(Occurs during S1E07 Dragonshy)
Cogneato walked into the town hall. Most of the ponies in Ponyville cared little for the city’s politics, but today’s meeting included more ponies than usual. Seeing so many other ponies made him nervous. If he wasn’t required to be here, he’d probably have just left. Instead, he found a place in the back away from everypony else. The other ponies seemed to be engaged talking to each other, so he tried his best to relax. He didn’t know why Mayor Mare asked him to be present, but he hoped it wasn’t to speak in front of this crowd.
Mayor Mare stepped up to the podium on the stage and the ponies went silent. “Princess Celestia has granted us funds to restore the railroad from Ponyville to Canterlot. The new line of transport, “The Friendship Express”, will boost tourism and commerce in Ponyville.” Mayor Mare pointed to a map of Ponyville that was already set up on the stage behind her. “Right now, we plan to build the station here, on the outskirts of town.”
Several of the ponies nodded in agreement, but Golden Harvest, a yellow pony with orange hair and a carrot cutie mark, stood up. “But Mayor, that’s awfully close to my farm. Couldn’t we put it on the otherside of town where it used to be, near Sweet Apple Acres instead? My carrots need peace and quiet to grow and the noisy train is anything but! Why does it need to be so close to my farm?”
Mayor Mare scrunched her face in thought. “I don’t remember the reason exactly. But Cogneato knows.” Cogneato who nearly jumped out of his seat at the mention of his name. Mayor Mare looked right at him, in the back. “Cogneato, why won't the tracks go by Sweet Apple Acres instead?”
Everypony in the audience turned around and looked at him. His body froze and his mind went blank. He felt a rush of adrenaline and beads of sweat appeared on his head. His stomach tensed and he held his breath. He knew the answer, but he knew words wouldn’t come. Instead, the whole hall was silent and Cogneato bore everypony’s stares. Panicked, his gaze darted around to several different ponies. Mayor Mare’s face was curious and welcoming. Golden Harvest’s was upset and ready for an argument. Cogneato thought about trying to speak again when suddenly the door to the main hall was flung open. Everypony’s eyes shifted away from Cogneato and he felt like he could breath again.
“Mayor Mare!” Twilight Sparkle called, dashing up to the podium. She levitated an open scroll with her. “I’ve just received word from Princess Celestia that there is an elder dragon that has taken up residence on a mountain near Ponyville.”
Ponies in the hall gasped.
“Let me see!” Mayor Mare took the scroll and read it over. “Hm… it seems haze caused by the dragon’s snoring is too much for the pegasus ponies to handle.”
“If it goes on, all of Equestria will be covered in darkness for the next 100 years!” Twilight sounded alarmed, and that caused murmurs of unrest amongst the other ponies.
Golden Harvest seemed particularly concerned. “What will become of my carrots?” She wondered aloud.
“But,” the mayor said calmly, “Princess Celestia has full faith that Twilight Sparkle and her friends will be able to use the power of friendship to persuade the dragon to find another place to sleep.”
This seemed to calm everypony down.
“Given the circumstances, I believe we can end this town meeting early.” Nopony objected.
“I’m going to go tell the townsfolk!” Twilight declared as she dashed off. Everypony else started talking amongst themselves. Although everypony's attention was no longer on Cogneato, his heart was still beating fast. He decided to duck out before anyone could talk to him.
Outside the day was sunny, but it was clear that the dragon's smog had already begun to affect Ponyville. Dark clouds lined the sky and everypony was weary. Cogneato quickly went home and closed the door behind him. He sighed in relief to be alone again when suddenly there was a knock at the door. He jumped in surprise.
“Cogneato, could I please speak to you?” Mayor Mare was on the other side. He cautiously cracked the door and looked at Mayor Mare. She looked grim and in need of assistance.
Even though he was socially spent, he pushed himself to talk to her. “Yes, how can I help you?” he asked.
“I’d like to speak with you inside please.”
Cogneato mentally slapped his head. No doubt she had another task for him. He really didn’t want to deal with it right now, but Mare’s tone made it clear that this couldn’t wait. He opened the door and she stepped inside. She waited until he closed the door before continuing.
