While Rarity had said she’d made up a place for me at the boutique, she’d failed to specify that it was her own bed.

“There’s a welcome surprise.”

I glanced at Rarity as she set my bag down in the corner.

“What you said at the station...does nopony know that you and I are...”

Rarity blushed.

“Well...no. In fact, none of the others even know we’re dating. Except for Twilight of course.”

“Oh? Am I a dirty little secret or something?”

“Of course not darling! It just hasn’t come up. Relationships aren’t exactly in our normal conversation.”

I sat on the bed.

“I thought that was something all mares talked about.”

“Normally I’d agree, but consider our little circle. We’re constantly dealing with threats. Or going on adventures. And we all have jobs. Not really any time for other things.”

I chuckled.

“Glad I could squeeze myself in.”

She smiled and sat next to me.

“I hope I’m able to help you while you’re here. I can’t even imagine what you must be dealing with right now.”

“Thanks Rare. I just need time to...decompress. It’s been a while since I could really relax.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

I leaned over and kissed her. She flinched in surprise, but soon melted into me. When I pulled away, I was smiling.

“That’s a good start.”

She smiled back and stood up.

“I have some work I need to finish up. Would you like to sit with me?”

“Sure. I’ll be down in a minute.”

Rarity walked out of the room as I went to my bag. I opened it up and grabbed one of my books. As it slid out of the bag, I heard the bottle tip over. I looked inside to make sure it hadn’t spilled. All good.

I stared at the bottle for a second, thinking about what Discord had said. Would Rarity want a life like that? Outlive your friends and family? Stay the same for hundreds of years?

I shook my head. This was the opposite of decompressing. I closed the bag and left the room.

—————————

After a few days, I got together with the rest of the girls. They were all excited to see me. We met at the castle for lunch and caught up. Pinkie was kind enough to bring me up to speed.

“-and so now that Starlight is Twilight’s student she’s learning about friendship and Twilight told her to make a new friend who turned out to be Trixie and we were all like- GASP! -but it turned out alright and then Rainbow Dash is also an official Wonderbolt now which is amazing but her first day was kind of rough but it got better and then we also helped Rarity open up her new shop in Manehattan which was waaaay crazy-“

I checked out at that point and leaned over to Rarity, whispering.

“Why didn’t you tell me you finally got the Manehattan shop? I would love to see it sometime.”

She smiled and nodded, motioning back to Pinkie. I refocused my attention on the hyper pony.

“-and Rainbow Dash got back from her Daring Do convention yesterday and that brings us to today!”

She took a huge breath and collapsed. The girls all giggled at their pink friend. Applejack sat forward, turning to me.

“So how long have you two been a thing?”

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Rarity was frozen in place. And it seemed everypony except Twilight was shocked. I slowly turned to Applejack.

“How...”

Applejack motioned to my hoof. I looked down and realized I was holding Rarity’s hoof. It was lower than the table, out of view for the others, but Applejack was on Rarity’s other side. So she’d had a front row seat to our secret bit of affection. And she’d just called us out.

All of a sudden, Rarity began to giggle. We all stared at her. As she settled down, she lifted our joined hooves onto the table.

“I guess the cat’s out of the bag.”

Pinkie started cheering while the rest began to ask questions. Rarity took the lead and answered most of them. And then Rainbow had to ask-

“So...how serious are you guys?”

I was confused by the question, but Rarity seemed to understand. She scoffed at the pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash! That’s impolite. The stage of our relationship is nopony’s concern.”

Rainbow leaned over to Fluttershy and whispered something. Fluttershy immediately turned red. That made Rarity fume. I took over at that point.

“Is anypony interested in hearing about my work in Canterlot? I’d looove to bounce some of our new policies off of you girls.”

Rainbow Dash immediately took off.

“Sorry! Just remembered I have a flight practice!”

Applejack stood up and winked, catching the hint.

“Ah shucks. I have chores to do.”

She walked away after Rainbow.

