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Prologue3,742 words
Loyalty1,518 words
Kindness1,863 words
Honesty1,711 words

Loyalty

Luna smiled as she walked into the library, with Sonata walking steadily behind her. The dark blue alicorn lead her apprentice through the vast halls of books, until she finally arrived at a table. “Why don't you sit down, Sonata?”

The young earth pony looked up at her mentor and nodded. As Sonata sat down, Luna set a book in front of her, smiling as she opened it up.

“Tell me, How much reading do you usually do?”

Sonata raised her hoof to her chin and frowned, as if deep in thought. This lasted for a few seconds, until she looked back up towards her mentor. “Well, sometimes I read the menu at taco restaurants.”

Luna pressed her hoof against her mouth and coughed as she held back the urge to laugh.

“Yes, I… *ahem* suppose that could count as reading. But there are many other things to read in Equestria. For example, these ancient books contain a wealth of knowledge which can be yours if you simply take the time to read through them.”

A drop of sweat rolled down Sonata’s forehead.

“So... you want me to read all these old books? For fun?!”

“Oh, of course not,” Luna said kindly. “But I will give you a few books to read that I hope will interest you. I am certain that you will come to enjoy them if you give them a chance.”

Sonata was still unsure, but Luna seemed to think she’d enjoy them. Feeling obligated to please her mentor, the blue filly began to look at the words. However, as she read through it, she saw something poking out of one of the pages.

“Wuzzat?”

Luna raised her eyebrows as she eyed the piece of paper sticking out. As she pulled it out with her magic, her eyes widened. “Oh.” she whispered quietly, almost inaudibly.

Sonata looked up in confusion as Luna picked it out. Her curiosity became stronger as she saw a solemn expression form on her mentor's face.

“What is that, Princess?”

Luna didn't answer. She just kept staring at the paper held in her magic grip.

“Hello? Miss Princess? Are you there?”

Finally, Luna shook herself out of her stupor and looked downwards at her young student.

“I'm sorry, Sonata. I was just thinking about a pony who I used to know.”

Sonata turned her head in confusion before looking at the paper. For the most part, it seemed to be a fairly normal paper carrying notes that somepony had written. However, the blue filly's attention was drawn to a small drawing at the top left corner.

“Hey, Princess! That's you!”

In spite of the sadness gripping her heart, Luna couldn't help but smile at Sonata’s comment.

“Yes, that is a little drawing of me, made by an old student of mine.”

“An old student?” Sonata asked. “Can I meet her?”

Luna's smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of sadness.

“I'm sorry, Sonata. She… left.”

Sonata raised an eyebrow.

“Left? Why? Didn't she like you?”

Sonata only felt more confused when tears began to stream down Luna's face.

“She did once.”

The blue filly didn't understand why anypony would stop liking Luna. She was so nice! And she was the ruler of all of Equestria, and a very powerful alicorn! Also, she didn't lock sirens in moon prisons.

Almost without thinking, Sonata stood up on her hind limbs and wrapped her arms around her mentor’s abdomen. Luna's eyes opened wide and she looked downwards.

“Don't worry, Princess. I'll never stop liking you.”

For a moment, Luna didn't answer. She simply stared down at her protégé. However, she soon managed to collect herself.

“It's not just that she stopped liking me, Sonata,” she explained. “I… made mistakes. Mistakes that created a rift between myself and her. And I failed to correct those mistakes until it was too late.”

Sonata was not quite sure what Luna meant, but she still wanted to cheer Luna up. “Well, as long as you don't make any more mistakes, everypony will still like you, right?”

Luna chuckled ruefully at her pupil’s naïveté. “Oh, I wish that were true, Sonata. But alas, I an far from infallible, and I shall always make mistakes.”

“Oh,” Sonata said as she scratched her chin. “Well, how about I make sure to always like you so that there's always somepony who likes you?”

“Oh, Sonata,” said Luna. “If you could always like me, I'd be incredibly happy. But for all we know, I may one day wrong you an a way that will cause you to stop liking me.”

Sonata scratched her head as she thought about what Luna had said. “Well, maybe something like that happens one day. But until then, I'll always stay with you no matter what!”

As Sonata finished, she continued to hug her mentor. Luna smiled at the sight, and wrapped her own hooves around her little student.

Oh, Sonata. I can only hope you shall remain faithful to me.

Fluttershy winced as she opened her eyes. She could see light pouring in from a window, but she couldn't identify where she was. Somehow, the surroundings were different; instead of clouds, it seemed that everything was made of wood. But why? Hadn't she gotten back to the camp after the race?

And then the memory of the race came back, flooding her memory. She remembered how she'd been pushed off the clouds when Rainbow and the colts began their race, and how her friend had come back for her, even if it meant losing the race, and how they'd crashed into-

Fluttershy gasped in horror.

“Rainbow Dash! Where are you?!”

The yellow pegasus immediately jumped out of the bed, only to yell out in pain as she attempted to spread her wings. Fortunately, before she could fall, she was caught by an unfamiliar pair of hooves.

“Whoa there, nelly. You ain't in any condition to go out flyin’.”

Fluttershy looked up at the speaker. It was a brick-red earth pony stallion with a green mane.

“You sure got beat up when you and your little friend crashed into that old barn. Lucky for you Little Mac was there to tell us that y'all were in trouble.”

Fluttershy looked at the stallion in curiosity, before he noticed a pony standing behind the doorway. It was a red colt with an orange mane who was wearing a brown harness around his neck. Upon realizing that she was looking at him, he blushed and hid behind the door.

Somehow, Fluttershy’s face felt hotter than usual.

“Ma! Honey! One of the fillies woke up!”

Immediately, an orange mare with a bright yellow earth pony mane rushed into the room. She then snatched Fluttershy right out of her husband's grip and began to examine every inch of her body.

“Oh dear! Are you alright? Does anything hurt? Do I need to find your parents? Oh, please tell me yo-”

“Stop!”

The mare immediately stopped her prodding. Satisfied, Fluttershy began to look around the room. Very quickly, she spotted a familiar tuft of rainbow hair.

“Rainbow Dash!!!”

The yellow filly jumped out of the mare's arms and ran to her friend’s bed. Her eyes filled with tears as she saw her friend lying unconscious on the bed.

“Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh! Rainbow! Please don't die! Please don't die!”

“Don't worry, little filly,” the stallion said. “Your friend here just needs her beauty sleep and she'll be right as rain!”

Fluttershy turned towards the stallion with a worried expression.

“But what if she's not?! What if she can't fly anymore?! What if she's really badly hurt?! If she can't become a Wonderbolt anymore, it'll be all my fault!”

Fluttershy then burst into tears. She'd never felt so worthless before. True, she'd always been mocked and bullied for her inability to fly, but she'd always had Rainbow by her side. Now her friend was lying unconscious on a bed, all because she was too much of a weak flier to save herself from falling to her death.

To her surprise, she felt herself being softly embraced by a gentle pair of hooves. She stopped crying as she looked up to see the mare giving her a kind look.

“Don't blame yourself, young filly. Accidents happen, and sometimes ponies get hurt. But your friend here has very few injuries. Once she wakes up, she'll be just fine.”

The mare smiled at Fluttershy reassuringly, which slowly cause the pink-maned filly to smile back.

“Look at you,” the orange mare said. “Even when you're all hurt like this, all you think about is your friend. She's lucky to have a friend like you.”

Fluttershy smiled, and then turned towards Rainbow Dash.

“No,” she said happily. “I'm lucky to have a friend like her.”

Author's Note:

I'm not sure my proofreader has had time to go 100% over this chapter, but I wanted to get it up before I left for Christmas. Hopefully I haven't made too many mistakes.

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