The Matter Of Friendship

by HeartShieldFiM

Chapter 12 ~ More Books

'Thank you so much for helping us!' Pinkie yelled. 'You're a great friend!'
'Ah, you're welcome honey,' Rarity replied. 'You want me to look for history about these creatures?'
The other pony nodded and handed Rarity a book. 'If you start with the antelope, I will do the reindeer and Discord, you'll do the dragon, okay?'
Discord nodded. 'Thanks, both, for helping me,' he muttered. 'It would be hard to do this all by myself…'
The three stared at the table for a while, which was stocked with books and old scrolls about parts of Discord. Then Rarity sighed, lifted a pile of books and placed it on the floor and said, 'There. Now we at least can see each other. Let's get started.'
They all three opened the book right in front of them and started to read.

After the first three candles had burned down, Pinkie said, 'Hey, look at this!'
Discord immediately rose up behind her. 'What? Tell me!'
'The reindeer used to live around Canterlot,' the pony replied. 'But after a strange disaster in which one of them lost his horn, they all moved away…'
'Look for further information,' Rarity said, leaning over the table. 'Maybe it says something about the destination of the horn…'
'They say… that the reindeers were pretty special for the ponies living in Canterlot at the time, not that it was anything like it is now and it wasn't even called Canterlot yet, and because of that, they kept the horn…'
'They did?' Discord asked, grabbing his horn. 'So this could be…'
'The horn is still being kept in Canterlot,' Pinkie continued. Then, 'I'm sorry, Discord.'
Discord sighed. 'It's okay, Pinkie. It's not your fault…'
'Maybe I should go to sleep now,' Rarity suggested. 'I haven't slept in days!'
'Do you want to stay here overnight?' Discord asked. 'We have one spare bedroom, you know…'
The ponies smiled. 'That would be lovely,' Rarity said. 'Then we could read more tomorrow.'
'If you want to,' the draconequus sighed. 'Only if you want to.'
'I'd love to help you,' Rarity said. 'Now, where can I find the bedroom?'

'Hey, you really seem to learn,' Pinkie whispered, so she wouldn't wake up Screwball in the room next to hers.
'You think?' Discord replied. 'Because I have no idea what I am doing all the time.'
Pinkie crawled up from her mattress and put her head on Discord's bed. After some more reading, she decided to sleep in Discord's room, since she didn't want to wake up Rarity.
'You know, after you offered Rarity a room,' she said. 'That's what they call generosity.'
'Generosity is a gift… but only to others,' Discord muttered, and he sighed.
Pinkie put her hoof in his hand. 'Nope. It's not. It's a gift to yourself as well, you know… if you see somepony being happy with what you gave them…'
'Rarity has space enough in her own house,' the draconequus continued. 'So it wouldn't have made a difference if I didn't offer her the room.'
'Oh, it would. You saved her a long walk home in the dark… with all those creepy creatures like Diamond Dogs around…'
Discord sat up. 'I thought you had defeated them…'
'We did,' Pinkie said. 'But what if they'd come back for poor Rarity?'
'Spike would have saved her,' Discord replied. It was quiet for a while. Then, Pinkie gave Discord a hug and dropped herself back on her bed. 'Good night,' she whispered.
Discord didn't say anything.
Pinkie fell asleep with a smile, knowing that finding his family tree would probably would keep his thoughts from the Princess.

'Discord? Discord, what's wrong?'
The draconequus woke up with a shock, accidentally bumping his head against Pinkie's.
'Ouch,' she muttered. 'You have a hard head.'
'What was going on, dear?' Rarity asked. It took a moment for Discord to find out why she was here. Screwball was also around, looking pretty nervous.
'I had… I just had a bad dream, nothing to mind.'
'Oh, most certainly, yes!' Rarity said. 'You seemed to be pretty scared.'
'Puh,' Discord replied. 'I'm never scared.'
The ponies looked at each other for a while, and Pinkie smiled. 'It's okay, Discord,' she said. 'Everypony is scared of something, someday.'
The draconequus didn't reply.
Pinkie gave a quick stroke on his forehead, then she turned at Rarity. 'Let's go read some more books,' she said.
'Of course,' Rarity answered.
'Are you coming, Discord?' Pinkie asked.
The draconequus shook his head. 'No. Not now. And you don't have to read, okay? It's of no use and by the way, I feel bad about letting you read while I just lay in my bed.'
'That's just fine,' Rarity said. 'Not a problem at all, right, Pinkie Pie?'
The pink pony shook her head. 'Nope. We'll tell you if we find something!'

'There we go,' Pinkie said, and dropped a heavy book on Discord's bed. Discord himself was lying with his head under his pillow, refusing to do anything.
Pinkie opened the book. It was huge, heavy and pretty gray. It must've been around for quite a while.
'Wanna hear it?'
'Hmrmmrm!' Discord replied.
Pinkie sat down on his back, and while stroking his mane, she said, 'The draconequus – more information about the draconequus can be found in the Big Encyclopedia of Historical Creatures of Equestria.' She paused. Then, 'I have looked for that book in Twi's library, but she also had no idea where to find it. Then Spike discovered a scribble on the back of the last page. It says: "The Big Encyclopedia of Historical Creatures of Equestria is property of the Canterlot Library." I guess we have to visit your birthplace again…'

Author's Note:

Yey
Moar books.

Comments

[Dan50]

Damn you Canterlot!