Princess Twilight Sparkle stood up from her meeting, causing all the arguing ponies at the table to fall silent. She stood there for a moment, looking each mare and stallion in the eye as her gaze passed over them. They were uncomfortable. A couple of the stallions started to get up and stand with her, but she raised a hoof to stop them. Twilight held a chuckle deep inside as she opened her mouth to speak.
"Go home. Spend tonight with friends and family. You never know when your last day will be with them. For those of you too far away to make it home tonight, please, I've compiled a comprehensive list of all the parties happening in Canterlot tonight listed from the seediest dive bar to the garden party here in the castle. Choose whichever strikes your fancy. Make some new friends. Have fun. I'm off myself to visit a close friend. I truly hope you can do the same."
Twilight flashed her horn and was gone, leaving the politicians in shock. Some of them continued their arguing. The smart ones left and had one of the best nights of their lives.
_____
Twilight walked into Ponyville Retirement Village and was pleased to see Spike there, already. Him getting somewhere first always meant that she didn't have to deal with a plethora of unnecessary bows. He waved as she trotted up to give him a hug. After separating, he gave her a rather quizzical look.
“What, Spike? I know that look. I know how to be on time.”
“Yeah, but your schedule was packed today. Way too much, even for you.”
Twilight chuckled, “I may have…left a meeting or two early.”
Spiked gasped, “No way! You’re not Twilight Sparkle. Where is she? What did you do to her?”
“Hey! I know I’m usually a stickler for making sure meetings are actually finished, but tonight’s important. I missed Pinkie’s last two Nightmare Night parties. There’s no way I was going to miss this one.”
“No kidding. It was actually hard to cheer her up last year. Even though you still see her every month, she really wanted you to come to that party.”
“I know. She told me how much her heart hurt that I wasn’t there. That’s why I had to be here tonight.”
As they got to the doors of the main building, two fillies ran out chasing each other and screaming in laughter. It was about this time that Twilight noticed that there was a lot of screaming and laughing going on inside already. She almost didn’t want to go in for fear of causing all the fun to stop. Spike noticed her hesitation and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry. Everyone knows you’re coming so they won’t be shocked. They also know you’re here to party, so they’ll be more relaxed. Besides, it’s not like this place is filled with nobles, like Canterlot.”
Twilight nodded and took a breath. 300 years as a princess, and she still got nervous when she entered a party. Spike walked in and Twilight followed. She tried to be inconspicuous, but that’s next to impossible when you’re a pony princess. Even if your mane didn’t blow in a non-existent wind while magical sparkles danced inside of it. And even if you don’t wear your royal regalia, ponies are going to notice a pony that towers over everyone in the room.
Twilight waved to the room as all eyes turned to her. Various cheers and cries of “It’s Princess Twilight Sparkle” met her ears, but no one ceased their enjoyment of the party. Twilight let a breath go that she didn’t know she was holding. She began to slowly mingle with the crowd, shaking hooves, nodding to those doing the same. Then she heard it. Her energy was way less than it used to be, but her mirth was far more than she ever remembered.
“Twilight!”
Twilight turned her head to see her friend slowly making it across the room with her walker. She was frail, but her smile was the smile she always wore. So big and genuine that it could make even the hardest of hearts melt. And at this moment in time it made Twilight sprout a big smile of her own.
“Pinkie! I’m so happy to see you. It has been too long.”
“Oh don’t worry. It’s only been forty three thousand eight hundred minutes.”
Twilight involuntarily did the math: one month. It had been one month since she had last seen her best friend. She smiled at Pinkie who returned it. Pinkie always had a way to make you really see things. It had only been a month, but how long was a month when considering how old Pinkie was?
“Let’s sit down. I’m bushed.”
Twilight pulled a couple nearby chairs over for them to sit on.
“Magic! Ha! It’d be pretty nice to have with all these years on my body.”
“Oh Pinkie, I'm sorry. I didn’t mean-“
“Shush. You’re here now, so you can be my magic for the evening. Deal?”
Twilight smiled, “Deal.”
Pinkie smiled and sat in her chair, but her smile dropped the moment she was down. “Oopsie.”
“What? Is something wrong?” Twilight gave her friend a concerned look. Then she saw the drips falling from the edge of Pinkie’s chair and she smelled the urine. Her concern turned to a muted sadness, “How can I help?”
“Well, normally the great ponies that work here help me out. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to get here, though.” Pinkie’s embarrassment was evident in her speech and mannerisms. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I didn’t want you to see this.”
Recovering from her shock, Twilight put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder and looked her in the eyes, “Let me help you.” Pinkie Pie simply nodded in reply.
