There was a pain in her gut, even though nothing was wrong. This was something that she’d wanted for as long as she could remember, but for some reason, she felt herself forcing her legs to the floor just so she couldn’t run away towards her safe space. Nopony was forcing her to be here, and yet she felt like she had to be brave, that she couldn’t let everypony down.
This was OK. She was allowed to be happy! Just once in her life, she could allow herself the vulnerability of enjoying herself for one measly party. Then, once it was all over, she could put up her mental walls and block everypony out of her life again if she wanted. Just because she was opening up this one time didn’t automatically mean she was going to wind up damaged and alone again… hopefully...
Moondancer forced a smile, talking with her friends while trying to push herself out of her comfort zone. As much as she’d wanted other ponies to socialize with every once in a while, the feeling of being stuck at a party for who knows how long felt like she was shackled to the floor, unable to escape. What if she said something awkward again? She knew that Twilight and Minuette would just laugh quietly and try not to cringe, but Moondancer would still know deep down that she just didn’t connect with them. She was… different from her friends, as well as basically everypony else she knew.
She needed a safe zone, somepony who she could speak to without reservations to help dissolve some of the pressure in her gut. The librarian? No, she was talking to the bookseller, and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin their conversation and wind up being a nuisance. Pinkie Pie? Yeah! There was no way that Pinkie Pie would ever get bothered by--Aaaaaand she’s drinking the entire punch bowl. Again. Maybe now would be a good time to--
“Isn’t that just the funniest thing you’ve ever heard, Moondancer?”
“What?”
Moondancer suddenly whipped her head 180 degrees, turning her attention towards Twilight and Minuette, who had apparently just finished the funniest story of all time. Of course, Moondancer felt her heart drop a little bit in embarrassment, but that feeling didn’t stay there long. As she mentally tried to put together the pieces of the conversation she’d heard while she was zoning out, the faces of the two unicorns in front of her began to change shape. There it was again. That smile. That same damn smile they used when they were trying not to let her see how uncomfortable they were around her!
“Sorry, girls,” she said while trying to hide the bite in her tone. “I guess I was distracted by how much Pinkie Pie can drink in one gulp.”
Minuette raised an eyebrow before lifting her head up to see past Moondancer’s mane, and almost immediately, her uncomfortable smile transformed into a beaming grin. “Holy cow! You’re right! It’s like she doesn’t even need to breathe!”
“That’s Pinkie Pie for you,” Twilight replied, bringing her hoof to her mouth as she giggled loudly. “That’s not even close to breaking her record, though.”
Minuette gasped. “Get out of town!” The moment her words left her mouth, however, the two of them cringed, turning to Moondancer yet again with that smile she’d come to loathe. “I don’t mean literally get out of town. I mean, I want her to stay as long as possible if--”
“I get it,” replied the unicorn in the glasses, rolling her eyes. “This party is to make up for her abandoning me. You don’t need to worry about it. Just go on with whatever the two of you were talking about.”
Moondancer cursed at herself internally for coming off as bluntly as she had, especially once their smiles left their faces, leaving them now with just an awkward cringe. “Actually, you know what?” Twilight began. “I haven’t seen you talk to your sister yet tonight.”
“Oh, yeah!” Minuette agreed with her head nodding up and down emphatically. “You know, come to think of it, how long has it been since you and your sister even talked?”
Moondancer flinched, but before she could answer, Twilight quickly intervened. “Do they not normally see each other? She lives here in town!”
“That’s enough!” The two unicorns jumped as Moondancer stomped her hoof onto the table between them, loud enough to frighten them, but not loud enough to make anypony else turn their heads. She could tell that Minuette was about to raise a hoof to apologize, but Moondancer quickly turned her face away, trying to appear as calm as possible. “I… just think she’s been busy. I’ll go over and see how she’s doing.”
