A man obsessed with his masculinity becomes a tiny, female dragon that is designed around hearts to an extreme. He tries to live through this 'horror' while working with an extremely important association of dragons.
Oliver Howard Scatch is a man who some would say is pretty kind in general, but he has one flaw: He's paranoid and obsessed with his masculinity. Despite his rather shy personality, he tends to avoid anything he thinks would affect his appearance as a 'man', such as pink colors, not working out, and ignoring his car.
Yet, he's not too happy with his life the way it is. It's unfortunate that a strange drawing in his yard not only drags him to a new world but as a vehemently pink dragoness whose body is more delicate in shape than the rest and centralized around cute hearts. Now he needs to try and return home to his own body while being part of a group of dragons whose importance is severely underestimated among the dragon community.
Oliver Howard Scatch went to his fridge and took out a large bottle of water to drink from and walked to his tiny living room decked out in sport jerseys, balls, and player posters. He dropped on his couch and, with one swift movement, crossed his legs upon his glass coffee table. He didn't need to clean, after all. He hired a maid to do that every week. Why would he clean? He was a man. Men don't clean. Although...Oliver looked over his shoulder a moment and pondered the idea. He had just returned from a good day of working out and fixing his old truck, but he felt something gnawing at the back of his mind. Just by walking back home from the local gym brought his attention to several things. Looking at the many sport paraphernalia adorning his walls, the colors reminded him of a garden filled with flowers that he had just passed...
"No!" he scolded himself. He smacked the sides of his head. "Can't think of stuff like that, but I do feel like I need to clean...although I'm not supposed to. That's not what men are supposed to do," he pondered with a worried expression on his face. He shrugged and sunk into his couch. "I'll sleep this off. I could ask the maid about what she thinks? I don't know. Too tired. Can't think straight."
Fully content with his current situation and wanting to free his thoughts, the man put his arms behind his head and took in some long, slow breaths of the cool air in his house and slowly drifted off to sleep. His nap didn't last very long as he found himself jolting upright, beads of cold sweat irritating his entire body. He held up his head in one hand and tried to relax.
"What the hell was that? A nightmare...but I can't seem to remember it." He frowned and looked into the void with a disappointed expression. "I hate it when that happens. No reason to forget a dream and wake up terrified." He took a drink of water and walked to his sliding glass doors to reach his backyard. "Maybe some fresh air would help dry this rain storm's rage."
Stepping outside, the man kept a smile on his face as he took in a deep breath and felt the blades of grass tickling his bare feet and the space between his toes. It was an enjoyable sensation, and the heat of the sun allowed his body to recover and dry itself off.
"Haaaaaaa...Much bett--" He cut himself off the minute he saw something in the grass.
Looking down, Oliver noticed a color, vibrantly pink drawing of chalk in his lawn. It looked like a tiny dragon wrapping itself around a heart, and it had been drawn to be super round and 'cute', something he couldn't stand.
"WHO DID THIS?!" he yelled. "COME ON. SHOW YOURSELF!" he challenged
"Scatch, what's going on?" one of his neighbor's asked from behind the wooden palisade.
"Someone got into my yard and drew this...horrible thing here."
"What? Lemme see."
"No, it's alright. You DON'T need to look."
"Pish posh."
"Shit! I need to get this thing off of my lawn before he pops up and uses his outdated vocabulary again."
The man stomped on the blades several times, hoping the chalk would brush off, but it didn't. He stared at it, angry and confused, then noticed a blade was attached to his foot, and then more crept along his foot and started growing longer. Howard started panicking and thrusting his leg everywhere, but the grass wouldn't relent. By the time Oliver's neighbor managed to hoist themselves slightly above the palisade line, they saw Oliver screaming for help and with only an arm and a head above the ground. Scatch wasn't the only one screaming at that moment.
A bubble of grass surrounded Oliver, and struggle as he might, he couldn't get free of the grass holding him. They swayed and glowed like the grass of a wide plain being brushed by the wind, and it soothed him hypnotically, but he did his best to try and get free. Despite his burly physique, he couldn't free himself.
"Wh...I feel like I'm being broken into pieces!" he mumbled through the muffling. "What's going on! What the hell is all of this?! Let me go! This is NOT masculine in the slightest!"
The grass seemingly worked over time at what the man said, and he could feel himself being disassembled like some kind of vehicle or toy. Any struggling he did was pointless as he couldn't get free from the clutches of the grass.
"The hell is with this grass? Is it grown on steroids or something?! Is it digesting me?! I can't die. Not this soon. I'm not ready yet!"
Sounds of the ocean started to fill his ears and gradually became louder and louder the more active the grass become, and then there was sunlight. He was thrown out of the trap he had been placed in and was blinded by the white light of the sun. He grunted and covered his eyes. When they finally adjusted, he was met face-to-face with a giant green reptile that had its arms outstretched and its open palms pointing to something behind him. Its face was crocodilian but rather thin. Its upper lip was wavy in shape, making it seem like it had teeth exposed. As for its body, it was unusually and uncomfortably thin; almost serpent-like. It leaned forward and looked at Oliver with an almost disinterested expression.
"This one's through," she said. "And with an interesting look to boot. Never seen anything like it." She stood up straight and scratched the back of her head. "Now can I get back to the garden?" she asked.
Another female voice answered with an exasperated tone. "Yes. Fine. Go. You've only been here for five minutes. You should really stop your whining."
The creature shrugged and turned her back to Oliver. That's when he saw them: A pair of wings.
"What the hell. Dragons?!" he thought to himself. "I mean, sure. They aren't standing on all fours wit their wings standing out, but they definitely fit the definition."
"So you're our new recruit?" the same voice asked.
A giant white hand stretched out from Oliver's peripheral vision."Y-yeah. I could use some help. I'm going crazy and hallucinating, it seems. I must've fallen and hit my head on my table or something. I can't seem to...." When he extended his hand to grab the red one, he saw a small pink hand fitted with hot-pink claws and a heart shaped pad on her palm.
"WH-WHAT?!" he screamed. Then he noticed and grabbed his throat. "M-my throat. My vocal cords were damaged! I sound e...e...efffffffeminate!"
"Right..." the voice was still exasperated and now seemed to have lost all energy associated to it.
"What the hell is this?!" Oliver screamed. "My voice is high pitched, almost like--"
"It's female?"
Oliver remained silent for a moment then clenched his fists as anger boiled within him. He started shaking more and more as his muscles tensed, then he felt something rising in his throat. It was hot and like a liquid. He thought he was going to vomit, so he relaxed enough to turn around and point his face downwards. Pink fire exploded out from his mouth like a rocket, throwing him backwards a few inches and onto his butt, at which point he yiped in pain and flipped onto his belly.
"Careful there, tiny. You'll break your tail," the voice joked.
Scatch saw that he indeed had a tail, and it ended in a heart shaped 'spear' of a mexican pink color. What's worse is that he noticed that he was a bright shade of pink himself. Lighter than his tail and claws, but pink nonetheless. He slowly flipped onto his back while avoiding crunching his tail and looked at himself as best as he could. His chest's scales took the shape of a heart of pale pink that reached to his shoulders and sternum. His legs had inverted knees, and his three toes were actually dextrous, sharp claws, much like his fingers. The 'ex-man' raised his trembling hands and gulped audibly. He slowly moved his fingers to see that they were delicate, thin things. At least, they were thin by his standards.
"You okay there?" the dragoness asked.
"Wh-what did you do to me?!" Oliver stuttered quietly. "What the hell are you?!" he bellowed.
His anger made way for fear when he saw who, or rather what, he was yelling at. It was a massive white dragon easily four or five times his size, and he didn't just mean by her girth. She was a rather large with a bulky frame and a stomach covered with a patch of cream-colored scales. Her hands were much larger than they should have been, if proportions were to be respected, as they were twice the size of a normal hand of someone her size. Unlike the skinny green dragon who had almost human-like eyes, this one's eyes were quite reptilian. Three horns protruded from her head: Two of them went toward the sides then stretched back a little bit, but the largest, in the middle, crept along the dragoness' face and muzzle, stopping just a bit past the end of said muzzle.
"So you're the new one, eh?" She stood upright and put a hand to her hip. "You're a wee tiny thing, I'd say, and your body is so strange. Never seen anything like it." She pondered Oliver's new appearance. "I love it! It's adorable and beautiful at the same time!"
The ex-man's eyes twitched. He tried to stand up but fall against the mossy wall he came out of. "Don't you DARE call me those things! EVER!"
The dragoness threw her hands up in surrender. "Woah! No need to get angry again. You'll end up breathing fire. You can't control that gland yet."
"I'm not a dragon! I can't be!"
"Oh, yes you are, tiny. You're even a dragoness," the giant explained.
Oliver grabbed his head and held in a scream as all the contradicting thoughts and events wracked his brain, but he calmed himself again. "A man doesn't display his emotions so abundantly like that," he thought to himself. "But that THING just said I'm a woman! I gotta get to the bottom of this." He, or rather 'she', turned to face the giant dragon and, with a commanding tone and face, gave her an order. "Turn me back to normal."
The giant grinned. "Hooo. You've got many repressed emotions if you're dealing with it this long without changing to a more open behavior, especially in your state."
"What are you talking about?"
The giant pointed to behind Oliver. What the new-dragoness witnessed were her pink flames actually burning like hearts along the wall and ground, yet they didn't produce any smoke. Worse still, there were two heart marks in the mud Oliver had just walked through, indicating that he now had pads or a single scale on both his feet that created this shape every time he walked somewhere. He looked to his feet then dropped on his butt and started pulling at them. The giant dragoness crouched, grabbed him, and held the man up to her face.
"H-hey! What are you doing?!" she asked with a startled tone. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"
"Well," Oliver started. "I was thinking of just gnawing off my feet, but your proposal sounds much more lucrative."
The giant blinked slowly. "Alrighty then. Looks like we need to hold you in particular."
"What?"
"Uhhh..." She punched her head gently to remember what she meant to say. "I meant we need to hold you particularly close in our regards. We're going to keep an eye on you."
"Let me go! I don't like being man-handled like this, and I hate this new voice." Oliver struggled to break free of the grasp but failed.
" 'Man-handled'?" The giant repeated. "And I find your voice is soothing and quite beautiful. It has a silky tone to it."
Oliver's rage started bubbling up again and causing flames to flicker and fan at the edges of his mouth.
"Why don't we start with introductions? I am Zoonzu, a caretaker of our gardens and one of the top dragons tasked with helping new members adjust to their new positions here."
"So you just kidnap people?"
"Not really." She scratched her head. "I'm not sure what the Head Pueric Dragoness would think of you, though. You're not very open with your emotions."
"Well, duh. I'm a man?"
"A what?"
"A MALE!"
Zoonzu scoffed. "Not anymore." Oliver audibly growled. "How about I show around this place while we go to the Pueric Dragoness who will determine your purpose here? Okay great!"
"What?! But I didn't say anything!"
Zoonzu didn't listen and forced Oliver to suffer several Gs worth of pressure on her way back up. The tiny dragoness got to see that, wherever she was, it was surprisingly intricate and well cared for. The small stone wall covered in moss and leaves was just a tiny portion of this maze-like garden. There was nothing but greenery everywhere: Vines having grown to massive heights, trees of various sizes, and green walls that rose above Zoonzu's head. Several flowers had bloomed along the walls and were letting their clorfuls petals flutter down into the wind. Some of the smaller dragons were swooping around with bags in had to catch the petals, but for what purpose Oliver could not deduce. Looking below, he could see several different dragons either working on plants or going through--
"Sheets of paper? What are they doing, macaroni paintings?"
"HA HA!" Zoonzu bellowed. Her laughter, be it fake or real, nearly deafened the tiny dragoness she was holding. "No. They're reviewing documents and reports we received about the dragon tribes nearby. I heard there's some trying to start a war."
"A war you say?" Oliver looked to the side, intrigue shimmering in his eyes. "This one doesn't seem too bright. She presented herself but ignored me. As soon as I can get free of this raging reptilian I'm getting the hell out of here and calling for help. I must be stoned as hell or something." He looked around to see that there were dragons either near or at the height of Zoonzu as well, and this actually scared him, but listening to the voices, Howard found something odd. "I only hear women?"
"What?" the giant said.
Scatch groaned in annoyance and facepalmed. "Females. Aren't there males here?"
"Oh, our species of dragon doesn't have males," she replied cheerfully.
"What?! Why?!"
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...Hey look, the Pueric Dragoness' tower!"
"DON'T JUST DODGE THE--woah."
As much as the garden maze stretched as far as Oliver could see, it paled in comparison to the absolutely titanic tower sitting near its edge.
"Hey, that thing looks like it's made of bone." Oliver chuckled nervously.
Zoonzu only replied by a brief hum of acknowledgement, making Oliver looked at the immense construct a second time, but less in awe and more in shock. That tower had an absolutely massive base from which even Zoonzu was dwarfed by. It stood on multiple 'legs' branching out like tree roots into the ground, and the new dragoness could see movement in them. It looked like young children were having fun underneath the tower. Two doors led inside the construct, and as the trip to this place came to a close, the doors became nigh fource the size of Zoonzu. They were even built uniquely: Their frames holding them to the borders of the entrance and the opposing section of door were solid brown and polished, almost like wood. However, their interior was hollow, save for long, bending beams of the same wooden material starting from a higher point in the inner area of the doors to a lower point n the section touching the walls. Looking closely at them, Oliver realized they looked like wings, and huffed at the design. He couldn't enjoy anything, especially not under these circumstances, and try as he might, he couldn't get free of the gargantuan ogre holding him in her grip.
The doors opened with a loud screech, and a shorter-but-still-huge dragoness ran up to the doors to clean the hinges and oil them afterwards. The inside of this place was terrifying. The walls were covered with paintings not in frames, but literally on the walls themselves. There were multiple scribbles Oliver couldn't read under the art, and, quite honestly, he didn't care. Some sets of melted armor the size of Zunzoo, and weapons big enough for him to carry were placed here-and-there in the construct.
"Is this a museum?"
"It's like one to have them."
"...What?"
"Uhhhh...Sorry. I have trouble talking. I mean that this place is like one because it has all of these things. They're from the history our group has had in the past."
"...That was a redundant sentence," Oliver grumbled.
Spiraling pathways wide enough for a four-lane highway climbed ever higher in the immense tower, and the many non-unilateral holes in the walls serving as windows allowed Oliver to see past the garden and towards the distance. Unfortunately, the angle and the sun burning his retinas didn't let him see if there was anything out there. Zunzoo stopped in front of solid gates of black iron just as tremendous at the entrance gates and, after backing up a bit, shoulder bashed into them, pushing them open.
"Ow," she whined.
A waft of decaying flesh attacked Oliver's nostrils like a weapon of mass destruction, and he almost vomited.
"UGH! What the hell is that smell?!"
"It's Pueric Mother's experiments and potions," Zunzoo explained innocently.
"Mother? I thought it was Dragoness or something like that."
"Mhmm."
"..."
The room was just as imposing as the entrance, but unlike it, the entire room was clear. There weren't any sections of wall made to hold the weight of those climbing the pathways blacking sections of the area. The entire room was a round cone whose height was unfathomable Oliver, and all along the walls were shoddy wooden shelves of various sizes that looked they were going to collapse at any moment. There were vials of glass of varying shapes and sizes occupying the fragile spaces and giving off various different colors. Some were just boxes and barrels as well, and not all of them contained colorful liquids. Others contained herbs, flesh, fur, body bits, plants, mushrooms, and so much more. It changed from the usual that Oliver had seen on his tv back home, but it was still dwarfed in eye-attraction to the immense gray mass in the middle of the room. It was hard to make out because of the holes in the walls being covered by sheets of gray leather filtering the light.
"We've got a new member, Pueric Mother!" Zunzoo shouted into the room. "She's...quite unique in both appearance and personality. I think she has repressed emotions."
Scatch would have slapped her there had he the proper size and freedom. "Don't just yell that out there!" He pressed himself against her hand as best as he could and looked around for anyone listening and watching. "It's not masculine. It'll shame me!" he whispered.
"See?"
"Who are you even talking to?!" he shouted. "The walls? The weird, giant egg in the center of the room?"
"A giant egg?!" a tremendous voice boomed. It was so strong and reverberated so thoroughly in the room that even Zunzoo flinched in pain. "I've heard of associating young years to dragonesses to flatter them, but that's going a bit too far back!"
The 'egg' moved and rumbled, dust clearing coming off of it. Two tremendous wings spread outwards for a stretch, nearly touching the walls, and a long tail ending in a heart shaped scale stretched out of a nest hidden by piles of empty wooden crates, barrels, and wagons.
Oliver saw the figure rising higher and higher until even Zunzoo looked like an infant in comparison to it. "Oh shit..."
She was a gargantuan titan with a gray, fat body. Her face looked aged for a dragon, and multiple horns sprouted from her head, although they seemed fairly unkempt. Two came from the right of her head and stretched forward, parallel to each other, to end in upward curves. Tinier branches come from their sides and pointed in nearly every direction, but they were too small to be of any hindrance. The left horns, two growing near the top of the head and one right next to the jawbones, were snapped off and the nubs weren't even polished down. Several brown horns of various sizes grew out from the dragoness' cranium and interlocked with each other to form around her lower jaw, giving it a larger appearance. Some of the smaller growths almost made it look like her lower jaw had teeth on its 'lip'. Her eyes were a pale gray-blue and ripe with fatigue, and every step she took was a loud, lazy drop of her feet onto the ground beneath her, causing the entire construct to tremble under the strain of her immense girth.
"What's this? A new one?" she asked Zunzoo with her booming voice.
"Yes. She was just brought in, but she's much difficult with her thoughts."
"Zunzoo, you're slurring again."
Zunzoo punched herself in the head again and repeated herself. "Ah, I mean that she doesn't want to express herself."
"I'M NOT A 'SHE'!" Oliver shouted.
A massive hand of the Pueric Mother waved across the air in front of Scatch like a giant, slow moving whale. A wave of orange, sparkling magic followed the dragoness' palm like smeared water, then she leaned forward to get a better look at the tiny new-dragon.
"You are indeed a 'she'," the Pueric Mother corrected with a very calm tone. She outstretched her hand, inviting Zunzoo to drop Oliver onto her palm, which she did. "You are also a dragoness, and..." She grimaced when trying to focus on the tiny pink creature in front of her. "Hmmm. What a bizarre shape and form. Your colors are unusual as well, as is your general...appearance." Oliver opened his mouth to say something, but only air came out. He was too scared to speak. Sparkles of the orange magic appeared in front of the titan's eyes, and she nodded. "Your name is, or rather was, Oliver Howard Scatch."
"I-i-it still is! I'm still a m-m-man, a-and you're g-g-going to send me b-back home," he stuttered.
The Pueric Mother leaned in, her movements causing grumbles in the air. "And how do you plan on forcing me?" she asked. "You're here, and you're much tinier than I was expecting from someone new."
"But I thought you said you were expecting her," Zunzoo shouted.
The titan looked upwards and sighed in defeat. "Zunzoo, you can leave now."
"I can? Okay. I'll get back to the garden. See you later, Pueric Mother."
Zunzoo waved goodbye and charged again into the door. She took too much speed this time and passed through the wall on the other side, making the titan growl with annoyance.
"I apologize for Zunzoo. She's...uninhibited, for lack of a better term. As for you, I don't know what a 'man' is, but you are no longer such a thing."
"Get me out of t-this costume!"
The titan bellowed with laughter. "You think this," she pinched his tail. "Is a costume?!"
Oliver hugged his tail. "That hurt! Why did you do that?!" he shouted angrily. The anger slowly faded from his face when he realized what just happened.
"As for your appearance...I have something to help you. If only I could find it."
The titan started rummaging through her 'nest', passing by immense tables that could serve as the basis for houses to normal sized people. She threw some junk around then cheered once after finding her target.
"Here you go," she said.
The Pueric Mother lifted her middle finger and put the object against it. It was an uneven reflective surface with an eerie similarity to polished armor. It was here that Oliver saw the extent of his nightmare. He had been turned into a tiny pink dragon. His figure was actually slimmer than what he had soon so far, and his features were somewhat rounder compared to the more sharper angles the dragonesses around him have had. His once powerful square jaw now extended into a narrowing muzzle with a sharp, beak-like shape extending from his upper lip and ending right at the end of the lower jaw. His eyes were now a vibrant fuchsia and, thankfully, his pupils weren't heart shaped. He crawled around to look at his back and saw two strange wings. Unlike the large and immense bat wings the others had, his were single flaps of tough leather attached to long, bony protrusions from the inner section of his back next to his shoulder blades. The leather of his wings were rounded at the zenith of the bony protrusion's curve but sharply inclined inwards then back up to their beginning.
He noticed he even had cream colored horns: Five of them. Two of them -the smallest of the five- started just above his forehead and stretched backwards along his skull until they passed their 'surface' and rose up sharply. The largest horn was between these two and twice as large. It stretched just like the two next to it but, instead of riding sharply, protruded more and barely rose, preventing a sharp angle from being made. Then there were the two on the sides. That ran along the sides of his head equally in a straight line then sharply rose where his ears would've been, went towards the back of his head along the skin, then dropped down in a closing angle until their points were mere millimeters away from each other. By connecting the points, Oliver noticed that they formed a heart, and he felt great rage in his own.
"What did you do to me!" he pointed accusingly at the titan.
"I didn't do anything. YOU did this to yourself."
He stared at her with a bizarre, unqualifiable expression, but disgust was in there. "What?"
"You saw a strange symbol, did you not?"
"Yeah."
"And you approached it willingly."
"I was going to clean it from my yard! Men are supposed to keep their yards clean and presentable. That's how the world works," Oliver raged.
He was nearly blown away by the Pueric Mother's huff. "Your world is broken and backwards, then. Why would specific tasks be allotted to a gender? Or is that a cultural thing?" She shrugged with one arm. "I've seen my share of bizarre cultures and backwards thinking. This wouldn't surprise me. So," she continued. "Where in Equestria do you hail from, tiny dragoness?"
"STOP CALLING ME A DRAGONESS!" Oliver pointed to his chest with a thumb. "I'm a MAN from EARTH. Not your weird hellscape here!"
The titan flinched her head back. "Earth? This is a country in this world?"
She turned around to look at a tiny map, easily ten meters across by five meters in height, placed on the wall. In front of it was a magnifying glass held by a wooden contraption with springs bolted into said wall. This allowed the titan to view everything with relative ease.
