Freedom Of Choice

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Rating: everyone
Tags: Starlight Glimmer, Smolder, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Young Six, Ocellus, Comedy
Length: 10044

Elections for class president are coming up at the School of Friendship, and Ocellus needs some help from her friends.

"I'll say it again in the land of the free,/Use your freedom of choice,/Freedom of choice." -Devo, 'Freedom Of Choice'

At the School of Friendship, Ocellus is running for class president. However, in accordance with the school's charter, Ocellus will have to run against another student. With this in mind, Ocellus asks a certain reluctant dragon to help her out.

Cover art commissioned from Amy New.

Published 2020-06-15 20:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-06-23 17:22:18 UTC

Chapter 1: Elected

Ocellus was hurrying through the halls with a stack of papers held tightly to her body. It was lunch and she needed to get to the mess hall while all the students were present. If there was a time for her to put her plan into action, it was now.

The changeling opened up the doors to the cafeteria, revealing the student body taking part of their midday meal. She started passing them out the papers she had to all the different students in the mess hall. They were flyers, persuading them to vote for Ocellus to be class president.

“Ocellus for class president! Ocellus for class president!” she would say to the various different students as she passed out the papers. Her face had a genuine friendly smile to each and every creature, even if they seemed to lack any interest. She continued making her way throughout the mess hall, offering the flier to any student that would take it. After keeping this up for a while and making her way through the room, she reached a familiar table with some friendly faces that she stopped to take a rest at.

“Hey, Ocellus,” Sandbar, the green earth pony greeted, raising his hoof up as he peered over the comic book he was reading.

“Hi!” the changeling responded as she placed the stack of fliers on the table. She seemed out of breath from both passing them out and talking so much. She looked around the table to see that all five of her friends were present.

The pink hippogriff, Silverstream, was the first to notice her stack of papers, “Ooo! What do you have here?” She picked up one of the papers to examine it. It had a picture of Ocellus on a podium of sorts with red and blue font proclaiming ‘A vote for Ocellus is a vote for friendship’. Even the paper itself seemed to be of quality material.

“I’m running for class president,” Ocellus answered, “I could have sworn I told all of you about this.” Ocellus seemed bewildered that her friends were clueless.

“Yona not remember Ocellus say that,” the yak thought for a moment, “however, Yona remember friend Ocellus say she was going to run and Yona wanted to race against friend.”

“No, it’s not that kind of race. It’s an election for president of the student body,” Ocellus explained.

The griffon, Gallus, asked, “Wait, we have a student president? I thought we had an autocracy.”

“Nah, we have a president,” the dragon Smolder answered. “Rumor has it that the pressure of being class president got to them so bad that they dropped out and now they’re at the cemetery.”

Yona gasped, “They died?!”

Smolder shook her head, “No, they work there as a security guard.”

Ocellus looked as if she wanted to correct her friends about a number of things but held her tongue. Instead, she brought the subject back, “I could use some help passing out these flyers to students. Do you all mind helping me out?”

“Hard pass,” Gallus answered as he took a bite from his plate.

The response didn’t seem to visibly bother Ocellus. She turned to look at her other friends, “How about you, Sandbar?”

“Busy,” he answered, turning the page of his comic.

“Silverstream?”

The hippogriff in question had taken her paper and folded into a paper hat that she placed on her head, “Hey, look at what I did!”

Ocellus’ hope was starting to be diminished, “What about you, Smolder?”

“I don’t know why you’re so stressed about this, Ocellus,” Smolder looked at her friend, “it’s not like you have any competition. No other creature wants to be class president. You basically already won. These things are kinda dumb.”

“And aren’t these elections basically glorified popularity contests?” Gallus asked.

Without raising his eyes from his comic, Sandbar added, “It certainly was at my old school.”

“But the students still have to know why they should vote for me!” Ocellus insisted. “I can help change this school for the better!”

Yona spoke up, “Yona think school is fine way it is. Especially on nacho day!”

“I hear that,” Gallus agreed, offering a rolled talon for Yona to hit with her hoof, to which she did.

“There is more to school than just lunches,” Ocellus sighed.

Silverstream adjusted her new paper hat slightly before speaking, “But it’s my favorite subject! And I think it’s the only subject I have a good grade in.”

“Think about it, we can help make the school better for not only us and the rest of our classmates, but future students at this school, and maybe even other schools! And then we can take our programs across Equestria and even beyond! And as class president, I would be able to make those dreams a reality!” Ocellus seemed to be getting animated as she explained her hopes as class president.

“Wow, you really are an overachiever, Ocellus,” Smolder commented.

The changeling replied, “I don’t see the problem.”

As the friends continued chatting, a lilac unicorn entered the mess hall and headed toward the table they were at. Leavitated next to her with magic was a rolled piece of parchment.

“Oh, Ocellus, I’m happy I found you,” she spoke.

“Oh, hello there, Headmare Starlight Glimmer,” the changeling greeted, “what can I help you with?”

The Headmare looked troubled, as if she couldn’t figure out what words she would use, “It’s about the election for class president.”

“Is it about how she already won?” Gallus joked.

“I was going over our school’s charter, and I found a clause that needs to be addressed.” The unicorn used her magic to unravel the parchment, revealing the school’s charter. “Right now, you are running unopposed, but according to the charter, a president must be elected in a race against at least two individuals running for the same office,” Headmare Starlight explained as she looked over the charter.

Ocellus grew concerned, “Huh? What does that mean?”

“It seems that unless you have another student compete against you for the office, we might just have to postpone the election,” Starlight explained with a shrug.

“Hey, may I see that?” Gallus asked, pointing at the charter.

The Headmare used her magic to levitate the to the griffon as she continued, “I know this might not be what you want to hear after all the work you put into your campaign, but it’s in the charter.”

The changeling didn’t speak for a moment. Instead, the gears in her head seemed to be working overtime to think of some sort of solution. “So, it could be any student who runs against me? It doesn’t matter who?”

“I guess? As long as they are currently enrolled and want to hold the office. But they must hurry and sign up, tomorrow is when we are supposed to have the debate,” Starlight explained.

“I’d offer to run, but I really shouldn’t after last time I participated in an election,” Silverstream spoke.