She didn’t bother to wait for their reactions, instead hearing a faint, “O--OK!” as she walked away towards another table. There were three unicorns standing there, each wearing party hats with smiles on their faces. The bookseller and librarian had added a third mare to their group, chatting away as if they had all grown up together. She hadn’t grown up with them, though. She’d grown up with Moondancer, so why was it so much easier for her to talk to them than it was to talk to her?!
“Hey, everypony!” Moondancer exclaimed with as cheerful a smile as she could muster. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Oh, not at all, dear,” the librarian said with a similar grin. “Wonderful party, by the way.”
“Thanks for coming! So, what were you three talking about?”
“It looks like we’ll be getting some new classics at the bookstore pretty soon,” her sister replied, looking down at her like they’d had a completely normal relationship up until now. Moondancer tried to offer a genuine smirk, but for some reason, all she could do was stare, squinting her eyes as her eyebrows slowly furrowed downward. After all these years of not speaking to each other, was she just going to pretend like they were suddenly best friends again?
Before Moondancer could overthink things any further, however, the bookseller quickly jumped in. “I think I’m more excited than anypony! Lord of the Fillies and the entire collection of Shakespearicles’s greatest works have been out of stock for months! It’s so nice to see the publishing company laxing a little bit with their trademarks.”
“O-oh! That’s great.”
“How about you, sis? How have you been?”
Once again, Moondancer’s eyes squinted as her sister looked down at her with a familial smile, just like how she used to do. When she saw that Twilight had somehow managed to get her to come, it was almost like a dream come true, but now that she was here, everything just felt… weird.
“Oh, you know.” Moondancer rubbed her foreleg with a chuckle. “Same as always, I guess. Although, it’s been a while since I heard about what’s going on in your life.”
“Oh!” the librarian interjected with a large smile. “Then in that case, the two of us should let you catch up.”
Then, just as the librarian began walking away, the bookseller offered a small nod and said, “Have fun, you two! I think I need to get some more pun--Oh. Looks like the punch is all gone.”
As the two mares quietly left the two sisters alone for the first time in years, Moondancer quickly dropped her gaze, rubbing her hoof up and down her foreleg while she tried to come up with a topic other than… Well, even if she did bring that up, this would be the perfect time to talk about it, right? It was just the two of them, after all, and it had been years since they talked about it. Maybe this was the reason her sister came after all, so that they could finally put it past them.
“So,” the elder sister began, pulling Moondancer out of her train of thought, “it looks like you’re finally opening up again.”
“Y-yeah,” the younger replied, brushing her hoof through her mane. “It was Twilight’s idea.”
“No kidding. When she came over to invite me, she talked so fast that I didn’t even have the option to say no.” Suddenly, Moondancer opened her mouth, but before she could speak, her sister raised a hoof to silence her, chuckling quietly. “Don’t worry. I would have said yes even if she did breathe between her sentences. You’ve got a good friend, little sister. An incredibly anxious friend, but a good friend.”
“...Why…?”
The elder sister tilted her head. “Why what?”
“Why did you come here, Sundance? I thought you hated me!”
Moondancer still couldn’t look into her eyes, but even just looking at the ground was enough to bring to the surface all the emotions she’d felt over the past few years. Her chest bounced. She tried biting her lip. Nothing she could do, though, would stop the tears behind her eyelids from rushing to the surface. Just as the dam was about to break and allow the tears to flood down her face, however, she felt a hoof gently wrap around her neck. It flinched at first, but eventually it pulled Moondancer into a tight hug, even if it was shaking the entire time.
“I don’t hate you! I love you and want you to be happy!”
“You…” Moondancer gulped. “You mean it?”
Sundance’s smile suddenly began to fade, but before she could let her little sister see, she turned her head and said, “Of course! I’m your sister, after all.”
“Does that mean we can talk about--”
“Don’t you dare bring it up now. I’ve tried so hard to not let it keep me from enjoying this party, so the least you could do is just let me have one happy memory with my sister!”
Moondancer shrunk, although she still chose to not leave her sister’s hoof, despite how violently it was now shaking against her back. Even though Sundance was being strong for her sake, Moondancer could tell that she wanted to leave even more than she did, and if Moondancer didn’t do something to fix their broken relationship, this might be the last time she’d ever see her again.
