//------------------------------// // 6. Pecking Order // Story: Twinkle Twinkle - Speaker to Dragons // by Georg //------------------------------// Twinkle Twinkle, Speaker to Dragons Pecking Order “How are we going to have branches of government without a tree?” — Chancellor Puddinghead Several days of the situation had made the odd into the new normal. Ponies, except for one, were exceedingly obedient creatures and did not cause as many problems in Ruby’s lair as she expected. The troublesome creature was named Rootworm, a long name for a very small colt, who constantly crept up next to the line Ruby had drawn in the pebbly dirt of the cave floor designating the Do Not Cross Or I Will Eat You boundry. He would stand up on the tips of his hooves, ears perked as far as they would go and squint into the dark corner where Ruby’s treasure was kept, as if the little glints and glimmers of light were fascinating to him. It irked her, and constantly made Ruby consider just how many gems the little pony was worth. All it would take was one quick snap of the jaws to rid herself of the nuisance, but Rootworm was ‘collateral’ or an ‘investment property’ depending on how one looked at his increased value in a year or two when the ponies got situated in their new homes. And he was staying on the other side of the line, which was something dragons would not do. At least Brass was recovering the way the ponies had claimed he would. He was only running a minor fever, not even enough to melt lead, and continued to snooze with his tail draped into the stream that ran through Ruby’s lair. It had disturbed the ponies at first, but then they discovered how warm the resulting water was and had all gathered in the stream to scrub each other until the water trickling out the front of the cave was fairly brown with dirt. It did make them all look more valuable with the knots and tangles out of their furry coats and manes brushed back, so she could not complain. Well, Ruby still complained, but did not put as much of her energy into it as she wanted to. “Ahem.” She had just gotten comfortable, but the voice was persistent, and most likely would repeat over and over until Ruby looked up from her sulk at the edge of her pool. Two pairs of pony eyes looked back, one small and one somewhat larger, and both (unfortunately) on the other side of the line. “Ruby, before we go dump the… necessities today, Rootworm was wondering if he could look at your treasure. He found several colorful pebbles in the outer cave that he would be willing to exchange for the privilege.” She wanted to say no. She would have said no, except for the way the tiny little pony was holding his hoof up against his chest and concealing the pebbles he had stolen from her outer cave like they were some sort of precious gems. “Very well,” she grumbled. “But if you steal any of my treasure—” “You’ll eat me,” said Rootworm with a happy chirp to his voice instead of the expected quaking in terror. He trotted forward in what should have been an awkward three-legged pace, since he was still holding one hoof to his chest, but stopped a respectful distance away and bowed, then moved his hoof forward. “They’re brighter in the light,” he said, squinting down at the rocks in the dim shadows. “May I enter too?” asked Twinkle. When Ruby nodded, she lit up her horn with a white glow and moved up next to the colt, which allowed the pebbles to show their true colors. “I have not read many books about rocks,” she admitted. “I’m familiar with precious gemstones, of course, but not these.” “Harumph!” Ruby snorted and let loose a small jet of flame, which made the little colt jump and almost drop the worthless pebbles. “Fluorite, mostly. Jasper. Pink feldspar.” She flicked her tongue forward and plucked the pink stone out of the collection, crunching it carefully between her back teeth. “Bland.” With small flicks of her tongue, she plucked the rest of the stones out of his hoof, leaving only the fluorite pebbles. “Meh. You can keep those. They’re bitter and not very pretty.” “Some stones look different under sunlight.” Twinkle concentrated and her horn glowed a deeper violet, making the largest rock remaining in the little colt’s hoof glow bright blue. “Awesome.” The little colt gawked at the glowing rock for a moment before Ruby’s tongue snatched it away from him. Chewing quietly, Ruby ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth, then declared in a very serious tone, “Yuck.” “Oh.” Rootworm looked down at the pebbled floor of the cave. “So does that mean you won’t let me look at your sparklies?” Once again, Ruby wanted to say no, but the pony was already inside the