Once again, the clubhouse fell into complete silence. Then, after a while, Scootaloo spoke up.

“A-are those real?”

Applebloom bit her lip. “Ummm… y’all like ‘em?”She squeaked.

“Like them?” Sweetie Belle said, her voice rising. “LIKE. THEM?!! Just now we tell you that we were worried sick on how you would reject us and disband the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and you just dismissed it like it was nothing. Oh, but now that we find out that you changed into an entirely different species, so it’s now that you suddenly care about what we think!” Applebloom bit her lip once more, this time drawing the tiniest bit of blood. It wasn’t like Sweetie Belle to turn on her friends, but under the extreme circumstances, anypony could’ve broken down to mess of tears and rage.

Besides, she had a point: Applebloom had kept her friends in the dark, and now the guilt was crushing her like a ton of bricks.

“Sweetie Belle…” Applebloom whimpered, “Ah… Ah’m sorry. Ah’m sorry Ah didn’t tell you. Y’all are mah friends, and friends shouldn’t lie like this. We should be proud of who we are, and not get no silly bodily changes get the way of our friendship!” she proclaimed.

“Oh yeah? Is that what you said to Twist back when you two were friends?” Scootaloo bitterly replied.

“Huh?” Applebloom said obliviously, and was taken aback by the sudden the sudden change in subject. “What does Twist hafta do with any of this?” Upon Applebloom’s question, Scootaloo’s features contorted as her face went from a bright orange to red with frustration.

“Twist,” she hissed, a combination of ice, steel, and venom coating her every word. “You know who I’m talking about. Red hair. Glasses. Has a cutie mark,” she continued. “A cutie mark, I’m sure you remember she recently got. Remember now? She got it right before you replaced her with US!!!”

Applebloom gulped. Suddenly, the promise that her friends made her take made horribly too much sense.

“Yeah, Ah remember Twist,” she said nervously. She looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact.

Scootaloo wasn’t done. “Well, have you even said two words to her since that party? Huh? Do you even know what she was doing at recess today?”

“S-she was on the s-swings,” stuttered Appleboom.

“Crying,” corrected Scootaloo, “She on the swings crying. Why? Because Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made fun of her lisp, and no one was there for her!”

“Why didn’t you two help her?” asked Applebloom defensively.

“We were too busy dealing with you asking question about what we were hiding,” Sweetie Belle retorted. Applebloom sighed. Then Twilight Sparkle’s words echoed in her head:

Your friends are not going to take this the wrong way, or else-

No.

-or else-

NO! DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE.

…or else they wouldn’t be real friends. This very idea made Applebloom want to dig a hole a hundred miles deep and never come out. Her head started to throb. She found that couldn’t breathe. She shut her eyes as hard as she could. Ah wish Ah could just go away, she thought. Ah wish Ah could go far, far away so this empty pain in mah chest would stop hurting.

Suddenly, something in her head went click, and Scootaloo’s and Sweetie Belle’s voices stopped. Applebloom opened her eyes. She saw she was in a library. The most expensive library Applebloom had ever seen. A giant hourglass stood as tall as the tallest apple tree in the center of the room. Bookcases that took up multiple stories piled up to the fifty-foot-high ceiling. Huge glass windows supplied a view of Equestria’s capital city, the sprawling metropolis of Canterlot.

Applebloom realized that she, within the first day of being an alicorn, had teleported. All the way to Canterlot, no less!

“Well, well,” said Princess Celestia, looking up from her book. “This is… unexpected. Your powers are developing well. I think you’re going to be a fine princess one day!” she encouraged the young filly.

And that’s when the newest alicorn, Princess Applebloom of Equestria, cried for hours on end.