//------------------------------//
// Friendly Advice, M.D. 
// Story: Time to hire some extra teachers 
// by Light Heart101 
//------------------------------//

Twilight was busy at her desk again. She seemed to have twice as many problems than yesterday. Starlight Glimmer was down with a cold. The good news is that Twilight was able to ask the other teachers to take over her class. The bad news was that she had already planned the others taking over because she had one hundred and twenty six forms to fill out for next months supplies. To make matters worse she kept getting interrupted by students every ten to fifteen minuets. Twilight was ten seconds away from pulling her mane out. Just as she was ready go Twily-nanas she heard the door open up.

Twilight instantly screamed. "I'm busy! Come back in ten minutes!"

She looked up to see a yellow earth pony with a lavender mane. His cutie mark was a pink heart with a crack in it. He looked nervous after witnessing her outburst. "Uh... Well, I'll come back later."

Twilight instantly regretted her outburst. Before the pony could walk off she used her magic to drag him back over to her. "Wait! I'm sorry Friendly. I'm just overloaded with paperwork and other problems right now."

Friendly Advice adjusted his glasses after he got tossed into the chair. "Well, maybe I can help with that. I'm here for your teaching position. As you already know I am a psychiatrist and a neurosurgeon, and I know your students are not interested in medicine. I can teach them some good mental health techniques like meditation. I can also teach them a bit about opera. It's one of my passions in life. Through my love of it I've also learned a few languages. You have my references and are one of them. So, where do you want me?"

Twilight could see the pure confidence on his face. She turned her attention back to his file. "So... why are you looking for another job?"

Friendly didn't seemed fazed by the question. "Well, I'm not the only psychiatrist in town. Well, technically he's a psychologist. He has his part time gig and I figured I'd get one. I need something to keep me busy. You know what they say about idle hooves."

Twilight looked at the file for the moment before a small grin appeared on her face. "Actually I think I have the right position for you. How would you feel about becoming a counselor?"

Friendly blinked a couple of times in shock. "Uh... excuse me?"

Twilight leaned forward. "Right now Starlight is fighting the bug that's running around. I need more than one counselor here to help around. You are the perfect fit for the position. You already have degrees in this."

Friendly raised a hoof. His confidence slowly faded away. "I-I thought you were hiring teachers. I didn't know you needed another counselor. "

Twilight took a deep breath. "Listen, I know this isn't the position that you wanted, but you are the best at it. Starlight Glimmer is sick and I'm struggling right now to keep up with everything. Can you please help me with this?"

Friendly placed a hoof on his chin. He looked like he was trying to figure out how his perfect plan fell apart. After a minuet he finally sat back down. "Alright. You need me to play another roll? I'll be happy to do it."

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Friendly was busy going through some of the files in Starlight's office. He was still upset about his whole plan falling apart. He was so exited about teaching a whole class, not doing the same thing he was doing before. As he sorted through the mess of files he started muttering to himself. "This was not how I planned this. I wanted to teach the next generation, not sit in an office all day and have coffee and doughnuts!"

As he finished putting away the files from the desk he heard the door open up. "Um, are you the new counselor?"

He turned to see a young colt with a reindeer like coat. Friendly recognized him from one of the files he cleared from the desk. "Yes. You must be Golden Dash. Well, sit down and make yourself comfortable."

Golden slowly made his way to a couch at the side of the room. "Um, am I supposed to lie down or sit up straight?"

Friendly sat down in a nearby chair. "Either way works. Just make yourself as comfortable as possible. So, what can I help you with? Trying to learn about the meaning of life?"

Friendly noticed Golden nervously rubbing hid hooves together. "Um, Blaze said it might be a good idea to talk to you about this. You are a psychiatrist, right?"

Friendly raised an eyebrow. "Yes. I guess word gets around here. Don't worry, nothing leaves this room. What's your problem?"

Golden leaned forward in the seat. "I-I don't feel normal. I want to understand why I'm so weird. Blaze wanted me to talk with you about this. Why am I so strange?"

Friendly could see how personal this was to him. Friendly leaned forward. "Well, that depends on your definition of strange. What gives you this sense of "strangeness"?"

"Well, I guess the first thing is the fact that I'm part pony and part reindeer. It makes flying weird for me. It's like I can fly with my wings, but I can also use my magic to walk on thin air. I have doctors that are trying to figure out if I can have a cutie mark. I've had kids call me names like "Half breed", "circus clown", and many other things. It was like that until my family moved here. The ponies here still stare at me."

"I see, let me ask you a question. I'm guessing one of your parents are a pegasus and the other one is a reindeer?"

"Yes, my dad was from Cloudsdale and my mom was from Bluestone bluff."

"Really, how did they meet?"

"My dad said he was carried by the wind after he saved his team. He's a hero to everybody in Bluestone. He met my mom after the civil war, but what does this have to do with me?" Golden said as he gave Friendly a confused look.

"Do they love each other?"

"Of course!"

"And do they love you?"

"Yes, well, they tell me every day that they do."

Friendly gave him a soft smile. "You are not the first "half breed" that I've met. If your parents truly love each other than this is nothing to be afraid of. Your unique heritage is something to be proud of. Frankly I find this unique flying ability fascinating. You should be glad to have such a good family. If anything I think those kids who pick on you are just jealous. All ponies end up trying to put something down to a lower level when they feel inferior to it. Don't tell them that! Say, is there anything you're good at?"

Golden brushed a hoof against his saddlebag which had a guitar stitched on it. "Well, I'm pretty good at music."

Friendly handed him a quill and paper. "I bet you can come up with a hundred more things. Take these home and have your parents help you. What you need to do is come up with a list of good things about yourself, and whenever you start to feel like you're weird or worthless you go through it and remember how cool you are and all the good thing you have in your life. whenever you start to count your blessings your problems start looking pretty small. So, is there anything else you need help with."

Golden looked intimidated at the size of the scroll. "Well, I guess Mom and Dad can help me out with this, but that kind of goes to the other thing weird about me. I have Asperger Syndrome. I'm struggling with studying lessons for quizzes and writing papers. I'm getting help for my writing, but I'm still struggling with some of these lessons. How can I remember all of this stuff?"

Friendly realized what kind of pain that Golden was feeling. He remembered the day he was diagnosed with the exact same thing. The thing that helped him the most was his family. They helped him surpass the expectations that were laid out for him. As he looked at Golden and his bag he stared to think about his love for opera. He enjoyed getting lost in those musical worlds of wonder and adventure. These stories introduced him to the world of culture and amazement. All honesty if he didn't get his talent in helping ponies with personal problems he would have made opera his entire living. He started to wonder if Golden felt the same way about music.

After a moment of silence Friendly finally snapped out of his trance. "Um, sorry about that. Listen, I've been right were you have been. I also have Asperger Syndrome and I can give you the papers to prove it. I know it's hard to learn right now, but maybe you have a gift that can help you get through it. I love opera. It was through that that I learned about history, other languages, and so much more. You don't know how much I envy your musical gift. I've learned how to sing many of my favorite masterpieces, but I never could play an instrument for my lives sake. Maybe Music can help you the same way opera helped me. Something I want to suggest to you is trying to turn your lessons into songs and play them over in your head. Try to make the lesson play to your tune when you need to remember it. I don't recommend you singing in class, but maybe you can use that gift in a way you never considered before."

Golden looked at Friendly with a look of confusion. "Are you sure? I have written a few songs, but do you think it could help me?"

"Do you have problems remembering songs?"

"No, I could sing and play most of the songs I've heard by memory."

Friendly gave him a big smile. "Then I'm confident in you. If that doesn't work then I'll try to help you find another way. Is there anything else you need help with?"

"I don't thing so. I'll give those thing you said a try. Thank you sir."

Friendly gave a smile as he watched Golden leave the room. He took a few slow deep breaths when he was out of hearing range. "He'll be fine. Don't worry!" Before he could say anything else he heard a knock at the door. "Well, I guess this won't be as slow as I thought. Come in!"

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That night after school Twilight went to find Friendly. She caught him as he was locking up the office. "Hey Friendly, how did it go?"

He gave her a grin as he finished locking up. "Well, I had four future seekers, three homesicks, two pusseled quizers, and a pony making school medleys. So an average work day."

Twilight raised an eyebrow in pure confusion. "What?"

"It's a joke I came up with. Don't worry about it. During what free time I had I went over the files of 23% of the students. I mean no offence, but Starlight's filing cabinet looks like something Pinky Pie shot out of a cannon. I'll keep going through them and making them more efficient."

Twilight smiled at the thought of him taking initiative. "Great. So, are you okay with doing this for a while?"

Friendly cleaned his thin reading glasses. "Well, it's not what I wanted and I would eventually like to have a classroom, but you need me here. I'm happy doing this for the time being. It is what I'm good at. Well, I'll see you tomorrow Twilight. Have a good day."

As Friendly started to walk off he heard a guitar in the distance. He smiled when outside he saw Golden playing a guitar and humming to himself while writing sheet music on a paper.

As Twilight watched him walk off she started thinking to herself. "Thank you Friendly. I know I can always rely on you to help with the hurting ones."