Louder Than Words

by Niaeruzu


Chapter 3

The next morning, Cirrus, wearing a simple saddlebag, found herself in front of the Ponyville library, a large building that resembled a tree. Or the other way around, she wasn’t sure. If there was any place where she could find out how to help Slatescale communicate a bit more easily, this was it.

She knocked on the door, and a second later, a boyish voice came from within. “Come on in, the door’s open!”

With a small degree of hesitation, Cirrus pushed the door open and stepped in. Predictably, the walls were lined with books in various sizes and colours. There were so many of them, that there was even a ladder to reach the highest books. Although ponies often had trouble with ladders, so that was kind of weird. Aside from that, the room was pretty empty: there was a table, a pedestal for reading and a set of stairs leading up.

Oddly enough, Cirrus couldn’t see the owner of the voice she heard just now. “Um, hello?” She walked around the room, trying to find somepony to help her. She peeked underneath the table in the middle of the room, but there was nothing there.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” the same voice sounded again. Accompanying it was a small, purple dragon with light green scales on his belly and green eyes and frills, who came running down the stairs. He skidded to a halt in front of Cirrus. “How can I help you?” he said, giving a mock salute.

Cirrus blinked a few times in surprise. A baby dragon? She hadn’t expected that, since she never came to the library. “Hello, Mister... I don’t think I got your name?”

“Oh, right,” the dragon said, and chuckled. “I’m Spike!” He held out his claw. “Nice to meet you!”

Cirrus held out her hoof, enabling Spike to grab and shake it. “My name is Cirrus Cloud,” she said. “I’m looking for a book,” she said as Spike let go of her hoof.

“Then you’ve come to the right place,” Spike said, gesturing towards the many books in the room. “We’ve got tons of ‘em! What’re you looking for?”

“I’m looking for a book on words,” Cirrus said. “Do you have any?”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Words? You mean like a dictionary or something?” His face contorted in confusion.

“No, not like that,” Cirrus said, “I’m looking for, uh... A book on talking.”

“Talking?” Spike asked, and scratched himself on the head. “You mean for kids? Or do you wanna learn another language?”

“Well, no. Not exactly,” Cirrus said. “I’m looking for a book on...” she paused for a few moments, tracing circles in the air with a hoof as she thought. “This?” she said, nodding towards her spinning hoof.

Spike looked at it for a few seconds. “What do circles have to do with talking?”

“I don’t mean circles.” Cirrus sighed and sat down. “I meant more like...” she waved both of her front hooves in the air. “This.”

“Okay, you’ve lost me,” Spike said, staring at Cirrus in disbelief. “What exactly is—” he erratically waved both his arms around, “—this?”

“Sign language?” a voice sounded from above. Cirrus looked up to see a female unicorn’s head looking at the two of them from atop the stairs. Her coat was purple, and so were her eyes, while her mane was a darker shade of purple, with two highlights, one a lighter shade of purple, the other pink.

“Yes, that’s it,” Cirrus said. “I just couldn’t find the word. Thank you, um...”

“Twilight Sparkle,” the mare said, heading down the stairs. “I was busy upstairs, and I overheard you talking. It sounded like you need some help.”

As the unicorn walked down the stairs, Cirrus noticed the pegasus also had wings. No, wait, she was a unicorn, because she had a horn. But she also had wings, which meant... Cirrus gasped loudly. “You’re a princess?!” she shouted, quickly bending forward to bow, nearly slamming her face into the floor. “I’m so sorry, your highness!”

Twilight took a step back and blushed. “J-Just Twilight is fine too. And you don’t have to bow, either.”

Cirrus rose again, but found herself desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the alicorn. Instead, she looked at Spike. “I didn’t know a princess lived in Ponyville.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, you didn’t know? We’ve been living here for ages, and Twilight’s been a princess for a few months now!”

