My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship

by Danieru

84. Sister Pie

If there is one thing that Star Twinkle really liked, then it was getting a good portion of sleep. So of course, not getting enough of sleep can make him really grumpy.

Like today...

Star Twinkle, as well as the rest of his friends, were supposed to meet Pinkie Pie early in the morning in front of Sugarcube Corner. By the time where Star Twinkle arrived, he actually didn't really care anymore what Pinkie Pie wanted from them and just wished that whatever she wanted, wouldn't take too much time so that he could go home and get some sleep back.

The rest of his friends were not too excited about getting up this early either. Rainbow Dash, pretty much spoke out what everyone else was thinking at the very moment.

"I don't see what's so important we had to meet her here this early. Celestia hasn't even raised the sun yet!" Rainbow Dash complained while she pointed towards the horizon.

"Agreed..." Star Twinkle said, followed by a yawn. "I would have preferred if she could have met us a few hours later..." he added while he rubbed his eyes a little.

"Come to think of it, did somepony even saw her yesterday?" Applejack asked.

She was referring to how Pinkie Pie was probably home all day yesterday which could be the reason why nopony saw her since then. After realizing that, Twilight got a little worried and decided to knock on the door of Sugarcube Corner. "I hope everything's okay," she said with some concern while knocking on the door.

Immediately after, there were some loud noises coming from inside, as if something really big just fell over or something. This only caused the group to get even more worried but fortunately, Pinkie Pie then opened the door, wearing a chef's hat and some safety glasses. "Thank goodness you're all here!" She said, not even going into detail what that noise just now was. "There's no time to lose!" She then said before she dragged everypony inside without warning, much to the confusion of everypony.

When the group walked inside, or rather, was dragged inside, there were colorful little rocks scattered all over the ground. Not to mention that there were also huge piles of those rocks everywhere. To put it simply, the place was a huge mess that was most likely caused by Pinkie Pie.

"What is all this?" Twilight asked after she looked around the place.

Pinkie Pie quickly explained. "My sister Maud's gonna be here soon, and I need your help taste-testing my rock candy recipes!" She said.

Star Twinkle picked one of those rocks up and inspected it further. "Those are candies?" He asked before he tasted one of them. They were indeed candies. They were a little hard to chew but they were also sweet and tasty. This meant that Pinkie Pie must have spent the whole day yesterday to make candies, judging by how many candies were inside of the room.

But the number of candies was exactly what got some worried. "Uh, we're happy to help you, Pinkie Pie, but this seems like an awful lot of candy," Applejack said.

"Even for you," Rarity agreed.

After taking a look at all the candy in the room, Pinkie Pie quickly came to that conclusion as well. "I may have gone a teensy bit overboard," she said before she grinned in embarrassment.

But despite the amount of candy in the room, the others decided to help the mare out. Star Twinkle was actually looking forward to it. "We just have to eat candies? That doesn't sound too bad, right?" He asked towards the rest of his friends.

The others thought about it for a moment but they quickly came to the conclusion to help Pinkie Pie out with this and agreed to taste test the candies that Pinkie Pie made. Eating some candies shouldn't be much of a problem, is what everyone thought, so they quickly went to work and taste some of the candies that were already there while Pinkie Pie was already making some new ones.

Later...

"This was not a good idea..." Star Twinkle said in regret as he laid on the ground with a hurting stomach.

But just when he thought he was done, Pinkie Pie came with another cart full of rock candies. "Everypony ready for more?" She asked.

But all she got as a response were groans from the rest of her friends who were all laying down on the ground because of the number of candies that they consumed.

"Ugh. My teeth hurt," Rainbow Dash said. She was the one who ate the most of the candies so far.

Because those candy rocks were pretty hard, eating a lot of them was actually pretty painful, that is something everypony could agree on.

"I think we've had plenty," Applejack said. "And shouldn't you be on your way to pick up Maud from the train station?" She pointed out.

But Pinkie Pie didn't seem to be worried. "Oh, but you've only tried half of the flavors, and we have to choose the perfect ones before she gets here so I have time to make more!" She said before she proceeded to eat all the rock candies on her own which made caused the others to hurt their teeth just watching that.

Eventually, Twilight decided to be the voice of reason. "Maud is your sister. I'm sure she'll love your rock candy. And I'm pretty sure you've made enough. She's only staying for the week," she said in order to calm Pinkie Pie down a bit.

"Aw, it's not just for Maud, silly," Pinkie Pie replied. "I'm making candy for all of us!"

A big groan that came from everypony quickly filled the room after hearing that. "I'll pass..." Star Twinkle said as he raised his hoof into the air while still laying on the ground with a hurting stomach and teeth.

