It was 6 o’clock in the morning, the school’s clock tower rang its bell signaling another day of learning. Emerald and Peridot, the twin dragons, were just waking up for another day.
It was going to be normal as usual, but mostly in some cases, it was going to be weird, crazy or bizarre when something goes wrong; like Discord’s magic leaked out of his claw and caused trouble at the academy, or poison was accidentally created and causes some students to fell in love with the others, and more. Today, this one might be very confusing as it goes by.
They got up out of bed, had their breakfast, brushed their teeth, washed their face, and started their classes. It was another typical day. An average, ordinary, school day. When they were in their last class for the day, Peridot could see her twin sister was rather stressed.
“Emma, what’s wrong?” Peridot asked, feeling a little worried.
“I’m trying to think of an interesting story for our school paper,” Emerald replied, “But several of them have been kind of bland.”
“...Well...… To be honest.”
“Yeah. We’re still trying to figure out what to write about. I haven’t found anything that any creature would care about reading.”
“Maybe about the Everfree Forest, that’ll work.”
“We already tried that. We couldn’t find anything that would be interesting that we haven’t found out before. We were scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
They heard the bell ring, signaling that school was over.
“Well, maybe you could try looking around town.”
“I’ve already tried that. It’s a very slow week for us.” They walked into the hall and split up. “Where are you going?”
“I have cheerleading practice today.”
“Oh, right. Welp, good luck.”
The two sisters walked off to their school clubs.
Emerald walked into the school’s newsroom. She could see some students sitting around a table with some drinks, pencils, and paper scattered over it.
“Emma,” a male hippogriff called her.
The hippogriff had blonde feathers and white beak with matching talons and hooves. His eyes were orange and his mane was a light shade of that color. Unlike most of the hippogriffs, he didn’t have a necklace with a pearl shard, but he did have a pair of glasses on. His name is Sunshine.
“Hey, Sunshine,” Emerald responded, “...Any luck?”
“Still dry as a bone,” Strawberry Scoop sighed.
She smacked her head on the table in frustration judging by the sound of her groan.
“That bad?”
“Yeah,” Sunshine sighed. “Please, tell me you found something.”
“Sadly, no. Not a single one.”
“Well, could you go out and find something?!” an aggravated griffon asked.
“Calm down, Gus!” Sunshine ordered. “He’s got a point. Get out and try and find something. Please.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Emerald said.
The female dragon was given her camera and headed into town with a colt named Slate Sentiments. They’re at their own rooms getting their winter wear.
“I don’t understand this,” the colt pondered while putting on his scarf. “This is Ponyville. Crazy stuff happens here all the time. Like when this place turned into a messed up funhouse.”
“Don’t remind me of that.”
“Sorry.”
The dragoness didn’t like how she and her sister were forced to share one body. Once they had their winter wear on, they wandered around the town of Ponyville for a story to write it down. While they’re wandering, they came across Filthy Rich and a stallion who was having an issue with a snowplow.
“I don’t understand why it went wrong here,” the stallion admitted.
“It’s fine,” Filthy Rich said. “A couple of streets are going to have to be blocked for a little while longer.”
“What’s going on?” Slate Sentiments asked.
“Well, our plow broke due to it hitting some sort of stone.”
Emerald looked towards the stone that the plow had run over, it was a little smaller than she expected.
“I don’t suppose this is a newsworthy story is it?” the dragoness asked.
“Slow day?” Filthy Rich asked. Both students sighed and nodded. “I’m sure you’ll find something that’ll get the attention of your readers.”
“Thanks, sir,” Slate said.
He and Emerald walked away, still looking for something interesting to report.
Meanwhile, Peridot was finishing stretching with the cheer squad. “Okay,” Lighthoof said. “Let’s try something new today.”
“Like what?” Yona asked.
“Like an arch. It’s like a pyramid, but a little bit different. Half of us will be on the ground the other half that’ll be on top.”
“So, who goes where?” Grace asked.
“I was thinking either Yona and Dotta on the bottom along with Smolder and Peridot. I think we’d have Ocellus and Tarsi on the bottom too. What do you girls think?”
“Good so far,” Ocellus commented. “I think I’m starting to picture it.”
“Me too,” Tarsi added.
