//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Unchanging Love // by Azure Notion //------------------------------// Firefly sat at the kitchen table on the second floor of the Sweet Roast Cafe. Across the room, her husband was preparing a couple cups of coffee. One caramel mocha and one iced Equestriano with a dash of cream. She watched as he packed the portafilter and set it in place. As Fine Roast turned on the espresso machine, he looked back at her and smiled. She returned her own smile in kind. Such comfortable silence wasn’t unusual to them, but it was the first time they’d had it without her disguise. Barely an hour ago, they’d been crying together. Him because he didn’t have to lose his wife. Her because it was the first time ever that she’d felt she had a husband and lover. No more lies, no more deceit, no more forcing a rift between Firefly and Sweet Leaf’s emotions. She had played with fire and it burned her disguise away. Yet, rather than cast her out, he held her close and soothed her wounds. Firefly still felt it had to be a dream. Fine Roast finished pouring the cream into her cup and brought both to join her at the table. He set hers down and sat to her right. He blew on the liquid in his own and drew in a sip of mocha. “So,” Roast started lamely, once he'd swallowed his mouthful. “So,” she repeated. He sighed. “Where do we go from here? Do we just continue on like nothing happened?” “I… I don’t think that’s possible.” Firefly looked down at her cold drink. “Not entirely, anyway. I don’t know what’s going to happen over the next few weeks and months. I don’t know how bad it was for my hive. I haven’t heard anything from them.” “Your hive…” She took a deep breath. “Roast… I-I don’t want to abandon my hive. I won’t turn my back on them. They’re my, well, my family.” She closed her eyes, not wanting to see his response. Firefly felt a hoof take hold of her own. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. Instead of anger and scorn, she felt his love and comfort. She couldn’t help but give a shaky smile. “Firefly…” Roast said, “I would never ask you to leave them.” “Thank you.” She smiled for a moment, but dropped it as she continued. “I don’t know what they’re going to ask me—to tell me to do. I don’t know what I’d do if they told me to… to bring you.” He squeezed her hoof. “I trust you, and I trust us. We’re going to have to lean on each other. I don’t know what ponies are going to do either. All I know right now is you’re mine and I won’t let them take you from me.” She squeezed his hoof back. “Right. I won’t let them take you either,” she said with determination. Silence reigned for a moment as they both pulled their hooves back and drank from their cups. “Firefly?” “Hm?” “What about Bobby Pin?” Firefly furrowed her brow. She hadn’t thought of the timid changeling since the night before. “I… I don’t know. I honestly fear for her. She’s nearly brand new to all this. I don’t know how she’s going to make it.” “What do you mean?” he asked as concern painted his face. “When she came by, she asked if she could have some of my love. There wasn’t time and she left without any. Those ‘purple things,’ as you called them, are love crystals. The three in particular were my emergency rations, you could say, in case something went wrong.” His lips pursed. “Is there anything we can do for her?” Firefly couldn’t help the little grin that crossed her mouth. “Thank you for being you.” She felt the smile dissipate. “But no, likely not. If she was smart and did what I said, she’d have left town last night. The only thing we can really focus on right now is ourselves.” He merely nodded and looked back at his cup. She wasn’t sure what would happen from here. How would Equestria react to the failed invasion? What would the hive do? How would her crystals— Her eyes went wide. “What is it?” Roast asked, voice tinged with concern. “My crystals,” she said quietly. “I… I can’t tell them.” “What? What about your crystals? Is something wrong with them?” “No.” She shook her head and looked him in the eyes. “No, my crystals are, well, special.” Roast tilted his head in confusion. “A while ago,” she continued, “over a year now, my queen fed on one of my crystals. It turns out my love is different from other changelings’. It’s really dense and is more ‘nutritious’, I guess you could say.” “Why’s that? Do you, erm, collect differently than other changelings?” She smiled at him. “I didn’t used to think so, until today that is.” His eyebrows furrowed in further confusion as he looked at his coffee for answers. A moment passed and she answered for him. “It’s you.” He looked at her again. She set a hoof on her own chest. “I mean, you love me. Changeling me, not my pony disguise.” Recognition lit up in his face as he understood. She rolled her eyes with a little smirk. “Yeah, don’t let all that pride go to your head.” She smiled at him for a moment longer before taking on a more serious expression. “Since then, the queen’s been wanting to know why. Hay, I’ve been wanting to know why.” Firefly shook her head. “Now that I know…” “You’re afraid to tell them,” Roast finished for her. “I can’t tell them,” she said firmly. “I have no idea what they would do. I can’t imagine the queen would be at all happy with me for falling in love with my source.” “Source…” her husband tasted the word. “It’s what we call the pony we gather love from.” “Ah,” he ah’d. “I take it what we have isn’t common?” Firefly snorted. “Common? This is unprecedented. As far as I know, no pony has ever loved a changeling. And...I’m not really sure a changeling has ever truly loved a pony either.” “Well, I guess we better keep it under wraps then.” “For both our sakes.” A comfortable silence fell between them again and Firefly. As long as the hive didn’t ask her to bring him in, it could work. She was already a skilled actor, she just had a different role to play. Though, this time it would be as a duet. She’d once fooled her love and now they would have to fool her hive too. No big deal. Definitely no big deal. “Hey.” Fine Roast set his hoof on hers and broke her out of her reverie. “Whatever happens we’ll face it, together. We’re going to be okay.” “Yeah.” Firefly breathed deep. “Yeah, I think we will.”