Chapters Author's Note
Warning: The following may contains spoilers for the series finale.
Welcome Back
Sandbar was walking home with his family. They had some buckets and bails and his baby sister, Coral Currents, happily giggling as she rode on her mother's back. "That's one way to spend the last day of Summer," High Tide said.
"Wait, it's really over?" Sandbar asked.
"It is," Beachcomber said as he opened the door to their house. "Pretty soon, you'll be back in school." Expecting their son to be upset, Sandbar seemed rather excited.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" High Tide asked as she helped Coral into the house.
"I'm fine," the colt replied. "I'm actually excited to see my friends again."
"Oh, you mean those other creatures?" Beachcomber asked. "You've told us a lot about them. Especially Yona."
"Yeah. I can't wait to see them again."
"Well, you should get yourself ready for school tomorrow," High Tide said. Sandbar did as he was told after they placed their beach supplies away, he soon started himself a shower. A bit of sand managed to get into his mane and tail. This was probably because he helped his sister with her sandcastle.
Once he got out, his father was a bit surprised he was already done showering. "Don't you think that's a little early for a shower?" Beachcomber asked.
"I'm just getting prepared," Sandbar said.
"I know that, but you never know what's going to happen." The colt just shrugged. He wasn't the only one who was getting excited.
In Mount Aris, Silverstream was flipping through the air. He excitement was at its peak once again. Her father, Sky Beak was helping to prepare some papers for her. "I can't believe I'm going to see my friends again," Silverstream cheered.
"I understand you're excited," Sky Beak said, "But your mother said that you should have some spare paper."
"I can't help it. I haven't seen them in so long."
"We're all very happy for you," Queen Novo said as landed next to them.
"Aunt Novo, what are you doing here?"
"I've gotten a letter from your school and there's been a request."
In the dragon lands, Smolder was in a pool of lava burning off bits of dirt on her body. After she got up, she walked off to meet up with her brother. "So, are you ready to head back?" Garble asked.
"Even though I'd probably be bored to death by the lesson," Smolder replied, "It'll be nice to see my friends again."
"Speaking of friends," said a voice. The voice came from Dragon Lord Ember who landed next to the two siblings.
"Ember," Garble said. "What's up."
"What's up is I have a letter and some stubborn dragons. I need some convincing from Smolder."
"Me?" the said dragoness asked confused.
At the changeling hive, Ocellus was checking all of her supplies to make sure everything was ready. Her younger siblings were clinging to her legs. "Look, I know you want me to stay," Ocellus said, "But I also want to see my friends again."
"I'm glad to hear that," Thorax said as she flew to her.
"Oh, king Thorax. Is there something wrong?"
"Not really. It's just, Starlight wants to try something."
In Yakyakistan, Yona was helping her father clear a path from their hut through the snow. "Yona," Prince Rutherford said, grabbing the little yak's attention. "Yak wants to talk to you."
"Rutherford?" Yona asked. "Why yak need to talk to Yona?"
"Yak get letter from ponies. Ponies need help, because, yaks' best."
"Yona agree. What yak need to do?"
Last but not least, in Griffonstone, Gabby had returned to her home where Gallus was at. "Hi, Gallus," she cheered.
"Gabby," Gallus said, nonchalantly. "What's up?"
"Oh, one of your teachers told me to give you this." She handed her friend a letter, which he opened.
Dear Gallus,
You know that school is going to start again soon and I'm pretty sure that you'll be happy to see your friends again. Still, I'm guessing Twilight would like to have more diversity with the students. So, with you as well as the other creatures, the professors and I would like to enroll more of Griffonstone as well as the kingdoms.
I have a feeling that many of them won't be so keen, so I'm hoping you and your friends could help them. I had a feeling some may be scared or stubborn but I'm sure you can convince them to give it a try.
Sincerely, Starlight Glimmer.
"Huh," Gallus said, "Doesn't seem to difficult."
"I can only imagine seeing my friends having to do the same thing," Smolder scoffed to Ember.
"It'll be worth it to see my friends again," Ocellus said to Thorax.
"It's going to be great to have others come with me," Silverstream cheered to her aunt.
"Yona will show yaks school is good as yaks," Yona said.
"This year is going to be great," Sandbar said to himself.
When the morning sun rose the next morning, Sandbar got up and immediately headed towards the kitchen. As he started toasting his bread he got some milk from the fridge as his parents walked into the room. "Sandy, it's not even eight yet," High Tide grumbled as she rubbed her eyes.
"Wait, really?" the colt asked. He looked towards the clock from across the room. "Oh, sorry to wake you."
"It's okay," Beachcomber yawned. "We understand you're excited."
"I'll just... Take this back to my room." Sandbar got his milk and toast, put some butter on it, and walked back to his room. He just finished his breakfast as soon as possible, brushed his teeth, and got his suitcase, which contained some things his parents packed for school.
He had to wait a while for his parents to have their breakfast, but Beachcomber finished first. "I'll catch up with you," High Tide said.
"Alright," Beachcomber said, "We'll meet you at the school." The father and son left the house and walked through the town. Along the way, they decided to stop by the train station. "You think that they'll arrive this way."
"I've seen them use the train when they left for Summer Vacation," Sandbar stated. They then heard a whistle. "Here it comes."
The train slowly rolled in and stopped at the platform. When the doors opened, the two ponies were surprised to see several yaks and griffon pour out. The yaks nearly caused a mini earthquake while running past the father and son and the griffon just pushed past them.
Beachcomber managed to move out of the way, but Sandbar got stuck in the crowd. Luckily, a blue griffon grabbed him and lifted him out of the stampede. "Morning," Gallus said looking down at his friend. He placed the colt down next to the stallion.
"Thanks, Gallus," Sandbar said.
"You really don't have the best luck do you." He looked at Beachcomber. "Who's this guy?"
"This is my dad. Dad, this is my friend, Gallus."
"It's nice to meet you," Beachcomber said. He shook Gallus's talon but noticed they were missing something. "Sandbar, where's your bag?"
"I..." The colt saw what his dad meant. "I must have lost it in the crowd." Suddenly, the suitcase landed next to the ponies and griffons as a certain yak walked beside it. "Yona."
"Sandbar," the yak cheered. The colt and yak hugged each.
"Dad, this is my yak friend, Yona."
"Oh, Sandbar told me about you," Beachcomber said. "I can't believe it's taken this long to meet you."
"Hey, Sandbar, where's my hug?" Gallus joked. Sandbar chuckled as he gave the griffon a hug.
"Who are all of these yaks and griffons?" Sandbar asked.
"Ponies wanted creatures to come to school," Yona explained.
"Really?"
"Yeah, but some are being stubborn," Gallus groaned.
"Yaks not complaining," Yona said. "Yona said yaks show ponies how to be best."
"It's great to see you guys again," Sandbar said. "Where are the others?"
"Their homes are closer to different train routes," Gallus explained. "They should be here soon."
"Gallus!" cried a wheezing voice. The blue griffon sighed as Grampa Gruff walked up to him. "You can't expect me to take care of all these griffons."
"No. I don't."
"Who's that?" Beachcomber asked Sandbar.
"Grampa Gruff," Sandbar replied quietly. "Just try not to get on his bad side. It's kind of big."
"Yaks wait for ponies," Rutherford said. The yaks followed orders stood around him.
"Yona better wait with yaks," Yona said. She gave a quick hug to her colt friend before walking towards her group.
"Ah, Yona. Yaks need to know lesson just like Yona." As the two groups waited for the ponies of the school to arrive, another engine stopped by the platform. The doors opened to reveal several changelings, dragons, and hippogriffs.
"I don't see why we had to ride the train," Ember said as she stepped onto the platform.
"We have to make sure our students get to the school safely," Thorax informed.
"Fair point. Plus, those seats are way more comfy than anything in the Dragon Lands."
"Where are they?" Sandbar asked looking around through the different creatures.
"Surprise hug!" Silverstream cried. She took the colt by surprise by diving bombing him to give a tight hug.
"Silver. I'm happy to see you again. Can you let me breathe, please?" The hippogriff chuckled and let her friend go.
"I see she got you too," Ocellus said as she walked up with Smolder beside her.
"Nice to know someone took one for the team," Smolder joked.
"Ha, ha," Sandbar said sarcastically. He turned to his father to introduce his friends to him and vice versa.
"You certainly seem like... Interesting creatures," Beachcomber said.
"It's nice to actually meet you, sir," Ocellus said.
"Silverstream," Sky Beak said as he walked up to the group with Thorax and Ember. "I see you found your friends."
"Hello, there," Beachcomber said from behind his son. He felt kind of nervous being with creatures that were much bigger than him.
"That's my dad," Sandbar said.
"Got it," Ember said. "Smolder, stick with the group. I'm having trouble just keeping an eye on the other freshmen. The letter said you had to help."
"Right," the dragoness replied. She followed the Dragon Lord. Silverstream and Ocellus went to group up with their species to wait for the ponies to arrive.
"Ah, you're all here," said a voice. Two ponies walked towards the train station, Applejack and Sunburst.
"How are y'all doing?" Applejack asked. There was a mixture of worried and uninterest murmuring.
"We're here to make sure you all get to the school of friendship," Sunburst said. "Enrolling at this school is actually quite an honor."
"If you want to get a nice nap," Gallus whispered to Smolder, who chuckled in response.
"If you follow us, we'll get you to school on time." The unicorn and earth pony led the way as the different creatures followed behind.
"Why were we chosen?" a white griffon asked.
"Because of school orders," Grampa Gruff coughed.
"You too, hung?" asked a green drake.
When they got to School of Friendship, they could see the rest of the professors chatting with several different ponies. "AJ, Sunburst, you're back," Rainbow Dash said as she flew up to them. "Are those the newcomers?"
"Sure are," Applejack replied.
"Students," Sunburst said, "This is professor Rainbow Dash. She'll be teaching you in loyalty and athleticism." As Sunburst explained what the professors would be teaching, Sandbar and his friends decided to talk between each other.
"So, how was your vacation?" Silverstream whispered to Gallus.
"Surprisingly better than expected," Gallus replied. "Gabby let me stay at her house, which is pretty cozy."
"That was nice of here."
"Silverstream, pay attention," Sky Beak ordered. The hippogriff did so. The other griffons and dragons on the other hand, not so much. The changelings and hippogriffs were taking in every word, the yaks were only understanding about eighty percent.
"Now, we'd like you to fill out a couple of papers," Sunburst was interrupted by a large number of groans. "It's to make sure of a couple of things. Allergies, information about your parents, and it'll help you get a satisfying roommate." Rarity carried some papers which she and Sunburst levitated to the new students, along with some pencils. The creatures started writing things down as the kingdom leaders talked with each other.
"I'm not sure if the changelings are up to this," Thorax said. Many of the changelings were pretty nervous.
"At least they wanted to come," Ember said. She grabbed the arm of a dragoness trying to sneak away. "Nice try." The dragoness growled as she resumed writing.
"They're not the only ones who are feeling nervous," Sky Beak said. He pointed to some of the hippogriffs who didn't look all that pleased.
"Yaks not worried," Rutherford said. "Yaks best." Ember just rolled her eyes.
"You're only best at being on my nerves," Grampa Gruff wheezed.
As the leader chatted, the first international students were listening to them. "Think they're going to argue again?" Smolder asked.
"Not likely," Ocellus answered. "Especially not here."
"Sandbar," cried a mare. They look and saw High Tide running up to the colt while carrying Coral Currents. "Sorry I took so long."
"It's okay," Sandbar replied. "You didn't miss much."
"Who this pony?" Yona asked.
"My mom." High Tide hugged her son.
"I see you met your friends again."
"Nice to meet you," Silverstream said as she shook High Tide's hoof. She raised her paw to Coral, who giggled as she reached for it.
"I still can't believe you're going into your third year at this school."
"Yeah, it is kind of amazing," Sandbar admitted. "It's going to be interesting having all of these different creatures. Should I have a warning about any of these guys?"
"Just try not to get on any of their bad sides," Gallus said.
"Especially the dragons," Smolder added.
"Got it," Sandbar replied.
