It was a perfectly quiet and peaceful day in Ponyville. The weather was also playing along quite well. All those conditions were perfect to spent the day with your closest friends. And that is exactly what seven ponies decided to do.
Summershine, Brilliance, Nightsky, Lightbeam, Happytrade, Crash, and Star Twinkle were spending their time on a wide meadow and enjoyed the picnic that they were having. They all talked for a while and simply enjoyed the company of each other, laughing and joking around or telling stories.
After another conversation was over, Lightbeam couldn't help but express her happiness at this very moment. "This is so much fun! How long has it been since we all had a picnic like this?" She asked into the round while she was stretching her legs in the process.
"Actually..." Brilliance started. "We had a picnic just a few days before Star Twinkle came back," she pointed out.
Lightbeam quickly protested. "Yeah but that was without Star Twinkle! I meant all of us!" She pointed out.
Star Twinkle smiled after hearing that. "I really enjoy spending time with you all too," he said, causing Lightbeam to get even happier after hearing that.
Crash shrugged his shoulders. "Of course, we all have the biggest fun together! We are all the best of friends after all!" He added.
"Yes!" Happytrade agreed, "Thank Celestia that we all met each other,"
Star Twinkle nodded with a smile on his face. "Yeah," he just said, being relieved that exactly this was the case as well.
The group was continuing their picnic, however, somepony approached them slowly, confused, and lost from the look on that pony's face. Seeing how almost everypony noticed him, the pony decided to just ask away what exactly he wanted. "Sorry, but can anyone of you point me to the direction of a place called the Golden Oak Library?"
As soon as Star Twinkle heard the voice of this pony, he immediately recognized it, he turned towards the pony and quickly saw someone very familiar. "Ashgray?"
It was indeed the gray-coated Unicorn that he met before the Running of the Leaves Race. "Oh hey, um...Star Twinkle, right?" Ashgray replied as soon as he recognized the Earth Pony.
Nightsky looked back and forth between the two. "You know each other?" He asked while looking at Star Twinkle now, who was nodding in response.
"I've met him on the day when I arrived here again. He's an Archaeologist who came here to take a look at a castle in the Everfree Forest," he explained.
Everypony quickly widened their eyes in shock. "The Everfree Forest!?" They all said in unison.
Ashgray surely got surprised by this reaction "Why do I always get a response like this?" He asked confused.
Of course, everypony gave the stallion the same advice that Star Twinkle already gave them on their first meeting, like how dangerous it was and how monsters were inside there. Everypony except Star Twinkle actually experienced those dangers first-hoof so they knew what they were talking about.
Summershine especially was surprised to hear that Ashgray was looking for a castle. He quickly figured that he must have meant the Castle of the Two Sisters. When he mentioned to Ashgray that he and his friends already were in there, the stallion's eyes widened in shock and surprise.
"So the castle does exist! Amazing! I knew it!" Ashgray said in excitement. "But why were you in the castle!?" He then asked.
Crash gave a quick answer. "Princess Celestia told us to go there!" He said before he turned his head towards Summershine. "She was sending Summer in there to find the Elements of Harmony so that we could use them against an evil mare that lives on the moon!"
Summershine didn't really like how Crash was just spewing out all those things. It was a pretty important task and he felt as if it was something that Princess Celestia probably didn't want to share with just everyone. However, his concerns vanished as soon as he saw Ashgray's reaction.
The Unicorn had widened eyes and an open mouth as soon as he heard Crash telling him this story. "The Elements of Harmony!? You mean those ancient relics that Princess Celestia used to trap Nightmare Moon into the moon!?" The group was surprised by how Ashgray knew about this but then they all remembered that he was an Archaeologist and that he was probably well known when it came to the history of Equestria. It was actually confirmed by him when he told everypony that he read all of that from a book. There was still one more question that the stallion was itching to ask, though. "Did you manage to find them!?"
"You bet!" Lightbeam replied.
"Can I see them!?" Ashgray instantly asked once Lightbeam answered his question, as he jumped right in front of the mare, ignoring her personal space completely.
However, Summershine had to pull the plug right now. "This is a rather important task that Princess Celestia gave us. Can you please respect that we just can't involve you in all of that? Also, can you please keep this all a secret? We actually had to deal with somepony already, who tried to steal the elements," he explained.
Summershine may sound a little mean in this very moment, but that was only because the task to use the elements against Nightmare Moon, was really important to him. He also wanted to not involve anypony with this matter to not risk anypony like Arcana showing up again. He had to play safe so that he wouldn't mess up.
Ashgray looked a little disappointed, which caused Summershine to feel actually a little bad. But to everyponies surprise, Ashgray understood the situation that they were in, and how they didn't want to risk failing Princess Celestia's, the ruler of all of Equestria, task. He didn't want to be the cause for Equestria's downfall or anything like that.
"Anyway," Ashgray started before he changed the subject. "As I said before, I was looking for the Golden Oak Library. I seemed to have gotten lost again..." he said a little embarrassed. "If you could tell me where to find it, I will stop bothering you,"
But Happytrade was not happy how Ashgray was putting his words right now. "Don't be ridiculous. You are not bothering anypony!"
Lightbeam had to agree to that. "Exactly! Why don't you come and join us? We're having a lot of fun!"
Everypony seemed to agree with this idea and didn't mind at all, even if Ashgray looked a little hesitant because it was quite obvious to him that they were all close friends, and he was still a stranger to them.
Nightsky realized that behavior and decided to convince the stallion to join them. "You were looking for the library, right?" He asked, causing Ashgray to nod in response. Nightsky then looked over to Brilliance and explained that she was living there and that she could tell him pretty much everything that he wanted to know since she probably had memorized the content of almost every book in there.
"It's true," Brilliance added, pretty much confirming Nightsky's thoughts.
With all those ponies wanting him to join, Ashgray couldn't possibly deny this invitation and decided to just sit down next to them.
A little later...
