Touching Stars
“Hello again, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said gently, not even taking her eyes away from the eyepiece of her telescope as the sound of fluttering wings greeted her.
Rainbow touched down softly on the balcony of Golden Oaks library, smiling sheepishly to herself. “Hey Twi.”
“Back for another lecture are we?” Twilight asked with a hint of a smirk on her voice, adjusting her telescope and finally turning away.
In the darkness of night, lit only by a lone lantern hanging above the balcony, the starry night sky could be seen clearly. It was this canvas in the sky that drew Rainbow Dash's attention as she responded, “They're interesting, and the stories about the constellations are fun to listen to.”
Twilight chuckled. “I suppose so, but today's going to be a little different. At this point I've covered every constellation we can see at this time of year from here and pretty much all the basics. Do something for me; find your favourite star.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow as she looked at the unicorn who was watching her expectantly. “Who says I have a favourite star?”
“Because when I let you control the telescope you turn it to the exact same star every night,” Twilight deadpanned.
“Right...” Rainbow rubbed her neck bashfully, looking back up to the sky. “I found it.”
“Tell me about it,” Twilight said.
Giving her friend an odd look, Rainbow asked, “Why? You already know which one it is.”
Twilight shrugged. “Humour me. If you tell me about your favourite star, I'll tell you about mine.”
“Alright...” Rainbow nodded slowly, looking back to the star she'd picked out on one of the very first nights she'd joined Twilight up on her balcony to look at the stars and listen to the stories ancient ponies had made up about them. “Well... it's the one you told me about; the one that's actually two stars really close together.”
“A binary system.”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah; two stars circling each other, kinda like a dance. Through the telescope you can see both if you look at the right time; one of 'em's blue and really small compared to the big yellow one it's circling. You can only see the blue one if you look at it at the right time; otherwise it'll be behind the yellow one.”
Twilight smiled gently as she too looked at the selected star. “Why do you like it so much?”
Blushing heavily, Rainbow turned away from the sky. “I dunno... I just like it.”
“Well if that's all you want to tell me about it, fine. I didn’t make that part of the deal. However, I should show you mine. Look through the telescope,” Twilight prompted, motioning to the piece of astronomical equipment and stepping back to allow Rainbow room.
Rainbow looked through the eyepiece at a star that was seemingly normal to her eyes. Just a regular big, bright ball in the sky. “What makes this one your favourite?”
Twilight looked at the same star without the aid of the telescope. “Because it's not there anymore.”
“What the heck do ya mean, Twi? I can see it right now.”
“Yes, you can see it, and we will continue to see it for millions of years. But if we were much closer to it, we'd have already seen it turn into a super nova. That star died thousands of years ago, and we just haven't seen it happen yet. The light it sent out when it was still burning is just now reaching us. That star is millions of light years away, and I already told you what that means.”
Rainbow's muzzled scrunched up in thought. “So... what I'm seeing when I look at it is what it looked like millions of years ago, right?”
Twilight nodded. “Yep, and it will look the exact same to us for generations. Until, one day, it'll disappear out of the sky, never to be seen again. But we will always know it was there.”
“Why do you like it though? It's kinda sad if you ask me,” Rainbow noted, taking a step back from the telescope and looking expectantly at Twilight.
“You didn't tell me why you liked your star; why should I tell you why I like mine?” Twilight teased, sticking out her tongue at the pegasus.
Looking up to the star she'd picked out, Rainbow sighed. “If you tell me, I'll tell you.”
“Promise?” Twilight asked.
“Promise,” Rainbow agreed with a small smile.
“Well, I guess I like it because it reminds me of a pony's life, and what I want my life to be like,” she explained slowly.
Rainbow quirked her head to the side. “How do ya mean?”
“Think about it; that star was there for millions upon millions of years, bigger and brighter than our own sun. It's been shining down on us for generations. It's become part of multiple constellations across all kind of civilizations, and has dozens of stories about it as a result. Then, one day, it did what stars do when they run out of fuel; it died. That supernova is nothing short of breathtaking, just like all the other nebulae out there. However, even after it died, we pones can still see it, shining brightly high in the sky. Most of us don't even know it's dead now. And yet, we still see it, still know it just was well as any of the other stars. And then, one day, it'll vanish from the sky. Those with high powered telescopes will eventually be able to the see the supernova it created, but for most ponies it'll simply be gone. But everypony who's ever seen it will remember it. Even when all memory of it has faded from the sky, we ponies will have records of it; we'll have seen it, and the memory of it will live on for as long as ponies look to the stars.
“We'll all die, one day; that's just part of life. But just like the star we will all be remembered. We will have lived and done things. We all shine just as bright – if not brighter – than that star, and when we die we'll cause something even bigger than a supernova in the hearts of those close to us. And one day, when everyone who met us has passed on, our light will be gone, but the knowledge of us will remain forever. Our children's children's children, who may have never met us, will be alive because of us. There will always be records of our existence. We will never truly be forgotten as long as ponies walk the earth. We can all leave a legacy behind, just like that star, with all its stories and constellations.”
