The new students at the School of Friendship were beginning to get settled in. After Twilight made her announcement, a green earth pony with a mane and tail that were two shades of blue and a triple turtle cutie mark trotted along until he accidently bumped into somepony, or a some-griffon. A blue griffon that had arrived earlier turned to glare at him. "Whoa, sorry! I'm Sandbar. Are you a student here, too?"
"No," the griffon sarcastically replied with a roll of the eyes. "I just figured I'd randomly stand here and see how many ponies would walk into me." He blew upward, causing the feathers that were currently covering his eyes to be pushed upward.
"GALLUS!" The griffon suddenly froze, his head dropping low as he turned to the voice. It was an old griffon that had the balding head of a buzzard and was half blind with a scar over his eye. Rainbow, having also heard the voice, flew over and went wide-eyed.
"Grandpa Gruff?" Her friends remembered her and Pinkie telling them about this griffon, being one of the few remaining authorities in Griffonstone that they had met during a Friendship Mission there. "What are you doing here?"
The griffon flexed his wings, "Flew all the way from Griffonstone to introduce Gallus." He pointed at the young griffon, who looked up at Rainbow and raised an eyebrow.
"Rainbow Dash, right?" She nodded, "Gilda told me about you. You're a teacher?" She nodded again, a smile of pride on her face. "Huh. Thought you'd be...cooler." Rainbow's eyes went wide, looking as if someone had just insulted the latest Daring Do book. But before she could argue back, the doors to the school slammed open.
"PONIES!" They all spun around to see a familiar yak squeezing his way through the door.
"Prince Rutherford!" Pinkie cheered as she leapt over a bunch of annoyed defenders while Rutherford made his way over to the younger member of his species.
"This Yona Yak. She come to pony school. Hah! Make it better!"
Yona smiled and started running around, "Yak can't wait to meet ponies and tell all about Yakyakistan!" She was barreling around so fast that the ponies screamed and leapt out of the way to avoid getting flattened. Yona didn't seem to notice, only to trop over one of her extremely long braids and slam into a nearby column. She then staggered over and almost knocked a bust of Flash Magnus off a pedestal and pulled down a banner. Wild barely had enough time to catch the two while Pinkie grabbed a potted plant that had been on a shelf connected to the column.
As this happened, Applejack trotted over to her. "Why don't ah show yah around before you destroy the place?"
Yona nodded and the two walked off. As they did this, the rest started to focus back on what they were doing, only for another voice to call out, "But dragons are better than this!" They turned to see the Dragon Lord Ember, pulling a shorter orange dragon through the school. She then pulled her arm free and crossed them, "Why am I here?!"
Ember growled at her, "Because as Dragon Lord, I'm ordering you to be here!" She then turned her head to another dragon in the school, "Hey! Spike! Come meet Smolder." Spike quickly ran over with a big grin, running over to hug her, Ember patting him on the head as he pulled away.
"Great to see you, Ember!" He then saw something behind her and blinked, "Uh, which one is Smolder?" Ember spun around and went wide-eyed when she saw another dragon standing beside the one Ember had brought that was lankier and looked terrified.
Smolder looked her over, raising an eyebrow until they heard another voice, "Ocellus!" The lanky dragon shrunk back at the voice as Thorax walked up to them. "What did we talk about?!" The dragon glanced down before suddenly transforming into the changeling from earlier. Smolder slowly stepped back at this as Thorax glared at her, "I told you, stay in your own form! It's the polite thing to do." He then looked up at the rest and smiled. "Sorry. She's shy."
Spike was about to tell him it was okay, but someone else spoke up first. "What is that?!" Ocellus shook at the voice and morphed into a pony, running off as the voice's owner's flew after her. Silverstream looked amazed as she watched Ocellus hide under Fluttershy's mane.
"You weren't kidding about the shy part," Flash joked as Ocellus made the ponies Fluttershy was talking to walk away. "It's like Fluttershy version two point five."
As he said that, Silverstream flew up and looked Ocellus over. "No way! I didn't know ponies could turn into...um..." She pulled Fluttershy's mane away to get a better look, "What are you?"
"A changeling," Thorax chimed in.
"Ponies can turn into changelings?!" Silverstream asked, Fluttershy shaking her head.
"No," she stepped back so Ocellus wasn't hidden by her hair and patted her on the head, "But changelings can turn into ponies."
"Huh...I don't get it." Silverstream replied as an older hippogriff flew down, Ocellus slowly backing away until she was hidden under Thorax. Only then did she turn back.
