Chapter 15: An Anniversary

After the visit to the refugee camp things had been relatively quiet, which I had taken advantage of. My new repulser board is a gracious thing to have. Turns out they work similarly to a hover board, except you're a few hundred feet in the sky instead of a few feet off the ground. Scootaloo had also taken to it but I had to ban her from touching it as long I wasn't with her. I had also begun practicing new spells with Davian, mostly defensive and offensive attacks, but also a few lessons in healing. Although I still keep an eye on him, he is proving to be a loyal ally. He hasn't quite reached the ranking of friend yet.

Most importantly, I had been spending much needed time with just my friends, Twilight in particular. We were nearly everywhere together now, I didn't even notice it half the time, we were so close. We were best friends, but everyone around knew there was something else brewing between us, even we did, but I was the more reserved one on that.

"Hey! Wake up lazy, it's almost eight o'clock!" Twilight shouted as she nuzzled my head, waking me from slumber.

I simply opened my eyes and glared at her for a good minute, everything groggy, before I responded.

"Give me...one reason...not to light you on fire Twi," I half joked.

"I could give you a million, so come on get up! Today is the day!" she said excitedly.

I thought a moment on what she meant, what was today? She hadn't told me of anything important coming up, unless I dosed off as she ranted about something.

"What's today Twi? Someones birthday or something?" I asked, still exhausted.

She smiled sheepishly before answering, "Just get ready and come down stairs okay? Pllleeaasseeee?" she whined cutely.

I rolled my eyes and put my hands up, signaling her victory as I got out of bed, a few bones cracking pleasurably. Twilight trotted happily downstairs and I then heard the clanking of dishes. I sighed and looked over to the other side of my bed. The growing filly that laid there still slept peacefully through Twilight's noise and I intended to leave it that way. I reached a hand over and rubbed Scootaloo's mane softly, causing her to let out a sigh as her little hind legs started to kick. My smile covered my face as I preceded to grab a shower and get dressed. I looked at myself in the mirror and admired the new jacket Rarity had made me, a good thing too, Winter had crept up quick.

Twenty minutes had passed and I could no longer hear the noise Twilight was making downstairs, so I expected whatever what was going on had died down. Before I went downstairs I crept over to bed again and checked to see if Scootaloo was still sleeping. To my surprise she was sitting up rubbing her eyes, just awaking.

"Well good morning sleepy head, sleep well?" I asked her, sitting down next to her.

"About as good as a filly can when you snore like a dragon," she said groggy.

I laughed and I ruffled her messy mane, her spunk never seemed to quell.

"Well missy, you don't have much room to talk, I can hardly fall asleep when you snore," I retorted.

"Right, you pass out as soon as you hit the pill...OH NO!" she suddenly gasped.

The sudden outburst left me shocked, "What?! What's wrong Scoot?!" I asked worried and startled.

She didn't give an answer before she ran off downstairs, yelling sorry to Twilight for being late. Late for what? I decided it was time to see what this was all about as I made my way off the loft into the kitchen where I heard the noise. The room was dark as I entered and I wondered where the noise had come from, and where Scootaloo had gone. Suddenly as I made my way farther in the room the lights cut on and I was surrounded by ponies.

"Happy One Year In Ponyville Evan!!!" everypony shouted at once, confetti shot out of a canon at the same time, erecting more cheers from the crowd.

"Annndddd birthday! Since you haven't told me when it is yet!" Pinkie shouted again and gave me a silly wink. I actually turned nineteen a month ago, but I knew Pinkie would do something over the top.

I stood there shocked for a moment, but soon gave way to a warm feeling as I saw my friends around a large cake with a big candle of the number one burning on it. My six closest friends sat under a banner that read 'Happy One Year!', in the middle was Twilight, her big purple eyes glowing in happiness.

"PARTY TIIIMMMEEEEE!" Pinkie Pie yelled, and that commenced the party to begin, everyone coming to talk to me.

I struggled with the crowd, offering everyone a genuine smile and a few hugs before making it over to my friends. Scootaloo stood beside Twilight and Rainbow Dash, her hair still a ruffled mess, but nonetheless adorable.

"What is all this guys? I didn't know any of you even kept track," I said, rather blunt but still in shock.

"What does it look like dude? It's a party for you!" Dash said.

"Darling how could we forget the day your wondrous self came into our lives," Rarity added.

I was speechless as I looked at them, I probably looked incredibly stupid, but they all just smiled ad laughed.

"C'mere you," Apple Jack said as she walked over to me, stood on her hind legs, and grabbed me in a hug. The others soon followed suit, Dash and Fluttershy hovered up and grabbed me as I struggled to hug back the six ponies and little filly as they nearly tackled me.

"Well thank you all, I really..really appreciate this," I said composing myself, holding back the hidden emotions that were about to burst; I didn't want to seem too excited.

As they let go the party seemed to engulf them as everyone was soon talking among each other, only Twilight stayed behind, looking at me with a satisfied smile.

