//------------------------------// // Pillow Talk (revised and edited) // Story: The Stars That Circle the Moon // by Swaglestia //------------------------------// The Stars That Circle the Moon Entry Two: Pillow Talk (revised and edited) ------------ Two bodies collapsed onto the bed in a tangled heap of fevered rapture, every inch of their frame ablaze despite the darkness of the room. Each bottomless, spent heave of their chests made the mattress below them creak like a decrepit old ship and it shrilled even more so when they writhed their way towards each other to intertwine yet again. Post-passion had rendered them into a couple of desperate magnets as they grasped and squeezed under the covers with sharp need to be held. Clasped together in the still of the afterglow, the palpable heat that radiated between them was of no concern. Time passed, as it always does, and the hands of the clock coaxed them from their bliss-induced inebriation. The maddening flame dwindled down to a dim wispy flicker as heaves quieted into complacent, satisfied sighs. Descending from the highest dominion of pleasure to the soft pastures of innocent intimacy was a slow progression, not unlike the day easing unnoticed into the night. One of the pair extended their limbs in a stretch, expended muscles crying in relief. Curling back up against the other, she looked up. "Luna?" "Hmm?" "I have a question, if you don't mind." The voice was of a pony who had just reached their prime. Young and eager, but articulate and beyond their years. "I have an answer." This voice was mature, unwavering, dark. It reminded the younger one of silk with the smooth way each word landed upon her ears. "It's kind of..." The smaller one chewed her lip as she mused, needing to consider her word choice with precision and empathy in mind. "Personal." The reply was an ardent nuzzle and a trifling, but genuine, laugh. The darker mare leaned into her partner's ear as if telling a secret in a crowded room, voice nothing more than a whisper. "I do believe we have been as personal with each other as possible, Twilight Sparkle." A red wave of shyness cast itself on the younger one's cheeks as a shiver slithered from her horn to her tail. She pulled away in reflexive embarrassment but failed to get very far, stronger hooves reeling her back into an embrace. "I was just wondering," she continued, composing herself as she felt the older one grin and nestle into the crook of her neck, warming her to the core. "What was it like?" "What dost tho-" The older one blinked and shook her head. "What do you mean?" "How was the..." Hesitation. The careful assembly of the right diction. This subject was a mere step away from the ledge already and one false would be all it needed to take the plunge straight down into oblivion. "T-the moon. You never talk about it." The smile that pressed along her neck jerked away. "And for good reason." Guilty stupidity smacked the smaller one in the face, wincing to herself in recoil. It was like she had blurted the wrong answer in front of an entire class with triumphant pride or ruined a day's worth of hard work with one heedless step. She blushed again, shame replacing giddiness. "Oh! I'm sorry..." Silence. The once placid quiet was now dethroned by a muteness that felt more like humidity, saturated and cumbersome as it bloated the air. Only the restless sound of bedsheets stirring next to her and leaves crackling against the window remained, their silhouette projecting uneasy shadows on the floor. Somewhere in the distance, an overnight train pulled into the town's station. "I do not remember much." "Huh?" "The moon, Twilight Sparkle." The older one drew in a long breath, as if anticipating something. "I fail to recall most of it." "Do you remember anything at all?" "Insatiable and curious as always, I see." She gave a curt chuckle, but the carefree tone that once rang through the room had turned forced and disdainful. Her eyes were half-lidded and distant, but as intense as ever. "However, I suppose thou deservest to-" She halted and pursed her lips, a vexed huff escaping them. "I mean, you deserve to know." "You don't have to correct yourself around me." The younger one grazed her partner's cheek with a chaste kiss, hoping to provide a smidgen of something that at least resembled comfort. "Plus, I kinda like it." The older one attempted to smirk but it was strained and faltering, an esoteric breed of boundless grief and affliction bubbling at the surface. Closing her eyes, she began with a sigh. "'Twas cold, my love; very, very cold." Her voice held no pitch, no influx of raw emotion that usually surged out when uttering amity such as this. "I felt hollow, as if there was a void I besought to fill. Plagued by the same loneliness that morphed me. Anger, blackness; 'tis all I am able to recall." Now sitting up, the smaller one's ears perked in fascination. "All of that for an entire millennium?" "Think of it as slumber, but dreaming in emotions as opposed to images." The younger one's voice raised a few octaves in excitement despite the grim circumstances, her perpetual thirst for knowledge accidentally countering sympathy. "And what about Nightmare Moon?" The older one hesitated for a moment, something bizarre flashing across her face. "...What about the wretched thing?" "Were you conscious when she had control?" She flinched. "Thou doth ask far too many questions." A nervous snort spouted from the younger one's nose as she cursed her incessant probing. "Heh. So I've been told." The silence returned with a vengeance, this time even more copious and wearisome. There was a ticking clock that had previously gone unobserved, but at that moment every tock may as well have been the thunderous clamoring of a church bell. The younger one attempted to distract herself by looking at anything and everything in the room, but found that situations were considerably harder to avoid in the confines of her bed. After what seemed like an eternity, the older one broke the silence, but just barely. "What was it like?" "What was what like?" "Before thou camest to Ponyville and obtained friendship?" "Well," she said, but then paused, mulling over the sudden question with sincere effort. "I felt cold and hollow, like there was a void in me. I was lonely, angry..." The older one's smile returned. ------------ Author's Note: I know, I know. Nothing special or remarkable. Just a few additions and smoothed-out prose. And I'm still not satisfied with this at all. Haha.