Scales of Time

by The Psychopath

Dragon Queen's Fun

Author's Note:

'Fource' comes after thrice.

The Dragon Queen was lying in an arm chair made from twisted straw placed inside of the enormous nest sitting where the town of her arrival once was. It was easily fource the size and height of Canterlot. It had to. There was no way a place like that would be able to hold fully grown dragons. Its walls were sturdy but peppered with holes of various sizes and serving as windows of sorts. With so many windows, the purpose of the hive wasn't really apparent as they exposed the entirety of the inside and all the floors.

"I'm bored!" the dragoness complained.

In front of her, on a floor made of a dark brown wood covered in charred straw, sat a few hundred draco-ponies. They all had worried looks on their faces and looked to each other after their queen's exclamation.

"I mean, I had my fun messing with Celestia and Twilight." She stretched herself over the arm rests and let her back band and sink onto the seat. "Yet...now there's nothing left to do. The ponies of now are so boring to play with and turning you all into draco-ponies grew tiresome five centuries ago. Now I've got these dragons I have to raise and train, but they haven't matured fast enough yet." She rotated and laid her head n the arm rest and let her forelegs droop off the furniture. "Ugh. All these ideas in my head." She put her hooves to her head and gestured it exploding outwards. Her crowd was even more perturbed than just a few seconds ago.

Dragons of all shapes and colors filled the dome, with the eggs being at the highest point to have as much sunlight and heat as possible while the hatchlings, juveniles, and so forth. Each floor was specifically designed for each age step of the dragon life cycle and while the time to wait for the full growth should be in the years, as with most animals, the dragoness had her fun in manipulating their growth using her magic. It wasn't something that was liked by the ponies of her time, let alone ponies at all, not to mention the rest of the species in the world, but the dragoness didn't care. She wanted her army as fast as possible to fight and preferably kill the King Dragon.

"Maybe Twilight will die during the battle. Hopefully, Celestia won't. I still need her when Luna comes back," DQ spoke quietly.

She rolled off of the seat, slamming hard onto the ground and startling the crowd in front of her, but the dragoness wasn't hurt by such things. After all, her magic managed to heal her cut would quite fast, and with yet more exposure to swamp ejge venom, she developed even more antibodies, and it would improve her survival later on when the battle was finished.

"Mmmoff moff marr memmst mmtch mmmf mmmgs mming?" Her face was face the ground, muffling her speech.

"What?" one of the draco-ponies asked.

The dragoness tilted her head slightly and looked upwards. "How is our latest batch of dragon eggs doing?"

"Oh-OH! They're doing great! You've been doing a fantastic job, my queen."

The kirin rose immediately onto her haunches and threw her forelegs cheerfully into the air. "Great!" she cheered. "Will they be ready by the time the King Dragon awakens?"

"You'll have about two thousand fully grown dragons by that time and a few other thousand will still be juveniles." The draco-pony scratched the back of his neck. "I honestly don't think it's a good idea to get the juveniles into the war. Don't you think it would be best to keep them until after? They'll be ready to bolster the losses of your forces, and then some, and we'll be there to command and grow them."

"What makes you think I'm sending in the juveniles?" DQ asked from the floor.

"Well, what about the dragon you sent with one of us to Celestia's castle? It was a juvenile."

"Oh, pfffff." DQ stood back up and wobbled playfully from left to right. "That was just to send a message. There's no reason I would have sent a simple juvenile anyways." She looked away and put a hoof to her mouth. "Although, honestly, I wasn't expecting to see Twilight there. I thought they would have jailed her in the dungeons. Anyways! I want to see the adults and how much they've grown." Her cheerful face took an extremely dark turn. "And to see which ones feel like 'rebelling' again."

The adults were on the second floor, directly above the draco-ponies and DQ. They were easily reached by small stairs dotted all about the first floor, and upon reaching the second, one was met with a roof so high the room might as well have been a mountain cave from fantasy tales. Several enormous openings around allowed the dragons to come and go as they pleased and bring back whatever treasures they felt like collecting, although the Dragon Queen was not exactly loving of gold and jewels.

"What is this?" she asked a giant purple dragon.

"What is what?"

"This pile of gold. It's several feet in width and height."

"And what are you going to use it for?"

"To eat?"

"Dragons don't eat gold," she sighed.

"Uhhh...To hoard?"

"To hoard why?" she asked inquisitively. The dragon couldn't give a proper answer and started sweating nervously.

"Get rid of it all," DQ ordered.

With her back turned, the dragon took the opportunity to growl at her and cover his hoard. "No. It's mine!"

"Are you sure about that?" she wondered.

His answer was a loud roar. The Dragon Queen's answer was returning to her true form turned to roar at the dragon in return. The other dragons stopped their activities to see the confrontation and watch who the victor would be. The adult dragon tried to claw the dragoness but found his arm intercepted and a palm slamming into his throat. With his airway blocked, the dragon fell to the ground, gasping for air.

"Every DAY I have to do this with you. EVERY day!" The dragoness rotated in place to view all of the dragons. "WHY?! You know full well you'll never win against me. Stop this foolishness and get rid of those useless rocks and metals. They distract you and ruin the training regimens you're supposed to be going through."

While she stomped away, the choking noises of the dragon grabbed the dragon queen's attention and she facepalmed. "Oh! Of course!. I forgot about you." With just a flick of her finger, a small dart of magic hit the dragon in the throat, healing it and allowing him to breathe once more.

Back on her chair as a kirin, the dragoness pondered about what she would do after the King Dragon was killed. Perhaps she could kill the Royal Ejge. It would be in a weakened state, after all, or perhaps she could simply wait for her juveniles to mature until her army of dragons was big enough to wipe out the individual pockets of ejge darted around and allow her to conquer and subject the ponies under her rule. After all, without her, ponies can't survive in an age where the apocalypse is active. What's to say another apocalypse won't occur after that? This is an entirely new world, one created the precise second she and Twilight stepped hoof onto the lands. After removing the debris, it was entirely possible that a plant could grow in that spot where it was never capable of growing before. The dragoness preferred to uproot the sprout before it had a chance to grow and spread all over the walls, and the best way would be to have her 'gardeners' active day and night.

"Hmmmm," she thought. "Maybe I should go ahead and mess with Celestia and Twilight's heads a bit more. I didn't think they'd be this dense, though. You all think nopony recognizes me because of the way I act?" she asked her draco-ponies.

Most of them made various noises of uncertainty, although one still gave an answer. "What do you mean? You are our queen! The Dragon Queen!"

"Yes yes," DQ waved her hand in annoyance. "I know that, but I mean, does anypony recognize my APPEARANCE? I wasn't always the Dragon Queen you know and worship, after all."

The crowd shrugged and shook their head, prompting DQ to facehoof. "I see it really is my body and personality. I thought that making it this way would have become painfully obvious, but, whatever. I'll have to make do with your stupidity." She clapped her hooves together. "Alrighty then! Time to plan on new ways to mess with the ponies of this time and Twilight Sparkle as well. Any suggestions?"