Twinkle Shine was drinking from her tea cup across from her good friend Minty Brew. Minty was the best tea maker in Daffodilia , especially mint teas. But she always remembered Twinkle liked honey and bitter teas while she preferred hers to be cold with lots of sugar. She was drinking hers from a tall glass with ice as she relaxed in her chair and enjoyed the cool late night breeze from the window. Twinkle smiled at Minty and the dark green earth pony smiled back at her.
“Minty, how do um… how do you get ice for your teas?” Asked Twinkle
“From my refrigerator! I press this little button that has an ice cube on it, and then put my cup next to this little hole and ice comes out. Sometimes, I put my tea in first then get the ice and it makes a huge mess! Oh, and I have to put water in the fridge so it-”
“Where did you get the fridge from?” Twinkle asked, cutting her off.
Minty scratched her chin and looked over at the few books the library had. “I think I got it from Santa when I was… younger.”
That was always the answer the little ponies had for how they got things, they either got them from Santa, they always had them, or it was made by them. Twinkle always asked anyways, she was a curious unicorn, like every other unicorn in Daffodilia, she liked to know things. One last sip from her little white and gold tea cup, that Minty had given her, and she felt happy again.
“Minty, what do you do… when you feel sad?” Twinkle asked.
Minty giggled “I make some tea of course!”
That lined up, Twinkle though, with the little thing nearly every pony did. Breezy Winds flew kites, Horseshoe was always showing off his new shoes and Twinkle… she cried. She felt a little foggy again and quickly refilled her tea from the pot on the table. The pot didn't match her cup, it had little doves on the sides while the pot had golden leaves and stripes. Lots of things were like that in Daffodilia, and the ponies loved it. Things didn't match because everything was special. No two baubles on the Christmas tree were the same because no two ponies were the same. But that wasn't right because Twinkle remembered that word… it was in her books in the library, A twin! There were ponies who had twins and siblings… more fog rushed in to fill the branches of her mind. Drink the tea. Ask Minty another question. And don't think, Twinkle remembered.
“Minty, do you want to have a sleepover tonight?” asked Twinkle.
“Oh, I would love to but… I hate sleeping on the floor.” Replied Minty.
They couldn't sleep in the same bed of course, it would make Santa upset. But it was so late and Minty was going to leave at any moment.
“Actually, now that you mention it, I'm very tired! I’ll be back over tomorrow, okay Twinkie?” Asked minty.
“I’ll… see you soon, Minty.” Twinkle replied. Minty nodded and walked out, still taking long swigs from her jug.
Alone again. Can't read, reading makes her mind foggy and that makes her sad. Cant eat, already ate. Sleep? Of course, it was time for sleep. Minty would be over in the morning, or afternoon, and if she wasn't over in the morning then she could eat breakfast at Doodles Dinner and listen to the jukebox. She had a plan in her mind now and it was time to actually check off the boxes. Just… close her eyes and sleep, how hard could that be? But as she walked up the stairs she didn't feel tired, she didn't feel tired at all when she laid into her bed and blew out her lantern. She stared at the blank ceiling, at her stary blanket, out her window at the real stars, and still felt like she wasn't tired at all. It never felt right to her, like she was sleeping in the wrong place. No matter how many times she moved her bed around, or moved it to another room. It always felt like it was always in the wrong spot. It didn't help that the ceiling and walls were so bare, and the carpet so bland.
The motorcycle was racing across the empty highways, dodging potholes and burned-out tanks, Diamond was always a great driver, her wings were out, and she loved feeling the wind tickle her feathers. Cake held onto her, staring up at the clear blue sky. The bike was old, but the engine still worked much to their relief, Cake had done a decent job of taking care of it, keeping it under tarps in a nearby cave. She even took the time to sandpaper off the old insignias she always hated. It was a long road trip, it was going to take them at least a day to get to Unicornia, the landscape ahead was a blur to her. A constant changing wasteland of green grass, bomb craters, and skeletons. She wasn't blocking them out, she even made out the many landmarks she recalled on the journey. She was just too used to the sight to care. She shivered, feeling cold. It was about mid-day now, she wanted to get off the bike and stretch for a moment. She tapped onto Diamond’s shoulder, and they stopped, finding a nice flipped over halftrack filled with skeletons spewed out onto the grass beside the concrete road to park beside.
“Yellow, I'm going to take a leak, check for some trinkets for me, will you?” Asked Cake, as she looked over at the pile of bones next to them. Yellow Diamond nodded and quickly got to work, flying up to the top door and prying it open before fluttering inside while Cake walked off the highway and into the woods. Yellow began by looking at the skeleton in the driver seat, the highway had been firebombed a long time ago, she remembered the event. The skeleton was completely dry with their uniform burned off; their hooves melted into the steering wheel. There wasn't much left except for a small pin she saw wedged out of his teeth; she realized that in his last moments he probably stuck it there so they could have something to recognize the body if it was ever recovered. She took it out and looked over the little piece of metal. It was a simple Victorian cross, she frowned as she tossed it away, not worth keeping, and flew out of the cab. Cake was already trotting back to the bike, and yellow could see something was bothering her.
“What's wrong, Cake?” She asked as the unicorn closed the distance between the two.
“Do you feel… cold Diamond?” Asked Cake as she looked back up at the sky.