After a bit of chatting, the new students had finished with their papers. "Are we done?" a changeling asked.
"Oh, you're just getting started," Pinkie said as she bounced by. More of the students groaned. The pink pony whispered to Sunburst. "Are you sure about this?"
"It's what Twilight wanted," Sunburst replied.
After a few more minutes, students started moving into each other's rooms. Gallus and Sandbar were still roommates, same for Ocellus and Yona, and Smolder and SIlverstream. They were making themselves comfortable until they heard some creature screaming.
"There's no way you're getting the top bunk," a male voice cried.
"Crud," Gallus groaned. He and Sandbar went to check out the noise. It was coming from an arguing white griffon and dark brown yak.
"What's going on?" Sandbar asked.
"We're trying to figure out who's going to have the top bunk," a griffon said.
"Yak needs top bunch in case of emergency," a yak said.
"What kind of emergency?"
"Okay, let's just make this simple and flip a coin," Gallus said. He got a bit from Sandbar, which he flipped. "Heads or tails?"
"Heads," the yak said.
"Tails," the griffon cried. Once Gallus revealed the bit, to show tails.
"Condragulations," Gallus said, "You get the top bunk." While the griffon cheered, the yak wasn't pleased.
"Best out of three," the yak said. Gallus flipped the bit again, and the same thing happened.
"Before you asked if it's double-sided, it's not." He showed the bit had both heads and tales. "Fair's, fair."
"Thanks," the griffon said as he lied down on the top bunk. The yak just grumbled as he sat on the bottom bunk. Gallus and Sandbar left the room.
"Get used to this kind of attitude."
"I don't think I will," Sandbar replied. "Hope the girls are having better luck than us."
"You can't just breathe fire whenever you want," Smolder said to another dragon student.
"What else am I suppose to do while I'm bored here," a red dragoness complained.
"You could get to know your roommate," Silverstream suggested.
The red dragoness looked towards her roommate, who was a pegasus mare. "What do we have in common?"
"You both have wings."
"So do you two."
"I think we should let you figure this out for yourself," Smolder said. "Come on, Silver, we're wasting our time." The two friends left the freshmen to their problem, seeing that they didn't want help.
"You sure we shouldn't help them out," the hippogriff asked.
"If she didn't want help, let her learn the hard way." The two ran into Ocellus and Yona, who didn't seem so happy. "What happened to you two?"
"One of the changelings was getting aggravated at me," Ocellus explained.
"A changeling?"
"Dragons aren't only ones aggressive," Yona stated.
"Fair point."
"I really thought all the hippogriffs would enjoy this," Silverstream said. "Some of them seemed excited to come here, but now... They're pretty worried."
"Well, don't you start," said Sky Beak. They look and saw the hippogriff walk towards them along with Dragon Lord Ember. "How are you feeling?"
"Like we bit off more than we can chew," Ocellus said.
"Look, if this makes you feel better," Ember said, "We're the ones that are going to respond if anything goes wrong with them."
"Oh, that makes me feel better," Smolder sighed with relief. "I'm already losing my patience with one of the dragons."
"What about King Thorax?" Ocellus asked.
"Or Prince Rutherford," Yona added.
"The same story," Ember replied. "Look, we need to get back to our kingdoms because we just need to have the students' parents sign these papers." She showed the papers she was carrying, and so did Sky Beak.
"All those papers?" Silverstream asked.
"It's going to be tiring," Sky Beak said, "But once we do that, it'll all be over." The father and daughter shared one more hug before Sky Beak walked off with Ember. "So, how big do dragons get?"
"The size of Twilight's castle," Ember answered.
"No way."
"Hey, guys," Sandbar said as he and Gallus walked up to their friends.
"How friends doing?" Yona asked.
"Just helped fix up an argument," Gallus replied. "By the way, Headmare Starlight gave us our class schedules." He showed his friends an envelope before opening it. Inside was a schedule, each one having a different name. However, that wasn't the only thing that was different.
"Guys, none of our schedules are the same," Ocellus said. All of the classes were different. For their first ones, Smolder was in Rainbow Dash's class first, while Sandbar was in Fluttershy's.
"Why are they like this?" Silverstream asked.
"They said these were temporary," Sandbar explained. "Once the new students have been here for a week, we'll be in the same classes again."
"Friends still see each, right?" Yona asked a bit worried.
"Of course. It's just for a week. Besides, we can talk to Headmare Starlight at any time."
"If you say so," Smolder said. Just then, they heard the bell ring.
"First classes are going to start soon," Ocellus said. "I'll... See you after school." The friends all walked off to their classes and to get their respective species.
Yona led the yaks into Pinkie's class, where they only found a party cannon sitting in the middle of the room. Confused, the yaks sat down. One of them stood back up once they noticed they sat on a button, which caused the cannon to fire out confetti and a teacher.
Pinkie landed in front of the chalkboard, sticking the landing. "Hello newcomers," Pinkie said. "I'm Pinkamena Diane Pie, I'll be your teacher this morning."
"Pink Pony," the yaks cheered.
"That's me. Now, we'll just start with some algebra." Pinkie started writing things down on the chalkboard as the yaks opened their workbooks.
Yona heard one of the yaks grumbling. "What wrong?" she whispered.
"Yak still mad a griffon for taking top bunk," the yak grumbled.
"Trud need to calm down." The yak just grumbled in response.
"Now," Pinkie said, "I know these triangles look pretty confusing and multiplying the numbers by themselves is... Confused even me at first. But you'll soon understand." Many of the yaks started taking notes, but the one name Trud just kept grumbling.
"Trud, take notes," Yona said. "Ocellus said notes help a lot."
"Changeling think she knows everything," Trud scoffed.
"I know a yak who doesn't want to be sent to Headmare Starlight's office," Pinkie said in a sing-songy voice. She gave a look at the yak which made him think twice about complaining. Though, not entirely. Yona started feeling a little lonely. Sure, her fellow yaks were with her, but she wanted to be with her other friends.
Silverstream was feeling the same way as she listened to Rarity's lesson. While she did, she made a doodle of the creatures she wanted with her. "Gemstones do take a long time to form," Rarity said, "And some are more rare than other."
"What about pearls?" a hippogriff asked.
"Ah, yes, another kind of gem. It's a special gemstone that forms at the bottom of the sea. Can you explain how they're formed?"
Another hippogriff raised their claw. "Um, under a bunch of sand?" she said nervously.
"Close, but their actually formed inside clams."
"I've never seen that happen before."
"Well, it's quite rare." The mare looked towards Silverstream, who was still doodling. "Silverstream."
"Huh?" Silverstream questioned.
"What did I just say?"
"Um... Uh... Clams are... Magical?"
"I'd appreciate it if you paid attention." Silverstream blushed with embarrassment.
Gallus was laying back in Applejack's class. Many of the other griffons couldn't care less about what their teacher was saying. "Now remember," Applejack said, "If you don't give your crops the right amount of water or sunlight, it won't grow properly."
"Um, Ms. Applejack?" asked a griffon, "Why would we need this?"
"Because plants are some of the most important parts of life. Tell me, where do you think you get your bread?"
"From wheat. Where else?"
"And tell me, what is wheat?"
Gallus raised his talon. "Seeds in the ground?" he asked.
"Exactly. How about the fruits and vegetables you eat, where do they come from?"
"From the store," a griffon scoffed.
"No! From plants. How the air we breathe?" The griffons didn't reply, mostly because they didn't know what to say, but Gallus was enjoying this. "The trees. A.K.A. plants. Now, the trees will be our next lesson."
As the farm pony wrote on the chalkboard, Gallus looked towards the griffon who ask Applejack the question. "Think they're not important now?" Gallus asked.
"Don't mock me," the griffon said glumly.
After a while, the bell rang to let everyone know that the first classes were over. Ocellus walked out of Fluttershy's class with the other changelings. "That teacher is really nice," one of the changelings said to Ocellus.
"She is," Ocellus agreed. "She's one of the favorites."
"Ocellus," Smolder cried as she ran up to her. As she did this, the other changelings felt nervous.
"No, guys, it's okay. Smolder's friendly."
"It's true. By the way, have you seen Gallus?"
"You called?" asked the said griffon. The dragon and changelings jumped.
"Don't do that again," Ocellus begged.
"No promises. Anyways, Smolder could you make this quick? I'm trying to get Gale here..."
"That's me," a white griffon interrupted.
"To apologize to his roommate... Crud, I didn't get the yak's name."
"Can you describe what he looked like?" Ocellus asked.
"Trud, get back here," Pinkie begged from down the hall. From around the corner, a dark brown yak, who Pinkie Pie was desperately trying to stop as she was dragged across the floor.
"Found him," Gale said.
"Okay, let's fix this," Gallus said. He took a deep breath before walked up to the angry yak with his fellow griffon. "Hello, there... I'm sorry, I didn't remember your name."
"Trud," the yak answered.
"Right, Trud, Gale here wanted to say something."
"Why am I doing this?" Gale whispered.
"Because it's the right thing."
"Fine." Gale looked at Trud in the eye, or the best he could considering the yak's eyes were covered by his bangs. "I'm sorry for arguing with you over just a bed. Gallus convinced me it was stupid and we should move on."
The yak snorted as he stomped on the griffon's talon, making him cry out in pain. "Trud," Pinkie cried as she managed to push the yak away from the injured griffon. "You're going to the headmare's office." Suddenly, the pink pony was lifted up with the yak's horn and was tossed into the wall behind them.
"What the heck's your problem?" Gale asked.
"Yak don't want apology," Trud growled. "Yak, want to SMASH!" Without warning, Trud charged towards Gale, who flew upwards. This caused the yak to ram into an unlucky Gallus.
"Gah, my spleen," Gallus groaned as he tumbled back towards his friends.
"Are you okay?" Ocellus asked. He didn't have time to answer as Trud charged at them again. The changeling screamed and fled just before the yak missed them and collided with the wall. His horns got stuck, providing the dragon, griffon, and changeling with enough time to help up their unconious teacher and escape.
"What's that guy's problem?" Smolder questioned as she ran.
"I don't know," Gallus replied. "I knew they were mad, but nobody just has an outburst like that."
Ocellus then heard something was chasing them. Looking back, she saw Trud, with a bit of the wall, stuck on his horns, chaing them down. Thinking quickly, she turned into a bugbear and caught the rampaging yak. "Okay, just calm down," Ocellus begged.
"Yak will never calm down!" Trud cried. He headbutted Ocellus, causing her to change back. Once she was on the ground, Trud stomped on her chest.
"OW! Gallus! Smolder!"
"Ocellus!" the dragon and griffon yelled. They put Pinkie down before running back to save their friend.
"Get off her," Smolder cried before punching the yak in the face. She was caught off guard as Trud fought back by kicking her into Gallus, who was trying to help Ocellus up. With the three knocked to the ground, Trud was about to stomp on them before, he stopped.
He had an aura around him which was coming from Starlight Glimmer. "Headmare Starlight," Ocellus groaned as she and her friend slowly stood up.
"What happened here?" the headmare asked.
"That yak is crazing," Gale cried.
"That's only half true," Gallus stated.
"Oh my... What happened to Pinkie?" Starlight asked.
"Put yak down!" Trud ordered.
"Until we figure out what's going on, you're not going anywhere."
As Sunburst and Starlight asked Trud some questions, which the yak gave mad some outbursts, Pinkie recovered from her attack. While she was a bit bruised, she was still able to teach. Gallus and Gale were also injured, but they got bandaged up and managed to return to class.
Fluttershy saw the griffons come in and gasped at what she saw. "Gallus, Gale, what happened to you?" the pegasus asked.
"It was a yak," Gale said. "He went crazy and attack us."
"I don't think he all there," Gallus said.
"Well, are you okay?"
"Actually," Gale said, "We might need some...
"We're fine," Gallus interrupted.
"Okay," Fluttershy said. "Just sit down with the others." Gale groaned as he and Gallus did as they were told.
"What did you say to that guy?"
"Nothing," Gale replied. "I tried ignoring him after you left but he never said anything about smashing me into a paste."
