Over the next several days, Yona and Ariel worked on mending fences and trying to talk to each other. Alas, every time they seemed close to doing it, one comment from one or the other put them back to square one.

The problem was always there. Neither of them were sure how to address it without causing offense, and both of them felt bad for having those thoughts at all. Ariel threw her hands wide. "I don't want to be mad at her anymore!" She paused. "I'm the one who did something wrong, if anycreature was, which I wasn't!" She flopped against a wall with a sigh.

Gallus patted her with one wing. "Yeah. You didn't." He tilted his head, leaning over closer. "Want me to try talking to her? We've been friends longer, you know?"

Ariel stood upright. "Would you?" Hope flooded her as the tension finally released. "I think she could use hearing from another friend." She nervously fidgeted her hands together. "Is it me? Maybe I'm the one being an awful friend." She smacked herself on the beak. "Maybe we're both being unreasonable. How do I even fix that?"

Gallus took a calming breath. "I'll try talking to her. Hopefully she'll calm down and we can work things out." He rubbed Ariel's shoulder. "You take it easy, and be ready to just say 'I'm sorry' without any extra bits on there."

Ariel huffed, almost offended by that suggestion. "Hey, I've been perfectly mature, thank you very much."

"Yeah yeah." Gallus rolled his eyes as he took to the air and flew down the hallway in search of an equally perfectly mature yak.

Yona was outside the school, hauling her books in her mouth. At her side was Smolder, laughing gently. Gallus zipped towards them on agile wings. "Hey, you two!"

Smolder grinned as he landed. "Heya."

Yona turned, blinking rapidly. "Uh. Hello." She smiled at Gallus, setting aside her books. "Gallus, why come flying here?"

Gallus sank onto his haunches in front of Yona, folding his arms over his chest. "Ariel's basically in tears. She hates fighting with you, Yona. What'll it take for things to work out?"

Smolder shook her head as she answered. "Not going to happen, Gal. Look, Yona isn't trying to pick a fight or anything like that."

"Yes." Yona nodded firmly. "Yaks not pick fights for nothing. She break trust. Take time, long time, to get better. Until then, no snoop." She sighed softly, her whole body shuddering with it. "Break trust. Not good friends yet."

Gallus shook his head. "Look, she wasn't trying to snoop. The rest of us said she should look for you two, and she did. She got a glimpse of the kissing, realized you were both okay, and came back to us. Isn't that reasonable?"

Yona shrugged. "Yona not mad. Just hurt."

Smolder folded her arms over her chest. "Yona has the right to feel however she wants to about Ariel right now."

Gallus threw up his hands. "Not helping! Look, you can feel however you want, but it's making you and Ariel both miserable. She really wants to make up. Make her earn your trust if you want, but at least talk to her! That's all I'm asking. She isn't some stranger, or some jerk you want to avoid forever, and you know it."

Smolder shrugged, staying silent for the moment. Gallus' words had swayed her towards finding a resolution faster, if only because the tension was bad for everyone, but she still wanted to stick at Yona's side.

Yona listened, but only silence greeted Gallus as he finished. It hung there until the tension of waiting strained her. "Ugh. Okay. Maybe, maybe try." She pressed at her face. "Want to be alone right now, yes?"

Gallus held up his hands defensively. "Sure sure. Thanks for talking." He patted Yona on the shoulder as he turned to go, letting the girls relax for the moment.

Smolder settled beside Yona, draping a wing over the yak's broad shoulders. "Wow." She rested her head against the soft fur and gentle warmth of Yona's side. "You don't have to do anything, you know that, right?"

Yona sighed as she wrapped her forelegs around Smolder. "Not know what else to do." She shook herself out and stood up. "Ariel not bad creature. She hurt feelings, but still good creature."

Smolder chuckled, walking along beside Yona as she gathered up the dropped books. "Even the good creatures can mess up and be a dink sometimes. You want me there when you talk to her?" She huffed a little smoke. "Dragons are good at setting fires under creatures when called for." She chuckled a little. "Or even when not called for, if they're in that mood."

Yona bumped against Smolder, almost bowling her over. "Thanks. Want friend here when talk, but hope no dragon anger needed."

Smolder nodded, accepting the mission as set before her. She followed after Yona and soon the two were tracking down the offending Ariel. They found the hippogriff pacing at the entrance to their shared dorm. Yona stepped up to her and cleared her throat.

Ariel froze in her tracks, glancing between Smolder and Yona. "Hi." She danced in place, tail lashing. "Good to see you." She forced her best smile. "I've, um, been thinking about Sandbar. I guess I was a little snoopy. Wasn't trying to spy! I'm sorry! Please forgive me. Friends?"

Yona offered out a hoof for Ariel to take. "Is fine." She frowned slightly, just slightly. "Will take time to forget."

Smolder raised a scaled brow. "What, just like that? I was expecting more, you know, fight about it first." She huffed a little steamy snort. "What am I missing here?"

Yona grinned faintly. "Am yak."

"And what, pray tell, does that mean?" Smolder leveled a finger at Yona accusingly.

Ariel giggled gently. "Only a yak would get it." She moved in to hug Yona tightly. "But I love you anyway, okay?" She was all smiles, all relief then.

Yona hugged Ariel gently. "Yona glad. Like to be happy friends again."

With that settled, the group returned to their classes. It was there that Ariel ran into her first creature guest teacher.

"Hello!" For a griffon, she sounded downright pleasant. "My name is Gabby, and Twilight asked me to come here today to talk about griffons."

Gallus perked up right away. "My people! Who hasn't heard of Gabby?" His eyes were on her pointedly. "Friendliest griffon you'll ever meet, and a super oddball for that very reason."

