"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you. How many new students are joining this year?"

Cozy Glow sighed. "Twice as many as last year. Quit making me repeat it, Smolder."

"Just... wow." Sandbar rubbed his head. "To think that the school's become that popular in just one year. Even without E.E.A. approval."

Cozy flipped through some of the papers she had. "Well, getting the official support of several world leaders probably had something to do with it."

Smolder smirked. "And we have something to do with that."

Gallus moved in front of the filly and started walking backward. "So how many griffons are signing on?"

"Um... Two, I think."

Smolder stumbled a bit. "Wait, it's not just ponies?"

Ocellus shook her head. "I heard about this from Professor Twilight. There may be a majority of ponies joining, but they don't even make up half of the new students."

Cozy nodded. "There are a number of hippogriffs, changelings, and yaks signing on, as well as a few dragons and the griffons I mentioned earlier. There are even other races that are testing the water, so to speak."

"Kind of like the five of us, right guys?" Smolder looked around. "Hey, where'd Silver go?"

Rain Kiss sat on the bench facing a small stream in the courtyard. All she wanted to do at that moment was watch the water flow. She didn't turn her head or acknowledge the light pink creature that sat next to her.

"Do you like the water too?" The creature next to her spoke softly.

Rain nodded but remained silent.

It was a while before the other creature spoke again. "Would you rather be home?"

Rain nodded again. There was another period of silence between them.

"Is it because you don't like it here, or are you just more comfortable at home?"

Rain drew a deep breath then let it out. "I feel like the gods are watching my home, not me. So when I'm away from home, it feels like I'm not under their care."

The other creature giggled. "The gods watch over those they care about, no matter where they are. There's no need to worry about them abandoning you."

"Are you sure about that?"

"My kind lives in two places. At the top of a mountain and the bottom of the sea. Our gods watch over us in both places."

Rain turned towards the other creature, finally realizing that it wasn't a pony. "What are you?"

"I'm a hippogriff." The pink creature grabbed the amulet around her neck. A swirl of magic engulfed her. Once it was gone, she looked like a horse crossed with a fish. "And now I'm a seapony."

Rain stared in awe. She hadn't heard of this kind of magic.

The creature turned back into the bird-like form she had earlier. "Anyway, I can help you make a shrine to your gods or something if that will help you settle in."

Rain looked back at the water, then smiled. "That would be nice."

"Excuse me, miss?"

Yona turned around. "Hello."

The small deer looked like he was about to be crushed. "Uh, d-do you know where Miss Fruity Sap is?"

Yona tilted her head.

"Er, I-I-I mean, Frontier Shot!"

Yona scratched her head.

"Ah! Uh, Flapper Shutter! No- That's not-"

"Fluttershy?"

"Er, y-yes. Her."

Yona pointed to her left. "She right there."

"Oh, uh, thanks." The deer darted off in the direction Yona was pointing.

"But I still think-" Fluttershy squeaked when something hit her side. She looked down. "Bramble? How are you doing? It's been a while."

Starlight raised her eyebrow. "You know him?"

"Oh, yes. There was an incident a while back, before we knew you, even."

"There were a lot of incidents from before you knew me."

"M-Miss Fluttershy?" Bramble was trembling. "W-what was that big thing?"

Fluttershy looked over at the "big thing." "Oh, her? That's Yona, one of our best students."

"W-What is she?"

"A yak. They come from the far north where it's constantly cold, so they need thick coats to protect them from the weather."

"You aren't afraid of her, are you?" Starlight watched Yona approach them. "She's a sweetheart. If anything, you're better off being near her."

Bramble hid behind Fluttershy, only for her to use her wing and push him in front of her.

The large creature looked down at the smaller one. The small one let out a whine.

"It's okay, Bramble." Fluttershy gently stroked his head. "She won't bite."

Yona leaned down and rubbed her nose against Bramble's, causing him to crinkle his nose. She followed it up by rubbing her cheek against his. Finally, she wrapped her hooves around his body and pulled him into a hug.

Bramble took a deep breath in, smiled, and let out his breath.

"Get off of my back!"

"Yarr! Enjoy manual labor, princess!"

Two seconds later, the black feline fell to the ground, causing the light gray parrot to faceplant into some... plants.

The female looked up to find a dragon hand reaching out to her. "You aren't helping me for gems, are you?"

"Nope."

The kitty girl raised an eyebrow but took the hand offered to her anyway. Once she was on her feet, she dusted off her dress. "I'm Anita. You?"

"I'm Smolder."

There was a cough nearby. "Name's Gallus."

"And I be Hector! The youngest pirate from Ornithia!"

Gallus raised an eyebrow. "Uh, cool. So are you a real princess?"

Anita rolled her eyes. "Yes. I am."

"Cool deal, missy."

Anita looked at the dragon, a slight smirk on her face.

"Beware the pirate, here for yer booty!" That statement earned Hector a slap from a cat, followed by a slap from the dragon. Followed by Rarity, who was apparently nearby, walking up and slapping him. Then another parrot came up from behind Gallus and slapped him as well.

"You touch my bottom, and I will rip your feathers out."

"I don't care if you meant my body part or my gems, but I won't let you near either one."

"How dare you say such a crude thing! You already earned an F from me and class hasn't even started yet!"

"You're giving parrots a bad image. If you keep acting like that, I'll drag you all the way back to Ornithia by your ankle. Without pit stops."

Hector was visibly nervous.

Gallus rubbed the back of his head. "Ouch. Four hit combo. You have to watch what you say around here."

Rarity looked at the older parrot. "Celaeno, how could you recommend such a crude boy to our school?"

Celaeno shrugged. "It wasn't my call. Some of the actual leaders of our kind decided he needed discipline or something."

"They didn't like how I did my pirate training."

Celaeno grabbed the young parrot by the ear. "Because you kept breaking into important places! You're lucky nothing ever broke!"

Rainbow dashed in out of nowhere. "Hey, Captain! Is this the kid you mentioned?"

"Y-yeah?"

"I need him real quick! Bye!" Rainbow suddenly grabbed Hector and flew off, leaving no time to react.

"Wha- Rainbow!" Celaeno ran after the pegasus.

Rarity sighed and turned to the cat. "I'm guessing you're Anita."

Anita bowed. "Indeed, madam."

"Wow. Super formal much?" Smolder started scratching Anita's head. "You're not earning princess points around here."

"Ebbehnehhh... Ahhhh."

The others stared at Anita for a moment. Anita herself seemed to take a moment to process what happened.

Once she did, she swatted Smolder's hand away. "Do not touch me there again, rogue."

Gallus moved up behind Anita and started scratching behind her ear. "Kitty like scritchies?"

"N-no! Don't touch me!" The unfortunate kitten went from commanding to pleading very quickly.

Smolder grabbed Anita's hands. "Aww. But it's so cute."

Gallus continued his assault on the feline's head. "And you like it, right?"

Anita helplessly struggled against her scratching assailants. "Nyaaaa! Miss Rarity! Help me!"

"Professor Rarity!" The trio of students was knocked over by a hippogriff. "I was just looking for you!"

"Oh, really?" Rarity looked at the three floored students and the kirin cautiously moving around them. "What for?"

"Well, Rain Kiss here is worried that her gods aren't watching her here, so we decided to make a small shrine for her to use. I don't know how much you know about religion, but I figured you could help make the designs accurately."

Smolder sat up. "Huh? Why a shrine? She can just pray, can't she?"

Anita used Smolder's head to stand back up. "Some creatures prefer to have a dedicated place to practice their religion. Just like how there are some that prefer not to actively practice their religion."

"Because religion is stupid."

Everyone looked right at Gallus. "What?"

"Gods aren't real. They're just something some desperate creatures made up."

Tears were appearing in Silver's eyes. "Even if that's true, you don't need to be so harsh about it. Let them think how they want to."

Gallus scratched his neck. "Well, it's just, it's not like the gods actually help any creatures."

"Care to run that by me again?" They all looked at Rain Kiss, whose body suddenly had flames coming out of it. "Dinner?"

Everyone's eyes went wide. Everyone but Smolder stepped back. Gallus was trying to respond but only succeeded in making strange noises.

*Splash*

All of a sudden, the flames were out and Rain was dripping wet. A bucket bounced off of Gallus' head and landed at his claws.

"I was gonna warn y'all about making her mad, but I think you get why that's a bad idea." Applejack put her hoof on Gallus' head. "I better not have to stop you from fighting someone else every year."

Rarity sighed. "Come along now, Rain. Let's make that shrine you want."

"To sum that mess of a speech up; if you steal from the other students, you run a hundred laps around the school. If you steal from the staff, it's a hundred laps around Ponyville itself. If you try to steal anything from Ponyville residents or if you steal from someone at the school ten times, you get expelled and Celaeno drags you back home, where you'll face the punishment you were originally supposed to! Are we clear?"

"Uh huh. Sure."

Rainbow looked at Hector, then followed his gaze. Right to her trophy cabinet. She thrust her hoof full force into his stomach.

Rainbow waited for the parrot to open his eyes before really laying it on thick. "YOU TOUCH ANY ONE OF THOSE FREAKING TROPHIES, AND I WILL RIP EVERY FEATHER FROM YOUR FREAKING BODY! YOU GOT THAT?"

Hector smiled, sweat drenching his head. "Y-yes ma'am."

Rainbow stepped off of him. "Good. And if you forget any of that, I will gladly beat it back into your head."

Hector took another look at the trophies before deciding not to enrage Rainbow Dash any further.

Celaeno stepped away from the closed door as soon as she heard Rainbow get close. Once the door opened, they locked eyes. "If you knew everything he did, you probably would have gotten pretty physical."

"I'm shocked I didn't with what I know already. He sounds pretty rotten."

Celaeno patted Rainbow on the head. "If anyone is gonna turn him around, it's you guys. Please don't let me or Lix down."

Rainbow nodded. "I won't. I promise."

"Hi, Little Strongheart! How have you been?"

The buffalo looked at Pinkie. "Hi, Warmaker."

Pinkie tilted her head. "Warmaker? That's a bit harsh, isn't it?"

"I personally blame Applejack and Rainbow Dash for not letting me talk with Braeburn while I had the chance to, but your horrible song is what really caused us to clash."

"Come on! I was trying to help!"

"And your unique way of helping only made things worse."

Twilight watched as Pinkie and Strongheart went on like that for a while.

Starlight walked past the two ungulates and over to Twilight. "Hector, the parrot representative, is already rubbing other creatures the wrong way, but everyone else is settling in just fine."

Twilight smiled. "It's going to be a good year."

Author's Note

Yup. I'm posting some things that were originally Patreon exclusive over here. This mostly gives me a chance to entice people into seeing what else I'm hiding behind that 5$ per month paywall I have. And if you can't afford it... I understand. I'm in that situation myself.