They soon went that way and Twilight was doing exactly what Atticus had predicted.
"Wow, you were right." Cherry said.
"I'm always right!" Atticus replied, now imitating Drell.
Cherry snickered to that. Spike soon came in to see how sad Twilight was.
"Twilight? You feeling okay?" Spike asked.
Twilight's only response was a distressed groan.
"That answer your question?" Cherry asked.
Spike soon turned off the music and removed a pillow. Twilight looked absolutely heartbroken and her pillow was soaked with her tears of sadness.
"Look on the bright side. Sure, the EEA closed your friendship school, but now you've got time to do other stuff!" Spike tried to cheer her up. "It's like being on vacation!"
"Yeah!" Mo added.
"A failure vacation! I'm supposed to be the Princess of Friendship!" Twilight told them, flopping upwards from the pillows before blowing her nose. "And all I did was make enemies with Equestria's allies, upset my friends, and get my school... Unaccredited! There is no bright side!"
"Okay, then we're going with some back-up." Atticus said.
"Huh?" Cherry muttered flatly.
"Operation: Cheer-Up is a go!" Spike added.
Rainbow Dash soon zoomed into the room, pulling back a curtain and Twilight covered her eyes with a wing. "Come on, Twilight! You can't sit around in the boring dark all day!" She then called out.
"Come on in, girls." Mo told the rest of the Mane Six.
The other mares soon came inside to join in.
"Rainbow Dash is right!" Applejack replied. "What you need is a double dose of Granny Smith's apple mash." She soon tried to give Twilight a spoonful of it.
Twilight was clearly not interested.
"A spoonful of Apple Mash helps the-" Mo began to sing.
"No!" Twilight moaned.
"Whoa, not even a song will help." Mo frowned.
"Whenever I'm sad, a hug from Angel Bunny always makes me feel better." Fluttershy suggested.
Angel soon came out of Fluttershy's bag and she gestured for him to go and hug Twilight. Angel soon went and got Twilight's wing out of the way before hugging her. However, it seemed as though the alicorn's depression absorbed inside of him like a sponge as now he looked miserable.
"Oh! Uh... Maybe it's just me." Fluttershy smiled nervously as she took Angel away from Twilight.
"Rarity?" Mo asked.
"I find that nothing brightens my mood like a new ensemble!" Rarity smiled as she brought out an outfit which looked like a dress for a court jester.
Cherry frowned as that looked quite horrid.
"Thanks, Rarity," Twilight sighed, though she was still tearing up. "It's a great dress... For somepony who knows how to run a school!" She soon used the dress as a tissue as she blew on it.
Cherry blinked a few times as she felt herself about to cry along with Twilight. She never knew why, but for some reason, whenever she saw someone sad, she just felt sad along with them.
"You didn't say it was going to be a pity party! I would have brought ice cream!" Pinkie Pie told Spike while a tray of cupcakes were on her head.
"Cherry, why are you crying?!" Atticus frowned.
"I don't know!" Cherry cried out as she bawled suddenly.
Twilight soon took off the dress. Cherry looked over, removing her glasses as they were stained with tears.
"I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, but not everything can be fixed with dresses and cupcakes." Twilight told her friends.
This caused for Rarity and Pinkie Pie to gasp.
"I just need some time to be alone and think," Twilight told them. "Maybe you could try cheering up Cherry? She looks worse than I do."
"I think I know why she's upset." Mo said.
The others looked to her as Cherry cried her eyes out as they left Twilight alone.
"Yeah?" Patch asked Mo.
"Cherry, I know that it's sad seeing Twilight depressed about what happened to the school," Mo soothed. "But if I know anypony that can help her out of her depression, it's Starlight."
"Why am I sad though?" Cherry asked. "This doesn't concern me!"
"You have empathy." Mo replied.
"Ohh." Pinkie smiled.
"I... I do...?" Cherry asked.
"Hmm..." Atticus hummed in thought as this reminded him of something and he thought of the times in the past with how long he and Cherry had been friends for and thought of the times where when he cried, she actually cried along with him. "That would explain why when I cried she cried."
"Hm?" Mo asked.
"Cherry did that sometimes when we were younger..." Atticus said.
"Wow, Cherry, I didn't think you had feelings other than bitterness?" Rainbow Dash commented.
"Gee, thanks, Rainbow." Cherry muttered.
Rainbow Dash shrugged bashfully.
"Aw, Cherry, you remind me so much of my sister Maud," Pinkie Pie smiled. "That's why I like ya so much!"
Meanwhile with Twilight...
The school had been locked up and that made everything feel a lot worse.
"I wondered how long you'd take to get tired of pillow-fort pouting." Starlight gave a friendly smirk.
"Everypony has already tried cheering me up, it won't work." Twilight pouted.
"I'm not gonna cheer you up," Starlight replied. "I'm gonna tell you what you did wrong."
"What?!" Twilight asked her.
"You gave up too easily." Starlight began.
Twilight looked stern as that hurt.
"Hey, you made me a guidance counselor. That means tough love." Starlight defended.
"Neighsay was right. I failed," Twilight sulked. "The school was a disaster."
"Yeah, but so was me, but you've taught me when you think something is right you stand up for it, you did that for me," Starlight told her before showing the school. "Why not for this?"
"I can't go against the EEA! They're in charge of all the schools in Equestria!" Twilight told her former student.
"And you're in charge of all the friendship in Equestria," Starlight reminded her. "Why should you let somepony else stop you from doing your job?"
"But the EEA rule book-" Twilight replied, levitating the guidebook.
Starlight soon smacked the guidebook into the water.
"Doesn't matter! You can write your own rules! Because you are doing something new. Something important!" she then told the princess.
Twilight soon stared into her reflection and began to feel inspired. "You're right! Why we're doing this is way more important than how we're doing this! And we are doing this!"
"Now that's the Twilight I know," Starlight smiled. "How can I help?"
"You already have." Twilight smiled back before hugging her.
Patch smiled himself as he had secretly watched this, but wouldn't say anything to the others.
Everyone soon came to the throne room to do their own thing. Cherry was looking at a spell book which she 'borrowed' from someone else.
"Whatcha doing?" Atticus asked.
"Trying to see if there's a memory wiping spell that can also make me a mortal so I can forget all these adventures ever happened." Cherry said.
"What?! Why would you wanna forget like that?" Atticus asked. "Don't you remember what happened to McGucket?!"
"That gross old man from Gravity Falls?" Cherry replied.
"Yeah," Atticus nodded. "He made that memory erasing gun that he used on himself to make him forget about the portal and the weird things he saw when he was younger."
"Oh, yeah." Cherry said.
Atticus narrowed his eyes. "Is that Drell's spell book?!"
Cherry grinned sheepishly.
"Seriously?! Again?!" Atticus glared before teleporting the spell book back to where it belonged.
"He's on vacation for a month..." Cherry shrugged.
Atticus face-hoofed and shook his head at her.
"Guess what? The School of Friendship is back in business!" Twilight announced as she soon came inside.
"Seriously?" Mo asked.
"What?!" Rainbow Dash asked.
"But why?!" Rarity asked.
"Oh, no." Fluttershy whispered.
"Bad idea." Applejack commented.
"Do we still get to guess?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Um, Twilight, don't take this the wrong way, but-" Atticus started.
"No offense, Twilight, but teaching at that school was the most boring, horrible, awful thing ever." Rainbow Dash cut him off.
"What she said." Cherry said.
"Uh, pretty sure she's gonna take offense to that." Applejack told them.
"No, Rainbow Dash and Cherry are right. I owe you all an apology," Twilight clarified as she came forward with Starlight. "I was so focused on doing things the EEA way, I didn't listen to any of you. I'm sorry. I promise, this time, we'll run the school the way friends should: together."
"So we'll be able to teach the way we want to?" Rarity smiled.
"No more scary pop quizzes?" Fluttershy added.
"Confetti cannons for everycreature?" Pinkie Pie beamed.
Cherry soon shook nervously as the table was circled with party cannons.
"How did she...?" Mo asked as she looked under the table.
"It's Pinkie Pie, don't question it." Patch advised.
"Whatever you need to teach the Elements of Harmony." Twilight reassured her comedic friend.
"Yippeeeee!" Pinkie Pie beamed and the party cannons soon went off.
"Uh... One more thing..." Cherry said.
"Make that two." Spike added.
"Well, mine's more of a personal thing." Cherry said.
"All right... What is it, Cherry?" Twilight asked.
"Can you say 'everybody' instead of 'everycreature'?" Cherry asked. "That's what we say back home."
"Um, okay." Twilight said.
"Sorry, I just think that's kind of better," Cherry said. "Spike, go ahead."
"Well, the school is still unaccredited, and we don't have any students." Spike replied.
"I think Twilight can handle the school part while the rest of us handle the students." Atticus said.
"Totally!" Rainbow Dash agreed. "Uh... How?"
"Roundin' up the pony students ain't gonna be an issue, but..." Applejack replied.
"The creatures from the other kingdoms seemed pretty upset with us." Fluttershy reminded nervously.
"Oh, come on, it'll be easy, we just have to apologize." Cherry said.
"I'm certain we can win them over with our charm and style!" Rarity smiled.
"We'll split up then." Cherry then suggested so that they could all get the job done much faster.
"That sounds great." Atticus said.
They soon all split up to do what they had to do to see the other creatures of the land.