//------------------------------// // 4 Teacher and Student // Story: Celestia x Rainbow - The Truest Love // by Bronyxy //------------------------------// Celestia stood atop the highest tower of the Royal Castle and drew the moon down to its deserved rest. The sky lightened from the east, transcending through ever lighter shades of purples and pinks as one by one the individual stars that had formed the brilliant tapestry woven across the night sky faded and blinked out. Today the sun reflected Celestia’s eagerness and rose enthusiastically to create the first long shadows of morning and please its faithful mistress. Yesterday had been hard, but had yielded its own rewards, and Celestia was keen to capitalise on the good start made with her flying. She had ensured that her young teacher had been given an early morning call as she had something of a reputation for sleeping in and awaited her to arrive for breakfast. Luna, still not entirely at ease with meeting other ponies had already excused herself and gone to bed leaving her sister alone at the grandly appointed table. The servants still stood at their posts waiting for a signal from their Princess before bringing breakfast. Celestia flipped through papers of State brought to her by her Ministers to review and ordered tea with a few dried biscuits to take the edge off her appetite. She was clearly absorbed in the events she had been tasked with reviewing, tutting at some of the pages she read, while a few others brought a smile to her face. With each one she signed, she looked up for sight of her guest and after about ten minutes was rewarded with the sight of the cyan mare entering the vaulted room. The Maître d’ stepped forward to accompany her to her place, but she completely blanked him as she trotted over to Celestia, leaving him standing with his mouth open, silently aghast at the obvious breach of expected courtly protocol. “Hey Princess” greeted Rainbow cheerily “How are you doing this morning?” Celestia tidied her papers and surveyed the image of the shocked Maître d’, still looking like he had seen a ghost while the brash rainbow maned pegasus trotted up to her. Although every regal instinct told her not to, she couldn’t help but smile at her approach, Rainbow picking up on the mischievous sparkle in her eyes as she drew closer. “So, you up for busting a few records today, huh?” “Rainbow, how lovely to see you. Yes, it’s a beautiful morning, and I’m positive I can demonstrate some progress to you.” “First thing’s first, I’m ready for grub” said Rainbow planting herself next to Celestia and nowhere near her formally prepared place setting. Celestia smiled again at an even more blatant breach of protocol, but couldn’t find it within herself to point out the error of her ways. While the servants all saw the anarchic humour of the situation, none dared show even a hint of responding. The senior member of the serving staff, the Maître d’ was still seething inwardly and was likely to rip anypony apart who would be so unwise as to show even the slightest recognition of any humour in the situation, returning to his post with quiet aplomb. Given the choice of seating arrangement indicated by the Princess’s guest, a servant rushed in to remake the place setting around her, fussing around her with the same deference as if she was royalty and this was all perfectly normal behaviour. Celestia, tired of the straitjacket of formal convention did her best to suppress a smile, but made a note of those who had helped out or been put out of joint, with a promise to see them all properly rewarded later. Breakfast passed with a variety of other diplomatic blunders by the unconsciously disruptive pegasus, Celestia regarding the rich seem of material unfolding before her that could so easily have provided the basis for a hit situation comedy. Rainbow spent their time together at the breakfast table regaling Celestia loudly with anecdotes about her flying counterpointed by random pieces of aerodynamic theory that she thought the white mare would need during the morning’s forthcoming sorties. Finally, they were ready and rose from the table, Celestia taking pains to thank each member of staff while Rainbow champed at the bit ready to get going. They stepped out through the large double doors onto a balcony where to Rainbow’s surprise an aide stood waiting. Celestia removed her tiara and glimpsed uncertainly towards Rainbow as she took off her livery collar, passing the symbols of office to the aide. “I’m sorry” said Celestia, trying to hide her feeling of obvious discomfort “I’m so used to wearing my royal regalia that I feel a little naked without them.” “Hey, that’s fine” replied Rainbow “I feel kinda silly wearing a dress. But since you’ve seen me in a dress and I’ve seen you without your finery, I guess we’re even.” “Thank you” confided the Princess in a self-conscious whisper, slipping off her gold hoof guards and shedding the last of her unnecessary accessories. “After you, your Majesty” said Rainbow, and Celestia beat her massive wings as she dragged her way skywards. They climbed at a leisurely pace, exchanging small talk until they approached the altitude they both knew would be the threshold for the speed attempt. Celestia went quiet and Rainbow knew she was focusing her mind, getting into the zone for a feat of physical exertion that only she knew how demanding it would be. The white mare’s muzzle continued to point upwards, purple eyes fixed on an invisible point high above them in the azure sky. Rainbow looked at her and was struck by two strong features that stood out; firstly her determination and secondly her beauty, one of these sensations causing an excited