The School of Friendship: originally a plan conceived by Princess Twilight Sparkle to spread friendship beyond Equestria, it fought through bureaucratic interference, a tiny budget and somewhat cheap hiring standards to become the best (if only because it was sort of the only) facility for relationship education the world of Equestria had ever seen.
Despite its shaky start however, it had grown to be a well-loved place for students of all species to learn about friendship. After several months at it, they had found a rhythm of sorts, and as long as the students didn't realise the teachers were just sort of making it up as they went along, whatever worked, worked. It was on one such day that Twilight, the head teacher, came to one of the classrooms with an important announcement.
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"A field trip?" asked Gallus. The young griffon looked up from preening his blue feathers momentarily,
"That's right!" Twilight smiled. "Rarity oh so generously agreed to organise one for you students! After the last one, you all agreed that the last one with Applejack and Rainbow Dash was a success...somehow..." Twilight's eye twitched slightly, for reasons that escaped the students in the classroom. "...so I thought we could organise another one!"
"Wait, I thought Pinkie Pie was organising one for today too," Smolder pointed out, raising her clawed hand.
"Well, there's that, yes," Twilight nodded. "It's to the snowy mountains of outer Yakyakistan."
"Thought so," Smolder shrugged. "That's why I packed something warm. You know, duh, still a reptile."
"So, what?" Cozy Glow raised an eyebrow. "Are half of us going on one, and the other half goes on the other?"
"Essentially. But since I know some of you already have an ideal spot in mind, so to ensure it's fair for everyone here...we're going to have it decided randomly!"
Cozy Glow hid a smirk across her face. What no-one in the class had realised however, was that she already knew this would happen. She happened to stumble upon the lesson plan as she was about to head home yesterday, and seeing that the head office door was open, what else was a curious filly to do but look around?
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Yesterday afternoon...
It didn't take long to find the lesson plan on Twilight's desk. looking it over, she saw that the field trips was going to be decided via a draw over who got to go on which trip. One to the forests in the deer's territory, and the other in the freezing mountains of Yakyakistan.
And as much as Cozy Glow was a decent skier, she decided the lure of more friends on a more close and personal orienteering trip was a better outcome. And the cold generally stank, anyway.
She looked at the plan. They would be assigned a trip based on drawing stones from one of two random jars. Whoever picked a blue stone went to freeze their flanks off in Yakyakistan. Those who got a red stone were heading to the forests. Each jar would have six stones each, one containing only red, the other only blue. Each student would be blindfolded and made to choose one of the jars, which would be hidden under a blanket. Once they chose a jar, they'd fish one of the stones out.
Fortunately Cozy Glow was blessed with some degree of cunning, and she soon realised that there was a way to cheat.
She considered her options in her head the next morning: the morning of the trip. She was pretty sure she could sweet-talk the students into letting her be the first to pick, but the main problem was the frankly unfavourable odds. After all, there were six blue stones and six red stones to pick...
She briefly excused herself for a bathroom break, and quickly made her way to Twilight's office again. When she walked into the empty room for the second time, sure enough, there were the jars under the blanket, ready for the draw.
She glanced up at the clock. Only a one minute before Twilight showed up for the test. Sweating, took the jars from under the blanket, moved the stones around to best suit her odds, and promptly dived for a good hiding place as she heard the keys jangling around at the lock outside...