"Now, class," Fluttershy said, "Please, pay attention." The griffons did so as the teacher started her lesson.
In Pinkie's class, Smolder was the first one in there. She was helping to make sure the pony was okay. "You sure you can still teach?" the dragoness asked.
"Oh, I'm fine," Pinkie responded. She rubbed her right hoof, which was still sore. The rest of the dragons walked in as the pony pushed Smolder back. "Get to your seat." Smolder nodded and did as she was told. Even though she was hurt pretty bad, Pinkie did her best to teach the students. Still, her injuries made things kind of awkward to her students.
When lunch finally came around, Smolder met up with her friends. "There you are," Sandbar said.
"You heard what happened with that yak?" Smolder asked.
"Ocellus and Gallus told us everything," Silverstream said.
"Oh, good. What was that yak thinking?"
"I don't think he was," Gallus said. "Out of all the ponies, Pinkie has the best relationship with the yaks."
"That explains why yaks start with Pink Pony's class," Yona said.
"Smolder, you and Silver got into a fight involving the top bunk, right?"
"Kind of," the dragoness replied.
"And you wouldn't just lash out like that, would you?"
"Of course not."
"But Smolder and I knew each other longer than Gale and Trud," Silverstream pointed out.
"That still doesn't mean one would just attack like that," Ocellus said.
Yona looked towards a changeling and hippogriff, each carrying a tray of food. She waved to them, but the two creatures looked kind of scared and walked off. The yak hung her head in disappointment. "It's okay, Yona," Sandbar said, "Maybe that yak just had anger issues."
"But Yona never knew Trud have issues of anger," Yona said.
"It's the best thing we can think of," Gallus said.
"Let's just eat before class starts," Ocellus said before she continued eating.
While they did that, Starlight and Sunburst weren't getting anywhere with Trud. "Look, Trud, if you want to get through this, you're going to have to give us straight answers," Starlight said.
"Yak don't want to have griffon as roommate," Trud said.
"We know that," Sunburst said. "Why did you just attack him?"
"Yak not like griffon." Both unicorns groaned in frustration. Starlight was about to use the school PA system when suddenly Prince Rutherford stomped in.
"Ponies," he shouted. "Yak bring back signed papers."
"Oh, thank you," Starlight said. "Listen, you kind of have us a bad time. You see, Trud here has tried to attack one of the students."
"He has?" Rutherford looked at the young yak. "Yaks fix problem, ponies have lunch."
"Oh, thank you," Sunburst sighed. "We've been at this for about an hour." The two unicorns walked off towards the teachers' lounge as Trud and Rutherford were left alone.
When they got to the lounge, they found Fluttershy helping Pinkie get comfy. "Listen, Fluttershy, I'm fine," the earth pony said.
"Pinkie, you got hit by a yak," Fluttershy said, "You need to rest."
"It's just a couple of bruises," Applejack stated.
"Exactly," Pinkie agreed.
"So, you can still teach?" Starlight asked.
"Of course. I managed to teach the dragons."
"Just make sure not to move so suddenly," Fluttershy begged.
"Starlight," Rarity said, "Have you made any progress with Trud?"
"No," the headmare sighed. "He just kept saying the same thing. "Yak no like griffon." "Yaks' best." "Yak don't want to share room." Pinkie, how do you stand them?"
"Not all yaks are like that," the pink pony said.
"Where is he anyone," Rainbow Dash asked.
"Prince Rutherford offered to take care of him," the unicorn said. "Hopefully he has better luck than me."
"Yak not making sense," Rutherford said as he poked his head into the room.
"Come on!"
"Prince not give up. Truds parents get through. Yak take him back home."
"Whatever you need to do. I've had enough of that yak." Rutherford nodded before he left.
"I think we'll just leave you alone while you eat," Applejack said as she just finished her lunch. The farm pony left to teach her next class as the headmare finally started her lunch.
In class, Silverstream and the hippogriffs waited for the lesson as Applejack wrote on the chalkboard. While the teacher did this, the hippogriffs chattered about Trud going crazy. "Do all yaks have outbursts like that?" a blue hippogriff asked.
"Are they dangerous?" a purple one asked.
"No," Silverstream said, "Yona and Sandbar thought he was just having anger issues."
"Exactly," Applejack added. "We're not going to let one rotten apple ruin the entire harvest. Now, listen closely." As she explained the lesson, she kept an eye on all of the students. They seemed to be acting normal. After the hippogriffs, there were the changelings, the dragons, and lastly the yaks. Not one of them were acting out of the ordinary.
The last bell of the day rang and the freshmen were delighted the day was over. "Man, I thought I was going to pass out," a green changeling sighed.
"Moss, the others were enjoying this," Ocellus said. "Right?"
"Actually, we were worried sick about this," a yellow and green changeling said. "I think we took too many notes." Thet showed a large stack of notes which were as tall as a yak.
"Maybe we should actually get away from the school," Sandbar said.
"That's what I've been saying," Moss said.
"No, we're still having classes tomorrow." The mossy green changeling groaned.
"You could've said "no" to this," Ocellus said. "Sandbar, what do you have in mind?"
"I think we could just go around town until we found something the changelings were interested in."
"You heading into town?" Smolder asked as she walked with two green dragon twins, one with mint-green horns, and one with mint-green ears.
"Yeah, you want to come?"
"Sure thing. Emerald, Peridot?"
"Sure," the dragoness with horns said.
"I don't see why not," the mint-green eared one said.
"Great," Sandbar said. "I'll lead the way." As the excited Sandbar led the dragons and some of the changelings into town, Applejack walked up to Rarity.
"Hey, Rarity," Applejack said, "Yah noticed any other students acting weird?"
"Not at all," Rarity replied. "Aside from some not paying attention, they all acted just fine."
"Good to know. Maybe that yak just had a short fuse."
"I'll check with the others if they saw anything." Both ponies nodded before they walked off.
Back with the students, Sandbar had led the new students towards an arcade. "What's this place," Emerald asked.
"This is the arcade," Sandbar explained. "Several ponies come here to play a couple of games. Oh, sweet, Mega Pony Three. My favorite."
"What's Mega Pony?" Moss asked.
"He's a special kind of pony who can copy others' powers."
"So, like a changeling?" Emerald asked.
"Exactly. Wanna give it a shot?" Emerald walked up to the arcade game and grabbed the controller.
"This thing looks weird."
"It's called a controller and I think it was just made for ponies." The controller the dragon was holding did have all the buttons on the side. Since two out of three ponies only had hooves, this made sense.
"So, how do I play?"
Sandbar inserted a bit into the arcade game's slot. Once he did, the screen changed to show nine squares, each one with a different pony's mugshot. In the mild, there was a unicorn with than fur and a blue horn and helmet.
"Okay, so which one do I go after first?"
"I usually go after the one in the bottom right corner."
"Gold Mare?"
"Yeah, once you figure out their patterns and get their powers, the other fall over like dominoes." As Emerald started playing the game, her twin tapped on the colt's shoulder.
"What else is here?" Peridot asked.
"Well, there's skeeball." He led the second twin over to the said arcade game. He placed a bit into the slot and out rolled some balls. "All you have to do is get these balls into those holes over there. Like this." He rolled the ball up the ramp and the ball landed in the second-lowest hole. "Hopefully you can do better than that."
"So, do I aim for the ones with the bigger numbers?"
"If you want more tickets." Peridot looked down at her feet and saw tickets were coming out near where the colt inserted the coin. On the identical machine next to the ski ball the dragoness was playing at, Moss picked up one of the balls and gave her a cheeky smirk.
"Ready for a challenge?" the changeling asked. The dragoness gave a nervous chuckle as she rolled the ball up the ramp towards one of the holes. Moss did the same and tickets poured out of the machines.
"Man, Sandbar's doing great with them," Ocellus said.
"Yeah," Smolder agreed, "But weren't there other changelings with us?"
"They said they wanted to stay behind with all the other freshmen."
"Oh. Hope they change their minds in the future."
"Anything you guys wanna play?" Sandbar asked.
"I'm up shooting hoops."
"Alright, I'll get some more coins and I'll meet you there." Sandbar walked as Smolder and Ocellus walked towards the basketball hoops. The ramp that the ball would roll down was blocked. The way to release them was to insert some coins.
"You know, I wonder how many pegasi just fly up there inside of actually trying."
"You were planning on doing that, weren't you?" Ocellus asked.
"Ca wa... No." The changeling giggled a bit.
"I'm back," Sandbar said. He inserted the coins and the basketballs rolled into their reach. After shooting a few hoops, some of which Ocellus needed help with, they got a couple of tickets. "Alright."
"How many did we get?"
"Twenty-four," Ocellus counted.
"There's gotta be an easier way to get more."
"Maybe you could try skeeball," Peridot said. She walked towards them while carrying the tickets she won over her shoulder.
"Oh, wow," Sandbar gasped, "You won all of those?"
"Yeah, it was pretty fun. What do I do with these?"
"You can use them to win prizes over there." He pointed to the prize counter, where a mare was standing behind waiting for some tickets.
"How much do you think I could win with these?"
"Not much. I think if you play some more games you can get more tickets."
"Yeah," Ocellus confirmed, "Just take a look at the tickets we won." She showed off the tickets, which made the dragoness gasp.
"Not my best," Smolder stated. "You wanna take a shot?"
"Sure." Just before they could insert more coins, they would hear some frustrated screaming.
"What was that?" Ocellus asked.
"It sounded like my sister."
"I think I know why," Sandbar added. The dragoness and colt walked over to find Emerald extremely frustrated. "What's wrong?"
"It's this stallion." She controlled Mega Pony and made him walk into the room where a blue and yellow pegasus stallion was waiting.
"Oh, Bolt Stallion. I've had trouble with this guy too. Do you have the Stone Launcher?"
"The what?"
"It's his weakness. What do you have?"
"Gold Mare's weapon, Gold Rush."
"That's not going to do much against him." Just then, Mega Pony took a hit and exploded. The screen then showed the words, "Game Over" .
Emerald groaned in frustration. "So, what do I do?"
"Well, I would suggest getting Bolt Stallion's weakness, Bounce Balls."
"And who has that?"
Sandbar inserted some coins and returned Emerald to the select screen. "Bounce Mare. She's weak to Breakneck Needle, which is Spike Mare's weapons."
"And what is she weak to?"
"Gold Rush."
"Oh. Okay, thanks. I don't a lot about arcade games and I didn't sleep well last night."
"I understand." Emerald picked Spike Mare's stage as Sandbar and Peridot went back to the baskets. After shooting a couple of hoops, they got more tickets, thirty-three to be precise. Sandbar also showed her Whack-a-Worm, Catching Cotton, and Prance Prance Revolution, they had gotten nearly one thousand tickets.
"This is so much," Peridot said just amazed.
"Let's see what we can get."
"Hang on, have you seen Moss?"
"I thought you knew where he was."
"I haven't seen him since I was at skeeball."
"Hopefully he hasn't gotten into trouble." When they got to the counter, the mare waiting was surprised to see a dragon.
"Oh... Um, uh... What can I... Get you?" she stuttered.
"My friend said that I could get a prize with these," Peridot said. She gave the mare her roles of tickets. Sandbar helped her scan all of the prizes until they saw a fox plush toy. "Whoa, that thing looks cute. How much for that?"
"Four hundred tickets." She gave the fox to the dragoness, who hugged it tightly. Sandbar saw a lamb that cost the same as Peridot's new fox.
"Hey, Peri, can I use those tickets for that lamb?" he asked.
"Sure," the dragoness replied. "You helped me." Sandbar smiled as the mare gave him the lamb plushie.
"Yona's gonna love this."
"What about the other tickets?"
"You can save them next time you come here," the mare explained.
"Okay. Come on, Sandbar." The dragoness and colt walked off.
"We should probably check where the others are," Sandbar said.
"You don't have to," Smolder announced. She and Ocellus walked up with Moss by their side.
"Where was he?"
"Trying to cheat at skeeball," Ocellus answered. "Luckily, there was some plastic to keep that from happening."
"Can we go back to school?" Moss asked. "I'm bored now, and I spent all of my bits."
