Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Longing

"Waiting for someone?" Rarity asked Rarity, who was standing by the open door and looking out into the night.

"Opal," Rarity replied without turning. "You know how cats are. Sometimes I worry she won't come back at all."

"You know how cats are," Rarity said, getting closer. "She'll probably be here tomorrow morning or afternoon, acting like nothing happened and asking for food."

"That is how it tends to go, yes," said Rarity. "But one day it might not. I think it might be a simple matter of statistics and logic, a cat can't not come back a second time after the first one. I worry every time that this will be that time."

"It probably won't be," Rarity said, at Rarity's side.

"Probably," Rarity replied. "But one day it will happen. What if I choose to believe she'll be back on that day too? What if I don't worry? Will it hurt more?"

"Will it hurt less if you do worry?" Rarity asked.

Rarity thought about it for a moment. "No. But it'll give relief all the times you're wrong about it."

"So we make our own pretend sadness to be happy about its end?" Rarity said. "How weird we are."

"But it could be real," said Rarity. "In a sense, that's what you're happy about. That you could have been sad, but weren't, because it didn't happen."

"But is it better or worse than simply living as if things would go the better way, and never worrying?"

Rarity waited, still staring at the night. "I don't think it's better or worse. I think the point is that we owe it to them to worry about their safety, and their return. That's what it means to love."

"A contract?" asked Rarity, standing at her side and looking at the night too.

"One we don't care about," Rarity said.

"How cynical."

"And yet I still worry."

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

I ship it.