Long Distance Friendship

by Drag Orion

Chapter 6

“And now class,” announced Cherilee as she handed out books to the students in her classroom. “We are going to split into groups to do reports on the historical ponies in these books.”

“Uh, are you feeling okay, Ms. Cherilee?” asked Silver Spoon looking at the title of the book. “This book is called, ‘Fantastic Fiction.’ All it has are folk tales about made up ponies like Rockhoof and Flash Magnus in it. There’s nothing historical about any of them.”

“Didn’t you hear?” replied Applebloom. “My big sis and her friends proved Rockhoof and a whole bunch of these legends were real. In fact, they’re back in Equestria now, so I guess they aren’t technically legends anymore.”

“That’s right,” confirmed Cherilee. “As remarkable as it sounds, it is true and it gives us a whole new appreciation for these heroic figures and what they’ve done for us. So now, I want you all to break into groups and-”

“Hello?” called Twilight as she knocked on the door before coming inside. “Can I have a moment of your time?”

“Twilight, is something the matter?” asked Cherilee.

“That’s what I’m here to find out,” she told her. “There’s a friendship problem somewhere in town for me to solve so I’m searching around for the pony or ponies in need of my help. So, is anyone here having any sort of friendship trouble right now? Anyone at all?”

The students were quiet for a moment as they stared at Twilight and the huge map of Ponyville she had that almost reached to the ceiling. Finally, it was Applebloom and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders who responded to Twilight first to break the awkwardness.

“I’m fine,” answered Applebloom.

“No problems with me either,” stated Scootaloo.

“A but hungry for lunch, but I don’t think that’s why you’re here,” commented Sweetie Bell. “So I’m fine too.”

“No,” answered another student shortly after Sweetie Bell.

“Not me.”

“Me neither.”

The students continued to answer and talked among themselves about it too, but from what Twilight could hear and see nothing appeared to be wrong with anypony.

“Sorry, Twilight,” apologized Applebloom. “It doesn’t look like any of us have any problems for you to solve.”

“No worries,” she smiled. “I’m glad all of you are fine. Sorry for interrupting class, especially as a lover of learning myself.”

“That’s quite alright,” Cherilee assured her. “Thanks for stopping by. Now class, picking up where we left off-”

Twilight took her leave of the classroom as she crossed it off her list. “Ok, let’s see. It wasn’t a problem with Spike, Applejack, Pinkie, or Rainbow Dash. I checked on Rarity and she ‘fabulous’ as she put it and preparing for a trip to Canterlot tomorrow. Big Mac left for the day so it can’t be him. Granny Smith… uh, well, she was definitely out of sorts for some reason, but it didn’t look like it was friendship-related. All the kids are getting along and Cherilee was right as rain too. So next is Fluttershy. At this rate I’ll figure out who has the friendship problem in no time.” Galloping off, Twilight headed straight for Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Mmm, Fluttershy, I must say, these are the best cucumber sandwiches you’ve ever made,” praised Discord as he grabbed another one.

“Heheh, that’s what you always say whenever we have our tea time,” smiled Fluttershy happy for the compliment nonetheless.

“That’s because it’s always true,” he added. “Say, how about another impression? I think you’ll get a real kick out of this one.” As he said that, one hoofed foot came detached and kicked him right in his keister getting a giggle from his pony friend. “I really got to watch what I say,” he joked. “Alrighty, impression time. Tell me if you know this bundle of fun.” Holding his lion’s paw and eagle claws arms over his face, he moved them down and magically changed his head so that it looked more like Twilight with purple hair and horn as well as her long, dark purple mane with the pink streak in it. “Friendship is not always easy, but it’s the one thing that’s worth fighting for… other than books, organizing, organizing books, and making comically long and unnecessary lists.”

“Heheh, that’s Twilight,” laughed Fluttershy lightly.

Creating a quill and scroll out of thin air, Discord began to write on it while reading what he was writing. “Dear Celestia, this is your friend Twilight Sparkle. I’m writing to tell you about what I’ve learned about friendship today and all the friendship problems my friends and I solve because of our strong bonds of friendship. Cause when friendship is on your side nothing is impossible for you and your friendly friends and you’ll even be able to forge new friendships with new friends too.” As he continued to write, the scroll became longer and quickly started to fill up the cottage till Fluttershy was neck deep in the parchment paper while Discord was up to his waist. Looking on the scroll to see what he had written, all it has was the word “Friendship” written on it over and over again. “Friendship is so great. Nothing should be more important to a pony than friendship. And blah, blah, blah, friendship. Blah, blah, blah, friends, friendship, blah blah blah.”

“Oh, Discord,” laughed Fluttershy as hard as she could which was not much more than her normal gentle chuckle.

“I do not say the word ‘friendship’ that much,” complained Twilight overhearing this from outside the cottage and poking her head on through the window.

“Oh, uh, hi Twilight,” replied Fluttershy her cheeks a faint pink from blushing.

“Well this is awkward,” commented Discord looking at Twilight with the same expression she was making. “Looks like one of us better change.” Twilight glared at him harder. “Oh, fine,” conceded Discord changing his head back to normal with the snap of his avian hand. “But it was obvious that I pulled off that look a lot better than you. And as for your use of the word ‘friendship’ can you honestly tell me that you haven’t gone a day where you’ve said it at least less than ten times.”

“W-well the word does come up a lot in conversations when dealing with friendship problems,” countered Twilight.

“Might I offer you a thesaurus,” suggested Discord taking on the prehistoric form of a tyrannosaurus rex while he opened up an the actual book of synonyms. “Ahem… acquaintanceship, affinity, coalition, fondness, amore. We could also go with other languages too. Amigo, compadre, nakama-”

“Ok, I say friendship a lot,” admitted Twilight getting a bit steamed, but keeping her cool. “I just came to see if there were any frien- any relationship issues here.”

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong here,” Discord assured her. “We’ve just been having a wonderful time together.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” she told them. “It just means I have to look elsewhere for it.”

“For what?” asked Discord covering his impish grin.

“My friendship problem,” answered Twilight realizing too late that she walked right into that one. Gritting her teeth she took her leave before she really did lose her temper.

“Good luck with your relationship issue,” Discord waved bye.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Fluttershy told him, though she couldn’t help laugh a little.

“I know, but what are friends for if you can’t poke a few good-natured barbs at them once in awhile?” he asked her.

“Let’s see… where to next,” Twilight pondered to herself as she consulted her map once she calmed down. “Looks like I’ll be making my way through the marketplace next followed by town hall, Barnyard Bargains, the post office, and the bowling alley. Gonna keep my hooves crossed that my friendship problem is in one of those places.”