30 Minutes of TwiDash

The Prompt (by Tombstone from bronies.de forum): "Twilight's Redemption"

Redemption

An old picture, framed in beautiful mahogany, covered by a thick layer of dust. Before she was holding it in her hooves, the wheels of time had made Twilight completely forget about its very existence. She carefully lifted the photo to her snout and blew away the fine dust which had gathered on it.

Sorrowful tears started running down her face, accompanied by heavy sobs, as she took a closer look at it. Most of the colors were faded, all that was left was a lifeless seeming gray. Gritting her teeth, she tried to maintain her composure, but the pain expanding from her heart had taken over her whole body within the brink of a second. Twilight slowly sank to the brittle wooden floor of the abandoned library, the picture tightly pressed against her chest. It was deeply hurting her to see every little spark of life it once carried along being gone like this, also because it was relentlessly pulling her back to the mercilessness of reality.

Her breath faltered as the thoughts of how many years have passed and what could have been if things would have been just slightly different crossed her mind. They always wanted to stay close to each other and go through life together. But as Equestria had changed, so had their dreams and the oath they made fell into oblivion like everything else that once had formed their bond. And when Twilight wanted to restore their friendship after all those years, she had to find out that it already was too late to do so.

Twilight had made countless decisions over the years, and most of them were for the best. Not just for herself, but for all of Equestria. However, there also were a very few for which she wished nothing more than to be able to turn back time and change them. Those few were the ones burdening her for her entire life, mostly from the second she made them, and also made everything she had achieved as ruler of a whole kingdom seem almost meaningless to her. Confronted with the framed reminder of the one particular decision which she regretted the very most, to reject a beautiful mare, a dear friend for whom she should find out to have feelings stronger than words could possibly explain just a little bit later, Twilight’s whole body started feeling slack from the tiredness that was slowly overcoming her.

Barely a single day had passed during which she didn’t think about the dear friend she had lost and during which she didn’t ask herself what could have been if she would have given a response differently in a single word to the one she actually gave. As she felt the last of her strength slowly fade away, she gently put the framed picture on the ground in front of her. Looking at the mare she loved deeply, the princess closed her tear-swollen eyes.

At once, a weak light coming from the setting sun shone through the window, gently penetrating Twilight’s eyes and displacing the gloomy darkness that was surrounding her. She laboriously lifted her heavy eyelids once again and as the beam hit her tired eyes, Twilight could have sworn she saw the beautiful colors of a marvelous rainbow coming through the glass of the window like they would escape from a prism. The grief and sorrows she felt were instantly displaced and she realized that there was no need to keep struggling as she at once was soothed and calm again. The tears stopped leaving her weary eyes and a little smile grew on her muzzle. Prepared to finally let go, Twilight sensed the beneficial and comfortable feeling warmth coming from the weak ray of light and decided to give herself to it as she closed her eyes for the very last time.

After all those years she was living in repentance, Twilight would finally be able to get redemption as she was taking her last breath and soon, under the starry sky, would meet Rainbow Dash once again.