Friendship is Abundant

Chapters

A Rainbow Fades
Getting to Know Everypony
The Unicorn of Spike's Dreams
Wrath
For the Want of a Horseshoe
In Spite of a Horseshoe

A Rainbow Fades

I just updated the first two chapters in order for things to make more sense. Amongst the changes, Rainbow Dash's sole line in the first chapter is now different and I gave Twilight slightly more interaction during the scenes where she meets Colgate, Golden Harvest, Ditzy Doo, and Vinyl Scratch.

Derpy now plays a minor role in this chapter.

Episode Three: A Rainbow Fades

The heat radiating from the sun felt excellent, the breeze was gentle, and the sky was almost the same shade of blue as the coat of the one and only, Rainbow Dash. The excellent weather is one of the reasons why summer has always been the rainbow-maned pegasus's favorite season. These days have been perfect for showing off all her awesome stunts to any spectators as well as for lounging in a cloud to soak up the sunlight. Another reason why Rainbow Dash has always loved summer so much is the Summer Sun Celebration. The extended daytime has always let her do what she loves to do best for even longer.

This year, Rainbow Dash is going to have the best Summer Sun Celebration ever. Ponyville has been chosen as the site of celebration, which means that the Wonderbolts will be visiting. She cannot put into words how much they mean to her. The Wonderbolts have always been Rainbow Dash's idols ever since she was just a little filly. Tomorrow, she will impress them with all the amazing things that she can do and quite possibly become one of them. However, Rainbow Dash will have to make sure that she can perform her moves flawlessly, so she'll practice them right away.

And so that's what Rainbow Dash did for most of that morning. She zipped and zoomed all throughout the sky above Ponyville's park, using the array of clouds present as an obstacle course. Rainbow Dash knew perfectly well that she was supposed to be clearing this portion of the sky for the celebration, but she would be able to do all that in a jiff anyways. Besides, she concluded that it would be much more fun to show off how well she can do her job to the supervisor who was supposed to be coming soon. Rainbow Dash was told that pony would be coming to Ponyville this afternoon via a flying carriage.

However, something seemed off. Rainbow Dash recalled that on the previous eve, she had spectators whom watched her stunts. This year, the colorful pegasus couldn't spot anypony in the park who would take interest in her. The only other pony she saw was the park manager. Rainbow Dash tried her best to impress him, but it was no use. No matter what she did, the manager was apathetic towards her and only cared about doing his job. Of course, Rainbow Dash thought that was boring. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to only care about getting the task done to the letter. Rainbow Dash never cared for class work that much, because to her, they have always been tedious chores with no real meaning to them. She has learned a lot more from experiencing the vast, open, exuberant sky for herself than from being cooped up in a desk and working on boring papers like some sort of zombie.

Rainbow Dash has always needed something to motivate her. When meaning was added to a task, she has been much more willing to get it done. In fact, Rainbow Dash has always loved to help out the ponies whom she trusts. Outside of her superb skills at flying, her amazing loyalty has been what gained her a cult following in both Ponyville and Cloudsdale.

After some thoughts of how popular she was, the blue pegasus came up with a conclusion. Her fans weren't here in the park, because they had to help out with the Summer Sun Celebration as well. If they were not busy, then they would have all been here cheering for her. Comforted by this thought, Rainbow Dash resumed her practice.

Once the sun was at its highest point, Rainbow Dash perched up on a cloud and began to look all over for a carriage. Soon, she spotted one that was being flown by some pegasi. Rainbow Dash then got out a telescope and peered through it. She saw that the passenger was a purple unicorn whom was accompanied by what appears to be a baby dragon. The unicorn stood out a bit because of the the red streak on her mane and tail. Rainbow Dash assumed that must be the pony responsible for checking up on the preparations.

The rainbow-maned mare was filled with anticipation as the carriage landed in the middle of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was planning to do an extra amazing trick for this supervisor in order to impress her. In order to bring upon a bigger first impression, she planned to stay discreet until this pony arrived, then zoom downwards and surprise her. A smile formed on Rainbow Dash's face from what she had in mind.

It seemed like it has been a few hours since the carriage arrived. From the cloud she was on, Rainbow Dash looked around for the pony who was going to be here. She didn't see any signs of the unicorn, but she stayed put. Rainbow Dash knew that sooner or later, the supervisor would come over to the park. All she had to do until then was wait. Rainbow Dash situated herself as comfortable as possible, because the wait could take a while. The pegasus closed her eyes in order to relax for a bit.

When she opened her eyes, Rainbow Dash noticed that it was getting close to sunset. She felt embarrassed for napping longer than planned. Rainbow Dash took another survey of her surroundings and she still couldn't spot that unicorn she saw earlier today. There were no other potential spectators present either. It was going to get dark soon and Rainbow Dash knew that it would be very difficult to clear the sky then, so she reluctantly began the process.
The purpose to clearing the skies was to allow the citizens of Ponyville to fully appreciate the sun on the special day. Rainbow Dash couldn’t find it in herself to deprive them of enjoying the sun in anyway. Once she removed all of the clouds that loomed above the park, Rainbow Dash had no good reason to remain. If that supervisor was going to ever show up, she would see that the weather was taken care of. The blue pegasus decided to head back to Ponyville proper in order to debunk any doubts she had about her fans. Rainbow Dash was going to eavesdrop on them, since they would be a lot more honest about their thoughts when they aren't trying to be polite.

She situated herself on top of the first building she came across. Up upon the roofs of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash listened to find out anything they thought about her. To her dismay, they weren't anything nice.

“That blue pony is such a show-off!”

“Why did we even bother watching her?”

“She has no real talent to back up all that bragging,”

“She thinks she’s so great and powerful when she really isn’t.”

“There are plenty of better ponies than that blue boaster.”

“That pony should just go back to wherever she came from!”

“We don’t need her!”

“I can't even say her name without cringing!”

Rainbow Dash heard one voice from across town shout, “TRIXIE NEVER WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH HER, NO MATTER WHAT!” She didn't want to see what was going on or find out the speaker's identity, because it sounded like that mare was ranting on about how somepony named Trixie hates a certain blue pegasus with passion.

Rainbow Dash was in disbelief at all the harsh things the others had to say about her. All of these ponies were talking behind her back! None of them even mentioned her name. The colorful pegasus was very used to being called lazy, but all the backtalk she just heard was uncalled for. If it was just coming from some bullies, then Rainbow Dash wouldn't of minded quite so much. However, she knew very well that these mean words were coming from ponies whom she thought loved and appreciated her.

Knowing that she needed to keep her cool, Rainbow Dash reminded herself that these ponies weren't even her friends in the first place. They only wanted to hang out with her because of her coolness. Once these so-called fans of hers got bored, they chose to abandon her without warning. Unsurprisingly, this thought process didn't help Rainbow Dash that much.

The blue pegasus then thought about Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. She considered that they were her friends and that they would always want her around. Rainbow Dash was going to head off to Fluttershy's meadow when she overheard gossip of Pinkie Pie throwing a surprise party at the Books and Branches Library. Since it seemed likely that the others would be there as well, Rainbow Dash decided that she was going to give them all a surprise of her own.

Once the building made from a tree came into sight, she found that Pinkie Pie was conversing with Fluttershy and Applejack by the main entrance. The baby dragon that Rainbow Dash saw earlier was standing besides Pinkie Pie. The colorful mare flew up to a nearby branch and listened to the conversation the four were having.

“Umm... I was wondering...” muttered the yellow pegasus that Rainbow Dash recognized as Fluttershy.

“You can say whatever's on your mind,” the orange pony known as Applejack said in her strange accent.

“Sh-should we have the party without Rainbow Dash?”

“I really really really really really wanted her to party with us, but now I'm sure that we can have all sorts of fun without Rainbow Dash,” said the poofy-maned mare who could be none other than Pinkie Pie.

The baby dragon spoke, “It's not like we need Rainbow Dash to enjoy a good party in the first place, right?”

“I agree,”Applejack stated. “We can all enjoy this here party without her. I'm sure that she'd understand.”

Rainbow Dash understood alright. Along with that baby dragon, her friends were going to throw a party meant to exclude her. Upon thinking of the implications, Rainbow Dash's wings drooped. She was going to tear up as well, but she stopped herself by remembering that crying is for sissies. Rainbow Dash opted to get away from them all. Being sure that nopony else spotted her, she flew away from the town.

The sky became dark as the moon began to rise. Rainbow Dash was going to retreat to the pond where she often hangs out when she was stopped by a high-pitched voice, “Dash!”

It sounded like Scootaloo, so she looked to the ground and made out the dark orange pegasus filly who was on a stone bridge. Rainbow Dash landed beside her and said flatly, “Hey Scoot.”

Scootaloo tilted her head, “Is something wrong?”

“What do you think?”

“Well...”

“Where were you this morning?”

“I was helping out with the Summer Sun Celebration. This is my first year helping out.” Scootaloo paused before adding, “Everything's okay now, right?”

“I have another question for you.”

The filly stared at Rainbow Dash. “I'm listening.”

“Where were you this afternoon?”

“Are you going to ask me where I was for every time of the day?”

“You didn't answer my question.”

“I was going to get to that. Anyways, there's this unicorn who came to town earlier today. She calls herself the Great and Powerful Trixie and she put on this magic show for free.”

Rainbow Dash became enraged by this. A pony that hates her guts put on a show and Scootaloo came to see her. Not only this, but evidence points towards that this Trixie was the same purple unicorn that she saw this afternoon. “Don't trust her! She's a terrible pony!”

“I know that she's far from perfect, but she does have great determination.”

“Great determination to be a big jerk, right?”

“She's not that bad. Besides, I think that I'll become a fan of hers once she goes big. You'll still be my number one pony.”

“Yeah, right.” She wasn't reassured with what Scootaloo said at all. All of those other ponies seemed really friendly, but that was only when they feel they aren't being watched. Scootaloo was probably just trying to be polite.

“Why don't you like her?”

Rainbow Dash raised her voice, “I'll tell you why. I saw Trixie's arrival at Ponyville and I know that she was supposed to be checking up on preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. Instead, I find out that she doesn't care about the holiday one bit! I can't believe that she decided to blow off her job like that!”

“But I saw that you didn't clear your part of the sky until it was very late.”

“Well, that's different. I was going to do it sooner or later and I decided later. I really wanted to surprise a certain pony with what I can do, but she never arrived. At least I didn't leave things hanging. If Trixie needed to show off, then she should of preformed to the ponies that she was supposed to be checking on.”

“I'll go ask her about that if I see her again.” Scootaloo tilted her head both ways, then told the older pegasus, “You know, I think that you and Trixie could get along. Both of you two have a lot in common. You both like to show what you can do in front of others, talk big, and you both are ambitious.”

“I can't be friends with her. I heard somepony saying that Trixie hates a certain pony.”

“You know who said it?”

“No, but still...”

“What about sometime during the Summer Sun Celebration, you try to get to know her better?”

Rainbow Dash wanted change the subject, so she inquired Scootaloo, “What are you doing all the way out here at a time like this?”

“I was looking for something that I could use to reach with.”

The adult pegasus wasn't too surprised, since she knew that Scootaloo hasn't been able to fly very well yet. “Wouldn't it be easier to just get a ladder?”

“Yeah, I suppose so. I don't know where to find one though.”

Rainbow Dash supposed that it wouldn't hurt to help her. “Stay put! I'll go get you a ladder!” She lifted herself off the ground.

“Alright.”

Rainbow Dash then darted off. Rainbow Dash knew the easiest place to get a ladder, so she took a straight path to Sweet Apple Acres.

Once Rainbow Dash got there, she thought she smelled baked apples, cinnamon, and pastries. A look around confirmed that she wasn't mistaken. Big McIntosh was stacking various baked goods onto a cart. Rainbow Dash flew inside the largest barn in hopes of finding a ladder. Even though it was nighttime and the barn lights were off, she could still see thanks to the windows letting in moonlight. It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to find what she was looking for. Since the ladder was so tall, she decided it was best to drag it out of the building. Just as Rainbow Dash exited the barn, she spotted a big red stallion right in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him.

“I'm just getting the food ready.” Big McIntosh moved his eyes towards the ladder. “Needin' a ladder?”

“It's for somepony else.”

“You know, you can always ask.” Big McIntosh began to grin.

“Uh, yeah, I'll be sure to remember.” Rainbow Dash didn't know what to make of it. Even though looking at his handsome smile calmed her down, she still tried to stay vigilant. It was difficult, because Rainbow Dash also admired the fit body that Big McIntosh presumably got from working around at the farm. However, she reminded herself that he's Applejack's brother and that he could be in on that party meant to shun her.

“Eeyup!”

Rainbow Dash grabbed one end of the ladder with her front hooves.“I guess I'll get going now.”

“Take care.” Big McIntosh began to head for his cart.

Making sure that her grip was tight, Rainbow Dash began to take off. Even though the extra weight made her have to exert more energy into flying, it wasn't too much of a hassle for the pegasus. On her way back to Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash thought about what Big McIntosh meant by “Take care.” She has finds it rather hard to know what goes on in his mind, because he's not as talkative as most other ponies. To Rainbow Dash, those two last words of his confirmed that he's in onto something pertaining to her.

When Rainbow Dash got back to the bridge where Scootaloo was waiting, she laid down the ladder beside the orange filly. “Will this do?” the blue mare asked.

As Scootaloo circled the ladder, she didn't take her eyes off it. “That'll do! Thanks Rainbow Dash!”

“What are you planning to do with it anyways? It better not have anything to do with Trixie.”

Scootaloo's eyes widened and she began to talk faster. “Oh! Well... I got to do some last minute decorations! Gotta go! Be sure to talk to Trixie tomorrow!” Scootaloo grabbed the ladder with her teeth and began to walk backwards towards Ponyville. According to Rainbow Dash, her speed was moderate, which was respectable for a filly grabbing a ladder many times her length like that.

Since it appeared that there was nothing else needed to be done before the sun was raised, Rainbow Dash decided to spend an hour or two by practicing her moves above her favorite pond. During that time, she was pondering if there was a way to tell which ponies are trustworthy from the backstabbers. Rainbow Dash didn't want to make anymore “friends” who would turn their backs on her. She felt the need of having a companion who actually cares about her, not somepony who just says they do out of politeness. Upon thinking of the possibility that nopony loves her, Rainbow Dash had an even stronger urge to cry than before. Since she convinced herself that the Wonderbolts would never want a weak, crying pony to be on their team, Rainbow Dash was able to hold back her tears again. She felt something damp below one of her eyes, but knew that it couldn't possibly be a tear. The rainbow-maned pegasus was flying rather close to the pond's surface just moments ago, so some water must of gotten splashed onto her. Rainbow Dash is too tough to be crying like a weakling. Besides, tomorrow is going to be the best day of her life, because the Wonderbolts will get to see what she can do and accept her for who she is.

The blue pegasus suddenly crashed. When she got up, she saw that it was a tree. For some reason, Rainbow Dash found that it was becoming more difficult to concentrate. Since she couldn't practice in her current condition, Rainbow Dash flew back to Ponyville. She landed on top of a roof with a good view of the building where the princess is supposed to make her appearance. There, Rainbow Dash waited for when it would be time to enter the town square pavilion.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash saw the main entrance of the central building opening up and the crowd outside entering. Amongst the ponies that entered, she saw Scootaloo follow after a blue unicorn who had on an oversized wizard hat and a cape. Rainbow Dash would normally be curious about such an attire, but she was too busy thinking about Trixie in order to bother.

All of the sudden, a gray pegasus crashed on top of Rainbow Dash. She knew it was Derpy Hooves upon seeing her messed-up eyes.

Once Derpy got off her, Rainbow Dash asked, “Are you out to get me?”

“Nah,” Derpy responded. “I noticed that you're blue and you're a pony. You must be that blue pony everypony is talking about.” She then announced to the crowd, “Everypony! Rainbow Dash is on the roof with me!”

Rainbow Dash knew this got Applejack's attention, because she heard her voice say, “There ya are Rainbow Dash! We've been wondering where ya went off to.”

Rainbow Dash peered downwards and saw that she was with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The baby dragon wasn't with them this time. She told Applejack, “It's none of your business.”

“It is so. We thought that you were lost!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie said quickly, “We looked all over Ponyville for you at the park at Sugercube Corner at the cemetery at the spa below your cloud house and even from here where we found you of course!”

“Since it looks like this is hide and seek, I'll get going,” Derpy said right before she flapped her wings. As she flew for the central building, Derpy told Rainbow Dash, “Make it harder for us to see you next time.”

Of course the citizens of Ponyville don't want to see the blue pony.

“Anyways...” Fluttershy uttered, “I'm glad that you're here.”

Rainbow Dash responded, “So that you can all tell me about how great of a party you all had?”

“We had a great time!” Pinkie Pie told her. “We had cupcakes, played games, and had tons of fun! It was going to be a surprise party for Twilight, but she never showed up.”

“Is that the best excuse you can come up with?”

Applejack asked, “What's goin' on with you Dash? You've been acting strange. Is everything alright?”

“I've never been better! Will you all just go away?”

Fluttershy said, “But...”

“Just let her be,” Applejack interrupted. “I think she needs time to cool down.”

“...If you say so...”

Applejack and Fluttershy headed on in. When Pinkie Pie realized that they went inside, she said, “See ya inside! I got tons more to tell you about!” She then zipped as fast as she could through the pavilion's main entrance.

Rainbow Dash hesitated due to Pinkie Pie's obnoxiousness, but she flew into the central building since she had to witness the princess raising the sun. Almost instantly, Pinkie Pie came up to her and said, “You can come over by me and Applejack!”

“No thanks.”

“But you weren't at the party. I want to tell you how much fun we had at the party.”

“Yeah, how much fun you all had excluding me.”

Pinkie Pie looked puzzled for a second, then said, “Don't be silly. I just want you to know that your friends are all dandy.”

“They aren't my friends, and neither are you.”

The usually over the top cheerful pony stopped smiling. “W-what makes you think we're not friends? You, me, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity are all friends.”

Rainbow Dash didn't like that Pinkie Pie insisted on playing dumb. “You should know why.”

“But I don't know, honest!”

“Then shut your pie hole.”

Tears began to stream from Pinkie Pie's eyes. She looked at Rainbow Dash one last time, then headed over to where Applejack was.

Rainbow Dash did feel a bit bad for her, but it at least got that annoying pony out of her mane. She looked over at Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie was still crying and it appeared that Applejack was trying to calm her down. However, it didn't seem to Rainbow Dash that Applejack was going to come after her.

She then saw a certain purple unicorn entering the pavilion. This was definitely Trixie, because of her red streak. Trixie was accompanied by her baby dragon and a white unicorn with a blue mane. Rainbow Dash remembered that other unicorn as DJ Pon3. She recalled that they have seen each other at some parties. However, Rainbow Dash never hung out with her outside of a party. The reason she put up with DJ Pon3's loud voice and strangeness was for reputation purposes only. Rainbow Dash then noticed that the baby dragon was pointing in her direction. He and the two unicorns conversed, then DJ Pon3 called out for her. Rainbow Dash merely stayed where she was and didn't respond.

Just then, she heard the singing of birds from above the crowd. Rainbow Dash really didn't have much of an opinion of the song, since it wasn't awesome or totally lame. After the birds stopped singing, the mayor of Ponyville stepped up in front of the ponies attending and gave her speech. Once the speech was concluded, Rainbow Dash looked at the curtains where the princess was supposed to make her grand entrance. She saw Rarity up there, but she was confused about why some sort of green goop covered most of her body. It didn't really matter to Rainbow Dash, since she found it hilarious.

The curtains were pulled up, but Rainbow Dash didn't see the princess behind them. While the other ponies were panicking, she noticed some sort of purple smoke forming up there. Some of the strange gas flew aside to reveal a huge, black mare whose mane and tail appeared to be made up of that stuff. Judging from her size, wings, and a horn, Rainbow Dash assumed that she was the same type of pony as the princess. She also jumped to the conclusion that the mysterious mare did something with her.

The black mare spoke, “Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your sun-loving faces.”

This mare wants to ruin the Summer Sun Celebration, Rainbow Dash was sure. She can't stand for that, so she shouted, “What did you do to my perfect day?!” Right after finishing that sentence, Rainbow Dash darted off into the air after her. This mare was going to pay for trying to ruin this special day!

The rainbow-maned pegasus was getting ready to throw a punch when the black mare swiftly turned around and kicked her. Rainbow Dash was sent back-first crashing into a wall, which created a lasting pain for her upper back. She then felt the blunt sensation of hitting the ground from her flank. Rainbow Dash got back up as fast as she could, but she was unable to dodge the thunder that was coming her way. The pain was much worse than her collision with the wall. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash only had to suffer for about a second, because she was no longer aware of what was going on.

When Rainbow Dash woke up, she found that it was daytime. She took a quick scan of her surroundings to see if there was anypony else still in the pavilion. Just as Rainbow Dash finished looking around, she saw a bunch of shadows on the ground. As the pegasi in blue jumpsuits landed in front of her, she instantly recognized them as the Wonderbolts. Words couldn't describe how overjoyed Rainbow Dash was to see them.

The gray and white maned stallion known as Rapidfire asked her, “Are you alright?”

Rainbow Dash was able to stand back up with little effort. “I think so. Thanks for checking up on me.”

“No problem,” Spitfire stated. She was the Wonderbolt with a radiant orange mane. “After the princess was able to save daytime, we decided to go where the attack started to look for anypony in need of assistance.”

“Thanks again. By the way, would you like to see what I'm capable of doing?”

“Of course,” said Soarin', a male pegasus with a dark blue mane.

“Alright then,” Rainbow Dash told the Wonderbolts as she began to hover. “Prepare to be amazed!” She flew all about in the pavilion and showed them many of her stunts. Even though the place she was flying happened to be rather confined, Rainbow Dash had no problem with avoiding any collisions.

The Wonderbolts cheered as the pegasus with much potential landed. They were so impressed with Rainbow Dash that they decided to make her a member on the spot. She accepted her Wonderbolt costume with pride the very second it was handed to her. Rainbow Dash immediately put it on.

“Ready for another flight?” Spitfire asked the newest Wonderbolt.

Rainbow Dash said with great enthusiasm, “Of course!”

All of the Wonderbolts then extended their wings and flew out of the pavilion together. This is truly Rainbow Dash's best day ever.

The next thing Rainbow Dash knew was that she was lying in a bed. She immediately noticed the plastic tube that was stuck into one of her nostrils. The puzzled mare was planning to yank it out, but since the tube felt like it went down her throat, she decided not to do so. She looked around the room she found herself in. Sunlight streamed through the sole window, which gave Rainbow Dash a good view of her surroundings. Next to the bed was a strange machine where the tube connected. There were also various cabinets and a sink.

The door then opened up. A mare who was behind it walked up to Rainbow Dash. She was wearing a white hat that bore a red cross. The nurse reached for the tube that was placed inside the blue pony's nose and pulled on it gently. Once it was out, Rainbow Dash took a look at the tube that was just inside her. She cringed at the sheer length of it.

The nurse than asked, “How are you feeling?”

Rainbow Dash then cleared her throat. “I feel excellent!” she said eagerly. Against the nurse's advice, Rainbow Dash climbed out of bed. Her back was still a bit sore and she felt like stretching, but other than those issues, she was perfectly fine. “I'm ready to have the best Summer Sun Celebration in my life!”

“Look, I have to tell you something.”

“What do you want?”

“I don't know how to break it to you, but the Summer Sun Celebration is over.” This nurse had to of been kidding with Rainbow Dash. Nevertheless, she didn't find it funny at all. “I'm sorry... You have been unconscious for a week.”

“Do you think that you're being funny?”

“Of course not! I would never try to lead you on like that.”

Rainbow Dash thought about what it meant if she was being told the truth. It would mean that she missed what could have been the most important day in her life! “Tell me that you're lying!” she nearly begged.

“What I told you was the truth. I would never lie while doing my job.”

Even though she tried her best not to, Rainbow Dash couldn't help but let out a single tear.

The nurse seemed to notice, because she said, “I know what will cheer you up.”

“I feel fine.” The mare didn't seem to listen to Rainbow Dash, because she went over to a cabinet and opened it up. She dragged a tray over to her patient. Rainbow Dash took a look at the contents, which included some blue-battered cupcakes with colorful frosting and what appeared to be a get well card. She asked the nurse, “Who is it from?”

“What about you see the card and find out?”

Rainbow Dash grabbed the card and opened it up. It read:

Rainbow Dash,

We all hope that you get better soon.
We don't know why you were upset,
but feel free to talk to us about it
whenever you're ready. You can trust us.

Sincerely,
Applejack, Fluttershy,
Pinkie Pie, Rarity

PS: Enjoy the cupcakes.

“Oh, it's from them,” Rainbow Dash said with disdain. She convinced herself that these ponies were trying to regain her trust by playing dumb and pretending to have good intentions.

“Isn't that a good thing?” inquired the nurse.

Rainbow Dash didn't answer her question. She put the card back and headed for the door.

“Are you sure that you're alright?”

Rainbow Dash spread out her wings, then retracted them. She told the nurse, “I'm perfectly fine.”

