Tooth Take

by PonyPixel

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Young Six, Comedy, Smolder
Length: 4939

Smolder cracks a tooth and refuses to get it filled. Even with her friends telling her to get it fixed, she'd rather work through the pain.

Things have settled down at school, and even the classes had been rearranged so our favorite six students can be in the same classes. However, one day, Smolder chips a tooth and needs to get it filled. When she finds out how it's going to be fixed, she's less keen on this. Even with her friends telling her to do it, Smolder refuses, and things don't go well for any creature.

An idea inspired by an image made by sintakhra

Published 2019-11-01 11:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-11-01 11:30:01 UTC

Get Cracking

Things have been calming down at the School of Friendship. Smolder and her friends were in Rarity's class. She was teaching about the quality of different gemstones, which the dragons were enjoying.

"And so," Rarity spoke, "The wavelengths of a gemstone can change the color of it." She showed two images of two different gems up close. "So, wavelengths of this make it a sapphire, while wavelengths of this make it a diamond."

"I can for a gem right about now," Smolder mumbled. Her stomach growled loudly, which Gallus had trouble ignoring.

"Can you keep it down?" he asked.

"Hey, I can't control my hunger."

"Gallus has a point," Ocellus commented. "We're trying to listen." The dragoness just groaned as she held her stomach, which growled some more.

"Now then," Rarity continued, "Maud was kind enough to lend me some gems she was studying." She pulled out several different gems that made Smolder's mouth water. "Depending on how low they are, the more frequent some of them appear."

The words of the Professor fell on deaf ears, Smolder just gazing at the gems. She only snapped out of it when the bell rang. The student was surprised by how time had passed all of a sudden.

"Smolder?" Silverstream asked. The dragoness look towards her friend who seemed to be confused. "Oh, good. I thought you fell asleep. Come on, we're going to miss lunch."

Smolder was about to follow, though she stopped when she saw the bowl of gems sitting Rarity's desk. "Can we...?"

"Oh, yeah. Professor Rarity said each student could have one. And she meant one. The dragons weren’t too happy about this.” Smolder didn’t ask questions, she just grabbed a blue gem and followed her friend to the mess hall.

Lunch was nothing special, just some stew, crackers, soda, usual lunch food. “Is pink pony not feeling well?” Yona asked.

“I think they’re getting a new chef,” Ocellus responded. “Since we’re getting a school nurse, we might as well get a lunch mare. It works since Professor Pinkie doesn’t have to overwork herself.”

“Hopefully this isn’t what we eat every day,” Gallus sighed. He sturred the stew around seeing it was kind of thick.

“Good thing I picked up this,” Smolder said. She took a look at the gem which seemed to look like a sapphire.

“Kind of wish I had some seaweed dumplings,” Silverstream sighed.

“It’s not the worst I’ve had,” Sandbar commented. They carried on with their meals but the dragon of the group was getting tired of the slop they were eating. She picked up the sapphire bit into it hard. There was a loud crack, followed by a scream of pain.

Some of the other students looked over to where the scream came from. Smolder tossed the gem onto the ground in anger as she covered her mouth. “Smolder, are you okay?” Ocellus asked.

“No, I’m not,” the dragoness cried. “My mouth hurtth for thome reathon.”

“Hang on,” Sandbar said, “Let me see.” He walked over to his friend, and she opened her mouth. Looking around for a bit, Sandbar saw one of the dragon’s teeth was cracked. “Yep, I found the problem.”

“What ith it?”

“It’s just a chipped tooth. Lucky for you, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. I’ll ask my parents if you could tag along.”

“Quethtion, what'th a dentitht?”

“It’s just sort of doctor, but for teeth. How have you never heard of one?”

“Whenever a dragon crackth a tooth they jutht knock it out.”

“That probably just going to make things worse,” Gallus responded.

“Hey, we're tough.”

