Chapter Two – Twilight Sparkle

Twilight vowed never again to eat three dandelion sandwiches in a row. Her stomach already cramped up as she began to walk home. Hopefully I have a book with a cure for tummy aches. She thought, trudging through town. If not, I won't be able to make it to Pinkie Pie's "100th Party" party tomorrow. The thought of Pinkie throwing a party to celebrate reaching a 100 party total was a little excessive in Twilight's mind, but the purple mare was not about to miss something so important to her friend.

"Hey Frosty, slow down for a sec!" A familiar voice cried out. Twilight turned her head just in time to see Pinkie Pie chasing a blue stallion through town square.

"Well this can't be good," Twilight mumbled. She galloped to intercept Pinkie, ignoring the stomach pain it caused. She managed block her friend, but the other pony was too fast. Charging her horn quickly, Twilight levitated the surprised stallion back towards her. "Alright you two, what is the problem?" she demanded.

Both ponies simultaneously began yelling what had happened. It dissolved into a shouting match between Pinkie and the red-haired pony, and before Twilight knew what was happening she had a headache to match her upset stomach.

"Enough!" she shouted over their bickering. The two quieted down. Twilight point a hoof at her friend. "Pinkie, what in Equestria is going on here?"

Pinkie took in a deep breath then exclaimed so hurriedly that Twilight almost couldn't keep up, "I was at the train station this morning to meet all the new ponies who were moving into Ponyville, and I made friends with all of them, until I got to Frostburn here who didn't want to be my friend. He didn't even smile Twilight! So I was trying to convince him to open up and come to my party. Only he didn't. So when I tried one more time he took off running, so I had to chase him Twilight, I just had too." As Pinkie finished her explanation, breathing very heavily, both Twilight and the other pony could simply stare.

Coming out of shock, Twilight turned to the stallion. "Frostburn was it?" He nodded. "Why don't you want to be Pinkie's friend?" She asked him.

The blue-and-red pony sighed as if he had to deal with that sort of question all the time. "It's not just her," he said. "I don't want to be friends with anypony."

"But why not?" Twilight said. She couldn't think of anything to make this pony not want friends.

Frostburn turned his head. "I've got... reasons."  To Twilight it looked like he staring at his wings forlornly.

"There isn't a reason not to want friends!" Pinkie jumped in, aggressively.

Frostburn stepped back. "Look, I'm not the type of pony that wants, or needs friends. I do just fine by myself and anypony else would only get in the way." With that Frostburn turned away. Pinkie leaped in front of him, and forced Frostburn to back up.

"Friends never get in the way! You just don't know because you've got none!" Pinkie accused. Fearing the worst, Twilight stepped between the two and tried to calm Pinkie down. "Twilight get out of my way!" Pinkie said. "Frosty has to make friends, and the best place to do that will be at my party tomorrow. I'm sure of it!"

"Just leave me alone!" Frostburn cried as he turned and galloped off. Pinkie tried to follow, but Twilight wouldn't let her.

"Pinkie just let him go! He doesn't to be friends with you or anypony." She said.

Pinkie softened slightly, then said, "But Twilight, he just doesn't know what he's missing. Surely you remember how much worse being friendless is." Twilight had to agree, recalling a time when she too hadn't wanted friendship without knowing the joys it came with.

"You're right Pinkie. But you can't just force Frostburn to be your friend. He needs to accept it like I did."

Pinkie calmed down fully upon hearing that. "But how is he supposed to accept my friendship if he never wants to have friends?"

Twilight thought about Pinkies question before answering. "Well, I accepted your friendship after an apocalyptic event forced us to work together, but I don't think something like that will happen again."  Pinkie nodded.  

"I just want to help," she said.

"I know you do," Twilight told her.  "But maybe right now you should give Frostburn a chance to cool off.  I'm sure once he's warmed up to Ponyville and sees how friendly everypony here is, then he'll want to befriend you."

"Okay, sure," Pinkie replied, her happiness returning.  Seeing that her work was done, Twilight waved goodbye and walked off.

-/-

She finally made it back to her home at the library. After making sure that Pinkie Pie would no longer stalk Frostburn, the stomach cramps had made themselves present again. Though not immobilizing, they were painful and she wanted them gone as soon as possible. She went straight to the section on home remedies. After several levitation spells she began flipping through books.

With her expert skimming skills, Twilight found that one of the best remedies for a stomach ache was tea. Settling for that idea, she sent Spike out for tea leaves, while she prepared to boil water. Twilight began to theorize how long it would take the tea to cut through the cramps. Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn't hear the knock at the door. Twilight just about dismissed it as a trick of the mind when it happened a second time. Louder, and more impatient, yet it was the unmistakable hoof-on-oakwood knock.

Grudgingly getting up, Twilight thought about who it could be. None of her friends needed to knock for her permission to enter, and she wasn't expecting a visit today. When she reached the door, Twilight gave up on guessing and decided to see exactly who it was.

She opened the door slowly, and found herself staring at a familiar red and blue pony. Frostburn blinked before saying, "Oh uh, you… sorry. Look, I wasn't following you or anything, I just didn't know you worked here."

"Umm, that's okay. What did you need?" She replied, surprised by his awkwardness.

"I just need to borrow a book," he replied. Twilight looked at Frostburn with curiosity. While ponies did come to her asking for books, this pegasus didn't seem like the type to read a lot.

"Sure," she said tentatively. "Which one?"

Frostburn looked away for a bit, as if he was embarrassed to ask for the book. Kicking at the ground a bit, he mumbled. "Curiosities and Oddities in Equestria History. Do you have it?"

"Yeah, absolutely. Let me grab it for you." Twilight walked around the library and began levitating books and checking titles. As she searched, she pondered why Frostburn would need such an obscure and unusual text. By the tenth check, she'd found his request. Before handing it over, Twilight remembered Pinkie's desire to befriend Frostburn. "If I loan you this book," Twilight began. "Will you come to Pinkie's party?"

The ice-blue pegasus was taken aback by Twilight's demand. "Why would you care if I show up or not?" He asked.

"It's important to Pinkie that everyone in Ponyville shows up," Twilight said, disguising the true intention of finding a friend for this lonely stallion.

Frostburn didn't seem very willing, however. "I wasn't planning on being in town that long," he said, attempting a dodge. Twilight refused to let him.

"Well plan on it," she said firmly, while keeping the book out of reach. There was an intense silence that followed. It seemed to last forever with Frostburn's angry scowl facing Twilight's determined glare. But Twilight saw that Frostburn needed that book, so she held her ground. Eventually, Frostburn sighed. Twilight was victorious.

"I'll be there," he said, taking the book. "But I doubt I'll like it."

As he walked away, Twilight called after him. "You've just never been to a Pinkie Pie party!" And shut the door. Next Chapter: At the Edge of Everfree Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 23 Minutes