There was a stillness in the air, a neutral, empty atmosphere. Laughter could not be heard, nor could speaking, or shouting. Even the less noticeable noises, the swaying of the trees, the gentle breeze of the wind, and the buzzing and skittering of tiny creatures was nowhere to be found.
In such emptiness there was a chance for infinite possibilities in a great many things. With this silence and stillness, the greatest of art could be envisioned, as could architecture that would leave any that witnessed it lost for words and tear-struck. Many times, in this same environment, the greatest minds and those that wished to become great wrote books, conducted masterpieces in their heads, readied algorithms that would put their names in the history books.
But, unfortunately for Equus as a whole, no such wonders were happening at the Sparkle household. This was no truer than in one of the castle’s many bedrooms, where an Asclepius E. Deuis resided.
The young man was lying in bed, his eyes half-lidded and his hair messy. He was splayed out as much as possible, his back propped up with far too many pillows. He was shirtless, with his favorite question mark pajama bottoms covering his lower body and one hole-y sock that he hadn’t remembered putting on last night.
It had been almost three hours since he had gotten up. He had spent this time wisely, practicing in the art of laziness. His skill was so razor sharp that it could have cleaved through diamond, yet Asclepius felt, like any master, that there was room for improvement. So, he continued to lay there, waiting until either hunger or the need to use the bathroom finally prompted him to rise and shine.
There was a noise that shattered the quiet. A movement outside of the bedroom door. First, it was the sound of hooves dragging against the crystal floor, then it was the sound of the doorknob being turned. Asclepius watched as the door slowly creaked open, revealing the lady of the house, Princess of Friendship, and founder of D.O.R.K.S, Twilight Sparkle.
Most days, after opening the door Twilight would immediately follow it up by uttering some greeting, or demanding that he get up. Once or twice, she had even been known to shake a bucket of ice water at him, ill-intent in her narrowed eyes. Today, however, there was none of that.
Twilight just made her way into the room, her movements both sluggish and tense. There was an odd expression on her face, as if she wanted to scream, to cry, and to lock herself in a closet and hide under a bundle of blankets. Along with this though, there was a look of stoic determination and nervousness.
The tip of Twilight’s horn glowed, and with just a bit more force than was necessary she closed the bedroom door behind her. She looked back, her shoulders slumping, and let out a long, sad sigh. Her head slowly turned back toward Asclepius, eyes welling with tears.
Asclepius, cocking his head to the side, said nothing. He did, however, reach down to throw his blanket partially off of his body. Seeing this, Twilight raced toward the bed.
With practiced ease, she leapt on top of it with a flap of her wings, landing on top of the human. Asclepius grunted as she let out a frustrated sound, squirming on top of him. Twilight climbed upward, the tip of her horn glowing, lifting his hands with her magic and placing them right above the spot where her wings met her back.
“Something happen?” Asclepius asked as he began scratching.
A shiver ran through Twilight. Her forelegs pressed up against his sides. Her back legs pressed against his legs. She placed her ear against his chest and just listened. Minutes passed like this, with neither human or pony saying anything.
“…Would you love me if I wasn’t a pony?” Twilight asked, her voice quiet.
Asclepius blinked. “Would I love you if you weren’t a pony?”
Twilight nodded. “Would you love me if I was something else?” she asked, not daring to look up at him. “A gryphon, or a donkey, or even a human. Would you love me if I was any of those?”
Leaning back, Asclepius considered her question. To appear especially thoughtful, he even made a show of scratching his chin. “I don’t know how I’d feel if you were a blob monster or a cloud, but I’m pretty sure that I’d love you if you weren’t a pony.”
Twilight’s ears perked up before pinning themselves against the sides of her skull. Slowly, she picked her head up to look at him.
“What if somepony else came along?” she asked, fear creeping into her voice. “What if Princess Celestia wanted you to be her coltfriend, or what if a pretty human girl appeared?”
Asclepius, again, considered her question. “Do you think your old teacher would ever do something like that to you?”
Twilight flinched. “No, of course not! I’m just… I was just…”
Trailing off, she let her head fall back down onto his chest. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep, shaky breaths before picking her head back up and looking at him.
“Would you leave me if something like that happened?” she asked.
Without missing a beat, Asclepius shook his head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’m not the type of guy that likes to jump from relationship to relationship. I’m lazy; I like to just plant my roots and see where that takes me.” Reaching up, Asclepius gave the alicorn’s neck a pat. “Besides, anyone else I picked wouldn’t be you, and that’s one hell of a step down if you’re asking me.”