The eight ponies all had a lot of fun and Ashgray quickly felt as if he was part of their little friendship circle, something that he wouldn't have expected after just recently arriving in Ponyville. He was appreciating how they were so friendly towards him. He just arrived at Ponyville and naturally, hadn't made many friends yet, something that he openly shared with all of them.
Star Twinkle could relate to that. "I was at that point as well, a few years ago but then I met all of you guys and everything in my life changed,"
"Really?" Ashgray said with some disbelieve in his voice. "How so?"
Crash instantly picked up on Star Twinkle's words. "Oh! You mean that day, right!?"
"Which day?" Ashgray asked confused.
Summershine began to smile. "The day we all met each other for the first time," he said towards Ashgray who still seemed a little bit confused. "You wanna hear it?"
The group liked the idea to tell the story. They looked at each other and soon reflected on the events that took place years ago. Ashgray listened carefully and some ponies started to tell the story. In the meantime, Star Twinkle was in his own thoughts already. He thought back at when he first arrived in Ponyville, way back, and ended up listening while the others did the bulk of the talking.
Some years ago...
A train was just arriving at the Ponyville train station. Onboard was a three-headed family who set their first hooves outside. One of them was a slender Earth Pony stallion with a bright yellow coat, a light green mane, light green colored eyes, and a sun in front of a cloud as Cutie Mark. He took a deep breath as soon as he smelled the air of Ponyville.
"We're here!" He announced excitedly. "I missed this smell for such a long time!" He said taking in another breath.
The next pony that stepped out of the train was an Earth-Pony mare with a light blue coat, a dark blue mane, dark blue eyes, and three raindrops as a Cutie Mark. She was not showing the same overly excitement as her husband but she smiled as soon as she was outside the train, still. As the mare was taking a look around, as if she wanted to check if anything had changed, she noticed how her son was not by her side and still inside the train.
"Starfall! Come out!" She said in a gentle tone as if she wanted to not let her son miss out on something.
After a small pause, a small Earth Pony colt stepped out of the train. His coat was light green colored, his mane in the shape of a star and dark green, and his eyes were light green. There was also no Cutie Mark on his flank. He hesitantly walked out of the train and looked around.
His father quickly slid next to him. "We're here!" He said as he grabbed his son's shoulders. "Ponyville!"
Starfall Twinkle didn't reply. It felt as if he was not liking this trip at all, something that his mother instantly noticed. "Starfall, do you still not like the idea that we decided to move in here?" She asked in concern while she rubbed her son's cheeks in comfort.
Starfall Twinkle looked away with a frown on his face. "It's not like I had any choice, to begin with..." he said before he walked away slowly.
His parents began to frown as they watched how their son was waiting for them a few meters away. "Don't worry, Rain," the stallion said. "I'm sure he will like it here,"
"I just hope that he can make some friends here. That is all that I wish for him," the mare replied.
The train was leaving the station again, and the three ponies were walking towards the town to get to their new house, something that Starfall Twinkle was not looking forward too. Apparently, the house where they would move into was the one where his father lived when he was growing up in this town.
Starfall Twinkle's parents, Sunny Twinkle, and Rainfall Twinkle would both do anything to make their son happy and they were sure that living in Ponyville would make it easier to archive that, at least that's what they hoped for.
When the three ponies were arriving at the house, somepony was waiting in front of the door for them, an Earth Pony stallion, who immediately greeted the family as soon as they arrived.
"Steel Hammer!" Sunny Twinkle said with a smile on his face.
Steel Hammer smiled upon their arrival. "There you are!" He said before he walked up to the three. "I was waiting for you. I was just done checking everything inside so that you could start living here without any problems," he explained.
Steel Hammer was an old friend to Sunny Twinkle who practically grew up together. They both used to live in the very same house when they were younger, in fact, which is why the stallion could access the house. He also helped the family quite a lot when they were starting to move into Ponyville.
"Thank you very much, Steel Hammer," Rainfall Twinkle said, pretty much thanking the stallion for all the work that he has done for them. "You really helped us out a lot,"
The stallion smiled and just shook his head in response. "Anything for you. We are friends after all," he said. His eyes then shifted towards little Starfall Twinkle, who was making sure to stay a little behind his parents. He wasn't too accustomed to the stallion yet, having met him only a few times so far.
But Steel Hammer was so free to just ignore that and approached the colt with a grin on his face. "And? How do you like your new home? Neat, huh?" He asked, hoping to get a little reaction out of the colt.
Starfall Twinkle shyly nodded, he seemed to still feel a little uncomfortable in the presence of this pony. He was no small stallion after all, especially in contrast to the slender figure of his father.
Rainfall Twinkle then rubbed the mane of her son. "Starfall, why don't you go and take a look around town? There are still some things that we need to talk about here. I'm sure you will find it too boring to listen to that," she said.
"Yeah," Sunny Twinkle added. "Don't worry, everypony here is really nice. I'm sure you will find a bunch of friends in no time!"
And there was the thing that Starfall Twinkle was just waiting for. The thing that his parents always wanted him to do: finding friends.
"Do I have to?" The colt replied, clearly showing no interest at all in this idea.
Again, his mother was trying to comfort him by rubbing her son's cheek. "I know in Canterlot you had problems to find friends but I'm sure things will be different here. I believe that you will be much happier here," she said in a gentle voice while she smiled warmly at her son.
"...Yeah..." Starfall Twinkle replied with no sign of enthusiasm in his voice.
It was true that the colt would get bored if he stayed here, his parents still had to clear some stuff up, stuff that he probably didn't understand at his age. He also was in a completely new town that he knew nothing about so the best he could really do was to take a look around.
The colt walked away from the three ponies and marched off. His parents advised him of course, to not go too far away, advice that he really didn't need because he wasn't planning on doing so anyway.
As soon as the colt was out of sight, both Sunny and Rainfall Twinkle sighed in frustration, something that Steel Hammer quickly picked up on. "Hey, don't you two worry too much," he said optimistically.
But Rainfall Twinkle still couldn't help but get worried. "I just want him to be happy here. He hasn't made a single friend in Canterlot and I fear that the same thing could happen here..."
