The shower door opened with a quiet swish, letting a thick cloud of steam billow out into the bathroom. The mirror quickly fogged over, and the cloud dispersed throughout the small room until it was a thin mist hanging in the air. The rustling of a towel came from the shower itself, followed by the faint squeak of a squeegee removing the fog from the glass door.
When she was done with the door, Moon Dancer stepped out of the shower. Her mane was wrapped in a towel, and the occasional drip of water ran down her coat and splattered on the floor. She reached back with a hind hoof and nudged the door closed once more, sighing deeply as it swept shut. She levitated the hoof towel from the ring on the wall and wiped a small space into the fog so that she could see herself more clearly, even though she could barely see without her glasses.
Despite the fact that the shower had refreshed her coat and cleaned several spatters of icing from her mane from the party preparations earlier, her face was anything but. Her eyelids drooped, unable to hold the brightness that they had been filled with for the previous week. Her mouth was turned down into a small frown, and her ears were splayed back. She stared at herself for a long while, until the fog returned to the mirror and blotted out her image. She went to pick up the toothbrush, but stopped when she had levitated it halfway across the counter to herself.
What was the point? She dropped the brush back into its holder, the metal piece giving a quiet clink as it was disturbed. She rubbed the towel across her mane one more time before she threw it across the counter in a lazy pile and clicked off the magilights, exiting the room with her head hanging low and her hooves dragging across the tile.
She hung a left, exiting the bathroom and walking down the hall into the den. Everything was spick and span, from her tidy bookshelves to the rather trendy-looking sofa that Minuette had helped her pick out just two weeks before. She took a seat on the white pleather couch, flicking her scarlet tail out to the side as she sat down. Without even glancing at it, she levitated the book sitting on the coffee table over to herself and settled it in her lap. Perhaps some studying would take her mind off of the party.
A small flicker of anger lit up her downtrodden eyes for a brief second, only to fade back to the melancholy stare she was so content to keep up. She cracked the tome on her lap— Astronomic Phenomena —open to the page that the bookmark saved, placed her reading glasses on the bridge of her nose, and began to read. She didn’t finish more than one line before her mind wandered.
Twilight Sparkle hadn’t shown up. Was it the cake? Had she planned the party on a day that she couldn’t make it?
No, that wasn’t it. Twilight had been aware of this party for over a week, and not once had she voiced concern that she wouldn’t make it. She even promised that she would be there! She even R.S.V.P.’d, just like it said to do in Party Planning 101! There must have been some sort of family emergency. Perhaps her brother was injured in guard training and she needed to go to the hospital to see him! That must have been it, of course! Twilight wouldn’t just blow her off like that…
...right?
Moondancer blinked her eyes and looked at the book. While thinking, she had read through the entire introduction to the chapter about comet formation, and not registered a single word of it. Perhaps another try would yield better results.
“Comets, in a nutshell, are large balls of ice hurtling through space. Of course, there’s a lot more to them than that! In this chapter, we will take a look at…”
Now that she thought of it, this wasn’t the first time Twilight had blown ponies off. There were plenty of times before that she had come up with some lame excuse to not go out with her friends who were counting on her to come along. Of course, Moon Dancer couldn’t consider herself an extrovert by any means, but she also knew that letting ponies down for no good reason was selfish and snide.
Again, her focus snapped from her thoughts to her book. Again, she had read a large block of text and ‘let it all slip out her ears’, as some ponies said. She groaned and tossed the book off of her lap. It fell to the floor, pages rustling as it tumbled under the coffee table. Reading was obviously out of the question since she was so worked up. She sat up in the chair, blinking hard as she looked around the room. Usually when she got this way, she could do some cleaning or something to take her mind off of whatever was upsetting. Of course the house was spotless at a time like this.
As she searched for something to occupy herself with, her eyes fell on the kitchen doorway. She hadn’t eaten much at the party— thanks to Twilight —so a snack didn’t sound like a bad idea. She rose from the couch, not bothering to pick up the book, and walked into the kitchen.
She had much more purpose in her stride now.
She flipped on the light and crossed to the refrigerator, which was lined with several pictures of her and her friends, among others such as her old cat named Goose or her parents. One photo featured Twinkleshine and Minuette with their racquetball outfits on, smiling like loonies. Another above it featured herself and Lemon Hearts sitting in the local bakery. Finally, the largest photo on the fridge was a group picture of the entire circle of friends. Moon Dancer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and…
Twilight Sparkle.
Wanting to get the image of Twilight’s smug little grin away from herself, Moondancer opened the refrigerator door with much more force than was necessary. A sandwich sounded nice, so she grabbed a few necessary supplies for that and slammed the door behind her, turning her back before she could see the picture again. With a flick of her horn, she slid a cutting board down from the far end of the countertop and floated a knife over to her workspace. She placed a tomato on the board and began cutting paper-thin slices with practiced precision and speed.
“Hmmph. I would have at least let her know that I couldn’t attend her party beforehoof instead of just not showing up,” Moon Dancer muttered under her breath, her agitation souring her tone. “What the hay was so important that she couldn’t be there for me?”
In hindsight, she couldn’t consider that the party was a total loss. Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine had all showed up, but Twilight was the one pony she’d wanted to come along. After all, she considered Twilight her best friend. She couldn’t have missed it for a bad reason, could she?
