It had been a little over two years since Moondancer had come back out of her shell and talked to her friends. After she passed out, she had been taken to Minuette’s house. When she woke back up, she had told them that everything was fine, but that she still wanted to be alone for a while. They reluctantly agreed, and Moondancer had returned to her house. She had cleaned everything up, bought new furniture and items, and had improved her living style in general. Since then, her and her friends had drifted apart once again. This time, though, she didn’t mind. Her memories with them all were fond ones and she could never thank them enough for what they did, but now that she was in a good place (or at least, what she would consider a good place), she didn’t really care for them anymore. She was happy being a recluse once again. Now, she sat on her couch, relaxing with a book. A new book, this time.

Minuette sat in her kitchen, eating a pizza that had gone cold. It wasn’t exactly a satisfying meal, but it was enough to fill Minuette up. As she chewed, she thought about her past. She thought about the little adventure she had gone on with her friends, when they tried to find Twilight a long time ago. She remembered what it had done to Moondancer, and what it had done to Twinkleshine. Of course, they had both recovered. Moondancer still hadn’t forgiven Twilight, but at least she was in a better state. Twinkleshine had come back to Canterlot a few days after she had ran away, saying that it was a good thing she had ran because it gave her time to think about things. Bonbon and Lyra had long since returned to Ponyville, and Lemon Hearts was doing just fine, too. Minuette smiled. All her friends…

All her friends, and Twilight Sparkle. She had given up on Twilight long before the rest of her friends had, and she had still given up now. She was with Moondancer, but for a different reason.

Minuette had always pictured herself as a strong pony. Not physically, but mentally. Judging by what she saw two years ago, she was probably stronger than her friends, too. Therefore, she saw it as her job to protect her friends and shield them from despair. She had failed two years ago, and it was all Twilight’s fault. That’s why Minuette could never forgive Twilight – because of what Twilight had put her and all her friends through. That’s why, if Twilight ever was to return – not that she would – that Minuette would turn her nose up and tell her to rack off. She wouldn’t give in. She wouldn’t collapse into a pool of tears. She wouldn’t—

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Curiously, Minuette walked up to her door, and overheard the end of a sentence. The voice sounded oddly familiar.

  “…dering why their supposed friend would treat them so badly!”

Minuette’s eyes widened, and she gingerly opened her door.

  “…Minuette?”

Minuette had just been thinking to herself that she wouldn’t ever forgive Twilight. She had said to herself that she wouldn’t listen to a word of apology. Of course, when she saw Twilight herself, that all faded to nothing. That’s what friendship does to you, she supposed.

  “Twilight Sparkle!” Minuette laughed, “You old so-and-so! What are you doing here?! Hey, Spike! Look at these wings, huh? Hey, grab a picture of me and the princess, will ya? I tried to tell my co-workers we used to be friends back when. But they’ve never believed me!” After taking photos and making several bad jokes, Minuette asked Twilight if she wanted to see Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine.

  “This is perfect! I can apologise to all three of them at once!” Twilight said to Spike.

  “Let’s hope they’re not as traumatized as Minuette,” Spike replied. The two friends didn’t know it, but Minuette heard Spike’s comment. A frown flashed across her face. That joke made more sense than they thought…

“She did! Twinkleshine literally spit out her oats when she heard you were the Princess of Friendship!” Minuette exclaimed.

  “We saw you at the coronation. That was some shindig!” Twinkleshine said.

  “You did?” Twilight asked.

  “Sure! We see you all the time!” Twinkleshine replied. Minuette looked towards the ground.

  “Yeah, we see you all the time. Not like YOU ever notice US…” Minuette muttered to herself, before she noticed that Twilight was looking at her. She hadn’t heard her, luckily. Thinking fast, Minuette came up with something to say to stop Twilight from asking what she had just muttered.

  “You remember our old friend Lyra, right? She lives in Ponyville, too. We’re always over there visiting her. Or she’s coming over here! We’ve thought about asking you to join us from time to time, but we just sort of figured you’d moved on,” Minuette spouted.

  “Oh,” was Twilight’s reply.

Silence.

  ‘Damn. Messed that one up,’ Minuette thought to herself. Twilight’s three old friends looked at each other, all thinking the same thing, all remembering what had happened those two years ago. Remembering what they had gone through…

Lemon Hearts, who had always been conflicted about whether or not she wanted to forgive Twilight, decided that now wasn’t the time for awkward silences or lectures. She cleared her throat.

