//------------------------------// // Simple and Clean // Story: Growing Up with Scales // by Winter Quill //------------------------------// Friendship is Magic: Growing up with Scales By Winter Quill --- Simple and Clean ---   Twilight Sparkle dug her claws against the scales on her side, trying to scratch a deep-seated itch that had rooted itself seemingly in the scales themselves. It had been a growing problem for the last few weeks, ever since summer proper had arrived and brought the summer heat with it. It wasn’t new, she had been getting the small itches now and then for months, but lately it was getting strong enough that it was starting to drive her to distraction.   Even worse, all her scratching was causing the skin under the scales to swell and become irritated, lifting the scales away from their neighbors. It gave the scales the texture of small pebbles that just made the itching worse. She had found herself trying to pick at them, like somehow ripping off the scales would take the itch with it. It was stupid, the itch was on the skin under the scales, she just had to reach it!   “Twilight?”   Grunting, the young dragoness clenched her teeth and kept digging at the itch on her side, trying to force the tips of her claws down between the scales. Her claws were supposed to be tiny and dainty, but today they felt absolutely huge.   “Twilight, are you paying attention?”   Finally, with a twist of her fingers, she was able to get the point of one claw through the small gap, lifting up one of the scales and allowing her to finally get to the inflamed skin. It was a tiny little scratch, but it felt so good to finally get at the itch itself and not just the scales over it. Letting out a sigh, she slumped slightly in her chair as she scratched the one small spot.   “Twilight, are you feeling okay?”   The words finally managed to work their way through the itch and into Twilight’s mind, causing her head to snap up as she yanked her claws away from her side, her other arm coming down to try and cover the itchy scales. “I’m sorry Princess Celestia, I’m just…” she frowned, unable to think of a way to describe it without embarrassing herself.   The princess walked across the tea room they were seated in, leaving behind the chalkboard covered with the notes for their lesson. She had a look of concern on her face. “Please, allow me to take a look?”   Her first instinct was to refuse to show her, but this was Princess Celestia, she couldn’t just tell her no. Especially not after losing focus in the middle of her private lesson. “It’s really itchy,” she finally admitted, lifting up her arm to reveal where she had been scratching. The lavender scales were covered in small gouges from her claws, her skin—which was very light lavender—was visible in the gap she had made between the scales. One scale was lifted slightly from the irritated skin under it, which was a reddish blue color and seemed to shine from the sunlight coming in through the large open windows.   The princess leaned in, taking a closer look at the irritated areas. “I’ve seen this before,” she said, gently touching the area with the glow of her magic, causing Twilight to wince and pull back. “I’m sorry,” she added.   “It’s okay, Princess,” Twilight replied, putting her arm down to cover it again. “It just itches really bad.”   “I would imagine so,” the mare said, her eyes slightly unfocused as she looked up at the ceiling, then a moment later they snapped back to look at Twilight. “I believe I know what this is. If you will excuse me for a moment?”   She nodded.   With a flash of yellow and the sound of inrushing air, Princess Celestia teleported away. Twilight wanted to go back to scratching at the itch, but forced herself not to. Instead she tried to focus on the equations written on the chalkboard in Celestia’s looping horn-writing. Unfortunately, they were only half-finished and she had missed the explanation of what they were for. She could try to work it out herself, but the moment she tried, her hand started creeping back up to scratch even more.   Instead she forced herself to turn her attention to the open windows, slipping off the plush chair to go stand in front of them. The tea room was in one of the many towers of the royal palace, providing a view out over Canterlot and the mountain. From there she could see all the way down into the lowest wards of the city, near the base of the mountain where everything was centuries old.   Thanks to her draconic vision, she was able to see as if everything was right in front of her. It allowed her to make out all the little details, like how the oldest buildings had very few windows, or the ways the streets followed the contours of the mountain instead of the rigid grid the upper city had. One thing she had never noticed before was that there was a tall chimney rising up from the center most building of every small street, taller than every other chimney around them. They were almost all closed up, and many were falling into disrepair, but they stood out for how regular they were.   “Maybe it’s an old heating system?” Twilight asked herself, only to be interrupted by a gust of displaced air as Celestia teleported back into the room.   She spun around and rushed back to the princess as she settled back down onto her chair. Celestia was holding an old book in her field, the pages roughly cut and stained with age, as well as covered with a layer of dust. There was no writing on the outside of the book, but there was a deep indentation on the cover. “I’m sorry for taking so long, Twilight. This wasn’t with the rest.”   “What is that?” Twilight asked, returning to her own seat.   “My diary,” Celestia replied as she opened the book, dust billowing off from the pages. “This one covers the spring and summer of 437.”   