“Don't you at least want to eat something?”

“I'll get by,” Rainbow Dash told her before heading out of the room.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what she should do next. However, there was one thing she was sure of. She shouldn't be quick to trusting others. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and even Fluttershy let her down. Even though she didn't see if Rarity ever talked behind her back, Rainbow Dash was suspicious of her as well. The blue pegasus thought about forming a group of true friends, even though she wouldn't mind living a life away from all other ponies if it means she won't be betrayed again.

Getting to Know Everypony

I updated this again as well as the other first four chapters (she now has a minor role in chapter three) in order to adjust to the canon personality and name Derpy was given. Because of this, I'm sure that she'll be more entertaining. Also, she's now the only pony that calls Golden Harvest "Carrot Top."

Episode Four: Getting to Know Everypony

The sun was down, signifying the end of the Summer Sun Celebration. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie retreated to their new home, which they now know is called the Books and Branches Library.

As she entered the building, Trixie told the other unicorn, “Trixie's ready to hit the...” She paused mid-sentence to take in a deep breath, then exhaled, “...HAAAAY!”

“You know, I could stay up a bit longer,” Twilight stated.

Trixie closed the door behind her. “Well, she wouldn't be so tired if somepony didn't hang her upside down.”

“Even if that didn't happen, I would still be able to stay up longer than you. I'm used to staying up late in order to do research.”

“That sounds like a challenge!”

“If you say so. ”

“Trixie will prove to you that she's capable of going without sleep longer than you.”

“Are we really going to deprive ourselves of sleep just for that?”

“Of course not! We're rivals, so this will be a battle for glory.”

“Uh huh. I guess we could do that tonight in order to get that out of the way.”

“Challenge accepted.”

The two unicorns then heard a creaking noise from behind them. Looking back, they saw that the door was open again. Twilight said, “I could of sworn that you closed the door.”

“Don't go blaming things on me!”

Suddenly, what appeared to be a small orange blur zoomed into the the library. All in what seemed like a second, Twilight Sparkle felt a surge in magical energy that originated in her horn and spread throughout the rest of her body. She then experienced the sensation of her body unleashing all of the built up magic. The next thing Twilight knew was that a helmeted filly was lying down against a bookshelf. Several books were floating right above the stranger.

“What just happened?” Twilight asked.

“You mean you didn't see what you just did?” the winged filly responded.

“No, I didn't.”

Once the books being levitated were placed into an unorganized pile, Trixie said, “You wanted to show off again.”

“You became all silvery and then you hit me with a crescent thingy which sent me crashing,” explained the orange pony.

Twilight extended one of her front legs and saw that it was her normal color of purple. She inquired, “Did all this really happen?”

“Do not try to act modest just to make yourself look good,” Trixie told her. “You really did glow silver again and attack Scootaloo like that.”

“Wait a minute, you know this pony?”

“After you so rudely tied me up, Scootaloo found a ladder and got me down.”

Twilight turned her head towards the filly, “So you saw what happened?”

“I saw everything there was to see,” Scootaloo said.

“I don't get why you decided to untie Trixie then.”

“Since it looked like nopony else was going to do it and because she's my second favorite pony, I helped her out.”

“I see. That means I'm your favorite pony then.”

“Uhh... actually, you aren't. You're too much of a big nerd.”

Trixie laughed at this. “That's so true! ”

“I expected better from you since we became friends,” Twilight told Trixie.

“It's rather silly of you to think that just because we're friends, we're supposed to be all perfect.”

“Well, we definitely aren't supposed to act like jerks to each other.”

“Trixie will keep this in mind.”

Twilight spoke to Scootaloo again, “Back on the subject of favorite ponies, who's your number one pony?”

Scootaloo answered immediately, “Rainbow Dash of course! She's only the most awesomest pegasus in Equestria!”

“Actually, I heard of her. I was supposed to see if she was doing her part of the preparations, but I never got around to doing so.”

“That means Trixie was telling the truth then.”

“About what?”

Trixie stated, “About me not being responsible for supervising preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. For some reason, she thought that I was supposed to do that.”

“That's because Rainbow Dash said so,” Scootaloo said. “She did say that she saw Trixie entering Ponyville, but she might of seen you instead.”

“Yeah, she must have been,” Twilight agreed. “Did she recover from Nightmare Moon's attack yet?”

“She's still in the hospital.”

“Then we'll just come over there and clear things up for her. Would you lead us to her room sometime tomorrow?”

“Of course I will. However, I don't think things will be easy.”

“We're just clearing things up for her,” Trixie said. “What in Equestria will make it difficult?”

“Well, I don't think she'll like either of you, even if you make it clear that you are two different ponies.”

“That was because she was expecting for me to come see her,” Twilight assumed. “As for Trixie, it must be because of how much of a showoff she is. Even though Rainbow Dash probably didn't see her, she must of overheard some gossip.”

“Actually, that's what I came to warn Trixie about.” Scootaloo looked at Trixie and told her, “Ever since a certain egghead came by and ruined your show, ponies have been talking bad about you and-”

“But she challenged me!” Twilight interrupted.

“Well, you could at least have enough decency to not act like a big nerd. You used too many big words and you threw away the glory you could of gotten.”

“Those aren't good reasons for thinking that I'm lame.”

“But they are! You didn't even put any effort into looking cool.”

“I bet that you can go on and on about that and how amazing I am, but we get the point,” Trixie stated. “Was there something more that you wanted to tell Trixie?”

“Oh yeah. The only reason the ponies didn't mock you at the Summer Sun Celebration was because the princess was there. I think that tomorrow, they will be mean again and I thought that you should know.”

“I appreciate you telling me that.”

“You're welcome. I guess I'll scoot away then.” A scooter that was covered in a blue aura came up to Scootaloo. “Thanks Trixie! I'll be waiting her tomorrow afternoon.”

“We'll see you then!”

“Bye, Scootaloo!” Twilight said. “We'll think of a way to talk to Rainbow Dash.”

“Bye, egghead!” Scootaloo replied as she was getting onto her scooter. “See ya Trixie!” With those last words, she wheeled on out.

“I guess that I'll have to get used to that...”

“Well, know I know that there's another pony who's mad at you for besting me at magic,” Trixie said.

Twilight Sparkle closed the door with her magic. “I can tell.” After a brief pause, she added, “I think it's a good idea that we check up on Spike.” Twilight began to head up the stairs.

Trixie followed the purple unicorn. “I have nothing better to do, so I'll go with you as well.”

“You said that I became silver before. When was that?”

“It was during our fight with Nightmare Moon. I saw that when you charged towards her, your horn and the rest of your body began to glow. Once you were close to her, you created the same crescent attack that she used against you.”

“If that's true, then it is very likely that I have the ability to copy magic.”

“If I was able to do that, then I would be waaaaay better at it than you ever will be!”

“But you aren't.”

Twilight Sparkle reached the bedroom door and opened it up. She then saw that Spike was awake. He was looking out a window.

Twilight commented, “I see that you're finally up, Spike.”

The baby dragon turned around and began to panic, “Twilight! You were right! Nightmare Moon is still out there! Please, please stop her!” His tone became quizzical once he eyed Trixie, “Uh, why's Trixie with you?”

“We're friends now.”

“I'm in disbelief as well,” Trixie said. “Twilight here can explain. I'm so... SLEEEEPY... now...”

Spike looked back at Twilight, “I thought that you wanted to stop Nightmare Moon, not make friends with one of your enemies.”

“True, I was only concerned about that at first, but now I know how good it is to have friends,” Twilight told him.

“It would be good if we had the sun back.”

“What's the matter?” Trixie snided. “Too lazy to get up for the Summer Sun Celebration?”

“Wait, I slept through it all?”

“It appears so,” answered Twilight.

Despite this, Spike didn't seem too distraught. In fact, he seemed eager as he asked, “So, how was your quest to collect the Elements of Harmony and vanquish Nightmare Moon?” Before either of the unicorns could answer, the baby dragon began with what he thought happened. His story involved action, suspense, drama, and even romance, at least according to him.

“Thankful for rescuing her, Princess Celestia told you, 'You have ended the evil domination of Nightmare Moon and restored the world to harmony. However, the never ending battle continues until all destructive forces are eliminated. Fight, Twilight Sparkle! For everlasting harmony!'” Spike then asked, “Is that close to what happened?”

Twilight Sparkle criticized, “There are too many logical fallacies for me to take all that you said seriously. For example, we aren't more powerful than an entire army just because their collective power was spread out thin.”

“Well, if that's not what happened, than what did you do?”

“My explanation will be simple and to the point. Also unlike yours, it won't put a pony to sleep.” Twilight glanced at Trixie who somehow managed to sleep while standing up. As she snored, saliva oozed from her mouth.

Twilight then explained what happened, including the fact that Colgate, Vinyl Scratch, Golden Harvest, and Ditzy Doo helped her out as well.

“So, you basically defeated Nightmare Moon with friendship?” Spike asked. “I was hoping for something more exciting and not so... girly.”

“Well, it does sound a bit silly, but that's really how it happened.”

“You know, I bet that you and your new friends will become famous for saving the world and reuniting Celestia with her sister.”

“Actually, we won't. Princess Celestia insisted on having it kept secret from the public. She said that having so much fame wouldn't be good for us.”

“That's too bad. It would have been awesome if we became celebrities.”

“No... Not the cold...” Trixie muttered in her sleep.

“But it's summer.”

Twilight spoke, “Spike, I don't think she can hear you.” She then levitated Trixie and tucked her bed. “I think I'm going to hit the hay as well.”

Spike just stood there for a while before he asked, “Aren't you going to go sleep with her? There's enough room in bed for the two of you.”

“Don't be silly. That would be gross.”

“I meant the type of sleep where you know... sleep.”

“I knew what you meant. I just don't take comfort in the fact that I could be touching her and not even know it. All I need is a blanket and a pillow in order for me to rest on the floor.”

“If you really don't want to sleep with Trixie, I saw another bed around here.”

“Great! Lead me there.”

Spike led Twilight Sparkle to the basement. Because of the stuffy air and the cow webs, Twilight guessed that it doesn't get much use. Even though she wasn't a proper scientist, Twilight planned to turn this room into a laboratory on some other night. The only pieces of furniture present were a wooden, rectangular table, a telescope that doesn't look worn out in any way, and a bed identical to the one Trixie was in. She blew hard on the bed, which created a cloud of dust.

After he coughed, Spike asked Twilight, “Will this bed do?”

“It's perfect.” Twilight levitated the bed and the telescope, then returned to the bedroom. She put both items down gently. Once Spike caught up to her, Twilight told him, “Since it doesn't look like you're tired, would you dust this telescope? I would love to use it sometime.”

“Will do!”

As Spike exited the room, Twilight assumed that he was looking for cleaning supplies. Ready to call it a night, Twilight Sparkle situated herself into the empty bed and closed her eyes. It was difficult to get rest due to Trixie's ungraceful manner of sleeping, but she somehow managed.

When Twilight woke up, she could tell that it was daytime from the intensity of the light coming through the window. She knew that Trixie wasn't asleep, because the sound of her snoring was absent. Twilight decided to inspect the telescope; she was impressed with how clean the entire surface was. She then picked up a faint scent that she recognized as the pancakes that Spike usually makes. After she went downstairs and found her assistant and Trixie situated in what appeared to be a dining room, Twilight was proven correct. There weren't many pancakes left, since Trixie has been wolfing them down.

Twilight asked the first thing that came to mind, “Did you stay up all night Spike?”

“Yeah,” Spike answered. “I wasn't sleepy at all.”

“We'll have to work on getting your sleep cycle back to normal.” Twilight then spoke to Trixie, “You're up earlier than I expected.”

Trixie swallowed, then explained, “Well, I had a nightmare... Don't tell anypony else about this! My reputation is already bad enough as it is!”

“There's no need to worry about that,” Spike reassured. “After getting your plot handed to you by Twilight, everypony in Ponyville already thinks that you're some sort of weakling.”

Trixie stomped up to Spike and shouted, “GO SAY THAT AGAIN AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!”

Spike fell off his chair. “Okay! Sorry!”

“Anyways...” Twilight began. “After I have some breakfast, let's head out.”

“What for?”

“We're going to visit my- I mean our new friends today and learn more about them.”

“That's great!”

Spike and Trixie left the room while Twilight was eating her breakfast. After having whatever pancakes were left, she made her way over to the central room. There, she spotted Spike and a unicorn who looked almost exactly like her. The streak in her mane and tail were white instead of red, and her cutie mark happened to be an array of tiny white stars within a black swirl.

“Hey Twilight Sparkle,” the look-alike said. “I'm Milky Way, your long lost twin sister. I'm waaaaay more pretty, popular, magical, and better at anything else I forgot to mention than you ever will be.”

“Is this because I stayed up longer than you last night, Trixie?” Twilight asked.

“You're no fun! The very least you could of done was to play along. And no, it's not because of that, since Trixie would of stayed up way longer than you if it wasn't for Spike's snore of a story.”

“Is my story really that bad?” Spike inquired.

“Yes,” Twilight and Trixie answered.

Twilight asked Trixie, “So, why were you pretending to be my sister?”

“I don't deserve to be ridiculed out there. You know that the citizens of Ponyville are too ignorant to properly appreciate yours truly.”

“Fine. Just keep a low profile.”

Once Twilight Sparkle exited the library alongside Spike and “Milky Way,” she stood and scanned her surroundings.

Spike uttered, “I thought that you knew where to go.”

“I'll just ask around.”

“So now you're following my advice.”

They then saw a certain gray pegasus flying towards them. She landed in front of Twilight and handed her an envelope.

Twilight lifted the mail magically. “What is this?”

“It's a map inside,” Ditzy Doo told her.

“A map of Ponyville?”

Ditzy nodded. “Each of our homes are macked.”

After looking over the map that was inside, Twilight commented, “That's really nice of you. Did you do all this?”

She shook her head. “Cawot Top made it for you. ”

“I see. We'll be sure to visit both of your places.”

”By the way, who's that pony who looks like you?”

“Oh, that's just-”

“You're looking at none other than the Great and Magnificent Milky Way, Twilight Sparkle's overachieving sister,” Trixie interrupted.

“You remind me of Tixie,” Ditzy stated.

“That's because she's Trixie,” Twilight pointed out.

“I didn't know that Tixie was your sister.”

“She isn't.”

“Then why did she call herself your sister?”

Trixie came up to Ditzy and whispered, “Do not tell anypony that Milky Way is Trixie!”

“Will do!”

“If that's it, then we'll get going,” Twilight said.

“Alight then, bye!” The gray pegasus took flight again.

Once Ditzy was out of sight, Spike asked, “Who will we visit first?”

Twilight took another look at the map, then told him, “We'll go visit Vinyl Scratch first.”

“Why is that?”

“Her house is located near the outer boundaries of Ponyville and it's closer to our home than Farm Fields. If we start there, then we can complete our round in no time.”

“Lead the way then.”

Twilight, Spike, and Trixie headed in the direction of Vinyl Scratch's home. Soon, they came upon several buildings that looked like circus tents. Spike didn't hesitate to say that it looked like some sort of carnival. Twilight Sparkle knew they were at the right place when she heard loud music coming from a blue, multi-sectioned tent. She entered and looked around the first room.

Various items were lying around the floor; most of them happened to be musical equipment such as guitars, microphones, and even some electric keyboards. A giant flat-screen television that appears to be in good condition and a huge shelf containing various records were among the few things in the room that had a semblance of organization. Twilight became disgusted upon eying crumbs that dotted the floor. The empty bottles, expired pizza slices, and cheese puffs that were carelessly placed didn't help at all. There was even mold growing on some sections of the wall.

To one of the sides, Vinyl Scratch happened to be operating a turntable.

Twilight came up to her and greeted, “Hey Vinyl Scratch.”

“Speak up!” the shaded unicorn ordered.

Twilight got up closer and repeated herself, “Hey Vinyl Scratch!”

“Still can't hear you!”

Annoyed with the noise, Twilight went up to the turntable and looked for some sort of off switch.

“What are you doing?” Vinyl Scratch asked.

Twilight didn't answer as she continued her search. Frustrated with the unfamiliar interface, she opted to just unplug the turntable instead.

With the music gone, Twilight stated, “Whew, what a relief!”

“It would of been a whole lot cooler if you just asked instead of being a party pooper.”

“You must be crazy to think that this is a party!” Trixie called out. “You were the only one here before we showed up.”

Vinyl Scratch glanced at Trixie who was still in disguise, then back to Twilight. “Who's this pony you invited over?”

“That's just Trixie,” Twilight made clear.

Trixie looked around, then dispelled her illusion. “You have to keep this a secret or else!”

“Sure,” Vinyl said. “Just as long as I remember that it's a secret. By the way, it's cool that the Spikester and you two came over to my pad.”

“That's my new nickname?” Spike wondered.

“Of course! Sooner or later, you'll get so many nicknames that you'll become Spike of Many Names.”

“I see,” stated Twilight. “Do you give everypony many nicknames?”

“Nope! Spike's the only one I plan to give many names to since I like him so much!”

“You're attracted to baby dragons?” Trixie asked dumbfounded.

“Exactly!”

“I think that you should wait until he's older.”

“Even though I would love to have some special fun with Spiky now, I can wait.”

Twilight Sparkle told Vinyl Scratch, “You don't need to give us that much information.”

“I don't know Twilight,” Spike said smiling. “I kind of like this type of information.”

“Moving onto another subject... I remember you mentioning that you had a stage name. Do you undertake the role of a disc jockey for a living, or is it just a hobby?”

“I love both music and money, so yes,” Vinyl Scratch replied. “As a matter of fact Sparkles, I'm good enough at what I do to preform for major gigs.”

“Since you apparently have sufficient funds, why don't you hire somepony to clean up or something? Not to be rude, but your place could use some tidying up.”

“But I like being a dirty gal! Besides, I use money for things such as my toys here, plenty of chow, and more fun things.”

Trixie commented, “It must be nice to have enough to afford food.”

“Is that the reason for your magic show?” Twilight inquired.

“Of course not! I would be able to find many other ways to make money. I put forth that show, so that I would be appreciated.”

“That's a rather dumb reason for a magic show,” Spike blurted out.

“Shut up!”

“I see that we need to loosen things up here and I'm the pony for that,” Vinyl Scratch said. She focused on the turntable's cord and plugged it back in.

Once the music was back in full force, Twilight crouched and covered her ears. She could still hear the song perfectly well. Twilight saw that although Trixie seemed a bit taken aback at first, she soon began to move her body to the beat.

It felt like forever for Twilight Sparkle. She was relieved when Vinyl Scratch stopped the turntable.

“I saw that you enjoyed it, Trickster!” Vinyl Scratch said.

“You and your music aren't so terrible after all,” Trixie admitted.

“I don't get it,” stated Twilight Sparkle. “What's so fun about having loud noise blasted into your eardrums?”

Spike spoke, “Still don't like it, I see.”

“Why did Trixie enjoy it then?”

“Too narrow minded to have fun, I see,” Trixie said. “Trixie guesses that only certain ponies can appreciate things like this.”

“Must be nice for you.” Twilight looked at the exit, then to Vinyl Scratch. “Since we're done here, we'll get going now.” Right after she trotted over there, a gray, male unicorn with a magenta mane crashed into her.

“You sure have a knack for bumping into others,” Spike commented.

Twilight got up and claimed, “But it wasn't my fault.” She then talked to the unicorn who was slightly larger than her, “I'm sorry about that.”

“About blaming me for knocking into you?” the male pony guessed in a tone devoid of anger.

“Actually, I was going to apologize for bumping into you.”

“But you said that it wasn't your fault.”

“Let's just say that neither of us are guilty.”

“So why did you say sorry?”

“Out of politeness I guess. By the way, what's your name?”

“I'm St-”

“He's Starnote and he's my little bro,” Vinyl Scratch interrupted. “I told him all about you.”

Starnote took a glance at Twilight, then said, “You have a purple mane with a distinctive red streak. You must be Twilight Sparkle who lives in Books and Branches Library with Trixie and the baby dragon, Spike.”

“That's me.”

Vinyl Scratch's brother made her way up to Trixie and asked, “With your white mane and blue coat, are you Trixie?”

“It is sad that you don't know what Trixie looks like,” Trixie told him.

“If you're not Trixie, then who are you?”

“She is Trixie,” Twilight explained. “She just speaks in third-pony every now and then.”

“Oh! I see. I have never been to your show, since I was too busy. Even though I heard that you are terrible at magic, you're rather cute.”

“How dare you!” Trixie retorted. “Trixie is a more magical unicorn than you ever will be!” Right after her horn began to glow, the ceiling and walls took on the appearance of the night sky, complete with stars and a crescent moon. There was even a meteor shower. Twilight noticed that Starnote appeared to be in awe.

“I could never do that, so you must be sort of good.”

“Sort of good for all that?!”

“You know, because the other ponies said that you suck at magic.”

“Well, Trixie does look pretty bad when compared to me,” Twilight boasted. “I do have superior magic after all.”

“Could you show me then?”

“Of course I will.” Twilight's horn glowed and a door materialized into the room.

“A door?”

“It's a real door that has the proper functions.” Twilight demonstrated by turning the handle and opening the door. She looked at Starnote again and saw that his mood didn't change. “This is the part where you're supposed to be impressed.”

“Why?”

“It is a one-hundred percent real door that I materialized. Trixie merely created an illusion of the night sky.”

“That's right,” Spike supported. “Twilight Sparkle could help make homes because of her ability. Trixie hasn't shown that she can make anything real that big.”

“I can do better than that with ease,” Trixie said. She then proceeded to create a wooden table with legs that happened to be taller than the door in the middle of the room. “Impressed?”

“Not really,” Twilight said smugly. “Tables are easy to make. Come outside and I'll really impress you all.”

Trixie disguised herself as “Milky Way” again.

“Why did you make yourself look like Twilight?” Starnote asked.

“Some ignorant ponies who don't understand will be mean to me otherwise,” Trixie said.

“I see. I guess that you don't want to be swarmed by guys either since you disguised yourself as Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight Sparkle figured that he doesn't have to worry about getting swarmed by mares. After the other ponies followed her outside, she focused as hard as she could. Soon, a door that appeared to be twice or even thrice the height of the tent came into existence. She then turned the doorknob with her magic and opened it. “It still works perfectly fine.”

“You're supposed to impress us all with a bigger door?” Trixie asked. “At least be more creative than that next time!”

“That's more impressive than a normal sized door,” Starnote commented, “but aren't you worried that it will tip over and hurt a pony?”

“I'll just write a letter to the princess once we get home.”

“I wish that that my cutie mark gave me some sort of cool magic. Vinyl Scratch can attack with music notes, Trixie does all sorts of magic, and Twilight can create doors, but I'm not as cut out for magic as you girls.”

“At least you're not the unicorn whose special talent is popping balloons with his horn,” Vinyl reassured.

Twilight took a glance and saw that his cutie mark was a scroll. “Your cutie mark,” she began, “What does it represent?”

“It means that I'm very good at taking notes,” Starnote explained.

Vinyl Scratch used her magic to bring out various notes from out the tent and hover them in front of Twilight and Trixie. Twilight saw that most of them were about certain mares and details pertaining to them such as attractiveness, age, birthday, interests, and more.

Vinyl Scratch explained, “My bro's favorite things to write about are chicks. He writes the down the details of the gals and one guy that he has crushes on.”

“But that's only because he looks better than the girls!” Starnote swore. “I still like mares. I'm even planning to write down Trixie's details.”

“Don't waste your time,” Trixie told him. “You're creepy and I don't even find you attractive.”

“Oh, okay. I'll just wait for another mare that I find worthy to write about.”

Twilight told everypony and Spike, “Since it looks like we're done for real, we'll be leaving.”

“Feel free to hang with us anytime!” Vinyl Scratch said to the visitors.

“I would love to be with you sometime,” Trixie told Vinyl.

“Maybe sometime, you could bring some cute mares who would be interested in me over,” Starnote suggested.

“Oh, we'll be sure to do that,” Trixie said sarcastically before heading off with Twilight and Spike.

Back to where the buildings didn't look so strange, Twilight, Trixie, and Spike were on their way to Colgate's home. Twilight knew that they were close after spotting a building that very well could of come from a fairy tale. The roof looks very much like peanut brittle with white frosting added to the edges and the two uppermost stories looked like cupcakes stacked on one another. According to the map, that was Sugercube Corner and where Colgate lives isn't far from there.

It didn't take long after that for them to come across what Twilight assumed was Colgate's house. Although the building itself had the standard straw roofing, it was made distinct by the overhanging sign that had a tooth for its symbol. She came up to the entrance and knocked a few times. Soon, a male unicorn with a mint green coat opened the door. His mane was cyan and his cutie mark appeared to be a couple of mint leaves. Twilight recognized him as one of the two adult ponies whom Colgate came for yesterday.

“Good morning,” the unicorn greeted.

“Good morning to you as well,” Twilight replied. “I was wondering. Are you Colgate's father?”

“Indeed I am.” He tilted his neck and took a quick look at Trixie and Spike. “I noticed the baby dragon with you. If his name is Spike, then one of you must be Twilight Sparkle.”

