Unless you have read "Quantum Gallop" and "Foreign Affairs", this episode won't make much sense. The first section is a near-verbatim excerpt from the final chapter of Quantum Gallop but is needed to set up the rest of this vignette.

Prince Destined sat down on the large cushion behind the desk in his office at House Path in Griffonia. He sighed in deep satisfaction. Sending Matriarch Cinder back in time 2200 years with Blue Streak as she had all but demanded had been a necessary risk that he had known beforehand would need to be taken. He had been able to converge the timelines so that History had remained virtually unchanged despite the fact that it now showed Blue had lived to raise his children with Cinder. There were some interesting time ripples to investigate later, but, with the last of the visitors from the past dealt with, he could relax for the first time in ages.

His attention was suddenly caught by something happening above him near the ceiling. A spell was unravelling! He readied his power to deal with whatever it was, but there was only a tiny pop, an envelope fluttered down to land on his desk. Sensing no further magic active upon it, he picked it up telekinetically and looked at the writing upon it. ‘DESTINED PATH’ was all it said. Apparently a letter for him, but from whom? Destined opened the envelope and removed the letter from inside. He gasped as he recognized the hoofwriting, and he started reading it eagerly.

My beloved Destined Path,

Your mother helped me ‘post’ this to you. At the time that I seal the envelope, we have just been married and are celebrating at the reception. Do you know what it was like for me to make that vow to be your husband, and know with utter certainty that our union will be strong and last a lifetime? You met your younger self too, but I could see and feel that even thousands of years had not dimmed your love for me. I found that absolutely overwhelming – to be loved so completely and unconditionally that an immortal alicorn would love a mortal pony like me that much and for so long. I vowed that I would always be worthy of that love, and I hope I was.

However, I am gone now. I may live in your heart still, but you cannot go through your life pining for me. I learned that you have not taken a lover since, and that saddens me. Your vows to me have been fulfilled, and it is time for you to move on. Please, my beloved, find yourself another person to love as much as you did me, be they a pony, griffon, changeling, or one of those strange beings that we saw there. Find a stallion, or maybe even a mare this time, and show them how much love you have to give. That is my final request of you, my beloved Des – live every moment of your immortal life in the joy of loving and being loved by someone who will share that life with you.

Yours for eternity,

Silk Touch Path

A tear dripped onto the paper, followed quickly by a couple more. A concerned male voice from the doorway of the office was not enough to take his eyes away from the beautiful words though.

“Are you alright, Son?”

Destined smiled happily through his tears. “It’s okay, Dad – everything is perfect.”

Long Path raised a curious eyebrow at that but decided that his son would tell him in due time. A couple of millennia had brought with them a large reserve of patience. “Okay, I’ll see you at dinner then.”

The alicorn gave an absent-minded nod while mulling over his husband’s last wishes. It was true that finding another mate had not entered his desires in all these years but that did not mean that he had stopped socializing. When your mother was the Princess of Friendship, you didn’t get that option. Not that he wanted to anyway, but his friends and family had always been enough to fill the void that Silk Touch had left when he had passed on. Their sons and daughter had been there to support him through the abject loss that he had felt. His parents had helped him resist the temptation to go back in time and relive some of their lives together. But while his love had remained steadfast, the pain had faded enough that he was able to cope with his mate’s visit from the past without it crippling him with sadness. And it was because of that, Destined Path knew Silk Touch was right – it was time for the Alicorn of Time to find love again.

And perhaps he knew where to start. It was not as if he did not have friends and colleagues who were close to him already. However, Silk may have been prescient in his suggestion of “one of those strange beings” and the ambiguity of selecting a sex. He could not have known about the chakats who had been among the first species who had visited Equus since the Cosmic Lotus had found its way through the portal and into the greater galaxy filled with many alien civilizations. However, they and their hybrid offspring were among the most genial and understanding of all the new races due to their empathic abilities, and Destined found them a joy to work with, hence why so many were employed here at the original home of House Path. The alicorn had in mind one in particular – a descendant of the first child born of a pony mother and a chakat sire. He had been present just after the pair had met a few days previously but his sensitivity to the timelines had, even then, been enough to tell him they would be playing a larger role in the fate of several worlds.

Right now, though, that was in the past. Their distant descendants were still tied to House Path, and one in particular had not been shy about flirting with Destined even if he had never had been inclined to rise to the bait. He figured that maybe this was the time to find out if he could discover that spark once again. His magic activated his comm.

“Snow Blossom, would you come to my office, please.”

A couple of minutes later, a taur turned up at his office. The alicorn rarely shut the door so his visitor announced hirself verbally.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

The alicorn looked up to see a ponykat who resembled hir distant ancestor physically, but hir upper feline half was spotted with blue-grey rosettes rather than tiger-striped, and hir lower pony half was a soft blue. Like all hir hybrid species before hir, shi possessed a short unicorn horn. In fact, irrespective of the species that mated with them, every descendant of Tiger Lily was invariably a ponykat like hir, locked into that new race by a combination of the genetic engineering that had produced the chakat species, changeling adaptability, and the enormous magic surge that had enabled the first of their kind to be conceived. They only differed in color, pattern, and personality. The latter was what separated this ponykat from hir other kin. While remaining respectful of his status, shi nonetheless never let that subdue hir perky attitude around him. It also helped that while dual-sexed like all chakat descendants, shi was very masculine just like hir many-times-great grandsire, Tigerbright.

“Yes, Snow – I was wondering if you would like to go out for dinner with me tonight?”

The ponykat stared at him for a long moment before demanding, “Who are you and what have you done with Destined Path?”

The alicorn gave a nervous chuckle. “I know that this comes out of the blue, but… well… I got a letter today from my husband.”

Snow Blossom’s eyes widened and shi stepped up to Destined’s desk. “But he passed away a couple of millennia ago. Or are we talking about his past self’s recent visit?”

“Special delivery courtesy of my mother,” the stallion replied, holding up the missive. “Anyway, he gave me what I needed to finally let him go and… and I’m terribly out of practice with this. Anyway, you were the first person that I thought about, so, how about that date?”

“After bugging you so long about this, I’d be nuts to say no. But are you sure? This is a very sudden turnaround.”

“Silk Touch was the first and only pony I ever had a relationship with; I literally know next to nothing about starting another centuries later. I’m unsure about every detail except one – I like you as a friend. If there’s anything more to be found beyond that, I’d like the chance to discover it.”

The ponykat grinned. “My Prince, I’m going to do my best to make you wish you got that letter months ago!”

Destined smiled. It looked like he wasn’t going to be joining his father at the dinner table tonight after all.