A Particularly Pleasant Picnic

Twilight fidgeted with the edge of her purple vest as she waited in apprehension for Cadence. Twilight hadn’t seen her old babysitter in ages. Both of them had so many responsibilities to tend to now. It was rare to get more then a minute with Cadence, even rarer to get a minute alone. But today the stars had aligned in such a way to allow them a whole evening together, just the two of them. A singsong voice aroused Twilight from her thoughts.

“There you are Twilight! It took me forever to find you!” Cadence said, plopping down next to the young adult on the blue and yellow picnic blanket. Her magenta skirt billowing around her before settling in a flawless semicircle.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry! I should have told you where I was. I could have—“ Cadence covered Twilight’s mouth with her hand, coming up to her knees as she did so, her movement ruining the perfection of her skirt.

“This picnic is not ruined because it took me an extra two minutes to find you,” Cadence said wryly.

“How did you know that was what I was thinking?” Twilight asked, her eyes flitting in distress to the skirt and back again.

“Because I know you, silly,” Cadence laughed, falling back onto the rumpled cloth. Twilight rolled her eyes.

“What fun things have you hidden in that basket for us to do,” she said with gesture to an item situated behind Twilight.

Twilight turned to the picnic basket to pull out the food and games she had brought.

From her relaxed position, Cadence turned her head to watch Twilight remove items from the basket in an orderly manner.

First out was a deck of cards to play crazy eights with, a favorite game of theirs, a of couple books followed, Twilight quickly returned the one named “Picnics for Dummies” to the hamper, her face flushing.

She then pulled out a few cookies, lemonade, fruit, and alfalfa sandwiches.

“Oh, I despise alfalfa sandwiches,” Cadence said contemptuously, wrinkling her nose. Twilight mouth opened and eyebrows pressed together in an utter look of despair. But the expression was wiped from her face when she looked up to see Cadence’s screwed up face burst into laughter.

“That’s not funny Cadence,” Twilight said in a stilted voice.

“You would think it was funny too if you weren’t so worried.” Cadence teased.

Indignant, Twilight lifted up her nose.

“I am not worried,” Twilight said stubbornly.

Twilight quickly turned her face away and walked over to the nearby stream. Pulling off her shoes, she began to flick her feet in the water, disturbing the nearby fish. Ripples echoed out from her feet to distort the reflection of the hanging sycamore trees in the calm water near the shore.

Cadence looked over at the abandoned alfalfa sandwiches and sighed. She sat up and climbed over to Twilight on her hands and knees then pulled herself around to mimic Twilight’s position.

"Twilight,” Cadence said in a teasing voice. Twilight turned her head away. “You know I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings in any way.” Twilight remained silent. Cadence sighed and looked down at the fish swirling through the water.

They sat that way in silence for a while, long enough for a leaf to break off from a tree and tumble down to the stream and through the calm water to the rushing of the middle, quickly swept out of sight.

“It’s just,” Twilight suddenly confided at the disappearance of the golden leaf. “I haven’t seen you in forever. And I probably won’t get to see you for a really long time after today, too.” She glanced over at Cadence and continued, “I just want this day to be perfect.”

“But it is Twilight!” Cadence said, leaning forward over the stream, hair falling behind her, silhouetting her face, to look Twilight straight in the eye. “Just spending time with you is perfect.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, reconsidered, and instead watched a brown leaf fall down to the tumult of the center of the stream.

Twilight mouth then twitched up into a smile.

“You’re right,” She said as she looked out to the horizon. “This is perfect.”

With that, Cadence twisted around to lunge out and grab an alfalfa sandwich from the abandoned picnic blanket. She took a big bite out of it and imitated disgusted noises. Twilight laughed and did the same.

“See! It is funny,” Cadence said through a mouthful of sandwich and their chortles bounced off the water.

~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day passed in a second, though each moment lasted forever. The two friends splashed through the sparkling stream, attempting to soak as much of their opponent other as they could. They ate through the picnic basket while they played rounds upon rounds of crazy eights, then go fish, then solitaire, each round mounting in excitement before dissolving into laughter. They went through the books Twilight had brought, pointing out pictures of random items that looked just like the princesses. They then ventured into the hidden book pulled from Cadence’s bag. Turning the pages through Shining Armour’s baby pictures, they took bets on how crimson his face would become if he was here.

The sun too soon began to set as they collapsed onto the ground, chests heaving after an exhilarating game of Who-can-last-the-longest-without-cracking-up.

Twilight closed her eyes as the chortles died down. “I wish this day could last forever,” She said softly.

Cadence smiled and rolled onto her side, “But then it wouldn’t be special would it?”

“You’re right, as always, Cadence.” Twilight said, grinning back.

They lay there for a moment, reminiscing over the events of the day.

“Well, I better get going,” Cadence said, breaking the silence. “Responsibilities and all that.”

“Heh, I know all about that,” Twilight said, her smile fading.

She suddenly turned to Cadence as her friend got to her elbows. “We’ll do this again, right?”

“Of course Twilight,” Cadence said as she picked up her bag. “See you again, soon.”

As she walked away Cadence raised a hand to wave. Twilight waved back, even though she knew Cadence couldn’t see it.

“Soon,” Twilight echoed with a melancholy smile. “Soon.”