The Magic of Friendship - Part 1

by johnerose126

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Gallus, Young Six, Applejack, Drama, Luster Dawn, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 21813

While Luster Dawn is tasked to learn more about the magic of friendship, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends try their best to settle a friendship problem that points more likely to be a new threat to Equestria. (Takes place after S9E26)

Princess Twilight Sparkle had just sent her star pupil off to the same village that marked her first steps into learning how powerful friendship can be by making new friends. A big decision that has started to make her question her own friendship among her friends. So when the Cutie Map suddenly signals her, her friends, and even the Young 6 for a new friendship mission, she takes it to herself that she makes the best out of the situation, especially when the location of the problem takes place at Silver Shores.

Meanwhile, Luster Dawn struggles to keep her studies up afloat as she is constantly distracted by her new friends. With these distractions, her dedication to ever completing the princesses's task grows lower and lower, as she tasks herself to find out what a mysterious text on the school's new history book meant.

As both Twilight Sparkle and Luster Dawn grow more tangled into their own problems, they both realize the answer to their question as a new threat to Equestria, a threat that will once again push the magic of friendship to its limits...

Published 2019-11-05 23:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-01-01 06:46:05 UTC

Chapter 1: Growing

It was the start of something new, yet something old.

If one were to send their foal or filly away to a new place, where he or she had to learn most of their lessons alone, it would send the parent into a whirling storm of stress and worry, and that's not mentioning that that said parent thinking about this very thought was experiencing déjà vu, reliving how she went through those same hooves that their foal will soon experience.

Yes, feeling that déjà vu, that nostalgic feeling of watching her own prized pupil walk down the hill with her soon-to-be-new-and-apparently-first best friends was slamming her like one of Applejack's apple cider, as it reminded her how she first met her new best friends many moons ago. No, she wasn't going to freak out. She was far too mature, far too wise to do so. Instead, she just stood there and smiled, alongside her friends, smiled at what she had just accomplished. She still couldn't believe she sent her prized pupil away to the same village that she learned that friendship is magic.

The sun lowering down, revealing a beautiful, purple horizon and the start of what promises to be a starry night, the lights of Ponyville lighting up and the Castle of Friendship shimmering in the distance, Princess Twilight Sparkle continued to stare at Luster Dawn and her friends from the distance, still at awe and confidence that she had made the right decision as her own mentor did. She still would've continued to look down upon her as she entered the Friendship School if a voice hadn't broken the silence.

"Um... Twilight? You ok?"

Breaking her trance, the tall, purple Alicorn blinked once and looked down around, finding the source of the voice, and noticed that all six of her friends were staring at her.

"Got teary-eyed or somethin', sugar cube?"

A different voice than the previous one, but welcoming. The orange Earth pony looked at Twilight with a comforting, yet playful look, as if she knew what Twilight was thinking up the top of her head.

Twilight sighed, hoping to keep her composure together. It was still ringing in her head that she had just set Luster Dawn away toward a similar path that she took. That sentimental feeling was slowly rushing in over her, surely enough for her to tremble and finally break down. But she still kept it together.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Applejack. Just..." she took a quick look back to see if she could still notice Luster Dawn and her group, but to her surprise, she and the others were gone. Her mouth opened and out came a sigh, ever so fragile. "... well, you know... amazed..."

"You're telling me," replied a confident voice. The floating blue Pegasus with her dark blue hoodie and an orange shirt underneath landed down aside Applejack on her left and the pink pony with crazy mane on her right. "I'm not all for feels, but that journey was something."

"Something?" replied the pink pony in a shocking voice. "It was completely, over-the-top, nostalgically, wonderfully, supercalifragilisticexpialidociously, pretty-sure-somepony-might-have-cried-somewhere, AMAZINGLY SOMETHING!" Pinkie Pie was jumping around as she shouted out her excitement among her friends, ending finally in front of the yellow Peagsus's face, who didn't even flinch during the entire outburst as she stared at Pinkie Pie with a smile.

"It really was a nice, special way to spend the day together," added Fluttershy.

"A nice trip back to memory lane, if I do say so myself," added the white Unicorn with a fur coat. "Though I have to agree with Pinkie, it's enough to make a grown mare cry."

The group chuckled at the small joke Rarity made for a while as the sun was continued to set, barely visible at that point, revealing in almost its full glory the stars and constellations from above. The small chuckle died off and the girls just stared at each other, hoping that some specific pony would break the silence before awkwardness ensues. Usually Twilight was the one to steer the ship, but Twilight actually had no idea what to do next. She didn't really plan on spending the entire day showing Luster Dawn everything about the potential friendship had today, nor even head back to Ponyville of all places. That and she was busy trying to not let a wise decision break her down. Before she could do anything about it, a voice spoke up, just in time to save the atmosphere.

"So... now what?"

The tall, bulk purple dragon asked with such a genuine tone that the question itself sounded like a mystery. Everypony looked up at Twilight, waiting for her answer. Twilight didn't need to look around to know they were looking at her, as she felt the presence of six pairs of eyes looking at her. She closed her eyes and released another small sigh.

"Well, I think we did enough for today. For her, at least. Unless if you girls want to hang around at Canterlot and just... well, chat... I mean, we didn't get a chance to have some time for ourselves because of Luster Dawn- not that it was a distraction or anything, oh no, because the whole experience really was supercala... frabalit- what Pinkie said. So... you all just want to head back to Canterlot for the night? Spend whatever time we have left together?"

She looked around her friends and saw disagreements on their faces. As she figured. She just remembered what was coming up in a few days.

"Oh no, I'm afraid not, darling," started Rarity," with the Festival of the Two Sisters coming up, orders are starting to pile up around my boutiques, and its the special ones that are making their way through my main office. I'll be very busy for the next few days, unfortunately."

"Y'all need the apples for the Festival," added Applejack, "and Big Mac, Sugar Belle, and ah are doin' the best we can to harvest enough for the Festival. Even with Applebloom poppin' up at times, it's still gonna need a lot of time and effort for us to get the deliveries correct and in time."

"The animals need a bit more coordination with the parades, marches and the sunrise, so I need to make sure my little friends are all well and prepared for the day," said Fluttershy.

"Me and Cheesy are planning the biggest, funniest Festival there was yet, Twi! We got all sorts of food and big surprises and food and prizes and food and- wait, did I mention food again? But, hey...," Pinkie Pie was going to continue on with her happy mood, but she as looked around, she started to realize that she probably wasn't helping anypony's case, let alone Twilight. "... yeah, you get the idea, right, Twi?"

Rainbow Dash nodded head. "Yeah, with the Festival coming up, I've been prepping the Wonderbolts to make this year's the best Festival of the Two Sisters ever! This means hard work and practice is a must for us sadly... sorry, Twilight." She said the final parts of her sentence with such solemn regret as she and the others looked at Twilight with melancholy eyes, truly sorry to disappoint their busy friend.

Twilight looked at her friends, not surprised by how they were busy, yet she couldn't help but think for a bit about their preparations for the upcoming holiday.

"No, no, that's all right, Rainbow," replied Twilight. "I should've realized that we would be very busy with the Festival. Sorry, girls."

A moment of silence. Awkwardness has ensued.

"Hey, if it helps, we get to be together again during the holiday, right? That'll be fun, right?" pipped Spike.

The girls turned to look at Spike as they processed the idea through their brains. Instantly, they smiled a small smile as the thought of hanging around and just talking about their lives from the past month came to mind, especially during a holiday.

"You're right, Spike," said Twilight. "We'll be together as the festivities go on. That'll do for us, right girls?"

The rest of the Mane 6 nodded their heads and spoke in agreement. Any time of hanging out was fine and hanging out during a holiday like this was a definite plus for them.

"Then it's settled," said Twilight. "We'll come back together around the day of festivities as we get things ready for the event."

"Sounds like a plan, Twi," replied Applejack as the Mane 7 huddled around each other and hugged. Breaking apart after a moment, the group began to part ways. Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked beside each other, heading toward the farm ground that was right ahead of them. Pinkie Pie was hopping away, toward the bridge that connected toward Ponyville's Town Hall, with Rarity following behind her. Fluttershy made her way toward a different path, away from Ponyville, as she started to make her way back to her cottage. As the group departed, they waved and gave their goodbyes to their friends until it felt right to stop. And they did all that while Twilight and Spike stood their ground in the middle still, watching their friends leave off to their destinations.

As Twilight continued to look, she could feel the feeling that was hanging around her for quite some time beginning to rush over her again once more, this time in such a brute force. Her watching her friends leave her once more in the many moons that she had made the decree to meet once per month with her friends was a way for them to connect with each other, sure, but, especially in light of what she just did, it felt... off. Like, way off. Like, it wasn't seemingly it at all for her and the rest of the gang to just meet once per month now. It was almost as if Luster Dawn herself just taught her what friendship is just now ironically and -

"Twilight? You okay?"

Yet again, another voice broke her train of thought and she looked back at Spike, who was looking at her with some concern.

"You okay? You look like you have something troubling you on your mind."

Twilight shook her head. "No, nothing's troubling me, Spike," answered Twilight. She didn't want to tell Spike that she just now was experiencing doubt over the values of friendship. Not now at least.

"Come on, Spike," said Twilight as she opened her wings. "Let's fly back home."

With a nod, Spike opened his wings and the two took off from the ground, flying slowly up in the air as they made their way toward Canterlot.

As the two drifted in the sky, Twilight couldn't help but look down and stare upon the lights reflecting back at her. Ponyville was lit up and it seemed that nopony was going back in their homes to sleep anytime soon. A subtle, but big change that Twilight couldn't help but smile. A change that then put an idea on her mind.

"Hey Spike," spoke Twilight.

"Yeah?" answered Spike. "What's up?"

"How would you like to spend a night back at our old castle?" asked Twilight, hoping for a favorable response.

"Um... didn't you give the castle to Starlight, Trixie and Sunburst so they can live next to the school?" asked Spike.

Twilight was aware that Spike might ask that question, to which she responded "Yeah, but I don't think they'll mind. That and its been a while since we've talked to them, don't you agree?"

Spike was considering for quite a while as he slowed his flying into simply hovering around in the air. After a moment of pondering, he shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

Twilight couldn't help but let out a small squee as she immediately made her course toward the giant crystal castle. Spike just hovered around the air as he stared at her. He had an idea of what was bothering Twilight at the moment and her request made the answer an open-shut case. He planned on talking to her about her little debacle over her decisions but he decided to talk to her about her little debacle later tomorrow so she could calm down tonight. He didn't want to make Twilight worry over small things before the festival, so he had to give in to help her out a bit. With a sigh and a smile, he followed Twilight toward the Friendship Castle as the moon started to make its way up to the top of the sky, shining bright before the stars around it.

A perfect way to end a perfect day, the two thought as they landed before the giant oak doors of the castle. What could go wrong at this time? They couldn't expect anything as Twilight used her magic to open the right side of the door. They didn't seem to care of anything at all as they entered the dim main hallway of the castle, with Twilight closing the door behind them. Nothing didn't seem to give off that something big was going to happen as they climbed up the stairs of the castle. Not when they entered Twilight's old room, seemingly clean and tidy as if time stopped in the room and waited for her. Not when Twilight conjured up a spell to teleport Spike's bed from inside the castle and laugh when they realize how terribly small it was. Not even when she used magic to make the bed bigger for him and they both said their good-nights to each other.

The one thing that seemed to bother Spike away from noticing Twilight's cutie mark was how he was going to talk to Twilight about her little problem, a friendship problem of some sort. The one thing that seemed to bother Twilight away from noticing her cutie mark was lighting up ever since she laid down on her bed and started to drift was what was in her mind, a little sentence that kept repeating in her head until she finally fell fast asleep.

Everything's going to be just fine.

Author's Note

Long text incoming because I got a lot to explain about the upcoming stories (not just this one).

The story (and the other 25 upcoming) are going to be set up like the show has gone with; 4 segments (one in the beginning before the intro, one after, the middle, and the end).\

These stories will act somewhat like a "What-if-Season-10-happened" in my mind, all taking place in the future as set by the show. I will also include a few my own head-cannons (which do involve shipping, but nothing that extreme). No, this won't go anywhere dark or sexual or anything, as I want to keep the stories to its tone and style as the show, so rarely will these "episodes" get the Teen rating (but never the Mature rating).

So, back to how this story sets up, in this case, I'm setting the story up for the next chapter, which will definitely be longer. The next chapter is titled "Hi Friends!" and we'll focus on how Twilight approaches the friendship problem with the rest of the Mane 6 and the Young (or should it be Adult?) 6 while Luster Dawn interacts with her new friends.

By the way, her new friends are based on what S9E26 has shown and will get character development, as well as two additional characters added to her group in later added stories.

