She stared into the mirror with a fiendish look in her bright blue eyes. Back and forth, back and forth, her hooves went. Her muscles started to fail her and they shook.
“Twelve hundred fifty two brushie. Twelve hundred fifty three brushie. Twelve… Hundred…” Colgate dropped to the floor. “Can’t… do… it…”
She struggled to get up but her muscles gave way. That nagging voice in her head said
You can do it! Just get back up! You’re almost done brushing!
Her magic gave out long ago on the thousandth brush. She knew she had to get up and keep brushing. She couldn't let this task remain unfinished. Especially since it was her birthday! She was ready to do all she could do within her power to get these teeth clean. She had never settled before, and she wouldn't settle this time either.
She grasped the sink vanity with all her might. She pulled herself up, groaning all the way. Regaining her strength, and deciding not to be so dramatic, she hopped up onto her hind legs and peered into the mirror. She gave a smile, hoping to see those shiny glamorous teeth she had every morning after her ten-thousandth brush, but they weren’t clean yet. She placed her head in her hooves. The determined pony’s face grew angry and she pounced at the mirror.
“You want clean teeth?! YOU’LL GET CLEAN TEETH!” she snarled as she reached for her toothbrush which had fallen on the floor. Growling at herself in the mirror, she grabbed her brush and started brushing. “Ow… Twelve hundred- fifty five brushie. Ow… Twelve hundred fifty six brushie. OW!”
Colgate didn't bother to look. She pressed through the searing pain which felt more like a knife piercing her gums than a brush cleaning them. She needed clean teeth; pain or no pain! For some reason her teeth weren’t getting any cleaner.
She glanced at the brush in the reflection of the mirror. Her face froze in horror. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and opened them again hoping to see something different this time, but it was the same. Her frozen expression melted into tears that spilled from her eyes. The cheery pony had only ever cried happy tears, but this time it was different. These were tears of sadness. She fell to the floor weeping. Her brushie had been crushed and broken when she had fallen the first time. She had been brushing with a bristle-less brush!
“WHY ME?! WHY NOW?!” Colgate asked as she looked towards the ceiling. This was not merely a toothbrush. It was memories, her best friend. It was the best thing that had ever happened to her. When she was only little it was one of the only friends she had. She had never left it alone, and it had never left her. Even when her mother died her brushie was still right by her side to comfort her but now it was gone.
The weak pony leaned against the edge of the door and her tear-blurred vision seemed to swim with images from the day she first received her brush. It was a gloomy, snowy day in Ponyville and she and her mother were baking cookies for their neighbors who had just lost a loved one. Colgate was only a little filly at six years old. She reached out to grab the eggs for the dough.
SPLAT!
“Oh Colgate, that was our last egg!” her mother gasped. “Now we have nothing to continue making our cookies!”
They put on their scarves and sweaters and headed out the door. They trudged through the snow covered pathways. They passed the all of the decorative houses and landmarks all over the town. Trees were decorated to the nines and the snow covered houses glistened with lights. They reached the door to the grocery shop, but all they could see inside was darkness. Of course! How could they have forgotten? It was the day before Hearth’s Warming! They tugged on the handle just to make sure, but there was no use. The door was locked.
They went to the next town and found an open shop. There it was! Colgate forgot all about the eggs as her beautiful blue eyes reflected the treasure she had just discovered. It was a blue toothbrush in a silver box. Colgate stopped and tugged on her mother’s mane.
“Mommy! Can I get this brushie?” She pointed to the shelf.
“Sure, it’s always a good thing to have clean teeth!” Colgate’s mother picked up one of the many boxes.
“No! That’s the wrong one!”
“They all look the same Colgate!” Her mother sighed.
“No! It’s this one,” Colgate said as she pulled it off of the shelf and hugged it and twirled all around the store. Her eyes sparkled with a heart full of happiness.
Suddenly, Colgate snapped back to real life, current time. There was an instant knock on the door shattering Colgate’s memories and breaking through her loud sobbing.
“Colgate?” A loud voice shouted from the front door, “Are you okay?”
