Present Day

I sniffled, still remembering the terrible moment I had plunged in that knife a year ago. It had killed Pinkie, and her dark side, but had also killed something in me, too. It had killed a part of each of us.

"Pinkie Pie..." Fluttershy still sobbed in my arms. I hugged her tighter, looking at the others.

Dash had her head on the table. Applejack had pulled her hat down over her face, though I could see she was crying from her shaking shoulders. Rarity was weeping as unashamedly as Fluttershy. Twilight was absently running her fingers over the scars on her arms.

"We did what we had to." Applejack's voice was muffled by her hat. "She would have kept killin'."

We all knew that. It still didn't make our choice from a year earlier any easier to live with. Not only would she have kept killing, but eventually she would have been captured. That would have meant prison, an asylum, or maybe even death. None of us would have wanted that. Pinkamena might not have cared, but Pinkie Pie wouldn't have been able to tolerate it long. No. It was far better to have done it the way we did. Even though I still felt guilty and apologised for not coming up with a better plan, we all knew there wasn't a better one.

We all carried scars, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The horrors we's seen during those 24 hours, not to mention what we had experienced, still haunted us in our dreams. The only difference being that now, we could wake up before the knife plunged in.

"I can't believe its been a year." Rarity whispered. "It...it seems like only yesterday."

Probably because we relived the horrible time night after night in our dreams.

"It still hurts...so bad..." this from Dash.

"The emotional and mental wounds are still fresh." I said, sighing. "Our physical wounds healed, but..." I stopped.

Time heals all wounds. Another famous saying. From another famous idiot who probably didn't know the first thing about the deep, horrible wounds in the heart and soul that seemed to stay extremely fresh. Sure, physical wounds healed. Big deal! What of the others? I sighed.

"What would Pinkie do?"

The unexpected question made all eyes lock on Fluttershy, mine included, though I had to tilt my head back a bit due to the fact she was still in my lap with her arms around me like I was a lifeline. She met each of our eyes in turn.

"She wouldn't want us to feel so sad." She said softly. "She told us...before she died...remember Pinkie, not...not the darkness of Pinkamena. She...she wanted us to remember her as she was before. Not what she was before she died."

"Flutters is right." Dash said with a sigh. "For the last year we've remembered the terror of Pinkamena. Not the joy and laughter of Pinkie Pie. I know she wouldn't be happy seeing us so sad."

It was true. The bubbly party girl would have done anything to make us smile, even throw a....

"Party!!" I exclaimed. "Lets have a party in honor of Pinkie, like we should have a year ago. Pinkamena wasn't Pinkie. And Pinkie was our friend. She would want a party."

"Lets do it!" Dash agreed. The others nodded.

An hour later we were all going our separate ways to gather what we needed.
**************************************

We met up that afternoon on the sidewalk outside of Pinkie's house. For a moment we stood silently. Then we walked up the stairs and I opened the door. The house had been thoroughly cleaned after Pinkamena was stopped and Pinkie died. We had not been back since that fateful day. It was familiar, like we'd never missed a day coming here.

We set up in the kitchen, and proceeded to decorate the lower rooms. It would only be us six for the party. With that done, we all gathered at the foot of the stairs. We slowly climbed them together, knowing there was one more thing to do. We entered Pinkie's room and stood there, breathing deeply, fighting off bad memories and replacing them with good ones. Fluttershy pressed close to Rarity, who put an arm around her.

The room was tidy. No knives or photo albums of dead bodies. The windows had been fixed. It only took a moment to gather all the photos of Pinkie we could find and carry them downstairs, setting them at random through the rooms. We picked the oddest places we could, and the goofiest, because that's what Pinkie would have done.

Dash, though not as good at it as Pinkie, had managed to rig up a few of her many party cannons so they would explode when the rest of us unknowingly tripped them.

We got together in tje kitchen and chowed down on cake, cookies, soda, pizza and other delicious foods, sharing funny stories of Pinkie Pie and laughing until we cried at them.

We played pin the tail on the donkey, we popped balloons, we played tag through the house, and we even held a masive pillow fight that nearly devasted the entire house. We played goofy word games and did all kinds of silly dance moves to make each other laugh. Finally, out of breath and tired, and happier than we had been in a year, we grabbed sodas and went to the living room, still chuckling.

We stood there, in the living room, looking at a large picture of the grinning, giggly Pinkie and lifted our soda cups.

"To Pinkie Pie, best partier ever." Dash said, smiling.

"To Pinkie Pie, who gave the greatest hugs in the world." Rarity supplied.

"To Pinkie Pie, who cared more for other folks than herself." Applejack said.

"To Pinkie Pie, who always agreed to be my scientific test subject when I asked." Twilight offered, which earned a few smiles.

"To Pinkie Pie, who l...loved baking and m...my animals and could always make us laugh." Fluttershy faltered, with a watery smile.

They all looked at me. I gazed into the bright blue eyes that beamed at me from the picture frame.

Lifting my soda a little higher, I smiled back at the picture Pinkie and spoke.

"To Pinkie Pie, our best friend in the whole world, we love you, and we will never, ever forget you."

"Hear, hear!" Was the hearty, though somewhat tearful, response, as we clicked our soda cans together and drank to the memory of Pinkie Pie.

Author's Note

Last chapter, guys. I'm thrilled about that. It was so sad writing all this...

I apologise if this chapter seemed rushed or cheesy or out of place or whatever else.

I was desperate to get this story over with so I could finally stop bawling like a baby. You seriously don't want to know how big a pile of Kleenex is currently sitting on my desk....