“You're right. I'm Twilight Sparkle.”

“I see. Then that other unicorn is probably Vinyl Scratch.”

Trixie came up to him and whispered, “I'm Trixie.”

“You are? I'm confused on why you're purple. I thought that Colgate said you were blue.”

“That's because I will be mocked if I don't disguise myself.”

“Well, my family will welcome you as you are. Colgate has been talking a lot about you.”

“She has?”

“You can come in and see her now. We're just about to have an early lunch.”

He was just about to lead them in when Spike tried to get his attention, “Excuse me.”

“What is it?” he asked in a calm tone suggesting that he was open to anything.

“We didn't get your name yet.”

“How rude of me. I'm referred to as Dr. Minty when I'm on the job, but you can just call me Frais.”

“Doctor?” Spike muttered as he looked up at the building's sign. “Are you a dentist?”

“That is correct.”

“Colgate said that her family was rich,” Twilight stated. “Does that mean you're one of the most popular dentists in Ponyville?”

“I sure am. However, my money doesn't solely come from that.”

Remembering when Colgate mentioned that her father knows a pony from Canterlot, Twilight inquired, “Do you by any chance have any ties to Canterlot?”

“I do in fact. I was born there myself and made plenty of friends there.”

“If you have friends there, then why did you even come to Ponyville?”

“After falling in love with my would-be wife there, we agreed that Ponyville would be a better place to raise kids.”

“I see. That explains a lot.”

“Ready to have lunch?”

“I sure am,” Spike answered. “I'm starving!”

“Then come right inside.”

Once they entered and Trixie reverted to her true form, Frais led the three to the dining room. There, Twilight saw Colgate and three other ponies sitting at a table. She recognized the reddish-purple maned mare as the one who hugged Colgate. The other two were pink fillies. One of them happened to be a unicorn, while the lighter shaded one was an earth pony.

When Colgate noticed Trixie, her eyes widened. As she came up to her, Colgate squealed, “Trixie! I'm so happy that you, Twilight and Spike came over to see me!”

Trixie smiled and told her, “I'm glad to see you as well.”

“Could you tell us a bit about each of the ponies at the table?” Twilight asked.

“Of course,” Colgate said as she began to pace around. She pointed at the purple-maned earth pony. “This is my mom.”

The mother eyed Trixie. “You know, I heard a lot of bad things about you from the other ponies.”

“So?” Trixie said defensively.

“Normally, I would look down on you, but I'll welcome you as a guest since Colgate said so many good things about you.”

Trixie waited a bit before asking, “What's your name anyways?”

“I'm Berry Punch.”

“This is my little sister, Berry Blast,” Colgate interrupted as she pointed to the dark pink filly.

“Isn't the other filly your little sister as well?” Spike wondered.

“Of course not. Paradise is my mom's little sister. You see, I was born early.”

“You do not have to go into that much detail, Colgate,” said an embarrassed Berry Punch.

“I think that it would be good if we sit down and eat,” Frais stated.

While Twilight, Spike, and Trixie seated themselves, Frais levitated lime-green plates and wine glasses to each one of them. He even brought a pitcher full of juice to pour. After her cup was filled, Twilight looked at the meal. It appeared that grapes and strawberries were the main course. Spike grabbed a strawberry and took a bite out of it.

After swallowing, he commented, “These strawberries are really good!” Spike then began to drink.

“I know,” Colgate said. “They're so good that Soarin' said he wanted my dad's berries.”

Juice spewed out from Spike's mouth and onto Twilight's face as he bursted out laughing. “He wanted your dad's berries?!” By that time, Frais and Berry Punch were chuckling as well.

“He didn't know at the time that they were my mom's.”

“Well, I would hope that they're hers.”

Twilight wiped the juice off with a napkin, then called Spike out, “Be more mature than that. We're guests after all.”

“It's perfectly fine,” Frais reassured. “We don't have to be serious all the time.”

Now that the laughing wasn't so loud, Twilight thought that she heard the name of Soarn' before. “Excuse me. Can anypony tell me who this Soarin' is?”

“You mean you don't know?” questioned Spike. “He's one of the Wonderbolts.”

“Want to see a signed picture of him, Twilight?” Colgate asked..

“If it's not too much trouble for you,” Twilight answered.

“Alright then.”

Colgate left the table and headed up a nearby staircase.

Spike asked Frais, “Are you guys big time fans of the Wonderbolts?”

“Actually, we aren't,” he replied. “Berry Punch and I know that they are very talented fliers though, so when Colgate went missing, we agreed that they could help.”

“Since our daughter's safety comes first, we offered a money reward to the Wonderbolts if one of them finds her,” Berry Punch added.

“You two are great parents,” Trixie told them.

“Why, thank you,” Frais said.

“It pleases me whenever somepony tells us that,” thanked Berry Punch.

“Did your parents not love you?” the light pink filly asked Trixie.

“I'd rather not talk about it...” Trixie uttered.

Twilight was a bit curious about what Trixie's parents were like, but she didn't find it important enough to try to get her to tell. Besides, she was sure that Trixie would tell her when the time was right. Just then, Colgate returned with a picture she hovered beside herself. She floated it in front of Twilight's face, giving her a good view. The Wonderbolt in the picture had his mask down and his goggles up. The coat was a very pale blue that could be mistaken for white, while his mane was a much darker shade.

“Doesn't he look cute?” Colgate asked.

In no point of her life did Twilight Sparkle find a stallion attractive, not even at this moment. However, she wanted to be polite with her new friend. “Yeah, he looks handsome,” Twilight lied.

Colgate then showed the picture to Trixie. “I'll let you see as well.”

Trixie took a glance, then said, “Actually, I'm not interested in him at all.”

“It's alright if you don't like him.”

“Actually, I'm not really sure if he would be good for you.”

“Why not?”

“Well... He's like a celebrity, which means that he might not be very nice.”

“But he seemed nice when he gave me his autograph.”

“Do you know if he's like that when not being watched by public eyes?”

“No, but I could find out what he's really like if I see him again.”

“...I'll be fine that as long as you promise me one thing.”

“What would that be?”

“Promise me that if you get in a relationship with him, make sure that your feelings for him are genuine and that he doesn't make you do anything that you'll regret.”

“Technically, those are two promises, but I'll make them since we're friends.”

At this point, Twilight wanted to tell her that she doesn't like stallions. However, she was afraid that Colgate would be angry with her for lying. Twilight hoped that this subject matter wouldn't come up again and that it would be forgotten. When the meal was almost done, Trixie said to Colgate, “Since you're still living with your parents, I'll assume that we're about the same age, give or take a year. I just became an adult earlier this year.”

“You're younger than I expected,” Colgate commented. She then revealed her age.

“That means you're older than Twilight as well,” Spike pointed out.

“Why do you still live with your parents?” Twilight wondered.

“Is there something wrong with that?” Colgate asked nervously.

“Of course not!” Trixie told her. “You can stay with them for as long as you need. I would of loved to have parents like yours.”

Frais began to look worried. He said to Trixie, “You can come and tell us your concerns in private whenever you feel like it.”

“I promise that we won't tell anypony else,” Berry Punch reassured.

“I'll get by fine,” Trixie told them.

“When you find that you need somepony to confide in, we will always be here for you,” Frais said.

“I'll keep that in mind.”

Twilight unseated herself. “I guess that we'll head on over to Derpy's place next.”

“You're friends with Derpy Hooves?” Frais inquired.

“We are. Why?”

“If you do, then you probably know about Golden Harvest or Shoeshine.”

“We're friends with Golden Harvest, but we don't know who Shoeshine is.”

“Shoeshine is her sister.”

“What is Derpy's relationship with them?”

“You can think of it as mutualism. Even though she isn't the best at what she does, Derpy helps out at Farm Fields and in turn, Golden Harvest and Shoeshine help her with her job and taxes.”

“As a matter of fact, we're planning to visit there as well. Speaking of which, did Colgate tell you all about them?”

“I really didn't say much about them,” Colgate spoke. “but my dad knows them because he helped their dad start his farm.”

“That is true,” Frais confirmed. “Since I happened to be such close friends with Silvershine, I loaned money for him to start his own farm. Once his success grew, he decided to share some of his fortune with my family.”

“I see,” Twilight stated.

“If you come across him, tell him that I said hello.”

“We'll be sure to do that.” Twilight turned her head in the direction of Spike and Trixie, then asked them, “Ready to go see Derpy?”

“I am,” Spike said. He then let out a big yawn.

“Can you stay up for at least a little longer?”

“Of course I can. I'm not tired. Not one bit!” Spike then rested his head on the table and fell to sleep.

“Is he going to sleep for another twenty-four hours?” Trixie scoffed.

Twilight placed Spike on her back. “I sure hope not.”

“Does he need more sleep than that since he's just a baby dragon?” Colgate wondered.

“No. Spike can get by with around as much sleep as most ponies.”

“What if you have been depriving him of sleep all this time? Dragons haven't been researched extensively and Spike did seem to fall asleep rather instantaneously.”

“He'll be fine.” Twilight then told Trixie, “Let's head back to the library.”

Trixie reluctantly went over to Twilight and disguised herself once again. She then explained about “Milky Way” to a confused Colgate.

Colgate reminded her, “Remember what my parents said.”

Right before she left, Trixie said, “I will.”

Once Twilight Sparkle saw Trixie exiting Colgate's home, she began on her way to the library.

However, she was stopped by a voice with a cowgirlish accent. “Howdy, Twilight!”

After looked around, she saw that the voice came from a blonde-maned earth pony wearing a cowboy hat.

Twilight asked the stranger, “Who are you?”

The earth pony glanced at “Milky Way” before coming right up to Twilight. “Why, I'm Applejack of course.”

She remembered when Spike mentioned that name. “Are you mad at me for not visiting Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Course not, sugar. Your baby dragon here told me you weren't able to make it.”

Twilight was relieved, but she grew curious. “Then why did you call for me? Is it just to be social?”

“Normally, I would, but I want to tell you something.”

“What would that be?”

Applejack whispered, “I got a very strong hunch that pony with you is that good for nothin' Trixie. If I'm not mistaken, why haven't you asked the princess to kick her out?”

Mimicking her volume, she stated, “But she's now my friend.”

“She's arrogant and thinks that she's better than everypony else. That isn't being a friend.”

“Isn't it a bit arrogant for you to make that assumption so quickly? You don't know what she's like outside of what the townsponies say.”

“...I reckon that yer correct.” Applejack looked around, then spoke sternly to Trixie, “Look, I know who you are.”

“So what?!” Trixie retaliated.

“Look, I don't like ponies who are stuck-up or arrogant one bit.”

“I hate ponies who are like you! Scram!”

Ignoring what Trixie said, Applejack continued in the same tone, “It's difficult for me to do, but I'll give you a chance.”

“What?” Trixie seemed taken aback.

“Since Twilight stood up for you, you may not be so bad after all. Again, I'm giving you a chance, so don't go blowing it off.”

Trixie was rendered speechless. Thinking about how nice Applejack seemed, Twilight decided to ask her if she could take Spike home and write a letter to Celestia about the giant door. Applejack was confused at first, but she took the baby dragon after getting an explanation. Once the blonde pony left with Spike on her, Trixie spoke.

“Why did she let me off easy?” she asked.

“I believe that she wants to see what you're really like before judging you as a pony,“ Twilight said.

“I guess I'll just have to ask her myself.”

Twilight and Trixie headed on over to where Derpy's home was according to the map. They looked up and saw a very basic looking two-story cloud home. After Twilight Sparkle called out for her, Derpy Hooves came out.

Once she landed, Derpy asked, “Did you visit Carrot Top, Colgate, or Vinyl Scratch?”

“As a matter of fact, we have been to Colgate and Vinyl Scratch's, ”Twilight said.

Derpy looked around, then asked, “Where's Spike?”

“Spike?” Trixie repeated. “I hate to say it, but Trixie accidentally made him vanish.”

The gray pegasus began to sob. “Spike's dead! He was the best baby dragon I have ever seen. We need to get him a grave stone.”

“Trixie was only kidding,” Twilight informed her.

“Really?”

“Don't take it the wrong way,” Trixie said.

All of the sudden, Derpy began to laugh. “That's funny! You should be a comedian!”

“I'm fine with being a magician.”

“So where is Spike really?”

“He's back home,” answered Twilight. “Since we're unable to go inside your house, what about you accompany us when we go meet Golden Harvest?”

"Of course!" Derpy said.

With Trixie and Derpy Hooves following, Twilight trotted in the direction of Farm Fields. She soon came upon a metal fence. Twilight told Trixie that it would be alright if she went as her true form, so the latter did away with her disguise. Derpy led the others to a gate and opened it. Once Twilight went through, she looked around. Really close to her was a greenhouse that looks new and several shacks with metallic roofing. In the distance, there was an expansive plowed field. Most of the crops appeared to be carrots. What appeared to be the living quarters was too far away to accurately see how many floors it had, but Twilight guessed four or five stories.

She then saw a golden-colored filly who was napping beside a shack.

Twilight came up to her and said, “Hi there. You must be Shoeshine. Dr. Minty told me about how you and Golden Harvest help Derpy.”

The filly got up and told her in an apathetic tone. “I'm Bonnie.” She then asked Derpy, “Who are these two?”

“This is Twilight Sparkle and the other one is Trixie,” Derpy explained.

Bonnie spoke to Twilight again. “I heard about you two from Golden Harvest and Derpy. Apparently, you're her new friends.”

“They are,” Derpy confirmed.

“I see... What I don't get is why you three would ever want to be friends with Trixie.”

Trixie lashed out, “You got some nerve to talk about Trixie like that!”

Unfazed, Bonnie replied with, “Was that supposed to intimidate me or something? Referring to yourself in third-pony is rather childish.”

“You're childish!”

Bonnie yawned. “You're annoying.”

“Can't you two try to talk about something nice?” Twilight suggested.

“So, how much money did you make before you were revealed to be a fraud.”

Trixie took a deep breath before saying, “I'm not in it for the money.”

“That's not a very smart move on your behalf. Even Diamond Tiara who just mooches off her rich father would be better at business than you.”

“You wouldn't be so rich yourself if it wasn't for Frais helping your father start his own farm.”

“True, but at least I study business.”

“Is that what your cutie mark represents?”

Twilight looked and saw that Bonnie's cutie mark happened to be a silver boomerang.

“Nah,” answered Bonnie. “I'm practicing making fake cutie marks, so that I won't get much attention when school comes along.”

“I thought that fillies like yourself would be excited to get their cutie marks,” Twilight said.

“Since it's very likely that I'll get a cutie mark sooner or later, I really don't worry that much about it. Now if you don't mind, I would like to continue my nap.”

“Of course, but could you tell us where Golden Harvest is first?”

“She's in the cellar by the house.”

“Thanks.”

“Don't mention it.” Bonnie then went back to sleep.

Derpy led Twilight and Trixie over to the basement's entrance. Just as Twilight reached the bottom of the stairs, a bright flash appeared and she heard an explosion. The next thing she knew, Trixie was shrieking. All of the sudden, a pale blue earth pony holding an ice cream cone rushed into the room and came up to her. She knocked off something that landed on Trixie's face and Twilight saw that it was a glowing piece of metal. This pony then administered the ice cream on the eye that got burnt.

“How are you now?” she asked.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY EYE?!” Trixie screamed.

“I just made a mistake,” Golden Harvest's voice said.

“Just?! One of my eyes could become blind because of this!”

Once the orange-maned pony came into sight, it became evident that she was wearing a welding mask. “I didn't know that you got hurt that bad.”

Twilight spoke to the pony that brought the ice cream, “It was a good thing you came along when you did. Speaking of which, are you Shoeshine?”

“I am,” she confirmed. “Do you two happen to be Golden Harvest's new friends?”

“We are. I'm Twilight Sparkle and she's Trixie.”

“I haven't properly treated your eye yet,” Shoeshine told Trixie. “Come with me.”

Trixie just nodded before Shoeshine led her upstairs.

Golden Harvest lifter her mask and said, “I'm sorry for the accident. I didn't mean to hurt anypony, especially not a friend.”

Twilight looked at the steel table in the center of the room. Some scraps of heated metal laid there.

“By the way, what were you doing before we came in?” she inquired.

“I was trying to create a cheap and efficient engine. If perfected, the use of engines will skyrocket and I'll become richer.”

“Isn't it a bit... dangerous?”

“A bit, but I got protection.”

“And I like the pretty explosion I just saw,” Derpy said.

“Anyhow, considering what happened to Trixie, I should get around to making a keep-out sign sooner or later.”

“I think that sooner would be better,” Twilight suggested

“I'll make one tonight then.”

Golden Harvest then proceeded to talk about various types of machinery. Twilight recalled some the things that she has read about them such as how they require some sort of fuel to function, but not much beyond that. The orange-maned pony went on and on about things that are difficult for those not well-versed in the subject matter to comprehend. In fact, Golden Harvest had to clear out plenty of things in order for Twilight to understand. In the middle of her explaining the difference between electric motors and physically powered ones, a gray-colored stallion entered the cellar.

“Are you okay Golden Harvest?” he asked. “I know that your friend, Trixie got hurt.”

“I'm fine dad,” she answered.

“You're Silvershine, right?” Twilight guessed.

“I am,” the father said. “You must be Twilight since that's who Trixie said she came with.”

“That is correct. By the way, Frais told me that he helped you start your farm.”

“I owe my success to him. Ever since that, our families have gotten together plenty of times.”

“I see.” Twilight paused before changing the subject. “Speaking about Golden Harvest, has she always been into machines?”

“About her, she just became interested in them a year ago. She usually doesn't stick with a hobby for very long. As a matter of fact, she juggles between them at times.”

Golden Harvest responded, “But this is different from painting, singing, being a ballerina, playing football, or running cross-country.”

“Don't forget about becoming royalty.”

“But that can still work if I marry Prince Blueblood.” She then asked Twilight, “You do know him since you're close to the princess, right?”

“I am acquainted with him out of obligation, nothing more,” Twilight explained.

“If I was you, I would of written down all the things there is to know about him.”

Remembering Starnote, Twilight said, “I know that it sounds good on paper, but it really isn't.”

“Maybe you'll get to meet him yourself someday,” Silvershine told his daughter.

“That just gave me an idea,” Golden Harvest said. “Twilight, if you ever get invited to the Grand Galloping Gala, I'd be more that happy to take the ticket off your hooves.”

“I'll be sure to remember that,” Twilight uttered.

“If Spike and Trixie get tickets,” Derpy Hooves began,“I want Spike's.”

“I'll remember that as well...”

“Since it looks like things are going well, I'll be going now.”

As Silvershine was leaving, the three mares said their goodbyes. Since they had nothing else to do down there either, Twilight, Golden Harvest, and Derpy left as well. Back above ground, Trixie and Shoeshine were waiting for them. Twilight noticed that Trixie was wearing a black eye patch.

Upon seeing Trixie, Derpy said, “Wow, you look awesome dressed up as a pirate. It must be so much fun. Let me try!” She then spoke in a pirate's accent, “Arrrgh! I'm the Great and Powerful Trixie! I got this here eye patch, cause I'm the most magical pirate to cross the seven seas!”

“Do you even know how I got this eye patch?” Trixie asked.

“How did you get it?”

“It's to cover up her hurt eye until it recovers,” Shoeshine explained.

“Oh. Trixie should totally be a pirate!”

After some more talking, Shoeshine suggested that they all have hotdogs together sometime. Trixie asked what they were.

Golden Harvest appeared surprised. “You don't know what hotdogs are?”

“Uhh... Of course I do. I just wanted to see the reaction on your face. Anypony with a working brain knows what they are. Since we ponies are vegetarians, hotdogs must be made from timberwolves. They are are the only dogs that aren't made out of meat. Once captured, the wolves are burnt into ashes that become the hotdogs we consume.” Twilight wasn't impressed at all.

Derpy who was the only one impressed stated, “It's neat that you eat timberwolves.”

“I think it would be better if I show you,” said Golden Harvest.

Golden Harvest came up to one of the metallic buildings and opened the door. She closed it once the others entered. Inside, it was very cold. Golden Harvest showed Trixie a container of processed tofu and told her that it's what hotdogs are made of.

Once Twilight got out of the giant freezer, she told the sisters and Derpy, “I think that Trixie and I will get going now.”

“See you later,” Golden Harvest said.

“Come again,” Shoeshine added.

“Bye,” Derpy stated.

“We'll be coming back for sure,” Twilight reassured them.

“I'll be looking forward to seeing you again,” said Trixie. “By the way Shoeshine, you look rather pretty.”

Shoeshine appeared pleasantly surprised, “Thanks. You too.”

“Is it just because she looks like your reflection?” Twilight asked Trixie, pointing out their similar color schemes.

“I'm just trying to be nice!” Trixie retorted.

“Again, we'll be leaving,” an embarrassed Twilight repeated to the others.

“I hope the rest of your day goes better,” Shoeshine told Trixie before she and Twilight left the farm.

Since they met all their friends, Twilight and a disguised Trixie headed back to the library. When Twilight Sparkle entered, she noticed that Scootaloo and Applejack were conversing.

She decided to tell Applejack, “I didn't know that you were still here. You don't have to wait for Spike to wake up. He'll know what the letter is when he sees it.”

“I kinda figured that,” the blonde mare explained. “Scootaloo here told me about how she was goin' to show you two where Rainbow Dash's hospital room is.”

“Trixie, Applejack told me that you're in disguise,” Scootaloo interjected.

“Feel free to call me the Great and Magnificent Milky Way, Twilight Sparkle's overachieving sister!” Trixie said proudly.

“That's an awesome name, but I'll just call you Milky Way cause it's shorter. By the way, why does your disguise look like egghead as a pirate?”

“Yeah, I don't remember you having an eye patch,” Applejack said.

“I'll tell on the way to the hospital,” Trixie stated.

“Anyways, did you have anything more to say Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“Uh huh!” Applejack confirmed. “Since Rainbow is my friend, I decided that I'll tag along.”

“That's great!” Twilight commented.

“I also told Applejack about how Rainbow Dash thinks you're Trixie and that she's mad at you,” Scootaloo added.

“Yeah, about that...” Trixie said to Applejack. “I bet that you regret giving me a second chance.”

“What for?” Applejack asked.

“If I didn't come to Ponyville, then Rainbow Dash wouldn't of thought that Twilight was a showoff.”

“It ain't your fault.”

“I don't get why you insist on forgiving me since we're not even friends for crying out loud.”

“If I don't even give you a chance, then I'm not being the reliable and trustworthy pony that my family know and love me as.”

“...Thanks.”

“Since we're all here and stuff,” Scootaloo said, “we can get going.”

“Lead the way then,” Twilight told her.

Scootaloo exited the library and led the three mares to a hospital. After they entered, Scootaloo told a receptionist that she, Milky Way, Applejack, and egghead would like to see Rainbow Dash. The receptionist called for Nurse Tenderheart. Once a green-maned mare in nurse attire came, she escorted them to the proper room.

Upon entering, Twilight saw the same rainbow-maned pegasus who tried to stop Nightmare Moon by herself. She was lying unconscious in a bed and a feeding tube was stuck up one of her nostrils.

“So Nurse Tenderheart...” Twilight began, ” How much longer do you think Rainbow Dash will be unconscious?”

“I'm not sure,” she answered. “If I had to make a guess though, then I'd say less than two weeks.”

“I'll be sure to come over each evening to see how she's doing,” Applejack told the nurse.

“Me too,” Scootaloo added.

“I'll go check on her every other day,” Twilight stated.

“And I will go with Twilight on those days,” Trixie said.

“You all seem to be nice ponies,” Nurse Tenderheart commented. “Rainbow Dash will be overjoyed if any one of you are present whenever she wakes up.”

“Actually, Milky Way and I haven't spoken to Rainbow Dash before,” explained Twilight.

“She would still be glad to know that you care for her.”

Upon hearing this, Twilight was filled with hope. “Thinking about it, she would.” She went headed back for the door. “We'll be coming back some other day.”

“Take care then.”

Twilight noticed that Trixie didn't follow her, so she asked, “Aren't you coming as well? We can come by another time.”

“Oh, of course,” Trixie stated as she headed to leave. She turned her head and told Applejack and Scootaloo, “We'll see you some other evening.”

“Looking forward to it,” Scootaloo said eagerly.

Once Twilight and Trixie returned home, they began to talk about their day.

“It was sure interesting finding out our new friends,” Twilight began as she walked upstairs. “It sure was,” Trixie said following.

“It'll take a while for me to remember the names of all their relatives though. I can remember Dr. Minty and Silvershine, but I forgot the rest.”

“Maybe you should try to remember some more of them next time.”

“Maybe that one pony who writes notes has a point,” Twilight stated as she opened the bedroom door. “It would be a lot easier to keep track of them if I had a list of their names and basic traits.”

“Just don't become like Starnote though.”

“I don't get how you even remember his name, but I'll be sure that I don't. Once I wake up Spike, I'll have him create the basic layout for the list.”

Twilight went up to the bed Spike was sleeping in, ready to have him assist her.

Author's notes:

-Sorry for not putting down my chapter last week. I didn't expect that a chapter centered around Twilight and Trixie visiting their new friends' homes would be so long.

