//------------------------------//
// (Not?) A Vision Number Three 
// Story: The Enchanted Library: Amethyst Dreams 
// by makise-homura 
//------------------------------//

This chapter's story is meant to follow the events of Rarity's dream scene from ~ Act III ~ 29 ~ The Longest Night ~ of The Enchanted Library, until the words this chapter is started with.



…“Now, now, Twilight. It’s unbecoming of a princess to cry,” Rarity whispered, tears bordering her own eyes as she slipped her hoof from under Twilight’s and then used it to cup the princess’s chin. “You’ve got an entire new life ahead of you now.”

“And you?” Twilight whispered back, and the words cut into Rarity’s heart like knives. How dare she, Rarity wanted to say, how dare she still have such a grip on her heart?

“Not quite as much as you do,” she replied, trying so terribly hard to sound nonchalant, like they were discussing the weather and nothing more. “But now that you’re out, I shall try and make the best of it, won’t I?”

Twilight’s eyes darkened and she looked away. “It hurts,” she said, and before Rarity could reply, she continued, “but it won’t hurt anymore if I never let anypony come close again, will it?”

Rarity stepped back. “Wh-what do you mean?” she asked, and she knew, deep down, something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

“You promised,” Twilight whispered. “You promised you’d come back. I guess you’re a liar too.”

Rarity felt she was about to faint. It was as if the strings she pulled, suddenly slipped out of her hooves, all at once, and she could not do anything about it. Like it was a dream, a distorted, broken, crumbling dream, about to turn into a nightmare, in which Twilight, both in front of her and still locked in her prison under the oak tree, renounced her, and the whole world, forever. Hiding the library so no one else would be ever able to enter or hurt the princess. To hurt her the way Rarity had for so many years.

But this was no dream.

Tears rolled down Twilight’s cheek. They carried decades of bitterness, resentment, of disappointment. Oh yes, disappointment. Rarity could not name a thing worse than it, more excruciating than the princess’s pained look. Rarity could hardly keep standing, being crushed by its weight. It was clear: if Twilight looked away now, Rarity would never dare to meet her eyes again.

In most circumstances, Rarity prided herself on acting like a real lady. Even though she tended to be quite dramatic sometimes, she still followed nice manners, and met everything with due dignity. But these were not most circumstances, now were they? Rarity, the distinguished fashionista, entrepreneur and book collector, was feeling now like a very different pony. A desperate, frightened, panicking mare, ready to grasp at any straw, ready to do something rash and thoughtless, just a reckless jump in hopeless attempt to avoid the inevitable…

…And Rarity made that jump.

Literally: she barely had time to feel the sudden impulse, let alone think it, but she had instead moved, her hind legs pushing off the floor like her life depended on it. In a way, it did, didn’t it? Following that impulse, her front legs stretched towards Twilight, as if hoping to touch and grab her before she could vanish, and in that split second, the disappointment in Twilight’s eyes changed to surprise.

Rarity, barely realizing that she was now literally hanging on the princess’s neck, let out the words she had been choking on for decades:

“I-I promised. Yes, I did. I failed you. I failed myself, I failed A-Applejack and Apple Bloom... I’ve caused so much pain, to you and to everyone I love. I couldn’t live with m-myself after that, and I- I left you to rot! And I... I missed you s-so much... I let myself drown in guilt, and couldn’t even move on for my own s-sake! I don’t deserve your forgiveness, n-nor your sympathy. But I s-still ask f-for it. I’m… I’m sorry Twilight…”

Twilight. Not “princess”, not “darling”, not “beloved”, or the dozens of romantic epithets from books she had read. Just her name, that had been carved into her heart long ago, hoping, pleading that somehow it would break down the walls both of them had so painstakingly built since their last meeting, each in her own way.

“I-I…” a weak whisper reached the desperate unicorn’s ears, “I… I shouldn’t, Rarity. For years, I hated you. But I can’t help but forgive you…”

Rarity exhaled as she felt Twilight’s embracing her in return, as breathing became so easy for the first time since Twilight set hooves on her house, as a weight was lifted from her heart, a burden Rarity had got so used to over the decades, that she had mistaken it as a part of herself, although barely noticed till now.

…Rarity only realized she had been crying when her tears, streaming down Twilight’s neck she was clinging to, started flowing into her nose, causing her to choke and cough in a most unbecoming way. She found out Twilight was crying too, only when she finally realized that the shudders and sobs of the princess, who buried her nose in Rarity’s shoulder, were not merely her imagination.

It’s not proper for a princess to cry. Then again, it’s not proper for an, ahem, experienced, respectable business mare, to do so, either. But who could blame them?

Long after, Rarity broke the embrace first and looked back at the princess. With a soft smile, she wiped a tear from Twilight’s nose, causing her to smile too, embarrassed. Rarity realized she was mere inches from Twilight’s face now. And if Rarity wanted to kiss her right now, it would not be difficult. It would be oh so easy, in fact. And she was sure Twilight would follow her. But…

But Rarity didn’t want that anymore.

In this regard, it was all over for Rarity. That was Amethyst’s ship to sail now.

Rarity didn’t care much about that. She already had gotten much more than she hoped for. More than she deserved.

Now she would simply let Amethyst have all the princess’s love. It belonged to Rarity, long ago. But Rarity had something just as precious now.

Twilight was alive, corporeal! The mare she loved so dearly. Moreso, even after all these years Twilight was still Rarity’s–yes, hers and nopony else’s!–princess from the fairytale, who trusted her without any bounds, and forgave her even if nopony else in her place would.