• Published 25th Aug 2016
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A Pony a Day - OfTheIronwilled



Little ponies go through endless scenarios. And by "endless" I mean "one hundred".

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Toll (11/8/2016)

The rock that Twilight had been chipping at was almost a pebble now. Still, she tapped it with her hoof. Over and over again. It broke into smaller pieces, and when they lodged in her fetlocks or in the sensitive frog of her hoof, she just shook them off with a whinny. With a sigh. Then another sigh.

Eventually, she broke the rock into dust. If her calculations were correct, then she was actually becoming more efficient at locating the stones' weak points, as the last two rocks -- both of similar size as the others she had done this to -- had both been broken much more quickly. Or maybe she had been hitting them harder. She also thought she had been controlling her strength quite well over these experiments, but...

... But the sound of the river behind her was... distracting her.

Twilight shook her head, sadly sighed, cleared the ground in front of her, and put another small rock in its place. Then she chipped at it, for minutes. Possibly hours.

Until finally, when her head was starting to spin, she was interrupted.

"Twilight, darling, please."

Twilight gasped as a shock flew up her spine. Throwing her hooves and wings out, she jerked around. Her heart slammed against her throat, and something warm and familiar settled into her chest before she could even see who it was. She knew that pony.

It still didn't prepare her for when she saw her.

It was... oh, Celestia, it really was one one of her very first best friends...

Rarity was exactly like Twilight remembered her -- even after all this time, Twilight could place the delicate off-white coat, the magnificent lavender mane which framed her face in a swooping curl. Her diamond blue eyes sparkled in the golden sunlight here, and her beautiful tail stirred in the wind. She was young and bright and lively, even when she was impossibly old.

Rarity gave her a tired smile, but also gave her a frustrated stamp of her hoof.

"What in Equestria has possessed you to sit here and do this? You've been out here for absolute ages, Twilight!"

But Twilight couldn't think about that. She just let that old spark fill her up to her eyes, and let herself spring forward to wrap her hooves and wings around her old friend. Twilight smiled.

"It's so good to see you, Rarity! You have no idea how happy I am to get to talk to you again."

Rarity chuckled and patted Twilight's withers. "Oh, me too, Twilight. Trust me, we have all been aching to see you since we parted. But--"

Rarity backed up and held the alicorn at hoof's reach. "That doesn't answer my question. Twilight, why have you been out here for so long? Why haven't you tried to get on the boat? Or gone back out to go... to go live your life?"

"What about you? Rarity, how are you here? I... why did they let you back across the water? Is it not... you know..."

"Please," Rarity snorted. "Yes, dear, it most certainly was my time. It was years ago, after all, and quite a few of them if you'd remember. And there was no mistake when I took the boat. In fact, Twilight, I've got something incredibly important to do for you, but you have got to answer my question first!"

Twilight was quiet for a while after that. She fidgeted on her haunches, the grass tickling at her skin through her coat, and dragged her tired hoof through the pile of dirt and dust she had amassed. She... what was she supposed to say? It had been so long... and Twilight still wasn't sure if she was making the right decision or not. What if she wan't ready, or Equestria wasn't ready, or if her feelings were just all off with this. Maybe she didn't age like other ponies, but she was getting old-- what if this foreign emotion and physical ache, one which settled into the very pit of her soul, was just some fantasy from her getting a bit kooky in her age? Just a fluke?

The alicorn's ears twisted nervously on her head, her tail snaking through the mud behind her.

But... maybe if she told Rarity? Her old friends always did help her when she needed them most, after all.

"It's just," she started, "that I don't know if... well, if it's my time, Rarity. I'm an alicorn and I don't age, and as far as I know there have been no other alicorns to pass over-- Celestia, Luna and Cadence certainly haven't. But I am thousands of years old by now, and... and I'm feeling it. The others aren't, and I can tell, but with me... it's like there's this calling, this song that's in my chest, telling me that, even though I can live forever, I shouldn't. Not because I'm sad, but--"

"But like it's simply natural?" Rarity asked. Her face looked just a little bit older at that.

Twilight jumped up. "Yes! Yes, exactly. Only, as I said, no other alicorns have attempted to cross these waters. I don't know if it's possible, or if it's even what I'm supposed to do. I'm still a Princess, and a powerful defender of Equestria... but I'm also an old mare. A really old mare, who... who kind of feels like it's..."

Twilight sighed one more time, so heavy and sharp and hot out of her nose. With her ears drooping and her mane flapping in the warm winds, she turned her eyes back to her mound of dust. Should she go back? Or go forward? She couldn't just stay there breaking rocks forever, but... but she--

Twilight turned to Rarity with watery eyes. "And truthfully, Rarity? I... I'm scared. You'd think I'd be prepared, but I'm not. There's something calling me in there, something so real, but I'm kind of afraid to make the hop, skip and jump. And what if that's some kind of sign that I'm really not ready?"

There was a silence after that. Behind the two mares, water trickled and sloshed at the riverbank. The world, so very quiet and so very soft, screamed in its silence-- enough to the point that an unheard song stuck itself back into Twilight's ears. It all whispered, and the endless clearing around her warmed to a Summery heat. The breeze stopped. The sound of the water became ever louder.

Twilight hadn't noticed that Rarity was wearing saddlebags -- something told her that she really hadn't been before just then -- until she lit her horn and opened one of the gem-studded flaps.

"No, no, no, Twilight! I understand your hesitation and confusion, but that's no reason for a good mare like you to lay out here for so long! Twilight, whether you've noticed or not, you've been lying out here for days, just staring at those rocks. And you don't deserve that, darling, trust me!" Rarity said.

But then she perked back up. "So! Lucky for you, Twilight, I have answers to all of your questions!"

Before Twilight could say anything, Rarity's horn was glowing-- and then something was hovering right in front of her nose.

There, shining blue in Rarity's magic, was a single gold coin.

Rarity smiled at her. Rarity gently grabbed Twilight's hoof. There was another gold coin floating beside her head.

The sign by the dock, the one with the painted picture of a bit, swayed in the wind.

"Come on, darling. The others -- including all of those lovely friends you've made through the years -- would love to see you again. It's time to go."

And as that silent song in Twilight's chest rose to a mighty crescendo, a boat neared from that clear, clear water.

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