Tornado stood in front of Celestia, a small smile on his face, his handsome black furred features shining lightly in the sun. His right front hoof rested atop his helmet and his armour lay ‘discarded’ off to the side.

Celestia stood in front of him, a large easel separating them. Upon it was a masterfully painted portrait of the stallion, perfectly colored and lovingly depicted. The alicorn smiled softly at the image and then blew a gentle breath of magic on it, drying it perfectly.

“There; thank you, Tornado,” Celestia told him with a smile as she lifted it up in her magic to show him the final project. Tornado smiled.

“You managed to get my good side my Queen,” he told her, then he wagged his eyebrows at her slightly. “Of course, that’s not very hard, they’re all good sides.”

Celestia chuckled softly as she walked over and gave him a light kiss. “Indeed,” she stated before her horn began to glow. “Now then, to get this where it belongs.”

“Some private room in the Castle?” Tornado Kicker asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nay,” the mare stated with a shake of her head. “I am taking it to a special place. You may join me if you wish.”

“I’m free for the rest of the evening, so sure,” Tornado replied with a smile. “I’m ready to go when you are.”

Celestia nodded and her horn flashed once.

The pair appeared at the beginning of a long hallway, the walls of which were made of translucent white stone while the floor was grass and the ceiling sky. It was well lit by the ‘skylight’ though Tornado could easily see places where magic lights were hiding. Despite all of those details, the first thing that Tornado saw was... portraits, hundreds of them. Each one was masterfully painted by a familiar ‘hoof’ and each held a single being.

Celestia stood beside him and let out an inadvertent sigh though she remained motionless.

“Where... are we?” Tornado asked her slowly after a moment or two of silence as he adjusted to the new surrounding. “This place... it doesn’t feel natural.”

“It isn’t,” Celestia told him with a single nod. “Good senses Tornado, and please, here of all places just call me Tia.”

“Thank you, Tia,” the stallion said affectionately. “So... back to my question. Where are we?”

“The hall of all those I’ve loved with the exception of my family... they have their own hall,” Celestia answered. “Each and every one of these portraits is of someone I’ve loved in my long life, either done by memory, or more lately, in the flesh.”

“I see...” Tornado said slowly as he looked down the long hallway. “Well, at least I know I’m in good company, eh?”

“Yes, yes you are,” Celestia said with a small smile as she started forwards towards the first portrait, that of a gold and green dragoness who in place of scales possessed a brilliant array of feathers. “You may stay with me if you like, or you may venture on ahead and explore as you please.”

Tornado frowned for a moment and then stepped up beside her. “I’ll stay with you Tia,” he stated.

“Good stallion,” Celestia said with a smile. “You know exactly the right words to say.”

“I’m a Kicker, Tia,” he replied, as if that explained everything. Then his eyes glanced at the dragoness. “Who’s this?”

“This is Trinna Longfeather,” Celestia answered, her gaze lingering on the beautiful dragoness. “She was my first love, I met her at one of the dragon migrations... and we spent all our time together. Love at first sight in a way, or as much as it could exist between two stupid teenagers,” she went on with a wry chuckle. “We still write to each other, though not nearly as much as I’d like. She is asleep too often nowadays.”

“You... lost your virginity to a teenaged dragoness?” Tornado asked, his eyebrow climbing loftily.

“Yes,” Celestia said, a small smile on her face. “We had just managed to escape from Luna’s ever present spying and well... one thing led to another.”

“Ah,” Tornado nodded, his mind briefly wandering to that strangely appealing image.

Celestia walked to the next portrait, this one a scarlet red griffon. Tornado followed at her side down the hallway, listening dutifully as Celestia spoke about those she’d loved. There were very few times he ever spoke without Celestia speaking first, however, there was once he could not resist.

“You were in love with a Chimera?” he asked as he looked at a portrait of a slick and muscular tiger like beast with a cobra headed tail and a ram’s head which was sprawled on his side, eying the painter with what Tornado could only describe as... arousal.

“Why yes,” Celestia said with a smile at the memory. “You see, I was rather adventurous in my youth once I was sure that I wouldn’t be tracked down by the Council, so I took a trip to the Fire Swamp. As you know, I’m virtually immune to the hazards there, so it was a fine trip idea.”

