//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Translucent Heart: Tales of a half breed // by Harmony Split //------------------------------// Epilogue It was a weird feeling, to say the least. The next few days passed in a blur, Purple Star and her wife helping us with our new home. Thanks to the princess’s orders and a few good bursts of magic, our new house was done quickly. It didn’t hurt that it looked exactly like Lavender’s home back in Manehattan, either. I knew she meant well, I knew that both princesses meant well, they were simply trying to make this place feel like home for us. On that one aspect, they—quite spectacularly—failed. It wasn’t because the house was not Lavender’s home. It wasn’t because I was trying to nitpick the fact the bookshelf was two inches to the left, or that the skyline was in a completely different position, it simply could never be the same. It wasn’t anything as weak, pathetic, or nitpicky as any of those things or a hundred other differences. It was for one reason and one reason only that this place didn’t feel like home to me; because only Lavender’s hooves felt that way to me anymore. We could have been living in a cardboard box, for all I cared. As long as I fell asleep every night in her hooves, as long as I got to kiss her first thing every morning, as long as she was by my side, wherever we were, that was my home. That was the only home that mattered to me, the only one that would ever matter to me. Although, the others were taking to the comforts without the same hiccups I had. Every day me and High Spirits would leave for work on the royal weather team, helping to keep Canterlot’s weather perfect twenty-four seven. I could tell she enjoyed her bed, the food, and the comforts that came with it. However, I could also see the signs of Electric Blue’s betrayal. Sure, to any outside observer it looked like she had moved on, she was happy, smiling, joking, and laughing just as much as the rest of us. She took to Lavender’s pregnancy almost as much as I did, helping the mare do everything so she didn’t ‘overexert’ herself and put undue hardship on the egg growing in her. It was under the surface, the way she’d stare off into space when me and Lavender would kiss, the way she’d just suddenly lose focus around any sign of love, of ponies being happy with their special someones. That’s where the hurt lived, and for the life of me, I knew no way to fix it. Purple, her wife, and even Luna tried to cheer her up. Even suggesting that she should search for a new lover, or even join a herd. I had no idea what a herd was, until she explained it, and High nearly blasted her through the wall. It was the last time anyone mentioned something like that again. Not to mention that Luna and Celestia had to threaten the Guards with extra duties so they wouldn’t restrain High. While the hurt High was going through was obvious to me, the one I couldn’t nail down was Rosewing. For the life of me she seemed fine. Every day I’d hear her laughing at some joke or another, I’d see the smile on her face, the joy she brought to everyone around her. I trusted her with my life, and the life of my love, Lavender, but I knew that couldn’t be it when it came to her. I knew that behind my back Rosewing and Princess Luna were planning our wedding, something she had been adamant about from the day we woke up in Canterlot. However, while I let them plan, I absolutely refused to give them a date for the wedding. I did this not because I was scared about marrying Lavender, quite the contrary in fact, but because I wanted to do it right, I still had yet to propose to the mare. While she had already agreed to marry me, I wanted that to be a night to remember. Afterwords, I didn’t care if the ceremony was the next day or a year from then. To that end they could make all the plans in the world. All that mattered to me was the look on her face when I asked if she’d be mine, and I hers, for the rest of our lives. I also tried to talk to Rosewing, several times to be exact, to get her to open up, express some sort of emotion over the tragedy we had all gone through. She’d just make a joke about it and move on, almost like she was just repressing everything that had happened. I think that scared me the most, just how well she adapted to our ‘new’ life, how easily she put our ‘old’ life behind us. As much as she’d deny it, to me she was in denial. I was scared of that. I knew, I just knew for the life of me that what we had wouldn’t last, that she wouldn’t just give up, even with us here. I was scared about Rosewing. When that other horseshoe dropped, she wouldn’t be there, not fully, and that could get someone killed. Lavender proved to be my rock. I wasn’t blind, I knew everyone—including myself—was treating her with care, trying to make sure she was always comfortable, never stressed, never worried, and while she took it with grace and love I knew her for, the truth was she was supporting the biggest lump of weight we had. She was supporting me. Every day I only got up because it meant I could kiss her one more time. I only went to work because she would smile and wish me a good day. I’d hurry home at the end of each day, knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she’d be there waiting for me. Often with sweets in hoof that she baked specially for me. It was a wasted effort, I already had the sweetest thing in the world; I had her. About once a week, Purple Star and her wife would swing by, they’d get together with us and share in the latest gossip about the princesses. We’d all laugh upon hearing some of the antics that her ‘most faithful student’ would get up to. I swear that they were grooming this Twilight Sparkle to be a princess or something. When I made that joke, Purple got quiet on me, I still don’t know why. It was one of those nights, Purple and Wave had just left for the day, leaving me and Lavender sitting on the couch. As usual, High Spirits had taken to the ‘spirits’ a little early and was already fast asleep, Rosewing was out on the town, enjoying an evening with Wave when she mentioned something about a new nightclub opening up. That left the unusual situation of me and Lavender, together, all alone in a big house. Not that we ever really cared about privacy. Let’s just say Lavender’s a screamer, and we all know it. I knew I’d remember that night for the rest of my life, because that was the night I first felt our little Electric kick. “Oh,” Lavender stated as she sat on the couch. I looked up at her, my head resting in her lap as the fireplace crackled in the corner of the room, “What’s wrong?” “I think… I think,” She put her hoof to her stomach. I sat up at that, “The egg? Is everything okay?” She smiled and grabbed my hoof. With care, she placed it on her stomach, a stomach that was even now showing the smallest, cutest little bulge to it. I felt it then, the smallest movement of a rounded surface against my hoof. The egg was moving inside her. Later, Lavender told me my smile brightened up the room as if the sun was in there with us, “How… how is this possible?” I asked, shocked but grinning like an idiot all the same. “Electric… she’s… she’s letting us know she’s there,” she stated with a grin. With a grin, I laid my head back down, pressing my ear against Lavender’s stomach to listen to our foal growing inside of her. I felt it again, the little kick of the egg against the inside of Lavender’s stomach, directly against my muzzle, “She kicked me,” I said jokingly. “What can I say? She’s a fighter, just like her mom.” “How can the egg move that early?” I asked. “Just because she didn’t grow much yet, it doesn’t mean that she isn’t there, just like with the foals of ponies,” she answered with a smile. I planted several kisses up and down Lavender’s stomach. In my mind’s eye I wasn’t kissing her stomach, I was kissing Electric, “You come out swinging, little one. There’s a big world out here, and together, we’ll kick it’s flank.” Lavender chuckled at that, “You know it’s still two months until I birth the egg, another three after before she’s ready to hatch.” “And she’s already kicking my flank,” I said with a grin as I felt the movement against my cheek one more time. “As long as she leaves something for me,” Lavender replied with a smile. I got up at that one and looked her in the eye. Together, we didn’t say a word, I simply leaned forward and kissed her, our lips meeting as the lovers they were. My hoof traveling through her mane and around the contours of her face. When I pulled back, I simply stared at her face. Here she was, the changeling, the pony, the soul I loved more than my own life. The one that was doing me the highest honor in the world and carrying our egg, our foal. Somehow, someway, this perfect mare, she loved me. For that alone, I’d lay down my life a hundred, a thousand times over. A tear fell down my face as I realized that she didn’t want that, she didn’t want any of that. All she wanted, the only thing she needed in this entire world was me by her side. That was the only thing she had ever asked me to promise her. And that was one promise I’d never break. No matter what the future would have ready for us.