Steel Hammer, again, saw things in a positive light. "Yeah, but come on, you know those ponies from Canterlot..." he began, causing Rainfall to lower her eyebrows confused. "Those snobbish ponies over there are way too hard to deal with. I'm not surprised that he hasn't made friends over there!" He said as if he almost had secret hate against the ponies in Canterlot.
"I grew up in Canterlot..." the mare then said, causing the stallion to stop talking immediately. "And you know that..."
Of course, Steel Hammer knew that but he seemed to have forgotten at this moment and grinned nervously in response, something that Sunny Twinkle joined in just because of this awkward situation.
In the meantime...
Starfall Twinkle slowly walked down the road of Ponyville. He took quite his time to take in everything in this town. It was completely different compared to what he knew from Canterlot. The buildings were simple, and so were the ponies just based on their looks. Nopony was dressed as if they were trying to boast with how many outfits they owned or anything. Ponies were eating in restaurants without some snobbish pony walking by, judging them for that, or thinking that they were something better. Starfall Twinkle actually liked that aspect of Ponyville, things definitely seemed easier in this town.
Walking around town actually, put a relieved smile on the colt for a brief moment. But this moment was interrupted really quickly by somepony walking into him while he was not paying attention to what was in front of him.
"Ouch!" He said while he landed on his behind after bumping into somepony. The colt looked in front of himself to see that he bumped into a Unicorn colt. "Hey! Watch it!" He said annoyed before he got up on his hooves again.
The Unicorn colt in front of him had a dark orange coat, a dark red mane, and dark blue eyes. His Cutie Mark consisted of five bright distant glowing stars. After the colt's head had stopped spinning, he looked around as if he was looking for something. "Sorry," he apologized at the same time.
Starfall Twinkle was wondering what this pony was looking for but quickly figured that it was the object that was laying right in front of his hooves. It was a book. "Beginner spells for Gifted Unicorns?" He said, reading out the title of the book.
"That's mine!" The Unicorn said before he used his magic to levitate the book towards him. "I'm sorry, I was too invested into my book that I didn't see you," he apologized once more with an honest grin on his face. Shortly after, he looked at Starfall Twinkle confused. "I never saw you before, who are you?" He then asked.
"Starfall Twinkle,"
"I'm Summershine," the Unicorn then introduced himself. "Nice to meet you!" He said while he offered Starfall Twinkle his hoof.
But Starfall Twinkle didn't shake Summershine's hoof in return, causing a rather awkward moment between the two. The moment was eventually broken by Starfall Twinkle. "You should watch where you are going, okay? I don't expect that this book is so interesting that you can't pay attention to where to go to,"
But Summershine had to protest against that. "Oh, you will be surprised! This book is full of handy tips to improve my magic! Something that I really need!"
"For what?" Starfall Twinkle asked confused.
"For Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns!" Summershine replied. "A school where only the best Unicorns in Equestria can go to!"
And this is where Starfall Twinkle was getting annoyed again. Another pony who thought was somepony better than anypony else and needed to show it to everypony. It's exactly like the ponies back in Canterlot. Before things would get even more frustrating, Starfall decided to just walk past the Unicorn and continued to be on his way again. "Have fun in that school then," he said in a bitter tone as he left Summershine confused in the middle of the road.
"Um...yeah!" Summershine threw back at him confused, not being entirely sure what this behavior was all about. "That is if I was accepted into this school," he mumbled under his breath.
Starfall Twinkle continued his way through Ponyville, trying to forget this encounter again. His parents wanted him to make friends and that would probably be an opportunity but Starfall Twinkle had no interest in this at all. He didn't need friends. For what reason would he need some? Those were the things circling around in his mind as he walked through Ponyville.
Soon, another pony was walking right towards him, an Earth Pony colt with a yellow coat, am orange mane and red eyes that had a pink Whoopee cushion as a Cutie Mark. The colt was looking right at Starfall Twinkle with a bothered expression on his face.
"What?" Starfall Twinkle thought confused, feeling a little weird that this colt kept staring at him.
Then suddenly, the colt was running right at him, causing him to flinch in surprise once the colt before the colt stopped right in front of him, ignoring his personal space and locking his red eyes right into Starfall Twinkle's green ones.
"What!?" Starfall Twinkle asked after this sudden approach.
The colt gave a slow response. "You..." he said in a serious tone. "I don't know you," he said in an even more serious tone.
"Yeah?" Starfall Twinkle replied nervously. "I just moved here, so that would make sense," he pointed out while he took one step back.
The colt narrowed his eyes. "I see," he said in a serious tone again. A pause was then created by him. Starfall Twinkle had no idea what this colt wanted from him and why he seemed so serious about something. He had no idea who he was, he was one-hundred-percent sure that he never saw him before in his life so there was no way that he could have in any way do something to him. Starfall Twinkle had no idea what was going on and tried to figure out what was going on. That was until the colt spoke up again.
"Wanna be friends?"
"...Huh?" Was the only thing that Starfall Twinkle was able to say after this.
"I don't know you! So we must be friends!" The colt explained, which made absolutely no sense to Starfall Twinkle. "I'm Crash!" He introduced himself. "What's your name?"
Starfall Twinkle had still no idea what this was all about but he still introduced himself as well. "Starfall Twinkle,"
"Mhhh," Crash replied, thinking about something in the meantime. "Alright! Star Twinkle!"
"What? No! It's Starfall Twinkle!" Starfall Twinkle corrected.
"I know," Crash replied. "But I think Star Twinkle sounds better, so I'm calling you that," he said casually with a big grin on his face.
"Great..." Starfall Twinkle thought frustrated. "What is wrong with this pony? He is weird...I better stay away from him..."
And with those words in his mind, Starfall Twinkle decided to just walk away, ignoring this pony. He didn't need friends, is what he told himself. And he definitely didn't need weirdos like this Crash.
