//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Breaking Point // Story: A Lonely Star // by DemonSaint //------------------------------// There was no denying it. Twilight was hungry. While she languished on the couch and munched on those dry, dry oats, she knew she couldn't just wait until tomorrow to leave for groceries, and if she waited, it would only increase the chance that she would run into the ponies that made her feel this way. The ones that were ready to cast her away. To make matters worse, Tempest's words continued to hound her whenever she thought about them. Fizzlepop Berrytwist may have been a changed pony, but the poison she'd sewn when she was Tempest Shadow still lingered, even though Twilight had won and had shown her the magic of friendship in the end. I failed friendship, and in return, friendship failed me. Tired of ruminating on the ones she lost, Twilight let go of the pillow she was hugging and stood. I think I'm beginning to see it more clearly. Friendship is a give and take relationship. I knew this already. But if you give too much, and take too little, the moment you need to be given more than what they think you're worth... It causes problems. How much have I taken? Their time, the adventures they all went on together? They never complained about that before; They were always willing to accompany her. Volunteering, even. Her panic attacks? They were few and far between anymore. Needing to be rescued was the result of her own stupid mistake that day, and even then, she never asked them to save her. She frowned to herself as she slipped on her saddlebags and grabbed some bits. How much have I given back? The adventures, the fame, being heroes of Equestria, all the help they needed that she provided when they'd asked... Exposing the fake Cadence at the wedding. Giving up all the alicorn magic in Equestria to save them. Stopping Starlight from wrecking all of their lives and destroying Equestria through time, being willing to wait for all eternity for Starlight to give up if she couldn't stop her, because keeping her friends meant that much to her... If you fail friendship, does it always return the favor? "I saw the truth. My friends abandoned me when times got tough... Looks like I'm not the only one. Face it, princess. Friendship has failed you, too." Yet again, Twilight thought back on Tempest's words and sighed, retrieving the grocery list she had stuck to the fridge two weeks ago, conjuring a quill, and editing the contents. She had to do something. What better than replacing the items that had spoiled? "So try again! Make new friends! And if something you can't control happens that changes things, work through it together! That's what friendship is! ... but just imagine all the others that are out there waiting for you if you just give them a chance!" "How do I know they all won't end the same way?" "I guess it's up to you to make sure they don't." Twilight almost dropped the grocery list as she thought of her old argument with Starlight. ... Should I be giving up so easily? They're my friends. We've been through so much together. If I just talk to them... Can I fix this? Where would they be by now? Would they still be in Canterlot, or would they be in Ponyville? She was fairly certain she had heard the whistle of a train over an hour ago. There was still a twinge in her heart as she thought back to the conversation she'd overheard. The magic of friendship in her was trying to spark back to life, but with each try, it just ached. It felt like it was in her heart and it wasn't going away, caused by all of them, but coming from within herself. She grimaced, left her castle, and walked through the streets of Ponyville, giving a solemn wave to the residents who looked her way when she happened to pass. Friendship is always worth fighting for! Her own words echoed back at her as she tried to force a smile, reminding her of what had sparked her back to life when Discord had taken it from her. Maybe, for her own peace of mind, she should seek them out. If any of the five wouldn't be mad, it would either be Pinkie or Fluttershy. The former had been the first to forgive her before, and neither of the two had been very outwardly angry. Both had defended her in the conversation she'd overheard, but if there was one of them that could assemble the others quickly, it would be Pinkie. As she passed through the market, she immediately spotted a familiar golden chariot in one of the streets. And a sizable distance before her, facing away, was Pinkie Pie with Spike on her back. They seemed to be talking. Twilight halted and glanced around. It didn't seem that the others were nearby, but in the moment that Pinkie started moving, Twilight spied a rainbow mane. A sudden shock left Twilight's heart pounding in her chest. Following Pinkie from a distance was Rainbow Dash, but her movements were erratic. She hid behind an apple cart, with Applejack and Rarity moving in her wake as all three ducked from Spike or Pinkie's gaze. They appeared to be trying to avoid the duo's attention. It was an odd sight to see. None of them had noticed her yet. She had lifted a hoof to follow, but she found herself inching her way back behind a building. "Why am I hesitating? Why are they acting so strange? Where's Fluttershy?" She was suddenly gasping for breath, her anxiety rearing its ugly head back to the surface. "I came out here to