WayMoreThanRare!uXHPA9hmVECountry code: ponychan.png, country type: customflag, valid: 09 May 2011 02:57:13 GMT No.2482983

Moist eyes, but no tears.Still, a beautiful little scene.Let's see if I can up the challenge. I think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boNBlXLawFA might be somewhat fitting."Um...Twilight?""Oh, hello Fluttershy." The pegasus seemed especially coy that day. Maybe it was because even after all these years she still appeared out of place in the high halls of the palace. But still, something was different today "Is something on your mind?""Well, no, I mean... Thank you for being my friend.", she but breathed in her familiar soft voice. Yet her eyes were fixated on Princess Twilight with an intensity the unicorn princess had only seen before in her friend on rare occasions."Always.", she smiled bashfully. Centuries had forged their bond and through all the rough times they had stood together. After Rarity had gone, the pegasus had become even quieter than she had been when they had first met, yet since then they had become even more intimate in a way Twilight found hard to explain. Even though most of the time they spent together they would just enjoy a few moments of silence together or share a meal with almost no words spoken.For a while Fluttershy just stood in the doorway and watched the unicorn with a strange glitter in her eyes."Is there something else?" Twilight eventually asked. Fluttershy just shook her head gracefully, smiled a last time at her friend, then turned around and left.The rest of the princess's day was filled with royal duties that kept Twilight from giving the peculiar visit any second thoughts.The next morning however she had an even rarer visitor. It was Angel, Fluttershy's trusted bunny companion, who resembled his ancestor of the same name almost to a T. Just like the pegasus on the day before, he suddenly appeared in her doorway.He sat there for a little while, as if lost in thought. But then he motioned the unicorn to follow. He let her out of the palace and into the gated garden. Oh, how wonderfully it was on this sunny spring day, with all the different flowers in bloom and the birds singing on the branches. It was Fluttershy's greatest pride. The pegasus had planted each tree and bush herself, and had befriended each animal living here, of whose the great-great-great-grandchildren played in the sun on this very day.Twilight could not help but to chuckle, as Angel led her right into the center of the park. She could not help but think back to the first Grand Galopping Gala she and her friends had attended and how Fluttershy had chased all the critters into the ballroom. They had been so young back then, so unable to understand that long ago there had been an immortal keeper to that garden, too. And that once that link had been broken, the critters there had never opened her heart to another pony ever again.Twilight came to a sudden halt. "Angel, just where are you taking me?", she asked apprehensively. Here, in the shade under the trees she felt a chill in her body. It was quiet here, when had the birds stopped singing?The bunny did not stop, but hopped urgently onward. Finally they reached the clearing right in the middle of the garden, and there she saw her friend.Fluttershy laid right next to an ancient oak, as if she had fallen asleep nuzzling its bark. She had planted that oak the day she had begun to lay out this garden, the very day Twilight had granted them all immortality. On her lips there still was that shy smile of hers.Very slowly she stepped close to the pegasus and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Thank you for having been my friend."She sat with her for a long while, at times crying, at times thinking about everything they and their old friends had been through, at times strangely at peace.Eventually she made her way back into the world of the ponies, that was so light and beautiful, that the notion of immortality appeared like a foreign body. A burden any pony should have to carry forever.