Long Distance Friendship

by Drag Orion

Chapter 10

“Next up is the post office,” Twilight spoke to herself as she looked over her map. “I’m sure I am bound to find the frien- uh, the reason the map summoned me. “I wonder how the others are doing. I’m sure Pinkie Pie and Applejack got there by now and knowing Rainbow Dash she flew to Los Pegasus in record time. I’d love to know how they’re doing. Heheh, too bad I cannot get a music box to them. I could also just teleport over, but I should really trust that they can handle it themselves. I still need to focus on my own problem, whatever it is. I’ll just have to wait till they get back home to talk about it. I’m sure we’ll have it all figured out soon and they’ll be home by tomorrow.”

Entering into the post office, the first thing that Twilight noticed was the line she bumped into right upon entering.

“Hey! Watched it!” snapped the pony in the back. He looked very irritable along with all the others.

“Sorry, is there something wrong?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah, we’ve been waiting for over an hour, but the receptionist hasn’t returned from her lunch break yet,” he answered.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll be back soon,” Twilight said hoping it would ease him and the others in line. It didn’t, but what did seem to was seeing Derpy walk back in and take her place behind the counter. She ate the last piece of her giant muffin and then turned the “Out to Lunch” sign around so it now read “Opened.” She opened her mouth to welcome the next customer up, but before she could utter anything, the entire line rushed forward demanding service.

Quickly responding to the distress, Twilight teleported behind the counter to aid an overwhelmed Derpy. “If everypony would just take a deep breath,” she ordered attempted to bring a return to harmony. “We can get everypony taken care of as soon as possible. Did I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes, princess,” one of the ponies answered for the group. The rest were now completely silent.

“Very good,” she said happily. “Now thank you all for being patient. Would the next pony please come forward?”

“Uh, I’d love to,” she said. “But, uh, could you let us down first?”

Looking up, Twilight hadn’t realized in her attempt to calm the crowd down, she had lifted them up into the air with magic. With an embarrassed smile and laugh, she carefully lowered them back down and cautiously, the first pony stepped towards Twilight. “Sorry,” she answered meekly. “How can I help you today?”

The line was taken care of quickly, especially when Derpy recovered and gave Twilight a hand. “Thank you and have a nice day,” Twilight told the last pony she was taking care of and took a deep breath at the relief that it was over. “That is one problem solved, but judging from my Cutie Mark that wasn’t what the map called me for.”

“Uh, excuse me?” asked a pony from the other side of the counter. “Can you help me?”

“Oh, ok,” replied Twilight standing back up at the counter to see her latest customer. She had a light blue coat and a cobalt mane that hung down smoothly and evenly around her head except where her unicorn horn parted it. Her Cutie Mark wasn’t visible though as she had on a long, black coat. “Do you have any mail you need delivered?”

“Oh, uh, I do,” she answered reaching into a pocket of her coat and gave them to Twilight.

“These will be ready to be sent out uh, later today, I think,” Twilight told her sounding unsure and looked to Derpy who smiled and nodded. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Well, the thing is,” she spoke shyly. “I didn’t come to Ponyville to deliver those letters. I could have done that back in Manehatten. I actually came here to see you, Twilight.”

“See me?” she asked surprised. “Why is that? And how do you know who I am?”

“Because you’re the Princess of Friendship,” she answered. “And because you’re the Princess of Friendship, it would probably be stranger if I didn’t know who you were.”

“Oh, right,” agreed Twilight with a small chuckle. “Well, tell me who you are and why did you come to see me?”

“Ok, here I go,” she replied taking a few deep breaths to calm herself and then looked at Twilight with her clear, blue eyes. “My name is April Showers and I need to know, am I… am I a bad friend?”

“A bad friend?” asked Twilight confused.

“I mean I really did wish them well when they all decided to leave and we had a sendoff party and everything, but deep down I really wanted us to all stay together like we always have,” she tried to explain as her voice increased with tension. “I mean, I gave them my support to leave, but maybe they wanted me to be against it so they could change their mind or maybe they are happy that I gave them my support and it’s selfish of me to want them to come back for my sake. I just don’t know and all I can think is that I’m just a bad friend who can’t do anything for them at all. Nothing, except, send them a few lousy letters.” By the time she finished speaking she was in tears and sobbing on the floor.

“April,” called Twilight rushing to the other side of the counter to comfort her. “Do you mind if I call you April?”

“That’s fine,” she sniffled. “It’s what my friends called me. Most everyone else would just call me Showers cause I’d just start crying over every little thing. They were my best friends in the world, but now we’re separated all over Equestria.”

“All over Equestria?” wondered Twilight looking over the three letters April brought to mail out and read the destination of each. “Dodge Junction… Canterlot… and Los Pegasus! Then this is it. This is the friendship problem! April, this is your lucky day cause my friends and I are going to find a way to fix everything.”

“You’re going to help us?” she asked sniffling as her eyes stopped leaking.

“We probably already are,” she answered with a warm smile. “Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash are in all these places looking for a friendship problem and they’ll find your friends. Then it’ll just be a matter of finding a solution.”

“Will it be that easy?” asked April. “Can they all come up with a solution that works even while they’re so far apart?”

“I’m positive,” nodded Twilight. “I bet by tomorrow they’ll have things finished up on their ends. For now, why don’t we head back to my place so we can talk some more. And when my friends do return they’ll be able to tell you that everything has been taken care of with your friends as well.”

“Just hearing that makes me feel a lot bet,” April commented and managed to smile.

“By the way, how did you know I was in the post office?” asked Twilight.

“Well, I started out at your castle,” she explained as they made their way back to the Castle of Friendship. “But nobody was home so I went into town and ran into this other pony named Rarity who really liked my coat and was even more impressed when I told her I made it myself. Anyway she told me that…”