10. Honesty, Sincerity, and Compromise
Twinkle Twinkle, Speaker to Dragons
Honesty, Sincerity, and Compromise
“Take whatever you can get, and come back for the rest.”
— Dragonlord Fang
Dragons were fire and fury, but Ruby had been all tense nerves since the Dragonlord had taken Twinkle and flown away. Still, to protect the big lug against the Dragonlord’s return, she had managed to get Brass dragged up the narrow path to her cave by way of brute force, a few kicks, and the unwelcome assistance of the ponies.
Really, if it were not for the prospect of being dismembered by the returning Dragonlord, she would have been far more concerned about her mobile living treasures. They were worried about her idiot brother, and fussed about his injuries like… well, ponies. It left Ruby with little more to do other than scowl and huff.
She was not about to admit it, but Ruby missed the annoying little unicorn. Not just because she was worth so much gold, although that was a lot of her concern. Ruby had gotten lazy because of the little pinhead. Complicated solutions to complicated problems strained her mind now, and made her want to spend a few weeks snoozing in her treasure pool with her nose stuck into the cascade of cave water trickling down the far side of the pool.
Ruby always woke up missing a few gems when she did that, though. Sleep nibbling.
It seemed impossible that one little unicorn could kill the Dragonlord, of all things, but Ruby had watched while the tiny defenseless thing had used mere words to kill his five arrogant children. It was a one-way trip for Twinkle, though. The Dragonlord’s children might kill each other on the trip north, but the Dragonlord himself was far tougher. It was even possible that the Dragonlord might survive, a thought which drove a cold chill down Ruby’s shoulderblades, colder even than the Windigo Twinkle had spoken about. He would be weakened by the cold, furious beyond rational thought, which was the only way Ruby could kill him, tear out his bloody heart, and make the rest of Dragonkind follow her leadership.
Then?
Whatever was tossing the sun and moon around like a loose coin was dangerous beyond belief, but there was no chance a new Dragonlord could force a large number of dragons to fight it. Ruby didn’t want to fight whatever it was either. And the ponies? That was laughable. They only fought when their tails were in a crack and had nowhere to run.
Ruby scratched an itchy spine and considered the idea for a long, long time, both taking into account the vast amount she knew about dragons and the small but growing pool of knowledge about ponies. The one thing she had not expected from ponies was their ability to fight like raving beasts when cornered. Ruby had been very careful not to trap any of her ponies where they could not escape, just in case. Dragons blustered a lot, hit each other, and generally used physical violence as punctuation unless very upset, which made this Dragonlord worse of a problem than most because he was always angry.
The creature… was an unknown, which upset Ruby even more. At least it was flinging around the sun and moon and had remained away from the cave. The way Ruby was accumulating odd creatures, it might decide to move in and stay.
“Female!” came the bellow of the Dragonlord from outside the cave. “Attend your Dragonlord!”
Ruby’s heart sank, and she could feel her fire gutter into coals. Twinkle’s plan had obviously failed. The Dragonlord sounded as energetic as ever, but somehow… hesitant?
Still, it was the command of the Dragonlord, and Ruby swept out the front entrance of her cave and into the sky, then descended to rest in the grass before the massive red dragon.
“What is your—” Ruby’s words were interrupted by the squeaking of a furious unicorn from inside the Dragonlord’s clenched fist, declaring death and destruction on any who would dare to insult dragons in this way, and unspeakable pain once he returned to his rightful place.
Ruby looked up into the face of the Dragonlord, only this time, she could see something that most probably no other dragon would have been able to recognize. She looked at the clenched fist containing the small, cursing creature, then back up at the immense dragon, before turning to a curious dragon nearby and blasting a jet of flame at him.
“Back, you cretins!” she bellowed. “The Dragonlord wishes to speak with me! If he wanted your pin-sized head over here, he would have beaten it into the ground and dragged it here! Back off!”
A second jet of flame and a fierce glare made the rest of the dragons scatter like terrified bugs, giving plenty of space for a quiet conversation with the… whatever was inside the Dragonlord’s body.
“Speak, Dragonlord. Speak and I shall obey,” she bellowed with her head down, promptly following it with a whisper. “What’s going on? Twinkle? Is that you?”
“Yes,” hissed the Dragonlord. “The Dragonlord’s children released a creature named Discord. He exchanged my body and your Dragonlord. Or our minds. I’m afraid, and angry, and my stomach is churning, and… my hind legs are starting to get sluggish. I think it’s the infection from the ponies’ weapons. Don’t laugh!” Twinkle lashed out with one clawed fist and clouted Ruby over the head. Thankfully, it was not the fist with the cursing unicorn, but it did make a few of the dragons who had begun to creep closer reconsider their actions.
“You’re not Twinkle,” hissed Ruby once she had picked herself back up. “You’re acting nothing like her.”
