A bond of love on New Years Night!
9:27 PM, Rainbow’s POV
It really was rather quiet uptown.
Which was ironic, considering it was New Year's Eve and we had just passed through the typical party side of Ponyville. But I am really awesome at finding good spots for solitude considering how much I travel the skies constantly, and tonight was absolutely no exception.
I led Twilight away from the pulsing nightlife, over tall hills and above the Everfree Forest, and out to a secluded lakeside view. Not at any nearby popular area, but somewhere only I knew. And now, I guess, she knows it too.
I told my marefriend the truth: it was a place I had found during my first year here after graduating flight school when I needed to get away for a little while and practice my flying more privately, as well as just focus on other more personal things occasionally. Barely anypony came by because it was so out of the way, and there were many other places available anyway. I figured it used to be a closed-off section where somepony was going to build a beach house or something before they probably changed their mind. At night, there was never anypony here.
Arriving at last, I landed right at the edge of the sand and out of view from any potential nearby trail or road so that we’d both have our privacy. Twilight climbed off my back and followed me onto the dirt beach.
The dark waves crashed along the shore, welcoming us both to a night of peace and (relative) quiet, although only until midnight. On the far left of us was a small shelter I had built a while ago, and I’m honestly surprised that it still stood there unbroken. Well, I just guess I’m awesome at building stuff too, right?
And off in the distance was a faint view of Ponyville itself if I chose to fly up for a few moments, the various lights acting as a sort of beacon to guide us back home when we so decide to return. But those lights completely paled in comparison to the wonderfully starry night right above us.
Princess Luna must have really been working hard to create the perfect sky on this night where ponies stayed up as late as possible!
Twilight was not as much of a star pony as I am due to not being out late the way I tend to be, but that doesn't stop her from saying, "Holy Faust.”
With the star and moonlight on her face, I can see my wonderful marefriend beaming at me with a face too darn gorgeous to notice how tired she's getting. We've stayed up longer than this before, but she also had the luxury of passing out in bed or my embrace at any time. Tonight, she wants to see the fireworks. Which means she can't pass out for a few more hours. Thankfully for her, I promised to carry her back.
"I told you it'd be worth it," I say proudly. "Come on, my favorite spot's this way."
9:31 PM, Twilight’s POV
She guides me further along the beach till we sit down in an area that doesn't seem all that special to the other areas of sand. But I can already tell that she's happy here, and that's all that matters.
I sit next to her and place the satchel down in front of us. "Aren't we gonna set the blanket first?"
Rainbow Dash rests her head on my shoulder, "No, that's for you in case you get cold."
" I really don't think I'm gonna-" A gust of wind passes that shuts me up. As I try and stifle a shudder, I continue, "Okay fine, maybe I'll need it."
"See? I know you."
"Yeah, you do." I poke her nose, which causes her to cutely scrunch up her face. "Now hush, ok?”
10:00 PM, Rainbow’s POV
I pull the blanket tighter around me as Twi draws on the sand with her hoof, choosing to try that instead of using her Magic.
Part of me thinks I should have brought that guitar I have stored at my house with me here, but I don't feel comfortable playing in front of her. Not unless the racket I'm playing actually sounds like music she’d really like… which won’t happen anytime soon.
"Look," she says while wiping the sand off on one hindleg. "It's a heart."
My eyes land on it, and it's definitely...a shape. It's definitely got two humps and a point at the end. And it's absolutely a thing that she made.
"Yeah, that's supposed to be a heart, alright," I say in support.
"Hey! The sand's hard to write on."
"No, I totally get it. You're going for that abstract egghead modern art feel. It's got a good spirit to it, really tells a story. You can TOTALLY feel the super duper-important commentary on… stuff, in the arches and the story inside the details. Chiaroscuro and all that."
Twilight does a double take at me and stares with wide eyes, but then seems to realize something and rolls her eyes with a scoff, "Do you even have any idea what you're saying? That’s a petty big word for you, Dash.”
"Nope. I heard the word 'Chiaroscuro' from Daring Do the other day and thought it sounded cool.
She just chuckles, and my heart skips a beat.
"It's an art concept, the balance of light and darkness. Like the shadows in a painting, or those optical illusions where you look at the white part and it's one image, but if you look at the black part it's a different image."
