Ever since Twilight’s School of Friendship was established, the Young 6 made their very first friendship mission back then, just like their professors. Gallus and Silverstream were the first ones to be called by the magic map, that was way before the new freshmen of their species arrived at school, and made their trip to Manehattan to fix a family problem with an older brother and a young sister. Then, there is Sandbar and Smolder, also made their very first mission, this time regarding the relationship with Dragon Lord Ember and Thorax. And finally, there’s Ocellus and Yona, who also made their first friendship mission at Canterlot, regarding a stallion being ‘flirty’ to the three unicorns. Although like their counterparts, they always face scenarios that are really difficult to overcome, and at the end, it was a success. Today, it was happening to them for the second time. Based on their first experience, they’ll know what they can do.
Right now at the school, it was already afternoon, and it was in the middle of just finishing its sessions. Gallus was on his desk, just laying his claw on his cheek while grumbling that this class wouldn’t end.
“Ugh,” Gallus groaned. “I thought that would never end.”
“Excuse me, Gallus!? You nearly fell asleep,” Ocellus reminded. “Like……Twice.”
“Exactly,” Gallus said. “It still feels like it’s been taking forever.” Just then, the school bell rang, signaling the session had ended. “Oh, finally!!!”
Once the bell stopped ringing, the students packed their stuff up and left the room. They carried on until they came across Pinkie Pie, who’s carrying a bag full of mail.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “Some mail just came in for you. Here you go.” She handed the letters and a package to the students before bouncing away.
“Ooh, Yona got letter from parents,” Yona said. She used her horn to help open the letter so she could read it. “Dear Yona, parents hoping you have good time at friend school. We hope you and sand pony getting along well.”
“Sand pony?” Gallus felt confused.
“They’re probably talking about me,” Sandbar commented. Yona then continued.
“To help make you and yak feel at home, we sent cake from Yakyakistan.” Yona put down the letter and opened the package. Inside that package, it’s a cake made traditionally in Yakyakistan. Yona gasped at the cake inside.
“Wow. That was nice of them,” Ocellus commented. Yona took out the cake and took it to the lounge. A couple of other students were there and they were surprised to see the cake Yona’s parents had sent. The yaks there were also surprised to see that cake that Yona carried.
“Is that Yakyakistan cake?” Frida asked. Yona nodded as the yak and some of the other students raced over to her.
“Is this what cakes are like in Yakyakistan?” Sulcus asked.
“Yep,” Dotta said. “Cake makes yaks feel at home along with snow.”
Pyther then got her mail from the bag.
“Nice,” Pyther commented. “I got a couple of gems from my parents. And a note.” The note Pyther’s holding was a stone tablet that was as big as her head.
Sandbar and Ocellus were surprised by this. “...Ugh...”
“I know. We don’t really have paper in the Dragon Lands.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ocellus commented. “With all that lava combined with fire breath, it should probably be a no brainer. Anyways, what does the note say?”
Pyther then read it, then faced her classmates back. “It’s said that they’re hoping I’m having a good time here. The basic parent things parents worry about.”
“What are your parents like?” Grace asked.
“They’re not too bad. My dad’s got a few anger issues and my mom can...sometimes get on my nerves, but I can’t help but love them.”
“Yeah. Same here,” Emerald agreed. “It'll be good to be with them in the Dragon Lands again. I’m starting to get tired of the snow.”
“So, will it just be you guys and your parents?” Silverstream asked.
“Well actually, I have a few siblings,” Pyther said. “I’m the middle child. Got two brothers, one’s younger, one’s older. My little brother hasn’t molted yet.”
“How often are you guys together?”
“Oh, we hung out all the time. It wasn’t all that good as we dragons weren’t the best with friendship.” Pyther words would soon start falling on deaf ears. Silverstream was starting to think about her family and how often they spent it together. Suddenly, her beak started glowing.
“Whoa! What the heck?”
