TD writes and reviews pony fanfiction, and has a serious RariJack addiction. Send help and/or ponies.
One-Shots18,888 stories ·2,368 members
Luna Is The Best Pony4,626 stories ·7,263 members
American Bronies3,785 stories ·1,062 members
Celestia Is The Best Pony2,577 stories ·2,887 members
Stories on Goodreads28,595 stories ·492 members
Dragon Lord Torch2 stories ·35 members
Before the Gauntlet of Fire, Celestia, Luna, and Dragon Lord Torch meet to discuss the future of their kingdoms – and how to ensure that the next Dragon Lord is exactly who they want it to be.
After all, if Princess Ember is to win, something has to be done about all those adult dragons seen in the dragon migration...
There is now a Spanish translation of this story, courtesy of Spaniard Kiwi
Page generated in 0.27 seconds
Total duration
1,101 users online
1,923,518 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Yeah, you really messed up there.
7540430
Whoops, fixed! I even had editors look this over, I swear.
First paragraph splices into the second. May wanna fix that.
Great short story, and good head canon for what the large dragons were up to. I always imagined Ember is just in charge of the current generation of dragons, and this is much better. Do you think dragons lay eggs like turtles, and only one in a thousand would make it to adulthood?
So Celestia was the one responsible for the disappearance of the Idol of Boreas. Why would she need it, what political purpose would that have severed.
7540450
Ah, the joys of copy-paste errors. Fixed.
I hope you liked the story!
7540472 Indubitably
7540471
Clearly, the Crystal Heart, the Elements of Harmony, and the Idol of Boreas all originally came in boxes of Cracker Jacks. Gotta collect them all.
Or, you know, all the kingdoms that come with them.
7540470
Thanks!
And, maybe. I'm sure there's plenty of room for speculation.
So Luna is Responsible for Grogar's attempt to steal the Idol of Boreas.
Hmm... or he intercepted the original thief and used his knowledge to try and steal it himself.
7540471 Probably to force the griffons into their line of thinking without them realizing it.
7540522 It's the Arimaspi, not Grogar.
7540522 Grogar? When did HE try to steal the Idol?
Pretty sure it was that Arimaspi (I think that that's how it's spelled, anyway) ram-like cyclops thing that stole it.
7540549 Thank you. That's what I thought, too.
So far, Grogar hasn't even been MENTIONED as being on the show.
And Celestia and Luna willing, he never WILL be.
I hope.
7540574 Considering that Tirek and the Smooze were revamped for this show, I wouldn't rule out the possibility if I were you. I mean, the "Dungeons and Discord" episode showed that they have knowledge of the undead and the only MLP villain that I know of that is a necromancer is Grogar...
7540471
Given that that episode depicted griffons as essentially smaller dragons, I figure it was done to disarm a potentially highly volatile neighbour. Griffons are greedy, but they were also numerous and highly unified. That could cause a lot of issues if they set their sights on conquest as a means of expanding their wealth.
7540549
7540567
Isn't Grogar a ram?
When I watch the Griffonstone episode, that's the species of the thief I saw.
At least they never talk about political marriages.
7540672
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! It just sort of popped into my head after I watched the episode, and then I procrastinated on getting it done for six months.
It was a fun little thing to write, though.
7540712
Cadance might have something to say about one of those.
Nicely done! I was hoping someone would address the fact that none of the adult Dragons showed up to compete for the Scepter.
what, were the griffins getting proud enough to attack Equestria or something?
I like how calculating the Dragon Lord is. It's cold and calculating with a touch of wanting his people to be like they used to be so long ago.
7540668
The Arimaspi are a one-eyed race from Greek mythology famous for combating the Griffins near their lands, which guarded golden treasures.
It's a mythological reference, not a callback to Gen 1. And really, other than being ram-like, there's nothing of the Arimaspi that's similar to Grogar.
Celestia, uncomfortable with plotting but willing to do it anyway.
