Sandbar gets manipulated

by Alank2

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Sandbar, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Buffalo
Length: 6014

On his way home, Sandbar tries to help with Equestria-Buffalo treaty, but he quickly finds out it's much more complicated then it seems.

Sandbar did not expect to spend his summer break in tense political negotiations, but here he is. Fighting not only against experienced and manipulative politician on the other side of negotiating table, but also his own doubts and low self-esteem.
Out of these two, politicians may prove to be easier opponents.

Published 2023-01-30 00:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-01-30 00:50:01 UTC

Sandbar gets manipulated

Sandbar looked outside, lost in thought. The train was going through mountainous areas filled with rock farms; everything outside was just a different shade of brown or grey. Calming, if not even boring, sight that anyone traveling the Ponyville-Appleloosa line knew very well. Soon, the mountains would give way to prairie, a sign that he was getting closer and closer to home.

Although, now that he thought about it, he would much rather be with his friends right now. The School of Friendship was like a home to him, these days, and it felt weird leaving it behind. Of course, with the summer break here, all his friends left for their homes and the School was closed, so he couldn’t stay there. Especially since all the teachers were sent on some special mission, even Headmare Starlight!

He wondered again what his friends were doing. He could imagine them all, doing their usual activities with friends and family. Or, in case of Gallus, probably lying in bed all day and procrastinating…

Sandbar, on the other hoof, felt really lonely and sad today. Unlike his friends, he wasn’t truly ‘special’. He wasn’t a member of a different race, someone hoof-picked for the difficult mission of learning different cultures and spreading friendship. He could not breathe fire, fly, change shape. He was strong, as every earth pony was by nature, but not as strong as some of his friends. He wasn’t the smartest, or the fastest. He wasn’t even the most empathetic, not when their group had a literal empath in it.

He felt lost, sometimes. And without his friends to support him, this feeling only deepened. What good was he by himself? Why was he even chosen, out of no doubt thousands of ponies who wanted it, to attend the School?

When the Tree made them face their fears in that cave, it played him like a filly. He almost betrayed his friends for an illusionary acceptance from illusionary teachers, just like that. In the end, he managed to overcome his test, but he did it last; all his friends were long free and victorious before he managed to overcame his own fears. They were just so much more amazing then he was.

No, stop that, he mentally said to himself, trying to force these memories away. Focus on everything else. You helped defeat Cozy Glow, you helped you friends many times. They value you a lot as a friend, and don’t care if you’re best at anything!

As Sandbar grappled with his dark thoughts, the train slowly continued on its way south.

Rockville was the last major stop before Appleloosa, and Sandbar used this occasion to get out and stretch a little. As comfortable as the train was, it was still nice to feel the ground under his hooves, even if for a short time.

Being the center of rock farming and trade, Rockville was a wealthy city. All buildings were made of highest-quality stone, even the train station. And they were massive, especially in comparison to Ponyville and its small-scale architecture. The Rockville train station was so big, Sandbar thought that entire Ponyville population could probably fit inside if they tried.

Sandbar could hear his hoofsteps echo in the empty building as he left it for the city itself. He had over an hour before the train would continue its journey, and he was curious if anything new happened in the city since he was here last time, almost a year ago.

Of course, the stone buildings were still the same as they always were. He sighed; what did he expect? Rockville was always the same. If he somehow moved back in time few hundred years, it would be hard to even notice. He walked to the closest bar – named ‘Grey Heaven’, probably after the grey stone it was made of – and ordered some milkshake. If he was stuck here for another hour, he can at least get some fresh food and drink.

As he waited for his order, he noticed an earth pony stallion sitting alone in the corner, slowly drinking his cider and looking… not even sad, just straight-up depressed. Sandbar hesitated for a moment, but then he straightened up, grabbed his freshly-arrived milkshake, and walked to the clearly distressed stallion. He was, after all, a Student of Friendship, right? He should at least try to help. “Hey, friend, what’s on your mind?”

The older stallion shook his silver mane and sighed. “You must be new here if you don’t know, or you like bad jokes.” He didn’t even look at Sandbar, too lost in his thoughts and cider.

“I’m just waiting for my train to continue south. I’m Sandbar, what’s your name?”

