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// As She Takes Time Just For Me 
// Story: Taking Time 
// by arcum42 
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Chapter 4: As She Takes Time Just For Me


A long time ago, there lived a unicorn who became the most powerful magician in all the land. He went on many adventures, performed many daring deeds, and invented many unique spells, some of which are in use in the present day. He was beloved to all who knew him.

Owing to his adventures, he had become well known to the courts at Canterlot. Luna and I trusted him like few others. He went by the name of Star Swirl, and had an exceptionally long and fine beard.

"You knew Star Swirl the Bearded, creator of the Omniamorphic spell?" Twilight exclaimed, excited.

"Yes, indeed I did. In my lifetime, I've met many ponies who have become well known." Celestia said. "And met many that weren't nearly as well known as they should have been, for that matter. Star Swirl was quite exceptional, though."

I had held him close to me as an adviser and trusted friend. And then, one day when I was holding court, he announced that he was going to go on his grandest adventure yet. He had been courting an attractive mare by the name of Rosette, and that day he asked her hoof in marriage. 

She accepted, and soon came the day of their wedding. It was a beautiful thing. He came to the wedding with bells on, and she had her rose laurels. And no invading army to detract from it. At their wedding, I gave the happy couple a cottage they could share away from Canterlot, but not too far to visit easily. They moved in shortly thereafter.

Many years passed. Star Swirl and I carried on our friendship through letters, and I visited them often. They always made me feel welcome, and treated me like a member of the family. Rosette became pregnant over time, and had a lovely daughter, Aurora.

One day, as I was travelling to their cottage for a visit, I noticed large clouds of smoke in the air as I approached. Worried, I sent my guards ahead to investigate. As I got closer, I was alarmed to find their cottage completely engulfed in flame. I sent one of the guards to fetch help from the nearest village, and battled the fire as best as I could until help arrived.

By the time I had arrived, it was clear that there would be no way to enter the cottage. The flames were covering all the exits, and the cottage was partially collapsed due to burned support beams. I did the best I could to fight the fire, conjuring large streams of water at the blazing wreckage until a pegasi squad arrived and started a storm overhead that finished off the last of the flames.

Once the flames were out, we were able to investigate the ruins. There, I found what I had most feared. Under one of the burned support beams lay my friends Star Swirl and Rosette. They must have been killed instantly when the roof caved in. My heart broke, and I wanted to collapse right there, but one thing kept me going. Their daughter was nowhere in the ruins, and I had to find her.

I searched the nearby area calling her name over and over again. Eventually, I heard some sniffling coming from the branches of a nearby tree. Looking above me, I found Aurora high up in the branches, curled up sobbing. I levitated her down, and the two of us grieved for what we had lost.

"All the history books I read ever said about Star Swirl's death was that he had died in an accident." Twilight shook her head. "His family and daughter were never mentioned. That's horrible."

"That's the problem with history books." Celestia said. "Things that were terrible personal tragedies are often described as impersonally as merely stubbing your hoof on a rock."

I tried to console Aurora for her loss, but I really doubt I was much help. Their deaths had affected me greatly, and I was in tears and shaking as well. After a time, when we were both cried out and somewhat calmer, I asked Aurora what had happened.

From what she told me, Star Swirl had been working on the latest of a series of experiments, He had sent her outside to play while he performed it, and she had gotten caught up in her games and lost track of time. Hearing a noise, she looked back at her home, and saw that it was in flames. She was scared silly, and who could blame her? She ran off, climbed a tree and hid there until I found her. 

We may never know what Star Swirl was working on at the time. He had sent his completed research to Canterlot with our letters, but anything he was still working on was lost with his cottage. That plus our correspondence is what is in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing to this day. 

I'd like to say that Aurora and I bonded over her parents deaths and became close. Perhaps that should have been what happened. I was grief-stricken and had a number of things demanding my time, and Aurora reminded me of all that I'd lost. I made funeral arrangements, and appointed a mare I trusted to take care of her until then.

At the funeral, I discovered that Star Swirl and Rosette had wanted me to raise Aurora in the event of their death. I honestly did not feel ready or able to take care of her. I wasn't willing to go against their wishes, though. I appointed her temporary caretaker to take care of her for me on a more permanent basis.

I arranged the best teachers and care possible for her that I could. In retrospect, though, I didn't spend nearly enough time with her. I had told myself I was too busy, but I think I just wasn't ready to be a parent. And it was all too easy to pawn off my responsibility on others.

