//------------------------------// // A Day Out at the Arcade // Story: Going Rogue // by PonyPixel //------------------------------// 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.