Once explained what went where, the yak, dragons, and changeling all held up the mares and the riffs. However, there were only four on the top with six on the bottom.
“This went way better in my head,” Lighthoof admitted.
“Maybe yak go on top?” Dotta suggested.
“Are you sure?” Shimmy Shake asked.
“Yaks can hold loads of weight,” Yona said.
‘Yeah, I think we can handle a little extra weight,” Smolder said. “It only takes two of us to carry a yak while flying.”
“I think that could work,” Peridot agreed.
So, Dotta was put on the top of the arch. Since she was usually on the base when they formed a pyramid, Dotta was having a hard time keeping balance. Her team was struggling to keep her up.
“Dotta, try and find balance,” Shimmy cried.
“Yona might bite more than yaks chew,” Yona spoke as she kept moving back and forth to make sure Dotta didn’t fall.
“Tarsi, how about you try and help me move this to an angle?” Peridot suggested to the changeling next to her.
Tarsi nodded and then she started walking backward. However, the dragoness overcompensated, Dotta, the griffs, and the mares couldn’t keep their balance any longer and they toppled over.
Tarsi let out a yelp when a couple of her friends landed on her. When they stood up, they found her wing was bent and broken.
“Oh... Jeez,” Grace cringed. “Are you okay!?”
“It’s...not too bad,” Tarsi remarked. “Our wings are kind of like paper. If it’s put back into the right shape, I should be back to normal by tomorrow.”
“I don’t feel like we can practice if you’re like this,” Ocellus said.
“Let’s get you to the nurse’s office,” Silverstream suggested.
She, Ocellus, and Tarsi slowly walked off as practice had been cut short. Peridot couldn’t help but feel guilty for what happened.
As dinner rolled around, Peridot got into line as she waited for her classmates to get their meals. She looked towards the doors to see her sister walk in. Emerald had a mixture of disappointment and anger on her face. When the two were seated, they both talked about what was bothering them.
“Did you find a story yet?” Peridot asked.
“Nope,” Emerald sighed. “I wandered around Ponyville for three hours……in the cold snow……and the most interesting story was a broken snowplow that delayed work.”
“That might be an interesting story to read.”
“It would, but there was another snowplow that covered the other’s part of town with little delay. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but we’re really desperate for a good story.”
“Well, it doesn’t sound as bad at what happened at practice, because Tarsi broke her wing.”
“Really!? How did that happen?”
“Well, we were trying to do something different aside from a pyramid. So, we were trying an arch. We can’t get the shape right and Dotta was losing her balance. I tried too hard to fix it and it caused some of the girls to fall on Tarsi.”
“Rrrh, that sounds rough.”
“I know. What I don’t know is how long it’ll take her to heal.”
She then looked over to Tarsi, who was just walking towards their table. The changeling had her wing in a cast to help keep it in shape.
“If you want to know,” Tarsi said, “I’m going to be fine. Don’t worry.”
This made Peridot feel better.
Emerald was still down in the dumps.
"If we can't get a good story, I don't know what we're going to do," she groaned.
"Maybe you could report the tunnels under the school," Tarsi suggested.
"REALLY!?" Emerald's face lit up.
Shimmy Shake walked over to them and placed her tray on the table.
"I hate to ruin your story," she said, "But a good majority of us knew about the tunnels. That's how we escaped when the school was attacked by Chrysalis."
Emerald's smile vanished as quickly as it appeared. She laid her head on the table and moaned in anger.
After they ate supper, the twins headed back to their room. Peridot was lying on her bed as Emerald was pacing back and forth trying to think of something.
"Emma, please,” Peridot begged, “just calm down."
"Perri, I'm under a lot of stress," Emerald stated. "My team is counting on me to find something good. I knew I should've joined the poetry club."
"Look, I'm sure you're able to find something."
"Perri, you have no idea how hard it is. Not only do you have to find a story, but I also have to have the pictures I took developed. That takes so long and it's exposed before it's finished, it's ruined. You have it easy with just doing flips and dancing."
Peridot stood up from her bed.
"Actually Emma, cheerleading is harder than it looks. It takes a lot of energy and you have to be in sync with your teammates."
"Friendship is what this school is about. Simply talking with the girls would put us in sync."
