//------------------------------//
// Playing God 
// Story: Within The Seas of The Galaxies 
// by Soothing Stone 
//------------------------------//

It was hard for Celestia to pick her favorite room of the castle. There were hundreds, if not a thousand, of rooms for her to reside in, and she had a hoof in designing almost every single one of them. In other words, they were made the way she wanted them to be like, so she liked every one of them a little, at the very least.

But the private dining room she went for her breakfast meals in was close to being her favorite. Maybe it was the stark contrast of the wooden walls compared to the grandiose style of the rest of the place. Perhaps it was how she was a morning person at heart, and catching up on her kingdom through the notes of her subjects was one of her favorite activities on the throne.

In the end, it was having a little bit of privacy for an hour, and everything else was just a plus. She sipped on her cup of tea for a little bit, when she heard a knock on the door.

"Yes, what is it?" she answered when she opened the door.

"It's your sister, Your Highness," the Guard said in front. "She asks if she can talk to you in this room."

"Did she say anything about why she needed to talk to me?"

"Yes. It wasn't much, but it's about Twilight Sparkle, and a few more questions before she does something for the unicorn. That is all."

"Bring her in."

The Guard bowed before Celestia, and went up and away towards the corner around the next hallway. The princess of the sun could hear some whispering from the same Guard and what sounded like Luna, before she herself came into sight to the dining room.

Celestia pushed the door open as the both of them entered the dining room. Immediately she could see a contrast between Luna's timidness from their last talk, and the wide grin on her face this morning.

"I imagine you had a wonderful date with her yesterday?" Celestia inquired.

"You have no idea," Luna gasped. "I've fallen in love even harder than I had thought possible. The whole day with her was wonderful, magical even, but that was nothing compared to how it ended."

"So how did it end?"

There was an awkward pause for some time, and only Luna was smiling. As time went on, Celestia pieced it all together...and her jaw dropped when it hit her.

"Luna, I can't believe what you did! There is no way you could have done that to her! She might be a young adult now, but that still means she's young!"

"She agreed to it when I asked her. I had no intentions of doing so if the thought repulsed her. Yes, she was embarrassed by the thought, but it was more out of insecurity than anything else. Once she was convinced I still wanted to do it even if she thought she wasn't as beautiful as I was, she accepted the idea."

Celestia shook her head again. "Well...I can't argue with that. If she agreed to it, I can't stop her. This is just...it can change everything about you and her."

"I knew that already. It's why I considered it. And...I'm curious about the idea of marriage."

The elder sister's jaw was even further dropped to the ground. "Luna...can you give me a moment?"

"Of course. I apologize if this is moving too fast for you. I do need to consider this is your student I'm getting involved with here."

"No, that is not my concern right now. But I need time to think."

Luna got the point as soon as it was made, and shut the door behind her to leave Celestia alone once more.

With her mind left to think, she didn't know where to start. There was no denying she was afraid of what would happen if Twilight and Luna got that close. It was so obvious that, if she forbade them seeing each other again, Luna would find ways to continue the romance somehow. Alicorns could be tricky if they wanted to.

But when she really thought about it, she didn't see anything wrong with the thought of marriage. It wasn't so much that she didn't like the idea of her sister and student being hitched, in fact she probably would have volunteered to say the marriage rites if they needed somepony to do that.

No, it was that damn spell again. How could anypony not know why Luna wanted to use it? Anypony would know why it looked so appealing, and the princess of the moon was no exception.

But how would Twilight take to it? By now Celestia knew one of the problems Twilight had to the romance is how her life would change. And if the spell was performed on her, her life WOULD change tremendously. There would be no way to undo it, even the combined magic of Celestia and Luna combined couldn't undo it, and that was saying something.

You haven't asked what she would say to it. You've been going back and forth deciding what is best for Twilight, and you haven't given her a voice at all.

"I don't want her to get hurt!" Celestia thought aloud. "She's one of the best students I've brought under my wing, and the only reason I have to do this to her is how I can't stand to watch her get hurt from any of this!"

But how do you know it's going to hurt her?

Her mind stopped whirring its gears, her eyes were blinking in shock. She didn't really know. Has she become...protective over Twilight?

And then, it became clear to her. Among all the paths she could have picked for the future, one stood out as the right one. Now, she knew what to do, and nothing was going to stop her.

She swung the door open to see Luna waiting by the door, waiting for a command.

"Luna, I need you to bring Twilight in here. We will talk for a while, and while that's happening, I want you out of the castle for that time. Go to Canterlot, Ponyville, one of the forests bordering any of those towns, anywhere. Just don't be here. It's time she learned about the spell."

Luna's eyes widened, and her head nodded. She galloped out of the hallway, flying to Twilight's location.

Twilight Sparkle, Celestia thought, I hope to my parents this does not ruin your world. But you need to understand how it works.

Within five minutes, Luna flew back to the entrance, Twilight on her back. The unicorn hopped down as she smiled to see her teacher again. However, Celestia's eyes were much more stern, creating a tense atmosphere. It only got worse when Luna dashed outside through an open window, flying far away from Canterlot.

"Did I do something wrong?" Twilight asked. "I can explain everything. She told me what she thought about us, and I thought--"

"I already know," Celestia said calmly. "You are not in the wrong. But there's something we need to discuss."

Twilight's face was covered in sweat drops as they were back into the dining room. The door was shut by Celestia's magic behind them, and they took their seats. It didn't take long for a spot below Twilight to get wet from all the sweat pouring from her face.

"Twilight Sparkle, I never had much of an issue with your relationship with Luna. You know that by now, I hope. I thought it was beautiful when you told me how much you loved her. But then I heard about your...night with Luna, and everything changed."

The unicorn covered her face with her front hooves, hiding her shame. "I'm sorry...I know I should have done something else. But it's even worse than that. It was wonderful, and I want to do it again in the future. Am I a bad pony?"

"That is not the issue at hoof. It's how fast things are moving that bothers me. You two were made for each other, I'm not going to lie about that. It's what Luna wants to do with you that we need to talk about."

The student's ears perked up, uncovering her face. "Wait, she's said stuff to you that she hasn't told me yet?"

"It's...well, she wasn't sure at the time if she was going to do it or not, to put it in simple terms. But she was strongly debating on it. The first thing, and something she brought up to me today, is the possibility of marriage."

If anything, Twilight's ears were more perked up. "I...it's too soon, but I would like that."

Celestia's head tilted to the right. "You would say yes if she proposed?"

"I would...she's everything I wanted for a lover, even though I didn't know it before she asked me out. I...I just want to be with her, if that's not bad."

"It's not. I'm just surprised how you didn't hesitate to answer. That's a sign you've been thinking about it."

"I couldn't help myself after last night. I thought what could happen between us after it was over, and I thought marriage would be nice."

I might have to arrange the ceremony faster than I thought. "It can be. After all, you should know from experience, have you have seen your brother as happy as he was when he danced with Cadence that night?"

"No, never. I've seen him that happy before, but never like that. In fact, he's seemed more energetic and determined after that day."

"Twilight, that brings me to my other point. Have you ever noticed something strange about Princess Cadence?"

Now it was Twilight's head tilting to the right. "Pardon?"

"Like how she's the only one, other than Luna and I, to be sporting both wings and a horn?"

"No, never. I first met her when I was still a filly, and I thought it was always normal. But when I grew up, I did think it was strange...like you said, she was the only pony other than you and Luna that was an alicorn. Do you know why that's the case?"

"Twilight...that's what I have to confess. She wasn't an alicorn at birth. Originally, she was just a unicorn like you."

The unicorn gave the loudest gasp of her life at that moment. It felt like her world just developed a crack on the surface.

"I met her when she was a filly, before she had even met Shining Armor. She had so much potential, and there was something in her I had never seen before. I could see in her a power of love that nopony, not even me, had ever possessed. So...I used a spell from long ago that had become lost with time. I thought her power should never be lost, so I gave her the gift of eternal life, which also gave her wings."

"You...you transformed her into an alicorn?"

"Yes. Looking back it was obviously sentiment that caused me to do so, but nevertheless I did it."

"Then...why haven't you used it on Shining Armor? Sooner or later he's going to find out."

"That's the thing. Out of all the spells that exist, the spell of the alicorn consumes the most magic, and even I, a pony that moves the sun, can barely perform it. It requires so much magic that I have to wait a century before my magic recovers enough that I can use it again."

"So...does that mean Shining is going to die..."

"We're working on the solution right now. He will not die, over the next decades I will be keeping him alive long enough that he will live long enough for me to cast it on him. But...this is not the point. The only other pony that can cast such a powerful spell is Princess Luna--"

"But what about Cadence? She's an alicorn like you now."

"She will have to spend years just learning about the basic concepts of that same spell. No, Luna can cast it right now. And...she wishes to use it on you."

Any sense of a normal life were wiped away at that moment. Any feeling that her world could ever be the same as the last twenty something years of her life, only with a romance with Luna on the side, were smashed to pieces.

She felt her body turn to jelly as she had to use all her energy to stop herself from falling over, as she felt her head getting lighter.

"Twilight, I know this might not be what you want. In fact, for most ponies it's not what they wanted. That's why I forced her to let me ask you first, instead of her just forcing it on you."

"What...what...is this really happening?" the unicorn asked, dots appearing in her vision. "I...this can't be real...I don't want it to be real...why does she want to do this to me..."

"The same reason why anypony would want to. She wants you to live forever, just as she does. She wants to spend eternity with you as her wife, which must be either the most horrifying or beautiful thing you ever heard of."

"And...if I take it...what happens to Shining?"

"Just what I said before. We'll work on keeping him alive until I can use it again."

"And my friends...what happens to them?"

"I...I don't know if there's anything we can do for them. Unless you choose to have Luna cast the spell on one of them, they will all die like the rest of ponykind."

At that moment, when the world had died before her eyes, Twilight fainted on the ground, collapsing to the ground with a big THUD.

Celestia looked over her student on the floor, shaking her head at everything.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I couldn't agree more. Sorry, Luna. I know you meant well, and you wanted a life with her. But you should have thought this through...

But this is the first pony you ever truly loved, isn't she? I guess I shouldn't blame you. You didn't know what you were doing. No matter what, I will not look down on you, I will just wish you had done things differently.

She levitated the purple pony onto her back, and closed the door behind her. This could be a long day.

---------------

When Twilight came to again, she found herself in a room she hadn't seen before. It was all coated in yellow from top to bottom, and upon closer inspection it was all gold, not yellow from colored paint but from the material the surfaces were made from. And everything just had a splendor of it, from the enormous bed to the banner of Equestria hanging above the window high above.

She looked around and didn't know why she was here, but was grateful Celestia was looking after her. Her brain felt like it had needles inside it, as she almost fainted again when she remembered what had happened before she passed out.

Shortly after, Celestia arrived inside, with a slight smile on her face. "I'm glad to see my bedroom suits you fine. After what happened, I didn't want to spare any luxury for your case. This must be overwhelming."

Twilight nodded, covering her head with the covers. "I don't want to talk about it."

Celestia smiled again, and came over to expose the unicorn's head back into the open. "Why not?"

"Because she put me in a spot where I'm playing God with my life and Shining's life, and my friends' life..."

"So you're saying you hate having to decide."

At that moment, Twilight's eyes became two streaming waterfalls, as she finally broke down in front of her old teacher.

"Yes! I don't want to be in this spot, what happens if Shining dies before you save him? And what would Cadence say? And then there's my friends. There is no way they'll look at me the same way again, because they'll know I kept the spell for myself, and left them to die! How could I live with myself if I did something like that to them?"

With that, Celestia did the only thing she knew she could do at that moment. She climbed into bed and laid down next to Twilight, and Twilight came out from beneath the sheets and held Celestia tightly, sobbing uncontrollably.

The princess said nothing as she let Twilight let it all out, knowing that just being there would be all she could do to help. And as time went on, it did. Twilight sobbed for a while, but eventually the sobs were quieter in nature, to the point where there wasn't a noise at all.

"You don't have to decide," Celestia said. "You don't need to do this."

"But I have to," Twilight responded. "I know she's doing it out of love...she didn't try to hurt me this way."

"I knew that the moment she asked me if she could. Yet, you can just say you don't want her to use the spell at all....do you want some time to think about it?"

Twilight answered with a nod.

"Then I think you should go home now. The train back home leaves in an hour. I'll tell Luna you're not sure, and you need time to decide. She does want the best for you, but she can be unaware when she's hurting somepony at the same time."

The unicorn nodded again, as she was placed back on Celestia's back. She didn't notice anything about the world around her as Celestia walked through the halls of the castle to the exit, as the people of the train depot bowed before the princess as she placed Twilight on the train back to Ponyville.

-----------

That night, Twilight was shaking uncontrollably. She kept waking up with nightmares of visiting Shining Armor's grave, of her own while Shining was an alicorn. There was no way she was getting a good night's sleep. No way.

She couldn't handle this much stress, and like most of her problems, she solved it by thinking it out. As she had let Spike spend one last night with Rarity, she turned the lights on and brought out a chalkboard.

There, she chalked up two sections for her decision. One half would feature the pros and cons of giving herself the spell, and letting her brother have it instead.

It took hours for her to think about it, until the sun was up. She had more extensive lists at the end before she was finished, much to her own surprise.

But in the end, she experienced another moment of clarity. She knew in the end what she wanted to do, and drew it up on a letter.

Spike opened the door, surprised to see Twilight up and about already. "Hey Twilight. What's going on? It's still seven in the morning and you're already busy? Wait...what's that on the chalkboard about alicorns?"

Before he could read further, Twilight handed him a letter in his claws. "Can you send this to Princess Celestia right now?"

"Sure." He breathed fire onto the letter, sending it away. "Is this something I should be worried about? You look like you've been up all day."

"It's OK," Twilight calmly stated. "I just had something on my mind I needed to get out."

Dear Princess Celestia,

I don't regret learning about the spell of the alicorn. It caused me to look at things in a different light. And in the end, my respect for Luna went up instead of down, because she wanted to do that for me.

However, I have decided that I want Shining Armor to receive it instead of me. I know that's going to break Luna's heart...but I think it's the right thing to do. Tell her I'm sorry.

Thank you for helping me see the light,
Twilight Sparkle