//------------------------------//
// Needles 
// Story: Time to hire some extra teachers 
// by Light Heart101 
//------------------------------//

Spike watched as the students were making their way into the school. All of the students had a sense of excitement with all of the new teachers joining. Spike did enjoy watching the smiling faces of the students as they walked in. It almost made him wish that he was working that day, but Twilight insisted that he took a break. He did spend the last two days managing the schedule, sifting through the applications, finding all of the new study material, and rearranging the library for Twilight again.  As much as Spike knew how much he needed some form of rest, he really hoped that Twilight could handle a day on her own. 

As Spike started to think about what to do that day he heard a familiar voice from behind some nearby bushes. "What are you thinking? You can't do this! How are you supposed to teach ponies about friendship?"

Spike looked for the source of the sound. As he looked behind the bushes he saw a yellow dragon that was about his size with a mole on her cheek. She had a parasol in her lap. She had a small wingspan that matched her scales. 

Spike recognized her immediately. "Hey Needles. I haven't seen you in a long time. What are you doing here?"

Needles jumped at the sudden intrusion. She quickly turned to see who was watching her. "Oh! It's you Spike. I'm just... thinking."

Spike had a thought cross his mind. "Are you here for a teaching position? That's awesome, but I thought you were busy with the Dragoons?"

Needles chuckled. "I left Toro in charge of the team. I thought it would be a good idea to have a change in scenery. That and some my friends are not handling my, eh, smell well."

Spike laughed. "Yeah, I had to deal with molting myself. There's a brew that Zecora makes that can help with the smell. It's great to see you here. So... why are you hiding here instead of going inside?"

Needles blushed a bit. "I-I don't want to talk about it."

Spike sat down next to her. "I thought you were past this. From what I've heard from Ember you've helped her a lot, you're even her on call adviser."

Needles lowered her head. "I know, I'm getting along pretty well with my family now, my team is closer than ever, but this seems to be a major step for me. I've only had to deal with my team and others one on one. I thought about making this a part time thing, but how can I teach what little I know to so many others at once?"

Spike sighed. "I don't know how the others can do this, but I feel like you are selling yourself short. You're about my age and we both seem ten years older than what we are. The difference between us is that you had experience from living in the middle of nowhere to build your maturity on and I just learned from Twilight's example. You have learned about friendship the hard way, but here we are. You know so much about this now, so spread what you've learned to other students who don't know about it."

Needles sat for a moment thinking for a second. Eventually she stood up and brushed her legs off. "Thank you Spike. You have a habit of encouraging all races. But what if they think I'm under-qualified?"

Spike smiled. "Don't worry. I'm an assistant and I'm younger than some of the students. This school helps others with friendship. And don't worry! I've known Twilight my whole life and she'd be exited to have you join her."

Needles nervously gripped her parasol. "Are you sure?"

Spike gave her a pat on the back. "You should have seen her when I told her what a dragon magi was. Trust me, you'll be fine. I'm not working today but I know you'll have no trouble. Just believe in yourself. I'm confident that you'll be great."

Needles took a deep breath before giving a weak smile. "Here I go." She turned to the door and slowly walked inside.

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Needles was a little embarrassed after she got lost for the third time. She was impressed by all of the races that were attending the school. She didn't feel like she stood out as much anymore. Eventually she made her way to an office that had a sign that read "Headmare Twilight Sparkle". 

Needles took a few deep breaths and started whispering to herself. "You can do this. You've had bigger challenges than this. Oh boy! Where's my guide when I need him?" Finally she worked up the courage to open the door. As she walked in she saw a pink unicorn sitting at the desk going through papers. Needles bowed to her. "Princess Twilight Sparkle I presume?"

The pony bit her lip a little. "Actually, my name is Starlight Glimmer. I should let you know that Twilight doesn't like being bowed to, or being called princess. Just call her Twilight."

Needles face turned beet red. "Sorry. My name is Needles. I'm here for a part-time teaching position. Where is Princess... er, I mean Twilight?"

Starlight started going through a few files until she opened one on her desk. "She is busy with a class at the moment. She asked me to do the interview for her."

A ball of sweat ran down Needles head. "Great"

Starlight started going through the file. "Okay. I guess I should ask a few questions. Um, for starters what is a dragon magi?"

Needles sat down and took a deep breath."I'll try to make this as simple as I can. In the time under Discord's rule, the eastern dragon Zheng Long mated with the western dragon Plume because there was no distinction between east and west. Once order returned, Zheng Long stayed in the west to teach dragons his eastern ways. Those lessons, traditions, and powers were passed down through the dragon magi. Legend says that we bestow our knowledge on all who seek it."

Starlight looked confused as was flipping through the file. "So... How does that separate you from other dragons who aren't magi?"

Needles got more nervous as Starlight dug through the file. "Basically I know how to use a unique type of magic. I can enhance the power and durability of an object, I can heal people, I can fire magical stars at targets, and I have a fire spirit living inside me... sort of. It's hard to explain. A part of it revolves around my emotions. If I loss control of my temper I can end up releasing a fiery dragon, but I have it under control now."

