//------------------------------// // Memory // Story: Obligations // by ArgonMatrix //------------------------------// “Surprise!” Spike jumped at the sudden sight of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack. He had woken up just a few minutes earlier—alone, surprisingly—only to find the library overwhelmed with party decor, including Pinkie’s signature party cannon which had served to fully wake him up.. “Happy birthday Spike!” cried Pinkie as she cartwheeled over to him, dropping a box wrapped in fuchsia paper in front of him. The four remaining mares followed suit—minus the cartwheeling—and each greeting made his beaming expression wider. “Wow, this party looks even better than last year! Thanks guys!” Spike scanned the room in anticipation before turning to his friends with a questioning look. “Do you guys know where Twilight is?” The five ponies exchanged quick looks, shrugging to one another. “Wasn’t she up there with you?” Rainbow inquired. “No, I just woke up and she wasn’t there. She’s been getting up earlier than usual lately, but she’s still always been around somewhere by time I wake up.” Spike twiddled his claws in worry. “I hope she’s okay...” “Oh, wait!” Pinkie quickly raced to the table in the center of the room and bounced back with a small scrap of parchment in her mouth, spitting it out at Spike’s feet. “I found this when we were setting up the party, and it’s addressed to you! I didn’t read it since that would’ve been super rude, but maybe it’s from Twilight!” “Thanks Pinkie,” Spike replied as he reached down for the note. He scanned his eyeballs across every word of the note, taking in the message that they carried. Certain phrases stuck out to him “...it’s not like it matters too much...”, “...I’ve got nothing better to do today...”, “...your day’s probably going to be pretty boring...”. He reread each line carefully, looking for anything he might’ve missed. He tried reading between the lines, looking for some hidden context. Nothing stood out, but the offending words just became imprinted deeper and deeper into his mind with every pass. He barely noticed as tears started dropping onto the paper while he stared down at it, perplexed. “What’s wrong Spike?” Fluttershy asked urgently, noticing his sudden mood swing to sorrow. “I... I don’t understand...” Spike dropped the note and rushed upstairs, hoping to find his best friend hiding up there secretly waiting to surprise him. She had to be there, she just had to. Rainbow Dash quickly swooped down to pick up the note as Fluttershy followed shortly behind Spike. The cyan pegasus read through the message, gaining a scowling expression with each passing line. “‘Nothing better to do’? What in the hay is this supposed to be?! A joke?!” “A joke? Yay! Lemme see!” Pinkie swiped the note from Dash’s hooves and skimmed through it with an expectant, cheery grin. Her grin faded to a sullen frown as she finished reading. “That wasn’t funny at all! ‘Pretty boring’? Why would Twilight say those things about Spike’s birthday? I thought she loved him... and birthdays...” “And why isn’t she here?! It’s bad enough that she taunted him with that note, but then to leave him clueless on his big day? What’s that unicorn thinking?!” Rainbow’s pouty mannerisms spoke volumes about her frustration. “What in tarnation are y’all talkin’ about? Gimme that.” Copying the actions and sudden change of expression as the previous two ponies, Applejack finished her reading with a flummoxed look about her. “This can’t be from Twi, she wouldn’t insult his birthday like this. There’s no way that’s from her... it can’t be...” “I’m sure you’re all making a big huff about nothing,” inserted Rarity indignantly, grabbing the note in her telekinesis. “There’s no need to jump to conclusions. I’m sure it’s all a mis—” her voice trailed off as she continued through the incriminating note. She stared at the words for a long while, aghast. “What in the... is she trying to make a mockery of this day? She has to realize how much this whole celebration means to him... how much it means to everyone. Why would she write such... such insulting words?!” “Why aren’t you here?! Where are you?!” “Spike, please calm down! Spike!” An air shredding roar came from the upstairs bedroom along with a flash of lime green light. Several seconds passed without any more sound or action as everypony just stared up at the source of the chaotic outburst. Suddenly, a smoking black blur careened out of the doorway and slammed into the wall across the library, falling to a standstill on the floor next to the front entrance. A yellow and pink ball of trepidation quickly soared out from the second floor and landed timidly behind her friends. Not one second later, the upstairs door slammed with enough force to splinter the door frame, walling the confused equines away from the furious reptile. Fluttershy calmed herself very slightly with a quick relieving breath. “I-I think it’s best if we leave him alone for a bit. He’s, um, really upset.” “He should be!” cried Rainbow Dash, shocking her fellow pegasus back into her fearful crouch. “Today was supposed a time for him to have a bit of fun with his friends. But for whatever reason, Twilight thought it would be funny to mock him with that note and then not even show up for the party! What kind of behavior is that from his best friend?!” “C-can I see the n-note?” inquired a still shaken Fluttershy. Rarity levitated it towards her friend with a look of repulsion on her face. Fluttershy quietly read the note to herself, clasping a hoof over her