“And then,” a voice like gritty, unpasteurized honey drifted into Ocellus’s ears, swaying out from around the corner, where the showers were, “after he stares down at all the red slush soaking into his coat and dripping down his chest, and Beachcomber’s looking at him like ‘Wow, what did I raise my son to become?’ Sandbar just looks at me and he’s like, ‘Maybe I should’ve gotten the mint chocolate shake after all!’”
Any pegasi, griffon or hippogriff would be inclined to agree that wings required a ton of maintenance, but changelings and dragons had thin, membranous wings that required a different sort of care than the feathered kind. Vigorously toweling them wouldn’t feel very good, and wouldn’t do well to dry the many microscopic layers that they were comprised of. Which left Ocellus with a single, simple option: air-drying.
Smolder laughed, soon enough joined by Yona, Shimmy Shake and High Tail. Four different flavors of mirth blended together like different parts of a cocktail, building and adding to one another until amalgamous. Ocellus opened her mouth slightly, breathing in the feelings like they were air—and they were, chemically, as light as air.
The laughter tasted like Pinkie’s birthday cake for November Rain: lavender and sweet potato and vanilla bean fondant.
She had taken care to spread her towel flat onto one of the wide, wooden benches that lay in the centre of the library of lockers, like she were having a picnic or something, before she laid down on it. Ocellus had toyed with bringing books for this part of the after-practice ritual before, but she felt sheepish asking her teachers and unicorn peers for water-proofing spells all the time.
“Kay, we’re going now!” Shimmy Shake announced.
“Seeya tomorrow, girls!” Smolder called.
Yona followed up with a loud “Ponies have good night!”
Ocellus waved at them as they left, smiling.
A few minutes passed. Yona turned the tap in front of her. The showerhead above her ceased its stream immediately.
“Friends okay staying here?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Smolder answered first. “Night, Yona.”
As Yona sauntered out of the locker room, Ocellus said a goodbye to her as well. Ever since practice had been moved to evenings to give the horn fencing team some much needed appreciation, she hadn’t been one for hanging out after practice. Days and nights started and ended early in Yakyakistan, and she clearly wasn’t keen on breaking herself out of that routine.
So, as always, that left Ocellus with Smolder. The only thing left to do right then was to close her eyes and wait for Smolder to finish, which didn’t take very long in reality, but felt like an hour to Ocellus.
Her eyelids grew heavy, her breaths had grown slow. And then Smolder’s shower turned off. She heard the fwoosh of the dragon’s fire being softly applied to her own scales, and then a fwipfwipfwip as she flapped some of the surface water droplets off of her wings.
“I kept you waiting,” Smolder said as she approached the bench from behind.
Ocellus muttered a “Nuh-uh.”
Smolder laughed dryly as she spread her own towel in front of where Ocellus was lying. “Should I apologize?”
Ocellus wet her lips. Blueberry pie. “I can taste your sorry.”
“Should I say it anyway, though?”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Okay,” Smolder said, sitting in front of Ocellus. “You gonna look at me any time tonight? Or can I pick my nose?”
She opened her eyes to see a soft, beige dragon stomach, plated by glistening, freshly cleaned scales. If they weren’t alone, she would’ve spent a few moments contemplating the muscles that lay underneath, but Smolder’s eyes were on her, and she didn’t want to seem suspicious. She directed her gaze upwards, to her friend’s face. “Maybe hold off on that until we say goodnight later.”
Smolder smiled. “Okay.”
“Were you in the middle of a story before we had to go to our rooms last practice?”
“Yeah. You wanna hear it?”
“Hold on…” Ocellus hummed. “I want to test my memory:
“There was a big, huge dragon named Charrr, with three R’s, because that’s important. He had the greatest hoard known the dragonkind. He spent years and years building it up, winning other hoards from other dragons, terrorizing pony villages for ransom from the pony queen, and just all around being big and terrible and greedy.
“He’d go out to the other dragons every week and he would brag about his hoard to them, and they would have to concede to his boasts, because they had seen it before, and it was truly glorious. Charrr looked like he might become the new Dragonlord once the current one was over and done with, because back then there was no Gauntlet of Fire. Everything was about the size of your hoard or the worth of it.
“The current Dragonlord didn’t like the idea of Charrr ruling.. He thought Charrr was selfish, and would lead the dragons to ruin if he was ever allowed to take charge. So he goes to Charrr and he takes his hoard from him.
“I don’t know if we got to the fight yet. That might have been where we left off.”
Smolder shot her an impressed look. “You were really paying attention, huh?”
Ocellus blushed. “It was interesting.”
“Well we’re not even at the good part yet,” Smolder purred as she leaned forward. There were sparkles in her eyes—Ocellus found herself straightening her posture and perking her ears. Several synonyms for ‘eye-catching’ stampeded into her mind. She ushered all of them away in favor of listening to the story.
“Charrr is huge, right? And he’s big enough to level a mountain just by tackling it. But the Dragonlord had the hottest flame in the world, and his claws were like, really sharp. So the Dragonlord goes to Charr’s place and he starts melting everything inside.
“Obviously Charrr’s super pissed so they both start fighting, and for a moment there, it looks like Charrr’s gonna win! He’s like, thrashing around and hitting the Dragonlord with his tail and he’s managing to power through all the clawing and bites. But then something wild happens: the cave collapses.
“Caves collapse all the time in the Dragonlands, but they weren’t too common back in the past. That, and they weren’t really thinking of what fighting inside of a giant cave could do to the actual cave.
“So the cave starts breaking down, quick, and the Dragonlord’s finally got the guy on defence, but he recognizes that if he stays there he’s gonna get squished by a rock so he leaves immediately. He turns around and flies out, and he’s expecting some air fighting but when he finally leaves the cave, Charrr isn’t with him. He hears screaming and choking and really big bones breaking coming from inside. He couldn’t leave his hoard. He refused to.
“So I guess the whole lesson here is like, what’s more important: your treasure or your life?
“And yeah, that’s the end.”
Ocellus exhaled through her nose, letting out the tension she hadn’t realized was building up through the course of the story, and then stamped her hooves on her towel a couple of times in appreciation. She had quickly come to look forward to this part of practice days. Smolder’s stories about the Dragonlands offered her an insightful look into what she previously thought of as one of the scariest species in Equestria, and an even better look into her friend. Which was why she knew something was wrong.
She tried not to squirm at the briny, burnt plum taste that coated the roof of her mouth.
Smolder caught her concerned look and answered it with a raised brow. “What?”
“You’re upset,” she said.
“It’s—”
“Not nothing. You’re upset. Do you wanna talk about it? It’s okay if you don’t.”
Smolder looked trapped, and for a moment Ocellus was worried she had gone too far, but the dragon sighed, half-annoyed, and scooted a little closer. “It’s just some dumb, sappy stuff. I don’t wanna ruin our drying-off time.”
“The only way you’ll ever manage to do that is by not being here,” Ocellus said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Smolder responded, looking away. Her big, thick tail had curled around her body and held it tight to her stomach. She pet it idly with her claws. “It’s just that, I don’t know. It kinda feels like the more stories I make here, the less I remember about the ones back home. And the memories. Not that every moment in the Dragonlands was amazing or anything.”