“I have an important task for you. There is a chance that Twilight Sparkle won't be able to convince the dragon to sleep elsewhere, and in that case we will need a back up plan." Cogneato sighed with relief. Planning and constructing was his forte.
"You can count on me, Mayor!"
"Great! I need you to come up with ideas on how to handle the smog and give a presentation on it to the townsfolk."
Cogneato heart sank like a rock. “You want me to… give a presentation?” He gulped audibly.
“Yes, we need to let Ponyville weigh the options. No one pony can make this decision.”
Cogneato was shaking with anxiety. “Couldn’t you just give the presentation?”
“Hm…” Mayor Mare wasn’t blind to his situation. She saw how he reacted in the hall, but she had thought he was just caught off-guard. It was clear that this was a serious issue. “Well, I could do the presenting, but I would still need you to answer questions. You’ve very good at thinking on your hooves.”
Cogneato smiled weakly at the compliment but it quickly faded. “I’m not sure though.”
Mare frowned. “I guess I could find somepony else to do the job.” She moved towards the door.
“No, I’ll do it,” Cogneato asserted. “I know I can, it will just be … difficult.”
The mayor smiled at him. “I’m glad I can count on you, Cogneato. I know you won’t let me down. Meet me tomorrow at my office to tell me your plan.” With that she headed out.
Cogneato panicked. What was he going to do? He uncomfortably shuffled his hooves and his teeth chattered. The thought of standing on the stage and having all those ponies stare at him petrified him. He felt both trapped the need to run. He dove into his bed and hid himself under the fluffy covers. His pink body disappeared into a sea of baby blues. He vaguely wished he could hide and it would go away on its own, but he knew it wouldn’t.
Poking his head out, he looked out the window. A group of six friends were listening as another spoke to them. He was perfectly fine with one or two ponies, but he could never manage a large group. How many ponies were too many? At what point did they become a crowd? Eight to ten Cogneato concluded. Depending on how well I know them. A quick mental calculation determined that there would be more than that many attending the meeting.
He knew he’d only have to answer questions, but it was very likely that questions would come up. He wouldn’t have time to specify every aspect of a solution. Without precise details, people would ask questions, and with questions he’d have to answer to the crowd. He hid himself under the covers again and hoped a solution would present itself.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. He felt the same paralysis come over him. He pulled the covers tight and waited for them to go away. More knocking. “Hello?” The voice sounded familiar, but Cogneato couldn’t quite place it.
The pony opened the door which creaked. Cogneato peeked a green eye out from his covers and looked at the mauve pony standing at the door.
“Cogneato?” she asked inquisitively.
It was apparent that he was hiding under the covers, but he continued to hide anyway. “Yes?”
“Um, hello, my name is Cheerilee,” she said cautiously, looking at his eye. “Mayor Mare said you might be feeling some anxiety over public speaking?”
“You could say that.” He recognized her now. She was the elementary school teacher at the school house. Her presence seemed to relieve him a bit and he visibly relaxed.
“Would you like to talk about it?” she asked delicately. “I’ve helped several of my students through speech anxiety before.”
“Really?” He pulled the blanket back revealing his head, but kept his body cloaked. “Nopony has ever tried to help me before.”
“What?” Cheerilee was taken aback. “Not even in school when you were younger?”
He shook his head. “I never had to give a speech.”
“Hm…” she began to think. “What about answering questions? Didn’t you have to answer questions in front of the class?”
“There were six other ponies in my class, seven including the teacher. Seven doesn’t make a crowd.”
“I suppose not,” Cheerilee agreed tentatively, wondering how many ponies make up a crowd. “What happens when there is a crowd?”
“I freeze up!” Cogneato lowered his head down and shook side to side. “I just can’t do or say anything.”
“I see.” The teacher nodded with understanding. “What goes through your mind? What keeps you from doing anything?”
“Nothing! Nothing goes through my head. I just blank out!” He stared at the ground in shame. “I’m just an awful pony and I can’t talk in front of crowds.”
“You’re not an awful pony just because you can’t speak in front of crowds,” she soothed. “You’ve just moved to Ponyville and have already accomplished so much.” She looked out of the window at the water tower. “Wasn’t it you who recently redesigned the water tower to make it easier to rebuild?”
