Chapter 11
After the shock of Quills and Sofa, Twilight was almost glad that the rest of Ponyville was completely foreign to her. They spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the small city just enjoying themselves. Spike found a comic book shop and purchased a few discount comics, while Celestia and Twilight chatted briefly with the mayor. Just before they returned to the chariot, Twilight had thought she saw one of her friends walking down the street. It had just turned out, though, to be a stranger with a mane style and color that was somewhat similar to Rarity’s. Thankfully she hadn’t pointed out the similarity to Celestia or Spike before she realized it wasn’t one of her friends.
Spike sat between Twilight and Celestia on the trip back to the palace, a comic book firmly in his grasp. Twilight couldn’t help but smile every time the young dragon giggled at something in his comic. The visit, aside from the one incident, was exactly what she needed: Ponyville was not the home she remembered it to be. She had no ties there anymore. Hopefully her strange dreams about Luna in Ponyville would stop now.
It didn’t take long for the familiar grounds of the palace to come into view. The chariot touched down only a few minutes later. Twilight yawned as she stepped down from the chariot. Spike zipped off, comic books tucked under his arm, and headed inside the palace to find a place to read in peace before Twilight could ask him to do anything. Celestia leaned down and gave the Countess a friendly nudge. “Do you want to lay down? We don’t have to work on the paperwork until tomorrow morning.”
Twilight sighed. “We should start on it tonight, but we can deal with it later. I’m too worn out to think about it now.” When she looked over and saw the grin on Celestia’s face, she sighed again. “You’re a bad influence on me.”
“Well, Countess, you simply need to understand that all ponies need time to relax. Yourself included. Now let’s get into bed,” the Princess replied cheerfully, pushing Twilight into the palace with one of her large wings. Twilight walked forward, not wanting Celestia to carry her again.
The staff greeted them warmly as they worked their way through the hallways. Twilight glanced around their shared bedroom looking to see if Spike was around, but he had found somewhere else to hide. She climbed up onto the large bed and flopped down onto her side, bouncing on the soft mattress. To her surprise, Celestia climbed on right behind her. The two of them laid there in silence for a number of minutes before Twilight felt the need to ask a question. “Were you serious when you said you were going to sleep next to me every night?”
“I was,” was Celestia’s simple reply. “Unless you feel uncomfortable with me being this close…”
“No, no, it’s okay. I just wasn’t sure if you were being serious or not.” Twilight relaxed a bit, subconsciously snuggling up against Celestia. Had she turned to face the alicorn behind her, Twilight would have seen a rare mix of embarrassment and happiness. “After seeing the real Ponyville, I feel more comfortable saying my version was imaginary,” Twilight commented.
When Celestia didn’t offer any opinion, Twilight continuing with her thinking. “It’s a small town surrounded by farm lands. My version took that much more literally, making a village where everypony knew everypony else. But some of the things I had just accepted as normal, like a bakery being made to look like a giant gingerbread house, are quite strange.”
“I recall you saying that you lived in a library that was built into a giant living tree. That seems very strange,” Celestia said a bit playfully. “Perhaps we should try to come up with some spells to allow such buildings to be made.”
Twilight gave a soft laugh. “I never thought about how hard it would be to build a complex structure without hurting the tree. I just accepted it as something that was already done.”
The conversation died out somewhat as Twilight yawned. She suddenly found herself being pulled into a hug. “Get some rest, Twilight. I’m here for you,” Celestia whispered softly to her. Twilight didn’t reply; she was too busy trying not to die from embarrassment as the Princess cuddled her like a stuffed toy. She knew for certain her face was a bright shade of red.
Slowly over the next hour, Twilight and Celestia drifted off to sleep, still snuggled up closely. When Spike finally arrived to go to bed, he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the two of them. He laid a blanket over them before climbing into his basket. Twilight’s dreams were free of any strange encounters with Ponyville or Princess Luna.
Sure enough, Celestia continued to share a bed with Twilight every night after that. Several nights had past and Twilight was finally starting to get used to sharing her bed. So much so that unless she could feel Celestia’s fur coat against her own she couldn’t fall asleep. One morning, just before lunch, they were both in Twilight’s office while she worked on some paperwork from the previous day of court. The Countess sat at her desk, quill floating as she read through papers and filled out various forms. Celestia sat not too far away with a book floating in front of her.