“Listen. Maybe we could talk somewhere more private.”
Sundance’s face slowly turned back towards her younger sister, her face getting angrier by the second. “Did you not hear me? I said I don’t want to talk about it!”
“Sundance, please! We can’t just go on pretending like it never happened!”
“And your solution is to bring me somewhere the two of us can be alone?! You know what? Maybe it was a mistake to come here after all. You really haven’t changed one bit.”
Finally, Sundance pulled her hoof away from her younger sibling’s body, making the air in Moondancer’s lungs freeze. The entire time, the older sister avoided eye contact, turning away and walking back the way she came, but before she could make it far, she heard the younger quietly exclaim, “So this is my fault?! Let’s not forget who decided to send mom and dad on dinner dates so that we could be as loud as we wanted!”
The older sister turned back with a terrified glare on her face, looking around in all directions to make sure nopony had heard them. Fortunately for her, however, Pinkie Pie had chosen that exact time to turn up the speakers, silencing their conversation from anypony who wasn’t within a normal earshot, but it was still too risky to have their conversation out in the open like that. If Moondancer continued yelling like that, somepony would hear them eventually.
“Come on,” the elder said, grabbing hold of the younger’s hoof. “You wanna do this somewhere private? We’ll do it somewhere private.”
“Are you sure that’s OK? You never know. I might want to have sex with you if we’re alone together, because apparently that’s the only thing you even remember about me!”
“Moondancer.” The elder sister’s eyebrows furrowed, her voice descending to a low, stern tone. The younger, however, rolled her eyes and looked away.
“Fine.”
The two of them looked around the area, making sure that everpony’s attention was somewhere else, and once the coast was clear, the two of them walked into the nearest tower, breathing heavily from how quickly they ran. Once Moondancer looked up, though, she saw her sister standing above her, gasping deeply, seeing her tongue practically falling out of her mouth as she panted in exhaustion. It had been seven years since the last time she’d seen her like this, since the last time she’d been alone with her sister, since the last time she’d tasted her tongue…
Moondancer hated to admit it, but there was almost a pavlovian sensation pulling her back in, like she was conditioned to return to her old habits the second she ran into the stimulus. This wasn’t right. This was her sister! One who hated her for not being able to control herself in the first place!
“So,” the elder sister began once she’d finally caught her breath, snapping Moondancer back to reality again. “We’re alone. Now what did you want to talk to me about that we couldn’t talk about out there?”
Moondancer gulped, once again holding back all the emotions she’d been trying to repress for years, but now she was ready. With her eyebrows furrowing slightly again, she quietly muttered, “I know you regret what you did. I do too… but you left me! I thought I’d never see you again. This whole time, I’ve been carrying around this burden like it’s all my fault--”
“It’s not all your fault.”
“Then why did you abandon me?! You didn’t just move out. You completely severed anything you had to do with me!”
“Moondancer--”
“I don’t see you at the library anymore, I don’t see you at the bookstore anymore, you never check up on mom and dad when I’m around--”
“Moondancer--”
“And you never returned any of my letters!”
“Moon--”
“No! SHUT UP! I’m not done talking yet! I wrote you every week for six months, waiting for you to write me back. I thought, ‘Oh, she just must be busy right now. She’ll get back to me at some point,’ but you never did! I can understand my friends abandoning me. Even when my best friend decided to ditch my party so that she could move away without even saying goodbye, it hurt a lot less than when my own sister just disappeared out of nowhere! It felt like…”
Tears were now beginning to pour down the younger mare’s cheeks, her nose sniffling while her whole body shook. Without letting herself get too carried away, she brought her hoof to her face and allowed herself a few brief sobs, moaning quietly in pain until she was ready to face her sister again.
“It felt like… you only liked me because I would have sex with you. Then when you were done with me, you just tossed me aside like garbage!”
“Moondancer, I was thirteen years old.”