It’s not just Silverstream’s beak, Yona’s horns started glowing as well.
“Yona’s horns glowing,” Yona spoke. Just like Silverstream’s beak, the yak’s horns started glowing.
“What’s going on?” Sulcus questioned.
“Maybe it’s the map again,” Grace said.
“What map?” Emerald questioned.
Suddenly, images of Yona and Silverstream’s heads appeared above them. They flew out of the window and the Young Six quickly made their way to the castle with a couple of other students following them. They quickly got to the map room and found the yak and hippogriff’s heads floating over a part of the map they haven’t noticed before. It was something new.
“What’s that place?” Ocellus questioned. The location appeared to have a few old fashioned houses built in between some hills with a large open plain not too far away.
“Huh. This might be a first for you guys,” Sandbar said.
“We’re going to discover a new village?” Silverstream questioned, her excitement was starting to show.
“Could be,” Gallus commented. “Really wondering what the spirit has in store for you,”
“How does this thing even work?” Sulcus questioned.
“I don’t know. I’m thinking it’s just a pony thing,” Peridot guessed.
“Yeah. They do use magic a lot,” Emerald commented.
“Well, we should probably prepare for our journey,” Silverstream said.
“Friends save Yona cake slices,” Yona declared. The students made sure of that.
“Let’s try to get you prepared,” Ocellus said. “Let’s hope you can solve this before you have to go home for the holidays.” The students quickly left the castle to help their friends pack. Silverstream was excited to see what the village could have in store, but the mention of going home gave her a sinking feeling.
Because of Yona's inability to fly, of course she’s a yak, she and Silverstream had to hitch a ride on the hot air balloon along with Applejack to keep them in company. Still, this didn’t do much to dampen Silverstream’s excitement. “What do you think this village is going to have?” the hippogriff questioned, as she, Yona, and Applejack walked towards the hot air balloon, with Sandbar on Yona’s side. “Do you think it’ll have a different kind of pony? Maybe it’ll be one with talking animals.”
“Now, calm down Silver,” Applejack said, “We'll find out later when we get there.”
“Yona confused why Silver and yak were picked,” Yona admitted.
“Well, maybe the map does know more about the situation than us,” Sandbar commented. “Just make sure you guys are careful, okay?”
“Don’t worry, Sandbar,” Applejack said, “I’ll make sure they stay safe.” With that, Sandbar and Yona shared a quick hug and said their goodbyes before the yak got into the basket with her professor. Then Silverstream landed beside them, Applejack opened the burner of the balloon, and they took off into the air. The mission begins.
They flew around for about an hour, and Yona was starting to get bored. She looked over to Silverstream who was the only one that could fly. “Could Silverstream make basket...” But Yona was cut off by Silverstream’s excitement.
“What do you think there’ll be at this new village?” the hippogriff questioned, still holding her excitement.
“You asked that when we were at the school before,” Applejack commented. “We’ll find out when we get there.”
“Can’t hot air balloon go faster?” Yona sighed. She lied down and gave a frustrated sigh. “Silver fly ahead and look for village?”
“...Yeah, I think I could do that,” the hippogriff replied. Silverstream then flew out of the basket and headed ahead of the yak and pony in the basket. She looked around and could see something down below. It looked like the village that was on the map. She found it. She flew back and told Yona and Applejack about what she saw and they started bringing the balloon down.
Landing nearby, they got out of the basket, and Applejack turned off the burner, got a wooden stake, hammered it down and tied a rope to prevent it from flying away in case there’s a wind blowing hard.
Silverstream and Yona walked closer to see that the village had minotaurs. Tons of them. They all had similar colors, grayish cobalt blue body and dark cobalt blue mane. Not all of them were male. There were also some females. They were wearing their clothing that helped cover up their chests, which appeared to have some mounds. There were also some males that had clothing, but they looked to be more of a way to keep warm and a hobby to them rather than women.
They all looked like bulls and cows that were walking on twos like the dragons. Yona and Silverstream now noticed they were all being looked at for being uninvited guests. The yak and hippogriff both gave nervous smiles as they waved. "Alright girls," Applejack said. She walked up to them after making sure of the balloon was fine and was surprised to see the minotaurs in this town. "Well, I'll be."
One of the minotaurs walked towards the three visitors. "Hold up. What are you three doing here?" he asked.
Applejack spoke up. "Well, these two young fellas right here, are here to help with a friendship problem."
"A friendship problem? Is that it?"
"It's what the map said, sir," Silverstream said.
"You have a map of this place?"
"Iron Will figured maps would be made," said a voice. The minotaurs and the three looked over to see one Minotaur that they seemed to know too well. Iron Will. There were several cheers for him as Applejack just gave a lowbrow.
"Of course," the farm pony sighed.
Silverstream and Yona whisperly commented between each other. "Hey, Is that one of the teachers that Discord brought on?" Silverstream asked.
"Yes. Yona remembers," Yona shivered.
"Still, he had to be a better teacher than that dragon sneeze tree." The two looked over to Iron Will who was now standing next to them. This made the girls jumped back in surprise.
"You two look familiar to Iron Will," he said.
"Same to Yona," the yak replied. She and Silverstream looked at each other before speaking to the minotaur. "Does Iron Will see problem?"
"Not around here. Iron Will show students around."
"What about her?" the other minotaur asked, pointing to Applejack.
"I'm just here to keep an eye on these two," Applejack explained.
"Iron Will can watch over yak and hippogriff," Iron Will notified.
"Hey, listen here..."
"You're really talking to Iron Will like that?" the minotaur questioned. "He's incredibly famous around here."
"...Seriously?" Several of the minotaurs backed him up. Yona and Silverstream were quite impressed with Iron Will's fans.
"Iron Will pretty popular," Yona commented.
"Yeah," Silverstream agreed. "Probably even more with his own kind around." The hippogriff flew up to the popular minotaur so she didn't have to keep looking up at him. "So, Mr. Will, can you show us around?"
"Of course," Iron Will responded. "Students follow Iron Will." The minotaur led the way through the village as the hippogriff and yak followed him.
The village had some square huts with straw roofs, quite similar to the ones in Ponyville. Though, these ones looked like they were built with function over form in mind. There were a couple of buildings, like a bakery, a clothing store, a small hospital, anything that a normal village would need to function.
"This is pretty nice," Silverstream commented. "It would probably look amazing if there wasn't so much snow."
"Iron Will agree. Snow gets annoying."
"Yona do love snow," Yona stated. "Iron Will just needs to get used to it."
"If you say so. Iron Will might not change his opinion." Yona just gave a low brow. "But it's still possible."
"So……where do you live?" Silverstream asked.
"Glad you asked." The minotaur pointed over to one of the houses.
"It... Looks like all of the other houses."
"Let Iron Will show you inside." He led the two visiting students inside of his home and they looked around. There was a room that had a shelf filled with a few trophies as well as some photos of him on the wall.
"Wow, those are some great photos."
"Thank you. I..."
"Wilbert, is that you?" called a voice. The minotaur, yak, and hippogriff looked over to an entrance to another room where a female minotaur walked out. She had blonde fur with some white fur around her hips and legs. Her horns, muzzle, and limbs were quite dainty compared Iron Will, and her hair was black and tied into a dutch braid. She wore an orange apron dress.
"Annie," the famous minotaur responded. The female minotaur walked over to him and they shared a hug. Iron Will looked towards the guests and decided to introduce them to the other minotaur. "Annie, I would like to show our special guests. Um..."
"Yona and Silverstream," Yona explained.
"Oh, it's nice to meet you," the female minotaur said. "My name is Annabelle, but you can just call me Annie. I see that you've already met Wilbert."
"I thought he was called Iron Will," Silverstream commented, confused.
