//------------------------------// // Gauntlet of Firestone, part 2 // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 6 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 6 By TDR Gauntlet of Firestone, part 2 [In the woods south of the Dragonlands] Rahs Sparkle was more like his sister than many would expect. Not his biological one, though there were similarities there too. Sure he was more interested in plays and theater than books and science like Twilight. He was also almost two more ponies taller than her, a biped and had better taste in fashion, better table manners, he could cook, he wasn't prone to panic attacks, he had a sense of humor and a sense of style, and he looked damn good in a dress.... Okay, okay, so he was quite different from his sister. Though one did not grow up with someone without having some similarities. One of those right now was showing itself. No, not due to Trixie being there, he actually liked Trixie. No not missing something obvious like Twilight did, he found that funny. No, Rahs Sparkle was annoyed, and when he was annoyed things that made him annoyed tended to have a bad time. As such by the time he, Twilight, Spike, Scootaloo, and Trixie had made it to the largest group of dragons near the big volcano, quite a number of dumbass trees had been planted. One of them, some stupid red drake that no one could remember the name of, Spike thought it was gargle or something had gone right for Spike while Twilight was plowing a spot in the ground for the next crop of stupid to be planted, with said next crop of stupid. Rahs had put on his mask tossed his coat to Trixie, grabbed the drake from behind, lept into the air with him, spun around a few times for good measure, and planted him rather firmly, head first into a rather large rock. Spike rolled his eyes at the show, Scootaloo cheered him on, Trixie had nearly swooned, and Twilight had complained that it messed up the feng shui of the clearing she had made with the whimpering red weed wacker she was using. In any event, by the time they got to the volcano proper, word of them coming had reached the dragons there. The smart ones or the ones with longer memories than a goldfish decided to be on the other side of the volcano. Bleu had come out to see what was going on along with her son Dragon Lord Torch. “Ponies? And a tiny drake? This is what the commotion was?” Torch huffed. ”I do not have time for this.” “Sparkles,what the shards are you doing here?” Bleu questioned, the tiny dragon barely seemed like she would be noticed by the mountain sized behemoth before them. The three Sparkles, Scootaloo, and Trixie all looked at each other. The the ponies reared up gesturing with their forehooves at themselves and the others while the bipeds did the same with their paws and claws respectively to the blue dragon showing they were all glowing as an obvious 'DUH'. Bleu blinked a moment before she glared up at Torch. “Did you forget to select you only wanted dragons with that damn thing again?” Torch frowned.”Of course not, I tuned out all the Nox- Cal, last time I forgot to do that we lost three score of dragons to those damn things. Stupid sexy Nox-cal.” “Well you seemed to have forgotten to tune out half breeds too.” Bleu sighed. “How many more am I expecting?” “Hopefully none. Most of them listened to me when I said to stay at the train station. Except these two.” Twilight grumbled. “Like I was gonna listen to Twilight.” Scootaloo stated staring up at Torch. “Fuzzy was coming here, so of course so was Trixie.” Trixie stated as if it was obvious. “You seem to know this lot mother, who are they?” Torch growled though that seemed his default tone. “That ones the blue mare I told you I empowered for the Storm King thing. She's Searing Basalt's great granddaughter. The small dragon is your younger brother, Spike, The blue dog cat thing is Rahs Sparkle, the purple pony is Twilight Sparkle, and I have no idea who the orange one is.” “Scootaloo.” Scootaloo offered. “The orange one is Scootaloo.”Bleu told her son. Torch leaned down a bit more looking directly at Twilight who simply raised an eyebrow at him. The massive dragon let out a sigh and looked to his mother. ”This is why you were laughing so hard wasn't it?” “What?” Bleu questioned. “On the migration, when this is Twilight Sparkle.” Torch grumbled. “What? Oh! Oh.. Oooohhhh....” Bleu snickered.” Well she's a goddess now, so a step up from