//------------------------------// // Ash vs. Ocellus // Story: Ash vs. Equestria: School Blaze // by CTVulpin //------------------------------// “Oooohh!” Silverstream trilled, running into the classroom, “I have so been looking forward to this class!” “You’ve said that about every class we’ve had,” Gallus said, trudging in after the Hippogriff along with the rest of the class. “I know,” Silverstream said with absolutely no loss of enthusiasm, “and they’ve all been so interesting. But you know what’s so special about this class?” “I have a feeling you’re going to tell us no matter what we say,” Smolder said, deadpan. Gallus smirked and offered the dragon a fist-bump, which Smolder accepted with little hesitation. “It’s because,” Silverstream paused for effect, “I have no idea what the teacher’s going to be like. All our other professors came out to Seaquestria and although I didn’t really meet any of them up close I got to see a little of what they’re like. This Ashen Blaze though, he’s a total mystery.” “Male teacher pony not such big mystery,” Yona said dismissively. “Yona hear he is mighty warrior, maybe toughest pony in whole of pony lands. Not as tough as Yaks, of course.” “Dragon Lord Ember likes him,” Smolder said, rubbing her chin, “so he has to be pretty impressive. He didn’t seem to get along with your Queen though, Ocellus.” “He doesn’t like me,” Ocellus mumbled, staring down at her desk. “And I… I don’t think I like him much either. Is that a bad thing to say?” She looked up and around to see if anyone would answer, and saw Ashen Blaze march into the room and stop behind his desk. Ash turned and swept the room with his vivid green eyes, lingering a second too long on Ocellus. He then turned to the blackboard and tentatively lifted a piece of chalk in his magic. “Ok, that’s doable,” he said and then turned to face the class again. “Welcome to the course on Applied Friendship. My name is Ashen Blaze, and I have the dubious honor of being your teacher. I prefer to be addressed as Professor Ash, but I’ll answer to just about anything except ‘Blaze.’ Before anyone asks, yes there is a story behind my horn being in a crystal cast, and no I am not going to tell it. Yet.” “Oh, come on,” Smolder groaned quietly. Ash smirked and levitated his chalk to the board, sketching the symbols of the Elements of Harmony as he continued speaking. “This class is going to be a little different from the others you’re taking,” he said. “While your other professors focus on instructing you in the theory and principles behind their respective Element of Harmony, my job is to build the bridge between those lessons and the real world. They will tell you how things should be. I will show you how to take the way things actually are and start changing them for the better. There will be no multiple-choice or the fill-in-the-blank tests here.” He paused as the students all perked up and let out little cheers, then gave them a wicked smirk and said, “No, you’re going to have give me something much harder than simple right or wrong answers. Your homework and tests will be designed to show off your critical thinking skills, creativity, and ability to convince me that you know what you’re talking about even if you don’t.” The class was considerably less enthused by that prospect. “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you at first,” Ash said, “particularly on those who aren’t intimately familiar with Equestrian culture and the shenanigans of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. In the most basic sense, we’re going to discuss theoretical Friendship problems drawn from the Bearers’ experiences, and at the end of each week I’ll give you one or two scenarios for you to write an essay on how you’d resolve them using the principles of Friendship. Any questions so far? Besides about my horn,” he added as Smolder’s arm shot up. “If you’d just tell it already,” Smolder muttered sullenly, lowering her arm. “Patience may not be one of the Elements of Harmony, young dragon” Ash said with a teasing smile, “but it is still a virtue.” His smile faded as a pale blue hoof rose into the air. “Ocellus?” Ash prompted. Ocellus lowered her hoof and took a second to steady her mind before speaking. “Are you going to be pulling scenarios straight out of the Journal of Friendship?” she asked. “I ask because the solutions Professor Twilight and her friends came up with for the problems are also written in there, so it’d a little too easy for us to just know the right solutions, wouldn’t it?” “You are not Professor Twilight and