He planned to continue going through town, and from now on, avoiding eye contact with everypony. There was one problem though. The damage already seemed to be done. As Starfall Twinkle walked through the town, Crash was following all the way with a smile on his face. Starfall Twinkle decided to ignore this colt but he just kept following him.
"You know," Crash said, having the nerve to start a conversation with him again. "I just recently moved in here too. And I know how it must feel to leave your old home behind or all the friends that lived there with you,"
"Yeah..." Starfall Twinkle said annoyed. Of curse, he would have no idea what the later would feel like.
"But I bet we can make a lot of friends in no time in Ponyville!" Crash said enthusiastic and determined to make his words true.
But Starfall Twinkle wanted to stop this as soon as possible. "About tha-"
"Hey look!" Crash then interrupted, giving the colt no chance to even reply.
Before he knew it, Starfall was being dragged around by the weird colt to what looked like some kind of marketplace. There were a bunch of merchants stands everywhere with ponies selling all kinds of things.
Despite the range of things that were sold here however, Starfall Twinkle didn't know why Crash dragged him over here. "What? What do you want here?" He asked annoyed.
Crash raised his nose up into the air and took a good sniff. "I smelled something really tasty!" He just said.
As soon as Crash mentioned it, Starfall Twinkle also noticed a really tasty smell. It was really close. So close that he could easily determine from where it came from. Soon he found himself in front of a really small merchant stand that just consisted of a small table, that had nothing but one pie sitting on it, which was the object from where the smell came from.
As soon as his eyes locked into that pie, a female voice was talking to him from the side. "Are you interested!?" The voice said in excitement, causing Starfall Twinkle to flinch out of sheer surprise.
The voice came from an Earth Pony filly who, similar to Crash, had no problems ignoring Starfall Twinkle's personal space. The pony had a red coat color, a yellow mane, purple eyes and three bitcoins as a Cutie Mark.
"What?" Starfall Twinkle replied confused after this approach.
The filly started to smile. "I made that cake! And I don't want to boast or anything but I think I did a pretty good job! I made out of the best apples that Sweet Apple Acres had to offer!"
Starfall Twinkle had no choice but to listen to this filly going on and on about how much work she put into this pie and how tasty it probably was. He had to admit that he got quite interested in that pie after her words, she somehow had a really good way with words when it came to advertising this pie, it was almost scary.
"Okay, okay, if you insist, I will take it!" Starfall Twinkle said in order for the filly to stop pressuring him.
The filly was very happy to hear that and smiled. "Fifty bucks then!" She then casually said holding out her hoof, expecting money to rain down on it.
"What!?" Starfall Twinkle replied understandably after hearing this unbelievable high price for one pie single pie. "That's way too much!" He added.
The filly reacted in surprise. "No, it isn't!" She protested, stomping her hoof on the ground to make it more clear. "I spent hours making that pie! The price is perfectly compensating for that work!"
But Starfall Twinkle had to disagree with that. "Still, fifty bucks are way too much! Right Crash?" He asked as he looked over to the colt.
Crash didn't even pay attention to this conversation, though. In fact, he was busy digging his face into the very same pie that the ponies were talking about. Of course, the filly reacted in shock as soon as she saw her pie being consumed right before her eyes. The filly instantly pushed away Crash and looked at the remains of her pie in shock.
The filly glared angrily at Crash and couldn't believe what just happened. "You! You owe me money!" the filly said angrily, pointing at the colt who was completely confused about her reaction.
Starfall Twinkle decided to just take this opportunity to walk away from the scene, he definitely didn't want to be part of this at all. He expected that Crash would be quite busy dealing with the filly but actually, quite the opposite thing happened. "That was really tasty," Crash said licking his lips after he was finished with the pie. "Thanks!" He then said as he walked away happily, following Starfall Twinkle again, much to his dislike.
A little later...
"How did things end up like this?" Starfall Twinkle mumbled annoyed while he looked back to see how not only Crash but also the filly from before following him, or rather the filly following Crash, who was following him.
Crash on the other hoof liked the company. "It's really nice of you to join us," he said towards the filly, who continued to glare at him. "What's your name by the way?" He asked.
"It's Happytrade," the filly replied really annoyed with her eyes glued on the colt in front of her.
Crash was still completely unaware of why she was mad at him and introduced himself as well. "I'm Crash! And that is Star Twinkle!" He said as he pointed towards the green pony in front of him.
"It's Starfall Twinkle!" The green pony corrected. He then looked over to Happytrade and just went out with what he was thinking. "Why do you keep following us?"
He became the answer that he was actually expecting "Until I get the money for my pie back, I will follow you until the ends of Equestria!" Happytrade said determined to make those words come true.
"So you will stick with us until I pay?" Crash asked. "Yay! That means we made a new friend!" He said excitedly, much to Happytrade's annoyance, who was not in the mood to laugh or anything.
All Starfall Twinkle could do at this moment was to sigh. He asked himself how he was included in this situation at all. He could definitely go without those two ponies around him. But as soon as he was thinking that, another pony approached the group.
"Excuse me," a female voice said in a hesitant voice as she was walking up to the three ponies, Starfall Twinkle specifically.
The voice came from a little Pegasus filly, who, judging from her size, looked as if she was one or two years younger then Starfall Twinkle, Crash, and Happytrade. The filly had a light blue colored coat, a white and even lighter blue colored mane, and orange eyes. She also had no Cutie Mark yet.
"Yes?" Starfall Twinkle asked.
The little filly hesitated at first but then slowly explained what she wanted. "I'm looking for my big brother. Have you seen him?" She asked sheepishly.
"What does he look like?" Starfall Twinkle asked.
The filly explained. "He has a dark blue coat and a gray and dark blue mane, oh and he has a shooting star as a Cutie Mark!"
Given that Starfall Twinkle just moved to Ponyville, of course, he had not seen somepony like this so answering that question was pretty easy for him. "No, sorry," he said before he was continuing to walk away, leaving the filly alone again.
"Oh..." The filly replied with a frown on her face. "Can you help me looking for him?" She asked with wide puppy eyes.