Twilight had begun to notice some new behavior in Celestia. During the day she was getting a lot more relaxed and... physical. If they were walking down the hall together, Celestia would drape a wing on Twilight’s back and pull her so they were walking side by side. When they ate their meals, Celestia wouldn’t hesitate to reach over with a napkin and clean Twilight’s face like she was a foal. Whenever they had time to relax, Celestia wanted to be laying such that she was touching Twilight in one way or another. Aside from when she was in the bathroom, Twilight spent nearly every minute of the day with Celestia. Even if they were just sat silently in the same room as each other.
She didn’t mind the contact with Celestia; it didn’t feel uncomfortable in any way, but it was definitely... unusual. This Celestia, unlike her dream version, was very friendly and close with her. More like a best friend than a mentor. But Twilight hadn’t realized just how close they apparently were before her coma. She was starting to feel bad about not knowing about their closeness. Without looking up from her work Twilight spoke up, breaking the silence they had been enjoying for the last hour. “Mind if I ask you something, Celestia?”
The Princess looked up from her book. “Of course not.”
Twilight took a moment to organize her thoughts and figure out how best to word her question. Her quill floated down and scribbled a quick note onto the form she was filling out. “The last few days you’ve been… more relaxed, and close with me. Is this what our relationship was like from before my coma?”
When Celestia didn’t answer right away, Twilight looked up. The emotion on Celestia’s face wasn’t one she normally displayed. Sadness. Almost regret. “No, we weren’t. We were friends, certainly, but there was always a bit of distance between us.” Celestia knew exactly what Twilight was going to ask, and answered her before she could speak. “It was something I said to you that created that distance. Now that you don’t remember it, I guess I’ve been taking advantage of the situation.”
The Countess had no idea how to react to that confession. Celestia obviously felt bad about how she had acted, and about whatever she had said in the past. “What did you—”
“Let’s go out to dinner,” Celestia said, interrupting her. “Just the two of us. Someplace fancy in Canterlot.”
Somewhere in the rarely-used part of Twilight’s brain, something took control of her mouth. “You mean a date?” She asked the question before she could even think about it. Surely Celestia, Princess Celestia, the many thousands of years old immortal goddess, was not asking her out on a romantic date.
Celestia nodded once, knowing what was going on in Twilight’s head. “Yes. A romantic date, and all that it entails.”
Twilight’s jaw slowly fell as her brain quickly attempted to prevent her from fainting. “What?”
“I asked you out on a dinner date.” Celestia seemed to hesitate, but she wanted to be truthful with Twilight. “I asked you out once before. Before the coma, I mean. We went on a date, but you told me that you didn’t return my feelings. We stayed close friends, but there was a line that I made sure I never got too close to, for fear that you’d think I was trying to further our friendship.”
Twilight slowly nodded. “I think I understand.” She wasn’t really sure that she understood Celestia’s feelings, or even her own feelings, but she could understand what Celestia was getting at. Celestia had feelings for her, for whatever reason.
Twilight had never gone out on a date before, however. At least not in her dream. Being social and going out like that wasn’t something she took interest in until she moved to Ponyville, and even then she mainly focused on being with her friends. As far as potential romantic partners go, Celestia was a good catch. Twilight considered her to be the most beautiful pony she had ever seen, and this version of Celestia was much easier to get along with than the one from her dream. A smile cracked on Twilight’s face as she made up her mind. “And I would like to go out to dinner with you.”
Celestia looked rather surprised. “Really?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I? You’re one of the very few ponies I trust completely. You’ve become my friend. And if I have to admit it; you are very beautiful,” Twilight said with a blush. “It’s just dinner, right? It’s not as if we’re going to be married after one little date.”
“Well… Yes… But, I honestly didn’t expect you to agree.” Celestia got up and walked around Twilight’s desk, grabbing the smaller mare in a hug. “Thank you.” Twilight couldn’t help but give Celestia’s neck a nuzzle; it was instinct. Celestia pulled away after just a moment. “I’ll go make a reservation and then I’ll join you for some lunch in half an hour?”
Twilight nodded and gave her a friendly smile. “Yup, I should be done with all this by then.” She watched the Princess walk out of her office. She slowly counted to ten before charging up a teleportation spell. With a loud pop, she appeared right next to Spike, who was laying on her bed reading a comic book. “Spike!”
The young dragon screamed and threw his comic across the room at the sudden noise. When he stopped panicking and noticed it was just Twilight standing over him, he released an annoyed sigh. “Jeez Twilight, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Spike! Celestia just asked me out a date!” At the word date, several parts of Twilight’s mane decided to spring upward, giving her an instant disheveled look. One that Spike had seen before.
