Happy Anniversary Darling
Our studious alicorn thought to herself. Golden oaks will finally be reopening. Walking down the hall of her castle to her throne room she had to create ever since Celestia increased her princess duties. Even to go as far as to request she hire servants to upkeep the castle and help with her duties.
Here comes one of them, a young teenage unicorn filly with a turquoise mane and pearly white skin matching her name.
“Princess Twilight I have all the preparations complete for the ceremony this afternoon.” matching her stride as they make their way to the throne room.
“Thank you, Glimmering Pearl, I can take it from here” Twilight pulls the paperwork from her assistant's magical grasp.
“Also Spike is bringing Applejack before the ceremony. He says they'll be here at 2 and waiting for you at the balcony.” Checking her watch.
Listening to the young unicorn's words. Twilight examines the paperwork to make sure everything is in working order. going to double and triple check just in case.
“Also the flower order for your anniversary is ready to be collected up from Roseluck. Applejack told me to tell you not to forget about the flowers again “ Twilight scoffs then giggles
“I forget to give Rarity flowers once and everyone never let me live it down.” Pearl gave her a nervous grin pretending to understand what happened that day
“Yeah sure, well I have more paperwork to take care of ill send one of the maids over for your meet up with Applejack.”
With those words, she split up at the fork in the hallway with twilight continuing on the throne room. Entering she noticed it was empty this afternoon
“Where is everyone?” Voicing her thoughts out loud must have notified someone nearby as soon a pair of servants walked in from behind her.
“Everyone decided to give you a break Princess. Considering everything you have to take care of today they're in their rooms finishing some of the paperwork that has been piling up”.
“Well, that's very nice of them.” As the servants made their leave twilight pondered.
“I should have a little celebration this weekend to thank everyone for their hard work". Walking over to the balcony that was off to the side of the throne room she saw that a small table was already set up for her to meet up with Applejack.
“I am definitely having that little party this weekend they are so thoughtful”. As she sat down and poured herself some tea she heard the sound of wings flapping closing in on her location. Looking up she could see spike flying in with Applejack on his back.
“The years did well for him, he's a little bigger than big mac but strong enough to carry 2 to 3 ponies on his back. Landing on the balcony he spoke up with a deeper voice
“Hey, Twilight I brought AJ”.
“Thanks, Spike.” Aj said as she slowly jumped down from the back of spike the years getting to her as well.
“Careful Aj” Twilight spoke out with concern.
“Dontcha worry bout me Twi, I may be a bit older but I'm still as spry as ever.” Walking over to the table Aj takes her seat across from the princess
“Spike you staying?” Twilight asks as she pours some tea for Aj not noticing the older mare pour some brown liquid from a flask into the tea.
“Not today Twi, Khala needs me back at the caves today. See ya” He takes off heading in the direction of the nearby Diamond Dog caves.
“I'm glad he finally found someone for himself,” Twilight said as she sipped her tea.
“Helps a lot that he don look like a lil kid anymore.” Chuckled Aj as she saw Twilight spit out her tea
“Ugh, what's in this?” As she swirled her tea around to see if anything was in it Applejack saw it was darker than usual.
“Ah, Twi I think that one's mine". Reaching over and grabbing her cup from Twilight’s magic she downed it in one go letting the heat and flavor wake her up.
“Delicious” Twilight refiled her cup this time actually noticing Aj pouring more liquid from her flask.
“Whiskey at this time really AJ?” Twilight playfully jabbed at her best friend
“What? It helps in dealing with the kids” she stated before taking another sip.
“How are they anyways still giving you trouble?”
“As always but now that they're old enough to do hard work they're less jittery all the time”
“Good for them some hard work could whip them into shape.” Twilight smiled as Aj Cheered
“Preaching to the choir Twi”
That's how they spent the next hour catching up over tales of their days. Listening to each other vent about their everyday frustrations.
“It’s almost time for the grand reopening of Golden oaks we should head out”. As Twilight and Applejack cleaned up and began to head out the door Aj spoke up.
“Todays your anniversary ain't it? Did you remember the flowers?”
Twilight again grinned as she rolled her eyes.
“Yes AJ I remembered the flowers I'm gonna go pick them up from Roseluck’s after the ceremony”.
Aj chuckled “I still remember that day you forgot. Rarity made such a big deal out of the fact you forgot I coulda swore she told the entire town.”
“She DID tell the entire town, remember? In the middle of our date as we were heading out shed constantly say ‘how could you Twilight after so many years and you forgot!" So loud everyone was talking about it for the whole week some ponies still remember too.”
Walking up the new Golden Oaks Library she just stared in awe. she couldn't believe it it was finally time for its return walking up to the podium next to the front door with Applejack standing behind her. Looking off into the crowd. She tapped the microphone to get everyone's attention
“Hello Everyone and welcome to the Grand Re-opening of the Golden Oaks Library. Now some of you may remember this as just some library but, a few may remember the attack from Tirek. That day we witness so much, Fear and desperation of the destruction of our town. Even though we managed to defeat him that day. He returned years later to wreak havoc in our town but thanks to you ponies we managed to defeat him once again. This building is here to cement our victory over the terror that inflicted our town. With that, I announce Golden Oaks Library Open to the Public.” With a cast of her magic Twilight Summons ceremonial sized scissors and cut through the ribbon.
Twilight walked up to Applejack after her speech. “I'm off to see Rarity now. Do you wanna come with? I'm sure she'd love to see you again.”
“Nah Twi it's your anniversary you should go alone. plus me and Spike stopped by earlier this morning already.” She went up to Twilight and gave her a hug “You're really gonna leave the Library alone?”
“I left Golden Quill in charge for today she should have everything covered.”
“See ya around Twi. Let's Hang out again”
“Of course AJ”. Twilight and Applejack parted ways. With Aj going back to her farm and Twilight heading to Roseluck’s shop. She remembered that Rosebud was working today instead of Roseluck. walking in she already saw her order waiting on the back shelf.
“Hey Twi here to pick up the flowers? Good thing you didn't forget this time”. Twilight again just grinned and rolled her eyes wondering if she's gonna be doing that a lot today.
“Yeah, I made sure not to forget. As she pulled out the bits for the payment rosebud leaned onto the counter
“Sooooo why white roses?”
“Ha, now that's a story”. Twilight paid for the flower pot and put them on her back.
“So on our first year anniversary, we went up to this hill behind my castle. That's where we would have most of our dates away from everyone else. That day when we were walking there we noticed white roses were growing at our usual spot.” Twilight brushed some of her mane strands out of her face as she continued to speak.
“Rarity made a dramatic performance on how our love managed to create life on that hill. And from then on every anniversary we would bring white roses and plant them on the hill around our spot.”
Rosebud staring in teenage wonder probably swooning over the romanticism of the act in the story giggled to herself.
"The whole hill must be covered in them by now”. Twilight joined in on the giggle fest.
“Yeah, there's barely any room for more but its tradition so I still do it.”
Leaving the shop Twilight made the journey to that same hill behind the castle. Pulling the flowers from behind her and getting them ready she noticed the tag around one of the stems
“Happy 16th anniversary!” Cute but she got the number wrong
Twilight thought to herself it's been way longer than that”
Looking to the top of the hill she saw it a beacon of white surrounded by even more white awaiting for her at the top. Gorgeous as the day she first saw her.
Twilight remembered how wonderful those days they spent together were. Whole nights spent both working on separate projects but managing to assist each other at the same time. Cold nights spent together warming each other in the way nature intended to. Just being by each other's side as they'd watch the sunset from their spot on the hill.
It's been 100 years but seeing this still brings tears to her eyes.
Setting the flowers in front of the spire of marble in front of her which had a portrait of Rarity based on her wedding photo carved into the surface. Still as beautiful as the day they first met Twilight ran a hoof across the carving. admiring how the carver was able to capture Rarity's beauty perfectly. Twilight read out loud the inscription carved into the marble
“Here Lies Rarity Sparkle to be forever remembered as a beacon of inspiration to all.”
Sitting down in front of the Spire she stared into the portrait.
“Happy anniversary darling.”