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// The future is now, but the past still burns 
// Story: Memories of a past not forgotten 
// by CrystalHopeDragon 
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Why was Celestia so surprised when a baby Alicorn was born? It seems like basic genetics, right? Unicorn horns and Pegasus wings are dominant traits as shown by the Cakes; and with an Alicorn mother, wouldn't they be dominant here too? So what reason did she have to be surprised? Unless this has happened before, with a different result.

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1000 years is a long time to be alone. Over the generations, one is bound to get attached to a pony or two. Usually just as friends, or even close pupils. Sometimes though, well, everyone has urges.

That is why Celestia is so confused, so hurt at the moment. Why? Why couldn't it have been this easy for her?

The baby is beautiful. Bright eyes, powerful magic, and strong wings. The perfect powerhouse of a baby. Most likely also immortal. So why couldn't hers have been?

Maybe it was the love that produced an Alicorn. After all, the few times she had ever shared her bed, it hadn't ever held the same level of love. She had been fond of them of course - but they were so much younger, and would be gone so quickly. If she fell too far in love it would just hurt even more later. 

(Maybe that's why her baby boy didn't live long either, maybe if she loved more he would have.)

He was so cute, so strong. A young Unicorn with an overwhelming urge for knowledge. Equestria was still young back then, her sister not long gone. He helped fill the void so well, and she was so happy to have him. Until he hit adulthood and didn't stop aging, that is. She tried to stay close-she truly did- but it was so hard when she knew; knew he would soon be gone, just like all the others. 

(They grew apart.)

He never had kids of his own, never fell in love. He spent his life cementing his place in the history books. She always felt remorse at that, wondering if her lack of sharing love is why he never got to have any of his. It was a parents job to love their children, after all. 

(She wasn't a very good parent.)

And as most living creatures do, he aged, he died. She hadn't ever truly publicly announced their full relation. (It wouldn't do for the Princess to get a reputation, now would it? Illegitimacy was still frowned upon in those days.) As a result, when she attended his funeral she attended it as a teacher-not a mother.

She mourned alone later. She mourned her lost son, her only heir, the future they could have had-if only he had been immortal. Maybe that was the problem though, wasn't it? She was so sad over what he could have been, that she hadn't enjoyed who he was while he was there. The pain would never go, never truly fade. She had lost what no one should have to, and she lost it long before he died. She had lost her child. She never wanted to go through that pain again. 

(She invented the contraception spell after that.)

So here she was -over 900 years later- looking at a cross-bred Alicorn baby. (A Unicorn father and an Alicorn mother, just like hers.) She smiled and congratulated them. She stayed by their side and protected what she could. She left them with pride in her eyes. 

And when she went home? With her sister here to help, and the pain resurfaced? For the first time in centuries, she told her story and wept.