Art of the Dragon

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 4

Chapter 1

It was Rainbow Dash’s last class before the weekend, one she was emphatically eager to start. It had been a long week for her: teaching at the School of Friendship, a Wonderbolt show in Baltimare, a Friendship Mission in Detrot and saving all of Equestria with her friends from some tragically misguided warlock who just needed a friend or a hug or something—she couldn’t even remember. The point was, she needed a break.

What she didn’t need was to have her gym converted into an assembly yard for half a dozen parade floats in various stages of completion. The worst part was that she had nopony else to blame for this but herself. Okay, herself and Twilight, because naturally Ms. Egghead-Headmare-Princess had another one of her bright ideas. She wanted to demonstrate the success of the school and its students to the other world leaders. In particular, she wanted to highlight the Special Class, as she referred to them: Smolder, Ocellus, Silverstream, Yona, Gallus, and even Sandbar to impress their leaders into agreeing to send more of their subjects to the school next semester. She thought they should let Summer Light, Long Path, Cloudy Spinel, Frosty Quartz and Bella settle in a bit longer before they started asking for more kirins, buffalo, Crystal Ponies or Diamond Dogs—not that they had actually asked for Diamond Dogs in the first place, but whatever.

For her part, Rainbow had been the one to suggest the six should put on a display or performance to represent their homes, like what she and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had done at the Equestria Games. From there it snowballed: Pinkie suggested the displays be on parade floats because she liked things that float (only to be disappointed when they couldn’t make the floats themselves out of actual balloons). Rarity began proposing all sorts of designs and Applejack volunteered her family’s tools and spare lumber to build them. Even Fluttershy was engaged, offering her animal friends to help find flowers and plants to help decorate them. When they brought the idea to Starlight, Sunburst and Trixie, they were all for it. They also quickly stepped in to begin organizing the exhibition itself, preventing Twilight from being tempted into handling the details herself.

As for the students themselves, they eagerly threw themselves into the work. Rainbow figured they welcomed the break from dealing with Cozy Glow and her shenanigans, which she didn’t blame them for one bit. Spike was taking over Cozy-sitting for a while, the poor guy.

It wasn’t long before their projects started to take shape. Looking around, Rainbow could see Yona’s float which looked as crude and ungainly as—well, a yak. It was covered with finely-woven Yakyakistani rugs and dotted with various wooden carvings and furniture. You didn’t need all of Twilight’s degrees to guess what those were for. Another float was loaded with seemingly random, mundane objects which happened to grab the attention of its builder. Rainbow spotted a bowl of plastic fruit, pieces of confetti, a shower curtain, a step stool—she figured it out right as a sink was tossed onto the pile. Silverstream. Of course. She must’ve been trying to wow her fellow hippogriffs with the wonders of the wider world.

Ocellus had gone all-out and created a meticulous model reproduction of the Hive, built to scale. In fact, she made two, presented back-to-back: the current Hive and the way it looked before the reformation. Applejack had mentioned that Ocellus planned to make a little rotating section which would spin the models around, like a before-and-after image. Gallus’ float also had a model of his home, albeit a much rougher-looking one. But where Ocellus had made hers look like how her home used to look, Gallus made his look like how he wanted Griffonstone to be. It was much cleaner, no more dilapidated hovels and was now full of griffons and ponies—and plenty of fake bits made of shiny gold paper. Rainbow guessed this was Gallus’ pitch to other griffons on why they should embrace friendship.

Sandbar’s float was … typical Sandbar, there was no other way to put it. He’d made Hearth’s Warming dolls of himself and his friends and put them in what looked like a foal’s school playset. Rainbow felt both a little flattered and embarrassed that Sandbar had also made dolls of her and the rest of the staff, positioning them in the classrooms as if teaching the other dolls. She quickly sped past when she noticed he was holding two of them in his hooves and was moving them around and talking to himself.

The last float was Smolder’s. It was dominated by a giant paper-mache volcano built around one of Pinkie’s larger confetti cannons that would fire during the presentation. It looked like it was going to be really cool. Except, Rainbow frowned, it only looked to be about half-completed and Smolder was nowhere to be seen.

Rainbow flew around the gym but failed to find any trace of her. Spotting Ocellus, she headed over to her instead. She’d noticed the two tended to stick pretty close, sometimes sneaking off together when they thought nopony was looking. “Hey Ocellus, have you seen Smolder?”

The little changeling looked up and Rainbow could see her wrestling with her response, fidgeting. “Oh, Smolder? Um, she was here but she wasn’t feeling well.” She tried to smile, but it looked brittle. “M-maybe she just ate a ruby that wasn’t properly, um, ripe?”

“A huh.” Rainbow folded her front legs over her chest as she hovered over Ocellus, who swallowed nervously. “Look I get your loyalty to her. Appreciate it, even—seriously, full marks—but I don’t like being lied to.”

Ocellus' face immediately crumpled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to! Professor Applejack says honesty is important but I want to help Smolder too and not get her in trouble and you said helping your friends by being loyal is important and—”

“Whoa whoa, whoa.” Rainbow landed and put a hoof on her withers. “Relax and remember to breathe, okay?” She waited for the distraught changeling to collect herself, spreading her wings to afford them some privacy. “Sorry,” she lowered her voice, reminding herself to handle Ocellus like she would Fluttershy. “I’m not gonna ask you to betray a friend’s trust if it’s important, but Smolder is one of my students and you’re both in my class right now. That means she’s my responsibility. If anything happens to her…”

Sighing softly, Ocellus shook her head. “She’s not doing anything dangerous. She just … wanted to be alone for a bit. I can’t tell you why, sorry. But I promise she’s safe!”

It was Rainbow’s turn to sigh, looking at a clock on the wall. “Alright. I’m going to go look for her since class is about to end anyway. I won’t ask you where she is, I’ll find her fast enough on my own.” She stretched her wings. “You can tell the others to pack it in for the day. If you want to keep working, wait for Rarity or Applejack. I think they’re going to swing by in a few minutes.”

Ocellus opened her mouth to say something, but fell silent. “Okay,” she whispered after a moment of indecision. “If—when—you do find her, could you, um...” She rubbed her front legs together.

Rainbow smiled and winked. “Yeah, I’ll tell her it was like trying to get a straight answer out of Pinkie Pie or a simple explanation from Twilight: I got nothing out of you.”

A startled laugh rang out before Ocellus could cover her mouth. Taking that as a win, Rainbow flew out of the gym and over the school grounds, looking for her missing dragon. She thought about checking the dorms, the library or the Crystal Treehouse, but ruled those out. If Smolder wanted to be alone, she wouldn’t go to a place where other students would be. “So where does that leave?” Rainbow muttered as she scanned the grounds.

She was about to move on and widen her search through town when she spotted small ripples from the lake near Twilight’s castle. Somecreature was skimming stones across the water, hidden from an aerial view by a thick growth of tall shrubs. Rainbow landed to get a better view and as soon as she did, spotted a flash of familiar orange scales picking up more rocks to throw. She must’ve planned to be there for a while since sitting beside her was a basket of gems.

Feeling triumphant, Rainbow didn’t bother trying to hide her approach. “Hey Smolder!” The small dragon leaped up and whirled around. Unfortunately, she’d been caught in mid-throw and unconsciously released it just as she turned to face her.

A rounded rock hurtled straight for Rainbow Dash before either of them realized what was happening. It was only thanks to years of flying experience, Wonderbolt training and dealing with Pinkie Pie that Rainbow had the speed and presence of mind to duck before she would’ve been clouted right between the eyes. As it was, she still felt the stone part her mane as it zipped by overhead, landing with a thump in the bushes behind them. “Bad time?”

“P-Professor?!” Smolder blinked. “What are you—geeze, didn’t anycreature ever tell you how bad an idea it is to sneak up on a dragon?!”

“I’ll be sure to add it to my next lesson plan,” Rainbow groused as she stood up and dusted herself off. “If you think you’ll actually show up.”

Smolder winced. “Oh. Yeah.”

“‘Oh yeah’ is right.” Rainbow tapped her hoof. “What’s up with you? Cutting class isn’t like—okay, I take it back—cutting my class? That’s totally like you. But usually you’d be running off with all your friends, not pulling a solo maneuver.”

Smolder just grunted. Rainbow mentally reviewed her Dragon-to-Equestrian dictionary to recall if this was an ‘I agree with you’ grunt, a ‘whatever’ grunt, a ‘shut up and leave me alone’ grunt, or all of the above.

Dragons were very fluent like that.

Smolder rubbed her face tiredly. “So, did Ocellus give me up?”

Rainbow shook her head, frowning. “Okay, first thing? Don’t ask a friend to cover for you like that. It puts them in a tough place of having to choose between being dishonest or being disloyal, and that isn’t fair to them. Secondly, don’t pick somecreature who’s clearly such a terrible liar.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “But no, she didn’t tell me where you were or why you weren’t in class. She cares a lot about you.” She shuffled her wings. “I also have a bit of an interest in seeing what’s up with one of my favorite students.”

Smolder leaned back. “Really?”

“I see a lot of myself in you,” Rainbow admitted. “You put yourself out there, always trying to prove just how tough you are and you don’t put up with stuff you think is nonsense. You’re pretty awesome and I’d like to think you can always talk to me if something’s bothering you.” She paused just long enough for that to sink in before adding, “You also don’t always think before you speak and usually prefer to solve problems physically even when you really shouldn’t, but hey, stones and cloud houses.”

Smolder, caught off guard, snorted so hard that smoke leaked out of her nostrils. “If you’re trying to butter me up so I’ll nominate you for Teacher of the Month again or talk more—” she sighed. “It’s working.”

“Nah, I’m flying straight with you but I didn’t say I always solve my problems with force.” Rainbow smirked. “I’m pretty used to having to deal with surly, snarling temperamental beasts that would fry me as soon as look at me—namely every time I run into Spitfire before she’s had her morning coffee … and even that only goes so far to help her usual personality.”

Smolder chuckled and sat down. “Thanks. You’re actually a really good teacher.” She paused then clapped a claw to her forehead, grimacing. “Ugh, can I go back and take out that ‘actually’? You weren’t wrong about not thinking enough before I talk…”

“It’s fine.” Rainbow smirked. “I’m pretty sure I won’t remember it when I’m grading your next project.”

“Now I’d like to take back my entire statement,” Smolder grumbled.

Rainbow snickered. “Now that we’ve established how awesome we both are, how about you tell me what’s wrong?” She held up a hoof, preempting Smolder. “And let’s just pretend we already did the ‘nothing’s wrong’ and ‘I can tell there is’ back-and-forth bit. It’s boring and I think we’d both prefer jumping right to the point.”

Smolder fiddled with her claws for a second then sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

Relieved at having made some progress, Rainbow walked over to join her by the lake’s edge. Her hoof bumped into the basket, knocking it over and spilling out a few gems. “My bad, let me get those for you.” She knelt down and started picking them up.

“Waitaminute, don’t—”

The “don’t” registered in Rainbow’s head just a second too late. She had forgotten how possessive dragons came to some other creature touching their stuff, especially when they were already on edge. Rainbow glanced over and saw Smolder lashing her tail and flexing her claws. “That’s MINE!” Smolder snarled as she snatched at the basket handle and yanked it away, ripping it off in the process. The woven basket dropped, with more gems falling to the ground—along with a poofy, pink satin dress with more frills and laces than Rainbow had ever seen in one place, even Rarity’s.

