Injuring Eternity

by Monochromatic

First published 11th of February, 2014

For Twilight, the increased lifespan that came with princesshood had forced her to outlive her friends, but thanks to Rarity, she will learn that centuries could be lived in but a single day.

Centuries after most of her friends have all passed away, Twilight decides to make one last trip into the past. No interacting, no greeting deceased friends, no reunion with her beloved marefriend. Just one quick glance at a life long lost.

However, for better or worse, she'll end up getting much, much more than that.

---

This story has a prequel entitled The Last Train Home.
Cover art by Swan Song

1. Rewinding Time

Going back in time to see her friends one last time wasn’t a decision Twilight Sparkle took lightly. After all, it had taken a couple of centuries for her to finally fall into temptation, and then another entire century of studying and analyzing all the potential risks before she even dared consider embarking on the journey.

How foolish she had been before, thinking that missing somepony was a thing one just stopped doing after a while — or centuries, in her case. Even during the night of the painfully anticipated trip, resting on Spike’s back as he flew towards the Canterlot Castle archives, part of her wished she had the strength of will to turn back.

“I know I said this already, Twi..."

Spike, now a magnificent adult dragon, soared over the city he had called home for decades now. After all their friends had passed away, Twilight only lasted a few years in Ponyville before grief forced her to move away — Spike, driven by his endless devotion and affection for Twilight, followed without hesitation.

It had been he, actually, who had insisted on taking Twilight to the castle, still attempting to persuade her from using the time-scrolls in the Archives.

“...But I really think this is a bad idea,” he added, proving once more that it didn’t matter how old or how big he was, at heart he was still the same baby dragon she had raised and loved.

Twilight sighed, idly brushing non-existent dirt from her graying coat. “Spike, if you offered to carry me here just so you could talk me out of it, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time,” she replied, adjusting the saddlebag on her back before patting the dragon. “Time and space won’t collapse if I take a quick, harmless trip back a few centuries. Trust me, I made sure about it.”

“I know time and space won’t collapse,” Spike replied, before quietly adding, “but you might.”

Twilight remained silent for a few minutes before concluding, “Sometimes, it’s worth it, Spike.”

For Twilight Sparkle, seeing her friends again was worth all the pain that would come after. A thousand more years of yearning and hurt would be a small price to pay if it meant hearing the sound of their voices one last time.

Especially if it meant seeing a certain unicorn again.

It both frustrated and amazed Twilight how much she still loved Rarity. It was as if time had made a miscalculation somewhere, and instead of healing wounds and helping Twilight move on, it had only intensified her affections for the mare — such had been the impact Rarity had left in her heart.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t tried to move on. She had tried dating — centuries after Rarity’s death — but things never worked out. Every attempt at dating always became the focus of society (“Extra! Extra! Princess Twilight Sparkle starts dating after century long celibacy!”), and it only served to make her miss Rarity and the private romance they once had even more.

Twilight had and would always despise being the center of the Equestrian Press’s attention. It had been no different back then, just when Twilight was still a relatively new addition to the Equestrian Royalty. It was this same aversion to the publicity and her private life becoming gossip in magazines that had made Twilight take so long to confess to Rarity.

“We’re almost there,” Spike pointed out, waking Twilight up from her reveries.

The alicorn stood up on his back and extended her wings. “I can take it from here, then,” she said, squinting her eyes as she tried locating the castle garden nearest to the archives.

“Twilight, please, I don’t want you to get hur—”

“I’ll see you back home in an hour,” she interrupted, her voice soothing yet authoritative. “Everything will be fine.”

The dragon opened his mouth to protest but finally conceded defeat. “Fine,” he muttered, circling the castle. “But don’t expect me to pick up the pieces left of you when you come back.”

Twilight took off from his back and flew besides him. “I think you’ve done enough for a lifetime, Spike.”

“Don’t say it like that. You make it sound like you’re not coming back.”

Twilight grinned. “’Course I’m coming back! Someone has to pick up the pieces left of me, right?”

Before he could answer, Twilight took off towards the castle garden, barely hearing Spike’s “Try to come back in big chunks so it’s easier to put together!”

She landed right in front of the library doors and vaguely remembered the time she found herself at the same spot with Pinkie Pie and Spike. She could almost hear Pinkie urging her to go in through the window. It happened, sometimes, that she’d hear them in her head — the voices of the long dead. Maybe she was losing her mind… or maybe it was the only way to keep herself sane.

Right before entering the archives, Twilight looked up and noticed Celestia’s tower was lit up. She felt a sudden urge to go see her mentor and discuss what she wanted to do, but she knew it would be very hard on Celestia to see her beloved pupil and friend in such distress — particularly when Twilight’s extremely lengthy lifespan was thanks to Celestia.

Twilight didn’t hold it against her. Well, not anymore, at least. A long time ago, the young alicorn had once broken down in tears in front of her mentor, going on about how she hated living for so long, and how she missed her friends, and why couldn’t she have died with them too. Celestia had comforted the young princess, gently whispering to Twilight that she understood how she felt.

It was then that Twilight became aware that perhaps there had been another reason over why Celestia gave Twilight princesshood and the lifespan that came with it.

After another minute of staring, Twilight finally tore her gaze from the tower and entered the building. While the seemingly endless wings of the Canterlot Archives might have intimidated any other pony, Twilight herself felt a welcoming sensation at being surrounded by so much knowledge. She already knew every single book, text and scroll contained in the archives, so her search for the time-travelling spells ended fast.

While the original spell only allowed its user to time-travel only once and for a very brief time, Twilight – being the embodiment of the element of magic— had been able to create a second spell that would bend the first spell to her will. If all went according to plan, not only would Twilight be able to time-travel again, but she’d also be in complete control of how long she’d be in the past.

After retrieving the scroll, she proceeded to take out a notebook from her saddlebag. The notebook, so old that the purple colouring of its cover had begun to fade, had been a present from Rarity. Twilight had already used every page of it long ago, but it was within its pages that she had written the addendum spell. It was a sad thought, honestly, that even when her friends were still alive, she had already perhaps unconsciously started looking for a way to ensure she’d see them again.

She opened the note and her eyes lingered a few minutes on the first page, where Rarity had written a note in purple ink for Twilight. With her elegant calligraphy, Rarity had explained finding that notebook in a quaint little marketplace, and “simply had to buy it so Twilight would cease leaving loose sheets of papers all over Carousel Boutique”. Twilight laughed softly at the memory, before brushing her hoof against Rarity’s greeting.

For my darling Twilight…

Back then, Twilight took a special pleasure in the fact that Rarity would use the possessive pronoun when it came to Twilight. For Rarity, everyone was a darling, but Twilight was her darling.

She sighed and started flipping through the pages of the notebook, eyes scanning for the spell. Upon finally finding it, it felt as if her chest had tightened around her heart. Several words had been blotched up, as if water had been sprinkled on the pages.

Was she really sure of what she was doing? She had come all that way, but had she really made up her mind about it?

If… If this goes wrong… If I messed up somewhere, or mess up somewhere back in the past…

She shook her head. No. Everything would be all right. She had prepared for this moment, and she knew what to do. She wasn’t going to talk to anypony nor was anypony going to see her. She’d just see her friends one last time from afar, and then she’d finally be able to just move on. Or not. But at least she got to see them one last time.

Twilight took the original scroll and placed it next to her notes. After a few minutes of carefully studying them, she was finally ready to cast the spell. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and a magical aura started enveloping her horn. This was what she wanted…

Right?

It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. The sun shimmered, the sky was blue and free of any cloud, the birds sang, and there was no doubt everypony was up to their usual business.

In a secluded section of the Everfree Forest, Twilight suddenly appeared to the crackling sound of magic. After a few minutes of slight disorientation, she took in her surroundings and was ecstatic to see her spell had worked. Well, the teleporting part of it, at least.

She put the notebook and scroll back into her saddlebag, her heart beating thunderously in her chest.

Part one had worked.

Part two was next: disguise.

While she usually would have gone for a spell, she'd need a very powerful spell to completely hide herself, and she didn't want to risk anypony, particularly her younger self, detecting the magical surge. Besides, she didn't know if such a spell would have adverse effects if being casted when her body was already under the influence of a time-travelling spell. She reached into her saddlebag and took out a hooded cloak, large enough to cover her completely. After putting the cloak on, she did however cast a voice modifying spell just in case she found herself in a place where she'd need to talk.

Which she wouldn't, of course.

Making her way towards Fluttershy’s Cottage, she listened to the sounds of the forest for fear of running into Zecora. No matter how much she missed the zebra, she knew Zecora would no doubt know something wasn’t quite right. Some time later, she finally made it out of the forest and found herself looking at the familiar cottage.

The place was surrounded by all kinds of critters, just as she had always remembered. She felt her heart tighten in her chest upon hearing the sound of a familiar voice singing from inside the cottage.

Fluttershy had been the third one to go, right after Applejack and Pinkie Pie. It was common knowledge that earth ponies had a smaller lifespan than pegasi ponies, who in turn had a smaller lifespan than unicorns. Rainbow Dash had been next, and then Rarity had been the last one to go. To Twilight, it had always felt as if it was both a blessing and a curse that the fashionista had been the last one to die.

A blessing because Rarity had always been there to soothe the heartbroken alicorn after one of their friends passed away; a curse because, when Rarity died, there was nopony in the whole of Equestria who could console Twilight’s crushed heart.

Twilight gingerly made her way to one of the nearby windows, careful not to alarm the little animals surrounding the place. Luckily for her, Angel Bunny wasn’t outside since he would have ratted her out almost immediately if he was still the rabbit she remembered. Reaching the window, she peeked inside and sure enough, Fluttershy was there. The pegasus sang as she cleaned her house, looking radiant and carefree, probably because she thought she was solely in the company of her animal friends.

It was overwhelming how much Twilight wanted to call out to her. She wanted to rush into the house and hug her, ask her about everything she had done that day and just talk, talk, talk. Funny how the first time they met, she had wanted nothing more than for Fluttershy to stop talking to Spike. Now, though? Now she wished for nothing else in the world but to hear Fluttershy talk and never stop.

But she couldn’t.

In that moment, even though she was just a short distance away from Twilight, Fluttershy was just as far away as she’d been for the past centuries. All in all, Twilight couldn’t complain considering she knew that was how it was going to be. She had known exactly what she was getting into by time-travelling, and she tried to find comfort in that fact that, if anything, she had at least seen the yellow pony again.

After imprinting the image of the happy, singing Fluttershy into her brain, Twilight tore herself from the window and made her way towards Ponyville. Her mind wandered towards Rarity, and she felt nervous excitement bubbling up inside her at the thought of seeing the unicorn again. Except, right after the excitement, apprehension would start clawing its way into Twilight’s consciousness. If… If Fluttershy had proven to be difficult not to interact with, she didn’t even want to think of the amount of self-control it would take to do the same with Rarity.

Twilight entered Ponyville through the west side, relieved it wasn’t crowded by ponies. She realized it would be very difficult to move around without being seen, but rationalized that it didn’t matter if she was spotted as long as it wasn’t by someone she personally knew. After all, if a stranger saw her, they wouldn’t think twice of questioning her or making conversation.

She hoped.

Taking in the familiar sight, she walked as inconspicuously as possible through the marketplace -- which wasn't very inconspicuous at all considering she was wearing a huge cape, but hey, nopony was asking anything. She recognized ponies as she walked and couldn’t help but smile at seeing all those old faces again. They were her Ponyville, and it felt good to be home again after so long.

Making her way towards the main square, she tried guessing which one of her friends she might catch sight of first. The sun was shining high in the sky, and she decided to sit down in the shade of a little restaurant, enjoying the view.

“Twi!”

Twilight felt herself panic at hearing her name being called out. Quickly, she looked around and her eyes landed on the source of the call: Applejack. Oddly, though, Applejack wasn’t looking anywhere near her. It wasn’t until moments later that Twilight realized what had happened when she saw her younger-self galloping towards the farm pony.

It was an odd sight, to say the least. Past-Twilight, already an alicorn, looked so much younger compared to the reflection Twilight saw in the mirror each day. She observed herself for a few minutes, feeling rather narcissistic, before finally directing her attention towards Applejack again.

The earth pony was pulling a little cart with assorted apple-based merchandise. Twilight watched as Applejack pointed to her cart, prompting the younger mare to trot over and select one of the delicious treats. Twilight felt a wave of affection for Applejack wash over her, remembering how the pony was always very happy to treat her to free and delicious apples.

She watched with envy as her younger self, having finished her apple, went over and initiated a friendly hug with the other mare. She couldn’t help but slightly resent just how much her past self gave her friends for granted. One day, the time would come Applejack would pass away, and Past-Twilight would find out that without her friend, Sweet Apple Acres apples would just never taste the same.

After engaging in brief conversation, her younger-self and Applejack left the main square, leaving Twilight alone to her thoughts again. She got up all of a sudden and took off, headed in a completely different direction: Carousel Boutique.

She wanted to see Rarity. Mind you, it wasn’t that she wasn't interested in seeing her other friends — she was —, but she wasn’t going to deny that Rarity was the one she wanted to see the most. There was also the fact that she didn’t want Rarity to be the last one she’d see. She’d much rather it be Pinkie Pie, knowing she’d leave on a much happier note than if she saw Rarity last. After all, she knew the unicorn would be the departure that would hurt the most; the sooner she got it over with, the better.

It felt like her steps grew slower and slower the closer she got to Carousel Boutique. She stared at her hooves as she trotted along, deep in thought. Was she ready? No, but that wouldn’t stop her, would it? She looked up and spotted Golden Oak Library in the distance, a knot forming in her throat. Her old home… How dearly she missed it. The temptation to go in and look inside was strong, but Spike might be inside, and the little dragon would most likely go into shock if he were to be confronted with a five hundred plus year old Twilight.

There was, however, no time to dwell on her past moments with the unicorn. Throwing one last look to the library, Twilight took a deep breath and went on her way.

It was nearly paralyzing, the tightening she felt around her heart, the moment she saw Carousel Boutique in the distance. The time had come. After hundreds and hundreds of years forcing herself to try and move on, she had succumbed to the innermost desires of her heart, and she was about to get what she wanted.

“Twiiiiiiii—”

She was about to find out if it would be worth the heartbreak that would come afterwards.

“IIIIIIII—”

She wasn’t sure she was ready.

“LIIIIIGHT!”

What was that noise?

Turning around, her eyes widened when she realized a pink blur was headed right for her at an extremely alarming speed. Before she could even react, an over-excited Pinkie had come to a screeching halt right in front of her, startling Twilight half to death.

“P-P-Pinkie….”

“Hi, Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully. "Why are you wearing a cloak? Are you playing hide-and-seek?"

Twilight almost wanted to demand how Pinkie had known it was her, but… it was Pinkie.

"Did I surprise you? I hope I didn’t surprise you! Unless you like being surprised! In which case, I hope I did surprise you!” Pinkie continued, the words coming out of her mouth at a hundred miles per hour. "It’s just that I was standing waaaaaaay over there, and then I saw you and I thought ‘Look! It’s Twilight!’, but then I remembered I hadn’t seen you at all this morning, which meant I hadn’t said hello to you today!”

“I… I…”

“And then I realized that since I hadn’t said ‘Hi!’ today, then maybe you were sad because I ALWAYS say hi to you!” Pinkie continued, oblivious to Twilight’s shocked expression. “And if you were sad because of me, then I’d be sad because you were sad because I hadn’t said hello, and since I didn’t want to be sad because you were sad, because I hadn’t said hello, I knew I had to come over and say hello so you wouldn’t be sad!”

She looked at Twilight, waiting for an answer, but the alicorn could only stare, mouth hanging slightly open in what Rarity would consider a most unladylike gesture.

“Aww! You’re so happy I said hello, you can’t even talk,” Pinkie said, affectionately patting the shocked mare several times on the head.

Twilight was indeed speechless, but not for the reason Pinkie thought she was. Just like with the others, there were certain details Twilight had forgotten about the mare with time, and one of those things was not only just how hyper Pinkie Pie was, but also just how much Twilight had missed that boundless enthusiasms.

“PINKIE PIE!”

Twilight and Pinkie looked up to find a quite upset Rainbow Dash hovering over them, her forelegs crossed and a frown on her face. “Pinkie,” she yelled. “You were supposed to stay still so I knew where I had to put the raincloud!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie apologized, hopping towards her. “It’s just that I hadn’t said hello to Twilight today, and since I hadn’t said hello, she might have been sad, and if she was sad, then I’d be sad because she was sad, and I kn—“

“Okay, okay! Whatever,” Rainbow interrupted, rolling her eyes. “Just, next time, don’t get distracted again!” Rainbow flew down and landed next to Twilight, throwing the alicorn a questioning glance. "What're you doing wearing that, egghead? Did you accidentally ruin another one of Rarity's dresses again?" she teased, taking off Twilight's hood before the mare could protest.

Pinkie’s explanation of why she would never ever, ever, ever get distracted again was only heard by Rainbow, for Twilight was far too busy gawking at the pegasus to pay attention. The very last memories she had of Rainbow Dash were of a very old pegasus who constantly lamented the fact she could barely take off the floor anymore.

Truthfully, there had come a time where Twilight had begun avoiding at all costs having to fly in front of the elderly Rainbow. She had felt very guilty that she — who had never really found flying such a thrill — was the one who could keep doing it, while Rainbow — whose entire life had always revolved around flight — couldn’t do so any longer.

Tears stung at Twilight’s eyes, but she couldn’t pinpoint the reason they were there. Was she moved to tears by the sight of Rainbow once more doing what she loved? Or, maybe, was it the fact that she was talking to Pinkie and Dash one last time?

Wait a second. It suddenly occurred to Twilight that she was doing exactly what she had been supposed to avoid at all costs. Her eyes grew wide as her mind was flooded with thousands of hypothetical catastrophic consequences to her idle chat with the two mares.

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow suddenly said, eyebrow raised. “You okay? You’re acting kiiiinda strange. I mean, besides the cloak.”

“Uh…” came Twilight’s reply with an eloquence Celestia would be envious of.

Don’t panic, she thought, trying to ignore her accelerating heartbeat. Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic, do not panic.

“I’m fine!” she said, laughing somewhat awkwardly. “I’m just tired. Stayed up late reading and didn't feel like talking to anypony.” There. A perfectly reasonable excuse, which Rainbow was sure to believe!...Or not, it seemed.

The pegasus’ eyes were narrowed. “You sure you’re not sick?” she continued, landing next to the lavender pony and taking a step towards her. “You don’t look so good, actually. Your voice's all hoarse.”

Pinkie took a closer look at Twilight. “Rainbow’s right, Twilight! You do look sick! Your coat’s all greyish!”

“Girls, really, I’m fine,” she said, a little more forcefully, hoping to put an end to any more inquiries on her health.

Rainbow, however, was quite the stubborn one. “Twilight, we’re just worried about you,” she said, obviously meaning it. She reached over to put a friendly hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, but the second her hoof made contact with Twilight’s coat, the alicorn violently jerked away on instinct.

“Woah, Twi!” Rainbow exclaimed, backing off. “Now I know for sure something’s wrong!”

If her mind had moments ago been instructing her to keep calm, it had started doing the complete exact opposite. The word ‘panic’ looped itself endlessly in her mind while she tried to articulate a reply. “I… er, I have… I have to go!” she blurted out finally, putting the hood back on, turning around and galloping away, ignoring Rainbow’s pleas for her to wait.

Regretting that her final moment with Dash and Pinkie hadn’t ended as she would have liked, Twilight made her way towards a mildly populated area of Ponyville, hoping she wasn’t being followed. She blended in with the crowd, ignoring the inquisitive looks some ponies threw her way. She spotted a small alley in the distance and went inside, sitting down once she was sure nopony had followed her. She made sure her back faced the crowd, not really wanting to see the many ponies that were surely peeking inside the alley to see what their princess was doing.

Well, that went well. So much for not interfering or speaking to anypony…

“Great job, Twilight,” she muttered, taking off the hood and sighing. “Maybe next time you’ll actually listen to Spike.”

It had all been a big mistake. Every single thing she had done thus far had been an awful, terrible mistake. She never should have gone back to the past. What was the point of it, anyway? Seeing them again? She had thought that was what she wanted, and that she’d be fine afterwards, but who had she been trying to kid? She wasn’t going to be fine when she wanted so much more than just seeing. If she really had wanted to just see them, she could have looked at the old photo albums.

No. She wanted more than that. She wanted to talk to them, to spend time with them, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t, she couldn’t, she couldn’t. Look at what had happened with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie! Sure, they had just thought she was sick, but what about the others? Rarity would figure her out in a split-second.

Rarity.

Celestia, she didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if she saw Rarity, because, with her, not even talking would be enough. And even if she did talk to her, what would she say? Hi, Rarity! It’s me! Twilight from the future! I came from centuries in the future because I have hang-ups about our relationship, and so I came to see you even though you’re a zillion years younger than me, because that is definitely not creepy and weird!

Or maybe she’d be thrilled.

It would, after all, be a scenario straight out of one of her romance novels, wouldn’t it? Immortal lover risks all and goes back in time to spend one last hour with the love of their eternal life. She smiled, practically hearing Rarity swooning. Princesses, she missed her. And it was because of this, she reflected, that she needed to go back to her time. Staying would just make things worse for her.

Whispered voices made their way into her ears, and she realized that ponies were no doubt theorizing behind her back on why she had chosen to sit in the middle of a dark alley. When she finally got up, she heard the muttering almost immediately die down. Better think up an excuse to her behaviour, or else her past self would be getting a lot of weird loo—

“Darling?”

Twilight felt her entire body go stiff, her ears straightening. She wanted to turn around and look, but she couldn’t. I’m hearing things, she thought to herself, closing her eyes and waiting in silence. She had longed so much to hear Rarity’s voice again, she had reached the point where she was hallucinating it. She had to be, for she didn’t know what she’d do if she wasn’t.

“Twilight?” the voice repeated, this time a little louder. The call was accompanied by the sound of several approaching hoofsteps. “Sweetheart, is everything okay?”

Maybe she could run away.

This was the thought that danced around Twilight’s mind when she realized she wasn’t hallucinating. She’d run away, or even better, teleport out of there. Even if Rarity got mad, it would be her past self’s problem to deal with, not hers. It was the only thing she could do. After all, in that very moment, Twilight realized that if she turned around to look at Rarity, no power in Equestria would be strong enough to make her go back to the future.

And yet.

And yet, even with that knowledge, and even though every single section of her brain urged her to leave and never come back, the moment Rarity called out to her once more, Twilight Sparkle turned around.

2. Dramatics and Confessions

It was an unbreakable, unbendable and unavoidable law of the universe that, when Rarity called, Twilight Sparkle would always answer. And nothing could have prepared her for the wave of emotions that drowned her at seeing the unicorn again. She could only stare at her, completely at a loss for words.

Rarity, a few feet away, looked at Twilight with her head tilted to the side. She looked nothing like how Twilight remembered her. She remembered an elderly pony with a grey mane tied in a bun, a greying coat, and red glasses permanently stuck on the bridge of her nose. This pony, however, was nothing like that. Her beautiful purple mane flowed down from her head, her coat shined with the vibrancy of youth, and no red glasses decorated her nose. Twilight had dreamt of that moment many times before, but now that it was happening, it didn’t feel real.

“Hellooooo,” Rarity continued, waving a hoof in front of the other mare. “Equestria to Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight would have liked to say something, but her mind was too much of an incoherent, jumbled, panicked mess to do so. In the end, after another minute of frantically trying to get her thoughts in order, she only managed to force out a stuttered “Rarity”.

“Ah! So there is somepony home,” Rarity exclaimed, pleased at having received recognition. Curious ponies still watched the scene from the entrance of the alley, but they all scurried away when the unicorn turned to look at them, narrowed eyes demanding privacy from their meddling.

Once they were gone, she turned back to Twilight. “Darling, what exactly are you doing standing in the middle of a dreary alley?”

Oh, you know, time-travelling, disguising myself, running away from our friends after spying on them, the usual. As much as Twilight would have liked to say something else, that was the only reply that came to her mind. What could she say? She had to be extremely careful. What if it wasn’t something her past self would say? She hadn’t been that young in centuries; how was she supposed to remember how she acted back then?

“Er… Wha-What are you doing here?” she asked, rationalizing that the best course of action was to just completely avoid talking about herself.

“What am I doing here?” Rarity asked, putting a hoof over her chest, surprised at finding herself being the one questioned. “Twilight, I told you earlier that I had to deliver some dresses near here. I told you several times, in fact.”

“Oh… er, really?” Twilight said, laughing nervously. “I forgot?”

Rarity pointed at the cloak. "And why in Equestria are you wearing that horrid thing?"

"Er… chilly… day?"

Rarity pursed her lips. "You're not even wearing it properly," she admonished, levitating the cloak off Twilight without even asking. "It's not supposed to drag on the floor like that, honestly. Where did you even get this?" she asked, flapping it in the air to clean it a bit.

"I… uh… Pinkie Pie gave it to me?"

Rarity raised an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced by Twilight’s excuse, but pursued the matter no further. “Hmm… Did she? Well, in any case, I’ve finished my deliveries for the day. Since we’re together now, I was wondering if perhaps you’d like to get started with…” She faltered mid-sentence and stared. “Twilight…”

To Twilight’s horror, Rarity began circling her, her eyes inspecting every inch of the alicorn’s body, the cloak still floating in the air. Twilight was suddenly reminded that she didn’t look all that young anymore, and it seemed like Rarity had noticed it too.

She came to a halt, eyes narrowed. “You… Why do you look older?” she asked finally, brushing her hoof against Twilight’s coat and sending jolts of electricity through Twilight’s system at the contact. “Your coat is graying…” She looked up at Twilight. “And are you taller?”

Panic gripped Twilight’s brain as she rummaged it for an explanation. Sick? No, Rarity wouldn’t believe it. “I…” She took a step back, watching as Rarity’s hoof dropped back to the ground. “I… was practicing… aging… spells?”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Aging spells.”

“Y-yep, aging spells!” Twilight stammered, trying to give Rarity the single most nonchalant smile she could muster. “Princess Celestia asked me to… study the biological effects of using magic to increase the age of somepony.” There. Rarity couldn’t think she was lying when she knew perfectly well that Twilight would do almost anything Celestia asked. The perfect excuse.

Rarity was quiet, eyes still narrowed. “Odd. You didn’t mention the Princess had written to you recently. I suppose that explains the cloak, then.” However, with a flick of her mane, any trace of suspicion vanished from her face. She levitated the cloak over to Twilight and watched as the alicorn put it back on again. “Anyway, as I was saying, I was wondering if perhaps you’d like to get started with the spells.”

Twilight blinked. “Spells? What spells?”

Rarity rolled her eyes, unamused by Twilight’s ignorance. “What do you mean ’what spells’? The ones you promised to help me with earlier today, of course. Or have you forgotten that, too?”

Twilight winced, ears flattening against her head. “O-Oh! Right… Those spells…” Whatever they are…

Rarity shook her head. “Honestly, Twilight, on what planet did you wake up this morning? You’ve forgotten nearly everything I told you this morning, and suddenly you’ve decided that dark and gloomy alleys are the best place to test aging spells? Not to mention you’ve been looking at me as if though I had two heads. Are you feeling all right?” She made a move to check Twilight for fever, but Twilight quickly backed away.