“Silver Spirit. Nice to, wait, what did you say your name was?” The older stallion looked at Sandbar for the first time, with slight suspicion in his eyes. “I heard that name before. Are you this Sandbar? Hero of Equestria, defeated Cozy Glow?”

“Well, yeah, that’s me.” Sandbar was always surprised by ponies reacting like that. Seriously, it wasn’t a big deal, Princess Twilight and her friends saved the world so many times as well! “But my friends were there, too! We all did it together.”

However, he did not expect the reaction that got. Instead of admiration or endless questions, Silver Spirit got visibly annoyed. “Great. So Princesses don’t give me even a modicum of trust. What did I expect? I guess I’m just not one of their precious Elements or their students. Whatever. The job is yours, enjoy dealing with these stubborn rockheads yourself.” He threw some bits on the table, and got up.

“Wait, wait, wait! What are you talking about?” Sandbar protested. “I’m just waiting for the train. I’ve never even heard of you before, why are you so mad?”

“Don’t play with me.” Silver Spirit answered bitterly. “At least let me have my dignity in this situation. I resign, you take over the negotiations, and I can retire, since obviously no one wants me to do anything anymore.”

“Wait, I still don’t understand anything! What negotiations? Why do you think I’m taking over anything? I’m leaving in an hour, you can’t expect me to do whatever you were doing in that time?” Sandbar only grew more confused.

Seeing it, Silver Spirit hesitated for a moment. “Are you saying you were not sent here by one of the Princesses to take over the negotiations with buffalo?”

“What? No! I’m just coming home for a summer break. No one sent me here.” Of course, as far as he knew. Princess Celestia was well-known for being a master of sending ponies to where they needed to be, and he briefly wondered if this prolonged stop in Rockville wasn’t part of her plan. Or maybe he was just paranoid. It’s not like everything he and his friends do is part of some secret plan, they just try to help.

This train of thoughts – pun not intended – was interrupted by Silver Spirit, who now sounded resigned. “Well, in that case, have a nice trip home, Sandbar. It was nice to meet you.” He sat down and took another sip of his cider.

“Well, maybe I can help you somehow? I am a Student of Friendship, you know. If there’s a problem, I can at least try to help. You mentioned buffalo, and negotiations?” Sandbar asked, now feeling a little anxious. What was going on here?

“More like rocks shaped like buffalo and ponies. It’s easier to make mountain move aside with words alone, then to get them to agree to anything. I’m just trying to sign official treaty between us, and they only make it harder.” Silver Spirit looked angrily at his mostly-empty bottle of cider. “And you ponies just made it worse.”

“I never even talked with a buffalo in my life! How did I make it worse?” Sandbar protested again. This conversation was getting weirder and weirder.

“Ponies like you made everypony think that only you can do anything here. Why keep guards when we have the Elements? Why have Wonderbolts, when Rainbow Dash can just Rainboom problems away?” The older stallion drank the rest of his cider, before angrily putting the bottle back on the table. “Why have diplomats, when you have Pinkie Pie? What’s the point?”

This was way too familiar to Sandstream. He could almost hear the same voice, just with slightly different words, in his head almost every day. “Hey, Silver Spirit, don’t say that. Your work is still important. Elements can’t be everywhere at once, and they too need help.”

“Sure, they can’t be everywhere. But if they could?” Silver stream sat up, and walked towards the exit. “Everyone would want them to solve their problems. I’m just a poor substitute for a real thing for them. They all want Pinkie Pie to be here, not me.”

Sandbar found it surprisingly hard to find a good answer to that.

In the end, he told the conductor he would stay in Rockville for some time, citing a friendship problem he needed to solve, and would therefore miss the train. He was offered a refund for his ticket, since he was doing ‘a good work here’, but he refused. He wasn’t going to use his status as a way to be treated differently than everyone else, if he could avoid it.

Besides, he now felt like he may not actually deserve it. Silver Stream had a valid point there. If his teachers were so amazing, and could solve all the problems, everyone would want their help. What were normal ponies supposed to do compared to these legendary heroes?
And he wasn’t much different here. He was always barely able to help his friends. They were the strong, smart ones, he was just a token pony in there. No matter how much he tried, they were just much more awesome then he was.

These dark thoughts were plaguing him when he met the buffalo representative for the first time. He never heard of Elder Greyhorn before, and it only took him few minutes to immensely dislike him.

