…Maddock gulped nervously. What was Luna about to do to him? OK, he thought, if she does kill me, PLEASE, for the love of Celestia, let her make it quick! He shut his eyes and prepared to face his fate. "We want you…to learn true friendship," she said. Maddock slowly opened his eyes and gave the Princess a curious look. "Friendship?" He asked.

Luna nodded. "Forgive me, Your Majesty," Maddock said, "but…how exactly is this a punishment? I thought friendship was supposed to be fun."

Luna smiled. "Yes, it is fun. But there's so much more to it than simple fun. You must learn how to respect other ponies, no matter what they've done to you. There's a certain pony that we believe can best teach you this. You are to go to Ponyville immediately, locate her, and begin your lessons."

"But…who is this pony?"

"You'll find her in time. But first you must learn to associate with others. You've been on your own for so long, it seems you have forgotten this. So we'll remedy that by making you search Ponyville until you find her."

"But…I-I don't even get a description? Something? Anything?!"

"Nope," Princess Luna said with a small smirk, "nothing. Consider this your first test of friendship."

"But I haven't learned anything yet!"

At this, Luna giggled softly and retreated back through the double doors, beckoning for Maddock to follow. They went inside and down some stairs to the main floor of the palace. "Normally, my sister would be the one to see you off," Luna said, "but it's still very early in the morning and I don't want to disturb her again. So I'll be taking care of that."

Maddock turned and took one last look at the princess of the night. Her mane flowed. The stars seemed to dance through it. He didn't know how the two princesses did it. Their manes never stopped moving. In truth, he was a little envious and wished he could do it as well. It's probably magic, he thought in disgust, magic, magic, magic. Even the Alicorn princesses can't stay away from it!

Luna maneuvered around Maddock and opened the door to the outside world. "I have made arrangements for you on the first train to Ponyville. It leaves in 3 hours. Remember, learn true friendship, and maybe this hurtful way of thinking will leave your heart." With that, she ushered Maddock out the door and closed it behind him.

Maddock stood there in a bit of shock as the winter wind whipped its way around him. Wow… he said to himself, I figured a princess would treat a guest with a little more respect. Must be the unicorn influence in her, he thought. He didn't understand that what Luna and Celestia were doing was really for his own good. He didn't understand that, in order to accept his parents' fate and truly move on from it, he needed to accept that not every unicorn was a showboat with magic.

Three hours later, he found himself on a train heading into Ponyville. The ride was short and there was really nothing of interest to look at along the way, but there were too many confusing thoughts running through his mind to make much of anything. Why the heck would Luna send me to Ponyville to find a mystery pony that is supposed to teach me about friendship? For that matter, why the heck do I need friends?! All I need is somewhere to eat, somewhere to sleep, and somewhere to work that isn't crawling with unicorns!

When the train squealed and groaned to a stop at the station, Maddock darted out quickly. He certainly didn't want to associate with any of the ponies getting off the train, considering a lot of them were unicorns. With this being accomplished, he pulled out a small map of Ponyville that Luna had given him before he was sent off.

OK…where to begin? He asked himself, hm…Sugar Cube Corner. Well, I am hungry, and that sounds like somewhere to grab something to eat. But then he remembered with a bit of sadness that he had no money whatsoever to pay for anything. He had been fired off of his last job for insulting a unicorn worker, and had spent the long nights since wandering the streets of Canterlot.

With luck, maybe I'll run into a nice non-unicorn who can help me, he said. So with that in mind, he trotted towards the bakery…