Unto Greener Pastures
By Sylvian
Because all injuries heal, and all eternities end.
At first, there was darkness.
To say that the lack of light does not scare, and yet in it’s own way intrigue, Princess Twilight Sparkle would be an understatement. For one thing, the darkness went against everything that she had ever heard from spiritual people, that there would be light and all the ones she loved waiting for her before shining gates, or some such thing. That scared her, that now at the end of all things, at least for her, she was faced with naught but an all consuming, all enshrouding darkness, instead of the face of the one she truly wished to see.
Honestly, so far, being dead sucked.
Well, okay, so it didn’t completely suck. Darkness notwithstanding, she could not breath easier? Well, if she breathed, Twilight isn’t all that sure she really is even breathing anymore, or if just a tiny sliver of her conscious mind was pretending to. She also didn’t ache. But then, she’d need a body for that, and so far as Twilight can see, she is comprised of nothing more than a floating voice in whatever passed as her head right now.
Sighing, the sound of which would have made Twilight jump if not for the fact she doesn’t currently have a body, Twilight resigns herself to simply studying the void and floating around in it for the rest of eternity.
Which, truthfully, doesn’t seem too bad.
Disappointing, perhaps, since it looks like her and Rarity will end up breaking their promises to each other, but after ten-thousand-plus years of being an important pony, Twilight could use a few centuries of peace and quiet.
“Honestly, darling, you’ve hardly changed a bit,” A voice, which causes Twilight’s non-existent heart to skip a beat, echoes from the darkness. “Still as analytical and prone to anxiety.”
“Rarity?” Twilight’s own voice answers, echoing into the darkness surrounding them. “Is that you?”
“Of course it is, my dear,” Rarity chuckles. “Who else would it be?”
“I.. I don’t know,” Twilight sighs as she ‘looks’ around. “But, I mean it’s so dark and…”
“Nothing like you expected?” Rarity says softly. “Yes. I thought that at first, too. And honestly, it really isn’t anything like you’d expect.” Suddenly, Twilight feels warmth surrounding her, and can almost swear she can feel Rarity’s breath on her face. “But, I assure you, love of mine, it is not dark.”
“But it’s dark now,” Twilight insists.
“Well, yes,” Rarity concedes, her tone playful, teasing even. “But we can fix that. But, I’ll need you to do something for me, darling.”
“What?” Twilight asks, almost breathlessly, at Rarity actually asking her to do something.
“Close your eyes,” Rarity starts, but pauses before chuckling. “And yes, I know it won’t make much difference, what with all this tacky blackness around us.” Twilight suddenly feels arms around her, and once more the feeling of Rarity’s breath on her face, as her lips are right beside her face. “Close your eyes, and think of home.”
Twilight does as asked, or really attempts to do what she is asked. She has no idea if her eyes are closed or not, as the darkness is just as all consuming both ways. However, she starts thinking about home, or well really what really felt like home to her. She started thinking about all the little things, the things she missed….
“Okay,” Twilight says slowly, “now what?”
“Tell me about it,” Rarity instructs, her breath still hot on Twilight’s face and ear. “Describe it to me.”
“Well,” Twilight starts, her tone almost hesitant. “Home… home is the Carousel Boutique… the soft sound of your humming, the whir of your sewing machine…” Twilight takes a deep, slow breath, Rarity’s scent filling her nose. “The… the scent of your perfume in the air, along with the scent of an old book, the soft rays of the noon-day sun warming my back as I sit in the window near your sewing equipment.”
As she talks, the air around her changes.
At first, it’s nothing more than a soft breeze, the air gently stirring the feathers of her wings and brushing against her mane and coat with the softness of an old and dear lover. But then the air grows warmer, not uncomfortably so, in fact quite pleasantly, and Twilight can feel the sunlight laying across her body and warming her coat exactly as she described it.
Then. Then she feels hooves on her shoulders, warm breath of her face. The soft sound of a sigh along with the feeling of hot breath on her face, and the gentle feeling of a hoof slowly making it’s way down her neck as Rarity pets her mane, sending tingles down her spine.
“So, after all these years,” Rarity whispers, her voice hitching slightly. “Home is where I am?”
“Yes,” Twilight whispers back, her eyes slowly opening.
“I’m flattered,” Rarity chuckles as her face comes into focus before Twilight, as beautiful and as flawless as it had been every day they had been married. And nothing, not even the sight of the very building she had just described being around them, nor the noon-day sun filtering in through the window beside her with her favorite book perched between her hooves, makes her smile more than the smiling, youthful, Rarity before her.
“I-” Twilight starts, tears welling up in her eyes as she just stares at Rarity. “I- it could be nowhere else, Rarity. No castle, manor, or villa, was ever as much home to me as the home I shared with you.”
Reaching up slowly, her hoof shaking slightly, Rarity gently cups Twilight’s cheek as her own tears well up in her eyes. Leaning in slowly, Rarity whispers one final thing to Twilight before capturing her in a kiss that would have killed Twilight, if she’d not already been dead.
“Welcome home, Twilight.”
And for the first time in an eternity, something deep inside her seems to heal. An injury she’d never known had been there on her heart, a scar so faded and so deeply worn into the very fabric of her being, vanishes.
And just like that, in the warm and caring arms of her long lost first, and honestly only, true love Twilight cries.
Not out of fear, nor sadness. But joy.
She cries.
Because, for the first time in forever.
Twilight, is whole again.