On Friendship's Trail

by River Road


A Visit from Friends

“Rarity!” The off-white mare with the two-tone blue mane and tail greeted her friend and employer, staying demure despite her excitement.

“It’s good to see you again, Coco.” Rarity gave her friend a light hug, smiling. “Did you finish the preparations for the fashion show yet?”

“I finished them a few days ago.” Coco turned around and pulled a coatrack from behind a curtain, revealing a collection of tasteful dresses. “I hope you like them. I put all my work into them.”

“Oh, I absolutely love them. I daresay, I couldn’t have designed a better collection myself.” Rarity stepped up to the rack, feeling the fabric and inspecting each one closely.

“I’m so glad to hear that.” Coco gave a shy smile. “Which ones do you want to show off at the fashion show?”

“Oh, I’m not going to take a single one of these.” Rarity said casually.

“What?” Coco’s eyes widened. “But didn’t you say–?”

“I did, and I meant it.” Rarity turned back to her employee, smiling. “Alas, I just got a letter on my way here, that I should return to Ponyville right away. And even if I didn’t, I never intended to present these dresses myself.”

She walked over to the confused mare and put a foreleg around her shoulders. “These dresses are your work, Coco. I couldn’t possibly go and claim credit for them. That’s why I want you to present them at the Fashion Show, under your own name.”

“Y-you mean…?” The earth pony mare stared at her.

“I mean just that, darling. Your talent is far too valuable to have you work as somepony’s assistant. You go and make your big breakthrough, and at the next big fashion show, we will be competing.” Rarity spoke in a grand voice. “You are hereby released from your contract, if you wish so.”

Coco began to tear up a little, shaking from the emotions. “O-of course I…” The sentence devolved into a hoarse squeak and she just leaped forward, hugging the unicorn tightly. “Thank you.”

“Well, I am certainly glad you agree.” Rarity let her continue for a moment, then gently pushed her away. Coco’s eyes were shimmering with held back tears.

“I wish that I could stay and watch, but Pinkie Pie’s letter was quite insistent.” She slowly walked past the other mare and through the door. “I wish you the best of luck.”

Coco turned around and nodded, desperately trying not to cry. She dashed after Rarity and stopped at the door, waving frantically as she shouted after her friend. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

~~~~~

Applejack set down the last bushel of apples and left the barn, trotting towards the Apple family’s house and the smell of a homemade, apple-based dinner. Only one day after Tirek’s attack, a couple hours of applebucking were just what she needed to wind down and bring some sense of normalcy back into her life. That, and eating with her family was all she really needed.

She entered the kitchen and threw her hat to the side, hitting the coatrack with the experience one got from years of practice. “Do Ah smell Granny Smith’s homemade apple soup? It sure smells delicious as… always?”

She paused and looked over the ponies at the table. Granny Smith was there, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom, just like usual. What wasn’t usually there was the off-white stallion with the dark grey mane and a slight underbite.

“Silver Shill?” Applejack blinked, then laughed and trotted up to him. “Ah haven’t seen y’all ever since that disaster with the Flimflam brothers. What are y’all doing here?”

“Oh, I was selling my costumes, when suddenly this rainbow just rushed right past me, and I thought… I should really go to visit Applejack again. I mean, I barely got to talk with you last time I was here, and most of what we talked weren’t exactly… pleasant conversations.” He looked to the side awkwardly.

“Well, that’s awfully nice of y’all, comin’ all the way down here. Ah hope yer hungry, cause Granny Smith makes some of the best food in all of Equestria.”

“That’s right, y’all just sit down and let Granny do the rest.” Granny started to dish out soup onto the plates, not looking away from her task as she spoke. “By the way, Applejack… Pinkie Pie wanted me to tell you that there’s a big party goin’ down tonight. Something about cheesecake, or cheesepie…”

~~~~~

“Hey, Rainbow Dash! Wake up!”

The addressed pegasus groaned, squirming around a little on her cloud and blinking sleepily. She lifted her head just a little to look up at the three uniformed pegasi floating in front of her. “Oh, hey Spitfire…”

Her head slumped back down and she closed her eyes again, snoring lightly. After a few seconds her eyes shot up.

“Spitfire?!” Rainbow Dash jumped up, looking at the ponies in front of her with wide eyes as she started to stumble backwards. “Soarin? And Fleetfoot? What are you doing heaaaaaahh!”

The three watched with a smirk as Rainbow Dash fell off the cloud, then awkwardly flapped back up. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes…” Rainbow gave them an embarrassed smile. “What are you doing here?”

“We were around and thought we’d pay you a visit.” Fleetfoot stepped forward. “We don’t get to Ponyville very often, and we did enjoy our last visit. Besides, we wanted to visit one of our most loyal fans, and good friend.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus practically beamed at the praise. “That’s so awesome!” She tilted her head. “So, what, you’re doing fan visits now?”

“Not quite. We’re not allowed to just visit random fans.” Spitfire smirked and pulled out a scroll, holding it out for her. “The new leader of the Ponyville Wonderbolts Reserve, however…”

Rainbow stared at the scroll for a moment while the words processed in her head. “Y-you mean…?”

Soarin nodded. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but you passed both the theoretical and the practical test with flying colors.” He chuckled, glancing at Rainbow’s namesake mane.

For a few moments, Rainbow just sat on the cloud, hugging the scroll to her chest. The she jumped up without warning, circling the cloud excitedly. “This is the best day ever! I need to talk to Pinkie Pie, this calls for a–“

She paused and slowly floated back down. “Oh right, Pinkie already is throwing a party today. You guys should totally stay for that. She said it’s going to be a CheesePie party.”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean ‘cheesecake’?”

Rainbow laughed. “You’ll see what I mean.”

~~~~~

“I’m not saying that I want it to be this quiet all the time.” Twilight trotted next to Pinkie as they reached Sugarcube Corner. “It’s just a nice change of pace after that whole trouble with Ti–“

The rest of the sentence was cut off by a load of confetti, streamers and balloons hitting her straight to her face.

“Oospydaisy, my bad.” A very cheerful orange stallion was standing behind Pinkie’s party cannon, somehow talking loudly through the wrench in his mouth. “Pinkie, your party cannon pulls a little to the right.”

“Cheese!” Pinkie leaped forward, excitedly bouncing around him. “You’re here! And I’m here, too! We’re both here!” She stopped and tilted her head. “But why are you here? Did your Cheesie Sense tell you to come?”

“Oh, you just know it.” Cheese grinned. “I saw that rainbow passing by and it gave me one heck of a doozy, so I figured I should pass by Ponyville again to visit the best party planner in Equestria. And while I was waiting for you, I took a quick look at your party cannon.” He threw the wrench up and balanced it on his mane, still looking at Pinkie. "Do you want me to help readjust it?”

“No, thank you.” Pinkie shook her head. “I always aim a little to the left, so if you adjust it I’ll have to aim at the left first, then right again.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Cheese pushed the cannon away, along with the wrench. “Do you know what that means?”

Pinkie nodded eagerly. “It means that we have more time to plan the greatest party of all times!” She threw her hooves up in excitement.

Twilight took a step forward. “Now, Pinkie, don’t you think Cheese will want a moment to settle do–“

“No time for settling.” Cheese pushed a hoof into her mouth, looking at the wristwatch on his other hoof. “We only have twenty-two thousand three hundred eighty seconds left to make this party work!”

Pinkie gasped. “You’re right! And now it’s only twenty-two thousand three hundred seventy-four seconds!” She grabbed Cheese’s leg and dashed back out onto the street, while Cheese held on to the leg of Boneless II.

Twilight watched them bounce off, letting out a breath. “So much for a boring day…”

“Come on, Cheese, I know the best confetti shop in all of Equestria. Actually, I think it’s the only confetti shop in all of Equestria…”

~~~~~

“And that’s the whole story. Tirek is gone for good, at least until he breaks free from Tartarus again. I do doubt that he will be reformed, though.”

Discord looked at the earth pony opposite of him. The light brown stallion with a dark brown mane looked back for a moment before sighing. “It might be better this way. I’m just glad that Equestria is safe again. Besides, there are more important matters to discuss.” He smiled. “You really accepted the friendship of ponies?”

“Indeed. I’m friends with quite a lot of ponies already.” Discord leaned in for a stage whisper. “But mostly Fluttershy.” He made a giddy face and pulled back again.

“That’s good to hear.” The stallion nodded. “I heard of you, of course, back in the day… But I never thought I would actually meet you. And certainly not under these circumstances.” He looked down at himself.

Discord inspected his claws before smirking at him. “You like it?”

“Being a pony is certainly interesting. How long did you say this will last?” The stallion looked at his hooves curiously.

“About twenty-four hours. There’s a big event tonight that you wouldn’t want to miss, I think.” Discord chuckled.

“There you go, a fresh batch of cucumber sandwiches.” Fluttershy stepped up to them and set down the platter on the table, smiling softly.

Discord looked down at them. “Why, thank you, Fluttershy. I am terribly sorry I forgot to bring them… I would lose my own head after all those friendship lessons yesterday.” His headless body turned around, ‘looking’ around before it found his head next to the sandwiches. He picked it up and dusted it off before putting it back on his neck.

Fluttershy didn’t react to the display at all, instead turning to the stallion. “Please help yourself, there is enough for everypony.” She paused, taking a closer look. “I’m sorry, your name seems really familiar, but I can’t say I remember where I heard it.”

“It is okay.” The stallion nodded. “I’m just a traveler, passing through this town.”

“It is very nice to meet you, either way.” Fluttershy gave him a warm smile and lifted the teapot. “Would you like some more tea, Mr. Scorpan?”