It was a snowy day. Twist sat on a bench next to another filly. She was white, with a cream and light brown mane. Both appeared to be about nine years of age.
"Aw, do you really have to move? You haven't even gotten your cutie mark yet!"
"I know, but Momma says we have to. Daddy got a new job somewhere."
"Where?"
"I don't know. Momma won't tell me."
"Aw, come on, Mocha! You've got to know!
The filly named Mocha shook her head and took a sip of the hot chocolate she was holding.
"Well, even if I did, which I don't, I couldn't tell you, it's a secret."
Twist looked in the direction of her house.
"I'm gonna mith you. Real bad. And I won't be able to vithit you."
Mocha got off the bench, and put her hoof out for Twist to high-hoof.
"I gotta go. We gotta finish up packing our stuff."
"Can I vithit your house tomorrow? Before you move?"
Mocha didn't answer and she trotted away, towards her house.
"...Bye, Mocha..."
A very sad Twist waved her goodbye and got up to leave. She knew Mocha didn't even see her.
____
Peppermint Pause took some deep breaths. She remembered her daughter Twist telling her everything that had happened that day. She wished she could've let her daughter know the truth in a...well, less sad way. But she needed to tell her daughter. She needed to know the truth.
"Twist, honey, could you come down to the living room?"
Twist almost instantly came down the stairs and starting speaking very fast.
"What is it? Is it a car? I'm getting my license soon, you kno-" she was stopped by her mom.
"Twist, honey, just because you've gotten rid of your lisp does not mean you can talk on rapid fire. Slow down."
"It doesn't matter. Just tell me what it is!"
"...You've had coffee, haven't you?"
"...maaaaaybeeeee..."
Peppermint looked her in the eyes.
"Really?"
"Nope! I was kidding!" Twist said, in a more relaxed tone. Peppermint sighed.
"Great, because I have something... Important, to tell you."Twist sat down on the couch.
"Okay, so... What is it?"
"It's about Mocha..."
Twist gasped. "Really? Is she okay?"
Peppermint cringed a little.
"Not... Not exactly..."
"What do ya mean?"
"Well, when she moved... She didn't really move."
"So we can visit her?"
"M-maybe... If you want to, after this."
"Okay, mom. You're making no sense."
"Just listen, okay? She... Had a brain tumor, and it was cancerous. It was inoperable, so... The month they said she would most likely die was the month she told you she'd be moving. And the canterlot coffee shop she got named after her wasn't a contest, it was her final wish before her death..." Twist sat with a blank stare, not saying anything. "Twist...?"
"I'll be in my room." Twist got up and walked up the stairs. Without showing any emotion, she slammed her bedroom door. Then she started sobbing. Peppermint could hear Twist from downstairs, and her heart ached.
"Maybe. I should've waited longer to tell her... I'm sorry, Twist. Sorry for lying."
____
Some time later
"Mom?"
Peppemint was surprised to hear her daughter speak.
"Y-yes, Twist?"
"...Can we visit Mocha?"
"Twist, what so you mean? She's... Oh." Peppermint fell silent. "Y-yeah, we can go."
____
The snow was falling, like it was on "that" day. The day Mocha... "Moved away."
"Where is it?"
"It's the one shaped like a coffee cup."
"I should've guessed."
Twist walked over to it and touched it with her hoof.
"I remember her so well..."
Twist got down to lay in front of it, and started crying. She didn't care how cold it was.
"Twist, honey, don't lay in the snow too long..." She ignored her mom. "Twist...?"
Suddenly, Twist got up and I started running. Her mom called out to her. She didn't care. She didn't care that her mom started chasing her.
____
"Twist, honey, this is Dr. Starnight. He's gonna be helping you, okay?" Twist looked up at the pony her mom mentioned. He was a therapist. She was in a therapist's office. The only therapist office she had been in before was a speech therapist's office. This was different. This pony was supposed to help her because she was emotionally wrong. Or at least, that's what she called it.
"I'm not a child, mom." Twist answered. She really wasn't in the mood to go through with this. Peppermint ignored her comment.
"Alright, I'm gonna leave you two. Alright?" Dr. Starnight nodded. Twist went back to looking at the ground. Did her mom really think there was something wrong with her? She knew subconsciously that she did need some help to get though this. To break the silence, Dr. Starnight cleared his throat and began talking.
"So... It's Twist, correct?"
"...yeah."
"So, why are you here?"
"My mom thinks there is something wrong with me." Several seconds of silence followed.
"...Care to explain?"
"My mom told me that one of my childhood friends was really dead and not moving, and so I did what any normal pony would do and cried and now she thinks something is wrong with me."
"She said that to you?"
"Well... No..."
"So the 'she thinks something is wrong with me' part is assumptions?"
"...yeah."
"Alright, so how about you explain the whole thing to me, in full detail." Twist took a deep breath.
"Well, when I was little I had this friend..."
____
It was a snowy night. Twist was curled up in her bed, crying. But she wasn't crying out of sadness, for she was smiling. They were tears of joy. She was happy, because she finally found someone to help her with problems she never knew she had.