//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Heart of the Ruins, Part 2 
// Story: PONYTALE 
// by Flutter-Spark 
//------------------------------//

As Celestia turned around, she wasn't sure what she was feeling. This sudden revelation, spoken with such a dejected tone, had thrown her thoughts for a serious loop. Yet, when her eyes fell upon Twilight, the feelings which rose to the surface with the most potency were pity, sorrow and a desperate desire to wrap the little filly in a hug.
Twilight simply sat, her plot planted on the wooden planks of the bridge, with her head bowed so her bangs hid her eyes from sight. Tears slid slowly down her cheeks to the end of her muzzle, gradually forming a tiny puddle beneath her. Her entire body had begun shaking again, only now she was doing nothing to stop or hide it. It even looked like her coat and mane had dulled in color.
Celestia bit her lip as she reached out with a hoof, only to hesitate when it was inches from the filly's head. Only when she had retracted the hoof and removed its golden horseshoe did she again extend it and this time brush it through Twilight's dark blue mane. This caused the lavender pony to jerk back and slowly lift her head, and the sight of her dewy eyes made Celestia flinch. One way or another, this reaction was her fault; if she hadn't said anything about Twilight's true mother...
Shaking her head, the white Alicorn once again slid her hoof through Twilight's mane before gently wrapping her foreleg around the tiny filly and drawing her into a hug. She let the child sit there in her embrace for a moment, neither moving nor saying anything as Twilight hiccuped and sniffled, slowly mastering her sobs. Only when the shaking of her little body had calmed significantly and Celestia was sure her tears had subsided enough to talk coherently did she speak.
"You say you have no mother?" She asked.
It was a simple question, but the way Twilight sniffled and shook her head after it was asked made the Ruins' caretaker feel as if her heart was going to break in two. Still, she kept her voice steady as she next asked, "What about a father?" Again, there was a shake of the head to answer, along with an a loud hiccup, and Celestia shuddered, dreading the answer to the next question. "A sibling?"
Twilight shuddered, but through her sniffles she managed to croak out, "M-my brother, Sh-Shining Armor..."
Celestia bit her lip again, then quietly asked, "W-what happened to your parents...?"
Twilight shook her head. "I-I don't actually kn-know... One day they were there, b-but then the next..."
Gently stroking the filly's back with her wing, Celestia slowly stood and nudged her, urging her to rise. Shakily, Twilight obliged, and both began to walk as Twilight, fighting back her tears and treading with shaky hooves, started speaking. She paid no mind to the long, wide hallway into which they'd stepped, only kept her head down and walked as Celestia, in turn, listened, her wing staying firmly placed on Twilight's back as she matched the filly's pace.
"M-Mom and Dad were the greatest... They were researchers, studying n-new ways to use magic to make spells that could make everypony's lives easier... They w-wanted to help ponies by m-making it so that they had more time to spend d-doing things they liked... They hoped it'd make it e-easier for other mommies and daddies to find time to spend with their foals... h-helping them find their talents, playing g-games..."
Celestia nodded in understanding and murmured, "They sound like wonderful ponies."
"Y-yeah," Twilight said, seeming to cheer up a little. "Th-they really were great ponies... I always wanted to be j-just like them..."
Celestia's lips curled at this, her smile kind as she said, "A lovely ambition. Helping others achieve their dreams." She waited, looking down at Twilight before asking quietly, "How did you learn that they were...?"
"A-a mare came to the house one day," Twilight said, blinking through fresh tears. "Sh-she said she came from the academy where Mom and Dad worked–"
"An academy? For ponies?" Celestia blushed as Twilight stared up at her in surprise at the interruption, muttering, "Nevermind, please continue."
"W-well, she said she worked there with M-Mom and Dad and th-that... Th-there'd been an a-accident..." Twilight sniffled, wiping away a tear, and bowed her head again. "We g-got taken to see them in the hospital, b-but... D-Daddy was... a-already..."
She hiccuped as Celestia stopped walking and started to lightly caress her back. "M-Mom looked r-really bad... Wires and t-tubes all over her b-body... Shiny a-and I went in to see her, a-and... She opened her e-eyes for a minute, s-smiled at us, th-then..."
Twilight suddenly slumped onto her belly and wept, "D-doctors s-started r-running all o-over the place, p-pushed me and Shiny o-out of the room and... and...! I s-saw, for a m-minute, past e-everypony and I c-could see her shaking, m-moaning and screaming...! Sh-she was taken out a-and taken to a b-back room, b-but...!"
As Twilight began sobbing heavily, pressing her hooves over her eyes, Celestia finally let go. She had heard far more than enough. Twilight was clearly hurting more than any child her age should ever have to, and was in desperate need for comfort. Whatever had led her to fall into the Underground, regardless of all else, she was only a filly, a child in desperate need of comfort.
After all she had endured, Celestia had tried to close herself off. She had known the pain of losing children far too many times. True, each and every one was adopted, and each one of them had been taken in long after the last, but they had all meant something to her. They had brought her joy and happiness in ways no other living things had ever done, even before she'd been forced into the Underground. After the loss of the first two, she had tried to keep some level of distance between herself, especially after the first of the last six had come.
They'd been human, those last six children. However each one had looked to her for comfort, and bonded with her as she had granted them what they had sought. Then every single one of them, shortly after arriving, had left. She had been able to keep from embracing the role of a mother, using the cell phones created by the researches in the distant Hotland Lab to ensure a final line was drawn to keep her from making that mistake. Yet the pain had never not come, every child's inevitable death stinging like a knife in her heart, making her fleetingly wish for an end to come to her unnatural lifespan.
But Twilight wasn't a human; she was a pony. She wasn't a young teenager like the humans had all been; she was just a filly, young and impressionable, and there was no telling how long she had gone on without a mother's love. A brother was all well and good, but there was no conceivable way she could come up with that a young stallion could balance living his own life with raising a filly. Perhaps that was why she had been on the mountain and fallen?
Regardless of why, the point remained Twilight needed someone to be her mother, and the count of mares who truly cared and knew of her location and hurting amounted to only one, and Celestia was it. Thus she found, despite knowing she might one day lose this child to the Monsters of the Underground and the folly of the one who had ended all the rest who had fallen, that she had no reserves now in wrapping her forelegs tightly around the little lavender filly. In fact, she was more than happy to add her wings to the embrace, and pull the precious child to her barrel as she sat down with her, resting Twilight's head against her chest as she nuzzled her and allowed her to weep into her robed bosom. No one who looked would have been able to tell Twilight was even there, ultimately, with how much of her Celestia's hug enveloped.
And Celestia found she didn't care if anyone or anything were to see her as she swore in her heart that she would find some way, no matter what happened, to keep Twilight safe, no matter the cost. All she cared about was the filly she was gently hugging and caressing as she murmured quiet assurances and soft shushes in her ear. All she cared about was making sure the little lavender bundle she held was able to feel just how much she had wormed her way into Celestia's very soul.
A fact she made clear as crystal as she whispered, "Do not fear, my little Twilight Sparkle; I am here. If a mother is what you need... then a mother you shall have."



Twilight's eyes widened as the words met her ears. She heard them, but she couldn't begin to bring herself to believe them. Just minutes ago, she would have given anything and everything to hear them, and suddenly here they were. And here was Celestia, already acting the part as she held her and tried to calm her down.
Slowly, hesitantly, fearing she were under some spell her slightest motion or vocalization might break, Twilight looked up into the eyes of the snowy Alicorn and asked, "R-really...? Y-you mean it...? You'll... be my Mommy...?"
Celestia's smile was tremulous. "If that is what you need–what will make you happy–then yes."
As Twilight wrapped her forelegs tightly around Celestia's neck, she felt a smile tugging at her lips despite the fresh tears in her eyes. After all, they weren't there from sorrow anymore. Feeling the Alicorn's hug tightening around her, she chat her eyes and just let the feeling of the moment soak through her. In that moment, all she felt was love and DETERMINATION to make her new Mommy proud.