.
Twilight paced around, contemplating the implications. Celestia had sacrificed the world on a gamble that she would end up here at this time. That everything would end up the way it did and that the clues she left would last until then. There were too many variables and Twilight was having difficulty trusting that Celestia relied on anything but luck. Twilight finally stopped pacing, feeling the anger boil up inside her as she faced the unicorn. “You gambled with my life!” She shouted. “With the lives of everypony in the world.”
“Twilight, please understand! I've had four thousand years to plan this out. I never took this responsibility lightly." Celestia took another glance at Nova's lifeless body in the snow. "But it was impossible for me to predict everything. Not every future is set in stone. Every action that anypony makes could alter the course and I could only have influenced so much."
“But it was still a gamble,” Twilight sighed as she remembered the faces of all her friends. The pain and struggles they all went through. "How can you say you love all your subjects..."
“Don't finish that thought!" Celestia begged with tears in her eyes. "Please, Twilight... please trust me,” Celestia pleaded. This was not a ruler commanding obedience but as a friend begging for help. "Regardless of anything I could have done, I was going to die. For reasons I cannot explain, the Sun itself feeds off my energy and if I die without passing on my power to another, it dies with me." Celestia rested her hoof on Twilight's shoulder as she looked deep into her eyes. "The real gamble would have been to let you decide without knowing everything. My predictions always showed that you would have declined if not for this, and if you had lived your life and died, then there would be no fixing this. The line of the Element of Magic would end with you."
Twilight sighed in defeat as she saw the logic in the statement. "What are the consequences for becoming an alicorn?” she asked.
Celestia nervously shuffled her hooves at the snow even though she left no marks upon the soft powder. “Well... you have to die...”
“WHAT!?” Twilight gasped.
“It’s not what you’re thinking!” Celestia immediately responded, waving her hooves in the air frantically. “You have to be reborn from your ashes, so to speak. You will still be you, but you’ll emerge as an alicorn. Unfortunately, you won’t remember your life from before your transformation.”
“But what about all my friends? What about my life?”
Celestia cleared a hole in the clouds overhead, revealing the stars. She stared up at a constellation she asked Luna to make for her a long time ago. The five stars of her attention began to twinkle slightly as Celestia felt a pressure in her chest. “You should not be concerned about forgetting them. They will be around you for the remainder of their lives. Such is the connection you share with the other elements. No, Twilight, the hardest part about becoming nearly immortal is learning to accept the mortality of everypony around you while still not forsaking friendship.”
“I would have accepted those consequences...” Twilight answered, really only trying to convince herself.
“And you must live four thousand years ruling a country through every hardship without faltering as a beacon of hope amongst your subjects as you wait for the elements to complete their four thousand year cycle.” Celestia took notice of her student’s obvious struggle with accepting everything she had been told.
“I... I could, have...”
“Twilight, I know I should have told you, but you were always one to pride yourself on proof and observation. Your stubbornness and endless curiosity was my greatest battle in ensuring the continuation of our line. I had to let you see for yourself if you were ever to accept my prophecy.”
Twilight hung her head low in defeat. She knew it was selfish, but she couldn’t ever see herself in a world without her friends. In truth, she had thought about it often, but she hoped that she would have been the first to go out of all her friends when her time came. She was literally mortified of the thought of grieving, and she hated herself for selfishly thinking that way.
However, something that Celestia had said caught Twilight’s attention. “Celestia...” She muttered. “If the elements followed a four thousand year cycle, shouldn’t the Elements of Chaos also have appeared? And on the same note, since Luna still has a thousand years left, what does that mean for her when they do?”
“I’m glad you asked that Twilight. You are lucky that Luna will be there to help you out in your early years should you choose to accept my request, for you see, her elements follow a different, 5000 year cycle, indifferent of her relatively short lifespan. Together, we agreed that Luna would have to hibernate for one thousand years in order to live long enough to see her successor appear. In order to do this, we had to find her a vessel. One that could live for the entirety of the millenium. Unfortunately, the only other creature like that was Nightmare.” Celestia showed Twilight an image of a floating creature made entirely of black magic. The creature skipped across the minds of ponies, possessing them to do dastardly acts before leaving them broken but oblivious to the suffering they caused as it floated on to find its next victim. “It was pure evil, but at the same time, laughably weak. The only reason it was able to survive so long under our constant hunting was that it was deviously cunning.”