Smolder’s eyes bulged and she reacted with lightning-fast reflexes, snatching the dress before it could be stained and hugged it tightly to her chest. Black smoke streamed from her nostrils and the scales on her face turned bright red. A terrible, uncomfortable silence fell on them. For Rainbow, this couldn’t have been any more awkward if she had walked in on Spike making a collage of all his candid Rarity photos.

Again.

Rainbow’s ears wilted and she felt herself stammering. “Um, sorry, I—I, uh—”

Smolder squared her jaw and pierced Rainbow with a glare that instantly silenced her. Even the surliest training sergeant would’ve envied Smolder’s glower, despite her incandescent blush. “Fine, you saw it, happy?!” She stamped her foot, tail roiling on the ground. “So now you know! Want to know all my other secrets while you’re at it? I like dresses and have secret tea-parties with Ocellus. I love cute, silly pony stuff even though dragons aren’t supposed to!”

“Smolder—” Rainbow Dash bit her lip, painfully aware of how badly she had screwed this up. She had, however accidentally, humiliated Smolder and it felt feathering awful. “I’m—I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“Whatever.” Smolder stuffed her dress back into the basket and gathered up her gems in a righteous fury. “This is a dragon issue and last time I checked, you’re not a dragon, so just leave me alone!” She punctuated her shout with a puff of smoke. Before Rainbow had even finished coughing and clearing the air, Smolder was gone.

Rainbow darted around the sky, looking for her. The only thing she was quick enough to see was an orange tail snaking into the window of Smolder’s dorm room. The window slammed shut behind it, soon followed by the closing of the curtains. As much as she wanted to follow her and try to make this right, she quickly realized that she had no idea how to really do that. Smolder was right: this was a dragon issue.

Then Rainbow Dash got an idea.

Author's Note

For those curious about the names of unfamiliar characters or why Cozy Glow is being mentioned, allow me to explain:

RainbowDoubleDash set up a group to write a series of stories centering on the Student Six and the School of Friendship, taking place after the events of the Season 9 finale. Part of the arc for these stories would involve Cozy Glow being released from her stone prison and being remanded to the custody of the School for her rehabilitation. The Student Six are assigned the task of keeping an eye on her and trying to get her to change her ways.

To help flesh things out, it was also decided to come up with some original tertiary characters to provide more depth to the School, specifically students from lands and races we had already encountered in the world of MLP:FiM but never appeared at the School of Friendship for whatever reason. These are Summer Light the kirin, Long Path the buffalo, Cloudy Spinel and Frosty Quartz the crystal ponies, as well as Bella the diamond dog.

This story is my contribution to this project and takes place after a story by RainbowDoubleDash that sets all this up. Since my story, by and large, is a stand alone largely unconnected to the wider arc of the proposed series, I'm going ahead with publishing it (with RainbowDoubleDash's permission) on its own.

Chapter 2

“Would you care for some more tea?” Ocellus held up the teapot.

“Mmm.” Smolder nudged her cup forward in lieu of a proper answer. Even though her secret tea parties with Ocellus were usually the highlight of her week, Smolder just wasn’t feeling into it today. Even putting on her adorable lacey pink dress wasn’t helping, and it didn’t take a philophage to notice.

The changeling in question filled Smolder’s cup, but kept her over-sized eyes on Smolder. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Smolder let out a small, surprised grunt, something dragons were rather eloquent with. She appreciated Ocellus’ phrasing of the question; with a species as tuned to the emotions of others as changelings, asking if something was bothering them was a pretty pointless question to ask. They usually still would, out of politeness if nothing else, but Ocellus had come to realize that Smolder appreciated if not preferred directness. The gesture helped Smolder’s mood, but only so much. “I guess.” She picked up her cup, little-claw extended, and took a sip, not even waiting for the tea to cool off. But then, being a dragon, she didn’t really need to. Then she took another, longer sip. And another. And another.

Ocellus crossed her front legs over her chest. “Now you’re stalling.”

Why did everycreature around here have to be so observant, Smolder rued to herself. In the Dragon Lands, nocreature cared what you did so long as you didn’t mess with their stuff. Or made yourself look weak—which she supposed was the problem. “Professor Rainbow Dash saw my dress.”

Ocellus gave a little start, blinking her eyes several times in succession. “Oh dear.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Smolder rubbed her face. “It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.”

“I-I can imagine.” Ocellus’ wings flittered nervously. Being so sensitive to the emotions of others, Smolder didn’t doubt that she very well could imagine how bad it was. She half-wanted to ask what utter embarrassment tasted like, but didn’t really want to dwell on it.

Smolder pinched her snout. “It’s like, of course she was the one who saw it. If it was Professor Rarity, she’d probably have offered to make me more, and Professor Fluttershy would’ve invited me to her house for a critter tea party. Even Professor Pinkie Pie would’ve been fine. But no, it had to be the one professor who really isn’t into dresses and tea parties. Because that just figures.”

“There’s also Professor Applejack,” Ocellus offered. “She said she doesn’t like ‘frou-frou’ things too and—” she spotted Smolder’s look. “That’s not helping. Sorry.”

Tapping her claws idly on the table, Smolder looked glumly into her tea. “Ugh, classes are going to be so awkward from now on. Not to mention having to see her when I work on the stupid floats in the gym…”

“Um, if you don’t mind me saying...” Ocellus’ elytra buzzed nervously. “You were sort of in a mood even before this. I think it was ever since they announced the Fall Exhibition, in fact.”

“You know, this is why so many creatures were weirded out by changelings,” Smolder noted. “You guys are way too observant. I blame the compound eyes.”

Ocellus pouted. “You said you always liked my eyes and—wait, you’re trying to distract me!” Darn it, she was learning. Smolder grunted as Ocellus attempted to inflict her most withering stare on her. Being Ocellus it wasn’t all that withering, three out of ten, max. But it was improving. “Tell me what’s bothering you or—or else!”

Smolder’s eyelids flickered a bit. That sounded like a challenge. Ocellus certainly knew how to grab her attention. “Or else what?” Smolder leaned forward, teeth flashing in a smile. She smiled while Ocellus squirmed, no doubt trying to think of something to deliver on that threat.

“If—if you don’t, I’ll—” Ocellus blustered. “I’ll, um, I’ll shapeshift into you and walk into Gallus and Sandbar’s room in that nightie you think I don’t know about!”

Smolder reared back, her face ablaze with red as she struggled to get her jaw to work. “Buh-wha?”

She’d pushed Ocellus more than she had realized. The fact that she even made the threat was significant: first, it meant Ocellus was serious in getting to the bottom of what was bothering her. Secondly, Ocellus was an even faster study when it came to understanding the draconic mindset than Smolder had realized. She couldn’t help but be impressed, even as her cheeks burned. “Okay, okay! Yeesh, going for the throat much?” Smolder drank more tea to try to wait for her face to settle.

For her part, Ocellus was blushing nearly as badly as Smolder. “S-sorry, but you didn’t leave me much choice.” She took a sip too. “I wouldn’t really have … but you’ve been really upset and I want to help you.”

Once she’d emptied her cup, Smolder sighed. “Yeah, okay, it’s fine. It’s just—what am I even doing? What is this, what even is this?” She brushed her claws over her dress. “I’m sitting here in a pony school wearing a dress and drinking hot leaf-juice!”

Ocellus set down her own cup. “But Smolder, you love your dress. And your tea set and ... well, all of this.”

“I know!” Smolder groaned. “I do, I really do. It might have taken the Tree of Harmony to show me how much I did, but yeah, I love it. But this—it really isn’t dragon-like!”

“Since when does that bother you?” Ocellus tilted her head, a gesture she picked up from ponies. “You’ve always been your own dragon.”

“Since they asked me to represent the Dragon Lands at this stupid exhibition!” Smolder grabbed a gem-studded biscuit and snapped it in two. “And they want me to be the face of the school to the dragons like I’m some sort of role-model. Like you said, I’m my own dragon. I don’t—” she stopped to take a fierce bite out of her biscuit. “I don’t know if I can be an example or whatever for them to follow. And I especially don’t want to be thinking about this and deal with Professor Dash seeing my dress!”

Ocellus reached out and patted Smolder’s claw with her hoof. “It’s okay. We can work through this together.” She beamed at her, so bright and sunny that the dragon couldn’t help but smile too. “I wouldn’t worry about Professor Dash. She wouldn’t tell anycreature about what she saw.”

Smolder thought about it and nodded as she helped herself to more tea. “Yeah, maybe it’ll be weird for a bit but I think she’d want to put that behind her as much as I do.”

“Good!” Ocellus chirruped. “Now, maybe we can talk about the exhibition?”

Smolder stood up. “Actually, can we put a hold on this? I need to go take care of something.”

Upset at being cut off mid-planning, Ocellus pouted. “Nice try, but I know you’re trying to distract me again.”

“No, I mean I need to go.” Smolder squirmed in place, holding up her empty cup. “Too much tea.”

“Oh!” Ocellus blushed. “Sorry.”

Smolder waved her off and, after carefully taking off her dress, headed out, feeling much better now that she’d gotten to talk to Ocellus. She didn’t know who she’d be if it weren’t for the friends she’d made at school. But then, she frowned slightly, that was part of the problem with the exhibition.

By the time she reached the end of the hall, she’d forgotten all about Rainbow Dash and, if asked, would’ve confidently said that Rainbow had likely forgotten all about her as well.

Rainbow Dash wished Twilight wouldn’t look at her like that every time she shared one of her great ideas: eyes wide and mouth open, one hoof massaging the side of her head.

She was starting to take it personally.

Then again, Twilight had been having more and more headaches lately. It was becoming an all too familiar experience during their regular meetings of the Council of Friendship. This one was being held at the school since Twilight wanted to check in on the exhibition preparations, which is why Rainbow brought it up here.

Still, she didn’t get what Twilight was getting so bent out of shape about. Her idea was simple and easy, especially compared to the usual problems Twilight had to deal with: disagreements with Equestria’s neighbors, getting the Equestrian bureaucracy running smoothly, freaking out that the newspapers ran a baby photo of her and so on.

“Let me get this straight,” Twilight started again as she glanced over Rainbow’s proposal—she knew writing it down would make Twilight more likely to approve it, as she did love approving forms. “You want me to turn you into a dragon?”

Rainbow Dash nodded fiercely. “Exactly!”

“And you think this will help pony-dragon relations…” Twilight slowly tapped her hooves together. “How, exactly?”

“This oughta be good,” Applejack stage-whispered to the others. Rarity quickly shushed her.

Rainbow decided to ignore them. She couldn’t exactly come out and tell them what was going on with Smolder, since that would not end well, so she came up with a different explanation. “See, it’s like this: Smolder has had to come live with ponies in a place that’s not as fire-proof as the Dragon Lands which was kind of a big deal for her, but she did it to learn more about friendship and how to get along with other creatures like ponies, right?” Twilight nodded, which was when Rainbow sprang the trap. “Well, fair’s fair, right? Shouldn’t one of us get to learn what it’s like to live as a dragon? Especially if we want more of them to come to the School and interact with ponies more?”

“That does sound reasonable,” Twilight admitted, “which is making me suspicious. Also, why you?”

Rainbow scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Nopony else here can match my experience with dragons!”

