It was a regular, hum-drum day at Canterlot High. The weather looked fair and sunny, with the exception of a few clouds in the sky. It was B Lunch period for Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and their new acquaintance, Hilltop Glide. Hilltop had been at the school for about 4 years, Spending most of his time in the library. Even though his peers regarded him as a book worm, he never shied away from talking to people. He made friends with the girls a year ago and has always regarded them as good friends and having open ears when he need to talk to them about anything...
...Almost anything.
The girls and Hilltop were having their lunch at the usual spot, shooting the occasional breeze.
“Well I do declare, Mah granny knows how to whip up a mean apple pie.” Applejack remarks about the pie she had brought for the group.
“That she does, AJ.” Hilltop says, complementing Granny Smith's cooking. Apple Family made pies always had a habit of putting smiles on peoples faces.
“It was a rather exquisite taste.” Rarity says as she took another bite of the pie, enjoying the cinnamon-apple flavor.
“I-It was delicious” Fluttershy stuttered. Hilltop always had a bit of a soft spot for shyness, finding to be cute. Just then his phone started to ring:
The caller ID told him it was from his uncle, Feather Drop.
“Oh, please excuse me girls. Mind if I take this outside?” Hilltop excuses himself as he got up from the table.
“You're Excused.”
“No problem.”
“Go on ahead.”
“Sure thing!”
“I-It's alright.”
“Thank you.”
Hilltop walked outside to answer his call. He knew what this call was about. Unbeknownst to him, his friends were watching him.
“Hey sport.” his uncle answered. “How are ya?”
“Doing fine. How about you?” Hilltop asks.
“I'm doing fine. You still doing that thing today?
That remark had shooken Hilltop to his bones. He knew what day this was and he'll always remember it like it was etched in metal. It took him a few moments to gather a response
“Yes, Yes I am. Mind if I do it alone though?'
“I don't mind. I won't be able to anyways, I have late work tonight.”
“Oh, Ok. Mind if I take an early day today?”
“Do what you gotta do, nephew.”
“Ok, I'll talk to you later.”
“Take care.” Like that, the call was over. A sense of despair had filled his head, a feeling that made him nervous and upset. He walked back into the cafeteria, avoiding eye contact his friends.
“Hey, what was that about?” Rainbow Dash asks Hilltop in a slightly demanding tone. All Hilltop could reply was a sudden:
“Nothing.” This answer had, to say the least, shocked his friends. He would always share his ordeals with the girls. It was unlike his usual character.
“C'mon buddy, turn that frown upside down!” Pinkie Pie says to Hilltop in an attempt to cheer him up, to no avail. He just proceeded to walk out of the lunch room and towards his locker. This shocked pinkie because she had a knack for cheering people up and it worked like a charm.
“What's gettin' at ya, pardner?” Applejack asks in an alarmed tone as Hilltop was gathering his stuff from his locker.
“It's nothing, just something that I must do.” Hilltop says in a hurried and somewhat rude tone. This set off a lot of red flags for the girls
“Now girls, I wish to have some alone time.” He says as he walks out the door and towards the parking lot, much to the dismay of his friends. They knew that something was up. It was clear to them that he was in emotional pain and worse, he was reluctant to talk about it. The girls gathered to figure out what the deal was.
“Okay, what's eating him?” RD frustratingly asks.
“It is most unlike him. Hardly seen him like this.” Rarity remarks.
“I do agree, Sumting seems fishy about this.” Applejack
“Why don't we follow him around a bit so we can find out?” Pinkie Pie asks. This idea raised a lot of eyebrows amongst them. The idea sounded morally wrong, but it was the only way they could get some answers.
“This idea sounds wrong.” Fluttershy objects.
“But it's the only way we could get to the bottom of this.” rarity says, agreeing with pinkie's plan
“I would have to be with pinkie on this one” Applejack agreeing with support. Rainbow Dash nods her head in solidarity with her friend's plan. It took fluttershy to come to an agreement on the Plan, albeit reluctantly:
“I-I g-guess i'll be in on this.”
“Okay then, Let's get to the bottom of this.” Rainbow Dash says as they headed towards the parking lot, getting in rainbow's car. They then trailed Hilltop's car as he drove towards midtown canterlot, keeping a good distance whilst not drawing any attention. Eventually, He parked his car at the Canterlot Market Plaza, where lots of stores like Sugarcube Corner reside. The girls were puzzled as to what he was there for.
“Okay, we need someone to watch to see what he's doing.” Rarity says. “I'll be the scout. Applejack, have your phone at the ready.” Rarity says to Applejack as she leaves the car.
“Ok, we'll keep an open ear.” Applejack says as rarity walks to the middle of the plaza where Hilltop was, turning towards Photo's Framing Emporium and Studio.
“Strange.” Rarity mutters to herself as Hilltop walks into the store.
“Guten tag, Herr Glide. How may I be of service?” Photo Finish greets Hilltop as he walks in. Hilltop takes a picture out of his backpack and put it on the counter.
“I want this framed.” Hilltop says “How much for that one?” Photo goes over to the wall of frames available and chooses one marked 'Remember'.