Yona turned to the hippogriff, “What happened last time?”

“There was some….unpleasantness….” Silverstream explained with a guilty look, “now I can never go back to Cloudsdale….”

Before anycreature could ask Silverstream to elaborate, Ocellus slammed her hooves down on the table, “I got it!” She turned to her dragon friend, “Smolder, you can run against me!”

The entire table was silent as it tried to process exactly what Ocellus just suggested. The first to make any noise was Sandbar, who tried his best to hide his snickering at the thought.

“Are you crazy? I don’t want any part of that!” Smolder was taken back by the suggestion.

“It’s for the school! If you help me win, I will be able to help this school with all sorts of plans I have lined out!” Ocellus excitedly spoke.

Smolder raised an eyebrow, “You already have plans for when you win?”

“Of course! I have binders filled with plans to help the entire student body!” the changeling explained before returning to begging, “But I can’t do any of them if you don’t help me run for the student body! Besides, don’t you want to improve the lives of your fellow students at the school?”

The dragon shrugged, “No, not really. In fact, I think most of the students think my name is Cinder. But I have to ask you a question; why me?”

“I second asking this question,” Sandbar asked.

Gallus also spoke up, “I third.”

“I Silverstream!”

“Because you already stated how you feel about school elections, and how they are simply pointless popularity contests.”

Smolder groaned as she looked away, “You’re not wrong.”

“And you probably would resign right away if you were to somehow win,” Ocellus added.

“Hey, you don’t know me!” Smolder got a bit defensive, “But yeah, that’s true too.”

Ocellus smiled, “So it would be perfect if you run against me!”

“Politics aren’t really my passion,” Smolder said, “My passion involves lighting things on fire. With or without my fire breath.”

Headmare Starlight interrupted to scold the dragon, “I told you to stop doing that on school grounds.”

“I don’t do it on school grounds….anymore….” Smolder crossed her limbs in annoyance.

Placing her hoof on Smolder, Ocellus asked again, “Please, Smolder? Can you do this for me?”

With a defeated sigh, Smolder agreed, “Fine, I’ll run against you for class president. But you better win and thank me when you do.”

Sandbar looked over to Headmare Starlight, “Are you okay with them talking like this about the school election? This has to be against some sort of rule.”

“Honestly, whoever wins the election is going to make my job easier, so I don’t care who wins,” Headmare Starlight admitted with a sigh.

“That can’t be ethical,” Yona commented.

“Huh, this is interesting,” Gallus spoke up. He was still reading through the school’s charter, “It says here that if the counselor believes that both the Headmare and the Vice-Headmare are unable to fulfill the duties of their office with integrity, the counselor can dispose of and succeed them.”

Quickly, Headmare Starlight snatched the school charter from Gallus’ talons as she cried out in a panic, “Give me that!” Her sudden outburst left the entire table staring at her in confusion. With a nervous glance at the students, she spoke again, “Trixie must never know….” The Headmare then took the charter and hurried off.

Chapter 2: Point/Counterpoint

The students gathered in the school’s auditorium. The packed room was filled with restless yet bored students who, among other things, didn’t want to be there. In the front right corner of all the seats were Silverstream, Sandbar, Yona, and Gallus. Like the rest of the students, they were there not out of interest, but rather to support both Ocellus and Smolder for the class president debate.

Sandbar leaned back in his seat and mumbled, “I really hope this doesn’t take too long.”

“What is this place?” Silverstream looked all around the room in awe.

“It’s our school’s auditorium,” Sandbar answered, puzzled at his friend’s question, “How do you not know that?

“Our school has an auditorium? Wow!” the hippogriff said in wonderment.

Seated next to Sandbar, Gallus was reading over a familiar looking parchment.

“What Gallus reading?” Yona asked, looking over to her friend.

“The school charter,” he answered without looking up, “Did you know that Sweet Apple Acres has a monopoly written into the charter?”

Yona raised an eyebrow, “How did friend Gallus get school charter again?”

Gallus lowered the parchment for a moment before answering, “Oh, I asked Headmare Starlight to let me read it so I could learn more about the school’s history and- aww, you know full well that I stole it.” He raised it back up and continued to read the fine print. “Huh, it also says students are not allowed to make deals with ‘characters of questionable virtue’. Guess that explains why Cozy Glow got kicked out.”

On the stage in the front of all of the seats, two podiums were positioned before the student body. And just off stage, two creatures were waiting in the wings.

Ocellus smiled at her friend Smolder, “Thanks again for doing this for me."

“Is it too late for me to back out?” the dragon asked.

“Relax, Smolder, it’s going to be okay,” Ocellus trotted up to Smolder and placed a comforting limb on her shoulder, “You actually don’t have to do anything all that much, really. And if you don’t know how to respond to a question, you can just say ‘pass’. Understand?”

“Pass.”

“Yes, like that, but you do that up there,” Ocellus corrected.

Moments later, Headmare Starlight made her way up to the stage. It took her a moment to settle down the entire audience, “Students, please settle down, we are about to start the debate for class president. Now, we have two students who are running for the office.” She motioned for the offstage Ocellus and Smolder to approach the podiums. “We have Ocellus and Smolder competing for your vote.”

There was a little applause from the students. Most of the noise came from Silverstream in the front who, along with furiously clapping, waved and called out to both of her friends. “Hi Ocellus! Hi Smolder!” She then turned around to the students behind her and claimed, “I know them!”

Starlight cleared her throat as she tried to get the attention of the students again, “The office of class president is not an easy one, and it will be up to you, the student body, to vote for the candidate you believe will be best suited for this role. That is how our school's democracy will work. Now, we will have a simple debate with students asking questions that they might have to both of the candidates, as well as pre-written questions provided by the students before the debate. After the debate, all students will be able to vote right outside in the hallway for who they wish to be class president.” Starlight then motioned to Ocellus, “First, we will hear from the candidates about themselves. Ocellus?”

“Thank you, Headmare Starlight Glimmer,” Ocellus thanked the unicorn as she began, “As you may already know, my name is Ocellus and I am running for class president. It is both my hope and my goal to help the students to make their time here at the School of Friendship the best it possibly can be. I might not exactly share all of your beliefs or values, but I promise to make sure that your voice is heard and do what I can to help each and every single student. Thank you.” A small amount of applause followed.

