Celestia x Rainbow - The Truest Love

by Bronyxy

2 Secrets Shared

“First, tell me honestly how fast I was travelling in terms of reaching the threshold for making a sonic rainboom” asked Celestia soberly.
“I expect you were already feeling the buffeting, and that’s a good indication that you’re about 90% the way there.”
“Oh yes” she replied sadly “I was speeding up nicely and then all that turbulence started bouncing me around and seemed to drain all my energy.”
“Yeah, that’s right. You’ve made a really good start, but you’ll need a bit more practice to get through the buffeting. Oh, and a bit more situational awareness too; you know, like looking out for the ground before it hits you” she smiled.
“Yes, don’t remind me. When I saw you cut underneath me I suddenly saw how low I was. That was a little too close, I think.”

There was a brief silence then Rainbow prompted again “So what is this all about, Princess?”
Celestia hung her head sadly and paused as she summoned the courage to share one of her deepest secrets.

“I have been using my magic to contain a malevolent creature. It arrived in Equestria one day a long time ago. I couldn’t return it, because I didn’t know where it had come from, but it was so aggressive even back then that I knew I couldn’t release it. I also knew that if I brought its existence to public attention, there would be an outcry and it may be released, so I kept it secretly hidden within the confines of a protection spell.”

“I hoped originally that over time, its aggressive tendencies would moderate such that it could be integrated into Equestrian society, but it has only become more dangerous. Then I hoped that it would age and die in captivity, thereby unburdening me of the responsibility of taking more dramatic action. However, it has continued to grow stronger over the centuries and I am forced to conclude that it has a much longer lifespan than I thought possible and may even be immortal. Not only that, but its increasing strength has meant that I have had to apply ever more of my power to ensure that the protection spell is sufficient to hold it back. This has taken more and more effort over time to keep it bottled up, until now its demands are consuming too much of my power and something must be done.”

“I have searched for references to this creature within my library, but over hundreds of years my searching has been fruitless and I still don’t know what it is, where to return it or where I could send it. Equally, I cannot condone a pre-emptive sentence of capital punishment for a crime I have never given it the liberty to commit, even though its malevolence makes its intentions clear.”

“I’ve never heard of it” said Rainbow, surprised.
“That’s because I’ve been keeping it under control; out of sight and out of mind.”
“So, what are you going to do?” asked Rainbow.
“I want to see if I can reverse time to go back and take a decision that I could have made in the beginning, but I cannot take now.”
Rainbow looked askance “Wha …?”

Celestia caught Rainbow’s astonishment and mistook her formative question “What I should have done was to banish it to the far side of the planet, onto a desert island where nothing grows. I should give it a chance; I owe it that much. My only other option is one that has haunted me all along, and that is cold-blooded murder. This way, it may survive or it may not, but at least it won’t be able to predate on ponies. The trouble is, it has become too strong for me to do that now, so I must go back and do it earlier.”

“Er, no.” interrupted Rainbow “I get that bit. It’s the turning back time bit where you lost me.”

“Oh, sorry” said Celestia “If a sufficiently strong magical spell can be cast whilst flying around the planet in a direction opposite to its natural rotation at a speed in excess of a sonic rainboom, then it should be theoretically possible. However, my magic is depleted and I must conserve as much of it as I can for the spell to work, so that’s why I must fly fast enough by the strength in my wings alone.”

“Can’t Princess Luna help out, what with her being a royal alicorn and all?”
“Sadly, no. She hasn’t regained her magic yet, and thus I have all the alicorn magic in Equestria within me. So you see, it falls to me and me alone.”

Rainbow paused as the explanation sunk in, then she turned to look Celestia in the eye “I’m with you Princess. We can do this together.”
Celestia smiled. For the first time since this whole sorry episode had started, she now felt a ray of hope.
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. You have no idea how much your support means to me.”
“OK Princess. You want us to do more now?”
“I don’t know if I’m up to another close shave like that again just yet.”
“No, no - I mean you’ve got a lot of power and all, but the way for you to go faster is technique” said Rainbow, then adding secretively “Only, don’t go telling nopony how it’s done will you – it’s kind of a trade secret.”
Celestia chuckled “Well then, it seems we have a secret apiece. I think that’s a fair and equitable way of developing a relationship, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yeah, I guess so; your secret’s safe with me and mine’s safe with you. Way to go!”
“Now about this technique, if you please Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow applied herself to explaining aerodynamic theory with a verbal dexterity that seemed to command the very air itself to comply with her desires. She made it sound easy in the way that only a true master of their craft can ever achieve and Celestia followed her every nuance and detail, leaving nothing to chance.

“Well, now you’ve heard how its done, what say we put it into practice?” said the young teacher to her pupil.
Celestia was motivated and had put the fear of imminent disaster that she had experienced earlier behind her, but not without retaining the important message of watch where you’re going.
“I may be immortal” she lectured herself silently “But I can still break my horn or my wings and then what use would I be as an alicorn to lead Equestria? Also, Celestia, you still feel pain.”

