My best friend and I sit across from one another, a crackling radio between us.
I've never listened to The Shadow Spade Hour before.
I don't know who these talking characters are.
I haven't a single clue as to what the plot is.
When the commercials air between acts, I don't know what they're advertising.
Minuette and I sip our lemonades, talking over the noisy program.
"And after about three months, she just moved to Ponyville entirely," Minuette says, her legs dangling childishly off the edge of her chair. "I must admit, the gals and I missed Lyra very dearly at first."
"I should say!" I smirk, taking a sip. "You're even sitting like her!"
She giggles and rolls her eyes. "But... it was all good. Because once we found out how happy of a life she was having in Ponyville, we all stopped feeling so bad! I kept making visits here, and the rest of the gals followed suit!"
"And then you moved in yourself."
"Yeah. Lyra and Bon Bon offered me a spot in their guest room, but... y'know..." She giggles into her cup, making a little echo. "There's only so much a girl can handle!"
"Including somepony as bubbly as you?"
"Heyyyyyy..." Minuette sticks her tongue out. "Don't push it."
"Heehee..." I smirk. "Say... personal question."
She flutters her eyelashes. "Best friendsssssss..."
"Heheh... alright..." I sip again, then speak: "Didn't it bother you moving away from Moondancer, Lemon Drops, and Twinkle Shine?"
"Oh, it's not so baaaaad..." Minuette waves a hoof. "Besides, they visit me all the time! Plus Twilight! Heehee! We're like sisters now!"
"Yeah, but you must see them less and less ever since you left Canterlot."
"It's not really that big of a difference, Amy," she says. "Besides..." Her eyes drift towards the radio. "...I'm liking Ponyville a lot more." She gulps. "Like... a lot lot more."
"Oh?"
"Mmmm..." She sips more from her cup. The lemonade's all gone. We both know this. "May I ask a personal question?"
I gulp. "B-best friends."
Her eyes dart up. "When was the day you realized that we were... best friends?"
Silence, save for a dramatic damsel shriek from the radio, followed by organ music.
"I... it..." I scratch my head. "What?"
"Hehehe..." Minuette glances demurely aside. She looks rosier in the penumbra of the living room's lamplight, or so I tell myself. "I guess I phrased that wrong. Silly me."
"I guess I just don't quite get it." I blink. "Do you remember a time—like—an exact moment when we became best friends?"
"Oh! Totally!" Her response is unexpectedly explosive, even for her. She bounces up and down in her seat. "It was the day Twilight introduced us at Sugarcube Corner! Every pony at the lunch table asked for cupcakes with three flavored frosting and extra sprinkles! But you? You only asked for angel food cake!"
"Pffft..." I nearly drop my lemonade glass.
"Whaaaaat?"
"Minuette..." I chuckle, smirking her way. "That's the first day you and I ever talked to one another... ever."
"Sooooo?" She pouts. "The moment you ordered something so bland... simple... ordinary..."
"Geometric..."
"Whatever!" She winks. "I knew there was a pony who needed lots of sugar and smiles in her life! And anypony who could make that happen would have to be nothing less than a best friend!"
"And so you decided then and there that we were best friends... from the beginning..."
"Welllll..." She smiles, eyes rolling. "It worked out alright, didn't it?"
"Yeah..." I nod back. "I'd say it did."
"Now, what about you?"
"Hmmm?" I hum into my lemonade glass.
She sticks her tongue out. "I told you mine. You tell me yours!"
"Errm..."
"Or..." Minuette blinks, her eyes bright, blue, and brilliant. "...do you not even remember?"
I stare at her eyes, her flouncing mane—the same mane she had pinned into a bun the one day she hopped over to my house, volunteering her assistance with some much needed furniture rearranging. I hadn't asked her, but it didn't matter. Minuette made the boring labor fun. She sang as we dusted... told silly anecdotes as we moved a sofa... even giggled and cooed at my family photos. We talked about old memories for an hour.
Then—out of nowhere—she had shrieked. Moving all the furniture around had exposed some ginormous house spiders from hiding. The fully grown mare spent a full five minutes hopping from chair to chair, from stool to stool, dancing in place and asking me... begging me to slaughter the eight-legged monstrosity. I laughed at her... called her a little filly. Her response was to cling to me, as if I was her valiant protector. I merely sighed and used a dustpan to shoo the creature through a cranny in the floorboards.
All the while, she held me close, and yet I could see—as I'm certain she knew I saw—a tiny hint of a mischievous smirk beneath her horrified grimace. And those teeth twinkled as only they could twinkle, with eyes that matched, that knew all of the empty spaces that those ocean waters filled, warming, inviting, deep but never drowning. And that was precisely the moment, I think, when I fell in—
"Tomorrow," I blurt.
Minuette blinks at me. "Huh?"
"I'll realize that you're my best friend tomorrow," I said.
She leans her head aside. Her muzzle scrunches, an adorable thing. It's always been adorable. "How... can you realize that we're best besties tomorrow?"
"Because I'm realizing it all the time, Minuette," I say. "Each and every day... I'm finding out new and newer ways that we're best friends." I take a final sip of the lemonade, winking her way. "So, that's why I say I'll know tomorrow. Cuz it can only get more fun from here."
She looks at me. She smiles. "And that can only be a good thing."
"It sure as heck can't be bad."
"Heeheehee..." She giggles. Warm cheeks. "Silly pony."
I salute. "I learn from the best."
"Mmmhmmm..."
The radio crackles on...
"...I have no stinkin' clue what we're listening to," I say.
"Hahahahaha!" Minuette explodes, and my home contains her. "Me neither! Heeheehee!"
My giggles join hers. It's a simple duet, but that's what singers do.
Best friends, too.