Twilight arched her brow. “Really?” The more Rainbow thought about it, maybe she should’ve expected the pony who had hatched a dragon egg and all but reared one herself would have an issue with that assertion.

Whups.

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck and coughed. “Er, right … well, I meant among the rest of us! You’re the Princess of Equestria now, so you doing it yourself would be all … diplomatic-y and stuff.”

Twilight whickered in annoyance. “There’s … a halfway decent point buried in there. Somewhere.” She took a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh. “Proceed…”

Determined not to lose her momentum again, Rainbow Dash leaned in, ticking off points with her wingtips. “Just look at my credentials! I’ve kicked a dragon in the face; saved Rarity from another one; I went into the Dragon Lands when Spike went on his migration; my favorite legend is about Flash Magnus saving his comrades from a pair of dragons and I rescued his shield from Garble.” She crossed her hooves and pouted. “I also would’ve gone to that totally awesome Gauntlet of Fire thing too if somepony would’ve thought to ask me.”

“We said we were sorry,” Twilight groaned as she rubbed her face. “It was sort of an emergency.”

Applejack raised her hoof. “Uh, ain’t most of that an argument for why you shouldn’t? Seems to me like you butt heads with dragons more than anything else.”

“True, but with dragons that’s hardly a disqualifying factor,” Rarity observed. “They’d be more likely to get along with somepony who’d stand up to them rather than somepony with more ... shall we say, elegance?” She tossed her mane.

“Yeah! Like how you threatened to totally destroy them if they touched a scale on Spike!” Pinkie exclaimed, causing Rarity to cough awkwardly.

“She probably said it elegantly,” Fluttershy chimed in, trying to be helpful.

Twilight held up a hoof to try to get everypony back on track. “Okay, I agree that you have a demonstrated interest in dragons…” Rainbow leaned forward eagerly, but Twilight frowned. “But I’m still not sure about this.”

Rainbow slumped back in her seat and groaned. “Oh, come on! Why not?! Don’t tell me it’d be too hard for you, you turned us all into Breezies that one time and we’ve all been turned into seaponies.”

“True, but I’m not sure if dragons would react well to a pony pretending to be a dragon…” Twilight chewed her lip. “I’m worried that might come off as disrespectful—like you’re just playing at being who they really are.”

“Isn’t that what you did when you became alicornified?” Rainbow pointed out.

Twilight’s eye twitched. “That isn’t even a word and … what do you mean?”

“Think about it,” she pressed. “You went from being a unicorn to an alicorn and got yourself a set of wings. Was that being disrespectful to pegasi?”

“That’s not the—” Twilight tried to protest.

“Or what about unicorns?” Rainbow Dash pressed. “Isn’t becoming an alicorn almost like saying that you’re too good to be a unicorn now? Or when you go through that mirror portal and turn into that … whatever that is?”

“Twilight does like switching her body up a lot,” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “It’s just a matter of time before she turns into a draconequus. Or minocentaur—cenominotaur? Whatever Tirek was.”

Rainbow crossed her front legs over her chest. “Oh yeah, sure, you try to have a monkey coltfriend in another dimension and we’re all supposed to just take that in stride, but if I make the perfectly reasonable request to turn into a dragon and suddenly I’m the weird one!”

Twilight sputtered. “I don’t—I—what?!”

“Don’t tie the poor gal up in knots.” Applejack gave Rainbow and Pinkie a look. “For what it’s worth though, if Rainbow wants to have a dragon experience, being a dragon is probably the way to do it. As—” she was probably about to say ‘nice’ but honesty compelled her to rephrase, “—accommodating as Ember’s been, there are plenty of dragons who still get their snouts outta joint over ponies. Having RD get the full dragon experience might make it easier all around for folks to understand where everycreature’s coming from.”

“Exactly!” Rainbow beamed. “If you want to do something, you have to go all in. No point being all indeterminating, right?”

Twilight still didn’t look completely sold, so Rainbow put on her best, most pleading expression. “I promise, nothing bad’ll happen! I’ll listen to Smolder, won’t burn down Ponyville or do anything that’d risk starting a war with the dragons!” Her ear twitched as she thought about it. “Actually, you almost started a species war involving dragons when Ember visited Ponyville and when you opened the school, plus that time when we first met the yaks. That’s three more times than I’ve ever potentially risked starting a war.” She stroked her muzzle. “Or does that not count since you were probably diplomatically immunized or something?”

Twilight groaned. “If I turn you into a dragon, will you please stop butchering the equine language?”

“Yes ma’am!” Rainbow saluted her eagerly.

Twilight took another breath and closed her eyes, concentrating as the magic surged. Her horn lit up and a second later, so did Rainbow Dash. White light swirled around her, so bright that the others had to look away.

There was an even brighter flash, and when everypony looked up, there was a svelte blue-scaled dragon standing in the middle of the room standing unsteadily on two legs. Rainbow’s ears had tapered up and hardened into a pair of prominent horns. A series of spines with all the colors of the rainbow stretched from her neck to the tip of her tail, which twitched about on the floor. She spread her wings wide, having a greater wingspan than before. As Rainbow turned to get a better look, the sun’s rays reflected off her scales in such a way as to cause them to shimmer with a rainbow aura. When she grinned, Rainbow revealed she had a mouthful of fangs. “This. Is. So awesome!”

Pinkie Pie leaned forward. “Oooh I can see my reflection in her scales! Shinyyyy...” Rarity dramatically held a hoof up to her forehead and fainted backwards—right onto a put-upon looking Applejack. Fluttershy let out a squeak of terror and ducked down, hiding under her mane.

“Hey, it’s still me!” Rainbow waved to her, then stopped to regard her own claws. “Whoa, these things are weird. How do you get to move the one you want?” She wriggled her claws, opening and closing her hand, slowly getting a feel for having digits. “Heh, check it—I can extend some and keep others down!” She stretched out her hand and slowly brought each individual claw down until only the one in the middle was pointed out. “How cool is that?!”

Twilight coughed. “Um, about that, Rainbow—”

Rainbow turned, her tail accidentally bowling Applejack over. “Whoops, sorry AJ!”

Applejack flailed her limbs as she pulled herself back up. “Dangit, watch where you’re putting that giant backside of yours!”

“Okay.” Rainbow turned around and knocked Applejack over again. “There, I was watching where I put my tail that time.”

“Girls…” Twilight warned.

Rainbow Dash barely heard her, having realized something else. “I can breathe fire now, right?”

“Not in my school full of books you’re not!” Twilight shrieked.

“Not to mention the students, yes?” Rarity added dryly. “And us, as well?”

Twilight laughed awkwardly. “Yes, of course! It’s just that—Rainbow Dash!” she shouted as Rainbow took an experimental bite out of a crystal vase she’d brought from her old castle.

“Sowwy!” Rainbow swallowed quickly. “I was just seeing if I got the full dragon treatment. Turns out these actually taste really good!”

“They’re Maud-approved!” Pinkie added, holding up the vase to display a sticker of Maud Pie holding a half-eaten chunk of crystal and a (presumably) pleased look on her face.

Twilight rubbed her face. “I don’t know about this…”

“Don’t worry Twilight, I promise I’ll empathize the scales off Smolder!” Rainbow grinned.

“That isn’t how that word works,” Twilight grumbled, her eye twitching again.

Rainbow looked at a clock. “Uh-oh, I have to go find her now, see you later!” She zoomed out, slamming the door shut behind her. The second the door closed, she heard Twilight groaning and the sound of a pony’s face planting onto a table. Rainbow had grown rather familiar with that sound.

It was immediately followed by Applejack asking, “So, when did you figure out she uses bad grammar to distract you whenever you’re about to object to what she’s gonna do?”

Darn it, Applejack! Rainbow raced out a nearby window, the last thing she heard before heading out was the sound of Twilight yelling “She does WHAT?!”

Chapter 3

Rainbow Dash was still pretty fast as a dragon, though her flight was a bit more wobbly than usual. She struggled to get used to the feeling of having large, smooth, leathery dragon wings instead of her normal feathered ones. She found herself unconsciously side-slipping in mid-flight or banking too hard when she adjusted course, but overall it wasn’t too bad.

After a few moments of a lazy flight, she spotted Smolder skipping stones at the lake again. She must’ve really taken to that spot. “This should be good.” Rainbow tucked her wings back and went into a dive. “Hey, Smolder!”

The young dragon stiffened and whirled around at the call. She looked up and her eyes went wide at the unfamiliar dragon barreling down on her. Dash grinned as she flared out her wings to slow her descent and pull up.

“Ha! You should see the look on your fa—aagh!” Rainbow yelped as her now much-larger wings caught more air than she had expected and was now in a genuine freefall.

Before either had a chance to do anything more than wince, Rainbow slammed into Smolder, sending both of them tumbling into the lake with an almighty splash. Rainbow coughed and sputtered when her head broke the water. “Ugh, okay, so that did not go as planned.”

Smolder, her crest drooping, shot her a half-lidded stare made more ominous by the smoke trickling from her nostrils. “What’s the big idea?! Have you ever thought about this little thing called ‘watching where you’re going’? I really recommend it.”

Rainbow grumbled but couldn’t disagree. “Yeah, well … sorry about that. Hit a crosswind I didn’t expect.”

“Lucky for you my homework for class tonight is to practice being more forgiving of accidents.” Smolder pinched the bridge of her nose with her claws. “Ugh, fine. So who are you anyway and what’re you doing around Ponyv—wait...” She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “Professor Rainbow Dash? You’re a dragon?!”

“So Ember can’t tell ponies apart but you can recognize a pony when she’s become a dragon?” Rainbow tilted her own head—less in confusion and more to drain the water out of her ear holes. “But yep! Got it in one, kid.”

Smolder rubbed her face. “Is this an Element of Harmony thing? Because it was confusing enough trying to make sense of that already. If I have to worry about the Tree switching my species around I am going to start burning things.”

“Nah, don’t get your tail in a twist.” Rainbow waved her off as they made for shore. “I got Twilight to turn me into a dragon for a day so I could experience what it was like.”

“Huh.” Smolder shook out her wings, climbing out of the water. “I’m surprised she did that. You use bad grammar to confuse her until she starts worrying about that instead?”

“You’re on a roll.” Rainbow brushed a claw over her new spines.

Smolder blinked as the surreality finally hit her. “Wait ... why did you want her to turn you into a dragon?” Her mouth hung open as she figured it out. “Is this because of what I said to you yesterday? Your first thought was to actually become a dragon?”

“Well when you say it like that it’s like you don’t think this is the best idea ever or something,” Rainbow grumbled. “You said I couldn’t understand your problem since I wasn’t a dragon and, well, I want to help with whatever’s bothering you.”

Smolder started rubbing her temples. “That is just … I need a minute.”

This was already going less than smoothly. Rainbow coughed to try to get things back on track. “Um, before I start asking you to show me dragon stuff, I wanted to say sorry. Y’know, for yesterday.” She winced when Smolder tensed up. But instead of exploding again, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and began counting. It was a calming technique Rainbow recognized from Fluttershy’s classes.

Once she reached ten, Smolder exhaled again and stood up. “Yeah, I know. And—I’m sorry too. You just, uh, really weren’t supposed to see that. It’s kinda personal.”

