Celestia gently tilted the teapot, a waterfall pouring out of the spout. It landed in the white teacup, nearly filling it to the brim. Steam danced away from the tea, flying away to join the clouds and make friends. I tapped my chin with my hoofsie. Something was missing.
“Is something missing, Pinkie?”
I added ‘mind reading’ to my mental list of ‘Things Princess Celestia can do because she’s Princess Celestia’. I also added it to my paper list, which I stuffed in my mane once I was done with it. “Sugar!” I announced. “Do you have any sugar?”
Celestia smiled. “Of course.” She levitated a small packet of sugar cubes. Not the business, or the ponies Applejack likes, but the cube. “How many would you like?”
Hm. A tricky question. Too much sugar and you were basically giving yourself some sort of condition. At least that’s what Twilight said. But too little and you were basically drinking weaksauce. “Three,” I said, after a little bit of thinking time. “‘Cause three’s a magic number.”
“And seven is a lucky one, so they say,” Celestia said. Three sugar cubes divebombed their way into the teacup swimming pool, making little splashes.
“Thanks!” I cheerfully chirped, blowing on the tea before taking a sip. My body instantly felt renewed, reenerigzed and re-heated. And the taste of sugar on my tongue made my tastebuds go wild. It’s a shame, but I really don’t appreciate tea as much as I should. Maybe I should try it more. Maybe I should brew all sorts of exciting teas! And then I could have a Tea Tea Party!
“No, thank you for accepting my invitation, Pinkie,” Celestia replied, that smile still on her face. A pony’s smile said many things about them. Celestia’s was mysterious, though. A nice smile, one of the warmest I’ve ever seen, but it was hard to read.
“How could I not accept? You’re my friend—of course I’d come and drink tea with you!” I scratched my cheek and looked around. Celestia’s bedroom was really homey, like it had been this way for years. Both of us were sat on her bed, which really was nothing more than a soft mattress on the floor, with a big golden pillow at one end. Next to us, a fire was roaring, but quietly as to not interrupt the peace. It sparkled and crackled but was shackled in the hearth.
I had another question, so I asked away. “Why couldn’t my other friends come with me?”
“You recall our last meeting in Ponyville?” I nodded. How could I forget? I never forget anything about my friends. “I seem to remember you stealing my cupcake.”
“Just acting as a royal taste tester, your Highness,” I said sternly, giving her a firm salute. I held that for about two seconds. Then I just burst into a fit of giggles. Me eating her cupcake was just a silly joke. Since she wasn’t wearing a frowny face, I knew she had understood. “But yeah, I remember. The party was great, even if you left early, but then I got to see Philomena being awesome!”
Phoenixes are beautiful creatures, until they got old; then they just look funny! It’s okay though, ‘cause they always get reborn. I thought Philomena was the perfect friend for Celestia, since they must have both been really really old, but both didn’t have wrinkles of any sort. I wonder what cream they use…
“Yes, those were a rather interesting series of events.” Celestia smirked, then took a moment to sip her own tea. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I got much of an opportunity to get to know you and your friends, Pinkie. I decided that one on one occasions like this were the perfect chance to do so. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all!” I felt like having more tea, so I took a split second sip, then continued with, “I love being with my friends!”
“I am glad to hear that, I never would have thought otherwise.” She set down her cup, still smiling. “It is good to hear that you consider me a friend. Thank you.”
“No need to thank me, silly. You’re just so kind and friendly, how could I not be your friend?!” I blinked as soon as I said that. Something in Celestia’s smile must have changed, ‘cause I was beginning to read more into it. It was a beautiful smile. All of her was, inside and out. Although looking into her inside was a bit tricky… her smile was more of a poker smile. Genuine, yeah, but still hiding so many things.
I guess I’d find out those things later. Even if Celestia was my friend, I didn’t know a whole lot of things about her. Now was the time to start asking. “So, what does a Princess like you even do? Apart from raising the sun, which must be amazing.” Just imagine: every day, bringing light onto a new day, hearing the birds all start singing, which would of course make me wanna sing. Celestia really is a very lucky pony.
“I’m afraid it’s not very eventful.” I looked up at her with pleading eyes. Her typical day was something I wanted to know badly, ‘cause then I could plan surprises for her and all sorts of things. After a short pause, she went on to explain. I’ll spare you the details, since it was a looooooooooong explanation, but I paid attention to every bit of it, my ears twitching anticipation for her next sentence.