Headmare Starlight nodded as she spoke, “Thank you, Ocellus. Now we will hear from our other candidate, Smolder.”

The dragon stood behind the podium and looked out at the audience staring right back at her. “I’m Smolder,” she started and then stopped. After a few moments of silence and looking around in confusion of why there was silence, she added, “That’s it.” No applause followed.

“Well, that was….short and sweet,” Starlight tried to give Smolder’s statements a positive spin. “Now we will open the floor up to some questions from the audience.”

A student raised their hoof and stood up, “I have a question for both candidates: what is your plan for addressing the amount of homework load that we have in our classes?”

Ocellus was the first to speak, “An excellent question. I believe that while our studies are important, we should be able to address our lessons both in and out of the classroom. While it may seem the homework for our classes is a bit much, it is something we can address with study groups and tutoring. And I hope that we can all work with our professors to address such changes.”

“Well said,” Starlight said before looking toward the dragon, “Smolder?”

“I dunno, I don’t do my homework half the time.”

A bit of murmuring occurred amongst the audience after Smolder finished.

Sandbar raised his hoof and stood up. “I actually have a question for Smolder. What is your plan for-”

“Pass,” the dragon interrupted with a flat and deadpan expression.

Again, the crowd murmured, but it was hard to make out what exactly was their opinion of either candidate. Sandbar sat back down with a smirk. Little did the rest of the crowd know, Smolder asked the earth pony to ask the question for her to respond in such a manner.

Another student stood up and spoke, “I have a question for Cinder.”

Ocellus seemed a bit annoyed, “What the-? Her name is Smolder.” She motioned to Smolder, who seemed to not notice or care about the error.

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s Cinder,” the student insisted as they continued, “So Cinder, what will you do about our awful cafeteria food?”

Smolder shrugged, “I dunno, what do you wanna eat?”

A chorus of voices answered: “Chips!” “Sheet cake!” “Gravy!”

“Sure, whatever you want,” the dragon replied lazily.

Headmare Starlight was not thrilled about what she was hearing, “Students, please! We all have questions and such we would like answered, but we must do so in an orderly fashion! And our cafeteria food is not awful!”

A voice called out from the audience, "We beg to differ!"

Ocellus also spoke up with the same opinion as Starlight, “Please, we must have order, every creature! Can you just think of how wild it would be, if we just did whatever we all wanted? That would be like only having sugary soda and candy for every meal!”

“Say, that’s not a bad idea,” Smolder commented with a smirk.

“Not helping, Smolder!” the changeling was growing a bit more frustrated.

A student raised their hoof and spoke, “I have a question for Smolder. What is your plan if the school gets attacked….again?”

Smolder shrugged again, “I dunno. Something maybe?”

The crowd applauded and seemed to like her response.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Ocellus was not pleased at all. While it looked as if Ocellus was contemplating yelling at the dragon, she took a quick calming breath before turning to Smolder, “And what would that ‘something’ be, Smolder?”

“Lava? Maybe we can use lava to solve the problem?”

The crowd seemed to enjoy the answer, even if Ocellus didn’t.

Before Ocellus could rebuttal again, another creature raised their limb and asked a question, “What is your plan for the rodent problem we have at the school?”

Ocellus perked up at the question, as it was something she could easily answer and hopefully bring order back to the chaos, “I actually have a plan that I will set forth the moment I am elected to help relocate the rodents to a new home that will be suitable for each and every-”

“Actually” she was interrupted by the same student, “I was asking Smolder.”

“Me? Uhh….” Smolder thought on the spot for an answer, “Get some cats, I guess?”

Ocellus couldn’t help but smirk at her friend’s stupid answer, “Oh really? And then what will we do with all these cats roaming our halls?”

“Then get some dogs to get rid of them?”

“Ha! And what about when the dogs start taking over?” Ocellus was enjoying poking more and more holes in Smolder’s plans, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Pffftt….I dunno,” Smolder admitted, before adding, “what are dogs afraid of? Sharks?”

“SHARKS?! WHERE?!” Sandbar stood up onto his hooves in a great panic and galloped out of the auditorium while screaming. Every eye in the room was fixed on him as he hurried out, both confused and a bit concerned.

Ocellus cleared her throat and brought the attention back, “Okay, I’ll humor you, Smolder. Just how, pray tell, would these sharks be on land?”

Smolder replied, “Maybe those science geeks can get working on that. Hey, you’re a science geek! If you get working on it, we can have robot shark hall monitors! That sounds pretty cool.” Smolder’s attitude seemed to change from a lack of interest in anything class president related. It almost seemed as if she wanted to try and win.

As Ocellus was about to respond to how idiotic what her friend just said, the crowd erupted to applaud and cheer in approval of such an idea.

“Let’s go to one of the pre-written questions, shall we?” Headmare Starlight interjected as she shuffled through the cards she levitated with her magic. “Let’s see here….ah, here we go. ‘How school going to fix holes in school walls?’” Starlight paused for a moment and reread the card a few times before adding, “T-That’s what the card says.”

“Well, I have written up a comprehensive budget proposal for the school’s fiscal year that outlines what the funds are to be used for. There is an amount of funds that are reserved for repairs to-”

The dragon interrupted loudly, “Did Yona write that?” She pointed at the yak in the front row, “You’re not fooling any creature, Yona! You’re the one making the holes!”

Yona cowered a little as she was being pointed at, “Yona just wanted answer!”

Without looking up from reading the charter, Gallus raised his talon up and patted Yona on her back, “There, there.”

A student stood up and spoke, “What is your plan in case of alien invaders?”

Ocellus couldn't help but smile and laugh quietly to herself as she heard the question, “I highly doubt any of us would have to worry abou-”

“What kind of aliens are we talking about here?” Smolder quickly and seriously interrupted. Her eyes were fixated on the student who asked the question, “Body snatchers? Hunters? Time travelers? Space samurai? I have at least three catalogued plans for each and every possible type of outer worldly visitation. Both friendly and not-so friendly.”