“One thing that it desired most of all was our power, but we used that to our advantage.” Celestia showed Twilight a vision of Princess Luna silently arguing with the creature as it swarmed around her, trying to get into her head. At one moment, it seemed like its words had struck a sour note with the Princess as she dropped her head in sadness and by extent, her guard.
In one quick motion, the mass flew at Luna, entering her head through her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, leaving the alicorn goddess writhing in pain on the ground, clasping her hooves against her head. What came next was horrifying to say the least; so horrifying that Celestia turned away and placed her hooves over her ears, despite it being completely silent, as if the memories were too much to bear.
Luna’s eyes became jet black as she squirmed on the ground, hitting her head against the tile in a frantic attempt to rid herself of the pain. Her body began to shed like a shell being ripped from her body as flakes of color peeled off revealing her black coat underneath. Luna was skilled at transformation, but this was unlike anything either princess had ever seen.
Luna’s face contorted as she began to scream in agony as the last part of the transformation began. Her wings, once pristine and regal, began to snap and break out of shape, taking the form of something much like bat wings. After it was all over, the towering black alicorn slowly rose up, panting as she examined her hooves. She began to laugh maniacally as she flaunted her newfound power, shooting random sparks of lightning in different directions.
Celestia uncovered her ears and wiped the tears away from her eyes as she turned to face Twilight. “And thus, Nightmare Moon was created,” she sniffled. “Luna fell into a deep sleep as Nightmare took control of her. However, we could not allow Nightmare to wreak havoc on Equestria with Luna’s power, so I waited for her outside the castle with the Elements ready. When she came out, I quickly banished her to the moon, where she would be forced to live the duration of Luna’s hibernation in exile.”
Twilight closed her mouth which had fallen open in astonishment as she took a moment to interpret everything that she had been told. If everything Celestia said was the truth, then everything that had happened in the past four thousand years had been planned to a certain extent, from Nightmare Moon all the way to how Twilight’s life would turn out.
“Alright... I get it,” Twilight sighed, depressed from her own realization. “My life was never my own to live, but if Equestria needs me to be who you want me to be, then I will do it.” Twilight took a prideful stance despite the tears in her eyes.
Celestia gave her a pitiful look. “I’m so sorry Twilight. I tried to give you the life you deserved. Not everything was planned by me. The friendships you forged. The good times you had. They all came from you.” She sighed as she remembered the day she found out about Twilight’s destiny. “But fate chose you, and there was only so much I could leave to chance for you.”
Twilight looked up at the top of the cliff face back to where they had fallen from. “Then what about Rarity? I understand that I had to come, but why did you let her come with me?”
“That, Twilight, is a different story. I had to make sure she would be ready.”
“Ready?” Twilight asked. “Ready for what?”
“To raise you once you are reborn.”
“Raise me? What about my parents? Why can’t they do it? Are they not good enough for you?” She sneered.
Celestia winced at the onslaught of questions. “Because, Twilight. It didn’t work so well for Luna and I when we became alicorns.” Celestia once again used her magic to show Twilight her and her sister back when they were young alicorn fillies. A light tan unicorn with a dark gray mane walked into view and swept up the two fillies in each arm. “This was our father. He was a powerful conjurer of his time. In fact, many ponies believed that he would be an Element of Magic, at least, until Luna and I were born.”
The unicorn looked down at the two fillies, but instead of being happy, he looked down at them with contempt and jealousy. “He envied our power. Everypony used to believe that he would have it, but the day we stole his dream away from him, something inside him snapped. Nopony could have seen it coming. He tried to take control of the Element's of Chaos, but they rejected him. The power of the Elements of Chaos tortured his mind and his body, and even though he was able to take away a lot of Luna's power, the ritual transformed him, warping him into a twisted beast."
"Wait, you can't seriously mean that..." Twilight interrupted as she recognized who Celestia was hinting at.
"Yes, Twilight," Celestia continued. "My father died that day, but what emerged from his death was Discord, a psychotic being with a terrible power. His first goal was to claim the rest of Luna's power, as well as kill me so that nopony could challenge his power, but our mother was able to rescue us during the transformation and take us far away from Everfree City. In his desperation he created a blizzard that swept over almost all of Equestria in the hopes of freezing us to death."
