Ash vs. Equestria: School Blaze

by CTVulpin

Ash vs. Ocellus, round 2

As the students filed into Ash’s classroom, Gallus proposed a question: “Any guesses as to how this class is going to be changed up?”

Smolder looked around the room, which was still set up with desks in orderly ranks and files, and said, “He hasn’t rearranged anything, so I’m guessing ‘not much.’”

“I don’t think it’s going to be any different, either,” Sandbar said, taking his seat. “Professor Ash never seemed too bothered with the EEA structure.”

“Yona not mind,” Yona said, settling into her own desk. “This class never quite as boring as others.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Ash said, startling the students as he entered the room and went to his desk. He scanned the room, counting the empty desks. While the vast majority of the students had returned when the school reopened, a few had apparently changed their minds about attending, and there had been a couple new ponies who’d taken advantage of the closure and reopening to submit a late application for enrollment. With the initial survey complete, Ash’s gaze locked onto one light-blue student in particular. “Ocellus,” he said, “did you forget that this class a has rule against being transformed?”

“Um,” Ocellus said, meekly hopeful, “I was hoping that rule wouldn’t apply anymore? You know, since the school’s changed its guidelines?”

Ash frowned disapprovingly. “That rule isn’t an EEA guideline,” he said. “It’s my rule for my classroom, and I have no reason to change it. You, however, do need to change.”

Ocellus opened her mouth to protest, but then thought better of it and just dropped her crafted appearance with a sigh and flash of green fire.

“That’s better,” Ash said. “Now,” he turned his attention to the rest of the class, “I know you’re all wondering, what does being freed from the shackles of the EEA mean for this class? The answer is, not much.” There was some quiet groaning. “Come on,” Ash said, “does anyone have any actual complaints about how things were going in here? No? Well, before you get too depressed, let me outline what is going to change.” He got up and walked around to the front of the desk. “First of all,” he said, “I’m doing away with the weekly tests. Most of the homework assignments too, for that matter. In their place,” he raised his voice slightly to be heard over the intrigued murmurs, “there will be one essay due each week. The topic of this essay will be the same every time: a friendship problem you are personally involved with and either how you resolved it or how you plan to resolve it if it’s still an ongoing issue. If there isn’t a real friendship problem for you to fix, then your essay will be on one of several hypothetical problem prompts that I’ll provide.”

Silverstream raised her claw and Ash gave her a nod. “If we’re just writing about our actual experiences,” Silverstream asked, “what are we going to do during class?”

“The same thing as before,” Ash answered, “discuss how to apply Friendship in various situations. I want to be a little less structured than before, though. If you want advice with a problem, have a pressing question you want to discuss, or anything that you can convince me is relevant to Applied Friendship, we can talk about it. On that note, is there anything any creature wants to discuss?” He looked around the classroom, his gaze lingering slightly on Ocellus, but no one spoke up. “Right then,” Ash said, walking back to behind his desk, “I’ll just pass out the first sheet of hypotheticals, and we’ll talk about the first one of the list.”

---

Class had ended, and Ocellus was among the first out of the room. As soon as she was in the hall, she side-stepped out of the way of students behind her, focused her mind, and reapplied her blue chitin and frilly wings with a flash of magic fire and a sigh.

“You shouldn’t have to do that,” said a voice from right next to Ocellus, giving her a small fright. She looked over to see Smolder leaning against the wall, arms crossed. “Just going along with Professor Ash’s dumb rule, I mean,” the dragon continued.

“It’s not a problem,” Ocellus said.

“Oh yeah?” Smolder pressed. “Then why do you always hurry to get out so you can change back? Normally you like to hang back and ask the teachers more questions or just chat with us.”

“I’ve noticed that too,” Gallus said, coming over to the pair. He squeezed between them and threw a claw around each of their shoulders. “And we should probably be having this talk somewhere where the teacher can’t overhear us. Hm?”

“Good point,” Smolder agreed, letting the griffon pull her away from the wall. Ocellus also let herself be led along, sensing that her friends wouldn’t let her get away until they’d spoken their piece. Silverstream, Yona, and Sandbar came out of the classroom together and, seeing the other half of their group heading off together, decided to follow and see what was up. “Look, Ocellus,” Smolder said when they were a safe distance down the hall, “it’s obvious that you don’t like having to change out of this look in Professor Ash’s class.”

“You’re right,” Ocellus admitted, dropping her gaze to the floor, “but… he’s a teacher. I can’t just go against what he says. It’s really not that much of an inconvenience anyway, and it does make him less tense.”

“I’m sure it does,” Gallus drawled, “because you’re just giving him what he wants.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Silverstream asked.

“He’s just being a bully,” Smolder insisted. “This kind of thing happens all the time in the Dragon Lands; it’s a classic dominance move among the younger dragons.”