“I’m fine, Rarity,” she insisted, trying to smile reassuringly. “I guess I’m just a little out-of-it.”

“Well, please do try to ‘be-in-it’ from now on, darling,” Rarity replied before turning towards the alley’s exit and trotting off. “Come now, it’s starting to get late.”

Twilight bit down on her lip, unsure of what to do. Going with Rarity involved more meddling with time, and meddling even more with time could have ugly results. But, on the other hoof, trying to get out of her situation would no doubt result in an angry Rarity, and Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted her last ever interaction with the unicorn to be an unpleasant one. With some reluctance — and a bit of excitement, admittedly —, Twilight followed her, hoping she’d soon find a way to go back home.

The walk towards Carousel Boutique had been mostly a silent one on Twilight’s side. While one fraction of her mind tried figuring out a way out of her situation, every other part was focused entirely on Rarity. The unicorn had been doing most of the talking, and even though her topics were no doubt mundane and normal for her, for Twilight they were absolutely fascinating. To hear her voice, to hear what she’d done, even the simplest of things just kept reminding Twilight of the fact that she was talking to Rarity after so many years.

“Ah, here we are!” Rarity said suddenly, directing Twilight’s attention towards the building in the distance.

Carousel Boutique.

It had been one of the many things Rarity left to Twilight when she passed away. Twilight, at the time still heartbroken over the mare’s death, had given it to one of the unicorn’s apprentices to live in, figuring Rarity would have liked her house to still be used in the name of fashion. Eventually, Rarity’s apprentice passed away, and she in turn left it to her own apprentice, starting a tradition of sorts. By the time Twilight celebrated her five hundredth birthday, Carousel Boutique had already passed through the ownership of three different ponies, including the original one.

It was a bit sad for Twilight to notice that, whenever she visited Ponyville, Rarity’s essence had disappeared more and more with each owner, until it got to the point where she could no longer recognize anything inside the building.

It was because of this that, when she followed Rarity inside the building, she was overcome with a wide array of emotions upon seeing it again in its original state. She felt very much like a foal inside a toy store, where every little object was cause for excitement.

“I’m sorry about the mess,” Rarity said, using her magic to pick up stray objects from the floor and put them back in their place. “I’m afraid I didn’t have time to pick up this morning.”

“Oh, I don’t care. It’s a beautiful mess,” Twilight whispered, mostly to herself. She put the cloak on the coat rack and kept looking around, fascinated by it all. She then realized Rarity was staring at her quite intently. “What’s wrong?” she asked, alarmed.

“A ’beautiful mess’?” Rarity repeated, as if to make sure she had heard correctly.

Uh-oh. Twilight cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks redden. “Err, so, what about those spells?” she asked, hoping to change the topic.

“The spellbook is upstairs in the bedroom,” Rarity replied, still observing Twilight with the same concerned expression.

Twilight nodded, smiling awkwardly. “Okay, then.”

She trotted past the unicorn and went up the stairs, hearing Rarity following behind and whispering to herself: “A ’beautiful mess?' What?”

While Twilight was excited to once more see Rarity’s bedroom — for purely innocent reasons, thank you very much —, she now knew better than to say anything out loud. Unlike downstairs, Rarity’s room was very neatly picked up. The only thing not in its place was the blue spellbook on top of the writing desk.

Twilight took off her saddlebag and put it on the bed, using her magic to float over the book and read its title: Dazzlingly Dazzling Spells for Dazzling Ponies.

How… dazzling.

“What spell do you need help with?” she asked, sitting down on the floor and looking through the pages. They all seemed like relatively easy spells, which meant she’d be able to hightail it out of there in no time at all.

Without warning, Rarity plopped herself down next to Twilight, startling the latter into giving out a little “eep!”. Once more, a blush crept up Twilight’s cheeks at being so close to Rarity. Despite the fact that she had been making it a point to avoid physical contact with Rarity, she now found she was very much tempted to snuggle up to the unicorn. Instead, however, she forced herself a few inches away from the other mare; far enough so their coats weren’t brushing anymore, but close enough that Rarity wouldn’t notice anything.

To be honest, Twilight felt like it would be wrong, inappropriate even, to act as anything more than platonic friends with Rarity since she wasn’t really who Rarity thought she was. Yes, even if, for all intents and purposes, she was technically the same pony as her past self, she still didn’t feel comfortable pretending to be her. In fact, it even felt like it might be an act of betrayal towards her past self to get cozy with Rarity.

Gosh, time-travel was complicated.

“Hmm, let me see,” Rarity murmured, taking the book from Twilight and flipping through the pages. “It should be near the end, I believe.”

Her search was interrupted seconds later by the sound of the entrance bells chiming. “Hello? Rarity?” a voice called from downstairs, followed by the sound of a closing door.

Rarity looked up, frowning. “That’s odd. I thought I put up the ‘closed’ sign,” she murmured, closing the book and handing it to Twilight. She got up and looked at Twilight. “Sorry, darling. Let me go see what they want, and I’ll be right back.”

Twilight nodded, hoping that whoever had come would leave quickly so she could get going herself. “Alright,” she replied, watching as Rarity made her way towards the door before looking back to the book.

“Rarity?” the impatient voice called again.

“I’ll be down in a moment!” she called back. All of a sudden, she came to a stop in front of the door, her ears perked up.

Twilight looked up from her book. “Something wrong?” she asked.

“No… Nothing,” Rarity replied slowly. “It… It’s just that their voice sounds a lot like yours, and, well, for an instant I thought that was you calling.” She shook her head and shrugged, oblivious to the absolutely horrified way Twilight looked at her. “In any case, I’ll be right back.” With that, she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

The entire room seemed to spin around Twilight as she tried to process what was about to happen. She needed to get out of there. Fast. Feeling as if she was moments away from fainting, she tried to teleport herself outside but stopped. No. If the Twilight downstairs was already very skilled with magic, she’d be able to detect the magic surge and track it down in no time. But… But she couldn’t get out of Carousel Boutique without magic.

It was all over.

Twilight knew what came next. Rarity and her younger self would come up, find her and confront her about the time-travel. Rarity would then find out she’s dead in Twilight's time, while the younger Twilight would freak out over the dangers of time-travelling; she’d worry herself into a frenzy over the paradoxes it might have caused, and then she’d go tell Celestia about everything.

Celestia, of course, would be furious upon finding out Twilight had tampered with an old scroll, especially for such a trivial reason. She’d then go on to punish Twilight by forcing her to stay in the past.

None of her friends from the past would want to be with her, because they’d still have the younger Twilight, thus dooming the future Twilight to a life of solitary misery. Spike, her Spike, back in the future, would cease to exist because of the changes there would be in the past, and Twilight would be completely alone for the rest of her painfully long life.

Oh Celestia, if only she had wings, she could just fly out the window and… Wait a minute! what am I thinking?! I do have wings!

Twilight’s eyes focused on the oval glass-door that stood in the way between her and salvation. If her magic wasn’t going to get her out of there, her wings sure as hell would. She stretched them out, used her magic to open the door and then rushed towards it. She could already taste her freedom.

Or, at least, she would have tasted her freedom if only a blue colored magic hadn’t slammed the door shut in her face.

“And just where do you think you’re going?”

So close.

She had been so close to avoiding eternity alone in misery. Steeling herself, and figuring that if she was to go down, she might as well go down with dignity, Twilight stood up straight and turned around to face judgement day. To her surprise, only Rarity had come back up.

The unicorn closed the door behind her. “I knew something was off with you,” she spat.

Twilight bit her lip and forced herself to look into Rarity’s eyes, even if she so very badly wanted to look away. Why was Rarity angry? Couldn’t she at least know why Twilight had done what she did before getting angry? “You… You don’t know what’s going on,” Twilight shot back, trying to defend herself.

“Oh, I know exactly what’s going on” Rarity snapped back, stomping her hoof against the floor.

Twilight’s ears flattened against her skull, and she took a step back. “I… I don’t regret anything,” she said, trying hard to keep her voice loud and firm.

“Oh, really? We shall see if you feel the same way after Princess Celestia deals with you.”

Twilight felt her heart sink. Did Rarity truly love her so little that she’d be willing to turn her in without even listening to her explanation? “Please, at least, let me explai—”

“I am not interested in any explanation you have to offer!” Rarity snapped, her voice as vicious as the glare in her eyes. “Princess Celestia warned us you might come here!”

Wait, what?

“She did?”

“She suspected it would happen sooner or later,” Rarity went on. “That you’d want to get revenge.”

Revenge. Revenge? “Revenge?!”

“Oh, don’t act innocent!” Rarity shrieked, stamping her hoof against the floor again. “We all knew one of you would be back, even after Princess Celestia defeated your queen!” She narrowed her eyes. “Isn’t that right… changeling?!”

“A… changeling?”

Oh! So that’s why she thought I… This… This is perfect! Suddenly, it was like an enormous weight lifted off her back. Never in her life did she think she’d be so happy to have somepony mistake her for a changeling.

“Exactly what are you so happy about?!” Rarity barked, snapping Twilight out of her reveries.

The excited smile on Twilight’s face vanished. “I’m not!” she barked back. “If Twilight Sparkle hadn’t come, you’d have never seen through my, uh, transformation, pony!”

“Hah! Please do not underestimate me! Besides, you didn’t do a very good job with your transformation in the first place!” she retorted. “For starters, Twilight would have told me if she was planning on doing an aging spell! And, even if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t look like that at all!”

Well, that wasn’t something Twilight had expected to hear. “She wouldn’t? Why not?”

“Well, I mean, look at yourself!” Rarity said, pointing her hoof at Twilight, “You barely have wrinkles, you look fit, your mane and coat have a very healthy sheen… With the very lacking personal upkeep Twilight has, if it can even be called that, there’s simply no chance she’ll look like you when she’s older!”

Twilight didn’t know whether she should feel proud or extremely offended.

“Speaking of Twilight,” Rarity continued, “I didn’t want to alarm her until I was sure of what you were, but now that I do, I ought to fetch her. I’m sure she’ll be quite pleased to send a message to the Princess.” Rarity started backtracking towards the door. “I do hope you’ll enjoy your stay in Canterlot’s dungeons.”

“Wait! Please, don’t!” Twilight pleaded, shaking her head. “You have me all wrong! I don’t mean any harm!”

Now Rarity looked offended. “Really? You try tricking me into thinking you’re Twilight, and now you claim you bear no ill will? How daft do you honestly think I am?!”

“I promise I don’t!”

“Then why are you impersonating Twilight?! You just want to use her image to get to Celestia!” Rarity accused.

“If I really wanted to get to Princess Celestia, I’d have transformed into Princess Luna!” Twilight debated.

If it was possible to make Rarity even angrier, that comment had been the way. “Pardon me, but Celestia takes very seriously whatever Twilight thinks or says!” A furious Rarity snapped back. “I will not stand for you undermining her relationship with the Princess!”

Though she was moved by the fact that Rarity had gotten offended on her behalf, Twilight ploughed on. “But Celestia would have seen right through my disguise! I had really wanted to get to her through Twilight, I’d have transformed into you!”

“Me?” Rarity asked, pointing at hoof at her chest. “Why me?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Twilight asked, no longer acting. “Twilight loves you, doesn’t she? She holds your opinion in a much higher regard than anypony’s else’s! Maybe even Celestia!” she asserted. Sorry, Princess…

“She… does?” Rarity whispered, her anger subsiding.

Realizing that perhaps she was saying a little too much, Twilight decided a change of tactic was in order. Two centuries ago, back in her time, a group of changelings had come to Canterlot, asking to be allowed to live there. They had abandoned their faith to their queen and asked to be given a second chance to live peacefully alongside the citizens of Equestria. It had been Twilight who dealt with their case and had found a secluded place for them near Phillydelphia. She had grown pretty friendly with one of them, in fact, and had thus learned of the hardships they went through under Chrysalis’ reign.

“I deserted my queen,” she lied, remembering everything her friend had told her, “because I just want a peaceful life. Ever since the incident in Canterlot, everypony shuns my race. I… I transformed into Twilight because I wanted to know what it was like to walk around without being attacked or hated.” She thought of Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. “To… To have friends again… that care about you...”

Maybe it was because of Twilight’s real feelings seeping in through her lies, but she was putting on a very convincing act for the unicorn. Rarity’s expression had softened considerably, prompting Twilight to continue. “Let me go, please,” she pleaded, pointing at the balcony. “I won’t come back. I will never bother you, and you will never see me again. I promise.”

“Rarity?” the other Twilight called from downstairs, getting impatient. “What’s going on? Did you find the book?”

Rarity furrowed her brow and bit her lip, still intently looking at Twilight. After a minute, she sighed and looked towards the door. “Everything’s alright, darling! I found the book, but something came up! Give me a few minutes, please!” she called before turning to Twilight. “Leave,” she ordered, “before I change my mind.”

At the sight of the balcony doors opening, Twilight smiled gratefully. “Thank you.” Taking one last look at Rarity, she went towards the bed to get her saddlebag and leave. However, just as she was about to reach it, it promptly floated away from the bed.

“You don’t mind if I inspect what’s inside, do you?” Though it was formulated as a question, it was clear that Rarity had no intention on waiting for permission. “You shouldn’t have anything to protest since, as you say, you mean no harm, don’t you?”

Before Twilight could even try and protest, the unicorn opened the bag and looked inside, retrieving the scroll moments after. “My, my, this looks important,” she remarked, unfurling the scroll and reading aloud. “‘Star Swirl the Bearded’s Time-Travelling Spell’. A time-travelling spell? No doubt to go back in time and change the outcome of the fight in Canterlot.” She rolled up the scroll again. “And to think you almost tricked me into letting you go.”

Twilight watched with frustration as the balcony door was slammed shut again. Couldn’t she catch a break for once?

Still not finished with her invasion of Twilight’s privacy, Rarity rummaged inside the bag again. “Let’s see. What else do we have… Wait, this is…” There was a slight pause, and her eyes grew wide. “What have you done?!” Her screech was followed by Twilight’s notebook shooting out of the bag and floating in mid-air for all to see.

“I gave this to Twilight three days ago!” she continued, looking with absolute horror at the old and worn-out notebook. “Look at the atrocious state it’s in!”

Terror took over Twilight, trotting over to stop the unicorn. “Wait, no, please!” If Rarity accidentally read an entry about the future, it could mean big trouble for everypony.

And big trouble was on its way, unfortunately, since Rarity was already flipping through the pages of the book. “You even wrote inside it?! It’s almost completely filled-out! How in Equestria did you even…” She went quiet, her inspection of the notebook’s content accelerating.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “These entries… This is Twilight’s hoofwriting… But I just gave this to her, and it’s already finished! And the dates… These are dated months — no, years! — in the future! That’s imposs—” She stopped talking and looked at the scroll, her eyes widening again.

Twilight watched, filled with dread, as everything clicked in Rarity’s head. The unicorn looked from the notebook, to the scroll, to Twilight, then back to the notebook, back to the scroll and finally to Twilight again.

The notebook and scroll dropped to the floor. “You… You’re from the fut- mmph!” Rarity’s loud reveal was silenced by Twilight’s hoof.

“Don’t scream it!” she warned in a hushed voice, carefully listening for any sign that her younger self had heard anything. After a minute of silence, in which Rarity stared at Twilight in shock, Twilight gently closed the door with her magic and finally retrieved her hoof from Rarity’s snout.

Rarity took a few steps back, her rump colliding with the door. “But! But that’s impossible!”

“Is it? You yourself know that I’ve time-travelled before, with Pinkie Pie and Spike.”

Rarity looked from the notebook to Twilight, sputtering her words. “Yes, but… But you…” All of a sudden, she took a defensive stance, eyeing the alicorn suspiciously. “Prove it,” she demanded, though her tone wasn’t harsh. “Tell me something only Twilight and I would know. Now. Do it.”

“Fine.”

After a good five minutes of listening to Twilight flawlessly answer her questions, Rarity seemed almost entirely convinced. “I.. I think I’ve heard and seen enough,” she replied, though it looked as if she was only just properly seeing her friend. “This is so bizarre…” she admitted, circling Twilight. “I.. I have to say you… you look in very good shape.”

Twilight allowed herself to smile cheekily. “Really? Even despite my ‘rather lacking personal upkeep, if it can even be called that’?”

Rarity cleared her throat, a blush appearing on her cheeks. “Well, you could stand to use a little more cream,” she replied. She giggled and offered a small smile. “Sorry about that.”

Twilight shrugged, her smile widening a bit. “I guess it was sort of a compliment?”

Apprehension had drained away and excitement had come bubbling in. Even if she’d been talking to Rarity for a few hours now, it was the first time in the entire day that she was doing so as herself, not her past self. The greatest part about it was that Rarity wasn’t freaking out. There was no Celestia getting angry, no being banished to live in the past without friends, and no explosions due to paradoxes in the time-space continuum. Somehow, everything was working out.

Except…

Except it couldn’t last forever. Rarity was a ghost to Twilight; a reminder of times long gone. Even if they were talking, and even if they were creating new memories, she was still living in the past. She was having a painfully vivid and lifelike glimpse of a thing she would never again have.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” a concerned Rarity asked, snapping Twilight from her reveries.

“Huh? What’d you mean?”

“It.. It’s silly, but I noticed it earlier too. The way you look at me…” She drifted off briefly. “It’s like you can’t believe I’m here. It’s as if though you’re seeing a ghost. It’s the impression I get, at least.”

Twilight gulped. “A-A ghost?”

Rarity let out a nervous smile. “See? I told you it was silly,” she said, laughing awkwardly. “I guess it must be my nerves at meeting a future version of you. Why would you even look at me like that? After all, it’s not like I’m a ghost to you. I haven’t died in your time yet…” she said before half-jokingly adding, “right?”

“No.”

Now, if Twilight had said ‘no’ in a reassuring, assertive manner, then Rarity would have smiled and they’d move on to a different topic. But then a different story would unfold because, in this story, when Rarity half-jokingly asked if she was dead in the future, Twilight Sparkle stammered her reply.

“Twilight,” Rarity said, carefully, backing away from Twilight. “Am I dead in your time, yes or no?”

“No!” Twilight said, shaking her head and trying to sound convincing. She was not, unfortunately, and all hell broke loose as a consequence.

“I am dead in your time!” Rarity gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves.

Oh no.

“No, of course not, Rarity!” Twilight lied as convincingly as she possibly could despite her steadily increasing panic levels. “You’re not dea—”

“Oh my stars! Twilight, is that why you time-travelled?!”

“What? No! Rarity please!” she pleaded. “Please, let me expla—”

“But that must be it! What other reason could there be?! That’s why you were sneaking around in dark alleys!” she went on, her own conjectures riling her up even more. “You… You’ve come to save me from dying! Twilight, please tell me you’ve come to save me from dying!”

Twilight remembered Rarity being prone to… dramatizing events, but this was ridiculous. What books had Rarity even been reading to set off her imagination like this? “No! You’re not even goi—”

“You’re NOT going to save me from dying?!” she screeched, horrified.

“No! I mean, yes! But you’re n—”

“So then I will die today!”

“Will you please stop putting words in my mouth?!” Twilight slapped her hoof against her face and groaned. “Rarity, for Celestia’s sake, will you please be quiet and let me tal—”

Rarity, of course, proceeded to completely ignore the request and instead trot around in quick circles. “Oh Celestia, I know I’ve always joked about wanting our relationship to be more exciting and dramatic, like a book, but I didn’t mean THIS! I wanted Pride and Stereotypes, not Poneo and Filliette!”

“Rarity, will you please calm down?! And Poneo and Filliete is a play, not a book!”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity shrieked, turning around to look at the alicorn. “I’m going to die, and you’re worried about whether something is a play or a book?!”

Twilight let out a long-suffering sigh. “Rarity. For the last time,” she said, as calmly as she possibly could in preparation to her scream. “You are not going to die!”

“You don’t know that!” Rarity snapped, so lost in her own delusion that she forgot Twilight was a time traveler.

“Yes, I do, actually!” Twilight snapped back, forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to say anything, or perhaps saying everything because some part inside her needed release, needed closure. “You’re going to die in your sleep of old age, a very long time from now, while I’m helplessly stuck in a diplomatic visit to Saddle Arabia that I’ll regret the rest of my life! So stop saying you’re going to die today, because I know when you’re going to die, and it’s not today!”

Rarity went very quiet, taking a few step back. She had obviously not expected that outburst, and Twilight immediately regretted what she’d said.

Tears stung at Twilight's eyes, and her entire body trembled at inadvertently having brought back memories of a terrible day she wished to forget. “Well, so much for keeping that a secret,” she muttered, looking away.

“I… Twilight…” Rarity was at a loss for words, and Twilight didn’t blame her. What could one say upon hearing such terrible news? “I didn’t… I-I…”

Three loud knocks at the door startled them half to death. In the midsts of dramatics and confessions, they had forgotten somepony else was in the house. “Rarity?” Younger Twilight called from behind the door, apparently having decided to take matters into her own hooves. “What’s going on?! What are those screams?”

Rarity rushed to the door, holding it closed. “N-Nothing, sweetheart!” she stammered, panicked. “O-Opalescence… broke a perfume bottle and I’m afraid I scolded her a bit too loudly! I just have to clean up, and I’ll be right down!”

“Alright…”

Hoofsteps were heard outside, and Rarity threw Twilight a helpless look. “I… I have to go…”

Twilight gave a tired smile, trotting over to her saddlebag. It was the time to go. She had no place in the past, and it was time she accepted it. “It’s alright. I have to go too, anyway,” she said, putting on her bag. “It was nice seeing you, though.”

“No, wait, please!” Rarity exclaimed, extending her hoof towards Twilight before quickly lowering it again. “Please, don’t go. I just need to go and… I’ll be quick. Please.”

Twilight considered the request. The worst thing that could happen were time-space issues, and so far, the fabric of time and space hadn’t ripped, so there shouldn’t be too much problem with staying a little bit more. “Okay,” she said, taking off her bag again.

Rarity nodded before quickly taking the spellbook and running off, the door closing behind her. Sighing, Twilight trotted towards the balcony. In the distance, she saw Spike playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

I’ve really gone and done it now, haven’t I, Spike?

Twenty minutes later, Rarity finally came back up to the bedroom, finding Twilight entertaining herself by playing with Opalescence.

“Oh, good! You’re still here!” she exclaimed, trotting in. She gulped down. “I… I thought you might have left…”

Twilight didn’t even glance back at Rarity. “I did say I’d stay,” she replied flatly, now entertaining herself with watching the cat play with her saddlebag.

“W-would you like a cup of tea?” Rarity offered, disconcerted by Twilight’s apathy.

Figuring she ought to make the best of it, Twilight looked up, smiling slightly. “That would be nice, thank you.”

Rarity beamed at her, reassured by the positive reaction. “Perfect! I just got a new flavor, and I’ve heard it’s absolutely delicious!”

Twilight nodded and got up, following her down to the kitchen. Once there, the two of them sat down at the table and engaged in at least ten minutes of awkward silence, looking at their cups of tea with complete fascination.

It was Rarity who finally broke the silence. “Was… Was it a nice day?” she asked. “When I… well… you know…”

Twilight looked up from her tea. “When you died?”

Rarity seemed suddenly very uncomfortable. “Yes… It’s just that I’ve always imagined it’d be a sunny day when I’d die, but don’t mind me. That wasn’t really an appropriate question, was it? I was tactless. I’m sorry, forget I said anything.”

Twilight looked down at her tea again. “I don’t know,” she replied, letting her mind go back centuries. “I was in Saddle Arabia, but I vaguely remember somepony telling me there had been a rainstorm in Ponyville that weekend.”

“Ah,” Rarity replied. “Well, it’s very fitting, I think.”

Twilight looked up again. “It is?”

“Indeed,” Rarity said, smiling broadly. “After all, the world should weep the day I chose to leave it, wouldn’t you agree?”

Despite the grim subject, a small smiled appeared on Twilight’s lip. “Of course. What would become of Equestria without the fabulous Rarity, right?” she asked, finding her smile growing bigger at the sound of Rarity’s giggles.

Rarity went quiet, looking at Twilight regretfully. “I… I’m sorry about what happened earlier. I let myself get carried away, and I crossed a line.”

Twilight waved her hoof in a dismissive motion. “It’s okay. you wouldn’t be the Rarity I know and lov— like if you didn’t go off in theatrics every now and then.”

Rarity idly stirred her tea, watching Twilight thoughtfully. “I imagine Spike must be a magnificent dragon by your time. It’s a shame I’ll never get to see him as a fully grown dragon.” She took a sip of her tea before continuing. “And… the others… are they also… you know…”

Twilight gulped down.

She… She probably shouldn’t be telling Rarity any of this, but it was painful to stop. She needed to get it out. “You were the last one to go,” she replied, crossing her forehooves on the table. “I was there for all of them… except for you.”

“Oh, Twilight…” Rarity lifted her hoof with the intent on putting it on top of Twilight’s, but hesitated and instead put it back around her teacup.

“I never got a goodbye from you,” Twilight continued, now talking to herself as much as to Rarity. “Maybe that’s really why I came. Maybe I just wanted my goodbye.”

“I… I’m sorry I brought back such painful memories…”

Twilight smiled kindly at her. “It’s okay. I’m the one who should be sorry. I just basically told you when and how you’re going to die. I think it’s safe to say I’m the one who did more damage here,” she said, staring at her tea. “This entire thing was a disaster and a waste of time.”

This time, Rarity did put her hoof on top of Twilight’s. “I don’t think this was a disaster or a waste of time, Twilight.”

She looked up. “You don’t?”

“No, I don’t,” Rarity replied with complete sincerity. “I’m glad you came.”

Twilight looked down at her tea, thoughtful. After a minute, she looked back up again. “You… you don’t think I’m a weirdo for coming back to see you girls?”

“Darling, why on earth would that make you a ‘weirdo’? If I understand correctly, all you had planned on doing was just taking one last look at us before leaving forever, no talking or interacting.” She smiled, taking her hoof back. “I, on the other hoof, would have done much worse in your position.”

“What do you mean?”

“Twilight, if you and the others had died on me, and I got the chance to go back in time to see you once more, no power in Equestria would have been strong enough to make me leave you again.”

Twilight wasn’t sure whether Rarity was being serious or not, but the unicorn’s words brought her comfort. “Rarity… You… You won’t tell anypony of me, will you? Or tell your Twilight about what I told you is going to happen.”

Rarity raised her brow. “But why don’t you want me to tell her? Why not when I’ll be able to spare you a great deal of heartache by asking you to stay the day you have that trip to Saddle Arabia.”

“Rarity,” Twilight said, voice straining. “Please.”

Rarity sighed and took a sip of her tea. “Alright, Twilight, if you say so. Besides, your presence here is living proof that I won’t say a word.”

Twilight blinked. “Huh?”

“Well, time-travel is like a loop, isn’t it? We saw as much the day you had that whole ‘stop it from being Tuesday morning incident’,” Rarity elaborated. “Following that logic, everything happening right now already took place in your past. One day, you were off doing something while I was sitting at this same table talking to a future version of you.”