“And I was eleven! You think I knew any better than you did? Do you think I don’t have regrets about what happened too?”
Sundance allowed her sister to wail a while longer, waiting patiently for her strength to gradually return. Then, once Moondancer had finished a few last-minute sniffles, she finally looked up into her sister’s eyes to see just how red they’d gotten, seeing her swallow deep while trying to be the strong big sister. Why…? Why was she acting like this all of a sudden? She’d abandoned her, so why was she suddenly trying to pretend like she was the one hurting?!
“Please,” the elder sister said softly, shaking her head and never dropping eye contact. “Will you just let me talk now? There are so many things I’ve wanted to say to you--”
“Then why haven’t you told me?! You’ve had years to talk to me, but I don’t even know where you live anymore!”
“Because I’m scared, OK?! I’m scared and embarrassed and nervous, and I thought that if I came to see you… I don’t know what I thought would happen!”
Moondancer continued to stare, trying to put the pieces together like she could read Sundance’s mind until finally, the younger sister’s eyes went wide. “Did you… Did you really think we’d end up having sex again if you ever saw me?”
Suddenly, all the strength that Sundance had been trying to portray collapsed, and she immediately found herself crying into her hooves, wailing much more loudly than Moondancer had done just a few minutes prior. The younger sister tried lifting her hoof to run through her older sibling’s mane, but once she heard another heart-breaking scream, she hesitantly pulled it back, instead waiting for the older mare to recollect herself.
Then, once the volume of her sobs gradually began to fade, Moondancer finally opened her mouth and quietly muttered, “You don’t need to worry, Sundance! We’re older now! We know better. Just because we may have made some mistakes in the past doesn’t mean--”
“Are you saying that you haven’t wanted to do it again since the last time we had sex?”
Moondancer gulped. That seemed like such a loaded question, but even if she had to lie, she couldn’t allow their relationship to go on like this any longer. “What? Of course not! Look, I was young and stupid. I mean, we’re sisters for crying out loud!”
The moment the words escaped Moondancer’s lips, however, Sundance leapt up to her hooves, grabbing her sister by the shoulders and looking adamantly into her face. “You’re lying! Please tell me you’re lying! There’s no way I’m the only one who’s secretly looked back on it, wishing we could do it again. Please, tell me I’m not a pervert!”
Moondancer took a step back. What could she even do at this point? If she continued to lie, it would end up breaking her sister’s heart, maybe even crush her self-worth, but if she admitted that she’d felt the same rush as back then as recently as while they were in this room, they would just end up doing it again. Then she’d really never get to see her again!
“No,” Moondancer said, rubbing her foreleg solemnly. “I’m the pervert.”
“Moondancer--”
“Sshh! Shh! Just… be quiet for a second.” Sundance quickly opened her mouth, but hesitantly closed it again, her head down like a sad puppy as she waited for her sister to continue. “I was the one who brought it up back when we were kids. I was the one who started it, so if anypony is a pervert, it’s me.”
Sundance waited a few moments before speaking, making sure that Moondancer was finished before she accidentally interrupted again. Then, once she was sure she was done, Sundance quietly muttered, “I’m the older one. I should have known. I guess it was just nice having somepony who made me feel pretty for once in my life.”
“Sundance, you know you’re beautiful--”
“STOP IT, MOONDANCER! CAN’T YOU SEE YOU’RE JUST MAKING ME WANT TO DO IT AGAIN?!” The younger sister took a step back, and as soon as Sundance realized what she said, she bit her lower lip in aggravation, looked away and stomped her hoof furiously. “You see? You’re already over it, but apparently I’m not. I’m embarrassed and ashamed, but somehow, I’d still do it again the second you gave me the green light. This is why I can never see you again, little sister. It’s just… It hurts too much.”
Her voice began to break as she said her last words, blinking her eyes as much as she could to keep the tears inside, but Moondancer was left staring with her mouth agape, unable to find anything that could save their relationship. She’d tried lying already, but it sounded like that was just leading to the one result she was afraid of more than anything. What would happen if she said that she’d been having the same feelings, that even though she was traumatized and ashamed, she still felt that same sensation clutching at her from inside? Would it end up happening again? Would that save their relationship? Would it break them even further?