"Not until we get Emerald," Sandbar said. He walked towards Mega Pony Three, where Emerald was still playing. "Wow, you're at the final boss?"
"Shhh," Emerald hushed. "I'm trying to focus."
"Sorry." The dragoness made Mega Pony jump over the boss's attack before she fired a charge shot. With that, the boss exploded and a small earth pony landed on the ground.
"YES! FINALLY! That felt so good."
"Hey, Emma, look at what I won," Peridot said showing off her new fox.
"Okay, that's cute. Can we go home? That game took a lot out of me."
"We're leaving now," Sandbar said. The creatures left the arcade, some happier than others.
"Why was that game so hard?"
"They do that to make the game longer than it needs to be," Smolder said.
"It's true," Sandbar said. "If you know what you're doing, you'll blaze through each level in about five minutes."
Suddenly, a wrapper was thrown at Ocellus. It was greezy and still had some bread crumbs in it. "What's that?" Moss asked.
"Oh, crud," Smolder groaned. More wrappers were tossed at the dragons and changelings, but none were tossed at Sandbar.
"What's going on?" Peridot asked.
"It's some colt named Coco-nut," Ocellus answered.
"Does he always do this?" Moss asked.
"Unforinetly, yes," Smolder responded.
"You know, Coco sounds more like a girl's name," Emerald said.
"Don't call me a girl!" Coco-nut cried. He kept tossing trash as Sandbar ran up to the door of his house. "Don't bother, my parents aren't home and you can't tell me what to do."
"Why does he do this?" Peridot asked.
"He doesn't like dragons or changelings," Ocellus said. "I understand changelings but why dragons?"
"Maybe he just likes being a jerk," Moss said.
"You're not far off," Smolder commented.
"You think we could try talking to him?" Peridot asked.
"We've tried before," Ocellus said, "Though, we didn't get to say much."
"Well, he's out of ammo now," Moss stated as he saw the colt had stopped throwing things.
"Now's our chance," Emerald said. She quickly grabbed the arm of Peridot and Smolder, then flew to the Coco-nut's window.
"Okay, kid, I've been wanting to do this for a long time," Smolder said. She looked like she was about to attack, but she stopped herself. "Look, it's about time you stopped throwing..." Before Smolder could finish a cup of soda was launched into her face.
"Let me try," Emerald said. "Kid, we don't want to..." The dragoness couldn't finish as a ball of paper was thrown at her. "Okay, where do you even..." Then a pillow was thrown. "Would you just..." Then a trash can, which caused Emerald to fall to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Sandbar asked. The response he got was surprising. Emerald launched the trash can into the air and let out a scream of anger and a fiery blaze. She flew up to a now frightened Coco-nut.
"I tried being nice and I was already frustrated, but now you've got me mad." She clenched her teeth as she was about to go through the window but Peridot stopped her.
"Sis, calm down," Peridot begged.
"We tried giving him a chance, now I'm going to burn him to a crisp."
"Think about this, what would his parents say?" By this point, the colt had run deeper into his house.
"Okay, I think we should all try and calm down," Sandbar said. The horned dragoness didn't listen and just pushed her sister away as she flew inside.
"Let's go and stop her," Smolder said. She picked up Sandbar and lifted him into the window and the ran inside. They found Emerald and Coco-nut were in the bathroom. The colt was cornered with the dragoness towering over him.
"I'm sorry," he wept, "I won't do it again."
"Too late," Emerald said. She took a deep breath but before she could exhale, Smolder grabbed her by the horns and yanked her back. "Let me go!"
"Make me," Smolder replied. With a punch in the gut, Smolder stumbled backward. She then got decked in the face as Sandbar tried to grab Emerald by her tail but he was tossed into the tub. "Leave my friend alone."
"Make me." The green dragoness gave a smug grin before Smolder thought for a minute.
"You know, he's too weak. If you want a real challenge, try and catch me." The orange dragoness flew away while blowing a raspberry. Emerald roared in anger as she gave chase. Peridot and the changelings were still waiting outside as the two dragons flew out of the house and towards the school.
Starlight was just leaving the building when she saw the two dragons flying towards her. "What the?"
"Headmare Starlight," Smolder cried, "I could use some help." Seeing the mad dragoness on Smolder's tail, Starlight used her levitation to slow Emerald down before freezing her in a crystalize cube. Smolder was glad she could catch her breath as she landed next to the principle.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. We were just coming back from the arcade then some kid starts throwing trash at us. Next thing we know, she just snapped."
"Sounds just like Trud." Starlight sighed. "I'll handle it from here. You make sure that the others are okay." The dragoness nodded and flew off as the principle took a look at the dragoness that she trapped. "Try not to make this harder than it needs to be."
Ember and Thorax had just returned with their signed paper. "Phew," Thorax sighed, "This was harder than I thought."
"You're one to talk," Ember said. "Try getting signatures of dragons, who ninety percent of are as big as that castle." She was pointing to Twilight's old castle.
The two landed outside of the School of Friendship. "Let's just give these to Starlight and we can go home and take it easy." When they got into Starlight's office, they saw Emerald still trapped in the crystal cube, though she had her head freed so she could speak. "I might've spoken too soon."
Ember didn't like what she was seeing. Smoke started coming from her nostrils. "What's going on in here?"
"Ember, Thorax," Starlight said trying to sound calm. "You've got me in a bad time."
"Why is that dragon in a cube?" Thorax asked. He and Ember set their papers down on the desk.
"Well, Emerald here is the second student today to lose her temper and attack an innocent kid. The one she attacked didn't even go to this school."
"He was throwing trash at us," Emerald stated. "By the sound of the others, he's done this before."
"Sound believable," Ember said. The changeling and unicorn only gave her angry stares. "What? He's gotta learn one way or..."
"Don't encourage her," Thorax interrupted. "Starlight, what do you mean she was the second student to do this?"
"A yak just left class so he could beat up his roommate for taking the top bunk."
"Okay, that I don't understand," Ember said. "What's the point of having a top part of a bed?"
"Can we focus on the bigger problem?" Starlight asked. "If this keeps up, the school's going to have to face consequences."
"Have you gotten any answers?" Thorax asked.
"Not from Emerald. She just keeps saying the same thing. I'll spare you the details, all I know is this can't be a coincidence."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"I already asked Peridot, her sister, if she's like this, but she's not."
"It's true," Ember confirmed. "I've seen her with Garble, and she's usually a lot more thinking and is nice enough to pay attention."
"Well, she still hasn't given me a straight answer. Until then, I'm going to have stay in her room. Along with some detention." The headmare took the green dragoness out of her office and towards her bedroom.
"I think we should stay out of this until we're needed," Thorax said to Ember.
Peridot saw her sister and the principle walk by her in the lounge. She let out a sigh. "It's okay, Peri," Sandbar said as he tried to comfort her.
"But she wouldn't do that," Peridot stated. "She's not like other dragons."
"It's true," Smolder confirmed. "I've seen her practice poetry with my brother. I know that colt is annoying but I didn't think he would just snap like that."
"We heard what happened," Gallus said as he, Silverstream, and Yona walked up.
"You guys are okay, right?" Silverstream asked.
"Well, yeah," Ocellus said, "Though Peridot is pretty upset about this." The said dragoness didn't even feel like speaking.
"You want to talk?"
"No, I think I'm... Just going to get some fresh air," Peridot replied. She walked off leaving the six different creatures in the lounge.
"I can't be the only one think something weird is going on," Ocellus said.
"Two creatures going crazy for no reason," Gallus said sarcastically, "Sound perfectly normal to me."
"But why though?" Sandbar asked.
"Maybe if..." Ocellus paused as Pinkie Pie bounced into the room with a white pencil and blueprints.
"Don't mind me," she said, "I'm just look for the best place for the Pony Pal Dance."
"I forgot about that," Silverstream said.
"Let's try and focus," Gallus said.
Ocellus looked down the hall and saw a yak and dragon bump into each other. The two looked scared for a minute they rushed past each other. "We should figure this out quick," she said sounding worried. "The students are already scared of each other now."
"But what about Trud?" Sandbar asked.
"Some creature call me," Trud asked. Once they saw him walk in, Ocellus changed into a tortoise to hid in her shell, Sandbar hid behind Yona for protection, and Gallus and Silverstream flew up to the ceiling to get out of reach.
"What do you want?" Smolder asked as she braced herself for a fight.
"Yak don't want trouble," Trud stated as he back up. "Trud... Doesn't really remember what happened. One minute, yak in Pink Pony's class, next he's on train with Prince Rutherford."
Ocellus poked her head out of her shell. "You don't remember anything?" she asked.
"No. Yak thought bad dream before leaving Yakyakistan was bad enough, but then yak father get mad."
"Spare details," Yona said. "Friends can figure out rest."
"Okay. Yak going to apologize to Pink Pony."
"She's right there," Silverstream said. She pointed to the pink professor, who was drawing on her blueprint. As Trud walked over to her, the others got closer together and Ocellus changed back to her normal form.
"He doesn't remember a thing?" Gallus said.
"Not to mention the bad dream," Sandbar added.
"What does that mean?" Silverstream said.
"Emerald said she had a bad dream last night. Just like Trud."
"But I don't think just any dream can cause both creatures to just snap," Ocellus stated. "Maybe once we get Emerald to calm down we could ask her somethings."
"Friends get started with yak," Yona stated.
"You go first," Gallus said. He wasn't wanting to take any risks.
Yona walked over to Trud, who had just finished talking to Pinkie Pie. "What yak dream about last night?"
"Memory fuzzy," Trud replied. "Feathers led yak into trap. Yak tried to go other way but something carried yak into sky."
"Then what happened?"
"Don't know. Yak's memory go blank after that."
"Thanks." Yona walked back to her friends who heard what Trud has said.
"Okay, he said that there were feathers and something was lifting him," Ocellus said, quickly writing down notes.
"Those are some clues," Silverstream said. "What about Emerald?"
"We should wait until tomorrow," Smolder said. "If they couldn't get anything out of Trud while he was mad, talking to Emerald will be like talking to a wall." With nothing else to do, the six just carried on with their day. When night fell, Gallus walked by Starlight's office when he heard several voices inside.
"Dragons are not mindless brutes," Ember cried.
"I didn't want to come across like that," said a male voice. "It just seems worrisome that two of your students go crazy on the first day of school."
"You don't think I don't know that?" Starlight asked sounding agitated.
"I'm not trying to sound like the old me."
"I'm sorry. Trud and Emerald have been stressful. I couldn't get..."
"A straight answer," wheezed a voice that Gallus knew too well. He peeked inside the office to find the kingdoms' ambassadors and Chancellor Neighsay. "We've heard you the first time."
"I'm sure you're all aware that this is something we can't ignore," Neighsay said. "Need I remind you that a minor was nearly injured."
"Not to mention Pink Pony," Prince Rutherford added.
"And one of the teachers, thank you. Ms. Glimmer..."
"We're trying," Starlight interrupted. "You have to give us time."
"I know, but only so much," Neighsay stated. "If you can't find the problem, I'm afraid that this school will be shut down. I'm sure this is something no... Creature wants to happen."
"No way," Thorax said. "Listen, we'll see if we can do anything to help."
"We can't stay here forever," Ember said. "We have kingdoms to watch over."
"Dragon right," Rutherford agreed. "Besides, yak getting tired of taking train."
"The teachers are checking the students to see if they're acting out of the ordinary," Starlight said. "We'll let you know if there are any updates."
"Thank you, Ms. Glimmer," Neighsay said. As the creatures turned to the door, Gallus made a mad dash towards his dorm to make sure he didn't get caught. He burst in, giving Sandbar a fright.
"Gallus," the colt cried.
"Neighsay is getting involved," Gallus spoke.
"What?"
"He's heard about what happened. He said he might shut the school down. For real this time."
"What do we do?"
"Sleep on this. There's not much we can do at this hour. Once we get to breakfast, we'll try and think of a plan."
"Alright." The colt and griffon got into bed and slowly drifted off to sleep. In a different set of rooms, Gale and a sea-green hippogriff tossed and turned as sweat poured down their heads. In their heads, was the sound of maniacal giggling.
