There was a massive party going on in Ponyville, celebrating the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the return of Princess Luna. Everypony was celebrating, enjoying themselves and having fun at the party. Everypony, that is, except one.
“Why so glum, my faithful student?” Princess Celestia said, looking as regal as ever. “Are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?”
The unicorn mare looked down. “That's just it.” she told her royal teacher. “Just when I learned how wonderful it is to have friends, I have to leave them.”
The princess, however, continued to smile for a few seconds. “Spike, take a note, please.” The young dragon dutifully readied a quill and a piece of parchment as the princess continued. “‘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 must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville.’” The unicorn began to smile at that, and her new friends moved to initiate a group hug. However, something was at the back of her mind, something important. Something she’d set it aside earlier, deciding it wasn’t important, if only she could remember what it was. Anything would be unimportant in the face of the return of Nightmare Moon.
“Thank you, Princess Celestia!” she exclaimed, cheerfully, before the cheer left her face. “But… There’s something else bothering me now…” As everypony looked at her, puzzled, she thought. What was she forgetting…? Then, all of a sudden, it hit her, making her gasp. “My friends!”
The princess’s brow quirked. “…Your friends are here for you, Twilight.” she said.
“No, I mean… I have friends in Canterlot! I should at least let them know-”
“What?” Princess Celestia asked, shocked. “…You had friends all along? Why did you not tell me?”
“My friends were not relevant to my studies back then, princess.” she explained.
The large mare sighed. “…Well, what’s done is done, I suppose…” she said. “I made an official decree, in public. I can’t simply take it back.”
Twilight’s new yellow Pegasus friend muttered something quietly, drawing everypony’s attention to her, and she flinched. “…I-I’m sure we can go a day without her…” she said, repeating herself in a volume that was more easily heard.
“Fluttershy’s right.” the white unicorn nearby said to Twilight. “You go ahead and spend a day or two with your other friends, darling.”
“Yeah! We’ll be right here waiting for when you get back!” the rainbow-maned Pegasus exclaimed.
“Ooh, ooh! I’ll throw you a ‘welcome back’ party!” the pink Earth pony mare announced, bouncing around. “And you can invite them, too! It’ll be great!”
“Go on, sugarcube.” the last of Twilight’s new friends said. “Ah hope we c’n meet your old friends. But if not, well, we’ll be here all the same.”
“Sounds like everypony is in agreement.” the princess said, once again smiling at her personal pupil. “My sister and I will let you ride in our personal chariot on the way back to Canterlot, it’s the least we can do.” The sister in question smiled and nodded her agreement. Saved from a millennium-long nightmare, to call letting her savior hitch a ride in their chariot the least they could do was a major understatement in her eyes, it was far less than the least… But it would have to do, for now. The princesses led the unicorn, as well as her dragon assistant, to their chariot before the Pegasi hitched to it took flight, bringing the princesses, the dragon, and a steadily-growing-nervous Twilight Sparkle to Canterlot.
The moment the royal chariot touched down in Canterlot, Twilight leapt from it, not waiting for it to slow to a stop, and quickly ran to where the first of her friends lived. She knocked on the door, and, a few moments later, it opened to reveal a blue unicorn. “…Twilight?” she asked when she noticed who had knocked.
“Hey, Minuette.” Twilight said, fidgeting nervously. “Um… Listen, can you gather the others? I… Have something important to tell you all.”
“How important?” Minuette asked. “…And where’s Spike?”
“Spike?” the purple unicorn asked, looking around for the young dragon. “Oh… I left him with the princesses… I hope he went back home, I’d hate for him to get lost… A-Anyway, get the others and meet me at… Donut Joe’s sound alright?”
The other mare smiled. “Sure, Twilight. Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Moon Dancer to Donut Joe’s.”
“What about Lyra?” Twilight asked.
“She moved, remember? A couple weeks ago, she told us she’d met a mare named Bon Bon and decided to move to Ponyville.” She thought. “…She did visit yesterday, and even mentioned at the party that she saw you heading home, maybe you saw her and got confused?”
“…Oh… Yeah, that sounds like me.”
Minuette laughed. “You’re such a bookworm, Twilight!” she said before heading off to gather their friends. “See you later!”
“See you!” Twilight called back with a nervous wave before galloping to the home she’d shared with Spike. She got there to see Spike staring at a teddy bear. A teddy bear, she noted, with a hole through it, just like the gift box lying on the ground.
The gift he’d gotten for Moon Dancer’s party. she observed. He set the bear aside with a sigh before reaching into the gift box, smiling as he pulled something else from it. “At least this wasn’t damaged.” he said before noticing Twilight. “Oh… Hey, Twilight.”
“Hey, Spike…” Twilight said, looking at what Spike was holding: a framed photograph of her with her Canterlot friends. “…You ready to see everypony again? Except Lyra, of course, she…”
“She moved to Ponyville.” the dragon said. “Wait… Did you not know that, Twilight?”
She sighed. “I… Forgot. I saw her up here yesterday and it completely slipped my mind since…” She fidgeted. “Spike… Am I a bad friend?”
“…I don’t think so.” he replied. “You’re just… I guess not super-focused on friendship? And a bit too focused on everything else? That’s why Princess Celestia told you to make some friends in her letter yesterday. I don’t think that makes you a bad friend, just…” He thought about what he wanted to say, drew a blank, and repeated, “You’re not a bad friend, Twilight.”
She sighed again. “…We’ll see what they have to say, Spike.” she said. “We’ll see…”
When Twilight and Spike arrived at Donut Joe’s, Spike still clutching the framed picture, they found their friends sitting at a table, waiting for them. “So, what’s up, Twilight?” asked Minuette.
“Yeah…” Moon Dancer said, seemingly sour about something. “…What’s so important that you have to tell us right now, when you missed my party yesterday?”
“I’m sorry about that, Moon Dancer…” the purple unicorn said, her ears going back. “I was… Doing something for the princess…”
Lemon Hearts’s ears perked up. “Something for Princess Celestia? That does sound important!” she exclaimed, and Moon Dancer, while still a bit sour, started to look a bit ashamed, too. “So, what was it?”
“Well…” she said. “You see… Princess Celestia sent me to oversee preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, being held in Ponyville…” Her four friends gasped. “It, uh… Served a threefold purpose, you see… The first was the purpose on the surface, to, of course, oversee preparations. The second… Could have been avoided if I’d actually told her about you, but I never saw it pertinent to her lessons. She wanted me to make friends…”
“…Did you?” Minuette asked.
“Well… Yes.” she said. “Which… Leads into the third purpose… A hidden purpose, which I wouldn’t discover until the time came.” She fidgeted a bit. “…I wasn’t entirely truthful when I told you I was studying yesterday… I was researching, trying to find a way to prevent Nightmare Moon from returning and bringing back nighttime eternal!”
“Nightmare Moon?” Twinkleshine inquired. “You mean the Mare in the Moon?” She giggled. “From that old ponies’ tale?”
“You laugh now,” Spike said, “but the Mare in the Moon did exist. She’s the reason Princess Celestia told Twilight to make some friends, so they could use the Elements of Harmony to save Celestia’s sister from the Nightmare!”
“Celestia? Has a sister?” Lemon Hearts asked before bursting out laughing. “Yeah, right! And I’m Mi Amore Cadenza!”
“It’s true!” Twilight told them. “Celestia did have a sister! But she became jealous, resentful, forcing Celestia to seal her away for a thousand years using the Elements of Harmony! And then my friends and I used the Elements to purify her of Nightmare Moon’s influence! It’s all true!”
“Alright, Twilight.” Minuette laughed. “When you’re done in your little fantasy land, tell us what really happened.”
“But… But…” Twilight started before sighing. “…By official decree of Princess Celestia, I live in Ponyville now… Whether you believe me or not is on you, but…” She sighed again and moved to leave. Spike rose to follow, but turned back to give Moon Dancer the picture.
“Here, Moon Dancer.” he told her. “I was gonna give it to you at the party, but…” He then quickly left to follow Twilight, leaving the four girls to reconsider whether or not they believed her.
“Twilight?” a familiar voice asked as the teary-eyed mare tore through Canterlot on her way to the train station. She stopped and looked up and saw one of the most important ponies in her life.
“C-Cadance!” she called, running up to the older mare and hugging her.
“Twilight, why are you crying?” the pink alicorn princess asked, concerned, as Spike waddled his way over, out of breath.
“We were… Talking… To Twilight’s… Friends…” he started to explain between breaths. “We told them… What happened… But they didn’t… Believe us…”
“A-And now they think I’m a liar and, and a filly who believes in old ponies’ tales, and, and… I’M A BAD FRIEND!” The unicorn’s crying got even louder, causing others to give the group a wide berth.
Princess Cadance put a hoof around the mare she used to foalsit. “There, there, Twilight.” she said to comfort her. “I’m sure it’s not that bad. If Auntie Celestia hadn’t told me, I’d find it hard to believe. The Mare in the Moon, the Elements of Harmony, and a sister? Honestly, I don’t know which is harder to believe.”
“So it’s true?” another voice asked, and Twilight froze as her friends walked up to them. “Nightmare Moon, the Elements, Princess Celestia’s sister? …And Ponyville?”
Cadance nodded. “It’s all true.” she said. “Twilight’s friends, I assume?”
“Th-That’s right… P-Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.” Lemon Hearts said, lowering herself to kneel, along with the other three.
“You can call me Princess Cadance.” she replied. “Any friend of Twilight’s can. That is, if you still consider yourselves her friends?”
“O-Of course, princess!” Twinkleshine said. “I-It was entirely our fault. U-Unless… T-Twilight…”
“…Do you still consider us your friends?” Minuette asked Twilight. “I… Completely understand if you don’t, but…”
Twilight wiped her tears away with a hoof, though that didn’t stop them from coming. “O-Of course I do…” she said, sniffing. “You’re my friends.” She hugged Minuette before gesturing for the others to join in the group hug. They did so, with varying levels of reluctance (mostly on Moon Dancer’s part), before breaking the group hug.
“We’re sorry, Twilight… We were being bad friends, we should have known you were being serious.” Minuette said before breaking their hug. “You’re not the type to joke.”
Cadance smiled. “Well, now that we’re all done apologizing to and forgiving each other, how about we go see Twilight off? Auntie didn’t give me forever off of my duties, after all, so I should be quick.”
The mares, sans Twilight herself, nodded, and they started for the train station, although Minuette asked, “…So, Princess Mi- er Cadance… Did you meet Princess Celestia’s sister?”
“I did.” she confirmed. “She’s a bit demure, she’s clinging to Auntie Celestia a lot… Although, I guess she’s the only familiar face around, after she’s been gone for a thousand years. Her name’s Luna, by the way.”
“Really?” Minuette asked.
“Luna…” Lemon Hearts repeated.
“That’s a lovely name!” Twinkleshine commented.
Cadance smiled as they approached the station. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear it.”
Author's Note
First fanfic here in a while, hope y'all like it. If you do, comment, I might make a sequel. Either a second chapter, or a completely new story. Probably a partial Winter Wrap Up retelling, explaining Lemon Hearts and Minuette's appearances in that episode (and the lack of Moon Dancer and Twinkleshine), as well as briefly explaining past and future appearances in Ponyville. After that... The consequences of them meeting Mi Amore Cadenza so early.
