Chapter 7: Apologies

Heavy rains continued to pour down hard, and the sunlight soon disappeared as the night began. My only source of light came from a battery powered lamp I always had in my garage, just in case I'm working in there and the power went out. This time, I wasn't working, I was merely thinking about the day's earlier events.

"I should've told them," I groaned to myself, "but they didn't even believe Emily's dreams, so why would they believe me? If anything, they'd think I was going crazy."

I don't know what told me to look to the doorway, but I did and as I did, I saw a red light shining outside. Moments later, the door slid open, revealing a very wet, and with muddy hooves, Twilight Sparkle. She walked in and shook the water off her fur.

"I take it things didn't go well with your friends?"

"You guessed right Twilight. I blew it big time, and they were the last of my childhood friends." I sighed unhappily and looked back out to the wet world outside.

Twilight walked up to me and sat next to me. "Every one of us goes threw moments like that, even me."

"What you? But you're the Princess of Friendship. Since when do you ever make..." but I stopped myself and remembered several episodes where Twilight did make mistakes. "Are you referring to Smarty Pants?"

"No, but that's another moment where I made mistakes. No I was talking about my friendships from Canterlot, and how my actions caused one pony to give up on ever making friends."

Now this one I had not heard of before, so I listened carefully to what Twilight had to say.

"Back then, I was really focused on my studying, moreso than nowadays, and one day, I was asked to join a party held by my friend; Moondancer. It was her first one ever, and it was a chance for her to make new friends. She had planned it out for quite a long time." Twilight looked down to the ground and kicked it with her right hoof, "but due to my studying, I didn't go and it hurt Moondancer badly."

"How badly?"

"Bad enough that she wouldn't talk to any other pony."

"Yikes, now that's bad."

Twilight nodded in agreement. "One night, Spike reminded me of my friendships back in Canterlot, and realising I had been a horrible friend then, I went to apologize. Many of them accepted my apology, but Moondancer was not so quick to forgive me. I tried again and again to apologize, but nothing worked, so I had to bring in my secret weapon; Pinkie Pie."

"Let me guess, you threw a party to make up for the one you missed?"

"Yes, but she wasn't enterily happy about it, and she really yelled at me, blaming me for everything before finally breaking down into tears." Twilight took in a deep breath, it seemed this part of the story was making her cry, "I told her that she shouldn't let my actions from the past prevent her from making any new friends. It worked, plus being around friends and family that evening really helped Moondancer. Now she and I are good friends once more, and we write to each other every week."

"Well that's good, and how is she doing now?"

"Much better. She's got so many friends that she's lost track."

I couldn't help but smile and laugh, but soon the smile faded away as I remembered back to the earlier events of this evening.

"We all make mistakes, but once you try to correct them, it makes the biggest impact on somepony, or somebody's life. I'm sure if you talk it over with your friends, they'll forgive you and want to hang out with you again."

"That might be just wishful thinking there Twilight. With the curfew still in effect, I can't get to them. Plus," I added, "it takes almost thirty minutes to get into town, I'd never make it there in time." I sighed and looked down to the ground, "maybe it's for the best anyways, on my world, friendships die off after a while. It almost doesn't exist here."

"Well that's because you humans have forgotten about the magic of friendship. You just need to remember what it was like, then the magic will be restored once more."

After all the years of friendships just falling apart, I wasn't sure if we could remember the magic of friendship, but I guess it is worth a shot.

"And I guess I can start by talking it over with Ryan, Emily and Patrick tomorrow."

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

My smile returned to my face, "thanks Twilight, I guess I needed to hear that."

"No problem, glad I could help," she smiled.

A Short time later, after the patrol cars disappeared out of sight, Twilight and I ran back to the house. We were completely soaked by that time, thankfully Fluttershy saw us coming and had towels waiting for us.

"You were out there for a long time Matthew, is everything alright?"

"Well not at the moment Fluttershy, but tomorrow, everything should be alright, at least I hope."

