11. Love, War, and Family
Twinkle Twinkle, Speaker to Dragons
Love, War, and Family
“I have stared into the depths of the cosmos, unleashed powers that other mortals could never comprehend, and bent reality to my will, but I shall never understand the females of any species if I live a thousand years.”
— Starswirl the Bearded
As time went on in the odd uncountable fashion of the unreliable Sun and Moon, Twinkle began to realize how much her frozen former life had changed. Not only because she was in a dragon body, feeling real emotions for the first time. It was because other ponies and dragons were depending on her. She had been cared for her entire life by parents and servants, pampered like a delicate flower. Now, she was caring for an entire collection of strangers, thrust together by chaotic fate and placed within her claws for protection from a violent world.
Still, some things remained the same no matter what body she was in. Ponykind’s knowledge of dragons was extremely thin, so in the slender possibility that Twinkle survived, it was her responsibility to bring back as much knowledge as possible. Quiet discussions with Brass filled in a number of her gaps about dragon culture and behavior, but one thing stood out as something that dragons took totally for granted.
“Now, carefully breathe out,” said the Dragonlord to Teakettle with her face almost into his mouth. “Focus on that peculiar feeling that you told me about before and set the leaves alight.”
The annoying dragon meekly breathed out across the pile of dry leaves, causing them to flash into smoke almost instantly. Despite a light breeze, the results of her experiment coiled up into the sky and vanished without the expected drifting, leaving no traces of smoke behind.
“Interesting,” rumbled Twinkle. “Move aside. The next pile is mine. If this ability can be taught, it is valuable and you will be rewarded.”
“Really?” Teakettle had an eager look in his oversized eyes that made Twinkle aware of how unexpectedly bright the awkward dragon had proven so far. “Is it worth a pony of my own?”
Suppressing a much more gentle response, Twinkle cuffed the smaller dragon across the back of the head. “Dragons are not gentle with them. Only Ruby has displayed the intelligence and trust to shelter the ponies until the threat of Discord is removed and our two races may seek a way to live without destroying each other. Until we can understand how fragile they are, other dragons—including yourself—will not be permitted to be alone with any of them, including Nova. Thankfully, he survived Wheezy’s treatment or dragonkind would be far poorer. Still, he did survive, unlike several of their more fragile number. We shall see.”
Focusing her breath down to what Twinkle could remember of the whistling dragon’s fire, he focused on the last pile of leaves and let his fire consume them. This time, the whirl of smoke curled up into the air and vanished almost instantly.
“Success,” rumbled Twinkle. “I think. The leaves went somewhere, unlike the fire used to store treasure in our second bellies. That makes five types of dragonfire so far, and there has to be more.”
“Five?” asked Teakettle with a sideways tilt to his head. “My special fire, regular fire, and treasure fire is only three.”
“Nesting fire,” said Twinkle, still furiously flogging her draconic mind into thinking about where the smoke had gone. “When a dragoness breathes out her fire around her nest as a warning to any male dragon. Then hatching fire to bring the dragonlings out of their eggs once they have matured as far as they will progress.”
“Oh, yes,” said Teakettle, his eyes growing even wider than usual. “Don’t mess with eggs, even if you can sneak into a nest. New mothers have hot fire.”
“That would fit the theory,” mused Twinkle, scratching her chin with one talon. “Your battle fire is hotter when you’re not carrying treasure in your second belly, so once a female breathes out her special fire, she’s more powerful to defend her eggs against jealous dragons and predators. A weak female who can’t defend her eggs can’t reproduce, while a strong one produces many young dragons.”
It was quite obvious that Teakettle was not a deep thinker, but he was trying to struggle through the concept. “Strong dragons make many strong young dragons, but weak dragons—”
“Intelligence can be as powerful as dragon might,” said Twinkle. “Smart and strong can defeat smart or strong.”
Teakettle nodded enthusiastically. “I’m really smart and you’re awfully strong. And you’re smarter now than you’ve ever been before.”
It was dangerous territory for the odd-sounding dragon to think his way into, made worse when Teakettle stopped talking and just looked over at Ruby’s cave for a long moment.
