//------------------------------//
// Sugar Cube Dreams 
// Story: Adventures of Diamond Dancer (Mission Logs) 
// by RarityEQM 
//------------------------------//

Another dream. I wrote this one down because I'm pretty sure this was the first dream Princess Luna gave to me specifically. 

I'm walking in town. It's a usual day. Everypony always says how good it smells around Sugar Cube Corner. I never notice. I hate Sugar Cube Corner. The smells. The ponies. the tastes. Everypony says to try the Razzberry cupcakes. Or the Lemon cupcakes. or the Blue Berry Cupcakes.

Icarus Syndrome robbed me of my taste buds. Everything in the bakery tastes like chalk to me. Or packing peanuts. Or styrofoam.

It didn't matter. It doesn't change. I don't care. I hate Sugar cube Corner. Pinkie doesn't, though. She's standing there, in the window, smiling that smile. I know smiles like that. Smiles that hide one thousand frowns. Smiles that grin larger than they need to, because thats the only way you can smile when everything hurts on the inside. The ponies that smile the most, are the ones that really need them.

My smile isn't anywhere as practiced as Pinkie's. She's almost perfected it- but it's like that last trace of suffering can't be snuffed away under rehearsed giggles, and masterful gleams, all to hide everything underneath. I smile anyway. She needs it- more than I need mine.

Then she's next to me- and her arms are around me, and she asks if I want a cupcake. I'm about to break it off, and break away, and throw myself into the sky, because the town is for ponies that can feel, and taste, and smell, and it's not worth anything to me. But she doesn't let me go, no matter how much I squirm. And she tugs me into Sugar Cube Corner.

Pinkie Pie sits me down in one of the booths. When she returns I'm surprised; she's holding a bowl, not a cupcake. Thick gray mush- "Oatmeal!" She says. I stare at her. She giggles.

One bowl in front of me, one bowl in front of her. I don't understand. She says to me, she says she shares cupcakes with every pony in town- but I'm special. I'm special because I can't taste cupcakes. So she had to find a way to sit me down and share a treat. She says Oatmeal doesn't really taste like anything- so we're sharing the same experience.

I can't stop crying. She hugs me again- arms around me, squeezing tight.

"It gets easier. " She whispers so only I can hear. "The smiles we give are fake, but the ones they give back are real. If we get enough real smiles, maybe, one day, ours will be real too, so spend your days making them smile. Protect those smiles with everything you can, because they're all you have, and they're the most valuable things you'll ever make. One second of one day of one week of one year- a smile makes a life time, measured only in moments, and those moments are the ones you live forever. What's the worth of a smile, Diamond?"

Things faded out then. I was sitting in bed, and the sun was shining. The birds were singing.

and me?

I was smiling.