Time Carries On

by SamRose

Sometimes goodbye’s the only way

“Would you tell me about them?” Sunset asked quietly.

The apple in Aria’s hand stopped, a peel hanging precariously off the knife’s edge. She was only half-way through peeling the fruit when the question had caught her off guard.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve told you about them before.” Aria chuckled a little, looking sadly at Sunset. “Are you sure you want to hear about them again?”

“I am.” Sunset said, turning her head to look at Aria, a small smile visible on her face. “I want to hear about the people you’ve fallen in love with.”

Sunset Shimmer was far past her prime, laying in her hospice care bed since she couldn’t stand up on her own anymore. Her hair had turned silver and gray, still matching the tones she’d had in her youth. Her skin was sagging, wrinkled with age, and had lost its vibrant color. The only things that had kept their luster were her bright emerald eyes that still seemed to sparkle in the afternoon light, and the golden ring around her finger.

Aria Blaze, in comparison, was as youthful as the day they had met. She had tried to hide her eternal youth behind makeup, but there was only so much aging one could artificially add. She’d dyed silver streaks into her hair, grown it out, and changed the style to better fit an ‘older’ woman, but if you washed away the layers of fakeness you would see the youthful and fit young woman she had always been. Her beauty was only matched by the familiar golden ring that was wrapped around her finger.

“Well,” Aria mused to herself as she continued peeling the apple, “As you know there wasn’t a whole lot of them. Dagi made sure we never stayed in one area for more than twenty years, so as to not draw too much suspicion on ourselves. But a few people stood out amongst the crowd, like my first husband.” Aria smirked. “You always did get a kick out of his name too. Good ol’ Plowing Fields.”

Sunset brought a weak hand up to her mouth, quietly snickering to herself. She no longer had the strength to loudly laugh like she once could, but that didn’t stop her from being amused at the name.

“I’ll have you know I’m still proud of having that innuendo catch on.” Aria waved her knife around with a smirk, before continuing to peel her apple. “Man knew his way around the bed sheets and made for tough competition for future loved ones to compete with. Not that you ever failed to live up to them.” Aria gave her loving wife a wink.

“Mmm, always glad to hear I gave you a good time.” Sunset smirked a little, leaning back into her pillows more. “But you cared for him, didn’t you?”

“Humans were still kind of a fresh concept back then, so I didn’t really focus on it too much. I married him more because I thought he was hot than because I liked who he was.” Aria shook her head. “Was a nice enough guy and was able to put up with my bitchiness, so he wasn’t bad as far as humans went.

“My fondest memory of him was this time when he was taking care of his livestock, and I walked by distracting him from his work. Of course that caused him to slip on a patty, right as the goats were laying down, so he ended up pinned beneath them. I still get a chuckle out of that one.”

Sunset tried to chuckled like she did before, but it was much more subdued this time. Aria held a smirk on her face, but she noticed the reduction in energy from her wife.

She turned her attention back to her apple, seeing that it was now freshly peeled. She inspected it for any remaining skin, before placing it down on the nearby tray to start slicing it.

“My second husband was a bit of a kook, but one of the good ones.” Aria chuckled remembering the man. “We were in this quaint little religious town in Austria, and they were deeply devoted to Christianity. It was the perfect place to hide for a while since all they asked of us was to believe in God with them and they’d give us shelter and food. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.”

Aria held one of the peeled apple slices up to her wife, but Sunset lifted a hand and gently shook her head at the offer. Aria furrowed her brow and frowned at that, before sitting back and biting into the slice herself.

She really didn’t like how much Sunset’s appetite had fallen over the last week, but she kept quiet about it.

“So, to better fit in, Adagio suggests we settle in with the locals. Met myself a devout little missionary named Quiet Psalm, and given the other choices the village offered, I’d definitely take the meek sub over any of the other bible thumpers any day.” Aria slipped the rest of the apple slice into her mouth, quickly swallowing it and cleaning her fingers off.

“He wasn’t anything to write home about in bed, but the boy was a loving husband through and through. Tended to my needs, took care of the chores, loved raising our kid. Honestly, if things hadn’t gone so belly up in the end, I’d almost say it was idyllic.” She shook her head at that. “But you know how that turned out. Witch burnings never did go out of style, they just changed names.”

“I can never apologize enough for how humans treated you over the years.” Sunset murmured. “You deserved better than that…”

“Now you and I both know that’s a lie Sunset.” Aria laughed. “We were straight up villains who preyed upon humans for food. Hell, even after the battle it took years to get Adagio to stop calling humans scum. We always had it coming. I’m just glad we managed to survive till now.” She smiled at her wife.

