A True Friend
At a day’s end, the streets seemed calm and slow. Every day when Pinkie Pie walked her usual route home, she always described her surroundings with a mood. Like it was a living being. Her most used word for this little game was “tired”
Only a few ponies were walking around, barely talking to one another. It was afternoon after all, so most of the ponies were at home. Yet, for some reason a few decided to stay out late. And as often she walked the very same route she is walking now, she has gotten to know some of the ponies she usually sees at this time. She didn’t know them through information received by talking to them. She knew them by simply looking at them. She gave each pony their own story, without ever hearing their voice or seeing them smile. Her favorite made up story was with this blue stallion. He looked quite old, so he must be married according to Pinkie. He even has kids she thought to herself. The reason he was out this late was because he was working hard as a construction worker, so he could buy toys to his young children. 2 colts and a filly. Such images kept popping up inside her head when walking by him. She knew that he most likely wasn’t even close to that image she created through time. But it was a nice image… it was something that made her smile. Even if she got the chance to talk to him, she wouldn’t want to know his true story.
The reason for that was, that every single pony she made a story up for, would always revolve about something positive. That mare over there is helping the needy children, and that young colt over there is out picking up the mail his dad forgot this morning. She knew that no pony was perfect, and if she even talked with them for one second, her whole image would shatter. At first she felt silly for thinking about all that, but her friend has assured her that it wasn’t that absurd, and actually was a sign of creativity. Her friend was always the best to cheer her up, which is why she was always looking forward to get home. She knew that up inside her room, sitting in her bed, the company of the very same friend was waiting for her. She was dying to share what she had been through today.
It wasn’t long before she saw the Sugar cube corner in front of her. Without even thinking about it, a smile appeared across her mouth. She pushed herself slightly forward and made it to the front door, before silently opening the door. Though it was still early afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were always sleeping at this time, since they had to get up early for work. If she was lucky, she could just get a peek at the babies sleeping in the living room. Unfortunately the babies no longer needed their night light, so the room was often pitch dark. Like today. She didn’t really care though, she just wanted to get upstairs and talk with her friend. Just before she took the first step on the stairs leading to her room, she grabbed 2 cupcakes from the counter. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were so friendly, they often left 2 cupcakes for Pinkie and her friend for when she came home.
“Look what I brought” Pinkie hummed while opening her door to her room.
And just as expected, her friend was sitting patiently on her bed. They smiled to each other as Pinkie sat down next to her.
“Here you are” she said as she handed the cupcake to her.
“It even has frosting!” she grinned.
They both ate the cupcake with one mouthful. They always did that, since when they were younger they often competed on who could eat their food in the least amount of mouthfuls. But as they grew older the game became easier, and they both got used to eating cupcakes all at once. It reminds them of when they were younger, so they kept the tradition going. Pinkie came up with the nickname “Diane” for her friend, since she always told Pinkie she loved her full name name. Pinkie began laughing softly after swallowing her cupcake.
“You won’t believe the day I had” she looked at Diane.
“I was out gathering honey for the new recipe Mrs. Cake is working on, and as always, I was being super-duper careful when grabbing the honey from the beehive, but while I was scooping it into the jar a bee flew by and scared me, so I feel down on my flank which startled the bees”
Pinkie fell back on her bed “So I had the joy of running away from bees for over 10 minutes” Pinkie smiled “And they ask me how I keep in shape, working in a bakery”
She couldn’t help but laughing. Diane looked back at her with a smile.
“Reminds me when you were a filly and you came running back home to your parents crying, telling them “The mean bees stung me! They stung me at least 100 times” you cried. But when they checked, you only had one little sting on your neck”
Diane fell back on the bed, just like Pinkie, and began laughing.
“Hey! I was just a filly. And it scared me so badly I was afraid to eat honey for a whole year” Pinkie closed her eyes smiling.
“So your parents had to begin buying jam for breakfast instead of honey” Diane replied.
“Yeah” Pinkie sat back up.
“They looked at me every morning, when my head was covered in jam…. They smiled and said “If the mean bees could just look at you now””
Pinkie sighed. “They were so great…”
Diane lifted her body up as well, sitting next to Pinkie she took her arm around her.
“I really miss them” Pinkie continued.
“I know” Diane said with a soft voice while gently moving her arm up and down Pinkie’s.
“When they were at the hospital they just told me “Mommy and daddy are going to be fine. We just need to stay here for a few weeks, because we got infected with a poison in the forest. We’ll be home really soon, we promise” So my uncle needed to take care of me… He took me to see them every morning before school to say hi. They said me showing up was the highlight of the day”
Pinkie looked down. “One day I showed up… and they both looked different. They had tubes attached to their body everywhere. I asked them why they needed those things. They couldn’t answer. My uncle just grabbed me and dragged me out of there. I heard my mom saying “We just need some rest sweetie. Remember, we both love you very much” I didn’t understand what they meant… they were always resting. The next day my uncle took me to the hospital, he needed to speak to some doctor before we could enter. They always just led us straight in, but not this time. After a whole hour, talking to the doctor, my uncle looked at me and said that we had to go home. He didn’t say why he just…” Pinkie looked down and began crying.
“Shh… I know” Diane whispered and hugged her tightly.
“I will always be here for you Pinkie. You know that. Whenever you need someone to speak to, you know I will always have the time for you”
Pinkie looked Diane into her eyes and smiled with tears running down her cheeks.
“I just need you so badly at times like these” she said just before hugging Diane.
As the sun was going down, close by Rainbow Dash was walking outside of Twilight’s library after they had worked together on organizing her books. Though Rainbow Dash were just there to borrow some books, rather than helping her.
“Oh, before I go” Rainbow Dash turned around, and looked at Twilight standing in the open door.
“Do you know who Pinkie Pie has been talking to so much lately? I was flying by her house once and heard her talking to somepony that wasn’t Mr. or Mrs. Cake. Does she have friends we don’t know of?”
“Oh yeah” Twilight responded.
“I only recently found out as well. She sometimes makes up this imaginary friend, whom she talks to every night before going to bed. I figure it helps her sleep or something”
Rainbow Dash looked a little confused. “Isn’t that kinda weird?”
Twilight smiled, while closing the door. “Oh you know, Pinkie is just being Pinkie” she said, then closed the door.
As the moon was beginning to show, Pinkie was still sitting on the same spot of the bed, with all the lights off.
“Thank you” she whispered.
“It’s nice to have someone to talk to about this” she said with one last tear running down her cheek, just before looking to her left and showing a small smile. In her mind she knew that the room was empty. That there was nothing beside her but a pillow and some toys. But her eyes saw what she desired the most… A true friend.
