“Your home is amazing, Twilight,” said April in awe as she followed Twilight down the long corridor of the Castle of Friendship. “So you live in here with all your friends?”
“No, I just live here with my apprentice, Starlight and my assistant, Spike,” she answered.
“Spike, he’s your dragon friend, isn’t he?” asked April. “Is he here right now?”
“He’s out of town right now,” Twilight explained. “He left this morning and he won’t be back for a few days.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” she sighed. “My friends and I always wanted to meet a dragon, but they’re much too scary to meet.”
“Well, I’m sure the next time you’re in town you’ll be able to meet Spike,” Twilight assured her. “Actually, Spike is over with the dragons right now on official friendship ambassador business. We’re hoping one day ponies and dragons will be able to be friends.”
“Wow you and your friends sound amazing,” stated April. “I can only imagine all the things you must have done together.”
“Well, I can’t say that all of it was as glamorous as it might sound,” admitted Twilight. “But it always made us closer than ever before and I know I’d never trade my friends for anything in the world. In fact, I wouldn’t be the pony I am today if it weren’t for them. They’re a part of me, just like your friends are a part of you too.”
“I just wish those parts weren’t scattered all over Equestria right now,” sobbed April. “No! I am happy they are all out there doing what they want to do. I am a supportive and good friend to them.”
“It is okay to miss them,” Twilight said comforting her. “Here, let me show you something.” Twilight led April into her throne room and showed her the table with the map of Equestria on it, her and her friends’ Cutie Marks still hovering over their respective destinations. “Equestria might be a vast land, but there’s no need for you to worry. No amount of time or distance can keep you from your friends for long. I’m sure you’ll all be reunited soon. Actually, before I came to Ponyville and learned about friendship, I was kinda a ‘bad friend’ myself. I rushed over here without even realizing I had left the friends I had behind. Most of them were okay with it knowing that was just the type of pony I was, but one of my friends, Moondancer had been really hurt that I just left when she had planned to throw a party. It wasn’t until much later that I realized my mistake and tried to make amends, but it was starting to look like my mistake was one that I couldn’t fix. I didn’t realize how close I was to closing Moondancer off from ever making friends with anypony else ever again due to my actions. That was probably one of the worst moments of my life seeing the pain I had caused her, but I didn’t give up and in the end we managed to become friends again. Now I make sure to stop by and visit whenever I’m in Canterlot.”
“That was a really sweet story!” sobbed April blubbering all over the map. “So sad, but such a happy ending! Do you have anymore stories you can tell me?”
“Um, maybe some other time,” replied Twilight seeing half of Equestria was already covered in tears. “Uh, how about you tell me a bit about your friends.”
“O-okay,” she sniffled managing to stop the waterworks. “Well, I do have a few good stories I can tell. Like how we first met and became friends. I mean, I think we knew about one another before, but we didn’t actually become friends till quite some time later when we all did something incredibly stupid and childish.”
“What did you all do?” asked Twilight.
“We all ran away,” she admitted. “Before we became friends we all had our troubles to deal on our own. I guess it finally reached a point we thought it was better just to run away from it all so we just hopped on the first train we could get on and rode it as far away as we could. At the time, we didn’t even realize we all had the same thing in mind even when we all got off at Appleloosa. From there we continued further sound till we reached the Macintosh Hills and ended up running into one another. You can imagine the surprise on all our faces when after coming so far to get away from Manehatten we all ended up in the same place. And then…”
“And then what happened?” asked Twilight curiously.
“Actually, I can’t tell you exactly what happened,” admitted April. “We all agreed to keep that a secret between ourselves. But what I can say is that after the sun went down we were all friends and all agreed to go back home to Manehatten together. When we had each other things were much better. We even worked together to put on a show. Gale was the performer with her amazing acrobatics, Rocky sold snacks, Fire Wheel provided music, and I worked on costumes. It was something we could have never done individually and that we could do it together made it all the more special for us. I thought days like that would have never ended, but I suppose nothing good lasts forever.”
“The show might be over, but it doesn’t mean your friendship is,” promised Twilight. “You’ll see. It’ll all work out in the end. Now how about we go into the kitchen and get something ready for dinner.”