“So is this gem,” Ocellus commented. She had gotten a closer look at the gem Smolder bit and compared it to the ones in her notes. “This looks like a diamond.”

“I thought it wath a thapphire.”

“Okay, look,” Sandbar said, “I’m going to talk with Headmare Starlight about this.” The colt walked away as Smolder held her new toothache. She tried to take a sip of her stew, but she got a jolt of pain again.

“OW! What now?”

“Broken tooth causes pain when eating,” Yona explained. “Yaks have similar tactics to dragons.”

“I’m guessing you never got a toothache, did you?” Ocellus said.

“No,” Smolder groaned. “And I already hate it.”

“I’ve never gotten a toothache,” Silverstream vocalized. “I wonder if I would get a lisp.”

“You wouldn’t want to feel the pain I'm going through right now?"

“I’m just curious if every creature gets one with it.”

After a long painful lunch, Smolder met up with Sandbar in their next class. “Good news,” he said, “You and I are going together to get our teeth checked.”

“Good,” Smolder replied, “Thith thing ith killing me.”

“I’m sure Minuette will fix that tooth in no time.”

“Good.” Smolder tried resting her head on her claw, but she just wincing in pain.

“Hey, Smolder, are you okay?” asked voice, which came from Shimmy Shake.

“Thimmy. Not really. I’ve cracked my tooth.”

“Ooh, I know how that feels.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I forgot to brush and I got a really bad cavity. I still remember the drill.”

Smolder looked confused. “What drill?”

“Well, when your tooth is damaged, the dentist has to drill into it in order to fix it. Depending on how bad your tooth is some extra work will have to be done.”

“Wh... What kind of work?”

“It... It hurts just thinking about that.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Rainbow Dash cried as she flew in. “Okay, let’s get started and start with two warm-up laps.” The students listened to their professor and started running, though Smolder was now in deep thought. Even when school was out, a drill was the only thing that she could think about.

“Smolder,” Silverstream called. She promptly flew up to her. “What do you want to do today?”

“I don't know,” Smolder replied, “I'd do anything to distract get my mind off thith toothathe.”

“We could do our schoolwork.” The hippogriff’s friend raised an eyebrow. “I need some help with my report.”

“Okay, let’th get it over with.” The two flew to their dorm to take care of the school work.

“You know, I’m kind of jealous Ocellus. I have no idea how she can get all the details. I mean, I do manage to pay attention, but I can’t remember half the things we’re taught.”

“The theemth to be the brainth of the group.”

“You know, that lisp kind of makes you sound cute. I’m going to get us some snacks so we can study. Any requests.”

“Try getting thomething thoft.”

“Okay.” Silverstream away and left Smolder alone. She looked in the mirror she could see her tooth. The crack was larger than Smolder expected and simply tapping on it caused another jolt of pain. Then she thought much would hurt if a drill dug into it. “I’m back!”

Smolder jumped at her friend’s response. “Don’t do that!”

“Sorry. I brought an ice pack to make you feel better.” She gave the dragon the ice pack, who then placed it on her cheek.

“Tho, what are you having trouble with?”

“Just a bit of history. I’ve gotten a little confused about how Equestria was created.”

“EUP? Remember?”

“Right.” Silverstream started writing things down as Smolder could only focus on her tooth and the drill. When she tried biting into the slice of cake, it still made her jaw feel sore.

“Oh, goth, I hate thith.”

When the next day came along, Smolder groaned as she got out of bed. Her toothache had bothered her all night. It felt like she had a spike on the inside of her mouth. She grumbled as she got to the mess hall. Even with the softest food, she still felt pain.

“This is dinner all over again,” Ocellus sighed.

“You think?” Smolder grumbled.

“Don’t worry,” Sandbar said. “We’ll have that fixed in no time. Our dentist's appointment is at ten.”

“Good. I’ll be glad when thith is over.”

“Yeah, you get to skip half of today’s lessons,” Gallus mentioned.

