//------------------------------// // Family and Friends Day… of Un-accreditation // Story: My Little Mages: Academia Amina // by Foxhelm //------------------------------// On the sixth day of the second week, the day before the Family and Friends Day, Silverstream, Yona, Smolder, Sandbar, Gallus and Ocellus could not help but groan as they traveled the hallway from their most recent class with Twilight before they would go to their own classes. “Is this what boring is? Am I bored?” Silverstream asked out loud, she was, in fact, bored, but her confusion over it all was very apparent. “Ugh, please.” Smolder groaned as the six stopped in the hallway, “These mages are the heroes of Mystica?” she asked rhetorically with a huff of anger. Sandbar stepped in front of the rest, “I know they seem underwhelming, but they saved all of us from the Storm King!” he challenged the dragon. “How, by boring him into surrender?” Gallus asked Sandbar, the harpy’s voice fully sardonic. Ocellus lowered her book as she looked around, “Well to be just our teachers are a little different than we were lead to expect.” she confessed. “King Thorax had so much to say about Princess Twilight, Spike and Starlight mainly.” “Ugh,” Yona groaned as she threw her books away from her, which were caught by Sandbar before they hit anything. “human school waste of time! Ork school teaches how to braid ork hair! Braiding ork hair is best— waaaa!” Yona complained and boasted before she tripped on the carpeting, but was caught by Silverstream before she hit anything, but still nearly collided with Smolder. Smolder narrowly dodged the near trample, “Is there anything in Yakyakistan that isn't the best?” she asked with a degree of sarcasm that gave Gallus’ own. Yona closed her eyes, “Yes!” she answered automatically before she fully understood the question. “Wait. No! Orks best.” she corrected herself as she got the actual wordage of Smolder’s question. Smolder huffed, as she raised her left talon, “No claws, no wings, no fire.” Smolder counted out three of the most visible traits she had. “What is it exactly you're proud of?” Sandbar then stepped between the two, “Whoa, cool it, Smolder!” he said as he tried to defuse the situation, “There is nothing wrong with anyone here to love for their heritage, 'kay?” he asked. “Aw, are we not being sweet and friendly enough for you, human?” Gallus asked with an eye roll his voice supersaturated with sarcasm. “That was sarcasm, right?” Silverstream asked as tried to fully grasp what Gallus was doing. “'Cause you weren't being sweet or nice?” she asked as she wasn’t sure what exactly what Gallus meant. Smolder stepped to be next to Gallus, “Well, maybe dragons and harpies are just too tough for friendship.” she surmised as she and Gallus seemed the most disinterested of the lot. “Orks tough, just not nasty.” Yona countered as she, and other Orks, valued a show of strength, just like harpies and dragons, but pointed out the attitude both Smolder and Gallus were displaying. “Who you calling nasty, klutz?” Gallus asked as he stepped to right in Yona’s face ready to fight her. A stupid call on his part given that Yona was larger than most Earthborn their age and stronger than many Earthborn men a decade older than them. While Gallus, on the other hand, was about the same height as most other students, but harpies had weaker builds then Skyborn. The two grunted as they were about to come to blows before a rope went around Gallus and pulled him back from the area. “Hold your horses!” Applejack said as she made herself know, with Rainbow and Starlight. “There will be no fighting here.” “This isn’t a fight, Professor,” Gallus said as he worked his way out of the rope, which if he had a few more functioning brain cells would have realized, saved his life. “This is just a friendly discussion about the magic of friendship amongst friends,” he said with a degree of sarcasm that wasn’t fooling anyone. “It just got a little heat.” Sandbar said as he stepped in the hopes of smoothing things out for everyone. Applejack, Rainbow, and Starlight looked at each other and sighed, They didn’t believe Sandbar either, but the three really couldn’t challenge the assertion. Applejack pulled her rope back, “Everyone go to your next class!” she ordered and the students headed to their respective classes. Applejack turned to Rainbow and Starlight, “I just can't believe it, fights breakin' out when they're supposed to be learnin' friendship?” she asked almost in disbelief over everything they have been doing and the progress, or rather the lack thereof, that had been made. “So things aren't going as by the book as Twilight planned…” Starlight said as she tried to find an upside to the matter. “That's because we're terrible teachers!” Rainbow declared as she started to head to her next class. “Face it: this school isn't gonna work.” the defeat in her voice was unmistakable as she took a moment to glance back. Early the next