//------------------------------// // Old Friends // Story: The Lost Alicorn // by RainbowFlash96 //------------------------------// Twilight fell to the floor unconscious, blood beginning to run down her face and onto the floor. Cadence stood their shocked, and Shining still looked mad. "Shining Armor!" Cadence yelled, "What have you done?!" That snapped Shining out of his trance. He looked at Twilight, then Cadence, and lastly at his hoof. How could he punch his own sister? "I-I-" He began to walk toward Twilight, seeing if he could help her. Cadence quickly stepped in front of him, blocking his path and view. "Haven't you done enough? Stay away from her." Cadence spat out. She went over to Twilight, and levitated the bloody purple unicorn onto her back. "And stay away from me." Cadence said before she ran out the door. Shining was left alone. He just punched his sister, and his wife didn't want to even see his face. How could he do that to Twilight? He had no right to do what he did, being mad was just not a good enough of an excuse. What if he killed her? "No, no. I don't hit her that hard..." Shining thought out loud. But what if he did? He already had to go through losing his sister once; he did not want to relive that experience again. Especially if this time, it was his fault. But what if- No. No. Twilight is alive... that blood... he just gave her a bloody nose. Yeah that's all. But now he was alone. No sister, and no wife. He deserved it, he deserved to be alone. How could he ever make it up to her? Could he make it up to her? Could she ever forgive him for such a thing? He felt so alone. He didn't like to be alone, even if it had only been mere minutes. "And stay away from me." Those words echoed inside Shining's head. Even though it had been only minutes, Shining felt more alone than he had ever felt in his life. This must have been what Twilight felt like. Shining thought. How could it be fair for someone to feel so alone? If he just went to visit her a couple of times, maybe none of this would have happened. He had to find them. He had to apologize. Shining Armor ran out the door and made his way to the palace hospital. Before he could even step hoof into the room, Cadence was there to stop him. "Shining, go away." "Please, Cadence, I can never tell you how sorry I am. There will never be a way to make it up to either of you, but I will try my hardest. Please.. let me just see her." "You're right, Shining, Twilight and I may never be able to forgive you." "I know... Is she alright?" Cadence grew even angrier now, "You punched her in the face, she was bleeding." "I-I know, I saw the blood on the floor." Cadence sat on the floor and began to rub her head. "Shining, what am I going to do with you?" Shining Armor wanted to comfort his wife, but he stood where he was. She was still mad at him. Cadence sighed, "You broke her nose, and she has a small fracture on her jaw. The doctor wants to keep her unconscious for a while, let her heal a little before she wakes up. She will need to be on a breathing machine, and her face will be bandaged up so that means she won't be able to talk for a while." Then the realization hit Shining so hard that he broke down and cried. Cadence went over to Shining and wrapped a hoof over him. "Shining, go in and see her." He gave his wife a hug and walked into the hospital room. Twilight was lying on the bed, her whole muzzle was wrapped up, and there were tubes going in from different directions. Shining went over to her, and put one of her hooves in his own. Tears began to stream down his face, and Cadence came back into the room. "I have to do some things, you can stay in here as long as you want." Cadence said before she gave her husband another hug and once again walked out the door. "Twilight, I don't know if you can hear me, but I am so sorry for what I did to you. I should have never gone that far. Even if I seemed mad on the outside, I really did miss you. Whatever you were going through that made you want to do that, I promise, I will never let that happen again." "Did you see that Shining?" A mare's voice asked, "Maybe we should do something." "You said it yourself before, we can't leave them." "But look at her, she needs our help. She's having a hard time adjusting." "Dear, we cannot just go there and come back." The mare's head snapped up. She grabbed the stalion by the shoulders and shook him. "What did you just say?" "I