"And writing a story is so hard?"
"Hey, we haven't had a good story in days. I'd like to see you find a good one."
"It would be nice to see you try being a cheerleader." The twins were looking into each other's eyes until someone pushed them away from each other.
"Okay, break it up!" Standing right beside the twins, was Discord. Emerald and Peridot were surprised to see him.
"Discord?" Emerald questioned. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, I was just seeing if Gallus and the gang were up for a game until I heard you arguing. What did you say about trying?"
"I was just saying that Emma should try being a cheerleader," Peridot said, slightly worried about what Discord would do, “and she said that I should try to be a journalist.”
"Well, if you two think you can play each other better, you just simply switch."
"What do you mean?" Emerald asked.
"Simply swap clubs," Discord declared. “Simple.”
"But... We are twins, but I have horns and Perri has fin ears."
The draconequus looked at the twins. He paid close attention to their different body parts.
"This is a simple fix."
He grabbed Emerald's horn and they popped off with "SNAP!" The dragoness reached for the part where her horns used to be. Discord used his tail as a third hand to hold the horns as he gave Peridot's ears a quick tug. With a "POP", Peridot's fins came off, but she didn't become deaf. With that, Discord gave Peridot Emerald's horns and gave Emerald Peridot's fins.
"...That felt weird," Emerald commented. "Did you have to do that?"
"Well, I got a bit excited. You're not the first sisters I've seen swap places. I can simply give you your respective body parts back." The draconequus reached for the ears, however, the dragoness backed up.
"No, wait. We already swapped parts, why not go with it?"
"Are you sure?"
"I mean... I would like to see what I could do for the school newspaper," Peridot admitted.
"If you say so. Just give me a call if you have second thoughts." He walked to the door of the dorm, but instead of opening it normally, Discord crawled under the lower half like it was a doggie door.
The twins were just amazed at the draconequus's exit.
"Alright," Emerald said, "I hope you'll be ready for the day tomorrow."
"But tomorrow's Saturday," Peridot remarked.
"I know, but we're desperate to find a story."
"Well, if I'm going to find a story, can you spend time with the cheer squad? We might be able to squeeze in some practice."
Both sisters smiled before getting back into bed. They felt like it would be a good day for them. Though, they’ll find things would be harder than they expected.
When it was breakfast time, the twins walked into the cafeteria as they explained things to one another.
"Okay, that's how the photo room works?" Peridot asked.
"Yep," Emerald replied. "Remember, don't expose the film." The dragoness nodded as they got their trays of food.
The two soon made their way to two tables. At one table, the cheerleaders were chatting as they ate. At another one, the news crew was discussing the story for the next paper. The twins nearly walked to the tables of the group they would normally be a part of.
Emerald sat at the cheerleaders' table, where Silverstream noticed her arrival.
"Morning, Perri," the hippogriff said. "How are you?"
"Pretty good," Emerald replied. She felt comfy that her friends didn't know what was going on. "How's Tarsi doing?"
"I'm doing fine," the changeling replied. "My wing's healing already."
"Isn't that usually something that requires a trip to the hospital?"
"It's...not too bad. Changelings don't have bones."
"That makes sense."
"Let's not talk about something that involves something getting broken," Ocellus spoke. "What do you girls have planned for today?"
"I was thinking we would try something different," Shimmy Shake said. "Like... Remember those tunnels? I had no idea they could go to the Dragon Lands."
"Really?" Dotta asked. "Tunnel go to Yakyakistan?"
"Yes," Yona confirmed, “They do.”
"Can they go anywhere in Equestria?" Lighthoof asked.
"I don't think they can," Ocellus commented. "Just to our homes."
"Well, that's still five places we can visit," Grace said. "How about the Dragon Lands?"
"Yeah, I'm up for that," Tarsi agreed. "I can't stand this snow anymore."
"Me neither," Shimmy Shake agreed. "Plus, it'll be great to see a place I've never been to before."
"Smolder, Perri, what are the Dragon Lands like?" Grace asked.
"Well, you've got tall sharp mountain areas surrounded by pools of lava," Smolder explained.
"It's... Nothing spectacular," Emerald added.
"Still, it'll be nice to be somewhere warm," Silverstream said. The rest of the squad agreed.
Over with the news crew, Peridot was already brought up to speed. "Okay," Sunshine said, "We need to find something. We can't have a blank paper."
"Well, what if we reported stuff outside of Ponyville?" Peridot suggested.
"...You really expect that to work?" Gus questioned.
"At least she's trying," Strawberry Scoop stated.
Peridot stayed quiet and listened to the group chat while she ate. She looked at Gus, who she didn't see that much around the school.
Gus was a chubby griffon that had black feathers and fur on his back area with a fluffy tail tip. The feathers around his head were gray and were a similar color to his talons. His eyes were yellow and the feathers on his head gave him a messy look and his beak was quite big for a griffon his age.
"So, is there anything else we could do for the paper?" Peridot asked.
"Well, the paper hasn't been going on for that long," Sunshine noted. "Maybe we'll add some puzzles."
"Some crosswords would be a nice addition," Strawberry Scoop agreed. "Maybe some comic strips."
"Are any of you artists?" Gus asked.
"Are you positive?" Sunshine asked.
He was getting tired of the griffon's attitude. Peridot slumped in her seat as she decided to keep quiet.
After eating their breakfast, brushing their teeth, and washing their face, Emerald and the cheer squad stood in front of the grate that led into the tunnels.
“Are you sure about this?” Grace asked, feeling a little nervous.
“Relax,” Smolder said, “You’ll all be fine.”
Emerald tried lifting the grate up but found she couldn’t. Yona lifted the grate using her horn like a crowbar. One by one, the group slipped down in the tunnels.
“How strong are yaks?” the dragoness asked. “I couldn’t budge that thing.”
“That’s a little curious,” Ocellus commented.
“These tunnels are pretty cool,” Tarsi commented. She ran ahead but Ocellus made sure she kept up.
“Take it easy. You could get lost in here.” She showed what she was talking about when they came to the junction.
“So, which way is the Dragon Lands?” Shimmy Shake asked.
Yona looked down at the scratched lettering on the ground until she found the one marked “D”. She led the group down that tunnel where they found it was starting to get hotter.
“We’re getting closer,” Silverstream cooed. After pushing a boulder out of the way, they were in the Dragon Lands.
“Wow,” the visitors gasped.
“Welcome to our home,” Smolder said. “Please, be careful while being around the pools of lava. We’ll show you around.”
Smolder and Emerald led the way through the Dragon Lands, where Ember soon noticed them. She flew down to the squad.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Dragon Lord Ember, we’re just showing our friends around,” Emerald replied. Smolder nodded.
Ember looked to the squad, who were very interested in the lands.
“Okay. Just don’t try to blame me if one of them gets injured.”
“Got it,” both dragon students remarked. The Dragon Lord flew away to deal with business elsewhere.
“So, what do dragons do around here?” Grace asked.
“We’re pretty tough, so often take a few risks,” Smolder replied.
They looked over to see some dragons practicing their aim by breathing fire at some boulders. When the giant rocks were hit by the fire, they were obliterated.
Ocellus was startled by the blasts and turned herself into a tortoise.
“The dragons are much nicer now,” Silverstream stated.
“That doesn’t stop them from being dangerous,” Ocellus remarked.
This didn’t bother Tarsi. She simply transformed into a pudgy looking dragoness with her color scheme. Ocellus figured she’d do the same and transformed into her dragon form. This time it had her colors.
“Smolder,” cried a voice.
Looking at the clifftop, they could see Garble flying down to them.
“Hi Garble,” she cried back, seeing her old brother in glee.
“What are you doing here?”
“My friends here wanted to see the Dragon Lands,” Smolder explained. “Care to help?”
Her brother agreed and led the way with Smolder and the girls following behind.
“This is going to be easier than I thought,” Emerald said to herself.
Back at the school, Peridot had been given her sister’s camera. She was walking with Sunshine and Gus, trying to find a good story.
“Maybe the ponies have something to report,” Peridot suggested.
“At this point, I’m very willing to try anything,” Sunshine admitted.
They went outside and soon started asking the ponies if they’d seen anything interesting. Then, they met Lyra and Bon-Bon, who were explaining the events of yesterday.