I chuckle, "So you know THAT, but you don't know how to draw a heart in the sand?"
"Drawing is hard, okay?" Twily protested. She tries tugging off the blanket in faux unhappiness, but my grip is too strong and she ends up taking us both down on the sand with her, surely messing up her filly-level art project.
We lay on the sand together, laughing at how awfully cliche this all feels. But as Twilight would say, they're cliches because they work and always will, and as our laughing subsides, all we can hear again is the somehow soft sounds of the waves splashing onshore and the sand shifting beneath our twitching bodies.
Twilight’s eyes are fixed on mine in an intense moment and I really wanna kiss her right now, but she takes the initiative and leans forward and kisses me. I'm expecting it to be simple and sweet, but she doesn't stop after the first one.
Or the second one.
Or the third, which is when she rolls over until she's on top of me, the blanket partially underneath my surprised frame.
She straddles my hips, placing both hooves on my cheeks and kisses me with a sense of want and need, showing no signs at all of stopping.
The really excitable part of my mind thinks this might escalate into something completely awesome, but there's no way that Twilight, the one and only egghead extraordinaire who is like 90% of the time on the receiving end of my affections,
would be THAT bold. Especially not outside, in a place that she’s never been at before.
Right?
Well, the hoof now moving down and on my breast tells me otherwise.
I part our lips for a moment, touching her forehead to mine. "Well this is new," I say with a grin, which she returns.
"Nopony’s gonna come by here… right?”
She bites her lip in that same sexy way she tends to do when she’s nervous yet wanton to keep doing something she has set her mind on, and I nod.
At that, she is instantly trailing her hoof higher and bending down to kiss my neck. Oh Luna, she’s good at that! And now she whispers in my ear, “Then let’s not waste anymore time…” and… wait, she’s kissing my ear now?
Whatever stupid comment I would have made dies before it reaches my lips. And I lay there silently as Twilight works her Magic, the kind that she doesn’t need to use her horn or cast any Spells to make work.
10:44 PM
True to my word, not a single pony or any other creature came by while we had our little fun on the beach. Which made Twi’s attempts to keep herself quite very adorable, and surprisingly sexy. Then again, everything about Twilight Sparkle is surprisingly sexy. I could write a whole book on the subject, but it would likely be just too darn long!
And how else would you follow up lovemaking on the beach than with a romantic walk on the beach...that you just made love on?
Wait wait wait, we just had sex on the beach… and Twily herself took the lead, no less!
The Unicorn in question suddenly nuzzles my cheek. "What are you thinking about?" she asks.
Obviously I can't tell her I'm still thinking about what we just did on the same stretch of sand we're walking on, so I point at the sky and ask, "How many stars do you think there are?"
She casts her beautiful eyes up, "Billions? Trillions? Maybe some number we haven't even thought of yet. What do you think?"
I shrug, "Eh, I'd say at least two billion. Either that or some other number that I counted more than once over the years.”
"Wow, you actually do that?” The egghead is surprised and I can understand why. How many ponies can claim that they know that the one and only Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria, counts the stars? I’ve never even told my kid sister that!
“I have before, in the past when I had more free time each day and night than I have now. It helped me stay sharp and also take my mind off things and… stuff like that.”
“Rainbow, I… I never would have guessed. Thank you for sharing this with me. Truly.”
“Ah, don’t get all sentimental with me now Twily, or I’ll kiss you again.”
She giggles softly in that same way that makes me feel so warm and happy, and she looks away as we walk in silence for a few more steps before she speaks again, "My parents used to say that the stars were... different moments in time. The memories of the world accumulate over a set time period, and when that time is over a new star appears. All of our past is up there in the sky, and only certain entities like the Princesses or Discord can probably know for sure if that’s true or not.”
"Why is your whole family only getting freaking cool the more I hear about them?"
The angel pony beside me laughs,
"Hey, you're pretty cool too, as I’m sure you very well know.”
"Of course I am, everypony knows that! I’m Rainbow Dash! But gosh. Moments in time, huh?"
My eyes are drawn to the points in the sky where the stars seem infinite- where I can probably see more than two billion right now. The blanket of the night that is decorated with unnumbered sources of brightness, countless Eons worth of memories. All of history is looking down at us right now, waiting for these moments to become a star of their own. Sounds cheesy, but right now it’s just so fitting to be a cheesy.
