Out of all the things that Smolder had expected today, being called into the office of one of the Professors at the School of Friendship was not one of them. Originally, the dragon had hoped to spend her day planning out what to do for Summer Vacation with her friends now they didn’t have to worry about the exams they had studied for. However, before they could even get started, Spike had told her that one of the staff members wanted to see her. Not Headmare Twilight or Counselor Starlight, but one of the teachers.
To make matters even more confusing, and a little bit embarrassing, it was Professor Fluttershy that wanted to see her. The pegasus that was the teacher of their class involving kindness. Not only that, but she had no idea why she was being called to her office in the first place. Yet, Smolder had a feeling that she was going to be told that real soon as she approached the door to Fluttershy’s classroom and knocked.
“H-hello? Who is it?”
At the sound of the pegasi’s voice, Smolder opened up the door partially and looked inside. Professor Fluttershy was standing near the front of the room by her desk and looking towards the door as the dragon let out a small breath. “You wanted to see me, professor?”
“O-Oh, yes! Hello Smolder, come on in.”
At Fluttershy’s insistence, the dragon stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Even though the pegasus was friendly and welcoming, Smolder couldn’t shake the feeling that something seemed off. “Is everything alright, professor? Am I in trouble or something?”
At first, the pegasus didn’t say anything. But as she turned behind her desk and sat down, Fluttershy looked back at the dragon with a concerned expression. “N-no, you’re not in trouble,” she told her, “H-however, there is something that’s concerning.”
“What is it then?”
“It’s about the exam you took,” As Fluttershy spoke, Smolder felt a small shiver down her spine as the pegasus pulled out a piece of paper from a manila folder on her desk, “Your results came back and… compared to everyone else in the class, y-your score was rather low. While you didn’t fail it, the r-results here could affect your overall grade and f-fail the class.”
At first, the dragon couldn’t believe what she was being told. Fail a kindness class? The thought of it was outright absurd! Surely, something like this was no big deal, right? “That’s… not good, right?”
She watched as her teacher nodded, before Fluttershy began to speak, “Smolder, H-headmare Twilight told me that i-if you fail this class, y-you would have to retake it all over again and it would mean that you c-can’t graduate with the rest of the c-creatures in your class. I k-know that your friends m-mean a lot to you, so I called you in so we can find a solution for this.”
That was a little difficult for her to think about. On one claw, it meant that she would probably have to hold off on planning things out for summer vacation. Though, on the other claw, that was a small price to pay if the alternative was that the dragon wouldn’t be able to graduate alongside her friends. So, if the professor was offering her a way to fix this, she would be a fool to not hear her out. “Okay, uh sure. Did you have something in mind?”
“W-Well, Twilight said that one possibility was summer school. But I don’t really think that would work well here,” As she spoke, the pegasus went into a drawer of her desk and with one of her wings, she pulled out what looked to be a journal of some kind, “Instead, I thought of something different and what you might see as less… ‘boring’, if that the right way to put it.”
Smolder couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and fold her arms as her gaze shifted to the journal, before she looked back at Fluttershy. “What were you thinking, professor?”
“Think of it l-like a… personal project o-of sorts,” the professor of kindness explained, “I-I want you to t-take what I’ve been teaching you and apply it outside of the class, while using this journal to write down everything. I-If you can get it to me as soon as possible, then I can look it over and c-count it as extra credit. The m-more that’s in here, the higher the credit that will be added to your grade.”
That sounded simple enough. Yet, there was one other question that she needed to ask. “Okay, but how soon do you want it? It’s near the end of the school year, so I’m guessing I don’t have a lot of time?”
“Spike told me that Twilight was going to finalize every student’s grades by the end of the week. So, you have until then,” Fluttershy told her, “If you have any questions-”
“No, I think I understand,” the dragon replied before she picked up the journal, “Just do what you taught us in class and write it down afterwards? Sounds simple enough.”
“How can something like this be so DIFFICULT!?!”
It had only been a short amount of time after her meeting with Professor Fluttershy and right now, Smolder was a bit irritated. The dragon thought that by going into Ponyville and lending a claw to those who needed help, it was an easy way to practice what she learned in class. Even though her teacher didn’t tell her any specifics, in Smolder’s mind, just being kind and friendly to others was probably not going to be enough if she wanted to pass.
However, even if there was someone that needed assistance, somebody else ended up beating her to it. The first couple of times, it didn’t bother her. Yet, with each moment that passed, the dragon’s irritation began to grow more and more.
“Come on! There has to be some creature I can help at least. Otherwise, I can kiss my plans for the summer goodbye,” Smolder said to herself, before she lazily kicked a rock that was at her feet into a nearby alley.
However, one thing that the dragon did not expect was for the rock to hit something… and to hear a squeak come from the alley. From a distance, it sounded like a squeaky toy that belonged to someone’s pet. At first, Smolder wanted to ignore it. Though, as the dragon turned to leave, a thought came to mind. If it was a toy and it belonged to somebody, then if she could return it back to its owner, it could be a step in the right direction.
When she went into the alley though, she did not find a toy. Instead, it was a creature. It was one that she had never seen before and it was floundering around on the ground like a fish out of water. Even stranger was the fact that they wore a bell around their neck, had the whiskers of a cat and had a strange red cloth over the front of their body.
