Celestia sat on the terrace of Canterlot Castle.
It was hours too early to raise the sun, yet she knew there was no hope of going back to sleep. Not after that dream she’d woken up from, anyways. Her ivory cheeks turned rose as she bit off a large chunk of chocolate cake (a particular weakness when it came to midnight snacking) as she tried to shake the thought.
She’s just a good student, talented, and somepony you admire, and there’s nothing more to it.
Then why in the dream had that become so lost in translation, going so far as to a lesson together in the palace libraries turning into a quiet tea together on Hearts and Hooves Day, to the heat of—
Stop being ridiculous, Celestia! That’s no way to think of your student. Especially as she has her own life in Ponyville and is perfectly content without you. There’s no point, anyway, as she’ll be gone like everypony else.
Darker thoughts dawned on the princess’ mind and she began to sober up from the bliss of the dream. She knew she loved Twilight. As a mentor, as a friend, as an infatuation, as the truest love she’d felt in millenia. It was the same cruel joke all over again. She was doomed to watch mortals she loved from above, let them find other loves and wither and waste and until their deaths. The cycle never ended. But with Twilight, the most special pony she’d had in her tutelage and gone through so much with, she didn’t know if she could bear it.
She was an alicorn, and Twilight a mere unicorn. They were together, yet on parallel paths that would never meet.
Twilight’s already beginning to forget you. The letters were once every week until you left it up to her, and now they’re barely every two months. Every time, it’s always Spike who scribes them, so it’s probably just out of obligation. How can you even imagine she cares about you as a friend, let alone as anything more?
Taking a particularly vicious bite of cake, Celestia stood up with a heavy heart and returned to her room to go ahead with the day’s proceedings. Immortality was a curse of repetitive hours of court, maintaining harmony and occasional moments of peril, but at least there was cake. Yet since Twilight had left for Ponyville, it had been even harder. Tomorrow would be no different.
A roll of parchment hit her on the horn as she blinked and ducked away. She sighed, levitating it with her magic and about to throw it to the wind, but suddenly gasped in excitement like a filly.
Twilight’s sent me a letter!
She excitedly unwrapped it, only for her face to fall at the title. Of course it was just another report. But what other premise would Twilight write to her under? Yawning, she began to read anyway.
Celestia cuts me off with a kiss, enveloping me in her wings which are soft and white as clouds. The night garden is completely silent except for the gentle breeze against the pond. It is stunning, but nothing compared to her.
I feel heat rushing through my entire body as she traces my back with a single feather.
“Come, Twilight,” she says, in a voice more melodious than even the most beautiful of harmonies, “Let’s go somewhere quieter.”
As she read ahead, Celestia’s muzzle grew redder and redder from within. Her jaw dropped until it began to strain, eyes popping out. Surely this must be a prank. But the handwriting was unmistakable— neat and delicately looped with a slight flourish.
Oh, Twilight.
A dragon and pony sat alone on the midnight train to Canterlot, the pony pacing up and down the carriage at a hundred miles a minute.
“She’s probably sleeping, right?” Twilight tried to reason. “A small little scroll falling wouldn’t wake a pony like Celestia up, would it?”
“Twilight…” Spike started.
“And even if it did, she wouldn’t check it until the morning, would she. So we have plenty of time to break in, replace with my report and be on our way…”
“Twilight!” Spike snapped. “It’s too late. For any of that. Besides, I know what that analysis was really about.”
Twilight froze, turning more crimson than the apples of Sweet Apple Acres.
“All of it. I read all of it,” Spike sighed. “Honestly, why didn’t you tell me?”
Unable to look at him, Twilight backed away.
“Yes, I know it’s a little embarrassing,” Spike smirked, but decided not to press it. There were some things in there he really wished he hadn’t set his eyes upon.
Twilight remained silent, and he went back to being serious.
“Okay, well— we’re close enough that it doesn't matter. If not me, why didn’t you tell your friends? Why didn’t you tell the Princess?”
“You don’t understand, Spike,” Twilight sighed, slumping by the window. “She’s the ruler of Equestria. She’s literally a goddess of the Sun, and I’m just some stupid old filly she once tutored who knows so little about the world compared to her. It’s impossible that she would even—
“You think I don’t know what it’s like to love someone way out of my league?” Spike scoffed. “Well, I did, and still do. But unlike you, I told her.”