“Why does this say that the mining rights can be granted to anyone?” Greyhorn asked, pointing at the offending fragment of the treaty. “We already suffered from your illegal mining, why put this here? Do you want to exploit our lands more?”

“Of course not! This paragraph specifies the legal boundaries of gaining mining rights, nothing else. You are fully within your rights to forbid anypony, or anycreature, in fact, from ever mining on your lands.” Silver Spirit answered professionally; if he felt any annoyance, he hid it well.

“Humph. Then why put it here at all? We already have the right to forbid you from mining, don’t we?”

“Yes, but with this treaty you will gain additional options. If someone brakes the law specified here, you can officially ask Equestria for help with finding the person responsible, and punishing them. And it also makes it obvious to anyone that they can just ask you for mining rights, instead of thinking that it’s a taboo and cannot be ever discussed.” Silver Spirit answered, still hiding his growing annoyance perfectly.

“This is taking too long. Why are we still talking about such a small thing? What do you think, Sandbar?” Elder buffalo asked the younger stallion, who almost jumped in surprise. He already felt lost in the complicated treaty and its legal consequences, and not even a full day of negotiations passed.

“I’m just an advisor here, Elder.” Sandbar protested.

“Maybe, but you are also a great hero in Equestria.” Seeing his surprise, the buffalo smiled. It was not a nice smile. “Did you think I am blind and deaf? Or perhaps you thought that we are just some primitives with no interest in the outside world?”

“No, of course not.” Sandbar tried to find a way out of this situation. “I’m just…”

“Let’s forget this issue before it grows spike like a cacti, shall we?” Elder interrupted him. “So, what do you say, Sandbar? Should we really fight for such a small thing? It doesn’t change anything, and it is an annoyance to my people. Surely you can see that?”

Sandbar hesitated, but he had no time to think about it before Elder continued. “I see. So, you care about this a lot; mind I ask why? Do you have some special reasons here? Perhaps ones that should remain hidden? I see nothing that would stop us from agreeing on this issue, like full-grown creatures that we both are. Unless you want to continue and explain why is it so important to you?”

“No, it’s not!” Sandbar managed to get a word in, finally. And considering that it was such a small change, and buffalo really wanted it, he would rather give it to them than risk the treaty falling apart.

“So we are in agreement?”

“Yes, yes! Look, it’s such a small thing, I’m sure we can accommodate it somehow. Does this mean we can move on?” Sandbar was confused, annoyed, and now anxious as well. Why was this even so important?

The buffalo nodded slowly, still smiling. “Very good. I say, let us take a break. I already decided I see nothing wrong with next three paragraphs, so thanks to you, Sandbar, we can move on. At this rate, we can finish this chapter before weekend, and have a party to celebrate. After all, as Pinkie Pie always said, there is always a reason to party, isn’t there?” The Elder nodded at the two speechless ponies, and left the tent with satisfaction.

After few moments of silence, Silver Spirit sighed and did a facehoof. “Congratulations, Sandbar. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

“What? We are making progress with the treaty, right? Why was this small thing about mining so important?” Sandbar protested. Again. It seemed like almost every time Silver Spirit speaks, Sandbar needed to protest. To defend himself from some accusation. It almost seemed the older stallion was attacking him on every occasion.

“Without mining rights specified, we have no official process to ask for them, and they have no official process to refuse or approve.” Silver Spirit answered, visibly annoyed and resigned at the same time. “So we’re going to have chaos here. Most ponies won’t know how to ask for these rights, and Celestia only knows how the buffalo will respond. They can just refuse everything without any reason, or put someone like Greyhorn as responsible for mining rights negotiations. And I’m sure once it becomes well-known that buffalo won’t even talk to them, some ponies will start illegal mining, again!”

“Can’t we just stop and arrest them?” Sandbar asked, now worried. Did he really just screw up this badly?

“Oh, we can. But now we have no legal basis to cooperate with buffalo. Sure, mining without permission is illegal both here and there, but who will put the ponies on trial? What if a pony from Vanhoover hires some local miners to do illegal mining? It will be a legal battle to even find out what law applies there, and we will need to negotiate separate provisions between buffalo and pony police forces to fix it.” Silver Spirit shook his head, now angry. “Congratulations, Sandbar. How did you manage to save Equestria when you’re so incompetent?”