chill to run down her spine, but she wouldn’t be prepared to admit which it was, even if she knew. The graceful white mare rolled over and tucked her wings back, letting gravity help her build speed while she gave her wings a brief respite. Head down, horn forward, speed building. She extended her wings once more and started adding power, real power into her descent. Rainbow watched, feeling a tingle of something telling her she was on the point of watching history about to be made, observing with both a highly critical eye and a deep sense of admiration. She was doing everything right, just as she had been told. If she was ever going to do it, it would be before the next minute was up! Rainbow pulled away sideways as she saw the shockwave begin to form around her extended forehoof and feel the buffeting around her own body. They were still a long way up – there was plenty of time and space yet. The shockwave became more acute as Rainbow urged her on, trying to give her any little added advantage she could. The majestic white alicorn’s face was screwed up into the very epitome of determination and her speed was still increasing. “Don’t raise your head, Celestia” prayed Rainbow “Not now …” The cyan pegasus felt the familiar transition through turbulence to the clear air beyond the shockwave and risked her eye taking on a sideways glance just in time to see a multicoloured disc burst into existence where she knew Celestia was. “WAY TO GO!” she screamed as she too punched through the invisible barrier and followed the yellow streak that had Celestia at its front. Anypony looking up would have seen the first double rainboom in Equestrian history with a bright yellow trail exiting it at high speed followed by a much more familiar multicoloured trail shadowing its every move in close formation. Celestia kept staring downwards, not daring to raise her head even fractionally. All the terrible energy-sapping bumpiness building up to the rainboom had been left behind and she knew instinctively what had happened as she experimented with gentle manoeuvring procedures in her new domain. After ten minutes flight during which she executed a gentle turn back to where she started, Celestia decelerated back down to normal flight, transitioning through her old nemesis of turbulence to glide effortlessly in the same way as one third of the population of Equestria did on a daily basis. She sought out the nearest nap cloud and alighted upon it shaking uncontrollably as the adrenalin worked out of her system, unable to control her giggling. Rainbow landed next to her in the cramped space remaining to congratulate her following her amazing achievement and felt a muscular white wing envelop her. “Hold me” requested the alicorn, the need in her voice making rejection unthinkable. Rainbow sensed her vulnerability and snuggled close, feeling her chest rise and fall rapidly and the warmth she radiated. “I’m so proud of you” said Rainbow “That was awesome!” Celestia did not respond, but just held her in an intense embrace. The strong smell of sweat from the closeness of their bodies mingled in Rainbow’s senses creating a heady mix, not unpleasant, not by a long way, but whether she was prepared to admit it to herself or not, somehow strangely alluring. She closed her eyes and drank in the new and untried emotion as a contented smile spread over her face. As soon as Celestia got her breathing under control and stopped shaking she turned to face Rainbow, no longer the all-powerful Sun Princess, but now the grateful student wanting to pay homage to her talented instructor. Somehow, she felt guilty in this new role by having embraced Rainbow, when it should have been the teacher’s prerogative to have expressed her feelings if she had chosen. Guiltily, she withdrew her wing, but felt a shudder of delight as a cyan blue wing was immediately draped over her gently quivering body. “Rainbow, I …”she gasped. “Everything’s going to be alright” came the soothing reply as Rainbow leaned forward to give Celestia a tender kiss. *** Lunch was an informal buffet on the balcony. Both ponies picked at a sumptuous spread of culinary delights; Celestia’s interest principally being drawn to the copious assortment of various cakes and pastries. “I’m sorry about what happened on the cloud” said Celestia “I was out of line. It’s just that after the length of time I’ve lived, I have experienced every possible sensation and every possible emotion so many times that nothing is ever new. Then today, you gave me a novel experience for the first time in my life. I will develop my skill and perform the sonic rainboom in future, and every time I do, I will always think of you. As I am immortal, that means you will live with me forever.” “I would like that” said Rainbow absent-mindedly. “What, the thought that you will be immortalised for your sonic rainboom? “No - the living with you forever part.” Celestia gasped in astonishment, but her eyes sparkled with a look that betrayed her inner happiness at the comment. It had just come out so brazenly that it had taken her by surprise; Rainbow could never be accused of subtlety. Celestia leaned over to give Rainbow a kiss on her cheek, but the cyan mare saw it coming and turned at the last second to face her and the two met for a full-on lips on lips kiss that Rainbow had engineered, but Celestia had been caught in. The depth of their feeling was now quite clear, neither wanting to back down and risk losing the tenderness and intimacy of the moment. The Maître d' made a discrete gesture to the serving staff, who all filed away quickly, leaving two ponies alone to experience an uninterrupted moment of closeness in their unscheduled trist.