-Starnote is my nickname for Written Script/Phineas Scrollbottom/Bookworm (one of Rainbow Dash's fans in Mysterious Mare Do Well) since he's Vinyl Scratch's brother in my fanfic and I wanted theme naming of some sort with them.

UPDATE:

-I decided to change it so that the hot piece of metal falls into Trixie's eye instead of on her nose. Derpy with her now closer to canon personality comments on the eye patch Trixie receives.

The Unicorn of Spike's Dreams

Because I updated Derpy's personality to the canon one, I decided to make the explosion in the previous chapter injure one of Trixie's eyes so that Derpy can comment on the eye patch.

Episode Five: The Unicorn of Spike's Dreams

Ever since he was old enough to be an assistant, Spike has always known that Twilight Sparkle happens to be fascinated with science. As a matter of fact, she loves to take things apart and see how they work. This is probably part of why Twilight has said so many confusing words to him.

All of the sudden, Spike took a wrong step and he was sent plummeting down the basement stairs. He accidentally let go of the two beakers he had. Fortunately, Twilight was able to react in time as she levitated Spike and the breakables.

“Can't you try to be more careful?” Twilight asked as she brought Spike to the floor safely.

“Oh, of course,” Spike responded hastily. “I was just lost in deep thought back there.”

Twilight placed the beakers alongside a row of identical ones on a table. “Maybe it's time for you to go to bed.”

“But I'm still not tired.”

Colgate who visited to help out asked him, “Did I already tell that I'm concerned for your abnormal sleep schedule?”

“You told me that yesterday.”

“Then it would be good for you to do what she says.”

“She's right you know,” Twilight affirmed.

“Fine,” Spike said reluctantly. “Would it be alright if I brought some more stuff down though?”

“You may, but straight to bed once you're done.”

Spike headed back upstairs and came up to the box of lab equipment. Since the items were so fragile, they were especially prone to cracking if they were all being levitated at once. Besides, Twilight and Colgate happened to be busy rearranging things in the would-be laboratory. Spike grabbed a Bunsen burner and brought it down to the basement. When he was about to grab another item, curiosity compelled him to see why Trixie wasn't helping out.

After looking around for a bit, Spike decided to go to the bathroom. He opened the door and saw that Trixie was there. Spike felt his heart beating faster when he saw her, but he couldn't take his eyes off the white-maned unicorn and what she was doing. Just then, Trixie noticed him and shrieked. That only made Spike feel even more aroused.

Once Trixie finished screaming, she shouted, “Can't Trixie have some privacy?!”

“B-but you were just looking at your reflection when I came in,” Spike said nervously.

“That's still no excuse for you to barge in like that!”

“I was just curious, that's all.”

“Don't satisfy your curiosity with me!”

Spike then heard Twilight's voice, “What the hay do you think you're doing?!”

He looked back and saw that Twilight was accompanied by Colgate.

“This isn't what it looks like,” Spike tried to explain. He could tell that Twilight wasn't pleased. “Colgate, you believe me, right?”

As she began to pace around, Colgate said, “I think that you're trying to manipulate me into thinking that you went into the bathroom without the sole intent of observing Trixie go pee pee.”

“Maybe you could just say no next time...” an embarrassed-looking Twilight suggested.

“Okay.”

“I see that neither of you believe in my innocence,” Spike stated. “However, Trixie was there when I entered the bathroom, making her a witness.”

“THAT'S THE REASON THEY CAME YOU IDIOT!” Trixie yelled.

“Maybe Spike was going to say that you caught him trying to peep on you,” Colgate guessed.

“That wasn't what I was going to say!” Spike protested. “I wanted to see Trixie, but I didn't think that she'd be in the bathroom at the time.”

“You were planning to do this all along?!” Trixie asked.

“It would be nice if you just told the truth outright,” Colgate stated.

“Yeah, it would have been a lot easier if I just said that, huh?” Spike pointed out.

“Don't dilly dally!”

“Trixie, I wanted to ask you why you weren't helping Twilight with the basement.”

“Then why did you think of walking in on me in the bathroom?” Trixie inquired.

“Neither of you honestly figured out that there's a lock?”

Twilight glanced back, then uttered, “Oh...” She then turned back to Spike. “If that's what you're wondering about, then remember Trixie's bad experience with a machine.”

Looking at Trixie's eye patch, Spike said, “I can see that, though I didn't she would become that afraid of them.”

“You don't have to worry about a thing,” Colgate reassured as she remained trotting about. “There's only a very tiny chance of these machines exploding and sending a piece of molten metal right into your other eye.”

Spike heard Trixie breathe heavily. “I know that you mean well, but you're scaring me,” she said.

“Sorry about that... If it makes you feel better, you don't have to go down there.”

“Actually, I wanted to use a small part of the basement for myself.”

“What for?” Twilight wondered.

“Just to store anything that reminds me of anypony I care about.”

“Why can't you just use our bedroom?”

“It just isn't as secluded... Did you find any other room that offers as much privacy?”

“Not really. Tomorrow though, I'll do whatever I can to make my laboratory less intimidating for you.”

“I highly doubt that, but try your best anyways.”

Spike went once he was left by himself. He then brought down some more items to the basement. The box became empty sooner than he expected. Since Colgate was about to leave, Spike was able to join in saying goodbye before heading off to bed. He then entered the bedroom and went up to the basket that was now his bed. Spike still didn't feel sleepy, so he just lied there, closed his eyes, and waited until he couldn't stay up any longer.

After having a late breakfast, Spike was told by Twilight that she'd be busy with the basement. He offered to help, but she insisted on doing it herself. Twilight then said that he should just have some fun today. He enjoyed going over to Vinyl Scratch's place, so Spike convinced Trixie to come with him. Even though Trixie didn't know how to hide her eye patch with an illusion, that didn't matter. Ever since the Summer Sun Celebration was over, she was never in public as her true form.

Spike climbed on Trixie's back once the two of them were outside. He found that for some reason he couldn't put his finger on, her body felt different than Twilight's.

Once they entered Vinyl Scratch's tent, Spike dismounted Trixie and the latter undid her disguise. He heard Vinyl Scratch's singing which was amplified by a microphone she was standing by. Starnote was on the couch reading a book. He happened to be wearing earmuffs.

Vinyl Scratch exclaimed on the mic, “I KNEW THAT THE SPIKINATOR WOULD BE BACK!”

“And that's why I like to wear earmuffs,” Starnote said to himself.

Vinyl Scratch quickly added in a quieter tone, “I forgot the mic was on! Come make yourselves at home Spikinator and Patches!” Ever since Trixie got her eye patch, Vinyl Scratch has been calling her Patches. She says that it's a name perfect for a trickster like her.

Starnote came up to Trixie and asked her, “How have you been Trixie?”

“It's none of your business,” Trixie responded. “Besides, I know that you're just going to write down what I say.”

Spike noticed that by a wall, a feather was writing something down on a scroll. “Actually, he's doing that right now,” he pointed out.

Upon hearing this and looking around, Trixie created a thundercloud that hovered over to the note and zapped it. “He's not writing about Trixie now.”

“I'll just make a mental note then,” Starnote stated.

“You win this time, Starnote. Savor your victory today, because you'll be sorry once Trixie learns to zap your mental notes!”

“Or you could just zap him now and hope he gets permanent brain damage,” Spike said casually. He then asked Vinyl Scratch, “Are we going to dance again?”

“We're going to do something better than that Spikinator,” Vinyl Scratch answered.

Vinyl Scratch, or DJ Pon3 as what she suggested the others to call her today, announced that they should see what they would sound like as a band. Since stage names were important to her, she decided that Spike's was “The Spike of Many Names” and that Trixie's would be “Patches.” Not surprisingly, Trixie insisted on being “The Great and Powerful Trixie.” DJ Pon3 argued that the name was too long, while Trixie countered by pointing out that Spike's stage name is long as well. The blue-maned unicorn then said that it took longer to say “The Great and Powerful Trixie.” Fed up with it, Spike came up with “GP Trix” as a compromise. Fortunately, both unicorns accepted the stage name.

After names were decided, DJ Pon3 levitated a bunch of instruments and brought them into a pile. After being told to pick one, Spike got out an electric keyboard. He saw that Trixie found a red and white guitar. DJ Pon3 made the two practice their instruments before they try a song. After they got the hang of their instruments, the Spike of Many Names and GP Trix preformed while DJ Pon3 sang into her microphone. Since it was their first time, Spike and Trixie played rather rough. Despite that, he saw that Trixie was enjoying it.

Spike and Trixie put away their instruments once it got late. Vinyl Scratch decided to accompany them on their way home. Shortly after receiving a goodbye from Starnote, Spike saw Snips and Snails. They were with a tall unicorn who appeared to be their mother. Spike thought that she was single, because he never saw her with anypony who looked like her husband.

Just then, an elegant-looking white unicorn with a purple, curly mane confronted Spike and his friends.

“Oh my, what do we have here?” she asked. “I see that blue nopony is with you.”

“You must be retarded to think of the Great and Powerful Trixie as a nopony,” Trixie retorted.

The mare nearly pressed her nose on Trixie's and looked her in her good eye as she said, “I know that it's you. Applejack told me what your disguise looks like.”

“Then did she tell you to give me a chance?”

“She did, but I still don't trust you.”

“If that's how it's going to be, then Trixie will just call you a-”

“You should know better than to call a refined lady such as myself anything rude. Call me Rarity and don't you forget it.”

“Are you the Rarity who was in charge of decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration?” Spike guessed.

“Indeed I am.”

The other ponies who were on the checklist were friends, so he asked, “Are you by any chance a friend of Rainbow Dash's?”

“We happened to be good friends ever since she moved in last year.”

“If you're such good friends, then why didn't I ever see you at Rainbow Dash's room with Applejack and the others?” Trixie questioned.

“It's no fault of my own. I just happen to be very busy, that's all. I'll pay her a visit one day.”

Vinyl Scratch spoke, “If that's it, just remember to not be mean to Patches over here. I don't know who spread those rumors about her, but we don't like it.”

“I made them myself, because she doesn't seem honest.”

“You're the one who attacked my reputation!” Trixie shouted. ”If it wasn't for you, then I might of fit in without a disguise!”

“What do you even have against Trixie?” Spike inquired. “I know that she was a bit boastful and all, but is that any reason to spread nasty rumors about her?”

It appeared that Rarity was thinking of something to say. “Umm... Well... Ah... I was able to see her show while I was cleaning the windows of the pavilion. It was getting annoying with seeing how vain she happened to be. Thankfully, I was able to see a certain pony come over and make her look like the fool she really is.”

Spike began to feel anger for what she did, but he tried to keep calm. “Wait, if you know that she was made fun of, then you didn't have to punish her any further.”

“But I did. You see, the others would forget that she's a fraud if I didn't do anything.”

“You still had no right to of done that to Trixie. Just give her a second chance like Applejack did, alright? She's not as bad as you think she is. Right now, I'm giving you a second chance.”

Rarity took another look at Trixie and said to her, “It doesn't look like you have any redeeming qualities, so I'm just going to assume that you don't.”

Spike could no longer hold his rage. “You don't seem so pure and noble yourself. You have shown that you're a vain and arrogant mare who thinks that going overboard with punishing a traveling magician is justified. You do look very beautiful though, which is uh......” Spike was lost in thought for a bit from Rarity's beauty. He soon regained his senses and added, “Well, it's the only thing that you're good at! Your cutie mark should have been a pearl necklace, since I bet that you're excellent at receiving them!”

It appeared that Spike said something that upset Rarity, because she didn't seem as calm at the moment. “HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT ME! Just because of my looks doesn't mean that my success comes from that! I have actual talent, so don't think that I would ever stoop that low. I create all sorts of clothes to suit my customers. Call me an artist if you will.”

“I need to tell you something,” Vinyl Scratch interrupted.

Turning to the shaded pony, she said, “Well, it couldn't be as bad as what Spike just said.”

“At least stop everypony from calling Trixie the blue pony. Any blue pony not in the know how could think it's them.”

“...I didn't think of that... I'm not sure if I can change it, but I'll go point that out.”

“Fix my reputation while you're at it,” Trixie blurted out.

“I still don't trust you enough to do that,” Rarity stated.

“If you don't trust me, then trust Applejack. She prides herself for being trustworthy.”

“Since you say it like that, I'll try to tolerate you for now.”

“And?”

“I'll do whatever I can to restore your good name...” Rarity said in an annoyed tone.

“That's better.” Trixie suddenly began to head off. “Since everything's settled, we'll be going now.” Vinyl Scratch soon followed.

“See you... later?” Rarity said in a puzzled manner at their sudden departure.

It didn't take long for Spike, Trixie, and Vinyl Scratch to reach the main section of Ponyville. Once they got to the library, Vinyl Scratch said her goodbyes.

Since they saw Twilight Sparkle upon entering, Trixie asked about the basement. Twilight said that she had it taken care of, so she lead Spike and Trixie downstairs. There, Spike saw room dividers that were the height of the basement. The quarter that got split off was apparently Trixie's part of the room. Some other dividers were placed in a way so that the laboratory couldn't be seen upon entering. She already appeared satisfied, but then Twilight presented a chest. All of the sudden, Trixie gave Twilight a big hug. It took a while for her to let go; Twilight showed signs of disgust during it all.

“You're welcome...” Twilight said as soon as she was free.

“What can I do to repay you?” Trixie asked.

“By not hugging me that long again.”

“Oh, of course...”

“So, any suggestions for supper?” Spike interrupted.

“I would like pizza,” Twilight told him.

“Just give me what she's having,” Trixie said.

“Pizza it is,” Spike stated.

Spike headed to the kitchen and gathered the ingredients needed: dough to make the crust, tomato sauce to add moisture, cheese because it goes good on pizza, and last but not least, hay for the topping. After assembling the pizza and baking it, he announced that dinner was ready.

In the middle of supper after they talked about Rarity, Twilight told the others that she would like to host a picnic for all her friends to celebrate the first week of their friendship. Although it wasn't in two days, she was going to get the preparations done tomorrow because she never had a picnic before. Since Spike thought that was a great idea, he told Twilight that he liked it. Trixie also supported Twilight's decision.

Twilight asked if Spike wanted to help out, but he told her that he'd like to stay behind. There is a reason to this. On this very day, Spike realized that he really likes a certain unicorn. Although he does like Vinyl Scratch, it would be much more satisfying for Spike to earn the heart of his loved one rather than have it handed to him on a silver platter. Spike found that if Trixie didn't go out with Twilight, then tomorrow would be a great opportunity for him to get closer to the unicorn of his dreams.

“I thought that you would have been excited to help out with a social event,” Twilight said, “but you can stay home if you'd like.”

“That's great!” Spike said eagerly. “I mean that, that I'll have more time to clean the house.”

“Enjoy your stay alone then,” Trixie told him.

“Wait! I can't stay by myself! I'm just a baby dragon!”

“You were perfectly fine when you were staying up all night, so quit your whining.”

“But that was because you two happened to be there, even if neither of you were awake.”

Just then, Derpy Hooves crashed through a wall and landed on top of the table.

“I brought Trixie some woaah!” she said as the table gave way. A slice of pizza was flung right towards Trixie. Once a blue aura surrounded it, the slice slowed down until it came to a halt in midair. Trixie then took a bite of the pizza she got hold of.

“The pizza is no match for the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie exclaimed while her mouth was full.

“I see,” Twilight stated. She then asked Derpy, “Wouldn't it be easier to just use the front door?”

“But I made a new door right there, see?” Derpy pointed to the hole she created. “I can use that door from now on whenever you guys chow down and eat.”

“It's nice of you to think of us,” Spike said trying to be polite, “but we already got enough doors as it is.”

Derpy stared at the table she was standing on. “You guys need to get a new table. It somehow got busted.”

“Yeah, somehow...” Trixie uttered. “Did you come to bring a letter?”

”Yup. For some reason Trixie, you got a bunch of neat letters.” She turned her head towards a giant pile of mail.

“Don't you know that's all hate mail?”

“You must be one lucky pony to get so much!”

“Trixie doesn't want hate mail!”

“Oh. Is hate mail a bad thing?”

“What do you think?”

Derpy put one of her hooves to her chin and it appeared she was in deep thought. “Well... It does have the word hate, but it's mail. It must be good, because it's mail. You're just tired of getting too much of a good thing.”

“Just give me the letter and I'll destroy it after I read it.”

“Okay.” Derpy then stuck her head into the mailbag and grabbed Trixie's mail with her teeth. She dropped it while no magical aura was around it. Before it reached the table, Trixie levitated the envelope over to herself and opened it. She began reading to herself. Considering the fact that Rarity said that she was going to try to restore Trixie's good name, Spike was curious about what was written.

“What about reading it out loud?” he suggested.

Trixie looked at Spike and told him, “This is hate mail! I can't bring myself to read past the first sentence...”

“If you're uncomfortable with reading it, I can take a look myself.”

“Fine, but tear it up into billions of pieces once you're done...”

Upon being handed the letter, Spike took a look:

To the blue nopony,

We haven't heard any news about you,
so I assume that Twilight didn't kick you
out like she should of done. Maybe she
locked you down in a basement so that
you could starve to death. Either way,
we all agree that blue nopony is still
the best name for you.

Even though the letter was mean spirited, the word still stuck out in Spike's head. He thought a bit about why they added that word and soon got an idea. It's quite possible that Rarity tried to change the writer's mind about Trixie. He had to let Trixie know.

“Trixie,” Spike said. “I know that it's painful for you to read this, but at least look at the last part.”

“Why do you want me to even look at that again?” Trixie asked.

“Trust me on this.”

“Fine...” Spike handed the letter back to Trixie and she hesitantly looked at it. Once she was done, Trixie asked, “What good news is there in knowing that I'm still hated?”

“Well...” Twilight pondered. “Maybe it's so you'll keep your guard up?”

“Not that Twilight,” Spike told her. He then explained to Trixie what still could imply.

“I didn't think of it that way,” Trixie uttered. “None of the other letters said anything like that...”

“Are you going to destroy the letter now?” Derpy asked.

“No Derpy. I'm going to keep it.”

“But I thought you had too many letters.”

“This one is special. It is proof that Rarity is sorry for what she has done.” She paused for a while before adding, “This one is going in my chest.” She then went down to the basement with the letter hovering beside her.

Once Trixie returned, Spike asked her, “Since I was able to make you see the bright side in all that, don't you owe me something?”

“You still want me to stay with you?” she guessed.

“It would be very nice of you. It would just be for tomorrow.”

“Just as long as it's just for tomorrow.”

“So that's a yes?”

“What do you think?”

“YES!!!”

When Spike got into bed, he was thinking about tomorrow and how exciting it will be. He fell asleep in the middle of fantasizing of what he could do with that beautiful mare.

All she could see around her for miles was snow. She was alone and buffeted by the blizzard. Even though she was exposed to the cold for most of her life, that didn't make it any better. The only way to survive was to press on, even as her legs became sore. Somehow, she would make it...

Trixie woke up and saw that it was still dark. Twilight and Spike were sleeping soundly in their beds. Since this happened to be about the usual time she wakes from her nightmares, Trixie got out a book titled Everything to Know About Magic. Ever since she moved in, Trixie was reading this book in hopes of becoming better than Twilight Sparkle at magic. Although that alone made her drive strong, getting her eye injured only made her even more determined to improve herself. Trixie has already reduced the time it takes for her to use a spell, but that wasn't enough for her.

Because of the thought about how just grabbing a very fast moving object doesn't stop it immediately, Trixie spent some time everyday studying the Reflector spell. According to the book, the spell creates a force field a brief moment. Said force field is able to deflect incoming projectiles.

Trixie's horn glowed as she focused very hard. After some straining, she managed to create a force field around the size of an apple. It lasted for a split second. Even though there was much to improve, Trixie was proud that she was finally able to create a force field.

Trixie then went into the bathroom and locked the door. She took the eye patch off to see how her injured eye was doing. Trixie still couldn't see anything out her hurt eye. After looking into the mirror, she saw that her bad eye was still rather bad. She began to doubt Shoeshine's claim of it recovering, partly because Shoeshine wasn't a nurse.

After Trixie had lunch with Twilight and Spike, Twilight left the house in order to get the picnic supplies ready as well as letting the others know about it.

Once they were alone together, Spike twiddled his fingers and told Trixie, “Since it's just the two of us now, there's something that I would like to ask of you.”

“You want me to dance for you or something?” Trixie guessed.

Spike grinned. “Although it would be very nice of you, that wasn't what I was going to ask.”

“Then what do you want?”

“What about visiting Snips and Snails? They're some of the few ponies in Ponyville who don't hate your guts.”

Trixie was puzzled by why Spike thought about them. “If all you want is for us to do is to meet up with other ponies, we already have plenty of superior choices! There's Vinyl Scratch who we visited yesterday, Colgate and her family, Golden Harvest, Shoeshine, Derpy, Applejack, and Rarity, all who don't hate me! Have you thought about any of them?”

It took a moment for Spike to say, “Well... Yeah, but I'm set on meeting Snips and Snails. They're guys who are my age and I'm very excited to meet them again.”

“And why do you need me?”

“I was getting there... You're coming with me, because I thought that they would enjoy playing with you.”

“Can't they just play with themselves?”

“Snips and Snails are probably sad on the inside for having no friends.”

“It's too bad that they're too pitiful, pathetic, too worthless, too stupid, too retarded, too dumb, and too anything that Trixie forgot to mention in order to make friends.”

“Did you have any friends before you came to Ponyville?”

There was one pony Trixie thought about, but she decided it would be better to not mention anything.

“Not really,” she said. “Before that, I used to think that friends were worthless just like Twilight did.”

“But it turned out that's a good thing. Maybe you can see if Snips and Snails aren't so bad after all.”

“You aren't going to stop annoying me until I go with you, right?”

“Right.”

Since Trixie had no choice but to go, she disguised herself and reluctantly let Spike lead her over to their place.

After reaching what Spike claimed to be Snips and Snail's home, the baby dragon got off Trixie and pulled a string that was attached to a bell. Moments after a chime sounded, a cream-colored unicorn with a cyan mane greeted them. As Trixie was staring at her long legs, she assumed that this mare was the mother of Snips and Snails.

Wanting to make sure, she asked, “Are you the mother of Snips and Snails?”

“Why, yes I am,” the tall unicorn confirmed.

Spike told Trixie, “But that's rude of you to ask that beau-” He stopped mid-sentence. “I mean, don't ask her if she's their mother that soon. It just makes you look strange!”

“I'm fine with that.” The mother then asked Spike, “Since I heard that Twilight has a baby dragon, are you Spike?”

“I'm so glad that you know my name.”

She then turned to Trixie. “Aren't you Twilight's sister because of the eye patch?”

“Of course I am,” Trixie said. “I, Milky Way, am a completely ordinary unicorn who happens to be much more magical than her lesser sister! And I am purple!”

“What about we all go inside now?” Spike suggested.

The mother led Trixie and Spike indoors.

Spike then told her, “Milky Way is actually Trixie.”

“HOW DARE YOU!” Trixie shouted. “Now she'll tell everypony!”

The tall unicorn's eye's widened.

“I didn't know,” she said. ”Don't worry about it though. Your secret is safe with me.”

“I bet it's because your kids go around and talk about how great and powerful I am.”

“Actually, no. My trust of you comes from Spike. He waited until we were all inside before revealing who you are. If he cares about protecting your reputation that much, I can trust you.”

Trixie was relieved that she was accepting like Colgate. “Well... thank you for your trust.”

“I sure am glad that I'm the hero!” Spike said proudly.

Since she didn't see either of those two morons yet, Trixie asked the mother if either of them were there. The tall unicorn told her that they were away to get tacos. After leading Trixie and Spike to a table to wait, she said that her name was “Allie Way.” Allie Way then asked if they would like to have lunch. Trixie and Spike explained that they just ate, but that they wouldn't mind a drink. Spike stared at her from behind.

“Woah...” Spike said in awe. “What a beautiful plot...”

“What the hay are you talking about?” Trixie asked.

Spike hastily replied, “I mean, I was thinking about an excellent book. Yes! An excellent book with a beautiful plot!”

“But you said that you hate reading.”

“That's because... it's a book that isn't lame.”

“What is it called?”

“Uh... I got a brain fart, so I completely forgot the title. I forgot it so much that it isn't even in my subwhateveritisness.” After Allie Way got back with the beverages, Spike asked her, “Are you single?”

“I'm a widow,” Allie Way said solemnly.

“What's that?”

Allie Way explained, then told them about her late husband. He gave her life meaning and they got married. One day, he died from a heart attack and the only thing she has to remember him by are their two kids.

Spike then asked. “If Snips and Snails are so important to you, then why do you allow them to roam Ponyville by themselves? THEY'RE RETARDS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!” He then said in his normal tone, “I mean, they're perfectly innocent, little, defenseless, pitiful, little angels who just don't know any better.”

“Well, not many ponies think much of them,” Allie Way said.

“I can see why.”

“But they can take care of themselves out there.”

“If you say so. Well, it's too bad that your husband is all dead and stuff. You know, getting a boyfriend will make you happier.”

