//------------------------------//
// Paradise 
// Story: paradise, fleeting 
// by alafoel 
//------------------------------//

Inside her head, waves flow. She's young. She's almost 20 years younger, sitting at the table.

Everyone is there. Maud, Marble, Limestone. Mom and Dad. They're all there. They're quiet, the waves in her head. Gentle. Almost slow. The last time Pinkie Pie was out at sea, the waves crashed and boomed. Tumbled against one another. The waves in her head just lapse with calm. Her mom's cooked rock soup again, and it's still hot. Not burning, but enough to warm you head to hoof.  Everyone's enjoying it.

The table seems so tall and wide, and the ceiling so far away. Her hooves don't even touch the floor, they just dangle from her chair. Her sisters, her parents, they're younger too. Maud and Limestone are almost as small as her. Marble is a little smaller. Her parents are fewer of the wrinkles on their faces. The past is so tiny and the future doesn't yet exist.

Across the table, Limestone is telling a joke and Marble is laughing, even before it's over, she's laughing. It's a funny one. About the rock farm. Everyone's happy and everyone's smiling. She has her cutie mark now, Pinkie, and everyone is happy for her. It's the happiest they've all been for as long as Pinkie can remember.

She wants to stay with them, with their smiles, stay with those smiles forever. She could, she knows she could.

She could stay and she'd be happy.