Ever since their fateful meeting at the school infirmary six years ago, Pillar and Cadance had been the best of friends. They did all the things that normal pony friends usually do, sharing their secrets and dreams, hanging out during recess and after school, walking each other home, and doing school projects together. For Pillar, who could find few friends and a lot of ponies that had strong things to say about an earth pony going to school in their neighborhood, Cadance was a lifesaver. As good as Celestia was, she was more like a mother to her, and couldn't be the same way.
So for Pillar, this relationship had been wonderful for many years, but there was a big problem. Cadance was becoming immensely popular among the students at Canterlot school. As the years went by, Cadance became more and more beautiful and charming, while still containing her friendly and kind disposition. She made many close friends, and special someponies. She was the ideal of friendship, the pony Celestia (probably) wanted Pillar to be.
Her time with Pillar became shorter and shorter, and Pillar couldn't tell if she was truly special to Cadance anymore. Whenever Cadance was busy going out with other friends after school, and couldn't have their once-frequent escapades, Pillar put on her awkward smile, and waved her goodbye. But always in there, in the deepest, darkest parts of her scarred mind, billowed a dark, inky cloud that she couldn't drive away.
She asked Celestia about this dark feeling, but whenever she asked about the subject, Celestia lost her friendly and caring manner. She nervously turned away, muttered something about the moon and this feeling called "jealousy", and only suggested Pillar to make more friends herself and refrain from being alone.
Although thoroughly disappointed, she tried to follow Celestia's advice. She tried to make more friends, wandering into student gatherings, and once or twice even asking Cadance to introduce her to the other ponies that she was making friends with. However, such attempts were often met with loathing or contempt, and even the ponies (usually introduced to her by Cadance) who didn't betray such emotions alienated her from their circle.
All this neglect aside, she didn't find other ponies' favorite subjects very interesting. Listening to school gossip was boring, love interests and holiday presents were mundane affairs (not that she got many of those, anyway.), and even schoolwork wasn't interesting for her, purely focusing on academic knowledge. Half of the texts were of magic and of no use to her, anyway.
So, when all her attempts failed, she finally settled on the inevitable, yet grim reality of resignation. Cadance was loved by all because she was beautiful, kind and good with love magic. Cater Pillar wasn't welcome because she was scrawny, sulking, and couldn't use magic at all. If Celestia hadn't found her shivering beneath her parents' body, she wouldn't even be alive. If Cadance hadn't made friends with her at the infirmary, she wouldn't have gone to school. How could she dare to hope for anything more? That rowdy spirit to change one's fate had cost her parents' life. Why would she go down the same path, anyway?
23rd of the Sixth Moon, 1509 A.E.(After Equestria)
"Yay, it's summer vacation!" exclaimed Cadance, as she almost flew down the hallway with her usual vigor. Pillar trotted slowly behind her, a gentle but sad smile on her face. They were in their light summer clothes, as trotting around without any clothes in canterlot was considered horrifyingly barbaric. They had joked about the ridiculous nature of such codes, yet wisely decided to follow them when many eyes were watching.
"It is our last one, you know," she remarked dryly. The Graduation Ceremony had taken place yesterday. She understood that Celestia couldn't come sit next to her, as she was the princess and needed to deliver a speech of congratulations. Yet she couldn't help but watch longingly as many of the foals' and fillies' parents showed up to congratulate their children.
Cadance, with her kind disposition, didn't fall into the gloom as easily. "Aww, don't be like that, you know we can still hang around, be like old times, you know? Hey, by the way, did you get your cutie mark?"
"No," Pillar replied, solemnly. "You of all ponies know I have been trying for over six years, now. I really appreciate you trying to help me get it every summer, but'm probably the only one in class without a special talent, and at this point I'm starting to doubt that I'll ever get it now."
Cadance, even with her ever-growing list of new friends and things to do, never stopped trying to get Pillar her long desired cutie mark each summer vacation. She had always been optimistic, trying to get Pillar to discover her special talent and bolster her confidence. Yet truth be told, after sixteen years of life without a special talent, she was ready to accept that this was her fate, and nothing could change that.