“I got that.” Rainbow relaxed slightly, unaware until then of just how tense she herself had become. She knew that could have gone a lot, lot worse for both of them. “There’s nothing you have to explain to me or anycreature else, okay? You like what you like and it’s your business. It’s nobody else’s and it doesn’t change how awesome you are.” She cleared her throat. “Uh, and for the record? Liking dresses doesn’t mean you aren’t cool or tough. I mean, I like dresses. Or, like them enough anyway, if they aren’t too poofy or frilly or unaerodynamic.” Then she remembered the frilly sleeves of Smolder’s dress and wish she had rephrased that. “But if I thought liking frills and laces made somecreature lame, I’d never have been friends with Rarity or Fluttershy for more than five minutes. Just because it’s not for me, that doesn’t mean I don’t get that other creatures do like that stuff. I mean, there are ponies who don’t even watch the Wonderbolts—the weirdos,” she added the last bit with a faux-grumble, inviting a laugh.

It seemed to work, with Smolder starting to snicker. “I don’t know. I’ve met plenty of weirdos who do like the Wonderbolts. Silverstream, for starters,” she added with a casual grin

Nicely played.

Rainbow chuckled. “You know, you don’t have to be ashamed of being a dragon and liking dresses or anything.” She rubbed her neck. “I mean, I get it: I thought it was weird or embarrassing to admit how much I liked Daring Do when I first started reading it. But I was wrong. You like dresses and tea parties, so what? It doesn’t make you any less of a dragon any more than reading made me less of an athlete.”

Smolder blinked before making a rude noise. “Huh? No, that’s not it. I know I’m an awesome dragon, I don’t care about that.” She thought about it briefly before amending her statement slightly. “Okay, yeah, I don’t particularly want other dragons giving me grief over it, but whatever—I can flatten any one of them dumb enough to think I’m soft. I’m 100% dragon and I know wearing a dress doesn’t change that.”

“Heh, that puts you up on where I was with Daring Do,” Rainbow admitted, stretching out her new wings. “Okay, so are you interested in being my dragon tutor for the day? You get to be the teacher and show me all the dragon-y stuff: the fire, the scales, the fire, how to fly with these, and how to breathe fire.”

She could see her thinking about it, her tail curling and uncurling. Finally Smolder came to a decision and nodded. “Eh, sure. Why not? It’s not like I don’t already have to do this for Spike.”

“Great!” Rainbow’s eyes gleamed. “What’s first?”

Smolder thought about while she wrung the last bit of water out of her tail. “Okay, so what do you feel right now?”

Rainbow was not expecting Smolder of all creatures to ask her about her feelings. Confused, she stopped for a moment to consider and … “I want … I want—something? I don’t even know what I want except that I want it. Really bad.” Her wing twitched. “Also, there’s this … I dunno, tension? It feels like Lightning Dust just showed up and challenged me to a race and I want to show her I’m still the best.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely a dragon now.” Smolder ran a claw through her own spines. “The closest that you’d be used to is if you were really, really hungry, only for dragons this is a constant thing. As for feeling tense, well that’s pretty normal when a dragon first meets another dragon. You’re waiting to see if I display any weakness so you can take advantage of it, not to mention you’re probably feeling a need to defend your hoard against me.”

“I don’t have a hoard.”

Smolder shrugged, unconcerned. “Everycreature has a hoard of some kind. It’s whatever you value the most, whatever you take pride in; Professor Applejack has her trees, Professor Fluttershy has her animals, Princess Twilight has her books. For you ... hmm...” She tapped a claw against her snout in thought. “Imagine I was going into your house to snack on your Daring Do first-editions and trophies—”

“KEEP YOUR GRUBBY CLAWS OFF MY BOOKS AND TROPHIES!” Rainbow roared, exhaling fire in a loud burst.

Luckily, Smolder had anticipated this and dove out of the way. She surfaced from behind some bushes just as Rainbow Dash had clapped her claws over her own mouth, looking horrified at herself. “Yep, that fits.”

“Oh my gosh, Smolder I—I’m sorry!” Rainbow mumbled her claws still firmly clamped on her snout, not wanting to take any chances. “I don’t even remember deciding to—”

“Scorch my scales?” Smolder shrugged. “Meh, saw that coming a mile away. That’s pretty standard dragon-ing.”

Rainbow slowly pulled her claws away. “So, this is how dragons feel? All the time?”

“Pretty much. You have no idea how weird it was for me to live in the school.” Smolder looked at the school. “Sharing a dorm and now a room with other creatures, getting free supplies, having other creatures ask to—to borrow my things…” a faint tremor ran through her. “That’s really not the dragon way.”

“Weird.” Rainbow flexed her claws. “I mean, just having this constant urge … all the time?”

Smolder shrugged. “Don’t you always like to win and stuff? Or—I dunno, help other ponies or whatever?”

“Okay, yeah but that’s … a really good point.” Rainbow shook her head. “But that’s just me, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t think everypony feels that way all the time … or do they?” She thought about it, feeling decidedly unsettled by the implications. She shook her head, not wanting to dwell on it. “How’d you adjust?”

“It’s sort of an on-going process,” Smolder admitted. “I had to start looking at things sideways so it wouldn’t get to me. Like the dorm. I share my room and the dorm with a whole bunch of creatures. That got under my scales until I realized that it means that I also have a share of it, which means it’s mine. So all the other creatures are also mine. So I couldn’t get jealous or mad at things that were mine that were in my own place. Does that make sense?”

“Sorta?” Rainbow waggled a claw.

“Eh, good enough. Of course that did make it kinda weird because then it felt like all my friends’ stuff was actually my stuff. That … got really awkward.”

Rainbow snorted. “So was that why that one time you ended up taking every pillow in the entire dorm and turning it into your own private cave?”

Smolder flushed. “Um, yeah, basically. I can’t help wanting things, it’s part of being a dragon.”

Rainbow bit her lip as she thought that over—only to wince since her teeth were now pointed. “Ow! Um, okay, wow, that’s a lot to take in.” She flicked her tail, trying to get used to the sensation. “Hnng. Before we go any further, maybe we should do something about this urge I have to smash your face in?”

Rainbow blinked, surprised at herself. Even she wasn’t usually that blunt. “Er, not that I’m saying you should let me beat you up or—gah this is annoying!” She shook her head, as if trying to physically rid herself of the impulse. “It’s like I can’t even think before I know which of us is better at—at something! How have dragons not all killed each other off by now?!”

“Yeah, dragon first impressions are all about establishing your dominance.” Smolder grimaced. “It’s probably why Spike was ready to write off all dragons and think of himself as a pony after the Migration thing, since he didn’t really know what he was getting into there. But dragons are tough and we don’t go down easily. Plus, it’s not like every fight is to the death or anything. We’re rough, but we’re not that stupid.”

“If you say so.” Smolder’s glare came as a subtle clue that came out wrong. “I didn’t mean it that way!” She smiled, uncomfortably aware of just how many sharp teeth she was flashing. “Look, how about if you and I have a race to the flagpole? That’ll help settle this—whatever instinct I’ve got going on now and it won’t result in me getting fired for beating up a student.”

“Heh, you’re assuming I wouldn’t kick your newly-scaled butt.” Smolder snorted with a smirk. “Still, if I’m being honest here—I don’t particularly like my chances at going against the fastest flyer in the world.” She frowned. “Dragons aren’t big on getting into fights we can’t win.”

Rainbow held up a claw, still grinning. “Yep, yep, I am awesome—but I’m not sporting my usual set of wings. You may have noticed but I don’t have them completely down yet.”

Smolder made a big show of looking at the lake and then at the wet grass that had puddled beneath the two of them where they climbed out. “I might have spotted a sign or two.”

“Consider this a golden opportunity—ha, dragon pun, see what I did there?—for you to have an actual shot at beating me in a race.” Rainbow leaned forward. “That ought to get you some pretty impressive bragging rights, now wouldn’t it?” She might have been a beginner when it came to learning about dragons, but Rainbow could see she had Smolder hooked. The way her eyes lit up and her tail wagged faster than usual were a dead giveaway. “And for the cherr—uh, ruby on top? You beat me and I’ll give you a Get Out of Homework Free Card for any one assignment you don’t want to do, mine or anypony else’s.” She stretched her face into an even fiercer smile. “That is, unless you’re that afraid that a day-old dragon can beat you.”

“Oh, it is on now!” Smolder snorted, fully embracing the challenge. She marched forward, standing toe-to-toe with Rainbow and hovering high enough so she could shove her head into Rainbow’s personal space. “Maybe I’ll be the one wearing your Wonderbolt uniform at the end of the day!”

A fire raced through Rainbow. “As if you could fit your big backside into it!” She leaned forward herself, her forehead butting against Smolder’s. “I’m going to fly so many rings around you, they’ll think you’re that obelisk with the Rings of Scorchero!”

“I—” Smolder stopped short. “—have no idea what you’re even talking about.”

“So, I know what my next lesson plan is going to be.” Rainbow shook her head. “Whatever, let’s just do this! First one to the flag on top of the School wins.”

Smolder crouched down in a ready position, her wings flared out. “On your mark…”

Rainbow soon joined her, assuming her normal racing pose. “Get set…”

“GO!”

The two took off like a bolt. Rainbow took the early lead, soaring through the treetops to reach the open air. She took a winding path to the School, angling around taller trees and rooftops. But she soon found herself struggling; her leathery wings sliced through the air, perhaps even better than her normal ones, but she wasn’t used to their larger size. It especially didn’t help that she was losing speed on the turns and banks. She felt about as maneuverable as a brick.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Smolder had settled behind her, coasting by on her slipstream. Sneaky. After Rainbow leaned too hard into one turn, stalling, Smolder shot ahead. Rainbow grumbled and flapped harder. The flagpole was just ahead and she did have greater speed than Smolder. She closed the gap significantly and would likely have soon overtaken her, but the flagpole was too close.

Smolder’s face was pulled back in a fierce grin, reaching out to slap her claw against the flagpole a scant instant before Rainbow Dash could. “Ha ha, I did it! I won!” Smolder whooped, doing a spin around the pole. “I—wait a minute.” She looked back at Rainbow, narrowing her eyes. “You didn’t let me win to make me feel better?”

Rainbow snorted and shook her head. “That’s not my speed. You want something, you have to earn it and, yeah, you did. Congrats. But just wait until I get a better handle on these big flappers and then we’ll have a rematch.” She looked at Smolder’s wings thoughtfully. “You know, you probably could’ve gotten an even better time if you kept your wings spread out a bit more and timed your flaps with your exhales.”

Smolder looked at her back and then at Rainbow in puzzlement. “I guess? Dragons don’t exactly breathe the way ponies do, so I guess it never occurred to me.” She scratched her muzzle. “You know, if I had beaten another dragon that way, especially an older one? They would’ve either slunk off or grumbled about how I got lucky because a bird flew in their path or something.” She landed on the School’s roof and sat down. “I mean, losing to a younger, smaller dragon is really humiliating, even more than losing in general.”

After stretching out a few kinks in her neck, Rainbow joined her. “You think so?”

“I used to.” Smolder hugged her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “Coming here’s helped change my view of things. Sometimes I keep getting surprised by how much.”

When she didn’t seem prepared to add any more to that, Rainbow broke the silence. “I’m not feeling that same pressure that was there before, so I guess that got it out of my system.” She nudged her, snickering. “So, if I was an actual dragon, you’re saying I’d go all to pieces now? ‘Oh no, Smolder, you’re just so incredible and I’m such a wuss!’” She let out an over-the-top fake sob she’d learned from watching Rarity. “‘Fetch me the lava-flavored ice-cream!’”