But Starfall Twinkle had no interest to deal with this problem and straight out told her that he had no time for that. That was actually a lie because it was rather that he didn't want to spend time looking for somepony. It was this filly's problem after all. As Starfall Twinkle was walking away, however, Happytrade switched her glare from Crash to him and rushed right in front of him.
"You just gonna walk away!?" She asked right into his face. "This little filly asked you for help and you just ignore her!?"
Starfall Twinkle gave a quick answer. "Yep,"
Happytrade clenched her teeth in anger. "No way!" She said while she dragged the colt back to the filly. "We're gonna help this adorable little girl find her brother!" She decided.
Of course, being forced to do stuff like this, against his will, was really getting on Starfall Twinkle's nerves. Why should he care? Or why was he forced to help if only Happytrade was the one wanting to help the filly? It was such a bother. In order to get not even more on Happytrade's annoying side, Starfall Twinkle just decided to go along with helping the filly to just get it over with.
In contrast to how she was acting towards Starfall Twinkle, Happytrade put a warm smile on her face while she talked to the little filly. "What's your name?" She asked gently.
The filly seemed to feel a lot more comfortable in Happytrade's presence and had a much easier time talking with her. "It's Lightbeam," the filly replied.
Happytrade grinned after hearing that name. She then pointed towards the two colts behind her. "That is Crash," she said causing Crash to wave at the filly with a smile on his face. "And the grumpy one is Star Twinkle," she said casually as she pointed towards the green pony.
"My name is not..." Starfall Twinkle corrected before he gave up in mid-sentence. "Whatever..." he then added in frustration.
The four ponies then walked together to find Lightbeam's brother. Slowly but surely the group of ponies wandering around Ponyville got bigger and bigger. And while the others were seeming to have fun, Star Twinkle just got more and more annoyed. All those ponies were so hard to deal with, one of them was completely unpredictable, another one was just weird and the last one was just a bother.
While the green pony was seemingly leading the way, or rather followed by the other three ponies, Happytrade decided to get out some more information to help Lightbeam finding her brother. "Where was the last time you saw your brother?"
Lightbeam thought carefully. "Well, we were just playing around next to this tree-shaped house but then...I..." she stopped in the middle of the sentence as if she didn't want to admit something. "I may have walked a little too far away without him noticing...and..."
"So it was your fault?" Star Twinkle interrupted as if he wanted to prove that this filly was just a bother for everypony right now. Happytrade did not like this input at all and glared at the colt, causing him to get nervous and avoiding eye contact with the red pony again. He definitely didn't want to deal with her angry side again.
Crash then remembered something. "A tree-shaped house? I think I know where that is!" He said happily.
"Great! Then let's go there!" The filly said determinedly.
Later...
The four ponies followed Crash, who was leading the way to the tree-house. When Star Twinkle arrived there, he got surprised by how this was actually a house inside of a tree.
"Yes! This is it!" Lightbeam said, having high hopes to find her brother now after finding the treehouse again.
The four ponies looked all around to see if Lightbeam's brother was somewhere close but this didn't seem to be the case, there was nopony to be found in the nearby area which only meant that the search would end up going on longer. This was not what Star Twinkle was looking forward to. He complained in his mind how this was just a waste of time and that he could have gone home by now, minding his own business.
Just when the four ponies were about to give up the search, to look somewhere else, one pony approached them. "Is something wrong?" A female voice asked, causing the group to turn their attention towards it.
The pony that asked them was a Unicorn filly with a dark purple colored coat, an even darker purple colored mane, light blue eyes, and a light blue colored book on her flank as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing a black pair of glasses which almost looked too big for her eyes.
Since the group had nowhere to go from now, they decided to just go ahead and asked the filly if she saw somepony who matched Lightbeam's brother's description. There was only a small chance that she would know something about that so everypony was highly surprised once the got an answer from the filly.
"Yes, I saw that pony," the Unicorn replied with a deadpan tone in her voice.
"You did!?" Lightbeam replied in a glimmer of hope to find her brother again.
"Yes," the Unicorn filly said.
Everypony expected the Unicorn to continue but no more words came out of her mouth which resulted in a rather awkward pause. Eventually, Happytrade decided to break that silence. "Well, can you tell us where you saw him?" She then asked, hoping to get some more information.
The Unicorn gave a short answer. "Around here," she just said.
Star Twinkle was shaking his head. "Great...another weirdo..." he thought annoyed.
But then the Unicorn continued. "He told me that if I saw his sister then I should take care of her because he might come back here," she explained as she looked over to Lightbeam. "Are you his sister?" She casually asked staring blankly at the filly.
Lightbeam nodded in response. "So I just have to wait here until my brother returns?" She asked sheepishly with wide eyes full of excitement.
Again, Star Twinkle saw an opportunity to leave. "Awesome! So that means that you just have to wait here, right? Does that mean that I can leave then?" He asked into the round with a forced grin on his face. But as soon as Lightbeam was looking at him with puppy eyes, and Happytrade glared at him again, he felt like he was forced to stay. "Or...maybe we can all wait together..." he then said as he sat down on the ground blaming everyone around him for dragging him into this situation.
Happytrade was glad that she didn't have to convince Star Twinkle and turned towards the Unicorn again. "What's your name?" She asked.
"Brilliance," the Unicorn replied in an emotionless tone.
Crash instantly picked up on that answer and jumped next to the Unicorn. "Do you always sound this funny?" He asked casually, most likely picking up on how Brilliance was showing little emotion whenever she opened her mouth. Happytrade was looking at Crash as if she wanted to scold him for asking her that. She probably thought it was a rude thing to ask.
But Brilliance was not showing any signs of being hurt or anything and kept up the regular deadpan expression on her face. "What do you mean?" Was the only thing she asked while tilting her head to the side in confusion.
Later...
As expected, it was really boring to wait in front of this tree-house. Star Twinkle was leaning against the tree on his own while the rest of the ponies were talking to each other. They seemed to have a fun time but Star Twinkle just watched them. He didn't feel like joining their conversation. They were just talking and laughing about stupid stuff after all. Star Twinkle thought there were just silly.