However, Pinkie Pie was quite serious about all this. "It's part of a very important, super-duper special tradition that only the closest and bestest of friends can share. We're going to make rock candy necklaces together!" She said before she squealed in excitement. She then pulled out a necklace that was made out of rock candies and shared her story about this tradition. "It all started when Maud and I were fillies on the rock farm. She taught me the Pie family rock candy recipe! It adds a secret ingredient..." she said before she whispered the secret ingredient. "It's rocks!" She then spoke in her normal voice again. "And she showed me how to string the pieces to make them into a necklace! And once we were done, we'd trade! Maud and I have been trading necklaces back and forth since I moved to Ponyville. They're a sign that we'll always be best friends!" She said before she grinned widely.

Hearing this story was actually warming the hearts of the group, even while their teeth hurt...

Of course, Applejack, who was very proud of her family and their traditions was happy to hear a story like that. "Aw, what a great tradition," she said with a smile on her face.

But then Rainbow Dash pointed out what must have slipped over everyponies minds in the middle of this heartwarming story. "Hold on...The secret ingredient is rocks?" She asked confused.

After getting a taste of so much rock candies, Star Twinkle figured as much, just by how hard they were. "That would explain a lot..." he said while he poked his teeth out of fear that he might have broken some of his teeth after munching those "candies".

Pinkie Pie gave an explanation for that. "Yeah. But these are a special kind of rock that Maud discovered,"

"Oh, what kind of a rock are they?" Fluttershy asked out of curiosity.

Pinkie Pie quickly approached the mare and moved her head towards her. "Can't tell ya that, silly! It's a secret!" She whispered once more.

"They better not be real rocks..." Star Twinkle thought. He just figured that this was the case just because she and her sister both grew up on a rock farm.

"Now that Maud is heading out to get her rocktorate in rock science, this may be our last chance to trade them for a really long time," Pinkie Pie said with some worry on her face, however, the mere thought about sharing this tradition with her friends made her beam again. "I can't wait for you all to meet her. I just know that my best Ponyville friends and my best sister friend are gonna become bestest friends! We can make bestest-est friend rock candy necklaces together!" She said in her excitement before she walked up to the group to invite them all in a big group hug. "She expresses herself through fashion just like Rarity, and she's really smart and loves reading just like Twilight! And she's honest, and loves forest things, and is good at games, and is really good at building... Well, oh, she's awesome!" The pink party pony exclaimed, praising her sister higher and higher in hope that the others would get excited about Maud's visit as well.

But being almost strangled by Pinkie Pie in this big group hug made it a little hard to get excited.

"Need...air!" Star Twinkle said as he gasped for air.

"She sounds amazing, but won't she start worrying if you aren't at the train station when she gets here?" Rarity pointed out.

"She sure will," Pinkie Pie replied happily until she finally noticed that she might be a little late by now. After she realized that, she released a shocked gasp. "I gotta get out of here!" She said before she rushed out of the door to pick up her sister.

"Talk about getting your priorities right..." Star Twinkle mumbled.

"I'm sure she was just excited," Twilight figured.

"Obviously," Applejack added.

While some of the ponies in the group were already trying to recover from eating all those candies, however, Rarity was already coming up with a little something. "We should do something special for Pinkie Pie's sister! To tell her how excited we are to meet her!"

"Yes," Fluttershy agreed. "Pinkie Pie looked as if she wanted us to get along with her too. We should make sure that Maud feels welcome here," she suggested.

Everypony quickly agreed to this idea. It would be the first time for them to meet Pinkie Pie's sister and they wanted to make sure that the first impression would be good. Not only Maud but also Pinkie Pie would really appreciate that. There was some time left to prepare something so the group decided to go where they originally wanted to meet Pinkie Pie and her sister and set something up before they would arrive.

Later...

In order to welcome Pinkie Pie's sister, the group decided to throw a picnic. That way, Maud would get the know every one of Pinkie Pie's friends. Everypony, except Star Twinkle, even brought their pets with them. That was because Maud was bringing her pet along as well, that way, her pet could also make friends with the group's pets. The group just finished preparing setting everything up on the picnic blanket. All that was left was to wait for Pinkie Pie and her sister.

"I sure hope Maud has an appetite," Fluttershy said after she overlooked all the food on that was laid down on the picnic blanket.

Applejack, however, was positive and hinted to the basket of muffins, that she brought for the picnic. "Never met a pony or critter who didn't love Granny Smith's apple spiced muffins!" She said proudly.

In the meantime, Rarity had something completely different to worry about. "Oh, it's no use! I simply cannot find anything suitable to wear!" She said depressed before she sat down next to the others. Ironically, she was wearing something for the occasion.

"I doubt she'll notice what anypony's wearing, so what's the big deal?" Rainbow Dash said.

But Star Twinkle had to disagree. "I think Maud will notice that!" He thought after he kept his eyes on the giant hat that Rarity chose to wear for today. It was a giant hat covered with some kind of rocks. According to Pinkie Pie, Maud shared a fascination with rocks which was probably the reason why she decided to wear something like that but Star Twinkle couldn't take that hat seriously and looked at it as if he wanted to figure out how this was classified as fashion.

Rarity explained that she wanted to show how much of a fashion expert she was but since that hat was big enough to make her lose her balance, she feared that she wouldn't make the best impression on her.

"I think we're all a little nervous about Maud's visit," Twilight said. "She's Pinkie Pie's sister, and it's obvious Pinkie really wants us to hit it off. Being able to make those rock candy necklaces together is really important to her. I'm sure everything will be fine,"

Twilight was definitely having the right idea about the situation. Becoming friends with Maud was important for Pinkie Pie so of course, everypony took this meeting seriously, and Pinkie Pie wanted to share the tradition that she had with her sister with her friends, something that they were really happy about.

Star Twinkle was actually very calm about all this. He figured that it shouldn't be too hard to impress or befriend Pinkie Pie's sister. He and the others were friends with Pinkie Pie, so that was something that every one of them had in common and according to Pinkie Pie, her sister shared some interests with them so there was nothing really to worry about.

After some more waiting, Pinkie Pie finally arrived at the scene. "We're heeeere!" She exclaimed as she bounced towards the group. But for some reason, she was alone with no sister next to her, much to the confusion of everypony.

Twilight walked up to the mare. "Where's Maud?" She asked confused.

"She's coming!" Pinkie Pie replied joyfully as she looked back towards the hill where she was coming from.

The group looked at the hill but there was nopony coming, causing the group to get quite confused.

"You sure?" Rainbow Dash asked after not seeing anypony in the distance.

"She's not quite as fast as me," Pinkie Pie replied as if it was totally normal. "I asked Gummy to stay with her in case she got lost!" She added before she looked over at the hill again.

The group continued to look at the hill and after focusing their eyes, they could finally see somepony walking towards them...slowly...very slowly...

"Somepony sure takes her time..." Star Twinkle said as he waited like the rest.

"Is she even moving?" Rainbow Dash asked confused, which was actually a pretty valid question because of how slow the mare was walking towards them.

After what felt like half of an eternity, Maud finally arrived in front of the group. She had a gray coat, a short straight violet mane and tail, on which gummy was sticking his mouth into, and light turquoise eyes with violet eyeshadows. She was also wearing a blue-grayish frock. Unlike her sister, however, who was beaming as soon as Maud stood in front of her friends, Maud had a rather serious, if not an emotionless expression on her face. She also didn't greet the group and instead focused her attention on a little rock that laid in front of her. After sniffing it for a second, she spoke her first words to the group.

"Sedimentary," she said in an emotionless tone. The group had no idea what she meant with that and only threw confused faces at her so the mare explained further. "This is a sedimentary rock," she said while she picked up the rock from the ground.

After that, there was just an awkward silence. The first meeting with Pinkie Pie's sister was definitely a lot more different then what everyone expected, mainly because Maud was a lot more different than her little sister.

However, Twilight was not giving up like that and tried to break the ice between them and Maud and walked up to her. "That's... really fascinating, isn't it, girls?" She said, referring to the little conversation that they had so far. "We're just so thrilled you could come for a visit before your big trip. Pinkie Pie has told us so much about you. I'm Twilight, and this is Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Star Twinkle," she said while she pointed to all of her friends.

"We're ever so glad to meet you," Fluttershy said.

"We're just gonna have the best time!" Applejack said, ignoring the first impression of Maud and being positive that it could only get better from now on.

But despite the enthusiasm, that Applejack showed, Maud's expression didn't change one bit and the awkward silence returned.

This time, Rarity gave it a shot to soften the mare up to the group. "Pinkie Pie tells me you share my love for fashion," she said, in an attempt to get into something like a conversation.

Luckily, this time Maud seemed to jump into this boat "I'm really into expressing myself through my wardrobe," she replied in a deadpan tone.

"And what is the delightful frock you're wearing now saying?" Rarity asked, referring to the dress that Maud was wearing.

"It doesn't talk. It's a dress," Maud replied. She must have completely missed what Rarity meant.

Rarity was caught off guard by this kind of response and didn't know how to answer and just backed away again. It was as if somepony just found out that their favorite comic book character doesn't really exist.

Shortly after...there was awkward silence again...

But yet again, nopony wanted to give up on warming up Maud to the group and this time it was Applejack, who was introducing everyponies pets to Maud. "So this here's Winona. That's Owlowiscious, Tank, Opal, and Angel," she said while she pointed to every respective animal. "Pinkie Pie told us you have a pet, too," she added, hoping that Maud's pet would help them to get into a conversation.

"He's in my pocket," Maud replied.

Fluttershy was the first one to get excited about hearing that. "Oh, you have a pocket pet? Like a tiny mouse? Or a baby bird? Or a trained butterfly?" She asked in an excited tone, waiting for Maud to finally show her pet.

What Maud said, however, was not what the excited mare expected. "It's a rock," Maud said before she threw a little rock to the ground, introducing her pet to the group. "His name is Boulder,"

And another awkward silence followed...

About now, everypony figured that getting to know Maud or rather, getting along with her could actually be a little bit harder than they expected.

"And here I was thinking that I was the king of making a situation awkward..." Star Twinkle thought after the first minutes of getting to know Pinkie Pie's sister. His first guess was that she was probably a little shy or that she didn't know how to react to meeting six new ponies. His second guess was...that Maud was just weird.

Pinkie Pie seemed to be the only one who didn't realize the awkwardness of this situation and believed in what she thought since the very beginning. "This is going to be the best, most awesome, funnest week ever! I can't wait for us all to become bestest friends!" She expressed happily, completely oblivious to how it was a really long way until that.

A little later...

The group eventually decided to start the picnic and ate some snacks. There was not much talking going on, as expected, mainly because there was not much common ground to cover yet. The only thing they could do was eating something to skip the time.

"Maud? Would you like to try one of Granny Smith's famous apple spiced muffins?" Applejack said, offering one of her muffins to the mare. Maud sniffed one of the muffins first before she took a bite, however, soon everypony realized that one of Rarity's rocks that were on her hat must have fallen into the basket earlier. "Oh, uh, heh, that's not–" Applejack tried to warn but Maud Pie just took that stone in her mouth and began eating it.

Just listening to her munching on that rock was really painful but Maud didn't even seem to mind and ate it as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "It's crunchy," she said with a full mouth.

Pinkie Pie took one of the actual muffins and ate it. "Maud's right! They are crunchy! Yum!" She said, completely oblivious of how Maud was eating an actual rock. She was really the only one who didn't realize how awkward the situation was for everypony.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash couldn't stand the awkwardness so she came up with something to make the situation a little better. "So, uh, Pinkie Pie tells us you like games," she said, hoping that this conversation would go somewhere.

"Boulder and I sometimes play a game called 'Camouflage'. It's kind of like hide and seek but way more intense," Maud explained.

Not really sure how a hide and seek game could be in any way "intense" Rainbow Dash had her doubts about this "Awesome?" She replied confused.

Even though Star Twinkle would regret it, he still asked. "So...how does it go?" He asked a little hesitantly.

A little later...

The group decided to give this "Camouflage" game a chance. In a way, it was a lot more intense but not in a fun way. The rules were simple, Maud's pet rock, Boulder was hiding between a bunch of other rocks and the one who would find him first, would win the game. Despite not really having fun with this "game", the group decided to just play along.

"Any luck?" Twilight asked while she literally turned every rock around to look for Maud's rock. Of course, nopony was remotely close to finding Boulder, though.

"I truly wish I'd spent more time with Boulder, because I'm having a very hard time remembering what he looks like," Fluttershy said as she continued to look for the little rock.

"It's like looking for a pebble in a haystack," Applejack added.

"More like in a pile of pebbles," Rarity added further but in a more frustrated tone.

Star Twinkle didn't really need an exciting or intense game to have fun but even he was getting bored by a game like this. "Can't we just call it quit?" He asked after he looked under another rock next to his feet.

"It'll hurt Maud's feelings if we all stop playing," Twilight replied but Star Twinkle had a really hard time believing that because when it came to showing feelings, Maud was not really the best example so far. "Besides, look how much fun Pinkie Pie's having," she added before she pointed towards the pink mare who showed Maud every single rock that she found, asking if one of them was Boulder, even if they were not even remotely as small as him. "Just a little longer, okay?" Twilight demanded, much to the frustration of her friends.

Luckily, the game was over once Maud spoke up. "Found him," she said, with not a single emotion in her voice while she held the rock in her hoof.

"Oh! Where was he?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.

"He was hiding in my pocket," she then replied.

Needless to say, nopony was too excited to hear this after spending such a long time looking for Boulder, especially Rainbow Dash who was loudly complaining about this. Eventually, Pinkie Pie and Maud both left the group since it was already a little late.

"We better get going. I want Maud to taste the rock candy we're gonna use for our best friends necklaces! Aw, yeah!" She said excitedly before she walked away with Maud following her close behind.

With the two mares leaving the scene, the group could finally speak openly about Pinkie Pie's sister.

"She sure is... different from what I expected," Applejack said, which was a pretty tamed statement compared to what some of the others were thinking.

Like Star Twinkle for example, who didn't care to be blunt at all. "If by different you mean, I agree..."

"Star Twinkle!" Twilight said with a disappointing tone in her voice. "That's not a really nice thing to say!" She scolded.

But Rainbow Dash agreed with Star Twinkle. "We spent all day digging in the dirt, and he was in her pocket the whole time!" She expressed frustrated.

"That only proves that Boulder is really good at this game..." Star Twinkle replied casually.

"He's a rock!" Rainbow Dash said angrily.

"On the bright side, Boulder seemed really sweet," Fluttershy said, trying to see something positive about this all.

"He's a rock!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed even angrier.

Twilight was probably the only one who kept a leveled head at this moment. "I'm sure Maud was just nervous about meeting all of us. I mean, it must be awfully intimidating to meet all of us at once, especially since we're already such good friends," she said. To a degree, it made sense that Maud was probably acting a little different, maybe she was a completely different pony once they get to know her. This gave Twilight another idea of how to deal with all of this. "Maybe if we spend some time with her one-on-one to try to get to know her better, I'm sure we'll be making those best friend rock candy necklaces in no time,"

The group thought this was a good idea. It was worth a shot at least. The plan was to let Maud spend some time with each one of Pinkie Pie's friends in order to get to know her.

And this meant...that Star Twinkle had to have his turn eventually...

A little later...

Star Twinkle, Pinkie Pie, and Maud were all just arriving at Star Twinkle's home. He did his best trying to come up with something to do and since he was not the first one who was spending time with Maud, he luckily had some time to prepare something. He asked his boss, Steel Hammer to get some wood from his workplace so that he and Maud could spend some time crafting something with it. Pinkie Pie did say that Maud was really good at that after all.

"You will love this, Star Twinkle! Maud is really good when it comes to crafting!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully.

Star Twinkle did provide some tools for Maud to work with and waited for her to start but all she did was looking at the tools, much to Star Twinkle's confusion. "I guess you need to prepare yourself a little so I just go ahead and start while-"

"I'm done," Maud then interrupted which could obviously not be true since there was a whole bunch of wood laying in front of her just a second ago. There was no way that she could have build something in this much time. But...once Star Twinkle looked over to Maud again, there was really standing something next to her. It was a big edgy object. Star Twinkle had a guess what it was and Maud actually confirmed it. "It's a rock," she said.

"How did you build that this fast?" Star Twinkle asked confused, not being able to comprehend how she managed to build something in mere seconds.

But Pinkie Pie replied for her instead. "I told you she was good!" She simply said before she came up with something new to do after this was done now. "Maud, you haven't met Star Twinkle's pet yet!" She said before she led the way upstairs.

With nothing else to do, Star Twinkle went along and walked upstairs to introduce his goldfish to Maud. The three ponies stood in front of the fishbowl on the upper floor, Maud especially stared right into the fishbowl where Comet was swimming motionlessly.

After looking at the fish for like a minute of silence, Maud finally spoke up about what was going on in her mind. "Your fish is cool," she then said out of nowhere, much to Star Twinkle's confusion. She then picked out Boulder from her pocket. "Mind if I let Boulder play with him?" She then asked.

"Yeah...sure..." Star Twinkle replied a little hesitantly.

Maud then dropped Boulder right into the fishbowl, causing him to sink to the ground of the bowl. Star Twinkle and Maud then stared right into the bowl to see the two pets interact with each other.

The two pets weren't moving at all...not one bit...

"Looks like they are having fun..." Maud said in her usual emotionless tone.

"...Yes..." Star Twinkle said slowly as he didn't break a single eye contact with what was going on inside the fishbowl.

Later...

The group decided to meet up in front of Sugarcube Corner once again after they were done spending time with Pinkie Pie's sister. All of them wanted to share their experience with Maud. Unsurprisingly, they all came to the same conclusion really quickly.

"Yeah, I figured..." Star Twinkle said after he listened to how the time that everypony spent with Maud went with everypony else.

"Yeah..." Twilight replied with a frown.

Everypony tried to get along with Maud but with her being so much more different, making it a little hard to befriend her.

And that was exactly the problem...

Pinkie Pie wanted to share her tradition of making best friend rock candy necklaces but the thing was that nopony really felt as if they actually made friends with Maud so doing this tradition felt a little wrong.

Everypony had an uncomfortable expression on their faces. The problem here was that they somehow had to tell Pinkie Pie about their time with Maud and how the result was at the end. Knowing Pinkie Pie, she probably didn't even realize how everypony felt about her sister which made it only harder for the group to tell her how less they have in common with Maud.

