An hour after leaving Garble and Smolder's cave, Dragon Lord Spike, Princess Ember, Garble, Smolder, and many teenage Dragons arrive at the lava pool and notice something odd about the area. Spike knew immediately about the commotion but wanted to see his brethren and sistren react to the confusion laid out by the Lord of Chaos, Discord.
Cotton candy clouds are raining all sorts of gemstones; the lava is pink with a lavafall running upward; a table full of meats of every animal that exists in the forests and wilderness cooked into perfection with many drinks as well; a gigantic hoard of gemstones piled up like a mountain; there's a cotton candy cloud stationed with a disco ball as many lights reflect it, creating light beams for partying and dancing; many clones are sweeping the ground, making it smooth and rough for any activity the Dragons come up with.
Every Dragon except Spike's jaws drop in shock and amazement at the display devised by the Lord of Chaos; a clone wearing a security uniform is stationed on a floating booth, twirling a baton, informing the Dragons to land at the new entertaining center. Every Dragon lands and sees Discord's clones jumping into the pink lava pool while the original approach the Dragons.
Dragon Lord Spike hops off Ember's back to welcome the Draqonecuus. "Every Dragon, this is the Lord of Chaos, Discord. He's a Chaotic deity that consists of every creature, including Dragons."
"Greetings, everyone!" Discord waves his eagle's claw to every Dragon present; he hopes to make a great first impression by inventing an area where every Dragon can hang out and appreciate his art of creativity with Chaos Magic.
"Dude..," Garble, Smolder, Clump, Fume, Charcoal, Billy, Fizzle, Maar, and many other teenage Dragons meet Discord for the first time and are stunned by his body physique and magic prowess.
Princess Ember understands more about Discord's Chaos magic and feels comfortable with his presence.
"Every Dragon! Discord will be living among us as he has another title. Not only he's the Lord of Chaos, he is also the Ambassador of Dragons!" Spike announces; every Dragon except for Princess Ember gasps.
"Indeed, every Dragon," Discord snaps his lion's paw, conjuring a pig with wings flying away.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Clump flaps his wings and flies after the pig; it squeals loudly, giving everyone a good laugh before it gets scorched.
"Hey bro," Garble flies up to Discord's neck, putting his left arm around him. "You'll fit in quite nicely."
"Heck yea!" Smolder agrees, doing a fist bump with Discord's lion's paw.
"Hey! The pink lava feels better than regular lava!" A lavender dragon named Maar says, enjoying the heat while relaxing.
"Awh!" Charcoal releases a satisfying sigh after tasting the gemstones from the mountain pile. "These are delicious!"
"Surfing upwards is awesome!" An orange Dragon named Billy is surfing the lava on a lava-rock surfboard. He performs a flip and landing on top, and the lavafall starts running downward. "AMAZING! It changed direction!" Billy slides down on the lavafall, using a small cliff as a ramp to perform a 360 spin.
Garble invites Discord to participate with the King/Queen of the Hoard while many teenage Dragons come to compete. Discord accepts the proposal and declares he won't use any magic for leverage during the competition. Spike remembers how he was lucky the first time he partook in the event during the Dragon Migration and hopes to succeed without luck. Spike announces he wants everyone to try their best since he refuses to win due to his rank as Dragon Lord. Every Dragon starts cracking their knuckles, preparing for a stellar match to become either King or Queen of the Hoard.
The rules are simple, the last Dragon remaining wins; Knockdown anyone by any means. A clone of Discord shoots a flare with his eagle's claw, shouting GO!
Every Dragon climbs and starts shoving each other left and right; Garble and Smolder decide to team up and tackle other Dragons attempting to climb to the top; Clump tosses the burnt pig at Fume, knocking him off the hoard and eliminating him from the competition; Maar grabs Clump's mace-like tail, uses her strength to swing him off of the mountain pile, Clump lands on Fume who is tapping out due to his overweight; Charcoal decides to ram others with his horn however, Discord couldn't help himself and dresses up as a matador, tempting Charcoal with the red cloak, Charcoal falls for it and collides with Fizzle, eliminating the two from the competition; Ember sneaks behind Discord and grabs his cape, tossing it on his head, and shoving him off the mountain pile; Garble sucker punches Ember which infuriates her, Ember is boiling in rage as Smolder tackles her off the mountain pile; Garble grabs Spike's tail, preventing him from climbing any further and chucks him away from the top; Garble climbs and declares the victor when Maar tugs his wings and yanks him off the top as the only Dragon remaining.
