Airplanes in the Night Sky
Just two more blocks now. He could still make it. He had to make it. “Twilight!” Mordecai shouted. “Wait!” Panting with every breath of his anthropomorphic blue jay body, he rushed down the street, narrowly avoiding several cars whose drivers greeted him with honks as he passed them in the dim light of streetlamps. “Twilight!”
He didn’t know if she could hear him, but he had to keep going. One more block now. “Twilight!” he shouted as he neared the long alley where the portal had first opened all those months ago and was now due to close any moment. Slowing his sprint, he turned into the alley and was greeted with the tear-drenched face of his beloved. Twilight, an alicorn pony, was standing at the end of the alley in front of a nondescript brick wall and looking at a watch affixed to one of her forelegs. Realizing he had caught up to her, she looked up.
“I’m sorry,” she said, tears still running down her cheeks. “But...I have to go. They...they need me over there. And I can’t...I just…I...” More tears fell and she turned her head away in sadness. Mordecai hesitated for a moment, then began walking slowly toward her.
Twilight took a deep breath and looked up again. “I’m...I’m sorry for not telling you sooner,” she forced out. “I’ve known for a while that the portal would be closing soon, but I just...I didn’t want that spectre hanging over our heads. I couldn’t say goodbye.”
“Then don’t,” Mordecai said as he reached her, putting a wing under her chin to raise her face to his own. “I’ll come with you.”
Twilight gazed deeply into his eyes for a moment and then pulled away. “You know you can’t do that,” she said. “This kind of portal only works for ponies. The spell was made that way so that no one from another world could fall through it by mistake while it was open. But if only I had known that I would meet you here, maybe I could have…I could have...”
There was a sound of running footsteps from the end of the alley, and a sound of heavy breathing. Twilight and Mordecai looked back to see who was there.
“I’ve got it!” said Rigby, an anthropomorphic raccoon. He held up a red keyboard. “I have...THE POWER!”
Mordecai grinned and did a fist pump with one of his wings. “Yes! You did it, dude!”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Rigby asked. There was a pause for a moment. “Wait, don’t answer that.” He walked over to the couple and handed Mordecai the keyboard.
“But that’s just a keyboard,” Twilight said in confusion, her tears momentarily slowing due to the distraction.
“Not just a keyboard,” Mordecai said. “Remember that story I told you about all those things getting sent to the Moon and stuff?” Mordecai said.
“Oh, that keyboard! The one with the magic! Of course!” Twilight said. “Do you really think…?” Her tail twitched and she seemed to perk up a bit.
“It’s worth a shot,” Mordecai said.
“Well, then...I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone,” Rigby said and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Mordecai said. “If this works, we might not see each other again for a while. Or maybe even...ever.”
Rigby sighed. “I know, dude. But I can’t hold you back. I’ve seen you with Margaret, and with CJ, and now with Twilight, and this time it’s just like...she’s the one. You know? You two are perfect together. A truly eggscellent couple.” He winked. Mordecai and Twilight looked at each other and smiled.
“Well...maybe you could come, too?” Mordecai said, looking back at Rigby.
There was a pause as Rigby seemed to think for a moment.. “Nah, I can’t,” he finally said. “Eileen is here, and there’s the park, and Benson. I mean, who would Benson have to yell at if we were both gone?” Rigby said.
There was another pause, and then Mordecai gave a sad smile. “I’m really going to miss you, dude,” he said.
“Me, too,” Rigby said. He had been holding back up until this point, but his eyes were now sparkling wet.
“See you on the other side,” Mordecai said. “Or, well, not on the other side. But you know what I mean.”
“See you on the other side,” Rigby said. And he left the alley.
Mordecai sighed, turned back to Twilight, and smiled. “Okay, let’s do this. How much time do we have left?”
“Around...ten minutes,” Twilight said, checking her watch.
“Right,” Mordecai said. “That’s plenty of time.” He positioned his wings on the keyboard, took a deep breath, and spoke, playing the keys at the same time and trying to use a similar rhythm to his speech and musicianship to that which Rigby said he had used when sending things to the Moon. “My name is Mor-de-cai, Let me through the por-tal!”
Nothing happened.
“Did...did it work?” Twilight asked, her tone eager even as she tried to keep her hopes in check.
“Let’s see,” Mordecai said. Setting the keyboard on the ground, he raised a wing to the wall and pressed it. Nothing happened. Frowning, he tapped several other places on the wall, then flung his whole body at it. Nothing. Twilight’s face fell.
“Um…” Mordecai picked up the keyboard. “My name is Mor-de-cai, Send me through the por-tal!” Nothing obvious changed. He tapped the wall and flung his body at it again, but nothing happened.
“No, this has to work!” Mordecai said. “Please work...please work!” He frantically ran through several different iterations of similar phrases, even trying in vain to turn himself into a pony, but none had any discernible effect.