"I can't see it on here." She faced Oliver. "Is it new?"
The new-dragoness' eye twitched. "It's a planet. It's the world!"
The titan's eyes widened. "Then you're from an entirely different universe." She bounced with joy.
"Hey watch it, Krakatoa. We don't need another eruption."
"You're extremely rare, but..." She became disappointed. "Your disdain for depicting your emotions is disheartening. It might have to do with your curious appearance.
"I--" Oliver tried to yell but was interrupted.
"I am the Pueric Mother of the Lovie Dovies, but you can just call me 'Pueric'."
"Lovie Dovies?!" Oliver clutched his head and started stressing again. "This is worse than I thought!"
"You know, we didn't always have this name." The titan tapped her chin and looked back at the tiny pink creature in her palm. "This reminds me. You need a different name."
"WHAT?! I'M KEEPING MY N--"
"Your appearance and behavior make me think you'd be perfect for simply being called Lovey Dovey." Oliver just frowned at her. "In fact, considering you can't even walk, I'll have someone take care of your guidance here in your new life."
"But--"
"I won't tell you anything or even why you came here, but I CAN tell you that this was all of your choosing and fault, be it conscious or not." The Pueric Mother took in a deep breath then bellowed as loud as she could. "Scarlet Fever!"
It took a few minutes, but a tiny red figure went through the smaller doors built into Pueric's. The dragoness' body was a shade of wine red and was, to be completely descriptive, complete shades of various reds, and with a rather bulky frame to boot. A single horn grew along her head to the back and took a spiral form as it listed to the right. This caused several bright red strands to wrap around it and get stuck in place. Long patches of hair drooped from her head and thinned down to the middle of her back, creating a spade-head of red hair with white tips. This allowed her large wings to be able to move freely without fear of entanglement. The flaps of leathery skin of her wings were completely covered in red scales whilst the tips at the end of the wings themselves were a bright line of white. They would certainly create bright white streaks in the air if she could fly fast enough.
Pueric placed 'Lovey Dovey' down next to her, letting the new dragoness to realize that Scarlet Fever was thrice her size, not to mention muscle mass. Where Lovey Dovey was reformed with a softer frame than normal dragons, Scarlet was the opposite, yet she still looked happy and with a somewhat fluffy and gentle air to her. Upon closer inspection, she was wearing a scarf of vertical, diagonally declined stripes of a darker shade of wine red and black around her neck. One of the arms dangled along her chest whilst the other was hidden behind her wings. She grabbed Lovey in a hug then placed her back down, and the red dragoness put her hands on her hips and displayed proud confidence on her face.
"Alright newbie. I'm Scarlet Fever and I'll show you the ropes around here. Ready?"
"WHY IS EVERYONE A GARGANTUAN BEAST HERE?!"
Scarlet rolled her eyes and gestured Lovey to follow her, but the tiny pink dragon didn't move. "Can't you walk?"
"I have inverted knees. I wasn't born a chicken. I don't know how to cluck my way to the door."
"Using terrible humor to get her anger through whilst avoiding us potentially harming her through insults." Pueric nodded with her thoughts. "Could have potential.
Scarlet Fever picked up the pink dragoness and cradled her in her arms. Lovey hid away behind her arms and blushed with both embarrassment and seething rage.
"This is so humiliating!" she mumbled.
"Let's go. I have plenty to explain to you, and not just from the plants growing all around."
The two dragons were now in an open area of the garden maze where several other dragonesses of various sizes either lazed about or discussed various different diplomatic subjects and approaches, something Lovey found extremely bizarre in terms of actions undertaken in the same area.
"Great. I'm turned into a dragon who's not only pink, but a FEMALE as well!" Lovey dropped her face into her hands. "And what's worse is that I'm covered with hearts. I'll never be able to live this down. I must be such a shame to--"
"Did you hear what I was saying?"
"What?"
Scarlet Fever shook her head in disappointment. "If you could pay more attention to what I was saying then we could help you figure out how to walk."
"I don't KNOW how to walk!"
"That's why I'm TRYING to HELP you in figuring that out." Her voice was extremely powerful and made Lovey's ear canals ring. "I take it you were bipedal before."
"I think that much is obvious."
Scarlet scratched the top of her head. "Maybe...I've seen some walk on the tips of their toes, and their legs sometimes looked like they were placed like inverted knees. Maybe try that?"
Lovey crossed her arms and looked away. "Never. That's something ballerinas do, and only women are supposed to do that."
Scarlet looked at the new dragoness apathetically. "So you're going to continue with that weird train of thought even though you are yourself a female now?"
The pink dragon's eyes shot open and she bent slightly as her rage gathered. "I won't give in to what you FREAKS did to me." She punched her chest. "I'm still a man inside and I intend to stay that way."
"Really now?" The red giant chuckled a little then cleared her throat. "And then what? Be a female man? It's not because you're a female now that you can't act like yourself." She spread her opens apart and spoke gleefully. "But now you have more windows open to you, and not just because you're a female." Lovey refused to stop pouting, even with what had been told to her, so Scarlet tried another approach. "You know, you look so cute when you pout like that!"
The dragonesses around looked at Lovey and started chuckling and giggling. Dovey started seething with rage and indignation, and in so doing reignited the flame glands in her body. Her bared teeth were letting pink flames and smoke sputter from between them like a sporty car engine. Scarlet stopped laughing when she realized what she had done, but her guilt made way for intrigue when she saw the smoke the pink flames created would also turn into hearts. It was something she found excessive considering the already tremendous association with hearts that the tiny dragoness already had.
The red giant crouched and watched as rage continued bubbling from Lovey's mouth. "Hey, it doesn't matter to me how you want to move. Your legs are perfectly functional, but you're being too hatchlingy to actually try and use your new body." She hummed in intrigue. "I wonder what that would look like as a 'man', as you say so often." The pink dragon immediately perked up at the specially targeted words. "Yup. I figure they'll think you're just a big baby with no masculine traits. Tsk tsk tsk."
"Alright alright! I'm standing." Lovey pushed her elf up and immediately fell flat on her face then grunted in pain. "I gotta stand on my tip toes." Lovey dragged a hand across her face and attempted once again to stand up, her legs trembling. When Scarlet lowered a hand to help the tiny dragoness out, she was rebuffed. "No! I have to do this on my own. It's not because of this damnable body that I'll relinquish my masculinity."
"So you've said about thirty times in the past minute."
"I'll get it!"
Lovey had been trying to stand up for fifteen minutes straight, but no progress had been achieved. Scarlet Fever had relegated her teaching tasks to a cloud observation one. She was lying on her back with her hands crossed and admiring anything she could witness in the sky.
"Hey, that one looks like an Equestrian pony," she said lazily.
"A what?!" Lovey asked before falling once again.
"Itty-bitty ponies that live further west. I even heard there were some over the seas, but our Pueric Mother never allows that," she frowned.
Lovey Dovey took a moment to recover her breath and looked around to see all the dragonesses ignoring him and carrying on with their tasks.
"You're all females, right?"
"Eeeeeeyup."
"That giant moron that brought me to 'Pueric'," she mentioned with a mocking tone. "didn't answer my question about why you were all only females."
Scarlet's eyes shot wide open and she sat upright for a moment. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"What's Tiny doing there?" a voice asked.
"Oh. Greeyeda. What are you doing here? I thought you were tending the garden walls," Scarlet said.
It was the thin green dragon from before, and she was nearly the same height as Scarlet save for a few shaved centimeters. "Yeah. I was walking through here as I felt patches of dying greenery over there," she pointed down a path. "So, why isn't Tiny walking around to be shown the ropes of being a Lovie Dovie?"
"Why such a stupid name?!" Lovey complained.
Scarlet rolled her eyes. "She's just complaining because the Pueric Mother renamed her 'Lovey Dovey'."
"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!"
Greeyeda barely responded. She seemed to be perpetually bored and let her arms droop to the sides of her body. "That's...strange, even for her." She rotated her arms and coughed before resuming her speech. "I gotta get to those plants. They won't remain tough and enduring if I don't tend to them."
"You sure you don't want to watch her with me? She can't walk but she refuses help."
The green giantess leaned forward and stared at the pink dragon with large, uncaring eyes devoid of life. "So what's your deal, Tiny?"
"Everything!"
"That's as specific as 'nothing'."
"Leave me alone!"
Greeyeda nodded and returned to the red giantess standing with her. "She might be a source of corruption in our midst, and we don't need war in our own group."
Scarlet waved off the comment. "Oh please. Like that would happen. We're all happy here, and those that came to us in a similar situation have come to accept their new lives. I mean, we never prevented them from going to see their families and helping them out whenever they could."
Greeyeda looked back down at the pink dragoness who had dragged herself to a moss covered rock and was hoisting herself up with it. She was managing to keep her balance and trying to adjust to the weight distribution, but her legs still wobbled.
"I feel like a coma patient that just woke up after five years in bed," Lovey thought to herself.
"I'm not sure. Unlike everyone else that either came to us or became like us, she has not warmed up in the slightest."
"I know. Usually, we have systems for that DURING the transformation, or even the teaching process." Scarlet frowned and passed a claw through her hair. "We do need all that are here, and she's no exception."
"The tone elevation suggests doubts."
"Well, she's extremely aggressive. Why would SHE be brought here with that kind of personality and behavior? All the others at least had some predisposition to kindness and understanding."
"But she has defined none of these traits."
Scarlet analyzed the pink dragon some more. "You think her appearance is significant of something? We've all noticed it by now, and nobody else ever got anything so...ehhhhhh..." She rotated her hand in the air.
"Her appearance is not important. Keep a watchful eye on her. We don't want an 'incident' to occur with all the others."
"I know. Still. I think she'll be extremely hard to talk with, let alone teach and learn. She can't even walk!"
"I can hear you!" Lovey Dovey shouted. "And I've almost got this horrid 'fru-fru' walking thing with high heels down."
Greeyeda scrunched her face. "What in the world are 'high heels'?"
Lovey wobbled forward at a regular pace while Scarlet watched her with bored eyes. She had been chewing on a large stalk of greenery while waiting.
"You done there? You can walk relatively well now, or do I need to carry you like an egg again?" she joked.
"No! I...I got it-woah!"
Scarlet rolled her eyes and dropped the stalk. She walked towards an opening in the maze walls and leaned against it. "When you feel like actually moving, this is where you need to go."
"And what's-grk!" Lovey had almost fallen over during her question. "And what's over there."
"Well, come over and find out." Scarlet said. She started waving her hands in circles and flexing her fingers. "Oooo. Spooky scary things."
Lovey took several minutes just to make one-fourth of the trip, but at this point, Scarlet was tired of the waiting.
"Okay, this has played out long enough," she grumbled.
She stomped towards the pink dragoness and picked her up with both hands, but not without difficulty. Lovey Dovey wasn't going to let herself be man-handled in such a way.
"I know you're upset with what happened to you, but don't you think this is a bit much?" Scarlet asked.
"No! I had a perfect life and then you ruined it by turning me into this. How would YOU feel if someone ripped you from your home and all your hard work to throw you somewhere else where none of what you worked to accomplish was ported over."
"Pretty upset, I imagine."
"EXActly!"
"Sounds more like you had a misguided life."
"That's not for you to say," Lovey pouted.
"Ooooh! I love it when you pout," Scarlet squee'd.
Lovey's eyes shot open when she recognized the tone of voice. "NO WAIT!"
But it was too late. Scarlet was squeezing the pink dragoness in a viciously tight hug that could have crushed her bones had the giant not relaxed her grip. Rounding the corner showed a huge yard filled to the brim with trees and bushes distinguished by their colorful leaves. Several dragons around Lovey's size were picking the fruits and placing them in large gray-green bags. There were others, however, who were grouped up and analyzing fruits, leaves, and bark both on and off their hosts. There was even a giant like Zunzoo who had straps around her torso and was trying to uproot what appeared to be a dead and rotting tree. Another, held upon a flat wagon pulled by the tiny dragons, was waiting to be installed into its new home.
"As you can see here, we have massive farms where we gather fruits and vegetables."
Lovey squinted her eyes to get a better look at the vast swaths of farm lands. "Aren't these rather small to feed you behemoths?"
"Ah ha. 'Behemoths'. Funny," Scarlet said dryly. "Yes. They are. That's why we have dedicated megaplants in other areas of our home here. The Pueric Mother used her magic to grow them big enough for us to get our needed foodstuffs."
"But what about meat? A man can't be one without meat."
"We still hunt for meat. We just have vegetables and fruits for a more balanced diet." Scarlet put Lovey in one arm and flexed her other. "And I'd say it did pretty good for me."
"Yes, yes. That's a cute little muscle," Lovey mocked.
"You just say that because you're jealous."
The pink dragoness grimaced. "Proportionally, I was bigger than you when I was still me."
"Uh huh. Of course you were."
"I WAS!"
"Yup."
"You think I'm lying, don't you?"
Scarlet kept a disinterested expression. "I never said that."
"But you're implying it."
"I never said that either."
"You don't SAY an implication directly. That's not how that works."
"How sarcastic' that you would think that." Scarlet stuck her tongue out playfully.
"What...Sar...but that's not..."
"And this is where we conduct diplomacy."
"Wh...Diplomacy? For what?"
In front of the two was a massive construct shaped like a semi-cylinder made from a mixture of red and green marble. It was big enough for Zunzoo to enter unimpeded, but since the doors and windows were covered by a thick sheet of interwoven and blooming vines, Lovey couldn't see the interior.
"Seems rather simplistic for a diplomatic building."
"The interior is important, not the exterior," Scarlet explained.
"Why do you even need diplomatic buildings? You're giant dragons that kidnap people against their will, change their gender, and warp their bodies. That's the LEAST diplomatic thing to do. It's like...like biological warfare or something."
"Don't be stupid. The reason why we're living in such a place and have a building like this is because our jobs are the most important amongst dragon kind: We prevent wars between our own people. In fact, the new Empress-in-training is set to come here in two days."
Lovey stared at her blankly. "You stop dragons from going to war?!"
"Only with each other. If they wish to simply have fights then we won't intervene. If they wish to war with another party, then we also won't intervene. However, if one of them wishes to negotiate anything alluding to said war, then we remain the neutral party." Scarlet raised her head proudly at such a statement.
"What if they don't want to avoid warfare and words fail? What if they even try to start a fight here?"
"Oh...We have...ways of taking care of that. Usually involving combat techniques 'n such."
"What?"
"Let me take you to the Shooting Range."
"You have guns?"
Scarlet tilted her head in confusion. "What are 'guns'?"
Lovey sighed. "Nothing. Never mind."
Scarlet shrugged it off and continued past a few more sections of the maze to a large area filled with stone slaps charred black and dummies of equal effect. Lots of them ere demolished, and the debris was kept on the side for future clean up or repurposing. Scarlet went to the end of the range and placed the tiny pink dragoness on the floor and stretched herself out. While the other dragons were busy fighting with each other further near the entrance, Scarlet would be free to pummel the massive slab of stone standing right in front of her.
"Since you're going to become one of us later, you'll have to learn how to fight with both fire and body, and I'll show you one such technique."
Scarlet's mouth lit aflame of orange and red, and she spat huge globs of lava on her hands and feet.
"WOAH!" Lovey shouted. "That's disgusting and awful! Why would you do that to yourself?"
"Because of this." The lava quickly hardened along the giant's hands and feet, created black armor with glowing orange cracks. "This is a magic the Pueric Mother gave us, and it's one only we Lovie Dovies have."
She punched the massive slab once, creating a brief flame at contact and charring the surface. She started punching several more times then adding kicks in. If Lovey didn't know any better, she could have sworn that the giant was kickboxing, but her spins to add velocity to her backhands and kicks were unique. In fact, at some points after a kick, she would fall back then, using the weight of kinetic energy, punched hard into the stone, cracking it slightly.
"I call that the 'Lazy Punch'. Takes time to get just right, but once you do? The enemy goes soaring."
Lovey moved her jaw left and right as she contemplated what she had just seen and heard. "So you're like mercenaries, only free."
Scarlet forced a few laughs out while gasping for air. "Not exactly...but I guess you'll understand later on."
"What's to understand? You hit people hard with lava vomit on your hands and feet."
"I think you missed the point..."
"I--"
"But you won't be learning this until you curb your attitude."
"But--"
"No buts, and that's that."
Scarlet crossed her arms and stared firmly at the pink dragoness. Lovey looked at her briefly then decided to just turn her head and groan. Of course, this meant she was pouting, so...
"And this section is where we teach new lovie dovies how to fly."
The area Scarlet presented was much wider and open than what Lovey had seen so far. Indeed, the massive walls were usually kept tight and close to the areas they protected, so not much room was available, at least for the huge dragons. The flight training center was the complete opposite. Three dragons the size of Zunzoo could lie down across with their feet on each others' heads and still not reach the walls. The landscape was decorated with variously elevated mounds of baked clay or chiseled stone. There were even rings growing out of tall pillars of plants that spiraled upwards and was held by the strength of the stems and the interlocking leaves. Said leaves could interlock and fold thanks to them having four large 'arms' aiming upwards. The arms were made evident by large, empty spaces between them that reached to the core vein of the whole body. Further back was yet another maze, this time in the air, with a variety of tricks, traps, obstacles, and moving walls.
Several dragonesses, most of them being Lovey's age, were learning with a variety of teachers meant to train each of the new members at specific levels of their capabilities. Some of the platforms had large amounts of cotton at and around their bases. Something incredibly useful considering every dragon attempting to fly would fail.
"So I'm going to learn how to fly? Like, right now?" Lovey asked.
Scarlet pretended to hum in thought. "Maybe you should learn how to walk first. Maybe then we can ask the Pueric Mother, provided you behave yourself." She looked at the dragoness and placed her back on the ground. "Save that you can't even move your tail, let alone your wings."
Lovey looked to her tail and saw that it was limp and dragging along the ground. "So how do I move it? Can't I just cut it?"
"What? Are you crazy?!" Scarlet shouted. "First, that's a horrible thought. That's your limb. Second, it helps you keep balance both on the ground and the sky. Speaking of, it could actually be why you can't walk properly." She smacked her forehead. "Why didn't I see it earlier?"
"I never needed one before," Lovey said aggressively.
"Well it's a good thing this i the 'after', isn't it?" The giant put her hands on her hips while she thought of a solution, then one came to mind. "I know someone here who could help you with your new limbs."
Lovey wobbled and grunted in annoyance. "I'm willing to do this if I can just walk again. I'm tired of this high heel crap. So indecent," she whimpered.
"Yes yes. Girly girl thingy whatever. I don't care."
Lovey was about to say something, but dropped her hands and just exhaled. She was actually getting tired of all of this, both physically and mentally. Complaining more would be unseemly and excessively tiresome.
"So, are you willing to go there or continue with your temper tantrums?"
"Ugh. I'm not going to get into this fight again." Lovely rolled her head then dropped it. "We've been doing this for hours. Just take me to the way to help me, please."
The red giant made a single, nasal laugh. "Since you asked so politely, I'd be happy to take you there. Just be aware it's a very tiny section of the gardens and you're likely to get smacked in the face by several thorny vines."
The tiny dragon stood firm and looked straight past Scarlet. "Bring it on."
Just as Scarlet had said, the two suffered the flurry of vines and whips as they traveled through the brush to reach their destination. By the time they exited, they were covered in cuts and wounds.
"Vicious plants," Lovey coughed.
The garden section in question was just barely bigger than a medium rotunda, and the walls were covered with white and pink flowers f a species unknown to Lovely. Sitting in the middle of this place was a white dragon just barely bigger than Lovey Dovey. Her back was turned to the two newcomers, and she wasn't making a sound.
"Is she...is she dead?" Lovey asked.
"No."
Scarlet rolled her eyes and put the tiny dragoness on the ground. She approached the silent dragons and shook her gently.
"Hey. Sconce. Wake up." There was no response. "SCONCE!"
"WHAT?!" the dragoness answered loudly.
"You have a guest."
The dragoness looked at her red visitor then turned to look at the pink one with prying eyes. She looked estrange, at best, but he expression was a bizarre, indiscernible one. Her left eye was making and she had three, long teeth protruding from the right side of her upper jaw. She had no horns, instead having green, algae-like growths extending from her head as stiff growths. In fact, once she made sense of her surroundings again, a long line on her back changed color from solid white to a risen stream of the algae growths acting like spines. She looked at Scarlet again before talking. Her fingers were also long and needle-like, as evidence by her sharp, shiny claws, and she hunched over slightly.
"Did you go through the bushes?"
"Yes."
"Why? There's an entrance right there." She showed its location with an open hand whilst staring at the red giant.
Scarlet looked at it then nervously looked around and tapped her claws together with the same energy.
"THERE WAS AN OPEN SPOT RIGHT THERE AND YOU WENT THROUGH THE BRUSH LIKE A SOLDIER IN VIETNAM?!" Lovey bellowed.
"Well...it was the quickest way..." Scarlet's voice volume started dropping off.
Lovey tensed her fingers, giving the impression that she either wanted to or was simulating strangling Scarlet Fever.
"So what are you doing here? I was...meditating."
"Well, Dalai Lama," Lovey started. "Scarlet told me you'd help me to walk."
"Why? You've been paralyzed for a long time? Why didn't I hear of this?"
"No, Sconce. She can't move her tail and wings," Scarlet explained. "I figured I'd bring her to you early seeing as you're supposed to help new members get used to extra appendages."
The white dragon scratched her shoulder and moved towards Lovey to get a better look. She poked at Lovey who angrily protested being touched, but with just a bit more strength, she toppled over onto the ground.
"Pffff. She can't even stand straight when just a modicum of force is applied." Sconce cracked her knuckles. "I'll get her straight, but something like this is going to take several days, weeks even, for a case like this." She looked back at the dragoness spewing heart-shaped smoke from her mouth in anger. Sconce widened her eyes. "Huh. Not only do you have an adorable appearance, but you even have an overactive fire gland with bizarre properties to the fire."
"I'M NOT ADORABLE!" Lovey shouted.
Sconce backed away with her hands up. "Ooo. Easily angered, this one."
"Yeah. That's why I figured you could help teach her to walk before I even get her to do anything else," Scarlet sighed.
