The main doors of the castle of friendship opened letting six well dressed mares and a dragon in the building, they were discussing the lovely wedding they attended.
“Darling, that was quite the divine ceremony, the decoration was beautiful, the food was exquisite and the dress, THE DRESS was divine.“
Applejack laughed at Rarity's dramatic outburst, “of course you like the dress, sugarcube, you made it.“
Rarity smiled blushing, “well, is still a piece of art and it will be a cold day in Tartarus when I don't enjoy a fine piece of clothing.“
Applejack put an arm around Rarity's shoulder, pulling her to nuzzle, “thank you Rares, you done did really good to my family, y'all did, an' Ah thank y'all from the bottom of mah heart,“ everyone shared a hug for a few seconds, “aight, Ah think that's enough, it's gettin' kinda hot in here.“
All of them separated and headed to the Castle studio, it's been several weeks since they have been able to listen to the music box due to the wedding preparations, and they all decided to go there after the wedding, it was late in the afternoon just after the party ended and the newlyweds left for their honeymoon in Las Pegasus, they were half way when they heard a knock at the door.
Spike quickly returned to the door, “I'll get it, you can go to the studio and I'll catch up“ he said flying to the door.
Once the main six reached their destiny, Twilight prepared the console and the music box, when Spike entered the room.
He was carrying what appeared to be a receipt, “Twilight, the boxes are here, they left them on the foyer.“
Everyone in the room remained silent since they knew what those boxes were for. Twilight finally broke the silence, “so it's been awhile but the music box seems to still be charged, I guess this will be the last session in a while, at least until after the coronation,“ she said while turning to face the console, everyone else remained silent, their faces showed no emotion but deep inside they dreaded the fact that one of their best friends was going to move far away, “so... let's decide who is next.“
Twilight picked the sticks but at that moment a slight earth movement startled the group, it was quick but was strong enough to break a little piece of the ceiling that fell on the music box, just a tiny piece of crystal, heavy enough to activate the music box and not damage it, a slow melancholic music started playing.
Twilight freaked out and checked the music box finding no damage, Pinkie giggle, “It seems the Castle wanted its turn too.“
Fluttershy put her hooves on her chest, “her voice is ever so beautiful,“ everyone in the room agreed.
Even Rainbow was enjoying the song “yeah, but does she need to describe it so it sounds so sad?“
“Rainbow Darling, I am most certain she is looking back at her memories, and yearns for her youth, oh the drama, the cries of an old soul longing for her better years, she looks back at all the things she did and sobs for the things she didn't do, it's real life poetry,“ Rarity put her hoof on her forehead while fake fainting, Applejack quickly reacted catching her so she won't plummet to the hard floor.
Pinkie giggled at the duo, “yeah remembering is really fun, like when Twilight first came to Ponyville, I saw her when she first got here, remember? she was all 'hello' and I was all *gasp*, remember?“
Twilight roller her eyes, “yeah Pinkie I remember, or when just a week after that I got some tickets for the Grand Galloping Gala and you almost tore each other's manes for them,“ everybody laughed remembering the fight that broke.
“Speakin' of fights, Ah remember Ah almost ran after Gilda t'tear her a new tail hole when Shy told me she yelled at her on the market, come to think of it, did she ever apologize for that, Shy?“
“As a matter of fact, she kinda did, even before Rainbow and Twilight went to Griffonstone. I ran into her after the party and she told me she didn't recognize me at the time, we were never really friends at flight school but since she and Dash spent a lot of time together, I used to tag along even if I didn't talk, so she remembered me and apologized, um... in her own way, for roaring at me so I forgave her.“
Rainbow softly pushed her childhood friend, “you are a forgiving mare Fluttershy, now that I think about it, we all are pretty forgiving, we have forgiven so many like Gilda, Discord, Flim and Flam, Trixie, Starlight, Stygian, Garble am I forgetting somepony?“
Twilight gave a knowing smile, “yeah, us, we are not free of mistakes, we have been forgiven countless times, like that time I enchanted my doll with a want it need it spell, when I modified the parasprites and started eating the town, when I messed the winter wrap up...“
Twilight was interrupted by Pinkie, “or when I made multiple clones, when I made the baked bads, or when a ginormous cake fell on Dashie or when I messed Cranky's scrapbook, or when Dashie wrecked the weather factory.“
Rainbow let out a groan, “don’t remind me of that, I’m still paying for the damages, speaking of damage, we have gotten away with some collateral damage haven’t we?” everyone else looked at her confused, “you know, like the destruction caused by the parasprites, the Grand Galloping Gala, the houses wrecked by the ursa minor, the dam that broke, that entire city the pony of shadows destroyed, luckily we’ve been able to fix most of them.”
“Yeah and we had sooooo much fun too,” Pinkie jumped in front of everyone, “remember all the parties we had through the years? like birthday parties, you are not an evil enchantress parties, reformed villains parties, I remember every single one of them.”
“Pinkie, you are the only pony capable of remembering every single party you have thrown, of that I’m sure,” the alicorn accepted that she might never understand how that pink pony works, but that didn’t really matter as long as she was her friend, “we have been through a lot these past years, the return of Nightmare Moon, the return of Discord, the attack of Chrysalis and the changelings, Sombra, the Pony of Shadows, Tirek, even Cozy Glow among others.”
“And we bucked every single one of their butts, YEAH!” Rainbow raised her hoof and Applejack bumped it.
“And the travels, darling, we have been all over Equestria and even beyond, thanks to the Cutiemark Map.”
