Scales of Time

by The Psychopath

Dragoness' nest

"Princess?"

Celestia felt paralyzed and only watched as Twilight casually dragged the corpse of the dracopony towards the juvenile dragon's, tossing the pony against the beast's neck. She followed this up by using her spear to break the scales of the body of her 'trophy' and gather them all in a pile. Sometimes, she would have some difficulty getting the spear through, but that was it.

"Princess? You need to focus. Come back to us!"

"Huh?" Celestia blinked a few times. "Sparkles?"

"Yes. I heard a commotion, then your guard came to get me, so when I saw the dragon on the floor, I rushed over."

Twilight hadn't noticed, but the nobles from earlier were watching her from the windows of the castle's completed floors as was the staff.

"So...She wasn't kidding when she said everything she had was made from dragon stuff and she killed them. I'm..."

"She killed him."

"I can see that. That's pretty impressive, protecting us."

"No. She didn't do it to protect us. There's something darker at work here." Tears of empathy started welling up inside the white alicorn. "She killed him, and he just wanted pity."

"The dragon?"

"No!" Celestia cried. "That pony at the neck of the dragon."

Sparkles walked in front of Celestia and did her best o see what she was talking about, then tried to adjust herself in every area she could. "Princess, I'm not as tall as you are so I can't-Oh. I see it now."

"He wanted pity. I needed to imprison him for bringing the dragon, but he had information I needed. When I had my back turned, she just...she just looked at me and slowly pushed her weapon into his skull."

Sparkles felt a weight on her throat but recomposed herself. She had done and seen much worse when operating on patients.

"You knew she was a hardened warrior, though, Princess. You should have seen this coming."

"I know, but," Celestia wiped the sweat off her forehead. "to be so...unfazed by the action of murder. It's unthinkable."

"She didn't grow up in our lifestyle. The act might have become synonymous with survival, if not every day life."

Celestia was locked in thought. "Then why didn't she try killing everypony else?"

"She's clearly not here for that, and I think that, if what you said is taken into account, she might only be interested in killing dragons, but then why did she kill that pony?"

"She killed him a 'dracopony'."

"Dracopony?"

"Yes. He had patches of scales in his fur, his pupils were becoming very reptilian, and his left foreleg was entirely scaley with claws coming out of his hoof."

"Really?! I need to get that body away from her and study it."

Celestia grabbed the medic by the shoulders. "Why?!"

"To study it. I might be able to help you help others like him if you let me determine the cause."

The princess let go of her subject and dropped to the floor. She felt terrible for her sudden outburst. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be acting like this. I should be--"

"It's okay, princess. We're all ponies and, personally, I think that your outbursts show you as still being very much like us, so it could help ease the minds of those who are still afraid of your power."

"Oh. Well. Thank you?" Celestia didn't really know how to respond to such a bizarre 'comforting speech'.

Sparkles left the princess and slowly approached the dragon's corpse. The cracking sounds of scales being pulled off of the skin disgusted her and made her ears fold back in protest. Twilight was still nonchalantly collecting the scales, a pile of about thirty of them having already been gathered into a short pile next to the dragon's belly. In fact, she was humming joyously and was singing under her breath.

♪~If we don't kill the dragons then they'll kill us
For better or for worse we'll stand together and interlock our legs as shields
We are the protection against the fires and the claws
We are the ones who survived the coming apocalypse

To kill the dragons and the ejge is the goal of everypony who lives, died, and will be
We few who still have the fires of pony kind within us will breathe it onto the flying lizards
And with a death cry will they all fall to the lands in ashes, letting the world grow once more
Letting our people build their fabled towers again and be plentiful in food and land

The dragons will be no more and the ejge will serve us whole
Until then, our spears shall be driven into their throats, tearing their fires from their souls
Their wings shall be plucked, making them as us
Their claws will be removed, giving us the edge in battle

Do not forget the dragon queen who keeps us up at night
Corrupted beyond her wishes yet unknown
She spreads that vile dream through our kind
But with our stoic and stubborn eyes
She won't hypnotize~♪

"I really need to work on that," Twilight chuckled. "That was terrible."

"You can sing?"

"They are our tales in songs to inspire everypony during the raids."

"Raids?"

"Well, they aren't technically raids, but, whatever." She pulled out another scale and tossed into the pile. "And there's another one."

"So...That thing, there," Sparkles pointed towards the dead pony. "That's a dracopony?"

"Yup."

"What were you going to do with it?"

"Eh." The unicorn shoved her spear into the pony and leaned against it momentarily. "I was going to burn it. Dracoponies, when dead, have a bizarre susceptibility to fire."

"Do you know why?"

"Don't know don't care."

"So..." Sparkles tapped the ground gently several times. "Do you mind if I take the corpse?"

"Do what you want with it. Desecrate it, hang it, put the head on a pike and toss the corpse in a river. Shoot, empty it, dry the body, then fill it with candy for the foals to hit. I don't care."

Sparkles was perplexed. "That was bizarrely specific."

"Are you taking the body?"

"Y-yes! Of course. I just need to get the necessary to move it."

The medic hurried quickly to her clinic, excited. "I can't wait to dissect that thing. I haven't gotten anything new since we found a dead griffon. I could help everypony else sickened like him, too."

The dragoness was lying on her back, her legs spread apart, and looking at the sky. She was enjoying herself a bit too much, especially for one Twilight considered to be the greatest enemy of all pony kind.

"Oh, it's nice to see a sky not filled with flames and smoke." She took in a deep breathed and sighed gleefully. "I haven't gotten to breath air this clean in so long, either. It does a mare good."

"Dragoness?" a dracopony called.

"What is it?"

"We lost contact with the juvenile dragon you subjected as well as the other ascended."

The 'kirin' sat onto her haunches and hummed in thought. "It seems that I found where Twilight went." She looked across the distance and grinned evily. "It seems she's at Celestia's castle."

"Do we...Do we go there and kill them?"

"No, you fool. That would be a stupid idea. I need them."

"Why?"

"Those reasons are my own, now get back to finding dragon eggs for me." She tapped her claws together as she spoke. "I need to raise and build a dragon army for what is to come in the shortest amount of time possible."

"Yes, m'am."

She watched the little draco pony gallop off towards the town that had been torn down and converted into a gigantic, dome-shaped nest comprised of various different types of wood of different sizes, shapes, and colors. Several of the dracoponies had gone further afield to a small gathering of trees and cut them down, bringing them back and using them as an assembly of yet more parts for the nest. Wagons filled with five dragon eggs were being brought back from a wide area, ensuring a great flexibility and environments for the dragon army the dragoness was going to make.

"Hm?" Her relaxation was disturbed by the sight of a winged serpent in the sky. "What is that doing there?"

The creature flew down in rapid spirals and landed in front of the dragoness in barely a few seconds. Its body was a sickly green but the scales it had were extremely clean and smooth. Unfolding its wings, the dragoness saw that they ended in five digits at the tip, which the creature didn't hesitate to slam onto the ground around her. Its body extended back to a tail which ended in a blade-like extension that its species saw no need to use. It had a long, thick neck connected to a head devoid of any eyes. Draconic and long in appearance, this thing could be confused for a dragon, if not for its lack of limbs and many other features. Upon the head devoid of eyes were two mouths, rather than one, with a mouth where one would expect it to be and another at the level where eyes would be.

"What's an ejge doing way out here?" the dragoness wondered.

The creature only growled at her in response.

"You ejge really aren't that big, are you? So puny." She scratched the back of her head. "I'll show what a true draconic being looks like."

The 'kirin' stood up and took in a deep breath. Her body started to expand and the dragon features that she hid within her body started pushing out as well until she was finally twice as big as the ejge which was, in comparison, five times as big as a regular pony. However, despite the display the dragon queen made to it, the ejge did not care. It pushed itself far away with its hand then bolted at its target and flew away just as quickly. The dragon queen did not have a chance to react, let alone see what just happened and keeled over in pain before reverting to her smaller form to minimize the pain. The ejge had slice clean through the right of her stomach and poisoned her, and none of this went unnoticed by the draco ponies.

"My queen!" dozens shouted.

"We must get you medical attention!"

More of the dracoponies arrived with first aid kits and started cleaning the wound while others used whatever means available to suck the poison out of the deep cut. The 'kirin' pushed them away and, with some difficulty and a hoof on her wound, stood up and limped away from them.

"I was unprepared and overconfident. I didn't realize that was a swamp ejge, but...what was it doing out here?"

"You shouldn't move!" a dracopony told her. "You're hurt and poisoned."

The dragon queen queen glared at the pony and bared her sharp teeth. "You've already cleaned much of the poison out. Let my own body heal itself up and develop antibodies to counteract the poison if this ever happens again," she spat.

"But--"

"LEAVE ME BE!" They all started scuttering away until she pointed at two mares and a stallion. "Except for you three. I have a visit to make, and I want you to make me a dress worthy of royalty."

"Y-yes, my queen," the three responded and bowed.

Comments

[HiddenMaster]

The 'kirin' sat onto her haunches and hummed in thought. "It seems that I found where Twilight went." She looked across the distance and grinned evily. "It seems she's at Celestia's castle."

You were missing a word there, so I just added what seems appropriate.