Twilight sipped her shake slowly as she sat a circular table with Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, Lyra, and Bon Bon in the back room of Sweetie Drops Candies. Minuette had pulled her all the way to the earth pony’s shop, where they found that Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine were already waiting for their cobalt friend. Once Twilight’s presence and situation were explained to everyone in the shop, Bon Bon immediately locked the place up, despite having just opened for the day, and ushered everypony into the back room, telling them to take a seat while she got some refreshments for a brainstorming session, coming back with shakes and a small tray of sweets.
That had been a couple of minutes ago, and in that time, the discussions and suggestions had died down considerably. They’d burned through all the ideas that easily came to mind, and none of them would result in the bill being paid off in a space of time that the already impatient town council would be happy with. That really only left unconventional means of earning bits, none of which anypony was particularly fond of thinking about.
After a few minutes of snacking and drinking in silence, Lyra finally spoke up, “I don’t think there’s really any other solution. The only way to pay off the damage is to earn the bits for it the old-fashioned way.”
Twilight sighed and said, “That’s pretty much the conclusion I was probably going to come to before I bumped into Minuette. I’m going to have to get a new job.”
Lyra looked at her sympathetically, “Well, probably several new jobs actually, Twilight. I mean, I think you’re right about needing to throw in more than just what’s on the bill to keep the town council happy.”
Bon Bon uttered, “If ‘happy’ is even a possibility at this point.”
Twilight slid what was left of her shake away and stood up. “Well, thanks for keeping my thoughts grounded, girls. I guess I should get out there and start looking.”
Before she could leave, Minuette spoke up, “Whoa, hold on, Twilight! I know it would be better to get the bits sooner rather than later, but why take care of it by yourself?”
Twilight sat back down as she replied, “Well, it was… my home, essentially. I should be responsible for anything that happens to it, and in this case, it was destroyed. Shouldn’t I be the one to pay the town back for what happened to their property?”
Lyra said, “I get that, but there’s no need to do it all by yourself. I’m sure everypony in town would be willing to help you pay off the bill. You how everypony around here is.”
Twilight glanced around as she spoke, “Yeah, but… wouldn’t that be like asking everypony to give the same or similar number of bits to the Town Hall, even those who might not have that many bits? I feel like the Town Council could’ve raised taxes this last month and gotten the same result, just over a longer period of time that might be less harrowing for some ponies.”
Lyra conceded, “Eh, that’s a good point.”
Minuette spoke, “Still, there are plenty of ponies that would help you if you asked. What about your friends here in Ponyville?”
Twilight replied, “It’s not their fault the library got destroyed, and, well, if they weren’t told about this before, then there’s no reason to hold it against them for not telling me before we left Canterlot. It’s just… they’re usually busy during the day too. Baking, weather patrol, taking care of an orchard, animals, running a boutique, family… They need bits for themselves as well. I can’t expect them to share their bits with me when they have all that to worry about every day.”
Lemon Hearts asked, “Well, what if you had help from ponies who didn’t have those things to worry about?” When Twilight looked at her in confusion, she smiled, “I’m talking about us, of course. We really don’t have to worry about things like that right now.”
Twinkleshine nodded, “Yeah, most of us are just visiting, remember? That stuff’s back in Canterlot for us, and we leave it behind a lot. We could help you get the bits you need and it’d be an excuse for us to stay longer and spend more time together. Wouldn’t that be great?”
Twilight replied, “Uh, yeah, it would be. It would also be asking a lot considering how I’ve treated you all in the past…”
Her old friends stared at her for a moment before they let out a laugh. “Oh Twilight, it’s not like we weren’t used to be putting off by the time you left Canterlot,” Lemon Hearts said afterwards.
“Still terrible,” Twilight muttered as she fiddled with her straw.
Minuette said, “It’s all in the past, anyway. We should be looking towards the future, like getting that debt paid off so it’s not hanging over your head!”
Twinkleshine nodded, “Yeah. So, let’s get out there out there and see who’s willing to help solve our money woes in exchange for some help. There are plenty of stores and marketplace vendors that are usually looking for help during the day.”
Bon Bon looked over at Lyra and spoke, “Why don’t you go with them too, Lyra? I have to finish setting up a few things and reopen the shop. Besides, it’d be nice to spend some more time with your old classmates, right?”
Lyra replied, “It would be, yeah.” She nodded, stood up, and said, “Yeah! Let’s go for a walk around Ponyville and see what we can find, girls!” The other girls rose from their seats and followed the light green unicorn out of the backroom.
Bon Bon followed them out and stopped Twilight before she left, saying, “If you ever need anything, including some extra work, you can always come back here as well, Twilight.”
Twilight replied, “Thanks, Bon Bon. That’s really nice of you.”
The earth pony cheerily replied, “Hey, you know it’s what we do around here.” As Twilight turned to go, she suddenly moved forward and draped her right foreleg on her back and around her neck, pulling her back a bit and speaking in a lower tone, “Especially in a case like this. We may come from groups with different circumstances, but I get the feeling yours is gone too. We really should look out for each other.”
