“Twilight?”

Twilight opened her eyes; Tia was sitting at the edge of the bed, prodding her trying to get her attention.

“Tia? Is everything all right?” Twilight asked the filly before her.

“I can’t sleep,” the filly said with a shrug. Clearly, Twilight wouldn’t be either. Not that she minded. “I have questions!”

Twilight looked over to Rainbow Dash, who was lying asleep next to her, Twilight gently folded back the covers and got out of bed, she whispered a quiet “shh” to Tia and the two walked out of the room and onto the balcony, looking up at the night sky.

“Twilight? Who made the sky?” She asked.

“Your big sister Luna did,” Twilight said with a smile.

“It’s so pretty!” Tia exclaimed. Not what Twilight was expecting coming from the princess of the day. “I could never make something as pretty as that!”

They sat looking up at the stars for a few minutes, before Tia asked another question.

“Twilight? How come I live here with you and not with my big sister?” Tia asked.

Twilight wasn’t sure how to answer that, she knew the reasoning why Luna wanted the filly here, but putting it into words that she would understand was difficult.

“Because your sister wants you to have a normal childhood, and that’s not something you can have living with her, because there wouldn’t be other kids for you to play with. Here you have Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell to play with!” Twilight said.

Tia frowned, “I don’t want to get in their way...”

Twilight reassured Tia that she wouldn’t, and that Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo would be happy to have her along. “Tell you what? How about tomorrow we go introduce you to some of the other kids in town?”

“Okay...” Tia said.

Twilight smiled, this would be good for her, having kids to play with would help her to have a normal life.

...

Twilight and Tia were walking towards the Ponyville school house. School was in session, but Twilight didn’t think it was going to be an issue. They had arrived just at the beginning of recess.

“Hello Cheerilee!” Twilight said, greeting the teacher pony, who was keeping an eye on her students as they ran about the playground.

“Hello Twilight Sparkle!” Cheerilee said, the filly catching her eye. “Now who is this?”

“This is Tia, my... niece who is living with me for a while, she doesn’t have any friends in town, and I was hoping that she could meet some of the other kids!” Twilight said.

“Certainly!” Cheerilee said she blew on a whistle that she was carrying around her neck; all of the school aged ponies froze in place and turned to look at their teacher. “Everypony, this is Tia! She’s new in town, and I hope you’ll make her feel very welcome here!”

“Go on Tia!” Twilight said, nudging the shy pony forward.

Most of the children went on doing what they were doing before. Twilight and Cheerilee had stopped paying attention to them and started talking to each other.

“Hey!” one of the other fillies called out, this one was an earth pony wearing a crown on her head.

Tia approached her and her friend, also an earth pony wearing glasses.

“I see you have your cutie mark!” the crown wearing pony said.

“Oh yes...” Tia managed.

“You should stick with us, lest you be known as one who associates with blank flanks.” The glasses wearing pony said. “I’m Silver Spoon, this is Diamond Tiara.”

“I’m Tia...” she managed quietly.

“Want to have some fun, Tia?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Tia nodded in affirmation.

“Go tell Sweetie Bell that she sucks at singing,” Silver Spoon suggested, snickering to herself.

Diamond Tiara pointed towards Sweetie Bell, who was sitting with Scootaloo at the other end of the playground.

“Um... okay,” Tia said, she didn’t really want to because it sounded like a mean thing to do, but she didn’t want Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to not like her, so she, reluctantly, trotted over to where the two fillies were sitting.

“Um...” Tia said she cleared her throat, looking directly at Sweetie Bell and spoke: “You suck at singing!”

“What?” Sweetie Bell said, tears began to form in her eyes, she began to cry. Now Tia felt bad for saying it, she opened her mouth to say that she was sorry, and that she didn’t mean it, but she didn’t get a chance. Scootaloo popped her right in the nose, knocking her to the ground.

“Who do you think you are? What makes you think you can say that to somepony?” Scootaloo yelled at her angrily.

Tia was lying on the ground, clutching her nose in pain. Tears were forming in her eyes. She started crying too. Unintentionally, her body formed into the White Smoke, letting out a loud howl that got everypony’s attention, and began zooming away.

Racka-racka-racka-racka-racka-racka!

Twilight watched in horror as the White Smoke zipped past her, driving itself into town. Catching the attention of a crew of Kangaroo leaning next to a VC Firefly that was parked several hundred metres away from the play ground.

The kangaroos hopped into the Firefly and took off after it, the medium tank rolling through the streets in hot pursuit of the White Smoke.

