#raritwiweek

Rarity stirred beside her, and Twilight mentally kicked herself for disturbing her serene form.

"Are you alright, darling?" Rarity mumbled beneath her sleep mask.

Twilight nodded, shutting her eyes and stretching her forelegs above her head. Bad crick in the joints. "I'm just thinking about some things."

"Lives you could have led, dear?" Rarity simpered without rolling over.

Twilight glanced out the window. Still late at night, but for whatever reason, sleep eluded her. "Has anyone told you you can be a bit melodramatic, Rarity?"

"Once or twice. I try not to listen to them."

Twilight looked over her marefriend's sleeping form, sighing deeply. It was a beautiful sight, but something out it sparked a deep and troubling melancholy within her.

"I'm just… So happy I have you, Rarity. I'm so lucky to be here, with you, in this moment. I wouldn't trade it away for anything."

"Some people would sell their left hooves to hear that from a girl they love."

"I wish I had told you that sooner. It burns me up, to think of all the years I wasted. All the time I spent just watching you, not saying anything. Not telling you how I felt. I wish I had been smarter." Twilight admitted.

Rarity pulled up her mask, sitting up in bed and pressing the end of her muzzle to Twilight's.

"Better late than never dear."

"I could have been happy. Like I am now. If I had just trusted myself. If I had just trusted you."

Rarity exhaled, and the hot air hit the sensitive hairs on Twilight's muzzle.

"If you could have told me something five years ago, anything at all, knowing what you know now, what would you have told me?"

"You already know the answer to that."

"I'd like to hear it anyway."

Twilight broke away, turning and shutting her eyes.

"I'd tell you that I love you, Rarity. I just… love you."

In the dim light, Rarity's smile remained luminous.

"And you always have. I know, dear. Now get some sleep."

The two settled back under the covers, holding each other close.

When Rarity had been alive, there was always something keeping her from saying it out loud. Maybe both of them had been waiting for the other to confess. Maybe the idea that Twilight would have to go on without her kept Rarity from confessing. Maybe she was too generous for her own good.

What was keeping her now, though?

Keeping her nervous, like a filly with a schoolgirl crush. 

Rarity had been so important to her. Too important to confess to. Because Rarity had one life, and Twilight had found herself blessed with many lifespans. It felt selfish, to ask Rarity to spend her one life, to waste it on her. Somepony who couldn’t give her everything she wanted in life.

Every time she went to confess there was another excuse. Another stallion Rarity was obsessing over, or dating, or a mare that Rarity was absolutely head over heels for. She couldn’t say something that would change things between them. 

She couldn’t ruin their friendship.

When Rarity had married that stallion that Twilight could hardly remember the name of, she’d had 3 foals. And she seemed so happy. Too happy. Twilight wouldn’t have ruined it all for her. Twilight was perfectly content with the discontent that came with being Auntie Twi. 

Even in the later years of Rarity’s life, when her husband had died, something kept her from saying it. First it was that Rarity was mourning. And then it was that Rarity was sick.

And now? What was keeping her now?

Rarity was already dead.

“I love you Rarity.” She said aloud, finally. But the weight on her chest did not lessen, so she said it again and again. Long into the night.