….
“….”
…
“…y”
…
“….ty…”
I could feel myself drift back into consciousness as the young voice continued to pull on to me back into reality.
“…ty…”
“Shining…” I said drearily, turning my head into the direction my husband laid, “It’s your turn,” I smiled jokingly as I prepared my body to get out of bed – but there was no reaction from my mate. “Shining?” I slowly opened my eyes, trying my best to fight of the sleep, hoping to see the elder stallion I loved just sleeping there right beside, dead to the world.
He wasn’t there.
I scurried quickly to my front hooves, “Shining?” my eyes frantically darting across the room, hoping to find any kind of sign of where he could have been – but there was nothing. I continued looking until my eyes caught glimpse of something that laid on the bed stand next to where Shining should have laid, a recent family photo. As I looked at it, the worriedness was soon gone, but only washed over with depression as I started to remember what was wrong.
“Oh…that’s right…” I slowly admitted, looking away from the photo and back to where my husband once laid. How long had it been? Nearly ten years. Shining had lived a long life, only to find him that morning with a peaceful smile on his face that morning. The memories we once shared started to wash over me.
I sniffled to myself as I wiped my tears away with my foreleg. “If Shining saw me like this, he would say something cheesy to try to cheer me up…” I giggled through my tears, trying to make myself feel better.
“Aunty…”
My eyes snapped open as I looked over at the reason that I had woken up in the first place stood at the open door of the room. There he was the little foal that I had come to look after; his once white coat that was once always properly groomed, now it seemed to of lost its color; his wings drooped to his sides, dragging the unhealthy feathers across the floor. He no longer raised his head to no pony, but his green eyes looked upward at me – they were just empty as they were the day he came to live with me.
“Spark?” I asked, trying to regain my composure in front of child, “Spark is something the matter?” I asked again.
“Can I sleep with you?” he asked without emotion, but from the sound of his voice cracking, it hadn’t been since he had been crying.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I had a bad dream…” he said, seeming like he was trying to fight back the tears from coming.
“Oh no,” I said worriedly, “What was it about?” I asked; scared that I already knew the answer the foal would give me.
“It…it was about my…” the child stuttered, his chest heaving as his breathing became erratic, “it was about them!” he sputtered out, looking up at me with eyes that only spoke, “please, help me,”
“Spark, Wh-what happened?” my heart cringed at the colt that stood at my door way.
“I…I woke up…” he stated, tears started to run down his cheeks, but he made no noise; probably remembering what Aunt Celestia said to him about having to be strong in these kind of moments.
It felt like something had stabbed me in the heart looking at him, “Sure, Spark,” I said looking over to the empty spot next to me, “You can lay right here, alright,” I said patting the part of my bed that belonged to my eternal love with my hoof.
All he did was simply nod in reply, leaning his head downward he picked something in his mouth and walked over to the side of my bed – It was still dark, but I already knew what it was that he had picked up, it was the one thing he never let go of not even once since he started living here.
With one hoof on the edge of the bed, he used his wings, and though weak, he lifted himself high enough so that he could get his footing and started to walk over to my side. Placing the object in the middle of the spot, he walked around it, laying himself beside it, his back turned towards me. He just looked at the object in front of him, curling up around it hoping to find some sort of comfort from the thing.
I just looked down at the young colt, his eyes glued to his most important possession. I had seen it multiple times already, watching it as he carried it everywhere he went in our house, but I couldn’t help but glance at the photo he loved.
There he was the happiest foal you had ever seen, surrounded by friends, family, and more importantly, the six that he loved more than anyone else. Their color faded by the years they had gone through, gray flowing down along with the many colors of their mane, but even then, they all smiled just as brightly as their foal’s. It was the perfect image of a child and his family on his birthday – but, who would have thought, that was his last birthday they would have all been together.
I continued to look at the photo, until I heard a soft sniffle coming from beneath me. I looked back at the colt underneath me as he started to cry again, but this time he was letting it all out.
Most of us had to go throw one, maybe even two heart breaks, but not this child. To him, it must have been like an endless cycle of pain and sadness; realizing that soon, all your loved ones were to sleep, while you stayed there awake.
I leaned my body next to him, raising my hoof and letting it run through his mane, watching out for his horn, but he seemed to not even pay attention to it; at this very moment, all he thought that existed was just him and those that were in that photo. I lowered my leg further down, and tried to wrap it around the foal’s body, trying to comfort him, but he still paid me no heed.
I may be the Alicorn of the heart, but there are some things that not even magic could fix. This foal’s heart was broken, slowly torn over the last few years, and right now all he needed was the warming love of his mothers’ that he was longing for, but knew he couldn’t ever feel their love. I just lay there, listening to the sound of his crying, just listening to the sound of the child that my sister-in-law and her friends left behind.
As I looked back down at the photo he had, I couldn’t help but see myself in the group photo as I attended the birthday of my nephew. As I looked at that, my eyes slowly drifted over back to the photo that stood on the bed stand next to us.
It had probably been twenty-five years since the photo had been taken. There we stood: Me, Shining Amor, our little fillies, their mates and grand-fillies. Our children were very beautiful, two Unicorns and a Pegasus, and standing there in the middle were me and my late husband. I myself still seemed ageless, as if it was just the day before that Shining had proposed to me, but he on the other hand; his white coat had dimmed, the wrinkles on his face definitely showed the years of love, family, stress, and the army. After he was attacked once, his lower body became paralyzed - so forced out of the army, stripped to a wheelchair where he had to always be pushed by his ageless wife, whom would grow on without him after he passed on to the next world.
But he still smiled.
As I looked at that photo, I couldn't help but curl myself to the young colt. We were now the only family we had now will probably never be able to see those that had left us again.
As he continued to cry over the loss of his parents, I soon joined him. The room was soon filled with the synchronized sounds of our crying. Together we just let our tears flow.