//------------------------------// // Love Lingers So... // Story: The Magic Constellation // by Snowybee //------------------------------// “Bye bye, Moony!” She waves a couple more times. A little more. Moonlight has her back turned on her way to the elevator. Her grimly hung keyring slips back into her bag, having been summoned out of habit. Sunshine maintains grin parameters. When she steps inside, she turns around one more time. Wave and smile, wave and smile! Moonlight cocks a brow. As the doors shut, she manages a tiny smile in return. The hall is empty. Sunshine hangs out of the doorway yet. Her arm still waves, but it’s slowing down. Her lips loosen. Her heart sinks. The lone mare in the hall sighs. She trudges back into the apartment, flicking the door shut with her tail. Sunshine settles on her haunches, leaning against the door. Such a roomy room. Big walls, wide open ceiling. Moony has a thing for chambers and caves and such. All these little things a bat pony would dig, her sister digs too. Masks line the wall. Some look like those ancient southern masks. Where they should have been colorful, someone had gone over it with inks and such to darken it. The masks glare at Sunshine, angered by such corruption. With plenty of shivers, she hops back onto her hooves. More of the odd curios her sister had gleaned on her own surround the sunny mare. Carved skulls, skulled carvings, rickety grins, grinning rictuses, black feathers and feathered blackness. Shelves upon shelves that Moonlight takes for granted every day. Things that had caught her eye once, now performing as the backdrop to her bleak existence. Her heart raced. So alien it was! The views excite Sunshine. To see into her sister’s mind once again offered thrills of its own. She crept up to one such knickknack. The form of a pony: twine and petrified wood cobble it together. A stuffed pouch makes for its head, where some small brush had inked in the likeness of a screaming face. With the relatively colossal cross-eyes looming over it, Sunshine figures it was right in being afraid. Indeed, fear the sun goddess! After looking both ways, she crosses that street, and all ten lines on it. She… grabs it. Removes it from the shelf. Handles it with her ‘contaminated’ hooves. Her legs tremble. A ghostly voice wails in the back of her mind. ‘Sunshine Smiles! I demand you return that piece at once, or so help me… I’ll have to punish you, you insubordinate cretin.’ Sunshine’s cheeks flush. Even in her dreams, Moony would use words she didn't know. “Y-yes, Madame! Please, forgive me! I was just so curious.” Though she complies and returns the weird doll, Madame Moonlight’s sneer remains. Her ears pin back. “Oh, I’ll do anything to earn your forgiveness…” Come, my servant, away with me Deep into my eyes, in my fold. Peer deeply that you may not see, Yet keep away. Writhe in the cold. Come, by the leash of devotion So you may walk my sprawling maze. Hear the echoes of emotion, Strangled by my heart’s blackest haze. Together, we reach the dull moon A great white door in the dark plains. My devices surround the room, Which imprison you in cruel chains. Struggle as you might, my lover Scream my name as I punish you. Moan and beg under the covers, And pine for our love to be true. Reach the promised land by your touch And open your eyes to the light. Is the desire for me too much? All you reach is an empty night. And night after night, it’s just the same. Though you hold me at last, I flee. Long for my touch, suffer my game. Ever my servant, you will be. Her eyes flutter open. Droplets batter the side of her face. Eyes focus. She sees the comb in her slack hoof. The stream of water pushes it further and further. Sunshine only watches, until it clatter to the tiles. Her chest heaves. The sugar and warmth in her veins recedes. The gulps of breaths give to little whimpers. Kittens stuck in the rain. Her eyes screw shut. Wetness already pervades her face from the shower head, but she still fights it. ‘You look pathetic, Sunshine. Why are you crying in the shower again?’ She shakes her head. “I-I’m not this time. I swear I’m not.” ‘How sickening. Are you going to replace the brush, Sunshine? I won’t give you the satisfaction of paying me back, either. Give me the bits for one.’ “I will.” Calmness suddenly rules her body. “Why though, Moony? It’s not ruined or anything. It’s not gross. I just… I was just wanting you to do it for me again.” ‘You must be kidding yourself. That was a one-off thing. A mistake. I don’t really feel that way about you anymore. I throw you a bone, and here you are, crying on the floor like the filly I thought you grew up from. It’s been three weeks already. Give up.’ “The r-r-real Moony hasn't said no yet,” Sunshine squeaks. She dares not open her eyes. “She still lets me kiss her on the cheek. She st-still hugs me.” ‘How come I won’t make love with you again, then?’ “I’d do anything for her to have it, love. Anything.” Sunshine gulps down a boulder. ‘You would suffer like you are now? I must love watching you suffer, seeing how things are playing out now. What mare would deny that kind of power over another?’ “No!” She shakes her head even more. Droplets from her mane strike the curtain. “Moony never wants me to be in pain. She hates it. She’s just confused, and it’s all my fault. I deserve to suffer for that.” ‘You have no backbone. You push me into doing the banal things of your interest, sure, but it’s just a concession on my part. You don’t know how I would take a real demand from you. You’re too scared to ask for more. Too scared put your own happiness above mine.’ “I can’t.” Her back slides down the smooth bathroom wall, the slump of a nicked balloon. “She saved my life. I owe her mine. I want her so, so, so fucking bad, but…” A sniffle escapes. “But she’s still not ready. Not ready, scared, confused, I don’t know what. She’ll open up when she wants to. I just… h”ave to… “Wait.” With another shameful flare in her belly, Sunshine curls up under rain of the shower. *** Eight P.M. The time became the axis of her life after only a couple of days. Sunshine lounges on the couch with glazed eyes, staring only at the clock in the room. Once listless, unable to be still, the mare loses all the will to do anything, even breathe at times, when eight draws near. Keys rattle. Her ears shoot up. The door creaks open in short order. Oh, how desperate she is to barrel to the door and body Moonlight with her affections. She remains on the couch, however Tackling Moonlight into a hug? Normal for her. But now, the desire burns. She could not let Moonlight be the wiser. Repression is the noble despair for her, in service to the mare that makes her world. “Sunshine? How come, like, I’m walking through my own door unscathed? This is unusual.” She waves nonchalantly over the seat. “Heya, Moony. Just sitting here, reading and stuff. Totally.” Moonlight mills about the room. Sunshine hears, but cannot react, as is not the wont of a steadfast guard. One by one, the knickknacks receive an intense squinting. The silence stifles the poor, sunny mare. Sweat beads on her brow. At last, Moonlight stomps before the coffee table. She nods at its state. “Not a thing out of place. I would, like, say ‘job well done’, but this isn't like you.” Her eyes soften. “Speak to me, soul sister. What troubles you?” Sunshine stares at her hooves dangling off the couch. “‘M’fine.” “No, you’re not. Looks like this week’s edition of Invisible B.S. Monthly was a stinker.” Her face heats. “Sh-shut up, Moony. Just tell me to go make dinner.” Moonlight reels from the snap. She blinks away the stars from the deafening remark. “Sunshine. Seriously, what’s wrong?” No eye contact. Her heart is tainted this night. She couldn't afford to taint her precious sister with it. She rises, placing one hoof after the other. Her words pour to the floor, where even her dainty hooves trample them finely. “You don’t need to worry, sis. You know I get my moods, alright?” Moonlight pursues. “Beg pardon, but I’m not quite used to these so called ‘moods’. Did I piss you off this morning? You can be a straight shooter with your soul sister, you know?” Teeth grind. “Been awhile since you said ‘soul sister’. Not used to me reacting to how you treat me, I see.” She turns around, nose to nose with Moonlight. “Am I scaring you, ‘sis’? “ She advances, forcing Moonlight back. Her eyes tremble, wide. Sunshine’s sear the air. “Are you going to make me leave now?” Stomp. “I help you when you’re down, and then you’re willing to fuck me. You push me away all of a sudden though, and then I feel down. Then when I’m down? Bet you never thought about little Sunny being down.” Moonlight buckles at last, to her satisfaction. She towers over her whimpering sister. “You just left me last time this happened, so you didn’t have to deal with sad little Sunny. Are you r-r-really going to make me leave?” A muddy tear streaks down Moonlight’s cheek. Her icy magic springs to life, catching Sunshine off guard. Her bravado leaves her. She backs down, sickness burning her throat at the sight of her sister. Something twinkles in her ear. The keys. Her hooves don’t respond. After a moment, the keys clatter on the floor next to her. Her sister creeps away, still low to the ground. Hoarse voice. “Y-You’re my keeper, Sunshine. Come and go as you please. As long as I’m worthy of you.” Sunshine’s jaw hangs loose. From the moment Moonlight summons the strength to flee to her room, to when her door slams shut. *** Nudge. Shake. Her eyes flutter open. The clear coffee table sparkles in the morning light. Her eyes pan up. Heart stops. Moonlight smiles down to her. “Good morning, sister.” “H-hey.” “I saw you fell asleep here before I could apologize last night.” “Sorry. It’s okay, though.” She shakes her head, smiling the while. “It’s not okay. You’re sleeping with me tonight, no funny business. But today, I want you to get out and have fun.” Moonlight sighs. “I don’t get the vibe that you went out at all yesterday. You’re mane’s frizzier than usual, too. Go take a real shower.” Sunshine’s throat catches. “Muh-Moony! What are you saying? I’m supposed to watch the apartment, right?” A rare sound: Moonlight’s chuckle. “Yeah, that was the plan. I fear for my things if I keep you cooped up here five days a week now. I trust you with my keys, so you can go and do your sunshiney things.” She winks. “I trust my keeper, after all.” Already in her forelegs, Sunshine squeezes the pillow close. Her grin beams ear to ear. “Rad, rad, rad! I can’t wait 'til you get home tonight!” Her cheeks flush. “But, uh, I’ll get outta the house today, for you. F-for me! I want to!” “Very good.” Moonlight leans in. Sunshine makes to respond, but warm lips press to her own. No more words come to mind. Moonlight, red in the face, flashes one last smile before scampering around the couch. Glassy eyes watch the clock. Only nine thirty. She couldn't stop smiling. The keys clatter off the table. For the first time, Sunshine locks the door from the other side, with Moonlight’s home safe and sound.