Sunlight filtered through the colorful windows in Izzy Moonbow’s tree house. Yes, with a space. It was a literal house made of a hollow tree. Izzy had learned not to question it, but she sometimes wondered how something like that could work. The rising sun surprised the unicorn slightly, as she hadn’t realized that she had been working through the night. She had only meant to attach a thing-a-majig to her newest project… and then add some glitter… and paint it… and add some other things that she couldn’t even remember why she thought of them in the first place.
Yawning, the purple pony stretched and hopped up, skipping to her kitchen to grab something for breakfast. Her hoof hovered over a bowl of apples, and she remembered how she and Sunny had had apples before going to Zephyr Heights for Pipp’s performance… and how all of that had led to something far worse.
Shaking herself, Izzy reached instead for a slice of pie on the top shelf before remembering that she had magic. Old habits die hard. But a sound from the other room made her drop the plate. It broke and scattered pieces of porcelain and berry all over the floor, but Izzy hardly noticed.
“Huh?” She carefully made her way through the mess and dashed into the large entryway, cluttered with her crafts and projects, and now a… pony?
Izzy shook herself. She didn’t remember anypony coming in.
The earth pony was bright pink with a frizzy pink mane, and she was staring up at Izzy’s rotating butterfly chandelier with a huge grin of delight on her face. Strangest of all, she seemed to be made of sunlight. Her hooves didn’t sink into the floor, she didn’t have a shadow, and she seemed to be slightly transparent. She looked as if a sparkle had taken on the form of a pony.
Speaking of sparkles, this pony had a bright sky-blue one that was as bright as, if not brighter, than Izzy’s own, which was something she rarely saw, and definitely not for more than a few moments. This pony looked like she constantly had a bright sparkle.
“Hi, new friend?” Izzy said, unsure of how to talk to this sparkle-pony. “Um… how did you get in here?”
“I appeared in here, silly!” the pink earth pony said with a giggle. “What, did you think I walked all the way from my time to yours?”
“Um… your time?” It finally dawned on Izzy why the pony looked slightly familiar to her - Sunny had a figure of her that her dad had made! Which meant - “Are you one of the Guardians of Harmony?” Izzy asked. “Were you one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends?”
The pony sat back on her haunches and clapped her hooves. “Thank Celestia you’ve at least heard of us! Twilight will be so happy when I tell her that some ponies remember us!”
“Do you know her?” Izzy was getting an idea, and just thinking about it made her sparkle glow brighter. “Maybe you could convince her to visit my friend Sunny Starscout for me? Because she is such a huge fan, and it would mean so much to her-”
“Don’t worry, your friend already knows what she’s supposed to do,” the pink pony said with a dismissive wave of her hoof, turning her attention back to the chandelier. “And I guess she sort of met Twilight, since the Spirit of Harmony insists on taking her form - a bit much, if you ask me. I mean, new times, new looks, right? Speaking of which, I never thought I would be able to get a WiFi signal here - I used to only be able to get that in the other world.” She reached her hoof into her frizzy mane and pulled out a cell phone, though without the holder for the hoof that Izzy saw on the pegasi’s cell phones, and waved it around.
“Okay…” Izzy was very confused, but she still liked this pony. She was so eccentric and cheerful that Izzy felt right at home. “My name is Izzy Moonbow, what’s yours?”
“I’m Pinkie Pie,” the earth pony said. “Did you make this? Because it is really cool, and I love it, and can I keep it?”
Izzy laughed. “That one took me forever to get right, so, sorry, but no. But you can have this one.” She used her magic to levitate a strand of lights over to the pair. The wire connecting the lights was draped in streamers, and thin strings with confetti tied to the end of them dangled from it. Pinkie Pie held it in her hooves reverently, looking at it as though it were worth a thousand bits.
“Thank you!” she said with a huge smile on her face. “I love it I love it I love it I love it!”
The unicorn couldn’t help but grin back. “Come on,” she said, bounding towards the door and shoving it open. “I want to show you around. Um… nopony else can see you, right?”
“Not unless I want them to,” Pinkie agreed, trotting out after her.
The day was another beautiful one, with a clear sky dotted with clouds, pegasi swooping in and out of the fluffy formations. The crystals sticking out of the ground gleamed like new, and grass laced with dew tickled their hooves as they walked. Well, they tickled Izzy’s hooves. She wasn’t sure about Pinkie Pie.
“That’s the new movie theater,” she said under her breath, nodding towards a new-looking building with tall posters hanging outside it. “And over there - oh, that’s the Crystal Tea Room! Come on, you have to look inside, it is amazing.” Not even thinking, she grabbed Pinkie’s hoof and pulled her towards the tree, then stopped. “Um… should I be able to touch you?” she asked, suddenly suspicious, dropping her hoof.
“Only you,” Pinkie said brightly, trotting to stand beside her. “I only exist to you.”
That cleared up just about nothing, but Izzy shrugged and continued down the path. “Me and my friends came here for the unicorn crystal when we were trying to get magic back,” she told the earth pony. “Sunny had to challenge Alphabittle to a dance off, but after she won, it was revealed that they weren’t unicorns, which kind of… well, you get the idea.”