The knock boomed, but Colgate tried to ignore it as she buried herself in her hooves. The last knock echoed through the house until it was quiet. Thank goodness! She’s gone! Colgate thought to herself.
“COLGATE!” The voice sliced through the silence.
Colgate dragged herself along the floor passing through the kitchen and living room until she arrived at the door. She reached and turned the handle to open the door.
“Hi!” Pinkie hopped up and down. “I’m SOOOO glad you’re home! I was on my way to a party at Applejack’s and was just wondering if you wanted to come with me! I think it would be SOOOO fun!” Pinkie continued talking endlessly without taking any breaths. Colgate just looked up at her with a blank face and blank mind while pinkie continued to chatter. “And THEN we can go to the ice cream shop and get a big, huge bowl of ice cream and plop down and eat it all in one sitting! Just like those movies! Speaking of mov—”
Colgate interrupted the pink pony’s nonstop chattering.
“Pinkie, I’m sorry but I can’t.” She mumbled under her breath bathing herself in tears. “I crushed my brushie this morning while I was brushing. I really don’t feel like partying today.”
Pinkie gasped in shock, and trotted away.
“But thanks for the invite!” yelled Colgate.
She slammed the hinges shut and walked back into the bathroom. Colgate placed her hooves on the sink and pulled herself up to see a reflection in the mirror. Another fake smile appeared. She still didn’t have those shiny teeth she longed for every morning! She trudged back to the front door, opened the nearby closet, and found her favorite scarf. She locked her door then walked through Ponyville shivering in the frigid weather.
As she passed by, her friends began to worry about her. One of her friends even started to whimper! Colgate is the only pony they had never seen sad. She had always been the one to make people happy! Even more so than Pinkie, since she is such a bubbly pony she could overdo it sometimes. When RainbowDash lost her first race Colgate was the first to comfort her and make her laugh. Many trotted up to Colgate to ask if she was all right. They were all turned down by the same words.
“I’m fine.”
She walked up to a vendor on the side of the road and said under her breath “Do you have any toothbrushes?”
“What was that, Deary?” the old stallion said.
“I said ‘Do you have any toothbrushes?’ ” she yelled. The man shook his head in fear as she turned and trotted away. After searching through many vendors, and frightening them all while she was at it, she still hadn't found any brushes. She stomped back to her house where she bumped into Pinkie, who stood on her two back hooves with her front hooves on her hips, directly in front of Colgate’s front door.
“Oh, no you don’t! You can’t just go into your house at a time like this! You can’t just WALK through the door like everything’s all right! You need to keep searching for a new brush!”
With a puzzled face Colgate replied, “Well, this is my house! And I have been looking all morning! Don’t I deserve a break?”
She tried to get through as Pinkie blocked the door.
“No!” Pinkie swerved around her to block the door again. “You CAN’T go in! I mean, it’s not scientifically possible. The laws of microbial physical denominations would not be okay with this! If you take one duck and one mongoose and put them together, NOTHING HAPPENS! ”
Colgate gave up. It’s not worth fighting her seeing, once again, Pinkie wasn’t making any sense. Colgate hiked to the pond, and sat in the snow. Her reflection rippled out from her tears which had fallen into the glasslike pond. Fatigue and cold overwhelmed her. Leaning against the evergreen tree behind her, she felt her eyelids grow heavy as her own breath came out of her mouth like smoke. Her blue eyes lifted across the half-frozen pond until her gaze fell upon a little filly on the other side. Her coat was blue and her fuzzy blue mane surrounded a miniscule unicorn horn. All Colgate could see in the little foal was herself dancing around with her brushie. When she took it home she proudly showed it to her father and said, “I finally have a friend!” But he wasn’t impressed. He sighed and pushed her aside. Colgate didn’t have a good childhood growing up. Her father only ever worked and never had time to play games or chat. He never approved of anything she had done unless it would make her money or get her a job. Her brushie was all that got her through.
