Cheese Sandwich couldn’t recall a single moment in his lifetime that he cried harder than he did that day. In the center of an abandoned room, he let salty tears stream down his reddening face. His green eyes were puffy and sparkling under the dim light of the golden sunrays seeping in through the curtains. His heart was aching like it never had before. His back rested uncomfortably against the wooden floorboards as he drowned in his own internal anguish. She…was dead. Gone. Non-existent. Moved on. She was his inspiration… and she died.
As the stallion continued weeping in the empty room, a different stallion watched carefully from behind a corner. His brown eyes were watering and his face was tear-stained. His white cheeks were tinted a light shade of pink.
Gosh… Poor guy’s crying harder than I did…I know I tried to hold it in and everything, but wow…
Pound Cake sighed heavily. Ever since his "auntie" passed the previous day, his heart hadn’t felt a lick of happiness. His heart had shattered into a million pieces and was far beyond repair. He’d know the eccentric party mare ever since he was born. Living without her was so… strange and impossible. It was almost as bad as when his parents passed away. Seeing how many ponies had been affected by Pinkie’s death was almost as depressing as the death itself.
Pound entered the room as quietly as he could. His hooves thumped softly against the wooden floorboards. Fortunately, the stallion couldn’t here Pound approaching through his loud sobs and unrecognizable mutters. It wasn’t until the caring colt put a hoof on the stallion's orange shoulder that he even knew anypony was around. Cheese Sandwich lifted his head and stared at the stallion. He sniffled inward and wiped away dripping tears with his hoof.
“Are you alright…?” the white pegasus asked in concern.
“I…I’m fine…just… sad… If I would have known I would have visited more often… I just didn’t know the last time I saw her truly would be my last…”
Pound Cake rubbed the stallion’s back gingerly.
“I’m sorry….that morning we woke and found her with no pulse was just…awful… I don’t think I ever saw Pumpkin cry so hard… It was just so…unexpected…”
The stallion’s voice started crackling as he remembered the awful morning of the day before. He sniffled harshly and looked at Cheese Sandwich.
“You…why’d you come here…?”
“I…I don’t know… I just get these senses and they tell me where to go…” He paused. “Pinkie…she wants me to host her funeral… I think she knew I’d come here…Or she wanted me hear, so I ended up coming... or something...You get it..."
Pound Cake took in a breath and felt tears reinvading his brown eyes.
“She…she was a very mysterious pony… I think you meant something to her…” He forced a smile. “Every time you’d pay her a visit, she’d talk about you all day.”
Cheese smiled back. Even if it was a forced smile, it was still a smile. The little crescent on the colt’s face reminded the stallion of his request.
“Did Pinkie give you a note…?” he asked. Pound nodded.
“She told me how proud she was of me, and that I’d turned out to be a handsome, hard-working stallion. She told me to have a good life and to always remember to smile…”
Cheese’s smile slowly became more authentic.
“She told me the same thing… She said I was good at making ponies smile, and that’s why she wanted me to host her funeral… She thinks I’ll be able to make ponies smile… How am I supposed to make them smile at a death, though…? It’s a funeral… I can’t be my usual goofy self… I have to make them smile in a way I don’t know how…”
The pegasus smiled at the stallion. “Well, you made me smile… even though, you know… I’m still pretty depressed about the whole thing…”
“I… did? How?”
“I don’t know… you just reminded me of old times with her… I guess it’s better to appreciate I had her all those years than to be sad that it was taken away… Good things can’t last forever… Right…?”
“Yeah… I guess so… She’s not gone, really… We have a wonderful pony watching us…”
Pound nodded. “She…always wanted to make others happy… I guess that’s what was so special about her…”
“Yeah, I guess… I remember the wide smile I saw on her face the first moment I saw her…”
The room fell silent as they both looked back on distant memories of Pinkie. Both of them still had water invading their eyes and leaking out of the corners. Pound, however, let out the occasional chuckle or smiled a bit at fond memories. They both thought of birthdays and laughter and cupcakes and everything positive that came from the mare. After a minute, Pound stood from where he was and sighed.
“I’m going to go tell Twilight we have a funeral planner…” Pound announced with a smile. Cheese did nothing but nod. “Cheer up… That’s what she would have wanted…Remember; you can stay here as long as you need to... Just like Pumpkin said.”
"Thanks..." Cheese muttered.
Slowly, the pegasus rose from his hooves and left the room. Pinkie’s old bedroom door closed with a click. There, Cheese Sandwich rested alone with a pit of dread in his heart. His insides twisted as he tried desperately to shoo off the emotional torture.
Come on, Cheese…. You can do this… for her. All she wanted was to see her friends smile. You may not be able to make jokes, goof-off, or be your random, silly self, but you will get them to smile somehow… It’s what she would have wanted.