day in the staff’s morning meeting it Twilight’s headmistress office, Applejack was the last to speak, “And to top this disaster pie off, wah got the cherry of the students breakin' into a fight in the hallway.” Once Applejack finished, the others start to revoice their grievances, however since they were trying to talk over each other, it was mostly chatter. Twilight raised her hand calmly and everyone went quiet. “I understand that things are getting off to a rougher start than expected.” she said as she got up from her chair behind her desk, a confident smile never once waivering, “But that's okay!” Spike then walked up to, took Twilight by her face pulled her face into his as examined her eyes, “Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle?” he asked not believing that Twilight was there. Twilight calmly removed Spike’s hands and stood erect as she faced everyone else in attendance. “Every school in Mystica, from the local schoolhouse here to Celestia's school for the gifted." She said as she gently placed her hand on her copy of the MEA guidebook. She closed her eyes and smiled, “As long as we do too, we'll be fine.” “Maybe we should... try something new?” Starlight asked as she and everyone else felt that Twilight was willfully ignorant of how things have been going over the last week. Twilight shook her head calmly, “The representative of MEA who will perform the assessment for this school’s accreditation will be here this afternoon for Friends and Family Day.” She reminded the others. “They need to see a school that follows their guidelines.” “Even if those guidelines aren't working?” Fluttershy asked not sure if this was the right root or if things will improve in time while contrasting how things were going during the first week. Twilight only smiled as she placed a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder, “Given that this a new school and a new subject matter, one should expect us to take some time to get into the groove.” Twilight stated as if what she was said were words of comfort. Comfort that didn’t seem to be found in them by everyone else in the room. Twilight then turned to the door and began to walk “But nevertheless, we will have to try harder and make sure they do.” The bell then rang. “Another morning, another chance to inspire our students!” Later that day, about two hours before the start of the actual Family and Friends Day event, Sandbar opened a door as he was he heading to his next class which was with Gallus, Yona, Smolder, Ocellus and Silverstream with Rainbow as the instructor. As he walked he was joined by the others but when they reached a fork in the hallway Smolder and Gallus started down the other hallway. This didn’t go unnoticed by Sandbar and the others, “You do know Professor Dash’s class is this way?” asked as they all stopped. “Where are you going?” Ocellus asked as she stepped to be beside Sandbar. Smolder and Gallus just continued down the hallway, “You're not” Ocellus then gasped in shock, “skipping, are you?” She finished her question. Smolder and Gallus stopped looked at each other with a nod and turned back to the rest, “That's exactly what we're doing.” the dragon informed before the dragon and harpy started to leave. “But Friends and Family Day is—” Silverstream pointed out and started to panic at the idea that of them all not being there. However, before she could cry out, Gallus flew up and covered Silverstream’s mouth, “After class.” the harpy reminded the aasimar. He then let go and started to fly back to Smolder, “Relax, this is just a quick…” he then trailed off as he tried to find the right words, “'mental health' break.” Ocellus, Silverstream, and Yona then turned to each other and started to whisper. After a second, Silverstream then flew up to Gallus and Smolder, “That sounds legit!” Ocellus and Yona then closed the distance to be with the other foreign exchange students. “We're in!” Sandbar shook his head with a smile, “I guess I'll tag along too. Make sure you don't get into…” he then tried as he smirked and joined the others. “Trouble.” he finished and they all had a short giggle as they started down the hallway away from their class. “This way, Angel!” they all heard the voice of Fluttershy as the druid was walking down the perpendicular hallway they were. “Professor Fluttershy!” Silverstream started to panic. “We're busted!” the aasimar was about to hyperventilate until Ocellus grinned as she was engulfed in a blue flame only to reveal herself as Rarity. Fluttershy and her rabbit came into view, “Oh my!” Fluttershy almost shouted as she saw Ocellus in the guise as Rarity and the other five, “What are you all doing? Aren't classes that way?” she asked as she looked everyone over. Ocellus cleared her throat, “Well, Fluttershy-darling, I asked to borrow Dashie’s students. I am taking them to the lake as an exercise in recognizing and responding to backhand comments and such.” Ocellus then stopped