Starlight had an impressed look on her face. "Wow! Twilight's going to want to have a chat with you later. Now for something a bit more serious. It says here that you ran away from home when you were young. Can you elaborate on that?"

Needles lowered her head a bit. She never liked talking about it. "I thought we were supposed to be these all knowing beings. I was scared about having to live up to that responsibility. So I became a drifter and a bandit. All I cared about for a while was just myself, but one day I met three fillies who showed me that they didn't expect us to know everything. I helped them and I learned how good it felt to do good and help ponies. I managed to get most of my crew on the same mind set. Of course we had a lot of help from Spike and a couple of other ponies. I'll admit that I wasn't comfortable with the idea of seeing my family again until some ancient dragon tried to overthrow Ember. We managed to patch things up between us. I know I'm the last choice you'd want for a teacher, but I want to help others find their way; to keep them from making the same assumptions and choices I made"

Starlight rubbed her chin a bit as she stared at Needles. "Um, so, what do you plan to teach?"

Needles raised her head. "The lessons of the dragon magi. Not the whole magic thing; I think that's unique to us, but the knowledge that we learned. Life isn't about knowing all the answers or knowing the right path. It's about understanding that there are many ways to handle your problems. It's about trying to do your best. It's about... learning from your failures. Ahem, I could also teach about my travels in the desert if that'd be more useful."

Needles watched nervously as Starlight gave a small smile and looked through her file again. The few minuets felt like hours to her. Finally Sunset set the file down. "Well, according to Spike, Ember, and Lightfoot you have learned a lot about friendship. We can schedule you to work every other week so you can still spend time with your team. Can you teach a class today?"

Needles looked shocked about how well she took her past. It took her a second to answer. "Oh! Uh, I could teach one today if I can have some help setting things up."

Starlight stood up and offered a hoof to her. "Alright! I'll help you as much as I can. Welcome to Twilight's school. By the way, if you were worried about your past, don't. I've been in the same boat as you, only I stole the cutie marks from an entire village. So, what do you need?"

Needles slowly shook her hoof as a feeling of relief came over her. "Well, it's going to be like a game..."

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A few hours later all of the students gathered at the field outside with Twilight. 

Sandbar raised his hoof. "Um, Ms Twilight, why are we all out here? We already had Ms Dash's class. I thought we were done with exercising for the day."

Twilight ran a hoof through her hair nervously. "Um, I was told by Starlight that we have a new teacher joining us..."

"And we do." Twilight and the students turned to see Starlight and Needles walking towards them. "Everybody, I'd like to introduce Needles. Good luck Needles."

Needles had her parasol open as she took a seat on the grass in front of the students. "Hello everyone. Before we get into the topic for today I'd like to play a little game. While we are talking Starlight is handing out bandannas and maps. This is a version of capture the flag. The color of your bandanna marks which flag you are going for. Your map shows where the flag is. Please read it now because I'm starting this when we are done explain it. The goal is to get your flag and bring it back to me. When you bring your flag back I want you to explain to me what your strategy was to win. No fighting! Don't do anything that can hurt another player. You can try to grab the flag from someone else and teams are allowed. Besides that, do what you want. Everybody has to be back here in one hour. Ready? On you mark. Get set! GO!"

All of the students scattered when she gave the go ahead. As Needles started munching on a ruby Twilight walked over. "So, is the idea to show them that teaming up is the best option."

Needles grinned. "Not exactly. You'll see soon enough."

After a hour everyone returned to the field. As they all took their seats Needles pulled out a notebook that she was writing in. "Alright, I have the reports from the winners and I want to compare facts. How many of you relied on pure speed." A lot of students raised their hooves. 

"Alright, how many of you found a short cut and used it?" More students raised their hooves. 

"Good, how many of you snagged the flag from someone else?" Only a handful raised their hooves as a few ponies chuckled. 

"How many teamed up?" A few ponies raised their hooves as everyone started looking around at each other. 

"Alright, who all came up with something unique?" The remaining students raised their hooves. 

Needles grinned. "Well, some of you are probably thinking that I'm going to talk about the category that won, but at least one pony using each tactic that I listed won in their group. Many ponies think that there's only one way of doing things, their way, but there is no one right way of doing things. Some creatures win by strength, some by speed, some by wits, but there is always another way. When you think that there's only one way to do something you can miss the better solution, but sometimes one idea can work better than another in certain situations. Always keep your mind open to all of the possibilities. Alright, I think that's all of my time for today. We will continue this tomorrow."

Twilight watched from the bench as the students walked back to the school. She gave a small smile as she watched Needles walk back with them. As she pulled out a scroll to write to Princess Celestia she started thinking to herself. "I'll have to thank Starlight and Spike for helping her today... After I ask her my 1472 questions about dragon magi."