Twilight woke back up in the middle of the day, and lifted her sleepy head from the table which had her drool on it, visually creating a new pond where there isn't one. She quickly cleaned it up, and looked around, questioning if she was seeing everything around her correctly or not.
"C-Celestia?" she asked the other sleepy pony in the room. To Twilight's left were books stacked high on top of one another, and to the right of her were almost empty shelves where those books had once been. Twilight's senses came back to her in time, and she simply said, "Tell me that's not what you were able to read today..."
Celestia blinked at Twilight with obviously tired eyes, and just nodded. "It's all... very interesting."
Twilight gulped, and said, "It's only been... maybe two hours."
Celestia smiled at that, and said, "I just couldn't stop. My favorite category was history, though, if you can believe it." She then sighed, and looked to Twilight with the most animated face that Twilight had ever seen before. From Twilight's point of view, she even looked sad, or injured.
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
Celestia began to cry, and sob. Twilight leaned in with a concerned look in her eyes, but she didn't say anything. Actually, Celestia began to answer her question. "Tell me... the truth," She said. She then looked at Twilight in the eyes, and asked, "Did I really lock up some filly in Tartarus during my previous life?!" Twilight's face became stunned. "Or was that just some sick joke put in there to scare me?"
Twilight tried not to appear too bothered by this subject, but this was Cozy Glow that they were talking about after all. "I, uhm..." She cleared her throat, and continued, "The pony you did this to was guilty... of many bad things, Celestia. There's no other way of putting it."
"So it's true, then," Celestia said. "I really did trap Cozy in there."
Twilight felt herself shivering by then, but pushed herself to question further, "You... don't know what she did, though, do you?"
Celestia surprised Twilight by saying, "Actually, I do." She sobbed some more before saying, "She tried to manipulate the whole school and use friendship for power. D-doesn't mean that she should've been imprisoned for it."
Twilight then said, "No... It's way worse than that! Celestia, her actions were showing no sign of her giving up those ill ambitions. She was unstoppable, too, and charismatic. If you hadn't done what you did back then, there's no telling what she might've been able to pull off next time we encountered her!"
Celestia shook her head vigorously in denial, and started to shout over Twilight's argument, "No, no, NO!" She erupted in tears, and even managed to turn on the royal canterlot voice for little bit. "YOU'RE WRONG! YOU JUST DIDN'T WANT TO GO THROUGH THE WORK OF BEFRIENDING HER! I didn't... want to go through the work..."
She hiccuped, and Twilight said after regaining her posture, "Maybe you're right, but there's nothing we can do about it now."
Celestia looked back up at Twilight seriously, and calmly asked all of the sudden, "What're you going to do to stop me?"
It was more like she had come to a startling realization rather than a genuine question for Twilight, and the Princess of Friendship wasn't answering right away. She had gone somewhat blank in the face, but then, she closed her eyes tightly. Scoffing with tears escaping as well, Twilight opened them again, and staring just as sternly back at Celestia, Twilight said, "I suppose... I'll have you be your mother, won't I?!"
Celestia blinked, and frowned. "But, I don't-"
"Yes, you do," Twilight said, sitting there now more beautifully than ever. She appeared even more calm than Celestia could've ever been at that moment in time, and yet, so mysteriously seriously, too. "I've been wondering... if I should have you call me mom from now on."
Twilight's words must've been just right, because just then, Celestia giggled, and said, "I don't think I could ever call you mom, Twilight. You're more like my sister, if anything."
Twilight found herself blushing somewhat by that remark. She then lowered her head, and said, "Just don't go and grow up on me too soon, Celestia."
The filly looked away while hopping down. Once on the floor, she said, "I'll try and stick around for as long as I can. To be honest, though, I wouldn't mind living in the Canterlot palace. Not that this isn't a nice place to live in! I just... really liked being over there for some reason."
Twilight nodded, and said, "Look, about Cozy Glow... She's not somepony that you should be concerned with."
