“Well, golly gee! You can just come to my room now, Jessi! It’s okay!” I say to the other filly in the living room emphatically, as a mechanical smile forms on my face…
Jessi frowns while standing on her hooves before me, “You sure? Because the way Izzy was talking, I didn’t think you’d want me in your room right now?”
I raise my pupils to the ceiling and quietly exclaim, “Oh golly!” under my breath before lowering them back to the other filly and just saying, “I have two new plush toys, okay!”
Her eyes widen, “Yeah! She told me!”
I sigh, “I uh, yeah… I like being snuggled…”
She blinks with a start and adjusts her eyes to me, “Well uh, snuggles?”
I nod and say slightly louder, “Yes, Jessi! I like snuggles!”
Suddenly, Izzy chimes in from behind me and I can almost feel her grinning down at me as she exclaims, “That’s adorable!”
I raise my head to snap back with my eyes wide, “SHUT UP, IZZY!”
Jessi smiles dimly, “Well um, I sure would like to meet your new friends?”
I blink and start, “Um, say what now?”
Jessi nods and leans forward slightly while saying, “Your friends! I wanna meet them!”
I gulp, “Um, okay Jessi!”
<*****>
I silently think to myself, I don’t know why this pegasus is so nervous? I mean, I just want to meet her plushies! I’d show her mine if she ever asked… Wait, that gives me an idea!
I’m unable to finish the thought as the pink filly frowns at me and says, “Well, come on, Jessi! Let’s go to my room!” before turning her body and I hear her sigh as she begins to trot back towards her room on the left side of the big wooden room.
I follow her while admiring the polished walls and all of Izzy’s things and knick-knacks decorating the sides when finally, we stop trotting right in front of her big red door…
She turns back to face me and says, “Jessi?”
I blink, “Yes, Twinkle?”
She smiles dimly, “Thanks for giving me, my new friend!”
At that point, I instinctively knew to embrace my friend in a tight warm hug and so I took the final step towards her and embraced her tightly in my forehooves.
“UGH!” She adorably grunts before tentatively returning the hug with her own forehooves.
We disengage back to our hooves on the floor, and I ask her, “So! Are you ready?” before smiling happily back at her…
She frowns, “You’re really into this whole plushie thing, huh?”
I nod, “Well, gee Twinkle! I only have fifty of them! What do you think?” before blinking and correcting myself, “Well, forty-nine now!”
Her head raises as she stares at me with wide brown eyes, “You gave me one of your friends?”
I smile and nod again, “I thought you needed a friend!”
“You care about me, huh?” She says bluntly.
At that point, I can’t help but start because the truth is, I never really thought about it until that exact second… I blink my eyes and smile before saying, “I uh, guess I do?”
She smiles warmly at me, “I love you, Jessi!”
“I love you too, Twinkle!”
<*****>
I’m now deep in thought as I turn my body back round to face my door and I use my mouth on the knob to the right to turn it with a twist of my neck rightward and I move my head forward to open it, revealing my room, with it’s bare walls, and begin to trot inside and I soon hear the other filly’s hoofsteps behind me…
As I trot in toward the center of my room, I think about how maybe my friendship with this other filly is about giving of myself. After all, she gave me one of her stuffed friends! My brow furrows as I suddenly start to think about what I can get for her later during the winter holiday when she says, “Hey! I see your bed there, but Izzy said you had two new plushies! Where are they?”
I shiver as I suddenly recall that I hid them inside the closet and stammer out, “Uh, hang on, Jessi!”
I glance over to the filly on my left to witness her grin, “That’s okay Twinkle! Take all the time you need! I understand that this might be hard for you…”
I turn my body to the other foal, “Because I don’t want you to meet my secret friends, right?” and frown…
She turns herself to me and smiles wider, “Well, that and let me guess! Admitting you have stuffed friends is like admitting that you’re weak, am I right?”
I widen my eyes with a start, “Uh, golly gee! I didn’t quite make that connection, but uh…”
She giggles and nods, “Right! Well, listen to me, Twinkle…” she stares deep into my eyes with her dark orange pupils, “We all need comfort! And even if we have to get it from stuffed friends, that’s okay too!”