He instantly went into panic reduction plan four: Get Twilight to understand the logic behind something she was unfamiliar with. The last time he had used plan four on her was for the exact same reason. “Sit down and take a deep breath, then calmly explain what happened.”
Twilight did as ordered, flopping herself into a seated position with a thud. She took three breaths and started to explain. “Celestia and I were sitting in my office. After breakfast I went to finish up some paperwork, and she followed along. I made a comment that the last few days she’s been close with me. We hug more often, she puts her wings around me; things of that nature.” Spike nodded, for he had noticed that too. “I asked if that was what we were like from before my coma. She then asked me out to a dinner date, and told me that before my coma I turned her down.”
“You did,” Spike cut in. “I believe you said that you loved Celestia as a mother, and couldn’t really see her in a romantic way. There was a bit of a fallout, but you two remained very close friends and still managed to work together in court just fine.”
“Was there anything else?”
Spike thought back. “I, uh, I heard you tell Celestia something about it not being fair that you’re mortal and she’s not. Though I was eavesdropping and it was hard to hear.”
Twilight ignored his last comment. “That is a good point. Statistically I only have another 70 or so years left to my life. What will she do when I’m so old I can’t remember anything? How will she handle me dying? I know that we’ll have all that time together, but she’ll have so much more time after I’m gone.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Do you really think that’ll work? She’s loved you for years now, Twilight. As soon as she found out that you didn’t remember the past, she started thinking about if the ‘new you’,” Spike made quotation marks with his claws, “would be willing to give dating a try. She would really rather have a relationship and lose you than not have you at all.”
“But! I—”
“Twilight. She. Loves. You.” Spike punctuated each word by tapping her nose with one of his claws. “Did you agree to go on this date?” Twilight simply nodded. “Then you will go with her and have a good time. Don’t worry about the relationship just yet. You need to figure out how you feel about Celestia.”
Twilight looked a bit confused. “How I feel?”
“Yes. Do you agree with your past self about her being more of a mother figure? Are you not attracted to mares? Are you willing to give love a chance?” Spike walked off the end of the bed, dropping to the floor with a thud, to fetch his comic book. “Just take things slow and think about what you want. Celestia can figure out what she wants, so leave that to her.”
Once she had thought through the advice Spike was giving her, Twilight realized he was mostly right. She should first focus on her own feelings. If she wanted a relationship with Celestia, they could work out the details together. “Well, thank you for calming me down, Spike. I guess I’ll know more after tonight.”
Once he had fetched his comic book, Spike walked back over to her. “It’s what I’m here for.”
She gave him a loving nuzzle. “Lets go get some lunch.” He quickly climbed onto her back and the two of them headed out.
The restaurant Celestia had gotten them into was probably the fanciest and most expensive place in Canterlot, aside from the palace itself. Twilight was rather shocked when she was led into a private room in the back. Out of the giant windows she had an amazing view of the city, all lit up as the sun had just set.
Celestia walked in behind Twilight, a sly smile on her face. “I hope this is good enough for you, Countess Sparkle.” Twilight was speechless and simply nodded. Without magic, Celestia pulled back one of the chairs so that Twilight could sit down.
Taking her seat, Twilight’s head swiveled around looking at the fancy decor and the view out the window. “This… This is beautiful.”
Celestia laughed as she took her seat. “I booked this entire room and had them set it up special for us. I hope you aren’t upset that I pulled the Princess card to get them to do it.”
Twilight gave a polite laugh. Before she could speak, two unicorns entered the private room. One carried a large bottle of wine and two glasses in his magic. The other had two bowls with salad and various dressings. They silently set it all out on the table and left without so much as looking at the two ponies. Celestia gave a nervous smile. “I ordered everything for us, so I hope you enjoy what I picked.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Twilight replied. An awkward silence filled the room. “So, how was your afternoon?”
Celestia started to pour the wine. “Just fine. I finished reading my book, it was quite good. Perhaps I could lend it to you?”
“Oh, sure. I’d like that.” Celestia floated Twilight’s glass of wine. “Oh, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Celestia replied calmly. The room went silent as they both sipped at their drinks. A full minute went by before Celestia cleared her throat. “Twilight, are you okay?”
Twilight jumped a little at the sound of her name, nearly dropping her glass. “What? Yes, yes I’m just fine. Sorry. I’ve… Well… I’ve never been on a date… Ever. Guess I’m a little nervous.”
Celestia looked a little surprised. “Never been on a date?” Twilight shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m sorry, Twilight. If I had known, I would have done something less extravagant.”
“No, no! This is just fine, Celestia. Really.” Twilight blushed, her face feeling extremely hot now. She sat awkwardly, fidgeting it a bit.