Celestia nodded, and said, "I'm still feeling sorry for her, though."
Twilight did her best to counter with, "Try not to be. I sometimes find it hard not to feel sorry for her, too, because she was my very own student."
Celestia nodded, and said, "She just... I feel like she didn't deserve that, you know, Twilight?"
Twilight finally admitted, "She didn't, actually." She breathed heavily, but continued to say, "But there's nothing we can do about it now." She then reached a hoof out to the filly, gesturing for her to come to her. Celestia understood what Twilight wanted perfectly, and came walking up loosely only to feel Twilight's sweet, caring embrace. She held onto the filly tightly, and said, "I know how you must feel... I just hope you don't mind me changing the subject, but did you read anything else?"
Celestia curled her head into Twilight's chest as she muffled, "Yeah, I read a lot... Maybe too much..."
Although Twilight couldn't understand a word Celestia was saying by then, she still decided to summon the two of them some napkins. All Twilight could think of to say was, "There, there..."
Some time passed before the hug ended, but once it finally did, Twilight remembered what she and Celestia were supposed to be doing. "Oh," she voiced. "I suppose that right about now would be the best time for us to begin our study session! Also, I'd like to find out more about how much magic you might actually possess."
Celestia wiped her tears away, and said honestly, "Despite being a little bit upset by what I just found out, I'm actually still excited, and looking forward to this activity of yours, Twilight. Although, I've read way too much today, and my eyes hurt. I also think I have a slight headache..."
Twilight frowned, but then promised, "No reading. We'll just go outside instead, and practice our magic. How does that sound?"
At first, when Twilight had awoken for the second time that day, Celestia seemed drowsy at best. Now, she seemed much more brighter, and leisurely said, "Perfect."
The two alicorn princesses could be seen leaving the castle. They trotted next to one another, cheeks cleaned of any tears, and as they found the perfect spot to practice in, Twilight said, "Okay, this'll do. Don't you agree?"
Celestia laughed, and said, "Seems cool to me."
Twilight nodded while smiling, and began with a few buckets of water. She discovered that Celestia perform very well at lifting different, and multiple items, so they moved onto other exercises. Although, every exercise was met with vigor, and it's not like Celestia needed second tries or anything. She was a natural at magic, only impressing Twilight that much more.
"Okay," Twilight said while huffing. "So, you know what you're doing! That much is obvious by now..." but Celestia hardly seemed phased by this rigorous routine. In fact, she was frowning by then, and appeared disappointed by all of this.
"Twilight?" Celestia said with a cute tone.
"Yes, Celestia?"
"Not to be insulting or anything, but this has been kind of... boring." She looked away, and confessed, "You made it sound like we were going to play a game together."
Twilight blinked a few times, and then said, "How about we do just that, then?"
It hadn't really occurred to her that Celestia had been standing there, in the same spot since they arrived, and hadn't moved an inch. When she said that they were going to play a game, Celestia finally moved slightly to Twilight's left, and asked, "Really?"
Twilight nodded, and looked around. "Uhh..."
"How about we pass a ball back and forth using only our magic?" Celestia offered. "Spike and I did that earlier, and it was fun! I used my hooves, though. I'd like to know what it's like to use my magic for that instead."
Twilight nodded, and walked on over to the side of the castle to find the ball that Celestia had mentioned. When she came back, she was holding in her magical aura a purple orb. On it were very large, green dots, and she asked Celestia, "This one?"
Celestia yelled back, "Yeah!" Twilight threw it towards Celestia, but noticed something interesting. For the first time, Twilight had found something that Celestia wasn't getting right away. "Mmh!" she cried out in frustration as she tried to catch it with her magic, but she was also trying to catch it with her hooves making things that much more difficult for herself.
Twilight laughed mostly to herself, and then gave Celestia a tip. "If you're going to use your magic, then you need to stop using your hooves, and predict where the ball is going to be. You should still keep your eyes on it, though."
