A Place Among Her Kind

by milesprower06

But Those Were The Childish Wishes... (Part 4)

Twilight returned to the library with a silver platter in her magical grasp. On the platter rested a ceramic teapot and two steaming cups of tea, setting it between Glitter Drops and Spring Rain, who had taken seats at the library center table.

"I've got a guest room set up for you two in the west wing. I've asked Spike to make extra food for dinner, too." Twilight told them.

"Wow, you certainly know how to accommodate ponies on a whim, Princess." Spring Rain complimented.

"Skills that needed to be learned quickly with the territory, I assure you."

"So, as the Princess of Friendship, do you think we're doing the right thing here?" Glitter Drops nervously asked.

Before Twilight could answer, the double doors of the library opened once again, and Captain Fizzlepop walked in, staff in hoof.

"I think we're about to find out." Twilight said, then she turned and walked to her Captain, who approached the table.

"Would you like to be alone?" Twilight whispered.

"Yes, but please don't go too far. I... I don't know how this is going to go." Fizzle replied.

"Alright," Twilight said, nodding, momentarily putting a hoof on her Captain's shoulder. "I'll be just outside."

Twilight turned and left the library, quietly closing the door behind her. Fizzlepop took a breath, and sat down at the south end of the table, gently setting her staff on the table before lifting her helmet off and set it next to the staff.

"I'm... Sorry about earlier." She apologized, looking over at Glitter Drops and Spring Rain, who sat at the west side of the table.

"Don't be. Honestly, we deserved it. It wasn't right what we did to you all those years ago." Spring Rain offered.

"When we got to Celestia's school, we realized it wasn't the same without you... Realized dreams are never exactly what you expect them to be. On the first break in between trimesters, we came back to see you, but you were already gone." Glitter Drops added.

"I didn't see a reason to stay. You two were all I had... You and my magic. I figured if there was anything left for me, it would be beyond Equestria's borders. By the time I reached the first town, I didn't realize that my bag of bits had torn, so I had to work off my meal, then save up enough to leave. It took longer than I would have liked, but in hindsight, I was lucky... Most places farther beyond our borders didn't accept Equestrian Bits."

"So... You really came back here to... To invade...?" Spring Rain asked.

"I grew up alone... It didn't take me long to believe that it was every creature for themselves. I started seeking out powerful allies... Creatures who could help me get what I wanted. When I encountered the Storm King, a conqueror and collector of magical artifacts, he offered to restore my horn in return for a source of power for his latest acquisition, the Staff of Sacanas. The staff channeled and contained magical sources, so I pointed him to the only one I knew of; the Alicorn magic of Equestria." Fizzlepop explained, a look of sadness forming on her face.

"Water under the bridge now, from what Princess Twilight has told us." Glitter reassured her. "I'm guessing that silk covering does something?" She asked.

"Yes. In combination with this..." Fizzlepop told them, momentarily picking up her Aetherial Staff. "...The Conduit ring around what's left of my horn stabilizes my magic, and allows me to channel it through the shard of Aetherium at the top. It's not a full restoration, but it's as close as I'm going to get." She said, softly setting the staff back down on the table next to her helmet. "What about you two? You got here together awfully quick. I'm guessing you stayed together after graduating from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. What about... The third one, that you ran off with after ditching me...?" She couldn't hide the disdain from the last part of that question.

"She... She didn't make it in. She was good enough to practice with, but when it came time for the entrance exams... It was just the two of us. And yes, after we graduated, we were asked if we wanted to stick together, and we got a joint assignment on Vanhoover's weather team."

Fizzlepop's gaze fell to the table, to her staff and helmet.

"So you came from Vanhoover to here in under three days. What... What do you two want?" She asked them.

"We... We just wanted to see how you were. The townsponies said you had vanished when we came back after our first trimester, so we wanted to come and congratulate you... And apologize for what we did. We were fillies, we were scared of how unstable your magic got, but it still wasn't right abandoning you like that. We're so, so sorry for how we treated you. I guess we're wondering... If there's anything we can do. If there's any way to pick up where we left off." Glitter Drops told her.

Fizzlepop said nothing for a few moments, wondering herself how to proceed.

"I... I suppose I can accept your apology. But it was fourteen years ago..." She told them, her voice uneasy.

"Fizzlepop, there's... There's something else." Spring Rain began. Glitter shot him a nervous, uncertain look. He turned to her. "It's not right to keep it. We've come all this way. We promised if we ever found her..."

Glitter gulped as Spring magically reached into the saddlebag that rested next to his chair.

"When we learned that you had disappeared, we... We went looking for this before we returned to school. We can't believe we found it, but once we did, we both agreed that if you ever showed up, that we'd return it." Spring Rain said, his voice also getting nervous now as he levitated a small cobalt hinged felt box across the table to her, setting it down in front of her staff and helmet.

Fizzlepop picked up the box with her hooves, slowly opened it, and her eyes widened, her throat tightened, and tears began to well up in her eyelids as she looked down at the white skeletal remains; the top jagged half of a unicorn filly's horn. She took one shaky, unstable breath before breaking down into sobs. She set the box down before lowering her head to the table and buried her face in her hooves.

"W-We wanted to prove to ourselves that by going in there to find it, we controlled the fear that allowed this to happen to you in the first place..." Glitter said, who had also started to cry.

Fizzlepop's tears continued to flow as her shoulders heaved. How could they be so foolish? Their fear had nothing to do with it; if they had gone in there, it just would have been them instead of her.

"I... I..." Fizzlepop cried, trying and failing to get her overflowing emotions under control. "I can't get over this in one night, okay? I hope you realize that." She raised her head, looking at her former friends through her wet, blurry vision. "It's going to take longer than you want, if it happens at all. If there ever is a friendship between us again, we can't just pick up where we left off. There's no fixing it after this long. It has to be a new foundation, a new friendship. We'll have to start over, okay?"

Spring Rain and Glitter Drops, tears now falling from their eyes, got up from their seats and came over to their old friend.

"That's more than we could ever hope for..." Spring shakily said, before slowly wrapping his front hooves around Fizzlepop, followed shortly by Glitter. Together, the two of them held her, finally grieving over what had been lost between them over fourteen years ago.

After that, only time would tell.

After letting it all out, Fizzlepop sniffled a few times as they broke the embrace, and she used her magic to close the box that sat open on the table. She took a few deep breaths to get herself under control again.

"Have you two eaten?" She asked them as they wiped their eyes.

"N-No, not since lunch. Princess Twilight said she'd fix some dinner for us and give us a guest room until the train leaves in the morning."

"Well..." Fizzlepop began as she put her helmet back on. "You can do that, or if you like, you can come have dinner and meet my squad."

Spring and Glitter gave small smiles as they held back more tears.

"We'd be honored."

Comments

[SeventhBrony]

NICE! and the feels were good too.

And knowing Twilight, possible for horn something or other

[Sun_Spot]

"On our break between trimesters..."
Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm sorry to be nit picky, but do you possibly mean, semesters?

[ChakatFirepaw]

8573281
Semesters are when the school year is divided in two. Some schools divide into three, (trimesters), or four, (quarters).

[Shenzy]

Kinda to quickly and much into exposition in this chapter ... Hm.

[EpicMuttonChops]

wanted to unlike and then re-like, just for this chapter