You Have A Choice, Remember?
The town was uncharacteristically quiet this evening. No mares or stallions seemed to be out and about in the early hours of the night. Save for one lone alicorn, standing as still and solemn as the village around her. The sky cried out a blood red from its peak, fading into yellow as it came down to the harsh earth. The aura emanating from the sun intensified as it began its dip out of sight of the world; casting its few remaining rays of light upon the still town.
The light penetrated through the town leading up to where she stood; the concave shape of the surrounding houses focusing the light on the motionless back of the purple alicorn. The ground beneath her darkened; the once imposing shadow she displayed across the earth fading ever so slightly. Not that Princess Twilight really cared to see it. She was quite content enough in her sorrow to allow her eyelids to lift and droop as they pleased. At this moment, she was happy enough for anything to happen to her as she was too sad to let it bother her.
Even if she were to take a gander at the sorrow-inducing thing in front of her, Twilight already had the scene in front of her mapped out. A barren patch of earth, void of any green or colour and a slab of rock stagnating in the ground. There would be five bouquets of flowers, freshly handpicked from earlier today – each consisting of a different colour of flower pigment. The girls had been so nice as to honour one of their dearest friends in that fashion. They had already parted previously, but the princess wanted to stay with her. She wouldn’t leave her.
A sudden disturbance prompted Twilight to open her eyes fully, causing her to take in the reality of the image inside her head. She gritted her teeth as her eyes began to water. Attempting to stifle a whimper, the purple alicorn chose to spoke.
“Oh Dashie. My D-D-Dashie. Why did…why did she have to go?”
She choked on her words as they escaped her lips. She had been one of her first friends in Ponyville; and one she saw most every day since they met. Almost every morning, she had awoke to her warm embrace, her unique charm and accommodating personality. Sure, she had trouble written all over her at times; a few made messes here and there, and a big headed attitude to caput. But she was still some of the closest family she had had. And now she was gone. Just gone.
“Why?! Why did this have to happen?” Twilight cried softly. “Why, Dashie?! Why?!”
Tears ran down her cheeks and soaked the bone dry ground under her. Grunts of annoyance made it past the white enclosed barrier that her teeth created. The pent of frustration and anger in her mind was about to let loose with full force. Her eyebrows began to narrow and her wings tensed up in preparation for what was to come.
And then, her eyes shot open and she primed herself. “It’s not fair! IT’S NOT-”
The princess’s fury died mid-scream as a touch on the back of her neck made her flinch. She sighed and just as quickly resumed her initial whimpering; now feeling even more miserable after having lost herself in front of her marefriend.
“Oh, Dashie…sniffle…I’m sorry. I…just…I-”
“Don’t be sorry, Twi,” interrupted the voice behind her. The pegasus tightened her wing around the desolate alicorn. “It is unfair. I’m gonna miss her a whole lot too.”
Twilight ceased her whimpering for a moment as the fur on Rainbow’s cheek nuzzled against her own. She could smell the sweet scent her rainbow mane produced. It still smelt as wonderful as it had been on the day they spent their first ever evening together with her. All that time ago when Twilight was just a studious unicorn, blind to the magic of friendship and who, together with Rainbow and the help of her other friends, managed to defeat the many villains and obstacles that they encountered. And she would have always helped Twilight and her friends when they needed it most. But no more.
Another flood burst out of Twilight and she dug her face into the nook of Rainbow’s neck. The pegasus obligingly cradled her marefriend’s head.
“It’s ok, Twi,” Rainbow continued empathically. “Take as long as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”
A small laugh managed to come out between Twilight’s intermittent sobbing. She was gladdened by Rainbow’s support and she wouldn’t trade her for anything in this moment. Rainbow was without any doubt an integral part of her family now; a family which was getting smaller all the time. With Spike having ambitions of his own now, it wouldn’t be long before he would eventually leave to pursue his destiny; and now with her gone, she-
…
Rainbow was all the young princess had now. And it made her sad all the same.
“But Rainbow…sniffle…nothing will ever be the same now that she’s gone. She was the one who brought us together…whimper…, remember?”
“How could I forget?” Rainbow replied jovially, trying to lighten the mood. “If I hadn’t tripped on that stray piece of bark that night after the gala and tumbled on top of you, we would never have slowly moved are lips together and shared in that spontaneous first kiss.”
“And after that night, I knew that I would love you as more than just a friend. And it was all thanks to her. I know that sounds all mushy, so don’t tell anyone ok?”
This time, Twilight’s giggle was very clear and the tears stopped in their tracks. The mere thought of being happy didn’t seem like such a fantasy anymore. Her cyan marefriend had stayed true to her element to the bitter end; especially to the extent that she’d waste her time with a sorrowful wreck like Twilight. She knew that Rainbow Dash was more than capable of making her feel happy and loved.
But it just wouldn’t be the same again.
Before long, the sun was beginning to dip over the horizon and the faint outline of the stars came into the alicorn’s view. She shifted her head out of the cranny under Rainbow’s neck to gaze up at them. Twilight recalled looking through the telescope of the library as her way of winding down after another day’s hardship of defeating an enemy or, perhaps less stressing, learning a new friendship lesson.