Aria could tell from the look in Sunset’s eye that she didn’t completely agree, but was trying to hide it behind a loving smile. Sunset had always been bias to a fault though. Love did that to a person.

“After that, I kind of gave up on the whole ‘love’ thing for a while.” Aria leaned back in her chair, munching on another apple slice. “Of course I had plenty of flings, had a bunch of kids, but I never ‘married’ again till my third husband, and I still wouldn’t say I was deeply in love with the guy. That whole marriage ended up being an absolute mess thanks to the great depression.”

“Not one of our finer moments.” Sunset remarked.

“Ol’ Pinstripe. Was a good businessman during his day, but the idiot went and got himself wrapped up in the war in the end, and that was the last I heard of him.” Aria shook her head. “He was an excellent breadwinner for the house, which worked out for me and my laziness, but the poor fella never got the most out of life.”

“You never had much luck with men.” Sunset chuckled softly.

“Good lays, terrible to keep around.” Aria waved her hand around. “I always did find myself more emotionally attached to the girls in my life, but you know how it was. Couldn’t exactly have a happily married life with them, nor kids to keep the family going. So most of them were just flings that lasted a year or two at most.” Aria sighed, leaning forward and resting her chin on her hand.

“Marigold Daisy, Silver Weave, Hay String, Crescent Moon, Strawberry Passion, Aquamarine, Elegant Caress…” Aria listed each of the names that she remembered the most, the passionate young women who had come into her life and left just as easily, before she turned to look at Sunset with a cheeky smile.

“And then I got myself wrapped up with a wicked woman named Sunset Shimmer. Fell head over heels for her and ended up married to her for like, a bajillion years.” Aria scoffed. “She even took me to this weird horse world and did some magic bullshit that let us have kids. Can you imagine the insanity of it all?”

“She sounds like a righteous bitch, she does.” Sunset smirked cheekily.

“Hey, that’s my wife you’re talking about, don’t make me beat your face in!” Aria pointed at Sunset with a smirk. “But you’re not wrong either. She had her moments of bitchiness, but that’s what I loved about her.” Aria leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes as she remembered the old days.

“At first, Sunset really knew how to get under my skin. She was an Equestrian outcast like the rest of us, but unlike us, she seemed to get everything she wanted.” Aria scoffed. “She took away our magic and then had the gall to try and suggest ways to improve our life in the human world. Can you believe the audacity of that? Like we weren’t having it rough because of her in the first place.”

“I can only imagine.” Sunset smirked back.

“But she eventually started showing up more often, so naturally we just started talking more. Though it wasn’t so much talking as it was, I would get angry and get in her face, and she wouldn’t back down easily. Eventually we just sort of ran into each other in a bar one night and just got absolutely wasted.” Aria grabbed an extra apple slice, running her finger along it at the memory. “And in a drunken fit she admitted to me that she had an attraction to my sister Adagio, and I was thrown for a loop at that. I mean, the rivalry my sisters and I had with Sunset was legendary, and Sunset was admitting to being attracted to one of us? Talk about world changing.”

“I get the strange feeling that didn’t work out for her.” Sunset chuckled.

“I’m still not entirely certain why I agreed, but I told her I’d help her get a date with my sister. I think I thought it would be funny to watch her crash and burn at the idea, or maybe it’d be fun to watch her get stepped on by Adagio. After all, no one Doms Adagio, so Sunset would get put in her place.” Aria munched on the apple at that, smirking.

“So I went and taught her everything she needed to know about dating my sister, and when they day came to ask out Adagio, she actually said yes. I’m not sure what my sister was thinking, but the two of them went on a date and I was just at home waiting to hear about how it went.”

“And the date didn’t quite go the way you thought it would, did it?” Sunset smiled at the memory of that night.

“Sunset was just suddenly at the door to my room, and I was baffled. I asked her how it went, and she said that the date made her realize that Adagio wasn’t the one she wanted.” Aria felt her cheeks flush remembering that, her smile stretching across her face. “And right then and there, she kisses me. Pushes the two of us into my room, and let me tell ya, I still have dreams about how magical that night was.”

“I do too.” Sunset said dreamily.

“What else can I say from there?” Aria smirked, licking her fingers clean from the apple slice. “It was a bit of a whirlwind romance for the following years. The two of us were inseparable, and we pretty much set the town on fire. Even literally that one time.”

