//------------------------------//
// Old Friends 
// Story: For Old Times' Sake 
// by fic Write Off 
//------------------------------//

The flag was up on the mailbox.

Twilight tilted her head to the side as she opened it. Her hoof found a soft length of paper.

A letter. What else had she expected.

She recognized the spiky, unpracticed hand-writing on the front of the envelope. In spite of herself, her hoof shook as she opened the letter. She read it without bothering to bring it inside.

As her eyes scanned over the paper, a soft drop of rain fell from the sky and landed on the ground. A grey cloud grew larger overhead, covering most of the sky.

Tonight. Twilight put the letter back in its envelope and walked back inside quicker than she had walked out.

She had to go. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t make time for an old friend.





Twilight laughed hard and threw her head back. A bit of her drink spilled out of its glass onto the restaurant’s fine, velvet tablecloth. Around her, other patrons glowered at her past their tapered candles and fancy meals, but Twilight ignored them.

Rainbow Dash did the same, though her chuckling was more restrained. Her voice sparkled as she went on.

“‘Wheat Worms’? How did she even come up with that?”

A flash of grub-filled cupcakes danced across Twilight’s memory, and she spilled more wine onto herself. But she didn’t care. It felt good to laugh.

She set her glass back down onto the table and wiped a joyful tear from her eye. Rainbow Dash smiled at her from across the table.

“It’s so good to catch up, Rainbow Dash. I really have missed you.”

“Same,” Dash said. Her mane was still the vibrant combination of colours it had always been, even if it stood out all the more brightly against the greying blue of her coat. She still moved with the practiced coordination of an expert flyer, but her posture was steadier now. Her actions were slower. When she reached for her glass, she missed it the first time, and squinted hard at the translucent crystal as she grabbed it on her second try.

Twilight, watching from across the table, took another sip of her drink.

“So,” Twilight said, lowering her glass. “Is there any reason you decided to ask me to dinner on such short notice?”

Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Nah, not really. Just felt like saying hi, you know? I know you’re busy these days with your princess stuff, but I thought you might have time to say ‘hi’ to an old friend...”

Twilight reached a hoof across the table, which Dash met after a second of hesitation.

“Of course I do, Dash. I’m always happy to make the time for you, or any of my friends. I’ve missed all of you.”

Dash pressed her hoof hard into Twilight’s. Twilight pressed back. Dash’s coat felt wrinkled under her touch.

The pair shared a smile for a moment. After a few seconds, Dash looked away. The bustle of the restaurant in the background seemed to flow around the table, surrounding it in a bubble.

Dash’s smile was gone when she turned back.

“I, uh,” she said. She stopped and looked down at the table.

Twilight leaned closer and pressed harder with her hoof.

“They, uh... the doctor, anyway. He said I’ve got... it’s like... a lump.”

Somewhere at a table behind them, a pony set their fork down with a clink against their plate.

“They can’t operate or anything, so uh... they dunno. It might get better, maybe.”

Twilight drew in a deep breath and pressed down harder with her hoof. Dash’s foreleg went limp.

Twilight’s chair flew back as she rose. With a flap of her wings, she was around the table, and her forelegs found Dash and wrapped around her instantly. Twilight shut her eyes as she hugged hard. Dash stayed in her seat, staring forward with a meek smile on her face. Her eyes glinted in the light of a nearby candle-flame.

“I’m scared,” she said quietly.

The warmth of Twilight’s body against Dash’s felt like a blanket. Dash closed her eyes and rested her head against Twilight’s shoulder.

“That means it’s going to be okay,” Twilight said, whispering into Dash’s ear.

Outside, overhead, the grey cloud that had been threatening a storm all day dissipated so fast it almost seemed to disappear. Though a sheen of sky-blanket remained, the rain vanished, and for the first time that day, allowed a tiny ray of sun to peek through and reach the ground.