• Published 2nd Mar 2013
  • 2,965 Views, 43 Comments

The Dragon and the Photograph - Scramblers and Shadows



Far from Equestria lies a dragon. Before him is a photograph of him and a mare he once loved. He remembers the moments they spent together, the moments that made him who he is, the moments that explain how he got to where he is.

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Dragons: A Primer for the Interested Laypony

Extracts from Varani, Dragons: A Primer for the Interested Laypony

Acknowledgements

First of all, I should like to thank Erisian Publishing and its founder, Viceroy Discord, for giving this disgraced Canterlot University dropout a decent platform outside the stultifying, mirthless tedium of modern academia.

My husband, Zakras, has supported me even at my most incorrigible, garrulous, obnoxious, and emotional. And my two hatchlings, Ticktock and Mimsy, are transcendental expressions of the reproductive urge. My gratitude is unbounded.

Last, but certainly not least, thanks to Spike, former associate of the bearers of the Elements. As the only dragon who has ever been a citizen of Equestria at a time when knowledge of dragons was on the far side of nought, no less, it was Spike who inspired this book. Come home soon, Spike. Celestia will be waiting.

***

Gemstones and the dragon diet

Gemstones are one of those things, like light and water, that are so ubiquitous and fundamental to biology and technology that many of us fail to give them their proper due. Shallow aesthetics aside, gems function primarily as resonators with the thaumic field[1][2]. Though many living beings are magical in some way, it is only through biologically accreted gems that creatures such as unicorns, alicorns, changelings, draconequi, and giant portias can exercise such precise control over magic[3]. Moreover, the thaumic field provides seemingly limitless energy at the cost of degrading the crystalline structure of the gem channeling it.

Dragons are the only extant order of vertebrates that have adapted to utilise gems as a source of metabolic energy (of the invertebrates that use gems for metabolic purposes, all species of ecdychordates use gems as an intermediary to parasitise emotional energy via the thaumic field, and some nautiloids are known to scavenge gems when other food sources are unavailable[4]).

This has had a unique effect on their evolution. Gems do not rot. This makes hoarding food an excellent survival strategy. After a certain level of hoarding is reached, of course, a dragon's access to food is assured. Excessive hoarding behavior beyond that point is considered by most reputable academics (and myself, for that matter) to be the result of sexual selection[5][6].

***

Dragon development and lifespan

The fossil record is sparse enough to reduce any study in dragon evolution to mere speculation. I can do no better here than recite in a more interesting manner the commonly accepted tales woven by Princess-Professor Twilight Sparkle[6].

It is thought that the early gem-eating ancestors of dragons were r-selectors. They produced prodigious numbers of offspring, the majority of which died before they ever had the chance to reach adulthood. The harsh and variable conditions in which the offspring found themselves encouraged adaptability of a remarkable degree. The survivability conferred by this strategy eventually led to all know species of dragon to abandon r-selection and only produce small numbers of young.

Young dragons are intelligent and flexible, perhaps more so than any other animal. If alone, they become solitary scavengers. If together, they learn to work in packs. They are quite capable of adapting to the social lives of other species. The three most startling cases involve young dragons adopted by ursa majors[7], ponies, and even changelings[8].

The transition into adulthood is governed by various hormones, the production of which which can be stimulated by the acquisition of a sufficiently large hoard. A young dragon that obtains a hoard and a reliable means of adding to it can grow astonishingly quickly. But, even without this cue, the slow release of these hormones means all dragons grow up eventually, usually over a span of between two and five decades[6][8].

The transition to adulthood brings with it an entirely new layer of matter on the dragon brain: The avacortex. The development of the avacortex is far less flexible than the development of the young dragon's reptilian brain. It consists primarily of advanced pattern matching, and incentives and strategies for hoarding, copulation, and the like. [9] The academic community thought for some time that the behaviors instilled by the avacortex drowned out any behaviors learnt as a whelp, making the adult dragon intelligent but largely machinelike and nonsentient. Comparisons were drawn to tunicates, close relatives of vertebrates which in adulthood become sessile and absorb their own brain. To my great shame, I was a proponent of this theory for some time. Now we know that, though the mechanical behaviors in the avacortex often hold sway, the behaviors learnt as a whelp can exert a strong influence even on adult dragons[8].

***

[1] Eyeglasses, Thaumic Energy and its Interaction with Crystallographic Stuctures
[2] Marks, Gems: The Great Industrial Backbone
[3] Sparkle, Resonant Protein Crystals in Vertebrates, Arthropods and Polyphyletic Hybrids, Journal of Molecular Biology 16ANM, Issue 429
[4] Leafdew, A Trans-Equestrian Bestiary
[5] Cirrus, Summary of Draconoidae Evolutionary Hypotheses, Journal of Natural Selection and Thaumological Based Evolution 21ANM, Issue 42
[6] Sparkle, Speculations on the Evolutionary Development of Reptiles of the Order Draconoidae, Journal of Natural Selection and Thaumological based Evolution 18ANM, Issue 30
[7] Dryquill, Behaviors of Dragonwhelp Found in Everfree Forest
[8] Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's Journal as an Ambassador to the Changelings
[9] Hammer, Neurobiology of Dragon Specimens found in the Grand Swamp

***

Author's Note:

Varani is pretty fun to write for.

