Celestia sipped her tea, but missed some that fell to her coat as the aura around the cup shook. She glared at it and commanded it to stop. It didn’t though, just as she thought it would. I want to run. I want to crawl under my bed and write in my dream journal. I don’t want to be here. She smacked herself with a forehoof. “Get it together, Celestia. You are a full grown mare, not a school yard filly. Just stay calm and you’ll find your dream fulfilled.” Or not.
“What dream?”
She almost passed out as she saw Twilight making her way into the small meeting room. “Oh, um, nothing my dearest student. Simply talking to myself.”
Twilight took the seat next to Celestia and beamed up at her. “Well, I’m just happy to be here, so I won’t grill you until later.” Her eyes narrowed at her teacher and then closed as she bent her forehooves. “I would also like to offer my apologies for not being available sooner. I was… busy.”
A small smile spread across the princess’ lips. “Oh yes, I bet you were, what with your brother sitting on you for how long?”
Twilight turned a bright red and looked away. “Um, that- that was private.”
“Well I think you should have a talk with your sister in law then as she was the one who sent me a picture. That bib around your neck was simply adorable.”
Twilight’s face went into the couch, then she sat up and groaned. “I will make you pay, sister!”
Celestia smiled and wrapped a hoof around her student. “Don’t worry, I truly do understand. You had others to comfort. Family, friends, those are always more important than a mentor.”
Twilight shook her head furiously and pushed away from Celestia so as to be able to see her face. “No! I mean, how can you even– No!” She nuzzled into Celestia’s chest. “You are family to me. I just knew you would be busy too and didn’t think about it, not with my mom trying to force me to never leave again.”
Celestia felt a sudden heat in her chest and the warmth quickly left as Twilight slid so far along the couch that she almost fell off. She herself had to take a calming breath to ease her excitement. You two have always been close; such sweet words should have been expected. “Tea?”
Twilight glanced at the pot as it levitated and nodded with a nervous smile. She knew she had gone too far with the hug, but Princess Celestia was still calm and acting like she didn’t mind, just like every other time she had made mistakes. Well, except for when I destroyed her birthday cake. She giggled slightly at the memory and dropped the tea.
“Is something the matter with the tea?”
Twilight shook her head as she started laughing. “N-no, just remembering some old mistakes.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Like?”
“Well, you remember your one thousand, three hundred, and forty-second birthday?”
She almost groaned at the reminder of her age. “Yes, I believe so.”
“And you remember the giant cake they brought in?”
Her eyes widened. “The one with buttercream frosting? I’ll never forget.”
Twilight fell off the couch while laughing and remembering the exact look on Celestia’s face. “And how we were just getting into offensive spells?”
“And you wanted to prove yourself by lighting the candles.”
“But instead of lighting the candles, I melted the cake!”
Celestia started laughing herself. “How about Kibitz’s freak out when he found out that he had lost half of the staff to cake duty?”
“I thought his hair was going to fall off he looked so angry!”
“And then there was you, simply trying to hide in the best place you could find.”
Twilight smiled wide at her. “I still stand by my point that it was an efficient and delicious way to remove the parts of the cake that hadn’t liquified.”
Celestia lowered herself while laughing loudly along with her student. She then found herself crying for no reason.
“Ce-Celestia? Why are you crying?”
She put a hoof to her face and felt her smile fade to nothing. She trotted around Twilight before laying down beside her. “It’s because I can’t purely enjoy memories like those anymore, not after what happened.”
Twilight paled and held a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, oh I am so sorr–” She stopped at the soft touch of her mentor’s hoof over her mouth.
“Please, Twilight,” she said in a forced calm while she barely held back her tears, “I don’t think there will ever be a great time to say this so I will say it now because I need to let you know just how painful that… mistake was.” Twilight nodded and Celestia took in one more shuddering breath to calm herself.
“When I heard the news, I cried for a whole day. I almost refused to raise the sun the next morning because I felt like my light had left the world and I didn’t want to give the rest of Equestria its own. I had been through so much in my many years, but the moment I saw your body in the casket was quite possibly the worst. There would be no returning from the moon for you. You were gone. The mare I adored and loved… was gone.” She took in a deep breath before looking into Twilight’s purple eyes. “I need to know though, now that I am with my light again, do you love me back?”
Twilight stared for a few moments, considering whether or not this could be real before deciding not to care about it possibly being a dream. She started to cry and wrapped her hooves around her teacher. “Of course I do! I… I can’t belie- that was so- did you just come up with that?”
“No, of course not. It was from my heart, just as I suspect your tears of joy are.” That, and five hours of practicing with my new maid.
Twilight shook her head and smiled at her mentor. “Of course they are. I-I have always admired you Celestia. You have always been there for me and every time you praise me, my heart skips a beat. I Pinkie Promise, my feelings are true.”
“That is so good to hear.” Celestia wrapped her hooves around Twilight and breathed a sigh of relief. I suppose I now need to go warp that tied up clone of mine that keeps wanting cake. There will be no need for it tonight.