“Spike, I know you love Rarity, but this is different!” Twilight yelled, voice straining. “Celestia is immortal and the most powerful pony that lives. What am I compared to her? Apart from the fact that I’m her student, of all things, what is my life against hers? A blink of the eye in the time she’s been alive?”
“So does that change your love for her?” Spike rebuked. “Does that mean you don’t love her, and that you didn’t spend nights lying awake writing it all down to deal with it? Twilight, you’ve defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord, even the Changelings. Every time you’ve proven yourself worthy of her, and every time, she’s been absolutely amazed by you and what you do.”
He touched her hoof delicately.
“At least come clean to her and get some closure. Maybe this is a more, uh, awkward way for it to happen, but it had to at some point. You both deserve that much respect at least.”
Twilight lowered her head.
“It’s just that this is all so humiliating. What if she hates me? What if it doesn’t work out— well, it won’t, but what if we never speak again?”
“Twilight— I’m sure the Princess loves you too much to lose you over a little fantasy,” Spike assured. “And in the time she’s reigned… well I’m sure she’s seen worse. Though she may well be beaten by Luna in that regard if last night was anything to go by.”
Twilight raised her eyebrows at Spike who glanced back at her, and allowed herself a nervous smile.
All too soon, they reached the castle. Twilight ran up to the guards, expecting a struggle to get through to the Princess as they blocked her entry. But as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, the castle doors opened.
Celestia stood behind them, tall and imposing, wings spread out behind her.
Twilight stared up at her stern expression, unable to look away. Even at night, and without her regalia, she was spellbinding, breathtaking, terribly intimidating— and yet, Twilight just wanted to leap at her and tackle her in a hug. Then, she remembered her reason for being at the castle and shrunk back in shame.
“Twilight!” Celestia exclaimed in joy. “What a wonderful surprise! I’m so glad to finally see you!”
“You…are?” Twilight said cautiously.
Maybe she doesn’t know.
“What brings about this very special visit, my dear student?” Celestia said blissfully, looking down at her with the slightest hint of shyness. “That too, at the crack of dawn?”
Twilight shook her head. It was just the glow of the castle lights making the princess look all flushed in front of her. Besides, it was probably nothing compared to how she looked.
“Princess, I…” Twilight started, her tongue full of knots. Spike prodded her sharply at her side.
“You can tell me anything, Twilight,” the princess assured.
Taking a deep breath, she looked into the amethyst depths of Celestia’s eyes.
“I… wanted to deliver my latest report to you by hoof!”
Celestia raised a brow.
“That’s funny.” she mused. “I could’ve sworn I just read a rather excellent report of yours titled A Statistical Analysis of Sharing…”
She looked down at her protégé, eyes twinkling.
Twilight smiled weakly and promptly fainted, Celestia’s soft wings flaring out just in time to catch her.
Twilight Sparkle came round on the softest bed she’d ever been on. Then she realised it wasn’t the bed, but the feathers around her. An angel’s feathers.
Have I died? Did the princess kill me after reading that scroll? I’ve definitely died.
She sprang up in a panic, hitting something hard. Only then did she realise the feathers were the princess’s herself, and she’d hit her head on her horn.
“Princess Celestia!” she gasped, tumbling away from her and crashing onto the floor.
“Ah, Twilight, you’re up,” the princess smiled, looking down from her bed. “That didn’t take you long. In your state, I feared you’d be out for days.”
“But the scroll— the guards— Spike—-“ Twilight began, but the princess got down onto the floor and silenced her with a hoof to the mouth.
“Calm, Twilight,” she said gently. Then she looked down demurely, with an expression Twilight had never seen on her face. “Now, I do believe Spike told me you had something to say?”
Twilight looked up, lip trembling.
“I can’t say it, princess.”
“Of course you can, Twilight. You know I’m always here for you.”
“You’ll… hate me.” Twilight trailed off with a whisper.
“I can’t, Twilight. After all you’ve done for me, how could I ever dislike you? Say whatever you have to, without fear of judgement.”