"Well...I do like new things," Sconce shrugged. "I'll teach her to use her tail. Meanwhile, you can do...whatever it is you do." She shooed Scarlet away with a few waves of her hand. "Go on now. Get out of here."
"I'm hoping to see at least a wee bit of progress by the end of the day. It would be a shame if she could never walk properly."
"I just TOLD you that it would take AT LEAST several days."
"That's a NON-SPECIFIC numbering system!" Scarlet argued.
"First thing you need to do is sit down," Sconce explained.
"I'm already sitting," Lovey replied.
"This is meditation. With this, we'll relax our minds and extend our senses through the body. By extending them, we'll make your nerves hyperactive and connect your tail and wings to your brain."
Lovey tilted her body to the left slightly. "Mmmm, technically--"
"Shut up. There is no technically."
Lovey glared at the dragoness. "Don't ever tell me to shut up."
"I'll do as I please."
"What? You think you can take me?" she shouted.
"I'm pretty sure even a hatchling can take you, what with your dance moves serving as your best walking method."
Lovey bared her teeth slightly in anger and glared at Sconce.
"Scarlet was right. You do look adorable when you pout. I'd rather we get back to the meditation rather than you trying to rush testosterone or something similar through your body." She readjusted herself and took a deep breath. "Imagine...imagine..."
Sconce's head started drooping until she eventually dropped it completely and started snoring, eliciting the pink dragoness' curiosity.
"Did you...did you fall asleep?" Sconce didn't answer Lovey's question, making her angry. "HEY! Wake up!"
"I am awake!" Sconce replied.
"No you're not! You're sleeping!"
"No. I'm wide awake. I just...lost my train of thought."
"Uh huh. Sure."
"Where as I? The hands. Right. Imagine there are hands in your body holding onto the nerves linking your limbs to your brain. The hands for your tail and wings aren't holding on tight enough and cannot feel the limbs. You..." She ended up snoring again, but with open eyes this times.
"Okay, that's really disturbing. All I want to do is be able to walk again! I don't want to have some kind of weirdo with sleeping issues piss me off during it, let alone the res of these...things."
Lovey stood up and, with some waddling, managed to reach her teacher and slap her awake.
"Wha-what?! What'd you do that for?!" she shouted. "Gh...Why did you move?"
"Because YOU fell asleep again!" Lovey pointed at her teacher with an accusing finger.
"No I wasn't!"
The pink dragoness clenched her hands into fists, and fire started sputtering from her mouth.
"As I was saying, " Sconce resumed. "You need to visualize yourself clutching the nerve endings harder and harder. Then and only then will you find the ability to move your tail and use it for balance."
It didn't take long for the hours to go by and darkness to start settling, bringing Lovey up with the important questions.
"What do we eat and where do I sleep?"
"They'll bring us food here and you can sleep wherever."
Lovey turned her head slightly and kept her eyes locked with her teacher's. "What do you mean by 'wherever'? No beds? Nothing soft and clean?"
"Nope."
That single, quick answer was all Lovey got to hear as an answer, and it wasn't good enough.
"That's it? A bland 'nope'?" She spread her hands apart as if presenting the word like a trophy.
"What do you want? Some of us can grow to tremendous sizes. How hard do you think it would be to create beds for us at that size? Hm?"
"...Pretty hard."
"That's right."
The two didn't speak again until a large dragon flying above dropped a large basket made from tangled vines that smashed into the ground, bursting open to reveal its contents of fresh, uncooked fruits, vegetables, bread, and meat. Sconce rubbed her claws together and licked her lips in anticipation.
"Alright!" she shouted.
She buried her claws into the pile and started chomping away at the foodstuff, tearing at the meta and blasting the vegetables into little chunks. Lovey looked at the 'meal' with sorrow.
"I can't eat this...this 'shit'. It's not even cooked." She lifted up a slab of raw meat, shook it a little to see the blood and muscle fluids dripping from it, then dropped it back onto the pile. "I can't eat this."
Sconce had fallen asleep whilst biting into a piece of bread and frozen in place like a statue. She was awoken violently once again by her 'student'. "What?"
"I can't eat this!" Lovey presented the floppy piece of bloody meat to Sconce.
"Mmm, why not?"
"Because it's not cooked nor prepared in any way. Same goes for the rest of this."
"But dragons eat raw meat," Sconce said with a mouth full of food. "There's nothing wrong with it!"
"It's disgusting! Don't you know what's in this crap when it's uncooked?!" Sconce chewed once in response to this outburst. "It's full of eggs and stuff like that."
"Eggs of what? Sounds tasty."
"Wh..." Lovey stared at the dragoness with blank eyes. "Parasite eggs..." she said despondently.
"Oh. Haha! Dragons can't get parasites."
"What?"
"The flame sacs in our throats burn any bug eggs that might be in our foods. It kinda chars vegetables, but they're kept protected by our saliva."
Lovey stuck out her tongue in disgust and looked at the foods again. She heard her stomach growl and put her hand on her belly in response.
"You know, being stubborn like this won't let you live long among us, and I'm certain that you can cook them if you so choose."
Lovey frowned. "Men aren't supposed to cook! It's wrong."
Sconce shrugged and continued eating. "Hey, if you want to die of starvation, be my guest."
The pink dragon sighed and forced the foods into her mouth. While her body might have changed, her tastes had not. Oliver would never get used to his new body and this life he was thrust into against his will. Even the prospect of suicide, as ultimately cowardly and unmanly as that was, was starting to seem better and better as the seconds went by.
Lovey shot up in a scream that awoke Sconce and several other dragons around her. Sweat waxed her scales and uneven breathing was all that she could do as her eyes darted around.
"What's wrong?" Sconce asked her.
Trying to calm down, the dragoness looked at her hands and the sharp, dexterous claws serving as her fingers and rubbed her hand across her face.
"I...I don't know. I had a weird...dream? A nightmare?" She looked around curiously. "I thought that this life here was a nightmare enough, but it seems I haven't suffered sufficiently."
"Then perhaps you should go back to sleep? The sun has yet to fully rise. The belts of colors are still purple on the horizon, and some of the stars have yet to leave the sky."
"I'd rather stay awake and think."
Sconce shrugged and laid back down onto the soft grass."Suit yourself."
It had been two days already, and every time Lovey went to sleep, she hoped she would be back in her house, laying upon her soft, comfy bed. Or, in this fantasy, HIS soft, comfy bed. Just one day was enough with them, but two days? Death was becoming a better and better prospect now more than ever. She was given a stick with which to put her weight and walk until she could properly use her tail, but at least she could now move regularly, or close to it. During another session of meditation, several dragons flew overhead. There was even the tremendous size of the giants waltzing overhead as they jumped over the walls to reach their intended destination.
"What's going on?" Lovey asked. "Is there a battle?"
"Nothing of the sort," Sconce yawned. "They're just here to welcome the empress-in-training of dragons coming. Her name is Ember, and she's very...strong headed." She tapped her palm with her fist and wobbled downwards. She had almost fallen asleep but recovered. "That reminds me. The Pueric Mother wanted you to witness what is going on. There's even another here that isn't of dragon kind, and she isn't too happy."
"Huh?"
Lovey and Sconce arrived in front of the simple dome-like structure meant for diplomacy and saw the large crowd of dragons surrounding a tiny blue dragoness just about Dovey's size. She was extremely thin, moreso than even Lovey herself, and wielded a scepter topped with a red jewel in a 'dragon's grasp'. She looked unhappy to be in the presence of all of these dragons, but when she caught a glimpse of Lovey, she pushed her way through the welcoming committee.
"You must be the welcoming host here," she said. She eyed Lovey up and down and huffed. "I didn't know they took in crippled dragons as well." She shrugged. "I thought our kind, regardless of location and lifestyle, disposed of their crippled."
"I'm not crippled," Lovey growled. "I just have trouble walking right now, and why get rid of the crippled. It's a cowardly act!"
The blue dragoness gave a single laughter in response. "I see. So, are you going to take me to the chambers?"
"I would, were I truly your 'host'."
Ember was taken aback. "Then what is with that appearance?"
Lovey looked away and bared her teeth. Her speech was interspersed with flame sputtering. "I ask that myself every passing second that I'm awake."
"I see. That didn't solve any bit of my confusion but just added more. Still, I find it pleasant to meet another dragon just about my size."
"It's not fun to have all of these giants stomping around near you, is it?"
Ember shook her head. "So what exactly do the 'Lovie Dovies' do?"
"Oh, they kidnap people against their will and--"
Lovey was caught and muffled by Scarlet who smiled sheepishly at Ember. "I'm sorry for her behavior. She's a new member and has yet to get accustomed to our lifestyle."
"I see. Then can YOU bring me to the chambers? If you keep doing this then I'm leaving with no chance of talking it out with whomever you invited."
"Sure thing, Empress. Right this..." Scarlet stopped talking briefly and looked around, scanning the surroundings.
"What is it?" Ember asked.
"You...don't have any escorts."
The blue dragoness huffed at the question. "Of course I'm not." She waggled her scepter at Scarlet. "They do as I say or they suffer the consequences. That's what this scepter says, and that's what the trials I went through dictate."
"Trials?" Lovey wondered aloud after freeing herself from her gargantuan's grip.
"Not now," Scarlet said quickly."You're going to witness what our purpose amongst dragon kind is. THEN I'll explain that to you."
Lovey followed Scarlet and the rest of the dragons inside the round building, and much like the exterior, the interior wasn't special in the slightest. There was a gigantic, gray stone slab sanded down to resemble a smooth, oval table. It was surrounded by several long oval rings of smaller stone meant for the larger dragons. It started from enormous at the third line in the back until gradually shrinking back to the front, then it was on the table itself that a smaller replica of itself meant for the smaller members to sit was placed. Scarlet lifted Lovey and placed her on the stone surface while Ember flew up. Lovie was taken aback by what she saw already sitting at the table.
"What's with the pastel horse and the wavey hair?" she asked.
One of the two guards next to the 'horse' stomped forward and displayed clear signs of anger, but a giant clad in armor put a hoof forward to stop him. The giant, easily twice Celestia's size, was clad in an armor whose pieces were covered by purple crystals within a foundation surrounded by black, metal walls and rivets holding them in place. His shoulders were large plates bending over his back and wrapping around his shoulders. There were four points extending further along the outer rims of the shoulder guard: One directly at the top, two spaced away from it going diagonally across the armor, and another point parallel to the topmost stretching further down the foreleg. His boots followed the same stylization plus lozenge-shaped, admiral blue jewels placed vertically just above the hooves. The main body of the armor was a solid black metal covered with sharp, angular scripture glowing a faint shimmer of the same blue hues of the jewels, and they seemingly moved around on their own. Upon closer inspection, Lovey could see a glowing blue sun with eight wavy arms. The helmet was wrapped around the stallions head, and a row of inter-connected plates of metal ran along the back of his neck. A similar piece of armor followed along his tail, but this part was covered with sharp, purple crystals meant to clobber and shred anything that got in his way. The solid, rounded helmet pointed sharply at the muzzle, most likely to serve as psychological intimidation, and one long slit ran along the helmet, serving as a visor for the wearer. Upon the back of the armor was a black cape with golden trims and with a horseshoe contained within a yellow sun sewn at its center.
"It's alright, Paladin Redflare," the white pony said with a calm tone.
The giant shied away from the princess and took a few steps away.
Scarlet cleared her throat and smiled sheepishly at the guests. "Um, Lovy, that's Princess Celestia, one of the pony diarchs of Equestria."
Lovey looked at the ponies and flexed her fingers. "Horses can be princesses now?" she asked blandly.
"I--"
"It's alright." Celestia raised a hoof. "I came prepared for such behavior, although I must say that I wasn't expecting it to come from somepony as..." She took a moment to get a better look at the dragoness. "flamboyant as she." Celestia leaned further on the table. "You know, my niece would certainly love to meet you."
"Uh huh..." Lovey answered with disinterest.
"Enough with the small talk," Ember interjected. "How come the ponies are here?"
"Because we asked you to be here," Celestia answered. "You see, we've been having some...mutual issues."
A gray dragoness with a large body and fleshy protrusions from her cranium spoke up. Her wings were very leathery and her body, which was slightly taller than Scarlet's, looked charred and burnt. She also seemed to have a perpetual air of snobbishness etched onto her face, and this reflected well into her voice.
"We called you here per the ponies' request," she explained. "They had something important to speak to all of us, and being the neutral party, asked us host these discussions."
Ember turned back to face the white pony and grinned, baring her sharp teeth. "So what exactly is the issue here? Ponies getting eaten by dragons again?"
"AGAIN?!" the smaller guard shouted.
"No," Celestia said. "There's been events reported between both of our people instigated by a group called 'Red Sun'. They've been planting seeds of hatred in both of our people, and battles have started to break out in te streets between those that support dragons and those that don't."
Ember tried remembering any pertinent information to this. "Hey, I think I've heard about something like this. There've been more fights than usual with the dragons. My father has been having trouble keeping all of them in line."
"And we have been swarmed with resolving the issues as well," the snobby dragoness added.
"Red Sun?" Lovey said. "Sounds like a rock band or something."
"It's not that mundane," Celestia started. "They're something new. A new threat that could spell disaster for all of us if they're not just petulant foals inciting anger amongst the populace."
"What are you talking about?" Ember asked. "Dragons fight each other all the time. It's nothing new."
"That may be, Empress Ember, but fighting has become more prominent, and entire clans have been starting to butt heads. Clans that have never had more than aggressiveness on individual levels," the snobby dragoness explained.
"This is starting to sound like some sort of Gaulic transpirations of the Roman era," Lovey thought to herself.
"So even the dragons have seen heightened aggressiveness?" Celestia looked away as she started thinking. "My ponies are still prone to anger and outbursts, much to my dismay, but they ARE still ponies, and I wouldn't have them behave any differently. That being said, I have also seen increased aggression all around Equestria."
Something clicked in the pink dragoness' head. "Did you make any connections? Write the incidents on a map? Where they're most concentrated?" she asked.
Everyone at the tables turned to look at Lovey. "What do you mean by that?" Ember asked.
Lovey rolled her eyes. "It means that, if you put areas with the largest and most notable incidents on the map, then you can possibly make some connections."
"Redflare," Celestia said. "Could you pass me my notes and documents?"
The giant pony meekly reached into a saddle bag of another of Celestia's regular guards and pulled out several large mounds of paper held in bursting binders then set them onto the small table. Ember, Celestia, and the snobby dragoness started to discuss the placement of certain areas on a map provided by the Lovie Dovies and placed several color-coded points of interest: Blue was minor, yellow elevated, orange dangerous, and red was severe.
"That's a lot of orange," Lovey commented with wide eyes.
"The vast majority are on the borders where our lands meet," the snobby dragoness noted. "There are a few dots here and there, but they tend to decrease in severity the further away we get from here."
Ember raised an eyebrow and looked at her lands. She pointed a claw at them, crumpling parts of the paper. "What's with these dots here?" she asked Celestia.
"Oh..." Celestia didn't seem too pleased that she had to explain it. "These are small groups of ponies that thought they could establish small colonies in the dragon lands."
"Then get them out. I don't want them here. This isn't your land to take."
"Dragons don't have land. You have a 'kingdom', but you've never specified where the borders are, so my ponies come and go, thinking these are savage lands," Celestia explained. She was both visibly and audibly trying to hold back her 'enthusiasm'"
Before Ember could quip, Scarlet slammed her fist on the main table. "That's enough of that, Empress Ember. We can have this discussion after the main crisis has been dealt with. Until then, we're all under the threat of this 'Red Sun'. Now either you two start acting like rulers or we'll treat you like children and put you in the corner with a dunce cap on," she threatened.
Both rulers looked at the angered Scarlet with a strange mixture of contempt, horror, and shock.
"You can't talk to the princess like that!" a guard of Celestia's yelled. "How DARE you!"
Redflare stepped in front of him and stared at the dragoness, seemingly to imply that he would step in front of any attempts to even touch the princess' coat, but Scarlet was not one to back down from a threat.
"What are they doing?" Lovey mumbled.
"You're right," Celestia said. "Back to business."
"I'm not dropping this," Ember spoke rapidly. "I want to talk about this, but after these weird rises of aggression and violence."
The snobby dragoness rolled her eyes. "Regardless, the majority of these being at the border means a flurry of things."
Ember turned her head to face the dragoness. "Such as?"
"Red Sun has its operatives specifically there to increase tensions with the dragons and ponies." The dragoness shrugged. "Red Sun worked in the center or further away from the border, and everyone has started migrating towards this edge to proclaim their hatred."
"And garnering the support of the ponies that are terrorized by dragons," Celestia realized.
"Yeahh. This is nice and all, but can I leave? I still need to learn how to walk in this damned body!" Lovey complained. Everyone turned to face her angrily, save for the guard and Scarlet staring each other down. "What? It's true. I genuinely don't care about these things. I have my own issues."
"You're sitting here, telling me to my face that you don't care about the lives of everypony here?"
Lovey's face contorted. "Every 'pony'?" she repeated. "What, is this a smurf thing? Do you pony when you pony the pony?" she mocked.
"...What?" Celestia was bewildered.
Lovey waved a hand. "Forget it. I'm gone."
"And what makes you think I would let you leave with such an offensive tone, tiny?" the snobby one asked.
"I don't care what you think you can do. I'm going back to my teacher, learn to walk, then get the hell out of here and try and find my way back to my real body and home," Lovey growled.
"Um, I don't pretend to know what the dragons are like, nor even the intricacies of this group of them," Celestia started in a rather pitying tone. "but shouldn't you be sitting here to try and help us? It's your purpose, isn't it?"
Lovey leaned against her cane and pointed angrily at the dragons around her. "NO!" she bellowed. "It's THEIR purpose. NOT MINE. I have better things to do than frolic around with some fru-fru tree huggers." She huffed the group and turned away. "Scarlet, could you take me down..."
"SO YOU WANT A FIGHT DO YA?" Scarlet pushed her forehead against the giant pony. "FINE! COME AT ME, PONE!" Scarlet playfully taunted. She invited the stallion to attack her by way of her hands.
Redflare didn't move at first, but when Scarlet amused herself with trying to reach Celestia, she angered him enough to cause him to charge at her. What followed was a series of fake punches and body slams that fazed neither side. Surprising, considering Scarlet's sheer size.
Lovey just stared at the two in disbelief. How was she supposed to get down from the table? The pink dragoness hesitantly leaned over the edge to see the long drop far below and stood up straight immediately feeling terror. The snobby dragoness chuckled at the sight.
"Looks like you're going to have to stay here with us, unless you can use your wings." She faked concern both in facial and vocal expressions. "You CAN use your wings, can't you?"
Lovey looked at her wings as best as she could and dropped her head in defeat.
"Awwww, that's a shame. Looks like you'll have to come back here in front of us all." She smirked.
"Ugh. Fine, but I'm sticking by what I say. That's what a man does. It's shameful to back away from what you say."
" 'Man'?" Celestia repeated. "What is that?"
"Nothing," the snobby dragoness said.
Ember had already forgotten everything happening around her and was watching the fight occurring behind Celestia. "Aren't you going to do something about that?" she asked Celestia.
"Hm? You mean Redflare fighting that dragon? No. You needn't worry about that. I fiond it's a good thing for him to make friends." She leaned in towards Ember and whispered to her. "He's very timid despite his size, so things like this might help him, seeing as she doesn't have any problems dealing with him."
"Looks more to me like neither of them are putting the full force of their strength behind their attacks."
"Looks more to me like I'm forced to stay here," Lovey grumbled when she sat back down. She rubbed her face with both hands and sighed. "I just want to go home. I'm sick of this shit."
"I believe that, for now, we should send a few scouts around our lands, specifically in the areas where the most unrest seem to stem, and see what happens right before these outbreaks," the snobby dragoness suggested.
Celestia nodded in agreement. "That seems like a proper, discreet plan for now. We don't need to crackdown and cause even more aggravation amongst the popu--"
The alicorn flinched when she heard a loud crack followed by crumbling. She and the three others turned to face the source of the sound and saw that Redflare had been thrown into the wall and was regaining his bearings. Scarlet, however, had grabbed her upright arm in a triumphant pose.
"Ha ha!" she cheered. "You might have strength, but I'm bigger than you!"
Snobby and Lovey facepalmed in sync and groaned in annoyance.
"Ignoring the colossus bumbling about, I would say this meeting has been a success," Snobby announced cheerfully.
Celestia turned her head and looked at Lovey from the corner of her eyes. "I also assume that some of the more displeased elements of this meeting will feel immense relief?" she wondered aloud and with a hint of judgement.
Lovey rolled her eyes and stood up. "Hey, Hextuple-X," she called out to Scarlet. "Can you help me down?"
Scarlet flexed one more time victoriously then hopped over to Lovey and, with a hand outstretched, collected the pink dragoness and deposited her on the ground.
"Thank you," Lovey said.
"Oh? You're thanking me now?" Scarlet teased.
"Men are supposed to be polite as well. It's common courtesy," Lovey quipped.
Scarlet rubbed her chin pensively while she watched Lovey stumble away with her cane. She was starting to understand this 'man', as she called herself, but she still needed more time to figure out how to make the little dragoness more open.
Lovey continued 'limping' back to the small area where her teacher waited, perhaps comatose again. She shook her head in disappointment and sighed, then someone called out to her.
"Hey, Pinkie. Wait up," the voice called.
"Don't call me 'Pinkie'," Lovey said between her sharp teeth.
When she turned, it was to see that the caller was Empress Ember. She came running and slowed down with a skid just a few centimeters from Lovey.
"What do you want?" the pink dragoness asked.
"I'm just curious as to what you're doing here." She started walking around Lovey, analyzing her body and its appearance. "Your body is clearly made for these 'lovie dovies', but you don't ct anything like them. You're more fit to being a regular dragon. Erm...without looking like that, though," she gestured to the whole of the pink dragon.
"I can't help what they warped me into. I don't want anything to do with them and I just want to go home. Bunch of idiots..." Lovey spat at the air and jolted herself away from Ember.
The empress nodded in approval. "Then how about I take you away from these fools to the normal dragon lands? They might be helpful, but they aren't dragons," she huffed. "We could maybe change your appearance as well, but it would be difficult, and we'd mostly use paint at first."
"As long as I'm away from them. They won't let me go home, so I might as well escape from these captors."
"Agreed."
