Author's Note

Welp, I didn’t think it would be this long for me to make this, but as long as I’m having fun, I’m proud to have made this. Thanks, Greg for helping to edit it and for everyone else reading, thank you for reading, and happy holidays.

A Much Needed Study

The bell rang across every corner of the school, with every ding means that classes were already in session. All students quickly rushed into the classrooms and got to their desks to start learning their lessons. In Professor Fluttershy’s classroom, Ocellus took out her notebook and pencil from her bag beside her and paid close attention to what Professor Fluttershy had to teach for the day.

While she was doing her best to focus, Sandbar, who was sitting on her right, felt three slight taps on his shoulder and could see Pate, who’s right behind him, asking a question to him. “Hey, Sandbar,” the changeling whispered. “How are the new students doing?”

“The newcomers?” Sandbar asked, just to make sure he knows what to answer. Pate nodded. “From what I hear, they’re doing okay. Rusty’s in Gale, Moss, and Trud’s class, and Ravi...”

“Sandbar, pay attention,” Ocellus spoke silently, trying not to get into trouble.

“Sorry.” The earth pony listened to her friend and faced back towards their teacher to prevent him from getting into trouble. The lesson wasn’t too challenging, at least for the students who were really paying attention to it. One of the students who wasn’t paying attention was a griffon named Gale. He was in Rarity’s class at the moment with the others including the new student, Rusty Wrench, and was just daydreaming with his claw on his chin and his eyes. Professor Rarity was lecturing the given subject until she saw him doing that and paused her talking. She then went to his desk to get his attention.

“Gale?” Rarity called. And for a little while, she called a little louder. “Gale!” The griffon jumped and saw that she’s standing right beside him talking.

“Uh... What?” Gale questioned.

“Gale, tell me what I just told you?” the mare asked.

“Um... The Wonderbolts... were made for flying displays?”

“Very well. See me after class.” The griffon groaned as the mare continued with the lesson. “Continuing on……”

"Told ya to listen," Moss whispered.

"Shut up," Gale groaned. He sat back and knew he was going to be buried in school work.

The bell rang, and the students got up from their desks and got out of their classes, except for Gale. He sat in his own seat as Rarity looked down at him.

"Gale, I've noticed that you have an issue when it comes to your assignments," she started explaining. "Or should I say your failure to pay attention to your teacher?" Rarity handed Gale one of the papers he had worked on. It was marked with a D- as he failed almost all of the problems.

"But Miss Rarity, I can't help it," he argued.

"Well, …if that's true, then maybe you just need some help. I'll go talk with Headmare Starlight if we can assign one of the students to help you." Gale groaned as he knew he was going to have more work to do.

“That’s just great,” he said to himself, feeling downhearted.

A little while later, Gale met up with Headmare Starlight at her office. The griffon sat on the sofa as the unicorn looked at his grades from before he left for the holiday vacation. She then looked back at him with a stern and worried look on her face.

"Gale, I honestly thought better of you," Starlight sighed. “Your grades were really low before you left during the holidays. Why can’t you put a little more effort on yourself?”

"I can't work as fast as the other students, Headmare," Gale remarked. "I just need more time."

“More time? More time for what…sleeping?” she asked.

Gale then stayed silent after she said that. Starlight sighed afterwards.

"Then, I think some extra credit is what you need to approve your grades. I'll have two students assigned to help you, but I really want you to do your part of the project."

"Of course, I will. So, do I get to choose who helps me?"

"Nope." The griffon groaned. "And you'll have until Monday to finish this project."

"Wait, so I have to do this over the weekend. Right?" Starlight just nodded in confirmation.

"I'll just call the other two students here to help you. While that's going on, you'll be getting to work in the library to work on a report explaining about the construction of Ponyville." Gale just groaned once again before walking out of her office. Gale really hated reading. It's not the books themselves that he hated, but the fact he had to read them entirely.

He knew there wasn't any arguing with the headmare and just sat in the library waiting for the two students to arrive and help him. Eventually, a young minotaur walked into the room and sat beside the grumpy griffon.

“Hi, Gale,” he said.

“Hey, Terry,” Gale muttered. “You were one of the students picked?”

“Yep, along with Ocellus. She should be here any minute. I’ll get some books while we wait.” Terry walked over to the bookshelves and started picking out a couple of history books until the blue and pink changeling walked into the library.

“Hi guys,” she called.

“Hey there, Ocellus,” Terry responded. “I was just getting started grabbing these books.”

“That’s great. So, where should we start?”

