//------------------------------// // Act 3: No Good either way // Story: Friendship is Failure #23: Let's just NOT be friends // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT THREE The gang all felt terrible and Pirouette was trembling with guilt and shame for having hurt Snap the way she did. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up.” said Slam. “But Slam… he’s my friend. He’s our friend, and I just hurt him like that. That’s probably why he’s avoiding us; because we all haven’t exactly been good friends lately.” “I’m sorry to say this…” said Spike “But you could be right. Some ponies don’t want to settle for just being friends. It’s not enough for them. I should know.” He was referring to his crush on Rarity, which practically every pony in the kingdom knew about, and how even though Rarity and Spike were good friends, and Rarity knew how he felt, Spike always had a small cringe deep down not enjoying the “Just friends” part, but unlike Snapshot he was a little bit stronger and could take in stride. Snap was not like that, as evidenced by what happened next. The final images showed that for the past month, he had been avoiding his friends entirely--skipping on their parties, refusing to hang with them, and going to incredible lengths to keep away. It wasn’t just the anger and heartbreak he felt from what Pirouette had said, but because he just couldn’t bear to hang with them anymore. If he hung out with his friends, he’d eventually have to hang with Slam and Pirouette, and see how happy they were, which would cause him great inner trauma, and of course… he couldn’t ask any of his friends to stop hanging with them; that would be cruel as well as extremely selfish. …But that was the whole story. Snapshot had more than just a friendship problem; he was struggling against his own self too. It was as if he had become his own worst enemy more than the gang. There was nothing more to see, Cadance had seen all she needed and stopped the spell which caused the glowing to cease as well. Now the gang would have to wait where they were until Twilight and Cadance returned. Twilight had finished cleaning the editor’s office and stepped outside. “Hey, just a minute!” the Editor bellowed. Twilight was growing nervous again, fearing her cover was blown, but it turned out the Editor just wanted to give her a small sack of coins. “You don’t expect to just work and not be paid, do you?” Twilight chuckled nervously as she accepted her reward, but now she had another problem; how to get Cadance from under the desk and slip away without causing a scene. She couldn’t try to get too close with Snapshot still brooding at his desk. “Maybe I could write a letter to the princesses, and say I’m sorry that way.” he said to himself. He got a sheet of paper ready and was about to reach for a pencil in the jar, but accidently knocked the jar off the desk, spilling the pencils all over the floor. “Ah, nuts!” he groaned, and he got down to pick them all up, giving Twilight the perfect chance. She could see the Cadance Pen right until the desk, and quickly levitated it back into her possession. Soon she was out of the building. She had left the bag of coins with the janitor tools, figuring she couldn’t take someone else’s pay. Then Cadance changed back to her pony forum, and she told Twilight everything she had learned. Soon, they both teleported back to Spike and the gang, and they didn’t know what to think. “The fact you weren’t even willing to ever give him a chance, Pirouette…” said Cadance. “Don’t you think that’s a little bit harsh?” With a regretful expression, Pirouette nodded. “I just always thought of him as a friend; a good friend.” “We all thought of him that way.” added Pierce. “True we teased him a little, but it was all in good fun.” “Yeah, friends tease friends all the time, for jokes and stuff.” said Droplet. Cadance and Twilight shook their heads. “Real friends should never make fun of real friends the way you did-- playing on his feelings like that. It makes him feel like he’s not important or special to any of you.” “That’s what I told them.” said Spike. “This isn’t fair!” snapped Slam “You’re picking on us and blaming us for all this? All we tried to do was tell him to move on. What’s so bad about that?” Pirouette bolted upright and practically yelled “Because we did it the wrong way!” Everyone gawked at her with shocked expressions, and Pirouette calmed herself. “All we ever told him was “Move on” or “Get over yourself.” It’s like we were giving him an order because we wanted him to move on just like that.” Red looked deep within his thoughts, and as if for the first time he realized maybe that was true. “I guess maybe we haven’t exactly been the greatest of friends. No wonder he’s avoiding us.” “But he still needs to move on.” insisted Slam. “The sooner he gets some help, and gets over this obsession-- the better. Why are we even just sitting here? We know what’s bugging him now, so let’s go to his place when he comes home and straighten this out for good.” Seeker glared him right in the eyes. “Weren’t you just listening to what we’ve been talking about? We can’t force him to just get over himself because we want him to.” Slam was starting to grow more and more irritable. “What? Like all of you are justifying his avoiding us? Like he’s in the right to do what he is.” “Slam, stop it!” snapped Pirouette “With that attitude, you’re only making things worse.” “Every-pony, please!” said Twilight, and everyone hushed up. Then she cleared her throat and allowed Cadance to share her wisdom with Slam. “While it is true, ponies should try and move on, that doesn’t mean they can. I’ve seen my share of many ponies that had their hearts broken. Some of them did manage to move on, and start over, and even find a new love… …But there are still some ponies that just can’t find that strength, and sometimes it’s because they don’t want to find it.” She then used her magic to show a flashback of an elderly fisherman she knew that had his heart broken many years ago by mare he was madly in love with, and she left him for another stallion. He never learned to fall in love again, nor did he even try and often kept to himself. Many ponies began to worry about him, and hated to see him spending his days alone, and some even asked if the Princess would talk to him and try and sort him out. Cadance agreed to talk to the fisherman, and he gave her a strong sense of advice she could use for her future in sorting problems like his. “Ponies often tell me “There are plenty of fish in the sea.” and they are correct, but as I am the fisherman, it is entirely up to me if whether or not I wish to catch any. Occasionally, a fish may just jump right into the boat, whereas just the same I suppose I could meet another mare who would want to be with me, but I don’t feel I can love her the way I loved the one that got away. It may seem harsh, but I cannot lie to myself, and even if there are other ponies would love me, don’t you think they deserve better than some-pony who cannot find it to return their love to them?” The gang was deeply moved by that speech, and even Cadance was as touched by it as she was the day she learned that. “Some ponies just can’t find it to move on, and they don’t wish to hurt others, so they keep to themselves and eventually die alone, but it is their own decision to make. No pony else can make that for them.” Slam still didn’t know if he could agree with such a concept. To him it felt like the pony was just making an excuse to be miserable and make everyone else feel sorry for him, the same way Snap was acting.