Journal of a Book Pony

It was a short Friendship Council. For the most part we discussed Flareblitzfury's lesson: "I've found that my friendships usually form the best from at least one common interest, then finding out more things, then as time goes on, more trust and a bond begins to form!". Applejack seems to think that friendships start with a friendly how'd you do and a hoofshake, but she admits that after that, it follows that you have to find a common interest. Our common interest was defeating Nightmare Moon. With the feuding families that the Tree sent me and Fluttershy to reconcile, the common interest was honoring the promise their sires had made to the critters. The trust and bonding came with it being clear that they could best honor that promise if they worked together. Just like we worked together to defeat Nightmare Moon.

Notation made in Friendship Reference Manual, chapter: Starting Friendships.

Then we had supper!

My letter to the editor of the Equestria Daily got published! I must have passed muster. Now to see if I get any Friendship Letters.

What my work in progress, The Magic of Friendship, a Reference Manual, really lacks, is material for the chapter on Friendship Creation (the First Spark). I was thinking, where else could I put out a request for Friendship Lessons for my research project and maybe get a few new data points without running the risk of getting swamped with mail? Somewhere off the map of Equestria, so to speak. Not Yakyakistan, not Griffonstone, not Saddle Arabia. I'd get ignored there anyway. No, I was thinking of perhaps putting in a letter to the editor in an Earth newspaper. There's one that looks promising. It's called The Equestria Daily. It seems to have a good readership, even though it has what looks like made-up news from Equestria and it prints new editions much more often than daily. It should probably be named Fantasy Equestria hourly.

What do you think? Would I get any letters? They could send them here, either as comments or as "private messages" (this E-journal has a mail slot!). The advantages would be: no uncontrolled pan-Equestria announcement of my project, no sea of ponies wanting to tell me their stories in person, and no ponies armed with pitchforks and flaming firebrands banging on my front door if my project goes bust.

So research! Science! Yay! I think my letter to the editor of The Equestria Daily should go something like this:

Dear Earth People, as Princess of Friendship I've decided to expand my studies on the Magic of Friendship by asking for data in the form of Friendship letters from Equestria at large. As I've learned from Rarity and Applejack (Friendship Reference Manual, chapter Living With Friendship sub heading Benefits of Friendship section Observing Friends Sub Section Avoiding Traps) is that careless advertising and promises can lead to overwork. Thus, I started by having a test run using the foals of the Ponyville schoolhouse. That went well, for a test of concept. Now I'm ready to scale up slightly. I read that you like ponies and friendship. Since there are probably at best only a few hundred of you, I feel that asking you for Friendship Lessons You Have Learned won't flood my mail box the way it might if I go next to asking, say, all of Ponyville.

A Friendship Lesson should follow this general format:

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Today (or whenever it was) I learned that [key friendship problem] is solved by [key action].

Fill in the pertinent details and context.

Your signature statement [for example, Yours Truly, (your name)]

I'm building a manual on Friendship covering everything from starting friendships, building on friendships, mending friendships, benefiting from friendships and stronger abilities through co-operative friendship. It's all about building better magic through science!

You can send your Friendship Lessons to me as a comment in my E-journal here at dreamwidth.twilightpony.org or as a "private message" in that same E-journal. It does both! It's really nifty!

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Tomorrow we get together in the Map Room and go through the new Friendship Lessons I've collected. I've made a rough, first pass sort-through of the pile Cheerilee brought me. We'll go through the list, evaluate them, and inscribe the friendship lessons in my volume. And try not to bore Dash.

What is the spark that ignites a friendship? I felt that spark during my confrontation with Nightmare Moon... it seems so long ago. What brings on that realization, the dawning that a pony is your friend? Can we build a protocol for laying down a framework from which friendships can grow? Can we find a reliable catalyst that will ease the transition from stranger or antagonist to a stable friendship bond? Or will friendships always rely on putting ponies together and hope that they find a common goal or interest?

I share therefore I befriend.

I picked up a copy of the Foal Free Press this morning and sure enough, it has pictures of me. There was a short article too which stated that I had talked about the Magic of Friendship at the school, but it doesn't mention my call for data. There wasn't anything in the Ponyville Express. I doubt there will be either, talking to a class full of young students isn't news. Now I just have to hope some students at least thought about friendship.

I'm going to need a chapter on anti-friendships in the book. It occurs to me, thanks to Starlight Glimmer, that antagonism from other ponies can change the course of pony endeavor and spur some to make lasting friendships.

This is research -- questions that spawn still more questions.

I saw Cheerilee today and I'll be by to talk to her class tomorrow afternoon. Spike picked up twenty blank scrolls and he copied out, on twenty sheets of paper, the task that I will be giving them. Namely, to tell me how friendship made your life better and what you learned to do to make that friendship stronger. Test launch of the cooperative community data collection project on building and strengthening friendships is a go!

You know that there are a _lot_ of ponies in Equestria? Thousands. Many thousands. I'd better be careful on how I word this official request for friendship lessons. If everypony feels that they have to send in at least one friendship story or friendship lesson, we will drown in the paper flood. Maybe I should start small. I could just post the request in the Ponyville Express. Or I could take five minutes to address the crowd waiting to start galloping at the Running of the Leaves. Or I could address the students at the Ponyville schoolhouse. Then work up from there.

I worked on the proclamation today. I'm toying with the idea of including a fill-in-the-blanks form letter, with a checklist of usual types of friendships. Or how about a list of conflicts and cooperative puzzles solved by friendship? Can't do that, I would be biasing the data. How to ask? Probably something along the lines of: describe a conflict, problem, task or event that was solved or made easier through friendship. Or, tell me of the time you and your friends fixed something or solved something you all thought would be impossible to solve or fix. I need to write that so it looks official And fun. And important. And useful.

Princess Celestia makes this kind of thing look so easy.

I realized that I had to make sure I wasn't going to get myself into hot water with this. I had Spike take a letter and send it to Princess Celestia -- is it OK to make a call for friendship lessons in the Equestrian press?

She wrote back, I can request letters in this way as long as it's voluntary and clear that I'm not paying for these letters. She added that I need to be clear that I reserve the right to summarize or change or omit the submissions as I see fit.

I think I'll go out and watch for more shooting stars.

Well, I made the rounds, dropping in on each of my friends in turn. I told them over snacks and tea and serving as a clothes model and pulling a hay cart, that I am considering creating a compendium of friendship lessons from across Equestria. I'm a bit stiff and full of tea. I've invited all five to join Spike and me for supper tomorrow to discuss this together.

It's research! My friends could be a bit more excited... I told them it'll be easy, we'll each play to our strengths and do this together, like we always do. We've trained for this. (That got Rainbow Dash's attention!)

Tomorrow Spike and I will see what's in our pantry and go to the market to see what we can get to make a good supper for seven. Right now Spike is sleeping and I'm just too full of tea.