Twilight picked her up in her magic and did a quick bath spell. It was one she was used to doing now, as opposed to taking actual baths. It allowed her more time to herself in her busy life. She never imagined she'd be using it on somepony else, let alone her friend. But she did, and was happy to do so. When she was done with Pinkie, she turned her attention to the chair and the floor. She separated the molecules of the urine from the floor and the chair and held it suspended as she set Pinkie back down in her chair.
“Wow, Twilight. That’s the best bath I’ve had in a while. Thanks!”
Twilight chuckled, “No problem, Pinkie. Anything for my best friend.”
The nurse showed up at that point with a puzzled look on her face. She looked to the princess and Twilight noticed a mild fear growing on the mare’s face. Twilight ignored it and simply asked for something to put the urine in. The nurse pulled out a fresh diaper to absorb the liquid. The nurse then pulled out another diaper and began preparing to place it on Pinkie, causing the pink mare to whimper.
“I don’t like those. They feel funny. In a bad way.”
“I know, Miss Pie, but you don’t really want to have another accident, do you?”
“But I have accidents all the time! It’s just whether I want to hide them or not.” Pinkie huffed and folded her forearms across her chest.
“If I may,” Twilight got the attention of the nurse, “I’ll be here with Pinkie Pie tonight. I can take care of her, if that’ll help. I just need some more of these diapers and a place to put them.”
The nurse pondered this for a second. “I would need to get approval from my supervisor.”
Twilight nodded and the nurse walked off. Twilight looked to Pinkie Pie, still sitting with her hooves across her chest. She was upset about more than just her incontinence. Twilight took her seat and stared at Pinkie for a little bit. Then an idea popped in her head and she began to sing.
My name is Twilight Sparkle
And I am here to say
I'm gonna make you smile and I will brighten up your day
It doesn't matter now
If you are sad or blue
'Cause cheering up my friend is just what Twilight's here to do
Pinkie looked up to Twilight’s eyes and couldn’t help but cheer up and join in
'Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile
Yes I do
It fills my heart with sunshine all the while
Yes it does
'Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From these happy friends of mine
They laughed and hugged and just enjoyed their closeness for a while. She loved being with her friend, but Twilight couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the others. They had been so close, they may as well have been her sisters. And she only had one sister left. But her trip down melancholy lane was interrupted by a small cyan filly with a red mane.
“Granny Pinkie, Granny Pinkie!” The filly jumped up onto Pinkie’s lap, wedging herself between Pinkie and Twilight. “Why are you hugging Princess Twilight? Can I hug her?” The little filly looked up to Twilight, hope glinting in her eyes.
Twilight didn’t even hesitate, “Of course, my little pony.” and she pulled her into a small hug. When released, the filly stayed put and snuggled into Pinkie Pie’s lap. Seeing that the filly was staying put, Twilight looked to her pink friend.
“So, who’s this ‘Granny Pinkie’?”
Pinkie chuckled and pulled the filly in tighter, “This is Astra. She’s my great great great great great great great great granddaughter. I think. I stopped counting after a while. Too many Apple Pies.”
“Apple Pies?” Twilight’s confusion quickly resolved itself, “Oh right. Cheese Pie married Apple Pastry.”
“Yep! AJ and I were super happy about that. Finally made us related, for sure, heehee.”
Twilight briefly contemplated the ramifications of what Pinkie had just stated, but quickly tossed it aside. Even if the two were related, the connection was so remote that there wouldn’t be any issues. She turned to the little filly once more, “So, Astra, what do you like to do for fun?”
Astra, still snuggling into Granny Pinkie, furrowed her brow in thought. “Well, I like playing with my friends, but lately I've been at the library reading about the two sisters.”
“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Why are you so interested in them?”
“They used to be the ones that raised the sun and the moon. And before them, it took a bunch of unicorns to do it. And now you do it. I’m just wondering, why? In everything I’ve ever read about it, I couldn’t find a reason why we need a pony to move the sun and moon for us.”
Twilight was a bit stunned and the little filly’s reply. Certainly, Twilight had pondered the same question a few times, but she had never actively sought out an answer. She smiled down to Astra, “Well, when you find out, let me know. It’d be nice to take a break from it.”
“Okay!” Astra hopped out of Pinkie’s lap and ran off into the crowd of ponies.
“I want to run off with that much energy again.” Twilight mused.
“You and me both, Twilight.” Pinkie’s comment made her wince, “But I had a good life.” She gestured to the crowd of ponies, “This is my family and it’s the greatest. I had a husband that made me laugh every day. We had a bunch of amazing fillies and colts.” She pulled Twilight into a hug with a strength that she shouldn’t have had. “and I had the best friends.”
From her friend’s embrace, Twilight noticed the time. “Oh shoot, Pinkie. I gotta go raise the moon.”
