Here Comes the Rain Again

by A Hoof-ful of Dust

V - (untitled)

She was floating up in the night sky, pulled along on a dark raincloud by some invisible force. The raincloud was surprisingly warm on top, though one of her hind legs had sunk into its murky surface and was freezing cold. Every so often it would spark with pain, like it was being jabbed with a lightning bolt, but the pain was distant and somehow not a part of her.

Strange faces appeared in the constellations, faces of ponies she knew, ponies she didn’t know. They were talking but she couldn’t hear anything they were saying; everything was an indecipherable babble. The faces coalesced into the snarling maw of a timberwolf. Its teeth were oddly dull, and when it snapped its jaws together she saw they were lined with drums. It made a deafening pounding noise every time it snarled and barked, and she turned away from the timberwolf in the sky to the water full of stars. She plunged her head into it to escape the pounding noise, but it echoed even under the water. A passing fish pressed something that felt like an ice cube against her forehead, but it was warm to the touch.

Twilight slept on.

---

For a moment, Twilight thought all of it—the plants, the rain, Princess Luna—had been a vivid dream. She was lying on a comfortable bed, looking at the shine of a pane of glass. She was so caught up in the idea that she was in her room in Canterlot Castle that she failed to notice for a good while after emerging from her vivid dreams that the view from the window was nothing but trees.

“You wake,” came Luna’s voice from behind her.

Twilight tried to turn, and felt a sharp pain in her leg. She looked down at it, and saw it was wrapped in something that looked like seaweed. Luna was at her side, watching her examine the makeshift bandages. Her mane has returned to being unbound, though it looked slightly more unruly than usual.

“I did the best I could with the crude material available to me,” she said. “A splint formed from branches, a paste of healing roots, but they are a poor substitute for the magic I could use, were I at full strength.”

“What happened?” Twilight asked.

“I found you amid the moss downstream, barely conscious. I fear the leg may be broken.”

“My leg kind of hurts still,” Twilight said, “but I don’t know if it feels broken.”

“Pain relief comes from the roots, but they can only do so much. You should not walk on that leg,” Luna said. “After attempting to mend you, I carried you to here.”

Twilight looked around. “Where’s here?” A single candle beside the bed lit the room. The walls were lightly covered in plant growth, making it an unrecognizable space. Twilight briefly wondered if she could have ever been here before.

“I am unsure. A pony’s home, I believe.”

“In Ponyville?”

“Yes.”

Twilight realized the sound of the rain and thunder was gone. They must also be beneath the branches of the gigantic tree. She also realized, now that she looked at Luna instead of around the room, just how worn and strained Luna looked. How long had she been watching her while she slept? Had she stopped?

“Twilight,” Luna said, “when I saw you among the rocks… if you had…” She trailed off, though the words she avoided saying were clear. “…I do not know what I would have done. Twilight, I…” She bit her lip in an uncharacteristically unprincessly gesture.

Twilight looked into Luna’s eyes, seeing in there all the words she was having so much difficulty saying. “…Don’t want to be alone?” she finished for her.

A very faint smile crossed Luna’s face. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I believe I would be very lonely, without you.”

“You should get some rest,” Twilight said.

Luna laughed at this, a short sudden burst. “I must appear quite wretched, indeed.”

“I can keep watch.” Twilight made a motion to get out of the bed, but Luna stopped her.

“No. You too must rest, and heal. The entrances below are barricaded. For the moment, we are safe.” She climbed into the bed beside Twilight, and leaned over to blow out the candle. They lay together side by side as they had in the roots of the tree by the lake, seeking not warmth but comfort.

“Luna?” Twilight said in a soft voice. She was looking out the window at the wavering branches.

“Yes, Twilight?”

“Can I tell you something strange?”

“You may.”

“In a way… in a way I’m kind of glad this happened. I mean, what’s happened is bad, but good things have come out of it, and I’m glad it led to those. You know?”

Luna was very quiet and very still for a long time. “You do not know how I wished for something like this to occur,” she said at last. “To empty the world of the ponies who feared and mistrusted me, and leave behind only the ones who…” Twilight heard her swallow. “…Who understood me. I was a very different pony then, very angry, and this is not at all how I imagined the scenario would unfold. But still,” she said, and Twilight did not have to see her face in the dark to know she was smiling, “I too am glad for things to have happened the way they did.”

Sleep came to the pair quite easily after that.

---

Twilight was the first to wake. She could feel Luna’s deep regular breathing beside her. There was no reason to get up just yet.

And then she heard the noise, and realized they were not alone in the room.

Comments

[Nebula1701]

ooooh o.o is it that pony?

[Csquared08]

Dat ominous ending.