Smolder cackled. “You know, that would be a big hit in the Dragon Lands if anycreature ever invented that. But yeah, for dragons if you show any weakness, you deserve to get piled on by the ones stronger than you.” She hesitated for a moment before adding, “Honestly, I would’ve thought you of all ponies would get behind wanting to show whoever you meet that you’re the best.”

Rainbow scratched her spines. “Eh, you got me there. But there’s one big difference: it isn’t about showing dominance for me. When I meet somecreature who’s got some serious skills, I don’t start thinking they’re some kinda threat I have to smash or grind down or whatever. If they can go hoof-to-hoof or wing-to-wing with me, I think that’s actually really cool. Applejack, Gilda, Little Strongheart, Daring Do, Lightning Dust, Maud—it’s exciting to get to meet creatures with serious moves. We connect because we both know we’re bringing our all to whatever we do.”

Smolder blinked. “But that means that they can beat you. And you hate to lose.”

“Well duh, of course I do,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Obviously. But if all I wanted was a guaranteed win every time, I’d only ever compete against ponies I know I can easily beat, like Fluttershy.” She leaned forward. “I want my wins to matter because it shows that I actually accomplished something worth doing.”

“That’s … huh.” Smolder’s tail flicked as she thought about it. “Most dragons are more practical minded. A win’s a win to them.”

Rainbow grunted, tapping her foot impatiently. “Hng, how to explain this—okay, so dragons have hoards, right? Is every item in your hoard equally valuable?”

Smolder shook her head. “Of course not. If something is rarer then that becomes much more valuable than something that’s in every dragon’s hoard, especially if it means you have something other dragons don’t. Making other dragons jealous of you is almost as good as beating them in a fight.”

Rainbow grinned. “Right, it’s the same thing for winning! If you beat somepony who isn’t really all that good or isn’t trying, then what’s that worth? But going head to head against a really tough competitor and winning? That counts for a lot more.”

She waited to give Smolder a chance to think it over and was pleased to see her nod. “Heh, sometimes it’s even better to lose—as much as it stinks—against a really good rival, knowing you’ve given them a run for their money than an easy win over somepony else who never had a chance against you in the first place.” She leaned forward, making sure Smolder was following her. “But part of that means you have to respect your opponent. If they’re not worth respecting, then why bother taking the time to challenge them? It’s only by going up against creatures you respect that you improve yourself. If you don’t respect them, you’re not respecting yourself; it’s the same as going ‘I’m so weak and lame that I can only win by picking on those even weaker and lamer than me.’ That isn’t what I’m about and I don’t think that’s what you are either.”

“That … makes a lot of sense.” Smolder admitted.

“Why does everycreature always sound so surprised when I do that?” Rainbow wondered aloud.

Smolder chuckled weakly. “No no, I meant you actually explained that in a way that would make sense to a dragon. That’s actually pretty helpful. You know, with the exhibition coming up and all.”

Seeing her mention it, Rainbow took the opportunity to follow up on that. There was probably some old bit of pony wisdom somewhere about letting sleeping dragons lie, but that wasn’t her thing. “So, I hate to bring it up—”

“Then don’t,” Smolder muttered half-heartedly.

“—but what did you mean yesterday about why you can’t work on your float?” Rainbow rubbed her neck.

There was a longer pause there, one Smolder tried to fill by drumming her claws on her arms. After she finished she finally said, “I’m not the right dragon to represent the School.”

“You’re the only dragon who goes to the school,” Rainbow pointed out. “I mean, I don’t really count.” The look Smolder gave her made it clear how little that helped.

“Look,” Smolder groaned. “This exhibition thing is to show us off and go on about how if we could learn friendship, then other creatures can too and should come to the school to learn, right?”

It sounded a lot more inspirational when Twilight was describing it, Rainbow rued. “I guess? You’re a dragon, you go to school and you made friends. Not really seeing the problem.”

“Ugh.” Smolder lashed her tail. “It means that I’m not like other dragons! That means I can’t be this role-model that you need me to be.” She snorted when she saw Rainbow’s continued lack of understanding. “Think about it: my friends are all pretty perfect representatives or examples or whatever of their homes. Yona is as smash-happy as any yak could ever want and thinks yaks are the best at everything. Gallus is clever, thrifty and snarky, all good griffin traits. Silverstream? She’s as easily excitable which I guess is a hippogriff thing since Princess Twilight said her dad and Princess Skystar were pretty excitable too. Ocellus is sensitive, emotive and tries so hard to make a good impression—which is what the changelings have wanted to do since they reformed.” She thought some more and snickered. “Even Sandbar is the perfect pony example, being all super-eager and friendly, like he’s a super-normal pony.”

Rainbow’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, okay, I see that. But what about you? You breathe fire, don’t take nonsense, tough as a cyclone—sounds to me like you’re all-dragon and you admitted that wearing a dress doesn’t change that.”

“It’s not—” Smolder waved a claw, smoke leaking from her nostrils. “I know I’m all-dragon, but I’m not an ordinary dragon. I’m fine with that but how are other dragons supposed to relate to me when I do stuff so different from them? My friends can have other changelings and yaks and griffons and hippogriffs look at them and go ‘they’re just like me, if they can do it, I can do it too.’ If other dragons hear about me they can shrug it off and go ‘Smolder doesn’t count, she was always different. She likes cute pony things. That’s why she can do other pony things like friendship, it doesn’t mean that we can.’” She crossed her arms and puffed out some more smoke. “There are probably dozens of changelings who can see themselves in Ocellus or yaks in Yona, but dragons?” She shook her head. “I like tea parties and dresses and cute stuff. How many dragons do you think can relate to that?” She added after a moment’s thought, “Besides Spike.”

Rainbow blinked. “Okay, that’s … um, wait how would they even know about you liking cute stuff? I thought you said you just did that with Ocellus?”

“I do but…” Smolder groaned. “Blame Professor Applejack. It just … it doesn’t feel right. I’m okay with keeping my private life private cuz that’s my business. But it’s something else when I’m going to try to convince other dragons to give the School a chance by passing myself off as being just like them when I first arrived—that bothers me.”

Another awkward pause fell as Rainbow scrambled to think. “You seemed pretty disinterested in school when you first arrived,” she mused. “When did you realize you liked cute stuff?”

“The Tree of Harmony showed me.” Smolder shrugged as if that were enough explanation. Rainbow wondered what that said about her life that it actually was. “See, we were all down in the caves under the School and had to face our fears, and mine was admitting to myself that I liked cute stuff—liked being cute. I even realized there that I wasn’t an ordinary dragon, which is cool and all, but doesn’t make me cut out to be this example of the School’s success in changing me.”

Rainbow rubbed her muzzle. “If you didn’t do that before you got to the School—”

“I—I think maybe I always liked that stuff. I just could never admit it to myself until the Tree made me confront it.” Smolder idly kicked at the ground. “I mean, Garble is a sensitive beat-poet and I love the big doofus. I never made fun of him for it or anything. Maybe I was always different from other dragons.” She shrugged. “I’m not whining about it, but it does mean that I’m not exactly going to be relatable to other dragons. You know how thick some dragons are?”

“I have a pretty good idea.” Rainbow Dash surprised herself by having the good grace not to mention that it was meeting Smolder’s brother that helped convince her of said thickness. “It’s not as if there aren’t ponies like that.”

Smolder shook her head. “That’s not the point. We dragons have spent a long time telling ourselves that we don’t do friendship; that the only way to get ahead is to look out for yourself. Dragon Lord Ember is changing that, but even she can only do so much. To convince the more rock-brained lizards among us, you can’t give them anything out of the ordinary about the dragons who come to the School, otherwise they’ll latch onto it and make it out that it’s just something ‘wrong’ with that dragon.”

“You’re saying the only way to make an impact on other dragons would be if we had brought the nastiest, most selfish, unpleasant jerk in the Dragon Lands to town and turned him into a model of friendship for others?” Rainbow’s face wrinkled. “We already had Sludge pass through Ponyville and it didn’t seem to make an impact on him.”

Smolder thought about it and shrugged. “Okay yeah, point taken: he’s pretty low.”

“Besides,” Rainbow’s eyes lit up as she thought of something. “Ember wasn’t exactly sold on the concept of friendship until Spike helped her in the Gauntlet of Fire. Now look at her!”

“They’ll just say that she was already different since she preferred using brains over being big and strong.” Smolder sighed. “I know it’s dumb, but that’s how some dragons are.”

Rainbow snorted. “Again, it’s not just dragons. Remember when I told you my cutie mark story in class? The Sonic Rainboom?”

“Which time?” Smolder drawled. “The first or the fiftieth?”

Smarty-scales. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I pulled of a Sonic Rainboom right in the faces of some of the biggest jerks in Cloudsdale—and when I went back years later to compete in the Best Young Flyer competition, those same dolts tried insisting to my face that I had never pulled off a Sonic Rainboom and that there was no such thing.”

“Oh yeah.” Smolder scratched her head. “How’d they manage that? Did you concuss them or something in that race?”

“No! Well, probably not.” Rainbow thought it over, then shook her head. “Nah, they were always dumb. Some ponies just won’t accept what’s in front of them no matter how obvious it is. That goes for dragons too. If you think you aren’t going to be a good role-model just because there’s going to be at least one dragon who isn’t going to listen to you for whatever dumb reason—then that’s setting way too high a standard and that’s me saying it.”

Smolder frowned, not looking entirely convinced. “I guess.” Instead of pursuing it further, she asked, “Do you want me to show you how to breathe fire?”

Rainbow stood up, instantly transfixed. “More than anything.”

“I was hoping you’d say that...”

Chapter 5

Smolder rested against a pillar in the Crystal Treehouse, slowly munching on a pearl—she had been meaning to try more seafood. Mostly though, she was trying to think of what Rainbow Dash was about to spring on her next. This was the pony who decided to have herself magically transformed into a dragon after one conversation. There was no telling what was going through her head at any given moment. At least she’d been shaping up as a pretty decent dragon.

Plus, if Smolder was being honest, Professor Dash had given her some useful stuff to think about. But she still didn’t see how she could make this exhibition work. How could she convince dragons to want to come to the School to give friendship a try?

It felt like there was an idea right on the edge of her mind, but she couldn’t quite make it out. Maybe if she thought about it a little longer she could—

“Hey Smolder!”

—almost leap out of her scales when Professor Dash returned with all the subtlety of a rampaging roc. “Gah!” Smolder almost choked on her pearl. “Seriously, again with that?!”

“Heh, sorry.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her head, grinning semi-sheepishly and clearly too excited about whatever to feel really abashed.

Ponies. Smolder sighed to herself. Even the dragon-shaped ones. “Forget it. So, what was it you went off to do?”

Rainbow puffed out her chest. “I only hit upon the greatest idea ever!”

“What is that, your fifth one today?” Smolder rolled her eyes but Professor Dash was on a roll and barely seemed to take note of her.

There was a gleam in Rainbow’s eye that Smolder seldom saw on another dragon’s face outside of a treasure room. “I found the perfect example to show you how you already made a difference in how dragons are seen!” She cleared her throat. “Presenting one of the most awesome ponies of all time, one of Equestria’s greatest heroes—”

“Your mirror pool duplicate? Identical twin sister?” Smolder deadpanned. “Or did you just bribe Ocellus to turn into you?”

“Watch it, smartflank.” She cleared her throat and resumed. “One of the Pillars of Equestria, the legendary, the brave, the awesome—Flash Magnus!” Rainbow barely repressed a squee.

Smolder leaned back on her heels as a yellow-orange pegasus in old-fashioned legion armor strode out, a familiar looking shield strapped to his back. “If your introduction had gone on any longer, I’d get the feeling that you thought highly of me or something,” he wryly mused.

Rainbow said something in response, but Smolder wasn’t listening. She was too busy gawking and trying to figure out what Rainbow was playing at. She’d heard of Flash Magnus, of course—the fabled pegasi who became a hero to all of Equestria for besting dragons twenty times his size and going down in history for it? Hard not to have that sting the old draconic pride a little.

Magnus turned to Smolder. “So you must be the young dragon Rainbow Dash has told me so much about. You must have made quite an impression on her. After all, she did get herself turned into a dragon in order to connect with you.”

Smolder hesitated. Hearing it said out loud made her realize just how much Professor Dash was reaching out to her. The least she could do was do the same for one of her heroes. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Didn’t you hear?” Rainbow gestured to the Crystal Treehouse they were standing in. “Smolder and her friends did this after the Tree was destroyed. Plus they were the first ones to actually talk to the Spirit of Harmony.” She nudged Smolder meaningfully, all the while grinning at Magnus, who was looking in awe at the Treehouse. “Looks like they might be carrying on our legacy.”

That was something Smolder and her friends were still trying to wrap their heads around. Granted, talking to a tree-spirit-thing and being part of a giant rainbow blast that defeated ultimate evil did help. She and her friends had talked about it a few times, trying to figure out what Element they were supposed to ‘inherit’ and if it meant they would each end up with one of the Professors as their designated mentor. Having Flash Magnus and Rainbow Dash here for her felt like a mighty big clue—but she still wasn’t sure if Bravery or Loyalty was necessarily the Element she embodied. She felt like she was both of those things, to be sure, but so were her friends. She’d spoken to the other dragons about the need for Kindness and Generosity, but that didn’t feel quite right for her either. She forcibly pushed those thoughts from her mind. One problem at a time.

Her focus returned right as Flash Magnus was finishing his brief inspection tour of the Treehouse. “I can certainly believe it.” He chuckled. “The world has grown so much bigger since my comrades and I defended Equestria, much as the Tree itself has. We sought to keep Equestria safe from danger. Rainbow Dash and her friends expanded what we did to not only defend Equestria, but befriend creatures the world over. Now you and your friends have come together from across the world, bringing all creatures together in order to save us all.” He beamed at Smolder. “Truly, I can think of no better hooves—no better claws, excuse me—our legacy can be left in.”

Smolder scuffed her feet, not used to feeling this abashed by praise. “It’s not what I expected I’d be doing but I guess I can’t complain.” She folded her claws behind her head. “You might be getting a bit ahead of yourselves though.”

“Nah, don’t think so.” Rainbow smirked. “Or did you forget about the part where you, all on your own, went back to the Dragon Lands and convinced every dragon there to come back and fight three of the biggest bad guys ever to save a bunch of ponies? And you say you’re not a role model...”

“Getting dragons to show up for a scrap when the fate of the world is on the line wasn’t that hard,” Smolder argued, uncomfortably aware that she might have been skirting the truth there and suspected that Rainbow Dash knew it too. She was on firmer ground when she added, “Convincing them to come to a school, to commit to a long-term goal of changing how we look at the world? That’s a whole different story.”

Flash Magnus shook his head. “However you describe it, the fact is that you were able to get them to follow your lead. That sounds like being a role model to me.” He doffed his helmet, taking a moment to shake his mane loose. “Rainbow Dash told me you were unsure how to be an example for other dragons when you’d already set yourself apart from them. But there’s more to being a role model than offering to become a mold that any other can fit into. There’s also inspiring them to be more than they are by providing them with an alternative.”

Rainbow nodded eagerly. “See? This is why I asked Flash to meet you: he and the Pillars were all totally extraordinary legends but they still managed to strike a chord with ponies even millennia after they vanished!”

Smolder stayed quiet, chewing that over. Rainbow broke the silence with a chuckle. “You want to know why Flash Magnus was my favorite Equestrian legend?”

“Because I look good in armor?” Flash grinned while both girls rolled their eyes. “What?”

“It’s because he went up against dragons—the biggest, toughest, most awesomest creatures in the world.” Rainbow poked Smolder’s chest. “You know how the best get to be that way? By pitting themselves against the best and that’s what dragons are. I liked the idea of proving that a pony could be—that I could be—as tough as the toughest critters around. Not stronger, maybe, but tougher, you get me?” She waited for Smolder to nod. “Turns out though, that there’s something even cooler than beating dragons and that’s befriending them.”

Flash Magnus nodded as well. “In my day, dragons were seen as brutal beasts, one of the biggest threats a pony could encounter. You can imagine how surprising it was for me to find out that dragons were now our friends. Spike. Ember. You…” he held out a hoof to Smolder. “You helped change that. I was able to defeat two dragons to save two of my comrades. You were able to rally all of the dragons to our side to defend all of Equestria. I think your deeds have already surpassed mine.”

Smolder rubbed the back of her head, her cheeks tinted red. “Uh, well, cool?”

“The point is, you helped change ponies’ minds about dragons; even the ones who looked forward to butting heads with dragons.” Rainbow nudged her. “If you can do that for us, I think you can do the same for dragons going the other way.”

Smolder thought about it, her tail slowly curling and uncurling. There was that thought again, hovering just at the edge of her mind … only now it was coming closer, becoming clearer. “I think I might have something for the exhibition.” She looked up at them. “But I’m going to need some help. Can I count on you?”

“Uh, duh? Only always!” Rainbow Dash leaned in. “What’ve you got cooking?”

Smolder smiled back. “Okay, so how’s this sound…”

The Fall Exhibition rolled around quickly. Peering out from the gym windows, Smolder saw bandstands erected along the planned parade route winding through Ponyville, coming to an end in the School of Friendship’s sports stadium. That’s where Princess Twilight would be waiting for them, along with Dragon Lord Ember and all the other visiting leaders.

“You ready?” She turned around to see Rainbow Dash, now back as her usual pony self. Flash Magnus stood next to her. “Big night tonight.”

“It is, but don’t worry. I got this.” Smolder nodded. “Thanks.” She cracked her knuckles and flew into the mouth of her volcano-float, hidden from view. Her float got underway, directed along the route by her two assistants. Most of her friends were standing on their own floats, but Smolder wouldn’t make herself known until she reached the stadium. Go big or go home, as Professor Dash would say. Still, to keep her float from being completely boring, she’d added smaller geysers of streamers and confetti that would periodically go off as it made its way through town. She’d also taken to decorating the ‘volcano’ with paintings of dragons.

Her float slowly began to pull into the stadium, Smolder’s eyes wandering over the crowd in the bandstands. She spotted the rest of the student body, the school staff (besides Rainbow Dash), the former Princesses of Equestria, the leaders of the Crystal Empire, Griffonstone, Yakyakistan, Mount Aris, the Changeling Hive, the Kirin village, the Buffalo tribes and, of course, the Dragon Lands. Like the other leaders, Ember hadn’t come alone but brought a party of dragons with her. Garble had come, naturally enough, and Smolder recognized a few of the others: Garble’s friend Clump, Marr, Cinders, Fizzle and even Crackle.

It was a good thing stage-fright wasn’t something she had a problem with. She rapped her claw against her float. She heard the muffled, echoed voice of Rainbow Dash beginning a countdown. When zero was reached, the giant party-cannon she was sitting in went off, launching Smolder into the air alongside a ton of streamers and confetti.

She spread her wings and soared up, clearing the confetti. She heard applause and approving roars from the dragons. Time to really begin the show then. Smolder tilted her head up and breathed as big a gout of fire as she was capable of producing. Spinning in place, she cycled through as many emotions as she could, her flames flickering and shifting from one end of the color spectrum to the other; from brightest red to deepest violet and everything in between as it swirled around. She heard the appreciative ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of the crowd at her rainbow-tornado of fire, followed by a ton of applause. After about half a minute, she closed her mouth and let fire slowly dissipate.

Smolder hovered over the mouth of her volcano. She took a brief moment to relish in the cheers and applause—nothing wrong with that, after all—before she raised her claws to quiet them down. Phase one had been a success. Now for the hard part.

Once she’d gotten some quiet from the crowd, Smolder spoke up. “We dragons are the strongest and fiercest creatures in the whole world.” She saw approving nods from the dragons in the crowd. “But we’ve all seen who’s been responsible for saving the world all those times and it wasn’t us. It was other creatures, usually ponies, who did it without our strength or our fire. Because their friendship was even stronger.”

Confusion and irritation warred for supremacy among her listeners, but she pressed on “We’ve seen over and over how a group of friends, working together, can overcome things way more powerful than them individually—because friendship made them more powerful than any single creature, even a dragon.”

That provoked some grumblings and lashing tails. Luckily Smolder knew just how to handle that.

She turned her head and gestured with her claw. Right on cue, Flash Magnus and Rainbow Dash flew up to join her, and those grumblings started quieting down. “You all know their stories.” She pointed to the two ponies in turn. “The pony clever enough to best two full grown dragons, each about twenty times his size; the pony brave enough to kick another full grown dragon in the face and cagey enough to steal the first pony’s shield back from an entire gang of dragons.”

She felt momentarily bad for throwing a spotlight on how easily Rainbow and Spike had managed to trick Garble—it was sure awkward when Smolder found out about that story after coming to school and made the connection herself—but she needed to make sure they got the message. “They both won because they had friends backing them up and supporting them. That makes more of a difference than anything else.”

Smolder stretched out her claws and cracked her neck, as if preparing for a fight. “I know dragons improve ourselves through challenges. But because we let ourselves think that only brute strength mattered, we haven’t thought about trying new things to better ourselves. Instead of challenging ourselves, we just stick to the same old stuff dragons have been doing for ages. Other creatures push themselves by trying new things and becoming stronger while we stay the same. No, I take that back. We’re getting weaker.” That certainly got a bit of a backlash from the more skeptical dragons down below. Smolder frowned at them. “Don’t believe me? Think of all the stories about dragon greatness we tell at the Feast of Fire: when was the last time one of those stories took place when any of us were alive?”

There were uncomfortable expressions and low murmurs as the dragons considered that. “See? We’ve gotten complacent. Gotten irrelevant. Gotten weak. It’s not friendship that makes us weaker, it’s not having friends that did that. Friends encourage you, they motivate you, sometimes they even challenge you. That makes you want to improve, to be better than you are.”

Now that Smolder had tweaked their pride, it was time to offer them a way to motivate them into restoring it. “So to any dragon here or back in the Dragon Lands who wants a chance to make a name for themselves, to be remembered as a great dragon, here’s my challenge to you: strike out on a new path. Be different from how we’ve been, be better and be stronger—by coming to the School of Friendship and do things no other dragon has ever dared before. Well, besides me.” She smirked. “I made five life-long best friends on my first day. In under a semester, we saved all the magic in the world. I dare you to do better.”