As the colt let out another sigh, which he wasn't shy to show for a while now, Lightbeam walked up to the colt. She was thinking that Star Twinkle was in a bad mood or something, not knowing that this was his usual behavior.
"You are sitting here all on your own...is something wrong?" She asked innocently yet curiously.
"I'm fine," Star Twinkle replied in an annoyed tone.
Lightbeam was a little confused. She did not know why Star Twinkle was behaving like this. "Did we do something bad?" She asked.
If by "something bad" meant wasting his time or getting him dragged along all of this, then Star Twinkle's answer would be yes. Still, Star Twinkle understood that the pony in front of him was a little bit younger and probably wouldn't know what he meant.
"You look so sad," Lightbeam then said out of nowhere. Those words really surprised Star Twinkle. He widened his eyes as if deep down somewhere inside of him those words were true but he didn't want to admit them. Still, he told himself that that wasn't the case and he looked away from Lightbeam but the filly jumped into his sight again. "That's why you should have fun with us! We are friends now after all!" She said happily.
Star Twinkle again, felt like he had no saying into anything. "I'm not you..." he started before Crash's voice interrupted him.
"Someone is coming!"
Lightbeam instantly jumped up in joy. "Night!" She said in excitement before she turned around and ran towards Crash to see her brother again. The filly's eyes were filled with joy knowing that she could see her brother again. However, once she walked over to the group, her ears went down and she stopped smiling.
"Sorry, my mistake," Crash said before she smiled at his own mistake.
Star Twinkle walked up to the group as well, to see what was going on. Crash just assumed that the first colt approaching the tree-house would be Lightbeam's brother but the pony walking up to them was clearly not matching the description, not to mention that the pony was not a Pegasus, to begin with.
"You again?" Star Twinkle asked once he recognized the pony. It was the Unicorn colt from before, that he ran into, Summershine.
Summershine also recognized the green colt and began to smile. "Hey, Starfall Twinkle!" He greeted as if he just met an old friend again.
Hearing Star Twinkle's full name confused Lightbeam at first so she walked up to Summershine to correct. "I think you meant to say Star Twinkle," she said as if she didn't want Star Twinkle to hear this.
The Unicorn colt looked confused but the little filly looked trustful enough so Summershine figured that he might have remembered the colt's name wrong so he began to smile and corrected himself. "Sorry, my bad, Star Twinkle," he then apologized with an embarrassed grin on his face. Star Twinkle was about to say that he was actually right the first time but by now, he just figured saying anything would be in vain and just went along with it. Summershine explained while he was nearby and approached the group. "I was just trying to bring back a book, then I saw all of you here and wondered what this gathering was all about,"
When Star Twinkle got confused about why he would bring back a book to this place, Brilliance began to explain that this tree-house had a library inside of it but in fact, the colt didn't really care too much about it. He walked up too Lightbeam and knocked her slightly on the head. "We are all here because this little girl is looking for her brother and we are forced to wait for him here,"
"I'm not forcing you to do anything..." Lightbeam said nervously, while Star Twinkle was pushing her head down.
Despite her words, Star Twinkle did not agree with that at all. All of the ponies around him would either get mad or try to force him to help them. He actually wanted everypony around him to know this fact but as soon as he tried to open his mouth, he was quickly pushed down by somepony who was flying towards him at extreme speed.
"Oof!" The colt released after getting thrown several meters away by the impact. He didn't get hurt too much but everything started to spin for a moment. Once the world stopped moving again, he found himself on the ground with his back in the dirt. Somepony then landed right on top of him, probably the one who pushed him away a second ago and glared at him like a predator that was about to eat him.
It was a Pegasus colt with dark blue coat color, a gray and dark blue colored mane, yellow eyes, and a shooting star as a Cutie Mark. Once Star Twinkle was stopped getting intimidated by the angry face of this pony, he started to realize that he looked exactly like how Lightbeam described her brother.
"Wait, you are-" the green colt tried to say but he got quickly interrupted by the Pegasus colt.
"So you were the one who took away my sister!?" He shouted angrily at Star Twinkle's face.
"What!?" Star Twinkle replied confused until he figured that this pony was just completely misunderstanding the situation. Star Twinkle was about to explain everything but the colt didn't listen and clenched his teeth angrily and the green pony was afraid to say anything at this very moment. All he could think about is that he was probably getting badly hurt in a few seconds.
But then a saving voice came to his rescue. "Night! Stop! Star Twinkle didn't take me away from you!" Those words caused the colt to look towards his sister so that Star Twinkle could breathe easily for a moment.
"Yes!" Happytrade added. "He may be a big jerk but he would never do something like that!" She said before she took a moment to think. "Maybe..." she then added casually.
"Gee...thanks...." Star Twinkle replied annoyed after Happytrade offered her "help".
Lightbeam did a much better job explaining the situation to her brother. "It's true! I know you told me to not wander off to far away while you tried to get a book for me but..." she said before she started tearing up a little. "Those ponies all tried to help me to find you again so please don't get angry at them. They are my friends!" She said with tears starting to build in her eyes.
Of course, her brother didn't want her to cry so he stepped away from Star Twinkle so that he could pet Lightbeam on the head. "Hey, don't worry about it, Light," he said in a gentle and warm voice which completely contrasted his previous behavior from before. "I think I just misunderstood the situation, sorry," he admitted before he looked over to the group.
"You think?" Star Twinkle said annoyed before he got back on his hooves again. The rest of the group was just relieved that everything was resolved before anything could happen, something that Star Twinkle highly disagreed on after getting attacked by this crazy pony.
"My name is Nightsky, please to meet you all, and thanks for taking care of my sister," he said in a polite and earnest voice. Everypony quickly figured that Nightsky was actually really nice and that the disappearance of his sister just worried him a lot. Lightbeam did explain that her brother tended to get a little over the top when it came to her safety. Clearly, an understatement when it came to Star Twinkle.
In the end, all of the ponies talked with each other about different things. What they liked, how they usually spent time with each other and other things. Summershine also listened to what the majority of the group was doing up until now.
"Wow," Summershine commented. "To think that so many ponies met like this..."
"Crazy, huh?" Crash replied happily.
"Yes," Happytrade said happily as well. "But! You still owe me the money for my pie!" She added as she pointed towards the colt causing him to smile and even the rest of the group to laugh.
"You all seemed to have a lot of fun," Nightsky said, moving his head towards his sister Lightbeam, who could only agree on those words and smiled.
"Can we all be friends!?" Lightbeam asked before she excitedly jumped up and down and looked over the group of ponies.
The ponies liked the sound of this idea. They all looked like they were having fun, despite how different they all were.
"That would be great," Brilliance agreed with a deadpan expression on her face.
"Well, I just only met you all but...yes, why not?" Summershine said, smiling just by the thought of it.
They were all happy and smiled at how many friends they all had made in just those few hours, it was like as if they were destined to meet each other. Somehow they all felt as if they were connected in some kind of special way, which they couldn't really explain.
Still, one pony was not one bit interested in all of this and decided to just walk away while nopony was looking. It was, of course, Star Twinkle, who wasn't up for the idea to make friends with all those ponies.
Eventually, Crash noticed how Star Twinkle was walking away. "Star Twinkle!" He said, causing the colt to stop and the rest of his friends to look at Star Twinkle, who just now wondered why he was walking away at all.
"What?" Star Twinkle replied in a serious tone.
Lightbeam walked out of the group. "Are you going home? Can we all met tomorrow then?" She asked with an excited expression on her face.
Star Twinkle gave a quick answer. "No. I'm not interested in meeting anypony of you again," he replied ice cold towards the little filly, who was lowering her eyes and frowned after hearing those words. Of course, she asked him why he said something like that so Star Twinkle explained further. "I'm not interested in making friends with all of you, okay?"
Crash, quickly came to a conclusion. "Is it because you don't want your other friends to be jealous or something. I'm sure they won't mind if make some other friends," he said being optimistic that this was solving the problem.
But Star Twinkle explained further. "No, I don't have any other friends. I don't need friends, they are just a waste of time and cause nothing but trouble, something that was proven just by how this day went so far,"
Lightbeam's frown was growing even bigger after hearing this. "You thought we were a waste of time?" She asked while getting near some tears once more.
Now Summershine was the one who walked out of the group. He had a concerned look on his face while he spoke to Star Twinkle. "Do you really think that having no friends is better? You can't possibly mean that," he questioned.
But judging from Star Twinkle's expression on his face, he was very serious. "You all can be friends as much as you want, just leave me out of it," he said before he turned around to leave for good now.
The others could not believe what they just heard. It was like a slap in their face. Some of them were questioning if they said or did something wrong, Nightsky even blamed himself that it was his fault because from before. The way how Star Twinkle said all those things were making them all feel really bad and they couldn't even bring themselves to follow him because they were afraid that he would say even meaner things. Just like that, they felt like losing a friend, even though they weren't friends yet...
In the meantime...
Star Twinkle was aimlessly walking through Ponyville. He didn't know where he was originally going to, he just wanted to get away from those ponies. He was fully immersed in his thoughts and couldn't help but think about the recent events and how annoying everything was.
Still, some weird thoughts were circling around in his mind. The possible future that he would have with those ponies, all the fun that they could have and how he would get to know and more about them with each passing day.
Those thoughts were quickly driven away by some memories in his head, events that he remembered from his time in Canterlot. Words that were said to him, things that happened to him.
...
"My parents told me that you weren't even as high class than us! He said you and your parents are just a bunch of commoner! I don't want to play with you anymore!"
...
"You don't even have a Cutie Mark yet! Why would I waste my time with a blank flank like you!?"
...
"Your mane looks so stupid! I bet nopony is ever going to be friends with you!"
...
Star Twinkle didn't like having all those things coming back to him at this very moment. He began tearing up but instantly wiped his ears dry again, only to find out that it wouldn't stop. "I don't need friends...I'm way better off without anypony else..." he mumbled to himself in a shaking voice. He tried to distract himself with those words so that he would stop tearing up. He stopped walking for a moment and looked up at the sky. "They were all so weird and stupid..." he said before he paused for quite a while until eventually, he continued. "They are not my friends...so why...do I feel so sad?" He said towards the clear sky as if he wanted an answer to appear out of nowhere.
Then suddenly...
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A giant explosion in the sky set off, scaring Star Twinkle like never before in his whole life combined. He dropped to the ground out of shock and had his mouth wide open. He thought that the sky was coming right crashing down on him.
Once the shock was gone, however, and he found out that the sky was still in its place, he recognized something happening in the sky. A rainbow. But that couldn't be, Rainbows don't move, but this one most definitely did. A giant shockwave in all the colors of a rainbow was flying past Ponyville up in the sky. It was an event that nopony would have believed happened to him if he would describe it to somepony else.
Eventually, the colt managed to find his voice again. "Hey, did you all see that!? What was that!? Do you have any idea what just-" he said, asking one question after another, hoping that somepony could answer them.
But then Star Twinkle looked back...
There was nopony...
He was confused for a moment. "Oh, yeah," he then said in his realization. "I walked away..." he said, referring to the group of ponies from before, who he expected to stand right behind him at this moment.
Suddenly, everything in his head was upside down. What would Crash have said to this event? Was Happytrade as confused to see this as he was? Was Nightsky protecting Lightbeam who was scared when this explosion went off? Was Brilliance showing no emotion at all, like usual? For some reason, he wanted to see what they all thought about this.
Star Twinkle started to drop on the ground. Realization struck him. He sunk his head to the ground and grabbed it with his hooves Only minutes ago there was a group of ponies who offered him his friendship, and he decided to leave them. That is not what he wanted. Friendship. Of course, he wanted friendship. But all previous experiences with it were just hurtful memories, and this one turned into one as well. But not because of others...it was because of him.