“Not that I don’t like it here!’ Smolder said quickly. “Just that it’s kinda weird. And...sad. I hate being forced to make choices. Feels like I’m supposed to make one between school and home sometimes. School doesn’t last forever, either, right? So, I dunno—let’s forget it.”
“I understand,” whispered Ocellus. “It’s strange to spend your childhood in one place, and then be sent away to spend your formative years in another. It’s—it’s hard to know which one you really belong in.”
Smolder turned back to her, eyes wide at first, but slowly getting back to normal as understanding set in. If there were any creatures who could understand the extremely specific problems troubling her, it was the ones she had already befriended.
Ocellus offered the dragon a hoof. Smolder took it with a claw.
Ocellus wanted to say something. Something along the lines of “it’s hard, finding where the place you belong really is, but at least you’re not alone,” or something like that. But instead Ocellus tilted her head and said, “You wanna know what Starlight gave to me earlier?”
It was like the previous moment had never happened. Life spilled back into Smolder’s eyes.
“What?” she asked.
Ocellus excused herself to grab something out of her saddlebags, which lay in the locker just behind her. She found what she was looking for easy enough—a thin blue box with a picture of two ponies playing a game printed on the front. She got back onto the bench and held it out towards her friend, watching her lean forward to gaze at the picture curiously.
“Connect Four?” Smolder asked.
“Starlight told me it was more fun than checkers but less complicated than chess, and twice as thrilling as either of those. Apparently it’s a game that our teachers are nostalgic for.”
“Must be pretty frickin’ old then.”
“Smolder!”
“Heh, just teasing.”
“Sooo,” Ocellus sang, gazing bashfully at her friend, and hugging the game to herself. “You wanna play with me?”
***
Ocellus was about to win. She had a row on the far left that was one slot away from being completed, and another row on the right that was the same—that one was diagonal though, which is why Smolder never saw it coming.
The frustration and competition coming off of the dragon felt electric on her tastebuds. Ocellus hoped that losing wouldn’t completely sour her mood.
“I hate you,” Smolder muttered.
It was a phrase that she said a lot, but each time Ocellus was always relieved to not detect any genuine feelings behind it.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” said Smolder as she held her head in her claws. “I know now that occasionally losing is okay and all of that, but I was taught that if I wasn’t good at something, I just, like, wasn’t meant to be good at whatever that was. Kinda feeling like I should stick to tossing boulders across the lake and racing with Gallus right now.”
Ocellus gasped. “That’s terrible!”
“Pretty sure that it’s the same sorta stuff that you guys were taught until a few years ago.”
“Actually, losing was looked at with a ‘try, try again’ sort of attitude under Chrysalis’s rule. Recuperate your losses, build up your numbers and come back at the challenge with the full force of the hive.”
“Hmm. Maybe I’m thinking of something else.” Smolder put up a disc and did the only thing she could: slot it into the row on the far left with the knowledge that there was no way to prevent her loss.
Despite her previous words, Ocellus’s heart raced. With all of the physicality that Yona, Smolder, Gallus and Silverstream had injected into her life, she had almost forgotten what being victorious in a competition felt like. It had simply been too long since they had all played a board game together.
“Courtship attitudes, maybe,” she said.
Smolder paused and put her disc down. “What do you mean?”
Talking was a bad move. Internally, Ocellus cursed with the fury of a thousand armies. Externally, she smiled. “Changelings don’t take rejection well. An average changeling will research whoever she’s infatuated with and wait and plan and study, and then she’ll present herself boldly. And if she’s rejected she’ll probably just never talk to that other changeling again.”
“Yikes.”
“We’re sensitive,” Ocellus said. “Are you gonna make your move now?”
Smolder did.
Ocellus completed her row of four.
“Yesyesyesyes!” She cheered. She stamped her hooves and chittered, her wings fluttering behind her.
“Best four out of seven?” Smolder asked. Her expression was all twisted up—caught between being happy for her friend and annoyed at her own loss.
“Sure!” Ocellus beamed. She went to pulling the “board” out of its place and letting the discs slide out of it, waiting patiently as Smolder grabbed all the red discs for herself before pushing the yellow ones to Ocellus’s side. Then she slotted the board back into its standing place.
Loser made the first move. Smolder acted begrudgingly, sliding a red disc into the far right row.
“Can I ask a question about the story earlier?” Ocellus wondered aloud.
“Shoot,” Smolder said, tapping a finger to her lips as she pondered her next move.
“Why couldn’t Charrr have just found another hoard?”
“Hmm. Don’t know.” Smolder blinked. “Never really thought of it.”
“Oh, and speaking of courtship,” Ocellus attempted to sound smooth. She wasn’t sure if it was working. “Are there any dragons back home that might be missing you more than your brother right now?”
Smolder tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Like, you know…” She twirled her hoof in the air. “Special friends.”
“Uh…”
“Mates, Smolder. Lovers.”
“Oh. Oh!” Smolder’s eyes dilated for a quick second as realization hit. Then she threw her head back and cackled hard at the ceiling. “Oh, Bahamut, no. Dragons barely even date. The ones that end up raising eggs just sorta get together one day and stay for a couple hundred years. Then they get out as soon as it gets boring.”
“Interesting,” Ocellus said. “Well, maybe—”
“The only thing I can think of that comes close to a drakefriend would be my mom’s old cave.”
“Cave?” she asked. “Is–is that innuendo?”
“Hah!” Smolder barked out a laugh. “Looks like hanging out with me and Gallus so much has paid off, Celly. No, I mean an actual, made-of-rock, dank, perfect place to guard your hoard, good old-fashioned cave. Oh, man, I loved that cave more than I love Garble sometimes.”
Ocellus forgot about the raging inferno of a blush that was burning her cheeks. Her curiosity was fully piqued. “There wasn’t a hint of lie in that sentence.”
“Nope! And there never will be. Your turn, by the way.”
As Ocellus dropped one of her discs into the board, Smolder began to examine her claws, looking at them like they were old photographs.
“Yeah, that cave was dreamy,” she sighed. “It wasn’t even the hoard that it helped contain. It was the way that the walls were all perfectly smooth, and it smelled like the sea, but it wasn’t that strong. Just, like, if you were on a beach or something and you could smell the salt. Made your nose feel like it was breathing air for the first time. You know, sometimes I would sneak into the cave when no one else was around—Mom hates that, by the way—and I would just lie on the floor and talk to it. And while we’re at it, the floor. It was comfy, in the dragon kind of way where it was super rough at first and then you got used to it. That’s not even getting into the noises it made at night.”
“Noises?” Ocellus asked.
“Wish I could go back,” Smolder muttered. “Honestly I think I’d just lie down and never come out. Just me and the cave. Forever.”
A shiver made its way down Ocellus’s back, stopping just at the middle of her spine. She felt cold, all of a sudden. And Smolder was being weird.
Really weird. There was so much love coming off of her—it reminded her of the days after Thorax took over. The full brunt of each and every changeling’s love being shared with one another. It was potent. Powerful. And there was a special spice to it, something that complemented the sweetness of love like chili pepper in a dark chocolate lava cake. It was the kind of gentle heat that came from romance. Or infatuation.
“I guess the dorms aren’t the grandest space in the world,” Ocellus began. “But they’re pretty comfy in their own way, right?”
The strange tension that Ocellus was trying to avoid went away.
It was replaced by another kind of tension. One that she had felt from Gallus a couple of times before.
Smolder imitated a laugh. No joy emanated from her. “I guess, yeah. Can’t last forever, though.”
If only Ocellus were back at the hive! There was no hiding emotions there. Only feelings, and understanding, and empathy. She stiffened her body, choosing to look uncomfortable over concerned. “What do you mean by that?”
“Just, you know. Once we graduate where’re we going? Back home, probably, right? And I’ll be back at a dragon cave.” Smolder fidgeted. A claw went to touch the Connect Four board, but pulled away. “Makes me wonder sometimes if I should just grab my textbooks and go home already. Save myself the trouble of leaving and just go it on my own.”
Ocellus leaned forward. “Hey—”
A crash, like someone was kicking a locker as hard as they could, came from around the corner.
Ocellus screamed and hid behind her legs. Smolder turned and stuck an arm out, glaring in the direction of the noise.
“Hello?” called the dragon.
No answer.
“Anyone there?”
Still nothing. Smolder turned back to Ocellus with a pointed look—one that said I’m gonna check it out.
She shook her head fervently—let’s stay here, but to no avail. Smolder pet her head and got up to leave.
Ocellus bit her lip, but got up as well. She stuck tight to Smolder’s back as they (agonizingly slowly) crept forward, away from the bench. Every inch towards the corner felt like a thousand miles. Ocellus breathed unsteadily out of her nose and bit back whines. It wouldn’t do good to be loud right now.
They got to the corner, and Smolder turned way too fast for her liking but she would stick with her friend all the way and—
And there was nothing. Just the hall leading to the bathroom stalls and a few storage doors. Ocellus let out the breath she was holding. Smolder’s still damp wings twitched at the stimulation. “Must’ve been one of Professor Fluttershy’s animals.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, has that door always been there?”
“Which—” Ocellus began, but stopped.
Its handle was ornately decorated, like a piece of jewelry one might find on a Canterlot unicorn’s neck, and the rest of the door was simple enough, other than the fact that it was made out of gold. Solid, shiny gold that almost glittered under the garish locker room lights.
Ocellus squinted. “I don’t remember that, no.”
“Wanna open it?”
“A little bit, but we should probably go get the others first. Or, better yet, our teachers.”
“You don’t think I’m enough to protect you?” Smolder teased, glancing back with her eyes half-lidded.
“I can change into a bugbear. I think I’m enough to protect me. I’m more worried about when the both of us aren’t enough to deal with whatever’s in there.”
“Why do you already think it’s dangerous?” Smolder asked. “Besides, I doubt anything can stand up to you and me.”
“I take it you’re going to open it, then?”
“Will you be mad at me?”
Ocellus bit her lip. “No.”
“Then yeah, I’m opening it.” Smolder stepped forward, and paused. “Will you do this with me instead of behind me?”
Ocellus prowled out from behind her friend and stood at her side. They exchanged nods like currency, and confidently walked to the door. Half of Ocellus expected their friends to be hiding in the toilet stalls, but as she and Smolder walked by, no one was there to jump out at them. She wasn’t sure whether to feel disappointed or relieved.
The locker room was quiet, but it had always been that way save for their chatter. It just seemed so much more noticeable now. Ocellus found her steps harder and harder to take as she got closer to the door—the exact opposite experience of her scaly friend, whose pace quickened and flared up in time with the rivulets of excitement radiating out from her heart.
They reached the door. Smolder gave her a pointed look and grabbed the handle. Not wanting to be left out, Ocellus grabbed it too.
“Okay,” Smolder said. “One, two..”
They opened the door.
Behind it was black. And gold. And every color of the rainbow speckled throughout that initial, large, lumpy mountain of gold. Then Ocellus realized that it was literal gold. Entire bars, chalices and coins made out of it. With every kind of gem imaginable peeking out of every odd inch.
Beside her, Smolder gasped. “I can’t believe it.”
“What?”
“It’s—it’s my cave. My mom’s, I mean. Old one. And mine too. My—” Smolder stepped through the entrance, to Ocellus’s initial horror, but she stood there for a long couple of seconds completely fine. “This can’t be real, right?”
“I don’t know much about pony magic, but it could be.” Ocellus followed her in, taking careful steps not to close the door behind them.
“This is…” Smolder trailed off. She knelt down and scooped up a couple of gold coins. “I can’t believe you’re here again…”
Ocellus was only half listening. She had gotten sight of how big the cave truly was.
Past the giant pile of treasure in front of them were tens, maybe hundreds more just like it. The place was like a desert of treasure. Ocellus had never seen anything more decadent or expensive in her whole life. If this was Smolder’s mother’s hoard, well, Smolder’s mother must have been a very rich dragon.
It was hard to keep track of the—the treasure, that surrounded her. It was almost as if things were moving as soon as she took her eyes off of them, but how could she prove that? If she attempted to commit the location of a single ruby to memory, within seconds she’d be so distracted by the millions of other things in the cave that she was sure to forget where it was. It was because of this that the cave almost seemed alive. It cave almost seemed like it was breathing.
A giggle yanked her out of her awed stupor. Smolder had a few clawfuls of treasure and was hugging it to her chest. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh Celly!” She sat up suddenly and looked in Ocellus’s direction. Her eyes were wet and wild. “Do you know what this means?”
“We should get out of here and tell one of our professors?” Ocellus asked, taking a look at the door.
“No, dummy! It means that we can hang out in here!”
“What?”
“I had a special hiding spot that I’d chill in when I was a whelp,” Smolder squeed and took to the air.
“S-Smolder!” Ocellus cried, flying after her friend. “Come on, we’re gonna get lost!”
“I grew up here, I know my way around,” Smolder called back, diving straight down and curving around another pile of gold and jewels.
Ocellus did her best to follow, but as she attempted to edge around the mound of treasure she clipped her shoulder on something sharp. Signaling her hurt with a sharp yelp, her frantic glide was thrown off its balance, and she began to spin involuntarily.
Strong, lean arms caught her before she could hit the dark, wet cave wall, halting her momentum.
Smolder grunted as she lifted Ocellus and rotated her to inspect her side. “Ah, geez...I got ahead of myself. You okay?”
Ocellus brushed off the shame and—and the odd dash of excitement she felt at being handled so crudely. She waved the dragon off. “It’s just—ow!” she whined as Smolder prodded her shoulder. “It’ll be fine.”
She was let down gently. Smolder offered her a claw. “I’m sorry. I was just excited.”
“It’s okay,” said Ocellus. “What were you going to show me?”
“You mean you don’t wanna leave?”
“We’re here, right? Might as well.”
Smolder beamed. “You’re the best. Follow me.”
The dragon turned around and walked to a side of the treasure pile with an extra amount of topaz geodes peeking out from underneath the gold, and then swiped hard at it.