“Maybe...maybe I have to go at the same time as you! Of course! That’s sure to work! Let’s try it!” Mordecai said, nervous laughter behind his words. He took Twilight’s hoof in a wing and reached for the wall. The moment their appendages touched the wall, Mordecai’s was halted, while Twilight’s slipped right through. She pulled it back out. They tried again, and the same thing happened again. Then one more time with the same result.
“No, no, no!” Mordecai said, finally accepting against his will that the magic of The Power and the magic of the portal must be incompatible with each other. He nearly smashed the keyboard in rage and grief, but stopped himself and simply let it slip from his grip instead, allowing it to fall in a less destructive manner. He slumped to the ground, burying his head in his wings. “It’s over, isn’t it?” he said sadly, tears now coming to his own eyes.
Twilight took a step closer and wrapped a wing around him, her own tears having restarted as it had become clear that The Power wasn’t going to help after all. “It’s not over,” she said. “We’ll find a way. A portal like this can only be made once every thousand moons, but that’s just what the scrolls say. To Tartarus with the scrolls!” Mordecai raised an eyebrow, surprised by this rhetoric. “I’ll spend all my free time researching ways to do it faster. Or I’ll find a different way. It’s not over!”
Mordecai stood up. “It’s not over,” Mordecai said, his voice newly determined. “Maybe The Power didn’t work, but I’ll find something else. There’s got to be something. I’ll search the whole world if I have to! I will find a way to Equestria and I will see you again!” He paused, then asked in a quieter tone, “How much time is left?”
“Just a few more minutes,” Twilight said.
“Just a few more minutes,” Mordecai repeated quietly. “Wow...um…”
“I’m sorry!” Twilight said, placing her forelegs in Mordecai’s wings and gazing into his eyes. “I’m sorry we didn’t have more time to say goodbye!” she cried. "I shouldn’t have sprung this on you so suddenly. And I should have told you about it, not just left a note for you to see when you got home. I guess even now I’m still learning friendship lessons, or...hmm…” She smirked. “Should I say...girlfriendship lessons?” Mordecai smirked back. “Dear Princess Celestia, today I…”
Mordecai cut her off with a kiss, which Twilight gladly reciprocated, her eyelids first rising in surprise and then lowering in pleasure. His beak and her muzzle meshed in harmony, the beak somehow seeming warmer and more flexible on the end than might have been expected from a glance. The kiss lasted for a long moment and then Twilight broke away to look at the watch again.
“Two more minutes,” she said.
“Do you remember how we met?” Mordecai asked.
“Of course,” Twilight said. “How could I forget? We stopped Queen Chrysalis together!”
“Yes...the changeling ponies,” Mordecai said. “Remember how I thought they were pod people at first? Aliens? Everyone was acting so weird.”
“Well, you weren’t all that far off,” Twilight said with a small laugh, her tears drying a little as she recalled the memory.
“That’s how this portal first came to be here, right? Chrysalis stole the spell to try to take over my dimension after she lost in yours?” Mordecai said, though he already knew the answer.
“Yes,” Twilight said. “And once we defeated her, I just knew I wanted to stay here with you as long as I could. In a funny way, I suppose we even have to...thank her.”
Mordecai chuckled. “I suppose we do.”
Twilight looked at her watch again. “One minute.”
A moment of silence. “They need me over there,” Twilight finally said. “I’m one of the only alicorns there is, and my friends and I have already saved our world so many times. I can't abandon them."
“I know,” Mordecai said softly.
They gazed into each other’s eyes again for a long moment, then Mordecai wrapped his wings around Twilight and she wrapped her forelegs around him. “I love you,” Mordecai said.
“I love you, too,” Twilight said. They kissed for just a moment, then broke away from each other, tears streaming down each of their faces.
“I…” Mordecai started.
Twilight looked at her watch but didn’t relay the time. “It’s not over,” she said with a look of determination.
“It’s not over,” Mordecai repeated.
Twilight sighed one last time. Then with a silent nod and a deep breath, she plunged into the wall and disappeared.
With Mordecai in his world and Twilight in hers, the lovers slumped down in tears against the walls which had until moments earlier featured the portal between worlds. Each looking up in the night sky, Mordecai saw an airplane passing overhead, and Twilight saw a pegasus...which, after her time in Mordecai’s world, made her think of airplanes.
“What if airplanes in the night sky were like shooting stars?” they unknowingly thought in unison. “I'd only have one wish to make right now. Just one wish." And they made that wish.
Unfortunately, but to neither’s surprise, nothing happened.
They wished, and they sighed, and they reminisced, but airplanes were airplanes and pegasi were pegasi. Even the most fervent wishes in all the worlds couldn’t change that.
But it wasn’t over.
These star-crossed lovers would find a way.
The End
Author's Note
I would have used the actual phrasing of the meme toward the end, but thought it might break the "don't use copyrighted song lyrics" rule. Hopefully the alternative here still works well enough!
