5 Confrontation and Return
“How are you feeling today?” asked Rainbow, turning over in bed to stroke a few errant strands of blue and green mane from her lover’s face.
“Hmmmm …” hummed Celestia seductively, relishing the tenderness of a cyan blue forehoof gently brushing across her fur.
It had been a long time since she had taken a lover, and the new lease of life it had given her was palpable. Having somepony to unwind with after a busy day, somepony to share her most intimate thoughts with and somepony to hold when retreating back to her private chambers; it was a whole experience she hadn’t realised how much she had missed. Better still, Rainbow hadn’t chosen to get involved with Celestia because she sought political influence, desired fame or notoriety, but instead it was a match based on the purest of all motives – love.
It was difficult to pin down exactly who had courted who as both displayed their deep affection for the other on a complementary basis, but both were united in desiring the same outcome. They were such a perfect match and everypony could see how much in love they were; indeed, the popular press had been alive for months with rumours of a Royal Wedding.
Rainbow broke her reverie, indicating she had finished grooming her marefriend by placing a kiss on her lips, as gently as a butterfly landing on a fragrant flower. Celestia reached out and stroked her in return, her cyan blue face turning just a fraction as her eyes closed with the delight of pleasures to come.
The newly revitalised Celestia was riding the crest of a wave, and could feel her good karma helping to build her magical strength, strength that she could either use to keep the seething monster at bay for decades longer, or strength she could use to reverse time and attempt to end it. It was so tempting to simply extend the time before she had to make a decision and relish the sumptuous opportunity it bought with her marefriend, but deep down she knew that was the wrong approach. No matter how she tried to duck the issue, Celestia knew she was a pony whose core values would never allow self-indulgence at the expense of duty, and reluctantly turned her mind to the day’s momentous activities.
“Rainbow” she whispered across the rumpled sheets an hour later “I can’t put it off any longer.”
“You can do it Celly” said her marefriend supportively “I’ll be coming with you, right?”
“My darling, we’ve been over this” said Celestia leaning over and stroking her fur gently “I don’t know what will happen, but I am not prepared to risk you – you’re far too precious to me.”
“I would rather be with you. If you die, we die together.”
“Please don’t, Rainbow” desperation and sadness both creeping in to her voice simultaneously “I don’t want to do anything to you that I will have to carry in my conscience for all eternity.”
“Can I at least come to see you off and wish you well?”
“Yes, of course you can.”
"And you'll return back to the same place just a few minutes later if it all works out OK?" asked Rainbow, seeking confirmation of what she had already been told.
"Yes, darling. You'll barely notice I've gone."
“Good, because there may be something I want to say to you when you come back” said the pegasus with a cheeky smile.
Celestia’s heart skipped a beat – could it be a proposal of marriage? She felt lightheaded at the prospect and wanted, really wanted to play it cool, but failed and threw her forelegs around her, tears of delight running down her muzzle.
“Whoa!” calmed Rainbow “You’ve got to focus on the job ahead. We’ve got a whole lifetime ahead as soon as you return …”
***
After one more kiss, Celestia turned to depart and launched herself into the air, the cyan mare watching as loping wingbeats carried her love away to perform the duty she had been coaching her for. Rainbow wanted desperately to be with her, but Celestia had been adamant.
“Come home soon my love” she whispered as the white dot finally vanished from view, never having felt so alone in her entire life.
The white mare reached altitude and paused to get her breath on a single strategically placed cloud. She looked down; Canterlot lay behind her, Ponyville off to one side, but her destiny lay ahead more clearly marked than on any signpost. She wanted to return to her love and resolved that even if Rainbow didn’t propose to her, she would take the initiative herself and propose to her instead. But, despite the longing she felt in her heart, she parked her emotions and focused on what she knew she must do. As Rainbow had said, they would have a lifetime to express their love, after all.
Celestia slipped gracefully off the cloud and headed west, out over large swathes of unpopulated areas, to the very borders of Equestria and beyond. She built speed, now little more than a formality with all the practice she had received and soon entered the buffeting that had caused her so much trouble when she had first pushed the boundaries of high speed flight.
From her vantage point high up on the royal castle, Rainbow’s vigil of the western horizon paid off as she saw the bright flash of a sonic rainboom.
“I love you, Celestia” she whispered, staring at the horizon long after the colourful display had dissipated.
The words of the spell poured from the Sun Princess as she transitioned through twilight into the dark portion of her journey, racing against the spin of the planet. She did not see the stars; her head was down, keeping her horn inside the shockwave and she knew she dared not turn to take in the beautiful vista of the night sky that enveloped her.
The spellcasting and the sustained high speed flying drew on her stamina and she was so grateful for all the work Rainbow had put in with her over the last few months preparing her for the ordeal. Soon she saw the dawn and returned to yesterday as she felt the warm sun on her coat once more.
She continued flying and casting her spell, the days and nights growing shorter and shorter until they were going past in a blur; a few seconds in her time elapsing as all around her, days past, then weeks, then months and finally years. Each individual day was now a single flash in a stroboscopic blur as the calendar unwound back to that point in time when the creature had first appeared.
Abruptly, there was another boom, and she dropped down suddenly into normal flight once more – she was there!
She had reappeared just to the west of Canterlot, where she had made her sonic rainboom at the beginning of this flight and flew over to a convenient cloud for a well-earned rest. Any doubts she had about the efficacy of the spell were quashed as she looked down at Canterlot, not the Canterlot she had left, but the one that had existed hundreds of years ago.
Celestia knew where she had to go and set off for the point where she had first encountered the black apparition that would become the bane of her life, knowing that she had to get there before the Celestia of this timeline would find her. Quickly she headed out to that fateful place for a meeting that had never happened but would now change the course of history.
She scanned the ground in a search pattern, frantically looking left and right until there was a black dot, more or less where she knew it should be. She circled and glided down, dropping majestically to the ground in front of the loathsome beast.
“What do you want?” it hissed venomously.
“I have come to do something I should have done a long time ago” said Celestia, her voice even and devoid of emotion.
The creature detected the sense of purpose radiated by its visitor.
“I feel no love within you” it seethed.
“That is because I know what you are.”
“You intend me harm, I sense it.”
“Nothing you can say will sway me from my duty.”
“Nothing? You do not know my name. If you do not know my name, then you will be able to do what you want with no remorse. If you know I have a name, you will be plagued forever by what you are about to do to me, and my memory will become a towering monolith of guilt that haunts your mind and drives you mad.”
Celestia started casting her banishment spell not focusing on what the creature had to say. A yellow aura built on the tip of her horn.
“My name is Chrysalis!” it screamed.
In a flash of yellow light, the frightening black image of a disfigured moth-eaten alicorn vanished, transported to the isolated island where it would doubtless die and never grow to threaten Celestia or Equestria ever again.
A relieved Celestia took off and climbed away feeling a sense that at last she could focus on her royal duties and her private life free from the worry of this creature that had been her curse for so long. The name ran through her head “Chrysalis … Chrysalis ...”
She dismissed it.
Climbing back up to altitude, she flew east and sped up as soon as she was able, creating the first ever sonic rainboom that Equestria had ever seen. Astronomers and philosophers would debate this strange signal in the sky for generations, but none would ever know for sure what it was; it would be a secret shared between Celestia and her marefriend waiting for her.
She repeated the time spell and once more, the days and nights flashed by as if staring into a stroboscope, speeding up beyond the ability of calendars to comprehend before suddenly dropping out of the manic procession through time and arriving back where she had left off.
Although she congratulated herself on a job well done, she was exhausted both physically and mentally; her wings had flown around the planet both ways at very high speed and her spell casting had drawn deep into her reserves of energy. By now she was running on adrenalin and the love of her waiting marefriend, who, as she recalled, had some special news for her.
Celestia glided gracefully back over the castle walls and alighted on the royal balcony.
“Rainbow, Rainbow!” she called “I’m home darling, I’ve done it!”
She walked inside. The bedroom was tidy. The bedroom was never tidy. Rainbow Dash, for all her wonderful characteristics could not be said to be tidy.
A pit opened in her stomach; a big, yawning, terrifying chasm.
She opened the wardrobe used by her marefriend. It was full of Celestia’s own clothes.
She called for an aide who greeted her with due deference and etiquette.
“Where is Rainbow Dash?” she asked, a lump rising in her throat and her eyes suddenly feeling unexpectedly sore.
“I believe she is on the guest list for a tour round the castle today with your student Twilight Sparkle.”
“Please have them sent to me” she requested.
“Of course, your Majesty” said the aide, departing backwards through the double doors.
Celestia was perplexed. Had Rainbow left her? If so why was she on a tour round the castle with Twilight?
She slipped on her hoof guards and livery collar, suddenly realising they had been off when she addressed the aide and feeling immediately embarrassed. She had just fixed her tiara when a knock at the door announced that her visitors were outside.
She crossed the room and opened the door, entering the antechamber where a lilac unicorn bounded forward to greet her while a cyan pegasus held back.
“Princess, Princess!” bubbled Twilight “How lovely to see you. I didn’t know if you would have time to see us today …”
“Rainbow Dash?” asked Celestia looking past her faithful student “How are you?”
“Er, I’m fine Princess” she replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck with her forehoof, no hint of recognition in her eyes.
“It’s lovely to see you both today” said Celestia feeling a boulder rising up inside her throat “I hope you have a nice time.”
As the two young mares expressed their thanks for their personal but very brief audience, Celestia turned back to her bedroom and opened the door. Her hooves would carry her no longer and she collapsed on the bed, the lump in her throat rising up into the most heartfelt sobs that shook her whole body as she gripped the pillow between her forehooves and held it close, rocking gently from side to side.
“Rainbow! Rainbow! NO!!” she cried piteously, knowing now that because she had removed the Chrysalis from this dimension, she had never sent the note to Rainbow Dash asking for her help and thus they had never formed a relationship. She also knew that in the dimension she had left behind was the Rainbow Dash she loved with all her heart still standing on a balcony waiting for her to return. That Rainbow would wait for her return until the day she died, never able to reveal the wonderful secret she was so desperate to share with her true love.
She hugged the pillow and cried so hard she did not lower the sun nor raise the moon. When her aide came to remind her of her responsibilities, the desperate strains of her heart breaking forced him to reconsider the wisdom of interrupting her grief and tiptoed away.
She was devastated.
On a balcony close by, yet unbridgeably far away, a cyan pegasus stared up at the sky waiting patiently for her true love to return.
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Dang this was good
8921088
Thank you - I really appreciate your support!
Short, sweet, and to the point. Good job.
Also that ending is a prime example of why you don’t mess with time travel.
8922113
Thank you for your kind words!
I really enjoyed working with Celestia and Rainbow Dash as a couple and may work with them again in another story sometime.
I don't normally read stories like this, but this was a masterpiece! Liked and followed.
8922390
Wow - I'm honoured!
Thank you for your kind words and for the follow, it's very much appreciated.
NO! That ending! I’m not crying! You’re crying!!!!
Need Sequel! Now!!!
8923275
I wouldn't admit it even if I did - Oh alright then, you forced it out of me ...
Damn butterfly affect
8925526
She paid a much higher price than she realised.
8925770
Hm. She could always try and reforge her relationship with rainbow.
Story was decent. Needs editing for spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as well as sentence structure. Story is left rather open-ended as well, with no real resolution for Celestia. I would recommend a sequel focusing on Celestia finding a way to win back the mare she loved -- a love that, in the new timeline, only she knows about.
8925901
8926388
Thanks for the interest in a sequel.
I have a few other storylines I want to work through first, but I am grateful for your good ideas and will see how I can develop them.
just so you know, i'll be waiting for that sequel, and if it doesn't come out within the next two years i am going to be pestering you about it because holy freaking crap that was good
9083282
Wow! Thank you for the praise - I'm so pleased you enjoyed it.
I have been delighted to receive requests for a sequel and may look to write one at a later date, but I have other ideas I'm working through first.
Thanks for your support!
9083519
alright, you have 2 years
Messing with time ends with harsh results. Unfortunate but not surprising.
9129266
Celly couldn't win whatever she did. At least she knew true happiness, even if only for a short time.
9129468
Debatably that could be considered a worse fate.
Why isn't there a tragedy tag?
9312591
You are quite right, it has earned that tag, but I already used the three tags available to me; Romance, Sad and AU, and I couldn't add a fourth ...
Sometimes a fourth tag would be useful!
9315715
Yes it is, I never expected this romance but it so cute and beautiful