Through their breakfast and morning routine, Smolder’s tooth caused her constant pain from anything that touched it. Needless to say, brushing her teeth was her least favorite part of that morning.

“Ith it ten yet?” she asked.

“No,” Sandbar replied. “Just hold on for another hour.” This was easier said than done. Pinkie explained her lesson, Smolder thought to herself.

”Okay, so I’m just going to have a drill in my mouth. A drill in... My mouth. She thought some more on how much pain she would get from that if just a cake hurt her. “No way, I’m not going to do that. I’ll just do it the old fashioned way. But how do I do that without Sandbar knowing I didn’t go through it?”

When it was a quarter till ten, Sandbar’s dad, Beachcomber, came to the school to pick his son up. ”Would Sandbar and Smolder report the principal office?” Starlight said over the P.A. system. Beachcomber is here to take you to your appointment.”

“Wish us luck guys,” Sandbar said to his friends. He and the worried dragoness walked away and left the school with the stallion.

“I was curious that a dragon’s getting a dentist appointment,” Beachcomber said.

“Yeah, I wonder what it’ll be like,” Sandbar said.

“Probably the same as a pony.” He turned his attention to Smolder, who held an ice pack to her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t want to talk right now,” Smolder replied.

“Got it. I’m guessing it’ll just make your tooth hurt more.” When they got to the waiting room, they could see the waiting room only had one filly and its mother with her. They were then called in and walked through a door to the dentist's office. Smolder sat down with Sandbar and Beachcomber.

“Tho, how long doeth thith take?” she asked.

“Depends,” Sandbar replied. “Some kids don’t like coming here though.” As if on cue, a young colt raced out of office.

“Artic, get back here!” a mare cried. She gave chase as the colt raced out of the building. “She just wanted to help clean them.”

“...Okay, that was a bad example. I’m pretty sure he was just overreacting.”

“Sandbar,” a blue unicorn mare called.

“I’m up.” The colt walked into the doctor’s office and the mare closed the door.

Smolder looked at the clock as seconds ticked by. The ice pack she had was starting to warm up again, so it wasn’t as useful. “Great,” she groaned, “Now I need a new one.”

“I’ll see if I can get you one,” Beachcomber said. She gave him the ice pack and he walked away to find another one. The dragoness just sat in her chair thinking about what was going to happen. She heard a whirring sound and immediately drew it to a drill.

“It can’t go through that. There hath to be a way out of here.” She got up and walked around until she found a restroom. She walked inside and saw a window leading outside. “Perfect.”

After a while, Minuette had Sandbar stand up from his seat. “There we go,” she said.

“Thanks,” Sandbar said.

“It’s no problem at all.” As Minuette gave the colt a bag containing a new toothbrush and prize, Sandbar looked around noticing that a certain dragon wasn’t there.

“Have you seen Smolder?”

“Who. The dragon you brought with you?” He nodded in response. “I was sure we called her, except she didn’t come in.”

Sandbar seemed confused. He walked over to his father, who was holding an ice pack. “Dad, where did Smolder go?”

“I thought she went in to get her appointment,” Beachcomber replied.

“She didn’t come in.”

“Maybe she went into the restroom.”

Smolder was actually flying back to the school hoping to find something or someone to help get her tooth out. When she got back, she found Emerald and Peridot. “Hi, Smolder,” Peridot said, “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good,” Smolder responded.

“We’re glad your feeling better,” Emerald said.

“How much did it hurt?” Peridot asked.

“A lot,” Smolder groaned.

“I thought to have my horns break would be bad,” Emerald said, touching the said body part. “I don’t even want to think about that much pain. Even with a drill.” Smolder shuttered at that comment.

“What was it like?” Peridot asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Smolder cried. She pushed past the twins and held her jaw. “Hath to be thome creature who ithn’t curiouth.”

She carried on until she came across a yak who looked to be similar to Yona, though she had hair covering her eyes, and it was rather messy. Not to mention her horns were darker and shorter. “Hello,” the yak said. “Yak name is Frida. Dragon friend of Yona?”

