The Party Will Still Be There

The Princess of Friendship does not break down sobbing outside her annual Hearth's Warming party. Her legs do not give out under her on a balcony of Ponyville castle as the first of many long-held tears start to run trails of quickly-lost heat through her coat. She does not bury her face in her hooves and tremble or shiver or wail, does not cry out ragged lamentations to Luna's moon - Her moon - hanging cold and uncaring in the sky.

She doesn't. Instead, she turns and crosses to the glittering balcony railing with a few long, plodding steps, and gazes from afar upon the warm lights of her old home.

Pinkie Pie just needs some time to calm down. She'll feel better in the morning, or even later tonight, and then Twilight can go to her and wrap her in a hug and give her a shoulder to cry on. It's what she's done every day for the past week - what she's done for the past six months with a bit less frequency. That's what friends are for, after all.

"What did you do, Twilight?" demands a raspy voice by the balcony door. Without turning, Twilight smiles fondly and rolls her eyes. Leave it to Rainbow Dash to jump to conclusions, flying off into confrontation without the first inkling of understanding for a situation, especially when she's drunk. Sure, she might not be slurring as much as Twilight would expect by this time of night, but she can hear she's not sober.

She doesn't answer. Let Rainbow calm down first, ask again with less of that reactionary aggression in her tone.

"Twilight? Pinkie Pie just tore through the party in an absolute state, what happened?" Rarity's voice has a certain hardness to it she doesn't care for, clearly laden with some preconception even as she asks with a bit of hesitation, "...Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," The Princess tells her friends, still gazing at the snow-capped rooftops. Her eyes find Sugarcube Corner, settle on the dark shape so familiar to her as to be utterly unmistakable, jutting out taller than the homes and other shops around it. The light streaming out of windows, off the fairy-strings on awnings and around chimneys, is just enough to vaguely make out a few of the old bakery's details - the segments of its roof, the looping and undulation of the faux-frosting around the edges - though she could trace them perfectly from memory alone.

"Nothing happened. Pinkie wanted a moment to herself, that's all. Don't worry, I'll check in on her again shortly, you girls go on and keep enjoying the party."

"Are you quite certain that's wise?" Rarity asks. It's amazing how that mare can find a way to sound so judgemental even through the concern weighing down her voice.

"Why wouldn't it be?" comes the mild reply, "She needs stability right now, needs to know she's not alone. She needs me."

"I think what she needs is someone who isn't trying to take Cheese's place."

"Rainbow!" Rarity hisses, followed by the sound of a hoof smacking softly against somepony's side.

"What? I'm not-"

"And what's so wrong with that?" The Princess cuts off their argument before it can really get going, because Hearth's Warming Eve just isn't the time for that sort of thing, "She deserves some way to fill the hole he left behind in her heart. Why shouldn't it be one of her oldest and closest friends?"

"Oh, that is such a total load and you know it, Twi!"

A distant chorus of voices carries over the rooftops from somewhere in town proper. Twilight closes her eyes, allows the pleasant tune and indistinct words to roll over her like the warmth of a fire. She can almost imagine it's coming from the square by the bakery.

"Alright, we got Pinkie calmed down some, Cheesecake an' 'Shy're lookin' after her now," Applejack's voice accompanies the sound of her hoofsteps out onto the balcony, "How's things goin' out here?"

"Take a look," Rainbow Dash scoffs, "she's ignoring us as much as she's talking to us. Won't even turn around."

Applejack sighs heavily, murmurs something Twilight can't quite make out, clip-clops her way a little closer. She must be... about halfway between her and the door.

"I'm sorry, Twi. I did try to warn you."

She had, hadn't she? And Twilight had been determined to prove her wrong. If she hadn't been so stubborn, so impatient, then...

Dash's voice snaps her away from the thought, and the wall goes back up. "What are you apologizing to her for? She's not the one who ran off in tears!"

"Rainbow, Twilight is still our friend," Rarity chides, "this isn't-"

"I haven't done anything wrong," Twilight asserts with perfect calm. Honestly, this whole argument is ridiculous. Dash really should know better.

"Is that why you can't even look at us?"

Twilight rolls her eyes and turns, at last, to face the others. As expected, Rainbow is hovering by the door, front slightly darkened because of the warm light against her back, her glare dripping with bitter accusation. Rarity holds a hoof up against her side, as if she could hold her back with that simple point of contact, eyes glancing between both of them above a disapproving frown. Applejack's expression is the worst of them, though.

Applejack just looks sad.

That's what does it. The mournful look in her eyes, more than Dash's glare ever could, takes a battering ram to Twilight's already weakened denial. Suddenly it's all The Princess can do to fight down the sting at the back of her eyes, as though the sharp slivers of her shattered denial were stabbing into them, ushered forward by a swift and relentless tide of guilt - of regret.

She screws her eyes shut before the tears can start falling.

Then she spreads her wings and takes off, to make the long and lonesome flight to Canterlot through the dark and cold.