Scarlet was busy having a staring contest with Redflare back in the chamber while Celestia just watched them with discontent. The snobby dragoness rolled her eyes and pulled a gem from scale pouches in her back so she could place it in front of the white alicorn.
"I bet one red gem that Scarlet will win."
"I'll take that wager," Celestia replied.
The dragoness' eyes widened but quickly regained their usual composure. "Why princess, I didn't think you'd accept so easily."
"It's not because I'm a princess of a county that I can't make a few friendly wagers every now and then."
Loud thumping outside the chamber attracted the attention of the two gamblers, both which were startled when a wall was demolished to pieces by Zoonzu charging through in a panic and slamming her hands onto the table, causing it to crack at her palms and almost lift up were it not sculpted from the same stone as the rest of the building.
"Are you COMPLETELY stupid?!" snobby shouted.
"I can't find the teeny tiny pink dragon!" Zoonzu shouted. She was on the verge of crying. "She's not there!"
"You mean 'here'," Snobby corrected.
"Oh. Right." There was a long pause where Zoonzu stood in place with a stupid look on her face, having practically forgotten what she was sad about. "Oh yeah, I can't find the teeny weeny pink dragon! She's gone! And Ember went as well."
"She's gone?!" Scarlet bellowed.
"Ah ha!" Celestia cheered. "I win!"
"No fair. She was distracted by outside elements," Snobby complained while Celestia dragged in the rock. The dragoness narrowed her eyes. "Tricksy little ponyses."
"I'll go inform the Pueric Mother right away," Scarlet said.
"What for?" Snobby asked. "It's just one dragon." She shrugged.
"We're supposed to be caring for all of our members, no matter how...misguided they might be."
Snobby rolled her eyes and waved an arm. "Fine. Do what you want. I don't care."
Scarlet rushed through the hole while Zoonzu remained for a moment before realizing she needed to follow. Meanwhile, Celestia lifted an eyebrow.
"I can see that not all of your group of dragons are affectionate," she talked down to the dragoness in a calm manner.
"Not all of us can only worry about the size of the grass we can eat. Some of us have actual responsibilities," Snobby retorted.
Celestia smiled, although with a bit of anger obviously being repressed. "Funny you should say that."
Far away from the green garden mountain of the Lovie Dovies were two small dragonesses walking down casually. Lovie still had quite a bit of trouble getting down, but she had never felt happier.
"It's like a breath of fresh air," she smiled.
"I can see that. I also noticed you still haven't figured out how to walk OR fly yet," Ember noted.
Lovey narrowed her eyes and averted her gaze. "Yes. That. I had a teacher, but I can't deal with this anymore. It's like being in a prison."
"Then you'll enjoy the freedom that all true dragons should be able to enjoy," Ember said. "And, as the Dragon Empress, I'll have you learn how it is to be a dragon and how to feel the inner, savage strength that we all have within us."
Lovey nodded with approval and belayed enthusiasm. "I would love to see that," she said. "It'd be so much better than just sitting around all day and breathing while your teacher constantly falls asleep."
Back at the garden, the Pueric Mother screamed so loud that the glass panes cracked and the mountain trembled.
"GET HER BACK!" she yelled at Zoonzu and Scarlet. "We need her here, and she's not ready for the savage dragons. They'll rip her apart!"
"But I don't know where she could have gone!" Scarlet cried. "I don't know where to start!"
"Then let me use a..." The colossal dragoness stopped for a moment and tapped her chin. "Hmmm," she hummed. "Actually, I want you two to shadow her. This will be a good lesson to one so set on being so 'masculine' all the time without any real reason and no one to support her."
"What if she gets something wrong?"
Scarlet looked at the giant with confusion. "Don't you mean what if she gets into trouble?"
"Uhh...Oh. You're right!" Zoonzu cheered.
"Then you intervene and bring her back, but only do so if you really, REALLY think she needs the help. Alright?"
"Yes," the two answered the Pueric Mother.
"Then let us see where she is headed off to." The mother grabbed several different ingredients from around her and prepared various mortars and cauldrons. "You'll see where she's going, and I'll see more deeply inside of her." The colossus chuckled and smiled melancholically. "It has been centuries since I saw someone like her."
The trip across the plains was pleasant enough for Oliver, and he did enjoy a nice little walk out in the field. Ember was rather casual about the situation, probably because she instigated it. Still, she didn't actually care that she took a member from a group of dragons that were large enough to actual prevent dragons from going to war with each other.
"So, are we going to get to wherever you wanted us to go?" Lovey asked.
Ember scratched the back of her head. "We would be there by now if you could fly," she grumbled.
"Newsflash: I can't use my wings. They weren't part of my original body." Lovey pointed at the empress. "And YOU were the one who wanted me to join you."
"Yes, but keep up with that attitude and I'll leave you to fend for yourself in this...wilderness."
Lovey looked around and frowned. "Oh yes. The mighty grass monsters are going to kill me. Such dire are the straits that this boat will surely be cleft in tway upon contact."
Ember turned her head to look at Lovey with a wide eye. "What?"
The pink dragoness relaxed before resuming. "Nothing."
Ember made a single chuckle. "At least I won't need to teach you about sarcasm."
"Yes. That would be terrible," Lovey mused.
The walking lasted for hours until the duo finally arrived at a depression in the hilly landscape. The ground was charred black, and although some patches of grass remained, they were dried husks of their former selves. Dragons of human sizes and slightly bigger were running around, being extremely aggressive with each other. Some dragons were the gigantic sizes that Scarlet exhibited, but they were preoccupied with sleeping than paying attention to anything around.
"What is this crater? Something fall from the sky?" Lovey asked.
"No. This is just the site of one of the many conflicts between dragon clans before the Lovie Dovies came to be," Ember explained with a smile. "This is where you'll learn to walk, fly, and do all the other things dragons love."
"You mean be draconic?"
Ember looked puzzled. "I don't know what that means."
"You don't need to."
A thin dragon approached the duo on their entry of the crater, wide eyed and smug as a king. "Empress Ember. You've returned, and with a buddy...who is crippled." He bared his claws and looked at Lovey. "Come to be put out of your misery?"
"I may not be able to walk yet, but get close to me with those things and I'll rip them out of your hands and plant them into your hide to serve as substitute claws," Lovey threatened.
"Ooo. A feisty one."
"You just love to be shown as 'amusing' since you failed the gauntlet, don't you, Charr?"
Several more dragons, adolescent by their voices, came close as well.
"What's with the freak?" one of them asked.
"She looks unnatural."
Charr smirked. "Looks like you found a lovie dovie."
The other dragons all exclaimed their disgust rather harshly.
"So that's why she looks like a bunch hearts. That's so baby and pony-like!" one of them said.
Another stepped forward and teased Lovey Dovey even more. "What are we supposed to do with this coward? Why is she even here? It's not enough that she looks like a freak, but now we learn she's a Lovie Dovie? What's she going to do, cry us to stop fighting?"
Lovey's mouth started fuming and crackling with a pink braze and heart shaped smoke.
"Oh, even her fire is pink and heart shaped. How adorable!"
"YOU--!"
Before Lovey could respond, the mocker swiped the pink dragoness onto her feet with a tail sweep. The mocker stomped on Lovey's chest and leaned forward, grinning. Lovey might not be able to walk properly, but she still knew how to fight bipeds. She took the opportunity to twist the dragon's ankle, throwing her onto the floor, then following by claiming atop her assaulter and pummeling her face in. All the while, Lovey's mouth started sparking more and more until her attacker blew fire into her face, blinding her and charring her scales. Not used to such things for obvious reasons, Lovey clutched her face and fell over, letting the mocker kick her several times on the floor.
If it weren't for the other dragons, the mocker would never have been able to walk away on account of her ankle. Ember and Charr both clapped 'poshly' at the display.
"For a Lovie Dovie, she's quite violent," Charr commented. "Is this why you took a shine to her?"
The pink dragoness struggled to push herself up with her hands and glared at Ember with sparking teeth. "Why didn't you help me?"
"Because this is how true dragons are. You fend for yourself." She punched her chest one. "It's how true dragons grow strong!"
Charr huffed. "Well, I have better things to do right now than play with a Lovie Dovie," he spat in disgust. "I have some baby sitting to do."
Lovey tilted her head from confusion. "You're supposed to be super strong and super dangerous, yet you still watch over the children of others?"
Ember and Charr looked at each other briefly before laughing.
"Of course not," Charr said. "I SIT on babies. Much more comfortable than sitting on rocks."
"That's horrible!"
"Pfff. To a Lovie Dovie maybe."
Charr flicked his tail at the pink dragoness and flew off, leaving Lovey to marinate and then boil in her own rage.
"Do you feel that?" Ember asked. Lovey looked up at her. "That's bestial rage. All true dragons have it and use it. It is why 'domesticated' dragons take so long to be able to grow and fully use their abilities." Ember held up her claws and blew fire between them. "This doesn't mean we're supposed to be angry and rude. It's just a side effect of what we need to grow." She leaned down and helped Lovey onto her hands and feet. "Because you're new to this whole thing, and because lovie dovies are weirdos, you're going to need a much more bestial...erm...'digging'?"
"Digging?"
"It's the best term I can think of."
"But I can't be seen walking around like this! It's embarrassing!"
Ember shrugged. "The important part is that you're walking. If you can't walk, then there's no point in being alive, is there?"
Lovey looked away and narrowed her eyes. "I know a few people who would disagree with you there..." The pink dragoness looked at the bottoms of her 'hands' and huffed. "So what now?"
"You move around and see what the others are doing. I have things to talk about with the representatives of every clan. My 'father'," she said with mockery. "thinks that this is a great way to help me build up my controlling skills."
"But--"
"See ya later."
Ember flew away, leaving Lovey Dovey alone with dragons that hated her and a body that wouldn't obey her. Oliver had to be a man about this, but for the first time in many, many years, he felt helpless. He just realized that, up to this point, he had his hand held this whole time. Lovey sat on her butt and took a deep breath. She was about to cry from the sudden realization, but real men don't cry, after all. She needed to gather her wits about her and figure out what to do. The first step was properly using her back legs by trying to bring back that fury and anger. That bestial rage Ember talked about.
"Alright," Lovey inhaled. "Let's do this again."
In the distance, Scarlet and Zoonzu were watching from a distance...rather, Scarlet was watching. Zoonzu was more preoccupied with looking at the clouds.
"I don't like this," Scarlet said. "I know the Pueric Mother told us to go and get her immediately, but I can't go there."
"Why not?" Zoonzu asked with a stuffed mouth.
"I think that this could...Are you eating?"
"Yes."
"What are you eating?"
"The grassy bulb color."
"You mean flowers?"
"Yes. Flowers. Sorry."
"Why are you eating flowers?"
Zoonzu tapped her index fingers together. "Because they looked tasty."
Scarlet raised an eyebrow. "And are they?" she asked. "Are they really?" she insisted.
"N...no...but they are chewy." Zoonzu smiled and tapped her stomach. "Helps with hunger pains."
Scarlet shook her head and resumed 'spying'. "I want to get her out, but at the same time, I want to keep her in there."
"Why?"
"Because she doesn't know how the usual dragons act, and, by her behavior, I can tell she isn't made for actual rough housing no matter whats he says."
"How do you know tha--" Before Zoonzu could finish, she started choking in the flowers and rolling along the floor.
"I've been a lovie dovie long enough to know, especially when they try to hide it." She scratched her chin. "I just don't know why she hides it. There must be SOME reason she behaves that way."
Zoonzu rolled in front of the red dragoness who, unflinching, punched Zoonzu's diaphragm, making the giant spit out the green mush that had formed in her throat.
Still unsure of her position, Lovey started crawling forward after establishing that she could indeed keep her balance and walk appropriately.
"Looks like these dragons can walk on all fours or just two legs," the pink dragoness thought to herself. "That's really weird. Their spines shouldn't be capable of that, let alone the rest of their skeleton."
Lovey tried her best to avoid the other dragons while she adjusted to her new state of movement, but dragons weren't ones to sit idly by when something was available for torment. The 'second' group, still adolescents, like the first group that went to see Ember. Scarlet watched them from afar as they amused themselves with kicking Lovey around whilst she walked along the floor on all fours. The red giantess squeezed her clawed toes into the ground. Something was preventing her from rushing to aid the little dragon despite every atom of her body crashing together, creating boundless amounts of needs to help.
Being bullied didn't help Lovey get a control on her body, as evidenced by her mouth sparking up more and more as time went on. Oliver was too prideful to be pushed around without doing anything, and so he ended up doing what anyone who can't argue with words does: He tackled the dragons down and started beating them up...to the best of his abilities. It wasn't much of a surprise for Scarlet to see that he wasn't doing much winning.
"You're such a weirdo, lovie dovie," one of the dragonesses spat.
Lovey forced herself up and spat red.
"What kind of lovie dovie fights?"
"One that's going to crack open your head and use the skull as a cereal bowl!" Lovey fumed.
The dragons all laughed, enraging Oliver even further. He didn't notice the pink lava-like substance leaking from between his sharp teeth and falling to the floor in an inaudible sizzle, eating away at the black rock.
In the town of Ranchefort, at the border of Equestria and the dragon lands, Redflare and two accompanying guards were discreetly observing the area, trying to find any hints pointing towards Red Sun. Redflare was a sizeable pony; An abnormality, concerning his size. His fluffy red coat went well with his equally fluffy and unkempt mane and tail of a brighter red hue. His mane, however, displayed several uneven 'spikes' jutting forward whilst the back showed some elongation overlapping his shoulders slightly.
Being a pegasus, and a large one, the pony's wingspan was quite large, easily reaching to the with of three ponies from white-tipped-wing to white-tipped-wing. He had a love for a scarf, striped vertically downwards in large bands of red and black, which he wore around his neck constantly. His cutie mark represented a sun similar in design to a map's compass, underscored by a v shape stretching from both sides in a wide angle, only to shrink back around to the area between the 'East' and 'West' points and the south-west and south-east points of the sun.
The two guards next to him looked like foals in comparison. The first, a major of the Royal Guards, was quite gruff looking and paranoid. His deep blue coat was tarnished by a pale, almost white section over his left shoulder, stretching up to the base of his mane and reaching around to the right of his chest. His mane was shaved along the back of his neck, but was stylized to be shown as a tall, forward-curving wave of peppermint hair. The pony's eyes were also peppermint colored, and his cutiemark was a sheet of paper covered by a red ruler.
The second guard, a mare sporting an apathetic expression, was a unicorn of lieutenant-colonel rank. Her fur was considered a novelty, as only her face and the front of her hooves were white. The red was candy red, mixing with her candy orange mane and tail. Her cutiemark was a metallic spear whose bladed head was surrounded by electric currents. She had a bit of a height advantage over her major companion.
The town was the atypical rural assortment of houses and two-story buildings. A few taller buildings were randomly placed here and there, but they weren't numerous enough to be of any real significance to the status of Ranchefort. The buildings were built with bricks and linings of thin, wooden planks around windows and doors. Some had several window sized squares of wooden planks decorating the outer walls.
"Hm. This is definitely an old-style town," the lieutenant-colonel noted.
"Remind me why we're here again, Flossy Cotton?"
Cotton raised an eyebrow. "Going on a first name basis now, Major?" she spoke with a low and threatening tone.
"N-no, m'am."
Cotton chuckled. "At ease, Cornwell. We needn't be formal here. We're undercover. Ehhh..." she rolled her hoof. "Scouts, as it were. We need to be inconspicuous."
"INCONSPICUOUS?!" Cornwell whisper-yelled. "With that mountain?" His yell attracted Redflare's attention, making the stallion turn and looked at the 'little pony' with a raised 'brow. "We'd still see his head if we hid behind one of these buildings!"
"Well, that's not very nice," Red complained. "I'm just 'poofy', is all."
The major stared at him with in disbelief. "AND he has a sense of humor."
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't try exploding against everything that present itself as a challenge," Flossy scolded.
"Right. Right. I'm sorry. I'm just not comfortable out here with a literal, walking mountain." He cleared his throat.
"So where should we start?" Red asked.
Flossy leaned to the side to see a large tavern with a large wooden sign dangling on metal hinges. Its swaying was the main thing that caught her attention.
"A tavern is always the best place to go to get local gossip."
"At this time of day? Unlikely. The sun is still out."
Flossy hummed in agreement.
"We can always walk around town, casually strolling into markets and peruse the wares," Cornwell explained. "We were given an allowance. Might as well use it to build our food supply since we'll be staying her for a while, and markets are the best place to get information when it's too early for a tavern."
"That's a great idea! Let's so that." Cotton pulled a map out of her mane and unfurled it. "This is a map of the city. This place to the west is where I'm going to. Red, you'll go north, and Corn, you'll stay in this area." She rolled the parchment back up. "I think I can hear tell of the markets you spoke of."
"We go now?" Cornwell asked.
"Yes."
The three had just turned when Cotton smacked her forehead. "Oh! Meet back here near that tavern over there."
"The Cherry Blossom?" Redflare asked.
"That's it. Now we can go."
Redflare was the first to reach a market. It was actually not as big as he would have hoped. There were, of course, the lines and lines of stalls, but only two areas were open enough for a nice circle of them. Some were the atypical wooden counter with colorful covers while others were more creative with their tent shape. The usual things sold were foods, such as vegetables for the ponies, meat for griffins and minotaurs, and candy for everyone. Others sold clothing or toys, and some of the stall owners even sold weaponry. Why, some of the book owners even sold rare books on magic and how to learn it. It was fascinating to see all the types of people who showed up here. There was just one problem: Redflare was sticking out like a sore thumb, and everyone who saw him turned their heads in disbelief; hoping that a better view might prove to their eyes that his size was just an illusion.
On occasion, Redflare would see an adult dragon flying overhead, but they didn't do anything suspicious. There was nothing so far indicating any potential threat to the ponies or any signs of Red Sun. The giant stallion overheard a griffin performing street music with the help of several pipes. He enjoyed the music for a while then went on his way. There was even a clothes salespony selling a large assortment of scarfs, something that piqued Red's interest.
It actually took a surprisingly long time before the first disturbance happened. A small group of about six ponies were walking through the streets. They appeared to be 'regular', but they didn't exactly seem happy to see things depicting dragons, as shown by one of them breaking out of her comrades' grip when she spotted another pony selling hoof-crafted statues. He was currently, carefully tracing out the shapes in a clay statue, using a single hand lens on his eye for that extra precision.
She yelled at the craftspony and shoved the clay onto the floor, turning it into a smushed clump.
"I worked on that since this morning..." the pony wallowed.
"What is that? A dragon?!" the mare yelled in disgust. "Do you know what they do? WHAT THEY ARE?!" she insisted.
"I..." The stallion couldn't focus. He was more devastated by all his hard work being destroyed in mere seconds than the pony who did it.
"Celery, don't. This isn't the time," one of the ponies called out. "Get back here and let's be on our way."
She turned to yell t them. "No! Are you serious? Nopony should be making things based on them. They...They kill for sport. They're very aggressive, and I've seen them planning to attack ponies."
"That attack on the village hasn't been linked to them yet," the stallion said.
"Are you serious?" Celery replied with an apathetic expression. "Huge claw marks and giant scorch marks?"
Loud stomps scared the ponies around, making them crouch down and look upwards in one movement.
"I would appreciate it if you apologized to that stallion then left. Nopony wants to hear your unnecessarily hateful slander here," Redflare said in a passive-aggressive tone.
"A-and what are you going to do about it, giant tomato? Spit seeds at me?" Celery said. Her attempts at bravery flushed away when the giant lowered his head to her eye level, scowled, then snorted, blowing her fur away. "I-I'm sorry, sir! I'll help you clean up!"
"I didn't say anything about cleaning. Up. You've done enough damage. Just...go." Redflare gestured with his hoof, prompting the mare to rejoin her companions and rush off.
The paladin nodded then tended to the distraught craftspony. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked.
The craftspony sighed and continued staring at the clay. "Hours upon hours of constant work. Thanks for the help, but let me wallow for a while. Get it out of my system."
Red nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry I couldn't help you sooner."
The craftspony waved a hoof, signaling Red to leave. The party didn't continue anything of note, but being the first group of ponies openly angry against dragons, they were worth a follow, and it paid off. Somepony wearing a blue sweater and a hoodie caught their attention and, judging by the mare's outrage, was telling them things about the dragons.
"It might not lead to the source, considering these are certainly rumors, but it will lead me to the most concentrated points of their creation," Red thought to himself.
The moment his thundering steps were noticed, the group called him out and fled. The 'rumor mill' looked at them with confusion, but did the same thing shortly thereafter. Redflare gave chase, and being his size, passer-bys dodged out of the way of the one-pony stampede. The living rumor-mill was much more adept than expected. They were very nimble and sliding under anything seen as an obstacle. The red giant was not a paladin for no reason, however, and huge stature is not an excuse for poor training and manners. In fact, his huge size was even more of a way to get around the obstacles, especially seeing as his leg muscles were stronger than they should be, allowing for sharp redirection. Noticing Redflare gaining on them, the pony smiled for some reason. The red stallion raised an eyebrow in response.
The chased pony wasn't looking where they were going and 'crashed' into a minotaur, exploding in a puff of crackling red powder that smelled of hot cinnamon. Redflare's hooves skidded on the stone streets, halting him just a mere foot from the bipedal taurus, but both were baffled about what just happened, let alone the crows that watched the chase. There were unique elements at play for the Red Sun. The spy task could prove much more effective than initially thought.
Lovey heaved a heavy sigh. The only thing she had done since coming to the crater was get into fights. She was battered and bruised and felt like a banana.
"Why'd she bring me here again?" she thought to herself. Her belly rumbled in response. "And I'm so hungry..."
Lovey looked around, hoping to see some kind of meal sorted out for everyone, but there was no such thing. The best she could do was see what the others were eating and how to obtain it. Much to her confusion and horror, everyone was eating gems and meat from freshly hunted animals in the plains. By this time, the sun had already set, and the white clarity of the moon covered the land. Most of the dragons who weren't eating were either sleeping or leaving.
"...Maybe if I sleep, the hunger pain will subside for a while..." Lovey felt tears trying to escape her eyes, but a deep breath and some concentration prevented that from happening.
With some effort, she waddled towards a pile of tones and nuzzled herself between them. Having no proper space to stretch, and being forced to walk on all fours, she found it apt to roll around and sleep like a cat. Hunger and pain poked at her again, and she tried desperately not to cry while she attempted to slumber.