“So, we saw something digging through our trash and we thought it was just a raccoon,” Bon-Bon told them, “But it turned out to be some kid. We have no idea why he was doing that.”
“Did you get a good look at him?” Sunshine asked.
“I think it was...beige,” Lyra said, “we didn’t get a good look at him and it was late when it happened.”
“Okay, we’ll check with some of the other ponies. Thanks for having our conversation.” The trio walked off as the hippogriff was getting excited. “Finally. We’re getting a story.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Gus said.
“You don’t always have to be so negative. How about we ask that mare?” He pointed to Maud, who was just walking down the street. “Excuse us, Ms.……”
“Maud,” the mare replied.
“What?”
“Maud Pie. That’s my name.”
“Okay. Listen, have you seen a colt digging through the trash?”
“I don’t have trash at home. Boulder and I live in a cave.”
“…Okay. Did you at least see anything out of the ordinary?”
Maud blinked. “We found a shovel in our home, but I don’t own a shovel. I use pickaxe.”
“So, some creature left a shovel there?”
“Yep. Boulder didn’t say anything about anything other than that.”
“Thanks.”
The three walked off with the hippogriff taking notes.
“What is that kid up to?” Peridot questioned.
“Don’t know, but I’m glad we asked those ponies,” Sunshine replied. “We’re getting onto something.”
Peridot smiled as she knew she was able to help a struggling team.
Smolder managed to make a surfboard out of stone. She tossed onto some lava and surfed down it.
“Yahoo!” she cried as she jumped off right at the bottom. Garble wasn’t too far behind and did what his sister did.
“Man, I really missed doing that,” Smolder said. “I couldn’t do that last time I was here.”
“Can I try that?” Silverstream asked.
Garble and Smolder looked at each other before looking back to the hippogriff.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Garble stated.
“Yeah, lava is really dangerous to creatures other than dragons,” Ocellus added.
“How about we just use that hill?” Smolder asked. She pointed to the hilltop she was talking about.
“Good enough,” Shimmy Shake said.
They climbed up to the top, which was hard considering how steep it was. Those who have wings helped their flightless friends up to the top.
“So...this isn’t safe, is it?” Lighthoof asked.
“Probably not,” Emerald guessed. “We’ll fly beside you when things start going wrong.”
“Sounds good to yaks,” Dotta confirmed.
Three rocky surfboards were provided for Lighthoof, Shimmy Shake, and Dotta got onto each of them.
“You sure you don’t want to go, Yona?” Smolder asked.
“Yona prefer to be safe up here,” Yona stated.
“Suit yourself,” Dotta said.
She and the mares soon started sliding down the hill. Their friends followed behind and could see things were going well so far. Lighthoof and Shimmy were managing to keep their balance while Dotta was wobbling around trying not to fall off. Smolder and Silverstream flew close to their yak friend to get ready to catch her.
This would be a good idea as Dotta couldn’t keep her balance anymore and would’ve tumbled down the hill if it wasn’t for her friends catching her. Dotta’s board tumbled and shattered at the bottom of the hill while Lighthoof and Shimmy Shake safely made it down.
“This is not yak’s best idea,” Dotta sighed.
“Maybe this isn’t the safest option,” Smolder commented.
“What else can we do?” Silverstream asked.
She and Smolder placed Dotta down, who promptly had an idea.
“Friends show pyramid,” she declared.
“What?” Emerald questioned.
“That’s a great idea,” Shimmy Shake commented.
Smolder and Silverstream flew back up to the top of the hill to get Yona as Emerald walked over to Tarsi.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” the dragoness asked.
“My wing’s feeling a lot better,” Tarsi replied. “I’m sure I can do this.”
Smolder and Silverstream brought Yona back to the bottom of the hill. Yona and Dotta soon got into place and started stomping. Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof made the stomping a part of their actions as they weren’t phased by it at all.
“Give us S, give us P, how about an I, R, I, T!” Grace chanted. “That’s spirit and it’s in you and me!” While most of the girls were able to do their act with ease, Emerald was struggling to keep up. Then came the pyramid. The dragoness panicked and quickly fumbled, causing the half-finished pyramid to tumble to the ground.
“Sorry, girls,” Emerald groaned. “I... Don’t know what’s with me today.”
