I awoke to see my cutie mark flashing and it was just the late morning too. Rarity's wasn't flashing though, so it looked like I'll be on a friendship quest without my love on this one. Ah well, I guess duty calls when it does as I got out of bed, before Rarity grabbed my hoof and looking at me.

"Please be careful, darling." she said quietly.

"I will be love, don't you worry about me." I replied calmly before kissing her softly.

I then walked downstairs and out of the house, flying over to Twilight's castle and Twilight seemed very happy as I walked into the map room.

"Hey Bond, you got the message?" she asked.

"Yeah I did...and look at you, yours is flashing too!" I replied.

"I know, finally I get to go on a friendship quest, the first one since we dealt with Starlight Glimmer."

"I see, is Spike coming along?"

"No can do, man." Spike replied as he turned up with a feather duster. "I gotta watch over the castle with Flash Sentry...err I mean Twilight's personal guard."

Twilight face-hoofed in embarrassment, just then, the doors opened again and in came Fluttershy.

"You're here!" Twilight exclaimed. "Isn't this exciting?!"

"Hey Twilight and hey Bond, you were called, too?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yep, I sure was." I replied.

"Thank goodness. I feel so much better going with two friends."

"I was about to come and get you, but then I got distracted." Twilight said as she brought over a few packed bags. "Ever since the map called us, I've been doing a ton of research."

"Like testing out potential friendship problems and diversifying your solution portfolio.?" I asked.

"Yes!"

"Ever since the map called us? But that happened five minutes ago." Fluttershy said.

"I know! But I wanna be one hundred percent prepared! I mean, I'm the Princess of Friendship. How would it look if I couldn't solve a friendship problem?"

"Somepony who can't pick a choose on who to be friends with?" I smirked.

"Drop it Bond, I already made my peace with Discord yesterday. I've moved on from that now."

"Oh, I'm so lucky I'm being sent with you. Speaking of which, where're we going?" Fluttershy asked.

"The Smoky Mountains!"

"Ooh, I've never been there before."

"Neither have I. And there isn't a lot of information on them. All I could find was this. The Smoky Mountains harbor the most beautiful valley in all of Equestria, between its two majestic mountain peaks."

"That's gorgeous. And where there's nature, there's a ton of animal friends!"

"I can't wait to get started! I'm a little nervous since that's all I could find. I usually like to a bit more prepared."

"You seem pretty prepared to me. Are those for us?" I asked.

"Yup! I've prepared our things. Snacks, books, blankets, books."

"You said "books" twice."

Fluttershy giggled for a moment. "Whadaya think our friendship problem's gonna be?" she asked.

"I don't know. But I'm sure we'll figure it out." I replied.

"Do you think it'll be a problem about lying?" Twilight asked.

"I'm sure we'll find out when we get there."

"You're right."

"Now let's go girls, don't wanna waste any time, do we?"

Twilight, Fluttershy and myself left the castle and over to the train station and getting on board the train to Smoky Mountains which was the west, past Unicorn Range and just a few miles off Tall Tale with Vanhoover not far off either, I wonder how Trixie was doing these days. My thoughts were cut off when Twilight spoke.

"Ooh, could it be probably two friends just randomly deciding to do something together, but they forget the third friend, and the third friend feels left out? Or where one friend tells another friend's secret after they ask them not to?" she asked.

"We'll know very, very soon. Since we're almost there." Fluttershy replied.

"For now, could you try to calm down and not go crazy Twilight on us like a few years back?" I advised.

Twilight blushed. "Sorry Bond, I've been a little skiddly-bopty-boo. I just can't believe this is finally happening!."

Things were quiet before we arrived at a short station, we got off and walked over to the mountains to find a pair of hills, each had a big house, this must be our destination. However, no sooner we arrived, we saw a pumpkin flying from one house and landing over at the other.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed.

"What in Equestria is happening?" Twilight asked.

More pumpkins were then being flung at each others houses.

"It's war, war again!" I commented randomly.

"It's nothing like your book said it would be!" Fluttershy said.

"Oh, boy. I'm feeling very unprepared. Where do we even start?" Twilight asked.

"Maybe by figuring out where the flying pumpkins are coming from?"

I nodded and we walked over to the house on the left hill where we found a few ponies by a catapult launcher.

"Ready...aim...fire!" one of them said, launching a pumpkin.

Twilight went forward first. "Um, hi. Hello. Excuse us, but what are you doing?"

"We're pumpkinin' our neighbors!"

"Yes, but, um, why are you...pumpkining your neighbors?" I asked.

"Well, because the McColts are just plain rotten. Hey, wait a tick. Who are you two?! Yer not spies for the McColts, are ya?"

"I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. And I'm here to solve your friendship problem."

"Ahem! You mean we're here to solve a friendship problem." I intervened. "The name's Bond Racer, the Prince of Friendship."

"I'm Fluttershy and...um...I'm here, too." Fluttershy added.

"Ma Hooffield. Pleased to meet ya, but yer wastin' yer time. We don't have a friendship problem. We have...a McColt problem."

"And there's absolutely no friendship there." Another pony added.

"Well, maybe there could be if we figure out what the McColts did to make you so mad." Twilight replied.

"Oh, they done so many things. Why just today, they shot pebbles at our farmhouse an' wrecked it. See, we're not very good at buildin', so all it took was a little pebble. But still!"

"Oh, no!" Fluttershy commented, noticing the mice, squeaking in terror.

"I know what to do. We're gonna talk with these McColts and hear their side of the story." I explained. "Once we have all the facts, we can put an end to this using reason and rationale."

"Good idea, Bond." Twilight agreed. "In the meantime, could you please call off the pumpkining?"

"Oh, all right." Ma Hooffield replied, sighing.

"Thanks. C'mon, Fluttershy and Bond."

We left the Hooffield home and walked over to the McColts house where it was pretty much the same. We knocked on a door and the door opened to reveal two ponies who seemed to be a more up class than the other family.

"State yer business!" One of them told us.

"Don't even bother. They're probably spies for the Hoofields." The second one added.

"Hey, wait! You two are Alicorns! I thought just the three Princesses were Alicorns."

"There are four alicorn princesses and alicorn prince in Equestria now. I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship."

"And I am Bond Racer, the Prince of Friendship." I added.

"And I'm Fluttershy." Fluttershy said.

"We have a new princess and prince? When did that happen?" he asked, stammering. "And how did the Hooffields come by a princess and prince spies?"

"FYI, we're not spies!" I retorted. "Why does everypony here assume that we are?"

Just then. a somewhat bigger stallion approached us. "Because we don't get a lot of visitors. I'm Big Daddy McColt. You caught us at a weird time. We're in the middle of a giant feud with our...TERRIBLE NEIGHBORS!!!" As soon as he echoed those words, a farmhouse collapsed.

Suddenly, this felt like a scene out of Romeo & Juliet, except that I see no lovers around here, just feuding families.

"Well, actually, that's why we're here. To solve your problem with the Hooffields." Twilight said.

"So you're here to help us get rid of 'em?"

"No! That's not what I meant at all!"

"Well, if you ain't fer us, yer agin us."

But the three of us stood in, so we could have a proper talk.

"We are not on anypony's side. We're here to help you become friends again."

"Well, that's gon' be hard. I don't believe we've ever been friends with the Hooffields!"

"But you could be! They're just really upset you ruined their farmhouse."

"Wait a hog-wogglin' minute! We only did that because the Hooffields pulled a pin out of our wagon wheel!" Big Daddy McColt sighed. "A whole week's worth of food rollin' down the mountain. Us McColts are mighty fine builders but we don't know the first thing about farmin'. We have to travel a ways away to buy our food. Now, we'll be stuck eatin' the pumpkins the Hooffields launched at us. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin quesadillas, pumpkin paella, pumpkin cheese, pumpkin pie, pumpkin fritatas... Actually, that all sounds pretty good. But it'll get old!"

"Have you tried meeting at a neutral location, talking about your problems, and really listening to each other?" I asked.

"What?! No! They'd sooner launch their dinners at us than listen to us."

"Well, they'll listen to me. I'm an impartial third party." Twilight replied. "Bond, do you have a megaphone?"

