Winter was Twilight's favorite season. Sure, throughout her millennia of life, she'd learned to love all the seasons. The sense of new beginnings in Spring, the laughter of foals in the Summer, the beautiful leaves in Autumn. None of that quite compared to the peace that invaded during the winter. Sure, there were lively activities she would occasionally partake in, such as sledding, skiing, or the occasional snowball fight, but not even a day filled with all of these could keep the serenity out for more than a few hours.
It also helped that the perfect weather exclusively happened during the wintertime. Two or three times a century, the perfect winter night would come along. The temperature just below freezing, so that nothing more than a scarf was needed to keep warm. The clouds backlit by a full moon to help aid in visibility. A thick layer of snow on the ground to dampen sounds and reflect the diffuse moonlight. Large, fluffy snowflakes drifting lazily down from above.
There was no competition, in Twilight's eyes, between nights like these and anything else. No other set of atmospheric conditions even came close to how much she loved them. Twilight and her wife never let nights like these go to waste. They checked the weather schedule so often during the winter that it bordered on religiosity. Whenever they spotted an upcoming perfect night, they canceled any and all prior plans they might have had for the night and-
"Princess, are you still with us?"
Twilight blinked. She had zoned out again. She had a bad habit of losing herself in her thoughts whenever a perfect night was approaching.
"My apologies, I was merely double checking the math in my head. Rewriting the tax code is never an easy task, no matter how many dozens of times you do it," Twilight said. As much as she enjoyed perfect nights, she could never let anyone but her immortal friends know just how much she enjoyed them. Their rarity was what helped them maintain their magic, even if she'd been through hundreds of them by now. She just couldn't trust that her little ponies wouldn't try to schedule them more often as a way to gain favor with her, and let their frequency reduce them to mundanity.
Twilight forced herself off that train of thought. She could spend days thinking of perfect nights and not run out of things she loved about them. Her thoughts turned back to the discussion at hand. The pony in front of her was yet another wealthy pony asking for more tax cuts for the upper class. She sighed internally. No matter how many hundreds of generations passed, there was never a shortage of rich ponies to advocate for policies that benefited themselves at the expense of everypony else. "I'm not sure that the proposals you are making will lead to the outcomes you seem to think they will..."
With her thoughts finally focussed back on the here and now, Twilight found it much easier to actively listen to the pony. After all, there would be plenty of time to think of the upcoming perfect night in the week between now and then.
"Since nopony else has anything left to add, I declare this session of parliament complete. We will reconvene again tomorrow at nine o'clock sharp."
Twilight watched as the various ponies mozied out of what used to be the throne room. She had long since had the throne taken out in favor of a simple cushion. She never liked being perceived as some omnipotent deity, above the masses of ponykind. She was much more comfortable being just another pony at the table, even if she was by far the wisest and most respected.
Once the door closed behind the last pair of politicians, Twilight stood up and stretched out her legs, back, and neck. Celestia always said she looked like a puppy after waking up from a nap whenever she did that in front of her wife. Twilight didn't mind. If her wife thought that something she did was cute, even after so long, that was a win in her book. Not that their marriage was becoming dull, far from it. Still, it was nice to be reminded that their marriage held the spark of love and romance even after all this time.
Walking through the back door to the parliamentary chamber, she forced her steps to remain even. Her face was just as calm and serene as it always was. Her breathing was the exact pace it was after every session of parliament. This, of course, was all a mask to conceal her true feelings. How she had the strength to fight the urge to break into an all out sprint was a mystery even to her.
She made her way through the castle hallways until she finally reached the cafeteria. Looking around she saw guards, senators, janitors, ambassadors, ponies, griffons, changelings, even a young dragon or two, all eating and sharing in the breaking of bread together. Seeing so many different creatures of such varying personalities dining together never failed to bring a smile to her face, not even once. It was perhaps the main reason she stopped eating in her private dining room all those centuries ago. No amount of privacy could ever match how happy she was to eat surrounded by friends sharing meals together.
Scanning the crowd one more time, she finally saw Celestia conversing with one of the officers of the guard. She allowed herself a small chuckle. Her wife may have been the sole governor of Equestria for a thousand years, but her true passion was always on the battlefield. These days, however, that was mostly put to use with frequent tabletop strategy games with some of the higher ranking members of the the guard, as opposed to any real combat scenarios. Celestia never complained about it though, always saying that she’s happier knowing that no creature has to face the horrors of war ever again.
Twilight grabbed a salad from one of the chefs with a quick thanks, and made her way over to where her wife was sitting, and shimmied her way into the empty chair next to Celestia. Even thousands of years of practice couldn't remedy the fact that the tables were made for ponies that less than half her size.
The conversation was pleasant, mostly pertaining to what each of the three ponies did that day. Neither Twilight nor Celestia gave any indication to what their plans were for the rest of the day, as was usual before a perfect night. Bidding the officer pleasant dreams, the two made their way up to their room to grab a matching pair of scarves and move the sun and moon. Once everything was set, Celestia laid her wing over Twilight's back and lit her horn. With a flash, their room was empty once more.
The two reappeared in a park in the suburbs of Whinnyapolis. Twilight's eyes lit up in recognition. She remembered there were some protests and fierce debates concerning the protection of the wildlife in this park some six or seven centuries ago. While she had never personally set hoof in this park, she had heard of the natural beauty and plethora of hiking trails which were found here. The official reason for why she supported the preservation of this park was to help protect the biodiversity in this region, which was at an all time low. What had really tipped the scales, however, were the hiking trails. The moment she learned of their existence, she imagined how she and her wife might walk them on a perfect night.
Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose. The pleasing scent of pine invaded her nostrils.
Her ears twitched as she listened for any sound. She heard only her wife’s soft breathing and her own heartbeat.
Twilight opened her eyes and saw the trail stretching on before her.
She saw the tree branches hanging low from the weight of the snow which had piled upon them.
She saw footprints of what appeared to be a family of rabbits in the snow.
She saw the snowflakes lazily floating down from the clouds in large clumps.
She saw how the snowflakes landed in her wife's hair, leaving spots of shimmering white among the waves of pink, blue, lavender, and green.
She saw how they blended perfectly into the white of her wife’s fur.
She saw the quiet scenery reflected in her wife's pupils.
This was why Twilight loved perfect nights like these ones so much, because she got to share them with the love of her life.
So the two lovers set off down the trail, wings wrapped around each other as they walked.
They didn't speak, for neither dared to interrupt the stillness. The only sounds that made it to their ears were the soft crunch of the snow beneath their hooves and the gentle breathing from each other.
They just walked. For hours, the two slowly made their way down the trails. They admired the beauty of their surroundings. They made their way through the snowflakes, which were slowly drifting about in the air, as if they couldn't decide where they wanted to land.
They didn't speak. They didn't laugh. They didn't hum.
They just silently walked through the night.
Finally, after what seemed like days, a new sound broke through the silence, a yawn.
So the two stopped. A gentle nuzzle and soft kiss was all that was needed to let both know they were ready to return to the castle. With a squeeze of the wing and a light of the horn, the two blinked out of existence once more, leaving an abrupt end to the twin sets of hoofprints in the snow.
They appeared back in the castle. They made two quick stops before heading back up to their bedroom. First at the Library to pick a couple books, then at the kitchen for some steaming mugs of hot chocolate. They gave Luna a quick hug and a murmured thanks for the wonderful night as they crossed paths. They hung their matching scarves up on their dedicated hooks on the wall and settled down by the fireplace. Twilight's horn lit up to bring a soft blanket over to them, Celestia's horn lit up to start the fire in their fireplace. The two lovers snuggled up to each other underneath the blanket, each with a book in front of her. Neither dared to break the stillness, not even to say "I love you" before drifting off together. They didn't need to, for they had already made that clear with their actions that night.
Soon the soft sounds of deep breathing filled the room, as the snowflakes drifted slowly outside their window.
Author's Note
I've had this idea rattling around in my brain for a couple years now, and figured that the twilestia contest was the perfect time to finally get it out there.
