Dream of Me

    The sun was just on the horizon, bobbing like a a blazing cork over the mountains, halfway sunken and fiery, but no one had drawn the curtains, nor lit the lanterns. The last dregs of orange light made the trees and paving and brush outside look like it was burning, reflecting like liquid flame off of the glass of the window. A bit of that last sunset light leaked in and bathed the room in fire, glowing off of the dark, quiet wooden furniture and setting both the outside and in in sweet incendium.

     Rainbow Dash quite liked the light at the eaves of night; she reveled in that soft glow, a cat in a puddle of sun. She liked the color it cast on everything in the house, and how it reminded her of life and jolly feelings and practically warmed her just looking at it. If the pegasus had to choose a favorite time of day, it might have been high noon when the sky was blue and crisp in her youth, but now it was certainly this time, right before sundown, swimming in that pond of orange fire-light.

      Then again, as Rainbow recalled, there were several reasons apart from that as to why now may be her favorite time of the day.

     "Are you coming soon, Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow heard a so very familiar voice call from the next room, ladylike but sweet, faded a bit with years, but still that voice she had always known and drifted to.

     The cyan mare called back over her shoulder. "Just a minute, Twilight, be right there." She heard the paper ruffle of a book cracking open and a unicorn rifling through the pages and knew that she had bought herself maybe a minute or two or twenty; when Twilight Sparkle opened a book, time wouldn't matter if it passed in seconds or years.

     Rainbow Dash turned back to the mirror. She appreciated how long this mirror has hung here, uncracked and well-kept as a whole, but such was living with the most kept unicorn Equestria had forged. Rainbow Dash smiled, her eyes aching a little with sadness and the faintest longing; everything here was the same as she had remembered it after all this time, down to the mirror. In truth, all that had changed was the reflection that looked back at her. If only just a little.

     A quick flick of her hair, admittedly slower than it used to be, parted Rainbow's colors nicely, but quickly drifted back into her eyes. She chuckled and pushed them back with her own hoof as she had done more and more as of late, pinning her thinned hair behind her ears. As Rainbow replaced her hoof on the marbled countertop, she marveled for the first time in a long time at how different she looked, how the colors in her mane had grayed a bit, but, as she reminded herself, no more than a rainbow in a fog.

     It took a moment for the water to creep up the pipes, but once it did, the pegasus wet her hooves in the trickle and lifted them to her face, patting them over her cheeks, matting her blue coat slightly. It was nice, cool, refreshing; Rainbow Dash had made it routine to splash her face with a bit of water before bed, enjoying the droplets that beaded up and left clear streaks as they rolled down from her lashes.

     She crinkled her nose and flicked her ears, closing her eyes in the mist. Once dry, Rainbow Dash peeked around the doorway at the unicorn still buried snout-deep in her volume and returned to her reflected self. The mare winked and grinned, and her reflection winked back, looking a bit more tired than she felt. "Still looking good, Dash."

      "Oh, are you done?" Twilight emerged from her words, blinking up at her partner like a hermit from under a rock. She scooted over, crumpling the sheets as Dash slid in, the wooden bed squeaking a bit at the added weight. Twilight reached to replace her book handy and grab-able on her bedside, and turned back to her mare.

     "Yeah, sorry it took a little bit, Twi." Dash apologized, before huffing with quiet laughter. Twilight blinked again, befuddled.

     "What?"

    "You're still wearing your reading glasses."

     The unicorn went comically cross-eyed, trying to catch sight of the spindly spectacles on her bridge. "Oh, pssh, silly me, let me get those..." She fidgeted her constantly trembling hooves, unable to get a grasp on the delicate lenses, knocking them off and onto the covers. "S-sorry, if I can just-"

     The glasses slipped between her quavering grasp like they were made of ice. Twilight grew more frustrated and frantic as she bit her lip, fumbling with the frames until they snapped apart under her hooves, lying in two, still on the covers.

     The unicorn drew her trembling hooves to her like a child, squeezing her eyes shut and looking as though she were about to cry. Rainbow Dash took the pieces in her steadier hooves, putting them gently on her own bedside.