Pinkie let go of her friend and jumped up onto her chair, with her forehooves high in the air. She looked just like she used to. “Hey everypony! Wanna watch Twilight raise the moon and start this party?”
The room erupted in cheers and everypony ran out the doors. It probably wasn’t the safest exit, but nothing much could be done about it at this point. Twilight chuckled and followed the crowd right behind a trotting Pinkie Pie. She still had the energy for a party, it seemed.
Once outside, Twilight and Pinkie found a spot where Twilight could see most of the sky. Pinkie Pie sat on the grass just off the walkway and watched the sky just like a little filly. Twilight lit up her horn and felt the sun. It was ready to continue its journey and she was ready to send it. The smallest of pushes sent it down below the horizon, revealing all the glittering stars and their hidden messages. Twilight then reached for the moon. She had to be gentle with this one, as it was so much smaller than the sun. Almost like a beach ball, she gave the moon a bop with her magic and it began its ascent into the sky.
The crowd cheered the moon and filed back inside to continue their party. Twilight and Pinkie stayed out in the courtyard and admired the stars. Well, Pinkie Pie was admiring the stars. Twilight Sparkle was, at this point, triple checking the velocities. She was spot checking the positions of all the various astronomical elements, making sure they were exactly where they were supposed to be. She spotted a star that was slightly off and began to adjust it.
“It’s fine, Twilight.”
“It’s not a big deal. Just need to move it just a little-“
“It’s not gonna change anything.” Pinkie’s words caused Twilight to stop and look at her aged friend. “I may not shiver and shake anymore, but my Pinkie sense is stronger than ever.”
“Pinkie, what are you-“
“You know what I’m talking about, Twilight. You can’t save me.”
The lump forming in Twilight’s throat almost blocked her words, “Pinkie, I’m not trying to do anything like that.”
Pinkie eyed her friend up and down. “You don’t think that’s what you’re doing. But you are. It’s okay. I understand. If I were an alicorn, I’d be trying the same thing. Well, I would if I didn’t know what I know.”
Twilight turned to completely face her friend and sat down. “What do you know, Pinkie Pie?”
“I’m dying.”
She had never sounded so sure of herself in all the centuries that Twilight had known her. Twilight’s heart sank to depths she didn’t know she had. Her face began to tingle. “You-you can’t know that.”
“You can’t Twilight yourself out of everything. Even if you are Twilight Sparkle.” Pinkie’s smile grew to encompass her whole face as her giggles blossomed out of her chest. Twilight knew she should be sad, but those giggles completely stopped it. Twilight joined in and the weight of Pinkie’s words were lifted. Soon, the giggles became uproarious laughter between the two best friends in all Equestria.
_________
The castle gardens were packed. Half the crowd was her entire extended family. The other half was filled with some of the oldest ponies of Equestria that still knew of the stories. They were nearly considered legends at this point. Pinkie’s elderly grandchildren had given a moving eulogy, sharing some of the more personal family stories and jokes and causing chuckles to ripple through the crowd.
As Twilight approached the podium, her tears wouldn’t stop flowing. She also wouldn’t stop smiling, because the happiest party pony deserved that. She looked across the massive crowd that had gathered in honor of her very best friend. Her eyes landed on Astra, standing atop somepony’s back. Presumably, her mother. It was Astra who kept her gaze, as she began to speak.
“This crowd is so big, I’m positive Pinkie Pie wished she was here for the party.” The whole crowd chuckled at this. “I was fully prepared to speak to you all today about how wonderful Pinkie Pie was. I had my speech completely written out and ready to go.” Twilight held up a large stack of notecards to show everypony. “But I got something delivered yesterday by Ponyville Express. One guess who it was from.” The crowd began a small wave of murmurs.
“It was just a large envelope. I opened it up and found another sealed envelope with a small note asking that it be opened and read here today. So I’m gonna read this letter that was written to us from the pony we all love.”
The crowd was silent. Twilight held up the envelope and tore it open releasing a small poof of confetti and caused varied levels of laughter to erupt across the crowd. Twilight couldn’t help but broaden her smile as she pulled the letter out of the envelope and shook off the remaining confetti. She opened the letter and began reading.
Hi! I know you’re probably super duper sad that I’m dead, and that’s okay. You can be sad. But don’t be sad for too long. Life is like a cake! It takes work to make it. Then it has to bake and get all hot. It hurts if you touch a cake when it’s hot. But the heat is what makes it soooo good! It makes it rise and get all soft and tasty. Have you ever had raw cake? It might be good, but it’s never as good as the finished thing. Plus, how can you put frosting on a raw cake? I LOVE frosting! It’s not cake if it doesn’t have frosting!
What was I saying?