But yeah, I think I'm done writing here. Please let me know of the story so far! I'm human, so things fly by me so often but anything helps, questions, comments, hopes, dreams, fears, all that.

(oh and yes, this will eventually get its cover, wip by me atm)
(as for updates, i will do my best to update once per week, at the most bi-weekly, school is just there)

ER 11/03/2019

Chapter 2: Hi Friend!

Starlight Glimmer couldn't remember the last time she was this awakened by something that sounded so bizarre and eerily so delightful, despite how exciting things can get at school. The difference was because she was at a school where, officially, they were ranked number one as the most diverse school in Equestria (thanks to the EEA), so of course weird things can happen at any given moment and with that, she, and the rest of the school staff, will be prepared, ready to fix the mad potion, tree, or whatever the problem was among the creatures. Despite those circumstances, it has been a long time since she ever had that feeling of being adventurous, as it has been forever since she had to go on some crazy adventure where Equestria was hanging at the balance of total destruction.

So when she heard a very loud, very royal "SWEET CELESTIA!" and a loud thump from above, she woke up with a start, immediately sitting up on her bed, her eyes wide open. The same trait of calmness she would present at school whenever such an explosion happened didn't apply to her at her home, for obvious reasons.

"Did you just hear that?!"

It also didn't apply to her husband as well.

Starlight turned slowly to look at Sunburst, who was down on the ground, leading her to assume that he jumped out of the bed in a panic. She nodded her head slowly at him, as her horn was powering up with magic, her turquoise aura giving little bits of light in the dark bedroom.

Sunburst, knowing Starlight well, immediately spoke. He knew her well enough to know what she was about to do despite being many moons since she showed such inattention to herself. "Wait, Starlight! We don't know who or what is up there! For all we know, this could be something big thing that we- you can't handle!"

"It'll all be fine, Sunburst," responded Starlight quietly, her eyes still fixed at Sunburst. She was getting her teleportation spell ready along with a couple of shield and blast spells in mind in preparation for the upcoming battle. Her mind was elsewhere at the moment as well, as she was trying to figure out where exactly did the “explosion” happen. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain that it had to come from the room she just cleaned yesterday. "It'll all be fine."

"Where are you even going to Teleport!?" hissed Sunburst as he grabbed the ends of the blanket from the bed, suddenly then fidgeting around in terror.

"Don’t worry about it. I'll see you soon," answered Starlight in an assuring voice. She was ready. And with that, without waiting for a desperate goodbye from Sunburst, she teleported in the room that she knew it had to have come from. She wasn't worried about getting kidnapped or beaten up. She was worried about the room and how Sunburst might find herself in after the battle.

Immediately upon teleporting, she did a somersault away from her location and fired two blasts toward… whatever that something was, holding her ground and putting up a magical shield in front of her as she looked through her magic aura to glance at who or what she was going up against. Like waking up from one of Applejack’s cider parties, the answer slammed her hard. Her mouth dropped open as she saw that the two blasts that she fired were being held in their spot, not moving forward at all. Just vibrating in place thanks to the pony sitting on the bed and a tall, buff dragon down on the ground. Not just that, she noticed that the said pony was an alicorn, tall and purple, an Alcorn who had her cutie mark, of a sparkle with other sparkles around, glowing.

"Good morning, Starlight," spoke the alicorn in an embarrassed, yet weirdly comforting voice.

Starlight continued to look in a daze, soaking in what just happened. She removed her shield and loosen up, her face still in complete shock over the unexpected surprise. She didn't even bother to notice the blasts she fired disappear.

"Hey Twilight" was all that she could muster.

***

Luster Dawn woke up with a start from what sounded like one of Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich’s Mother Bertha cannon. She was just dreaming about a rather weird dream that she kept dreaming of for a while now. She couldn’t remember the entire detail of it, but all she could muster from her mind every time was that it was about a creature with fire around her body before she felt that a disturbance screamed at her back to reality. Today, that literally happened. As she laid on her bed gasping for air, her ears picked up some creature speaking in a rather loud, energetic voice. Who could that be?

"Rise and shine, my little pony! It's the start of a new, exciting day here at the School of Friendship cause you're our new best friend!"

Of course, how could I forget, wondered Luster as her facial expression changed from shock to a frown, her eyes relaxing into a hard line and her mouth slowly closing as she heard every word come off from her new friend, Miss… some Kirin.

As the Kirin kept yapping, Luster rubbed her eyes and tried her best to remember her new crazy friend’s name. She had just only got to know a bit about her new… peers from yesterday, having met them near Town Square and she couldn’t exactly remember what happened afterward. Something about friend names, classes, and a little party in one of her new friend’s room before she knew she left the party for some unknown reason that she couldn't even remember. While trying to recall what happened, alongside remembering her new, extremely talkative Kirin’s name, she got out of bed and began to fix her dorm up with her magic, stretching the blanket and puffing the pillow as the Kirin was galloping around her room.

Luster’s dorm in the Friendship School was a bit different than the other dorms. For one, it really wasn’t necessarily a dorm as it was much more like a bedroom for Luster and Luster only. While the room was set up like a dorm, with its desk, portraits, chests and drawers and such, one notable factor was that there was no bunk bed, but just a bed. Not just that, but while the room was rather clean, it was clean for anypony or anycreature to move his or her hooves around, as clumps of books and papers were placed around the perimeter of the room, with the desk as the only exception, where most of the clutter laid lying or taped.

The warm-grey Kirin with teal-coated mane and violet eyes continued to move around in excitement, spouting out random comments about her new best friend such as “I can’t wait to show you my collection of flower petals” and “Do you think that musical theater is yeah-high or yeah-high” and “Come on now, first period’s about to start” and “I managed to bring you a muffin for-”

“Wait, what?!” exclaimed Luster Dawn as she dropped her pillow with her magic, plopping it in the middle of the bed.

“I brought you a muffin, silly. You missed out on breakfast cuz you were so tuckered out. I mean, Gisselle-”

“Not that! I mean, what did you say, the- the last sentence you said. What did you say?” stuttered Luster as the Kirin continued to look at her with a happy face, unfazed by Luster’s questions.

“You missed out on breakfast cuz you were so tuckered out.”

“Back!”

“I brought you a muffin, si-”

“Back, back, back! Way back!”

“I can’t wait to show you my collection of flower petals.”

“No! I mean, um… ugh... something regarding first period or something, class! Class! What did you say about class!?” Luster was gradually losing her mind as she leaned closer to the Kirin, still smiling at her. She swore she heard something that she thought she would never hear from anycreature tell her.

“That 1st period is about to start?”

Luster’s left eye twitched a bit. With a gasp as the news struck her like a delayed hit on the head, Luster rushed over to her desk, her hooves opening the cabinets while her magic grabbed nearby books that were cluttered with papers, stuffing them all in a saddlebag. All while the Kirin stood there, watching Luster with great interest, like a cat watching her owner digging around for her keys.

As Luster finally removed two quills and two bottles of ink from the cabinet and stuffed them inside her bag, she quickly made her way toward her opened door. Just as she was about to exit her dorm, she remembered something else. She turned around and cried to the Kirin,” Aren’t you going to be late to your class?!”

The Kirin simply tilted her head to the right as she walked toward Luster and said,” What do you mean? Our first period...”

The Kirin then kept walking alongside the corridor, then made a left on the intersection of the foyer, disappearing. Surprised, Luster slammed her door closed with her magic with a jolt as she chased down the walking Kirin. As she made her left to the intersection of the foyer, she saw that the Kirin went inside a classroom on her right.

“... is almost right across from your room, silly! Didn’t I told you yesterday?”

Luster just looked at the Kirin with an expressionless look, her wrinkles showing. She then shook her head vigorously, trying to get her mind back into the first objective of the day: make it to class on time. Don’t get tardy.

Without a good-bye, Luster gave a confused yelp as she turned around and began to run as fast as she could to her 1st-period class: Magic.

“Are you going to the restroom or something?!” cried the Kirin. “Cuz you only got like exactly 11 seconds before our class starts!”

Another slam on her face, Luster stopped dead in her tracks. She hadn't realized it yet until now that the Kirin kept saying the word “our”.

What did I say my 1st-period class was, wondered Luster. I said Magic was my first-period class and -

Magic wasn’t her 1st-period class. Laughter was.

Haysticks.

All a sudden, Luster made a very sharp U-turn toward her class and ran as fast as she could to reach the door on time, taking large strides while the Kirin looked at her, again with great interest. She felt every second beating on her heart, beating from what the Kirn had said.

9. 8. She was already back at the intersection.

7, 6, 5. She made her first steps in her classroom. She would relax now, but it didn’t count. Not on her books.

4, 3, 2. She ran up the soft, couchy steps of the room, sitting on her seat from the top row and getting out her materials.

0. With her papers and books on the ground (and the usual thought of why the room wouldn’t insist on getting proper desks for good note-taking), the bell rang to clock in that 1st period started.

Within all that rushing, the Kirin simply walked over to her seat on the first row and sat, a smile on her face as she was ready to learn from one of the best professors she’s ever got to learn from.

What she expected wasn’t what she got, however, as almost as soon as the bell rang, a pony walked into the room, not the pink hippogriff. Not just any other pony though. A brilliant gamboge unicorn with glasses walked in the room with his long, vermillion beard and his dark cornflower blue cloak following him.

Vice Principal Sunburst, the Kirin wondered. Oh dear, that could only mean one thing! I hope Professor Silverstream didn’t get any food poisoning from yesterday’s cake lesson.

Luster Dawn, who was already starting to calm down from her rather exciting morning, also found it weird to not see nor hear a cheerful “Morning, class!” from the pink hippogriff. Though, to be honest, she was sort of glad that she wasn’t going to get hit by another dosage of excitement just as she was trying to calm down. Sometimes that hippogriff has a hard time knowing social cues.

As Sunburst made his way toward the lavender desk, he said,” Good morning, class! I will be subbing your class today as Professor Silverstream won't come in today due to, um, certain circumstances.”

Almost the entirety of the class shared a form of disappointment, either sighing loudly, gasping in surprise, or simply giving a sad look, while Luster seemed untouched by the news, still trying to calm her breathing… or so it seemed. The kirin immediately raised her hoof up in the air while Luster took in what the Vice Principal said carefully.

Luster wasn’t one to be deceived so easily. Despite her unwillingness to make friends by force (though, as she realized yesterday, she will have to very soon), she understood the concepts of friendship. She just didn’t know - or better yet, want - to apply those concepts in her life, as she felt that magic was a much stronger force than some bonding time. Thus, when she heard Sunburst pausing a bit before saying “certain circumstances”, her mind was already racing with such ideas of what could’ve happened to Professor Silverstream. Luckily though, it seemed that her questions might be answered thanks to…

“Yes, Allegro?”

Allegro! There it is! Wait, Allegro? What a weird name.

“Um, may I ask what happened to Professor Silverstream? Exactly?”

Sunburst cleared his throat as he began to open a cabinet from the desk he stood before, revealing a pink folder that was marked with a glitter bold purple word marked “SUBS”. “Now Allegro, you know I can’t release personal information regarding our professors…”

Allegro looked down on the ground, a bit saddened by the repeated note yet reluctantly understanding. Luster still kept her ground, however, knowing that Sunburst might reveal a little bit of something.

“... but… “

Allegro’s ears perked up. Luster remained still, yet attentive now more than ever. She couldn’t remember much of the dream. But she did remember something about unfinished business.

“... let’s just say that its going to be one heck of a trip for a bunch of our teachers around here.”

***

“I'm so sorry, but I came as soon as I can, Twilight! I still can’t believe that-”

Rarity stopped her sentence midway, standing in front of the closing door behind her as she observed the situation that she was in right now. She was in the Friendship Council Chamber, inside the Castle of Friendship, the same huge, circular room that was different and special for all the right reasons. Though it has been forever since she entered the room, let alone Twilight’s former castle, it was still as grand and majestic as it was the first day it sprouted out of the ground from Twilight’s battle with Tirek. Purple carpet, glass-paned windows, crystals, Twilight’s Golden Oak roots hanging up in the room with its memories.

In the room was everypony else, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, their cutie marks flashing from their flanks. Spike was in the room as well, though looking disappointed at his scales as they weren't shining or flashing at all, as that was the signal that he was being called on by the map.

While all that observation was fine and well, her eyes couldn’t believe what else she was seeing. In the room stood a changeling, a yak, a hippogriff, a griffon, another dragon, and another pony. Each of them had a body part that was flashing with lights, with the dragon’s scales and the pony’s cutie mark again, while the hippogriff’s mane, the griffon’s feathers, the yak’s horns, and the changeling's neckfins were flashing lights. There was no need for introductions as she instantly recognized the six in the room, they weren't the reason why she was surprised by the guests. Their body parts flashing lights was part of the reason why she gasped.

