Forgotten

Twilight sat on her bench on the train, purposefully looking away from Bumble Trot. The anger she felt at what he had done boiled in her veins like stew on a cold winter's day. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her mane seemed to stand completely on end. She had to force herself to quell the magical outburst that waited to explode from the tip of her horn. He will help me reverse everything and get Equestria back to normal, she grumbled to herself, I will get my friends and my position back, and when I do…Bumble will pay dearly for his misuse of magic!

She had mapped out a plan for the both of them to return to Ponyville and regain the trust and assistance of her friends. It would be difficult, considering all of them had turned into the complete opposite of their Element of Harmony, but she was sure they could do it. She wanted everypony to come together and defeat the darkness that had settled over their land. After all, they had done it before. The only thing that made this different was the fact that everypony seemed to be against her. What was worse, they didn't trust ponies who were different from them.

Twilight didn't realize that Sombra had taken full advantage of everything, and weaved his way into Celestia's heart. He was pulling her strings like a puppet, and she danced and twirled at his every command. His smooth talk and sweet compliments had melted Celestia's normally rock hard gaze, and she had fallen completely in love with him. He would bring her little gifts of faux appreciation and affection, and he would present them so convincingly that the Queen of Equestria couldn't help but blush and giggle like a filly.

But Twilight remained ignorant to the bigger plight that she was in. She thought she was the victim of bad circumstances, brought on by a pony who had no business dealing in the type of magic that he had. As the train bumped and rattled along on its tracks, she conjured up every kind of punishment she could think of. Reckless use of magic was considered a major crime under Equestrian law and, being a princess, she had every right to exact judgment upon Bumble Trot.

Meanwhile, Bumble sat across from his beloved princess, embarrassed and hurt over the fact that he had destroyed her life and any chance of being friends with her. He wanted so much to impress the pretty purple pony, that he had gone completely off the rails in his attempt. He continually berated himself for trying such a complex spell. He even thought about jumping out of the nearby window, and landing under the wheels of the train. After a few more moments of awkward, tense silence passed between the two, he made up his mind to try and talk with Twilight. "Princess, please…talk to me."

She acknowledged him with a turn and a small grunt, but then saw how much his eyes were pleading with her to show compassion and understanding. The concrete wall she had built against him began to crumble, just a little bit. But she couldn't overlook his reckless behavior, and so the wall was quickly rebuilt. She turned away again, and huffed to herself.

"Princess, I'm begging you!" Bumble pleaded, but Twilight kept her back turned to him. He sighed and looked at the ground, trying to figure out what to say next. What in Equestria could he say to appease the princess? "Alright," he finally said, "if you won't talk, then I will. I just hope that you're open to listening to me. I'm sorry for what I did."

"Sorry doesn't exactly fix the problem," Twilight said coldly, "now, leave me alone."

"You know," Bumble said, "you were the Princess of Friendship…no, you ARE the Princess of Friendship! You know how to bring ponies together and cause them to love and respect each other. You call for everypony to celebrate their individuality and differences, and to show off their respective talents. Yet here you are, being cold to somepony you don't even know, all because that pony made one mistake. Yes, the mistake was huge, probably the biggest one in Equestrian history! But, you seem to be unwilling to give that pony another chance to prove himself. All my life, I've been told I wasn't good enough, that I was a mistake waiting to happen. Everypony I've ever met has either stabbed me in the back or cast me aside like yesterday's garbage. I did NOT expect that from you!

Your books taught me that being a true friend is the highest goal anypony can strive for. You constantly write about how it holds society together and keeps the good in all of us alive. Heck, I even remember reading about how you yourself learned how important friendship is. I must have read the story of your first adventure in the Everfree Forest a million times! That story, and every subsequent time I've read about you, has taught me all about the importance of friendship. That's why I've tried so hard to make friends! But I guess nopony wants to be friends with a klutz named Bumble Trot…not even the Princess of Friendship."

Twilight felt tears coming to her eyes as Bumble's words tore into her heart. The concrete wall was gone, and she felt an emptiness such as she'd never known before. She realized that her ultimate ideal as the Princess of Friendship was to restore faith and hope in ponies like Bumble Trot, and she had taken that and completely slashed it. Bumble's life lay at her hooves, and she was stomping all over it like the dust rugs that Rarity kept in front of her stores.

She turned to the young white stallion, lips quivering. Her eyes betrayed a different kind of anger. No longer was her rage directed at him, it was directed at herself. "Oh, Bumble Trot…" She said as her eyes began pouring out buckets of liquid, "I'm so sorry! I've been terrible to you. I've become what this world has produced, and I don't like it one bit! You're right, and your words are wise. I'm the one that needs to be given a stern lecturing, not you. So, for that…I thank you."

She smiled at him and got up off her bench and sat beside him. She wanted to show him that her friendship ideas weren't dead at all. Rather, they were as alive as they'd ever been, and she had him to thank for it. She looked into his eyes and swore she could see into his past. She saw every time he had been beaten, or knocked down. Yet, for some reason, she saw that he always came back from it. He's gonna be a wonderful pony to have on my side, she said to herself, and I…no, WE will restore Equestria.