Ocellus galloped through the hallway, the clopping of her chitinous hooves becoming endless, as it seemed like hours before she would arrive where her dormitory stood.
Tears streamed from her eyes as she had finally made it. Her comfort zone. She immediately rushed into the room and threw herself onto the bed, sobbing into the pillow.

Her mind was flooding with so many emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Until she could help Smolder, she knew she had to keep her emotions in tact. She couldn’t crack under the pressure she was under all the time, like she usually did. The problem was, she wasn’t ready to accept it. That burden to have Smolder’s life on the line, and depending on her. Of all the creatures. It was her. Of course, she was grateful for the role assigned, given the conditions, but, the worst part was, she couldn’t handle that thing. That precious life that she loved to coexist with, yet loathed to carry such a heavy burden.

What if Smolder died because of her? What if she couldn’t save her? All these doubts, these feelings, they rushed out of her mind, and straight into her pillow, soaked with tears.

As she continued to cry, she eventually fell asleep, her face buried in the pillow.

Two hours later, Ocellus woke, getting out of her bed and heading to the kitchen to get some water. She scanned the cabinets, searching for a glass cup. As she finally reached up to grab one, there was a large noise, followed by the smell of smoke. It must’ve been-

“Smolder...?” Ocellus asked to herself, trying to follow where the noise had came from. There was another large thud, followed by a roar. A roar far too loud to be coming from Smolder. She dropped the glass, rushing out into the hallway and frantically knocking on Smolder’s door. “S-Smolder...!” No one answered, save for the enormous crackling noises.

She turned into a unicorn, using a magical blast from her horn to bust down the door. As she entered, the room was engulfed in smoke. “S...Smolder...?” She called out in between coughs. The smoke slowly cleared, revealing a ginormous hole in the wall.

“What the-?!” She was cut off by distant roars and the sounds of nearby buildings crashing down.
As she galloped near the slightly charred hole in the wall to get a closer look, there was an even louder roar. It was coming from a full-size dragon with orange and light yellow scales, and purple spines. It wasn’t- no, it couldn’t be. It was.

“Smolder!” Ocellus called out, failing to catch the dragon’s attention. As Smolder continued to rage, destroying buildings and setting them on fire, Ocellus was fed up. She leapt from the gaping hole in the wall, opening her elytra and exposing her wings, flying as fast as she could toward the scaly beast.

Turning into an alicorn, still carrying herself in the air as best she could, she charged up all the magic possible through her horn, and blasted the beast with a powerful green beam. The dragon roared in pain, collapsing onto the ground and taking most of the buildings with it.

She changed back, hovering to the ground while still trying to keep herself from collapsing. Her chest heaving, she looked angrily at Smolder.
“What in the name of King Thorax’s hive were you doing?!” She hissed, stepping closer to the dragoness’ lightly charred body. The dragon blinked softly and recognized her friend. She quickly shrunk back to normal size and groaned in pain.

“Huh...?” She croaked, squirming lightly.

“Do you know how much damage you’ve done?!” Ocellus tried to levitate her, but couldn’t, Otherwise, where would all that power come from? She had, in a sense, wasted most of her magical energy. It was going to take a long time to restore it, especially since she was angry at the moment.

Smolder coughed “I... I don’t know what you’re talking about...” she scratched her head.

“You don't know what I’m talking about?! Look around you, Smolder!!” She snapped, getting angrier every second.

“Oh...? ...Oh.” She muttered as she looked around her. Ponyville was destroyed. No building was left untouched. Ponies were injured.

“Oh?! You just destroyed an entire town, and your reaction is ’Oh?!’” She shouted back, knocking Smolder across her spines.

“Ow,” She deadpanned.

“How can you be so nonchalant about this?! Do you see what you’ve done?!”

“What’s there to see...?” She joked.

“This isn’t a joke, Smolder.”

“Who said it was?” She turned to Ocellus.

Ocellus snarled at her, before trying to gain back her composure. “You’ve burned a hole in the building, destroyed a whole town, injured lots of ponies, and you have the audacity to joke around like this?!” Ocellus took a breath. “Are you proud of yourself...?”

“And what If I am...?”

“Smolder, you’ve practically started an international war! You shouldn’t be proud of yourself! Not when it’s this serious!!!” She hissed once more, the venom in her voice increasing steadily.

“You know what...?” She started to hover. “I’m not gonna sit and argue with you.” She grumbled, smoke puffing from her nostrils as she flew away.

Ocellus was tired. She collapsed onto the ground, sweat beading from her forehead. She was still breathing very heavily, trying to recuperate from that heavy use of magic.
She looked up in the sky only to see Smolder still in the midst of flying away. Just before she could get up, she saw a gigantic burst of flame rage her way. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t even get up.

Ocellus shot up in a cold sweat, tears streaming from her eyes. “Oh my hive-“ she sobbed, gasping for air. It was finally morning. The daylight shone through the window.

She got up, still sniffling, and grabbed a few tissues to dry her eyes. Just as she went to grab a glass of water, there was a knock on her door. Ocellus unlocked the door and opened it to her early guest. It was Gallus.

“Hey, are you alright? You were yelling and screaming, like... a lot.” His face was displaying pure concern, as he looked Ocellus straight in the eye.

“I’m... fine, thanks.” She relied sheepishly, looking away and rubbing her hoof.

“Oh, okay, I guess. Class is starting in an hour,” he said. “Cheer up, okay...?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I-I’ll get right on that...” she said as she closed the door, sighing. “How am I supposed to help Smolder when I can’t even help myself..?” She pondered, drinking her glass of water and preparing to brush her teeth.

As she entered the bathroom and looked in the mirror, levitating her toothbrush with her magic and proceeding to brush her teeth. As she finished brushing, she decided to pay Smolder a visit, and to apologize to her.

She exited the dorm and proceeded to march forward to Smolder, being harsh on herself to play it cool, and be firm. Like in Professor Fluttershy’s class.

She knocked on the door. There was no response. “Smolder? Smolder? Open up! I need to talk to you!” She yelled, grateful not to get every student in that hall to open up their doors and look at her quizzically.

“Smolder, open the door. Please.” She knocked in the door even harder.

“Leave me alone!” Smolder hissed in reply.

“Come on, I just wanna apologize.”

“Go away!” Ocellus then heard Smolder spurt flames at the door with its usual “fwooshing” sound. The door started to crumble, revealing a scowling Smolder. “I said go away.” She growled through clenched teeth.

“I just wanna apologize for how I lashed out last night...” She started to quiver slightly, forgetting how she kept telling herself she was going to be firm.

“I. Don’t. Care. Get out!”

“I-I just... I just wanted to talk...”

“Did I stutter?! GET OUT!!!!!”

“Wait... just... just wait a second...” There was silence. “I... I know you’re really keen on trying to protect your hoard... and... I’m okay with that.” She stepped closer to Smolder, inch by inch.
“But, the way I lashed out wasn’t... it wasn’t nice of me.” She said as she stepped even closer.

“W-Wait... what are you doing?! Step back!” Smolder yelled, getting into a very protective stance in front of her pile.

“There are some things you might never figure out,” she giggled tiredly, sniffing before stepping closer, and closer, until finally, she was close enough to Smolder to wrap her in a warm embrace. “Y-You mean a lot to me...” Ocellus didn’t know if the statement she just made had been too forward, or if she had hit just the right spot, but all she knew was this; she had her dragoness’ attention.

“W-What do you mean...?”

“I mean that... that I lo-“ She paused. “That you’re my favorite dragon...” tears in her eyes threatened to fall. There was even more silence. Smolder began to see what she was doing wrong, but didn’t know why she couldn’t stop doing it. It just felt so right- to protect her hoard with her life. But maybe, just maybe, Ocellus could be part of her hoard. That precious pile of valuables that made her happy.

“Thanks... you mean a lot to me too...” Smolder croaked, making Ocellus’ heart skip a beat.

In class, Smolder was glancing every now and then at Ocellus and watching her compete her work to make sure no one else would mess with her. After all, she wasn’t too fond of her treasure being taken from her.

After class, before Ocellus left, she caught Smolder still in class and sitting at her desk with her feet kicked up. “S-Smolder...? The next class is soon-“

“I know. I just have detention.” Smolder stayed bluntly, causing Ocellus to gasp in horror.

“What?! What in Thorax’s name could you possibly be in detention for?!” Ocellus asked frantically while putting a hoof to her mouth.

“I got into a fight.” She stated, keeping her gaze straight ahead while nonchalantly stretching her hands behind her head.

Ocellus was.. dumbfounded, even more concerned than she originally was before. Sure, Smolder might have been a little(a lot) rough around the edges, but she wasn’t the type of creature to fight someone. “W-Who were you even fighting...?!”

“Some kid that cheated off your test.”

“B-But... why...?” Ocellus asked, her eyes fixed on Smolder.

“I dunno. Just kinda shook me up, I guess...” she replied, keeping gaze toward the front of the classroom. Ocellus took notice of this and stepped in front of her, resting her hooves on her desk.

“I just don’t understand... how can you be so calm about this..?!”

“I... I don’t know... I’m sorry, I’m just.. not sorry.” Smolder chuckled, causing Ocellus to sigh.

“M-Meet me after school. In the library.”

Ocellus didn’t know what was happening with Smolder, specifically why she was acting this way, but she knew this; she was running out of time.