“Well, for starters we’re only going to be doing about fifteen percent of the work each. Gale will be doing the rest.” Gale just groaned, rolled his eyes and folded his arms. “Hey, you could’ve avoided this if you paid attention in class.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Gale was handed one of the books and forcefully started reading. Ocellus and Terry did the same, but since they didn’t have to do as much work they had a nice quiet chat.

“So, Terry, how was your first week settling here?” Ocellus asked.

“Oh, it’s pretty nice, to be honest,” Terry admitted. “The buildings here in Ponyville are much nicer to look at than what I had back home. Speaking of which, didn’t you say your home’s a hive.”

“Yeah, it is. It was kind of an eyesore, but we’ve spruced it up now since we’ve changed our ways.”

“Changed your ways?”

“It’s not something we like to talk about.”

“I understand. So, could you change into a different form?”

“Right now?” Terry gave a bashful nod as she obliged his request. “Why?”

“I’m just interested to see that.”

“Okay, here goes nothing.”

She started out with a simple pony. Then she went for a dragon. Then a griffon. Then a yak. Then lastly, a minotaur. Terry blushed at her last form. This caused Ocellus to change back into her base form.

“I…… I’m sorry, did I make you blush?”

“Kind of?” They both chuckled. Gale heard them and it made him irritated.

“Hey! Are you guys trying to make me fail or what!?” Gale yelled at them. There was a set of shushes from the other students. “Yeah. Shush yourselves as well!”

“Is he always like this?” Terry whispered.

“Only when he’s forced to do something he doesn’t want to do,” Ocellus quietly explained.

“If I have to build a model for this project, I’m going to do something that would scar a hatchling for life,” Gale grumbled.

They then carried on for a while. The changeling and a minotaur enjoyed themselves, but the white griffon was looking for an excuse to get out of the library. He kept looking up from the book to see if there was anyone or anything that he could use to his advantage. It’s already been a while, and he hasn't found one thing. That was until he saw a spider crawling on the pile of books on the study table. This made him get his lightbulb lit.

“I’ve gotta go to the bathroom,” Gale spoke. “Be right back.” He placed down his book and picked up the spider with his claw before flying out through the door.

“Welp, I guess we can take a break now,” Ocellus noted.

The two began quietly talking again as the lazy griffon poked his head through the library’s other door. He could see the other new student, Diamond Shine, sitting with Pyther and Coral. They were perfect for his plan. He then held his clenched claw down to the floor and opened up to release the small black 8-legged bug.

“Okay, little long legs. Give them a good scare.” The spider then hopped down from Gale’s claw and quickly crawled over to the girls. As it creepily crawls to the ladies, they’re having a chat together.

“So, I think Professor Rarity could give up some leotard for us to practice in,” Diamond Shine said.

“I don’t think we’ll need them,” Pyther said.

“But the shoes do help us grip the floor.”

“That’s a good point,” Coral said. “I wonder if...” She paused when she saw Gale’s little friend on the ground. ”SPIDER!!!”

Pyther and Diamond Shine flinched as she shrieked loudly in fear, and they saw the spider she was talking about. Panicking, Coral grabbed a nearby book and threw it to squash the little pest. The spider knew this was where it should run and started bolting towards the exit.

“Come back here, ya li’l freak!!!” Coral cried, and bolted towards the small black pest.

Diamond Shine and Pyther stood speechlessly after she bolted.

“Is she really afraid of spiders?” Diamond Shine asked Pyther.

“Yep,” Pyther replied. “She does. Every time she sees one spider, she freaks out very much.”

“Even a fake one?”

“Exactly.”

As the spider quickly crawls towards the exit, the orange hippogriff cuts him off. He then ran towards the opposite direction to one of the bookshelves, where Rusty and Trud were having a little chat with each other.

“Get back here you!” she yelled, and Rusty and Trud turned to see Coral running towards their direction.

“What going on?” Trud asked. The spider ran past them without them realizing it as Coral pushed the boys to the side. Trud overreacted and bumped into the bookshelves so hard it started to tip over. It started knocking over the other shelves like dominos as the students that were in between the other bookshelves got out of the way before they had a similar accident to Trud did several months ago.

Yona saw the spider that Coral was trying to crush and picked it up to protect it from the hippogriff.

“Coral, calm down,” the yak spoke. “Yona take care of spider.” The yak walked out of the library and started to look for somewhere for her little friend to stay.

Coral then settled herself after Yona left with the spider. She left the scene, and began to inhale and exhale her lungs. Ocellus and Terry both looked at each other not sure what to say. The changeling finally found her words. “Gale didn’t have to go.”

Gale had slipped away to a hiding spot. He decided to hide on a cloud somewhere downtown with his winter clothes and a blanket to help keep him warm. He made sure that the clothing and blanket matched the white color of the cloud to help him become camouflage. Once it was done, he closed his eyes for a good nap.

