"You must understand," Mudbriar explained. "For the longest time, except for her family, Maud only had one real friend."
"I didn't know," Twilight said.
"I'm more of an extrovert than Maud is. I've always had dozens of friends ever since I was a little colt. But for a long time, she only had the one. I appreciate that lately, you and several other mares here have tried to be good friends to Maud. But you can't understand her the way her oldest friend could." Mudbriar wiped his eye with the back of his hoof. "And now her friend is gone." Mudbriar sniffled. "I can hardly bear it myself."
"Gone?" Twilight asked. "Where did her old friend...go?"
"I don't think anyone really knows where our friends go when this happens. Some ponies like to say someday we'll see them again, when the same thing happens to us."
"Wait," Twilight said. "Who are you talking about?"
Maud waved a forehoof at the table in the center of her cavern chamber. She spoke flatly, "I can't believe everypony is so blind. But I know most ponies are. Even Mudbriar has to take my word for it. It just makes me feel even more alone in this world."
"I'm sorry," Twilight replied. "I don't know what to say."
"That's all right," Maud said. "Nopony knows what to say. I don't either. There are no words. If there are, nocreature seems to know them."
Twilight looked back and forth between Maud and Mudbriar, hoping somepony would explain.
"Well," Twilight said, "Applejack asked me to bring this casserole. She would have come herself, but this week is a very busy season on the farm."
"I understand," Maud said. "I had to be away from most of the ponies I cared about when I traveled to research geology, and to go to school for my rocktorate. But I know I'll get to see Applejack next week. Or I could go visit her this week. I know I could. But I just feel so tired."
Twilight nodded. With a soft magenta glow, she levitated the casserole off her back and onto the table.
"Twilight." Maud said. "Have you no respect?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrespect your...table."
Mudbriar laughed. It was a sudden, helpless, uncontrollable release of built-up emotional strain. It was very sad. It was also like a nasal, arrhythmic exercise in noise pollution. Twilight didn't care for it. But who was she to tell other ponies how to grieve, and how to cope with supporting their loved ones in their grief?
Grief for...whoever it was that Maud had lost. Twilight still didn't quite understand.
Maud said, "It's not the table. Look under the casserole."
Twilight noticed the casserole seemed to be slightly tilted. She lifted the covered dish. Underneath, she found a pebble. "Boulder?"
"And here I thought maybe you couldn't understand this at all," Maud remarked. "Yes, that is Boulder."
Twilight asked, "How's he doing? How's IT doing? Is Boulder going to be ok? I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to smoosh him!"
Maud gave Twilight a look that, if somepony else had done it, the purple mare might have called sarcastic. But from Maud, who could say?
Maud explained, "You didn't hurt Boulder. Boulder is beyond all harm, now."
"Oh my...Celestia. Are you telling me Boulder is DEAD?"
"Yes. Boulder died the day before yesterday. I'm so glad you understand."
"I'm so sorry. But I don't think I really do understand."
"I know it's hard to accept, when something like this happens."
"Yes," Twilight said. "If you'll excuse me...I think I have to be alone for a little while."
"I'm sure Boulder would have appreciated your sympathy. Maybe wherever Boulder's true inner self is, Boulder still does."
Twilight ran from the chamber, towards the exit to the surface world.
***
Twilight dragged Pinkie Pie up to the earth pony's upstairs room in Sugarcube Corner Bakery. "I...think I need some help understanding what's happening here. Your sister's best friend for most of her life was a ROCK?"
"Well, sure. Knowing Maud, does that surprise you?"
Twilight put both forehooves on her face. She took slow, deep breaths. After a minute, she said, "I suppose it doesn't. It's just...this is all so much to take in. I didn't even understand how much Boulder meant to Maud...and already Boulder is gone."
"I know," Pinkie said sympathetically. She sat next to Twilight on the bed, and gently patted Twilight's back. "You never really know how much somecreature means to you, until they're gone." Pinkie sighed. "I can tell this is really hurting you, too."
"Mostly because I feel I just staggered in pure ignorance through an emotional minefield where I could have made your sister feel twice as bad as I did half a dozen times, but I just mostly lucked out even while I was a complete idiot about all this."
"That happens a lot with Maud. Ponies mostly don't understand her very well. She's used to it. Even if you hurt her by mistake by not understanding her, she will forgive you. She's a very kind pony, that way."
Twilight made a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh. "I believe it. I'm sure she is very kind and forgiving. Who but somepony as kind and caring as she is could love a rock? Could love that rock so much she would carry it with her wherever she goes, for thousands of miles?"
"You think you don't understand her at all. But you kind of do. I'm glad that even though she lost Boulder, she still has friends like you, Twilight."
"Oh Celestia. I hope I can be even half as good a pony as what you just said."
"Don't worry, Twilight. Even if you might make some mistakes sometimes, you can do it. I know you can."
"Do I really deserve any of my Pie friends?"
Pinkie pulled the alicorn into a hug. "I think you do. But even if you sometimes feel like you don't...don't we deserve to have you as a friend? Because I don't want to give you up. And if I get to have you as a friend, you have to have me as a friend too. That's how it works. If you'll have me."
"Oh Pinkie. I'm SO HAPPY to have you as a friend too. Please be my friend forever."
"I Pinkie promise!"
"Oh, look at us. I think we're getting tears on each other."
"A few of them are happy tears, Twi. Because I'm so happy Maud and I have you as a friend."
"I still feel bad for poor Maud."
"Me too. But I'm glad she has you. Now, are you ready to go downstairs? The bakery has a rush order for five dozen gingerbread ponies that won't roll THEMSELVES out."
"Sure. Let's go downstairs."
***
Near Ponyville, Twilight rested on a large, flat rock, basking in the sunlight. She had a book open, but she wasn't reading it.
"Hello, Twilight," an expressionless voice said. The purple alicorn turned to see Maud.
"Hi, Maud. How are you...handling things?"
"Oh, much better."
Twilight blinked in confusion. Was Twilight just imagining things, or was Maud...happy?
"Better?" Twilight asked.
"Twilight...have you ever thought about whether souls really exist?"
Oh my, Twilight thought. Has Maud gotten into religion? Is some weird cult taking advantage of Maud's grief?
Twilight said, "I know some ponies talk about that, and write books. But I've never seen any real evidence, one way or the other."
Maud said flatly, "I know."
"You know?"
"I know that souls are real." Her hoof reached into a pocket of her dress, and pulled out a small, black angular stone. "Because without souls, we couldn't have reincarnation. Boulder was reborn earlier today, as a piece of basalt that had just cleaved off a rockface. He called to me, and I found him. He was near the creek, waiting for me."
"I see." As happened so often with Maud, Twilight didn't know what to think. But her scientific curiosity got the better of her. "Are you...sure, this is really the same rock? Can you PROVE this is Boulder?"
Maud laughed. "Do you remember the time I went to Trottingham, and I didn't want Boulder exposed to the acidic air pollution there? So I asked Pinkie Pie to rocksit for me?"
"Ye--es? I mean, I think so?"
"Pinkie Pie didn't want Boulder to get bored, so she carried Boulder around with her everywhere she went. Do you remember the day you and Pinkie and the other mares were talking about my dress?"
"Sure. Somehow, the color of your dress seems different to different ponies. Applejack thought--"
"Don't say it, Twilight. I'll just ask Boulder to tell me about it again."
Maud was silent for a minute.
"Maud, you don't have to--"
"I do have to. Applejack thought my dress was blue. Rainbow Dash thought it was like the color a stormy sky gets sometimes, directly opposite the sun. Fluttershy said my dress reminded her of the color of some kind of snake, Boulder doesn't remember which one. Spike thought my dress was almost like a low-grade sapphire, the kind that doesn't transmit light all that well. You thought my dress was bluish gray, or grayish blue, you weren't sure which. But Boulder doesn't remember exactly what the other ponies said. It was more than a year ago."
Twilight tried to remember. "I guess we did say those things. But are you sure you didn't hear about it from Pinkie Pie, and then forget that you'd heard about it, but maybe you still remembered unconsciously, and then just now you imagined Boulder telling you--"
"Ha. Now which of us is making up wild stories and imagining things. Boulder was right there. Just like Boulder is here now."
Maud seemed to listen for a moment.
"Twilight? Boulder says if you really want more evidence, Boulder can say more. But maybe you'd rather Boulder didn't."
"What?" Twilight snorted. "I'm sure it's just fine, whatever it is."
"You should make sure to know what you're agreeing to first, before you agree. Boulder says Pinkie accidentally left Boulder behind at your castle for a day. And you saw Boulder...and I guess you just needed somerock to talk to."
"Um...well..."
"You talked about being single. And you said some more...but maybe you'd rather Boulder keep what you said a secret."
Twilight blushed. "Maud, can YOU keep a secret for me?"
Maud nodded. "Pinkie Pie Promise."
"Ok. Boulder can tell us. Because you won't tell anyone, right?"
"I promise. I'll only tell you. The only reason we're even telling you is because I respect your interest in scientific inquiry, as one scientist to another." Maud picked up the little rock with her hoof, and held it to her ear.
Maud put her muzzle up next to Twilght's ear, and whispered.
Twilight blushed redder. "That's true. I just...I did feel like I had to talk about it, to somecreature."
Maud replied, "I get it. You had to talk to somecreature who would understand. So you picked Boulder. Rocks can be very wise."
Twilight giggled nervously. "You...you don't think I'm crazy, right?"
"Maybe a little bit weird. But everypony has some way they're a little weird." Maud listened to Boulder for a moment. "If you weren't a little weird in some way, that would be weird."
Twilight chuckled. "So I'm not TOO weird?"
Maud said, "You're just the right amount of weird. That's part of why Boulder and I like you so much."
"You like me THAT much?"
"Just as friends. Boulder doesn't date ponies. And I have Mudbriar. He and I are very devoted to each other."
"I understand about you and Mudbriar. But Boulder dates?"
"You sound curious."
Twilight, Maud, and Boulder sat together on a big flat rock, basking in the sun, talking.
It was pretty good.
Author's Note
If you don't like (or don't demand) happy endings, you could read another story about Maud losing somepony she loves.