She never really said much about the matter, and acted happy to see me when we did spend time together, but the two of us grew apart. As she approached adulthood, she had grown bitter and resentful of how little affection there was between us, and how little she saw me. Once she was ready to live on her own, she moved away from Canterlot, and I never saw nor heard from her again.

In fact, her descendants lost track of the family relationship at some point. Effervescence is the last of the line, and she started corresponding with me when tracing her lineage. She evidently put me down as her next of kin as well, which has caused me no end of headaches, given how often she gets in trouble. She always means well, too, which makes it worse.

Continuing, Aurora's complete disavowal of me hurt. I'd loved her with all my heart, though I'd messed up things between us badly. I threw myself completely into my work at that point. Which was a pity, actually, because if I'd been paying attention, I might have noticed what was going on with my sister. She was just beginning to be corrupted into Nightmare Moon at the time.

"So you lost touch with Aurora, and shortly thereafter, your sister was banished to the moon. I can't imagine what that was like." Twilight said, wiping a tear away.

"Not good. I was a complete wreck, actually." Celestia said candidly. "That was also when I took over everything I do now for Equestria. Before then, about half of it had been taken care of by Luna. After losing both her and Aurora, I was left with no one I trusted with the workload."

"So when I proposed delegating your work more..." Twilight said thoughtfully.

"You were proposing I change things back to the way they used to be run." Celestia continued. "One of the reasons I'm having Luna run everything for a few days is to see if she is up to resuming her former duties. It took her quite a while to recover from having been Nightmare Moon."

"I see." Twilight said slowly.

"Though that was hardly the most important reason. For that, I could have just picked out a resort on tropical island with plenty of handsome stallions, and just gone there, and drank a few piña coladas. The reason I am here is for you." Celestia smiled.

"For me?" Twilight squeaked.

"For a long time after what happened with Aurora and Luna, I had decided never to let anypony get close to me again. Even when I decided to take in the most promising young magician I'd seen since Star Swirl himself, I tried to keep from letting her into my heart. But I couldn't help it."

Twilight blushed, and said something totally unintelligible.

"But I find I've been making the same mistakes I made with Aurora all over again with you. Can you ever forgive me?"

Twilight took a deep breath. "First, I'd like to make sure you understand how much our spending time together means to me. You've seen how much I care about my brother, Shining Armor, and his wife, Cadance."

"Yes, indeed I have." Celestia motioned for her to continue.

"Shining Armor was always there for me, and that was fairly important, because my parents never were. I seldom ever saw them, and they always left my care to various foal sitters, which was how I met Cadance, or my brother." Twilight stumbled through what she was saying, as it brought up painful memories of her childhood. "The fact is, you've actually been there for me more then they have since I became your student."

Shocked, Celestia thought back. She had rarely seen Twilight's parents, other then when she accepted Twilight as a student, and at the wedding. They had seemed distant, but she hadn't actually thought about it at the time.

"In fact, when they were at my brother's wedding, and I was being held captive in the caves below Canterlot, did they ever ask where I was?" Twilight's voice had an unfamiliar bitter tone to it.

"No, they didn't. I'd assumed Shining Armor had already told them you weren't coming." Celestia replied, surprised.

"I doubt it. Shining usually had to prompt them for them to even recall my existence, though they usually came through when he did, like when they enrolled me in the Academy." Twilight sighed. "I've long since resigned myself to not having much of a relationship with them. At least while you've been too busy to come out, there's been our letters back and forth, letting me know you are thinking of me."

"I had no idea." Celestia had trouble thinking of why anypony would ignore somepony as gifted as Twilight Sparkle.

"It's not something I particularly advertise, for obvious reasons. I'll forgive you for not having had time, but - promise you'll make time in the future?" Twilight's eyes trembled.

"I promise." Celestia said sincerely. "And let's start that now. Is there anything you'd particularly like to know?"

"Well," Twilight said, mind going over the list she had made that morning. "I'm sure I can think of something..."

The two of them talked for hours. Celestia answered as many of Twilight's questions as she could. They swapped stories, and talked about things Twilight had been researching. The conversation drifted along for a while, gradually meandering between topics. After a while, it wound to a halt, and they just lay there sipping tea, enjoying each others presence by the crackling fire.

Eventually, Celestia turned to Twilight to ask her a question and found that she had fallen asleep by her side, a bit of drool running out of the corner of her mouth. Smiling, she dabbed her mouth with a handkerchief. Then she placed one wing over her, and drifted off to sleep, content in the company of her very dear faithful student.


The End