It was hard to let go. I wanted to keep my forelegs wrapped around her just a bit longer. I guess it was that darn responsible side of me, reminding me that it was past three in the morning, and I had to be up in six hours. She needed to sleep too, so I loosened my grip to set her back down on the floor. Running one hoof along her cheek caused a ghost of a smile to flicker across her lips.
“Goodnight Ash, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Don’t worry about the bad dreams, Luna will watch over you.”
We played the same game as always. I’d watch, waiting for her to go inside her apartment. Wreathed in a gray glow, her keys floated out and unlocked the door, and she turned expectantly, waiting for me to go back down the stairs. That look called out to me. I’m a grown mare you know. You don’t have to look after me all the time. As she looked on I retreated to the stairs and began to walk down, but didn't let the door out of my sight until it closed with her on the other side.
Click, clack, click, clop. Hooves on concrete stairs. The sound of me starting to make my way back home, accompanied only by the cicadas and the breeze. Two miles down a long hill back in to the city. There had to be something about that night that struck me on a level too deep to understand. Far enough outside of the complex that no one would hear me as I went along my way, I began to quietly sing a sad song.
It felt so natural, but I had to wonder why I was doing so. What about my night left me in such a pensive mood? The past hours had been some of the best in my life. Friends over, food and drink cooked and shared, conversations given freely and in good fellowship. We had made merry late into the night, but soon the hour grew late, and they left one by one. Ash and I stayed, to keep each other company as the night wore on.
It was...cozy, sitting next to her as time passed us by, and perhaps too much so. When I realized we were both falling asleep, I knew it was time to take her back home. When we got outside, the air was cool for the first time I could remember in the better part of a month. The sheet of clouds in the sky was thin, barely holding back any of the silver moonlight from pouring down upon us. All the world lay in shades of dark blue and gray, save for bits of silver where water or glass lay on the pavement. Too bright, I suppose, for a night, but she was beautiful in it.
That same moonlight looked down on me alone as I went back the way I came. A strong breeze blew through the trees to ruffle my tail, and as cool as it was, it still was not enough to make me shiver. Just enough to make my mind wander with the swaying of the trees as I walked. They never really got anywhere.
It was all I needed, lost in thoughts that chased their own tails in hopes of finding tales. Lack of sleep could make my thoughts become incoherent, but it was too bright, and I was moving too fast to be sleepy. Walking swiftly would make the trip take twenty minutes instead of forty…
Hissing sounded from a few dozen paces ahead. Adrenaline coursed through my limbs and I spread my stance wide, wings flared and eyes searching in a panic. Every bit of that excitement died to be filled with calm as the sprinklers on the next lawn up sputtered and came to life. That same wind was blowing the spray back towards the sidewalk, so I hopped down into the street to continue on my way.
A late night runner jogged past, filling the night with noise as her hooves clacked on the concrete. I looked up, but didn't wave. She didn't even look up.
Further down the road, a chariot parked on the side caught my gaze. They were the most mundane sight in a city this large. I must have passed a hundred since leaving for home. This one however, still had its lights on. Nopony wanted to see a young stallion getting into a chariot not his own at three in the morning. Good luck explaining to the guards how I was just trying to stop the battery from dying. It would be just about as good of an idea to knock on the door of the adjacent house in hopes of getting the owner to fix his own problem. Better to leave him to deal with it in the morning.
Two more blocks and I would be home, and this time when the hissing started, it failed to elicit so much as an iota of surprise. One simple turn of the head to make sure my eyes agreed with my ears as to where it was, then back along my way. Sprinklers in yet another yard, too close now to bother slowing down to look. Every step was one familiar now, from being walked a thousand times before.
Out front of my apartment, the wrought-iron lamp cast its glow for me to find the door in. I was so glad my roommate had talked me into replacing the bulbs a few days ago. Holding keys in my teeth was simple task, as was twisting my head into a slightly cocked, if awkward position. The cold smell of iron filled my nostrils and ran along my tongue, and then I was inside in the warmth of my home. My roommates were gone for the weekend, and that was just fine with me. Odd...since when did I ever like being alone? Perhaps that’s what’s wrong...
The clock read three-thirty, leaving me to acknowledge that I’d stayed up way too late for a nine AM wake up, and to realize that I really didn't care. Each and every one of those who I had given my time to that night was well worth it. After setting my alarm, I plopped myself in bed and pulled the cover up close. My eyes didn't want to close yet, so I looked out the window, and up to the half-moon now in the open sky.
“Luna...and Celestia...I just want to thank you for my friends. For Page. For Fuse. For Willow. For Scribe. For Probe. And especially for Ash. Thank you for bringing them all here, and for keeping me in their hearts. I’m sorry...for how quickly I got angry with Scribe earlier today. He didn't deserve that, and I was wrong to do so. If I could ask something of you, please grant Ash peaceful sleep and sweet dreams. Goodnight.”