"So you're telling me that Silverstream's anxiety was worse than ever, Smolder had now switched to the Dragon temper tantrums, Gallus had been quite depressed, Sandbar started hanging out with Aura Light, Ocellus had been travelling for a week, and Yona even longer?" Starlight Glimmer asked. She was sitting in front of Trixie and Sunburst for their weekly recap. Usually it would have involved the Council of Friendship, too, but seeing as Twilight Sparkle's friends were sent away on a Friendship Mission, it was just them.

    Trixie and Sunburst were both having a hard time answering, and it wasn't because of the atmosphere, which was the usual reason for both of them. The sky did have a considerable influence on them. But the weather today was a bright and sunny  spring day. The sun shone through the windows brilliantly, illuminating the whole room, which, too, was quite cheerful, given that the meeting originally belonged to Twilight, who wanted nothing more than someplace cozy to do her work. Sure, Starlight had to move things around here and there, but it still had the cozy aesthetic mixed with Starlight's more adventurous side. The birds were also singing, but the tune could be... questionable. No doubt Discord had taken over Fluttershy's responsibilities.

    "Ummm... Yes," Sunburst replied at last, grunting as his glasses slid down his face and used his hoof to push it back up, not wanting to use magic for simple stuff like these. Then he realised that he was in the presence of the best magic-using Unicorn ever since Starswirl the Bearded, maybe even better. He hoped she didn't notice, especially since it had never crossed his mind to find someone to magically enchant his glasses to never slide off. Unfortunately, the keen purple Unicorn did notice and smiled as her horn glowed with a magical aura, the same aura that glowed with his glasses, before disappearing altogether. Sunburst tried, but couldn't help letting out a small awkward, albeit relieved, laugh.

    Starlight sighed. "I guess I'll have to take matters into my own hooves"

    "What are you saying?" Trixie asked, skeptical on what her friend was thinking of. Sure, Starlight was inventive and practically an innovator, but there were times when she would go a little extreme, whether it would be for herself, or her great and powerful friend...s.

    "Yeah, you said the same thing about Aura Light," Sunburst said, who was particularly worried that Starlight couldn't handle them all. Sure, she truly was the brightest Unicorn of her age, but surely not even she can handle them all.

    Trixie let out a really big gasp. "You're not thinking of sending them to the Frozen North, aren't you?"

   "I actually think I am," Starlight said as if it were no big deal, though there was a bit disappointment in her voice. She should've known Trixie would look down upon her idea. "You're twilighting on me"

    Trixie gasped and placed her hoof on her chest as if she were offended. "Starlight! You wouldn't compare your Great and Magical Friend to an egghead like Twilight!"

   "How would you get them all to go there?" Sunburst asked, walking closer to Starlight. Trixie could have some many nice common sense idea for their trio but Sunburst liked to think he was the go-to pony when Starlight was clearly planning something remotely approaching crazy. Though he wished he had been there for her when she tried to deprive an entire village of their special talents all because he got his and left her behind.

    "I was thinking of a simple summoning charm?" Starlight said, who shrunk backwards with her ears drooping in nervousness with a timid smile on her face.

    "Summoning all those creatures here? You could hurt yourself," Sunburst said, readying in his mind all the possible magic-loss related things which he had read about.

   "Please. I'm the Unicorn who created the perfect Time Travel Spell, remember?" Starlight tried to sound confident, but she found her voice to be quite brittle.

   "Yeah," Trixie replied, deciding to back her best friend up from the couch, "She also managed an Aging Spell without an Alicorn Amulet" She her gaze dropped to the floor discreetly as she remembered that she tried to rule Ponyville once, and felt a bit bitter that Sunburst was the only one who hadn't had a villainous route.

    Sunburst glared at Trixie. "Starlight could get seriously hurt!"

    "Well, there should be a way to do it without me getting hurt, shouldn't there, Mr. Wizard?" Starlight asked, getting rid of her paranoid demeanor as she sensed another way.

    Sunburst's brain stopped for a moment as he was flattered at being called a wizard every time, and Starlight knew that, being his best friend, and had fondly chosen the nickname Mr. Wizard for him, and Sunburst had found the nickname being a league more special than 'wizard'

    "W-Well, I haven't come across anything about helping summoning charms, but maybe we could just go to the usual combined magic?" Sunburst said, actually thinking about it for a bit.