said we cannot just-" "No no, that was rhetorical. I have an idea... and we may be able to do just that ." "What do you mean?" "Equestor, how would you like to see our girls again?" The Sun Princess lowered the note from her face and went to find her sister. Celestia made her way to Luna's quarters, but before she could knock, Luna opened the door and steeped out. "Oh, hello sister." Luna said. "Hello Luna. Princess Cadence just sent me a note, and I think I should speak to you about it." "What happened?" "It seems that Twilight went to the Crystal Empire to try and apologize to her brother. He would not listen, and punched her." Luna gasped, and her eyes began to widen. "Is she alright?" "Not really, she has a broken nose and a slight fractured jaw." "That's awful, should we go and see her?" "I think that would be wise." A voice said. Luna and Celestia turned to see where the strange voice was coming from. They looked up to see yet another bright light start to lower to the ground. "It's always a bright light." Luna complained under her breath. Once that light subsided, King Equestor and Queen Lunesta stood before Luna and Celestia. "Celestia! Luna! I'm so glad we could see you again." Lunesta said as she ran up to her daughters and hugged them. Equestor also walked up to them, pulling them into a hug. "Mother? Father? H-how did you..?" Celestia asked in shock. "Twilight gave us the idea first, and then when she returned and we saw that she was a unicorn it gave me an idea. We are naturally alicorn, so if we were to come back here through the elements, we would remain alicorn." Luna's little filly side came out; she hugged her parents and cried. "Oh I missed you both so much!" "We missed you girls too." Equestor said. They all began to cry, and stayed hugging for some time. Finally Lunesta broke away. "We need to talk about something." "About what?" Celestia asked. "Twilight." "I see." "The entire time she was with us, she was upset about what she did, and she hated herself... And now, watching her struggle to regain friendship and trust, we just had to come back and help her." "That was very kind of you." Luna said. "Yes, I think it is time to forgive her." Celestia said. "Ha! And we were about to show you what happened while she was with us. Glad we don't need to do that now!" Equestor said. Lunesta rolled her eyes, and shoved Equestor. The elder alicorn gave their daughters another hug. "We will meet you in the Crystal Empire, but we have to make one last stop." Lunesta said. "You're leaving so soon?" Luna asked, worried. "Did I say that? Luna calm down, we will see you shortly." The King said. "But you just got back, we have so much to catch up on!" Luna cried "Don't fret, Luna, we will have plenty of time to talk... Speaking of which, your mother and I will be grounding you for your little temper tantrum about one-thousand years ago." Equestor said sarcastically. Luna blushed and turned away. Equestor grabbed her and messes up her hair with his hoof. They both shared some laughs, but Equestor had to pull away. "Actually, Luna, I think we might need you. Up for it?" Equestor asked. "Absolutely." "Okay, now let's get going." Equestor said "Alright, Celestia, We will see you shortly." Lunesta said. "Alright, see you soon." Celestia said. They all gave each other one last hug before they went their separate ways. Rainbow Dash was sitting on one of the trees that Applejack had already bucked. She was just sitting there watching her... not working... like she said she would. "Rainbow Dash, come on and help me." Applejack said before she bucked another tree. "I will in a minute." "You know, Rainbow, you said ya would help and you're not helping." Applejack said as she put a bucket of apples into the cart and began to stroll away. Rainbow Dash easily caught up with her. "Okay, I'll help now." Applejack stopped, and turned to look at Rainbow. "Really? Ya wanna help now?" "Yep." Dash said nodding. "Alright, go and clean out the pig pen." Applejack said before she trotted away, leaving a very dazed Rainbow Dash behind. Applejack made her way to the barn and Rainbow Dash eventually caught up. "Are you serious." "I'm as serious as a- Oh, howdy y'all." Applejack said as she tipped her hat at the three newcomers. Three ponies stood before them, a pegasus mare, an earth pony stallion, and a unicorn filly. The pegasus was white with a blue mane, the stallion was dark blue with a gold