After Twilight Sparkle had left, Twilight Velvet fell on her rump and started crying. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have left her playing in the backyard alone for so long.” She sobbed.
“There, there.” Applejack put a fore leg around her shoulder and cradled her against her side.
“This Twinkle Star, what does she look like?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Well, she is a small filly, almost 5 years old. She has a light lavender colored coat with a dark purple mane that has a magenta streak down the middle.” Twilight Velvet calmed down long enough to give the girls the missing filly’s description.
After the description, Applejack took command of the group, “Ok, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, you girls go north, Pinkie Pie, you and Ah’ll go south. Fluttershy, you stay here with Twilight Velvet incase either Twilight or Twinkle Star returns home.”
Just as the girls were going to leave, Twilight Velvet spoke up, “Oh, and if you find Twinkle Star, tell her the phrase ‘The sun only shines on the brightest flower’. Twilight taught her not to talk to strangers unless they know that phrase.”
After getting their assignments, the group split up to search the city. As they left, Fluttershy put a wing over Twilight Velvet’s shoulders.
“Hush now, come on and let’s go back inside the house. They will find both Twilight Sparkle and Twinkle Star.” Fluttershy cooed to Twilight Velvet as she led her back into the house.
Retracing the route they had taken earlier, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were moving at a good pace until they reached Rodeo Drive. Then Rarity promptly stopped at the first dress shop window she came to. Rainbow Dash, quickly noticing that the white unicorn had stopped, turned around and approached Rarity.
“Rarity, come on!”
“But the all the fashion ideas,” Rarity said softly.
Rainbow Dash grabbed Rarity by the shoulders and turned her so they were face to face. “Look, Rarity, I understand that this is the street that you have always dreamed about, but right now not only is our friend frantically searching the city blindly, but a little filly is lost somewhere in this urban jungle. Now, the longer we delay, the worse the situation gets. Now let’s go!” Rainbow nearly shouted the last sentence.
Shocked, Rarity took a second before she reacted.”Yes of course, you’re right. Let’s be off.” With that they continued the search.
After galloping for a few minutes, they came upon Donut Joe’s shop. They entered and ran immediately up to the counter where the tan colored Stallion was standing. “Back so soon ladies?” he asked.
“Sorry Joe, but no time for pleasantries,” Rarity replied.
“Yea, we’re looking for a missing filly, goes by the name Twinkle Star, th—” Rainbow Dash started, but Donut Joe quickly cut her off.
“Twinkle Star’s missing! I’m guessing Twilight Sparkle’s not taking it to well.”
“As soon as we found out, she ran off into the city to look for her,” Rarity informed the pastry stallion of what had transpired.
“Well, let’s see, if I was going to look for her, I would check Sunflare Park, and Moonbeam playground, those are her favorite spots to play. If you can’t find her there, you might want to try Filthy Rich’s manor here in Canterlot. Twinkle Star is friends with their youngest daughter, Ruby Scepter.”
“Wait a minute, Filthy has a place here in Canterlot?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes, how else do you think he keeps up with trends here in the big city? He and his oldest daughter Diamond Tiara live mostly in Ponyville to oversee the store, while his youngest daughter and wife, Crown Gem, live mostly here in Canterlot.”
Rainbow Dash turned to Rarity, “Wow, learn something new every day.”
Rarity nodded in agreement, then turned back to Joe, “So where do they live?” She asked.
“1212 Sunburst Avenue, just right down the street from Twilight’s house.”
“Thank you, Joe, and sorry to rush out like this,” Rarity apologized.
“No problem, just find Twinkle Star. If Twilight shows up here, I’ll tell her where you girls are going to look,” he hollered at them as they exited through the doorway.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Canterlot, Applejack and Pinkie Pie wandered down several streets. Any park they came across, they look through it trying to see if either Twilight of the missing filly were there. Suddenly, something slammed into them from a street that crossed the one they were on. As they were recovering from the shock of the hit, suddenly whatever had ran into them started to flail about. Applejack brushed the purple and pink hair out of her face so she could see what it was that she was dealing with.
