Equine Fall

by ModMCdl

Inhibitions

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"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."
-Aristotle Onassis
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Inhibitions
Location Unknown

Twilight could never remember waking up in a more comfortable position, on a more comfortable pillow. It was like slipping out of Elysium, and going straight into heaven. She slowly cracked her eyes open, and was met with a very unusual blue swath of fur. 'That's funny, my pillow should not blue...' Opening her eyes further, she noticed that her blue pillow also had a- 'WOAH!'

Her body rocked upwards into a sitting position, putting as much distance between her head and Rainbow's lap as possible, with her cheeks burning furiously. It was strange how even after the apocalypse, Twilight found it embarrassing to see another pony's belly button. Rainbow Dash, of course, slept through the whole affair. Even after six years in hell, that pony managed to keep her uncanny ability to sleep through everything.

Glad that no one had seen her spastic actions, Twilight gently lay her head back down on the sleeping pegasus, glad that she had finally found her. 'Maybe I should admit my feelings to her now, before I lose her again... No! I won't lose her. We're sticking together.' Besides, it would probably be best to wait a little, She didn't mind as long as they were together. She snuggled her cheek back into the cyan tummy, causing Rainbow to giggle slightly in her sleep. Twilight smiled to herself and wrapped her legs around her partner waist. She really didn't mind waiting for a bit longer.

The comfort lasted for a little while longer, and the lavender alicorn managed to get a little more sleep. But soon, Rainbow started to stir, and eventually wake. Of course, this had to happen while Twilight was asleep, and had no warning to exit her embrace before she woke up completely.

"Uh, Twi?" The voice rang in her head, but the studious mind ignored it, instead choosing to squeeze her long-time love tighter. "Twilight?" The voice was louder now, and it attacked Twilight's brain, coercing her to listen. She slowly opened her eyes, finding to be met with magenta eyes that had a slightly confused look in them. The alicorn mumbled something about what Rainbow wanted, only to receive a slight chuckle in response as a puff of hot air blew out of her muzzle onto the pegasus's tummy. "Five more minutes..."

More giggling. "You comfy, Twi?" She opened her eyes again, and finally took into full account of the situation. 'Rainbow is awake, and I am cuddling with her tummy.' Twilight's face flushed and she quickly sat up, trying to pull it off as a casual stretch.

"Are you okay?" The question kind of startled her. Okay, maybe the sight of a princess of Equestria desperately gripping your torso to her face is a bit concerning. "Well," she began, desperately trying to be witty and sarcastic at the same time. "Besides nearly being killed by my long-lost friend, and recovering from what I think was a concussion, I'm A-OK!"

My comment caused a look of hurt and sadness to flash in the Alicorn crush's eyes. "I- I'm really sorry Twilight. It was just-" she paused, looking anywhere but Twilight. "I just had been through so much, so many changelings that disguised themselves as you- I just thought you were another one!" Rainbow began to open sob in front of her, and Twilight immediately regretted her choice of words. How stupid was she? Even Rainbow wouldn't joke about nearly killing someone when she had come so close to actually doing it!

"Rainbow," she said, leaning in to embrace her friend. "It's okay. I forgive you." Dash looked up at her, not truly trusting her words. "R- really?" her voice choked out that one word, the one word that seems to describe the feelings people have in every situation where they need to know the answer to something.

"Yes. I saw what you went through." Her gaze turned to disbelief. "I think it was Celestia."

Now it was Rainbow's turn to try and explain things to Twilight. "Twi, even I was around then to know that she died. I literally watched her hit the ground!" The Alicorn just stared back. "I know Rainbow, but I heard her, I heard her voice when I was 'dead' and I saw what you were going through!" She turned so that her entire body was facing the mare. "I watched myself die."

Those four words seem to have an impact on Rainbow. "Oh my gosh..." she finally returned Twilight's embrace, clutching her as if to never let go again. "I'm sorry! I killed you!" Her body racked with sobs again, and the former princess once again hated her choice in words.

'Of course she would think that she killed me. Of course she would blame herself. Why wouldn't she?' "Rainbow Dash." Twilight spoke using her full name, which she rarely did even when the world wasn't falling apart. "Listen to me. I forgive you. It's not entirely your fault. Without you, I probably still would be dead." She lifted her chin up with a hoof. "You were the reason I came back, Rainbow. You're the reason I'm alive."

The pegasus's features slowly lost the tragic look they had held for almost as long as Twilight had been reunited with her. The lavender mare held her, doing her best to comfort her, as she visibly recovered. Twilight looked back into her eyes, and for the first time in a very long time, she saw those magenta eyes smiling back at her. And it made her happy.

However, whatever joyful feelings she had felt, they dissipated as soon as Twilight tried to stand up. A searing pain ran through her wing and upper back, causing her to collapse back on top of Rainbow with a grunt of pain. Dash let out her own small "oof" at the extra weight being slammed down on her stomach. "Twi!" she cried, immediately concerned for her revived friend.