The balcony faded to silence as Twilight finished, both ponies looking up to the star in question. Finally, after an eternity of silence, Rainbow spoke. “Wow... Twi... not gonna lie; that's kinda depressing.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “I don't think so; the fact that we'll all leave something behind is a comforting thought to me.”
Rainbow looked between the sky and Twilight, before shaking her head. “Yeah... still kinda depressing.”
“Whatever, Featherbrain. It's your turn,” Twilight prompted, returning to her telescope and finding the star Rainbow had identified as her favourite.
Taking a deep breath, Rainbow looked once at Twilight, before looking to the stars she'd looked at every night she came to this very balcony. “Well... I guess I like it because it's comparable to how I feel.”
It was Twilight's turn to tilt her head in confusion. “How so?”
Rainbow gave her most confident smile. “One of 'em, the small one, is blue. The other one's yellow. I imagine that the bigger one is purple, and it mirrors how I feel every night I come here and every time I'm around you.”
“Rainbow?”
“Circling around and around,” she continued, ignoring Twilight's comment as she started acting out what she was describing, walking in a wide circle around the unicorn “Never getting any closer and never farther away.” The ring started growing tighter as Rainbow walked faster. “Being dragged in without the big star even noticing what it's doing, but always staying just out of reach.” Rainbow's breath sped up as her heart beat faster and faster, blood rushing to her cheeks. “What that smaller star wouldn't give to touch the big one, just once.” Her circling stopped, and she ended standing fact to face with Twilight, mere inches separating them.
“Do you know why I came here that first night, all those months ago, and found you stargazing up here alone?”
Twilight shook her head slowly, eyes wide with a cross between nervousness and curiosity.
Rainbow smiled. “To touch the bigger star.”
Before that final sentiment even left her lips Rainbow closed what little gap remained between the two and stole what she hoped would be the first of many kisses. Short and to the point, just like the mare who started it, Rainbow pulled back before Twilight even had a chance to comprehend what had happened.
Twilight blinked uncomprehendingly, raising a hoof to her lips as a ghostly tingle remained there, a physical memory of an event mere seconds ago. Time ticked by in silence, though to both mares each second felt more like an hour, and hours turned to days and years and eventually what seemed to be an eternity had passed.
“Why?” Twilight whispered, finally lowering the hoof she'd forgotten she'd raised.
Rainbow gave a small, shaky smile. “Because you're you, and you can't do anything about it.”
Twilight returned a weak smile of her own. “No, I suppose I can't.”
“But I suppose if you want an actual answer...” Rainbow trailed off, watching as Twilight nodded and motioned for her to explain. “Because of the little things, like your voice. I could listen to you ramble on and on about this that or the other thing, so long as I could hear your voice. Always listening but never hearing a word you say. Or that little sparkle you get in your eyes when some puzzle challenges you, that burning desire to prove that you can do it, just like how I can be when I do my flight routines.” She smiled, looking back into her memories for examples of any one of the millions reasons she could sue to explain 'why'.
“Because you've never treated me like I'm stupid. Because you just laugh and try again when I don't get an explanation you gave. And... because for the past three months you've been teaching me about astronomy just because I asked you to. The big things, too,” Rainbow added, now looking directly at twilight instead of into her memories. “The cute way you're looking at me right now, for instance. How you've never once put on an ounce of makeup but still manage to be the most beautiful thing in the room.”
Twilight blushed bashfully, averting her eyes to the floor of the balcony. “I'm not really.”
“And that; that right there!” Rainbow insisted. “It's like you're allergic to taking praise, even the stuff that's true. Because... well, because of all of you, Twilight; I like you because you're you.”
Twilight's blush could rival the sun for sheer intensity by the end of Rainbow's speech, and as the chilled night air faded once again into silence, she looked back up to see Rainbow blushing just as brightly.
“So...” Rainbow started awkwardly, taking a step away and rubbing the back of her neck. “Yes or no?”
Smiling a little bit wider, Twilight turned to her telescope, walking over and looking through the lens. When she faced Rainbow again, her smile had grown even bigger. “How about you take a look?”
Rainbow frowned, but when Twilight motioned eagerly towards the eyepiece, she obliged and leaned down to see what the unicorn wanted her to see. Through the telescope, magnified thousands of times, she could see the binary star system she'd identified as her favourite; one large, yellow star and one smaller blue one. If she didn't know they were in fact millions of kilometers apart, she could have sworn they were touching.
“I was thinking,” Twilight started as a grin blossomed on Rainbow's face. “That we go stargazing for our first date.”
Finally Rainbow looked away from the touching stars, giving a confused look to her friend. “But we do that every night. We're doing it- oh...”
Twilight grinned and nodded.
“We're doing that now.”
Author's Note
Because sometimes I need to write some mindless, fluffy Twidash to clear out my mind form... other... stories... that shall not be named.
I hope you enjoyed the Twidash.