and waited for Fluttershy to respond. Everyone waited for almost three seconds. ”I never would have thought that would fall in the category of generosity, I would have concluded it was a subject of honesty,” Fluttershy said as she took her chin and thought. “That does sound nice!” Fluttershy said with a smile. “Have fun!” she said as she smiled and continued on her way. Angel stopped and growled as not believing ‘Rarity’ but he could only follow Fluttershy. Once the demon-rabbit caught up with his druid, Ocellus dropped the disguise and all six giggled as they ran off towards the lake on the mountain that was the source of the waterfall the school was built next to. “I take back everything I said about you! That was cool!” Smolder said as she patted Ocellus on the back with her wing. Ocellus smiled at the dragon’s comment, “Thanks!” Ocellus then stopped as she thought about the entire statement and all the implications and inferences. “Wait, what did you say about me?” she asked as she ran to catch up feeling that she was insulted. The other five giggled at Ocellus’ annoyed state. At the same time as Sandbar and the foreign exchange students were leaving the school to the lake, Twilight and Starlight had returned from setting up for the Family and Friends Day gathering. Twilight was reading from the MEA guidebook, “Are you sure sticking to the book is gonna work?” Twilight looked from the book to Starlight, “We reformed Nightmare Moon, turned Discord to stone, saved Krystalopolies, bested the three sirens that the Pillars kicked down the road, saved the Tree of Harmony, sent Tirek to Tartarus, saved the Pillars from Limbo and Stygian from the Nightstalker and Mystica from The Storm King, just to list a few.” Twilight listed off many of her and friend accomplishments. “With all that under our belts, I know my friends can handle anything,” Twilight said as the two stopped and sent her book back to her office. “They'll have these problems turned around before we know it.” Unbeknownst to the two, a blue circle appeared and reveal itself to be a portal as Chancellor Neighsay passed through it, with a fairly large stack of paper and a quill with ink next to him. He landed gracefully on his feet. “Problems?” he asked catching the two off guard. Twilight and Starlight gasped in surprise at the chancellor’s appearance. “Chancellor Neighsay! You're here! I wasn’t expecting you to be the assessor.” Twilight almost shouted at first as she started to collect herself from the initial shock. Neighsay looked from his papers to Twilight, “Normally I would not perform the assessment. However, given that this school has been granted unprecedented support for it to go to the vote and the unprecedented support in the vote and that Princess Celestia has personally vouched for this school, the rest of the MEA voted that I should assess the school.” Nieghsay informed “And yet given that you selected this day, you seem unprepared. That doesn’t bold well for you." Nieghsay then brought some of the papers and the quill to levitate in front of him., “However, if there are problems…” he said as began to scribble. “Problems? Ha! Of course not!” Twilight lied as she cut Neighsay and tried to dismiss his concern. “We can't wait to show you around!” she then chuckled nervously as she and Starlight started the tour for the chancellor. “I was going to say that we can reschedule,” Neighsay replied, but elected to go with. At the lake, the six class skippers reclined on the sand, Gallus just finished telling a story to the others, and while Silverstream was engrossed with it, the others didn’t buy into the tall. Sandbar and Yona both lived in nations bordering Gryphonstone and or dealt with harpies so they knew it was just talk on Gallus' part. Ocellus knew deception when she heard it and Smolder was not easy to impress, “And that's why harpies breathe fire when we get mad.” “They do not!” Silverstream shouted in partial disbelief. She then thought back on it and her own lack of experience in the terrestrial world. “Wait! Do they? No! Really?” she went back and forth as she looked to the other four students. “No, harpies just full of hot air!” Yona answered the aasimar and was rewarded with laughs from the others, even Gallus had to give Yona that joke and laughed as well. “And orks are actually good at jokes!” Smolder complimented the ork. Yona responded to that with a smile. “How about that?” she asked rhetorically as she came to accept Yona’s sense of humor. Ocellus then turned to the dragon, “So what are dragons good at?” she asked as they all have figured something each of them was good at, save Smolder. Smolder smirked, “Competition!” was her answer as she bolted as if to start a race. At the same time as the six students were racing, Twilight and Starlight were guiding Neighsay through the school, “And that was our library. Of course several copies of books from my personal libra…” Twilight said then she trailed off