Now, Ponyville was no stranger to having experienced near end-of-the-world scenarios, and the recent events at the School of Friendship, though certainly a tense time for them, had largely settled into more local gossip and discussion. For the students especially, things were abuzz with talk over what had happened and where things might go from here. But among them all, there were five in particular who had perhaps more reason than any others to be happy right now. Gallus, Silverstream, Yona, Smolder and Ocellus were all sitting with each other on one of their favourite tables out in the great courtyard of the school, smiling to one another while downing some milkshakes that had been brought for them from Sugar Cube Corner. Beside them, in one corner of the table, were the "graduation" outfits they'd made for themselves, though now they lay folded and untouched, much to Gallus' amusement.

"Well, I know we think we did pretty well. Head Mare Twilight may think we still have a ways to go, but hey...we were pretty awesome back there."

His four friends all raised their cups to that, giving themselves a toast to their accomplishments, and once they had finished slurping them, Smolder let out a contented sigh.

"Oh yeah, becoming Equestria's heroes? Now that's something to be proud of!"

She chuckled.

"Who'd have ever guessed a dragon of all things would ever help out with something like that?"

Silverstream smiled over at her.

"Actually, I think Spike helped save the Crystal Empire once."

Hearing that, Smolder slumped her shoulders.

"Great, just when I think I might be the first!"

The others laughed in a good-natured way, which even Smolder soon joined in on. Yona, for her part, looked especially proud right now.

"Yakyakistan will be happy to hear Yona story! Yona and her five friends, heroes!"

But, as happy as they all were at that, her words suddenly caused Gallus to start looking around.

"Speaking of there being six of us...anyone seen Sandbar around lately?"

Realising that their earth pony friend was indeed absent from this gathering, the others all started looking around. After a time, however, Yona gained a look of realisation.

"Oh! Yona see friend Sandbar go to his room a while back. He looked distracted about Something."

Nodding to that, Ocellus got out of her chair, starting to walk off in the direction of one of the doors leading into the school.

"I'll get him."

The others nodded, watching her go, and as soon as she was out of sight, Silverstream giggled, looking over to Gallus.

"Can you imagine it? Us, saving the school and Equestria?!"

Gallus smirked.

"Yeah, it was pretty neat. I'm betting we can probably ride this wave of goodwill for a while, maybe get some of the other students to finish some of our homework for us."

Silverstream gave her boyfriend a frown to that, prompting the blue Griffon to chuckle.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I would never do that..."

He glanced away.

"...more than once," he muttered under his breath.

For that remark, he was given a playful punch in the side by Smolder, but rather than be upset by that, both he and the rest of his friends joined in on yet another shared laugh. When it finished, Gallus sighed, once more thinking on his and his friends' achievement.

"It's weird, isn't it?"

Silverstream turned to him again.

"What?"

Gallus glanced back to her.

"When this school first opened, we were basically its troublemakers. We were the ones getting into bad situations and causing a ruckus and stuff."

A smile soon came to him.

"And now? Now...here we are...the ones who made sure it's still standing."

It was a thought that brought smiles to the faces of all of his friends, and they all gave silent nods of agreement to that. Silverstream especially seemed pleased by the notion, reaching forward and gently placing her claw upon Gallus' shoulder.

"I'm sure Grandpa Gruff and the rest of your people will be proud of what you've done."

But Gallus, rather than be touched by that sentiment, simply chortled in amusement.

"Oh yeah, I can just see them now. Gallus, the runt of Griffonstone that was sent here because nobody else wanted to go...and he ends up doing something awesome with his life here!"

He continued to snicker.

"When I get back, I'll just love their faces when they hear that. I wanna see that image framed and put on the dormitory wall!"

Smolder sighed.

"Well...it was a sweet moment."

Then she too smirked.

"But it will be pretty nice to go back to the dragon lands and get a thumbs up from Dragon Lord Ember over this. I mean, come on, a dragon actually helping to save ponies? She wanted our peoples to become friends, so I'd say I've done a pretty good job helping out on that one."

Gallus gave a nod and a shared look of accomplishment on that one.

"Darn straight!"

The two balled their claws into fists, bumping them against one another. But, as pleasant as this moment was, it was soon undercut when, as Silverstream noted, Yona was looking just a little bit down over something.

"Something wrong, Yona?"

Gallus and Smolder too looked to their larger friend, and Yona herself, while staying silent for a time, soon let out a long sigh.

"Yona just...thinking."

Smolder raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah? About what?"

At first, Yona seemed hesitant to speak, as though worried about what her friends might say if she actually did reveal what she was dwelling on. But, after a while, the young Yak sighed, looking to each of her colleagues before finally confessing.

"Yona thinking about...Cosy Glow."

At the mere mention of that name, Gallus frowned, and his tone was one of restrained anger.

"What about her?"

Yona looked down at the table again.

"Yona just...sad. Yona thought Cosy Glow was friend. Yona trusted her. We all trusted her. And she...she..."

She didn't finish, and while it was clear that she was upset, Gallus continued to scowl, folding his claws and looking away.

"That filly can rot for all I care! She lied, she turned the whole school against us, and now she pays the price for it. I hope we never see her again!"

Silverstream looked over to her boyfriend, again putting her claw on his shoulder. When Gallus turned to look at her, he saw her silently gesturing to Yona, prompting him to look at her and see just how upset the issue of Cosy really was for her. After only a few moments, the young Griffon sighed deeply, softening up and speaking in a calmer tone than before.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Yona. I guess...it just gets under my skin, what she did."

Slowly, Yona nodded.

"Yona understand. Cosy not nice filly. From moment she came, she tricked, she lied, she did bad things."

After a time, Yona too frowned.

"She did bad...hurt all Equestria...all for power."

Her eyes narrowed.

"She bad pony. Yona not sad to not see her again."

Then, after a while, another sigh came to her, and she hung her head low.

"But...Yona is sad that she didn't really want friends. Not for right reasons anyway."

Silverstream, who very much looked sympathetic to Yona's feelings of betrayal, reached forward, holding gently onto her hoof and trying to reassure her through one of her smiles.

"Hey, it's okay, Yona. We made it out of that okay, right? And we still have each other."

Yona smiled back, if only a little.

Yes...Yona still have friend Silverstream and others. Yona happy about that."

Though he would never have wanted to admit to it, the look on Gallus' face made it clear that he was feeling the same feelings of hurt that Yona and the others were probably going through. Turning away from Yona and Silverstream, he instead looked to Smolder who took to staring right back at him. They said nothing, those two "tough ones" of the group, but after a while, they smiled, silently acknowledging what their pink friend had already said. The had each other, and that was still pretty good to them. So, having had that sad moment come and go, Silverstream, naturally, wanted to turn the conversation to something more pleasant, and as she merrily clasped her claws together, she looked to each of her friends with that big wide smile of hers.

"So, anyone else happy for our vacation?"

Chuckling, Smolder nodded to that.

"Oh yeah! After having gone through a year like this, I'll be pretty grateful to take a break from it all."

Gallus too laughed.

"Honestly? I'm surprised Head-Mare Twilight even considered giving her students a vacation. She always seemed the kind of mare who'd just keep on working and working without any notion of a break!"

Silverstream looked to Gallus with a knowing smile.

"Well, I heard that she got the suggestion from Professor Fluttershy. Apparently she was so focused on getting everything back in order after Cosy's stuff that it completely slipped her mind that students needed time off from their work."

Gallus blinked, then snorted, shrugging his shoulders to that revelation.

"Okay, that makes way too much sense!"

The group shared another laugh to that, and when it was over, Yona looked to each of them, bearing an unmistakeable look of curiosity.

"So...what friends doing on break?"

A moment passed, and it seemed as though, at first, none of the four youths actually had any notion of what they were actually going to do in the following weeks. Then, Silverstream slapped her claws onto her cheeks, going wide-eyed and letting out a loud gasp. Seeing that, Smolder grunted.

"Ugh, look out, guys. Silver's on a sugar rush again."

But the Princess was unfazed by her scaly friend's remark, instead taking hold of Gallus and giving him a quick shake.

"Gallus! I have the perfect idea!"

The Griffon male blinked to his girlfriend's greater-than-usual level of excitement.

"Er...yeah?"

Silverstream nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah! I can take you to Mount Aris!"

Gallus was taken aback by that.

"Wait, what?!"

Silverstream nodded again.

"I know, right? I can introduce you to my family! Oh, you're gonna love them! It'll be so great!"

Scratching the back of his head, Gallus seemed hesitant.

"Um...are you sure? I mean, are they gonna be okay with you bringing your boyfriend over for a visit like that?"

Silverstream giggled.

"Oh, I'll make it a surprise Like when I tell them that we're dating!"

Gallus took a moment to absorb that.

"Wait, you haven't told them yet?"

The Hippogriff shook her head.

"Nope! I wanted to see how happy they were in person when I told them for the first time! And now I get to do it at the same time as showing you to them!"

She leapt forward, taking him into a hug and squeezing tightly.

"Isn't this gonna be wonderful?!"

Gallus, realising what was going to be happening to him in the near future, resigned himself to his fate and released a long sigh.

"Oh yeah, it's...it's gonna be something alright."

Smolder and Yona, who were a bit more savvy than Silverstream was right now, gave each other knowing looks, snickering quietly as they watched this play out. But then, mere moments afterwards, Yona too gasped, looking over to Smolder.

"Yona have good idea too! Yona take Smolder to Yakyakistan!"

Smolder seemed surprised by this offer.

"Seriously?"

Yona nodded.

"Friend Smolder will really like it there! Yona promise!"

After taking a moment to consider the proposal, Smolder shrugged her shoulders, giving a quick chortle.

"Sure, why not? Might actually be pretty fun."

She looked again to her Yak friend.

"And who knows? If we get enough time, I might take you to go and see the Dragon Lands."

Yona took on a wide-eyed look not dissimilar to Silverstream, and she too moved forward in a hug to her dragon companion.

"Yona love that idea!"

Though just as taken aback by this hug as Gallus had been with Silverstream's, Smolder nevertheless eased into it, smiling and returning the gesture. After a while, however, when the two pairs of students finally parted from one another, and Gallus, having recovered from the shock of his surprise plans for the next few weeks, looked around, frowning slightly.

"Okay, seriously, where have Sandbar and Ocellus got to? How long does it take to go and fetch the guy?"

Yona opened her mouth to speak, perhaps to suggest that she to would go and look for them. But then, before she got the chance to do so, she was interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice from behind.

"It's alright...we're here."

Turning, the four friends looked on to see that Sandbar was indeed arriving, with Ocellus walking beside him. The four of them were, naturally, happy to see their pony friend, but that joy faded a little as they noticed that Sandbar, while he was certainly smiling at them, also appeared to be looking thoughtful right now, as though something important was on his mind. Ocellus too seemed to share the same look, and as soon as the couple had arrived at the table to join the rest, it fell to Gallus to ask the obvious question.

"You two okay? You look kinda...well...preoccupied."

Neither Sandbar or Ocellus refuted that point, and so soon looked to one another. They said nothing, instead sharing a silent glance that seemed to convey more than the other four were able to discern. But, the two eventually did look back to them, with Ocellus speaking first.

"Don't worry. It's nothing."

Sandbar nodded.

"Yeah, we were just...talking about stuff."

Gallus didn't believe that for an instant, but for now he was at least courteous not to press the issue. By contrast, Silverstream was ecstatic about all of her friends being gathered here like this, and so now reached out for her milkshake, holding it up in yet another toast for the group.

"Here's to our first year at the Friendship School! It's been weird, it's been dangerous...but boy, have we loved every single minute of it!"

The others smiled, and as they raised their own cups, they spoke with one voice.

"To the Friendship School!"

But, after downing their milkshakes, Silverstream, as usual, giggled.

"And here's hoping next year will be just as fun!"

Hearing that, Smolder rolled her eyes at her friend's tempting of fate, slapping her own forehead with frustration.

"Aaaaaaaaand now it's probably gonna blow up or something!"

Next Chapter: Regrets Estimated time remaining: 48 Minutes