Moondancer sighed, rubbing her hoof against her face. Why did every single decision she had to make have to be so difficult? Why couldn’t she just have a normal relationship with her sister? Why did she have to ruin it seven years ago?
“Sundance, I--I don’t know what you want me to say! All I want is my sister back. If you want me to have sex with you--”
“No! Don’t you get it?! This is exactly the problem! I love you, Moondancer, and I don’t want to hurt you anymore. I felt like if I ever showed up in your life, the wound would open up again, and I’d just make everything worse.”
“So what? You decide that it’ll hurt less if you just abandon me forever?!”
“Yes! Finally, you understand!”
Moondancer groaned, slapping her hoof to her face as she shook her head in aggravation. “Alright! Fine! I lied! I’ve wanted to have sex with you ever since we came in here!” Sundance tilted her head in confusion, her jaw slightly dropping, but before things could escalate any further, Moondancer continued. “As soon as the two of us were alone, it wasn’t just the memories that came flooding back; it was the feelings too. All I’ve been able to think about since we came in here is how much I’ve missed how gentle you always were with my tongue, how you knew exactly where to touch me, how adventurous I felt whenever mom and dad were away, but I can’t think like that anymore! I don’t want to lose you again, but it feels like no matter what I do, that’s exactly what’s going to happen!”
Sundance blinked in confusion for several seconds, and once she tried to speak, all she could do was chuckle nervously. “Just look at us. We’re both so screwed up that even now that we’re supposed to know what we’re doing, we’re still as dumb as ever.”
Moondancer scoffed. “Speak for yourself. I have two PhD’s.”
The elder sister shook her head in amazement. “Wait, really?!”
“Yeah. I guess not only did you not reply to any of my letters, but you haven’t even read them…”
Sundance flinched, sighing deeply as she dropped eye contact once more. “What were you studying?”
“I have one degree in advanced magic and one in scientific philosophy. Mom and dad asked me if they wanted to throw me a celebration party, but I just said, ‘Why bother? It’s not like anypony would come.’”
Another long silence passed where neither of them spoke to each other and neither of them looked at each other. They both just sat on their haunches, the only sound inside the tower being that of the occasional sniffle from Moondancer.
“OK,” the elder said, finally breaking the awkward silence. “Let’s talk about it. Then we can move on and go back to being a regular family again.”
“...You know that’s never going to happen.”
“I know, but I want to try.”
Even as they spoke, they continued to look in different directions, but if there was any chance of Moondancer getting her sister back, she’d do it, no matter what it was. Even if it was… that again.
“Where do we even start?” the younger said quietly.
“Well, do you remember the first time we did it?”
“Duh. How could I forget? I was the one who suggested we do it, after all.”
Sundance smiled, finally looking into her younger sister’s eyes. “You came into my room and told me about how a colt in your class said that it felt really good when girls touch their vaginas.”
“Uh, ‘thingie’ was the word he used to describe it, but yes, that’s the basic gist of it. Ugh… And I was so stupid that I actually wanted to use my sister as a test subject.”
“You said you were too nervous to do it alone,” the elder replied with a giggle.
“I wish I could have been too nervous to do it in general! At least until I was ready to do it by myself.”
Finally, Sundance sighed, pulling her younger sister into a hug and ruffling through her already messy mane. “I was just as naive. I was at that age where the girls in my class were starting to get boyfriends, but none of the colts even looked at me. I was so worried that I’d never find anypony to do those things with… I must sound so terrible right now. I couldn’t get a boyfriend so I had sex with my younger sister?”
“Hey, better than me. I couldn’t even make friends. Besides, it’s not that I didn’t like it…” Moondancer looked down, tilting her glasses up her muzzle as she cursed her dimly burning cheeks. “Growing up, I looked up to you so much.”
“And then I went and blew it.”
“No! You made me feel like I had somepony that would always be by my side… and then you blew it.”
As much as the comment hurt her at her core, the older mare couldn’t help but giggle. “Yeah, I know. Still don’t know what you saw in me, though. You were always the smart one.”
“You were always the pretty one.”
Sundance rolled her eyes. “Tell that to the stallions in town.”
“I don’t need to. To me, you’ve always been the most beautiful, caring--”
“Stop it.”
“--kind, intelligent--”
“Moondancer, seriously! Stop it!”
“--mature, sensible--”
Before Moondancer could continue any further, however, her words were cut short by a pair of lips pressing against hers, angling sideways so that as their mouths parted, they closed down on top of each other. The younger sister’s eyes went wide, but Sundance’s squeezed shut, pressing harder onto her younger sister’s mouth as her tongue slowly found its way inside. Moondancer lifted her hooves to push her off of her, but rather than doing what she wanted, however, they seemed to move on their own, wrapping around her sister’s neck as her own tongue delicately danced in tandem with her sister’s. All of the feelings of regret that had built up over the past seven years gradually began to diminish in the familiar scent of her sister’s mane, the nostalgic feeling of her tongue gliding up and down her own, and the absolute hormonal rush that took away her better judgement.
If she didn’t do something soon, the two of them were just going to fall into the same trap that they’d been trying so hard to avoid, but she was enjoying it so much that it was nearly impossible to stop herself. Moondancer moved her hoof down in hopes of breaking the two of them from their erotic kiss, but all she’d managed to do was rub up and down her sister’s back, now feeling Sundance’s tongue in the back of her teeth. Not only had she missed her sister being there for her as a family member, she’d missed her as a lover. Even despite all those nights where she couldn’t sleep, regretting all the things the two of them had done together, now that it was happening all over again, she couldn’t believe she ever cared.
She was far past the point of no return now. With her hormones now controlling everything she did, Moondancer pulled her mouth away and pushed Sundance onto her back, lifting up her sister’s leg as she began to intertwine them together.
“Moondancer, what are you doing?”
Moondancer moaned quietly, angling their pelvises together before giving into what her body was really telling her to do. “Exactly what we used to do.”
“Moondancer, stop!”
“It’s too late for that now. Let me just have this.”
“I said STOP!!”
Before the younger sister could press their crotches together like she wanted, however, a purple aura surrounded her, throwing her off until her back hit the wall behind her with a THUD! All the pleasure she felt before had completely turned on its head, suddenly filling her with a severe jolt travelling from her shoulders to her tail. Her eyes squeezed shut to try and block out the pain, but once she finally opened her eyelids and could see past the stars floating around her head, she noticed her sister pulling herself back up with a terrified expression.
“I need to go.”
“H-huh? Wait, no! Sundance! Stop! PLEASE!!”
The elder sister quickly made her way to the tower door, but before she had the chance to open it, she was suddenly being pulled back by a pair of hooves, desperately clinging for dear life. “Get off of me!”
“No, Sundance! I’m sorry! Please! Don’t leave me again!”
“You see?! This is exactly what happens whenever I’m around! We’re never going to change!”
“No! I messed up! I’ll change! I’ll get better! I promise!”
Finally, the elder sister stopped struggling, but when she slowly turned to face her sibling, she did so with a stern stare. “It’s not your fault, Moondancer. It’s never been your fault. It’s always been mine.”
“Can’t it just be nopony’s fault? Can’t we just accept that things happen sometimes and move on?”
A long pause came between them until the older mare looked up towards the ceiling with a sigh. “Wouldn’t it be nice if our lives could have turned out different? I can’t even keep myself off of my little sister. I’m the worst…”
Moondancer waited in silence for a few moments while thinking of another way to beg her to stay, but sadly, nothing came, leaving her anger building up more and more until she finally stomped her hoof to the floor with total rage in her voice. “Haven’t you ever once asked me what I wanted?! So what if that’s the kind of relationship we have?! It’s nopony’s business but our own! If it makes us happy, then we should--”
“That’s just it.”
