"OK, hold it! Hold it! And... Now!"
The bright flash that came from Yona's camera briefly lit up the surrounding area before the light levels returned to normal. The image sucessfully taken, the sound of printing could be heard as an image popped out of the top of the camera. Yona did her best to reach for it, but her front hooves couldn't reach properly. "Yona can't get picture out!"
The teacher trotted over and with a burst of her magic freed the image, lifting it up into the air. "That's because the mechanism jammed, Yona. I'll need to give these a look before we go out on another photography class."
Yona had to admit she liked the new teacher the school had hired to teach them the art of photography and printing. A unicorn, she had an off grey coat and green eyes, combined with a rather messy two tone orange mane and tail. She also had a cutie mark of a ladybird on her flanks, which Yona guessed explained her name of Shutterbug. These new cameras were also extraordinary.
"Yona want to thank teacher for fixing cameras. Yona think these cameras are better than the ones we have back in Yakyakistan."
Gallus laughed. "I never thought I'd hear Yona say that pony technology was superior to Yak tech."
"Yona think it true!" the yak replied, looking somewhat annoyed at the griffon. "In Yakyakistan, when yak want to take picture, yak need to set up camera the size of igloo. Then, yak needs to hide under black cloth and hold pylon with light up in the air. But no picture pops out of the camera. Yak then needs to take the picture to a dark room and put it in water to develop it. This takes time!"
"Well, I can see why you took to these ones so quickly," Shutterbug smiled, as she checked over the camera. "Of course, we won't be using these polaroids for very long. See all the printing equipment on the top?"
"Yes?" the two students said, looking at what their teacher was pointing to.
"All of this adds uneccesary weight and makes it hard to set up easily, which is why I wear this neck rig to hold it in place. It also makes getaways harder-"
"Huh?" Gallus asked. "What was that?"
"I meant getting away from the media hounds!" Shutterbug said hastily. "Where was I? Ah, yes. They're developing new cameras that store their images on a magical box on the inside of them, which can be taken out and plugged into a printer, allowing you a lot more space for pictures and better and quicker printing, but it also means we don't need to lug as much paper about!" She pointed to the trailer behind them, labelled 'paper'.
Yona nodded. "Yona looks forward to trying these cameras out. But Yona has a question."
"Yes?" Shutterbug asked in return, as she turned around.
"Yona want to try photographing nature. Yona not sure why we've been photographing carts for several minutes."
"I was teaching you the importance of tracking, panning, and tilting," Shutterbug replied. "A tracking shot is when you follow the object on its course of movement. A pan is when you move the camera from left to right. And finally, a tilt is when you move it up and down."
"Shall we start taking pictures?" Gallus asked, as he and Yona began to wander off.
"Sure! Yak love photography! Yak can finally have snapshots of the world around her! Yona can't wait to show parents."
"Don't wander too far! Be back here in 45 minutes!" Shutterbug called, as she watched them step away into the distance. She turned to herself and smirked. "I don't think those two are going to be a problem."
"Do you think there's something off about that teacher?" Gallus asked Yona as they strolled along. "Rock, over there."
"Thanks Gallus!" Yona replied, as she stepped to one side. "Yona don't think anything wrong with teacher. Teacher is... what pony word? Excoriable? Excitable? Excalculable? Excavated?"
"Did you mean 'excentric?'" Gallus asked.
"Yona did! Yona had word on tip of tongue," the yak replied, as she stuck her tongue out. "As well as a brussel sprout." She ate it and burped loudly. "Yona like brussel sprouts."
"I can see that," Gallus sighed. "I'm not so sure she's just excentric. She seems to be rather odd. I can't quite put my talon on it, but I have to say I've seen behaviour like that somewhere before."
"Yona don't agree. Yona think Gallus too suspicious."
"Maybe I am," Gallus brought his camera up. He then took a picture of a copse of demolished trees. They had been reduced to their roots. Oddly, the remaining stumps looked like petals or flowers that were reacting to the sunlight, waking up before the start of the day. "This is weird. These trees fell over strangely, so I think I'll take a photograph." He brought the viewfinder up and took a snap. "Good shot, that," he added, as he looked at the image.
"Yona wander what happened here," Yona noted, trotting over to a tree stump and poking it with her hoof. "Tree appears to have totally vanished. In fact, Yona think that the trees were removed with some tools or magic."
"That would explain the hair here," Gallus noted, pointing to an orange hair stuck in one of the weird tree stumps. "Possibly left over from one of the construction workers."
"Gallus, Yona!" called Shutterburg's voice from over the hill. "We need to start heading back to the school, as it's starting to get late! Besides, you don't want to miss dinner, do you?"
All other thoughts suddenly vanished from their minds, and both the griffon and the yak shot out of the trees and back towards the school at a speed that rivalled Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom for sheer endurance. However, the strange discovery and the behaviour of their teacher sat at the back of Gallus' mind.