Because SHE is here with me.
Twilight’s POV
"If you could travel back to any point in time, where would you go?"
Barely any time passes (surely not enough to make another star) before Rainbow answers, "Nowhere. I'd stay right here."
"You wouldn't go back and fix anything? If you had the chance, and knew everything that you know now, you wouldn't go back in time to do something differently?"
Rainbow can apparently sense where I'm going with this, and she looks at me. Her smile is confident, there's not a single shred of doubt on her face.
“The stuff that really hurt me? Of course I wish they never happened. But somehow I'm okay, you are okay, and we're together. If I went back and changed any of those, but it potentially ended with us being forever apart, then it wouldn't have been worth it, would it? You’re the one who told me about that whole thing with how, y’know, changing the past even just a teeny tiny bit can really alter the future and all that stuff. If I changed anything in my past at all and there was even the slightest chance that I wouldn’t have met you and… well, fallen in love with you, then it… it wouldn’t be worth it.”
She had a blush on her face, but leans over and covers my cold mouth with hers and warms me up immediately. Her words are reassuring, even if I don't completely agree with them. If I had the chance to go back and not make the same mistakes in my own life that I did, I wouldn't even give it a second thought.
But I guess that's just a guilt I'm going to have to learn to deal with...or better yet, to let go of entirely.
11:25 PM, Rainbow’s POV
Twi yawns, and she amusingly tries to hide it from me even though there's no one else to blame it on.
"Getting tired?" I ask with what I consider to be a soft smile.
"Getting?" she replies in that post-yawn voice. Honestly, it's a little adorable that she's not used to staying up past midnight all that much. But at the same time, I don't want to be watching the fireworks with a knocked out Unicorn leaning on my shoulder.
I stroke her mane, and then stop when I remember that puts her to sleep too.
“We can fly back so you don't have to sleep on the sand. We'll still see the fireworks from a cloud, better even."
She shakes her head, "Noooo. We came all this way out here, and it's so close to midnight. We can make it."
"Twily, I know I can make it. I don't know if YOU can."
"We just gotta do something to pass the time."
Twilight leans up to kiss me, but gets my neck instead. Oh wait no, that was what she was aiming for.
"Something fun."
This mare is so adorably ridiculous. I push her away gently and giggle,
“As enticing as that might sound, I don't want you passing out on my breast...or next to me.”
My favorite Unicorn grumbles, "You're no fun."
She DEFINITELY is tired and excited at the same time. She’s NEVER this frisky.
"Of course I'm not. That's why I came prepared for when this inevitably happened."
I reach into the bag and pull out a smaller paper bag. "Here, this should help."
She takes the bag and eyes it carefully, "What is it? Cider?"
I chuckle and roll my eyes, "Just open it, you dork."
She opens the paper bag and gasps, "Chocolate! With strawberry flavoring!"
At each Ponyville eatery, they had these big trays of treats that they gave out to foals. On my last day, I took a paper bag and stuffed it with as many delectables as possible and I've been snacking on them ever since. Twilight never knew about it until now because I wanted to surprise her with them.
Mission accomplished on that part!
She bounces a little and hums, and I really hope she's chewing these things before swallowing them. They should give her enough energy to last us until midnight, hopefully without me having to shake her awake every two minutes. It’s doable, but it’ll be a bit difficult.
After the fourth mouthful, she looks at me with sugar-induced joy, "You're amazing. And I love you."
We certainly do wind up passing the time doing something fun, her excess energy allowing her to hold her breath longer than usual when kissing me. Gosh, I think I’ll bring her a bag of chocolate whenever we meet up secretly from now on!
11:59 PM
Finally.
We've made it.
Twily is awake enough to appreciate the next minute, at least, and I'm holding her close because it's cute and also because the blanket isn't doing anywhere near enough to warm us both up. There are still no other sounds to hear, but the lake congratulating us by doing it’s thing, and the breeze telling us that we were idiots for staying out here for several hours straight.
"One more minute until the new year," Twilight breathes.
"Yeah…we made it."
She snuggles up even more, shifting in the sand, "Did you think we would get this far?"
