Violets are Blue Chapter 6
Night had long since engulfed Canterlot by the time Lilo and Carbon reached the park, snuffing out the last rays of sunlight as the sun disappeared far beyond the treetops of the Everfree Forest. The moon rose in its stead, taking on the role of adding a dim light to the unnatural light that flooded the streets of the city from its many buildings and street lamps. Most of the city still remained awake, happily relaxing in their homes or closing up their businesses after another long and productive day, their lights easily filling their houses, apartments, and stores, while whatever was left over spilled into the streets to aid the street lamps in helping ponies find their way.
Carbon pushed open the gate into the park, holding it open for Lilo, who had changed into her Rosebud disguise before leaving the apartment. Carbon felt a little twang of pain as he watched her walk past, knowing that she chose to don the disguise for her own safety rather than personal preference or convenience. With ponies still feeling adamant over the changeling invasion two years ago, even after the princesses consistent reassurance that their integration has proven to be a strong success, it wasn’t being too careful for Lilo to remain hidden in public. She and thousands of other changelings had taken to using disguises wherever they go.
Closing the gate behind them, Carbon sighed and trotted after Lilo, quickly catching up to her and guiding her along a path that ran alongside the hilltop next to a small pond. Frogs croaked their throaty songs while bugs swooped down onto the water’s surface and took off again, leaving tiny ripples rolling up to the edges. The flowers all around them had closed their petals up for the night, hiding their beauty while waiting for the next day when the sun should return.
Lilo stopped at the edge of the pond and dipped the tip of her hoof in, then immediately recoiled when she felt the cold water send shivers up along her leg. Carbon stood behind her, staring at the ripples that her hoof left behind in the water.
“The water is pretty cold tonight,” Lilo observed, taking a step back. “Winters up here in the mountains get so much colder than down there on the plains. The snow is still plentiful and you can see your breath clearly, but not as much during the year compared to up here.”
“Not quite as much heat is retained up here,” Carbon said. “The air isn’t as pressurized as the air down there, meaning that the molecules aren’t so compacted.”
“You’ve gotten pretty good at explaining things like a pony rather than a scientist,” Lilo giggled, bumping her side up against his. “Just a year ago I would have been lost in the majority of your explanations when it came to general physical phenomena.”
“But hey, look at you,” Carbon replied, chuckling himself. “You’ve taken to adopting and using a lot of scientific terms and analogies yourself.”
“Only because you’ve hammered it into my mind on so many occasions,” Lilo said dramatically. “ ‘Say this, Lilo! Don’t say that, Lilo! That’s not true, Lilo. This is true, Lilo.’ “
“Alright, I get it,” Carbon huffed. “I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to classifying and using words and phrases.”
Lilo wrapped her tail up in his and nuzzled her cheek against his neck. “But you’re my stickler and I enjoy you teaching me all of the knowledge that you’ve picked up from your studies at the university.” She purred when Carbon lay his cheek on top of her head. “So, Carbon? What did you want to show me here?”
Carbon remained quiet for a while, content with staring at the moon’s reflection in the pond. With the bugs continuously bouncing off of the water, the moon looked as though its surface rolled along with the surface of the water, its dull moonlight glimmering back into his eyes.
“Let’s go for a walk, Lilo,” Carbon said, gesturing with his wing over to a path that wound its way into a tunnel beneath a canopy of trees.
Together, Carbon and Lilo made their way over to the tunnel, their hooves muffled by the soft dirt path underneath them. The trees all around them varied in species, ranging from maples with their red and yellow leaves falling onto the ground to magnificent oaks, their leaves, too, changing colors with winter approaching. The colors were much harder to see in the dark, especially now that the canopy above them shrouded them from the moonlight’s glare. Carbon crept closer to Lilo, putting a wing around her.
“Uh, Lilo?” Carbon asked, looking around him. “Do you think you could lead me through here?”
Lilo looked up at him, her green eyes shining in the dim light. She giggled and scooted herself closer to him, taking the initiative to drag Carbon along the path.
“Thanks,” Carbon said. He paused for a moment, letting them walk along in silence until he finally added, “You know, it’s been nearly two years since we first met each other.”
“Has it been two years already?” Lilo asked.
“It doesn’t feel like it, does it? It seems as if only a few months ago we were kissing each other back in that restaurant. Now we’re living together, planning our futures together, making each other happy.” Carbon felt himself pulled in another direction as Lilo helped him along the path. “Remember the day we first met? In the market place.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Lilo said wistfully.
“I… I remember walking into the marketplace and seeing you sitting between those two stalls totally out of place.” Carbon said. “Not a single bit to your name, or even a place to stay while the rain fell among us. The days after the attack were hard on a lot of ponies, and I figured what harm could it be if I helped a pretty mare like you get back onto your hooves? I bet you could only imagine my surprise when I found out you were a changeling.”
