"The Twilight of His Life"

by TheTalentlessPony

Speaking Words of Pain

The now-familiar feeling of standing on two feet overtook Twilight as she stepped through the portal. As always, a tall comforting presence came to her side.

"Welcome back, stranger," Flash joked with a smile.

Twilight gave a weak smile and lightly pushed him, having become so deeply comfortable with him over the years. "You know very well that I'm no stranger!"

"Really?" Flash questioned. "You look much more beautiful than what my girlfriend looked like last time I saw her. You should meet her; she's a pony princess from Equestria."

Twilight covered her mouth to suppress laughter at his cheesy attempt at flirting with her, while he pulled out a scrunched-up sticky note, suddenly looking a bit nervous. "Did I say that right?"

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, finding it very hard to stay completely sad in front of him. "You said it fine, don't worry."

Though with a strange hesitance, he smiled, a hand going around her waist to pull her close to him. "I just wanted to help you feel better. You look so exhausted all the time."

She leaned against him, frowning. "It's okay. Can we go to your house to relax today?"

He looked confused at first, but nodded. "Sure. You want me to order some pizza too, maybe even find a movie to watch?"

"That'd be nice." Twilight had no true preference. She just needed to spend the day with Flash before breaking the news. Part of her knew she was being selfish by doing so; he was going to go through his usual methods of making sure they had a good time, and yet here she was, about to break up with him.

Still, she desperately wanted a little more time to soak everything in, hoping everything would fall into place.

---

Flash's home was extremely modest and ordinary; size-wise, anyway. The inside had a variety of colors to reflect his personality, along with a few beanbag chairs and such. He definitely wasn't rich, but he did spend the occasional dollar to buy things for his home and Twilight. She even had a few things in her own room from him, and vice versa.

She leaned up against him as they sat on the couch, inwardly hoping he wouldn't notice that she was being a bit more clingy than usual. If he did, he didn't show any sign of it, though his hesitance to grab her shoulder opposite of him was slightly suspicious.

The movie itself was nice enough; Flash knew her more than well by this point, so he found it easy to know what she liked to watch. Not all the movies she liked were his thing too obviously, but it wasn't hard to find something they could both enjoy either.

The pizza was nice too; it was something that Twilight didn't get to taste often, so she relished it when she could. They'd been ordering from the same place for all the time they dated, so the cheese against her mouth felt almost nostalgic when keeping in mind that it wouldn't last.

It was Flash that made it complete, however; pizza in Equestria did exist, but Twilight found it hard to eat when Flash wasn't around. He was a massive dork about it too, as he often wrote songs about the things they did. Only he could make "pizza" sound romantic, making Twilight blush and giggle at the same time.

Their love a long time ago though, she'd even admit, was based on some... complicated attractions. Maybe it was simply because he was the first person to reach out to her in the human world? She wasn't sure. She was told once that she had become a great judge of character after her ascension into an alicorn; perhaps that had something to do with it?

Flash could never give a proper answer either. The best he'd put it was that the first touch of their hands held an odd impact and lingered in his mind, eventually becoming a full-blown attraction the more he saw her.

It was a touch to a crush. Wanting to see the other to wanting to know each other. Hugging suddenly to hugging lovingly.

It was the best way Twilight could describe it as well; plus, Flash had turned it into an amazing song, which was hard to argue with. Aside from that, she had suspected that he might've had some sort of mental link with the pony version of himself, who she'd bumped into before ever entering the human world, but those theories never ran very deep.

When Flash was feeling particularly corny, he'd boil it down to being destiny. Twilight definitely believed in destiny, but would destiny truly be cruel enough to put her into this situation?

"...Flash?"

Her hand shifted over as her fingers intertwined with his. His grip on hers tightened.

"Yeah?" There was a pause. "You want to talk about something?"

She looked up, though couldn't bring herself to fully meet his gaze. "...Yes."

She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped as Flash averted his gaze.

"I know."

Twilight stiffened. "W-what? You know?"