“Ergo,” she continued, “the fact that you’re here means I never told anyone about this, thus preventing any incidents in the time-space continuum, or whatever you call it.”

Twilight stared at her, mouth slightly open.

This dumbfounded expression drew a sly smile out of Rarity. “Ohhhh, Rarity,” she drawled, imitating the alicorn. “I loooove it when you talk science to me.”

Twilight instantly turned scarlet. “I’ve never said that!” she protested. “I was just thinking that it was a very logical explanation, that’s all!”

Rarity clearly did not buy the excuse, fluttering her eyelashes whilst taking another sip of her tea.

Twilight was about to insist on her excuse, but she noticed the clock on the wall. Almost five hours had passed since she’d arrived to the future. “It’s getting late. I should go.”

Rarity’s expression lost all of its previous playfulness. “Already? But we’ve barely had time to talk!” she protested, putting her tea down. “It’s not like I have the chance to do this every other week, you know!”

Twilight forced herself off the chair. “Well, I didn’t expect to even be able to talk with you five minutes, let alone almost four hours. I don’t think I can ask for more,” she replied. “Besides, your Twilight should be back soon, and us meeting would probably be a bad idea.”

“I must disagree with you on that respect.”

“Huh?”

“I can see how you and ‘my’ Twilight, as you insist on calling her, might have an anxiety attack upon meeting eachother, but me? Two Twilights in the same room? My, it would be like Hearth’s Warming Eve come early.” Rarity leaned in a bit, folding her forelegs on the table. “The things I would do with two of you.”

“Rarity!” Twilight gasped, blushing furiously. “I don’t remember you being this forward.”

“You must remember me incorrectly, then,” she replied, smiling innocently. “In any case, I was only teasing. You don’t need to worry about Twilight. I’m supposed to catch a train for Manehattan tonight, and I told her I’d go see her when I came back on Sunday.”

“I guess I should go, then,” Twilight said, heading out of the kitchen and towards Rarity’s room where her saddlebag was. “I bet Spike already gave himself six worry-induced stomachaches, and you probably still have to pack.”

As she went up the stairs of Carousel Boutique for the last time, she took special care in taking one last, long look at everything. On the way back, she stopped halfway down the stairs to look at three photographs hanging from the wall: the first one depicted the six Elements of Harmony and Spike enjoying a picnic; the second one depicted Rarity, Sweetie Belle and their parents; and the third… The third picture was of herself and Rarity inside a train cabin, both of them leaning against each other and smiling in their sleep.

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked down and saw Rarity standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Are… Are you sure you want to leave already?” Rarity asked, looking rather disappointed.

“Yeah,” Twilight replied, resuming her descent of the stairs and trotting past Rarity. “I think it would be better to just… get it over with.”

“But you still have a little time!” Rarity pressed, following Twilight into the foyer.

“Thirty minutes? An hour? There’s really no difference between leaving now and leaving then, and it’ll hurt less if it’s now.”

“Well, I don’t know about it hurting less, but to me it’s worth thirty more minutes,” Rarity replied. She then looked as if struck by an idea. “Actually… you could come with me.”

Twilight stopped in front of the exit door, turning back to look at the unicorn. “Come with you?” she asked. “Come with you where?”

“To Manehattan! Come with me for the weekend,” Rarity replied, growing excited at her own idea. “It’ll be like of those romance novels Fluttershy lent me. A romantic escapade before our inevitable, eternal separation.” She faux-fainted as an added dramatic effect.

“No,” Twilight flatly replied. “Absolutely not.”

Rarity stamped her hoof against the floor. “But… But, Twilight! Whyever not?! Have you suddenly decided that spending more time with me would be the single most unpleasant thing in Equestria?”

“No, of course not!” Twilight answered, shaking her head. “But look at everything that’s happened in the span of, what? Two hours? I don’t want you finding out more things you shouldn’t know!”

“But you can time-travel!” Rarity insisted. “Can’t you somehow go to the future, and ask your future self if it’s okay to go?”

“Rarity, I can’t do that! Do you realize the risks an entire trip together could bring?”

“Then take a leap of faith! What’s the worst that could happen?”

She shook her head again. “No, Rarity! Unless you somehow find a time-travelling free way to get a message through from my future self, I’m afraid I need to get going.”

Just as Twilight started opening the door, Rarity spoke up. “Wait, there is a way!”

“...Really?”

Rarity nodded her head effusively. “Indeed! Remember how we came to the conclusion that this all already happened in your past?”

“Yes…”

“So, in your past, we already went on the trip or not. What if, right now, I promise to write a message in your notebook at a later date if the trip goes well. Let’s say I’ll write it down a year and five days from now, which would be the… 9th of June of next year?” Rarity suggested, watching as Twilight closed the door again. "My train to Manehattan is leaving at half past eight tonight so I'll write down 'half past eight to Manehattan' on the margin!"

“But… But then that would mean that's already written in my notebo— Oh…” Twilight looked at her saddlebag, feeling as if though it had suddenly become much heavier. Her hoof automatically started reaching for her saddlebag, but she stopped it halfway. “...And what if there’s no 'eight thirty train to Manehattan' written on that date?”

“Then we’ll say our goodbyes, and you can go home without further protest from my part.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment before lowering her hoof and using her magic to open the door once more. “I have to go, Rarity.”

“But you haven’t even chec—”

“I’m not going to check it,” Twilight interrupted.

“But… Why not…?” Rarity asked, and the hurt in her voice almost deterred Twilight from following through with her decision.

“Because…” Twilight gulped down. “Because I’d rather leave while I can still do so with a smile…”

Rarity seemed taken aback by this, ears lowering. “I… I understand,” she whispered finally. With a sigh, she re-adjusted herself and smiled at Twilight. That smile Twilight would never stop missing. “I suppose this is where we part ways, then.”

Twilight smiled while she could still do so. “Until next time, Miss Rarity.”

“Until next time, Princess Twilight,” Rarity replied, bowing playfully before Twilight. “By the way, I’m not upset I’m going to die alone,” she added. “If I wasn’t, then you wouldn’t have come today. I just thought you should know that.”

Twilight’s eyes began to water. “Thank you, Rarity.”

She then turned around, took her cloak and put it back on, then trotted past the open door, forcing herself to not look back even though she knew Rarity was standing at the entrance, watching her leave. Fighting back tears, she quickly made her way to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, and once she was safely out of sight, stopped to process everything that had happened.

Rarity…

She looked at her saddlebag, slowly lifted her hoof and put it on the opening of the bag.

"To Manehattan! Come with me for the weekend.”

Without warning, she opened the saddlebag and the notebook came floating out. It opened in front of her and the pages started swooshing by, her eyes scanning them for the correct date.

She had to know.

If, upon finally finding the correct page, there had been no message from Rarity, Twilight might have closed the notebook and smiled, maybe even would have shaken her head at the silly belief that there’d be something there. With the crackling sound of magic, she’d have returned to her future, only to be greeted by an extremely worried dragon.

Twilight would have told him everything that happened, and she’d have told him that her heart was still hurting, but, for once, it was healing too. She’d have then gone back in peace, with no tears or anxieties. It would have been a good, heartwarming, hopeful ending for a story that would unfold if, and only if, there had been no message for Twilight in her old, worn out, purple notebook.

Unfortunately — or perhaps, fortunately — that was not the story or ending that awaited Twilight Sparkle because, when she found the correct page, a message was indeed written on it. Upon reading it, she put her notebook back in the bag, waited ten minutes, took one last long look at the forest and then headed towards Ponyville’s Train Station, leaving behind the forest and the ending her story could have had.

Effectively, when Twilight Sparkle would return to her own time, two days later, she would not return in the same state she would have had she gone home two days earlier. She would come back with an utterly crushed, ravaged heart; barely even able to speak when a panicked Spike would ask what happened and why was she crying and why hadn’t she listened to him.

Days, or perhaps weeks later, once Spike would have been able to put together the pieces that made up Twilight’s slowly healing heart and soul, he would ask her if it had been worth it.

And her answer would be yes.

A thousand times yes.

3. Fortuna Favet Rarity

Rarity was never one to arrive early to catch a train. No, she was the type of pony to spend hours packing, finishing barely in time to leave Carousel Boutique and arrive to the station fifteen minutes before departure time.

That Friday, though, was a special occasion.

For the first time in a very long time, Rarity hadn’t taken with her every single thing that came to mind, instead packing only the bare necessities. She had been too distracted by her thoughts to even bother with her usual frivolities.

Why now? Why did she come now of all times?

While she had been initially thrilled at having had the chance to meet the future version of her special somepony, she found that was no longer the case. In the spur of the moment, she hadn’t treated the older Twilight any differently than she treated the present time Twilight, but things had changed now that she had been given time to process everything that happened. A single question plagued her mind:

Who was the future Twilight Sparkle that had visited her?

She honestly did not know.

Was she still the same Twilight as the one currently in Ponyville? Or had the years — or centuries? — transformed her into somepony else completely? Did Rarity even want to find out?

Standing outside the station, she took out several sheets of parchment from inside her saddlebag and read their content for the fifth time that hour. A speech she had penned in a moment of extreme self-doubt; a speech that would have ruined her life had she had the courage to say it; a speech she had been planning on using to break up with Twilight.

A month.

That was how long Rarity had ignored Twilight, in the delusional hope Twilight would break up with her instead. The day she was confronted about it, however, she hadn’t been able to go through with it. How could she, after all, when she was still so desperately in love with Twilight?

”S-since you obviously don’t care about our relationship anymore, then I’m putting an end to it!”

It had been almost a year already, but she could still hear Twilight’s choked words. She could still see the alicorn’s miserable eyes at thinking she had inexplicably become somepony Rarity loathed. She could still feel her heart breaking as she held the tearful mare and lovingly reassured her that she was the pony she most loved in the world — even though she feared the alicorn would not love her the same way for much longer.

Rarity looked away from the speech and towards her hoof. Her coat was soft and shiny, but time would soon take care of that. She’d grow older and older, but Twilight? Twilight would stay a beauty for centuries to come, and how would an elder Rarity be able to compete with the younger ponies who would one day dare try to go after her princess? Even now Rarity knew Twilight had already become one of the most desirable mares in Equestria.

What if Twilight ended up falling for them? Rarity dreaded the day she’d look into her eyes, and they would no longer hold any love for her.

Which is why she hadn't been able to throw out the speech. She might not have gone through with it a year ago, but who was to say she wouldn't go through with it the ill-fated day Twilight stopped loving her? And yet… And yet, hadn't Twilight come all the way from the future to see her? Surely she wouldn't risk that much if it wasn't because she honestly loved Rarity, would she?

She didn't know what to think about the entire affair anymore. She needed to think about the speech and about the intentions behind it, and maybe a weekend getaway was the place and time to do so. There shouldn't be a problem since Twilight had made it clear she wasn't coming. And maybe, when she'd come back on Sunday…

Maybe she'd come back without the speech.

“All aboard the seven fifteen train to Fillydelphia!”

Rarity looked towards the distance and watched as the train left the station. Sighing, she put the speech back inside her saddlebag and trotted towards the building. It was unusually crowded for a Friday night, and she couldn’t really get a clear view of everypony inside. She wanted to go into the crowd and search for Twilight, but held back.

She wouldn’t find Twilight because she hadn’t come. Again, Twilight hadn’t seemed at all interested in checking the journal back in the Boutique, and Rarity doubted she had checked it afterwards.

Realizing there were still forty-five minutes before her train left, Rarity decided she might as well go get something to drink for the long trip. Thankfully, there was a coffee shop right next to the station she could go to, and she was most certainly not hoping Twilight might be in there.

Oh, who was she trying to kid?

Where is she?

She couldn’t believe Twilight hadn’t come. It was just for a weekend! Honestly, what was the worst that could have happened? It suddenly occurred to her that she had sort of asked Twilight on an elaborate date, and she had sort of been rejected. Rarity had never been rejected by Twilight before, and she found the new feeling to be quite upsetting.

Well, she’s not ‘my’ Twilight, she reasoned with herself. But she’s still Twilight, though. Does… Does that mean she doesn’t love me that much in the future? I know I’m… dead for her, but surely it can’t be more than a few years since I died? Has she gotten over me that quickly?

By the time she entered the coffee shop and reached the counter, her thoughts and mood had soured quite a bit.

“Rarity! Long time no see,” greeted the barista. “Same as usual?”

“Hello, Nutmeg, and no. No tea today. I’ll take a coffee to go, please,” Rarity asked before specifying: “A very strong coffee.”

Nutmeg trotted off and started preparing the order, eyebrow raised. “Damn, that doesn’t sound good. Train got cancelled again?”

“Not this time,” Rarity replied, watching as Nutmeg poured the coffee inside a plastic cup. “I… just really hoped I’d run into somepony…” She drifted off, biting down on her lip. I really did hope…

“Was it Princess Twilight you were looking for?” Nutmeg asked, giving Rarity her cup of coffee. She then nodded at something behind the unicorn. “‘Cause she’s right over there.”

Rarity turned around and felt her heart skip a beat. There was Twilight with her cloak on, sitting down at a table near a window and idly looking out into the street. Her purple notebook lay open on the table, presumably at the page where Rarity’s future-self had written the letter.

She came…

“She got here like an hour ago,” Nutmeg continued, getting to work on another order. “Asked for a tea, and if somepony had been looking for her. I guess she must have meant you. I wonder if she realises that thing barely covers her?”

As if somehow sensing they were talking about her, Twilight looked away from the window and blushed upon seeing the two mares looking at her. After a minute of embarrassed staring, Twilight closed the notebook and nervously waved at Rarity, offering a small smile. Rarity waved back, suppressing a goofy grin in favor of a much more reserved one. She thanked Nutmeg and trotted over to Twilight, watching with absolute delight at how the alicorn’s blush increased the closer she got to the table.

Heavens, she is adorable, isn’t she?

When Rarity reached the table, Twilight opened and closed her mouth several times, apparently at a loss for words. “Hi,” she finally said with vast eloquence.

Rarity smiled broadly, unable to hide her excitement. “Hello, hooded stranger,” she answered. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Yes,” Twilight said, folding her forehooves on the table. She nodded towards the notebook. “I couldn’t resist looking. You…” She faltered and went quiet. After a moment, she pulled the notebook towards herself. “So, here I am.”

"Here you are, indeed!" Rarity nodded. “Shall we head to the train then? It’s nearly time to leave.”

Twilight scrunched up her eyebrows, looking from the notebook to Rarity. “You… don’t want to read it...?”

Rarity shook her head. “I’m not interested in what it says. I’m only interested in the fact that it got you here.” She wanted to write it out herself one day, not just copy it from memory. “You are coming with me, are you not?” she asked, wanting to make absolutely sure that Twilight hadn’t just dropped by for a few hours.

Twilight levitated a train ticket from out of her saddlebag and smiled. “Half past eight night-train to Manehattan, right?”

Rarity couldn’t stop herself from grinning. She’s really going to come with me!... Oh Celestia, she really is going to come with me…

She found that perhaps she was a little terrified, too. After all, the Twilight Sparkle in front of her was a very real, possible incarnation of what Rarity feared the most: a Twilight so old she had fallen out of love with her. Now that she would be coming along for sure, there was a very real chance Rarity would have to confront the very things that made her terrified of Twilight’s longer lifespan.

“I have to admit,” Twilight said, snapping Rarity out of her thoughts, “I’m glad that the letter was there. I did want to spend more time with you.”

Just like that, some of Rarity’s previous apprehension disappeared. “Well, in that case, I must remember to thank my future-self,” she said, winking at Twilight. Her heart fluttered when Twilight laughed in reply. “After all, she was kind enough to persuade you to go on a date with me.”

“Wait, a date?” a surprised Twilight asked, blushing. “You mean a date date?”

“Oh, I was just saying the term loosely,” Rarity quickly corrected, embarrassed at realizing perhaps she had put Twilight in an uncomfortable position. “I’m sorry I called it that. This doesn’t have to be a date, of course.”

“Oh, but I’d like a date!” Twilight blurted out, only for her face to completely flush with embarrassment. “I mean, it’s just that…” She looked at her cup of tea and played around with the spoon. “I haven’t… been on a date in a while…” The alicorn continued fiddling around with her spoon, acting as if she had just confessed a very shameful thing.

“And why would that be a problem?” Rarity asked, watching Twilight look up. “I find it rather exciting! It’ll be like a first date! Or, in our case, a second first date.”

Twilight stared at Rarity, brow furrowed. “A… second first date?” she repeated carefully. A little smile made its way onto her lips. “That sounds nice.” She turned her gaze down and her smile grew even wider, cheeks still flushed. “That sounds really nice,” she whispered, loud enough that Rarity could hear.

Rarity bit down the smitten grin that threatened to decorate her lips. Heaven, help me, she thought. She’s too adorable. She’s almost insultingly adorable. “Well, are you ready to go?” she asked when she heard a loud train whistle in the distance.

“I think so,” Twilight answered, getting up from the chair and putting on her saddlebag.

The two mares silently trotted out of the coffee shop and towards the station where the conductor could be seen ushering ponies inside the train.

Reaching the door, Rarity trotted up into the train but stopped when she noticed Twilight had come to a halt in front of the door. "Something wrong, darling?" she asked, hoping her traveling partner wasn't about to cancel on her.

Twilight took out her train ticket and stared at it. “This whole thing is a little crazy, isn’t it?” she asked, glancing towards Rarity.

Rarity took out her own ticket. “Oh, absolutely, darling! This is completely insane!” She locked eyes with Twilight, and provided the alicorn a dazzling, excited grin. “I can’t wait for it start.”

Most of the train ride had passed by in silence, both mares lost in thought when they were not engaging in very brief small-talk. Rarity felt like she had spent half the night waking up every other hour to make sure Twilight was still on-board, and when the morning sun had woken her, she had spent the rest of the trip 'reading' her fashion magazine. In other words, she had spent the rest of the morning glancing at Twilight and wondering what was going through the alicorn's mind.

From what she had seen, Twilight had spent most of the trip either sleeping or looking out the window, seemingly deep in thought. A bit for your thoughts, Rarity had wanted to ask but admittedly had felt too embarrassed to do so. She could only hope Twilight's thoughts were not ones of regret at having come on the trip with her. In the end, though, it didn't matter. She'd no doubt soon find out if the trip was one they'd both regret.

Though it was barely half past nine in the morning by the time their train reached its destination, the streets of Manehattan were already as busy as ever. Rarity and Twilight made their way from the station to the city’s main street, their leisurely pace contrasting with the ponies rushing past them. If Rarity had gone alone, there was a good chance she’d be galloping around just like everypony else, but Twilight’s presence made her feel like slowing down and enjoying the sights. After all, the train had arrived earlier than expected, so there was no need to rush.

Millions of ideas on what to do whizzed inside Rarity’s head. The things they could do! They obviously had to do something special. There had to be an activity somewhere in the city that would be as unforgettable and unique as the situation they were in.

"I wish you'd let me wear my cloak, Rarity…"

"Darling, though I hate to say this considering you are a princess, I can assure nopony here will have time to care why you're here. They're far too lost in their own little worlds," Rarity replied. "Besides, I don't want you to be wearing that thing the entire time during our last date!"

Twilight sighed reluctantly. "Alright, I guess…"

“We’re supposed to meet Coco at around ten-thirty, so we can discuss a project,” Rarity continued, looking at the little schedule book floating in front of her. “After that, we have the day all to ourselves! Is there anything in particular you’d like to do?”

Twilight shrugged. “Not really. I thought maybe we could just hang out and go to the park, or to the theatre?”

“But, darling, we always do that,” Rarity pointed-out, closing the schedule book and floating it back to her bag. “Or, well, that’s what present-Twilight and I always do.”

“Oh, I know, but I thought it’d be nice. I guess I just want a normal day with you, like the ones we used to have.” Twilight blushed a little. “If that’s alright with you.”

“That’s perfectly fine with me, dear,” Rarity replied. “I’m quite content spending time with you, no matter what we do.” She was well-aware that their ‘second first date’ would also be Twilight’s last date with her, and she was determined to make sure it would be unforgettable… even if it meant doing completely normal things.

Then again, going on a date with a future version of her special somepony could hardly be called a normal day, could it?

“Where are we meeting Coco?” Twilight asked, observing the plethora of billboards plastered all over the buildings.

“We’re meeting her at this little café in 60th Street. It is absolutely charming,” Rarity detailed. “Fluttershy and I read about it in a novel some time ago, and ever since I found out it’s a real place, I’ve been dying to take you.”

“Oh, I know which one you mean,” Twilight said, her attention still stuck on the enormous billboards. “It’s very nice.”

“You’ve been there already?” Rarity asked, voice dripping with disappointment. “That’s a shame. I wanted to be the one to take you there first.” Rarity loved introducing new things and places to Twilight, and she wouldn’t lie and say she wasn’t a tad upset at having been denied the chance to do so.

“You did take me there first.”

“I did?” Rarity asked, eyebrows raised. “Twilight, dear, I haven’t even gone myself so unless you can time-trav— Oh. Right.”

Twilight glanced at her and smiled teasingly. “Forgot, huh?”

“Yes, I’m afraid,” Rarity admitted, eyeing Twilight. “It’s hard not to when you don’t look like you came from the future.”

Twilight’s smile grew bigger and even more teasing. “It’s okay. If you want, I can pretend I’ve never been there before and act surprised,” she suggested.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Hardy har har. I suppose I’ll just have to wait until I come with the non-future Twilight who doesn’t spoil my fun, hmm?”

“Aw, I don’t spoil your fun,” Twilight whined, playfully poking Rarity with the tip of her wing.

“Well, you do make it difficult when you already know everything in advanced,” Rarity noted. She suddenly came to a complete stop, struck by an idea.

Twilight stopped as well, looking back at the unicorn. “Rarity?”

“You know everything in advanced…” Rarity repeated, a mischievous glint in her eyes. She turned to Twilight. “I say, dear, did I ever tell you how vital it is in the fashion industry to be… ahead of the game?”

“...Yes?”

Rarity sighed dramatically, looking towards one of the billboards announcing the newest fashion line of one of her competitors. “It’s been getting so difficult, you know, to stand out what with all these up-and-coming designers. I don’t doubt my own abilities, of course, but it makes me wish I had”— she looked at Twilight, eyelashes fluttering —” an edge.”

Twilight immediately caught on to what Rarity was implying and backed away in response. “Oh no, no, no! I know what you’re thinking, and it is not happening.”

“But, Twiiiliiight,” whined Rarity, pouting cutely at the alicorn and prodding at her wing. Her secret weapon. It didn’t matter how old Twilight was, Rarity’s big eyes were always very effec—

“No! I said no, and don’t do that because it might work on your Twilight, but it doesn’t work on me,” Twilight admonished, shaking her head and resuming her trot.

“Oh, come now, just one little spoiler? Surely, it can’t do that much harm,” Rarity insisted, following Twilight. “Just tell me the fashion item that will be in during the winter season! Or, not even that, just the color! Or the fabric! Pleeeeease, darling?”

Twilight stopped trotting and glared at the unicorn. “Rarity, if you can’t respect my decision, then it means you just wanted me to come so I could be your own personal fortune-teller. If that’s the case, I think I may have made a mistake in agreeing to all this.”

“You know that’s not true, Twilight!” she objected, stomping her hoof against the ground. “I just don’t see the harm when almost everypony else in the business has Celestia knows how many advisors, and I don’t have any,” she muttered. She then added with some reluctance: “But fine, I suppose you’re right.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said, smiling as they both resumed their path towards the café. “Besides, you don’t need any of my help,” she continued, glancing critically at the publicity ads for Rarity’s competition. “They may have more advisors than you do, but you’re still going to come out on top.” There was not a hint of insincerity or flattery in Twilight’s voice. She might as well have been stating a scientific fact.

“Why Twilight, was that a spoiler of my future? And here I thought you were serious when you said no more future-talk!”

“That wasn’t a spoiler of anything,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “I don’t need to be from the future to know you’re so much more talented than all your competition put together. And even then, you still keep studying and trying to surpass yourself, instead of relying on just your talent and then paying somepony else to do all the hard work,” Twilight declared, pride and admiration soaking her words. She then turned to find Rarity gazing intensely at her and blushed. “I mean it,” she nonetheless reaffirmed.

Rarity felt her cheeks heat up, but not due to the sincerity and pride it the mare’s voice. It was more because of the surprise at seeing just how fervently Twilight still believed in her despite the presumably many years since her death. “Thank you,” she said, smiling with embarrassed and genuine delight.

For the first time all day, Rarity was overcome with the urge to nuzzle Twilight, but… could she? Up until that point, physical contact between the two had been subconsciously kept to a minimum or had been strictly platonic. How would Twilight react to something with more intimate undertones. She remembered Twilight commenting the day before how “forward” Rarity had been with her flirting. Rarity felt herself go scarlet at the memory. Perhaps she had been a little too forward?

It wasn’t like she could help it. She was used to being physically affectionate and shamelessly flirting with Twilight, and now she was being forced to tone it down several notches. Obviously, this only made her want to be anything but reserved. It really did feel like a first date, every move suddenly made with nervous excitement.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked, snapping the unicorn out of her thoughts. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, sorry, darling,” Rarity quickly said, the bridge of her nose still red. “I’m afraid I got lost in thought.”

Silence followed, mostly because neither pony knew what to say. Rarity wished she could ask about the future, if anything so they’d have something to talk about. There had to be some things from the future she could ask about. Maybe she could inquire on events that would take place after her death?

It occurred to Rarity that she actually had no idea how long it had been for Twilight since her death. Or, for that matter, she didn’t even know Twilight’s age. It couldn’t hurt that much to ask, could it?

“Twilight? I don’t mean to be inappropriate, but… how old are you?”

“How old am I?” Twilight’s ears went upright, her tone of voice defensive. “Why do you ask?”

Rarity winced at the reaction. Ah, she should have known the mare might take the question badly. Was Twilight self-conscious about her age, or did it have to do with her no-future-talk rule? “I was only curious, darling,” Rarity reassured. “You don’t look much older than the current Twilight, and I’m impressed considering you said I died of old age. Unicorn life expectancy is certainly nothing to sneeze at.”

Twilight relaxed a little. “Oh. Well, I’m pretty old,” she admitted, looking in front of her as they trotted. It felt to Rarity as if though Twilight was avoiding eye-contact.

“I see.” Since it seemed Twilight had no intention on outright telling Rarity her age, the unicorn would have to squeeze it out of her somehow. Spouting random numbers would probably earn her a correction, and would thus give her an estimate of Twilight’s age. “So,” she began, trying to act nonchalant, “you’re already in your first thousand years, I assume?"

"What? No!" Twilight corrected almost instantly. "I don't look that old!" She glanced at her reflection on the window of the building they trotted past, apparently trying to confirm that she indeed did not look a thousand years old.

And, goodness, was that a relief for Rarity, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. It wasn't that she'd mind if Twilight had indeed turned out to be over a thousand years old, of course, but it brought her a certain sense of comfort to know the age gap wasn't that extreme. After all, if ponies could change completely in a matter of years, conversing with a thousand year old Twilight would be like talking with a complete and utter stranger. "Oh, I'm sorry, darling. I supposed I aimed a little too high," she continued. "Two-hundred and thirties, then?"