"Queen of the HOARD!" Maar bellows with a victorious roar. Every Dragon and Discord congratulate her and laugh off the pain they inflicted on each other.
"Dude! How did you dress up so fast?" Charcoal asks Discord after getting suckered.
"It's part of my Chaos Magic, though I didn't use any hypnosis to deceive your mind. I'm quite surprised you fell for a classic," Discord laughs.
"Oh wow, I thought you actually did," Spike thought Discord would lure Dragons with a matador routine.
The next fun activity is gorge surfing; Spike experiences the thrill of surfing lava with lava-rock surfboards though he fumbles and falls into the lava pool a few times. Spike watches how every Dragon else nails the surfboard as some slip and fail. It's all good laughs, especially with Discord, who uses himself as a board. Every Dragon woos and awed the display that Discord is a great surfer despite using a clone.
After an hour of surfing, every Dragon decided to enjoy the food, the gemstones, and the drinks Discord provided for everyone; never had they tasted anything that delicious, especially cooked meat, since each flame from Dragons, is different. Discord explains that he can change the color of lava and make it hotter than usual or leave it as is, depending on the mood. He even tells his tales of how he was once evil and ruled Equestria twice before becoming the Draqonecuus he is. Most teenage Dragons still despise Equestrian Ponies, which explains the continual hatred for Ponies when the Dragon Egg raid occurred years ago. Discord knew when he overheard Princess Luna and Celestia speaking of it earlier in the morning. Spike wants the hatred to end but knows it'll take time; he'll need help to uncover the mystery Princess that arranged the raiding.
The rest of the day went eventful, with every Dragon satisfied. They enjoyed Discord's company and welcomed him wholeheartedly to the Dragon Lands as an official brother. Everyone adored his Chaos Magic and cannot wait to see more daily whenever he's around. Spike informs Ember about tagging with Discord to become closer to his friend and talk about private affairs. Spike ensures Ember he'll return after their discussion. Ember trusts Spike and watches him ride on Discord's back elsewhere in the Dragon Lands; she wonders if their conversation would regard the raiding or something else that can be vital for the Dragon Nation.
Great chapter, I LOVE IT!
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Thanks
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You're welcome
I love how the Dragons accepted Discord with open arms while the Ponies largely shunned him.
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Cool
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You're welcome
It makes sense that they excepted discord so readily. Because if you really think about it, the dragon society doesn’t really have any rules. The only rule that applies is “obey the dragon Lord.” in a society like that I feel like discord would have an easy time integrating in to it.
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Now you're catching on, hehe.
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And at the same time they didn't care if it wasn't the norm they decided to give it a chance without hesitation and found they enjoyed it. Ponies never really tried to find anything they could have liked about his chaos and that probably made it harder for him to believe in friendship when compared to power. When you can say you only have one person who truly cares temptation to do whatever you want can be hard. I Truthfully have my doubts about how much of a friend twilight was to discord considering wouldn't the guy who only had one friend and been alone for most of his life need a friendship school the most but yet he was never invited. She never hung out with him and her friends did it once. Spike after fluttershy asked him to try to be a friend actually like him once he tone it down a little.
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One thing I noticed is that Ponies tend to shun and reject anything that does not fit into their established mold.
I have a theory's of the mysterious princess pony.
Theory one she's an student of Celestia. Who was the first pick of becoming the next ruler of the Kingdom. But something happened. That made Celestia regret her choice. Like Abusing her authority or power. You know the same old same old cliche or probably something very dangerous that could put harm's Way in her subjects. Which Celestia put a spell on herself to forget her regretful choices or maybe her student put a spell her so that way she could continue her plan. Waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Theory 2 it might be twilight's darker half midnight
Something happened in the future that change her into midnight. Probably do so with spike not coming back or not forgiven her. Which will probably make sense to turn into midnight. Because we all know twilight's isn't the type to let him go. We know she realized her mistakes but she must have screwed up big time in the future. Probably try to make amends which went very bad.
Which made it to turn to midnight and try to back in time to steal spikes egg and probably cause a war. Because if she can't have them no one can. Again same old same old.
Theory 3 probably some secret pony organization or pony cult. Who trying to stop any any alliances from other species from happening. Because they don't accept other species in their own because they feel like they're at the superior ones then the rest of other species.
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Well, they are herd animals, and they already have a rigidly defined society. Anything new can threaten that society. It’s easier to integrate some thing new into a society when the society is new or doesn’t have a lot of standards. Equestria has been around for a long time. So they have a very rigid system, while the dragons never really made one. Other than the dragon Lord trumps all.