The changeling was dumbfounded and stunned in silence, even more so because the crowd cheered with approval. “Where is all of this coming from?” she asked, looking at her friend.

“They exist, Ocellus, and I am not going to take any chances,” Smolder’s demeanor was dead serious.

Gallus spoke up to his friends on stage, “And it says in the school charter that the class president must have a policy and response plan in the event of visitation of extraterrestrials. I'm starting to wonder who wrote this thing....”

Headmare Starlight looked down at the griffon, “Gallus, did you steal the school charter?”

“You can’t prove anything!”

“You are literally holding the school charter in your talons right now!”

“Bite me!” Gallus yelled back as he continued to read through the document.

As the noise grew in the auditorium, the student body seemed to grow more and more restless. “We don’t want to take math anymore!” a student yelled from the audience

“Okay, done,” Smolder pointed at the student, “No more math.”

“You can’t just get rid of programs like that!” Ocellus objected.

“Why not?” Smolder asked, “every creature really seems to like that idea.” She was right too, as the student body seemed excited about her campaign promises.

Another student spoke up, “I’m tired of the computer lab being filled with nerds! I want to use the computers the way Celestia intended: playing video games, gambling online, and finding hot singles in my area!”

“You want to be able to surf the entirety of the dark web, you got it!” Smolder proclaimed with passion. The crowd cheered with approval again. “And if you elect me as your class president, I will get Sapphire Shores to perform a private concert for our school, replace all the books in our library with super violent comics, and add more stairs that lead to nowhere!”

At the end of Smolder’s statement, Silverstream stood up and shouted happily at the top of her lungs, “Yesss! More stairs!”

The entire crowd was going crazy for Smolder’s big and crazier promises. This was not sitting well with either Ocellus or Headmare Starlight.

“Okay, okay, please settle down, students! That’s enough of the debate itself,” Starlight said, trying to reign in a little control. “We will now hear the final statements from each candidate.”

Ocellus went first, “My fellow students, look at yourselves! You’re going absolutely mad over promises that are pipe dreams at the very least! Look, I can’t promise you anything of the sort that Smolder has, due in large part that what she is offering is insanity and can only create chaos at our wonderful school. But if you vote for me, I assure you I will do everything within my power to let your voices be heard and help make the time you spend here at the School of Friendship to be one of the best times of your lives! Please, vote for me!”

A small smile appeared on Headmare Starlight’s face as she gave a small nod of approval to Ocellus after her speech, “Thank you, Ocellus. Now, Smolder, closing statements?”

Smolder cleared her throat and paused for a moment before making her proclamation: “Vote for me or don’t!”

The entire auditorium of students cheered and gave a standing ovation to Smolder. Clapping of hooves, talons, claws, and other limbs echoed through the room along with the cheering for the dragon candidate.

Both Ocellus and Headmare Starlight gave a frustrated sigh.

The crowd began to chant: “Smolder! Smolder! Smolder!”

A surprised smile appeared on Smolder’s face, “Wow, they actually know my name!”

Chapter 3: Victorious

The next day, all of the votes were tallied. The day seemed to go on as normal for every creature at the school. That is, except for Ocellus. The changeling seemed to be extremely concerned about what was once a guaranteed victory in the election. However, Smolder’s lackadaisical attitude and extreme campaign promises seemed to inspire the student body. It came as a shock to Ocellus when the results were announced, with Smolder winning.

“You? The student body president?” Ocellus asked, “Really?”

“That’s the fifth time you said that this morning,” Smolder commented as the two walked the hallway to the mess hall for breakfast.

“I’m well aware, and it still feels wrong to say,” she stated, shaking her head in disbelief.

Smolder made her way down the hallway with pride in each step she took, “I don’t know why you find it so hard to believe. I’m truly presidential material! And presidential is my middle name!”

Ocellus was quick to correct, “No. No, it’s not. It’s actually Pyrite.” She then pulled a piece of paper with some writing on it, “Look, I took the liberty of preparing a letter of resignation for you. This would allow you to step down as student body president, abdicate power to your runner up, myself, and this will allow you to focus your time on what’s important to you….” Ocellus paused for a moment to think of what that would be, “which I guess is burning things?”

“That’s the old me, Ocellus,” Smolder replied, “Now, I have become a servant to my fellow students.”

“But you didn’t even want to run for class president in the first place!” Ocellus raised her voice slightly. She quickly covered her mouth to keep herself from growing louder.

“I’m sorry, but school has spoken, Ocellus.”

“This school is full of morons!” Again, Ocellus covered her mouth after raising her voice, “Sorry, that was rude of me, but it’s true!”

“And I shall lead these morons as the biggest moron of them all!” Smolder proclaimed with pride as she opened the doors to the mess hall.

Inside the mess hall, the rest of the student body was there, eating their first meal of the day. Upon entering the room, Smolder made her way to the nearest table. She stepped up on the seat first and then up onto the table itself, elevating her to the entire mess hall.

“My fellow students, it is I, your new class president, Smolder!” Her words were loud and got the attention of the entire room. “No longer must you wonder how your time at the School of Friendship can be better, as I am here to answer that question! First and foremost, our meals here in the cafeteria are whatever you want! Go and get whatever you want!”

At her words, a number of students rushed to the food line. They were pushing up against one another, each demanding a different food for breakfast.

“Do you have rocky road ice cream?!”

“I want pão de queijo!”

“Can you make me curry?!”

“Can I get fettuccine alfredo?!”

“Gravy! Give me lots of gravy!”

Smolder continued to address the rest of the students, “Now, our textbooks state that the average body is around two-thirds water. I say that is too much! Behold: the soda fountains!”

The dragon motioned to what seemed like a normal water fountain in the cafeteria. However, a student turned it on, finding that a carbonated beverage was coming out from the opening.

“Every creature, it’s orange soda!” they claimed as they started drinking from it.

More students gathered around the fountain and began clamoring.

“It’s like a water fountain, but with soda!”

“This is so cool!”

“There are different flavors all over the school!”

“I heard that the one in the teacher’s lounge has a fountain that dispenses a weird smelling drink! The professors seem to really like it!”