"What are you doing, son? Men don't cry!" a stern voice spoke to Oliver. "We just take it and stand strong! Now come on. Let's go. We'll get some ice cream and make you feel much better. Ice cream always made me feel better."
Scarlet clicked her tongue in annoyance and lied down. Zoonzu had already fallen asleep on the grass and ignored the thousands of bugs walking over her immense hide. The red dragoness cringed at the sight.
"I hope she's going to be okay. If this continues, I'm bringing her back. I can tell that she's about to snap,"
The next morning, Lovey was violently awoken by more dragons. They had picked up the large rocks around her and thrown them to the side. One of them picked her up by the throat and tossed her aside like a piece of paper.
"There we go," she said. "More space for us."
Regaining her bearings, Lovey yelled at them. "What's your deal, you stupid idiot? Why can't you let me sleep?!"
The opposing dragoness looked at Lovey with bloodthirsty eyes. "Why, we heard you couldn't fly! We-" She gestured to her group of six. "Thought we could help you out with that!" She walked towards a large boulder and heaved it onto her shoulder. "If you're stressed by things on the ground, then you should ffffffflY!"
The boulder smashed heavily on the ground next to the pink dragoness who started running away as fast as she could while the dragons followed her, laughing.
"This is what happens when lovie dovies leave their volcano!"
"Volcano?" Lovey thought.
Scarlet started stomping the ground angrily. "They're throwing boulders at her!" She 'pulled up' her 'sleeves'. "That's it. I'm going to get her out of there."
The red dragoness hadn't paid attention to her companion grabbing a boulder Scarlet's size and waddling forward with her legs spread apart and the boulder in front of her.
"This will happen to her!" Zoonzu said.
"Wha-ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Scarlet screamed when she saw what Zoonzu was doing.
"Heave HO!"
And, as she announced, the massive stone was heaved several hundred feet forward and into the air. The gigantic stone appeared in front of the early sun as a black spot, a spot which gradually grew larger and larger.
"What is that?!" one of the dragons pointed.
"Run!" the lead dragoness said.
The massive stone hit the ground with a loud thunk and bounced after the lead dragoness. It continued to roll towards her with great speeds across the crater, letting Lovey heave a sigh of relief. It was short lived, however, as her stomach decided to remind her about her lack of sustenance, and the reminder felt like someone was squeezing and twisting her stomach. A slightly older dragon casually walked by, chewing on some meat.
"Hmmm. Starving, huh?"
"...Yes."
"Then hunt for your food. Lovie Dovies don't hunt?"
Lovey looked at him, then looked at the ground.
"Then how do you get food?"
"Some of u...them hunt. The others do other stuff."
"Huh. You lovies sure as a strange bunch."
Lovey blinked and took a step back, suspicion permeating every millimeter of her face. "Why aren't you attacking me like all the others?"
"Because I don't care. I'm just curious." He walked away, his face still showing complete apathy. After taking a bit out of his meat, he pointed a greasy finger to the distance. "There's animals over there. Maybe take your time and look for something. You might find something to eat...if you're lucky."
Lovey didn't want to listen to him, and so she sat, pouting, but her stomach wouldn't let her be stubborn. It took some effort to climb the ashy mound, but Lovey managed to reach the top and look in the distance. Strangely enough, she was capable of seeing from quite a ways away. There were several rabbits and birds around, and the other dragons were already catching and killing them.
Drool seeped from the pink dragoness' mouth, but not from the sight of 'game'. Rather, the image of cooked rabbit complete with prunes and honeyed barbecue sauce, complete with potatoes on the side.
"Mmmm...No. NO! Focus, Oliver. You need to..." Her energy suddenly drained in seconds. "to kill..."
"Come on, Oliver. Take the gun and shoot it."
"But I don't want to...I don't want to kill it!"
"Boy, men have hunted since the day our ancestors climbed out of the ocean. Think of it this way: If not us, then someone else might. And then what? You'll have wasted a perfect opportunity."
"..."
"They might not even make a clean kill and let it get away to slowly die, but I know you can do it cleanly and quickly."
The silence was broken by the sound of a loud bang waking Lovey from her daydreaming. In the distance, Scarlet continued watching her while Zoonzu looked for more giant boulders to throw. The red dragoness rubbed her chin pensively.
"She's been sitting there for hours. What's wrong with her? It's just hunting." Several more minutes passed before Scarlet came to a sudden realization. "She can't kill."
"Huh?" Zoonzu blurted out her flower-filled mouth.
"She can't kill, which means she can't hunt. And if she can't hunt."
"She can't nom."
Scarlet bit her claw. "Now I really can't leave her there. Tch. Was she an herbivore before she was taken here?" Scarlet pondered. "No. She was scarfing down the meat we were giving her. Didn't she hunt? Where did she even get the meat if she never hunted and wasn't a herbivore?"
"Come on, Zoonzu. Let's go. It'll take some time to get to the crater."
"Okay!" the giantess answered cheerfully.
In her daze, Lovey turned and walked back into the crater, unaware that, after nearly tripping and falling, she was walking upright. Sure, she was still clumsy, but she didn't need her cane, and her tail was doing its best to help her keep her balance.
"Hey look, she can walk normally now."
"That means we can throw her out normally now."
The pink dragoness didn't even react to the dragons that landed near her and strode past them, confusing the group.
"Is she okay?"
"Who cares. Just throw her out."
As the 'teenagers' approached Lovey, two loud thumps were produced behind hem, followed by an earth shattering stomp that threw everyone off-balance and onto the floor.
"What was that?!" one of the teenage dragons shouted.
Zoonzu's smiling face approached them and showed her huge teeth. "Play time?" she asked.
"Yes. Teach them how to be real dragons," Scarlet said.
"Woo!"
Zoonzu jumped in the air joyfully and chased after the 'ants' that were running screaming from the gargantuan dragon chasing them.
"I THOUGHT LOVIE DOVIES WERE SUPPOSED TO BE SMALL!" one of them even shouted.
Scarlet shook her head and looked at Lovey with pity. She grabbed the pink dragoness and cradled her in her arms.
"You couldn't even last two days out here, and you can't even resist your hunger pains for half that." She chuckled. "For someone touting themselves to be 'Manly' and 'Strong', you sure do come from a weak place."
Scarlet took off to the sky, letting her 'friend' 'play' with the tiny little dragons, but Lovey wasn't saying anything. She was just staring blankly into the distance, her stomach rumbling loudly.
"Looks like she just realized how weak and useless she was, and her whole world shattered. I know that feeling. You know," she started. "You shouldn't bottle up your feelings like that. It's not good for y..."
Looking down, Scarlet saw that the pink dragoness was crying silently. Her face was as 'blank' as before and still staring into the distance, but her eyes were flooded with tears. Even with her world and entire perceptions shattered, Lovey refused to give in, at least, not entirely. The giant red dragoness shook her head in a display of bemusement and pity and aimed for the home of the Pueric Mother.
"I hope she'll be alright," Scarlet wondered nervously.
Zoonzu landed hard on the ground, her face plastered with happiness. "I played with the little dragons."
"I hope you had fun."
"Oh, I did."
Back in the crater, the place looked like even it had a crater inside of it. Most of the dragons were all groaning in pain on the floor. Zoonzu's 'playing' always involved lots of unintentional rough-housing, and these little guys were paying the price for it.
The Pueric Mother silently worked on her cauldron, creating a little bit of a new potion for testing purposes. Lovey sat on a bench, her back turned to the 'mountain' dragon. No words were being exchanged, and silence was the only form of communication being made. There was a smell coming from the metal bowl that would frequently shift from a sweet, bakery smell, to a pungent and rotten odor, and vice versa. Lovey would be complaining more about it were she not currently undergoing her...'duress'.
"So..." the Pueric Mother started. "Had a little breakdown after your little rebellious phase, huh?" She waited for a response, but when she did not get it it, she continued talking. "I see." She grabbed a barrel full of luminescent, purple plants reminiscent of hot peppers, and poured them into the cauldron. The dragon then started to slowly mix it all while he talked. "You know, I actually didn't mind you leaving our home. Exploration is good. I was just...worried, considering you can't walk yet, and that you ere going with that Empress-in-training." The colossus breathed in some fumes and sneezed. "I take it you now know why I didn't want you in contact with the usual side of our kind."
Lovey turned her head ever so slightly, then resumed looking downwards in defeat.
"I see. At least Ember had the right idea about getting you to walk. Everyone has a different way to learn the same things. What we teach here is a standardized method. Even IF Sconce is rather...ech..." The dragon poked liquids within the cauldron with her mixing rod and shook her head, resuming her work. "I'm very well aware of your mindset about all this. Erm...can you keep a secret?"
Lovey silently and slowly nodded.
"To be fully honest, I'm not the one who casts those spells. I only help initiate and train the newcomers. The one who casts them lives in the belly of our home." The colossus gestured to the whole of the Lovie Dovie home. "All of this is a dormant volcano. Or," She scratched her chin with a claw. "It used to be. The lava has long been redirected. BUT!" She resumed mixing the substance angrily. "That doesn't change the fact that the one who casts those spells is the same person I consulted to learn just why your appearance is so strange compared to the others." She pointed at Lovey. "You aren't the first to have a unique trait, be it singular or plural. However, you're the first to have such a direct, consistent, and vibrant of appearances. Even your flames have that same theme to them."
"...So who knows why I'm like this?"
"AH. Finally! Some words! I was beginning to think those dragons ripped out your tongue."
The colossus make an equally sized effort to stand upright. She easily shook the entirety of the building, throwing dust and fragile bits of wall downwards. She put her hands on her back and pushed forward, cracking her spine and creating a cringe-inducing noise.
"Well, let's go meet her."
The Pueric Mother breathed seething hot flames on her right hand then slammed the side of her clenched fist into the wall. The stone burned bright orange as though it were metal having been taken from a furnace. The light instantly spread all across the room in random lines and patterns which receded and converged to a huge circle underneath the pink dragoness. The colossus stepped upon the circle, her eyes seemingly blank, but with a wide and warm smile on her lips.
The platform broke off the rest of the floor, and a pink barrier rose up to encompass even the mountain dragon. Lovey looked around, somewhat curious, but her depression set back in. Pueric noticed and her smile only widened.
"Be patient, little dragon. It'll come up eventually."
Lovey huffed in response. Her eyes were soon lit up when she reached the lights. Assortments of pinks and purples as well as some reds and blue flowed around a slightly dark chamber composed of only cooled lava rock. The colors flowed around like fish swimming in the sea. It was like being in a dream. In fact, the lava rock would warp into the color of the lights when they would swim by, and plants akin to kelp and giant flowers being pushed by a strong current would rise up for several minutes then go back down into the rock, as though they had never grown. The pink dragoness still didn't want to say anything, but she was fixated on the lights and the 'show' before her.
When the platform finally landed, it was between a very long mass of rough stone, and Lovey stepped away from it when the barrier dropped back into the platform itself. She was expecting the tube to move. A pair of three claws slammed heavily on the rock and dug into them. The claws shone like steel, and they looked terrifyingly sharp and well maintained. A huge head rose from behind the geological construct, still shrouded in darkness. It filled Lovey with a sense of dread, but then she remembered the group she was dealing with.
"Is that a costume to scare me?" she mumbled.
Two 'fins' swung open on the sides of the creature's face, blasting the room with an assortment of vibrant colors matching those that were flying around. The entire area was filled with plantlife that had once laid dormant. The fins were similar to beetle wings in that several transparent 'wings' were fluttering underneath the carapace to create light.
"Yes. I'm a creepy costume," the dragon mused with a loud, booming voice.
Her face was elongated, and on the top of her head was a tremendous amount of glowing tendrils that ended with orbs slowly changing colors every few seconds. It reminded Lovey of decorative fiber optics. The dragon's eyes were a clean, glowing white with bright, hot-pink irises. Her elongated mouth ended in a nose nigh indistinguishable from the rest of her face. Much like Lovey, her features were much rounder despite having a head the size of Scarlet.
"Is this the one you told me about? The one you named 'Lovey Dovey'?" she asked in a calm and serene voice.
"Yes it is, first of the Puerics."
Lovey looked up at the colossus. Her face was contorted. "What do you mean 'First of'?"
"Exactly what she means," the 'first' compounded.
The first arose somewhat to get a better, easier reach for Lovey. The pink dragoness screamed in horror when she was grabbed by the massive claws and squeezed tightly. The 'First' then rose upwards higher and higher, longer and longer. She wasn't like the other dragons Lovey had seen up to this point.
"You're a serpent. An oriental dragon!" Lovey exclaimed.
The ring of pumice rock sitting around the platform the two dragons came in vibrated and came to life. It was the rest of the serpent's body, and the residue that formed on the dragon's body shook off and flew around to return to the walls and floor as though by magic.
"I will see you later, First of the Lovie Dovies," the Pueric Mother said.
The 'First' rolled her eyes. "You know I hate that name."
Pueric shrugged and returned to the tower above, leaving Lovey in the hold of a terrifying serpent whose whole body glowed brightly and wouldn't stop flying around the large volcanic core. In fact, with a better view of her, Lovey could see, at regular intervals, the same pairs of six transparent wings along her body keeping her aloft by flowing like the waves of an ocean. The pink dragoness didn't like her 'trip' and put a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from vomiting.
"Lemme down, you frikkin' roller coaster!"
"You don't like it? I thought you would appreciate the ability of flight seeing as you can't fly yet. Something to look forward to, you know." The 'first slowed' down and held Lovey to her face. "Do you all call yourselves 'Lovie Dovies'?" she asked with sarcasm.
The pink dragoness hung over the First's claw and held up a finger to the serpent. "Okay. I'm doing better...Yeah. We do. I thought that was our name."
"Pffff. No. That's the name dragons assigned to us after they finally noticed what we were doing." She looked at Lovey through the corner of her eye and sported a smirk. "You, who lived with them for a time, should know why."
"Because they're all assholes and name you based on what you do?"
The serpent balanced a hand left and right. "More or less. It's really because we'd promote love and caring, to an extent. We didn't want it to extend to full fledged war. So they started calling us 'Lovie Dovies'." She spat on the floor. "I HATE that name!"
Lovey was perplexed. "I thought you were the oldest Lovie Dovie."
"I am," she answered smugly.
"You aren't behaving like I was expecting."
"What, so because I'm old I should be 'Wise and loving, like Princess Celestia'?" she said with an imitation of Celestia's calm voice. She poked Lovey in the chest. "You're one to judge, Mrs. Crawling-in-my-skin."
"How do you even...Don't call me 'missus'!"
The serpent twirled around the room one more time and coiled herself along the floor. "Why not?"
"It's..."
"Disheartening?" she teased.
Lovey looked off and, instead of talking back like she wanted to, dropped her head in defeat. The serpent pet Lovey on her head.
"Tch tch tch," she whispered. "You poor thing. I can see the scars on your soul and your mind. I can see a wall that served as a support for a whole building torn down, yet the material struggles to stay upright."
"Stop 'analyzing' me," Lovey grumbled.
"Why not? It's my job as the first of our kind."
"I don't like it."
"We don't all get to do things that we like...right away. Be a little patient," the First hummed.
"And no singing. I hate musicals."
The serpent's eyes narrowed down at the dragoness, and a wicked smile grew across her face.
"Perhaps not now, but eventually." She chuckled. "So, your physical appearance is indeed extremely strange. Your Pueric Mother was right. Such a unique mutation."
"Then could you let me go while you stare at my butt?"
"Dragons don't have butts, sweetie, and no. I won't let you go."
"Ufff. If I could cross my arms I would...Who ever even heard of such a sassy ruler?"
"Interesting."
"What, my golden locks?"
"I assure you that, with your attitude, they'd never be 'gold'. Only silver. No, it's your body. It looks like it mutated you based on all the positive emotions you keep bottled up inside of you."
"So doctor, does this mean I'm going to die? Should I take some medication?" Lovey asked sarcastically.
The serpent smacked her in the head with a finger. "No, you sas-parilla. It means that you want to love and feel love, but you don't let yourself. If the current pueric mother is right, this probably has to do with this 'being a man' you so often jib about."
Lovey's eyes darted left and right on her insulted face. "And? That's how I'm SUPPOSED to behave! I shouldn't be going around making...g-googoo faces at everything! It's not right!"
"Well, if you're going around doing that, I agree it's not right, and you should seek help at the earliest convenience of everyone else." She chuckled. "No. I mean that you're repressing your emotions, and that's unhealthy."
"I don't care."
The first rolled her eyes. "Well, the longer you're like this, the longer it will take for you to get used to your new body, and the longer it will take for you to do whatever it is you were brought here for."
"BUT...! But...I want my old body back...I want my old home..." Lovey trailed off. Her voice was cracking.
The First stared at her intently but waited to see if the dragoness would let herself cry. Much to her disappointed expectations, it didn't happen.
"You know, I shouldn't tell you this now, but...those who become like us when they weren't already dragons aren't actually forced to stay with us."
Lovey almost bolted upright to look at the serpent directly. For the first time since become a lovie dovie, her eyes held a sparkle of emotion.
"Really?"
"But--"
In Ranchefort, where the three spies wandered about, a single pony sat on old stone walls, waggling their forehooves over the ledge and seeing the horizon covered in well-maintained houses. They could see the ponies and dragons hanging out together and casually talking in the streets, and the pony ground their teeth angrily.
"Ssstupid ponies. Stupid dragons. They're all stupid. I hate them all so much. They shouldn't be talking with each other. It's unnatural. It's WRONG! I don't want this any longer here. They aren't doing anything right!"
"You need to let yourself go and figure out why the spell took you here," the First explained.
Lovey blinked. "What."
"You heard me." The 'fins' of the serpent fluttered in response, releasing several spore-like orbs of vibrant colors. "The spells only take those that have the potential for love in their hearts. If you look like this, then it means your potential was too much for the spell to contain and it...for lack of a better term...erm...'hemorrhaged out'." The serpent almost gagged when she said that.
"What are you talking about? Men can love women and their children. Hell, they can even love their pets, but that's it. They're not supposed to display anything 'weak' like that."
"And I suppose it's your 'society' that told you to do this?" the First raised an eyebrow.
"Y...N...I don't know."
The serpent opened her eyes a little more to creep out Lovey. "Ahhh. I see. Well, if we follow your 'logic'," she mocked. "Then, because you're now a female, you should stay at your home and clean or something stupid like that." She leaned in close to the pink dragoness and whispered to her. "I don't really know the sexual standards of other species. I just randomly cobbled those things together."
"...You're a real weirdo." Lovey struggled to get out of the First's grip but failed. "So, what am I supposed to call you? 'The First'? 'FIRST Lovie Dovie'?"
"Emboreale."
"What?"
"Emboreale. It's my name since-" She looked behind herself and fluttered her transparent wings, creating more rapid 'undersea light' effects.
"Oh. Okay then." Lovey looked away and scrunched her lower lip.
Emboreale sported another of smug smiles again and dropped the dragoness in between her coiled body and twirled around once more to lie down right next to the stunned Lovey Dovey.
"You love my name, don't you?"
"N-no. It's okay."
Emboreale chuckled. "I knew there was ONE thing I could get you to admit that you love."
Lovey blushed. "I SAID I DON'T LOVE IT!" she yelled.
The serpent squished her face between her hands and teased the little dragoness. "You're even flustered and blushing!"
The pink dragoness turned red and her mouth started sparking.
"Hoo hoo. Someone's touchy." Emboreale snorted. "Go ahead. Blow you fire. It won't do anything here. I can't be harmed by such a tiny, uncontrolled flame, and all of this is mountain rock coupled with plant life that evolved to only emerge when my light is around and its safe. Have your temper tantrum because someone is teasing."
"That's not teasing! You're making fun of me!"
Emboreale rolled her eyes. "Yes. I am using your anger to make my tea."
Some of the pink 'lava' from her time in the crater leaked out again and hit the serpent, sizzling and slowly solidifying on her splendid scales. A giant claw broke the cooled 'rock' off and she clamped a piece between her claws for closer inspection.
"You can't even control your fire glands, sure, but this? Never seen this before. You're literally creating lava in your own body with your anger."
"And?!"
The dragon looked from the stone to the dragoness at her center. "Not sure. You could be killing yourself, honestly, and that won't get you back home. Might I suggest you figure out a way to calm yourself until you find the source of your frustration?"
"Oliver, you shouldn't take that from him. He's your age. Just beat him up! I don't care if the teachers take his side. The important thing is that I'M taking your side. Men don't allow others to slander them and hit them without responding."
"No, you may not," Lovey responded.
"Well that's too bad, because I already did," Emboreale quipped. When Lovey refused to cool off, the serpent nuzzled herself on her body and stared at the pink dragoness. "It doesn't matter. I can wait. I've been down here for a very long time, so there's no rush, really."
Those words struck a chord in Lovey, and she immediately started to calm down. Her mouth fizzed into little more than a few pops of smoke, then nothing.
"What do you mean? How long have you been down here, exactly. How OLD are you?" Lovey asked.
"Well...by pony standards, I would be about nine-thousand years old. As for how long I've been down here?" She tapped her claws on her serpentine body. "Probably seven thousand? Us serpentine dragons can live for an insanely long amount of time. It's why I figured I should go somewhere close to these dragons but not so far, so that a successor could take my place and change the way they do things.Having the same leader creates stagnation, which isn't good for the development of a group."
"So, instead of going somewhere where you would be free to move, you just sat here? Trapped between black walls?"
"Yup!" Emboreale answered cheerfully.
Lovey looked disgusted. "What? Why?! Because others told you to do that?"
"You're the last dragon who should be telling someone not to listen to what others say and tell them to."
The pink dragoness opened her mouth to say something, but closed it shortly afterwards.
"I told you that I came down here to stay close to them while not intervening directly anymore. Plus, I serve as an advisor."
"But you're essentially trapped down here. Why not just leave and stretch your...b...t...self..." Lovey struggled.
"Because then I wouldn't be able to advise the pueric mothers that come down here."
Lovey dragged a hand across her face."That's not what I mean."
Emboreale huffed. "I have a duty to which I attend to with fervor. You should try that too."
"So am I just going to sit here with you and get into morality arguments or can I leave?"
"I was hoping we could get into fights and then destroy the whole volcano in a flurry of 'savage' retorts."
Lovey crossed her arms. "You like your sarcasm, don't you?"