That single thought kicked dozens of memories loose. Last month, Lyra Heartstrings had thrown a birthday party and everypony showed up… except for Twilight. All through school, Twilight was virtually inaccessible unless it was a group study session. Last year, when she moved into the very house she was in now, everypony had come by to help get things situated or bring a housewarming gift… that was, except for Twilight, who was too busy studying to show up.
The list just went on and on! Every event, every get-together, every time she needed her friend to be there for her, Twilight had left everypony out to dry! Those dusty old books must have been really important for her to... betray everypony like that!
“I guess Twilight is just too important for us ‘friends’ to get in her way!” Moon Dancer grumbled, much louder than before. She flicked her horn to lift the knife up, but was surprised when the entire cutting board came up with it, spilling the tomato slices out onto the counter and into the floor. In her anger, she had driven the knife deep into the wooden board, wedging it tightly. With some strain, she pulled the knife free and tossed it into the sink on the far side of the room.
“Perfect. Just perfect!” Moondancer shouted, picking up what was left of her tomato and tossing all of it into the garbage with one swift motion. Food didn’t seem to be a source of comfort anymore either, all thanks to Twilight—
No, no. She sighed, trotting out of the kitchen aimlessly. Twilight couldn’t have been so sniveling as she was making her out to be. After all, they had always been good friends in school. She was probably tied up last-minute, considering how being Celestia’s personal student could mean oddly timed tasks.
Then again, she wasn’t exactly one to be forgiven. Not after such a long history of being distant from her friends— or her so-called ‘friends.’ Twilight Sparkle was unreliable and totally in the wrong for leaving her hanging like that.
And I look just like her. As Moon Dancer passed a mirror, she got a look at her mane and tail, which were cut into the same exact style as Twilight’s. The sight of her hairstyle brought forth one single memory.
“So Moon Dancer, when are you going to get that new manestyle?” asked Lemon Hearts from across the lunch table, taking a sip from her milk carton.
“I really don’t know, girls. I can’t decide on one by myself.”
“Oh, I know! You should get one to match Twilight’s! You two are always studying together, it’d be soooo cute on you!” Minuette beamed, pleased with herself for putting the idea on the table. Twilight looked up from the book she was reading when she heard her name mentioned, and was looking back and forth at her friends in confusion.
“What now?” Twilight asked.
“I was just saying that Moon Dancer should get her mane cut like yours. You two would be so adorable if you were twinning like that!”
“You really think so?” Moon Dancer asked, perking up a bit at the suggestion.
“Oh yeah, definitely!” said Twinkleshine.
“That would be nice. We should go get our manes cut today after school,” Twilight offered, giving a smile.
“Let’s do it!” Moon Dancer agreed, earning a cheer of approval from the table of friends.
The memory faded, and Moon Dancer was back in her den, staring in the mirror at not herself, a doppelganger. A doppelganger of none other than Twilight Sparkle, the backstabber.
“I never should have gotten that manecut!” she shouted, turning her head so as to not look at the mirror. As she looked away, a pair of scissors on the coffee table caught her attention.
Maybe I should change it right here and now.
She lifted the scissors from the table and floated them over to herself, hovering them in front of her face. She returned to the mirror and regarded their sharp blades for a moment, relishing the fact that they could erase her similarity to such a reprehensible pony in an instant. Nothing but good could come from this, she decided. It was time to cut Twilight Sparkle out of the picture, both figuratively and literally.
She wrapped her magic around her hair and pulled a scrap of it straight upwards, then placed it between the scissors blades. A simple squeeze was all that separated her from freedom, to never have to look at a likeness of such a horrible pony ever again!
But then, she hesitated. Memories of all the times she and Twilight had spent studying, working together in school, the times that Twilight actually did come out with her friends. She lowered the scissors from her hair, her resolve faltering. Twilight wasn't all bad, she had just made a mistake that could be forgiv—
NO! Moon Dancer held the scissors up to her hair once more, hot tears beginning to run out of her eyes and down her cheeks. It was for the greater good! It was time to end things, to let Twilight walk right out of her life like she always wanted to. She shut her eyes tightly, unable to watch as she squeezed the handle.
Snip!
The lock of hair fell limply across her face, leaving a trail of scarlet mane down her nose and onto the floor without a sound. She opened her eyes slowly, unsure of what she would see. There, standing in the mirror, was exactly the same pony that had been there moments before. A large chunk of her bangs were missing, now lying on the floor. And even through that…
She still saw Twilight Sparkle standing in the mirror.
The floodgates opened, and her knees gave out as she collapsed to the floor in an uncontrollably sobbing mess. The only sounds in the house were her choking cries of anguish as the pain and embarrassment from the night all culminated and let themselves out at once.
How could she have been betrayed by her best friend like that?
What did she do to deserve it?
Was she the one responsible for Twilight not wanting to be her friend anymore?
That must have been it. Moon Dancer was the one who had driven everypony away. Moon Dancer was the one who couldn’t have friends. Moon Dancer was the one in the wrong!
She continued to sob, laying in a huddle on the floor in the middle of her living room. Perhaps she had been the one to drive her friends away, perhaps they had driven her away. Either way, one thing was certain.
Moon Dancer was not going to make the mistake of having friends ever again.