Twilight’s eyes went wide, her ears twisting in excitement. That was over five hundred years old!   “I had it propping up a table in the old new reading room,” the princess said with a soft chuckle as she flipped through the pages. “I must have done that a century ago. I always say it’s only for a few days, but then something happens and I don’t even go into the room for the next decade,” she mused to herself.   Twilight had no idea how to respond to that.   Dust flew from the pages as Celestia flipped through them, only touching the paper with the shine of her magic. She finally stopped and let out a pleased sound. “Here it is! General Nova—he was a dragon that was helping us during the second expansion—he had the same thing. He called it a stone scale, and said it was because he wasn’t able to properly bathe.”   “I bathe!” Twilight protested, crossing her arms over her chest and rising up to her full height… which didn’t look at all intimidating. “I take a bath every morning, and I scrub everywhere with soap.”   Celestia just smiled at her. “Not that kind of bath, Twilight. He said that dragons have natural oils that help keep their scales pliable, but they build up in certain places, causing stone scales like you have. These oils can’t be washed off with normal water.”   Slowly, Twilight looked down at the scales on her arm. She had noticed that there was always a little bit of an oily shine to them, but it never seemed to come off. She had always assumed that it was just a natural part of being a dragon, just like the oils a pegasus had to take care of their feathers. “What do I need to do?”   “At the time he had to settle for cleaning himself with dry sulfur, but he said that a dip in lava was the best way to clean his scales,” Celestia said, gently closing the diary.   “Lava?” Twilight asked, still looking down at the scales on her arms. She knew she could withstand being in the fire, but cleaning herself in lava?   “The royal spas should be able to provide you with sulfur that you can use to help clean yourself, but it will take some time for them to collect it,” the princess said, a soft chuckle escaping from her as she set the book aside. A moment later the golden glow of her field reached out to touch Twilight’s chin, lifting it until they were looking at each other. “For now, how would you like to go with me on a little trip tomorrow?”   * * *   What Celestia had called a little trip had required them to leave Canterlot just as soon as the sun was over the horizon, leading to a long ride in a sky chariot until they were deep into the Badlands. It was just before noon when they finally reached their destination.   Which was how Twilight came to be standing on the edge of a large pool of lava, looking down at the churning surface as it bubbled only a few feet below her toes. The air around her was boiling hot, but it didn’t bother her at all, only feeling just a little bit warmer than normal. The smell of sulfur was heavy in the air, making the whole place smell like a box of matches being lit all at once. It stuck to her tongue and the roof of her mouth, and tasted oddly pleasant, like a flavored salt.   This wasn’t a place for ponies. She doubted there was a unicorn alive that could stand as close to the lava as she was and not be injured from the heat. Only a dragon should have been able to withstand it.   “I assure you Twilight, it’s completely safe,” Princess Celestia said from beside her. The alicorn had forgone her usual regalia, leaving her in just her fur and feathers. Her mane had been pulled back into a ponytail, though it still fluttered against her neck. It wasn’t a look that Twilight had seen before.   Twilight couldn’t help but rub the back of her neck. She trusted the princess almost as much as she trusted her own mother, but this was lava! Everything she knew said that trying to swim in it was a bad idea, yet they had come here to do just that. She truly wanted to believe her mentor, but it was still a leap of faith.   Celestia glanced down at her, then let out a soft laugh. “You will be fine,” she insisted.   “But what about you?” Twilight replied, trying to deflect her worry as she tapped the tips of her claws together. “Wouldn’t you be hurt?”   She shook her head. “Compared to the sun, this could hardly be considered warm. I will be just fine,” she said, then smiled at the young dragoness. “Shall I show you?”   Twilight considered it for a few moments. She wanted to be brave, and there was a part of her that was urging her to drive right in, but she needed more. “Please?”   Unfurling one wing, the princess brought it down to wrap around Twilight. “Very well, I will show you that it’s safe.”   “Thank you,” she replied, letting out a sigh of relief.   Celestia smiled, a familiar twinkle dancing in her violet eyes. A twinkle that the dragoness had seen a few times over the past year, and each time it was right before she pranked somepony. Twilight tried to push away from the wing, but before she could move a foreleg was wrapped around her, pulling her tightly against Celestia’s side. Then with a kick of her powerful legs, the princess leapt out over the lava, pulling Twilight along with her.   There was just enough time for Twilight to cry out in surprise before they slammed into the lava pool. The surface was firm, without the give that water had. Instead it flowed, seemed to slide around the two of them, enveloping their bodies as they vanished below the surface. It was the hottest thing she had ever felt, not even her own flames could come close, yet it didn’t burn her. She could feel the heat radiating down through her body, all the way to the core of her being. It was like she had spent her whole life freezing cold, and this was the very first time she had ever been truly warm.   