her friends,” Ash said. “This class is not about what they would do, it’s about how you would respond to a Friendship problem. The scenarios I’ll present may be taken directly from the published version of the Journal, they may be drawn from the Bearers’ unpublished misadventures, from my own experience, or they may inspired by real events but with certain details changed to protect the innocent or make you all think.” He slammed a hoof on his desk, causing most of the class to flinch and Ocellus reflexively shifted to her earth pony form. “And that reminds me,” Ash said grimly. “I won’t permit any shape-shifting in this classroom. Ocellus, you need to break that habit of trying to hide as something you’re not, and don’t walk in here looking like anything but your actual Changeling self, or we’re going to have a problem.” “S-sorry, Professor,” Ocellus said, changing back. “None of the other teachers seem to mind me changing, though.” “The other teachers don’t worry nearly as much about this school’s security as I do,” Ash said. “I’m not going to let Chrysalis sneak one of her drones in here and start draining all the love and happiness out of the student body, or executing some scheme to tear the whole place down around our heads. I said your actual Changeling self, Ocellus.” “But-” Ocellus started to protest. “A Changeling can look like anything they want,” Ash said, “except another Changeling’s natural appearance. Is that correct, or did my research steer me wrong?” “T-that’s correct,” Ocellus said, “but I don’t-” “So anyling could copy the way you look now,” Ash cut in. “How can I trust that it’s you I’m teaching if I can’t tell at a glance that it’s really you?” Ocellus opened her mouth, but then closed it and dropped her gaze to her desk. “Very well,” she said, changing in a rush of green to black chitin and greenish, hole-studded wings. “Thank you,” Ash said. “To be fair, I won’t hold you to that rule outside this classroom. Now-” “Professor Ash!” Silverstream said, thrusting a claw into the air and waving it. “Yes?” Ash asked, giving the Hippogriff a flat look. “I can change into a seapony, so does the ‘no transformation’ rule apply to me too?” Ash blinked. “Technically, yes,” he said after a moment, “but, so far as I’m aware, the Hippogriff is your natural state, and I can’t imagine why you’d need to transform in this class, so it’s not really an issue.” He scanned the room, asking, “Any other shape-shifters or talents for transformation magic in this class that I should know about? No? Ok then, lesson The First.” He erased the chalkboard and drew some stick-figure ponies and satyrs on it. “I call it ‘How your overconfident professor broke his horn twice within three days, and how that might have been avoided.’” “Finally!” Smolder cried out happily. There was a general shuffling as students readied their quill pens and note paper. Ocellus, however, just stared glumly at her hole-studded hooves until she felt a touch on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Sandbar smiling encouragingly at her. “Hey,” Sandbar said, “don’t worry about it. You still look just fine to me.” Ocellus smiled back, feeling the perfect sincerity behind his words, and quickly dug into her bag for her note paper. “So, we’ll start at the point where my team and I first arrived at Canterlot and found the Storm King’s army there,” Ash was saying. “Raise your hoof or claw whenever you hear something you think me or my friends could or should have done differently, and I’ll pause so we can discuss it.” Ocellus focused intently on Ash as he began weaving the tale, her quill poised in a magical grip. She knew most of the later part of the story because Ash’s group had passed through Hivetown and Queen Cabbage had chosen to get herself and most of the Hive directly involved from that point forward, but of the early phases Ocellus knew only bits and pieces. “...I charged, he swung the staff, magically-active horn met magic-absorbing crystal, and next thing I knew I was on the floor and my horn was no longer on my head. I happened to land near the petrified Princess Cadance, so I decided that, having seriously misjudged the enemy, it would be best to withdraw from the battle and take something that the Storm King obviously wanted with me. I cast a teleportation spell, and immediately regretted it.” Ash paused for a breath and looked around the room. “And no creature has interrupted me yet,” he said, “so either I’m a much more compelling storyteller than I thought or no one thinks I did anything wrong up to this point. Come