Twilight then explained everything to Fluttershy and the other ponies, and they agreed to cheer me up. As a result, we spent the night telling stories, playing games like darts (not sure why) and even dancing to music. Yes, they got me dancing and I was awful, even Rainbow said so, but it was fun regardless. I was glad to have friends like those six ponies.

Soon though, the fun and games came to an end as we all started to get tired. The first to fall asleep was, if you can believe it, Pinkie Pie.

"Well she's been doing more than any of us," said Fluttershy.

"True Sugarcube, but usually Pinkie's got energy to spare," said Applejack.

Rainbow Dash was the next to fall asleep, then Rarity, Applejack soon followed and then Fluttershy. This left Twilight Sparkle and I staying up for a while, playing a game of air hockey. I have to admit, for a alicorn princess, she sure is good at this game. Soon though, we grew tired and went to sleep in the living room, with me on the couch and the rest of them on the floor, with pillows to rest their heads on of course.

Morning soon came and once the curfew had been lifted, I rushed to the hotel in New Liskeard in the hopes of catching my friends. When I arrived though, I was greeted with bad news.

"I'm sorry Sir, but those three have already left," said the desk clerk. "They said something about leaving a place that they're not wanted in."

"Oh, well thanks anyways."

I drove back sadly to the house and told the ponies that I was too late, "well shoot, that's a real bummer there Sugarcube," sighed Applejack. "What can you do now?"

"I don't know AJ. I know they're not going to answer my phone calls or reply back to me on the internet, and it'd be too risky leaving you ponies here while I go after them." I sighed unhappily and kicked the floor with my right foot, "I'll have to wait for another time to explain things to them."

It was then we heard a vehicle pull into my driveway. Rainbow Dash went to look, "looks like you're going to get your chance sooner than you thought Matthew, they're here."

Without me saying anything, the ponies ran downstairs to hide. The only one that didn't hide was Twilight Sparkle, she stood on the stairwell, but remaining out of sight.

Sighing deeply, I went to the door and waited. They got out of their van and walked up the porch, "May we come in Matthew?"

"Yeah sure," I nodded and allowed them in.

All three walked inside, but didn't kick off their shoes. Instead, the four of us stood there in complete silence. Not a sound could be heard, other than our own breathing of course. At last, Patrick broke the silence.

"Look Matthew, even though we are still upset over the fact that you are hiding something from us.." I groaned and slapped my forehead, "we can't just end our friendship like that, so if you're willing to forgive us, we'd like to be your friend again."

"Only if you guys can forgive me, oh and you can take your shoes off," I said. They did and followed me into the kitchen, "the truth of the matter is, I was hiding something from you. Twilight is not..." I paused and looked down the stairwell. "Why don't you guys see for yourselves?"

I motioned for Twilight to come up the stairs. She nodded and slowly walked up the stairs until she was at the top step. My friend's mouths dropped open in complete shock.

"Is that a hologram?" Ryan asked.

"Or a robot?" Patrick asked.

I shook my head. "I can assure you, I am for real," Twilight said and held out her right hoof, just like she did on the first night she and her friends came here.

Emily stepped forward and gently grabbed Twilight's hoof. Her expression was pretty much like mine, "you are real," she gasped.

I then called down the stairs, "you ponies can come up now!" And they did. First came Fluttershy, then Rainbow Dash, Rarity followed, Pinkie Pie was next and finally came Applejack. My friends were just speechless.

"I'm sorry guys, I know I shouldn't have hidden the truth from you, but I wasn't sure how you would react," I said. "I mean, when Emily mentioned her dreams about the ponies being real, you didn't believe her, so what else was I suppose to do?"

"Hmm, yes I can see your point now," said Patrick, "but I'm sure after a while, we would've believed you. I just can't believe we didn't notice them before, especially Pinkie Pie."

"And what's that suppose to mean?" Pinkie asked with a firm eyebrow, and surprisingly, hung down from a hook above Patrick's head.

"How did you that?" Patrick jumped in surprise.

"Don't ask," sighed Rarity, "we've given up trying to figure out how Pinkie does half the things she does."

