Dragons, by their nature, were often grumpy, irritable and quick to anger. As such, the idea that a dragon was having a bad night's sleep would not have really appealed to anyone, even at the best of times. And yet, that was what Smolder now found herself going through. Tossing and turning in her bed, she grumbled under her breath, annoyed at not being able to just doze off as easily as her other friends had. And speaking of whom, she cast a glance through the gloom at the other three females sleeping in here, Ocellus, Yona and Silverstream. In stark contrast to her, they were each sleeping soundly, looking content and rested as they lay in their beds. Seeing that kind of restfulness irked her, made her jealous, and yet, she knew there was little she could do about it. So, taking her pillow, she buried her face in it, unleashing a louder-than-average groan, though doing her best to try and muffle it, lest her friends wake up in response.

"This sucks! Three hours I've been trying to drift off, and nothing!"

She flipped back onto her back, staring at the underside of the bunk-bed above her, seeing the occasional creak as Yona herself moved about up there. The young dragoness' mind raced, coming up with images and sounds, basically any distraction that would have managed to keep her up further, much to her continued irritation. But, as her troublesome mind did this, her eyes drifted to the other side of the room, and saw her pink Hippogriff friend. Silverstream was the very model of a Princess over there, not only sleeping soundly, but also doing so while looking as peaceful and graceful as a royal was expected to be, unlike Smolder, whose sheets were unceremoniously thrown off her quite some time ago. It was quite the division between them, and just one more thing the dragon found herself focusing on. On and on this went, with her just fixing her gaze on her happy-go-lucky colleague.

"I bet Silver never has trouble sleeping"

Then, as she muttered to that, a stray bit of moonlight, passing in through the open window, caused Silverstream's magical necklace to shimmer slightly. Now, as a dragon, Smolder was naturally drawn to shiny things, even if they weren't necessarily treasure. Looking at that pendant, the orange female paused for a moment, and thought long and hard on her friend's ability to change shape from Hippogriff to Seapony. All that power, going from one race to another, and it was kept in that tiny little bauble. A trinket that most dragons would just toss away in favour of some larger or shinier jewel. But, in the darkness of the dormitory, Smolder's mind pictured, just for a moment, what it would be like to be something other than a dragon. She turned, sitting upright on her bed and looking out of the window. There, far away, was the Ponyville Lake, whose water shimmered in the moonlight.

"...Hmmm...never really been one for swimming."

She glanced back to the still-sleeping Silverstream, who was oblivious to the attention she was getting right now. Smolder, for a moment, grimaced at the thought that now took hold in her.

"No...no, it's wrong. Bad idea. I can wait until morning, then I can just ask her."

But, as she again looked outside, to the darkness and stars of the night sky, it suddenly dawned on her that "morning" was a very long time away. Before that time came, she'd still have to go through the rest of the night, enduring the long and tiresome hours of just laying in bed, unable to fall asleep, tossing and turning with no chance for sweet unconsciousness. She grunted, scratching the back of her head, utterly put off my a notion like that. Sure, dragons could go for years just lying down on a big pile of gold or something, but those massive beasts usually had the benefit of sleep to get them through it. So, ever so slowly, this idea, which now served as some kind of unseen Devil on the dragoness' shoulder, continued to whisper to her. Regret and doubt were at war in her, but after a while, when faced with the prospect of an hours-long period of boredom and unpleasantness, she sighed, getting herself off the bed.

"This...this is a bad idea. A really bad idea."

She took a moment to give herself a stretch, because quite frankly, just because someone can't sleep doesn't mean they don't need one of those. After this, however, she started to carefully tiptoe over to Silverstream's bed, which was no small feat, given that Smolder wasn't exactly the most delicate of females. And it certainly didn't help that every floorboard threatened to creak with every step she took, leading to grimace after grimace after grimace on her part. But, after a long time, she finally got there, and gradually got down to one knee so that she was eye-level with her friend. Smolder gulped, looking again to the pendant, and with as much care and precision as a dragoness was capable of, she reached out with both claws, going around the sleeping Hippogriff's neck and, with extreme caution, unclasping it from the back. But, as she did this, Silverstream snored all of a sudden, causing Smolder to go as pale as a sheet. Thankfully, nothing came of it, and the Princess resumed her gentle slumber, leading to a quick and quiet chuckle on Smolder's part.

"Snoring, Silver? Gotta remember that one for later."

But, getting back to the task at hand, Smolder finally took the pendant for herself, taking a step backwards from the bunk-bed, before sighing with relief. This part was done, but now she had to go to part two. So, again with great care, she took a step to the side, climbing out of the window, before stretching out her wings and starting to fly off. Though she hated being up this late at night, she did have to admit that the experience of flying out at this time wasn't all that bad. The cool air, the beauty of the night sky itself, it really was quite something. She again sighed with relief over having seemingly gotten away with this, but she remembered to try and keep as quiet as possible, because even now, at this stage, there was a chance she could screw up and wake everybody up. So for now she stayed quiet, focusing on her flying and heading straight for the edge of the lake. Thankfully, this flight did not take long, and within only a minute, she was there, landing upon the sands that surrounded that great body of water.

"Okay...so...how does this work?"

In all her efforts to get this thing and get out here, it suddenly occurred to Smolder that she didn't actually know how this pendant was actually used. Naturally, this put something of a dent in her "use Silverstream's pendant" plan, but, let it never be said that dragons weren't stubborn when they wanted something, and so, Smolder, at the very least, started putting the thing around her own neck. It took a while, since getting it off someone else was actually much easier than putting it on yourself, but eventually, she managed to get it on. Now she was left with the still-lingering issue of how to actually use the thing, which she frowned and grunted at for quite some time. She paced up and down on the beach, poking the side of her head with her claw, trying to think back or provoke some past memory of when Silverstream had used it. She recalled the times, and when her Hippogriff friend's motions came to mind for her, she stopped her pacing, glancing down to the pendant.

"Alright...I think...she just...touched it?"

And touch it she did, reaching up and simply placing a claw upon the tiny fragment of the pearl that hung off it. In an instant, there was a bright light, and Smolder now found herself surrounded by what could only be the transformation magic of the Hippogriffs. It was a strange sensation, a warmth of sorts, without pain or discomfort, and yet Smolder was still very much disturbed by the experience. However, just as quickly as it had come, it stopped, leaving her once more in the darkness of the night, with only the moonlight reflected off the lake for illumination. But, Smolder knew that something had changed. At first, everything seemed fine for her, but then her eyes widened considerably when she looked down at herself.

"What the...?!"

True to its name, the transformation magic had changed her. Gone was Smolder the dragon, and there instead was Smolder the Seapony. Her wings were gone, as were her fangs, and many of her purple scales had been changed into fins, much like her claws in fact. But the biggest change, by far, was that she no longer had a pair of legs, but instead a long and scaly tail. Now, when she first saw all of this, Smolder was a mixture of excitement, trepidation and uncertainty, which was quite an intoxicating mix. But, unfortunately, these feelings were soon superseded by the very simple fact that, without legs, she had nothing to stand up with, and so soon found herself falling over. She landed face-down into the sands of the beach, and after just a brief pause, she lifted herself up as best she could, spitting out some stray sand that had managed to get inside her mouth.

"Okay, note to self, transform after I get in the water."

She chuckled at her own actions, then glanced over to the water in question, which seemed to look more inviting than ever. With great struggle, she used her newly-acquired fins to drag herself through the sand, getting closer and closer to the lake. Eventually, she managed to get in, and as soon as this happened, it was like she was a totally different creature. No longer cumbersome and struggling to move, she swam through the water with the same grace and instinct as a fish, as though such movement were embedded in her new form itself. She cracked a smile, spinning in the cool waters, even laughing as a result. With a powerful flap of her tail, she launched herself upwards, bursting through the surface of the lake and jumping high, sending droplets of water everywhere. She practically sparkled in the moonlight, and very much looked like she was enjoying this entire experience, as evidenced by the excited expression she wore.

"Ha! No wonder Silver likes this so much!"

For a time, she carried on like this, swimming as fast as her new form would allow, cutting through the water and even trying to make a game out of it, seeing just how fast she could do a lap around the edge of the lake. Even she was impressed at just how fast a Seapony could travel underwater like this, as freely as a bird would through the skies. After a time, however, she stopped right next to where she'd first entered the water, looking very much satisfied with all of this, even though her pants made it clear that her efforts had been somewhat tiring.

"Well...that was fun."

"Ahem."

Immediately, her smile vanished, and the former dragon winced at the sound of the second voice. Slowly, and knowing beforehand exactly who it was she was going to see, Smolder turned. Sure enough, Silverstream was there, standing at the edge of the lake. The young Princess, in stark contrast to her usual demeanour, was not smiling or happy or jovial in any way, but rather scowling and looking to her friend with clear disapproval. Smolder, gulping at the sight of her, chuckled nervously.

"Um...hey, Silver. Nice...er...nice night...right?"

But Silverstream said nothing, instead just tapping her claw against the sand impatiently. Smolder knew she'd been caught red-finned here, and though she would have wanted anything to get out of this, she knew that this just was not going to happen for her. So, after a long and incredibly awkward silence between the two, Smolder sighed, her head hanging low.

"I'm...I'm sorry."

Silverstream, seeing that those words had been spoken genuinely, softened her expression, though only a little, and she took a single step forward, stretching out one claw, as if expecting to receive something. Smolder, seeing that, understood immediately.

"Oh...right."

And with that, she reached behind her neck and unclasped the pendant, which was even harder to do with fins than it was with claws. Swimming closer to the edge, she offered it to Silverstream, who took it back for herself. After securing it back onto her own neck, Silverstream fixed her friend with a look that, if put into words, would have been described as "snarky smugness".

"Now then...what have we learned today?"

Smolder, who was never one for lectures, nevertheless sighed and gave the appropriate answer.

"That stealing from your friends is wrong."

Silverstream nodded.

"And...?"

Smolder grumbled a bit.

"And that if I wanted to try out your necklace, I should have waited until morning and asked for it."

Silverstream nodded again, this time putting on one of her customary smiles.

"Good. Now then, if you still want to try this stuff out, I'll maybe help you with some swimming lessons tomorrow. If I can help Yona, I'm pretty sure I can help you. Because between you and me, you had some pretty terrible form back there."

Smolder, though surprised by her friend's unexpected burn, soon snickered to it.

"Yeah, that'd help. Thanks."

Silverstream herself giggled, then spoke again soon afterwards.

"Now that that's all finished with, I think I'll head on back to bed. This is way too late for me to be up!"

Smolder, seeing her pink friend turn around, started to make her way closer back to land. But, as she did this, she suddenly realised one very important fact about herself, and looked down to see that, yes, she was indeed still a Seapony. Nervously, she glanced back to Silverstream.

"Um, Silver? Can I have that pendant back? I kinda forgot to turn back before giving it to you."

Silverstream stopped, looking back to see her friend's predicament. Placing a claw to her chin, she pondered this situation, then, in an uncharacteristic manner, smirked.

"Hmmm...I will..."

Smolder smiled, until Silverstream continued.

"...tomorrow."

Smolder's smile vanished utterly, replaced instead with a look of resignation.

"Right...consequences for my actions, right?"

Silverstream gave a hearty nod, then stretched out her wings and started to fly off, giving her now-water-bound friend a wave as she left.

"For what it's worth, sleeping underwater can be very relaxing!"

Within moments, the Hippogriff female was gone, leaving Smolder alone in the lake. She sighed, because knowing she'd brought this on herself would never really make it any better to have to put up with.

"Okay, yeah, I deserve this. I don't like it, but fine."

Then, after a while of just looking around her watery bed in silence, realisation came to her, and she slapped her forehead with annoyance.

"Oh no...this is just gonna lead to a whole bunch of 'sleeping with the fishes' jokes, isn't it?"

Next Chapter: Icons Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 57 Minutes