7540865
It made me wonder, too. I'm glad I scratched that itch for you.
7540878
Yeah, I had fun writing him. I'm glad you liked my interpretation of him here.
7540937
It was a very clever (albeit extremely obscure) callback. Clearly some folks on the staff are fans of Greek mythology.
Applejack had better watch out if she ever ends up with a golden apple.
7540946
And for the failures of that single arimaspi thief, their entire race was wiped out and the skull of their greatest skewered upon the Southern Mount.
Celestia was not a happy camper in the first three hundred years alone.
Also, good story in general. Always enjoy well-written political games.
Huh. That went places I didn't expect it to. Still, Torch is a dragon. He may be one of the most intelligent living dragons there is, but that only makes him more dangerous than his pennywise, culture-foolish counterparts. Good thing he's on the ponies' side, more or less.
A fascinating explanation for the Gauntlet. Thank you for it.
This certianly does explain a lot, but it also makes Torch out to be a terrible leader for the dragons (intentionally so but still it's kinda shocking) . Lying and technically cheating so his daughter would win is one thing, but poisoning everyone who might appose him? He's sounding like a dragon version of Sombra, which makes the Princess look terrible for helping him.
Also the treaty mentioned seems kinda odd when you think of Spike, who's purpose was for unicorns to test spells on. Torch seems to know about him, does he just turn a blind eye or not know how he was hatched? Also, Celestia is a troll, for not informing Twilight that Spike could potentially become a 10 story mindless monster at any moment if they're not careful.
Very interesting. Bit more dark than I expected.
7541118
Well, that got dark fast.
I'm glad you liked this, though. I had fun writing it, and I generally find political machinations a fun thing to speculate about (and consequently, write about).
7541123
Everyone always makes the big, strong ones stupid because big, strong, and smart is a very dangerous combination.
I'm glad you liked my interpretation of Torch; he was a lot of fun to write, and I like the way his voice sounds in my head.
It is always fun to look at glitches in canon and make stories out of it, so I'm happy to hear it was a fun ride to see them play out.
7541011 That song was so beautiful!
Do you think you could provide a link to the Youtube page of the person who made it?
Where exactly did you get the idea of the princesses being responsible for the theft of the Idol of Boreas?
7541171
Oh come now, Sombra was as obsessed with crystals as the worst dragon.
Hm. Now that's an idea...
Anyway... yeah, Torch as depicted here is dark gray at best, but he justifies it to himself as being what is best for his people (or at the very least, best for avoiding having the ponies do to them what they did to the griffons
). And, well, sometimes when you're in charge, you gotta deal with people who do horrible things, because the alternative is often much worse.
To be fair, as far as we know, Twilight was the only pony ever to be given that test; what they did for the other foals is a mystery, but I'd imagine most of them were not tasked with hatching dragon eggs, seeing as there aren't a bunch of ponies running around Canterlot with baby dragons (and I'd imagine getting your hooves on a dragon egg isn't exactly easy). Probably more of a fosterling kind of situation.
Or at least, that's my headcanon. The show has never explained why Spike's egg was there, to the best of my knowledge, so it is a rich area for fanfiction to play around with. Other people have their own explanations for just how that dragon egg ended up being hatched by Twilight. I think it is a fun thing to think about, as people are free to come up with their own explanations.
Now, now, if anything strange should happen, all Twilight needs to do is have Spike send a-
Oh, right.
7541276
Well, I do love my drama, even if it goes in the shade sometimes.
I'm glad you found it to be interesting.
7541427
The person who made that video is CHriegerCH. The song was actually written by Mercedes Lackey of all people, who is a famous writer in her own right (she has written over 140 novels), and was sung by Shandeen O'Neill.
7541434
I made it up, as an allusion to past political machinations of the princesses of Equestria. The show doesn't establish why the Idol was stolen, so I decided to come up with my own (Machiavellian) explanation.