When the morning sun rose over the school, several of the students tried to cover their eyes. The junior year students were up and already heading to the breakfast hall. Gallus and Smolder about to get their trays, but Ocellus had to point out something. "I think you two should get the griffons and dragons," the changeling stated.
Gallus and Smolder both groaned as they walked back to the dorms. When Gallus got to Gale's, he could see that the white griffon wasn't staying in bed by choice. He was tossing and turning while his pillow was soaked with cold sweat. "Gale, are you okay?" Gallus asked. "Gale?"
The second he nudged him, Gale shot up and shoved Gallus back. "Don't do that," Gale demanded.
"What was that for?"
"I was a bad dream."
"Oh. Sorry. It's breakfast time." The white griffon groaned and headed towards the mess hall as the blue one went to get more griffons.
Smolder back into the mess hall with Peridot and Emerald, who was much calmer than she was from the day before. Though, the other students didn't want to get close to her. "What's with ever creature today?" the dragoness asked.
"You went a little crazy yesterday," her twin explained.
"But, I don't remember anything."
"Seriously?" Smolder asked while getting a tray.
"No. The last thing I remember is that kid throwing a trash can at me. After that, everything was black." Smolder took note of this as she got her eggs.
"Hey, Sandbar said you had a dream the other night," Smolder said. "What was it about?"
"Well..." The dragoness thought for a moment. "It's pretty blurry, but I do remember seeing a pony with a curly mane. Her mane looked scrolls, to be honest." With that bit of information, Smolder sat down with her friends she explained what Emerald told her.
"That sounds just like Trud," Ocellus said.
"Yeah, though I wish she was more specific of what she saw." Just then, two mares walked up to their table. Yona immediately noticed them.
"Shimmy Shake, Lighthoof," the yak cheered.
"It's great to see you again," Lighthoof said. "Why aren't we in the same class?"
"It's because the professors wanted us to help the freshmen adapt to this school," Ocellus replied. "But we should change schedules after the first week."
"Well, we're going to practice our cheerleading skills before the sign-ups start," Shimmy said.
"Yona doesn't have to try out again, will she?" Yona asked.
"Of course not. We'll be the ones who help teach."
"I'm sure we'll do a better job than Professor Dash did," Smolder snickered.
"I'm back," Gallus announced as he flew past the table to get his tray of food. Sandbar saw that Gale was right behind his friends, and he looked to be a little cranky. He thought he wasn't used to the school schedules yet as Gallus sat down.
Silverstream then noticed a sea-green colored hippogriff slowly walk towards the tray line, which he accidentally bumped into it. "Who's that?" Lighthoof asked.
"That's Kelpie," the hippogriff explained. "He... Doesn't look too good." He didn't. Kelpie nearly dropped his tray as he walked over to a table.
"I'm guessing he's not normally like this," Sandbar said.
"Not really."
"Should we ask him what's wrong?" Ocellus asked.
"I'm pretty sure he's just tired."
"That's what I'm curious about," Gallus commented. "I heard that Chancellor Neighsay is getting involved."
"That guy?" Smolder asked.
"It has to be pretty serious," Sandbar said.
"I also heard the professors are going to be taking note of all of the students," Gallus added. "I think we should do the same."
"Are you sure about that?" Ocellus asked.
"Until we know what we're dealing with, it's best to keep the different freshmen. It's the only idea I had to keep them all from beating up everything that moves."
"Yona make sure yak, changelings, and other creature not hurt anycreature," Yona said proudly.
During Rarity's class, Silverstream looked over to Kelpie to see he was struggling to keep his head up. "Hey, Kelpie," Silverstream whispered. "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" the hippogriff asked sounding drowsy. "Silver, don't talk to me. I couldn't sleep well last night."
"Bad dream?"
"Y... Yeah. How did you know?"
"The..."
"Class," Rarity cried grabbing the hippogriffs' attention. "I'm hoping we could ignore what happened to your fellow classmates. I'm afraid they won't thinking straight and I'm hoping you all would think about your actions. Like for example, the art of the dress." She displayed a nice looking dress she had made earlier. "Like art, it's best if you start with a sort of base. Like this." She showed a sketch of the same dress she had made.
"So, basically you can't just throw a bunch of fabrics of colors together," Silverstream said.
"Exactly. I'm glad you've learned from what I taught you. Hopefully, you can help the others out. All you have to do is to draw a dress and you might be lucky enough to have it made." The hippogriffs took their notepads that were beside them and started sketching.
Meanwhile, Gallus and the griffons were warming up in Rainbow Dash's class, which took place in the field. "Should we really be starting gym class this early?" Gale asked.
"You get used to it after a while," Gallus replied as he finished stretching.
"Okay," Dash said while grabbing a ball. "Who's up first?" Gallus raised his tail and the professor had him fly up to the basket. A dark violet griffon flew up behind and pale yellow one stepped onto the field in front of him. Gale stepped in front of the pale yellow griffon and the two looked at each other eye to eye.
"Gale, you need any pointers?"
"I'm good," the white griffon replied.
Once Dash blew her whistle, the practice game started. Both sides went back and forth of knocking the ball towards the enemy goal. Gale tried his hardest to launch the ball into Gallus's goal, but the blue griff just kept blocking it. Gallus could see his anger was increasing. Then he remembered Gale saying his struggle to sleep. Thinking what happened to Trud and Emerald, Gallus squinted his eyes and miss the ball by a mile.
"Finally," Gale cheered while becoming airborne.
"What was that?" the yellow griffon asked.
"Sun was in my eyes," Gallus replied. This happened again three more times and Gallus's team wasn't happy with him. Before they got another round, the school bell rang, singling that it was time for the next class.
"Thanks, Gallus," several griffons said. They walked back inside with Gallus walking up to Gale.
"How are you feeling," the junior year griffon asked.
"Great," the freshman griffon said. "Thanks for letting me win."
"What were you dreaming of last night?"
"All I could hear was a voice telling me the pros and cons of griffons and hippogriffs."
"Honestly, they seem to be the same to me. The only difference is that they can change into seaponies."
"What ponies?"
"I'll explain on the way to our next class."
Back with the hippogriffs, Silverstream and Kelpie were showing each other their sketches. "Your's looks nice," Silverstream commented.
"Thanks," Kelpie yawned. "You know where I can get a good nap?"
"Not right now." Suddenly, they accidentally bumped into Gallus and Gale. "Ah, sorry."
"Does the seawater mess with your eyes?" Gale asked.
"Don't you start," Gallus ordered as he covered the griffon's beak.
"What did he say?" Kelpie asked.
"Let's just get to class early so you can have a nap," Silverstream said. She quickly dragged her fellow hippogriff away as the two griffons raced off in the opposite direction. Gallus and Silverstream both took a sigh of relief from what they just avoided.
Emerald and Trud were being treated like they had the plague. Smolder and Yona felt sorry for them and tried their best to cheer them up. "Yona and friends can make Yakyakistan pastry," Yona said. "Maybe we add gems for dragons."
"I don't think we want others to chip a tooth," Smolder said.
"Trud like having teeth," Trud said. "Plus, Trud can't cook."
"We'll try and figure out," Emerald said, "We're going to be late for class. I'm already in enough trouble as it is." The green dragoness raced off with Trud doing the same."
"We should go too," Smolder said to Yona. "You never know when someone's going to snap." Yona nodded before they walked off to their classes.
When Silverstream and Kelpie got to Fluttershy's class. "What was with that griffon?" Kelpie asked.
"He was probably just cranky from waking up early," Silverstream suggested. "Many of the hippogriffs are still tired." She wasn't wrong. Most of the other hippogriffs were rubbing their eyes to help stay awake."
"Alright everygriff," Fluttershy said, "I hope you're getting comfy at this school. I would like all of you to stay calm and quiet so we can all get along and learn." On her back, rested her pet rabbit, Angel Bunny. He hopped over towards Silverstream, who started scratching his ears. Angel tapped his foot.
"Is that good?" Kelpie asked.
"It's pretty good," Silverstream replied. "He's kind of a hard rabbit to please. You want to try?" She handed Angel over to him as gently started petting the bunny.
"Don't be shy," Fluttershy said. "Once you get to know Angel, he can be friendly." Some other small critter came out from behind Fluttershy's desk. The scampered over to the hippogriffs, each griff started petting one of the critters. "I thought that a good lesson we'd learn today would be exploring each creature's habitat."
She then showed off a tree figurine along with a figurine of a bird and squirrel. As she showed how the two creatures lived, Kelpie had a hard time keeping his eyes open. Once he closed them for five seconds a set of dark red eyes glared at him. This shocked him away, which startled the little critters. They started running around in fright, which grabbed the teacher's attention.
"Oh, my... Please calm down." She rushed around trying to catch the critters. The hippogriffs tried to help out, but due their lack of experience with smaller animals, they kept struggling. It took a good ten minutes to get all of the animals under control. Fluttershy did her best to finish the lesson as fast as she could. Just as she got to the end, the bell rang. The mare sighed. "Class dismissed."
The hippogriffs left with Silverstream and Kelpie walking side by side. "Why did you scream?" the pink hippogriff asked.
"I thought I saw something," Kelpie replied.
"With your eyes closed?"
"I thought it was something in my dream." Silverstream started to get worried.
When they got to the mess hall, they got behind Gale, who was starting to get impatient. "Come on," the griffon groaned, "Just put some stuff on your plate and get going!"
"I'm sorry," the changeling in front of him apologized, "I can't decide."
"Don't you just eat love?"
"Well, we share it, but yes."
"Then you can that." With that, Gale shoved the changing out of line.
"Hey, that wasn't appropriate," Kelpie said.
"She was taking forever," Gale stated as he got some water.
"You could've helped her."
"She can have some love."
"Well, she didn't get a drop from you."
"Okay, how about we all try and calm down," Silverstream suggested. She looked over to her friends, signaling that she needed help.
"You know, there's something about hippogriffs," Gale said. "Gallus told me you changed all of yourselves into seaponies just to hide from a king. It tells me that you're all cowards."
"If you knew who the Storm King was you'd change your mind," Kelpie replied.
"You had soldiers. Couldn't you just attack him?"
"We were outnumbered. Besides, the plan worked. Our kingdom isn't in shambles."
Gale started flushing up. "Take. That. Back."
"Alright," Gallus said, "Let's sit you two down." As he was about to help move them apart, Kelpie slapped his talon away.
"Make me," Kelpie said. The hippogriff and griffon glared daggers at each other.
"You know, if you can be a seapony, I'm sure you're used to getting wet," Gale scoffed. Without warning, he sprayed his water bottle at Kelpie. The hippogriff tackled him to the ground as the fight broke out.
"Crud," Gallus groaned. He and his friends were about to break things up but Kelpie made a break for it.
"Get back here!" Gale demanded. He gave chase, as did the third-year students. When they got to the middle of the school, where the bridges and moats were at, Kelpie was nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd hippogriff go?" Yona asked. She got her answer when similar colored seapony jumped out of the water and took Gale down with him.
"Found him," Smolder said. Silverstream and Ocellus turned into seaponies to dive down and stop them. The griffon couldn't breathe as Kelpie smashed his head against the ground. The seaponies separated them and resurfaced to change back into their normal forms.
"Let go of me," Kelpie ordered.
"What's going on here?" Sunburst asked.
"Gale and Kelpie are out of control," Sandbar explained. Sunburst looked at the two creatures and levitated them towarsd him.
The griffon woke up to see the vice principal in front of him. "Huh? What?" Gale asked. "Why am I soaking wet?" The griffon didn't get an answer as Sunburst took him to Starlight office. The six friends looked at each other feeling very worried.
The six got back to the table. "This has to stop," Ocellus said.
"We tried," Silverstream said.
"I got to use the restroom for three minutes and that happens," Gallus said.
"Gallus, this is serious," Sandbar stated, sounding annoyed.
"I know it is. But if we can't stop it when they have the dream, how are we suppose to stop them."
"Princess Luna?" Yona suggested.
