Good Riddance
There was a rule amongst the ponies in Crystal’s part of Equestria, one that was absolutely sacred to all that lived there. None objected to it, and in fact, all upheld it without complaint, knowing that at some point, the rule that was created amongst these ponies would be made for them specifically.
Crystal walked with her husband, a unicorn who went by the name Amber Skies, one whose coat was colored so that it would be on the opposite end of the color wheel as Crystal’s. He had a slightly thin body compared to most ponies, but didn’t look unhealthily so. He had glasses like Crystal did, although both knew such things were only by choice here in Equestria. Amber Skies wasn’t from her time, she told him about it before, and they both knew that nothing about this place was like Crystal’s old life. It was one that existed in a place painful and far away. Far enough away it was that she could begin to forget most of the details of it, except for the most important memories that she held onto.
Amber Skies was not her first husband, and neither would he be her last, this she knew. In Equestria, a divorce was not an indictment upon two ponies, but a celebration of a relationship completed to satisfaction, one where both ponies could find others that might satisfy new desires. She’d been through this before, multiple times in her life, and might be through it numerous times more once her time with Amber Skies was completed. There was an impossibly long time ahead of her, she heard, so long that the last however many millennia it had been since she existed in a physical body would seem like no more than a mere blink by comparison.
Crystal walked alongside the stallion, a warm, summer wind blowing against their coats as they stepped through a small village of simple ponies, enjoying their time both in the sun and in each other’s company. The romanticism and love the two felt for each other blossomed into something Crystal considered more worthwhile–genuine friendship. A pleasing thing in the eyes of the god that was Celestia, she knew, and something that completed her to feel each time she felt it. It completed her almost as much as the few remaining memories of what was before fully completed her now. She didn’t know if it was time for their marriage to end yet–she never knew until the moment came. But if it lasted a little while longer, several more decades or centuries perhaps–she would be just as satisfied with that as she would be if their relationship ended today.
“Isn’t it nice, Amber?” Crystal asked her husband. The two came upon a riverbank as they stepped through a park, one with gently flowing water that made it safe for foals to play in. There were trees nearby for those ponies who preferred the shade, but a day like today, a nice, hot-but-not-too-hot day, with a breeze that felt warm but was just strong enough to keep them cool, neither pony opted for anything other than the bright sunshine.
“It’s nice how the sun reflects off the water like it does, isn’t it? What do you think makes it do that? How can something so deep and blue reflect that clearly?”
Other ponies liked other things–an impossible combination of everything any creature could imagine and more. But Crystal enjoyed the simple life, one that had bright summer days to walk in and dark, stormy nights that made her want to lay by the fire close to Amber for a lifetime. Maybe her desires would change in the future and she’d want an adventure, but for now, this little slice of Equestria was more than enough to give her contentment.
She looked down into the water at her reflection, the picture of a sea-blue mare with a yellow mane of twisting curls that she liked to style it these days. It made her smile to see, just as it always did, although the sight was ever changing. Sometimes the mare she saw was slightly younger, other times, slightly older. She came in red and green and orange and every other combination of colors her heart desired, almost always complete with a unicorn horn on the end of her head. The opposite of her current husband, who’s reflection stood beside her, a stallion who seemed to have settled on the look he had since they became married.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe something about how smooth it is while it moves lets it reflect? I’m sure there are a thousand ponies that we could ask for an answer about that.”
“Hmmm. Maybe. Sit with me here, Amber?”
The stallion smiled gently. “Of course, Crystal.”
The two sat and enjoyed each other’s company, watching the foals play happily with each other while their parents were nearby. How many of these foals were already as old as her and had lived multiple lives by this point? She didn’t know, but her grin widened as she heard their laughter.
“Do you ever think about the future, Crystal?” Amber asked, turning to look into her eyes.
The mare shrugged. “What do you mean? Like having foals again?” She thought about that fairly recently, and didn’t know if she was ready again just yet. For now, she wanted to enjoy the company of her husband instead of raising more kids. Celestia knew she had enough already. But maybe there would be time for more in the future.
“No. I mean in terms of what you and I are going to do next,” Amber said. He didn’t have a smile on his face anymore, but didn’t look serious. It was just a look of contentment right now. It got Crystal to raise an eyebrow, but the stallion reassured her again with a smile. “What are you going to do after all of this?” he asked.
“Huh? I don’t know. Maybe I’d enjoy being single again for a while, and try an adventure or two. Or living a new life, and going through childhood again. I haven’t ever done that yet, because I’ve been saving my first time for an occasion that felt truly special.”
She turned back to face the water again, watching the foals play. It would be nice if–no, when–she lived a new life, one that was built for her the way the past couldn’t build it. But the past, too, was built in a weird way for this moment, as well as a new life she would certainly live someday. Not today, and certainly not anytime soon, but someday. For today, she was content.
“I heard lots of ponies are into that, but I don’t know if that would ever be for me. I think I’m okay with just one life.”
“Hehe, well, then what would you do, Amber?” Crystal asked curiously.
“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I just don’t know. I think… I think I’m okay with this. I think I’m done.”