Emboreale looked at the little dragoness with a wide mouth and equally wide, open eyes, silently implying 'You don't say?'. Lovey exhaled in annoyance.
The pony strolled casually through Ranchefort, greeting everyone around that they came across. They were enjoying a little stroll through the streets, but their good mood was almost ruined when they saw a red behemoth working at a construction site, then tapped their chest. The size, reminding them of Celestia, prevented them from registering the red coat.
"Princesses," They mentally spat. "I hate them. I hate her! They already know about the rightful revolution against the violent dragons. I have to keep them from ruining my plans. If they destroy it, too many will die. Don't want any deaths."
Celestia was sitting on her throne, reading a list of parchments from a large pile next to said throne. She was concerned.
"Violent altercations have been erupting everywhere. Several cities sustained massive damage." She clenched her teeth. "Even I had to intervene when dragons and ponies started a battle that could have escalated into a war."
The alicorn dropped the parchments and put her face into her hooves to hide her despair. The guards around the throne room looked at her, concerned.
"This...this idiot is really trying to incite a war between the ponies and the dragons. I've already been hearing slander about them in Canterlot, and the dragons themselves have also been starting fights outside their usual motives," she thought to herself.
She rummaged through the pile of parchments and levitated several in front of her. "Why would this character incite both sides? HOW are they even inciting both sides? What would they gain if both sides went to war? They're not a dragon, otherwise they wouldn't manage to incite the ponies, and they aren't a pony, otherwise they wouldn't manage to incite the dragons." Celestia tapped her chin pensively. "Changelings? No. This wouldn't supply them with love, only hate. It could be...No. He wouldn't be interested in a ruined Equestria."
The alicorn's head was starting to overheat. There were too many inconsistencies in this tale. Even the prospect of a partnership didn't make sense. While it was the most logical idea, both sides would be preparing their own people for a war rather than a surprise attack. It was as if there was no viable reason for any of this. Even the more 'fanatic groups' had an underlying agenda, as crazy as they usually were.
"Sister," a rested voice called out. "Still wracking your head over this conundrum?"
"Princess Luna!" one of the guards saluted her.
"At ease, guard."
"Lulu. Is it that late already?"
"I've already told you not to call me that, and yes. You have been here trying to find the culprits?"
"Yes. My investigators and spies are also in the field, trying to discover who it is, but they're way too discreet. I have no idea who it is, and neither do they. I even sent one of my paladins there as a backup when they find them and things get out of hoof, but nothing!" she yelled to the ceiling.
"Easy, sister! You'll hurt yourself if you get too angry."
"You're right!...You're right," Celestia trailed off while her voice lowered in volume.
"You've ruled out the possibilities?"
"Yes. It can't be just one, but it can't be either. Neither side would do that to themselves. The usual dragons are too stubborn and egotistical to care about each other, and most ponies wouldn't even bother trying something like that. Some might take heed, but most wouldn't condone such behavior."
"Then why would so many follow this one? Are you certain they're not preying upon the deep-rooted fears of those already living on the borders? Dragons are dangerous creatures, you know."
"True, but the Emperor gave me his word that he wouldn't let any of them attack us."
Luna looked down in thought. "Didn't the Emperor change? Isn't it Ember now?"
"Yes, but Twilight and her friend Spike told me that there was nothing to worry about."
Luna shrugged. "Because they saw her and know her, but those on the border don't know that."
"She's refused every public appearance I've asked of her! The first I've ever seen of her was at the meeting chamber of he Lovie Dovies!" Celestia exclaimed. "It's like she doesn't care what the dragons are doing."
"Well, ask the lovie dovies for more help. I'm not sure what they do, but with a name like that, I'm certain they would be very helpful with these problems. Send a messenger to them, and take care of the ponies instead."
"Y...You're right." Celestia lit up with realization. "I've been trying to take care of both problems. I need to find a solution for my side and let the dragons take care of their own." Celestia stood up and hugged her sister. "Thank you, Lulu."
Princess Luna veered her head away from her sister when she saw the decrepit, horribly fatigued look she sported. Her eyes looked ready to go on vacation, and her face seemed to have melted.
"Y-yes. That's nice." She held in the need to puke. "Now go to bed."
"You know, for someone so adamant about maintaining their societal 'masculinity', you sure have been showing lots of sensitivity." Emboreale looked at Lovey from the corner of her eye. "That wouldn't be very 'masculine', would it?" she wondered aloud.
"That's-!" Lovey couldn't being herself to yell. "That's not true," she preferred to say with a much calmer tone."
Emboreale twirled around the pink dragoness yet again, an almost child-like smile adorning her face. The lights in the chamber started fluttering rapidly, and Lovey could see the dragon's throat moving. She was readying it for something. Then, a horrifying thought entered her mind.
"Wait, are you going to sing? Because if you are, then I'm getting out of he--"
Lovey was interrupted and locked in place by Emboreale locking the pink dragoness in the coil of her serpentine body. The serpent's usually feminine-but-sarcastic tone of voice turned into more serene, smoother voice. And, more importantly, less sarcastic.
The little dragon, who once was someone else. She was brought to our world to live another life and clean her old. Yet she is still fraught with mental perils that she sees rising from the land as she walks forward. Running in fear with each that she sees, her pace gradually going faster and faster.
Emboreale flew around, her serpentine body creating multiple different patterns and gestures in the air.
"Please stop."
Her words always come with strength and sturdiness, but these are only wraps for her fears and insecurities. "I'm not insecure!" I can see that her soul wants but to care and love, but her fears prevent her from accepting these feelings. Her insecurities prevent her from giving these despite the want nurturing at the back of her head. Why do you reject what comes naturally to every creature? Everyone has different ways of displaying their loves, be they insect small or dragon large. Though they may seem strange to us, it is natural to them, and love is still love.
"I'm cringing so hard."
Love is not something to be feared, but loved. It is the code that we live by, and we didn't help the dragons, then none of us would be here, and all that would roam through our souls would be hatred.
Lovey put a hand to her mouth. "I think I'm gonna puke."
Emboreale smacked Lovey behind the head. "Would you just let me sing?" she asked. "It's not like I got infected by the ponies a while back and need to get this out of my system."
The pink dragoness keeled back, surprised from the sudden change in attitude.
"Now where was I, again?"
All of theses only serve to tarnish your soul, and I can see that the chains and bells wrapped tightly around it aren't by your own hands. And though those who would chain you might not have done so with ill intentions, they still sought to inhibit your mind with the links and poison your soul with the metal. They did leave you with one gift, though. The light gathered around Emboreale's hand to form into a key, which she moved to Lovey. They left you the key. You need only grab it and unlock the restrictions placed upon you.
"Are you done now?"
"Yes." Emboreale rested back upon her usual spot and made a sigh of satisfaction. "I apologize if the lyrics seemed off. I am out of practice. Still, I think it's time you go back up there."
"Why now?"
"Because I think you understand what you need to do now." The serpent smiled.
"I was more preoccupied with trying to not listen."
The serpent huffed. "Sure you were. Just remember that you won't be able to get back home until you open yourself up. No one here will judge you for what you do...except if you try to kill someone or fight unprovoked or--"
"I GET IT! Just get me back up there!"
"As you wish."
The pueric mother returned soon after to grab Lovey and bring her back to the surface, yet the serpent was not left alone for long. The colossal dragon came back down to talk with the First 'Lovie Dovie'.
"So?" she wondered. Her voice held a hint of worry in it.
"She's killing herself," Emboreale said. "Her mind is falling to pieces, and her emotions are bubbling into a cesspool of poison. If she doesn't learn to open herself up instead of holding in her emotions for her 'masculinity', then I'm afraid she'll end up 'breaking' and trying to kill herself."
Pueric exhaled and paced around, trying to find a solution. "Should I try to find things she might like or leave her alone somewhere in the gardens and see what she does discreetly?"
"That last idea sounds good. You know where to leave her specifically?"
"There's the fruit garden. The trees are blooming again, and several colorful birds have decided to roost there. Some of the lovie dovies noticed she seems to deviate towards flowers when they're nearby. It's almost like she forgets everything around her, albeit just briefly."
"That's good. Go with that idea."
"Anything else I should know about?"
Emboreale coughed loudly, letting out some sparkles and light. "How did that get in there?" She cleaned herself off and continued talking. "Yes. It's not whatever backwards society as a whole that put her in that mindset. It's a few select individuals."
Pueric scratched her head. "Should I send her to the ponies after? They're quite joyful and open."
Emboreale laughed ironically. "Are you serious?! If Lovey's previous life was about holding things in, then the ponies are the complete opposite! You can't fight fire with lava! You fight it with water."
Pueric started thinking and spoke in a low tone of voice. "Then I'll stick with my first idea. Don't let the others see her display her affection or she won't show it. Let her gradually become comfortable in the way she WANTS to behave. Maybe we'll learn why this train of thought was pounded into her for so long, too."
"That's a very thought out plan. It's good to always take small steps rather than chuck a young dragon off the ledge and let hope she flies."
The pueric mother realized something. "I don't mean to interrupt yor 'words of wisdom', but did you help her actually learn how to fly?"
No words were exchanged, and the serpent nervously tapped her claws together while looking left and right.
"Well?"
"I kinda forgot?!" she smiled sheepishly. The pueric mother groaned with frustration. "Oh come on!" Emboreale said. "It's not like I've had much contact with the outside world. I only NOW just made a song." She put a hand to her chest. "You have no idea how long I've had the need to sing," she mumbled desperately. "It was such a RUSH! I could sing agaaaaii--" She raised her arm in the air and start melodically stretching the word 'again' until the Pueric Mother raised her hand to stop her.
"Please don't. I know you love singing, but I would rather you not do that while I'm trying to learn more about Lovey Dovey."
"Oh." Emboreale returned to her resting spot and crossed her arms upon her long body. "I thought you were going to say that you hated my singing or that I was making you 'cringe'."
Pueric stretched her mouth and raised an eyebrow over narrowed eyes. "Let me guess: Lovey Dovey said that?"
"Yes."
"Of course she did," the dragon whispered to herself. "Is there anything else about her that I need to know?"
"Only that she's close to snapping if she has that much pressure put on her like she had in the crater. She won't make it until she's decided to release everything by her own volition. So, please." Emboreale joined her hands and pleaded. "Be gentle with her. She's both one of the toughest and most fragile things I've encountered in my long life."
"I will do just that. Thank you."
"Oh, and give her a hug." Emboreale squee'd. "She's so cute when she gets embarrassed or flustered."
"I'll do that. Thank you, First One." The pueric mother bowed.
"Please don't call me that," Emboreale complained. "Makes me feel old."
"Wh-You literally just mentioned your age earlier."
"Yes, but when I say it, it makes me seem wise and with experience."
"I'm leaving now."
"Okay, good bye," Emboreale waved a hand. "And watch her closely."
Pueric nodded and reactivated the platform. It was almost a saddening view to see all the beautiful lights around dim down into blackness, but the Pueric Mother felt comfort in knowing that the First was still there, watching and advising when she had uncertainties, as uncommon as they became nowadays.
"So how was your time with the Pueric Mother?" Scarlet asked.
Lovie looked off to the side. "It was...colorful."
The giant smacked Lovey in the back playfully, accidentally throwing her into the bushes. Scarlet bit her hand fearfully fter realizing what it is she had done.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to pat you that hard!"
She pulled Lovey out of the bushes and patted her down. "Pat?!" Lovey exclaimed. "You hit me like I was being shot from a cannon!"
"I know. It's just that I sometimes don't pay attention to my own strength." Scarlet sighed in relief and smiled. "I'm used to roughing it up with the dragons my size or the size of Zoonzu." This time, she tapped Lovey gently on the back. "Hey! At least you can walk now, congratulations!"
"Yeah...thanks." Lovey looked at her legs wobble. "I still need to work on this, though."
Scarlet nodded. "What about your wings? Or your fire? Can you use those yet?"
"Nope."
"Then why don't you go see Sconce and show her how well you've done?"
"But I can't walk all that well yet," Lovey complained.
Scarlet looked at the pink dragoness with bemusement. "That's why I suggested you show her how well you've done so far..."
"Oh. Well. I guess I could." She kicked a small rock on the ground. "Nothing better to do."
"You remember the way?"
"Yes. It's down there then turn right, right?" Lovey pointed forward. Scarlet nodded in response. "Then...See you later."
Scarlet grabbed the tiny dragoness and squeezed Lovey against her chest and between her two arms.
"What are you doing?!" Lovey asked in a muffled tone.
"Give you a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig hug!"
"Why?!"
"Because hugs are the best solution to almost every problem!"
Scarlet eventually put Lovey back on the floor, and once the pink dragon was far enough, the red giant looked to the tower in the middle of the gardens and held up an 'okay' sign. Having returned to the small opening in the garden where Sconce was usually sl-meditating, Lovey let her arms drop limply to her sides with a rather depressing groan.
"Sconce. I'm back...Sconce?"
Lovey looked around and noticed the sleeping dragoness was nowhere to be found. In fact, there was no noise occurring around the small patch of garden.
"Where is she?" Lovey wondered aloud.
She searched high and low but couldn't find any trace of her 'teacher'.
"She isn't sleepwalking is she?" Lovey pondered. She stressed for a moment. "She isn't sleepkilling is she?!...Do dragons sleepkill?"
The dragoness returned back from where she came, hoping to ask Scarlet where the dragoness was. Unfortunately, even she had disappeared. In fact, nobody was in the garden, as far as the dragoness could hear. She called out repetitively and looked around as much of the garden as she could cover, but it served no purpose, as there was -as had been previously established in her mind- no one present.
Lovey stood in place, unsure of what to do. This was the second time she was left to her own devices in a world she still had no knowledge about. Worst of all, she still had no way to sate her hunger or fill her thirst on her own. She started to look around, going through several segments of garden to find a full well filled with fresh water. The dragoness eagerly pulled up a bucket and drank from it in hopes that it would calm her down. She didn't notice, but she had walked into one of the flower sections of the garden house. A vast multitude of different colors and different flowers were all around. Some trees even had leaves with colors one would either only expect during autumn or a fever dream. Purple leaves, orange leaves, red leaves, and colors with more complicated names! Lovey felt tempted to explore and enjoy herself, but a voice spoke in the back of her head.
"No, Oliver. Men don't find solace in little things like 'flowers'. If you want to enjoy colors, you need them to be on a TRUCK! Yeah! Hear that engine roar! That's the manly way of enjoying colors!"
She lowered a hand and sat down against a flower bush, letting her legs stretch forward and placing her hands between them like a scolded child who was told not to move. She bounced her legs up and down while waiting for everyone to come back, but even a 'real man's' patience could only last so long. Half an hour of waiting was too much...and the pink dragoness' head started to bob. She was too emotionally exhausted to do anything but start falling asleep. She was interrupted when a colorful blue bird, very similar to a spangled cotinga landed next to her. It tweeted a few times, hopped around the dragoness' legs, then hopped onto her upper leg.
"Mmmm..." she groaned. "Get off my leg," Lovey mumbled. "I'm too exhausted for this crap." She waved her hand. "Go. Go away."
The bird tilted its head multiple times, chirped, then hopped along the dragon's legs with its little feet and decided to nuzzle itself right there and puff itself up, all the while squeaking comfortably. Lovey started to sweat nervously, and her body started to shake violently, but she couldn't take her eyes off the bird. Her clawed hands dug deep into the ground from the stress brought about by her current mental battle. After several tense minutes, she finally relaxed...then the bird yawned, opening its little mouth and making a high pitched 'squee' noise.
"Remember, son. Men aren't supposed to find things 'cute'. Even if you think something is, you don't say or share it, otherwise--"
Lovey ignored the voice and looked around to make sure no one was watching, then she grabbed the little bird and rubbed her face against the puffiness of the little bird.
"You're so cuuuuuute!" Lovey exclaimed.
Had anyone else been around, they would have noticed that she had the most satisfied and pleased smile anyone could imagine.
"You're so floofy, and you make the cutest little squeaks! 'Beep'! 'Beep'!" she mimed. "And you have such beautiful feathers." She gently pushed them upwards to better see them individually. "They look so much better than on a stupid truck!"
She couldn't help but hug the little bird who struggled to escape her gentle but firm vice. When she let go, the little bird beeped angrily and flew away. Lovey looked around once again, suspicious and expecting to see someone watching her. She then rushed a few steps forward, spread her arms apart, then let herself drop against the ground. The dragoness rolled around the grass, laughing and throwing the blades in the air. She enjoyed the moment for a few minutes before moving on again. The nearby trees were the next step in her 'loss' of self-control', so she climbed them to pluck the many leaves and enjoy the soft texture and colors.
"Wow. Who knew leaves could be this soft and velvety. I bet this would make a great cover for a couch. Then I'd have something comfy to sit on that isn't just the lumpy ground or a hard rock."
She hopped off the tree and brushed some bark debris and insects off of her hide.
"What next?" She pondered loudly. Her head jolted back after realizing that she had walked to the walls of flower bushes.
Nervously, she put a claw to her lower lip and pulled on it. She enjoyed sniffing the flowers and even put an orange one between her intertwined horns, simply because no one was looking and it was a brief sensation she wanted to experience. She chuckled at the idea of keeping it there for the whole day and wiped it off. It wasn't long before she wanted to do something else and looked up to see more of the fluffy blue birds. A kick to the ground follow by an annoyed sigh followed when she realized that she still didn't know how to fly.
"I'm going to reach them and give them all hugs, and I need to do it now!" she grumbled.
Looking at her back, she tried hard to force her wings to move. Several minutes passed and she had almost given up, until she felt them jitter. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and she kicked a rock way angrily.
"And I thought this cartoon-esque lifestyle would've allowed me to cheat and magically be able to fly, because poor writing and laziness. Welp!" she clapped her hands together. "I still got all of these beautiful flowers to enjoy!"
She continued playing with them and passing with the idea of keeping them in her horns. She really, REALLY wanted to leave them there, but she couldn't. Why? She didn't really know. Her thoughts were too jumbled to make any coherent decisions, but she still decided to pluck some icy sporting white and purple flowers and wrap them around the horns on the side of her head.
"Watcha doin'?" Scarlet asked her.
Lovey screamed and jumped several inches back and falling on her rump. She frantically tore the plants off her horn and threw them away, a sheepish smile being the only thing remaining of her little 'escapade'."
"Nothing. Just...ripping out the vines. They're bad for plants."
"Mmmm," Scarlet nodded sarcastically. "Looks more like you were-OW!" Another dragon Scarlet's size elbowed her angrily in the ribs and walked away. "Uh. Right. Well, you doin' fine? What did Sconce say?"
"Sconce? She wasn't there. Come to think of it, none of you were there when you told me to go see her. Where were you all?"
"Really? I guess she followed us outside. The Pueric Mother thought it would be good for some of us to go outside and check the surroundings."
"I literally looked EVERYWHERE for you all!"
Scarlet pinched Lovey's cheek. "This place is far bigger than you think it is. There's a HUGE SWATH of the gardens that you haven't even seen yet." She rested her arm on the palm of her hand and leaned her forward pensively. "Although, there isn't much difference to seeing that part of the garden compared to what you have here, really. " She shrugged and smiled.
Lovey huffed tiredly. She had just awoken from a night of slumber and digesting a huge meal she had the night prior, courtesy of the lovie dovies and helping her recover from two days without food and water. The dragoness thanked them for the gracious meal, but Scarlet said something to her that still rang in her ears like drums:
"If you want to keep eating here, then you're going to learn how to cook, and for that, you're going to need to learn how to use your fire breath. We don't use anything the ponies to light fires. We like the natural conflagration."
For that, she needed to go back to Sconce, and she hadn't seen her since she had left with Ember. The dragoness hummed nervously but proceeded to Sconce's little garden and cleared her throat. The teacher was sitting on her rock, 'meditating'. Cautiously, the pink dragoness approached her, stepping forward tip-toe by tip-toe. Once close enough, Lovey tapped the teacher on the shoulder and whispered.
"Sconce. I'm back."
The dragoness opened her eyes and looked at Lovey. "Oh. There you are. I couldn't find for a while now. What were you doing?"
"Wh..." Lovey Dovey took a deep breath. "I've been gone for several days. I can walk now," she splurted out in frustrated bursts.
"So you have?"
Sconce got off her rock and slowly walked around Lovey, observing her posture, then she fell asleep, forcing Lovey to slap her awake again.
"Yes!" Sconce shouted. "I can see that you have indeed been working on your movement, but to get to this point so quickly is astonishing." She frowned. "That being said, you still need to better use your tail and keep your posture straighter."
"I'm doing the best I can."
"For now!" Sconce corrected. "I take it you found some kind of way to focus your thoughts to get to this point?"
"My..." Lovey blushed and rubbed her arm. "My bestiality..."
Sconce's eye twitched, then her head dropped. Once again, Lovey had to wake her up with a slap, startling the dragon.
"Bestiality is what the regular dragons use to grow. We aren't 'regular dragons'," Sconce said behind clenched teeth.
"That's the problem with standardized education," Lovey looked down at the dragon with a haughty expression. "It's a 'standard'. It's not a 'specialized'. What works for many might not work for some, and will never work for a few."
"It's still unheard of for a lovie dovie to use the natural dragon proficiencies to bring out her capabilities."
Lovey smirked. "This is the first time I've seen you show an emotion other than 'sleep'," she teased.
"And this is the first time I've ever seen you display an emotion other than anger and frustration."
Lovey furrowed her brows. "Fair enough," she said.
"Aside from that, you've made good progress. Now we can teach you how to breathe fire, but I won't be the teacher for that."
The pink dragoness blinked several times with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"It means that I'm not the teacher for that. I'm the one to help new members how to walk and old members to do the same if they were in an accident inconveniencing them...or other...incidents," Sconce trailed off.
The two remained in silence for awhile, but Sconce found it appropriate to fall asleep yet again, making Lovey groan and drag her hand across her face.
"I'll just...look for someone to direct me," Lovey grumbled.
The dragoness went for the exit, but had a momentary change of heart and looked behind her to see her teacher sleeping. She sighed, shook her head in disappointment, and left.
"Now all I need to do is ask someone for...directions."
Lovey dropped her arms in defeat. While Oliver had never thought that asking directions was wrong, regardless of gender, he couldn't stand talking to complete strangers on the street. While these dragons were certainly the friendliest dragons he had ever met, he didn't exactly know many. He only knew a handful -Metaphorically speaking- of lovie dovies, and other dragons he'd rather not think about.