Sitting down on her haunches, Twilight let her purple tail have a make out session with Rainbow’s tail as she continued to ogle the twilight sky. There was something clever in the way the princess studied the sky – each star reminded her of a different memory that Rainbow and Twilight spent in the company of her. Looking at the array of anecdotes to choose from, Twilight settled on one.
“You know,” Twilight started. Her tone had become a lot more cheerful, with still a tinge of remorse catching in her throat. “I still don’t understand why you thought reading was for eggheads. Not that there’s anything wrong with being an egghead, mind you.” Twilight chuckled softly and swiftly continued.
“Dismissing it wasn’t as easy as it seemed, was it? Having nothing to do in that hospital bed would make anypony do almost anything to pass the time. You still remember that?”
“Hehe…yeah,” Rainbow admitted, blushing hard at the embarrassing memory. “I was sort of a hypocrite for keeping on the act that I disliked reading when I secretly did.”
“I…” Twilight made to say something, but her passion was extinguished suddenly. Naturally, Rainbow scooted closer to her marefriend, in an effort to comfort her. Twilight’s cheeks reddened at Rainbow’s increased proximity to her.
“I kept on thinking that my love of reading would be a hindrance in our relationship with you cringing at even the thought of a book. I often worried if it would spell the end of us someday; I lived in a tree full of books, for crying out loud.”
She paused and turned to Rainbow, who gave her a gentle smile to indicate her willingness to hear the rest of the story.
“But that day when you came by wanting the other Daring Do volumes from me, I just…I really couldn’t believe my ears. Dashie actually likes books? Part of me wanted to suggest that it was only going to be a matter of time before you succumbed to their temptations anyway, haha. It was just amazing that I was now able to share an integral part of me with you.”
Faster than Rainbow Dash could register, Twilight eased herself forward and planted a kiss on the pegasus’s mouth. She stayed there for a few seconds before retreating back, giggling at the flush of crimson that Rainbow’s cheeks were now producing.
“And I loved you all the more for it. And I still do. I love you, Dashie.”
The blush on rainbow Dash’s face disappeared and Twilight felt her muscle-toned wing strengthen its embrace around her body. “I love you too, Twi.”
The two continued to look at each other adoringly until Twilight’s ears began to droop as well as her head and the rest of her too.
“But…I’m not sure I know who I am anymore.” Twilight turned her head away.
“That’s easy. You’re the princess of friendship!” Rainbow butted in, in a way that seemed cocky but more for the alicorn’s ego.
“And how was it that I began to learn about the magic of friendship in the first place?” the princess replied sadly.
Rainbow’s confident smile disappeared, her silence noted quite clearly by the alicorn.
“Librarian. That has been my role ever since I first came here. It was my role before I even stepped hoof in Ponyville. It was the job I studied for, the job I know…”
“And the one I knew.” Small whimpers began to once again spring out of Twilight’s degrading cheerfulness.
“Everything, Dashie. Everything I learned and shared with you and the girls happened in the hollow of that oak tree. My home. How can I go on without the very thing that gave me all those great experiences? How can I call myself a princess if I can’t protect those that matter to me? I almost lost you girls too.”
Twilight sobbed for a moment, relieving her face of some pent-up emotion.
“Twi, look at me.” Twilight heard her marefriend say. She turned her head willingly to gaze upon Rainbow’s concerned face; there was a touch of sincerity to it as well.
“Look, Twi, you know I’m not great at pep talks when it comes this sort of thing. I mean, I’m pretty awesome at pep talks most of the time.” Rainbow shook her head and put on an apologetic face after a moment of bragging weakness. “I’m sorry, Twi. What I mean to say is, I’m not sure how much help I can really be here. After all, this is between you and her and I can’t be sure that anything I will say will change any of it.”
Her expression took a more serious tone.
“But, don’t let the library define who you are. Everypony in Equestria is shaped by their experiences. Heck, I wouldn’t have got so good at flying if it weren’t for a young filly pegasus with ambitions of racing through the clouds at rainbow sonic speed. Which is pretty awesome, I might add.”
“I may miss the young filly I once was but I can’t ever go back. And that’s life. Life happens, things change, and ponies move on. New things replace what used to be. And now you have a castle fit for a princess. Your life hasn’t changed for the worse, Twi.”
The purple alicorn remained silent but her face had brightened up to the point where she was listening intently to all of Rainbow’s words. To Twilight’s surprise, the pegasus nuzzled her gently before continuing.
“I love you, Twi. And I didn’t begin to love you because you were the princess’s prized student or because you had all the Daring Do books. I love you because I choose to love you. I choose to love you for your witty and cute personality as you obsess over every little detail on your reports. And that nice flank has a hard time of getting out of my mind. Wow, this is already sounding uber mushy.”
Twilight laughed at that. “Yeah, it is. But I like it. And I really can’t deny the meaning of your words.”
Twilight sighed and looked over at the grave dug out in front of the cremated stump that was the Ponyville Library. She didn’t feel much like crying anymore at the sight of it but tears fell regardless when she twisted her head back to Rainbow.
“I don’t know what to say, Dashie. You make me so happy, I…I can’t be sad anymore. Thank y-you.”
Rainbow smiled. “Don’t mention it, Twi. After all, it was you that taught me that.”
“Taught you what?”
“Our friendships are not tailored by who we are, or what we have, Twi. It is our choices.”
Author's Note
A nice little heartwarming fic. Been meaning to do a TwiDash fic for some time, let me know what you think.