“Yeth. I need thome help. I couldn’t get my tooth out, tho I need your help to get rid oth it.”

“Okay. Frida get string.” The yak ran off as Smolder just a nervous thumbs up and grin.

Frida helped Smolder tie her tooth with some strong and tied the other end to a doorknob. “Tho, we jutht thlam thith?”

“This classic way to get rid of tooth.” Frida then slammed the door, but nothing really happened. She looked where the dragoness was standing. “Dragon step back.” Smolder did so and Frida tried again. This time when the door slam the dragon stumbled forward as her tooth was tugged. “Did trick work?”

“No.” Smolder only got pain from being pulled on. “Try again.” They did try, five more times. Each time they did, the dragoness felt pain from having her tooth tugged. Before they could try for the seventh time, Gallus walked in to stop them.

“What are you doing?” the griffon asked.

“Dragon needed help with tooth,” Frida explained.

“You wouldn’t have to. Smolder came back from the dentist.”

“She did?” They both looked towards the dragon, who tried to keep smiling. “Frida going to leave this between friends.”

“Good idea.” The yak left the room so the dragon and griffon could talk. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“I’m not letting thome creature put a drill in my mouth,” Smolder stated.

“So, you’d rather cause yourself more pain rather than do something that may cause pain but it’ll cause it to stop when it’s done.” Gallus gave a smirk and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not doing that.”

“Just saying. You’re going to regret it in seconds.” He tapped the dragon’s tooth, which made her wince in pain. In anger, she grabbed Gallus’s talon.

“Don’t do that!”

“You’re going to go through that until you go back.” She let him go and Gallus flew down the hall.

In gym class, Smolder met up with the rest of the cheer squad. “Girlth, how...”

“Gallus told us about you ditching the dentist,” Ocellus interrupted.

“Yona also hear from Frida,” Yona added.

“Thought tho,” Smolder said.

“It’s not that bad,” Shimmy Shake stated. “After you injected with a needle...”

“Needle?”

“...It’ll make the whole process be over in seconds.”

“No way. I’m not going through that.”

“She’s going be like this all day, is she?” Lighthoof asked.

“Sadly, yes,” Ocellus sighed.

“Let’s just try a new cheer,” Silverstream suggested.

“Yona was wanting to have new girls join,” Yona said.

“We’re still working on that,” Shimmy said. “Silver, what did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking that Smolder would make a ring or a spiral of smoke,” the hippogriff explained.

“I can do that,” Smolder replied. She flew into the air and started breathing smoke, but her toothache caused her to lose control and she blew smoke all over the room. This caused other cheerleaders to cough until Rainbow Dash entered the room and flew around to create to get rid of the smoke.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Smolder didn’t get her tooth filled,” Ocellus explained.

“How could that cauthe all thith?” Smolder asked as she landed.

“Anything hitting your tooth causes you pain. Just go back and get it fixed. Let’th jutht try thith again.” Smolder flew up and tried to make a smoke spiral again and the same thing happened. They cleared the smoke from the room to find her holding her jaw.

“We can try another move if you want,” Silverstream said.

“Okay.” They thought of swapping smoke for fire, but that still caused Smolder pain. The girls just had to do their normal routine, not be able to do anything new.

As soon as Smolder left the gym, she was followed by her three friends. “I think I could help pull the tooth out,” Silverstream said.

“No, Silver,” Ocellus said. “She needs to have it taken out by a professional.”

“I’ve seen my brother knock hith own tooth out,” Smolder responded as she stopped.

“There you are,” Sandbar said. He came walking up to the girls.

“Sandbar, you’re back,” Silverstream cheered.

“How Sandbar feeling?” Yona asked.

“Perfect,” he replied, “Just like my teeth.” Sandbar gave a smile to show off his shiny teeth.

“Ooh,” the girls cooed.

