//------------------------------// // What Lies Beneath // Story: Flash Sentry, Defender of the Peace S8 // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// It was the start of another fun day of learning at the School of Friendship. Classes were a good while from starting, so many of the students were having breakfast in the cafeteria. Gallus, Sandbar, Ace and Smolder were messing around at one table while Ocellus, Yona and Silverstream were eating at another and going over some history notes. "Yona no get pony history," the young yak sighed as she tried reading some of Ocellus' notes. "It's not that hard," Ocellus assured her. "You just gotta remember which order everything came in, then you can start adding dates to each event." "Alright Yona!" Silverstream announced as she caught a grape in her mouth that Gallus had thrown from the other table. "Try this one: Which of these events came first? Flash and the Royal Knights defeating Doom Raizer, or the First Battle of Canterlot?" "Um...um...um..." Yona stalled, Silverstream laughing before catching another grape in her mouth. "You can do it," Ocellus chimed in, "Imagine how impressed Head-Mare Twilight will be during the history lecture." As she said that, Mira came in and walked over to the girls. "Morning. You history cramming?" She asked, the others nodding as she picked up some of the notes. "I think Discord's return came before Flash's trip to Omniara." "It does?" Silverstream asked, letting out a groan at her mistake before getting bopped on the head by an apple. "Hey!" She looked over at the other table, seeing Gallus, Ace and Smolder laugh at the accident head attack. Ocellus then turned to Mira. "Alright," she gave her several cards, "Put these all in order." Mira looked through the cards and smirked before putting them down. "Twilight and the others find the Elements, First Battle of Canterlot, Discord's return, Changeling invasion of Canterlot, Crystal Empire's return, trip to Omniara, Tirek's return. Time!" She looked up at the others, but none seemed to answer, "Seriously?" "You never asked us to time you," Yona pointed out while Silverstream caught an orange without looking. "You're really good at history," Ocellus added. "What can I say. When you don't really know your own species' culture, you try and find one to fill in the blanks. Ace is probably just as eager to learn as me." Mira smugly replied, only for a cupcake to hit the side of her head. "HEY!" She spun around and saw Ace was the one who had thrown it, the other jakhowl gasping when he saw his misfire. The yellow wolf cub growled as the cupcake slid off her head, knowing this meant war. Heart and Soul were walking through the school, on their way to breakfast as Soul let out a yawn. "Late night?" Her brother asked, Soul nodding. "You really need to learn to put a book down. I get it was probably interesting, but it's not gonna disintegrate if you don't read it all right away." "First off, it can considering this school has three individuals who could accidently turn a book to cinders." Heart gave her a deadpan glare at that as she continued, "Secondly, the reason I was up late was because Mira, Ocellus and Silverstream were all talking in their sleep." "Oh?" Heart rubbed his hooves together, "Do tell." "I don't know what they said. Most of it was really mumbled. I think I heard Silverstream say something about a king and Ocellus something about a queen. They both looked like they were having a bad dream or something, but that's all I was able to pick up." "Huh," Heart shrugged. "Well, what about Mira? Was she having a bad dream?" "No idea," Soul shrugged as the cafeteria doors came into view. "She was mumbling something but everything I heard was too slurred to make out. I just hope their nightmares didn't make them grumpy today. I'd hate for their bad dreams to ruin their day and make them fall behind in their schoolwork." "I'm sure they'll be fine. Watch. Today will probably just be another normal day at the school." But as soon as he said that, the cafeteria doors flew open as a pony was thrown over the twins. He screamed as he hit the ground, sliding along before getting up and running away. The siblings shared a glance before looking inside the room, only to see students racing out as they saw a bunch of cafeteria tables now piled up into a giant pyramid. And standing atop that pyramid was Ace, with Smolder, Gallus and Sandbar on lower tables around him. The jakhowl laughed as he stared down at Mira, Silverstream, Yona and Ocellus. "I'm king of the castle! I'm king of the castle!" Silverstream flew up and stomped her hoof onto the end of the few remaining tables, a carton of milk in her claws. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! Justice will be..." She squeezed the remaining milk out of the carton, "DELICIOUS!" "YEAH!" The rest of the girls cheered as Ace smirked, the jakhowl jumping down to an area where a bunch of watermelons lay on a table. "Off with their heads!" He landed on one end of the table, throwing it and the melons upward. The others quickly started kicking them at the girls, who all took evasive maneuvers. "Yona!" Mira yelled, the yak running up and using her horns to catch two of the melons before swinging them around to deflect the others. As she did this, Silverstream flew over and grabbed a pair of long baguettes. She swung them around to deflect more melons while Yona then launched the ones on her horns toward Gallus and Sandbar. "Whoa!" Gallus leapt out of the way, Sandbar instead getting hit. Gallus then grabbed his own baguette and held it like a sword, swinging it around to block the two Silverstream had with the pair locking eyes and smiling at one another. They then split apart and started dancing through the air, swinging their weapons at each other. Silverstream then threw one of her baguettes at Gallus, but he backflipped as the bread shattered on impact with the floor. He quickly used this chance to fly up and thrust his baguette into her chest, knocking Silverstream back as her other bread roll fell to the ground. Gallus grabbed it along with Ace and Smolder grabbing their own, the trio throwing their bread like javelins at Yona. The yak quickly deflected to with her horns but the third hit her in the head and knocked her back. As it did this, Mira leapt over her with a tray and landed on the table. She slid along it, only to do a bunny hop right into Gallus, knocking him into a vending machine. As this happened, Smolder leapt at Mira, but the jakhowl backflipped behind Ocellus, who had grabbed a bunch of ketchup bottles and transformed her legs into octopus tentacles. Wrapping them around the bottles, she made them explode and unleash a stream of ketchup that covered Smolder head to toe. "WHOA!" She screamed, unable to see where she was going and crashing into a table covered in food. The contents flew all over the place