Gabby smiled at the student's eagerness. "Yes, my friend Gallus knows what I'm about!" She got a few steps closer to the class. "I want to dispel some griffon myths! Griffons do not hate you, even the grumpy ones." A little pause for laughter from the crowd. "And though we can have sharp tongues, that doesn't extend to our literal tongues." She opened her beak to display her perfectly soft tongue to them. "We are creatures, like anycreature else in this room. We'd rather have good neighbors, and to, you know, get along if we can. It's a lot easier than not."

Gallus laughed lightly. "Griffons definitely like keeping it easy whenever possible." He nudged Ariel's shoulder. "How about hippogriffs?"

Gabby made a lowering gesture. "Easy there, Gallus. It's my turn to talk. No interruptions please." She kept her gaze locked with Gallus', raising a brow. "Now, many creatures seem to assume hippogriffs and griffons have a lot more in common than we actually do." She folded her arms, looking between Silverstream and Ariel. "Though we share half a body in common, the similarities dry up around there. While I wouldn't mind a hippogriff friend, they aren't griffons. Hippogriffs live a lifestyle that griffons usually prefer to avoid. They often value community above self-reliance, where a griffon values self reliance, but appreciates a friendly neighbor."

She raised a finger. "There's also water! Hippogriffs love living next to, on, and in the water. Griffons might visit the water, but live on the land." She winked to them. "You could almost consider that griffons are just seaponies that aren't." She paused for effect. "Seaponies without the sea, get it?" A few chuckles ran across the room. "Back to the point! As difficult as it can be to get close to griffons, they don't hate you, they just also don't trust you right away. After all, friendships, real friendships, require a great deal of mutual appreciation and willingness to help one another."

Gabby hugged the air in front of her. "And that's what makes me odd. I see you all as friends already. So it's really easy to talk to me. Why wouldn't I talk to a friend?" She chuckled warmly, shaking her head with a beaky grin. "That is exactly what gets me called an 'oddball'. I may be odd, but I wouldn't trade it in for anything!" Her eyes locked on Gallus. "You're a griffon in friendship school. How do you feel?"

Gallus lowered his head shyly, suddenly the center of attention. "W-well. Um." He fidgeted with his fingers, wings twitching. "You know. All my life, I knew griffons, so it was easy to just live as a griffon." He looked to the side at Ariel and the others beyond her. "It was hard. I'm not you, Gabby. But I did make some friends, and, you know, I." His cheeks darkened. "I like them a lot, and we get along."

Yona huffed. "Awww! That very nice!"

Sandbar smiled widely. "We're a team!"

Gabby clapped her hands with a big smile. "Exactly, see? Gallus was a classic griffon. He had a hard time at first, but now that he's made friends, he wouldn't give them up for anything. Griffons want to be your friends, they're just not, um, terribly good at that first step. Cut us a little slack and you could end up with a friend for life."

Gabby fielded a few questions from students and soon enough the day was winding to a close. Once again, it was time to gather round Starlight's classroom and study magic.

Starlight smiled at her non-pony magical students. "Glad to see you all. I've brought a new device that I'd like to try. After informing Twilight of our progress, she brought it to me, insisting I try it, and I happen to agree with her." She set down a cube. It looked like an iron cube. "One at a time, each of you step up and focus your basic magic on this. Don't try to do anything specific, just push your magic at it, like a bath of your magic."

Smolder eyed it warily. "Just don't break it?"

Gallus tried it first, his cloud-shaped wind starting from his wings and rushing over the cube. It glowed a soft green, which became brighter as he focused more eddies around it. "Huh, so what's that mean?"

Silverstream tried hers. She held out the crystal and focused her best sparkly light into the cube. It glowed a bright orange. "Oh wow! That's a color." She bounced in place with giddy delight. "Did I do it right?"

Starlight nodded. "So far so good. Interesting. Let's get everycreature before I explain what's going on. But I will, promise."

Ariel focused, drawing forth her crystal and focusing it on the cube. She gasped when the box began to glow a bright purple. She dropped her focus quickly to look at the light. Alas, without her focusing, the light faded away fairly quickly.

Smolder stepped up for her turn. "My magic is fire. Aren't you afraid I'll melt it?"

Starlight smirked. "That's cute." She patted the device. "Dragon flame is powerful, but not powerful enough to damage that thing. Please, proceed."

Smolder focused her dragonfire, pouring her orange-yellow flames straight down at it. Sure enough, it heated up, but remained physically unaffected. It glowed, but not the same color as the flames, or the angry red of heated iron. It was a steady blue hue that lingered for a little bit even after the fire stopped. "Neat."

Ocellus tried next, and it glowed green, just like Gallus. "Teacher, what do the colors mean?"

Starlight drew the cube back towards herself. "It tells me what the 'color' of your magic is. Not being ponies, your color isn't displayed for the world to see. Gallus, your magic is almost invisible, being air currents. Ariel and Silverstream, your magic is whatever color you want it to be. And Smolder, your magic does have a visible and easy to see color, but I didn't want to exclude you from this."

Ocellus scratched at the back of her neck. "Are there other colors besides red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple?"

"There are quite a number! Almost anything you can see on a rainbow, really." Starlight looked to Smolder. "Oh, you have the colors of flames, sorry, but that doesn't tell me your color, which the cube did for me. Now, that only has the tiniest effect on how you actually do magic, but she was curious, and so was I. Did you even have a magic color? The answer appears to be a yes."

Ariel couldn't help giggling. "I'm a unicorn!" She danced from foot to foot, showing off her glowing crystal to everycreature. "See? See?" She pointed to Ocellus' horn. "We each have our own colorful magic." She twirled back on Starlight. "Okay, what's our first lesson of today?"

Author's Note

Yay forgiveness, and also magic!

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