Lovey raised a claw and tried calling out to the pass dragons. "Um...Excu..."
She couldn't bring herself to raise her voice. So many dragons in the same place. No matter how much she tried to raise her voice, it would falter, much like a flashlight running on drained batteries or a car engine sputtering from lack of fuel.
The pink dragoness clutched her head between her claws and screamed internally. "What's wrong with me?!" she thought. "I wasn't like this when I got here! WHY CAN'T SPEAK ALOUD IN FRONT OF ALL OF THESE DRAGONS?!"
Several of the passing dragons noticed Lovey freaking out from the corner of their eyes and actually stopped to check on her.
"You okay there, Lovey?" one of them asked.
The pink dragoness was leaning her arm against the bush wall and hyperventilating when confront. A good few moments of breathing and flexing her arms got her back on track.
"Yes. Um...I need to find the way toooo...The fire breathing teacher?"
"Oh. Um...Where is she again?" the dragon pondered. "Where are they again?" she asked her companions near her.
"Uhhh...The ones for the smaller dragons is near the north-eastern end of the garden, no?"
"No no. That's the place for the large dragons," a second companion interjected. "She needs to go to the west. A few dozen meters from the tower."
"Isn't that where the medium sized ones are?" the first asked.
"No, she's right. It's there," the second dragoness agreed. She looked at Lovey and pointed to the left. "It's over there. Just enter the bushes and you'll find yourself facing signs telling you where to go anyways if you get lost."
"Oh...Thank you..."
Lovey forced a smile and hurried away. The three dragons watched her nervously depart and chuckled.
"She really does look cute when she's embarrassed," the first dragon said.
"I know. And did you see how nervous she was to talk with us? Someone's changing a lot," the third added.
Lovey's romp through the bushes was almost like walking through a forest. This was a deeper section of the gardens with much more work put into it. The hedges looked like proper, trimmed, solid walls as opposed to their more natural and grown appearance near the tower. They blocked sound as well, making it very difficult to hear, but also very calming. Sure enough, Lovey started scratching her head, wondering where to go, and, sure enough again, there were hand-carved signs of wood placed into the bush walls.
"These things look like they were just jammed in the twigs angrily," Lovey commented. "Looks like the teachers are on the right."
The pink dragoness nodded and continued her way, eventually noticing an increased in temperature. The bushes were changing from a dark green to a more orange-brown, and eventually, red and black. Embers were calmly floating in the air, uncaring of anything around them and enjoying their brief moments of burning life. Lovey leaned against a huge, black wall and listened for what was on the other side.
"Hmmm. I hear fire angrily burning and flowing outwards. I think this is it."
She slapped the sides of her head several times and burst through the dark leaves to see a huge, open area where multiple dragons around Lovey's size were practicing in the presence of older dragons.
"I guess this is it," Lovey mumbled. She felt a shiver run down her spine, and her wings spontaneously opened up before quickly returning to their resting spot. "It feels like my first day of school...How horrible," she commented with disgust.
"HI THERE!" a voice bellowed directly into Lovey's 'ear'.
The pink dragoness screamed and jumped several feet backwards.
"Wow. It really does look like you've gotten the hang of walking like us," she noted joyfully.
The dragon who scared Lovey was slightly taller than her, but not by much. She had an equally lithe build, but she was definitely happier and more excited. A row of sharp teeth were perpetually showing themselves in a wide smile. Her muzzle was far narrower than Lovey's, almost looking like a thin beak. Her head possessed hair coiffed to he left and partially obstructing her eye. It broke off into several 'darts', giving it an unkempt and frisky look. Her hair started off an almost black shade of dark blue, with its tips gradually changing from red to yellow. She had two horns raising almost directly upwards diagonally, save for a short bend halfway across her head. Several smaller horns were growing out of the main ones, and like said main horns, all had a dark-blue, ashy color.
Her body was, strangely, changing gradually. The bulk of her scales were the same ashy dark blue as her horns, but it looked like every part of her was on fire, or that a fire was being displayed a very thin sheet of glass. The flames were burning at the base of her limbs and stomach, and would eventually thin out into an increasing amount of calmly rising smoke.Aside from that, the rest of her body had no distinguishing physical characteristics compared to the rest of the lovie dovies.
There was one thing she was doing that set her apart from many that Lovey had seen up to this point: She was 'dancing. She had her fists on her hips, a leg extended forward with its foot tapping the ground to a rythm, her smiling head bobbing up and down, and her torso following the same pattern.
"She's very...'chipper'," Lovey mocked in her head.
"Glad to finally meet you, Lovey. I'm Asherk," she sputtered 'comically'.
"YYYYYYYYYYYYES!" the energetic dragoness shouted. She twirled around on one foot and bowed. "I am your fire instructor!"
"...Okay?"
"I like to say my name with exaggerating and sputtering. It's funny to me. " Asherk clapped her hands. "Alrighty then! Let's teach you how to breathe fire!"
Asherk spread her wings and arms happily, but Lovey caught sight of something rather disturbing.
"What happened to your wings?" the pink dragoness asked.
Asherk's wings were torn to the bone. Only a few strands of skin remained, and most of it was coal black and burnt.
"Hm? Oh. That. Happened when I first came here. Had a huge accident, and I lost my wings." Her smile started fading, then came back with a bang. She threw an arm and open hand forward and her other arm back and in the air, like she was presenting something on a show. "I discovered I could do something else with my fire, and it just takes some channeling!"
She brought her arms to her sides, bent them, and casually twisted her torso left-to-right. She pushed her arms forward thrice each before another twist, and accompanied this by standing n her toes with one foot and twisting the leg. This went on for several seconds until jets of flame burst out of her wings, propelling herself into the air as though she were wearing a jetpack. She flew around, three very long ropes of fire waving off of both wings and letting loose bright embers and trails.
Asherk flew up high, 'stalled', then dropped down in a steep plummet, stopping mere inches from the ground and righting herself up to lend on the ground. She threw her arm forward again towards Lovey and said 'Ta da!' to 'crown' her achievement.
Lovey hesitantly clapped a few times. "That was impressive, but how did you even manage that?"
Asherk shrugged. "I don't know. I lost my wings and wanted to be able to fly again. I hoped really hard, and there we go." She leaned to the side and tapped her head. "Well, not 'wished'. Turns out, my body creates fire all the time and lets it out through my skin." She flicked her hair. "I'm, like, one of the ultra-rare mutations, tcha!" she joked.
"Please don't talk like that," Lovey sighed. "I hate that."
Asherk shrugged. "If you don't want me to, I don't mind." She clapped her hands together once more. "Back to controlling the fire. Show me what ya got!"
Lovey remained inert, looking around, embarrassed, and Asherk's smile became less prominent.
"You have no control over your fire?!" she screamed. "That's a first..." she noted more calmly. "You really don't feel anything when you want to breathe fire?"
"That's not entirely true." Lovey tapped her claws together in a consistent rhythm and pattern. "It only came out when I'm angry, and then again; I can't control. It just sort of...bubbles out." She shrugged.
"Yeah. That's definitely not control. Very young dragons, generally newborns, do that, although it's not tied to anger," Asherk hummed. "Well, I guess it's time we try an assortment of way to get your flames flowing and spewing out of that angry mouth of yours!" she teased.
The fiery dragon hopped back several steps to get into position for her dancing. She stretched a left leg forward, and rolled her arms once to the left, and repeated the motion in reverse with the right side.
"Try dancing with me! It always gets my rhythm going!" She bobbed her head. "Fire is not controlled. It is directed, like this!"
It started off as just a few sparks following Asherk's arms, then it gradually grew to sleeves of flame, then snakes of fire. Lovey shielded herself from the heat blasting off the coiling ropes of inferno.
"You can keep it from flying off, too, but it takes work." She jumped in place, spreading her legs into a sumo stance, then slammed her arms together, producing a huge, expanding bubble of fire that engulfed Lovey and a huge portion of the garden section they were in. "No need to worry about the plants. They're specifically cultivated to be resistant to fire, so we can go crazy here!"
The other teachers yelled at her for her actions, but Asherk just smiled widely at them in return.
"You know, it's not entirely true that fire can't be controlled."
"Really? I thought you were trying to follow some kind of philosophical charade by saying that," Lovey grumbled.
"Nope. That's just how fire works." Asherk shrugged. "Now dance with me!"
The fiery dragoness resumed her dance that she used to direct her flames, but Lovey was not jumping in.
"What's the matter, Sourpuss? Got no rythm?" she sang. "Just let the music of nature flow through your body and soul!"
The pink dragoness started grating her teeth, and her mouth started to sputter and spark with her pink fire.
"I can see the flames, but I see no love!"
"I don't do 'love'," Dovey repeated in mockery. "And I don't do dancing, especially when there's music at all!"
Asherk stopped briefly to stretch her back, but resumed her dance, leaning backwards then pushing herself back forward with a bend. "That's because you're too high strung! Here. Let me help you get loose."
Lovey's arm was grabbed and pulled, throwing her into a dizzying spin that allowed Asherk to grab her hand and force her into swinging her arm left and right while she recovered from the spin. After regaining her wits, Lovey ripped her arm out of the happy dragoness' grasp.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Lovey shouted. She held her arm against her chest and stepped away.
Asherk tilted sideways towards her and wagged her finger. "Ah! Someone's too embarrassed to dance in front of other people!" she teased. "You don't need to worry about that! The others dance, too!" She stopped dancing for a moment and pondered. "Well, not everyone." She waved her hand down. "But they're boring anyways."
"I'll never dance anyways!" Lovey pouted. "I'll look for another teacher."
Asherk cartwheel'd in front of the pink dragoness, blocking her.
"Ah ah! I'm the only one available right now, and the others won't teach you even if you asked them really hard!"
Lovey raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? And why not?"
"Because we alllllllllll know each other here, and we decide on things for our newest members. They decided that I was the best teacher for yooooooooooooou," Asherk sang.
Lovey's eyes twitched angrily.
"Now time to dance!" Asherk stated when she grabbed her 'pupil's' hand again for another dance.
Celestia was sitting on her small balcony, drinking some tea. She was too concerned about her message to know what tea she was drinking specifically, despite loving to know exactly what she was drinking, where it had come from, and so on and so forth. Behind her stood a butler, with mane combed back and black suit on. He had an air of professionalism in both face and posture, and awaited Celestia's beck and call.
"Inklot," Celestia started. "have you heard anything about my message to the Lovie Dovies?"
"I have not, Princess."
Celestia started to worry. "He should have reached them by now and come back."
"Additionally, I wanted to share this with you before, but you started drinking your tea to relax." He sighed. "I didn't think it appropriate to tell you."
"Well, you can tell that I'm not relaxed." Celestia grumbled. "Additionally, you saying that has simply stressed me out even more."
The stallion bowed his head. "I apologize, Princess."
"So what IS the news?"
"The messenger in question has not been seen or heard from since his departure from Ranchefort."
"What?!" Celestia spoke in a whisper-startled voice.
A group of large dragons were looking at a small note they had found in their lands, and were laughing at its contents. Its previous owner, however, was nowhere to be found.
"Can you believe this?" a dragoness shouted through her laughter.
"Yeah. They thought the lovie dovies would be helpful!" one dragon mocked.
The dragoness called out to a dragon walking away. "Hey, is this true, though? The lovie dovies aren't just traitors to our way of life, but also to their own kind as well?"
"You have the proof between your claws, don't you?" he replied.
The group nodded to each other and flew away to who knew where. The dragon left behind looked at them for the corner of his eyes, his fists balled and his gaze angry.
"Stupid dragons. Just as bad as the ponies," he hissed to himself. He kicked a pile of grass, better covering what it was hiding. "Everything's going well, though, wouldn't you say?"
Lovey was becoming increasingly angry with Asherk, the firey dragoness throwing her all over the place without her consent. Lovey couldn't stand it. With a roar of anger, she yelled at the dancer to stop, but instead of words, pink fire came out, nearly incinerating the dragons further down the line.
"Good!" Asherk cheered. "Look! Dancing has made you use your fire! WOAH!"
Lovey wasn't stopping her fire breath, preferring instead to continue blasting her fire while she could afford to. Having more experience in the matter, Asherk managed to dodge out of the way of Lovey's rage, but not unscathed. The pink fires scorched her body while more and more of the pink lava built up near the pink dragoness' mouth until a ball of fire started to build up in her maw.
A dragon twice the size of Lovey dove in through the bushes and locked Lovey's arms and legs and mashed her face into the ground, preventing her from spitting anything out again. The would-be fireball leaked out of her mouth and onto the soil. This dragoness was enraged.
"We TOLD you not to patronize her!" she bellowed.
Asherk swung her hips from side to side. "But dancing is the best way to let the fire flow through you!"
The dragoness slapped the fiery dancer with her tail. "Well SOME don't take too kindly to being forced to do something they don't like." She looked down at Lovey still struggling to get herself free. "Especially someone with her...er...'Mental fortitude'."
Lovey mumbled angrily in response.
"But I thought--"
"Wrong. You thought wrong."
Asherk stopped dancing and dropped her head in shame. "I'm sorry. I was just so certain that dancing would help her feel at least a little better, what with the condition she's in."
The intervening dragoness felt Lovey stop struggling. "Then what do you propose you do instead of aggressively forcing her to do something she's very uncomfortable with?"
"Take it loooooooow and slooooooooooow?" Asherk gestured.
"Very GOOD," the dragoness shouted.
She got off of Lovey who slowly got up and wiped the dirt off her body. She was frowning, angry, and her mouth was still fuming, but she didn't want to look at Asherk directly.
"Um...I want to apologize," Lovey said. "I still don't know how to..." She took a deep breath. "Behave in situations like this that anger me a lot."
"Well, I also want to apologize. I should have known better then to patronize you when I knew how you were," Asherk apologized. "I really, REALLY wanted to get you as happy as possible, and the best way to do that for me and many others was through dance."
Lovey scoffed. "What, you were expecting a bunch of choreography and noise being passed as music to have some kind of 'redeeming effect' on me?" she mocked.
The dragoness started sweating nervously and tapped her claws together. "Maybe..."
Lovey's eye twitched in response. "How about we try something that doesn't involve dancing."
"Sorry, but that isn't happening," the other dragoness interjected.
"What? Why not?!"
"The Pueric Mother said herself that you should be tutored under Asherk and no one else. Even if you go to another teacher, they won't teach you no matter how much you beg."
"What is with you all and your 'connections'? How do you even inform everyone of these things so quickly? I've seen a lot of this place already, and I already know that there's even more to it than that. It's like a literal metropolis here!" Lovey exclaimed.
The dragoness pulled on her eyelid a bit and stuck out her tongue. "That's not for you to know yet."
The pink dragoness stared at the other in disbelief. "What are you, four?"
"I'll leave her to you Asherk," the dragon said. She pointed aggressively at her along with intense eyes. "And don't force her into your dancing bits."
"I won't," Asherk reassured.
"Good. I'll be watching anyways just in-case."
With that out of the way, there was a long moment of awkward silence where the two dragons avoided eye contact and performed a variety of gestures ranging from scratching themselves to coughing and clearing their throats.
"Well...what do we start with?" Lovey asked.
"We can always start with foot patterns," Asherk said. "That's always a good step in the right direction."
"Okay? What would the steps be like?"
The fiery dragoness raised her arms high, stood on her tip-toes, and took three steps to one side while twirling and keeping her feet extremely close together, then letting herself go. Lovey had her arm up in reflex to the abject horror she was witnessing.
"What?" Asherk asked.
Lovey frowned. "I'm not doing ballet. That's for girls." The dragoness stated, turning away and crossing her arms.
Asherk opened her hands and shook her head in a 'Well duh' fashion.
"I'm a man!"
The fiery dragoness chuckled. "You don't look like one to me. You look more like a dragoness with a cute, round muzzle."
Lovey looked at Asherk with a revolted expression. She was embarrassed and insulted at the same time. "I don't have a cute muzzle!" she shouted.
"Even when you get upset you're super cute!" Asherk teased.
"I'M NOT CUTE WHEN I GET UPSET!" Lovey stomped the ground angrily multiple times. "WHY DOES EVERYONE HERE KEEP SAYING THAT?!"
"Because you already have a rather cute appearance compared to the usual gruff and 'scary' looking dragons, as ponies would put it. There's just something about both your personality and your physical appearance that makes you absolutely adorable." Asherk giggle. "You even got hearts all over your body."
Lovey scanned herself and frowned. "It's not like I chose to look like this!"
"I know, but that doesn't mean you don't look absolutely adorable."
Smoke started seeping out of Lovey's sparking mouth, causing Asherk to curb her teasing.
"Well, in any case, you aren't going to be going anywhere unless you learn to do these dance moves."
"There HAS to be another way! Any way!" Lovey pleaded.
Asherk crossed her arms and sternly spoke. "No. This is the only way."
Lovey dropped her head in defeat. "Is there at least somewhere more...private?"
The dragoness looked from the corner of her eyes, her face covered with embarrassment. The other dragons present were ignoring her completely and working on their own firebreathing.
"This is as private and non-dangerous as any, Lovey."
"Ugh..."
"Listen and remember." Asherk cleared her throat. "The only one thinking that the others are judging you is you. They couldn't care less." Her smiling, caring face turned to one of apathy. "No. Seriously. Look at them."
"OKAY! Okay. Fine." Lovey took a deep gulp of air. "What do I do first? O-or, rather, HOW do I do the first step?"
"You mean crossing your legs accurately like I did? Easy peezy! You just have to relax your ankles and reinforce the tip of your feet. It's hard at first, but so is breathing fire. This will help you no how to be both relaxed and use force at the same time."
Lovey tried standing on her toes but lost her balance just as quickly. "If you say so..."
Scarlet Fever stood in front of the Pueric Mother, ever working on her cauldron.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked.
"Yes. I wanted to know how you would evaluate Lovey's current progress."
"R-really?" she stuttered. "This quickly?"
The colossus looked at the dragoness with a blank expression. She nodded sarcastically. "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have called for you."
"It's because I've been around her the longest?"
"Precisely. Much like my potions made to help out our home, what with growing plants, healing the wounded, and so forth." During her rant, the colossus shook a large barrel of a strange liquid, splashing it all over the place. It was acidic enough that it ate through the stone. "I was hoping to send her out with our usual groups to try and pacify any potential war between our peoples."
"But, Pueric Mother. She's not ready, and I'm pretty sure she's hiding her trauma. You saw how she was when she came back."
The colossus nodded in agreement. "I know, but staying where you are and brooding about your fears instead of confronting them -with support- won't let you evolve as a dragon." She scratched her chin. "Additionally, there's the other matter of her mental sanity that causes concern."
"Yes. That obsession of hers. We haven't tried to confront it yet."
"I figured that she would open up on her own," the colossus sighed. "Perhaps there's another way."
The two thought for a while in the silence provided by the massive chamber.
"We can try asking Asherk after she's finished training her for a week. That should be more than enough time to figure out Lovey's flaws and weaknesses, no?" Pueric suggested.
"We can't we ask Sconce?" Scarlet asked.
"Because she didn't have nearly enough time with the newbie. Additionally, with how she does things...ehhhhh..." the colossus trailed off.
"Right..." Scarlet agreed with narrowed eyes. "Still. I want to help her as soon as possible. It's not healthy for her."
"We've already established that." Pueric frowned.
"Oh...Then what do I do now?"
"You can resume your usual activities. I have more healing potions and poultices to try and create." She grabbed her chin. "I still can't find the best way to get as much out of these spices as I should be able to. It's infuriating!"
Redflare, Flossy Cotton, and Cornwell waited for the day to darken to resume their searches. The day was always too populated to make an effective scanning of Ranchefort, but the night was the best time to do a search. It was easier to search for any evidence of malfeasance in the large town without having to worry about ponies confronting them about their practices or calling up law enforcement. That being said, not having much light came about as frustrating and made things more difficult for them.
For Flossy Cotton, observing the housing blocks didn't bring about much but neighbors fighting for stupid reason. Cornwell was having more luck in the poorer areas, especially in the bars, but Redflare, stuck with the markets, had to rummage through just about everything, and that was quite difficult considering his immense size. Hours passed and he eventually heard hooves clonking against the ground, sometimes followed by a few ticking noises. Peeking around the corner, the paladin had found someone suspicious draped in a black cloak. It might have been chilly that night, but a pony's natural fur would have protected them from this light cold.
Being as stealthy as someone his size can be, Redflare peeked around corners to see that the figure was a pony caring around various papers on their back using rope to lock them down. Unaware of the spy, the figure punched the lock of a small warehouse and walked inside. Several minutes later, the figure reappeared, crumpled a piece of paper between their hooves, and tossed it into the warehouse. The red paladin expected them to leave afterwards, leading to something 'juicy', but instead, the figure chose to face the open warehouse and, much to the stallion's surprise, breathe a wave of fire onto the contents of the building.
"They can breathe fire?! A dragon, perhaps?" Redflare whispered to himself. "No. That would be too convenient for this place, but just in-case."
He couldn't just sit around and do nothing, though, so the paladin charged forward, yelling 'Fire! Fire!' and tackled the pony, jettisoning them through some wooden stalls. Before the flames could gain traction, the paladin marched forward to take care of it, but the pony he had tackled rebutted with a plank of damaged wood to the side of Red's head, neck, and ribs.
"Sssstupid pony," the figure hissed. "You're going to ruin everything!"
It jumped to the side, spewing fireballs at Redflare, but the pony did not flinch one bit from the flames. While he recovered from the painful strikes from the plank, he stood up tall to stare the figure down. They were getting more and more frustrated that their magic wasn't working and audibly ground their teeth.
"Why aren't you hurt by the flames?!"
Redflare looked down at the figure, his face filled with determination and pride. He only answered with a frown, angering the figure even more. They strained their voice, incapable of talking properly and only making weird noises.
"What's wrong with you?" Red asked. "Can't stand the fact that you're going to be imprisoned for arson? Or that you attacked a member of Princesses' paladins of the Order of the Holy Light?"
The figured stopped their twitching and looked towards the pony. "Paladins? What are you talking about?!"
"I--"
"SSSSSSSSSTUPID pony! Stop looking down on me like that! All of you always do that! You always look down on me!" The arsonist stood up on their hind legs and, after a bit of bumbling, manage to keep their balance. "If you want to catch me, then you'll have to deal with my flames first!"