Princess Celestia was looking at her with such a blank, innocent expression.
But she knows. Of course she does. She’s just waiting for me to lie and fall into her trap, and then she’ll really hate me for good.
Something in Twilight snapped.
“Oh, you know what I mean!” she exploded. “You read the scroll, didn’t you? You know how I feel. Everything I wrote about you, every way you’re beautiful, from the crinkle of your eyes when you smile, to your voice, which is the most beautiful sound to my ears, to the way you have so much love and understanding for everyone and the way I have so much love for you—
She stopped herself, flushing unhappily. Celestia gazed at her, eyes wide.
“Princess, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled…”
“Twilight, I’m extremely flattered,” Celestia said softly, cutting her off.
Of course she is. The words to every rejection speech begin this way.
“I understand, Princess,” she replied quietly. “It’s foolish of me to even think—
“And I never thought I would say this, but I feel the same way.”
“—to think that you’d consider me more than anypony— wait, what?”
“It’s something that I’ve tried to ignore and push away, just like you have.”
Celestia watched as Twilight blushed, shrinking behind her mane in a manner not entirely different from Fluttershy’s.
Oh my goodness. She’s adorable.
“I could’ve told you long ago, my dear Twilight. But I didn’t,” Celestia sighed, “it was my own pride and my own worries that kept me from doing so. I was so selfish.”
“Selfish?” Twilight gasped, though the hints of an undeniable smile were straining her lips. “No, Princess, you could never be.”
“I’ve loved you Twilight, since you were a filly. As a student, as a friend, and recently, in ways that are much stronger. But I couldn’t face my fears of loving you and then losing you to mortality like I have with others. I couldn’t face allowing myself to grow closer to you and then having to watch you age and… and leave this world like any other pony…”
“Oh, Princess…” Twilight reached out a hoof, and Celestia took it.
“And the hardest thing of all. That I was just a tutor to you, just a royal on a pedestal, and you wouldn’t want anything to do with me if I told you.”
Twilight gasped.
“Me? Reject you?”
Celestia raised her eyebrows.
“I take it we shared a similar worry?”
The two ponies gazed at each other in the moonlight, and then broke into relieved laughter.
“I always want you by my side, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia continued gently, “I’m indebted to you, yet you are so humble and respectful to me and all of Equestria. No matter the pain that may or may not follow with this burden of immortality, I will love you as long as you wish me to. I will stay by your side as long as you remain mine, and even if you ever leave it.”
“Princess…” Twilight began, eyes welling, but Celestia leaned in, covering them with her glowing halo of hair and kissing her. And as Twilight’s brain short-circuited from the feeling of Celestia’s lips on hers, she knew no dream of hers was comparable to the love she felt in this moment.
“I’m glad I read your little work of art, Twilight,” Celestia smirked, breaking away. “Though I understand it’s maybe not quite the way you wanted things to play out, or something you ever wanted me to see.”
Twilight turned away, mortified, only to feel a feather gently brushing down her spine. She gaped, beginning to go weak at the knees.
“Though at least I know what you like,” Celestia whispered, drawing her into another kiss that was followed by many more.
The princess and unicorn ended the night by each other's side, curled up together under a blanket. Surreptitiously glancing at each other with the utmost adoration, their breaths stilled, until a loud, booming Royal Canterlot voice startled them (and possibly every creature in Equestria) from beneath the covers.
“Oh, most wonderful of nights!”
Luna had flown by the terrace and seen the silhouettes of the alicorn and smaller unicorn from behind the curtains.
All was well that week, the Sun especially vibrant in the sky. Celestia seemed to have a new energy within her that had rarely been witnessed since Luna’s return. Princess Cadance was particularly receptive towards this— but she knew neither of the ponies involved required much assistance.
As for Twilight, she pranced around all over Ponyville, her letters to the princess and visits to Canterlot more frequent than ever. Many ponies questioned the shift in their behaviour, but fortunately, Spike truly had a tongue of steel (though he got away with teasing Twilight as often as he could.)
Twilight and Celestia needn’t have worried, however, or shed all those tears that night in Celestia’s bedchambers about the separation of death. As fate would have it, the issue of immortality was resolved soon enough.