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// Chapter 5: Pet Project 
// Story: Friendship 101 
// by BrawnyBold 
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	Class continued for Twilight's students as they learn more about friendship. Each of them made good efforts with their assignments. Unfortunately, the students still bicker to one another, especially Lone, Guide, and Fireworks. Comfort on the other hoof still avoids the arguments as it was his nature not to get involved with those kind of things. Twilight decided to go back to Cheerilee to seek more advice. 
"So they're still fighting?" Cheerilee asked.
"Yes," Twilight replied, " I don't know how I can stop these arguments from happening." 
Cheerilee tapped her hoof on her chin as she thought of a perfect idea. Then, it came to her, "How about a class pet?"
"Excuse me?" Twilight tilted her head.
"Taking care of a pet can help classmates work together." Cheerilee explained.
Twilight thought about it for a moment and she believed it was a good idea. 
The next day, the students were on their desks and waited for Twilight to start the lessons. But they were also curious about what was under the curtain next to the princess. "Today class, we will start  with a team bonding project." she pulled the curtain with her mouth to reveal a large, glass tank on top of a wooden table. Inside was a light green frog with pitch-black eyes and the size of the frog was similar to a bowling ball. 
"This is Croaky," Twilight introduced the frog, "he will be our class pet, I want all of you to take good care of him."
The four students walked up towards the tank to have a better look at their new pet.
"Aww! Isn't he cute!" Fireworks cooed as her face pressed against the glass. 
"It looks really weird with those eyes." Guide claimed.
Twilight levitated a book with the title: 'Guide to Pet Frogs' to her students. "This book will tell you how to take care of Creaky." she said. "Now, let's get class started!"
The day went on as usual for the class, once it was dismissed, the four students gathered around to figure out the proper way to take care of Croaky from the guidebook. Guide read the entire first few chapters to figure out the basic procedures for feeding the frog. 
"Okay, it says here that the appropriate amount should be about two slices of oranges per a day." Guide explained.
"Can't we just give him all the slices so we don't have to feed him." Lone suggested.
"Then Croaky will die from eating too much." Guide answered. "So who wants to feed Croaky?"
"Why can't you do it, Guide?" Lone questioned.
"Because I'm the pony who is 'guiding' the facts, this is my job." 
"Sure," Lone said with sarcasm. "it's the most important job."
"I'll do it!" Fireworks volunteered as she took the slices of oranges in her hoof.
She opened the tank and was about to drop the slices until Guide screamed, "Stop!" Fireworks froze in her tracks.
"Don't just drop the slices in the tank, gently put it in there." Guide explained.
Fireworks carefully put the slices to the dish, but Guide kept saying that it was not in the right spot. Croaky hopped towards the food dish to begin eating.
"So, what's next?" Fireworks asked Guide.
"Hmm...Croaky's tank is a little low on water," Guide said. "we should fill it so Croaky has more water to swim in." she turned to Lone, "Can you please get the water, Lone?"
"Fine," Lone grumbled as he went to fetch the bucket.
"Since we need to clean up Croaky's habitat, Comfort, why don't you hold on to him?" Guide suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Comfort replied. He reached into the tank with one hoof. "Don't be shy Croaky, I mean no harm." Croaky slowly approached Comfort's hoof and jumped on top of it.
At the same time, Lone came back with a bucket full of water. "Here's the water," Lone said. 
"Good, now pour the water in the tank in a small amount." Guide said.
Without hesitation, Lone poured the whole bucket into the tank, almost flooding the habitat.
"I said a small amount, Lone!" Guide yelled.
"It was an accident!" Lone barked.
Soon, Lone, Guide and Fireworks argued again on a small incident. Feeling terrified for the worse, Comfort tried to calm his friends down while Croaky was on his head.
"Come on guys, let's not yell - "
"STAY OUT OF THIS COMFORT" All three of them yelled.
Croaky screeched with fear and jumped off Comfort's head to make another big leap towards the window. All four of the students were shocked and made their way to the window to see what happened to Croaky. Luckily, the frog was still alive but he was at a far distant.
"We got to get Croaky or else we're dead!" Guide yelled.
"Couldn't agree more!" Lone said as he jumped off the window with Fireworks flying in pursuit. Guide used her magic to teleport outside of the castle while Comfort just used the front door. All four of the students were chasing after Croaky while he was hopping. Croaky finally stopped on top of the Apple Family fruit stand. 
Lone saw Croaky first and said, "I got this one!" he then leaped to catch Croaky, but Croaky got scared and jumped away. This caused Lone to crash right on top of the stand, leaving nothing but a pile of broken wood and squashed apples.  
"Frogs tend to jump fast if frightened, Lone." Guide pointed out. 
Fireworks dashed as fast as she could to reach Croaky. He was still jumping in fear down the main streets of Ponyville. At the right time, Fireworks flew towards Croaky as he made a big leap and grabbed a gold of the frog.
"I got you, Croaky!" Fireworks claimed as she held the frog in the air. But Croaky started squirming in Fireworks hooves and his slippery skin got him out of the hold of Fireworks. "Eww!" Fireworks squealed as she shook the slime off her hooves.
Guide and Comfort went after Croaky to catch him. 
"One quick paralyzing spell will do!" Guide said as she light up her horn to cast a spell. She aimed at Croaky and fired a beam, but he jumped again. The beam missed and bounced off a pony's hoof mirror towards Guide, which caused her to fall to the ground without any movements. 
Comfort was the only one left chasing Croaky. He found the frog on top of a lily pad in a large lake. Comfort slowly approached Croaky and reached out once more to bring him home. "Here Croaky, I just want to get you back to class." Comfort pleaded. Croaky felt calm when he saw Comfort, he was the only pony who wasn't trying to do harm. Just then, Lone came running towards the lake with a bad temper. 
"I'm gonna get you frog!" Lone yelled as he jumped to get Croaky. Lone ended up falling in the lake and Croaky jumped off Comfort's hoof. Fireworks arrived to the lake with a frozen Guide on her back.
"Did you catch Croaky yet?" Fireworks asked. 
Lone came out of the water and spit some out of his mouth. "No," he grumbled.
After Lone got himself dry and Guide's paralyzing spell wore off, the four students continued searching for their class pet. 
"This is bad you guys," Guide said. "Princess Twilight trusted us with Croaky and now we lost him."
"You don't have to remind us, Guide." Lone said.
"This wouldn't have happened if you stop jumping at Croaky like some predator." Guide snarled at Lone.
"At least I tried," Lone talked back, "all you did was use magic to catch Croaky and it ended up shooting back at your face!" 
"I have to agree," Fireworks admitted, "that spell didn't quite help at all." 
Guide scoffed with betrayal, "Says the mare who let go of Croaky for slime on her hooves!"
Once again, all three of them argued to one another. Comfort had the last straw with these arguments and screamed, "Will you guys be quiet!"
Comfort's scream interrupted the three ponies and now they were shocked from what come out of Comfort's voice next, "Chasing Croaky across Ponyville started with the three of you yelling at each other! All four of us are responsible for Croaky and it's our job to find him! We can either yell for our mistakes or suck it up and at least work together!" Comfort ended up panting from all that yelling. 
Guide calmly admitted, "He is right, I was acting kind of bossy, didn't I?" 
"At least you didn't act like some tough guy, huh?" Lone agreed. 
"Or didn't get grossed out by slime." Fireworks joining them. All four of them started laughing from their mistakes they made. 
"Alright, let's get Croaky back, together!" Guide said. "And I think I just figured out how to do that," Guide rubbed her chin.
Croaky continued to hop across Ponyville, carrying on with his business. He suddenly heard a frog croak and went to look the source of it. When Croaky arrived, it was only a stuffed replica of himself. Croaky had no idea that Guide was hiding begind a crate, using a spell that makes her voice sound like a frog's voice. When Croaky was at a close distant from the fake frog, Lone came running towards Croaky, saying "I'm gonna get you frog!" That caused Croaky to get scared and hopped as fast as he can from Lone. The frog continued to hop until he reached towards a contraption that looked similar to a teeter-totter. Lone saw Croaky jump on the 'X' and yelled, "Now!"
Fireworks appeared, doing her acrobatic flips and landed on the other side of the plank, causing Croaky to fly in mid-air. Before Croaky was about to get squashed to the ground, Comfort brought out a sack he made and caught Croaky with it. The plan was a success for the four friends. When the three of them approached Comfort, he carefully brought out Croaky and said, "It's okay Croaky, they won't fight anymore.? 
Croaky looked at the other three and croaked, which probably means that he was convinced. Soon, the students returned to the classroom to bring Croaky home. Princess Twilight entered the room to see her students with their pet. 
"There you all are!" Twilight said, "Where have you four been?" 
"We were just taking Croaky outside for some exercise." Fireworks cheerfully lied. 
Feeling not convinced, Twilight decided to play along with it. "Well, I hope that outing has made the four of you learn something."
The students looked at each other and smiled as they realized that they did.