Clouds cover the sky over Canterlot as the town slowly wakes up as the sounds of car horns honking and chatter is heard at the local shops as they open for the day’s business with students from the local high school making their way to campus before the morning bell rings. Canterlot High is known for their campus as it is lush with green grass as well as a small bit of forest towards the back of the football field as well as a patch by the side of the school about thirty yards from the school building which stands two stories tall made with red and white brick with a one story building as its entrance and offices for the school. Within the small patch by the school stands a small green tent. Within the tent lays a teenage boy, he wears torn jeans, a tattered T-shirt with boots and a thick brown jacket. He lays on a sleeping bag that is torn in parts and next to him is a worn out book bag and next to him is a box in bright white wrapping and a metallic blue ribbon and bow. Next to it is a red envelope and in front of it is a picture of a man, woman and two boys, one older than the other with the other being a newborn wrapped up in a blanket in the woman’s arms. Drops of rain hit the leaves that fall on to the tent. The light tapping on the tent causes the teen to stir from his sleep and wakes up. He sits up in the tent with his eyes half open before stretching his arms. The sound of chatter is in the distance, though still audible before he peeks out of the tent seeing silhouettes of students in the distance.
"Guess I have to get moving." He says before getting up to put his jacket on.
He doesn't see anyone before he goes back inside and quickly packs his bag and slings it over his shoulder before going out and disassembling the tent. As he is about to start disassembling the tent he hears a crunch of a fallen branch. He looks around and sees a female figure in the distance though he can't see much of her. He panics and leaves the tent and runs from the area.
"Wait come back!" She shouts.
"How was I found, hell, how was I careless not to double check?" He mumbles to himself as he flees.
He makes it to the other side of the patch and runs away from the school as more chatter in the distance is focused around the patch he was staying in. He slows down to a walking pace, hiding his face as he goes further from the patch.
Back at the school a girl in a leather jacket, jeans, sneakers and a red and yellow tie dye shirt with auburn hair is in the principal's office with two older women behind a desk one of them is tall with long light blue, green, and pink colored hair in a tan suit and another woman who is shorter with dark tan skin and blue hair wearing a dark blue suit stand around a desk in the room with the card that belongs to the teen boy sitting on top of the desk.
"Is this all you found Sunset?" The taller woman asks.
"Yes Principal Celestia, I saw him while taking my shortcut to school to beat the rain, I wasn't able to get a good look at him before he ran though, so I went to where he was and saw some old cans around the tent and I looked inside the tent I saw this, it didn't get that wet thankfully."
Sunset twists her hand and points casually to the card.
"I see, if anything he will most likely come back when he feels the heat has died down."
Principal Celestia sits on her chair and leans back.
"Then what?"
"Then we wait on the outside of the area for him most likely, we'll have a better chance at catching him without him getting seriously hurt at least, this card is the bait and even if he manages to run we still have leverage with it." Sunset explains.
“Why not call the police?” The other woman objects.
“Because if this is the Peanut Butter I think it is, then he’s not going out of hiding if cops are involved, it’s best to keep this internal and there will be no leverage Sunset, if he gets away again we will have to go with Luna’s idea and let them catch him their way, at least we have a name, though the history of that name isn't the best."
Celestia adjusts her chair to have her look towards her computer and types on the keyboard. she then turns the screen of her computer towards Sunset. She reads the article as her eyes look away from the screen as a small frown appears on her face. After she finished reading she looks at Celestia.
"Wow that's something." Sunset says.
“It is, poor child.”
“Is it possible to have my friends help too, with strength in numbers and all?”
“Sunset, if you want to you can have your friends help in this as well, it's best to have numbers on our side. However keep it under wraps from everyone else.”
Sunset nods.
"Yes Principal Celestia."
"You may leave now."
Sunset walks out of the office towards her next class as the door shuts Luna looks at Celestia with a confused look.
"Why don't we have just the police handle this and save us time, Celestia?" She asks.
"Like I said before, we’ll cause him to return into hiding and we won’t get another chance and neither would them.”
Celestia gets up from her chair to make some hot tea. She grabs an electric kettle and a bottle of water from her desk and pours the bottle of water into a small electric kettle and turns the hot plate on the bottom of the kettle on and gets two cups from her desk and brushes them off.
"Why hasn't he opened the letter?" Luna asks.
"Sentimental value probably, you should know all about that, you haven't opened mom's birthday gift to you since she passed away three years ago, you were such a train wreck that I had to get our friends together for an intervention to snap you out of it, actually the more I think about it you and him may not be too different, yet you are the skeptical one about this."
Celestia takes out two bags of tea leaves and places them in the cups.
"It's procedure that I'm skeptical about, there are right ways and wrong ways to do things, this feels like the wrong way to do this."
The water in the kettle starts to boil causing it to whistle as Celestia takes the kettle off the hot plate it's on and pours the water into the cups and hands one to Luna. Luna looks down at the tea with misty eyes. She can barely see her reflection ripple in the tea as she moved the tea bag by the string it is attached to. Celestia drinks her tea softly and looks at Luna from time to time.
After five minutes of silence with the occasional sound of Celestia sipping her tea Luna looks up.
"I'll go along with this plan, as much as I disagree with it, who it is and his probable instability it would be a better for us to handle it first."
Celestia nods as the bell rings for the end of the period.
"Such an eventful morning I'll say." Celestia admits.
"Indeed."
Luna finishes her tea and taking the card and going to her office.
In the hallway right before lunch period Sunset Shimmer meets up with her friends as they walk to a quiet part of the school where no one was around. They all give her a confused look towards her as they notice the direction they are going. They soon reach a dark corner of the school where no one would hear them as Sunset explains the situation to them.
"So let me get this straight, you want us to help catch the guy that was in that forest patch behind of the school?" Rainbow Dash asks.
"Not catch him, more like track him without him figuring out what we are doing, we're waiting for him to go back there before we try to talk him into coming with us."
"I understand what yer trying to do sugar cube, but ya haven't told us his name." AppleJack says.
"His name is Peanut Butter.".
Just then Applejack and Rarity look down with a depressed look on their faces. Sunset tilks her her head slightly with a raised eyebrow as well as Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
"What's wrong with you two?" Rainbow Dash asks.
Applejack looks at Rarity before they both nod and look at her friends.
"We used to know Peanut Butter quite well back in elementary school, we were probably his only friends there since he was usually quite shy at times more so than Fluttershy, no offense, we were very good friends with him until..." Rarity explains as she starts to feel a tear rolls down her face.
"It was after the accident that he changed, he became more distant and wanted nothin' ta do with us or anyone fer that matter, we tried ta help him at first when we heard what happened, but he kept avoidin' us and one day he was just gone, I'll help ya for his sake." Applejack explains.
"We heard he ran away and at one point we tried looking for him, but we had no luck and got lost ourselves, count me in as well."
Rarity takes out an old ragged picture of them and showing it to the others.
"That makes two, how about you three, are you in?" Sunset asks.
"Yep yep yeppers, sounds like he could use a smile and a bunch of friends."
Fluttershy gives a small nod as her way of saying she'll join.
"Count me in too, no way I'm missing out on this." Rainbow says with a bit too much enthusiasm.
"Thanks girls, but this stays between us got it?"
The others nod in agreement just before they go to lunch.
Meanwhile Peanut Butter is huddled underneath a tree in the park on the other side of the city as he opens his bag to check his belongings.
"Everything seems to be here," Peanut Butter says until he starts to move his hands frantically through his bag.
"Oh no, this can't be real, this can't be happening, no no no no no no," Peanut Butter exclaims dumping the contents of his bag onto the ground and looks through it.
"It's missing, oh fuck me, now I have to go back and get that card back, how did I forget it?" Peanut Butter exclaims to himself before breaking into tears, pressing his legs against his chest.
After classes have ended at Canterlot High the rain has stopped though the sky remains grey. As most of the students are on their way home, to after school programs, or jobs, Sunset Shimmer and her friends start what Pinkie dubbed "Operation: Super Sneaky Trap" as they spread out through the city to find Peanut Butter.
In another part of town Peanut Butter packs his bag before he slowly makes his way towards the patch of forest he was in this morning. The first person to notice him is Sunset Shimmer who is sitting on a bench across the street and has most of her face covered by a newspaper as she sends a quick text to the others to be at the forest patch and be hidden before contacting Celestia and Luna.
Throughout the city Sunset follows him until he enters the patch and lets the others know to get into position around the patch. As they take their places Peanut Butter reaches the center of the patch where his tent is and looks around for the card.
"Where is it, where is it, come on it has to be here, I don't care if it's destroyed I just need it back." Peanut Butter says fighting back the tears building up from his frustration.
On the outside of the patch to his left Applejack is the closest to him from her position and hears his frantic searching and rustling around the tent. She takes a step to get a better look not realizing she is stepping on a branch. As she completes the step a loud snap is heard from a branch breaking as Peanut Butter looks around and sees them around the outside. He quickly looks around as the others reveal themselves. Celestia is in front of him on the outside of the patch.
"We're not going to hurt you Peanut Butter, please don't run." Celestia says in a calm yet loud voice.
Peanut Butter looks towards his left as he turns on his heel and charges to the edge. Going through everything besides the trees that is in his way. The crunching of branches become constant as he charges towards the edge.
"AppleJack he's heading your way." Sunset says.
Applejack sees his silhouette rush towards her as she starts to get into position to tackle him by widening her stance and her arms out away from her sides. Her eyes widen for a second before Peanut Butter passes her. She shakes her head and turns on her heel to give chase, she slips on the wet grass and falls to the ground. She looks ahead and sees his back as he runs off. Applejack gets up and starts chasing him. Peanut Butter looks behind him and sees her getting closer. He drops his book bag as he runs. As he sees the road he starts to smile and picks up the pace before Rainbow Dash catches him off guard and tackles him onto the grass then pins him down as the others follow to hold him down.
"Let me go!" Peanut Butter demands as he struggles.
"No chance on that." Rainbow Dash retorts.
Peanut Butter struggles trying to get free. Rarity and Applejack walk towards him with squinting eyes and slight frowns on their faces as Applejack helps pinning him down.
"Is this how you treat people now Peanut Butter, you just run whenever you're seen?" Rarity asks.
"When you're greeted with a trap followed by a tackle what else would you expect Rarity?"
"Oh now ya talk ta us after about what, five years?!" Applejack shouts.
"Well sorry if I was in a dark place back then and wanted to be alone."
"By the sounds of it you are still in that dark place after five years." Rarity remarks.
Peanut Butter stops struggling though Rainbow Dash, Sunset and Applejack are still pinning him down.
"You don't understand what it's like to lose everything Rarity, so don't act like you know." Peanut Butter says.
"You're right, I don't know, but that's no reason to shut out your friends the way you did."
Luna and Celestia stand in front of them and look down at Peanut Butter. He looks back up at them with a hint of anger and exhaustion in his eyes. After his struggling he's grown tired.
"We can do this two ways, either you can come with us or we turn you over to the police for trespassing, your choice." Celestia says.
Peanut Butter looks down silently with a sigh not sure what to say.
"Peanut Butter please we wanna help ya, but we can't if ya don't budge, if anyone knows about what you're feeling it’s me, we haven't seen each other in five years, things have changed and I moved on with ma life, besides I think that picture of us three could use an update don't ya think?" Applejack explains.
Applejack takes out the same picture Rarity has and shows it to Peanut Butter. The picture was from a school trip they took to a soccer stadium. It has Peanut Butter in the middle With Rarity on his left and Applejack on his right sitting in front of a soccer goal with Peanut Butter holding a soccer ball with them smiling. Peanut Butter starts to cry as tears flow down his face. Just then Luna takes out the card Peanut Butter has held onto for years and shows it to him still unopened. She looks down at him with stern yet sympathetic eyes.
"Tell me Peanut Butter do you think they would approve of what you've become?" Luna asks.
Peanut Butter's nostrils flare as he starts to squirm again.
“Someone caught second wind!” Rainbow Dash exclaims as she and the others on him tighten their grip.
"How dare you try to bring them into this!"
"Will ya just answer the question." Applejack scolds.
Peanut Butter moves his head to one side with a huff.
"No they wouldn't."
"How do you think they would feel?" Luna asks.
He stays silent for a couple minutes before responding to Luna.
"I.....I don't know."
"I don't think they would approve of your choices if you ask me."
Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Sunset Shimmer get off of Peanut Butter as what lays on the ground now is a broken man. With a heavy sigh he slowly gets up on his mud covered knees and sits up on his knees.
"I'll go with you, the last thing I need is a record with the cops, but that doesn't mean everything is all flowers and candies now, I'm doing this for their sake alone." Peanut Butter says smugly.
Applejack stands in front of Peanut Butter and offers her hand so he could get up on his feet. Though he gets up by himself still feeling sore from being pinned down. Applejack has a frustrated look on her face as she uses her extended hand to hit Peanut Butter upside the head. He rubs the back of his head and gives a mean look at Applejack before picking up his book bag.
"I was tryin ta be nice ya know." Applejack scolds with an angry tone in her voice.
"If I wanted your help I would have asked A.J.."
"Let us get inside before it rains again, you girls go home, Luna and I will take care of him." Celestia explains.
They all nodded and said their goodbyes as Luna, Celestia and Peanut Butter head back to the school.
It has been raining for a good part of Applejack's walk home. As soon she enters the door she takes off her shoes and goes upstairs to her room. She throws her book bag on the floor and sits on her bed before changing into warm clothes. She takes out the picture of her, Rarity and Peanut Butter and looks at it with foggy nostalgic look in her eyes.
"It's good ta have ya back my friend." Applejack says before laying on her bed staring at the ceiling losing herself to her memories.