fix... Talk things through... That's... That's what I have to do, just calm..." She had to breathe, in, and out. Hoof tucked close, hoof straight out. Breathe in... She would do this. She would fix this, or at the very least, they could talk things over... It's fine. It will all be fine. We've... We? There was no "we." She was alone. I've got this. Peeking back around the corner, she realized she was letting them get away, and quickly began trotting after them. It took a minute to get close, but when she was about to call their names, she picked up a hushed conversation. "Should we really be doing this?" Rarity frowned at Rainbow. "We know the way to Twilight's castle..." "Well, yeah. If Pinkie sees us there, she and Spike would tell us to leave and warn Twilight we were coming. We'd never get to talk to her then!" "We could'a just entered the castle on our own. That place is so big, y'could hide for years and nopony would find ya'." Applejack frowned. "And if we talked to Twilight now, I expect y'all to be civil. That means not throwing hooves, Dash." "Ugh... I know. And I know we have to apologize, but why didn't she confront us then instead of running away? It's not like it'll change anything." Twilight wanted to talk to them. She really, really did. After everything she overheard last night, though, she had to know just what they were going to say, even if it was being spelled out for her now. With a silent casting from her horn, Twilight disappeared in the eyes of any passerby. A simple notice-me-not spell would get her through this, and luckily, they were too busy avoiding Spike and Pinkie's eyes to notice Twilight's casting. Rarity squeaked as a pear toppled off of a cart, almost clocking her on the head when they hid behind it. "Rainbow Dash, it'll change everything. She heard us, and I know you looked just as guilty as I did when Celestia told us that." There was a spark again. The fire of friendship was beginning to rekindle itself, bringing itself back to life. Her friends had just been tired and had gotten carried away, and now they felt bad for the things they said. Maybe they were going to fight for their friendship, or talk it out with her, just like she was going to. They would reach an understanding. Then, this whole mess would be behind them! It was perfect! With a small boost of confidence, Twilight trotted closer, about to remove the notice-me-not spell. Then slowed to a stop, suspicion and doubt rearing back up from the depths. It was a little too perfect. If they were going to fix this and be her friends again, then what had Rainbow meant? It's not like it'll change anything? Was their verdict the same? She swallowed. She had to be patient. "Well, yeah, but she knows we're not going on her adventures anymore." Dash snorted, pausing at the sight of Pinkie stopping to twitch. "Yeah, sure, we've gotta apologize, but..." Rarity sighed. "Rainbow Dash..." "... But we don't even know how much she really heard, and like I said before, we can't just drop everything every time something comes up." "Rainbow, I know you like going on adventures and kicking bad-guy butt." Applejack frowned at Rainbow. "Don't pretend that's your reason for leaving and just spill the real one already." "... I'm not completely giving up adventuring. Wonderbolts, remember? It's just... Twilight makes me feel like a total idiot. Like I said last night, a moron." Rainbow growled. "She basically told us that she'd rather not be our friends back there, that she didn't trust us, and solely blamed my rainboom for the reason Tempest found us. It was like it was all our fault for failing the mission, when we succeeded in getting the hippogriffs on our side because we did things our way, and she failed for doing it her way. And what Celestia said, about us being her first friends and how much it means to her? I don't even know if that's true." But it is true! Twilight wanted to scream, but it came out as a strangled whimper that her spell dutifully let them ignore. "I'll apologize, I guess, because she was my friend once... but if she wants to be that way, then I'm through. I am not a failure." Rarity and Applejack looked at each other before they continued walking to the castle, Rainbow Dash drifting behind them as they stopped following Pinkie and just... walked. Pinkie was far ahead of them at this point, but Twilight's mind wasn't focused on that as she slowly stopped tailing them, her wings drooping. Her spell fizzled out and died on her horn, but the girls didn't notice. Twilight watched them as they walked away, moving further and further down the street, just as steadily as they were fading from her life. They wanted to talk to her, but she'd heard enough. As the sound of their hoofbeats on the road faded away, the creeping realization that she didn't want to talk to them anymore dawned upon her. The urge had simply slipped away, leaving her empty. It could have been avoided. If they had just talked to her about all of this sooner, then... There were more ponies on the street, now, steadily filtering in from Canterlot and crowding the area as they spotted the Princess of Friendship, completely unaware that her heart was breaking it off with not just one, but three of her friends. Maybe more. All eyes were on her. She couldn't fall apart now. While they remained unaware, Twilight had to wonder if they knew, just from the looks on some of their faces. Friendliness