“No pain?” Smolder asked.

“Not if I don’t have a cavity,” Sandbar replied. “Where were you?”

“I left through the rethtroom window.”

“That explains it. If you’re thinking about going back, don’t bother. You’ll wait until at least tomorrow to have another appointment. You’ll be lucky if Minuette will make space for your appoin...”

“I’m not going back there.”

“If you don’t, your jaw’s going to get worse.”

“Don’t Sandbar mean tooth?” Yona asked.

“No, her gums may start swelling up.”

“Yikes,” Silverstream gasped.

“We’ll have thith thing yanked out in no time,” Smolder stated. “Come on, Thilver.” The dragoness and hippogriff flew off leaving their friends behind.

“Have you seen Gallus?” the colt asked.

Outside, Smolder had gotten a string tied around her tooth with the other end of the string tied around Silverstream’s tail. “GO!” the dragon cried. After hearing that, the hippogriff took off but the second they ran out of slack, Silver felt the tugging sensation on her tail and Smolder felt it for her tooth.

The hippogriff flew down and up again to regain some slack. She suddenly felt like something was pulling her back. Silverstream looked down to see her friend pulling back on the string. She landed in front of Smolder, who was holding her jaw in agony.

“I knew I should’ve gone down further,” Silverstream sighed.

“No, it’th not your fault,” Smolder grumbled. “Thith thupid tooth won’t budge.”

“I could try again. I’ll try flying in circles to get some speed.”

“Do it.” The hippogriff took off again. After flying in circles instead of flying upwards she flew straight ahead. Smolder tug her claws into the ground to support her as she braced herself. The string tightened and she felt the pain from her tooth. As she screamed, Smolder let out a blast of fire. This caused the string to break thus Silverstream went flying. She crash-landed, sending some dirt flying.

“Oh my goth,” Smolder cried. She ran over to the hippogriff to check on her.

“I’m fine,” Silverstream replied. She held her head, which was now pretty bruised. “Did it work?”

“Thlightly.” Smolder’s tooth was now wiggling, yet it was still stuck in her gums.

“I really thought that would work.” Just then, the bell rang, singling to the girls they needed to get to class.

By the time they got there, Fluttershy had already begun her lesson. “Where have you two been?”

“In the field,” Silverstream replied.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re a mess.”

“Can we jutht thtart clath?” Smolder asked. She and Silverstream sat down hoping to catch up with what they missed.

Because of the pulling, Smolder’s pain had gotten worse. It had gotten so bad that the only way she could enjoy a meal was to tilt her head to the side to keep the food and beverages to stay as far from her cracked tooth as possible. As she entered her dorm, she held an ice pack to her cheek as she sat on her bed.

“Feeling better?” Gallus asked smugly while walking in.

“What do you think?”

“Don’t forget, you did this to yourself.”

“Thut up!”

“Gallus, don’t be rude,” Silverstream ordered. She flew over to her roommate, who was in desperate need of cheering up. “Let’s try a different idea. Maybe I was too light. How about we try someone heavier?”

“Like a yak?” Gallus questioned.

“That’th it,” Smolder gasped. “Where’th Yona and Frida?”

After finding the yaks, they got to the school’s rooftop. Smolder had two strings tied around her tooth this time, with the other ends tied around the ankles of Yona and Frida. “Yona not sure about this,” Yona spoke.

“Dragon think idea is safe?” Frida asked.

“Look, there’th a trampoline down there,” Smolder explained. She pointed to the ground, where the trampoline was sitting. Gallus was placing some pillows around it and then grabbed a bag of popcorn.

“Ready,” he called.

“Smolder owes yaks,” Yona told. She took a deep breath before she and Frida jumped off the roof. Smolder tried to hold onto the roof, but the yaks’ weight was too much and she lost her grip. Silverstream tried to grab her tail, but this caused her to fall down with them. They bounced off the trampoline and landed on the pillows.

