Garden of the Sun

by runner2


The Garden of Memories

Celestia slowly walked along the ashen path, remembering better times. In recent days she had been visiting her little sanctuary more often then in the past decade alone. The pain of recent events still plagued her as she continued along the path. Her weakness during those past events still saddened her.

After several more hours of walking the path in this fire-drenched landscape, she arrived at her destination. A wall of flame spread out for some distance on either side of the path. Set into it was a simple looking barrier, one that she herself had made in ages long past. Celestia strode forward and ignited her horn. The barrier opened and for a brief moment, all was white.

As color returned, Celestia found herself standing on a worn stone path with grass covered meadows to either side. Pausing for a moment to allow herself to relax, Celestia then continued on. A short distance from the entrance she found herself at a little gazebo with a small glass looking panel floating by one wall. She made her way over to a small bench that sat opposite the panel and sat down.

After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, a dim glow emerged from her horn. The panel was slowly brought to life. Images quickly passed by, centuries at a time whisked by in seconds. A minute later, the images slowed to a stop.

Celestia remembered this day well. It was when she first laid eyes on Twilight Sparkle at her School for Gifted Unicorns. The young fillies shock at seeing her princess and the following joy at her being accepted as Celestia's personal student were quite amusing to watch. Smiling at the fond memory, she progressed the images further.

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Several hours had passed since arriving and Celestia was nearing more current events. Discord's reform, Twilight's coronation, Tirek's escape and defeat. All of it went passing by quickly. She was finally arriving at the final point in her memories, and the most painful.

Displayed on the panel was a still image of Twilight as she last looked. Her expression was one of complete horror and fear. Tears came unbidden to Celestia as she slowly allowed the events to play out. Celestia's screaming at Twilight and her friends to run, Twilight and her friends unable to bring themselves to abandon her, Chrysalis backing away with terror in her eyes at what was happening. And then all was fire.

Some time later, Luna walked in to see Celestia curled up on the ground, crying and muttering "I'm sorry..." to herself over and over. Luna gave a sad sigh and walked over to her sister's side. Laying down and draping a wing over her to give her some comfort, Luna said, "It will be OK, sister." Although Luna, herself, didn't believe those words.

Celestia sat up and turned her head toward Luna. The pain at what happened was evident on her face. Her eyes were red and puffy, her fur was matted down in various places from her tears, and her expression was one of somepony who had just lost everything.

Luna winced at the look before Celestia spoke, "It will never be OK, Luna. Not after what I have done."

Luna quickly rose up and faces Celestia, "It is not your fault!" Luna nearly shouted with more force then needed, "It was that damn bug's fault.! She doomed herself by returning and doom our own ponies with her actions."

Celestia turned her gaze to the ground and softly spoke, "It was still at least partially my fault for not having better control."

Luna sighed and sat down before speaking, "No one could have predicted what her poison would do to you. But you need to stop blaming yourself for it."

An uneasy silence settled over the garden for a time. Eventually Luna got back on her hooves and began walking toward the barrier. Stopping just before it, she turned and sadly said, "Come on 'Tia. We need to get back and the our ponies know what has happened."

After a weak sigh and a nod, Celestia rose to her hooves and followed Luna out of the barrier.