“That wasn’t hard.” He looked up at her, excited at his engineering solution. “Besides, based on the statistics in Canterlot, the influx of ponies and ensuing accidents will mean the tower will be destroyed and rebuilt at least three times a year. Easier repair is just more efficient.”
“But what about public speaking? Isn’t that an efficient way to communicate an idea to lots of ponies at once?”
“Not always.” He shook his head vigorously. “I’d rather send a letter, or talk to each pony one on one.”
“Well why not suggest that?” Cheerilee offered. “At least for now. You can write a report and explain to each pony what it means.” She knew it wouldn’t solve the problem, but now didn’t seem like the time to do it.
“I tried, but Mayor Mare wants me to answer questions!” He moved the blanket over his head again, hiding himself from view. “They’re going to ask me questions and I’m just going to stare at them and embarrass myself and the mayor in front of the whole town!”
“Hm…” Cheerilee thought about it. “Well, you can still ask.”
“What do you mean?” he asked through the covers.
“You could ask if you could write them a letter as an answer, or offer to talk to them one-on-one.”
Cogneato poked his nose out. “Wouldn’t that be rude or impolite?”
The teacher looked back at the talking blanket and smiled. “While it’s not conventional, we can’t all expect to be able to answer questions and solve problems when immediately asked. Sometimes it takes research, sometimes there is no answer, but it’s okay to ask for time before you answer.”
The engineer shook the blanket off, revealing his head and shoulders. “Ask for more time?”
Cheerilee nodded. “Yes. I know you hate being wrong...”
Cogneato made a surprised face and pointed to himself as if to say “Who? Me?”
Cheerilee gave him a knowing smile and continued. “Everypony hates to be wrong. That’s why they’ll understand if you need time to think about the question or answer it later.”
“But won’t they still judge me for asking if I can get back to them later?”
“They will only judge you if you don’t follow through.” Cheerilee looked very confident. “If you know the answer, but prefer to tell them in private, tell them. Just make sure you do.”
Cogneato nodded in understanding and stepped off his bed, leaving the blanket behind. “So all I need to do is ask to tell them in private at a later time?”
“Well, that’s one technique,” Cheerilee hesitated. “It will probably work for now, but we should probably have you go through some desensitizing exercises for a longer term solution."
"Thank you so much for all your help. I feel a lot better." He shook himself off.
"You're welcome!" Cheerilee turned around and stepped toward the door.
"Um," Cogneato began, "are you busy this afternoon?"
Cheerilee spun around. "No, school was canceled because of the emergency." She blinked twice. "Did you need something else?"
Cogneato put a hoof behind his head and looked embarrassed. “Could I ask you to help me brainstorm a solution?”
Cheerilee smiled and nodded.
A little while later, they walked into the school house. Since class wasn’t in session, the place was deserted.
“Excellent, a chalkboard!” Cogneato walked up to the board and grabbed a piece of chalk with his mouth. Quickly he wrote on the board “Emergency Dragon Plan.” After a moment of thought, he drew a mountain with smoke coming off of it, and a few iconic houses at the foot of the mountain.
“So the smoke is coming from the mountain and spreading over ponyville” Cogneato began. “Couldn’t we just move away? Maybe we can build a new city on the other side of another the mountain.”
Cheerilee shook her head. “There is no way that the citizens of Ponyville would accept that. Besides, this is an Equestria-wide problem. The air will still have smoke, even in the new location.”
“Maybe we could build a shield around Ponyville?” the engineer suggested. “It could prevent the dark clouds from getting in?”
“Do you mean a magic shield?” Cheerilee asked. “That would take a very powerful unicorn to make a shield that was so high up.”
He thought of Twilight. “I’m sure we have a resident unicorn with the power to make that kind of shield.”
“You mean Twilight Sparkle?” Cogneato nodded. “I don’t know if she could make a shield that big. She would also get tired eventually.”
“Couldn’t the other unicorns help her?” He offered. “I don’t know that much about magic.”
“Neither do I,” Cheerilee admitted. “However, relying so heavily on a unicorn would go against our city’s traditions.”
Cogneato was taken aback. “What? Are you saying the ponies of Ponyville have a prejudice against unicorns?” Such a thought had never occurred to him.