mouth partway through. “Maybe she forgot it was his birthday...” “Yeah right,” continued Rainbow, happy to rant as much as possible. “This is Twilight Sparkle we’re talking about: the mare who plans out her breakfast a month in advance. You’re trying to tell me that in her crazy amount of scheduling she just happened to forget the birthday of her lifelong friend? What a joke.” “But Dashie, jokes are supposed to be funny!” Pinkie insisted. “None of this is funny at all. It’s... it’s...” “An insult!” “A mistake...” “A mockery!” “Impossible.” “Sad.” All five of them spoke at the same time. Rainbow motioned to continue, but Applejack beat her to it. “It’s like you said, Rainbow. This is Twilight Sparkle we’re talkin’ ‘bout: the Element o’ Magic who’s studyin’ the magic o’ friendship under Princess Celestia herself! You know as well as I do that she wouldn’t miss somethin’ like this without good reason. An’ as far as that note goes, we can’t even be sure that it came from her! I ain’t trustin’ nothing like that unless it comes straight from the horse’s mouth.” Rainbow whisked the note out of Fluttershy’s grasp and slammed it blatantly in Applejack’s face. “Look at this writing, Applejack! The curl on the T, the dot of the i... we’ve all seen how unique her writing style is, and this matches it one hundred percent!” The orange mare shot daggers at the imposing pegasus and snatched the note from her, beginning to analyze it thoroughly. “And you can’t possibly tell me she has a good reason for not being here right this second. There’s no reason good enough.” “I’m afraid I must agree with Rainbow Dash,” inserted Rarity. “We all saw how upset little Spikey-wikey was when he realized she wasn’t here. I don’t care how well-crafted of an excuse there is, anything that elicits such emotions from the ones you live is most unforgivable.” “Exactly! Thank you Rarity.” A brooding silence overtook the group as everyone seemed to fall into deep thought. Rarity was scowling at the floor to her right, glancing up at the shut bedroom door every so often. Pinkie Pie was toying with a purple streamer in her hooves, pouting. Applejack was still determinedly pouring over the note which had triggered everything. Fluttershy was crouched down on her side, frowning gently at the ground. Rainbow Dash was hovering back and forth, front legs crossed and with a bitter look on her face. It completely escaped them that they were surrounded by brightly coloured party decorations on all sides. Pinkie was the first to break the silence. “Maybe we should go try and cheer Spike up. We can pout over Twilight all we want, but he’s the one who it matters to most of all. It’s still his birthday, with or without Twilight, and he deserves to have fun. Let’s see if we can still salvage this party.” The rest of them seemed slightly taken aback by the party pony’s sudden display of wisdom, but they all nodded in agreement and made their way up the stairs. Very faint sobbing could be heard coming from the other side of the bedroom door. Rarity took the lead and tapped gently against the wood. “Spike, darling? Do you mind if we come in?” No answer. They waited in anticipation for a moment, hoping for some kind of reaction. Then, just as Rarity motioned for the doorknob, the door swung inward to reveal a very depressed purple dragon. He hung his head low, partially due to sadness, partially because he was staring at a piece of paper in his claws. No one made a sound. Spike limply swung his limb—paper in tow—in Rarity’s direction. She hesitantly took it in her blue aura, gazed down at it, and promptly clasped a hoof over her mouth. It was a sepia photo. It portrayed a young filly who bore an uncanny resemblance to one of her friends, sleeping with the most innocent smile on her face next to a small, scaly creature who had a claw in its mouth as it slumbered. Snuggled tightly together, they were draped with a blanket which was far too large for their bodies. A fireplace marked the background along with a lidless box and a bit of shredded paper. Sprawled across the bottom photo in a complementary black ink was the message “Best Friends Forever”. Spike spoke as Rarity passed along the photo to the rest of her friends, trying to keep tears from coming to her eyes. “That was my first birthday. I don’t remember it much, but apparently it was just me and Twilight, sleeping in a common room. No party, nothing special, it was just me and her. I wish I could remember it, but this photo is the best I’ll ever have. I think that was my best birthday ever... and I just wish I could experience it again...” All of the mares did their best to withhold their tears as they listened and looked, but all of them failed save for Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who both sniffled and turned their heads away. They all swarmed to hug the sad little creature, and held him in that embrace for what could’ve been an eternity. No one said anything, the only sound was the gentle sobs of the mares. Spike had already exhausted all his sobs. They finally disbanded after a while, and Pinkie chimed in. “I know we can’t make this your best birthday ever, but we can still try to have fun, right? There’s a whole lot of party to be had down there, and we can let one missing guest spoil all the fun!” Spike turned his head up to see five of his closest friends giving him happy, expectant looks. He gave as sincere of a smile as he could and replied, “Yeah, I think I’d like that.” All five mares gave him warm expressions, ushering him down to the party which waited below.