It caught the mare by surprise, although Crystal didn’t feel sad. Not too much anyway. It would mean the loss of a friend if he meant what she thought he did, which made her sad, but if he was saying what she thought he was, she would feel happy for him. A life completed to satisfaction? Not something she could personally say she was anywhere close to, if only because all of these years were only a drop in the bucket compared to what was before, a painful past that made her excited for every new step she took. She wondered if she would ever reach such a point.
She turned to face her husband again, a stallion she’d grown close to and bonded with. He was a stallion she could say was and would always be a very close friend, both now and after the two departed. She took in the wonderful, gentle smile she’d grown accustomed to, staring into the perfect look in his eyes. He was truly ready, a fact that gave her a weird feeling.
She smiled happily at him, but at the same time, began to tear up, and took his hoof into her own. “I–I don’t know what to say,” she got out, still smiling, but looking away shyly for a moment. Just a moment, before she put her eyes back into his. “I’ve never experienced one of these moments before. Am I… am I really the pony who helped you become satisfied?”
He grabbed her and held her close, wrapping his hooves around her. “You absolutely are, Crystal,” the unicorn told her. He didn’t whisper, but his words were gentle and reassuring. “It’s been long enough for me, a perfect life, and I’m glad I got to spend the last of it with you. I love you, Crystal.”
“I love you, too, Amber,” she said as she leaned in close to him, letting the stallion hold her.
She thought about what the two had been through together. There were a lot of years between them–although not the most out of Crystal’s partners. But they were special, just as they always were. A simple life was what she spent with Amber Skies, one with many foals over the centuries who gave her grand foals and great grand foals. It was one where she taught her kids lessons when they made mistakes–where she made a few mistakes herself–but one where her husband was always by her side. It didn’t matter whether it was the time her daughter burned her hoof on the oven door, or she visited one of her sons in a scary place where he fought of monsters and demons and she watched him be the hero. The gentle twists and turns through this relationship made her happy, and the mistakes during it only served to make her feel more content and satisfied with the stallion next to her.
When her other relationships ended, it was the celebration of lives spent together that made ponies feel just as happy as when they began. But this end was bittersweet. She could find her other partners and catch up with them if she wished, but this would truly be the end of a friendship. The tears dripped down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and considered the finality of such a thing.
But she didn’t dare break the rules. No one in this part of Equestria would ever consider breaking them. Breaking those rules, especially in a moment like this, almost spat on a life of satisfaction that a pony lived, of the moments she and Amber shared together.
Instead, Crystal brought back her smile, and looked up into Amber’s eyes. “You know, I’m nowhere close to you, at all,” she said, her voice cracking a tiny bit but the happiness she felt for him easily conveyed. “I have a thousand times the life to live before I even start to think about it, and then add an extra thousand before I actually consider it.”
That made Amber Skies laugh, one that was genuine and true and perfectly fitting for a moment like this. “Knowing you, Crystal, you have ten million times the life to live, and a countless number of stallions to complete yourself with.” Then he took a breath, finishing, “But I’m glad part of it was spent with you. It was fun, a little predictable, sometimes not, but that’s the fun part, I think. I… I think I’m ready.”
An old memory–a very far away, faint memory Crystal could barely recall–hit her. She didn’t know exactly what it was. A song? Or a poem? She couldn’t put it all together, as it was a memory from before, but she could remember the important part of it at least.
“I hope you had the time of your life, Amber,” she said in a singsong voice that came from nowhere. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. Remember me?”
“Forever and always, Amber Skies,” she smiled through her tears, a familiar saying other ponies said in moments like these, she heard. She’d never said them before, but would certainly say them again someday, probably a countless number of times before she could ask to be remembered.
But for now, she spent this one moment with her husband, closing her eyes and leaning into him, the sun on their backs as she held his hoof and felt his heart beating strong and steady, the love almost physically radiating off of the two.
And then, Amber Skies left. There was no way Crystal could have asked him to stay, as much as she already missed him. The rule amongst the ponies in Crystal’s part of Equestria was that you couldn’t ask a pony to stay once they were ready to finally ascend after a life of satisfaction.
The weeks and months after were exceptionally strange ones for Crystal. She thought about what it might be like to finally be done, to be completely satisfied. It was a scary thought to consider, the unknowable future of what happened once a pony finally ascended after their satisfaction was complete. Perhaps her fear came from the fact that she wasn’t fully satisfied yet, and she’d be at ease like Amber Skies was when the moment came that she finally was. It had been thousands of years since what was before, and Crystal could safely say she was nowhere close.
She felt sad about the loss of a friend, but happy all the same–happy that he could say confidently he was done and spend his last moments with her. Who would she spend her last day with? What would that be like? And what would happen when her moment came to finally leave?
She didn’t know, but felt happy for Amber Skies–and herself. It was certainly a new experience she felt, one that helped her feel a little more complete to experience. She had to thank Celestia that a stallion like him could enter her life and enhance her experience. But she wasn’t done. No, she was nowhere close to done. There were too many experiences she had to make her own before she could be finished.
She thought about what was before again–just as she did every day, practically every hour sometimes. She couldn’t remember much from then, except what pained her. It was pain that made her tear up to think about, one she sobbed because of every so often.
But that was the point of pain, she knew, something she realized a long time ago. That pain made right now perfect. More than perfect. It made her excited to be alive, every day a new experience to enjoy and let complete her until the time came when she would say her final goodbyes.