A New, New Friend

by applejackofalltrades

Lesson

It was almost too pleasing, Cheerilee thought. She hadn’t gotten to teach ‘modern’ history to her foals yet, mainly because most of them directly lived through it, and it was a nice break to truly teach something she knew first-hoof to somepony who didn’t know it.

Tempest sat across from her on the other side of the round table in Cheerilee’s living room. The unicorn shook her head and placed a hoof on her forehead. “Wait, so you mean that Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling Invasion all happened within the same span of three years?”

Cheerilee glanced at the recent history book that Twilight had given her with a tiny smile. They hadn’t even gone through everything yet. She nodded almost apologetically. “Yes, we’ve had a busy set of years here. Perhaps we should cover the rest next week so you can really process this.”

“The rest? There’s more?” Tempest frowned. “I really missed a lot, didn’t I?”

Well, that sure was one way to put it. Cheerilee smiled a little. “Yes, you did,” she admitted. “It’s okay, though. There may be a lot, but it usually gets resolved in something I can explain in roughly twenty minutes, give or take.”

Tempest blinked, then rested her chin on the table. “I wish I had been here,” she muttered. “I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

The air thickened like glue. Cheerilee felt her body stick to the ground, but she pushed through it and reached across to put a hoof on Tempest’s. “We all make mistakes, Tempest. You’re here now, right?”

Tempest smiled. It seemed genuine, at least, which made Cheerilee smile too. She gazed at Tempest, who looked back at her. After a moment of staring, both mares cleared their throats and looked away. Cheerilee retracted her hoof and pulled the book back to her side of the table in one motion.

“Okay, well, I suppose we’re done here for tonight,” the school teacher said with a wary smile. “It was a pleasure to spend time with you, Tempest. I hope I was able to help.” Although she couldn’t really understand why giving Tempest one-on-one lessons would help, she wouldn’t dare question Twilight.

With a nod, Tempest responded, “No, it was my pleasure, really. I appreciate it, Cheerilee.”

The conversation died out, but Tempest remained. Cheerilee found a point of interest in a particularly dark corner of her house to stare at and contemplate. How long would Tempest need to meet with her? It’s not that she didn’t enjoy it. In fact, she found herself having a lot more fun than she thought she would. Tempest was surprisingly good company... if a bit awkward. As a teacher, though, she knew how to deal with awkward ponies. After all, she worked in a classroom full of little foals.

Cheerilee giggled a bit. She wondered what Tempest was like as a filly. Did she have many friends? Did she have any friends? The unicorn seemed nice, Cheerilee had to admit, but she definitely lacked some kind of social development. That much, she could tell. There had to be a reason that Twilight told Tempest to come to her, right? It’s not like it would be hard for any pony with a decent amount of intelligence and a pair of working eyes to explain recent events.

Maybe Twilight wanted Cheerilee to help Tempest make friends. The more she thought about it, though, the less silly it seemed. Perhaps it was true in some way. Cheerilee found herself wanting to actually be friends with Tempest. Were they friends already? They had just spent a whole evening together, after all. Is that what made ponies friends? She knew how to help ponies make friends, and she used to have a lot of friends herself, but as she grew…

She shook her head. Tempest was her friend, or if she wasn’t already, they certainly could be. She turned to Tempest, who was flipping through her notes, quill in mouth. Cheerilee smiled. “Tempest, I have a question.”

Tempest raised her head and gazed at Cheerilee with upturned eyebrows. “Yes?”

She felt silly. She wasn’t a foal anymore, but how else was one supposed to make friends? “Would you like to stay a bit longer? I have a bottle of wine, and I’d love to share it with a friend,” she offered, although it came out more like something a nervous schoolfilly would say on her first day of class. What if Tempest didn’t like wine? What if she hated wine? What if she was a recovering alcoholic and Cheerilee was just being outright—

“Sure!” Tempest eagerly agreed, before ducking her head with darkened cheeks. “That’d be nice. I haven’t had a drink in a while, especially not with a friend.” The unicorn raised a hoof to her chin. “Actually, I think the last time I had a drink with somepony else was after we invaded Klugetown. Although it wasn’t anything as fancy as wine; it was some cat’s moonshine.”

Cheerilee blinked. For a moment, she had forgotten about Tempest’s past. “Oh, yes,” she stammered, “I would think that it’d be… nice, though?”

Tempest sighed and shook her head. “No, it was awful. I’m extremely grateful to Princess Twilight and her friends.”

Now that was something they could agree on. “Who isn’t? After everything they’ve done for Equestria?”Cheerilee looked back at her book and stood up, making her way to the kitchen where her wine rack stood. “Do you like red wine, or white?”

“Any is fine,” Tempest replied from the table still.

Cheerilee turned to pick a bottle of red wine up between her teeth, then looked at the wine glasses in the sink. She frowned as she realized that she didn’t have enough clean glasses for the both of them, and decided she could just use a mug for herself. She walked back to the table and set down the bottle, then turned back around.

“Hey, I can help if you want,” Tempest called out to her, stopping Cheerilee in her tracks. “I’m a unicorn, remember?”

Cheerilee turned back to look at Tempest. Her gaze drifted toward her broken horn as she grimaced. “Are you… sure?”

Tempest’s gaze followed Cheerilee’s before dropping back down with a slow blink and a sigh. “Right, I forgot about that,” she mumbled. With a confident smile, she looked back up to Cheerilee. “But yes, I can do it, don’t worry.”

Cheerilee took a tentative step back to the table before walking back entirely. She sat back down carefully as she watched Tempest’s horn spark to life with a light blue glow. It was definitely different from other unicorn’s horns, but the more Cheerilee looked, the more she was intrigued.

Until it stopped glowing and instead two glasses sat on the table. Cheerilee looked at them, head cocked. “I only had one clean glass.”

Tempest smirked. “I know, it’s a little trick I picked up on my years away. Quick cleaning spell,” she explained.

“That’s actually pretty amazing,” Cheerilee gaped. She looked at the two glasses in front of her. It had been a while since she shared a drink with somepony else. Usually, she drank on her own. It was an easy way to push down the disappointments of her failed attempts at love. This time, however, she knew it wouldn’t be the same. That brought a smile to her face. “I’m glad you’re here, Tempest. Really, I am.”

Tempest lifted the bottle of wine with her magic and popped the cork out. “Me too,” she responded as she poured wine into both glasses. “I’m having… fun. We should do this more often.”

The teacher took her glass between her hooves and blushed. “Yes, I think so too.” She looked down at the dark liquid and sniffed. She waited for Tempest to finish pouring her own glass before she shared a smile with her new friend and took a coordinated sip of her wine.