Friendship is Magic

Friendship is Magic

Chapter 1

Winter was over in Canterlot, yet the cold lingered a little bit longer. It was a new idea from the weather team captain to gradually wane away winter, rather than it being wrapped up in one day, he said it was a more natural approach. There was really nothing natural about it though, everypony was wishing for warm weather right about now.

I watched as a few mares trotted past my library, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I once again felt the need for a friend. Not even a marefriend, no, just any friend. I sighed and continued my rounds, browsing through the books, making sure everything was in alphabetical order, I turned down the next aisle and-

*ting ting*

The bell hanging above the door rang as somepony entered. I casually trotted over towards the door. I put on my best act; after all, a depressed pony doesn’t make a good salespony. “Hello and welcome to Sunset Wonder’s Library and Bookstore”, I spoke to the guest, I turned one more corner and saw who it was. “P-p-p-p-princess Celestia! W-w-w-w-what are you doing here? Can I help you with anything?” I stuttered out in shock as I stumbled into a bow. “Why no my little pony, I am here to help you.”

“What!?”

“Do not be surprised, I will explain.” She gestured for me to stand and began to speak once more “I have seen your melancholy, and wanted to help. This world rather centers on friendship and interaction with other ponies, so it pains me to see you so lonely. Canterlot is a big place and it is very hard to make friends here, so I have decided to send you somewhere simple, where it is easy to meet ponies, and maybe even friends.” She gave me wink and turned to leave, being the logical pony I am, I had some questions. “What about my house?”

“Your belongings have been packed up and are on their way to their destination.”

“And what of my store?”

“It has been sold, you know very well business was not exactly booming here.” She gestured around the room. It was true, the store was going under, nopony ever came in, and I could barely afford to pay the electric bill. “Then what about all the books in my house? Surely not all of those were packed.”

“They weren’t packed, not because they were to numerous, but because they all belonged to your library.”

“Very well then. When am I to depart?”

Celestia’s horn flashed with magic as she conjured up a train ticket.

“Your train will be here in an hour, enjoy your stay in Ponyville.” And with that, she left.

It was hardly going to be a stay; all ties between me and Canterlot were snapped with but a word from the mighty Goddess. I looked around the store one last time. I flipped the open sign on the door with my magic and left. I walked down the cobble street looking in the windows of shops selling various trinkets. I stopped outside a mirror store. I looked in the window at a reflection of myself. I liked the way I looked; I had a clean white coat and a long mane. I liked it long, even though I was a colt; it felt like I had something to hide behind. I wasn’t a very muscular colt, I wasn’t fat though, and I was trim. I recalled an unhappy memory of myself walking down this street, head hung low, after a colt had tried flirting with me, only to receive a rather deep voiced response of “What the hay?”. I sighed, blowing off a bit of my mane. It was a wonderful crimson and gold stripe, and I liked it too. I examined my tail of the same colors, when my eyes fell on my cutie mark, a quill and inkwell. I found it in a rather silly way, I had never written anything. I sat in the library one day, reading about caveponies, when it appeared. I didn’t understand until I wrote. I am a chronicler, I wrote down everything after that day, this is how the books I read came into existence, and I could never be happier knowing this. I stopped staring at myself, cursing me a little for looking so long, it made me feel vain. I thought for a moment of what happened to everything I wrote down. Then I remembered that they shut off the heat in my house, so it all went into the fireplace. I almost cried as I recalled my life burning away in an inferno to preserve myself. I continued walking towards the train station; it was just up the road so I was in no hurry to get there. The street was sparse; a few ponies here and there trotted up and down the street, with their friends. It felt like I had a neon sign over my head, nopony ever walks alone anywhere, but it wasn’t like I had anyone to walk with. Moondancer passed by me, I remembered her party just a- wait, was it really that long ago? Anyway, I remembered sitting alone while everypony was up and dancing to the new hit song March of the Parasprites. I winced a little when she stepped on my tail. “Oh my! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s fine” I whispered, I’m not good at talking to mares, or really anyone.

