//------------------------------//
// Friendship is Forever, right? 
// Story: Burden during Joy 
// by Sense of Humor 
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Something about that night was warm and inviting, despite it being near the fall when they left the restaurant. Clouds could not be seen against the very dark blue canvas, at least not unless the moonlight fell on it or slithered past it to hit the dirt ground. The ground itself was cold in contrast to the air like they were walking on freshly melted ice. Did Pinkie Pie, of all the others walking with her, notice that? 

"The ground is pretty chilly, huh girls?"  Pinkie broke the silence with that statement, and everyone nodded in agreement. The pink pony smirked at the cyan pegasus in particular. "Kinda like in Yakyakistan, huh Dashie?"

"Sknrt!" Rainbow Dash held in a laugh at something everypony else didn't seem to catch on to at all.  "Don't make me laugh! I just ate, Pinkie Pie!"

Applejack gave her a sidelong glance. "An' a lot of it too."

"Hey!"

The others laughed loudly at her exclamation, but Twilight only distantly laughed at this. She found it quite funny to hear Dash so defensive about a true subject, but she also seemed to have her thoughts running off. She snorted to herself and refocused on her six friends. 

"Applejack, didn't you have the largest plate at the table?" Starlight spoke up with a sarcastic tsk, walking awkwardly to make sure that Spike never fell off her back. "That oat steak pretty much took up all the space for us. "

"Darling, you know how Applejack's appetite is." Rarity confidently declared to her. "It's about as wide around as my love for fashion. Or Fluttershy's addiction to cookie dough milkshakes."

" 'M not addicted." Fluttershy sourly pouted, but it was clearly fake. "I just really like that flavor a lot. You always get that Canterlot style cheesecake!"

"Darling, that cake is Divine. More so than that milkshake of yours. Although I must admit that it is very tasty as a dessert."

"Eeeyup!"

Another round of laughter surged through the eight friends, and Twilight briefly looked back at Spike after his remark. Her grinned slowly faded away, even when Applejack giggled and pointed at him. "That was wrong,Spike! Imma tell big Mac on you!"

"Oh no, he'll attack me with sentences!" Spike announced worriedly, but burst into laughter again right there.  While everyone joined him a bit louder than before, Twilight finally seemed to give in to the persistant thoughts swirling in her brain and effectively lost her grin. It was ironic that she only thought about what was happening now at first; considering the laughs and fond moments they all shared now. This reminded her of previous times far back in the past where they all hung out somewhere or just saved Equestria. She even recalled the times that she just talked to one of them for a minute or two.

Those were such great days and nights, including  now. Each hour--each moment she spent with her friends was another lesson to be learned and another memory she could smile at when she thought about it, only now she didn't seem to be smiling. Not long after becoming an Alicorn, she began to smile less at these memories and anxiously look forward to doing anything with the others on any day.  At first she thought it was just her princess duty stress pushing down on her, making her long to get away from work and have some fun. But the truth was much worse than that.

For a moment during the Tirek attack and before the power of three Alicorns was pushed inside her, Celestia mentioned something to the older Alicorns about possibly meeting their fates before Tirek ever entered the room. She hadn't understood things then due to the fear of Tirek, but Celestia reluctantly explained why the loss of power could've killed them after his defeat. The truth interested Twilight for a while, but she now she truly hated it.

Immortality was supposed to be the perk of being an Alicorn, you could rule forever like Princess Celestia and see to it that your kingdom survived for eons to come. Twilight thought that she might find that time useful in a similar way; shifting and reshelving books from all different libraries while making the future of everypony bright. But when she began to think about how to adjust her friend's lives in the future, she discovered the horrific reality: they weren't immortal, like her.

They would be with her for a time, like now, but then they would wither away into gravestones and tombs. Twilight sobbed herself to sleep for nights when she looked into immortality; she often tried to deny that reality if only to stop the pain that welled up in her heart when she imagined staring down at the Graves of her greatest friends. How could she go through with that when that day came? By this point her friends were not just pones she liked; she loved them like family. She didn't want them to leave her alone--she didn't want them to die. The very thought sent her into panic attacks at times, and she hated panic attacks and--

"Twilight?"

The Alicorn's head snapped up in surprise. All of her friends were staring at her quizaccly, although some faces looked more worried than confused. Applejack spoke up again, this time raising an eyebrow. "Are you okay, Sugar cube?"

She quickly coughed, swallowed down the lump in her throat and forced a grin. "Of course. I'm completely fine."

Starlight suddenly frowned, her eyebrows knitting upwards in deep concern. "Hey...Are you crying?"

Twilight swallowed again; she must have been too engrossed her own stupid depression to notice fresh tears       spilling down her cheeks. It was too late to try wiping away now because everyone had taken a good long look at her and were more worried than ever. Spike hopped off of Starlight and walked up to her, resting a hand on her shoulder sympathetically. "You can tell us anything, Twilight...You can tell me anything....What's wrong?"

She sniffled a little and sighed, but the smile she held never faltered. Twilight didn't think she could bring herself to tell them anything now, and possibly force her depression on them. She couldn't ruin a momens with them; they were so very precious nowadays. "It's...silly. I'm just so happy that we get to spend time together like this. It's nice to just get away from it all and have some fun like this...but it's so rare, isn't it? And...our time together is so short?"

"That's true...We don't get a lot of time together." Rainbow Dash agreed with her, somehow losing the smile and making the princess regret her own words. " And we're all busy doing stuff..."

"But...Friendship is forever, right?" Starlight questioned them eventually, a shy smirk spreading her lips. "Isn't that what you guys taught me? Even if we have just a millisecond together or the tiniest bit of a millisecond, it doesn't matter. Because we're friends to the end and beyond."

Twilight stared at her as she spoke, unsure of what to make of those simple words. It didn't ease her conscience about being immortal or anything...but it...it helped her just a bit. A part of her heart that felt broken by the truth was sealed back together, even if the rest was still broken. Was this the start of something-- a series of truths that could help her in her personal problems?

"Well Said, Sugarcube!" Applejack agreed with Starlight and patted Twilight softly on the back. She gestured with her eyes to the princess, and everypony else began to move at them. "It might not help ya Twilight, but I think yer in dire need of a hug."

Twilight met the gazes of each and every pony before her, this time genuinely smiling. "No...I think that would help a lot."