“I'm happy with my children.”

“But you can be happier with a boyfriend.”

Trixie had a suspicion on what was going on, so she whispered to Spike, “Did you come here just because you have a crush on Snips and Snail's mother?”

“Yeah, but her husband died, so it can work out.”

“Then why did you bring me?”

“So that you can keep Snips and Snails busy.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Allie Way asked in a suspicious tone.

“I was just telling Trixie how great it is your husband died, because that means I get to be your boyfriend,” Spike told her.

“You just came to flirt with me?!”

“Um.... You're so beautiful looking you know.”

All of the sudden, Spike's glass was surrounded by a tannish-aura. It hovered above him and poured the drink onto him. Allie Way then levitated Spike and slammed him against a wall, cracking it. Spike was then thrown through a glass window. Trixie saw that several pigeons were being forced to hover above him. One by one, they all pooped on the poor baby dragon who was laying on his back. Because he was screaming, Spike accidentally swallowed some of it.

“Are you mad at me as well?” Trixie asked Allie Way.

“Of course not,” she reassured. “Spike just used you.”

“Well, I have to take Spike back home now,” Trixie said as she created an illusion to disguise herself.

“Just remember that unlike Spike, you are welcome here anytime.”

“I'll remember that.” Trixie then left.

As soon as they got home, Trixie gave Spike a long bath. She remembered that Celestia wanted her and Twilight to write about what they learned about friendship. There must be some sort of lesson to be learned from what happened today. Once Spike was all cleaned up, Trixie had him write a friendship report. Before sending it to Celestia, Trixie went over the letter:

Princess Celestia,
Trixie writes to you because she found a lesson.
If you want somepony to care about you, it is
important to care about them as a pony as
well and respect their feelings.

Since it looked good, Trixie had Spike send it. Moments later, Twilight returned home with a picnic basket on her back. After placing it down, she asked what happened. Both Trixie and Spike explained. Twilight scolded the baby dragon while Trixie boasted about having written the first friendship report. The purple unicorn then explained that she will write numerous friendship reports once she's not so busy.

Because they haven't checked on Rainbow Dash yesterday, Trixie, Twilight, and Spike decided to do so today. There, they noticed that the blue pegasus was still unconscious. She was surrounded by three other ponies, one of them being Applejack. None of them were Rarity, meaning that she was probably still busy. However, Applejack showed Trixie a card that she says Rarity wrote:

Rainbow Dash,

We all hope that you get better soon.
We don't know why you were upset,
but feel free to talk to us about it
whenever you're ready. You can trust us.

Sincerely,
Applejack, Fluttershy,
Pinkie Pie, Rarity

PS: Enjoy the cupcakes.

Once she and the others finished reading it, Applejack put the card onto a tray that also contained some cupcakes. Even though she didn't admit it, Trixie was touched by how much concern Rainbow Dash's friends have for her.

As she left the hospital with Twilight and Spike, Trixie was very excited for the picnic tomorrow. She anticipated spending time with her friends, even Derpy Hooves, on that day.

Author's Notes:

As you can probably tell, the next chapter will have a more significant role in the story. It will likely be shorter as well.

Wrath

Episode Six: Wrath

As she felt around with her tongue, Colgate found that her mouth was dry. She then opened her eyes. Today is the day Twilight Sparkle was holding the picnic. She soon climbed out of bed and made the sheets with her hooves. Not liking the feeling in her mouth, Colgate went into her very own bathroom in order to get rid of the dryness. She filled a glass with water and sipped some of it, relieving the dryness of her mouth as she swooshed the water around. After swallowing, the blue unicorn levitated a toothbrush and grabbed a tube of toothpaste with her hooves. After applying some toothpaste, Colgate began to brush her teeth for a few minutes. She then got some dental floss out. She levitated the end that would go deeper inside while grabbing the other end with a hoof.

After cleaning her teeth, Colgate went back to her bedroom and opened a compartment in the nightstand next to her bed. Beside her favorite electric toothbrush was the autographed photo that Soarin' gave to her. She carefully placed the picture into a green saddlebag that she soon got on and headed downstairs. Her mom, dad, Berry Blast, and Paradise were already up, so they all told Colgate good morning.

The blue and white-maned unicorn came to the kitchen in order to get her case of pills out from a cabinet. Her pill case has a compartment for each day of the week, each one filled with the correct medications. The small, white ones are for her allergies, the big purple ones are so she has better focus when using magic, and the yellow ones are for her mood. Colgate took her pills with a glass of water.

Even though her parents were fine with the picnic that Twilight told them about, Colgate knew that her mom would become worried if she just walked out without saying where she was headed.

Coming up to her mother, Colgate said, “Excuse me mom.”

The mulberry-maned pony asked her, “Is there anything you need Colgate?”

“I was wondering if it would be alright if I head over to the park now.”

“Do you remember the way?”

“I'll be able to find my way there.”

It appeared to Colgate that her mother hesitated right before saying, “...Take care.”

“See you later then.” Just as Colgate headed for the door, a high-pitched voice got her attention.

“Can I go too?” her little sister, Berry Blast asked.

“Well, Twilight Sparkle only brought enough food for six ponies and one baby dragon, but...” Colgate thought for a bit before adding, “...I'll share with you.”

“Let's go now,” Blast said as she went to the door and opened it.

Right after Blast left the house and Colgate began to walk after her, their mother rushed over to the unicorn filly and grabbed her. She just as swiftly pulled her youngest daughter back into the house and closed the door.

“What did I tell you about going too far ahead?” the concerned mother fussed.

“But I wasn't that far ahead of Colgate!” protested Blast.

“I'll try to keep an eye on her,” Colgate said.

“You will keep an eye on her this time?” her mother inquired. “Remember last time when you let your eyes wander?”

“...I will try my best.”

“Can we go now?” Blast asked.

“Of-” Colgate stopped herself mid-sentence when she remembered Paradise. “I'll see if Paradise would like to come as well.”

She then searched around the house for Paradise. Even though Paradise was technically her aunt, Colgate still thought of her as another little sister. She felt a little bad for almost forgetting to ask her. Colgate decided to check her dad's dental office next. There were a lot of things in this room that happened to be green. The cabinets, wallpaper, carpet, and even the plastic parts of the dental equipment were all a shade of that color. It was by a window in this room that Colgate found the light-pink filly. She said to her, “Hey Paradise.”

“Hey Colgate,” Paradise answered.

“Would you like to come with me and Blast to the picnic Twilight is having?”

“Won't I be a burden though?”

Colgate thought a bit about how she could go about sharing her food with Paradise and Blast. Maybe she'll let Blast have half of it while Paradise has the rest. Colgate could just eat when she gets back.

After coming to that conclusion, she told Paradise, “Of course you won't.”

“If you say so.”

“So is that a yes?”

“It is.”

Colgate led Paradise over to the door where Berry Blast was waiting.

“You better promise me that both of them will come back home unharmed,” Colgate's mother sternly told her.

“I'll make sure that they'll be perfectly fine,” Colgate stated.

Despite her worried looks, Colgate's mother gave her consent. Colgate headed outdoors first. She immediately looked back in order to make sure the two fillies were following her. Blast who was excited followed first while Paradise was in the back. The mother told them all goodbye as they trotted in the direction of the park.

Getting to the park didn't take as long as Colgate expected. Even though Berry Blast still wandered off occasionally, the threat of having to go back home made her quick to obey Colgate's orders. For some reason, there weren't many other ponies at the park today

Colgate soon spotted Twilight, Trixie, and Spike near a picnic basket and a red and white-checkered blanket that was spread out. Of course, Trixie was in disguise.

When Twilight noticed Colgate, she told her, “Hey Colgate! I'm glad that you could make it.”

“I'm glad that I could make it as well,” Colgate said.

“I see that you brought......Who are they again?”

Colgate reminded her that the unicorn filly was Berry Blast, while the earth filly was Paradise.

“Did you forget that I only brought enough food for seven of us?”

“Don't worry about that. I decided that they would have my food and that I would eat at home.”

“Are you sure? I went through the trouble of packing the food that you wanted.”

“What about I share my meal with Berry Blast, while you share yours with Paradise?” Trixie suggested.

“That'll be alright if you do so,” Colgate stated. She soon asked where the others were. Spike explained that she got here a bit early.

”So Tr-” Colgate quickly corrected herself ”I mean Milky Way. How is your eye today?”

“I still can't see out of it,” Trixie informed.

“But the eye patch does look rather cool,” Berry Blast said. “It makes you look like a pirate!”

“I have already been called a pirate more than enough times.”

“But that's good thing! Pirates get to roam the seven seas and steal booty from other ships.”

Colgate paced around while waiting for the others, but she did her best to keep the fillies in sight. Eventually, Vinyl Scratch, Derpy, and Golden Harvest got there.

“Twilight's fine with you sharing food with your family,” Colgate told them.

“Neither of my siblings would come,” Golden Harvest explained. “Shoeshine was too busy and Bonnie wasn't interested in coming at all.”

“Thinking about it, I'm a bit surprised that Starnote didn't come,” Spike said to Vinyl Scratch.

Vinyl Scratch replied, “He might come at home since he's all alone now.” She then whistled in a low-pitch tone.

Spike, Golden Harvest, and Derpy all laughed at what Vinyl Scratch just said.

Soon, Golden Harvest said to Colgate, “You know Colgate, I find it a bit odd that we haven't gotten to know each other yet.”

“Why would that be?” Colgate wondered. “I have to keep track of Twilight, Trixie, Spike, you, Derpy, and Vinyl Scratch.”

“I was just saying that because our families sometimes had meals together.”

“That was before we were friends. Since we're friends now, I'll try to get to know you better.”

“You know, you seem more talkative than before.”

“Really?”

“I remember that the other times we ate together, you didn't talk very much.”

“But at least I smiled.” Whenever Colgate is with a group of ponies that she's uncomfortable with, she puts on a smile so that attention isn't drawn towards her.

“What about we all have our meal now?” Twilight interrupted as she levitated food and plates from the basket. Sandwiches, potato chips, and brownies were laid on each plate except for the one meant for Colgate and Paradise. Since Colgate doesn't eat junk food, her plate has grapes and apple slices in place of the less healthy choices. The group of nine then began to eat.

In the middle of eating, Colgate heard a voice say, “I didn't expect for you to be there.” She looked around and saw a blue, rainbow-maned pegasus hovering nearby. For some reason, she was scowling.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said with joy.

“How do you even know my name, Trixie, huh?” Rainbow Dash asked Twilight.

Colgate was confused on why Rainbow Dash called Twilight by Trixie's name.

“I'm the only one worthy of being Trixie, not her!” Trixie told Rainbow Dash.

“Nice try imposter, but it's very obvious that you're not Trixie. I saw the real Trixie entering Ponyville, so I know what she looks like. Anypony who has even seen Trixie knows that she has a red streak in her mane.”

“That's because you saw Twilight Sparkle, not Trixie!” explained Spike.

“I was with Sparkles myself and I know that she's not Trixie,” Vinyl Scratch said.

“Why were you with her anyways, DJ Pon3?” Rainbow Dash asked her.

“Oh, I was just telling her all about how everypony in Ponyville conspires against you.”

“I knew it!”

“I was only kidding!”

“This is not joke time,” Derpy told Vinyl Scratch.

Rainbow Dash looked at Derpy and told her, “I bet that you're just playing dumb.”

“Of course not. I really am dumb.”

“You honestly think that Derpy is plotting something against you?” Golden Harvest questioned.

“I don't think that she is,” Rainbow Dash said, “I know. I know that Ponyville has something against me.”

“I said that I was only kidding!” Vinyl Scratch shouted.

“That's what you want me to think.”

“I can easily tell that your friends weren't there when you woke up,” Twilight stated.

“Yeah, they weren't there for me,” Rainbow Dash said with disdain.

“What the hay are you talking about?” asked Trixie. “They came to check on you everyday and they even sent you a card and some cupcakes.”

“Giving out get-well cards and cupcakes makes a pony a true friend, am I right?” Rainbow Dash mocked.

“Applejack explained to me that you thought they threw a party meant to exclude you,” Twilight told the blue pegasus.

“I bet that she told you to say that.”

Twilight continued, “In reality, it was going to be a surprise party for me.”

Rainbow Dash took a moment before uttering, “That's what Pinkie Pie said...”

“I'm glad that you're finally beginning to see the truth.”

“How do I know if this isn't part of a plan to make me think that everything is normal?”

Remembering Pinkie Pie, Colgate said, “I don't think she would do anything like that, even though I'm not friends with her anymore...”

“Did Pinkie Pie betray you in any way?”

Colgate thought about why she and Pinkie Pie stopped being friends, but that made her smile fade away.

“...That's not important right now,” Colgate told her.

Rainbow Dash hovered right in front of Colgate and inquired, “You're hiding something about Pinkie Pie, aren't you?!”

“It's not important...” Colgate backed away. “Besides, aren't you paranoid about everypony?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said. “Is it just because you misinterpreted the intents of my surprise party?”

Rainbow Dash distanced herself from the group and asked Twilight,“Aren't you the one who was supposed to supervise the preparations of the Summer Sun Celebration, but didn't?”

“I am.” Twilight looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes and told her. “Sorry about not doing my job like I was supposed to.”

“Saying sorry is such an easy way to get out of trouble”

“Do you think that Twilight meant to hurt your feelings?” Colgate asked the blue pegasus. “She didn't come from Ponyville, so she didn't even know you then.”

Rainbow Dash hesitated before responding with, “You may have a point... However, the ponies who have heard about me all hate me.”

“What makes you say that?” Golden Harvest asked.

“Does blue pony ring any bells?”

“Of course it does,” Trixie told her. All of the sudden, she dispelled her disguise, showing her true form. “The blue pony is glaaaad that you're a fan of hers!”

“Are you mocking me?”

There was a bit of nervousness in her tone as she said, “Trixie is just saying that she's the blue pony that the others hate, not you.”

“You think that I'm stupid?”

“Are there any ponies who you still trust?” Golden Harvest asked.

“Of course. They are a group of ponies who are waaaay better than you all put together!”

“And they would be?”

“The Wonderbolts of course. They're the best fliers in all of Equestria, and I would of impressed them all on the Summer Sun Celebration if I wasn't knocked out.”

Feeling sorry for her, Colgate opened her saddlebag and got out the picture of Soarin'. “If it makes you feel any better, you may have the signed picture that Soarin' gave me.”

Rainbow Dash eyed the picture before telling her, “I don't want it.”

“Why not?”

“I would rather get it from him myself, so I know that he acknowledges my abilities.”

“But he gave me the picture because of the news of me being kidnapped by Nightmare Moon. I think it's also because he thinks my smile is pretty.”

“Let me get this straight, I work my tail off for the Wonderbolts to appreciate me, but one of them thinks that some useless mare child who still lives with her parents is special?! Oh, that's right, you are special.”

Colgate tensed her muscles after hearing that insult and let out a tear, but she still tried her best to stay calm. Even after putting the picture back into her bag, she still couldn't smile like she usually does.

“Thinking about it, Trixie,” Rainbow Dash said. “Aren't you the pony who was with Scootaloo to watch the rising of the sun? If you are, then you look awfully different without your hat and cape.”

“I am,” Trixie answered. “Do you have a problem with me being with Scootaloo?”

“I do. I was hoping that you wouldn't become her number one pony.”

“Scootaloo told us that you were still her favorite pony,” Twilight informed, “so you don't have to worry about that.”

“I bet that she's lying.”

Trixie said to Rainbow Dash, “If you don't change your act soon, then you really won't be Scootaloo's number one pony anymore!”

Suddenly, the blue pegasus flew down and landed in front of Trixie. The sheer impact flung dirt and rocks in all direction. Colgate was devastated when she saw one pebble hit Berry Blast with such force that it caused the filly to bleed. Colgate promised her mom that the fillies would be unharmed...

“Is that a threat?!” Rainbow Dash asked Trixie.

Colgate straight up told her, “You are a terrible pony!”

“Is that the best you can come up with?”

“We don't need to start a fight,” Golden Harvest told the two. “Just calm down!”

Feeling justified with what she said, Colgate protested, “But Rainbow Dash did something bad!”

“You mean like not always doing what I'm told?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“Well, if you just listened to what others say, then yo-”

“Then I'd be just as pathetic as you. Just look at you! You're an adult and you still live with your parents!”

“Don't say anything that you might regret,” Golden Harvest told Colgate.

Ignoring her, Colgate said to Rainbow Dash, “At least I know that I am loved! The reason you act the way you do is probably because your parents weren't good like mine. If that's so, then you don't even deserve any love for the way you have been treating us! I wouldn't be surprised if your mom regrets giving birth to you!”

All of the sudden, Trixie stomped over to Colgate. Colgate saw an expression on her face that she doesn't remember seeing before. Although she has been around Trixie when she was angry, never has it been this intense nor directed at her. Trixie raised one of her front hooves. As Colgate looked into her glaring eye, she couldn't control her tears. She shut her eyes and braced for impact. To her surprise, a thud sounded in front of her.

“JUST LEAVE TRIXIE ALONE!” Trixie shouted.

Colgate kept her eyes closed out of fear. She heard galloping that quickly got quieter and the voices of her friends telling Trixie to stay. When she finally opened her eyes, Colgate saw a disguised Trixie running off in the distance.

“If she's heading out, then I'll do so as well,” Rainbow Dash said as she took flight.

“You can't go yet!” Twilight told her. “I still have to explain!”

The rainbow-maned pegasus didn't say anything else as she flew away. Twilight then turned towards Colgate.

“Colgate?”

Colgate felt her heart pounding. How was she going to face the others now? She concluded that heading back home would be the better choice, even though her mom would be ferocious upon finding out that Berry Blast got hurt.

“I-I'm going home now,” Colgate stuttered. She told the two fillies, “It's time to go.”

“Why?” Berry Blast asked.

“You need to go home...”

Colgate was very surprised that her sister complied instead of insisting on staying like she expected. As soon as she could, Colgate began to head for home with the fillies.

“She's not going to leave like that, right?” Vinyl Scratch asked Twilight.

“She might as well...” Twilight said with notable disdain.

“But we really need to do something abou...” Golden Harvest's voice faded once Colgate trotted far enough.

Colgate managed to force a smile by the time she got to Ponyville proper. Soon, she and the fillies reached their home. Colgate was hoping that she could go straight to her room, but unfortunately, her mother spotted her.

“You're back earlier than I expected,” she stated.

Colgate tried to think of what to say when Berry Blast suddenly spoke.

“That's because Colgate is sad,” said the unicorn filly.

“What happened?” their mother asked Colgate.

Despite being afraid to speak, Colgate told her, “Berry Blast got hurt...”

The mother took a moment to look at Berry Blast's wound.

She then inquired, “Are you talking about that cut?”

“Yes....”

“It doesn't even hurt that much,” Berry Blast protested.

“What are you going to do mom?”

“Just wait a minute,” she said while heading over to a cabinet. The mom soon returned with a band-aid and disinfectant gel. In the middle of fixing Blast's wound, she told Colgate, “You don't look so well. Is something going on?”

“Are you mad at me for Berry Blast getting hurt?”

“Of course not Colgate. It's only a tiny cut.”

“Besides, it isn't even your fault,” Paradise explained.

Colgate wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or panicked. Although her mother didn't seem to mind Berry Blast's injury, both Blast and Paradise witnessed what happened with Rainbow Dash. Feeling that she can no longer take it, Colgate asked if she could go to her room.

Her mom just finished applying the bandage when she gave her consent. Even though the fillies would probably tell mom everything, at least she would finally have some time to herself. When Colgate got into her bedroom, she slammed the door out of frustration. She no longer held back her tears. Colgate hurled her saddlebag against a wall and crawled into bed. In bed, Colgate thought about how much of a jerk Rainbow Dash was as well as how angry she made her friends today. Suddenly, there was knocking on her door.

“Colgate, we need to talk,” her mother said.

Colgate didn't answer back. Soon, the door creaked open.

“Paradise told me what happened.”

“Like how I made all my friends angry?”

“I don't know about that, but I do know that Trixie was very mad.”

“I... I... said some really mean things to... R-rainbow Dash... I assumed that her parents weren't good and that she......”

“That she shouldn't be loved because of that?”

“Yes...”

“Do you really think that having bad parents means that a pony is bad?”

Not knowing what to say, Colgate remained silent.

“Is Trixie a bad pony, because her parents didn't care for her?”

Colgate shook her head. She then cried even harder than before. Even though Colgate recalled that Trixie would of loved to have parents like hers, she didn't think once that Trixie's parents could have been bad or even abusive. Upon realizing how insensitive she was, Colgate hid under her blanket out of shame.

“When you're feeling better, what about you apologize to Trixie?”

“But she hates me now...”

“Don't say that.”

“Isn't that true though? I did something terrible and because of that... Trixie almost... She almost punched me...”

“Paradise didn't tell me about that...”

“See? It wouldn't be safe for me to be around her anymore...”

“But you're not hurt.”

“So?”

“I think that deep down inside, Trixie cares about you. When she realized what her anger was doing, she ran away in order for you and her other friends to be safe.”

Colgate felt some relief upon hearing that.

“Maybe...” she uttered.

After a while of neither pony talking, a faint knocking sound came from below Colgate broke the silence. Her mother told her that she'll get the door.

Soon, Colgate heard a voice ask, “Do you still need some alone time?” She recognized it as Golden Harvest's.

“Are you mad at me for disobeying you?” Colgate wondered.

“I am, but I'm more worried about how upset you were.”

“Are our other friends with you?”

“No, it's just you, me, and your mom. Trixie is probably at the library while the others are out to gather Rainbow Dash's friends. You know, it would be a lot easier to talk to you if you weren't hiding under your covers.”

Colgate uncovered her head, then stated, “Yeah, I guess so. Sorry about that...”

“Is it alright with both of you if we talk about Rainbow Dash?” her mom asked.

“I guess so...”

“Since Colgate is fine with it, I am as well,” Golden Harvest said. “Would it be alright if I go first?”

“Of course,” answered the mother.

Golden Harvest told Colgate, “Before Rainbow Dash came, you seemed really happy.”

“Yeah...” Colgate said. “When I tried being nice to her... She was mean to me...”

“I see, but does that justify being mean back to her?”

“But she hurt Berry Blast...” Colgate and her mother then explained Blast's cut to Golden Harvest.

“I didn't even notice it,” Golden Harvest stated. “I'm sure that Rainbow Dash didn't either.”

The mom added, “I hate to admit it, but Colgate had to point that out to me.”

Colgate asked, “Does that mean I have to apologize to Rainbow Dash?”

“It would be for the best if you did,” answered Golden Harvest.

“She doesn't have to,” Colgate's mom told her.

“Why not?”

“It wouldn't be healthy for Colgate to have to confront a pony who was so mean to her like that.”

Colgate got out of bed and asked, “Would it alright if I go and say sorry to Trixie though?”

“She's probably in a worse mood than you at the moment,” Golden Harvest stated. “I'm not the best when I'm in a bad mood myself.”

“But we'll be fine if we're together, I think.”

“Since it's Trixie, I'll allow you,” The mother said. She then told Golden Harvest, “Just be sure to keep Colgate safe.”

“I will,” reassured Golden Harvest. “Do you need a few minutes before we go, Colgate?”

Even though Colgate felt nervous, she felt that Trixie needed to be apologized to as soon as possible. She also didn't want to be more of a burden than she already has been today.

“I'm fine,” Colgate reassured. She was able to put on a smile with ease this time. “Trixie needs more help than me at the moment.”

“I bet that you're right, but we should be careful. Trixie was acting rather strange after that last insult you made to Rainbow Dash.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”

Colgate and Golden Harvest soon left for the library.

As soon as they reached the tree building, Colgate suggested that they search the basement first. On the way to the stairs leading down, she couldn't help but notice that one part of the outer wall was boarded up as well as a table that gave out.

Curious, she asked, “Do you know what happened here?”

“Derpy forgot to use the door,” explained Golden Harvest.

The two ponies then reached the basement entrance. Colgate noted to herself that the basement looks very different with all the tall room dividers placed. As she made her way down, Colgate heard Trixie sobbing. She and Golden Harvest were easily able to get to where Trixie was at thanks to that. Trixie was facing the wall and shedding tears.

“Excuse me, Trixie,” Colgate said.

“...What are you doing here?” Trixie asked, still facing the wall.

“I came to say sorry to you.” Trixie turned towards her and it became apparent that she was levitating what appeared to be a crimson crystal. “I'm sorry for being so insensitive towards you... If I thought to... I just wish I thought about how your parents weren't good, so that I wouldn't of made you angry.”

“You're forgiving me that easily?”

“Yeah. I feel that it was my fault.”

“But I shouldn't of done what I did, especially since we're friends...”

“It's good that you two learned that you made mistakes,” Golden Harvest said.

“Can't you tell that we're having a moment?”

“It's probably okay now since we know that we're sorry,” Colgate stated.

“I guess so.” Trixie stopped crying.

“Trixie, I didn't know that you had such a temper,” commented Golden Harvest.

“It took you a week to find that out, GH? Twilight knows me better than you do.”

“I recall Twilight mentioning that you lash out at most insults towards you, whenever they're real or perceived.”

“That is true...”

Colgate eyed a chest to the side, then looked back at Trixie's crystal. She remembered that Trixie wanted to use the basement to store anything that reminds her of another pony.

She asked Trixie, “If it's alright with you, could you tell me who that crystal reminds you of?”

“It reminds me of you,” Trixie responded.

“But I'm not red.”

“Not in that way. I'm talking about the wrath you, I mean we displayed today. There was something different about it than when other ponies are like that.”

“I guess that sort of makes sense. Red can symbolize aggressiveness.”

“Thinking about it, Rainbow Dash was wrathful as well,” Golden Harvest stated.

“I suppose so,” said Trixie. “I may not be so different from her after all.”

“You're saying that Rainbow Dash isn't bad?” Colgate inquired. “But she's a jerk.”

“I know that she was mean to you, but I would of done mean things myself before I became friends with you all. I was rather defensive like Rainbow Dash happened to be. Well, I still am, but not as much of course, right?”

“I'm not sure if I can think of Rainbow Dash as good...”

“If we could somehow get it through her thick skull that her friends care about her, then I'm positive that she will stop being so mean. Right now, she thinks that everypony but the Wonderbolts are out to get her.”

“Then they are the ponies whom we need, no, who Rainbow Dash needs,” Golden Harvest said.

Colgate responded with, “I would love to meet them again, especially Soarin', but they're hard to come across outside of their shows.”

“One of them will have to be crashed for the greater good.”

“But they're currently preforming in Cloudsdale and Derpy is the only pegasus we can send.”

“Rainbow Dash has a friend who's a pegasus as well,” Trixie informed the others. “Even though she's a pushover, I'm sure that she would do anything to help her friends. I think her name is Fluttershy.”

“That's great!” Golden Harvest exclaimed. “Here's the plan. We go tell our friends as well as Rainbow Dash's friends that it is important the Wonderbolts come see her. Then we have Derpy and Fluttershy go to Cloudsdale in order to get them. Once they come back with the Wonderbolts, we all go over to Rainbow Dash's house and the rainbow-maned pegasus regains her trust of all her friends.”

“You're idea is excellent,” Colgate commented. “If this works, then I might change my mind about Rainbow Dash and even apologize to her.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Trixie put her crystal into the chest, then said, “I'm ready to help Rainbow Dash.”

Soon, the three ponies left the basement, all filled with hope that they can make Rainbow Dash realize that she has true friends.

Wrath...
A force with great potential for destruction...

Author's Notes:

-At one point, I was going to have Diamond Tiara manipulate Rainbow Dash's paranoia by saying that she's a “sweet, innocent filly uncorrupted by the dishonesty of others,” and then have Colgate almost stomp on her face in anger before Twilight or Rainbow Dash stops her.

For the Want of a Horseshoe

I updated this chapter in order to give Twilight some more interaction with Colgate, Golden Harvest, Ditzy Doo, and Vinyl Scratch. I tried to make things less confusing. I also changed Rainbow Dash's line.

Episode One: For the Want of a Horseshoe

It was a nice and sunny day, perfect for spending the time outdoors. That is exactly what Twilight Sparkle decided to do that day. However, she wasn't planning to exercise, socialize, play games, or anything like that. Twilight's idea of a good time outside is reading a book. The purple unicorn headed to her favorite spot, the tree that was the closest to the park's stream. Despite being close to a bridge, other ponies rarely came to bother Twilight. In this perfect spot, she used her unicorn magic to lift the book that was in her white bag with a star pattern and set it on the ground. After opening the book, Twilight Sparkle began to read:

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn, the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day the elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known in Ponyland, the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.

The Elements of Harmony sounded familiar to Twilight, but she couldn't remember where she heard of them. She closed the book and placed it back into her bag and headed for the tower where she lives. However, Twilight was soon stopped by three other unicorns whom she doesn't know the names of. One of them was white, another was yellow, and the last one was blue and had a distinctive blue and white mane. They were each holding a present on their back.

"There you are Twilight!" said the yellow one.

The white one then said, "Moondancer is having a get together in the west castle courtyard. You want to come?"

While Twilight was thinking of what to say, she realized that the blue one didn't appear to be as chit chatty as the other two. Of course, she found that pleasant. Twilight told the group, "Oh, sorry girls... I got a lot of studying to catch up on." Twilight then galloped away from them. She heard those ponies saying some things, but she didn't quite catch it and assumed that it was some back talk about her.

Twilight Sparkle reached her home and rushed up the stairs that wrapped the exterior of the tower. She promptly slammed open the doors of the top entrance and called out for her helper, Spike. After closer inspection, Twilight saw the baby dragon on his back. She thought that he was being silly. Twilight hurried upstairs and Spike followed. She told him to find a book titled Predictions and Prophecies, then noticed what appeared to be a crushed box on Spike's tail. "What's that for?"

Spike held up the box and tried to explain, "Well, it was a gift for Moondancer, but..."

"Oh Spike, you know that we don't have time for that sort of thing," Twilight scolded.

"But we're on a break!"

Twilight Sparkle ignored him and began searching for the book, but to no avail. Her frustration was relieved when Spike announced that he found it. She magically brought the book to her, accidentally bringing Spike who was holding it as well. Twilight opened the book and began to look for where it mentions the Elements of Harmony. Once she found where it was located, Twilight read out loud, "Elements of Harmony... See Mare in the Moon?"

"Mare in the Moon? But that's just an old pony's tale!"

Twilight began to read the page about Mare in the Moon, "The Mare in the Moon. Myth from olden pony times, a powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend says that the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aide in her escape and she will bring about nighttime eternal." She then asked Spike, "Spike! Do you know what that means?"

"No."

Twilight Sparkle told him to take a note to the princess. With feather and paper in hand as well as some complications, Spike wrote down a letter stating that the Mare in the Moon is Nightmare Moon and that she is coming soon. It also says that something must be done to make sure the prophecy doesn't become true. Once the letter was completed, Twilight told Spike to send it.

Spike didn't comply and reminded her that the princess was busy preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration which takes place the day after tomorrow. Twilight explained that this is going to be the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration and that it is imperative that the princess knows about this. Seeing that Spike was struggling to understand "imperative," Twilight shouted, "IMPORTANT!"

A shaken Spike took a deep breath and exhaled a green flame on the letter, turning it into a haze that escaped the building. "There! It's on it's way." He then taunted, "I wouldn't hold your breath!"

"Oh, I'm not worried Spike. The princess trusts me completely! In all the years she's been my mentor, she's never once doubted me." Just then, Spike belched out a letter. "I knew she wanted to take immediate action."

Spike cleared his throat and read to Twilight, "My dearest, most faithful student, Twilight. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely. But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books!"

Twilight gasped, "Did she just tell me to stop studying?!"

"She just said books."

"What else does it say?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, leave Canterlot by carriage and you will be taken to where you will learn about what it means to live as a young pony."

"What it means to live as a young pony? I am a young pony and I'm living! Just because I read plenty of books doesn't mean that I don't live life in my own way. Acquiring knowledge can be just as fulfilling, no, more fulfilling than doing something trivial such as making friends."

"I still think that you should still go."

"Fine!"

After Twilight stormed off for some alone time, Spike read to himself the section of the letter meant for him.

Once it was nighttime, Twilight Sparkle went out of the tower to take a look at the moon. She took notice of a series of craters that together looked like the head of a mare. Twilight spent much of the night staring at it, worrying about the Mare in the Moon's return.

Twilight Sparkle didn't get much sleep that night, but she was still rather alert when it became time to leave. She decided to take her white bag with her. When she and Spike went outside, they noticed a carriage situated in front of them. The two pegasi attached to it didn't speak a word, but Twilight recognized them as royal guards. Once Twilight and Spike got in, the guards flew them away from home. Spike then burped out another letter.

He told Twilight what was written, "My dear Twilight, there's more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location, Ponyville. And I have a more essential task for you to complete." Spike leaned up to her and spoke, "Make some friends!"

Twilight let out a groan.

"Look on the bright side Twilight! The princess arranged for us to stay in the library. Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Yes! Yes it does. Do you know why? Because I'm right! I'll check on the preparations as fast as I can, then get to the library to find some proof of Nightmare Moon's return."

"Then, when will you make some friends like the princess said?"

"She said to check on preparations. I am her student and I will do my royal duty, but the fate of Equestria doesn't rest on me making friends."

The pegasi then landed in Ponyville. Twilight and Spike got off and thanked them.

Spike tried to reassure Twilight, "Maybe the ponies in Ponyville will have interesting things to talk about!" A pink pony with a poofy mane then came up to the two. "Come on Twilight. Just try!"

"Uh... hello?" Twilight muttered.

The pink stranger then let out a huge gasp and darted off.

"Well, that's interesting alright..." Thinking about the goofy pink pony she just came across, Twilight added, "These ponies seem crazy so far. Running off and screaming, just because I said hello."

"Come on Twilight, you only met one pony so far in Ponyville," Spike told her.

"This town sure has a lousy first impression."

"It will get better once you make friends, I promise!"

"Read me that checklist, Spike."

Spike was just about to read the list out loud when a couple of unicorn colts interrupted him.

"I never seen you two before," the tall one commented.

"We saw that both of you were on a carriage," the short one stated. "I'm Snips and he's Snails. Do you two come from someplace fancy?"

"Why yes," Spike said. "I am Spike and we have come from Canterlot to check for preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration and to make new friends for Twilight Sparkle over here."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If they call you a baby dragon, then why don't you go goo goo ga ga?" Snails asked.

Spike groaned, "Because I can talk proper Equestrian."

Snips said, "I was thinking more along the lines of Twilight."

"Oh yeah!" Snails exclaimed. "You aren't the only new unicorn in town today."

"Twilight would love to meet that unicorn!" Spike winked at Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight tried to make an excuse, "Oh, I have a really tight schedule, so I can't go. The princess trusts that I carry out my royal duties."

"Actually, we have plenty of time and you know that she would love for you to have some friends."

"Follow us!" Snails told them.

"It's so awesome that you know a princess," commented Snips.

"I guess I have no choice then..." Twilight muttered. Once all four of them got moving, she stated, "Tell me about this unicorn."

Snails told her, "Uh, we haven't even met her yet."

"That sounds very helpful..."

"We were on our way to meet her when we noticed you two," Snips explained.

"I guess I'll just see what she's like for myself, since both of you seem to know absolutely nothing about her."

"But we know things about her!"

"Yeah," Snails added. "We heard that she's the greatest and most magical unicorn ever."

"How do you know that she really is the most magical unicorn?" questioned Spike. "You haven't even seen her in pony."

"That's why we're going. To see her greatness for ourselves."

Twilight told the two, "If that's so, then that will be the same reason I want to see her as well."

"Hopefully she isn't as big headed as she sounds from what we heard so far," Spike said.

Soon enough, the group of four came across a medium sized crowd. Beyond the crowd was a stage where blue pony with a white mane was standing. She had on an oversized blue wizard's hat that concealed her horn if she happened the unicorn Snips and Snails were talking about. This pony also had on a cape of the same color that hid her cutie mark. "On this eve of the annual Summer Sun Celebration, watch as the Great and Powerful Trixie preforms magical feats beyond your wildest imaginations!" she piped. Right after a glow was produced from underneath her hat, the air above her darkened and bunch of fireworks went off in that area.

"You're amazing, Great and Powerful Trixie!" Snips exclaimed. "We found you a unicorn that you will be very impressed by."

Trixie looked over at Snips's group. She asked him, "Do you think Trixie will be impressed by anypony you try to present?"

Snails answered, "Twilight Sparkle here is amazing."

Snips continued, "She comes from Canterlot and is looking over preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. I'm sure that you'll find her impressive."

"Trixie will not be impressed by those things as they don't have to do with magic," Trixie told them. "

"Oh yeah! Magic!"

Snails stated, "Twilight knows the princess personally and I bet she knows the very best magic from her."

"I do take pride in my magical capabilities, but I would like empirical evidence of how both of us preform magic before any of us celebrate," Twilight told Trixie. Spike appeared a bit confused by what she said.

"So you challenge Trixie to a duel then!" Trixie said. "Come up and do your best, even though it won't be good enough to thwart the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

As Twilight made her way past the crowd and onto the stage, she trash talked her, "Considering that you probably talk big to compensate for lack of ability, I don't think I even have to do my best to curb stomp you."

"Trixie will show you why you should shut your ignorant mouth!"

Snips, Snails, and Spike made their way to as close as they could to Twilight and Trixie without getting on stage. The taller colt said, "Both of you would be great together."

Trixie turned her head to face the two, "Are you implying something between Trixie and Twilight?"

The colts glanced at each other, then Snips stated, "Yeah! You two have so much in common that you would make such awesome friends!"

"Forget it! Friends are unimportant to Trixie."

"That's actually the first thing you said that I agree with," Twilight stated. "I never even come here to make friends, nor do I have any interest in doing so in the first place."

"If that's all, then let's get this duel started!"

Twilight Sparkle and Trixie began to circle around the center of the stage, staring at each others faces while doing so.

Spike yelled, "Show her who's best, Twilight!"

"Yeah, by losing to me!" Trixie taunted.

"Zip it!" Twilight's horn glowed and a zipper formed on Trixie face that sealed her mouth shut. "Much better!"

Spike told Snips and Snails, "When we were younger, Twilight used to use that spell on me all the time."

Indistinguishable grunts came from Trixie when she tried to talk. Focusing on Twilight, Trixie materialized a rope made out of many colorful napkins around her. The rope then tightened and bound the purple unicorn's legs together. As she walked towards Twilight, Trixie unzipped her lip. "Think you can shut up Trixie and get away with it?!"

"I know I can," Twilight said, not panicking one bit despite being tied up. Twilight took hold of the rope with her unicorn magic and quickly untied herself. With the rope of napkins, she gave Trixie a taste of her own medicine. Twilight then extended the rope and lifted Trixie to the top of the stage's frame where she promptly hung her by the legs. "There! Not as great and powerful as you call yourself. Now can I leave?"

"That was awesome Twilight!" applauded Spike. "You really should stay here for a bit longer and soak up the glory."

Snails said, "Yeah! Since you defeated the Great and Powerful Trixie, she'll be sure to be your bestest friend ever!"

"Even though I don't have any friends, I doubt that's how friendship works," Twilight told him.

"This duel isn't over!" a tied up Trixie shouted. "Trixie is still the most magical unicorn to ever grace Equestria and you all know it deep down inside!" She continued to struggle getting untied, but to no avail.

Right after Twilight got off stage, she said, "I'm out of here. Snips, Snails, keep on asking Trixie to be my bestest friend ever. That's how ponies make new friends."

Snips muttered, "That sounds new, but if you say so..."

"Great and Powerful Trixie, will you be Twilight Sparkle's bestest friend in the world?" Snails asked.

"Trixie refuses!" the tied up unicorn wept.

Twilight Sparkle left the the scene and Spike swiftly followed. Right after they made it around a corner, they heard the narcissist unicorn shouting in anger about how Twilight ran away from the Great and Powerful Trixie like a coward.

"Now that's out of the way, what's the first thing on that list?"

Spike held up the list, "Summer Sun Celebration official overseer's checklist. Number one, banquet preparations at Sweet Apple Acres."

"Are there any instructions on how to get there?"

"Well, you could go ask around and you know, make a friend."

"You know that making friends isn't important, especially not at a time such as this."

"If it's Nightmare Moon you're worried about, then don't worry about it. Celestia knows what she's doing when she tasked you with overlooking preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration and making friends."

"But she doesn't believe me!"

"I still say it's a superstition. She did tell you to stop reading those dusty old books."

"Look, even though Celestia hasn't been wrong before, I still know that something's off."

Twilight Sparkle had her head turned to Spike, so she didn't see the pony who was right in front of her. She crashed into her and they both fell to the ground. Twilight got up and saw that it was a blue-coated unicorn with a blue and white mane. She could of sworn that she seen this unicorn before, but she forgot where. Twilight apologized, "Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"It's alright," the stranger told her.

"So... could you point me to Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Sweet Apple Acres? It's to the southwest of here."

"Thanks! Gotta go!" Twilight began to head off until she realized that Spike wasn't following her. "Spike, we have to go!" Twilight's horn and Spike glowed in unison and he was forced onto her back.

"Are you always in a hurry, Twilight?" the unicorn with the blue and white mane asked.

"You know me?" Twilight returned to her and Spike smiled. That stranger looked vaguely familiar to her.

"Actually, the only time I saw you was yesterday. I was with two other ponies when they asked you about Moondancer's party."

"You were in Canterlot yesterday and you're in Ponyville today?"

"Yup! That was my first time in Canterlot, even though my family is rich. Moondancer's parents are friends with my dad and he wanted me to go to the party."

"Did you at least have fun?"

"Not really. I was excited at first, then I realized that the ponies there didn't seem very nice. For some reason, I don't feel that I can trust them."

"You know, I can empathize with that. There's something I find about most other ponies that makes me cautious around them. By the way, you know my name, but I don't know yours."

"And I haven't even talked to you yet!" Spike said.

The unicorn apologized then told them, I'm Minuette "Colgate" Minty, but I prefer to be called Colgate. What is your name, dragon?"

"I'm Spike, Twilight Sparkle's assistant. The two of us are overlooking preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."

“That sounds like fun. It's basically a long walk where you check to see if things are going alright, right?”

“I guess so,” Twilight said. She then eyed Colgate's hourglass cutie mark and inquired, “If it's alright with you, could you tell me what your special talent is?”

“That's alright,” Colgate said. “My ability is to change the flow of time of an object. It takes a lot of energy on my behalf to do it, especially if the target is very big.”

“Willing to demonstrate?”

“Of course. Is it alright if I use Spike?”

“That will be fine.”

“I wonder what being slowed down is like,” stated Spike.

Colgate tilted her horn towards the baby dragon. The horn and Spike both began to glow blue at the same time.

Twilight asked Spike, “What does it feel like being slowed down?”

“Whhhhhhaaaaaat diiiiiiiiiiiid yoooooouuuuuu saaaaaaaaaaaay?”

“You can stop now.”

Colgate halted her spell, which caused time to flow normally for Spike again.

“Woah, that felt weird,” Spike commented. “Everything happens so fast when you're slowed down.”

“Well, that would be rather obvious,” Twilight pointed out.

Colgate then asked Twilight, “What's your special talent? Your sparkly cutie mark doesn't make it clear.”

“From what I can tell, I'm pretty good with magic,” Twilight Sparkle told her.

Spike added, “Pretty good? She's excellent! If she wanted to, Twilight could learn your time thingy spell and do it better than you.”

“Spike!”

“I'm fine,” Colgate told the two. “If you're abilities are better than mine, I'm fine with it.” She paused before asking, “Is there anything else you would like to talk about?”

“Well, I did have some things in mind, but me and Spike have to get going now.”

"Alright.”

"It's been nice meeting you, Colgate."

“It's been nice meeting you as well.”

"Bye!"

"Good luck with the Summer Sun Celebration!" Colgate told Twilight and Spike as they left.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike conversed once Colgate was out of sight.

"You know," Spike began, "I didn't take much part in that conversation back there."

"So?"

"You talked to another pony without any prompting from me. I think that you just made a friend."

"She is not my friend. We don't know each other that well, so we're merely acquaintances."

"Acquai... acquaint-what?"

Twilight stopped and explained, "It means that our relationship is neutral. We are neither friend or foe." Just then, a heavy package fell from the sky and onto the ground right in front of Twilight. "What the what?!" A gray-coated pegasus with a casual-styled blonde mane flew down in front of them. Her cutie mark happens to be a bunch of bubbles. Just as Twilight was going to complain about almost getting crushed, she noticed that the pegasus's eyes were pointing in opposite directions. "Are you sure that you should even be a mail pony? Your eyes look a bit... derpy."

“You look derpy,” the mail pony responded, “but you're right. I'm the derpiest pony ever! That's why I'm Derpy Hooves!” She then flew around for a bit. “WHEEEE! This is so much fun!”

“Yeah, you totally don't deserve your job.”

Upon landing, Derpy told Twilight, “You're a meanie!”

Twilight and Spike then heard a voice, "She's right in calling you a meanie.” They looked around and found out that it came from an orange-maned pony without horns or wings. “Don't tell her what she should or shouldn't do with her life."

"But I don't want anypony to get crushed just because of somepony who isn't able to do her job right."

"This is Derpy's aspiration. Do you want to ruin that for her?"

“You know, like a meanie?” Derpy added.

"Before you all get into anymore arguing, who are you?" Spike asked the earth pony.

The orange-maned pony didn't show any antagonistic tendencies at all with Spike, "I'm Golden Harvest.”

“And I like to call her Carrot Top!” said Derpy. “Cause she's like a carrot!” Since Golden Harvest's cutie mark was three carrots, Twilight could see how she might of gotten her nickname.

Once Spike gave his and Twilight's names, Golden Harvest continued, “I work at Farm Fields with my family." Her tone of voice then changed just as suddenly when she went back to Twilight, "How would you like it if somepony ruined your dreams?"

"Well, I would feel angry of course," answered Twilight. "But that pony isn't the same as me. Just look at her! She must be the stupidest pony in the entire world! I have never seen anypony that is more pitiful than her! Was she dropped as a foal?”

“Just because somepony isn't the same as you," Golden Harvest patronized, "that doesn't give you the right to think of them as lesser than yourself."

"But I didn't get called out for ruining Trixie's magic show," Twilight pointed out.

"That was because she was such a loudmouth!" Spike explained. "Though after saying that, that sort of sounds like a bad reason to ruin her show."

"So you already have wrecked somepony's aspiration," Golden Harvest stated. "It would be a good idea to apologize to Trixie."

“And say sorry to me by saying sorry to me, Twilight!” Derpy told the purple unicorn.

"Why should I apologize?!" Twilight nearly shouted. "Both Trixie and Derpy are crazy ponies!"

Golden Harvest's tone became less patronizing and more calm, "I know that it's difficult at times, but I think that you should learn to love and tolerate others like I'm trying to do with you right now."

"Even after I insulted your friend and said some things, you want to love me?"

"I feel that's the best thing to do. Holding on to hate only makes you feel worse."

"I think that makes sense, I suppose...”

“Say sorry to me and say that you're a meanie,” Derpy demanded.

Twilight turned to Derpy and said, “Even though you are an absolutely insane pony who can severely injure others quite easily, I'm sorry. Umm... And also... I'm a meanie.”

All of the sudden, Derpy Hooves smiled. “Apology accepted!” she said.

Twilight Sparkle couldn't help but smile as well from what she said.

Golden Harvest seemed to notice, as she said, “See how good it feels to let go of grudges?”

“I suppose I do,” Twilight replied.

“Let's all have a good Summer Sun Celebration.”

“I will,” Spike said.

“I'll have fun!” Derpy Hooves exclaimed.

“I'm not sure...” Twilight muttered.

Golden Harvest asked, “Why not?”

“I'm just not sure if the celebration will go entirely by plan.”

“It's alright if not everything goes perfectly. Things that you don't expect just happen.”

“I ruin Carrot Top's plans at times, but she's still happy!” Derpy stated.

“Just as long as you keep on going despite what happens, you'll do fine.”

“Thank you.” Twilight paused before continuing, “Well, I got to get going now."

"See you some other time, Twilight Sparkle. See you Spike!"

"Bye," Derpy said.

As Twilight began to trot away, she told them, “Well... See ya.”

"I would love to see you two again," Spike said before he followed Twilight.

Spike went up to Twilight Sparkle's side and stated, "Golden Harvest seems rather nice."

"And?"

"She would make a great friend, Twilight, and so would Derpy Hooves!"

"Did you forget? I. Don't. Want. Friends!"

Spike then realized the direction they were going. "Twilight, Sweet Apple Acres is the other way!"

"After all these delays, I have found that we can't afford to look over the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. We have to go to the library immediately."

"So you're abandoning a duty that the princess gave you? That's so unlike you!"

"I know, but even I would rather lose her trust than having the entire world shrouded in eternal night again."

"But we don't even know if that book is true."

"Look, can we even afford the risk?"

"If it's true, the princess will take notice and stop her."

"What if Nightmare Moon has something up her mane this time? She knows about the Elements of Harmony used to seal her and I bet that she would try to prevent the princess from using them again. It's a good idea to look for evidence as soon as we can, so that the princess will be ready for whatever comes her way." She then spotted a unicorn with a white coat and a blue mane. What makes her stand out are the sunglasses she has on. Twilight decided to ask her, "Hey there. Could you point us to the library?"

"Of course you want to go to the library!" the shaded unicorn loudly said. She pointed one of her front hooves at a building made from a tree. "There's a party that's going to be so radical there!"

"You have to be kidding me! Libraries are supposed to be quiet and peaceful, not loud and rambunctious!"

" That's what makes it a perfect place for Pinkie Pie to throw a surprise party for Twilight!"

"I am Twilight. Twilight Sparkle to be precise."

"That means you'll be there for sure! Wait a minute, did I say too much?"

"No, you told me everything that I needed to know."