Instead of calming Twilight down, Asclepius’s words only seemed to cause her further distress. She squirmed on top of him, her wings giving a few half-hearted flaps as her tail slapped against his legs.
“But do you think you’d always think like that?” she asked, insistent. “What if we both get older and we can’t stand each other? Or what if one of us gets fat? Or what if I start doing something you don’t like? Or—”
With each question, Twilight began to lose what little composure she had. Tears spilled from her eyes and fell from her face. She started sniffling, and her lip quivered. She rocked back and forth on top of Asclepius, her wings tensing and flexing as if she wanted to fly away.
Asclepius stared down quietly as she worked herself up more and more, her questions becoming more nonsensical and filled with barely contained sobs. Sighing, he cupped her face, stopping her from talking.
“Twilight, I think this whole relationship thing is scary,” he said. “And I don’t mean the kind of scary that you can just laugh after it’s all over either.”
He smiled as best as he could, using his thumb to wipe a bit of snot dripping from Twilight’s nose and wiping it against the blanket.
“Not too long ago I was really against the idea of relationships of any kind. I’ve seen what happens to people that try to love someone else for too long. Good friends of mine have had their lives ruined, some end up hating the people that they said they loved. I knew a girl that had to leave the state to get away from her boyfriend. I also knew a guy that tried to blow his brains out because he found out his girlfriend was sleeping with his best friend.”
He looked away from Twilight, his face showing signs of discomfort.
“When the two of us got together I was scared; as scared as I’ve ever been in my whole life. You’re smart, you’re beautiful, you like the things that I like and you honestly make me happy. I knew that you were the best thing that had ever and probably will ever happen to me.” Asclepius’s shoulders sagged. “I also know that you could have any mare or stallion that you wanted, and if I ever got home early or followed you to someplace and found you with someone else I knew deep down that it’d kill me. I probably wouldn’t like the thing that was left after either.”
Asclepius said nothing for a few moments. Suddenly he turned toward Twilight and smiled.
“I don’t know what’ll happen in ten years or even a day. I don’t know if the two of us will end up hating each other or if you’ll end up turning me into a frog or anything like that. But what I do know if that whenever I see you, or hear you, or feel you on top of me—”
He gave her cheek a little pat.
“—I stop remembering all of the bad things that happened to people I knew, and I stop from thinking all of those horrible things. When you smile at me I even stop being as scared.” Nodding to himself, Asclepius leaned back against his pillows, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m just gotta take it a day at a time I think. Anymore and I’m liable to give myself an ulcer or something.”
Twilight sniffled. Wiping her nose with a hoof, she nudged the bottom of Asclepius’s chin with her muzzle. “Asclepius?”
“Hmm?”
“Could you sit up for a second please?”
Asclepius did as he was asked, sitting up with her in his arms. “Like this, hon?”
Twilight nodded, unfurling her wings. While they weren’t as large as any of the other princesses, her wings were still massive by pony standards.
Nuzzling his chin, Twilight wrapped her wings around him as well as her forelegs. She nuzzled both sides of his neck, letting out a knicker as she did so. Then, looking deep into his eyes, she leaned up and pressed her lips against his. Asclepius returned the kiss without a second though, leaning back against his pillows as Twilight laid her head next to his.
“Asclepius?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you wanna get married?”
Asclepius looked down at the pony in his arms. He very nearly snorted at the question as he placed his hands under the pits of her wings.
“If you want. I’ll look horrible in a suit though.”
“You look great in anything that you put on,” Twilight replied. “And you’ll look fantastic, if Rarity has anything to say about it.”
“I guess you’re right,” Asclepius said, running his fingers through her soft fur. “We’ll go and look at rings tomorrow.”
“We won’t need to,” Twilight said, rubbing the side of her head against his chest. “I bought us a set of rings months ago.”
“Good,” Asclepius said, closing his eyes. “I’d have let you pick the rings anyway. I’m awful at that kind of stuff.”
With a smile, the tip of Twilight’s horn glowed. The blanket was lifted into the air and placed on top of the two. With another spell, the bedroom door was locked and the window blinds were closed, bathing the room in comforting darkness.
“Asclepius?”
“Yes, hon?”
“I love you.”
“Love you too.”