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Although I agree with you on them being prey/herd animals, why do you say their society is extremely stratified?
Nice to see Discord accepted and fitting in with the dragons. They even love all his chaos.
A fitting first reaction.
Which reminds me! Still kinda have to give the ponies the credit for that one, so...y'know...them ponies can't be all bad.
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Ya beat me to pointing that out myself! Dragon society is rather unstructured and, perhaps even more importantly, fairly chill, so injecting in a bit of chaos isn't going to hurt anything for them most of the time (the fact Discord isn't forcing it upon them also helps--guy could stand to do that more of the time, really). Add in how (again thanks to the ponies) Discord is reformed (enough) to better know when he is or is not going too far with his chaos magic so it's more a positive experience than a detrimental one, and it really is a pretty good match when you think about it.
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To give the ponies at least a little credit, they understand far better than the dragons just what Discord is capable of at his absolute worse, and their memories of his last antics at said worst are still rather fresh in their minds. That's not something that's just going to go away all at once just because Discord declared himself reformed.
Besides, even when more reformed than not (I can't really call him entirely reformed, honestly) Discord still has a tendency to cause more trouble than good, so I can understand their want for some ground rules.
Also, as already pointed out, the ponies have a more structured society--that's part of why they're more technologically advanced than the dragons. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that Discord would have a harder time to just pop in and cause some chaos willy-nilly without causing detriment to someone, whether intended or not (though with Discord, it usually was, like it or not). For example, suppose you're in the middle of some work and Discord pops in halfway through and turns the room into cottage cheese. Whether or not he meant it as something fun is irrelevant, because you didn't ask for that to happen, didn't plan for that to happen, and now it's completely disrupting you from accomplishing what you were trying to do, something that MAY have been important. And few are ever going to stand for that. That's why the ponies were slower to accept Discord as-is, not so much out of malice but because Discord's chaos happening at random was usually more problematic than anything for them.
Discord can get away with it with the dragons because they usually aren't ever doing something so important it can't be put off till tomorrow anyway...but I should also stress it works because he allowed him to voluntarily opt into it. Back before his reformation, he wouldn't have let them have a choice and just did as he pleased when he pleased, and I could see the dragons having more issue with it then. So, again, part of this why is working so well is because Discord's also taking the time to know his audience and adapt to suit their cultural desires...something he did pick up from the ponies, so in a way, the ponies DID contribute to his warm reception from the dragons.
As for Discord's relations with Twilight or the rest of the Mane 6...obviously your point is valid, BUT, because I've noticed a trend with your comments, I should advise you to be careful to not make the same mistake of preemptively judging them over a few past gripes like Twilight was doing for the dragons up until the previous chapter, because then you'd really be no better than she was being.
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They're rather like humans in that regard, aren't they?
Story gets better and better. Though i love the introduction of other dragons showed with names(something lacked in my previous stories but will be added next one). This has an amazing and wholesome feeling to it.
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I admit that the difference in cultures makes it easier and the fact that he can be a jerk but they could tried to see if there was anything they might like after he was reformed considering twilight says that she was his friend but outside the main 6 does she really care about anyone that not family. She cares about the princesses because they are princesses. She is barely seen in the show hanging out with anyone else who not on the list even spike who supposed to family and yet does more chores than the older and more powerful alicorn. If spike is just a kid in their eyes why isn't he hanging out with other children.
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How do you know that Spike isn't, and it's just taking place off camera? Spike does seem to be on good terms with the CMC, who I estimate would be around his age (Spike might be a couple years older, but still same ballpark), so that would suggest he associates with them from time to time too.
Twilight not having a great heaping lot of friends isn't that surprising either, given her introvert tendencies, and that's not really a bad thing, so long as she does have friends that she does associate and hang out with (which obviously she does). Speaking as a somewhat introverted person myself, I can verify you don't need a huge heap of friends so to meet that need--a few good friends is more than sufficient. And Twi's definitely got that much.
It is true Twilight isn't the best of friends towards Discord...but at the same time, Discord has never been the best of friends towards her either, even after his reformation, as it seems like most of the time they ever interact one-on-one like that, Discord's always there to deliberately do something to annoy her. Not exactly the best friend-making sort of environment. So it kinda goes both ways here--it's unfair to pin all the blame on one of them when the other has his considerable share of the blame too.