“Dumb dragons or ponies would have been destroyed by Discord already,” said Twinkle in a low rumble of menace. “We all need to be smarter, or we’re all going to die.”
“Like that weird little pony you took north to—” Teakettle had been talking slowly with only a trace of his normal whistling speech, but he stopped abruptly, swallowed, then looked up at the considerably larger Dragonlord, who smiled back with excessive teeth displayed.
“Think about your next words,” said Twinkle, “or they could be your last.”
Teakettle did not say anything, but a positive stream of emotions flowed across his expressive face. He was obviously thinking something that Twinkle would prefer he not, but she could not bring herself to kill him right there in order to keep the secret of her body swapping with the real Dragonlord. After all, she was not the Dragonlord. She was both smart and strong as she said.
Thankfully, Teakettle remained silent, which was another credit in his favor. Dragons could think for a very long time before speaking, far longer than Twinkle had expected a few scant weeks ago. Ponies tended to action before the facts were fully known, much like she could see Nova scurrying out of Ruby’s cave and headed in their direction at a full gallop.
As he drew near, Nova’s appearance only seemed stranger. His mane and tail were covered with twigs and leaves, leaving a trail of debris behind him. Twinkle did not have her usual intelligence in the Dragonlord’s body, but she had an exceptional sense of hearing, and she could hear Teakettle suck in a quick breath and say, “So that is what my fire does?”
Slowing as he approached, Nova eventually dropped into a full bow that would not have been out of place in King Bullion’s court, although with enough leaves and twigs still in his shortened mane that he most likely would have been thrown out as some sort of beggar.
“I think he is interfering with us,” started Nova breathlessly without any of his normal dancing around the point. “These leaves and twigs started dropping all around me a few minutes ago, and I can’t find any pony magic that— What are you doing?”
It had to be a record for the shortest magical transport ever. Twinkle’s fire enveloped a small pile of dry grass nearby, and moments later the resulting smoke materialized above Nova’s horn in a cascade of smoldering hay. She almost apologized for the inconvenience, except that was not a very Dragonlord behavior, so she laughed instead.
It was a natural action for the Dragonlord and greatly pleasing to Twinkle because she had never laughed as a pony, ever. A good husband would be able to make his spouse amused, and in her frail form, she was so crippled in that regard that she almost wanted to remain a dragon when Discord was defeated. Of course, that was not an option. Chaos magic was inherently unstable, and transformations would go back to their original state upon its removal, or at least that was what Nova had deduced during one of their earlier conversations.
When that happened, Twinkle would face an entirely unwinnable challenge as a frail pony set against the mighty Dragonlord. Until that happened, she was determined to take every opportunity to experience life on this side of the scales. That included laughing until she could barely breathe at the look that Nova was giving her.
“Unfair!” he proclaimed. “I’m the smartest unicorn in the world. I should be discovering new magics, not you.” He frowned at a loose leaf for a long moment until it vanished in a swirl of smoke, which Twinkle found to be even more amusing.
Or at least until she coughed, and the leaf appeared in a burst of flame.
“Ha!” declared Nova.
“Ha indeed,” rumbled Twinkle. She took the smoldering leaf in the tips of her claws and examined it while Nova continued talking.
“As a form of communication, it is quite limited,” he admitted. “Still, we should be able to use it to talk to Teakettle after he is sent to Princess Platinum’s court.”
“What?” coughed Teakettle with a whiff of steam out of his nose. “Why would I—”
“Because you know about my wife,” continued Nova flatly in a tone of voice that Twinkle had begun to dread. “You will be unable to resist telling your fellow dragons, and so the Dragonlord will be attacked and killed by his own kind, leaving all dragons thrown into chaos and destroyed in turn by Discord. The only way for dragonkind to survive is for you to be sent to the growing pony lands, there to take service as an Ambassador.”
“Ambassador?” said Teakettle, sounding out the strange word with a few whistling tweets from his nose as he worked his way to the end. “But if you… I mean the Dragonlord…”
“Nova has never been wrong,” said Twinkle, towering over the smaller dragon. “If I am not who you think I am, I would tear you into pieces now that I have taken the secret of your special fire so that I might keep it for my own. Correct?”
“Err…” managed Teakettle while backing up slowly, matched by Twinkle’s slow forward movement.