7541440 I should've suspected something from the Drama tag, and while I don't think it really needs a sad or dark tag the lack of the slice of life tag really makes sense now. Well I guess one person's villain is another's hero, even if torch is traitor to his race he's technically keeping the peace so there's that. And this also explains Embers nasty attitude towards the other dragons, I guess Torch made it no secret to Ember what he really thinks of his kind.
7541453 Why do you think they'd do that?
7541496
Glad you caught that hint about Ember, actually; I was being pretty subtle about it.
But yeah, the dragons would definitely not be happy with what Torch is up to. Though Torch doesn't see himself as being a traitor to what his race is, but what it has, in his mind, become.
Good theory crafting, theory crafter!
One complaint: vary your character description a little more. I think you used "the great dragon" a bit too much.
7540937 Thank you for the explanation. I must have been confused about that. never fully studied greek mythology that deeply.
7541661
Yeah, I got a bit overenthusiastic with that one.
Glad you liked it, though! It was fun to think about, so I'm glad it was fun to read.
Well, to be honest, this story didn’t click with me. Don’t misunderstand me, I particularly liked your headcanon, and I think that you had a very clever explanation of the “behind” of the episode. But, well, I think the problem is that there is too much blatant exposition, in a too short story.
In my opinion, it’s almost feel more like a big explanation of that headcanon, rather than an actual story.
For example, the fics gives me the impression that Celestia and Luna know this Lord Dragon for a relative long time ago. They speak with certain level of familiarity and playful rivality that only friends or longtime rivals have, they also mention previous reunions with cupcakes and visits to the castle. Yet, in this single conversation, the Dragon Lord tolds the princesses pretty much all you have to know about dragons, and like if it is the first time: how he had a horde but later he dispose of it, how hords make dragon stupid, how you grow with a horde but if later you dispose it you maintain your stature, how they used to have a dragon culture, even the fact that they do have ears. I have the impression that one in three paragraph is crude exposition.
But it’s not only with the “dragon thing”. Celestia told Luna to make the moonrocks but didn’t told her for who they were so we can discover in this conversation what moonrocks are and who made them. Celestia told the Dragon Lord to hide the moonrocks in the horde so the dragons don’t eat them, but she doesn’t tell him what could happen if they do, so this conversation about them eating them and not waking up can happen now.
Or if Celestia did tell the DL about the effects of the rocks, why then they had this conversation now? What was the reason of Luna being in that reunion, if she didn’t know anything about those things except so we could learn all the stuff?. And if Celestia wanted Luna to be involved, why she didn’t inform her about all those things when the DL called them?
It isn’t entirely illogical, you can surely found a plausible explanation for all that, but, adding it to all the other previous exposition, I think it’s just too convenient how much information this short conversation has, which kind of broke my suspension of disbelief for the story.
Maybe it would be this the kind of situation in which one should try to apply the old “show no tell”? I have the impression that there is little to nothing of action or narrative in the story showing us things, but rather three characters telling us a lot of stuff.
Well, that’s my impression. As I said, I did like the concept and found your ideas very clever, I suppose I didn’t like so much the execution. And, seriously, you are a really great writer and certainly one ten times much better than me, I have none to zero authority to critique your work, so take this just like what it is, impressions of a reader, nothing else. Hopes to see more of your work soon!.
on the one claw, its a pretty messed up story (the bits about eternal slumber and dead civilization) on the other hoof, its a really good story
That was cool. Do you have anything else like this?
7541717
I was trying to use Luna to provoke most of the exposition because she's been out of the loop for a thousand years - Celestia knows more than her sister does, though Celestia doesn't know some things. The thing about the moonstones was actually supposed to be a hint that Celestia actually had a good idea that Torch was up to something that Luna wouldn't approve of, and she knowingly procured the stones for him because she believed it would be to Equestria's advantage to do so. I don't think I did a great job of hinting at this, though; I was being way, way too subtle, and I can see how some of the later stuff in the story seems to imply the opposite. The thing about Celestia not knowing about Torch's hoard is because, as Torch noted, other dragons don't have the same willpower that he does - the implication being that Torch tried throwing other dragons' hoards into the ocean, and unlike him, they couldn't stop themselves from swimming down after them, drowning in the process. He hadn't told Celestia about that because he knew it would upset her.