“You can try again if you want,” Silverstream said.
“I don’t want to fumble up again. You know, Tarsi’s injury.”
“I said I’m fine,” Tarsi spoke.
“Okay, did I hear someone singing over here?” Ember questioned. She landed nearby with a green changeling with different colored horns and wings.
“Oh, hey, Thorax,” Smolder said.
“Wait, Thorax?” Tarsi questioned. The dragon in disguise rubbed the back of his head.
“Come on, Thorax,” Garble said. “You can at least show them.”
Thorax listened and changed back into his base form. Ocellus and Tarsi did the same.
“So, he’s finally letting the dragons know who he is?” Smolder asked.
“A few,” Ember replied. “I’m glad he’s making some progress though. How are you and Ocellus?”
“Great. I’ve told them about my love for dresses too.”
“Dresses?”
“Well, Garble’s a fan of poetry.”
“It’s true,” Garble agreed.
“We’ve helped Professor Rarity with her dresses,” Grace explained. “She’s really good at it.”
“Maybe Dragon Lord try dresses,” Yona suggested.
“...I’ll pass,” Ember replied crossing her arms.
“It’ll be fun,” Tarsi said.
“You enjoy dressing up, I’m fine doing my thing,” Ember stated.
“If you say so,” Thorax chuckled.
A shadow then passed over them. The students gasped at the large dragons flying above.
“Wow, dragons get that big!?” Shimmy Shake questioned.
“Oh, yeah,” Emerald said. “Some very in size, but that’s usually what size they’re at when fully grown.”
“What about your parents?” Grace asked. “What are they like?”
“Well... They’re far from the stereotypical dragon.”
“Can we see them?” Silverstream questioned.
“...Sure. Follow me.”
Emerald took off with her friends following behind. Hopefully, her parents wouldn’t blow her cover.
Back in Ponyville, Peridot was on a roll with Sunshine and Gus. They asked a few more ponies about the mysterious colt and got some notes to help make sure what he looked like.
“Okay, let’s see,” Sunshine said. “We’re looking for a beige colt that has red hair, yellow eyes, and is a unicorn.”
“How are we supposed to find him?” Peridot asked.
“We could lure that kid into a trap,” Gus suggested.
“Doesn’t that seem a little cruel?”
“Hey, he’s been digging through ponies’ trash. I’ll teach him a lesson.”
“We could at least ask him why he’s been doing that,” Sunshine spoke. “Now, how do we trap him?”
“I don’t know,” Peridot admitted.
“You’re usually the smart cookie,” Gus stated. The dragoness froze. She couldn’t let them catch onto their plan.
“Well... Maybe there was... Something specific he was looking for. Did you take note of what he stole?”
“What he stole was trash,” Sunshine stated.
“Well... Maybe, just use an empty trash can?” Peridot gave a smile to help show she was calm, even though she was close to panic.
“If we’re going to do that, we’ll need a trash can, of course, and something to catch him in the act.”
“Maybe a net and some rope,” Peridot suggested.
“You’re onto something. I wonder if Professor Applejack would let us borrow some equipment.”
“Knowing her crazy grandma, it wouldn’t surprise me,” Gus said.
The trio walked off to get their gear. Since the boys thought she was her sister at the moment, they were probably thinking of having her help set up the trap. That probably wouldn’t go well.
In the Dragon Lands, the cheer squad came across two very big dragons. One was a bulky looking drake with dark green scales large curved horns. He also had a square muzzle with a big too sticking out from his upper jaw and he also had yellow eyes. The other dragon was female and was much more slender. She had green scales with a yellow chest. She also had two ear fins and some green spines on her head made it look like she had hair.
“Those are your parents?” Lighthoof questioned.
“Yep, that’s them,” Emerald confirmed.
“They’re huge!” Silverstream commented.
“Yeah. I’ll let them know we’re here.”
Emerald flew up to her parents. Both big dragons were surprised to see one of their daughter’s fly right up to them.
“Perri,” the mother cooed.
“Hi mom, hi dad.”
“We’re glad to see you. What are you doing here?”
“Smolder and I are showing our friends around this place.” She pointed down to her friends, some of them like Yona being intimidated by their size.