"You want to break up, right?" The sadness in his eyes was evident despite his straight face.

"No! I mean..." Her gaze fell. "Yes, but it's not like that. I..." She sighed sadly. "I'm tired, Flash. I don't want to hold you down or always come back here so sleepily."

He ran a hand through her hair. "I know that too. You don't think your boyfriend would notice you looking so exhausted the more you came back here?"

He had a point; Twilight supposed she'd just been hoping too hard that he'd remain oblivious.

Flash gave her a serious gaze. "But you don't hold me down, okay?" He smiled. "Just making sure you know."

She blushed, but nodded in understanding.

He gave a small sigh in response, leaning back against the couch and staring up at the ceiling. "I should've said something earlier. I was just..."

"enjoying the moments while they lasted?" Twilight guessed.

He smiled. "How'd you know?"

She giggled weakly. "I was too."

The air was still, but Flash attempted to keep his spirits high. "Do you want me to walk you back at least?"

As if he needed to ask. They both knew it wouldn't be right to stay here for much longer. "I'd love that. Thank you."

With that, they got up and left the house, leaving a half-eaten pizza behind. Neither of them needed to say anything on the way; both of their hearts were heavy beyond words, but the message was clear: they didn't have a choice.

And, as they reached the portal, Twilight didn't dare look back, fearing that things would only become sadder if she did. She walked forward without thought and felt Flash's hand linger on hers for just a second longer before she was able to walk away free-handed. The portal shifted around her form, but she could almost hear Flash's voice all the way from the human world as she was changed back into her normal pony form.

It was too muffled, almost inaudible, so she tried to ignore it.

The portal released her back into her own world after a moment, but the feeling of being home failed to register with her. She sighed, trying to rationalize what had just transpired to herself.

This is what has to happen. I can't allow myself to get choked up over it!

Still, she felt a few tears forming and reached a hoof up to dry her eyes.

Come on, Twilight, keep it together! Princesses don't cry.

She let out a small sigh, then began making her way to her bedroom. She didn't know the exact time; only that she was tired and planned on sleeping this day off like it was nothing but a bad dream.

I suppose, in essence, that could be accurate, considering the Flash in this world hardly knows me at all. It might as well have been a dream...

She allowed her hooves to relax as she fell forward onto her bed, squirming a bit to get into the right position. Her stomach twisted, but she didn't want to alarm anyone in the morning, so she attempted to keep herself in check.

Tiredly, her horn glowed softly, bringing over her book that connected her with Sunset. She opened it to the page she and Sunset had written in last, re-reading the conversation.

He was always worried that he was holding you back.

She deeply wished that she hadn't been right; that she had misheard him and he didn't actually worry about such things. There was so much she still wanted to say to him, but wouldn't that have just made it worse?

Then again, she doubted she could feel worse than she did now.

She levitated her pen back up, though it was shaky.

I did it.

Her vision grew blurry from her oncoming tears, followed by the book and pen shuddering, her magic flickering as she attempted to keep a firm hold.

Finally, the book and pen fell as her magic flickered again. In a panic, she reached her hoof out to grab at least the book, but it still collided with the floor. She couldn't get it in time.

She shook her head and frantically wiped her tears away, focusing her magic again on bringing it back up to her.

Right... no hands.

She almost missed them. Her pony body would always be the one she knew best but, in the strangest way, she almost felt more comfortable in her human form.

Almost. It was more the feeling than the body.

In her human form, she knew she could see him, because it meant she was in his world.

It meant she could ruffle his hair with her fingers, and make him freak out adorably like he always did while trying to fix it.

It meant a lot, to her, because in her pony form, she knew that the same source of comfort couldn't reach her.

She wanted to check for a response from Sunset, but couldn't bring herself too. Opening her drawer, she put the book inside, shutting it with a little more force than normal as she turned away.

She shut her eyes, wanting nothing more than to sleep her troubles away before being called away for some sort of princess business.

Though, deep down, she knew it wasn't going to come easily.