Celestia’s legs kicked at the lava, forcing the pair of them back towards the surface. The molten rock pulled back against them, trying to keep them inside, but it wasn’t strong enough to stop them from breaking through the surface. Once at the surface, Celestia finally released her hold on Twilight, allowing the dragoness to slip away from the mare.   Twilight shook her head, feeling the mane flopping against her horns. The hair had become matted with the lava, which was quickly cooling off in the air, yet her mane hadn’t even been singed. She ran her claws over her face, easily wiping away a thin layer of the goopy lava, then turned to glare at her mentor.   The princess was doing a backstroke, swimming as easily as she would in water. Every now and then the edge of her wings would peek up from under the lava before vanishing back below. They must have been working hard under the surface to help her move so effortlessly.   It wasn’t that easy for Twilight. The lava was thick and viscous, sucking at her arms as she pulled them free. It was thicker than she had ever imagined, yet at the same time was nothing like she had expected it to be. When Princess Celestia had told her that they would be going for a swim in lava, her mind had gone right to honey, but it really wasn’t like that at all. It didn’t really stick to her, instead just sliding off her lavender scales, leaving them shining. Even her hair wasn’t a problem, as a quick brush with her claws dislodged the lava that was solidifying in it.   Celestia came back around to her, having finished a lap around the oddly shaped pool. “Enjoying yourself?” she asked, rolling over to rest on her stomach. The lava didn’t seem to be touching her at all, leaving her white fur pristine. Even her mane was still fluttering against the surface, though the hair tie she had used was gone, probably burning up the instant they had jumped in.   “It’s not what I had expected,” she replied, dipping her hand under the surface to pull up a clawful of the lava, watching the thick globs dropping down between her fingers. “It’s really nice though,” she added after a few more moments of thought.   The princess smiled. “Then swim around as much as you like, and make sure to give your scales a good scrubbing,” she said, lifting one wing out of the lava to brush it over Twilight’s head.   Twilight blushed a little at the touch, then kicked her feet in an attempt to swim. It took a lot of effort to move through the lava, each stroke being a workout all its own. Yet soon enough she found herself moving gracefully in it, like her body knew just the right amount of force to use to make it feel natural.   She swam across the lava pool, and then back to where they had started, really starting to enjoy herself. When she reached the side of the pool, she noticed a small protrusion of rock jutting out over the lava. Without thinking about it, she quickly scrambled out of the lava and climbed up over the black rocks towards the point. Even with how hot the air was, she found it down right cold the moment she was free of the lava. Not enough to cause her to shiver, but it was still a bit of a shock.   Twilight hurried up onto the protrusion and started running along it. She picked up speed and leapt into the air, doing a flip before diving claws first into the lava. The surface parted for her, allowing her to sink down deep into the pool, the temperature increasing the deeper she got. Her descent slowed and then came to a stop, leaving her floating in the lava as the air that she had brought down with her bubbled up towards the surface.   It felt good, warm and safe, like she was enveloped in the most caring of hooves. A small part of her wondered if that was how being in an egg felt, and after a few seconds she decided it must have been.   She stayed there until her lungs started to protest, then kicked her legs, propelling herself up towards the surface. Without thinking about it, she opened her eyes. The inner eyelid was still tightly closed, protecting her eyes proper and making everything slightly blurry. Not that there was anything for her to see other than the color of the lava pool. It was filled with bright oranges all the way to dark reds, including some darker shades of red that she knew ponies couldn’t see.   As she broke the surface, she opened her mouth and allowed the lava to flow down over her teeth and tongue. It tasted like normal rocks—bland—but with sulfur mixed in. She squirted it out of her mouth in a thick stream, letting it splatter onto the surface of the pool. That was followed a moment later by her belching out a gout of purple flame.   “Excuse me,” she said, covering her muzzle with one of her hands.   Celestia was only a few feet away, her wings spread out wide to rest against the surface, allowing her to float on it with almost no effort at all. “Enjoying yourself?” she asked, a smile on her face.   “I am,” she replied, making her way over to the princess. “Thank you for bringing me.”   “It’s the least I could do for my favorite student,” Celestia replied, leaning down to nuzzle the young dragoness. “It’s not often I get a chance to just relax where I know no pony could bother me. It’s nice to share this with someone again.” Her smile grew weaker, and she quickly turned away from Twilight, looking off into the distance.   That lasted a few moments before she turned back to face Twilight, her smile returning as quickly as it had vanished. “Now, how about we get you all scrubbed up so you won’t have any more stone scales?”   “You’ll have to catch me first!” Twilight declared. She dove back down under the lava and swam in a random direction, her short legs kicking hard to push her along.   Celestia watched her go, shaking her head and laughing before finally giving chase.