"So...how about...Twilight's Angels?" Sandbar asked.

"No, Sandbar," Gallus replied grumpily.

"Okay, how about...Sparkle's Six?" Sandbar asked again.

"No," Gallus answered, more directly than before.

"...The Equestria Friendship Brigade?"

"No! That's the worst one yet!"

Sandbar folded his hooves. "Well I don't see anycreature else coming up with a name for us!"

Gallus narrowed his eyes to his friend. "Look, Twilight and her friends all went for years without ever needing a name for their group. I think we can survive doing this new job without one too."

Sandbar pouted, looking away while he mumbled under his breath. "I still think Friendship Squad was fine."

Thankfully, for Gallus at least, this little spat was interrupted by the return of the girls, who entered the chamber of the Cutie Map, much to the delight of the boys. "So, how went the look-over?" the young Griffon enquired.

Smolder groaned. "Dude, we didn't even get through half of this place! I have no idea how Princess Twilight ever put up with living somewhere this big all by herself!"

Yona smiled to her draconic companion. "Princess Twilight not alone. Friend Spike with her too!"

Silverstream too grinned to the thought of their old mentor. "Yeah! And Head-Mare Starlight was here too!"

Smolder rolled her eyes. "Oh wow, a whole two other people. Well, that'll just fill this place up no problem."

Ocellus frowned to her colleague. "Sarcasm won't help anycreature, Smolder."

Smolder, showing some measure of agreement, gave a firm nod. "You're right. We have way more important things to discuss!"

Ocellus' face lit up. "Like where we're going to go on our first mission?"

Smolder looked to her with an arched eyebrow. "What? No, I mean who gets which bedroom."

Instantly, Gallus leapt from his chair. "Oh! I call dibs on Princess Twilight's old room!"

Smolder frowned to him. "Hey! No fair! That's the biggest and best bedroom in the whole castle!"

Gallus, in response, folded his arms and looked to her smugly. "Yeah, I know, that's why I called dibs on it."

Silverstream leaned in closer to Smolder. "He's got a point, Smolder."

A puff of smoke angrily snorted out of Smolder's nostrils, but thankfully Yona placed her hoof upon the young dragons' shoulder, calming her. And speaking of the Yak, she now smiled to the rest of the group. "Bedroom talk later. Mission talk now!"

Sandbar smiled to her, but that smile was soon replaced with a more uncertain look. "I'm all for going out there and doing good, Yona, but we kind of have an unexpected curve-ball on that count."

Silverstream scratched her cheek as she looked to him,. "Wait, wasn't it you and Yona who said we should be doing this in the first place? You know, going out, following in Princess Twilight's hoofsteps and all that?"

Sandbar sighed. "Yeah, we were, but we weren't expecting all this to be a part of it!" He gestured to the rest of the castle. "We're not the Princess, and we're not her friends. Maybe...maybe this place won't work for us the way it worked for them?" He paused, thinking on his own worries. "It's like...you see a mountain, and you think to yourself, hey, it might be pretty great to climb up that thing one day. Then you actually get to the mountain, look up, and suddenly you realise just what you've got yourself into."

Smolder nodded. "Oh yeah, know the feeling." When she realised all eyes were on her, she shrugged. "What? Dragons like mountains."

Yona, shaking her head to that, walked over to Sandbar, putting her hoof onto his shoulder to gain his attention. "We take on big role. But role is good one. And we good friends. We can do it."

As was always the case when Yona was involved, Sandbar was soon drawn out of his funk, smiling to her. "Yeah...we can, can't we?"

Gallus smirked to the two of them. "I know we're supposed to be having our first official meeting here, but do you two want some alone time? We can wait."

Naturally, both Sandbar and Yona blushed fiercely to that remark, much to the amusement of the other youths. But when that feeling died down, Silverstream gave a big flap of her wings, launching herself forward and sitting herself down into what used to be Pinkie Pie's old throne. "So then...how does this work? Do we just sit around and wait for this thing to light up and tell us where to go?"

Ocellus too seemed curious, and took her place in Twilight's chair. "Hard to say. None of us were ever here when our Professors had to go on their friendship missions. We don't know the mechanism this artefact works on."

Smolder too had arrived, sitting on Applejack's former spot. "Do we just...knock?" She attempted this theory by doing just that, giving the table a few quick knocks and keeping her eyes locked onto it firmly. "Er, hello? Table thing? You got any missions for us yet?" Utter silence was her answer, and she responded by giving a quick shrug and leaning back into her chosen throne. "Meh, it was worth a shot, I guess."

Yona scratched her chin, moving over to Rarity's throne and looking to the map intensely. "We have connection to Tree of Harmony, yes? Maybe it talk to us in dreams like last time? Maybe Cutie Map not for us?"

Gallus, who rested his head against the back of his chosen seat, that of Rainbow Dash, snorted. "So, what, we live here but the map's just switched off now that Twilight and Co aren't living here? That's lame. I was hoping for a big light show or something."

Sandbar, who now took the last vacant throne, Fluttershy's, looked to all of his friends, before offering his own insight. "Maybe...things are just okay right now? We've just entered this big long period of peace after Cozy and her evil friends were taken down, so maybe there are no friendship problems at the moment?"

Smolder looked to him with incredulity. "An entire country, and all the countries beyond it's borders, with all the thousands, if not millions of people in all that territory...and not one friendship problem in any of it?"

All Sandbar could do was shrug. "Hey, it's not so surprising. Even before those mares went beyond Equestria, it would sometimes be weeks in-between friendship missions."

Gallus chuckled drily. "Huh, I knew Equestria was a friendly place, but that seems like it's really pushing it." The six all had a laugh together, but when it ended Gallus started to look to the map intently. "But...when we do finally get a mission, I think we've got some important things we need to sort out first."

Silverstream looked to him with curiosity. "Oh? Like what?"

Slowly, Gallus smirked to her. "Like who gets to be the leader of this little squad of ours."

Instantly, Smolder pointed an accusing claw towards him. "Oh no you don't! No way are you just gonna swipe the leader role like that!"

Gallus placed his own claw against his cheek, trying to look and sound as innocent as possible. "Why Smolder, whatever do you mean?"

Smolder's eyes narrowed. "Don't play coy with me."

To that, Gallus dropped the facade. "Okay, look, the old group had a leader, right? Princess Twilight. So who's gonna be the leader of our group?"

Slowly, all eyes turned to Twilight's old throne, and then to the one currently sitting in it. Ocellus, for her part, didn't seem to realise why all her friends were looking at her until she suddenly seemed to get where she'd chosen to sit, causing her to rapidly flutter out of it. "Oh no! I didn't mean to...!"

But she was calmed by a raised claw from Smolder. "Relax, Celly, we're not saying you need to be leader if you don't want to be."

Silverstream looked to her friends, then raised her own claw in the air, like a child waiting for their teacher to pick them to answer a question. Naturally, this caused the rest to look at her, wherein she added her voice to the matter. "Um...does there need to be a leader? I mean, we've all done pretty well just doing our own thing without some sort of 'top guy' directing things, right?"

Sandbar smiled to her. "Silver's right. Twilight's friends might have done things that way, but there's no rule saying we need to do it."

Ocellus smiled as she lowered herself back into her chosen throne. "Agreed. We're under no obligation to carry out our roles the way the previous generation might have done. We can do our own thing, forge our own path!"

Gallus arched an eyebrow to her. "Gee, Celly, you sure you don't wanna be leader?"

"Eep!" Ocellus replied, much to the amusement of the others. Then, after a while, she seemed to look worried about something. "I just hope this doesn't cut into our schoolwork all that much."

Yona laughed heartily. "Friend Ocellus no worry. Professor Applejack have big job on farm, yet she still find time for friendship mission!"

Sandbar chuckled. "Yeah, it was one of those things you just had to shrug and get used to. Despite being a Princess, farmer, fashion designer and all the rest of it, those six always had time to go help people with their friendships." He paused, tapped his chin for a second, then gave a shrug of his own. "Well, that and also saving the world from time to time."

Smolder slammed her face into the table. "Ugh! Talk about having some big horseshoes to fill."

Reaching over, Ocellus gave her a friendly pat on the back to get her attention. "It's okay, Smolder. Princess Twilight wouldn't gave given us this role if she felt we wouldn't have been able to do it, right?"

Gallus too smiled. "She's right. And besides, I think it's safe to say that we're already on our way to becoming big world-savers already, given what kinds of stuff Equestria has thrown at us so far."

Smolder smiled with appreciation at them both, but Silverstream started to look concerned. "Er, do you guys think big and dangerous world-saving missions will be common? Because I think I might need to send a letter to my parents asking for permission to do that." She shuddered. "I don't know about the rest of you, but they did not like how I was in danger back during the end of our first school year."

The group all laughed together, with Yona looking to her with a reassuring smile. "Friend Silver no worry. Parents proud of you for doing good for Equestria. They proud you big hero. They be proud of this too."

Silverstream blushed, leaping over and giving her a big hug to show her appreciation. It was a tender moment, but it was interrupted when Sandbar once more looked down to the map, giving it a tap with his hoof. "There's still the issue of just how we're going to know what problems are out there. I mean...this thing will let us know, right?"

"Oh, no need to worry about that, Sandbar. If I know the power of the Tree of Harmony by this point, it's that it always makes it's desires known one way or another."

All eyes turned to the owner of the new and unexpected voice. It was, to their surprise, their Head-Mare herself, Starlight Glimmer, who smiled warmly to each of them as she walked further into the chamber. "Oh! Head-Mare Starlight! We weren't expecting you!" Ocellus remarked.

Gallus chuckled. "Come to wish us luck before we start our big and important job as Equestria's new friendship-helpers?" He stopped as he saw the odd looks everycreature was giving him, thus leading to a deep exhale and some slumped shoulders. "Look, I just couldn't think of a better name for our new job off the top of my head, okay?"

Starlight giggled, then shook her head. "Actually, I just came by to pick up some of my papers. I accidentally left them here this morning."

To that, Smolder looked to her with confusion. "Um...why are your papers here?"

Starlight responded with a smirk. "Because I live here too."

All fell silent, and as the sudden realisation that their new home was also the home of their Head-Mare slowly sank in for all of them, Smolder gradually leaned towards Gallus as she whispered to him. "Okay, I...I just kinda assumed she slept in her office or something these days."

Well, I finally decided that I would continue with this after all 😊