The gold scattered away to reveal that it was covering a rock face with a crudely made door in the middle.
“Welcome to Fort Smolder.”
She kicked the door down to reveal as cozy an interior as one could get without furniture. There were glowing gems strung up and hung on the wall, spreading a soft, velvety light throughout, and in the centre of the “fort” was a pile of miscellaneous things about four times her own size. Smolder galloped to the thing, laughing joyously like it was a decorated pine tree, and she was Sandbar on the morning of Hearth’s Warming Day.
Ocellus trotted in and closed the door behind her, vaguely feeling like she was invading someone’s personal space. She followed Smolder’s trail to the centre of the room and took a seat in front of the dragon and the pile of things. Her ears perked as her friend muttered to herself, clearly searching for something specific.
“Not that, no, no, no, yes!” Smolder giggled as she pulled something out of the mass.
It was like a giant roll of pitch black vinyl. No, not vinyl. Not pitch black, either. As Smolder moved it around to show Ocellus, light bounced off of the thing’s surface and most of the black turned to ethereal clouds of color. It shimmered and shone, mesmerizing both creatures as they admired it.
“What do you think?” Smolder asked. “This is the first thing I ever hoarded. I found it near the sea when I was a tiny little hatchling—bit anyone who tried to take it from me.”
Ocellus studied it, and gingerly went to prod it with a hoof. Smolder pulled back a little bit, but after a gentle glance, she held it out once more. The changeling ran her hoof over the surface, and as she did, understanding gripped her heart.
Ocellus tried not to laugh as she looked at Smolder. “You don’t know what this is?”
Smolder squinted and shook her head.
“This is a yard of fabric, Smolder.”
Smolder blinked. “But fabric is supposed to be, like, colorful and soft and pretty and cute. This stuff can take a beating. I used to chew on it, and my teeth have never been soft. And it—it looks cool. Like, cool. Fabric’s, like, not cool. It’s beautiful, but not cool.”
The laugh Ocellus had been holding in escaped. She smiled wide. “Oh, Smolder. You should really ask Professor Rarity about edgy clothing some time. This is a yard of fabric, I promise. A merchant ship must have dropped it or something, but this probably would have been used to make a coat or a dress.”
“Dress,” Smolder repeated. “You—you can make a dress with this?”
“Do you want to bring it to Professor Rarity’s tomorrow?”
The dragon nodded, stars in her eyes.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ocellus asked. “Let’s—”
Something slammed on the door. She jumped away from it.
Smolder was in front of her in an instant, her wings spread and her arms out. “Who’s there?”
Ocellus held her breath as they waited for an answer, but all that followed was quiet. She rubbed a foreleg with another in a vain attempt to comfort herself.
“Anyone?” Smolder asked again, moving to open the door.
When nothing answered her question, she kicked the door open, and found nothing but the treasure they left behind.
“Must have been a gem falling from a pile or something,” she concluded, then turned back to Ocellus. “You wanna get out of here?”
“Yes, please.”
“Need me to carry you?” she asked, a purr to her voice.
“I think I’m fine,” said Ocellus. On an unrelated note, her heart suddenly began to race. “Lead the way.”
“Sure thing, milady.”
They exited Fort Smolder and shut the door before taking to the air, settling into a comfy quiet. They flew over the masses of treasures and tokens, and Ocellus began to begrudge the fact that they had to leave. Everything here was actually quite pretty. Maybe it would be nice to stay over for a little longer, next time.
“Where’s the door?” asked Smolder.
“What do you mean?” Ocellus stopped flying.
“Can’t find the door.”
“What do you mean?” Ocellus snapped. She remembered herself and gasped. “Oh no, Smolder, I’m—”
“It’s okay,” Smolder interrupted. “I can’t find it either.”
They looked around, surrounded by treasure that was surrounded by darkness, and wet cave walls where they could just barely see them.
“I swear it was right here,” Smolder said.
“Where is here?” Ocellus asked.
Smolder flew closer to Ocellus, and they went off in a direction. Not any particular one, just any direction at all. “That’s weird,” Smolder remarked. “That’s weird. I swear on my life that I knew every inch of this place a second ago, but—oh, wait, there it is.”
Smolder giggled, slapping her head with a smile. Side by side they dove down and landed in front of a pile of gold and—
And weapons. Multiple swords, shields and the occasional harpoon were sprinkled over the gold like garnish on a fancy meal. Across from the hoard was the golden door they came through.
“I don’t remember any swords when we first walked in,” Ocellus said.
Smolder opened the door and stepped into the locker room. “It’s been a weird day. Wouldn’t be surprised if we just remembered wrong.”
“Yeah. Probably.” Ocellus followed and closed the door.
In the darkness, the cave moved. Just the floors at first—like there was an earthquake. But there was no earthquake. The floors simply shivered, knocking coins loose from their piles and nudging spears and shields from their beds in the coins. The shaking became more intense. Piles dissolved and melded together to create even bigger ones. Jewels fell from high perches, shattering on the ground, and their shards were quickly carried off into the bottoms of other golden mounds now colorless in the dark.
The walls moved too. They twisted and bent and curved like they wre made of rubble, though they were still hard as rocks. The piles became bigger and fewer but remained the same to an undiscerning eye. The walls started to close in. The cave became another cave, but stayed the same.
Her dreams that night were undeniably pleasant, vague and amorphous. They looked like Sugarcube Corner, cups of hot tea and warm blankets being pulled off the line. They smelled like smoke and honey with just a tinge of brine and sulfur. They felt like scales—ones that were hot to the touch at first but easy to acclimate to once they were wrapped around her neck.
Ocellus woke early in the morning, twelve minutes before her alarm clock, and she felt like she had slept the perfect amount. It was as if her mind had gotten a breath of fresh air after being stuck in a basement for hours on end. She had no trouble paying attention to her classes, which was strange. Sure, she never had as much trouble with listening to lectures as some of her other friends did, but there were virtually no problems at all with her focus up until the end of the day.
Cheer practice.
She walked into the locker room, Yona at her side, and only then did she remember what had transpired the night before.
Yona looked back to her as she stopped walking. “Friend okay?”
“I...” Ocellus squinted, confusion crawling on her back. How did the previous night slip her mind like that?
“Feeling sick?”
“Sick is the wrong word,” she said, blinking. “It’s—it’s okay.”
“Gallus’s bird flu?” Yona suggested.
She did suddenly feel nauseous. “No. I think I need to talk to Smolder.”
“Talk to me about what?” asked a voice from behind her.
Ocellus whirled around, stumbling into Yona’s side with a yelp. “Didn’t you promise not to scare me like that anymore?”
“I honestly thought you knew I was here,” said Smolder, an eyebrow raised.
“Do you remember last night?”
“Of course I do! Best weird thing to happen to me in Equestria so far.”
“How could you let me forget?” Ocellus asked. “We should have gone to a teacher or something first thing!”
“I thought you remembered, but didn’t care,” Smolder explained. “What’s the big deal? We can tell Coach Dash now.”
“Thank y—”
“After we surprise the rest of the team.”
“Are you serious?”
“It’ll be fun!”
“Yona like surprises,” Yona said, gingerly stepping between them. “What this one about?”
Smolder grinned. “Don’t go yet, but it’s just past the showers. We should wait for Shimmy and—Yona!”
Yona was there one second, and then she was gone. The only hint of her that Smolder and Ocellus saw was her wagging tail disappearing around the corner, towards the row of showers.
The duo shared a look before following their friend to find—
Yona stood in front of the janitor’s closet, tilting her head. She looked back at Smolder and Ocellus. “Surprise where?”
Smolder’s eyes went wide. She took to the air and flew above Yona, barely able to believe what she was seeing.
The door was gone.
“Hey, guys, what are we looking at?” Shimmy Shake said from behind.
Smolder shook her head. “Uh, nothing.”
“You sure about that?” Lighthoof asked. “Because it seems like you’re all looking at something. Did somepony throw up in the showers again?”
“Smolder promised a surprise,” Yona said.
“Surprise?” Lighthoof’s tone brightened considerably. “Is it cake?”
“It’s not cake,” said Ocellus, sounding as much in a daze as Smolder was. “I don’t think it was cake, at least.”
“Aw. I was craving some cake.”
“It’s gone?” Smolder choked out.
Lighthoof tilted he head. “The cake?”
Shimmy giggled. “She already said there was no cake, Lighty.”
“So what was it, then?” Lighthoof asked.
“I don’t know,” said Smolder. “That’s so weird. I have no idea.”
Smolder looked to Ocellus, who looked just as confused, but nothing came to her mind.
“What were we gonna—” Ocellus stopped. “Do you remember what we were gonna show them?”
Smolder looked at her, beginning to answer, but the sound of a sharp whistle came flying in from the gymnasium.
“Practice is starting, girls,” said Shimmy Shake. “Let’s go?”
Yona moved past Smolder and Ocellus to join the ponies, who were looking at the dragon and changeling worriedly.
“Guys?” Lighthoof asked.
“Right. Practice.” Smolder walked over to join them.
Ocellus took another second or two to stare at the empty space on the wall next to the janitor’s closet, and sighed. She followed after the group as they went to start practice, feeling a fuzzy texture fold over her mind the entire time.
It didn’t leave as she showered. Hot, nearly scalding water cascaded over Ocellus’s chitin in a strong, steady stream, and she had barely moved an inch in the last fifteen minutes. She could only really listen to the idle conversation of her teammates.
“So are we gonna expand the team sometime?” asked Shimmy Shake.
“More team, more fun,” said Yona.
“Who, though?”
“It’s too bad Silverstream didn’t want to join,” said Lighthoof.
“It wasn’t that,” Shimmy Shake refuted. “If that girl wasn’t so busy with a million other clubs and teams then you know she’d be down for it.”
“Maybe Spike?” Lighthoof suggested.
“That sounds fun, but isn’t Spike technically on the faculty?”
“I have no idea.”
“Yona?”
“Yak don’t know.”
“Hmm...Smolder?”
“Whuh? Yeah?”
“Is Spike on the faculty?”
“Uh, no. I don’t know,” Smolder slurred. “Probably.”
“By the way, why was your fire blue today? Because it looked really cool and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you breathe blue fire before.”
“Yona also don’t remember.”
“Oh, it just kinda gets like that sometimes,” Smolder muttered. “Can’t really control it. I dunno.”
Ocellus’s right leg was suddenly really itchy. She scuffed at a spot above her hoof, looking down as she did so.
“Hey,” Lighthoof chimed in. “What’d you guys get on the last History of Friendship test? Cause—”
It was only later, as the talk went on, and then ended, and Lighthoof, Shimmy Shake and Yona all left the showers, and after Ocellus turned her shower off and went to dry on the bench with her towel spread on top, that she answered Shimmy’s question.
As Smolder lay her own towel in front of Ocellus and stepped onto the bench to sit cross legged in front of her, Ocellus looked at her and said, “You’re sad. That’s why your fire was blue today.”
Smolder nodded.
“Why?” Ocellus asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Smolder said. “Do you—do you remember what we did last night?”
“I remember Connect Four,” said Ocellus. “But I can’t...it’s like I can’t think past that.”
“I know,” Smolder whispered, her posture deflating. “Geez, I feel like I’ve spent the last two hours in a dream.”
“Agreed.” Ocellus tore her gaze away from the dragon.
Things grew quiet for a moment. Ocellus wasn’t sure what to do, or to say. Whereas she had always looked forward to her talks with Smolder after practice, now it just felt like sitting in detention.
Something had been taken from her. That’s what it felt like, the feeling that had wrapped itself around her and Smolder like a cloak fastened way too tight. There was something missing about everything that had happened since the beginning of practice, and it bothered Ocellus in the way that a tick would, only she could check herself for ticks and she had no idea what to look for or even think about with—with whatever was happening right then.
One half of her wanted to scream. Another quarter was paralyzed with uncertainty. And the last bits of her mind…
Ocellus snorted. She had an idea.
“You still remember playing Connect Four with me?” she asked Smolder, smiling when the dragon nodded. “Well, maybe we can play again.”
“I don’t know, Celly, I’m kinda feeling—”
“It’ll make you feel better,” Ocellus said, talking in the same way she’d talk to a dog with a treat in her hoof.
Smolder sighed. “Fine.”
***
“It’s November Rain,” said Smolder.
“No way.”
“Then who?”
“Gallus, obviously.”
“Gallus does not have the cutest boy butt,” Smolder laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
Ocellus slotted in another disc onto the board, getting a row of three. “November Rain’s a good choice. I see why you went for him. But I feel like if you took out a roll of measuring tape and compared them side by side, you’d see Gallus winning.”
“Pbbtfffft,” Smolder stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry in the changeling’s direction. She made her move—blocking Ocellus from getting yet another row of four. “Judging other creatures’ appearances has nothing to do with math.”
“You’re supposed to be trying to win, by the way,” Ocellus said quietly.
“What?”
“You’re supposed to try and get four. Not just block me from getting four the entire game,” she said, a smile growing on her features.
Smolder looked at her, shock in her eyes for a long, glorious moment. Competitive spirit flared up in her not long after that. Her eyes became cold and hard. Her teeth grit together as they prepared for the slaughter she was intending to bring to her opponent. “Oh, you’re on, bug girl.”
“Am I?” Ocellus asked innocently before she slotted another disc in, completing both a diagonal row of four as well as a vertical one.
Like she were travelling back in time, Smolder reverted to the pure surprise that graced her face not moments ago.
Ocellus held her hoof out, shaking slightly. She wasn’t sure if the taunting was the right move, but it was fun to be equally matched against Smolder in something. It wasn’t like the wins she was racking up were easy to get.
To her relief, Smolder begrudgingly took her hoof and shook it, squeezing gently for a second before pulling back.
“Best five out of nine?” she asked.
Ocellus smiled and nodded.
They reset the board in no time. Smolder had first turn, and chose to put her first piece straight in the middle.
"You know what's wild?" she asked.
