The ongoing adventures of the Young Six as they face ongoing challenges and find love.
Following their rather unusual bonding experience under the school, the Young Six are stronger than ever. Join these six unlikely friends on their wild and wacky adventures, as they discover friendship, magic, and love.
An Alternate Universe take on the end of Season 8 and most of Season 9, as well as some stuff afterwards. Requested by SuperSonicHeroes, and written to mark the 10th anniversary of MLP.
It was a lovely sunny day in Scotland, something that didn't often happen, especially in summer, and the town of Fort William was bustling as usual, ready and waiting for the tourists to arrive as they did year after year. And no surprise too; the lakes and hills were immensely popular with walkers and backpackers, or people who just wanted to sail or travel about the region. Ever since trade with Equestria had started in the late 1990s, the area had even seen plenty of pony clientele, as well as some rather exotic creatures visiting the region too, with all sorts of plumage and colours.
This year, however, the town would play host to some rather unusual specimens indeed. One Friday afternoon, one of the travel portals that enabled people and ponies to move between Earth and Equestria rumbled into life, the same as it always did when somebody wanted to travel across dimensions. After wobbling for a bit, as it often did whilst processing its load, the portal spat its passengers out onto the pavement.
All on top of each other.
"Maybe all going in at once wasn't the best of ideas," Sandbar groaned, hemmed in at the bottom of the pile of creatures.
"You really think so?" Gallus grumbled, trying to shift himself out of the mess, the griffon flapping his wings as he did so. "We seem to be very stuck!"
"Having Yona on top weighing us down doesn't really help either!" Smoulder complained.
Yona took offense. "Smoulder think Yona fat?"
"No, you're just weighing us all down!"
Silverstream finally popped out from under the pile, and they all fell in a heap. "YAY! she said. "We're here, and I LOVE any place with easy access to lakes!"
Gallus trotted forward. "Really?" he asked. "There's a lake right next to the school, Silverstream. You can jump in that any time you want."
"Not during classes or when I'm asleep!" the hippogriff replied, smiling from ear to ear in a somewhat ludicrous manner. "I love it in the water!"
"Were you born underwater?" Smoulder asked her.
"Yes! Given how long we were trapped in Seaquestria and the fact that the Pearl could not be used on seaponies or hippogriffs under 5 years of age, I was born a Seapony."
"That explains so much," Gallus sighed, now really understanding why his grifffriend was a bit loopy.
"Friends not care if Silverstream is hippo or seapony!" Yona proclaimed, as she headed forward into the street. "Friends love Silverstream for who she is!"
"Look out!" Gallus shouted, as a car sped by.
"Watch where you're going, you cow!" shouted a passing driver.
"Yona Yak, not cow!" Yona shouted.
"He must've thought you were a Highland Cow," Smoulder sighed. "Come on, let's find out where we're staying tonight."
As all this was going on, Sandbar was helping Ocellus to her hooves. The Changeling wasn't used to interdimensional travel, and as a result was a little wobbly on her legs.
"There, does that feel better?" Sandbar asked her gently.
"Yes, thanks," Ocellus replied, a small smile forming on her face. "This place looks amazing! What's the local history?"
"Three days without studying or classrooms," Gallus drawled. "How in Equestria will Ocellus survive?"
"I think she'll do fine," Sandbar replied. "To answer your question, Smoulder, the place we're staying is down to the south, and in a small copse of trees next to the lake."
Smoulder unfolded some instructions and looked at them. "Go down the loch," she said, in confusion. "What's a loch?"
"It's a Scottish term for a big lake," Ocellus explained. "It's a corruption of the Latin word 'lacus', which is also the route of the English word 'lake'."
"Of course the Changeling would know," Smoulder sighed. "Come on, let's get going! All this travel has left me tired and in need of a rest!"
"OK then," Sandbar replied. "Take a left."
Smoulder, Gallus and Yona set off, turning to the right.
"Your other left!"
The three creatures roamed off down the street in the other direction. Silverstream glanced to Sandbar and Ocellus. "I'll go by water!" she said, diving into Loch Linnhe and changing into a Seapony along the way. "If this place is on the waterfront, I can get there very quickly indeed!"
Sandbar nodded. "You can fly if you'd like. I'll walk."
"Then you'd be on your own!" Ocellus exclaimed. "I'd never want that!"
Sandbar smiled. He sure was happy that he and Ocellus had started dating. She was one of the kindest and sweetest creatures he knew, and the exact opposite of what most people thought a Changeling was. "Lead the way, Celly."
"You have the directions!" Ocellus giggled. "You lead the way!"
"Sure," Sandbar replied. "Away we go!" And off the two creatures trotted, heading for the residence at the edge of the lake.
The house that Sandbar had somehow booked was made of wood, and built on a single story with large, wide glass windows facing the water's edge. It looked like a paradise to stay in, and the six friends all took to the living room first whilst Smoulder opened the fridge and took a look through the contents.
"Oh, really?" she asked. "There's no Inferno in here!"
"Yona wonder what Inferno is," Yona asked.
"Only the most popular drink in the Dragonlands!" Smoulder explained, as she closed the fridge door. "Torch popularised it and the rest is history."
"Torch was the previous Dragon Lord before Ember," Ocellus quickly explained.
"We all did that module on Dragon history, remember?" Gallus pointed out. "Admittedly, it was a compulsory module, but it was still interesting. So much more interesting than that one on cupcakes."
"Yeah, I'm still not sure why Pinkie insisted on teaching that one in her basement."
The chatter was interrupted by a sudden, and loud, rumbling coming from outside. The five turned to see Silverstream had just emerged from the water, dripping wet and only just turned back to a hippogriff. She walked indoors and closed the door behind her, water dripping onto the hardwood floor as she stopped. "The water here is amazing! It's so clear, and smooth, and it's full of fish!"
"It also sounds like somebody is hungry," Gallus pointed out.
"Aw, Gally, you really know me too well!"
"You're stomach is rumbling."
"Oh."
Sandbar took up the conversation, keen to avoid further interruption. "Does anybody else want to head into Fort William to get a bite to eat? If it's fish you want, there's a good chippy."
"What's a chippy?" asked Smoulder.
"A place that serves fish and chips. I was thinking the griffon and hippogriff would probably prefer that."
"How about we go to a place where we can all eat together?" asked Ocellus. "I thought this was meant to be a friends holiday, right?"
"Quite right," Sandbar answered. "Well, the Grog and Gruel is the best rated on TripAdvisor, so how about we go there?"
Having made the equally long trek back into town, the Young Six stood in line at the Grog and Gruel's main desk.
"How many, sir-" the waiter looked down, and did a double take. "It's been a while since we had ponies here! Most of them go to London."
"Well, I suppose we're unconventional tourists," Sandbar replied. "Table for six, please."
As the waiter led them upstairs, Silverstream chatted with Ocellus. "I'm still trying to figure out who Anne was."
"Anne who?"
"You know, the woman this town is named after. Anne Garasden?"
Ocellus giggled. "It's not a person's name! An Gearasdan means 'the garrison', which refers to the fact it was originally built by the English to control the neighbouring Scottish clans. Hence why some have called for the English name to be changed to Invernevis, as William of Cumberland wasn't a very nice chap."
Silverstream was silent. "I suppose in future I'll start by asking what you don't know."
After being seated and ordering their food (not surprisingly, Silverstream and Gallus ordered seafood and Smoulder went for a steak, whilst the rest went with vegetarian options), several other patrons took interest in them. They seemed to be familiar with ponies, but of all the creatures, Ocellus and Silverstream attracted the most fascination. Ocellus gave them a demonstration of her shapeshifting abilities, whilst Silverstream had to explain to one little girl that, no, she wasn't a mermaid.
After a long, relaxing, and very refreshing meal, the six friends returned home and relaxed on two couches. "Remember, we need to be up early tomorrow," Sandbar explained. "Our train leaves at 10:15, and we have to be on the platform an hour in advance to they can check us all in."
"Does it have to be that early?" Gallus asked, yawning as he did so. "Last I looked, this stuff takes a while to digest."
Silverstream sat forward. "Maybe flying back on a full stomach wasn't the best of ideas."
"Is food provided?" Smoulder asked.
"On our tickets, yes, we get a full meal."
"Sounds good."
"Yona heading off to bed. Good night!"
The friends said their goodbyes and headed to their respective rooms. The place had six bedrooms, so they could each sleep on their own, similar to their own dorms. Sandbar was the last to head off to bed, and as he did so, he closed the door and switched the light off.
"See you in the morning, my love," he whispered absent mindedly as he drifted off into the world of dreams.
The next morning dawned, and the town of Fort William continued to slumber as most towns in the Highlands did in the early morning. However, one place did not remain silent. Fort William yard, near the railway station, was starting to awaken as people scurried around the steam engines stored there for the Jacobite steam service.
One of these engines, and today's locomotive, was an LMS Black 5, number 45407. The depot crew had lit the fire and were letting the engine warm up. Meanwhile, two individuals were heading over to the engine. The first was a human being who looked fairly elderly, all things considered, his hair grey and his glasses sitting prominently on his face. Remarkably, his face already had soot on it despite the fact the train was yet to set off!
The other was a Changeling, with blue chitin, red eyes, and a green carapace, with darker green elytra graced with a very light green and blue swirling pattern atop them. He also had no tail, curiously!
"Well, another morning it is!" said the human. "How you feeling?"
"I had a good night's rest Ian," the Changeling replied. "I feel as though I could take on the world!"
"I think Beasdale Bank will be quite enough for today," Ian replied. "I must admit though, when I saw the job applications on my desk, a Changeling was the last thing I was expecting to receive. Your unique skillset certainly gave you an edge, though."
"If you can keep a furnace going for several hours a day, you can stoke an engine's firebox, as it's the same principal, just on a smaller scale." The Changeling opened his elytra and flew up onto the footplate. "After all, the Queen needed some way of making iron to equip her troops with armour and weapons."
"So, you worked as a smelter?"
"I did, and I was good at it too," the Changeling smiled, as he checked the firebox and temperature. "Temperature's good, spread is good. The firelighter did a good job raking the fire properly."
"Bill is a former British Railways firelighter. He knows his craft."
"I came out here as work was short. As much as we appreciate being liberated from Chrysalis, we rapidly found our industry couldn't compete with the highly mechanised industries of Equestria. This led to heavy job losses, and I came here in response. Though I got the impression that humans here aren't used to Changelings."
"That is certainly true," Ian sighed, as he took his seat in the driver's position. "Excellent. Pressure is at 224 psi, brakes are on, direct admission valves are running and clear, and water gauges are cleared. Next, we need to get water and coal."
"We've easily got enough to get us to the water tower," the Changeling smiled, looking at the tender behind him, having opened the access door in the meantime. "And enough coal to get us to Glenfinnan if we fire her well."
"I'll leave that to you," Ian replied. He opened the cylinder cocks, and the large engine, with a whoosh a roar of steam, began to back out of the shed, making a magnificent sight as it headed for the yard.
True to their word, the Young Six were assembled on the platform at Fort William Platform 2 at 09:15, exactly as the tickets they had brought specified. A few hours had elapsed since the engine had been prepared, but you'd think the others were unwilling to get out of bed based on how they were talking.
"Told you we didn't need to be here this early," Gallus grumbled. "The train isn't even here!"
"I think you're just obsessed with getting up early, Sandbar," Smoulder joked, gently elbowing him. This annoyed Sandbar.
"I'm only doing what the company asked!" he exclaimed.
"I think getting up early is a great idea!" Silverstream exclaimed. "You can get so much done, and fly about, and- oh, look! Fish!"
Before anybody could stop her, she flew off in the direction of the yard.
Ian was most surprised to suddenly see a hippogriff flying too low to the train. "What on Earth is that bird doing? They'll get hit by the exhaust if they're not careful!" He reached up for the whistle chord, and blasted the whistle twice in rapid succession. "Get out of the way! Locomotive and coaches moving!"
Silverstream immediately changed course, flying past the engine's exhaust coming from the blastpipe and getting a faceful of soot in the process.
She then landed back on the platform. "Did you see it guys?" she asked.
"The soot on your face would suggest a rather fierce upward exhaust from a steam locomotive," Ocellus noted. "Furthermore, the colour of the soot would suggest poor quality coal."
"Spoken like a true egghead," Smoulder snorted.
"But it was AMAZING!" Silverstream cried, bouncing up and down and doing a jig as she did so. "It was a train! We didn't have those underwater, or anymore on Mount Aris."
Just then, the train finished backing into the platform, and the guard called the passengers to attention- in an accent that was so thick that none of them could understand what was actually being said.
"What did he say?" Sandbar asked, confused.
Just then, an English voice repeated the message. "Can all passengers please proceed to their allocated boarding points. The coach numbers are clearly marked on your tickets, and the access routes are clearly marked. Coach A is closest to the engine, and Coach G is back by the bufferstops. I repeat, Coach A is closest to the engine, and Coach G is back by the bufferstops."
Sandbar checked the tickets. "We're in Coach A," he said, and indicated with his hoof to the lead coach.
As they strolled to the coaches, Smoulder leaned over to Silverstream. "What sort of railroads did you have, and why don't you have them anymore?"
"Mount Aris had two funiculars that ran up and down the mountain, and this doubled the traffic flow. Sadly, Storm King blew both of them up."
"...That sucks."
"Thankfully, we're rebuilding them now. But who needs trains underwater when you can SWIM!"
The party boarded the train and sat down in their compartment. "I booked this with you in mind," Sandbar said. "I thought you'd like it, given the books you like."
"It'll be just like in Harry Trotter!" Ocellus cried. "You have no idea how difficult it was to get those in Chrysalis' time, given she banned literacy and reading."
"How did most industries work?"
"Do you need to be able to read in order to work a blast furnace, as most non-warrior Changelings did?"
Meanwhile, Yona had to pull Silversteam back, the latter's beak being glued to the window. "Nice hippogriff please let rest of us see scenery!"
Gallus laughed. "Watch you don't fall through the floor Yona."
Yona looked offended. "Griffon think Yona fat?"
A few minutes later, the whistle sounded, and they were off. The Jacobite departed in a cloud of smoke and steam that could be seen for miles, and before long they had crossed over Neptune's Staircase, a network of lochs on the Caledonian canal. The train continued to speed along the side of Loch Eil, temporarily stopping at Loch Eil Outward Bound to exchange tokens before proceeding. The train sped along through forests and along lakes, before starting to climb towards the first stop.
Silverstream pointed out of the window. "Trees!"
"Does everything excite you?" Gallus asked, his own eyes wandering towards the view ahead. "We're going into a tunnel!"
"Yona hope tunnel has no spiders."
The train entered the tunnel, the booming exhaust beat audible more clearly, before emerging into the light once more, steam drifting down the side of the windows as the train rounded another bend.
"Passengers, we are proud to announce we are about to cross Glenfinnan Viaduct. Please stand or sit on the left hand side of the train to see Glenfinnan Viaduct."
As the last of the rocks cleared, Silverstream cheered. "It's the Harry Trotter bridge!"
"OK then egghead," Gallus smiled, "what can you tell us about this bridge?"
"Sure!" Ocellus replied. "It was built by Robert McAlpine and Sons in 1898 and was built from mass concrete, a material that is extremely strong under compression. It has 21 semicircular spans, each of 50 feet, and is 18 feet wide. It is 416 yards long-"
"What a funny measurement," Smoulder said. "Why do they measure things in animal yards?"
"A yard is 36 inches." Ocellus continued her spiel before anybody could interrupt. "The viaduct is also built on a curve of 792 feet, and when built was the longest and largest concrete structure in the world. It still hold that record in Scotland!"
"This scenery is amazing!" Silverstream cried. "That lake looks equally cool, though."
The train, after fighting up a 1 in 50 gradient, called at Glenfinnan station for 20 minutes, where bagpipers played and a small museum about the viaduct was open to the passengers. After the pause, the train continued on its merry way, climbing through misty valleys and over rocky outcrops as it advanced ever further north. The train passed over viaducts and through many tunnels, and Gallus' failure to shut the window in time resulted in the compartment being flooded with steam and soot, leaving everycreature coughing.
"Sorry!" he replied. "I had no idea a tunnel was there!"
"Maybe Ocellus should control the windows," Sandbar suggested. "Knowing her, she probably knows the location of every track joint!"
"We're coming up on milepost 36!" Ocellus confirmed, as if to prove his point.
After a brief stop at Arisaig to swap tokens, the train then continued to Mallaig, with marvellous views of the sea visible from the train. At long last, the train came to a stop at Mallaig station, exactly on time at 12:25. The party scrambled from the coach to head into town, but Ocellus stopped when she stepped onto the platform. For standing on the platform were two familiar faces, neither of whom she'd been expecting to see.
The two individuals (or rather, should I say, creatures) who were standing on the platform were the previously discussed blue Changeling, but there was also another one there as well. This one was turquoise in colour, had no horn, and also had purple eyes, a yellow carapace, pink wing covers, a pink, translucent tail, and a giant grin on their face.
Ocellus reacted almost instantly to their prescence, and tore over to them. "Mom! Dad!"
The turquoise one immediately took the younger Changeling in a hug. "Hello Ocellus," she said gently, her voice confirming her to be female. "I've missed you."
"As have I," the male added as well. "The world is a very small place, eh?"
The others had closed the ground by this point, and looked on with smiles and a slight look of surprise. "Hello!" Sandbar said, trying to get their attention. "I've never met you guys."
The female Changeling looked up. "So, you're the Sandbar I've heard so much about!" she said. "I'm Ommatidia." She indicated to the other Changeling. "And this is my husband, Aristate."
"Yona thought Changelings lived in Hive and had Queen." The yak looked very confused.
Aristate spoke up. "That was indeed correct until very recently. However, when Thorax the Liberator saved us, we realised that our society could function better and more efficiently if our Hive was built around the conventional family unit rather than lots of grubs and drones being readied either for war, manufacturing, or... other things." There was a clear look of discomfort on his face, and as such Yona decided not to push the question further.
"So, how'd you get out here?" Smoulder asked.
Ocellus, who by this point had broken the hug, had a similar look of confusion on her face. "I was wondering that too. How are you guys out here?"
"Well, the smelting got slow, as you probably recall," Aristate replied, "but I found that my unique skills fitted in here perfectly. I applied to join Ian Riley and Sons as an engineer, and before I knew what had happened I was trained up as a fireling. Calling me a fireman would hardly be appropriate as I'm not a human."
"I wanted to pop out and see you," Ommatidia added. "It gets really lonely some days back at the Hive, and sometimes seeing a familiar face can really help brighten up my day."
"Don't you have two other nymphs?" asked Silverstream. "In a Hearth's Warming photo you sent Ocellus, there's two other Changelings in the picture."
"Oh, the green and pink ones!" Ommatidia laughed. "Those aren't mine. A neighbour had gone out on a business trip and asked me to keep an eye on those two for a bit. It happened to coincide with our first ever Hearth's Warming celebration!"
"That was a crazy Hearth's Warming," Gallus noted, suddenly noticing something else from the train. "Oh, Mr Ocellus-"
"Aristate."
"Mr Aristate, there's a person wanting to see you."
Ian Riley poked his head out of 45407's cab. "Aristate!" he called. "Get the brakes equalized and get on the footplate! We're about to start reversing to Arisaig!"
"Yes sir!" Aristate called. He glanced back to his wife and his daughter and her friends. "See you later!" He jumped onto the footplate, and waved as best as he could as the engine and its train backed up with jets of smoke and steam.
The rest of the time in Mallaig, of which they had quite a lot, the Young Six and Ommatidia spent the time exploring the town of Mallaig, and seeing the wonders of the town, which were few and far between as it was was glorified ferry port for the Isle of Skye, and most of the businesses were supporting that industry, ranging from boat repair to fish and chip shops (which didn't really work as most of the creatures didn't eat meat).
"Ooh! There's a museum!" Ocellus said. "Shall we go in?"
"Perhaps not Yona," Smoulder suggested. "Yona is very clumsy."
"Yona offended by accusation! Yaks always know where paws are!" Unfortunately, Yona promptly ate her words... as well as a concrete paving slab, as she slipped and fell flat on her face. "Yona slipped on scarf!"
"So, yeah," Gallus drawled. "She's clumsy."
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Smoulder snorted, smoke pouring from her nostrils.
Ommatidia was quite keen to get the conversation back on topic. "Yes, I think we should. I think it'll be a nice way to spend an hour."
And it was. Although the museum was quite small and old fashioned in many ways, with many of panels of text and pictures rather than the touchscreens common at the newer museums which usually resulted in children running riot and screaming like lunatics. Or was that bad parenting?
Apart from a few questions about why she was so colourful and shiny, Ocellus generally went about without interruption, clearly enjoying the time with her parents. "I must invite you two to the School of Friendship someday," she said to her mother.
"Oh, we'd love to come see it," Ommatidia replied. "But I don't think there's anywhere to stay in Ponyville."
"Professor Applejack is building an extra accomodation block for the school," Sandbar mentioned. "We've already dubbed it the 'Hotel of Friendship'."
"That could work!" Ommatidia smiled. "I guess most students travel very long distances to go to the School. And, of course, Thorax dropped you off. I'm not really sure why the national leaders were the ones to do the dropping off."
"I think it was to show commitment to the project," Gallus explained. "At first I thought it would be a waste of time, but it's where I met my friends. We became friends despite, not because of, the school, partly because the early days were so chaotic."
"And then Professors Applejack and Rainbow Dash demonstrated teamwork in a field trip!" Silverstream interrupted. "That was a crazy day."
"They demonstrated teamwork by showing us the exact opposite of it and nearly got Yona killed," Sandbar said bitterly. "It's really no surprise the other races mostly see us as idiots."
"I don't think you're an idiot," Ommatidia said gently. "Based on what Ocellus has told me, you're one of the kindest creatures out there. Not a letter goes by without her mentioning you."
Sandbar looked stunned. "Th- thanks." He genuinely had no idea how to react other than that. A loud whistle outside distracted his thoughts. "That's the train!"
"Right, off we go!" Smoulder called. "This way, slowpokes!"
"Yona move on four limbs!" Yona called. "Yona much slower!"
"What's wrong now?" Ian asked, looking out of the cab.
"The brake blocks on the brake coach are stuck!" called Aristate. "There's some sort of issue with the vacuum. Run the brakes again!"
Ian applied the brakes, and then released them. They came on succesfully in most coaches, and came off on most of them. But the ones on the brake coach remained stubbornly on. "Great. This is the last thing we needed!"
Aristate studied the brake pads closely, and then had an idea. "Do you have a spanner spare?"
Ian made sure the tender brake was on, and then opened the toolkit. He produced a spanner and climbed down the cab steps, walking to Aristate with it. "Here you go."
Yellow fire washed over Aristate, and in his place was suddenly a centaur. Gripping the spanner, he swung it at a valve on the coach with a bang. In that moment, the creature's brute strength freed the direct admission valve, and the brake blocks on the carriage came off.
The Changeling switched back to normal, and turned to a stunned Ian. "Nothing to it, really," he smiled. "We used to have to fix faulty machinery in the foundry all the time. If in doubt, hit it with a hammer."
Ian was silent for a moment. "I sincerely hope you don't take this approach to maintaining all of my machinery, Mr Aristate."
The journey back, this time with Ommatidia onboard, was nice, with the meal being served onboard. There was food that all could eat, mixed with vegetarian and meat. Not entirely surprisingly, the two Changelings had a few questions.
"I don't understand how you two can eat food, as I thought you ate love," Gallus asked.
"Changelings have full digestive systems," Ommatidia explained. "Or else being invited to tea parties would be incredibly awkward."
The train got back to Fort William with no difficulty, and the friends returned to their home, Ommatidia opting to return to Equestria via portal. And soon, the six friends would themselves be returning to Equestria to conclude their term at the School of Friendship, which they were certainly looking forward to (ever since the Equestria Education Association rules had been lifted from service, the teaching and learning had become a lot more fun, although EEA officials had repeatedly visited the pond to try and retrieve the rulebook, or else charge Starlight Glimmer with destruction of Federal property). Little did they realise, they would soon find themselves thrown into a battle that would determine the fate of their country.
Falling straight through a cloud and plummeting towards the ground hadn't been Yona's plan for how to start the day.
She had joined the field trip to Cloudsdale that was currently visiting the Weather Factory, and this had required magical input as yaks cannot walk on clouds (in fact, most of the students on the trip couldn't given that there were only two pegasi on the trip apart from Professor Dash). It had seemingly held up well, but partway through the tour she had fallen clean through the cloud.
Now she was plummeting towards the ground at frightening speed, her eyes closed as she fell faster and faster. "Yona not want to be pancake!" she cried.
Some whistling noises echoed above, and as she opened her eyes and looked back to the cloud from whence she came, she saw several other students falling as well- alongside one of their professors, Starlight Glimmer. She looked back towards the ground, aware of the sound of the Earth rushing up to meet her at great speed, as well as whooshing sounds up overhead.
Suddenly, she stopped, inches above the ground. She looked over and around in confusion to see Gallus and Rainbow Dash holding her.
"Bloody Hell," Gallus groaned, "you weigh a ton, Yona."
"Language!" Rainbow Dash retorted.
"We all nearly plummeted to our deaths. I think what comes out of our mouths is the least of our concerns."
"Anyway," Rainbow Dash sighed, "you should be safe now. That was weird, though."
Nearby, Ocellus gently lowered Sandbar to the ground. "It's OK," she said gently, soothing the Earth Pony's nerves. "I got you. You like flying, remember?"
"Flying I have no problem with," Sandbar replied. "Falling at terminal velocity and smashing into the ground as a pie of mincemeat is what I object to." He paused. "Thanks for saving me."
Ocellus' cheeks went red. "Y- you're welcome," she said, blushing, before abruptly falling out of the sky. "Oww!"
"Any explanation for this?" Rainbow Dash asked Starlight Glimmer. "Especially considering that me and the other winged animals are suddenly unable to fly?"
!I don't understand!" Starlight Glimmer replied. "It- It's like my spell stopped working. That's... never happened before."
Smoulder elbowed Gallus. "According to what I've picked up from classes, she's one of the most powerful unicorns to have ever lived. If her spells aren't working properly, then this is serious."
"You can say that again."
"According to what I've picked up from cla-"
"Not literally."
"Yona confused. Did Gallus want Smoulder to say it again or not?" The Yak looked confused, but then again she often did.
"It's a figure of speech, meaning 'I agree with you'," Ocellus explained. "But if Starlight can't cast spells, none of us can fly- Smoulder, can you still breathe fire?"
"Fire is stored in reserve tanks in the back. No problem there. I can demonstrate if you'd like."
"Woah, that will not be necessary," Sandbar quickly interjected.
"If nocreature's magic is working," Ocellus finished, "I can only hope no Changelings attempted to change forms right now."
Back at the school (it had taken them a very long time to get back to Ponyville), Ocellus and Sandbar met privately. The day's events had weighed heavily on their minds and it was clear Ocellus was worried about something.
"I got a telegram from mom," Ocellus said quickly, clearly flustered. "Their magic has stopped working! One of her neighbours was shapeshifting into a mole to dig a hole for his garden, and it suddenly stopped! Now he's stuck as a half Changeling, half mole!"
Sandbar looked shocked. "That cannot be comfortable," he replied.
"If we're all losing our magic, something terrible must be happening!" Ocellus continued. "Perhaps some sort of storm is in the area, or a horrible magic bug like that one we found in the library is wreaking havoc, or perhaps-"
"Ocellus, please calm down!" Sandbar said, gently but firmly. Ocellus stopped mid freakout and looked over to him. "I'm certain there's an explanation for all this, but getting all flustered isn't going to help matters." He paused. "It must suck not being able to change forms though."
Sandbar dived into his own thoughts, so much so that he was suddenly jolted out of them when something crashed into the door. He opened it to see a fellow student, a unicorn, had crashed into the door. "Normally I can turn the door handle," he groaned, as he got up. Then he realised what he had done. "And this is not the way to the stairs!"
Sandbar closed the door, to see Ocellus looking intently at him. "Yes?"
"Do you love me?"
It took Sandbar a second to process the question. "What sort of a question is that? Of course I do!"
Ocellus blinked. "I- I just thought, that when you said it must suck that you can't change forms, it indicated something else. I mean, you're dating a Changeling, for Faust's sake! I could turn myself into your dream date, but without magic, I can't!"
Sandbar stepped over. "Ocellus, there are many words to describe you, but ugly is not one of them. What's the point of entering into a relationship with somecreature if you don't like what you see? I love you just the way you are."
Ocellus smiled gently, looking more at ease. "I'm glad I met you," she whispered, as she put her forelegs around Sandbar's shoulders.
"No problem, Celly."
A few hours passed, and the students got the news that their teachers would be heading off on a mission. Starlight Glimmer would be running proceedings, and the students gathered for a whole school meeting in the atrium.
To their complete surprise, Cozy Glow buzzed into place on the podium. "Good morning, friendship students!" she said, oddly cheerful given the circumstances. "I know we're all sad Professor Sparkle is away. But don't worry, because she left me in charge to do things just the way she would."
Gallus was confused. "Uh, I thought Starlight Glimmer was gonna be temporary headmare."
Cozy Glow laughed. "She was, but she left me this note." She produced a piece of brown paper with some text written on it, and began to read it;
"I have to go. Twilight needs my help. I know the school is in good hooves with you, Cozy."
Cozy giggled in an annoying, high pitched way as she finished reading it. "Isn't that sweet? We won't let Starlight down, will we?"
She then began hovering about. Smoulder, ever the skeptic, smelt a rat. "It's just kind of weird, isn't it? Like, why'd she change her mind? Why did Starlight write a note instead of saying goodbye to us herself? Doesn't make any sense."
Cozy stopped and flew over to her. "You forget something, Smoulder. We're not scheming dragons. We're ponies. Sounds like somecreature needs to do a little extra friendship homework."
Smoulder was resisting the urge to simply breathe fire in Cozy's face. Instead, she growled in frustration.
Yona, however, took up her cause. "Yak not pony either! If Smoulder get homework, Yona get homework."
"Me too!" Ocellus called.
"I'm in!" added Sandbar. "Come on, Gallus!"
"That's right, Gally!" Silverstream added. "Join in the fun! Homework party!"
Gallus rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Fiiiiiiiine," he grumbled.
Cozy Glow re-engaged annoying mode. "What loyalty. Professor Rainbow Dash would be so proud. You are such good friends. You all are. And I'm grateful, because it will be awfully hard running a whole school alone. Can I count on each of you to help me?"
Most of the students cheered, but the Young Six didn't. "Thank you so much!" Cozy continued. "It's just like our professors taught us. Together, we can get through anything!"
Smoulder looked to her friends. "JCR, now," she said.
The Young Six had gotten drinks and had gathered in the Junior Common Room (JCR), sitting in a circle on sofas.
"So, what did you spot, Smoulder?" Gallus asked.
"Cozy Glow's letter was from Starlight, right?" Smoulder asked.
"So she said," Sandbar mentioned.
"Then why was it in her own hoofwriting? I know Starlight's hoofwriting very well, and that isn't it."
"Also," Silverstream pointed out, "our magic isn't working. Ocellus can't shapeshift, Smoulder, myself and Gallus can't fly, I can't change into a seapony-"
"Where are you going with this?" Sandbar asked.
"Cozy Glow was flying about with no difficulty. Her magic is still working."
Silence filled the room. It became clear that something was very wrong. "I suggest we keep an eye on her," Smoulder said. "Cozy's acting weird."
"Pink filly always weird," Yona said.
"Well, weirder."
"You don't think she's behind the theft of the magic, do you?" Gallus asked.
"If I know anything about a mystery," Ocellus answered, "you don't rule out any suspect or possibility without good evidence. Be on your guard."
Things only got weirder from there. It seemed as though Cozy was trying to bribe the others into liking her, which was not a good thing given the number of friendship bracelets and cupcakes that seemed to be doing the rounds at the moment. One night, the friends were going to one of their study sessions when they suddenly saw a mysterious shape moving through the corridors towards the main office.
"After them," Sandbar said quickly, and they followed at a considerable distance. Eventually, the figure entered the main office. They all hid behind the door and listened.
"Where is Princess Twilight?!" the voice demanded, revealing them to be Chancellor Neighsay.
"Oh no, here we go," said Smoulder.
"Oh, golly," said Cozy Glow. "She's away on a quest. I'm watching the school for her."
Neighsay scoffed and snorted in that irritating way he did. "Magic is failing across our land, and she left a foal in charge of this facility? I'm beginning to question her competence in these matters."
"Yes, sir! Is there anything I can do for you?"
There was a silence, before Neighsay spoke again. "That won't be necessary. Twilight's little social experiment stops here. As of now, I am headstallion under the Absence of Administration Act Section 4, Paragraph B, Subsection D. And I have quite a few changes to make." He grabbed a pile of files and began to leaf through them.
"What are you doing?" Cozy asked. "Those are Twilight's student's files!"
"These aren't," Neighsay growled. "Not anymore." Neighsay went onwards, his xenophobia in full flow. "With Equestria under attack, ponies must stand together. Twilight has endangered us all by skipping off on friendship trips while these dangerous creatures run loose. It won't be tolerated anymore, not now, not ever."
"You don't think they're the reason magic is disappearing, do you?"
The Young Six had no idea how to react to Neighsay's bigotry, but kept quiet as he went on. "Yes, and I came to warn Twilight. But since she is gone, it falls to me to protect you foals from these monsters."
"Is that how ponies see us?" Silverstream asked. "No wonder my cupcakes keep getting stolen?"
Neighsay turned towards the door. "Did you hear that?" he demanded. He marched over and, with a pull of his hoof, revealed the students. "You. You six have caused me untold amounts of trouble over the last few months, and that ends now." He tapped his medallion, and it lit up. The six were surrounded by a magical blue chain that locked them into place, rendering them unable to move.
"Can you shift over a bit, Smoulder? Your wingtips are shoved into my ass!"
"Try moving with a chain around you!"
Neighsay smiled. "Locked away and no longer a threat, as you should be. From now on, this school is pony only, as nature intended."
Sandbar suddenly spoke. "Wait!" he said, a cold grin on his face. "You were right about them from the beginning, Chancellor. I see that now. "
"Wait, what?" Silverstream asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "You never cared about us?"
"What are you saying?" Smoulder demanded.
"I don't want anything to do with creatures that could threaten Equestria!" Sandbar continued, his voice filled with false disgust that the Chancellor failed to spot.
It worked. Neighsay disconnected the chains around him. "Wisely put, colt. Everypony will come to their senses eventually."
As the pair exited the room, Gallus spoke. "Sandbar... you piece of shit."
Sandbar's heart was pained to have to do something like that, but he knew something was up. Magical artifacts had stopped working alongside natural magic. So how was Neighsay's medallion still operational? This was getting more and more odd, and Sandbar needed to get to the bottom of it.
As he hid behind a plant pot, he noticed Neighsay dragging his friends along towards one of the dorm rooms, pulling them as roughly as he could despite their protests.
"Racist bastard. You won't get away with this."
Sandbar hid until Neighsay was well out of earshot, and then made his move. He went for the door as fast as he could without making any noise, and then bucked it open with all his might.
The door didn't move. "Huh?" Sandbar then looked up to see the door hinges faced the other way. "Oops."
So he tried something else. He noticed a small object on the floor, and instead set about picking the lock.
"It goes to show we can't trust ponies," Gallus said. "The second he had a chance, he sold us out."
"No! It has to be something else!" Ocellus exclaimed. "I know him too well. There must be some other reason he's doing this!"
"Celly, I know you're infatuated with him, but there really is no other explanation for this. Maybe he never cared for us at all." Smoulder sat at the window. "Wait a minute! We can break the window and bill the school later!"
"Stand back! Yona about to smash window!"
"And most of the wall, from the looks of it." Gallus realised Silverstream was looking at him. "What?"
"Not helping, Gallus!"
Suddenly, there was a clicking sound at the door. "What's that?" Ocellus asked.
"It sounds like somecreature picking the lock!" Smoulder noted.
There was a loud click as the tumbler rolled back, and the door rolled open to reveal...
"Sandbar?!"
"He's saved us, you guys!" Silverstream cried, as she flew over and hugged the colt. "This is so amazing!"
"I also like to be able to breathe," Sandbar replied.
"Fine work, Sandbar!" Gallus called. "I never doubted you for a second!"
The others all looked at him, confused over his very abrupt change in tone.
"Guys, something's not right with Neighsay," Sandbar said.
"He's racist?" Smoulder suggested.
"Apart from the obvious," Sandbar continued. "I noticed his medallion worked to chain you guys up. Nothing magic related is working at the moment, so how did that work?"
"Rather like how Cozy Glow is still able to fly," Ocellus said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "If neither of them seem to be affected, what if they are somehow connected?"
"Or working together?" Silverstream suggested.
"But that doesn't even make sense!" Gallus protested. "If all the magic goes, they'll be power..." He trailed off, a horrified realisation crossing his mind. "What if they're trying to weaken us?"
"Only one way to find out!" Sandbar called. "Come on guys, let's go!"
Off the six friends went, reunited once more, speeding off in the direction they had seen Neighsay go. As they passed the broom cupboard, they suddenly heard a voice. Muffled cries.
Sandbar stopped, turned back, and opened the door. His jaw fell open in surprise when he saw who was stuck inside.
The six friends continued to look in surprise at who was stuck in the closet amongst the brooms.
"Cozy Glow?" ventured Gallus.
"Thank Celestia somepony found me!" the pink filly replied. "I thought I was going to be stuck in there forever!"
She wobbled forward on her legs, clearly not used to walking, and looked around the corrider.
Gallus spoke up again. "So, Cozy Glow is here, but we also saw her buzzing off in that direction. So how can she be in two places at once?"
"Well," Cozy continued, "I was minding my own business when suddenly BAM! This giant creature that looked like a cheese grater bundled me in here and began imper- impersona-"
"Impersonating," Smoulder finished.
"Impersonating me!" Cozy added. "I have no idea how long I've been in that cupboard, but that thing did bring me food and drink every now and then. Clearly they needed me alive for some reason."
Sandbar began issuing instructions. "Cozy, return to your dorm and barricade yourself in. If whatever that thing is is still around, it may pop up again. The rest of you, with me."
As the two parties set off in separate directions, Ocellus began to look concerned. There was a sense of dread building in the pit of her stomach. She certainly had a vague idea of who 'Cozy Glow' might be.
The Young Six entered the library and found the access hatch that had taken them on their adventure a few weeks ago. The access ramp that had enabled them to get out was still there, so they simply slid down that to get inside, before wandering along some corridors and finding the viewing grate for a large chamber. Inside, six artefacts were arranged around in a hexagon shape, with six beams shooting forth (or one beam per artefact). Each of these beams fed into a blue ball of energy, which had Starlight Glimmer inside it, looking helpless and very trapped. Below them was a giant drain, into which energy was spilling like water from a bucket.
'Cozy' was down below, and speaking to nopony in particular. "Enjoying yourself in there, Starlight? I'm sorry I had to push you in. But what else could I do? You were going to ruin all my plans." She paused, and looked around before continuing, somehow failing to see the Young Six huddled against a grate. "You might get some company soon, if the puppet gets me what I want. All this magic needs time to drain from Equestria before my vortex sucks it to another realm, after all. Three days sure is a long time, yes? I imagine you'd know all about that from your time travel shenanigans. But, by all means, stay in there and get warm. The last thing I need is you screwing everything up for a third time."
The Young Six moved down to a lower level and entered the chamber, as 'Cozy Glow' continued. "With Twilight and her lackeys out of my way, all of Equestria will bow to me! The sole ruler of Equestria!"
"That's quite enough, Cozy, or whoever you are!" Gallus shouted. "This has gone far enough!"
'Cozy' turned around. "Well, I guess you found her," she said, her face moving into a nasty sneer.
Ocellus began to back up. She knew that face all too well. "Guys, we need to get out of here!" she said, before turning suddenly.
"Nuh uh, you didn't say the magic word." Metal gates slammed shut into place to prevent their escape. "I suppose the game is up. I suppose we should talk 'ling to 'ling."
Green fire washed over her, and her figure began to stretch and elongate. Black, hole filled chitin replaced pink fur, a black horn erupted from her head as her eyes turned green. A dark blue mane emerged from her head, pushing out the old curls, followed by a dark blue tail, both filled with holes. A light green carapace appeared on her back, joined by a shiny blue plate running around her waist. A strange crown appeared on her head, as dark blue wings emerged from her back, before the shell closed over them and kept them in place.
Queen Chrysalis laughed. "That is so much better. Seriously, when you choose an annoying filly to disguise yourself as, it's such a relief to get your normal voice back."
"So, the Queen of the Changelings-"
"Oh dear, nocreature calls me that anymore. Especially after what Thorax did!"
Suddenly, the figure of Neighsay appeared from one of the other vents, striding towards Chrysalis. "My lady," he said, "all you asked me to do, I have done."
"Excellent," Chrysalis smiled, and lit her horn. Neighsay vanished into nothingness, and blue energy flowed into Chrysalis' horn. Seconds later, she turned back to the Young Six and fired a beam, pinning them in place.
Sandbar squirmed and struggled as he tried to break free. The irony wasn't lost on him. Neighsay had been complaining about the other creatures being a threat to Equestria. And he had been in active cahoots with a wanted terrorist! "Traitor," he growled.
Chrysalis overheard him. "Oh, so you think your beloved Chancellor a traitor, do you? Here's the truth of the matter; Chancellor Neighsay has been dead for years. What you saw was merely a construct created by me to allow me to infiltrate your very society. In the process, he created an environment so chaotic, and so much distrust and diversion, that it allowed me to sneak in and achieve my plans."
"What are those?" Silverstream gasped, trying to get air into her lungs.
"Seeing as I intend to kill you anyway, I might as well tell you. Dead creatures tell no tales, after all." Chrysalis laughed at her own bad joke, and then continued. "All the other times I have tried to take control of the country, magic has always been the thing that stops me. You have always harnessed it to defeat my forces. So why not pull the rug out from underneath you? All the magic in Equestria is being fed into a chamber, where it shall activate and fuel an unstoppable army of Changelings, bred to be the perfect warriors, with no weaknesses or faults. Without magic, my forces shall sweep across Equestria in a tidal wave, and none will be able to stop me!"
"That's insane!" Ocellus cried. "Without magic, the world will cease to function properly and plant life will die!"
"I never said I wanted to destroy the world, little grub," Chrysalis replied, "only take it over. Of course I would move the sun and moon. I do need subjects to rule over to be a Queen, don't I?"
"You won't get away with this," Smoulder growled.
"Oh, but I already have." Chrysalis abruptly released the bonds on Ocellus. "And I'm about to make my victory so much easier. I have no interest in fighting you."
Her horn lit up again, and a blue beam shot across the room and into Ocellus. "Come to mommy, my child. After all, the one I had raised as my successor should be a challenge to fight, after all?"
Ocellus screamed as the spell began to take effect. "No! I won't fight my- GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
"Is that really how a child should speak to their mother?" Chrysalis smiled. "That's right. Ocellus was bred from the purest of genetic stock I had as a backup should I ever be pushed into a corner. She is no normal nymph- she is a Princeps class of Changeling."
"She's a dormant queen," Gallus realised. "No wonder her magic is so strong!"
Ocellus continued to struggle, but eventually it was too much. Her eyes turned a sickly red as the hidden programming took effect.
"This should be fun," Chrysalis smiled. "Time to sit back and watch, methinks."
The locks on the other members of the Young Six disengaged, and they scarpered as Ocellus began to open fire on them, bolts of blue energy flying everywhere and making quite the mess.
"Yona not like this!" the yak cried, as she ran for cover as bolts flew all over the place.
"Keep dodging the fire!" Sandbar called. "I'll think of something!"
Ocellus laughed. "You think running around will save you? Dodge this!" Her carapace opened, and she took to the air, her magic restored.
"Bucking great!" shouted Gallus. "She can fly now?"
Smoulder rolled out from behind a boulder and blasted a jet of fire at Ocellus. The flames connected, but the Changeling blocked it with a shield. "This is the problem of having no magic with which to fight the only magic user in the group!"
"And we can't knock her out of the sky, either!" Silverstream shouted, as she ran past the artefacts. She knocked into one, and a blast of energy shot out from it. It happened to catch Ocellus, who stopped for a moment as her eyes turned blue again.
"Huh? What- where am-"
Her eyes switched back to red.
Sandbar noticed this with interest. "It seems the artefacts' energy pulse disables the brainwashing temporarily." He looked over to the others. "Get behind the artefacts and start firing on Ocellus! I have a plan!"
The others nodded and ran as Ocellus continued to shoot at them, blowing holes in the floor and walls, which left the place in a bit of a mess. "I only hope this works!" Smoulder shouted. "I don't want to be a barbeque!"
"You make a very good barbeque!" Gallus joked.
"This is hardly the time to be cracking jokes, Gallus!" Silverstream called. They had all gotten behind an element, and began pulling on them, firing a beam in the direction of their former friend.
Ocellus dodged round most of them. "Want to play it that way? Very well." She continued firing indiscriminately.
"Of course, being underdeveloped makes her magic weaker than desired," Chrysalis noted.
Sandbar was about to reach his artefact, when suddenly a loud buzzing alerted him to something being wrong. He looked back- just in time for Ocellus to smash into him and pin him down. He looked up into her face as she looked back, snarling, her eyes glowing bright red and her horn charging for the killing blow.
"Ocellus, please!" Sandbar begged as he looked up at her. "Don't do this! I'm your friend!"
No response.
Sandbar knew he had to try a different track. "Remember all the fun we've had together! The time we spent in each other's company! Even our first kiss!"
That got a reaction out of her. Something had worked.
"Please, Ocellus... I love you."
Ocellus stopped. She seemed to blink underneath the eye covers. "Sandbar," she whispered. She could feel and sense his love for her, pure and whole. As she absorbed some of it, her eyes returned to normal, and she staggered backwards, looking over towards Chrysalis.
"What?" Chrysalis exclaimed, surprised. "What is this? Destroy him!"
"No," Ocellus flatly replied.
Chrysalis blinked. Had this grub really just said no to her? "I am your Queen! You will obey me!"
"Those who move for you, move only in Command, not out of Love!" Ocellus replied, turning to face the being who had the audacity to call herself a 'mother'. "You believe yourself a Queen, but are nothing more than a coward who uses those around you to do your bidding!"
"She's quoting Shirespear!" Gallus noted. "What? I paid attention in that literature class!"
"You may consume love, but don't understand it." Ocellus was now in full flow. "This is where I found my place in the world. This is where I found love, and who I truly am. I am not Ocellus, the daughter of Chrysalis. I am not Ocellus, the Princeps. I am my own being. I decide my own destiny. I am Ocellus the Changeling, and I say to Tartarus with you!"
In that moment, each member of the Young Six suddenly began to glow, and a spectral voice began to speak.
"These six have succeeded where you have failed, Chrysalis. The elements of harmony are a force you will never be able to wield or understand, for you lack any of their traits. They are the new Bearers of the Elements."
Each of the Young Six lit up in turn as the voice spoke.
"Silverstream, the Element of Laughter.
Smoulder, the Element of Loyalty.
Sandbar, the Element of Generosity.
Gallus, the Element of Honesty.
Yona, the Element of Kindness.
And last, but not least, Ocellus, the Element of Magic. This is a power you can never triumph against, for those with evil design will never triumph over the pure of heart."
Each of them floated in front of the artefacts, and with a single motion pulled them clear. This produced a shockwave that spread outwards and across Equestria repairing the damage and restoring the magic to the land.
Suddenly, the Young Six were warped outside and landed in the courtyard. "That was one crazy acid trip," Gallus said. "Sandbar, those plants round the back of your house were amazing."
"I think that was real. Otherwise, why is Chrysalis over there?"
Chrysalis suddenly surged to her feet, and her horn lit up. "You blithering idiots!" she shouted. "Now my new breed of Changelings cannot get the energy they need to awaken! My plan will never work now!"
Suddenly, the Mane Six warped in from Tartarus, with Starlight Glimmer appearing a second later.
"Stay right where you are, Chrysalis," Twilight Sparkle warned her. "You're wanted for a list of crimes too lengthy to list here."
"I may be a monarch, but I'm no idiot," Chrysalis replied. "Your existence is meaningless! Honesty, loyalty, generosity, it is all a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing!" When Twilight looked astonished, she continued. "See? I know Shirespeare too." Seconds later, she teleported out.
"Is Chrysalis getting away a running joke nowadays?" Starlight asked.
"So, let me check I've understood this correctly," Celestia said. "Chrysalis, at some point, bumped Neighsay off, resurrected him as a spirit of sorts to spread chaos and undermine the school to distract attention away from her moving resources around. Then, at some point, she disguised herself as Cozy Glow and used that as a cover to ensure the students didn't suspect anything. But when she inadvertently used her magic, it aroused the suspicions of these six, who then confronted her and defeated her. Is that correct?"
"With a bit of help from the Tree of Harmony," Gallus added.
"Well," Twilight smiled, "I think this calls for a celebration. All exams are cancelled, and we shall have a great banquet to celebrate the actions of these six brave creatures, who have saved the land!"
Most of the students cheered- except Ocellus, who simply mouthed 'oh no'.
Suddenly, Cozy Glow barrelled out of the crowd and slammed into Sandbar. "Yay!" she cried. "You were awesome, Sandy!"
"Well, I kinda had to clear your name after Chrysalis impersonated you," Sandbar smiled.
"Are you and Cozy related?" asked Smoulder.
"She's my little sister," Sandbar replied. "And I love her to bits."
"He's the bestest big brother ever!" Cozy squealed, her face still embedded in his chest.
Celestia laughed at this scene of mirth. "If I may, I would like to assist with this banquet. There shall be the best cake, the finest musicians, and the most splendid of decorations."
"Of course!" Twilight smiled.
And all was well and happy, in Equestria at least. Far away, Chrysalis sat in a wooded grove and snarled.
"This isn't the last you'll see of me," she snarled, looking at wooden carvings of her enemies. "I shall defeat Starlight Glimmer and take control of this cursed land. Though I may need some help."
Gallus sat on the shore of Hippogriffia as he watched the sun beam gently down on the world. In the distance, his close friend Silverstream whizzed about in the water, the limitless supply of energy her seapony form gave her paying off (though she had just had an ice cream, which probably helped).
"WHEEEEEE!" she cried, as she jumped out of the water, executed a perfect roll, and then landed on the water. "This is so much fun!"
Gallus nodded, and watched on as the other seaponies there laughed and played in the water. He smiled at the thought. His parents had died when he was very young, and griffons in Griffonstone didn't really make any effort to talk to one another (apart from his cousin Gabby, but then again everygriff thought she was weird). But going to the School of Friendship had changed all of that. Despite his initial reservations, he had come to enjoy his time at the school, and had met the five individuals who had become a new family for him- so much so he'd tried to keep them there by toppling a Hearth's Warming Ornament. Yeah, not a smart move.
But they'd all pulled together to help clean the mess up, and he'd been genuine touched by their willingness to stay so that he'd have somecreature to be with.
Whilst he wasn't quite sure how being nearly squished in a cave was conducive to helping his friendship, he certainly appreciated the time he had with them, and with Equestria saved it seemed as though they were stronger than ever.
He was shaken out of his thoughts when Terramar burst out of the water and switched to Hippogriff mode, landing in front of him and casually shaking water off his fur.
"Gah!" Gallus cried, shielding himself. "If you must preen, please don't do it all over me!"
"Sorry," Terramar replied. "Silverstream says she's really lonely down there, and she's worried you're missing out on all the fun sitting here topside. Besides, mom and dad want to meet you."
"I'm not good with water," Gallus sighed. "Besides, can't they come up and meet me."
"I can!" said another voice, which rapidly turned out to belong to Sky Beak, who landed next to him. "But my wife refuses to leave the water for some reason. I have no idea why."
"We were down there for pretty long," Terramar admitted. "Both Silverstream and me were born down there, and most seaponies struggled to readjust to life on both the surface and underwater after the Storm King was beaten, so many stuck to just one or the other, such as Seaspray."
"Very true- but you never heard that from me," Sky Beak said quickly. He fired up his fragment of the pearl and jumped into the water. "You comin', Terramar?"
"I'll stay up here a bit, if you don't mind," Terramar smiled. "I enjoy the water, but I do miss the sun on my back."
Gallus sighed. "Oh well, you only live once." He set off for the water's edge and floated in it, shallow as possible owing to his limited swimming abilities.
"Here we go!" Sky Beak called, and his pearl fragment lit up. Gallus felt very odd, like something was getting squished together, and when he looked down he noticed his hind legs had merged into a single long tail, with a large flipper at the end. His claws were also a set of flippers, and staying upright proved to be a bit of a challenge.
"You'll get used to it eventually," Sky Beak smiled. "You comin'?"
"OK," Gallus replied, and instantly faceplanted into the water before sinking downwards. Now facing the right way, he experimented with his new musculature and rolled along very slowly. A quick exploration revealed a yellow seapony sitting on a rock at the bottom of the water, preening herself or whatever.
"Hello!" she called. "I'm Ocean Flow, and I've heard plenty about you, Gallus."
"From Silverstream?"
"Yep," Ocean Flow replied. "She really likes you, and we'd be honoured to welcome you into our family."
"Hey, isn't it a bit early for all that?" Sky Beak asked, looking at his wife, confused.
"You never know, we were pretty young when we got hitched."
"This may seem like a really weird question, but Sky Beak remained on the surface after the Storm King attacked, right?"
"That's right, I was part of the military back then, and helped to fight off the Storm King's soldiers to allow the others to escape."
"But Silverstream and Terramar were born underwater, based on what they told me. How does that work?"
Ocean Flow flipper-palmed. "I was pregnant when we were forced into hiding. Terramar and Silverstream are non identical twins, but Silverstream was born shortly before Terramar, which is why she's the older sibling."
"I learn something new every day," Gallus replied.
"WHEE!" Silverstream cried as she shot past them. "Going fast is really fun!"
"She had a lot of ice cream," Sky Beak explained.
"And you let her have that much?" Ocean Flow asked, incredulously.
"How can I say no to that face?"
Silverstream stopped for a moment. "Come on Gally, why don't you swim with me?"
Gallus looked at her for a moment. Now he could understand being underwater, if only for the fact that Silverstream was pretty hot as a seapony. "You're on!" he called, and swam after her, if only to try and cover up the massive blush on his face.
"Yona think that dragonlands are too hot!"
"And I think that Yakyakistan is too cold, to be honest," Smoulder replied, sitting in a pool of lava. "The benefits of having lava proof scales. Trust me, a non dragon wouldn't survive very long down here."
"Yona have lots of thick fur. Would Yona be OK?"
"Nope," said a large red dragon barging his way past. "Hey Smoulds! How are you?"
"Fine, Garble," Smoulder grumbled, before closing her eyes. "Now please stop bothering me as I want to rest for a bit."
"Sheesh, somedrake's grouchy." Garble flew off, muttering something about dragon hormones and it being 'that time of the month'.
Elsewhere, Sandbar and Ocellus' families found themselves on the South Devon coast, soaking up even more sun. They were on a section of beach just to the east of Dawlish station on the English Riviera. Whilst Ommatidia and Aristate were jumping about in the water as dolphins, Cozy Glow was buzzing about near the water's edge, giggling with glee as the waves flew upwards.
"Watch you don't go too far out, Cozy!" Sandbar called.
"OK!" Cozy replied, as she flew back inwards. "I love the beach! It's so much fun, feeling the sand in your hooves and the spray in the air!"
Ocellus looked over. "So, explain to me how both your parents are Earth ponies and your sister is a pegasus?"
"Oh, sure," Sandbar replied. "Although both mom and dad are both Earth ponies, they both have pegasi relatives in their families, and this is why Cozy is a pegasus. She was a bit of a handful when younger." Sandbar leaned in closer. "Don't tell anypony else, but Cozy has learning difficulties. Essentially, she doesn't react to situations in the way most ponies expect."
"LOOK! LOOK! TRAIN!" Cozy squealed.
"Such as that," Sandbar sighed, as he wrote down another set of numbers. "Yet another HST. What I'd give to see City of Truro out on the mainline."
A smile formed on Ocellus' face as she buzzed off in the direction of the station.
A few minutes later, Sandbar's attention was suddenly drawn by a loud whistle and an intense rumbling in the distance. He turned around in the direction of the first of the tunnels on the sea wall, only to see thundering out of the tunnel-
City of Truro, with 8 coaches rattling behind. Not wanting to miss a shot, he grabbed his camera and began to record. He smiled like a fool as the train shot past, whistling loudly and steam pouring from its cylinders as it cleared the sea wall and vanished into the distance like a fiery dragon, puffing and panting as it disappeared from view.
Sandbar was in disbelief. That engine was out of ticket, so how was it running there? A few minutes later, he got his clue as Ocellus buzzed over and landed next to him. "How'd I do?" she asked.
"That was you?" Sandbar gasped.
"Changelings can disguise themselves as anything they can think of," Ocellus explained. "That includes inanimate objects such as, in this case, railway equipment. But disguising myself as a steam engine, tender, and several coaches was probably the toughest one I've done yet. I won't be doing it often."
Sandbar laughed and put his foreleg around her shoulder. "You never cease to amaze me, you know?"
Smoulder could instantly detect something not quite being right the moment she became aware of her surroundings. First a giant yak had plummeted out of the sky for no obvious reason, stopping seconds before being reduced to paste, and then Silverstream and Ocellus had appeared. The former seemed to be fairly normal, which was to say rather hyper, but the latter was in a graduation gown despite the fact they were only second year students on a three year course.
Smoulder sat on the side of a giant bowl seemingly filled with processed waste, based on the awful brown colour. A cup of the stuff had appeared in her claw, and it had turned out to be the worst tea she had ever tasted. "Ugh. Somecreature needs to brush up on their brewing skills."
"Erm, Smoulder?" Silverstream asked. "That's not your usual attire, is it?"
Smoulder suddenly noticed she was wearing the blue dress and crown from the test all those months ago, and promptly pulled said dress over her head and tossed it into a nearby river, which also removed the tiara and lipstick she had on. "Oh! This isn't mine."
There was suddenly a loud scream from nearby, and a door began to creak shut. Silverstream, Smoulder and Ocellus charged over to see Gallus hidden behind the door, wedged into a tiny space. If they didn't stop the door, he'd be flattened like a pancake. "Make it stop!" he yelled at them.
Ocellus pointed to the others. She wedged her body into place to jam the door mechanism, whilst Silverstream and Smoulder flew upwards to the motor and gears that were powering the door mechanism. The gears were connected to the motor by a rod. Smoulder grabbed this rod and tore it free using brute force.
This caused the gears to stop turning. The dragon and the hippogriff, with considerable grunts of effort, pushed the door open despite how stiff the gearing was.
Silverstream looked at Smoulder. "That was like something out of Nightmare Moon on Elm Street!"
"Or Saw," Smoulder countered.
"I hope there aren't any references to The Ling around here," Ocellus sighed. "That film's caused quite enough damage to our reputation."
Sure enough, they came across Sandbar, looking at a giant mountain of cupcakes. He seemingly couldn't decide between them, but was distracted when a bright purple light flashed in. The ghostly Twilight they had encountered under the school appeared before them.
"Good. You have all answered my summons," it said.
"I thought this was my dream!" Silverstream said, confused.
"Maybe it's a collective dream," Smoulder suggested. "Every minute we're here feels like another moment from a bad fantasy movie."
"I'd call nearly being squished by a giant door a nightmare," Gallus shuddered. And he shuddered some more for good measure.
"Or those cupcakes! Which one do I pick?" Sandbar added.
"Really?" Smoulder said, incredulously. "That's your idea of a nightmare?"
"I may have eaten too much cheese last night."
Ocellus, however, was the one who asked the question on everycreature's mind. "But why did you bring us here, Headmare Twilight?"
The sparkly entity spoke again. "I am not Twilight. I am merely the messenger. You all must hurry. The Tree of Harmony needs you." And then she vanished.
Sandbar stood on the platform at Ponyville railway station and waited for an oncoming train. As it was early September (feel free to make Earth, Wind and Fire jokes), the station was still fairly quiet despite being an important rail junction, but that was because the annual deluge of students was yet to happen. Sandbar didn't have far to travel, as he lived in Ponyville, so he felt sorry for those who had to haul baggage and personal effects many hundreds of miles.
"Attention all passengers, the train now approaching the platform is 7:45 from Hive Junction calling at Ponyville and Canterlot only. I repeat, the train now approaching the platform is 7:45 from Hive Junction calling at Ponyville and Canterlot only. Please stand clear of the platform edge to allow passengers to disembark."
At last, the train from the Changeling Kingdoms rattled into the platform and stopped, hissing steam as the driver prepared the engine to depart.
"This is Ponyville! This is Ponyville! Change for Dodge City, Klugetown and Mount Aris!"
Sandbar was looking for one particular face, and saw it as Ocellus piled off the train. "There you are! I was worried you'd never arrive!"
"The train had to content with engineering works," Ocellus replied. "Where are the others?"
"They've already arrived. Silverstream got here ridiculously early, Gallus and Smoulder got here next (Smoulder had to fly as the Dragonlands railway got taken out by a lava flow), and Yona arrived last night."
"I don't like holding everycreature else up," Ocellus said nervously. "Let's go."
"Sure thing." The pair set off for the School as the train set off once more, its bell ringing as it got underway.
After a quick chat with Twilight, the six friends were taken to the chamber where the Tree of Harmony resided. They were presented with a scene of utter devastation that looked like a bomb had gone off in there. Mountains of destroyed rubble littered the ground, and fragments of broken crystal lay everywhere.
Gallus gasped in shock. "How could this happen?!" he exclaimed.
"Somebody blew it up?" Smoulder suggested. "Stuff tends to get destroyed for a reason. There's no such thing as spontaneous explosion."
Ocellus looked especially upset. "If only we hadn't gone home for summer break," she whispered. "Maybe we could've saved the Tree."
"I wish that Sombra guy was still around, so we could teach him a lesson!" Smoulder snapped.
"Sombra's dead, according to what Twilight said," countered Silverstream.
"That not bring back Tree. Or Elements of Harmony." Yona's words brought them all back to their senses.
"And without the Elements, we're defenseless," Sandbar added. He looked defeated and broken.
Silverstream suddenly had an idea. "Wait! We all saw and heard the Tree in our dream, right?" she asked.
"Where are you going with this?" Smoulder asked.
"I haven't finished," Silverstream replied. "How could it talk to us if it was really gone? Maybe if we close our eyes and think really strong friendship thoughts, the Tree will get better!"
"That's actually not half bad," Gallus admitted.
Smoulder shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I've heard worse suggestions."
So, they all joined limbs and thought.
Nothing happened.
Sandbar opened his eyes after a minute. "Erm, is anything happening?" he asked.
"No," Yona flatly replied.
Ocellus went back to looking defeated. "I guess the Tree really is gone."
Gallus suddenly had a brainwave. "Then we need to do something to honor it!"
Sandbar realised what the dream was all about. "We're connected to the Tree on a core magical level, right? That's why the tree called us! It used its dying breath to call us here to create a memorial to it."
Ocellus nodded. "It did say it needed us."
Unfortunately, an unwanted prescense made itself known.
"OCELLUS!"
The blue Changeling immediately switched forms to a rock as a very big, very green, and very angry Thorax approached.
"There you are!" the Changeling King snapped. "What in Equestria were you thinking? Why did you leave without telling us? Your parents have been worried sick, as have the rest of us! The last time you lot pulled a stunt like this, it nearly brought the world to the brink of war!"
"May I point out it was a pony who attempted to trigger that war on a Changeling's orders?" Gallus pointed out.
Thorax glared at him. Gallus took the hint and shut up.
Ocellus switched back to normal form, visibly shaking in fear. "Uh, sorry, Thorax! It was an emergency!"
"Wait a minute," Sandbar asked. "How did you know we were here?"
Thorax said nothing, but switched forms. In his place was the engine that had been pulling the train Ocellus had travelled on.
"Is there anything Changelings cannot turn into?"
Thorax returned to normal, and his tone suddenly softened, realising he'd been too aggressive. "Well, next time, ask before you run off. Now, come on. Let's go home."
"Wait!" Smoulder called. "She can't go! See this pile of rubble? This used to be the Tree of Harmony, and it summoned us here to built a memorial to it."
"And we might be here a while," Sandbar explained.
"If that's the case, then you may need to get permission from your respective leaders," Thorax continued. "Ocellus, you have mine." His voice dropped quieter. "Sorry for snapping at you. It's just that things are extremely tense at the moment, with the threat of war looming, and my subjects suddenly vanishing does little to ease my nerves."
"Yeah, I'm sorry too," Ocellus replied.
Securing the go ahead of their respective leaders proved to be easier said than done, but the Young Six got clearance to partake in their grand memorial construction project. Once all was said and done, they gathered about to discuss their plan.
"I propose that we construct a museum," began Gallus, putting forward his proposal. "We can fill it with lots of artefacts and interpretive signs to explain what everything is and what it all did."
"Why not built a big and impressive monument?" Smoulder suggested. "We could make a very big and very imposing statue, rather like the Wallace monument we saw in Scotland. That statue is so big it can be seen for miles around, and if we did the same, creatures will see the structure and ask 'what is that'?"
"That seems a bit bombastic," Ocellus said.
"What bombastic?" Yona asked.
"Something that looks grand and impressive but in reality carries little meaning," Ocellus explained.
"That wasn't very subtle," Smoulder grumbled.
"Neither is your proposed monument," Ocellus replied.
"Do you have a counter proposal?" Gallus asked.
"We could create a reflection pool, to give the creatures of the world an opportunity to reflect on the Tree and what it gave us. The Elements of Harmony."
"Interesting," Gallus said to himself.
"I have an idea!" Silverstream said.
"Fire away!" Sandbar answered.
"I was going to suggest artwork that allows people to discover the symbolism of the tree and reflect upon its true meaning."
"That's basically the same as Ocellus' idea," Smoulder groaned. "That leaves Sandbar. What about you?"
"I was thinking we could plant a new tree as a symbol of what used to stand here."
Yona, who had been mostly silent throughout the whole discussion, spoke up. "Why not combine all ideas into one? Have tree at entrance, then museum after that. Once through museum, ponies go to monument with statue and interpretive art, as well as reflection pool. How that for idea?"
"Yona, you're a genius!" Sandbar smiled.
"No, Yona a Yak."
With a mass of construction equipment the Young Six got to work building the combined monument and museum, which was so large they had to use the entire cavern space to complete it. Then they had to haul all of the equipment used to build it out.
But once it was built, it looked absolutely marvellous. It was suitably impressive, but at the same time not excessively pompous and overblown.
And to cap it all off, the ghostly Twilight, which the spirit of the Tree used, appeared and signalled her approval with a simple nod of her head.
Ocellus had everything set up ready for the occasion. Fold out table? Check. Markers, extra playing pieces? Check? 6 chairs for her friends? Check. Plenty of drinks and snacks? Check. Seriously, the school was extraordinarily generous with its start of term care packages!
As she made her final checks that everything was in order (including reshuffling the draw stacks one more time to be absolutely sure), she suddenly heard a knock at the door. She finished shuffling the cards, trotted over to the door, and opened it.
Sure enough, the gang were on the other side. "Evening, Ocellus," Smoulder sighed, as she walked through the door.
"Hi!" Silverstream said, as she whizzed through the door. "Ooh! A map of a funny continent! Where's this Kiy- yiv?"
Gallus took his seat. "This again?" he asked.
Yona and Sandbar were the last to arrive. "Yona hope she not get confused." She looked at the map. "Oh. Yona not get to build railway to Yakyakistan?"
"At least it's not Southern Rail," Sandbar sighed, as he looked at the board. "Ticket to Ride: Europe?"
"Yep!" Ocellus replied, hopping up and down for a moment before taking her seat. "There's only space for five players, so I'll be the gamesmaster for this particular game and oversee distribution of cars and suchlike. You already have your destination tickets. You need to keep at least two, so look at them and hand me back the ones you don't want."
After a few minutes, Gallus and Smoulder handed two of theirs back to Ocellus, who stuck them in the box lid. They then looked to their train cards. "Remember," Ocellus told them, "those cards are used to purchase the sections of track that link cities together. You need all of the same colour."
"What do the grey routes do again?" asked Silverstream.
"You can claim those with any colour, but they all have to be the same colour. Four orange, for instance."
"If only you ran my family's boardgame sessions," Sandbar sighed. "Dad's efforts to explain the rules are always needlessly complicated. Though that may be a side effect of playing Settlers of Equestria, which is absurdly complicated anyway."
"We never had board games underwater," Silverstream said. "It was because the boards would get wet and soggy, and the pieces would simply float away."
"Well, we won't have that problem here," Smoulder sighed. "Who goes first?"
"Play proceeds anticlockwise from the player next to the last one who won."
There was anothe moment's silence as they all tried to remember who had won the previous time. Then Yona jumped up for joy. "Yay! Yona get to go first!"
Unfortunately, she crashed into the table, sending all the playing pieces flying.
"YONA!"
"Oops," Yona said, looking sheepish. "Sorry."
Once they had got the mess cleaned up, and the board reset, they set about playing the game. It was absolutely glorious.
"What do the black borders mean again?" Smoulder asked.
"If a section of track has a black border," Ocellus explained, "it means that it's a tunnel. In order to build one of those, you might need to pay extra cards in order to build it. When you play, three extra cards are turned over from the draw pile. If any of them match the colour you've played, you need to pay more cards. If you can't pay, you can't build that section of line but you do keep the cards and can try again later."
"Huh. Might as well give it a shot. Four yellow."
Four yellow cards were placed down, and Ocellus turned over three cards from the draw pile. "One yellow!"
Smoulder sighed. "Good thing I had one in reserve," she said, and handed five cards to the discard pile.
Seconds later, Yona groaned. "Yona was going to build that!" she said, indicating that Gallus had just built the 8 track section from Stockholm to Petrograd.
"That's 21 points in the bag for me," Gallus smiled, "catapaulting me into the lead!"
"Highest score on the board doesn't necessarily mean you'll win, Gallus," Sandbar replied, as he played some card. "Four orange, Paris to Marseilles."
"Oh, going French are we?" Smoulder sparred. "Then again, Garble likes wearing berets and reciting strange poetry, so I guess I can't complain."
"Does he?" Silverstream asked. "Ooh! Two yellows please!"
"Yep. He's a beatnik, and keeps an old typewriter with a scroll in it to ensure his train of thought isn't broken."
"Interesting."
The game continued on for a while, with the players building lines and adding to their point scores. Yona even drew more tickets, which was rather surprising to some, but not others who knew that drawing extra tickets was an easy way of getting lots of points.
Then came the final play. Gallus was down to two pieces first, and this gave the others one last turn.
"Great," Sandbar sighed. "I was so close to finishing."
They each played their final plays, and then began to add up the scores.
Ocellus had a pen and piece of paper to write on, and started scribbling down the scores as they were read to her.
"50 on the board, 25 in tickets, I still have three stations."
"80 on the board, but only 12 in tickets. One station."
"Oof! What happened there?" Smoulder asked.
"I didn't complete my last tickets which cost me points."
The other gave their scors, which were many and varied. Ocellus finished adding the results, and set about reading them out. "In order of success, Yona, Silverstream, Gallus, Smoulder, and Sandbar."
"Ah well," Sandbar replied, as he hopped out of his chair. "There's always next time. Thanks for the game, Ocellus."
"No problem!" she said, with a smile, as she began packing up. "I'll clear up here, so you guys can get off to bed."
The others all said their goodbyes and set off for their respective dorm rooms. Ocellus could have sworn she saw Silverstream and Gallus share an affectionate moment, but she decided not to comment. After all, she was openly in a relationship with Sandbar, so it'd be hypocritical of her to comment on it.
"Thanks for turning out at such short notice," Ian Riley said, as he prepped the Black 5, 44871, for running at Settle station. "Again, I'm sorry for calling you out so suddenly, but the dedicated fireman fell ill a few hours before the run was due to start and we rather need something or someone to light the fire to see the way."
"No problem," Smoulder replied. "I'm a dragon. I know a thing or two about keeping things hot."
"I should hope so too," Ian said, glancing at the gauges again. "We need to keep boiler pressure as high as possible, and that means having as much steam pressure being produced by a hot fire as possible." He looked out of the window. "12 coaches with a single Black 5 isn't going to be easy either. We should've had a second engine, but that failed too."
Smoulder studied the fire closely. "So, how far do we have to get this thing?"
"The relief fireman is waiting at Dent station, about 15 or so miles from here. It's going to be a very slow climb, so be sure to maintain the fire temperature without it getting too hot. We don't want blowback in here!"
"Blowback?"
"Basically, the fire ejects hot air into the cab, which can result in nasty burns... if you're lucky."
Ahead of the gargantuan train, the signal turned from red to amber. "We're being held here until the light is green to give us a clear run. Brakes are still held on, boiler pressure is at 224 psi, water is steady. There's a standby water tender should we run out of water or get dangerously low."
Suddenly, there was a loud whistle, and another steam special flew past on the other line. This was being headed by 46115 Scots Guardsman, which whistled loudly as it vanished into the distance.
"I wasn't expecting another steam trip out today," Ian noted. The guard then walked up the platform to see him.
"Sir, we secured a banking engine at short notice. L92 is here and ready to assist."
"Now, I wasn't expecting that, but I guess we have to work with what we've got."
Smoulder had an inkling as to who 'L92' really was, but kept it to herself. Moments later, the guard's whistle blew.
"Right, away we go!" Ian called, and pulled down on the whistle chord. With a loud boom from the Stanier hooter, the passenger train finally got underway and began to bite as it hit the steep hill out of Settle, the loud exhaust echoed by the booming of the Pannier's steam release from its own chimney.
Smoulder looked in the firebox. Her scales were fireproof, so the head couldn't hurt her, but she shot some flames into the firebox to try and keep the temperature up, which seemed to be working. The coal was burning white hot, arranged into fancy lumps that focused the heat in such a way that the engine was able to produce almost infinite levels of power.
"Keep it up!" Ian called, glancing back to the gauge. "We're holding at full pressure with plenty of water on the gauge, and we're gaining speed!"
Smoulder took a quick glance at the speedometer on her side of the cab. The speedometer was reading 30 miles per hour. "Is 30 good?" she asked.
"With this load, you'd normally be looking to do 20 with a standing start. Good news is that we're coming up on a flat section."
The train continued to climb, spectators turning out to see not only the spectacular sight of a pair of steam engines ascending the climb up to Dent, but the incredibly loud sound of two steam engines thundering away, the volume and noise mistaken for a volcanic eruption by those who were too far away to witness it.
Partway into the climb, the grade got a little easier on the two engines, and some good speed was made as they passed Horton in Ribblesdale, which was about halfway.
"Halfway there!" Ian called, and sounded a whistle sequence (short long short) on the whistle. It's not clear what else he could have sounded it on. Anyways, the Pannier tank on the back responded with the same sequence. Through it all, the fire continued to burn white hot, producing such incredible levels of heat that the boiler pressure gauge hadn't even budged an inch since departure, still at 224.
Ian glanced down at the fire in amazement. "How are you keeping it so hot? None of my usual fireman can keep the fire this hot!"
"I'm assuming that most of your usual firemen or women aren't dragons."
"Good point. Although steam engines were frequently compared to dragons in literature owing to the amount of smoke and steam they produce whilst on the move." The train passed over Ribblehead viaduct and clatted through the Blea Moor freight loop, the line having been cleared for the train to pass.
Smoulder slammed the firebox doors shut as the train stormed into Blea Moor tunnel, the volume of the engine's exhaust suddenly amplified by several hundred decibels. Smoke and steam pooled inside the tunnel from the amount of effort the engine's were producing, with the sound once more audible for miles.
Emerging from the tunnel, a spectacular jet of steam shot upwards into the sky as the train cleared the climb and was onto level ground at last. It was wasn't fire to Dent now, and the train at long last came to a stop at the highest railway station in England. Smoulder hopped off the footplate and handed over to the relief man, who seemed stunned at the engine's perfomance. "Ian, maybe you should replace all of us with dragons!"
"Wouldn't dream of it, mate!" Ian replied.
Smoulder stood on the platform and saw the support engine drop off and back up into the engineers' siding. Leaning out of the cab was Aristate.
"So, the engine wasn't a Changeling," Smoulder noted. "Very funny."
It was another morning at the School of Friendship, and the Young Six were gathered around the dining table having their breakfast. They all seemed to be quite into theirs as well, when suddenly Silverstream barrelled into the room and hovered above their table.
"You guys!" she cried, her claws next to her mouth. "There is something AMAZING in the school atrium! You just HAVE to see it!"
"Can I stop off and get some replacement eardrums along the way?" Gallus asked. "We get it, you're excited, but there's absolutely no need to scream to the rafters about whatever it is you've found."
Silverstream suddenly looked sheepish. "Oh. Oops." As the others hopped out of their chairs, they then headed off for the atrium.
"So, I wonder what Silverstream has found?" Smoulder asked.
"Maybe it's that book I requested from the library!" Ocellus said. When the others looked at her, she shrugged. "What? It's been out of print for decades!"
"You're becoming more and more like Headmare Twilight with each passing day," Gallus snorted.
"Dude, she's always been like that," Sandbar smiled. "And it's adorable."
As they arrived, they saw Silverstream floating in front of a glass case with something inside it. "See?!" she cried. "New posters! We never had those underwater!"
Smoulder looked equally surprised. "We never had paper in the Dragonlands," she said. "We always wrote stuff on stone tablets, which was an absolute pain if you spelt something wrong."
"Yona just wonder what this poster is all about?" Yona asked. "Is it for big event? That was only reason Yak put up poster owing to jammed pulp mill."
Twilight appeared from quite literally nowhere, for as an alicorn she could teleport. "I won't keep you in suspense any longer. We're bringing one of Ponyville's oldest traditions to our school – the Fetlock Fete."
"The what- lock what? " Smoulder asked in confusion.
"I thought it was a type of firearm," Gallus suggested.
"That's a flintlock," Sandbar replied. "But the Fetlock Fete is some giant pony dance part, with music and many other things. Headmare Twilight?"
"Yes?"
"It's not exactly accurate to call it one of 'Ponyville's oldest traditions', given that it hasn't run in over two decades."
"Then we're reviving it," Twilight smiled.
"I'm ready!" Ocellus suddenly declared, out of nowhere, and switched forms to the yellow pony she occassionally used as a disguise.
Twilight laughed when she saw this. "You don't need to do that, Ocellus," she replied. "This year, the event's at school and open to everycreature. We're calling our dance the Amity Ball."
"Isn't that the town with all the shark attacks?" Smoulder asked.
"Well, yes," Ocellus explained, "but the word actually derives from the Prench word 'amitie', which itself derives spoken from the language spoken in ancient Cloudsdale, which had the word 'amicus'. That means friend."
"So, it's the friend ball," Smoulder answered. "I guess things do sound more profound when spoken in a foreign language."
Yona suddenly started bouncing about. "Yona not know Amity Ball dance. Yona only know traditional dance of Yakyakistan. Go like this!"
"I've heard the Stomp is quite the sight to witness," Twilight said whimsically, "especially when performed on masse by hundreds of Yaks."
"But it's not just one dance," Sandbar smiled. "It's a whole night of them. Plus an awesome party!"
"And we'll have all the old Fetlock Fete traditions – the Pony Pal Contest, the lucky pot dinner. You'll love it! So, like this says, "get your pony pal and come along."
Sandbar internally groaned, remembering the time his old school had had a lucky pot dinner. One student's dish had given everypony food poisoning.
Nocreature else noticed, however. Silverstream flew over to Gallus. "Can we go as partners Gally? PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE?"
Gallus smiled. "Of course, Silvs. You had me at 'dinner'."
Smoulder flew off, mentioning finding a dragon to go with, whilst Sandbar turned to Ocellus. "Hey, Celly," he said, "would you like to be my pony pal? We can enter the contest together!"
"I'd love to!" Ocellus replied, and changed to the pony form again.
"You know what I meant."
As they set off together, Yona caught up with them. "Sandbar?"
Sandbar turned back. "Yes?"
"Yona happy for you two. Pony and Changeling have fun at dance party."
"Thanks," Sandbar replied, and he and Ocellus headed off.
Yona smiled to herself. "Yona need yakfriend," she said. "And Yona know who to invite."
Sandbar knew he needed a new suit for this event, and once lectures were over for him (he had a seminar at 5 in the afternoon), he started to make his way to Carousel Boutique. The streets of Ponyville were, as usual, incredibly busy. The small town had gone from quiet market town to the nerve centre of Equestria's friendship related operations. As he strolled along, whistling a merry tune, something pink and very dear to him crashed into him.
"Oh!" said Sandbar. "Hi Cozy!"
"Hi Sandy!" Cozy Glow squealed. "Are you going to the Ball?"
"You bet your buttons I am!" Sandbar replied. "Though please ease off on the whole 'crashing into people' thing."
"Professor Applejack said that bumping into people was a nice way to greet them."
Sandbar shook his head. "Cozy, she didn't mean that literally. I'm currently going to Carousel Boutique to get a suit tailored, and from what I remember you don't have a dress suitable for such an occassion."
"I've never been to a posh dance before," Cozy Glow admitted. "And I've heard it's going to be quite special." Unfortunately, she had some food in her mouth, and 'special' came out as 'speceel'."
"Well, you can tag along with me and we can ask Rarity to make you one."
"I don't have my piggy bank on me."
Sandbar laughed. "There's no need! I'll pay. Consider this a gift from brother to sister. Come on, let's go!"
"You're on!" Cozy Glow replied, and flew off into the air. Sandbar couldn't help but beam with pride. For her age, she was an incredibly strong flyer. He set off for the Boutique with a smile on his face.
Rarity was busy sewing when Sweetie Belle popped up the stairs. "Rarity?"
Rarity switched her sewing machine off and looked behind her. "Yes, Sweetie Belle?"
"Sandbar and Cozy Glow are here to see you."
"Send them in!" Rarity declared, and hopped off her stool. Moments later, Sandbar and Cozy Glow appeared in her workroom. "Good afternoon! How can I help you?"
"Cozy and I would like outfits produced for the Amity Ball, please," Sandbar asked.
"No problem! I'll just set about measuring the pair of you."
The process was not hugely complicated, all things considered. Rarity happened to have a suitable bow tie to fit about Sandbar's neck, and soon fitted him out with an incredibly smart and fine jacket that meant he would rival the finest noble in Canterlot.
Cozy Glow proved to be a bit more a challenge. Barring her difficulties in staying still for more than 5 seconds, a pegasus had something rather obvious to work around- wings. To this end, Rarity had to ensure that the material left enough space for her wings to properly open and close, as well as fold neatly behind the dress.
However, she soon produced something marvellous, and what a sight it was! The entire garment was coloured light blue, complementing Cozy's mane perfectly, and not only that, the front looked smart without excessively constraining the wearer's movements. As previously mentioned, there was space for Cozy's wings to pop out and in, and the skirt dropped nicely over her tail and hind legs, reaching the floor without brushing too much against it.
Rarity wheeled a mirror over and showed Cozy how she looked. "Well? What do you think?"
"I love it!" the pegasus cried. "Thank you so, so much!"
"Never a problem, darling. Now if you two wouldn't mind removing them, so I can neatly package them and get them sent to your dorm rooms."
"I suppose this is one of the upsides of your teacher also being your tailor," Sandbar noted, and both siblings did as instructed. "How much will this come to?"
"45 bits please."
Sandbar looked surprised. "That's cheap."
"As Cozy is a first time customer, I'm giving a 50% discount on the dress. Think of it as an act of generosity from me."
Sandbar nodded. "Cheers." He handed over the necessary funds, and he and Cozy Glow set off outdoors back towards the school.
"Who are you taking to the Amity Ball?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Ocellus," Sandbar replied, noticing Yona entering Carousel Boutique as they left.
"That figures," Cozy Glow smiled. "You two are a perfect fit for each other."
"How about you?"
Sandbar's question clearly caught Cozy Glow off guard. "Well, I'd rather keep it a secret. I'd like it to be a surprise."
"Fair enough," Sandbar replied, and set off towards the school once more. "See you this evening! Now I wonder what Ocellus will be wearing..."
It was now the night time in Ponyville, and the students of the School of Friendship headed for the main atrium of the School, which had undergone a surprising transformation in the time that they'd been gone. In the place of the old room was a place decorated with balloons, streamers, and table covered in food and drink. It looked marvellous, and as Sandbar, Silverstream, Smoulder, and Gallus filed in, they noticed an absence conspicous by its noticing.
"There's no turntables!" Silverstream cried. "How can we have a dance party without any turntables?"
"See the music stands?" Gallus pointed out. We'll be getting a live orchestra tonight, just you and me."
"Awww, you're really sweet, you know that?" Silverstream smiled, grabbing a glass of punch.
"Don't spill it on my suit."
Let us pause for a moment to take in what they were wearing. Sandbar and Gallus were finely attired in suits, the latter looking somewhat ridiculous as the shirt was struggling to contain his considerable volumes of chest fluff. Silverstream, on the other hoof/claw, was wearing a long, sky blue dress in the traditional styles of Mount Aris, with a few nautical motifs in there to emphasise her dual heritage as hippogriff and seapony.
"Yeah, where is everycreature else?" asked Smoulder.
Suddenly, a great crashing and banging opened up from the back of the hall, and two yaks entered making a massive racket. One of them, of course, was Yona. But the other was a male who made the expression 'jacked up on steroids' seem like an understatement. He was massive, with incredible amounts of fur all over the place and running along the floor.
"What on Aris is Yona wearing?" Silverstream asked. "It looks so weird!"
"Weird? I think 'Rarity designed it whilst drunk' would be more accurate," Gallus sighed.
Yona and the other yak bounded over to them. "Yona happy to see friends!" she said. She was clad in this truly ridiculous green number with full front sleeves and a skirt that reached the floor, as well as having a purple wig attached to her head. The other yak was presumably wearing traditional Yakyakistani garb. "Yona want to introduce Tilden."
"Nice to meet you, Tilden," Sandbar said polity, and extended his hoof.
"Tilden like pony school! Interior cool, with lots of food! Yaks like food!"
"As well we know," Smoulder said quietly, to ensure nocreature could hear her.
"Yona see friends around. Yona been learning pony dances for occasion, but Yona hope they have the stomp in there somewhere."
As Yona set off, suddenly two more faces whizzed in. It was Cozy Glow and-
"Wait a minute, is that Pipsqueak?" Sandbar asked. "Hey Cozy!"
"Hey Sandbar!" his little sister replied. "I came with Pip!"
"Nice to meet you, sir," Pipsqueak replied, the little pinto colt's Trottingham accent jarring somewhat with all that had come before. "Cozy and I met when she retrieved my kite for me. I couldn't get it down, but she flew up and got it for me. I can't thank her enough for that."
Cozy Glow abruptly handed Sandbar a pot. "Mom told me to give you this," she said. "You left your lucky pot at home."
Sandbar went red. "Errm, oops. Thanks?"
"No problem," Cozy Glow replied, before she and Pipsqueak headed off for the food table.
"I'd have prepared mine here," Silverstream began, "but seafood is rather smelly and we don't have any kitchens we can use as all the food is catered."
"Fish is, by definition, smelly," Smoulder said, as a yellow dragon wandered over to her. "Hey there, Inferno!"
"Great to see you, Smoulder!" the yellow dragon replied, the pair high fouring as they did so. "I wasn't quite sure what to think when you invited me to a pony party, but wow! They really pulled out all the stops today!"
"I thought you'd like it," Smoulder smiled, and they headed over for a table.
"Well, I guess that answers that question," Gallus replied, as he extended his own foreleg. "My lady," he said, with mock nobility. "Would you be so kind as to accompany me to the dance floor?"
"Of course!" Silverstream replied, before her rear leg got caught on her skirt. "Oof! I really need to watch where I put my hooves."
This just left Sandbar, waiting on his own. He knew that getting ready for a fancy dance took a long time, but Ocellus sure seemed to be taking hers. He glanced about at the party, seeing the musicians start to file in, when suddenly-
"Sorry I'm late!"
Sandbar wheeled around to suddenly see Ocellus standing there. His jaw dropped. She looked absolutely stunning.
Ocellus was wearing a red dress in two shades. The sleeves were short and slightly ruffled in dark red, followed by a lighter red bodice complemented by a dark red... belt? Sandbar wasn't sure what to call it. The top of the skirt, which ran from about halfway down her barrel and over her back and tail, was dark red with dots, presumably to emulate her shell, and finally the rest of the skirt was the lighter red from earlier, which dropped to the floor and completely covered her rear hooves.
"Sorry, I got really engrossed in my work," Ocellus panted. She'd clearly been galloping all the way here. "I also didn't want to get this dirty! I'd hate for Rarity's work to be ruined and-"
"Ocellus, it's OK. You're here now, and that's what matters. Shall we go in? The band is about to start."
"Sure!" The pair trotted into the main dance area, where the Master of Ceremonies had set herself up on the stage.
"OH YEAH! GOOD EVENING, SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP!"
Sandbar blinked. "They got Vinyl Scratch as Master of Ceremonies?"
Vinyl Scratch smiled. "I hope you're all having a good time! Sadly, I'm not on the turntables so I can't turn out some groovy tunes, but first up we've got the Band of the C. E. G to play for you. Please welcome Colonel Swift Baton, their conductor!"
There was mass applause as an old unicorn with a dirty grey coat and black mane took to the stand, and used his magic to raise his baton.
"C. E. G?" Inferno asked Smoulder.
Crystal Empire Guard," Smoulder replied. "Princess Twilight's brother is their commanding officer, so I imagine she pulled a few strings to get them down here."
Vinyl elbowed Octavia, who was standing next to her. "What are these dances called? I've got a list here and their all fancy words. I have no idea what they mean!"
Octavia looked closely. "Those are Prench. The first one ought to be fairly obvious."
The first dance was a relatively stately one, to allow the dancers to get their footing and get used to moving about on what rapidly transpired to not be especially stable ground. The yaks especially did a good job of being stable and not bouncing about, especially as mayhem would otherwise ensue.
"You're good at this," Gallus complemented Silverstream. "I can hardly imagine moving about in all that is easy."
"Being related to royalty does have come with many perks," Silverstream smiled, "and this was one of them. Besides, I was raised underwater. This is no different to swimming through high pressure water!"
"When you put it that way, I can see your point," Gallus replied.
The band finished playing, and the ponies on the dance floor applauded.
"I hope you all enjoyed that!" Vinyl called. "Next up, we have something very slow. It's Le quack- le qua- le quat- Ahh! Le quatree bransles!"
Octavia shook her head. "Le Quatre Bron, Vinyl. I understand that this isn't your usual field of music, but can you please make an effort to pronounce them correctly?"
"Hey! I'm usually at nightclubs with techno music! You can read them if you'd like."
Octavia sighed. "I'm playing later today, so that won't be an option. Sorry."
Vinyl sighed, and indicated to Swift Baton. "Take it away!"
The music began once more, and true to Vinyl's word it was slow. So much so, it proved to be a bit of a challenge to keep time on the floor.
Pip glanced up at the conductor. "If they play any slower they'll be playing the piece backwards!"
"I hope not! These sequences of hoof movements are hard enough forwards, let alone backwaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Cozy trod on part of her dress, and went flying across the room. She spread her wings to slow herself down, and narrowly avoided crashing into the drinks table. "Sorry."
The attendant helped her back onto her hooves. "Please do watch where you're going in future."
Cozy nodded and went back over to Pip. "You were saying?"
The band finished again, and Vinyl consulted her piece of paper. "Hey! A word I can actually pronounce! Next we have a Pavane!"
Octavia said nothing, not wanting to work her marefriend up any more than she was. That, and the Band of the C. E. P was being given a rest to make way for the strings of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, in which she was playing 1st Cello.
And once again, it was very slow. So slow, in fact, that some of the dancers got rather bored. "Hey!" Smoulder called, from somewhere in the crowd. "We can't be here all night! Can you guys speed it up a little?"
The conductor of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, an older pony with a wig as big as his muzzle, felt rather offended at that remark, and decided to grant Smoulder her wish. "Oh, we can speed it up alright," he said. "Sword Dance in F Major," he indicated to the players.
They shuffled through their scores and pulled out the relevant music. The conductor raised his baton.
"Rock on! Next it's Macaroni in F!"
Octavia shook her head. "That's a type of food, not a piece."
Suddenly, the conductor began to conduct at a furious speed.
"Wait, what?" Sandbar asked. "How fast is this?"
Ocellus wobbled about as she desperately tried to keep up with the beat, but it was no use. Both of them decided to bail from the dance floor. It was a good move indeed.
Yona and Tilden reacted to the speed of the music. "Band play the Stomp!" Yona cried.
"Hooray! Tilden love Stomp!"
Suddenly, the entire room began to shake violently as two yaks jumped up and down, making the floor vibrate as they pounded up and down. Things fell over, glasses of drinks were spilled, and dancers struggled to remain upright.
Even worse, the constant shaking caused the orchestra to start playing the wrong notes. As they moved their bows in to play the correct notes, their hooves would slip or the instrument would move, which made landing the right notes very, very hard.
"Well, that didn't go as planned," said the conductor.
"It is, admittedly, rather difficult to play when the floor is moving," Octavia noted.
Once all that craziness was over, the dancers decided to take a rest. Silverstream idly popped open her and Gallus' lucky pot when suddenly three familiar figures suddenly appeared.
"Hey Silvs!" called a voice. Silverstream turned to see it was her brother, Terramar!
"It's amazing to see you!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"
"Didn't you know? The Band of the Royal Hippogriffia Navy is playing tonight. And dad is one of them. Of course, it's not just him and me tonight."
Suddenly, Sky Beak and Ocean Flow swept down from on high. What was even more surprising was that Ocean Flow was a hippogriff! Silverstream was stunned. She'd never seen her mom as a hippogriff before.
"Good evening, sweetheart," Sky Beak said, as he ran his talons through her mane. "Bet you weren't expecting us! We're staying in the Hotel of Friendship next door."
"What about you, mom?"
Ocean Flow smiled. "I can hardly sleep at the bottom of the swimming pool, can I? Besides, being back on land is surprisingly fun, even if it feels a little weird after so long."
There was a trumpet call. "Well, I'd better get set up. Have fun!"
"Hooray! Another word in Ponish!" Vinyl called. "Next we have the 'Floral Dance'."
The music was a much needed contrast to the mayhem of the last dance, even if the sight of a hippogriff with gigantic cheeks as he negotiated the playing of his tuba was very funy to some of the younger creatures. Silverstream was, of course, in her element as she guided Gallus along.
"Forward, back, turn, turn, forward, left, right!" she called.
"Got it!" Gallus called, as he moved backwards and forwards in line with her instructions. "I must admit, the brass is very good. It's a shame we don't have anything like this back in Griffonstone."
"Really?" Silverstream was shocked. "We're really proud of being hippogriffs! In fact, we have a festival dedicated to it that happens-"
"Every other weekend. Terramar told me. Griffons don't have anything like that. We just keep ourselves to ourselves."
Up on the stage, Sky Beak was the assigned soloist, and did a fine job of it.
Another dance over, and the C. E. G band took to the stage once more. This time, Vinyl had incredible difficulty reading the name of the dance without laughing.
"Did she say what I thought she said?" Ocellus asked Sandbar.
"I think so, but with two 'g's and two 't's," Sandbar replied. He then saw Cozy Glow snickering over near the stage. "Really, Cozy?"
"She is only a kid, after all," Ocellus replied, before suddenly Terramar whizzed overhead and nearly crashed into a light fitting.
Rainbow Dash flew over to Terramar, and pointed to a sign.
NO FLYING PERMITTED DURING THE AMITY BALL.
"Oops, sorry." Terramar looked over. "But aren't you flying?"
"Next, we have the Bergerettee!" Vinyl announced.
"Bergerette," Octavia gently corrected.
The next three dances, the Bergerette, Basse-Danse, and Bransles seemed to all fly by as the night drew on, with all of the creatures assembled having a fantastic time. The conductors of the respective bands all took their bows, and headed backstage.
"But now, to round off the night, we have a special guest, a requested appearance from a Mister Sandbar. Please welcome to the floor... the Compass Boys!"
Five ponies came forward onto the stage, complete with inexplicable floating instruments (all five of them were unicorns, being a Canterlot based group).
As their sound brought the night to a close, the six friends who had helped define the School of Friendship were closer together, and indeed, would Live Whilst They were Young.
"A buckball team!" Sandbar replied. "It's Equestria's national game. According to this article, the idea for a buckball league played entirely by schools was Princess Celestia's idea. I never knew she was so into fitness."
"Isn't she retiring soon?" Gallus asked, confused. "If so, why is she setting up a scholastic buckball tournament?"
"According to a press release, she's putting that on indefinite hold for some reason, and I wonder if the Tree of Harmony being blown up has something to do with it." Sandbar rubbed his hoof on the base of his chin. "Hmm. Stubble. I need to get that shaved off."
Meanwhile, Smoulder, Yona, Silverstream and Ocellus were pouring over the student newspaper, De Amicitia (for some reason, Twilight had thought giving it an old Ponish name would be a clever idea to lend the project some class, although in reality it simply left the students very confused). "OK, so there's going to be a buckball team," Smoulder noted quietly.
"How in Equestria are non ponies going to play?" Ocellus asked. "The game is so finely tuned for a pegasus, unicorn, and Earth pony that I can't see how other races are going to fit in."
"Maybe they won't?" Smoulder suggested.
"Yona think that xenophobia!"
Smoulder looked onwards in the article. "Want to join in but you're not a pony? Why not join the cheer squad?"
"CHEER SQUAD!" Silverstream cried. "Can I read it, please?"
"Fine," Smoulder sighed, relinquishing the newspaper to miss Sugarhigh.
"Whoa, slow down!" Smoulder shouted. "You're reading so fast I can't understand a word you're saying."
"Oh." Silverstream handed the newspaper back. "Sorry."
Smoulder read the message. A lot slower. "Students who aren't ponies can show their school spirit at the games by joining the schools (there should be an apostrophe there, as it's the cheer squad belonging to the school) cheer squad and bringing school spirit to the crowds who need puming (typo) up during half time! For details-"
"For an official school publication, that was really messy," Ocellus interrupted. "Was the proofreader drunk?"
"Beats me," Smoulder shrugged. "For details, please report to the gymn at 5 this afternoon. Handy that, as that's straight after my lectures finish."
"I've got a seminar on cupcakes that runs until 5:30," Silverstream said. "But I'm certain they'll hold until then."
"See you all there, then," Smoulder finished, and headed for the door.
Yona followed, looking confused. "What do cheer squad do?"
That afternoon, the four of them met at the gymn to see two ponies there, Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof. Both of them were already wearing something vaguely approximating cheerleading outfits, so that reduced the budget. Smoulder found them irritating almost immediately, but it transpired they already had a full routine ready to go for the cheer squad, so there was that (although 'cheer squad' was amusingly misspelled as 'cheer squid' in places). They sat about, waiting, when Rainbow Dash pushed open the door, followed by Snips, who was currently dressed very strangely in a giant hat.
"Get the lights!" Shimmy Shake shouted, and the pair started their dance maneuvre whilst generic pop music played in the background.
"Over and over and over again! We wanna dance for each other and for all of our friends!"
Rainbow Dash yawned and rolled her eyes. "Dancing. Fantastic. I've seen you two around school, haven't I?"
Shimmy Shake nodded. "Im Shimmy Shake, and this is Lighthoof."
"And we are your lead dancers."
Rainbow Dash turned her attention to Yona, Ocellus, and Smoulder. "I didn't know you three would be here."
"Yona want to make giant pony pyramid, despite being Yak!" Yona called, jumping up and down for good measure.
"And I thought it would be a good chance to make a good impression on the other students," Ocellus added. "It'd be nice to be known as something other than 'the student who can shapeshift' or 'Sandbar's nymphfriend'."
"And how about you, Smoulder?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I never took you for the school spirit type."
Smoulder shrugged her shoulders. "Eh. I just came with these two. Guess they think you can make cheer squad cool or something."
"Hold on," Rainbow Dash said. "Did the add in the paper specify that I was leading it?"
"Yes," Ocellus replied.
Rainbow Dash looked around flatly. "Right then," she said quietly.
Snips, every the opportunist, took over the conversation almost immediately. "Now that all that's out of the-"
"SORRY I'M LATE!"
Silverstream suddenly burst through the door, wearing what looked like some sort of spandex outfit. "Sorry Professor Dash! Pinkie Pie's cupcake seminar overran by 10 minutes and-"
"I only got here 5 minutes ago," Rainbow Dash replied, sounding board. "What are you wearing?"
"This is my old cheerleading outfit," Silverstream explained. "I used to be cheerleader for the Mount Aris Mountaineers, the premier hippogriff fireball team!"
"Fireball?" Smoulder asked. "There's a sport I can get behind."
Snips interrupted again. "Okay! Now that we're all here, why don't you tell us the plan? How are you gonna make us into the most awesome cheer squad ever?"
Rainbow Dash again rolled her eyes. "I've got nothing, to be honest. If you guys were an actual buckball team, which is my area of expertise, I would be able to help. But I've never coached a cheerleading team, so I can't really help."
Snips laughed. "Yes! Good one, coach! But Headmare Twilight picked you for the job, so I'm pretty sure you know what you're doing."
"If you say so." Rainbow's flat tone of voice was not lost on the others.
Thanfully, Silverstream was much more perky. "I know!" she called. "Let's try the routine my old team did! It's super fun!"
One of the ponies switched a music machine on, playing backing music.
"Over... and over... and over a...gain!" Shimmy Shake tried to dance, but she wobbled about following Yona's stomping.
Lighthood rapidly found herself in the same situation. "We want to dance... for each other and for all of our friends!"
Ocellus followed, speaking so quietly that only mice would be able to understand her. "Uh... friendship school is really... great."
To top it all off, everybody fell over when Yona stomped again.
Silverstream landed in front of them. "2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate? MOUNTAINEERS!"
Smoulder grumbled. "That was an utter mess."
Shimmy Shake raised her hoof. "It's kind of hard to stick to our choreography when the floor is moving."
"Maybe you could stomp a bit less, Yona?" Lighthoof suggested.
"Can we make pony pyramid instead?" Yona asked.
"How about we can come up with some chants first?" Ocellus asked. "I find it helps if I know what I'm saying in advance."
"I've already got one!" Silverstream exclaimed.
"For the wrong team," Smoulder sighed.
"So, I mean, there's a few... uh, a lot of problems, but nothing you can't solve, right?" Snips asked.
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked, who hadn't been paying attention. "Oh, yeah. Listen, you guys don't have anything to worry about."
"We don't?" Smoulder asked.
"Nope. In fact, I think what you all just did is totally fine. You guys have got this. So, uh, I'm just gonna head down to the field. Uh, great practice, everypony!" Rainbow Dash whizzed out of the door and vanished, with Snips following behind her lugging his trunk.
"Follow them," Smoulder said, and they set off after them.
It didn't take them long to find the source of the commotion. Snips was yanking on Rainbow Dash's tail, which was technically assault, and both were locked in a heated argument.
"A good cheer squad gets the fans excited, which gets the team excited. But if nopony's excited, then no... pony... buys... any... souvenirs!"
Rainbow Dash swung around. "Ohh," she said. "I understand now. You don't actually give a shit about school spirit. You're only interested in selling your junk."
Snips, shocked, countered. "Point is, if I'm going to make any bits at these games, that squad has to get better. And to do that, they need a coach."
"How about a pony whose actually led a cheer squad in the past?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "And not only that, Twilight's clearly had this planned for some time. I'm going to have a word with her."
As she flew off, Smoulder flew at Snips, whilst Silverstream positioned herself on the other side, to prevent him from leaving.
Yona and Ocellus cracked open the box. "Yona see box full of cheap tat!" Yona replied.
"So, this was your plan the entire time, huh?" Smoulder asked Snips, her arms crossed. "You don't actually care about our performance, or our welfare. You're only interested in making money out of us."
"No! I'm only helping you guys and Equestria as a whole!" Snips countered, his bluster starting to strain. "If you guys do well, ponies will buy my stuff. If ponies buy my stuff, they go to your games. That increases your attendance, and my profits. I, in turn, buy more stuff from the manufacturers, and that keeps good Equestrians in business and with jobs. That's good for all of us!"
Ocellus took one of the items out, a poorly made trophy, and turned it over. "Made in Saddle Arabia." She looked up at Snips, with an emotion that was rarely seen on her face. Anger. "This isn't keeping Equestrians in work. Saddle Arabia is outside the borders, and is undercutting local businesses with lax safety laws and very poor production quality." She turned it over again, pointing out the cracks on the underside of the base. "How do you think selling stuff like this, which falls apart in seconds, will reflect upon the school?"
"Well, err, uhh," Snips stammered, trying to respond.
"You don't have a good reason, do you?" Smoulder said. "You're just using us to make money."
"That's really mean!" Silverstream exclaimed. "How would you feel if we used to make a quick bit?"
Snips seemd to have no response. "I'm only trying to find something to do with all this stuff," he said.
"Burn it?" Smoulder suggested. "That's really all it's good for. Now we need to go find Professor Dash."
"She went that way!" Silverstream called, who took to the skies and flew down one of the corridors, the others quickly following.
"Wait! What about my merchendise? I can't sell it if there's no game!"
Smoulder turned back and looked at him. "Oh dear, how sad, never mind."
Once they arrived outside of Headmare Twilight's office, they arrived to hear the tail end of a blazing row.
"Why did you have me pegged for this group?" Dash asked.
"Rainbow Dash, I strongly advise you don't take that tone of voice with me," Twilight replied, sounding annoyed.
"You knew I wouldn't want to do it, and yet you engineered this behind my back and gave me no choice in the matter! Discord did this to you and you didn't like it!"
"You were supposed to appreciate that it doesn't matter whether you care about what you're teaching as long as you care for the ponies who are part of the group."
There was a moment's silence. "You're completely missing the point. I. Have. No. Experience. In. Teaching. Cheerleading. I'm a sports coach and flyer. Besides, who actually watches cheerleading? At all the games I've ever attended, ponies have always gone for a snack at the half time show!"
Twilight had no response.
So Rainbow Dash continued. "I know Celestia liked pulling the 'making you learn a lesson without realising that was her intent' thing all the time, but here's the critical difference between you and me. I'm your friend and colleague, not your student. So I hereby resign from leading the cheer squad."
Moments later, Rainbow Dash flew out of the office, and Ocellus shuffled in, followed by her friends.
Twilight perked up almost immediately. "Hello!" she said. "How can I help you?"
"I can see Rainbow Dash just made her opinion clear," Smoulder noted.
"Indeed she did." Twilight sighed and put her head on her hoof. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I'd like to propose a replacement," Silverstream said, "and politely ask that Snips be prohibited from attending the game."
"That's odd," Twilight said, "as I thought he was keen on leading the cheer squad."
"Snips bad pony!" Yona said. "Snips only keen on cheer squad so he can make money!"
"He has a crate absolutely full of cheap tat to sell," Ocellus continued. "He reasoned that if the cheer squad did well, people would buy it. He intended to profit off our hard work, and we'd see none of it!"
Twilight sighed again. "That is not the sort of thing we want to encourage at the School of Friendship. I'll put a ban on him. Silverstream, who did you want to propose should lead the cheer squad?"
Silverstream smiled. "I know of one pony who would be perfect..."
Cheerilee trotted into the gymn to see the cheer squad fully assembled and in their new uniforms, which were purple jackets with blue lining complemented with a blue skirt with purple lining and trim. "Good morning students!" she called.
"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee!" each of them replied.
"Well, it's certainly fun to be leading a cheer squad again!" the purple mare smiled. "I used to do this when I was in college, and led a cheer squad at the Applewood Derby! While that race was a bit of a mess, the crowd were certainly hyped. Anyway, I've got a full routine to teach you, so loosen up those limbs and let's get started!"
The inaugural game of the buckball league was finally underway, between Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and the School of Friendship, and boy was it fierce competition. The unicorns, despite needing magical assistance to play properly in the form of artificial wings and inhibitor rings, were giving the School of Friendship a real run for their money.
Then came half time, and once the school band had finished their performance as part of the half time show, it was the turn of the cheerleaders.
Gallus poked Sandbar on the shoulder. "Here come the cheerleaders. Fancy getting a snack?"
"They've probably worked really hard on this," Sandbar replied. "I'm staying to show my support. Besides, look at who's in it!"
Gallus' eyes went as wide as dinner plates when he saw them. "SILVERSTREAM?!"
Meanwhile, Cheerilee spoke to the students. "Good luck girls. Do us proud!"
Ocellus prodded Smoulder.
"Yes?"
Ocellus looked worried. "I've forgotten the chant!"
"Then make something up!" Silverstream exclaimed. "I know you can do it, Celly! Just believe in yourself!"
Ocellus nodded uneasily. And then they began.
Silverstream and Smoulder took to the skies, whizzing back and forth dropping confetti and beads through the air, the latter producing a healthy amount of steam and smoke as she did so. Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof flipped back and forth, over bales, into the air and over each other.
"Over and over and over again! We'll cheer for our team 'til the ve- ry end!"
Ocellus took a megaphone, and started saying whatever came to mind.
"Now when it's kickoff time; all you Earth ponies buck it high! And then both you pegasi will try to intercept the ball; But don't forget to pass it so your unicorn can catch it in the all important basket so your team can win it all!"
The crowd seemed pretty fired up, and watched as Ocellus was clearly on fire at the moment.
"Say Buck!"
"BALL!"
"Buck!"
"BALL!"
"Catch it in the basket so your team can win it all; I said-
Buck!"
"BALL!"
"Buck!"
"BALL!"
"Catch it in the basket so your team can win it all!"
The routine concluded with all of them hopping into a pyramid, Silverstream dropping some fuel substance from a bowl, and Smoulder breathing fire. The fire caught the fuel and ignited it, ending the entire performance with a massive bang.
Although Celestia's school went on to win the game, the students all complemented the cheer squad. Gallus and Sandbar especially seemed to be very impressed, and as a result Smoulder, Yona, Silverstream and Ocellus could only beam with pride.
The bright flash that came from Yona's camera briefly lit up the surrounding area before the light levels returned to normal. The image sucessfully taken, the sound of printing could be heard as an image popped out of the top of the camera. Yona did her best to reach for it, but her front hooves couldn't reach properly. "Yona can't get picture out!"
The teacher trotted over and with a burst of her magic freed the image, lifting it up into the air. "That's because the mechanism jammed, Yona. I'll need to give these a look before we go out on another photography class."
Yona had to admit she liked the new teacher the school had hired to teach them the art of photography and printing. A unicorn, she had an off grey coat and green eyes, combined with a rather messy two tone orange mane and tail. She also had a cutie mark of a ladybird on her flanks, which Yona guessed explained her name of Shutterbug. These new cameras were also extraordinary.
"Yona want to thank teacher for fixing cameras. Yona think these cameras are better than the ones we have back in Yakyakistan."
Gallus laughed. "I never thought I'd hear Yona say that pony technology was superior to Yak tech."
"Yona think it true!" the yak replied, looking somewhat annoyed at the griffon. "In Yakyakistan, when yak want to take picture, yak need to set up camera the size of igloo. Then, yak needs to hide under black cloth and hold pylon with light up in the air. But no picture pops out of the camera. Yak then needs to take the picture to a dark room and put it in water to develop it. This takes time!"
"Well, I can see why you took to these ones so quickly," Shutterbug smiled, as she checked over the camera. "Of course, we won't be using these polaroids for very long. See all the printing equipment on the top?"
"Yes?" the two students said, looking at what their teacher was pointing to.
"All of this adds uneccesary weight and makes it hard to set up easily, which is why I wear this neck rig to hold it in place. It also makes getaways harder-"
"Huh?" Gallus asked. "What was that?"
"I meant getting away from the media hounds!" Shutterbug said hastily. "Where was I? Ah, yes. They're developing new cameras that store their images on a magical box on the inside of them, which can be taken out and plugged into a printer, allowing you a lot more space for pictures and better and quicker printing, but it also means we don't need to lug as much paper about!" She pointed to the trailer behind them, labelled 'paper'.
Yona nodded. "Yona looks forward to trying these cameras out. But Yona has a question."
"Yes?" Shutterbug asked in return, as she turned around.
"Yona want to try photographing nature. Yona not sure why we've been photographing carts for several minutes."
"I was teaching you the importance of tracking, panning, and tilting," Shutterbug replied. "A tracking shot is when you follow the object on its course of movement. A pan is when you move the camera from left to right. And finally, a tilt is when you move it up and down."
"Shall we start taking pictures?" Gallus asked, as he and Yona began to wander off.
"Sure! Yak love photography! Yak can finally have snapshots of the world around her! Yona can't wait to show parents."
"Don't wander too far! Be back here in 45 minutes!" Shutterbug called, as she watched them step away into the distance. She turned to herself and smirked. "I don't think those two are going to be a problem."
"Do you think there's something off about that teacher?" Gallus asked Yona as they strolled along. "Rock, over there."
"Thanks Gallus!" Yona replied, as she stepped to one side. "Yona don't think anything wrong with teacher. Teacher is... what pony word? Excoriable? Excitable? Excalculable? Excavated?"
"Did you mean 'excentric?'" Gallus asked.
"Yona did! Yona had word on tip of tongue," the yak replied, as she stuck her tongue out. "As well as a brussel sprout." She ate it and burped loudly. "Yona like brussel sprouts."
"I can see that," Gallus sighed. "I'm not so sure she's just excentric. She seems to be rather odd. I can't quite put my talon on it, but I have to say I've seen behaviour like that somewhere before."
"Yona don't agree. Yona think Gallus too suspicious."
"Maybe I am," Gallus brought his camera up. He then took a picture of a copse of demolished trees. They had been reduced to their roots. Oddly, the remaining stumps looked like petals or flowers that were reacting to the sunlight, waking up before the start of the day. "This is weird. These trees fell over strangely, so I think I'll take a photograph." He brought the viewfinder up and took a snap. "Good shot, that," he added, as he looked at the image.
"Yona wander what happened here," Yona noted, trotting over to a tree stump and poking it with her hoof. "Tree appears to have totally vanished. In fact, Yona think that the trees were removed with some tools or magic."
"That would explain the hair here," Gallus noted, pointing to an orange hair stuck in one of the weird tree stumps. "Possibly left over from one of the construction workers."
"Gallus, Yona!" called Shutterburg's voice from over the hill. "We need to start heading back to the school, as it's starting to get late! Besides, you don't want to miss dinner, do you?"
All other thoughts suddenly vanished from their minds, and both the griffon and the yak shot out of the trees and back towards the school at a speed that rivalled Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom for sheer endurance. However, the strange discovery and the behaviour of their teacher sat at the back of Gallus' mind.
Gallus had to admit, he hadn't been planning on doing this tonight. But circumstance had rather forced his hand. The restaurant they'd been planning on going to had suddenly and without warning changed its operating hours owing to staff sickness, and this meant the original planned weekend date would now not work. Instead, they had been rebooked onto a Thursday evening. Not the most obvious of days on which to go out in the evening (in both senses of the phrase 'go out',) but it was that or nothing at all, and Gallus wasn't prepared to let all his planning go to waste.
He stood in the atrium, waiting for Silverstream. The sun, although still hanging high in the sky and therefore still a yellow colour, was starting to descend, and it wouldn't be long until the sky turned a spectacular crimson, and the sun orange as Celestia would start to lower the sun, and Luna raise the moon for what the citizens knew could well be the last time.
Truth be told, Gallus was as surprised as everycreature else when he heard that the Princesses were retiring. Seriously, they'd been around like forever, so why'd they suddenly off and leave? Oh well. It seemed even immortal Princesses have to throw in the towel someday, just like the rest of us. Gallus turned to look at a clock on the wall, studying it closely before suddenly jumping.
"HI GALLUS!"
"Ahhhh!" Gallus cried, and jumped across the room. "Seriously, Silvs, don't do that!"
"I've never seen you move so fast, Gally!" Silverstream replied, a mirthful smirk upon her face. She touched down and grinned. "So, are we eating underwater tonight?"
"No," Gallus replied. "If we were eating underwater, everything would float away. Not to mention I'd drown."
"Magical seapony amulet!" Silverstream replied in a sing song voice, and to demonstrate her point immediately switched forms to a seapony. This did not work as she had nothing to prop herself up on, and immediately fell over onto her back. Owing to her rather sudden change in direction and gravity, she flopped about on the ground for a few seconds before switching herself back. Now the correct form for land based locomotion (come on baby, do the), she rolled back over and got onto her hooves and claws. "Well, that didn't work as expected. That tends to work better with an object behind me."
Gallus glanced over in confusion. He'd known her for over a year now and still found her a bit weird. "Well, if you're done flopping about like a fish, shall we head out? Our evening meal awaits, and I haven't had anything to eat since lunch."
"Unless you'd been snacking," Silverstream continued, "but that's highly unlikely given that due to food quality control reasons the on campus shop is shut and the vending machines are turned off and the food served at the canteen is vetted by the Princess herself for quality!" Silverstream took a very deep breath at the end of her run on sentence. "Wow. That is rather a mouthful when you say it all at once."
"It sure is," Gallus replied, as they walked past the pond that surrounded the School of Friendship, noticing a diver emerge with a book.
"There's the EEA guidelines, Stan!" he called.
"Excellent," 'Stan' replied. "It may have been underwater for over a year, but it's in remarkably good nick. Now to find the pony who chucked it in. She's in a lot of trouble."
It took a few minutes of strolling through Ponyville's sublime streets before the duo reached their destination. In order to satisfy the demands of the growing numbers of carnivores in Ponyville, a local proprietor had taken the initiative to open a seafood restaurant, noting that made up the bulk of griffon and hippogriff diets on a day to day basis.
This establishment, called the Undersea World Bar and Restaurant, was built in the style of a coral reef, with an interior surrounded by glass fish tanks to simulate the experience of being underwater- minus the water, of course. The pair swung open the door, designed to look like a window on a ship, and waited in line.
An old salty sea dog with a giant beard was doing greeting that night. "Ahoy, me hearties!" he said, when he saw both Gallus and Silverstream in the line at the front. "Avast my words now! Do ye have a reservation?"
"Yes. Ours got moved to today from Saturday," Gallus explained, as he looked at a preliminary copy of the menu.
"Arrr! Well, table number 14 is yours. Let me guide ye across the raging seas, and may Novo herself carry you safe in her flippers."
As they went over, Gallus looked to Silverstream. "Having now met your family and family members, that old saying suddenly makes a lot more sense. Just how long were the seaponies underwater?"
"Clearly long enough for my aunt to become a mythological figure," Silverstream noted, as she took her seat. Gallus did the same as the server smiled.
"Something to drink?" he asked.
"I'll have lemonade," Gallus replied.
"I think I'll do the same," Silverstream added.
"I'll be back with yours in just a moment," the server smiled, as a loud foghorn blared from the serving hatch.
"Number 15 is ready to serve!" called a voice.
Both griffon and hippogriff studied their menus carefully. "There's certainly a lot of fish on here," Gallus noted.
Silverstream looked at the menu in surprise. "What's this? poney de mer etouffe?"
"It's not made from seapony, don't you worry," Gallus told her. "Until very recently, we had always thought that seaponies were mythological beings. Twilight's expedition was the first to prove they existed."
And now I find myself falling in love with one, he thought to himself.
Silverstream was suddenly distracted from her menu at a fish in the tank. "HIIIIIII! HOW ARE YOU?"
Gallus shook his head. "If she's the least crazy member of the family, I hate to imagine what Skystar is like."
Not long after, they ordered their food and were now waiting. Silverstream suddenly looked over and gasped. "LOOK! LOOK!"
"Can you please stop shouting?" asked Gallus. "You'll give everycreature tinitus at this rate."
"No, look who it is!" Silverstream said, and pointed. "It's Ocellus and Sandbar!"
Sure enough, the pony and changeling duo were sat at a nearby table, currently eating what looked to be seaweed. "Hey, this seaweed wrap is good," Sandbar said, inbetween bites.
"It's prepared according to Queen Novo's favourite recipe," Ocellus noted, before suddenly noticing Silverstream in the corner of her eye. "Hello!"
"Prepared according to Queen Novo's favourite recipe?" asked a regal, booming voice. Sandbar looked over his shoulder to suddenly see Queen Novo standing over his shoulder.
"Y- your Majesty!" Sandbar stamered as he attempted to bow, instead falling off his chair and landing on the floor.
Queen Novo laughed. "There's not need to be formal here tonight. I'm taking a bit of a rest from running an underwater kingdom. You have no idea how much work it is to run a mountain and an underwater place at the same time. No wonder our civil service is so bloated. You are correct. That is indeed my favourite recipe."
"Well, it's very nice," Sandbar continued, trying to get back up.
Novo picked him up and placed him back in his chair. "Glad to hear. Well, I need to see where Skystar's got to. If I know her, she'll be trying to work as a waitress. She's doing practically everything right now!"
And off the regal hippogriff went, whilst the others looked in confusion. "She's unusually jolly," Gallus noted.
"Well, pony and seapony relations didn't exactly get off to a good start," Silverstream replied.
As the siren (a sound recording of the Seaquestria 'pearl alarm') sounded, indicating their order was ready, Gallus saw his chance. "Silverstream, I just wanted to tell you that I like you."
"That's clear to see!" the hippogriff replied. "Otherwise we wouldn't be friends, would we?" Her gaze narrowed. "Or do you mean you like me in the other sense?"
"OK, maybe that wasn't the best choice of words," Gallus sighed. "To be absolutely clear and honest; I love you."
Silverstream's cheeks went pink as she looked amazed. "Y- you do?" she asked.
"Yes," Gallus replied. "You're energetic, seriously funny, and know exactly how to pull up when we're feeling down. This may sound like a cliche, but meeting you changed my live for the better, and meeting all of you. But you're special to me."
There was an awkward silence, before Silverstream leaped into the air, over the table, and hugged him incredibly tightly. "THIS IS AMAZING! YOU AND I ARE GOING TO BE SO HAPPY TOGETHER!"
"Perhaps at half the volume," Gallus asked.
"We can live underwater, and make necklaces out of shells, and make picture frames out of shells, and buckets out of shells, and-"
"Borrowing my speech, are we?" asked Skystar, who had suddenly appeared. "Oh, hey cousin!"
"Gallus and I are together!" Silverstream cried. "I can't wait to plan the wedding!"
"We're not of legal age," Gallus groaned, his neck being squeezed by the hippogriff's incredibly strong grip.
"Well, I wish you both the best. Have you seen mom anywhere?"
"She went that way?" Silverstream indicated with her claws.
But despite his grumpy mood, Gallus couldn't help but smile as he and Silverstream shared this special moment together.
Sky Beak strolled into the main conference suite of the School of Friendship and made his way over to a chair. "Well let's get this over with," he said. Truth be told, he'd rather have done this with Ocean Flow by his side, but unfortunately the School of Friendship parent's evening clashed with the Mount Aris Academy's parent's evening. As a result, Ocean Flow was overseeing Terramar and he got to oversee Silverstream. It could have been worse, however. Ponyville was relatively easy to find by flying, assuming one didn't get lost and fly via Klugetown by mistake. He'd once been scammed there by an anthropomorphic cat, an experience he didn't want to repeat.
He sat down to find Silverstream already there. "Hi dad!" she squawked.
"How you doing, kiddo?" Sky Beak asked, gently rubbing the top of her head.
His attention was suddenly drawn to a red stallion sitting in the chair. He assumed that this was the assigned member of staff. "So, what have you got for me today?"
"Eeyup."
Sky Beak was confused. "Why did you answer 'yes' to my question?"
"Eenope."
Sky Beak gave up and consulted his notes. "Let's see. Good grades, some slightly damaged vases, could do with being a little less shouty... What's this?" He saw one word in the list that he didn't quite recognise. "Exu- exuberant?"
"It means I'm noisy, full of excitement, and cheerfulness!" Silverstream exclaimed, bouncing up and down as she did so.
"And she just quoted the dictionary," Big Mac said, the first time he had said more than one word in a sentence the entire evening.
"I'm officially confused," Sky Beak sighed, as he waved his claws about. "One the one hand, you could be telling me she's unfocused and chatty, but on the other you could be telling me that you appreciate her energy and hard work!"
"Eeyup."
"Well, which is it?"
The red pony looked lost for words.
"I just want to be certain, that's all. Certain of what you are saying, that is."
The red pony seemed to freeze up, and waved over to another pony for some reason.
Elsewhere, Grandpa Gruff was sitting at a table with Gallus and a blue pony he'd seen performing magic before. Trixie, was that her name?
At the moment, she was droning on and on. "Gallus truly is an amazing student," Trixie told him. "Amongst other things, he's taught me several tricks about the art of napping, which has been really handy for keeping up my energy levels amongst other things."
"Is that why you're puttin' me to sleep?" Grandpa Gruff asked. Truth be told, he was very, very bored. He hadn't wanted to come, but Gallus' lack of parents didn't give him a choice in that regard. He also disliked the amount of paperwork and beauraucracy that the ponies had. In Griffonstone, if he said something was so, it was so. Indeed, he had already banned that ridiculous hippogriff who had dared to challenge him over his words from visiting, and it was so! Such were the wonders of being a dictator. "I don't understand why I have to come to these things."
"Well, most parents would want to be involved. Perhaps we should find a different representative for Gallus from Griffonstone."
"I'm the judge of that, not you, but that'd be great," Gruff gruffed gruffily, and flew off.
Gallus rolled his eyes. "Sorry, he's a bit of a dick."
"Such profane language would not be the choice of I, but the sentiment is most agreed with," Trixie sighed.
Suddenly, Gruff reappeared and continued with his nonsense. "Gallus doesn't need to have me sit here and hear that I'm proud of him. I can tell him that in a telegram if I so wish; it's cheaper and faster too."
"Griffonstone doesn't have telegram service because you'll never pay for the wires to be maintained," Gallus pointed out.
Gruff ignored him. "It'll also save me a train fare."
"Consider yourself-"
"Part of the furniture?" Gallus finished.
"-Banned from the School of Friendship!" Trixie bellowed.
Gruff rolled his eyes. "Fine by me. And in return, you are not permitted to travel to Griffonstone so long as you live. I'd always thought this school was nothing but an indoctrination program anyway."
Whilst all that carnage was going on, Ommatidia and Aristate were listening to a very posh grey pony telling them all about Ocellus' achievements. Why did she look familiar?
"Ah yes," the grey pony said, looking around at all assembled. "Life at the School of Friendship is rather like playing in an orchestra." A jazz band began playing outside to emphasise the point. "And although Ocellus started her time here playing her part piannisimo, she is now soloing fortissimo."
Arisiate and Ommatidia exchanged confused looks. "I'm not sure that metaphor really works," Ommatidia said finally. "A musician needs to follow the dynamics in the score rather than just playing how loud they want. Otherwise, you'd have nothing but a great big mess of noise."
"Sounds a normal day at work for me!" Aristate joked. "But I assume she's doing well, right?"
"Indeed she is! Exemplary student, and I dare say honour roll material."
"Splendid!" Aristate exclaimed. "How about you, Ocellus? Do you feel as though you belong here?"
"Yes I do!" Ocellus beamed. "In fact, I have my friends to thank for helping me to fit in here."
Finally, a horde of Yaks were sitting around a table with a pony in a bow tie who sounded rather like Tom Baker. "I do say," he said, "that sciences are not easy topics to follow, but Yona has taken to it like a Yak to smashing! Which is to say, very, very well." He produced a bag. "Jelly baby?"
One of the big yaks took one. "So, Yona clever?"
"Excelsior!" the bow tied pony replied. "In fact, I believe that she could blaze a trail across the stars and enhance scientific understanding far beyong its current reaches!"
"Hoorah!" the Yaks cheered, and picked Yona up, and then threw her into the air. She crashed through a bookcase and landed.
"Erm, yaks good at smashing?"
The bow tied pony facehoofed. "Oh my giddy aunt."
"What happened over there?" Silverstream asked a concerned Gallus.
"Grandpa Gruff threw a fit and flew off," Gallus replied. "He thinks caring for anygriff is a waste of time. In fact, any sort of responsibility is a waste of time in his opinion. Griffonstone would completely fall apart if he wanted it to."
Silverstream's eyes darkened. "Oh no he doesn't," she said, her eyes narrowing and her beak clenching shut. "I'll go give him a piece of my mind." And she flew off before anycreature could say anything.
To say the very least, Silverstream was also banned from visiting Griffonstone. But tearing Grandpa Gruff a new one had been worth it.
The first incling that Sandbar had that something was wrong was the school emergency alarm going off. It was so loud that the ground itself shook as it sounded, causing ponies to bounce and wobble all over the place.
Pinkie Pie, in particular, seemed to take full advantage of the vibrations. "HeEeEy! ThIs MaKeS mY vOiCe SoUnD sIlIy!"
"Pinkie, we don't have time to waste!" Starlight called, as she threw open the door. "You are needed in Canterlot immediately according to the Magic Telegram I received. The country is in real danger!"
"OK!" Pinkie replied, completely forgetting what had just happened, and running for the door. The students filed out of the door and headed for the atrium.
"Attention students. This is not a drill. Please report in an orderly manner to the atrium immediately. I repeat; Attention students. This is not a drill. Please report in an orderly manner to the atrium immediately."
Sandbar pushed through the crowd to find his sister, Cozy Glow, looking very worried. "Is this a fire alarm test?" she asked. "I thought we had those on Friday's!"
"Attention students. This is not a drill. Please report in an orderly manner to the atrium immediately. I repeat; Attention students. This is not a drill. Please report in an orderly manner to the atrium immediately."
"We heard it the first time!" Smoulder snapped. "And the fiftieth too."
"This is no drill alright," Sandbar said, grimly. "It sounds as though something is very, very wrong."
The students finally marshalled in the school atrium, where Starlight stood on the podium. She was standing alongside Councillor Trixie, who looked equally worried- an emotion one usually didn't equate with the master magician.
"Morning students," Starlight began. "There isn't much time, so I'll be brief; this morning, we received reports of three armies attacking Equestria. One was approaching from the north, another from the south, and another from the west. We have no real details on the armies in the north and west, but the Pillars attempted to intercept the one approaching from the south."
There was silence from the students. But the country coming under attack seemed to happen every other weekend.
"Unfortunately, the Pillars were routed, and Somnambula only just managed to get to Canterlot to warn the Princesses in time. Worse is that the direction and speed of the western army has been calculated. This school is right in its path."
The students collectively gasped. "We're gonna die!" shouted one, and the crowd erupted into confusion and pandemonium.
Trixie took the microphone. "Calm down!" she shouted. "The great and powerful Trixie shall see that you come to no harm."
"Which brings me on to my next point," Starlight replied. "I want all of you to report to the underground bunker immediately and await the all clear. Until then, you must not leave the bunker. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes ma'am," the students chorused.
"Good. Now let's get moving!"
The bunker sat on the western side of the school, buried underneath the library complex. Constructed of Crystal Empire alloy, it was virtually indestructable; a similar structure had been tested by detonating a megaspell atop it, and whilst everything in the testing area had been flattened, the bunker and its contents had emerged undamaged. When facing a potential invader, this was the safest place to be.
"All students, remain calm and follow Councillor Trixie's instructions," Starlight reminded them. "Stay in groups of six and do not run. Remain calm, this will all be over soon."
"Oh, it will indeed," said a familiar voice. The Young Six, who were yet to get into the bunker, turned around in shock when they suddenly saw the wall be blasted open by sustained gunfire. Into the space buzzed several Changelings, but unlike any that they had ever seen before (which was, admittedly, three or four). These Changelings had gunmetal chitin and were covered from head to tail in thick, blue armour plating that looked to be at least four inches thick. The wings were also noticably larger than on most Changelings, but this wasn't the most alarming figure.
The next being to arrive was Queen Chrysalis herself, and to say she had changed was an understatement. Each of her four hooves were now protected by greaves that glowed a sickly turquoise to light green, and heavy turquoise and blue armour plating had been added, bolted into her elytra and around her chest, protecting the front and sides. Her crown extended down the sides of her face as deflection plating, and the edge of her horn and her eyes glowed a sickly green.
"It's been so long since I was last in here, trying to awaken my army." she said. "It wasn't the cleverest of ideas for the architect to put the bunker entrance and the access chamber for the Tree of Harmony in the same place."
"How does big bug thing know access chamber for bunker?" Yona asked, confused.
"You showed where it was to the new teacher during induction week, remember Starlight?" Chrysalis asked, a smirk on her face. "Of course, I looked rather different back then."
A look of realisation washed over Starlight's face. "Shutterbug," she whispered. "We had been infiltrated this entire time... and I had no idea."
Several of the Changelings fired off explosive bolts that blew the hydraulic pistons holding up the bunker access door, which slammed shut. The Young Six were trapped on the surface.
"Right, run!" Gallus called, and they sprinted for the door. They had to get back to the place they were before. Minutes later, Changelings buzzed after them as they heard the sounds of heavy weapons fire in the library. It sounded as though Starlight had engaged Chrysalis and her guard.
"This isn't how I'd planned to spend reading week!" Silverstream cried. "I was thinking of going home!"
"That's hardly our biggest concern right now, Silvs!" Smoulder shouted. "We need to get away from these buzzing things."
As they sped along, Ocellus could read full well how everycreature was feeling. The prime emotion she was tracking was fear, with a healthy dose of trembling, when suddenly she stumbled as a massive blast of pain shot through her skull. She cartwheeled through the air, taking out Yona in the process, and she suddenly crashed through a door and into another room.
"Ocellus!" Sandbar cried. He stopped, turned around, and suddenly went back the way he came, bucking open the door and then slamming it shut behind him. "What's going on?"
Ocellus rubbed her head, seemingly in a lot of pain. "There's too much!" she gasped. "Splitting... headache... hive mind... Changelings to intercept princeps... Synapse link..."
Suddenly, Sandbar remembered something that Chrysalis had said the previous academic year down in the pit below the school.
"That's right. Ocellus was bred from the purest of genetic stock I had as a backup should I ever be pushed into a corner. She is no normal nymph- she is a Princeps class of Changeling."
"Wait a minute!" he said quickly. "Ocellus, you've tapped into the local hive mind!"
"B- but normal Changelings can't do that!"
"Remember what Chrysalis said? You're a Princeps. Like Praetors, you have a localised synapse connection that allows you to access and control local assets in times of need. If you can read what these Changelings are up to, you can potentially redirect them and give them different orders!"
A look of determination formed on her face. "I'll try," she replied. "You can mess with me, but you don't mess with my friends." She focused, incredibly hard, the effort clearly quite the strain, until she very suddenly flashed blue in a pulse of energy.
When the light cleared, Ocellus was glowing, her eyes lit up as data and telemetry from the armoured Changelings in the area was fed into her enhanced synapse network. "OK, that's the local network created. Time to have some fun!"
Meanwhile, Gallus, Smoulder, and Silverstream were flying through corridors with more of those strange Changelings flying after them.
"You don't think these are the Changelings that Chrysalis tried to wake up with the artefacts, right?" Silverstream asked.
"Maybe?" Gallus replied. "Doesn't matter anyway, what does matter is not getting zapped!"
Suddenly, the Changelings chasing them seemed to lose all sense of direction, and then crashed into another set flying the other way before smacking into the ground, dazed and surprised. More Changelings looked increasingly confused, with some more up ahead stumbling round in circles with others standing there idle.
"What's going on?" Smoulder asked. "They've all stopped!"
"Are you guys OK?" called Sandbar, as he and Yona, as well as Ocellus, caught up to her.
"The Changelings suddenly stopped attacking us," Silverstream told them. "It's all rather confusing, really. They suddenly stopped." She looked at Ocellus. "Ooh, what happened to her?"
"She's created a localised hive network via a synapse link, and is using that to direct the Changelings into doing nothing."
"How can she do that?" Gallus asked.
"She's a Princeps, remember?" Smoulder said.
"More than that, Ocellus our friend!" Yona called, a sentiment they all heartily agreed with.
"OWWW!"
Sandbar suddenly saw Ocellus fall over, and start to stumble, so he galloped over and popped her up. "Celly? What happened?"
The Changeling rubbed her forehead. "Oww. That really stings. Chrysalis suddenly pulled the plug on my connection. I think she and the other Changelings have teleported somewhere else, but I was able to download a fair bit of data before the connection was lost- including what she's been up to the last few months."
"What do you see?" Silverstream asked. "This could help us fight back!"
"OK, let's see," Ocellus replied. "Being teleported to a cave, meeting Grogar, Sombra goes off and gets killed but blows up the Tree of Harmony in the process-"
"So, this Grogar guy was pulling the strings on that?" Smoulder asked. "Figures. He is the embodiment of evil, after all."
"Less talking please," Ocellus replied. "It makes processing the information harder. I remember now. Being sent to get the Bewitching Bell, spreading chaos in the Canterlot region to make ponies distrust each other, taking the power of the bell alongside Tirek and Sombra to make themselves extremely powerful, draining Grogar of his mag-"
She stopped. Her eye twiched momentarily in disbelief.
"OK, so let me get this straight," Gallus said slowly. "Discord disguised himself as Grogar and teleported three dangerous criminals- Tirek, Somba, and Chrysalis- to his lair. He then let Sombra run riot and destroy the Tree of Harmony, thereby destroying the Elements of Harmony. Then he let Sombra die. He resurrected him again, and then had the three of them go looking for the Bewitching Bell, another object that could make them obscenely powerful. They then used it on themselves and turned on him, taking his magic." He paused for effect. "Yeah, I can't see any way that plan would go horribly wrong."
"Agreed," Smoulder growled. "And all so he could boost Twilight's confidence! When this is over, he'll have a list of charges against his name longer than Lord Torch!"
"How long is Lord Torch?" asked Silverstream.
"He's the biggest dragon in existence."
There was another pause. "That's a long list of charges against Discord then."
A loud whistling noise overhead prompted Sandbar to look up. "That's not good. Windigos."
"Yona thought Windigos were from story," Yona said.
"The Windigos and the story are real. The tale of Hearth's Warming is our story, but now it seems everycreature has forgotten that message."
Ocellus looked out of the window to see a cloud bank being built by pegasi. "Is that Cloudsdale over there?"
Sandbar looked as well. "It is. They're sealing themselves off."
"THIS IS AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST. TIER 5 LOCKDOWN IS NOW IN EFFECT IN PONYVILLE. ALL TRAVEL INTO AND OUT OF THE CITY IS PROHIBITED. ALL WHO ATTEMPT TO ENTER OR EXIT WILL BE QUARANTINED INDEFINITELY. ALL CITIZENS ARE TO REMAIN IN PLACES OF SAFETY AND STAY IN GROUPS FOR SAFETY PURPOSES. COOPERATION WITH THE MEASURES IS IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS. REPEAT, TIER 5 LOCKDOWN IS NOW IN EFFECT IN PONYVILLE. ALL TRAVEL INTO AND OUT OF THE CITY IS PROHIBITED. ALL WHO ATTEMPT TO ENTER OR EXIT WILL BE QUARANTINED INDEFINITELY. ALL CITIZENS ARE TO REMAIN IN PLACES OF SAFETY AND STAY IN GROUPS FOR SAFETY PURPOSES. COOPERATION WITH THE MEASURES IS IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS.
"Is a Tier 5 lockdown bad?" Silverstream asked.
"It's the highest level we have," Sandbar explained. "It's the equivalent of the Pearl Alarm going off. We're in real trouble now."
"That's the understatement of the decade," Smoulder sighed. "Absolute chaos, three villains running amok, and absolutely no sign of our teachers."
"Doing what? Sipping tea and playing card games?" Gallus suggested, sarcastically.
"Can we please try thinking productively?" Sandbar asked. "We need some way of fighting back against the darkness. The school has an adress system that is magically powered. With luck, the transmitter and ariel are still operational."
"Where are you going with this?" asked Smoulder.
"We transmit a signal across Equestria, rallying support and bringing the races together!" Sandbar continued. "Remember that most of the other groups, such as Yaks, Changelings, and so on-"
"As well as Griffons, Hippogriffs, and Seaponies," Silverstream added.
"-Will have no idea what's going on," Sandbar continued. "If we get the message out, we can rally the troops and fight back!"
"OK, so where's the generator?" Gallus asked. "I like this plan. Let's do it."
Thankfully, the generator was undamaged. Chrysalis and her Changelings hadn't spotted it during their attack, and as such had left it alone. Within minutes, it and the transmission array it was connected to were up and running, with the signal ready to broadcast.
Sandbar realigned the camera. "We good to go?" he asked.
The others all gave claws up or equivalent gestures. Sandbar hit the broadcast button.
The various races of the world, hiding away in their fortresses and bunkers, were rather surprised when transmission screens and displays suddenly flickered into life. On the image stood six creatures; one pony, one yak, one dragon, one changeling, one hippogriff, and one griffon. The pony was the first to speak.
"More than one thousand years ago," he began, "our ancestors brought forth upon our continent a new land that was to be guided by the principals of harmony and friendship. A land riven by distrust and war finally knew peace, joined together in a combined spirit of Harmony. This was a power that the Pillars of Old Equestria understood when they created the Tree of Harmony, and the Elements alongside it. This power had the strength to bring us all together, and as our land once more faces a common threat, we must stand together in the fight against this evil, or else perish from this world."
The speech was then taken up by the changeling. "We have not been liberated for long, but we know how powerful Friendship is! We can't continue to bicker and stay apart! We are stronger when united as part of a single cause! I know firsthoof how powerful Friendship can be. It can move mountains and tame rivers, unite the disparate into a single combined cause. I implore you, we need to stand together to assist our allies in this time of need. It's what they'd do for us."
Next up was the griffon. He kept his words short and to the point. "I know that griffons are, by their nature, solitary creatures, but we can't afford to live separate. True heroes are so much more than just waving a flashy sword and having rippling biceps. Being with my friends taught me something new, showed me the way, and revealed that Friendship truly is Magic."
The dragon's words were equally brief. "I know that the idea of being kind and generous sounds lame to a dragon. But our friends need our aid. We need to stand as one, to ensure that the races of Equus do not perish from the world. The alternative is centuries of tyranny."
Next came the Yak. "Yaks strong. Ponies strong. But yaks and ponies stronger together! Yaks must be loyal to pony friends!"
Having got the point across, it was finally the turn of the hippogriff, and boy was she fired up. "Most hippogriffs viewing this transmission will know that today is Freedom Day. That was the day when we finally rose up and drove the Storm King out of our lands, and reclaimed Mount Aris as our own. Ever since, we have held those values close to heart. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore, but must be united in our common interests.
"Today, we once again find ourselves fighting for our freedom, each and every one of us; not from tyranny and oppression... but from annihilation. We're fighting for the right to exist. And should we win this day, Freedom Day will no longer be a Hippogriff Holiday, but the day when all of us- All of Us!- rose up, united, with one voice, and cried out 'we will not go quietly into the night! We shall not vanish! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!'
The others glanced over to the hippogriff, in full oratorical flow. "Today, we all celebrate Freedom Day! So rise up, and answer the call!"
With that, the transmission ended. In Seaquestria, Queen Novo glanced over to Princess Skystar. "Alert the Admiral," she said. "We left our allies, the ponies, in the dust once before. I will not make the same mistake again."
The Young Six arrived at the battlefield site alongside the allies they had called upon, who immediately launched into battle. It was glorious to watch. Yaks and Bison launched charged after charge, their heavy weight knocking enemy soldiers aside like bowling balls. Dragons, pegasi, hippogriffs and griffons roared through the skies and produced dust clouds so thick that the enemy couldn't see where they were going. Spells and fire fell downwards like artillery fire, explosions rocking the terrain and producing vast craters.
As it became more apparent that victory was at hand, not least because the Doom Legion was outnumbered by more than fifty to one, Twilight Sparkle made her move. "ENOUGH!" she bellowed. That got the attention of everycreature. "Because of you, I almost lost my way! But everycreature here has reminded me of the true power of friendship! There will always be darkness in the world, but there will also always be those who find the light! The Pillars knew this!"
On her right, the Pillars suddenly warped into existence, and began to float in midair as Celestia, Luna, and Discord also teleported in.
"That's why they created the Elements of Harmony! The Elements showed me and my friends how strong our friendship could be! Together we worked to bring harmony to Equestria!"
Now it was the turn of the Elements themselves to take to the air, as one.
"But there will always be more to do! Which is why we teach others about the Magic of Friendship! Others who will continue our mission after we are gone!"
Five of the six members of the Young Six floated into the air, in a similar arrangement to the other two groups.
Ocellus was soon levitated into the air, and Twilight continued her speech as though nothing had happened. "Now I truly understand! The Elements were just symbols! The real magic has always been right here! And the more who understand how powerful friendship is, the stronger we will all be! Together!"
With that, three sets of rainbow beams converged in front of them, flew upwards into the air, and down onto the smoke covered battlefield. The ground shook with the force of a thousand earthquakes as something happened down there, and when the smoke cleared at last, three figures could be seen. Queen Chrysalis (looking a lot less intimidating), Tirek, and Sombra stood there, dazed and surprised.
After cleaning up the giant cupcake that fell from the sky, Celestia landed before the trio who had caused so much trouble. "You three have caused confusion and delay," she said. "Now, what to do with you?"
Discord, by this point re-energized by the power of the Bell, floated forward. "May I make a suggestion?"
"Woah woah woah! Hey, stop!" Smoulder called, as she flew over. "Discord's the last being who should be suggesting punishments- especially given he caused this entire mess!"
"We are already aware of his misguided acts," Celestia replied.
"Did he tell you everything?" Chrysalis smirked. "Discord has quite the reputation for bending the story to suit his needs, as Ocellus will be able to demonstrate."
Luna looked over. "What dost thou mean?"
Ocellus, linking into a hive network once more, began to play back what she had downloaded from the network before the connection had been cut. Once it had finished, Celestia looked very unhappy.
She turned to Discord. "I shall deal with you later," she said. "But safe to say I am not happy with you. Not. Happy." She turned her attention back to the trio of villains. "Whilst you three have committed crimes, yes, I am not one for harsh or excessive punishment. I have already made the mistake once of kicking the can down the road." She glared at Discord as she said this. "So I shall not be turning anypony or anycreature for that matter to stone."
Tirek breathed an audible sigh of relief. "I am aware that the three of us have made errors in our behaviour in the past. But as you said, all deserve a second chance, right? Besides, saying sorry around here instantly redeems you of all you have done. Just look at Tempest Shadow or Starlight Glimmer over there!"
Celestia sighed. "I shall have the Young Six decide what is to be done with you." She stepped back, to let the others take the reigns.
Silverstream and Gallus approached Tirek. "Hmmm, what do you propose?" Silverstream asked.
"Look at those muscles!" Gallus exclaimed. "I suggest we assign him something construction related."
"Perfect!" Silverstream said. "You shall assist with the rebuilding of all the buildings demolished and destroyed during this chaotic time."
Tirek nodded. "Reformation through labour! As a centaur, I approve heartily."
Smoulder and Yona handled Sombra. "I think he needs a healthy dose of friendship lessons," Smoulder said.
"Yona know place where he'll fit in! Crystal Empire cold, yes?"
"Indeed! It's partly why I like it so much."
"Yona take Sombra to Yakyakistan! Yak place cold, and full of other creatures. Scary pony less likely to smash things if he see how good other cultures are."
Sombra, knowing the alternative, nodded.
Which just leaves us with Sandbar, Ocellus, and Chrysalis. Chrysalis seemed to be the most stubborn of the lot. "Just get it over with and sentence me to death, as you so clearly want," she snarled at them.
"Err, Ocellus, are you sure this is going to work?" Sandbar asked.
Ocellus nodded. "Hey mom. I won't lie, you did some nasty stuff to us. You ruled as a tyrant, starved us of love and food, and used us as pawns in your power games and wars. Our lives were Hell under you, and the damage is only just healing."
She paused, as Chrysalis looked surprised. "What did you call me?" she asked. "I had no idea I was causing you all this harm! I only did what I thought was best..." she trailed off.
Ocellus paused before saying the next words. "Chrysalis, this may seem really hard to believe, but... I forgive you."
Chrysalis was rendered speechless, but as she opened her mouth to speak once more, there was a blinding flash. Where the former queen had once stood, instead there was now a Changeling with yellow chitin, orange fur around her front legs, a purple shell, an orange crown upon her head, and a flowing turquoise and green mane. Her eyes were also now blue.
"She reformed!" Thorax said suddenly.
"Didn't think she had it in her," Pharynx nodded, and gently tapped his brother.
"As for your punishment," Ocellus said, "I'd like for you to return to the Hive and see how our society has changed, to see how far we have come and to, hopefully, learn how to be friends."
Chrysalis, astonished that a being she had so badly mistreated was giving her a second chance, blinked back tears. "Thank you," she whispered. "I won't waste this opportunity."
"So, happy endings all around?" Twilight said. "In which case, it's time to start planning the coronation!"
Silverstream turned around. "Wait. Celestia and Luna are stepping down?"
The stage and the seating was already set up outside the School of Friendship, and a giant projector whirred into life behind Principal Starlight as the students began to file into place in their seats.
A full year had passed since the Battle of the Bell and Twilight's ascension to the throne of Equestria. Celestia and Luna now mostly spent their time as keynote speakers on the lecture circuit, which certainly helped put more bits in the bank if nothing else (it also gave them something to do in their retirement, as retirement, in their mind, should be a chance to go out and see new things rather than simply bum about on a beach somewhere). Twilight had been a more than superb successor; with her wise and well run leadership and council, the land hadn't suffered a single monster attack or villain causing mayhem, which was quite impressive (though, of course, made a lot easier by the fact that all of the races of Equis were now friends with one another). There was even talk of fully integrating populations together; pony alongside dragon, changeling, griffon, hippogriff and yak. This, in and out of itself, was a very exciting prospect, and reduced the risk of problems and opposition to each other as supposed 'differences' could be learned about and celebrated as a point of union, not a cause for strife.
The Young Six had passed their courses with flying colours, and were now sat in the chairs alongside all the other students from their intake- the first intake three years ago or so. The last students arrived at the area, and as they took their seats, Starlight switched on the public address system and began to speak.
"Gathered students, and assembled friends and relations," she said, indicating to a separate seating area where the families and friends of the students were seated. "What a last year it has been. Whilst saving Equestria from three villains was certainly an interesting experience, it was also nice to have a first year of running the School of Friendship without any villain or evil magic interrupting. Although I have only been your headmare for one year, I have followed each and every one of you throughout the years you have been here as your guidance councilor, and how you have all grown! I have seen each and every one of you develop from adolescents into strong, mature individuals-"
"YAAAAAAAAAAY!" cried Silverstream.
"Mostly mature individuals," Starlight corrected. "Your dedication to the study and spread of friendship really is a credit to us all, and your school spirit and willingness to come together and celebrate what unites you, rather than profess what divides you, is a beacon of light for all of Equestria, and the world, to follow. Princess Twilight once said that friendship was something that needed to be shared with everycreature, not only because it makes the world a safer place, but because friendship is a good thing in and out of itself. If friends stand together, as time has proven, no evil can withstand it. And to this end it is my great honour to award our students their qualifications. We shall start with the Six who have proven, no matter the odds, friendship can blossom anywhere at any time, not to mention they have helped save Equestria on multiple occasions. Ocellus!"
Ocellus, sweating buckets because of the nerves (and the fact that the graduation gowns were so hot), got out of her seat and ascended the stairs, eventually reaching Starlight, who handed her a roll of paper.
"First," Starlight told her, with the microphone switched off.
Ocellus' nerves cleared immediately, and she trotted off down the stairs looking a lot happier.
"Next, Sandbar."
Sandbar was equally nervous, as he'd slipped up on some pieces of coursework (but then again who doesn't apart from Ocellus?). He climbed the stairs and was handed another piece of paper.
"First."
The fog of apprehension cleared over him, and he headed back to his seat with a relaxed smile on his face.
"Yona!"
The world became aware of the yak as several seats were knocked forward by her getting up and trotting over to the podium. The stairs creaked and groaned under her weight as she trotted forward and stopped. Before being handed her own piece of paper.
"First."
"YAAAY! YAKS ARE BEST!" Yona cried, and jumped into the air and landing- by falling straight through the stage. "Yona stuck down here."
"Can somepony call the crane to lift Yona out?"
After that short interruption, the remaining three members received their degrees, all of them receiving Firsts (with the exception of Gallus, who get an exceptionally high Two One). In all, it took about an hour to hand all of the degrees out, which was largely a formality as the students would also receive copies by mail (and burping dragon network). After getting the pieces of paper which proved their friendship credentials (and that Twilight's noble experiment was indeed a roaring success), it was time for the students to party.
And trust me, nocreature knows how to party better than a student (or, in this case, ex students as they had just graduated). A great stage had once again been set up, and a band had already started playing that night, so it was time for them to go crazy, crazy, crazy until they saw the sun.
Keen to get away from the sound, Sandbar and Ocellus headed away into the darkness and off towards the lake that sat near the School of Friendship, and the sight of many happy memories to boot. Once there, the pair sat by the lake and watched as the water ebbed and flowed under the moonlight.
"It must be pretty challenging moving both the sun and the moon," Sandbar joked.
"Celestia did it on her own for over 1000 years," Ocellus replied. "Twilight won't have a problem."
Sandbar suddenly stood up. "Ocellus, there's something I wanted to show you." As she looked over, he produced a box with a ring in it.
"That's beautiful!" Ocellus exclaimed. "How much did that cost?"
"It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it," Sandbar smiled. "Ocellus- will you marry me?"
Approximately 3 seconds passed before the changeling made her decision, crashing into Sandbar and knocking him over. "Yes! Yes, yes, and yes again!"
"Can you keep it down?" called Gallus. "I'm trying to propose to Silverstream here and have already been interrupted Faust knows how many times."
It rapidly turned out that getting the decorations and invitations out would prove to be the least of their problems.
Owing to a bizarre timetabling mishap, caused by a faulty magic system and confusion between the twelve and twenty four hour clocks, the weddings of Sandbar and Ocellus, and Gallus and Silverstream, had not only been timetabled for the exact same day, but for the exact same time. Quite who caused this blunder to occur is unknown, but they had to work with it as best they could as it was too late a schedule a different date.
And so, the preparations were done at a feverish rate. The flowers and suchlike were arranged by Rarity and Mistmane, the latter being the last word on Equestrian floral arrangement, and much of the catering was handled by the Apples.
"This is gonna be a massive logistical exercise," Applejack said to Big Mac, as she dragged another table over. "We're not only preparin' fer two weddin's worth o' guests, we're preparin fer four completely differen't cultures."
"Eeyup," Big Mac replied. "Sugar Belle was complainin' about the smell of all that fish. Griffons sure like eatin' smelly food."
"Ah imagine they find of our customs weird," Applejack replied, setting a table into place piled high with snacks. "Now, where is Pinkie?"
"SURPRISE!" the party mare shouted, and suddenly appeared with several batteries of party cannons.
"What are those filled with?" Applejack asked.
"Oh, I just stuffed them full of confetti," Pinkie Pie replied. "The first two cannons will be triggered when the first couple exits. The second set will be triggered when the second couple exits. Speaking of which, which couple is exiting first?"
"Ah dunno," Applejack replied. "Yer guess is as good as mine." She went back to setting up tables. "You deliverin' the weddin' cakes? Plural?"
"Of course I've got the wedding cakes! They're at the reception venue, where they should be. No point putting them in a place where an errant colt or small griffon could knock them over."
For once, Pinkie's logic actually made sense, and Applejack took notice of this. "Well, this sure is gonna be a swell day, at least on the food front. Now, Ah wonder how everycreature else is gettin' on..."
"Hey! Gabby! Stop being so excitable!" Gilda snapped, as she helped adjust Gallus' suit.
"I can't help it!" Gabby replied, bouncing up and down. "My own cousin is getting married, and it's amazing! He's the first griffon to get married to a non griffon!"
"How can you prove it?" Gallus asked. "Griffonstone is incredibly unreliable when it comes to record keeping. They haven't conducted a census in decades!"
"I imagine if there was another griffon out there married to a hippogriff, we'd know," Gilda replied. "And it's unlikely as hippogriffs were only recently discovered. Anyways, looking forward to it?"
"We all are at times, and I imagine it's especially tough when it's the first time."
Gallus looked confused. "I've been nervous lots of times."
"No, getting married," Gilda replied. "I've never been married. Never found a griffon who'd keep still for long enough to stop insulting one another."
"I imagine there's one out there for you!" Gabby called. "Here's Rarity!"
"Hello darlings," Rarity said. "I'm just checking on the costume fittings. Doing the floral arrangements as well would have been very tough, so I'm so happy that Mistmane could take time out of her busy schedule to do them for this occasion. How do you feel, Gallus?"
"Oh, not again," the griffon muttered under his breath. "I'm nervous, OK, and I've been nervous before, but never married before. I kinda want to see Silverstream."
"Oh, no no no no!" Rarity exclaimed. "You can't see the bride before the wedding! It's bad luck!"
Gallus looked confused, and then a lightbulb illuminated above his head. "Ohh, that explains why Silverstream spent the night in Seaquestria. But griffons don't have a custom like that."
"We don't have a lot of customs," Gilda said. "Speaking of which, Grandpa Gruff couldn't be bothered to show up for the wedding."
"Eh, stuff him," Gallus replied. "He took no interest in any of us. Why should I care if he turns up or not? It's not as if he was in any way a father figure to me."
Meanwhile, Ocellus seemed a little jumpy. She seemed worried at all the things that could go wrong. "I hope everything will go OK!" she said, sounding concerned.
"I'm certain it will," Ommatidia reassured her daughter, making some adjustments to her dress. "Now now, I imagine it'll all be fine. After all, you're the first Changeling to marry a non-Changeling."
"Even more reason for everything go right! This is a pretty big leap in Changeling pony relations, and I think it wouldn't reflect well if it was an utter mess!"
"Dear," Ommatidia replied, "I was an absolute bundle of nerves when I married your father. Even though we already knew each other incredibly well in the Hive, ours was still one of the first as Chrysalis had prohibited marriage for various reasons."
"How'd it go?"
"Very well," Ommatidia smiled. "Now I wonder where that husband of mine is? I imagine he's helping Sandbar..."
"Cozy, could you please stop buzzing in my face?" asked Aristate. "It's very hard to concentrate when there's something flying about in your peripheral vision. That's one of the upsides of fixing machines. They don't move suddenly..."
"What's peri- periph- periphera-"
"Peripheral vision," Sandbar replied. "Edge of your vision. I certainly appreciate the help, but could you perhaps do it from the ground? Flying about is perhaps not a good idea in a room full of breakable objects."
"Oh." Cozy touched down and folded her wings in. "I just want to help ensure your wedding is the bestest ever!"
"I thought I'd taught you the importance of proper grammar," said a grumpy stallion with a green coat and darker blue curled mane. "It's 'best', not 'bestest'."
"Dad, go easy on her!" Sandbar protested. "She only little."
"There's no excuse for incorrect grammar," the stallion sighed. "Next she'll be saying 'could of' instead of 'could have'."
"The matter of grammer is nowt our priority," Aristate said. "I'm from the Changeling lands, I should know. Now then, Sandbar, I think you're ready to go. I've never seen a double wedding before, so this ought to be interesting."
"I think Rarity made an error," Silverstream pouted, as she felt back along the dress. "There's no space for my wings to fit through."
"I don't think there's meant to be one," Ocean Flow replied. "The entire point of a wedding is to stay on the ground and not fidget about. Your father had enough difficulty keeping still during ours."
"You do know I can hear you, right?" said Sky Beak.
"Yes. Just remember to stay focused. I know you're excited-"
"When is that ever gonna change?" Terramar asked rhetorically, as he checked over the fitting of the neckline.
"-But please stay focused and don't get distracted."
"I don't get distrac- OOOH! SHINY!"
Sky Beak clawpalmed. "This is gonna be a long day, isn't it?"
Despite all the chaos backstage, the weddings themselves went off without a hitch. Everything was timed perfectly to the second; the decorations, the vows, the various best creatures and bridesmaids being in the right places (even if Smoulder did make it very hard to see with all that smoke), and even the party cannons triggered correctly. At the right times.
Not a dry eye was left in the place afterward, as it hit home to all that their little ones really had grown up and moved on in the world. And move on they would, in the most remarkable ways possible.
Gallus sighed as he stepped off the train from Canterlot and set off into the streets of Ponyville. The School of Friendship was hosting its annual reunion, and he, like all the other students of his class, had been invited to return to the school and find out how everybody was getting along.
The passage of 20 years had certainly changed him. Gone was the small, lanky griffon who had roamed these streets all those years ago. He was now quite a big griffon, with rippling biceps and strong, powerful limbs. His face retained something of his teenage looks, so there was that, but he was certainly no being that you'd mess with.
Not least because he was not only the first non Pony to succesfully join the Royal Guard, but to rise to the very top of its ranks as Captain. Whilst claims of nepotism on the part of the Princess continued to float about, Gallus just ignored them. The stories had no basis in fact, and creatures no longer made their minds up about entire issues based on silly rumours. Because that was just silly.
He strolled along, noting that Ponyville had changed very little in the 20 years since he'd been a student here. The street layout was still identical, and his friends were still around. The shops and businesses had barely changed, but a few of the faces had. Mr and Mrs Cake had retired and handed Sugarcube Corner over to their children, Pound and Pumpkin Cake, who did a very fine job of running the place. Carousel Boutique was also under new management, as Rarity now lived in Yakyakistan and did designing there.
As he trotted past Carousel Boutique, two more of his friends emerged into the light, having finished work for the day. Sandbar and Yona shut up shop and joined him on the road. They had changed a lot, too. Sandbar had indeed grown, but didn't seem to have quite the right proportions. Indeed, he was tall, but quite lanky, and his legs didn't quite look right in proportion to his body. It was a if somepony had taken a jpeg of him and stretched certain bits in size without adjusting the proportion settings, rendering some bits comically small and others too big.
Yona did not have this issue. She was now a towering wall of muscle and bone, not the sort of thing you got in the way of. Despite how massive she was, she always made sure to let others go ahead of her and didn't use her brute force to get her way.
"Hey, Gallus, how are you?" Sandbar called, as the trio strolled towards the School of Friendship.
"Work was more of the same," Gallus replied. "Even in my position it's possible to get bored. In the last 20 years, there hasn't been a single threat to Equestria. Even so, we still play a ceremonial role, and I suppose if some idiot were to try assassinating the Princess (and I really have no idea why they would) we'd be able to stop them pretty easily. I stepped up the training as they were actually in a shocking state after Celestia and Luna's reign."
"Sounds tough," Sandbar replied, his voice now noticably deeper and a lot more mature than all those years ago. "Well, I went into business with Yona producing clothing for pony and non pony customers. Rarity was kind enough to lease us the old Carousel Boutique building, and we've used it as our headquarters ever since. We sure get a lot of business here! I imagine being next to Equestria's most succesful school helps business a lot."
"Yona love new business!" the Yak smiled, as they continued on their way. "Customers so nice and friendly! None of the old prejudice we used to get."
"Twilight's program of social harmony sure paid off," Gallus grinned. "Nowadays, the sight of creatures of other races is no normal that most ponies don't even think twice about it."
Sandbar chucked. "To think we blazed that particular trail, eh?"
At long last, they arrived at the entrance to the School of Friendship, where a familiar face hopped out of the water and switched to hippogriff mode. Silverstream was quite a bit taller and leaner than in the past, with a long neck and a lot more fluff on her legs, but she was also a bit pudgier, probably the side effect of bringing two chicks into the world. It had astonished the medical community that griffons and hippogriffs could crossbreed with no apparent difficulty, their genetics being so similar.
"Hi!" she cried, and wrapped her forelimbs around Gallus' neck. "Wow, you would not BELIEVE how crazy work was today! I was helping to teach friendship lessons with fish and some of the students found it REALLY, and I mean REALLY smelly! So much so, we loaded it into a Party Cannon and BOOM we fired it off over the school! It looked really great, though Headmare Starlight didn't appreciate being buried in fish."
"I only wish my days were as exciting as yours, my dear," Gallus said, as he nuzzled her cheek gently. "Shall we head indoors? I think our friends are waiting for us."
"Oh! Of course!"
The doors swung open, and inside Smoulder and Ocellus were waiting. Again, much like Sandbar, Smoulder appeared to have been stretched in editing software, as her frame was roughly the same shape, just quite a bit taller. Ocellus had also grown a fair bit, having shed several layers along the way. She now stood as tall as Sandbar did, but retained the same basic shape, showing none of the traits of a Queen whatsoever. Her progression had been, by far, the most dramatic. Apart from becoming the mother to two nymphs, Princess Twilight had appointed Ocellus to the position of Astronomer Royal, a very important job that had her reading the stars. Although there had been some grumbling about appointing a Changeling to the job, Ocellus' skill in the job had quickly dispelled all criticism. She and Sandbar shared a moment together as husband and wife, separate from the constrains of their jobs, before she addressed them.
"Twenty years ago," she said, "I came here as a young, nervous, and shy being, unsure of my place in the world and not sure where life would take me. I imagine we all felt that way. But then I met each and every one of you, and our friendship changed our lives forever. We fought off evil, made many happy memories, and found our callings- and in some cases, love with each other. So I propose a toast. To friendship!"
"To friendship!" the six cheered, raising glasses into the air and downing them.
And so, our volume comes to an end. With the Six together once more, they would remain... Best Friends until the End of Time.
Vincent Tong-Sandbar, Garble Gavin Langelo-Gallus, train conductor Shannon Chan-Kent-Smoulder Katrina Salisbury-Yona Lauren Jackson-Silverstream Devyn Dalton-Ocellus Michael Caine-the Waiter, Ponyville stationmaster Ian Riley-himself Vincent Franklin-Aristate James MacAvoy-Jacobite announcer, attendant Andrea Libman-Ommatidia, Pinkie Pie Ashleigh Ball-Rainbow Dash, Applejack Kelly Sheridan-Starlight Glimmer Sunni Westbrook-Cozy Glow Maurice LaMarche-Chancellor Neighsay Kathleen Barr-Chrysalis, Trixie, Shutterbug Tara Strong-Twilight Sparkle Nicole Oliver-Princess Celestia, Cheerilee Cole Howard-Terramar, Inferno Brian Dobson-Sky Beak, yaks Advah Soudack-Ocean Flow Kyle Rideout-Thorax Claire Corlett-Sweetie Belle Tabitha St. Germain-Rarity William Hope-Tilden Graham Verchere-Pipsqueak Jessie Nowack-Vinyl Scratch Scribbler Productions-Octavia Simon Rattle-CSO conductor Diana Kaarina-Shimmy Shake Kelly Ogmundson-Lighthoof Lee Tockar-Snips Willem Defoe-Server at the Undersea World Bar and Restaurant Uzo Aduba-Queen Novo Kristin Chenoweth-Skystar Peter New-Big Mac Richard Ian Cox-Grandpa Gruff Brian Drummond-Time Turner John de Lancie-Discord Mark Acheson-Tirek Jim Miller-Sombra Peter New-Big Mac Maryke Hendryykse-Gilda Erin Matthews-Gabby John Cleese-Sandbar and Cozy's father