“You will be… rewarded for your service,” said Twinkle. “It is an exchange.”
Teakettle stopped backing up. “Rewarded?”
Twinkle let her teeth show. It felt good, not as good as sinking her jaws into the overly smart dragon and ending his threat for good, but it was a mixture of dragon and pony that was the best choice for all of them. “You obeyed the Dragonlord’s command to bring your new pony into Ruby’s collection. There she thrives and grows in value. Obey this command and your reward will be… greater. I cannot say for certain because the future wavers like a flame before us, but it will be better than the destruction Nova saw by far. Besides,” she had to add, “you wanted a pony. Now you will have thousands. You’ll just have to be very cautious playing with them, because if you harm even one…”
Teakettle swallowed. “You’ll kill me?”
“They will kill you.” This time Twinkle exposed every sharp tooth with a mighty grin. “Ponies change to meet threats. It has been several moons since dragonkind happened upon a loose caravan of tattered refugees, and the conflict killed many on each side. Threaten them now and your death will be swift. They have little to lose, and they know how to kill dragons quite well now.”
Nodding rapidly, Teakettle cast a quick look all around for any unwanted listeners, then slowed. “So… What is it like? To be a pony, that is.”
It was a complicated question with a far more complicated answer than Twinkle was able to come up with using the Dragonlord’s mind. She settled for arranging herself more comfortably on the grass and pointing with one talon to Nova. “You’re the smartest unicorn in the world. You answer him.”
Thankfully, Nova did not casually dismiss the question or give some meaningless quip as a response. He paused, considered his words carefully, and eventually said, “I’m unsure. Perhaps after you have spent some time among our kind observing us from a different viewpoint, you will be able to answer the question far better than myself.”
* * ✹ * *
Her encounter with Teakettle’s unexpected insight made Twinkle exhibit some pony caution instead of her Dragonlord arrogance. The longer she stayed around the other dragons, the greater chance that one or more of them would come to the same conclusion, and the same solution would not work twice.
Since Ruby had already breathed her nesting fire in the cave, the remaining ponies were about as safe as anything was in the world. No dragon, male or female, would approach a nesting female without serious consequences. That applied to the Dragonlord also, or so Twinkle surmised and had no intention of putting that theory to the fiery test.
She still wanted to see the eggs, just out of curiosity.
Instead, Twinkle spread her wings and exalted in the pleasure of flight far, far away from ponies, both hers and the southern lands where the refugees from Unicornia had settled. Her role was much as many of her dragons, who had been dispersed to the far corners of the world with orders not to interfere with other races, even if there was treasure sitting around unguarded. Particularly if such a tempting treasure were to just appear out of nowhere. Teakettle’s special fire proved useful for communication, although neither Nova or her new diplomat put anything down on paper that might have clued Discord in any way. In all odds, the draconequus was just as smart as them all put together, and had no desire to be returned to his imprisonment in whatever form the ponies were able to devise. An intercepted letter could destroy every chance of normality returning.
In another time, her journeys to visit distant races of Equestria could have been enormously satisfying. Even with the fate of the world hanging over her, she still found it fascinating to discover races and places that had never been mentioned in any Unicornian book, although she planned on rectifying that shortfall if she got out of this alive. There were even underwater creatures who dared to speak with the terrifying monster, provided she kept her motions to a minimum and did not roar like normal dragons.
The abnormal had become the normal so gradually that when Twinkle found herself clinging to a narrow ledge on the middle of a rocky mountain, she found herself considering the best way to return when Discord had been trapped. After all, the ibex had been a fascinating conversationalist — once he was sure the dragon would not eat him — in all aspects of their species history and abilities. Well, except one.
“So you’ve always been able to do this?” she asked, turning her head sideways in order to get a better look at the tiny ibex hooves and the even tinier cracks and notches in the granite that was supporting the owner over a very impressive drop. There was a quiet knocking noise with each bite as the goat tapped his huge curved horns against the cliff face, sounding very loud in the relative silence of the isolated area. “I mean before Discord.”
The ibex continued to chew without a response for a while, which was fine by Twinkle since her parents had emphasized the importance of proper manners, and the amount of effort the ibex had to expend to reach the one small weed deserved some kind of reward.