“This really isn’t a place for creatures like them,” the father stated. “It’s easy for them to get injured.”
“I know dad, we’re being careful,” Emerald stated, “we’re keeping away from the lava.”
“That’s good,” the mother said. “How are you and Emma doing at the school?”
“We’re doing good. Although we had a few hiccups, we're fine. I... Emma’s actually struggling with the news club.”
“What’s the matter?”
“...They’ve been struggling to find a good story. It’s really hard considering how much things have calmed down.”
“It’s true,” Ocellus confirmed. She flew up to Emerald’s parents. “They’ve been trying to get a good story for about a week. All the other stories were...”
“Boring,” Emerald finished. She knew Ocellus didn’t enjoy upsetting her friends.
“Well, I hope she finds something interesting soon,” the mother said. Emerald let out a long sigh. “How about you. What do you and your friends do?”
“We’re cheerleaders,” Silverstream answered after flying right up to the big dragons. “Would you like to see it?”
“Sure,” Emerald’s father said. “Just what exactly is a cheerleader?”
“We’ll show you.” Silverstream took Ocellus and Emerald back to the ground.
“Ugh, girls, maybe we could... Try this later,” Emerald suggested. “I don’t think I’m on my A-game.”
“Come on,” Grace said, “Don't you want to show your parents?”
“Yeah. I also don’t want to make myself a fool.”
“Friends practice arch again?” Yona suggested.
“Yeah, we still need to work that out,” Shimmy Shake confirmed.
“Yak shouldn’t get on top this time,” Dotta spoke.
“Probably a good idea,” Emerald said.
She looked at her friends and thought for a moment. Her parents looked at each other while they waited.
Eventually, the girls settled no plan and they got into their places. Yona and Dotta started stomping, making the earth shake a little bit. Shimmy Shake, Lighthoof, Ocellus, and Tarsi powered through it and even made the shaking earth a part of their act.
“It’s in me, it’s in you, come on you know it’s true!” Silverstream chanted. “Spirit’s in all of us, it’s in me and you!”
Emerald quickly back to land in between two yaks. Ocellus and Tarsi flipped back to land on the opposite sides of the yaks. Emerald could see the other cheerleaders heading towards them.
The mares got on top of the yaks and Smolder landed in between them. Emerald barely had time to react and hold her fellow dragon up. Silverstream and Grace landed on the outer edge of the top layer, finishing their arch.
“Wow, we actually did it,” Grace cheered.
“And yaks don’t fall on friends,” Dotta added.
They looked up to Emerald’s parents, who looked very impressed. The mother bent down to get a closer look at them.
“I’m impressed! You certainly have a lot of energy,” she commented.
“Thanks, mom,” Emerald replied. She was about to move, but she almost forgot about her friends standing on her. This promptly caused them to lose their footing and fell to the ground. The parents were both shocked by this.
“Are you all okay?” the father asked the squad.
“...We’re okay,” Lighthoof affirmed.
In Ponyville, Peridot and the boys were setting up a trap for the mysterious colt. A trash can was set up underneath a tree, where a net was hanging from waiting to be released. Peridot, Sunshine, and Gus hit in a nearby bush with a rope sitting beside them. The griffon held onto the rope as they waited for the colt to show up.
“You sure this is going to work?” Peridot questioned.
“Trust me, it’s the perfect plan,” Gus replied. “We just have to wait.”
The three waited for a while until they saw a beige colt with a red mane walk up to the trash can. The colt was a unicorn and had a cart behind him. He removed the lid of the can to see if he could find anything. Gus pulled on the rope and dropped the net on the colt.
This would’ve stopped him, had he not just levitate the net off of him. Peridot took a picture of him, alerting the colt that whoever tried to trap him wasn’t far. He quickly placed the can in his cart and he made a run for it. The trio gave chase as the colt quickly got to top speed.
“We just want some answers,” Sunshine asserted.
The colt wasn’t listening and kept running. Peridot took another picture, which was a bad time when the colt looked into the camera’s flash. This blinded him and he started swaying back and forth on the street.
A couple of ponies jumped out of the way before he ran straight into a snowdrift. This caused the can in the back to fly out of the cart. Sunshine dropped his notepad and Peridot dropped her camera. The camera shattered the second it hit the ground.
