Dragonshyness

by Jordan179

Chapter 9: Twilight and the Dragon

Twilight Sparkle

She gazed, awestruck, at the Dragon.

Wisps of black smoke trailed from the sides of its mouth. Behind the great head, a relatively slim neck led to a body bigger than most Pony buildings, half-hidden beneath immense leathery wings. This body was bent to its left, curled in something of the manner of an impossibly-huge cat, so that its tail trailed along the wall to the right of where Twilight was standing. What she had thought were strands of congealed ropy lava was, in point of fact, that tail. The whole upper surface of the creature was covered in red scales, which glinted in a distinctly metallic manner in the magelight.

That's because they incorporate metals into their structure, the part of Twilight still capable of rational analysis told her. Spike needs metals in his diet to grow new scales. He gets them both from gems and from anything metallic. She looked at the vast hoard in a new light. Hmm, I wonder if that's why they started to hoard in the first place? A ready food reserve? Though it must mean much more to them by now -- they're fully sapient, highly inteliigent ... That last point was either a very happy thought, or a very unhappy one, depending on the Dragon's mood.

The Dragon grumbled slightly, whether in response to Twilight's earlier words, or her accidental physical contact with the tip of his beak, she could not be certain. As he did so, great billows of black smoke issued the sides of its mouth.

"Uh ..." she said nervously, "Excuse me ..."

The Dragon grumbled again, and this time the great archosaur rolled over, exposing its belly to Twilight. As it rolled, its scales made a peculiar, metallic scraping sound against each other and the hoard upon which the Dragon lay.

Twilight noticed that the great lamellar scales of its belly were yellow. The coloration was different, but the boundaries between color zones were essentially identical to those with which she was intimately familiar from spending a decade with Spike.

"Mr. Dragon?" she asked.

He brought up his right arm -- a limb as thick as Twilight was long, but pipestem-thin compared to the Dragon's immense bulk, ending in a hand much more massive than Twilight's entire torso. With this appendage he casually scratched at those overlapping ventral scales, employing claw-tips as long as half-pikes to perform this office. There was a screeching of metal against metal, and sparks flickered from the points of contact.

Twilight was uncomfortably aware that the smallest of those talons could have impaled her alive like a vegetable on a shish kabob for barbecuing, without the Dragon even having to try hard. She tried not to dwell in too much detail on this fact, as doing so somewhat interfered with her ability to formulate her thoughts.

Abruptly his eyelids snapped open, and great glowing yellow eyes, slitted like those of a crocodile but bigger than her body in full extension, regarded her as the huge creature rolled back onto his belly

Twilight took an involuntary step backward from that gaze, an action she immediately childed herself for as irrational, since rather obviously the Dragon had known exactly where she was the whole time, and if he had wished to kill her, would have already done so.

"Oh, good," she said, with unfeigned relief -- she had feared most that the Dragon might accidentally crush her by shifting in his sleep -- "you're awake! Please allow me to introduce myself ..." She knew that by giving him her name, she would be acting in a friendly fashion, and she had read that Dragons normally treated honorably with those who approached them openly as prospective guests. "My name is Twilight ..."

The Dragon gave an immense grumbling yawn, such as a sleepy stallion might make awoken from a much-desired nap (an occurrence with which a filly who had grown up with a father and a big brother was intimately familiar) and mumbled lazily. An immene belch of sulfur-laden gas, mingled with the smell of long-rotten flesh and the gaseous products of digestion, blew across Twilight with enough force to not only whip her mane about her but also push her backward, sliding on her hooves across the smooth cavern floor. That last should have been impossible from the air current alone, and Twilight could plainly feel the paramagnetism playing across her hide.

Dragon magic works through their breath, she remembered, just like Unicorn magic works through our horns, or Pegasi in their wings.

She had time only for that brief thought before she coughed and gagged on the incredible stench surrounding her. That was something for which experience of the males of her family had not prepared her. It reminded her vaguely of some of the smells Spike emitted, save that Spike's were of course of much smaller quantity, and he did not normally belch right into her face. What the Dragon had just done was not an actual use of his breath weapon -- that would have wounded or killed her, especially at point-blank range -- but it was a far-from-pleasant experience.

It had been not only rude, but also a casual demonstration of his power, rather like a very big stallion slightly shoving a much smaller one. Except the difference in scale here is more like that between a big tomcat and a very small mouse, she thought, then -- remembering what cats usually did to mice -- wished that the analogy had not occurred to her.

Nevertheless, Twilight gamely attempted to go on with her introduction. She covered her nose and mouth with one hoof, and said, "...Sparkle ..." she was talking through her nose, breathing out as much as possible, trying to avoid smelling any of the scents now surrounding her, "... and my friends and I are residents in Equestria ..."

At that the Dragon narrowed its eyes and snarled. He obviously knew well the terms of the treaties Celestia had signed with the Dragon realms, and that his own right to be here was less than hers.

It would not have been honest to say that Twilight was unafraid at this point, but she also knew that the Dragon was still listening, rather than attacking her ... which probably meant that it also knew that killing Equestrians on Equestrian soil would not be conducive to its long-term survival. If I'm reasonably polite about this, I should live through this day, she thought, and later was honestly amazed at her own self-possession.

"... Ponyville, to be exact," she said, reminding herself that Dragons respected courage, and successfully keeping most of the terror out of her voice. "We've come hereto ask that you find another spot to take your nap," she said, deliberately adopting an imploring tone. "It's just that you seem to be doing an awful lot of snoring,and every time you do you send out a terrible cloud of smoke."

At this the Dragon demonstrated his capabilties in this regard by puffing out a small but particularly vile cloud of the substance from his nose, which completely surrounded Twilight, forcing her to stop to cough out the foul-smelling vapor from her lungs.

Twilight felt the paramagnetism binding the cloud together, and realized that this was not only on purpose, but a direct demonstration on the part of the Dragon of how precisely he could control his emanations. She was angered, but knew that the worst thing she could do at this point was to let the Dragon goad her into some hasty action which would enable him to blame any violent confrontation on her own rashness.

Also, she might not survive such a confrontation. That should have been a small consideration compared to her orders, but to her shame she felt her own fear rising at the thought of her own demise. I'm not as brave as my big brother, she sadly thought.

She coughed again, and this time went into a coughing fit that only ended as the Dragon let his cloud disperse. He was not trying to choke her to death, but he had just made it plain to her that he could so slay her, whenever he wanted.

"Equestria simply can't survive a hundred years in a dark haze. You understand ..." she lowered her head, then lifted it again to meet his gaze, "... don't you?"

The Dragon looked calmly, sleepily at her for a moment. He actually closed his eyes.

Then he got up and stretched.

The Dragon was, simply, immense. The cavern was big enough to contain any building save the Palace of Canterlot, or one of the skyscrapers of Manehattan, and it could have held the majority of such a structure. The Dragon could not straighten out entirely under the cave roof, and even slightly curled up, seated on his rump his spikes brushed the ceiling. He scratched at his sides.

As he stretched he made complex growling noises, which Twilight Sparkle greatly feared was a statement in his own language. Twilight knew a great many things, but she did not have understanding of the speech of Dragons, nor did this Dragon seem willing to speak Equestrian, even assuming that he knew the Pony tongue.

This was, of course, the exact problem which might have been solved by the presence of Fluttershy.

She decided that it was best to simply assume that the Dragon had agreed with her.

"So," she said hopefully, "you'll find another place to sleep?"

The Dragon flung himself back down on the hoard. The whole cavern shook, and Twilight was tossed into the air, partly by the vibration of his tremendous weight against the coins and rock, but more so, she knew, by the paramagnetic fields he channeled through the precious metals beneath him.

Oh, so that's one of the reasons they love gold, she actually thought in midair. Gold's highly electroconductive! She was really learning an awful lot about Dragons this way, but she feared that her research studies were over, for the next thing the Dragon did -- and she could swear that she saw him smile as he did it -- was to puff a huge cloud of smoke across her, which filled the entire cave to the point of endangering her ability to breathe. He can control the exact composition of that cloud, she thought. Dragon magic is really more flexible than I expected!

But there was nothing for it now but to leave. The importance of her diplomatic mission, and even her scientific curiosity were set at naught besides the sheer reality that she could not keep on living if she remained here much longer. The Dragon might stop before the brink of actually killing her -- or he might not, or he might overestimate her endurance and kill her by accident. In either of those last two cases, she'd be dead, her mission a failure, and hence this outcome was to be avoided.

Fluttershy

Thinking "don't notice me," Fluttershy had crept up almost to the cave mouth, trying to hear what was going on inside. It was amazing how well this ability worked, especially when all the Ponies around her were raptly intent on listening to Twiight's confrontation with the Dragon.

Though Applejack, of course, didn't know that she was there, Fluttershy still chose to stick by Applejack's side, hanging a little bit back because a Pony would notice her if she occluded too much of her visual field with her body. The presence of the big orange farm-pony was comforting.

She could sort of hear Twilight's voice, echoing down the tunnel from the dragon's lair. She could easily hear the Dragon, and what she was hearing bothered her. The Dragon -- whose name was Rubeannibaleum, which Fluttershy was fairly certain meant something like "Red Smoke" or "Red Haze" -- was claiming that he had laired in here for decades, and that it wasn't about to move because some pipsqueak Unicorn told him to do so. He asked her by what authority she dared to challenge his presence.

Twilight -- who didn't seem to be understanding a word the Dragon was saying -- simply told him that she was an inhabitant of Ponyville and that the Dragon should move because he was inconveniencing the local Ponies.

That wasn't going to sit well with the Dragon, who after all had no particular reason to care what the local Ponies thought, Fluttershy realized. Didn't Twilight know that Dragons were inherently rather selfish creatures, proud of their superiority to all other life and strongly of the conviction that, where their interests clashed, that other life should yield to the whims of Dragons?

Well, no, though Fluttershy ashamedly. She probably doesn't know any of this. That's what she brought me along to help her with. Except that I'm too much of a coward to face that Dragon -- Rubeannibaleum.

Rubeannibaleum.. Somehow, now that she knew the Dragon's name, he seemed just a little bit less terrifying. A faceless, nameless monster might rip one apart because that was what faceless, nameless monsters simply did, it was their reason for being. But Rubeannibaleum -- Red Haze -- he sounded mean, but he was just trying to defend his territory, protect his reputation which after all would be important to him among Dragonkind. He was a person, with his own thoughts and dreams and goals in life, not a creature who lived only to kill. Not a creature who lived only to kill -- or to scare -- little pink-and-yellow fillies.

He would know that eventually he would have to move, unless he successfully petitioned Celestia to be allowed to stay, because he had heard the songs and stories too. However, he'd want to make it difficult to move him, because if he made it too easy he'd lose status among his fellow Dragons. Of course he wasn't going to move just because some random Unicorn told him too.

Twilight should have told him that she was the personal student and diplomatic representative of Princess Celestia. She should have laid the titles and her status on pretty thick -- that would have told the Dragon that Twilight was somepony pretty important, somepony worth listening to -- somepony who yielding to would be no dishonor.

Twiight's being too modest, Fluttershy realized. No! Twilight! she wanted to call. You're doing this completely wrong! Ponies respect your humility, but this isn't a Pony!

She wanted to call out, but she dared not. The Dragon was getting quite tired of Twilight's lecture now -- she could read the rising irritation in his tone.

"Thou art but an insignificant little she-Pony with neither right nor might to make me go or let me stay," said Red Haze. "Begone! with thee, upstart! I hold back my full strength solely because thou art too puny a thing to survive my true wrath, and I would not come red-clawed before your Princesses!"

Fluttershy quailed before the anger in that great voice.

"So," Twilight said hopefully, "you'll find another place to sleep?"

Oh, no ... Fluttershy thought.

"Faugh! Away with thee!" cried Red Haze, and with that Fluttershy could hear the Dragon's breath hissing echoingly down the chamber. A moment later came a huge volume of black smoke, followed within seconds by a coughing Twilight Sparkle, staggering out of the cave.

She started to say something, then coughed, and then a moment later the Dragon's breath hissed even louder. An even greater amount of smoke -- enough to wholly fill the mountainside ledge, engulfed them all.

Everything was choking fumes and darkness.

Author's Note:

Here, "thou" is being used insultingly. Red Haze is neither Twilight's friend, family nor sovereign, and the use of "you" would be more polite. He's implying that she's but a slave compared to himself. And his contempt is totally wasted on her.

Though not on Fluttershy.

Comments

[Unbridled Dolly]

Ooooh, another chapter.

[FanOfMostEverything]

The amount of detail in Twilight's section does a fantastic job of demonstrating just how fast she thinks. The amount of real time covered by that text is just over a minute. Of course, time does seem to stretch out when one is face to face with uncertain death...

Also, it's interesting to see that Fluttershy really would be helpful if she'd been able to help with the diplomatic approach. When I first watched the episode, I honestly wasn't sure if her talent would extend to sapient beings.

In any case, looking forward to more, especially since we're getting translation.

[Jordan179]

4482726

I suppose for Twilight, dragons are indeed much better to deal with than fires, because you can reason with a dragon.

(*nods*) And Twilight's aware that there are treaties and such, and she's used to dealing diplomatically with arrogant foreigners, just from hanging around Celestia's court and paying attention. Very importantly, she's counting on Fluttershy to handle translation.

But she needs to realize that not everyone grew up with Spike as a constant companion, and that, to everypony else, dragons are giant, terrifying, fire-breathing lizards with wings and teeth as big as your head.

She knows they are. It's just that Twilight by her nature is very cool and calculating in a genuinely-dangerous situation. It's potentially-embarrassing social situatons that frighten her.

Twilight is also the Most Faithful Student of a being that could destroy that Dragon fairly easily.

[Redric Carrun]

-- they're fully sapient, highly inteliigent ...

*intelligent

We've come hereto ask

*here to

you seem to be doing an awful lot of snoring,and every time you do you send out a terrible cloud of smoke.

*snoring, and

Rubeannibaleum.. Somehow, now that she knew the Dragon's name, he seemed just a little bit less terrifying.

*only two periods

So, this chump claims to have been here for decades. And why exactly has the smoke only started showing up now?
(I suppose it might only show up when he goes into a really deep sleep. But then, it was awfully easy to wake him up.)

Also, dude, you can speak Equestrian. Pretending not to is just another jerk move in a long list of jerk moves. You're lucky Fluttershy's the forgiving type and none of the others understand you.

[Jordan179]

4483172

I actually couldn't see how Applejack could drag Fluttershy any great distance that way without causing severe damage to her wings. So I figured that most of the trip up had to have been made in a different posture, and since AJ's good with ropes and kindness (which sounds far, far dirtier than I meant that) ...

[Cursed Quill]

Corrections offered without malice.
"shish kebob" kebab is the imported spelling, kabob is the Anglicized version. Pick one.

[Walabio]

The viewcount is 1,701 (USS Enterprise NCC 1701). It is too bad that STD violates canon. If you like STD, do not watch STE or TOS until after STD is cancelled (soon) because STD cannot possibly occur in the same universe.