“I believe this is where the history you know begins. Luna and I were born at the same time, so before they passed, the Prince and Princess appointed a unicorn council to raise the sun and moon, as told in your Hearth’s Warming Eve story. But since they were gone and Luna and I were merely fillies at the time, this also meant that there was no pony to challenge Discord in his rise to power. He sent the creatures called Windigoes off to find us and kill us, but our mother, Clover, hid us well in the caves beneath Canterlot. You see Twilight, your Hearth’s Warming story is really the story of how Everfree fell and Canterlot rose to be the new Capital, only mistranslated and misinterpreted from over 4000 years of telling and retelling."
Celestia snapped out of her reverie and turned her attention over to Twilight, hopeful that what she had shown her was enough to convince her of her reasoning. Unfortunately instead, Twilight was fuming.
“So you think my parents could go crazy and try to rule Equestria with my power?” Twilight spat.
“I trust your mother and father with my life, but for Equestria, that isn’t good enough. They need a pony they can trust. One like an Element of Harmony, who has risen above the call of duty and made sacrifices that nopony else could have done. Since the world does not yet fully trust Luna since the Nightmare Moon incident, Rarity is my best choice.”
It was a sound reasoning, but one that left a bitter taste in her mouth. Still, she doubted that Celestia or Luna would have reacted any differently if somepony had told them that their father would do what he did.
Suddenly, the hue of the world around them became a little darker as all the faces that surrounded them faded back into nothingness. Celestia looked around with a worried look on her face. "Twilight, our time is almost up. You've used up almost all of your power. You must return to your own time and speak with..."
Twilight held up her hoof to stop Celestia in her thought. "I'm so sorry, Celestia. I understand how much work you put into all this and how difficult it must have been, but I just can't go back," she stated gently.
"But Twilight! There's no other way!"
"I'm sorry, Celestia, but I cannot abandon everyone again." Twilight looked down at the picture and then up to the sky, picturing the faces of all her friends. "They all need me now more than ever. I know that we can't be certain what happens to the timelines when we jump from one to the other, but the book theorized that they just branch off rather than just cease to exist. I can't just go create another world just because this one is messed up. I can't forsake my friends like that. I caused all this, and I need to be here to fix it or at least deal with the consequences of my actions."
Celestia felt helpless as Twilight explained her reasoning to her. Twilight's words were definite. There was no sign of fear or reservation in the way she spoke. For the first time in almost four thousand years, Celestia was speechless.
"But... the Sun..." Celestia weakly muttered.
Twilight gave Celestia a confident and reassuring smile as her horn started to glow. "There are many things I learned in my years studying under you, but there were many things that I found out on my own." Twilight closed her eyes and began to focus her enegy in front of her, creating a small spark of energy.
Celestia's eyes lit up as she saw what Twilight had created. The energy was so overpowering and familiar, despite how short lived it was. Celestia looked back up into Twilight's eyes before noticing that she was sweating and panting in exhaustion.
"Celestia..." Twilight panted. "Princess Celestia. I... need you to trust me on this..." she said as she struggled to keep herself upright.
Celestia only gave her a nod as the rest of the light around them faded to pitch black. There was only the two unicorns left standing in the void. "I... I trust you, Twilight. If this is your decision, then please allow me to bestow upon you one last gift."
Twilight nodded as she felt her eyelids getting heavy.
Celestia reached in and embraced Twilight with all her might. The action surprised her, but before she could react, Celestia leaned in and whispered into her ear. "This is goodbye, Twilight. Please tell Luna that I love her."
"Wait! Princess-" Twilight shouted before Celestia's body suddenly burst into a shower of sparks of energy. The brilliant display of light swirled around Twilight in one massive flurry before flowing into her body from all directions. Just as quickly as it began, the light faded. Tears dripped from her eyes, but Twilight felt no sadness. Even though her mentor and teacher were gone forever, she was happy. She could feel the warmth of Celestia flowing inside her.
The world around began to come back into focus in its normal hue as Twilight could once again feel herself suspended up in the air. She could feel the air around her begin to circulate as the world began to move again, slowly at first but gradually gaining speed until it returned to normal. The energy around her quickly dissipated in a flash as she gently began to descend to the snow and her body returned to its normal state. She felt light headed, stumbling around as beads of sweat dripped from her forehead despite the cold.
The first thing she thought about as she regained her senses was her sister. She rushed over to Nova’s side, lifting her head up and letting it rest on her lap as she stroked her mane lovingly. Twilight found it hard to take that the young mare had no other fate than death at such a young age. She deserved better than this.
