Chapter 5

Chapter 5

There was a clear feeling of awkwardness as you went about the rest of the morning with your tasks. You found yourself glancing at the front door every time the bell sounded, wondering if it would be Moon Dancer again paying the shop a visit. It seemed illogical that she’d do so, but it was hard to put aside the notion as you saw her twice in such a short time. You wondered if this was how life was going to be, that every day you’d meet Moon Dancer and have to keep avoiding her like some plagued pony. It was clear that it she wanted to be as far away from you as possible, but there was no way that you were going to quit your job, move away, and hope that you didn’t meet her on the streets or in some store. You had to find out what happened to make her act the way she did. It was beyond a simple disinterest, she wanted nothing to do with you.

“Time for lunch,” Twinkle Shine announced as she made sure nopony was in the store and flipped the sign from Open to Close. It was a relief that despite the events that took place a short time ago Twinkle was still her usual friendly self. Whatever happened between you and Moon Dancer surely wasn’t bad enough to sever ties with your mutual friends. Still it was enough to have Minuette and Twinkle Shine to go to lengths to have you as far away from Moon Dancer. You could only imagine the strain they must have trying to remain friends with you and Moon!

“Great, I’m starving!” you said with a smile, “I brought my lunch today actually.”

“So did I,” Twinkle Shine said, “I usually eat in the back room where there’s a nice little break room there. Want to join me?”

“Sure,” You said as you followed her and sat down to eat. The conversation between bites slipped between what the two of you had been doing and reminiscing about your time at school.

“And that’s how Minuette almost blew up the science lab!” she said with a laugh, “I know it shouldn’t be funny but I can’t help giggling about it.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, but it is funny how Minuette was trying to make something to make her mane and tail shinier. Kind of reminds me of the time that I was in the library with Moon Dancer and…”

You immediately stopped the story as you noticed Twinkle Shine look up at you with a surprised yet sad expression.

“Sorry if I upset you,” you said.

“No, you’re fine. You can continue if you want.”

“Oh it was just a funny moment where some books fell on us while trying to retrieve a book on the high shelf,” you said trying to pass off the story before your thoughts turned to a more important topic, “Hey Twinkle?”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Uh…sure.”

“I mean I know if you’re my friend and all, but if you don’t want to answer that’s fine.”

“It’s about Moon Dancer, isn’t it?” she said, not even giving much time to think about it.

“Yeah, it is.”

“I knew that I’d be having this conversation sometime. Maybe it was knowing that you would meet Moon here, or maybe it would be on some other day at some other point, but it knew it was inevitable,” she said with a sigh, “Alright, what question do you have about her?”

“Well, I guess the big question on my mind is: what happened?”

“Why is Moon Dancer so opposed to meeting you?” Twinkle Shine said.

“Yeah.”

“You don’t remember what happened?” Twinkle asked in surprise.

“No, I don’t remember,” you said in a frustrated tone, “So far I’ve met Moon Dancer not once but twice and received nothing but coldness in her reaction. I met Minuette who told me I should keep my distance from Moon. Now I met you and you had me go somewhere else rather than even check out Moon Dancer. If I knew what happened or what I did, would I be asking? Wouldn’t I have tried to fix what happened?”

“I suppose you wouldn’t be asking,” the mare said as she folded her arms across her body, “Well, I know that you’re not a bad stallion. You’re one of my best friends! And I know that you should know the truth. So here it is. You remember your time with Moon Dancer, right?”

“I remember that we were in classes together and we hung out a lot and we became really good friends,” you said thinking back to your time in college. I remember that I really liked being with her. It was like we clicked together.”

“I see,” Twinkle Shine said, “You do remember about your time with her. I thought you didn’t know who she was.”

“I didn’t, well, at first I wasn’t sure. She looked so different from when I remember her. Like…”

“Like she stays mostly at home and barely has any friends? Yeah, I’ve seen that too, and I know why she went from what you remember her as what she is now. Do you remember the Winter Senior Prom?”

“Sort of. I remember that it was a big event and you had to have a partner to go. I went with Lemon Hearts. It was a great time, but now that you mention it I don’t remember Moon Dancer there.”

“That’s because she didn’t have anypony to go with,” Twinkle said.

“What?” you said in amazement, “She didn’t have anypony? There must have been plenty of stallions interested to go with her. I mean she was smart and pretty, so who wouldn’t go with her?”

“You,” Twinkle said curtly, “You didn’t go with her.”

“Me? I didn’t think that she wanted to go with me, or at all.”

“She did want to go with you, but instead you went with Lemon Hearts. She didn’t have the heart to go and see you dancing with somepony else. Can’t you see what happened? Don’t you see what your mistake did? She wasn’t just a friend to you. She was in love!”

The revelation hit you like a brick as you stared at Twinkle Shine’s face, unable to say anything for a few minutes. Your mind flipped with the moments you were with her, the meals spent with her in the cafeteria and restaurants, the movies you watched with her, and not to mention the late night study sessions and quiet moments together. But that was all in good fun with friends, right? You felt good with being her and upon separating to go about your day you felt sad, but was that love between you two?”

“But we graduated about six months ago,” you said in confusion, “Why is she still upset with me?”

“Because she loved you, and every time she saw you she remembers all the good times you had with her and how all that ended that one night. Same goes with us, and all the places you were with her. Minuette and I try to keep in touch, but she wants nothing to do with us so long as you’re friends with us.”

“But I’m sure I would have apologized to her, right?”

“You didn’t know why she was upset, but you did try to apologize with her,” she said with a sigh, “but because you didn’t know why she was upset besides you simply not going with her she didn’t feel you were honest. Eventually you and she just… gave up. You moved on and ended up here, forgetting what happened. She didn’t and can’t forgive you or her.”

“Why can’t she forgive herself?”

“She feels that she didn’t love you enough, and in that she walled her heart off from everypony else lest she make the same mistake and get her heart broken.”

“What have I done?” you said after a long pause, “I broke her heart and ruined her life!”

“Please,” Twinkle Shine said putting her hand on your face, “you didn’t know what was deep within her heart.”

“But I should have known!” you shouted before taking a deep breath and saying, “I need to fix this. Maybe I can’t have her love me again, but I have to help her realize that she can be herself again and not be afraid of her heart getting broken again.”

“I don’t know if you should,” Twinkle said looking down at the table.

“Please Twinkle, I need to do this, not for me, but her! But I don’t know if I can do it alone. Will you help me as my friend and her friend?”
The white unicorn spent many tense seconds pondering her place in your plan, weighing what it would do to her job and her friendship with you, Moon Dancer, or Minuette.

“Alright, I’ll help, but we have to do this carefully.”

“Thanks Twinkle Shine,” you said hugging her.

“Hey, what are friends for?”

Author's Note

I was torn about this part. At first I wanted the unnamed protagonist to spend several chapters meeting Moon Dancer in awkward situations and have him feel more unsure about what took place, but looking at that I realized that it would get old too quickly. But there's the trick of not making this part feel rushed which i hope I kept a good pace. But now comes the next part of the story, and yes there's the Romance tag there for a reason, and not just for the off camera surprise I mentioned here!