"And what is with that look Miss Sparkle?" I asked sheepishly, a crooked grin forming.

"You're cute when you're surprised hehe. So I take it I did a good job?" she asked, her large purple eyes glowing.

"This was all you! I thought it was Pinkie who did it," I said even more surprised.

"Well she helped, but yeah I did most of it. Decorations, the cake, invitations and...thought into it," he said as her smile turned into something else, as if she was lost in something.

"But go ahead and have fun, we can spend time after the party okay?" she said turning, her face glowing red as she giggled away.

I smirked to myself as I stood there, now left in the middle of my own party with dozens of ponies that wanted to talk to me. As I looked through the crowd my heart dropped a bit as I saw a light green unicorn all by herself in a corner. She saw me as well and turned away fast. I sighed to myself, I knew she was going to be upset someday, this had to be it. I brought myself back the the real world and made my way over to her; I was going to make it better between us.

"Hey Lyra...having fun, all by yourself?" I asked the mare, half joking.

She jumped a little as I talked to her, her ears pinned back a bit in slight embarrassment.

"Oh Evan! Yeah I'm okay, Bon Bon wanted to come and I came to say its been a great year knowing you," she said, although something more was meant to be said.

"Lyra whats wrong? I thought we were okay, the thing between you and me, we talked about it," I said confused.

"We are! Its just...she makes you happy, and I know you haven't been happy in a long time, so that makes me happy. I'm just a little upset that I couldn't do the same," she blurted out.

"Well of course you make me happy? You're an amazing friend, and I wouldn't change a thing between us. And with me and Twilight, there's not really anything going on between us," I feigned.

She gave a slight chuckle and smiled at me before responding. "You don't have to hide it, everyone can see it when you two are together. The way her eyes light up whenever she looks at you, the smile that lights up on you when you lock eyes. I never got that reaction from you, so I know it wouldn't have worked, but like I said I'm just glad that you're finally happy Evan. You've been angry and hurt long enough."

The Unicorn's response caught me off guard as I stood there, not knowing quite what to say, but also a small relief as she confessed my own truth. I brought my attention back to Lyra and I just gave her a small smile, that was really all I could muster.

"Hehe, I'll still think you're the cutest thing in all of Equestria though. Don't think I'll ever stop bugging you either, but beyond that yes, we're just friends. Thank you for that," Lyra said.

With that she walked over and nuzzled my sides in a friendly way and made her way back over to Bon Bon, who looked over and gave me a nod that said 'I'll control her'. I hung my head in a laugh as I finally took part in the party, looking for a certain unicorn, wondering what to do afterwards.

_______________________________

The party started to die down around late afternoon giving way to the cleanup procedure. Thankfully, ponies were much cleaner than humans at parties so the only relative thing to clean were a few spilled drinks and the dishes. As I attempted to do them, Twilight grabbed the dish rag out of my hand and gave it to Spike, saying, "It was your party, let us clean up." I put my hand up in surrender as I walked out of the kitchen stuffed and tired. While I waited for Twilight to finish up I helped Scootaloo get ready for a Crusader meeting at their clubhouse, getting her saddlebag from upstairs as the happy filly bounced at the door.

"So what do you girls have planned for today?" I asked her as I propped it on her back.

"Today we're going to try to get out Cutie Marks in learning math!" she laughed at the door.

I paused in my tracks, "Really?" was I could muster.

"Pfft course not! We're going para-sailing! It's gonna be AWESOME!" she shouted.

"Uhh yeah, try to tone it back a bit...get a instructor okay?" I pleaded as I laughed.

"Yeah yeah fine, are you and Twilight gonna have some alone time now? Gonna kiss her? Hehe," she smirked.

That sudden change in topic definently threw me off guard. I just looked at her while she gave me a huge quirky grin.

"Oh come on, just do it. You know she wants you too! See ya big bro!" she said and ran off towards the clubhouse.

I stood there shaking my head, wondering how I'm supposed to live with her antics, when I felt someone standing behind me. I turned too see Twilight looking at me, her face turned at a slight angle, her dark purple mane with that raspberry streak seemed to glow with her eyes.

"Well hey Twi, parties done now. Said you wanted to spend some time together? What do you want to do?" I asked her.

"I'd like that a lot, and I just want to sit down and talk, just the two of us. Know anywhere we could go?" she said, a little smile crept up on her face.

I thought about our usual hangout places but couldn't think of one with any privacy. As I kept thinking I remembered this quaint hill not to far from town I saw while practicing my repulser board, that would work perfectly.

"Well then get ready to fly then, I'm still getting use to the heights," I laughed and I pointed to the board sitting in the corner of the room.

_______________________________________

"ARE WE ALMOST THERE?!" Twilight shouted, holding on to me for dear life as we rode across the sky.

"Twi we're only about twenty feet up, you don't have to shout or freak out," I said trying to calm her.

"Well I'm sorry, I DON'T HAVE WINGS OR A FANCY FLYING MACHINE!" she retorted back.