Scootaloo sighed in relief as Twilight left to go tend to the mare; a moment of relief that was short lived as she remembered the pain she was in. Scootaloo coughed up blood as she waited for the cold to finish her off. “It’s not fair,” she thought.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash bolted down from the sky to the trio, previously alerted by the explosion of magic she saw earlier. She instantly dashed over to the orange pegasus reaching down to hold her, but stopping short as she realized that she could cause more damage. “Scootaloo!” Dash cried, tears relentlessly streaming from her eyes. “What did you do?!”
“I... I wanted somepony to hurt... as much as I did. I... I was so... so... angry-”
Dash held her hoof up to the mares lips as she shushed her. “It’s all my fault! I never showed you the attention you deserved. I was too cocky. Too proud. I’m so sorry!”
“No Dash... It was all my fault. I never spoke up... I...”
“No! Don’t think that way. Just focus on staying awake!” Rainbow Dash turned her head as she pushed a button on a headset that she kept in her ear. “This is former Captain Dash requesting immediate medevac.”
There was a moment of static before a voice responded. “Roger, Captain Dash. What’s your location?”
“I’m somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Near the ruins. Make an overhead pass. I’ll pop flares.”
“I copy. We’ll send a team right away. ETA: two mikes.”
Rainbow Dash pulled a flare out of a leg holster and struck the flint, creating a bright flash of red sparks. She immediately tossed the flare aside as she turned back to the now quivering mare beside her. “Stay with me Scoots. You’re going to be okay.”
“Former?” Scootaloo mumbled.
“Huh?”
“You... you said former Captain. W...what did you mean?”
“I... I quit the Wonderbolts.” Dash stuttered.” I was going to take you home with me before you stormed off.”
Scootaloo smiled. “You didn’t... have to do that.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “The Wonderbolts are nowhere near as important as you. I’ll get over it. I would never get over losing you.”
Scootaloo felt tears of joy well up in her eyes, but they quickly turned to tears of pain as she coughed up more blood. “I’m sorry...” She didn’t even get to finish her sentence as her eyelids drooped and her breathing stopped.
“No, no, NO!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she began performing CPR on Scootaloo. "Please! Stay with me! Don't you dare!" Dash wailed, desperately trying to suppress the tears in her eyes.
A team of pegasi came fluttering down from the sky, lowering stretchers down as they rushed to both the downed mares. They quickly pushed Dash aside trying to prevent her from rushing in and interfering with their work. It took two medics to fully restrain her while another two tended to Scootaloo. They quickly placed a neck brace on her before pulling out a portable defibrillator.
Rainbow Dash continued to watch in horror as the machine gave off its unmistakable high pitched screech to signify it was charging up.
"CLEAR!" The paramedic called out as he placed the pads on the mare's chest and then pushed the button. Scootaloo's body violently convulsed as the surge of voltage coursed through her body, but still she remained lifeless.
Dash struggled against her restrainers, reaching out desperately for Scootaloo, not even trying to hold back her tears.
"CLEAR!"
The scene was utter chaos as they continued to try to revive her while Rainbow Dash screamed and fought in agony. One other medic had come over to Twilight and Nova to tend to them. There was no doubt on his face when he came down to check for a pulse. Only a few seconds passed before he removed his hat and began to pronounce Nova, offering the mare a moment of silence before turning to offer Twilight some assistance. She slowly waved her hoof to decline as she returned to hold to her little sister.
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All of Twilight’s friends were gathered all dressed in black as they waited for the procession to begin. Twilight rushed over to her mother and father as they all held each other once again. Her brother and his wife soon joined in the hug. Even though their family had returned to the way it was before, they all knew that their family would never be whole again.
Princess Luna came in and offered Twilight her condolences before heading up to the altar. She gave a conductor a brief nod and he held his hooves up to conduct. An orchestra began to play a somber tune as the pallbearers carried in two coffins. Everypony in attendance hung their heads low as they brought the coffins to their resting place.
“Fillies and gentlecolts,” Luna began. “It is with great sadness that we are gathered today to commend these two to the mercy of the ancients.”
As Luna talked, Rainbow Dash held a handkerchief up to her eyes to stop the tears. She felt incredibly guilty for everything that had happened.
Twilight quickly placed a hoof on her distraught friend’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Rainbow Dash. It wasn’t your fault. There was nothing you could do.”
