Just to let you know I'm still alive · 5:39am Apr 9th, 2018
One of my Oh God This Is Going To Take Forever stories is Twinkle Twinkle - Speaker to Dragons, which I'm working (slowly) on for over a year now, and I'm about on Chapter 8. I've got a snippet below (Chapter 4) where Twinkle is adapting to captivity, and her captor is finding out just how weird a creature it is she's captured.
--Long Description--
A long time ago, before the founding of Canterlot and the reign of the Two Princesses, dragons attacked a caravan of ponies during the Great Diaspora as the shattered remains of the Three Tribes fled the Windigo for warmer pastures. Alone and considered dead by her family, little Twinkle Twinkle was captured and taken away to a dragon’s lair, where something wonderful happened.
This is her story, when a young mare brought something to dragonkind that they had never experienced before: Friendship.
Editors: Tek, Pascoite (so far)
Twinkle Twinkle, Speaker to Dragons
Inflation
“History is just the future that has already happened.”
— Starswirl the Bearded
A sliver of golden sunshine had just begun to slice across the green valley when Ruby slipped out of her inner lair and moved with great care to sneak up behind Twinkle Twinkle. The little unicorn was sitting on the edge of the sharp dropoff at the cave entrance between the two ‘doorway’ slabs of stone that provided some privacy, but it did not look as if she were attempting to escape. Instead, she had her horn lit up with a faint glow of magic and was looking at the distant rising sun.
“Good morning, Ruby.” The little unicorn did not even turn around to look at the cavern of teeth and dragon breath directly behind her, but remained facing out across the valley. Ruby craned her neck to look over Twinkle, then turned to look at the valley.
“Blasted eyes,” grumbled Ruby. “They’re bigger in the sunlight. What’re you doing?”
“Helping raise the sun.” Her horn went out, and Twinkle Twinkle slumped at the edge of the cliff with a short gasp for air. “A little. I’m not very strong.”
“Well, stop messing around and get out of the entrance.” Ruby reached out with one wing and moved the unicorn further back into the pebbled floor of the main cave. “The fight was last night, so the braggarts will be along shortly.”
“Braggarts?”
“Yeah.” Ruby scanned the sky through the narrow slot of the cave entrance. “Bunch of stupid males who think they can show off and get me to mate with them. Happens every time dragons raid. The stupid males come by with their gems and gold and act all huffy and bigger than they are.”
“Oh, that make sense.” The annoying little unicorn peered past the bulk of the dragon with her head angled up to catch the sight of wings. “My bigger brother used to do that. When my parents found a prospect, he would dress in his best clothes and take flowers to the female unicorn they had identified.”
“Flowers?” Ruby wrinkled up her nose. “So they would mate with him?”
“No, he was having sex with Willowbark, the oldest daughter of our upstairs maid. They were…”
Twinkle Twinkle paused with a look of intent concentration as she thought. After talking to her yesterday, Ruby knew she was weird, but suspected she was weirder to the other ponies than she admitted. She had no natural social cues, could not be frightened even by a dragon, and occasionally stopped cold just like this when she was having trouble coming up with words to describe her own kind, who she obviously viewed as something even weirder than being captured and eaten. As Ruby expected, after a minute or two the little unicorn found whatever she was looking for inside that strange pointed head and started talking again.
“Many unicorns have a mate and have somepony to have sex with. Although the stallions are expected to have sex with their mates in order to have foals, at least once. And sometimes they have sex with other stallions’ mates, but they’re careful not to have foals then. And mares do that too, but they keep it quiet and only tell other mares while giggling about it. I tried to graph it out once, but my parents found out about it and made me burn the graph and all the tables.”
Ruby listened to all of it, but she made sure her expression showed that she did not believe a single word. “Dragons mate for life, and any dragon who mates with me and tries to mate with another dragon is going to die. Horribly.” She eyed Twinkle. “Are you sure you haven’t mated?”
“No. My parents were trying to find a suitable spouse for me in one of the lesser Houses, but I’m defective, and none of the other noble houses wanted to contaminate their bloodline. Even the lesser Houses turned them down, which I thought was fine, but my parents did not like it.”
“Your parents?” Ruby wrinkled up her nose again. “Why would you want your parents to pick out your mate? How are they supposed to tell if you like back ridges with spikes, or if he can beat you in tail wrestling?”
“They choose desirable matches for their children as early as our Marking. We don’t get a choice.”
“Well, you’re mine now, so I’m giving you that choice. You can mate with whatever other pony you want.” Ruby gave her a glance over the shoulder and licked her lips. “Then I’ll eat you.”
There was a pause, then Ruby rolled her eyes. “That was supposed to be a joke.”
“It was?” Twinkle seemed to be seriously considering the odd concept, but Ruby just turned back to the outside air with a sigh.
“Forget it, hatchling. You sucked all the fun out of it.” Ruby squinted into the light. “Wait. Here comes one of the idiots now. Just stand there and shut up.”
The ruffling blast of dragon wings blew a gust of wind through the cavern, scattering small bits of sand. The dragon responsible landed on the edge of the ledge with his wings spread wide to keep from falling backwards, teetered for a moment, then got his balance. He was — to say the least — less of a dragon than Twinkle probably expected, barely a quarter the size of Ruby with his scrawny chest stuck out so far he was in danger of falling backwards off the ledge. He was a long-necked type, much like Ruby, but with a shorter spiked tail and a pebbled chrysoprase coat of thin scales and big googly eyes, although his teeth were just as sharp as any of the other dragons who had ever attempted to mate with her before.
Just as Ruby had promised to Twinkle, the new dragon launched into a grandiose explanation of his latest exploits against the swarm of ponies sweeping across the northern plain and his own role in fighting them, along with the wealth that he could barely carry away. His stream of lies had been obviously practiced for some time with the ponies wedged into the story where they would fit, but his hissing and whistling voice abruptly cut off when he spotted Twinkle peeking around the bulk of Ruby.
“Hey! What’s that?” The dragon’s long neck darted to one side only to meet Ruby’s face blocking his line of sight. “Is that a pony?”
“No,” said Ruby, but only a fraction of a second after Twinkle had said “Yes.”
“How did you get a pony from the raid too?” The smaller dragon leaned the other way to try to get a look at where Ruby had scooted Twinkle, then took a brief step backward to the edge of the sharp dropoff when Ruby took a snap at his face.
“None of your nose,” she growled, then paused. “What do you mean, too?”
Taking a moment to balance himself so he would not fall, the smaller dragon fluffed himself up again and said, “Some of the other dragons got ponies too during the raid. I didn’t. There were more gems there than I could carry back—”
“No,” said Twinkle from behind Ruby. “He’s lying.”
“I know that,” huffed Ruby. “I was there, remember? We just haven’t gotten to the point where he shows off a section of his hoard yet. Then I chase him away and he drops some so I don’t kill him. It’s traditional.”
“Oh,” said Twinkle. “Does he have a name?”
Ruby let out a fierce growl. “Of course he has a name! We all have names! We just don’t let other dragons know them! Names have power!”
“Oh,” said Twinkle again. “So can I call him Teakettle, since he whistles when he talks?”
“Whatever!” Ruby turned back to the newly named Teakettle, who was looking more than a little baffled. “Yeah, I got an annoying one,” she huffed. “My brother and I split our takings. He got a whole wagon for this one.”
Teakettle let out a low tweeting whistle through his nose. “Whoa. Maybe I should get one next raid.”
“They’ll kill you.” The little unicorn came the rest of the way around Ruby so she could use those infernal big eyes on the stupid male and continued just as casually as if she were saying the sun was bright. The way she spoke so casually about killing brought a cold chill up Ruby’s spine in a way that Twinkle’s mention of the Windigo’s had not even come close to.
Teakettle puffed up as if he were about to breathe. “Did she just threaten me? I think she just threatened me.”