     "Don't worry, Twi," she spoke, gently and quietly, "You'll get it perfectly next time. I'll take 'em to town tomorrow, don't worry..." Her voice was soothing to Twilight like a salve.

     Twilight lifted a hoof and shakily wiped her eye with the back, shaking her head. "N-no, you and I know it's not going to get better, Rainbow Dash." Her voice beat Dash's heart like a gong. "It's not."

    "Shhh, don't talk like that." Rainbow grasped both of her mare's hooves and held them close. Twilight's sad purple eyes met sympathetic cerise ones.

     "But you know that it's the truth. Without m-my magic, and now this trembling, I just-I just-" Her voice broke, shattering to pieces and dripping out of her worn eyes in a tear. "I'm no good anymore."

     Rainbow Dash hated to see the mare she loved like this, so run down and purposeless; it broke her heart and she had to do something, anything. "No, no, come here Twi. Scootch in." She motioned warmly, allowing the unicorn to rest her quavering head against her chest.

     Rainbow continued, resting her hooves over Twilight's. "Sometimes magic just fades in some ponies when they get older, it just happens. I just need you to remember something, Twilight, for me." She rested her cheek on top of the blue mane, snuggling in her scent. "You're always good, you're always worth something. You're worth the world to me."

     Twilight tucked her chin to her chest. "Really?"

    "Always."

     The unicorn replaced her head against her mare and best friend, her mane sprawling over the cyan coat. Dash absently played with it, running her hoof over and through the silken yet faded strands, before an idea came to her with another stroke.

     The pegasus adjusted, stretching to open and fumble through the bedstand drawer, pushing away heaps of forgotten quills and scraps of yellowing parchment scribbled with lost memories to find an object more lost and forgotten than any of the rest.

     Twilight was still, her head rising and falling with Rainbow's breathing and erratic movements as she rummaged, before finally settling. The unicorn felt something touch her head, scrape gently and carefully over her scalp. She opened her eyes, suddenly alight with surprise and nostalgia.

     "It's... It's been a long time..."

     Rainbow nodded, knowing Twilight was unable to see her do so  and kept combing, running the piece through the blue strands. "I... know."

     Neither said anything further as Dash raked through Twilight's hair, gently separating the smooth strands until they cascaded over her hoof like a waterfall. The light from the rising moon -the sun had set long ago, they had only failed to notice- shone over the straight mane, reflecting the blue hue with the gray time had faded it into. Rainbow Dash held her breath, watching the long and lovely hair swing over her hoof and under the comb; aged, graying, yet timelessly beautiful.

     It had truly been so long, so long since Dash had felt that soft mane, since she had let it drape over her, whether it be under her comb or shrouding a kiss. So long, in fact, that she had slowly begun to forget what it looked like in its full, youthful glory, remembering it only as a sheet of blue-gray and seeing the original rich navy color as a foggy, distant memory. Even as she tried, Rainbow Dash could not see it now.

     And it broke her.

     "I'm sorry, Twilight."

     Twilight moved slightly, looking at Dash behind her from the edges of her eyes. "For what?"

     Dash's hoof kept moving the comb, but her mind was elsewhere, her downcast eyes hardly seeing. "I should have done this every day." She sighed. "There's so much more I should have done. I'm really sorry, Twilight"

     A tear born from the lump in her throat fell onto Twilight's mane, but Rainbow Dash was quick to comb it away. She closed her eyes and continued to comb, even softer; every strand felt like a missed memory as it glided over her hoof.

     Finally, Twilight's voice broke through the choking silence, and Rainbow Dash felt a potent mix of relief and dread at her first words.

       "Rainbow Dash..." The words strung through the mare's ears as she held onto her breath with death's clutches.

     "It doesn't matter, you're here now."

     Relief flooded the pegasus, a trickle that was quickly chased away by a torrent of something even more powerful, that seared her insides like an acid. Shame spread through Dash, and she knew then, like it always been bothering her, how much she had denied Twilight, who had deserved her whole life and the next, of.

     "It does matter. I should have been there always, especially after I hurt you." Just the memory was so caustic to the pegasus's mind that it sickened her.