"Uhhh, I'll teleport one now." I replied before using my magic to make a megaphone appear.

Twilight took a hold of it and flew up in the air till she was above the level of both houses on the hills. "Attention, Hooffields and McColts, I'm not on anypony's side, but I can see you're both wasting time and resources on being mean to each other. Ponies are supposed to help each other and be kind. So let's stop this senseless fighting!"

She then made the megaphone disappear and flew back down to us. "There. That should do it. Ready to go home, Fluttershy and Bond?"

"I'd love to, but if we solved the problem already, shouldn't our cutie marks be glowing again." Fluttershy said, pointing to our flanks.

"Oh, yeah. They should be glowing any minute now..."

After a while, nothing happened before I broke the silence. "I'll say it, that didn't solve the reason why we came here."

"So much for Potential Friendship Solution #28."

"I guess we should find out why the Hooffields are launching tomatoes now." Fluttershy said, pointing to one flying over towards the McColts house.

"Maybe we should divide by one, I'll go to the McColts house and you go to the Hooffields house." I suggested.

"Great idea, Bond, I didn't think of that." Twilight replied. "Come on Fluttershy, I'm sure you wanna help the animals."

"I sure do, I hope this ends soon, this fight is really affecting the animals around here." Fluttershy replied, walking with Twilight as I walked to the McColts house.

I walked on in and they were firing tomatoes in return. "I hate to bother this food fight, but do you remember what started this whole feud in the first place?" I asked.

"They know what they did!"

"Really, cause I'm starting to think neither of you know what either of you have done."

"Sure, we do. Them Hooffields did us a grave injustice to us some time ago fer some reason."

"Hear, hear!" the other colts added.

"Maybe we can find some common ground that you can bond over. What do you do when you're not fighting?"

"That's easy. Gettin' ready to fight."

"What do you hope to get out of fighting?"

"The satisfaction of winning!"

"Of winning what?"

"The fight, of course! To prove our family is the best!"

"The best at what?"

"Winning! Haven't you been listening?! Now are you gonna help us with the tomatoes or not?"

"Let me think about it." I then left the house and sighed heavily. "This is even worse than a day at the Griffon Kingdom."

I regrouped with Twilight and Fluttershy and they had the same result as I did. "So the only thing they have in common is that they both want to win a fight, and neither of them know what it's over. How do I end this feud if I don't know what it's about?" Twilight asked.

"Ooh! Maybe somepony just needs to say they're sorry." Fluttershy suggested.

"That's a great idea. And Friendship Solution #48. But we can move it up."

Sometime later, both families were out of the houses and in the centre of the field between the hills, there was a cake on a table too.

"I'm so glad you agreed to do this. This apology cake will go a long way to making amends between you two." Twilight explained. "Which part of my argument changed your mind? The part where I said the benefits of friendship outweigh the cost of war, or the part where I said forgiveness is an investment in happiness."

"Yeah, yeah. All of it." Ma Hooffield replied.

"Oh, it's such a bee-youtiful cake." One of the McColts commented, sniffing at it.

"Think of this as more than just a cake. It's the first step in the long road to forgiveness." I said.

"Nothing says let's be friends like a cake that says, 'Let's be friends!'" Fluttershy added.

Suddenly, the cake exploded and out came a few ponies! "Ready...aim...fire!" they said, firing at the McColts.

"Ma Hooffield, you planted ponies in that cake?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yeah! Ha ha!" she replied laughing before noticing that we weren't laughing. "Wait. Were you serious about apologizin'? Why in Equestria would we do that? We didn't do anythin' wrong!"

"What're you talkin' about?! You done so many things wrong!" Big Daddy McColt protested.

"Not as many as you!"

Suddenly, both families were fighting again...never in my life have I face-hoofed more than once or twice. Twilight sighed heavily as well, she appeared to be at a loss here, was this a problem that we couldn't solve?

"Want me to use my magic to put a stop to all of this?" I asked.

"Violence never solves a friendship problem, Bond. Besides, I don't know if we can do this at all." Twilight replied. "Even if I make things right, they're just gonna fight again."

