Reflections
“Pinkie Pie, I want you to throw the biggest party you’ve ever thrown and have everyone, I mean everyone even yourself, smiling and laughing at my funeral. Promise me this?”
“Pinkie Promise.”
“Thank you… I’ve lived most of my life as a cranky donkey. But I want to be remembered for the smile you helped me find again. Haha, what are ya doin’ girl.”
“I am performing a Pinkie Promise!”
“Haha-chuuah, chuuah!”
“Cranky? Oh Cranky, I’m sorry, I-.”
“What have I told you about being-chuuah-sorry? Don’t be!”
“…”
“Pinkie, I, chuuah, chuuahh, Chuuuaah! ChhUuuAaahhHh!!!”
“Nurse! Nurse!”
oO0Oo
Pinkie Pie looked at the gravestone with a sober expression on her features. She could not bring herself to smile. Thunder boomed from overhead as lighting arced across the sky. The pegasi of Ponyville were outdoing themselves with today’s lighting show. Rainbow Dash had her team working hard, pushing them to their limits. Even Fluttershy had been drafted into today’s show. It was a deadly war time weapon turned into a spectacular piece of art. All ground bound ponies were required to take shelter if they wished to watch. Pinkie Pie sat in the middle of the graveyard, a field covered with rows and rows of stones. Lighting flashed overhead.
Occasionally Pinkie Pie would catch a ghost pony drifting around during her visits here. At first they had disturbed her immensely, but after a while she had concluded ghosts were harmless beings. Sometimes she wished she could talk to them, but they always vanished before she could get near. Ghost ponies were shier than Fluttershy. She wondered if her dear friend was now that shy. It was a little silly to think of him being shy. The same ghost ponies never stuck around for long, moving onto a different place for their finale rest.
“Pinkie, you need to get out of the storm before you get struck by lightning.” her voice said, coming up from a reflective puddle. Each flash of lighting showed that her reflection was indeed there in that clear blue puddle. The magic she held to keep it reflective and clean was unique all its own. “Please, it’s not safe.” reflection her tried to reason.
“I know… I just wanted to come here and see him is all.” Pinkie replied, starring at the gravestone again. It had been several years sense she lost her dear friend. Each loss after him was a new wound on top of an old, digging deeper and deeper every time. She couldn’t stand losing her friends, it drove her to the ends of her wits and beyond. Sometimes she wondered if she couldn’t have switched places with any one of them, just to give that one pony some more time.
“But if you’d have done that Pinkie, you wouldn’t have been around for your other friends. You wouldn’t have been here to keep bringing smiles to their faces. Everyone’s got to go at some point.” Pinkie simply nodded in agreement. It still didn’t make losing a friend easier. When she loved a pony dearly, she gave them her all. To go back to her childhood without friends again would be divesting. So every friend she had was a precious and priceless someone she held dearly in her heart. And almost everyone in Ponyville was her friends. With so many friends, this often led to losing many. She faced her greatest fears several times a year, every year. Birthday parties were great. Funerals were the only parties she didn’t like.
Not hate of course. Often times she was the one helping plan and get everything together for it. It was a far more sobering experience than the cheerfulness of arranging for clowns and laughing children. This dealt with sad ponies and tears. A lot of tears. But sometimes she was asked to make the funeral a happy one; like Cranky asked for his. To make sure those tearful ponies were laughing and smiling all the while. Loss didn’t always have to be a terrible thing. She was just terrified of the possibility. When it finally came… She was always left far to numb to cry with the other ponies. She kept that for her own time in her bedroom.
Or here, after the funeral years later. Tears fell from her eyes, invisible as they mixed with the droplets of rain running down her face. Her reflection sighed before she slowly stepped out of the pool. Pinkie smiled at herself, still crying. “But y-you hate coming into m-my world.”
“For you Pinkie Pie, I’ll do it for you.” Her reflection said, wrapping her into a hug. “He was a great friend. I liked him.”