She then made her way to the middle of the room, where stood was seven crystal thrones, six for each of the Council members that had their cutie marks marked on each of them and one small one for Spike near Twilight's throne that followed as clockwise: Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Spike. They were all surrounding a round table that was also crystal clear and would normally be just a round table, but, for the first time in moons, the table was now lit up, revealing a hologram map of the wide, wide world of Equestria, depicting all places such as Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan, Yakyakistan, and much much more. Not just that, but from the map, numerous symbols were revolving around a certain area that Rarity couldn’t see clearly.

As she walked closer to the table to examine, she gasped at what the map was revealing. It really was happening. The map had signaled her for sure, her cutie mark on the table (supporting her cutie mark on her flank signaling her, no doubt, occurring just as she got off the late-night train from Manehattan). Among her cutie mark were the rest of her friends’ cutie marks, sparkles, butterflies, a cloud with rainbow-colored lighting, apples, and balloons.

Yet even then, among her friends, there were an additional 6 more symbols she couldn’t believe were revolving around as well in an area where it looked like a coastal town. From her eyes, she saw that the 6 symbols were shaped like a griffin's brilliant cerulean head, a dragon’s brilliant gamboge head, a yak’s grayish amber head, a hippogriff’s light magentish gray head, a changeling’s pale, light grayish arctic blue head, and finally, three moderate opal turtles. All 6 revolving alongside theirs.

The Young Six were being called by the map for the first time in ever.

“I know, right? Isn’t that incredible?” asked Twilight as she saw Rarity’s mouth drop open in shock. “Not only is the map calling us for the first time in moons, but the map is calling our alumni students for the first time in ever!”

“Well, I mean, the map is kinda part of the Friendship Tree, so I wouldn’t say that it’s the first time we’ve been called over by the forces of Friendship, but…” started Gallus. He was wearing his Captain of the Royal Guards armor with his helmet laying on his side. He would’ve kept going if he wasn't given a glare from Twilight and the rest of his old friends in the room.

“All right, all right, fine, it is the first time that - "specifically" - the map has called us,” said Gallus, reluctantly agreeing with their definition as he quoted the word with his talons.

“Princess Twilight," started Ocellus, who was a fully-grown changeling," while it is an honor to be called by the map, I wonder why the map will call not only you and your friends, but for us as well."

“Oh, come on, Celly!” exclaimed Silverstream as she grabbed Ocellus and hugged her, fully-grown as well and almost the tallest among the group besides Twilight,” Imagine it! You, me, our friends among our teachers and heroes! Going to an unknown place where danger lies ahead!”

“Exactly, danger” added Smolder, who grew seemingly almost as tall as Silverstream,” We don’t know where we’re going, and since the map is calling us twelve, I really don't think this mission won’t be a simple walk in the park.”

“Wait, are we going to a park!?” jumped Pinkie Pie. “Ooo! This’ll be easy and fun! Imagine all the mini-games and picnics we could pull off to our creatures-in-distress! Hide-and-seek, leapfrog! Just to save their friendships!”

“I don’t think that’s what Smolder means, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, putting her hoof around Pinkie who was jumping up and down in excitement.

“Well, you’re both technically right, Silverstream and Smolder,” interjected Twilight.

The group of eleven looked at Twilight in surprise, with Silverstream, Smolder, and Pinkie Pie saying,” I am?” (with Pinkie Pie the loudest and longest).

“I say that because apparently the place that we’re going to search our Friendship problem is in a place called Silver Shoals, a nice coastal town,” Twilight continued as the rest listened, not noticing that Applejack and Sandbar almost instantly had a face of concern, while Rarity gasped a tiny bit.

“But as Smolder said, with us twelve being called on, it seems that this won’t be an easy Friendship problem to solve. It almost seems like it could be-"

"Aw, yeah! Another epic threat that we have to take down!" interjected Rainbow, hoof-bumping up in the air. "Now that's my kind of friendship problem!"

As some of her friends gave glaring and concerned looks at Rainbow, Rarity piped in and said," Wait, Silver Shoals? As in, the Silver Shoals?"

"The one and only. Right?" replied Twilight, confused by what Rarity meant by her question.

"Um, Princess Twilight?" jumped Sandbar, a full-grown pony with shaggy hair. "You do remember who resides there, right?"

"Yeah," added Applejack," ponies that we haven't seen for a long, long time?"

Princess Twilight Sparkle looked down on Applejack and Sandbar, a confused look on her face as she tried to decipher what her friends meant by those responses. For the longest time, she was going through her mind about who lived in Silver Shoals. Clearly nopony she hasn’t heard of, right? Why were they expecting her to know these ponies they're referring to? Could it be some of the diplomats or old friends? Perhaps maybe-

"Um, why Princess staring deeply at Yona?"

Twilight blinked once and realized that she was staring right into Yona's eyes for a while, discomforting the tall yak a bit. She shook her head and said, "Sorry Yona, I was just thinking about what the girls and Sandbar were saying." She turned to Applejack, Sandbar, and Rarity and said, "Maybe because it's been a while, but could you perhaps remind me who you're referring to?"

With that, the room almost felt like the air was gone. Breathing for air didn't help as the gasping creatures took in what the Princess of Friendship just said. All Twilight could do was stare and watch at her friends' distraught expressions.

"Um, can somepony at least try to be less discreet about how awful I am to not remember? It’s been a while, that's all!" Twilight was certainly feeling ashamed for her lack of knowledge, a feeling she never knew she could ever feel for a long time, knowing that her mind was a library. But every library lacks new books and in this case, certain old books.

"Yeah, even I can't," said Gallus as he shook his head, putting on his helmet and tilting as far down as she can, hoping that it could hide away his face at the moment. Silverstream, noticing him, decided to pat his helmet in comfort.

"Twilight, the ponies that the rest of us are referring," said Fluttershy, coming up to Twilight and placing her hoof on her, unsure about the reaction she might get, "are Celestia and Luna."

A lot of processing and a blink later, Twilight could only let out, "Wait, what?!"

***

"No! That’s- what even- that idea’s too crazy! Even for them!”

It was break-time for the students at the School of Friendship, a ten-minute period for each student to do whatever they want, either use the restroom, grab something small to eat, study (or cram) in before a test, and, most importantly, talk to their friends about the most interesting thing so far today (as Allegro would say,” If today’s a bliss, something’s a-miss”).

That being said, the most interesting thing so far today was that the Trio was gone. Professor Silverstream, Professor Smolder, and Professor Ocellus were all gone today, apparently because of "certain circumstances,'' the same excuse every teacher, substitute or not, said to every creature wondering of their absence. While the reasons were never clear or stated to begin with, it led to some students creating wild theories about what could have happened to the three.

“Maybe they were sick? Nah, they’re way too important to ever be sick…”

“Probably has something to do with their rulers? Wait, what if they’re in trouble? What would that mean for us?”

“What if whatever they’re in it’s all Professor Silverstream’s fault? You know how that sea-pony is… ”

“Maybe they were suspended! If, you know, teachers can be suspended…”

More of the wild, wild theories were mostly coming from a certain group of friends in the main quad, sitting around in a circle next to a tree that provided a shield from a rather hot day.

“Oh! Wait! What if a hungry, hungry hippo took them and placed them on top of a castle?!”

This group of friends was perhaps the most diverse of other friend-groups at the School of Friendship. One of them was a regular Earth pony, with a pale sweet corn coat, an almost neon carrot mane that looked struck up, and a hayburger cutie mark. One was a yak with almost the same mane color as the Earth pony, but her coat was in a cinnamon color. Her mane had bangs in the front while most were braided. She was decorated with colors of mostly pale gold and dark spring bud, colors of Yakyakistan strength, with a gray robe that was held by a belt bearing those colors that covered the bottom half of her body, a ring with a tassel of those colors placed on each side of her horns, and a dark gold ring pierced on her nose. One was a griffon with light east-bay coat and an almost steel-gray assortment of feathers, and a golden beak but had light grey claws. Feathers on the top of her head jumbled up, she also had a red maroon scarf covering her neck that had almost a light pippin color of beads in the middle. The three creatures were with Luster and Allegro, one being a unicorn and the other a kirin, respectively.

“What? That dumb. Can’t happen at all… right?” responded the yak, her hoof rubbing on her chin as she thought about the possibility of that ever happening.

“Of course that can happen,” started the griffon, “you know, if you happen to live in Allegro’s crazy world.”

Taking no note from her fellow bird’s comment, Allegro kept going. “OH! Wait! This makes sense! What if, and hear me out guys, but what if, Professor Silverstream was invited to one of Professors Smolder and Ocellus’s tea party? You know, with all those rumors about how those-”

With some groans drowning the rest of the Kirin’s theory, the Earth pony interjected by saying,“ Aaand that theory is immediately shut down because this is a happy, innocent place. Thank you for your countless ideas, Allegro.”

“Even I can’t think of something so…” the griffon started before shivering at the very thought of the idea the Kirin popped on her head. “Dang it, Allegro! Now it’s in my head!”

“Sorry, Gisselle,” said the Kirin with a chuckle,” but the possibilities are endless! I mean, this is like the first time ever that these three specific professors didn’t show up on the same day! I should know! I keep a record of everything about anything! And I’m telling you, that, right there, is what you call a rarity!”

More groans after that unnecessary pun.

“Do you honestly believe that hill-billy nonsense?” said the Earth pony, turning to Luster, who was awfully quiet throughout the whole ordeal. Unknown to the pony, Luster wasn’t paying that much attention to the group, looking down at the green grass that covered the brown dirt as she was deep-thinking about some certain events today.

Three of my professors gone, each important to each other as they’re considered the second line of defense when it comes to threats to Equestria. The unwillingness of each teacher to respond to why they were missing, with only Sunburst seemingly more involved as to why they were gone. It shouldn’t connect at all, but it all kinda aligns with what I’ve been… A rather hot day today. My strange vision. My strange vision. With the fires and flames around space and…

...her.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle to Luster! Hello? Anypony in there?”

“Huh, no, what!?”

With a stumble, Luster shook her head and started to look around. She noticed that her peers were looking at her with great interest, expecting a reply from her about… something. Dang it.

“So, whatcha think, Kluster?” asked Gisselle, tilting her head to the left, her eyes on Luster with great interest.

Luster just sat there, blinking once. “Think about what?”

Almost immediately, Gisselle tilted her head back and had her normal uninterested face. “Weren’t listening again, right?”

Without any show of shame or embarrassment, Luster nodded her head, her eyebrows starting to show that she was getting annoyed with these little interruptions. She was trying to get to the bottom of the dilemma of what appeared to be much more than simple absences and her peers weren’t helping her.

Perhaps if I told them about what I’m thinking about and what theory I believe about the professors, they might even help me out on something! Hopefully, this works...

“Wait, we’re talking about why our Professors are absent, right?”

Everycreature nodded her head, with Allegro saying,” Yeppity-yep-yup!”

“Well,” started Luster, growing more confident now that it seemed they will finally be talking about a topic she was interested in. “here’s what I think. I think that the Trio are missing because they were called on an important mission by my teacher, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Whatever it is, it can’t just be them missing. I mean, it should only be just two that are called for something, so with the three gone, this must mean that the entire Young 6 was called in as well, perhaps maybe with the Friendship Council too! Whatever this mission is, it’s like a new threat to Equestria! Somepony with a burning passion to bring about destruction, ruin, and despair here! And that’s the thing! I think I know her, but I just can’t seem to put my hoof on it!”

With a deep breath in and a deep breath out, using her right hoof to direct herself (a method to calming herself as taught by her mentor), Luster continued. “I don’t suppose you guys know who I’m trying to describe? You know, tall… creature of some sort, flames around, has some very scary eyes? Perhaps she could be a legend that is finally coming true? A former villain? Those dinosaurs again? Anycreature?”

The pony, kirin, griffon, and yak just looked at the unicorn with confusion in their eyes. The yak, however, looked like she might have an answer but just as she was opening her mouth, Gisselle jumped in and commented,” Well, Allegro, I think Kluster might have taken your trophy for ‘Weirdest Theory of the Trio Mystery’”.

“Huh? My ‘theories’ aren’t weird! They’re possible factual opinions!” argued Allegro with her head up in the air.

While the Earth pony raised his hoof up to protest what Allegro said, Luster could only stare at how little help her peers provided. She couldn’t believe that she thought it was possible to exchange an interesting and continuing conversation with them. Just now, the griffon just pulled a 180 around her theory, which actually provided a real reason as to why to believe so, and now… now they’re talking about how crazy Allegro is. All of this was enough to make her leave.

And so, she did.

Immediately standing up and releasing a groan in the process, she left the group, which they were still debating about Allegro’s case.