line, and seemed to enjoy looking at her treasure as much as Twinkle. And, after all, he was going to contribute some gems to that collection anyway in a few years, so it might be time to figure out just where to put them. “I suppose,” she grumbled while turning and taking the few steps over to the ledge where she slept. “Not for long. I want to get back to my nap.” Once they started, Rootworm most certainly gave no indication he was going to sleep for the next few days. He squealed in delight with the way the Ruby-sized bed of crystalline semi-precious stones glittered in the light of Twinkle’s horn, galloped around to look at every single emerald and ruby in the little puddles of water running down the back of the cave, and fairly dove into the shallow pool in pursuit of the pale white cave crayfish darting around from rock to rock. It took hours to calm the little pony down, and in the end, Ruby had to resort to telling him the whole history of every little trinket or bauble that caught his eye. He even had some good suggestions on how best to arrange the gemstones to catch the light and look pretty, although she put one large clawed foot down on his volunteering to polish them. “They’re fine.” Ruby scooped up the little pony in the palm of one hand and carried him back across the line. “They don’t need polishing or anything else.” She waited until the little colt had gone back to the other ponies, who to her secret disgust, did not seem surprised to see him still alive. “He has a point.” The voice coming from right beside Ruby nearly made her jump, because Twinkle Twinkle was a very ignorable pony when she was being quiet, and she was quiet nearly all of the time. “What, do you think I should have all of you ponies polishing my treasure? That’s my treasure, and if anydragon is going to be touching it—” “Gemcutting,” said Twinkle, heedless of the mass of dragon directly over her head and drooling slightly on the top of her mane. “Some gems are not properly faceted to reflect the light properly, and a pony trained in gemcutting can chip and cut it to look better, or even cut around flaws to make several smaller gems out of a larger and less valuable gem. It would not change their palatability, unless you are excising less desirable minerals from their crystalline matrix, but I noticed several mineral aggregations in your collection that had inclusions of less desirable gemstones, according to your displayed taste preferences.” There were a few gems pushed to the back of Ruby’s lair that still had rock clinging to them, leaving them gluey with the sharp taste of granite between her teeth for hours after nibbling on them. Ponies did not eat gems, so there would not be any danger of leaving one of them with her treasure only to find half of it gone when she turned her back, like it would if she let Brass look over any of her precious things. After all, if they could separate the tasty from the tasteless while waiting for the other ponies to be able to— Ruby considered the word, which was almost an obscenity to other dragons. To buy the ponies away from her. “Can you cut gems?” she grumbled. The pale purple pony shook her head. “Can any of the other ponies in my hoard cut gems?” Twinkle shook her head again. “It’s a rare talent.” “Then why are you pestering me about it? Wait. Let me guess.” Ruby let out a sigh. “The other ponies.” “Not all of the ponies who survived the dragon attack are here. You know that.” Ruby huffed. “I don’t want the attention of the Dragonlord. It doesn’t matter how much treasure I can get in exchange for the other ponies if he comes by and takes what he wants.” “The other ponies will not be treated as well as you have treated us. They will die.” “Let them die,” snapped Ruby. “We saved your brother’s life.” Ruby had her mouth open to deliver an acid rebuke, then slowly closed it. “How much,” she finally muttered after much thought. “How much extra treasure will you promise me for every living pony I bring in, no matter what their condition, no matter if they survive after they arrive, no matter what.” Twinkle thought. “Five pieces of emerald,” she said. “Each the size of a hoof-tip.” After a long period of grumbling, Ruby nodded. “It will take me a few days of flying around, visiting some of the dragons I know who like weird things, so I can—” Ruby shuddered “—exchange treasure with them for any leftover ponies.” “We’ll need the path cut from your cave down to the valley floor widened,” said Twinkle almost immediately. “So it will be safer to dump the midden basket and make our daily trip to pick any herbs we need to treat Brass’ injuries.” She cocked her head to one side and looked