The lights inside Twilight’s tree home glistened softly as the sounds of busy hooves rose to meet my ears. I stood outside her door, slightly wobbly on my hooves as I battled with my new unease to step into her house.
I spared a glance back at the bunny perched on my back. Since being released from the hospital this morning I had not gone anywhere without Angel.
Slowly, I turned back to the door and took a deep breath. Reaching up my hoof, I knocked quietly on the door.
“Spike! Get the door!”
The door hesitantly creaked open to reveal my dragon friend. “Oh…Hey Fluttershy.”
“H-Hi Spike.” I mumbled, “Could I maybe, umm, talk to Twilight?”
He rocked back and forth on his feet awkwardly and cast a worried glance back inside. “I suppose so…but, just to warn you, she’s kinda in one of her moods…”
I gave a small sigh at the idea of trying to talk to an irate Twilight and slowly edged inside. Twilight was sitting on the floor next to a pile of books, which she was levitating and sorting either back onto the shelves or into a small group in the corner.
I walked over to her and waited for a minute before giving a quiet cough. Twilight glanced up with a glare, but softened her expression when she recognized it was me.
“Fluttershy…What are you doing here?”
“Well…” I hesitated, “I just...wanted to talk to you, I guess.”
“Oh…That’s nice.” Twilight turned back to her books, pausing occasionally if she wasn’t sure what to do with a book.
I felt frustration build up until I couldn’t contain it any longer. “Why’d you do it?” I blurted out.
Twilight looked back up at me. “Do what?”
“Why’d you give her the death penalty?” I whispered, shivering slightly at the word death.
Twilight sighed and got to her hooves, walking over to an unsorted bookshelf and scanning the titles “It had to be done.”
I glared at her. “No. It didn’t”
She shrugged and pulled a few books off the shelf, trotting over to the pile of sorted books and carefully placing them on top.
I followed her. “You could have given her life in prison or sent her to an insane asylum.”
She wheeled around to face me, “Fluttershy, she killed Rainbow Dash! She nearly killed YOU!!!!”
I shrunk before her gaze. “I know that…but…but…”
“But nothing!” She shoved past me and opened a closet, pulling out a box. “She’s a cold blooded murderer, and she deserves what’s coming to her.”
I gasped, “Twilight! This is Pinkie! Our…our friend. How could you say that?”
She trotted past me with her mouth shut and began filling the box with the books. I sighed and looked around the room, my gaze falling on the elements of harmony sitting in their glass case. I walked over and gazed down at the gems. The elements of kindness, honesty, and generosity glowed with a bright consistency, while the element of magic fluctuated wildly. The element of loyalty had lost its glow, fading to a dull maroon, while the element of laughter flickered weakly, its blue seeming to grow a little darker with each minute.
A lump formed in my throat as I stared at the dying element. “You have to change your sentence.” I whispered.
Twilight tensed up, keeping her back turned to me. “No.”
“Why not?” A tear splashed against the glass. I pressed a hoof to my wet cheek…when had I started crying?
“Because…she doesn’t deserve to live.”
“NEVER SAY THAT!” I snarled. Anger and sadness wrapped into one, coursing through my body. “Yes, she’s done horrible things…horrible, evil, unforgivable things. But…there was a side of her that cared about us, the part of her that giggled at the ghosties and threw parties for her friends for the littlest things….” A tear traced down my cheek as I fought the urge to just collapse and wail.
Twilight glared, “The Pinkie Pie I knew died with Rainbow Dash.” She strode past me and looked at the dim blue element. “Perhaps…perhaps she never existed at all.”
I took a step way from her, trembling slightly at this side of Twilight I had never truly seen. “Twilight…I can’t watch her die.”
“WHAT ABOUT RAINBOW DASH THEN?!?” Twilight screamed at me, angry tears welling up in her eyes. “She died! Pinkie Pie killed her! You were there in the basement with her very remains!...Did she not matter?! Do you not care that she died?!”
Anger like I’d never experienced before raced into me, with a snarl, I launched myself at Twilight, pinning her to the ground. “OF COURSE I CARED!!! She was my friend! My best friend!!! The only one I had before I met the rest of you! ...She was like my sister…I…I loved her.” I sighed and released Twilight, my anger gone.
“Look…I know what Pinkie did was wrong.” I closed my eyes for a second, trying to banish the memories of the basement back to the dark corners of my mind. “And I’ll never be able to forgive her for what she did to those ponies…to Dashie…to me.” I took a steadying breath and opened my eyes.