Oh! Yeah, life has to bake you so that you can be soft and yummy and have layers! The layers are super important. Layers are the other ponies in your life. Or maybe not ponies. Maybe you’re a griffin. Or a hippogriff. Or a human. I don’t know who you are, but you need to find your other layers after you’re done baking.
Sure, I was probably a layer in your life, but I got ate all up. That’s a cake’s purpose, you know. I’m just so glad that I got eaten by so many ponies and creatures.
Wow. That sounds bad. But you know what I mean.
My life was so full of happiness and laughter that I can’t even really remember any of the bad times. I know they happened, but I got covered in so many layers and so much frosting. Mmmmm, frosting.
Twilight giggled. “There’s a spot here on the letter. She was drooling while she thought about the frosting.” The crowd joined in her giggles.
I know you miss me. I miss you too. I’ll always miss you, even if you don’t always miss me, but it’s okay if you stop missing me. If it helps you move forward and live your best life. I’m just glad that I got to be in just a tiny part of it. I love that you love me. Know that I love you too.
Sincerely,
Pinkamena Diane Pie
P.S.
I baked one last cake for every creature to enjoy. All you gotta do is fire my party cannon one last time.
Twilight placed the letter down on the podium, and looked out to the crowd. “Um. We don’t have her party cannon. But we do have refreshments available in-“
“Excuse me, princess.” Twilight turned around to see one of her guards standing behind her with Pinkie’s party cannon. “This was just delivered. It was supposed to come with that letter from yesterday. We got it here as fast as we could.”
Twilight’s breath caught in her throat. It looked exactly the same as it did the last time she had seen it over a century ago. It looked even better, actually. It was polished and shiny. She turned to the crowd once more. “Alright everypony, we found it!”
The crowd cheered and hollered. Twilight rolled the cannon off to the side so that everypony could see it, but made sure to aim it away from any living thing. She then put up a shield between it and the ponies on the platform. Sure Pinkie was meticulous in her planning, but this thing was over three centuries old.
When it was ready, Twilight shouted, “Firing in 3! 2! 1!” She pressed the button and nothing happened. Well, the cannon didn’t fire. But there was an explosion or three that came from the spires of the castle above the garden. Twilight and the crowd looked up to see massive clouds of confetti and streamers launch into the air. They were all mesmerized as they watched it all descend upon them. Everyone was smiling.
Then there were three more explosions. It was launched high into the air but soon began it’s return to the earth. The shadow it cast covered the entire garden.The ponies below realized it was going to land on them and panic ensued. Twilight was certain she even heard good old Wilhelm. But she knew what this was. She calculated where it was going to land. Directly on the statue of her and her friends. Obviously. She pushed everyone out of the way with her magic in time for it to land safely.
Three giant layers of cake. About three stories tall. Perfectly frosted. Candles set uniformly all the way around. And if Twilight had to guess, it was also perfectly baked. But she had to calm everypony down before she could try it.
“Everypony please calm down! This is the cake that Pinkie promised us. And I’m sure it’s delicious. Let us get some assistance and we’ll make sure everypony gets a nice big piece.”
Twilight had never seen a crowd go from panicked to partying so fast.
________
Twilight was completely exhausted as she entered her private study. The amount of cake had been way more than the party goers could eat. Even with everypony taking a good size piece home, Twilight still had to make arrangements to get rid of the cake. It ended up being enough to give a piece to every pony in Canterlot and Ponyville. She was sure Pinkie had planned that.
She rolled the party cannon in behind her and took it to a spot she had prepared many many years before. It was placed next to a Wonderbolts uniform that wore the wings of a captain. Twilight glanced around the room at the others. The Reign in Stain, much too small for her now, was stunning. The ponyquine also wore an old beat up Stetson. Finally, there was the bird’s nest on the shelf. It was beautiful and delicate, just like the pony that made it.
Twilight sat at her desk and let her mind wander. The last of her best friends was gone. She didn’t know what she was feeling or how she should feel or…what. She was sad, of course, but there was so much more. Her friends had lived good lives. Full lives. Lives of love and happiness. They had all gone peacefully, content with what they were leaving behind. As she sat there thinking about them, she knew what they would all be saying.
“Twilight, darling, it’s perfectly fine to be sad. A loss that great is no easy burden.”
“That’s right. You can cry and let it out whenever you need to.”
“Darn tootin’. You saw me at Dash’s funeral. Weren’t nothin’ holdin’ my water works.”
“Yeah! And remember me and Tank? I didn’t even know how to handle myself until you girls helped me out.”
“We love you, Twilight! Cry and blubber and let all the snot drip out of your nose. But remember the good times too!”
Twilight laid her head on her desk and let her sobs finally escape.
Author's Note
I had to write this one. It’s been on my chest for a while and I needed to let it out.
I didn’t even attempt to edit this, so if you want to point things out, I’ll fix it.