That being said, this does contain a lot of exposition. I was trying to disguise it and wrap it up in an appealing and interesting package. Clearly, it didn't work for you, and for that, I'm sorry.
You're not wrong that this is to some extent a headcanon dump, though I'd like to think of it as more of a recontextualization story, showing a different way of looking at the events of the episode, explaining some strange things along the way, like why all the giant dragons from the dragon migration weren't there, and why some of the obstacles in the Gauntlet of Fire appeared to be more cerebral and reward teamwork. It probably doesn't qualify as a "real story" - it doesn't have a climax, for instance. I would argue that many "true" slice of life pieces, many fluff pieces, and things like this are not "real stories", but are closely related things which have some aspects of stories, but differ from them in important ways. I can understand not liking them; they're pretty hit-and-miss for me as well. Though obviously, I liked this one, but I will admit I might be a teensy bit biased towards my own work.
You spent time thinking about what you didn't like about the story and explaining it to me, which is some of the most valuable feedback there is. Understanding what it is that you don't like about the story, and then articulating it, is at the heart of reviewing, and is some of the most valuable feedback anyone can get from anyone.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to do so. I really do appreciate it, even if you didn't like the story.
Hopefully you'll like my next piece more!
7541897
Thanks! That was exactly what I was aiming for, so I'm glad to hear it hit the mark for you.
7541957
I'm happy to hear that!
As far as other stories "like this"... hm. That depends on what part of this you liked.
If you're talking about a story which takes something from canon and gives it an alternative explanation while filling in some plot holes, My Fluttering Heart is a recent piece I wrote about why Flurry Heart has wings and a horn and why Cadance's pregnancy seemed so short.
If you're talking about something that recontextualizes an episode, Thanks, Mother is my most controversial story; it takes the events of Crusaders of the Lost Mark and recontextualizes Diamond Tiara and Spoiled Rich's behavior in the episode. It is a pretty cynical work, but if you like the idea of reading about characters reveling in their plans coming together, it might be up your alley.
If you like the idea of characters taking on heavy political topics or burdens for the good of their people, The Butterfly's Burden is a story set during season 4 where Luna, Celestia, and Fluttershy debate Discord's fate and whether or not he has really reformed. Why Don't You Tell Them? is a more recent story about Celestia and Twilight discussing why the method for ascending to alicornhood is not common knowledge.
And if you want something completely silly, Better Lairs and Landscaping takes a totally inconsequential thing (Tirek blasting trees for no apparent reason after he achieved full power) and builds an entire story around it involving a free magazine subscription delivered to Tartarus by mistake.
7540596 Hmmm, good point.
As for that last bit, you'll excuse me if I don't.
Mainly because that's the ONE thing that I don't really like about the 2012-current TMNT series. Nickelodeon/Viacom is throwing in characters (mostly villains) from every PAST TMNT series (like Lord Dregg), rather than bring in new, original ones, and that practice is beyond irritating to me, and has taken all the enjoyment OUT of watching the series for me.
7540668 Yes, he is. A ram that walks on FOUR feet, and who has TWO eyes.
Like this:
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/2/27/Grogar.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140203022845
The Arimaspi, on the other hoof, was (is?) a cyclops-like beast what walks (for the most part) on two hooves, like this:
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/a/a9/Arimaspi_looking_at_King_Guto_S5E8.png/revision/latest?cb=20150525130008
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/b/b1/Arimaspi_smashes_the_window_S5E8.png/revision/latest?cb=20150525130008
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/969/583/fd4.jpg
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/fd/Arimaspi_escaping_S5E8.png/revision/latest?cb=20150525130004
Please note that these are ALL screencaps taken from the MLP wiki page.