These creatures, I swear, thought Luster as she walked her way to exiting the quad and entering the main hallway of the school. What did I ever do to deserve this? Oh yeah, I remember. I decided to go up to my mentor and basically splat in front of her that friendship is practically useless. Me and my big fat mouth. And I’m trying, I’m really trying my best. I mean, this is just one of the many tasks that Twilight has given… me…

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! First forgetting that I have Magic in my fifth period, then forgetting their names within a night’s rest, now this!? Princess Twilight sent me the rest of my tasks alongside making friends and I got distracted!

Having no idea where she was walking to, Luster teleported a small list and started to read through the scroll.

“All right, let’s see here… first one is, of course, make new friends. Second is taking notes about Nightmare forces in…”

Luster’s eyes opened a bit wider as she read through her list twice. The name of the textbook Twilight wanted her to take notes about was a textbook she never heard of. Much like Twilight, Luster herself was a bookworm as well, having a collection of books back at her home in Canterlot that rivaled her nearby bookstore. To see and hear about a book that she never heard of wasn’t that rare; she always enjoyed discovering new books and adding them into her overflowing bookshelves. To hear a title of an educational textbook that her mentor would ask her to take notes on and be a book that she never heard of… that was rare.

“Huh, that’s strange. That’s a new textbook I’ve never heard of. Oh well. Guess that means a quick trip to the library then. Next task is… uh-huh…”

Normally, a revelation like that would wander around Luster’s mind, but as far as she knew, little things, especially a pet peeve like that, won’t matter to her… except until she was finished with her mentor’s tasks. As she mumbled through her list, noting that the last of her three tasks were just simple work assignments, she didn’t heard multiple cries of her name from the distance, growing louder and louder until-

“LUSTER... DAWN!!!”

Luster stopped walking and thinking, letting out a little yelp and dropping her scroll on the ground. Weirdly enough, she couldn’t remember the last time somepony - or creature - called her name out loud, other than her parents, her mentor, and her old elementary teacher. Turning around, she was surprised to see a yak running up to her. One of her… friends.
“Hey…” started Luster before immediately realizing she forgot her name. In an attempt to avoid such a mistake (as well as giving another chance to one member of her “chosen” group), she awkwardly ended her greeting with,”... you…”.

“Unicorn…” panted the yak, catching her breath. Running wasn’t quite her style. “...Winifred… might have solution… to your riddle…”

Luster would have raised her eyebrow up in concern for the dying yak, but the fact that one of her friends might have an answer to the theory she came up with was… in a weird way, amazing.

Like a baby foal finally learning how to walk! Wait, no, that’s bad…

“Really?” Luster exclaimed, smiling for the first time today. “Tell me, what do you think Winifred? Am I just crazy or what?”

Taking huge gasps of air, Winifred didn’t say a word for a while, but it didn’t seem to bother Luster at all.

“Okay… okay… Winifred heard story of such… creature… flames all over…”

“Yes, yes, tell me!”

“... in Yakyakistan, yaks tell legends of creatures that… help yaks… over seasons…”

Luster’s joy was slowly depleting as the yak continued on her answer.

“... creature name was Helios… Sun lord… though not scary, in Winifred’s opinion… has flames all over. Could Helios… be it?”

Luster blinked once. She knew of Helios’s name (and most importantly of the suggestion, his figure), but never knew what was his purpose was (sometimes the textbooks can be unreliable at times). Despite the little education lesson, the flames and such, knowing his shape, Helios didn’t really fit in the silhouette of that burning, skinny, scary-looking figure always looking at her with those eyes… now that she was thinking about, the thing looked like a pony… a really tall, burning one, if she could remember...

She would’ve kept on thinking if she didn’t remember that… Winifred, right, Winifred wasn’t looking at her, her breathing less fanatic than it was some seconds ago.

“Oh, um…” stammered Luster,”... well, I know of Helios’s shape and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t him that I’m dreaming of. But it does help clear somethings from my mind. So…”

Luster didn’t know how to end the conversation. Despite her compliment and now new respect to the yak, she still didn’t know how to leave off to the library. She didn’t know how much time she has before the warning bell rang for the start of the third period so she was anxious to get a move on.

“...thanks for your input… Winifred… Winifred, right?”

The yak nodded her head with a smile and said,“ Anytime, friend!” and the two broke ways, Luster smiling awkwardly at the mention of “friend” as she headed to the library while Winifred was heading back to the quad to meet back with her friends, still debating about Allegro’s theories.

However, it was not meant to be this way. Winifred noticed something was off, turned her head around and was surprised to see that Luster wasn’t walking beside her. She then turned her body around and saw that Luster was walking away from her. Learning from her mistake, she yelled out, “Luster!”

Luster stopped walking and turned her head around to see why Winifred called her. “What’s wrong?”

“Luster not coming back to friends?”

That word again.

Luster winced a bit at the mention of “friends” and while Winifired’s attempt was enough to at least give her peers another chance, she knew she was behind her tasks and she had to work on them now if she hoped to find out about the Trio and the vision’s connection… if there was one anyhoof. The primary task of making friends can wait. These small tasks can eventually grow and eat her up and she didn’t want that. Not like that time when she accidentally didn’t feed that piranha plant like she was told to (she was scared of living, moving plants at the time).

“Oh, you go on ahead. I’m going to go to the library to work on some assignments that Princess Twilight left me.”

The yak had a little frown on her face, sad that her friend couldn’t come along. Yet through it she replied,” Winifred understands. Winifred’ll see you again during the fourth period,” and with a wave, she walked away.

Unknown to Winifred, Luster continued to stare down at the yak, wondering about her. She then slowly raised her hoof up and waved back once as the yak finally moved to the left, exiting the hallway and toward the quad. Not giving that much thought on the yak anymore longer, Luster turned around and continued onward to her destination: the school library.

She made it to the school library quite quickly, jogging through as she had no idea how much time she had left before the warning bell rang. She hoped that she could quickly find that new textbook and borrow it before anycreature else could so that she can sneak in some reading during her third and fourth-period classes. Respectively, they were about loyalty and honesty, classes she didn’t necessarily and not-in-a-bad-way care for.

While anycreature would have some trouble trying to find a specific book in the two-level room, Luster knew the library like the back of her hoof. Even though the library was crowded with creatures (the library was a hot spot for creatures to hang around), she moved her way quickly toward the textbook section of the library, which was at the back left corner on the ground level Despite the obstacles of freshponies (or first-year ponies) standing in the middle of the hallway or saddlebags laid out on the side from tables or bookshelves, she was so determined, so eager…

“Ack!”

… that she didn’t notice she bumped into some creature on making a left corner right to her destination. Rubbing her head from that crash, she shook her head around a couple of times to wave the distortion away and looked for who she crashed into. Staring back at her was a moderate deep-blue changeling with sky blue eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Luster, beginning to apologize. “I didn’t see you there, I was in a rush for a book and-”

“Equestrian Pageant Second Edition?” interrupted the changeling with a serious voice, his eyes crossed. “Yeah. I figured.”

Luster got up and dusted herself off, not realizing that the changeling was back at looking at her again, eyes wide open and down on the ground still. Luster then noticed the changeling still down and offered her hoof to the changeling, who sat there without emotion, still looking at her.

“Um… you need any help? Getting up?” said Luster, getting quite uncomfortable with the way the changeling was looking at her. Part of her wanted to just leave him be and finally pick up the book that she was looking for, but another part told her to stay and help him out. Who knows? Could be a chance to make a friend and finish Twilight’s main task. That and he did say the title of the boo that she wanted.

But as if her words sprang a bad taste, the changeling immediately got up, his eyes crossed again and said,” Don’t bother.”

Luster looked taken aback by the sudden change of mood.

Looks like a bad idea to make friends with him, she thought. But either way, he mentioned that book.

“Well, I wouldn’t anymore, anyway, but you mentioned the book that I was looking for, so I think you might know where it is or-” Up with a hopeful voice.

“I have the only copy and I’m borrowing it.”

“- you might have it and be willing to not lend it to me.” And down with a sorrowful voice.

Luster looked down on the ground, letting out a deep sigh.

“And perhaps there isn’t a way for me to convince you to not take the copy?”

“Not unless it’s a pretty good logical reason.”

Luster’s eyes widen a bit, realizing an opportunity was there. This changeling, no matter how rude, seemed smart. So he might be willing to give it up.

“Okay, well, I need it because I have some tasks from the Princess of Friendship and ruler of Equestria herself that deals with that book.”

She didn’t mean to sound so snobby up on him, but given how he just rejected her help and seemed stubborn enough to interrupt her, it was a reason to, right?

“Twilight Sparkle, huh?” replied the changeling, raising an eyebrow up.

“Princess, Twilight Sparkle,” added the Unicorn. “You know, being in a school of friendship, you should at least know to have some respect.”

Temperature was rising.

“Hmpf,” snorted the changeling,” and I would think that some personal student to the princess would at least have some humbleness.”

“And what’s that suppose to mean?”

“Means exactly what you think it means, unicorn.”

“Try me, changeling.”

The two were already head-to-head with each other, both grinding their teeth as they angrily looked at each other. It was almost as if they were about to fight for the book. And so, the changeling then leaped away from Luster and, in a surprising twist, levitated the leather-coated, gold-sketched book in front of Luster and…

… made another copy of the book. All that with magic.

Luster couldn’t believe what happened right in front of her eyes. The book was down on the ground alongside a copy of it. The changeling used an advanced magical spell to do so. Real magic. Changelings, as far as she was concerned, can't do real magic. They can only change and that's that. They were dangerously close to each other. It was almost as if a magic duel- a magic duel was going to happen. And then, no matter who wins, they two will be suspended for sure with a bad mark on their report cards. Her reputation and her character with the Princess will be shattered and shadowed over how she started a fight over a book with a changeling.

“Don’t… need to…” panted the changeling as sweat was seen dripping down on his forehead. “I think you would... know that we’ll be in trouble if we… try…”

The changeling then used his magic once more, gritting his teeth as he levitated the copy of the book toward him and stuffed it inside his saddlebag. Lifting that book was making the changeling lose his calm, mysterious yet rude mood, noted Luster. The changeling then moved past Luster, still in complete shock of what happened, unaware that he finally had a tiny smile on his face.

Suddenly, without any thinking whatsoever, Luster turned around and yelled,” Hey!”

Followed by multiple shushing by ponies who were actually studying from above, the changeling looked back with a concerned look on his face. He almost spoke before Luster interrupted him, whispering,” What’s your name?”

The changeling looked emotionless again, his eyes wide open once more. “... Maxilla.”

Luster, still in shock, said her name. “... Luster Dawn.”

Maxilla looked at the original copy of the book down at the ground and then at Luster’s face.

“..I-I’lll see you in fifth period.”

“... yeah…”

The two looked at each other, unsure of what to think of what each of the other just did for a while before the loud ringing of a school bell broke the trance between the two. Maxilla immediately switched back into an uninterested face, turned around, and disappeared from the corner while Luster turned around and had a concerned face as she looked for the book, levitating it and placing it inside her saddlebag, speaking as she did her task.

“Hey, um, sorry for that-”

She turned around and saw that the changeling was gone. She was alone in the corner, hearing the silence of the library no more, replaced by the loud conversations of her peers exiting the library and heading toward their third-period class. She looked around, sort of hoping that the changeling didn’t just leave off without her. But no matter where she looked, he really did leave.

That dang changeling, she thought angrily as she decided to move and leave the library to go to her Loyalty class. How dare he decided to act all tough on me and waste my time? I mean, humbleness? I am humble, he just decided to pick the wrong day to pick that book up when I needed it, that’s all! Sure, he might have - amazingly - used magic to make a copy for me and he did answer finally answered without showing signs that he’ll kill me or something… like, he was really rude in the beginning, and leaving without any sign, and yet… yet he was… helpful?

Luster finally made a right to the hallway where her class awaited her about a few steps ahead. Thanks to the bell, she mentally knew she had about a minute before class would begin, enough to leave her saddlebag down on the shelves and just sit down on the ground in perhaps the biggest, tallest room in the whole school, closely followed by her mentor’s own classroom. Luster would just perform a simple charm that allowed her to read the text of the book in her mind and her mind only. The only problem will be that if today is a day where they would be performing aerodynamic exercises again, it’ll throw her off for sure, having a textbook right in front of her as she’ll terribly fly her way around the room.

But not as much as Maxilla did back there. Not as much as her… friend.

Author's Note

Well so much for bi-weekly updates.

Sorry about the wait. College apps and work were pounding at my door. But anyway, hope you enjoyed this long chapter. As you can see, we're really going forward now and the next 2 chapters will be this long as well, just like the show.

