Twilight couldn't have chosen a better day. Morning dew was still clinging to grass and flowers in one of the many parks dotting Canterlot, birds were singing in the nearby trees, and open skies were scheduled until evening.
And Twilight's own schedule was unusually open for one of her weekly trips to the capital. An opening she of course had to fill with one of her favourite pastimes: Bringing friends together. And she had known exactly which of her friends she could introduce this time. Starlight and Moondancer shared a lot of interests, even if it perhaps didn't seem that way at first glance. And both of them were free today. So with enough of a warning for Moondancer, she had made sure they could get to know each other at a comfortable pace.
Or, that was the plan at least. She had planned everything, maybe a bit obsessively. The weather was right, she had secured a picnic spot in the park, she had given both of them some surface-level information on the other to make the initial small-talk easier... all accounted for, except for a single bump in the road.
Trixie.
Even looking back now, Twilight was still a little confused over how she had managed to insert herself. At some point, she had caught wind of the fact that Starlight had been invited to Canterlot, so she insisted on coming along, and somewhere between fast-talking and general annoyance, she had caught Twilight in enough of an argumentative dead-end, that she had been forced to agree.
Twilight huffed through her nostrils and rolled her eyes just thinking about it. But even that she could work around. Once she had brought Moondancer to where the others were waiting, she could make sure that her and Starlight got off right, then drag Trixie elsewhere so she couldn't mess things up.
Satisfied with that rudimentary plan, she pranced up to her friend's front door and rang the doorbell. She didn't have to wait long, humming under her breath until the door opened. "Moondancer!" She beamed and put a hoof over her friend's shoulders, hugging her close despite the itchy texture of her thick sweater. "I'm glad you had time today."
"My Wednesdays tend to be pretty open for whatever reason," Moondancer answered with a slight smirk as the two of them headed back onto the road. "And you were practically begging me in your letter."
"Heh, I'm sorry if I came across as pushy. I just know you and Starlight will hit it off really well. Don't worry," she added quickly, "I told her not to be pushy. Not that she would be, I mean. She can stress herself sometimes, but she's really smart and well-read, and always eager to learn things."
Moondancer's pace slowed down a little. "Okay, slow down, Twilight. It sounds like you're trying to set us up together."
"I am! As friends!" Twilight answered brightly, doing a little leap step, beating her wings once to stay afloat before her hooves touched down again. "She's just over there, there's no need to be shy!"
Twilight beat her wings again to glide over to the picnic blanket Starlight had already set up. She waved at Twilight's approach, while Trixie was lying on her side, lazily dozing. Twilight stood by and watched both of her friends as Moondancer trotted over slowly.
"Okay, here she comes," she whispered to Starlight, "give her some space first and don't ask too many--"
Starlight put her hoof to Twilight's chest. "Hey, relax. You taught me all I need to know. Don't worry, this will go off without a hitch."
Twilight bit her tongue and kept her hooves still, until the other unicorn had made her way over. "Moondancer, this is Starlight Glimmer. Oh, and this is--"
"Trixie," Moondancer said darkly, having stopped a few steps away from the blanket.
Trixie had sat up at the approaching hoofsteps, staring back. "Moony," she said with evident surprise, before her expression slipped into a smirk. "You look awful."
In moments like this, time seemed to stretch. Enough for Twilight to run through a dozen different conscious thoughts within the next second. How did they know each other? Why would Trixie say such a thing? Why didn't Twilight just throw her out of the train window like her impulsive thoughts had instructed her to? Did her heart actually stop or was that the stress? Could she stop Trixie's heart if she focused hard enough? Would anyone notice it was her?
"And you're still a jerk," Moondancer countered firmly, before adjusting her glasses and turning around. "Sorry, Twilight, I'm gonna rain check."
"Oh, no, no, no!" In a flash of light, Twilight warped in front of her retreating friend and with gentle insistence turned her around again. "It's fine, Trixie was about to leave!"
"Oh, but Trixie would love to catch up with--oof!" With another flash of light, Twilight warped behind Trixie and yanked at her tail with her magic, starting to drag her away across the grass.
