//------------------------------//
// Friendship is Magic [Dark][SoL] 
// Story: Thirty Minute Ponies 
// by kits 
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	Twilight wearily trudged down Mane Street pulling a small cart. Her saddle bags had been too hard to fasten without somepony else to help. That was the worst part of all of this, not the lack of teleporting, or the loss of weather control, or even her inability to levitate simple objects. She missed her fri—She missed the others.

She pulled her cart up to the apple stand and cleared her throat.

“Jus’ a minute,” rang Applejack’s voice. A moment later, the tan earth pony rose up from behind the stand. “What can I do ya for?”

What can I do ya for? Twilight remembered when that phrase would have been accompanied by a smile that reached the other mare’s eyes. She remembered a time when it would have been meant as an opening to converse, to share the days events. “Two apples please.” There was a time she would have made a joke, or asked after Big Mac and Apple Bloom. Maybe Rainbow Dash would have been nearby and the three of them could have gossiped about the weather.

Or just spent time basking in each other’s company.

Applejack tipped a pair of apples into a bag. “Two bits, Mrs Sparkle.”

Once upon a time, she might have been called “Twi” or “Sugarcube” or any of a half dozen nicknames. For the last sixty days, the last two months, she had been “Mrs Sparkle”. 

“Thank you, Applejack,” she said, turning to leave. No! she railed against herself. Stay! Ask about the Cutie Mark Crusaders! The fillies hadn’t met since it began. Ask her about Rainbow Dash! The two had hardly spoken. Since the weather was no longer directed by pegasi, the weather patrol had been forced to find new work. Rainbow Dash had taken a job hauling mail between Ponyville and Canterlot. Call her —!  Even in the privacy of her own head, Twilight couldn’t bring herself to familiarize Applejack’s name.

She hammered at the inside of her own head as she began the journey home.

“Mrs Sparkle?” Applejack hadn’t even tried to talk to her outside of a business transaction since the incident. Turning, she faced the shopkeeper. No, she faced A– Applejack.   ”Yes?” she asked, unable to keep bored indifference from her voice.

“Do you— Do you miss it?” The words broke as Applejack forced them out. “Even a little?”

An emphatic “no” had to be swallowed, almost choking her in the process.  She bit her lip from giving voice to the awful lie—that awful truth.

“I wish—” she stuttered. “I— It was better before…”

Applejack nodded once. “Well, Ah won’t keep ya any longer—” 

Keep me!

“—Ah know ya have stuff to do—”

It’s not  important!

“—So ya’ best be…” The farmer's platitude died on her lips.

Twilight strained to show some emotion. Anything. She wanted to hug the farm—Applejack. To ask her how Pinkie Pie was. To discuss Fluttershy with her. Her lip twitched, but she said nothing. Turning, she plodded back to her library.

It had been like this every day. The last months, she had been alone except for her memories. Unable to do anything but relive them and try to force them back to reality. She took a bite of an apple and stared at the scrolls that covered her desk. 

Nopony could have known what resealing Discord a second time would have cost them. The sacrifice they had knowingly made—all the magic in Equestria—had carried with it an unforeseen rider, a tiny clause that she would give anything to take back.

She swept her old reports, now meaningless, off of her desk. Tomorrow she would return to the stall. Maybe she could say more than a few words to the farmer. Perhaps one day, she would linger and talk about the weather. But she really was horribly busy.

As she swept the last of her old papers onto the floor, one caught her eye. Most reports had been written by Spike, her one time fri— assistant, but signed by her. This one bore a different signature. Curious she pinned it down with one hoof and awkwardly unrolled it. Oh, that letter.

Shrugging, she let it roll closed. Since the day magic had fled the land, it too had carried no meaning.



I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the “magic of friendship”. She must report to me her findings, from her new home in Ponyville.