"I am General Seaspray of Her Majesty Queen Novo's navy," the older hippogriff proclaimed, "I would like to introduce the queen's niece, Silverstream."
The young hippogriff continued to fly around ecstatically. "This place is amazing!" She went on and on about her life under the sea while Ace and Mira walked around as well. "Ooh!" Silverstream flew over to them, "What are you? I've never seen anything like you before!"
The pair backpedaled at this, only for Soul to walk over, "This is Ace and Mira. They're jakhowls."
"Oooooh," Silverstream's eyes went wide, "What's a jakhowl?"
At the same time this was happening, Heart was trying not to itch his hoof. As he did this, he almost flew into Smolder. "Whoa!" He pulled back, "Sorry." Smolder turned to glare at him, only for Heart to go wide-eyed, "Hey...have we met before?"
"I don't think so," she replied with crossed arms.
"No, I definitely remember you. Where was it...?" He rubbed his chin with his good hoof, only to go wide-eyed, "Oh yeah! We fought against one another." Smolder raised an eyebrow at this, "Oh...right. You probably don't remember because you were...brainwashed." Smolder began to glare at him again, making Heart gulp, "Sorry. Probably shouldn't talk about something like that."
"You think?!" Smolder hissed. "Who do you-"
"Everyone!" Twilight spoke up, making everyone stop and turn to her, "Thank you so much for supporting the grand opening of our school. I hope you'll all join us for Friends and Family Day to see the amazing progress your students are making."
Almost all cheered in excitement, Silverstream louder than most before beginning to head off to their living quarters. "Well," Flash flew over to her, "Things seem to be going well. Though I guess there's still time for everything to go pear-shaped."
"Nothing's gonna go wrong," she assured him while holding up the EEA guidebook. "School is now session!"
Heart and Ace both found they were roommates, though that was likely on purpose, the pair running into their room that was already decorated with everything they need. Since they lived right next to the school, it had been an easy task to move their stuff, though they didn't bring everything over, but enough to entertain themselves when they weren't in class or training with their mentors.
"This is gonna be awesome!" Heart cheered, "I call top bunk!"
"Hey!" Ace moaned, but didn't argue. He just sauntered over to a nearby beanbag and plopped himself down. "Eh, this isn't so bad." He looked over at the other side of the room, where a second bunk bed was located. The pair were going to have another two roommates.
It was here that the door opened to reveal Sandbar, "Hi there. Are you two my roommates?" The pair nodded with a wave as he laughed, "That's awesome!" He noticed they had already claimed one of the bunk beds and moved over to the other one, wondering which bunk he would have.
"Great." He turned to see Gallus step into the room, "You guys are my roommates?"
"Hey bro," the earth pony waved as Gallus rolled his eyes. "You want the top of bottom bunk? Guess the top since it's easier to fly up to it with wings." Gallus didn't reply and took to the air, landing on the top bunk and sitting in it like it was a nest. He then noticed Heart's bandaged leg.
"What happened to you?" Heart rolled his eyes, wondering how many times he was gonna have to explain this.
Over in the girl's room, Soul and Mira had also been made roommates with the pony taking the top bunk while the jakhowl was sitting on the floor, writing in her diary.
Suddenly, the door opened and Silverstream leapt inside. "WOO-HOO!" She exclaimed, "So this is a dorm room!" She then noticed the two and gasped, "And you're my roommates!" She flew over and picked them both up, hugging them super tightly.
"Ahhh!" Soul cried, "Glad to have you here too."
"But..." Mira could barely speak, "Need...air!"
"Oh!" Silverstream let them both go, the pair falling to the floor, "Sorry...still getting used to life out of the water. When you let something go, it usually floats there, you know?"
As she said that, Ocellus stepped into the room. "Hell...hello," she nervously waved. The other three waved as Silverstream landed on the top bunk, Ocellus moving to the bottom. She found the place was just the right size for her, though she might need to find a way to make more space if she had a book she wanted to read.
"So this is it?" Mira asked getting onto her bunk opposite of Ocellus. "The four of us are gonna be living together for the next few years."
"Sounds like fun!" Silverstream cheered, the others nodding. Things were definitely gonna get interesting.
Twilight was making her way through the halls of the girl's dorms when she heard a voice. "Help!" She gasped and turned a corner, only to come face to face with the rear end of a yak. "Yona stuck!"
"Great!" She heard another voice say from outside. "Those windows better open." It was Smolder, who by the sounds of it, didn't intend to help Yona.
"Is everything okay in there?" Twilight asked, making Yona turn to look back at her.
"Head-mare Twilight, Yona stuck in door!" Twilight quickly used her magic, causing Yona to glow before she was teleported inside the room. "Oh!" She smiled back at her, "Thank you!" Twilight nodded before activating her magic again, causing the door to grow a little, the surrounding walls changing to accommodate the size shift.
"There, that should prevent any more mishaps!" Yona smiled again while Smolder rolled her eyes. Due to Yona's size, Twilight had decided to put her in a bedroom that only had two beds. The room was slightly larger than the others, but enough to add one other creature so Yona wasn't lonely. "Well, I hope you two enjoy being roommates."
"Whatever," Smolder let out a thin burst of fire. "Just as long as she doesn't roll over in her sleep and fall on top of me." Yona grew somber at the statement as Twilight frowned.
"That's not a very nice thing to say," she told the dragon. "I'm sure you two will find living together to be great as long as you respect one another." Yona smiled and nodded as Smolder didn't reply, the dragon simply letting out another burst of fire as she laid down. Twilight let out a sigh and left, glad she had decided to put a fireproofing spell on all the dorm rooms. "Hopefully things will pick up tomorrow and everybody will start getting along."
The Next Day...
Flash had no idea he would be so excited for his first day of class, but there he was, getting to his classroom early to make sure everything was ready. And when the bell rang, he sat at his desk and stared at the many desks that would be filled, the sight making him chuckle since he actually never did any classes back in the day.
The door soon opened, students walking in, including Gallus, Silverstream, Yona, Ocellus, Smolder and Sandbar, along with several other ponies. Heart, Soul, Mira and Ace were all in another class, but he knew this class would be interesting given the many creatures there. "Hello class," he announced as they all sat down. Gallus and Smolder sat at the back of the class while Ocellus and Silverstream were at the front and Yona appeared rather worried that the chair she was on wouldn't hold her up long. "Welcome to Courage One Oh One." He got off his chair and flew on top of his desk, "I am you teacher, Flash Sentry, the Knight of Friendship."
"This is so lame," he heard Smolder mutter, though not quiet enough that he didn't hear.
"Smolder," she froze and sat up straight. "Why don't you come share your thoughts with the rest of the class?" The dragon frowned but got up and flew up to him, the pegasus waiting patiently with a smirk, "Well?"
"I said this is lame," Smolder grumbled with crossed arms. "I don't need to attend some silly pony class about courage." She thrust her thumb into her chest, "I'm a dragon. I'm fearless."
"Oh..." Flash chuckled, "So you're an idiot?"
This statement made everyone go wide-eyed, including Smolder, "What did you just say?!"
"You're an idiot," Flash repeated. "Either that, or a complete liar." Smolder's eyes narrowed at this, about to yell before Flash hopped off his desk, "You see, there are only two types of creatures that believe they have no fear. Those who are lying to themselves and hiding their fear, or those who are so stupid they can't see the danger of a situation right in front of them." He glanced back at Smolder, "So if you're really fearless, you're either a liar, or an idiot." He slowly leaned up to where his face was inches from hers, "Which is it?"
Smolder glared back at him, only for nothing to come out of her mouth. Instead, she simply looked away and crossed her arms. "That's what I thought." Flash told her to sit back down and when she did, he stared back at the class. "Here's lesson number one about fear: It's okay to have it." The class all blinked at this, making Flash chuckle, "I know it sounds confusing, but hear me out. This world can be a scary place. There's danger practically around every corner. If we didn't have fear, ponies, hippogriffs, dragons and every other race would have been wiped out long ago. Being scared of something means you know it's dangerous. You know it could hurt you if you're not careful. That keeps you on guard and ready to act if you need to."
"So then why do we need to learn about courage if being scared's okay?" Ocellus asked, Flash smiling at the question.
"Being scared is perfectly fine. It's allowing your fear to control you that you need to learn to overcome. Courage isn't the absence of fear, but being scared of something dangerous and still doing what you must to help those you care about. When my friends and I faced off against Nightmare Moon for the first time, we were all scared. But we knew that if we let that fear stop us from fighting against her, Princess Celestia would be forever trapped and the sun would never rise again."
"Oh!" Silverstream held up her claw, "Oh, oh, oh!"
"Yes Silverstream?"