"You two have fun! Just forget this happened! Have fun becoming friends!" Twilight called over her shoulder with nervous laughter, before spreading her wings to get them away quicker, dragging Trixie behind a small grove of trees before finally releasing her tail. "What is your problem!?" she hissed after landing next to her.
Trixie sat herself up and scraped dirt and grass out of her coat with one hoof, before producing a comb to fix her mane. "With you or just in general?" Before Twilight could angrily clarify, Trixie scoffed haughtily. "Trixie would have thought better of accepting your invitation, if she had known you were bringing her ex."
The yell got stuck in Twilight's throat and died. She tilted her head slowly. "Come again?"
Starlight awkwardly rubbed her foreleg. The silence between them was deafening. Eventually, she softly cleared her throat, to announce her speaking. "So, uh... I know we're supposed to talk about books and stuff, but... to be honest, I am way too curious about what just happened."
Moondancer stared at the treeline, her expression hard, in a guarded sort of way that felt awfully familiar. For a few seconds, Starlight wasn't sure if she would even answer. "I didn't realise Trixie was one of Twilight's friends now."
"Well, uh, friends might be pushing it." Starlight pushed the picnic basket over towards Moondancer and produced one of the wrapped sandwiches from it. "Trixie is my friend, so her and Twilight just kind of... endure each other. They don't exactly have good history with each other. And, from what I hear, she used to be pretty bad, so... I don't claim to know what she was like when she was your friend."
"Marefriend."
Starlight choked, quickly covering her mouth to not cough up the bite she had just taken. She swallowed quickly and grabbed one of the water bottles, while Moondancer watched her from the side, chewing slowly on her own snack.
"How? When!? With you!?" Twilight paced back and forth, trying to wrap her head around the new information. She would doubt Trixie outright, if it hadn't been for Moondancer's reaction.
"You make it sound like Trixie has no game."
Twilight stopped to glare at her. "Trixie, no offence," she lied, "but I've seen you lick spilt honey from the floor of your wagon. Forgive me for finding this hard to believe. Even if I didn't know Moondancer like I do."
"Well, alright, maybe I'm not the picture of elegance, princess." She leaned in with a mocking smirk. "But funny how she never mentioned you to me either."
"Well, I... no!" Twilight stomped her hoof. "No deflections, Trixie. Tell me what you did."
"You were Trixie's... marefriend?" Starlight had to ask again, just for clarification, in case she had wildly misinterpreted something. Moondancer answered with nothing but a blank look. "Um, sorry, but, how?"
Moondancer sighed and looked down at the blanket. "I know, I'm not in her league."
"Oh, no, that's not what I-- her league? I didn't realise Trixie knew how to play."
Moondancer scoffed out a short laugh. "She was pretty charming at first. Until it all went to her head."
"That friend of yours is pretty needy, you know that?" Trixie's smugness had vanished into an open bitterness. Now she was the one pacing. "Tell me, Twilight, friends are supposed to support each other, aren't they?"
"Well, yes..."
"So then your partner should do the same thing, shouldn't she?"
"I suppose..." Twilight could feel the nervous tension in her wings, jumpy to fly away. This wasn't the way she had expected this confrontation to go.
"But then the moment my career is starting to go places, Moony just starts complaining that I won't be around! It's not like I was leaving for good! Twilight, if your partner asked you to choose between them and being a princess, what would you do?"
"Well, I don't really--"
"Exactly!" Trixie stomped her hoof. "You don't make ultimatums like that! So it's actually her fault!"
"Trixie is pretty bad at acknowledging when she did something wrong," Starlight said with a casual smirk. "But I'm sure I don't need to tell you that."
"Maybe we're both at fault. I was pretty focused on myself too." Moondancer shrugged. "But she's a jerk, I just don't need that kind of pony in my life."
Starlight frowned. "Well, okay, she's not exactly tactful. But she's been improving a lot. She actually does want to be better." Her expression lit up. "Hey, maybe this is an opportunity. You could finally make up with her."
"Make up?" Moondancer asked bitterly. "Sorry, Starlight, I'd rather never talk to her again if I can help it."
"So you plan to just be bitter about it? You won't even try and fix your relationship? You don't have to get back together with her, but wouldn't it be nice if you could move on?"