faded to confusion, confusion morphed into concern. Or perhaps they were just reacting to how she herself looked, but it didn't stop her mind from running wild with the assumption that they knew. All of this attention focused upon her and her distraught features, just after her Festival of Friendship, certainly could spark rumors. In her wild mind, this would certainly make the news; Princess of Friendship goes on adventure, loses her friends, probably writes a new book. The Friendship Journal: What not to do in a friendship, volume one. What kind of picture would they use? An old one, or a new one? Should she even care? No. She shouldn't, she didn't, and she wouldn't. Her vision blurred, ears drooped, but she drew herself up into as regal of a pose as she dared and folded her wings. Heavy hooves raised and re-planted themselves as they dragged her back towards her castle. The crowd parted silently before her. All eyes were on the morose princess. It was all she could do to ignore them. Her saddlebags itched, wings fidgeted at her sides. She was hungry. Throughout it all, Twilight just wanted to go home. Pinkie and Spike were on their way there now, but talking to anyone was the last thing on her mind. So, as simple as that, she adjusted her course. She passed Sugarcube Corner— still closed from the invasion, no doubt, and why add more stress upon Mr. and Mrs. Cake?— and walked to the Hay Burger. Since she already knew that Pinkie was going to take a step away from her, she could wait to go home for a little while longer. Heck, while she was at it, she would go shopping. That would stretch out her time. Delay the inevitable. In the meantime, she could have some delicious grease to wash her grief down with. Through some odd miracle, the Hayburger had just opened for the day. Nopony really questioned her as to why she came alone, or why she looked so glum. There were just rumors, whispers, and gossip. By the time she paid and left, she'd heard them all. Absurd rumors that they were never really her friends, that they were just there for photo opportunities, just there to save Equestria, that she was upset because she'd gotten her magic drained, that it was just a side effect of the magic drain, that something happened on their adventure, that she'd have to start again in her lessons in friendship... It went on, or maybe it was her own paranoia that made her imagine the background voices out of the conversations flowing around her. She would not say just how accurate some of those assumptions were, imagined or not. The thought that she should revise her lessons or write a new book weren't completely discarded. She pondered if she should write a friendship journal version two-point-o like her runaway thoughts suggested, and just what she could write in such a book played throughout her brain as she munched down on her hayburger and horseshoe fries. Twilight kept her mind going, task by task, never fully allowing the thoughts of her lost friends consume her as she paid and left, searching for open market stalls. There were very few, but she already knew she wouldn't be getting everything on her list. It was just the way of things lately. All too soon, she found herself heading back to her castle, her saddlebags barely weighed down by the few items she managed to find. At least she wouldn't only be eating dry oats for the next couple of days. The castle was dead silent as she entered. There were no happy calls, angry shouts, or the popping of confetti cannons when the doors opened or shut, just the echoing sound of hooves on crystal as Twilight entered her home and set about getting the groceries away. Once the mundane task was complete, she moved to the study to pen a letter. It would be the first friendship report she'd be sending in ages. Dear Princess Celestia... I know it's been a while since you've last received a friendship report from me, one of the major reasons being that I'm no longer your student in friendship, but I figured I would write to revise one of my previous friendship reports, as I have learned something new about friendship that will save me a lot of heartache in the future. Back when we had faced Discord with the elements of harmony, I remember making a report. The subject matter's main moral was this: "Friendship isn't easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for." While this hasn't changed, based on current events, I've recently had to make an addendum to this. Friendship isn't easy, and while there's no doubt it's worth fighting for, the effort has to come from both parties. Two creatures in a friendship need to work towards the goal to heal a fractured friendship, for if one isn't willing to continue, the other will only hurt themselves by reaching. That pony can fight all they want, but friendship is a give-and-take relationship, and if you're giving far more than you're taking, you will end up getting hurt. If you're taking more than you're giving, you're hurting the other party. No matter how hard you try, there's a delicate balance that needs to be maintained. While friendship is strong and the boundary lines for the balance are far apart, it's possible for a friendship to fall outside of this balance and crumble to pieces. I've been giving as much of me as I can, but the high-stakes adventures became too much. I've become too much. My friendships have gotten to the point where some friends only