Is this how it ends?

by Slick Dash

What you didn't expect!

The two of us finally parted and looked at each other, still holding one another close. She smiled at me, “Hi...” I smiled back.
“Hi.” She pulled me into her again holding me tightly, she lent her head on my chest. I could feel her breathing into my barely covered flesh. These were the moments I’d missed, and they were the moments I’d treasure for a life time!

“O-Oh...ummm, I’m sorry. I’ll come back l-later..." I knew that voice! Rainbow’s head rose at the same time as mine and we both looked to the yellow and pink pegasus stood close by. She had a small bouquet of white flowers sticking out from a saddle bag on her back. “FLUTTERSHY!” Screamed Dash excitedly. She bolted away from me and towards her friend through the air. Fluttershy squeaked with fear as her rainbow mane’d friend streaked towards her. Rainbow reached the startled little mare and scooped her up and flew into the sky taking her with her.

As the two hurtled into the air I smiled at how happy Dash sounded as she screamed to the heavens. “HE’S BACK! He’s back, he’s back, he’s baaaack!” underneath her screams of joy i could just about hear the timid Pegasus.
“Y-yes, I can see that, and it really is w-w-wonderful! But please, p-please, put me back on the ground!” Dash obeyed and came back to the grassy ground. once she had, she hurtled back to me and threw her forelegs around me again and embraced me hard. She could barely believe what was happening.

Fluttershy crept forward towards us. She looked more worried than usual. “Excuse me...but are you sure that you’re...Tom? And not Disocrd?” I couldn’t help a sigh of exasperation escape my lungs at her question. The yellow Pegasus heard it and suddenly went shy. “Oh, I’m sorry, I suppose I should trust Rainbow’s judgment... even though she was tricked before I’m sure it won’t happen again...” She trailed off unsure of how to continue. The two of us looked at her and smiled, she smiled back happy at the sight of the two of us together again.

“Of course it’s you! No one could make Rainbow that happy!” She sounded a lot surer than I’d ever heard her before, confidence suited her! “Also...” She grinned, her eyes twinkled in the star light above. “Only Tom would wear something that odd.” I laughed, so did Fluttershy. She trotted over and bumped her head against mine in a sign of affection.

“Well, I guess I should go... I’ll talk to you later Rainbow... If you want that is. OH and you too Tom!” She began to flutter back the way she had come, leaving us alone again. Well, that was every friend I had here in Ponyville who believed me except Big Macintosh. But He’d come around. I knew Applejack would help me and him become friends again, and then life would be just how it was before.

Rainbow was oddly silent. I looked down to my chest where she leant, she was gazing at the Wonderbolt like uniform I wore. Fluttershy had obviously brought the new clothing to her attention, so now she gazed at it. She looked up at me questioningly. I answered her unspoken question. “Rarity made it for me for our anniversary, but then... you know...” I trailed off meekly, rubbing the back of my neck as I did so.

“But why that design? Why do you want to look like that?” She asked. I smiled, well here was my set up, and now for hat had to be the cheesiest line I’d ever said!
“SO you could have own private Wonderbolt, all to yourself.” She giggled at the silly comment, eventually her chuckles subsided and she looked at me lovingly.
“I don’t want a Wonderbolt, I just want you. I always have, and I always will.” She nuzzled her muzzle into my chest and breathed deeply as we lay there. I took hold of her again and squeezed hard, in a moment of true and unbound love, nothing ever needs to be said. So I stayed quiet and communicated through the embrace. I held her tightly, and I would never let go again.

I swore that I could giddy a ‘whoopie’ in the distance. Was Pinkie pie watching? I wouldn’t put it pas her. The noise continued for a moment, but was suddenly silenced. A distant voice whispered in a hushed tone, “C’mon now! We need to go talk to Mac, leav’em be. They need this moment alone!” every word came across the silent space with no trouble, Applejack was a wonderful friend but subtlety wasn’t her strong point. I was glad she was going to speak to Big Macintosh, but she was right. Me and Dash needed this time together.

I rubbed my face into the top of her Rainbow mane. The scent filled my nostrils again, I still couldn’t tell what it was though. It didn’t bother me though, because I knew what the smell meant, and what it symbolised. It was the smell of home, the smell of belonging, or at least that’s what it meant to me. As long as I could smell Rainbow’s scent, hold her close, and tell her I loved her, then I knew I was where I belonged. In every sense of the word.

“You know,” The pony I loved began, “I’ve hated that Chimera for so long, after what he did when you died, after he MADE you die. But right now, I love him so much!” She looked up at me one last time and smiled, “Because he brought you back to me... I love you Tom.”
“I love you too baby.” I couldn’t help but think on what she had said, yes Discord had done all those terrible things, but he had also brought me back here, why? Out of penance for a crime he regretted? Or was it simply because he believed he owed somepony a debt. I looked through the memories that Discord had gifted me in Rarity’s boutique.

I knew who that pony was, he had meant Rainbow Dash. Her heartbreak was what caused him to finally escape, so now he brought me back as payment for her deeds. But was that truly his motive? I remembered the way he had gazed at all the colours of that netherworld we had crossed through to get here. The way he had closed his eyes and let them dance across his face. His brooding thoughts on if he does too much to keep the balance. Maybe, just maybe he wasn’t all bad.

I gazed down at the two of them, so much work, so much interfering. But now they lay there together again. I took a talon and scooped a blob of cotton candy cloud out from the little ball I sat on. I popped it in my mouth and savoured the taste mixing with the chocolate inside it. Delicious. Maybe a few more minutes to watch them, to ensure nothing else went wrong and then I would take my leave. I lay back down on my stomach and watched the two lay together.

I hadn’t wanted to actually influence their decisions, but the way the two were acting both would have ended up alone. So I had whispered in Tom’s ear to turn around, the stubborn boy would have eventually given in but I needed to ensure that Rainbow Dash had seen the heartbreak in his eyes before he strengthened himself up again.

Maybe now the two could live together for a long time, without worry and grief. Yes I had caused it, but it had been required by the universe. I am but a slave to its laws, and must follow them without hesitation. It is my purpose, it is my job.

A pair of beautiful golden hoofshoes fell to the cloud and landed gracefully on it. I glanced up at the white Alicorn who wore them. She too was watching the couple below and smiling, she then turned her gaze to me and continued to smile. Her elegant lips opened and she asked of me. “Why?” I smiled, sighed and looked back at then as I spoke.

“Sometimes...just sometimes, I feel horrible for the things I do. I love chaos, but ever so slightly... I find myself rooting for harmony to succeed over me. At least it means I don’t hurt people.” Celestia bent her legs and lay beside me. She leant over to the puffy pink surface and took a small elegant bite out of it, she smiled at me as she swallowed it. a small sliver of liquid chocolate spilled from the corner of her mouth. I reached over and whipped it away with my lion’s paw.

She blushed when she realised what had happened, I chuckled as I shook my head at the elegant Alicorn. The two below stood up and headed off towards town, leaving me and Celestia alone. She slumped to her side and lay there looking at me. “What of the balance you have always taught me about...teacher.” It had been so long since she had called me by her old name for me.

I looked at her for a moment, at her flowing mane that shimmered with its own light. At her grand and regal attire, her beautiful eyes stared back doing the exact same to me. What a horrible sight for her to look at! “You haven’t been to the corridor of worlds. I fear you never will my dear, but no matter how many times I’ve tried to teach of the power of belonging you never have truly understood. It isn’t just able to acurr enough by wanting it. you need to go through the proper process’s if one is to truly belong.” She frowned at my words but didn’t interrupt me and still listened to me.

“when he came here, he created chaos, and tilted the scales of balance in my favour. As the other side of the scales, you had to balance it out. So you made him and his friends believe he belonged in Equestria. That way chaos began to fade and was replaced by harmony.” She nodded in agreement. “I took him away, only because his presence in such an unnatural way, was always going to leave one side stronger than the other. It would then begin pulling away the stitches of existence. So taking him away caused some chaos as we both know.”

Celestia laughed, “I think you could say a bit more than ‘SOME’ chaos dear teacher!” I smiled back at her, I loved her laugh. It was beautiful and graceful, just like herself. I shook my head, trying to focus on what I was trying to teach her.
“When I brought him back here, not only was I able to rebuild the lives I had destroyed with my actions, but I was also able make it so he could TRULY belong. When he passed into the world willingly, the universe recognized the change. So it altered the balance of both his and our world, it equalized the balance so one’s balance wouldn’t change by losing a member of its world, and the other wouldn’t change by gaining one.”

Celestia had closed her eyes to visualize what I was telling her. Her lips parted slightly and I could hear her breathing as she thought. FOCUS! Damn it! She needs to learn so she can keep balance better! She opened her eyes and nodded at me to show she understood. She smiled and sighed with exasperation. “I still have a lot to learn from you teacher, even after all these centuries!” I flipped over and lay on my back.

“Of course my dear! I have been doing this a lot longer than you after all...but...” I looked into the stars, growing morose yet again. “That little bit of insipid love of others together, it occasionally burrows into my head and makes me more like you for a moment.” I was of course referring to how I had actually brought back the same man I had killed. I looked over at the laying Alicorn. I propped myself up on an elbow, I looked anywhere but her face. I felt her gaze burning into my flesh. I took a nervous scoop of cotton candy and examined it. “Maybe that’s not too bad sometimes.” She giggled at my compliment, I nearly blushed, but I kept control and stuffed the pink orb of candy into my mouth.