“You touch her and I’ll kill you,” huffed Ruby. “That’s a threat. What she told you was a prediction.”
After a short period of careful examination of the small creature, Teakettle asked, “She’s serious?”
“Dead serious. Which you would have known if you were anywhere around that last raid.” Ruby cuffed the other dragon around the head gently. “Stop looking at her like that or your big eyes will burn out.”
“He doesn’t believe me,” said Twinkle. “He’s stupid, and shouldn’t breed.”
“Hey!” snapped Ruby, turning her head to glare at the unicorn. “No pony tells me who I can breed with.”
She turned back around and looked at the suddenly alert and wide-eyed Teakettle.
“Okay, maybe she has a point.” Ruby glared at the obstinate male. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see how many dragons got killed in the last raid. They’ll be ready next time, and kill even more of us.”
The little unicorn poked her head around Ruby’s flank and added, “If you get killed, you won’t be able to mate with anydragon.”
Teakettle was flummoxed. Ruby rolled her eyes. “Try getting any of the treasure you own to mouth off like that,” she muttered.
Later, after Teakettle had been properly chased away, Ruby fluttered back down to a landing in her cave entrance with a laugh. “You know, I may keep you around for a few more days if you keep that up.”
“Promise?” Twinkle was using those big, dark eyes again, which were easier to ignore since Ruby had been serious. She nodded.
“Swear to it?” asked the little unicorn.
There was being cute and aggressive, and there was getting too pushy. Ruby snaked her head down to look directly into the little pony’s eyes from nose-touching distance. “Do you actually think I would keep a promise to food?”
“Yes.”
Ruby blinked first. “Why? You’re not that stupid, even for a pony.”
“You obviously keep promises to some creatures,” said Twinkle. “You promised to split my family’s goods with your brother. You have an oath that you promise to. You have traditions between other dragons that keep you from just killing each other until only the strongest remain. You have rules that all of you follow.”
“Rules. Ha!” Ruby ruffled the little unicorn’s mane with one claw. “Rules don’t apply to food.”
This one sounds interesting. I'll have to give it a read when it's posted.
4836568 I promise to have it up before I retire. Or you retire.
4836572
Uhh... Partial or complete retirement? Because I'm kind of looking into the partial retirement.
I see somepony's progenitor. The pony I'm thinking of is purple and smart.
4836579 ...and neurotic. Twinkle actually has a brain defect (which I'm too sleepy to google) where she cannot feel fear or anger, but she does have perfect recall.
4836578 Hey! Not until I go. You gotta stay and pay into the system. I want a Winnebago for my retirement traveling.
4836586
I say partial retirement but really it's just me going on disability and continuing to work what I'm already working. I can't do the 50 hour weekends anymore for work.
You sure you're not a zombie?
Incidentally, I read your story in both writeoffs.
I don't know for sure which it was, but I definitely know I did, as I have read them all.
I'm on a roll!
Anyway, yeah. Good to hear you're still alive, dude. I need to show more signs of life myself.
You sir, have piqued my interest.
4836572
4836578
I'm already (medically) retired. So where's the story?
Interesting. I'll be obligated to read this, methinks.
I wonder if releasing a snippet from BPH later would be a good idea?
4836636
You tell him!
Also on a completely unrelated note, Jake one of my friends got bored and creeped my facebook... I think she wants a date, lol.
And centuries later, a pink alicorn felt a fleeting despair without ever knowing why.
"Good night, Twinkle. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely eat you in the morning."
Wait, that implies that Twinkle will later become the Dread Dragon Ruby... and I'm okay with that.
In any case, definitely intrigued. Looking forward to seeing what comes of this.
4836642
Hell, send her my way! lol
steven-montano.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/1362163512904.jpg
Hmmmm. Looks good. I'll keep an eye out for this one.
This pleases me. Not only is Twinkle Twinkle interestingly warped, she also has that trait of tending to notice things and remark on them.
Looking forward to the eventual release.
4837595 Monster without the mayhem, sort of.