//------------------------------//
// Ghostlights 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

Screaming. Without source, without direction. It was like wind, like water, and she was falling through it without end in sight. Without ground to crash against, without up or down, without anything to hold on to. Drowning in a storm of screams with no way to escape.
Twilight woke up. The moonlight streamed in through the open window, the breeze gently pushed the thin curtains. Her breath was rough, her heart was pounding in her temples. She forced herself to calm down, sat up, staring at the covers over her body. She didn't move her head or look to the side. "Enjoying the show?"
Celestia, for what could be seen of her face in the darkness, didn't appear at all surprised that Twilight had noticed her presence. "One has the right to admire the fruits of their hard work," she said. "I could not sleep either."
"And you came here." Twilight finally sat a little straighter, and looked at the other alicorn. "Just like old times. You must have missed this when I went to Ponyville."
"Please, Twilight. You're not childish enough to believe that I had time to regularly spy on you while you slept, or that you moving to Ponyville would in any way have stopped me from doing so." Celestia smiled, tilting her head slightly aside. She looked tired. A look usually reserved for mortals. Not the scars on her body, not the spot on her breast, not the rough edges of her forcefully shortened mane. It was the look in her eyes, and that subtle darkned depression beneath them. For the first time ever in Twilight's memory, Celestia looked tired, with no efforts made to hide it.
Twilight thought it fair to show herself the same unfiltered way, there in the flimsy privacy of her room, alone just the two of them. She leaned forward, farther still, past off the edge of her bed. She made a bet of how things would go, and she believed if she ended up face against the ground that too would be deserved. Instead Celestia caught her, and Twilight leaned against her. Wings slowly raised, trembling, legs wrapping weakly around her. Tears out of her eyes pushed against the white hair of the elder mare's shoulder.
Celestia slowly wrapped her legs and wings around Twilight's quaking body. Warm, gentle, earnestly caring. She placed her own head over Twilight's shoulder and back, and slowed her breath, pushing out her chest to meet Twilight's. She began to hum a tune, one both her and Twilight knew.
They stayed embraced as the Moon slid through the sky. Twilight's sobbing eventually ebbed. Her crying ceased. She held on to Celestia, clinging to her like the only stable thing in the whole world, and for once she did not hate her nor herself for it. She sucked in air and pushed it out, and bit by bit her body stopped shaking. "I failed," she whispered into Celestia's ear, voice still cracking, eyes still blinded by previous tears. "I couldn't save them. They all died because of me."
Celestia said nothing. She turned her head slightly, and softly nuzzled the side of Twilight's neck. She stood, carrying Twilight with her, and laid the both of them in Twilight's bed. Twilight let herself lay limp against Celestia and the mattress, and Celestia held her, still humming softly.