“... and then Luna raises the moon, while I go to bed,” she finished. I was exactly how I was when she started: ears perked, twitching, and my back straight. That seemed to have surprised her or something, but her eyes widened veeeery slightly for only a moment. I dunno why she was shocked. Maybe she thought I was gonna get bored or something? Silly Celestia. Everything my friends have to say is super important to me!
“Wow, that sounds like a super busy day! It’s not something I could do—I’m more into baking and throwing parties—but you can do all that stuff ‘cause you’re you!” Maybe she could all those royal things because she was so old; you gain more experience each time you level up. “How old are you anyways?”
It took her a lil’ while to answer that one, so I drank more tea while I waited. “Hm… funnily enough, I’ve forgotten.”
I immediately leapt off the floor and let out a huge gasp, hovering in the air. She had forgotten?! I zoomed right up to her face so our muzzles touched. “Does that mean you’ve forgotten your own birthday?! Please tell me you haven’t!”
Her horn glowed, while I got wrapped up in magic and got lowered to the ground. It felt tingly, but also warm and fuzzy. “I’m afraid so, Pinkie.”
I frowned a determined frowny frown. “Well this won’t do at all.” I pulled out my calendar and diary from my mane. The pink ones with the colorful balloons on them. The calendar had pictures of my friends for every month. “We gotta make a birthday date for you so I can plan your party every year!”
“Oh…” Celestia’s eyes trailed upward, her brow creased as she thought thinkingly. “I don’t see the harm in doing that. How about the Summer Solstice?” she asked, smiling. It had a mischievous edge to it, and looking at my calendar, I could see why.
“But that means you’re birthday will be on a different day each year!” I looked up at her. Her face hadn’t changed. I smirked and nudged her side. “Ooooh you wanna play it that way, huh? ‘Cause I’m totally down for that!” She chuckled, while I noted down the first birthday. For the others, I’d need future calendars.
“That sounds lovely, Pinkie. Thank you,” Celestia said.
“No problemo!” I chirped. Then another question popped into my head. I was getting a lot of them, but that was okay, since I was trying to learn as much as I could about my friend. “You’ve had birthdays before, right?” It just seemed a little odd to me how she could forget her own birthday! Okay, I did once, but that was because I was super busy focusing on Gummy! Plus, my friends had remembered for me.
Oh. Oh wow. Didn’t Celestia’s friends even remember her birthday? What about her sister? Just… that’s a lot to wrap my head around. How can anypony forget when a pony close to them was born?! That’s, like, the most important event of a pony’s life because it’s the first event of their life, and it always leads to more events!
“Hmm…” Celestia sipped her tea, thinking. “A very long time ago, yes. But as time went by, my responsibilities increased, and birthdays no longer seemed as important—”
“Hold everything, sister!” I did a front flip over the teacups, landing right in front of Celestia. She was a bit too tall for our eyes to be level, so I had to stretch my neck to pull that off. “Birthdays are the most important thing ever! Why don’t your friends even remember?!”
The corners of her mouth relaxed a little. Just a little, but enough for me to see that her smile had faded. I was beginning to get concerned, which was obviously showing, because Celestia put a gentle hoof on my shoulder. She wasn’t wearing her shoes either, so I could feel her skin, warm to the touch. I felt a weird kinda calmness in me that I’ve never felt before. I was still worried, but not as worried, if you get what I mean. Like… it felt okay to be worried.
Or maybe that was Celestia’s perfume. I’m not sure.
“I have friends, Pinkie,” she told me. I blinked. How did she do that?! She looked up, getting distant for some reason. “Many friends. But I could never tell them my birthday because I hadn’t remembered by the time I knew them.”
I wrapped my forelegs around her and squeezed. I had to hug her, I just had to. Hugs make everypony feel better. It’s even a scientific fact! Celestia didn’t seem upset, and that was good, but I’d be sad if I had many friends.
Then she hugged me back, and that felt really nice! Really warm, actually. Not the sweaty warm, the toasty warm. And not the toasty burnt warm either, but the toasty comfy warm.
“I’ll remember your birthday, always and always! Pinkie Promise.” Now it was certain that Celestia’s birthday would always be remembered! Even after I passed away, I’d make sure that her birthday date would be in my will, and remembered for all time.
The Pinkie Promise was more like a Pinkie Pact, ‘cause if I ever broke one, then I wouldn’t be Pinkie anymore, would I? I’d be a real Meanie instead. Luckily, that’d never happen.
“Thank you, Pinkie. That’s very kind of you.” Her wings wrapped around me. They felt very firm, but in a reassuring way. Like a rock. Yeah, Celestia has rock wings.