“Gale, wake up!” The griffon woke up and could a furious changeling right in front of him.

“What do you want, Ocellus,” Gale yawned.

“Do you know how long Terry and I have been looking?” she questioned. Gale just looked to see how low the sun was.

“Probably an hour,” he shrugged.

“You know, we volunteered to help you get more credit.”

“Ocellus! Is he up there!?” Terry called from the ground.

“Yep, he is.” She turned back to Gale. “We’re taking time out of our day to help you because you can’t do any work by yourself.”

“Well, you know who you’re asking to do that project right?” Gale asked.

“Are you serious right now?!…… You know, I don’t even know why I’m trying to be nice. Maybe you’d listen to someone else.” Suddenly, a bolt shot out of the cloud, where Gale is sleeping on, electrocuting Ocellus. She soon dropped out of the sky like a rock making a loud thud on the ground. Gale saw what happened and flew down to the scene of the disaster.

“Ocellus!?” Terry cried in shock. “Ocellus, wake up!!!”

Only a few seconds later, Ocellus still hasn't responded.

“Is she dead!?” Gale asked in a panicked tone.

“I don’t know!”

After a few seconds of panic, Ocellus stood up and shook her head.

“Man, what happened?” she questioned.

“You just got struck by lightning,” Terry commented. “It’s weird, that doesn’t look like a thundercloud.”

“Maybe some other pegasus rammed into it,” Gale guessed.

“Whatever. Let’s get you to the school nurse.”

“Yeah,” Ocellus said, “Good idea.” Terry picked her up and they, including Gale, walked back to the school.

“You sure we shouldn’t just go to the hospital?” Gale questioned.

“The school’s closer,” Terry commented as it was only about a stone’s throw away.

They went inside and saw Smolder was just walking by the entrance with Gallus when they saw the boys enter with a burnt changeling. “Ocellus, what happened!?” Smolder gasped. She ran over feeling very concerned.

“I got… struck by lightning,” Ocellus wheezed.

“Yikes. But why are you here and not at the hospital?” Gallus questioned.

“I think if we can get her some ice she’ll be okay,” Terry commented.

“There’s snow outside,” Smolder stated. “Why don’t you use that.”

She quickly flew towards the door and slammed it to quickly gather some of the snow into a humongous snowball, leaving them behind. After the door slammed loudly, Ocellus suddenly went crossed-eyed as she changed her appearance to that of an earth pony. Though this form was actually new.

She was still blue and had a pink mane braided, but she also had a cowboy hat similar to Applejack’s and also had a scarf to go with it as well as a cutie mark of a shovel that was digging up different bugs like beetles, caterpillars, flies, cockroaches, etc.

“Hey, fellas, you can place me down now,” she said with a southern accent.

“Ocellus?” Gallus questioned, “You sure you’re okay?”

“Fella, I’m as fine as a pony who drank a barrel of fresh apple cider.” She jumped down from Terry and began looking around. “Now, where can a farmhand like myself be useful.” She began walking down the hall to find something to do, leaving her friends confused.

Terry was about to speak until Smolder, who just got back getting a pile of icy snowballs, saw Ocellus’ earth pony form, and dropped it in a flabbergasted look, got right up in his face. “What. Did. You. Do?” she asked him in rage.

“I swear, she just got struck by lightning,” Terry responded, feeling frightened from Smolder’s fiery rage.

“Really? Then how did she just become Applejack’s relative?” Gallus asked in the same tone as Smolder’s.

“I don’t know,” Gale admitted, “Changelings don’t make sense to me. I mean, I’m questioning if they even have bones.”

“Bigger fish,” Terry stated, “We need to help Ocellus.”

“Yeah, you better be,” Smolder basted.

“And you’re already not helping.” Terry and Gale threw their winter clothes off before running down the hall to find their unwell friend. Until they managed to find her carrying a stack of papers Sunshine, Gus, and Emerald need to carry.

“So, who are you again?” Sunshine questioned

“Call me Mud Bug,” the farm pony spoke.

“Good to know,” Emerald said. “Though, I’m curious why we haven’t seen you before.”

“Hey, she’s carrying our stuff,” Gus spoke. “I’m complaining. And that’s saying something.”

Terry and Gale walked beside the disguised changeling. “Hey, ugh... Ocellus,” the minotaur said.

“Sorry partner, I’m not an Ocellus,” Mud Bug spoke. “Name’s Mug Bug.”

“Whatever, Buggy,” Gale spoke, “What’s going on with you?”

“I’m just a farm pony that really loves hard work,” Mud Bug chuckled.