<*****>
At this point, I can tell this pegasus is dumbstruck with what I just said as her brown eyes widen and she stutters, “Golly! Um, so it’s okay to have plushies?”
I nod again, “Absolutely, Twinkle Shine!” and at this point, I know that it’s my time to strike so I grin widely and say, “But I think I know how I can make snuggling your stuffies even better!”
She blinks at me and frowns, “Um, say what now?”
I smile largely and mischievously…
<*****>
And so, that’s how it all happened! That’s why I’m currently snuggled in bed, at around 10:30 in the morning, while holding a rainbow maned blue pegasus stuffy to my chest, and there’s now a green unicorn filly holding me from behind! I swear, I’m not making any of this up!
I can hear her purring with snuggly delight behind me as she holds me tightly to her warm body with her forehooves and says, “We don’t need to sleep now if you don’t want to, Twinkle. This isn’t about rest after all, and I already had three cups of coffee anyway!”
I reply, “So, this isn’t about rest? You just wanted to snuggle and hold me?”
I can hear her almost shudder from behind me before she sighs and faintly replies, “Twinkle… Do you know what it’s like to be by yourself for years? To have nopony near you to be there for you to hug you and snuggle?”
I blink as I suddenly think about the time I was trapped in stone and retort automatically, “Probably a lot better than you realize…”
“We’re not alone anymore, Twinkle… We got each other now!”
I smile happily as I close my eyes in warm cuddly bliss while holding the pegasus plushie close to my chest and I feel her wiry mane on my chin as Jessi clutches me from the back inside a loving embrace…
“So, Twinkle! This is what I like to do sometimes… It makes me feel like I’m not alone, but this time, you’re here… It’s not just me and my stuffed friends this time! I’m really not alone this time!”
I smile as I giggle slightly, “Well, technically, they’re my stuffies!”
She chuckles as well before I feel her nodding behind me, “Right! I’ll have to bring over some of my friends later, won’t I?”
My eyes widen as the gravity of plushie love and what I’ve gotten myself into suddenly dawn on me… I then nervously say back, “You’re really into snuggling, huh?”
I feel her clutch me firmly and warmly as she retorts, “Yup! And now I can do it with my best friend! I don’t have to be alone anymore!”
“Golly! So, I'll do that for you now, huh?”
I hear her chuckle, “Well, as of this morning, you sure do Twinkle!”
My eyes go skyward as I once again whisper, “Oh golly!” before correcting them and suddenly thinking about how I really would like a doobie about now, but this filly clutching me from behind is preventing me from smoking!
This wonderful, loving, and caring filly who gave me one of her friends when I didn’t have any… This amazing foal who would dare to love the filly who tried to take over Equestria… Jessi Trotsky, my best friend!
<*****>
The pink filly in my hooves grows very still and quiet suddenly and I can’t help but ask, “Uh, you okay, Twinkle?”
I hear her say back as her body jitters, “Shut up! I’m taking in the moment!”
I blink, “Well, you got really quiet all of a sudden?”
I hear her sigh and say, “Yeah… I’ve just been thinking, you know? I mean, two thousand years is a long time!”
I can only reply, “Well, this is true!”
“Yeah uh, I know it’s gone now and nothing about it really matters anymore, but it’s so weird to think that I once had a different life, and now, I’m here and somepony completely different…”*
I softly cuddle her back before saying instinctively, “Twinkle Shine, I’m your friend and you can tell me anything…”
I hear her giggle softly, “Yeah… You know, when I was talking about this stuff with Izzy earlier, it was different… I mean, she’s a grown-up pony and you’re just a filly, like me!”
I reflexively say, “I understand!” while not sure if I do or not… Empathy is tricky when you spend most of your time by yourself!
She sighs again, “Anyway, the thing to remember about me is, that I had a life before you and even all of this, but now, it’s all gone and I…”
My eyes widen as the other filly abruptly stops talking, “You what, Twinkle?”
She starts to vibrate lightly in agitation while saying, “Oh golly! It hurts, okay! It hurts when I really think about it, and I know! I should just leave it alone! I know this! And most of the time, I do! But sometimes, Jessi… Sometimes…”
I smile warmly at the other filly before me, lovingly tightening my hooves and say back, “It’s okay Twinkle… We all slip up sometimes… You know, I sometimes think back to what I can remember about my parents?”
