During the early days of the School of Friendship, much of the curriculum was designed by the EEA, and Twilight Sparkle made sure to follow that curriculum to the letter … much to the chagrin of the students. A portion of that curriculum was the requirement of regular quizzes in the Elements of Harmony, with students being ranked within their classes. So it was almost with great relief that a bout of pony pox kept Sandbar away from the school on a day when three such quizzes were given to his non-pony friends. Shortly thereafter, the group of six ditched a class, and the sequence of events which followed led to massive upheaval in the system.
Though much has now changed for the betterment of all involved, some aspects of education do not change …
“An honesty project? Due tomorrow???”
Gallus’s incredulous outburst does little to phase Applejack. “Yessir. And Ah’ll give y’all free reign in how you want to illustrate the benefits of bein’ truthful to one’s self and to others. Ah’ll even let y’all work together on this.”
Ignoring the muted groans from the others, Applejack walks towards the door. “Ah’ll be right back; Twilight wanted to observe some of the class proceedings. Feel free to discuss what you’d like to do. Let yer creativity shine! ”She gives the class one final glance before disappearing into the hallways.
“At least she told us we could work together on this,” Ocellus points out. “Many appendages make light work, right?”
“Yaks always work ONLY with other yaks,” Yona pointedly counters … “but maybe Yona make exception. Yona have no idea where to begin.”
Smolder continues: “I mean, if it was a generosity project, then we could just hold a fundraiser or something. Or work at an animal shelter if it was a kindness project. ”The thought gives her a brief shiver. “Then again, maybe an honesty project would be better.”
“Oh, what if we got a laughter project? Wouldn’t that just be really fun? I think that would be really fun! I hope Professor Pinkie gives us a laughter project!”
The others turn to Silverstream, then laugh in unison at the outburst. Soon though, they go quiet again.
Gallus turns to their pony pal. “So, you got any ideas, Sandbar?”
“Nothin’,” he replies. “Honestly, all I’ve picked up from Professor Applejack’s classes is a greater appreciation for farmwork.”
“So maybe that’s what we do,” Smolder suggests; “be honest in telling our ‘honesty’ professor that we’re not learning anything about honesty in her class.”
“Yeah, that’ll work out real well,” Gallus adds. “Point out the flaws in the pony who’ll be grading our efforts.”
“Yaks GREAT at pointing out flaws in other creatures!”
“I figured that out pretty quickly, Yona.”
“And griffins aren’t?”Smolder’s retort to Gallus causes them to briefly lock eyes.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down everyone.” Sandbar’s quiet but earnest demeanor quickly eases the tension in the air.
Smolder shakes her head. “Sorry … it’s my competitive nature. It’s kinda ingrained in all dragons.”
“Yona competitive. All yaks strive to be greatest.”
“I think that’s something a lot of us can agree on,” Gallus adds. Sandbar and Ocellus roll their eyes slightly, while Silverstream looks at all of them in slight bemusement.
“Hippogriffs can be competitive. Like when we all had to take those quizzes right before we ran away? Those were fun, right? Wait, not fun … weird.Is that the right word? Or boring? Maybe boring. But I still wanted to be best at … whatever it was we were supposed to be doing on those, right?”
Gallus, Smolder, and Yona all sigh in agreement, while Sandbar and Ocellus look at them in confusion.
“What quizzes?” Sandbar asks. “I don’t remember taking any quizzes.”
Ocellus answers: “Oh that’s right, you were out sick that day. We had quizzes in honesty, loyalty, and kindness. All paper-and-pencil stuff. They wanted to see how much we knew about the Elements of Friendship, so they could tailor our education to our weaknesses. ”She turns to the others. “Honestly, I didn’t see why those were so horrible.”
“They weren’t ‘horrible’, they were just pointless,” Gallus states. “Glad they got rid of those when we came back.”
Smolder agrees. “Yeah, and whatever order they settled on with our rankings … they may as well have just put our names in a hat and pulled them out in a random order.”
“Yaks ALWAYS first when pulled from hats.” Yona’s assertion draws laughs from the group, before Smolder continues.
“So,” Sandbar asks, “do you guys remember how you ranked? Like, on the three quizzes you took when I was out?” As he asks and his friends all turn to face him, Applejack re-enters the classroom with Twilight strolling in behind her; seeing that her class hadn’t noticed their entrance, the two quietly observe the responses to Sandbar’s question.
Ocellus answers first: “No one had the same ranking for any pair of quizzes. I ranked first for Kindness.”
Smolder follows up: “Everyone ranked first or second on at least one quiz. I ranked higher for Loyalty than for Honesty.”
Yona states: “Yona fourth for Honesty. Yona ranked higher for Loyalty than for Kindness.”
Silverstream then speaks: “So, neither Smolder nor Ocellus ranked fourth for Honesty. And Gallus didn’t rank second for Loyalty.”
Gallus responds last: “I didn’t rank fifth for any test. Silverstream ranked fifth for Loyalty.”
Sandbar mulls over the myriad of comments from his friends. “So … you’re trying to tell me that those quizzes really were meaningless!”
“EXACTLY!” Gallus triumphantly declares. The group shares another laugh, before an *a-hem* causes them to turn back towards their professor and their principal.
“Professor Applejack,” Smolder stammers, “sorry, we didn’t know you were—”
“No need for frettin’,” Applejack assures as she holds her front hoof out. “But Ah don’t know why yer messin’ with Sandbar like that. Ah know fer a fact that some of y’all been lyin’ with them comments. Actually …”
Applejack pauses for a moment before continuing: “Yeah, maybe there was somethin’ ‘bout them quizzes. The three of you who finished first, second, an’ third on the Honesty quiz were honest with yer comments, but the two of you who finished fourth an’ fifth, sure proved that you got somethin’ to learn; those comments were nothin’ but lies!”
“Wait,” Sandbar says, “you know how all of them finished in all the quizzes?”
“Well yeah, Ah chat with Rainbow Dash an’ Fluttershy all the time. Now it ain’t mah place to share how yer friends did, but if they wanna be more upfront an’ honest with you, then—”
“They don’t need to,” Twilight interrupts. “Sandbar’s heard enough to know everyone’s rank on all three quizzes.”