kept me around because the others have, or because my princess title was a boon to them. I won't be naming names. Some would rather talk about one pony behind her back, rather than go to her about the problem to work on fixing it before it gets too bad. I know I shouldn't be vaguely writing about them. It's not healthy. It doesn't help. I'm tired. I never asked for the adventures, except for when it came to solving friendship problems through the cutie map. I looked forward to those. All of the places I would see, and to travel with a friend? Well— Although all of my friends followed me willingly into danger for the world-ending threats, it appears that they are no longer going to accompany me. Whether it's to focus on their careers, or because I was an annoyance, or just got tired of me— You get the gist. I remember what Pinkie said so long ago, pertaining to her Pinkie Promise: "Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend, forever." I think that's just what happened today. In time, I've been thinking that I should release a new Friendship Journal with my findings. When you can, can you please send me copies of my old friendship reports? I would like to publish those in the new journal, as well, with extra notes on the next page. The old ones burned down with Golden Oaks. Your faithful ex-Student and fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle. PS: I'm sorry if this letter is a little disjointed. It's been a rough month. Spike wasn't around. So, Twilight rolled up the scroll and placed a specific ribbon around it, one she never thought she'd use again, before sending it off in a flash of magic. The ribbon brought a small smile to her face that quickly faded as she thought about her old adventures. Her lost friends. Yet, after everything, the adventures were all she really seemed to do as a Princess that wasn't smiling and waving. When it came to the cutie map, she'd been excited, always anticipating a new adventure! Even though the map had only called upon her a grand total of three times. That was just disappointing. She didn't think she was counting the adventures where all of the Elements were called, which amounted to... Five in total? Come to think of it, would the cutie map still call her after all of this? Would it still call her ex-friends? Would she still be able to go on adventures without their friendship connection, since adventures were all she had really done that were worthwhile as a princess? Even defeating Tirek hadn't really enlightened her as to anything else that she was supposed to accomplish with her status, and unless the map called her— which it hardly did, it mostly focused on her friends, or strangers— she was... useless. Her heart fell again. She just wanted to scream and pitch a fit like a little filly, or let her heart drag her to the floor so she could lie there for the rest of the week. Maybe they were right. That was all she was; A spoiled, rotten filly who had only been given her wings from Princess Celestia because of a magical screw-up, not a princess who had earned her wings through discovering a new form of magic. Her ex-friends had suffered that day, and Twilight herself had been rewarded for causing it. Were they right to hate her? She paced back and forth in her study for a while. It was all she could do, keeping her body busy while her mind ran laps around the events of her recent spiral. She wondered if Celestia would send a letter back immediately, or if she was choosing her words carefully; Or if she would send a letter back at all. It would be just like her mentor to forgo the letter and visit her personally to talk things through, but Celestia had a country to run. Other ponies had lives outside of her own. A wave of skittish nausea wracked her. Should she have sent that friendship report in the first place? Was Celestia going to be annoyed or angry with her, too? What if she herself was the cause of the problems, not her friends? Would Celestia be disappointed and tell her off? Would she tell Twilight that she has a lot to think about and leave her again? There was a sudden tingling on her flank, causing her to startle and look back. Her cutie mark was glowing, and with the miniature versions of it pulsating outwards, it could only be one thing. The cutie map. ... How was it reacting, after the invasion and losing the other elements as friends? Would it break, like it had with Starlight's time-traveling revenge plan? Was it calling any of her friends to it to fix their own friendship problem, or was it only calling her to fix it because she had failed them first? Twilight found herself galloping out of the study and down the hall, through the double doors to the map room. At first glance, the cutie map itself looked the same. It was neither destroyed or discolored, but the cutie marks hovering above it consisted of five copies of her own. They floated over Ponyville in four different places, and a fifth version of her mark floated over Canterlot. She stepped back, hurt, but something prevented her from outright bucking the table and fleeing. The table looked strange, somehow larger, and the landmarks on it had more than doubled. Twilight approached with trembling legs, her hurt momentarily forgotten as she inspected the glowing surface. "D-did the cutie map expand...? This is..." Startled, Twilight flapped her wings to hover above the map. Everywhere her last adventure