She stops shaking as her face moves forward, “W-what do you think about Jessi?”
“I think about the life I used to have and how much they meant to me…” I think and choose my words carefully as I continue, “I think about all the things they taught me and the time we spent together… That all got taken away from me in a single night…”
“Oh, golly! That must’ve been really hard!”
I chuckle softly under my breath, “Well, it wasn’t easy, bestie! But it made me the strong resilient filly I am today… There’s good and bad in just about everything!”
“Oh? So, tell me something! What’s so great about my old life being taken away, huh?”
I decide not to relent my grasp as I say, “Well, it made you the filly you are today, for one thing… And that filly is my best friend!”
I can hear her say very quietly under her breath, “GOLLY!”
I then hear Izzy yelling from the foyer outside her room, “COME ON GIRLS! I MADE MANGO TACOS FOR BRUNCH!!!!”
At that point, I can only snicker and jitter as the pegasus in my hooves says to me quietly, “Did I mention, ‘Golly?’ Was sure I did?”
<*****>
I sat there at the table with my best friend across from me, staring down at the plate as I say to the blue unicorn on my left, “You know, I really don’t think it’s just my imagination, Izzy! You’re making weirder and weirder foods!”
She turns her head right to face me and widens her red eyes as she says, “Oh, that! Yeah, I found a book called Bizarre Foods You Really Should Try and well, mango tacos were in there, so…” her body jitters as she widens her eyes all the way, “Yeah, they’re really tasty with habanero sauce, but the book warned against adding too much!”
I stare at the blue pony wide-eyed and reply, “You don’t say?” I shake my head as I decide now’s as good a time as any before smiling and saying, “Um, will you excuse me for a few minutes, Miss Izzy?”
She smiles back and nods, “Why, certainly little Twinkle! Be careful!”
I say back, “Always!” before getting off my chair to the right and turning to trot back into the foyer towards my room on the left, opposite the bathroom on the other side…
<*****>
I stare at the other unicorn on my right and say, “Miss Izzy, do you read a lot?”
She turns her head left to me and says, “Well, usually just craft books and books on helping me make things better! Although I always improve on their techniques a bit!”
I widen my eyes, “Oh wow! That’s interesting!”
She smiles and nods, “So, you’re really good with forcefield and barrier magic?”
I smile, “Yeah, ever since magic came back, I seem to have a talent for it!”
Her smile lowers somewhat, “You think maybe that’s because you’re afraid of the world?”
I shake my head and hysterically reply, “Well, aren’t you just Little Miss Izzy Obvious, today!”
She grins wider and giggles, “Yeah!” and sighs, “I just, really wish you didn’t feel that way, Jessi…”
I eye this other unicorn carefully, “Why is that Izzy?”
She corrects her mouth, “Well, I just feel like you have so much to offer the world! And it’s sad that you don’t feel like you can go out there…”
I sigh, “Well, be that as it may, the world is an evil, awful place!”
She smiles playfully and tilts her head to the right, “Is it now?”
<*****>
I trot 8 feet into my room and turn my body to the table on the left and grasp the blue bullet pipe with my right forehoof and raise my body vertically to its haunches on the floor. I take the gray rectangular hoof lighter with my left forehoof and ignite it between the clefts, so the flame flickers out the top and bring the bullet pipe to my snout with my other forehoof and inhale to bring the flame into the smokeless port at the front of the pipe.
I inhale and soon taste the earthy flavor of the devil weed as it begins to flow down my throat.
Suddenly, the doorknob at my left glows pale blue and the door swings open to the right to reveal a teal green unicorn filly with a grayish-white mane who stares at me with her orange eyes and says, “Yeah, I didn’t think you were in the bathroom, but what are you doing in here?” before widening them and exclaiming, “Uh, Twinkle?”
I stand there staring at her out the left corner of my eye with my bullet pipe held firmly in my right forehoof and smile before saying nervously, “Uh, this isn’t what it looks like!”
(To be continued…)