Cracks

by Lunarevel

Chapter 1: Routine

As morning hours drew closer, so did the irresistible and indistinguishable aroma. Protruding underneath the closed door, it slowly lingered its way through the room, finding the snout of the sleeping, pale blue pony. Inhaling deeper, she would awake with a cough tearing through her weak lungs.

It only took a few seconds before the door to her right opened and a pink mare peaked her head into the room, "Darling, you're awake already?" the pink mare spoke.

Gasping for air, the light blue pony buried her head back into the pillow, "When you make-" she let out another cough, "the best pancakes, how can I sleep?" She sprouted a smile in the corner of her lips, bags underneath her eyes threatening she might just go back to sleep at any second still. The pink mare, however, knew full well that honesty was at least one of her friend's virtues.

"Your sense of smell never seems to falter. Give me two more minutes and they'll be ready," the pink mare walked back to the kitchen where the sizzling pan filled the silence between their conversations. "How was your sleep? Dreamed of any more sheep jumping over a fence?" the pink mare teased as she raised her voice over the sizzling sounds. Her magic enveloped the tray which held both the plate and pancake along with a cup of tea as she made her way back to the bright blue mare's room.

"Maybe it was deer this time," the pink mare made a quick grin as she sat down on the bedside. She carefully hovered the tray over to the nightstand, making sure she doesn't spill the tea or tip the green lamp next to it.

"You know, when you moved here two months ago," the pale blue mare barely spoke, "I didn't think I'd need you this much." A cough politely waited for her to finish the sentence before lifting her head up slightly and causing her to jolt to the side. The pink mare helped her sit up in her bed, magically engulfing the pillow and adjusting it as comfortably as possible before resting her almost completely limp body on top of it.
"Neither did I, Tia," the pink mare spoke as she cut off a small piece of the pancake and carefully approached the mouth of her pale blue friend, a fork hovering in front of her snout, "but we'll get through it together. We always get out of sticky situations and this isn't going to be an exception." The pink pony cut off another piece of the pancake and began delivering it to Tia's mouth again.

"I never made a wish for my last birthday, Shallow." Tia's weak voice left her mouth after she swallowed the pancake, "I had you and that's all I needed. You don't suppose I could use it now, do you?" she asked the pink mare who was giving her a puzzled look.

"W-what do you mean? You still have me, I'm right here!" confused, Shallow let go of the cutlery and let it clash on the tray as she leaned closer towards Tia.

"I wi-," a cough caught her by surprise, yet it didn't hold her back for too long," I wish you are right. I wish we could get through this together."
Shallow helped Tia lay back down, seeing how her strength was dwindling. The pillow was readjusted and her friend was made comfortable yet again, "We will get through this together," Shallow repeated herself as she stood up and approached Tia, leaning her forehead on top of hers and closing her eyes, "and then you'll plant new flowers. Beautiful ones and everypony will adore them... just like you used to."

With a kiss on Tia's forehead, she opened her bright purple eyes only to realize that her friend is already asleep. Shallow quietly picked up the cutlery and carried it in a separate bubble of magic from the tray so as to make as less noise as possible. She washed the dishes as thoughts paced through her mind endlessly, "That must be the first time I ever lied to her." Shallow stacked the clean dishes to the side, leaving the cold cup of tea concealed behind them, forgotten.

A train pulled to a stop with a screech. Shallow walked out, making her way down the busy, partially wet streets of Manehattan. It never stopped to surprise how many ponies lived here and yet how very few cared for the well-being of one another. They were all trapped in their own cycles of life, each facing their own problems be it finances, rejection from their sympathies and, in the end, sicknesses.

After a while, Shallow finally reached her destination. The sliding door opened upon detecting her approach with a sensor. The smell of sterile environment instantly stroke her snout, yet she was all too familiar with this as she had been here every day for the past two months. She approached the receptionist, "Shallow Pond, I'm visiting my mother," she spoke.

"Yup, second floor, third door to the left," the receptionist responded as the phone began ringing, only glancing at Shallow knowing full well who her mother was. After hearing the surname, "Pond", every day for two months, it became muscle memory really.

Shallow nodded as she made her way down the white corridor and began climbing the stairs to the second floor. Even though she knew the layout of this hospital like the back of her hoof, she still had to announce herself to the receptionist, being a rule of any medical institute in Equestria.

Upon reaching the top floor, she turned to the left and walked all the way to the end of the hallway. She made one last turn to the left again before knocking on door 3.C. She let her magic twist the door knob and the door clicked open allowing her to poke her head through, "Mom, are you up?" She asked as a grey mare with a white mane turned her gaze from the window to face Shallow.