"I'm not that young, either." Twilight replied quietly, pressing her lips together immediately afterwards and focusing her sight on the ground. It was enough for Rarity to realize how uncomfortable she was making Twilight with her line of questioning, but damn if her curiosity wasn’t getting the best of her.

"Two-hundr—”

“I’m five-hundred and eighty six,” Twilight interrupted, having grown tired of Rarity’s guessing games. She picked up the pace as she confessed, like if she were trying to escape the reaction to her confession. “That’s my age. Five-hundred and eighty-six.”

“Five-hundred and eighty six?!” Rarity gasped, stopping dead in her tracks and forcing a very unwilling Twilight to do the same. Unless she had lived to an extremely exceptionally rare old age, it hadn’t been decades since Rarity died for Twilight — it had been centuries.

“Yes,” Twilight said through gritted teeth. Her cheeks had gone red as well, and Rarity hoped it was out of embarrassment more than it was anger. “I didn’t mention it before because I never thought it would be a problem. I can see I was wrong.”

“Of course you were wrong! This means it’s been centuries since I died for you, not decades!” Twilight, her wings now splayed to her side in a defensive stance, opened her mouth to snap back a reply, but Rarity talked over her. “You actually intend for me to follow your rule about the future knowing that you have centuries worth of stories about you that I will never find out otherwise?! Really?!”

“Wait, I don’t understand…” Twilight said, lowering her wings and relaxing her jaw. “You… don’t care that I’m almost six hundred years old?”

Appalled couldn’t even begin to describe what Rarity felt by that question. “Of course not! The only thing I care about your age is how much of your life I will miss, and I’m not even allowed to ask about it!” she replied. “I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’m going to be deprived of being there for you through a majority of your life, but it’s incredibly unfair that you’re not allowing me to at least hear about what I’ll miss.” She looked away from Twilight and quietly added: “Particularly when it shouldn’t be a problem considering I’ll be dead when they happen.”

A silence followed, broken only when she heard Twilight remorsefully say: “I… I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“Well, now you have,” Rarity dryly replied, giving the alicorn a cold shoulder. But then she glanced at the other mare, and the sight she took in made her regret every single word she’d said.

Forlorn and mortified, Twilight burned holes into the floor with her eyes, her ears pressed firmly against her skull. Guilt coursed through Rarity like a crashing wave, and she was forced to remember just who was standing in front of her. This wasn’t any Twilight. This was somepony that had risked a lot in coming to Manehattan — under Rarity’s insistence, no less —, and… and look at what I’ve done. I shouldn’t have said anything, Rarity thought.

“It doesn’t matter,” she reassured, her voice now gentle and apologetic. “You’re right, darling. It is dangerous, and perhaps it’s better we don’t take any risks.” Hesitating a bit, she put her hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder but was discouraged by the lack of response. Nonetheless, she kept talking, putting on a small and nervous smile. “How about we put this behind us and go on our way? We’re nearly about to arrive to the café.”

She resumed the walk, hoping Twilight would follow. After a few steps, she turned around and was distressed to see Twilight had not moved an inch, her eyes still firmly glued to the floor. And Rarity couldn’t do anything to help because how could she help somepony she didn’t know? Even though her eyes saw the same pony that waited for her back home, Rarity knew deep down this Twilight was a complete stranger. The idea that she no longer had anything in common with Twilight was a very painful reality for the unicorn to swallow, but what could she do? Nothing.

“Twilight, please,” she pleaded, feeling as if though her throat was being constricted by useless words of comfort. “I’m sorry about what I said. I wasn’t thinki—”

“Just because it’s you,” Twilight interrupted, still avoiding eye contact.

“P-Pardon?”

Twilight lifted her gaze. “I’ll let you ask about the future,” she explained. “But just because it’s you.” Before Rarity could question her, she lowered her head and frowned. “There shouldn’t be any harm in answering questions from my life after you’ve gone. I’ll just reserve the right to not answer any question if I think it would be better for you not to know the answer, okay?” she asked, her eyes meeting Rarity’s.

Excitement bubbled up inside Rarity’s chest, but the guilt from before remained. “I… Are you sure? I don’t… I don’t want you to do this if you really don’t want to, and—”

Twilight interrupted her, waving her hoof in a dismissive motion. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve probably already broken at least fifty time travel rules by now, so what’s breaking a few more, right?”

“You… Are you positive you’re really Twilight Sparkle?” Rarity asked, laughing softly. “Because I sincerely doubt Twilight would agree to this unless she’d spent a week worrying herself sick over the catastrophical hypothetical consequences.”

Twilight laughed back, smiling for the first time in almost a half hour. “Well, honestly, I’ve just been trying very hard since this trip began not to think about that, but…if it makes you happy, then it’s worth the risk, Rarity. You’re worth the risk.” Seconds later, as if only just processing what she’d said, Twilight’s face flushed. Her words had taken Rarity by surprise, and she too found herself blushing rather profusely. Twilight hadn’t hesitated or thought for a moment what she had wanted to say. It had been a completely honest and immediate statement, once again giving Rarity the impression that Twilight had stated an unquestionable scientific fact, not an opinion.

The two mares looked at each other in embarrassed silence until Rarity lightened the mood by flipping her mane and declaring, “Of course I’m worth it, darling!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, shaking her head and smiling. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by somepony shouting in the distance.

“Rarity! Twilight!”

Turning around, they saw none other than Coco Pommel standing further down the street, cheerfully waving at them. Rarity waved back, finding herself the teensiest bit disappointed that her future-themed Q&A would have to be postponed a few hours. She started trotting towards her friend, but Twilight pulled her back.

“Rarity, wait!”

Rarity tensed up at seeing a panicked expression decorating Twilight’s face. “What’s wrong?” she asked, on instinct checking Twilight for any physical signs of illness.

“We have a problem!” Twilight whispered, throwing Coco worried looks.

“We do?” Rarity asked, receiving a series of hasty nods in reply. “Alright, give me a moment.” She turned towards Coco and waved. “Coco, darling, give us a minute, please!” she called, receiving a nod from the mare.

As soon as Rarity turned back to Twilight, the latter started going off in a ramble. “I can’t go and meet Coco with you! She shouldn’t have even seen me in the first place!”

“What? Whyever not?”

“It’s Coco, Rarity, not just some random pony.” Twilight shoved a hoof against her chest. “And I’m not your Twilight.”

Rarity felt her entire body relax. She had expected the problem to be something actually serious. “Twilight, dear, I thought it would be obvious that you’d just pretend to be your past self,” Rarity pointed-out. “I sincerely doubt Coco will be able to tell the difference, and she’s far too polite to say anything about it if she does.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, no, no! That’s not it! The point is that she’ll think I came to Manehattan with you.” Silence as Twilight stared at Rarity, awaiting a sign that the unicorn understood the problem — which she didn’t.

“And the issue with that is…?” Rarity asked, not understanding at all why Twilight was making such a fuss. Why would Coco be bothered by the fact that Twilight accompanied Rarity on a business trip? Perhaps it was some type of social faux-pas in the future?

The alicorn groaned in frustration. “Rarity, if she sees me here, then next time she sees the other me, she might mention this,” Twilight explained, pointing at the floor. “Coco isn’t a liar, so if she goes around telling the other me about us, I can promise you that I’m going to jump to the worst possible conclusion. I know myself.”

“Oh.” Rarity bit her lip. Twilight did have a very valid point, and the unicorn would rather not have any issues with the other Twilight. “Yes, I see how that can be a problem,” she muttered, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. Oh dear, this isn’t good at all, she thought, turning back and waving at Coco. “Terribly sorry, darling! Give us another minute, please!”

“Rarity,” whispered Twilight, her voice strained. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Rarity confessed. “I’ll think of something. It’ll be fine. Just act normal,” she hastily instructed.

“But, Rarity—”

“Twilight, everything will be alright,” Rarity interrupted, trying to calm her down. “Have a little faith in me, won’t you?” She turned around and trotted over to Coco, a reluctant Twilight following behind. “Or, at least, act as if you have faith in me instead of dragging your hooves like that,” Rarity whispered before reaching Coco.

“Good morning!” Coco greeted, smiling at the two mares.

“Good morning!” Any trace of nervousness was gone entirely from Rarity's voice as she leaned in and kissed the air next to Coco’s cheek. “I trust you’ve had a pleasant morning?”

“You know how it is here. Lots of running around,” she answered, adjusting the saddlebag hanging from her hip. “But what about you two? How was the train ride?”

“Comme çi, comme ça,” Rarity replied, shrugging. “I wasn’t able to get a wink of sleep.” She crinkled her nose. “There were some particularly noisy foals seated behind us.”

“Oh, that’s always a drag,” Coco sympathized. She looked over at Twilight. “How about you, Twilight?”

A rather pale Twilight stared at her in reply, lost in thought and making no signs of having heard the question. It wasn’t until Rarity cleared her throat that the alicorn reacted. “Huh?” she asked, blinking at Coco.

Coco giggled. “I guess you didn’t get much sleep either, huh?”

Twilight laughed nervously. “Not really, no.”

“I’m surprised you came, though!” Coco continued. “Rarity told me in her letter that Princess Celestia was coming to Ponyville on Monday, so I thought you’d be over there preparing for her visit.”

“Uh, well…” Twilight drifted off, throwing Rarity a pained glance.

“She was going to get everything organized,” Rarity continued. “But she came with me instead because… I… was sick?” she ventured before suddenly coughing loudly. “Am sick! Yes, I’m afraid I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather, and I was afraid I might even have to cancel.” She suddenly leaned on Twilight and nuzzled against her. “But Twilight didn’t want me to miss my trip, so she was lovely enough to offer to come with me and take care of me.”

“Oh wow, that’s very kind of you, Twilight!” Coco exclaimed. She then looked at Rarity and giggled. “You’re lucky, Rarity. I wish my partner pampered me like that.”

Rarity couldn’t help but giggle back, closing her eyes and taking a brief moment to enjoy the feel of Twilight’s coat against hers. Although… why was Twilight so tense and silent? Rarity glanced up at her and was confused to find her heavily blushing. Odd, her marefriend wasn’t one to blush so profusely at public displays of affection anym— Except…

Except her marefriend was back in Ponyville.

Rarity’s cheeks burned up as she realized just who exactly she was snuggling up against. Every single sensation inside her was heightened, and she became extremely aware of their closeness. Rarity couldn’t stop herself from noticing how warm Twilight’s fur was, and how she smelled of old parchment and ink. With some surprising difficulty, Rarity quickly tore her body away from Twilight’s and coughed again, remembering the problem at hoof.

“Coco, dear, I must ask for your discretion,” Rarity said in a hushed voice. “While I’m sure we both agree that Twilight is wonderful, I do not think that everypony else would be very keen on knowing their princess shirked her important duties just to take care of her marefriend.”

Comprehension dawned on Coco. “Oh, of course! she said, nodding her head. “If anyone asks, Princess Twilight Sparkle was at Ponyville, and definitely not at Manehattan.”

Rarity winked at her. “Correct!”

Coco smiled and looked towards the end of the street. “Well, now that I’ve run into you and—” she giggled “—definitely-not-Twilight, we can all just go to the coffee shop together!” She looked at Twilight and grinned. “And get you out of the sun because I think you might be getting a bit of a sunburn! Your cheeks are red all over!”

“Yes. Sunburn. Right.”

The walk to the café had been a lively one despite the fact that Rarity and Twilight had been very quiet almost the entire way. Both would only speak when prompted to and would only address questions to Coco, never to each other. Thankfully, by the time they reached their destination, Rarity was pleased to see they had somehow reached a silent agreement to forget their… source of embarrassment.

A small crowd of ponies were gathered outside a small building, the name “FORTUNA 3” inscribed on the front of the building. Rarity had read that the coffee shop was known for being a popular hangout place, and she was grateful that Coco had made reservations a week in advanced. Goodness knows she would have hated wasting half her day with Twilight by waiting in line. They trotted inside the establishment, and Rarity couldn’t stop herself from lingering near the entrance, admiring the décor. She licked her lips when the scent of hot chocolate and coffee beans wafted through the air and into her nose.

“Oh, Rarity,” Twilight gasped, looking around with awe. “This place is amazing. And it smells amazing, too.”

Rarity beamed at Twilight, putting her hoof on her chest. “You really think so?”

“Oh yes,” Twilight replied, smiling back. “I've never seen anything like it!”

Rarity couldn’t contain her excitement, stamping her hooves against the floor. “Oh, I’m so pleased to hear that! I knew you would lov—” She cut-herself off and narrowed her eyes. “Oh, very funny, Twilight.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It was just a little joke,” Twilight apologized, snickering. Before Rarity could tell Twilight what exactly she thought about her ‘joke’, Twilight interrupted. “Oh! Looks like our table is ready!”

On the other side of the restaurant, Coco was already seated down at a booth, flagging the two mares down. When they reached the table, Twilight and Rarity sat down together on the opposite side of Coco, making sure to leave a little space between them. Before long, Coco had placed an array of papers, sketchbooks and colored pencils on the table. All kinds of dress designs and annotations decorated the papers, and Twilight leaned in to take a better look.

“You have a similar drawing style to Rarity,” she noticed, resting her forehooves on the table.

“That’s because I drew those, darling,” Rarity informed, taking her glasses, a quill and red ink from out of her bag.

“Rarity and I are collaborating on a fashion line,” Coco told Twilight, watching as Rarity put on her glasses and began making corrections to the designs. “We each make several different designs and then give feedback to each other. My designs are already final, but Rarity still wanted to make some adjustment to hers.”

A waitress interrupted the conversation, having arrived to take their orders. Coco and Twilight ordered some hot chocolate, whereas Rarity’s hot chocolate was exchanged for chamomile tea when Twilight reminded her about her cold. Once the waitress was gone, Rarity got back to work with her revisions. The faint sound of her quill scratching against the paper was drowned out by Twilight and Coco’s conversation. Rarity, already lost in her own world, wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation, only catching a few stray phrases and words here or there.

When the waitress came back with their drinks, Rarity put down her quill and admired her progress. She reached for her tea and turned to the other two ponies, quietly listening in to their vivid conversation on how Coco’s week had gone. While Rarity admittedly didn’t find the conversation particularly enthralling, she noticed that Twilight looked as if though Star Swirl was giving her a lecture on magical thermodynamics. She thought it odd at first, but it then occurred to her that Twilight hadn’t seen Coco Pommel in a very, very long time.

No wonder she’s so interested… She observed Twilight in silence: how she nodded to every word Coco said, how she’d smile when a topic she was familiar with came up, how her eyes were glittering. All our friends, and families and everypony. She’s outlived them all. She must feel so alone. It broke her heart.

Rarity noticed Twilight’s hoof on the table, and it was almost overwhelming how badly she wanted to be affectionate with Twilight, but her nerves did not allow her to do so. It would be so laughably easy and quick to lift her hoof and put it on top of Twilight’s, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t even with the knowledge that she had held her hoof the day before, and there had been no negative reaction. But, instead, she held on to her cup of tea for what felt like an eternity.

Enough.

If the fashion world had taught her something, it was that if she wanted something, she either needed to go for it with confidence or not at all. She put down her cup of tea and, without giving herself the time to hesitate or change her mind, she reached over and put her hoof on top of Twilight’s. She then focused her attention on Coco, trying to give off the impression that the affectionate gesture had been spontaneous and absent-minded, not heavily pre-meditated.

It seemed like the gesture hadn’t bothered Twilight at first, but after a minute, she slid her hoof from under Rarity’s. Ouch. Now extremely aware of how cold the table felt against her hoof, she couldn’t help but be embarrassed. Had she made Twilight uncomfortable? She remembered how Twilight had tensed up earlier. It had been so long, perhaps she no longer felt at ease being physical with Rarity — even when it came to something as simple as hoof-holding. The unicorn didn’t dare look at Twilight and find out.

She considered taking her hoof away, but felt it would be far too conspicuous to take it back seconds after Twilight took back hers. She thus left her hoof on the table while she took hold of her quill again, deciding she might as well go back to finishing her designs. Minutes later, having forgotten the awkward incident, she took back her hoof for comfort reasons and not so much her wounded pride. Or, she would have taken her hoof back if Twilight hadn’t held it in place the second the unicorn made signs of moving it away.

Surprised, Rarity glanced from the hooves to Twilight. She was still talking to Coco, but a slight pink tinge now decorated her cheeks. Rarity looked down at their hooves again and noticed Twilight hadn’t just ‘put’ her hoof over Rarity’s, she had taken ahold of it completely. Reassured by the other mare’s action, Rarity dared to move a few inches closer, their coats almost brushing. She basked in secret delight when Twilight responded by closing the distance and lightly leaning on her.

It’s not much, but it’s something, isn’t it?

By the time Coco had to leave, Twilight was leaning completely on Rarity, their forelegs now intertwined on the table. Even if her outward appearance showed no sign of it, Rarity was almost giddy with pleasure on the inside. While their current interaction was tame compared to how she was used to acting with present Twilight, it proved that at least Twilight still felt comfortable at being somewhat close with the unicorn. It did not in any way mean she was still in love with her, but it mean that she still held affection for her, and the thought comforted Rarity.

Coco got up from the table, leaving several bits next to her empty plate. “I better take off or I’ll be late to hand these in,” she announced, scooping up the papers and putting them away in her bag. “Are you coming back next week, Rarity? I’m guessing the client will want to talk to both of us after seeing the final designs.”

Rarity nodded, floating the quill and ink back into her bag. “Yes, I believe I will. I might bring Fluttershy along. Her birthday is coming up, and I’d like to treat her to a nice, relaxing weekend.”

“Sounds fun! Maybe I’ll be able to spend more time with you next time.” Coco closed her bag and smiled at the two ponies. “Well, have fun! See you soon!”

Twilight waved, smiling brightly. “It was nice seeing you!”

“See you next weekend, dear.”

The two mares waved, and then fell quiet after Coco had left the restaurant. They stayed like that for several minutes, Twilight once more resting against Rarity, both of them idly looking at their intertwined forelegs. Rarity had the sudden urge to take hers back and wrap it around Twilight’s waist, but she resisted the temptation. Things were going very well, and she didn’t want to risk ruining the progress they’d made.

Twilight was the first to break the silence. “So…” She glanced up at Rarity. “What do we do now?”

Rarity rubbed her free hoof against her chin, eyes narrowing. “Hmm… I seem to recall you owe me a Q&A session,” she replied, smiling teasingly.

Twilight remained silent for a moment before sighing in defeat. “Okay, okay.” She took her foreleg back and sat up straight. “Remember there are some questions I may not answer, though.”

Rarity quickly got up and moved to to the other side of the booth, so she’d be facing Twilight directly. “Ready!” she announced, tapping her hooves against the table in anticipation.

“Whoah,” Twilight laughed. “You really are excited about this, aren’t you?” She cleared her throat and crossed her forelegs on the table. “Well, here we go, I guess. So… what do you want to know?”

Rarity leaned in, putting her hooves under her chin. She fluttered her eyelashes and whispered, “Absolutely everything.”

4. Pandora's Speech

Author's Notes:

Quick note to older readers: This fic recently had changes made to it, and the majority of this chapter was completely re-written and changed. A google docs to the original chapter has been provided in a blogpost, the link to which you can find in the last chapter of the story.

Special thanks to [Sam] for proof-reading, and [The Frank] for an idea on the chapter.

The passing of time did not exist for Rarity the unicorn as she sat in Fortuna 3, listening with endless fascination to the many tales that Twilight weaved for her. For the past few hours, nothing existed except for her, the lavender mare and two cups of delicious hot chocolate.

Taking a sip from her cup, Rarity learned that for almost a century, Twilight and Princess Luna had held yearly Nightmare Night tours of The Castle of the Two Sisters for the students in Ponyville. She had not been surprised when Twilight said she was in charge of the educational section of the tour, whereas Luna was in charge of the… scaring part.

“So after ‘Nightmare Moon’ appeared, we all went into the garden to make s’mores and tell stories,” Twilight continued, idly stirring her chocolate. “They started arguing about what story to tell, and suddenly a filly asked if I could tell the story of ‘the night the moon turned purple’.”

“Aw, cute.”

“She asked me if it was possible to actually paint the moon purple, and I told her that theoretically you could if you had the proper spell and a whole lot of magic. Next thing you know, I have five foals asking if I could ‘pretty please’ turn the moon purple. Obviously I told them no. First of all, I really didn’t believe I had enough magic to paint the moon purple, not to mention that I couldn’t just go around coloring the moon whenever I wanted. They kept insisting, though, and even Princess Luna dared me to do it…”

Rarity’s eyes widened. “Oh no…”

“Honestly, I just wanted to show them that it was impossible to do. I tried remembering a painting spell I had used recently, then I looked up at the moon, said the spell and…” She drifted off, a little mischievous smile on her face.

Rarity placed a hoof over her snout, shaking her head. “Twilight, you didn’t...” She looked at Twilight with a strange mix of delight and horror. “Did you…?”

The alicorn nodded and grinned. “Turns out you can paint the moon purple.”

Rarity leaned against the backrest of the booth, covering her face with her hooves and laughing from in-between the cracks. “Twilight, I can’t believe this. You have to be making this up.” She retrieved her hooves and kept laughing. “Goodness, I imagine Celestia must have been absolutely livid.”

Twilight shook her head. “Not her; she was asleep. Luna, though… I thought she was going to murder me,” she admitted, shaking her hoof and giggling. “Oh Rarity, it was absolutely awful. We couldn’t fix the moon because the spell said you actually had to wait for the moon to dry off before painting it again. At one point, one of the kids suggested covering the moon with a huge white blanket and—” she covered her face with her hoof, laughing “—next thing you know, I had already started sewing together all the spare bedsheets in the castle.”

“What happened next?”

Twilight leaned back. “Well, Celestia eventually found out, and we basically had to wait for almost a day before we could do the counterspell. She wasn’t too angry, but the rest of Equestria…” She closed her eyes and grimaced. “Luna and I had to spend the next few weeks making public apologies for the chaos, and then I had to paint it white again, but our yearly tours were all the rage after that.” She crossed her forelegs on the table and shook her head. “It took almost two centuries for ponies to stop sending me letters asking me to change the color of the moon again.”

Rarity couldn’t stop smiling. It was like seeing an entirely new side of Twilight and she loved every bit of it. She rested her chin on her hooves and sighed, gazing at Twilight with delight. She could sit there and listen to her forever without ever getting bored. Goodness, do I love her…

Twilight noticed Rarity’s fixed stare. “What?” she asked, smiling sheepishly at her.

“You,” Rarity replied, her smitten smile growing wider. “You’re the same, and yet you’re so different…”

Twilight’s cheeks reddened. “But I’m good different,” she said. Rarity could hear the doubtfulness in her voice and, as if to make the feeling clear, Twilight added: “Right?”

“Of course.” She took one of her hooves from under her chin and reached out to place it on top of Twilight’s crossed forelegs. No doubt remained in her that Twilight was still the same pony she was centuries ago, with that big smile that still stole Rarity’s breath, and that big heart that had stolen Rarity’s affections.

And this just made it even harder for her to accept that she was no longer part of Twilight’s life.

Before she could ask for another story, the waitress came over with the check. Realizing they’d been talking for almost four hours, Rarity paid the bill and they left the restaurant. Outside, Twilight sat down on the ground and looked through the tourist guidebook Rarity had lent her, trying to find something for them to do. Though Rarity was admittedly not a fan of sitting on the pavement, the idea of using Twilight’s warmth as a shield against the chilly wind was quite tempting. Carefully, she sat down right next to Twilight and leaned against her, shivering at the contrast brought by the air and Twilight’s warm coat.

For a second, she felt Twilight tense up and wondered if she was overstepping, but her worries were dashed away when a wing wrapped itself around her body, providing perfectly lovely protection from the wind.

Twilight looked away from her guidebook. “Cold?” she asked, tightening her grip around the unicorn. Rarity noticed the mare's cheeks were quite red, and she couldn’t stop thinking how enchanting the alicorn looked when flustered.

“I was but you’ve taken care of that wonderfully,” she replied, feeling her chest warm up at the sight of Twilight’s pleased little smile. If this were present Twilight, she’d have already smothered her with kisses at least five seconds ago. Actually... “Twilight, you know what second first thing we haven’t done yet?”

Twilight raised her eyebrow. “What?”

Rarity leaned in and kissed her on the lips. “That,” she announced, giggling at Twilight’s dumbfounded expression.

It took a few seconds for Twilight to process what happened. “D-did you just…?”

“Mhm.” Rarity batted her eyelashes. “Care for another?”

“Rarity!” she gasped, the bridge of her nose turning pink. “I’m too old for you! I’m old enough to be the grandma of your grandma’s grandma!”

“Then I must say you make an extremely attractive elder."

“W-Well, there’s still the other me!” Twilight reminded her. “Wouldn’t this be like cheating on me? Er, her.”

“Hm.” Rarity frowned and asked: “Did you not like my kiss?”

Twilight looked horrified by the question, shaking her head immediately and tightening her wing’s grip around Rarity. “What? Of course I liked the kiss!” she corrected, only for her face to flush when she realized what she said.

“Well then…” Rarity leaned in again, making sure her lips were inches away from those of the flustered alicorn. “I’m sure she’ll forgive me the day she finds herself in your position, hm?” With that, she closed the distance between their lips and treated herself to a longer kiss.

When it ended, Twilight frowned and looked back at the guidebook. “I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make me feel...”

“Is there anything you’d like to do?” Rarity asked, looking to the guidebook as well. “You mentioned wanting to go to the theatre, didn’t you?”

“Uhm, well, about that…” Twilight drifted off, running a hoof through her mane. “I didn’t plan on coming to Manehattan when I time-traveled, so I’m a little—” She coughed. “—short on bits.”

Ah. Normally, Rarity would have insisted on paying both their tickets, but she admittedly only had enough funds for one ticket, not two. This won’t do at all. “There has to be some way,” she murmured, coming to a stop as she searched her brain for a solution. Perhaps a client or a friend she could ask to help them in exchange for a commision? Ah-hah!

“I think I have a solution!” she exclaimed, getting up and trotting off. “Come on, we have to hurry to my office.”

“Hey, wait!” Twilight got up and followed behind, trying to match Rarity’s pace. “Your office? Why?”

“Last time Twilight and I went to see The Phantom of the Stable, the manager offered us free passes since I helped out with the costume design. I should still have them somewhere in my desk,” Rarity explained. She glanced at Twilight and grinned. “Do you have any play in mind?”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “Hm. I had wanted to see The Phantom of the Stable, but if you saw it already, then I guess we can go see Scarlet Windmill?”

“Oh, I don’t mind seeing Phantom again,” Rarity informed, waiting for the stoplight to turn green. “We were seated in a private booth last time, and—” She cleared her throat. “—we distracted each other, so to speak.”

“Distracted each other? What do you mea— Oh.” Twilight lightly blushed. “I forgot that happened sometimes…”

“Well, in any case, it is not the most lady-like habit to practice while in the theatre.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, we probably shouldn’t do that,” she said before quickly adding, “As in you and the other me — not you and me me, because I hadn’t thought of doing that with you today, of course! Not that I wouldn’t want to— Wait, no, I mean, I don’t want to do that, but not because I wouldn’t really like doin—” She cut herself off and looked in front of her, blushing madly. “I’m just going to be quiet now, and you’re going to pretend you didn’t hear any of that.”

