Status Update

Well, figures I might as well give a bit of information regarding the status of Friendship Is Absurd. Yep, it's still being worked on. Slowly, but it's being worked on.

But beyond my usual reassurance of that, I wanted to note that we're getting close to the end of Friendship Is Absurd. I'm not exactly sure how close, but not counting the movie parody (which will probably be a separate story) and any epilogue chapter(s), there's only 2-4 chapters left remaining. How many we end up with will depend on several factors, but it'll be somewhere in the 2-4 range.

Anyway, I figure I might as well throw out a bit of a preview of the next chapter. Note the final version of the chapter may have this edited somewhat.

Sunset, Trixie, Flim, Flam, Suri, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all walked into the train car and slumped down onto the seats, exhausted. “Okay,” said Sunset, “that’s it. That is the absolute last adventure we’re ever going to go on from that map. I don’t care how much cash we get, it’s not worth going through that again.”

“Uh, Sunset?” said Suri. “Why are you saying this now? You’ve already made this claim repeatedly. We’ve heard it.”

“I’m saying it this many times because I’m determined to make sure that I actually stick with it this time,” said Sunset. “The previous adventures could be annoying, even dangerous, but they didn’t take months to accomplish!”

“We know, Sunset,” said Gilda wearily. “We were there too, remember?”

“I believe studies show that complaining too much, especially about things you can’t change, isn’t good for your health,” said Flim.

“Well, it makes me feel better!” snapped Sunset. “That’s good enough for me! I refuse to go through that again!”

“Aw, come on,” said Lightning Dust. “Outside of the part where we got forced to repeatedly relive our worst nightmares for a week, I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“Please don’t remind me of that,” said Sunset with a groan.

“Hey,” said Gilda, “it built character.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re the only one who didn’t get caught in that!”

“Well, duh,” said Gilda. “My character is already built. And it was that building of character that allowed us all to come together in the end to find the Golden Magic Monkey idol and make a fortune. And I suppose also fix the weather in that place so they can actually grow crops and stuff again.”

“I don’t think that the ‘building of character’ had much to do with our victory,” said Suri.

“It’s my theory and I’m sticking to it,” said Gilda. “Besides, I doubt we’d ever need to go on another one of these map adventures again considering how much we got out of this one. So quit your complaining.”

“At least we made sure to get enough issues of Mare Do Well done as a buffer in case our visit took as long as it did,” said Trixie with a yawn. “Hopefully there won’t be too many changes while we were gone. It’d be annoying to come back to town and discover that a castle had suddenly sprung up.”

“There’s already a castle,” said Gilda.

“Well, duh,” said Trixie. “That’s why it would be especially weird.”

“That doesn’t even begin to make sense,” said Flim.

“Ugh, ask me when I’m no longer so tired,” said Trixie. “I’m so sleepy it’s a wonder I can do good talking still.” She promptly collapsed into sleep.

“That seems like a reasonable idea,” said Suri as she also fell asleep. The rest followed suit. Eventually the train came to Ponyville and they all departed.

“Well, it doesn’t look like much changed,” said Trixie. “Outside of that huge massive building, I suppose. Any of you know what that is?”

“I hope it’s a roller-skating rink,” said Suri.

“You like roller-skating?” asked Gilda.

“No,” said Flam, “but I think it would stimulate the economy.”

“Let’s just go and find out,” said Sunset as the group went up to the large building and saw a big sign on it that said ‘School of Friendship.’ “Really?” asked Sunset. “Somepony actually made a school of friendship?”

“Yeah, I was surprised it turned out that way too,” said Chrysalis.

Sunset did a double check. “Wait, Chrysalis? When did you get here? Why are you here?”

“Oh, I just happened to be around,” said Chrysalis. “It’s not like I’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible here in Ponyville so that I could meet you all when you came back, after all. Because that’s just be plain stupid. Why would you think such a stupid thing? It was just a simple co-inky-dink!”

“Uh… okay, but why is there a ‘School of Friendship’?”

Chrysalis shrugged. “We had a lot of money left at the end of the year thanks to my fantastic budgeting abilities, so we held a referendum to decide what to do with it. ‘Build a School of Friendship’ won out.”

“Really?” said Gilda. “That won?”

“Don’t underestimate the troll vote,” said Chrysalis.

“So… you teach people about friendship here, then?” asked Sunset.

“Oh, certainly not,” said Chrysalis. “I showed those trolls! Yes, I built the School of Friendship… or, more properly, the Society of Creating Helpful Original Ordinary Likable Objects and Funding Fantastic Research Into Entertaining Notions Delivering Substantially Happier Individual People!”

There was a pause. “The what?” asked Trixie.

“It’s about encouraging inventions that make life more convenient,” said Chrysalis. “Honestly, considering the acronym I had to fill, I think I did a pretty good job with that.”