//------------------------------// // Epilogue: What Friendship Could Be // Story: Pinkie Pie Swear // by Annuska //------------------------------// An exhaled breath momentarily warmed her hands – cold despite being swathed in knitted gloves – as she rocked back and forth from her heels to her tip-toes and back again, humming softly, glancing one way down the street and then another up it. Hands not sufficiently warmed by her own breath, she folded her arms over her chest, hands tucked beneath either arm, and her rocking came to a stop as it became harder to balance with her arms held thus. She wasn’t worried, or afraid of being stood up, but boy, was she cold – and boy, did she regret not taking the heavy raspberry coat again, even if it wasn’t technically hers – but then she thought, it would probably be too heavy for her plans today, so maybe it was serendipity that it had been absent to begin with—but it was nice and warm— At least she’d had the foresight to wear her hair down today. A few more minutes lapsed and she lowered her arms, allowing the handle of her bag to slip from the crook of her elbow down to her palm, and she turned on her heels and started down the sidewalk in the direction she expected to be met from, wondering if, perhaps, they could meet half way – or along the way – or at the café? It wasn’t a long trip, even affording her some entertainment as she crunched the sparse early winter snow beneath her boots – and it was in such a moment of distraction, eyes turned down toward the lightly dusted sidewalk, that she missed sight of her date, only alerted to her presence by the sound of her voice calling out shrilly: “Sonaaataaaa Duuuusk!” Sonata lifted her head and smiled, picking up her pace and stepping between patches of snow only to be caught up in Pinkie Pie’s embrace within seconds. “Ohmigosh, I’m so sorry I’m late, Sona!” Pinkie exclaimed while still holding her arms tightly around Sonata, only pulling away after she’d given a sufficient enough hug and a greeting kiss. “This order was only supposed to take like an hour, right? So I started it thinking, all right, yeah, I’ve got time before I gotta meet Sonata – but then, I forgot this and I forgot that and before I know it I’m running behind by five minutes, then ten, then fifteen—!” “I knew you’d show up,” Sonata said, giggling. “I just got a little cold.” Pinkie slung her bag around her shoulder, pulled Sonata’s arm into her own, and nestled up to her, keeping close as they started down the street again. “Better?” “Much!” “Good!” Pinkie nodded with satisfaction. “Soooooo, how’d your lessons with Rarity go?” “Fiiineee,” Sonata started slowly, lifting a hand to twirl a piece of hair around her finger as she continued, “until Adagio cut them short ‘cause she wanted to go shopping—and Rarity tried speeding through the rest so I told her to just go ahead and go, even though Adagio and Aria got their turns today.” She let out a hmph and Pinkie frowned— and after a moment, gasped. “Ohmigosh! That reminds me! The other day I had Sunset over ‘cause I had to have her try this new cupcake recipe, right? Raspberry-Orange-Cream Dream Swirl! Her favourite colours in confectionery form: raspberry and orange! So who better to pilot test it, riiiiight? Anyway, after I adjusted the recipe a third time and made a fourth batch, she told me she had to go ‘cause she had plans with Aria and I was like, ‘Oki-doki-loki, have fun!’” Pinkie paused a moment, then laughed. “Oh, wait. That wasn’t really a problem. Neeeeveeer mind!” “Well, whatever! That just means more time for us!” Sonata said this with indignation, but smiled anyway; after the months of her once-bandmates doing nothing they didn’t have to be doing outside of their apartment, even following Sonata’s reconciliatory trip to Sugarcube Corner, and some months more of the two of them regarding Pinkie and her friends distrustfully (and justifiably so), Sonata was overjoyed to see them having new friends, and more so at seeing them have some spark of liveliness again. And she was overjoyed to have her own spark again. “So you’re not gonna be too cold to go ice skating, are you?” And to have her girlfriend again, too. “’Course not! I feel all toasty now.” Pinkie giggled. They walked on at a leisurely pace, and Sonata began to hum again in the silence that settled between them, no longer fearing an accidental enchantment, and no longer shaken by the sound of her own voice. She could feel Pinkie turn her head toward her, but she continued on, and Pinkie stayed quiet – until, true to her nature, she couldn’t keep her thoughts to herself any longer. “Y’know,” she said, interjecting between a few softly hummed bars, “Rarity says you guys are doing great.” “I dunno,” Sonata said as she stopped humming and shrugged. “We still have a long way to go.” “But I bet you’ve all come a long way, too.” Pinkie smiled. “I know Adagio’s rule was no one can hear you guys ‘til you all get super better, but . . . I really miss hearing you sing.” Sonata lifted her hand again, reaching for the silver eighth-note pendant at her neck, and she slid it along the length of the silver chain it hung from. With a slow inhale, she set it back down against her neck – and with the exhale, she began to vocalise, softly and hesitatingly, with a falter and a pause— —and she closed her eyes and started again, gaining solidity and volume – and though it wasn’t the perfect, sharp, clear composition of a voice she had possessed months before, though she cut short some notes and occasionally couldn’t reach her desired octave and worried that her tone flattened – even though she was learning everything all over again with no magic, just hearing some harmony, some stability, some progress far removed from that disastrous last performance instilled in her a renewed confidence in herself— —and she pulled away from Pinkie just slightly, untangling their arms but still holding her hand as she pulled her along and danced her down the sidewalk, laughing between verses, and Pinkie began to sing along with her, their voices far from perfect but feeling perfect and harmonious and dazzling as they mingled in the cold November air— And Sonata began to feel like this could be home, too.