Rarity giggled. “Hear any of what, darling?”

“Good.”

As the years and her business has progressed, Rarity had been frequenting Manehattan more and more every month, to the point that she had realized she needed an actual office. At the time, Rarity hadn’t been able to afford for a big place (and had stoutly refused to use Twilight’s status as means to get a better place) so she had rented a cosy little office downtown. Her office was very bare if compared to Carousel Boutique, but she didn’t need a lot.

There was only a wooden escritoire Twilight had given her, a painting easel, a smaller desk with a sewing machine on it and, finally, a medium sized red couch for the occasional nights when the fashionista stayed up working until late.

“We’ll just be a few minutes,” she informed, opening the door of her office and letting Twilight in. She took off her saddlebag and left it on the couch, instructing Twilight to get comfy while she looked for the free passes.

Instead, Twilight took a look at the framed picture on the desk. “Rarity?”

“Mhm?” Rarity replied, still busy looking through her drawers.

“You remember that one time we stayed an entire week here just the two of us?” she asked, putting the frame down.

“Of course, darling,” Rarity answered, still looking through her things. “That was about a year ago for me.”

Twilight was quiet for a minute. “You know, I…” She drifted off for a moment. “I always thought you organized that trip because you felt so bad about what I did,” she confessed, finally grabbing Rarity’s full attention.

“Felt bad about what you did?” she asked, stopping her search efforts.

“You know… That time you were really busy with work, but I thought you just didn’t want to see me anymore? And that you wanted to break up?” Twilight elaborated, letting out an embarrassed chuckle. “The fact that you already forgot about it just shows how much I blew everything out of proportion.” She looked at Rarity. “Sorry again for that.”

Goodness, why did Twilight still remember that horrible affair? Rarity felt sick to her stomach at the thought that her incredibly foolish decision had left such a permanent mark on Twilight. It felt as if the world kept trying to make her feel terrible for what she’d done. “Darling, don’t let it bother you. It’s a thing of the past,” she said, trying her hardest not to think about the breakup speech currently lying in the bottom of her saddlebag. Why had she even brought that accursed thing with her in the first place?

“No luck with the passes?” Twilight asked, changing the subject much to Rarity’s infinite relief.

“No, unfortunately,” Rarity muttered, searching again and again through her drawers. It looked like the option of going to the theatre was becoming less and less of a possibility. “I am sorry, dear. It seems as though I might have misplaced it somewhere.”

Twilight shook her head, dismissing the unicorn’s apologies. “It’s okay! Manehattan’s a big city. There’s a lot of other things we can do.”

Suddenly, Rarity remembered that the owner of one of the offices downstairs — a stallion she had befriended at the theatre, in fact — was a rather influential pony in the Manehattan show biz. Perhaps he might be able to offer some assistance?

She glanced at the clock on the wall and realized it was already past lunchtime. Not wanting to risk missing him, she closed the drawers of her desk and made for the door.

“I’ll be right back, darling! A friend of mine downstairs might be able to help us,” she explained, opening the door. Perhaps it was because she was in too much of a hurry to think straight, but in what she would later consider a moment of profound imprudence, she added: “The tourist guide is in my saddlebag, if you’d like to take a look. It should have a list of alternatives in case my friend can’t help us.”

Opening the door, she grabbed her keys while Twilight floated over the bag, opened it and took out several pieces of parchment. “I just hope he hasn’t gone out yet,” Rarity muttered, leaving and closing the door, failing to notice Twilight Sparkle reading the contents of what she’d found.

The sound of the closing door drowned out Twilight calling her name, and Rarity trotted off towards the stairs. One, two, three floors down; first, second, third, fourth, fifth door on the right; one, two, three, four, five pages an alicorn read, her eyes going wide and body shaking.

Rarity knocked three times on the door and waited for permission to enter. Once obtained, she opened the door and found a pegasus pony sitting behind a desk, smiling broadly at her.

“Rarity! What brings you here?” he asked, beckoning her to him. “I didn’t know you’d be in town!”

“Ah, Rift Show! Yes, I had a meeting with Coco for the spring line of Equestrian Fashion. I think I might have mentioned it last time,” Rarity explained, closing the door behind her. “What about you? How’s the business?”

“Busy. Too many plays, not enough decent costume designers. Sometimes I gotta say I wish you lived here, doll.”

“I’m afraid I’m not leaving Ponyville anytime soon, Rift,” Rarity laughed, taking a seat in front of his desk. “My business is there, as well as my family, friends and Twilight.”

“Ah oui oui, la princesse,” he said in a terrible attempt at a french accent. He cleared his throat and grinned. “So, what can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if perhaps you had a couple of theatre passes I could borrow? Twilight came with me by, uhm, surprise and I’m afraid I spent a little too much on my last shopping trip,” Rarity said, smiling her most dazzling smile. “I’ll pay you back in full next week, of course.”

Rift Show opened his desk and looked around. Moments later, he took out two tickets and slided them over to Rarity on the table. “On the house, doll. Celestia knows I owe you after you saved us from last month’s fiasco.”

Rarity squealed in excitement, quickly taking the tickets. “Thank you, darling!” She got up from the chair. “I won’t take any more of your time until next week, then. I think a cup of coffee is long overdue.”

Rift Show nodded, taking out some papers from his desk. “Alright then, Rarity. I expect a full report on your thoughts concerning that speech Photo Finish did at last week’s fashion show. That was really something else.”

Speech.

With that single word, Rarity felt the blood drain from her face as she was reminded of what exactly she had stashed away in the saddlebag she had given Twilight full freedom to inspect. Before Rift Show could get her opinion, Rarity yelled her farewell and ran off.

Please. One, two, three floors up. Please, please, please. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth door to the right. Ten seconds standing in front a closed wooden door, too terrified to open it. Gently, she turned around the doorknob, cracked open the door and glanced inside.

The first thing she was Twilight sitting in front of the window, staring at the street below. Good, she was still there. She looked for her saddlebag and saw it lying on top of the table, all of its pockets tightly closed. Good, if Twilight had seen the speech, she probably wouldn’t have put it back in again. Her eyes then wandered over to the couch, and once again, the blood drained from her face at the sight of five very familiar pages resting on top of it.

“Did you get tickets?”

Twilight’s sudden question startled Rarity, for a second retreating back into the hallway before taking a very deep breath and marching right in, head held high. “Yes, I did! Two tickets to any theatre we want!” she said, closing the door behind her. She watched as Twilight turned her head halfway to look at her, and Rarity didn’t know if it was a good or bad sign that the mare looked quite calm and collected. “Did you find the guide?”

Twilight unceremoniously floated the guide book out of Rarity’s bag, turning to look at the window again. “Yes,” she replied tonelessly. “There was nothing that seemed interesting.”

Rarity was immediately a hundred percent sure Twilight had read all five damned pages of the speech. “Ah, good!” she said, deciding the show must go on even if she knew all hell was about to break loose.

A silence ensued in which Twilight stared out the window without saying so much as a single word. Did the alicorn not know what to say? Did she even want to say anything at a about it? Or was she waiting for Rarity to bring it up?

Rarity eventually grew tired of the waiting game and decided to just get it over with. “You also found those papers that are now lying on the couch, I see! I assume you read them all, did you not?” she ventured, examining her hoof with interest.

Twilight didn’t reply for the longest time. “Yes, I did,” she finally said, an edge to her voice.

Rarity looked at the back of Twilight’s head and repressed the urge to give a weary sigh. “Would you like an explanation?”

Twilight turned around, frowning deeply. “I’m not sure I really care for one, to be honest.”

Rarity nodded. “I see. In that case, I want you to at least know that I’m sorry,” she said, inadvertently bringing Twilight’s controlled anger to boiling point.

Twilight’s eyes became slits as she took a step towards Rarity. “You’re sorry?! Sorry for what exactly, Rarity?” Twilight demanded, her tone rising with each word. “Sorry for spending an entire month ignoring and being rude to me, but not anypony else? Sorry for lying over the reason you did that? Sorry for lying about it again? Or are you maybe just sorry that I found out the truth in the first place?!”

Rarity winced. Celestia, what had she done? “I’m sorry about everything, Twilight,” she replied, knowing it would be better for everypony to not argue back. “I truly am.”

Twilight stomped her hoof against the floor. “Well, being sorry doesn’t make me feel any better!” she spat, turning away and staring out the window again.

“Twilight, I hate to say this, but this happened centuries ago for you,” Rarity pointed out. “Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a tad?”

Twilight zoomed around, her wings flaring up and making Rarity subconsciously take a step back. “Overreacting?! I am not overreacting! You made me go through one of the worst months of my life!” Twilight seethed. “Do you even know what it’s like to see your ’special somepony’ treat you like you’re nothing? Treat you like you’re some random pony, and not your best friend, let alone your marefriend?! I thought you hated me, Rarity!” She looked away, gritting her teeth. “And with what I’m finding out now, you might as well have.”

Rarity winced. Indeed, it had been a part of her ill-conceived plan to radically change her attitude vis-a-vis Twilight, in the hopes that it would have prompted the alicorn to break up with her — not the other way around — and it had worked. It worked and the day Twilight came to break up with her, Rarity did everything in her power to change its outcome by convincing Twilight that she had been busy with a difficult project.

Rarity shook her head, wiping away the ghastly memories. “Twilight, if I could turn back time and undo what I did, I would,” Rarity insisted, “but I can’t. I can only apologize and ask you to please let it go.”

“‘Let it go’?! I just found out you were planning on breaking-up with me, and you just want me to put it behind me just like that?” Twilight asked, incredulously.

“But I didn’t break up with you,” Rarity retorted, growing irritated.

“But you wanted to!” Twilight shot back. She floated the speech from the couch and held the pages accusingly in front of Rarity. “Look at this! Five entire pages going on about ‘how it would be better if we parted ways’.” She turned them around and scanned their content again. "Why would you even write this unless you really didn’t love past Twi—”

Rarity used her magic to snatch away the speech. “Of course I love her,” she argued, offended at the insinuation that she didn’t — even despite the supposed evidence to the contrary. She rolled the pages up in a ball and threw it in the trash can next to the desk. “Nothing in that speech is true! I admit I had planned on breaking up with Twilight, but it was for another reason entirely, and not because I don’t love her.”

“Furthermore,” she added, “you know for yourself that I’m going to stay with her until I die. Do you honestly think I’d do that if I wasn’t in love?”

Her remark seemed to have calmed Twilight down. “I guess you’re right…” she conceded with some reluctance. “Unless…” Her eyes went wide, and she took a few steps back, now regarding Rarity with a mixture of dawning comprehension and horror.

“Unless what?” Rarity inquired, finding herself nervous at the way Twilight was looking at her.

“Unless you…” Twilight’s wide eyes turned into slits. “You stayed with me out of pity!”

Pity.

Rarity’s nervousness turned into confusion. “Pity?”

“Because I’m an alicorn! And because of my lifespan!” she answered, starting to rant. “Of course! You did fall out of love with me, but you can’t bring yourself to break up with me because ‘poor little Twilight already has enough to deal with, and nopony else will want to date the awkward, immortal bookworm’! That’s it, isn’t it?!”

Rarity gaped at Twilight, her confusion now turning into anger. “You… How dare… Accuse me… That I…” Such was her outrage that words and sentences escaped her. In the back of her mind, she noticed Twilight’s expression soften into one of concern, and Rarity realized a few tears of anger were now rolling down her cheek -- this did not softer her own anger, however.

“Rarit—“

“How dare you…” she interrupted, voice trembling. “How dare you, Twilight Sparkle, accuse me of staying with you out of pity, especially when it is actually the other way around?!”

This hadn’t been an answer Twilight had expected. “Wha… What?”

“You want me to tell you why I wanted to break-up?! Fine, I will! It’s not because you’ll stay young, but because I’m growing old! There!” she exclaimed, now walking back and forth around the room. “What reason would you have to want to keep dating or liking somepony who will look like your grandmother?!”

“You think I would leave you because of how you look?! Rarity, just how shallow do you think I am?” Twilight demanded, looking at the unicorn with indignation.

“That’s just it! You’d never leave me for something like that, even if you wanted to!” Rarity interrupted, coming to a halt. “That’s why I wanted to break-up! I thought it would be better to go through the heartbreak now instead of later, but then, when you were going to break-up with me, I realized I’d rather be with you knowing you don’t love me than be without you at all!”

“But I did love you! I still love you! The fact that I’m risking Celestia knows how many time-paradoxes just to be here should be proof enough!”

“That doesn’t mean anything, Twilight! This entire trip isn’t because you still love me! It’s because you just felt—“ she paused, trying to look for the correct word “—nostalgia for the past!”

“Wait, you think this is some sort of nostalgia trip?" Twilight asked, looking at Rarity with disbelief. "That I just woke up one morning and decided to go back in time because why the hay not?”

“I didn’t mean it quite like that,” Rarity corrected, dryly. “But yes, I assume that’s what this is. Let’s be honest, too many years have passed for you to feel anything else but nostalgia for me and the others! You would have come sooner in your timeline if it was for any other reason!”

Twilight opened and closed her mouth several times, eventually settling on baring her teeth and glowering at the unicorn. “Fine, Rarity. You know what? Maybe this is a nostalgia trip. Except I’ve had my fill now, and all I can say is that I’m happy it's in the past. I should have left it there,” she hissed, the door opening behind her.

Her words took Rarity by surprise. You don’t mean that, she wanted to say, but when she opened her mouth to do so, nothing came out.

Twilight waited for a minute, expecting an answer from Rarity, but when none came, she put on her saddlebag and cloak. “Goodbye, Rarity,” she said, turning around and leaving past the door, closing it behind her.

Rarity sat down on the floor, tears clouding her eyes. She hadn’t known what to say, because what could one say after doing so much damage?

I should have left it there.

Twilight Sparkle was the pony Rarity loved most, the one she would give up her happiness for, and she feels… felt the same way.

Twilight Sparkle; paranoid, logical, perfectionist, wonderful, beautiful; loved her enough to come from centuries in the future just to see her one last time, and she had agreed to come away with Rarity for a weekend.

And for her to have walked away saying she should have never come didn’t just mean Rarity had messed up. It meant that she had messed up in such a way that she had reached the pinnacle of messing up.

Maybe it was some kind of karmic retribution for never having told the truth. The thought of going back home crossed her mind. Fleeing back to Ponyville and into the waiting forelegs of a younger Twilight who would kiss away her worries, her pain, her regret — except it would never be the same again. How would she ever find comfort with Twilight knowing the alicorn would one day hate everything about her?

Twilight trotted down the hallway, her heart beating thunderously in her chest. It felt like static in her head, in her heart, in her body. Numbness as she cantered down the stairs, numbness as she brushed past ponies and muttered apologies, and numbness as she trotted outside and felt like screaming.

Rarity.

Twilight looked up towards the building and saw her. She saw the source of the pain in her head, in her body, in her heart staring back down at her — and waiting? Waiting for Twilight to come back? Or daring her to keep her word and leave forever? She had given her a second chance. She had waited, hoping Rarity would have said something, anything. ‘Fine!’ or ‘be that way’ or any sign to show that it wasn’t over because nothing was over as long as Rarity had a say in it.

But she didn’t.

She didn’t and Twilight realized there was no more to be said or done. She took one last look at the figure in the window, and then turned around and made her way towards the corner of the building. She paused at the corner and wanted to look back, but there was no need. Rarity would always be watching. Twilight took a deep breath and turned around the corner, disappearing from the sight of the pony she still loved and adored even then when everything hurt.

“Fine.”

Taking a deep breath, Twilight pressed her forehead against the building wall. It wasn’t supposed to end like that, was it? She stood there for almost ten minutes, playing Rarity’s words again and again in her mind, but trying to focus on the ones that mattered. I realized I’d rather be with you knowing you don’t love me than be without you at all. It was irrational. Twilight wanted to believe it was a lie, another one to add to the pile, but how could she? How could she when she felt the exact same way in that moment and understood what Rarity meant.

How long had those thoughts plagued the unicorn? For how long had she been preparing herself for the inevitable outcome she had convinced herself of? Twilight didn’t doubt some part of Rarity found comfort in the fact that her life was so dramatically novelesque. The thought made her smile. Why hadn’t Rarity ever said anything? Twilight would have understood.

Had… had Rarity lived out the rest of her life thinking Twilight was just humoring her? The thought made her sick.

No.

It didn’t have to end like that just because they were both so painfully and hilariously bad at communicating.

She hadn’t come all that way for it to end like that. Going away in a angry rage wouldn’t fix anything, and she hated above all leaving a problem unsolved — especially when said problem involved Rarity.

She took her forehead back from the wall and cantered back towards the front of the building. She noticed Rarity was no longer watching through the window, and she hurried along inside the building. As she got closer and closer to her goal, however, she slowed down her pace enough to try and see if she could hear some of Rarity’s patented crying hysterics. But she never heard a single sound until she reached the door, opened it slightly and little sniffles greeted her ears. Peeking inside, she saw the unicorn lying on the couch, face buried in the corner of the armrest and the back area.

Twilight stepped in the room, careful to close the door so that her presence would be known. “Rarity?” she called, taking a few tentative steps towards her.

“Oh, leave me be, Twilight,” Rarity said between sniffles, taking out hoof to wave Twilight away. “I already know I’ve ruined everything so you can go back to the future without having to come and make me feel awful again.” Rarity put her hoof back in between her body and the couch, sniffling very loudly — almost exaggeratedly so, Twilight thought.

After a minute, she spoke again. “I’m sorry,” Rarity’s muffled voice said. “I… didn’t mean all those terrible things I said.”

Twilight bowed her head. “I’m sorry too, Rarity… I… shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions like I did.” She made her way towards the couch and sat down in front of Rarity, using her hoof to gently nudge the unicorn. “Come on, we still have a lot to do today.”

A sniffle was the only reply she received.

“I’ve wanted to come for a really long time, Rarity,” she began, focusing her sight on her hoof resting on Rarity. “I wanted to come ever since the day you died, but… I didn’t because it meant accepting I just can’t move on.”

“Move on?” Rarity asked quietly. “Move on from me?”

Twilight nodded, starting to play with the other mare’s mane. “From you, from the others. I tried. I tried getting new friends and a new special somepony, but it’s not the same. You girls loved me before I became this.” She opened up one of her wings and glanced at it accusingly. “Before I became ‘Princess’ Twilight Sparkle instead of just Twilight Sparkle.”

“They treat me differently now,” she continued, allowing the bitterness soak her voice. “It feels like they want me for my title, not for me.” She paused, only just realizing Rarity had stopped crying. “But you didn’t; you liked me for being myself. And when we’d go to parties, you wouldn’t flaunt around you were dating me. You’d go to these events as yourself, not ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle’s date’.

She felt ashamed of her confession. The Princess of Friendship who couldn’t get new friends. How sad, pathetic almost. Could she be blamed? She had been so blissfully happy with her five best friends, so thrilled by every new thing she’d learn from them that she’d forgotten how to do the one thing Celestia had tasked her with that first fateful day: how to actually make true friends again.

“All my other dates would use me to climb up Canterlot’s social classes. And each time they did, I missed you more and more. Everypony expected me to just move on — like Cadance moved on from my brother — but they don’t understand how hard it is. You… you can’t just go through life-changing experiences like the ones we’ve had, fall in love and be with somepony until they die and then be expected to move on like if it was some casual relationship.

“So there,” she finished quietly, moving in and nuzzling against Rarity. “You don’t have to worry about the other Twilight not loving you later because, as you can see, it’s kind of hard to stop.”

Silence.

“You don’t think this was a mistake?” the muffled voice timidly asked.

“If it is, then it’s the best mistake of my life.” She leaned back and nudged Rarity with her hoof again. “Come on, you can’t hide your face in the couch forever, Rares. Will you turn around?”

“Hah! I shan’t,” Rarity replied, shaking her head. “I’m crying, my makeup is ruined, and I have mascara tear-stains all over my face. I’m hideous!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Rarity, I know for a fact that’s not true because you wouldn’t have your face pressed against the fabric of the couch if there was any chance your makeup or mascara would stain it,” she pointed out. She watched as Rarity slowly turned around, her eyes reddenned by tears but face completely safe from ruined makeup. "See?"

Rarity reluctantly sat up straight and then extended both her forelegs towards Twilight, sighing with relief when the alicorn gladly moved in for a hug. “I’m sorry, Twilight,” she said piteously. “I… How can I make it up to you?”

“You don’t have to make it up to me,” Twilight replied. Honestly, Rarity had made up for it with the entire trip. “Though maybe you could let my younger self get away with whatever she wants for a month, huh?”

“But I want to make it up to you,” Rarity insisted, watching as Twilight pulled back from the hug. “She’s not the one who just had to go through this awful fight.”

“Well, if you want to make it up to me so badly…”

Rarity nodded eagerly. “Yes! Anything you want, I shall provide!”

“Anything?” Twilight frowned, tapping her hoof against the couch. An idea suddenly came to her. “I know! Remember that ice cream shop in 57th street? The one with that deep fried vanilla ice-cream topped with chocolate fudge and whipped cream?” She smiled deviously, fluttering her eyelashes. “The one you never let me eat?”

If Rarity’s face had been remorseful before, it now looked completely horrified. “Absolutely not.”

“You said ’anything’, Rarity,” Twilight reminded.

Rarity looked aghast, torn between her desire to pamper Twilight and forbid her from eating the delicious dessert. “B-But, Twilight, think of the calories!” she protested. “In fact, forget the calories, think about your health!”

Twilight sighed dramatically, looking down and hoofing at the ground. “I guess you really don’t want to make it up to me that much…”

“Oh, fine already. It’s your health funeral.”

“I don’t know what horrifies me more,” Rarity confessed, resting her chin on her hoof while watching Twilight push away on the table a ridiculously large plate now devoid of an equally ridiculously large dessert. “The fact that you ate that entire thing, or your appalling table manners while eating it…”

Twilight leaned back on her chair, placing a hoof on her very satisfied stomach. “I don’t know why I ever listened to you,” she said, licking some of the remaining chocolate fudge from her lips. That had been worth the entire argument five times over. “Actually, I don’t know why I never thought to try this in all the times I’ve come to Manehattan recently.”

An unimpressed Rarity levitated a napkin and forcefully wiped the remains of the dessert off of Twilight’s cheeks. “Thank Celestia it’s over, at least.” She put the napkin back down and crossed her forelegs. She seemed deep in thought, pursing her lips. “I was thinking… should I be honest with present Twilight about the speech? I… realize the whole time-loop affair dictates I shouldn’t considering you didn’t know about it, but…” She sighed, idly toying with the spoon lying on the empty plate.

Twilight sighed, looking towards her saddlebag and noticing her notebook sticking out. “I… I think you should do what you think is best, time-loop notwithstanding,” she advised, reaching out to bury the notebook back inside the bag. “Take a leap of faith, basically.”

“A leap of faith?” Rarity asked. “But, what about paradoxes and such things? Won’t something go terribly wrong if we change the events from this trip so drastically?”

Twilight didn’t reply for a minute. “Well, actually, I…” She gulped down and shook her head, dispelling the desire to finish that sentence. “Listen, I trust your judgement, Rarity,” she said instead, smiling at the unicorn. “I know that whatever you choose will be the right decision.”

Rarity nodded slowly. “Alright…” She looked towards her saddlebag and took out the tourist guide, leafing through the pages. “Well, in any case, we ought to leave or else we’ll be late to the next performance.”

Twilight got off from her seat and waited until Rarity did the same before trotting over to her. “Uhm, thanks for the dessert.” Before she could change her mind, she leaned in and quickly kissed Rarity, feeling her cheeks heat up. She pulled away just as quickly, offering apologies for an action she did not regret at all.

“You’re very welcome, sweetheart,” Rarity said, having acquired a blush of her own. She cleared her throat and took the lead, Twilight following close behind. “Now, I don’t think there’ll be any private booths left by this time, but hopefully we’ll still be able to get decent seating.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Twilight lamented.

Rarity smiled sympathetically. “No, it’s not, darling. I assure you the view is very nice from anywhere in the theatre.”

“Oh! I don’t doubt it! I just…” A fierce blush took over her face. “I thought we might get distracted again.” Rarity’s eyes widened, and Twilight couldn’t stop herself from grinning at how fast Rarity’s face turned several shades of red.

“Goodness, if this is how forward you get after not seeing me in some time, I might need to start taking longer trips to Manehattan."

“Well, you can’t really blame me, can you?” Twilight asked, grinning. “I’m pretty sure we’re both wildly attracted to each other, and I only have half a day left with you so I can’t afford to go slow here, you know?”

Rarity opened her mouth to reply, but Twilight cut her off by leaning in close enough to whisper: “Actually, I don’t feel like going to the theatre so much anymore...“

“I don’t know what in Equestria has gotten into you, Twilight Sparkle," Rarity blurted out in response, “but I’m sorry to inform your apparently raging hormones that it would be very rude to have asked Rift Show for the favor and then not use it!”

“Yeah, you’re right. ” Twilight admitted, laughing. “Still, maybe I can get us a private booth. I think it’s time I started imposing my royal privileges around here, don’t you think?”

5. Kill Me Twice, Darling

Everything was perfect — this was Twilight’s all-consuming thought as she and Rarity exited the theatre room. For the first time in forever, Ponyville’s princess felt utterly and blissfully happy. Everything was going along so great, in fact, that she almost felt worried about how everything was going too perfectly. There had to be a catch. There always was.

Of course, she was far too busy enjoying herself to dwell on what this ‘catch’ could be.

When they entered the lobby of the theatre, the two mares were immediately ambushed by the over-excited manager of the theatre house, who proceeded to bombard them with questions: Had they found the play enjoyable? Was the private booth she got for them comfortable enough? Did everything go smoothly?

“Everything was perfect, ma’am,” Twilight replied, slightly bowing her head. “Thank you for your help with the seating arrangements! I hope we didn’t inconvenience anypony.”

“Oh, not at all, Princess Twilight! It’s my honor!” the manager exclaimed, bowing so low Twilight thought she was going to kiss the floor. “And don’t worry, please! The private booth wasn’t reserved in advance, so nopony was inconvenienced.”

Twilight beamed at her. “Well, thank you again. We had a nice time.” She looked at Rarity and slyly asked, “Didn’t we, Rarity?”

Rarity’s cheeks and ears turned a lovely shade of pink as she cleared her throat. “Yes, it was nice,” she agreed, smiling amiably. “Very nice indeed.”

The manager seemed more than pleased by this, nodding effusively. “Well! I’ll let you two be on your way. I’m sure you must have a busy day ahead!” She bowed once more to Twilight, and after giving Rarity a curt nod, trotted off.

The moment the manager was out of earshot, Twilight playfully poked Rarity’s side with one of her wings. “Very nice indeed, huh?”

Rarity swatted Twilight’s wing away, raising her eyebrow. “It’s nothing to be proud of, Twilight. I can assure you that ‘making out’ isn’t at all considered proper theatre etiquette in any part of Equestria, and it’s actually quite disrespectful towards the performers,” she reprimanded. “At least it was only during the intermission.”

