Author's Note
Proofread by PoisonClaw and Absolution. Thanks for all your help!
The Distance Between
The thick scent of hazelnut pervaded the air, wrapping Twilight up inside a warm, bittersweet, caffeinated blanket. She inhaled deeply and, beneath the aroma of coffee, caught a whiff of the sugary-sweet glazed donut that sat beside the impossibly large mug.
She smiled as the donut floated up from her plate, coming to a stop at mouth level. Without a moment of hesitation, she sunk her teeth into the fluffy, syrupy pastry. It melted in her mouth, so she could only savor its taste for a moment before it was gone. She immediately replaced that first mouthful with another, bigger bite, and washed it down with a small sip of her coffee.
There were no two ways around it: Pony Joe definitely knew what he was doing.
So much so, in fact, that Twilight had willingly broken the library’s rules for his coffee and donuts. Food and drink were strictly prohibited in the building for fear of damaging the books. After being slipped a few bits and a donut of her own, however, the elderly librarian had come to see reason. Granted, the crown atop Twilight’s head probably hadn’t hurt the situation either.
She set the coffee back down on its coaster and let out a deep, long sigh. Her shoulder muscles relaxed, and her wings flitted at her sides the way they would whenever she was completely at ease.
But Twilight didn’t have time to relax. She had studying to do—so much studying that she’d left Ponyville early enough to catch the first train to Canterlot at five in the morning. Unfortunately, Twilight hadn’t gotten up quite early enough to grab breakfast before sprinting to the station to make her train. She’d barely even had time to write Spike a note explaining where she’d gone.
Once the train had pulled into the Canterlot station, however—after her growling stomach had received a few odd looks from the early commuters—she’d made a break for her favorite coffee shop. She couldn’t really be angry at herself for skipping breakfast, though. Any excuse to go to Pony Joe’s was a good excuse in her book.
And so, thirty minutes later, there she sat with her coffee and half-eaten donut, right after the Royal Canterlot Library had opened. Still smiling, she grabbed the first book off the top of one of the many piles surrounding her, appropriately titled The Beginning: Early Equestrian History, and dove in nose-first.
If possible, her grin grew a little bit bigger. This was where Twilight felt at home: buried amongst the masses of books. Everything from The Biology of Fungal Reproduction to the library’s own signed copy of Daring Do and the Revenge of Ahuizotl could be found sitting somewhere in front of her. Name a book, and it was there; she’d piled more of them onto that tiny wooden table than she could ever possibly read before the library closed.
Of course, that sure wouldn’t stop her from trying.
But as her eyes pored over the first chapter, then the second, and the third, she couldn’t help but feel something was off. She often had to reread sentences or even whole passages at a time, something which she’d found herself doing a lot more recently. She shook her head and rubbed her temples, pushing away the odd feeling. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t let it interfere with her day at the library. She needed to get her head back in the game.
And so she took another sip of her lukewarm coffee and finished off the last bite of her donut before pressing onward. Page by page, sip by sip, chapter by chapter, Twilight eventually finished off her coffee and the first pile of books. Still, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fight back that strange feeling nagging at the back of her mind.
Wordlessly, she set her latest book down onto the table, taking care not to fold over the pages. She looked up and, to her horror, realized she couldn’t remember the titles of half the books she’d read in the last four hours.
As much as Twilight tried to fight against it, the frown still wormed its way onto her face. Today was supposed to be her day. Today she was supposed to read more books than she could even fathom reading. Today was supposed to be different than at home, where she fruitlessly tried to while away the time by reading or cleaning or cooking.
Today wasn’t supposed to be just like every other day of her life.
Here she sat, in the Royal Canterlot Library of all places, bored out of her mind. Even books no longer retained her attention. Twilight could only read so many words before they all fused together into one big lump of nothing, and she had passed miles beyond that point.
With the umpteenth sigh of that morning, she rested her chin on the table. Ears drooped and eyelids fell as she pursed her lips, feeling crushed under the weights that had just been placed on her shoulders. It was odd—one would think being back home in Canterlot would alleviate the emptiness she was feeling, but it seemed to do the opposite.
As if on cue, her stomach let out a ground-shaking rumble. Her head shot up, and she spun around. She was met by a few odd looks from the library’s patrons, to which she responded with a sheepish laugh.
She glanced up at the clock above her head, and her jaw nearly hit the floor. It was already two in the afternoon!
Just as she decided she would go out for a late lunch, her eyes fell upon the book that lay folded open on the table before her. She was within minutes of finishing it—she only had two chapters left, at the very most—and it would damage her pride to leave it there unread, regardless of whether or not she retained the information.
So she sat herself back down and flipped the book back over. She was greeted by the wonderful crinkle of the book’s old binding and the familiar scent of dusty, old paper. She wanted to smile at that, but usual excitement that accompanied it wasn't there.
Just as she was about to try to dive back into the story, however, a silvery voice shattered her already thin concentration.
“Twilight? Is that you?”
