The sound of knocking on the door followed by stupid, whiny voices wasn’t unfamiliar to Moondancer.

  “Hello? Moon? How have you been holding up all this time?”

That stupid voice was Lemon Hearts.

  “C’mon, Moondancer. I even brought my friend, Bonbon. You haven’t met her yet!”

That stupid voice was less familiar, but Moondancer still knew that it was Lyra Hearstrings.

  “Lemme try… Uh, Moondancer. Come out. We know you’re hurting, okay? It’s about Twilight, right? I’m—”

  “No. Stop it, Minuette. You have no idea what’s going on. None of you do. Just go back to Ponyville, all of you… Celestia knows you’d be happier there,” Moondancer replied.

The three annoying friends noticed the difference in Moondancer’s speech almost immediately.

  “Woah, Moon… You sound a little different… Are you feeling okay?” Lemon Hearts asked.

  “I’m fine. Now rack off before I call Canterlot’s authorities,” Moondancer said.

Outside the rundown house, Minuette looked at the ground and gritted her teeth. Bonbon didn’t know her very well, but it didn’t take a genius to know that she was pissed.

  “Why… do you have to…?” Minuette said, more to herself than anyone. The blue pony looked up at Moondancer’s half-broken door. It was then that she decided to start screaming.

  “WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO US?! Don’t you think we’re hurting enough? What in Tartarus makes you think that you’re the only mare that’s feeling a little upset? You’re selfish, Moondancer! You’re a selfish, terrible person. You only think about yourself and how things are making you feel. It’s how I’ve always felt about you! You’re not special. The fact that you’re a unicorn doesn’t mean anything, Moondancer! You’re no better than the rest of us! You’re just another run-of-the-mill selfish mare that loves to wallow in the pits of despair and cynicism! So while you were in here having a sook, WE were in Ponyville, trying to actually change something! You act all depressed, Moondancer, but you have no will to change that! Sure, we were unsuccessful in getting to Twilight! Who cares?! At least we could actually be bothered to TRY! And look where… look where that got us…” Minuette had been shouting as loud as she could, but now she trailed off, her voice quivering slightly. She begun to sob as the rest of her friends looked at her, with wide eyes of shock and bewilderment. They were stunned that she had said those things – but they hadn’t stopped her, because they knew that it was all true.

  “You know… Where that got us, Moondancer? Twinkleshine actually ran away. Everything got to her, and she actually ran away to hide somewhere. So if you think that you’re the only one with a problem, Moondancer, if you think you’re the only one feeling a little upset, well guess what? You’re wrong. You’re completely and utterly wrong,” Minuette looked back to the ground, no longer shouting, but still talking loud enough for Moondancer to hear every word.

  “Twinkleshine… she ran away? Did… did you look for her?” Moondancer replied.

Lyra Heartstrings was struggling to stay calm around all that drama. She took a few steps back, and shook her head. The mint-coloured pony turned around to see a couple looking at them with perplexed expressions on their faces.

  “What are they doing? They’re making so much noise! Why are they just talking to each other through a door?” The colt questioned.

  “I don’t know. Maybe something’s wrong with them. Either way, they should really keep it down. They’re disturbing the peace here,” the mare replied. The couple turned their muzzles up and kept walking.

Lyra was about to suggest that they get the door open, but when she turned around she saw that Moondancer was already part-way through opening it. Lyra’s eyes widened when she saw the inside of her friend’s house, and she gasped along with the rest of her friends.

  “Moon…” Lemon Hearts breathed.

The faded yellow pony was a mess. Her mane could hardly be called a mane, her glasses had a crack in them, and there were bits of… some kind of black liquid… stuck in her coat. Her eyes were bloodshot and under them were dark bags. The beads she usually wore in her mane were nowhere to be seen, and it was now flat. The contents of her house weren’t much better. All over the floor was trash and broken items. The ceiling was almost completely covered by cobwebs, and on the floor was a tipped over couch, a hole in its side that revealed its yellow stuffing. The house smelled of dust, blood, and cider.

  “Y-yes… We tried to find Twinkleshine, but we couldn’t… Moondancer, what have you been doing in here?” Minuette tried to ask. Moondancer ignored the question.

  “I’m sorry. Twi… that mare, wasn’t the only reason I holed myself up in here… It was you guys, too. I… I was upset because you had all left without me. But, I guess I was just being selfish… I see now. I get it now.” Moondancer looked up at the sky and smiled. It was clear that she was holding back tears. It wasn’t a happy smile; rather, it was simply a relaxed one.

  “All this time, I thought that none of you really cared about me. Of course, you all visited me and asked for me to come out, but… I just thought that you were doing that because you felt obligated to. You had to do it, because I was… I was your friend. But… I wasn’t always thinking like this… Before I had that party, and Tw… Twiligh…” Moondancer shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “Before I had that party, and Twilight didn’t come, I knew you all cared about me. Minuette, everything you just said… It’s true. Deep down, I know it’s true. And that’s exactly what I thought of myself until all you guys showed up. You took me in as your friend, and you helped me when I was feeling down, and… Those few years were the best time of my life. The only good time, really. So then, when Twilight didn’t come… I know, the fact that she didn’t come to the party isn’t really a big deal on its own. Of course it isn’t. It was the thought that she didn’t care anymore. When she didn’t come to the party, my illusion of security, my illusion of happiness, it all disappeared. I guess I woke up to myself. You all know the rest, I think.” Moondancer let out a deep breath.

  “Moon, if I had kno—” Lemon Hearts tried, but Moondancer wasn’t done.

  “But now… Minuette, you had the power to say all that. If you were able to get that mad at me, if you were able to say all that stuff then… Now, I know that I wasn’t lying to myself all those years. You guys really do care about me. You’re… You’re my friends. I developed this whole complex of worthlessness, and I had started to think about how everyone was a hypocrite, everything was contradictory, there was no point to anything, but… It’s really simpler than that. You’re my friends. We’re friends. It’s that simple.”

Tears suddenly welled up in Moondancers eyes and streamed down her cheeks. The pale yellow pony started breathing erratically, her breaths quivering, her smile not faltering in the slightest – before she passed out in front of her friends. Next Chapter: 12 - Dreams Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes