When Friends are Said and Dun

by xenos29

Chapter 15

The first rays of sunlight were hitting the crystal window when Twilight awoke. A lot was waiting for her this morning, but at last she felt rested and in some shape to take on the day. She had obviously woken up far too early; when she instinctively nudged Spike awake, he didn't even look at her. He looked past at the clock Twilight knew was behind her, then immediately re-buried himself in his blanket.

Opening the door as quietly as possible, Twilight peeked into the hallway. Everypony else’s doors were shut. Taking care to close the door behind her, she walked down the corridor to a common room where, to her surprise, she found Alpenglow. He was staring out of one of the windows, his helmet on the couch next to him.

"Good morning, Alpenglow," Twilight greeted pleasantly.

The stallion slowly turned his head. When he saw it was Twilight, he briskly spun around. "Good morning, Twilight," he said as she joined him at the window. For a moment, they simply admired the view as the morning casted light on the glittering glass cityscape.

"Have you been to the Crystal Empire before?" Twilight asked.

"Yes. I remember coming here a lot, actually. Don't remember why, though."

"Well, maybe it’s time to start remembering."

Alpenglow turned to face Twilight, his face still. "What do you mean?"

Twilight slowly lifted the scroll from underneath her wing. "You wrote a letter to the princess before you went to stop Blight. Do you remember?"

"No, I don’t," he said, unblinking.

"Please, Alpenglow. I know you’ve done your best to forget what happened, but I don’t think we can stop Blight unless you remember."

"We haven’t even looked in the archives yet. We’ll find what we need there," he insisted.

"What if we don’t? What if the only way to stop Blight is to know how you did it the first time? We need you. If you won’t do it to remember your old friends, will you at least do it to help your new ones?"

Alpenglow shook his head. "I’m sorry, Twilight. I have nothing but respect for all of you, but that's not how it works. You know that."

"I guess not, but I was hoping-"

The knight sighed in defeat. "At the archives, I promised I would do everything I could to help you. But I need you to understand something first, Twilight." He turned away from her and leaned against the window sill. "Have you ever…fought with your friends?"

"Yes, of course," she said, softly.

"But you forgave each other."

"Yes."

"Mine didn't." He turned away. "Imagine if you had fought with them, and one by one, they all left you. After a while, you couldn’t remember what their names or what they looked like. Your memories of them were gone, but so was the feeling of losing them." Alpenglow took the letter and looked her in the eye.

"Would you want to remember that, Twilight? Even if it meant losing them all over again?"

Twilight hesitated. She had never thought about what life would be like without her friends. No matter how she looked at it, there didn’t seem to be a right answer.

Alpenglow opened the scroll, carefully peeling off the seal and unrolling the worn paper. Twilight winced slightly as he began to read it aloud. Line by line, Alpenglow’s face flickered between confusion, heartbreak, and rage, and when he read the Tawny Timbre's name, he stopped for moment to gaze out the window. Though he had to be around the same age as Shining Armor, his face looked very old in the light of the window.

Once finished, he let the letter fall from his hoof. It floated gently down onto the table to the left. His head hung low and he refused to look at Twilight. Suffocating silence filled the room. She began to reach out to him with her hoof, and he said, "You can come in now."

Twilight around and saw everypony walk timidly into the room. They all stood in a semicircle around the two of them, looking a little embarrassed.

"Crystal floors aren’t made for sneaking, ladies," Alpenglow said weakly.

Fluttershy stepped forward. "We are so sorry, Alpenglow. We had no idea what Blight did to you and your friends."

"There was no way you could have, miss. What’s done is done, and it’s probably best that you know."

Applejack took off her hat. She stared into it, and a flicker of anger lingered before she let out a heavy breath, snuffing it out. Applejack, ever dependable, had proven her character again. "What I said before...that was a low blow, partner. I'm real sorry." She hid her mouth behind her hat. "Think you can forgive me?"

"Of course, miss. You have nothing to be apologize for. You didn't know, and I'm sorry for what I said before. I don't know what got into me, but..." He walked over to the couch and scooped up his helmet. He stared at it a second before saying, "I know Blight. He won’t destroy Ponyville, not yet, which means we still have a chance."

That new hope brought everypony to silence for a moment. Then, Rarity spoke up, and the whole morning took on a different color. "It is nice to finally clear the air. Apologies for distrusting you, Alpenglow."

"For the record, I didn’t doubt him for a second," Rainbow quickly pointed out.

"Me neither!" added Pinkie. "Or maybe I did, who knows?"

"Uh...you should, Pinkie," said Rainbow.

Spike had apparently read Twilight’s mind. "So now what?" he asked.

Twilight pointed outside. "Let's head to the library now. We’re sure to find something there."

As everypony walked towards the exit, Fluttershy asked, "Is there anything else you’d like to say, Alpenglow?"

"No, miss, but thank you for asking. I’m fine; reading the letter just gave me a lot to think about. I’m starting to remember a few things, but nothing’s all that clear yet. If anything useful comes up, I promise to let you all know."

Fluttershy gave a friendly smile. "We’re all here for you if you need to talk. And you can just call me Fluttershy."

"Same goes for the rest of us, Alpenglow," added Applejack. "Besides," she chuckled, "you’ve got a few years on us anyway. You got every right to use our names."

With the sun now well in the sky, Twilight, her friends, and Alpenglow all made their way to the library.