The flames flickered in Twilight's eyes and a lonely tear had rolled down the side of her face. The thought that everything she’d learned about friendship was going up in smoke, was unbearable. How could this have happened?
A few hours earlier.
“And done.” Twilight's quill pressed hard against the page one final time. Speaking to nopony in particular, Twilight said, “Princess Celestia will be pleased with this compilation of my friendship reports into one large essay. I can't believe I've learned so much about the magic of friendship over these past few years living in Ponyville.” It had taken her a few weeks to complete, she had even had to request most of her friendship reports back from the Princess herself, in order to complete it. Even though this had taken quite a long time to complete, she was proud. Twilight had many memories and could never had asked for a more enjoyable time.
For many evenings such as this one, she had laid in front of the fireplace having it warm her throughout the night. As she took a minute to relish at her completion of her task, she thought back fondly over all of the crazy adventures she and her friends have had. She chuckled softly to herself, “I still can't believe Fluttershy stood up to that dragon.”
Her eyes wandered over to the clock on her wall. “Oh my, it's already 4am. I should really get to bed.”
She stood up slowly working out the stiffness in her legs, letting out a yawn at the same time. “I'll get Spike to send my project to the Princess in the morning.” She began to walk up the stairs to her room, gently nudging a couple pieces of paper as she made her way past.
Twilight strolled over to her bed and collapsed on it. Having been up for so long did a number on the mare. She drifted off to sleep with the memories of her friends there to lull her into a deep sleep. She dreamt of when she first came to Ponyville and met her friends for the first time. That day had nearly driven her crazy. From having Rainbow Dash soak her, then give her a tornado spin-dry to being fed a mountain of food by Applejack's family it had been an interesting day. All that ended up with a surprise party from Pinkie Pie, where she mistook hot-sauce for a drink. Today, she would have probably laughed at all the crazy things that occurred, but back then it really had annoyed her. She could still remember how hot that sauce was, it was almost like she had burst into flames after drinking it. She could almost feel herself sweating from memory. She could even smell the smoke as if it was real. Wait. . . there was no smoke back then.
Her eyes shot wide open only to close again from the sting of smoke. She coughed as the toxic fumes entered her lungs. What's going on? Did Spike burn breakfast? Her mind raced with possibilities as she forced herself out of her bed. From the gap underneath the door frame she could spot smoke was flooding into the room. Worrying about her number one assistant, she quickly rushed over to Spike's basket only to find him wrapped up in his favourite blanket muttering something about how hot he felt in the new suit Rarity made for him.
“Spike! *cough* Spike, wake up! *cough cough* This is no time to be dreaming,” Twilight shouted urgently at her friend as she shook him awake. The smoke making her lungs feel like they were on fire themselves.
Spike woke up groggily, rubbing his eyes with his claws. “What's wrong Twilight? Did you forget to plan for breakfast?”
“Spike, this is serious. I think the library is on fire!” Twilight exclaimed, dragging the young dragon out from his bed. She hoped that Spike would take this a little bit more serious than the time where she was visited by her future self and was warned of an impending disaster.
Even though Spike was sleep deprived, he was still able to understand how important this was. Sure, he might be fine against the effects of the fire, after all he was a dragon, but Twilight could be injured. . . or worse. He tried not to dwell on the latter, but he couldn't ignore that possibility. “Shouldn't we be trying to get out of here?”
“Of course, I was just trying to wake you *cough* up to get you up first,” the mare said before wandering over to the door. She carefully nudged open the door looking through the crack and the danger lurking a few feet away. Instantly more smoke poured in through this new opening, filling the room faster. Even with this haze blocking her view, she could still make out what was going on in the room beyond. Flames were everywhere. They covered the floors, they covered the walls, but worst of all, they ate at her beloved books.
Twilight was stunned, but could see that they were trapped. There was very little chance they would be able to run through the flames and out of the building. But did that really matter? Her books were being burned to ash. The stories they told, the information they held, all lost forever.
Spike, noticing his friend's distress, pulled Twilight away from the door and yanked the door shut. He looked in her eyes and noticed the same glazed over look he had seen a few times before where the mare would be troubled by some inner turmoil. “Hey! Snap out of it Twilight!” he said while snapping his fingers and trying to get her attention. The effect was instantaneous as he saw life return to those eyes.
“Spike! The library is on fire! There is no way out!” she cried between coughs. Even though she was concerned about her books, her safety was far more important. Her mind was rushing through hundreds of plans she had created in case of an emergency, but she couldn't think of one for this very moment.
