Two Background Ponies Revisit Season Five

Amending Fences

While on their latest cookie outing, a green stallion was flipping through a magazine while a blue stallion frowned as he looked over bills. In particular, he was using a special tool placed in his teeth to rifle through some of them, frowning all the way.

"That power bill of mine is through the roof now that one of the gems that makes up the Castle of Harmony focuses the sun on the house all day. Sure, it'll be fine in winter, but that only ever lasts a week..."

"Sheesh, they're putting more of that 'electricity' into things nowadays. Now they got cameras you don't have to set up with the dark curtains and flash powder..." Carl mused from his own book. He twitched a brow. "And what's this...'Net' thing they want to invent just so ponies can put up pictures of themselves with celebrities on? What kind of narcissistic, depraved society would be so obsessed with taking pictures of yourself everywhere you go?" Sighing, he shut the magazine and looked to Sam. "So just talk to the princess and tell her to throw a tarp or something over it."

"Oh, can't do that. She's out of town in Canterlot."

"Wha...again? I thought she was only going to be gone a day or two."

"Yeah, but she ran into some old friend of hers named Moondancer. Apparently she used to be a bookworm nerd like her but she never learned about friendship, so she became a recluse."

Carl stared blankly up at that. Sam continued to rifle through his bills a moment, then turned and looked up, noticing Carl's look. Immediately he rolled his eyes and facehooved.

"Oh boy...here we go..."

"So now...we have Sunset Shimmer, a unicorn who's basically Princess Twilight Sparkle if she had only cared about her own magic power and its potential; Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn who's basically Princess Twilight Sparkle if she had warped friendship to use as a tool to manipulate ponies into doing her bidding; and Moondancer, a unicorn who's basically Princess Twilight Sparkle if she had never come to Ponyville. Dude, exactly how many ponies are running around in Equestria who are 'alternate versions' of ponies we already know?" Pause. "Come to think of it, how many ponies are running around everywhere who don't just look similar but are the same pony?! Minuette owns homes in Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Crystal Empire alone!"

Sam sighed. "Would you just relax, Carl? There's a lot of really powerful unicorns in the world. Just because one of them has something in common with others doesn't mean this is just some cosmic way of constantly splitting off the same 'dark version of the individual'. It's a coincidence. That's all."

"Excuse us."

Both stallions turned and looked to one side. Over the fence to the cafe were a pair of stallions; one cerulean and the other chartreuse.

"I'm Conner-fusion. This is Ed-Pauses-To-Sit-Down-And-Lend-And-Ear-Whenever-Something-Occurs-To-Conner-That-Doesn't-Quite-Seem-To-Fit-In-With-Traditional-Rules-Of-Space-Time-And-Civil-Society-Leading-To-Him-Having-An-Inquiry-About-The-Nature-Of-The-World-In-Which-He-Lives-In Jr. We're friends, you see. I always find inconsistencies within Equestria, only I almost always ignore them or speak about things that are positive and worthwhile in Equestria instead. He always listens when I have a complaint, only he charges me 20 bits for every 30 minutes. Do you know which way to 'Quills and Couches'?"

Both stallions stared back blankly a moment, before slowly raising hooves and pointing down a street.

"Thank you."

Both new stallions slowly walked off.

"...I got to stay away from that guy."

"...I got to see if that guy has room for a new friend in his life."

Sam and Carl said this at the same time, and immediately snapped to each other in alarm. Both stared quietly for a moment.

"Wah, wah...iddy-boo..."

Hearing a mare complain out loud, the two stallions turned and looked, and saw Lyra walking down the road with a sour look on her face. She scowled as she read a letter she was using her horn to hover in front of her face as she walked by.

"So one little guest didn't show up to your birthday party and it's the end of the world... None of you showed up to my Coming Out Party! And get your damn glasses fixed already, you cheap old nerd!"

She magically tore the letter to bits and threw them away.

"We had a great time today, Moondancer!"

"You're pretty good at polo!"

"Heh...yeah, I guess I am."

"I'm so glad Twilight reintroduced us!"

"Let's get together again real soon!"

"Yeah...that'd be nice. Thanks!"

The three unicorns smiled and waved before turning and trotting out through the ruined fence. Moondancer slowly shut the door behind them, removing her helmet. After that, she paused and stood there, deep in thought, pondering something for a few moments. Finally, she looked up a bit as she seemed to reach a decision.

Turning to the nearest wall, she trotted over and pulled aside a bit of a curtain, revealing a list titled: "PONIES TO KILL".

She scratched "Twilight Sparkle" off the list.

Let that be a lesson to everyone.

That some ponies who lose their only friend go totally off the deep end and become vengeance-obsessed totalitarians while others merely become pale, antisocial recluses, but either way they'll become fan-favorites?

...I was going to say not to neglect your old friends in life, but...sigh...that works too.