How was it possible for a pony with a broken heart to survive? Biologically speaking, that's it. He wouldn't last for a long time.
What kind of invisible wound, leaks without bleeding?
Twilight Sparkle considered herself a metaphorical mare. She could easily put down into words every sort of feeling, every kind of event, all the trouble she encountered throughout her days. She would grab a parchment and simply write, letter by letter, word by word, all the facts she could remember. Although she never considered herself a writer, Twilight never missed an opportunity to publish one of her researches to the general public.
Celestia would tenderly unfold all of her letters, smiling as she observed at distance, the fantastic progress of her recently elected princess.
But one day, in one of those literal stumbles of life, Twilight met someone. A lonely stallion from Manehattan, as he concisely explained, just visiting some old friends in the fairly unknown town of Ponyville.
He would follow his plans completely unnoticed if the princess hadn't stumbled against him in a corner, the books they carried in their bags being inevitably scattered around the sidewalk, fiction and non-fiction landing on top of each other. Nothing to worry about, just a unfortunate series of events.
"I apologize sir, I didn't mean to-" Twilight stopped, still levitating some of his books in the air. "It was my fault."
The beige-coated stallion brushed his suit with a hoof, and smiled at the princess. Something in his perplexed blue eyes sparkled inside of Twilight's mind. Maybe they knew each other? From the gala maybe?
They hardly thought so.
"Oh, please- Don't worry Princess." He bowed respectfully, giving a quick nod with his head. "These things happen, after all." He chuckled.
With sheer politeness, the stallion gathered his books and placed them back into his dark saddlebag. Twilight stood in the corner, right where they had bumped against each other a few seconds before. She curiously stared at him. The princess couldn't say for sure, but something had fired inside her chest. She would never admit it, though.
"Yes... They happen." She smiled awkwardly, unconsciously trying to adjust her mane.
"I'm from Manehattan, just here to visit a couple of mates." He said, sealing his saddlebag with a silver brooch. "Please send my humble good wishes to the princesses." With another short bow, the unknown stallion walked away down the streets of Ponyville, disappearing into a crooked road.
The alicorn princess felt a bizarre urge to follow him, to learn about him, to meet him. But she wouldn't. Twilight had a lot of things to do, she couldn't waste her time like Pinkie Pie would.
What was this feeling, this odd warmth, that consumed her heart?
How could an irrelevant act of happenstance, literally a stumble, cause this... this 'thing'. Twilight found no words to describe. She slowly made her way back to the Friendship Castle, chewing thoughts inside her little mind.
Love at first sight? That was fairy tale thing.
Twilight had no time for love. How ridiculous would it be to fall in love for a stranger. Maybe Cadance would know better what do to, but of course she wouldn't bother her. Twilight just bothered ponies when it was extremely necessary, or back then when she was dumb as a rock.
After throwing her books over a table, Twilight threw herself over her bed, letting out a long, and bemused sigh. There would be no reading that afternoon, only a long night of sleep. 'That will fix everything' - she said to herself.
It was a very long autumn. Unusually long.
Twilight would wake up every day and get ready for a morning walk around the park, only for the sake of stretching her hooves, and refreshing her lungs. Books only exercised her mind - her muscles needed more.
It was a funny crunchy feeling under her hooves, almost a tickle. The dry leaves covered the avenues in a layer of brown, red and yellow, as if a sun-bleached rainbow had landed over the lands of Equestria.
Also bleached was her heart.
Through this long fall, the princess fell inside herself. She fell like the leaves, crumbled like a dead tree. There was something wrong with her, and she couldn't find the cure.
The cure had walked away a season ago, and by this time, had probably vanished into the crowded streets of Manehattan. There were things an alicorn was unable to do, and finding a single unicorn amidst the crowd wasn't one of her skills.
It was impossible not to admit, when the last leaves of the forest landed in front of her, that she missed the unknown stallion.
She hated that feeling, hated being nailed down. Those nails were deeply buried inside her heart, and the warmth she felt when she stumbled against him for the first time, had turned into a fire, which in consequence turned into burns - and would eventually turn into ashes.
Pain was a very peculiar thing.
Twilight refused to accept that it was pain burning her heart to the core. It was impossible to burn part of your soul, impossible without a very powerful form of dark magic.
And a stumble wasn't enough to cast such a spell.
Her nostalgia was magnified by the lack of physical contact. She had no evidences, she had nothing. That unknown beige stallion would never think about her, maybe as the unreachable princess in the tower, but not as the broken pony she had become.
Twilight pushed some leaves aside, having a seat on a nearby bench. She had brought with her some blank parchments and a quill. The wind carried her mane away, and flapped the pages of her papers.
Breathing in and out, Twilight scribbled down the only words that reached her mind at that moment.
'I came to realize,
That it is better to feel meaningless pain,
Than nothing at all.
For the first time,
I want something I can never have.'