Twilight winced. “Yeah, you’re right… Sorry,” she replied, bowing her head with shame and embarrassment. She then glanced up, a childish smile decorating her lips. “It was still ‘very nice’, though, right?”

Rarity rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You really are something else, Twilight Sparkle,” she sighed, resuming her walk towards the building’s exit.

“Is that a yes?” Twilight ventured, following Rarity and finding herself unable to wipe the delighted grin off her face.

Rarity laughed. “Perhaps.” She stopped trotting and waited until Twilight caught up, leaning in and using her hoof to lift Twilight’s chin . “You’re just fortunate there’s something indescribably alluring of doing such scandalously intimate things at the risk of getting caught.” She then dropped her hoof and trotted away, looking back over her shoulder to blow Twilight a kiss.

Twilight giggled and bit down on her lip, her cheeks almost in pain over how much she was smiling. She was so happy — Rarity made her so happy — that her heart felt as if about to beat right out of her chest. Once outside, the rays of sun shone down upon her, almost inspiring her into bursting out in song. Maybe she could modify the lyrics of an old tune? Afternoon in Manehattan shimmers?

Wait a minute… Afternoon?!

With horror, Twilight realized that Celestia had already started lowering her sun, meaning her time with Rarity was quickly drawing to a close. Their train back to Ponyville left at eleven o’clock, and it was already seven.

Four hours. Two hundred and forty minutes. Fourteen thousand and four hundred seconds. That was all she had left with Rarity before it was over — finito, arriverderci, adieu, hasta la vista — and she wasn’t ready.
She wasn’t ready at all.

“Twilight?” Rarity asked, snapping the alicorn out of her troubled thoughts. She had stopped walking again and looked at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. “Are you listening to me?”

“Oh, sorry, I got distracted by something.” With a shake of her mane, Twilight dispelled away her worries, deciding she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from enjoying her last hours with Rarity. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I asked you what you wanted to do now,” she repeated. “The movie theatre is nearby so we could always go see a film. I’m not very hungry, but there’s also the option of going out for dinner.”

Twilight mulled over the choices. She wasn’t all that hungry so dinner was out, and she wasn’t too keen on seeing a movie, either. The truth was that she wanted to keep talking with Rarity, and a movie theatre wasn’t really the place to do so. She looked at her surroundings, trying to think of something they could do. Thankfully, a sign pointing towards the nearby botanical garden gave her an idea. “How about we go for a walk? There’s a park nearby, isn’t there?”

“My, what a romantically quaint idea,” Rarity exclaimed, nodding approvingly. “We’ll be like an old married couple strolling through the park, reminiscing about the days of our youth.”

Twilight laughed at the idea. “I don’t think we really qualify for being an old couple when only one of us is actually, well, old,” she helpfully pointed out.

“Hm, I suppose you’re right.” She narrowed her eyes and placed a hoof on her cheek. “I wonder… does this make you my sugar daddy? Or rather, sugar mommy?” She smiled teasingly at the other mare. “You are exponentially older than myself, after all, and you keep treating me to deluxes such as private seating in the theatre.”

Twilight turned several shades of red. “Rarity!”

Rarity chuckled, lowering her hoof. “Sorry, sweetheart. You’re simply too easy to tease.” Grinning, she trotted away again. “In any case, we ought to get going. The park is this way, I believe.”

Twilight, still blushing heavily, caught up to Rarity. There was no way she was letting the unicorn get the last laugh. “Wouldn’t that make you a gold-digger, then?”

Rarity, however, was quite unfazed by Twilight's accusation. “Really? You think so?” she asked, smiling with amusement at the alicorn; a smile which Twilight recognized as the one Rarity reserved for whenever she was entertained over how wrong she thought Twilight was.

"Well, that would mean I only want you for your bits, which we both know is not the case,” she continued. “However, I will say that if I was a gold-digger…” She stopped walking and looked at Twilight, a smirk on her face. “I'd revel in the fact that, just because I’d be dating you, every single gold-digging pony in Equestria would quite certainly loathe the ground I trot on.”

Rarity started to move again, walking past a somehow even more flustered Twilight, and smugly added, “You know, I think they probably already do.”

A warm breeze brushed against Twilight’s coat as she and Rarity made their way through the park. The sun had already set, replaced instead by the moon and a particularly beautiful star-filled night, the likes which Twilight hadn’t seen in some time. Maybe Rarity had dreamt about her the past night, and Luna had decided to make sure their last night together was one of beauty.

Considering the late hour, it wasn’t surprising that the park was nearly empty save for a small number of couples that apparently had the same idea as Twilight. Some of them were lying down on the grass, lost in each other’s embrace; others were sitting on benches, lost in each other’s gaze; and finally there were those who quietly walked down the cement pathways dividing the grassy area, like Twilight and Rarity, lost in each other’s thoughts.

Though no words were exchanged between them, they were both completely focused on each other’s presence, and it was this that Twilight liked. It was some type of greed, she reflected. She was greedy for Rarity’s attention — physically and mentally; conscious and subconscious — in the same way she knew Rarity was equally greedy for hers.

As if having read her mind, Rarity leaned against Twilight and sighed the alicorn’s name; it was like a thought said out loud, serving no other purpose but to let Twilight know she was racing around in the unicorn’s mind. Twilight rested the side of her head against Rarity’s, feeling as if she could trot so close to Rarity for an endless amount of time.

Her legs, however, were impervious to Rarity’s presence, and she realized perhaps she might need to give them a begrudging rest. She couldn’t complain too much, knowing it was a perfect night to lie down next to Rarity and stargaze. Maybe cuddle a bit, too. “Come on, let’s go sit down. My legs need a rest,” she said, trotting off the pathway and into the grassy area.

Rarity looked around. “But there aren’t any unoccupied benches nearby,” she remarked. She then saw Twilight lie down on the grass and grimaced. “Darliiiing. On the grass? Really?”

“Yup!” Twilight cheerfully replied, patting the grass next to her. “Really.”

“But there might be something crawling in there,” Rarity complained, pointing with disdain at the grass and crinkling her nose.

Twilight placed the back of her hoof on her forehead and gasped dramatically. “Oh my! Celestia forbid a teeny little ant dirties your coat!” she exclaimed, before deadpanning and rolling her eyes. “Fine, Rares, if you want to stand there all night while it starts getting cold. I’m not stopping you.”

Rarity sighed dramatically. “Fine, fine!” she relented, trotting over and settling herself right next to Twilight. “I was planning on lying down after you’d insisted a bit more, but I see I’m not allowed any fun here, am I?”

Once more, Twilight rolled her eyes, lips curled into an amused smile. “Gosh, you’re such a drama queen,” she said, shaking her head.

A haughty laugh filled the air. “Ah yes, you would know a thing or two about being a drama queen, wouldn’t you, Miss Overthink-everything-and-panic-needlessly?”

“Well, like they say, takes one drama queen to love another one, right?” Twilight cheekily shot back, closing her eyes and leaning against Rarity, relishing the feel of being so close to her. She was going to miss everything about her. She didn’t move or open her eyes again until Rarity spoke up all of a sudden.

“Twilight?” she asked, her voice quiet and hesitant. Twilight opened her eyes and saw Rarity staring at the grass in front of her, brushing the blades of grass with her hoof. “Earlier, when you said your dates ‘use you to climb up the social ladder’... Did you really mean it?” She looked at Twilight. “Are they all really like that?”

Twilight was taken aback by the question. Oh gosh, had she made Rarity worry? She hadn’t really expected the unicorn to take her comment to heart. It was just steam she had been letting off.

“Don’t worry about it, Rarity,” she replied, closing her eyes again, hoping Rarity would drop the subject.

“I can’t not worry about it,” Rarity confessed, clicking her tongue. “How would you feel if I told you that’s how ponies treated me?”

Appalled, is what she’d feel. If the situation were reversed and she found out ponies were only interested in Rarity for such superficial reasons, she’d never let Rarity return to the future. “Not all of them are like that,” she admitted, guilt building up inside her. “I promise.”

Great.

Not only had she made Rarity worry about her, but she had made her worry over a lie. It wasn’t true that all the ponies Twilight dated were solely interested in her status. Most of them had always shown far more interest in her as a pony, not as a princess. Though she’d never outright admit it to herself or Rarity, she knew the problem was her. Every single time she started feeling something beyond friendship towards somepony, she’d suddenly feel compelled to cut them off from her life before anything had the chance to unfold. Like if she was afraid of something happening.

Afraid…

Afraid of what?

Afraid that accepting another into her life would be an act of betrayal towards Rarity? Afraid of going through the heartbreak of becoming close to somepony again only to outlive them? Afraid that she might grow to love them more than she did Rarity?

Perhaps she was afraid of all three.

Rarity was quiet, watching Twilight carefully, and spoke up again. “Not all of them?” She used her hoof to brush the hair out of Twilight’s forehead. “Twilight… You didn’t close yourself off to others because we’re not there anymore, did you?”

Twilight turned her face away. “Rarity, stop it. I didn’t come here for a Q&A on my social life,” she whined, growing more and uncomfortable. “Besides, you already know I’m not Pinkie Pie. I don’t have a zillion friends. Why is this important?”

Rarity took back her hoof. “Because you’re unhappy, Twilight, and I’m trying to understand why that is.”

Celestia, why couldn’t Rarity not read her like a book for once? “Rarity, I’m not unhappy,” she said, pressing her lips together and turning towards her.

“But you are!” Rarity insisted, and Twilight could tell she was forcing the words out.

The unicorn looked frustrated, ears pressed against her head. Oddly, the frustration didn’t seem to be directed at Twilight; it seemed to be directed at herself, as if she was to blame for Twilight’s so-called unhappiness.

“The fact that you’re even here means you’re unhappy back home,” she continued, picking at the grass. “Let’s be honest, Twilight. If you were truly happy back in your time, you’d have never felt the need to come back to see me or the others.”

Twilight didn’t know what to reply because Rarity was right. She was right, damn it, and Twilight hated that she was. She turned away again, tears of both anger and frustration clouding her eyes.

She wasn’t miserable. She wasn’t. She wasn’t! She did have friends in the future, thank you very much. She was happy living in the castle, learning and teaching things all day, and she was happy with the few friends she had admitted into her life. As for her love life… Well, that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that just because she had learned about the wonders of love and friendship, it didn’t mean they had suddenly become something easy to get. It didn’t matter that she had wings, or a crown, or a title. She was still a socially awkward bookworm inside, and neither her friendship with Rarity and the others, nor her royal position, had changed that.

Even… even her friendship with her five best friends hadn’t been her doing, but the doing of the Elements of Harmony.

“Twilight, I… I know this isn’t easy, but I’m not doing this to bother you,” Rarity apologized, reaching out to take Twilight’s hoof.

Twilight stubbornly continued to look away, eyes stinging from the tears. Of course she wasn’t doing it out of ill-will. She knew perfectly well that Rarity was genuinely concerned, but it didn’t take away from the fact that it was a delicate subject for Twilight. A subject Rarity could do nothing to help her with, because they had no time anymore. It had run out on them a long, long time ago.

Despite Twilight’s silence, Rarity ploughed on. “But I just can’t stand seeing you so unhappy especially when you deserve nothing less than absolute bliss.” She paused briefly. “I suppose I just wish you would let others make you happy, especially since I…”

A second, longer pause. Though her gaze was directed elsewhere, Twilight’s attention was focused completely on what Rarity was saying. Especially since you…

“Especially since I’m not going to be able to do so myself.” She squeezed Twilight’s hoof and swallowed. “I wish I could make you happy the rest of your life, but I can’t… I can’t.”

A third and final pause.

A whisper — one Twilight almost did not hear.

“You don’t know how lucky you are to live so long.”

Twilight finally turned around, looking incredulously at the unicorn. “Lucky I’m quasi-immortal?” she repeated, making sure she heard correctly. “Yeah, right. There’s nothing lucky about having to outlive everyone you love, Rarity. You’re the lucky one. You get to spend the rest of—”

Rarity interrupted her. “I get to spend the rest of my life with you, but you don’t get to spend the rest of your life with me. I know, I know.” She got up and sat down in an upright position, looking into the distance. “But you’re looking at it the wrong way. You don’t understand that your lifespan means you will get from me that which I most desire but will never have from you.”

Hah…

Nothing.

There was nothing on Twilight’s end of the immortality deal that was better than anything Rarity was getting, and yet, a spark of curiosity ignited within Twilight, as well as… hope? A spark of hope that there really was something precious she had acquired all those centuries ago. Something to make up for losing the most precious thing she ever had — and which she’d lose again in a day.

“And what’s that?”

Rarity stood still for a few minutes, wearing an undecipherable expression. “You get my entire life, Twilight, while I will only get a fraction of yours.”

Twilight sat up, feeling as if her chest had constricted around her heart. “I… I get your entire life?” she repeated slowly, weighing the meaning of the words.

Rarity smiled thinly and nodded. “You won’t miss a single instant of my life — not one smile, not one kiss, not one breath — whereas I will miss centuries and centuries of yours.” She floated the travel guide from out of her bag and flipped through its pages as she spoke. “You will be chapters upon chapters in the book of my life, Twilight Sparkle. You will be my beginning, my middle and my end, but I? I shall merely be a few pages in the prologue of yours.”

Twilight had never thought of it like that. All those times she had complained about the life-increasing side-effect of being an alicorn, she had never once considered the other side of the coin. There were things of her alicorn status that Twilight had been grateful for, and one of them was the fact that she had been able to be by Rarity’s side until the unicorn’s death.

It had never occurred to her that maybe Rarity had wanted the same thing too.

“I can’t even stand to think of all the things I’m going to miss of your life,” Rarity continued, looking intently at the travel guide, her hooves shaking. Tears formed in her eyes, rolled down her cheeks and fell on the pages. “I’m not going to be able to celebrate your accomplishments with you, or be there when you need somepony, or hold you when you want to be held, or tell you I love you every day…” She closed the book and brushed her hoof against the cover. “You’re my fairytale book… but I’m not going to be yours…”

“R-Rarity…” Twilight choked out.

Rarity looked at Twilight and her expression turned to one of guilt. “Oh, darling, look at you. I’m sorry. I’ve made you cry,” she whispered, lifting a hoof and wiping away the freshly fallen tears from Twilight’s cheeks. “I’ve made myself cry, too,” she noted, wiping off her own tears before bowing her head and softly concluding: “I suppose I just wanted us to grow old together.”

Twilight prodded at the unicorn with her hoof. “Hey.” The moment Rarity turned to her, she stretched out her foreleg towards her.

Rarity did not hesitate as she scooted herself over to Twilight, sitting in front of the lavender pony and letting herself be enveloped in a desperately needed hug. She didn’t return the hug, instead burying her face in the crook of Twilight’s neck.

“I wanted to grow old with you too,” Twilight murmured, tightening the hug and resting her chin on the top of Rarity’s head. She then smiled a bit, rubbing circles on Rarity’s back. “Or maybe not. What with my ‘lacking personal hygiene’, I’m not sure I’ll be a pretty sight to behold when I’m old. Think of how many centuries worth of wrinkles I’ll have! No thanks!” She shivered, for added measure.

Right after she finished speaking, like a single ray of sunshine in the middle of a dreary and cloudy day, she heard a muffled giggle emanate from the pony currently wrapped in forelegs.

“If you want, though, we can just not sleep during the ride back to Ponyville, and I’ll fill you in with every single detail you’ve missed of my life. I’ll tell you so much about me, you’ll get sick of it and then you’ll be glad you’re not stuck with me for centuries. Sound good?” she suggested, earning in reply a nod and even more muffled giggles.

“And then,” she continued, grinning, “when I go back, I’ll live another five hundred years and figure out a way to send you a full-report. Pinkie promise!”

Rarity pulled back, eyes twinkling with tears but smiling nonetheless. “Instead of friendship reports to Celestia, it’ll be life reports to Rarity?” she asked, her puffy and reddened eyes lighting up.

Twilight rested her forehead against Rarity’s. “Life reports to Rarity?” She broke the hug and pulled back, looking to her sides. “Take a note, Spike!” she exclaimed, imitating her younger self and trying very hard to stay serious despite Rarity’s giggling fit.

“Dearest beloved Rarity, it’s been an entire week since the last report, and I’m sad to inform that life is still as boring as always without you. In other news, I’m ecstatic to tell you that I’ve finally perfected an aging-potion for temporarily turning ponies back into teenagers. Unfortunately, Princess Celestia thought it was lemonade, and is currently undergoing her teen punk phase. Also unfortunately, mohawks are definitely not her style.”

“Goodness, that makes for a frightful mental image.” Rarity laughed. “You must send me a picture along with your reports.”

Twilight laughed as well, snaking her arms around Rarity and putting her forehead back on the other mare's. “Yours forever, Twilight Sparkle,” she finished, leaning in to kiss her.

Rarity sighed with delight when the kiss ended, lifting her forelegs and returning the hug. They remained like that for an indefinite amount of time. They felt as if everything around them had come to a standstill, almost as if time had decided to be kind and allow them the illusion of the eternity they would never be able to share.

“You know,” Rarity said, breaking the silence but never the hug, “this entire trip was supposed to be for your benefit, but it’s turning out to be more for mine. All you’ve done is take care of my anxieties.”

Twilight shrugged. “I can’t say I’m surprised. You always make everything about yourse— Ow!” Rarity had smacked her hoof against the alicorn’s back, prompting her to say between chuckles, “I was just kidding! Geez!”

Rarity made a move to reply but was cut short by the distant chiming of the park’s clock tower bells. Twilight listened, counting in her head the chimes. Ten times it rang, telling her that they only had one painfully short hour left.

“Ugh.”

“I agree completely.”

Sighing, Rarity made a move to break herself from Twilight’s embrace, but Twilight instead wrapped her forelegs more tightly around her. No, not yet, she thought. It was true that they hadn’t delved much into Twilight’s own issues, but that was because time with Rarity was the benefit she had sought and acquired from the trip. As it turned out, she wasn’t quite ready to give it up just yet.

And maybe she’d never be ready.

“Let’s not go,” she said. “Let’s just stay in Manehattan and never go back to Ponyville.”

She wasn’t even sure why she had said that, and she didn’t even know if she was being serious or not when she said it. She had just thrown it out there — a suggestion, an experiment — and waited to see the results that would come out.

There was silence as Rarity seemed to take in Twilight’s idea. “Where would we live, pray tell?” she asked, playing along — or perhaps seriously considering — Twilight’s outlandish proposal to run away together. To run, run, run and throw everything away as long as they’d be together. “Are you going to use your ‘royal privileges’ to get somepony to accommodate us?”

“Maybe?” Twilight ventured. “Or we can just live in your office and share the couch. Buy a mini fridge, too.”

“Dear me, that does sound delightful,” Rarity purred. “But what about keeping the balance of the time-space continuum?”

Twilight furrowed her brow, deep in thought. True, having two Twilight Sparkle’s co-existing in the same time-frame could disturb the delicate and extremely dangerous fabric of space and time. But, looking down at the mare in her forelegs, she ultimately came up with the perfect solution: “Who cares?”

Rarity’s eyes widened. “’Who cares’ about the balance of the time-space continuum? My, my, my!” she murmured, a devious smile on her face. She took back her forelegs from around Twilight’s waist and instead wrapped them around the alicorn’s neck. “I don’t know who you are or what on earth you’ve done with Twilight Sparkle, but I must say I like you very much.” To demonstrate this, she closed the distance between their lips.

Twilight’s cheeks heated up at the kiss, feeling as if she could melt in Rarity’s embrace. Some part of her found it both fascinating and terrifying just how easily Rarity could still turn her into a love-sick filly, even despite all the time that had passed.

And yet, Twilight was and would always be a slave to her neuroses and anxieties.

When Rarity pulled away, Twilight cleared her throat. “We probably should get going, though. Manehattan Station must be a good forty minutes away, and we’re going to miss the train at this rate.”

Ignoring Rarity’s plaintive objections, Twilight broke the hug and got up. When she turned to look at Rarity, she saw the pouting unicorn refused to stand up.

“Come on, Rarity.” Twilight prodded her with her hoof. “We’re going to miss our train unless we leave soon.”

Rarity sighed. “Yes, fine, I’m getting up. Please cease your poking,” she said, standing up and dusting herself off. She put back the travel guide inside her saddlebag and then looked towards the distance, towards where the train station tower could be seen.

"The last train home," she whispered.

“Ready to go?” Twilight asked.

“Frankly, no,” Rarity intoned, looking dejected and forlorn as she hoofed at the ground.

Twilight half-smiled at her. “Good. That makes two of us.”

The ride back to Ponyville had been perfect.

It had been such a stark difference from how they'd acted on the train ride from Ponyville. Silent and distant back then, where even the small distance between their seats in the compartment had felt like a vast chasm; now, sitting next to each other, Rarity leaning on Twilight with the latter's foreleg wrapped around her, the distance between them felt like it could never be small enough.

From the second they'd entered the compartment, Twilight had been adamant in filling Rarity in on everything she'd missed of her life. From the silliest stories to the serious one to the sad ones, no story was irrelevant enough to be omitted. To her never-ending delight, her companion wasn't shy about interrupting with questions or laughs or content sighs. Funny stories would result with Rarity burying her face on Twilight's shoulder and giggling for minutes on end, sad stories would result in her somehow cuddling closer to Twilight, and normal stories would result with Rarity playing with their intertwined forelegs as Twilight talked.

Every so often, Twilight would think to herself how much she'd miss Rarity's voice, her warmth, her entire being, but she buried the thought by continuing with her tales. She buried it because thinking about it hurt too much.

The two of them had talked, talked, talked until a veil of exhaustion covered and drifted them off into a peaceful sleep in each other's forelegs.

But then, they woke up.

They woke up and Twilight put her cloak back on. She put it back on and the air between them changed, and it was like they were two strangers who happened to have taken the same train and whose homes happened to be in the same direction.

As they headed back towards Carousel Boutique, Twilight found that the silence between them was anything but silent. It was suffocatingly loud. The lack of spoken words only made every other sound intensify: the sound of their hooves against the ground, the whispers of the wind, the shaking of their saddlebags, the distant humming of the train engines and the pounding of Twilight’s frantic heart.

I can’t do this.

She wasn’t ready to go. She didn’t want to go. How could she leave that world in which a breathing Rarity resided? How could she return to a world where Rarity’s body was buried in the depths of the hard ground, and where her soul had gone to a place Twilight could not follow? How could Twilight do that when it would turn her into a murderer?

By stepping into the past, she had breathed life into Rarity, and now she would be drawing out that life by returning to the future. Rarity had died once by the unforgiving touch of the Grim Reaper, now she would die again at Twilight’s hooves. It seemed like Rarity would be getting her dramatic love story after all. She could practically hear what the mare would say: “Darling, if this entire trip is the same as killing me, then I daresay no murder victim has ever been more willing than I.”

How was Rarity holding up, anyway? Twilight stole a peek at the unicorn. At first glance, she seemed lost in thought, staring at the winding road ahead. Further stolen glances, however, allowed her to notice that the unicorn was biting down on her lower lip and blinking constantly. Was… Was she blinking back tears?

Twilight forced herself to look away, pain returning to her chest. She breathed in and out, in and out, in and out. If Rarity started crying, then she’d start crying, and it would just make everything that much harder.

“Twilight?” Rarity asked, bringing Twilight back from her troubled thoughts. Rarity had come to a stop, eyes still fixed on the road back to her home. “How long do you have left before you have to go back?”

Forever, Twilight thought. “A few hours,” she replied instead. “I don’t really have a set time to leave.”

They still had one entire day left. They could just lock themselves in Carousel Boutique and nopony would see Twilight. Her last day with Rarity before it was over, and she planned on making it cou—

“I think…” Rarity let out a long breath of air and turned to Twilight, smiling apologetically. “I think it would be for the best if you left right now.”

No. Twilight felt her heart shrink. “L-leave? Now?”

“I think it would be for the best, yes,” Rarity continued, her voice lowering to a whisper. She walked over to Twilight and put her hoof on her cheek. Rarity’s eyes were twinkling with unshed tears. “I just want to say goodbye while I can still send you off with a smile.”

“Oh…”

Twilight put her hoof on top of Rarity’s. She wanted to say something more, but a lump in her throat prevented her from doing so. She wasn’t even sure there were any words or ways to express what she felt.

“Look at you. You came all this way just to see me,” Rarity breathed, gazing at Twilight with a wonder and adoration the likes of which the alicorn was sure she’d never see again. “I can’t think of what I’ve ever done to deserve you.”

Twilight didn’t even have to think about it.

“You made me happy.”

That’s all Rarity had ever done to deserve Twilight’s unwavering affection. She had simply made her blissfully happy, nothing more or nothing less — that had been enough.

Rarity took her hoof away from Twilight’s face, eyes taking on a more serious expression. “Others can make you happy too, you know?” she responded. “You will give them a chance, won’t you?”

Twilight looked away. “It’s not that easy, Rarity…”

“But you’ll try, won’t you?”

She looked back at Rarity, ears dropping. “But what if—” she drifted off, her voice barely audible. “What if I don’t want to try? What if I don’t want to risk letting anypony else be more important than you… or the girls?”

Rarity’s expression softened. “Twilight, darling, getting other best friends or another special somepony doesn’t mean that all of a sudden your other relationships aren’t important anymore. And even if you do end up loving somepony else more than you do me, why is that necessarily a bad thing?”

The idea horrified Twilight. “But you said yesterday—”

“I know what I said yesterday, Twilight,” Rarity interrupted forcefully, “but it doesn’t matter anymore.” Her ears were flat against her head and it looked as if it was taking her a tremendous amount of effort to keep speaking. “It doesn’t matter what I feel, Twilight, because all I really want is for you to be happy.

"Maybe you won't fall in love again, and that will be fine as long as you're happy," she continued. "And maybe you will fall in love again. Maybe you’ll love them more than you did me, but I won’t mind as long as you’re happy.” She smiled at Twilight. “After all, I’m getting a lifetime of your love, and that’s more than I could ever ask for.”

“Rarity, stop making me feel better,” she complained, the faintest of smiles appearing on her lips. “How come you’re the only one who gets to be a drama queen?”

"I am not being a drama queen!" Rarity whined in a very dramatic fashion, dissolving into a fit of giggles at Twilight’s skeptical expression.

Twilight put her hoof on her forehead and shook her head. “Seriously, I don’t understand how I put up with your theatrics for so long.”

Rarity let out a haughty laugh. “Because you’re crazy for me, obviously!” she exclaimed. “And I’m crazy for you, too,” she added with a whisper, leaning in to nuzzle the alicorn.

After a minute or so, when Rarity pulled back, Twilight grinned at her. “You know, my love for you does have its limits,” she warned, though her wide smile ruined the effect of the warning. The kiss she stole afterwards did little to help. She would steal a thousand of them if she could.

“Hah!” Rarity exclaimed, smirking against Twilight’s lips once the brief kiss came to an end. “Twilight Sparkle, I could turn evil, conquer Equestria and banish Celestia to Tartarus, and you’d still be in love with me.”

Twilight pulled back, laughing. “Oh my gosh, Rarity, you are so full of yourself.” She leaned in again and rested her forehead against Rarity’s, closing her eyes and smiling. “You’re awful,” she whispered. “You’re awful, and I love you.”