had taken her, the map now bore the new locations on its face. "Did it do this while we were gone?" She was alone now, but the map could call anyone. Her, her friends, Sunburst, Spike... What if the map sent her to one of these faraway places and paired her up with one of her ex-friends?! As if the map heard her, her starburst pulsed again, and marks of all of her friends and herself appeared over the image of her castle. All of the other starbursts had vanished. Twilight's eye twitched, and she found her brow furrowing. No. Bucking. Way. Her mouth worked as she tried to think of something to say, staring at the cutie marks hovering over the table with disbelief. "... Of course you would." Twilight glared down at the map, her voice beginning to shake. "Find some other ponies to do your work, map. They don't want to work with me. They're done with me, and I'm going to have to be done with them." The map sat silently, except for the faint shimmer in the air of its magic. The cutie marks continued to hover over the castle, the marks of the Five circling hers as if nothing had happened. "Didn't you hear me? They don't want to be my friends anymore! The ones that do just want to use me! I know when I'm not wanted, I've already heard everything! They find me annoying! I'm a burden, an obligation! They're actively pushing me away, and they don't want to go on adventures anymore, either!" Twilight's wings ruffled out and started refolding themselves, over and over. The sense of betrayal only sunk in further as minutes passed, and as they ticked by, anxiety and fear hit her again; The longer the marks stayed above the map, the more of a chance there was that one of them would come crashing through the door to... To... To do something to her. Yell, shout, argue, insult. It would be something, and she couldn't handle it right now. "Stop calling them, I don't want to talk to them! I don't want to be around them right now, maybe ever again, and this isn't helping!" Her frantic yelling didn't have any effect, aside from poofing her own mark off the table. The rest remained, twirling above her castle like a carousel, even without the middle star to center them. "Map, you can't bring them here! Just shut off, or... Something! They're done with me, don't you get it? Again, they're done with me. And I'm going to have to be done with them." She glared at the stubborn table. "They have their own lives to get to. They can't just drop everything for you or me, and even then, all involved parties have to make the effort in a friendship! They don't want to work it out." And I can't anymore, either. As she lectured the cutie map, the marks of her ex-friends finally died out. In their place, the flicker of Starlight's and Sunburst's marks appeared over the map, directly over her castle, causing Twilight to scowl. This game had gone on for long enough. Blind anger boiled in her veins, and she slammed her hooves on the table. "What the heck can either of them do to fix this?! They don't know what happened! Just—!" It wouldn't be enough. Celestia's mark appeared alongside them. Luna's mark popped into existence near it, and as Twilight was processing this, Cadence's and Shining Armor's marks appeared alongside Spike's spines, all of which were hovering right over her castle. "NO! No matter what you do, you're just going to be pulling ponies away to be dealing with stupid, neurotic, spoiled, needy, annoying Twilight! I don't want anypony else to hate me!" She shouted, her voice becoming hoarse as her vision blurred. "Even if they did come, could they really even do anything? Would they even want to fix a fake princess's problems?! Just leave them alone!" She couldn't clearly see the marks hovering over the map anymore, but when the light brightened over the table again, it was enough for her. Her voice sent shockwaves through the air as the voice of a royal alicorn swept the map clean. "You can't force broken pieces together, map!" The marks vanished, and none appeared in their place. She stood there, panting, waiting for the crazy piece of magical furniture to act up again. "Map? Harmony?" Twilight shuddered and sighed. "I appreciate the attempts to help, but nothing is going to fix this. It's over. Now... Stop calling ponies, or they'll show up and demand that I fix you and make you stop calling them." There was a beat as Twilight waited for something to happen. It was when she felt the tingle of magic in the air, and the landmarks of the cutie map glitched that a heavy blanket of dread fell over her. She shouldn't have said that. The table lit back up, with all of the marks of the Elements of Harmony, Spike, the other royal alicorn princesses, her parents, her brother, Starlight, Sunburst, and her friends from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns floating above it. All of the cutie marks hovered over Twilight's castle in a massive arrow formation, pointing right to her and rotating like the sign of some crazed carnival attraction. Twilight screamed and threw the map across the room with her magic, knocking out a wall and ending the light show. "I don't—" Her heart raced, she gasped for breath "— half of those ponies don't even know what their cutie mark glowing means! And I don't want them coming to fix this! Most of them don't know it's a problem, and they have their own lives to get to! So just—" The map lit up brightly. Cutie marks of half the