Her head whipped around to locate the speaker, and not even ten feet away stood a mare. She looked about Twilight’s age, but was a little bit shorter and skinnier. Her coat was a delicate white, and her mane a rich mahogany with a small stripe of lilac running through it. Her eyes matched the color of that purple stripe, and her tail mirrored her mane. Right at the base of it, the mare had tied a silky, sky-blue bow.
“M-Moondancer?”
The mare let out a small, soft laugh that seemed to fill up the whole library with her warmth. “Yup, you’re Twi all right, even if you’ve got wings now. It’s been ages! How’ve you been? Ponyville treating its newest princess well?”
After a moment, Twilight finally found her voice. “Y-yeah! Ponyville is good. Things have been kind of slow lately, but I can’t complain.”
“Slow? But doesn’t stuff go down in Ponyville all the time?” Moondancer asked, closing the distance between them and taking a seat next to Twilight. “I mean, I see it on the news all the time. You had to deal with Nightmare Moon, and Cerberus, and Discord, and Tirek, and—”
“—Yeah, but it’s the same spiel every time,” Twilight replied, shrugging. “It starts to get a little old after a while.”
“Fighting for your life? Getting old? Hoo, boy—” a barrage of giggles burst from her mouth, drawing a slew of looks from everypony else in the library “—please never change, Twi. You’re a riot.”
Twilight, for her part, felt about ready to die of embarrassment. No, not die; that wasn’t nearly severe enough. Heck, she would rather sit in a library full of every book in the world and never be able to touch a single one than go through the humiliation of a hundred strangers’ eyes boring into her.
Okay, maybe that was a little bit extreme. Still, Moondancer was laughing really, really loudly…
Twilight sneaked a glance at Moondancer from behind her hooves. The mare was literally in tears from laughing so hard. Twilight shook her head and, despite her flaming blush, quietly laughed along with her.
Eventually, Moondancer’s laughter no longer rang throughout the room. After wiping the tears from her eyes, she smiled at Twilight. “Just like old times, huh?”
Twilight tossed a half-smile back her way, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. “Yeah, just like old times. Anyway, what are you doing here in the first place? You were never the type to just hang out in the library unless somepony was forcing you.”
“What do you mean ‘somepony’? It was always you who forced me,” she replied, giving Twilight a well-intentioned sock to the shoulder.
In an extreme display of unladylike grace, Twilight pursed her lips and stuck her tongue out, blowing Moondancer a big, fat raspberry. “Hey, sometimes Twinkleshine and Minuette came with us. Besides, if I didn’t force-feed you books, then who would?”
“Nopony! That’s kind of the point,” she said. “Anyway, to answer your question, I’m here looking for a cookbook.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “A cookbook? Why would you need one of those? You always hated cooking.”
“I do, but this is the first time I’m going to be cooking for my fiancé, and I want to make sure the food comes out as good as it can.”
“Fiancé?”
She nodded, face more level than Twilight had seen it before. “Yes, my fiancé.”
Twilight opened her mouth to say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come. She simply sat there, mouth opening and closing like an idiot.
Moondancer smiled brightly, the faintest of blushes painting her cheeks. “Yeah, it took me by surprise too. But he really is a nice stallion: just the kind Granny always wanted me to marry. He always treats me like a princess. Even if I’m not quite ready for marriage or—eugh—foals, I don’t think I could’ve told him no even if I wanted to.”
Twilight sucked in a breath of air and exhaled slowly. “Just… wow. I never pictured you to be the type to settle down at all, especially before the rest of us. I mean, I’m happy for you and all, but… wow. How did you meet him?”
She let out a little giggle, covering her mouth. “Now that’s a story. I was assigned to be his lawyer, actually. It was a case against his crazy ex-marefriend. She was burning all of his produce, and he got fed up with it. We just kinda… bonded, I guess. I’m not really sure how it happened, but I’m happy it did.”
“Wait, you’re a lawyer?”
Moondancer rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Twi. I thought you knew that already.”
“I thought you wanted to be a pop singer. Or a fashion designer, or a radio host, or an actress. Pretty much anything but a lawyer.”
She shrugged. “That was years and years ago. And besides, being a lawyer is fun! Especially since ponies always underestimate me, which makes it even better when I knock them off their hooves before they know what hit ’em.”
“Wow,” Twilight said, once more at a loss for words. “How are all the other girls doing, then? If you’re a lawyer of all things, I can’t even imagine where they might be now.”
“Let’s see…” she said, tapping her hoof on the tabletop. “Twinkleshine is co-running the theatre down on Bridleway with a mare she met in grad school. Lemon Hearts is working her way up the ranks in some big-name candy company—can’t remember the name of it for the life of me, though. And Minuette… moved to Ponyville, didn’t she? You would know better than I do what she’s doing these days.”
Twilight’s eyes shot open, and her jaw fell to the floor. “Wait, she’s in Ponyville? Why hasn’t she stopped by to see me yet?”
Moondancer pursed her lips, the left side of her mouth curling upward. “I could ask you the same question, Twi.”
Not for the first time that day, Twilight found herself floundering for words just out of reach. Her ears splayed and her head drooped. “I… I don’t…”
“Don’t stress yourself out over it,” Moondancer said with the dismissive wave of a hoof. “You’ve got a kingdom to look over now, and you’ve got a bunch of new friends too. It’s no big deal.”
Even though Moondancer hadn’t meant it that way, the phrase “new friends” stung. Twilight’s ears splayed, but she tried her best to hold her smile. “I’ll be sure to contact Minuette once I get back home. It’s been forever since I’ve seen any of you girls, and I… I would love to talk with her.”
Moondancer's ears splayed and she bit down on her lip. “Say, what’re you doing here anyway? I already told you what I was doing.”
Twilight smiled sheepishly, her gaze turning to the piles of books that sat on the table before them.
Moondancer followed her gaze. As soon as she saw all of the books—miraculously having glazed over them before—her eyes bulged open. Her gaze snapped back to Twilight. “What’s wrong?”
“Excuse me?”
“What’s wrong?” she repeated. “You only ever binge read that much when something’s bothering you. What’s wrong?”
“I… uh, well…” Now that she thought about it, she did tend to hole herself up in her books when something was on her mind. Leave it to Moondancer to be the one to point it out. “I guess… I think I’m getting kind of sick of reading.”
“Our Twilight Sparkle? Sick of reading?” She let out a short, sharp laugh. “That’ll be the day.”
“But it’s not just reading. I’m getting tired of cleaning and cooking, too. Pretty much everything, really. I don’t know how to describe it, but… it feels like all I ever do is read and eat and sleep. It makes me feel… kinda empty inside.”
Moondancer let out a small huff of air, shaking her head slightly. “So what you’re saying is that you’re bored?”
Twilight let out a small, abrupt laugh. “Yes, that would be the word for it.”
“…And your solution to this problem was to read more books?”
Twilight let out another stray giggle, smiling just a little bit. “I’ll admit that that wasn’t exactly my smartest idea, but yes.”
“If I’m being terribly honest with you, Twi, I’m actually a little offended,” Moondancer said. “You were bored, so you came to Canterlot and didn’t visit me? C’mon, I thought we were better friends than that.”
Twilight’s gaze fell to the floor, escaping Moondancer’s glare. Moondancer had meant the quip to be tongue-in-cheek, Twilight knew—but she also knew Moondancer. There was definitely a sliver of truth in what she was saying, even if she would never admit it.
“Honestly, I suppose I just figured that you wouldn’t want to see me in the first place. It’s been what, five years since we’ve talked? You must have better, closer friends to talk to by now.”
The look Moondancer gave her could have burned through concrete—it reminded Twilight of the look her mother would give her when she was caught reading after bedtime, or when she’d sneakily slipped her Brussels sprouts on Shining Armor’s plate while he wasn’t looking.
“First of all, Twilight, it’s been six and a half years, not five. Secondly, just because we live in different towns doesn’t mean that we’re not friends anymore! That would be just plain ridiculous. Friendship… friendship is like gravity. The distance—or even the amount of time—between two ponies doesn’t matter. Their friendship will always pull them back together again, even if it takes a few years. Like, look at us now! Accidentally meeting in a library? You can’t tell me that’s just a freaky coincidence.”
A moment passed. Then another. And another. Twilight reached for words, but there were none. Instead, in lieu of a response, she reached over to Moondancer and wrapped her up in a warm, tight embrace. “…Thanks, Moondancer. I needed that.”
“You’re welcome. But don’t think you’re off the hook yet, missy,” Moondancer said, hugging Twilight back. “I’m still pissed at you for blowing off my party and skipping town without even saying goodbye to all of us. The letter you mailed afterward was nice, but it’s just not the same.”
Twilight squeezed her a little bit tighter, her smile stretching ear to ear. “I’ll try to make it up to you, then. All of you.”
Moondancer pulled back, looking Twilight straight in the eyes. “I know how you can make it up to me. You said you were bored, right? Let’s get out theredo something right now! We could go rock climbing, or scuba diving, or anything, really. The sky is the limit!”
Twilight’s eyes bulged. “Scuba diving? I don’t know…”
For a moment, neither of them said anything, basking in the uncomfortable silence. Thankfully, Twilight’s stomach, angry from being temporarily forgotten, let out another rumble twice as loud as the first, once more drawing annoyed glares from the random passersby.
Moondancer let out a sheepish laugh and tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. “…Or maybe we should just go out to lunch instead. How does Magnolia’s sound?”
The pair of old friends shared a long laugh before Twilight finally replied, “Don’t you need to get a cookbook, though? I would hate to keep you from cooking your fiancé dinner.”
Moondancer swept a hoof through her hair, pulling it out of her face. “Eh, screw it. The three of us can go out to dinner or something instead. Heck, I’m sure he’d love to meet you. That, and I really, really don’t want to cook.”
“Actually…” Twilight trailed off. “That sounds lovely, Moondancer.”
At that, they both hopped to their hooves and headed for the door, talking and laughing the whole while. Twilight’s book—the one she’d been so eager to complete—still lay folded open on the table, unfinished.
And Twilight didn’t care.
