Letters From a Princess to a Dragon Lord

by NotanImportantPony

Chapter 3

“Twitchy Tail! Everypony run for your lives!”

And they did.

All across town, mares bundled up their fillies and colts and ran into the nearest shelter. The remaining ponies in the plaza ran for the Carousel Boutique in an effort to make it to safety. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. With a resounding thud a stone slab landed in front of Spike who ran into it and bounced off.

Accompanying that thud was a dragon. A teenage dragon. One that Spike thought was familiar what with all the fangs, the scales, and the wings. Spike shook his head, clearing his blurry vision.

The dragon beside him stared down at him and took a step back, mumbling.

“Oh geez. Oh geez. I just hurt Spike. Ember’s going to have my spines for that.”

Quickly overcoming his growing fear, the brown dragon --whom Spike recognized as the one who talked about plundering all the pillows from Equestria when he became Dragon Lord-- quickly helped Spike up. As he did so he asked about Spike’s health.

“You okay? You’re not hurt are you?-” His eyes widened as he saw a broken spine on Spike's head “-Oh-Oh dear-”

His worrying was quickly interrupted by a flash of light and he found himself holding air, Spike was gone and in his place was an irate purple Alicorn.

“-YoU! Just who do you think you are to drop stones at innocent ponies! Somepony could’ve gotten hurt!”

Bowing his head under his wing for protection the brown dragon muttered,

“I’m sorry scary pony lady. I-I-”

“-Shush. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay M-Mr. D-D-Dragon.” Muttered a voice right outside his wing.

“The ‘scary pony lady’s name is Twilight. She won’t hurt you.” Fluttershy turned to Twilight and glared at her, “Isn’t that right?”

Twilight meekly nodded and Fluttershy went back to comforting her fearful charge.

“See, there’s no reason to be afraid. Just tell us why you’re here and it’ll all be okay. I promise.”

Cautiously the brown dragon pulled his head out from under his wing and spoke.

“My name is Koal and-and I was sent here by Dragon Lord Ember to bring you a Dragonstone.”

Everypony looked over at the Dragonstone with Pinkie lackadaisically resting on top of it with a tray of emerald cupcakes in one hoof and a milkshake in the other.

...

Everypony and every dragon did a double take.

Koal was the first to speak up,

“How did you-”

Pinkie held up a hoof with an emerald cupcake in it, “Abubub...Don’t question it.” She then tossed the emerald cupcake into Koal’s open maw.

He stood there for a second, unmoving but as the flavour of the cupcake stirred him he slammed his jaws shut with a simultaneous crunch and snap as he enjoyed what was possibly the best and only confectionary he’d ever been given.

Pinkie smiled and hopped down off the Stone and landed with the tray on her back and the milkshake on top of her head.She turned around to look at the result of her ‘Twitchy Tail.’

“Huh... So that’s why... Okay!” She turned around and chucked another emerald cupcake into Koal’s jaws, again with a crunch and a snap they closed and the cupcake was gone.

Pinkie stood there next to Spike as she pondered something.

“Aha... Hi Pinkie.” Twilight mumbled, her brain still rebooting from what she had seen.

With a deep ground shaking rumble Koal settled into a better position.

That-Th-”

Pinkie held out a hoof, “Nope! No need to thank me. I just do what I do because I can do. But thank you anyway.” Her hoof returned to it’s position under her chin as she squinted her eyes at the Dragonstone.

Koal shook his head and resumed speaking,

“Right. Ummm... Well, this Dragonstone is from Dragon Lord Ember. She asked that I give it to you so she could talk without send a dragon to carry her messages and-”

He was cut off by Twilight Sparkle eagerly asking,

“But can’t she just use her flames to send it like Spike did?”

Koal’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“What Spike did was not dragon magic, that’s pony magic. Dragons naturally can’t send letters with their flames, they burn stuff. But as I was saying, The Dragonstones are paired, one is with Dragon Lord Ember, the other one is here with us, and-”

“-Guys! Come check this out! There’s writing on here!”

Koal rolled his eyes in irritation and grumbled.

“Stupid ponies interrupting me all the time. They don’t have manners.”

Everypony rushed past Koal and crowded around Spike, ignoring the Koal’s protest that the slab is meant for Twilight and Spike only. Nonetheless, the Mane six read it but Twilight is the only one who read it out loud.