Then we saw little animal critters scurrying about, trying to escape from danger. "Oh, you poor things! There isn't enough food here for you! Brrr, and you're freezing!" she said, trying ot take care of them. "I'm gonna take you all home with me and give you all hot cocoas. How do you feel about book clubs?"

"I don't get it. This was supposed to be the most beautiful valley in all of Equestria. What happened?"

The critters spoke to Fluttershy and she seemed to understand what they were saying. "What's that? Oh! Uh huh... Twilight and Bond! They know what happened here!"

"What?" Twilight and I said at the same time.

After a long explanation, Twilight and I went to the houses and flew upwards to get the families attentions. "Stop! You have to listen to us!" Twilight exclaimed, using her magic to freeze the Hooffeild ponies.

"Everypony freeze!" I added, using my magic to freeze the McColt ponies. "Fluttershy! You have to tell them!"

Fluttershy cleared her throat and explained the whole story. "Before you keep fighting, there is something you should know! Long ago, there were two best friends, Grub Hooffield and Piles McColt. When they found the valley between the Smokey Mountains, they knew it was something special! So they made a promise to each other to protect and preserve the valley for all its adorable furry inhabitants. But they disagreed on how to go about it. Grub wanted to start by planting crops so that everypony would have something to eat, but Piles thought it would be better to start by building a shelter, to protect them against the cold and wind. The two ponies were unable to come to an understanding, so Piles went ahead and built a shelter anyway, exactly where Grub was going to start his farm! Grub was upset, so he tore down Piles' shelter so he could plant his crops! They kept fighting back and forth, until it turned into a feud! The valley suffered from the constant destruction, until finally the Hooffields and McColts moved to separate mountains. Even then, the valley, and all the animals in it, continued to be caught in the crossfire. You see? By fighting, you're destroying the very thing that brought you here in the first place! So it's time you both put your differences aside and come together, if not for yourselves, then for the sake of these cute and cuddly guys!"

Both families now began to look with regret over their actions against each other.

"Aw, shucks, we never meant to hurt any little critters." Ma Hooffield said.

"Yeah, we're sorry!" Big Daddy McColt added.

"They say they accept your apology!" Fluttershy replied.

"Uh, Princess and Prince? You can unfreeze us now."

"Oh, right!" Twilight replied as we both stopped freezing the ponies.

"Ma Hooffield? We promise we won't fight you no more."

"Us too, except we promise not to fight you. I suppose it doesn't matter who's right; we're both wrong"

"That's one thing we can agree on."

"This is wonderful! I am so proud of you two!" Twilight said happily.

"And on that note, I think our problem here is solved." I added, pointing to our cutie marks that now flashed. "Well families, we have to get going home. Our duty calls."

As we waved bye to the families, we caught the train back home and the three of us felt quiet proud.

"Yay! I told you we'd figure it out." Fluttershy said. "Big Mac would be really interested to hear about it."

"We did, and we didn't need my friendship portfolio to do it. We just needed each other!" Twilight replied. "So, what do you think will happen next? We've all been called by the map now!"

"Oh I'm sure we'll find out when we get home..." I said, chuckling away.

"What if it summons all six of us to another place? What about a pony we weren't expecting? What if it wants us to solve other kinds of problems, like quantum physics, or why the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?"

"Twilight, you need a bottle of night nurse before you exhaust yourself. Don't rush everything, anyways my aim now is to head back home for my early dinner with my love."

We arrived back at Ponyville and after giving hugs to both Fluttershy and Twilight, I walked back home to where Rarity has just started making dinner.

"Afternoon darling." she said, kissing me. "How was the friendship quest?"

"Quite a tough one, it was to do with settling a long rivalry between two families on a pair of hills."

"That's quite a story, you can tell me when dinner's ready."

"Sounds good to me."

Soon, I told her about it all and what happened before we got into our dinner, smiling away and wondering what'll happen next. Cause Twilight was right, all of us have now been summoned to many places to solve friendship issues. I had a feeling that this was also building to something huge but that could wait for now. Next Chapter: The Mane Attraction Estimated time remaining: 43 Minutes