“Celestia, you’ve seen the development and evolution of the lore surrounding Nightmare Moon. Did the things ponies said about your sister ever bother you?”

“Yes, but not for the reason you think,” Celestia answered. “Much of what they say is true. What bothered me was that I knew a side of Luna few others did. I suppose you could say I knew the whole truth, not the partial truth everypony could see.”

“Did you ever harbor resentment toward your sister for what she did?”

Celestia was silent for a moment, and her gaze fell to the floor. “No,” she said at last.

“Why not?”

Celestia now looked at Luna. “Because she’s my sister, and I could never remain angry at her for long.”

Going to the market was still somewhat of a scary proposition for Fluttershy. Iron Will’s misguided assertiveness lessons had helped her a little, and she knew most of the ponies there were nice, but there were one or two she dreaded speaking to. That’s why she made sure to bring Angel along when she had to talk to them.

“Hi. Um, I’d like to buy some tomatoes,” Fluttershy said, placing a bit on the counter.

The tomato salespony sighed and rolled her eyes. “Look, how many times do I have to tell you? It’s two bits for tomatoes.”

“Well, um, that’s still not a fair price.” Fluttershy glanced back at Angel, who was giving the salespony one of his trademark glares.

“Oh yeah? And what makes you think you know what ‘fair’ is?” the salespony demanded.

“Well…” Fluttershy hesitated a moment and got a nudge from Angel as a result. “I happen to know that this was a great year for tomatoes.”

“And?”

Fluttershy gulped. “And, um, if you’re going to charge too much, I’ll just take my business somewhere else.”

The salespony let out a slow sigh. “Fine. One bit.”

“Oh, thank you!” Fluttershy remembered too late not to show her relief—Rarity had told her it made it harder to barter in the future—but there was nothing she could do about it now. She scooped the tomatoes into her bags and hurried away. “Oh, Fluttershy, why can’t you ever keep your mouth closed?”

Fluttershy felt a tugging on her ear and looked to see Angel gesturing toward Sugarcube Corner. “No, not today,” Fluttershy said. Angel kept tugging and pointing, so Fluttershy took another look. To her surprise, she spied Pinkie sitting near her mailbox, looking uncharacteristically calm. “Do you think something’s wrong?” she asked Angel. Angel gave her a scowl in response.

A smile came to Pinkie’s face when she saw Fluttershy approach. “Hi there,” said the pink mare. “Heading home from the market?”

Fluttershy nodded. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m good,” Pinkie replied. Her even tone and general lack of bounciness suggested otherwise. “I’m just waiting to see if I get a letter from Dodge Junction.”

“Dodge Junction?” Fluttershy frowned. “Who do you know in Dodge Junction?”

“Just… somepony,” Pinkie answered. The frown on her face worried Fluttershy, but she didn’t want to intrude on Pinkie’s business. “Hey, Fluttershy, do you think it’s possible for somepony to forgive you when you’ve hurt them?”

“Um…” Fluttershy looked to Angel for help, but the bunny just shrugged. “I think so. I mean, I think I would if they were really sorry about it.”

Pinkie nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”

Fluttershy kicked her hoof against the pavement. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Pinkie shook her head. “I just have to wait, I guess.”

“Are you sure? Because you seem kind of—” Fluttershy’s offer was cut off by a tug on her ear and a small, white-furred paw gesturing toward the bakery’s door. “Oh, Angel,” she sighed. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, but I have to go.”

“That’s okay,” Pinkie sighed. “I’ll just keep waiting.”

The cottage was unusually noisy when Fluttershy opened the door. Birds were flitting here and there with strips of bandage in their beaks, and mice were scurrying about with tiny bowls of soup. “Oh my. What’s going on?”

Through a series of gestures and chatters, a ferret managed to tell her that one of the beaver dams had collapsed and that three beavers were injured. Fluttershy dropped her saddle bags by the door and rushed to where the other critters had laid the injured animals. Two of them had some cuts and scrapes, but otherwise looked like they’d be fine. The third, however, clearly had a few fractured bones and a deep gash on his head. “Ohmigoodness,” Fluttershy gasped. “D-don’t worry. I’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

While Fluttershy retrieved her medical kit and asked some badgers to get some water, Angel started hopping up and down and squeaking. “Yes, I know we planned a picnic today, but it’ll have to wait,” Fluttershy answered. Angel’s squeaks got louder and his hopping more agitated. “Angel Bunny, you should know better!”

The bunny shot her a glare and folded his arms. “Well, like it or not, this is more important,” said Fluttershy. “I’m sorry, but until I’ve finished with these patients, the picnic will just have to wait.”

Angel sighed and hopped out the door. Fluttershy thought about going after him, but an insistent tugging at her tail changed her mind. “All right, let’s get to work.”

The rest of the morning was one hectic rush for the caretaker. The third beaver’s injuries were thankfully less severe than she thought, but it still took a lot of time and patience to set his broken bones and bandage the cut on his head, mostly because he kept squirming. “Mr. Beaverteeth, hold still!” Fluttershy finally shouted in frustration. “I mean… please?”

Though she felt bad about raising her voice, her outburst did the trick. A few hours later, all three beavers were ready to go, though Mr. Beaverteeth had to be carried out on a stretcher. “Please take care of yourselves,” she called after them. “Make sure Mr. Beaverteeth gets plenty of rest.”

Fluttershy set to work cleaning up the mess the animals had made in her house. Several tried to apologize, but she reassured them with a smile. “It’s no trouble, really. I’m just glad no one was hurt too seriously.”