"Is that why the Element of Courage exists?" She replied, "Because you courageously fought against Nightmare Moon?"
Flash shook his head, "Kind of, but it's more complicated than that. Friendship and courage are linked together in a way. Having those you care about, like friends and family, can give you the courage to do anything that you might have been too scared to do before. Likewise, friendship is something that requires courage to do. After all, the other Elements of Harmony all require courage in order to exist." He looked over at the class, "Who here can tell me what those elements are?" Nopony raised a hoof at first, but then Ocellus slowly did so. "Yes?"
"Magic," she started, "Along with laughter, honesty, kindness, loyalty and generosity."
"Very good," he nodded, "And each of those qualities is something that you need for courage." He then flew around the class. "It takes a lot of courage to stick with your friends through thick and thin, even if abandoning them would be easier. Sometimes telling a lie might seem like the better situation, so it'll take a lot of courage to be honest and accept the consequences of doing so. When things get hard, you need to be brave and laugh those hardships away long enough to overcome them. And being both kind and generous to others also requires courage, especially if you're scared they'll use those qualities against you. If you let your fear of the bad things that'll happen when your kind, loyal, generous, honest and laughter control you, then those qualities will disappear forever." He landed back on his desk and smiled at them. "That's why courage is such an important part of the Elements of Harmony. It's the shield that protects them and what allows you to use them in your everyday life."
"Wow..." Sandbar gasped, "I never thought about it like that. It's kinda cool."
"Maybe," Gallus added, actually sounding interested, "But how the heck are we supposed to learn courage? Isn't it something we're supposed to just have?"
"You're not wrong." Flash nodded. "Every creature has courage. All you need to do is find it. And that's what we're here to do. For the rest of the year, I'll be coordinating with the rest of your teachers to make exercises designed to use what you've learned at the school and apply it with practical application."
"Prac...tick...cull?" Yona asked, "What that mean?"
"It means using what we learned in real life situations," Smolder chimed in, "Like being told how to fly and then actually doing it." Flash nodded as he jumped off his desk, "But how the heck are we supposed to do any practical exercises in this stuffy classroom?"
Flash laughed at this, "It would be pretty hard to do that in a classroom, wouldn't it?" He flew above his desk again, "But luckily, we're not in a classroom." This made everyone tilt their head at the pony, only for Flash to touch the middle of the desk. When he did, the desk glowed before it disappeared and a floating crystal appeared, which also glowed as Flash touched it. The light spread out and everything in the room aside from the inhabitants were now glowing before vanishing.
The students all yelped as their chairs disappeared and they fell to the floor while the room reshaped itself to look like a blue grid lined dome. "What the heck?!" Gallus exclaimed, "What is this place?!"
"This is the school's training room," Flash chuckled, "I had a friend of mine in Canterlot finish it up and install it when Twilight wasn't looking." He patted the crystal, "This is a perfect copy of a gem that's in the castle of friendship. With it, we can make this room look like anything we want, which means you can be put into any situation I can think of that'll help you practice what you learned in the other classes."
"Cool..." Smolder whispered.
Flash smirked and pressed the crystal. "Maybe we'll be practicing kindness." In the blink of an eye, they found themselves in Manehatten and spotted an old lady having trouble crossing the road. "Or maybe we'll be practicing loyalty." Another flash had them all on a ship that was broken in half and sinking, one pony trapped and about to go under on one end and the other end having a mountain of gold that would be lost forever. "Or maybe we'll be practicing doing something goofy." The place changed to look like a game show stage with the six that had already spoken behind the contestant podiums. "There we are," he finished as the place returned to normal. "This crystal will allow me to control the environment and situations, plus it can store the programs for you to practice with at a later date."
"Okay," Smolder chuckled, "That's pretty cool." She rubbed her claws together, likely imagining all the fun she could have with it when nopony was around.
"I'll also be checking its logs frequently," Flash instantly chimed in, "It can also record all of its uses and play them back to show you what you did wrong, which also works as an excellent way to find out if any creature was playing with it when they shouldn't have." Smolder sunk back at this and crossed her arms, making the others giggle, "Now, let's get started with the first drill of the year. You all ready?"
"Ready for what?" Ocellus asked, "I thought you said you were gonna use what we'd discussed in our other classes to make the exercises. We haven't had any other classes."