"Upbeat as a cricket." The grey mare spoke quietly with a smile, her face just as pale as Tia's. Bags beneath her eyes, almost as if stolen from Shallow's light blue friend, also there.

"How are you, mom," Shallow closed the door behind her, resting her pouch on the small table in the middle of the room.

"That's the question I'm supposed to be asking you," Shallow's mother spoke, inhaling loudly after almost every other word, "I'm the mom here." Her smile still portrayed on her pale face.

"Well, saying 'I'm fine' would be lying. You taught me better than that, so I'll have to say I'm holding out," Shallow approached her mother and sat on her bedside, not being able to take a glance off her beautiful dark blue eyes.

"Yeah, well. It's kinda hard to feel great when both your mom and best friend are dying of cancer, now isn't it," the grey mare laughed, causing her to cough a little. "Speaking of whom, how's she holding up?"

Shallow could only look at her mother, her eyes slowly tearing up.

"Now, now, Shallow. Come on, don't cry," her mother laughed as she tried to prevent Shallow from having another crying session. The last one took a little over an hour to stop, "I'm still here. Look at me, uhhh!" Shallow's mother made a facial expression, making it hard for Shallow not to burst into laughter, yet the tears that wallowed up inside her eyes had no choice but to slide down her cheeks.

"Tia's... she's not too well. She had two bites of my pancake today, that's the least she's ever eaten so far," Shallow explained, wiping her tears with the back of her hoof. "Not to mention she didn't even touch her tea, she had no strength left. Those two bites were too much for her, it seems." She looked down at her mother's blanket, her hooves laying politely crossed, one over the other.

"Hey, look at me!" Her mother spoke as Shallow lift her head up, her eyes already red from only the two tears from earlier, "You are the best friend anypony could ever wish for. You moved to her place just to care for her after she was diagnosed, I mean who does that?" Her mother put on a smile, this time making it difficult for Shallow not to smile back.

"Oh, you know that shepherd? That dog that always waits down in the park by the tree?" her mother nodded her head slightly towards the window. "Well, this morning I finally figured out why," she looked left and right as if somepony could hear them, even slightly leaning forward. "One moment it would always be there and then the other, it would just vanish." She explained. "This time however, I decided not to take my eyes off of it. And well, I'm proud to uncover... it's waiting for the mailpony," she whispered.

Shallow's excitement dropped after realizing that her hopes for some adventurous revelation were in vain.
"It carries the mail and newspaper back to that red building, every single morning. Can you believe that?" the grey mare seemed much more excited about that fact than Shallow did.

After some time chatting, a question Shallow never got to ask her mother kept scratching the back of her mind, for some reason telling her that now is a good time to ask. "Mom... did you ever get to say goodbye to dad before he left us?" Shallow's mother sat in her bed, eyes locked onto Shallow's.

"No, I didn't. I just came home one day and... his pouch was gone," her mother said as she looked out of the window, noticing how it slowly started getting dark. "We were a dysfunctional family, Shallow. Although, if it weren't for him, I never would've gotten the prettiest, nicest angel. So instead, I thanked him when I realized all his possessions were gone too." She looked back at Shallow and smiled, a few leftover sun rays shooting through the blinds.

"Anyway, it's getting dark. I'm sure Tia will be worried if you don't get a move on," Shallow's mother proclaimed with a small cough. "Oh, and you wouldn't mind lowering my bedside would you?"

"Of course not," Shallow replied as she pushed the button with a green arrow pointing downwards on the remote controller with her hoof. The upper half of the bed began lowering her mother in a lying position. Shallow clopped over to her giving her a kiss on the cheek before nuzzling their snouts together. "I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, don't go anywhere," Shallow smiled.

"If I could, I'd jump out of the window right now. A few broken bones would be the least of my worries," her mother laughed it off. "Good night, my angel."

"Good night, mom," Shallow magically strapped the pouch to her back. She gave her mother one last glance before hitting the light switch and closing the door to her room. "Angel... pfft," Shallow thought to herself as she wiggled her head left and right while making her way down the white corridor, smiling.

Shallow opened the door to Tia's house rather quietly as she assumed her friend would be asleep. And she wasn't wrong, gently closing the door to Tia's bedroom, she made her way to the bathroom. Spitting out the toothpaste, she gurgled some water before making her way to her room, setting the alarm clock to the usual time.

"I'm gonna bake a cake tomorrow. Tia loves strawberry and mom won't mind what flavor it is as long as it has chocolate in it," this thought drifted in her mind as her heavy eyelids closed shut under the sheer weight of the dreamy sands, slowly taking her away into a world only known to her. The world of imagination and memories.