“From Dragon Lord Ember, Lord of the Dragon Lands, Lord of the Flame Cano Islands, Lord of the Dragons

“To Twilight and Spike,

“I appreciate the letter you sent me, it had some very good questions however, I will need to question my father about the answers to some of the questions that you posed so my complete reply will be some time in coming.

“This rock is very special, it is one of two, whatever is written down on this one is portrayed on the other and visa versa. It is old dragon magic. Please be careful with it, even though my father is not the Dragon Lord anymore, he is still a dragon, besides that he gets all shouty when he’s angry. It’s annoying.

“But yeah, because Spike is a dragon he should be able to write on this rock. I don’t think you ponies can. I don’t think I’ll be able to visit any time soon. I’m still learning what it is like to be a Dragon Lord. I have to do work. I have to listen to dragons complain and talk and whine. Generally annoying crap like how the lava pools aren’t hot enough, how there aren’t enough gems, stuff like that. Besides, I can’t control lava or gems.

“-Ember

“P.S.?? My favorite gem is Ruby.”

Twilight finished reading Ember’s letter and sat back, her eyes wide. She turned to Spike,

“Spike! This is exactly like Sunset Shimmer’s journal! I wonder if they work the same way!”

Spike did not hear her as he was busy playing around with the surface of the Dragon Stone, he found that he could mold it like wet clay, it was funny and cool. He started drawing shapes and figures in it but jumped back when the surface suddenly smoothed out.

The first couple of words carved themselves in the rock and Spike let out an awed “Whoa!”

The mane six looked at him, then at the rock.

‘Spike? Twilight? Is that you? Who was just messing around with the Dragonstone?

-Ember’

Spike and Twilight looked at each other, Spike shrugged and grinned cheekily. Twilight rushed up to the slab and started trying to write on it with her hooves, when that didn’t work she transitioned to her horn, then magic, but nothing she did worked.

Under the previous line of text a ‘Hello?’ appeared.

Spike coughed and gently pushed Twilight off the rock, her hooves scrambling for purchase, she found none. The tip of the pointer claw on Spike’s right hand sunk into the surface of the Dragonstone and he started writing.

‘Spike here… This rock is sooo cool. Thanks allot Ember, how’re you?

-Spike’

Beneath the two lines of text Ember began a third.

‘It sucks. There’s so much stuff that I have to do and my dad’s like do this, do that. No! Don’t do that.’

‘It’s annoying.

‘Besides that, it’ll take a while to get the answers back for you two. We have to get dragons to go through the Dragon Archives. My dad’s being really annoying about it. He won’t talk about Dragon Culture or Dragon Law. Ugrh. Everydragon’s just been a real pain in my tail. Some of them, the older ones, still treat me like a hatchling. It’s infuriating. But it’s better than what some of those other losers wanted to do. I mean seriously, stealing all the pillows from Equestria, I mean come on! But yeah-’

Ember paused. Then hurriedly wrote,

‘-I gotta go, Dad’s yelling again.

‘-Em’

Spike and everypony else sat there in silence as they read through Ember’s writing,

“Looks like she’s having a rough time.” Spike mumbled, but his expression brightened and he turned to Twilight,

“I know! Twilight, maybe you and the other Princesses can send Ember some lists’ on how to be a good ruler. I think that’ll help her.”

Most of the group nodded in silent assent. Twilight pondered Spikes request with a hoof under her muzzle.

“I don’t know Spike. Being Dragon Lord sounds different than being a Princess and I don’t really want to bother the other Princesses with something like this.”

“But if Ember is having as much trouble as she says she is then shouldn’t we --as her friends-- help her?”

Twilight was silent for a moment as her friends spoke up.

“I-think Spikes right Twilight. N-Not that you’re wrong either. It’s just, remember what it was like when you first became a Princess?” Fluttershy inquired.

Rainbow Dash followed up with a quick and confident quip. “Yeah. What Flutters said.”

Twilight thought about what Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy said and slowly nodded her head.

“Okay. I’ll send a letter to Celestia, Luna, and Cadance-” She took a step back and lit her horn, lifting the stone slab. “-But first we need to put this somewhere safe.”