There. She’d thrown down the gauntlet. Now all that was left to do was see how they would—

“Go Smolder!” Garble stood up, pumping a fist into the air. “That’s my sister! Any of you chumps going to be dragon enough to take her up on that?”

“Just watch!” Cinders reared herself up on her tail and jerked a thumb at her own chest. “I bet I make way more friends than anydragon, including her!”

“Yeah, well I’ll have more friends than any creature out there!” Marr retorted.

For a moment Smolder was worried she’d fed into their competitive nature a bit too much, but so far they hadn’t come to blows. That was a good sign.

So was Ember standing up. “Alright, that’s enough! Remember, I decide who gets to go to this School. If you want me to even consider any of you, you’ll go back to the Dragon Lands and help me convince the rest of the dragons why friendship is so important.” There were quick, even eager, nods and murmurs of assent from the other dragons present.

Success! Smolder beamed, repressing the urge to cheer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ember turning to Twilight. “Princess Twilight!” Ember shouted, because she knew no other way. “I, Dragon Lord Ember, declare that the Dragon Lands will begin sending more students to your School of Friendship starting next year!” She smirked at some of her fellow leaders. “I only hope that other creatures are wise enough to follow our example...”

That provoked an even louder reaction from Prince Rutherford, but Smolder had angled away. She didn’t want any part of that; she’d done her bit for friendship and for the school. Still, it looked as though the other leaders weren’t about to step down from Ember’s challenge anymore than the dragons had been willing to do for Smolder’s own.

Smolder landed by her float and was almost immediately joined by Rainbow Dash. “Smolder, that was awesome! You totally did it!”

“Heh, yeah I did. Thanks, Professor.” Smolder rubbed her neck. “I owe you big.”

“Eh, it’s all part of the totally awesome hero-teacher-mentor deal. Buuut,” Rainbow hedged, “I wouldn’t mind doing some more dragon stuff with you now and again. You still owe me a flying rematch.”

Smolder chuckled. “Yeah, sure. That is, if you think you can convince Princess Twilight to turn you into a dragon again.”

Rainbow Dash winced. “Oh yeah. That … might take a little doing. Er, in the meantime, maybe we can hang out as ourselves. I need some feedback on a few new maneuvers I’m working on.”

“I think I can get behind that.” Out of the corner of her eye, Smolder caught Ocellus eagerly waving at her. She and the rest of their friends had gotten together and were probably looking to go do something as a group now that the exhibition was over.

Rainbow followed her gaze and chuckled. “That can wait for later though. You go ahead and celebrate with your friends.”

Smolder threw her the best Wonderbolt-grade salute she could muster. “You know it!”

As Smolder headed off to join her friends, she felt a wide, toothy-grin cross her face. Maybe other dragons would come to school and maybe they might even end up with more friends than her. It was possible, anyway. But she was sure that none of them would ever end up with any friends better than hers.

The End

Chapter 4

When Smolder woke up this morning, she hadn’t expected she’d be playing Dragon Tutor with her own professor. Though given the weirdness that was Ponyville, maybe she should’ve. Still, if this was what was going on, then she was going to be the best dragon tutor ever.

She hopped off the roof of the School and spread her wings, Rainbow following her on a lazy flight to a dusty patch of land on the outskirts of town. “Okay, doesn’t look like there’s anything we have to worry about catching fire here.” She noted, looking around.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want Rockhoof showing up.”

Smolder glowered at her professor. Rainbow just snickered in response. “Come on, it was a little funny.”

“Very little.” Smolder crossed her arms. “Didn’t you say I was your teacher today? You might want to scale back the commentary.”

Rainbow smirked. “What, and miss out on doing to you what you do in all your classes? Dream on!”

Smolder sighed, realizing that the next time somecreature asked her to define irony, she’d have it nailed.

Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash wasn’t done with her ruminating. “Besides, isn’t being a smart-flank part of being a dragon? Wait, flank?” She turned around to regard her own posterior. “What’d the dragon word for that even be...?”

“Blackdread give me strength,” Smolder muttered, rubbing her forehead. “You want to learn fire-breathing or not?”

That made Rainbow sit down promptly, tossing Smolder a fine salute. “Yes’m!”

“Good. Now, I guess I should tell you what the really old dragons liked telling us when we’re first taught how to control our flames.” She sighed. “It’s really boring though. It’s stuff like how fire isn’t just about destroying stuff—though it’s really good for that—but how fire is energy and energy is life, and we dragons are fire given flesh, blah blah blah. Personally, I think they just liked getting high off sulfur fumes.” Smolder shook her head. “Anyway, we start by practicing your breathing.”

Rainbow shot her a wry look. “I’m pretty sure I know how to breathe. I’ve been doing it my whole life, after all.” She held up a claw, pre-empting Smolder. “Okay, okay, I’m just pulling your tail: I know controlling your breathing is important. Especially when you’re really high up and the air gets thin. Pretty sure I got this.”

“You think so, huh?” Smolder smirked. She was going to enjoy this. “Hold your breath as long as you can.”

Shrugging, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and did just that, her cheeks bulging out. Smolder waited patiently, watching Rainbow’s eyes slowly widen as she waited to feel the need to draw another breath—only for it to never come.

After about a minute, Rainbow blurted out, “What the hay? I’m not breathing?!”

“Nope. Or at least, not in the way you’re used to.” Smolder thumped her chest with her fist. “I mean, we keep fire inside us. The hot air and smoke would make any other kind of lung collapse. That’s why you ponies normally can’t breathe this stuff.”

Rainbow poked her chest. “Whoa. Weird. But wait, I’ve seen you guys inhale and exhale.”

“That’s more about regulating our body temperature.” Smolder shrugged her shoulders. “It gets really, really hot in there. If it gets too hot, our scales start to sizzle. I’ve heard of dragons who got so hot they could set things on fire just by touching them, no fire-breath required. But that’s really not something you should want since it makes doing a lot of things, like eating, hard.” Smolder pounded her chest again. “That’s what we have inside of us, all the time. It’s what makes us so strong.”

“Unreal.” Rainbow looked down at herself. “How do you guys even get a fire going inside you?”

“Gemstones.” Smolder tried not to grin at the confused look on her Professor’s face. She knew she’d be wearing it a lot today. “What, did you think we just ate them for no reason? Gems, especially igneous ones like diamonds or emeralds, are formed from heat and pressure on magma. Eating them is like reclaiming a bit of that same heat and pressure to keep our inner-fires going. We can eat other stuff, but without gems...”

Once Smolder was sure Rainbow had absorbed that, she jolted her back to attention by smacking her palms together. “Okay, so, dragon fire isn’t like normal, boring fire—it’s way more awesome.” She tilted her head back and huffed out a small plume of bright red-orange flame. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rainbow watching with rapt attention. Now was the time to really blow the prof’s mind.

She exhaled again—only this time the fire was more greenish. Smolder twisted around, turning it into a spiral that lanced over her head like a mini-tornado. She struck a pose and heard Professor Dash stomping her feet on the ground in applause.

It probably would’ve worked better if she still had hooves, but she still made an impressive din. “That was so cool!”

Smolder smirked and crossed her arms. “In the Dragon Lands, we’d say that was really hot.”

“Yeah yeah.” Rainbow waved a claw. “How’d you get it to change color like that?”

Smolder sniffed and tilted her head back a bit, putting on the most exaggerated ‘teacher’ face she could think of. Naturally she used Twilight as a reference. “Dragon fire is tied to our metabolism. You think about different things, different emotions, and you can get your fire to turn different colors and reach different heats.”

Rainbow tilted her head and thought it over. “Huh, so I guess that’s how Spike can breathe regular fire sometimes and that special message-to-Celestia fire other times?”

“Basically.” Smolder shrugged. “I mean, that’s the result of some pony spell so it’s not like any dragon can do that messaging stuff, but for going back and forth, yep. Getting mad turns your fire redder. When you’re laughing, it turns blue, being really happy gets green, you get the idea. So let’s get you started, alright?”

She didn’t need to say anything more. Rainbow pumped a fist in the air. “Yes! Say the word, teach!”

That just made this sound so much weirder. Smolder shook her head. “Okay, I want you to stand up straight, feet apart, tail keeping you nice and balanced. Got that? Okay, good. Next, inhale for about four seconds then tilt your head back and breath out for eight.”

“In for four, out for eight. Got it.” Rainbow closed her eyes and tilted her head back until it was pointing almost straight up.

Smolder watched her breathe in and then let out a gout of orange-red fire. The plume wasn’t the neatest it could’ve been, choppy and fraying at the edges but for a first attempt, it wasn’t half-bad at all. “There you go. Congrats, you’re breathing fire!”

Rainbow squealed as soon as the fire went out. “This is the coolest thing ever!”

“Only if you’re really doing it wrong,” Smolder snarked. “Not bad, Professor.”

“Is there a way to make your fire bigger?” Rainbow asked eagerly. “Maybe eat something special like peppers or spices or beans—”

“No no, let’s not even go there.”

***

They kept going for a little over an hour before Smolder called them to a halt, spotting just how covered with soot and ash she and Rainbow were. “Ugh, we better wash off before we head back to school.”

Rainbow looked for herself and nodded. “I guess so. Don’t want Starlight or Rarity getting upset because I got the school all dirtied up.”

“My roommates tend not to like it either.” Smolder shrugged as they took to the air, looking for some stray clouds to fly through. “I’m pretty used to it myself, but hey, might as well make it easier for them.”

“Look at you, being so considerate of your roomie.” Rainbow’s words were light, but there was something about it that made Smolder uneasy.

“Just thinking about some other creature’s needs. Isn’t that the whole point of the school?” She almost winced at the transparent defensiveness of her tone. There was no way Rainbow Dash could miss that.

Sure enough, “Hey, I wasn’t criticizing or judging!” Rainbow held up her claws. “I think it’s pretty great how well you and Ocellus get along. I mean, I’ve been buds with Fluttershy since Flight Camp but we still step on each other’s tails now and again.”

Somewhat mollified, Smolder forced herself to relax. “Thanks but it’s not like we’ve never argued or anything. In fact, it was her standing up to me and making a point about the whole soot-and-ash smell is a big reason why I brought it up.”

“She made that big a deal over it?” Rainbow quirked her brow. “I wouldn’t have thought Ocellus had it in her. Except maybe over a misquoted book or something.”

“Hah! I thought the same at first,” Smolder admitted. “But I think she knew that the way to keep a dragon from walking all over her, intentionally or not, was to stand up to them and make them respect her. Or make me, in this case.” A smile crossed her face. “Her legs were shaking the whole time and it was obvious how hard it was for her—but I think that’s why I listened to her. Because no matter how hard it was for her, she still did it. That’s displaying some real toughness, and dragons appreciate that.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “I hear you loud and clear. I’ve felt the same way about Fluttershy. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s irritating how worried she can get about really minor things that aren’t a big deal—but when the chips are down, she always tries so damn hard and she’s clearly giving it her all. It takes her a lot more effort than it does for the rest of us, but that’s kind of impressive in its own way.”

Smolder nodded. “Yeah. Back before I came to school I wouldn’t have seen what Ocellus or Professor Fluttershy do as brave. Even now, most dragons would see them as big scaredy-scales and dismiss them.” She smiled but even she knew it felt crooked. “I guess that just brings it back to me not being a normal dragon, huh?”

