Rainbow Dash sighed as she sat all alone in her room, still in bed. The past few days had been hard for her ever since she came to realize her closest friends would not be returning the next morning or the morning after. She turned her head and gazed at a framed photo of the six of them in a group hug at Sugarcube Corner.
"What we're trying to say is, it's great to be really good at something, but it's important to act with grace and humility."
"What were you thinking, Twilight Sparkle?!"
"But Rainbow Dash had to stop! Her bragging was out of control!"
"And you honestly thought this was the answer?! All you did was create a friendship problem, and after I warned you not to! I'm very disappointed."
"We're sorry! I'm sorry!"
"Hmph. Well, you'll have plenty of time to think about how sorry you are... once I hand out your punishments!"
"But... I didn't think-"
"You should have. This is what happens when you fail to think twice before your actions. This time, you will have a lot to think about... my former student."
Now holding the photo in her hooves, Rainbow Dash felt tears in her eyes, but she was not too cool to not wipe them away and pass it off as sweating through her eyes. Their friendship was practically all but ruined as of now. Who knows how long her friends would be gone and stuck at Canterlot serving their punishment time.
"Well you, you, you are such a, a flip-flop - cool one minute and lame the next. When you decide not to be lame anymore, gimme a call."
"Look at you! You're no hero! Mare Do Well is the best!"
"Yeah, why did she disappear anyway? Did you help?"
"Something's been on my mind for months now... Did my friends do the right thing? Or were they just trying to make me look weak and helpless? I need to know."
"Twilight Sparkle..."
"Where are you taking my friends?"
"They will not humiliate you anymore."
"Why are you doing this?"
"I'm teaching you a lesson... in friendship lessons!"
Poor Dash didn't even feel like reading any of those Daring Do books. She hugged the photo to her chest as tears streamed down her face.
"I thought things were gonna start so well that day," she murmured through her tears. "But I couldn't have been more wrong." And that's when she heard a knock on her door.
"Rainbow Dash?" said a small voice. "Are you okay? Can I come in?" Rainbow knew that voice all too well, so she put down the photo and answered the door. "I'm so sorry I doubted you. Can we still be sisters?"