“Where are you heading to? I’ll walk with you.” She offered “You’re Sunset Wonder right?”

My eyes lit up, not only did she know who I was, but she also wanted to walk with me, suddenly my voice had a little more confidence.

“Yeah that’s me, and I was heading to the train station.” I gradually looked up, and was shocked to find her blushing.

“Why are you going to the train station? Are you going somewhere?”

“I’m going to live in Ponyville, by request of the Princess Celestia.”

“Ponyville? Really? I know someone who moved there a while ago, her name is Twilight Sparkle. Maybe you’ll meet her.”

I noticed she neglected the word friend, but thought nothing of it. We began walking, occasionally our eyes would meet, but we both abruptly looked away. Moondancer truly was an attractive mare; I almost didn’t want to leave. I tried to make conversation. “So how about you? Where were you going?”

“I was just going home, until I bumped into you.” She winked once; it was obvious that I would have to return to Canterlot sometime, even if it was for one, gorgeous mare.

She suddenly shouted to somepony “Swiftwing! Hey Swiftwing!” A rather muscular pegasus colt turned to look at us, before flying over, Moondancer introduced us.

“Sunset Wonder, this is my coltfriend Swiftwing.” I was hit by those words about as hard as a buck to the face, and then Swiftwing bucked me in the face.

“You stay away from my marefriend, got it?” he glared at me, anticipating a response.

“Got it.” I gasped out.

He didn’t break my nose, which was very generous of him, but it still hurt. Swiftwing pulled Moondancer close and said to her. “C’mon babe, let’s go.”

They trotted off, Moondancer looked back at me, and mouthed “Sorry” to me, and I dusted myself off and trotted away. I wish it didn’t have to be like this, me just being an acquaintance. I almost had a friend, but then I was shoved into a darkened corner by her coltfriend, I can guarantee that after one apology to her for beating me up, and a session of passionate lovemaking, she will have completely forgotten about me.

I continued on anyway, careful not to think about her too much, else I end up depressed again. Instead I though of my new life. Surely coming and going depression like this will be gone as soon as I have some kind of friend. I nodded to myself and left it at that. My thoughts continued to wander as I arrived at the train station. I approached the conductor pony and showed him my ticket, he let me on the train and I found a seat. I realized I hadn’t brought anything to do on the train ride. I sighed and looked out the window; all I saw were ponies with places to be. I wanted to find something to do, so I wandered the train for a short while, but there wasn’t really much wandering to do. There were a few ponies in their seats, but not many. I found nothing of interest aboard the train, so I headed back to my seat. To my surprise, when I returned I found two ponies in the same train compartment with me. There sat a sleeping purple mare and her rainbow friend. The purple one was leaning against her friend and fast asleep. She did not notice my entry. On the other hand, the rainbow one sat across from me and eyed me warily. I felt as though my very soul was being examined by this mare and her red-eyed stare. I started to wonder where they were going, but immediately stopped myself. This is a train bound for Ponyville, so that’s obviously where they were going. I looked around our compartment, and spotted a bin full of magazines; I took a copy of Literacy Daily and hid behind it. I heard the conductor shout once, and the train began to move. The train climbed up to a steady speed, and soon after the rainbow mare was also fast asleep. I put away my magazine and relaxed, it was starting to get late, and I could use some sleep. I looked around the compartment once more before I closed my eyes. I felt the rhythm of the train; I listened to the noise of the tracks, and the steady breathing of my companions. I drifted into a dreamland.

___________________________________________________________________________

I looked around the darkened room, but couldn’t see anything. I felt with my hooves for a light switch, but was stopped. Another hoof pushed mine to the side and flicked on the lights. Her stare made me grimace. Even though she looked cheery with her pink mane and coat, I knew something was amiss. She called to a friend “Look Dashie, somepony is going to watch!” I looked into the darkness and saw the same rainbow mare from our train compartment, she gasped as she recognized my face.

I noticed I felt slightly numb, as though I was previously drugged. I carefully mumbled out the words, finding it hard to articulate “Wha-wh-watch what?” I winced a little as the pink mare jumped up into my face, she began “You should really practice your speech, but anyway, you get to watch us make cupcakes!”

“Cupcakes? What?” I and the rainbow mare both looked at her quizzically, but before long, she wheeled a cart over to her friend. I could just make out all of the sharp tools and implements for cutting. I jumped to my hooves, but the pink mare (with surprising strength) pushed me into a chair and bound me with streamers. They seemed as though they would be fragile, but she wrapped me with several layers, so I could not budge. Now I was worried. The rainbow mare was also quite alarmed, she looked frantically around the room and at me, looking for some means of escape. The pink mare pulled out a scalpel and casually touched the end to her hoof to make sure it was sharp. She then turned to her friend and began to cut a circle around her cutie mark, all the while babbling unintelligible nonsense to her friend, all of which I failed to hear. The sight was gruesome, and all I could do was watch as the rainbow mare cried her eyes out, occasionally looking to me for help.

Next the pink mare pulled out a hacksaw and aimed it ever so carefully at a wing, she readied herself and-

The rainbow mare across from me awoke with a start, as did I. tear streaks stained her sky blue face as she looked at me with a pained expression. “How did you… get inside my dream?”

“I have absolutely no idea. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve had this dream before; I already found help for it, but thanks anyway. Who are you?”

“I’m Sunset Wonder, and you are?”

“I’m Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash, I liked the name. It sounded right. She really was charming, her tomboyish style and athletic build complimented each other wonderfully. I stopped right then. Athletic build… Tomboyish style… well horse apples, she’s a lesbian. I realized I was making an assumption, that the only way to find out would be to ask her, and there was no way I was doing that.

“Hey…hey…HEY!!! Quit starin’ will ya’? I’m not into colts.” She jammed a hoof in her mouth following her slip of the tongue. It did probably look like I was staring from her point of view, but I didn’t care, I found out what I wanted to know and a wry smile crossed my face.

“Oh don’t you think about telling anypony, I didn’t even mean to tell you, and if anyone in Ponyville finds out, especially my friends, nopony will ever look at me the same!”

“I promise, I won’t tell anypony.”

“Pinkie Pie promise?”

I looked at her quizzically. “Who’s Pinkie Pie?”

“You’re not from Ponyville, are you?”

“No, I was sent to live here by the Princess.”

“The Princess? Really? Twilight here is her number one student.” She pointed at the purple unicorn leaning on her.

“Twilight? You mean Twilight Sparkle? I was told to talk to her by my… acquaintance Moondancer.”

“Acquaintance? Why not friend?”

“We aren’t that close. By the way who’s Pinkie Pie? You never answered my question.”

“Oh yeah, but you’ll meet Pinkie Pie soon, she knows everypony in town, and there really is no way to avoid talking with her.”

“Oh, okay.” My eyes went to my window; I saw a sign just outside FIVE MILES TO PONYVILLE. I sighed a small sigh of relief, almost there. I looked back at Rainbow Dash to see she had closed her eyes and presumably gone back to sleep. I wondered, could I call Rainbow Dash a friend? No, I would need to get to know her better. I looked down to Twilight Sparkle. I had completed my quest, I found Twilight Sparkle, now to just talk to her.

Chapter 2

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The Train stopped at Ponyville Station, The sun shone brightly, without a cloud in the sky. Obviously this town’s weather team captain wasn’t as “naturalist” as the one in Canterlot, and rather, they took a more traditional approach to Winter Wrap-up.

I stepped off of the train and looked about. It was a small, quaint little town, with not many ponies, so it was understandable that everypony knew everypony. It was also understandable the looks I received, as though I was a stranger (even though I was). As I left the train I was followed by Rainbow Dash, and a rather sleepy Twilight Sparkle. They were talking with four other ponies that had gotten off the train. They must have traveled together, but since each compartment only seats four comfortably, they had to split up. “Hey! Hey Sunny! Hey!” I got the feeling I was going to despise the nickname, but also hear it a lot. I turned to see who was trying to get my attention, and as soon as I turned around, a bubbly pink mare was in my face. “Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie! Rainbow Dash was just telling me you were moving here and I-“ she stopped midsentence and let out a huge gasp, then darted away. What was that about? Ah well, it can wait, I obviously have some more ponies to meet, and based on the number I saw roaming around, it might just take all day. I grabbed a brochure from the visitor’s center and viewed a town map. It highlighted all of the hotspots of the town, predominantly was Sweet Apple Acres. I decided to head there first. I walked down the wide open streets of Ponyville, taking in the scenery. The town was lovely, everypony was so nice to each other. I avoided contact with anypony. I realized that I was actually going to go talk to some stranger. I didn’t want to do that. Instead I decided to find my house. Celestia wrote me a letter whilst I was on the train telling me how my money would be put into the Ponyville Bank and how I would be taking over the Quill and Sofa store. I chuckled to myself, what an odd grouping, quills and sofas. I wondered why I wouldn’t just run a library, but looking over the map I saw that there was already a library, in a tree no less. I wandered about for a bit longer until I finally found my new home. I figured that I would probably still run the store, since obviously there was a need for quills and sofas. Maybe as a business venture I could also sell paper, after all, it would be helpful to keep those in the same place. I pulled on the door to the shop with my magic, but it was locked, I unrolled the letter once more, and a key fell out. I recalled that I didn’t bring any saddlebags, so I would need to go buy some. I browsed the map once more (finding the Quill and Sofa shop on it made me feel a little foalish), and found a dressmaker’s shop, Carousel Boutique, I decided it would probably be the best place to find saddlebags since it (like the other hotspots) was marked with a gold star. I contemplated visiting the library first, but figured it would be easier to carry books with saddlebags. I left my “house” and locked the door, though I found it silly to do so, if there’s say 100 ponies in town, if anypony were to steal anything, tracking them down would be easy. I casually glanced at the map and set out. I found that all the main hotspots (besides Sweet Apple Acres which was on the edge of town) were situated fairly close together, making it easy for me to find the Boutique. I came upon the circular building and found that it did somewhat resemble a carousel, I grabbed the door with my magic and gently pulled it open.

*Ting ting*

The bell above the door gave a gentle ting as I entered. From the back of the boutique called a mare with a slight upper-class Canterlot accent. “Cooooooooooooming!” I had met upper-class ponies before, and I didn’t much care for them. Manely because of the way they talked down to me, I was worried that this was going to be one of those experiences. Instead, a gorgeous mare with purple locks came to greet me. “Hello and welcome to Carousel Boutique, I am Rarity, how may I help you?”

“Uh, yes umm, I’m Sunset Wonder, I’m new to Ponyville and I need some saddlebags.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I knew I didn’t recognize you, I’ll have them done in no time. By the way, where are you from?”

“Canterlot, I-“

“CANTERLOT! Oh my I knew you were a stallion with class as soon as you walked in, with your luscious mane, and your gorgeous eyes and- Ohhhhh why am I wasting time, tell me all about your life in Canterlot.”

“But I-“

“Every. Last. Detail.”

“Oh all right. I lived in a loft near the train station, nothing exciting ever happened there. I owned a bookstore downstairs and I-“

“Bookstore! You know I bet you and my friend Twilight would get along just great, she really likes books, you should go over there right now!”

“But I thought you wanted to hear about Canterlot.”

“Oh I’ve been there before and heard all about it anyway, I just wanted to talk. I would absolutely love to see you again, so don’t be shy, visit at any time.”

“Oh okay” and with that she pushed me out the door. Rarity, could I call her a friend? No, I would once again have to get to know her better. As for Pinkie Pie… well we really only had one short conversation, so no.

I trotted along to the nearby library and knocked on the door. “Coming, coming” answered the voice of what sounded like a child. The door opened and I looked down, I jumped a little when I saw that this was a dragon, not a pony. I had only ever seen a few dragons, in books. Seeing one up close was a bit of a surprise. My train of thought was interrupted by the small creature. “Who the hay are you?”

“Oh, I’m-“

“Spike! Don’t be so rude.”

“Twilight! There’s a stranger at the door, what did you want me to say?”

“A stranger? Really? What’s their name?”

“What’s your name?” asked the dragon.

“I’m Sunset Wonder, I came to see the library.”

“Oh okay, come on in.” the dragon turned and walked inside, calling upstairs

"He says that he’s Sunset Wonder, and he wanted to get some books.”

Twilight Sparkle trotted down the stairs and greeted him

“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I-“ she stopped when I came into view. “Hey, you’re the pony that Rainbow Dash was talking about, she said how you don’t have any friends and-“ I winced, that hurt inside. “Oh I’m sorry, it’s just that-“

“No, it’s fine, I just came to meet you. I met Rarity and told her about how I owned a bookstore in Canterlot and she told me I ‘must see you’” I explained, doing my best Rarity impression, Twilight grinned, and chuckled a little at my poor performance.

“Well she was right, I love books so I want to hear all about it.” I told her a shortened version of what I told Rarity, minus the interruptions, and I actually had Twilight’s interest.

“What kind of books did you have?”

“Really anything I could get my hooves on and sort alphabetically.”

“Sort huh? I might need your help here” she gestured to the full shelves “My books are very… unsorted, if you wouldn’t mind…”

“I wouldn’t mind at all, how would you like them sorted?”

“Let’s just go with alphabetically.” I grabbed the books with my magic and unshelved all of them, Twilight watched as I moved and rearranged the rows of floating books, eventually placing them all back on the shelf. “How did you do that?”

“An alphabetizing spell, the first of every month at my store was reshelving day, so to make it easier, I learned the spell.”

“Could you teach me?”

“I would love to, but it’s impossible to learn if your special talent is anything outside of the literary.”

“But my special talent is magic.” She grinned proudly.

“Really? Well then this shouldn’t take long.”

I taught Twilight the spell, showing her what and where to focus her magic, she got it within fifteen minutes. “Thank you so much Sunset Wonder! I would love to see you again!”

“You will, I’ll be here very often.”

Twilight gently nuzzled my neck before I left; I blushed a little, not knowing a mare’s touch. I headed back towards Carousel Boutique to pick up my saddlebags. The sun was gently setting on the horizon, I hadn’t realized I had spent so much time with Twilight. I entered the boutique, being greeted by a Rarity who was grinning ear to ear.

“Sooooo, what took you so long?” I immediately got what she was suggesting and replied “Really Miss Rarity, I thought you were more of a lady than that.”

“I am very much a lady, I just happen to enjoy a bit of gossip” I could tell my word rubbed her in just the right way as she pouted at me for keeping a secret.

“Nothing happened anyway, there isn’t any juicy gossip here.”

“Awwwww. Oh well” she sighed “Your saddlebags are on the counter, darling.”

“Thank you.” I said as I donned my new saddlebags and left.

I headed home after a long day; I was tired and wanted nothing more than to rest. I rounded my street corner and saw the door to my house wide open; all of the lights were off. Concerned, I approached with caution, noting the screwdriver and bobby pin on the ground in front of the door, somepony really wanted to get in, but why? I entered my home, closing the door behind me. I searched for the light switch when the lights were turned on by somepony else. I looked around the room at what seemed like everypony in Ponyville, all of them wore party hats and had noisemakers of all sorts. Pinkie Pie dashed over to me and screamed at the top of her lungs “PARTY!”

Chapter 3

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So here I was, amidst a plethora of partying ponies. Pinkie Pie was erratically chatting into my right ear, explaining her plan in detail. I looked around the room. Everypony in Ponyville must be here. I wandered through the crowd, greeting a few ponies as they greeted me. I finally made my way to the back room where I hid. This was not what I wanted; I can’t talk to all these ponies. I was barely able to talk to the few I had met. Apparently I was followed. “Whatcha doing?” asked the bubbly pink party pony. I sighed, there was going to be no avoiding this mare

“I’m hiding…until the party is over.”

“Hiding? But this is a party! Get out there and have fun!”

“You don’t understand.”

“I don’t?”

“No. I can’t.”

“Why? Is your arch-enemy here?”

“What? No. I mean I can’t handle this.”

“Sure you can! Just follow my lead!” and with that she dragged me out of the back room and personally introduced me to everypony there while I smiled and shyly waved. After I had met everypony, Pinkie Pie took me to the back room once again. She pinned me to the wall and glared at me, unable to meet her gaze, I looked away. She growled at me “Why aren’t you having any FUN!”

“I told you I can’t! I’m no good at meeting new ponies, that’s why I don’t have any friends!” Her face fell.

“What?! W-w-well what about Rarity? Or Twilight? Or ME?!” I could tell I had hurt her feelings. Her mane deflated as though I had popped a balloon, tears welled up in her eyes. She turned and went to leave. I knew I had to do something, I had ruined Pinkie Pie, and none of her friends would ever forgive me if I left her this way. I wouldn’t forgive myself. I placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Pinkie…I-“

“DON’T!” she stopped her sudden outburst “Don’t touch me… just… just leave me alone…”

“Pinkie… I’m sorry… I-I care about you.”

She sniffled a little “What? I thought we weren’t friends.”

“We are friends Pinkie… You took the time to get to know me, to introduce me to everypony else… and you are my friend.”

Her hair returned to its bouncy state, she turned to me with a wide grin and said “Well then let’s go make friends with everypony else!”

All through the night we danced, laughed, sang, and had a generally good time with Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, The Doctor, Ditzy Doo (who apparently likes being called Derpy), Bonbon, Lyra, and…a lot of others, too many to name. I guess those just kind of stuck out to me. After the party, Twilight asked me to come over to her library. I gladly followed her. We went inside and she turned to me. “Looks like somepony learned something today.”

“Yeah, I guess I did. Why?”

“Oh right, every once in a while I report to Princess Celestia my findings on the magic of friendship, and it seems to me that you have found something.”

“I think you’re right! Do you mind if I borrow some ink?”

“No problem.” And with that I left, floating an inkwell behind me.

I re-entered my home and surveyed the room once more. There was not a single sign there had been a party. A note was stuck on the door from Pinkie Pie. Thanks for a great night! She apparently stayed behind to clean up my place, what a thoughtful pony! I walked to the back room, I think I’ve decided to make the room an office, since all the storage space I need is in the showroom. I pulled out a parchment and began writing.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Twilight Sparkle has personally asked me to report to you my findings on friendship. I really don’t know what to say other than thank you. If you hadn’t sent me here I wouldn’t have gotten to meet all of these wonderful ponies. Now for my report.

I have observed that when somepony wants to be your friend, let them. No matter how shy you are, if you are alone, what are you really? I say live like there’s no tomorrow, and Pinkie Pie showed me that. If not for her, getting me out into a social situation I would not have made any of the friends I currently have.

Sincerely,
Sunset Wonder

I read my letter one last time, satisfied with how it felt. I concentrated on the letter and where I wanted to send it and with a puff of smoke it was gone. I watched a cloud out in the night sky, and smiled. I would have to get used to Rainbow Dash, she handles weather differently than in Canterlot. Not to mention I suspect she’ll be a little reluctant to sleep during the day now, for fear I might stumble into her dreams. I thought about her dream for a moment. That was Pinkie Pie in there wasn’t it? I got to know Dash a little better at the party, and I doubt she sought out some help. I think I’ll talk with her in the morning, it’s late. I left the back room and thought about where to sleep. I’m in a couch store, where better to sleep? I climbed onto a cushiony sofa and rested my head. I once more drifted off to sleep.

The End

As a sidenote, all characters used in this story are owned by their respective companies, except for the mane character whom I made up. I might write more, so don’t think this is the true end. It all really depends on how popular it is.

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