Starswirl wasn't always so averse to friendship. He had befriended Scorpan in his youth, after all.

This is the story of how a friendship blossomed and withered away, what came before, and what came next.

(Does Scorpan not have his own character tag? Oh well.)
(I promise it's not as thoroughly miserable as the tags suggest. There's some happy stuff too!)
(Technically this story could be considered an alternate universe, but it really doesn't deviate terribly far from canon, so I'm leaving the tag off for now. I may add it later.)