up at the dragon. “I didn’t think you understood the concept of credit.” “I don’t.” Ruby extended her wings, giving them a trial flap in the confines of her cave and checking for any painful twinges or injuries before her upcoming flight. “We do, however, understand the concept of debt. You owe me, little pony.” She bared her teeth and lowered her head to speak in a low growl right next to Twinkle’s face, which was not as rewarding as Ruby thought, because the little pony just looked like she was examining her gumline for decay instead of being terrified. “Give me a basket to carry the ponies in,” snarled Ruby instead. “I’ll be back in a few days.” - - Ω - - It took less time than Ruby expected to check the lairs of the other dragons for leftover living ponies, and the ones she was able to find were all universally sick or wounded. It was not all that bad of a trip because of the traditional bargaining between dragons gave her the opportunity to express some of her concealed frustration. The process of getting something out of another dragon’s lair was not that complicated. First, you found a dragon who had something you wanted and bellowed a challenge outside of their lair. If they had any interest, they would come out and bellow a threat of their own. Small piles of treasure would be produced by each dragon in order to tempt the other dragon away from their pile, carefully placed far enough apart so one dragon could not grab them both, and kept away from any onlookers who might decide to grab an unguarded pile for themselves. Then each dragon, still bellowing threats at each other, would cautiously back away from their pile in the direction of the opposite pile, provided it was big enough, and at some unseen trigger, would pounce upon the pile and drag it away from their competitor. Bigger dragons would, of course, demand bigger piles, which meant that some of the larger dragons could increase their hoard by simple threats of force. It was always a touchy process to know just how far to push a smaller dragon without them turning into a suicidal ball of teeth and claws, determined to take a chunk out of their tormenter. Particularly since an injury could lead to death, like her idiot brother had almost proved. It was more complicated when a pony was part of the pile. They tried to run away, and the other dragons had broken several pony legs in order to discourage such evasive movement. So in the end, with less of her hoard expended than she originally thought, Ruby returned to her cave with another clawful of ponies in the basket made out of tree limbs and cattail reeds. None of the new ponies had the skill to cut gemstones, of course, but one of them was a ‘nurse’ with experience in treating injuries. It was more than a little funny to watch the transition each of the new ponies went through, from their first full-blown panic upon being unloaded onto the sandy floor of Ruby’s cave, to looks of pure bafflement when Twinkle Twinkle explained the situation, then after a day or two, the just plain weird acceptance the ponies displayed. Currently, they had gotten to the point where they helped check the last few injuries of Brass as he recuperated or walked carefully down the narrow path that Ruby had carved in the cliff wall down to the grassy valley without more than the occasional frightened glance at her. The presence of other distant dragons soaring on the thermals of the valley probably helped keep the ponies nearby, but it did not explain the fascinated way they would gather around Brass to listen to his rambling stories about growing up or other dragon tales they had both been taught by their mother. And in exchange, they told Brass about their previous life in the distant mountain kingdom of Unicornia, where they had the most perfect life until the coming of the Windigos. “It sounds like a very pretty place,” said Brass during one of their breaks. “It’s a lot further than dragons fly normally, but since there aren’t any ponies there—” “The Windigos would kill you,” said Twinkle flatly. “You’re very strong and invulnerable against fire, but they freeze their victims.” “I’m full of fire,” bragged Brass. “I could just breathe on them until they all melt.” “You’re full of something,” grumbled Ruby from the edge of their little firelit storytelling group. “Think about it, rocks for brains. The ponies had to run away from them. They couldn’t kill them because—” She paused, casting a questioning look at Twinkle. “They’re too fast,” explained Twinkle, who levitated up a ball of water from the stream. “They’re faster than pegasi, so they would just circle around, out of reach while they made the area