Twilight blinked in surprise at this, but before she could question Bon Bon, the mare released her and pushed her outside. The door swiftly closed as Twilight turned her head to look back at it, catching a glimpse of what appeared to be dark sunglasses for a moment before it closed completely. She stared for a moment before her friends called to her, causing her to turn away and hurry to catch up with them, the unasked question being pushed out of her mind. It was a lovely day in Ponyville, perfect for old friends to spend time reconnecting with each other as they worked on their dilemma, and everypony was out and about.
Everypony except the princesses, that is. By this time, they’d realized that Twilight was nowhere to be found in her castle and were wondering where she’d gone. They wanted to go find her, but they knew they couldn’t just leave and go wandering around Ponyville when they didn’t know where she was. None of her friends had stopped by yet, no doubt due to needing to get caught up with everything that had happened while they were in Canterlot, and Spike had decided to sleep in, so that just left Shining Armor to figure out where she’d gone. He’d just left a little while ago at their request and they were waiting as patiently as they could for him to report back.
The day had stretched into the afternoon by the time Shining returned, the stallion holding a drink, a drink tray, and a takeout bag in his magic as he sipped the former through a straw. The princesses quickly took notice of this and Cadance asked as he approached, “Shining, did you go get lunch?”
Shining stopped in front of her and took the straw out of his mouth before saying, “I got lunch for all of us, including Spike. I figured it was easier this way, and it turns out they’ve got a great Hayburger here.”
Celestia asked, pressing slightly, “What about Twilight?”
Shining replied, “I saw her. She was having lunch with some old friends. Or some new friends, I’m not sure. At any rate, it looked like they were having a good time, so I figured it would be rude to just walk over and barge in.”
Cadance said, “Hm. Well, I’m glad to hear she’s spending time with her friends.” She then took the takeout bag and drink holder in her own magic, looking at both for a moment. “And thank you for picking up lunch, Shiny,” she smiled.
As she trotted off towards the dining room, Shining noticed the look Princess Celestia was giving him. “I’m sure Twilight will be back soon. I know she doesn’t like to keep you waiting; she’ll probably come back when she’s done having lunch with her friends. We should eat too, while it’s still warm,” he said.
Luna spoke, “I agree with Captain Armor’s idea, sister. We have not had breakfast today, so I am feeling particularly hungry right now. Let us eat.” She gave her sister an impish look as she added, “You would not want me to become ‘hangry’, as I have heard some ponies say, now would you?” Celestia gave her an unamused look but relented anyway. She turned and headed towards the dining room, wondering what kind of food Shining Armor had picked up for them.
Unfortunately, Shining Armor was wrong. Twilight would not return to the castle until late in the evening. Spike and Shining were sitting on one of the benches near the entrance talking and trying to wait up for her when she came trudging through the front doors. They both looked up and saw her dragging her hooves as she walked down the rug, her head lowered like she was having trouble keeping it up, but not enough that they couldn’t see the tired expression on her muzzle.
They both stood up and made their way over to her, the mare suddenly stopping when they were a few paces in front of her. “Twily! What happened? Where have you been all day?” Shining asked.
“Around Ponyville, catching up with friends,” she mumbled, rocking back and forth on her hooves.
Spike took a good look at her face before remarking, “You don’t look so good right now.”
Twilight uttered, “Thanks. Didn’t notice.”
Shining said, “I figured even with friends, you would’ve been home hours ago.”
Twilight hesitated before saying, “Well… it was kind of important, catching up with old Canterlot friends and all.”
Spike replied, “Oh, you were? Cool!”
Shining looked her over again before asking, “Are you sure you’re okay, Twilight?”
Twilight raised her right hoof and wearily swung it downwards as she said, “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I just ended up moving around a lot more than I expected to and I wasn’t prepared for it. I should really get some sleep.”
Shining replied, “Yeah, I would have to agree with you on that.” He placed his left foreleg around the back of her neck and ushered her deeper into the castle, “Well, scoot on up to bed, sis. We can talk more in the morning.” Twilight gave a noncommittal grunt as she went along with her brother, the temptation of sleep sounding like the best thing at the moment. Shining took his foreleg off of her before she left the main hallway, but Twilight kept walking along with Spike. She didn’t bother to look back and thus didn’t see her BBBFF gesturing to Celestia and Luna when they came out of one of the side rooms wondering what was going on.
Twilight shut the door to her room and leaned against it for a moment, letting out a sigh before she made her way over to her bed. “It’s so big. Why is it so big?” she wondered absently as she sat on the edge of the bed and unzipped her Sneaking Suit and pulled off her gloves. Her mind continued to jump from one thought to another as she pulled off the rest of the suit and dropped it on the floor. She thought about Mother Base, about what she had seen and gone through in Snake’s world, about the bill, about the ponies they talked to during the day, about…
The stress of everything that had built up, combined with her lack of sleep, became too much to keep buried inside and she flipped herself over, using her magic to pull her saddlebags off the nightstand over to her as she crawled over to her pillow. She hugged her saddlebags close to her as she began to cry into the pillow, keeping it pressed against her face to keep the sound muffled. As she cried herself to sleep, a figure appeared in the darkening room, levitating over the foot of her bed as it looked down at her…