“Did it work?” Gallus asked cheekily.

The dragon took a look at the string which still led to her mouth. “No,” she groaned.

“What dragon teeth made out of?” Yona asked.

“Really tough boneth.”

“Are you guys crazy?” Ocellus asked. She and Sandbar ran towards them to see if they were alright.

“Yaks fine,” Yona stated. “Pillows break fall.”

“That doesn’t explain why you were jumping...” Sandbar paused when he saw the string leading to Smolder. “...Seriously?”

“We’re trying everything,” the dragon answered.

Silverstream took a look inside of Smolder’s mouth to look at her tooth. “I think we’re making progress,” she commented. “Though, I’m not sure why her gums are getting redder.”

“What?” Ocellus and Sandbar questioned.

The colt took a look and could see the dragon’s gum were red, not to mention swollen. “Yeah, that’s bad,” Sandbar commented. “I think it’s getting worse.”

“In jutht a day?”

“No, it’s probably from you trying to pull it out so much,” Ocellus answered.

“Look, I felt it coming loothe, we're making progreth.”

“Frida doesn’t want to jump again,” Frida said. “Yak going to go find friends.”

“You do that,” Sandbar said. The yak walked off as Smolder held her cheek again.

“I’ll get you another ice pack,” Silverstream said.

“No, I’ll get it mythelf,” Smolder responded. She flew off leaving her friends behind.

“Smolder isn’t going to go to the dentist,” Sandbar said.

“That’s obvious,” Gallus commented.

“Yes, but her problem’s just going to get worse.”

“You’re not saying we’re going to force her to go, are you?” Ocellus asked.

“I don’t know how else we’ll get her to go.”

“Yaks can match dragons in strength,” Yona spoke.

“Wha... We can’t drag her against her will.”

“It’s either that or she can have her problem get worse,” Gallus stated.

“Friends have point,” Yona commented.

They paused as they heard Silverstream jumping on the trampoline. “I’m not letting this go to waste,” she said. “Come on, join me.” Sandbar just shrugged and decide to join his friend.

“Okay, you guys have your fun,” Gallus said, “We’re going to make a plan for Smolder. Okay, Ocellus, we’re definitely going need you to transform into something strong.”

The next day, Silverstream woke up and flew down from her bunk. She looked at Smolder and was surprised that her cheek was starting to swell. “Yikes,” the hippogriff gasped.

“What?” Smolder asked.

“Um... Nothing.” Not knowing what else to say, Silverstream flew towards the mess hall. She managed to catch up with her friends and explained what she saw.

“That bad?” Ocellus asked. “Okay, Sandbar, when’s her appointment?”

“Ten o’clock,” Sandbar answered.

“Okay,” Gallus said. “We’ll bring her over there at nine-thirty. Knowing her, she’s going to slow us down.”

“True.”

“Here Smolder comes,” Yona cried pointing down the hall. As the dragoness walked in, her swollen cheek was hard to miss.

“Good... Morning,” Ocellus said. She was rather shocked to see her friend’s condition.

“Anything new to eat?” Smolder asked.

Sandbar walked over to the selection of food for the students to pick from. “Nothing new,” he commented. He and the others notice that their dragon friend was only getting porridge and milk, which didn’t seem like what Smolder would normally eat. “So...”

“No.”

“Why do I even bother?” After another painful breakfast, Smolder got to class. She didn’t even bother brushing her teeth, which started making her breath foul.

Gallus was the unlucky one that had to sit next to her. He had to cover his beak to block out the smell. “And you didn’t brush, why?” he asked annoyed.

“It jutht hurtth my tooth more,” Smolder replied.

The griffon looked towards the clock seeing it wasn’t even a quarter past nine. “Ugh. She’s your friend Gallus,” he thought. “Stay strong.” Some of the other students weren’t as strong as them and they scooted away from the dragon’s rancid breath.

