In the dying vespers of a warm Sunday afternoon, the sun gently kissed the horizon, setting the Canterlot sky alight with a reddish-gold flame. Celestia reclined back, sipping a glass of Marossa Valley’s finest vintage wine. A smile covered her muzzle; the idea of Twilight suggesting a simple picnic dinner hadn’t been as thought out as she had hoped, thus it was a simple affair with sandwiches, salad, and some fruit.
Still, Celestia thought, there’s nothing wrong with adding a little something special.
Not that Twilight noticed. Her lavender cheeks were flushed a deep pink, not only from the glass of wine she had consumed, but also from finally being able to spend time with Celestia in a romantic setting. For more than the few fleeting seconds of a stolen kiss in the hallway, anyway.
Celestia closed her eyes, relaxing in peace as Twilight’s animated, and slightly tipsy, voice gushed about her friends and the other ponies of Ponyville.
“And of course, with Pound and Pumpkin starting to potty train, it has just been.” Twilight took a sip of her wine and paused “Tia?” Twilight crept closer to her marefriend, lying on the blanket next to her. “You know if I’m rambling, there are ways to shut me up.”
“Oh? Perhaps you should demonstrate some such ways, my dear Twilight?” Celestia smiled, a single eye glancing at the sun’s position. Almost time. Just a few more minutes, Helios… this has to be perfect.
Twilight grinned. “Of course, my princess. It is my extreme pleasure and duty to obey your every word.” With that, she captured Celestia’s lips in a tender kiss.
Celestia’s eyes slowly closed as she let out a happy sigh for the few moments the kiss lasted. A tiny ‘ding’ went off in her mind, and she gently pulled away. “Look at the sky, love.”
As Twilight focused on the sky, Celestia fiddled in the picnic basket, searching for a special something hidden within, even as she slowly set the sun. In its wake, it left the darkened sky a cooler, relaxing tint of purple and indigo. Just like her beautiful mane.
“Twilight: the time when sun and stars connect.”
Celestia met Twilight’s gaze, eyes shimmering as Luna brought forth night’s first stars. “I have so much to thank you for, Twilight, things I doubt I’ll ever fully be able to tell you, but there is one thing I especially want to say. Twilight, I...”
“What is it?” Twilight nuzzled Celestia’s neck below her chin. “It’s a beautiful night for a beautiful mare to tell her partner beautiful things.”
Celestia paused, heart hammering in her chest. This is it, Celestia. Time to admit your feelings… for both our sakes.
“Twilight, I am an old mare—ancient even, to be truthful. Ah, ah—” She kissed Twilight’s nose to forestall her marefriend’s stammering objections “—shhh. Just listen, my Twilight. I have been alive for so very long, and like all ponies, I too have desired love.
“My first love was so, so long ago. Even still, I remember her: a unicorn mare named Star Light. She had a remarkable talent for astronomy, so it’s no surprise we met through Luna. We hit it off fairly quickly. I wished to marry her, but... back then, things were different. So we had to be content with simply spending time with each other, even if the law back then would never have officially allowed anything more serious. Of course, I have since changed that law, but I dared not try so soon after becoming a Princess of Equestria.
“Soon, I began to notice something strange about Luna and myself. The ponies around us were growing, aging, while we remained the same. Stagnant. Never was this more obvious than when I was with my beloved.”
Celestia shut her eyes and swallowed hard. “She died an old, old mare, happy and content, even as I stood beside her looking like her own daughter, and not her lover. When I told her that, she simply giggled, laid a hoof on my own, and made me promise her something. Something very important.”
“Wh-what did she make you promise her, Celestia?” Twilight asked. As she met those gorgeous pink eyes, never before had her ageless lover looked so old. It frightened her.
“She made me promise... that I would love again. By then, she had realized that Luna and I were destined for a different life than other ponies. I promised her I would take another love, Twilight,and I swear I tried, I really did,but every time I saw a pretty mare who made me feel something, my mind would go ‘tick, tock, tick, tock,’ and every time I would force myself to walk away.
“Until you, Twilight.” Celestia pulled her student in close and squeezed. “When I took you as my student, I simply thought that you were an adorable,if overpowered,filly. I never had any idea I’d come to desire you as anything more,and I didn’t for a long time... until I saw you, fully grown with the Tiara of Magic perched on your head, having returned my little sister to my side after what had felt like an eternity of heartache.
“At that moment I fell so deeply in love with you that I thought my heart might shatter if I was not careful. But even with you, all I could hear was the clock’s relentless ticking, and so I attempted to distance myself from you by keeping you in Ponyville. I was certain we would grow farther apart, and… I am so sorry for that. Yet here we are, in spite of that.
“Then, as if the Elements of Harmony meant for us to be together all along, I was able to help you ascend… and the clock ticked its last tock as we became frozen in time together. Now there is nothing keeping me from you anymore—and there never will be.”
With her horn alight again, Celestia released Twilight and held out the small box. This is it!
“Twilight Abigail Sparkle… will you marry me?”
Twilight blinked. She opened her mouth, closed it again, opened it again, staring up at Celestia. “Ma… m-marry you?”
Celestia nodded, her cheeks blazing like her sun. “... I even got you a ring,” she squeaked out.
It had taken some time to create, but Celestia was proud of it. Melted and forged within the sun itself, and cooled on the moon, the band was gold with her and Twilight’s cutie marks inscribed upon it. Small, flawless diamond chips made up five smaller stars, while a purple amethyst was cut into the larger star. Celestia’s own sun was a beautiful yellow citrine.
How does she do this to me? So many years I’ve lived, and she effortlessly makes me feel like a nervous, twitchy school filly all over again. “It’s really pretty, and I, um... well, I was hoping I could put it on you and—”
Before she could blink, Celestia eeped, landing on her back as Twilight threw herself at her.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Of course I’ll marry you! I love you, Celestia!” She planted her muzzle into Celestia’s chest and kissed her neck repeatedly.
Celestia stared down at her new fiancee and smiled. As she wrapped her wings around Twilight and held her tight, the gold ring levitated up to Twilight’s horn.
Twilight glanced up as she felt the ring slide onto her horn, and kissed Celestia’s cheek. “It’s perfect.” She smiled, curling up into Celestia’s chest. “I’m so glad we’ll have the time to plan our wedding and enjoy this.”
Celestia nodded, her heart a-flutter, peppering Twilight’s face with butterfly kisses. “Of course, my beautiful Twilight. We have all the time in the world together. There’s no rush. Let’s just relax and take our time…”
“What do you mean, ‘we have to be married in one week’?”