“No, no,” Cheerilee explained, “the settlers founded Ponyville as a way to live a lifestyle where the Earth Ponies would be empowered.”
Cogneato was very confused. “Aren’t they just as empowered as any other pony?”
The teacher frowned at him. “While each pony has their strengths, and it’s true that now all ponies respect each other regardless of race, life in Equestria wasn’t always like that. Don’t you remember what Hearth's Warming Eve is all about?”
“Er…” Cogneato was embarrassed. “I never really gave much thought to those old tales.”
Cheerilee slapped her hoof against her forehead. “Without going into the history lesson, making Ponyville depend on unicorns for the next hundred years is not a good plan.”
“Okay.” Both ponies sat back and stared at the board, waiting for more ideas to come.
“Hm...” Cheerilee thought. “If we can’t build a shield around Ponyville, maybe we could build one around the dragon.”
Cogneato made a face. “What?”
Cheerilee took the chalk and drew an oval around the top of the mountain. “The shield would surround the mountain and block the smoke from leaving at all.”
“Okay.” He understood. “But wouldn’t the air inside the shield be filled with smoke? And wouldn’t that mean we’d still be dependant on a unicorn?”
“Well,” Cheerilee looked defensive. “It would solve the problem for all of Equestria. And we already depend on Celestia for the sun each day.”
Cogneato contemplated the suggestion. “I suppose it would be fixed for Equestria. But what about the smoke?”
Cheerilee shrugged. “I’m not sure how to handle that. Maybe the pegasus ponies can remove the smoke somehow?”
“I think it would still be too much smoke to handle.” Cogneato began to think. “Maybe… maybe we can build an air filter and filter out the air.”
“That would be a very large air filter, wouldn’t it?” Cheerilee asked.
“Yes, but I’m sure we could make it. We’d have time before the area inside the shield filled up, and we could have Earth ponies maintain it.” Cogneato smiled cheerfully. “Then every kind of pony would be able to help.”
Cheerilee nodded. “Unicorns would hold the shield, and the others would clear the air. It would still be better if we could get the dragon to move, but that sounds like a good solution to me.”
Suddenly there was yelling outside. “That sounds like Apple Bloom!” Cheerilee commented. She and Cogneato ran outside to find out what the yelling was about.
A little yellow filly with a red bow ran by the school house. “They did it they did it!” she cried.
“What did they do, Apple Bloom?” Cheerilee asked, puzzled.
“My sister and the others, they convinced the dragon to leave!” Upon hearing this, other ponies around came closer to listen to her.
“How do you know?” Cogneato inquired.
“Because,” she explained, “I was watching the mountain to see if I could see my sister and then I saw the dragon fly away.”
“Wow!” Cheerilee exclaimed.
“Look!” Apple Bloom pointed at the mountain. “There’s no more smoke coming from the mountain.”
Everypony looked over. The dark clouds in the sky was already beginning to disperse and it was easy to see that the mountain was no longer pouring smoke. Everypony cheered.
“That’s wonderful news!” Cheerilee patted Apple Bloom’s head. “We should hold a celebration for them when they return!” Everypony cheered again.
Cogneato breathed a sigh of relief. “Whew! I’m glad that worked. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t.”
Cheerilee glanced sideways at him and shook her head.
Several days later, Mayor Mare was talking at the podium again. This time, she was explaining the plan for putting down the miles of railroad. “... and then we use this mechanism to move the rail from the cart onto the ground. Any questions?”
A young unicorn stood up. “How exactly does that mechanism work?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. She looked to the back of the room where Cogneato was sitting. “Cogneato, how does it work?”
Everypony turned around and set their eyes on Cogneato. He felt a wave of anxiety followed by the paralyzing fear. His eyes darted around the ponies in the crowd and he came across Cheerilee. Suddenly he remembered what she said and words returned to him. “Could… could I explain it to you later?” he asked. “It’s rather complicated.”
“Sure, that would be great!” the unicorn replied, satisfied. Everypony turned around again and Mayor Mare continued.
Cogneato wiped the sweat off his brow and let out a deep breath. Looking up, he saw Cheerilee wink at him. He smiled back.