Cirrus blushed. “I, um... I don’t get out much. Busy schedule?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight said, cutting the subject short. As she walked toward a seemingly random bookcase, she said, “So, you’re looking for a book on sign language, right?” Using her magic, she grabbed a book off the shelves and levitated it towards Cirrus. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

The book’s cover was simple: the title, ‘A Comprehensive Guide to Pony Sign Language’, was printed in large letters, accompanied with pictures of a few simple hoof gestures. However, it wasn’t what Cirrus was looking for. After all, she needed a book suited for a dragon, not for a pony. She looked at Twilight, ready to decline, but thought better of it: who was she to tell a princess that they were wrong? “Um... Yyyeeesss?” Cirrus awkwardly said, adding an exaggerated grin.

Twilight sighed. “It’s okay to say ‘no’ if it’s not the book you need.” She put the book back on its original place, and glanced at the numerous other titles on the same shelf. “So, what is it that you’re looking for, exactly?”

Cirrus blushed fiercely. Maybe lying to a princess wasn’t such a good idea. “Um, I’m looking for a book on sign language for dragons.”

“Dragons?” Spike parroted. “Why would you need a book on sign language for dragons?” He leaned closer to Cirrus, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Um, it’s not really for me, it’s for my friend,” Cirrus said, taking a step back. “The dragon who stays near the Whitetail Woods. His name is Slatescale, and he’s mute.”

Twilight chuckled. “I think I have just the right book.” She levitated another book off the shelf, and presented it to Cirrus. It was roughly the same as the book on pony sign language, but this time, aimed towards dragons.

“Oh, yes!” Cirrus said. “This’ll be perfect! Can I borrow it, please?”

“Of course,” Twilight said. “Feel free!”

Spike rolled his eyes. “This is a library, after all. We don’t have all these books here so only Twilight can read ‘em.

Twilight glared at him. “Just because I’ve read every book in here three times doesn’t mean nopony else has read them! There’s also Rainbow Dash, and... I think Rarity maybe borrowed a romance novel once.” She paused for a moment. “Okay, that’s about everypony who comes here to read, but you get my point.”

Cirrus put a hoof to her mouth to prevent herself from laughing. This kind of conversation sure wasn’t what she expected from a princess. “Thank you very much for your help,” she managed to say after forcing down her laughter. She grabbed the floating book in her mouth and put it in one of her bags.

“I don’t think a big, huge dragon can even read a tiny book like that,” Spike said. “What’re you going to do, give him a really big magnifying glass?”

Cirrus tapped a hoof on her chin. Huh. She hadn’t thought of that yet. “Um... I guess I could read it out loud for him?”

“But it’s all pictures of claw gestures,” Spike said. “You can’t show those with hooves.” He waggled his fingers in demonstration. “You’ll need these babies to do that.”

“Why don’t you go with her, then?” Twilight smirked, using her magic to push Spike towards Cirrus. “You might learn something! And you’ll meet another dragon, too.”

Cirrus quickly took a step back. “Oh, th-that’s not needed, really! I-I can manage just fine on my own! And I’m sure you need Mister Spike here in the library, right?”

“Yeah, I’m your number one assistant, Twilight!” Spike said. “You need me around here!”

“Nonsense,” Twilight said, “I can manage the library just fine. You can assist somepony else for a change!

“But I—” Spike protested, but was cut off by Twilight enveloping both him and Cirrus in her magic and shoving them out the door, closing it shut behind them.

Cirrus stared ahead in confusion for a while, then looked at Spike. “Well, that was, uh... weird.”

Spike sighed. “Tell me about it. I’ve been living with her for ages, but sometimes, she doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“Let’s go meet Slatescale then, Mister Spike. The faster we can show him sign language, the sooner you can go back to the library,” Cirrus said. She didn’t want to keep a princess’ assistant occupied for too long, after all.

“Sure, sure,” Spike said. “And could you stop it with the ‘mister’ thing? It’s kinda creeping me out.” Without waiting for an answer, he headed off towards the Whitetail Woods.

“Oh, of course,” Cirrus said, following after him. “S-Sorry!”


A few minutes later, Cirrus and Spike reached the clearing Slatescale resided at. He currently had his back to the two, and didn’t seem to notice them.

As they neared the giant dragon, Spike paused for a moment. “Whoa. I heard he was big, but this is crazy! He’s huge! Bigger than any dragon I’ve seen!”

“Really?” Cirrus asked, stopping next to Spike. “He’s big, even for a dragon? I thought all dragons were this big. Then again, I’ve only ever met one dragon.”

Spike loudly cleared his throat and glared at Cirrus.

“Oh, um, sorry,” Cirrus gave a very awkward grin. “I meant two dragons.” After a very awkward second or two, she said, “W-We should go say hi to Slatescale.” She quickly walked around the dragon’s huge mass, noticing that he had his eyes closed. “Hello, Slatescale?”

Slatescale’s head twitched slightly, and he briefly scratched it with his claw. However, his eyes didn’t open.

“Sheesh, this guy sleeps more than I do,” Spike said as he joined Cirrus. “It’s the middle of the day!” He stepped forward and poked Slatescale in the cheek.

Slowly, Slatescale’s eyes opened. He blinked wearily and looked around. After a second or two, his eye fixated on Cirrus. Quickly, his head rose up, and he gave a small wave with his claw. Upon spotting Spike, however, he lowered his head again and squinted at the baby dragon. Slatescale slowly rose up again and tilted his head at Cirrus, while pointing at Spike.

“Good morning, Slatescale,” Cirrus said, giving a wave of her own. “I, um, brought somepony with me, if you don’t mind.”

“Hi. The name’s Spike.” The baby dragon extended one of his small claws to the far larger Slatescale.

Slatescale extended one of his massive claws, trying to give Spike a handshake. The difference in size made it very hard for him to safely take hold of Spike’s claw, even when taking things as slowly as possible. After a few seconds of fidgeting, Slatescale decided to ball his claw up into a fist and keep it right in front of Spike.

With a chuckle, Spike gave Slatescale the biggest fist bump of his life. “Hah, awesome!”

Slatescale put his claw back down and looked at Cirrus again. With a curious glance, he pointed at her saddlebag.

“Oh, right, I brought something for you.” Cirrus took the sign language book from her saddlebag and put it on the ground.

Slatescale leaned forward and squinted at the book. He leaned in further and further, until one of his eyes was only a few inches away. After he managed to read the title, he looked at Cirrus and raised an eyebrow.

“I thought it’d be a good idea to learn sign language. You know, when you can’t write to talk to somepony, for some reason,” Cirrus said.

Slatescale looked at the book again, then brought the tips of his thumb and index finger very close to each other.

“I know, it’s a tiny book,” Cirrus said. “But I can help you with that! Um, if you want me to, that is. It’ll be fun! Spike volunteered, too.”

“More like I got volunteered,” Spike grumbled.

Slatescale scratched his chin for a few seconds. Ultimately, he shrugged and nodded.

Cirrus grinned. She had expected more resistance on Slatescale’s end. “Great! Now, let’s see...” She carefully turned the book around, making sure it didn’t get too dirty on the ground. She opened it, and was greeted by a large amount of pictures.

Spike leaned over the book. “Do you even know where to start?”

“Um, no,” Cirrus said, blushing. “I didn’t think we would get this far today. Let’s start with something simple, like... ‘hello’, I guess?” She quickly flipped the pages, trying to find the correct image.

“Hey, wait,” Spike suddenly put his finger on one of the pages. “This sign looks funny. You make a circle with your thumb and index finger,” he said, slowly going through the motions himself. “And then you take your other index finger and put it thr—”

“I don’t think that’s the word we’re looking for!” Cirrus blurted out, her face all red. Quickly, she flipped to another, hopefully more relevant page.

Meanwhile, Slatescale seemed to have an incredibly hard time holding in his laughter, nearly doubling over.

“Oh, look, here it is!” Cirrus said, pointing at the book. “It’s... kind of easy.” She put a hoof to her forehead, then moved it away and up slightly, as if giving a salute. “And there’s a second one, too! It’s... a simple wave.” Huh. That was a lot easier than she thought.

Slatescale mimicked both gestures and grinned.

“One word down, a whole bunch left,” Spike said. He sat down and groaned. “This is gonna take a while.”