colder and colder.” The ball of water she was floating turned white, then clear, until at last, she dropped it on a rock where it broke into icy fragments. “Yeah.” Ruby shifted uncomfortably and looked at the circle of drowsy ponies, well over two claws worth of furry creatures sharing her cave. She did not count her lazy brother, who really should have flown home by now to sleep off the rest of his recovery in his own lair. Worse, the bothersome tendency of the ponies to fill any empty time with work seemed to be rubbing off on him. Several of the wounded ponies had recovered enough to hobble around the cave, because it seemed they were not content to just rest and recover when there was work to be done, baskets to be woven, or clay to be sculpted, the last of which was a perplexing pony thing. They wanted their food on ‘plates’ and carried in ‘bowls’ with ‘glasses’ for the water, which clumsy hooves attempted to make out of a clay deposit they had found in the valley and her brother’s fire had been used to ‘cure’ them. Well, they were cured, if being relatively symmetrical was a disease. More disgusting to see was the way some of the warped clay containers had been used as ‘bedpans’ for the few ponies who could not stand on their own. Dragons in that condition were left alone. The strong survived, the weak died. Ruby tried not to think of what she did to keep Brass from dying from infections that the ponies had put into his sizable rear and likewise had cured by removing the steel darts and medicating him. It was most certainly not the way things were done. If any other dragons found out, she would be laughed at, mocked, and attacked as weak. It was a dragon eat dragon world, but… Family. Twinkle Twinkle certainly understood the odd sibling ties that Ruby had always downplayed. If prompted, the little unicorn could talk for hours about each of her missing brothers, and the ways they had tried to make their odd little sister happy. It reminded her uncomfortably about her own sibling. Ever since they had been hatched, Ruby and Brass had trusted each other more than the others of their kind. It had been his advice to fly around the pony encampment and look for a treasure that other dragons had not laid their fire upon, which had worked out well for her when she found the undefended wagon and not so well for him when he had found something far too well defended for his sensitive rear. She glared at the little purple pony. In a way, Twinkle was all his fault. As soon as Brass got well, Ruby was going to thump him good. - - Ω - - Ruby had just gotten settled down in her hoard, shifting a clump of crystalline quartz next to her head in case she wanted a late snack, when the sound of beating wings could be heard coming from the front of the cave. A sharp chill ran down her spines at the thought of just who it was that made wingbeats that heavy, reinforced by the bellow of command from the opening of the cave. “Female! Come forth and obey your Dragonlord!” The panicked ponies in the outer cave fairly flowed past her, cowering in Ruby’s piles of treasure without regard to the rules which she had clearly marked out for them. For a change, she could not really blame them, because she was so frightened she nearly peed herself, and even Brass came scurrying to the entrance of her forbidden sanctum. “Sis,” he gasped. “Stay here,” she whispered back. “He wants me, for Egg’s own reason. I need to get to him before—” Ruby stopped and looked around for a familiar shade of purple. “Eggshells!” “Are you really the Dragonlord?” sounded a small voice from the opening of the cave. Ruby came scrambling out into the front section of the cave and scooped up the small purple pony while skidding to a halt in a spray of gravel. The Dragonlord was even larger than she remembered, filling up the narrow entrance to Ruby’s cave to the point where he probably could not get inside without ripping the entrance wider, or breathing fire until the rock turned into flowing lava. He was a harsh shade of red, looking angry even when standing still, with sharp spines and two tusks like a boar, only no pig could use those teeth to disembowel another dragon like he could. Two fierce black eyes like featureless onyx stared back at Ruby and darted a quick look at the contents of her foreclaws. “What is that thing doing here?” spat the Dragonlord. Ruby tightened her grip, but thankfully Twinkle did not try to respond through her claws as she feared. “They’re part of my hoard, Respected Dragonlord. Quite valuable.” “They?” The Dragonlord scowled and shook an occupied claw. “Bring the other ponies to me! This worthless pony refuses to tell me where they keep their treasure!” He held up the limp pony that he had been carrying, then threw the pony body into the stream that trickled through the front half of Ruby’s cave, making a splash that sprayed water across the whole area. “Bring them here!” Twinkle stuck her head out from between Ruby’s claws and watched the Dragonlord with that eerie stare she did so well, but did not say a word. She was probably going to start talking in a few minutes anyway, so Ruby decided to get in the first words. “They don’t have any treasure worth taking, Revered Dragonlord.” “What!” The Dragonlord clawed at the outside of the cave, eventually sticking his massive head inside the entrance and glaring at Ruby from nearly biting range. “They have treasure! Dragons returned from the raid with gold and gems, but not enough for the number of ponies there. They are hiding it somewhere, and the ponies will tell me where, or else!” “Or else you’ll eat us,” said Twinkle. “Right!” A look of perplexion swept over the Dragonlord’s fearsome features, and he glowered at the little pony who was not showing him the right amount of terror, or any at all. “That one will do for a start,” he snapped. “No!” Ruby yanked her closed claw away from the Dragonlord before she realized what she was doing. “I mean—” “I can tell him where the pony treasure is,” said Twinkle Twinkle. “I’ll make him a list of every pony wagon with more than twenty pieces of gold or thirty gems, but it will take a moon, and I will need that pony in exchange.” “Tell me now or I’ll rip you into little pieces!” snarled the Dragonlord, pulling back far enough to stick one clawed arm into the cave entrance and grope blindly. Ruby, who had pulled back several steps in order not to get clawed, felt something in her chest give way with an almost audible ‘twang!’ She spun in place, slamming her tail across the questing arm and bellowing once it had been withdrawn. “THIS IS MY LAIR!” The Dragonlord’s face was a study in stunned rage, but in the moment of indecision he allowed, Ruby lunged forward with smoke curling out of her nostrils. “Get out! Threaten my treasure, will you? Do you have any idea how much this pony is worth?” she bellowed, shaking her closed fist with little bits of Twinkle’s purple fur sticking out of it. “You want to know where the ponies hide their treasure? Food offered it to you for practically nothing!” She was teetering at the edge of her cliff entrance now, shouting at the much larger dragon hovering his bulk outside, but Ruby’s blood was burning and she had no intention of backing off. “Your Dragonlord commands—” he began before Ruby cut him off with a titanic bellow she did not realize she was able to make. ‘COME BACK IN A MOON!” She lowered her voice to a mere bellow and added, “You want to know where the ponies hide their treasure? I’ll have it for you, now get out!” If she had a door to her cave, Ruby would have slammed it, but she settled for just glaring at the huge red dragon until he stopped hovering at the edge of the cliff and just dropped into the valley below, swooping up almost immediately and flying away with powerful sweeps of his wide wings. “YOU HAVE A MOON!” he bellowed back over his shoulder, but did not add any more. When he was out of sight in the distance, and Ruby took a moment to look around the valley, she was shocked to see how many other dragons had emerged to watch the ongoing drama. She snarled at them, more for her own sake than any sort of threat, and sulked back into her cave. “Stupid pony,” she muttered, opening up her claw and dumping the disheveled mare onto the gravel. “Could’ve gotten me killed. Still could get me killed if he comes back and you can’t— What are you doing?” Twinkle Twinkle had dragged herself most of the way to the stream trickling through the front half of the cave and was touching her hooves over the limp pony the Dragonlord had thrown. “Nothing broken,” she said. “Mostly bruises and cuts.” Twinkle scooped some water up in one of the warped bowls the ponies had been using for drinking, holding it awkwardly in her hooves and moving to the pony’s head before dumping it over the dirt-encrusted creature. “Wha—?” The miserable ball of fur and mud spluttered, and the pony opened two astonishingly teal eyes, which only lasted until she saw Ruby. At that point the pony gave out a short gasp and collapsed again. “She’s alive, but injured and exhausted,” said Twinkle. “Ruby, can you please pick her up and carry her to where the stream is deeper so she can be washed?” “You wanted her,” scoffed Ruby. “Why don’t you do it?” “Because I hit my horn when you picked me up, and I think you broke my hind leg.”