     Twilight shifted and Dash's hoof with the comb fell limp onto the cover; somewhere, she had stopped combing anyway. The unicorn turned to face her partner, leaning to down to try to catch the cerise eyes that were staring holes into her lap.

     "Rainbow Dash, please listen," She had told this story so many times, more than she could or wanted to count, and she would tell it again. "You didn't hurt me, it wasn't your fault. What happened then was an..." A deep breath. "...accident. That's all it was."

    The pegasus did not meet her gaze, her voice cracking as she spoke. "I-If I was there, I could have c-caught you and-"

    "No, Rainbow. Please, I'm here now." Twilight spoke, her voice teetering to the edge of pleading.

     Rainbow Dash's shoulders began to tremble, silent, closed sobs rising from the pit of her stomach. Guilt. Anger at herself. Leftover pain from the years she had never forgotten.

     Shame.

     "What about after? I got you back, I got you back..." Dash repeated, the words still like a miracle to fall from her lips. "And I should have given you everything, all the time, but I didn't, I didn't, and...and..."

     She finally tore her eyes from her lap and met Twilight's wide purple orbs. The unicorn kept their gazes locked, watching the soul of the mare she loved run down her cheeks.

     "I-I didn't...I forgot...It was like nothing changed, Twilight, I'm so sorry..."

    Twilight rested her hoof under Dash's chine, pulling her head up once more. Her voice came in a whisper, aged but true. "Rainbow Dash, we might have drifted apart a little over the years, but you're with me now."

     She leaned forward, touching their foreheads together, cradling Rainbow Dash's shuddering form with her own quaking hooves, whispering to her.

     "I'm with you."

     Rainbow Dash felt the most wracking mix of emotions flow through her and ebb away, wrapped up in the most wracking memories. How she almost lost Twilight, how it was a miracle she had her again, how she vowed everything would change after that.

     How she lost herself along the way, drawn by the glitter of fame and fortune, torn away from the one she loved. How many years had to pass for Rainbow Dash to return home, and return to Twilight. How her wings had started to deteriorate and become brittle and how Twilight's magic had started to fade. How many wrinkles had appeared under her eyes and how her colors had started to melt away. How many years she had forgot to count.

     How many times she had missed combing Twilight's hair.

     How many seconds it took to realize, right now, that her best friend and the mare she loved more than life was in her hooves.

     "I'm sorry." Rainbow Dash apologized again. She had so much to apologize for.

     Twilight held the sides on the mare's face in her trembling hooves, her eyes searching. "Rainbow Dash, I love you, and I always have. I do not regret anything. I do not regret the time I spent with you, I do not regret falling in love with you. I do not care if my magic disappears completely and my horn crumbles and I can never pick up another thing in my life. I don't care if all my hair falls out and all my teeth fall out and all I have left is to sit on the porch with you, the both of us bald and helpless and laughing at each other. I will not regret any of that. The only thing I regret, Rainbow Dash-"

      She paused, focusing on the pink eyes, staring farther into Rainbow Dash like only she ever could.

     "The only thing I regret are all those seconds I didn't spend by your side."

     Rainbow Dash sunk into her, burying her snout into her shoulder and crying all those tears she had left behind. Twilight stroked her hair from the back, laying out the fading colors and resting her cheek against her love.

     Moments passed, or years. Neither would have known.

     Rainbow Dash pulled away finally. "I love you so much."

     She didn't have to say anything more.

     Twilight crawled up and the two sank back under the covers, two pillows on the bed but only needing one. The unicorn lay her head against the pegasus, and the pegasus wrapped her hoof around the unicorn, and neither spoke.

     The sun had long since vanished, the world was long since still, the clouds had long since drifted into the blue horizon. The light that had washed over everything had waned, orange replaced with silver. The moon begged the light of the sun the next day, and the moon again after that, and the sun again after that.

     The two mares lay, together, finally, after sun and moon and sun and moon. They were still, but not exhausted. Quiet, but not distant. Time rolled on.

     Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes.

     Shortly after, as did Rainbow Dash.