“Uhh. Just place those papers right there, please,” Sunshine requested. Mug Bug nodded and placed the stack of papers by the newsroom making a loud thud sound. She went crossed-eyed before changeling back into a changeling.

“What the…? How did I get here?” Ocellus questioned.

“Did she just go back to normal?” Gale whispered to Terry.

“I think so, yeah,” he replied back, and then walked towards Ocellus, who’s very confused. “Uhh…We’ll explain later at the nurse's office,” Terry said to her, “Let’s go.” He and Gale ran off taking their unwell friend to get help.

After a quick checkup at the nurse’s office, the changeling, minotaur, and griffon left the nurse’s office with their disappointed looks on their faces. “Welp, that was a waste of time,” Gale commented.

“You seem completely fine,” Terry commented.

“Yeah, I should be,” Ocellus noted. “How about we get back to our project.”

“You mean Gale’s project?”

“Seriously?” Gale questioned.

“Don’t you dare try and use spiders to get out of doing this. You’re lucky that none of them got injured after those bookshelves fell like dominoes.” The three students walked back into the library where they found some of the students trying to push the last of the bookshelves right side up again. Trud was there helping too as well.

“Man, you do have really bad luck when it comes to libraries,” Tanzanite commented.

“Yak know,” Trud admitted. “Yak sticking with gym class.”

“Need some help?” Ocellus asked.

“Thanks, Ocellus,” Rusty responded. “That would be great.” He levitated some of the fallen books up into a stack. “Could you help sort through this?” He dropped them into the table with a loud thud. “Oops.”

Ocellus went cross-eyed again before she changed into a dragoness. Just like Mud Bug, it had blue scales and pink spines with matching wings along with some ram-like horns.

“You really think that I’d like to look through all these books?” she questioned. “Come on, give me something fun.”

“Oh boy, not again,” Terry said in an agitated tone.

“Is she usually like this?” Rusty whispered to Trud.

“Not normally,” the yak responded.

“Come on, Trud,” Ocellus spoke, “Show me what you're made off.”

The yak was surprised but didn’t refuse. “Friend have fight outside.” He and Ocellus walked out of the library as everyone else looked worried.

“What’s going on?” Pyther questioned.

“Lightning strike,” Terry explained, “I think it’s having an effect on Ocellus's mind.” He thought for a moment before he looked at one of the hard-cover books lying on the ground.

“I have to test something.” He picked it up and looked towards Gale. “Gale, you’re coming with me.”

“…Why?”

“Well, duh? Because this is your fault, Ocellus is going cray cray with her transformations.” Gale groaned, and then followed Terry.

The minotaur and griffon walked to where Ocellus and Trud were at. The disguised changeling was holding onto the yak by his horns as they were going back and forth. “Is this what you got, big guy?” Ocellus questioned.

“Yak just getting started,” Trud declared. He started pushing his opponent back as Terry slammed the book against the wall, making a loud slam. Ocellus went cross eyed again and changed into a hippogriff. The weaker creature made Trud race forward. The hippogriff in Ocellus’s colors flew over him as the yak quickly slid to a stop. “Why Ocellus stop wrestling?”

“Ugh, why would I do something that would get me hot and sweaty?” hippogriff Ocellus questioned. “I won’t mess up my mane unless it’s necessary.”

“Okay, I think I know how this works now,” Terry muttered, and then ran towards the blue-pink hippogriff. Gale then followed soon after. “Ocellus, you okay?”

“My name is not Ocellus, I’m Sea Swirl,” the hippogriff stated. “What do you want?”

“...We’re just seeing how you’re doing. Would you mind helping us clear up some books in the library?”

“Doesn’t sound too difficult.” She walked back into the library with Terry and Gale and gasped at the mess. “My goodness! How could you work in such a mess?”

“Trud overreacted due to a small spider,” Pyther stated.

“It was Diamond Shine!” Trud stated, from down the hall.

“Well, someone has to sort out this mess,” Sea Swirl said. She quickly started picking up some books and carried them over to a table to sort them. “Right, now we need one for each type of story. Fantasy, history, comedy, you get the idea.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rusty stated. He and the rest of the students started helping to clear the mess. As Terry and Gale helped clear the mess, they talked quietly.

“Okay, so… it seems like, from what I’ve observed, every time Ocellus heard a loud noise, she changed into different species and personality,” the minotaur spoke to Gale.

“Yeah, how do we even know how to fix her?” Gale questioned.

“That’s what I want to know. I’ve only just found out about changelings, I don’t know all about their biology.”

“Well, ask someone like Moss. He or the other changelings should know.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Just tell me which one is Moss?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

The clean up took up the rest of the day. They only finished just as dinner was starting to get served. Ocellus was still Sea Swirl at this point, which her friends were concerned about and they discussed it with Gale and Terry.