“Yes,” said the nameless ibex before picking his way up some invisible trail to the next tuft of greenery sticking out of the cliff face.
“And it’s not magic or some sort of glue?” she asked.
“No,” said Discord from just by her left shoulder, which almost made Twinkle fall off the cliff when she startled. “Not everything in the world that’s odd and funny is my fault, after all. Isn’t that right—” the draconequus smiled with a mouthful of sharp dragon teeth “—Twinkle Twinkle?”
All of the thought that Twinkle had considered for the next time she met Discord went straight out the window, although she did not have a window available, so the cliff had to do. She lunged for the smirking creature, only catching herself with one claw partway to Discord’s neck.
He tutted quietly under his breath and shook his head. “I’m starting to think there’s no pony still inside that lizard shell.” He stuck out his forked tongue and gave a hiss.
“Is your tongue bifurcated normally or did you do that just to distract me like you changed your teeth?” asked Twinkle before she could stop herself.
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!” An entire collection of banners, bells, and streamers opened up behind Discord, all exclaiming ‘PONY’ in huge letters, or at least until Twinkle breathed fire across them and they went up in a roar of flames.
Discord coughed and waved one paw to clear the smoke away. “Okay, maybe a little teeny bit of dragon in there too. It’s a fascinating combination. I’ve peeked in on you from time to time, but there’s just so much to do around the world.”
“And creatures who need their lives upended,” growled Twinkle.
“Bored little things who need a little excitement,” countered Discord as he snapped his fingers. “Like this.”
The ibex continued to graze on the tiny cluster of weeds despite his hooves having turned into large discs that appeared to be stuck to the vertical stone cliff face. With a series of popping noises, the ibex moved to the next weed and continued grazing as if nothing had happened.
“I presume some of your victims are more appreciative of your ‘gifts’ than others,” said Twinkle flatly.
“There are a few stuffy humorless sticks out there,” he admitted. “Two ponies in particular who you are responsible for.”
“Me?” Twinkle hoped the ponies had found some different way to stop Discord than their previous featureless mirrored chamber. A being of chaos trapped in that kind of static prison would be forever surrounded by maddening order, forever unable to escape his own attributes. His current insanity was certainly less severe than she expected, and the weeks or months since his release had moderated even that. Perhaps he had experienced a change in perspective even greater than Twinkle.
“Not likely.” Discord tore a sheet of parchment off the top of Twinkle’s head and considered the last line of writing on it. “My perspective is ideal.”
“For you,” said Twinkle. “I notice you didn’t swap places with any other creatures. How can you understand what they want without some sort of empathy? I never would have understood just why dragons need to be protected without—” she flexed a massive claw “—this form. The diplomat I sent to the ponies is probably the most pony-friendly dragon I could find, and even he has problems with his position.”
Discord made to respond, then paused with one talon raised on his claws to point at her. “I forgot just how annoying you were. I’m going to deal with those other two pests and be right back. Maybe you’d be less of a pest as a mosquito. Or a slime.”
Then there was another popping noise and the ledge where Twinkle crouched was empty again. The ibex did not seem to mind and continued grazing on the odd sprout here or there on the cliff while Twinkle thought furiously about nothing at all. It did not seem to work since a scroll of parchment trailed down from her head with a constant tick-tick-tick of an unseen machine.
“That was Discord?” asked the ibex between bites. “Seemed unhappy.”
It was true, but in an odd direction. “He has everything he could possibly want,” she mused out loud. “He can go anywhere, do anything, but he has no peers. He has nopony to fight against, nopony to defend, and no family or friends. I feel sorry for him.”
She had not intended to say that out loud and really did not believe it until she thought about it for a time. The ibex occupied his time with chewing, although he was the first to grunt in a generally positive direction. “Sounds like he needs beat. No young buck can get sense knocked into their noggin until they get knocked down a ledge or two.”
It felt more comfortable for Twinkle to have a good distance between her and the ground, which was going to be a problem if Discord was defeated and she returned to her regular form. Perhaps she could eventually get a tower for a house and do her thinking out on a balcony, if Nova’s predictions were reliable. There was little more that Twinkle could do to encourage such a result, even as the Dragonlord. Sometimes, becoming powerful meant you had less power than ever.
And then…
The world shifted below Twinkle in a blur of motion, sky and ground interchangeable parts in a giant puzzle flung in all directions, like being hit by an exploding carnival booth and covered in toffee in a blizzard. There was absolutely nothing for an extended period of time, and then darkness flooded into Twinkle’s senses.
It was a familiar darkness, filled with a familiar scent that overwhelmed her own noxious odor. She had hooves again, and a horn that she lit up immediately to look around the small chamber she was stuck inside, and the rather large boulder shoved in front of it as a crude door. All of the habits of her life, the memories up to when Discord swapped her mind with the Dragonlord, every twinge and ache fought for her attention, but one overwhelming priority trumped them all.
“Help!” she called from a dry and sore throat. “Discord’s spell is broken, so the Dragonlord will be headed this way! Anypony!!”
There was no reply.
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Sorry for the long delay. I’ll try to pick up the pace. (Maybe if I killed off a character in the next chapter...)
Hfsjdmshdh ITS BACK :D
hum Twinkle and Discord. this is a interesting chat.
i am really liking this story.
I am so happy to see more of this! I love stories with intelligent characters.
Oh! The humorless ponies are Luna and Celestia! For some reason, I thought that they'd be related to Twinkle Twinkle.
Good thing Equestrian Dragons are Lithovores, cos otherwise it would take a Lot of ocean life and good agriland producee to keep Torch from eating countries?
11436095
Interesting. Yeah. Glad he got hit with the rainbow 🌈 beam of Harmony and Twinkle Twinkle didn’t experience life as a mosquito or slime mold.
11436040
Very good chapter. Would have been worth the wait if I hadn’t just started this story a couple of weeks ago because I thought it was finished. and a cliff hanger!? Trapped in a cave blocked by a boulder? Yikes. I will be interested in how Teakettle fares as an Ambassador. Will he be recalled by the “real” Dragonlord?
This whole story has been so different than what I’ve thought it would be. I really am enjoying it.
This story is incredible.
I'm honestly wondering what kind of perspective the dragonlord has Come Away with from this experience.
An unexpected but most welcome update. I do enjoy this take on Discord, not knowing what he’s missing—or even that he’s missing anything—but still suffering for the lack in his own way.
Of course, there are more immediate concerns for Twinkle at the moment. Big, angry, firebreathing concerns. Looking forward to seeing how she handles them, or possibly how her past actions have set up a way for them to be handled without her intervention.
Hey, long time no see weird dragon story! : )
And with a cliffhanger at the end of course.
Welcome back Georg.
11438212 I've always been here, just that The Last Nightguard was soaking up a lot of my writing time... and then there's Raft and Oxygen Not Included... um...
"Focusing her breath down to what Twinkle could remember of the whistling dragon’s fire, he focused on the last pile of leaves and let his fire consume them."
"Focusing her breath down to what Twinkle could remember of the whistling dragon’s fire, she focused on the last pile of leaves and let her fire consume them."?
Or am I missing something?
Thanks for writing! Been a bit, but I enjoyed the update. :)
Great story!
11441307 Thank you.
11439556 Twinkle has been a dragon for several weeks at this point, and is starting to suffer from identity slippage, much the same as the Dragonlord has been in a unicorn body for the same time, with every thought he thinks trapped in his head, a nearly powerless body, and physiological binders on his normal emotions (rage and more rage). She's taking it much better than him (to say the least) When he shows, don't expect much witty banter.
11437425 11436399 Without a cliffhanger, how would you recognize me?
11437279 I'm afraid this will be a case where only force can meet force.
11437190 Um... You'll see.
11436359 Yeah, a blue whale a week would add up.
11436288 As Estee puts it (in Discord's words) the Grimcesses.
11436197 It can be harder to write dumb characters than smart ones. I got to write a short bit as a dog in Farmer Bruener, and I had more typo correction to do in one short para than I normally have in a whole chapter.
11441314
Ah, thanks.
11441314
I loved how you wrote the dog in FBHSP. Should have just left the errors in, though…it’s not like dogs can spell.
Of course I catch up here.