Waking up this day of the year did not get any easier, ever.It was already noon. Twilight was free from her royal duties for today because of the occasion, she should be spending the day celebrating another year in which she fulfilled her obligations as the princess of friendship exceptionally well, maybe throwing a party and invite Celestia, Luna and the friends she had made over the years. But she didn't. The times where her birthday filled her with joy have long been gone. Nowadays it just always feels like there is something missing. The purple Alicorn rose out of bed and prepared for the day.
Some hours later she was on her way to Sugarcube Corner in order to pick up the last item on her list, aside from the cupcakes she already had everything needed for a picnic in her saddlebags. After going through the list in her head one more time just to make sure she really did pack what´s necessary, Twilight found herself infront of the bakery and headed inside. Behind the counter stood a blue coated earth-pony with a red-brownish mane, Sponge Cake, the daughter of Pumpkin Cake.
"Hello Princess, here to pick up your order i presume?".
"Indeed so." confirmed the alicorn. Sponge Cake put a box filled with cupcakes on the counter, which Twilight proceeded to levitate with her magic.
"Thank you, that would be 20 Bits, correct?" Twilight moved to open her saddlebags, but the earth-pony signaled her to stop.
" They´re free of charge princess. Take them as my birthday gift to you.". Twilight smiled and nodded, expressing her thanks on the way out.
"Ok, that would be everything, time to head to my destination!", and with that, Twilight headed off.
...
Somewhat outside of Ponyville was a hill, which served as the cementary, and right on top of it where the 7 stones she was walking towards. As she arrived infront of them, she couldn't help but let out a sigh upon seeing how beautiful a sight they were, beeing covered in the red light that's beeing emitted from the sunset. They were carved into the silhouttes of the pony´s ( or the dragon) who´s names they were bearing. Those names being all to familiar to Twilight. Pinkamena Diane Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Starlight Glimmer and Spike. A feint smile escaped Twilight´s lips upon seeing those names. She began preparing the picknick, and soon the blanked was laying on the ground with all the food and beverages spread out on it. The princess sat down infront of the stones and the blanket and began to speak.
" Once again, here we are together to celebrate my birthday. Before we get started i just want to tell you how glad i am to have the privilege of calling you guys my friends. I could always count on you, na matter how rough the times were getting. I am the luckiest Pony in all of Equestria to be surrounded by such great individuals and every second we spend together truly fills my heart with joy. The memories we forged together are irreplaceable and will forever be my most precious possession.".
Her voice was trembling. She took a brief pause, but as was always the case, nopony was there to answer her. She magically grabbed hold of one of the cupcakes and took a bite, the extremely sweet flavour filling her mouth. Twilight then turned to the first stone with a light chuckle.
" Pinkie, remember when you were so determined to spend quality time with all of us at once, you resorted to the legend of the mirror pool? It was crazy how out of hand the whole thing got, prior to that day i´d never thought i would be sitting in a room with 50 copies of yourself watching paint dry... But of course, it all resolved itself in the end, it was truly amazing how you overcame your hyperactive nature because you wanted nothing more than to be with us. It almost makes me tear up everytime i think about it."
Twilight noticed that speaking became more difficult, it felt like something was stuck in her throat. She could almost make out her friends laughter as they remembered the occasion, but soon realized that it was merely her imagination. She then turned to the second stone.
" And Applejack , remember that time you were so afraid of disappointing everypony, you stayed out of town to work with cherry jubilee? It was sweet to see how m-much you cared about our opinion, although we sure were w-worried when you didn´t r-return to ponyville as planned..."
The alicorn felt something build up in her eyes as she moved on to the third stone
"A-and R-rainbow, remem-m-mber the d-day you became a f-full fledged wonderbolt? It was so nice t-to s-s-see you achieve the g-goal you strived for for so l-l-long, back then w-we a-all r-really...."
Twilights vision started to get blurry and she felt something flow down her cheeks and the overly sweet cupcake which used to be pinkie´s favourite suddenly tasted salty and was quite damp. That wasn´t the reason she could barely swallow another bite though. Twilight tried to finish her sentence, but even though her mouth opened, no words wanted to come out. She just stared at the engraved names, her heart captured in a state of agonizing pain. The alicorn could barely hold herself together.
Suddenly she heard a soft voice right behind her
"I thought i would find you here..."
Twilight found herself standing next to Celestia. She looked up to her former mentor, and the pain visible in her eyes hit Celestia hard.
" You know, you were always the perfect friend to them. I know that they valued your friendship more than anything else in their lifes."
...
Upon hearing that, Twilight couldn´t hold it in anymore.
All of the sadness and distress over the loss of her friends she hides all year in order to be the confident and strong princess Equestria expects her to be finally caught up and numbed out all of her other senses. All she could think about was the pain she has to suffer through and hide everytime she thinks of the other bearers of the elements of harmony.
She broke out into a stream of tears and cries, leaning against the other alicorn to have at least some hold while everything around her seemed to crumble into nothingness.
Celestia gently sat down beside her former student and gently wrapped her wing around the crying princess.
As had become custom for this day of the year, the two princesses would not spend the night in their castles, but instead on this hill. One trying to grasp at every happy memory she had with the figures she would only ever meet again in her most happy and most sad dreams, the other pondering on how to ease that pain.
Author's Note
That´s all folks.
I proofread the story, but english isn´t my first language so it could very well be that many mistakes managed to slip through anyway.
As mentioned in the describtion, i never really wrote a fanfiction or anything of the sort prior to this, but would like to improve so any feedback is appreciated, no matter how harsh as long as it´s reasonable and not just random hate.
It probably feels pretty unpolished, and that´s because it is. I never intented to write this, but listening to "hoping" by 4everfreebrony ( and his other songs that deal with this topic) suddenly made me really want this, so i pumped it out.
Hope you enjoyed, if not please do tell me why :D
