“P-Princess?” Rarity stuttered out in shock.
Celestia let out a weak grin before saying, “I’m so sorry. I should have been there to help… Instead, I shut myself inside the castle, not offering any of my sympathy.” She sighed before continuing, “ I was just lectured by my younger sister of all ponies.” She turned her head towards spike and whispered, “I’m so sorry. I should have never left you alone after what happened to her.”
Spike looked up towards Celestia, slowly approached her, and said “All I wanted was for someone to talk to me, to tell me that it was going to be all right, but no one ever came.” He then reached his stubby arms towards Celestia and gave her a hug, letting out a sob as he started to weep.
Rainbow tilted her head upwards towards the princess before saying “So, what did you want to talk to all of us about anyways?”
Applejack let out a sad smile before replying “You never do change, do you? Can’t ya see that they are a mite busy?”
“But all this mushy stuff hurts my eyes.” Rainbow groaned.
Celestia let out a chuckle, looking away from spike and back towards the others. “I came to apologize to everyone. Thanks to my sister I realize now how selfish I was being in ignoring you all, especially poor spike here who lost the only family he ever had.” She gently nudged Spike causing him to look up at her before continuing, “I came to try and make amends with everypony.”
“Make amends for what exactly?” Rarity asked.
Celestia looked over at Rarity before responding in confusion. “What do you mean? I left all of you to deal with losing Twilight on your own. I never once tried to help any of you through all of this.”
Pinkie sighed, “Silly Princess, you have a big ol’ heart too ya know. It’s not just us that would have been upset with what happened. It wouldn’t have been fair if we didn’t let you have your space.”
“They're right. Other than maybe Spike here you didn’t wrong any of us.” Applejack replied.
“But I could have tried to help. I should have tried to help. I am your princess after all, and I was the one who gave Twilight that spell knowing that it might be dangerous.” Celestia responded softly.
“Just what was that spell supposed to do exactly? We never did get a chance to see what it did.” Rarity asked.
Celestia looked away before whispering, “I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I was trying to make it so that Twilight could live forever alongside me, so that she wouldn’t grow old and pass away. I wanted her to be able to stay the way she was forever.” Celestia shed a tear as she continued, “That spell was supposed to turn her into an alicorn like me and my sister. She would have had all the time in the world to learn the things she wanted. The world didn’t share my sentiments and did not take kindly to my attempt to bend the rules. Instead of giving her eternal life, it ended it.”
"Did she know what the spell was supposed to do?" Rarity asked.
"I don’t think she had any idea. I only told her that it was Starswirl’s unfinished masterpiece." Replied Celestia.
“I don’t know, she was smart enough that she might have figured it out.” Rainbow said before continuing, “Like she was a total egghead, there was no way she didn't figure it out.”
“Wouldn't she have known that it was dangerous then?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
I’m not sure sugarcube.” Applejack responded before saying “She would have said something if she had known, or at least left something behind.”
"In all this time we never found anything of the sort." Rarity responded rather dejectedly.
“Can we please not talk about this? I don’t want my bestest of best friends to be sad anymore.” A very deflated Pinkie asked, tears rolling down her face.
“Pinkie’s right, we probably oughta drop it. There ain't no point in getting ourselves all worked up over nothing.” Applejack responded quickly, as though trying to stop the conversation for Pinkie’s sake.
Amidst all this, Spike whispered, “I found her diary.”
The rest of the group turned and looked at him, eyes wide.
“Twili-” Rarity started before getting interrupted by Celestia.
“Diary?” Celestia quickly asked, tears welling up once again. “Did this diary have a crayon drawing of Twilight and a castle on the cover?”
“Yes.” Spike replied despondently.
Celestia's tears ran anew as she said, “That’s the diary I gave to her when she first came to live in the castle.” She stopped to take a breath and calm herself before continuing. “Where is it?”
“Down in the basement.” Spike softly responded, casting his gaze downward.
With that Spike led the group over to the basement door before opening it up and starting down. When the group reached the bottom of the stair, what they saw amazed them.
Eyes wide, Applejack asked, “Twilight built all'a this?”
Spike somberly nodded his head before saying, “Yeah, I didn't know about it until yesterday either. I guess it’s why she never let me come down here.”
“This is pretty awesome, even if it’s for eggheads.” Rainbow said, fighting to keep tears from pouring out.
“So darling, where is this book that you spoke of?” Rarity asked, voice wavering.
“It’s over here. Like I said, I thought that it was more important to try and bring you guys all together than to read it right then and there.” Spike responded quietly, before continuing in a strained voice. “Also, I don’t think I really wanted to read it…” he trailed off.
“It’s okay, I don’t think I could’ve bore to have read it on my own.” Fluttershy said quietly.
As the group approached the book replica of the library, they slowly formed a semicircle around it with Spike and Celestia in the middle. For a bit, everyone stood there looking down at the lone book lying on the ground. Slowly, Spike approached the book, and carefully reached down and lifted it up. Taking a second to gaze at the lettering on the cover, he opened the front cover and started to read.