mane, and the filly was also dark blue with a light blue mane. "Hello." The pegasus said. "What can Ah help y'all with?" "We were wondering how Twilight Sparkle was doing." Rainbow Dash and Applejack both felt and looked a little awkward. "Um.. fine Ah guess." "You don't know?" The earth pony asked. "We thought you were both friends of hers." The mare asked. "Well... I guess we are..." Rainbow said. "Oh I'm sorry we bothered you then. We didn't realize you weren't as close as you once were." "Hey! We are as close now as we ever have been!" Rainbow defended herself. "Then why are you ignoring her?" Rainbow Dash and Applejack's eyes widened and their jaws went to the ground. How did these random ponies know about their personal lives? The three ponies looked at each other and nodded. All three of them were consumed with light, and were revealed to be Luna, the King, and the Queen. Applejack and Dash bowed in Luna's presence. "Princess Luna." Applejack said, "It's an honor." "Rise Applejack and Rainbow Dash. I have two ponies that you should meet." Luna said as she gestured to her parents. "Hello Rainbow Dash and Applejack. My name is Queen Lunesta." "My name is King Equestor. But Equestor's fine." "King and Queen?" Rainbow asked. "Yes, these are mine and Celestia's parents." Dash's and Applejack's mouths opened again. "P-parents?" Applejack asked, "If you don't mind me asking, where have y'all been this whole time?" Luna coughed, "We can discuss all this later, but we need to talk to you and your friends as soon as possible." "So what will happen to the elements now that you are back?" Rarity asked. "Hmm, well I guess they will cease to exist." Lunesta said. "Fluttershy," The yellow pegasus jumped when she heard her name, "do you still have your necklace?" Rarity asked. "Um.. I can go check." Fluttershy got up and made her way to her bedroom. She returned with her necklace, and showed it to the Queen. The necklace was still intact, but the butterfly shaped jewel was dull and grey. "Hmm. i guess the spirit of the element was taken from the necklace. I assume when we go back, the necklaces will regain their power once more." Lunesta said as she hoofed the necklace back to Fluttershy. "Wow, all this time and you could have come back whenever you wanted?" Rainbow Dash changed the subject. "Well the though never occurred to us until Twilight came back." Lunesta said. All of them, Luna, her parents, and the rest of the element bearers, were all at Fluttershy's cottage. The King and Queen finished telling the ponies about the Land and the creation of the Elements of Harmony. The mention of Twilight, however, put most of the ponies into an uncomfortable state. "That's the real reason we are here." Equestor said. "You just want to tell us that we're terrible friends and we should forgive her." Rainbow said. Equestor pondered that for a moment, "Yup." "What?" "Well you were being terribly mean to her, and ignored her to the extreme. You should forgive her, do you even know what she went through while she was with us?" Equestor asked. "Well, no but-" "Would you like to?" That made all of the ponies silent. Did they want to see the pain that Twilight endured? "A-Ah don't know." "Personally, I think that you should." Lunesta said. "Maybe you will realize something, and finally forgive Twilight." Luna said. Lunesta lowered her horn, and used her magic to summon a screen. Twilight's friends saw everything that happened to her. The pain she suffered, and the numerous tears she shed. They saw how Twilight could see their reactions, and how she felt genuinely sorry for hurting them. While they watched this, all of their feelings and emotions towards Twilight began to change. They realized how wrong they were for ignoring her. By them ignoring Twilight, she could just fall back into a depression and kill herself again. "Ah think I've seen enough." "Yeah me too." Pinkie said with tears in her eyes. Lunesta made the screen vanish, and lifted her head to see the ponies faces. Nearly all of them were crying. Rainbow Dash didn't cry, but she had tears in her eyes. "We really did that to her?" "It was not all of your faults, but now you all can fix it." Luna said. "Twilight is in the hospital at the Crystal Empire. She has a broken nose, and fractured jaw. I think we should all go an see her." Lunesta said. "Well," Rainbow said wiping the tears from her eyes, "what are we waiting here for? Let's go."