“…Maybe I don’t have much time left to share with you, darling,” Rarity winked at Princess as she poured tea into cups, “but at least you have somepony to accompany you after the moment you have to let me go when my time comes.”
“Rarity, how can you talk about it like that?” Twilight resented. Rarity said nothing. She just seated the princess by the tea table, and now was really serving her as if Twilight was a real regal person. “You… I don’t know, you must be jealous!” Twilight was keeping protesting. “In those romantic stories I rea–” Twilight stammered and blushed so cutely again. “I mean which, um, I have in my library, and I, um, studied them from the point of story… Or maybe a bit to know how I should deal with you… I-it is meant for everyone who are in the same position as yours, to always be jealous!”
“Darling,” Rarity smiled at her with her most lovely smile after she had put down the kettle and sat down by Twilight’s side. “Is it allowed for regular ponies like me to be jealous of a princess clearly loved by everyone?”
Twilight tilted her head skeptically, waiting for an explanation.
“Come on, taste it already,” Rarity changed the subject instead. “I tried my best for you, after all. You’ve been wanting to taste my tea for a thousand years, haven’t you? At least down there in the boutique, you didn’t try.”
“You haven’t lived a thousand years ago,” Twilight replied. “I may have wanted to taste it not before you was born.”
“Does it change things in any way?” asked Rarity, head on her front legs, enjoying the beautiful view of Twilight, slightly embarrassed, drinking tea the unicorn just made in small sips.
A couple sips later, Twilight put down her cup, and looked for a moment, skeptically, to Rarity, pretending to be trying to find arguments, but in the end she could not resist smiling happily and laughed. The same familiar laugh that eternity before in the library, captured the heart of then young unicorn.
“You haven’t changed a bit, Rarity,” giggled the princess.
“Oh, darling, you’re probably the first mare who isn’t noticing my age in such a case! I’m pretty flattered to hear this. Especially from you!”
Twilight turned red in reply to Rarity’s flirting smile.
“Darling, you’re going to have a blushing meltdown right here again?”
“I told you once! I’m not having a blushing meltdown!” Twilight tried to retort, but Rarity could swear to her love for the princess, that was exactly what she was having.
“Oh yes,” the unicorn continued teasing her, “I remember. That day when I accidentally confessed my love to you.”
“Seriously? You can’t count that! I was so surprised by your confession, and we just have been saved from chaos magic, or specifically, you saved me…”
Sweet heavens, she still remembers it.
“You…” Rarity almost choked, “you still consider it this significant too?”
“Was you thinking for a second I can ever forget your confession? In general, the f-first confession in my life? Rarity, do you really think I’m that bad…?”
Oh, there it is.
“Don’t tell me, Twilight, I’m your first love, okay?” Rarity looked away, already knowing the answer. The silence was more eloquent than any words.
Rarity giggled quietly and waited for a few seconds more. And her expectations were met precisely.
“Uh, yes? I mean no! I don’t know!” Twilight barely caught a breath. “With everyone else, it… It was completely different. I didn’t feel so… so happy. I… I-I really don’t know, Rarity. I needed to study this problem, because… So many new things, my head is spinning!” Twilight sighed. “But there’s one thing I still don’t understand… Why? Why, Rarity?”
“Why what?” the unicorn looked at her, noticing how Twilight’s smile faded.
“I mean, you couldn’t have lied now. You’re still keeping some feelings. Wh-why then did you decide to abandon me after all this?”
What are she talking about?!
Rarity took a few moments to figure out what Twilight was wanting to hear.
“T-Twilight, darling! You must be mistaken! I never ever thought about abandoning you, until you–”
“Why then you stopped writing me?”
“Me!?” Rarity nearly jumped away from Twilight, who was looking so offended, that it even could be felt physically. “But it was you who told me you wouldn’t write me again!”
“What?” It was Twilight’s time to be surprised. “When? How?”
“It was that fourth letter of yours! “This is the last time I write”, “I don’t know how to say it”, that’s what you–”
“Wait a minute. You mean…” Twilight thought for a moment. “Are you talking about that letter? I… wait, couldn’t I…”
Twilight’s horn illuminated for a moment, and a scroll appeared in front of her in a flash of teleportation. She quickly skimmed over it and showed it to Rarity.
“This one? It’s the fifteenth draft. It’s a little different from the sixteenth version I actually sent to you, but it’s basically the same. Where do I say this?”
Rarity looked at the painfully familiar handwriting and the very phrase that put an end to their relationship decades ago. She almost said yes, right there, in the very first phrase… But for the first time in decades, she realized that she wanted to read further.
And she read it.
“Oh heavens… What a terrible mistake I made…” Rarity folded her front legs in front of her and let her head rest on them. “If, for a single time, I tried…”
Twilight had it been written about many things. Her chest and how it hurts. Her research on phantom pains. Chaos magic. Themis and Elara, the curse, the letters, her fears… And how much she misses Rarity.