But they soon had to tell her because Pinkie Pie was just greeting the group. "Great, you're all here! Maud is out looking for rocks, so this is the perfect time for us to set up everything we'll need to make our best friend rock candy necklaces!" She said excitedly but all she got in response was some concerned looks and awkward mumbling, much to her confusion. "What's wrong?" Pinkie Pie then asked after that unexpected reaction.

Of course, nopony wanted to be the one to deliver the message. Everypony waited until somepony would step up but since nopony did, Applejack literally pushed Twilight into the spotlight so that she would explain everything.

Twilight was surprised of course, and eventually, she did the talking. "Well, I'm not sure it's the best time to make best friend rock candy necklaces," she said.

"Why not?" Pinkie Pie replied confused.

Twilight had a hard time following up so Rarity took over this time. "Well, darling, you see..." she said before she realized that she couldn't bring herself to say it either.

The Fluttershy took over her part. "You're ever so thoughtful to share your special bonding ritual with us, but, uh..." she then stopped as well after realizing that she was not able to say the truth herself.

"But what?" Pinkie Pie said, not expecting any bad news at all at this moment.

Eventually, Applejack decided to spit it out since nopony seemed to be able to. "The truth is, we've all been tryin' real hard to get closer to Maud, but, well... maybe some ponies just don't click the way others do," she said causing everypony to mutter in agreement. "We just wouldn't feel right makin' somethin' that means we're best friends if, well, we aren't,"

As soon as Pinkie Pie heard that, her mane deflated and she began to frown. It was about the reaction that everypony expected but it still hurt to see the mare upset like that. "Oh. Okay," she said with a sad tone in her voice. "If anypony needs me, I'll be in here trying to figure out what to do with two hundred pounds of rock candy," she said before she walked inside again.

As soon as the door closed, everypony immediately felt bad and frowned as well.

"And now...I feel bad..." Star Twinkle said, speaking out what everypony was thinking at this very moment.

Later...

The group went to the Golden Oak Library and further discussed what just happened. Needless to say, they all felt bad and tried to come up with an idea to deal with the situation. But the damage was already done and it couldn't be reversed. And that is why it made everypony feel bad.

"I feel awful! Just awful..." Rarity said.

"Maybe we should have just pretended we were friends with Maud," Fluttershy suggested.

But Twilight disagreed with that. "If we didn't tell Pinkie Pie that we hadn't all become the best of friends, I think Maud would have," she pointed out.

"Would she?" Star Twinkle asked. "I actually have no idea if she liked spending time with me or not," he said after thinking back to how Maud was acting towards him, only to find out that he had no idea what was going on in her head.

"Who really knows?" Rainbow Dash said, who was laying on a bookshelf while playing with a rock in her hoof. "That pony is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an igneous," she added casually.

"Don't you mean "inside an enigma"?" Rarity asked confused by Rainbow Dash's choice of words.

"Nope. I mean igneous. It's a kind of rock. Ask me how I know that," she explained, obviously referring to her time with Maud.

Shortly after, somepony was knocking on the door. Twilight used her magic to open the door and was surprised to see Pinkie Pie entering the room in her usual cheerful manner.

"I've come up with just the thing to bring everypony closer together!" She simply said in excitement before she wanted everypony to follow her.

Of course, the group was confused about how Pinkie Pie managed to cheer herself again like that. They also wanted to know what exactly she meant by bringing everypony closer together so they followed her in order to find out.

They followed the mare all the way until they reached a nearby grass field. Maud was already waiting there as well. Once they all arrived, they immediately saw some kind of big weird construct. At first, it looked like a bunch of random stuff put together...but that's because it was. It looked like some kind of obstacle course filled with a bunch of stuff. There was one area filled with applesauce, one filled with books, one area had a table with animals sitting next to it and so on.

After taking a look at all of this, Star Twinkle felt as if he should ask the question that everypony had in mind. "What is that?"

Pinkie Pie was quick to explain. "I call it "Pinkie-Rainbow-Rari-Twi-Apple-Flutter-Star-Maud Fun Time"!" She explained without really explaining what this thing was, causing everypony to still be confused. Pinkie Pie then continued. "It combines everypony's interests into one giant activity that we can all enjoy together and that will totally bring all of my bestest friends together as bestestest friends! Watch this!" She said before she walked towards the structure to explain every single part of it to everypony. "An Applesauce tunnel for Applejack, pretty shiny stuff for Rarity, reading material for Twilight, critter time for Fluttershy, Cupcakes for yours truly, a wood course for Star Twinkle and it's a race for Rainbow Dash!" She briefly explained while she went through all the respective parts of the race.

While this was all good, there was still one thing that bothered everypony. And that was the thing at the very end of the course. "Pinkie Pie, what is that?!" Twilight asked with some concern in her voice.

