Chapter 1: A Not-So-Warm Welcome
After the exhausting train ride, Princess Cadance was elated to have finally arrived in Ponyville. That elation would soon give way to disappointment, however, when she laid eyes on the miserable, dilapidated condition of the town. There used to be happiness, laughter and singing in the streets; but now everything had changed. The few ponies who still lived here were bitter and melancholy, having given up hope that the light of friendship would ever return.
Friendship, thought Cadance. How could the town that was once the brightest beacon of friendship in all of Equestria deteriorate into such a miserable condition as this? She already knew the answer, and she was hoping that her visit to Princess Twilight Sparkle's castle might help produce a solution.
Silently and steadily progressing down the main road to the entrance of the Castle of Friendship, she smiled warmly at each pony she made eye contact with. Many responded with bitter scowls, and some of them even said rude and unkind things. Others looked stared back at her, with tearful eyes eloquently speaking of their sorrow and despair while their mouths remained silent.
By the time she reached the castle, Cadance could no longer contain her anger at what she had just seen. In a rage, she used her magic to rip the doors off of their hinges and thrown them down on the ground, purposefully trying to be as loud as possible. She stormed into the castle, magically amplifying her voice to a deafening volume.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" she ordered. "PRESENT YOURSELF AT ONCE!"
An inebriated purple alicorn dizzily stumbled down the right-side of the double stairwell that was situated on the other end of the room. About halfway down, she tripped and fell the rest of the way, vomiting a little after she fell face-first on the floor.
"What's your problem, Celestia?" she muttered. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"With what, pray tell?" Cadance angrily demanded, ignoring Twilight's failure to recognize who she was speaking to.
"Oh, uh, things," Twilight vaguely answered, before vomiting again.
"I suppose by 'things' you mean excessive drinking."
"So what if I like cider?"
"Twilight, when was the last time you were sober?"
"What do you mean? I'm sober right now!"
"You've got to be kidding me, Twilight!"
After vomiting a little more in her mouth and frowning with minor disgust, Twilight stared at the floor for a few seconds, then began, "Well, maybe I'm a little bit tipsy right now, Celestia."
"I'm Cadance, Twilight, not Celestia."
"And I'm Princess Luna!"
"Twilight! I'm being serious! I need you to be serious too!"
"Sure thing, Princess Party Pooper! But can it wait? I'm getting kinda sleepy." With that, Twilight laid down on the floor and passed out in mere seconds. Cadance levitated Twilight to her room and set her on her bed. Before leaving the room, she sorrowfully stared at the pitiful wretch that had forgotten all about the magic of friendship. Going downstairs, Cadance decided to find a comfortable place to settle down and take a nap of her own, so that she would have the energy to confront Twilight later.
After about seven hours, Twilight finally waddled downstairs, half-asleep. She stopped in her tracks when she saw her sister-in-law sitting patiently in the center of the room.
"Cadance? You're still here?" she asked groggily.
"Yes, Twilight," Cadance replied. "I was hoping that once you were sober, maybe we could have a productive conversation."
"Oh, yeah," Twilight began to apologize. "Sorry about what happened earlier."
"So am I, Twilight. I'm also sorry about the miserable mare you've allowed yourself to become."
"Miserable mare? The hangovers aren't fun, I'll give you that. But I'm not miserable."
"What happened with you and your friends a few years back?"
"They aren't my friends anymore."
"I know. Why not?"
"We just stopped getting along. We couldn't agree on anything. We just decided it was best to go our separate ways."
"Even though you knew how important it was for the sake of Equestria for you all to keep your friendship alive?"
"We weren't helping anypony by being all angry and quarrelsome all the time. Since we weren't able to move on and get along, we figured Equestria might actually be better off without us as friends."
"And now you've all been bitter towards each other ever since?"
"I... guess so. I'm not really mad anymore. But they've moved on, and so have I."
"Twilight, Ponyville is falling to pieces without you and your friends. And no, you haven't moved on. If you had, you wouldn't have turned to drinking to drown away your misery."
Twilight took a deep breath in preparation to respond, but thought of nothing to say. She knew that there was at least a shred of truth to what Cadance had just said.
"Come see the town with me," Cadance implored, beckoning with her hoof for Twilight to follow her.
