Celestia stood where she was, her gaze lifted toward her mother, and for a brief moment the composure she had forced upon herself faltered not outwardly in any dramatic sense, but in the way her pupils trembled ever so slightly, in the way something deeper surfaced behind her eyes, something raw and unguarded; there was longing there, unmistakable and intense, not the fleeting kind, but the kind that had taken root over time, grown silently, and now refused to be denied its presence any longer. Nerissa's words had not been empty.. Celestia knew that better than anyone.
If her mother said something could be done, then it would be done, no matter what stood in the way, no matter who opposed it, no matter what balance of power it disrupted. That certainty was not belief it was fact. And because of that, the offer placed before her was not hypothetical.. it was real, immediate, within reach. All she needed to do was accept.
And for a fraction of a second..
She almost did.
