Meanwhile, in another building…
“Ummmm… Yona? Yooooooonaaaaaaa…”
Sandbar’s voice echoed out far down the darkened hallway, which made him gulp worriedly with a skewed muzzle. Unlike his friends, the stallion had a slightly easier time tracking down his girlfriend. After seeing that emptied bag of brown sugar, his years of reading detective comics prompted him to search for more clues. Luckily for the pony’s investigative skills, that just meant following the surprisingly consistent trail of trash the yak left behind.
Just outside the Home Ec room, Sandbar found an empty box of saltine crackers. One of the corners had a very obvious bite mark taken out of it. Further down the hall, he was able to find a trail of torn pieces of foil that led Sandbar out of the building. He eventually found an empty, half-torn box for fruit snacks that came in individual packages. He had no idea where that came from, but he knew that family-sized pack would do nothing for Yona if she had the munchies.
He found a discarded six-pack of root beer after that, with all the cans still in the plastic rings while crushed and hanging off a bench. He tried following the sidewalk past that bench, hopeful that he could find the yak somewhere around campus. Unfortunately, all that Sandbar did was discover another piece of trash outside the Cafeteria building. He groaned with a disappointed pout, instantly recognizing the bag from his dorm room. “Oh, come on! She ate ALL my cereal!?”
Sandbar had just bought that huge bag of ‘Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs’ the other day, but now all that remained was an empty bag with one of the corners coated in drool
Sandbar wanted to be more upset, but his focus returned to the doors of the cafeteria. His eyes widened slowly, and he entered the building in hopes that there wouldn’t be any signs of the yak wandering in there. But alas, as soon as he walked through the doors, he was met with the unfortunate sight of all three of the school’s vending machines in the main hallway being ripped open from the door-latches. Nearly three-quarters of the stockpiles of junk food were ripped off the racks, with only the blue raspberry-flavored candies remaining.
Sandbar gulped with a knowing wince. Yona hated blue raspberry products with an unnatural passion, because in her words, ‘Yona doesn’t trust any food with colors that lie. Food has no reason to lie!’
Considering how that was her mindset while sober, Sandbar could only anticipate whatever she might have to say now. And just past the wrecked vending machines, a much more obvious trail of wrappers and empty bottles led down the hallway he was currently trotting down…
“Yonaaaaaaa…” He looked around frantically, but it seemed that no ponies were in this building while the bake sale was underway. He wanted to be grateful for that, but the emptiness of the spacious halls made him feel like he was about to star in his own horror movie scene. It didn’t help that the trail of garbage was leading him towards a darker portion of the hallways where the candles weren’t lit…
And to make matters worse, Sandbar froze when he heard some muffled grumbling from within the wall of darkness.
“Mmphhh… Mlem mlem mlem… Mmmmmmm~”
He closed his eyes tightly for a second, but breathed out before opening his muzzle. “Y-Yona?”
“Hmmm?” Her voice became much clearer after she cleared her throat. “Oh, Sandbar! Come on! Yak needs to hide evidence!”
He then heard more intense noises from Yona’s direction, composed mostly of wet slurps and something crunchy being broken repeatedly. He took a deep breath, and kept his muzzle tightly clasped shut when he stepped forward. When he ventured into the darkness, his eyes were slowly able to readjust to see the large moving figure huddled near a corner. Sandbar reached into his saddlebag, and used his trusty lighter to re-light one of the candles hanging on the wall. As soon as the hallway was reilluminated, he jolted back with a startled, “Nnnnghhh!!”
Yona was looking up at him wide-eyed, but she didn’t remove that pint-sized cup of ice cream wrapped around her muzzle. She also didn’t stop lapping up the contents inside, which somehow had something crunchy enough to make Sandbar’s ears twitch. She eventually pulled her face back with a sloppy-sounding squish, leaving her muzzle completely caked in melted vanilla and weird chunks of something bright-orange. She held out the devoured cup for the stallion, not noticing his grossed-out expression. “Ooh! Yak made this just now! It’s vanilla ice cream, and spicy nacho chips!”
She beamed wide and pridefully, looking like she just discovered the cure for cancer. Meanwhile, Sandbar reluctantly took the container with a wince, and watched as she went back to another opened bag. She had over a dozen different pieces of junk food circled around her on the floor, like some weird shrine dedicated to the Unholy Yak of Slobbery and Munchiedom. She wiped the melted ice cream off her face with the back of her foreleg, and then dove muzzle-first into a bag of pretzels.
“Aww jeez…” The pony bit his lip and placed the melted tub on the ground; he hated to admit it, but he probably would have enjoyed that if he was on Yona’s current level. Even with the limited lighting, Sandbar could see how red his girlfriend’s eyes were while half-lidded in bliss. He had no idea how Yona would react to the truth, but by this point he knew he couldn’t just pass off this behavior as being normal. Or at least, he knew that she would likely get really upset if he waited until she got sober to admit what’s wrong. “Ummm… Yona?”
“Hmph?” Yona still munched on pretzels with the bag around her face like a muzzle-guard. She still looked up at him quizzically, which just made Sandbar feel more guilty and avert his eyes.
“Uhhhh… I just checked the gymnasium, and… I was really hoping to ask where those brownies went.”
“Hmmmm…” Yona pulled the bag off her face, and sat with a contemplative expression that was littered with crumbs and food-stains. She tapped her chin with a hoof and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. Her bushy brows quickly flagged up as she put down her hoof. “Oh! Yak remember! Ocellus and Silverstream wanted to bake brownies super fast, so Yona got a book from Starlight’s office.”
Sandbar’s eyes widened, and his pupils shrunk worriedly. “Y-You what?”
“Don’t worry, Yona made sure the door was unlocked.” With a reassuring smile, Yona paused long enough to pour the remainder of that mostly-empty bag into her open maw. She slobbishly devoured the pretzels crumbs and all, leaving her boyfriend to stare at her behavior with a silent and confused blush. She made his cheeks turn even redder when she swirled her tongue across most of her face in a clockwise motion, before pulling it back into her mouth. She happily chewed on that mouthful she just lapped up, and swallowed so she could continue speaking articulately. “Anyway, by the time yak found baking spell, Ocellus and Silverstream went to the office with their batter in baking tins. Ocellus wanted to use magic, and actually got them cooked in seconds!”
“Uhhh… seriously?” Sandbar tried to show an impressed smile, but he knew that Yona’s word might not mean much right now. For all he knew, she could have severely misread that moment in her inebriated mind. “Well, uhhh… if that’s the case, where are the brownies now?”
Yona blinked a couple times while staring back at Sandbar’s wide-eyed stare. She took a deep breath, and revealed a more embarrassed look as she leaned away from the stallion. “Weeeeeellllllllll… Yona may have suggested we each try a piece to make sure they were good… And then after cutting, Silverstream went off to get plates for them. Ocellus uhhhhhhh… Ocellus thought they left bookbag in lobby, so they left too. And theeeeennnnn… huh.”
Sandbar blinked a couple times, and his eyes narrowed on her with concern. “What do you mean, ‘Huh’?”
Yona pouted to herself for a second, and then shugged her shoulders with a huff. “Yak forgot.”
Sandbar nearly gave himself a black-eye from how hard he face-hoofed himself. Before he could look back at her or say anything else, Yona narrowed her eyes on him with a similarly puzzled look. She blinked a couple more times, and hummed as she nodded to herself affirmatively. “Hmmmm… Okay, Yona have question now.”
Sandbar let out a deep, painfully long sigh as he dragged his hoof down his face. He took a breath before glancing back at her with a defeated wince. “Ummm… Yeah?”
Yona tilted her head curiously.
“... Is Yona high right now?”
It took a second for him to realize she actually asked that question out loud. But as soon as he did, his eyes widened to the size of frisbees. He was frozen at the spot, and left completely speechless while staring back at the smiling yak. He had no idea what to say, especially when Yona was staring at him so innocently behind reddened eyes. The pony eventually winced badly enough to look like he bit down on a lemon, and he slowly exhaled through his nostrils.