"She's retired," Ocellus said.
"Besides," Gallus said, "By the time we get a letter to her, this school will be closed by then."
"Shh," Sandbar cried. "You want the others to hear?"
"I'm just saying, if you can find a way to stop the source, I'm all ears." The group didn't say anything as they ate until the bell rang. Ocellus thought about everything that the rogue students described. Then she thought what if a changeling lost its temper.
When it was time for Rarity's class, Ocellus made sure that all of the changelings were acting normally. Aside from Moss, the changelings were quite nervous about their next lesson and the current events at school. "Moss, did you sleep well last night?" Ocellus asked.
"Like a log," Moss replied. "Why'd you ask?"
"Just wondering."
"Listen up," Rarity said. She now had the changelings' attention. "I thought we tried and do something a little fun to help us all calm down. So, I thought we'd make wind chimes." She showed a set of wind chimes she made. The chimes had a nice light blue coloring and some diamonds around the top.
"That looks beautiful," a changeling commented.
"Thank you." The unicorn levitated some materials into the middle of the classroom. "Grab the parts you need and when you're all ready, I'll show you what you need to do." The class did as the teacher told them and when every creature was ready, the lesson started. "Now, a mistake I sometimes make is form over function. We'll decorate these later, just make sure that your chimes work before they look nice."
Ocellus and the other changelings did what they were told. After a while, they all had a set of homemade wind chimes. "Wow," Ocellus gasped. "This turned out better than I thought."
"What do we do with these?" Moss asked.
"You just hang them in your room," Rarity said. Then the bell rang. "You may go now."
The changelings walked down the hall most of them walked to their rooms to hang up their chimes, while others left theirs in the classroom. Yona saw Ocellus taking her windchime to their room. "What Ocellus doing?" the yak asked.
"Hang up my new wind chime," the changeling replied. "We just made them in Professor Rarity's class." She managed to hang it on the window seal and blew some air on it. The chimes clinked together and making their harmonic melody.
"Yona like chime noises."
"Thanks. I think I might paint it later." The left the room to get to their next classes.
After school was finished, the six met up in the lounge to talk about a plan. "You guys think of anything?" Sandbar asked.
"Welp, the only thing I can think of was a dream catcher," Silverstream said.
"Don't you still have the one I gave you?" Ocellus asked.
"It... Broke when I took it home. Turns out it wasn't waterproof."
"Can't you make another one?" Gallus asked.
"I could try," Ocellus replied, "But I don't know I can find the part to make the hoop."
"Plus, I think we'll more than one dream catcher to keep all of the students safe," Sandbar added.
"Ugh, this is never easy," Smolder groaned.
"Guys, don't the nightmares making creatures act like not themselves sound familiar?" Silverstream asked as she started shivering.
"Silver, stay calm," Sandbar said.
"It can't be him. " Gallus said not wanting to name who "him" was. "We hit him with a friendship beam, remember?"
"Then what's causing this?" Smolder asked.
"I don't know."
"Yona starting to get a headache," the yak groaned.
"Guys, I've been thinking about something," Ocellus said. "We saw what happens when a yak, seapony, griffon, and a dragon lost their temper. What would happen to a changeling?"
Her friends shuttered. "I don't want to see what happens," Sandbar said.
"It's only a matter of time until that happens," Gallus said. "We need to figure out how to stop whatever's causing this."
"Maybe there's something in the library about this," Ocellus said.
"It's worth a try," Silverstream said. They all headed towards the library and looked for something in the books to see what could help them.
Hours had passed and the six creatures couldn't find anything. "Welp, here are four hours of my life I'm never getting back," Smolder sighed.
"Smolder, we need to fix this," Sandbar stated.
"I know, but we found nothing. And look, it's getting late."
"Smolder right," Yona said. "Plus, yak getting sleepy."
"We can't go to sleep," Silverstream cried. "What if we get angry and lose control."
"If that happens," Gallus said, "We'll make sure to stop one another."
"Got it," Smolder said. The six walked back to their room. Yona lied down on her bed and Ocellus landed on the top bunk.
"What if Sandbar gets angry," Yona said.
"He doesn't have a lot of abilities that could deal damage," Ocellus said. "We won't have to really hurt him."
"Ocellus sure?"
"It's only a hunch. I still don't know what we're dealing with." Filling up with fear, the changeling and yak went to sleep, hoping for a better day tomorrow.
Ocellus slowly woke up and found that Yona wasn't in her bedroom. "Hung, she must've gotten up early," the changeling said to herself. She got up and walked outside to see inside going into the hall, she was in a field. It didn't look like any place she'd ever seen before. "Okay, something's not right."
Just then, something rushed past her. She looked around, but nothing was there. She then got smacked on the back of the head and fell to the ground. Before Ocellus could stand up, someone stomped onto her back. She looked up and saw a yak standing on her.
"Get off me, please." The yak didn't listen, it just kept stomping. Then the changeling got picked up by a griffon before she was tossed across the air. Ocellus tried using her wing and even tried changing shape, but she couldn't. Just then a dragon flew towards her before slashing her with its claws.
The changeling fell into a pool of water below where she then got rammed into by a seapony. Ocellus was launched out of the water before she landed on the ground. The second she stood up, a pony started throwing garbage at her. As Ocellus tried blocking the trash, she could hear deranged giggling.
"Wow, you're a lot tougher than you look," said a sweet yet nasty voice.
"Who's there?" Ocellus asked. A silhouette of an alicorn landed in front of her. "Princess Luna?" The changeling got smacked in the face.
"Try again."
"Who... Are... You?" Ocellus was starting to feel weak. She could see the alicorn grinning, though it didn't last long as they heard the chimes of a wind chime. The alicorn groaned in pain as the world shook.
Ocellus jolted awake and screamed. She could see Yona was out of bed and stomping on the floor. "Ocellus awake," Yona cheered.
"What..." Before Ocellus could finish she and Yona heard some groans. They looked to the front of the bed to see translucent pink filly with a curly blue mane. She opened her eyes and saw that the changeling and yak could see her. When she gasped she vanished. Ocellus and Yona couldn't believe what they just saw.
"Cozy Glow?!" Sandbar gasped.
"That's impossible," Smolder exclaimed. "She was turned into a statue."
"Yona knows what she saw," Yona said standing her ground.
"I don't know how," Ocellus said, "But she was actually there."
"But why was she visible?" Silverstream asked.
"I think I have an answer for that," Gallus said. "In one of the books, I found I read that wind chimes were made to help keep evil spirits away. Unfortunately, the book was mainly about arts and crafts."
"So, not much about ghosts."
"Nope."
"At least we know who's doing this," Sandbar said.
"Wait a minute," Ocellus said, "How come Cozy didn't bother you?"
"One of the changelings gave me a set of wind chimes," Sandbar replied.
"Us too," Smolder and Silverstream said.
"So, you're all protected," Ocellus said. "That's a relief. I can't believe she almost got me."
"But hang on," Gallus said. "How many of the changelings had wind chimes?" They all grumble coming from the tray area and found it was coming from Moss.
"Uh oh," they sighed.
"He's going to go off at any second," Gallus said.
"We can try and keep him calm," Ocellus said.
"It's only a matter of time."
"We couldn't find anything in the library," Smolder said. "How are we suppose to fix this?"
"I hope there's a way," Sandbar said. "I don't know if the school's going to last much longer."
"I'm going to try and talk to him," Ocellus said. She walked off to hopefully keep the changeling under control. "Moss, are you doing?"
"I slept terribly," Moss replied. "Don't talk to me."
"If you need help calm down..."
"Don't talk to me!" Ocellus gulped as she walked back to her table.
"Yep, he's a lost cause," Gallus said. "I suggest we prepare ourselves for an inevitable fight."
"I can work with that," Smolder said.
"Guys, you know we can't do that," Sandbar said.
"I don't think he's going to give us a choice."
Even with Moss's anger, Ocellus did her best to keep him calm. Still, it was far from easy. Moss would say things under his breath which were far from appropriate and he started making violent jesters towards others. And this was all during their first class.
When they got out into the hall, Moss didn't stop grumbling. Sandbar saw Ocellus and ran up to her. "Has he cracked yet?" the colt asked.
"I think I'm making progress," Ocellus said. By her tone, it sounded like denial.
"Ocellus, you know Gallus has a point. You can only keep him down for so long."
"What did you say?" Moss asked.
"Uh oh. Moss, it's not..."
The changeling stomped closer to the colt. "You think we're going to steal your love?"
"Nothing like that."
"Well, you didn't do anything to help me?"
"What?"
"In fact, you helped beet me up."
"What are you talking about?"
"I think I know," Ocellus shivered. "Moss, just calm..."
"Stay out of this," the changeling ordered. He shoved Ocellus back, knocking her off her feet.
"I think you should listen to her," Sandbar said trying not to panic.
"You know, she was right about you," Moss said.
"She? Oh, she."
"I've had enough of you judging us."
"Do you even hear yourself?" Moss didn't listen and just turned into a minotaur and then tossed the colt across the hall. He flew and screamed down the hall until he was caught by Sunburst's magic.
"What happened?" the vice-principal asked.
"Moss is out of control." On cue, the changeling-minotaur ran down the hall. He tried punching Sandbar, but Sunburst blocked the punches with a forcefield. The stallion tried to stun Moss with a spell, but the changeling turned into a maulwurf, which made the spell a minor annoyance.
Quickly, Sunburst teleported himself and Sandbar away to the school moats. Silverstream and the other hippogriffs were there going for a swim. "Silver, good to see you," Sandbar said quickly, "Hide me!"
"Why?" the hippogriff asked.
"Where are you?!" Moss cried out in anger.
"Another one?"
"Yep," Sandbar replied sheepishly. The hippogriff and colt walked over to the water where Silverstream's pearl piece turned them both into seaponies. They hid under the bridge as Sunburst teleported away to get help. The maulwurf stomped towards the moat, breaking parts of the walls. This slowed him down and gave the seaponies enough time to hide. Ocellus flew up to look moss in the eye.
"Moss, you need to stop," Ocellus begged.
"Not until I get that pony," the maulwurf said.
"He didn't do anything wrong."
"It's not just him."
"Listen, I know what you're talking about. That alicorn you saw was lying to you." The maulwurf raised his claw and Ocellus turned into a dragon to brace herself. She was launched across the area and smashed into the wall. She fell to the ground and changed back to her normal form. Moss started tearing up the bridges before a torrent of fire nearly hit him.
"Who did that?"
"Yo, down here," Smolder said. She now had Moss's attention. "You know, the yaks said that they're best, but I think dragons are better."
"At what?"
"Competition. Let's see if you're faster than me." With that, the dragoness took to the sky.
"Get back here!" Moss turned into a griffon and chased her down.
"Where did they go?" Sandbar asked.
"Guys, get over here and help me with Ocellus," Gallus said.
"Where's Smolder going?" Silverstream asked. She and Sandbar jumped out of the water and returned to their normal forms.
"Smolder buying time," Yona said as she placed the first-aid kit down.
And she was. Smolder and Moss flew around in the sky at high speeds. "What's the matter?" Smolder scoffed, "Can't keep up?" Moss gritted his teeth and turned into a bird the dragoness knew too well. The changeling was now a roc, a big one at that. Smolder felt that the plan was backfiring and dove towards the ground.
"Stay still!" Moss ordered. He chased her to the ground and was gaining. Just before he could catch up, he stopped. Smolder looked back and saw the roc turned back into a changeling and he was brought to the ground and Smolder found he was being held by Sunburst, Starlight, and Chancellor Neighsay.
"Unbelievably," Starlight sighed.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Neighsay agreed. Moss tried changing his form again, but he just stuck as a changeling.
"Smolder, are you okay?" Silverstream asked as she and her friends ran up to the dragoness.
Neighsay looked towards Ocellus, who had a few bandages on her. "We told you not to run off," Rainbow Dash said. She ran up along with the rest of the teachers.
"I really hate to do this," Neighsay sighed.
"Chancellor," Starlight begged, "We just..."