“I thought you dragons just beat each other up to find out who’s in charge,” Gallus said.

“Nah, that’s only if nothing else settles it,” Smolder said lightly. “The first time a group of young dragons meet a newcomer, they’ll usually make up some ridiculous ‘rule’ or humiliating challenge and try to convince the newbie to do it. If the newbie submits, that’s the end of it and they’ll become everyone else’s punching bag. If the newbie asserts themselves and refuses,” Smolder grinned, “then the real games begins.”

“This isn’t the Dragon Lands, though,” Sandbar pointed out.

“Obviously,” Smolder sighed, rolling her eyes. “My point is, Ocellus needs to stand up for herself. There’s no good reason she has to follow that one rule for just one class, other than letting the teacher feel better about himself; like he can get away with picking on a student just because she’s a creature he doesn’t want to be around.”

“That not sound much like Friendship,” Yona said.

“What can I do, though? Ocellus asked. “Right or wrong, Ash is a teacher. I’d need a very good reason to be able to defy the rule and not get in trouble, and I can’t think of anything that he couldn’t just brush off with ‘just making sure we’re not being infiltrated by the bad Changelings.’”

Nobody had an immediate answer, so the group walked in silent contemplation for a little. As they turned a corner into the hallway containing the headmare and guidance counselor’s offices, Sandbar saw Starlight Glimmer standing outside the latter, and was struck by inspiration. “Of course!” he exclaimed, giving himself a smack on the head. “We students might not be able to tell Ash to stop being a bully, but,” he pointed to Starlight, “another member of the faculty could. Come on.” He gave Ocellus a gentle push toward Starlight, and the whole group followed behind.

Starlight looked genuinely surprised to be approached by students, and her attempt to give them a gentle, welcoming smile was spoiled by not being to shake the look of a foal with their hoof caught in the cookie jar from her eyes. “H-hey,” she said, “can I… help you kids?”

Sandbar gave Ocellus an encouraging nudge, and Ocellus said, “I hope so. I have a… problem.”

“Ok,” Starlight said, flinging her office door open and ushering the little Changeling inside, “come right on in and let’s talk.” Sandbar caught the door before it closed, and the rest of the students filed in while Starlight plopped Ocellus down in a chair and hurried around to sit behind her desk. “So...” Starlight said, “how can I help?”

“Um,” Ocellus said, momentarily overwhelmed. Instinctively, she expanded her emotional senses, looking to anchor herself in the Hive Mind. Of course, there was no Hive Mind – she was only Changeling in Ponyville at the moment after all – but she did feel her friends’ emotions, all of them willing to support her, and an earnest desire to help within Starlight Glimmer. Encouraged, Ocellus spoke calmly, explaining how Ashen Blaze was making her assume her natural form instead of the blue chitin and red frills she preferred to present to the world, and how Ocellus wanted that to stop.

When Ocellus finished, Starlight sat back in her chair with a troubled look on her face. “I… see,” she said at length. “That certainly is a problem, but it’s not really a Guidance Counselor kind of problem.”

“Should we talk to the Headmare then?” Ocellus asked.

“Ehhh,” Starlight said, gritting her teeth, “you could do that, yes, but… It seems to me you kids can probably fix this on your own. Think of it as a Friendship Problem, and think of a way to solve it.”

“And taking the problem to someone who can solve it quickly isn’t actually solving it?” Gallus asked, deadpan.

Starlight covered her eyes with her hooves and groaned, muttering something under her breath. “How about this?” she suggested, forcing a smile, “Spend the rest of the day thinking of other ways to approach the Ash problem, and if you can’t come up with anything worth trying, Twilight and I will take care of it.”

“That sounds fair,” Ocellus said before any of her friends could protest. She got out of the chair and bowed her head to Starlight. “Thank you very much,” she said, and headed for the door. Silverstream, Sandbar, and Yona followed quickly after her, but Smolder and Gallus both paused to give Starlight hard looks before leaving as well.

As soon as the door closed behind Gallus, Starlight threw her head back and groaned loudly. “Thanks a ton, Ashen Blaze,” she snarked.

---

That evening, the six students gathered at a table in the common area of the dormitory. Smolder pounded a claw on the table to call the meeting to order and said, “So, any ideas on how to get Ash to lay off of Ocellus?”

“Ocellus could just refuse to change when she goes in the room,” Gallus said.

“But that will just get me in trouble,” Ocellus protested. “I don’t want my grades to suffer just to make a point.”

“Maybe he’ll get tired of having to kick you out of class all the time before it affects your grade,” Gallus said.

Sandbar shook his head. “Ash won’t get tired of it,” he said. “Getting to punish Ocellus for not following the rules would be a win for him as much as seeing her comply.”

“I have an idea!” Silverstream said. “All of us break the no-transforming rule.”

“What?” Sandbar and Gallus said.