Ocellus wished she had a water bottle. She had forgotten to bring some out with her before practice started. "What?"
"So many ponies. So many cutie marks. But none of the ponies in our school have any cheerleading cutie marks."
"That's not very surprising to me, actually," said Ocellus. "I mean, there are more than a million things in this universe that a pony could find their special talent in, right? It's actually crazier that we have ponies at this school that share talents, or even just have similar ones. Like Shimmy and Lighthoof."
"Those two are gonna be dancing for the rest of their lives, huh?" Smolder put a knee up to her chest. "That must be weird, too. Knowing how the rest of your life's gonna play out."
"Well, they won't know everything that's going to happen, but they'll know what makes them happy."
"And as long as they're doing what makes them happy, they'll be fine."
Smolder's voice had turned...damp, somehow. Damp, and stiff. Ocellus tasted bay leaves—salty ones. Whatever feeling it was (she couldn't identify), it wasn't very good.
“Any more dragon stories for me?” Ocellus asked.
Smolder smiled, showing a couple of her finely polished teeth. “I was thinking that it could be fun if you told me a changeling one, actually.”
“Really?” Ocellus said. “You want to hear from me?”
“Is that a surprise?”
“I just,” Ocellus laughed. “I didn’t think they’d be very interesting to you.”
“Well, maybe you can prove me wrong.” Smolder's smile turned wittier. “As far as I know, you guys have turned into a bunch of peace-loving, pacifist do-gooders, but I think I remember hearing from Ember that there’s a little more to you than the soft stuff. How about you tell me something you think I’ll enjoy? I’m kinda getting tired of throwing up old stories I’ve heard from old drakes in dusty old caves anyway.”
“Regurgitating,” Ocellus corrected. She put a disc into the board, right beside Smolder’s, and looked at her friend with determination. “I think I have a few that you’ll like, but the first one you should hear is how the changeling hive became a hive, and started feeding on ponies.”
“Sounds fun,” Smolder chirped. She laid her chin on the palm of her claw and looked at Ocellus attentively. “Tell it to me.”
Ocellus waited, making sure that the request was genuine.
It was, so she cleared her throat and spoke.
“Princess Chitin and Princess Carapace were the second-most powerful changelings in the royal caste under their queen and mother, and they hated each other’s guts. Carapace was bigger, louder and arrogant. Chitin was smart and deceitful. This was back when the changeling hive was still settling on the continent of Equus, and the future of our race was regularly put into danger.
“The queen died one day: poison, though noling tried to find out exactly what happened because the queen was old and cruel and rough. The other changelings had been hoping for a change in leadership for a few months now, and this was the perfect chance for the princesses to rise to power.
“Carapace proposed a battle to the death. Chitin accepted.
“Through sheer shapeshifting prowess, Carapace was able to outdo whatever form Chitin took, eventually turning into an elephant and ending up crushing Chitin’s chest.
“But as Carapace left her sister wheezing and bleeding slowly to death in the wastes of the Badlands, she made the fatal mistake of not watching the life leave Chitin’s eyes. Because Chitin didn’t die.
“She spent weeks stranded in the same place. The fight took a lot out of her, but the story says that she still had just enough love left in her system to survive for that long without feeding. Through sheer willpower and luck, she was able to rest long enough for her exoskeleton to repair itself, and soon she was able to move again.
“She couldn’t go back to her old hive yet, because there was nothing for her there. Just disgrace. So she ventured out into the wilderness and came across a pony settlement. Even back before Harmony and all of that, ponies were beacons of love and positive emotion.
“Changelings still fed on monsters and animals, and they cocooned ponies when they could, but there were no infiltrators yet. But as I said before, Chitin was smart: she studied the group of earth ponies for months on end—how they spoke, and walked, and what they liked. In the meantime, she was living on the love she could gather from pets and livestock, and, months later, she grew confident enough to turn into a pony.
“I don’t really want to talk about the graphic parts, because she does some really bad things, but she ended up replacing a farmer’s wife and the love that she drained from the farmer was unlike any other creature’s. She lived for years, draining him dry, bearing his children and then leaving an entire generation’s worth of ponies these sad, emotionless husks.
“And the things that their love did to her body! She grew taller, looked more beautiful than any existing changeling before then, and she was bursting with enough power to rival Headmare Twilight on her best day.
“That was the time for her to go home. So she gets to the hive, dethrones her sister, and then she eats everyling except for three male drones and three female drones.”
“Eats them,” Smolder repeated. “Like, chompy-chomp, grinding them into pulp, swallow—eats them.”
“Yeah,” Ocellus chirruped. “She eats them and then she moves far away, closer to the ponies, starts a new colony, and that colony becomes a bunch of different systems that work in conjunction, and then that becomes a hive. Chitin retreated, learned from her mistakes and she studied and grew until she could come back and dismantled the organization that oppressed her and she forged a new identity and then became one of the greatest changelings alive!”
She finished her story out of breath. Her emotions were running wild.
How could Smolder tell stories so much? It was like running a mile without actually running a mile.
Smolder grinned at her and held out her claws, and then she clapped, and each one felt like spearmint ointment being applied to Ocellus’s chest while she was getting a soft, tender backrub. She smiled in response and bowed her head playfully.
I guess that’s how, she thought to herself.
“You know, I was fully prepared to be completely bored by the first minute,” Smolder said. “But that was really good.”
“I’m glad it surpassed your expectations,” Ocellus snorted.
“Hey, don’t be like that! You know how you can get sometimes when you try and lecture us during our midnight study sessions.”
That was a fair point. Ocellus snorted again. “Yeah…”
“Anyway,” Smolder said. “Did—”
Something cracked from around the corner. Something big. ‘Cracked’ is what it sounded like, anyway. It was like the walls were suddenly struck by Professor Applejack, or there was a giant potato chip that someone had split in half.
“...Hello?” Smolder called.
Ocellus shrunk into herself. “Who’s there?”
The only answer they received was the silence. Smolder and Ocellus exchanged glances, not speaking a word.
I’m going over there, said Smolder, gesturing to the corner with her eyes.
Don’t, Ocellus stared back, her eyes wide.
I’m going. You coming?
Smolder got up. Feeling like someone had chained her to a plough, Ocellus got up as well. They made no ceremony about approaching the corner, walking to it at a reasonably normal pace until they turned it and—
The door. The one beside the janitor’s closet. The gold one. The one that they had entered the night before, where they found Smolder’s mother’s old cave and the place she grew up in, and left, and found gone the next day.
Memories slotted back into Ocellus’s mind like a disc into a Connect Four board. She couldn’t believe what was happening.
She looked to Smolder, knowing that the dragon was experiencing the same amount of discomfort and confusion as her.
Smolder stared at the door, her eyes threatening to bulge out of their sockets. Then she turned back to Ocellus. “The cave!”
“Yeah,” Ocellus murmured. “The cave.”
The door seemed to sigh as it opened for them. On its own.
From Smolder came a squeal of excitement that died as soon as she realized she was alone in her joy. She looked to Ocellus. “Why aren’t you excited?”