Iron Will blushed as Annie explained. "Well, his fans may be able to call him that, but he's my boyfriend, Wilbert." She hugged the big minotaur again, who was starting to blush with embarrassment.
"Your real name is Wilbert?" Silverstream questioned.
“Yes. But that stays between us,” Iron Will ordered.
“Wilbert please, be nice,” Annie said.
“Sorry. I’ve got an image to keep up.”
“Well, Yona and Silverstream have friendship problem to solve,” Yona spoke. “Has Annie noticed anything wrong?”
“Hmm, well,” Annie pondered. “I have noticed Terry has been having a few issues lately.”
“Who’s Terry?” Silverstream asked.
“He’s our son. He should be at the library by now."
"I see. And where is the library?"
"We'll show you the way. Let me go get my coat, I’ll be right back." Annie went to get her coat as Yona noticed that Iron Will was starting to look a little upset.
A little bit of walking later, the two minotaurs led the students to the town's library. Inside, was quite a nice interior with carpeting and some lights. It wasn't as nice as Ponyville, it wasn't too bad. A few minotaurs were inside reading as they could see Iron Will walk in.
Since this was a library, they kept quiet but still whispered between each other of the idol being in the same room as them. "Excuse me, madam," Annie said to the librarian, "have you seen my son, Terry? He came here about half an hour ago."
“I think I saw him,” the librarian replied, “he was in the back,” Annie thanked her and they walked towards the back of the library. There, they found a lanky looking minotaur who looked to be a teenager. Like Annie, he had short black hair but also had beige fur and longer horns.
He looked up from his book and was surprised to see his mother. "Mom, what are you doing here?" he questioned.
"Now, Terry," Annie said, "I know you wanted to be alone, but we have a few visitors to our village." Annie then showed Yona and Silverstream, who quickly introduced themselves.
"Hi. I'm Silverstream," the hippogriff said. "You're Terry, right?"
"Um... Yeah. What are you?"
"I'm a hippogriff. I'm part griffon, part pony."
"Wow, that's cool. And what about your friend over there?"
"Oh, this is Yona. She's a yak." Yona gave a wave as Terry stood up he could shake the yak's hoof.
"Nice to meet you," Yona spoke.
“So am I,” he replied.
"Oh, this is nice," Annie cooed.
"Mom, come on," Terry groaned.
"I think its good you're starting to make friends." The young minotaur groaned as he put his coat on and picked up his book. He then walked off with his mother following him. Iron Will let out an upset sigh.
"Is something wrong?" Yona asked.
"Iron Will's just fine," the big minotaur replied. He looked over to some other minotaur who pretended not to look at him. Guessing that they were fans, Iron Will went to talk with them.
Silverstream gasped. "Yona," she said, "We just found our friendship problem!" The hippogriff was quickly shushed by the minotaurs in the library. "...Sorry." Given this, the hippogriff and yak quickly took their conversation outside. "Okay, so obviously it's Iron Will, Annie, and Terry."
"So, what Silver and friend do?" Yona asked.
"Well, we've seen you were pretty much the closest thing to Iron Will. You got along best with him at school."
"Definitely better than bugbear. Do you think that yak culture similar to minotaur culture?"
"Probably, based on the background though. Maybe we should stick around for a little while longer. I really think you and the minotaurs are going to get along well. We'll figure this out." Soon, they saw the three minotaurs walk outside. "So, do you have anywhere else to go?"
"Well, I think I need to stop by the market," Annie responded. "I need to buy some groceries. Care to come on?" Yona and Silverstream nodded.
"Iron Will will tag along too," Iron Will spoke. "Visitors deserve best service." Terry let out a quite frustrated sigh.
"Yona would like to see more of minotaur town," the yak spoke.
"Well, let's go then," Annie said. The two minotaur adults led the way with Terry, Silverstream, and Yona following behind. The hippogriff was just excited to see what was new, however, the yak realized that the young minotaur was just having a bit of a sulk.