"What have I done!?" He said in frustration blaming himself for his stupidity and stubbornness. Right now he wanted nothing more than seeing those six ponies again but he couldn't, not the way how he called them a waste of time and how he acted towards them all this time. There was no way that they would even consider talking to him again, and knowing all that was what crushed the colt from the inside.
"Star Twinkle?"
Star Twinkle shrugged as soon as he heard the voice of what he thought was Summershine. He raised his head and revealed his with tears covered eyes, that he didn't even bother to hide at this moment. The voice did come from Summershine who was standing in front of him with a smile on his face.
It took Star Twinkle a moment to realize it but it wasn't only Summershine but everypony else as well. Crash, Happytrade, Brilliance, Lightbeam, and Nightsky were all standing there as well.
Star Twinkle had no idea what to say at this moment, the pure fact that they were all standing in front of him was confusing him enough to silence him. Still, he managed to get out one question in his mind. "What are you all doing here?"
Summershine was the one who answered for all of them. "We wanted to talk to you. We wanted to try if we somehow can convince you to be our friend,"
Again, Star Twinkle confused. "Why? You still want to be my friends after how I acted all this time?" He asked, failing to find any explanation for that.
Nightsky walked out of the group. "Lightbeam was looking right through you. She said you looked sad. And honestly, I noticed that too," he explained.
Nopony in Equestria could deny that Star Twinkle was sad right now, not with all those tears running down his cheeks right now. He felt like he should say something. He was going through his mind what exactly but there was just too much of a mess in there right now to sort it all out so he said the first thing that came in his mind.
"I'm sorry!" He said while bowing down his head in shame. "I know I was acting really mean towards you all! I feel so sorry for all of this...and..." he then stopped in the middle of his sentence because he was afraid to even ask but since he came this far already, he just went out with it. "If you can all forgive me...then I would really like being friends with you all," he said while keeping his head lowered all this time.
He could not hear a reply, making him really nervous. Of course, they would not want him to be a friend of them. But after a while, he heard how most likely Summershine was walking even closer to him, so the colt raised his head again to see how Summershine was offering his hoof to him with a smile on his face.
"How about we start over," he said. "I'm Summershine," he said, introducing himself once more.
Star Twinkle really liked that idea. He wiped his tears away, smiled, and shook Summershine's hoof. "I'm Star Twinkle,"
Crash then jumped next to the two with a huge grin on his face. "I thought your name was Starfall Twinkle," he teased.
"Uh..." Star Twinkle only replied confused before he was hugged by Lightbeam all of the sudden.
"Yay! Now we can all be friends!" She said happily.
Star Twinkle really liked the sound of that and smiled which was accompanied by everypony else's smile. Somehow things turned out better than Star Twinkle expected. And the funny thing was, he didn't even want things to turn out like that a few minutes ago. Being able to call those six ponies friends was a wonderful feeling, considering that they didn't give up on him in the end.
"Excuse me," Happytrade then said in the middle of all this. "I am as happy as everypony else is right now but...can we please talk about what that GIANT RAINBOW EXPLOSION IN THE SKY WAS!?" She exclaimed stressfully.
It was quite a strange phenomenon, that much everypony could agree on. Still, Star Twinkle couldn't care less at this very moment. For some reason, it felt like, however, as if that was a sign for him to give friendship as shot and he was thankful for that. More than everything. Because of this, he could experience...friendship.
Then, suddenly, Star Twinkle began to float up into the air, engulfed in light, much to the confusion of everypony. Some of them had a good idea what was happening to him right now and got excited about it, Star Twinkle, however, didn't know what was happening, though he didn't feel bad or anything so he didn't mind it.
Soon, he landed down on the ground again and wondered what this was all about. His new friends all smiled at him and for some reason, he had a pretty good guess why. He looked carefully at his flank and saw Cutie Mark. Six stars in the colors of red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, and purple were on his flank.
He couldn't believe it, not only did he made friends but he also got a Cutie Mark at the same exact day. It was like as if his life was changing for the better in this very moment, Laughter of happiness could be heard from the group of ponies, and Star Twinkle was part of it. He was part of them and their friendship.
In the present...
"And we were friends ever since that day," Summershine finished explaining.
Ashgray was listening to all of this story and couldn't help but feel happy for all of them. "That was such a nice story," he commented, feeling a little touched that they all decided to share this story with him.
Everypony else felt quite nice to remember all of those events and some of them even saw some enjoyment out of it. Lightbeam was one of them. "I really forgot how grumpy you were back then, Star Twinkle," she teased, poking him in the sides.
Star Twinkle reacted a little nervously at those words. "Sorry," he apologized, even though Lightbeam immediately told him that she was just joking around.
"Well, it sure was a good story that you can always remember whenever times get hard," Ashgray commented.
"Exactly," Summershine agreed. "This day will always remind us that our friendship is stronger than anything else, that is why we are all still close friends like this after all. And I am pretty sure that this will continue," he said confidently.
"Yes," Star Twinkle added with a smile on his face.
Everypony could fully agree on all this, with the exception of Happytrade, who remained silent for quite a while now. "You know, hearing this story again, made me realize something," she said with crossed front legs as she was sitting on the ground.
"And what is that?" Crash asked confused.
The mare immediately turned towards the stallion and started giving him a glare. "You still haven't paid for the cake from back then!" She exclaimed while pointing at the confused stallion.
Crash tipped his chin for a moment in order to think. "Yeah, you're right!" He then remembered.
Chaos began quickly between the two of them. Crash was jumping away from the mare, who was trying to pin him down so that he would finally give her the money back from back then. She even demanded that he should pay extra because of how long he took for it.
Naturally, Ashgray was stunned to see this happening before his eyes, especially since he heard that story just now. But in contrast to his reaction, everypony could just laugh about all this, like Star Twinkle who stopped laughing for a moment to look at the sky for a moment. Those ponies were certainly weird at times but he wouldn't change the time that he spent with them for anything in this world.
Because right now...he was happy...and it all was because of his friends...