Or: Life is What You Make It
Princess Twilight Sparkle didn't bother with formalities when she got back to the castle, and really her various assistants and workers didn't seem to mind. Instead they gave her a wide berth and deep bows, respectful grimaces and shimmering eyes, while she shucked off her plain black gown and trotted off to her private library. A book - a new one, and a unique one, the kind which would never again be replicated - floated shakily in her grip.
She was crying. She didn't try to hide it.
The old door to her study creaked open with a nostalgic squeal as she ducked inside. After she firmly shut it behind her, she made sure to give it a good kick to make sure it stuck and didn't swing from the hinge. She could have it replaced, of course, but... there was something about it. A library just didn't feel like a library without at least one mysterious old musty door in it. Plus the squeak of the hinges let her know whenever Spike's new assistant had wandered in, since she still hadn't gotten that little dragon-hybrid to knock (a cultural thing, she thought).
Twilight shook her head when the doorknob clicked -- another thing the annoyance aided her in was grounding her when her thoughts went off a mile a minute -- and went to the closest set of shelves. They were the ones crafted of simple wood instead of marble, set on the wall near her favorite cushion and the window. Also the barest in her entire quite sizable library. She only kept her absolute favorites of all time here, after all, and so even after all this time it was pretty scarce, considering. She figured she would have to expand the space eventually, though, considering... well...
She gave a watery smile. The book floated to the prime spot on the shelf in a shimmer of magenta.
It was one of the biggest books she'd ever seen, and that was saying something. Aged and fat and yellow, spilling over the edges with inserted doodles and assorted sticky notes. It was covered in glitter, smelled like sugar, and she was pretty sure there was a frosting-stain on the worn felt cover. It was Pinkie Pie's "Goodbye Present" for her. At least that's what the personal note from Pinkie on the inner cover told her, after she had composed herself enough to even open the thing.
And inside? From the few pages Twilight had skimmed so far? Everything. It was everything Pinkie Pie could think of that Twilight could ever want to know, along with some stuff that had her wanting to wash her brain clean. Copies of old friendship reports, detailed retellings of the Cheese-Pie family's daily happenings, recipes for Twilight's favorite dishes, recipes for dishes that had made Twilight make funny noises after she tasted them, doodles, birthday reminders, lists of her friends random favorite things, notes from Pinkie's foals, notes from foals that Pinkie babysat once the empty nest syndrome kicked in, scrapped song lyrics by Cheese Sandwich, poems that an elder Pinkie wrote because she thought Twilight would find them impressive or at least funny, a million different jokes...
... everything Pinkie Pie.
Suddenly it was so hard to breathe.
Twilight felt like her heart was breaking and stitching itself back together again all at once. it wasn't the first time she'd felt it, but it was still so raw and aching and beautiful and terrible that Twilight had to look away from the gift. Instead, she plucked a note from beneath her folded wing: Li'l Cheese had given it to her along with the book with the widest smile she'd ever seen on a mourning pony before.
She unfolded it, which was hard to do without ripping it because Cream Cheese, Li'l Cheese's daughter, had seemingly drooled a blob of half-eaten candy on it.
After wiping off her hoof and then scrubbing at her nose (which was quickly getting really itchy now that she thought about it; hadn't it just been dusted in here a day or two ago?) she read.
Auntie Twi,
I know today is probably super tough for you, and honestly it sort of is for me too, but I hope this present can help a bit. Oh, and you can always visit the shop whenever if you need to talk to somepony about her, or anything really. You know my Stud Muffin always makes the best comfort food. Anyway, yeah, this gift is something the family has been working on since I was a tiny thing. Mama loved you a lot, you know that? She would always tell me that she thought about you, about what would happen after you lost your friends. One day, when I was only a little colt saving up for clown college, she was muttering to herself about you and then she told me something, and I will always remember every word because she was so serious about it: "I mean, have you read those stories about immortality?! So super duper sad! Which is crazy right? I mean, yeah some ponies will leave but then she'll get new friends too, and plus she has so much time to read all the books in the entire world! immortality is great! Or, at least, it should be," And that's what sparked her and Papa and everypony to start this book, actually!
I know it looks like kind of a mess, and that's because it is, but I hope it's a good mess. It felt like a fun mess when we were all chipping in, anyway. Though I sort of don't know how to describe it? Papa and Fritter like to call it "The Official History of the Cheese-Pie Estate: a Novel Hoof-Crafted by the Masterminds Themselves", which never quite sounded right to me, but hey! If it having a title makes it easier for you to describe this as an actual novel instead of some weird party-based hazard, then you can go on ahead and call it that. If you ask me though? Totally just a party-based hazard, and in my opinion that makes it even better.
I really should wrap this up soon, so I'll leave you with this: Mama loved you, and we all here at home love you, and we know you love us all back, so don't be a stranger, okay? Oh, and a warning, the sneezing powder Mama furiously rubbed into page 562 will probably be getting to you pretty soon ;).
Love, your favorite guy Li'l Cheese, and the rest of the Cheese-Pie family
When Twilight sneezed a few seconds later, she could only laugh. Laugh and laugh, and sneeze some more until it felt like her throat might go raw. Then she looked back up to the book, already dripping glitter glue onto the bindings of her other unique editions. Long ago, she might have been furious that Pinkie Pie had ruined something she had spent so long hoarding. Then again, long ago she would still be crying her eyes out instead of smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. Feeling this warmth in her chest that felt like the whole world, or at least her little slice of it, was giving her a big hug.
She mulled it over for a second, then... oh, hay, why not start it now? She scooped the book back down from its perch. She sneezed again. And laughed again.
You know what? Pinkie was right. Immortality was pretty great. because now she had all the time in Equestria to relish every drop of ink (and frosting and who knew what else) in this thing, then do so again and again until she knew it by heart, and then still somehow struggle through that text in a foreign language she had yet to properly translate after twenty years of work.
Twilight opened up to page one.