Sniffing Pinkie nodded into the other pink mare’s shoulder. Hugs were her cure for tears. “The show will be over soon.” she said, knowing Rainbow Dash would leave a gorgeous rainbow for everyone to see. “Don’t want anyone seeing you. They’ll think I got into the mirror pool again.”
Her reflection began to giggle. That was a pretty awkward situation for herself, especially after they blasted the real Pinkie back into the pool leaving her there… Pulling away from her pony, she smiled at her. “You know, maybe I wouldn’t mind that.”
Pinkie laughed a little as she self-consciously tried to wipe at her eyes. It was a silly gesture to show she was feeling better, even though she was completely drenching wet. “Really?” she giggled, not believing the reflection at all.
“Ok.. I’m just a little shy alright? Reflections aren’t supposed to be friend with their ponies, they just reflect. And then when their pony don’t need them anymore, they go back to their families and friends.”
Pinkie looked at the grave again, holding her smile. “Do reflection ponies die?”
“Yes, but not when their pony goes. Normally we simply lose our connection with your world until we’re assigned another pony. Sometimes we need to reflect… Dead ponies.” her eyes drifted to the ground were a skeleton was buried eighteen hands down. (As opposed to feet, because ponies… Shush.) “And yes Pinkie, his reflection is still alive. But remember, he’s not the same pony like I’m not the same Pinkie as you. When you go, I’ll be another pony with another name when you’re just bones.”
“What if you have to go before me? And I lose you?” Pinkie asked out loud, her face beginning to fill with fear. She loved who her reflection was. Her reflection was the most unique and best reflection she ever knew. No other reflection pony ever talked to her like hers did. She was one of her truest friends. Losing her would be, losing a very big part of herself, literally.
“That’s not how it works exactly… Your Celestia has only had three reflections in her whole lifetime. There’s a reason we don’t make friends with ponies, they go away far too quickly.” Now her reflection was beginning to cry some, crystal tears evaporating into nothingness. “It’s OK Pinkie. In the end we all must move on and know when to let a friend go. Just remember I’ll be here for every friend you have to tell goodbye too. Now come on, I don’t wanna reflect a dead Pinkie because she got fried.” To punctuate her point a nearby tree on the edge of the field was struck by lightning. High above a certain grey mare sheepishly smiled at her teammates, her rump having bumped into the wrong cloud... “Besides, don’t you have dinner with Matilda and Cranky?” Reflection her added.
Pinkie nodded, smiling away. “Yeah, I do.”
“OK, I’ll see you there!” Her reflection declared, kissing Pinkie on the nose before back-flipping into her puddle. Pinkie giggled to herself as she trotted away from the grave of a once good friend. She looked up to the sky and could see a yellow pegasus struggling to keep up with her teammates as they agitated the air with their magic. Fluttershy was still her friend and she wouldn’t be saying goodbye to her anytime soon. Nor would she be losing Cranky. It was a beautiful day filled with lighting and thunder, the darkness cuddling up with the world bellow. To some other ponies this storm could be terrifying. Everyone had their fears. But if you just stay brave your fears didn’t have to change who you were.
oOoO0OoOo
“And that’s a wrap up done and done. A short conclusion. I hope it didn’t seem rushed or anything. Though I know it is… But hey, happy ending! Now who wants to see a sad ending? Or the alternate ending where Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie get into a cat-fight!”
“Excuse me, I thought we had a deal…”
“We did?”
“Now we do, it just came to you that we had one silly.”
“Oh yeah… Notice I’m getting off on this whole reflection thing? Would that make the next story a sequel?”
“I dunno… But so long as you stop putting Pinkie through terrible things, I’ll gladly participate.”
“You do realize what I have planned for you? Correct?”
“Wait… Ooh! I hate you, hate you, hate you!”
“You know, stomping away like that little pony is rude! Haha, reflection ponies, this will be fun… But we need a name for our violet voiced OC. For y’all on Fanfiction I make her texts violet colored on Fimfiction in these ‘author notes’. Please, give me your idea for a name for our lovely ‘Pinkie reflection’ in the comments and reviews!
“Thank you all for reading and have a beautiful evening. God bless.”