I pressed my hooves on the table, staring at it with a frown. Me and Twinkleshine's cutie marks were spinning in a circle above a part of Canterlot. Lyra, Lemon Hearts, Minuette and Twinkleshine were having our weekly meet up for tea when the table started to glow. They were staring in wonder at the table too.
"What does it mean?" Twinkleshine asked curiously.
"Whenever me or one of the Elements needs to solve a friendship problem in a part of Equestria, the ponies or pony the map sends to solve the problem will be above the vague area of the problem. Sometimes it sends one, sometimes it sends all of us. Rarely it will send one. It sent Starlight by herself to help Luna and Celestia with their problem," I explained. Lyre tilted her head in confusion.
"The royal sisters had a problem? How did Starlight solve it?" She asked.
"She swapped their cutie marks around till they understood why each other was frustrated with the other and were happy again."
"Oh," Lemon Hearts said nervously. "How did they take that?"
"They were mad at first," I admitted. "But it all sorted itself out. Thankfully. I may have overreacted when Starlight told me what she did." Minuette giggled.
"You? Overreact? That never happens!" She and Lyra laughed.
"Haha," I said dryly with a smile. "Very funny." Twinkleshine stared at her flank and pulsing cutie mark, poking it with a hoof.
"Does it always make your cutie mark do that?" She asked me and I nodded.
"Yeah," I answered. "It does that when the problem is solved too."
"Fascinating," Lyra mused as she stared at my flank and cutie mark.
"Lyra? I don't think Bon Bon would approve of you staring at another mares flank," Lemon Hearts pointed out and I turned red.
"Excuse me but I didn't get to chose where cutie marks were placed when we were created by Has and Bro," Lyra defended herself. I rolled my eyes.
"You're so weird Lyra," I said with a grin. Lyra bumped her flank against mine with a grin of her own.
"It's part of the charm that makes everypony love me."
"We do love you," I readily agreed. I did actually love her, she and the others were my oldest friends and I was so happy they forgave me for running off on them. Shame Moondancer couldn't make it to this week's tea. She and Rarity had surprisingly hit it off really well.
"So what now?" Twinkleshine asked and the others looked at me expectantly. "You're the expert, Princess." She gave an exaggerated bow to me and grinned. I rolled my eyes in frustration at that.
"You know I don't like when you guys bow to me or call me Princess," I chided. "It seems wrong to make any of my friends do that."
"We know," Minuette grinned. "We just enjoy some good natured teasing." She flattened her mane down to look like mine and jumped around. "Let's fly!" Lyra and Lemon Hearts burst out laughing and Twinkleshine patted me on the head like a foal. I let a smile cross my face at their antics. I did enjoy their company a lot.
"And to answer your question," I looked at Twinkleshine. "We go to Canterlot."
"So we just wander around till we find the problem?" Twinkleshine asked as she fanned herself. It was pretty hot out and we had been walking around Canterlot for the past three hours. I gave a lick of my chocolate ice cream and nodded.
"Pretty much," I admitted. "Either we find it or it finds us. It's always fifty fifty."
"Canterlot is huge! How can we possibly expect to find it in this town?" Twinkleshine pointed out. She gave her strawberry ice cream a lick and looked around.
"Well yes it is," I agreed. "But luckily it specified this area. And it's a pretty small area for Canterlot surprisingly. Shouldn't be too hard." I trotted up to a brown stallion with a hourglass cutie mark.
"Excuse me sir, but do you happen to have a problem with any of your friends?" I asked with a smile.
"No ma'am. I am having a problem finding where my TARDIS went!' He grabbed my cheeks with his hooves and squeezed. "I simply MUST get back and defeat the Cybermen!" He released me and ran off in a direction where a smoking blue box flew through the sky.
"Well that was weird," Twinkleshine mumbled.
"Yeah," I admitted. "That was weird, even by the standards of stuff I have to deal with." Twinkleshine snickered at that and swallowed some of her ice cream.
"What about her?" She pointed a hoof at a nearby unicorn I recognized walking by.
"Tempest!" She turned around and stared at me before breaking out a big grin. She walked towards us.
"Hello princess," she bowed slightly. "And hello Princess Twilight's friend."
"I'm Twinkleshine," she introduced herself and held out a hoof. Tempest hesitantly shook her hoof.
"Are you doing well?" I asked with a smile. "It's been awhile." She gave a shrug at that.
"I've been doing decent," she avoided my eyes and I stared at her with my head tilted curiously.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked. "You can tell me anything, I'm your friend." She gave a sigh and looked at me.
"Do you want the truth or the half truth?" She finally asked.
"What is a half truth?" Twinkleshine asked in confusion. I smirked and took the opportunity to pat her on the head like she did to me.
"I'll tell you later," I whispered and she rolled her eyes, pushing my hoof off. I stared at Tempest. "The full truth, please."
"Fine," she sighed. "I'm lonely. I have nopony to talk to or spend time with. You live somewhat far away and our letters aren't the same as in person."
"I'm sorry," I stared at my hooves. "I'm an awful friend, I should make more of an effort to come see you." She lifted my chin with a hoof.
"No. You're a great friend," she waved a hoof. "I'm not used to this whole friendship thing anymore so I'm sorry for bringing it up." Twinkleshine snorted.
"Are you serious?" She asked. "Friends tell each other stuff like this, it's not being a bad friend to talk about what's on your mind."
"She's right," I added with a smile. Tempest shrugged and sighed.
"Maybe so. It's been nice catching up but I have a doctors appointment to go to. Therapy for my horn." She gave a waved and started to trot off.
"Like I told you Twinkleshine, sometimes the problem finds us."
"How did she break her horn anyway?" Lyra asked. We sat around our normal table at Joe's Donut Shop. I nibbled my donut.
"When she took me prisoner, she told me a story about when she was a filly her friend Glitter Drops accidentally launched a ball into a Ursa Minors cave. Her two friends were scared and asked her to go get it. She went in the cave and the Minor attacked her, breaking her horn and giving her the scar," I sighed. Minuette shuddered.
"That's awful. What happened next?"
"She tried to levitate the ball when she saw them in town one day, it didn't work, her friends got scared and abandoned her. They found a new filly to play with and she ran away that day."
"What the fu-?" Lyra started to swear before Lemon Hearts used her magic to silence her with a bubble. Lemon Hearts glared at her.
"We're in public and there's a filly at the table over from us. No cursing, but I agree with the sentiment," she popped the bubble and Lyra rolled her eyes.
"I can't imagine what getting abandoned feels like," Moondancer mumbled.
"I can't tell if that's sarcastic or not," I mused.
"It's not," Moondancer reassured me.
"I have an idea," Minuette announced.
"What's that, Min Min?" Lyra asked.
"We get her former friends to apologize and make up with her. It was awful how they treated her. I would never do that to any of you all," Minuette pointed out, looking all of us in the eyes.
"Minuette?"
"Yes, Twilight?" She asked with her bright smile.
"That's a great idea!"
Author's Note
Fun fact: Glitter Drops and Spring Rain are the canon names of the fillies we see in her flashback in the movie.