However, Cadance seemed to have other ideas. "I think we need to change tactics," she began, "So far we just have been trying out random things to see whether or not they suit you. We have never really thought about what you like doing yourself."
Now Pillar was truly intrigued. She had never thought about it. Although she liked her workshop with all the gadgets and life hacks that came along with it, she had done it for so many years, yet she hadn't gotten a cutie mark from it. If that wasn't going to do, than what did she truly like doing?
After a while, she finally spoke up. "Well... in my spare time I think I like hanging out with you the most, but how could that be a special talent? I mean, you don't see ponies hanging out with friends for a living. Besides, I really don't have any friends besides you, so I don't even think I'm really good at it."
Cadance wasn't deterred, however, as she continued. "You see, that's the problem we've been having. I've done some research, and found out that cutie marks generally appear when ponies are doing what they like best. So far, we've always been together for a reason. Reasons like school projects, walking each other from school, helping with your workshop, controlling the doses on my love potion... of course these mostly ended up just having fun, but we've never really met just to purely have fun. So what do you say?"
"Sure, why not? But what are we going to do?" asked Pillar.
"Well, I've heard that my parents are going out on a business trip for tomorrow, and I am going to be the only one in the house. I realized that we never had a sleepover before, and it's not often that my parents are gone, so why don't we head over to my place and have one?"
"Sure!" Pillar could barely contain herself from jumping with excitement. And here I was thinking Cadance was forgetting about me, she thought. Nope. Best Friends Forever.
Pillar had the day of her life. Even with only two ponies, the possibilities of what they could do to have fun were endless. After meeting up, they had done all the basics. Pin the tail on the pinata, tug-of-war, hide-and seek, and such. Then, she introduced a game that she had invented during one of her volunteering internships she had been taking. It was called the frisbee, where ponies threw a round wooden disk at each other, catching it with whatever they could and throwing it back. When she tried to catch it with her teeth, her reflexes weren't enough to prevent a painful smack to the snout. After apologies and a bit more practice, she could play the game quite comfortably with her prosthetics.
Being in their late teens now, perhaps they were a bit too old for such childish games. At that moment, however, she couldn't care less. For the first time in many, many months, she had no concern for her relationships, grades, futures, and for that matter, her special talent. After playing games and making a mess out of the kitchen making dinner, they told each other stories. Although some were joyful, some were sad, mostly Pillar's stories about her short life with her parents.
After spending all day in each other's company, it was time to go to bed. They were lying down in peace on the double bed of Cadance's room. "Can we do this again some time?" asked Pillar. "I really enjoyed today, it just felt... liberating. Hay, I didn't get a cutie mark, but I still want to do this, anyway."
"Sure, why not? I mean, I don't have anything better to do until summer is over, after that I'll be getting a part time job, probably as a sitter," said Cadance.
Pillar bit her lip. Of course this was going to be just one summer. After that, she would go back to being loved by all, and she would continue sulking...
She turned around, directly facing Cadance. "Cady, I want to ask a question. Even in the future, when we have our jobs, families, and other things between us, could we be the same way as friends?"
Before Cadance could answer, she was interrupted by the sound of a key turning and heavy hoofsteps in the hall.
"Horseapples!" cursed Cadance, as she frantically threw off her covers. "My parents weren't supposed to arrive until the next day!"
"You didn't get their permission?" Pillar asked in disbelief. "No, you don't understand! I couldn't.. I couldn't..."
Before Cadance could finish her sentence, the door to her room was flung open. There stood her parents that were wearing stern looks on their faces, clearly not happy about Cadance not notifying them of the sleepover. Pillar couldn't focus on that, however, as she recognized them. A golden brown stallion with a cream-colored mane and fancy-looking glasses. A red coated mare with rich, lime-green mane. How could she ever forget.
The very faces of the ponies who doomed her parents to a slow, painful death.