Moondancer squinted her eyes confusedly, and as Sundance’s face turned towards hers again, she saw a trail of tears cascading down her muzzle, despite her sad attempt at a smile. It was that same damn smile as always. WHY DID EVERYPONY ALWAYS HAVE THAT SAME DAMN SMILE WHENEVER THEY WERE AROUND HER?!
“I’m not happy,” the elder replied, her entire body shaking. “I don’t think I’ll ever be happy being around you. I’m just not the same pony. I’m defective. I… I…”
Just as Sundance was about to break down again, however, Moondancer silently placed a hoof against her back, nuzzling her face into her sister’s shoulder. “No, there’s nothing wrong with you, but…” Moondancer inhaled deeply, her breath shaking as it exhaled from her lungs along with a quick sniffle. “...if you need to go, I’ll let you go.”
Sundance waited a few moments to let the message sink in, and once it had, she quickly wrapped her sister into a tight hug and cried her eyes out while Moondancer held on for her life. All she could think about were all the times they’d played together growing up, laughing together, sharing experiences with each other. Even all of their sexual experiences had become a distant past that was drowned out by all the times they’d had tea parties or fashion shows together. This could wind up being the last time she’d ever see her sister again, and if she was going to go… she at least wanted her last memory to be one she wouldn’t regret.
Time, however, didn’t care how badly she wanted for it to stop. Instead, it continued to press on at its usual pace, and after a few minutes had passed, the two of them let each other go, quietly sniffling as they attempted to recollect themselves.
“So I guess this means…”
“Yeah… I probably won’t see you anymore after this. I knew how much this party meant, though, and if I couldn’t be a part of your life anymore, I just wanted to make sure that there were ponies around who would.”
Moondancer bit her lip and closed her eyes, trying to hold back the tears again, but once she felt her sister’s hoof around her one last time, that task got even harder. Finally, Sundance released her younger sibling, and whether or not she was ready, Moondancer knew it was time to go back to the party.
“Are you going to leave right now?”
Sundance looked down at her sister and chuckled. “Are you kidding? It’s a party! Come on! Let’s get out there!”
For probably the first time all night, Moondancer smiled back, and with a nod, the two of them pushed the tower doors open and made their way back towards the loud music… and the ponies who Moondancer would forever call her friends.
“That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Yeah, Minuette told me about it earlier.”
The elder sister laughed heartily, but sadly, Moondancer couldn’t even enjoy it once she saw Twinkleshine beginning to pull down party decorations. Plus, as much as she wanted to continue dancing, she knew that the next thing to go would be the disco ball. This had been a great night, and she’d loved spending time with Sundance… but she was only here for the party, and as much as she wanted to deny it, it was time for the party to be over. She didn’t know whether or not she’d ever be able to speak to her sister again, which meant that she needed to make this time count.
“Hey, Sundance? I wanted to say… er…”
“Yeeees?”
“Th-thank you… for everything.”
The older mare smiled and ruffled the younger mare’s mane. “Don’t thank me. Thank your friends. It was their idea, after all.”
“Right heheh. They’re important too, but what I mean to say is… Um…”
“Hmm?”
Moondancer dropped her eyes to the floor, kicking at the dirt beneath her. “I-I love you.”
Finally, with one last hug, the older sister silently said, “I love you too, little sister,” and suddenly, she began slowly walking away.
Moondancer held her head up high, smiling past the pain just like everypony else did when they were around her, and now she could finally understand how it felt to be on the other side. She needed to get her mind off of it quick before she broke down in front of everypony again. The last thing she wanted after a day like today was a repeat of what happened when she first arrived at the party. Fortunately for her, however, that was exactly when Twilight, her best friend, just happened to show up.
“I think it’s time for us to go, Moondancer.”
This time, when Moondancer turned around to smile, it was a real, genuine, and sincere smile, a complete 180 from how she’d looked at Twilight since she’d arrived back in town. “Thank you for helping me make some new friends, even if they are my old friends…”