The mane six started back towards Twilight’s crystal castle only to stop when they felt the ground rumble behind them. They stopped and turned around, looking at Koal, he had followed them. Spike was the first one to speak up.

“Umm… Hey there big guy. Don’t you have to go back, you know... to the Dragon Lands?”

Koal looked down at Spike and nodded,

“Yep. But first, I want pillows. The best pillows you ponies have. Or else.”

He tried to look threatening. He wasn’t.

The mane six and Spike looked dumbstruck. They spent the next minute picking their jaws off the ground. When they were done with their jaws they looked at Rarity and shoved her forwards. She shot them a glare.

“Um-ah-well… Hello Mr. Dragon. I’m Rarity, Owner of the Carousel Boutique where every-”

“-Do you have pillows?”

Rarity looked peeved at being interrupted, but she swallowed her remarks,

“Yes…-” She looked perplexed “-Yes I have pillows. And I know just what to get you. Now stay here, I’ll be back in a minute.”

Rarity quickly trotted back into the Carousel Boutique, the plaza was silent for a minute. Koal stared at where Rarity had gone. The mane six stared at him. And Spike stood there, waiting.

After about five minutes of waiting in which Pinkie got bored and started lobbing emerald cupcakes into the air for Koal to try and catch, Spike built up the courage to ask about Garble.

Hearing Garble’s name, Koal looked at Spike and was promptly creamed by a speeding cupcake. Shaking his head Koal used his tongue and wiped the cupcake off the side his face. When he was done he bent down and looked at Spike.

Leaning in close Koal whispered,

“Last I heard he was only halfway home and he had only hugged about 683 dragons. Quite a few of them didn’t like. He’ll get home with a few scrapes, bruises and burns. Hah. And for the way he’s been acting he deserves all of them.”

Spike stared at Koal, his wide eyes were filled with amusement. Another cupcake came speeding at Koal, he reached up a claw, caught the cupcake and devoured it. As he did so, Rarity primly trotted out of the Carousel Boutique with a bag in her magic.

Walking up to Koal, Rarity handed him the bag.

“Inside you will find the best pillow I could make on such short notice.”

Koal turned the bag upside down and caught the contents with his right palm.

The pillow was the color of Twilight who looked very peeved upon seeing a reminder of her failure.

“Rarity…psst, Rarity!” Twilight hissed.

“Hush darling, let him have it. I have more inside.” Rarity hissed back, covering her mouth with her left hoof.

Twilight shot Rarity a look. Koal didn’t notice because he was so enraptured by his pillow. It was the best pillow he had been give- that he had pillaged from the ponies.

Looking up from his prize he nodded to Rarity then spread his wings and took off, leaving a cloud of dust and dirt in his wake.

Rarity looked infuriated.

“Why that ungrateful- of all things. That wasn’t a gift! He never paid me! Come back here you! You never paid me!”

The dragon paid her no mind as he flew west, towards the Dragon Lands.

“I’ll never give anything to a dragon again!” Rarity huffed as she trotted passed a stricken Spike. Rarity stopped and patted Spike on the head.

“Except for you my dear Spikey-Wickey.” Spike’s fallen face markedly improved.

With the last interruption gone, the mane six made their way to Twilight’s castle to find a safe place for the Dragonstone, and to have Twilight compose a letter to the Princesses for Ember. All in all, it was just a regular day in Ponyville much to Discords disappointment.

“Why do all the fun things happen on Saturday?” He groused as he finished his piece of quiet.

Cleaning up with a snap of his talons Discord noticed something peculiar back at Twilight’s Castle, as he laughed he snapped his talons again.

---

Starlight Glimmer, having just arrived from the Crystal Empire shivered under her new blankets and squeezed her new plushie as she dreamed special dreams, courtesy of Discord. At least she would be comfortable in her new bed.

Author's Note:

Does anyone have questions that Twilight could ask Ember about Dragon Culture and vice versa?Blog.

Comments

[OmniFox]

Feels like Tuesday.

[BenRG]

The ponies of Ponyville now have Koal over a barrel (although he doesn't know it). All they have to do is imply to Garble and the boys that the pillow was a freely given gift and he'll never have any peace!

The Dragonstone is an interesting idea. Obviously, like lots of Dragon magic, it is impervious to Unicorn magic. Maybe Twilight should brush up on her mouth-stylus skills?