Twilight had seen large dragons before and on more than one occasion. But these felt so very different from the ones she was used to seeing. The one that caused all that smoke to blacken the skies and the ones living on the volcano all had bright, lustrous scales. These lumbering creatures, did not.
“They're so... gray...” Fluttershy murmured sadly as they finally got close enough towards the rocky mountain base to see the large creatures laying and lazily sharpening their claws below.
Blitz sniffed in an offended manner, causing Fluttershy to immediately make hurried apologies. “No, no, I didn't mean it like that, honest!”
“I've seen dragons before,” Chrysalis commented with a raised brow. “I know what she means. These creatures are a shadow of what they are meant to be.”
They were bronze, copper, even gold scaled, but just as the changling queen had noted, they had no shine to their scales. They were washed out colors, earthy hued. They dragged their feet when they walked, hung their large heads and sighed puffs of smoke that looked as weak as Fluttershy felt. Or rather what she had felt before. As she watched them blink slowly, life's spark dulled to a barely glowing ember within them, she realized she was walking forward. She realized she wasn't afraid at all.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight hissed fearfully, looking around the deep valley for signs of anypony else. She couldn't see any, but she had no doubt somepony was around there somewhere.
She motioned for the others to follow and then picked her way as quietly as possible after Fluttershy. She expected the dragons to realize they were coming and make a move any second, fiery breath on their backs. But to her surprise, they only blinked at them and looked away unimpressed, some even felling back to asleep.
Fluttershy had stopped in the midst of them, looking around curiously and with a calm Twilight had never seen her wear around any dragons besides Spike and his new friends.
Twilight slowed until she came up next to her. It was one thing to be around a bunch of adolescent dragons in a costume. It was quite another to be surrounded by adults that didn't even notice your presence. Each one was massive, varying in size from an Ursa minor to the same size Spike was after his bizarre, not to mention terrifying, transformation due to greed. But the largest by far was a very deep brown toned dragon, with scares crossing his scales in deep and shallow groves, making rivers and streams in his scaly skin. His head alone was so large it blocked the entire base of the mountain, one of his eyes, if they were open, would have been triple the size of Celestia herself.
“He's...” Fluttershy breathed.
“Huge,” Twilight finished, just as Chrysalis said, “As old as I am.”
Everypony looked at her. Sprint didn't seem fazed at the comment and continued looking around with a curious eye.
“Chysalis, maybe this isn't the right time to ask, but... how old are you?”
The changling queen gave a toothy grin. “How old is your Princess Celestia?”
“Uh,” Twilight tilted her head, at a loss. She knew, of course, that the princess was very old. She's been around for over a thousand years, after all. But she was rather hazy on just how old.
Chrysalis smirked. “Well, when you figure that one out, add an easy thousand more.”
She faced forward and began walking towards the biggest dragon. Twilight looked over to see that Blitz, his sister and Spike were already by it. The alicorn looked over at Fluttershy and was about to ask her if she felt up to getting closer, when Silverline rushed to her side, dropping his voice.
“Two caretakers and one trainer, headed over from the barns area.”
Twilight rushed over towards Chrysalis, flinching as the quicker sound of her hooves stirred a few reptilian eyes to open.
“I can guess,” the queen said before the princess could speak. “You need some kind of a distraction?”
Twilight nodded. “Three ponies, coming from the barns.”
Chrysalis looked over at Sprint. “We'll handle this.” She gave Twilight a pointed look. “Just be quick. We're running out of daylight as it is.”
As the queen and her Swarm commander rushed off, with a quietness Twilight couldn't help but envy, she realized how dark the orange in the sky was becoming. She motioned to the others, watching with satisfaction as Fluttershy only paused for a moment before following Silverline down the incline.
“Do you know, uh,” Twilight realized as she began to ask Blitz the question that she had no idea how to tell if a dragon was male or female. “Do you know this dragon, Blitz?”
The gray baby gave a shallow grin. “Everydragon knows ol' Timber. He's the oldest dragon around. The first one that ever came into this valley. All of us descend from him.” He looked at the scared scales sadly. “From him and Star Gaze. But she... she died.”
Fluttershy reached her head forward and nuzzled the small dragon on the shoulder comfortingly. Blitz looked at her in surprise. Comfort from ponies wasn't something he was used to.
“Has he forgotten how to talk, too?” Twilight asked, looking him over. They were close enough to touch his snout with their hooves, but he remained asleep.
Blitz looked up at the top of the old dragon's spiky head. “I'm not sure. I've never heard him talk before, but... But I think he used to. Back when he was wild.”
“Alright then,” Twilight murmured, taking a shaky breath. “Uh... Timber?” No response. She looked over at Blitz. “How do we wake him up?”
Blitz tilted his head. “I've never seen him wake up for anything unless the Great One wakes him with the whistle.”
“The... whistle?” She asked, with a raised brow.
Fluttershy looked over the dragon. “It would make sense... But the tone would need to be very specific...”
A sharp whistle came from Silverline, aimed right at Timber. Many of the dragons woke up and looked at them curiously. Some even half rose from their positions. But Timber didn't move.
“That's the loudest I have,” the pegasus soldier admitted with a frown, looking over his shoulder towards where the changlings had disappeared on their distraction mission. “Maybe it's not loud enough.”
“No,” Fluttershy murmured, as if lost in thought with herself. Her head was tilted as she continued gazing at the dragon. She walked closer, towards one of his large eyelids. “It's not the volume... It's the pitch.”
She took a deep breath and then the strangest tone came from the yellow pegasus. A deep, low whistle that Twilight had never heard before.
Nothing.
“It was a good try, Fluttershy,” Twilight comforted, walking over towards her friend.
But she was only halfway to her before she stopped cold.
The eyelids were shifting, restless.
“I think,” Silverline called to them, “you two should move back.”