A Christmas Reunion, Part 3
"Oh, Bow Tie..." The singer sighed, gazing at a snapshot of the two together, as he sat alone in the ballroom. "Where oh Where did you and I go wrong?"
"Probably at the point you stabbed her in the back, and helped betray and kill her family." A yellow earth pony soldier with a red mane snorted, trotting into the room in full armor. "Sorry, that was rude of me. Are you feeling all right after your, um... 'incident'?"
"Yeah, I'll have a sore neck for awhile, but I'll be all right." Nightshade rubbed his throat with his hoof. "Nice uniform you have there. You a friend of Bow Tie's or something?"
"Or something..." The pony grunted. "My name is colonel Sunburst, officer in the Dream Valley royal guard. Miss Bow Tie is my wife."
"Y-your wife?!?" Nightshade asked in shock, his heart sinking. "O-of course she's married now, I saw your daughter at the Christmas party a few hours ago."
"Yes, she found a new life here, after what happened at Bright Valley." The stallion replied, narrowing his eyes. "I'm actually surprised you had the courage to show up here after all that has occurred, Knight Shade."
"Actually, it's just 'Nightshade'. "Knight" is merely my stage name." We sighed. "Have you come to beat me up, too?"
"No, I think you've suffered enough. Though I do admit- I was considering requesting Bright Valley have you gelded, and shipped of to the mareharajah of Ponystan as a palace eunuch for what you did to my Bow Tie. "The other stallion winced at that comment. "But I got over it. I must ask though... why in the world did you betray such a warm and kind-hearted mare in the name of a career?"
"Leave it to a solider pony to bluntly get to the point." Night shade replied with a nervous laugh. "I didn't betray Bow Tie, I actually helped save her from Arabus and Zeb, evil, when they were attacking the town." The stallion musician explained. "I was pretending to be with them, so it would drive her out of the city, so they wouldn't get her shadow."
"And were you helping her, by threatening her life like you did?" The stallion asked, actually curious. "Sure sounds like betrayal to me."
"I had no choice but to obey Zeb and Arabus at the time." Nightshade explained, looking downward. "That's why I acted all angry and mean, it was the only way to drive her away without it seeming suspicious to those two."
"So that 's why she thought you had turned against her!" The soldier replied, realization dawning on him at last. "Well, at least there was a little bit of nobility in your actions, after all!"
Nightshade was about to say something in response, when two other ponies came trotting into the room.
"Daddy!" A little blue filly came galloping up to the soldier, who picked the little pony up in his hooves asnd hugged her. "Merry Christmas, daddy!"
"Hey how's is my little girl!" The pony with the glowing sun cutie mark replied. "You being a good girl for santa?"
"She and I had to get some last minute decorations, and we decided to stop back here and see how you were doing." The adult Bow Tie added, trotting up and nuzzling Sunburst.
Seeing the three ponies there all together, a loving family at Christmastime, stung a pain in Nightshade's heart. For an instant, he saw himself thee, in Sunburst's place, holding the little filly up and getting nuzzled by the mare he once loved. But she was lifebonded to Sunburst now, and that door was closed to him forever.
"Sunny, would you be a dear and take Baby Bow Tie back to our apartment?" The blue mare asked, narrowing her eyes as she spotted the singer pony. "I'll be along in a few minutes."
"You sure you'll be all right here?" The soldier asked, leading their little girl out of the room.
"Don't worry dear, I'll be fine." Bow reassured him, as the other two ponies left.
The two onetime lovers stared across the room at each other in silence, a roiling storm of emotions going through both of their hearts and minds.
"Hey, Bow. it's been awhile." The stallion spoke up, breaking the tension. "I never thought I'd see you again."
"And I had hoped I never would see you again." The mare replied coldly, looking away from him. "I can believe you made a deal with those two monsters, and for what? To build up your damned singing career!"
"Bow Tie, listen to me... I'm so very, very sorry about what happened back there." Nightshade responded, trotting up and looking the mare in the eyes. "I had no choice but to go along with Arabus and Zeb's plans, or they would have taken my shadow, too!"
"Nightshade, you could've told me! I would've helped you do anything to stop them!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, tears coming down her face. "I loved you! We could have found a way to beat them! But no, you had to work with them and drive me away!"
"Damn it, Bow! I was trying to keep you out of it!" The musician snapped back, stamping his hoof. "I had always intended to find you after this was all over, But things just got so crazy...."
"Shade, you could have snuck away anytime you wanted to, and ran to one of the pony citadels for help! But what did you do? Took your flanking little shadow stealing act on the road, and helped Arabus suck half of Ponyland dry!" Bow Tie narrowed her eyes at the other pony. "You betrayed me, killed my parents, and even sold your own mother down the river for a song!"
"All right, Bow, all right. If I would’ve known you were going to be at that party, I never would've showed up when Fizzy asked me to come." The melancholy stallion replied, his ears drooping. "I understand that you'll never be able to forgive me."
"Forgive you, Shade? Oh no, I've already forgiven you for zombifying our hometown and what happened to my family- after all, it was actually Zeb and Arabus who did all those horrible things." She turned away, shaking her head sadly. "But I can never forget what you've done to me, and the choices you made that allowed them commit their crimes."
His eyes going wide, he trotted up to her pleadingly. "Bow Tie, I..."
"Merry Christmas, Knight Shade." The mare replied , putting both her pain and this pony from her past behind her as she trotted out of the room. "I hope you have a pleasant journey back to Bright Valley."
And as the other pony left, the stallion could only look over all the festive holiday decorations, glance back to his faded photograph of a Chirstmas long gone by, and weep for his past of horrible mistakes.