"I'm sorry, but look at your students over there." He pointed to Ocellus, who seemed to be in pain by just standing. "It pains me to say this. I'm glad your friend changed my mind about this school, but it must be shut down." Starlight hung her head in defeat. The professors did the same as the students looked at each other feeling more worried than ever.
Chancellor Neighsay walked to the entrance of the school. His horn lit up and shot out a beam that encased the doors and windows in locks and chains. Nothing would get in or out. The students were all outside to watch this. Silverstream sat next to Yona.
"I can't believe this," the hippogriff sighed.
"Yona don't want school to close," Yona cried.
"Me neither," Pinkie Pie agreed, "But you know he's right."
"Trud sorry he snap first," Trud said walking up to the pink pony.
"Me too," Emerald added.
"Oh, don't feel bad you two," Pinkie said. "You helped me with the Pony Pals Dance."
"Yak wanted to see dance," Trud said.
"I'm sorry about all of this," Neighsay apologized. "But I doubt we want all of you to beat every breath out of everycreature."
"No," the two replied.
"If it helps save time, I can help you back to your homes."
"You can do that?" Kelpie asked.
"Oh, I've seen him do that," Silverstream said glumly. "Could you give me and my friends for a minute."
"Don't take too long." The hippogriff nodded as she and Yona walked towards their other four friends.
"I can't believe this," Ocellus sighed. "I thought I could get through to him."
"We know you tried," Sandbar said.
"Once they have that dream, there's nothing you could've done about it," Gallus said.
"Yona wants to stay with friends," Yona said.
"Me too," Silverstream said with a small tear in her eye.
"We could've stopped her," Smolder growled. "We..."
"Smolder, how could've we stopped a ghost?" Gallus asked.
"Well, maybe with the wind chimes..."
"It's too late," Ocellus said. "The damage is done."
"We... We will still see each other, will we?" Silverstream asked. No one had an answer to this.
"Mmm... Maybe," Sandbar stuttered. They all looked over to Neighsay, who just opened a portal for the yaks. The six shared a hug before Yona walked over to the other yaks. They walked through the portal, then the hippogriff to Mount Aris, then the griffons to Griffonstone, the changelings to the hive, and the dragons to the Dragon Lands. Sandbar sighed and walked home.
Beachcomer was playing with Coral Currents when Sandbar walked in. "What are you doing home so early?" the stallion asked. He then saw the upset expression on his son's face. "What happened?"
"...The school was shut down," Sandbar replied glumly.
"Oh no, why?"
"Some creatures just started acting out of control. They lost all common sense."
"That can't be."
"It is. My friends thought it was Cozy Glow."
"That filly? It couldn't be. She was turned to stone along with that changeling and centaur."
"But my friends saw her. I just wish we could've stopped her."
"I'm sure you and your friends tried. How about we play a board game. Those usually cheer you up."
"I guess." The colt walked off to find a game to play as his father kept playing with his sister.
In Griffonstone, Gallus was sulking at Gabby's home. "I can't believe your school was shut down," Gabby gasped.
"I know," Gallus groaned. "I don't even want to know what Grampa Gruff's going to say to me."
"I think Gilda has some scones. I could get some if you want."
"Sure, why not." Gabby left to leave Gallus to think about his friends. The griffon felt like his worst fear was coming true. He lay his head on the table and looked towards the letter he got a few days earlier. Gallus clenched his fist and banged it on the table. "How could've we stopped her?"
Outside, Gallus then noticed something glowing. He went outside and found a slab on the ground. He picked it up and saw a tunnel underneath, it looked familiar. Out of curiosity, Gallus flew down the hole and walked down the tunnel. The walls appeared to made of rough crystals, some lighters ones were showing.
"I feel like I've been here before," he said.
"Who said that?" asked a voice. It echoed and Gallus looked around to see who it came from.
"Hold on." The griffon walked closer to where he heard the noise. He heard the voice call out again and he picked up the pace. When he turned the corner he saw a familiar dragoness. "Smolder?"
"Gallus?" the dragoness questioned. "How and why are you here?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing. I just found a loose slab behind Gabby's house."
"That's pretty similar to my story. My brother said I should try collecting gems to feel better, then I found slab on the ground. I though some dragon just broke it off, but it led to this cave."
"Does it look familiar to you?"
"Yeah. I think we're in the cave where the Tree of Harmony tested us."
"It might be. Follow me real quick." Smolder led Gallus down the cave until they came across a fork in the road. There were five different tunnels. "There's the one I came from, I think."
Just to be safe, Gallus decided to make which tunnel was his by carving a 'G' on the ground. "But... If we're here then, what about the others?"
"Don't know. Maybe if we keep going we'll get back to school." The dragon and griffon then started some humming, which was followed by a gasp.
"You guys!" a familiar voice cried. Out of the blue, Silverstream pounced at her friend to give them a huge hug. "I thought I wouldn't get to see you guys again," she said with extreme joy.
"I'm happy to see you too," Gallus wheezed. "Can I breathe now?" Silverstream realized what he meant and let her friends go.
"How did you get down here?"
"How did you get down here?" Smolder replied.
"I found a tunnel under a slab on Mount Aris."
"The same story with us," Gallus said.
"You think the others are down here?"
"Only one way to find out," Smolder said. They walked down one of the paths until they came across some light shining from above. There appeared to be some crystals trying to push out of the ground. Smolder decided to give them some help and pushed the slab up to find they were in a field filled with various different plants.
"Looks like we're at the changeling hive," Gallus said.
"Where's Ocellus?" Silverstream asked.
"She has to be nearby," Smolder responded. The three looked around to find a sad changeling lying on a bed of moss with some younger changelings around her.
"Hey, Ocellus..."
"Leave me alone," the changeling moaned. "I messed up and my friends are paying the consequences."
"Well, we're not mad," Smolder said. She had a smug look on her face as Ocellus finally noticed who was talking to her.
"Smolder? Silver? Gallus? What are you doing here? How are you here?"
"We found some tunnels at our homes," Gallus explained. "Your's is over there." Ocellus looked to where he was pointing and saw the loose slab.
"How is this possible?"
"We think it has something to do with the tree," Smolder said.
"The Tree of Harmony?"
"The one and only," Gallus responded.
"But how?"
"We don't know," Silverstream said. "But we can get to see each other again."
"What about Yona and Sandbar?"
"Let's go find out," Smolder said.
"But... I can't leave my parents without them knowing."
"We'll tell them," Ocellus's siblings said.
"Are you sure about that?" As they talked about what to do, Gallus noticed a purple glow from the cave. He peeked down to see it, but it was gone as soon as he entered.
"What are you looking at?" Silverstream asked.
"I thought I saw something," the griffon replied. "So, is Ocellus coming with us or not?"
"Smolder said she would catch up with us. Let's go." The hippogriff followed her friend down the tunnel. They walked back to the intersection and walked down a different tunnel. They walked for a while until the temperature started getting colder. Gallus thought of one place that would be this cold, Yakyakistan. They came across another hole in the ceiling. Gallus and Silverstream had to work together to move the slab out of their way.
It was much heavier than the others due to the amount of snow on it. They finally pushed it out of the way and crawled out of the cave. "Yep, we're in Yakyakistan," Gallus said.
"I wonder where Yona is," Silverstream said. They walked around, shivering a bit from the cold. "I'm really regretting not coming here with Smolder."
"Ditto."
Rutherford was walking around until he saw the two griffs. He stomped in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. "What you two doing here?" the yak asked.
"Looking for Yona," Silverstream replied.
"How did you get here?"
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Gallus responded.
"Have you seen Yona?" Silverstream asked.
The prince was confused but replied anyway. "She at home with parents." He pointed to the hut that their friend was in.
"Th-th-thanks." They walked off towards the hut, shivering a bit as the cold was getting to them.
Yona was lying on her bed hugging her lamb plushie, feeling sad until her mother walked in. "Friends would like to see Yona," she said. The young yak was confused. She followed her mother and saw the griffon and hippogriff. They both had blankets on as Yona's father made some stew.
"Hey, Yon-AH!" Gallus couldn't finish as the yak him and Silverstream in excitement. "Yeah, we're happy to see you too?"
"How'd friends get to Yakyakistan?" Yona asked.
"We found a set of tunnels," Silverstream said. "They're connected to Griffonstone, Mount Aris, the Dragon Lands, Changeling Hive..."
"Ponyville?"
"We don't know about that," Gallus said.
"But if we made all the way to here, we have to get to Ponyville," Silverstream said.
"Not before guests have stew," Yona's father said. He prepared two bowls of stew just for the griffon and hippogriff, though they suddenly lost their appetite. The stew didn't look very good.
"Friends really should try it," Yona said.
"Thanks, Gallus said. He struggled to take his eyes off the stew. "We should really get going."
Silverstream slowly took a sip of her stew and qas surprised by the taste. "This is actually pretty good," she commented.
Gallus looked towards his bowl. "Eh, gotta be better than anything in Griffonstone."
"Yaks best," Yona's father boasted. The griffon just rolled his eyes as he took a sip. After a while, they got back to the hole to the tunnels.
"Friends came here from there?" Yona questioned.
"Yep," Gallus confirmed. "Let's get going, I'm getting cold again." The yak slowly crawled into the hole with her friends following behind. Once inside, they walked back to the intersection.
"What about other friends?"
"Ocellus said she would catch up," Silverstream responded. "She's with Smolder."
"Somebody call us?" Smolder asked. Smolder and Ocellus walked around the corner and startled their friends.
"Sorry about that," Ocellus apologized. "I told my parents I was going to hang with you guys and... Here we are."
"Uh hu," Gallus said. "We just need one more to complete the team."
"Friends getting Sandbar?" Yona asked cheerfully.
"Yep."
"I'm going to make a map of this place," Ocellus said. "We can easily get lost in here."
"Way ahead of you. I've marked our homes with a letter. 'G' for Griffonstone, 'C' for Changeling Hive, etcetera. Speaking of." He used his talon to write down a 'Y' for Yakyakistan. "Okay, Silver, you ran up and hugged us from there." Gallus flew over the tunnel to Griffonstone. "Yep, you came from that way." He walked over to the tunnel to Mount Aris and carved an 'M'.
"Okay, I still think that's where I came from," Smolder said pointing to the tunnel in between Gallus's and Ocellus's.
"What about that one?" Yona asked pointing to the tunnel between Mount Aria and Yakyakistan.
"That has to be Sandbar's," Ocellus said. "He's the only one left." The five walked down the remaining tunnel until they came across part of the tunnel that looked familiar. There was a ramp leading up to the hole in the ceiling like the others, but instead of a slab, it looked like there was a grate. Smolder and Yona pushed up and the found there were surrounded by some bookshelves.
"We're in the school library," Smolder said.
"Really?" SIlverstream asked.
"I guess that makes sense," Gallus said. They all got out of the tunnel and walked around the library.
"Okay, so we're back in Ponyville," Ocellus said. "Now we just have to find Sandbar." With that being said, Yona raced off.
"Yona, hold on," Gallus said. Before they could catch up with the yak, she had already gotten to the exit, which she bumped into without the door even budging. "Neighsay locked the school up, remember?"
"Yona remembers now," the yak groaned as she rubbed her head.
The five walked back to the moat area, where the bridge Moss broke was. "So, do we just fly out?" Silverstream asked. Smolder flew upwards, but she didn't get too far as she bumped into an invisible force.
"This way's blocked too," she said.
"How then I guess we can't get to Sandbar," Ocellus sighed.
"Wait a minute," Silverstream cried, "What about that time we escape that guard's dome?"
"What?" Yona asked.
"We'll explain on the way," Gallus said as he started walking back to the library.
Sandbar slowly walked downtown. He couldn't get his mind off of what happened at school. He slumped all the way to Sugarcube Corner. "Hey, Sandbar," Pinkie said. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I can't get something back," the colt sighed. "I'll just take a blueberry cupcake." Pinkie walked away to give the colt his order as he slowly walked over to one of the tables. Sandbar heard the store bell ring along with someone walking up to him. "What is it?"
"Sandbar need to cheer up," said a rough female voice. Sandbar looked up and saw Yona standing right next to him.
