The Skies Belong to us!

by enamis

Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Past (2/2)

Chapter 4 - Shadows of the Past Pt. 2

Gilda stood dumbfounded as she looked at her smiling friend. That had really caught her of guard and she had a hard time letting that information process.
I mean, for a good observer it would’ve been somewhat obvious but Gilda was never the one for that sort of thing. The gentle (gentler) attitude, the ‘no fluttering even if you’re a pegasus’, the swollen stomach. It added up. Gilda shook her head.

“Congrats.” She managed to muster up in her typical tone. Fluttershy just smiled and kept walking forward.

“It’s nice to talk to an old friend, Gilda, but it’s not why I asked you to come along. I need a favor.”

---------

Pinkamena took her pale hoof off Scootaloo’s eyes. Just as the filly regained her vision tears shot up from the depths of her eyes as she saw a pair of fillies she hadn’t seen for well over two years.

“GIRLS!” Scootaloo screamed and jumped forward tacking the two white fillies into a cluster of a hug.

“Scoot’s! Oh. My. Gosh. How long has it been?!” one of the fillies cried out.
“Yeah! It’sff been sof long!” the other added. The three giggled as the squeezed each other tighter. Next to Pinkamena, leaned against the far end wall sat another filly. Pale purple whit a dirty blond mane. Both of them smiled.

“Do you think Scoot’s can breathe?” Pinkamena chuckled.
“She’s been through worse.” Dinky giggled. “Hey, uhh, Pinkamena?”
“Yea?”
“I-I never asked… who made your leg?”

Pinkamena lifted her blank eye’s eyebrow and looked at the innocently smiling unicorn. After a few moments she broke into a few dry chuckles.

“I made it myself, kid. Rarity helped out a bit on elegance, but everything else was mine. Sure Twi’ probably could’ve made it better but… well you know the rest…” Pinkamena offered a small smile as the filly dropped her eyes.

“Sorry for bringing that up Pinkie…”
“It’s alright kid… I don’t mind tearing up a few old wounds for ya’. I have to say, I'm surprised you still haven’t got your cutie mark, a filly as smart of you could run for president.” Another round of dry chuckles.

“She reminds you of her, doesn’t she?”
“Who?”
“Scoots.”
“…

Yea… yea she does… But I try not to dwindle on the past. I’ve done enough of that already…”

Dinky slowly blinked a few times before resting her head against Pinkamena’s fuzzy chest.
“I want my old mommy back…”
“I want the better times back… but we can never have what we want, kiddo… That’s just how the world works.” Pinkamena closed her eyes and let the filly quietly sob in her chest.

We all want the better times back…

---------

Spike quietly sat on his knees as the sun died below the horizon of the lush equine plains and the city behind him lit up the night’s sky, rivaling the stars themselves. He never cried. Now was never.

Tears slowly rolled down from his emerald green eyes as he stretched out his claw. He placed it on the top of the pale gravestone, stroking the lifeless rock like it was a newborn foal. He gently ran his finger through the simple engravings.

A majestic six-point-star was etched on the plainest of stones and next to it was a single dot… waiting the other four to join… Spike nibbled at the moss of the stone before lifting his claw to his face and whipping away the tears.

The cool night’s breeze rushed by, turning the straws of grass into a serene orchestra. A cricket chirped just as the very last rays of the golden sun vanished. He was alone.

“You will never be a problem, no matter how big you’ll get…

Because…
One day eventually…

You will live as a dragon and fly away…

But don’t worry…
B-because I’ll still love you…”

“Spike?”

The dragon flinched and turned his head around to see a pale, slender figure. The figure smiled and its clear blue eyes shined through the darkness. It-she, took a step forward as her short, ruffled mane fluttered in the wind.

“You came to see her before you came to me…” The figure spoke in a hushed voice.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t… I had to-” Spike began before a soft white hoof pressed against his lips silencing the apology.