I just rolled my eyes at her as we reached the hill I remembered, doing a small flip right before we landed, causing Twilight to nearly fuse into me. I winced at her surprising strength but rubbed her mane as we touched the ground, she opened one eye nervously but was soon taken by the view.

"Wow...its beautiful," she said, overlooking the valley.

Indeed it was. Lush forest covered the area, randomly dotted with fields of grass and different sizes of ponds. Birds flew through the gentle breeze, the cold air whistling through the air as the ecosystem around us flourished, untouched by ponies. A large butterfly made its way towards us, fluttering elegantly in the wind, landing on Twilight's nose as she giggled in delight. It was a beautiful sight indeed.

"Did you forget you're horrible at being sneaky?" Twilight said, her face turning a slight hue of red.

"Sorry, got caught up on the little guys flying. So What'd you want to talk about Twi?" I asked her, her attention back to me.

"Well you know, about you, about me, about us," she said.

"Well alright, you start with whatever then," I said, rather confused.

"Well I just want to know about you. Your life. I know you told me a lot, but not the stuff I want to know now. What did you want to do with your life? What are your dreams? What are you scared of?" she barraged me with questions.

I took a moment to soak all of them in, thinking to myself about the answers, if I even knew them. I grabbed my pendant and closed my eyes, remembering the times before my life was thrust into a new world. I opened them and face Twilight, and began talking.

"Before all of this, I always wanted to be a doctor. Helping people, saving lives, making someone's life easier. With my magic I would've been amazing too, healing magi are some of the greatest legends in Karkland," I said, pausing a moment to think on the next question. Twilight was completely focused on me, just listening.

"Now what was a dream of mine? Hmm...I always wanted to raise a family, just like every other being. But that's what I wanted, to get up in the morning to see my smiling children as I said goodbye when they went to school. Look at my wife and tell her 'I love you' every single day of my life. The closest thing to that I had was my sisters, they were my everything," I finished, not quite upset, but a hollow feeling was brought down on me.

Twilight simply brought her head to my shoulder as we sat and over looked the scenery before I spoke up again.

"And I'm terrified of a lot actually. I'm scared of this war, I'm scared of that darkness coming back over me, I'm scared...of losing you," I said reluctantly.

Twilight brought her head up as I covered mine in my arms, I heard a slight huff from her, then a soft nose against my cheek brought me out of my hiding. She looked at me with a caring smile, everything seemed okay when she smiled.

"It's my turn now I guess huh?" she said, I nodded lightly feeling a bit better.

"Well as I've told you before all I did when I was younger was study study study. I didn't put time on my list for friends or much fun, that's just what I wanted to do. I dreamed of being the first unicorn in Equestria to learn as much magic as possible, to surpass even Star Swirl the Bearded. It all seemed to come true when Princess Celestia made me her student," she paused, smiling at her accomplishments.

"But when I came to Ponyville I realized that it wasn't my dream, after all those years I had just realized that my dream was to learn about friendship, to understand it, to have it. And I've been living that dream since that day. Plus on that day you arrived in Ponyville, hurt and angry, beaten and bruised. I just knew that I'd like you, I knew it when I first saw you, even if you weren't the nicest person from the start," she chuckled.

"Well I'm glad you saw through me at least, so. What scares you Twi?" I asked.

This time she took a moment to think about her answer as I looked her over, the mare that had changed my life forever, who saved it.

"There's so much left in the world to know...and I want to be the one who understands it. To discover something new, be it a new spell, a world even, it would be amazing. But then I realized that I have so much more room to grow, and that if I let myself do that I'd miss everything going by in life. There's so much time in life, but it doesn't last forever, I want to see my friends grow with me. I want to raise a family like you, I want to have time to do that. I...I want to be with you Evan," she forced out.

When those words came from her mouth it didn't shock me like I thought it would, in fact it felt right, it felt good. Twilight's face had turned completely red and she just stared straight ahead, her eyes shut. I placed a hand on her mane and rubbed it gently, the soft silky hair running through my hand like water. I brought my pendant off my neck and opened the camera, tapping Twilight to get her attention.

She turned her head as I scooted right next to her and wrapped her in my arm, pulling her towards me, though she went forward herself.

"There's nothing more in the world I could ask for," I said as I took a picture of us, locked in each others eyes.

Smiles beamed on our faces as we looked into each other, soon I found the both of us inching towards each other, slowly our lips connected on the hill that overlooked the peaceful valley before us. A kiss filled my body with a feeling of happiness and love I thought erased from my mind. As our lips parted from each other Twilight lifted her head up and brought it to mine, cheek to cheek, and whispered into my ear.

"No matter what happens in this messed up time, know that I will love you always. I have since I first met you, helping you was my new dream," Twilight said, all of it sincere.

My eyes began to water as she confessed her love, as I had done, a new fire had lit inside me. Nothing could douse it, the world could try to destroy me and it might, but it would never destroy that. No matter what challenges lay ahead, it was she and I together, always.