as Ace ran up, grabbing a broom off the ground and using it to pierce another watermelon. He swung the melon at Ocellus, but Mira jumped in front of her, the fruit mallut slamming into her and knocking the jakhowl back. This gave Ocellus the chance to grab some cookies off the ground and started throwing them like ninja stars, Ace dodging and deflecting them all as he swung the mallut into Ocellus' chest. As this was happening, Silverstream recovered before seeing Ocellus flying backward. She gasped and leapt into the air, grabbing the changeling seconds before she hit the wall. "Ocellus!" She cried, looking her over as the changeling played dead. "Don't leave me!" But she continued to look unconscious. "NOOOOOO!" Yona charged at this as Smolder pulled herself out from under the table, the yak grabbing more melons while the dragon armed herself with a pair of leaks. The two charged at one another, Yona swinging her horns around to punch Smolder, who blocked each blow with the leaks. The two grinded against each other before Smolder leapt up and threw the leaks, Yona deflecting them both before launching the melons. Much like Sandbar, Smolder couldn't dodge in time, now getting blasted back into another vending machine. As she was, Ace took over with his melon hammer and started swinging it at Yona. The yak could only defend and tried to avoid the attacks, only for Ace to use an upward swing, hitting Yona right in the chest. Everyone watched as the yak was shot straight up and broke through the roof, Ace tilting his head. "Huh," was all he could say before realizing his melon was shattered. And before he could get another one, Silverstream charged at him, swinging around a bunch of hay-dogs like a whip. She wrapped them around Ace's whole body and spun him around, the jakhowl unable to break free until he was released and sent flying back into the table pyramid. As he crashed into it, Gallus got up and took the many cans now littered across the floor. He smirked at this as Sandbar and Smolder did the same. Silverstream found herself being bombarded with cans, which shattered on contact with the ground, spraying fizzy liquid all over her. "Ahhh!" The wave that followed slammed into her, washing her back into a wall, landing right where she had placed Ocellus as Mira picked herself up. The yellow jakhowl turned to the opposing team and saw them all smiling at her, but it was Ace's cocky smile that really got her going. She growled as her eyes suddenly started glowing, her body moving on its own as she shot forward. And in the blink of an eye, she had almost reached mach speed. "Huh?" Were Ace's only words when he saw this, Mira moving so fast she unleashed a powerful wave of wind behind her. That wind was so powerful that all the food and drink scattered around the floor was lifted off and flew behind her. "No way!" Was all he could say before Mira shot past him, the jakhowls locking eyes for a second before Mira zoomed off. The next thing Ace knew, the wind slammed into him and the others, throwing them all back after Mira. The yellow jakhowl suddenly came to a complete stop a foot away from the back wall, the force of her stop causing the wall to become covered in cracks. Seconds later, her four opponents crashed into the wall and Mira leapt straight up. This was followed by a wave of food and drink flying toward them, the four unable to do anything except brace themselves as the entire wall was painted. And as Mira landed, the light that had been coming from her eyes dimmed to nothing. She blinked as she looked back at the wall and saw it looked like an abstract painting with a hundred colors covering the cracked wall. A few moments later, four shapes fell off to leave clean parts of the wall in the shape of a jakhowl, dragon, griffon and earth pony. Over with the twins, Heart couldn't help but laugh. "I love this school sometimes." He then turned to Soul, only to flinch as he saw she was now drenched in purple stuff. She didn't get to say anything though, as another door suddenly shot open and Twilight rushed in, followed by Flash. "What is going on in here?!" She roared, only to gasp when she saw the state of the cafeteria and the students responsible. The group turned to smile at her and act innocent, though that plan went out the window when a yak meteor came crashing down through the ceiling and almost crushed two of them. "I can't believe you lot!" "Yeah," Flash nodded, "You know the food fight isn't scheduled until next week." Twilight sighed and summoned her magic, which quickly spread across the entire cafeteria. Within seconds, every table was back where it was supposed to be and all the damage had been repaired. The mess on the walls and floor quickly vanished, and the only proof there was ever a food fight was the state of the students who were still a sticky food mess. "Now...what to do with you?" They all gulped as Flash placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Now hold on. Don't just scare them like that." "Flash..." She hissed back at him, only to see her boyfriend shake his head. "Don't be harsh. They already know they did wrong here." She glared at him, only to look back at the students. They all nodded in agreement, making her sigh, "I suppose...they are the future of their kingdoms." "And they will be," Flash added as they watched the students stare at one another and laugh at the mess they were. "But right now, they're still kids. They won't get to be that forever." The food fight was the talk of the school for the rest of the day. Since nopony was actually hurt, those involved didn't get much of a punishment. Despite its rambunctious start, the rest of the school day was like any other. The eight students that had been in the fight soon found themselves in one of Twilight's lectures, today's topic being the Tree of Harmony. Many of the students were having trouble understanding this topic, making them worry when Twilight announced a test the following day about it and other historical events Friendship played a part in. And as soon as the day's classes were over, most of the eight headed to the library to study. The only one who didn't was Mira, who wanted to go talk to Springer. And so, the seven friends spent the next hour or so holed up in the library. Ace was currently sitting on a beanbag next to Yona, a book in his crossed lap as he frowned. Despite how important the test was, Ace couldn't get his head around what had happened that morning. The strange burst of speed Mira had done was something he didn't understand, and he knew that's why Mira went to go see Springer. "Why can't I do that?" he whispered to himself. "The Elements of Harmony grew the Tree?" He then heard Smolder say, making him look up from his book to see her and Gallus on one side of a table while Sandbar and Ocellus were on another. "No!" Ocellus told her, "The Pillars grew the Tree." "The Tree grew the Elements," Sandbar continued, "And then the box with seven locks." "But our professors found seven keys and unlocked the box." Smolder and Gallus shared a look, Gallus sighing. "I'm so gonna fail." "Hey everyone!" Silverstream flew down to them, holding a book in her claws. "Check this out!" She opened it up and Gallus stared at the book, Ace wondering what was so amazing about it. "That's a plumbing diagram on how to fix a sink," the griffon told her, Silverstream giggling and nodding. "What does that have to do with Equestrian history?" Sandbar added. "Nothing." She put the book down, "I just can't believe that's how sinks work!" As she said that, the library doors opened and Mira ran inside. "Everyone! Guess what?!" "You travelled to the future and discovered it's actually being ruled by seahorses?" Silverstream asked, everyone turning to her with raised eyebrows, "What?! You told us to guess!" Mira shook her head. "I talked to Springer and you'll never believe what he thinks happened to me this morning." Ace heard this and jumped out of the beanbag, "He thinks I accidently used Velocity Strike!" "Velocity what?" Smolder asked. "It's a jakhowl attack," Mira replied, "It lets us move at super high speeds and attack our opponents a several times in a single second. It's one of the strongest jakhowl moves there is." "And you used it?" Ocellus asked, Mira nodding. "When I told him what happened, he said that I might have used a weaker version of it. He did the same thing when he was still learning the move." "Aw..." Ace crossed his arms, "Why do you get to learn a new move and not me?" "Jealous?" Mira smirked, Ace growling at her before she waved her paws, "Relax, Springer said I can't learn it yet. Apparently, that attack's super dangerous. If I use it before I'm ready, I could hurt myself, so Springer said I'm not allowed to try and use it again until then." "How long will it be before you're ready?" Gallus asked, Mira shrugging. "He said to wait until I can at least enter my battle form." "What's that?" "That's the form Springer's always in." "Oh. How long will that take?" Silverstream asked, the pair shrugging. "You jakhowls can be weird sometimes. Being able to change what you look like without a magical item. It's so mysterious." Ace and Mira smiled at this, only for Silverstream to glance around. "Where's Yona?" Ace pointed at the spot he had been sitting before, the group turning to see the young yak laying on a beanbag, holding a book in front of her face. Gallus stepped over and pulled the book away, revealing Yona was fast asleep and snoring. Smolder couldn't help but laugh at this. "Apparently, yaks no love study groups!" She imitated Yona as she did this while Gallus put his claws to his lips to shush them all before flying up. Once he was above Yona, he started walking his claws up her face. This made Yona hit her face with her hooves as she was jolted away. "Spider!" She cried, leaping up. "No!" She curled up on the bag as the others laughed, Yona then realizing what had happened. But before she could glare at them, they heard more giggling and turned to see Cozy Glow up on a ladder. Sandbar waved at her. "Hey Cozy. What are you doing here?" "I volunteered to help Professor Sparkle organize these books. So," she jumped down, "Experts on Equestrian history yet?" "I think I'd be better off studying the plumbing book," Gallus sighed. "This stuff is impossible." But as he said that, Ocellus transformed to look like Twilight. "Oh come on, Gallus!" She jumped onto a table. "With good friends and solid study habits, anything is possible!" Gallus couldn't help but laugh at that while Smolder gave Ocellus a smirk. "How about you just tell us what's on tomorrow's test, professor?" In reply, Ocellus transformed into Applejack. "Now, hold on a sec. I can't give y'all a sneak peek. That there wouldn't be honest." They all laughed again, all except Cozy, who flew up and bumped Ocellus off the table before clearing her throat. "Golly, it's so inspiring how relaxed you all are about studying friendship, considering your disadvantage." The students all blinked at her, Yona speaking up, "What cute pony mean?" "Yeah!" Ace added, "How the heck are we at a disadvantage?" "Just consider where you all came from," Cozy pointed out, "If Sandbar hadn't sacrificed so much of his time to get you up to speed, who knows how behind you'd be?" She jumped down as they all frowned, Sandbar speaking up. "That's...not what-" "I mean," Cozy focused on Ocellus. "Growing up as a love-starved changeling?" She turned to Silverstream, "Or hiding underwater from an evil king all those years? Trusting any-creature must be so hard for you." Ocellus and Silverstream looked at one another, only for Cozy to point at Gallus, "And griffons never want to be around any-creature, even other griffons." She spun around to Smolder, "And dragons are so fierce compared to us. There must be days you can't wait to get away from all us cute ponies." "I think you've made your point Cozy," Mira deadpanned. "Oh," Cozy turned to her and Ace. "And jakhowls must have the hardest time making friends." The two tilted their heads at this, "A lot of the friendship lessons talk about how you can only be true friends when you trust somepony without a doubt, even if it means leaving yourself open to being betrayed. But jakhowls can sense when others around them are being dishonest. If you can tell just by looking at somepony that their trustworthy, how can you really trust them the way a friend is supposed to?" "Um..." Ace turned to Mira, the jakhowl shrugging back as Cozy turned to Yona. "'Everypony know yaks think yaks are best!'" She imitated the yak, who frowned back, "Making friends with any other creature must seem like a step down." Finishing her speech, Cozy landed on the table, "It's just so impressive how you keep trying to understand friendship even though it isn't in your nature." "Who says it's not in our nature?" Ace asked, "Springer made tons of friends before we all arrived." "I guess. But he's a defender of the peace. I wonder if the ponies of Ponyville would have been so accepting of him if he couldn't fire laser beams or pick out criminals from a large crowd. And the changelings and dragons only really became friends with us after we helped each other fight off another enemy. In fact, you all only seem to have fun fighting one another." "That's not true," Gallus replied. "You had a food fight this morning." "That was one time," Smolder added. "What about the other week, when I was walking by the boy's room." Cozy was walking through the school with a smile on her lips, only to hear a noise coming from an open door. Looking inside, she spotted Ace, Gallus, Sandbar and Smolder jumping around the room, throwing pillows at one another. Ace leapt over one pillow and threw another one, hitting Smolder in the face and knocking her back. "Okay," Smolder crossed her arms, "Two times." "Well, have you ever done anything fun together that didn't end with you all breaking into some form of play violence or cause damage to the school?" They all turned to one another, only for Ocellus to chime in, "Oh! I know of one time!" Ocellus was in her room, reading a book on her bed when Smolder and Silverstream rushed up to her. "Ocellus," Silverstream smirked, "Can we borrow some of your books?" The changeling raised an eyebrow at this, since all her books were about things she thought only she would be interested in. "Really? You're interested in my books?" "As many as we can get," Smolder replied, Ocellus smiling at this and was suddenly flying around in a flurry of motion. "This one is a classic, you'll love it. Oh, this one is really dark and romantic. No wait, this one seriously changed my life." With every second, the stack of books in their possession grew larger and larger. "Great!" Smolder cheered from behind a stack taller than her, "We'll take 'em all." Ocellus squealed at this. "See?" Ocellus cheered, "That time they were having fun together reading." She turned to the two in question, only to see a pair of guilty looks on their faces. "What?" "Well..." Smolder gulped, "We didn't end up using the books like that. You see..." Silverstream's head poked up over a wall of books, the hippogriff being surrounded by books on all sides. On the other side of the room, a second book fort had been erected. "Smolder!" She exclaimed, "Unleash our fury on the enemy!" Seconds later, Smolder leapt up from behind her with a book in claw. "Fire in the hole!" She screamed, tossing the book into the second fort and hitting the walls at the front. As soon as it hit, the wall completely collapsed to reveal Ace and Sandbar behind it. "Sir!" Sandbar cried, "The fort's been breached!" "Prepared for claw to claw combat!" Ace yelled, Smolder and Silverstream smirking. "Take no prisoners!" Silverstream yelled as Smolder landed back in the fort. "I didn't know books could be so much fun," the dragon laughed before arming herself with another book. "Seriously?!" Ocellus yelped, Smolder and Silverstream flinching at this. "See?" Cozy smiled, "It's your nature to fight against one another. But despite that, you've all learned to be friends." The eight of them all frowned at this, "Oh! I'll let you borrow my notes! It's what friends do. I'll be right back!" She flew off, leaving the eight. "We...should...get back to studying," Silverstream muttered out, the group slowly getting back to work, but it was anything but productive. Hours passed with the sun going down, but the eight students refused to go to sleep until they were ready for the test. But as they sat around the table staring at the books, their minds were elsewhere. They couldn't stop thinking about what Cozy had said, tempers now fraying. And as this happened, Silverstream started mindlessly tapping her claws on the table, Gallus feeling his nerves rise. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't, only to soon snap, "Could you stop that clicking?!" Silverstream flinched at this, "I'm trying to focus!" "Dude!" Sandbar yelled. "What?!" He barked back, "We have a test!" "I'm with Gallus," Ace nodded, "I didn't want to say anything, but it was getting on my nerves." Silverstream frowned at this as Gallus groaned and turned to Sandbar, "I need to focus. I don't know every detail about every adventure the professors went on like you do." "That's why we're studying together," Ocellus added. "Right," Smolder rolled her eyes, "To help us 'disadvantaged' creatures." "Don't listen to what Cozy said," Mira crossed her arms. "She doesn't know what she's getting at." The others frowned at this, not able to do anything but think about what she had said. "Yona confused. Why we all upset?" And before anyone could say anything, a loud clanking sound echoed through the school. Their heads shot up at this and turned to the source, Silverstream flying off around some bookcases and returning a moment later. She gestured them to follow, the group all getting up at this. They walked over and found it was a metal drainage hatch, which had been pushed open by a crystal, but not like any crystal they had ever seen. It appeared to be a tendril-like shape that was poking up from below the drain and curling around the cover, the crystal letting out a soft glow. "What is it?" Ace asked. "I only glanced at that plumbing book, but I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to be here." Smolder crawled up to it and ducked her head down into the hole, Ocellus flinching at this. "What are you doing?" Smolder pulled her head back and turned to her. "Dragon," she gestured to her before pointing at the hole. "Strange magical cave. What do you think I'm doing?" With that, she dove in and the others glanced at each other before following suit. One by one, they squeezed through the hole and found the crystal tendril was just the tip of a larger crystal that had grown sideways up through the hole. This allowed those that couldn't fly to slide down into the cave, which was being illuminated by the crystal. The cave then split off in multiple different directions, with the walls, floor and ceiling having the same crystal vines digging through the rock. "Did we know this was down here?" Silverstream asked. "I don't think anypony knows this is down here," Sandbar replied. "Then we should go tell Twilight and the others," Mira added, about to climb back up the crystal, only for hoofsteps to echo through the air. "What was that?" "It came from over there!" Ace pointed at a tunnel, the group quickly running over and staring down it. There they saw a purple glow, which was twinkling in the light of the crystals. And as it got closer, they were able to make out the details of who they were looking at. "Welcome." It was Twilight, only she was glowing and covered in the aforementioned twinkles. The way she spoke was rather stilted, almost sound like she was hypnotized or something. "Headmare Twilight?" Sandbar stepped up, "Where are we?" "Where you need to be," she replied in the stilted manner. "Uh..." Yona scratched her head, "Yona confused." "It is as I feared," Twilight continued, "You are not one. What has happened?" "Nothing," Mira replied, "We just...hit a bit of a friendship...slump." "Friendship slump?" Twilight asked, Ocellus walked up next. "We were studying friendship's effect on history, but then..." She wasn't sure how to explain it, the memories of Cozy's words echoing in her mind. "Since friendship just isn't in our nature, what's the point?" Gallus chimed in. "You do not believe friendship is in your nature?" Her previously stoic expression suddenly turned to one of anger and annoyance, "That is NOT ACCEPTABLE!" Her voice echoed through the cave as a powerful wind suddenly blew through, making the students flinch. "Our headmare is glowing, you guys," Silverstream quivered, "What is going on?!" "I don't think that's Twilight," Mira replied, "It's alive, whatever it is, but its aura seems...weird." Ocellus turned to the others and whispered, "We should probably get back to studying for the test." The Twilight's eyes flashed, as if a brilliant idea formed in her mind. "A test." The wind that swirled around them was suddenly sucked into Twilight's horn. "Yes." Her horn sparked, only for the crystal that led them down here to start growing larger. They watched as the hole they had come through was slowly being blocked off. "By sunrise, this door will be closed. Finish the test before then, and you may go. Fail the test, and here you will stay." With that final statement, her body glowed wide and unleashed a powerful burst of light. The students all screamed and shut their eyes, Mira turning away from it.And when she felt the heat of the light die down, she opened her eyes again and saw she was now alone with the crystal cave around her looking very different. "Um...anyone?" She called out, but nobody replied. When Ace opened his eyes, he found he was back in his bedroom in the Castle of Friendship. "Huh?" He quickly hopped off his bed, moving to his door and stepping out into the hallway. "Hello?" He called out, "Anyone here?" But there was no answer, "Ooookay. This is kinda weird." He began to search the castle, checking every bedroom before moving on to the rest of the castle. But the place was entirely deserted. "Okay," he gulped, "This is just weird." Mira moved through the corridors and as she did, only to spot a hole in the wall that seemed to lead somewhere rather bright. "YES!" She ran up and squeezed through the hole, only to find it led outside into a forest she recognized. "The Everfree Forest?" She squeezed the rest of her body through the hole and tried to figure out the direction of town, hoping to tell Twilight and the others what had happened. But as she ran, she began to hear sounds coming from up ahead. The sound of fighting, the noise making her brain tell her to go around in case it was a pair of wild animals fighting, only to hear something else. "Aura Blast!" Springer's voice called out, making her gasp and run toward the battle. There, she saw Springer was battling against something that terrified her: A cragadile. She gasped and hid behind a tree as Springer blasted the rocky caimen back. "Ace, how you doing?" Mira went wide-eyed at this, only to glance back out and saw Ace fighting another cragadile. "Hiyah!" He thrust an Aura Blast into the cragadile, knocking it back. "I'm good." He then turned to her, "Mira! Finally! We gotta take care of these things." Mira blinked at this, only to sense something behind her. She spun around to see a large cragadile, growling as it stared at her. The jackhowl glanced back to see the others too busy fighting other cragadiles to help her. So she brought her paws together to make her own Aura Blast, thrusting the paws as the orb flew out...and bounced off the creature's rocky skin. "Come on!" Springer yelled as he fired an Aura Blast, knocking away another. "You can do better than that! Put some effort into it!" Ace then created another Aura Blast that was larger than normal, which he fired at the cragadile in front of him, making it stagger back. "Great work kid. Guess having more aura has its advantages." Mira flinched at this, only to look back at the cragadile, the differently colored jakhowl trying to form another Aura Blast. But as she tried to do it...the aura wouldn't come out. "What's happening?" She asked as she did the pose again, only to see that the attack wouldn't form. "I can't be out of aura already!" The cragadile snapped its mouth at her, the jakhowl screaming as she leapt back, only for her back to hit a tree. She then looked back up and saw the monster open its mouth again, raising her paws to summon some aura...but nothing would come out. "No..." Ace had now left the castle, glancing around as he went over to the school, only to find nothing. There wasn't even a bird flying through the air. He was about to reach out and see if he could sense somepony, only to hear a loud scream in the distance. He spun around and followed the noise, quickly running into Ponyville, only to come to a stop. The town was destroyed, buildings torn up, carts upturned and piles of debris everywhere. "Hello?!" He called out, "Anypony there?!" "HELP!" He turned to see Berry Punch in a half destroyed house, surrounded by strange looking creatures. They were an odd mole creature that was a mixture of black, blue and white with a long pink-tipped nose. "What the heck?" He yelped, only to see the creatures try and slash Berry. "Do something!" She yelled, Ace quickly forming an Aura Blast and firing it. The creature saw this and suddenly dived through the ground like it was water, causing the Aura Blast to hit one of Berry's couches, making it explode. "Hey! Do something other than wreck my house! Come on, Springer wouldn't have missed!" Ace grimaced at this, charging at the other ones, summoning two Steel Paws and slashing at them. But as he did this, the creatures dived into the ground again, making him miss and accidentally slash up Berry's furniture. They then popped out behind him and swung their large claws at him, Ace barely hopping back. The creatures then turned to run out of the house, Ace quickly giving chase. And as he did this, he saw a bunch of ponies up ahead who were all frozen in fear. He quickly created another Aura Blast and fired it, but the creatures dived into the ground again and the blast ended up destroying another house's wall. "Watch it!" The pony he knew as Time Turner cried. "For Celestia's sake, Springer's defeated much more powerful beings than this! How are you having so much trouble with these things?!" Ace growled at this as the creatures leapt out of the ground all around him, Ace charging at the closest, but missing as it dived back underground while its friend kicked him in the back. "Augh!" Ace yelped, only for multiple holes to suddenly appear and surround him, the creatures sticking their heads out of them. Thus began a game of whack a mole, Ace attempting to hit one, only for it to duck its head back underground and stick it up a moment later from another hole. And as he did this, the ponies watched with low glares on their faces. "What a failure." "Where did Springer go wrong?" "I heard Mira can already use Velocity Strike." "He's an insult to Springer's name." "Shut up," he covered his ears after missing for a fifth time. But the pony's words continued to make their way through to his head, followed by laughter, "I SAID SHUT UP!" Suddenly, the ground beneath him broke apart as the mole creatures grabbed his legs and pulled him down. He cried out as he was pulled underground, darkness overtaking him. And when he opened his eyes, he saw he was inside a tunnel surrounded by crystals. The moles were standing beside the crystals, smirking at him before stepping back and phasing through them into their reflective surfaces. Ace picked himself up and formed an Aura Blast, firing it at the closest mole, but the creature leapt away and into another crystal mirror. "What the-what are you?!" "You know what I am," the mole spoke...in Springer's voice. "What a useless jakhowl," another creature spoke in Mira's voice. "Would rather goof off than train to get stronger," the last one spoke in Flash's voice. Ace began to pant as the moles slowly starting transforming, changing colors until they became the image of the ones they were mimicking. And as they did this, they all began to laugh. "You're a failure," Mira told him as her reflection grew larger. "And to think, Springer's put all his faith about the jakhowl's future into him," Flash added. "That was certainly a mistake," Springer spat before laughing. "Don't worry. You don't have to do any more of that training. I'll just focus all my attention on Mira. She's clearly the one worth training." "No!" Ace fell to his knees as they continued laughing at him. "I don't wanna stop! I want to keep training!" "Why?" Mira asked, "It's clear you're useless. Look at everything you've done." As she said that, the remaining crystals started showing images of his life. "Almost got me and yourself killed by going into the Everfree Forest," the crystal showed the cragadile that Springer saved them from. "I-I-I didn't know that was gonna happen!" "You needed Mira's help to make your first Aura Blast," Flash added as the image showed him and Mira firing the blast at Shade. "Mira needed my help to make it too!" "You were almost eaten by giant spiders," Springer sighed as he showed Ace the time they went to the old jakhowl castle "But I learned Steel Paw!" "You couldn't even save me," Mira chimed in as the image of her statue form appeared, followed by his own. "Then you were turned to stone yourself." "Oh Celestia!" Ace fell to his knees, "Stop it! Stop it now! How long do these career highlights go on?!" The three reflections continued laughing, more and more images of everything Ace had ever done continued to appear, showing how horrible he was. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Mira was still trapped against the tree as the cragadile got closer, her aura continuing to sputter out as soon as it was generated. If Springer and Ace had noticed her predicament, they didn't seem to care and just kept taking down the cragadiles attacking them. "Come on Mira!" Ace yelled, "I've already beaten twelve of these things! You shouldn't be having this much trouble with one!" Mira glared at him as the cragadile reached her, its snapping mouth ready to swallow her whole. She felt fear flow through her as she looked back at the others, wondering why they were leaving her to this fate. "You wouldn't do this to me!" She screamed, only to go wide-eyed, "Wait...you wouldn't do this to me." She glanced back at the monster, "Twilight said this was a test...and this is my test." The cragadile thrust his mouth at this, Mira quickly leaping to the side as the creature bit into the tree, its teeth getting stuck in the wood. "I might not have as much aura as Ace," she growled as she took a fighting stance, "But there's other ways I can fight!" And as the monster ripped its mouth out of the tree, Mira charged in as fast as she could. It wasn't as fast as what she had done that morning, but she managed to slam into the cragadile with a great blow. The impact knocked them both into the water of another pond behind the cragadile, the two slowly sinking. The creature seemed to be panicking at this, Mira now remembering something from Fluttershy's class, about how cragadiles only lived in shallow water. Their rocky bodies meant they sank and this pond, strangely, appeared bottomless. The monster tried to bite at her, but Mira just dodged it. She then dug deep and summoned as much aura as she could, forming a tiny sphere that she threw at the beast. The impact caused a small explosion, but it was enough to blow the cragadile deep into the dark depths of the water. Mira flinched at the sudden need for air, the little jakhowl quickly swimming upward until she broke through the surface. Gasping for a few seconds, her breathing slowly got back to normal, only to glance around. As she did this, she saw she was no longer in the Everfree Forest anymore. She was back in the cave, inside a puddle of water barely deeper then she was tall. The jakhowl moved over to the edge and pulled herself out, shaking her entire body to dry herself off. "That sucked," she groaned once she was as dry as she could be. She sighed and thought about what had just happened, "I hope that was enough for me to pass this stupid test." She then remembered her friends, knowing they were probably dealing with similar situations. Hopefully, they would have completed their own tests and gotten out already. She saw the crystals tendrils that were sticking out of the walls, light flowing through them in a single direction. A part of her believed this was some kind of direction shower, the jakhowl following the lights as they went through the crystals that ran through the entire tunnel. And soon enough, she arrived at the area she and her friends first arrived in. As she approached the crystal leading out, she sensed two other auras approaching. Moments later, Gallus and Smolder arrived. And Smolder looked rather different to how she normally looked. "What happened to you?" The dragon asked when they all arrived, Gallus seeing Smolder wearing a blue dress, tiara and makeup. "What happened to you?" Gallus asked, Smolder quickly removing the clothes and wiping away the makeup. "You never saw any of that! Got it?!" The two nodded and they all looked up at the grate, seeing more and more of the crystals growing to fill it. "Maybe the others got out already and we're the last ones?" Gallus asked. "Yeah," Smolder growled, "That totally seems like something they would do." Mira looked down at the other tunnels, knowing their friends were likely each down a different one, only for Gallus to add, "Any other dragon or griffon would save themselves and get out of this crazy cave." Smolder smirked at this. "Guess we aren't just any dragon or griffon anymore." "Guess not." He turned to Mira, "Any idea which way they are?" Mira held up her paws, trying to reach out. But every time she tried, she felt her aura being blocked by something. "No. I think that crazy Twilight lookalike is keeping me from finding them." "Then we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," Smolder replied. "You go that way," Gallus told Smolder as he pointed down a tunnel. He then pointed at another, "Mira, you look over there. And I'll check over there." They nodded and split up, each running down a different tunnel. Mira ran as fast as he could, soon finding it was turning into a wall of mirrors. "Ace!" She called out, "Sandbar? Yona?" And as she yelled that, a sound filled the air. Crying. "Hello?" She called out again, following the sobs. They got louder, the jakhowl soon realizing she was listening to Ace, the yellow jakhowl grimacing at this. And when she ran around a corner, she spotted Ace curled up leaning against one of the mirrors. "Ace!" She ran up to him as he lifted his head, Mira now seeing he really was crying. "What's wrong?" "Like you don't know," Ace sniffled as she got close. But before she could touch him, he jumped back. "Ace, it's me. I'm trying to help." "Why?! So you can have something else to hold over me as well?!" Mira flinched at this, unable to see what he was looking at in the mirror crystals. "Just leave. Springer probably cares about you more than me." "What are you-that's not true!" Mira barked back, "You know Springer cares about both of us equally!" "Yeah right," Ace looked away, "You don't get it. You're smarter. You understand what he teaches you easier. And you've already learned how to use another ability without me. It's clear if he had to pick, he'd pick you over me in any situation." "Stop saying that! Springer cares about us both and you know it! Now come on. Let's get out of here." But as she said that, images appeared on the crystal walls. "What?" She asked when she saw herself, who was laughing along with Springer and Flash. And then more ponies appeared. Heart, Soul, Twilight, the Mane Seven, the Defenders and many more. Each of them were laughing at Ace and saying mean things, Ace covering his eyes and ears, "STOP IT! Just leave me alone!" "Ace!" Mira yelled, the reflections beginning to distort and turn into hazy images. "It's not real! This is all an illusion! They're just saying that to get inside your head!" "But it's true!" Ace screamed, "Everything they're saying is true! How am I supposed to live up to Springer's legacy when I'm worthless?! Everything he's done...how am I supposed to compare myself to him?!" "You don't have too," Mira tried to step closer, "Springer doesn't expect you to outdo him. All he wants is for you to be happy with your life." "You know it's not that simple. One day we're gonna be the last jakhowls alive. Everypony in Equestria is gonna be looking at me the same way they look at Springer." He curled himself up again, "They'll expect great things from me. And I...I can't do anything great. I'm not special like you." "Like me?!" Mira yelped, only to shake her head, "It doesn't matter if I'm smarter than you or figured out how to use Velocity Strike first! You're just as special as I am. Your aura is way stronger than mine." She looked down and remembered what she had seen earlier, rubbing her arm as she did so. "In fact...I've always been kind of jealous of you." Ace slowly looked back up at this, "You're...jealous of me?" "Of course," Mira fell to her knees. "You're stronger than me in so many ways. You can make more Aura Blasts than me and figured out how to double up your Steel Paw before me. And when we train, you always have more energy to use when I run out. You're stronger than me, and honestly, I've always been afraid I couldn't keep up." "Really?" She nodded back, "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna give up. No matter what life throws at me, I'm gonna face it head on." She looked up at the crystal mirrors, at all the angry faces staring down at them and laughing. "These aren't real, and what they're saying isn't true! It doesn't matter what you do with your life. You can try and be like Springer, or you can choose to be a baker. Either way, Springer won't think any less of you and neither will I!" "You...you promise?" "I promise. We both have flaws and will probably never be able to do everything Springer's done. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be any less happy with the life we have." She stood up and held out her paw, "So come on. Let's show these fakers they can't get into our heads. And whatever the future throws at us, we'll get through it together." Ace smiled and took her paw, Mira helping him up as the two looked around at the mirrors laughing at them. And as they did this, their auras activated and the pair began to glow. "You're right," he growled, "I'm not a failure. I might not ever be as good as Springer, but I don't wanna be. I wanna be the best me I can be, faults and all!" He glared the twisted reflections down as the light from their auras glowed brighter. "So don't bother trying the mental crud on me! As long as my friends are there for me, I know I can handle anything. So do us all a favor and GET LOST!" With that, the light exploded off of them and struck the crystals. The reflections screamed as the light vaporized them, Ace's fears vanishing along with them. And once they were gone, Ace sighed. "That was cathartic. Alright, let's go find-" He didn't get to finish as Mira was suddenly hugged him. "Er...okay. Wasn't expecting this." "I just wanna make sure you're feeling better," she told him before pulling away. "And I promise, I won't let Springer give up on you. We're in this whole last jakhowl thing together." Ace smiled and nodded, the two then turning to run up the way Mira had come. When they returned to the exit, they saw Gallus and Silverstream were already there, only for Smolder and Ocellus to come in next. Silverstream saw them approaching and frowned, since they were still missing two. "Where's Yona and Sandbar?" "The way out is closing!" Gallus added, the crystals blocking up more and more of the hole. "We aren't leaving without them!" Smolder declared as Mira and Ace tried to reach out and find them. But as they did this, they sensed many...many life signs heading their way. "Something's coming!" Ace yelled, creating a pair of Steel Paws as he stared down a passageway. But as he did this, they all heard the scuttling of many legs getting louder. They all got ready at this, only to see their yak friend running out of the tunnel. And she wasn't alone. "Yona find you all!" She cheered as hundreds of spiders behind her started circling around them. They all cried out and the fliers leapt into the air, Ace and Mira grabbing onto Gallus and Silverstream's claws. "Hey, Yona." Silverstream's fear slowly faded, "Who's your...spider army?" Yona smirked. "Yona always scared of spiders. But then Yona meet Spindle." She held up a hoof, the group now seeing one of the spiders waving at them. "Ooookay," Ace gulped, "Since when did you have Fluttershy's powers?" The yak chuckled at this, "Yona realize no reason to be afraid. Spiders and yak friends! So Yona ask new friends to help finding old friends!" "Do you think your new friends can help us find Sandbar?" Gallus asked, Yona looking down at Spindle as he pointed at one of the tunnels. The rest of the spiders began scuttling down the path as Smolder turned to the others. "Of all the strange things that have happened tonight, that's the strangest, right?" "Eh," Mira shrugged, "I stopped keeping track of strangeness levels a long time ago." They ran after the spiders, through the tunnel that began to get brighter as they moved. And as they did this, Sandbar's voice began to speak up. "I've always looked up to you. You would never turn your back on each other, and that's what makes you strong." They turned a corner and saw Sandbar glaring at Rainbow and Rarity. "Now I have a group of friends that I think is every bit as amazing as yours. If I have to give up on them to make you proud, then you aren't the ponies I thought you were! I don't care if I disappoint you! You disappoint me!" They reached in just in time to see Rainbow and Rarity smiling at him, the pair then vanishing in a shimmer of light. "Did you just tell our professors you were disappointed in them?" Silverstream asked, making Sandbar flinch before turning around. "Something tells me those weren't actually our professors," he replied as he saw all his friends, "Besides, they tried to get between me and my friends." "That's all very sweet," Smolder added, "But can we please get out of here?!" They all nodded and ran back the way they came, hoping that the way out hadn't closed itself off yet. But it had. By the time they returned to the chamber, the crystals had grown to almost completely cover the hole. Sandbar rushed up the side to try and get through, but he couldn't even fit his head between the crystal gaps. Ace and Mira prepared to create an Aura Blast, hoping to break through it, but in that moment, a flash of purple made them turn to see the twinkling Twilight staring back at them. "You!" They heard Sandbar yelled, "You're not Headmare Twilight, are you?" Twilight shook her head, only for Ocellus to gasp. "You're the Tree of Harmony!" This time, she nodded. The group then stared at her in confusion. "The Tree of Harmony turned into a sparkly version of our headmare to talk to us? Did I miss a chapter in class?" Twilight walked up to them at this, "Like all living things, I change as I grow. As I have grown, so have my abilities." "I'm a bit rusty on pony history," Gallus glared at her, "But since when does the Tree of Harmony trap creatures in a cave with their biggest fears?!" Twilight shook her head, "You chose what you saw in my roots, not me." Sandbar then gasped, "Our friendship got us past our fears!" Twilight nodded again, "You were more concerned with each other's well-being than your own. You were strong when your friends were weak. You let each others in and showed that you would be there for each other, no matter what." The eight friends all smiled at one another, realizing she was right. "Friendship is in your nature." With that, she exploded into a bright light which blinded them again. And when the light faded, she was gone, and the sound of cracking filled the air. They looked back up and saw the crystals blocking the exit were shrinking away, freeing them to return to the school. They smiled and began to climb out, Gallus turning to Sandbar and Ace. "We just learned a friendship lesson from a tree, didn't we?" "Wouldn't be the weirdest thing to learn from," Ace chuckled before they left the cave. And as the last of them pulled themselves free, Cozy appeared from around a bookcase. "You're all alright! I came back with my notes and saw this and didn't know what to think!" She exclaimed with a huge frown, "What happened?!" "We're better than alright! We just got tested by the Tree of Harmony!" The others smirked with pride as Silverstream got right up in the pegasi's face. "And we totally passed!" Cozy looked like somepony had just told her the sky was polka dot. "The Tree of Harmony? Here?" "Yeah!" Silverstream pointed at the floor. "Well, below here. Under the school! We found this and went down and met the Tree, and Gallus was all, 'Friendship is not in our nature.' And the Tree was like, 'Whaaaaat?!' And it tested us!" She stuck her beak right up into Cozy's nose, making the filly flinch. "Long story short, friendship is in our nature. The Tree said so." Smolder added, the whole group smiling as Cozy saw her words from before were completely forgotten. "I guess we should tell somepony there's a giant magical hole in the library," Ocellus chimed in, only to look back and see a crystal tendril reach up and pull the grate back into place. "Or not." "We have to tell our professors about this!" Sandbar exclaimed, "They won't believe that-" "You can't!" Cozy cried, pulling on her cheeks. "Why no?" Yona asked. "We got lucky," Ace added, "We were able to pass the test. What if somepony else goes down there and isn't so friendship natured?" Mira nodded as Cozy stared panicking. "Because..." She dropped to her flank, looking down at the ground. "It's my fault." Raised eyebrows were aplenty at this statement. "You were all getting along so well, and I felt left out. I was jealous. And it upset you so much, the Tree of Harmony had to test you." She gasped, as tears formed in her eyes. "Oh! I'm gonna get expelled for sure!" She started crying. "Please don't tell anypony about this! Especially the professors! Please, please, please-" "Okay!" Smolder slammed a claw into her mouth to shut her up, then let out a yawn. "I'm actually too tired to do anything right now." Mira let out a yawn as well, "Spending all night fighting against our deepest fears, running around a giant crystal cavern right after a full day of school and a food fight." Ace then yawned at this, "it's enough to make anyone sleepy." "Yeah," Sandbar nodded, "But we can't go to sleep. We'll miss the test." They all wondered what he was talking about, only for Gallus to yell, "The test! I almost forgot!" But his eyes drooped as he did, the griffon unable to keep them open. Ocellus let out a yawn, "We're all gonna fail." One by one, the eight students fell to the ground and slowly began to fall asleep. Cozy looked them over and smiled, "What if I tell Professor Sparkle I needed help organizing these books, and you were all kind enough to pitch in? I'll get you an extension!" Sandbar let out a yawn as he fell to the ground, Ace leaning against him, already asleep. "Thanks, Cozy. That's nice of you." "I'm just so sorry I caused all of this," she replied, "You're such good friends. I'm sorry I ever doubted you." "Mmm..." Silverstream said in her sleep, "No problem. Friendship is..." She didn't get to finish as she completely fell under and started snoring. Cozy continued to smile as she looked them over. "You get some rest. Don't give any of this another thought." She then turned to the hole in the library floor, hundreds of thoughts filling her mind as she stared into it. "Just let Cozy take care of everything." The smile on her face wouldn't leave, as her plans gained a new factor.