"He didn't mean any harm Pinkie," I said, "now come down from there before you fall, cause I know that hook is not the strongest one I got up on the ceiling." Pinkie's tail let go of the hook, and somehow, she landed on all four hooves. "But again guys, I am sorry for not telling you everything, will you forgive me?"

"Well that depends, will you forgive us?"

"Of course I will," I smiled.

Ryan, Patrick and I high fived each other, and just like when we were kids, we smacked our hands so hard that it stung for a few seconds, "now I remember why we stopped doing that," groaned Ryan.

"Oh my, that was loud and looked painful," muttered Fluttershy.

Emily then walked up to Rarity, "I've always loved your mane-style, it is so beautiful, could you teach me on how to make my hair as beautiful as yours Rarity?"

"But of course Darling, but in all honestly, I can't see why you want hair advice, cause I really like your hairstyle."

Soon, my three human friends were talking away with my pony friends, but soon a thought came to their heads at the same time.

"Don't take it the wrong way, but why are the ponies here in the first place?" Patrick asked. "I mean, shouldn't they be back in Equestria?"

I held out two fingers and Rainbow Dash said; "Starlight Glimmer."

"Uh, wouldn't that be three words?" asked Ryan.

Emily gasped, "normally yes, but I think they're talking about the unicorn from the Season 5 opener. You remember, that pony that stole Cutie Marks?"

"Oh, that Starlight Glimmer."

"Yes, and she's the one that's been attacking towns," I said.

"How can you be so sure Matthew?"

I lead my friends over to my laptop, turned it on and pulled up the various photos I've found online. Many were blurry, but one easily showed Starlight Glimmer attacking.

"That's her alright," said Emily, "I know that manestyle anywhere, but why is she doing this? She wasn't that bad in the show."

"Remember what I said back in the resturant? We don't know her that well as the ponies do."

"You may have seen our first meet with her, but you haven't seen our recent encounters with that pony," grumbled Rainbow Dash. "And I can tell you, that wicked smile still creeps me out."

Twilight then went on to explain about how they came to be here, which included the battle aganist Starlight. When she had finished, Ryan turned his attention back to me.

"Why haven't you told the police about this Matthew?"

"Well let's see, how would the phone call go? Oh I know, 'Excuse me Officer, but I know who the attacker is, she's a unicorn pony from a world called Equestria'. They would think I'm nuts and haul me off to a mental house."

"Talking ponies in your world are not common you know," Fluttershy muttered with her head down low.

"Okay, I guess I can see your point."

I sighed and looked back at the photos, "still, nothing that's been put into place is stopping her, she's been attacking one town after another, and we got to be prepared for when she arrives."

"I've come up with a few spells that might work on her," said Twilight, "but it's really all up to luck. She might just counter them."

Ryan and Patrick gulped, "right, so what should happen if you fail?"

"I think you guys can guess," answered Rainbow Dash. "She'll enslave all of you, just like she tried in that town."

"Thankfully, we still got time before she does get here," I said. "She was last seen in South River, and with the extra secruity, there's no chance of her going any further. Well not as fast as before."

"I hate to disappoint you Matthew, but you're wrong."

"Why do you say that Dashie?"

Rainbow Dash pointed to my TV Screen, and sure enough, there was footage of an attack. This time, not on a small town, but a big one. It was the town of North Bay. Starlight could be seen clear as day, firing energy blasts at people and making them run for their lives, while buildings were set alight.

"Okay so I'm wrong, wouldn't be the first time."

"Uh Matthew, how long now?"

"She keeps going at that pace, we got a day and a half before she reaches New Liskeard, maybe sooner."

The footage showed officers trying to stop Starlight, despite being confused by what they were seeing. Their efforts however were useless and the last bit of footage shown was of Starlight running up the big hill that would lead her to New Liskeard. Ryan, Patrick and Emily stood in complete shock, while I fell back into my couch cushion, groaning loudly.

"Yeah, she'll be here sooner than that."