“Hey! That is mean, how could I have known that?” He defended himself. “You could have warned me, say something!”

“I could have. Maybe I should have. I just thought you are somepony special, with all the hype around you. Guess I was wrong.” Silver Spirit took a deep breath. “I wish Pinkie Pie was here.”

Sandbar didn’t even hear him leaving the now-empty conference room. He was lost deep inside his own mind, drowning in darkness.

That night, Sandbar found himself unable to sleep. He was going over yesterday, again and again, but in the end he had to admit the truth to himself. He just wasn’t qualified to do this. He wasn’t smart enough, charismatic enough, he lacked experience. He was just a failure. Hero of Equestria, what a joke.

Not able to fall asleep anyway, Sandbar slowly got up, turned on the light and looked over the shelf in his room. This place was surprisingly cheap for a high-quality hotel, and it had a small collection of books for the visitors. Judging by their covers, most of them went unused for a long time, just like most rooms in the overbuilt hotel itself.

Among the books, there was one that caught his attention. He took it, and sure enough; a copy of Journal of Friendship, extended edition, third print. Huh. He didn’t expect to find that book here. He shrugged and almost put it back on the shelf, before he stopped. He remembered something, mentioned offhoofedly in a passing conversation.

His teachers visited buffalo lands before. How could he forget about that? And he read this book when it was released, there was something about buffalo in there! He opened the book, and sure; the extended edition, in addition to friendship lessons, briefly covered the Appleloosa incident. Alright, he thought to himself. If they were able to fix this situation, maybe I can learn something from it.

He read the chapter, and then stopped, looking at it with disbelief. Impossible. He read it again; still the same words, the same story. But that made no sense! He read the Journal when it was released, but never felt the need to check the newer, extended versions. Now, seeing this, he promised to himself he will study it thoroughly later.

For now, he needed something else. He turned few pages and read quietly to himself. “Dear Diary, just had the coolest adventure with the coolest pony ever…”

Silver Spirit looked at Sandbar with confusion. “Excuse me, what?”

“Did you ever read this?” The younger pony showed the diplomat the book he was holding.

“Of course I did. Everypony did, I think. What, found some friendship lesson in there that can magically solve our problem?” The older stallion went back to his bitter tone.

“No, I found something else. What do you know about Princess, I guess back then just Twilight Sparkle, and her visit to Appleloosa?” Sandbar asked, opening the book.

“They came here, and the war between buffalo and Appleloosans ended after one short battle.” Silver Spirit shrugged. “They made sure that buffalo stampeding grounds are safe, and Appleloosans begun trade with buffalo. It’s a base of our current diplomatic relations with them. What about it? Want me to get some more apple pies? I don’t think it will work this time.”

“They failed. The Elements could not stop buffalo and Appleloosans from fighting.” Silver Spirit looked at Sandbar with surprise. “Here, read this.”

The diplomat read the short description of Applelossan conflict three times, before he slowly shook his head. “I think I forgot about it, or never paid too much attention to that part. I was in the middle of some long negotiations when it was released, and never caught up to it. Guess I should have.”

“They are not infallible, and not flawless. They failed here, and only the good will on both sides brought this conflict to an end.” Sandbar turned few pages in the book. “And now, please read this.”

Silver Spirit slowly read aloud. “I got so wrapped up in how awesome she was, I almost forgot about how awesome I was…” He slowly continued, reading the Lesson of Friendship written down by Rainbow Dash long ago.

“Just because they are all amazing mares, doesn’t mean they’re infallible and we’re just worse then them. Look, it may be hard to believe, but I can perfectly understand how you feel.” Sandbar commented after the chapter was over.

“Like Tartarus you can. You are a hero, prodigy, and everypony is sure you will do much more in the future. Me? I’m nopony.” Silver Spirit answered quietly.

“True, I am part of a great group of friends. But they are all better than me if look at them in the same light as you look upon my teachers.” The older stallion looked at Sandbar with surprise. “Think about it. They are the best of the best, sent here to learn and spread friendship. They are strong, smart, some are even royalty! Ocellus can shapeshift into almost anything and recite Journal of Friendship from memory, Yona can smash through everything. Smolder is literally a dragon. Then we have Silverstream, who is just so nice, makes friends everywhere and can convince everyone. And Gallus is literally helping to rebuild Griffonstone.
And now look at me. I’m just a normal pony. I have nothing like that.” He braced himself, and said the painful truth. “I am not some legendary hero. I’m just a pony.”