Rarity laughed as well, closing her eyes and sighing with contentment. “I love you, too,” she breathed. “It’s absolutely ridiculous how much I love you, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Even more than you love yourself?" Twilight joked, opening one eye to look at Rarity.

"Now, darling, it's good to aim high, but let's not reach for the stars here.”

Even when Twilight felt like the whole world was crashing around her. Rarity was still able to make it seem like everything was okay; like they were just saying goodbye for a weekend apart, not for the rest of Twilight’s life. The alicorn moved in to hug Rarity, burying her face in the crook of the other’s neck. She breathed in the scent of perfume, knowing it was the very last time, and she felt tears wet her eyes.

“Rarity, I…” she faltered, her chest hurting. “I’m going to miss you,” she weakly finished, her voice cracking. She had missed Rarity before the time-traveling escapade, and now she’d miss her a thousand times more. Even there, holding her in her forelegs, she’d already begun missing her.

“Shh, love, don’t cry,” Rarity soothed, leaning her head against the top of Twilight’s. She brushed the lavender mare’s mane with one of her hooves as she spoke. “Oh, my darling. You won’t miss me much longer. Soon, you shall find wonderful friends who will make you happy, and I’ll become nothing more but the faded memory of a pony you loved once upon a time.”

Twilight shook her head, tightening the hug. Faded memory? Never. Rarity’s smile, her eyes, her laugh, her scent, her voice, her everything. She would never fade away or become just a vague memory. Twilight would never allow it.

They remained in that position for minutes, only aware of each others presence and listening to the sound of their synchronized breathing. If only they could stay like that forever, but they couldn’t. Twilight was the one who pulled away, taking a deep breath in preparation for what was to come.

“Well then, Princess Twilight Sparkle. It has been an honor.” Rarity did a mock bow for her. “Until we meet again…”

The alicorn stood up straight. One last goodbye. One last game of pretend. “Until we meet again, Rarity.”

One last lie just like the day she left for Saddle Arabia, where she had left with the promise of seeing each other again and returned to a broken promise and broken heart. It took everything in her to will herself to look away from the white mare and head for the Everfree Forest. She trotted and trotted until she heard Rarity call to her, and she briefly considered not answering for fear she wouldn’t be able to leave if she did.

But she turned around because it was an unbreakable, unbendable and unavoidable law of the universe that, when Rarity called, Twilight Sparkle would always answer.

Rarity was smiling at her; it was a particularly un-lady like grin that the unicorn had unconsciously picked up from Twilight herself with the passing of the years. “I’ll be waiting for you,” she called, taking a few steps towards the other mare. “I don’t know where ponies go after they die, but wherever that may be, I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Thanks, Rarity,” Twilight replied, her heart weighing heavily in her chest. She engraved the unicorn’s face in her mind, turned around and continued trotting, head held high.

Thank you for everything.

The walk to the Everfree Forest was a long one, but it wasn’t necessarily a terribly sad one. She had gotten her clean goodbye, and that was what she had always wanted, wasn’t it? Her heart kept beating painfully against her chest, but it would pass. She just had to focus on the brilliant smile Rarity had sent her off with.

She noticed Fluttershy’s Cottage in the distance, the yellow pegasus tending to her critter friends near the entrance. Twilight hid herself amidst the forest trees and trotted towards her old friend, hoping to stay there for a bit until her nerves and heart calmed down. She closed her eyes and did several breathing exercises, Fluttershy’s singing proving to be a nice background music. In the end, she wasn’t sure how long she stood there breathing in and out, lost in thought.

“Fluttershy! Sweetie!”

Twilight felt her stomach drop. She opened her eyes and saw Rarity standing in the distance, waving at the pegasus. The white mare trotted over to Fluttershy, a radiant and carefree smile on her face. She looked so normal, so utterly unaffected by what had happened not even twenty minutes ago. How did she do it? How did she manage to so easily put a veil over what she really felt? How?

“Oh! Rarity you’re back!” Fluttershy greeted, waving at the unicorn. Another normal day for her, no doubt. “How was your trip?”

Rarity sat down next to a group of bunnies. “It was… revealing,” she replied, watching Angel Bunny scarf down an entire bowl of carrots. “What about you, darling? Did anything interesting happen while I was away?”

Fluttershy looked up, thoughtfully. “Well, not really. Pinkie Pie had a party yesterday for the Cake twins, and Twilight came earlier today for breakfast.”

“Oh? How is Twilight, by the way?” Rarity asked, her voice sounding strained.

“Oh, she’s doing very well,” Fluttershy replied, serving Angel Bunny more carrots. “She finished getting everything ready for Princess Celestia’s visit tomorrow. She’s very nervous about it, though, so I offered we go to the spa later to help her relax.” She smiled to Rarity. “Now that you’re here, would you like to come with us?”

“I wouldn’t miss it!” Rarity exclaimed. “I’ll ask Aloe to give her a deluxe treatment. Knowing my Twilight, a simple massage won’t suffice to rid her of stress.”

“You should let her know that you’re back,” Fluttershy suggested, moving on to feed a pair of squirrels. “So, why was Manehattan revealing? Oh, and did you see Coco Pommel?”

Twilight knew she should probably leave already, but her curiosity got the best of her. Whatever story Rarity told Fluttershy would certainly be the one she’d later tell past Twilight. She might as well stay a bit longer to listen to it.

Rarity nodded. “Yes, I did! We had coffee at that one café on 60th street. You know, the one from the novel? After that, Tw— I ran into a good friend and then…” She drifted off, blinking several times. “A-And then…”

“And then?” Fluttershy prompted, turning to look at the unicorn. “And who was the fri— Rarity?”

To Twilight’s dismay, Rarity’s entire cheery disposition vanished completely. She trembled, her gaze downwards and a hoof covering her mouth.

Oh, Rarity, no…

“R-Rarity? What’s wrong? Are you crying?” an alarmed Fluttershy asked.

The unicorn looked up, smiling unconvincingly. “What do you mean, darling? I’m not crying,” she replied, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Fluttershy rushed over to her, taking her hooves. “Yes, you are! Did something happen in Manehattan? Or before?” she questioned frantically. “Twilight said she felt something was off with you on Friday? Oh no, did you two have a fall-out?! Is that why you left?”

Rarity shook her head. “Oh h-heavens no, Manehattan was wonderful,” Rarity choked, shaking her head. “And T-twilight… I didn’t have a-a fall-out with her. She was… Twi… Twilight…”

Twilight watched in horror as the unicorn completely lost her composure, her voice dissolving into shaky sobs muffled by her hooves over her face. Fluttershy acted immediately, embracing her and trying to calm her down.

Oh Celestia, no…

Twilight had never felt so painfully helpless before. She had caused this. It was because of her that Rarity was in such grief, unable to tell even Fluttershy why she was crying. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it would be for Rarity when she’d see past Twilight again. Wishing she had never agreed to the trip in the first place, Twilight could only watch, transfixed, feeling every single carefully constructed wall inside her collapse with every sob Rarity let out.

“Angel, please, bring Twilight!” Fluttershy yelped, holding Rarity tighter against her.

Twilight searched for the rabbit and saw him hop off towards Ponyville. Soon her younger self would arrive and provide Rarity comfort against the pain her future self had caused. It was torture to stand there and just watch, fighting every urge inside her body that pleaded for her to rush over to Rarity.

All of a sudden, perhaps because she had somehow sensed Twilight’s distressed stare, Rarity lifted her head from Fluttershy’s shoulder and idly looked into the forest, immediately spotting Twilight. The moment they locked-eyes, Rarity’s expression went from grief-stricken to completely blank, her mouth taking the shape of an O.

“Twilight…?”

Waiting a few seconds to make sure Fluttershy hadn’t heard, Twilight gingerly waved at Rarity, smiling sympathetically in an attempt to calm her down. Her vision started to cloud and when she rubbed her eyes with her hoof, she realized she had begun to cry, too.

Wiping the tears away, she looked back at Rarity and forced out the most convincingly happy grin she could muster. “See you soon, Rarity,” she mouthed, starting to turn around towards the forest. It wouldn’t be long now before her other self arrived.

But then, a voice called to her, and Twilight’s desperate hopes for a relatively happy departure vanished.

“Wait!”

At the sound of Rarity’s voice, Twilight turned around just in time to see the white mare push herself away from Fluttershy and turn towards the forest, tears brimming around her eyes.

“R-Rarity? What’s wrong? Wait for what?” asked Fluttershy in a hurry.

Twilight understood what Rarity intended on doing and quickly shook her head. “No, Rarity! No, no, no!” she begged, mouthing her words at the mare. Don’t do it, please, don’t.

Desperate, pleading purple eyes looked into miserable, blue ones, engaging in an impromptu staring contest where no matter who was the first to blink, everypony lost. They stayed that way for what felt like an eternity until Rarity took one step towards Twilight, having seemingly thrown all rational thinking to the wind.

Time stopped. Twilight waited, too paralyzed to continue shaking her head, and prayed to Celestia that Rarity would come to her senses.

Time began its course again. Minutes ticked by, and Fluttershy started to look towards the forest. Now or never.

It was time to blink.

Rarity took another step forward.

In a split second, Twilight reacted by turning around and running away, the sound of Rarity calling her name piercing her heart like a dagger.

She ran, and ran, and ran.

I’m sorry, Rarity.

Ran because every instinct in her body fought against her to do the opposite.

I love you.

Ran because she could still hear Rarity sobbing in the distance.

I’m so sorry.

Ran because Rarity was alive and dead at the same time, and because everything was unfair, and everything hurt, and because she loved Rarity with every fiber of her being, and now it was over. It was over, over, over and no amount of time-travel would change the fact that she would always lose Rarity in the end.

When she finally did stop running, she took out the scroll and notebook, read the spell and transported herself out of Ponyville, out of the past and out of Rarity’s life forever.

Seconds later, just like the blink of an eye, she was back in the future Canterlot Archives. The moonlight filtered in through the windows, and Twilight sat there for minutes on end, panting heavily. After her breathing regulated, she quietly and almost mindlessly put the time scroll back in its place and got up to leave.

She felt detached from her body as she trotted away. It was as if her brain had gone numb, and now her body moved all on its own like a piece of machinery. She understood that she was never going to see Rarity or her friends again but, at the same time, the realization hadn’t made an impact on her yet. As she walked out of the Archives, she had the impression that everything that had transpired had happened to somepony else, not her.

She stepped out into the garden and shivered at the cold, night air. Glancing up, she noticed Celestia’s tower had gone dark. How long had she been gone?

“Twilight!”

Twilight turned around and saw Spike hovering in the air. The dragon carefully landed on the garden, trying not to step on too many flowers. “Twilight! I know you said to wait at home, but you were taking so long,” he explained, his eyes scanning her for what she assumed were bad signs. “I’m glad you’re back!” he said with relief after finding nothing visibly wrong with her. If he could only see the emotional damage, perhaps he wouldn’t be so relieved.

“Oh,” Twilight flatly replied. “Yes, I’m back.”

After a minute of silence, he spoke up with hesitance. “…So?” he prompted. “How did it go? Did you see our friends?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied almost mechanically.

“That… that means Rarity, too, right?”

“Yes…” Twilight repeated.

Rarity too.

“A-And?” he asked.

And? And everything was suddenly real and Twilight Sparkle was not able to withstand it. Much in the same way Rarity had, the alicorn collapsed into sudden tears, clutching onto Spike when he rushed to scoop her in between his arms.

She could hear him asking question after question: what happened, why was she crying, did something go wrong, why had she gone, why hadn’t she listened to him. She wanted to answer, but she couldn’t. She could only wail out his name over and over, a mantra representing what she still had left of a life that time had cruelly taken away from her.

Twilight Sparkle cried her heart out for many reason that night: for Rarity, for the days they’d never have and for the days they did have, and for having been given the closure she had both sought and feared.

Most of all, though, she cried because she finally understood. Years and years ago, when Angel Bunny had taken her to an inexplicably sobbing Rarity, the unicorn had asked her over and over to 'please stay'. And it was only until that moment that Twilight realized who Rarity had been talking to.

Had her mind been clearer, Twilight might have found comfort in the fact that one last bond remained between them: somewhere in the past, Rarity was crying for her. They were bonded by their mutual grief; a grief which existed outside the grasp of time and space, and left tears in the fabric of the eternity they could never have together.

Theirs was a love that would persist by harming the very thing it had desired and been denied.

A love that thrived by injuring eternity.

6. My Last Chapter

The sun had only just risen upon Ponyville when Rarity woke up to get herself ready for the last morning of her life. One would think that on that day of all days she wouldn’t bother with her usual routine, but she went through with it for the sake of a certain somepony else still snoring away in bed. Settling down in front of her bathroom mirror, the elderly pony began her morning ritual: combing her gray mane, putting on eyeliner and eyeshadow, curling her eyelashes and powdering her nose. Perhaps a splash of Twilight’s favorite perfume, as well.

Though she had reached an exceptional old age, Rarity’s complexion did not show it. She was not the traffic-stopper of her youth, no, but she was still quite the beautiful sight to behold. Her face, thinned with age, bore few to no wrinkles; she still had a head full of hair, and her coat still retained its healthy sheen.

It was almost unfair how every single part of her, both physically and mentally, was remarkably healthy except for the silly little organ that kept her alive. She pressed her hoof against her chest and felt the continuous beating of her deteriorated heart — her own personal death clock, counting away the seconds to her demise with each thud against her ribcage.

“Rarity.”

In the reflection of the mirror, Rarity saw a half-asleep Twilight standing under the frame of the door, yawning as she looked at the elder pony through half-lidded eyes.

“Did you take your heart medicine? And your cold medicine?”

Like every morning for the past years, before exchanging morning greetings, or even before fully waking up, Rarity’s health was Twilight’s top priority.

Twilight’s reflection disappeared as Rarity opened the mirror, revealing a small cabinet with shelves filled with makeup and assorted medicine bottles. She took out two pills from one of the bottles and swallowed them, thinking to herself how useless it was to take the pills at that point. It’s not like they would save her from dying that night, after all.

“Civilized ponies say ‘good morning’ first, you know?” she pointed out, putting the bottle back in its place and closing the cabinet door. When the mirror re-appeared in front of her, she watched Twilight’s reflection move from the door and over to her.

“Good morning,” Twilight yawned, sitting down next to the unicorn and planting a sleepy kiss on her cheek. She then placed her hoof on Rarity’s chest and rubbed slightly. “You were coughing all night yesterday.”

Rarity sighed, brushing a hoof against her throat. “Yes, I’m afraid my cold isn’t getting any better. I suppose we just have to wait for the medicine to take effect.”

Twilight nodded, taking back her hoof and facing the mirror. She floated the comb over and brushed her mane, though it looked more like she was patting it down rather than actually brushing. Appalled at the way Twilight mistreated her silky mane, Rarity took the brush from her and decided to take care of the princess’ manestyling herself — like every morning. As she combed the alicorn’s mane, a single question interrupted the brief silence.

“At what time is your train leaving?”

A useless question considering Rarity knew perfectly well at what time Twilight and Spike were due to leave for Saddle Arabia. She had been counting the hours, minutes and seconds ever since Twilight had announced the trip a fortnight ago right in the middle of tea time. Rarity remembered nearly choking on her tea; poor Twilight thought it was because her heart had finally given out.

“We’re taking the eleven o’clock train,” Twilight replied, watching as Rarity transformed her mane from a messy disaster to a coiffure worthy of a princess. “And we’ll get to the Capital Train Station at around eight.”

When Rarity finished combing Twilight’s mane, they both looked at their reflections in the mirror. Twilight looked so young, so vibrant and beautiful; she still made Rarity’s heart race. Rarity leaned on her, a deep sigh leaving her lips.

“Look at us. What an odd pair we make,” she whispered, both saddened and amused at how much older she looked than Twilight. “The beauty and the granny.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow and scoffed. “Hey, I take offense to you calling me a granny.” Her offense was short-lived though, her expression turning into a playful one and a grin adorning her face. “Not everypony can be as beautiful as you.”

Rarity laughed in reply, a bittersweet sentiment taking a hold of her heart. Heavens, she loved Twilight. She loved how Twilight could make her laugh with such ease, how she knew how to make everything better, how she understood what Rarity felt without having to be told. How sad it was that all these things she loved and more would come to an end in a few hours.

The two mares were suddenly distracted by the chiming of bells, signaling somepony had entered Carousel Boutique.

“Morning, ladies!” Spike’s voice rang in the distance. “Up and at ‘em!”

“Morning, Spike! We’ll be right down!” Twilight called, glancing at the bathroom door. She then turned to the mirror again and looked at Rarity’s reflection. “Would you mind going down first? I still need to finish packing some things.”

Rarity nodded and tore herself away from Twilight. She headed towards the door and left the bathroom. “I’ll make you and Spike some breakfast. Don’t be long, or it’ll get cold.”

“Duly noted!” Twilight’s voice rang out. There was a pause before she hastily added, “And be careful with the stairs! Remember what the doctor said about straining yourself too much!”

Rarity stopped in her tracks, looking back towards the bathroom. “Twilight, darling, no pony has ever had a heart attack by going down the stairs a little too quickly.“

“You don’t know that!”

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. No use arguing with Twilight, it seemed. “Very well, sweetheart. I will measure myself when walking down the stairs,” she gave in, picturing the little satisfied nod Twilight had probably just done. “Besides,” she added with slight mischief, “there is something much more dangerous here than the stairs.”

Twilight’s head poked from out the bathroom door, concern awash on her face. “There is?”

“Why you, of course,” Rarity replied, raising her eyebrow as if it were obvious. Just as Twilight was about to question the unicorn, Rarity grinned and continued, placing her hoof against her head in a dramatic fashion, “After all, you take my breath away.”

Twilight’s face flushed. “Wow, Rarity,” she said, rolling her eyes and disappearing once more into the bathroom.

“But you do!” Rarity insisted, grinning at the general direction where Twilight had disappeared. “You leave me absolutely breathless, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Just go downstairs already, silly,” Twilight replied, laughing.

Rarity complied, her heart fluttering in her chest. Upon reaching the top of the staircase, she saw Spike standing idly by down in the main entrance, rummaging through the bag he had brought with him. Spike, now a teenaged dragon, had grown considerably and already stood several feet taller than her.

“Good morning, darling,” she greeted, descending the stairs to join him. “You’re here early!”

“Yeah. Twilight asked me to be here on time so she could double check everything,” he explained, still shuffling the contents of the bag with his hand. After a minute, he took out two train tickets from the bag. “Here we go! Two eleven o’clock tickets for Saddle Arabia.”

“You’re leaving so early,” Rarity noted, taking the tickets and looking at them. How she wished the timestamp on them would change for a later hour. “It’s a shame I won’t be able to spend a little more time with you before you leave.”

“Yeah, I know. We could have left at two, but Twilight wants to leave early in case of ‘incidence’. Pfffft.” The dragon put the bag on the floor and made his way towards the kitchen. “Hey, mind if I grab something to eat? I’m starving, and there’s nothing good at the library.”

“Spike, how many times do I have to tell you that this—“

“—Is like my house. I know, I know,” his voice came from inside the kitchen, followed by the sound of the refrigerator door opening. “Lesse, what can I hav— Whoah! Holy sh—“

“Language, Spike!”

“—ooting stars!” There was a rattling sound in the kitchen before he came out, holding between his claws a very large ruby-encrusted, triple layered vanilla cake. “Hey, Rarity, please, can I have some of this?” he asked, practically drooling all over the pastry.

“You can have all of it, dear,” she replied, smiling at him. “I did make it just for you, after all.” It was her parting gift. A very delicious cake filled with radiant diamonds she had dug up just for her precious Spike.

Spike’s entire face lit up, and suddenly it was as if he had regressed to his baby self. “Yessss!” he exclaimed, already devouring the cake with his eyes. However, before devouring it with his mouth, he put down the cake and went over to the unicorn, lifting her in his arms into an affectionate hug. “Thanks, Rarity! You’re the best!”

“Careful now, Spike. You don’t want to crush little old me with those big, strong arms of yours, now do you?” Rarity asked between laughs.

Spike, still carrying Rarity, chuckled. “Well, I have been working out, y’know!” He put the unicorn down and flexed his arms, puffing out his chest. “Gotta impress the ladies, right?”

“I have no doubt they’re already very impressed by you, darling! I’m very impressed — look at those muscles!”

A blush flashed through Spike’s cheeks. He crossed his arms and looked down at the unicorn, smirking. “Hey, listen, Rarity. I know you were devastated when you found out years ago that I got over my crush on you, but I can see you’re still not over me, so I can give you a second chance. I’m generous like that, see.”

“Oh, Spike!” Rarity put her hoof on her chest and gasped dramatically. “How kind of you! Let me go pack my things.”

“Spike!” Twilight appeared at the top of the stairs, looking quite unimpressed at the conversation taking place. “You have other more important things to do than trying to get Rarity to run away with you. Did you bring everything we need?”

Spike waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “Yeah, yeah. I got everything,” he brushed her off, watching Twilight go down the stairs. “Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I have to take care of something. " He picked up the cake and smacked his lips. “You and I have a date in the kitchen, Miss Diamond Cake.”

“Don’t eat it too fast or you’ll get a tummy ache!” Twilight warned, following him into the kitchen and leaving Rarity to stay alone in the main hall, a small smile on her face. Dear, dear, dear, she was going to miss them so much — her odd little family.

Then again, she’d only miss them for a day before she stopped missing them — or anypony — at all.

Breakfast came and went in the blink of an eye, and suddenly it was time to leave for the train station. With a very heavy heart, Rarity accompanied Twilight and Spike to the foyer, wishing she had been allowed to go with them as far as the train station. Curse her frail heart!

“Well, this is it, then,” she said, watching Spike grab his and Twilight’s suitcases. “Off you go to do your royal important duties while I’m stranded here in Ponyville.”

Spike snorted at her remark. “More like off we go to sit through hours of boring debates, you mean,” he corrected, loading another bag onto the already growing pile in his arms. “You’re not missing anything fun, Rarity. Trust me.”

Twilight was too busy putting on her saddlebag to reprimand Spike about his apathy towards diplomatic issues. “We’ll be back in a flash, Rarity.” She glanced sympathetically at the low-spirited unicorn. “I wish you could come, but I don’t want to risk your cold getting worse.”

“Of course,” Rarity murmured, looking at the floor and poking at it with her hoof. “I understand.”

“Rarity…” Twilight said, taking a step towards the unicorn. “Spike, would you mind taking a head start?” she asked, turning to look at the dragon. “I need to finish some things here so maybe you should get going and get us good seats on the train.”

Spike nodded. “Sure thing, Twi.” After giving Twilight her train ticket, he made a start for the door and said, “See you on Sunday, Rarity!”

Momentarily pulled back into reality, Rarity looked up and smiled brightly at him. “Goodbye, Spike!” she hastily said, trying to imprint his features in her memory. Oh princesses, he was leaving. He was leaving for good. “I love you, Spikey-wikey!” she added. “Don’t forget that!”

Spike laughed. “Rarity, you’re making it sound like I’m leavin’ forever,” he noted, sending a playful glance her way as he walked out the house. “Love you, too!”

Once he was gone, Twilight walked over to Rarity and used her hoof to gently lift the other’s chin. “Hey. What’s wrong?” she asked, searching Rarity’s eyes for answers.

Rarity looked away, fearing she’d succumb to the penetrating gaze and reveal the reason behind her misery. “It’s nothing,” she whispered. It’s everything, she thought. “I’m just sad to see you go, that’s all. I… I’m going to miss you.” Twilight hugged her, and it was incredibly hard for Rarity to hold back tears — but she had no choice, did she?

“I know. I’m going to miss you too, but it’s just for a few days. I’ve gone away for weekends before, and it turned out fine, so no being sad, okay?” Twilight pulled back and placed a kiss on the tip of Rarity’s nose. “Besides, Spike’s right. It’s not like this is the last time you’ll see us.”

Rarity was quiet for a moment. Before she could stop herself or double-think what she was about to say, she whispered, “But what if it is the last time?”

Twilight’s eyes widened for a split second, before returning to their previous worried state. “Rarity, look at me.” When the unicorn, with some reluctance, did as told, Twilight reached over to hold one of her hooves. “Don’t say that. You’ll be fine, Rares. You’ve been taking your medicine, and we’ve been doing your heart exercises every day, right? Everything the doctor ordered! I’ll come back on Sunday, and you’ll be fine, because we’ve done everything by the book.”

By the book…

Twilight had read every single book about heart diseases from the moment Rarity had been diagnosed. The alicorn had poured hours and hours of her days on learning about Rarity’s condition: how to treat it, how to prevent it from getting worse, exercises to do at home, what eating habits to have. Rarity was certain Twilight knew more about her condition than even the doctor treating her. That meant, of course, that Twilight surely understood that nothing could save Rarity any more. There was a limit to what medicine could do, and she had reached it — they both knew it.

And yet, the conviction with which Twilight reassured her that she’d be fine was almost strong enough to make Rarity believe her. For the briefest of moments, the idea that future Twilight had been wrong danced in her mind.

Almost.

Rarity’s unconvinced silence did not go unnoticed by Twilight. She looked down at the floor, her grip around Rarity’s hoof tightening. “I wish I could stay. You’re sick. I should be staying. I should be staying here and taking care of you.” There was a silence. “If… Do you want me to stay?” she finally asked, and Rarity wondered if perhaps she had made Twilight afraid that she’d pass away that weekend. “I can make-up an excuse for the Princess — if you want me to.”

Yes, she thought. Yes, I want you to stay. I want you to stay tonight, and I want to spend my last hours with you, and I want to die asleep in your forelegs. Yes, I want you to please stay and never leave.

“Of course you don’t have to stay. You’re absolutely right. We’ve done everything by the book, so there needn’t be a reason to fret.” She leaned forwards and nuzzled against Twilight, once more forcing down tears. “I’m sorry for making you worry, love.”

Twilight returned the gesture, wrapping a foreleg around Rarity. “It’s okay. I mean, I’m always worried about you,” Twilight said, chuckling to herself. “I guess I just…” There was a pause. “It’s just that if you…you know what…while I’m away… I don’t think I’d ever be able to forgi—” She cut herself off and paused again, followed by the clearing of her throat. “But that doesn’t matter because everything will be fine.”

Rarity broke contact, now being the one to take the other’s hoof. Even if Twilight hadn’t finished her sentence, Rarity was able to guess its ending, and she felt sick at the thought that Twilight would blame herself for her death. She realize she needed to try and correct this, even though she knew her efforts would prove futile in the end. After all, future Twilight very much blamed herself for her death.

“Dearest… I want you to listen carefully. When the day comes that I pa—”

“Don’t say it,” Twilight sharply interrupted. “Don’t.”

Rarity gulped down. For how long had the word ‘die’ or any of its variations become a taboo for Twilight? How deep did her fear of losing Rarity run for her to not even bare hearing the concept out loud? ”But, darling, the day will come that I di—”

“But not soon.”

“But when it does—”

“It won’t.”

“Promise me you won’t blame yourself,” Rarity quickly said before Twilight could interrupt her once more.

Her statement shocked Twilight into silence, her protests drowning out and her eyes averting Rarity’s stern gaze.