A perfect flake of snow landed on her nose. She twitched and rubbed her eyes until they were ready to open. She forgot that she had been in the snow. Colgate peered back into the pond which had now frozen over. She punched her hoof through the ice to reveal the freezing cold water underneath then revealed a fake smile to see those pearly whites in her reflection once more. Only this time they weren’t all that pearly white. She sighed as she brushed off the snow that had fallen on her during her rest. However, she jumped back in surprise when Pinkie popped out of the water. An avalanche of snow shook loose from the branches and Colgate had only one moment of blank surprise before she was buried completely under a heavy blanket of cold whiteness. “Hi!” Pinkie said. She crawled out of the water and shook herself like a dog until her mane was dry. She plopped down right beside Colgate. “What’s up?”
“I can’t breathe,” Colgate mumbled underneath the pile of snow.
“Huh? Oh!” Pinkie took a shovel out of who knows where and started shoveling her out.
Colgate stood up and shook herself off. She met Pinkie Pie’s eyes in shock. There was a long silence.
“So! As I was saying, what’s up?” Pinkie smiled.
“Not much! I just am having the BEST day of my life!” Colgate screamed flailing her front hooves.
“My work is done here.” Pinkie turned around and hopped away.
Though the blue unicorn wasn’t all that happy with Pinkie, she wasn’t surprised at her randomness. She dragged her hooves all her way home. Only one more thing could go wrong; if Pinkie was still at her door. After she saw that she wasn’t, Colgate made her way to the door, turned the key and opened to a dark house. The darkness depressed her because it was how she felt inside. She had nothing to come home to. No brushie and no perfect smile in the mirror. She flipped on her lights and…
“SURPRISE!!” a large group of ponies shouted at the top of their lungs as they all crowded around her. Though Colgate didn’t want to, she smiled.
“What’s this all about?”
“Well it is your birthday, silly!” Pinkie popped out from the back of the crowd. She hugged Colgate with all her might.
“You did this for me?” questioned Colgate
“When we heard you had crushed your toothbrush we moved the party from my barn to your house! And Pinkie, here, tried to keep you away as long as possible so we had time to set it all up!” said Applejack as she chuckled.
“Set what up?” Colgate looked around the room, realizing there were no decorations. All the ponies pulled her into the bathroom.
“This,” said Lyra. Colgate’s jaw dropped. Her eyes widened. Streamers hung from the shower rod and a cake in the shape of a toothbrush occupied the bathtub. The glitter splashed around the walls was making the room glow and there was one single present on the vanity. She looked to the ponies as if asking For me? They nodded. She moved towards the glowing blue and silver box.
She opened it quickly to see the most wonderful thing she had ever seen. It was a homemade toothbrush of wood and hay. It may not have been the most glamorous thing she had ever seen, but it was made by ponies who loved her. She looked back at them with tears in her eyes. But this time, once again, they were happy tears. She ran to them and hugged them.
“I got the hay from the barn and Big Mac picked the wood out from the shed!” Applejack stated.
“Eeyup!” Big Mac shouted.
Fluttershy whispered, “I glued it all togeth—”
“And I designed it, of course!” Rarity said, interrupting Fluttershy.
Everyone laughed and hugged Colgate back.
“A toothbrush is just a thing. You guys make me happier than any toothbrush could ever make me! A toothbrush may make my smile look nice, but you make me smile. And a dirty smile is better than no smile any day. How silly of me to think a toothbrush could ever love me back like you guys do! I’m sorry if I haven’t been giving you wonderful ponies the attention I should. Thank you all so much.” She squeezed them as tight as she could. They all laughed, even Colgate.
Every morning after, Colgate used the wooden toothbrush her friends had made her. She remembered all of the fun times she had had with them. More importantly she imagined all of the fun times she would have later that day.
Seven years later, when Colgate handed the brush down to her first foal, she told the story of the day she lost her favorite brushie. She told him that it’s not things that matter in life, but friends and family.
That beautiful toothbrush may have meant a lot to her, but it couldn’t make her laugh! Only friends could do that. And even if she didn’t always have a glamorous brushie, Colgate would always have her friendships. And that’s something she could never break.
Author's Note
I would like to thank Caisius and BluNoseReindeer for being my amazing pre-readers! Thank you very much :3
Cover art by me:
