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The Young Six

by Jay David

Chapter 16: Childhood Stories

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Childhood Stories

With the sun having set beyond the horizon some time ago, a blanket of darkness had befallen the land of Equestria, and before long, all of Ponyville was wrapped in the calm and coolness of Princess Luna's night. Lights were going out in many homes throughout the town, showing all the families who were turning in after a long day. For the School of Friendship, this was also the case, even though there were still one or two flickering candles to let people know that there were a few late-night study sessions going on. But, among these lights, there was one that was lit not for the purposes of homework, but for simple fun. For within one of the many dormitories of the school, six of its most noted students had gathered, sitting upon the floor around the lone candle of their room, smiling to one another. Currently, they were all clad to one degree or another in their respective blankets, and at present, all of them had their eyes tuned to Gallus, who was trying to sound as scary as possible.

"And then...it turned out she was dead the whole time!"

Silverstream let out a loud scream to that, prompting all of the rest of them to look to her and give an immediate "shhhh" in response, lest she accidentally wake someone else up nearby. Blushing, the young Hippogriff did her best to contain her giddy terror at the story, and in truth, all of them seemed to have enjoyed it, as evidenced by the amused looks they all had.

"Not bad, Gallus. But I could see that twist coming a mile away!" Sandbar remarked.

His Griffon friend gained a smirk, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you tell a better one!"

But Sandbar shook his head.

"Nah, I've never been that good at them. I prefer listening."

Smolder, who leaned back so her head was resting at the bottom of the bunk-bed behind her, matched Gallus' smirk as she regarded him.

"I've never really been that into scary stories. Dragons don't really get frightened all that much."

Yona looked to her with curiosity.

"What about when we got attacked by creatures in Everfree?"

Smolder, blinking slowly to that, cleared her throat in an obviously nervous manner.

"Yes...well...we nearly don't get frightened."

The group all shared a laugh to that, which even Smolder herself joined in on. When it died down, however, It was Ocellus' turn to speak, who looked to all of her friends before doing so.

"Now that you mention it, I've sometimes heard that real life is often more interesting than fiction. And given some of the things I've seen since coming to this school, I can safely say there's truth to that statement."

The others nodded to that, seemingly agreeing with her. Silverstream, giggling happily, leaned in closer towards the candle, before wrapping herself tighter within her blanket.

"Oh, I have so many stories from when I was little. You should hear some of the stuff me and Skystar used to get up to!"

Gallus turned to her, taking on a curious look himself.

"Oh yeah? A couple of royal Hippogriffs getting into trouble?"

Silverstream snorted.

"Pfft! No...we were Seaponies at the time, not Hippogriffs."

Gallus, who understandably rolled his eyes to that, nevertheless smiled to her.

"Well then...we're all ears."

Silverstream, to her slight surprise, suddenly found that her Griffon colleague was correct, as she had, in fact, become the centre of attention all of a sudden. But, while this was unexpected, she was still eager to say what she wanted to say, and so, after having cleared her throat, she began to tell her tale.

"Well, it was just before my brother Terramar was born. Me and Skystar crept out of our homes one night and decided to do the one thing Seaponies were absolutely positively forbidden to ever do!"

She paused for dramatic effect, glancing left and right, as if looking for any eavesdroppers, before finally blurting it out.

"We were going to the surface! To see the city of Mount Aris!"

The others leaned in closer as she continued.

"We actually got there too! Poked our heads up through the water and looked out. Not much there except some rubble and crumbly buildings..."

Her smile widened.

"...but we were there! The home of our ancestors! A place no Seapony had been to since way before I was born!"

Ocellus looked to her, wide-eyed.

"Were you excited?"

Silverstream giggled.

"Yep!"

Then, her smile faded a little.

"Well...until my Aunt found us. Novo wasn't all that happy about us sneaking out there, especially in the middle of the night. She and my parents gave the two of us quite a talking to when we got home again."

Folding his arms, Gallus chuckled.

"Yeah, old-timers will do that. They say "don't go there", and when you do, then bam, trouble!"

Silverstream looked over to him, gasping excitedly.

"Oh! Have you been somewhere you weren't supposed to be?!"

Taking on a look of pride, the young Griffon's chest swelled up slightly.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Smolder, rolling her eyes to this bravado, frowned to him soon afterwards.

"Well? We're waiting!"

Gallus, rather than say anything straight away, instead left a long and drawn-out pause, no doubt to heighten the anticipation of the moment, much to Smolder's irritation. But, thankfully, he didn't linger too long, and so began his story.

"Well, here was this one time I got it into my head to scope out the old royal Palace. You know, where the Kings of Griffonstone used to live? I snuck in there, went through a whole bunch of old rooms, trying to see if there was anything...you know...worth picking up."

Sandbar looked to him, aghast.

"You went grave-robbing?!"

Gallus, in response, waved him off.

"Firstly, there weren't any graves there, and secondly, no. I never ended up taking anything. Whatever good stuff there might have been had all broken apart or rusted away hundreds of years ago."

His earth pony colleague calmed down a bit, allowing him to continue.

"Anyways, I decided to mess around on the old throne for a bit, you know, act like a King and all that? And while I did, a piece of stone from the ceiling just so happened to break off, falling right down towards me."

His friends looked to him, worried, but saying nothing as he continued.

"Luckily, Grandpa Gruff had followed me in, and he was there just in time to push me out of the way before the thing hit me."

Shrugging his shoulders, he chuckled.

"I was safe...but boy did he give me an earful afterwards."

Nodding, Yona smiled to him.

"Yona know feeling. Elders always mad when young ones get in trouble."

The rest looked to her, with Ocellus especially seeming intrigued.

"Talking from experience, Yona?"

The young Yak's smile widened, and as before, she nodded enthusiastically.

"When Yona was little, she hear stories of great Yak warriors who travel to top of highest mountain to prove their strength. Yona inspired, so she try to go there herself."

A thoughtful look came to her.

"But young Yona not as strong as Yona now, so it hard journey. And cold journey. Blizzard came in."

She frowned.

"But Yona no let bad weather stop her, so on she went. She vowed to make it to top of mountain."

However, her expression soon softened, and hesitation came into her tone.

"But...blizzard kept getting worse...and night started falling. Yona...Yona get lost. Couldn't see way home."

The group started looking to her with worry, even though, by knowledge of the fact that she was sitting there among them, that she must have gotten herself out of that bad situation. And this was further proved when, after a while, her smile returned.

"But...Prince Rutherford find her. He bring her back to village, back to warm hut and good meal."

Ocellus scooted slightly closer to her.

"Did you get in trouble?"

Here, Yona shook her head.

"Yona thought she would, and Prince seem angry at first...but no. Rutherford proud Yona get as far as she did. But he asked that Yona not try again until older."

A look of determination came to her.

"And one day...Yona will get to top of mountain!"

Her friends matched her eagerness at that thought, with Smolder moving closer to her and giving her a pat on the shoulder. Ocellus, having heard all of that, nodded slowly while appearing somewhat thoughtful.

"You were certainly brave back then, Yona..."

She turned away.

"...braver than I was at that age."

The group all turned to her, and Ocellus, after seeing this, sighed, knowing that she would be next in speaking a story from her youth. So, after getting her thoughts together, she did exactly that.

"There comes a time when all young Changelings are required to undergo...well...I guess you could call it an evaluation. To see how well we shapeshift. And while King Thorax is much kinder and more forgiving than the last leader our people had...I was still..."

She shuddered briefly, prompting Sandbar to move closer to her, wrapping his hoof around her and holding her close. Ocellus, grateful at this attempted consolation, smiled warmly to him, but then looked to the rest of them, carrying on with her tale.

"The thing is...I was something of a late bloomer when it came to my transformation abilities. All others my age could do it...but I couldn't."

She hung her head.

"I was so scared of failing my exam that...I ran away."

The others looked to her with shock, and Ocellus, understandably, felt a little ashamed at having said what she'd said. But, she wasn't so ashamed as to stop her storytelling.

"But after a while...I strayed so far from the hive that...I came into the territory of the Maulwurf."

A frown came to her.

"It was stupid, going out there like that. And...when I heard it come, I...I was so scared."

Then, to her friends' surprise, she started to smile.

"But...that fear triggered something in me. When the Maulwurf was getting closer, I finally changed! I'd transformed into a large stone, and used that appearance to hide myself. The beast walked right past me, never knowing I was there."

Pride came to her.

"When I returned to the Hive, I went through the evaluation...and passed."

The group all looked to her with amazement, which prompted an expected blush in the young Changeling, especially when Sandbar smiled to her in that loving way of his. But, the silence that followed that moment didn't last, as Smolder eventually broke it with a hearty chuckle.

"Hehe, not bad, Ocellus. Could have had a bit more action in it, but still, pretty great."

Sandbar, who was looking a little irritated that his girlfriend's story had been somewhat undercut with those words, looked to Smolder with a frown.

"Oh, I suppose you have a more exciting story?"

Smirking, Smolder leaned in closer to the candle in-between them all.

"Gather round, friends! For years ago, your friend, Smolder, tried her luck in challenging none other than Dragon Lord Torch himself!"

They all stared at her with disbelief, particularly Gallus, whose tone was one of clear incredulity.

"...No way!"

Smolder, folding her arms, gave a firm nod.

"Yes way! I was quite the fire-starter back then. So one day, after my molt, I decided to take on the big guy myself, so I walked right up to him, looked him right in the eye, and yelled hey, I wanna challenge you!"

Silverstream gasped.

"And then what happened?"

Smolder, for a moment, hesitated.

"Well...we fought. And I walked away from it in one piece!"

Gallus frowned.

"Okay...how did a little Smolder take on a guy as big as what Torch was supposed to be?"

Here, Smolder cleared her throat in a nervous-sounding way, scratching the back of her head and avoiding everyone's gaze.

"Well...okay...it wasn't so much a fight so much has it was me charging at him and trying to claw at his foot...only for him to then nudge that foot and...um...send me flying."

There was silence, and then, when they couldn't hold it in any longer, the group all burst out laughing. Smolder blushed to this, but then, after a while, she started snickering herself, laughing at the absurdity of her story. When the laughter ended, however, all eyes turned to the one person who had yet to say anything; Sandbar. The young stallion, knowing this had been coming, sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

"Well...there really isn't that much to say about me. All the really interesting stuff I've seen when I was growing up here all started when Princess Twilight moved to town."

He paused for a few seconds.

"Well, okay, she wasn't a Princess back then, but still, as soon as she got here, all sorts of weird stuff happened. And every once in a while, I'd be there in the crowds to watch along with everypony else."

Ocellus, looking to him, smiled, giving him a friendly nudge.

"You may not have been involved in it yourself, but those must have been some amazing sights all the same."

To that, Sandbar chuckled.

"Yeah...can't argue with that. Nightmare Night, the fiasco at her first Winter Wrap-Up, seeing her and her friends fight that one bugbear...it's been quite a ride."

Hearing that, Gallus rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Ugh! I was hoping to hear some story of you getting in serious trouble or something! You know, show that you're not always a goody two-shoes?"

Sandbar looked to him with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh, you mean like the time I helped keep you guys hidden from your leaders in the Everfree Forest and joined in with you while we were all attacked by a bunch of dangerous critters that nearly killed us?"

Gallus, thinking on that, looked to his pony friend with a smile, nodding in acknowledgement of that.

"Yeah, okay, good point."

Silverstream, giggling to this, looked to all of her friends before speaking up.

"Well...I guess we're all troublemakers when you get right down to it..."

Quickly, she glanced over to each of them.

"...and you know what? I'm actually kinda happy about that."

Smirking, Smolder let out a hearty chuckle.

"Well...makes for some good stories at least."

Next Chapter: Up the Mountain Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 24 Minutes
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