//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Art of the Dragon 
// by Trinary 
//------------------------------//

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