“I am Twinkle,” hissed the Dragonlord right back. “It’s just that I have all these emotions I’ve never had to deal with before and I’m… frightened. I need help to deal with this creature. I need your help, and all the ponies you have in your lair, and every dragon in the valley. Even that may not be enough, but we have to try! Please!”
No Dragonlord would ever ask for help, or work with other dragons and ponies alike no matter how terrible a creature they were facing. The obvious thing to do would be to tear into the false Dragonlord and kill him, then smash the cursing unicorn he was carrying in his fist.
Without experience in using his larger body, she should be able to kill him without getting too injured in return, then…
Ruby would be the new Dragonlord, and have to deal with whatever creature had so effortlessly screwed up this Dragonlord.
Dragons knew magic, because they were magic in many regards. To casually rip a dragon out of his own mind and stuff a unicorn’s where it had no right being was a terrifying example of his power. This ‘Discord’ could destroy all of dragonkind on a whim, particularly if an inexperienced Dragonlord were unable to unite the individualistic dragons against the threat like they were some sort of… ponies.
An idea blossomed in her head, much like fire sweeping through a dry forest.
* * ✹ * *
Twinkle tried not to let her emotions control her actions as the dragons of the valley and beyond gathered together around her. Somewhere deep in her heart she still knew she was a delicious herbivore in the company of aggressive total omnivores, but her mind kept the shield of dragon-ness wrapped around her vulnerability. Ruby’s plan had some validity to it, despite the fact that Twinkle could not use her usually sharp mind to dissect it into discrete chunks and calculate probabilities, so the only path she had left was to throw her new body into the project and ‘wing it.’ At least her frail unicorn body was concealed in Ruby’s nest, shoved into a crevice behind her treasure and blocked from escape by the simple expediency of a huge rock.
“Your Dragonlord speaks!” bellowed Twinkle Twinkle. “Hear my words!” The surrounding dragons shifted positions with a giant hiss of rubbing scales and shifting wings, giving her a moment to breathe in before continuing.
“A great threat has risen that threatens to destroy all of dragonkind. Even all the might of the dragons arrayed against it will fail!” The dragons did not like that at all, and shifted positions with more than a few quiet grumbles that she had to silence before they grew.
“Shut up!” she bellowed. By sheer coincidence, the sun decided to dart below the horizon the moment her voice echoed from the surrounding cliffs, and the dragons were extremely quiet when the ball of fire sprang up into the sky and began to trace circles and loops like some sort of deranged bird.
“Is it the ponies?” called out one of the dragons.
“No, it’s not the ponies!” she snapped. “They’re just as much in danger as we are. And the griffons, and the minotaurs, and everything else! We’re going to have to work together to tear the guts out of this creature!”
The silence that fell over the dragons was absolute.
“That means all of us!” she bellowed when the first dragons began to open their mouths to ask questions or bellow threats. “Until this creature is defeated, no more beating up other dragons. No taking treasure from other races. And no eating ponies!” she added with a fierce roar and blast of fire.
“They killed my cousin!” called out one of the dragons.
“One of the ponies killed my whelps!” bellowed Twinkle so fiercely that she could barely remember her own role in the event. “She drove them to the icy north where they murdered each other in their greed to steal the pony treasure! One of the worthless whelps let that—” The sun took that moment to dive below the horizon while the stars held up little placards with numbers on them.
“—that thing out of the cage the ponies had it trapped in,” she finished in the darkness. “The ponies captured it once, so I’m betting they’re the only ones who can do it again! That’s why I gave them the book I found next to the cage!”
“Gave?” gasped the entirety of the surrounding dragons in an odd echo of muted horror.
“Gave!” snarled Twinkle with every single bit of menace she could put into the word. “What, is one of you some sort of genius who can read pony books? Can you find out how to put Discord back into his prison? When did you become the Dragonlord!”
She put her entire lungs into the last word, and the surrounding circle of dragons became very quiet. Or deaf. It was hard to tell in the dark since the sun plunged below the horizon and the stars were hiding somewhere before the echoes had died away. Twinkle waited long enough for the words to soak in, about as much time as her father would whenever he was yelling at another pony, then snapped, “I’ve got some new rules!”
“How are rules supposed to stop something that can juggle the sun!”
Twinkle snarled into the crowd of dragons, trying to hide the pleasure she felt about Teakettle responding to her prompt so well. “By not playing by his rules! He wants to pit us against each other for his own amusement? Let him be bored! He wants to have us dance to his tune? Stand still! He wants us to play his games? Run away! Let the dragons be a distraction while the ponies figure a way to lock him up again! That is how we will beat him! He is an enemy of dragonkind unlike any we have faced before, so it will take dragons unlike any the world has seen before to defeat him!”
Another wave of fearsome cheering later, Twinkle waved the dragons to silence. It was a heady feeling of power that threatened to go to her oversized head, if not for the immediate and fatal consequences of such a foolish move. Besides, the most tricky part of Rose’s plan was next.
“To do this, we’re going to need every dragon and pony!” bellowed Twinkle. “Some of you are hiding ponies in your lairs. Don’t try to deny it. You’re going to bring them here and allow Ruby to take care of them! Yes, I said Ruby! That’s the name I’m going to use for her! I’m tired of calling her Female!”
“But I don’t want my pony to be eaten,” said one small voice out in the crowd of dragons that sounded suspiciously whistle-y, like Teakettle had gone out and found a new equine toy to keep in his lair.
“She’s not going to eat your pony,” said Twinkle. “She’s going to hold your pony with the rest of them, so it won’t get sick and die. We need every captured pony alive, and they require other ponies around them to be healthy, so go bring them here. They help each other, and they’re going to help us!”
This time it was not Teakettle who asked the obvious question. “How can puny ponies help us?”
“In many ways, but the first is the same way they hurt us.” Twinkle pivoted and pointed with one long claw, trying to keep the same rough exterior that the Dragonlord possessed. Brass had agreed to drag himself out of Ruby’s cave, even though he was still injured from the Dragonlord’s previous attack, and he made a good wedge to apply against the rest of the dragons’ natural suspicions.
“Brass there had a dozen pony spearpoints in his ass when he came back from the raid. Ponies pulled them out before the infection could kill him. If we’re going to fight Discord, I don’t want any of you idiots dying on me! So line up here if you’ve still got a spear or any other chunk of pony metal stuck in your hide somewhere, and I’ll show you how they’re going to help . Ruby is going to tell the ponies to carefully pull the chunks of metal out, and the first one of you who complains about how much it hurts is going to find out just what pain is! Now line up, dragons with the most steel in their hides in the front!”
No dragon came forward.
Twinkle could feel a coil of fear mixing with the fire in her new belly, which she forced into a sneer of pure arrogance, curling her lip up and putting as much contempt into her voice as she could. “Cowards,” she breathed. “You were brave enough to risk danger when we attacked the ponies, and now you want to hide behind each other? The bravest of dragons is the one who keeps puny ponies safe by my command! Her brother had an armory pulled out of his ass! Even he had enough courage to ask Ruby for help, in the way all dragons will need to cooperate in order to defeat this new threat! Watch the way a brave dragon can put aside his foolish pride and deal with lesser beings.”
He swung his massive head over to glare at Ruby. “Have the ponies… I mean ask one of the ponies to come out here. The blind one, preferably.” It was only by strength of will that she avoided adding ‘please’ in the way her mother had taught her. Dragons did not use that word. Perhaps it was time for a change.
* * ✹ * *
It was interesting how Twinkle could see so sharply at this distance. He could count every short regrowing hair on Nova’s face as the unicorn picked his way down the path from the cave with Nurse Care at his side. The path was wide enough for a dragon, but she still watched their descent carefully. It certainly would have been tragic if one of the ponies had been jostled off the edge, and not just because it would have reduced the value of Ruby’s hoard.
It was strange to think that way. As Dragonlord, he kept seeing her real name instead of the artificial ‘Ruby’ that she had given to her. And being in the Dragonlord’s body continually made Twinkle think of the body he… that is she was in to be her natural form. It strained her draconic mind, and she wished Discord had kept her real mind with her no matter how much more difficult… no, impossible it would have been to play her role.
It helped to watch the two ponies approach, with tentative motions and wide-nosed sniffs of prey walking toward predators, until they stopped a short distance away. Twinkle lowered her head and moved closer, trying to avoid a pleased draconic smile when Nurse Care began trembling.
“Good day, ponies.” A dragon’s voice did not have ‘friendly’ in it, but Twinkle was trying. “I would like to exchange my promise for your services, much as you did for Brass.”
The nurse quit trembling, most probably out of shock. Nova hesitated, cocked his head to one side, and made as if to speak although nothing came out for a few moments.
“Well?” asked Twinkle when she began to get impatient, another new emotion she was attempting to suppress.
In the most formal of Royal Court etiquette, Nova announced, “What services do you require, Honored Dragonlord?” He had far more volume than Twinkle expected, most probably due to a sound spell he was casting. The surrounding dragons held themselves perfectly silent, riveted with curiosity over this strange and unique occasion, making his voice clearly audible even to the dragons in the back.
“Your fellow ponies stuck a number of spears and arrows into me,” said Twinkle. “This is understandable, because we were attacking their caravan at the moment. If you will remove them, I swear by the First Egg, by My Name, and by my Magic, that I shall not harm any ponies, or allow any ponies to come to harm, as long as I live.”
It was too bad that Nova still had leaf bandages over his eyes, because he had the most interesting startled expression, and it would have been pleasurable to see how wide his eyes opened. He swallowed, tilted his head to the other side, and shook it slowly.
“That is insufficient,” said Nova slowly. The surrounding dragons gasped, then went silent again. “We get to keep the spearpoints,” he added.
Twinkle huffed, then settled back down, cautiously due to the numbness in her rear. “That could be a reasonable request,” she rumbled, “since they belonged to ponies in the first place. How can we be certain you will not use them to harm us again?”
There were a few low titters of laughter among the observing dragons, which cut off abruptly when Twinkle swung her head around to look for who was making the unwelcome noise.
“They are collectable,” said Nova. “They are symbols of the conflict between dragons and ponies, taken from the Dragonlord himself. That makes them rare, and extremely valuable. In the years to come, should we survive, ponies would… exchange much gold for them.”
A low murmuring went around the collected dragons, which made Twinkle happy that the conversation was going somewhat in the direction she wanted. “Half,” she offered. “I would keep some for myself, so that future generations of dragons can be shown just why we should not hunt your kind.”
* * *
The agreement turned out to be the easy part. Surgery hurt!
“Don’t just twist it,” growled Twinkle through gritted teeth. “Pull it out!”
“In a moment, Your Majesty,” sounded Nova’s voice from around her hindquarters. “The tip of the spear bent when it hit bone, and we’re trying not to do any more damage.”
“Bone?” said one of the nearby dragons with a shudder.
There was a clang of metal in the pile next to Twinkle as the bent spear landed, dripping with puss and still clutching a thin segment of draconic muscle in its crooked tip. Two other dragons gasped, and one of them turned around with his face turning green. Well, greener.
Nurse Care had not spoken a single word during the entire ordeal, but Nova was sounding cheerful, almost jovial with every blade removed. That was probably because he did not see how much blood or pus was involved, since he still did not have the medicated pads removed from his eyes. Instead he was standing upwind, using his magic to guide the nurse’s extractions in what would have been considered to be an amazing display of field dexterity back in Unicornia. It took a skilled unicorn to cast a working without being able to see what they were doing, and she could feel his magic tracing the lines of the metal in her leg, separating tissue from another intruding blade until Nurse Care tugged it free and tossed it on the pile.
“That should be the most difficult ones, Revered Dragonlord,” said Nova.
And nearly an hour later…
“I believe we have them all now, and the wounds sealed. Just one last check with the metal detection spell and… Yes, that’s it.”
Twinkle took a look backward along her curved flank to see the two unicorns looking back. Well, one was looking back with the kind of expression that ‘Shocked Horror’ had passed quite some time ago, while the other still had his blood-soaked leaf bandages on his face. “Go wash,” she managed before turning her angry glare at the circle of watching dragons. Some of them seemed a little too excited at seeing their Dragonlord so incapicated, so she raised her voice to a gravely screech.
The Dragonlord’s mind contained a large number of appropriate profanities, of astonishing range and scope related to her present state of pain. She did not stop until she began to repeat herself, which took some time, and gathered the attention of every dragon in the valley as she had wanted.
After waiting a few moments for the echoes to die away, she addressed the rest of the dragons with a fearsome scowl. “Next!” she bellowed.
* * *
It was remarkably easy to snooze while other dragons were getting their own festering wounds treated, although she seemed to be required by her elevated station to chuckle grimly whenever one of them complained too much about their own injuries and threatened the pony surgeon who was saving their life.
That was not the only reason she could not sleep as much as she wanted. Apparently, her forceful demand that the other dragons bring their ponies to have Ruby care for them was taken as a good idea also. Dragons were obviously poor choices for pet owners, and when you added in the various traumas the poor things had been through… There were at least five nervous ponies who were brought in alive, and two who had expired fairly recently. Those were more difficult. Twinkle had to order one of the dragons to help the captive ponies dig a grave, and dealt with the subsequent grumbling with an extremely short speech.
“Dragons are dragons,” she growled. “Ponies are ponies. Do ponies tell us how to treat our dead? Then we should not tell them. Bury the bodies as they request, and any who disturb the graves will answer to me.”
The grumbling ceased.
It made Twinkle consider the draconic way of settling disputes vs. King Bullion and his royalty-clogged court. They both had their advantages, and perhaps a little outright theft at the edges for both races would be mutually beneficial. The solution the ponies came up with for division of the various spearpoints and other dragon-embedded weaponry was likewise innovative, much like the way Twinkle had divided the loot between Ruby and Brass.
First and foremost, Nova would repeatedly run a cleaning spell across the extracted metal until the steel glinted silver and all the remaining bits of wood shone in the sun. The dragons appreciated that more than Twinkle expected, because of their natural tendency to polish and clean their own hoards. Then one of the ponies from the cave would separate the blades and various bits of steel into two smaller piles. To Twinkle’s surprise, Rootworm proved to be the most popular sorter because of his youthful exuberance and frequent comments about how sharp or dangerous each item was as he carefully examined the size and condition of each blade and point.
The dragons were fascinated by the process. Nurse Care fretted nearby, because he had nearly adopted the small colt, and did not have the same sense of youthful immortality that Rootworm displayed.
Then the injured and recuperating dragon would select one pile to keep, and the other would become the temporary property of the Dragonlord, held in proxy for the ponies and their eventual liberation/exchange to their peers. Since Ruby’s cave was too damp to prevent rust, and was starting to get crowded, Brass dug a shallow cave into the dry cliff face so the wealth of shining steel could be properly displayed, and ponies wrote little display placards for each grouping.
Admission was set at one Equestrian bit. Bragging was free.
Time went by at a rapid clip, and not just because the sun and moon flung themselves around at the whim of Discord so far away. Dragons slept when they were recovering, and bigger dragons slept more. If King Bullion had this kind of metabolism, Unicornia would have only functioned on weekends. Then again, dragons were immensely destructive, so being inactive for long periods was beneficial to just about every other creature. It also kept her from facing Nova and explaining her present situation.
Of course, it did not stop Nova from waking her up one day when she least expected it.
“Good morning, Revered Dragonlord.” The sun took that moment to vanish into the sky, leaving behind the sound of a defaulting balloon. Twinkle had thought she was getting used to the sky’s odd behavior, but she still was left to blink in the darkness while the stars began to flicker to life above her, each with a tiny number attached to them. “Or afternoon, I suppose,” he added.
Twinkle turned her open eye to the ground level and examined the unicorn, who was entirely too close for her to focus on properly. Nova was still wearing his leaf-poultice bandages over his eyes, but she could see small pinpoints in them as if they were only being worn for show among the dragons or to counter the bright sun. The rest of his coat appeared to be growing back in across his dark bare skin, although slowly, and he seemed reasonably healthy for a pony who had been brought in nearly dead.
“What do you want, pony?” Twinkle kept her voice low, or at least low for a dragon, since there did not seem to be anycreature around at the moment. She would prefer to keep it that way since her deception was running on a rather thin thread.
“I just wanted to report to the Dragonlord on the health of the ponies in Ruby’s care,” said Nova. “We are now up to twenty-eight, including the insane one who has been placed in the back of the cave and blocked in by a boulder. She does not eat as much as she should and spends most of her time scheming your demise, which is cute, in a psychopathic way. I suppose our wedding will be delayed until I can find an appropriate set of manacles,” he added with a slight tilt to his head.
Apparently, the Dragonlord’s body was able to blow a perfect smoke ring when she snorted in laughter. “I knew it would be difficult keeping my secret from the second-smartest pony in the world,” she said.
“Smartest,” declared Nova. “The crazy one isn’t that smart, and you’re not a pony.”
“I’m smart enough to wonder what will happen when my uninvited guest is gone.” Twinkle reached out one foreclaw and wrapped it effortlessly around Nova, feeling the gentle tickle of his regrowing coat against her palm.
“We’ll have a very angry Dragonlord,” said Nova’s muffled voice. “At least he should be pleased that his dragons are alive and well, plus far more wealthy than before.”
“Delusional optimist,” said Twinkle.
“I have to be,” replied Nova from inside her fist. “Otherwise, how will we both become fathers? But that is neither here nor there. Unless you get some exercise, you will not heal correctly. Far be it for a lowly pony to give orders to the illustrious Dragonlord—”
“But it is the place for a wise advisor to give their advice, in a mutual relationship of respect between our two races.”
“Right.” Nova wriggled around until he could get his nose into a crack in Twinkle’s loose fist. “You need exercise.”
It was a phrase that Twinkle had heard quite frequently during her time as a pony, and she responded much the same way as she had frequently done to her parents, only without the book.
“I can see you out there,” said Nova, who was still inside her closed fist. “You’re only pretending to sleep.”
Then he cheated.
“Your clever plan depends on it.”
She opened her clawed fist and regarded the upstart unicorn stallion, with his nose stuck up in the air and a smug smile concealed poorly amidst the curls of his growing facial hair. “As Dragonlord, it is my responsibility to lead my dragons,” she rumbled. “If you are to become the leader you claim is your destiny, then you too should be a leader of your kind.”
It was the matter of one surprised moment to scoop Nova up and deposit him on the upraised scales where her neck merged into her shoulder plates, then with a mighty flap of her wings, she soared into the sky.
“You’re right,” admitted Twinkle, spreading her wings wider and making a wide circle in the sky. “I need this.”
Nova had very little to say as he clenched tight to her rough shoulder scales, but she could feel a trickle of moisture running down her neck as she swooped and glided.
* * *
Whatever time passed, be it weeks or months, waiting was interminable. Other than Nova’s growing hair, there was no reliable measure of time with the sun and moon popping up and down at the whim of the distant Discord, and apparently there were enough entertaining things around the world that he had not returned. Or at least yet.
Physical exercise made a good distraction from the occasional rumor about Discord from her wide-spread collection of dragons, even though she could not help but think about how she was making the Dragonlord’s body stronger in the event that Discord was actually defeated. It was a risk she had to take, even if she kept thinking of herself as himself. It was easy to slip into the mindset of dragonkind while flying, and taking one of the ponies along kept her centered.
Although Nova refused any more flights, insisting that his place was keeping Twinkle’s fragile body alive and healthy for her eventual return.
Rootworm made a good flying companion, because he was unafraid of anything, including other dragons. He was clueless about Twinkle’s body swap, which was fortunate, and curious as a cat, which was dangerous for them all. Thankfully, he was also obedient to the Dragonlord, whom he adored, particularly if rewarded on rare occasions.
“Not today, little one,” rumbled Twinkle. “Today, I fly with Ruby.”
“Again?” The little colt stuck out his bottom lip and twisted one hoof into the stubby grass. “You’ve been flying with her all the time lately.”
“I’ve been getting strong, much like you.” Twinkle held one huge claw down next to the colt, who stretched up as far as he could against the deadly curve. “Soon, you will grow as large as me.”
They exchanged laughter, which was something that did not require gold or gems, until Rootworm looked up into the sky with a squint.
“And there’s Ruby again. Does this mean you’re going to fly away, Dragonlord?”
“Yes, indeed. Grow while I’m gone, Little Egg. Grow in size and value, so the ponies will be proud to pay much gold for your return, and they will admire your worth. Females will vie to be your mates, and your offspring will—”
“Eww!” declared Rootworm, who turned and galloped for the cave. “Uncle Care! The Dragonlord is saying icky things again.”
Laughter felt so odd and comfortable at the same time while the Dragonlord ascended into the sky, much as if her time as a fragile unicorn was the dream and this was reality. Even if Discord was never defeated, he could adjust to this far too easily. Her memories of family and home had faded in a way that she never would have tolerated as a unicorn, but she was making new ones every minute of every day, no matter how short or long.
“Finally getting up here without your little friend?” asked Ruby, who had slipped alongside the thoughtful Dragonlord without being noticed.
“Dragons do not have friends,” he rumbled, then gave the insolent female a light wing-clap to the head as they flew. “We have subjects, and property.”
“Oh, so I’m property?” Ruby unfurled her wings wider and swooped up, leaving the Dragonlord spinning in a whirl of downdraft. That could not stand, so he gave a mighty flap of his own to pursue, and the chase was on. Every updraft or gust was a part of the game, and the whole sky was their playing field. Instinct drove his body, curling to dive and swooping again when Ruby rose to greater heights, with a swipe at her tail whenever it was within reach.
This freedom was far better than being a unicorn! Emotions ran through his body like lightning in a storm, and it was impossible to stop their mutual dance, even if he wanted. Again and again they clashed together, then climbed higher in the sky until the world was very small beneath them.
And then…
* * *
There was a large patch of grass that had been identified as the Dragonlord’s private lounging spot, and Twinkle spread her immense body out across it like a sun-warmed rug. If she were being honest with herself, she could admit to being ever so slightly overwhelmed by her… or his recent experience. She was really feeling like a he right now, and it did not contribute to a rational flow of thought. At least the rest of the dragons were giving him considerable leeway, except for Brass who had stationed himself on a nearby grassy bluff and was keeping an eye directed in Twinkle’s general direction. It was a lot like her father had done whenever one of her brothers had been out in the garden with a young unicorn of appropriate breeding, most likely to prevent a completely different kind of breeding. Which she understood now. In great detail.
“Ahem,” came Nova’s quiet voice far enough away to avoid any inadvertent scorching due to surprise. “Respected Dragonlord, may I approach?”
Twinkle opened one eye, looked around to make sure they were relatively unobserved except by Ruby’s one relative, then nodded. Nova had long ago out-healed his need for the herb-infused leaf bandages over his eyes, but he still wore them like glasses pushed up onto his forehead because the dragons expected it. After all, he had leaves on his face when they first saw him, so they expected leaves on his face from then on. In some ways, dragons were quite stupid. In others, they seemed brighter and more attentive than ponies, and less prone to meaningless panic.
Which was probably good for Twinkle right now, because after she landed, she had seriously considered a great deal of panic.
It was reassuring to feel Nova patting her on the nose, in a most non-pony fashion. Had he struck a female unicorn in that fashion, severe injury and most likely an assault charge would follow.
“So,” he said with a faint sniff, “a serious talk or would you rather have humor?”
“There’s nothing funny about what I did,” rumbled Twinkle very quietly. “It was… Well…”
“Sex,” said Nova. “To be specific, you’re going to be a father, if Ruby’s behavior back at the cave is any indication. She’s nesting,” he clarified. “No eggs yet, but I suppose that will take a week or two.”
“It was very violent,” managed Twinkle.
“Dragons never struck me as the gentle type,” said Nova. “I was watching, as were many of the dragons. We kept Rootworm in the cave. Didn’t want to disturb his youthful innocence. And on an up-note, the rest of the dragons have been giving you wide berth since. Since Ruby is going to clutch the Dragonlord’s eggs, I’m betting they are keeping their heads down. Oh, and from what I’ve gathered, don’t go up to the cave.”
“I know that,” snorted Twinkle. “Father used to tell stories about Mother when she was with foal, and I did get the story from Ruby and Brass about their childhood. Um… Ruby was not… upset, was she?”
Nova pursed his lips and considered his words. “For a dragon, she seemed quite pleased. And if our observations of the nearby dragons is correct, several other female dragons are considering—”
“No,” said Twinkle quite solidly. “I… um… If this is all successful in the long run, I do not wish to explain it to Mother.”
For a long moment, it seemed as if Nova were about to make a humorous statement about all older mares wanting grandfoals, but he restrained himself. It was the mark of a fair husband, if they ever got out of this alive, although she was quite certain that aspect of his personality would grow abrasive over time until their certain divorce, as he had predicted.
Thinking pony thoughts was reassuring. Having Nova around also made it easier to think like a pony. Whenever the Dragonlord was called to break up a fight or negotiate some draconic dispute, she reveled in the power, the sheer might of her immense body and the cringing respect it brought. Father had always claimed that power was addictive, and this degree of power over powerful dragons… it was an immense temptation that grew more difficult to fight every day. The longer she was in the body of the Dragonlord, the more dragon-like her mind she became.
And yet.... She had seen dragons change their thinking about ponies, not just because the Dragonlord threatened physical violence, but when they finally realized that an exchange brought additional value to each contributor. And not only ponies, but distant dragons brought stories from other races, minotaurs and wild griffon tribes, as well as strange creatures that did not match anycreature that Twinkle had ever read anything about. Word about Discord had spread as far as a dragon could fly, and many of the races encountered had only been few and scattered survivors from foolish attempts to stop the chaotic monster. Some of her dragons had fallen prey to the temptation of fighting also, and only an occasional tattered or warped remnant had managed to pass their stories on.
It would take every clever thought of her dragon and pony mind for Twinkle to weather this storm, and bring as many of each race through to the other side. She had been doing so well, passing messages for dragons to take to the ponies and enforcing her rules among her subjects about how smart dragons were to treat Discord if they blundered into him. Smart dragons survived. Dumb dragons did not.
She brought one huge claw forward and gently stroked down the back of Nova, holding her strength back to a gentle touch. There were so many things outside of her control, and twice as many that she only could influence indirectly, even as Dragonlord. Still, she had already saved the life of Brass by pulling the pony speartips out of his rear, and helped Nova save the lives of many other dragons by the same disgusting process.
For all of her life, Twinkle had been alone except for her family, absolutely certain that her defective body would never clutch and bear eggs… That is attract a mate and raise foals on her own. If Nova’s whimsical statement about them becoming a family was prophecy instead of delusion… Then again, he had tossed off the same kind of line about the Dragonlord becoming a father and here she was, to-be father of a nest. Perhaps it was not all about Twinkle Twinkle, the painfully intelligent unicorn, after all.
She looked down at the tiny unicorn stallion, truely looking at him for the first time. The dragon part of her noted that he was recovering well, putting on enough weight that he was not all burnt skin and thin bones anymore. The pony part of her… evaluated. Good teeth, noble upbringing without that horrid sense of unfounded superiority, and smart enough to yield to Twinkle’s good ideas while proposing innovative solutions of his own. Her disadvantages were his advantages, and the other way around also, creating synergy. Mother and Father would have no objections to them becoming mates, provided her parents were still alive, and of course provided she was not still a dragon by then. They were truly stronger together than apart, even in their current forms. Nova trusted her, and she trusted him.
Trust was the most important part of mating after all. Sex would wait. It would obviously have to wait for now, but if everything worked out in the long term between dragons, ponies, and Discord, sex would naturally be a part of that, as well as pregnancy and childbirth. It was a possibility that Twinkle the unicorn had never really considered before, even though she had been surrounded by it in her family. Part of her body merging with part of Nova’s body and producing foals from her own belly, suckled by her own teats, and raised by the two of them together. It sounded… interesting now, not impossible.
“Twinkle,” mused Nova nearly under his breath, but still audible to her sharp draconic senses. “What is it like being a father?”
“Complicated.” Twinkle gave her future husband a gentle pat on the head with her extended claw and tried to arrange his stubbly mane, which was growing in all white and curled. “I’m certain you will grow to appreciate it, when your turn comes around. After all, you will be the second most intelligent pony in the world then, and you shall father brilliant children.”
“Promise?” asked Nova.
“In good time,” rumbled the strange Dragonlord. “For now, we must take things as they come.”
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Sometimes things work out in weird ways.
Been a year ;)
It's BACK! It's Back! It's Back!
Worth the wait. Thank you for continuing.
I had to re-read last chapter to remember everything that happened, and I'm glad I did. This chapter was great! Can't wait for the next one!
Thank goodness this isn't one of those Equestrias where dragons are built like nightmarish jet fighters, with titanium-enriched scales and fission reactors in their bellies. (All the minerals in those gems have to be good for something!)
One of the harder lessons for anyone to learn. Many never do, to the delight of tinfoil manufacturers.
Lovely way to welcome this story back. I do love the ongoing struggle between Twinkle's mind and body. The question is whether the Dragonlord will keep her original body in any kind of decent condition should she return. Maybe if they offered a security deposit...
In any case, looking forward to more.
I suppose that's another way for Twinkle Twinkle to be a speaker to dragons. They're doing a lot of building that I hope the dragonlord doesn't tear down when(/if) he returns to his erstwhile body.
And the relationship between Twinkle Twinkle and Ruby just got more complicated.
10691817 (sometime much later) "Mom. Dad. This is Nova. My husband. And Ruby, my wife. And my four children, Rampage, Carnage, Ripper, and Fangs. Mom? Can somebody get some water for my mother, please?"
And then the Dragonlord in Twinkle's body gets boned... and gets pregnant.
This will end well.
Also, evil psycho Discord is evil, and psycho. He needs to be banished to New Jersey, like his brother Leeds was!
It’s alive! Nice chapter.
Honestly, if Twinkles disciplined mind is having trouble not slipping into dragonish things, imagine pony-dragonlord. Once the raving dies down, it may be very, very educational.
Well, this chapter was at an appropriate level of strange.
I'm curious how Twinkle's body will affect Dragonlord's mind.
Maybe some kirins will be born from this love triangle
Ok, updated and fixed some typos. Now with more pus and cleaning spells.
10692883 Hey, what happens in the Dragonlands, stays in the Dragonlands.
10692598 Thank you. I try for the weird.
10692574 Some creatures like Twinkle can grow into their experience. Some merely go mad. I'll leave you with that.
10692504 Yep. This is one of those stories I'm going to get finished eventually (some of them just go on and on)
10692131 I promise Twinkle's not going to wind up pregnant in this story. (Yes, it's a break from my normal stories, but...)
10691780 Dragons, More Than Meets the Eye. Hey, it's not like the Dragonlord is getting his deposit back.
10691662 10691396 10691393 Yeah, that's the reason I've been putting out these chapters as I get them done, because if I waited until it's all done, that could be another year or more. Write, write, write...
Thank you for writing. :)
10693119 Twinkle, having panic attack later, "THERE WERE TWO OF THEM!! TWO!! And when it happened... I HAD NO IDEA THERE COULD BE SO MUCH!! WHERE DOES IT EVEN FIT?! It was a FLOOD! A TSUNAMI!! I couldn't control it as it GUSHED OUT EVERYWHERE!!!"
Ruby raises an eyebrow, "Don't you think you're overreacting to the fact that your two-pack of soda got shaken up too much when you flew back from the store?"
What, did you think this was something DIRTY?! SHAME ON YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!
I love this narrative! At first I had misgivings about the heavy influence the body has on the mind, but now seeing where you went with it: nice work!
Nova can't be?
He can't be?
Is he?
Who is absolutely brilliant, and yet whimsical enough to purposely put bells on his hat?
I wonder if the fact that Twinkle's mind is inhabiting the Dragon Lord's body will affect Ruby's eventual clutch?
My inane musings aside, glad to have you back Georg.
We need a little update on the Dragonlord on pony body too. Bound to be having similar issues.
Damn... I shoulda picked this story up ages ago. That was a great read and I can't wait for more1
10700372
oh my God it's him
Dear Georg, thank you for still existing and writing. My world is happier having read yer stuff.
P.s. keep writing.
Oh, I had put this one down for sec and forgotten how good it is. Wonderful writing, I especially enjoyed the depiction of the struggle of having someone else's brain. Love the idea of it.
Huh, I should've found this story earlier. Quite a treat!
this is such a fun story to read.
but i see that George has either forgotten abut it or writers block has hit hard.
i am hopping to see more of this soon.
11425057
Almost done with next chapter.
11425352
10691834
"And my first four children..."