New Republic Empire

"Please, Princess! Let me find her!"

"I told you, Twilight Sparkle. She failed and is might as well dead by now. I don't need someone who makes mistakes."

Twilight's eyes stung. It was so unfair.

"She was your spy for twenty years," Twilight growled. She forgot about keeping her tone level. "One mistake in twenty years. How is that not good enough for you?"

"One mistake every A THOUSAND years will only please me!" the Princess yelled. "Get out of my presence, Twilight."

Twilight turned around and stormed out immediately. When she closed the huge doors, she found her friends waiting.

Fluttershy hugged Twilight comfortingly, while Rainbow watched Twilight with sorrow. At last, she herself moved in closer and wrapped a foreleg around Twilight.

"Don't worry about AJ," the blue pony said. "She'll get away herself. Heck, she was even able to sneak away from us when she went on her missions! She kept it secret from us for so long..."

Twilight pondered over it. Twilight didn't want to lose Applejack after losing Pinkie and Rarity. Besides, they could save the farm pony.

"And hey," Rainbow added after a moment. "Who says we can't rescue her ourselves if we have to?"

Fluttershy looked at the floor, which was gleaming and polished. "Princess Celestia won’t allow it," she answered softly.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "We don't have to listen to her. Are we going to stay loyal to that crazy Princess or are we going to stay loyal to Applejack?"

Fluttershy looked thoughtful. Twilight thought the idea was nice, but...

"If we save AJ, Celestia will kick us out for sure," Twilight warned.

"Ha, like we need her," Rainbow said, grinning confidently. "With Applejack, the four of us will have a better life than life could ever be living under Celestia."

Twilight was feeling pretty confident too, but it didn't feel right that she wanted to leave her mentor so badly. Especially after decades of being her student.

"That's what we'll do if AJ doesn't come back," Twilight reminded.

"Yeah," Rainbow said.

The three friends stood there together for a while in silence, dreams about the future raiding their minds.