So, this has been a rollercoaster · 6:09am Sep 8th, 2018
I’m still kind of flabbergasted at how popular Sparkles and Scales has been. You always hope you’ll have a hit when you post a new story, but even this is beyond my wildest expectations. In just a few days this has become my most successful story on the site and probably during my whole time on the net (which spans almost a quarter century).
The best part is that so many people really want to see more of Dragon!Twilight, both with original stories and retellings of some of the canon episodes. While I’m not a huge fan of rewriting the CanonI might go back and touch on some of the stories that have large changes (Such as Boast Busters or Bridle Gossip). Of course any of the dragon focused episode could also be worth going back to as they would be very different with Twilight.
There are also a few original story ideas I’ve been playing around with, some with Twilight growing up and doing with being a dragon, as well as going through things like greed growth and her molt. There would be some positive and negative changes as well, and I could touch on how others in her life reacted to her change.
I have a couple others ideas set in the early years of the show, trying for something that feels more like the show style. The main story I’ve been thinking about is one with her, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash as Twilight needs to get some special food for her pet (not Owlowiscious in this case, but something more fitting of her new self and was a gift from Celestia) There was also a suggestion of doing a story or two focused on the new CMC, which was something I hadn’t original thought about, but could be a lot of fun.
As it is, I’m still processing all of this. I’m just amazed that everyone really liked it. This has been a story letting I’ve been working on for a while, so I’m thrilled to see it be so successful. I would love to have suggestions of what to do next.
Why would those two episodes specifically have larger changes?
Nice. Hope Nightmare moon is included. Initial introductions and the like would be fun to see.
I would love to see how she deal with Nightmare Moon and Trixie. Heck, Discord might even ask to date her in exchange of stopping the chaos in Ponyville.
Yes, yes, yes, to every story idea listed here, YES!
I’m kinda curious if she would end up as a princess if she was a dragon
It's funny how, seemingly at random, a certain story will do better than others. Is it the concept, the characters? No one's found the secret story formula yet :þ
Like, many times I've seen authors poor their soul into a story and it'll get 139 faves and they'll poop out a fun thing in a few hours and watch it hit 1000 likes and they're sitting there like "...REALLY!?"
Twilight is going to have quite a few immortals trying to Woo her, I'm quite sure. What would Discord and Chrysalis be willing to do, just for Twilight's affections? And what of Precious Princess Luna?
Let's find out, shall we?
I have to admit that ALL of those ideas you listed look REALLY good (though, considering her big brother can do force fields large enough to cover an entire city, I doubt the roc would be anywhere near the problem for Twilight as it was for Spike in canon during the molt [as the roc would be unable to get through the field until after Twilight's molt was already complete]). I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the "pet" you mentioned is one of Philomena's hatchlings (since, as a dragon, she naturally has a pretty long life span, so she would need a pet that ALSO has a very long life span, PLUS one that can handle fire)
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As far as "Boast Busters" goes, the author already answered that in one of the reviews of the actual story. (you just have to hunt for said review), as for "Bridle Gossip", I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that Twilight could honestly point out that "I'm a dragon (and NOT a baby one) and you don't fear ME that much. So what reason would you have to fear a zebra?"
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The author already said there were NO plans to do the pilot more than once in the reviews in the actual story. We have to respect that decision.
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Well, it WOULD be technically possible in the "Gauntlet of Fire" (though it would be "Dragon Lord", NOT "Princess"), but as far as Starswirl's unfinished spell goes, well, Starswirl could finish it himself once he returns and ends up gaining a much better understanding of friendship (which would make Starswirl the first known alicorn STALLION).
Though, to be fair, as a dragon that can do unicorn magic, she ALREADY technically has every ability she would have as an alicorn (she can fly like a Pegasus, she is stronger and tougher than MOST Earth ponies and, as aforementioned, she still has her unicorn magic) PLUS flame breath anyway.
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Possibly, though one would have to wonder if he was just doing that to make Celestia jealous and, thus, create EVEN MORE chaos (it is a reasonably popular fan belief that Celestia and Discord were ex-lovers back in the day and, deep down, Celestia still has feelings for him [which could be one of the reasons she wanted Discord reformed and one of the reasons she has the highest tolerance for Discord's post-reform shenanigans other than Fluttershy]). Okay, okay. Sorry about that bad joke. (sheepish grin)
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That makes me remeber a comic where Celestia says that Starswirl could have archieved alicornhood, and twilight craks up imagining it.
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Ah, didn’t read through the comments of the story itself.
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Both of those stories would go rather differently because of the changes in Twilight's personality, they would also show some of her character flaws that come with being a dragon.
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In this timeline Twilight won't become a princess. Celestia simply won't give her the book because she can't see it working for her anymore. Not that she knew what the spell really was.
I've mentioned this is a previous blog post, but based on what we know now his unfinished spell was probably an attempt to stop the Pony of Shadows, one that never worked because it needed a catalyst (which lead to developing the seed, which became the elements, which served as the catalyst when Twilight cast the spell. The spell was never meant to create an alicorn but to combine all the powers of the pillars together into a single massive attack. Twilight's fix did so by temporary merging there destinies together, so when the spell fired on her she found herself in the Hall of Ascension instead of the Elysium Fields.
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Thanks for the answer. To be honest, I kind of half-anticipated that it would be something along those lines. Though, ALSO to be honest, when I said "it would be technically possible in "'Gauntlet of Fire'", I meant because she would become the head honcho of the dragons by winning the Gauntlet with Ember's help (which would essentially make her the equivalent of a Princess, even if the actual title would be "Dragon Lord"). Unlike Spike in canon, Twilight could choose to stay as the Dragon Lord (trusting that her friends could take pretty good care of Spike and appointing Ember her most trusted advisor), figuring it would improve her odds of forming a lasting mutually beneficial alliance between the ponies and the dragons if she was the one in charge. Sorry I was not clearer about that.
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You're close, that was the first thought but after thinking about I decided that it would have felt a bit to much like a copy of both Philomena and Peewee. Instead her pet is a mythical salamander. Big, fire proof (and able to create his own) and long lived. He was a gift to Twilight from Celestia as a backdoor way to help her learn how to properly groom herself as she kind of neglected it, more so after her molt.
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I still haven't quite decided what is going to happen with Gauntlet of Fire. She's still going to take part (and stop to help Ember as someone has to otherwise she's in a very bad spot) but it might be more to experience it then trying to win. She has a better grasp of how the younger dragons would act and know most of them are just full of hot air when they boast about what they would do. In fact the only one who's really might do anything bad is Garble. Still, I don't really know how all this would land just yet.