“Okay, this just got weird,” Smolder thought to herself as she slowly looked back towards the direction that she came. Yet, before the dragon could even think of leaving and acting like she didn’t see anything, things took a strange turn.
“Y-you there! Y-you the one who woke me just now, yes yes?”
As Smolder slowly turned back around, the dragon’s eyes widened at what was in front of her. The creature that was on the ground a moment ago was standing back up, but hazily trying to keep their balance. She could also see a bump that was on the back of their head and the pupils of their eyes returning back to the front of their head. “D-don’t leave, please! I-i’m not dead! I-in fact, I’m getting better now, yes yes!”
“U-Uh,” Smolder blinked, unsure of what exactly was happening in that moment as she just stared at the… creature in front of her. As she tried to process what was going on, a particular question left her lips, “Do you… need help-?”
Immediately, the fish-like creature straightened themselves up and looked directly at the young dragon, “Why, in fact I do, yes yes! For you see, it was FATE that guided me all the way to these unfamiliar lands!”
“Oh, here we go,” the dragon groaned, thinking that this was going to drag into a long and convoluted story much like that of the tales that Rockhoof would share.
“Yet, the longer that I traveled, the more I began to lose my way… and became parched in doing so! But that can wait,” it insisted, “You offered to help us, so please, come with me! Quickly now-!”
At that point, Smolder felt that this conversation was going a bit too fast. Especially if this creature was going to try and drag her out to who knows where, “Okay, hold on a minute,” she interjected, “Before we go anywhere, I have some questions. Mainly, who or what exactly are you?”
For a moment, it tilted his head and looked at her in confusion, “You haven’t seen a Namazu before? I thought an abode with so many creatures such as this would surely have known about us, yes yes. Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Gyoza, and no, despite my name, I am not tasty.”
“Just what exactly would make him think of something like that!? Ugh, I swear, if it’s some stupid story about dragons eating creatures,” the dragon groaned, before shaking her head to try and dismiss the thought. She couldn’t let herself, “Well, Gyoza, my name is Smolder.”
“Smolder, you say? Sounds like a name filled with fiery passion. Either that or the effects of my parched throat are worse than I thought, yes yes,” Gyoza replied, scratching a fin against their chin, “Oh, my apologies. Just idle musings. Was there something else you wanted to ask, ask?”
At that point, there was only one other question that came to mind, “Why was it that you came all the way here? Was there something you were looking for or-?”
“No, no!! What I need help with is-” the Namazu proclaimed. Yet, before they could continue, Gyoza began to sway a little as a realization hit them, “O-Oh… dear.” Soon afterwards, the Namazu collapsed on the ground as it began to flounder in place once again.
“Oh come on, seriously? How am I supposed to help you if you can’t even remain conscious for two minutes!?” Smolder thought as she facepalmed herself with one of her claws. The dragon tried to look around and see if there was anything that could be done to somehow help the Namazu. However, It was unlikely that hitting them with a pebble was going to work this time around.
Yet, that was when a realization hit her. Gyoza’s predicament was not just because of exhaustion, but also dehydration. If the Namazu was going to help her, then she needed to fix that. Though, she didn’t have any bits on her to go buy anything and the only source of water that was in this alley was a bucket of run off rain water from the gutters of a nearby building. While not the most ideal of solutions, Smolder wasn’t exactly one to wait around for a problem to solve itself.
“Well, here goes nothing.”
Without giving it a second thought, the dragon grabbed the bucket of water and splashed it onto Gyoza’s face. Needless to say, the effects were somewhat immediate as the Namazu jumped back up onto its feet seconds later. It kind of reminded Smolder of what happened when Professor Pinkie was given a brownie after unknowingly drinking decaf coffee with sugar free creamer during the School of Friendship’s open house. However, this was slightly more tame in comparison.
“Gah!! Another blessing from the big one? Who-” the namazu asked, before Gyoza turned and realized that Smolder was still nearby, “Ah, my apologies. It appears the lack of water has taken a bigger toll on me than I thought, yes yes.”
“You don’t say,” the dragon sarcastically replied.
“Yes yes, I’m sure. Now, where were we?”
“… You were going to tell me what exactly you needed my help with.”
“Oh yes, that’s right!” the namazu beamed, “How about I tell you on the way? The rest of my tribe would be thrilled to learn that you want to help us in our hour of need, yes yes!! Plus, we can find a stream or something for me to drink some more of the one river’s bounty!”
At that, Smolder sighed. If listening to this little talking catfish was somehow going to help , “Sure, I guess. Now, what sort of task do you need help with? Finding more water or something-?”
“No no, nothing like that at all!” Gyoza was quick to retort. However, what the Namazu told her next was something that the dragon was not prepared for… and had her wonder what exactly she was getting into, “We need your help to make sure that the Namazu don’t go extinct!”
When Smolder originally decided to help Gyoza, she originally thought that the ‘tribe’ that Gyoza lived in a place where things weren’t quite so dire as the namazu proclaimed. Somewhere where they had a lot of water and a place where they could live comfortably.
However, when the dragon got there… and a particularly tired Namazu was on her back despite her objections, she found herself in what looked to be an abandoned ruins that was rather close to the badlands. The riverbed was not in the best of shapes and the ruins itself had seen better days. Yet, what caught her attention was how many Namazu were here. She had assumed that it was just a small group.
Instead, there were hundreds or so that lived here… and they were looking to her to help them. “Oh, what did I get myself into?”