on, any comments from the peanut gallery?” A large hoof shot up, and Ash nodded gratefully. “Yes, Yona?” “Instead of run away,” the young Yak said, “Professor should have stood up and charged Storm King again. Storm King probably not expect that from hurt pony.” “Well,” Ash said, “you’re probably not wrong on that last point, but...” He twirled a hoof and grit his teeth. “I cannot imagine that would’ve ended well for me,” he said at length. He saw Ocellus’s hoof go up, and silently acknowledged her. “It wasn’t just you and the Storm King in that room,” Ocellus said, “and your friends were capable of coming to your aid. If you don’t mind me jumping ahead in the story…?” “If it gets you to the point,” Ash said impatiently, “by all means.” “Well,” Ocellus said, “later on, at the Crystal Empire, Soul Mage and Gold Heart managed to take the Storm King down almost entirely by themselves. So, why didn’t you let them and the other two fight him the first time, in Canterlot?” “That,” Ash said, pointing at Ocellus, “is exactly the kind of question I’m looking for. Well played.” Despite the praise inherent in his words, he did not sound pleased to be saying them. “That is absolutely correct,” he continued, “I was not alone in facing down the Storm King in that room. I was well aware of that fact and even remember expecting the twins or Gale to follow up my attack and keep the Storm King off balance. When the staff broke my horn, however, all that stopped. I’ve been injured in battle while pulling foolish stunts before, but never to such a degree. All I could think was ‘get out of here,’ and so we did.” “So, what was the right thing to do, then?” Sandbar asked. “Stay and fight, or escape with the Princess?” “I don’t know,” Ash said flatly. “I escaped, and things turned out fine eventually, after more close calls, wrecking a train, and other unpleasant situations. Ocellus’s suggestion most likely would’ve ended the Storm King’s threat right then and there, but we’d have missed out on befriending Dragon Lord Ember, learning about this cast,” he tapped his horn, “at the Crystal Empire, and I don’t know how we’d have handled Tempest Shadow without half the resources and creatures that came back with us. Which course of events, Sandbar, do you think is the better one?” “Uh...” Sandbar said, eyes rolling up in deep thought. Briiiiiing. “Time already?” Ash asked, looking askance at the clock. “Well, skvetch, I’m going to need to restructure my lesson plans. Sandbar, ruminate on that question until next time. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to spend much more time picking apart the rest of this particular scenario, though, so I’ll leave this thought with you: No matter the time, place, or how much power you think you have, it’s always the right choice to stand up to injustice. Class dismissed.” Ocellus packed her things up and rushed out the door. As soon as she was completely in the hallway, she reapplied her pale blue chitin form in a flash of green fire without breaking her stride. She trotted for a few steps, then slowed down as she heard her fellow non-pony students gossiping behind her. “Male teacher pony sure talk a lot,” Yona was saying. “All our teachers talk a lot,” Gallus said. “That’s kinda the point of being a teacher. They talk, and we have to listen.” “Not all like Ash,” Yona insisted. “He use lots of words where pony like Rainbow Dash use not so many. Not as many words as Pink Pony, though. Maybe… as many as Headmare Twilight.” “He’s got a weird way of talking about himself,” Smolder said. “It’s like… he’s proud of what he’s done but at same time ashamed?” “He’s frustrated,” Ocellus aid, falling into step with the group and deciding to put her two bits in. “I could sense it inside him the whole time. It’s like he wanted to be angry at something but didn’t know what that something was, and that just made him more upset.” “I’ll bet it was you,” Smolder said. “It’s pretty obvious that Professor Ash does not like Changelings, and now he has to teach one of them.” “Oh,” Ocellus said, head drooping, “right. That… that does make sense.” “Hey now,” Sandbar said, catching up to the group and giving Ocellus an encouraging nudge, “don’t get down about it. That’s his problem, not yours, and he seems to be trying to keep it to himself, at least. He’s bound to come around eventually, once he gets used to you. And if he doesn’t, eh, so what? He’s only one pony.” One pony who decides if I pass or fail, Ocellus thought. Despite her gloom, she mustered up a smile to repay Sandbar for his effort to cheer her up.