“How?” Yona asked. “Yak can not change shape. Only Ocellus and Silverstream can.”

“Let me explain,” Silverstream said, holding out her transformation pearl.

Ocellus leaned forward with interest, but then gave a start as she felt a mental touch. Ocellus, said a voice in her head, this is Thorax. Do you have a minute?

Ocellus bit her lip. Thorax had an unusually strong ability to reach beyond the limits of the Changeling Hive Mind, to the point that he could communicate with a group of ‘lings as far from Hivetown as Ponyville, provided he was familiar with them. He contacted Ocellus every couple of weeks to check on her and keep her updated on news from Hivetown. The effort to locate and speak with a single Changeling across such a distance quickly exhausted him, so if Ocellus tuned him out now it would be a least a week before he could try again. Sure, she thought back at Thorax, just give me a second. “Excuse me,” she said aloud to her friends, interrupting Silverstream mid-sentence, “the Hive’s calling me. You keep brainstorming; I’ll be right back.”

As everyone nodded their understanding, Ocellus got up from the table and went to the far side of the room where she wouldn’t be distracted by the chatter. How’s the Hive, Thorax? she thought.

Hey, I’m supposed to ask how you’re doing first, Thorax said, teasing.

Ocellus giggled. I had my first class with Ashen Blaze since the school reopened, she said, sobering. Ash is… still a jerk to me. My new friends are a big help, though.

That’s not surprising, Thorax replied, the “Ash is a jerk” thing, I mean. Maybe this will help: we’ve finally completed the first batch of identification tokens. Ocellus perked up at that news, but let Thorax continue. The Queen chose to send one of them to you, since you’d benefit the most from having one, out there on your own.

I’m not really on my own, Ocellus protested reflexively. I get what you mean, though. Oh yes, having an identification token would be perfect. Any idea when it’s going to be delivered?

It should arrive in Ponyville in a day or two, Thorax answered. Imago and Kumquat put the package in their train’s mail car just before they left today.

Ocellus did some quick calculations and nodded. Ok, she thought, that’s perfect. Thank you so much, Thorax! And relay that thanks to the Queen, too. She felt a wordless acknowledgment before Thorax withdrew from her mind, and then she went back to her friends at the table.

“Look,” Smolder was saying to Silverstream, “even if this was a good idea, I am not letting you turn me into a blowfish.”

“How do you know you’d become a blowfish?” Silverstream asked.

“Spike told me that’s what Queen Novo’s giant pearl turned him into,” Smolder replied. “He’s a dragon too, so why would yours turn me into anything else?”

“Nobody needs to turn into a fish,” Ocellus said firmly. “I have the perfect plan now, one that won’t get any of you in trouble. I’ll just need to endure the rule through tomorrow’s class, unless the mail arrives extra early somehow.”

---

“Good day class,” Ashen Blaze said as he walked into the classroom, “I hope you’ve all chosen your essay topic for the week by now because…” He trailed off into a frown as he laid eyes on a particular empty desk. “Where’s Ocellus?” he asked.

“I’m here,” Ocellus shouted, trotting through the door and then slowing to a walk. Ash watched her in silence for a couple seconds, and when she was passing in front of his desk he cleared his throat loudly. “Oh, right,” Ocellus said, coming to a stop. She turned smartly to face Ash and slapped a dark wooden, hoof-sized disk on the desk. “That is an official token to verify that I am indeed Ocellus of Hivetown,” she said. “Now you can be sure that I haven’t been replaced by another Changeling without me having to change out of this form.”

Ash picked the disk up and looked at it. One side was carved with Hivetown’s seal of a heart studded with holes, and the other had Ocellus’ name engraved and lined with some light-colored substance. “I see,” Ash said, and then opened a drawer and stuck the token inside. “And now you don’t have it,” he said, smirking at Ocellus.

Ocellus just smirked back and held up a hoof. “I can verify,” she intoned, and the disk appeared on her hoof in a flash of green light. Ash’s eyebrows went up and he checked the drawer. Finding that there was no disk there, he looked back at Ocellus, impressed. “I’m the only one this token will respond to like that,” Ocellus said, setting it back on Ash’s desk, “and I’m told that I can call it to me from several miles away, though I haven’t tested that yet.”

“A cute trick,” Ash said, “but I don’t see why it should give you leave to defy the classroom rules.”

“Seriously?” Smolder exclaimed, surging up from her seat. “Why-”

“I’ve got this, Smolder,” Ocellus interrupted gently, “but thanks.” As Smolder sat back down, Ocellus turned back to Ash and said, “You said that I have to use my natural-born form in this class so you can be sure of my identity. If that’s the only reason, then this token makes the rule unnecessary.”

Ash put his hooves together under his chin. “But why bother making the rule unnecessary?” he asked.

