Facing Your Fears... Literally

by NoPonE

Chapter 7: Facing Friendship

Twilight emerged from the other side of the portal, stepping through the broken Wondercolt statue and onto the walkway that led up to Canterlot High. She looked around her. It was daytime again, just as it was when she first left. The sun was hanging just above the horizon, a crisp, cool breeze was blowing, and some birds were chirping from some nearby trees. Twilight then walked towards her school, carefully avoiding the crack that she accidentally tripped on yesterday.

As she approached the main entrance, she saw her friends all sitting on the front steps. This time, however, they weren't joyfully talking to each other or playing music. Instead, they all just stared down at the ground with glum, downcast faces.

Fluttershy was leaning against the left shoulder of Rainbow Dash, who was using a stick in her right hand to poke the concrete step below her. Applejack was leaning against a railing, while her hat was tipped forward a little bit, partially obstructing her face from view. Rarity was wearing a simple, black t-shirt with plain jeans that didn't have any special designs embroidered on them. Even Pinkie Pie wasn't her usual, cheery self, and her normally-bouncy pink hair was straight and hung low. Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer was holding her knees up to her chest while her face was buried in her arms.

Twilight gulped, unsure what to say to her friends. Somewhere deep within her heart, a part of her told her to just run away. She didn't have to talk to them. She could just ignore them and find new friends. Maybe run away to Equestria and stay there forever. It certainly would be the easy thing to do. However, Twilight immediately disregarded that thought and shook her head. She then continued to approach her friends.

"Um... hello again," started Twilight. All of her friends, except for Sunset Shimmer, slowly looked up at her. Applejack tilted her hat up with one hand. Fluttershy, upon realizing who had greeted them, turned away and gripped Rainbow Dash's sleeve. Rainbow Dash frowned at Twilight and wrapped her other arm around Fluttershy, as if shielding her from danger. Sunset, however, didn't move.

"Listen... I... I just..." stuttered Twilight, trying to figure out the best way to start the conversation. Then, she took a deep breath, then let it all out.

"I'm really, really sorry everyone," apologized Twilight, doing her best to maintain eye contact with everyone. "You were all just trying to help me, and then I yelled at you, and said all those horrible things, and then-"

"Twilight, darling," interjected Rarity, standing up to walk towards Twilight. "We're the ones who should be apologizing to you."

"Yeah..." agreed Applejack, who took her stetson off and placed it over her chest. "We were so focused on just tryna make ya happy that we didn't take the time to carefully consider what you were goin' through."

"We- um, thought that... just saying that we, um, forgave you would... be enough..." whispered Fluttershy, still holding onto Rainbow Dash. As Fluttershy's voice trailed off, Pinkie Pie continued Fluttershy's thought.

"But feelings aren't that simple," Pinkie added, her voice slightly lower and more serious than usual. "Not everyone can just laugh their problems away or forget about them just because their friends think everything's alright."

Rainbow Dash looked around her, realizing that she was going to have to contribute to this mushy discussion about feelings and emotions at some point. Figuring that it was probably best just to get it over with, she sighed and cleared her throat nervously.

"We really meant it when we said we forgave you, honest," began Rainbow, her voice quavering a bit, "but I guess you weren't ready to hear that yet, huh?"

"As your friends, we should have advised and comforted you in a way that would help you, rather than throw a bunch of quick-fix solutions around," continued Rarity as she placed a hand on Twilight's shoulder. Twilight looked at Rarity, then stared down at the ground.

"That doesn't excuse the fact that I said all those horrible things to you," answered Twilight, her eyes filling with tears. "And there's no way you could've known how to help me either. Even though we've been friends for a while now, I-I never opened up to you. I never shared what kind of person I really was on the inside. S-So, I've been a pretty horrible friend..."

"Nonsense, sugarcube," replied Applejack. She walked up to Rarity and Twilight, who was now bawling her eyes out, and embraced them in a hug.

"Sure, we'd love to get closer to ya, but ya shouldn't feel forced to open yourself up. That's something ya gotta do at your own pace."

"Th-Thanks, everyone," sniffled Twilight, wrapping her arms around Applejack and Rarity. At that moment, Pinkie Pie burst into tears and dashed towards them.

"Waaaaahhhh! Group hug!!!" cried Pinkie as she somehow stretched her arms around all of them, her hair beginning to inflate back to its regular shape. Fluttershy then stood up and walked slowly towards the group. She paused for a moment and turned back towards Rainbow Dash, motioning with her hand to invite Rainbow Dash to join in. Rainbow, at first, was reluctant, but she finally gave in and got up. She and Fluttershy then embraced the other girls.

Twilight smiled as she was surrounded by the warmth and kindness of her friends. Then, as everyone separated themselves from the hug, Twilight looked towards Sunset Shimmer, who was still curled up on the stairs. Twilight walked towards the red-and-yellow-haired girl, then tapped her on the shoulder. Sunset slowly lifted her head from her arms and looked at Twilight, revealing the tears that had been streaming down her cheeks this whole time.

"Twilight, I-I wanted to help you through your problems," hiccuped Sunset as she continued crying, "but all I did was talk about my own past instead of addressing yours. I-I was thinking so much about how similar our experiences were that I didn't think about the fact that ultimately, we're different people. I'm not you, and you're not me. We both deal with problems and stress in our own ways, a-and I was just so selfish and-"

Sunset was interrupted as she was pulled up from the stairs by Twilight. Twilight shook her head.

"It's okay, Sunset," reassured Twilight. "I think I should've listened to you more as well. Though we are different people, we do have similar experiences. And you weren't being selfish; I can tell that you really do care about me." She smiled warmly at Sunset, who couldn't help but flash a smile of her own.

"Thanks, Twilight," replied Sunset, hugging her friend gently. At that moment, the rest of their friends came in and embraced each other in yet another group hug. Rainbow Dash, who was dragged into the second hug by Applejack and Rarity, faked a cough and laughed shyly.

"Err I'm not exactly the hugging type..." said Rainbow Dash, nervously. "Can we all just agree that we all messed up big time and that we all forgive each other? That is, if Twilight is alright with it..."

"Haha, don't worry Rainbow," giggled Twilight. "I think we've done enough apologizing for one day." With that, everyone laughed and let go of each other. Sunset wiped her tears from her eyes, then looked at Twilight.

"So where'd you go yesterday?" inquired Sunset. "We couldn't find you again during school."

"Yeah, and we tried calling your cell after class, but you didn't pick up," added Fluttershy. "We thought maybe you didn't want to talk to us anymore..."

"Of course not!" exclaimed Twilight. "You see, what happened was-"

"Ooh! I know!" shouted Pinkie, interrupting Twilight. "After we left, you tripped and fell through the Wondercolt statue, and then you met the Twilight who lives in the other world along with an alicorn princess who could enter nightmares, so you went to sleep and defeated Midnight Sparkle in your dreams, except Midnight escaped into the real world, so you and the other Twilight blasted her into an exploding ball of light!"

Everyone else stared at Pinkie Pie with shocked and confused expressions, their mouths hanging open. Finally, Twilight spoke up.

"H-how did you know all that?" stammered Twilight.

"Just a hunch~"

Author's Note:

Thanks to everyone who read and finished my story! This is my first fanfic ever, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you thought and provide any comments/criticisms you may have for me. Thanks again!

Comments

[Zapper Frost]

Is it bad that every time I see 'everyone' I think 'everypony'

[LoriCat]

8824890
Hmmmmmmm......no, because I do also! :D

[Sarsath]

This story deserves more views.

[TheGJ90]

A fun What-If scenario!