“You made the right choice…” The figure softly spoke before removing her hoof and leaning in for a kiss. Spike weakly smiled before brushing the figure’s purple mane out of her face and locking their lips.

The mare of his dreams…

Rarity…

---------

Checkers had laid his head on the table hours ago and he hadn’t moved since. Opposite of him sat none other than Sparkler and slowly munched down cupcake after cupcake.

The changeling had watched day dwindle into night as the ponies of the city went about their lives. Even if Sugarcube Co was on every other corner, this one was special… It used to be the original. Used to...

Checkers sighed and looked upon the stack of sweets in front of him. The advertisement hadn’t lied, the special ingredient really was love. Sugar flavored love… he hated sugar…

“It was nice of Pinkamena to treat.” Sparker sparked up the first conversation in hours.

“Yea… it was nice of her… more generosity than laughter in my opinion.”
“You know everything fell to pieces four years ago… then again you weren’t there… nether was I…”

A veil of silence fell over the two.

“Why didn’t somepony save her? Why didn’t she save herself?” Checkers lifted his head and looked into Sparkler’s lavender eyes.
“Somepony tried… and she didn’t succeed… She used her last spark to save her… to save my mum…” Sprkler clenched her eyes shut.

“She didn’t do a very good job then…” Checkers mumbled.
“No… no, she didn’t. She gave me and Dinky a lifetime of misery… But I don’t blame her… not the slightest bit.”

Sparkler looked back up at Checkers arctic blue eyes. For once in a long time, a smile didn't grace her lips.

---------

Spike sat alongside Rarity as they looked upon the stars from the small green hill. Somewhere behind them, behind the metropolis, the moon climbed the sky.

Spike had his claw on Rarity’s white hoof. They hadn’t broken the bond since the kiss. The first kiss in two years…

Spike sighed and leaned against the mare’s shoulder only to find something cold and hard draped around her neck.

“What is that?” He quietly spoke as he ran his claw through the engravings of the golden object. The neckpiece ended with a large heart-shaped gem right at Rarity’s chest.

“Don’t you remember? It’s the very same fire ruby-”
“-I gave you… yea… yea, I remember… I didn’t think you would…” Spike looked up, his emerald eyes glowing in the dark.

“Element of Loyalty, dear. So I can have a piece of you with me… always…” Rarity smiled and her blue eyes glimmered in the darkness. They slowly placed their foreheads together and closed their eyes.

“I miss her Rarity, you have no idea…”
“I believe you Spike… No matter how close Flutters and I were, she was always my best…”
“…”
“They say one mare can’t change the world… Guess who proved them wrong.” Rarity smiled.
“Was the cost worth it…?”
“She will go down in history, dear, she started a new era, a new dawn… quite opposite of her name…” Rarity quietly giggled and looked up into the sky. Just as that a single comet whizzed by, burning up the atmosphere in seconds. Beautiful.

“Remember how we went stargazing so many years ago?” Spike smiled and skidded a bit closer to the pale mare.
“How could I forget? I wished that my most successful fashion line would be a one-hit wonder… it was…”

“Yea? Well I wished that I could get a kiss from you.” Spike smirked. “Guess that wish came true tenfold.” Spike turned to Rarity and the mare kissed him on the forehead. He smiled for a moment, before fading into grieve once more.

“So much, so very much, has changed…”
“Oh Spike…” Rarity sighed and leaned forward slowly bonking her forehead against the dragon. Small tears ran down his cheeks.

“Look at it, look at PonyVille… where is that simple little town where we came, to make friends? The town where everypony knew everypony… the town where TreePort was just a library…”
“Things change Spike…”

“Not the way their supposed to!” Spike snapped and shot up on his feet. He kicked the ground before walking over and sitting against the pale gravestone. He sighed and laid his head against the cold stone while slowly running his claw across the engravings. He didn’t have to read them… he knew them by heart…

Twilight Shinning Sparkle
Element of Magic, Celestia’s First & only Protégée
Savior of the Known World, trice
A wonderful friend & genius mind
Bringer of the Era of Dawn, an Era of Innovation
984 NM.M. - 7 R.o.L.