town of Ponyville appeared on the surface, and through the new room's window— which was conveniently facing Ponyville— she could see the horizon beginning to glow, and her heart stopped for the hundredth time that day. As a last resort, Twilight grabbed the table in her aura and lifted it high. "STOP IT!" She slammed the table back down on the floor, face-down so that the images could no longer taunt her. The glow vanished. "Just... Stop." Spent, Twilight sank to her haunches. This didn't make any sense. Everything had crashed down around her; A magical anomaly in her home causing the cutie map to act up on top of everything else that had hit her today? Her nerves were stripped bare. She was useless, everything felt so wrong, and she had no idea what to do next; She was completely, hopelessly lost. Her friendships lay in ruin, and she didn't know if they'd ever be repaired. She didn't even know if anything would ever be, or feel, right again. She wished beyond the stars that she could go back and confront them back at the castle, or even back in town square. But as her imagination ran off with what she could say, what she could do, everything would just go so horribly, horribly wrong. She remained there, quietly choking back sobs until the crack of magic brought a box of scrolls to the floor in front of her and a scroll with a familiar ribbon appeared at her hooves. With a shaking magical field, Twilight opened the single ribbon-bound scroll to find a letter from Princess Celestia. My faithful ex-student, Princess Twilight Sparkle, I am so sorry. While they are valuable lessons to learn, I wish you never had to learn about the darker parts of friendship, the traits that will threaten to break friendships apart. Distrust, Gossip, Secrecy, Pride, Greed, and Bitterness, all of which have been demonstrated through these recent events. I told the girls to avoid talking to you until they can find a way to apologize properly. Now, it seems, they've only hurt you more. I'm not sure how those three got back to Ponyville without one of my chariots, as the trains are down and I only sent Pinkie and Spike back to speak with you. The last word I'd gotten back from them was that you weren't at your castle, and that they were going to take Starlight to go talk to the others. Regardless, Pinkie Pie wants you to know that you still have a friend in her, even if she can no longer accompany you upon your adventures. As for your request, I went ahead and sent copies of your friendship reports along with the scroll. I am sorry I put you all through so much duress. It was never my intention to harm you, your friends, or your friendships by sending you on with such heavy burdens. Just remember that this can be solved, and if you're ever feeling alone, seek out a friend. One of us will be happy to help you, like friends are supposed to do. Please, Twilight, never lose hope. Signed, Princess Celestia PS: I'm going to assume that my mark glowing twice within five minutes means that something good happened. Twilight stared at the letter, rereading it over and over again in an effort to save her sanity. Then, finally, she hugged it tightly to her chest like a lifeline. She almost smiled at the less formal attitude from the last sentence. How could she ever have thought that Celestia was too far above ponykind to make jokes? How could she ever think that her one and only mentor would hate her for needing help? She was still far from calm, but once she had regained her bearings well enough, she stood and turned away from the overturned map, walking the box of friendship reports and the letter from Celestia back to her study. Picking up a quill in her magical field, she paused to think before she began a new letter. Dear Princess Celestia, Thank you. The cutie mark glow was the cutie map attempting to call you while I was distressed. All things considered, things still aren't fine, but if you get reports of random ponies having the same issue, rest assured it isn't anything that will put ponies in danger. The map only sends ponies out to solve friendship problems. It used to only call myself and the girls, but it has been branching out lately. Those ponies don't need to worry or respond to the call. With that settled, I know Pinkie defended me last night. I don't know about Fluttershy's decision, since apparently she's still in Canterlot, but I would assume hers is the same based on the conversation I overheard: Still friends, but with distance. To be honest, I don't think it was only the adventures that broke everypony. There were other issues that weren't fully uncovered until recently. Rarity's use for me in her boutiques, the fame that came to us, how "my" adventures were tearing them away from their work and how they were distanced from other aspects of their lives... How I made some of them feel, though unintentionally, that they never spoke to me about. The list goes on. I might say that I enjoyed adventuring. It's all I've really done as a princess of Equestria, and it's what I've been pointed at even before I'd become a princess. I've been doing it since I was sent to Ponyville as a unicorn. If it weren't for them, I might not have ascended at all. Please don't blame yourself. I think I might need to leave Ponyville for a little bit. I want to travel around on my own time, or adventure at my own pace for a while. Even if they're not eventful, I'm hoping to see some