"Welcome."
"Welcome."
"Welcome."
The monotonous repetition was getting to Lilac Bloom. Her cheek muscles were aching from smiling so much as she kept greeting arriving ponies and shaking their hoofs, wishing them a pleasant time. She was the host of this year's Thanksgiving Feast, a family tradition in celebration of her ancestors' first successful harvest. She had already spent weeks of preparation before-hoof and planned everything to go perfectly.
Already, dozens of ponies crowded her home, a stately wood-carven manor that she inherited from her grandfather. They strolled about main foyer under the magically lit candles, idly talking to one another. Chatter swallowed everything thing up and had started to ring Lilac's ears, which were used to the quiet sounds of being alone with herself.
"Welcome."
The word was starting to sound strange in her mouth. She swallowed to clear her dry throat and peered out the entrance. Nopony else seemed to be emerging from the chilly blackness that lay beyond the doorframe. She then looked back at the packed building and after a quick estimation, she agreed that was probably all who were going to come. She felt a sudden sadness come over her. They couldn't make it-
"Hey! Watch it pinhead! You almost stepped on my tail!"
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just YOU're in my way!"
Lilac's eyes shot wide open as she heard the voices of her two best friends and grinning, she ran to the door to greet them but as they appeared from darkness, she retreated a step. Rainsong and Snowy Surprise burst into the light, their faces and movement filled with anger. Rainsong was usually pretty quiet while Surprise was playful and mischievous, but at that moment, they were shooting daggers at each other.
"Uh, welcome?" Lilac offered, her face contorted in concerned confusion.
"Thanks for inviting me," responded Snowy Surprise and Rainsong through gritted teeth, their eyes still locked on one another. After an awkward silence, they dropped their gaze and walked opposite ways. Lilac put out a hoof to stop them but it was too late; they already disappeared into the crowd.
Lilac sighed with exasperation, and slammed the front door.
***
After a few, supremely busy hours, Lilac came into the manor library. Throughout the entire party, her worry for her friends had nagged her, even though she kept a happy face. She needed to talk to them, or at least one of them. That's why she was here.
Rows after rows of books lined the ornate shelves, which were arranged in a spiral in the grand space. She passed them and entered the circle that was the centre of the room. Above her lay a huge glass dome that would have let in moonlight if it hadn't been concealed by the clouds. In front of her lay a common sight; Rainsong laying on a plush, green sofa reading a book by the light of the burning fireplace, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the party.
Lilac set her tired body down in an armchair opposite of Rainsong, but she was still immersed with her book. She coughed and Rainsong looked up, and realizing who it was, sat up and closed the book on her lap.
"Hi, Lilac. How is the party?" Rain inquired.
"Good. Just... reaaally busy," Lilac scratched her muzzle as another period of silence overcame them. She finally came out, "So... what's going between you and Snowy?"
Immediately, Rain's face hardened. "Nothing," she replied, "There was just a little- disagreement. Something about last weekend."
"Oh?" Lilac leaned forward, "And what happened last weekend?"
"We went camping. That's all," she then muttered under her breath. "That idiotic, nuisance of a pony-"
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Rain quickly shut up. Another few seconds of silence passed and Lilac knew she wasn't getting anything thing else. Lilac looked at the time on the nearby grandfather clock.
"Ok. I better get back to the party. You know, being host and all." she excused herself.
Rain resumed her position on the sofa and started to read her book again. Lilac looked down at her and then marched off, grunting another aggravated sigh.
***
Lilac was passing through the groups of ponies scattered around the lounge, talking to friends and family and asking if they wanted anything, like a new cup of coffee or tea. As she was relieving a tiny colt that was her nephew from drowning in the chocolate fountain, she spotted an easily recognizable blue-and-white mane sitting at a table in the corner of the room.
She finished wiping off the last bit of chocolate off the foal's muzzle. "You better not do any more of that, or for Hearth's Warming, you won't get any presents," she playfully scolded him. "Alright, go along now, before I catch you!" she tickled his belly and the foal galloped away, laughing with glee. She smiled at the sight but it soon dissipated as she approached her friend.
"Hey," Snowy was nonchalant as she played with a small ice sculpture she made out of her drink. Lilac sat down on the other available chair to instantly jump into the air from the sudden coldness. She looked down at the seat to see it covered in a thick layer of frost.