“Guys, I swear,” Terry spoke, “We’re trying to figure this out.”

“You mean, you’re figuring this out,” Smolder corrected. She eyed Gale, who didn’t like the look he was getting.

“You think I planned for Ocellus to act like this?” the white griffon questioned.

“Well, you did try and ditch your own group project,” Gallus reminded him.

“You’re not even helping,” Terry remarked.

“Not trying to.”

“Well, what have you learned about her situation?” Sandbar asked.

“Every time she hears a loud thud, she changes species and personality,” Terry commented. “If only we could figure out how to make that quirk stop.”

“Does Headmare Starlight know?” Silverstream asked.

“We’ve only told the school nurse. She said she was just fine.”

"Yeah, I think she's still learning about changelings,” Gallus stated. “Plus, it could be magic because that just does whatever the heck it wants.”

“That’s only half true,” Sandbar commented. “Still, I’m worried about her.” They looked over to Sea Swirl, who was having a nice chat with Diamond Shine, luckily Pyther and Coral were keeping them in order.

“I’ve only been here for a little under a week,” Terry said, “I’m still trying my best.”

“We believe you, Terry,” Smolder said. “As for Gale...”

“Okay, I’m going to find Moss,” the white griffon interrupted. He had enough of having the blame pinned on him. He stood up from his seat and left the table to find his friend, Moss. He found him sitting with Rusty and Trud, who were talking about Ocellus’s predicament.

“Hey, guys.”

“Oh. Hey there, Gale,” Moss said flatly.

“Look, before you bring up you know who...”

“Ocellus?” Trud questioned.

“...Yeah.”

“I don’t see how a bolt of lightning can affect someone's brain other than damaging it,” Rusty commented.

“Maybe changeling brain different from pony brain,” Trud guessed.

“Could be. Moss, what do you know about this?”

“I know about our magic but our biology isn’t my strong suit,” Moss admitted.

“Do you have bones? I mean you do look a lot like bugs.”

“I doubt we have bones.”

“Alright. And their muscles...”

“Can’t we talk about something that doesn’t involve learning something we’re not going to use unless a specific situation?” Gale interrupted.

“...Gale sounds guilty,” Trud commented.

“Shut up, Trud.” The griffon slammed his head on the table, making a thud, causing Sea Swirl to become cross-eyed and change back into a changeling.

She looked around and felt confused. “Wha……? How?” she questioned herself.

Later that night, Gale stared up at the ceiling while lying on his top-deck bed. He looked down at Trud, who was getting comfy in the bottom bunk.

“You know what I just realized?” the griffon questioned. “I just wasted an entire day on not doing the project.”

“Isn’t that what griffon try to do?” Trud asked.

“Usually I have someone else doing most of the work.”

“That sound like no good friend.”

“Look, I just want to sleep. Just forget everything that happened during the whole day, and hopefully Ocellus is feeling better in the morning.” Trud just shrugged and sat back in his bed as Gale struggled to get to sleep.

Saturday just arrived. While many of the students were having their free time for the day, Gale knew that he was going to be stuck doing his project with Terry and Ocellus. He sulked down the hall towards the cafeteria, where he got in line just behind Terry.

“Oh, good, you’re up,” Terry said. “Have you seen Ocellus?”

“Nope,” the griffon responded. “I thought she would be doing better by now.”

“This isn’t like a normal cold. I feel like...”

“Out of the way slob slugs,” ordered a griffon. Both boys were confused and a little agitated. So were the rest of the students when they got a look at the griffon. This griffon had light blue feathers and pink tail feathers and plumage.

“Who is this... Wait, I think I know.”

“Ocellus?”

“Yeah.”

The blue-pink griffon pushed her way to the front of the line and got her breakfast. Terry and Gale had someone hold their spot so they could talk with the disguised changeling.

“Hey, how’s a fellow griffon do-”

“Don’t talk to me,” Ocellus stated. She flew away with her breakfast as the boys got back in line.

“Okay, so we need to find a solution,” Terry commented.

“She got struck by lightning,” Gale reminded. “How are we suppose to fix that?”

“Look, maybe we should talk to Headmare Starlight about this problem. I think she knows more about magic than we do.”

They both heard the sound of silver trays falling to the floor. This was thanks to Ocellus bumping into Moss and Sandbar, making them both drop their trays. “I’ll go tell her right away.” Terry quickly grabbed a donut before running off, leaving Gale by himself.

Curious about what else Ocellus would do, Gale got his breakfast and flew over to the table that the disguised changeling was sitting at. “So, Ocellus,” he said, “How are you doing?”