“So why do you insist on having everyone hate you so much?” She asked. I looked back at her. Well ninety nine years would be a good enough years to let her get over what I needed to say. Then maybe the lessons could begin again. ‘Here goes nothing’ as the human would say!
“It makes everything easier, it’s so much easier just to have everypony hating me and thinking of me as the closest thing this world has to a devil. Then it makes me able to harm them with a slight sense of indifference, because they all hate me!” I stared into her eyes. “I’d rather be you any day.” I stared down at my horrible miss-matched limbs. “Rather than this ugly thing!”

I looked down at my odd and deformed body with disgust. I heard movement beside me, so I looked up again. Celestia had wriggled her way across the cloud to get close to me, her face was only a few feet from mine now. Through her parted lips I could hear her deep breaths, she was excited. I swallowed, trying to move what seemed like an egg from inside my throat.
“I don’t hate you teacher...” She purred, “And never call yourself ugly, you are perfect in every way.” I looked into her pale pink eyes, there was no dishonesty in them.

I edged closer to her, closing the distance between our faces. “You’re the only pony that doesn’t my dear. They’ve lived their lives hearing about what I did to this world those all those centuries ago, I wouldn’t expect anything else.” My vision fell to the pink cloud beneath us in misery. I felt her warm hoof take hold under my chin, and she lifted my face up to gaze into hers again.

“Granting you that request was the hardest thing I have ever done...” She said lovingly. “If you hadn’t taught me the truth about balance, then I would have never done it.” She looked like she was on the verge of tears. I sighed, and pushed her hoof away gently.
“And If you hadn’t, then the worlds would have torn apart long ago. I tipped the scales too much towards chaos, I thought myself a god! Able to remedy any mistake I made like that!” I clicked my fingers at the sanguine sky. “I was foolish...Too much chaos meant that we were all in peril, in EVERY world. So when I felt the worlds splitting, and nothing I did helped. I turned to you, my dear Celestia.” I looked back to her and smiled at my fellow immortal. She tried to smile back but failed, too wrapped up in the memories of the past.

“But, you never explained why you needed to be imprisoned for so long!” She moaned quietly.
“Because I did far too much! You needed to build harmony to counter the years of chaos I created. The creatures I made still walk this world, Manticor’s, dragon’s and all kinds of other monsters. It would take you years to find the balance again! So I had to be kept away, making the bare minimum of chaos in my trapped state...” I hoped she understood finally, I hated talking about my younger years. All my foolish mistakes. Everything I had done to cause suffering and pain.

“I see...” She said, she shuffled even closer. She was only an inch away now! “Well, dear teacher, you’re back now...so...I suppose...” She never finished her sentence. She leant in to me, parting her lips as she did. I also leant in slowly I felt her breath on my face, light and delicate.

To her surprise, she felt a fluffy sticky substance meet her lips. She opened her eyes to see a blob of cotton candy in her mouth. I laughed joyously, I’d never felt so happy! I skidded across the sky as though I were skating on ice. Giving a quick twirl I spoke to the beautiful Alicorn. “I knew you always had a soft spot for me princess!” I laughed, as did she slightly through the blob of pink candy still in her mouth. “I truly do respect you, and I hope to see you soon...” Her eyes fell slightly at my words. She knew I was leaving. I am after all, a chimera of my word. “I’ll see you every now and then.” I reassured her, her eyes glinted with hope. “It would be much less of a terrible wait for 99 years if I saw you every now and then my dear.” I winked at her and she blushed slightly, she ate the candy that was still in her mouth and stopping her from talking.

“I would like that.” She said simply. I swooped through the sky, and came up to her face once again. I stoked underneath her chin with my wide lion paw. She closed her eyes at my touch and smiled dreamily. I leant in close and whispered in her ear.
“Until next time, my dearest... maybe when the scales are even and the balance isn’t needed to keep the worlds from tearing, then. Then maybe they can be together. I’d like that. More than anything.

I swooped back and turned my back on the Alicron, I prepared to depart, but before I could leave I heard her speak with a tone of complete misery and despair. “You know that day will never come teacher...” I looked over my shoulder and smiled at the elegant creature. I raised my fingers, and snapped. I was gone! I reappeared in some dark and dull place. I don’t care where. My false smile falls and my face reveals the true misery in my soul. I whispered, to no one in particular.

“Unfortunately my dear, I do...”

END