"Was wondering who was going to sit there." she chuckled and hauled herself up. Her horn glowed a icy blue and the frost suddenly evaporated. Lilac reseated herself into the chair.
"So what's a-buzzing?" Snowy looked at her as she transformed her ice sculpture into a tiny, pirouetting ballerina.
Lilac decided to be direct. "What happened between you and Rain last weekend?"
"I-," Snowy's eyebrows furrowed and she slammed her hoof down on the ice sculpture, turning into snow. "That moronic, incompetent dunce!"
"Hey, hey!" Lilac tried to calm her friend down.
"It was just a bike. I mean seriously!" she muttered some more inaudible things. "And then she says I should be the one to blame?!" finished Snowy.
"What happened?" Lilac begged to know but seeing her friend's piercing gaze at the table and lack of cooperation, she knew that was all she was going to get.
"Ugh, fine." Lilac got up and left, growling with growing vexation.
***
Lilac was busy helping ponies find their seats in the dining hall. She was trying her best to be positive and to have a beaming face, but she found it harder and harder to keep it. The many angry, frustrated, and worrying thoughts from the last few hours flew around her head, trying to break free.
Suddenly, on the opposite end of the room, twin yells echoed each other.
"I refuse to be seated next to HER!"
Lilac rushed over pass the wandering crowd to see her two friends standing off against each other. "Woah! Ponies!" she held her hooves up in attempt to hold them apart. "Settle down!"
"Settle down?! I'm still waiting for an apology!" Rainsong pointed accusingly at Snowy.
"You still want an apology? Stop acting so stupid you twerp!" Snowy retorted.
The two angry ponies finally overpowered Lilac and cursing, closed in muzzle-to-muzzle, throwing Lilac back onto her flank. Lilac, groggily recovering form her fall, rose to her hooves to the sight of her two best friends screaming at each other. Finally, she couldn't keep it in anymore.
"STOP!!!" she screamed and the entire room shuddered from her voice, metaphorically and literally. "Just- Just stop!" Tears welled from her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Still crying, she ran out of the room.
The two stunned friends looked at each other, and forming a silent agreement, ran after Lilac.
***
They found her alone in the manor tower, quietly looking out at the darkened sky.
"Lilac?" Rainsong searched for a way to call her. Lilac turned around, her green eyes free from tears though her face was still matted and wet.
"I'm sorry," Snowy offered, putting a hoof on Lilac's shoulder.
"We're sorry," added Rainsong, putting another hoof on Lilac's other shoulder. They both continued. "We were just so busy angry at each other."
"We didn't realized it was hurting you."
"It's our fault that this happened."
"Can you forgive us?"
Lilac looked down at her hooves. The two friends, searching for absolution and receiving none, put down their own heads in shame. Suddenly, they were pulled into a strong embrace.
"Of course, I'll forgive you!" she exclaimed, her eyes shut as they produced more tears. "You're two are my best friends!" Snowy and Rainsong, seeing Lilac's smile, wrapped their own hooves around her to return the hug. After a while, they let go.
"You know what?" Snowy turned to Rain, "I'm sorry for what I did."
"That's okay," replied Rainsong, "I shouldn't have been so onto you anyways."
Seeing her friends reconcile, Lilac finally got to her hooves. "C'mon, I got a feast to host." she wiped away the last of the tears from her eyes and with the help of her friends, climbed down the stairs and returned to the dining hall.
As she was brought to the head of table, she stopped her friends from taking their own seats and stood up.
"Attention everypony!" she announced, "As you know, today is the day of the Thanksgiving Feast, originally a celebration for our ancestors to give thanks to their fellow kin's help with the first harvest. Today, it is to give thanks to the ponies in our lives who have helped us along the way. So, in saying that, I am thankful for everypony for coming, but especially my two friends here." Lilac motions to Rain and Snowy, and they blushed from the attention. "They are my two truest friends; they have stuck with me through all my troubles and they'll go with me a long way still. So I want you remember to thank your own friends all over Equestria and let the fire of friendship warm the entire land!"
Lilac, taking a mug of cider in one hoof, smiled at her friends, who returned it with a even bigger one. She hoisted the mug up in a cheers, with the rest of the ponies following. "May friendships last forever!" chorused throughout the hall.