“Oh my, I loved the adventures the map has sent us, remember when it sent us to finish a feud with the Hooffields and the McColts, Twilight?” the alicorn nodded, “or when it sent us to help the Kirins, Applejack?”
“Woowee, that was sure a fun adventure, but Ahm glad we can have slow days like this one, without somethin’ that threatens Equestria, even if it’s the spa days, or tea parties or even sleepovers, like the first one we had short after Twilight came t’Ponyville. Ah believe that was the first time Rares and Ah share the bed.”
Everyone in the room turned to see Rarity and Applejack next to each other, Pinkie had her cheeks full of air and a was grinning, Rarity pulled Applejack’s hat covering the cowpony’s face and then turned to see her pink pony friend, “Don’t. You. Dare. Pinkie!” the party pony swallowed all the air and smiled.
The song reached its end without the group noticing until Twilight turned to the music box, “hey the music box stopped, how about one last time?”
“I’m with you Twilight, besides there isn’t much to do today,” Spike said while flying over them and everypony else agreed.
Twilight was about to pick the sticks to draw but then stopped, “you know, this will be the last time we hear a song from the music box together for a while, why don’t we press the button together?”
“But Twi, it is a little tiny minuscule button and our hooves are not that tiny,” Pinkie alleged but Twilight put a hoof on her head.
“If there is something I have learned from you, Pinkie, is that where there's a will there's a way, Spike put your claw on the button, everypony else let's put our hooves over spike's claw.”
And so they did, whoever could fly, flew to make more space and together they pressed the button and what appeared to be several instruments played but then ended and a new song started.
”Ooooh, this sounds like a circus, I bet it's a happy song,” Pinkie said clapping her hooves, but then the first verse played and gone was the smile from her face, ”scratch that, this is a goodbye song, there is nothing sadder than the end of a circus show.”
Rarity was enjoying the song while leaning on Applejack for support, ”it's a lovely song and they sing it with feeling, I wonder if they actually feel what they are singing.”
Fluttershy felt moved by the song and shed a single tear, ”I'm sure they feel it, otherwise they wouldn't be able to sing with so much passion.”
A smile returned to the pink pony's face, ”I love the message and it's so true, I will never forget everyone who watched our adventures, staying with us for all these years, laughing with us, crying with us and giving us hope whenever there was a chance for us to get cancelled,” Pinkie's face beamed with happiness but still shed some tears, for she knew.
”Pinkie are you ok, why are you crying?” Rainbow dash flew to her friend and cleaned her tears with a wing.
”I'm sorry Dashie, I guess I went a bit out of character there, don't worry about me, I'm ok.”
Fluttershy who was next to Pinkie was a bit concerned, ”but what do you mean by getting us cancelled?”
Pinkie patted Fluttershy on the head, ”that's nothing your cute little head should worry about, just let Mama Pinkie handle it.”
Fluttershy was slightly annoyed for that, ”I'm still a year older than you.”
Everyone laughed, ”but really, this song is fitting for today's session, we might not be able to get together like this, with you leaving to Canterlot, we staying here, you would probably take the music box with you and most of us might not be able to travel every other week to the capital, am I not correct, darling?”
”Oh Rarity, you would be correct, except that I'm not taking the music box with me,” everypony else gasped at the news, ”well you see, I know it would be really hard for everypony to gather every two weeks for our sessions, but it will be easier for me since I'm only a teleport away, besides I might not be able to join every single session as I used to, but I still want you to keep studying these aliens as much as possible, so I'll leave Starlight and Spike in charge of managing the project.”
”But ain't Spike leavin' with you Twilight?”
Twilight nodded, ”yes, but you see, I gave Spike a little gift, something I've been working for a while, show them,” Spike pulled a golden bracelet from a bag, it sported Twilight's cutiemark, ”I enchanted this bracelet with a spell so it will be similar to the EEA Medallion, Spike will be able to come here whenever he needs to even if I can't come.”
”Awesome, Twilight you thought in everything.”
”Well probably not everything, but I want to make sure that we learn as much as we can from this,” she patted the music box, ”who knows what we will learn tomorrow or next week or in a few years, we might be able to learn as much as this aliens and maybe just maybe, one day we'll find them in the vast infinite universe that we live in,” and so they enjoyed each other's company until it was time for everypony else to leave, they didn't know what will happen in the future, but they knew that they will face it with optimism and hope.
~♥~♦~♣~♠~
Planet Equum, year [ERROR] A.S.
It was a sunny day in New Appaloosa, not a single cloud in the sky, thanks to the weather team and everypony was ready for a very important milestone in history. The chattering of workers making sure there is zero error margin was like music for a certain pony. The hard work she put through the years that made this event possible weighed heavy on her, since the moment she decided it was time to push everycreature to try to reach the last frontier.
Today was the first of many launches that will leave a mark in history, not only for ponykind but for everycreature on the planet. If everything goes well, they will be one step closer to conquer the stars.
“It’s like poetry, just like you did eons ago, now is our turn,” the pony said rubbing a glass case that housed a well known device when a computerized sound came from the door, “come in.”
A white stallion unicorn entered and bowed, “Your Highness, my team is ready to board and the launch will be short after, the director was asking if you would give a few words.”
“Ah Captain Star, indeed tell the director I’ll be right away,” the stallion bowed and left the room, “hehe I think I’ve never been this excited since the moment I found out how you work, oh wait, yeah I think I can think of a few other moments that made me more excited, but let’s not delay, the stars are waiting for our gift of harmony.”
To be continued?