Spike, knowing that Twilight was panicking, told Twilight to “Enact Crisis Plan 47. Fire at night, no way out.” As her number one assistant, he was often subject to hundreds of crisis drills on a monthly basis, but would do his best not to forget a single one in case Twilight would give a pop quiz at 3am. . . again. He would always remember that week as the week without ice cream.
“Don't you mean number 48?” Twilight corrected.
Spike silently cursed. So close, well looks like no ice cream again. Although, we do have bigger things to worry about right now. Spike looked over to his friend as her horn started to glow and the air sucked towards them in a spiral. He saw a bright light then everything was cooler, much cooler.
Twilight opened her eyes, a little dizzy from the strain of casting a teleportation spell. She inhaled a lung full of fresh, cool night air. A began to relax a little. She looked back at her library and saw the flames engulf the building. Sirens could be heard in the distance after someone had contacted the fire department, yet Twilight wasn't listening. Without the impending danger her mind now wandered over to what she lost.
Her books. Her poor, poor books. There was no way she could save them now. Luckily, most of them could be replaced. The Royal Canterlot Library had copies of everything in case of tragedies such as this. The few that couldn't she had written herself. Even strengthened with this knowledge, it didn't make anything easier.
Something else nagged at her, though. She felt like she was forgetting something important. Something she had been working on, something important. Then she remembered. Her essay was still in there along with the friendship reports and she couldn't do anything.
A single tear rolled down her cheek. She had spent hours pouring her heart into them. She recalled each of the reports that were now gone.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I've learned that one of the joys of friendship is sharing your blessings, but when there's not enough blessings to go around, having more than your friends can make you feel pretty awful.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It's hard to believe that two ponies who seem to have so little in common could ever get along. But I found out that if you embrace each other's differences, you'd just be surprised to discover a way to be friends after all.
Dear Princess Celestia. . .
Her mind rolled over each of these important lessons she had learned, now burned. She wouldn't be able to replace these. They had come from her heart and believed every single one of them to be true, but now they were gone, did anything really matter? She stared deep into the flames ignoring everything happening around her. It was only when a certain cyan pegasus started to shake her did she wake up from her trance.
“Hey Twilight, I saw what was happening from my cloud and wanted to check that you're alright,” Rainbow Dash said, “I woke up the others before racing over here. The Wonderbolts would have been impressed at how fast I was.” She stood proudly as if she had just came first in an important race. Sure enough, one by one the other four friends began to appear in the distant rushing from their homes.
Twilight couldn't hold back the tears now. She leaned on her friend's shoulder and began to cry into her multi coloured mane. “Rainbow. . . I lost them. I lost them all.”
By this time, Applejack had managed to reach the two girls, with the others not far behind, and managed to overhear Twilight. “What's gone, Sugarcube?” she asked in her famous Apple Family accent.
“I was writing an essay. All of the friendship reports I had written were in my house. . . and now they're. . . gone.” Twilight felt Rainbow Dash wrap her hooves around her back, embracing her in a hug. It did little to stop the pain of having lost everything.
Her ears perked up as the voice of Rarity tried to comfort her, “Why darling, that is such a horrid thing to have happened to you. However, don't you think you are forgetting something?”
“What could I be forgetting?” Twilight stopped crying and pulled away from the hug, panicked, trying to think of what she could have left something else equally as important in the blaze.
“Us, silly!” a cheerful voice replied. Pinkie Pie's smile filled her vision. “You don't need those reports; we can always make more! Just like cupcakes!”
“Umm, Twilight, we are always going to be friends, so there is plenty of time to make more,” the normally quiet Fluttershy tried to comfort her friend.
Twilight stood there for a minute looking at each of her friends. Even though the papers had gone, all of their teachings had made a place in her heart. She hadn't forgotten any of the memories she had either. Nothing had changed after all and her friends are still there for her. She started crying again, not for the pain of having lost her library, but because of the friendships she had. “I. . . I love you girls,” she said as she pulled them into a group hug. A new report had already begun to write itself in her mind.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Unfortunately, the library burned down in an accident last night. Everypony is okay, although my friendship reports were lost, but in the process I learned so much more.
I learned that it is not what you have to show that makes friendships, it is the place in your heart that is filled with your memories with your friends that does.
Even if everything seems to have been lost, your friends will be there to remind you that they are there for you no matter what.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle