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Trinary


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The School of Friendship thinks Smolder and her friends are role models and can encourage other non-ponies to come to the school. Smolder isn't quite so sure she fits the bill of what's needed. A chance encounter with Rainbow Dash gets her involved as she tries to show Smolder that she's a better role model than she thinks.

Part of The School of Friendship: The Series group project inspired by RainbowDoubleDash

Chapters (5)
Comments ( 65 )

Ah yes, I remember reading this back when it was still a rough draft on GoogleDocs. (Which means, of course, I already know how it goes, but showing support regardless :raritywink:). Besides, I can verify it's a good little tale. :twilightsmile:

What she didn’t need was to have her gym converted into an assembly yard for half a dozen parade floats in various stages of completion. The worst part was that she had nopony else to blame for this but herself. Okay, herself and Twilight, because naturally Ms. Egghead-Headmare-Princess had another one of her bright ideas. She wanted to demonstrate the success of the school and its students to the other world leaders. In particular, she wanted to highlight the Special Class, as she referred to them: Smolder, Ocellus, Silversteam, Yona, Gallus, and even Sandbar to impress their leaders into agreeing to send more of their subjects to the school next semester. She thought they should let Summer Light, Long Path, Cloudy Spinel, Frosty Quartz and Bella settle in a bit longer before they started asking for more kirins, buffalo, Crystal Ponies or Diamond Dogs—not that they had actually asked for Diamond Dogs in the first place, but whatever.

Silverstream

And yeah it would be very nice to see other creatures attending to the school

Oh this is a pretty interesting start of a story and I've always liked to see teachers interacting with their students especially with the main six with the young six but it looks like they're going to show the show and tell project from different kingdoms and how they represent and rainbow was pretty impressed but she was looking for smolder and she asked one of her friends especially Ocellus where's she been I mean she has an idea so she went looking for her but it looks like it's the same Lake that the other kids when they skip classes during the first year of school and apparently smolder is having conflict of showing how she feels and I guess because you know dragons really are very protective with their stuff and of course the truth came out and basically she was embarrassed about how much she really loves these kind of things that people think it's cute and everything and rainbow wanted to reassure there's nothing wrong but then smolder just left well that did not go very well looks like rainbows going to have to look for Plan B how to confront this and I wonder who she's going to talk to guess we'll find out next time

Glad to see this made it up.

Then Rainbow Dash got an idea.

An awful idea. Rainbow Dash got a wonderful, awful idea.

I'm loving this so far, especially featuring my 2nd fave dragon! (Spike will always be first:moustache:)

Looking forward to the next chapter! :twilightsmile:

Cool story but what’s this “School of Friendship” project?

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It’s a collaborative fanfiction writing project, with multiple authors writing stories that take place within this shared, over-arching story for the season. There’s a group for it here on FIMFiction.

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I should further forewarn that the group's been pretty quiet and inactive for about a year, with Trinary posting this fic now being the first real movement on the project in some time, so I dunno if there's going to be any further developments on it anytime soon.

We'll see. Maybe this getting posted might give it all a nudge.

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Ok thanks both of you

hot leaf-juice

I think I've commented before on how much I like that term for "tea." :rainbowlaugh:

“She probably said it elegantly,” Fluttershy chimed in, trying to be helpful.

She really didn't. :trollestia:

I'd forgotten how many great one-liners there were in this. :rainbowlaugh:

It was immediately followed by Applejack asking, “So, when did you figure out she uses bad grammar to distract you whenever you’re about to object to what she’s gonna do?”

That's, actually quite brilliant.

Smolder pinched her snout. “It’s like, of course she was the one who saw it. If it was Professor Rarity, she’d probably have offered to make me more, and Professor Fluttershy would’ve invited me to her house for a critter tea party. Even Professor Pinkie Pie would’ve been fine. But no, it had to be the one professor who really isn’t into dresses and tea parties. Because that just figures.”

Yeah I guess those three would be okay I mean yeah sure rainbow is not into those things but it doesn't mean she thinks of you less

Ocellus pouted. “You said you always liked my eyes and—wait, you’re trying to distract me!” Darn it, she was learning. Smolder grunted as Ocellus attempted to inflict her most withering stare on her. Being Ocellus it wasn’t all that withering, three out of ten, max. But it was improving. “Tell me what’s bothering you or—or else!”

Well after hanging out with you I'm sure the others would learn how to deal with you

“Yeah! Like how you threatened to totally destroy them if they touched a scale on Spike!” Pinkie exclaimed, causing Rarity to cough awkwardly.

Well yeah true

Rainbow slumped back in her seat and groaned. “Oh, come on! Why not?! Don’t tell me it’d be too hard for you, you turned us all into Breezies that one time and we’ve all been turned into seaponies.”

That's right that's two times they did change into different creatures unless you want the count the comics when they change into bad ponies or crystal ponies

It was immediately followed by Applejack asking, “So, when did you figure out she uses bad grammar to distract you whenever you’re about to object to what she’s gonna do?”

Darn it, Applejack! Rainbow raced out a nearby window, the last thing she heard before heading out was the sound of Twilight yelling “She does WHAT

Lol that's actually pretty clever Twilight hate when someone they pronounce the words wrong it really tick her off:twilightangry2: 🤣

Wow this is certainly an interesting situation they're going to do so smolder and Ocellus having their Secret Tea Party and Ocellus can tell s there's something wrong with smolder and she refused not to say anything but then Ocellus starting to have backbones if she doesn't tell her she will embarrassing her in front of her friends not only she was surprised and scared but also impressed that Ocellus Is learning so she told her that rainbow saw her with the dress and now she knew about her Secret and it will be very awkward between those two and she felt like how she supposed to represent the dragons that she's not a dragon like but it doesn't make you well you you're still the same creature you're just everybody has their likes and dislikes meanwhile rainbow ask Twilight if she can transform her into a dragon which she didn't want to but rainbow pressed on even with her friends backing around with that they even kind of agreed with some of the points and reluctantly Twilight complied so she used her transformation spell to transform rainbow into a dragon which that is pretty freaking cool so with that she can understand how smolder feels and maybe having connection with her I wonder how this will go I guess we'll find out next time

Hot leaf-juice…I remember that description of tea from Avatar the Last Airbender.

Someone really needs to explain gestures to Rainbow Dash.

Finally, I hope that dragons don’t have the same gestures as humans.

Even putting on her adorable lacey pink dress

So I personally think that Smolder would look better in more understated and plain dresses than the frilly ones she prefers, but then I remember that she’s a dragon. Even when in private with just one other observer, or even when alone, she’s gonna want to show off and be noticed and more importantly have her stuff and how she has it and you don’t be shown off. So frilly, poofy, eye-catching dresses make sense.

Yeesh, going for the throat much?

Ocellus: “Dragons live off rocks. You’re more like a herbivore that way. I’m a predator by nature.”

She wouldn’t tell anycreature about what she saw

“Well, except maybe Applejack. And Applejack would probably tell Applebloom. And Applebloom would tell many, many ponies, even if only accidentally.”

getting the Equestrian bureaucracy running smoothly,

Celestia:Ha! Good luck with that!

diplomatic-y

First deployment of the Secret Weapon.

you try to have a monkey coltfriend

In fairness you tried to have one too.

right onto a put-upon looking Applejack.

I’d like to reiterate that one of the reasons why I like Equestria Girls is the sense that I get to have my cake and eat it too — Pony-Rarity I can ship with Spike, while Human-Rarity I can ship with Applejack.

The second the door closed, she heard Twilight groaning and the sound of a pony’s face planting onto a table.

Huh, Twilight forgot the warnings.

Twilight: “Okay, so remember, you turn back into a pony at the stroke of midnight, unless you receive true love’s kiss, that’ll either end it early or keep you as a dragon depending on the narrative lesson we’re trying to impart. You will, invariably, get drawn into a song about being a dragon, please try to do it somewhere with as little flammable objects nearby as possible. Also if you die as a dragon just before you would turn back into a pony then turning back into a pony will actually resurrect you. Oh and watch out for the blowback, the transformation ending might also end any nearby transformations. I don’t know what effect that’ll have on changelings or visitors from the human world.”

Loved this chapter! :pinkiehappy:

On Smolder's side it was great seeing that *chess* match between the two of them regarding what happened with RD on the previous chapter, it was awesome! :yay:

On RD's side I gotta admit it was pretty clever of her at how she played Twilight into giving her the dragon transformation, that was brilliant! :raritystarry:

Rainbow Dash barely heard her, having realized something else. “I can breathe fire now, right?”

“Not in my school full of books you’re not!” Twilight shrieked.

“Not to mention the students, yes?” Rarity added dryly. “And us, as well?”

lol gotta love Bookhorse's priorities! :rainbowlaugh:

I do love seeing Rainbow as more than just a dumb jock. She’s plenty smart, she’s just focused on using those smarts for a specific few things.

“She does WHAT?!”

buck book smarts . . people/street smart wins every time ^^

“Why does everycreature always sound so surprised when I do that?”

*confused jack sparrow face*

“Do you want me to show you how to breathe fire?”

Rainbow stood up, instantly transfixed. “More than anything.”

“I was hoping you’d say that...”

Sometimes Rainbow is too easy . . "Hey Rainbow, look!"
RD:"Oooh shineys!"

“So Ember can’t tell ponies apart but you can recognize a pony when she’s become a dragon?” Rainbow tilted her own head—less in confusion and more to drain the water out of her ear holes. “But yep! Got it in one, kid.”

Well your voice and your Colour scheme was a dead giveaway rainbow and smolder been living here for a while so I'm sure she will knows you guys by now

It seemed to work, with Smolder starting to snicker. “I don’t know. I’ve met plenty of weirdos who do like the Wonderbolts. Silverstream, for starters,” she added with a casual grin

Yes I did remember the Dream that silverstream has she really wanted to become a Wonderbolt

She struggled to get used to the feeling of having large, smooth, leathery dragon wings instead of her normal feathered ones

I remember Animorphs when the crew first morphed into bats. They described bats flying as being more like the bats are grabbing at the air and pulling themselves along than anything.

She must’ve really taken to that spot.

Or, being a dragon, just outright taken the spot.

Professor Rainbow Dash? You’re a dragon?!

I love that it took her no time at all. In fact I’m always a fan of the gag of someone instantly seeing through a disguise. It was one of the good moments from the Green Lantern movie.

“I’ve known you my whole life! I’ve seen you naked! You think I wouldn’t recognize you just because I can’t see your cheekbones?”

Your first thought was to actually become a dragon?

Rainbow Dash thinks in straight lines and this is a ridiculous world of magic, after all. 

“Heh, you’re assuming I wouldn’t kick your newly-scaled butt.”

Hmm, Smolder has experience as a dragon but it’s not like Dash doesn’t have scuffle experience herself, and I’m personally imagining her as about the height of Ember, which probably gives her a few advantages too. Advantage is still probably Smolder’s due to the circumstances but it’s probably be a closer fight than you’d think.

She landed on the School’s roof and sat down

The fact that a significant part of Equestria’s population can fly has always led me to want to have fun with the idea that roofs are just floors for a lot of ponies.

Even Sandbar is the perfect pony example, being all super-eager and friendly, like he’s a super-normal pony.

Sandbar: “I like hay!”

There are probably dozens of changelings who can see themselves in Ocellus

Benefits of being a changeling, etc.

Rainbow chuckled. “You know, you don’t have to be ashamed of being a dragon and liking dresses or anything.” She rubbed her neck. “I mean, I get it: I thought it was weird or embarrassing to admit how much I liked Daring Do when I first started reading it. But I was wrong. You like dresses and tea parties, so what? It doesn’t make you any less of a dragon any more than reading made me less of an athlete.”

There you go that's how they find their in common with each other here and to be honest that's exactly the same thing when I watch My Little Pony friendship is Magic I was embarrassed telling anybody that I watched it but then I realize why am I embarrassed about that I watch cartoons so this should not be any different like other cartoons

“Yeah, dragon first impressions are all about establishing your dominance.” Smolder grimaced. “It’s probably why Spike was ready to write off all dragons and think of himself as a pony after the Migration thing, since he didn’t really know what he was getting into there. But dragons are tough and we don’t go down easily. Plus, it’s not like every fight is to the death or anything. We’re rough, but we’re not that stupid.”

Oh yeah that's right and garble was something else

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I remember Animorphs when the crew first morphed into bats. They described bats flying as being more like the bats are grabbing at the air and pulling themselves along than anything.

Yes, this is accurate. Bat wings are effectively just hands with really long and webbed fingers, so they propel the bat into flight by effectively "scooping" the air and pushing off of that. Whereas, bird wings are effectively just a large sail being pushed against the air, a mix between gliding and propulsion.

I didn't think it an important enough of a detail to make a big hullabaloo here, though, especially seeing MLP draws flight for both creatures effectively the same way (though in one episode, Smolder did comment that the reason Spike was struggling to learn to fly was because he was being taught to fly like a pegasus and not a dragon, implying the two methods are not comparable, but that's the only time it was acknowledged)

Besides, if there's one thing that Rainbow is definitely an expert on, its flying, and I could see her having enough of a frame of reference to figure out the difference and adapt enough pretty quickly on her own, so it may be a moot point either way. :twilightsmile:

Aww this is actually a pretty nice chapter so rainbow was looking for smolder even though she crash-landed on her not a good first expression and somehow smolder figure it out that was rainbow and rainbow told her if she's going to have to understand how she feels she needs to be a dragon and that's how they wanted to feel like they're connecting which they are even they have a little competition since rainbow has the urge need to beat somebody and once again they had a pretty good moment with each other even try to figure out why smolder didn't want to do the floats I guess because what she said because the other dragons will never connected with her sometimes it's just some you don't have to convince everybody just the ones who actually wants to listen yeah it can be tough but in the end it will work out maybe not everybody will listen but it's still better than nothing again this was a really nice chapter and I do like how rainbow really want to help smolder so I wonder what else could happen next I guess we'll find out next time

Smolder shuffled uncomfortably. Then her eyes widened in realization and she facepalmed. “Oh, fewmets.”

Somewhy, Discord puts the nightcap he was drinking on his head? "Sounds like somedrag learned a lesson.":pinkiegasp:

She turned around to regard her own posterior.

And noted that it was still lookin’ pretty fine.

I mean, we keep fire inside us. The hot air and smoke would make any other kind of lung collapse.

Yay, I helped with this! And also it 100% can’t be canon anymore! Stupid movie showing Spike clearly about to drown.

Nah, I kid, I love that movie. Twilight’s single best character moment is in it, when she’s faced with saving all of Equestria but letting one evil mare die, or saving one evil mare who doesn’t deserve to be saved but potentially allowing the Storm King to recover…and Twilight chooses to save Tempest.

Seriously it’s my favorite moment in the whole FiM franchise.

In the Dragon Lands, we’d say that was really hot.

There are folks in Equestria who’d say the same thing.

or mean because I don’t greet every weirdo we meet with a hug and hot cocoa.

Rarity: “And after I got you that hot cocoa maker for Hearth’s Warming, too!”

So instead they react to me and go on like I’m the one with the problem for pointing it out.[/

I.e., Rainbow Dash is the Worf of the E.S.S. Canterprise.

We just clicked right off the bat, no problem, like you and your friends.

One of my regrets about Season 8 was how quickly this happened. I wish it had taken longer than just a couple episodes for the Student-6 to really get along with each other. Limited number of episodes per season, of course, but I think a sufficiently talented and motivated team could have made it work. Of course I suspect I just described why it didn’t.

Then Rainbow got an idea that was nearly as inspired as her decision to turn into a dragon.

The natural reaction to this is doubt, of course, but then again Dash’s decision to get herself dragonfied has turned out pretty well.

I found the explanation of dragon biology to be fascinating.

She exhaled again—only this time the fire was more greenish. Smolder twisted around, turning it into a spiral that lanced over her head like a mini-tornado. She struck a pose and heard Professor Dash stomping her feet on the ground in applause.

Whoa that was so cool

Huh, so dragons are cranky all the time because they're nuclear-powered.

I mean, I get that. If I was atomic, I think I'd be pretty cranky too.

“Basically.” Smolder shrugged. “I mean, that’s the result of some pony spell so it’s not like any dragon can do that messaging stuff, but for going back and forth, yep. Getting mad turns your fire redder. When you’re laughing, it turns blue, being really happy gets green, you get the idea. So let’s get you started, alright?”

To be honest I never knew that different color of fire show you the emotional feeling which that is a pretty interesting

Rainbow shuddered. Stupid flowers.

Brrr that was something

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One of my regrets about Season 8 was how quickly this happened. I wish it had taken longer than just a couple episodes for the Student-6 to really get along with each other. Limited number of episodes per season, of course, but I think a sufficiently talented and motivated team could have made it work. Of course I suspect I just described why it didn’t.

I've actually thought once or twice, even flat-out wished, that instead of Pony Life, the Young Six could've been the focus of a similar G4.5 spin-off show. I think it would've worked well for that sort of format, and I probably would've been more interested in watching that than whatever the heck Pony Life thought it was doing. :rainbowlaugh:

Ah, but so much for regrets, right?

Wow there was some a lot of good points about loyalty yeah it's not always easy who to choose and everything you have to go against that sometimes you just have to go by your guts but again it's never going to be easy and I do like how smolder takes it from the heart even though she's still kind of have some conflict about something like that and I wonder what rainbow is doing when she's talks about the Crystal Tree House well I guess we'll find out next time

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Dragon appreciation is always appreciated!

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Thanks for the go ahead!

Sweet dragon lore on this chapter, I love it! :moustache:

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Aww, thanks! I do try to be somewhat punchy in the writing, though as other reviewers pointed out, I can't claim originality for Hot Leaf Juice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPnZhKRtZ_U

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I love how you flesh out little throwaway details or comments from the show and have them make complete and utter sense for the character, or else extrapolate entire cultures and worldviews from them. It's a major testament to your skills as a writer.

Those are some award-winning warnings there. Also, this one: "What happens in the montage stays in the montage!"

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Bookhorse loves books, we get it! XD

Yeah, my big pet-peeve in writing is when characters are written to be dumb in order to advance a given plot. Granted, even genuinely smart people can have off days, to be sure. But it's still a very weak hook to hang an entire story from. When it comes to characters like Smolder or Rainbow, not being academically-minded does not mean that they're dumb or even simple-minded. A lot of writers, including ones on the show, either don't get how to portray that or unconsciously fell back on common (i.e. stereotypic) tropes and cliches, which is what resulted in some of their least flattering portrayals in the series. The thing folks forget is that Rainbow Dash legitimately is smart; we've seen numerous times when she picked up on things her friends didn't (observational skills!) or came to the correct conclusion about certain moral conundrums without anyone needing to smack her upside the head or trick her or any of that horseapples.

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Thank you! I just posted this in response to another comment last chapter, but I'll repeat it here:

"Yeah, my big pet-peeve in writing is when characters are written to be dumb in order to advance a given plot. Granted, even genuinely smart people can have off days, to be sure. But it's still a very weak hook to hang an entire story from. When it comes to characters like Smolder or Rainbow, not being academically-minded does not mean that they're dumb or even simple-minded. A lot of writers, including ones on the show, either don't get how to portray that or unconsciously fell back on common (i.e. stereotypic) tropes and clichés, which is what resulted in some of their least flattering portrayals in the series. The thing folks forget is that Rainbow Dash legitimately is smart; we've seen numerous times when she picked up on things her friends didn't (observational skills!) or came to the correct conclusion about certain moral conundrums without anyone needing to smack her upside the head or trick her or any of that horseapples."

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Heh, well, in this case it was more "this is an awesome thing I'll never get another opportunity to do, so carpe some diem!"

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That probably shows more thinking than I did. Then again, there's likely a variety of wing types, like there was in Gargoyles: some had very bat-like wings, complete with fingers running through them, while others had essentially solid, finger-less, ones.

Yeah, not a fan of that cliché either. I figured given the voice and coloration it would've been obvious to Smolder. Plus I just liked the set up for the joke about Ember and Twilight/Starlight.

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