“That… is surprisingly humble.” Silver Spirit said after a moment of silence. “But, how is it going to help us here?”

“First, you don’t have to be the best of the best. There are many ponies in Equestria, and only six Elements. We don’t need to be best, because almost nopony is the ‘best’.” Sandbar took a deep breath. “But we can still try to be our own best. To try, to do what we can. If everyone just did nothing and waited for the Elements to do everything, Equestria would fall apart. So, Silver Spirit. You.” Sandbar pointed his hoof at him. “Are. Special. It doesn’t matter that you can never be like the Elements, because you don’t have to be. If you are the best you can be, you are already like them, because that’s what makes them heroes. Not being best, but trying their best.”

Silver Spirit took a moment to respond. “That is quite an inspiring speech there. But didn’t you defeat Cozy Glow? Doesn’t that make you special?”

Sandbar smiled sadly. “Oh, we didn’t ‘defeat’ her in any normal sense. She manipulated everyone, Chancellor, Princess Twilight and her friends, even Starlight. In the end, we didn’t win by being better and stronger then she was. We only won because we were together, as friends. We tried our best, and it was enough.”

“Alright. You can stop with the speech here.” Silver Spirit straightened up. “I guess even Elements aren’t as good as they seem sometimes. And maybe I should stop looking up to them all the time. But how does it help us with the buffalo?”

“That’s the second part of what you read. Depending on others to help you when you need it. Where is your staff? Ponies to help you? I haven’t seen anyone else with you.” Sandbar asked, annoyed that only now he noticed this pretty obvious thing.

“It was a last minute change.” The older stallion admitted. “Pinkie Pie was supposed to be here, but she was called on some important mission abroad. I was close by, so Princesses asked me to replace her. I was supposed to meet with my staff here, but I had to dismiss them instead.”

“What? Why?”

“Because they were all local ponies, working for Neighvis and his cronies.” Silver Spirit sighed. “And he’s actually helping the Elder in trying to ruin the treaty, so I couldn’t accept ponies from here helping.”

“Wait, what? Isn’t Neighvis that crazy rich guy who wants to secede from Equestria?” Sandbar tried to remember what he knew about that pony. “He hates buffalo! Why would he help them?”

“Politics. Elder Greyhorn is influential enough to force Chief Thunderhooves to send him for the negotiations, and he wants to abandon the treaty and demand that Equestria gives him what he considers ‘buffalo empire’, territories that used to belong to buffalo thousand years ago. If they disagree, he is willing to use force. At the same time, Neighvis wants to secede from Equestria, and even though they both plan to betray each other soon after, for now they both want to force Equestria to give them land and independence.”

Sandbar slowly shook his head. “They both hate each other and want each other’s land, but they work together. This is crazy.”

“Welcome to politics.” Silver Spirit smiled for the first time. “Worst enemies can cooperate if their goals align enough. Seen this before, sadly. So, what is your plan?”

“Right. Here’s what I think we can do…”

“Excuse me, I must have misheard you.” Elder Greyhorn looked at both ponies with surprise. “Could you repeat that?”

“Since our talks about the treaty basically stalled, I decided we need some support. I sent a letter to Princess Celestia, asking for a full diplomatic staff and a higher-ranking diplomat to arrive.” Silver Spirit smiled. It was not a nice smile. “Since that would leave you at an unfair disadvantage, Elder, I also sent a letter to Chief Thunderhooves, asking him to send you somebuffaloes to help. I believe he will agree to send Chieftess Strongheart and her advisors here.”

“I… see.” Greyhorn almost winced at the mention of pro-HarmonyChieftess. While Strongheart also cared a lot about the good of the tribe, she saw their future in cooperation and diplomacy, not taking what was rightfully theirs and stolen. Even if he was officially head of the delegation, his entire staff will be watching him for any sign of disloyalty or sabotaging the treaty. His plan was effectively crippled.

The elder buffalo tried one last trick. “This will cause undue delays in signing the treaty. I am sure you understand that the buffalo will take this situation seriously.”