“Nnnnngggggg…” After that meager groan, Sandbar bit the bullet and nodded while his eyes were closed. “Y… Yeah…” He hung his head shamefully and refused to look at her reaction. “You… Y-You accidentally took my edibles… I’m really sorry, Yona.”
“PBBT!~”
Her chortled scoff was loud enough to make Sandbar jerk his head back up in surprise. She had her eyes clenched shut, and was shaking her head quite insistently. “N-No, Sandbar! No! Pony does not need to apologize! Yona didn’t ask and took weird food without permission. Only yak to blame…”
Sandbar opened his mouth for a second, but remained silent while processing that surprisingly mature response. While he didn’t want to just agree with her taking the full blame while she was baked, he couldn’t really dispute her perspective either. Nevertheless, he made sure to point out, “Still though, I shouldn’t have hidden that from you. I should’ve been upfront about what I do in my spare time, but… I dunno, I was worried how you would react. Like… culturally I mean? Ugh, anyway, that wasn’t right of me to do, and I should’ve placed more trust in you as a friend and as a partner…”
Sandbar closed his muzzle tightly, internally second-guessing the use of that particular term out-loud. While it may have sounded right in the moment to show his sincerity, he wasn’t sure how his girlfriend would react to being called a ‘Partner.’ Fortunately, Yona was quick to shoot him a smug grin while nodding her head. “Ohhhhhhh… Okay yeah, pony make fair point. Sandbar should been upfront.” She then gave another light shrug to add, “Still, Yona should’ve asked first, so… Call it even?”
Sandbar was able to smile warmly in relief, and nodded without hesitation. “You know what? I think that can work.”
He walked over to where she was sitting, and helped to lug the groggy yak back onto her hooves. She stumbled a bit, and ended up giggling by the time she stood up and had to brace herself against a row of lockers. She then stumbled back a couple steps, and bumped into the other row of lockers opposite in the hallway. Sandbar cringed and covered his face, his ears twitching from the loud clanging she was making. It was hard enough that she likely committed major vandalism from the vending machines, but the last thing they needed was for her to get the two caught now.
“Sooooo… Sandbar…” Yona barely paid any heed to the circular pile of garbage she left on the floor, and she stumbled up towards the stallion directly. He tried to scuttle back from her, but ended up trapping himself against the wall by the time Yona got up close to his face. Her smile widened with a more flirty, seductive stare that made Sandbar gulp worriedly. The pony soon found himself pinned against the wall as he was left standing bipedally on his hind-legs, while Yona held him by the shoulders with little effort. She paused just long enough to see her coltfriend squirm with a heavy blush, which made her chuckle with intrigue. “Hmmm… Since yak now knows why everything feels so nice… Yona want to take advantage~”
Without warning, Yona lunged in and locked lips with Sandbar for a deep and unexpected kiss. Sandbar’s surprised voice was cut off halfway through to leave only a muffled hum. His eyes shot wide-open, while Yona’s remained deeply closed in contentment. She took full charge of the situation, and dominated the stallion’s maw as she made out with him with unbridled intensity. As soon as he felt that floppy tongue of her slipping past his lips, his entire body locked up while his eyes rolled back uncontrollably hard. For nearly twenty seconds, the pony was left totally helpless to resist Yona’s passionate makeout session.
Sandbar’s eyes slowly closed, and he was able to try kissing her back during that oral assault. By the time Yona finally finished kissing, she slowly pulled back with a couple strings of saliva connecting her lips to his. Meanwhile, Sandbar was still tightly pinned to the wall as he ended up gasping loudly for air. He was barely able to think coherently, and his face was as red as a beet while his lips were coated in the yak’s drool. Yona still held him dominantly, and waited for a proper response while smirking with confidence. She looked the stallion up and down, and grinned even wider from how much he was squirming in her powerful grip.
When she looked back up at his face, however, her smile began to drop when she saw how suddenly he closed his mouth. Sandbar’s face grimaced tightly, and his muzzle skewed back and forth with obvious discomfort. He groaned a little in disgust, before opening his muzzle just enough to spit out something. Yona gasped in horror when she saw a couple unchewed crackers hit the floor with a grossly faint splat.
“OH!!!” Yona instantly reeled away from her coltfriend, which made him fall forward and nearly hit the ground face-first. He was lucky enough to catch himself at the last second, but Yona was too busy covering her muzzle in mortified silence to help out. Despite her attempt to try something special, all she did was probably traumatize the poor stallion from ever wanting crackers again. Her eyes widened in horrified realization, before tears began to bulb at the corners. By the time Sandbar was able to get back up on his hooves, the yak was already waddling off with a low and sobbing voice. “Waaaaaaahhhhhhh… Yona sooorrrrryyyyyyyy!!!”
“W-Wait, WAIT!!” Sandbar tried to run off after her, but nearly fell to the ground from how badly his hind-legs spasmed under his weight. Even after coughing a couple times, his face remained deeply red as he struggled to walk with his legs closer together. He groaned a little from the strain and confusion he was feeling in places, but he soldiered on to get to Yona before she could cry. “I-It’s alright! Yona, please! I promise it wasn’t bad at all! S-Seriously!! Please, it was actually really ho--”
-CRASH!!!-
Just as Yona was about to burst out of the main doors of the cafeteria to run away from her shame, she ended up skidding to her side with a frantic fall to avoid the carnage in front of her. The yak yelped out when she saw the doors crash open hard enough to nearly break off the hinges. A massive brown grizzly bear tore through the opening like a sentient pitcher of artificial fruit-punch, and leaned back to belt out a mighty and triumphant roar…
… or at least, as best of a roar as Ocellus was able to make in their regular voice.
“RrrrrRRRAAAAAaaaaaaahhhhhhh…”
Just outside the cafeteria, Yona could hear Smolder let out a heavy groan. “Ugh, oh COME ON! Fluttershy didn’t even see you! Why did you change?! That wasn’t the plan!!”
“Change of plans!” Ocellus, still in their burly bear form nearly three times Yona’s size, fell down to all-fours so they could more effectively run high-speed down the hallway. However, just as they were about to attempt to save the day, they stopped and turned around all wide-eyed. “Ooh! Wait!” Ocellus then stood upright, still as a bear, and cleared their throat before asking Smolder. “Hey, say that line again!”
“What!? NO!!” Smolder stormed in through the open doorway with a scolding glare. “This is NOT the time to--”
“Okay!” chirped Yona cheerfully, not even minding Ocellus’ ursine form when she spoke on Smolder's behalf. “Uhhh, did you mean ‘Why did you change?’ or, ‘That’s not the plan’?”
“BOTH! Or umm… wait…” Ocellus furrowed their brow for a second in puzzlement, but quickly re-widened their eyes with another enlightened gasp. “Ooh! Okay, okay, uhhh… But my dear and sexy Smolder, changing IS the plan! AAHHHH!!!”
Ocellus instantly caught what they blurted out loud; and judging by how quickly Smolder’s face reddened in her frozen stance, it seemed that she heard it too. The bear was standing upright and staring down at Smolder with a look of horror on their face. Their eyes darted back and forth with their muzzle agape, and eventually came to an acceptable answer for their accidental admission.
“... Uhhhhh… I mean, ummm… SMOLDER, LOOK OVER THERE!!”
Ocellus quickly pointed a paw behind Smolder, which made her dart her head around to see what caught their attention. The bear then tried to run away, which made their paws skid across the crystal floors like they were freshly-mopped. They eventually got enough momentum to begin running away, with their massive form ramming against those busted vending machines and scattering all the trashed food across the floor. However, unlike with Ocellus’ friend’s attempt earlier, Smolder was actually met with something that allowed the changeling to run off.
“Why the heck didn’t you stop them?!” Gallus landed on the ground outside the cafeteria, his face tightened into a frustrated and impatient scowl. Silverstream seemed to thankfully be apprehended during their midair scuffling; unfortunately, that meant that Gallus was now holding a long, lumpy duffle-bag that was rustling around violently against his side. He was trying his best to hold the bag securely, but he was obviously struggling as the bag’s strap dug into his shoulder. Regardless, he seemed more concerned with Smolder’s efforts than his own as he pointed a talon at her. “I just saw like, half a dozen ponies running up to Fluttershy because of that!”
“I know!” she hissed while pulling Gallus into the building. “Come on, before they realize it’s really Ocellus!” She slammed the doors shut, but the commotion was still getting worse from both the other high friends currently not in bondage. Ocellus was bumbling at full-speed down the hallway, brushing away all the trash Yona left behind and slamming up against lockers loudly with every galloping step. Since the main exit was blocked by Smolder and Gallus, Yona ended up just following the talking bear to escape what happened with her and Sandbar. The two burly and baked would-be bakers caused the ground to shake under their combined weight while pinballing down the halls in a mixture of embarrassment and desperation. It was unclear what either of them were capable of doing, but it left a trio of similarly scared looks on the faces of Gallus, Smolder, and Sandbar.
“Mmmph! MMPHH!!” Silverstream was still wriggling around in the duffle-bag like a magic act gone wrong. Gallus responded by draping a wing over the bag so it was pressed up more securely against his side. It was at that point that his friends realized what he did, and were staring at him with their mouths gaped in shock.
“What?!” Gallus shrugged like he did nothing wrong. “She hides in confined spaces all the time! Remember when she spent six hours straight in the washing machine as a seapony because she liked riding in it?”
That may not have been the same thing, but it was similar enough to make Smolder and Sandbar shrug reluctantly. Plus, if it meant that Silverstream couldn’t join the others in their carnage, they’ll tolerate the forced bagging for now. They were just about to run off down the hall towards the others, but the doors were thrown open with enough force to make all three of them scream. They all turned around (which nearly swung Silverstream against the wall in the duffle), and were met face-to-face with Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle together. Several worried-looking students were behind the two adults as they went up to the three.
“Guys! Thank Celestia you’re here!” Twilight Sparkle lit up her horn, which helped to better illuminate the space as she inspected the damage already left behind. Fluttershy was looking down the hallway while the Princess asked them, “We just got word that a bear was just seen running into this building! Did you see where it went?”
“Uhhhhh…” Gallus was looking over at his friend for support, but they appeared equally as unprepared for this sort of scenario. They could’ve just pointed to where the trail of destruction was clearly headed, but they couldn’t exactly send Twilight off after their friends. Without even thinking, the gryphon pointed over at Sandbar and blurted out, “I-I was making sure these guys were okay! I mean, they almost got knocked over when the bear hit those machines over there…”
By some unexplained miraculous force, Silverstream didn’t move too much or make any noises from Gallus’ side. Luckily, Twilight only took notice of the damage left behind, and sighed with an understanding nod. “Well, I’m glad that none of you got hurt…”
Smolder and Sandbar didn’t show any visible response, but the two made sure to shoot Gallus some very thankful stares. He understood them well enough to give the faintest nod out of Twilight’s line of sight. It was by that moment that Fluttershy returned to the others. “Oh dear… I don’t know who that poor bear was, but they must have been starving! I think they were even eating straight out of the garbage…”
Sandbar had to stop himself from clarifying anything in Yona’s honor. Twilight motioned for the others to follow, and led the way as she treaded down the trashed hallway first. “Well, alright then…”
She lit up her horn with her magic, and made the students gasp when they saw a blowdart-gun conjure in the Princess’ aura with a sudden poof. “Let’s see if we can get this guy tranquilized and off the campus safely.”
She loaded the long tube with a large-looking dart, and hovered it close to her face while walking down the hall with a determined stare. Gallus, Smolder, and Sandbar were all trying not to shit bricks beside Fluttershy, who seemed more worried about the crashing noises off in the distance. The gryphon leaned in close to Smolder’s ear and whispered, “Pst! Did they say what they were planning to do?”
“No, shut up!” Smolder nudged him hard, not wanting to get caught whispering right beside an Alicorn. Sandbar was stepping ahead to try and get a closer look at the darkened hallways ahead; but alas, neither he nor Twilight could see any signs of Yona or that totally real bear. The sounds of metallic clunking and scraping could be heard a bit clearer, but thankfully there weren’t any distinct voices to identify the culprits immediately. Fluttershy whimpered nervously, most likely for the bear and not herself; Gallus took that opportunity to pull to the back of the group, luckily keeping his squirming duffle out of sight from the teachers.
Smolder instinctually unfurled her wings to better hide Gallus behind her, but walked at a casual pace alongside Fluttershy. Meanwhile, Sandbar kept looking between the trail of discarded wrappers ahead of them, and the blowdart-gun hovering in Twilight’s aura. He gulped while keeping his muzzle shut, and hoped more than anything that the weapon wouldn’t need to be used.
“I’m sorry you guys have to deal with this so soon to the Bake Sale…” While leading the way with her weapon drawn, Twilight looked back at Sandbar to ask, “By the way, did you know if all the baked goods are finished? I heard that a couple of the tables weren’t fully stocked yet.”
“Aaaahhhhh… I-I wasn’t working in the kitchen today!” Sandbar was quick to blurt out that fact, mostly because it was the truest thing he could tell the Princess at that moment. Twilight seemed to accept that with a silent sigh as she shrugged her head.
“Okay, nevermind…” Her eyes narrowed in concentration, and she took aim when she caught sight of a moving figure within a massive shadow. It was right where the hallway made a sharp corner, leaving a blind spot that the candlelight couldn’t adequately reach. If Sandbar wasn’t thinking more about his friends’ best interests, he would’ve considered tossing a light source of some kind into the shadows to aid the Princess. But as of now, he preferred to just play dumb and hope she’d miss any potential shots.
Fluttershy ran up to get beside Twilight, providing Sandbar the chance to step back and hide behind them. Gallus and Smolder came up to his side, but unfortunately not alone. By that point, the duffel wriggling against the gryphon’s shoulder was also making some muffled giggling that was hard to conceal. Even when he tried to cover as much of the bag’s surface under his wing, he was clearly struggling enough to fidget and grunt against her squirming. “Nnnghhh, come on…”
Even with Smolder trying to hide Gallus’ antics, Fluttershy turned her head for a second with a raised brow. Her head quickly jerked back with the sound of glass breaking with a loud shatter. With that sudden crash, the figure stumbled back just enough to provide a clear(ish) target for the Alicorn to focus on. She brought the blowdart-gun up to her lips, and narrowed her eyes in focus before puffing out her lips.
‘FFFFFP!’
Fluttershy gasped in a panic and shouted out, “WAIT TWILIGHT, NO--”
-Thwap!-
By the time Fluttershy got out that horrified plea, the dart had already been blown with precise force by Twilight’s lips. It was too quick for her to use her magic to stop the impact, and the tranquilizer hit that large mound of brown fur with a leathery smack. The back end of the dart stuck out like a beacon to identify a successful hit, just as the figure stumbled out into the candlelight more clearly.