Smolder continued to stand proudly on top of the table as she continued to speak, “And that is only the beginning! Nothing is impossible!”

The students began chanting Smolder’s name in approval.

Ocellus stood off to the side in utter confusion, “How was she able to do all of this so fast?”

“She is no longer the dragon we once knew. She has gone mad with power,” Gallus explained as he appeared next to the changeling. His eyes were fixated on the parchment in his talons.

“But this is insanity! She seriously can’t get away with doing all of this, right?” Ocellus asked, looking at the griffon.

“Actually,” Gallus started, using his talon to point at a line on the parchment, “it says in the school charter that the class president has the authority over a number of different aspects of student life, even construction, policies, lunches, and the suspension of something called ‘habeas corpus’, whatever that is.”

Ocellus sighed, “I can only imagine that this is going to end badly for the entire student body….” She then noticed that Gallus was holding the school’s charter, “Wait, why do you still have that?”

“I’m still reading it. There’s a lot of stuff going on in here,” Gallus commented, “Did you know that the School of Friendship is not liable if a student is killed and eaten by another student? But only if they are fully eaten, bones and all. Very interesting.”

Frustrated with everything around her, Ocellus left the mess hall.

Later that evening, Smolder was in Headmare Starlight’s office. The two of them were chatting about a number of different things, particularly new policies and changes throughout the school. They were interrupted, however, by a singular blue changeling entering through the door.

“Headmare Starlight, we have to talk about Smolder as class president!” Ocellus trotted in with a huff.

“Yeah, sure, just come on in. No need to knock or anything. Not like there are rules in place about things like that, but yeah, whatever,” Starlight Glimmer said from behind her desk, her voice was both tired and annoyed.

“Oh, hey Ocellus. How’s it going?” Smolder greeted her friend as she entered in.

“Smolder, what have you done to our school?”

The dragon had a bit of a smug attitude, “Please, call me by my presidential name: Supreme and Glorious Student Body President Smolder.”

“No, I don’t think I will,” Ocellus replied, unamused. “What exactly are you doing? You’ve been present for only a day and the whole school is in chaos!”

“Are you sure you’re just not upset and jealous that you didn’t win?” Smolder gave a sly smirk.

With a calm but obviously frustrated demeanor, Ocellus responded, “I am not upset. Not at all.”

Headmare Starlight spoke, pointing at the changeling, “Is that why you’re changing colors?”

“Is it happening again?” Ocellus lifted her hoof up to look at it, noticing that it was ranging to a number of different colors. It took her a moment to calm herself enough to have her body revert back to it’s normal hue of blue, “Well, that’s not why.”

“The school is better now, I don’t see the problem!” Smolder insisted.

“Are you kidding me? I just got back from the model Friendship Council room and it’s filled with steam!” Ocellus explained.

“Yeah, it’s a sauna now! I got the idea from when I was in a sauna!”

“And why does it look like a number of the students are preparing for some sort of fight? I saw students coated in war paint!” Ocellus stressed.

Smolder seemed excited that Ocellus asked, “Oh, that’s actually a cool thing I thought of! All of the school clubs will be engaging in a caged death match for funding!”

There was a look of absolute horror on Ocellus’ face, “B-But we have plenty of funding for all of the clubs!”

“I know, but I already announced that we’re going to do this,” the dragon did sound a bit guilty, “And besides, do you really want me to break their hearts?”

“There are students making armor and weapons!”

“I think you mean they are crafting armor and weapons.” Smolder corrected, “They’re being creative!”

“Smolder, there are students weaponizing bees!”

“See? That’s, like science-y stuff! I thought you’d be happy to see that there are a number of great improvements already, like with the debate club!”

“I don’t think it was smart to change the rules of the debate club so that all arguments and rebuttals must be done in the form of freestyle rap battles,” Ocellus gritted her teeth in frustration.

“Why not? Students might actually go to the debates now!” Smolder smiled.

Ocellus raised a hoof up to her face as she sighed, “And the physical education classes have turned into a free-form lucha libre fight! It’s absolute madness!”

“That’s the survival of the fittest thing that we learned, right? It’s perfect!” Smolder justified herself, “Yona seems to like it.”

“She sent three students to the infirmary!” Ocellus countered angrily.

“Okay, first off, those students knew what the risks were when they stepped into that ring,” Smolder stated, “and second, it could have been any creature who hit them all with that chair. The assailant was wearing a mask, like all good luchadors do.”

“I….” Ocellus gritted her teeth as she held her tongue for a moment while trying to find the right words, “....is there anything else you want to tell me while you’re at it?”

“WellI don’t know exactly what ‘metal shop’ is,” the dragon gave air quotes, “but now it’s on roller skates.”

A frustrated groan came from Ocellus as she turned to Starlight, who was seated at her desk. “Headmare Starlight, this whole election business has gotten completely out of control. There must be something you can do.”

With an almost bored attitude, the unicorn replied, “The faculty is usually supposed to stay out of the student government, so I’m trying to keep a hooves-off approach to how things are done with the entire school.”

“But you used to be in charge of a whole town, right? Weren’t you elected to that position?” Smolder asked.

“Let’s….” Starlight’s eyes narrowed as she started to become a little panicky, “Let’s not use me as an example here….”

Ocellus turned her attention back to her friend, “Smolder, you can’t just keep promising whatever you want to all the students! It’s anarchy out there!”

“No, it’s not, it’s a democracy. That’s how I got voted,” Smolder corrected.

“That’s not what I meant!” Ocellus shouted.

“Ocellus, I think you’re just mad that I beat you in the election. I’m sure you’ll see that I can make this school even better than it was. I’m sorry everything is going so well for me with all these changes. It just takes a little input from the rest of the students and the drive to do it!,“ Smolder said as she stood up from the chair, “Now if you excuse me, I have to prepare to feed the rice to all of the pigeons. That will show those vile winged-rats whose boss! I’m so happy to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t like them.”

Ocellus was horrified as she turned to the Headmare, “That can’t be allowed, right?”

“Actually, the charter states the class president is allowed to address pest problems the way they seem logical,” Starlight explained. “My only suggestion was to make sure to not let Fluttershy watch.”