as the three come across Rainbow in the hallway, looking for someone, however, Neighsay was still taking notes on the school’s library, the content and study areas set up in the library. “Rainbow Dash! Why aren't you in class teaching?” Twilight as in a slightly hushed tone in an attempt to get her to leave. Rainbow turned to see Twilight and Starlight, “Because my students are go—”Rainbow started only to see Neighsay and changed course in her answer almost too quickly and yet almost too late, “-ing on a class project! Doing a loyalty exercise, in knowing how to work together to evade dangers. Some of them might want to join the ESM and knowing how to evade a threat as a group is something they might need to know. So they are evading me until the Family and Friendship Day party.” Rainbow then started to fly. “So I better get back to looking for my class.” Twilight turned to Neighsay, “See, Chancellor, part of our curriculum, to help Mysticans defend themselves. Now, while Rainbow is off to her lesson, we do have other classes that you can observe.” Twilight offered. Neighsay stroke his beard, “Perhaps we should get a better grasp in this exercise. I find this quite curious.” Neighsay said as he stepped up to Rainbow. “Do you mind if we follow you, Professor Dash? Rainbow gave a slightly nervous laugh, “What could go wrong?” She asked rhetorically before she started to fly. Neighsay, Starlight, and Twilight started to follow. As the chancellor, guidance counselor and headmistress started to follow Rainbow, the scene changed to be the lakeside as the six started their race. Quickly Ocellus, Gallus, Silverstream, and Smolder took flight as Ocellus changed her form to look like a humanoid insect or insectoid human, her body was the same color of as her shirt with her light amaranth shawl became wings and the outer shawl became the elytra. The four flyers easily outpaced the land bond duo. However, before the four left the two too far being, they flew back, with Silverstream grabbed Sandbar’s arms as Gallus and Smolder each took hold of one of Yona’s arms with their talons and the three started to fly with the two. As this was happening, “Of course, we want to instill a sense of loyalty towards others. We encourage acts of generosity and kindness,” Twilight voiced over. “Figured we shouldn't be the only ones enjoying the view,” Gallus said as it was clear to him and other capable of flight that Sandbar and Yona seemed to be amidst. “Waaaah!” Yona cried as she started to get used to the sensation of not being on the ground. “Yona not best at flying!” Twilight’s voice is still heard over as Yona began to calm down, “And appreciation for the value of laughter…” she trailed. “Flying is best!” Yona shouted in cheer and joy. Silverstream giggled at the sight of Yona in the air, “Congratulations, Yona! You are officially the weirdest thing I've seen before!” Everyone had a laugh. Smolder had a chuckle as she turned to Ocellus, “What do you say, Ocellus? Can you be weirder than a flying yak?” she asked. Ocellus smirked as she consumed in blue flame. Back at the school as Twilight and Starlight were leading Neighsay back to the main door. “ ...and to always be honest in any situation.” Twilight finished her explanation for the school. Neighsay was taking notes and everything seemed to be in order, “Honesty is imperative.” he declared. Once he finished his notes he raised his head and looked around and saw that they were right back where they started. “Princess, are we going in circles?” Twilight nervously looked to the clock on the wall, “Uh, look at the time!” she said before she teleported to be right behind Neighsay and started to gently pushed him towards the door. “We'd better head to the lake for Friends and Family Day. I'm sure all the students and faculty will be there.” Within seconds the lot was outside of the school at the lake at the base of the mountain were pretty much all the other students, their family and friends, and the guardians of foreign exchange students. All of them seemed to have a good time as they were chattering. Amongst everyone Prince Rutherford was with Grandpa Gruff and the ork prince laughed at a joke that the old harpy. Elsewhere, Spike and Ember were sharing a drink as they clinked their glasses in a toast. As Ember was starting to drink from her glass she looked up into the sky and saw something in it. “What is that?” she asked. Everyone then turned to see the six students, well the outline of all but Ocellus. The light elf, however, looked like a large bizarre bug, like some sort of freaky wasp. As people saw Ocellus and began to flee in flight. Neighsay jumped in front of everyone and raised his left hand and sent orange beams of magic at Ocellus, “The school is under attack!” he shouted. “Get the students and guardians out of here!” he ordered just as his blast singed Ocellus’ wing causing her to crash into Gallus and the other students and they all crashed