Twilight sparkle sighed as she sat at her desk. She had a small drop of ink in her mouth which she swirled around to help her concentrate. She knew having ink in your mouth was generally a bad idea but she didn't care. doing her work was more important than her oral hygiene. Especially in times like this. the entire desk was lit nicely with a candle on one side of the table which, while might present a small fire hazard, had been fine up until now. The purple pony stopped writing for a second to quickly read through what she had done, skimming through to some of the more important bits:
I don't want us to end our friendship if I can help it... inadequate behavior... the recent events of... we all have said things we now regret... please consider meeting up to discuss... yours truly, Twilight Sparkle.
Yes, that seemed good, at least for now. She opened the drawer, searching for her checklist. She smiled when it was found. At the bottom of the list her hoof scrawled on: "post letter number two hundred and seventeen."
Twilight read through the letter one more time to make sure she was perfectly happy with it and then decided to go to bed: tomorrow was going to be a hectic day.
*****
The morning sun slowly drifted above ponyville, almost like clockwork. Just how Twilight liked it.
"Spike, get my my checklist" Twilight commanded, barely out of her bed.
A small, reluctant murmuring was heard from the next room, followed by a small, scaly, purple dragon slowly trudging into her bedroom. This was followed by even more reluctant murmuring and then finally Twilight being passed a large wad of paper, with what appeared to be chicken scratchings scrawled over it. Soon, item number 2716: "try to reason with 'friends'", was added to the check-list.
Twilight started getting ready to go out. She started by going downstairs and making breakfast. It was, as usual, hay pancakes with maple syrup. Next she had a bath and started combing her hair. soon enough she was ready and had her saddle bags on. At this rate she would be about three minutes early to Sugar Cube Corner.
"Hey Spike, i'm going to Sugar Cube Corner now, do you want a cake?"
A murmur that vaguely sounded like a "yes" drifted it's way downstairs, and with that Twilight left for Sugar Cube Corner.
*****
The walk over to Sugar Cube Corner was mostly uneventful, the most interesting that happened being somepony wanting the new princess's autograph. Maybe they were a bit slow to get an autograph after her crowning ceremony or maybe they were just new around this area of Equestria.
Not that Twilight had much time to think that one over because she had just arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, exactly 3 minutes early.
As she opened the door, the gentle smell of candy and cake wafted over to her. It was kind of relaxing in a way.
In the main room there was two main tables. One of them already had a large pile of cupcake ingredients on though, so it soon became apparent that the purple mare's choice was going to be limited to one table. Soon enough, Twilight was sat at the table with some chocolate cake, waiting for her 'friends' to show up.
About twenty seconds later, applejack showed up. Winoa was told calmly to wait outside and was given a treat to tide her over. Soon the slightly muddy mare was sat opposite Twilight with an extremely generic looking apple pastry. Neither pony felt like talking so they just started to wait for some more of their 'friends' to show up.
Next to show up was Flutter shy, with a phoenix feather in her hair. She insisted she would have arrived earlier if it hadn't have been for Angel demanding she give her a fifth breakfast. Cautiously but quickly, she found a seat next to Twilight and was soon united with a cupcake topped with a fondant flower.
Rarity arrived just on time. No words were spoken as she promptly took a seat next to Applejack and made a fuss of ordering the fanciest pastry the bakery made. This turned out to be a tiramisu made with ingredients none of the girls could pronounce properly.
Rainbow dash could have been early but had decided it would have been cooler to wait until she was roughly a minute late before entering. Trying slightly too hard to look as cool as possible, she sat on the opposite side of applejack, and proceeded to ask the waiter for a ridiculously large coffee.
Around four minutes passed before anyone decided to wonder where pinkie was. How could the pony that lives at the meeting point be late? somehow pinkie had managed it.
Twilight casually walked up to the bottom of the stairs. "Pinkie, get down here!"
"Just a second!"
some excited murmuring was heard, followed by a loud bang, several loud crashing sounds and some metallic clanging sounds rung out around the bakery. eventually, Pinkie appeared with a pot on her head, gummy hanging onto her tail, candy all over her mane and punch dripping off her coat. What had she been doing...?
Twilight estimated that around four minutes past before anyone spoke at the table. The first pony to speak was Apple Jack.
"ah assume you know why were here."