"True. So for now, I'll be seeing how well everypony here can work together on a crisis. See what areas we need to improve on." As he said that, the room transformed again. This time, it became an open field with no end in sight. A moment later, a lake appeared a few hundred meters away with a few buckets beside it before a pair of houses formed behind them...and then both burst into flames.
"FIRE!" Yona cried before leaping behind Sandbar, trying to hide despite the fact she was twice his size.
"Relax," another pony told her before moving over to it. "This isn't real." To prove his point, he pushed his hoof into the flames and didn't feel a thing. "See." But when he pulled it back, nothing came out. Everything up to his knee was gone. He gasped and looked ready to start panicking, but Flash pressed the crystal again. After a second, his hoof reappeared.
"Yes, none of this is real. But if the fire touches you, that part of you will disappear for the rest of the exercise. And yes Smolder, I've taken into account that dragons are fireproof." The dragon smirked at this, only for a pair of voices to start screaming.
"Somepony in there!" Yona cried, Flash nodding.
"Just an illusion. But that is your task." He pointed his hoof between the group, "We'll be splitting into two groups." The class split at the point he was pointing at, with one group being made of the five non-ponies and Sandbar, while the rest of the class made up the second group. "Good. Now the object of this drill is simple. Work together and put the fire out, then save the pony inside. Everybody understand?" They all nodded, "Then let's get going! And...BEGIN!"
With that, the two groups ran to the lake. "So what do we do?" Ocellus asked, "Just fill up the buckets and use them to put out the fire?"
"Can't be that simple," Gallus replied as he looked over at the other group and saw the single unicorn there using his magic to fill up the buckets, the two pegasi taking one each and flying above the house while the three remaining earth ponies took the other buckets and rushed back to the house in order to splash it onto the bottom of the house.
"We've gotta work together!" Sandbar chimed in, "We gotta use what we can do and find a way to save the pony inside the house!"
"Then let's hurry!" Silverstream cried as she grabbed all the buckets and dived into the water, a flash of light coming next. Moments later, she appeared out of the water in her seapony form, the hippogriff laughing as she swam around and splashed the water.
"How'd you do that?" Ocellus asked, only for a scream to remind them what they were doing.
"Doesn't matter!" Gallus grabbed one of the full buckets and flew over to the house. Smolder and Silverstream, who quickly changed back to a hippogriff, followed him and they got to work pouring the water onto the house as fast as they could.
Ocellus, Yona and Sandbar did the same, Yona's horn proving quite useful at carrying multiple buckets of water. But whenever they splashed an area with water and put out the fire, they had to go back to the lake to refill, giving the flames time to heat the wet areas and dry them out. So when they all got back, they found the spot was again aflame.
"This isn't working!" Gallus yelled after the fourth bucketful, the flames not looking a bit weakened.
"To heck with this!" Smolder threw her bucket away, "I'm fireproof. I'll just go in and get them."
She then dived down into the building, Ocellus exclaiming, "Wait! We don't know how structurally secure that place is!"
But Smolder didn't listen and crashed through the window, the flames not affecting her at all. "Hey!" She looked around, "Pony! You in here?!" A cry of help made her turn to see a pony currently trapped under some fallen rubble. The dragon tan over to free him, only for the ceiling to suddenly break apart and collapse on top of her. "AUGH!" She yelped as the heavy wood and stone pinned her to the ground, "Can't...move."
Her teammates watched and waited, Flash frowning when he saw this before shaking his head as Sandbar asked, "What's taking her so long?"
"Smolder!" Ocellus yelled, "Are you okay in there?"
After a few seconds, Smolder's voice called out. "I'm...fine!" Flash frowned at this and used the crystal to create a screen that showed the inside of the house, Smolder still trapped inside.
"Damn dragon pride." Smolder couldn't get hurt, but this was gonna make her team's task a lot harder.
After another half minute of doing nothing, Gallus chimed in, "What the heck are you doing in there?" Smolder was still under the debris, squirming as she refused to explain what happened. In that moment, Ocellus morphed into the dragon form she had pretended to be the previous day.
She flew up to the window and spotted Smolder, gasping as she flew inside. "Hold on," she grabbed some of the debris and started lifting it off her. "I'll get you out."
Smolder growled at this, "I don't need any help!" Her cry made Ocellus gasp and pull back as Smolder tried to pull herself free. "I'll get out on my own. Just...save the pony or something." Ocellus turned to the trapped pony and was about to save him, but then more of the house began to collapse between them.
The changelings cried out and flew out the building, "I can't." She flew down to the others, "Smolder's trapped and I can't get to the pony."