As Celestia picked the ball up using her own magic, she nodded, and threw it back to Twilight rather well. The second time around, she caught it. Their time together went on like that for another good three to four throws before Celestia missed again. Twilight was more surprised, however, by how much fun she was having as well.
She was also still concerned about how Celestia managed to find out about Cozy Glow, but she shook that feeling off as she caught the ball once more, and threw it back again. Once she had managed to tire Celestia out for the time being, she offered that they go inside, and rest up for a bit. Upon reaching the door, Celestia asked, "How did I do?"
Twilight opened the door, and before they entered, she said, "You did great with my activity! As for our game, what matters is if you had fun."
Celestia smiled gleefully, and nodded while saying with closed eyes, "I did, I did!"
Twilight chuckled, and the two of them re-entered the Castle of Friendship.
Time for Celestia went by quickly following that hour with Twilight. Celestia enjoyed her meals, had another bath, and to Twilight's surprise, she even resumed reading a few more books before the day had ended. Of course, she played with Spike some more when she could. The next day, she'd wake up early, raise the sun, and be right back to reading those books of hers.
By then, she had finished most of what the throne room had to offer her. She was starting to get into other places which contained even more pieces of literature that she could read, so consequently, one of the very first things Twilight simply had to talk to her about that morning was how crucial it was to take good cake of ones belongings, and to always restock the bookshelves whenever she finished reading.
Later that day, she'd be resting by the window reading up on even more of Equestria's history. Most of it was regarding herself. Spike came up to Celestia, and asked, "How're you doing this morning?"
Celestia smiled kindly, and said, "I just... can't get over you know who."
Spike looked around, and up at the ceiling before sheepishly asking, "Are you possibly talking about Cozy Glow?"
Celestia gave off a sigh, and said, "I didn't... really even want to hear her name. Sorry, Spike, but I've been trying to put her out of my mind, but..."
Spike welcomingly placed his claw on her hoof, and said, "It's okay, Celestia. You opened up to me yesterday about Cozy Glow after you came back inside with Twilight. You can talk to me about it now, too. Nothing leaves this room. I promise."
Celestia felt really good after hearing that, and positive that what Spike was saying was nothing but truthful, so she continued. "It's just... so weird, y'know? Just when you think you know yourself... I mean, like, everything that I had done before that was pretty alright. I even understood the need to banish Luna to the moon, but to banish a filly to Tartarus was just... Just..."
Spike finished for her, "You think it was out of line, huh?"
Celestia nodded, and asked, "Is there anything I can do?"
Spike gulped, and although he did his best to hide the truth this time, Celestia could still tell when he was lying. "I, uhh... don't think so, actually." He averted his eyes nervously, but then, when he looked back at Celestia, he seemed a bit more like himself. "Hey, why don't we go visit Zecora? I bet nopony's introduced you to her yet! Besides, I already cleared the idea with Twilight last night. She said that so long as you stick with me the whole time we're inside the forest, it's alright."
Celestia tilted her head modestly, and asked rhetorically while shrugging, "Why not?" She then got up, and began trotting along with Spike behind her. "It'll help me take my mind off of things."
Spike cheered behind her, "That's the spirit!"
He then caught up with her, and the two of them left the castle together, side by side. Out in the grass where the wind blew nicely against the two of them, Celestia asked Spike curiously, "Where does this... Zecora pony live anyways?"
Spike laughed as if Celestia was fooling around, and revealed, "She's not a pony. She's a zebra, and she also happens to live in the Everfree Forest."
While Spike kept walking at the pace that he was going at, Celestia slowed down her trot with a curious look on her face. Then, she thought to herself, "Everfree? I remember... something, but it wasn't Everfree. It was..."
Then, her lips parted as she struggled her hardest to pull this one, single memory out from the unrelenting void. With shivers running down her spine, she quietly voiced, "Everly Free...?"
"Hey!" Spike called out from the distance. "Are you coming?!"
"Yeah," Celestia called out to him. Before she began galloping his way, she yelled to Spike, "Wait for me!"