by Honey Mead
***
A/N: Direct continuation of Mathmatics and Aspiration
Celestia pulled back when the constant, dreadful beeping became a solid, piercing tone. Shock and terror sent her own heart racing in opposition to the horrific death-knell. Magenta eyes snapped open to find a lavender pair staring back, wide with incomprehension. Both mares' mouths worked mutely as they sought words that would not form.
The beeping started up again, skipping past a comfortable, strolling trot and straight into a harried gallop. Twilight's eyes reversed, shrunk to pin-pricks and danced around the room as though searching for an exit, for someway to escape.
It was the charging of her horn that prodded Celestia into action.
She reached out, placing her right hoof on Twilight's barrel while her left stroked her cheek. "Twilight Sparkle." Her voice came out strong and full, an expectant command that broke through the prison of the other mare's mind. Twilight's eyes latched onto hers like an anchor in a storm. Celestia smiled as comfortingly as she could. "Breathe." Twilight inhaled. "Hold." Twilight held her breath. Ten seconds later, "Exhale." She exhaled, her heart rate noticeably calmer. "Again."
Celestia repeated the commands three more times before the purple glow faded and she was certain that Twilight would not disappear on her.
Silence, save for the infernal heart monitor, pushed Celestia to back away.
"I apologize, Twilight, that was entirely my fault…" Celestia blushed, glancing at the floor, "it was a terribly inappropriate thing for me to do."
"Princess?" Twilight asked, her eyes roving the room again, to take in her surroundings or avoiding Celestia's own, she was unsure.
"Yes, Twilight?" Celestia asked, the blush never fading.
"What is today?"
"That is not a simple question to answer." Twilight's eyes, wearing curious confusion, finally found hers, and Celestia had to look away. "It is Tuesday the thirtieth of May. The Celestial Era. One thousand fifty-six."
The dreadful silence returned with Celestia glaring at the floor, it was all she could do to hold back the tears.
"F—fifty-three?" Celestia nodded. "No. No. That can't be right!"
Celestia almost broke for the pain in Twilight's voice. "I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry."
"Don't—I can't—I can't—"
She started to hyperventilate, the heart monitor a frenzy of erratic beeps.
Celestia moved quickly, grabbing the other mare's head even as her magic ripped drawers apart until it found a suitable bag. Emptying the contents carelessly, she held it up to Twilight, who immediately clutched it to her mouth.
Holding her at leg's length, unwilling to flee or draw too close, Celestia waited for her to recover. It was a slow, agonizing process, watching that small bag expand and contract with Twilight’s breaths, only the beep of the heart monitor to accompany the soft crinkle.
"You need to be strong, Twilight,” Celestia whispered. “I know it won't be easy, but you need to be strong. I need you to be strong. Can you do that?"
Twilight gave a reluctant nod as she lowered the bag but held on to it all the same.
"I… There is no easy way to say this… Your paren—"
She got no further.
With a great sweeping motion, Celestia pulled the sobbing mare into a full embrace. Lifting her from the bed, she wrapped her in a cocoon of fur and feathers as though she could somehow shield her from the pain of loss.
Time held no meaning. It could have been a century and Celestia would not have cared. All that mattered was Twilight crying into her shoulder. It was all that she could do for her, and she did it gladly.
Eventually, like the turning off an age, Twilight calmed. Her tears ran dry, and her breathing returned to normal. It was longer still before she relaxed her grip on Celestia. With great reluctance on both sides, she was laid back in the bed.
"What about—" Twilight started after a minute, only to be interrupted by a wing on her lips.
Celestia smiled through un-shed tears, saying, "Your friends are all alive. Old, but alive. Shining Armour and Cadence, too. Along with many, many foals between the lot of them."
Despite the tears staining her muzzle, Twilight glowed. "I have nibblings?"
Celestia nodded, her own smile growing from the sight before her. "Many. And grand nibblings as well. You will have quite a string of new faces to learn in the coming days and months."
"Are they here...?"
"Some. Shining and Cadence and your friends are waiting for you. But, you must understand, it has been fifty years. They have grown old, raised families. They are not the same ponies you remember."
Her words and tone dowsed a good portion of Twilight's enthusiasm, grounding her in the reality of the situation. Pausing for a breath, she nodded. "I… I understand."
"No, Twilight, you do not." Celestia looked away, fighting to hold onto the joy she’d felt only minutes prior. "Fifty years ago, you left us. Fifty. Years."
"I know—"
"You do not!" Twilight shrunk back from the scolding tone. Sighing, Celestia continued in a softer voice, "You left me with nothing! Nothing but a chalkboard of useless calculations and a room full of scattered, incomplete notes." Her lip started to tremble as she stared at the tiled floor. "I spent fifteen years staring at that… I… I abandoned…"
Her teeth ground together like a dam against the flow of words. She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t pick that scab from off her heart. Fear. Fear of pain, of hurt and anger, they drove her to flee. To escape before she destroyed or was destroyed again. Celestia stood.
“I can’t…”
But her legs were found wanting.
And Celestia fell.
The tiles shattered where her knees stuck. In desperation, she tried again only for her hoof to slip on the loose stone and leave her crumpled on the floor. She clawed at magic that would not come. Weak and pathetic, she did the only thing she could and hid beneath her wings.
“You rejected me,” Twilight said, anger and pain mingling in her voice. “I bared my heart to you and you cast me aside like… like I never mattered. Then you never came! How long did you wait? How long before you even noticed I was gone?! And now… and now my… my parents…” Twilight’s hoof pounded against the bed as she fought the returning tears.
“Yes!” Celestia roared, finding the strength to rise back to her hooves. “Yes! It is all about you! Damn the rest of us! What matters that we all thought you’d died! Yes, Twilight, your parents are dead, but they buried you! They held a funeral and buried an empty coffin. They buried you and lived for twenty more years, certain that their daughter had gone on before them. Shining and Cadence and all your friends, they found closure! They carried on.
“But I could not, Twilight Sparkle. I could not because you…” her voice broke, becoming weak and almost inaudible above the beeping machines, “because when you left…” Celestia drew a shuddering breath, her eyes closed against the unshed tears. “Please, do not ask me to live in a world without you. I have seen that world, and it is a world I want no part in.”
Celestia nearly jumped when two hooves gripped her muzzle, drawing her down. The moist warmth of Twilight’s lips pressed against her own, and for the first time in fifty years, Celestia wept.