"Whose magic would be sacrificed this time?" Starlight asked, looking questionably at the two of her friends. She knew they weren't really going to sacrifice their magic, but Starlight liked using the term.

    "Seeing as I did it last time to help you get the substitutes..." Trixie said, doing puppy dog eyes to Starlight before smirking at Sunburst then winking at Starlight again. She was glad she didn't have to do the spell this time.

Sunburst sighed in defeat and looked at Trixie spitefully. "Fine"

Starlight's horn started to glow with a mint blue aura as Sunburst's glowed with sunflower yellow, then a trail of yellow went from Sunburst to Starlight, and then Starlight's eyes glowed that bright sunflower color as she performed the summoning charm, then the Young 6 and Aura Light and his buddies all teleported to the room they were in. Sunburst let out a loud gasp and immediately dropped to the ground, exhausted. Almost all the color seemed to be drained from his eyes and everything was a blur. He shut his eyes as he struggled to get up, his hooves aching from the effort, but managed to get up.

Starlight did this with him and Trixie more often than he'd like, but he wasn't quite used to it yet. His blurry vision slowly started to become clearer and he saw standing before him was indeed the Young 6, though they were all wearing things that were... quite different.

Gallus was wearing a grey hoodie, with the hood over his head and almost covered his whole eyes, just a quarter of them being seen. The signature of an emo creature that should soon be dropped.

    Ocellus was wearing her Daring Do costume, full with the khaki pit helmet and the holes, and every single utility pocket that the golden Pegasus had, and they seemed to be stuffed full of supplies.

    Silverstream was wearing an apron dotted with splashes of paint, and with a paintbrush tucked behind her left ear tuft for safe keeping. Countless beads and strings were stuck to her mane.

    Smolder had an excersise headband adorned with bows and beads with a bottle of water in her hand and a towel in the other. There were a few scorch marks in the plastic of the bottle, though.

   Yona... wasn't really wearing anything, but she had a giant tarpaulin over her that seemed like it was originally used over something old and dusty considering it was wuite worn, but it was really wet.

   Sandbar was wearing some type of hoofband that seemed to be similar to ones Aura Light and his friends were wearing, all of them being black with a picture of their Cutie Marks, and was standing next to the said Unicorn and his lackeys.

    Then they all disappeared all at once with a bright mint burst of magical light.

    As the light subsided, there was just the meeting room, with no trace of the Young 6, Aura Light, or Starlight.

    "I told her she couldn't teleport them all alone," Sunburst said grimly to himself.

+*+

There was one thing you should know about the Frozen North. It was frozen. That meant snow as far as the eye could see, except when you saw the barren mountains, including the formidable Mt. Everhoof, the tallest mountain in Equestria. It was also almost alway very dark, Twilight not bothering to raise the sun there because of the dark clouds that always blocked the sky. Then the howling winds. They tore at your skin until you're ready to die, an even after that.

Which is why it was questionable for Starlight Glimmer to send students there.

"Uh... Headmare Starlight? Why are we here?" Ocellus asked, looking around in worry.

Starlight sighed and produced a snowflake-shaped crystal with her horn and levitated it in fron of each student for them to see. Then she looked at each one of them sternly in the eye. "Now, I want one of you to touch it"

Each student had their eyes wide and brows furrowed in concern as their mouth created a perfect o. None of them were expecting this. None of them knew what was going to happen. Then they started looking at each other with a glare, wondering who would step forward, and challenging each other to be the one. Finally, Aura Light decided to get this s*** over with and stepped forward, side-eyeing every single on of the students there.

He pressed his hoof on the snowflake.

When Aura Light blinked, he didn't know what he was anymore. He was definitely standing on the snow, that was for sure, but he was standing way taller than before. He looked at his hooves, only to find out they were much larger than before, and shorter.

"Aura Light turned into a... giant rhino!" Sandbar yelled with concern.

For indeed, Aura Light had turned into a giant red rhino, except there were also scales on his back, and he appeared to be made of much tougher stuff than an averge rhino. Then he rampaged right at the Young 6, with the bullies jumping aside by a considerable amount, and the Young 6 were all on the ground, except for Sandbar, of course.

    "Okay, you might be wondering why I turned Aura Light into an this... beast," Starlight asked, gulping. She wasn't sure if the students were ready for this.

    "Gee, I though I was the only one who did," Smolder said, with a side of sarcasm, crossing her arms, wincing with great pain as she did so. Though at least she didn't take a direct hit, not like Ocellus who was laying on the ground to her right.

    The other students' minds were also a huricane of activity, but none of them dare speak aloud in hopes that nocreature would judge them.

    "Aura Light had turned evil now..." Starlight said with a sheepish smile, probably wondering why she thought of even doing this to begin with.

   Yona and Ocellus gasped, both not expecting this turn of events. Yona looked at Ocellus, but that Changeling didn't dare look her in the eye, still bitter about how her Yak friend sent her travelling across Equestria just to ensure she was safe.

Silverstream, meanwhile, was quite... well... anxious, and multiple thoughts started running in her mind, but she still remained silent.

"Wow..." Smolder said as if she was feigning interest, "What would our dumb old headmare think of next?"

"Well..." Starlight continued, finding her self esteem to lower considerably after the shade thrown at her, but then cleared her throat, because deep down, she knew -(they deserved to be punished)- she should do the next right thing. "The only way to defeat him is through the power of friendship"

Smolder really just wanted to say, 'That was definitely not expected,' but she couldn't, because that was the truth. Well, she expected the words and the gist of it one way or another, but she never expected the meaning and impact behind those words, because friendship truly was magic and she almost felt stupid to forget about it, especially when she excelled so much in her Friendship Studies.

"And then?" Ocellus asked in a weak voice as she struggled to get up. Her legs became like jelly. She was filled with concern beyond imaginable, on so many levels. One, she couldn't believe Aura Light became an a rampaging rhino with spikes on his back. Two, she couldn't believe Starlight would do that. Three, she should believe that because her headmare was quite cunning. Four, she didn't know why they were the ones expected to do it. Five, she should know why they were the ones expected to do it. Lastly, she thought this was a little too extreme for a simple friendship assignment.

"And then the next creature would touch the snowflake. Are we clear?" Starlight asked the group of Friendship Students, but they were all silent. Starlighg nodded and trotted towards a convenient lounge chair she must have teleported into the snow. "Okay, we're all clear then"

The students stared at their headmare for a while, wondering if she was serious, but seeing her whip out an old book and start reading wasn't helping. Most of them sighed in defeat as they turned to face the giant rhino.

"What do we do?" Silverstream asked, looking at Aura Light.

     He was now hanging back, watching the scene unfold from a distance, only he didn't know what it was all really for. He certainly wasn't 'turned evil,' though he might need to investigate further on the 'Magic of Friendship' as it seemed to be their secret weapon against him. No matter, he'd be able to defeat them anyways.

"The Magic of Friendship needs a very powerful friendship feeling, right? Let's just all pretend we're friends," Smolder asked.

    Silverstream stretched out her claws and offered a smile to the others, but her eyes betrayed the truth. She was just as unwilling to do this as the rest of her friends. Smolder rolled her eyes as she took Silverstream's claw and extended hers out to Yona. Ocellus was quite reluctant to take the pink claw being offered to her, but she did so and extended her hoof towards Gallus, who took it quite helplessly. Then they all simultaneously looked at Sandbar, some wondering whether he would take Yona's outstretched hoof, but he just stood beside the bullies, still dumbfounded about the fact that Aura Light turned into a rhino. The Young 6 glared at him as they closed their eyes and thought of fake friendship thoughts.

    Starlight smiled from a distance, but her eyes weren't reflecting it. She was glad they were making some progress, but not as much progress as she hoped. She blew on the mane that always fell in front of her face. She guessed she just had to give them some prize of some sort. She sent a blast of magic towards Aura Light, which made all heads snap towards her direction, and she just shrugged knowingly. When all heads turned towards Aura Light again, he was still as intact as ever. Starlight's eyes grew wide as the rhino calmly stomped his way towards the headmare.

    Starlight backed away just as calmly. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't part of the plan. Each student was supposed to get a turn being the bad guy, immediately turning back into their good versions with a single blast from her horn. Why wasn't it working?

     Aura Light chuckled, surprising the headmare. He wasn't supposed to be chuckling. Just grunting. Starlight squinted, wondering what went wrong with her spell. Probably a lot of somethings. She shouldn't have tried it, but now here she was, slowly trying to escape a giant red rhino. And it sounded stupid. Then she noticed it. Little flames appearing on random spots of his body. They're there for a second, and gone the next. It was a while until the next flame appeared. And the rhino was slowly turning into a dark shade of maroon. It looked familiar, but the Unicorn couldn't be sure.