Honestly, I don't think Discord is that seriously interested in having Twilight as a true friend anyway--they're frienemies at best, at least. Which is honestly his choice to make not Twilight's. But he seems content enough just knowing she and him are (usually) on the same side these days and doesn't really need it to be more than that. He may act otherwise because it's his way of teasing her about her princess of friendship duties and, usually, attempting to make a point of where he thinks she could still improve at those duties (done his way, so it's effectiveness or even truthfulness may vary on the situation), but he generally doesn't seem interested in pursuing their relations any further than that, because as soon as he completes either or both of those goals...he leaves and doesn't pursue interacting with Twilight again until the next time he comes knocking on her door just so to cause her a smidge of trouble. That's the full extent of their relationship--he teases her, gets a rise out of her, they both smooth things over so to restore the status quo, and that's it. Discord's never really signaled he's interested in associating with Twilight anymore than that, at least not truthfully.
Compare all that with his interactions with Fluttershy, where he goes well out of his way not just to interact with her one-on-one but also take part in varying activities with her, as well as trying to accommodate her and her own needs, even if at the cost of his own (remember the time he tried to give up chaos for her sake?) He's also extremely careful to not do anything to harm Fluttershy and is swift to protect her from any perceived harm. None of that has he ever tried to do for Twilight.
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If it wasn't for her title I wouldn't care about how many friends she but it kinda seems like someone worthy of such a title should have tons of friends. And as for your argument the cmcs are spike friends have you ever seen them talk with each other. I would believe that if I had a problem that I didn't know what to do I could ask a friend for advice yet that has never happened . And considering discord is either with spike or fluttershy when he isn't working for Celestia that doesn't say a lot for their friendship.
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No, I don't think her being the princess of friendship requires her to have literally ALL the friends (as if hoarding them from everybody else), but rather she just be a good example to her subjects of what healthy friendships should look like, so they can learn from her example. Besides, the Mane 6 may be her best friends, but I suppose there are plenty of others Twilight has met with over the course of FiM that it can be argued she befriended as well (even if we're not shown her interacting with them frequently), and not all of them are pony (Thorax, Zecora, the Young 6...) so it also depends on where you want to draw the line.
Just for Sidekicks and The Big Mad Question both come to mind. Some interaction in Equestria Games and Ponyville Confidential also implies a preexisting friendship between them. I believe the comics also has examples as well. There are other examples where they at least talk with each other (as you requested) but I won't list all of them (or else we'll be here awhile). There's probably more I'm overlooking.
Not sure I understand your point here...
That's what I'm saying though--Discord isn't really friends with Twilight because he isn't that interested in pursuing a proper friendship with her. He's content enough with the frienemy relationship instead.
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Spike is always getting twilight and friends back on track but nobody actually comes to him with a problem the only reason he helps is because he is there but nobody really needs his help and the fact is with discord after giving the final key I expect a little more effort in trying to know discord. Yes he is a pain the neck a lot but he still has a lot to learn about friendship and who better to help him than the princess of friendship herself especially after she publicly said he was her friend. And actually most of those people were someone else friends first but she got the credit for making friends with them. Thorax would have never gotten a chance without Spike. Zecora without applebloom never would have gotten to know the town. She hasn't made any friends by herself expect for starlight and even then I think it was because she was frustrated because if the rainboom doesn't happen she dooms Equestria and she isn't that cruel and she been abandon before and is taking the first person to offer support. And the young 6 weren't her friends in the slightest way. They were her students and teachers aren't friends with students.
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What, she's not allowed to be friends with someone else's friend too? 'Cuz that's not how friends work, y'know.
And yet Twilight was the one who was the most vocal about the others being silly about being afraid of Zecora for no reason. She only caved in to their pressuring otherwise once the Poison Joke's effects kicked in and she couldn't explain how else it'd happened, and even then, she was skeptical about it. Twilight was the one (other than Apple Bloom) who was more friendly to Zecora than all the others, and Twilight was the first to voice doubt about Zecora being the "evil enchantress" she was being claimed as.
And besides, Twilight's the one who's seen associating with Zecora the most after that point, so...
*cough**cough*Mane 6*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Sunset Shimmer*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Princess Luna*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Heck, Princess Celestia too if we want to be technical*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Tempest Shadow, and thus by extension, Grubber*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Flash Sentry*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Moon Dancer, then again after they later made amends and reconnected*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Owlowiscious--owl though he is, taking him in was all Twi*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*Probably Luster Dawn too*cough**cough*
*cough**cough*I'm confident there are plenty more in the comics too if I take the time to look*cough**cough*
Man, that's a lot of coughing. I should probably get a glass of water or something.