The use of citations, I know, is pretty lax. They're mainly for flavour, not to show off my prowess at writing academic documents.

...And that brings this piece to a close. Hopefully I won't disappoint with my next attempt. I think I'll go for something more cheerful after this.

Comments ( 12 )

I didn't see the point to having the Zebra's reptilian lover point out that Rarity had no problem with inter-species relations if that wasn't a factor as to why she never got together with him. For that matter the reason she never gets together with him is very vague and not really explained very well, especially when much of the, the above mentioned scene for instance, indicates that they would.

Saying she 'just doesn't have those feelings for him' is really weak reasoning especially if she wants to love him. I've had people in the past say that such reasoning is just realistic, that there are many real world situations in which two people don't peruse relationships because of a lack of romantic connection. I think there are more to those situations then that, but even if it that statement is true I don't think that fiction should mimic real life just in an effort to be realistic without exploring a deeper meaning.

In short never put something, 'realistic' or not, into a story unless it has a purpose and never leave something unexplained even if not knowing is 'realistic'.

2252105

I'm afraid I don't quite see what your criticism is. At first you say say that her reason for never getting together with him is vague and poorly explained - and then you (correctly) sum it up in eight words. She doesn't have those feelings for him. So, presumably, it's not that vague. You then say that's weak reasoning. Well, no. It's not reasoning at all, it's just a reason. I'm inclined to say that not being in love with someone is actually a pretty good reason for not getting involved with him or her. Beyond that, though, since we can't choose who we fall in love with (at least in my experience), reasoning doesn't come into it at all.

Also, your two proscriptions for stories are contradictory. It's possible to have an explanation for an event in a story that has no purpose in the story beyond explaining something else. By your first rule it should not be in the story, and by your second rule it should.

I agree, though, that the story could suffer the loss of Varani's comment. It doesn't have much of an impact on later events, it just gives an indication of what sort of pony Rarity is.

This story has been reviewed by: The Equestrian Critics Society

Story Title: The Dragon and the Photograph


Author: Scramblers and Shadows


Reviewed by: Shahrazad


The Dragon and the Photograph is a sad story with a generous heart. It doesn’t pull any punches. But none of those punches are cheap or shallow. The story is fairly simple, while still retaining a surprising amount of emotional complexity. This could be an excellent short story, if only the author would stop hiding behind a thesaurus and speak from the heart. It’s still a decent piece, just be willing to skip over a few words

Full Review

Score: 7.5/10

Woah! Congrats on the EqD! It took long enough that I'd kind of given up hope, but I'm very pleased to see I was wrong.

Nice job!

Heh. Grats on EqD.

(I feel like such a hipster :applecry:)

2702742

Cheers! I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen, m'self.


2703624

Yeah, I'll be the first to admit I can be very indulgent about vocabulary, so that's a legit reaction. It's something I need to be more disciplined about. (That said, I do think "basic empiricism" is a phrase Twilight would use.)


2705117

That's good! I need someone to tell me I'm a sellout if I ever write a story where someone gets teleported to Equestria, gets transformed into a really really like totally cool obscure animal that later turns out the be a heretofore undiscovered pokemon, and then falls in love with and has lots of lurid sex with all the ponies.


2708636

Haha, thanks!

I'm glad to see this last little chapter for explanations.

We do know from the experience with the red dragon in "Dragonshy" that some adult dragons do retain higher intelligence and can speak.

But, assuming that Spike is representative of dragons ignores several very important canonical facts.

I've actually been a proponent of the theory that Spike is an unusual type of dragon, given his magic teleporting fire and explosive growth spurts. This is based on the proceeding evidence:

1. The teenage dragons, in spite of their greed HAVE NOT UNDERGONE GROWTH SPURTS! This means that greed alone has no effect on the growth of a normal dragon.

2. All other dragons we've seen, even Crackle the mutant freak, have wings. Spike, after both of his growth spurts (hatching from Twi's magical surge and greed-growth) remained wingless.

3. All other dragon fire is normal fire-color (orange, red, yellow) and shows no magical properties whatsoever.

4. The ponies themselves admit in several episode that they know nothing of dragons. So, any assumptions they make about Spike and dragons in general are baseless due to total lack of information. However, we are able to observe all the dragons shown in the show, which gives us more information as nigh omniscient and omnipresent observers. And what we see indicates that Spike is not a member of the common dragon species.

Now, what remains utterly open are the explanations for his oddities. He could either be a rare, nearly extinct species. Or his species may reside on another part of the planet far away (griffon lands, Zecora's homeland, etc). Or, his physiology may have been greatly altered by the powerful magic he was exposed to when hatched.

It is indicated, if not explicitly stated, that dragons are less susceptible to magic than other creatures. If this is indeed the case, then the effect of Twilight's magic on Spike was both unprescedented and could have had very unpredictable affects on his later development.

And this concludes my mini-dissertation!

SCIENCE!!! :twistnerd::twistnerd::twistnerd:

Wonderfully constructed and enjoyable overall. Nicely done.

Not sure how long I had this sitting in my "Read Later" folder, but I'm glad I finally got around to it. It was wonderfully done.

>>Hmm interesting theries ill keep them in mind when i right my fan fic about spike hes one of the main character and all the mane six n my fic are all dragons including spike

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