Friendship is not something you learn on school. No books, guides or TV shows will ever teach you the true meaning of forming genuine bonds with others. My dear Dean Cadence once said to me that if you haven't learned the meaning of knowing someone to the point of sharing your hopes and dreams in the purest ways, then you really haven't learned anything at all about relationships. I didn’t believe her, even if I love and respect her so much. Always telling me that I could end up alone. Always reminding me that I should open my heart with the people.
I tried during my days of being a Shadowbolt to form genuine bonds… And I failed. That school just wasn’t warm and welcoming enough for me. My old babysitter, my brother and my dog were the only solace I had in that grim place. Then, the Friendship Games happened and the rest is history. I found people I could call lovely. I found individuals who could form bonds with me willingly. Then why? Why do I feel so apathetic? What is the sense of misery that I’m experiencing? Why do I feel so empty and hopeless?
What will I do now?
“Twilight, do you want your happy meal with extra cheese?”
“I believe my sister would prefer the toy pack! Right, Twily?”
“Yeah…”
After my…date with Flash, I found myself rushing back home. In an act of goodwill from my guiding stars in the heavens, I happened to stumble with my brother while he was driving around with Dean Cadence. They let me join them in their moments of fun, rejecting any objection I had for them. They originally planned to go to a elegant restaurant... but they changed their plans for me.
“You have that gloomy face since we picked you up, Twilight!”
“I didn’t have a nice day, Dean Cadence.“
“Now, now! I’m no longer your Dean, Twilight” She spoke proudly. “Cadence is fine, my future sister!” She said warmly and patted my head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be!” She embraced me. “Shining Armor! Do something!”
He was ahead of her. Wearing the silliest black glasses I ever seen from one of the stands and posing like a super confident guy straight from a bad comedy show, he was doing a little show in front of us, surrounded by strangers in the Bendy’s Hamburger restaurant. He didn’t care about the laughs of the people, the only thing it mattered to him was making me laugh. And he succeeded.
This place has the best homemade hamburgers on the whole district to the point of making me eat meat, which I don’t do often. My family agrees on the quality of the place, my De-… Cadence agrees, and also Nitty and his friends thought the same in a little talk we had during our bowling match, even if two people were somewhat… scary. But Nitty and Lightbulb said that they don’t come here often, something about the prices. I don’t know why, though. I mean, the cheapest combo pack cost fifty nine with ninety nine cents so it’s very accessible.
I ended up asking for the Veggie Happy Meal with extra cheese in it. A small patty bathed in sweet BBQ sauce and enveloped in lettuce, onions and tomatoes with boiled potatoes at its side with a pinch of salt to better the taste. Also, it has a little collectible of one of the franchise’s pets. When we sat down in the spacious table and the waiter brought us our dinner, I got lucky in the item they gave me. I have the bear now, my collection was now complete.
“Big Bro, isn’t that hamburger a little too big?”
“I’m hungry, Twily! Besides, is not that big! Right, Cadence?”
“I couldn’t eat half of that, dear.”
“Not to mention, it has too much meat! Did you know that the people who eat less meat and more dry seeds, fruits and vegetables can prolong their life expectancy for nine years in the long run? That and ingesting more water, but you already do that.”
“Yes, Twily! But nine horrible, worthless, meatless years aren’t worth that expectancy.”
I giggled in my mind. I believe I heard a similar answer before.
“Even if it means that I could live nine years longer than you, leaving your future wife all alone during her third-age years?”
“Hey! I bet I can live one-hundred years so don’t worry about that, Cadence! Anyway did you have fun this week in your new school again, Twily?” Big Bro asked happily while feasting on his Ultima Hamburger.
“Yes, Big Bro… but… today wasn’t that nice.”
“How so?” He asked a little reluctant.
“Well… I don’t want to talk about it.”
He took a big sip from his glass filled with juice and gently put it back to the table. “You know you can trust us with anything.” He said pleasantly.
Not finding any reason to deny my brother, I told him the tale as best as I could from the start, excluding the magical developments, of course. How I met Flash, his befriending and today’s… mistake. De- Cadence was already aware of some of the previous details until today. She calls me once a week at minimum. I didn’t talk to my brother about my school life that much, to be honest.
Not because I didn’t love him, all the contrary. But with his online Master Degree in Crystal Prep University, his special sport classes on Saturdays in the school and his work as an army reserve in the local military base made his time limited to be with me… But I’m glad he always finds time to spend with us. He always makes time for everything.
“From what you told to us, Twilight, I only have to say that this Flash was a little misguided.”
“Misguided? Cadence, he tried to replace someone else with my sister!” He punched the table in anger, nearly breaking it.
“Calm down, my love! Everyone makes mistakes like that during youth! You know that well!” She appeased him.
“Even so, the day I meet him, I’ll-“
“Do nothing!” She completed his comment. “Think about how your actions could affect Twilight’s school life!”
“The school will know that it has me to defend her! If only I was aware about my sister’s social standing on Crystal Prep…” He sighed a little regretful. “But never again!”
“Thank you, Big Bro…” I was happy.
“Although I’m delighted with the enthusiasm you have for the sake of our family, Twilight needs to learn from this and choose wisely her friendships from now on! Some wolfs disguise themselves as human beings!”
“I don’t think Flash is a bad guy… but…”
“Listen, Twiliy! He may be a good guy as you say, but you mustn’t allow yourself to be the consolation prize of anyone! The horrible feeling of a lover rejection is bad! But trying to replace his last love with you just because you share her face is worse and unkind!”
“The horrible feeling of a lover rejection? Unkind? I don’t think I’m the one who was rejected, Big Bro.”
“He rejected your true persona, Twily! I’ll never forgive that!”
“Listen, Twilight!” Cadence said while caressing my cheek. “You are unique, no matter if there’s a doppelganger of you in the world.”
“But it seems that I cannot escape her shadow! All this time everybody at school treated me nice because I just resemble someone else… I don’t have the same worth as her.”
She took my hands, giving me her brightest smile yet. “Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself, it becomes a second of your life wasted. Twilight, I’m sure you are exaggerating when you say ‘Everybody’. Didn’t some of your friends tried to tell you about what was happening with him?”
“…Yes.”
“If they didn’t care at all, they wouldn’t have tried to tell you… It’s true that it should have been sooner, but I’m sure they have a reason.”
“I can safely say that they didn’t want to hurt you.” My brother said. “I can understand a little if they didn’t want to tell you in a bluntly manner… Perhaps, they just wanted to spare you this outcome in a passive way and prolong things until he gave up.”
“It didn’t work…” I said reluctantly.
“No, it didn’t.” Cadence continued. “But they tried their best, wanting only to protect your feelings. And speaking of premium treatment, I’m sure that the people that don’t know the Princess of the Fall Formal only thinks of you as their one and only Twilight Sparkle. Or I am wrong?”
People that don’t know the Princess… they… him!
“No matter if they love or hate you, the people that know you, and only you, treats you as their will dictates. In our case, we see you as a special girl with a common life, enjoying her Happy Meal with her family.”
I hugged her, feeling her arms holding me tight. “Thank you for everything.”
“Remember!” She spoke again after we separated. “There are times when you meet someone so beautiful, or handsome in our case, that you became comfortable with them. But given time and after talking to them, you realize they are as dull as a brick. A common Brad, if you will. Then, there are other people, when you meet them you think that they are okay. With the pace of time, you realize that their personalities are gorgeous, and that becomes their faces. And they just turn into something beautiful.”
“Like the expression of never judging a book because of its cover?”
“Yes, Twilight! The same meaning is applied here. Before your brother right here who is making a serious face all of the sudden.”
“I’m not!” He denied it with arms crossed.
Cadence giggled a little. “I had someone else that I liked… Buck Withers was my first crush and nearly my boyfriend. He was the captain of the Polo team during our years of High School. He was popular, rich and many more things. He was rather shallow once I came to know him completely, and he only wanted me because I was the prettiest girl at school… Your brother came eventually into my life, and once I met his real self… well, these rings in our fingers should tell you the rest.”
“Only a couple of months more…” My brother added with a soft smile, looking down to infinity. She grabbed his hands, their rings subtlety shining when they got closer to each other. They exchanged a glimpse of love with their eye.
“Twilight. I know that you came to share with me the belief of not falling in love so soon… and that’s okay. But it will come the time where you’ll meet your significant other, and if you wait for too long to take action, he’ll be gone from your life. Live the moment, but choose wisely before taking a decision. You understand what I’m saying?”
“I believe I do, Cadence!”
“Also remember, Twily! You are a complete woman! There’s no such things as other half’s! Cadence and I are happy together because we choose to temper our love with each challenge that life bestow upon us! Never allow someone to make you think otherwise! There are exceptions to what Cadence said, though. If you happen to never find love with another person, its fine! As long as you are happy with your life, then that’s the only thing that matters!”
“But enough about discussing serious matters! Let’s finish our dinner and go to the cinemas near our homes! I want to see the Rising Moon movie with both of you!”
“NO!” My brother and I shouted together.
Dean Cadence laughed graciously. “I was just joking, you two!”
“You won’t joke with that kind of things in my presence ever again, dear!”
“Same here, Cadence! It was of bad taste!”
“Huh, though crowd.”
We laughed together and kept talking while finishing our meals. We did go to the cinemas, but we ended up seeing a different genre of movies. The Rambonator, a re-mastered movie from the eighties, was a little brutal for me… but I liked it for some reason. It was eleven in the night when the movie was over and my brother left Cadence in her home and soon afterward, we arrived home.
My parents were waiting for us, worried for our safe return. I’m glad to see them as healthy as always. Big Bro brought some cake with him and we had some slices of it… Sadly, he won’t be around tomorrow in the morning. He leaves tomorrow to Canterlot for four days to another base of operations. Something about a SPETSNAZ training session with Griffonian forces.
I wish he didn’t go away again. That life of his is time consuming, but I must be grateful that he is living his dreams. He knows what he wants in life. So does Cadence. So do the people I started to know and befriend. They already know who they are… Now resting in my bed after having taken a shower, I admired the stars that were shining beyond my roof window.
“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Spike asked to me from his bed on the floor. “Something tells me that you are sad.”
“Shining Armor leaves tomorrow again, Spike. And I was just thinking about something.”
“What could that be?”
“Do I have a self?”
“A self? What do you mean?”
“Princess Twilight is so great and wise. She can traverse the fabric of time and space at will. She is a ruler loved by everyone in her realm. She has friends that love her and magic capable of defeating evil. And I… I’m just me.”
“Yeah… she sure is amazing.”
“…Indeed.”
“But for me you are the greatest of all.” He leaped to my bed and joined my side.
“Spike?”
“It’s true that the Princess has done many good things! But for me, you gave me the greatest gift of all.”
“The ability to talk?”
He curled besides me, yawning with tiredness from a long day of staying awake. “A place that I can call home… where I don’t suffer the harshness of rain… nor the pain of hunger…” He was falling asleep. “You know… I believe next month it’ll be a year… since I arrived…” His peaceful snores marked the start of his slumber.
Nearly a year already? Time sure flies when you stop paying attention to it. I was thinking of what he said, but I couldn’t reason anything more for today. I was tired. Before I sleep, I’ll just put myself comfortable. “I’m glad that you came into my life, Spike.” I whispered and I soon closed down my eyes.
Next morning I awoke again at the same six in the morning, at the same pace, with the same routine. Shower, breakfast, dressing, preparing my bags, brushing my teeth to perfection and going with either my mom or with Mrs. Peanut to the school! Today my mother took me to school. She was happy because we spend time together last night as family. I was pleased to hear that.
Thinking about everything that happened these few days and thanks to my family support, I know I can overcome this. This challenge of life was a step forward for me… Just like my brother said. Just like Nitty said. I hope he likes his scrambled eggs with parmesan cheese.
As the car was approaching the school, its gardens were full of students, making a big commotion. I wonder what it could be. Oh! Perhaps it’s about the Thanksgiving event that the girls mentioned. I must look out for Sunset immediately to help her out!
“Alright, my little star! Have fun at the school!” My mom said while giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“I will! See you in the evening, mom!”
I got out of the car and mom soon left to the city. As I walked through the multitude, I could hear whispers… negative ones about a kind of arguing. It didn’t take me so long before I saw what was happening.
Sunset and Nitpick were in the middle of the gardens, looking at each other with unfriendly eyes.