Quick notes in case if you want to know: it took a really, REALLY long time trying to figure Luster's new friends (regardless if she wants to call them that yet or not). I wanted the names to be somewhat similar to what the show does, you know, Ocellus being part of the eye and Maxilla here being the jawbone or something. Colors were... hard to figure out, but I did my best to match what the show presented.

On that note, regardless the game cards say, Gisselle is who I'm calling the griffon as. Even though it's close to what another character is called and how this griffon is almost identical to that of what the game card says as Griselda, I'm going through with Gisselle. That and Griselda technically has a different scarf, so ha.

Next chapter will focus more heavily on Twilight's side of her story. While one would debate about how Twilight would forget about the princesses that basically made her, I would argue that Twilight herself said that friendships won't last without hard work (that and Celestia and Luna are hoping that Twilight herself would visit). I know, loose excuse, but hey, deals well with the story. So yeah, now a quick check to how Princess Nerd deals with this "new" revelation on the next chapter, hopefully, done before Christmas.

Again, let me know of the story so far! I'm human, so things fly by me so often but anything helps, questions, comments, hopes, dreams, fears, G R A M M A R, all that good stuff. Just be civil about it as well, none of that "I-am-superior-than-you" drift.

ER 12/01/2019

Chapter 3: Lost

Princess Twilight Sparkle could only look outside the window, watching how the tall, yellow grass moved to the wind, swaying to the right and then to the left thanks to the Friendship Express's momentum while the clouds seemed to be chased down in the blue sky by the train, as she tried once more to process what she was told by her friends about an hour ago. It was difficult for her to process the fact that her friends have told her, a fact that she found to be very thought-provoking. Why did this seemingly big friendship problem seem like it can revolve around the two sisters again? How could she ever forget about the ponies that made her into what she is today? Who she is?

“Twilight, the ponies that the rest of us are referring are Celestia and Luna."

She never felt so incredibly embarrassed, so terribly shameful, and so stupidly shocked in moons. The way she responded with a loud exclamation in disbelief, her hoof raised to contain her pumping machine that was her heart in place, her wings puffing-openly to represent her shock… all while her friends, and to be rather specific, her diplomats, were shocked at her response for either wondering why she was acting delusional or knowing frighteningly that she didn't know at all.

But besides the stupidity she felt, she also felt very… scared… a feeling that she never felt since her coronation as Equestria's newest ruler (a wave of memories rushed back into her after realizing how long it has been since she ever interacted with the former princesses). It wasn't the "scared" emotion that was scared but knew that everything would work out just fine, like nervous or anything. Not like when the Young 6 fought off that troublesome dinosaur or when Flurry Heart finally was old enough to present the Crystal Heart for all during the annual Crystal Faire alongside Cadance, a particular memory that was memorable for the right-right reasons. No, it was the type of true "scared" scared, the frightening kind, the kind that she was legitimately terrified of what was to happen as she had no idea what would happen. The kind that happened almost every time when she and her friends would have to save Equestria nearly every time, the most prominent of that feeling when they fought against the Mean Trio.

That feeling of fear and shame rushed over her like nothing had done before for the longest time.

"Twilight? You okay?"

A voice saved her from the depths of the deep hole she continued to explore without a destination. Her eyes opened a bit wider hearing her voice as she turned her head around, looking away from the window, to see the apple farmer standing before her, giving a comforting smile. Yet Twilight, being Twilight, noted that within that smile, two concerned eyebrows betrayed the safe haven. She knew it better that this was going to be a rather long talk, especially from her. She knew it better than to not lie at all, as Applejack was almost impossible to lie to these days.

"... not really, AJ," responded Twilight as she turned her entire body around to face her

"Ya don't mind if ah ask why not?" asked Applejack as she helped herself by taking the seat in front of Twilight, knowing the response and ready to talk to her face-to-face.

Twilight nodded her head slowly. Despite Applejack's better skills at interrogation, Twilight was determined to keep her personal problems away from her, especially in lite of what this friendship mission could mean… and weigh.

"... yeah, it's just about the friendship mission we're being sent to. Smolder brought up a very good point about the type of situation we might be in. Especially with how this problem is located in the town where the princesses are retiring, if this problem is indeed within the two, it won't be the first time Celestia and Luna have been involved in this… and the first time that a friendship problem appeared within the two, Starlight didn't report me very hopeful findings with the two, especially... Celestia."

"Oh?" Applejack perked up a bit, her little surprised shock was an indicator for Twilight that Applejack wanted to know more. And so, reluctantly, she recalled the story.

"Well," started Twilight," while Starlight was dreaming after having switched their cutie marks for a day- yeah, don't get me started on that, she dreamed of how the Nightmare forces not only took Luna into Nightmare Moon, but they took Celestia as well into… I can't remember, Solar or Sun something… I can't remember, but I do remember seeing a glimpse of her way back, but that's just it, I can't seem to put my hoof on it. I mean, while one can argue that it was a dream, I did some more reading about the Nightmare forces, since, well, yeah, it left me completely shocked that Celestia could ever possibly turn into something like Nightmare Moon.

"It took me to read Starswirl's journal that I realized that it was possible for the two to become Nightmare versions. Apparently, the Nightmare forces have had a long history with the two, the two accidentally stumbling upon their world through a mirror, just like the one I have with Sunset Shimmer. These Nightmare forces exist all around us, just waiting for the right moment where we hit our lowest point in hatred and sorrow. It happened to Luna, it happened to, well, me, from Sunset's world, and it happened to Pinkie Pie, of all ponies.

"For a while, I was handling things cautiously around Celestia until Chrysalis captured us that day when the Changelings were liberated. The thought that Celestia would… well, pose a threat to Equestria never crossed my mind since… until now, I guess…"

Applejack simply looked at Twilight with concerning eyes, taking in all that Twilight had to say. Which was a lot. Applejack couldn't remember the last time Twilight was ever this worried. This whole situation seemed like it was a bad omen for Twilight and while she herself thought that this whole Celestia-going-evil thing was rather silly, she knew better that it will be a mistake to misjudge Twilight's concerns, especially with one that could once again be a threat to Equestria.

The two exchanged shocked expressions when they felt a jolt within the cabin, as the sound of metal screeching along rails painfully irritated their ears. Feeling the motion of the train traveling slower and slower before it reached a halt, they could hear the conductor yell," Now arriving at Silver Shoals!"

Applejack noted that Twilight grimaced a bit before giving a sigh, a complete opposite from how the other passengers were reacting.

"Well, let's see what we can do then," mentioned Twilight as she got off her seat and headed along with the others.

Applejack was the last one to get off her seat, the last one to follow through her friends out of the cabin behind the Princess of Friendship. Now Applejack had her own small Friendship problem to handle with.

"Yeah… let's…"

If one were to think about a nice place to retire, one wouldn't have thought of Silver Shoals at all… for a long time, that was. The coastal town was indeed beautiful during the day and quite lovely during the night, with its brick homes residing along the tall hills by wooden planks and the blue waves crashing along its cliffs, taking every sunrise and sunset with a grand show and every moonrise and moonset with a tender some care… it really was a special place. Yet, for many ponies and creatures at the time, it was just your average town. It was beautiful to finally spend the rest of your life with, but it was nothing compared to Las Pegasus, Califoalnia, or even Rainbow Falls. It wasn't until rumors of the former rulers of Equestria residing in the town that finally placed the coastal town on the map, and beyond. Yet for all of its popular tourism due to the rumor, nopony has ever seen the rulers at all. But it hasn't stopped for some to keep returning at every chance they got.

Today, however, might put a rest to the rumor of royalty residing among the town. While residents of the town took no matter of the scene unfolding, the tourists simply watched in awe as the alicorn, three Earth ponies, two pegasi, a unicorn, a hippogriff, a yak, a griffon, a dragon, and a changeling were walking along the stone path of the town's small square, where most residents stop to sell or buy items. Ignoring the obvious stares they were receiving, the group continued their way, walking up the jagged stone steps of the town.

Having flown for quite a while (and not knowing where they were going) Smolder was starting to get a bit tired of the journey and asked her friends around her," Hey, so… where are we going, exactly?"

"To where Celestia and Luna are living," responded Ocellus.

"Yeah, I know that, but, where, exactly?"

"Probably to a nice, cozy house out on the valley, but not too far away from the sea. It's where I would love to retire after a long day's work, " answered Silverstream, jumping up to fly a bit as she hugged herself in thinking of how wonderful it would be to have a home like that.

"That sounds about right," Sandbar agreed, nodding his head.

As the path before them was growing less steep, the young six then heard a familiar sound of snickering and looked forward. The source was coming close to Twilight, but it wasn’t her voice. It was obvious that it was coming from him, being the Captain of the Royal Guard protecting the Princess. Despite not entirely knowing what was the reason, the rest of the Mane 6 didn't seem to agree with what he was laughing about as they gave him concerned looks.

"What Griffin laughing at?" asked Yona.

As Gallus's small fit was finally dying off, he helplessly replied,"...Nothing, really… it’s just… oh man, when you see the place…" He then proceeded to take fast deep breaths to keep his composure, successful by the fifth time.

"Is there something that we should know about the place, Gallus?" asked Twilight.

"No, nothing," answered Gallus," I mean, you've all been to their place, right?"

Everypony and everycreature looked around, wondering if any of them did. Some slight embarrassment was seen, as some were just remembering how awful it might have been for Twilight to not know where the Princesses were.
"Wait, was I supposed to know that as well, or is everypony not supposed to know that?" asked Twilight.

Any slight embarrassment that anypony or anycreature felt for not managing to make a visit to the former princesses in the past immediately disappeared. Everypony and everycreature looked at Twilight once more, some giving more concerned looks while others gave shocked looks. Gallus joined in, simply facepalming, clanging the metal armor on his claws and head that resonated the sound of disappointment.

"Okay,” sighed Gallus as he lifted his claw back to the ground. “To answer your question, yeah. Only you and I should only technically know where exactly the Princesses are. But, knowing you, you know, I kinda thought you might share it with the rest of your friends here."

"Good to… know?” said Twilight sheepishly, once again feeling that shamefulness for the second time today. “But where exactly are they then?" asked Twilight, trying to stay at ease as the group finally made their way up to the top of the flighted steps, finally on flat ground.

"Over there," responded Gallus as he pointed outward.

The group looked at where he was pointing, which was a building that looked similar to that of Ponyville Hospital, except if it was updated to be much grander and majestic, almost suggesting that it was a getaway hotel. It even had a penthouse made of glass, held by pillars that made up like the roof of the entrance. However, even with its white roof and its small gothic-like windows to note a few, it was only almost. The huge green hedges that surrounded the perimeter of the hospital, as well as a fountain in the middle, blocking the view of the entrance, didn’t hide the fact that one can still tell that the building was a place for the old. To top that off, a sign that featured the place’s name, as well as an alicorn’s head smiling as its wings shaped like waves nearly covered its face gave its hidden disguise away.

The sign read, in golden lettering, ”Silver Shoals Retirement Center”. They were here.

When news arrived at the Silver Shoals Retirement Center staff that Celestia and Luna have decided to retire the rest of their lives in their center, everypony was shell-shocked. The center didn’t have that many ponies nor creatures in its center at the time, only merely twelve residents, with only twenty-four staff members, two of which were the center’s owners. The center barely made enough to make a profit and have reason to be running. One can say that it ran like a small business, but despite the stigma, the staff members took it well, as, like a small business, they took their time and care at the fullest for their twelve residents, ensuring that these residents will have the best time of their lives. They were so devoted that all of these staff members knew their residents well, and very well indeed. With the way things were working out, the center was just another home, another family for these thirty-six. That all changed when two Royal Guards appeared on their doorstep and gave them the news.

The old owners, surprised and scared out of their wits, took drastic measures to meet the supposed demand and attention their small center would receive. For one, the owners combined their own savings to start remodeling the entire place. First, they tore down a majority of the center’s wooden structures and replaced it with marble and stone, gone were logs and in were pillars. Then, they started decorating the place seemingly as a resort, adding in a huge fountain and green hedges around, as well as adding lights and a small bar for its pool deck (which, by the way, added another pool next to it, as well as a big jacuzzi and four saunas, one of which was for individual use only. That and a track and field was added).

After the center was done and finished with the remodeling, the owners set their eyes on changing policy around the center. At this point, one could say that the staff members, dragged across the floor with the owners, were fed up with these unnecessary changes and that they took their interests into something else. Who knows what the owners could be writing down that could potentially harm their little family, not that it was already smashed to begin with thanks to the new center.

Wrong. The staff members, including the twelve residents, pitched in to help the owners with the new center, as well as help calm down the owners when things seemed lost. They stuck together to make sure that the center stood remodeled as such for one thing and one thing only: family.

With the policy, they made sure that ponies and creatures who want in in their home had to meet requirements, as well as enter in an extreme betting process, which essentially meant that the individual, or group, had to seem likable to be part of their family. For their new policy was made so that they, the original thirty-six, could be together and expand with residents that know that time and care are everything.