Lilo smiled, although Carbon could not see in the darkness. He paused for a moment, then took a deep breath.
“Well, I guess you did kind of get the picture being that you were strapped down in my bed,” he chuckled. “But after that day I came to a realization. I don’t know what it was, or even if it was just your feeding playing tricks on my mind, but after hearing your story about your trek across the Broken Leylands and being a broodmother, I couldn’t imagine a changeling being anything else other than a pony. You’re no different from our neighbors, our co-workers, or even the princesses. You can feel pain, you can feel sadness, you know what it’s like to be happy, and most of all you can feel love. All you have is a slightly different anatomy.”
“Carbon, I… I don’t know what to say,” Lilo said quietly.
“Other ponies don’t understand, do they?” Carbon said, and he caught the faint outline of Lilo shaking her head. “Maybe I’m not one to comment, but after that day the changelings showed us that our princesses weren’t invincible and that the bearers of the Elements weren’t always as useful or powerful as they seemed. Chrysalis took all of the royalty prisoner and nearly took all of Canterlot as her own. Instead of using the brute force and tactics like the villains before, Chrysalis used cunning and infiltration to her advantage.” He sighed and now shook his own head. “And ponies believe that changelings are still up to their plan or that they are still following Chrysalis’s orders from two years ago.”
“I wish they would just listen or… or give us a chance,” Lilo said. “We’re not the unintelligent or violent drones that everypony puts us out to be. Our feeding and lifestyles may be parasitic in nature, but it’s the only way that we can stay alive. We don’t have a choice.”
“I know, Lilo,” Carbon said as he put his wing around her back. “There is nothing different between you and I, and I want you to know that whatever those ponies say out there that they’re wrong. You’re as much a pony as they are, or as I am, or as the princesses are. That’s why I wanted to bring you here and show you something.”
They exited the tree tunnel and came to a path that led up the hill. A massive weeping willow tree sat at the top, its branches hanging low and creating a large dome beneath it to shelter a bench. Carbon broke from Lilo’s side and trotted up the hill, urging her to pick up her speed behind him. Lilo grunted as the path quickly steepened as they neared, but once they cleared it she froze with her mouth hung slightly open.
Beyond the hill sat a beautiful view of Canterlot. For the hill being small, it was possible to see out over the roof tops of the poor and middle district houses, giving way to the terraced streets of the rich district. Lights sprung up from the cracks between the houses, putting on a magnificent display similar to that of Hearths Warming Eve when the streets are ladened with tons upon tons of colorful lights. However, two buildings in particular caught Lilo’s eye.
Canterlot University shone brightly atop of its massive hill in the rich district. Its floating buildings attached to enormous chains bobbed agonizingly slow in the air, and the lights from classes being still in session shone like beacons in all directions. However, more impressively stood the castle, standing much higher than even the highest floating building of the university. Canterlot Castle pierced into the sky, its many towers lit up from the inside like a lighthouse and the colors from its walls still visible even during the night.
“Lilo,” Carbon began, standing next to her, “the beauty that you have shown me, the determination and tenderness, rivals that of the one thing that stands out as a beacon to all of Equestria.” He weakly lifted his hoof towards the castle. “The differences between you and I don’t matter when it comes to the thing that we share between us. Love isn’t a food or a range of emotions, it’s a way of life between ponies, an unbreakable and eternal bond. You have something that ponies will go their entire lives without seeing. I’ve felt it and seen it every day that I’m with you.”
Carbon turned and opened one of his wings, reaching in and pulling out the silver horn ring Naroke had given to him. He held it up in one of his hooves for Lilo to see, who squeaked and covered her mouth, her eyes watering.
“You’re special to me,” Carbon continued, “more special than anypony else in the world. I want to hold you close, I want to see your smiling face every morning, I want to see the day when you no longer have to wear that disguise with me. I want to grow old with you and watch as the world grows around us.” He smiled and held the ring up higher. “Lilo, will you marry me?”
Lilo looked Carbon right in the eyes, her senses going wild as she felt the love radiating out of him like nopony she had felt before. Her whole body tingled and shook, and she felt warmth creeping through her like soup crawling down somepony’s throat on a cold night. Her heart filled with Carbon’s love, almost to the point where she thought it would explode.
Sitting in front of her was the ultimate token or symbol of commitment and love. Lilo would be set for life with a permanent source of food, she would have a pony who would do anything in his power to protect her, but most importantly she would have a pony who would love her with every ounce of his heart he could muster. Compared to the food or the protection, Carbon’s unconditional love remained unparalleled, and Lilo rushed up to hug him in the tightest hug she could muster.
“Yes, Carbon!” Lilo shouted, her disguise dropping. “I will marry you.”