the ones you usually like.” Torch rolled his eyes. “Wait... hold on, him, me, no.” Twilight shook her head, then paused looked up at the dragon lord and considered, then shook her head again.”No. I'm seeing some one now.... ask me again in a couple thousand years, I might have a different answer.” Spike and Rahs both made faces like they were gonna throw up, Torch was possibly blushing, and Bleu was just staring at Twilight. “Now that that horrid mental image is gonna live rent free in my head for a while.” Spike grumbled.” “What is going on here?” “Torch is about to announce that.” Bleu offered. ”Come on, I got good seats for this this thing.” “Dragons of Equestria, hear me!” Dragon Lord Torch bellowed from the top of a volcano to those gathered in the cauldron. I have been Dragon Lord for longer than many of you can remember, and my reign has been extraordinary!” There was a moment of silence. “AGREE WITH ME!!” Torch roared and all the dragons cheered him. “I taught him that.” Bleu grinned leaning over to stage whisper to Twilight. The group of them were seated on a rise on the other side of the Cauldron, though with how loud the dragons were it was easy to hear them. While the seats were not designed for ponies, they were warm and could be used like benches. “Unfortunately due to Dragon law I am forced to step down.” Torch continued.”Sad I know.” “There's no law for it, he just wants to retire so he made this up, not like most of those here would ever read anything.” Bleu offered. “BE SAD!” Torch roared and all the dragons started crying. “He certainly has quite the stage presence.” Trixie pointed out. “Wuff.” Rahs agreed. “And this is why I have called you all here. There needs to be a new Dragon Lord to come after me, even though none could ever replace me. But the new Dragon Lord will need to be the best at being a dragon. As such there will be six trials for the participants to engage in. The Dragon Lord must prove that they can force dissenters to obey. The TEST OF STRENGTH!” There was a moment. “CHEER!” The dragons roared their approval. “That's the one that most dragons excel at, it's just a one on one fighting tourney. It's gonna be used to whittle down the ones remaining for the last contest.” Bleu explained. “The new Dragon Lord must be able to lead from the front and thus be faster than any other. Hence the test is THE TEST OF SPEED!” There was cheering. “DID I SAY CHEER?” There was silence. “NOW CHEER.” There was cheering. Rahs even clapped at that. The Dragon Lord could work the crowd. “This ones pretty simple, it's a race.” Bleu shrugged. “Fliers have the advantage here though.” “The next test is a throw back to our lean times, when there was not much food. A Dragon Lord must be able to eat anything and show that they can survive on it. THE TEST OF CONSTITUTION. CHEER!” “This ones something Char came up with, he has no desire to be Dragon Lord, but he wanted to design a test. It's just an eating contest with really bad food.” Bleu shrugged.”I'm glad Char at least tried.” “Dragon knowledge of lore and history is passed down by word of mouth from dragon to dragon. Heroic fights are remembered by all, but a Dragon Lord must have the creativity to keep all attention ion themselves. Hence THE TEST OF LORE! CHEER!” “That ones going to be fun. It's basically a story telling session, and the ones with the most rapt audience of dragons will win.” Bleu pointed out. “The next test will show how clever you are. Same rules as Drake Rugby.” Torch offered.”LAUGH!” There was a collection of riotous laughter. “This will be THE TEST OF WISDOM.”Torch roared.” CHEER!” “What?” Twilight tilted her head. “Dragon rugby is a sport played with a large chunk of pumice that slowly breaks down during the game, the goal is to put the rock in a lava pit on one side of a field or another. The only rule, is win. Cheating is encouraged, but if you are caught, you're out.” Bleu explained.” This test is basically to see how well you can cheat without getting caught. It's sort of a stupid one because some one winning who doesn't cheat will be thought to be a great cheater.” “Finally at the end of this will be the Gauntlet of Fire which will test everything those who make it to that point will have left. This Bloodstone scepter will be placed in the middle of the flame-cano. The one that retrieves it shall be the next Dragon Lord.” Torch shouted. “CHEER!” There was a riotous shouting.