Twilight, Fluttershy, and Yona’s friends all gasped in shock when the yak stumbled backwards with that dart pinned in her buttcheek. Twilight dropped her blowgun and covered her mouth to hide her mortified expression. Fluttershy ran up and carefully tried to dislodge the dart from the yak’s butt. After a swift yank with her hoof, Fluttershy tried to turn Yona around so they could see her face. Of course, due to her current inebriation, the yak’s droopy smile and red eyes were more than enough to make Twilight drop her head in unbelievable shame. “Oh nooooooo… Yona, I’m SO sorry! I’m so, SO sorry…”
“Oh, wait! Yak know where brownies are!” Yona’s head perked up for a moment, providing a brief look at her sober cheerfulness. “Psh~ Yona almost forgot! The brownies are cooling down insi--”
-THUMP!-
Yona instantly fell face-first to the floor like a bag of bricks. Everyone was left stunned and horrified for the first couple seconds following that fall, but the tension was instantly relieved when the yak let out her first deafening snore. Off in the distance, the sounds of more crashing doors jerked the teachers’ heads up immediately. While Twilight groaned and kept her eyes clenched shut in defeat, Fluttershy meekly tried to guess, “Well, ummm… I think the bear might be out of here?”
Gallus, Sandbar, and Smolder all sighed in relief. Even the duffle bag seemed happy as it chirped out, “Thank goodness!”
“NNNGHH!!” Gallus jerked his body to the side away from the teachers, and ended up stumbling on his hind-paws. He yelped and fell to the ground, thankfully taking most of the fall and sparing the hippogriff stuffed in his bag. However, for some reason when the duffle was rolled off the gryphon’s body, the zipper was able to come undone enough for Silverstream’s body to push against an opening and push it out wider. She ended up literally rolling out of the bag like it was some choreographed act; and with her wings instinctually sprung out, she was able to land on all fours and stand like normal. Her wings furled back against her sides, just in time for Twilight and Fluttershy to turn and notice her beside the others.
“Hi!” Silverstream gave a biiiiiiiiig smile, and said that like nothing was weird at all. Although, that may have been because she forgot she was still wearing those stupid disguise-mustache glasses over her beak. Her eyes crossed together for a moment, allowing her to see the frames from the corner of her vision. She gasped in worry, before clearing her throat and reintroducing herself. “Uhhhh, I mean… Haalllllow thaaarrrr~”
She accompanied that unrecognizable accent with a wide, exaggerated wave of her claw. Twilight and Fluttershy just narrowed their eyes on her in shared confusion, before turning back to each other. Both of the mares looked like they wanted to say something, but they were interrupted when they heard multiple pairs of hoofsteps galloping down from where the “bear” had disappeared. Several pony students arrived to where Yona was lying unconscious on the floor, while a notable trail of destruction led out from both directions. Twilight instantly rushed over to them when she heard a couple horrified gasps. “I-It’s alright, everypony! Yona’s perfectly fi--”
Another obnoxiously loud snore interrupted the Princess as the yak rolled over to her back. She sprawled herself out on all fours, but was still out-cold as her muzzle remained open with her tongue hanging out. Each time she snored with the intensity of an engine struggling to start, trickles of drool leaked down to begin forming a puddle on the floor. Among that slobber, another unchewed cracker somehow slipped out and joined the clear ooze.
“Oh, EWWW!!” Both Twilight and Fluttershy reeled back in disgust, while the sober friends all cringed hard and tried not to panic. They doubted that Yona could be blamed for any of this mess, but she definitely wasn’t helping things while passed-out. Sandbar glanced over at the new ponies who arrived to inspect the damage, most of them stunned and aghast at what that starving grizzly did to the hallways. While about half a dozen ponies went to check on the teachers or Yona, one waited until everypony was out of their line of vision to ignite in a quick gust of green flames.
Ocellus hurriedly speed-walked past Twilight and Fluttershy, who were too busy dealing with several students each asking about what was going on. Unfortunately, they ran face-first into one of the lockers with another “Ouch!” They then stumbled away while rubbing their head with a wince.
The Princess had her horn lit the tiniest bit, and was trying to subtly float away the blowdart-gun before anypony could see it. Fluttershy bit her lip pensively, and gave a sudden stare down at Yona which caused the students around her to turn their heads; in the split-second they all looked down at the yak, Fluttershy tossed the used tranquilizer dart into a nearby trashcan behind her.
With most of the group reunited, and Yona most likely to receive a stellar treatment in the infirmary for her accidental tranquing, the remaining five students decided to take advantage of the commotion they caused to silently exit the situation. While Fluttershy half-heartedly tried to wake up the snoring yak, and Twilight pinched the bridge of her muzzle with her hoof in frustration, neither of them seem to notice the five friends of Yona’s who disappeared from sight. Ocellus and Silverstream were bunched into the middle of the group, with the other three hurriedly escorting them out of the building before any accusations could be pointed towards the group. During the scuffle, Ocellus gasped and pointed back to the doorway they were just pushed through. “W-Wait, WAIT! We can’t just leave Yona with them like that!”
“Don’t worry, she was hit with a tranquilizer while you were out,” said Gallus while keeping a wing draped over the changeling’s side. They just gawked up at him and did a double-take.
“WHAT?!”
“Well, think of it like this,” Smolder quickly leaned in from Ocellus’ other side to point out, “Twilight just accidentally used excessive force on a foreign student, and in a way which also covers up all her symptoms perfectly! They’ll probably be too busy trying not to get sued by Yakyakistan if this news gets out. If anything, they won’t even question Yona and blame everything on that ‘bear’ attack~”
Ocellus opened their muzzle briefly, but then shrugged and gave a more impressed pout. “Huh… That… That actually might work…”
Gallus gave them a thankful nudge and made sure to say, “Nice save, by the way!”
Ocellus looked away from him with a flustered smile. They glanced over at Silverstream for confirmation, but suddenly reeled back with a startled buzz of their wings. “GAHHH!! W-WHO ARE YOU?!”
“OH!” Silverstream took off the glasses, which made Ocellus instantly clutch their chest with a hoof and sigh in relief. Smolder and Gallus both face-clawed, while Sandbar tried not to snicker under his breath.
“Holy… W-Warn me next time, okay?” Ocellus’ voice sounded rather flustered alongside their heavy blush. Smolder took that moment to stare them down flatly and cross her arms.
“Seriously? You’re a literal shape-shifter. How does that fool you?”
Ocellus huffed with a saddened look that instantly softened Smolder’s stare. The changeling looked down with a confused pout and muttered, “I dunnoooooo…”
Smolder just sighed and decided to let Ocellus’ anxiety be. They were likely dealing with a lot today, and the dragon knew how crappy it’d be to screw with someone who accidentally had too many edibles at once. She came in to take over from Gallus’ assistance, and soon became the one to escort the changeling with a leathery wing over their back.
The gryphon didn’t say anything, but he gave Smolder a knowing smirk as he nodded in approval. Ocellus closed their eyes with a chittery purr, and tiredly nestled in against Smolder’s side with a smile. She tried not to blush too hard, but her faint smile wasn’t enough to push Ocellus away from her side. Meanwhile, Sandbar decided to check on Silverstream and ask, “Hey, did you hear what Yona said back there? She mentioned something about the brownies cooling down inside something. You have any clue what that might mean?”
“Hmmmm…” Silverstream paused and nibbled on one of the ends of her glasses while pondering that detail. The group were a notable distance away from the building by now, and heading back towards the gymnasium when they stopped at a grassy section on campus. The hippogriff may have been thoroughly zooted with her eyes a distinct shade of pink, but she tried to think with her beak clenched in concentration. “Cooling down… Cooling…”
Gallus’ head perked up wide-eyed. “Wait, maybe one of the fridges?”
“No, it wasn’t in the kitchen…” Ocellus shook their head, and tried to think themself despite their inebriation. Their eyes closed while their muzzle scrunched tightly. “Nnnffff… I was… I was worried they would be too hot… I couldn’t find the cooling spell, so I--HUUUUUHHHHHH!!!”
Ocellus’ sudden and terrified gasp caught everyone’s attention. All four friends turned to face them with varying shades of confusion and fear on their faces. Ocellus’ hooves were clasped over their face for a long while, but eventually pulled down to reveal the wide and terrified look in their compound eyes. By the time they finally revealed their quivering muzzle, Ocellus breathed out shakily and spoke in a faint voice.
“I, uhhhh… I know where we put them…”