I Am Sorry For Doing Nothing
It was quiet.
Far too quiet for a forest planet. The white unicorn with a purple mane and tail realized this immediately once she disembarked from the yacht and onto the heavily overgrown duracrete landing pad, one of the many signs that this area hadn’t been used in a long while. A place like this should be teaming with the sounds of life but instead the surroundings felt just as abandoned as the landing pad.
Focusing heavily, Rarity let the Force wash over her to lead her to her target. She felt a slight twinge in her chest at the pulse of dark side energy in the distance, the feeling made all the worse from the familiarity of its presence.
She had hoped, no, prayed that the rumors she heard had been wrong, cases of mistaken identity if anything else…but what she was feeling, who she was feeling... There was no doubt.
Slowly and with purpose, she weaved her way through the trees letting the Force guide her. Each step brought her closer and closer to the malevolent energy that was washing over the area like a sickly wave.
Soon, too soon for her liking, the trees thinned out and the area cleared to reveal a great plain and a figure cloaked in black kneeled a great distance from the tree line.
The tall windswept grass waved in the breeze around her was absent around the figure, there being a large black circle which the figure was in the center of.
She exhaled, preemptively calming herself, her robes swaying in time with the grass and wind. With measured steps, she approached, removing her lightfoil from her hip, the ornate weapon extended to accommodate a two-handed grip.
"Are you here to kill me, jedi?" The figure asked with no preamble. Rarity was immediately brought up short, she didn't need the Force to feel the swirls and eddies of anger in that voice.
Her voice.
A voice that had no right to sound like it did.
Slowly, the figure rose and turned to face her, cloak falling away to reveal the coloring of a grey wings and blonde mane and tail. A golden eye met her gaze, while another drifted upwards as if trying to focus on the sky. The very sight of them put the unicorn's heart in a icy vice and squeezed.
"Well?" She asked, again.
Rarity exhaled again to contain the sorrow that threatened to cave in her chest, purging all memories of friendliness and camaraderie in favor of the steady energies of the light side and forced herself to speak with authority. "By the order of the Republic and the Jedi Council I place you, Derpy Hooves, under arrest for treason."
Her words seemed to have no effect on the Pegasus, who simply whickered. "Is that all?"
"What?"
"The charges. Is that all?"
Rarity managed to collect herself and brought her lightsaber hilt up though not activating it yet. "It's one of many, though I'm sure once I take you back to Canterlot there will be more waiting for you."
"And what makes you think you're even going to make it back to your ship, Jedi?"
The unicorn hesitated. When, not if, they fought she was going to have to be extremely careful. Under those black robes was a body trained to kill. For a brief moment, Rarity felt her resolve shake before steeling her mind. "I will take you in alive and we will find out what you know. Make no mistake, a trial will be prepared."
"Prepared. Prepared. Not carried out, though. You have absolutely no intention of going through with one, do you?"
That brought the unicorn up short as the implications of what was being said ripped through the air? Did she really think...? The thought that the council would do such a thing was...impossible.
However, no matter what she thought the disgust that was pure and undiluted tore into her from the pegasus' gaze, and her stance blazed with silent fury and expectation. It made Rarity distinctly uneasy, her skin crawling in little ripples of confusion and disquiet.
"The council wouldn't-" Her firm declaration was silenced as Derpy's eyes straightened and focused, ripping right through her, dissecting Jedi Master Rarity Bell as easily as one of the council members back on Canterlot. "Don't lie to yourself, Jedi. I can taste your doubt from here. You and I both know what will happen if I put myself at their mercy again."
Rarity was appalled at the accusation, but even more so pained at the event the Pegasus hinted at. "They wouldn't and if they tried I..."
“You what?! You know what they did, Rarity!” Derpy bellowed at the top of her lungs, “And you just stood by and let them do it to me!”
The purple-maned unicorn flinched, the spite and hate of her once friend’s words echoed across the plains and in the force and the unicorn knew she deserved no less. Not for her part in what had turned out to be Derpy’s punishment. Not for allowing her friend to be driven away like this. “Had I known what they had planned to do I wouldn’t have let it happen. None of us, not Lyra, not Zecora, and certainly not I or Fluttershy, would have let it happen. You must understand—”
“Understand what?” The blond pegasus growled, a hand cupping at her midsection where the unicorn knew would be a large ugly scar. Even from where she was standing Rarity could see her knuckles go white as her hand clenched. “Understand that you, my clan sisters, betrayed me? Left me at their mercy? All of you conspired against me, couldn't stand that I planned to leave the order and decided to take from me what I wanted most.”
It was those quiet moments, the soft, pliable ones when they were both spent, Derpy's hair mussed up from the way Thunder's fingers had been sliding through it, when the normally brooding, constantly tense soldier’s muscles would relax, and he would bury his face into the crook of her’ neck, the warm flush of his fur heating the pegasus to her very core.
It was there, twisted in the sheets, that Derpy Hooves knew true love. Everything about her stallion was beyond perfect. She loved how his weight pressed into her, how his short exhales would puff out against her skin, marking the spot over and over again like warm breath on glass. How every little sound he made was cute, no matter how much he tried to deny it. How every time he looked at her, she felt just a little weaker in the knees because she knew she was his.
And he was hers.
Lightly, she traced a finger along his bicep, along his arm, past his shoulder and stopping at the spine. He shuddered as she began to slowly run her finger down his spine and down his back, still slick from sweat. It was a good shudder. In the few times they had managed to get together over the years, she had gotten to know the unicorn inside and out beyond just knowing him in the force. She knew every sound, every look, every touch, every lingering gaze, the meaning behind every word that was spoken, even that of the words that weren’t.
I love you was never absent from him.
And no matter how long they were separated or how far apart they were, he never changed once.
"Derpy?" Thunder's voice cracked, making his steady baritone squeak. Far too cute.
"Yes, Rolling?" Derpy continued to draw lines on the stallion's back as she listened.
"I meant it, you know." His voice was steady but at the same time unsure. Like he was second guessing himself.
Again it was another thing that made the stallion her stallion. She chuckled under her breath and nodded. "I know."
"…I mean I-" He was more uncertain now. She could see the gears turning in his head as he struggled to find the right words to say. Not that he had to. He already had said them.
Derpy cut him off. "Thunder. Trust me. I know." Because she did. She knew that Thunder would tell her when he was ready. She knew that when it happened she would be that happiest mare in the galaxy...no, the universe and would shower him with all the love and affection he deserved, that he had been long overdue long. She knew that Thunder was madly, hopelessly, unequivocally in love with her. Derpy Hooves.
The thought made her smile. So what if he had blurted it out in the middle of sex? Didn't make it any less valid in her mind. "After the war." She hummed.
The unicorn's face set in nervous determination. "Right. After the war. Of course. Got it."
Derpy rolled her eyes, the lazy one getting a headstart but it got across the intent. "Devine's sake, you doof. Just kiss me already."
As their lips pressed together, Derpy realized she would never forget this moment.
For this was the day she gained a family.
And she couldn't be happier.
