@cheezedoodle  
true

Not too unlikely.
 
Neighsay and the EEA can’t do anything directly against Twilight’s Friendship School anymore. It’s outside their jurisdiction. And Twilight has got all the other Equestrian princesses behind herself, especially Celestia, who support her undermining Neighsay’s power.
 
So when a similar institution popped up in Las Pegasus, he accredited it without much examination and had half his council enlist as students and help advertise for it, hoping that’d lure Twilight’s students away from her school and force it into closing due to lack of students.
 
Someone as strict and thorough as Neighsay should have noticed both that the Flim Flam Brothers have copied Twilight’s very concept down to the book and that their entire school was nothing but a scam. He probably has. But Friendship U was too good a means for him to reach his own goals. So he gave Friendship U not only an EEA accreditation but also a bunch of astroturfers. And he must have somehow lured ponies from Ponyville (Linky, Medley) to Friendship U so they can spread the word of it in Ponyville.
 
Star Swirl the Bearded just happened to be in the right place at the right time and, having been out of the loop for a millennium, naïve enough to fall for the scam (it helped that the brothers gave him discount).
 
That is, the fact that the Flim Flam Brothers got a hold of one of Twi’s books may even mean that Neighsay was actually behind Friendship U. He and everypony in the council got one copy of the book each. Maybe, just maybe it was one of his council members — who conveniently lives in Las Pegasus, I’m looking at you for example, Rosy Pearl — who inspired the brothers to open up Friendship U by complaining that Friendship School is so far away and then slipped them their personal copy of Twilight’s book.
 
Neither Neighsay nor his council was behind Flim and Flam turning Friendship U into a scam, nor did they take bribes (yeah, as if the brothers parted with their riches that easily), but they didn’t object to anything that didn’t get into Neighsay’s way.

@PonyPon  
I think they’re Neighsay’s plants meant to bolster Flim and Flam’s school over Twilight. Planting the rumors that it’s better and letting it spread.
 
I guess spies can work in that definition too but the usage of that word usually means to try and undercut it.

@cheezedoodle  
That amount of reappearance really makes it less likely a coincidence or a lack of effort on the animators imo.

@cheezedoodle  
SO they’re the spies!

There are actually a total of 5 EEA council members attending Friendship U:
 

 

@cheezedoodle  
FAKE NEWS

I tell you there was no collusion. This whole thing is a rigged witch hunt.

Those clever mother fyayers…

So that’s how they got the book.

@TexasUberAlles  
That line, “You tell me. It’s your book.”, was in response to questioning, “How could they use friendship as a weapon?”.

SON OF A
 
@Stotter  
Now I’m thinking that whole accreditation on the spot/lack of skepticism was a ruse while they used their own disguised plants to investigate the school  
Nah– Cozener Glow stole Twilight’s lesson plan book and gave it to Flim and Flam… and Neighsay knew about it before they admitted it to Twilight, with his “You should know, it’s your book” line earlier in the episode. The whole thing was a scheme by the EEA– or at least Neighsay himself– to undermine Twilight’s school.

@Background Pony #DC2E  
Look at cheerliee and then look at Twilight.  
If it is that, call the police, the guard, Celestia, and please someone make an anthro pic of tha EEA mare.

@FanOfMostEverything  
Bet they also work for the Illuminati too!

Man, no wonder Rarity got away with her disguise. A healthy percentage of the student body is made up of older ponies pretending to be younger ones.
 
Although Rarity’s was for investigation. Who knows what creepy things these two are up to with the cheer squad.

They are just a pair of the Las Pegasus backgrounder set. Both of these guys were there gaming away. They used the same set in Once Upon a Zeppelin as well. The show seems to use this set of ponies when it wants to indicate a somewhat “different” group from the standard ponyville/canterlot/cloudsdale dwellers but doesn’t want to bother creating all new ponies like they did for the major locations.

@Chace_sumica  
Seems like a lighting issue to me.

@FanOfMostEverything  
Now I’m thinking that whole accreditation on the spot/lack of skepticism was a ruse while they used their own disguised plants to investigate the school. Probably would have reached the same conclusion as Twilight, but she stole their thunder with her own vigilante investigation.

must be wearing contacts, eye color is different.

They were plants! The whole darn association was in on this!

The EEA has the best cheerleaders of Equestria.

they have a name?

Smart Mofos