The Golden Age

by The Quiet Party

I: FRIENDSHIP CASTLE, PONYVILLE, 19th Day of Vernaltide, 1021 ASI

FRIENDSHIP CASTLE, PONYVILLE
19th Day of Vernaltide
1021 Anno Sol Invictus
(April 7, 2014 approximate)

Celestia stared at the now-still mirror, with no indication that it had ever been anything but. Just a few minutes ago, it had been a glowing, magical portal leading to another reality, one filled with strange beings and a mostly-magicless world … but a world that Celestia desperately wanted to be a part of right now.

That other world contained her daughter, Sunset Shimmer. The daughter who’d just told her during her visit earlier in the day that she’d found a place she could finally call home … and that home was not here. Not in Equestria. Sunset had chosen to remain in the land of humans – as a human herself.

Celestia stood there, not knowing what to say. She wanted to reach through the mirror, pull her daughter through and just hold her forever. Sunset belong here, in Equestria, with her own kind, rather than in the other world with alien beings that looked like mutant minotaurs (Celestia had that thought confirmed for herself when Sunset and Twilight had assumed their human forms.)

“Celestia?” The solar unicorn turned around to see Twilight standing there, looking at her with a worried face.

Celestia forced herself to turn away from the mirror. Putting on her most realistic plastic smile, she turned to her former apprentice. “I take it the Sirens have been settled in?”

Twilight nodded. “Mayor Mare is going to hire Adagio as her personal secretary. Aria is interested in joining the Guard, so I endorsed her for the officer’s academy; she leaves tomorrow. Sonata, well … Spike can’t maintain everything around here.”

“That’s good to hear,” Celestia said as she bent down to nuzzle Twilight. Part of her hated herself for the fact that as much as she adored Twilight, she wished she was showing affection to her daughter, instead.

“You really miss her, don’t you?” Celestia thought she heard a hint of sorrow in Twilight’s voice. A flare of jealousy briefly rose in Celestia’s heart, but she tamped it down; Twilight and Sunset were friends––

aND SHE WILL always HAVE MORE ACCESS TO SUNSET THAN YOU

–-and certainly there was nothing wrong with that. “Is it that obvious?” the elder princess admitted.

Twilight nodded briefly. “You’ve been standing there for hours,” Twilight told her. “Luna left for Canterlot hours ago, and sunrise is in fifteen minutes.

Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise. Have I been here that long? It only felt like she’d ushered her daughter off to the other world––

tHE WORLD THAT DOESN’T DESERVE HER

–-and stood there only to see if her daughter would return. Instead, she’d burned the entire night and filled her student with worry. For her sake and everypony else’s, she had to let go. She had to.

nO! sHE’S mine! tHE HUMANS DON’T DESERVE HER! sHE IS mine!

“I must go, Twilight,” Celestia lied. She could have stayed. She knew she needed to. But something was pulling at her heart, and it was something she didn’t want to deal with at the moment.

For the first time in a long while, Celestia ran.