Celestia had long dreaded this day. However, she didn’t abhor it, nor did she hate it. She could not bring herself to hate things that had to be, and fear of the same thing would only lead her immortal life to be wrought with worry.
But she could dread. She could hope it away, though she knew the good it would do. Her life was made on difficult decisions and great moments of pain. Be them sacrifices she didn’t wish to make or judgements that would alienate herself from the ponies she loved, they came down to moments she dreaded, and ultimately had to endure.
This was one of those moments.
This was something she could not-- and would not-- enjoy.
Across from her sat her student. Nay, her prized pupil. A mare that had passed every test and shined with a beauty that so few could comprehend. She had the mind of a sage, a figure that belonged in a painting, and the compassion of a saint.
Twilight Sparkle. Her name was a testament to who she was.
A gem found in the median of two sides of a coin. It appeared every day, but only in the ghost of a moment. Yet when a pony let his or her eyes fall on the beauty that was that passing in time, they would be captivated by the shimmer, lost in its visage and depth.
Curiosity was always in her bones, well before it was ever on her mind. It only made sense that as she grew her desire to learn grew with her. And as her knowledge became greater and her potential more pronounced, it was only so clear that Celestia take the bright and talented mare beneath her wings.
And as time went on from there, the months turning into years, Celestia only felt the greatness within her student grow. Strong with perseverance and dedicated in purpose, the lingering doubts about her precious student’s fate began to dwindle into scarce obscurity before vanishing into nothingness.
Just like the moment the diarch was currently in, Celestia saw signs as they were happening. She knew her student would solve a problem centuries old; fix a mistake that she couldn’t have prevented. And that one simple test, that last small requirement to reach, and her student had done what no other pupil beneath Celestia had done before.
Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn, a princess, a ruler with a heart as large as her mind.
It was a joyous day, a wonderful day, a moment that Celestia knew would come and felt blessed to witness: watching her student fulfill her destiny. A single moment, no matter how fleeting against the years in her life, that made the curse of her immortality completely worth it.
That was how Celestia knew this moment would come. Because that moment had come to pass, so too would this one now occur; and it was doing just that. This conversation, this reaction, even the cups of tea that sat on the table between them, forgotten beneath the words she had spoken.
Celestia wanted to see so few things in her eternal life, and there were just as many things she hoped to never witness. But the moment she was in was making her wish away the instant in place of another.
She didn’t want to see Twilight’s eyes opened wide with terrified realization, her chest still in shock and breath caught with surprise. She wanted to see her student smiling with shimmering eyes, to have the same look of adoration and devotion that the diarch was so used to, so attached to.
“Celestia,” her name came from the newly crowned alicorn, so much colder than the warm tone the title was usually spoken with. “This… I-I can’t…”
A patient sight left Celestia’s lips. It was the only way she could keep herself calm.
She knew this moment would come, had suspected it for a long while, and only just recently confirmed it. Celestia held no surprise or horror for the moment she was in, but she did find much to wish against and dream of reversing.
And to think, her day had begun like any other.