There was a collective nodding around the room, followed by Flutter Shy muttering "a-actually I don't r-really kno-" not that anypony paid attention to her.
rainbow had drunk about half her coffee by now. "yeah, yeah, get to the point apple b*cker"
Twilight Sparkle looked slightly concerned by the way rainbow said this. "Rainbow, how is this going to help our-"
"and you can shut it egg-head."
by this time, pinkie pie had decided she hadn't spoken in a while so said "Well maybe if little Mrs. crash hadn't ignored our feelings, all this might not have happened."
"oh you can zip it pinkie."
this remark rewarded Rainbow with a party cannon to the face.
"Pinkie, that was most uncalled for!" Rarity remarked.
"says you, I remember what you did last night!"
"well it was your fault."
"nu-uh it was applejack."
"Now how in the hay am I now being dragged into this?"
"uhhhh my head..."
"rainbow, nopony asked you what you were feeling." the group said collectively.
Twilight soon realized after this that nothing was going to happen at this meeting and left, feeling defeated.
*****
Twilight pushed the door to her house open, a warm cloud of air invited her inside and the smell of soup eased the stress the mare was having. The purple mare followed the enchanting smell of soup and ended up next to spike.
"Hey twi! how did it go?" the dragon said, optimistically.
"Spike, it didn't work."
"Oh, how come?"
"They just wouldn't listen to reason!"
Spike stopped stirring so he could concentrate more on talking. "Ah well, who needs them anyway?"
"but- but they were my friends"
"Look Twi, i know it must be tough but you need to move on. Oh, by the way, a letter arrived for you. I put it in your room."
"Th-thanks spike" Twilight said before hugging him.
"It's ok Twi."
The moment would have been sad if it hadn't had been for the soup starting to burn.
"I should probably deal with that." spike mentioned, worried.
*****
The violet alicorn flopped onto her bed, exhausted. The scroll on her bed jumped up slightly as she landed on the bed.
I should probably get round to reading that scroll thought Twilight. A purple aura enveloped a checklist and the quill Owlowiscious gave her and soon item 2719 was added to the checklist: Read letter number four hundred and twelve.
wearily, Twilight pulled the covers over herself, feeling safe and warm as the blankets hugged her. The letter started to gain a purple aura around it, and it proceeded to float over to Twilight sparkle. This was the first time she had got a close look at the letter. Specifically, it was the first time she had seen the stamp. The stamp showed two wings, crossed to form a sort of "X" shape, with a royal guard helmet on top. plus, the wax was blue and not the standard red. This meant only one thing:
The letter was from her brother.
Twilight opened the letter and started to read it.
Dear Twilight,
I am writing to you over an issue of Equestrian security.
For the past few years now, we have been relying on you and your friends defeating threats for us. I know, it sounds lazy.
Because of this reliance on the elements of harmony, guards have become mostly ceremonial.
Heck, even the wonder-bolts, the flying regiment meant solely as elite GUARDS and SOLDIERS have become literally a circus act.
and so we have decided to tell you that if you don't make up and become friends again, we will force you to become friends again.
In the Equestrian dungeons.
Over the next three years.
Good luck! sincerely, Shining Armour.
soon enough, item 2720: exact revenge against my brother was added to Twilight's checklist. The alicorn was completely overwhelmed by this letter: They were going to throw her in the DUNGEON if she didn't make friends? Seriously? It wasn't fair. Not that complaining would make it fair though, she would just have to try making all her friends forgive each other.
*****
The sun rose over Ponyville. The light scattered around Twilight's room, illuminating it with rainbow colors. This sounds like a wonderful way to start the day in your crystal castle but in all honesty, it was a huge distraction when walking around and normally ended in somepony walking into some sort of furniture.
While she was eating breakfast, Twilight came up with a plan for getting her friends back:
1) befriend Apple Jack first
2) both ponies go round Rarity's boutique and convince her to forgive them
3) get annoyed at Spike for no reason
4) find Pinkie and get her to be friends again
5) get Pinkie and Rainbow to solve whatever was bothering them
6) intimidate Flutter Shy into being friends again.
*****
Twilight grabbed her saddlebags and trotted off to Sweet Apple Acres. The air was clean and fresh over there. Two barns stood in the middle off the fields. The smaller one had been crudely refurbished into some sort of house. It wasn't exactly where Twilight would have chosen to stay but hey, if they're happy, why not?
Twilight knocked on the door three times and then stood back because the door opened outwards. Apple Jack responded quickly to this and, in her classic way of saying things, told her to "buck off"
Twilight bit her lip. this might be harder than expected.