At the very end of this obstacle course, there was a big pile of rocks clumsily piled on top of each other, which looked as if it was about to collapse any second now. Because of that, the group felt that it was a little dangerous for Pinkie Pie to stand close to it but the mare still decided to not only explain what it was but also showed what to do with it. "It's A rock slide, of course! For Maud! First you climb, then you slide!" She said before she started to climb the thing. Needless to say, the group had a really bad feeling about this and it was quickly justified after Pinkie Pie managed to get one of her hooves stuck between the rocks, causing her to try freeing herself and making the "Rock Slide" shake even more now.

Soon, the whole thing began to shake. Pinkie Pie was not able to free herself and it was only a matter of time until something bad would happen. It was only now that everypony noticed that really big rock was on top of the rock slide and due to the shaking of the whole thing, it started to slide down, directly towards Pinkie Pie who was not yet aware of this.

"Oh, goodness!" Fluttershy said in shock.

"Watch out!" Applejack warned.

Pinkie Pie then realized the big rock that was sliding down towards her and began to shriek in fear. "Help!" She screamed for help.

Somepony had to act quick and since everypony seemed to be too scared for Pinkie Pie, Star Twinkle decided to jump into action. "Listen, we have to-"

But as soon as he opened his mouth and was ready to move, Maud was already running towards her sister to help her. She dashed through the whole obstacle course within seconds and shortly arrived next to Pinkie Pie. There was no way that she could free her sister in time however so she decided to deal with the big rock that was about to fall on her sister by literally punching into bits and pieces in midair with just her bare hooves.

The group was shocked to see how Maud managed to easily save her sister like that and just stood there with open mouths, especially Rainbow Dash, who could not comprehend what just happened in front of her. "What– how–what?!" Were the only words that she managed to get out in her confusion.

After finally freeing Pinkie Pie again, Maud hugged her sister once she was saved again. "Pinkie Pie, what were you thinking?" She then said in her usual emotionless tone, however this time, there was actually a slight hint of concern in it as well.

"I guess I wasn't," Pinkie Pie replied, feeling bad to have worried everypony.

The two then walked towards the others and Maud decided to share what she thought about all this.
"I know how important it is to you that your friends become my friends, but I just don't think it's going to happen. I think it would be best if I just go back to the rock farm and spend the rest of the week there," she explained before she walked past the group, who by now felt really bad. "It was nice to meet you all. Makes me happy knowing Pinkie Pie has such good friends," she said before she walked away to most likely get to the train station in order to leave Ponyville.

Pinkie Pie, of course, was the one who was crushed the most about this. "But... we never even got to make our rock candy necklaces..." she said heartbroken. She had to make a choice now and of course, she decided to stay with her sister for the rest of the week, something that nopony really blamed her for, she could see her friends any other day anyway.

With the two mares leaving again, the group had the opportunity to talk about what just transpired before them.

"I can't believe Maud cut her trip short," Twilight said.

"I can't believe we nearly lost Pinkie Pie to that ridiculous obstacle course," Rarity expressed.

"I can't believe we were all this stupid!" Star Twinkle then said in his realization.

The group then looked confused at him because of those sudden words. "What do you mean, Star Twinkle?" Twilight asked.

"We should have agreed to make those necklaces from the very beginning! Then all of that wouldn't have happened!" The stallion explained.

Applejack then walked up to the stallion. "I thought we all agree that it was a bad idea to make those things if we are not even friends with Maud," she pointed out.

"Yeah, what good is making a best friend necklace if we don't even have anything in common with that mare?" Rainbow Dash added.

"That's the point!" Star Twinkle continued while he was still on a run with his train of thoughts. "Listen, if you think about it, we all don't have much in common," he said, causing the rest of the girls to throw some confused looks at each other. "I'm not into sports, I don't like to study, I'm not that good when it comes to animals, I don't know much about dresses, or apples, and I sure don't like partying, but here I am, being friends with all of you!" Even though he explained all of that, the girls only began to understand what he was trying to say after the next sentence. "Maud probably tried to get along with all of us as well, despite not sharing all of our interests because she loves Pinkie Pie! Just like us!"

"That's it!" Twilight then exclaimed happily. "That is something that we have in common with Maud! And it might be enough to share a very important super-duper special tradition that only the closest and bestest of friends can share!" She explained. "Let's go! I think I have an idea!" She then said before she asked everypony to follow her.

The group finally understood and were now ready to give this all another shot. Pinkie Pie and Maud might have left already but there was still time to get something very special done. They had to make haste however if they wanted to surprise the two mares before it was too late.

Later...