Smolder waved to Ocellus and Starlight as she left, “I’ll see you both later! Let me know if we were able to get a hold of the Wonderbolts! An acrobatic performance would be cool, but one of the students said they wanted to see if they could also juggle!”

Starlight watched as Smolder left her office. She reached down into her desk and pulled out a flask. She opened it up with her magic and drank a little. She then looked over to the potted plant on her desk, to which Starlight pulled toward her and poured a little into the pot, “I think we both need this, Phyllis.”

“Is that from the new water fountain in the teacher’s lounge? I don’t think plants should have soda,” Ocellus said.

Starlight looked straight at Ocellus, “It’s not soda and get out.” After the changeling left her office and closed the door behind her, the unicorn sighed, “It’s times like these I remember why I took over that town.”

As Smolder was proudly making her way through the school hallways, she was getting praise from her fellow students. A lot of it was praise for a lot of the different things she had changed throughout the school: the cafeteria being able to serve just about any kind of food at any time, the library being filled with all sorts of comics, the computers now being used for various games, and numerous other wild changes.

“Great work, class president!”

“The library is so cool now that I can read ‘Watchponies’ in school!”

“It’s so great that I can have sauerkraut for breakfast and waffles for dinner!”

Smolder smiled and waved to all the students, “But of course! I am but a servant to all of my fellow students!” She loved the praise, and it was growing on her.

“Yeah, that’s great. Now we want more,” one of the students stated.

This caught Smolder off guard, “Huh?”

A number of students started surrounding her with more and more demands.

“I want a skeeball machine in science class!”

“Uhh, sure,” Smolder said, a bit unsure in her answer.

“Can we get some dogs that roam the school with giant boomboxes hooked up to them?” another student requested.

“What?” Smolder asked as she was being surrounded by more and more students.

“We need a pool!” A student cried out.

Smolder raised her eyebrow, “But don’t we already have a pool?”

“Yeah, but now we need a bigger pool that has a smaller pool inside of it!” they insisted.

“With butlers! Trained chicken butlers!” another student quickly added.

Yet another student added to that comment, “Ones that don’t try to peck at you if you pick them up!”

The students continued to make their demands, creating a chaotic cacophony in the hallway. Smolder was starting to realize just how much she had been promising.

Chapter 4: Don't Let Me Down, Gently

Smolder furiously knocked on the dorm door. She didn’t get a reply as fast as she wanted so she knocked again with both claws. After continued attempts, the door finally opened up. However, the creature on the other end wasn’t who the dragon was hoping to see.

“Good morning, friend Smolder,” the yak said with a yawn, opening the door just enough to poke her head through.

“Yona, is Ocellus in there?” Smolder asked with a panicked look.

“Oh,” Yona turned her head to look inside the darkened room briefly, as if looking for an answer. She continued as she started to turn her head back to Smolder, “Friend Ocellus doesn’t want to see Smolder right now. Ocellus said something about not feeling good and state of the school.”

Smolder was starting to get more desperate, “I swear Yona, if Ocellus is actually in there right now, I’ll change the rules so you will have to give up your wrestling title in P.E. class by throwing the next few matches.”

As Yona reacted in horror to the thought of losing, a voice from behind her spoke up, “Yona, move, I got this.” The yak moved aside to reveal the light blue changeling that Smolder was looking for. Her face was bitter as she looked at the dragon. “What do you want, Smolder?”

“Ocellus! Oh, thank Dragon Lord Ember,” Smolder said, relieved to finally find her friend, “You gotta help me, the last two days have been absolutely insane! The whole student body is going crazy because I gave them whatever they want. Please help me out and I’ll give you whatever you want!”

With a glare that would even paralyze a cockatrice, Ocellus simply leaned on the frame of the dormroom door with her front limbs crossed. Her face easily showed how frustrated she was with her friend.

“Come on Ocellus, you got to help! You don’t like how the school is now, right? You can help me out by fixing it and making it better!” Smolder pleaded. “I’m begging you, everything is such a mess now!”

“Really? I can’t imagine why. Or maybe I just don’t care to,” the changeling snarked.

“That’s not funny! Please, will you just help?”

“You really don’t get it do you? There are consequences for what you’ve done. Being the class president isn’t about popularity and giving every creature whatever they want, it’s about making decisions that will have a lasting effect on every single creature. And making major changes on whatever whim is absolute insanity!” Ocellus’ raised her voice to a scolding tone, one that caused Smolder to retreat in her stance with guilt. “And look at what you’ve managed to do in less that 48 hours! There’s a club turf war going on, the cafeteria is serving nothing but cake and gravy, I think the teachers might be drunk, and the entire library is filled with comics! We haven’t seen Sandbar in days!”

Smolder gave a defeated groan, “I know, I know! Can you please just help me? Please?”

“I want to hear you admit you were wrong.”

“Do you mind gloating about it later?” Smolder asked, raising her voice a bit, “I can’t keep up with all these promises I keep making! I just promised a student I’d find their birth parents!”

Passing behind Smolder was their friend Gallus, still reading through the school’s charter. “Oh, hey Smolder, find anything yet?” he asked as he paused movement for a second.

Smolder forced a reassuring smile to the griffon, “N-No, not yet, but I’m still looking, Gallus!”

“Okay, cool. Take your time,” Gallus said as he resumed making his way down the hallway, “but pick up the pace if you don’t mind. But, you know, no rush….but please hurry.”

As Gallus continued and, when he was finally out of ear shot, Smolder turned her attention back to Ocellus, “You see what I’m dealing with here?”

“Fine, let’s go clean up your mess,” Ocellus said as she closed the door behind her. “Just so you know, I don’t forgive you yet.”

“Thank you,” Smolder breathed a sigh of relief as the two started down the hallway, “if you didn’t come with, I was going to have to figure out some way to colorize the moon for a student.”

Ocellus was dumbfounded, “Just what have you been agreeing to?”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“My fellow students,” Smolder stood at the podium, “Thank you for coming here today. I have gathered you all here today to discuss something of importance.”

The seats of the auditorium were filled by the entire student body. However, looking out into the crowd, it became apparent to the dragon just how her reign as president was already affecting the students. A number of the students were wearing luchador masks and a few of them were in some casts. The club terf war still seemed to have a number of the students clutching their weapons, waiting to strike if the moment called for it. Other students were eating from the new food that the mess hall was able to provide, including one particular pony that looked like they were eating gravy with their hooves. In the front row, Smolder saw a few of her friends, each affected by her decisions: Sandbar seemed to have his nose buried in a comic from the library, which he was most likely pulled out of by Yona who was wearing a luchador mask, Silverstream was barely able to sit still as if she ate nothing by sugar for the past few days, and Gallus was still looking through the school’s charter.

“During my time as your class president, I have understood the weight and the responsibility of this role,” Smolder continued. Standing nearby her was Ocellus and off to the side of the stage was Headmare Starlight, who may or may not have been trying to hide a flask. “I took it upon myself to listen to you, the students, and use my power and ability to help make your time here at the School of Friendship the best it could be. Upon becoming president, I swore an oath to serve with honor and insanity.”

Ocellus leaned in and corrected Smolder, “Integrity.”

“Right, right. Integrity,” the dragon spoke, “And it has come to my attention that perhaps my governing ability might not be suited for the role of class president. And with that, I have come to the conclusion that it would be in the best interest of both myself as well as the entire school if I were to step down, effective immediately. With that, I will pass the responsibilities onto the next candidate who earned the most votes.”

After Smolder stopped speaking, there was a fair amount of murmuring and gossiping amongst the student body.

“What just happened?”

“Did Smolder just resign?”

“Did we just get dumped by our class president?”

“What’s going to happen to the student government?”

However, one student stood up and raised their limb up, “So, I get that you’re stepping down as class president and all, but what about the new stuff you did for us?”

Smolder shuffled around the papers she had in front of her. While Ocellus helped her out by writing a resignation speech, she wasn’t expecting any creature to ask any questions. She turned to the changeling with a look that seemed to plead for help.

Ocellus simply motioned for her to respond with a few words, “You’ve got to break some hearts, Smolder.”

With a sigh, Smolder turned back and spoke, “All changes that I have made president are going to be put back normal.”

Her words did not sit well with the students as the crowd rose up and started to clamor in disapproval.

“But what about the cafeteria food?” a voice asked.

The dragon shrugged, “I guess it’s going to suck again.”

Another voice called out in horror, “But the club war is still going on! Who’s going to win the money for their club funds?!”

“Yeah, about that….” Smolder rubbed the back of her head with a claw with awkwardness, “there was actually plenty of money to fund the all of the clubs….”

A few of the students threw their weapons down in anger and disappointment, but a collective sigh of relief came from the majority of the various club students.

“But what about wrestling?” Yona asked as she raised a hoof.

“Normal P.E. classes will return,” Smolder answered.

Disappointed, Yona took off her luchador mask and threw it on the ground.

Sandbar looked up from his comic in a panic, “She can’t take away the comics in the library, right? Right?”

Gallus was still looking through the school’s character, “The class president can remove whatever they see, even as they exit the office. It also says they can create a book burning ritual, which seems to be kind of a strange clause.”

Another creature stood up to ask a question, “What about the Wonderbolts? Are they still going to visit and perform?”

Smolder silently turned to look at Headmare Starlight. Her face was tired and bitter as she simply shook her head. “Guess not,” Smolder answered with a shrug.

The entire auditorium was becoming chaotic. Students were upset as the new order of the school had come to an end.

"Hey, hey, I assure you, it is for the best. I am not suited for the role as your class president. In fact, I believe myself to be better doing something more constructive in the way of destructive….like burning things.” Smolder paused for a moment, looking around with a guilty expression. “Instead, I believe there is some other creature that will be far more capable to lead the school.”

A chorus of shouts came up:

“We don’t want some creature to lead us!”

“Yeah, we want whatever we can think of to make this place better than our home!”

“Yeah, if we lived here, we’d be at school by now!”

Smolder repeated herself to get the auditorium to calm down, “Please, I assure you that this creature will be better to lead the school’s student government.”

The students didn’t calm themselves. However, as Headmare Starlight trotted to the podium at the center of the stage, she called the room to order, “Students, please settle down. I know this is a sudden and unprecedented moment, but it still calls for us to be our best selves.” The students did manage to calm themselves as she spoke. “Now, in accordance with our school’s charter, which still happens to be missing, when a class president steps down, the candidate with the second most votes takes leadership.”

Ocellus smiled as she made her way to stand next to Smolder. She cleared her throat and began to speak, “I thank you all for your understanding, and I can’t wait to help lead this school to a brighter future. We shall do so together, with both honesty an-”

Headmare Starlight interrupted, “However, Ocellus is disqualified due to her bursting into my office the other day without permission.”

“I….what?” the changeling’s expression dropped.

“It’s in the charter,” Gallus spoke up from the front row. “Any student that trespasses into any faculty office or space without permission from said faculty is subject to punishment. This is in accordance with….”

Starlight glared at Gallus, “You still have the charter? Gallus, you better give it back to me!”

“I’m still reading it!” he called back.

As the two continued their shouting match, Ocellus’ was stunned, “You mean….I can’t be class president because of….a technicality?”

“Seems that way….though I don’t know whatever that last word you used was,” Smolder commented.

Headmare Starlight stopped her shouting and continued to address the student body, “Anyway, with Smolder resigning and Ocellus disqualified, our third place candidate will take hold of the office. And, with a single vote, that would be….Silverstream. Wow, really?”

In the front row, the pink hippogriff stood up and cheered, “Yayyy!”

“Friend Silverstream was running?” Yona asked with puzzlement.

Silverstream turned to answer, “Nope! I thought every creature was writing their names and turning them in!”

“Somehow, I believe that,” Gallus snarked.

“Today,” Silverstream loudly proclaimed, “the halls shall run red with the blood of my enemies!”

Sandbar’s ears perked up, “Wait, what enemies?

With a frustrated sigh, Starlight spoke up. Her words were sharp, “You know what, forget it. No more student government. It was very obvious from the start who was the most qualified student for the job of class president. The lot of you were just absolutely stupid with your votes. I mean….come on!” Another frustrated noise came from the unicorn. “No class president, no student government. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work. Now go back to your classes.”

The auditorium of students all stood up and started to talk amongst themselves as they filed out of the room. On the stage, Starlight stormed off to the side of the stage, leaving a baffled Ocellus next to Smolder.

The dragon turned to look at her friend, “A pretty crazy week, huh?”

Chapter 5: Everything Must Go

“This has been one long week,” Headmare Starlight said at her desk, propping her head up with one of her hooves. She was looking at all of the papers that were scattered across its surface. Due to the events that had transpired over the election, the new policies that were enacted and shut down, and finally the dissolution of the entire student government, the paperwork that had to be done seemed endless.

“Ya know, I was just saying something about that!” Smolder commented from the other side of the desk.

“Less talk, more finishing the paperwork,” Starlight said as she used her magic to use the quill to fill out yet another piece of parchment.

“I’m still not entirely sure why both Smolder and I are here to assist you with all of this paperwork,” Ocellus stated with a hint of confusion.

Starlight gave a brief glare, “Because the two of you were the ones that helped create this administrative nightmare for me, and you are going to have to deal with it. Also, because I said so.” She turned her attention back to the paper in front of her, scribbling something upon it.

The dragon shrugged as she stacked a few of the pages she finished together into a neat stack. “You know, I could just burn all of these and we can call it a day,” Smolder joked.

Ocellus sighed as she moved onto what looked like one of the last few pages, “Please, I’m not in the mood for any jokes. I already have a massive headache from all of this. I think all of this has turned me off from politics forever.”

The ears on Starlight’s head perked up slightly, “Hey now, don’t let this stop you from caring about politics. This is just a really bad example. Like, a seriously bad example.”

Smolder’s nostrils flared a little as she could take the hint.

The Headmare continued, “But good individuals in office can do amazing work for the masses, assisting those in need. However, put some creature who doesn’t know what they are doing and….” Starlight’s tired gaze turned to Smolder.

“Hey, I get it!” Smolder cried out, “You don’t have to kick me while I’m down!”

“Your heart was in the right place, Smolder. Your brain on the other hoof, I’m not so sure,” Starlight insisted.

Ocellus couldn’t help but laugh to herself as she watched Starlight and Smolder exchange words.

Smolder simply crossed her limbs in a huff.

“But what about what you said yesterday in the auditorium, about how democracy doesn’t work and the like?” Ocellus asked.

“That was just me being frustrated about everything that happened with the whole crazy election. I certainly wonder if Twilight Sparkle had to deal with issues like this,” Starlight thought aloud as she leaned back in her chair to take a quick break from the papers. She started to trail off, “I accepted all of these roles at the School of Friendship to teach and help mold young minds….”

The dragon started to sort the scattered papers into the various piles, “Is this how you imagined it all turning out?”

“No. Not by a longshot,” Headmare Starlight quickly answered.

The three continued working upon the papers. Because of the amount of paperwork, Headmare Starlight had taken both Ocellus and Smolder out of their Friday classes to assist her as their punishment. While it was daunting work and it took them almost the entire day from morning, they were close to finishing the work.

“I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Starlight flatly spoke as she finished yet another paper and reached for her stack, which only had a few pieces of parchment left.

“I’m almost done too,” Smolder said, placing one of her papers in one of the stacks.

“Done!” Ocellus claimed as she placed the last paper in a stack. She stretched her limbs upwards and yawned, “Such a bureaucratic process!”

“That’s part of being a grown up,” Starlight commented as she moved on to her next paper.

Shortly after that exchange, all three of them finished their paperwork and had organized it properly. Together, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“We did it! Haha, in your face!” Smolder claimed victory as she leaned back into the seat.

Starlight also leaned back into her seat. She opened up her desk as she spoke, “Smolder, that’s not the kind of attitude you should have right now. You’re still in big trouble for all the anarchy you created.”

“But everything she did was technically allowed in the school’s charter,” Ocellus pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter. And speaking of which, both of you will need to retrieve the charter,” Starlight said, still shuffling through her desk drawers.

“Eh, I’m sure Gallus still has it,” Smolder brushed it off.

As she sunk into her seat like the other two, Ocellus thought aloud in a worn out tone, “Looking back on this weird week is just exhausting. Is there a lesson here that I’m missing?”

“If there is,” Smolder also gave a tired sigh, “I don’t know or care enough to know. Being in charge was way too much work.”

“This has been a very unsatisfying endeavor,” Ocellus responded.

Finally finding what she was looking for, Starlight pulled a flask out of the desk. She unscrewed the top and spoke before she took a drink, “Good, you’re both learning. Welcome to adulthood.”

The action of her drinking caught the attention of both Ocellus and Smolder.

“Hey, Headmare Glimmer? What’s in that flask you keep drinking out of?” Ocellus asked.

“Patience. It’s patience to deal with this job,” Starlight replied. She screwed the top back on as she stood up. “I’ll take care of the filling of all these forms. I do appreciate the help.”

“Eh, least I can do,” Smolder said as she stood up. Ocellus did the same.

A small smile appeared on Starlight’s face as she motioned for the two of them to leave, “Now get on out of here, the two of you are done with the punishment. I think you’ve both suffered enough.”

Both Smolder and Ocellus left Headmare Starlight’s office and started making their way through the hallways of the school.

“Hey, Ocellus? For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for everything,” Smolder said, trying to avoid eye contact with her friend.

“For what exactly? The lack of effort and interest, the going mad with power, or the creating absolute chaos with all the unnecessary changes throughout the entire school?” Ocellus listed with a smirk.

“Uhh, D; all of the above?”

The two shared a laugh together.

“I really do mean it, I was absolutely stupid with how I acted.” Smolder said, “Guess the power went to my head and I really just wanted the whole student body to like me.”

Ocellus smiled at the dragon, “It’s alright, I forgive you. It was me who really pushed you to run against me and….I guess it’s what I get for forcing you to do something you didn’t want to do.”

“Well, if it’s all the same, it was kinda fun being class president, even if I did get a little….carried away,” Smolder mused. She then looked at the changeling and asked, “Hey, want to go to the cafeteria and see if they have any of that sheet cake left?”

“I’d like that.”

END