//------------------------------//
// 80. Lullaby by Pearple Prose 
// Story: The Sun and the Stars: A Twilestia Prompt Collab 
// by Fuzzyfurvert 
//------------------------------//


by Pearple Prose


***



Twilight hummed a familiar tune. It wasn't a particularly complex melody, nor beautiful. Really, it was just a small song she'd picked up in some shape or form and kept to herself, fine-tuning it, singing it to herself when she felt alone at night.
She'd never really taken conscious note of it... That is, not before she found herself sitting by Celestia's bedside on these late nights. Not before she found herself singing it over and over and over, reminding the pony lying in the bed that she was not alone, never alone—not until Death itself tore them apart.

Celestia's eyes cracked open. They blinked rapidly, her eyes darting around the room. For a moment, they looked directly at Twilight, and the blank unrecognising horror in them stabbed at her already tattered heart.

"Wh-Where am I?" Celestia whimpered. "Hello? Is anypony there? What's happening?"

She sounded so lost, Twilight thought, as she always did when she woke up. Humming that same, silly, stupid song under her breath, she stroked her love's ragged pink mane. Celestia kept squirming and shifting and whimpering in her bed, the nightmares working into her mind as time passed.

Slowly, eventually, Celestia stopped shaking, and her head would nod along to the song. Her eyes slowly began to shut once more, but not before clutching at the pony by her bedside with her feeble withered limbs. Not before whispering, "I found you, Twilight." and falling back asleep.

But always—every single time—she would miss Twilight whispering to her:

"Please wake up. Please."

Tears dripped onto Celestia's wizened cheeks, as she smiled softly in her sleep.