Pinkie Pie and Maud were both just arriving at their home. During the whole trip, Pinkie Pie was feeling really bad, not only because it didn't work out with her sister and her friends but also because she felt like as if she was burdening her sister a little too much. But the sad expression that she had on her face quickly turned into a more confused one, once she saw everypony waiting at her rock farm. Her friends were all standing next to two big sacks filled with rock candy. Somehow, they managed to arrive at Pinkie Pie's rock farm before Pinkie Pie and Maud. It was probably because Pinkie Pie was staying with Maud the whole time and since she was taking things a little slower, it took both of them a little bit more of time.

"What are you doing here?" Pinkie Pie asked confused.

Twilight did the explaining. "Pinkie Pie, we're so sorry we hurt your feelings by not bonding with Maud right away. And Maud, we're sorry that you felt the only way to spare Pinkie Pie's feelings was to leave Ponyville early. Pinkie Pie's happiness means as much to us as it does to you, and we're sorry we couldn't see it sooner. The thing that makes us click and creates a special bond between us is how much we all love Pinkie Pie!"

"Aw, shucks!" Pinkie Pie replied embarrassed after hearing those words.

"Even if it is the only thing that we have in common, it should be enough, right?" Star Twinkle said towards Maud to hear her response.

Maud Pie's answer was short and direct. "Sure," she simply said with her usual emotionless tone.

The group had to admit that they expected a little more excitement from Maud, much to the confusion of Pinkie Pie. "Are you kidding me?" She said once they told her that "I've never seen her more excited in my entire life!" She said, even though Maud had the same expression on her face that she had throughout all the time she had spent with everypony so far.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't show my enthusiasm for things quite in the same way my sister does," Maud explained, which was mirrored by how Pinkie Pie was acting at the very moment by jumping all over the place happily after everything turned out well.

"Noooo..." Star Twinkle said in a highly sarcastic tone as if he wanted to say, "you don't say".

With that problem solved, the rest of the weekend was spent making rock candy necklaces. It was actually pretty fun for everypony and it felt good that they all did it without pretending to be friends with Maud or anything. As it turns out, Maud never said anything about not liking Pinkie Pie's friends. Apparently, she enjoyed her time in Ponyville, even if that was really hard to believe judging from the way she acted in front of everypony. But the group quickly learned to accept that this is just who Maud Pie is.

Later...

When the group was about to leave for Ponyville again, they decided to say their goodbyes to Maud. But not without continuing her and Pinkie Pie's and Maud's tradition. They all presented her the necklaces that they made for her. Everypony had a completely different necklace that represented them, Rainbow Dash, for example, made a big lightning bolt and Star Twinkle's necklace consisted of a bunch of small stars.

"Thank you," Maud replied after everypony put their necklaces around her neck, she said in her usual tone but Star Twinkle could swear that there was a slight hint of happiness in her voice.

"Try not to eat all the candy before you leave!" Pinkie Pie said before she gave Maud the necklace that she made for her.

Maud then gave Pinkie Pie the necklace that she made for her as well. After that exchange, Maud then pulled out a little box out of her saddlebag. Once she opened it, there was a whole bunch of necklaces inside. She put the one that she just got, right on top of them.

"Are those all the necklaces Pinkie Pie sent you?" Twilight asked after she saw this. Maud nodded in reply. "You haven't eaten any of them?" Twilight asked surprised.

Maud explained. "I don't really like candy," she said before she looked over to Pinkie Pie who was already eating away the necklace that she got from Maud. "But I do love Pinkie Pie," she said, again with a slight hint of happiness in her voice.

Star Twinkle simply shrugged his shoulders in response. "I guess that is all that matters, right? I don't really like partying or rocks, for example. No offense," he then said towards Maud.

But she didn't seem to mind. "None taken,"

"Yeah, I mean, you probably don't like working with wood or something, right?" Star Twinkle asked.

"I do," Maud then replied, much to Star Twinkle's surprise. "It's almost as good as rocks...almost,"

Star Twinkle didn't know exactly what to reply to that but it was time to go anyway so it didn't really matter.

The group boarded the train again and returned to Ponyville, all while learning a valuable lesson. Sometimes it only takes one common friend to make friends with somepony else. They may not become the closest friends after this weekend but having a good friend like Pinkie Pie, or in Maud's case, a sister was something that connected them all and maybe that was just enough to call each other "Friends".

Author's Note:

Rocks...

Please consider leaving a review or some other kind of feedback and make sure to follow me or this story to always be up to date with everything that I upload.

With that said...
See you all in the next chapter.
Bye Bye ^^.

Reading Order:

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 1 + 2(Chapter 1 - 53)

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Diary of The Storm Wings

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 3(Chapter 54 - 65)

Equestria Girls - The Legend of Friendship

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 4(Chapter 66 - 91)