“Oh, I have no doubt they will.” Sandbar answered with a smile. “We also took care to write down all your opposing arguments that slowed down the process until now. I am sure the staff on both sides will be happy to know that we have every previous discussion written down. And, when staff arrives, all discussions will be written down and transcripts will be sent to heads of state. I am sure the Princesses will be very interested in our disagreements on certain fundamental things.”

Elder Greyhorn stood there for a moment, without a word. Seconds went by. A minute. Two minutes. Only then he slowly spoke. “Congratulations, little ponies. Maybe there is something warrior-like in you, after all. I believe we can go over the treaty now, and perhaps open our minds a little to a possibility of compromise.”

“Of course. Let’s start with those mining rights…”

In the end, Buffalo Chiefdom signed the treaty with minor changes. The small issue of mining rights – and penalties for violating them – was dealt with without any problems, just like everything else. Even the issue of archeological works on the buffalo lands, including some ancient and forbidden ruins, was resolved quickly and with full agreement on both sides. Most issues remaining were very minor. Once everyone arrived, it took less than a month before treaty was officially signed by both heads of state.

In the end, both Sandbar and Silver Spirit were invited to the official ceremony (and party) hosted in Canterlot, so instead of going home, he went back to Ponyville and then to the capital itself, ironically by the very same train he took previously to ride home.

Everypony was impressed, of course. Stories already circulated about his success with the buffalo treaty, and how he even convinced them to send a buffalo student to the School of Friendship. He did his best to remind everypony that it was a group effort and while he helped, he himself would never be able to achieve it. He had limited success, sadly.

“I think we, me and my friends, need to publish our own Journal of Friendship one day.” Sandbar mentioned to his new friend while they were still on a train, after finishing retelling their story for the tenth time and the crowd of curious ponies dispersed. “Otherwise, no one will believe me when I say that we also made mistakes. Without you, Greyhorn would have totally fooled me.”

“Don’t worry. You still have time to make more mistakes.”

“Ouch. What did I do to deserve this?” Sandbar asked, smiling widely.

“You’re young, isn’t that enough?” Silver Spirit answered jokingly. The great success of the Buffalo-Equestria Treaty made him famous, and his old, bitter self quickly gave way to the experienced and self-assured diplomat he always was.

“Excuse me, which one of us helped save Equestria recently?” They both laughed.

“Have I ever mentioned that I met the Pillars once?” Silver Spirit asked when they stopped laughing.

“No, you never mentioned that.” Sandbar was now a little curious. He never got a chance to meet all of the Pillars himself.

“It was some official party, nothing really important, but I got to meet them. And you know, you remind me of one of them.”

“Which one? I don’t think I’m anything like Rockhoof. I lack some muscles for that, you know?” Sandbar answered jokingly.

“No, no. You remind me of Stygian.” Silver Spirit answered.

“… Please don’t say you expect me to be possessed by ancient darkness or something like that.” Sandbar half-joked, now a little confused. Stygian? Why?

As if reading his thoughts, Silver Spirit answered. “Stygian had no powers, but he was the one who gathered all the Pillars. Without him, they would be separated and weak, but thanks to him they became this legendary group of heroes.” He shook his head. “Of course, your friends are much wiser then Pillars were back then, so I hope both you and them can understand how amazing you are, and that you don’t need any special power to be a hero.”

“I thought I was the one who made these inspiring speeches?”

“I had a good teacher.”

After a moment of silence, both laughed happily, as their train got ever closer to Canterlot and the great party awaiting them there.

“So, that’s my story. Nothing really special happened after that, some parties, meetings, all that.” He shrugged. “Nothing as exciting as you all had.”

“Don’t do that, Sandbar. You did an amazing job there. Just as good as any of us.” Gallus answered. And he truly thought so, just like everyone else.

Yona was more direct. “You are great friend and bestest pony! HUG!”

“Yona, waitwaitwait!”

“GROUP HUG!”

“Arrrgghhh!”

It took a moment before everyone got untangled from a happy ball of students, all laughing. Ocellus was the first one to speak. “That was a crazy summer, wasn’t it?”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Gallus answered, lying on the grass and showing no intention of getting up.

“But we did great!” Silverstream said happily. “We all did so many good things, it’s amazing!”

“And I’m sure it’s that Tree again. This time it got smarter and instead of a cave, got us all into these situations to test us or something. I tell you, this Tree is way too smart.” Smolder shuddered. “I really hope it’s done with its tricks.”