How much she trusts her.
How she would tell her everything when Rarity would come back.
And how she had no doubt it would happen.
…But that did not happen. Because of Rarity.
When the storm of feelings in the heart of the unicorn subsided to the level she could get her together, she raised her head and looked blankly at Twilight. She wasn’t crying now: all the tears about this were shed decades ago.
“You shouldn’t have forgiven me,” she said quietly.
“Why?” Twilight asked, confused.
“If I read your letter to the end just a single time… Everything could have been completely different.” Unicorn lowered her head again.
“You… You didn’t read…?” Twilight was looking quite surprised.
“Do you actually think the drama queen like me was able to read beyond the first phrase?” Rarity murmured. “Letters starting like this are marking the end of everything, not things like “I miss you” or something.”
“Oh, I forgot that you are who you are, Rarity… Should I have started it other way? I… I really didn’t know. I checked several books about writing letters, but there was nothing about what I wanted to say…”
Twilight’s defensive mumbling helped Rarity to bring herself back to normal.
“You know, Twilight,” finally said Rarity. “Because you had started this letter with such words… I mean, if I ever had finished reading it, the first thing I would have written in response would be something like “Twilight, if you read this, I’m no longer alive,” and…” Rarity made a dramatic pause and enjoyed the perplexed look of the princess. “And,” she continued, “only at the very end I would clarify that I’m no longer alive, because without you, it’s not a life, but a mere existence!”
Twilight sat, puzzled, for a few more moments, and then giggled nervously a couple times. “Am I really that bad at writing letters?” She tilted her head.
“Not bad, Twilight. Absolutely terrible,” Rarity smiled.
“I… I think I should ask your forgiveness too.”
Rarity laughed triumphantly, and Twilight followed her. It was so relaxing, and Rarity again noticed that Twilight’s laugh, so soft and slightly shy, had not changed in all these years too.
In the end, the princess, still smiling, peacefully laid her chin on the table, ignoring Rarity’s protests, and stretched her hoof forward.
“Ow! Twilight, where are your manners? Careful! Don’t break it!” Rarity barely had time to pick up the cup Twilight nearly pushed off the table, with her magic. “This is the tea set from Canterlot! They said, “it only fits for a princess,” so I bought it and promised myself I would ever since drink tea with you only using it! It would be a shame if you break it before I die!”
Twilight chuckled and closed her eyes happily. That’s how she remembered Rarity, and Rarity had not deceived the expectations. She, teasing the unicorn, stretched her hoof a little further, touched Rarity’s coat, and playfully gazing from the bottom up at her fake frown, whispered slyly:
“If you leave this world, then…” she took a breath, “Then I promise it’ll be because I rob you of your heart!”
Rarity nearly choked, but looking at Twilight’s veeeery embarrassed face, she managed to gain control on herself.
“Well. How many times did you practice this phrase, darling?”
“Um…” Twilight looked caught. “Am I that bad at you-speak?” Rarity silently agreed, so Twilight had no other way than to confirm. “About fifteen? Or more like twenty? I didn’t count, Rarity…”
The unicorn laughed victoriously.
“Oh, you’re incorrigible, Twilight. I guess I should be a mentor not just for Amethyst, but also for you. Because in matters of the “heart”, you, light of my soul, understand absolutely nothing.”
“Uh…” a sudden voice came by the door. “Belove– uh… Twilight? Rarity? Am I interrupting?” Amethyst, who seemed to have been standing near the room’s entrance for a long time, finally decided to draw attention to herself.
“Oh,” Twilight flinched and looked at Rarity, and then at Amethyst. “We need to go already?”
“If you’re asking…” Amethyst hesitated. “We planned to go to Hollow Shades today and see what we can do to Princess Luna’s curse, remember? But if you’re not ready, I can change the tickets…”
“Oh, no, Amethyst,” Twilight shook her head. “Give me a second. Mind if I go, Rarity? I... I-I’m very grateful to you for everything. For everything you did for me. And… I’ll definitely come back to you as soon as I’m in Ponyville again! I promise.”
“No problem, darlings. Go in peace, you both have a lot of adventures to have, and I’ll be always waiting for you here. All right?”
“All right, Rarity!” Twilight and Amethyst said almost simultaneously.
When the sound of their hooves left the boutique, Rarity sighed and finally finished her cup of tea. Now the two of them would freely travel all over Equestria, and Rarity would be waiting for their return in the boutique. Just like Twilight had been waiting for Rarity in the library.
Now, Rarity had not been regretting at all that everything had turned out this way. At least if Twilight would keep returning again and again. She promised, right?
And Rarity would be happy of each her visit, as many times as her life would allow.
For Twilight, a thousand times over.