Celestia’s surprise turned into concern. “Talk to me; what can I do to help you relax?”
Twilight looked away. “I don’t know. I’m just not all that familiar with romance. And I mean, you’re immortal. I’m not. Our relationship would always have that deadline.”
“Oh, is that what has you worried? Don’t worry about that Twilight. I have a spell.”
That grabbed Twilight’s attention. She looked back at Celestia, who was grinning. “A spell? A spell to do what?”
Celestia’s grin grew even wider, and for some reason it made Twilight’s stomach drop. “Make you immortal.”
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i would avoid an outright deus ex machina.
4506259 You mean you don't want a magic solution that clears up the whole issue of which world is Twilight's real world all inside a single paragraph? Guess I better rewrite my ending.
4506270 think it does not make many things clear on both. at least i have seen it done so much better that i might be unfair about it.
Asylum, things could go either way. even while the world she is in has signs that she fabricated the equestria she knows, there are anomalies to even that, and things that should be hallucinations yet somehow affect the environment.
4506277
That would be so sad.
4506286 I will admit I've only read a few chapters of Asylum so I don't know too much about it, and I had been working on this story before I did.
So, how many strings are attached to this spell?
That is my initial thought process anyway.
I was wondering when Other!Twilight's past relationship with Celestia was going to come up. Now we just need Twilight to wake up with a wet ear-tip every morning and realize that sleeping Celestia is a nibbler.
Softy, if I haven't already, let me say how wonderful DAFAM is. Really, really great stuff! It's all handled well and you keep a frequent update schedule, for which I will be ever thankful.
Vampirism
4506347 A good thing to question when it comes to Immortality.
4506430 Haha, I don't think Celestia would appreciate that trait being given to her though.
I'm glad you're enjoying my little story.
It means a lot to me to have people reading it week after week.
4506436 Ooo, interesting thought.
4506491
If it was simple/cost free, Celestia would have given it to more ponies.
Since there are not lots of immortal ponies running around says that there is a cost. One that must be fairly high.
At least, that is what I think at the moment.
4506499 That's a logically line of thinking, but also not the only reason why she wouldn't have made a bunch of ponies immortal.
4506499 "All you have to do is travel to the moon and slay the Beast of Nightmares, and bring me her heart. You know, as a spell reagent."
I again keep zooming in on Spike while I read this. He feels so grown up and reliable, he's certainly a better Spike than the one I'm used to, ever at Twilight's beck and call. This one feels more like an adult that I can respect.
4506555 "Don't forget that the moon portal only opens every 68 moons and stays open for five hours. So if you take too long..."
4506579
Once again you have The Best Spike in all of Fimfiction!
I wonder if the immortality spell will have anything to do with the alicornization process Twilight went through in "the dream" ...
now that I think about it I don't remember if Twilight ever told Celestia that she gave Twilight a set of wings in the dream ...
4506430
Dang it , now i need to track down that story because as far as i know Luna is the nibbler in that family..
4506599 "The dream" ended before Twilight became an alicorn.
Heh...
..Heh heh...
Wait..Is she gonna be a...
Vampony?
Or an alicorn...
...Or just an immortal unicorn?
I have my bets on where DAFAM is going, and what this immortality spell entails. It may not be as much of a surprise as we're thinking, given this chapter's cliffhanger; after all, thanks to Starswirl, Canon Celestia also had an ascension spell ready for Twilight.
4506609
You're looking for Say It by HermitKlam. It's a Twilestia story; word of God says Luna's just borrowing Twilight for cuddle-time, though if Cadance had her way, Luna'd be nibbling more than Twilight's ear.
DAFAM, of course, doesn't have that problem since it's sans Luna. At least, we think it is. Who knows what that dastardly Softy has planned for us?
4506526
That's something that has been brought up in another story. Imagine it. Let's say she makes 50 ponies immortal. That's 50 ponies who will never die.
But why stick at 50?
Who would you choose?
The idea that it would be simple to just select a few people, when Celestia obviously cares about quite a lot, is a simple way to look at it. Then we have the idea that Twilight might learn the spell and want to help out her brother, who wants to help out his friends in the guard, who want to help out their families, who want to help out their friends. Eventually you have a nation of never-dying ponies along with the fact that they'd want to propagate.
Essentially, you'd have a nation that would always be growing and never shrinking. Resources would dwindle, and the planet would be wasted so-to-speak.
My guess is that Twilight is going to "become Luna". She'll be the Princess of the Night.