“I wanna be alone,” she responded flatly.

“Hey, I respect that attitude, and I think some other students do too.”

“Usually they just show it with their behavior. You need to be told as you can’t see I wanna be alone.” She got up again, while whipping Gale with her tail, before flying away down the hall.

A little while later, Gale and Terry met up later at the hall, neither one of them knowing where Ocellus went.

“For goodness sake! How could you lose her?” the minotaur furiously exclaimed.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to keep an eye on her,” Gale remarked.

“I thought that’s what you said you were going to do. Look, we’ll just keep an eye out for her.” The two began looking around for the missing changeling. Terry wondered where they were going to go next, when the earth began to shake. “Oh, crud, earthquake!”

“Hold on, that’s no earthquake. That’s the Yakyakistan Stomp.” He picked up the fallen minotaur and flew to where they could hear the stomping. Eventually, they found Trud, some of the students, and Ocellus. Her form kept changing forms due to the noise that the stomping was making.

“Why are they just stomping like this?”

“It’s a popular dance in Yakyakistan.” They both looked towards Ocellus flashing between her forms with every single stomp. Gale then headed towards Trud. “Okay, Trud, stop!”

The yak did so as did the rest of the students. With their last stomp as Ocellus soon changed into a yak.

“Why stomping stop?” she asked.

“Oh boy,” Terry sighed. “Ocellus, let’s get to work on our project, we’re a little behind.”

“But Yakyakistan Stomp.”

“They’re free, we’re trapped by our Headmare’s orders,” Gale said. The yak just sighed and walked away hoping to get far enough to not be affected by the stomping. Though those chances were pretty low. The trio stayed in the library knowing it would be one of the best places to keep away from loud thuds.

“Why friends in library?”

“We’re trying to get this project done.”

“Though I feel like this isn’t as important as what’s going on with her,” Terry muttered. He picked up one of the books and slammed it on the table. The yak went cross-eyed and changed back into her base form. “Phew, can’t believe that worked.”

Ocellus looked around and felt really confused. “How did I get here?” she questioned.

“Your condition is probably getting worse. We should take you to the hospital.”

“Good idea.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Gale said.

“Oh no, Gale, you’re staying here,” Terry said.

“What?”

“You still have to work on this, and that’s your responsibility. Come on Ocellus.”

The minotaur and changeling walked away, leaving the white griffon to do all of the work. Gale groaned and started reading one of the books that had been brought out for research. While he was reading, he began thinking about Ocellus. He thought about how strange her condition was. Having your personality flip-flop from loud noises did seem strange, but he had heard of some much strange diseases and other conditions, such as Dragon Sneeze Trees. A problem like Ocellus was going through wouldn’t be so far-fetched. Still, he was feeling a little worried. This seemed completely new and there were little chances they would know how to fix this. Then Gale remembered the entire reason she was in this mess was that he was procrastinating. If he hadn’t been sitting on that cloud Ocellus would’ve never been struck by lightning. Guilt quickly filled up inside of the griffon’s heart as he laid his head on the table. He figured the best thing he could do at this point was to work his tail off.

Hours had passed by, Gale spent nearly all of his time in the library. The only time when he came out was to get lunch and go to the restroom. Many of his friends such as Trud, Moss, or Rusty tried to talk to him, but Gale always gave the same answer and said, “I’m too busy.” The students hadn’t seen him work so hard before. He wrote several paragraphs about Ponyville’s construction, from which ones were the first to go up to how some buildings used to be different back then. Sugarcube Corner, for example, was just used as a storage building.

It was getting late as Terry and Ocellus, or more accurately Mud Bug, arrived. Seeing Gale getting very tired. “Hi there partner,” she said, “How ya doing?”

“Just fine,” Gale sighed.

“You look pretty tired,” Terry commented.

“Thought so.” He yawned. “What time is it?”

“It’s half-past nine,” Terry informed. “I think you should get to bed.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea for that." He slammed one of the books on the table which made Mud Bud go cross-eyed before changing into a yak. "Can I have a lift back to my room?"

"Yak can do that," she proclaimed. She tossed the griffon onto her back and they walked off.

"Seriously, Gale?" Terry questioned.

"I got a cramp on my right claw from writing so much."

"Griffon shouldn't work so hard," yak Ocellus said.

"I don't have a choice. I can never get enough sleep and because of that, I doze off in class and this has happened."

"What has happened?" Gale looked towards Terry while pointing at the yak that was carrying him. The minotaur understood what the griffon was talking about.

When they got to the dorm, Ocellus tossed Gale onto his bunk with Trud being surprised to see them. "What friend doing?" he asked.

"Yak giving tired griffon ride," Ocellus explained.

"We'll get out of your feathers now," Terry said. He helped Ocellus out of the room leaving the two roommates by themselves.

"Has Ocellus been getting better?" Gale asked. Trud shook his head. "Great. Now she's getting worse. Will she ever get better soon."

"Is Gale okay?" Trud asked.

"Let's see, I've spent my whole day doing a project to make up for a day of just slacking off, I've given myself a cramp, I've still got some more paragraphs to write, and I'm pretty sure I've messed up Ocellus forever."

"Maybe not forever."

"Have you ever gotten struck by lightning causing you to get multiple personalities?"

"No, yaks usually get caught in avalanches."

"Okay, I don't want to think about it, I'm going to sleep." And so Gale laid back and tried his best to get some sleep, which was harder given how he was feeling.

Gale's eyes were opened as he was awake from his slumber. When he woke up and found it a quarter past eleven. "Great," he groaned. Without an alarm to wake him up, the time he woke up was completely random. He got up and headed to the cafeteria to see if he could get anything to eat.

He found Ocellus and Smolder sitting at one of the tables, the changeling was in her new dragon form when she saw the griffon walk in. "Hey, man, where have you been?" she asked.

"Sleeping. I do it a lot."

"Well, I've been stuck with her for a while," Smolder grumbled.

"Right. Is there anything to eat?" Gale asked.

"Not for another half hour."

"Fantastic."

"Are you going to push your beak into another book?" Ocellus asked.

"Don't talk to me." Gale just slowly walked away to get the last of his work done before lunch.

Walking into the library, he found Sunshine and Emerald talking with Terry, asking him questions about Ocellus's condition. "Look, guys, I know that she's going to be fine," he said, "We're just tr... Oh hey, Gale."

"Hey," the griffon said glumly.

"Well, we should get going," Sunshine said.

“Me too.” Emerald added.

He and Emerald left the library leaving Gale and Terry by himself.

"Have you seen Ocellus?" the minotaur asked.

"Yeah, at the cafeteria with Smolder. And I feel like she's still getting worse,” Gale responded. He laid his head on the table before moaning. “You know, I sometimes try to pay attention to what our professors say, but I can’t help myself. I’m lazy. It’s my nature.”

“...Go on,” Terry said.

“You know what Griffonstone is like?”

“A failed city?” Gale was surprised by this. “Gallus explained some bits of information to me.”

“Yeah, many of the griffons there are just the worst. I learned that I would be fine if I just stayed out of the way. Overtime, I guess I got used to just hanging back and letting others handle the problem.”

“Including ones that were your fault?”

“Don’t twist the knife!”

“Yep, that was a very dumb thing to say.”

“If there’s anyway I can fix Ocellus’s condition, I’ll do it. You’re right, it is really my fault. Right now I just want to get this project done, so I don’t have to think about this again.”

“Right. I’ve already gotten started on my part. I’m going to see if I can get Ocellus to snap back to her old personality. How much do you have left?”

“Just call me when lunch is ready.” The minotaur nodded before carrying some books away with him to the cafeteria.

Gale got back to work and continued writing. He didn’t write too fast to prevent constant errors, but still he wanted to get it done. At lunch, he barely spoke to anyone while he kept swapping between eating and writing. Ocellus, who was back to being her own changeling self, watched him working his hardest and she then looked over to Terry. She walked over to the minotaur and began whispering something to him.

Gale was soon done with his lunch and quickly started making a beeline to the library, carrying the books, pencils and papers he had, until Ocellus and Terry caught up with him.

“Hey, Gale,” Ocellus called from behind. Gale turned to face her and Terry. “We need to tell you something,” the changeling said.

“What is it? Did you find a cure yet?” the griffon asked.

“Well… actually, I didn’t really need it.”

“...Say what?”

Ocellus then proceeded to change into all of the forms she had ‘uncontrollably’ changed into since she had been struck by that lightning bolt. Mud Bug, the dragon, Sea Swirl, the yak, and the griffon, before changing into her base form.

“There was never anything wrong with me.”

“Uhh……Wait… Hold up…”

“We thought if there looked to be something wrong you’d be motivated to help us work and make up for it,” Terry said. “So we had a couple of the others to help us. Moss was the one who made the plan.” Ocellus nodded

Gale stayed quiet as he gave a low brow. “And… and I’ve been worrying over nothing!” he exclaimed furiously. “All because you were trying to make me feel guilty to motivate me to do something I didn’t want to do!?”

“It worked though.” Gale didn’t say anything and just dropped his supplies on the ground in rage before flying off.

“Wait, Gale!” Ocellus cried. “Come back!” She looked down at the books he dropped and felt rather guilty about this plan.

“I do had a feeling this would happen,” Terry spoke. He picked up the books that were on the floor as Ocellus picked up the paper that Gale was writing on. “Come on, let’s at least finish our parts.” They walked away to do that, though Ocellus looked at the paper that Gale ditched. The grammar although wasn’t perfect, but it did look rather accurate. Given the lack of a period at the end of the last sentence, it wasn’t finished. Ocellus decided to hold onto it so she would do some extra work.

Gale sat by himself at the top deck of his bed in his dorm, with his claws covering his eyes and his heart beating in sadness, anger and guilt. He had locked the door so no one could get in to disturb his comfort zone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t built to hold the force of a yak smashing it into splinters. Trud had forced his way in with Moss assisting him. The changeling had turned into a yak to help his friend before changing back to his base form.

“Was that really necessary?” Rusty questioned.

“Trud doesn’t like taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Moss informed.

“Why Gale lock door?” Trud asked.

“I found out about your plan,” Gale said with anger and guilt, “Buzz off.”

“Hey, it was a great plan,” Moss responded, “I can’t believe it worked for that long.” The changeling was knocked to the ground from the griffon throwing one of his pillows at him.

“Okay, I should get going,” Rusty said, “Let me know if you wanna talk.” The unicorn slowly started walking out of the room not wanting to make things any more awkward.

“Look, Gale, you did this to yourself. You kept slacking off in class.”

“Well maybe that’s because I was enjoying being away from a place that’s the worst part of my life!” Gale blasted in anger, with tears flowing down his eyes. Moss was about to speak up but Trud remembered the Heart’s Warming predicament a few months ago.

“Friends give privacy,” the yak spoke.

“He just threw a...” Moss was cut off from a hoof being shoved in his face.

“Friends. Go. Now.” Without warning, Trud picked his friend up and carried him down the hall.

“Would you put me down!?” Terry and Ocellus walked past them when they saw the remains of the door.

“What happened here?” Terry questioned.

“Trud smashed the door,” Gale responded bluntly, still has his claws covering his eyes.

“I’m surprised it took him this long,” Ocellus commented. “Anyways, Gale, we wanted to talk about this project.”

Gale then faced her. “I did my part. I’m done.”

“Well, it was only two-thirds done.” Gale brought his claws to his face again to give a frustrated groan. “It’s okay, I finished what was left and turned it in.”

“Didn’t she say we couldn’t do Gale’s part?” Terry questioned.

“Yes, but she said Gale couldn’t trick us into doing his work. We tricked Gale, so guilt kind of got me.” She flew up to the griffon, who still didn’t look so happy to see them. “Gale, we shouldn’t have tricked you. We really should’ve figured a better way of getting you to work.”

The griffon only rolled his eyes as Terry spoke up. “Look, I’m pretty sure that Griffonstone isn’t the best place, so you’d like to relax somewhere that’s actually homely,” he spoke. Ocellus then started understanding the situation. Gale looked to her before sighing.

“He’s right,” he admitted. “Griffonstone’s like sleeping on a pile of rocks, while Ponyville… more of a giant pillow.”

“So your time unwinding from the stress of your home is what’s causing you to slip in class,” Ocellus commented. “Is that right?”

“Pretty accurate,” Gale admitted. “I just want something to escape from reality.”

Then Ocellus thought of something to help him feel better. “You could always join our game of Ogres and Oubliettes.”

“...Sure, I think I’ll keep that in mind. By the way, how did you pull that trick off.”

“Honestly, the hardest part was getting myself in the right place and having the other students play along. We just had Discord do the lightning as he hid in the cloud you’re on.”

“Did he?” Ocellus nodded.

“Who’s this Discord?” Terry questioned.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Gale said to Terry, then turned back to Ocellus. “Anyways, you think you’ll help me out once I start falling behind?”

“Sure thing,” Ocellus answered. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen too often.” Gale simply nodded in response before they saw some of the students walk past them. Gleaming Pearl stopped by the broken door and saw the three students inside.

“Uhh. I’m not going to ask what happened here,” she said. “Just to remind you that dinner’s being served.”

“Yeah. Be right there,” Terry said.

“Thanks.” The hippogriff flew off as the griffon flew down from his bunk.

“Okay, next time, try something that doesn’t put someone’s health in danger,” Gale requested.

“Noted,” Ocellus replied. They all walked out of the room and headed down the hall to the cafeteria.

“So, tell me, what is Ogres and Oubliettes?” Terry asked.

“It’s a role playing game my friends and I play,” Ocellus said.

“Yeah, I’ve been wanting to get into it,” Gale admitted. The changeling began explaining the rules as they walked down the hall to get something to eat at the cafeteria.