“Wait a minute, purple and pink hair?” Applejack said to herself as she started to get a hold on the flailing hooves that had been pummeling her for the last few seconds.
The tighter she held on to whatever this was the more frantic the struggling became until finally,”Let me go, I have to find her!” A familiar panicked voice reached the apple pony’s ears.
“Twilight?” Applejack asked herself, making sure that the ball of fury and flailing hooves was in fact her unicorn friend.
“Let me go, you don’t understand, she’s lost, I have to find her!” Twilight’s panicked filled shout filled the street.
“Twilight, you have to calm down.” As she said that, Applejack had to readjust her grip on the struggling unicorn. “Pinkie Pie, help me hold her down,” Applejack shouted to the pink pony whom had just gotten up from the initial collision.
With a quick salute, Pinkie Pie jumped onto Twilights flank and used all her weight to pin her back half to the street as Applejack did the same to her shoulders.
For the first time since being told that Twinkle Star was missing, Applejack got a good look into the purple unicorn’s eyes. In them she saw not her friend, but a deep seeded and overbearing panic that Applejack had no doubts went straight down into Twilight’s core. Immediately, she knew this went beyond just a pony being concerned about a lost neighbor, but more like fear over a lost family member, or maybe the fear of a moth… no, Twilight was too young for that, wasn’t she?
“Easy, Twilight, everything is going to be alright.” Applejack started to coo trying to get through the panic and ease her friend’s fear.
“No, you don’t understand! I have to find her! I need to find her! I…AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”Twilight let out a scream that Applejack had only heard once before, from Granny Smith the night that they had found out that her parents were gone.
After the scream tore its way out of Twilight’s throat, the mare went limp under her friend’s weight and started crying. Applejack looked back at Pinkie, who had on the most wide eyed shocked expression the orange mare had ever seen.
Sensing that they no longer needed to hold the distraught pony down, Applejack got up off of Twilight. Feeling Pinkie do the same, Applejack reached down and gathered up Twilight in her forelegs and sat back on her rump, cradling Twilight’s head to her chest as the seemingly broken unicorn sobbed uncontrollably.
“Shhh, everything is going to be OK.” Applejack started rocking back and forth like she would for Apple Bloom is she had woken up crying from a nightmare.
“No, I-I failed!” Twilight managed to get out around her crying.
“Listen to me Twilight, you haven’t failed at anything.” Applejack tried to soothe the distraught mare.
“Yes I have, I fail at everything!” Twilight said as the sobs started to quite down.
“Now that’s not true,” Applejack said softly
“Yes it is!” Twilight quickly replied. Looking up at Applejack’s eye, she continued, “I failed at being a child by locking myself in my room and doing nothing but studying. I failed at magic because it was Rainbow’s Rainboom that caused me to hatch Spike and then I failed again by losing control of my magic. I failed my parents by not being the perfect student that always put her studies ahead of everything else. I failed Princess Celestia by almost destroying Ponyville because I didn’t have a friendship report to file. I’ve failed at being your friend by keeping a secret from you girls, and now I’ve failed Twinkle Star.” After her rant, Twilight buried her head once again into Applejack’s chest as continued crying.
Applejack let her cry for a moment just to let it all out. When she noticed Twilight’s crying lessening a bit, she moved Twilight’s head so she was once again looking her in the eye.
“Twilight, the only way to fail is to stop doing something and give up. You haven’t failed at nothing. When you were young, you had a dream of getting into that fancy school of yours, which you did. And after you lost control of your magic, instead of shying away from it, you got back up in the saddle and worked on mastering it and becoming the most talented magic user in all of Equestia. As far as you failing as a student, it seems to me that from what Ah hear from the princess herself that you have more that met her expectations. As far as failing as being a friend, just because you have secrets, don’t make you a bad friend. Shoot, Ah have my own secrets, too. Like the one where I used to wet the bed until Ah was eight.”
“Yeah, and I used to have nightmares about when my family… wait, you used to wet the bed until you were eight?” Pinkie Pie started to giggle.
“Yeah, let’s just keep it under wraps, OK.” Applejack looked at Pinkie Pie with pleading eyes.
“I Pinkie promise not to tell anyone else about your secret, under penalty of losing you as a friend,” Pinkie got up on her back hooves and held her forelegs over her head, “forever!” She said in her own dramatic way.
A chuckle rose out of Twilight as she lifted her head. “Yeah, me too, forever.”
“Welcome back to the land of the sane,” Applejack said as she got up and helped Twilight up as well. After she was standing though, Twilight’s legs almost gave out from under her, an indication of how much the whole situation had taken out of her.
Applejack quickly rushed to helper stand, as Pinkie Pie did the same on the other side of Twilight. “Whoa, Nellie, we should get you home.”
“But Twinkle Star!” Panic started to fill Twilight once again.
“Look, you’re not going to be any help to her like this. Besides, Rainbow Dash and Rarity are out looking for her too. The best thing you can do is to go home and rest up so you can scold her like she deserves when she comes home.”
At the mention of the other two friend’s efforts, Twilight seamed to relax a bit. “You’re right. Let’s go home.”
With a weary Twilight between them, Applejack and Pinkie Pie started walking back towards Twilight’s home.
Rainbow Dash was about ready to call the whole search off. They had stopped at both the toyshop and the book shop, but neither Polly nor Hard Bound had seen either Twilight or the filly that they were also looking for.
“Look, knowing our luck, the others not only found Twilight, but also this Twinkle Star. Besides, what kind of name is Twinkle Star any way?”
“What kind of name is Rainbow Dash?”Rarity asked the Rainbow manned pegasus.
“Only the awesome, super cool name my parents gave to me because they knew I was going to be an awesome, super cool pony.”
“Precisely, the name your parents gave you. Just like Twinkle Star is the name her parents gave to her. It is not our place to judge either Twinkle Star, or her parents for the name they gave her. Just like your name, there is probably some deeper meaning behind it.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement, then her head shot up, “Wait a minute, how do you know there is a deep meaning behind my name?” She asked.
“Just ask any parent about their child’s name, and they are bound to tell you the reasons they came up with the name.”
“Yeah, whatever, I still say we just give up and go back to Twilight’s place,” Rainbow huffed
“We have one more place that Donut Joe said she might be. If she’s not there, than we will return to Twilight’s home and see if there are any other places Twilight Velvet can think of that we haven’t looked yet,” Rarity said as they approached a house just a few blocks down the street from Twilight’s home.
Rarity rang the doorbell while Rainbow Dash started tapping her hoof next to her.
“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” Rarity said just before the door opened up to revile a tall dark pink unicorn mare with dark purple mane.
“Can I help you?” She asked
“Yes, hello, my name is Rarity,” the white unicorn stated.
“And I’m Rainbow Dash. What’s up?” Rainbow added.
“You’re from Ponyville right?” The mare asked.
“Why yes we are.”
“I remember you from your boutique. I came in just the other day to get a dress made.”
“Wait a minute, off the shoulder, long silk train, cut longer to make you look shorter, although I didn’t think your stature hurt you any.” Rarity recalled
“Yes, that’s the one,” the mare squealed in delight at being remembered by the fashion pony. “How is it coming?”
“It’s nearly finished, darling. I just need you to come in one more time to do a final fitting and then it should be done.”
“Excellent, how about this Thursday?”
“That would be perfect, I’ll pencil you in then. Say around two o’clock then?”
“That would be fine.”
“Yeah, yeah, this is all fine and perfect, but what about the filly?” Rainbow Dash interrupted the business exchange to get her partner back on task.
“And who is this impetuous pegasus with the fabulous but messy mane?”