The alicorn's head felt like it was suddenly splitting open, and closing her eyes did little to relieve her of the pain. Suddenly, all of the pressure in the mare's skull was gone, and all that remained was a dull popping noise. Then, Rainbow Dash gasped.

It took a lot to make that mare gasp. And after being through hell and back, Twilight doubted that there was much that even made her flinch anymore. So you knew that when Dash gasped, there was good reason to it. Something important must have happened. Twilight opened her eyes, and screamed.

Her horn was lying on the ground in front of her.

---

This was not good. Normally, the separation on a unicorn's horn from its body results in catastrophic stroke, or if you were lucky, instant death. However, none of those came to the shocked mare as she stared at the purple cusp on the ground next to Rainbow. Twilight just felt... normal?

She felt no pain or discomfort, which was unusual, because unicorn horns were extremely sensitive. It was how we were able to manipulate the currents in the air to harness "magic." Twilight should have at least felt a numbness, but didn't. She felt, nothing. The only noticeable differences was her lack of horn, and therefore lack of magic. The entire situation soon became too much for the poor alicorn to comprehend. Twilight broke down... HARD.

She had absolutely no idea how long she sat there, curled up in a ball against Rainbow, sobbing. It could have been days, honestly, she couldn't care nor tell. All that she knew was that she was completely devastated.

Magic was her talent. It was the talent that earned her her cutie mark, a symbol that would forever define exactly who Twilight was. Without her magic, she wasn't an alicorn anymore. She wasn't anything special. She wasn't a ruler of Equestria. Twilight wasn't... her...

At some point, a hoof began stroking the dark purple mane and head, carefully avoiding whatever was left on her forehead. It was obviously trying to soothe her, and Twilight did take as much comfort in it as she could, however it was not enough. Even her own amazing brain simply could not comprehend exactly what was happening.

As Twilight lay there in a ball, sobbing herself dry into Rainbow's tummy, Dash realized that this was far beyond a "I need someone to pet my mane" disaster, to a "I need someone to hold me and lull me to sleep" disaster. Because that's exactly what she started doing. The pegasus shifted her body under the lavender mare so that she was in the grasp of all four of her legs, and held the sobbing alicorn tightly, all the while still rubbing her mane.

Gradually, her sobs became quieter and quieter, slowly receding off into a gentle sniffle. However, she did not, or more accurately, could not, fall asleep. Twilight desperately wanted to. She just wanted to just give up and not take life anymore, but she couldn't. Instead, her tears just dried up and Twilight just lay against the cyan coat, her only pillar of reality left in this unknown hellhole.

"Twilight," the coltish voice found its way into her dormant brain and awoke it. "Everything will be alright." The last thing that anypony ever expected from Rainbow Dash was for her to try and comfort someone from their fears. But then Twilight realized that she had been doing that ever since she was formally reunited with her. The boastful pegasus had never once left the alicorn's side since they found each other, and that alone could be portrayed as an act of comfort, especially for a mare as emotionally traumatized as Twilight was. Yet... her mind didn't register it as comforting as it was implied.

"ALRIGHT?!?!" she screamed in Rainbow's face. "ALRIGHT?! Rainbow!!! My bucking horn just fell off my head!!!" The pegasus appeared visibly scared of Twilight's reaction as she slowly dropped her hooves off of the now enraged mare.

"You don't understand!!! I should be dead, or in a coma..." Twilight trailed off, her mind once again going to that "safe place" where it didn't need to focus on the current events. The result of this mental shutdown was Twilight collapsing back onto the ground, crying pitifully to herself.

With her friend having visibly calmed down a bit, Rainbow must have felt it was safe to approach her again as she draped a foreleg over the alicorn's back once again. "Twilight, you're wrong," she said softly. "The fact is, you're still alive, and you're pretty much normal!" She chucked a bit. "Well, as normal as an egghead like you can be." Twilight wasn't paying attention. She was still trying to get over the fact that Rainbow Dash, a 'slow-minded' pegasus, called her wrong on a topic that the alicorn had done years of research on and that the party claiming she was wrong had only just been introduced to.

"You're the princess of friendship, Twi! I find it hard to believe that you are unable to see that you are more than just magic." She gestured to the lavender mare's cutie mark. "Sure, you're the element of magic and all that jazz, but there's more to you than just magic."

Dash lifted Twilight's chin up with a hoof, an action the alicorn had previously thought would be too impossible to come from Rainbow to even imagine before. "You're smart, brilliant, funny, cool, and most importantly, you're a great friend." She smiled. Twilight didn't. For some reason, "friend" bothered her. Why couldn't they be more than friends?

"No, wait, not friend, you're more than that."

Twilight's ears perked up. Really? "Yeah, we're closer. I've always felt a closer connection with you. We're like, best friends ever. We're like sisters!" Awesome. The alicorn's ears drooped back down. It's socially unacceptable to be in a relationship with your sister. Something along the lines of incest or something? Her brain was seemingly in a sarcastic kind of mood. Her heart wasn't; It was busy trying to find all the little pieces of itself that were scattered throughout the mare's stomach and large intestine.