“Do you not feel something wrong here?” Ocellus asked. Her perception of things felt strange again. She felt like she was wearing a heavy hat, though nothing was on her head.
Smolder shook her head. “Come on, let’s check it out! Maybe you can tell me about some of the other stuff I was stockpiling.”
Ocellus attempted to protest again, but she caught a whiff of Smolder’s excitement. She tried not to shiver under its raw intensity. Who was she to deny her friend another visit to her past? They wouldn’t have to stay for long, and they could tell their teachers immediately afterwards. It couldn’t hurt.
She nodded, and Smolder cheered. The dragon took her hoof, and with a hop, skip and a jump, they entered the cave.
Gold and jewels and weapons lay out in front of them like a coral reef in Seaquestria. Ocellus’s legs felt weak in the presence of their majesty.
“Ohhohohhhh wow I can’t believe I forgot we were here!” Smolder giggled. She dove into a nearby pile of gold and rolled around, coins and trinkets spilling around her body like liquid. “I love this place…”
“I know, Smolder,” Ocellus said, sitting down. She looked around, scanning the gray walls as they bled into wet, dank darkness. She studied the ceiling as well, and a thought hit her like a dull tap on her head from a professor’s hoof. She couldn’t see any rock.
“You know once, me and Garble were hanging out here when we were little and he goes, ‘Hey, do you think we’ll ever find somewhere better than this?’ and I told him no. Which really sucked because I think we both knew that we wouldn’t be seeing each other for a while, cause he was getting stonescales and stuff and his first molt was coming up, and I just told him that no other cave that he could find was gonna be as good as this. But I was right. There’s nowhere like it.”
“...Why did they move?” Ocellus asked. Fatigue was weighing down on her shoulders. Despite herself, she got up and walked to where Smolder was before she flopped down on the ground, which really was quite comfy once you got used to how rigid the rock felt. It wasn’t all that different from the volcanic rock at the hive.
“The cave collapsed,” Smolder said.
Ocellus shifted so she was lying on her side. Something scraped in the distance. A sound, like rock against rock. “What do you mean?”
“Like the entire cave collapsed. All of this was gone. I almost died but Mom shielded me from most of the rocks and we got out of there fine. The treasure got all busted, though.”
“Oh,” she said. It was getting difficult to keep her eyes open. “You know, this place is kind of weird, then.”
“You’re telling me!” chuckled Smolder. “But I’m glad it’s back. I’m glad you’re here with me too. You’re a good friend.”
“Thanks, Smolder,” she whispered. “You know, I think…”
She slammed into the ground. Her legs had given out underneath her. Instead of pain, though, she felt numbness. She could scarcely feel anything at all.
Her eyes closed. That was the end of it.
Something tugged hard on her leg, and Ocellus opened her eyes.
She looked down to find nothing. Nothing but the cave and the gold and the walls.
“I’m not leaving you,” Smolder said.
Ocellus looked up to see the dragon on her knees, stroking the ground as if it were a dog.
“I won’t ever leave you again,” she said quietly.
“Smolder?” Ocellus called. The dragon’s head snapped toward her so fast she flinched, hugging her forelegs to her chest.
“Hey,” Smolder spoke monotonously.
Ocellus coughed once, then was set into a fit. There was something scratchy in her lungs and she couldn’t get rid of it.
“It wants to know why you’re so tenacious,” Smolder said.
She looked at her friend incredulously. “What?”
“I don’t know,” Smolder giggled, going back to looking down at the floor as if it were a pretty mirror. “Sweet nothings, I guess. I’m feeling so relaxed right now. I just wanna lay here forever. Take another nap, maybe.”
“We…” Ocellus began, “should really get out of here.”
“Why?” asked Smolder. “Nothing’s wrong. Tomorrow’s the weekend, right?”
“No,” she said, raising a brow. “It’s a normal school day.”
“Same thing.” Smolder waved a claw dismissively. “Look, you can go, but the cave wants me to stay here, so I’m gonna do that?”
“Stay—what do you mean ‘wants you to stay’ when it can’t talk? Or have feelings?’”
Smolder gasped, genuinely offended. “Celly! Don’t be rude! It’s lonely, and I should stay with it. I had to leave it behind before, but I’m not doing that now. You can’t be serious, right? You should understand.”
“Smolder.” Ocellus stood up. “Something’s wrong with you.”
“Oh, yeah?” asked Smolder. “Why don’t you prove it?”
The cave had gotten smaller. Ocellus could feel it. Somehow it was smaller. The long stretch of rock and treasure had lessened down into a place that Ocellus knew she could easily walk the length of twice over. The walls were closing in, and whatever force was enchanting Smolder had a firm grip on her mind.
“Please?” Ocellus begged. “Can we please find the door and leave? Right now? I’m scared.”
Smolder stayed quiet, but her eyes became less wary and alert. Ocellus stepped forward, heart beating in time with her hooves on the ground, until she was close enough to Smolder to grab her claw and pull her out of—of whatever this was.
She reached out, and was thrown backwards by something invisible. Something hard hit her side as she hit a pile of treasure. There was a sharp, loud crrRck, followed by shooting pain.
Ocellus turned to see that she had hit an ornate golden chest. There was a sizable crack just underneath her shoulder joint.
She sobbed as the pain stabbed into her. “Smolder please there’s something wrong can we please get out of here!”
Her friend stayed emotionless. Blank in the eyes. Then she blinked, like she had heard something beautiful. “What was that?”
“I said—”
“Not you,” Smolder interrupted.
She looked far off into the distance. Ocellus wasn’t sure exactly where. She couldn’t hear anything either, as Smolder seemed to listen to nothing as if it could speak words.
“She could stay?” the dragon asked the air. “She really could?”
“You’re scaring me,” said Ocellus, tears pooling in her eyes.
“Celly, it says you can stay!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ocellus said weakly.
“Well it wants me to stay, right? It wants me to take care of it—I have to take care of it. But it says I don’t have to do it alone!” Smolder came closer. Her face was flushed and her breath came in long, hot puffs. “Ocellus, hey, we can do this together. If you can’t stay, well, it’s kinda making me choose.”
“Then choose!” Ocellus yelled, wincing at her injury. A force like a million bales of hay pressed down on her, and she felt something grip at her head. Something much bigger than her. “No! No no no!” she cried. “Smolder! Tell it to stop!”
“You’ll be fine without me,” breathed Smolder, her voice dreamy and distant. “Me and this cave have so much history.”
“And you and I don’t?” Ocellus sobbed. Something was starting to squeeze her head, she was sure that, whatever it was, it could easily flatten her head and spill her brains out on the cave floor. “Wha—what, you don’t want to make more memories? With me?”
Smolder shook her head. “There’s nothing for me in the future, Celly. This is the best thing that can happen to me.”
“Y-You can’t believe that!”
“I do.” Smolder crouched down to look her in the eye. “Think about it. What happens when we all graduate? I end up back here. Back at the Dragonlands. Back as a dragon.”
Ocellus laughed manically. “You’re beautiful, Smolder, and you’re fit and healthy and a lot more insightful than you think, but you can be so dumb sometimes. I’ll forgive you on account of the evil thing that’s got ahold of you right now, though.”