new things and clear my head. Maybe I'll make some new friends while I'm gone. You never know. If anything new comes up, though, will you let me know? Your faithful ex-student, Princess Twilight Sparkle. With a spark of magic, she sent it. Now, reminded of her original task with a glance at her copied reports in her magical field, Twilight set the box down as notes and pulled the original copy of the Friendship Journal from one of her shelves. A special, blank book accompanied it, and a duplication spell allowed her a copy to write in while the original was set back on the shelf. Setting the blank duplicate upon the desk in front of her, Twilight shifted her thoughts to her revised Journal until another crack of magic brought a response from Celestia. My faithful ex-student, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Thank you, Twilight. Sending you on adventures was never my original intention, but when something comes up, I will notify you. You're right. More friends are waiting for you somewhere out there. I would ask that you come to Canterlot sometime this evening, say around eight-o-clock? Perhaps you can join me for tea later this evening and we can discuss this face to face. Stay strong, Princess Celestia It wasn't much, but the letter brought a slight increase in her mood before she turned back to her work-in-progress, her quill hovering over the fresh pages as she read over her original reports. Real friends don't care what your cover is. Friendship is a wondrous and powerful thing... And like a path cut through the orchard, there will always be a way through... The best thing to do is to stay true to yourself... A pony may share a special magical connection with her friends, maybe even before she's met them... By Celestia, these brought back memories... She compared the old Friendship Journal to the content she had begun to draft in the new one. She included all of her old entries and reports as they were originally at the end of the journal as a special feature, but for the book's true contents, she would have to rewrite them to include any revised lessons. At a certain point, she didn't quite know what to edit that didn't just add a "what can go wrong:" section on the opposite page, and that wouldn't be very positive for the readers. If anything, it could just make them accuse each other of something and leave it at that. Some reports were too precious for her to rewrite or edit at all. One hoof tapped against her desk, gaining speed until she simply laid her head on her desk in frustration. She said she was going to write a new Friendship Journal, and even though she wanted to go on her proposed trip to clear her head even more, writing the book was still taking up her number one slot on her priority list. But... why do I have to wait? Twilight tapped her desk again before she looked at the old friendship journal, the gears in her mind turning. She rose from her seat to pace. There are so many places out there that could use a friendship journal. So many creatures that don't truly know the magic of friendship, so many mistakes that could be avoided... So many new friends. They need a school to learn about... Her hoofbeats paused for a moment, resuming as she shook her head. No, no, that would keep me rooted here. It's the last place I want to be right now. Think, Twilight... She thought of the cutie map and its arrival with her castle. She thought of how she'd earned her wings, her title as the Princess of Friendship, and thought that maybe she was thinking about this all wrong. ... What if my role as a princess is to venture out to help with friendship problems? She stopped completely in her tracks. The school wouldn't work, because staying in one place to teach a concept that creatures learn throughout their lives wouldn't work. It didn't work for me; Celestia had to send me out of Canterlot to learn about friendship... Publishing a journal is great, but rehashing old lessons will just stick me with my old experiences. And those are just the experiences of a handful of ponies. Nothing new would be learned, and if this book is to reach every one... No, the lessons are out there, waiting for me. If I were to leave now, I could cover more ground with more experiences and variations than what I have here. It could be a real friendship journal, and best of all... I could just go. I could leave now, I wouldn't have to stick around Ponyville, or have to deal with the map malfunctioning or my ex-friends barging in to scream at me, or for whatever other reason, because I'd be solving the friendship problems before they even come. I'd be learning and writing more in the process! It seemed preposterous. Desperate. Crazy, even, but what about her life wasn't already crazy? Was this how she fulfilled her destiny? What did she have to lose? "Maybe I didn't just not mind the adventures. Maybe traveling and reaching out is what I'm supposed to be doing. That's why the castle had seemed so cold and blank when the Tree of Harmony grew it for me, but it's homey enough that when I get tired or homesick, I can come back here for a breather and a rest." "This... This is what I'm supposed to do. It's got to be! I've found my role as a princess! My real role! It's got to be!" Her cutie mark was tingling. In a daze, Twilight zipped back to the desk, picked up her quill and a new scroll, and began to write once more. Dear Princess Celestia...