Essentially, respect was needed, as well as character, to enter this little family.

But that was many moons ago… and like all things that happened in the past, unfortunately, to the ponies and creatures of today, these little adventures seemed like they were legends. To the ponies and creatures of yesterday, if any sadly, it was almost like it happened… yesterday.

Twilight entered the hallway first, unsure of what to expect inside the daunting building. Inside, she was greeted with sounds of chatter and steps, as well as an abundance of ponies and creatures alike. It almost reminded her of Ponyville’s marketplace during the rush hour.

Despite how densely crowded the very white room was, the hallway tried its best to keep its open atmosphere, with a large gothic window from above allowing all the sunlight in and hanging from the window frames were chandeliers, ready to light up for the night. Thanks to how open the room was from above, one can see each floor from the left and right side, ponies and creatures walking around and some simply staring out in the distance, hanging on the railings, the right and left sides of each of the two floors connected by mezzanines above the entrance of the hallway. There were benches nearly on every side of each wall, as well as benches in the middle of the hallway, always accompanied by a plant of some sort. Beyond the hallway was an entire wall of glass, showing (if one can see through the crowd) the pools and the track and field in all of its glory. In the center of the hallway was a circular info desk, crowded around by its residents but noticeable thanks to the big insignia of the center etched on a massive white pillar.

Twilight tried her best to make her way toward the information desk, avoiding to bump into anypony and make a fuss out of it. For the first few moments, it seemed like she succeeding, but it quickly went downhill as she accidentally bumped somepony from behind, granting her a “Hey, watch it!”, and finally realizing that she was being pushed and shoved around, away from the info desk.

Maybe I should have kept my Princess form, thought Twilight. She had just transformed into her old, younger self as a Unicorn, to hopefully avoid any immediate detection that royalty was in the building.

She could’ve done this earlier before boarding the train from Ponyville and again walking through the nature of Silver Shoals, but she didn’t care about the looks she was receiving from ponies and creatures around her; she was too busy with Celestia and Luna on her mind at the time. She decided to change just now when she made her way around the center’s outside fountain, hearing an old stallion screaming,” Oh my Twilight, it’s Princess Twilight! And her friends are with her! Oh my staaarrrrssss!!!!!”

Just as the stallion might have fainted, Twilight’s mind automatically made her mind up to Transform, to the surprise of her group. She should be used to this by now, but Twilight, being Twilight, still wasn’t comfortable when ponies and creatures praise her as something more than just their ruler. She was fine with ruling and the looks she would get at times, but when it comes to ponies and creatures fangirling around her, it just didn’t feel right, in a sense. So, every now and then, before she would leave anywhere that might attract attention, she would transform into her old Unicorn-self. It felt good, every now and then, to be ignored, to be just one with the crowd.

This wasn’t the case at all at the moment.

Just as she thought she should transform back into her own self, a loud screech of what sounded like a hawk was heard, immediately silencing the room. Everycreature directed their attention to the source of such an ear-piercing distraction.

“Attention! Please make way! Important royalty business being dealt here!”

With that, the group surrounding Twilight made their way away from her. She took the chance to draw a deep breath as she turned around to see the griffon in armor make his way toward her, behind him, her friends following. Nocreature dared to draw a breath or a noise as the Friendship Council and the Young Six made their way.

“Thought you might need a little assistance, miss,” said Gallus with a smug, his claw out to pull Twilight up.

Twilight looked at her guard with a little glare that was overlooked by a little smile on her face. “I guess I did,” she responded as she placed her hoof on his claw, pulled up from the ground.

As the group walked over to the info desk, Silverstream nudged Gallus and whispered,” Didn’t know you had it in you, captain.”

Gallus looked up to her face and, with a chuckle, simply smiled as he nudged Silverstream back.

The attendees inside the circle of the info desk stood still as Twilight and the others finally stood before them. None of them knew what exactly was going on. None of them knew what to do at all. It had been moons since actual royalty has entered the premises (royal guards, “very important ponies, captains of such, don’t count).

“Hello there,” started Twilight,” we were wondering if you know the room number where Celestia and Luna are residing in?”

The attendees blinked once. In recognition, they deeply sigh. The same question must mean that this could just be another elaborate prank by some rich, snobby tourists. Which meant it was time to stick to the script.

One of the attendees from the middle, a mustard-yellow Earth pony, cleared his throat and said,” We’re sorry, but we don’t have the former princesses of Equestria housed in this establishment. Now, if you will, please…” as he pointed out to the door.

Twilight was taken aback from the response she got. The others, too, were also visibly distraught by such a reply.

“Wait, what? But-” started Twilight but before she could continue, Gallus sighed and opened his wing to cover Twilight’s mouth (now that she was nearly the same size as he was).

“Look,” said Gallis,” can I speak to, what’s her name, Sorrow Cream or Tomorrow Crepe or, I don’t know, one that can’t take a joke for all these moons?”

“That’s Sorrow Crimson to you, Smallus.”

Taking a look from the right, the group watched as the crowd made way for the unicorn wearing a charcoal gray dress who spoke. The dark crimson unicorn walked forward, a gold ring on her right hoof as well as diamond earrings shining noticeably. Her long mane bounced up and down as she did, with only the strands in front of her face, shaped like the ends of a ribbon, not bouncing along. Although not obvious to the common pony, Rarity could tell that she was expertly wearing a lot of makeup, with that black eye shadow and those long eyelashes.

"Well, hello there," said Gallus, keeping a smile that was betrayed with his glaring eyes.

"Hello yourself, griffon," responded Sorrow Crimson, with a royal yet snobby voice. "What is it that you want? Another visit with you-know-whos?"

It was obvious that the group didn't like the first impression that they were getting. While some looked at her with displeasing eyes, some took a more significant look. Yona looked like she was going to ram into Crimson up on a wall. Rarity kept her face locked on her, with such disapproval. Twilight, not one to take such disrespect toward her friends, tried her best to shove Gallus's wing away so she could handle the talking. Rainbow would’ve made a move if Applejack didn’t suddenly grasp her hoof. The one with such anger, however, came from Silverstream, as it looked like she was about to burst. Yet Gallus seemingly kept his ground firm as he responded back sarcastically," If you would be sooo kind, Srimson."

Sorrow Crimson looked at him with disgust as she huffed and pointed up. "Same place as always, dummy. She just came back from their daily jog."

"Thank you soo-" Gallus would've kept on going with a very loud and long "o" if he didn't caught a change in the usual conversation. "Wait," he broke as his tone changed from such rich ridicule to genuine seriousness," what do you mean by 'she'?"

"I mean what I mean, bird, now get along!" she responded as she turned around and went back inside the crowd "You're hurting business with your crowd of fans! Estella, give him the key!"

With that, Sorrow Crimson disappeared within the crowd while a white unicorn with her lemon yellow Mane tied from the info desk fearfully took off a locket that she was wearing, which was shaped as the logo of the center. Not moving away from her spot, she immediately threw the locket to the desk which Gallus quickly took.

"Sorry, sorry!" pipped Estella.

"Nah, don't mention it, Stella," responded Gallus, looking at her with such melancholy. With a thumbs-up, Gallus led the struck group to the left, the crowd now resumed with the usual noise, only this time their conversations were about the scene that unfolded before them.

Nopony and nocreature spoke at all as Gallus led them through the crowd, everycreature and everypony still making way for them. They continued to follow through the first floor of the retirement center's rooms for its residents until they reached the end of the hall, where two large, glass elevator awaited them. Not saying a word, they waited for the one on the left to open, allowing a group of about fourteen ponies, griffons, and dragons alike to leave like a clump of sardines inside a can.

The group made their way in the elevator without any problem, as the residents who were impatiently waiting for their turn simply didn’t want to deal with them. One by one, they entered the elevator, with each creature and pony entering eliminating space for one and the other. Despite how much space there was, the group found themselves somewhat too squish with each other. Yona looked as if she was going to object taking the elevator last second, but Gallus, seemingly reading her mind, said,” Don’t worry, these things are designed to hold as many as three elephants. I think.” With that, he pressed the third-floor button and the elevators closed in front of them.

As soon as the elevators closed and watched as they slowly rise above the crowd, Rainbow Dash flew up as close as she could to Gallus and exclaimed,” What was that all about?!”

"What?” asked Gallus, as if nothing happened.

And so, the rest of the quick elevator ride went something like this.

“What do you mean ‘what’?!”

“That unicorn totally made fun AT you! It wasn’t at all with you!”

“And it wasn’t as if you didn’t help calm ‘er down as well!”

“Oh Applejack, please! That pony had it coming! I’ve never seen somepony so inconsiderate in my entire life!”

“I didn’t even felt a touch of anger from you, just, confusion. Talk to us, Gallus, what happened?”

“Yona should have taught rude unicorn lesson!”

“Gallus, please, talk to us. What do you mean by ‘what’?”

“Now, now, I know she was rude, but, Yona, let’s not get that hasty-”

“Hasty?! Sandbar, Yona should’ve dealt with her! With me on her side, she wouldn’t stand a chance!”

“Count me in as well, girls! I’ll show that unicorn a thing or two about messing with my lov-”

“ENOUGH!”

With the power of her Canterlot voice, Twilight silenced the elevator effectively. Unfourantely for her, the elevator just opened its door, which meant that everycreature and everypony else heard her voice, echoing loud throughout the entire center. The residents of the third floor, those already out and some just opening the door of their rooms, looked at the purple unicorn with such confusion and surprise. Twilight, realizing her mistake, shrunk a bit as Gallus shook his head and continued to walk out of the elevator, with the others following in silence.

As the doors closed behind them, Twilight walked quickly to catch up to Gallus, ignoring the looks from the residents. Once she was next to her guard, she asked in a caring voice, “Gallus, what was that?”

Gallus sighed, turned to look at Twilight, and said,” That’s literally how my conversations go with her. Ever since day one of my official duties as Captain of the Royal Guard. I… had a rough first impression with her, accidentally came late and all, but that was that. She’s just that rotten and well, I play around with her. But she’s all good… in a weird way, I guess.”

Twilight processed in what Gallus said. It made no sense in her mind. How could he not care at how rude she was acting? And so she asked.

“... I don’t get it. So, you don’t care about how she just treated you?”

“Trust me,” said Gallus as he turned away,” it’s all good. Besides, it takes a lot more than some petty insults to ruffle my feathers, being from Griffonstone anyhow.”

“Oh,” said Twilight simply. It kind of flew past her mind that Gallus was from Griffonstone, which, from what Pinkie and Rainbow said at the time, wasn’t the grandest places of all for a long while, especially for a griffon abandoned in the streets. Nowadays, ponies and creatures come from all places to visit what was considered the grandest place of them all, some even mentioning that its beauty and elegance were enough to rival Canterlot.

All of a sudden, a lightbulb went up on her head. She had just remembered the whole point of being on this little trip. But before she could say anything to Gallus about her newfound hypothesis, Gallus stopped in the middle of the corridor and pointed to the right.

They were in right in the above of what would be the small hallway of the entrance before the grand hallway before them. Gallus was pointing at two grand doors that stood before them, which had a sign that was hung by the doorknobs that read in bold, red words “CONSTRUCTION AREA DO NOT ENTER PENTHOUSE”. It would be enough to throw any resident off that it was just another door if one didn’t look to see that the two doors were joined together by an odd keyhole that was shaped like a heart.

“We’re here,” announced Gallus to the group as he knocked on the door with a pattern similar to that of the famous “Shave and a Haircut… Two Bits”. He then placed the golden locket inside the keyhole, with the logo facing toward them.

“Ooh,” squeed Pinkie Pie, shaking with excitement,” I can’t wait to see the Princesses! It’s been forever since we last met them! I mean, do you think they’ll remember us? Our names? Our faces? Oh no! Wait! I’ve come prepared!”

As the lock on the door was opening, Pinkie grabbed Applejack’s hat and out emerged a big, three-ring binder, much to the surprise of everypony, including the farm pony.

“Okay! I have learned from the past that care packages aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and that it could sometimes lead you plunging down to the ground thanks to a tornado! So, I came up with these cute, poppy flyers that feature fun facts about us! For example, for Twilight’s, I came up with how she was your former student, how you made her into a princess and then into a ruler, how you had to stop her Want-It Need-It spell once, and how you are the only one that knows that one time when she tried to perform the Prome-”

“Okay!” interrupted Twilight as she used her magic to silence Pinkie before anypony else knew that secret. “Thank you so much, Pinkie, for making those flyers!”

“Shh!” hushed Ocellus. “We’re going in.”

One by one, the group entered into the penthouse silently and cautiously, not sure exactly what to expect inside, with Twilight entering in last, quickly remembering again who they were about to meet.