“I see,” the stallion said as he continued to eye the portrait. “So how did you and...”

"Tyrion, Jaime, and John,” Celestia filled in.

“Right, how did you ‘four’ meet and eventually... fall in love?” he asked her with a frown.

“An interesting story,” Celestia replied. “You see, one night I was doing something rather foolish... and... well let us just say that it is never a good idea to try robbing an eighty foot long fire serpent.”

“Why in Equestria would you ever try something like that?” Tornado asked, clearly dumbfounded. “Those things are known to eat entire legions of troops!”

“Young and stupid,” Celestia answered nostalgically. “At any rate, the three rescued me by tricking the serpent into eating its own tail, and we made our escape. Then we spent a month camping together in the Swamp, they worried that I would get myself killed without them there to ‘protect’ me and me simply enjoying having some company.”

“And eventually you fell in love?” Tornado inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” Celestia answered. “By this point, I had realized that truly loving anyone is a difficult thing to do... so at the time my solution was to remain intimate but not truly allow myself to fall into their... ‘grasp’. I suppose that is the right word anyways,” she shook her head lightly. “I was very foolish back then.”

“I see...” Tornado said slowly and then nodded. “So, what happened?”

“We made love like cats in heat at night and during the day we ventured through the swamp,” Celestia replied casually. “Then when my month was up I bade them farewell and never saw them again.”

She moved on from the picture of the three headed creature and onto the next, her eyes distant, her gait slow. Tornado kept up with her for the next three hours as they walked down the line of her lost loves until at last they came to an end. There was a blank space on the white wall and Celestia gently lifted the portrait of Tornado Kicker up to it. With a single magical seal, the mare affixed it to the wall and stood there for a moment, looking at it.

Then she looked down at Tornado who looked as fresh as he had at the beginning of the endeavor, you didn’t become a guard if you weren’t good at listening to ponies talk and walk. She bent down and planted a soft kiss on his lips and when she broke away the stallion smiled.

“Thank you for showing me this... hall of love Tia,” he said softly. “And thank you for thinking that I was worthy enough to be put in it.”

Celestia just smiled. “I never pick those who are unworthy,” she replied before she looked back down the seemingly endless hallway. Then she sat on her rear and Tornado saw the beginnings of tears form in her eyes. “I have lost so very many of you... it fills me with immeasurable pain at times.”

“I... then why do you do it?” Tornado asked as he reached up with a wing to wipe away the tears.

“Because with each of you I love, I gain new insights, new experiences, new friends... new joys,” Celestia answered in a low voice. “As an old wise friend once told me... it isn’t thousands of years of grief and pain... it’s thousands of years of happiness punctuated by stabs of pain.” She paused for a moment to allow the words to sink in... or as her mind wandered, Tornado couldn’t tell.

“I love each and every one of you, no matter how long ago it was that I loved you or for how long... I remember each of your faces, each of your voices, each of your touches... there is so very much to remember...” she trailed off, her eyes brimming with tears.

The stallion for his part was unsure whether he should hug Celestia, or kiss her gently on the cheek. He did both.

“Thank you, Tia, thank you for everything,” he told her as he held onto her side. Celestia didn’t seem to hear him for a moment or two and then when she did, her eyes glanced down to the black stallion who was hugging her. Her white wing came down and wrapped around him, somehow pulling him closer to her.

“You... you’re very welcome Tornado,” the mare said. “And thank you for joining me on this endeavor,” she added, apparently shaking off her mood.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Tornado replied. They stayed locked like that for several minutes before Celestia unwrapped the stallion from her feathery.

“I suppose we had best head back now then,” she stated as her horn began to glow.

“I suppose so,” Tornado agreed with a nod.

The alicorn’s horn flashed, and they vanished.

Author's Notes:

Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled chapter cycle, but I felt the need to get these two chapters out. Sarah’s tale will resume regularly probably by sunday. Now technically this completed chapter wasn’t ‘too long’ to put in one piece, but I split them because the tone I was trying to establish with them was very different.