“I just…didn’t want to have to say goodbye…”
I sank to the floor, closing my eyes again. Slowly, I let the last of my tears fall as I tried to fight the pain that was slowly drowning me.
A hoof began to slowly stroke my mane. I opened my eyes to see Twilight give me a comforting smile. “It’s…ok, Fluttershy. It’s ok to feel pain, to not want to let go. You don’t have to force it away.”
I gave a small smile and sighed. We sat there for a few more minutes in blissful silence.
Slowly, I placed the last book into the box. Twilight came over and inspected it for a second before nodding and levitating it over to the pile of boxes near the door.
“Thanks for your help, Fluttershy.” I smiled, it had felt nice to lose myself in the work, to not think for a change.
“Oh, it’s no problem. It’s the least I could do after how I was earlier today.”
Twilight shrugged, “Fluttershy we both said some things we shouldn’t have...but, it was mostly my fault. You went through a lot down there…and I know the idea of losing somepony else is difficult.”
“But…your not going to change the sentence, are you?”
She shook her head. “I think you and I both know that, truthfully, it’s the right thing to do. Anypony else would get the death penalty. Besides, even if I said I wanted to spare her, I doubt the princesses would back me up.”
I nodded. “Your…your right.” My eyes wandered the room, settling on the pile of boxes resting in the corner. “So what are those books for anyways?”
Twilight hesitated, “Well…those are the books I’m taking with me to Canterlot.”
I took a small step away from her. “Your…going to Canterlot?”
Twilight sighed and nodded. “This…it’s too much for me Fluttershy. I can’t be here. I’m moving back home.”
I gasped. “But…you can’t! This is your home! Where your friends are!”
“Friends…” sighed Twilight. “What an interesting concept.” She looked at me with a sad smile. “Fluttershy, I came here to learn about the importance of friendship, to form a bond with a group of ponies that could be and would be as close as my family…Now what? One of them is dead, another one the cause of it. Heck, if it weren’t for Angel and Applejack you’d probably be gone as well. Everything I thought I understood about friendship has been proved wrong. I…I failed. I failed to see the signs with Pinkie. I failed to save Dash. I…failed you.”
She slowly trudged over to a pile of bags and boxes lying by the stairs that I had overlooked earlier. “I can feel myself losing my connection with my element. I’m supposed to represent the magic of friendship, but I can’t channel it anymore. I’ve lost the spark…I’ve lost the meaning of friendship. So…” She levitated the bags and set them next to the boxes at the door. “I’m going back to Canterlot. I’ll work and study, do my royal duties, but I will never study friendship again.”
I fought the urge to cry as I glanced around the room, looking for inspiration as to the right thing to say. My gaze fell once again on the elements. Taking a couple steps towards them, I watched the pulsing purple tiara. I wanted to just grab it and slam it onto Twilight’s head, to try to force her to remember all the wonderful things about friendship.
A creak in the stairs drew my attention, and I turned around to see Spike looking first at me, then Twilight. He sighed and shook his head. “She told you didn’t she?”
My heart ached at the realization that not only Twilight would leave, but Spike as well. “You…”
“Are staying.” he muttered.
From across the room, Twilight stiffened and turned to face us. “What?”
Spike shrugged, “I’m not going, Twilight. I’ve thought about it…and…this is my home. This is where our friends are, and they need us right now. There’s nothing for me in Canterlot.”
Twilight gasped, “But…Spike…you have to come with me!”
“Why?” he frowned at her. “If your done with friendship, then you don’t need me. But…I’m not just going to abandon our friends like that Twilight.”
He glanced at me, and took a deep breath, “Friendship means being there for your friend when they need you. It means thinking about them and not just making the selfish, cowardly choice. We’re all going through a difficult time right now, but the only way we’re going to get through it is if we all stick together.”
Twilight stared at us, trembling slightly. Her eyes welled up with tears as she suddenly leaped forward and pulled both of us into a hug. “I am so, so, so sorry. I’ve been a terrible, terrible friend. I was selfish and cowardly, but I was just so afraid. I tried to forget about friendship to try to block out the pain!”
Beside us, the element of magic steadied, and seemed to glow a little brighter. I allowed a small smile to slip onto my face. “So…you’ll stay?”
“Yes!” cried Twilight, “Yes, I’ll stay.”