“It vill be $20. Give me a few to get it framed, ja?” Photo says as Hilltop hands her a $20 bill. After 5 minutes, the picture is framed and Hilltop puts it in his backpack.
“Thank you, Photo.” Hilltop says as he walks out of the store.
“Gern geschehen!” Photo replies. Hilltop then proceeds towards Sugarcube Corner, unaware that rarity was watching him from a nearby table while reading a newspaper as cover.
“What's up with him?” Rarity thinks to herself. She then picks up her phone and calls applejack.
“Applejack, he just left Photo's place and now he's heading to Sugarcube Corner.”
“Keep an eye out, we need to know what's been making him squirrely all of a sudden.”
“Ok, got that.” she says as hilltop walks into the bakery.
“Hello Hilltop.” Mr. Cake greets Hilltop. “Here for that pickup?” Hilltop reaches for his wallet and pulls out $15.
“Yes.” he replies as Mrs. Cake brings out a small sized cake.
“Ok, $1.89 will be your change. Have a good day, sir.” Mr. Cake says as Hilltop grabs the cake and walks out. He then walks towards his car, prompting Rarity to sneak back to rainbow's.
“He's going to leave in a little bit, keep a low profile.” she advises her friends as she gets in the car. Shortly after, Hilltop's car is on the move once again. The girls followed him for a good 10 minutes until he stopped along a sidewalk near the Canterlot Memorial Cemetary. The girls waited for a good 5 minutes before getting out to be sure that he wasn't on to them.
“Why would he be at the cemetary?” Fluttershy asks.
“We're about to find out.” Rainbow Dash says as the girls walk into the cemetary.
Hilltop sits in front of a tombstone and takes out his phone to play a song:
He then takes the cover off of the cake and takes the framed picture and rests it against the stone. He takes out 12 birthday candlesticks, sticks them in the cake, and lights them with tears beginning to form in his eyes.
*Sniff* “Well, It's been 12 years today since it happened. I-I-I've been doing well in school so far.” He says as he takes a slice of the cake. “I've still haven't forgotten abou-”
His soliloquy was interrupted as he heard the sharp sound of a branch breaking, alerting him to people following.
“Okay, Show yourselves!” He shouts as he looks around to see who has been following him. To his surprise, the girls had emerged from behind a hill, much to his anger.
“Rainbow, Fluttershy, What the hell are you all doing here?!!” Hilltop angrily asks as he approaches them. “This is supposed to be a private matter! Get lost!” This response irked Rainbow, seeing as one of her friends was getting uppity with her.
“Now hold on for one minute, buster!” Rainbow quipped as she tries to approach him with her friends restraining her.
“Rainbow, Calm Down!” Rarity says as she is struggling to restrain Rainbow Dash. “Let him explain.” This didn't shift RD's attitude towards the other way, rather it only strengthened her resolve.
“Let me go, damn it!” Rainbow angrily yells as she breaks free of her friends restraint. “I wanna know what is going on here, Hilltop!” This caused Hilltop to be apprehensive and frustrated. He wanted to keep what he was doing a secret.
“You don't understand, this is something personal for me! There are times that I wish to-”
“To what? Exclude your friends from something? Not talk to us about something, huh?!!” Rainbow brashly interrupted, getting into his face. “You've always talked to us about what was on your mind and now all of a sudden you avoid telling us about this? What the hell!”
“Rainbow, I've always valued your friendship. But pardon my french, You've got a big fucking mouth.” Hilltop growled, causing Rainbow Dash to turn away. In a split second, Dash turned around and shoved Hilltop to the ground, with his arm landing on the cake and the other breaking the picture frame.
The sight of the broken picture frame filled him with much sorrow that it made him choke up.
“Alright, Get up, wise ass!” Rainbow Dash says as she reaches out her hand to help Hilltop off the ground. She didn't get a response, apart from her hand being swatted away.
“Leave me alone!” Hilltop shouted as he darted off sobbing towards a nearby pavilion.
“Come back here!” Rainbow yelled
“Let him be, sugarcube.” Applejack says as she puts her hand on her shoulder, calming Rainbow down. “I wonder what got at him.” she says as they approach the messy scene. Fluttershy picks up the frame and looks at it.
“Applejack, look at this.” She says as she hands the picture over to Applejack. The picture was of 3 smiling people: one adult male, one adult female and a young child. Applejack took notice of the child in the picture resembling a certain friend of theirs.
“The child in the picture,” Applejack said in awe “It… It's Hilltop. Then that means...” The girls looked on at the tombstone. The inscriptions read:
Steel Flight
Died: 2/17/2003
Loving Husband and Father
Cuore Melody
Died: 2/17/2003
Loving Wife And Mother
“It's his parents.” Pinkie Pie somberly says. It all finally made sense, the pieces clicked together. Today was February 17th, matching the dates on the tombstone, it was the anniversary of his parents deaths. It was the whole reason why Hilltop wanted to be there alone.