“N- no? I feel okay, I suppose. Even when it comes time for the snow, I don't really feel cold anymore though, not since… winter.” Diamond was a taller pony than Cake was, and she had wings. Cake was a skinny little Unicorn who was usually shivering, as Diamond recalled in their past together.
“We better hurry, Tide Turner’s got a lot to worry about taking care of 30 unicorns, he was eager to do it but even I couldn't take on that much responsibility,” Cake said, getting back onto the bike and taking the handles herself this time. Diamond flew up and spun around, flapping her wings. Cake took that as a sign she would prefer to fly while Cake drove, and the two set off again down the road.
Twinkle sat down in the booth beside the window, it was her favorite place to sit because it always had fresh daffodilly flowers in the vase on the table, the rest of the vases really just depended on what ponies brought in, and what was in bloom, but daffodillies where predictable, and grew all over Daffodilia, easy to eat and pretty to look at. Twinkle took one out and chewed on it as she looked out the window at the ponies going about their early morning activities. Tool Belt was working on an idea he had for a while, a street light as he called it, he wouldn't tell anypony where he got the metal pole, but he was quick to work with his friend, Rusty Shield, to put it into the ground and try to tie a lantern to it. Twinkle watched as Tool Belt climbed onto Rusty and was carefully trying to place the lantern and then… he fell. He had put too much weight onto his friend and caused him to stumble, making him drop him. Tool Belt collided hard onto the stone street and then she saw it, it was a tiny scrape on his chin, it would hurt for a few minutes, it would be sore for an hour, then he would forget about it. But Twinkle saw it, the smallest bead of crimson. She felt a shiver zig zag down her back, she looked away quickly, but she heard him cry out in pain, her mind was going to places she didn't want it too as she heard the pony outside trying to console and help his friend to his hooves. Images flashed over her eyes but then she heard hoof steps that pulled her from the trance. Dinky walked over and laid down the plate from her mouth as she looked at Twinkle holding her ears and placing her head onto the table.
“Twinkle Shine, do you not like what's on the jukebox? I can change it if you would like,” asked Doodle as she looked down at the shivering pony below her.
Twinkle tried to focus on that, the sweet music coming from the magical music box. Just focus on the sweet instruments and everything would be okay. “No… I um... Please don't change the music,” Twinkle whimpered. Doodle nodded and left the pony alone with her little croissant. The fog slowly faded, she decided not to give into her curiosity and look out the window to confirm the fate of Tool Belt, it was just a scrape what's the worst that could… no, don't even think about it. Just listen to the music. Bite the bread. Chew the bread… and breathe. And don't think. Clean, fresh air filled her lungs, and the fog was gone. The sound of the little bell above the door made her ears stick up as in walked her friend, Minty. She scanned the room for a moment before her eyes lit up at the sight of the lavender unicorn sitting alone in the corner booth.
“There you are! I was worried when you weren't in the library this morning.” Minty's smile beamed and brightened up the room as she trotted over to the booth and sat down across from Twinkle who felt the cold shiver leave her as she breathed a sigh of relief and returned her hooves to relaxing on the table. The curious unicorn's eyes focused onto the saddle bags Minty had carefully placed on the table with a little giggle. “I found something on my way to the library this morning!” Minty carefully opened up the large satchel bag and pulled out a bottle with a piece of wood or hard sponge, at the top. Twinkle had never seen anything like it before.
“What is that, Minty?” Asked Twinkle
“I have no idea! I was hoping you might tell me, I've never seen anything like it before! I found it floating down the river, snagged onto a couple rocks.” Minty said as she carefully laid the bottle into Twinkles hooves.
The label was faded and torn, they had gotten little things like this before. Preserves and jams, and an occasional potion with a similar but much smaller container, and of course when they really liked them, Santa would give them the recipes to make the goods themselves. “Red… ine? no wait, i think it might be Red One, five… cent. Red one five cent!”
“I don't know why, but I really wanna drink whatever it is, I don't even like cherry flavored things!” Minty said, giggling.
Twinkle was skeptical, she wasn't sure about drinking this weird river water potion. At least she thought it was a potion, it had that weird not-quite-wood thing jammed into it. Maybe it was the color or the large oversized shape of it, either way it didn't look very appealing. “I don't know Minty… it doesn't look that… drinkable. Remember when Slushy drank that tummy ache potion when she didn't have a tummy ache… and it gave her one…”
“Oh, don't be such a downer, Twinkle! I bet this is something you're supposed to drink all the time, it would have a warning on it if you weren't, all the other potions do!” Minty exclaimed as she took the top of it into her mouth and positioned the bottle between her legs, a few grunts and a hard pull where all it took to pop it out of the bottle, and she spat it onto Twinkle’s empty plate.
Twinkle could immediately smell whatever it was, it made her nose twitch and it didn't smell at all like cherries. “Ewww, don't tell me you’re really going to drink that stuff Minty!”
Minty turned her body facing out of the booth, lifting the bottle up to her mouth and drinking its contents in one long swig. It was like the movement was natural to her, she lifted up the bottle, accounted for the sloshing liquid and drank. She lowered the bottle and locked her lips and paused for a moment, then her eyes opened and her expression changed to a frown. Carefully, she lowered the bottle back down and looked back at the label.
“See, I told you that stuff was gross!” Twinkle said, about to lecture her friend.
“No, it tasted good, sweet even, and… it tasted like… home.”