//------------------------------//
// Strong Smiles [Slice of Life]{TW} 
// Story: Short Stories Collection, vol. I 
// by fallen starr 
//------------------------------//

Sometimes people laugh when I talk about her strength. They don’t really think I’m serious when I talk about how strong she is. No, she doesn’t have the strength of Macintosh or Applejack, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t strong. Her pudgy stomach doesn’t mean she can’t carry a heavy burden.

She’s carried me though so much. Anytime I’ve wanted to cry, she’s let me cry. She given me her shoulder more times than I can count, stroking my mane, letting me know she was there for me. She never gave me false assurances that everything would be okay. She didn’t like saying things she didn’t know were true. She loved giving smiles. She had a smile for everything. A smile for ‘hello’, a smile for ‘goodbye’, a smile for ‘happy birthday’, a smile for ‘it’s time to go to sleep’, everything.

She had sad smiles too. When I got the news that my mother had died, she smiled, but just looking at that smile, I knew she felt sad. That smile was almost like tears.

Other ponies don’t think she’s strong because she’s silly all the time. She likes to joke and play. Fun is her favorite thing. “More than a triple fudge chocolate chip caramel swirl cupcake with butter chocolate frosting on top” she had told me once.

They don’t see the nights that she doesn’t smile, though. They don’t see how hard she tries to keep everyone lifted up. To keep everyone happy and smiling. The real work she puts into it. They don’t see the tears when she’s rejected by something. When someone makes fun of her or says something negative. They don’t know the times when she’s told me, late at night, that she doesn’t know if she’s actually worth anything. That it would be better if she just disappeared.

She’s still here. She’s told me of thoughts she used to have as a teenager. Of when her grandmother died. Of why she stayed up for seventy-two hours after my mother died to keep watch over me.

Maybe it’s weird that she’s an earth pony and she can’t carry over a hundred pounds, but she can lift so much emotional weight.

She is strong.

She’s the strongest I know.