into one of the stands. After the crash cleared Ocellus was one again in her light elf form and the six started to recover, “Uh, maybe skipping class wasn't the best idea?” Silverstream asked as she was the first to recover and got to her feet before she helped the others. All six turned to see Neighsay looking down at them, his amulet glowing, “As chancellor of the Mystican Education Associations, the defense of all schools, the students, teachers, faculty and visitors to the schools falls onto me. Now you must answer for this act of aggression—” he started. Twilight then teleported to be in between the chancellor and the students, “I'm so sorry, Chancellor.” As she spoke she turned to face the six, a slight frown on her face like an annoyed mother. “We clearly had some students get a little carried away.” Neighsay took a step back in shock, “Those are students?” he asked as we pointed more so towards Ocellus, Yona, Silverstream, Smolder, and Gallus. He then shook his head in disbelief, “But you said you were opening this school to protect Mystica!” he almost shouted and couldn’t see to fathom what was going on. “I thought this was set up protect Mysticans from... dangerous beings who don't have our best interests at heart!” He finished in almost disgust and… anger. “My school teaches for all of us to work together through friendship.” Twilight countered, “You read the application I submitted.” She furthered compound. Neighsay then pointed in the general direction of the five foreign exchange students’ guardians, “Then how do you know they won't take what they have learned here and use it against us?” he asked, had Twilight been calmer she would have heard a slight twinge of fear in his voice, a fear for his nation and the fact that those that had no loyalty or reason to be loyal to Mystica. “Friendship isn't just for Mysticans!” Twilight countered as if she was making her own accusation against Neighsay. Neighsay scowled as he turned away from Twilight and looked at the six students just as the five guardians walked up to the scene, “It should be.” he replied in a low and soft tone. Prince Rutherford then grabbed Neighsay by the chancellor’s robe and turned Neighsay to face Rutherford, “Human thinks orks no need friendship?” he asked rhetorically and then shouted at Neighsay as he let go of Neighsay, “Maybe orks no need human school!” Neighsay was not phased by Rutherford’s ire, “Then perhaps you should return to your kind.” he said as he brushed his robe and looked towards not only Rutherford and the other foreign leaders. “Your kind?!” Ember shouted as she huffed smoke and was about to breath fire. However, she stopped and flew to be around the chancellor and Twilight. She then grabbed Smolder, “Smolder, let's go!” she said as she flew off. Seaspray did likewise and took Silverstream’s hand, “Queen Novo will want to hear of this!” he said as he looked squarely at Twilight. Grampa Gruff spat on the ground, “Well this place seemed lame anyways!” he said as he was joined by Gallus and Yona joined Rutherford as they all began to leave. Thorax calmly placed his hand on Twilight’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, “It's fine.” he said in a dejected tone. He was then joined by Ocellus, “We know not everyone in Mystica sees us the way you do. We're used to it.” and with that only a handful of the Mystican students, their family, Twilight, her friends and Neighsay. Twilight was about to cry as she saw the foreign exchange students and their guardians, but she shook her head and turned to face Neighsay. She squinted her eyes as she walked up to him in anger, “Princess Celestia helped me reach out to all the kingdoms!” she shouted as pointed her right index finger at Neighsay. “And when she hears that you closed the school because—” “Because you failed to meet the MEA standards?” he said cutting her off, if he was phased or affected by Twilight’s ire, then he showed no signs. “What?!” Twilight asked utterly bewildered by Neighsay’s retorted and accusation. “Irresponsible teachers,” Neighsay declared as he pointed to Rainbow, “students skipping class,” he continued to list as gestured to Sandbar and the slowly departing foreign exchange students. He then pointed to wreckage caused by the six and the nearly missed bystanders, “Recklessly endangerment of citizens!” and thus finished the tricolon. “Your school is a disaster! Perhaps if you had had higher standards for who was admitted, this could have been avoided!” He took a breath and closed his eyes as he touched his amulet with the MEA insignia. “Regardless…” he trailed off as he raised his hand and from his hand came blue magical chains that wrapped around the school and after they finished wrapping around the school a large lock formed and then sealed the school off. Neighsay turned back to Twilight, “By the power vested in me as chancellor of the MEA, I am shutting this school down!” Twilight then gasped in shock and sorrow.