Big Macintosh was a lot like me. He wasn't much of a talker. But I could tell that he was a good listener. During the time that I spent with him, we played much like I had with Twilight before we moved to Ponyville.
He and I would sit as a small table, and he would serve tea, just like Twilight used to. I didn't care much for tea back then, and that hadn't really changed. I guess he could tell because after he drank his tea, he would drink mine. Our tea parties were a bit quieter than Twilight's. Twilight always had something that she wanted to talk about. I missed her voice. I missed sleeping in her bed with her. I just missed her.
Big Mac wouldn't let me sleep in his bed either. When we weren't alone together, he kept me under his little sister's bed. He would play with me as often as he could at first. But like Twilight, as time went on, it became less and less.
And then not at all.
I didn't see another pony's face for a long while until his sister, Applejack was looking for her little sister, Apple Bloom. She lifted the bed in her search, finding me instead.
Oh, hi.
And dropped it back down again. And then she was gone. And I was alone again in the dark. But she came back a couple days later, this time taking me out from under the bed.
"Twilight's doll that had the spell."
Yes! Please bring me back to Twilight!
"How did this end up here?" she asked her siblings. The red one somehow turned a deeper red.
"I took it," he admitted.
"Well you need to bring it back to her. You understand?"
"Eeyup."
I thought that I would never see her face again. But there she was. It was Twilight. She looked strange. She looked happy and sad at the same time. She was smiling but she was crying as he handed me over to her. She took me in her hooves and held me, hugging me tightly.
All of the pain of being fought over, the dark and loneliness in the trunk and under the bed. None of it mattered anymore. I was back in her hooves, and she hugged me. She loved me. And I loved her. Everything was all better.
And it was.
Twilight carried me everywhere in her bag with her. She held me tight beside her as she laid in bed to sleep. She talked to me when we were alone. She hadn't talked to me in so long.
"I missed you so much," she said, sitting with me at the breakfast table.
I missed you too.
"I didn't think I would ever see you again."
I was scared too.
"I'm so happy to see you again!"
I'm happy that you're happy. That's all that's ever mattered to me.
I remember when she finally achieved her dream. She used to tell me when she was a little filly about how the wanted to become a princess some day. As she got older, that little dream just kind of came and went. But then one night, she did it! And the next time I saw her she had wings.
Every time I thought that I had seen her at her happiest, she always surprises me. She showed me her wings, showing off her big accomplishment. I showed her my notebook. It said that two plus two equals four. It was my big accomplishment. I was very proud of it. I will never forget that day. She taught me that two plus two equal four. I gave the right answer and she helped me write it in the notebook, since I wasn't very good at writing.
Twilight was always such a busy pony. But ever since she got her wings, she had been even busier. She spent long hours downstairs in her lab. But I was there with her, sitting on the lab bench nearby. Sometimes she would fall asleep in her chair. I would have preferred to have slept in the bed with her but it was okay. I was nearby Twilight. And that was good enough.
One morning, Twilight woke up in her lab seat with a start.
"I'm tardy!" she said, rushing to ready herself.
She ran up the stairs, leaving me behind that day. She didn't come back. A few days later there was a very loud noise from upstairs. Even louder than the thunder from her first big test. The walls and ceiling shook and stuff fell off of the bench and broke on the floor. And the light went dark. It was scary. I was scared of the dark.
And there I laid, helpless in the dark for weeks. It wasn't as long as it had been in the trunk before. I heard noises from above. Chopping and scraping at the ground and rubble. Some dirt fell in and I saw sunlight.
"Twilight's lab," one of them said. I recognized it as one of her friends. "Get down there and salvage whatever you can to bring to her new castle."
The blue one with the every-color hair flew down with a big box, grabbing anything that wasn't broken off of the bench. Including me. Even though I felt broken inside.
I was somewhere in the middle of the box, with more stuff on top of me. She flew up out of the hole in the ceiling. I could just barely see the book tree place that we had been living. It was completely destroyed. She closed the lid and everything was dark again.
I felt us moving. I felt the box get put down. And there, again, I waited, alone and afraid in the dark. But it wasn't for as long this time.
"...went back... stuff from your lab... in the box..." I heard a pony say, muffled in the box. The box shifted again.
"Thank you." I heard her say. I heard Twilight's voice! At least I thought I did. I hoped I did.
The lid opened. A hoof sifted through the items in the box. Then I felt it. I felt her hoof on me again. She pushed a couple things aside and there she was! I saw her standing there over the box, looking at me.
Twilight! I've missed you! I love you!
She picked me up. Oh, just to be held by her again! Just to go with her and lay in bed with her again I- Twilight? She looked- tired. Older. Sad. I was so happy to see her again. Was she not happy to see me? I had my notebook with me. It said that two plus two equaled four. She was so proud of me then. Was she not proud of me anymore? Was it because I never grew big like her? Because I never got my Cutie Mark? Or wings like her?
Twilight?
She frowned and put me back in the box.
Twilight!?
She put her hooves on the cover flaps of the box.
Twilight!? No! PLEASE NO! I'm sorry! Don't put be back in the dark! I'm afraid of the dark! You know I'm afraid of the dark!
She closed the lid.
TWILIGHT NO PLEASE! I Love you! I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry! Two plus two equals four! I got the answer right! You taught me that! You were so proud of me! You were my friend! You LOVED ME!
I felt her pick up the box and put it somewhere. I know not where. It didn't matter.
It was someplace dark. And I was alone.
...
...
Time.
Time passed.
Time is all I have left now.
Time to lay here in the dark and tell you my tale. Years have passed since I last saw my Twilight. So very many years. I stopped counting.
I think of her always. I try to remember her. But I can feel her forgetting about me. I can feel myself fading away along with her memories. Is this what dying is?
I run my hoof along the edge of the notebook. I can't see it, but I know it still says that two plus two equals four. I can feel her forgetting about that too, about my big accomplishment.
I wonder, is she happy? I hope she is. It's all I've ever wanted, was for her happiness. She's still my very best friend. And I'm hers.
Or at least I was...
... for a while.
I was a good friend. Wasn't I?