"R-rainbow," she mumbled. "Why don't we j-just stick with b-best friends, o-okay?" At least then we can move upwards... The statement sounded much more accepting in her head than from her mouth. When spoken aloud, they sounded like they came from a mare defeated. Probably because they did.

Luckily, the prismatic mare knew better than to ask why. Something about really bothered Twilight, and she was glad that she was at least able to convey that, even if she sounded like a little foal. The only thing that could really help her right now was to stay in those cyan hooves that held her, and never leave.

A lot of other species don't understand the difference between horse hooves and pony hooves. They mainly associate "hooves" in general with a hard black thing that makes a "clopping" noise. Horse hooves do that. Pony hooves are different. Pony hooves are covered with the same fur that cover the rest of their body, making them soft to the touch, and nice and comfortable. Soothing, really. They still make a "clopping" noise, but other factors are involved, and it has nothing to do with walking.

Being held in those soft, cyan hooves now was the only thing that kept Twilight from going back over the edge. She put thoughts of her horn, her feelings, she put all of those catalysts of negative emotions out of her mind, and just focused on the forelegs holding her in a tight squeeze. "Can we just stay here like this?" She spoke into the fuzzy breast of her companion. Twilight liked that word, companion. It didn't give away hope or dismay, it just stated it in a non-argumentative form.

"Sure, Twi. Just let it out." Rainbow rubbed her hoof through Twilight's mane again and along her back. "Take as long as you need. I'm here for you..."

Twilight just cuddled deeper into the soft, blue fur in front of her, drowning herself in it. Taking comfort in the sole fact that it was there. She would face the real world when she wanted to. But right now, her fantasy awaited. A fantasy that included being held in those forelegs for eternity. She had mentioned Elysium before, and if she had to define it, this would be it. Her in Rainbow Dash's grip, snuggled up together to protect themselves from whatever horrors lay beyond the concepts of this perfect dreamscape. She prayed to the fallen alicorn sisters that it would never end.

Eventually it did, as was inevitable. Her living, stuffed pegasus let out a very loud grumble from her stomach. This forced Twilight to giggle, as if against her will. She pulled her muzzle out of the hungry mare's chest and looked at her face, which had flushed an impossibly cuter shade of pink. "You sound like you're hungry."

She was shocked at the sound of her own voice, and judging from Rainbow's reaction, she was too. Twilight sounded raw and scratchy, as if she had drank molten lava. She cleared her throat in a vain attempt to clear out her vocal chords. "I could go for something to drink myself..."

The two struggled to get up, Twilight still being weak from earlier, and Rainbow having had her lower half fall asleep from her laying on it. They looked around and saw the saddlebags that Twilight had thankfully thought to take with her to the dig site, and picked them up. The alicorn then carefully scooped up her dismembered horn, and placed it gently in the bag with all of the self-control she could muster, which resulted in only a few stray tears to trickle onto the ground. She was just happy she didn't have to break down again. Truthfully, Twilight was a slight bit embarrassed from earlier, even though she was pretty sure that the entire situation was justified.

Turning back to her long-time love, Twilight gave a weak smile. "Better take it with me, just in case." The rainbow-maned mare nodded with a symbol of understanding.

The alicorn again gave a small smile at all that Dash had done for her so far. One that she hoped would only grow stronger as they found their way out of this mess. "Come'on Rainbow, let's find something to eat." The two ponies left the camping area they had made, and set out in search of something new to improve their situation. After all, it could only get better from here, right?

Author's Note:

Well, why don't we just make this a normal thing? I always hated AN's, but as I begin to write in this way, I see why authors love them so much!

I loved my explanation of "hooves" That's the way I always wanted then to be when I imagined cuddling up with RD or Twi (I AM PERFECTLY NORMAL TO THINK THAT; MY SHRINK SAYS SO )

Brohoof /)

Comments

[Zir]

twilight now has a weapon once the horn of an equestrian ruler, unfortunately it's her own but still, new stabby stick fresh off the forehead-ish area. great chapter, super adorable.

[ModMCdl]

5602142
: Hey Dash! Let's go and stab some ponies with my horn!!!
: DaBuq?

[FrozenInTime]

Well, that happened. But, with the word Elysium appearing several times, I think I'm realizing just where Rainbow was all that time...

[ModMCdl]

5614053 SHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

[FrozenInTime]

5615471 Okay, okay... jeez. No spoilers.

[ModMCdl]

5615640 Spoilers? *cough cough* who said anything *cough* about *cough cough* spoilers?

[SadisticRainbows]

(\ Brohoof. I love your story so far it has been great and made me cry. I can't wait for an update¡ (Upside down exclamation points are all the rage XD)

[ModMCdl]

5624326 Awwww... thanks!!! You get a lick from Rainbow!!!