Sugar Cube Corner had, ever since the opening of Princess Twilight's School of Friendship, become more popular than ever, especially with many of the young students who had travelled to Ponyville. Barely a day went by when the place was not full to bursting, seeing unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies from all corners of their nation, here to enjoy all the delicious cakes and confectionaries the now-renowned Cakes had made for them. Business was booming, and all over, the place had an air of excitement and fun. Nowhere was this more evident than in a little corner table by the window, where the school's six most notorious students had taken themselves. Each of the youngsters had gained some sweet or other treat to enjoy, and Silverstream, naturally, was enjoying hers more than any other, downing her meal down at a pace that impressed even the likes of Yona and Smolder.

"Geez, Silver, remember to breathe, will you?" Smolder remarked.

Wiping away some icing from her beak, Silverstream giggled.

"I can't help it! This is just...so...good!"

Sandbar chuckled.

"Yeah, Mr and Mrs Cake have always baked up some good stuff here. Every Birthday, my parents would take my sister and me here and let us pick out our favourite stuff."

Ocellus smiled to her boyfriend's brief tale.

"That sounds nice. We Changelings aren't used to sweet things like this, but I have to admit...it is pretty good."

Yona gave a hearty chuckle.

"Yona happy too! Yona with friends having cakes, and Yona get to keep best substitute teacher ever!"

Gallus, though he gave a quick roll of his eyes to that, raised a milkshake towards his hairy friend.

"I'll drink to that. To Rockhoof."

The others mirrored his actions, taking hold of their own milkshakes and raising them up.

"To Rockhoof!" the all echoed.

After downing their drinks, they let out simultaneous sighs of contentment, with Yona, naturally, being just pleased as punch over this situation.

"Yona really like Rockhoof's stories! They fun and exciting!"

Smolder nodded in agreement.

"They sure are! Who'd have guessed a pony of all creatures would ever have done so many amazing things?"

Sandbar looked to her with a raised eyebrow, prompting her to chuckle nervously.

"Er, no offense."

But Sandbar merely laughed.

"Hey no sweat, not all of us can lead big adventurous lives like him and the others."

Silverstream glanced over to her earth pony companion.

"Others? Oh! Right! He was part of a group, right? The Pillars?"

Sandbar nodded to her.

"Yep, some of the greatest heroes in Equestria's history. There's not a single colt of filly in the country who hasn't been raised on stories of them and what they did, from Somnambula's facing of the Sphinx down in the south, all the way to the legendary magic of Mistmane."

Silverstream looked to him with wide-eyes, as indeed did Yona, who was clearly still in the mood for more stories of ancient times. Sandbar, seeing this attention, chortled with more than a little embarrassment, and he scratched the back of his head.

"Well...I don't really tell the stories as good as Rockhoof. Sorry."

But the others did not, in any way, seem concerned by this, as shown when Smolder leaned forward and gave Sandbar a quick pat on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We've all heard stories of these guys at one point or another."

Sandbar looked to her, looking just a touch surprised.

"You have?"

Smolder snorted.

"Er, yeah? I mean, have you heard some of the stuff those guys were said to have done? Like Flash Magnus?"

She chuckled, glancing away with clear amusement in her expression.

"A pony that's willing to go head-to-head with two dragons? And come out a winner? Oh yeah, my people have definitely heard about him."

Gallus looked to her with interest.

"You seem pretty chill about the idea of a pony who could go against your kind and beat them."

Smolder shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey, a win's a win, right? Plus, you gotta respect a stallion who's got that kind of guts to him."

Silverstream giggled.

"Oh, that reminds me of the story of when Starswirl faced down the fearsome Sirens! Such a tale that was!"

Yona tilted her head.

"Who are Sirens?"

Sandbar shuddered.

"A creepy trio that enchanted and sowed conflict centuries ago. Ponies turned against ponies because of them, so Starswirl and the Pillars stepped in to stop them."

Silverstream nodded.

"Yeah, and I promise you, my people were hugely grateful for that!"

Ocellus gained some curiosity as she looked to her pink friend.

"Oh, why?"

Silverstream, in a move quite unlike her, frowned.

"Well, from what my Aunt tells me, my people, at least the ones who liked living in the sea most of the time, they often got bad reputations because of those nasty Sirens."

She folded her claws.

"Ponies kept on mistaking one for the other, and so ran away whenever my people came to the surface to say hi and stuff!"

Then, she resumed her normal smile.

"But then, Starswirl came along and banished the real deal, and just like that, boom, ponies weren't scared of Seaponies anymore!"

Sandbar pondered that.

"Huh...never really thought of comparing one to the other. You guys don't look anywhere near as scary as the Sirens were."

Silverstream, apparently touched by that, grabbed hold of her pony friend and held him close in a tight hug.

"Awww! You're so sweet for saying that!"

Sandbar blushed a little, much to Ocellus' amusement, but the latter soon looked over to the rest of her friends.

"Well, if Starswirl was able to do all that with the other Pillars, then it's small wonder Princess Twilight idolised him so much. From what I've heard, he was quite the spell-caster."

Her boyfriend, who had thankfully managed to get himself out of Silverstream's huggy grip, took a moment to catch his breath, then smiled over at her.

"That's an understatement! The way the Princess tells it, he probably invented about half of all the spells we ponies know, and that's a low estimate!"

Gallus snorted.

"Yeah, the guy has some book smarts, I'll admit to that. But how smart can he be if he was able to get himself hoodwinked by those two con-artists a while back?"

Yona frowned to Gallus' words.

"Anyone can get tricked, friend Gallus! Even smart ponies like Starswirl!"

Ocellus nodded.

"She's right. I mean, all it takes is a little bit of deception to come across as a friend sometimes. And, as a Changeling, I think I speak with some authority on that matter."

The others, who quite frankly couldn't really argue with that, nodded among themselves, eventually leading to Sandbar reaching over and placing his hoof upon Ocellus' shoulder.

"Flim and Flam have been trouble for Princess Twilight and her friends before, more than once. They're always coming up with some new con or another, so it figures they'd trying cashing in on the whole Friendship School idea."

Yona snorted angrily.

"Yona no like con artists! They should try honest work..."

Her smile returned, even wider than before.

"...like Rockhoof!"

The others, though happy to see her so enthusiastic about her favoured teacher, remained silent as she continued.

"In old Yak tales, they speak of pony from long ago who could lift mountain with bare hooves! Maybe Rockhoof was that pony!"

Smolder looked to her with incredulity.

"Well...I'm not sure about that, Yona. I mean, sure, the guy's strong...okay, he's ridiculously strong, but I don't think he's that good."

Putting her hoof to her chin, Ocellus pondered that for a time.

"You might be surprised. After all, if a pony like him could re-direct the flow of a volcano's lava single-hoofedly, then it might not be outside the realm of possibility to actually do what Yona said he did."

Smolder, folding her claws, gave her Changeling friend a raised eyebrow, leading to a small blush on the part of the latter.

"Though...it might have just been a small mountain, admittedly."

Though Yona was a little irritated that Ocellus had backtracked on that one, she soon resumed her smile, looking over to Gallus.

"What about you, friend Gallus? Do Griffons have stories of Pillar heroes?"

Gallus shrugged his shoulders, giving a quick "meh" sound before answering his friend in earnest.

"Sometimes. Every once in a while I'd overhear some old Griffon telling hatchlings about stories of ladies like Meadowbrook, who came over to treat the sick a long time ago when everyone in Griffonstone came down with something."

The others looked to him with horror, and he raised both claws, giving them a reassuring tone.

"It's fine, it's fine, everyone was okay. But that's about it, some story of an old pony lady who helped us when we were sick."

Sandbar smiled after having heard that, leaning back into his chair.

"You know, it's funny."

Yona loaded over to him.

"What?"

Sandbar took a moment, then, after getting his thoughts together, answered.

"Well...think about it. So much of how Equestria is today is because of them and what they did over a thousand years ago. The fights they fought, the spells they made. Heck, we have them to thank for the Elements of Harmony being around!"

Smolder chuckled.

"Well, it's not like you guys shouldn't already be used to that sort of thing, right?"

Sandbar looked to her, seeming a little bit confused.

"What do you mean?"

The young dragoness again shrugged her shoulders.

"Er, in case you haven't noticed, Sandy, your country kind of has a history of groups of six heroes coming along and saving the day or changing the world and stuff."

Gallus, amused by where Smolder was taking this, gave a nod, then looked over to Sandbar and joined in.

"She's not wrong, Sandy. We have Starswirl and the pillars, sure, but then we also have Princess Twilight and her friends."

Upon hearing all that, Silverstream immediately gasped with joy, slapping her claws against her cheeks and zipping over to press her nose against Sandbar's.

"Oh my gosh! That makes Princess Twilight and our Professors, like, the Pillars of modern times!"

She wasn't wrong, they had to admit, but before any of them had a chance to say anything further on the matter, the young royal, in what had to be a rush of sugar in her system right now, gave a loud and excited sounding "squee", much to the confusion of the other patrons of Sugar Cube Corner.

"Oh my gosh...again! Do you know what this means? It means that they might be one day remembered as legends, like the Pillars were! And we get to say we were taught by those legends! We're students of legends! We're...!"

Thankfully, before she could go off on another hyper-excited rant of some sort, Smolder reached forward and held her beak shut.

"Silver? Remember what we said? Breathe!"

And, having been released by her friend, breathe she did, taking in a deep inhale, and then just letting it all out. After a moment of pause, she smiled to her draconic companion.

"Okay...okay...I'm good now."

Smolder smiled, but then she turned, for she, like all the others, had noticed that Mrs Cake had suddenly arrived onto the scene. The older mare, after looking them over somewhat, put on a warm and welcoming smile.

"I'm terribly sorry for interrupting, but I was wondering of you youngsters would like anything else?"

The students looked down to their empty plates, glancing to one another afterwards, before turning in unison to Mrs Cake.

"Some cupcakes might be nice," Ocellus remarked.

Mrs Cake smiled again, giving a nod to that before turning to the shop's counter.

"Honey? Six cupcakes for the students!"

Seeing her walk away, the friends all took a moment to enjoy the calm and quiet that followed. But then, after looking more than a little thoughtful, Ocellus spoke aloud.

"Huh...six."

Sandbar looked over to her.

"Something up, Ocellus?"

The young Changeling shook her head.

"Oh, it's nothing, really. I was just...it's silly, but I was just thinking about the Pillars and Twilight's friends and...well...there's six of us, so..."

Understanding where she was going with that, Smolder let loose an amused-sounding chuckle.

"What, you think we're some destined heroes or something?"

Gallus too joined in with a brief laugh of his own.

"I know we've have a few adventures here and there, but I don't think we're at that level, Ocellus."

Blushing slightly, Ocellus giggled, letting out a sigh before nodding in agreement with her friends.

"Yeah, you're right, it was silly."

Sandbar gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder, which she certainly seemed to appreciate, but then, before any of them could say anything else, Mrs Cake returned, and sure enough, she was carrying a large plate that bore six delectable cupcakes. The students licked their lips, or beaks, at the sight of this, giving the mare appreciative looks as she set it down on their table. When she was gone, however, all pretence dropped, and they each took hold of their respective confectionary, downing them down in one almighty gulp. Having swallowed this, the six of them laughed together, and when it was done, Yona smiled to them all.

"Yona go now. Yona wants to find Professor Rockhoof and hear more stories!"

Sandbar looked to her.

"I think he said he was gonna go down to the train station. Baltimare's his next port of call in this new job of his, so if you hurry, you might catch him."

Yona gasped, and she leapt up out of her chair.

"Wait, Rockhoof! Yona coming!"

And with that, she bolted, heading straight out of the building while the others watched. After a short while without her, however, the others silently looked to one another.

"Okay, cards on the table...raise your claw, or other appendage, if you want to go and talk to Rockhoof before he goes?" Gallus asked.

There was no hesitation, and all five of them raised their claws and hooves, leading to a chuckle on Gallus' part.

"Yeah, figured."

They all turned to the door, with Silverstream voicing their shared sentiment.

"Yona! Wait up! We're coming too!"

Next Chapter: After the Cave Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes