The library of the Friendship School was, as one would expect of an establishment run by Princess Twilight Sparkle, always kept immaculately neat, tidy and organized. If someone wanted to find something, it took very little effort to do so. For many of the students, while there was no getting around the fact that their Head-Mare's meticulousness was tiring at times, they could not deny that her organizational skills helped a great deal when it came to their homework. And speaking of which, homework was indeed the order of the day for several of the more stand-out students there, as Smolder, Gallus and Ocellus were all busying themselves with their respective assignments. At first, things were quiet among them, as expected of those studying in a library, but as time went by, it was clear that only Ocellus was really that enthusiastic about doing this. Because while she bore her usual smile when going through her book, the other two were looking bored out of their skulls.

"Do we have to be reading stuff like this?" Gallus remarked.

Smolder snorted.

"Seems like it. Talk about the benefits of the co-operation between loyalty and honesty in modern Equestria? Ugh! That title sounds gross to say!"

But Ocellus, in stark contrast to her two colleagues, kept on smiling, even giggling a little as she regarded them.

"Oh, it isn't that bad! In fact, I'd say this is fairly interesting. Like when you look at this chapter here when it talks about pre-industrial Equestrian..."

But the other two just groaned loudly, leaning back into their chairs and staring at the ceiling in a clear display of disinterest. Ocellus, seeing this behaviour, frowned, holding her book to herself.

"Alright then, guess I'll just read it to myself."

And read she did, practically burying her face in her book, all while the other two just continued to sit there and stare into space, utterly unenthused about their work. Silence passed between them, and after a while Ocellus glanced over the top of her book to look at them.

"You know...you two really should put more effort into your time here. This school is important, and so is our work. I realise that Dragons and Griffons might find it not as exciting or fun as other stuff, but still..."

Smolder, looking down to her Changeling friend, gave a smirk.

"No disrespect, Ocellus, but I'm pretty sure we'll do okay even if we aren't giving our all for it."

Ocellus frowned to that.

"Oh? Where did you get that conclusion from?"

Smolder shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, think about it..."

She leaned forward, gesturing to all of them.

"...this school is supposed to teach us the importance of friendship and getting along, right? You know, treat others with respect, play nice, do good things, all that stuff. You get me so far?"

Ocellus nodded, as indeed did Gallus, who himself had taken an interest in what his draconic colleague was saying. And Smolder, now realising that she had the undivided attention of her two friends, deepened her smirk, before leaning back into her chair and looking more than a little smug about herself.

"But when you get right down to it, we're already good at that stuff!"

Gallus chuckled dryly to that.

"We're not exactly perfect friends, Smolder. Ever since we met each other there have been hiccups here and there."

But Smolder rolled her eyes, looking again dismissive of such words.

"Sure, we've had bumps on the road, but hey, what friends haven't? I mean, have you seen the kinds of stuff Head-Mare Twilight and her friends have done with each other?"

She let out a chortle of her own.

"They've known each other for the better part of a decade now, and yet even then, they still manage to have some big issues every few weeks with each other. Like that whole mess between Professor Rainbow and Professor Rarity the other day, remember?"

Ocellus, begrudgingly, nodded to that, acknowledging the point, even though she soon returned to her earlier frown and pointed to Smolder.

"That may be, and I'm willing to admit that even they have flaws when it comes to their friendship. But that just highlights the importance of our work here. Because of ponies that have known each other as long as they have can still go through hard times, then it's all the more important that we keep working on our friendship! And trying to understand it!"

She glanced over to Gallus, then back to Smolder.

"After all, we haven't known each other anywhere near as long, so we don't have the luxury of having some years-long bond to keep us together if some problem comes along!"

Smolder snorted to that.

"Pfft! You're over-worrying, Ocellus, as usual. I'd say we're pretty good friends already! All the stuff we've done since meeting up? Yeah, I don't think anyone can say we're not good at this stuff!"

She laughed again.

"Heck, it's because of our friendship that this school was able to open up again to begin with, remember?"

Ocellus paused, thinking on that, and Smolder, perhaps under the assumption that she was winning this argument, pressed her advantage.

"I mean, what can you expect with students as important as we are?"

Here, Gallus, who had been quiet for a good chunk of this conversation, looked to his scaly friend with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

Smolder shrugged her shoulders before starting to explain herself.

"Well, we're not just any youngsters, are we? We were personally selected by our nations' leaders. We were chosen as the ones to represent the Griffons and Dragons and so on!"

A look of pride came to her.

"When Thorax and Ember and all the rest of them were asked to send one of their own to come here, to this important Friendship School, it was us they picked! That says a lot!"

She smirked again.

"So how's it any surprise that we're already pretty great at friendship?"

A pause came to her, but only for a moment, as she soon looked over to Ocellus.

"Tell me, why did King Thorax pick you?"

Though taken aback by the sudden question, Ocellus soon tried her best to answer, albeit with an understandably hesitant tone.

"Well...um...he asked for volunteers from the Hive, and I...you know...volunteered."

Smolder raised an eyebrow.

"...That's it?"

Ocellus nodded.

"Yes. A lot of the others were still pretty nervous about having to deal with ponies, since the last time any of us had anything to do with them, we got into a fight with the Maulwurf."

She giggled slightly.

"I guess King Thorax figured if I was brave enough to put my name forward, I must have had at least some potential to do well here."

Smolder chuckled.

"Not bad, Ocellus, not bad."

The young dragon's smirk resumed itself shortly afterwards.

"As for me? Dragon Lord Ember was going all over the Dragon Lands looking for someone. And when she came to me, she just said outright that I'd be good enough for it."

Placing her claws behind her head, Smolder again leaned back into her chair, looking more than a little satisfied with herself.

"Guess she might have assumed I was pretty great. Which I was, of course."

"Or maybe not."

The second voice caused Smolder's eyes to snap open, and she turned to look over to Gallus, who was looking at her with a degree of incredulity. After a while of saying nothing to one another, the dragoness narrowed her eyes.

"...Excuse me?"

Gallus shrugged his shoulders.

"Hey, maybe she just thought you were such a small dragon that you would be the one least likely to cause too much trouble for the ponies over here."

Smolder continued to frown, all while Gallus carried on with his speculation.

"Or maybe it was something else? Maybe she felt that you were the least aggressive dragon she could find, so you wouldn't put up too much of a fight coming over here."

This time, it was his turn to smirk.

"And you know that's gotta sting. After all, a dragon who's not aggressive? Whoo-boy! I can't imagine how embarrassing that must be for you!"

Now, as anyone who knew Smolder could tell you, saying things like that to her was likely to get you burned or worse, and Ocellus, after looking from one friend to the other, knew that some kind of fight was going to break-out between the two of them, as it so often did.

"Um, guys? Maybe we could talk about something else?"

But her words had fallen of deaf ears, as Smolder leaned forward in her chair, eyeing Gallus with venom.

"Do you have a problem, Gallus?"

The blue Griffon frowned right back.

"My only problem is little dragons who think they're special just because they got picked to come here!"

It was official, something bad was going to happen between these two, and Ocellus, in stark contrast to her usual nature as "the quiet one", immediately stood up in her chair and called out to the two of them.

"STOP!!!"

Immediately, all inkling of a fight was ended, and Smolder and Gallus looked to their Changeling friend with utter bewilderment. They weren't the only ones either, as virtually everyone in the library had halted what they were doing to look over to the usually-timid drone who had spoken. Naturally, Ocellus herself now bore a bright red blush, clearing her throat and slowly sitting herself back down into her chair. After a long and very awkward silence, everyone else got back to what they'd been doing before, albeit with more than a little bit of worry over this unexpected outburst. As for Ocellus, she took a few calming breaths, before eventually focusing on her two friends.

"Now then...what's all this about?"

Smolder turned from her Changeling companion over to Gallus.

"That's what I'd like to know!"

The two females looked to their feathered friend, and the latter, seeing them awaiting some kind of explanation for his earlier provocation, let out a long and tired-sounding sigh.

"It's just...you shouldn't assume any of us are special just because our leaders picked us."

Smolder shrugged her shoulders.

"Why not? It's not like anyone can just come here."

Gallus didn't look to her, instead just staring down at his still-unfinished assignment.

"Well...I know I wasn't picked because I was special."

As one would expect, a remark like that earned him the undivided attention of his two colleagues, and after yet another lengthy quiet between them, Gallus explained further.

"When Grandpa Gruff got that message from Princess Celestia, he went all over Griffonstone looking for someone to send to this school."

Gallus turned, looking out of a nearby window, taking a moment to stare at some of the other students outside.

"He went from house to house, asking every family he could find. He'd say the same thing over and over. Would you like to go to that school in Ponyville?"

Looking back to the two females, Gallus returned to the frown he'd been wearing before.

"And do you know what they all said to him? They told him no, or to get lost."

A chuckle escaped him, but it was dry and devoid of any sense of humour.

"Basically, nobody in Griffonstone had any interest in coming over here or having anything to do with the ponies."

He paused, thinking on that point for a while.

"I guess...the only reason Gruff was invested in the idea was because he wanted to feel all Official and stuff."

He shook his head, getting back to his earlier point.

"Anyway...after going to pretty much everyone in town...Gruff eventually came to me."

A wince.

"No home...no family...nobody to complain if I was sent somewhere else."

The frown returned.

"As for why I took the offer? Well...you can only look at the same run-down streets for so long before getting sick of them and wanting to leave."

Slowly, he looked up, seeing the faces of his two friends, which had by now turned into expressions of concern and shock. Gallus, after seeing this, let out another sigh before giving a dismissive shrug of his shoulders.

"Maybe some of us were picked to go here because we were special, but...I know that at least one of us is only here...because they were the only person that nation wouldn't have missed."

The females stared at him, astounded over hearing all of that, none more so than Smolder, who now took on an enormously guilty look for herself. She didn't want to say that she'd been wrong to say what she'd said before, Dragon pride and all that. And yet, having heard Gallus' story, and realising what it must have been like for him to have sat there and listened to her saying all those things earlier, she soon found that she had no choice but to say something.

"I...erm...I don't...I don't know what to...say."

Gallus looked back down to his open book.

"There's nothing to say, Smolder."

Frowning, the Dragon looked back to him.

"Yes...there is something to say."

Gallus looked to her, and after quite a while of debating and wrestling with herself over her words, Smolder just decided to say the first thing she was feeling about this whole matter.

"I'm...sorry. I guess...I just let the idea of me being picked for this place get to my head. I should have realised that being a student here doesn't give me the right to think I'm better than others."

Gallus blinked, and after a while, he smiled.

"Hey, it's...it's okay. You couldn't have known. I never said anything."

Smolder slapped her claw against her forehead.

"Ugh! I must have sounded like a total jerk back there!"

Ocellus nodded.

"Yes, you rather did."

The other two looked to her, astonished at her uncharacteristic words. Then, after a while, and seeing the Changeling smile to them, the whole group broke out into a laugh. Much of the tension of the past started to ebb away and when it was over, they all let out simultaneous sighs.

"Well...just goes to show you, doesn't it?" Smolder started.

Gallus nodded.

"Yeah...even those who are friends still have a few kinks to work out every once in a while."

Ocellus, while nodding in agreement to that, took on a slightly smug look of her own.

"Well, I won't say I told you so, but..."

Next Chapter: Best Friend? Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 17 Minutes