The moon is exactly three hundred eighty four thousand and four hundred miles away from my house, but with a telescope, you can see it just like it was right next to you. It rises and sets in the sky with the Princess’ magic every night and even though lots of foals think it’s made of cheese, it’s actually not. It’s made of rock and dust. Ponies say that if you look, you can see a mare in the moon, but not anymore. The moon is different now, because…
Twist frowned and chewed on her pencil eraser. The moon was different because… because… why was that, anyway? She put the extra bits of apple she’d been eating back on her plate and went back outside for research.
With a little hop from the chair and after some awkwardness trying to balance on the window shutters for leverage, Twist scrambled onto the clubhouse roof with a notebook jammed in her teeth. Carefully minding her footing, she settled into a crook between the roof and a sturdy apple branch. This assignment would be so much easier if she was a pegasus.
Still, it was really nice of Apple Bloom to let Twist use her clubhouse for moon gazing, and even nicer of her big sister Applejack to offer the snacks. Especially considering Apple Bloom and Twist didn’t really talk much lately. They used to talk a whole lot before, back when Silver Spoon first joined Miss Cheerilee’s class. Then Twist got her cutie mark and Apple Bloom didn’t really want to hang out anymore.
But that was okay.
Twist could always hang out with Truffle Shuffle. Truffle talked to her at lunch about food recipes and walked home with her. And once in a while, Peachy Pie would play dolls with her, though that might have just been because Twist’s mom and Peachy’s mom played bridge together and there was nothing else to do.
On a clear night like this, it would have been perfect for some up-close observation of the moon if she had a telescope. There was a telescope in Miss Twilight Sparkle’s library house, but Mom said that was too far away to do homework at night. Really, if not for the Apple family having such a good reputation for being responsible, Twist wouldn’t be at the clubhouse either.
Mom worried too much about everything and Twist couldn’t understand why. She wasn’t a little foal anymore; she could do things just as good as any other pony if she had half a chance.
“I’ve even got my cutie mark, for goss thakes!” Twist exclaimed, a forsaken hoof stretched to the air.
Then everything happened at once. The pencil behind her ear fell out and she reached over to get it but then forgot to keep a grip on the tree branch and the roof was slippery and then she was tumbling down wood and all these branches hit her face and another branch pulled her mane and her glasses fell off and the whole time Twist was just kept falling and falling forever until she went splat.
Except… she didn’t go splat.
She didn’t even go thump.
The trembling filly looked down and wiggled her hind legs in the open air. She wasn’t on the ground... somepony was holding her.
At first she thought it was Rainbow Dash, but Rainbow Dash was a different shade of blue. Then she thought it might have been Mare Do Well, but she was more purple than blue. This flying pony was… like a purpley blue, or a bluey purple. Twist screwed up her face in a little squint. Was that a horn, or just a tree branch getting in the way?
“’Twould be wise to take greater precaution when betwixt high branches on yonder tree, child! ’Twas but luck thine body does not lay mangled amongst the grasses,” a mare’s voice scolded her.
“What?”
The voice sighed. “Art thou… er, are you alright?”
“Oh. Um… I think tho. But my heart won’t stop beating and… and I got thome cuth. And I lost my glasseth.” The seriousness of the situation suddenly hit hard and fast. Her glasses! Her expensive prescription be-careful-I-really-mean-it-Twist-this-isn’t-a-game glasses! And after all that time begging to go out on her own, she went and… and…
The lump growing in Twist’s throat made tears run down her cheek, which was really embarrassing to do in front of somepony she didn’t even know, and that only made her cry harder.
The mare held her closer and made a gentle, soothing noise. The way Mrs. Cake did when her babies were crying. Twist felt like she should have been embarrassed at being treated like a foal, but right now she really didn’t care.
“Be still, little filly. Fear not, you are unharmed but for a scratch.” A glowing handkerchief dabbed at Twist’s eyes and brushed back the tangled forest of red mane.
“No, ith… ith not that. I lost my glatheth. I think they’re broke and my Mom told me to be careful ‘cause we can’t afford another pair and she’th… she’th gonna be tho mad at me.”
The mare gently set Twist down on the grass. Now that they were both standing, the filly realized how tall this mare was—much much taller than anypony she’d ever seen (except for maybe Celestia). The mystery pony laughed. Not the mean sort of laugh like Silver Spoon had, or the giggly kind Pinkie Pie made, but the kind of laugh you made when you were just sort of quietly happy. The warm kind. “That is all? We think we can help in this regard.”
The pony rose up and away, and if Twist squinted really hard she could make out a bluey purple smudge floating around the apple tree.
When she came back she said, “Close your eyes, child.”
“Why?” Twist wanted to know.
“’Tis a surprise.”
So Twist did.
And when she opened them the world wasn’t a blur anymore! It was bright and clear and she could see again—maybe see even better than she could before! She couldn’t remember ever being able to look at all the little veins in a leaf from way down here. When Twist held out her glasses, she realized that not only were they not broken, they looked un-scuffed and bright. Just like they came fresh from the store.
“OH!” she cried. “Oh, you fixth ‘em!” Then Twist looked up and her eyes got very big. “Wow. You’re really pretty.”
The mare smiled bright as a star. “Thank you. We think you are a very pretty filly as well.”
“Me? Oh, I’m not. I’m really not. I’m juth… okay. If you wanna thee a pretty pony, you oughta thee Diamond Tiara. Thee’th so pretty thee won trophies and ribbons for it. Or Sweetie Belle, she’th really pretty too, and she can sing really good. I can’t really sing or do anything nice like that. It’s probably why she got to be friends with Apple Bloom and… I’m thorry, did I thay thomethin’ wrong?”
The mare—who Twist suddenly realized DID in fact have a horn as well as wings—was frowning. “No, child. You’ve done nothing wrong. We—I—didn’t have many friends once.”
“But pretty ponies always have lotth of friends!”
“Sometimes. Not always." She smiled again. "But even if there are not many now, rest assured friendship is in your future.”
Twist blinked and thought for a moment. “Doeth that mean we’re friendth?”
“Yes,” the mare laughed. “Yes, we’re friends”
Twist smiled, “Even though my hair lookth weird and I talk funny?”
“Thou speaketh in a strange tongue? Have you not listened to my own words?”
They both laughed, then. The little filly with a fuzzy red mane and the tall blue mare with a very long tail that blew in the wind even though there wasn’t any wind.
“Tell me this,” the mare said. “For what reason in all Equestria were you doing on a roof in a tree in the middle of the night?”
“Oh, my homework! I totally forgot! We were gonna write paperth on natural elemenths and I wanted to talk about the moon, and I didn’t have a telethcope, so I had to come up here to look. I got stuck on this one part, though.” Twist looked up at the tall, pretty stranger. “Do you know anything about the moon, mith? Maybe you could help.”
“I think I know a few things, yes.”
As they flew back to the clubhouse, the mare asked, “I never asked your name, child.”
“My name’th Twist! My talent is making candy and thweets! I can bring you one later if you want. What’th yours?”
“Luna. ‘Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance”