“Something’s—” Smolder stopped and put a claw to her temple in confusion. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Of course you don’t,” said Ocellus. “There’s nothing in the future for you? Really? What about your friends?”
“I already said that you’d all be fine without me,” Smolder groaned in pain. “My head…”
The cave began to rumble. The air began to feel thicker. Harder to breathe.
“I wouldn’t be fine,” Ocellus confessed.
To that, Smolder stopped paying attention to herself and looked at the changeling curiously. “Why not?”
“You’re kidding me.”
“What?”
“Because I—I want to go shopping with you! See the sights in Manehatten. Visit the dragonlands and have you show me around,” Ocellus shut her eyes hard. “I want to keep you company and play games and talk and eat and I want to protect you from predators when you molt. Smolder, are you really going to make me say this out loud?
The dragon didn’t know what to say. Or think. She began to say something but—
“Nope! Nevermind. Taking too long. I’m in love with you, you stupid lizard,” Ocellus gushed. She opened her glistening eyes to look into Smolder’s. “I want to take you out on dates and kiss and don’t get weirded out but I’d really like to be married to you and start a family and I only thought about it once I swear but I think it’—hgh—it’s possible! We could happen! But you have to let all of this go, Smolder. It’s not gonna disappear from your memories or anything like that unless you let it.”
“Oh.” Smolder blinked. “Oh.”
The pressure lifted from Ocellus. She immediately tried to get up, but collapsed as the pain in her side flared up.
Smolder caught her, eyes wide. “You’re serious?”
“Very serious. You couldn’t tell?” Ocellus said as she was hauled onto Smolder’s back. “You’re really bad at Connect Four. Thanks for snapping out of it, by the way.”
“Hush. Let’s get out of here.”
“Where’s the door?”
A large chunk of rock came down from the ceiling of the cave, crashing in front of them and toppling several piles of gold as it fell to its side.
“The cave collapsed.”
“It did,” said Ocellus.
“It’s collapsing again.”
“Very astute.”
“What do we do?”
“The door,” Ocellus said, squeezing Smolder. “I’m here with you.”
“Back to the door,” Smolder said. “Okay. Hold on tight. I’m gonna get into the air and—”
A purple flash and a sparkle rung through both their ears. Princess Twilight Sparkle appeared in front of them, anxiousness scrawled into every inch of her face. “Smolder? Ocellus? Thank goodness! Let’s get you out of here.”
Magic surrounded them. They warped out of existence as the cave began to fully collapse.
Then they were back in the locker room with their Headmare.
Smolder and Ocellus each sighed in relief as she was laid out onto a bench, hitting her head on it as she was. Twilight paced around them the entire time. “Are you girls okay? Are you hurt? Ocellus looks hurt. Let me see? Oh, no...we should get you to the medical wing straight away. But I need you to answer some questions first. Wait, what about you, Smolder? Nothing as far as I can see. Okay, where have you two been? What was that place?”
“My old cave,” Smolder said. “It shouldn’t exist anymore. It put a spell on us, or something. I don’t know why it was here, but there was a door leading to it right beside the janitor’s closet.”
“Oh.” Twilight stopped in her tracks. Her flared wings drooped down. “Was the door golden?”
“Yes,” said Ocellus.
“And what did you eat during your stay?”
“We didn’t really need to eat,” said Smolder, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, right, that was an old dragon cave, right? You probably ate gems and showed Ocellus enough affection for her to feed on.”
Pure confusion washed out of Twilight like a wave. Ocellus perked her head up, ignoring the pain that she was feeling. “How long were we missing?”
“A couple of weeks,” Twilight said.
“Weeks?” Ocellus cried.
“How did you know the door was gold?” Smolder asked.
“I suspected that, well...because this whole thing might have been my fault.” Twilight chuckled sheepishly. “I’ve been getting really into dragon history lately, and Dragon Lord Ember sent us an ancient dragon amulet the other week. There’s folklore around how it might be cursed, but I genuinely thought it was relatively powerless until now.”
Smolder crossed her arms. “Wow. That’s—that’s really dangerous, in hindsight. Kind of awesome, too.”
“You’re telling me!” Twilight said. “Spike and Rarity were taken to a pocket dimension, and when I was getting them out I found traces of your magical essences inside of it.”
“Can we please go to the medical wing now?” Ocellus said, wincing at her side.
“Oh! Right. Right,” Twilight said. “You know, I should probably stop storing artifacts on school grounds as well.”
“Maybe, yeah.”
Ocellus’s vision and attention span grew weary and blurred through the whirlwind of friends coming to visit her, Gallus hugging her and Smolder way too tight and refusing to let go, Silverstream doing the same, and Sandbar, and Yona, and honestly she may have suffocated a little because of all the hugging, but after the hugging had stopped, the medical checkups began, and through the identically exhausting haze of questioning and tests she fell asleep at some point, and no one bothered to wake her.
When she opened her eyes again, she had no idea what day it was. For a second, she wasn’t sure what she was doing in a medical bed at all. Twilight (the time of day, not the teacher) floated in through the windows and settled on the clean white sheets that she was bundled up in. The air was warm and fresh and thick enough to feel like an extra blanket. She nearly fell asleep again until she noticed a spot of bright orange in her peripherals.
Ocellus turned––Smolder looked at her hopefully, a familiar box clutched in her claws.
***
“I still feel bad,” Smolder said as she entered a disc into the Connect Four board.
“Don’t,” Ocellus said.
Smolder rolled her eyes in response.
“You weren’t yourself,” Ocellus said.
“I wasn’t. It was like that time I drank Sandbar’s special tea by accident, when him and Gallus and Yona were on a field trip to the Crystal Empire? And none of us had any idea what was happening to me and I got all giggly and music sounded really good and then I ate like five cherry pies in a row?” Smolder made her turn, completing a row of three on the second to last row on the left. “I can still be sorry, though.”
Ocellus blocked Smolder from connecting four, then placed a hoof on one the dragon’s claws, which was sitting off to the side and had been slowly inching towards her for the last hour. “I’m just glad I got you to snap out of it.”
Smolder let out a sharp breath at the contact. “So, that was it? You were just—”
Ocellus snuck her hoof underneath the claw and she squeezed firmly. “I meant every word.”
Smolder stared at her with an acrid intensity that softened down to a moist, dewy gaze almost in seconds. “...Are you sure?”
Ocellus took the sight in hungrily. It wasn’t every day that Smolder looked so vulnerable—she wore it well, like a nice dress. And then she nodded.
She saw that was Smolder leaning in, so she closed her eyes as well, enjoying the pleasant feelings that came from her dragon until their lips were so, so close to each other. And then she heard the sound of a disc slotting into the board.
Ocellus opened her eyes to see her first loss.
“I am not bad at this,” Smolder said, a cheeky grin on her face and blush hiding underneath that.
Cherry cobbler. Chili-chocolate lava cake. Saddle Arabian coffee. Perfect. Good. Smolder’s love flowed into Ocellus and she was nearly struck speechless as she tasted it for the first time.
Nearly.
Ocellus grinned back. “Best three out of five?”