What would they say? How will they react to seeing me and the others all grown up? How will they approach me, knowing that I haven’t visited nor talked nor even dreamed of them for the longest time? Will they be mad, disappointed, sad? What, what, what?!

But her worries and carefulness were soon replaced by the amazement and wonder of what stood before her and her friends.

The penthouse seemed smaller from the outside. A large open space stood before them, the center of the room sinking deep underground a bit to make up a small living space. The oval-shaped middle “living room” had only four stylish armchairs, a circular large coffee table, and two tufted chaise lounge chairs, one for the left arm and one for the right arm. Out in the back was very similar to that of the glass wall of the main hallway, revealing a spectacular view of the Silver Shoals valley, as well as its shores from afar. The kitchen and the dinner table, very modern with its sleek design (again, marble), stood before the glass wall. The glass wall also included a glass roof from above, which kept going until reaching the marble roof of two rooms, one on the left and one on the right corner near the entrance. Both rooms were designed like a cone-shaped tent, expanding into touching the corner of the room up top, but they had different color designs, as the one on the left was mostly yellow and golden while the one on the right was blue and dark.

In short, the penthouse was breathtaking.

“What a lovely place!” exclaimed Rarity. “The view, the lounge chairs, the living space, the tent rooms! Just look at how it all complements the rich white marble and quartz located around the room!”

“Ah’ll say,” commented Applejack.

“It is quite an eyeful, isn’t it?”

The group stopped dead on their tracks as they heard the doors close behind them and from it, a new door was heard opening, coming from the left.

Particularly, Twilight almost felt her entire heart jump out of her body when she heard that voice. Despite a change in how fragile and older it sounded, it still had that royal, mystic voice that she hadn’t from in moons. She turned around slowly, not sure if she wanted to see at all, but curiosity got the best of her. And with that, her eyes took everything at who stood before her.

She stood in front of the yellow room, almost as tall as her older sister, in fact, looking more like her sister’s physique from many moons ago. Her long mane, no longer flowing along without the power of her magic, simply spread down from her neck while her tail almost barely touched the ground, with only the “stars” on her mane and tail sparkling still. She wore nothing at all except slippers that resembled her cutie mark, the moon. She gave a quick, sly smile to the group.

“Well, this is quite a group you’ve arranged, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” spoke Luna.

With that, Pinkie let out a huge gasp and immediately jumped and hugged the former princess of the night. Initially surprised, Luna embraced the hug while the rest of the group, unsure of what manners were to greet a former princess, simply gathered around hugged Luna, forming a huge circle as they smiled and laughed.

Everypony and everycreature in the room took in the small, sweet moment they had together before they broke the circle. Almost at once she was out, Twilight suddenly remembered the thoughts she had before entering the room. And then, another lightbulb on her mind.

“Luna, I am so, so sorry for finally visiting you and Celestia now after all this time and,” started Twilight but then Luna raised her hoof up in the air, a signal that Twilight took to be quiet.

Putting her hoof down, Luna calmly said,” I assure you, fair Twilight, that there’s no trouble in that at all. I know that Equestria isn't sometimes easy to rule, even with your friends at the ready. But it will always be a joyous occasion to see you all visit."

She ended that sentence with a small chuckle, her smiling face that seemed reassured that they were here to visit. The group around her gave uncertain looks, with Twilight's face growing much more in despair when she heard Luna keep mentioning that word: visit. She turned to look at Gallus, who looked at her back with a slight jolt, telling her to explain the real reason why they were here.

"Unfortunately," started Twilight, letting out a sigh," that's not why-"

"Why, I just realized," interrupted Luna. Twilight instantly winced when she saw Luna so shocked.

“Wait, Luna, I can explain!” she exclaimed, her hooves up in the air. She didn’t know that Luna would instantly know why they were here.

"Why aren't you as grown as I thought you will be? Surely with all that magic within you, you will be quite a figure. And pray tell, by Starswirl's beard, where are your wings?!"

Twilight stared at Luna's surprised look with a blank expression. At the moment, she hated that she’ll have to tell her that a simple visit wasn't why they were all here, so she took the statement as an opportunity. She put her hooves down and began to talk.

"Oh, um, no, actually, I have! Rather, grown-up, you know, throughout these moons. I'm just, well, using a spell to hide my appearance so that I'm not that noticeable! You know, big, tall, wavy purple alicorn!"

Luna laughed at Twilight's stumbled comments, with some of the group members chuckling along, many not knowing that they were stalling the inevitable. Only Gallus and Applejack were the only ones not going along, staring at Twilight with concern.

"Oh, don't be so bashful!" went Luna, "To be afraid of towering over your subjects… ha! You know, you just sound like… like… "

Her enthusiastic tone died off faster than her sentence. Twilight felt an immediate drop in mood, the air getting colder, the fake smile she had dropped into a worrisome face. She felt exposed as Luna's expression turned sorrowful, who then lowered her head a bit down to the ground, so that nopony and nocreature could see her face.

Applejack, not wanting to witness Twilight pull off the murder anymore, saw the opportunity to drop the unfortunate news. "Princess, ah'm sorry but we're sadly not here for ah simple visit."

Without looking up at Applejack, she simply asked in a quiet voice," A friendship problem, perhaps?"

"Yeah," responded Gallus slowly, walking up close to Luna as Applejack stood her ground. He spoke cautiously, as he felt like he was spilling out hot alphabet soup in front of the dinner table. He didn’t want to anger the hostess at all. But he knew it had to be done. Just, with caution as much as possible.

"The Friendship map signaled us for the first time in years. It called all of us to here and, well… We figured, since it called an awful huge group, as you can see here, um... and… taken from, well, your past, with the friendship map… it might involve you and Celestia. Again."

Luna processed the words in for quite a while, still haven't lifted her head up. Her mane covered whatever emotion her eyes could show and regardless of her mouth being visible, it showed nothing as well. Yet her body figure screamed sadness.

The group stood still, waiting for anything to happen despite not knowing what to do if something happened. Suddenly, Luna took a deep breath in and rose up, Gallus and Applejack falling back a bit. Twilight's eyes never left her face, her mind blistering about the possible consequences that could unfold. Except one.

If it was true, if Luna does agree, that the problem was coming from the two sisters… given everything that rushed back into her mind on the way here… even with her experiences to keep calm at situations like these… she might faint.

Head down. A quiet, solemn, yet hollow voice. She spoke. "I wouldn't call it a friendship problem."

The yellow door behind Luna fully opened to reveal the room inside, intending for the group to enter. With Twilight leading, the group carefully gathered around to see what was inside and gasped at the sight.

Liked the penthouse, the room seemed smaller on the outside. The cone-shaped room had everything that made it like a cozy bedroom, a small wooden desk next to a queen-size bed, a carpet shaped and color like the sun, and a big light, shaped like the sun, hung straight in the middle of the room, along with its yellow walls, shaded differently to depict waves and decorated with clouds.

But the group didn't gasp at the room. They gasped at who was in the room, laying on the bed. Tissues were scattered around her bed, overflowing in a small trash can nearby. Another trash can stood by, but from just looking at it, the trash can served as another disgusting purpose. On top of the wooden desk, numerous types of medicines, ranging from pill canisters to liquid medicines, were scattered around, some on the floor with their original packaging. A bowl of soup (tomato, it seemed) was laid on top of a stool next to the bed. Two machines, one that seemed like a heartbeat monitor and the other as a humidifier stood nearby the bed on the left, completely taking over the corner.

Twilight looked briefly at who was lying on the bed, only briefly. She couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it. The former Princess of the Sun laid down on the bed, covered in multiple blankets as she coughed irritably and hoarsely. Her face was the only part that was exposed, but it was enough to see she was in a terrible state, with eye bags, wrinkles, unwashed mane, all exposed within that pale, white coat.

With that brief look at Celestia, Twilight felt her legs giving up, her mind becoming sleepy, and the room around her turning black as she fainted.

Her body was still aching after everything that happened. Even after that lesson ended, Luster still felt her body limping on her, especially her nose as she walked to her fifth-period class. If it was any good, she at least learned something today that would completely make her life today a little easier. She learned that she’ll have to be ignorant around everypony and everycreature if, and only if, it didn’t involve anything about completing her pending task: read that strange new book.

Wait, that sounds like I’m the bad guy here. No, I’m not! How about… avoiding everypony and everycreature? Yeah, that definitely sounds way better. Like, twen- OH, HEAVENS TO TWILIGHT!

Everything that happened today has led her to make that unusual declaration for herself.

When she stumbled her way to Acting Professor Rumble’s third-period class, she sighed. When she heard that they will be doing aerodynamic exercises, she cried (to much embarrassment from her other peers). When she felt that cold floor on the side of her cheek for what felt like a million times, she groaned. When she heard her partner… Jessie or whatever that griffon’s name was, said anything to her, especially when she was looking at that book, she lost her train of thought (and mark on her page).

It didn’t help at all when her griffon… friend pushed her off once from up top the “clouds”. Apparently, she said that Acting Professor Rumble told the class to push their partner off the platform so that they learn to trust their friend in this weird “trust fall”. Some trust fall it must have been because that was one painful slam on the ground. The griffon kept saying that she was supposed to open the prosthetic wings attached to her and glide her way back down so that she could grab her near the bottom.

Scratch that, some lesson. No wonder he was only acting professor.

Essentially, when anything at all happened during that third-period class, she winced at how she made a fool out of herself (thanks to her friend) and that her curiosity over that book was growing deeper within her.

Fourth-period was no help to her growing desire. Professor Sweetie Belle’s lesson decided to take a break from actual academics and instead focus on creating dresses (something that she noted that the professor didn’t know how to do that well like her sister). Learning her lesson from slamming her face on the wall multiple times in third-period, she thought that sneaking peeks from the book would finally at least stay focus on one thing at a time without hurting herself.

Wrong. When she already set her book up and heard to remove everything from their desks, she sighed. When she got caught sneaking looks at the book, she cried (to much embarrassment from others). When she decided to use the same spell from the third-period and accidentally stabbed herself with the pin, she groaned. When she heard her partner, Winifred, trying to talk to her throughout the period, especially when she was trying to focus on reading that book, she lost her train of thought (and mark on her page).

It didn’t help at all when Winifred yelled her name so loud she accidentally again pierced herself with the pin, only this time sharper. Apparently, Winifred claimed that she was sewing her dress along with the table cloth beneath her, dragging everything, like the pincushions, the sewing machine, and Winifred’s dress. To make matters worse, Professor Sweetie Bell sent her to the nurse’s office, claiming that she looked like a mess. A mess.

Some lesson. She spent the rest of the period in the nurse’s office as the school nurse gave her a bandage over her left hoof and a pill to temporarily relieve the pain she felt over her body, particularly in her face.

When the lunch bell rang, she exited the nurse’s office and saw in front of her Winifred, who had her saddlebag, a small smile on her face as she took her saddlebag, making sure that the book was still inside. She looked at Winifred, gave a small nod, a very quiet “thank you”, and left, leaving Winifred confused.

She ate her lunch alone in one of the school’s towers (barely anypony or anycreature goes), taking much of the time thinking about what happened today. After much time staring out in the sky, she started to ramble to herself.

“I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it weren’t for these distractions,” she mumbled as she ate her daffodil and daisy sandwich. “I mean, would I have a bandaged left hoof? No, if it weren’t for Winifred yelling at me the whole time. Would I feel like I broke every bone in my body? No, if it weren’t for Jisselle to, I mean… Jessie, no, I mean… Griselda? Ugh!”

She threw her half-eaten sandwich down to the ground in frustration.

“By Twi-, no, no, no, no, I was right the whole time!” she exclaimed. “This is all so pointless! How can Twilight think that friendship is worth fighting for in the end!? How could she be so devoted that friendship is as much valuable as actual work, actual success!? I can’t seem to get anything done thanks to this school, these teachers, these so-called lessons, and… and… and… these FRIENDS!”

Then, her right ear twitched. She thought she heard something from underneath, like somepony or creature going down the stairs quickly. Like he or she heard her.

She quickly laid down to the ground, her head poking down the spiral stairs to see who it was. She saw nothing within the dimly-lit stairs. But she knew something was up and she wasn’t sure at all that it was simply “nothing”. Pulling herself up on all fours, she started to walk down the stairs to see if she can catch up to her, but she stopped almost immediately when she felt that she stepped on something soft on the ground. Looking down, she realized that she ruined what remained of her sandwich. Somewhat ashamed, she picked it up with her magic, but not before she saw strands of… something… like somecreature’s or somepony’s mane.

Thinking that it might reveal who was probably eavesdropping on her, she picked it up and observed. The strands were colored neon carrot, and it felt thick. This wasn’t anypony’s strand of their mane. It came from somecreature, and one creature stood out immediately as to who would follow and eavesdrop on her.

“Winifred,” she whispered, the revelation striking her like a spear toward her heart, the sound of the fifth-period warning bell ringing in the background.

As she walked to her fifth-period class, that was when she made her declaration. She had made up her mind. Besides, it was Winifred’s fault for sneaking up on her and… sadly, it might be for the best.

Perhaps, she solemnly thought as she entered Headmare Starlight’s class: Magic.

Much of the class were already sitting on their cushioned seats as Luster decided to walk around and sit in the darkest corner of the room, the bell ringing to announce that the fifth period had just started. Normally, throughout the class period, she would be sitting up front, down below as close to the headmare, taking rigorous notes and always raising her hoof whenever something puzzled her. Magic was her favorite subject, after all. But today, she just wanted to stay away from anypony, including, most regrettably, Headmare Starlight. All she wanted was to finally read that book, get that assignment out of the way, and finish the rest of the assigned tasks at another time so she could get back to… her…

… right…

She flipped through the pages of the book, finding her mark underneath the chapter titled “The Moon and the Nightmare Forces”. Now finally reading the section in the chapter titled “Examples of Nightmare Forces,” the section that she was meant to read. While she found it odd that the particular passage where she had to start was written on a sheet of paper that was wrinkled, seemingly burnt, she didn’t care at all. She finally found the perfect time to dig deep and she intended to finish before this period’s end. She started to read aloud quietly.

“‘For as long as history can remember, nightmare forces have been nature’s way of cleansing what is deemed as the evil and corrupt of the land.’”

She stopped and reread that sentence again and again. She was confused about what she just read. How could one deem such evil as a necessary way to destroy evil? She wasn’t one for reading textbooks that were grossly biased or misinformed, but if Twilight assigned her this book, then so be it… goes to show another point of how great her mentor was… She continued reading.

“‘An early example of this attempt was made by a unicorn named Stygian. Stygian was a friend and battle strategist to the legendary (yet very real) Pillars of (Old) Equestria. However, when he felt that he was left out by the very prideful Pillars, he attempted to join them by making copies of their artifacts. A well-meant action that was colorized as an evil attempt to overthrow Equestria. It was of their boastful and ignorant behavior that Stygian made the right choice to call upon a specific type of a Nightmare Force, enabling him to become the Pony of Shadows. He used this particular spell to call upon the-’”

Luster felt something soft thrown at her. She turned around, searching for the culprit first, figuring it was a pony or creature making fun of her again. Realizing that everypony was (seemingly) listening to Headmare Starlight’s lecture, she looked down to see what was thrown to her, which was a crumpled piece of paper.

Perhaps a note, she thought as she lifted it up, opened it, and read the chicken-scratch note.

You know, it’s against the rules to be doing work while the professor is talking. Especially when its work from a different class.

Maxilla, she thought. It had his stench written all over it with that language.

She stopped reading and looked around frantically, wondering where that deep blue changeling was sitting. She completely forgot that she had this class with him until today. She just never noticed him after all this time.

But she never noticed him. Not even now. She decided to keep reading the note.

Don’t even bother trying to find me. If you want to “talk”, just write it down and throw the note. Doesn’t matter where. Anywhere.

Even though she was close to completing Twilight’s task, she groaned a bit as she considered. She thought about not wasting her time with that changeling, but… well, now that she indirectly told Winifred that she didn’t want to do anything with her new-found friends and probably told the rest about it…

… it would be nice to have at least someone to talk to… or in this case, argue with.

She wrote her note down with a quill, rather hastily to avoid detection from Headmare Starlight.

What do you want now?

After completing the note, she crumbled it up again and decided to throw it toward the center of the room. Like magic and much to her amazement, the note just disappeared in a dark blue smoke the second it left her grasp.

She waited, but not for long as she noticed that the same smoke appeared from her left, catching the note with her magic. She opened it up and read the reply.

Nothing much. Just wanted to know how you’re doing on the book that I let you borrow.

Her eyebrows furrowed a bit. She wrote back and threw it with a reply.

What do you mean “borrow”? And its load of garbage, I’ll tell you that.

I don’t know how long that spell will hold up. You know, since changelings don’t necessarily have magic. I haven’t begun reading it yet though.

You haven’t read it at all?!

Because of classes!

Yeah, I can agree on that.

So ha! Don’t think you can mock me on how straight-forward you are on your work, ey, protégé?

Protégé? You know what, I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much, bug.

Whatever. So, what you found in the book?

Well, hate to spoil you for making a big fuss on the book, but, it’s a load of rubbish. My assignment was to read on the nightmare forces, but from it, I can tell its a bunch of propaganda for the rest of the book, it’s like it’s trying to say that we should be glad that we have nightmare forces.

Yikes. I guess I should return that book then. I thought it looked interesting but I guess not.

“Are you kidding me!?”

Luster suddenly clasped her mouth with both her hooves. Yes, she was angry, but now that everypony and everycreature was staring at her, she was also getting embarrassed and… ashamed.

She then felt her soul leave her body when she saw Headmare Starlight’s face, seemingly disinterested, started to talk to her.

“Luster Dawn, can I see you after class?”

Her body was still aching after everything that happened. Twilight couldn’t believe that the alicorn before her, lying on her sickbed, was her former mentor, the one pony she looked up, after all this time. Even as Celestia looked at her with a smile, it couldn’t cover up everything around her. It pained Twilight to see her smiling. Deeply.

“She started to feel ill around last week,” said Luna, sitting on the stool that had the now cold soup. Everypony and everycreature was inside the cone-shape room, feeling tight as the door behind was closed (to keep the warmth so that Celestia doesn’t feel old, said Luna).

“I thought it was a simple flu, or a cold of some sort when she had a runny nose and severe coughing. But later, her symptoms got worse. She started to get the chills, her face started to seem more wrinkly and fragile, and then she couldn’t even walk at all once! The doctors gave her everything they had, even ones that are still being tested! Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Luna was starting to tear up, the room feeling more depressed in the yellow room. “They don’t even know what she could be suffering from. One even dared mention that she might… ”

Tried as she might, she wiped her tears off and cleared her throat, but her sorrowful voice and her red eyes still showed. “Even my parents didn’t show these symptoms.”

Then, Luna’s eyes went wide open as she felt something. She looked down and saw that Celestia’s hoof was on her hoof. Everypony and everycreature looked at Celestia, who first looked at Luna, then at everypony and everycreature, and then at Twilight. Twilight gasped a bit as Celestia looked at her with sweet eyes, as she shook her head slowly as if to say to not worry.

It was too much. Twilight quickly nodded her head, turned around quietly to say,” Excuse me,” and made her to the door, opening and exiting before closing the door.

All looked star-struck while Celestia, Applejack, and Gallus looked very worried.

“Fluttershy, Rainbow, come with meh,” said Applejack almost silently,” girls, stay with Luna and Celestia. Tend to them.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash nodded in response as they began to make their way out of the room.

Meanwhile, Gallus gave a similar response to his group, saying,” Hey, Ocellus. Come with me. They’ll need us as well.”

Ocellus nodded and tagged along with Gallus as Applejack held the door for them. As they did, Gallus looked behind and saw Silverstream’s face, worried. He did his best to give her a reassuring small smile as he turned the corner, Applejack then closing the door.

They found Twilight directly outside, leaning on the railing, looking down. Even with the sun up, it was quite a somber look.

Ocellus, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Gallus first looked around, making sure nopony or creature saw them come out of the “construction zone” before turning to look at each other, wondering who should go first. Applejack then sighed and motioned Fluttershy to tag along, walking forward close to Twilight, but not too close.

“Twi, you okay?” asked Applejack before she got interrupted by the unicorn’s quiet voice.

“How long has it been, girls?”

“How long has it been for what, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy nervously. She and Applejack didn’t know at all what was going to happen. Even after learning to be less shy, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel scared as she was sorry.

“The coronation,” continued Twilight, not turning back at all, not letting go of the railing, her head still looking down. “How much time has it passed?”

Gallus then nudged Ocellus, capturing her attention and asked her,” How does she feel?”

Ocellus simply shooked her head. “Not good. Its a mess. Distraught, horror, sadness, but there’s one thing that’s bubbling up inside her really fast.”

“And what’s that?” asked Gallus.

“I can’t remember that well on dates, but, about less than twenty years, perhaps?” answered Rainbow with a wary voice.

“Anger.”

“Twenty years” repeated Twilight, her voice rising. She got off the railing and turned around to see her friends before her. The girls and Gallus could see the tears on her face and while unknown to the rest, Gallus and Ocellus could see the anger building up.

“Twenty… years.”

“Um, girls…” started Gallus, wanting to warn the others before it was too late,” I think we should maybe-?”

“Not now, Gallus, stand your ground, now,” broke Twilight. As commanded, Gallus kept his beak shut while Ocellus simply started to walk back.

“Do you know how long twenty years is, Applejack?” she asked as she started to walk forward. “How about you, Fluttershy? Rainbow?”

“Now, now, hold your horses, Twilight,” said Applejack, her voice also getting louder. Applejack knew where this was going to led. And she didn’t want it to lead to it at all. “None of us knew what to expect here… ”

Rainbow and Fluttershy themselves also knew where this was going, as they trotted backward slowly, whispering behind Applejack,” AJ, don’t do it,” and “She’s not in the mood, Applejack.”

“But you knew that they lived here, Applejack!”

The bubbles have burst.

“You knew and we could’ve visited them years ago!” exclaimed Twilight, her right hoof slamming the ground.

“Ah thought ya knew! We all did! You’re supposed ta be the one who knew everythin’ about what goes what with the princesses, bein’ their chosen one and all!”

“Well, you thought wrong! Now not only do we have a friendship problem to fix here, but we need to find out how to save Celestia!”

“‘Find a friendship problem?’ That der is the friendship problem! This here IS the friendship problem!”

“How so?!”

“You with Celestia and Luna. Havin’ been separated for so long. Runnin’ out of-”

“Don’t you dare even say it, Applejack. Don’t you dare even think about saying it!”

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, Twilight! She’s sicker than even Gr-”

“YOU!”

“ENOUGH!”

Gallus stepped in the middle of the rage, his talons placed on each of the sides to prevent anything from happening while Rainbow and Fluttershy flew in, Rainbow grabbing Applejack and Fluttershy grabbing Twilight. Ocellus just stood there, petrified, her glassless pupils tiny, shocked with fear.

“Darn it all, Twilight!” cried Applejack as she was pulled away by Rainbow,” This is yer fault! You should’ve been the one to be there for them! Ya should’ve known how they were! Not us! We’re your friends, not your secretaries or your fancy diplomats! Why haven’t you remembered!? Why didn’t ya bother to visit them? Why? Why, Twilight, why?”

As the two breathed heavily, slowly calming down and quitting with their fidgeting, Twilight stammered,” I… I… I…”

With a sudden burst of magic, Twilight teleported away, Fluttershy not grasping anything at all and shocking everypony besides Applejack, staring aimlessly with somewhat disappointing eyes.

“Great job, AJ,” mumbled Rainbow as she let her go, landing down on all fours. “Who knows where she’s gone off to now…”

“How could you two say those nasty things?” exclaimed Fluttershy. “Your friends, remember?”

Applejack simply sighed deeply as she picked up her hat, haven fallen when she was picked by Rainbow. “Ah know, girls. Ah know,” she said as she simply looked at the ground with concerned eyes, realizing what she did.

Meanwhile, Gallus went next to Ocellus and said sarcastically,” Thanks for helping out, you know?”

“Not now, Gallus,” shivered Ocellus, not looking at him at all. “You have no idea what went on there.”

“Yeah?” said Gallus with his eyebrows up. “That’s why I called you to come along. What did you feel? From her?”

Ocellus turned around slowly to look at Gallus, unsettling Gallus a bit., as the words she spoke barely left audible from her mouth.

“She felt lost.”

Author's Note

Here it is! Longest chapter to date! Sorry for much hold-up, but I hope this was worth the wait! If there's anything wrong with it, please let me know and I'll fix it as soon as possible!

Some quick updates. Due to this chapter somewhat dealing with some "dark" elements (and I really tried my best to not outpoint mention them, even indirectly at all), I'm going to label this story now as Teen. Again, no way will it involve blood or sex or anything whatsoever, it just tends to get "dark", in a sense, with these arguments.

Stay tune with Chapter 4, the last chapter of this story before heading over to Part 2! This will focus on both Twilight and Luster as they try to cope with what they're losing. Things are falling apart, but don't think this will end happily (yet that is)! Things will get worse for our characters!

As always, leave anything below! Questions, comments, hopes, fears, dreams! I'll see you all soon (and a Happy New Year from wack California)!

-er 12/31/19