“You simply can’t put the sum of her life on a rock..." Rarity walked over to the pale gravestone and sat next to her love. "It’s too great and too long for it. No matter how many biography books they’ll write about her, none will ever due justice… and once the rest of the Elements fade… there’ll be none to tell her story…” Rarity sniffled as her mascara ran down her cheeks. She shuffled a bit closer to Spike and looked at bright and bustling city.

“Things change Spike, I can’t say I like most of them but… you just have to make do with what you’ve got…”
“And what if you don’t have anything anymore…”
“…
Then you make something out of nothing, dear… That’s the magic of this world…”

“…”
“Let’s head home Spike, shall we…?”
“I don’t feel like going back to Equinox…”
“I mean home Spike, home, not ship, home…” Rarity smiled.

Spike got up on his feet and serenely smiled. He turned to help Rarity on her hooves and gave one last look at the stone.

“I love you Twi’… don’t forget that without your number one assistant around…” Spike whipped away a tear before turning around and simply walking away.

---------

Vinyl slumped down the street, her head hanging low, as she dragged along an empty cup of hard cider. She’d left her shades back at the ship and just kept trudging forward. This used to be her home… still kinda’ is but…! OH, WHO the heck was she kidding!? This was no longer her home, she didn’t have a home… ponies always asked why she ditched her fame for a life in the skies she didn’t belong to…

FAME?!

That wasn’t fame it was hell! Deep within Vinyl’s heart a turmoil showed its first flame. The mare snarled at herself. She was nopony but a washed-up DJ that's who...

“I hate you! I don’t want to see you anymore!”

Her voice still rang in Vinyl’s head. She stiffened her jaw desperately holding back tears. She used to tell herself that every single night, that she wasn’t worth it, that she, herself, deserved better… always before crying herself to sleep… She was a failure…

On their own, Vinyl’s hoofs stopped before a place she used to come to every single day and night, sitting, staring at the small, elegant statute spewing water downward in an endless loop. Her bright red eyes didn’t want to look up… they still did…

“You always run, you never want to just sit and stay put for more than a millisecond!”

Before her stood a life-sized statue made from gray stone. A mare whit an elegant mane and a small bow around her neck holding a cello… Vinyl slumped forward resting her chin on the cold, stone wall of the water basin. She looked forward to see hundreds of coins shimmering under the water.

“It feels like you don’t love me anymore…”

“I do…” Vinyl whispered to her memory. “I still do Ink's…” Vinyl sniffled as tears ran down from her bright eyes. She closed them.

“It just isn’t working out, ya' know… and I… I can’t say I'm the Element of Honesty when it comes to love…” She opened the door. “I won’t say I’ll miss you... But at least now, you don’t have anywhere to run… Goodbye Vinyl… I still love you.” The door closed.

“I love you too.” Vinyl turned away from the lifeless rock that reminded her so much of a living, breathing being… still out there, probably not even remembering a particular white unicorn…

“To the end of the world and back… just to get you Inky… You’d be worth it…” Vinyl whispered before lifting her hoof to her tear-soaked face. A tiny red streak lined the bottom… it had come from an instrumental string… Unwittingly Vinyl felt herself falling into unconscious, right there at the statue. A single glimmer shone in the night… a golden plaque red:

Inkarella Octavia Philharmonica Pie,
Greatest Cello player of the Era.
Loving wife of Vinyl Scratch,
To prove the world that loving another mare isn’t a sin.

Comments

[MasterSpike]

Twilight revolutionised everything and gets a single gravestone, Octavia was just a musician and she gets a life size statue.

What... the f*ck?

[enamis]

1644876 she never asked for anything more...

[MasterSpike]

1645245 Well yeah, but you'd think they'd at least build a monument in her honor.

[SpikeDark]

1645272 there might be one in celestia's garden with the other statues