The white unicorn then spotted Spike. She raised her sunglasses, revealing her eyes, then got very close to the baby dragon. She whistled and said, "You look sooo cute!" The unicorn whistled again before asking, "What's your name?"

Spike answered, "Uhh, you're leaning rather close to me, but my name is Spike... What's yours?"

"On stage, they call me DJ Pony with the number three instead of a y in pony." She whistled before continuing, "But for casual times like now, feel free to call me Vinyl Scratch!"

"I'm glad that you're friendly, even if you do make me feel a bit uncomfortable at times."

"Don't worry about a thing!" Vinyl Scratch put her shades back on. "You'll get used to me sooner or later, Spiky!”

Spike seemed to notice her cutie mark which was shaped like a music note. “I was wondering about your cutie mark.”

“What about my cutie mark you are wondering about?”

“You know that we don't have time for this, Spike,” Twilight interrupted.

"It looks like that you take life too seriously. Loosen up and learn to have fun."

"Look, I only have one life to live, so I have to use my time to serve the princess and further my knowledge."

"But Sparkles, you will never know what having fun is like if you don't ever take a break."

"I already have fun doing royal duties and doing research."

“Then I guess I'll just have to force you to relax sooner or latter. You'll be amazed by how good you'll be feeling.

“Umm... okay. We'll be going then.”

“See ya both at the library this evening and we'll all have the most mind blowing non-surprise party ever!"

Once Vinyl Scratch left, Twilight said to Spike, "Spiky? I didn't expect for you to get a nickname like that today."

"Well, you know, the fillies dig Spike for being such a stud with a great sense of humor."

"The next thing you'll say is that you're hot, because you breathe fire."

"Actually, that wasn't on my mind, but I'll use it since you mentioned it. By the way, why are we still going to the library? You can't go to a party and expect to just read a book without any interruptions."

"I'm not going to the party."

"Huh?"

"We will infiltrate the library from one of it's upper story windows. If things go by as planned, we'll get in undetected. I'll find a hiding spot for me. Then, once the party starts, you can exit the same way we entered and go through the proper entrance to avoid suspicion. Maybe you could go in earlier and pretend to help with the preparations. Either way, grab some books that have anything to do with Nightmare Moon or the Elements of Harmony and bring them to me."

"Your plan sounds crazy." After receiving an angry look from Twilight, he added, "But I'll help if that will calm you down."

"Thanks, Spike."

Twilight Sparkle and Spike headed to the back of the building and climbed up to a window. Since it appeared that there was nopony in that room, Twilight magically opened the window and the two entered from there. They searched the room for any books that Twilight would find useful, but none of the books they spotted were of her interest. Twilight went to beside the bed.

"I suppose that I can rest here while I hide," she hypothesized. "By the time I wake up, I expect for you to have the books in hand."

"Will do!"

Once Spike left, Twilight put her bag down, got into bed, and promptly went to sleep.

When she opened her eyes, Twilight realized that it was now dark outside. She swiftly looked out the window and was relieved that the moon appeared no differently from last night. Twilight didn't see Spike or any books that would prove Nightmare Moon's return. As she began to hope that the princess and Spike were right, she heard a certain voice as a door slammed open, "WAKE UP SLEEPYHEAD!!!"

Twilight recognized the pony once she looked at the two who entered the room. It was that pony who told them about the party, and she was with Spike. Both of them were sweating and panting.

"Spike, this better not be what it looks like," Twilight said angrily.

"Be cool Sparkles! We were just dancing together! I swear!"

"I am still appalled by what I see. Instead of finding some books that could of been some use, you thought that it would be cool to participate in the party, make friends, and dance!"

"But I just couldn't resist," Spike explained. "One thing just led to another."

"You had all that time and you wasted it?!"

"No, I didn't. After I entered the library the normal way, I began to think that I could still check for preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. That pink pony we met was the Pinkie Pie who was preparing the party and she was willing to help me out. It turns out that when she met us, she was just very excited."

"That really isn't the best way to express excitement."

"Anyways, we saw that the food for the banquet is all ready. Pinkie Pie gobbled up all of the samples and I bet that she could of gone on if there was more. The next thing on the list was weather, but Pinkie Pie said that we should do that one last to make it extra super duper special. I agreed and we decided to split up to do the other tasks. Pinkie Pie decided to check decor and I wanted to do music, so we didn't have any arguing. I was glad that I decided to check music, because Fluttershy's voice was so beautiful and she was very nice to me. Once I met up with Pinkie Pie, she said that the decorations had some complications, but that it was able to be quickly fixed. It was evening when we decided to check weather. The sky above the park was all clear, but we didn't see any signs of a pegasus named Rainbow Dash. I helped Pinkie Pie look for her, but we had no luck. She told me to go back to the library and I did so. That was when I partied."

"Nice going Spike. You forgot to do what was most important!"

"Don't be a such a downer, Sparkles," Vinyl told her. "Spiky needed some time to cut loose after being so busy. All work and no play is never fun!"

"Those books were very important!"

Spike took a look at a clock and interrupted the two unicorns, "Excuse me, but it's time for us to watch the sun rise."

"Then I'll go and tell the princess there!"

Spike held out what appeared to be a cupcake with rainbow frosting, "Before we go, do you want this cupcake? We saved it for you."

Twilight realized that aside from breakfast, she really didn't eat anything that day. She accepted Spike's offer, then the three exited the library and Vinyl Scratch led the others to the town square pavilion. Inside, they saw that it was crowded. Twilight thought that the place smelt a bit funky. Once the princess arrives, Twilight would warn her in pony about Nightmare Moon. But since the princess wasn't there, all she could do for now was wait.

Twilight Sparkle was gazing into the sky and at the moon's craters that made up the mare's head when Spike's voice broke her focus. “Hey Twilight,” he started. “I think I found Rainbow Dash.”

“I highly doubt that,” Twilight scoffed. “You said that she was lost after all.”

“Yeah, I sort of did, but look at that pegasus over there.” Spike pointed at a blue pegasus who was hovering above the crowd. Her mane and tail were both six different colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. “She does fit Pinkie Pie's description.”

“That's Bow alright!” Vinyl Scratch stated.

“Bow?” Twilight wondered.

“That's my nickname for her.”

Spike said, “Just go along with it, Twilight.

“I'll call for her to come hang with us!” Vinyl Scratch waved at Rainbow Dash. “Oh Bow! Come over here and mingle with us!”

Twilight Sparkle could tell that Rainbow Dash was looking in her direction. However, the pegasus didn't speak. The purple unicorn noticed that Rainbow Dash was scowling.

Just as Vinyl Scratch raised her hoof to presumably call her again, the birds that were inside began singing. Spike commented that Fluttershy trained them to do that. Once the singing stopped, an elderly mare stepped up.

She announced, "Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!"

Most of the audience cheered and applauded. As the mayor continued on, Twilight looked at the moon and it's craters again. Suddenly, all of those craters disappeared. Nothing now will convince her that Nightmare Moon is just a ponytale. She then directed her attention to the curtains where the princess is supposed to enter from. For some reason, a filthy-looking green unicorn with some white spots and an untidy mane was responsible for raising said curtain. As Spike saw her, he was instantly disgusted with how she looked. Twilight could hear him saying to himself that he would never find her beautiful, not even in an alternate reality.

Once the curtains were raised, there was no princess behind them. The mayor tried to calm the other ponies, but it was no good. The green unicorn confirmed that the princess was gone. Just then, a purple haze appeared from out where the princess was supposed to be. It then manifested itself into a black alicorn with cat-like eyes. Spike fainted at the sight of her.

This alicorn then spoke, "Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces."

Rainbow Dash shouted, "What did you do to my perfect day?!" She then promptly flew up to the alicorn as fast as she could. Unfortunately for her, the alicorn reacted fast enough to turn around and kick the pegasus with her hind legs, sending her crashing into a wall.

What appeared to be more purple haze rose up above the alicorn. Her eyes glowed and thunder that came from that haze struck the poor pegasus, rendering her unconscious. "Pathetic subjects!" the alicorn told the frightened audience. "Don't you know who you are confronting?"

"I know who you are," Twilight spoke up. "You're the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon."

"Well well well, somepony who remembers me. Then you know why I'm here."

"You're here to... to..."

Nightmare Moon laughed, "Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!" She let out an even bigger laugh afterward.

Once Nightmare Moon finished her evil laugh, the mayor shouted, "Seize her! Only she knows where the princess is!"

Three guard pegasi began to fly up, but because they weren't as fast as the pegasus that was knocked out, Nightmare Moon was able to strike all three of them with thunder while they were moving. The evil mare then morphed back into a purple haze and fled the building.

When Twilight was just about to gallop out with Spike on her back, Vinyl Scratch shouted at her. "Twi! You can't take this on by yourself!"

Twilight stopped, "I'm not going to confront her, yet. I have to do some research on the Elements of Harmony, then I'll go stop Nightmare Moon myself."

"But you totally saw what happened to the pegasi who tried to stop her. If you tried to face her alone and you get zapped, then..."

"I didn't think of that... Very well, I'll just have to form an aggregation of other ponies to make sure that doesn't happen then."

"Huh?"

Twilight called to all the other ponies in the building, "Anypony who wants to aide me in vanquishing Nightmare Moon, raise your hoof!" Most of the ponies in the pavilion instantly left screaming from hearing that. "Apparently, that was no good..."

"I'm cool with helping you out, Twi," Vinyl told her.

"Thanks."

"We are too," a familiar voice said. Twilight found that it came from Golden Harvest who didn't flee. Hovering next to her was Derpy Hooves.

The cross-eyed mare added, "We'll beat up that meanie! Not you Twilight, cause you apologized and called yourself a meanie and stuff."

"Thanks you two," Twilight said.

Colgate then got out from under a table, "My parents will be worried sick about me, but I'm still willing to help you out, Twilight Sparkle."

"Thank you everypony. Since there is nopony else who could potentially be of use, let's get going."

"Not yet! There's one more pony here. She was hiding under the same table I was." Colgate removed the tablecloth to reveal Trixie who was hiding under there.

"Is she gone?" Trixie muttered before she noticed that Twilight was present. "Twilight! What the hay are you doing here?!"

"Oh, so it's the Great and Cowardly Trixie," Twilight scoffed. "What help can you be?"

"Trixie is not a coward! You were the one who ran away from our duel like a coward! Trixie is the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria and she will amaze you all..."

"Twilight!" Golden Harvest scolded.

"Let's get down to business, Trixie," Twilight began. "If you are as great and powerful as you claim to be, you will join us in our quest to defeat Nightmare Moon."

As Trixie was getting out from under the same table, she said, "Of course I'm the Great and Powerful Trixie... She isn't afraid of Nightmare Moon or anything of that sort!"

"I'm fine with you being afraid, Trixie," Colgate tried to reassure. "I'm scared as well, but I am still willing to help out however I can."

"Trixie is never scared! She will go with you all to show you how to bring down this Nightmare Moon and make her bow before me!"

"Well, we can all use another pony to help out."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will amaze you all as she shows you all how things are done!"

Ignoring Trixie, Twilight asked the others, "Are we all ready to leave this time?"

"I'm ready to go, Twi!" Vinyl Scratch answered.

"I am," said Colgate.

Golden Harvest told Twilight, "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Trixie is always prepared!" bragged Trixie.

Derpy Hooves shouted, "Catch me if you can!” She then broke a window as she flew out. After a moment, she went back to the others. “Aww! You all are no fun if you don't play along!”

"Just follow me," Twilight Sparkle told the others. Her newly formed group followed as she headed on her way back to the library.

In Spite of a Horseshoe

I removed an awkwardly placed conversation, since I came up with a way to explain what was in it with the improved version of the first chapter.

I updated this as well as the other first four chapters (she now has a minor role in chapter three) in order to adjust to the canon personality and name Derpy was given. Because of this, I'm sure that she'll be more entertaining. Also, she's now the only pony that calls Golden Harvest "Carrot Top."

Episode Two: In Spite of a Horseshoe

Once Twilight Sparkle got back to the library with her new allies, her first priority was to tuck a sleeping Spike in bed. She was originally going to have Spike sleep in a basket with a blanket and pillow, but Golden Harvest insisted that he should sleep on a proper bed. Once they took care of Spike, Twilight and Golden Harvest headed back to the main section of the library where Trixie, Colgate, Derpy Hooves, and Vinyl Scratch were situated.

"Just tell us all what to do and we'll see what we can do," Vinyl Scratch stated.

"Trixie added, "Yes, tell Trixie what your so called amazing plan is."

"To find a book that can help us, duh!" Twilight groaned. "I need to find a book about the Elements of Harmony, so that I can stop Nightmare Moon."

"Aha! You want all the glory for yourself then. Trixie knew it!"

"I never said anything along the lines of that."

"You said that you wanted to stop Nightmare Moon, not we."

"It's not like you would want to share the glory with anypony else in the first place you big hypocrite!"

"STOP!!!" Golden Harvest shouted with all her might. All the other ponies in the room were rendered temporarily speechless. "If you both keep bringing each other down like that, the two of you won't even be able to stop her."

Once Twilight regained her senses, she raised one of her front hooves and asked Trixie, "Until we defeat Nightmare Moon?"

Trixie hesitated for a while, but she eventually repeated, "Until we defeat Nightmare Moon." She raised a hoof as well and joined it with the one Twilight extended.

"Umm, excuse me," Colgate said to Twilight. She continued after being sure that Twilight was paying attention, "I was wondering... What are the Elements of Harmony and what do they do?"

"I don't know," Twilight Sparkle told her. "But I do know that they are the only things that can stop Nightmare Moon."

"Is it alright if I help you look for a book relating to that?"

"It is."

Colgate went up to the bookshelves and began looking through them. Even though Twilight Sparkle loves reading and is rather organized, she ironically has a difficult time looking for books. She doesn't want to admit it, but Twilight appreciates it whenever Spike finds what she needs. This is the first time she openly accepted help finding books from somepony else.

Derpy Hooves came up to Twilight and said, "I'll help too!"

Twilight answered, "Well... Why not?"

The gray pegasus flew up to the bookshelf and brought back a book. She presented it to Twilight.

Twilight saw that it was titled, How to Make Bombs at Home. “Do you seriously think bombs will thwart Nightmare Moon?”

“Nah. I just like the pretty explosions. Boom!”

Just then, one of the books glowed and it levitated down in front of Twilight. She saw that it was titled The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. Twilight was just about to thank the first pony who volunteered to help when Trixie spoke up.

"You honestly need others to find the right book?"

"Of course I don't," Twilight said. “...But I have to admit this is the perfect book. I'll get to reading right away." Twilight opened the book and read a passage to the others, "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five Elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now the Everfree Forest."

Some frightened gasps could be heard from the others. Trixie who didn't appear astonished at all bragged to the others, "Trixie knows all about the Everfree Forest, but she would like to see what you all know."

"It's dangerous,"Golden Harvest stated.

Colgate explained, "It doesn't follow the same laws as the rest of Equestria."

“It's a forest,” Derpy said.

Vinyl Scratch leapt in front of Trixie and shouted, "And nopony can hear you scream as beasts SHRED YOU UP INTO BILLIONS OF PIECES!" She then chuckled evilly at what she had just said.

Trixie let out a loud and very high pitched shriek and cowered down. Derpy then came up to Trixie and shouted as loud as she could in one of her ears. That made Trixie scream again.

“You know Great and Powerful Trixie,” Derpy told her, “it's funny to hear you scream.”

Golden Harvest went to the frightened unicorn and said to her, "We'll be sticking together, so don't worry about it too much.

Trixie swiftly stood up and told the others, "Trixie wasn't scared! She was just practicing how to drive away the monsters!"

"Well, that would definitely drive them away," Twilight Sparkle snarked. Trixie was just about to say something, but she stopped herself. Twilight then stated, "There's some more about the Elements of Harmony in here." After receiving some encouragement, she continued, "There is a way to bring upon the sixth Element. When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed. When they are recognized, the six Elements of Harmony can be used to thwart tyranny."

"So we have to bring the five Elements together to make the sixth one appear?" Colgate inquired.

"It appears so. Since I think we're done here, ready to head to this Everfree Forest?"

Everypony said that they were ready, even Trixie. Vinyl Scratch raised her shades above her eyes before she headed out with the others. Once they left the library, Golden Harvest led the others to the Everfree Forest.

At the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle took a look at the foliage that it was composed of. The plant life appeared different than it does in other places, so she assumed that was why the other ponies feared this place. Still, Twilight was just as determined to go in and find the Elements of Harmony needed to stop Nightmare Moon's reign of darkness.

"Let me lead the way," Twilight Sparkle said as she entered the Everfree Forest proper. The other ponies followed her. Soon, the ground they were treading on lacked grass. Twilight saw that there were two paths to take: one straight ahead that leads up higher, and another to the side that goes down. Ascending the high path could easily lead to a dead end due to unsteady terrain, so she opted to lead the group downhill. It didn't seem that there were going to be any alternate paths for a while, as the one Twilight chose led them into a long canyon-like structure. They could tell that they are still in the Everfree Forest from the trees and bushes growing beside each wall.

"This'll take time!" Vinyl blurted out.

"So," Twilight began, "what do you want me to do about it? You know that I want to get there as fast as-"

"We can all have a scaring competition to lighten us all up!" the white unicorn interrupted.

"I got something better!" Derpy Hooves explained. She flew up and produced a storm cloud. Derpy then bounced up and down on it which made thunder shoot out from all over. “Look at me! I got a trampoline!” In the process, a bunch of trees got fried. “WHEEEEE!” It was then when one bolt came and electrocuted Trixie.

Upon getting zapped, Trixie screamed, “WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT FOR?! Is there something you have against Trixie, you stupid, retarded, little cross-eyed pony?!”

“Nope. What gave you that idea?”

“Maybe this isn't the best time for trampoline time,” Golden Harvest said.

Just then, Twilight felt a tremor. She then saw a purple cloud seep out of the ground and fly off ahead. "Nightmare Moon!" The ground behind Twilight's group began to collapse. All of the ponies began to run from the growing hole that presumably leads deep down under Equestria. All of them except Derpy Hooves, since she was able to fly.

"Gallop faster everypony!" Golden Harvest commanded while running ahead of the unicorns.

"I'm trying!" Colgate screamed. A crack then appeared in front of the blue and white maned unicorn and expanded. Colgate couldn't stop in time, thus sending her into the black void. She screamed until she realized that Derpy caught hold of her. The cross-eyed pegasus began to fly Colgate towards safe ground.

The ground in front of Twilight Sparkle collapsed as well, but she was able to stop in time. Twilight looked at the pit and saw that it was too huge for her to leap over. "This might be it!" she yelled in order to be heard. "Go on without me and bring a stop to Nightmare Moon!"

The sole earth pony turned around and made a bound across the gap to Twilight. "I'm not leaving you behind! Get on!" The purple unicorn got a hold of her and Golden Harvest jumped across that same pit. The ground the two of them were just on crumbled into oblivion. Golden Harvest darted as fast as she could from the ever expanding chasm. Once the ground stopped falling apart and Golden Harvest caught up with the others, Twilight got off her back.

"Why did you save me when you could of just saved yourself?" Twilight asked.

Golden Harvest explained, "I just couldn't look at myself the same way if I just abandoned you like that."

"Thanks Golden Harvest. That was very kind of you to risk your life for me."

"I'm sure that if there was a similar situation where I needed your help, you would save me." Even though she knows that Nightmare Moon is still a very real threat, Twilight couldn't help but smile at Golden Harvest's kindness towards her.

"I felt my adrenaline rushing back there!" Vinyl Scratch shouted. "I want to experience it again!"

Trixie tried to seem as calm as possible when she told her, "Trixie says that it is unwise to experience unnecessary danger solely for entertainment."

"You gotta loosen up and have fun, Trickster!"

"What kind of lame name is Trickster anyways? Trixie's name is Trixie, not Trickster!"

All of the sudden Derpy said, “We'll stop Nightmare Moon! We'll stop Nightmare Moon! We'll stop Nightmare Moon! We'll stop Nightmare Moon! And have muffins cause they're so taaasty!” She repeated this many times.

“What the heck are you doing?”

Derpy stopped and explained, “I'm singing!” She went back to what she was doing instantaneously.

Aside from the “song,” the rest of the trek through the canyon was rather uneventful.

At the point where the walls stopped, it began to look like an actual forest again. A sea of tall, intimidating trees stood in front of the six mares, daring them to go through. Since they appeared different than the ones she saw when they entered, Twilight hypothesized that they were getting closer to the castle. The ponies went forth into the thicket, unsure what they'll come across. About a few minutes later, their surroundings became pitch black. Twilight Sparkle stopped in her tracks in order to not run into anything. Unfortunately for her, the other ponies didn't do the same. Amongst the confusion that comes with the lack of visibility, they all tumbled and knocked Twilight down with them.

"Sorry!" Colgate said instantly.

"No, it's alright," Twilight stated. She got up and told the other unicorns, "Everypony who can illuminate the forest, do so now."

It turned out that all of the unicorns except Colgate could produce light from their horns. With her eyes closed and a smug look on her face, Trixie told the other ponies, "Hah! The Illumination spell is for amateurs! It is foal's play for somepony like the Great and Powerful Trixie!" All of the sudden, Trixie could hear screams coming from the other ponies. She was partially successful in suppressing a scream, leading to an "Eeep!" Trixie then said, "It's probably nothing... right?" At that moment, Trixie opened her eyes and found herself in front of a tree with monstrous fangs that could snap a pony in half. She let out a shriek that somehow happened to outclass the one she made back at the library. After realizing that every other tree was like that, Trixie cowered down and shut her eyes.

Derpy Hooves came up to Trixie again and screamed into her ears.

After she finished her screaming, Trixie told her, "That's not funny!"

“You're sense of humor must be broken,” Derpy stated.

"How the heck can you think of messing around when a bunch of trees are about to eat us?!"

Derpy looked around and said, “They're trees with teeth. I bet they munch hard.”

Colgate got up and said to Derpy, "Wait a minute! You said trees with teeth, right?"

“And they're pretty as well.”

She then told the other ponies, "Take a closer look at these trees!"

"Umm, if you say so," Twilight answered.

"Alright," said Golden Harvest.

Vinyl Scratch stated, "Taking another peek at these gnarly monsters is good for an awesome fright, so I will."

"Trixie just can't!" Trixie cried.

"It'll be alright," Colgate said calmly. “You can get up.”

“Fine...” Reluctantly, she got back up and reopened her eyes.

“I don't think that these trees will hurt us.” Colgate went over to one of the trees and raised one of her front hooves up to the mouth.

“DON'T DO IT!” Trixie shrieked. Just as Colgate put her hoof in between the sharp fangs, Trixie ran up and shoved her away from the tree. “What were you even thinking of doing?!”

“I was proving that the trees weren't dangerous. I noticed that their dental structure is abnormal.”

“You scare so so so easily!” Vinyl Scratch pointed out.

Trixie got back on her hooves, “The Great and Powerful Trixie is never afraid!”

“But you seemed so afraid earlier,” Colgate stood up.

“And you scream whenever I zap you or scream into your eardrums,” Derpy said.

“Well, Trixie wasn't scared,” Trixie claimed.

“I can tell that you were and there's nothing wrong with that,” Colgate tried to reassure.

“But there is. Who will admire the Great and Powerful Trixie if she's a coward?”

“Even though you get scared at times, I like you.”

“Because you heard that the Great and Powerful Trixie is the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria, no doubt.”

“Actually, that's not the reason. Most magical unicorn is such a big name to live up to, so I figured you made that up to get more attention.”

“You must be lying then. I'm admired for being the Great and Powerful Trixie. That is the reason why she's liked.”

“There's more to you than that. You decided to help defeat Nightmare Moon instead of running away like most of the other ponies.”

“But that was so Trixie could get the fame that comes along with saving daytime, nothing more.”

“That's probably true, but when you thought that I was in danger, you tried to save me.”

“Look, Trixie only did it, so that she would look like a hero,” Trixie claimed. “If you aren't going to admire me as the Great and Powerful Trixie, then don't admire her at all. You're too good a pony to be fooling yourself like that.”

Colgate came up to Trixie and hugged her. Even though she tried to look as tough as possible, Trixie couldn't help but cry from the gesture.

“Trixie, actually being modest?” Twilight whispered in Golden Harvest's ear.

“I believe so,” she responded.

“Hmm... I'll just have to wait and see if it's genuine or not...”

“And I'll wait for the perfect opportunity to have fun with her again!” Derpy exclaimed.

Ready to go on, Twilight trotted past the scary-looking trees and the others followed. The density of the trees let up, allowing for the moonlight to reach the ground. Sooner than they expected, Twilight's group came upon a raging river. Twilight Sparkle was thinking of ways to get through when they heard crying from upstream. Soon, they saw a long tail thrashing within a river. It was attached to a sea serpent.

“What a world, what a world!” cried the sea serpent as he continued to thrash about.
“What's the problem?” Golden Harvest asked.
“Well, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my mustache clean off!” He pointed to where his mustache has been cut off. “And now I look simply horrid!” The serpent's body fell down into the water, splashing the ponies.

Once he got back up, a wet Trixie told him, “So you won’t be able to go to the male beauty pageant for a while then. It’s not like it’s the end of the world or anything.”