It's an honest question, and considering where we are, and where we started...I let out a breath, "No, honestly. It's a miracle. One year ago, I was drinking a gallon of Cider and talking to Fluttershy about how happy I was the way I was: adventurous and single.”
Twi giggles again, "One year ago, I was...well I was asleep by now, but I spent it at my home reading new books and talking with Spike and my parents."
"Y’know, we really have lived pretty different lives. Not that it’s wrong.”
"Obviously it’s not, and now here we are," she says.
"And now here we are," I repeat.
“I think- no, I know that one-year-ago-Rainbow Dash would have loved to have celebrated the new year with you, just like I am right now.”
"One-year-ago-Twilight would have definitely felt the same.”
"Yeah...well now you have me.
And I'm never gonna let you go."
I hold her just a little bit tighter and stroke her mane more affectionately.
“I told you once that I’ll never abandon my friends and family, Twi. And you? Right now, you count as both.”
Twilight holds me tighter as well and nuzzles into my neck, a grateful hum leaving her mouth and ringing through me.
A half year feels like decades. It's been a real crazy ride so far with all these bad guys we’ve faced and overcome so far and the certainty of many more in the future, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
This is a truly amazing journey she’s gone on with me, keeping our connection a secret from everypony else while living our daily lives, and so very fun too.
And if somehow, through some sort of contrived shenanigan we end up getting discovered, I will be okay with that.
Because we have each other, and I wouldn't trade that for anything else. Not even for ten billion stars in the sky, a trillion opportunities to change the past. Because of all the ways I've messed up in my own life, being with Twilight was the smartest thing I've ever done. And that’s saying a lot, if I don’t say so myself.
Twilight pulls out her little pocket clock from the bag, "Fifteen more seconds."
"Wow, wouldn't it be crazy if some catastrophic event happens when the countdown ends?" I joke.
"Shh, let's just enjoy these last few seconds of the year."
Ten...nine...eight...seven…
The lake produces its last waves of the year like it’s the ocean instead, crashing and foaming along the sand, never reaching us.
Six...five...four…
The lights of the nearby town beckon us back, but we've made it this far. And right now there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be, and no other pony at all I'd want to spend this time with.
After all the crazy awesome adventures we've been put through, we deserve to share this moment together with no distractions and no complications.
Three…
Twi puts away her clock and quickly sits up to be eye level with me, the brightness in her eyes outshines the entire skyline. She licks her lips at the same time as I do.
Two…
I look for only a second at her freshly-moist lips, and can feel the irresistible invisible magnetic pull towards her, aching above all else to have her mouth on mine and to hold her tight in my forelegs.
One…
We close the distance and kiss each other as passionately as possible just as the fireworks light up the entire countryside. The flashing colors add light to the darkness, and distant booms join the sounds of the waves, adding to the soundtrack of our hearts beating as one and perhaps our most electrifying kiss ever. I desperately hold close the mare I love, reminding myself of how real this is, and I can feel her doing the exact same.
Happy New Year.
12:18 PM
I slip stealthily between clouds to avoid any other Pegasi seeing us, letting out a sigh of relief as we're finally near my own house. Now I can find that special big cloud to sneak into and rest inside of, which is great because my passenger is passed out on my back.
The various music groups down below, like Applejack and her family, are joyfully singing and playing some cool songs, and I can see the lights of Sweet Apple Acres burning brightly in the distance, which means I'll not have to worry about being seen by any Star-gazing ponies.
I land on the porch of the big reserved cloud and slip inside, and I'm given a little bit of encouragement when my adorable passenger adjusts on my back to face me.
And with enough excess energy that I credit to the chocolate, she smilingly mumbles out, "I love you” while slowly placing a hoof on my cheek.
I smile back and hold her hoof, keeping my admittedly tired eyes on her absolutely exhausted ones, and reply.
“Happy New Year, my… my Twilight Sparkle.”
She hums happily, and closes her eyes as she lowers her head down onto my back again.
When we had gotten to the cloud, the light pollution started by now to get a little worse, and fireworks are still going off.
But as I turn to patch up the doorway and look out towards the glorious night sky…
I swear I can see a new star.
Author's Note
Notes: Yeah I know, it’s late to make a New Year’s Eve story. But better late than never!
Woah! This was a bit hard to finish this, but I’m proud of how it came out! Take care, y’all!"