We could’ve hugged forever, but eventually we pulled away and I went back to my cup. I stared at her before taking a drink. She was smiling, her eyes bright and looking at me. She looked happy. Really really happy. So I started grinning too! Smiles: life’s good disease.
I think I was finally starting to understand her. Celestia was old. Super old. She makes Granny Smith look like a baby. And that meant she had loads of memories. But they’re just that: memories. Memories can be good or bad, but they’re a reminder of what you’ve lost. And if Celestia had a lot of memories…
But I felt a very strong presence when I hugged her. She could handle having a lot of memories, ‘cause she was still making new ones! She had lost, yeah, but every day she was gaining. And with her sister around, they can do that together!
My tongue touched my tea and flinched. It was cold all of a sudden and my tongue didn't like that one bit. I wretched, ‘cause cold tea is really ew-worthy. But seconds later, the cup warmed right up again. I smirked at my friend opposite me. She smirked right back.
I’ve always held Celestia up in high regard. Not because she’s older than Granny Pie, not because she can raise the sun every day, and not because she’s royalty.
She’s my friend.
Why complicate things, right?
Pinkie Pie is one of my more interesting subjects. Hm, no, friends. Yes, that’s better. I love all my little ponies equally, but Pinkie is a character that stands out amongst the crowd. It is rare to find a pony like that who has good qualities in equal measure.
Her random nature is not what surprises me. Rather, it is the consistency of it, coupled with her kind demeanour. I may have not known her for a while, but I cannot recall a time where she was sad. Her randomness and kindness ran alongside each other, parallel. I find it fascinating.
Pinkie had finished her tea, but was still fidgeting with the cup. I poured more in, which made her smile. “Thanks, Celestia!”
I admit, her smile is contagious, even for one highly trained in the art of poker face. “Think nothing of it.” Since she had asked me some questions, I only saw it fit to do the same. Of course, I already knew her history, but that wasn’t why I was asking. “So, Pinkie, can you tell me where you born?”
“On a rock farm!” she answered, her voice brimming with pride as she nodded once. Rock farms may sound curious to any pony in the city, but they have been established for a very long time. Before mines, they were rock farms.
“I see. That is quite interesting. Do you visit often?” Pinkie nodded, which suggested she was on good terms with her family. However, her silence indicated something else. “Are you close to your family?”
“Not literally, but I do love them lots and lots, yeah! I’m just…” She shuffled a little. “Different, y’know? Not a bad different, not a good different, just different! But they all said they love me anyways, no matter how different I am.”
Ah, good. She was loved. I could sense that she felt a little isolated from the rest of her kin, but it was not something I would press on. I nodded, deciding to change tact. “I assume you cherish Ponyville quite a bit.”
“Yah-huh! It’s great! Everypony there is my friend, and they just love to sing and party!” I didn’t say anything, wanting her to expand on her point. Her earnesty, however, was a delight to watch, so perhaps I had an ulterior motive. “And it’s a real nice community. I feel a part of something really really special, y’know? I’m sure Canterlot has a great atmosphere too, but… there’s just something about Ponyville.” She tilted her head, looking at me, her eyes brimming with wonder. “Do you get it?”
I nodded, smiling. Ponyville is a town that I’ve always had my eye on. The world is changing, technology is improving and cities are growing bigger by the day. But that one town seems to be a relic of the past. I believe it’s the power of its community. Some would say it is being held back, and to them, I would say to look at things from a different perspective.
Pinkie shook her head, then bonked it with a hoof. “Silly me. Why’d I even ask that? Of course you’d know that! You’re Celestia!” I raised an eyebrow. “One of my oldest and smartest friends ever!” My brow settled.
I’ve been held up as a paragon of power and wisdom many times before. My little ponies call me their Goddess, when I am merely a princess. Princesses are many things; perfect is not one of them. But this was different. I could feel it in Pinkie’s tone and her expression. Bright-eyed, looking up at me, but not in wonder, or awe. Neigh, she looked upon me as if I was irreplaceable in her life. Only a few ponies have ever looked at me that way.
Pinkie sat there, her grin never faltering, waiting for me to say something. Of all the Elements, Laughter is the brightest. Yes, Magic is very powerful, but it requires the other elements in order to be such. Laughter does not have such an issue. Laughter stands tall, a light in the darkness, a beacon of hope.
Truly, I had made the right choice in choosing its bearer. Pinkie saw everyone she met as an equal. She did not judge, she analysed. Her friends were the best part of her life, and she treated them rightfully so. Was she perfect? Neigh, far from it. But she always strived to be the best friend she could to anypony she talked to.
I saw it only fit to reward my friend with something I knew she would appreciate.
I opened my wing, gesturing at the space around it with a nod. Pinkie blinked, looking at my wing, then at my face. Resisting the urge to giggle, I nodded at her. With a noise that I can only describe as a ‘squee’, she hopped over and I wrapped my wing around her, pulling her close.
“Thanks, Celestia,” she said, getting all settled. Her body pressed against me, her forelegs wrapping themselves around my frame and squeezing it.
“I should be the one thanking you,” I replied. She looked up with an inquisitive gaze. “For one thing, being my friend. But also for being Twilight’s friend and bringing so much joy to so many ponies’ lives.”
She gave me a mock salute. “Just doing my duty!”
I considered her words, staring at the crackling fireplace. A fire could only go for so long until it ran out of fuel, and simmered down without so much as a whimper. I wondered if Pinkie ever had a stopping point. Even extroverts like her needed some time to themselves.
“You give yourself some quality time alone, yes?” I asked, watching sparks dance off the flames.
Although I couldn’t see it, the silence that followed told me that Pinkie was thinking over the question very carefully. “Well… there is bed time.”
“Do you have a routine for bed time?”
“Yep! I brush my teeth, singing the brushie brush song me and Colgate wrote, then I make sure Gummy’s all nice and snug in his pond, then I sing him another song, which changes every day so it doesn’t get all samey, finally I go to bed, get all nice and snug under the covers, and start snoozing away and dreaming.”
Her outward appearance did not hint at such a large lung capacity.
Despite the impressive length of her answer, it did not yield the information I was looking for. “And what do you think of before you go to sleep?”
Pinkie shrugged. “Y’know… kinda sad that the day’s over, but super excited for dreams and the next day! I like being an early bird, so I can say hello to the worm.”
I could see that.
“You never dwell on any problems you might have?”
Silence fell. The fire began to die out. “Well… yeah. ‘Course I do.”
“And what do you do about them?” I spread out my wing a little, in order to give her more breathing space.
“I deal with them, after thinking of a cunning plan,” she replied. After a beat she added, "The mustache kinda helps with that sometimes."
“Alone?” I asked. Her gaze fell toward the floor. A pang of guilt entered my system for having affected her, but it was nothing I couldn’t deal with. What was important was that I was here to help her. As friends should. “You do a lot of giving, is that fair to say?”
She brightened up slightly at that. “Yep! I just love throwing parties, hoofing out goodies, and just generally giving the gift of giving!” Reaching into her mane, she brought out a pristine looking cupcake and offered it to. I didn’t decline; it looked luscious. It tasted just as good as it looked.
I got a napkin and wiped my mouth free from crumbs. “Thank you, Pinkie. But what about taking?” My horn glowed as I transported a freshly baked cupcake into the room, floating it near Pinkie. She jerked back, eyes-wide. A rare moment where she was the one being surprised, I’m sure.
Slowly, she took the treat and nibbled on it. “Not so much, but thanks.”
I brought my head just a bit closer to hers, speaking softly, “Perhaps, if you are ever feeling down, you should do some taking so you can start giving at one hundred percent?”
She nodded, smiling and dipping her hoof into the cupcake’s frosting. Said hoof then touched my nose, leaving it covered in a sugary mess. “Can I send you a letter?”
I licked what frosting I could off my nose, using the napkin to clean up the rest. “You may, but it might be quicker to talk to your friends in Ponyville, don’t you think? I know they would be more than happy to help you if you ever had a problem.”
Pinkie slowly nodded, reaching up and wiping away the last of the frosting on my face. “I can try that. Thanks, Celestia.”
I could tell that she would not learn instantly, but that is how ponies are. Even myself. Experience is the best teacher of them all. I had simply nudged her onto the right track. “Don’t worry about it, Pinkie.” I smiled, causing hers to grow even bigger. “Merely being the best friend I can be.”
I added more wood to the fire, reigniting its flame. My sides were then assaulted by pink forelegs, binding my body and squeezing. Admittedly, I almost lost my breath, and remembered that there was more to Pinkie than what her looks suggested. “And you’re one of the bestest.”
Her words brought a smile to my face, despite her titanic grip over me. Thankfully, she loosened her hold, and I relaxed, bringing my tea cup to my lips and taking it a sip.
I have my own suspicions, but somehow, it was the best cup of tea I had ever tasted.