“Normal is boring,” Rainbow commented before diving through a cloud, letting the moisture brush away with the ash and soot.

Smolder wished she could shrug it all off as easily as that.

Rainbow Dash emerged from her impromptu cloud shower feeling nice and refreshed. She did a little mid-air twirl as she did. Partially to dry herself off, but also because she was still coming down from her high of having actually breathing fire!

She was eventually stirred from her reverie when she noticed Smolder looking so dour she might’ve been an excited Maud Pie. “Hey, what’s up? You’ve been doing a great job as my dragon tutor.”

“Oh, yeah, thanks.” Smolder shrugged. “Just thinking about the exhibition again and all that. I still have no idea what I’m going to do about it.”

Rainbow thought it over some more and sighed. She was going to have to get personal here. “Okay, look, you don’t think other dragons can relate to you because you like cute things?” She waited for Smolder to nod. “Remember how you said earlier that I was able to explain things in a way a dragon would get? Well, sometimes … I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I don’t think the way ponies are expected to. There’ve been times I’ve found it really hard to relate to other ponies because they like cute things.” She scrunched up her snout. “Okay, I take that back, I don’t mind cute, adorable stuff but unrelenting, unbearable cutesy-wootsiness is my limit.”

Rainbow shuddered. Stupid flowers.

“The point is, there’ve been a lot of times when it felt like I didn’t fit in with other ponies.” She looked down towards the School for a moment then turned back to Smolder. “Can you keep this between you and me?”

“I’m a dragon.” Smolder mimed sealing her snout. “We can hoard secrets as well as we do gems.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that you eat—wait, no, nevermind.” Rainbow shook her head. “Anyway, you’ve been in Equestria long enough to know how much friendship and Harmony matters to us. It matters to me too, but…” she hesitated. “Sometimes I show it differently and even my friends don’t get it, which gets under my feathers.” She looked briefly at her now featherless-wings. “You know what I mean.”

When she looked back, she saw she had Smolder’s undivided attention. “Really?”

Rainbow nodded. “Let me put it this way, my Element is Loyalty.” She tapped her own chest. “Now, you can basically be Kind or Generous or Honest to everycreature. But can you be loyal to every single creature you meet?” She gave Smolder a look. “Think about yesterday with Ocellus. She had to choose between being loyal to you, her friend, and to me, her totally awesome teacher. How fun do you think that was for her?”

Smolder shuffled uncomfortably. Then her eyes widened in realization and she facepalmed. “Oh, fewmets.”

“Pretty much.” Rainbow tossed her head. “When you run into a problem where you have to choose between two sides you’re both loyal to—well, you get stuck pretty quick. Or at least, I do.” She groaned. “Discord was able to use his powers to mess with me when we first met because he was able to play on that. Plus, remember that time I told you about the Wonderbolts and the qualifying rounds for the Equestria Games? Both times I was being forced to choose between Cloudsdale and Ponyville and it just shut me down.”

Smolder nodded. “I think I get it: divided loyalties suck, and the more creatures you’re loyal to, the more likely it is you’ll have split loyalties.”

“Right!” Rainbow Dash nodded vigorously. “That’s it exactly! Loyalty is … it’s...” She grasped for the word. “It’s selective. You can be loyal to some creatures all the time, or all creatures some of the time—but you can’t be loyal to all creatures all the time. It’s just not possible. You have to prioritize some over others—and part of that is being prepared to defend the creatures or places you’re loyal to against the ones you don’t feel that way about. That’s where my friends and I butt heads sometimes.”

“I thought that was just a contest you were having with Professor Applejack.”

Rainbow was half-certain Smolder was just playing her. “Figure of speech. I want to protect my friends from anyone who’d try to hurt them—but they tend to act like I’m being unreasonable or mean because I don’t greet every weirdo we meet with a hug and hot cocoa.” She felt some frustration bleed into her tone and tried to throttle it back. “Sometimes I come on too strong and I’m way off base: like when I thought Twilight was a spy for Nightmare Moon. But other times...” She paused, suddenly unsure. Talking about her issues with her friends to a student made her feel like she was airing dirty laundry in public, as Rarity would say.

But she was trying to help Smolder and to do that she needed to connect with her. “Other times it feels like other ponies aren’t willing to speak up or admit when something is really off. Maybe they think if they just ignore the problem it’ll solve itself without anypony having to get uncomfortable. And when I don’t play along, they act like I’m being rude for pointing out the obvious issue they’re trying to ignore or tip-toe around.”

She began to tick points off with her new finger-claws. “There was the time I brought up whether or not Fluttershy would be up for a trip up a mountain to confront a dragon she’s clearly terrified of and didn’t even want to go. Or the time Applejack was clearly trying to give us the run around at Dodge Junction or when I was the one to ask Rarity about why she had a croquet mallet in her mouth at Twilight’s birthday party.”

“These are the deep questions that pony philosophers lie awake at night wondering about,” Smolder deadpanned.

Rainbow idly wondered how much paperwork she would have to fill out if she tied a student’s tail in a knot. Too much to make it worthwhile, probably.

She nudged Smolder with a wing. “The main thing is that it usually ends up being me who has to point stuff like that out; the stuff they don’t want to address. So instead they react to me and go on like I’m the one with the problem for pointing it out. They try to make me feel like I’m being rude or closed-minded because, oh no, I didn’t instantly believe Discord or Dr. Caballeron when they were clearly spouting horseapples.” She drooped slightly in mid-air, groaning. “It stinks sometimes. Even my friends treat me like I’m being an insensitive jerk whenever I’m skeptical about somecreature who is acting really sketchy. Or they go behind my back to set up some ‘lesson’ they think I need to learn. It bugs me that they do that and that they make me feel like I’m not being a good pony because I don’t instantly buy everything somecreature’s trying to sell me, you know?”

“Yeah,” Smolder growled. “I do. Cozy Glow pulled that same move on me. When I pointed out how little sense her ‘explanation’ for what happened to Counselor Starlight made, she tried to make me look like I was just being a ‘scheming dragon’ in front of the entire School.” She flexed her claws before clenching them so hard her knuckles changed color.

“Yeesh, what a little—” Rainbow made a strangled noise and refrained from finishing her original thought “—bad pony.”

Smolder smirked, unclenching. “Nice save.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rainbow breezily lied in a way that would’ve made Applejack keel over.

“A-huh.” Smolder leaned forward. “So what do you think of this idea of me and my friends changing Cozy Glow, or whatever?”

Rainbow had wished she wouldn’t ask that. “I … wasn’t exactly a fan when Twilight and Starlight suggested it,” she admitted. “I care more about my friends and my students than somepony who’s totally manipulative and—y’know, evil and stuff. I’m not gonna apologize for that.” She held up a hoof to keep Smolder from interrupting. “But just like you have to take chances in order to win, you need to give creatures a chance to improve themselves or else they definitely never will. If my friends never gave ponies like Luna or Tempest or Starlight another chance—well, we’d have a lot fewer friends than we do now. And considering that quite a few of them helped save Equestria themselves, not having them be our friends would’ve been really bad. Cozy might not want to change now, but leaving that door open at least gives her a reason to consider it.”

Smolder sighed. “Okay, yeah, I get it. I still don’t like having her around. Maybe that makes me a bad student of friendship but that’s just how I feel and I don’t think I can change that.”

“Feeling that way doesn’t make you a bad student,” Rainbow insisted. “I still feel that way about Cozy and about a lot of shady characters I see folks bending over backwards for. I get where you’re coming from, Smolder, I really do. It sucks when you’re made to feel like there’s something wrong with you for not thinking the same way as other ponies. Sometimes—” she stopped herself, making Smolder regard her curiously. Reluctantly, she continued her thought. “Sometimes I stopped and wondered what it said about me that I’ve had an easier time making friends with non-ponies.”

That certainly got Smolder’s attention, with her leaning forward. “What do you mean?”

Rainbow rolled her shoulders. “I didn’t get along too well with a lot of the other pegasi foals. Maybe that’s on them for being bullying jerks or maybe that’s on me for not tolerating bullying jerks. Whatever. Sure, I had fans, but my first real friend at junior flight camp, besides Fluttershy, was Gilda. We just clicked right off the bat, no problem, like you and your friends.”

“Probably not exactly the same,” Smolder offered.

“Details.” Rainbow dove back into her point. “Then when me and the girls were going to Appleloosa for the first time, I had the same thing happen with Little Strongheart. Even though she’d attacked the train and all, I really respected her skills and I just found myself bonding with her and siding with her over the ponies of Appleloosa. I bet it would’ve been like that with Ember too, if Twilight and Rarity had thought to invite me to go with them to the Gauntlet of Fire.” She pouted in an over-the-top manner that wasn’t entirely a put on.

Smolder thought it over and nodded. “Hm, yeah, I can see Ember connecting with you more than with Rarity. Most dragons think ponies are soft and you’re really not that.”

Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t know what it means, exactly. Maybe I just naturally lean towards friends who were a bit rougher around the edges than what’s usually considered acceptable among most ponies.” She grimaced. “I also got along really well with Lightning Dust when we were at the academy and she was pretty way out there herself. What matters is that I do get what it’s like to do things that other members of your species don’t appreciate.”

“That … that actually helps.” Smolder rubbed her arms. “But lots of ponies look up to you. I mean, you have an actual fanclub and everything.”

“Heh, yep, all true.” Rainbow grinned. “See, the way I look at it, there’s two ways to be a role model.” She paused, thinking it over. “Actually, there’s probably a ton of different ways, but for the sake of argument I’m gonna say there’s two. One is what you were talking about: being so relatable that any other creature hearing about what you did will think they can do it too if you could.”

Smolder nodded glumly.

“But, there is another way,” Rainbow stressed. “The other way to be a role model is to do something completely out of the ordinary, something so awesomely amazing that no creature ever even thought it was possible in the first place. Something to shake them up and inspire them to rethink what is and isn’t possible.”

“Why do I get the feeling,” Smolder asked dryly, “that you’re talking about yourself here?”

Rainbow leaned over and flicked Smolder with her tail. “Hey, I’m being serious. Yeah, okay, I’m not gonna surprise anycreature when I say that’s the option I go for. One of Spike’s comic books has a hero explain that creatures need big, larger than life, dramatic examples to shake them up.”

“You mean that batpony guy Spike likes going on about?” Smolder scratched her head. “I never got why bad guys are supposed to be afraid of bats.”

“I’ve known dumber concepts for superheroes,” Rainbow said flatly. “Anyway, it’s still a good point. It’s way too easy to look around, see the way things are and just assume that they can’t be any different, or that creatures can’t be any different. They tell themselves this is the way it’s always been and this is how it’ll always be.” She smacked her claws together. “But then comes something big to shake them out of it, to remind them that impossible things can be possible, if you’re awesome. It challenges their assumptions and it excites them, makes them want to get out there and try new things for themselves.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t always work for everycreature and some respond better to whole relatability thing, but the point is there’s no one-size-fits-all way to be a role model.”

She saw that Smolder still didn’t look convinced. Then Rainbow got an idea that was nearly as inspired as her decision to turn into a dragon. “Tell you what, how about if you take a break for lunch and then meet me by the Crystal Treehouse. Sounds good?”

Smolder opened her mouth, but Rainbow was too excited to wait for her answer. “Great, I’ll see you real soon!” She zoomed off, her newly scaled face peeled back in a grin.

This was going to be so amazing...