“Come on, Twilight! Hurry up!” calls Twilight’s friend.

  “I’m trying! I’m not as fast as you guys—Waagh!” Twilight trips over and falls flat on her face. Being the energetic filly that she is, Twilight gets back up straight away and pouts.

  “This is no fun! I can never catch up to you guys!”

  “Aw, don’t be such a sook, Twi!” teases one of Twilight’s friend. This friend has a light blue coat, and her mane consists of two colours, a dark blue and white. The friend that called her a second ago has a yellow coat and a sky-blue mane, styled beautifully.

  “And out of nowhere comes the SURPRISE LYRA TACKLE! KYAAAAAH!” shouts Twilight’s other friend. Her coat is a lovely mint colour, and her mane is also two-toned – a very light shade of blue, and a sky blue.

  “Oof!” Twilight yelps.

  “Gotcha!” the mint pony giggles. The yellow filly turns around, and when she sees her friends, she laughs.

  “Hey Twilight! I’ll race ya!” the mint-coloured filly says.

  “Alright! But I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, Lyra!” With a stunning flash of purple light, Twilight bolts past the mint filly, leaving a sparkling purple trail behind her. The mint filly’s eyes widen and sparkle and her jaw drops.

  “Woah! That was… AWESOME! A speed spell, right?”

Twilight races back to Lyra, running as fast as her little legs can allow her.

  “… showed me!” Twilight says. The name of the pony that told her the spell is muffled, caught up in the wind.

  “Wow! … is so cool!” the yellow filly says, walking up to her friends. “Hey Twilight! Keep going like that, and I think you’ll get your cutie mark soon!”

A sparkle appears in Twilight’s eyes. It’s easy to see the gears practically turning in her mind.

  “Yeah! I probably will! Hey Colgate, what do you think YOUR cutie mark will be?” Twilight asks.

  “Woah! First of all, I told you to stop calling me Colgate! My name’s Minuette, Twilight!”

The yellow filly giggles again.

  “Your name is ‘Minuette Twilight’? What a strange name!” she says. The blue pony’s face goes red and she pouts angrily, but only for a second, when she remembers what she had been asked.

  “I think, my cutie mark will be… uh… an hourglass! Yeah!”

The blue filly’s two friends look at each other, confused.

  “Huh? Why an hourglass?” Twilight asks.

  “Well, my dad told me that this time of my life is timeless! We’ll all remember it, no matter what! So I want my cutie mark to be an hourglass, so that I always remember you guys!”

  “But you can’t DECIDE what your cutie mark is gonna be, Colgate!” The three fillys turn to see their other friend walking up to them. She has a white coat and a light-pink mane.

  “I’m just hoping, that’s all. And stop calling me Colgate! I don’t even get the joke!”

  “Where were you, Twinkleshine?” the yellow filly asks.

  “I was just talking to …” the white filly replies. Twilight squints, trying to think back to what her friend just said. She can’t figure it out.

  “Wait, who were you talking to?” she asks.

  “…!”

  “I can’t hear you…”

  “I was talking to …! Can’t you hear, Twilight?”

  “Twilight, you’re so silly!”

  “What did you say…?”

  “It was …! I was talking to …!” The white pony decides to speak up and shout.

  “I was talking to …ndancer! Mo…dance…!”

Suddenly, a strange yellow filly in a black sweater and glasses jumps in front of Twilight. She has cold, dead eyes, and says one simple phrase:

  “You left us behind.”

“WAAAH!” Twilight woke up in her bed feeling a strange sense of vertigo. The feeling faded as quickly as it had come, and rubbing her eyes, Twilight looked up at her window. The moon was full, and it was bright as ever.

  “What is it, Twilight? Were you having a nightmare?” her companion and friend, Spike, asked her.

  “No… It was a really nice dream, actually. I was a filly again, before I had my cutie mark, and I was playing with some other fillies… I don’t know who they were, though.”

  “That’s weird… Maybe you—”

  “Spike! Take a note, please!”

  “Sure!”

With levitation magic, Twilight Sparkle floated a piece of paper and quill into Spike’s hands. Spike held the quill and paper, ready to start writing. Twilight cleared her throat.

  “Dear Princess Luna! I recently had an interesting dream, and for some reason I feel as though it holds some importance. I am writing to ask if you happened to be watching the dream, and if so, may I request that you offer me insight on what it was about? With kind regards: Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said.

  “Got it! Want me to send it now?” Spike asked.

  “Yes please. Now—” –Twilight yawned- “—I’m going to go back to bed. You probably should too, Spike.”

A few days passed, and Twilight finally received a letter from Princess Luna. It simply stated that she had, unfortunately, not been watching Twilight’s dream, and that she couldn’t help. Twilight sighed.

  “I wonder what it was about then… Who were those fillies I was playing with? They all seemed so nice… I haven’t ‘left anyone behind’, right?”

Next Chapter: 13 - False Forgiveness Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes