Friendship gets Schooled?

It was the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday, and Alphabittle had decided to spend the last day of the weekend enjoying herself a bit. And there was no better place for that in Ponyville, than the Rainbow Wishes Amusement Park.

"Come on, Magic!" The teacher pleaded, pulling the pink stallion with a blond mane and magic hat cutie mark along. "I want to go on the butterfly coaster!"

"All right, all right already!" Magic replied with a laugh as the couple trotted through the entrance. "Sheesh, I'm only used to coming here to perform magic tricks on stage!"

Alphabittle just rolled her eyes, knowing the park wasn't that special to her magician boyfriend. But Rainbow Wishes was a special place to the teacher, a play land that was a magical escape from her everyday life of grading papers, and stopping her students from acting like uncivilized animals. She pulled him over to the ticket booth, and after Magic had shelled out a few jangles, the two were in line for the butterfly roller coaster.

"Ohh, I think it's so cute how each of the coaster cars look like butterflies!" The teacher squealed in delight. "and I've heard Round and Round and Sparklesnap tinkered with the coaster recently, to make it go even faster!"

"Great, just what I need." Magic groaned, sticking his lounge out in disgust. "Something to make me even more nauseous while riding that thing!"

But as the teacher was listening to her boyfriend's complaints, she noticed two ponies she knew standing in line ahead of her, both about to get on the roller coaster.

"Awww, man! this is going to be soooo cool!" Sparkleworks exclaimed, almost prancingaround in line from excitement. "Those changes changes my sister made to the coaster are gonna make this one really wild ride!"

"Yeah, this is gonna be almost as much fun as riding a big wave on a surf board!" Sunny Daze giggled. "Hey, why don't we each sit in one of the two different coaster trains, and we can pretend we're racing each other!"

"Oh, that would totally rock! And the first one who's coaster train comes back into the station is the winner!" Sparkleworks grinned. "Loser buys the winner and her boyfriend supper at the Cotton Candy cafe' tomorrow!"

"Oh, you are so on!" Sunny replied. "My coaster train will so totally leave yours in the dust!"

Alphabittle smiled at the exchange, happy to see to of her friends in such playful competition. But as she was standing in the very long line, the teacher seemed to recall something about not-so-friendly competition from the notes she had been reading the other day. With nothing else to do while waiting and standing in line, and her boyfriend had already started talking to another stallion ahead of them in line, the teacher reached into her saddle bag, and pulled out the princess of frienship's class folder once more to read;

Sometimes I wonder if the ponies I have teaching about friendship, truly understand some of the core principles of friendship. While Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie seem to grasp all of the concepts, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are having some... issues. The two have a competitive nature that gets in the way of not only their friendship, but their ability to help other ponies, as well. Just as they had ramped up their competition during the running of the leaves two years ago, so their competition has affected things here at the friendship school.

Take, for example, when the two were competing over the teacher of the month award recently. I put the two of them in charge of a teamwork field trip, and the two spent more time bickering and trying to one-up each other, than actually teaching their students anything. Applejack tried to show the students the importance of working slow and carefully in building ashed, and Rainbow Dash messed it up so she could get to her activity more quickly. Then, Rainbow Dash and Applejack tried showing the class teamwork through river canoeing, only to nearly end up smashing the raft into the rocks because they were too busy arguing to give directions!

I can't believe it! How could two grown adult ponies- two of the of the elements of harmony, no less!- be less mature than the students they were supposed to be teaching! Thew class actually stood up for their teachers, though, and lied to me make A.J. and Dash look good. I do believe the students are learning about friendship and teamwork, thoguh... by watching their two teachers, the students are actually learning what NOT to act like!

Sigh, I wonder if opening this friendship school was such a good idea, after all...

Alphabittle was pulled out of her reading, when the line started moving again. Looking up at Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks boarding the train, the teacher realized the friendship lessons certainly must have taken root in the princess of friendship's time, seeing as how a lot of pony's competition was so friendly now. But reading these entries, Alphabittle was beginning to understand why the school of friendship was necessary in those troubled times.

But just as the teacher and her boyfriend were about to go on the roller coaster, Alphabittle noticed a very familiar little figures talking to the stallion who was running the park's rides.

"Gee, thank you so much for letting me ride all the rides in the park for free, Mister Round n' Round." Cozy Glow smiled, a cute look of innocence in her eyes. "You are far to kind to a sweet little filly like me."

"Awww, don't worry about it, little one." The purple stallion with an orange mane and cutie mark patted her on the head. "Now, why don't you go, and take a ride on the Ferris wheel?"

And as the teacher watched the cute little smiling filly board the Ferris wheel, Alphabittle once again began to wonder how this mysterious pony was really about....