The Tree, of course, did not answer. It was too busy plotting.

“Do you think we’re going to get extra credit at School for all that?” Ocellus asked.

“I don’t know about that.” A new voice, sounding very amused, made them all jump. Even Gallus suddenly stood up from his (very comfy) position lying on the grass. Headmistress Starlight was standing behind them, smiling.

“Um, hi?” Gallus tried to sound casual, but he winced when he heard himself. “Sorry?”

“Don’t worry about it, Gallus. You all did amazing things this summer, from what I heard and saw. Congratulations.” Starlight said happily.

“So… extra credit?” Smolder asked hopefully. “We kinda prevented, like, six wars? Maybe more?”

“I’m not sure. You see, there are small… issues with that. Starting with the fact that you got your teachers stuck for over a month in a tropical swamp, for starters.” She smiled widely, visibly enjoying tormenting her students. “You also separated me from Trixie for entire summer, since I was stuck in that place until a week ago, trying to make it work somehow.”

“Uh oh, I mean, sorry?” Silverstream tried to apologize.

“You prevented a war or worse, and gave Chiropterra a chance for a better future. You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m just mentioning some small issues. Like fact that that Rarity is stuck in the sauna, and refuses to leave, believing she is still frozen inside and has mud in her mane somehow.” Starlight looked at Yona with amusement.

“Professor Rarity was looking very healthy! Blue is a good color… right? Counselor Trixie is blue, and she is very healthy despite all the explosions! And mud gets hard and brittle and falls of in cold, so cold is good”

Everyone else facehoofed, faceclawed and generally did a universal gesture that usually accompanies groaning. Except Starlight, of course, who was clearly still amused.

“Professor Dash actually has to skip Wonderbolt training for two weeks on doctor’s orders, and professor Applejack still can’t look at her cider… or a lot of other drinks.” Starlight continued happily.

“Hey, that’s not my fault! I can outfly and outdrink these guys no problem!” Smolder protested.

“The only happy mare is Pinkie Pie, who got back just in time to launch a huge party for buffaloes and still make it to school in time for the new semester. Speaking of which, Gallus, you literally arrived two days before your classes starts.” Starlight’s smile somehow got even wider.

Gallus looked at her, confused. She continued happily: “I’d say, you really need to do something about your procrastination problem, you know? Did you even do your summer homework?”

“I was literally advising the Emperor of Gryphus!” He protested loudly. “Seriously, what’s with everycreature and my homework habits!”

Everycreature laughed, even Gallus joined them after few moments. Their laughter sounded around the school, and echoed inside it. And far away, the Tree was shining with light, powered by pure Harmony spreading over the world.

In Fillydelphia, a griffon slowly left her ship and entered Equestria proper. She was amazed by the buildings around her; nothing like the old, wooden huts in Vedina, or even the great castles of nobility. Glass was ubiquitous everywhere, some buildings even seemed to be built mostly from it somehow. And these buildings were so tall, and many of them had elevators! Some were taller than even the tallest Vedinan castles and towers.
And the carriages. While many (but not all) were limited to the ground, unlike the ones pulled by griffons back home, everyone seemed to be able to afford to ride them. Not just nobility, even commoners could just pay and ride a carriage. And there were some pegasi-operated ones, for those who needed to go by air for some reason.

Everyone around just seemed so… rich. Their clothing was of highest quality, even the workers had reliable and solid clothing that could last them a long time, something most people back home could never even dream of. She could not see a single building equal to slums at home, no barely put-together huts. Granted, this was a huge city, but still, even as she traveled west towards Ponyville, she saw no signs of mass poverty.

And she was an aristocrat, a politician, a Princess. It was not easy to hide things from her. And she could see that this place wasn’t really hiding anything. Sure, Equestria wasn’t a true utopia… but it was close. Definitely much closer than Vedina. Riding a train much more luxurious and quiet then any she ever saw at home, she knew she made the right choice.
If this is the place that changed Griffonstone… maybe it can also save her home.

Princess Lycklig travelled west with determination in her eyes. She will save her country, her people, and her love. No matter what it takes, and no matter who tries to stop her.

Author's Note

The Student Six will return together in a final story of this series:
“Student Six against the Imperium”

Coming February 2023.