???. The Last Train Home

In the book of Rarity’s life, Twilight Sparkle was its beginning, is its middle, and will be its end.

Rarity knew this for a fact, and she would not have it any other way.
 
 
She always did love Manehattan.

She loved the city lights, the trends, and the ponies who seemed to live on a different plane of time, if that made sense. It was the city where time went as fast or slow as one’s life. It had been before she was and would continue to be after she was gone.

Like Twilight.

And still, she would not have it any other way.

Her eyes traveled the city’s station, the autumn wind keeping her company as she waited for the train to arrive and take them home. It was late—nearly an hour so—but neither of them felt very much bothered by the fact. There was no need and desire to rush back after having spent such an intimate weekend together.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, in and out for about ten times, until a wonderful scent filled the air and a smile swept across her lips.

“Goodness, what is that wonderful aroma?” Rarity asked aloud, taking another delectable whiff before opening her eyes and finding the most lovely Princess standing before her, a cup of tea now floating by her side. “My, my, my, Princess Twilight Sparkle! You are doing a wonderful job at enticing me.” She paused. “And I suppose the tea smells nice, too.”

“Thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes in that playful fashion she did when Rarity had secretly pleased her.

Rarity took the tea in her magic, taking a sip as she made sure not only to devour Twilight with her eyes, but that Twilight knew she was doing so. She always did love Twilight as a unicorn, but she could not say that her wings and new height hadn’t been something Rarity did not immensely enjoy.

“What?” Twilight asked with a sheepish laugh after Rarity had spent too long quietly admiring her.

“I’m looking at you,” she replied.

“Well, I know that, silly,” Twilight said, taking a sip of her own tea. “Why are you looking at me?”

And she called Rarity silly! She thought it would be obvious.

“Because I love you,” she replied, and what a grin she had to bite down at how torn Twilight looked between being embarrassed and delighted.

Long ago, for her and Rarity, back when they were still only discovering their relationship, to utter those three words to the bookish pony was to turn Twilight into quite the flustered mess of a dear. When they were young, and silly, and as in love as they always would be.

That time, however, Twilight simply smiled and leaned in, regaling Rarity with her lips.

“I love you,” she whispered when she pulled back, and when she nuzzled Rarity afterwards, the unicorn knew she meant it.

It pained her when Twilight moved away, and she didn’t say it so much as she whined it. She smiled victoriously when Twilight laughed and sat beside her, enveloping Rarity in her wing and resting her chin atop her beloved’s head. They fell silent for a while, enjoying each other’s presence, and again Rarity told Twilight that she loved her.

She would love her until her dying day.

She knew this for a fact, as well, and just as twice before, she would not have it any other way.

She felt it, suddenly, Twilight tightening her wing’s grip around her.

“Twilight?”

There was a moment of silence, eternal until it was broken.

“I…” A long breath, and she confessed, “I don’t want to go.”

Rarity didn’t know what to say, even as her heart seemed to shrink in her chest. It was hard, wasn’t it? Difficult when a wonderful trip came to an end, where a moment of fantasy was broken, and one was forced to return to reality.

“I know, my darling,” she said, “but poor Spike is waiting, isn’t he? You have to go back to him, and I have to go back to a lifetime of being terrified of you going to Saddle Arabia.”

“Rarity…” Twilight said, her voice grave. “I should have never told you that.”

“What? That the stallions there are absolute dreamboats?” she asked playfully, and laughed when Twilight groaned. “Darliiiiiing, I’m only teasing, my love. I just can’t stand seeing you sad.” She finally relented and confessed, “I don’t want to go back, either, but… the show must go on, as it were. Besides…”

She took a sip of her tea.

“…We could always just travel back in time and relive the trip, you know?” she suggested, and finally drew out a genuine laugh from her princess.

“Right,” she said. “What a great idea.”

Rarity took another sip of her tea and allowed herself to slip back into nostalgia. How could she not, with her and Twilight waiting for a train, cuddled together and drinking tea.
 
 

The train finally arrived.

They stared at it for a long time, embraced in their moment and each other.

“Here it is,” Rarity said. “The last train home.”

Twilight laughed. “Oh my gosh, you’re so dramatic.”

Rarity gasped. “Am I?! Darling, stop the presses!”

It was Twilight who finally tore herself away, making a show out of shaking her head. Rarity watched her step into the train, and a pain rippled through her heart.

It always was terribly sad, wasn’t it, when things came to an end.

She took a final breath and stepped into the train, finding that Twilight had been waiting for her inside. Ponies moved to the side as a Princess of Equestria stepped by, Rarity quietly following behind until they reached a single private compartment.

Rarity stepped in first, taking the seat by the window, and she couldn’t help but feel it was all too familiar. Twilight stepped in moments later, closing the door behind her and seating herself next to the unicorn, having no shame in again nuzzling and kissing her.

Once they were settled, Rarity looked out through the window, catching sight of the great towering city that was dwarfed when compared to the greatness of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Rarity?”

“My darling?”

“Remember our trips to Canterlot? Right after our first Grand Galloping Gala for the job with Princess Celestia?”

Rarity tore her gaze from the window. “Of course,” she said, finding Twilight still looking out into the city. “How can I not? I remember it as though it were yesterday.”

Twilight hummed, still looking out. “You know, you’ve never told me your side of it.”

“I haven’t?” she asked. “I thought I did… Well! I don’t see why I can’t tell you now. It’s a long ride back home, after all.”

Twilight finally looked at Rarity, a smirk on her lips. “The last train home and all.”

“Precisely! And it is a thrilling tale! Of two lovers having to confront the idea of being separated an entire year.”

Twilight laughed softly. “One year feels like so little now. One year apart isn’t any time at all compared to..:”

“Twilight, do you want to tell the story or should I?”

She grinned. “Sorry.”

In reply, Rarity cleared her throat and took a deep breath. The story she would tell was not any simple story. It was the most treasured one she had, and to do it a disservice would be a crime befitting a punishment worse than death itself.

“You were an enigma, Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “The very first time I saw you, I thought I knew exactly who you were.”

We feel the end is drawing near,
would time be so kind to slow?
You are everything to me, my dear,
you are all I really know.

But as we sit and wait and fear
and watch the hours go—

Everything that happened here
happened long ago.

~ Lang Leav