And even then, so what if Twilight had help making some of those friends through other friends? If anything, that just proves all the more how important having those friends are in the first place. Friendship is magic, after all!
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Yet she was more than willing to go along with every bit gossip including her making foal soup and princess Luna wasn't a friend but a princess and she outside cadence who was practically family growing up worship the princesses and flash was just a boy she had a crush on and she forgot him soon enough and it was pinkie that mended the bonds between the two making her more pinkie friend. As for sunset when did they spend time together without magic being a part of the reason. Sunset was part of her duties as a princess. Tempest came to her for the same reason that starlight did emotionally vulnerable at the time they clung to something that looked like hope. And a princess is one of those things that give hope in that world. She needs to make a friend on her own without anyone helping bridge the way considering the princess of friendship should be able to make new friends without them being emotionally vulnerable or someone else's friend first at least once and a while. And although pets can be very friendly they are family anyone can tell you that.
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ONLY under the heavy duress of the others, ONLY when all the other explanations Twilight had to challenge such assumptions ran out (with the data she had at the time), and that was ONLY at the tail end of the situation, just before what had really happened was revealed. And in any case, Twilight was still the most resistant to believe evil of Zecora out of the other six, and still the one who befriended her the most, so...my point's still valid.
She can be both! In fact, her being a princess is irrelevant. And Twilight was still a friend to her before everybody else, so again the point's totally still valid.
Still a friend!
More like the rest of the fanbase wasn't a friend to him so the show's staff decided to stop utilizing him. Were it not for that, the intention seemed clear they intended to keep using him. In any case, the few times we saw them interact again though, they were still friendly with each other, so, again, my point's still valid.
We're still referring to Flash, right? Since when did Flash (of any universe) really interact at all with Pinkie one-on-one? Seems to me every time he entered the picture, he was seeking to interact solely with Twilight. Heck, did either Pinkie ever meet the pony Flash?
Well, there is that book they use to send messages to each other, and Twilight fixed the mirror so they could use it just about whenever they wanted. One of the EqG shorts showed Sunset popping in for a brief visit, implying Twilight had done the same, so...sounds to me like they interact off camera all the time. So...still a friend. In fact, whenever Sunset's needs extra help with the magic side of things, Twilight's always the first she turns to for help.
So? Still a friend, one she made on her own!
Bull crap. The show taught again and again that friends help friends, so her friends helping her make new friends (and vice versa) is totally valid, and is how lots of people in real life make friends--through their other friends. There is nothing wrong with her making new friends with a little help from her friends. That's how friendship works.
No, that's not a requirement, and it shouldn't need to be one. She made herself their friends by coming to help them when they needed it most, and usually when no one else would. Again, a totally valid way to make friends because that's how friendship works.
So you're saying Owlowiscious is even better than a friend to Twilight? Don't see how that exactly helps your argument here.
Seriously, you're really reaching for straws with a lot of these, so let's just talk turkey--why are you trying so hard to demonize Twilight all the time? It's one thing to point out her character flaws, but you're actively trying to dig any and all dirt, no matter how big or small, you can, while also flat out ignoring anything and everything good about her or she has done, especially when it would counter some of the dirt you're trying to sling.
It loops me back around to my earlier point about your clear bias on the matter--you know how Twilight and Rarity were being so very anti-dragon to an unreasonable degree in this fic? Well, you're doing the exact same thing right now to Twilight, so look who's calling the kettle black. If you want to be taken more seriously on this, then I urge you to dial back your biases and be a bit more subjective about all this, not so quick to try and throw the poor mare (or her friends) off the bus anyway you can.
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One if she was friends with any of the princesses besides cadence she would spent more time with them. Cadence she spends time with every chance she gets. And no crushing on someone doesn't always make them a friend. She barely knew him by the end the first movie and spent one short conversation with him at the second. He was just a guy who did the right thing but she barely knows anything about him. She doesn't even talk with him about anything. Pinkie fix the relationship with Moondancer and as for sunset a pen pal isn't the best of friends especially when said is practically next door and yet she can't bother to leave the castle and be there for emotional support at the least and as starlight and tempest in emotionally vulnerable situations people will cling to the first strong person they see.
Listen you have your point of view about twilight and I have mine. She is a good person but she has a lot of work to worthy of princess title.
Looks like both Spike & Discord being in the dragon lands was the best thing to happen to them. They can better themselves & improve Equestria for the better.