“Oh no,” Twilight said, and took off in pursuit of the Firefly.

...

There was nothing more dangerous than what Vinyl Scratch was doing. Her onion soup recipe required everything to be done just right. She’d just finished stirring in the onions into the broth, it was almost ready!

Onion Soup was Vinyl Scratch’s favourite meal, and hers was the best.

Her ear twitched, something was coming this way.

“Wonderful, why is it that this town can’t go without a crisis in the time it takes me to make my onion soup!?” Vinyl cried out in frustration.

She turned towards the open window; there was a loud howling noise and a cloud of White Smoke darted past.

Racka-racka-racka-racka-racka-racka!

A few seconds later, a VC Firefly passed by.

A few seconds after that, Twilight Sparkle ran past.

“No no no no no no no no no no no!” she cried as she ran past.

Vinyl looked at the sight before her for a moment before making a comment on it. “What the hell is wrong with this town?”

Vinyl turned towards the stove, and turned the burner off. She slapped her goggles down from where they were resting on her forehead and down onto her eyes, and dashed out the door. “I swear, this town if built on top of an ancient burial mound or something!”

Within a few minutes, Vinyl Scratch had caught up to Twilight.

“How ya doing?” Vinyl said, grinning like a madmare as she came within eye contact.

“I’m chasing a kangaroo tank, which is in turn chasing a sentient cloud of White Smoke! How do you think I’m doing!?” Twilight exclaimed starting to pant from exhaustion.

“You know you should really try to pace yourself, you’re going to get burnt out running at full speed like this,” Vinyl said.

Twilight huffed in annoyance. “If you’re planning on doing something useful, do it now!”

“Fine, fine,” Vinyl said, she picked up speed and leapt up onto the Firefly tank, knocking on the turret hatch.

The kangaroo tank commander opened it and poked his head out.

“Pull over buddy! And I’ll need to see your licence and registration!” Vinyl said.

“You’re funny,” the tank commander said.

“I know right?” Vinyl said with a grin. “Seriously though, pull over.”

The tank commander popped his head back inside, the VC Firefly slowed and pulled off to the left side of the street. Twilight galloped past, hoping that the White Smoke would stop running if the tank was no longer chasing it, which it did not. The White Smoke disappeared into the tree line of Whitetail Wood.

Twilight was exhausted by this point, but forced herself to keep running.

Soon enough, she reached the point that she could go no further, and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. “Maybe this was... a bad idea.”

Twilight heard crying in the distance. She forced herself to get up, and she trotted as fast as she could towards it.

Tia was sitting on a fallen tree, crying her eyes out.

“Tia... what’s... wrong?” Twilight managed between pants.

“I’m bad Twilight!” Tia said sobbing. “I made Sweetie Bell cry! Then Scootaloo hit me.”

“Why did you make Sweetie Bell cry? Wait, Scootaloo hit you?” Twilight cried in surprise.

Tia nodded. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon told me to tell Sweetie Bell that she sucked at singing. I didn’t want to because I thought it was mean... but I wanted Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to like me! So I did it.”

Twilight frowned, “Oh Tia...” She sat down next to the crying filly. “You need to apologise to Sweetie Bell for making her cry... and it sounds like to me that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon aren’t very nice ponies. Maybe you shouldn’t hang around them?”

Tia shrugged. “I will Twilight; I’m going to go do it right now!”

Tia stopped crying and got up, she and Twilight walked back to town.

...

Tia walked up to where Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were sitting.

“Um... Sweetie Bell?” Tia said. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for making you cry.”

Sweetie Bell looked at her oddly. “You made me cry? When?!”

Scootaloo facehoofed. Tia looked confused.

“Don’t worry about it Tia,” Scootaloo said. “I’m sorry for hitting you.”

“You hit her?!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed. “Scootaloo why would you do that?”

Scootaloo sighed and looked off in the distance. “Hey Sweetie Bell! Look! A banana!”

“Where!?” Sweetie Bell called out excitedly, after a few seconds of looking, she turned back to Scootaloo. “What am I looking for?”

“I dunno,” Scootaloo said with a shrug.

“Okay!” Sweetie Bell called out excitedly, and started staring off in the other direction.

“Well... um... bye!” Tia said nervously, backing away from the two fillies.

“Tia!” called another pony from the distance. Tia turned to discover that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were waving to her. Tia galloped over to them.

“There you are! Come on! School’s over!” Diamond Tiara said. “We’re going to the reopening of Sugarcube Corner! Come with us!”

“Oh... okay!” Tia said excitedly, and the three fillies trotted off towards town.