A tired-looking woman leaned against the large windowsill in her living room, glancing outside as the stars glittered. She sighed and sipped on her hot chocolate. She made her way towards her recliner and sat down, letting herself sink into the fabric. She had almost fallen asleep when a very young girl crawled onto her lap, eyes pleading. She tugged on her sleeve, trying to get her attention. She finally succeeded.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, darling?”
“I can’t sleep.”
She hugged her child to her chest.
“Do you want a bedtime story?”
The young child’s eyes lit up, and she grinned eagerly.
“Yes, yes, mommy! Tell my favorite one, pleeeease?”
With a gleam of humor in her eyes, the mother lifted an eyebrow.
“Which one would that be?”
“Moooom!”
“Alright, alright. I know which one you were talking about. Now come on, settle down.”
The little girl settled into her mother’s lap, her grin returning to her face. She always loved her mother’s stories. Her mother cleared her throat and began her story.
“There were two families, a long, long time ago. They lived in a large field, where animals ran wild and crops grew freely. The air was warm and moist, as it always was. Clouds rolled on by, looking like puffs of cotton floating in the endless expanse of azure sky. The sun shone brilliantly. There were also two girls, with one of them belonging to one family, and the other girl belonging to the opposite family. They were the best of friends, laughing and playing as sure as the sun rose and set each day. Every now and again, it would snow, and the girls would frolic together to their hearts’ content. Nothing mattered as long as they were together.”
“Mom?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Why were there only two families?”
“I don’t know sweetie. Now hush.”
“Can I get the snow globe?”
The mother sighed.
“Alright.”
“Yay!”
Her daughter bounced off of her lap and went over the shelf over their fireplace. Sitting atop it was a snow globe depicting a scene similar to the one in the story. However, there was a huge chunk missing from the glass dome, and all the fluid had drained out long ago. A few white flakes remained on the base. The figures inside the broken globe were created with a craftsman’s touch. The story that the girl’s mother was weaving was based on the old snow globe. Clutching the snow globe in her hooves, the girl climbed back into her mother’s lap.
“C’mon, keep going!”
“Alright, alright.”
“Yay!”
“Okay, as I was saying… These girls were the best of friends for as long as they could remember. And they were happy. But as the years passed, one of them grew unhappy. She had grown bored with her seemingly perfect life. She wanted to feel. She wanted to know what it was like to have more than just her one friend. One day, the two friends, who had once been so close, had their first argument. ‘Come with me!’ one girl said, growing angrier and angrier. ‘But it’s so nice here…’ the other responded, happy with her life in the sunny field. ‘But it’s so boring here! All we ever do is frolic around in the fields and play games!’ She crossed her arms and glared at her friend. ‘I don’t want to leave.’ The other girl was very persistent, and they soon got into their very first fight in years.”
This part of the story always made her daughter cry. The young child sniffled and rubbed her eyes with a hoof.
“W-Why did they have to fight, mommy?”
“I don’t know, sweetie. Sometimes you can’t control what happens.”
She stroked her daughter’s hair, trying to comfort the whimpering child. When she had finally stopped crying, her mother hugged her tightly.
“Are you ready to continue?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Alright. After they had fought, the angry pony returned to her house and didn’t speak to her friend for a long while. Over time, she began to regret everything that she had said. And so, she decided to go over to her friend’s house and apologize. She dressed up in her blue striped dress. Her friend loved that one. But, on her way through the tall green grass, a quake shook the land, creating enormous cracks in the field and preventing her from passing. For a long time, the girl in the dress stared across the void that separated her from her former friend. When she squinted her eyes, she could see the other girl on the other side of the largest crack. She too, was wearing her friend’s favorite dress. This time, it was pink with white polka dots. ”
The young filly was listening intently, eyes fixated on the broken globe in her small hands.
“’I’m sorry!’ The filly in the blue striped dress said. ‘I’m sorry too!’ The filly in the polka dot dress responded. ‘Are we still friends?’ ‘Of course!’ The little filly felt like a great burden had been lifted off of her shoulders. Her desire to feel something other than the euphoria of her perfect world remained, however. Suddenly, there was another quake, and the filly in the blue striped dress fell. She fell, and fell. When she woke up once more, her world was gone, replaced with one much like our own.”
The young filly yawned sleepily, and her grip on her precious snow globe loosened a bit.
“How… How do you know all of this…?”
The little pony’s question caught her mother off guard. How would she answer? Before she could, her daughter had fallen asleep. She smiled gently, kissed her forehead, and carried her back to her bed. When she returned, she found the snow globe sitting on the chair where she had been. She picked it up as carefully as she could and examined the interior. Inside was a field with two houses. The field itself had been ravaged, and now had large cracks splitting it into sections. The mother smiled and placed the snow globe back into its place in the shelf, standing back to admire the small trinket.
“I know because that little filly was me.”