"Yona? What are you doing here?"
"Yona wanted to see Sandbar again." She then hugged the colt, who gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"But how did you get here?"
"Friends walk through tunnels from home."
"Hold on, friends?"
"Surprise," Silverstream cheered in a sing-songy voice. She flew through the entrance with the other three following behind.
"Happy to see us?" Smolder asked.
"I didn't think you would come back this soon," Sandbar said.
"Yeah, we were surprised as well," Ocellus replied.
"The Tree isn't going to let us split up that easily," Gallus chuckled.
"Wait, the tree?" Sandbar asked. "Could you give me some details?"
The friends did so and finished up as soon as Pinkie walked back with Sandbar's cupcake. She then gasped when she saw the five different creatures. "I thought you five all went home," she cried.
"Oh, Professor Pinkie," Ocellus said. "We can explain."
"Smolder?!" cried a male voice.
"Oh, man."
"You did tell your family where you were going, did you?"
"Nope."
"Us neither," Gallus and Silverstream added. The three walked outside and found a red drake looking around until he found the orange dragoness.
"There you are," he cried furiously. "You know how worried I was?"
"Look, Garble, I can explain this," Smolder responded.
"Maybe you could explain that mom and dad."
"Silverstream!" cried another voice. The hippogriff didn't feel very confident as she saw her father flying towards her. "Your mother was worried sick. You are so grounded when we get home."
"Dad, I can explain," Silverstream responded.
"I'd love to hear it."
Gallus took a deep breath. "Three. Two. One," he said to himself. Then he snapped his talon and heard someone call his name.
"Gallus, there you are," Gabby cooed as she landed next to him. "Grandpa Gruff is mad at you for leaving without warning."
"Then why did you come?"
"He's too busy talking to Gale to find you."
"What about them?" Garble asked pointing towards Yona, Ocellus, and Sandbar.
"We told our parents where we were going," Ocellus said.
"Like you should have done," Sky Beak said to his daughter. Suddenly, there was an ear-piercing ring going off. Garble, Gabby, and Sky Beak covered their ears trying to block out the noise. When the ringing stopped Gabby flew up to Garble and decked him in the face.
The six teens were shocked by this and even more so when the ponies around them started beating each other up. "What's happening?" Silverstream asked.
"It must be Cozy Glow," Ocellus said. "I think she's getting stronger."
"But how why aren't we infected?" Gallus asked.
"Who cares," Smolder cried. "We need to get out of here." The six fled in order to get away from the chaos.
"Don't bother running," a voice said.
"Who's there?" Silverstream asked getting scared.
"Oh, you know who I am?"
"Leave us alone Cozy," Gallus replied angrily.
"Now why would I do that?"
"The fact you tried this sweet act to get your way to trick ponies into doing what you want failed, twice."
"Oh, I learned from that. A nice guy gave me another chance, and I'm trying something new. You can't stop me in my dreams."
"Princess Luna might," Smolder said.
"But the damage is already done."
"Yeah, but we can still get rid of you." The six raced back to the castle and found the slab leading to the tunnels.
"What exactly is the plan?" Sandbar asked.
"Kind of making this up as I go," Gallus admitted, "But we need wind chimes." They slipped into the tunnels and raced towards the grate in the library.
"Hurry," Ocellus said while climbing out of the tunnels, "She could get us at any time."
"Our dorm is the closest," Sandbar said. They raced towards there but Smolder could feel her anger increasing.
"I think she's getting to me," she groaned. She clenched her teethed and claws just as they got to the dorm room. Silverstream used her wings to make wind and the chime clinked together. Smolder panted as she calmed down just as they heard a certain filly groan.
"Turn that off," Cozy groaned as she became visible.
"Not until we have answers," Gallus said as he grabbed the wind chimes. "How are you here?"
"Grr. Funny story, I was surprised by this as well. It turns out, as long as your a statue, you don't need to be alive." Just then, Cozy Glow started fading. Gallus rung the chimes which kept the filly in their sights. "Hey, that hurts."
"Cut to the chase," Smolder demanded. "How and why are you a ghost?"
"Alright, fine. Some guy came to me one night while I was a statue. I was honestly scared, but once I found out that I'm no longer bound by a stone prison. I just floated around for a while until I heard about the new school year would have more different species enroll. "So, I thought if I couldn't control friendship, I'd ruin it?"
"How?" Gallus asked.
"Simple. I could infect ever creature's mind into thinking whatever I wanted. Like each different species actually wants nothing to do with each other."
"That's... That's not true," Silverstream stated.
"Ah, but I happened to five of them. Now, I can make every creature bend to my whims. Each nightmare just made me stronger. Now I don't have to enter a dream to mess with minds. That was thanks to the power of night-gowls and someone waking up."
"You mean Ocellus?" Smolder questioned.
"The one and only. I really have to..." Cozy noticed that the changeling wasn't in the room anymore. In fact, neither were Yona and Sandbar. "Where did they go?" Silverstream quickly took off with the filly ghost chasing her down. Once the chase began, Cozy became invisible again.
"Where are they going?" Smolder asked. She and Gallus followed behind.
"Silverstream," Cozy said.
"Go away," the hippogriff begged flying into the library.
"Fat chance. Why did they leave? Maybe they thought you can handle this on your own?"
"No, I can't." The chase carried on through the underground tunnels. Silverstream flew to the area where Cozy Glow tried to absorb all the magic in Equestria. There, Ocellus, Sandbar, and Yona. The filly grinned as she got closer, but when Yona turned around, she showed off two sets of chimes hanging from each horn.
She shook her head making them all ring and cause the filly pain. Once she became visible, Smolder and Gallus caught up. "What did we miss?" the griffon asked.
"While you had Cozy distracted," Ocellus explained, though she had to speak up to be heard over Yona, "I had a plan. We got the wind chimes from Professor Rarity's class." She grabbed a chime and force the ghost into the center of the circle in the room.
"I see what you did." Gallus gave the changeling a fist bump. Then he turned to the ghost.
"Okay, so you trapped me," Cozy admitted, "But can you stop me?"
"Yes. I have seen far more powerful things than a kid with a silver tongue. You can't break up friendship that easily." As Gallus spoke, the crystals around the tunnel walls started turned six different colors.
"Cozy, why did you do all of this?" Sandbar asked.
"What else could've I done?" the ghost replied.
"No, I mean throw all the friendship could've had. You threw your chance away, and for what? Teaming up with a centaur and queen that you get stuck in stone with."
"You'll never understand. I tried before, and it got me nowhere."
"There's always a second chance."
"I wasn't going to risk it. I've seen what the princess and you could do, but why risk losing all of it doing it normally. I was going risk that, so I'd do it my way."
"Your way was doomed to fail from the start," Smolder stated.
"What else could I have done? I won't fail again!" Cozy's form started turning darker. "You ruined everything!"
"You were taking all the magic in Equestria," Ocellus replied.
"It was going to make me the most powerful being." Cozy's body started getting taller and her mane started turning black.
"C... Cozy, you're scaring us," Silverstream shivered. The crystal kept changing color.
"You... You'll never understand. I DESERVED IT ALL! " Cozy started turning into an alicorn just the room lit up. A different colored beam of light shone down on each of the six creatures.
"So be it," Gallus sighed. He and the others started levitating into the air. "If you don't want another chance, we'll give you this instead." From each of their chests, they fired their respective color at the angry filly.
"No! You can't keep me down! " Despite trying to fight back, Cozy couldn't stop what was happening.
Above ground, a rainbow shot into the sky. It could be seen all the way to Mount Aris. Garble, Sky Beak, Gabby and the ponies stopped and looked to see it. Once it dissipated, they looked at each other. "Were we just fighting?" Gabby asked.
"I think so," Sky Beak replied. "I'm... Not sure why though. Where's Silverstream, as well as her friends?"
"No clue," Garble admitted. After looking around for a while until they found the six teens walking out of the castle. "There you are. Look, we're heading home right now."
"That won't be nessicery," a male voice said. They look and saw Chancellor Neighsay walking out of his portal along with a small purple dragon.
"Thanks for the lift," Spike said.
"Spike, what are you doing here?" Garble asked.
"You didn't think we wouldn't notice the giant rainbow shooting into the sky?"
"The princess thought I would be the students," Neighsay said. "What was that rainbow for?"
"It's a little hard to explain," Ocellus said.
Emerald and Peridot were in the Dragon Lands sitting near a cliff. "You know that wasn't me," Emerald said.
"I know," Peridot replied. "Emma, you're way smarter than that."
"I just don't know what happened."
"I think we can forget about that," Spike said. The twins looked back to see he wasn't alone. He was with Chancellor Neighsay.
"Due to certain circumstances, the problem has been resolved," Neighsay said.
"So, we can go back to school?" Peridot asked.
"If you wish."
"I'd like to show them that's not how I am," Emerald said.
"Great," Spike said. "Follow us, we'll get the group back to Ponyville." The twin, a bit confused, followed the dragon and unicorn to see a large group of other dragons. "Welp, that seems to be all of them."
"Kind of wish all of their parents were a little nicer," Neighsay complained.
"They weren't all bad. Let's get these guys back to school." The chancellor opened the portal and the dragons walked through. Once on the other side, they could see the changelings, yaks, griffons, and hippogriffs were there as well.
"Welcome back," Starlight said. "I know we had a few issues, but we can assure you, they have been resolved. I'm glad you all decided to come back. Neighsay?"
"Of course." The chancellor walked towards the front of the school and shot a beam from his horn which made the lock and chains vanish.
"Wahoo!" Pinkie cheered as she jumped in the air. "I'm getting the Pony Pal Dance started tonight."
"Can Trud help?" Trud asked.
"Of course." The yak and pink pony entered the school to get to work.
"I'm sure you six had something to do with this," Rarity said to the young six.
"Maybe," Smolder said smugly.
"If we're going to have that Pony Pal Dance, I would think you would like some suits and dresses."
"What?" Gallus questioned.
"That would be great," Silverstream cheered.
"Are you sure you can make toss all in one day?" Sandbar asked.
"I've already gotten started before the school year starts," Rarity replied.
"Of course," Gallus mumbled.
"Welp, I better go and finish." Rarity walked away leaving the students behind.
"Should've she be teaching?" Ocellus asked.
"I think it would be best to let the students have some time to cool down before we start lessons again," Sunburst explained.
"Probably a good idea," Sandbar commented.
"So, friends wait for Pony Pal dance?" Yona asked.
"I guess so," Ocellus said.
"Yona can't wait to show other creatures Yakyakistan Stomp."
"I'm going to talk to Spike while I have the chance," Smolder said. She walked off as the others did their thing.
Later that night, all the students were at the Pony Pal Dance. Gallus had a suit on, while Silverstream, Smolder, and Ocellus each wore a dress. "I kind of like this," Smolder admitted.
"It doesn't look like the one you..." Silverstream had her beak covered by the dragoness. "Sorry."
Ocellus looked to be having some on her mind. "You okay?" Gallus asked.
"I really wish we could've saved Cozy," the changeling sighed.
"You know we tried. If she doesn't want our help, that's her problem. Besides, I don't know how we would get her back in her body."
"I guess that's true."
"Hey, guys," Sandbar said. He showed off the suit that Rarity made for him, which did look similar to Gallus's. Yona walked beside him, he had three gold rings on each horn and her shawl a purple pattern on it.
"You don't look very different," Silverstream commented.
"Yona learn lesson after last year," the yak replied. "Dress make it hard to dance."
"Alright every creature," Spike announced. The six looked to see the dragon was wearing his Scales and Tails head. He stood behind the DJ table and he prepared another record. "I hope you're enjoying the dance so far. Right now, I think it'll be nice to take things a little slow." He started playing the record which had slow classical music.
"Yona," Sandbar said. "You want to have this dance?"
The yak giggled. "Of course," she replied. The two started dancing along with the music. The others hung back, with Silverstream packing her face with snacks, as the night carried on. Yona stumbled a bit, but Sandbar helped her stay stable. Several of the other freshmen joined in with the dance as it was clear, the school was going to stay around for quite a while.