"Well, even if I would want to, I doubt she's losing any sleep over me!"
"I w-won the breakup."
Trixie sobbed quietly, leaning heavily in Twilight's chest fluff. Every fiber of the princess' being just wanted to back away and leave, but instead she had a wing draped over the unicorn's back. Sometimes, having to be the paragon of friendship was such a curse.
"I h-have a career and... and... and new friends and... I self-improved, so I won, right?"
"Trixie, nopony ever actually wins breakups, that's a myth to make ponies feel better about themselves."
"So make Trixie feel better about herself!" She sniffed and Twilight silently thanked the heavens that she wiped her snout on her own leg and not Twilight's coat. "I'm never getting somepony like her again, so I g-gotta have won!"
Twilight took a deep breath and managed her most serene princess smile before pushing Trixie gently away from her. "Alright, Trixie. Remember what you are?"
"G-great and p-p-powerful?"
"Yes. So pull yourself together. For both our sake. I beg you."
"And then, she just dropped me without a second thought! Just went off in her stupid wagon with her stupid hat to do her stupid tricks! Even though I was the first one in the crowd every time! Even though she wouldn't have that stupid cape without me!"
Starlight sat frozen, her ears folded back and her back uncomfortably straight. The outburst had probably just lasted a minute or two, but it felt like fifteen.
"Sorry." Moondancer took a long breath but visibly didn't simmer down all the way.
"Wow, I... guess I didn't realise how bad it actually was. I'm sorry." Starlight looked down at her hooves. Every second of tense silence burrowed into her like tiny spines. "Um, well... so about those books..."
Thankfully, a flash of light interrupted Starlight, bringing both Twilight and Trixie back next to them. The former looked exhausted, the latter downtrodden, with a heavy pout. "Oh, good, you're still here," Twilight said with a sigh. "I'm asking you, please, talk this out."
"Twilight, wait." Starlight stood up quickly. "We shouldn't force this. Maybe sometimes we should just count our losses and let things rest."
"But fixing something like this is what I do. Just because the map didn't call me, I can't ignore a friendship problem."
"But is it a friendship problem? Last I checked, you're not the princess of love."
"Okay, but I'm definitely not asking Cadence to handle an issue with my friends."
"Trixie?" They both stopped short as Moondancer's voice cut through, glancing back at her. She hadn't moved from her position. "Do you have something to say?"
Trixie sat in the grass, just off of the blanket, and stared off towards the treeline. "Maybe we've both been... unreasonable."
"You broke my heart," Moondancer said coldly, finally looking up to glare at her. Twilight and Starlight both took a few steps back.
"I broke yours?" Trixie met the other mare's look with her reddened eyes. "You always said you'd support me, but when I finally made progress, you suddenly took it all back."
"Trixie, I was terrified!" Moondancer stood up, taking half a step forward. "I was lonely! You were the only one on my side back then! And then you left me, like everypony else left!" From the corner of her eye, Starlight could see Twilight visibly cringe.
"I would have come back!"
"Would you have!? Because it's been years, Trixie, and I didn't see you even once!" Moondancer's expression cracked as her eyes welled up. Trixie's ears folded down and she tentatively took a step forward.
"I never meant to..." She cast her eyes down for a moment. "No, that's not true. I did want to hurt you."
Moondancer only managed to halfway swallow her sob, wiping her cheek with the sleeve of her rough sweater.
"But I was wrong! I shouldn't have done that. I did a lot of things since then I regret. Leaving you, taking over Ponyville with dark magic, almost losing my best friend more than once..." Starlight encouragingly returned the weak smile sent her way. "...but I'm trying to be better. I'm not really there yet, but... I'm sorry."
Moondancer slightly levitated her glasses off of her snout so she could wipe her eyes. The two of them looked at each other, hesitantly moving a bit closer together before meeting in a short hug. "You're still a jerk."
Starlight breathed a sigh of relief and Twilight groaned the same, sinking down onto the blanket.
After they stepped away from each other again, the two exes sat with the others again, settling into a still awkward, but more hopeful silence.
"What was that about dark magic?"