The moment the words were out of her mouth, her thoughts immediately turned to Angel. She looked around the cottage to see if her friend had returned, but he was nowhere to be found. “Oh, Angel must be furious,” she muttered, letting her mane drape over her face. “I have to make it up to him somehow.”

The sound of fluttering wings brought her head back up. A pair of birds had retrieved one of her books and opened it to a page with a picture of a blue, leafy plant. “Iceberg lettuce? Yes, I know how much Angel loves it,” she said with a smile. “That’s how I met him. I’d just made myself an iceberg lettuce salad, and he tried to steal a few leaves.” The birds chirped. “You think I should go find some for him? Oh, I-I don’t know. It’s getting late, and it only grows in really cold places…”

The more she thought about it, though, the more she thought it was a good idea. She hadn’t gone looking for iceberg lettuce in months, and what better way was there to show Angel how sorry she was? “O-okay, I’ll go,” she said as she put on her saddle bags. “If Angel comes back, will you tell him that I’m sorry and I’m going to make it up to him?” The birds chirped their agreement. “Okay then. I’ll be back soon.”

The mountain was steeper and colder than Fluttershy remembered, but she couldn’t let that get the best of her. She pushed forward through the wind and snow. The cave she was looking for wasn’t too far up the mountain, and if it meant making Angel happy, she would gladly suffer a little cold.

After several hours of climbing, she started to wonder if she had correctly remembered the location of the cave. She was pretty sure she was getting close, but the snow flying in her face made it difficult to see. She ducked behind a rocky outcropping and stopped to catch her breath. “Oh, Fluttershy, what have you gotten yourself into?”

Her body shook and shivered, and she rubbed her hooves against her forelegs to warm herself up. At least she’d remembered to grab a scarf on her way out, though she now wished she’d put on her boots and found a snow mask as well. She hugged herself for a moment, took a deep breath, stepped out from behind the rock, and immediately slipped.

Fluttershy’s high-pitched scream echoed down the mountain as she half-slid and half-rolled back the way she'd come. The snow cushioned her falls for the most part, but she still felt dizzy and disoriented when she came to a stop. She eventually located her hooves and the direction of the ground and tried to right herself, but doing so only made her sink farther into the snow bank that broke her fall.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy muttered as she tried to push herself out of the snow, but the more she struggled, the deeper she sank. Her legs started to shake, and her teeth began to chatter. “H-hello? I-is anypony out there?”

The only response was the howling wind.

Fluttershy gritted her teeth and pushed forward. The snow reached her chest, and every step was a battle. Her vision became blurry, her steps less certain, until she finally stopped and gasped for air. “Oh, Fluttershy, you’re really in trouble this time.”

The soft crunch of snow somehow reached her ears. She turned her head and saw several blurry shapes coming toward her. Her heart began to race even faster as they drew near. “W-what do you want?”

The shapes spread out around her and started grabbing her mane and tail. Fluttershy forced her eyes to focus for a moment and realized they were snow bunnies. Before she could say anything else, the bunnies began pulling at her mane and tail, slowly but surely lifting her out of the snow bank and onto a sled. Where they’d gotten the sled was anyone’s guess, and Fluttershy was too exhausted to ask. The bunnies wrapped her body in several blankets, and the next thing Fluttershy knew, she was lying on her couch in her cottage, surrounded by familiar faces.

Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak and found a white bunny pressing a warm cup against her lips. She took a drink of the liquid inside, which turned out to be tea, and looked down at her furry friend. “Oh, Angel, I’m so sorry,” she said as her eyes began to sting. “I just felt so bad about missing the picnic, so I went to get you some iceberg lettuce, but then I got stuck and—”

Angel put a paw against her lips, and Fluttershy fell silent. The bunny shook his head and then pointed to himself. “You… you’re sorry?” Angel nodded and slumped his shoulders. “Oh, no, you don’t have to be. It was—”

Angel once again put his paw against her lips to silence her. He then went into a long and rather complicated pantomime that even Fluttershy had difficulty following. “You’re sorry… for not thinking of the beavers,” Fluttershy guessed at last. Angel nodded. “Well, it was a little insensitive…” Angel glowered. “Okay, a lot insensitive,” Fluttershy admitted.

Another lengthy pantomime later, Fluttershy had another guess. “You feel especially bad that I put myself in danger to make it up to you?” Angel gave her a solemn nod. “Oh, Angel, you don’t need to feel bad about that. It wasn’t your fault I went and got myself stuck.”

The bunny glared at her, and Fluttershy decided to stop talking. Angel leapt away and returned with a bowl of blue leaves. “Angel, is that… iceberg lettuce?” The bunny nodded. “But… how did you find it?”

Angel’s next pantomime was shorter than the first two, mostly because Fluttershy’s rescuers were still there. “You got your bunny friends to find it?” she guessed. Angel raised an eyebrow, a sign that there was a little more, and pointed at her. “They got it for me?” Angel nodded. “Angel… I don’t know what to say.”

Angel shook his head and placed a paw over his own lips. Fluttershy smiled. “Thank you, Angel. That was very thoughtful of you.”

Angel blushed and held out the bowl. Fluttershy took it carefully in her hooves and pulled out a single blue leaf. “Here you go,” she said, holding the leaf out to Angel. “For being such a good friend.”

Angel smiled and accepted the leaf. Then he hopped onto the couch and nestled himself between her forelegs. The two ate in silence, and then they drifted off to sleep.