“Crud,” the dragoness cried. She was about to check the damage, but Gus picked her up.
“He’s getting away,” the griffon informed.
The colt recovered from the bright flash and collision before running away. Sunshine was still chasing him, but Peridot and Gus had to catch up.
When they rounded the corner, the colt was gone. “Where’d he go?”
“You think I know? We lost the kid, the camera, and our story. Now, I’m cold, and I’m going to head back to the school and warm up.” Gus flew off in a huff.
Peridot rubbed her arm feeling ashamed of herself before she slowly followed the griffon.
The cheer squad crawled out of the tunnels and into the library. “That was fun,” Lighthoof said.
“It was nice to be outside and warm,” Grace agreed.
“Perri, are you feeling okay?” Ocellus asked.
“I said I wasn’t feeling my best,” Emerald said. “I’m going to go check on my sister.” The dragoness ran off before the squad could say anything else.
Emerald made her way to the newsroom and found Peridot slumping down the hallway.
“Perri,” she said, “I owe you an apology. Cheerleading is way harder than... What’s wrong?” Peridot simply showed her sister the remains of her broken camera.
“I’m sorry,” Peridot sighed. “We were getting a great story, but... I lost all the photos after it broke.”
Emerald placed her claw on her sister’s shoulder. “Listen, Perri, I’m sure you tried your hardest. At least you were onto something.”
“Yeah.”
“What was the story about?”
“Some colt digging through ponies’ trash.”
“...Why?”
“No idea. We lost him after... Hold on, we lost Sunshine too.”
“Maybe he was still chasing the colt. Let’s get a spare camera and try and find them.”
The twins flew to the newsroom to get what they needed.
The two were wandering down the streets looking for Sunshine. He’s probably around in the town somewhere.
“Now, where did Sunshine go?” Emerald questioned. She and Peridot looked around. “You try flying higher up. I’m going to keep looking on ground level.”
Peridot nodded and flew into the air and scanned Ponyville to see where the hippogriff went.
She couldn’t see any sign of Sunshine. She flew around until she saw something yellow moving not too far by.
“There you are!” Peridot cried. She got her twin’s attention and they flew over to a yellow figure and found it was Sunshine.
“Emma. Perri,” Sunshine said as the twins flew over to them.
“Where did you go?” Emerald asked.
“I managed to catch up with the colt. It’s a little hard to explain, so...follow me.”
He led the twins towards the Everfree Forest. Making their way through the trees, they came across the colt and a manticore cub. The colt jumped when he saw the twins.
“It’s okay, they’re my friends.”
“...Can you catch us up to speed?” Emerald requested.
“I think I should explain,” the colt said. “Listen, I found this cub alone one night. I couldn’t find any spare food without my parents noticing. So, I thought I’d try and scavenge around the trash to see if I could find anything for this little guy to eat.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t eaten you.”
“Yeah, kind of. Anyways, I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Listen,” Peridot said. “Our professor knows a lot about animals. We could ask her for help.”
“Great idea,” Sunshine said, “I’ll be right back.”
He flew back to find Fluttershy as Emerald took a picture of the colt and cub.
After a while, Emerald had the photo developed.
“Alright, we’ve got our story,” Sunshine cheered. “I’m going to tell the rest of the team about this.” He was given the photo and flew off to the newsroom.
“Well Perri, I have to say good job,” Emerald said to her sister, giving her a thumbs up.
“Thanks, Emma,” Peridot said. “Now, where’s Discord?”
“Did some creature call me?” asked a familiar voice. The twins looked and saw that Discord was sitting on one of the curled horns.
“Yes,” Emerald said. “Can you put us back to normal?”
“Of course.” Discord changed to his normal size and removed the horns and fins from the twins.
“What are you doing?” Silverstream questioned.
She, Smolder, and Ocellus had seen everything.
“...This is awkward,” Discord said.
He quickly gave Emerald back her horn and Peridot back her ears.
“See yah girls.”
With a snap of his claw, Discord vanished. The twins looked at their friends who were confused.
“Did……did you switch places for the day?” Smolder asked.
“Yes,” they both replied sheepishly.
“That explains it,” Ocellus said.