"Then free Smolder!" Sandbar added.
"I don't need anyone to free me!" Smolder roared from within the house, "I can save myself!"
"Yona bring more water!" The yak used her horns to pick up all the buckets and rush back to the lake, filling them all up in one go before heading back to her team. But as she got closer, she slipped on her braids, "WHOA!" She cried as she went barreling, her teammates gasping and leaping out of the way. She smashed into the front of the house, causing the already structurally impaired building to break apart, the flames now spreading to Yona until she smashed out of the back of the house. Though all that was left when she did was her head that was rolling around.
"Yona no like this!" She cried as she came to a stop upside down. As she did this, the house began to crumble and collapse in on itself. Inside, Smolder was actually scared she was about to be crushed.
"I've seen enough," Flash sated as he pressed the crystal. Doing so caused the entire house to vanish, Smolder now falling onto soft grass with a loud 'umph' escaping her mouth. Yona's body reappeared and she was able to roll back to her hooves, she and the rest of her team all frowning at the failure. "Can any of you tell me what you did wrong?"
"We let the house fall apart?" Sandbar replied while slowly looking back at their teacher, Flash then telling him to keep going. "And...we didn't save the pony."
"That was the consequence," he responded, "But what caused the house to fall apart and prevented you from saving the pony?"
None of them answered, Flash's eyes then drifting over to the other team. They followed his gaze and saw the pegasi quickly flying back and forth from the lake, the unicorn giving them a newly filled bucket while taking the empty ones to fill back up. And at the same time, the earth ponies were digging up the ground around the house and throwing the dirt onto the house to keep it from catching back on fire.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Smolder yelped, "We don't have magic!"
"No," Flash shook his head, "But you all have your own skills you could have used if you worked together." The fire was almost completely out and the pegasi took this chance to fly inside. A moment later, they flew back out with the pony they needed to save. "But you all did your own thing and that caused you to fail."
"How exactly could working together had made things easier?" Gallus asked next.
Flash did a small sigh before turning to Ocellus. "Could you possibly turn into something that would have made refilling the buckets quicker, or something that could have stored a lot more water?" Ocellus blinked at the suggestion, only for a second later, transformed into an elephant. She dipped her trunk into the lake and after a few seconds, pulled it back up and sprayed water at where the house had been.
"Well, how were we supposed to know that?" Sandbar asked, "We didn't know she could turn into an elephant!"
"Neither did I," Flash pointed out. "All I did was ask her if she could become something that might help out."
"Sorry," Ocellus turned back to normal, "I should have thought of that from the start. I'm not used to changing into things that could help me like that. I probably wouldn't have turned into a dragon if I hadn't seen Smolder do it."
"Hang on there Ocellus, its not just you who's at fault." Flash chimed in, "The point is, you all should have worked together and asked about one another's abilities and skills. But instead of trying to mix and match your skills, you did everything on your own. Smolder, you shouldn't have just rushed in there, and you should have let Ocellus help you." The dragon frowned and looked away, crossing her arms, "Silverstream, playing around in the water during an emergency isn't a good idea." The hippogriff flinched at this, "Sandbar, you said what you were supposed to do but didn't make any suggestions on how to do it." Sandbar blushed at this, "Gallus, you barely did anything, and when you did do something, you barely put any effort into it."
"Whatever," the griffon huffed, glancing away as Flash moved over to the yak.
"And Yona," he held up her braid. "I know having long braids is a yak tradition, but you should really try to find a way to make sure they don't get in the way. Constantly tripping over them is gonna cause major issues to not just you, but those around you too."
"But Yona can't cut braids!" she gasped, "Braids super special!"
Flash stared at the hair, only for nothing to come to mind. "Well...I'm not the pony for that. Maybe you could talk to Professor Rarity. She's bound to have a way to fix them up without cutting them." He turned to the others. "I want you all to think about what happened here today and how you might be able to improve the next time you do something like this. And try to remember, don't just think about what you can do when it comes to a problem. Think about what you and those around you can do."
With that, he stepped over to the other group to go over what he noticed with them. And as he did this, the six students all looked away from one another. Some sad that they had failed, others looking angry while the rest were unsure. As this happened, Flash glanced back at them, only for the defender to sigh, "We've got a long way to go..."
The School of Friendship's first lesson hadn't exactly gone well, but it was a start. Hopefully, things would improve as the school year went on. Because if they didn't, the school would never get approval.