Pinkie Pie nodded. “Yeah, me and my friends had our fair share of dramatic adventures where we were so close to victory, and then one little thing goes wrong, and the whole excavade just explodes in our faces.” She scrunched up her snout as Izzy laughed. “Like that time I made duplicates of myself… Here’s a tip, if you find a mirror pool, do not mess with it. You might literally end up causing the apocalypse.”
“What is a mirror pool?” Izzy asked curiously.
“You don’t want to know, and Twilight would probably kill me if I told anypony,” Pinkie said hurriedly.
The Crystal Tea Room was emptier than usual, so Alphabittle was glad to see Izzy.
“Good morning!” he greeted cheerfully. “Taking a break from your… what was it? Unicycling?” Izzy grinned and nodded. “What can I get for ya?”
“Um…” Izzy glanced sideways at Pinkie Pie, who seemed to guess what she wanted to ask.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” she whispered, so Izzy said, “Just the usual, thanks.” She led Pinkie to her favorite table beside the window, the early morning sunlight beaming in through the window turning it different colors.
“Are you sure you can’t tell me anything about the mirror pool?” Izzy pleaded.
Pinkie Pie giggled. “You’re just about to die of curiosity, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Izzy admitted.
“Okay, just as long as you don’t tell Twilight. So, according to legend, the mirror pool is a pool that can create duplicates of yourself by your reflection, which can then create duplicates, which can then create duplicates, which all go out into the world and create a hurricane of absolute chaos, causing your friends to make you take a test where you have to watch paint dry - which is the most excruciatingly boring thing ever, in case you want to know - to find out which one of the many, many duplicates is the actual you.”
“Watching paint dry?” Izzy laughed. “That sounds like the most boring thing in the entire universe.”
“I know, right?” Pinkie Pie grinned. “But that’s nothing compared to how awesome I made Rainbow Dash’s birthaversary. Birthday-anniversary,” she explained to Izzy’s confused look. “I worked with another party pony named Cheese Sandwich-” as she said the name, a bit of flush creeped into her cheeks “-to make it super awesome - and it was. Not to brag, but I am really good at throwing parties.”
“And ponies actually come to your parties?” Izzy asked in a wonder-filled voice. “They don’t just say that and get you all excited and then never show up?”
Pinkie Pie looked shocked. “Ponies actually do that?”
“Only to me,” Izzy whispered so that the earth pony couldn’t hear.
“Aw, look, poor little Izzy’s all by herself in a corner,” came a snooty voice. “How drastically predictable.”
The voice belonged to a pink unicorn mare with a long golden mane. The mare next to her, also a unicorn, had a blue coat and a curly purple mane done in a ponytail.
“Hi, Lemon Pie. Hello, Glacier,” Izzy said gloomily, wishing now that she had stayed home. “Um… how’ve you been?”
“Us? Oh, we’ve been great,” Glacier said sarcastically, tossing her purple mane.
“All these different kinds of ponies waltzing in like they own the place, just because magic returned,” Lemon Pie said snootily. As if they’re the most important ponies in the world. No, we’ve all been in the very best of moods.”
“But of course you wouldn’t know that,” Glacier added arily. “Seeing as your only friends are stinky earth ponies and brutish pegasi who don’t know the first thing about leading a civilized life… Yes, I can see why they might be interested in you…”
Izzy glanced at Pinkie Pie, who had her jaw hanging open in shock. Her forehead was furrowed in anger, and Izzy was glad she was the only pony to whom Pinkie Pie existed - she did not want to be on the receiving end of this pony’s anger. She sighed and said, “Guys, we’ve been through this - earth ponies are not stinky, and pegasi are not brutish. Those were all lies to keep us divided and weak.” Glacier yawned, and Lemon Pie rolled her eyes. “And they are civilized.”
“Sure,” Lemon Pie said, unconvinced. “Anyways, we’re having a party later this afternoon… a costume party. Thought you might want to come.”
Pinkie’s face lit up with a grin, but Izzy had heard their tricks and lies too many times to take them seriously anymore. “Thanks, guys, but I’m going to hang out with my friends later… you know, the ponies who saved Equestria and brought back magic. So…”
“Oh.” For a second, Glacier looked genuinely sad, and Izzy felt tempted to say, “Actually, never mind! I’d be glad to come!” But these ponies had hurt her too many times. She would not allow them to keep doing so.
“That’s okay,” Lemon Pie filled in, her voice dripping with malice. “We didn’t really want you anyway… We just thought we could use some entertainment.” She turned and sauntered off, Glacier in her wake.
“Well,” Pinkie Pie said huffily, folding her arms. “They are definitely not the nicest ponies I’ve ever met, and I’ve met some pretty nasty ones.”