After Luna had finished speaking, each of Twilight’s family went up and said a few words for Nova. One by one, they told stories of Nova's life through their torrents of tears and sobs. Each story was so incredibly like Twilight's, with her endless curiosity and incredible talent, that it had almost seemed like she was at her own funeral. Finally, Princess Cadence finished her eulogy leaving only Twilight to speak."
Twilight found her way up to the pedestal and looked around at all the mourning faces before she cleared her throat. “I never knew Nova like I should have," she began. "My family tells me that she was just like me. Always curious. Always thirsty for knowledge. They say I would have really loved her, and I did. The little time I had with her, she grew on me. She became every bit important to me as my own friends. In truth, I was never supposed to meet her, but she will always hold a place in my heart. One that will shine forever like the stars she loved to observe. She is and will always be my little sister.”
Twilight stepped down from the altar and leaned over the casket, giving Nova a kiss on her forehead before returning to her place in between her family and her friends.
Fluttershy leaned in closer to Twilight. “Thank you for letting me do this,” she whispered before getting up to go talk at the altar. “Angel was more than just a friend to me...” She began.
Rainbow Dash turned to her right as she felt a nudge from the orange pegasus that stood beside her. Her body was heavily bandaged up and her arm was in a cast. She was chained up in cuffs with two royal guards watching her every move. “Can I say a few words? I want to apologize for what I did,” she asked.
Rainbow Dash looked back to the guards who nodded before turning to Twilight and her family. “I know it isn’t my place to ask, but could Scootaloo say a few words?
Twilight smiled as she gave Rainbow Dash a quick nod. “Of course.”
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Everypony gathered around at Golden Oaks Library back in Ponyville waiting for Twilight to arrive. Everypony from Twilight's parents, Princess Luna, and all her friends were there to hear what Twilight had to say, but everypony had already expected it to be the final farewells. There was tension in the air; some of it from fear and some from stress. Nopony really knew what to expect if Twilight was to go back into their past. Either they would all cease to exist, or they would continue on and Twilight would be gone once again.
Most worried of all was Rarity. After the funeral, she had decided that she wasn't going to go back with Twilight, but she wasn't quite sure how to break the news. Sweetie Belle had already endured so much on her own. The thought of leaving her alone again was too much for Rarity to take. Nothing would truly undo the pain that Sweetie Belle had already gone through.
Ever since they were reunited, Sweetie Belle hadn't left Rarity's side. She practically groveled for Rarity to stay once she learned of Twilight's plan to return back to their own time. However, it didn't take much to convince her that it was the right choice.
"I forgive you Rarity!" Sweetie Belle cried. "I'm so sorry for all the bad things I've done. I never meant the things I said! Just please don't leave me again!
Rarity held her sister tightly, resting her cheek against her soft and flowing mane. "You don't have to be alone anymore, darling," she whispered. "I'll never leave you again."
Princess Luna patiently waited. She hadn't said a word since the funeral. Since Twilight pulled her aside and told her of her encounter with Celestia. She desperately struggled to maintain her stoic expression, but everypony noticed anyway. Twilight's words replayed over and over in her mind, and even though she was happy that Twilight was now one with Celestia, Luna couldn't help but feel distraught that she would never see her sister again. Not in her magical state which she would sometimes use to get away from it all. Not even in the afterlife where she was to join the previous wielders of the Elements of Magic when her time too would come.
Still, Twilight hadn't told her everything about the encounter. She never told her about her plan, nor did she even tell her why Celestia did what she did. All she asked was that Princess Luna trust her. So there Princess Luna sat in the middle of Twilight's library, patiently waiting for Twilight to return. She had said that she had some things to take care of, and for everypony to wait for her at the Library.
Not a single word was spoken for the rest of the time they all spent waiting, either out of respect or grief. Only the muffled sounds of sobbing and the wind howling outside were audible. It came as a shock to everyone when there came a knock at the door.
Spike quickly rushed over and opened up the door, revealing the lavender unicorn of the hour. All eyes were transfixed on Twilight, some with elation, and others with confusion. Twilight slowly walked in, all six of the gems that made up the Elements of Harmony circling around her as she made her way to the back of the room. She didn't say a word- she hadn't spoken to anybody since the funeral, save for the few words she said to Princess Luna. Nopony really knew what to expect.
Twilight situated herself in front of the reading desk and waited for everypony to get situated where they could see and hear her. Once the room was still, Twilight took a moment to clear her throat.
"I'm not going back to my own time," she began.