“But it so is! The beauty pageant is what I live for! All the other sea serpents will think that I’m hideous, and they're right!” He began to cry louder than before.

“You honestly go to a beauty pageant? Trixie was only kidding!”

“I have an idea on how to put him on could nine,” Vinyl Scratch stated.

“Feel free to do whatever you need to do, Vinyl Scratch,” Golden Harvest encouraged.

Vinyl Scratch turned to the sea serpent and told him, “In my ‘pinion, you’re taking things a bit too seriously. You gotta loosen up and laugh every now and then.”

“But what do I have to laugh about?” the sea serpent wept.

“Well, it’s kinda funny how your life could become such a wreck just cause your stache got messed up.”

“I might have been overstating how bad my life might be with such a horrid mustache… I suppose that I could laugh about that.” The serpent let out a small chuckle.

“There. You feeling better now?”

“I think I’m beginning to. I think it’s also a bit silly how everybody would hate me just because of how I look.” He let out a louder laugh than before. “Just because my girlfriend dumped me for not wearing my makeup the other day doesn’t mean that my life is terrible.”

“It’s radical that you learned to laugh despite what happened to you,” Vinyl told him.

“This is so wonderful! Oh, thank you so much for making me so happy and giggly! I'm just so bouncy now!” The overjoyed sea serpent just couldn't keep his tail still.

Twilight saw that they still had no way across the raging river, so she decided to ask, “If you don't mind, sir, could you help us across?”

“Of course!” The laughing serpent grabbed all of the ponies and placed them on the other side of the river. “See you all later!

Once the river was out of sight, everypony heard a bloodcurdling scream just up ahead. “W-what was that?” a scared Trixie asked.

“I don't know,” Golden Harvest told her. “Just stay calm and we’ll all be fine.”

Suddenly, a giant ogre leapt up in front of the ponies. The huge, hulking monster was balding and one of his eyes was entirely white. He roared with all his might, spit flying out everywhere. Unsurprisingly, Trixie let out another high-pitched shriek.

“Awesome!” Derpy bursted out with excitement. “I bet he came to play and have fun with us! You know, because he let out a yell of excitement!”

“This is not a time to be silly! We should all be frightened of him!” Trixie shivered.

“So you finally admit that you’re scared,” Twilight Sparkle said with pride.

Golden Harvest told Twilight, “This isn’t the best time now, Twilight.”

The ogre reached with one of his massive hands for Trixie and Golden Harvest took notice. The orange earth pony rushed to the front of her and kicked the ogre’s hand as hard as she could. As the monster screamed in rage, Trixie was able to distance herself from him. The ogre swung his other arm at Golden Harvest, knocking her into a tree and leaving her dazed. He then resumed his pursuit for Trixie. Vinyl Scratch came to Trixie’s side and her horn began to glow. A loud guitar riff resonated from her horn and a music note came flying out. The note hit the ogre and it stunned him for a second. The next thing he did was swat Vinyl to the side.

Seeing that the ogre came after her once again, Trixie concentrated and materialized a black cloud. It hovered over the attacker and shot out a bolt of lighting that zapped him. The burn mark he received didn’t deter him one bit. As Colgate focused on the ogre, both her horn and the beast glowed the same color. Twilight noticed that the ogre’s movements were now slower, so she levitated a rock and threw it at him. Although slowed, the monster turned to head for the unicorn who chucked a stone at him. The purple unicorn threw more stones in an attempt to beat him down, but it was futile. Just then, the blue glow from the ogre disappeared and Twilight had no time to react against the swat she was just about to receive.

Once Twilight was swept to the side, Colgate apologized, “Sorry! I wasn't able to slow him down for long enough...”

“You tried your best,” Twilight told her.

Since Derpy was just watching, there was nothing to stop the monster from approaching Trixie.

The ogre came up to Trixie and said to her, “Cape.”

“What?” Trixie asked.

“Cape.” He pointed to Trixie's cape.

“Just leave us alone once Trixie gives you what you want!”

“Yes.” Trixie undone her blue cape and gave it to the ogre. The giant creature then stretched the cape and tied it around his head, forming an eye patch that hides his blank eye. He then said, “Hat, please.”

Trixie looked at her hat, then told him, “Uh, Trixie's hat doesn't look as magnificent without the matching cape, so she'll let you have it.” She levitated the hat and placed it on top of the ogre's bald spot.

“Thanks. Purple haze came and made my eye bad as well as make me bald.” He then walked away.

Twilight got up and asked the other ponies who were attacked, “Is everypony okay?”

“I am,” Golden Harvest told her.

“I'm cool,” stated Vinyl Scratch.

“Okay!” Derpy Hooves confirmed.

Twilght said, “If we're all set, then let's get going!”

After some more trekking through the Everfree Forest, the ponies spotted what appeared to be some ancient ruins. It was surrounded by a deep trench and a thick fog. It was unclear what was down there, as a haze obscured the view. Fortunately, there were two posts presumably there to hold a bridge up ahead. “Finally!” Twilight exclaimed. “The ruin that holds the Elements of Harmony. Let's go!” She rushed on ahead, but found out too late that there was no bridge. Twilight struggled with her front hooves, but it was no use. Trixie came and grabbed Twilight's tail with her teeth.

After dragging her to safety, Trixie took her grip off and told Twilight, “You're so reckless, you know!”

“Thanks.”

“Trixie didn't ask for your thanks.”

Golden Harvest said, “Excuse me, but how are we going to cross this?”

“Simple,” Twilight stated. She headed back to where the bridge is supposed to start and looked down. Twilight barely made out what she wanted to see, a bridge hanging down from the cliff she was on. Her horn began to glow. “I'll just take hold of this bridge here and fix it.” However, Twilight found that the bridge didn't move one bit, no matter how hard she tried. She headed back to the others.

“What's going on?” Golden Harvest inquired.

“My magic just won't go through these clouds for some reason.”

“Let Trixie try herself,” stated Trixie as she went over to where Twilight was. She tried the same thing that the unicorn before her attempted, but she was unsuccessful as well.

Colgate asked, “Why not have Derpy Hooves fix the bridge?”

Twilight looked over at Derpy and told her, “Derpy, you are our last hope... You really are, because there isn't another.”

Derpy Hooves glanced at Twilight before telling her, “I'll be right back! ” After taking off, she flew into the trench and took hold of the bridge's loose end. Derpy flew up to the other side and retied one of the ropes when a mysterious pony appeared from the fog. This stranger looked just like Pinkie Pie, except she was purple instead of pink and her eyes gave out a yellowish glow.

“Derpy! Derpy! I'm so glad to meet ya!” the Pinkie Pie lookalike bounced about, sounding just like her. “I'm Auntie Pie and we're going to have soooo much fun!”

Auntie Pie said “Auntie” in a weird way, but Derpy Hooves didn't hold it against her. Derpy let go of the bridge's rope and asked Auntie Pie, “You're Pinkie Pie's aunt?”

“Are you crazy in the noggin?!” Auntie Pie saw that Derpy looked confused, so she added, “But you can call me Pinkie Pie's aunt if you really really really want to.”

“I never seen you around here.”

“Don't be a silly filly! I don't live in Ponyville, Manehatten, or any of those places. I live my life to the fullest in the Everfree Forest!”

All of the sudden, Derpy felt sorry for Auntie Pie. Ponies must have been mean to her because of her glowing eyes, so she went to live away from them. All these years living in the Everfree Forest by herself must of made her go crazy.

“I bet that you would love some muffins, wouldn't ya?” Auntie Pie told her. A plate that served as a base to a tower of black and gray muffins appeared right next to the mysterious relative of Pinkie Pie's. “These are veryveryveryveryvery special muffins! They're yummier than every other muffin in the whole entire world!

Derpy said, “I'd love some! I'll fix this bridge so that my friends can enjoy them as well.”

As she headed to retie the last rope, Auntie Pie rushed in front of Derpy and giggled, “Oh, you don't want to do that, Derpy!”

“How else are we going to share these muffins with my fends?”

“They're not going to have muffins. Like, duh! You are going to have to choose between these oh so delicious muffins and them!” Auntie Pie managed to look just as cheerful despite having Derpy having to choose between two things she likes.

Trixie was watching the conversation that was taking place. She shouted at Derpy, “Don't tell Trixie that you are abandoning us for, for, for muffins!”

Derpy glanced at her friends, then back to Auntie Pie. “I appreciate that you made all these muffins all the way in the Everfree Forest just for me, but I can't leave my friends.” Derpy decided to push Auntie Pie off the cliff so that she could share the muffins with her friends. Everypony wins, because Auntie Pie might be put out of her misery and the others get to eat her muffins. She then went and retied the final rope, making the bridge stable again. For some reason, the fog was gone and Derpy couldn't find the muffins anywhere.

“I knew that you would never let us down,” Golden Harvest said as she was crossing the bridge.

“But I did. Even though I pushed Auntie Pie off the cliff, I lost the muffins we were going to have.”

“We'll be fine without some muffins,” Twilight reassured.

Past the bridge, Twilight Sparkle and the others ran into no further obstacles on the way to the ruins. Right after they entered, the six mares instantly took notice of a structure that held five stone spheres.

Vinyl Scratch asked, “These the Elements of Harmony we need?”

“I believe so,” Twilight answered. “Help me get them down.”

Twilight, Trixie, Colgate, and Vinyl Scratch each levitated a different sphere while Derpy flew up and grabbed the fifth one. Once all of the spheres were carefully placed on the ground, Colgate inquired, “What do we do with the five Elements to make the sixth one appear?”

“The book mentioned that a spark will make the sixth Element appear.”

“I bet we need a giant laser beam!” Derpy suggested.

“I highly doubt that. It wasn't made clear what the spark is, but I have an idea. Stand back.” Twilight noticed that the other ponies didn't back away.

“We can't do that!” Vinyl Scratch said.

“What?”

“We can't let you be when Nightmare Moon can whoosh in and zap you at any moment!”

Golden Harvest said, “We'll make sure that you're safe.”

Derpy spoke, “And we'll beat up Nightmare Moon if she comes by!”

“I'll try my best to help,” Colgate stated.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie will show you all how to vanquish Nightmare Moon on this very night!” Trixie piped. She looked at Colgate, then added, “...Even if she happens to be very scared...”

“If you all insist, I can't stop you,” Twilight told the others. “However, I don't know what will happen, so brace yourselves.” She crouched down and concentrated hard. Twilight's horn began to glow and it looked like she was straining herself.

As Trixie glanced away, she noticed that a purple smoke was headed right their way. She cast a firework spell at the incoming cloud, causing it to fall apart and force Nightmare Moon back into her physical form.

“You think it's funny to mess around with your new ruler, little foal?!” Nightmare Moon shouted at Trixie. “If you all insist on guarding the Elements of Harmony, then I'll just eliminate you all!”

It didn't appear that Nightmare Moon was paying attention to Derpy Hooves. While she was talking, the cross-eyed pegasus lifted a brick and flew up above her. Derpy managed to drop the heavy brick right on top of the alicorn's horn, causing it to crack. Nightmare Moon was still able to conjure up mist from her body. Like it did before, the mist shot out a bolt of electricity. Derpy couldn't avoid it and fell to the ground once she got electrocuted.

“Derpy!” Twilight cried.

“Focus on the Elements, Twilight!” Golden Harvest commanded. “We'll handle her!” She grabbed the brick that Derpy dropped, leapt up to Nightmare Moon's head, and slammed the stone on her horn as hard as she could. Nightmare Moon's horn shattered into many pieces that all fell to the ground. The purple cloud hovering over her disappeared. “You're a lot less powerful without your horn to cast spells!”

Nightmare Moon merely let out an evil laugh. “It'll take more than that to thwart your new ruler!” The shards of her horn turned into smoke and flew back to her head where they materialized into a new horn. Vinyl Scratch created a series of tiny musical notes from her horn that fell to the ground and zoomed towards Nightmare Moon. The black alicorn was able to grab hold of all of them with her magic, then hurled them with great force at both Vinyl Scratch and Golden Harvest, knocking the two of them to a wall.

The evil alicorn teleported right to where Twilight and the Elements were. “You just ran out of time!” At that moment, Trixie rushed to the front of Nightmare Moon and shot fireworks right into her eyes.

The overwhelming light and the searing heat made her temporarily blind. When Nightmare Moon regained her senses, she spotted Twilight Sparkle trying to escape with the Elements in tow. She warped straight in front of her path, successfully intercepting Twilight. “Hah! There is no escape!” All of the sudden, Nightmare Moon felt something wrap around her neck. She saw that it was a rope made up of colorful napkins. As the rope tightened, everything around her seemed to speed up.”

Colgate shouted, “Quick! The spark!”

“I'm trying!” Twilight, who never tried to escape in the first place exclaimed. What Nightmare Moon thought was Twilight Sparkle escaping was merely an illusion created by Trixie in order to distract her.

Even though she was being slowed down and choked, Nightmare Moon was still able to produce more haze. Unaffected by Colgate's magic, the haze created two bolts of thunder that were targeted at the two blue-coated unicorns. Trixie barely managed to avoid the one aimed at her, but Colgate got the full blunt of the attack. Now at normal speed, Nightmare Moon's horn glowed purple and the rope that was tying her turned into smoke.

“CREATE THE SPARK BEFORE WE ALL DIE!!!” Trixie shrieked.

Nightmare Moon levitated what was used against her and aimed it at Trixie. Trixie was unable to dodge the brick that darted over to her, slamming her into a wall that cracked from the sheer impact. Twilight could of sworn that the shattering noises she heard weren't just the ones coming from the wall. Nightmare Moon teleported back to Twilight and the Elements.

“There's nopony else to protect you. Now it's just you and me!” As she laughed, her horn produced a silver glow. The radiance flowed from her horn to the rest of her body, coating Nightmare Moon in the same luminosity. The glow then became brighter until she was entirely white. All of the sudden, the brightness disappeared from Nightmare Moon and a crescent-shaped shock wave emitted from her chest. The shock wave knocked Twilight Sparkle away from the Elements of Harmony, but she managed to get back up.

Twilight stomped one of her front hooves to the ground a couple of times, then prepared herself to charge after the Elements. “You're kidding,” Nightmare Moon stated. “You're kidding, right?” Unbeknownst to Twilight, her horn was glowing silver when she began to gallop. Nightmare Moon charged after the last remaining pony. Just as Twilight Sparkle braced for impact, she involuntarily created a smaller version of Nightmare Moon's crescent shock wave from her horn. The shock wave tripped the alicorn and a confused Twilight ran up to the Elements of Harmony.

Twilight Sparkle crouched down to the Elements and concentrated again, “All I need is one spark! Come on, come on!” Just as the five Elements began to glow, Nightmare Moon teleported up to them. The magical energy Twilight put into them then rebounded and knocked her away.

However, she saw that the Elements were still emitting energy and that Nightmare Moon appeared frightened. “No, no!” Nightmare Moon uttered. It appeared to Twilight that the sixth Element would appear. Just as something was going to happen, the five Elements lost all of their radiance.

Twilight Sparkle looked around, but she didn't see the sixth Element anywhere. “Where's the sixth Element?!”

Nightmare Moon laughed. She slammed the ground, shattering the five Elements into many shards. “You little foal! Thinking you and a bunch of random ponies could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun. The night will last forever!” After chuckling some more, she asked Twilight, “Any last words?”

Twilight took another look at her surroundings. Colgate and Derpy Hooves were both lying down on the ground unconscious, fried from the zapping they received. Golden Harvest and Vinyl Scratch were both down as well. Trixie was the only one who was still conscious, but Twilight could tell that she was in agonizing pain. She then realized that despite all the risks, these ponies all confronted Nightmare Moon in order for her to create the spark. Twilight faced Nightmare Moon and told her, “Here are some last words for you. You may of defeated the others and shattered the Elements of Harmony, but that doesn't mean you have destroyed them.”

“What?” Nightmare Moon asked.

“The spirits of the Elements of Harmony reside in each one of them.” At that very moment, the shards began to levitate. “Golden Harvest, who went out of my way to save me, represents the spirit of... Kindness!” Some of the shards flew over to the orange earth pony and surrounded her. Golden Harvest was able to get back up. Twilight continued, “Colgate, who was able to reassure us all with the truth, represents the spirit of... Honesty!” Shards then came to surround Colgate. All of her injuries from being electrocuted disappeared and she regained consciousness. “Vinyl Scratch, who was able to make a sorrowful serpent laugh, represents the spirit of... Laughter!” Vinyl Scratch was revived by the shards that came and surrounded her. “Trixie, who values life more than material possessions, represents the spirit of... Generosity.” The shards that came for Trixie were able to levitate the brick off of her. Once she was surrounded by them, Trixie no longer seemed to be in pain. “And Derpy Hooves, who thinks of her friends, represents the spirit of... Loyalty!” The last of the shards came and revived Derpy. “The spirits of these five ponies got us through everything you threw at us.”

“You still don't have the sixth Element!” Nightmare Moon pointed out. “The spark didn't work!”

“But it did! A different kind of spark.” Twilight turned to the other ponies. “I felt it the very moment I realized the lengths you all would go for me.” She began to tear up. “The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends.” As Twilight went to face Nightmare Moon again, a bright light appeared right over her. She looked up and saw that it was the sixth Element. “You see Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth Element, the Element of... Magic.” The sixth Element then created a bright flash.

Once flash was over, Twilight's friends began to hover. Each set of shards that surrounded the ponies joined together to create golden necklaces around their necks. The jewel on the center of each necklace was in the shape of the wearer's cutie mark. The Element of Magic morphed into a golden tiara for Twilight Sparkle. Twilight then hovered up to the others. All six ponies were now surrounded in auras of pure magic. Once Twilight Sparkle was close enough to her friends, they all combined their powers to create a six-colored beam encompassing the spirits of the Elements of Harmony. The rainbow beam wrapped Nightmare Moon into a colorful tornado as she screamed. Twilight's eyes began to shine brighter and brighter until the entire area was flooded with light.

The next thing Twilight and the others knew was that they were lying on the floor. Vinyl Scratch got up and stated, “This feels like one of these after parties I've been through.”

“That doesn't sound like fun,” Colgate commented.

“Trust me, they're fun. Exciting things happen.”

“I don't know what it's like, but that sounds so awesome!” Derpy blurted out. “We have to go to your after parties sometime!”

Trixie stood up and said to Twilight, “Twilight, I...”

“Go on,” Twilight urged.

“Trixie hates to admit it, but... it's good that you were able to stop Nightmare Moon.”

Golden Harvest spoke, “It was all of us who stopped Nightmare Moon.”

“So that means we can all brag about how Trixie and her friends put a stop to Nightmare Moon!”

“Let's not do it now,” Twilight stated. “Once we work together to defeat more evil entities, save entire nations, and put an end to the ultimate evil, then that's when we'll all boast.” All of the ponies laughed at what Twilight just said.

They then looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was rising. A ball of light was generated by the sun and floated down to the ruins. It then morphed into a magnificent white alicorn with a multicolored mane. Everypony but Trixie bowed down to her.

Twilight called her out, “Trixie! Be respectful to Princess Celestia and bow down like the rest of us.”

“It will be alright,” Celestia told Twilight. “I trust in her as much as I do the other friends you made.” She came up to her student and nuzzled her. “I knew that you could do it, Twilight Sparkle.”

“You told me it was all an old pony tale.”

“I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well.” She turned to a small, purple alicorn who appeared frightened and trotted closer to her. “Princess Luna.” The timid alicorn whimpered. “It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister.”

“I thought we killed her,” Derpy said.

“Will you accept my friendship?”

Luna hesitated then rushed up to Celestia, “I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!”

“I've missed you too.”

“So, now what?” Trixie interrupted.

“What about we all participate in the Summer Sun Celebration?” Celestia asked with no resentfulness in her tone.

Vinyl Scratch exclaimed, “That'll be awesome!”

“But how do we get back safely?” Colgate inquired.

“Don't worry about it,” Celestia said in a calm tone. She emitted a beam of light that were the colors of her mane straight into the sky. In a few seconds, four guard pegasi who were pulling an empty chariot arrived. “We'll just go by air. Follow me, sister.” Luna nodded and followed Celestia into the chariot. After the rest of the ponies got on, the guard pegasi began to fly the chariot towards Ponyville.

Once the chariot was well over the Everfree Forest, Trixie felt compelled to ask Princess Celestia something. “We'll be famous for saving the world from an everlasting night, right?”

“Not exactly,” Celestia said cryptically.

“What do you mean?”

Princess Celestia's horn glowed again, and the Elements of Harmony disappeared from the ponies that were wearing them.

A perplexed Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, “Celestia! What happened to the Elements of Harmony!?”

Princess Celestia reassured, “I put them somewhere safe. It would not be good for you to let the fame to go to your heads, so I'll tell the citizens of Ponyville that I put a stop to Nightmare Moon.”

“But I thought that we were going to get respect,” Trixie said.

“You may of not gotten what you want, but think about what you gained on your journey.”

Trixie pondered, “What I gained...” She then glanced at Colgate. “On this journey... I have learned that having great talent isn't the only way to be appreciated. Showing concern for another can cause others to care for you as well.”

“Very good.”

“But what about Derpy?” Twilight wondered. “Won't she accidentally tell others the truth?”

“You don't have to worry about that. It would be very unlikely for anypony to believe her.” Celestia paused before adding, “We'll be landing right outside of Ponyville. You six can get off there while me and my sister make a royal entrance there.”

“Wait,” Colgate muttered. “My parents will be worried about me. What will I say?”

“What about we all make a royal entrance together?”

“Yes, please.”

Once the chariot was no longer right above the Everfree Forest, the guard pegasi began to descend. Soon, they were pulling the chariot on the ground towards Ponyville.

There was much cheering and rejoicing from the townsponies when the chariot arrived in Ponyville. Once everypony was off the chariot, Princess Celestia told the crowd that she brought Nightmare Moon to justice and that she saved six certain ponies that have been kidnapped by her. She went on and said to them that she decided to introduce her little sister, Luna. Luna was shy, which was understandable considering what she had done.

Two adult ponies from the crowd called for Colgate, so the blue and white maned unicorn promptly headed for them. Twilight watched as the female earth pony with a reddish-purple mane gave Colgate a big hug. She assumed that the mare was Colgate's mother, even though she still looks young. Twilight Sparkle thought about how she won't get to know her friends very well, since she'll have to leave Ponyville.

Princess Celestia took notice of Twilight's mood and said to her, “Why so glum, my faithful student? Are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?”

“That's just it. Just when I began to take interest in my friends, I have to leave them.”

Celestia glanced around for a bit before hovering a feather and a blank scroll towards herself. “Since it appears that Spike is still sleeping soundly, I'll take this note in his place.” As the princess levitated the feather to do the writing, she read what was being written, “I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She and my new student, the unicorn Trixie must report to me their findings from their new home in Ponyville.”

“Thank you Princess Celestia! I promise that I'll learn to live with another pony and study harder than before.”

Trixie got Celestia's attention, “Wait! You're making me your student just like that?”

“Indeed I am,” the princess said. “You have no place else to stay, do you not?”

“Well, I could find one anytime, but I'll accept your offer.”

“I'm sure that you two will have a great time in Ponyville.”

“We sure will,” Twilight told Celestia.

“I have to tend to my sister, so I'll see you some other time.”

Once Celestia headed for Luna, Twilight spoke, “Trixie, there's something that I have to tell you.”

“What would that be?”

“I'm sorry.”

“What?” Trixie seemed taken aback.

“I'm sorry for ruining your show. Even though I disliked how you were running it, that didn't give me the right to of done what I did back there."

“Trixie doesn't accept apologies for things as catastrophic as that, but since you're her friend, she'll make an exception. I accept your apologies.”

Golden Harvest came up to them and stated, “I'm glad that you two have made up your differences.”

“This doesn't mean that Trixie accepts that Twilight may be more talented than her.”

“But you do admit it,” Twilight pointed out.

“Yes... But I will work hard to become the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria! We'll have a rematch sooner or later, Twilight Sparkle!”

“Looking forward to it! By the way, what will Spike think of us living together?”

“He'll be in a surprise, that's for sure.”

As Twilight Sparkle was laughing with Trixie, she thought about how great it is to have friends. The quest she went through made her realize how loyal, generous, honest, kind, and uplifting friends can be. Twilight took a mental note to visit all of her new found friends and to get to know them better tomorrow.

The Summer Sun Celebration was now over, so Princess Celestia returned to her palace in Canterlot with her sister in tow. After giving Luna a tour around the castle, Celestia retreated into her den. There, she began to write in a scroll:

Twilight Sparkle and her new found friends defeated Nightmare Moon and brought my dearest sister Luna back. However, none of the ponies that befriended my star pupil were the ones that I planned at all. If I knew that a certain visitor was going to come, I would of taken measures to ensure that the outcome would be the one I had in mind. Despite this, the Elements have successfully aligned with these unexpected ponies. I'm sure that she will get along with them just fine. I knew that Twilight had within her a spark, but I didn't foresee how much potential it had. I look forward to seeing how Twilight Sparkle's friendship with them will grow. It appears that friendship is abundant after all.