When it was nine-thirty, Gallus winked at his friends, signaling it was time for their plan. “Smolder, I think I know this herb that can help with your toothache,” Ocellus said.

“You do?” Smolder asked.

“Yeah, it’s outside. Follow me.” They raced off with their friends secretly following behind, carrying some rope. “I’ve done some research about teeth since you’re not willing to go to the dentist. It’s a surprisingly common herb. I think we can get Zecora to help us with it.”

“Tho, where ith it?” Once they got outside, the changeling ‘looked’ around for the herb.

“I was sure I saw it here before.”

The other four students snuck up behind with Gallus and Silverstream holding a gray rope. “Okay, Yona,” the griffon whispered, “NOW!”

Before Smolder could react, Yona tackled her to the ground so her friends could tie her up. “Get off of me!” the dragon cried.

“No way,” Gallus replied. Yona had to move around a bit so the rope could get around the dragon.

“Smolder,” Sandbar said, “You’re going to the dentist whether you like it or not.”

“Theriouthly? I can jutht burn through thith rope.”

“Think again,” Gallus said. “This is a special rope. Wonder why it’s gray?”

“I was wondering that, yeah,” Silverstream answered.

“It’s sort of like steel wool. It isn’t quite fireproof, but it should hold until we get you there.”

“Where did you get this?” Sandbar asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” He and Silverstream lifted Smolder onto Yona’s back, though Smolder kept struggling. The five took her to the dentist's office.

When they got to the waiting room, some of the fillies and colts were a little worried when they saw the tied up dragon. “She’s a little stubborn,” Silverstream explained.

“Smolder,” Minuette said.

“You’re going to feel the thame pain that I'm going to feel,” Smolder growled at her friends.

“I’m sure that Headmare Starlight and the professors will love to see that,” Gallus smirked. He and Silverstream helped Smolder into the dentist's office.

“So, where were you?” Minuette asked.

“No questions please,” Silverstream said as she sat Smolder down. “We’re kind of in a hurry.”

“Those that explain she’s tied up?”

“She is stubborn,” Gallus clarified.

“Good to know. Okay, Smolder, open wide.” The dragoness groaned and did as she was told. The dentist gasped at the sight of her teeth. “Wow. I didn’t think it was this bad.”

“Don’t you just pull it out?” Silverstream asked.

“I would. If she came in yesterday. Her gums are really swollen. This treatment is going to take a while.” The mare walked off for a minute before she came back with a needle. The dragon tried to slip out but her friends and the rope managed to keep her in place. Once the dentist injected the needle in Smolder’s mouth, she seemed to calm down.

“What did you do?”

“This is just something I give to the patients that need more work done on their teeth. This is going to take a while.”

“We’ll come back later,” Gallus said. He and Silverstream left as the mare started work.

After a while, Smolder came back to reality and saw Minuette removing the metal ropes. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” the mare said.

“How... How long was I out?” Smolder asked.

“About an hour. Would’ve finished it sooner...”

“Wait, that was it?”

“Yeah. Like I was saying, it would’ve to finish sooner if you came in yesterday.”

The dragon coughed as felt something dry in her mouth. “Is this a cotton ball?”

“Yeah, I had to do that to help with the gums. If you came in yesterday, this wouldn’t be such a big deal.”

“Is that why my mouth still feels sore? ...Swollen gum?”

“Swollen gum.”

Smolder sighed and walked into the waiting room, where Sandbar just walked in. “Oh, you’re done,” he said.

“Yeah,” she replied flatly.

“Your father will be paying for this, right?” Minuette asked.

“Yeah,” Sandbar answered. He and Smolder left to head back to the school.

“I can’t believe I went through all that pain, just for that,” Smolder groaned. “I mean... I felt nothing.”

“Shimmy could’ve been more specific.”

“If there’s ever an option that’s easier than my way, yet I still go for my way, bring this up.”

“Got it.” The pony and dragon walked on with Smolder feeling kind of foolish.