“Because I don’t like it!” Ocellus snapped. “I like the way I look right now; it took me a solid month of research and experiments to get the colors and crest shape right, and it’s all me.” She stopped herself and took a calming breath. “I’m trying to offer a compromise, Professor,” she said. “Accept what this token means, and you get to keep feeling safe from bad Changelings and I get to look the way I choose to look. Everyone wins, and isn’t that how Friendship Problems should be resolved?”

Ash raised an eyebrow and stared at Ocellus for a second. Then, he relaxed and laughed a little. “A-plus, Ocellus,” he said, “you overcame that a lot faster and more maturely than I expected.”

“Um,” Ocellus said, bemused by Ash’s sudden shift in tone.

“Wait a second,” Smolder said. “Was that… Was picking on Ocellus all just a test?”

“Mostly all a test,” Ash replied. “I won’t deny I took some pleasure in Ocellus’s discomfort, but I promised Twilight I’d stop as soon as anyone in this class gave me a good reason to. I’m doing something similar with my other classes, and I would appreciate it if you don’t tell those students about it. Not unless they ask for help first, at least.” Murmurs passed through the class, but no creature spoke up. “I’ll take that as agreement, then,” Ash said. “You can go sit down now, Ocellus.”

Ocellus nodded and walked toward her desk. Just before she sat down, though she remembered something. Digging into her bookbag, she pulled out a paper and carried up to Ash’s desk, setting it down next to the identification token. “I know the essays aren’t due for another couple days,” she said, “but I think I’m done with mine now.”

Ash picked up the paper and scanned the first paragraph. “Ah,” he said, chuckling, “yes, I see.” He set the essay aside and said, “Considering we just enacted what you wrote about, I don’t think I actually need to read it before grading it.” Ocellus smiled gratefully and returned to her seat. “Now,” Ash addressed the rest of the class, “unless someone has any pressing concerns or questions about their own essays, I think that today we should chat about what Ocellus just used on me: the power of compromise.”

---

By the end of class, Ash had more essays than just Ocellus’s on his desk. The Changeling’s five friends had all produced their own versions of how they’d expected the confrontation between Ocellus and Ash to play out and what they each planned to do if Ash hadn’t given in. As the students filed out of the room, Ash started reading the essay on the top of the stack and quickly found himself pondering how he’d have reacted to arriving unaware to a classroom full of seaponies and assorted marine life, and if Silverstream was actually persuasive enough to get every student in the class on board with her plan.

“Um, excuse me? Professor?”

Ash looked up from the paper and peered over his desk to see a pink pegasus filly with a blue mane curled into a mess of tight ringlets. Ash recognized her; she was part of the class but hadn’t contributed to any discussions yet, to his recollection. It took him a few seconds of concentration to recall her name. “Yes, Cozy Glow?” he asked neutrally once he remembered.

Cozy looked up at Ash with an expression that would’ve been coquettish coming from a significantly older pony. “I’m ever so sorry to bother you,” she said sweetly, “but I have a question.”

“You do know you’re free to ask questions during class, right?” Ash replied. “That’s the whole point of class. This class especially.”

“Gee,” Cozy said, putting a hoof on the side of her chin, “but what if it’s a… personal question?”

Red flags, Ash thought, keeping his face free of expression through pure willpower, red flags every-skvetchte-where. “Out with it, then,” he said.

“I’m just confused,” Cozy said. “You don’t like the Changelings, right?”

Ash gave the little pony a bemused look. “Let’s phrase it as I have deep-seated trust issues toward any creature that can freely change its shape,” he said. “I think that’s fairly common knowledge; I don’t try to make a secret of it.”

“Uh-huh,” Cozy said. “That’s what I’m confused about. If you don’t like Changelings, why would you let one walk all over you like that?”

Ash blinked. Twice. His mouth opened slowly as he tried to deduce Cozy’s train of thought. “Could you elaborate on that, Cozy?” he finally asked in defeat.

The cutesy expression on Cozy’s face cracked a little, her eyes taking on a harder, critical glint. “I mean,” she said, “Ocellus challenged your authority and you just gave in, letting her dictate a change to the rules without even getting angry.”

Ash sighed and shook his head. “Weren’t you paying any attention in class today?” he asked. “I wanted Ocellus to challenge me on the no-changing rule. It was an opportunity I set up for her, or anyone in the class really, to demonstrate what they’ve learned about Friendship and problem solving. Ocellus actually exceeded my expectations. As a teacher, I have to acknowledge that despite my prejudices. And you,” he leaned forward and looked Cozy square in the eye, “need to start engaging in class discussions; it may help you better understand what I’m trying to teach you students.” He gathered up his papers and stepped away from the desk. “I hope that clears things up,” he said as he walked to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll be hearing from you too.”

“Sure thing, Professor!” Cozy called out to Ash.

And I need to look closer at Cozy's previous assignments, Ash thought. Changelings might not be the only race I’m making too many presumptions about.