199. Apple Soda
Twilight took a sip of the apple soda that Applejack had recommended as she sat on a comfy lawn chair underneath the mid-morning cloudy skies in the Green Neigh inn’s private backyard garden.
Trixie swished her can around and found it empty, so she crushed it in her hand and threw it into the waste bin between her and Twilight’s chairs, before grabbing another can from the cooler between them, cracking it open and taking a sip.
“See?” Twilight smiled softly at Trixie. “Isn’t this better than trying to kill each other?”
“Well, don’t get too comfy,” Trixie groaned, flicking up her sunglasses to look at Twilight. “You’re not off the hook just yet.”
“Ugh,” Twilight sighed. “What do you even see in that guy anymore? After everything he’s done to us, why are you—”
“This isn’t about him,” Trixie croaked, her tongue flopping out of her mouth in disgust. “I couldn’t care less about him, but I do want the power he has. To be untouchable by either pony or dragon? Yeah, I care about that immensely.”
Twilight hummed and took another sip of apple soda. It was really good honestly; Applejack had great taste, though Twilight mused that Applejack’s taste in romantic partners should’ve been a dead giveaway about that, hehe.
“Come with me to the Crystal Empire,” Twilight said out of nowhere, causing Trixie to sputter and choke on her drink.
“Wh-what?!” Trixie said. “Where did that come from?”
“Came from the heart,” Twilight said with a bright smile, and it didn’t even waver when Trixie rolled her eyes. “I want you to see that ponies and dragons don’t have to be enemies.”
“I don’t give a rat’s b-hole about ponies, my dude,” Trixie grumbled, swishing her soda can back and forth as it dangled between two fingers. “All I care about is having enough power that no one can mess with me.”
“No one’s gonna mess with you if ponies and dragons are living in harmony though,” Twilight argued.
“I think you’re missing the importance of the ‘power’ aspect,” Trixie griped. “Besides, you think things are gonna be all sunshine and rainbows and blech if dragons and ponies are living ‘in harmony’ or whatever, but the call’s coming from inside the house.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, taking an anxious sip of her soda.
“I’m not afraid of ponies, I’m afraid of dragons,” Trixie said coldly. “And that’s not to imply that dragons are somehow more dangerous than ponies or whatever.
“Celestia’s got all the pony folk wrapped around her finger with their hate and anger pointed at dragons right now, but if dragons stop being enemy number one, either cuz they all get wiped out or cuz they’re living ‘in harmony’ with ponies, the ponies are gonna turn on each other like woah.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Twilight said sternly. “I know there’s a lot of infighting among dragon cultures right now, but that isn’t about dragons’ ‘nature’ or anything like that, or even ponies’. It’s because of the Slayers— and I’m specifically saying the Slayers, and not ‘the ponies’— and the system of bigotry and hatred they’ve created.
“It affects dragons too, by pressuring us to view ponies as our enemies, and forcing a lot of us into this ‘with us or against us’ mindset, and all this crap.”
“Is that right,” Trixie said flatly, and Twilight buried her face in her hands and groaned.
“Look, I don’t know,” Twilight admitted, bringing her legs up in front of her and curling into a ball. “All I know is that I don’t believe that violence and bigotry is some natural thing, I think it was created artificially, and I think it can be stopped. And I don’t think that stopping it will just cause some vacuum effect for some other kind of horrible violence to take its place!”
“So one of the Dragon Lords is trying to kill you, did you know that?” Trixie said, and Twilight felt like she had blacked out and woken up in another dimension with how jarring that conversation shift was.
“I’m sorry?” Twilight said, figuring she must have misheard Trixie or something.
“One of the Dragon Lords,” Trixie spoke condescendingly slowly, provoking an irritated glare from Twilight, “is trying to kill you. You ran into one of their assassins, right? Little squirt that was skilled enough to go one on one with a trained Slayer? Y’know what I’m talking about?”
“I, uh, yeah I guess,” Twilight’s head was spinning as she tried to pivot her brain from their previous conversation into this new one, especially with the extremely heavy stuff Trixie was laying on Twilight. “That was— that assassin was sent by one of the Dragon Lords? Who?”
“You tell me,” Trixie took a sip of soda and smirked. “You’re the smart one.”
“It wouldn’t be Chrysalis,” Twilight pondered. She knew the four Dragon Lords fairly well, what with being the star pupil of the Elder Dragon— aka the highest authority in all of the Dragon Lands— so she figured she’d be able to reason which of them was out to get her. “If Chrysalis wanted me dead, she’d just come kill me herself.”
“She’s pretty ambivalent about you, honestly,” Trixie shrugged. “At least she says she is, but everyone knows she’s still carrying a torch—”
“Ew,” Twilight’s eye twitched. Other than her old magic teacher himself, there was hardly anyone Twilight could think of that she’d rather spend time with less than Chrysalis.
“—but she isn’t interested in murder,” Trixie chuckled. “Well, not murdering you anyway.”
“It wouldn’t be Sombra either,” Twilight laughed; the idea of Sombra using subterfuge and assassination was so out of character for him that she couldn’t help herself. “He’d confront me personally too if he had an axe to grind, and he’d bring an entire army with him.”
“It’s not Sombra,” Trixie said. “He’s actually ambivalent about you. You don’t factor into his plans for conquest, so you mean nothing to him.”
“It—” Twilight bit her lip, and then her nail. She really didn’t want to voice her next suggestion, but with only two Dragon Lords left the anxiety was starting to weigh on her. “It isn’t Tirek, is it?”
Trixie took an agonizingly slow sip of her soda as Twilight melted into a puddle of sweat and nerves.
“No,” Trixie said, Twilight breathing the biggest sigh of relief in her life, “it isn’t Tirek. You should send him a letter sometime. He misses you.”
“I miss him too,” Twilight sighed, curling up into a ball again.
Frankly, she should have sent Tirek a thousand letters by now; he was the only pillar of support Twilight had back home other than Zecora, but the guilt she felt about abandoning everything and running to Equestria choked any words she thought to say to him right out of her.
She hadn't sent Zecora any letters either. Zecora probably hated her by now.
“So Gaius then?” Twilight said, narrowing in on the last of the four Dragon Lords.
“Who?” Trixie snorted. “Gaius has been dead for years, my dude. He got axed like right after you left.”
“Oh,” Twilight said flatly. She couldn’t exactly say she was surprised, or very sad about it. Gaius tended to stick to himself, and didn’t get along well with others. Twilight barely knew him; he was the kind of guy who gets a position of power and just rests on his laurels the rest of his life. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before someone replaced him, and a guy like that doesn’t give up power willingly.
“No, the one after your life is the new Dragon Lord,” Trixie explained, pointing her finger and her soda can at Twilight for emphasis. “She’s the one who axed Gaius and took his place. She’s a wee lass named Cozy Glow, and she’s no older than that assassin she sent after you.”
“What?” Twilight balked, trying to grapple with the severity of the information Trixie just dropped on top of her head. “Wait, a child is out to kill me?”
“Don’t underestimate her, Twilight,” Trixie chuckled, crushing the remains of her soda can and tossing it into the trash. “Not unless you wanna end up like ol’ Galbus or whoever the heck.”
“How do you know she’s after me?” Twilight asked.
“Well, I guess you can call it a hunch?” Trixie hummed, tapping her finger against her cheek and looking at Twilight like she was the biggest idiot in the world for some reason, which Twilight was less than amused by. “Cozy Glow’s hatred for Twilight Sparkle is pretty legendary. You could be in a dragon nation as far removed from our fair capital of Dragmire as possible, and you’d still know all about the little lord child who wants to put a knife in Twilight Sparkle’s back.”
“I’m—” Twilight muttered anxiously. “I’m not that famous back home, am I?”
“Okay no, not really,” Trixie grumbled. “I was exaggerating for dramatic effect, however! The point still remains that anyone who’s spent like five minutes with Cozy Glow knows she wants to get into the old man’s good graces, and she thinks that killing you will let her replace you in his eyes, you feel me?”
“That’s… unsettling,” Twilight felt a cold sweat drip down her forehead, and she wished that Applejack’s big strong arms were wrapped around her right now.
“She’s also well known for using child soldiers, so,” Trixie shrugged, “put two and two together, it’s not hard to figure out who sent that kid to gut you.”
“Is that why you don’t want to go to the Crystal Empire with me?” Twilight asked, figuring if Trixie could jarringly swerve the conversation, so could she. “Because you’re afraid of Cozy Glow?”
Trixie paused. Her lip twitched like she was about to speak, but she turned away instead.
“I’ll meet you there,” Trixie said softly under her breath, Twilight almost straining to hear her.
Before Twilight could respond or comment, Trixie disappeared in a flash of pale pink magic, teleporting away from their conversation and leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts.
“I’ll see you there, Trixie,” Twilight said as she deposited her empty soda can into the trash and cracked open another one. “I’m looking forward to it.”
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10225208
That's fair.
I suppose so, yes.
So, you want to be Celestia.
Considering several ponies helped kick your ass, you should fear them.
I, really hope you're wrong.
Dragon Chrysalis. Unexpected.
So he'd do it subtly.
Not, something I expected. So, not Tirek, not Sombra, not Chrysalis, that's 3 members of the Legion of Doom, so, what, is it gonna be Cozy Glow?
Cozy Glow is generally very unsettling. She's disturbingly sociopathic for a child.
Well, it's progress.
Its very strange having all the canon villains be Twilight's teachers.
probably yeah
💜
oh hey it's chrysalis! and turns out they're in the upper tiers of dragon hierarchy, oof
completely off topic:
twi: "
killfuck me yourself you coward!"chrysalis: "already the plan, but are you sure that's what you meant to say?"
twi:
eyyyyyyyy
awwwww
oh well, twas not meant to be in this timeline
ok it's neat getting to catch up with all the random villains
nice!
oooooooof
damnit
despite hearing it and thinking about it 3 seconds ago, she's already forgotten his name
awwwwww
10225478
we'll see about that ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
never underestimate the magic of friendship (and lesbians)
10225534
well i'll be
friendship (and lesbian) really is magic
10225547
and on another note, with friendly chrysalis & tirek vs probably not friendly sombra, and definitely not friendly cozy glow and discord, the dragon leaders are raring up to be some really interesting stuff later on
(friendly in terms of twi, obviously most of them probably don't like ponies in general)
Chrysalis would lay Twilight.
The moment I saw the part about Chrysalis having a thing for Twilight I chuckled. I should've known you'd find a way to hint at something like that. Lovely chapter btw. Though I didn't expect Trixie to use "wee lass"
Is Apple soda that different from sparkling cider? Because that stuff's delicious.
10226150
yea someone on twitter made the sparkling cider connection too *thinking emoji*
i dunno anything about that tho, cuz i think that's an alcohol thing?? and i can't drink
apple soda is just.... apple soda. i think it's more common in mexico than in the u.s.
10225896
the ol' scottish heritage comin in lmao
i actually caught that line in edits and was like "is this a weird thing for her to say?" but it's cute so i kept it :>
Trixie's slow transition from enemy to civil antagonist, and perhaps eventually to outright ally and maybe friend, has been handled very well by Twilight. The smaller dragoness doesn't seem to have gotten much respect or appreciation from her peers before...though I also think that her insistence on wanting to return to the Dragon Lands may be tied to hoping someone is waiting for her return.
Also, I love world building chapters like this. The comment aboutSombra having plans for conquest makes me think the Dazzlings may be working for him. Normally their methods would point more toward Chrysalis, but I can't help but think she'd disapprove of their methods due to too much wasteful death.
And Twilight having a good relationship with Tirek, if all people, is quite the surprise. And not just a good relationship, but a close one if she misses him and feels guilty about not sending missives. That usually is reserved for mentor or familial relationships.