“I don’t think the fire chief ever truly forgave us for that.” Sunset grimaced.

“And one day Sunset just up and asks me to marry her.” Aria smirked, leaning forward and resting her chin in her hand. “The big dummy had fallen so head over heels for me that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me. How could I possibly say no to someone wanting to worship the very ground I walked on?”

“And I never regretted a single day of it.” Sunset smiled lovingly.

The room was quiet after that, the two of them just sat there smiling at each other, a tender warmth spreading throughout them. Sunset’s eyelids slowly drooped, though her smile never faded.

“But every single time you fell in love, they had to leave your life at some point.” Sunset spoke quietly. “And you moved on from them every time, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Aria replied just as quietly. “It kind of became a requirement just to keep living. If you stop to regret everything you’ve lost, you miss out on everything new that comes your way. And you can’t live that way as an immortal.” Her smile faded as she spoke those words. “You never forget the life you’ve lived, but you keep marching forward to the next big thing life has in store for you.”

“So…” Sunset murmured, leaning into her bed as she stared straight at Aria. “I don’t have to worry about leaving you behind, do I?”

Aria felt a lump form in her throat at those words, realizing just what Sunset had been getting at with this whole conversation.

She had no snarky comebacks for that, no witty retorts, or even anything normal to say. Sunset had always been good at getting her to lose her words, but this was the hardest question Sunset had ever asked of her.

Aria slowly stood up from her chair, inching closer to Sunset, before reaching down and wrapping her youthful hand around Sunset’s aged hand.

“Sunset...” Aria struggled to speak properly, the lump in her throat clogging her words. “I’m not ready to say goodbye to you yet. I’ll move on, sure, you’re not the first person I’ve lost, but you’re the first one I’ve cared this much for.” She squeezed Sunset’s hand a little tighter, lifting her other hand to wipe at her eyes.

“I’m sorry Aria.” Sunset murmured weakly. “You and I both knew the day you had to say goodbye was coming…”

“Yeah.” Aria sniffed a little, frowning at that. “Yeah I knew it would come… Just… I hate it. I hate that it has to be a thing at all.”

“You’ve still got the kids though.” Sunset spoke up, doing her best to squeeze back, but her grip was so weak. She didn’t have even a fraction of the strength that she used to have. “You’ll be there for them…”

“Of course I will.” Aria said firmly. “I’m going to make sure our kids get the best damn care in the world, just like I made sure you did. And I’ll watch over their kids, and their kid’s kids. I’ll be the best damn guardian grandmother they never knew they needed, and they’ll love the shit out of me, and everything will be great…”

“That’s what I like to hear…” Sunset said with a weak smile, feeling her eyes grow more drowsy. “I… I love you Aria Blaze. More than anything else in the world…”

“I love you too Sunset.” Aria sniffed, wiping at her eyes again. She leaned forward, brushing some of Sunset’s bangs out of her face, before carefully pressing her lips against Sunset’s.

The two shared that gentle embrace, one they’d shared so many times over many long years together. It was as filled with love now as it had been then, and the only thing that kept the passion from the lips was just how weak Sunset’s whole body was.

Aria let the kiss linger before pulling back, pressing her forehead against Sunset’s. She ran her fingers through her love’s hair, just trying her best to keep her composure.

“Aria…” Sunset murmured, a weak smile on her face.

“Yeah?” Aria responded, her voice cracking from the tears.

“I’m… Going to get some sleep now…”

Aria sniffed, wiping at her face, before smiling.

“Yeah… You get some rest love. You’ll need it.” Aria lifted her head up and pressed her lips against Sunset’s forehead, letting that kiss linger as well before pulling back.

Sunset looked up at Aria, the love of her life, with a lingering smile, and stayed awake for as long as she could. Her eyes grew heavier with each passing second, and soon enough, she closed them completely, her weight slowly sinking into the bed.

Aria held onto Sunset’s hand, never letting go of it for a moment. She watched her wife sleep, and she waited.

She would have waited forever for Sunset to wake up again.

To be the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes.

The first one to tend to whatever her needs were, no matter what they were.

Be it food, or a bath, or just someone to let her know she was loved.

Aria stood there, and waited.

Fresh tears fell down her cheeks as she waited.

She waited.

And waited.

But she knew...

Sunset wasn’t waking up again.

Comments

[ponybird21]

Very, VERY well done. I usually very much dislike sunset x any siren stories, mainly because they aren't well done.
But this?
Perfection.
The tears were real, the joy was real... Even the memories felt real.
Well done.