“Twilight, look at me.” Purple eyes locked with blue ones. “The only reason I’ve lived so long is because of you, and how hard you’ve fought to help me against my illness. But you can’t save me forever. Promise me that, when I leave, you will not blame yourself for it if you’re not here when it happens.”

“Rarity, please…”

Twilight’s eyes began to tear up, and though it crushed Rarity to force Twilight to face their grim reality, she did not relent. “Give me your word, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight looked away once more. "I… I promise." She looked back at Rarity. "But… this isn't goodbye, right? Rarity, promise me this isn't goodbye. Promise me."

"I promise," she replied without a hint of hesitation. "I give you my word you'll see me again, Twilight."

It wasn’t a lie, after all. Twilight would see her again; it was just that she would see another Rarity — a younger Rarity, all ready to go to Manehattan for the weekend. Another Rarity, who would still be blissfully safe from the cruelty of having Twilight taken away from her.

Twilight let out a deep breath and pressed her forehead against Rarity's. "You better keep that promise, Rarity," she warned, smiling slightly. "Or else I'll go back in time and bring you back myself."

Rarity stifled a laugh. "Oh darling, I wouldn't put that past you." She pulled back and smiled at the alicorn. "Come now. You better leave or you'll miss your train. Can't have you be late to your enthralling diplomatic debates, now can we?" In an oddly motherly gesture, Rarity adjusted Twilight's saddlebag and brushed her fringe back with her hoof.

"Yes, you're right. Spike's probably getting antsy, knowing him." She walked outside, Rarity following close behind. Once outside the house, she extended her wings in preparation for a quick flight to Ponyville's train station.

"Well then," Rarity said, watching Twilight fly a few feet into the air. "Say hello to Celestia, Luna and Cadance for me."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, I will." She got ready to depart, but stopped to glance at Rarity. Her expression looked unsure. "See you on Sunday," she finally said, the seemingly confident smile she offered Rarity losing impact due to its hesitant nature. "Right?"

“Have a safe trip, Twilight.”

That was Rarity’s reply. She couldn’t bring herself to lie to the mare and tell her that ‘yes, darling! But of course we’ll see each other again on Sunday!’ so she settled instead on answering Twilight’s question by not answering it at all.

Twilight hovered in the air, looking down at the unicorn with an undecipherable expression. It did not stay that way for long, her eyes watering again and letting Rarity know that some part of her knew they were saying their final goodbyes.

"Yeah, I will," Twilight choked out, before clearing her throat and wiping her eyes. "Sorry. I don't… know why I'm crying. Just being silly," she continued. "I mean, you're going to be fine. You're going to be just fine! You're going to be fine, absolutely fine. Fine, fine, fine, fi—“

"Twilight?"

Her ramble interrupted, Twilight blinked at Rarity. "Y-Yeah?"

Rarity smiled softly, tilting her head to the side. "I love youuuu."

Twilight immediately landed next to Rarity and pulled her in for the last hug. “I love you, too,” she replied with earnest. “I love you more,” she added, giggling a bit.

“Really now?” Rarity asked, brushing the back of Twilight’s head with her hoof. “Shall we go back inside so I can show you how much more I love you?”

“Oh my gosh, Rarity.”

Rarity laughed at Twilight’s flushed face when she pulled back. To her dying day — in other words, that same day — Rarity would never get enough of teasing Twilight. She leaned in and kissed Twilight’s nose.

“I better go,” Twilight said, stepping away and once again extending her wings, "because I'm suddenly very tempted to take you up on that."

Ah yes, Twilight was also quite good at making Rarity blush, as well.

Without warning, Twilight took off towards the station. "'Bye!" she exclaimed, glancing back towards Rarity.

Rarity waved her off. "Goodbye, Twilight!" She stood there, waving and waving at the alicorn until her foreleg got tired, and Twilight disappeared completely from eyesight. Once this happened, Rarity sat down on the floor, her heart thumping strongly against her chest.

Twilight was gone. Gone forever. Just like that.

Rarity couldn't even bring herself to cry, she was so shocked by the fact it was over. After what might have been either five minutes or an entire hour of sitting there, staring at the spot where Twilight had disappeared, Rarity only reacted when a single raindrop landed on her head. Looking up, she was greeted by the sight of rainclouds slowly taking over the previously clear blue sky. Future Twilight's word resonated in her head.

"I was in Saddle Arabia, but I vaguely remember someone telling me there had been a rainstorm in Ponyville that weekend.”

Perhaps the sky wasn't mourning her own death; perhaps it was crying in Rarity's stead.

As the raindrops became more and more frequent, Rarity finally got up and returned to Carousel Boutique, shutting the door behind her. She entered her main workroom and looked at everything inside: the dresses she'd never finish, the drawing she'd never finish drawing, the mess she'd never finish cleaning.

Well, maybe she could finish one design, at least. Her final work of art to leave for the masses, or rather, the soon to be unfashionable masses without one of Equestria's top designers.

Perching her red glasses on the bridge of her nose, Rarity got to work on the latest dress she had been working on. It kept her mind from dwelling on negative thoughts, such as Twilight’s departure and her own forthcoming demise. She was only distracted from her endeavour when, upon levitating a pile of red fabric she needed, a purple notebook suddenly fell from the fabric and onto the floor.

She levitated the object to her, recognising it as the notebook she had given Twilight years ago; the notebook that contained the spell, and time and destination responsible for that fated trip to Manehattan. Twilight must have inadvertently forgotten the journal in the Boutique. She opened the journal and idly flipped through its pages, stopping on the one with the 9th of June as its date. She brushed her hoof against the message she had left there for Twilight on the margin, complete with three little hearts.

Half past eight to Manehattan.

What wouldn’t she give to go back in time herself and relive that trip one more time. How odd it was to suddenly be envious of her younger self, getting whisked away by a future-version of the love of her life. It seemed like their romance was rather novelistic, wasn’t it? Someone ought to write a story about their little time-breaking weekend. Perhaps she’d have written it herself had she been granted a little more time.

Her reveries of her life as an author were cut short by the chimes of the door. Odd… She had put up the ‘closed’ sign in the morning, hadn’t she? She looked at the notebook and realized Twilight had probably come back to get it. It seemed like she still hadn’t seen the last of Twilight Sparkle, thank Celestia.

“Twilight, you really should pay more attention to where you put your thi— What’s this?”

An envelope had been floated in front of her. She took it with her own magic and upon closer inspection, noticed what looked like Twilight’s hoofwriting on it, save for the fact that it seemed like a much more elegant version of it. What really caught her attention and made her heart skip a beat, however, was the inscription on the envelope.

Twilight Sparkle’s first and last life-report to Rarity

She suddenly felt short of breath as she read and re-read the inscription on the letter. She turned the envelope around and carefully opened it, taking out its contents. There was a letter inside, written in the more elegant hoofwriting, and her hooves trembled as she started to read.

Dearest Rarity,

While it hasn’t been an entire week since the last report, considering this is the first one I’ve written, I’m sad to declare that life is still as boring as ever without you. I did, however, do as you wanted and let other ponies into my life so maybe life isn’t that boring.

After that trip to Manehattan long ago, I often thought about visiting you one last time, but I knew that we had been very lucky that the first trip hadn’t ripped a hole in the fabric of the time-space continuum, and there was a very small chance we’d be able to get away with another consequence free trip… Until I realized there was just one day where we could get away with it, and it just so happened to be the one day I had always regretted not being able to spend with you. So, here I am.

Also, I was never able to perfect that aging-potion for turning ponies into teenagers, so I guess we’ll never see a teenaged punk Princess Celestia with a mohawk. I did a drawing of what I think she’d look like, though.

Yours,
Twilight Sparkle

Rarity folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, directing her attention to the stack of photographs that had come alongside the letter. At the top of the pile, the first photograph was actually a drawing made to look like a photograph, depicting a crudely drawn teenaged Celestia with a rather extravagant mohawk. Rarity wasn’t able to stop herself from giggling out loud.

“Enjoying my artistic masterpiece?” a voice asked, effectively halting any further giggling.

That was Twilight’s voice, alright, but it was different. It sounded older — much older. Rarity found herself unable to turn around to look at Twilight, paralyzed from fear of finding out just how older the alicorn was.

“How… How long has it been since Manehattan for you?” Rarity asked, staring intently at the drawing.

“How old am I, you mean? That’s what you really want to know, isn’t it?” Twilight responded, chuckling. Her raspier, more mature voice sent a chill down Rarity’s spine. “I’m old. Really old.”

“How… how old?”

“I’m nearing the ten thousandth year.”

Rarity almost lost her grip on the pictures. “Ten thousandth year…” she gasped softly. She repeated the dizzyingly high number several more times, almost as if in denial about it. Dear punk Celestia, help me.

After finally coming to terms with Twilight’s new age, or rather after telling herself she couldn’t just sit there and stare at the drawing with shock, Rarity slowly took off her glasses and, gathering every ounce of courage within her, turned around.

That did not look at all like the Twilight she had seen mere hours ago. This Twilight was quite taller; she wasn’t as tall as Celestia, but she wasn’t short, either. Her mane had also become gray with time, but still retained some shades of its former sapphire and violet streaks, with only her rose streaks still remaining almost intact.

Her face, thinner with age, bore almost no wrinkles and her coat still looked very healthy, even if its coloring had also slightly faded with age. She was still a stunning sight to behold. Some part of Rarity — the non-stunned part of her mind — was quite delighted to see that her relentless years of hassling Twilight about proper coat care had not been in vain.

“Well?” Twilight prompted after a minute of having been stared at by the unicorn. “I can’t look that bad.”

“N-no… You look… I mean… I just… You look great… Different… like… me,” she concluded, stumbling on her own words. Twilight looked her age. Maybe mentally she wasn’t, and technically physically she wasn’t either, but she looked Rarity’s age.

Twilight laughed, bowing her head meekly. “You look great so I’ll take that as a compliment?” She looked around the room. “This is sort of weird. I feel like I’ve jumped back several thousand years. Well, technically, I am several thousands years in the past.” She turned to Rarity, and coughed awkwardly upon being greeted by a still stunned unicorn. “So! Uhm… What’s new…?”

“Besides the fact that I’m dying today, and that I’m being visited by several thousand year old versions of Twilight?” Rarity asked. “Not much, frankly.”

This response drew a smile out of Twilight. “Normal day, then?”

Rarity returned the smile. “Normal day, indeed.” She put the photographs back into the envelope and glanced towards the door. “Would you care to join me for a cup of tea? I’m afraid I need something to soothe the shock out of me.”

“Ah, yes, tea would be nice, thank you.” She paused and added, “And, sorry for the shock?”

Rarity trotted past Twilight, the envelope floating behind her. “Don’t apologise, darling. After all,”— she glanced at the mare—“you’ve always been a stunning sight to behold,” she finished, looking away just in time to see Twilight’s cheeks turn bright red.

Ah, Rarity, you've still got it.

Hours later, Rarity’s kitchen table was littered with all kinds of pictures, depicting a vast amount of different types of ponies Twilight had befriended. Two purple notebooks rested next to the pictures, one of them belonging to the Twilight in Saddle Arabia and the other to the one sitting in the room.

Rarity floated up a picture of Twilight standing next to another mare. The purple-colored mare with silvery white hair was a fashion designer Twilight had met during her first thousand years, and had subsequently dated for a modest amount of time.

“Twilight, this is the third fashion designer you’ve dated, myself excluded,” Rarity pointed out, stirring her tea as she looked at the picture. “Interesting.” She floated the picture back on the table and fluttered her eyelashes at the alicorn sitting on the other side of the table. “I’m flattered I’ve left such a lasting effect on your dating choices.”

“It’s just coincidences,” Twilight replied, resting her chin on her hooves and playfully returning the eyelash flutter, flashing Rarity a grin.

Rarity laughed at this, taking the photo again. “Well, darling, you say that, but you know, if you reverse her color scheme, she does look an awfully lot like m—”

“Okay, okay! Moving on!” Twilight quickly blurted, floating the picture away and putting it back in the envelope, eliciting a delighted chuckle from Rarity. Twilight looked back at the pictures on the table and crossed her forelegs. “Who do you want to know about next?”

Rarity scanned the table through the lenses of her glasses, looking for the next piece of Twilight’s life to ask about. She eventually lifted up a picture where Twilight was standing next to three other ponies and a changeling, all five of them enjoying what seemed to be a very nice picnic. “Tell me about them.”

As Twilight began to talk about the ponies in the picture, Rarity’s gaze wandered towards the rest of the pictures and felt some strange heart warmth at noticing how happy Twilight looked in all of them. She wasn’t going to lie and say she didn’t feel the teensiest bit jealous of Twilight’s new friends, and of the ponies Twilight had subsequently dated, but she was also grateful to all of them for making Twilight happy.

It was a rather complicated emotion.

After Twilight had finished talking, Rarity contented herself with quietly looking through the pictures, only lifting her gaze when she realized Twilight had been staring at her for a few minutes now.

“Is something wrong, Twilight?”

Twilight, snapped out of her trance, shook her head. “No, no! Sorry for staring,” she apologised, once again crossing her forelegs. “It’s just that… I haven’t seen you for a really, really long time… or heard your voice, or your laugh or anything.” She blushed and, idly toying with one of the pictures, confessed, “I missed them… I missed you. A lot.”

Rarity, moved by Twilight’s confession, reached out and placed her hoof on top of Twilight’s crossed forelegs. “Why didn’t you come earlier in your timeline?” she asked, squeezing Twilight with her hoof. “What stopped you?”

Twilight looked at Rarity’s hoof and uncrossed one of her forelegs so she could place her own hoof on top of the unicorn’s. “I guess I wanted to wait until…” She drifted off and sighed. “I’m sick, Rarity.” Another pause, and then a correction. “I’m dying. Soon.”

The blood drained out of Rarity’s face. It was one thing to be confronted with her death, it was another more horrible thing entirely to be confronted with Twilight’s death — particularly when it had always felt to her like Twilight would live forever. “You… you’re dying?”

Twilight nodded, gaze still focused on their intertwined hooves. “Yeah. I’ve known for a while, though. I’m ready for it. I think I’ve been ready for a long time now,” she continued. “The Princesses are ready for it, I have all of my stuff in order, and Spike… Well, Spike isn’t ready, but he’ll cope. He has his wife and kids to help him with that.”

“Twilight…” Rarity whispered, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

Twilight smiled reassuringly at the unicorn. “It’s fine, Rarity. I’m ready for it, really. All I have to take care of are my goodbyes, like the one I’m having right now.”

Rarity looked down at the pictures on the table, comprehension dawning on her. “I see. You’re travelling back in time to say goodbye to them.”

“No,” Twilight interrupted instantly, shaking her head. “I’m only going back in time to say goodbye to you. Just you, Rarity.”

“Just me?” Rarity’s heart started beating at what was probably a very unhealthy rapid pace. “Why?”

“Because I never felt the same way for them as I did for you,” Twilight replied without missing a beat. She looked down at the pictures and took one in her hooves. “I’m not saying that everypony I met wasn’t important or special to me. They were, and when they passed away or our relationship ended, it was painful for me. It’s just that…” She looked back at Rarity. “You’re the only one that I was ever willing to risk everything just to see again — twice, in fact. I guess it’s why I didn’t date much and just focused on friends.”

“There’s something you said in Manehattan during that one weekend,” she continued, looking straight into Rarity’s eyes. “Maybe you don’t remember, but you said something that day, and it’s always stuck with me. You said that if books were to be written about our lives, I’d be the beginning, middle and ending of yours, while you’d ‘only be pages in the prologue of mine’.”

She lifted her hoof and pointed at all the pictures scattered on the table. “Yeah. Maybe you weren't the middle of my life story. Maybe you were just the beginning.” Twilight put her hoof back on top of Rarity’s and looked at the unicorn once more. “But I knew, after that trip, and even during the years after it, that there was only one place where I wanted my story to end: right where it started; here in Ponyville with you.” She paused and smiled at the unicorn. “You’re my ending, Rarity. The last chapter in the book of my life.”

Rarity wasn’t sure what to say. What could one say or do to such a thing except for try very hard not to cry? She looked at the notebook of present Twilight and took it in her hooves. “I wish… I wish we could go on that trip again…” She opened it up to where her message was and brushed her hoof against it. “Can I see the one from your notebook?” she asked, looking at Twilight. “I’d like to compare, out of curiosity.”

Twilight smiled. “You can’t.”

“I can’t? Why not?”

Twilight took her own notebook. “Because there’s nothing to compare your message to,” she elaborated. “I mean, you can go to the correct date, but you’d be comparing it to an empty margin.”

Rarity felt her heart skip a beat. “You… You mean there isn’t…”

"There isn't a single thing written by you on the 9th of June," Twilight confirmed. “Remember in the ice cream shop? How you asked me if you should tell past me about the speech? How I told you that you should take a leap of faith and follow your heart? I said that because I was doing the same with that trip.”

“You… You were?” Rarity asked, feeling herself choke up. “You chose to come with me?”

Twilight nodded, laughing. “I was more terrified of time paradoxes than I let on, Rares.”

“But then… then that means that Twilight won’t chose to come, will she?” Rarity asked. “She’ll come because the notebook says so.”

The two notebooks suddenly switched places. “Let’s give her the choice, then,” Twilight suggested. “I put a spell on my notebook to make it last longer, so I’ll take the notebook with your message and you keep the one without it.”

“B-But, Twilight!” Rarity protested, almost trying to reach out for the notebook with the message. “What if… What if she chooses not to come? What if she’s not like you? What about the time loop?”

Twilight laughed. “I’m not worried, Rarity.” She took her new notebook and opened it up to the page with the message. “It doesn’t matter whether your message is here or not, because there isn't a choice. As long as you always suggest we go to Manehattan, I will always choose to go.” She smiled at her. “You will always be my choice, Rarity.”

Rarity looked at Twilight in silence for a minute or so. “Twilight Sparkle,” she whispered, finally, taking off her glasses and wiping her eyes with her hoof, “didn’t anypony ever tell you it’s not nice to make old ponies cry?”

Twilight laughed softly, her own eyes sparkling with tears. “Old? You’re not old. I’m the old one here.” She grinned playfully. “But hey, this is your proof of what past me said a few hours ago.”

Rarity looked at her, questioningly. “What do you mean? Proof of what?”

Twilight nodded with excitement, before smirking and saying, “Well, yeah! Proof that I love you more, of course!” she exclaimed, witnessing Rarity collapse into a fit of giggles.

“That’s hardly fair!” Rarity replied between chuckles. “I’d do the same thing if I had your lifespan.”

Twilight waved her free hoof in a dismissive motion. “Okay, okay, let’s just agree we’re tied on that matter.”

A while later, after they had cleared away the table and Twilight had put away the photographs, they headed off to Rarity’s main workroom.

Sitting on Rarity’s beloved fainting couch, Twilight watched as the unicorn finished her final dress, and talked to her all the meanwhile, continuing to fill up Rarity on every detail she had missed. Once the dress was finished, Rarity levitated it in the air, displaying it for Twilight to admire. Rarity would never live to learn what would happen to her design, but Twilight would. Or did, actually.

“It’s for you. I hope you’ll wear it.” She put down the dress and looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s eight o’clock. You must be in Saddle Arabia already.” She felt another coughing fit coming on but managed to keep it under control, not wanting to worry Twilight too much.

Her chest hurt, and she wondered how long she had left. Perhaps a few hours, but maybe just a few minutes. Twilight looked at her in silence, a small worried smile on her face. Rarity trotted over and settled down next to her, appreciating how Twilight almost immediately wrapped a wing around her and pressed her forehead against the side of her head.

“I love you,” she whispered, tightening the hug. “You have no idea how much I missed you."

Rarity smiled, closing her eyes and sighing. “Twilight?” she asked all of a sudden. “For how long will you stay?”

She has asked this same question once before, a very long time ago, on the day after a quite life-changing trip. However, unlike that occasion, Twilight was finally able to answer what she really wanted to answer and what Rarity really wanted for her to answer.

“Forever.”

The residents of Ponyville mourned Rarity, their fashion designer and infamous element of generosity, in different ways, each trying to pay respects to the heroine. Some of them placed beautiful flowers and candles all around Carousel Boutique, hoping to bring beauty to it in the same way Rarity had brought beauty to the town’s citizens. Others shared stories with young foals about the many adventures of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, hoping to help Princess Twilight Sparkle keep their memory alive.

Those that had the privilege of calling themselves Rarity’s friend mourned her each in their own way. A select number of them, however, put their own personal grief aside and choose to honor her by helping the pony Rarity had most loved in life.

Princess Celestia, who had been informed of the death very early Saturday morning, mourned the unicorn by discreetly pulling strings so Twilight wouldn’t be needed for the rest of the diplomatic visit. Centuries and centuries of training had made the elder princess quite adept at masking her emotions, but when she informed Twilight that she would not be needed for the rest of the visit and would return to Ponyville, her perfect mask cracked. It cracked at the sight of the comprehension, denial and utter devastation that flashed across Twilight’s eyes.

Spike, the young dragon who had loved the unicorn more dearly than many, mourned her by being strong in the wake of her death — just as she would have wanted him to be. During the train ride back home, silent tears streamed down his cheeks as he held Twilight’s hoof. Her silence and absence of tears were just side-effects of the state of total and complete shock she had been plunged into.

Stepping down onto Ponyville’s train station, Twilight and Spike were greeted by an elderly unicorn. The famous singer had canceled her appearance at a musical theatre in Manehattan in order to greet them at their arrival. Sweetie Belle, who had adored her elder sister, couldn’t help but cry in Twilight’s forelegs, understanding that the alicorn’s silence was her way of listening and comforting — not a lack of sympathy.

Sweetie Belle and Spike walked all the way from the train station with Twilight, neither one questioning or stopping Twilight when she silently headed straight for Carousel Boutique instead of following them to the funeral home. After all, it was her turn to mourn the unicorn, wasn’t it?

When she reached Carousel Boutique, Twilight stood in front of the door for a moment, frowning at the ‘closed’ sign hanging from the doorknob. She turned the sign around so it was on the ‘open’ side since, after all, Rarity never closed on Saturdays, only Sundays. Once the grave mistake had been corrected, she opened the door and stepped inside the building she called home, closing the door behind her and speaking for the very first time that day.

“Rarity! I’m home!” she called, hanging her saddlebag on a nearby bag rack, her entire psyche drowning in an ocean of pure and utter denial. “T-they let me come home early! Isn’t that great?”

Denial after there was no reply to her announcement. No ‘welcome back, darling’ or ‘Hello, Twilight’ or sight of Rarity trotting into the foyer to see her. Denial as she told herself Rarity wasn’t answering because she was too busy with something to have heard her.

“Rarity? Rarity, come on! It’s rude not to answer when somepony calls, y’know?” Tears started streaming down her eyes. “Rares?” Twilight made her way inside the house and entered the main workroom, finding it empty. Empty of the constant sound of the sewing machine, empty of the sound of music Rarity hummed as she worked, and empty of Rarity.

She was upstairs sleeping, wasn’t she? Overslept again. Twilight trotted over to the sewing machine and noticed there was a paper with her name on it resting on the finished dress. “Rarity, this is beautiful!” she called out, levitating the dress and admiring it, surely crying because of the present, and not something else.

She couldn’t wait to put it on and model it to Rarity. She’d probably trip on it like always, but hopefully she wouldn’t rip it this time. Oh Celestia, it still smelled like her. Twilight pressed the fabric against her face, taking in the scent of perfume and only putting it back on the table for fear of her tears staining it.

Taking one last look around the workroom, she left. “Are you in your room?” she called, trotting up the stairs and wiping her tears away. “H-huh, that’s weird, why am I crying?” Everything was fine, so there should be no reason for her to cry. No reason to cry when Rarity had promised she’d still be there. “Hey, I was thinking we could go out for d-dinner later! Go to that place you like! Rari—” She entered the main bedroom, finding it completely devoid of Rarity. “—ty… R-Rarity?”

She stood at the door, staring inside the bedroom, the pain in her chest increasing with every passing second. Where was she? It wasn’t like Rarity to be gone, especially with her condition. She needed to stay home and rest so nothing would happen to her. Twilight walked inside the room and towards the empty, unmade bed. A single notebook lay open on the bed, and Twilight gingerly took it in her hooves. It had been left open at a page explaining a modification for one of the time-traveling spells back in the Canterlot Archives.

That was it. It was a joke, wasn’t it? Rarity was playing a prank on her to see if Twilight would really go back in time. That had to be it, right?

Several tears fell on the pages of the book and fell over the words, making Twilight close the notebook and put it back on the bed. Looking around, she noticed a pair of familiar red glasses on the nightstand and gently took them before sitting down next to the bed.

Without warning, she buried her face in between her forehooves, the frame of the glasses pressing against her face. “Rarity, please, s-stop it,” she weakly called, eyes stinging and breathing unsteady. “It’s not… It’s not funny. Come out and stop it.” Tears flowed freely from her eyes and down her her cheeks, landing on the floor. “Celestia… I can’t… N-Not again… Not her… Rarity…”

Please.

She couldn’t be gone. She was fine, fine, fine, please Celestia, she was fine. She’d be back any moment now, mortified at seeing Twilight like this. Rarity couldn’t be gone when Twilight could still hear her laugh, see her face, smell her perfume. Please…

Rarity couldn’t have gone because it meant she had gone all alone, alone, alone, and Twilight had swore to her she’d be there when it happened and wouldn’t let her leave unless it was by falling asleep in her forelegs and with a goodbye kiss.

Rarity, p-please, I can’t… not you… not you too…

“Twilight, darling…”

Rarity…

“T-Twilight?”

She looked up and through teary eyes saw Spike standing at the entrance of the room, his reddened eyes welling up with tears.

“She promised,” Twilight said, standing up and letting the glasses fall to the floor. Her puffy eyes stared back at him, beseeching him for an explanation. “She promised, Spike. Sh-She promised me, she gave me her… she… She promised me!” Twilight slammed her hoof against the bed. “Rarity, you promised me! YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULDN’T DIE! YOU SWORE!” she wailed, collapsing into sobs as Spike quickly went over and ushered her into a hug.

Sitting in the middle of Everfree, the older Twilight closed her eyes and breathed in the forest air, feeling sympathy for the anguish her younger version was going through. She wished she could do something to ease her younger self’s pain, but found comfort in the fact that she had done the best thing she could do: leave a small notebook on the bed. Of course, her younger self would never even dare go back in time so soon after Rarity’s death, but it would be enough to plant the idea inside her head until such time she would decide to use it.

The elder Twilight took out the other notebook and opened it up to the page with the spell. It was funny how her story was about to end while the story of the Twilight inside Carousel Boutique had barely even started.

Glancing one last time towards Ponyville, and thanking Celestia that Spike and Sweetie were there to comfort her younger self, she decided it was time to go back to her own time and get her last affairs in order.

After all, though she didn’t know where ponies went after they died, she at least knew that a certain fashionista — and four other special ponies, no doubt — had been waiting there a long time for her, and Rarity was probably extremely impatient to get the eternity together that she had been promised the day she died.

Hold on, Rarity. I'll be there soon.

Author's Notes:

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity"
~ Henry David Thoreau