"Did you honestly think it would work?" the rhino asked in Aura Light's deep voice.

Starlight stopped stepping backwards and looked at the rhino, challenging him to speak more.

"I'm far too powerful for you," the rhino continued, its eyes flashing green, then it looked at the Young 6, the closest thing to a scowl on his face, "And I will destroy them"

Starlight gasped as it started rampaging towards the students and teleported towards them. She produced a powerful shield with her horn and looked at the students, quickly teleporting them all towards the School of Friendship.

+*+

Tuesday was... just another day, but for some creatures, a little more productive, and it certainly had a peaceful air around it, being the day after all the craziness, and it certainly was the day after all the craziness. The Young 6, although still seperated, were glad that it was now all over. Or so they thought.

Sandbar sat in Kindness Class, front and center, where the ever-curious Ocellus used to sit in, but she was now seated at the very end of the semi-circle, where Octavia looked at her with concern. Sandbar didn't really mind, though. It was Kindness and Kindness was the best, especially when he spent it with his new friends. Though he missed Aura Light. Even though that Unicorn could be quite hostile at some times, there were times when he wasn't. Like when he quite openly accepted Sandbar into his little group. Everyday, Aura Light helped Sandbar feel accepted. If it wasn't for the major setback that Aura was homophobic, Sandbar did feel accepted. He wished he was here.

But maybe he shouldn't have wished Aura Light was here. It all began with some silent thumping. The Kindness Classroom vibrated quite a lot, messing up Octavia's melody. Their substitute Kindness Professor looked quite dishevelled, glaring at the ground, as if some earthquake was responisble for all this shaking. And Sandbar believed an earthquake was responsible for all this, for a while. Then the tremors became much worse and the vibration was too much it was actually making some thudding sounds. Then Starlight appeared at the door.

"Sandbar, Ocellus, come with me"

Sandbar begrudgingly stood up, with quite a vacant look on his face. He had no idea what was happening, and why he and Ocellus were needed. He looked at the students. They all wore the same puzzled expressions, mixed with looks of fear. Octavia was better at hiding it though, being the teacher. She had to show at least some snippets of responsibility.

They followed Starlight down the halls of the school, with the earth jiggling more than a plate of jelly. Ocellus had already started to use her wings and Sandbar just marched on, trying his best to keep his balance. He nearly tripped once or twice, but they made it to the door Starlight was standing in front of, impatiently tapping her hoof. Then she opened it to reveal the rest of his old friends sitting on some couches and chairs. There was a couch with two spaces left, and Sandbar took the one at the very edge, with Ocellus frowning disappointedly as she took the last space, sandwiched between Gallus and Sandbar, who were sending silent glares at each other.

"Aura Light had come to school," Starlight said grimly.

The Sandbar exchanged nervous looks with the others. He thought that they had left that red rhino back at the Frozen North. He had no idea how it managed to get over here.

"How did it manage to get over here?" Ocellus asked, more discomfort being added to her.

"It destroyed a straight path towards here," Starlight said, projecting a 3-dimensional image of a house completely destroyed, only the left and right walls of it still standing, and inside had been cluttered with debris.

"So that must mean he's coming for... us," Silverstream said, looking at Starlight with wide, fearful eyes, but there was still a little hope in them that their headmare could do something about it.

"Indeed he is, and if you stay here, you'd be putting the students in danger. I'll have to send you to Zecora, and send the red rhino on his way, at least for as long as it takes for you six to be friends again," Starlight said, looking pensively at the ground, then turned to the Young 6, biting her lip.

"Why us? Can't you just defeat him with your magic?" Gallus snapped almost immediately. He did not like the idea of befriending the pony seated a seat away from him.

Starlight groaned and looked at the ceiling, silently asking Twilight for help, then her head snapped back towards Gallus. She tried to explain it as calmly as possible. "My magic clearly didn't work against him. Besides, he wants to defeat you, so you have to defeat him"

Smolder scoffed, though she couldn't there was some truth in what her headmare said. "What kind of logic is that?"

+*+*+*+*+AUTHOR'S+*+NOTE+*+*+*+*+
Good day to all!
There you go. Chapter 9 of Edge of Friendship! I hope you all enjoy reading it! This story is about to wrap itself up soon. Maybe. I think. I don't really know. We'll see.
Feedback is always welcome, especially constructive criticism, as it would make me very delighted.

Remember to spread the Magic of Friendship!