//------------------------------// // A Mirror of Perfection // Story: We are our Habits // by Agarwaen //------------------------------// Glorious, it’s the only word you can use to describe this. The sheer size of Luna’s moon, as it hangs just over the horizon, is overwhelming. For some unknown reason, the normally white celestial body is instead giving off a bright orange glow. You plop down on a nearby cumulus, content just to take the sights in from its plush, cool embrace. Scooting to the edge of your heavenly bedding, a flash of light from below catches your eye. When you look down, the view that graces your eyes is indescribable. The one thing that you do know, is that everypony in the world should get a chance to see this primal beauty. But time is short, neither nature, nor heavens will wait for onlookers. Sliding forward off of the cloud you called phil, you pull into a steep dive beating your wings as fast and powerful as possible. At this speed, the air itself seems to be fighting back against your movement. You turn your head back to take one last look at the scene you had been admiring; at this angle it is nothing out of the ordinary. As your gaze returns forward, you are surprised to see that the ground is much closer than expected. The trees of Whitetail woods are barely 50 hooves below you when you begin to pull up. The gravitational force of changing flight direction at this speed is excruciating. You can feel your muscles strain against the pressure to hold your wings outstretched. A chill is sent from the tips of your wings, all the way up your spine as cold water droplets form and are immediately blown off of the furthest tips of your longest primaries, leaving two trails of white condensation in the air behind you. When you finally level out, the sight before your eyes is a sea of endless green, blurred beyond recognition by your immense speed. Every so often the tickle of a passing leaf catches one of your hooves as you skim along the treetops back towards town. The forest quickly gives way to the organized gridding system of a maintained orchard. You can see the plumage of the massive oak tree that is the Ponyville library before you can even see the town over large orchard trees. As you pass into Ponyville proper you dip below the rooftops, barely feet from the ground and still carrying immense speed. You swerve around a small purple bipedal fellow with an outrageous moustache; his white hat is pulled along in your wake and strikes a rear leg as you pass. When you reach, what you believe is a safe stopping distance from the library door your wings flare and you press your hooves into the ground. It’s easy to see that you misjudged your speed as your hooves slide along the dirt road towards the door of the arboreal archive. Fearing the worst, you pull your forehooves up to, hopefully, cushion your impact into the hard-wood entrance. *THUD* A pair of small screams come through the library door not long before it is flung open in a purple magical aura. Up until this point, you had been catching your breath and steeling your nerves with your forehooves pressed into the supportive structure. With your balance broken, it is your turn to scream, as you tumble into the library on your face. “You should really learn to knock correctly.” Twilight’s voice emerges from a room to your right, followed abruptly by the purple magician herself. From your position on the unpolished hard-wood floor, you clearly see the two mares you left here earlier do a double take. A sigh escapes Twilight’s mouth as her horn lights up with her lavender aura. A small teacup levitates its way out of the room she had just emerged from, a trail of steam following behind it slowly. Nurse Redheart quickly trots over to you and cranes her neck down close to you. “Are you alright?” Before you can stand up or reply, the annoyed purple pony cuts you off. “Don’t worry about him. Between Rainbow Dash and Ditzy, pegasi crash into my library at least once a day. I can’t recall one instance when they’ve gotten injured.” “Yeah, I’m fine. I just misjudged my speed,” you say, motioning with your head to the 25 hoof long skid mark outside the door. Twilight was pre-occupied with her tea, and couldn’t be bothered to respond. The mare of your affection, on the other hand was quite shocked. “What had you in such a hurry?” “I had something that I thought you would like to see. And I don’t think it will last long. We won’t be able to enjoy it from the ground, though.” You turn towards the door, motioning for the mare to climb on your back. You can feel her pulling herself up over your rump and onto your back ever so gently, as if she thinks you would break if she were more vigorous. It really is quite cute. Your mind explodes with joy when she wraps her forelegs around your neck. The warmth over her body pressed fully up against yours fills your entire being with feeling of bliss. Once the warm white mare is situated, you start into a full gallop towards the door. “Thanks, Twilight!” The pink maned pony yelled over your shoulders as you exited the library, the door closing itself behind you. “Hold on,” you say, unfurling your powerful wings; it only takes two flaps before you are flying back towards what you hope is still a beautiful view. Each flap of your wings propels you higher and faster, the extra weight of Nurse Redheart’s lean body is barely noticeable. As your altitude increases, so does the strength of the white mare’s grip around your neck. You can feel her heart racing, and the uneasy quivering of her breathing. When she presses her head firmly into your neck, you slow your pace considerably. “You’re afraid of heights aren’t you?” The only answer you get is her face sliding up and down the sensitive hairs on your neck. It’s difficult supress your laughter from her unintentional tickling, but it’s hard to imagine how much it would hurt if she thought you were laughing at her fear.You wrap your forelegs around hers, gripping them firmly. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” Her grip tightens and then loosens at your reassurance. Reaching the far edge of the whitetail woods, you begin spiralling upwards in order to reach the cumulus you were resting on earlier. It’s not long before you are, once again, standing near the edge of the puffy cloud; the natural scene of perfection before your eyes doesn’t seem to have changed at all. In fact, you’d swear that the mare in the moon just winked at you. “Our night is for lovers.” A regal mare’s voice pushes into your consciousness. Quickly, you look around and see nopony else around. Just you and the white mare pressed up against your back, her eyes tightly shut. You turn back to her and nuzzle her face softly. “We’re here. It would be a shame if we came all this way and you didn’t at least open your eyes to see what I wanted to show you.” Hopefully that was as comforting as it sounded in your head. You gently lay down on the wisp of cool water vapour below you, and rest your head on your forehooves content to take in the situation. The dichotomy of sensations at this moment is amazing; on one side of your body, the cool embrace of your heavenly cushion, and on the other the endless warmth provided by the mare on top of you. Nurse Redheart begins to shimmy around on your back, loosening her grip on your neck and scooting backwards off your flank. “Wait!” you yell as you flare your wings, and grip onto her forhooves tightly with your own. “We’re up on a cloud, very high in the air.” “Calm down, Twilight cast a spell on me that allows me to interact with clouds like a Pegasus for a day.” Her voice was unexpectedly composed for a pony that nearly choked you earlier, even though you wouldn’t admit it. “And you trust her?” “She’s Princess Celestia’s star pupil. When it comes to magic, everypony trusts her.” “Ok,” you concede, “but be careful, it’s really easy to lose your footing and fall.” The white nurse continues to slowly slide off of your back until all four hooves are firmly resting against the cloud. You watch her every movement. Thankfully, she is taking your advice to heart, and is slowly moving up beside you staring at her hooves the whole way. “This is like walking on Jello,” she says as she lays down next to you. “Ooh! Its cold!” The white mare sidles tightly up to you, shivering. You wrap your wing around her, even tucking the tip under her belly. “You know, I didn’t bring you up here for you to fidget around with the cloud all night.” While you did find her poking and prodding of the cloud adorable, the moon wouldn’t wait forever. “But I’ve never seen a cloud up close before, let alone sit or lay on one.” “And you’ll probably never see something like that again.” Stretching a hoof out, you point at the scene that still brings awe to you. When the white mare finally pulls her gaze from the white wisp below you, a gasp of amazement reaches your ears. Surrounded by a sea of twinkling stars, Luna’s moon is larger than it’s ever seemed to be; it must cover half of the western sky. Its orange glow bathes the landscape in light not unlike a candle’s. Looking down further, a large, pristine lake has formed at the end of a small river running down from the Swayback mountains. The mirror like surface of the water perfectly reflects the moon’s image. Directly below you, a field of grass slopes sharply away from the highland lake shielding it from the light of the moon, giving the illusion of blackness. In the shadows, hundreds of fireflies flash before your eyes. Above you, and below you are mirror images of the wonders of Luna’s Night. “I think I understand why you like the night so much, now.” The white mare beside you finally broke her trance, but her statement leaves you confused. “What do you mean? I do enjoy this, but this is the first time I’ve ever been outside during the night.” “This morning, when I told you that you talk in your sleep, you were talking about how beautiful the night sky was. It sounded like something a poet would write.” “Hm. I guess my brain knew I enjoyed this even before I knew... Still, any pleasure I get from this,” You motion a hoof infront of you. “is infinitesimal compared to what I feel when I look at you.” “You said that too.” “Oh… Well, I guess my brain knew it before I did.” The mare at your side lets out a short giggle at your repetition. “You know, that was really corny.” You’re not quite sure if she was kidding, and let out a quiet sigh as your heart sinks a little. “I know, but it’s the truth,” you say, meekly. “And that didn’t really help.” This time, her light-hearted tone doesn’t even register in your mind. Disappointed in yourself for thinking that this was a good idea, you turn your head away from the mare beside you and place it back onto your forehooves. “Yeah. Maybe this whole thing is a bit corny.” Not wanting to see the world around you anymore, you let your eyes drift closed. “It’s ok, I think it’s beautiful. It was a sweet gesture.” As Nurse Redheart softly speaks, she nuzzles your neck reassuringly. “Really?” Pulling your head off of your hooves, you turn to see the white mare next to you cast in the light of the moon. As it left the horizon and made its way across the sky, its colour has changed to the purest white. The collection of dew on your coats shimmers brightly. You’ve never seen the pink maned pony any more beautiful than she is now, under your wing, under the moonlight. Returning your gaze, she plants a quick kiss on your lips before resting her head against your neck with a contented sigh. You can feel her whole body erupt in a quick shiver, spraying tiny droplets of water all over you. “You must be getting pretty cold up here. Maybe we should go.” As much as you want this to last forever, you would really hate yourself if she got sick from being up here too long. “I am. I really want to stay, though. It’s been so long since I’ve just sat and admired the beauty of our world, the perfection of the sky, and the perfection a pony that invokes these emotions in me.” If it were possible for your heart to literally explode with joy, you’re sure it would have at this point. Her shivering has caused her mane to shift over her right eye. Reaching out a hoof, you brush it back over her ear revealing her brightly shining, ice-blue eyes. As you run your hoof from her ear down her jawline to her cheek, her own hoof meets yours, holding it softly against her face. The way her sapphire eyes gleam in the moonlight draws you in closer until your lips are pressed together in a kiss. This is a moment you know that you will never forget. Everything other than the mare beside you ceases to exist. The softness of her lips, the warmth of her tongue and the extraordinary taste that she leaves behind make this one moment of perfect serenity. When the kiss is broken a long moment of silence follows, both of you content to simply gaze into the other’s eyes. The white mare scoots over closer to you and lays her head on your neck. “Please, just hold me. I don’t want to leave. I just want to enjoy this.” Rolling over onto your side, you wrap your legs around her and pull her in close. Her coat feels so cold against yours. Extending both wings, you wrap her in a cocoon of your warm feathers from the neck down. With a sigh of contentment she nuzzles deeper into your neck. Her hot, humid breath tickles your sensitive coat. You press your chin against the top of her head, enjoying the sensations that echo through your being. In this embrace, you’re not sure how much time passes, but sometime later it became apparent that she had fallen asleep in your hooves. Your heart melted when you realised; this couldn’t be any more perfect.