“Forgive me, where are my manors. Crown Gem, this is Rainbow Dash, head of the weather team for Ponyville, and my friend. Dash, this is Crown Gem, Filthy Rich’s wife.
“A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Dash.”
“Yeah, yeah, like wise.” Rainbow Dash said half heartedly.
“Now what is this about a filly?” Crown Gem Asked.
“We are searching for a young filly that has disappeared from the home of our friend Twilight Sparkle.”
“Do you mean Twinkle Star?” Crown Gem asked.
“Yes, that is the filly’s name. You by chance haven’t seen her, have you?”
“Just a moment.” Crown Gem said as she stepped back into the house and turned around. “Ruby Scepter, Twinkle Star, come here this instant.”After she hollered, the sound of multiple little hooves sounded heading for the door. A second later, two little fillies appeared behind the tall unicorn. One matched the description that Twilight Velvet gave of the missing filly.
“Yes, mom?” the other, a dark-silver filly with a ruby-red mane, asked.
“Are you two sure Twinkle Star had permission to come over and play?” She asked the two young fillies. Together, they both lowered their heads, “No.” the two softly chorused.
Crown Gem sighed, “I knew I should have called right away.”
“Does this mean I have to go home now?” The light-lavender filly asked.
“Yes, dear, it does. You know your mom is probably worried sick about you disappearing.”
The filly walked to the door and stopped, looking up at Rarity and Rainbow Dash.
“I can’t go with you, you’re both strangers.” Hope lighting up in the little filly’s eyes
“Ahh! The sun only shines on the brightest flower!” an exasperated Rainbow Dash said the secret phrase, dashing Twinkle Star’s hopes of staying with her friend, and avoiding punishment for sneaking off to play with her friend without permission.
Seeing the sadness and fear in the little filly’s eyes, Rarity nuzzled the little filly as she walked by. “I know it seems bad, but everything will turn out alright.” Twinkle Star turned back just in time to see Crown Gem shutting the door, a promise of a stern talking to being the last thing that was heard from behind the door.
“No, it won’t. I just got not only myself in trouble, but also my best friend too.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, then looked down at the young unicorn. “Look, yes, you will probably get grounded at some point in the near future, but your mom only does it because she cares about you.”
Then, Twinkle Star looked up at Rainbow Dash with the big eyes that only a foal can. “Then will you help me not get grounded until after my birthday, please,” the filly pleaded.
“Gee, kid, I don’t know if we can help,” Rainbow said with a light chuckle. Twinkle Star continued looking at the Pegasus with her pleading eyes. Rainbow Dash cracked under the pressure, “Alright, we will.”
“Now, just a minute,” Rarity started and Twinkle Star turned her eyes to the white mare. “You can cut that out right now. I have built up an immunity to the pleading eyes long ago thanks to my sister.” Twinkle Star dropped her head again to pout at the ground.
“Now just because you will be disciplined for sneaking over to your friend’s house, I think your mother will begin the grounding after your birthday.” With Rarity’s sentence, Twinkle Star brightened up a little.
After a short walk, the three ponies walked up to the door of the little filly’s home “We’re back,” Rarity called. Twilight Velvet opened the door, and seeing Twinkle Star, immediately scooped her up in a large hug.
“Oh, Twinkle Star, you had me so worried.”
“I’m sorry, Grandma, I just went to play at Ruby’s house.”
“Grandma?” Both Rarity and Rainbow Dash said at the same time as they looked at each other.
After a moment, Twilight Velvet set Twinkle Star down and looked at the other two ponies. “Yes Grandma. Twinkle Star is-“
“Twinkle Star!” A shout was heard from the street. Every one turned to see Applejack and Pinkie Pie still helping Twilight Sparkle walk. Seeing the filly however, Twilight started to gallop towards the group with a renewed vigor.
“Mommy!” Twinkle Star shouted as she ran and jumped into Twilight Sparkle’s forelegs. Twilight hugged the filly and started twirling around on her back legs.