Izzy sighed. “They’ve been torturing me for years. They always laugh at the fact that I don’t have any friends, and then they always embarrass me in front of other ponies. Like that; they’ll invite me to a costume party, and then give me the wrong address and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere or in a completely different place in a ridiculous costume. Sometimes they’ll give me the right address, and I’ll be the only pony there in a costume. But this one time I didn’t wear a costume, and I was the only pony there without one. So I just stopped going. I avoid them whenever I can, but sometimes they just… catch up to me.” She sighed and put her head down on the table.
“Here you go, Izzy,” Alphabittle announced, sliding a tea cup onto the table. One of his little critters dropped three sugarcubes into the liquid and shook it a little to dissolve them. “That’ll be four bits - hey, are you alright?”
“Who, me? Oh, I’m fine, just… a little tired,” Izzy replied cheerfully, forcing a smile. “I was up kind of late last night… Here you go…” She slid four golden coins over to the little critter, who scooped them up and dropped to the floor, curling up into a ball and rolling over to the counter. Alphabittle gave her a long, searching look before following.
“Weeell, if they’re bothering you so much, then why don’t you tell on them?” Pinkie Pie suggested, taking a deep breath and breathing in the fumes from the teacup.
Izzy looked shocked. “I would never do that! I may not like them, but they’re ponies, too, right? Besides, that wouldn’t solve anything. They would just be more angry at me. And telling on ponies is wrong.”
Pinkie Pie gave her a strange look. “Maybe it’s time to reconcile,” she suggested. “Try being nice to them, and maybe they’ll be nice to you. You do make lots of really cool things… Hey, are you going to drink that? Can I have it?”
Giving her a playful glare, Izzy used her magic to levitate the teacup and took a big gulp. “I don’t know,” she said nervously. “We’ve been at odds for years… How would I approach somepony after all that time?”
“Get them a gift?” Pinkie Pie suggested, snagging the teacup from Izzy. “Liiike… something they’ve always wanted?”
“I don’t know that much about them,” Izzy admitted. “So… even if I did decide to do this… how would I know what to get them?”
The earth pony shrugged and wiped tea from her mouth. “I discovered that, sometimes, all a bully wants is the same thing as you. Since it’s their own problem, too, they know how to make somepony hurt. And it just makes them feel better for a time.”
Izzy looked at the two unicorns as they left the Crystal Tea Room. “It would be worth it to see them actually happy,” she decided. “After all, nopony deserves to be unhappy.” An idea popped into her head, but actually doing it made her nervous. “I think I know what I need to do,” she decided, shoving down the nervous feelings.
Pinkie Pie smiled. “Let me know how that goes! You know, if you ever see me again.”
“Wait,” Izzy said, “what do you mean-”
The pink earth pony exploded in a burst of sparkle and disappeared. The teacup clattered onto the worn wood table. Izzy took a deep breath and left for her treehouse.
Izzy knocked a hoof on Lemon Pie’s door. She could hear music from inside - so apparently there really was a party. She really hoped this worked…
Glacier opened the door. Her eyes were red and puffy, and they widened when they saw Izzy. “Oh! Um… what are you doing here?” She sniffed and dragged a hoof across her face, trying to rearrange her features to make herself look cool and uncaring.
“I brought you a present,” Izzy said helpfully, holding up the box, decorated with a ribbon on top. Glacier took it, gave Izzy a searching look, then stepped to the side. “Come in,” she said.
Lemon Pie was sitting on the couch, looking bored, and when she saw Izzy walk in behind Glacier, her expression went from surprised to happy to bored again in the span of five seconds. “What’s she doing here?” she demanded, pointing a hoof at Izzy.
“She brought a present,” Glacier insisted. “And, um… I just thought it would be nice… you know, to have somepony here other than you.”
“Is it your birthday?” Izzy asked, taking in the streamers, balloons, and cake sitting on a table.
Glacier nodded. “I was hoping that… somepony else would come.” She blushed and opened Izzy’s present, using her magic to lift out what was inside. “Bracelet?” she asked, looking at Izzy questioningly.
The purple unicorn nodded. “There’s one for each of you. Look, they match mine,” she said, holding up her hoof to show them the glittering ring of gems around it.
“You got us friendship bracelets?” Lemon Pie scoffed, but Glacier quietly slipped one on.
“I like it,” she decided, turning her hoof this way and that to catch the light. She turned back to Izzy and said, “Thank you. Look, I know we haven’t been… the best of friends lately… or ever,” she amended as Izzy gave her a look. “But maybe now’s a good time to restart?”
Izzy grinned and looked at Lemon Pie. Using her magic, she gently scooched the box - and the remaining bracelet inside - closer to her. The pink unicorn looked back and forth between Izzy’s pleading eyes and Glacier, smiling and admiring her new bracelet. “Ugh, fine,” she growled. She shoved the bracelet on her hoof, though Izzy thought she saw something like relief and happiness in her eyes. When she thought Izzy wasn’t looking anymore, she allowed a small smile to come to her lips.
“Cake?” Glacier offered, gesturing to the monstrosity of icing.
Laughing, Izzy said, “Who in Equestria could say no to cake?”
Author's Note
Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!