“OK, same routine as before, but remember what I’ve taught you.”
Celestia nodded, eyes focusing as she ran through her checklist of objectives for this flight.
“One more thing” added Rainbow as Celestia tensed to take off.

The Sun Princess broke her concentration to turn and face her instructor, her purple eyes looking inquiringly.
“Listen out to anything I tell you. It may be something you missed from our chat, or it could be something really important for safety. Either way, listen out, OK?”

Celestia marvelled at how confident this pegasus had become; barely old enough to be called a mare, but with a talent that belied her tender years. She was right, of course, but such assertiveness being directed unflinchingly at the most powerful pony in Equestria was still a little surprising. Such confidence also meant that Rainbow wouldn’t try to soft-soap her if she wasn’t doing it right. She had asked for honesty and she had found it.

The white mare nodded and smiled her thanks; thanks for the honesty and also for the promise afforded that only this expert flier could give her in achieving her goal, before refocusing and springing majestically into the air with renewed clarity of purpose.

They climbed gracefully, expending as little energy as possible to get back to the two clouds where they had met earlier in the afternoon. The sun was a little lower now and the curve of the planet was more noticeably tinged with a lustrous soft blue sheen. Both caught sight of its other-worldly beauty, but neither said anything, not wanting to distract the other from the task at hoof. They paused on their individual clouds while Celestia recovered her strength and composed herself, focusing on what she knew she had to do. Rainbow could see her thought process at work and kept respectfully quiet and still so as to give the Princess her best chance of putting the theory lessons into practice.

With no fanfare of introduction, Celestia sprang off her cloud, her long loping wingbeats building in intensity as she entered a shallow dive accompanied by her instructor. The speed built up, Rainbow watching every move to see how closely she was following what she had been taught. While she was a little rough on points of style, she wasn’t doing anything that was really wrong, so kept a close eye and made a series of mental notes for the debrief.

Celestia encountered the onset of turbulence sooner than before, due to the tips Rainbow had shared with her for more efficient high speed flight and progressed through her mental checklist of items gleaned from her briefing.
“Way to go Princess!” called Rainbow “You’re doing great!”

The windspeed ruffled her lips as before, but Rainbow thought she could detect a smile trying to form on her face. She was definitely quicker than before, but how far would she be able to go?

The shockwave became more noticeable, amplifying the buffeting as Celestia reached forward with a single forehoof as she had been shown, creating a spike around which the forming shockwave could crystalise, punching a hole in the air for her to follow through and reducing the drag.
“Come on Princess” said Rainbow under her breath “Come on now!”

Celestia’s face bore the extent of her concentration as around her the developing shockwave became more pronounced and concurrently more acute.

She looked up for a better view ahead and suddenly her head snapped back.

Her wings lost their rhythm as she fought to regain control and her hard-earned momentum bled off. The shockwave was gone and along with it her hopes of making a sonic rainboom on this attempt.

She cursed herself. She had followed everything Rainbow had taught and she was doing so well, but somehow she had lost control and she had failed. The ground was too close to try and build up speed again, so she reluctantly coasted to a gentle glide cursing herself loudly with words, some of which Rainbow had never heard before. The white mare headed for a solitary cloud over a deserted patch of ground, plomping herself down gracelessly and burying her head in the cloud where she let out a few plaintive sobs of frustration.

“Hey Princess” coaxed Rainbow “There’s no need for that. You did really well on only your second attempt.”
With no response forthcoming, she landed on the cloud where Celestia was crying, but closer than she would have chosen due to its small size.
“Don’t beat yourself up, that was some great flying.”

Celestia stretched a wing out over Rainbow who felt a little intimidated by the action.
“Thank you. It was all going so well and suddenly I lost control and panicked. I just don’t think I can do this!”

“Firstly” said Rainbow in her most soothing voice “You got up to speed so much quicker than before and secondly you got into the right stance …”
“So what went wrong?” wailed Celestia piteously.
“You lifted your head and your horn broke through the shockwave, creating more drag and that pulled your head back. There’s no pegasus ever had that problem before!”

Relieved, Celestia leaned over and nuzzled Rainbow affectionately.
“Thank you” was all she said.

They lay there on that cloud contentedly watching the sun cast its lengthening shadows below.
“I have duties to attend now, and I have distracted you enough” said Celestia at length “When would you next be free to continue the lessons?”
“I could make tomorrow morning, if that’s OK?”

“We could make an early start if you wanted to spend the night in Canterlot” she offered, something within her that she couldn’t explain really wanting the cyan pegasus to stay with her.

“OK, I’m free tonight” confirmed Rainbow.

Celestia’s heart skipped a beat.