The Heart of a Dragon
It was a pleasant evening for the Princess of Dreams, made even more so as she watched the powers of her aunt and mother at work. It almost caused her to become lost in thought to the point where she nearly didn’t catch the approach of that special pony in her life.
“So here you are, my beautiful lady.”
Without looking Nidra continues to look up into the sky, “Hello Turquoise.”
“‘Turquoise’? Am I in trouble or something? Usually you don’t call me that unless it’s something serious.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. I guess I’m just caught up in the moment.” Nidra says as she continues to look up
T sits next to her and wraps his tail around her waist, “I can understand that. Seeing your family at work is something to be amazed about.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes and at first T didn’t think too much about it, but he start to get a stronger feeling that something was off. He looks at the princess that he called his marefriend and examines her closely. Her face was its usual regal relax look that she always had, but there was something off about her eyes that tipped him off that she was troubled by something.
“Hey,” he says as he nudges her softly, “talk to me. We’ve been together long enough that I can tell that something is up.”
She closes her eyes and breaths in the evening air, “T how long have we known each other?”
He shrugs, “Oh I figure around two hundred years or so.”
“Try two hundred twelve.”
He smiles, “You do have a good memory for things like that.” He then chuckles, “A lot has happened over the years. Including us.”
“Ye… yes.” She says softly as she turns her gaze to the ground
“Talk to me.” He nudges her again
“T we’ve been together for nearly fifty years and we’re still only mare and coltfriends. Have you ever thought as to why that is?”
“A little, but look at Clair and Illusion. They were together for a long time before they finally tied the knot.”
“But we’re not them. We’re us. I’ve kept track of every time that you’ve ever said that you loved me. Do you know how many times that you said that to me?”
He shrugs, “”I don’t know. A lot I’d figure.”
She shakes her head, “None. You’ve never once said that you loved me.”
“That can’t be right. I know that I must have said it at least once.” He says with a surprised look on his face
“Trust me it’s true. When I say that I love you you usually say something along the lines of ‘I know’ or ‘And I you’.” imitating T’s voice, “You’ve never said that you love me.”
Seeing her getting upset, he places a hand on her shoulder to help calm her down, “Hey easy now. What brought all of this on?”
She looks up at him, “T, just this one time, could you say those words. I need to hear you say that you love me. Please just this one time.”
He nods his head, “Okay.” Then looking into her eyes, “Nidrea I l….” He freezes. The word was stuck in his mouth. He shakes it off and again tries. “I l…” once more the word just wouldn’t come out.
He tries a third and a fourth time to get the word out. And from sheer frustration he slams his front legs down hard onto the ground. The impact was hard enough that the ground shook noticeably.
“GAW! Why can’t I say it? It’s just one blasted word.”
Nidra places a hoof on his cheek and turns his face so that he was looking at her. He saw that her eyes were moist and that she was ready to cry. But she looked up at him with the warmest smile that she could muster.
“Hey, it’s alright. I know why you can’t say it.”
Confused he looks at her, “What do you mean?”
She indicates her horn, which was glowing, “I’m sorry that I didn’t ask first, but I took a peak into your mind and guess what I saw there whenever you started?”
“What?” He shrugs
“I saw HER.”
Tears started to flow down his face, “I… I really thought that I moved on, that I could let her go.”
Nidra kisses his cheek, “It’s alright. You are so much like your father.” With a smile and tears she hugs him, “Can I tell you a secret?”
“You know that you can tell me anything.” He says as he hugs her back
“When Annie died, I felt like I was going to as well.”
Looks at Nidra for a moment and with a level of confusion in his voice, “But you hardly ever let something get to you. In fact I almost never seen you cry.”
“Around others yes that is true. But you know that month I took off shortly after the funeral?”
T nodded, “Yea. You had everypony worried about you.”
“I know. But I had to be alone, so I went to my private cabin and I cried for days.” Looks into T’s eyes, “Annie wasn’t just a friend or even my best friend. To me she was my sister. She took me into her heart from the start she insisted that I be a part of her life not caring for who I was or how I acted. I loved her so much that it killed me when she passed. I hurt almost as much as it hurt you, T.”
The two held each other for a few more minutes before T spoke up again, “ Nidra, what did you mean when you said that I was a lot like my dad?”
Chuckles, “Have you ever noticed your father be with anypony since your mother passed. No he has remained loyal to her to this day because of his dragon heart. I read somewhere that when a dragon finds that one thing that becomes their crown jewel of their horde.
“Once they do they hold it in a special place in their heart that nothing can replace. For your father it was your mother, and for you, being part dragon, it was Annie. Nothing will ever take her place no matter how hard they might try to.”
He hugs her tighter knowing what she meant in her last statement, “I’m sorry Nidra. I wish there was something I can do to help.”
“Like I said, it’s alright. I knew deep down that this day was coming, I just thought that I’d be wrong.” Then with a sigh she steps back and smiles up at him, “I guess being right all the time has its down side.”
He caresses her cheek, “So where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know, but could we go visit her tomorrow, there are a few things I’d like to say to her.”
“Sure. I think that Annie would love to have a visit from the two ponies that she loved the most.”
The pair start to walk back to the castle when a thought crossed T’s mind, “Um… do you think we could hold off telling my sister about this. I don’t want her to scold me for hours at a time about this.”
“Not a chance. First of all she’d expect us to be all lovey dovey during dinner, and I don’t think that would be right. And second, I could use a good laugh.” She says with a laugh
He hangs his head and chuckles, “Why do the mare’s in my life get so much enjoyment out of my suffering at the claws of my big sis.”
They laugh during their trip back.
Author's Note
A/N: This story is for a contest being held by the talented kilala97 of deviantart.com. The theme for it was this little fact about her: Nidra took Annie's death the hardest (just as much, if not more than T). She just did a better job hiding it. She had a hard time moving on despite trying to help T move on.
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