“Good heavens.” Rarity says in a slightly sorrowful tone. After the revelation hits her, Rainbow Dash felt a sense that was alien to her… Guilt. She felt bad for what she had done earlier and resolved to make amends for what she did. She ran off to find where Hilltop was. After 2 minutes of walking around, she found a pavilion and Hilltop sitting alone on one of the benches. She let out a sigh as she approached him, hearing muffled sobbing from him. She inched closer to him cautiously as he began to take notice of her presence.
*Sniff* “Go away, *Sniff* haven't you done enough?” Hilltop meekly says as he is still in tears. Rainbow Dash tries to keep her cool in this situation, knowing this is a delicate and volatile situation.
“Listen bro,” Dash starts “I would like to apologize for happened back there. I know what I did was wrong and I regret it.”
“No, you listen. I wanted to be alone, but, y'all have been stalking me!” Hilltop says while getting up from the bench.
“Yeah, but we wa-”
“No! You've ruined a tender moment for me! Today is an especially painful one for me!”
“Hilltop, we all know the truth now! We all know that your parents died this day!”
“There are somethings that I must keep to myself and this is one of them!” Hilltop replied with increasing anger, worrying Dash.
“You can't keep your grief bottled up for that long! It ain't healthy!”
“There are things that I must deal with al-” His anger-fueled speech was cut off by a surprise embrace from Rainbow Dash. It caught him off guard and for a moment, he felt paralyzed by a flurry of emotions. The ones that did come to prominence were relief, sadness, regret. His eyes started to water as the three emotions started swirl around in his mind like a raging maelstrom. Without thought, he returns the hug with a stream of tears flowing down his cheeks.
*Sniff* “I'm so sorry, Dash. *Sniff Sniff* I shouldn't have said the those things.” Hilltop said as he cries over dash's shoulder. It felt like the proverbial ice that formed around his aching heart had melted away.
“I'm sorry for what I had done as well. I went too far.” Dash apologized with a tear rolling down her face. A sense of regret for her earlier actions enters her mind.
“No, I should be the one to apologize.” Hilltop said, regaining his composure and breaking the hug. “I shouldn't have kept this from you girls. I used to be open with you all about a lot of things, but I kept this bottled for the years we've known each other that I kept it that way. The emotional wounds are still fresh.”
“It never is okay to keep holding on to grief like that.” Rainbow Dash said, putting her hand on his shoulder and looking down. “It leads to a whole lot of ugliness that will eventually surface. Always remember that there'll always be people who are all ears, like me and the rest of us.”
Those words had touched Hilltop, right to his soul. He finally learned to let go of his grief after keeping it boxed in for the last 12 years. He finally took the first steps of moving on.
“Thank you… Rainbow. Let's go back to the others.” Hilltop says as he and Rainbow walk back to his parents grave. The other girls were sitting around waiting for rainbow and hilltop to show up. When fluttershy caught sight of the two approaching, she stood up which prompted the others to follow suit. Hilltop walked towards the grave and sat down in front of it with a saddened disposition.
“How did it happen?” Pinkie Pie asks. Hilltop let out a gulp, reluctant to recount what transpired that day.
“Car accident.” hilltop started. “I was 5 when it happened. My parents dropped me off at my uncle's house so they can have a date night. They never got there. As they were on the freeway, a drunk driver crashed into them and caused a big pileup. They were dead before the paramedics arrived. It wasn't until the next morning that my uncle had gotten the news. I've never seen him cry like that before. He told me and I was upset for the whole day. The day after was my birthday, a birthday without my folks. In my father's will, he said that his brother would be my legal guardian in case if anything happened to him. I've been living with him ever since.”
Hilltop pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket as his phone starts to play another song:
“What is that?” Fluttershy asks.
“A letter from my parents. It was in a birthday card from them.” Hilltop says as he begins to read the note:
It's been 6 years today since we've brought you into this world. We've had plenty of memories with you, like that time we went to the Canterlot Amusment Park. You've had quite the blast, you kept a smile on for the rest of the day. We hope to experience and cherish many more good memories together. Though we may not be around forever, we'll always be there for you, if not in form, then in spirit.
Happy Birthday, son.
-Mom and Dad
The letter made hilltop tear up again. Droplets of tears fall to the ground, soaking the dirt. Then hilltop felt a constricting prescience around him. The girls grouphugged him, bringing a sense of happiness to him. This was all that he needed to overcome his sadness about the situation, that he wasn't alone. He was at peace at last.
“Well, prom is next month. Why don't we all go to rarity's to get our suits and dresses squared away?” Applejack says as she gets up, breaking the hug.
“Sounds like a good idea.” Hilltop says as the girls walk back to dash's car. “I'll be there soon. Meet y'all there.”
“Take your time!” Pinkie Pie says as she gets in the car, soon speeding off with her friends. Hilltop takes a few minutes to clean up the litter around his parents grave, picking up his phone and shutting it off. He takes his hand and places it on the tombstone and contemplates for a few moments.
“I miss you both, dearly.”
Author's Note
Here it is, my first story. Any critique is welcome. I hope you all like it... or cry.