  “So what brings you by anyway? All those times you’ve come back to Canterlot, you never had donuts with us before,” she asked.

  “Well, uh, you see…” Twilight sighed, “I came here to apologise.”

  “For what?”

  “Before I left Canterlot, I didn’t really appreciate my friends. And that’s because I didn’t know how important friendship was. But I’ve learned so much since I moved to Ponyville. I learned what it means to be a good friend and that I certainly wasn’t one to the three of you. So for all the pain I’ve caused you, I’m truly sorry,” Twilight said.

Minuette stood up from the table, her eye twitching with anger like in cartoons.

“Seriously? THAT’S your apology?! You have NO IDEA what pain you caused us! You have no idea what we went through, what Moondancer went through, what Twinkleshine did! How DARE you leave us in the dark like this? You put us through YEARS of pain, and torment, and you think a little apology like that will be enough?! It’s not!” Minuette shouted.

  “Minuette, I—” Twilight tried.

  “Shut up, Twilight! Go to Tartarus! I never want to see you again and quite frankly, I don’t care what you do anymore! I don’t care if you’re sorry and I’m sure Twinkleshine and Lem don’t care either! So rack off and die!”

Tears welled up in Twilight’s eyes. She had never been shouted at like that before. She couldn’t handle it.

Her voice quivering, she tried one last time to apologise.

  “B-but… But I… I’m so sorry…” she tried, her voice trailing off with those last few words. Twilight closed her eyes as hard as she could, turned around, and sprinted in the other direction, Spike reluctantly chasing after her.

At least, that’s what Minuette wanted to say. That’s what she thought. But no, she couldn’t say all that. It was socially unacceptable, for a start, and she had no idea what her friends would think. So instead, she continued with the little façade of happiness she had been using for a long time now.

  “Oh come on, Twilight! Sure, it might’ve stung a little bit when you ran off into Ponyville without saying goodbye, but it’s not like we weren’t used to that from you!” she opted to say instead.

  ‘Good one, Minuette. You even added a nice, subtle little burn in there. I wonder if Twilight will pick it up,’ Minuette thought.

After a little while of messing around and reminiscing of the past, Twilight remembered that somepony was missing.

  “Whatever happened to Moondancer?”

Of course, Twilight and the rest of her friends were denied entry to Moondancer’s house.

  “Nopony looks at her or says hello or even gives her a smile. It’s like she doesn’t even exist. Was she always like this?” Twilight asked.

  “Well, she always was a little shy. But for a while there, she was really starting to come out of her shell. Remember when she threw that party? Oh, right. I think you might have been busy that day,” Minuette said sourly, “Thought she finally might be letting her guard down a little with that party. We invited her out a few times after that, but she was always too busy studying. So, eventually, we just stopped asking.”

  “I had no idea that party was so important to her. I’ve gotta find a way to make it up to her!” Twilight said.

Almost scaring Moondancer to death, Twilight appeared on the page that Moondancer happened to be turning to.

  “I’m sorry I skipped your party,” Twilight whispered. Moondancer screamed and slammed the book closed. Once again, she was shushed by her fellow library-goers.

  “Why won’t you leave me alone? I’m trying to study! You’ve got the wrong pony! I don’t have parties!” Moondancer whispered angrily.

  “You did once. And I was so caught up in my own studying that I didn’t take your feelings into account,” Twilight replied.

  “Look, Twilight. I just need to be alone so I can study without some crazy pony trying to make friends, alright?”

  “Fine!” Twilight said, frustrated and giving up.

  “Wait. How did you get into my book like that?” Moondancer asked.

The conversation went on from there. Moondancer soon discovered that Twilight followed the methods of Hayscartes, and even had a copy of his Treatise on Ponies. Somehow, and Moondancer could not recall how, but Twilight had dragged her back to her old house, and offered the entire block of land to her for free, so that Moondancer could read as much as she wanted. Then, an even crazier thing happened, and that was that Moondancer had actually agreed to come to a dinner with Twilight and the rest of her friends.

After a long and awkward dinner, Moondancer had teleported away, growing sick of the social event (and her lack of social skills).

  “Moondancer! You’ve gotta give friendship a chance!”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know, Spike. I really messed this one up. That party was everything to her. I can only imagine what it must’ve felt like when I didn’t show up.”

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