Fluttershy stood up.

“I actually need to go check on some of the animals. Otherwise I would Shade. It sounds...interesting?”

I had to keep myself from laughing. Once Fluttershy disappeared, I couldn’t hold it anymore.

“Do I know how to clear a room?”

Rarity smiled at me.

“Remind me to thank you later for ending that conversation.”

Twilight stood up and stretched her legs.

“It’s great having you around again Shade. Maybe you can come over again soon. I could use your talent for a few things on my plate.”

I nodded to the Princess.

“Call me anytime.”

I stood up with Rarity and we turned to leave.

“Excuse me!”

All three of us turned around. Pinkie was still in her chair.

“These new policies don’t affect anything dessert-related, do they?”

———————————

I laid in bed next to Rarity. Moonlight came in through the window, bathing the room in its soft light. It was peaceful. I felt my eyes growing heavier as sleep overtook me finally.

And then I was in a familiar meadow.

I looked around at the night sky. There were twinkling stars covering at least a third of the sky. As I watched them though, some of them became solid light. The dazzling effect on the sky was becoming stationary. And that’s when I realized what was happening.

Luna was checking on dreams.

I sat and watched the sky as it became more still. As the last star stopped twinkling, a new light appeared. And it was coming closer. I stood up and watched as the light touched down in the meadow and revealed Luna. She spotted me right away.

“Shade! I’m glad you made it!”

“As if I had a choice in the matter.”

She chuckled.

“Fair point. I just wanted to check on you. It’s been a while since we really talked.”

She sat down next to me as I felt my smile fade.

“Why is it so hard?”

“What do you mean?”

“Getting used to...life. I mean think about it Luna. I wasn’t too different from you and Celestia in terms of aging. All of a sudden I’m...mortal.”

“I wish I could empathize. I was young when I became an alicorn. I never really came to terms with death until I was much older.”

“How old?”

She looked up at the sky, eyes darting between stars.

“Around the time I was banished.”

I was speechless. She’d never talked much about her time as Nightmare Moon. I stayed silent as she began.

“I felt like I was being stripped away from existence. The Elements may be used for good, but they don’t work gently. They changed me into pure energy before blasting me into the Moon. I can imagine it might be slightly similar to when Discord changed your biology so suddenly.”

I shuddered at the memory. I’d felt like I was going to die in seconds. To be turned into magic energy though? That was beyond me. Luna continued.

“Even though my thoughts were consumed with revenge, there were times where I thought I’d never come back. And part of me was convinced that I would die up there. It was one of the only times that Nightmare Moon was truly scared.”

She turned her gaze back to me.

“When I came back, I learned the value of living. I figured out that death will come no matter what. So you need to learn to live. And you must treasure it, no matter how many years you have left. Be it one or one thousand.”

I nodded slowly.

“I’m trying.”

“You’re going to have some bad days. You’ll probably even have bad months or years even. But know that you have ponies around you that love you. Me, Rarity, Twilight, Celestia, and so many more. You have value in this new life of yours. Don’t count yourself out.”

“Short version: hang in there?”

She looked annoyed.

“A bit oversimplified, but yes.”

I felt a smile return to my face.

“You and Celestia really love me?”

Luna smiled.

“Of course we do. You’re like the little brother we always wanted.”

“That would explain so much in recent months.”

The sky began to grow lighter in one corner. Luna stood up.

“Sunrise is coming soon. I’d better finish up.”

I stood and stretched.

“Thank you Luna. For everything.”

The Princess smiled as she took off into the sky.

“Life is hard Shade. But do yourself a favor. Find the easy things first and work your way up. Maybe it won’t look so bad then.”

She disappeared in another ray of light and the meadow faded around me.

I opened my eyes and found the Sun starting to peek over the horizon. I turned over in bed, scooting closer to Rarity. She sighed in her sleep as my hoof curled around her body. I smiled and felt myself drifting off again. This time, no dreams.

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