4506579
Most people try to stick with canon Spike, which is undoubtedly just a joke character with a few good points.
4506790
She sparkles under the sun.
4506794 [Twirls Evil Mustache]
4506995 Indeed, that is one of the issues that could be faced.
4507016
Oh no. This can't end well.
I already have a really good idea of what's going on and the dues ex machina kinda solidifies my theory
C'mon Luna! Quit letting him play with my Twilestia heartsrings and wake her up! It's gonna hurt more with every passing chapter!
4507192 Always fun to see how your ideas of where the story is going match up with what gets written. I hope you enjoy it, even if your ideas aren't correct.
4507194 Who says Celestia will let her go?
4507217
-.-
4507235 Please note that any and all comments I make are not reflective of future chapters.
I just like messing with people.
4507080
SO SHE IS A VAMPONY!!!
Or are you just messing with me...
DERP!
4507016
Now THAT would be cool!
4507257 Just messing with you.
4507269
Lol. For a second, I was eating an apple...
Wait, yep. Apple in my mouth.
Meh, at least it isn't brown.
That would be weird...
i think Twilight shored write some books, ponies will love them X3
Oh, but are you writing this story? Or is a certain unicorn assassin writing it? We shall see.
4507249
hence the face.
-.-
Celestia's kind of an arsehole for taking advantage of Twilight
Oh boy. I don't see this date ending well. Where's Admiral Akbar when you need him?
4507601
4507636
I never said she wasn't.
4507790 It'll be just fine. What could go wrong.
4507836
...
Oh my god.
This story is Coraline.
images.forwallpaper.com/files/images/e/edcb/edcb550d/245997/coraline.jpg
it's been bugging me this entire time, the way Celestia has been acting around Twilight. I cought on pretty quick about the romance thing, but something felt... like there was more going on. And now, with this supposed "immortality" spell, I feel it all falling into place.
This place she has woken up in is the Other Place. To Twilight, everything has been in many ways even better than her old life. She's even more powerful, everyone looks up to her, even her mentor/mother figure treats her like an equal. This whole world revolves around her.
This Celestia is like the Other Mother. Kind, caring, on the surface much easier to get along with. And now, she's offering Twilight exactly the thing which would resolve the problem with this relationship of hers.
But what is the true nature of this immortality spell? Just like in Coraline, where the Button Eyes are revealed to be for a far more sinister purpose, I wonder if 'Celestia's' intentions are perhaps more evil than we have been led to believe. This would also explain the almost frantic way Luna has been trying to communicate with Twilight, and the fact that 'Celestia' has been purposefully blocking that communication.
I don't know, perhaps I'm going totally off the deep end with this. Maybe I'm getting bad vibes where there aren't any.
But seriously, if this all goes to hell and this world breaks down into something evil, I will be so excited.
Make twi immortal!
4507911 it would be awesome if something like this happened.
But I think Celestia is lying to make Twi feel better(not stressed/anxious/worried)about a relationship with an immortal pony
One of my in-progress stories deals with Twilight having to choose whether she wants to be immortal. Since it takes the power of an alicorn to cast the spell (and even then, conditions have to be perfect), and because of concerns on what ponies would do if they knew, it is a closely guarded secret that only alicorns are aware of. There are also side-effects, which actually caused Cadance to reject it when she was offered the opportunity.
4507879
4507911 Can neither confirm nor deny what will happen.
Though I can say I've never seen that movie so any parallels are not intentional. 
4508195
4508281 You basically just said "It would be awesome if Celestia was evil, however I think she's good and really cares about Twilight." .... Why not both!
4509390 Immortality without complexity is boring. Immortality with crazy moral questions is even better!
4507911
This makes so much sense. I had completely forgotten about that movie! Wasn't the biggest fan of Coraline due to its art style. Anything that reminds me of Tim Burton generally does strike a bad cord with me. Lemme clarify that I do know it wasn't a Tim Burton movie!
That aside, I can relate to your feels about not being able to put your finger on what this reminds you of. The entire time I've read this, I've felt like Celesta is really the center of all the things wrong here, and not because she is in love with Twilight. I get the vibe that Princess Celestia needs Twilight to exist, and barring the obvious "CURZ ITSA DREEM STOOIPD" answer, I feel like whoever this Celestia is needs this reality to be maintained by Sparkle.
4511230
Nice!
4511957 Sorry you didn't like the romance aspect, but I did give fair warning with story tags.
I hope you'll give my next story a try!
A spell that makes one immortal?
1-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/a/image/1338/04/1338045738313.png
...Alright, I'm kidding, I'm still interested.