"Don't you understand that you can't hurt me with fire?"
A brief red spark barely illuminated the figure's face in the darkness before they pulled back, then leaned forward in one quick movement. A torrent of flame came from them, engulfing Redflare and a humongous portion of the block in flames. The figure's cloak caught fire as well, but they seemed less preoccupied with it than the paladin and everypony waking up to the send and the spreading of fire.
"Oh no!" Red was shocked. He bared his teeth and turned to face the arsonist. "What did you do?!"
"Took care of two stones with one bird," the arsonist chuckled. "If I know anything about paladins in books, it means you can't stop me without sacrificing the lives of all of these people."
The figure fell back down to four hooves, jumped atop several crates, and left on the roofs of the buildings. Redflare wanted to capture the arsonist, but he had more pressing obligations to attend to. The fire fighting lasted well into the late hours of the morning, with ponies crying at the loss of their homes and belonging. Some ignored them while others offered to help or house them if needed. Multiple town guards were investigating the scene to determine the cause while Redflare was reunited with his colleagues.
"What happened?" Flossy Cotton asked.
"Did a dragon come by here?" Cornwell added.
"No. I saw the pony with my own eyes," Redflare explained. "They stood on their hind legs and used some kind of spell to create a massive vortex of fire that engulfed everything so they could get away."
"What were they after?" Cotton asked. "What did they attack first, and did you see what they looked like?"
"I didn't see what they looked like because they were wearing a cloak."
Both Flossy and Cornwell rolled their eyes, looking at each other with disappointment and shaking their heads.
"That's pretty cliché," Cornwell sighed. "They haven't even thought of wearing a disguise or something. No. It has to be a cloak in the night."
"As for where they attacked, it was that warehouse and I don't know why."
While the three tried to understand the various elements at play, one of the town guards yelled to everypony present.
"Here! The fire originated from here!"
"What?!" Red huffed. "But the arsonist literally created fire inside of the--"
A regular pony looked at the scorched ground, tracing it with their hoof and following to the buildings that had been ignited directly. "He's right," she said. "The scorch marks trace from the warehouse."
"What was in there?" a town guard calmly pondered aloud. "Come on, let's have a look inside."
"What are they talking about?" Redflare complained.
Flossy Cotton put a hoof to his shoulder to grab his attention, then pointed towards the floor. "Look there. The scorch marks."
Redflare narrowed his vision, then his eyes slowly opened with realization.
"The clever bastard," Cornwell applauded. "Your arsonist made sure to make everything look like it came out of the warehouse."
"It's these!" a guard shouted from the warehouse. She came out with a charred box full of sparkling, red powder. "I found some of it intact. It's dragon spices."
"And judging by the manifesto we recovered, these were delivered to use two days ago," another explained.
"The dragons tried to burn our town down!" an angered citizen bellowed. "They've been doing this for months now!"
Another pony stepped in. "She's right! Why are we letting them in here?!" He pointed angrily at the burnt warehouse. "They obviously sabotaged the crates of spices!"
"Don't be quick to judge the dragons!" the sergeant of the guards interjected. "It could be the acts of a pony trying to drive a wedge between us!"
"The sergeant is right!" a guard said. "This could easily be the actions of a group of ponies. The doors were clearly forced open from the outside!"
"Then how do you explain the massive torrent of flames that gave a new lighthouse to our town?!" an angered citizen shouted. "No pony aside from the princess and a individuals could cast a fire spell of this magnitude."
The three 'spies' looked at each other.
"That's it!" Redflare whispered-yelled. "If a regular pony couldn't cast something like that, and it wasn't a dragon..."
"Then that would mean that the one responsible is either a pony of significant magical prowess or in possession of an artifact of equal power," Flossy added.
"Then we need to find anypony in the area that could follow those criteria," Cornwell said. "I suggest we start with getting a list of registered ponies known as 'masters', or close to that, in magic."
"More specifically, stallions with an affinity towards fire magic," Redflare said.
"Stallion?"
"Yes. The pony in front of me was a stallion. I could hear it in their voice," the paladin explained.
"Then we have more to narrow the information request to. Stallion, strong magic caster of fire, and last known location," Flossy counted. "And they've been lurking around here, clearly."
"And they're affiliated with the Red Sun if they tried to involve the dragons and used their own..."
"What is it, Redflare?"
"How did he know that there were spices delivered in there? The guard came out with a wooden crate."
Cornwell nodded. "And we've seen the tags of trade boxes removed in favor of codes for the merchants and inspectors."
"You're right," Flossy realized. "But that can mean a number of things. We need more evidence to back it up."
Lovey found herself walking along the borders of the scorched dragon lands, her rage and fears climbing with every step. She was taken from her training with Asherk for some experience outside of the gardens, although her control of fire was still wanting. Still, the fiery dragoness considered Lovey's progress to be acceptable considering the few weeks they had been training already.
In her company was Scarlet, Zoonzu, and two more dragons around Scarlet's size. One was a vibrant shade of blue with a green left arm ending in claws sharper shinier than the right's, with three horns on her head. Two were on the left and curled five times while the one on the right stretching the the base of her forehead. She was in good, athletic shape, although it didn't reach Scarlet's level. The other was a bright yellow with a stomach painted in shades of deep lavender that acquired an orange shade the higher it went. Her multitude of horns were on the back of her neck, giving the impression of having very long hair, as static as they may be. A long, droopy fin decorated the top of her head, preventing her from resembling a victim of male-pattern baldness. She was very large and heavy set for a dragon, making Lovey wonder how one could become fat just by eating fruits and vegetables all day. Despite this, the fat didn't prevent her from moving around as easily as anyone else and flying quickly. In fact, she had a slight speed advantage to the group...relatively speaking. Zoonzu still had the advantages because of her gargantuan size.
"So why did you take me back to this place?" Lovey asked Scarlet. "And how come we took Zoonzu and these two I've never seen before?"
The two dragonesses snorted smoke from their noses, indicating their displeasure.
"I'm going to make you learn how to use tact and diplomacy when talking, instead of being super aggressive all the time like some spoiled brat crying for a new toy."
The two dragonesses covered their mouths, muffling their laughter, even though they still made it extremely obvious.
"I don't cry like that!" Lovey complained.
"Yes you do," Zoonzu teasingly butted in. "You like to sleep us in those whines."
Lovey's face contorted in confusion. The blue dragoness sighed and rolled her eyes. "You mean 'slap us with that whining'."
"Oh yeah," The giantess smiled. "That's what I meant."
"Guh. She's so annoying," the blue one complained.
"Cobalt, why do you pick on her? You know she's 'inverted," Scarlet said. "It's not her fault she mixes words, and I'd say she's gotten a lot better than before."
"But she's so absent-minded. Last time we took her along she SAT on the ones trying to start a war!"
" 'N what 'bout that tiny gal there? She's the tiny newbie what's been yellin' a lot, eh? Grabbed even the attention of the Pueric Mother," the yellow one said. "Ah believe that she'd be a nuisance to us 'ere as much as she is at the home."
"Why does everyone say I yell?" Lovey asked.
"Because ya do yell."
"And why do you have the accent of some country bumpkin?" the pink dragoness added. She pushed out her lower jaw and started to walk like a cowboy. "Them's thar one of 'em fancy furmers ah reckon? Gots tah take care 'o 'em pigs 'n cows, yeah?"
Zoonzu snorted with laughter.
"Ah don't take too kindly to those that make fun of mah accent."
"Then don't be starting insult wars and you won't get retaliations."
Scarlet stopped and turned to face the two. "You two, stop your bickering." She pointed at the yellow one angrily. "You, Stremlin, stop patronizing her." Then she pointed at Lovey who raised her arms in reflex. "And YOU, stop escalating the situation. Stop complaining and being angry about everything. We're all well aware of your unwillingness to make do with your current situation, but you shouldn't blame us for it. We're only trying to help you as best as we can."
"I...Fine..."
"Good," Scarlet nodded. "Now the first problem we have is a classical case of territorial control, except it was escalated with proclamations of inheritance."
Cobalt rolled her eyes. "Always the inheritance." Her sharp, narrow muzzle grumbled. "Why is it always the same thing?"
"Ya know how it goes." Stremlin explained. "Just get in, share the ahdeas, 'n then we're out. Maybe you'll get to fight this time."
Cobalt moved her lower jaw left and right. "Maybe. My arms been itching for a good 'bout of fighting." She lifted her left arm and flexed her fingers, reflecting even more sunlight.
"So they're here to be our combat insurance?" Lovey asked Scarlet.
"Yes. Them and Zoonzu, but Zoonzu is the backup." The red dragoness fumbled her fingers together. "Think of her as the 'secret weapon'."
The group, after half-an-hour of walking, met up with the 'warring' tribes of dragons trying to claim a large portion of land with a visible, enormous entrance to tunnels below.
"They're fighting over a tunnel," Scarlet noted. "That must mean there's plentiful jewels in there." She approached the two tribes and stepped in front of hem. "Whats going on here? Why are you two fighting?"
Two of the more elderly dragons stomped forward, tossing their comrades to the side. The first one, of the left tribe, snarled, as though attempting to intimidate the red dragoness despite her clearly being apathetic to the demonstration.
"What're Lovie Dovies doing here?"
"We heard that you were going to start warring with each other here for some tunnels."
The right dragon interjected. "WE were here first! We saw the tunnel, and it's gems are ours!"
"Ha. She was right," Stremlin laughed in her friend's ear.
"This land has ALWAYS belonged to our tribe!" the left stated.
"Since when?! You lot have NEVER been seen around here ever! It's only when we discovered these tunnels that you've been trying to take control of them."
"That's because we didn't know about the gems, but this land is still ours, and thus the gems are ours!"
The talking devolved into a loud brouhaha that aggravated Scarlet.
"Dragons, keep your calm. Lets try and understand this rationally. No one wants a war that will ill everyone. If you're all dead who will profit from the gems?!"
The yelling became murmuring between the tribes ho turned to face the dragonesses angrily.
"If we all die, then you get to take these gems from us," the right dragon stated with a threatening undertone. "You'll pretend to 'help' us, and then you'll just sit back and watch."
"Yeah. The idiot is right, for once. What's to say you won't try to pit us against each other while you just sit by and watch?"
"Things are getting tense," Cobalt noted. "Maybe we should get to fighting them?" she grinned.
The tribes started approaching, unaware of Zoonzu, but then they all stopped in place suddenly. Lovey Dovey had stepped between them and the dragonesses, and the elder dragons exploded with laughter.
"What are you doing there, tiny one?" the left laughed.
The right lifted his hands to 'protect' himself and spoke with mockery. "Oh, maybe she'll eat us with her tiny teeth!"
"HEY!" Lovey bellowed. "You two stupid idiots are dragons, aren't you?"
"STUPID IDIOTS?!" the two elders bellowed with fury.
"If you want to take control of the gems in there, why don't you have a series of fights between each of you? Each victor takes a portion of the gems in there towards their tribe. It's clear you don't want the tunnels for anything but that."
"Why we abide by those rules?" the left dragon asked.
Lovey put her fist on her hips. "Because you either get some or you get none."
"And how are you going to stop us?"
Lovey displayed a passive, blank expression accentuated by wide eyes. "Me? Why, I can't do anything. I could never beat you all back and destroy the entrance of the tunnels." She pointed to Zoonzu with both arms. "Zoonzu, on the other hand..."
The colossus stomped forward, nearing the tunnel, and raised a fist in the air. "Should I smash it now?" she asked.
The other dragons gulped and backed away.
Lovey gestured for her to wait. "You see," Lovey continued. "With the few moments I spent with you, I learned that you're very simple minded and love to fight. Why take away what is in your nature?" Lovey clenched her fists. "Instead of removing something completely, redirect it. Since you guys like to fight, the have duels and contests of strength. No one dies and you all get to punch each other as hard as you can!" Lovey cheered.
The other dragons pondered the idea for a moment.
Lovey looked away from them and checked her claws. "And the ones who prefer to war or cheat are clearly cowards who fear the other group," she spoke casually. Her eyes illuminated with the idea. "Hey, that's a great idea for game! The one who punches the other the hardest wins!"
"I like that idea!" the left chief shouted.
He was punched across the floor by the right one who raised his claws in victory. "I WIN!"
He was, in turn, punched in the gut by another dragon on the left and keeled over, and so the idea repeated over and over again.
"Very impressive," Stremlin applauded. "What got ya the ahdea ta do that?"
"They like to fight, and with what I was taught, fighting comes natural." Lovey shrugged. "Why take away what someone likes if it's in their nature? Just redirect it more constructively." The group looked back to see the dragons still punching each other. "And, uh, maybe get a referee for them."
Lovey was lifted in the air by a single, long claw of green, and she found herself incapable of moving.
"That was quite impressive," Cobalt said. "And here we thought that the only thing you had going for you was emotional instability."
"...What?" There was a sense of betrayal in Lovey's words.
"Cobalt, curve your negativity," Scarlet ordered.
The blue dragoness nodded. "However, these were the simple minded ones. Not every dragon you encounter will be as one-tracked as they are, and I do believe we are going to encounter such a group!"
Lovey huffed with boredom. She was sitting, her legs crossed, on Zoonzu's giant belly, the colossus having fallen asleep from the boring discussions. Oliver might've had the knowledge to break up fights between children and simple minded folk, but this was far too distant from his basic knowledge. Cobalt, Scarlet, and Stremlin were discussing terms between three different dragon tribes about who a certain family of dragons rightfully belonged to as well as their possessions.
"Their ancestors have been traced back to my tribe," one of the chiefs said.
"But a large portion of their family tree also comes from my tribe's herds as seen here," another stated.
"You forget that they made deals with mine to acquire all their territory and treasure. They've also married into my tribe quite a few times," a third added.
"Yeesh..." Lovey sighed. "I didn't think dragons were capable of doing anything but yelling and using each other to hit another dragon." Her chin was resting on an upright arm. She narrowed her eyes and looked around. "Maybe I can get away and walk around if I'm careful," she whispered to herself.
The pink dragoness was well aware of what happened last time she had gone on her own, so she was going to stay within ear shot of the dragons she had left with, even if it meant them scolding her like some sort of child. Calmly and carefully, she slid down Zoonzu's belly and ran along the sporadic bits of grass growing in the ashy lands. Every so often the pink dragoness would look ever her shoulder to see exactly what she was compared to the lovie dovies.
She paused for a moment, stretching cracking her joints.
"Uf. It feels good to be able to stretch and move about." Her neck performed a tic, twitching her head to the right. "I HATE standing around doing nothing." The dragoness tapped her chin. "And now I need to figure out a way to return to my home. I haven't had the time to think about about..."
The dragoness wandered around, forgetting about her need to stay near the giant dragons, and mumbled to herself along the way.
"Maybe if I asked that rainbow fan underneath the Pueric Mother...She must know the best way to get back, even if she tries to hide it. I'm certain she knows. She's supposed to be the eldest there." A smell of burnt grass attracted the attention of Lovie's nose, but she ignored because of where she was. "How do I convince her to tell me, though? She said she wanted me to 'change', but I don't want to...at least, not in the sense she said...maybe?" She scratched her head. "I'm not sure anymore...That smell is really strong now." The dragoness started sniffing the air, her nostrils twitching in the process. "What the hell. That smell is WAY stronger than it was in that pit I went to before."
She sneaked about, looking over hills and large mounds of stone jutting through the ground and into the air. Rounding more large stones hanging over a hill and possessing some trees, Lovey saw, in the distance, a caravan smoldered and left to burn in the distance. She tapped her lower chin, unsure of what to do, but her innate human nature saw her curiosity triumph, and she jumped down, sliding along the hillside and faceplanting at the end.
"Ow," she grumbled. Wiping the dirt off of her face, the dragoness took a closer look at the caravan. "What happened here?"
The caravan was actually comprised of around three wooden wagons with no harnesses for ponies to pull them. A few green sparks made the pink dragoness figure out that magic was involved, but she didn't care about what kind. Strewn about the burn site were multiple ponies whose armor was turned as black as the ground and the wood. Shards of wood, additionally, accompanied broken weapons and armor pieces all around. Wheels and metal plates bent by extreme heat also decorated the landscape.
"What ever happened here, it was one hell of a firefight." She picked up a plank of burnt caravan, only to watch it turn to ash in her claws. "This is Michael Bay levels of firefight."
She went further in, checking the inside of the three carriages, eventually coming upon a pony in the remains of a colorful wardrobe, slack jawed and with half his face burnt. The light was very dim inside, but the contents of the carriage were still illuminated well enough despite the filtering effect the light was undergoing. The dragoness cringed at the sight and saw a small box on his chest. She extended two claws, flicking the box to try and grab it, but retracting herself out of sheer disgust. Every attempt was accompanied by a brief grunt until she finally managed to clip the box off the pony's chest and onto the floor. The pink dragoness grabbed it and took it outside, preferring to get some light on whatever the little metal box was.
"What the hell is this tiny thing supposed to be? A message box?"
Lovey opened the container to find a rolled parchment within. She placed the box on the floor and carefully unfurled the missive to see writing on it...of a sense.
"...This would be much more 'plot twisting' to me if I could read these bizarre scribbles." Lovey heaved a smoke-filled sigh. "I should take this to Scarlet. See what she can make of this." The pink dragoness scratched her cheek. "Maybe she'd take us back to the garden and I could get into that sleeping volcano."
"Ssssstupid dragon. Give that to me," a voice ordered.
Lovey turned around to see a dragon, a few heads taller than her, covered head-to-toe in vast amounts of soot, obscuring their features. All the shifting ash changing what they looked like, creating horns, removing them, and modifying body shape with every movement and gust of wind.
"Give that message to me. You don't need it," they insisted.
Lovey tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "And why should I believe that from a complete stranger. Judging from your body, you don't want me to recognize you, and with what I can see all around here, you're most likely the one responsible."
"J-jussst because I'm covered in soot?" the dragon responded with an insulted tone. "That's a very convoluted conclusion...d-d-don't you think?"
Lovey's face contorted with confusion. This dragon had a bizarre tick causing his head to twitch multiple times in one direction. "How would you even know that I had a message if you weren't attacking this carriage, for a reason no less."
The dragon outstretched their hand and gestured Lovey to go to him. "Just give it to me. Come on. There's no threats to you here."
Lovey scoffed. "Like I'm going to fall for that. Your insistence on getting this just tells me this is important. I've read enough mystery novels to at least recognize a few queues." The pink dragoness smiled smugly.
The dragon blinked a few times. "You read books?" he asked in an innocent tone.
Lovey blushed and stammered several times before finally being able to form words. "Uhhhh, n-no." She crossed her arms and looked away. "They were assignments for my school. I was forced to read them."
The dragon had another tic accompanying them clenching their fist and slowly bringing it to their side. "I j-jusssst want the parchment. That's ALL I want. NOTHING MORE!" he yelled.
"You're not getting it, and I'm going to leave now."
Lovey turning her nose to the dragon enraged him. He jumped at her, sweeping her into the air with his tail then headbutting her into the hillside, making the dragoness bounce over it and tumble several feet further. The burner flew up only to land in front of Lovey, and performed bizarre, robotic motions before he stomped his foot down for every word.
"SSSSTUPID DRAGONS! You always do that!" He pointed at the dragoness angrily. "You all think yourselves high and mighty! You all consider yourselves better than everyone else! And when something bothers your narrow, undeveloped brains, YOU BEAT THEM UP AND REJECT THEM!"
The figure slammed his fist downwards, attempting to crush Lovey, but she rolled out of the way in time, parchment still in hand. The pink dragoness panted and looked behind her. She cursed herself internally. The dragoness had accidentally wandered too far from her companions.
"My only solution here is to flee, and reach them."
Unfortunately for Lovey, her plan didn't go unnoticed by the ashen dragon. "Thinking of fleeing to your fellow dragons?" The pink dragoness stared blankly. "Unlike you and your 'books', I have personal experience. I know what you're going to do before you do it, and your body betrays your spirit in this task."
Lovey got back to her feet and started sprinting away as fast as she could, but despite the ashen dragon shrinking into the distance, the pink dragoness could not escape. The dragon took flight to glide next to Lovey and taunt her.
"If only you could fly, eh?" he mocked her.
The dragoness took a swipe, missing, and found herself getting tripped and tumbling in a circle and sliding to a halt further away.
"There's no point in trying to run," the dragon told her. "All you need to do is give me the parchment, and you'll be free to go unharmed."
Lovey wiped some dirt off her mouth and stood upwards. "Then why don't I BURN you first instead of just running?"
The dragon crossed his arms and lowered himself to the ground. "Go ahead," he said calmly.
Lovey took a deep breath and focused. Embarrassed, she still performed a few arm movements and leg placements that had her target tilt his head in confusion and curiosity. Her mouth started to fume with smoke, then with pink fires. She opened her mouth and exhaled, creating a steady stream of pink fire creating heart-shaped smoke. The dragoness coughed when she was done and smiled proudly.
"I did it!" she cheered. "Well until I tell Asherk."
"Yes. Wait until you tell whomever that is," the ashen dragon commented. "That was supposed to be fire?" He waved his hands to extinguish whatever flames still lingered. "What was that?!"
"What..."
"That wasn't even fire! That's was just a small fit from a candle."
"YOU...!"
Lovey bolted away, causing the ashen dragon to roll his eyes and continue his chase. It didn't take long, actually, for Zoonzu to notice that Lovey was missing from her belly, and she was currently rampaging across the growing plains. The colossus was swiping everything away in her search until she spotted a vibrantly pink dot on the horizon that she rushed to. The three other lovie dovies tried to get her to stop, but they were unsuccessful.
"What in the abyss is that?!"
Zoonzu charged at the ashen dragon, narrowly missing him and tripping over herself to roll away into the distance.
"Who is that, Lovey?" Scarlet asked.
"A weird guy who killed a bunch of ponies and burned away a caravan, just so he could get to this." She showed a parchment.
"If that's the case," Cobalt chittered. "Then that means that he's up for a fight!"
"We're all up fer a faght, Cobalt," Stremlin assured.
The ashen dragon clenched his fists even more. "That's exactly what you ssssstupid dragons always do! Ganging up on others you don't like just so you can kill them then ostracize them from their homes!"
"What is he talking about?" Scarlet asked Lovey.
"No idea. He talked about that earlier."
"Let's just fight already!" Cobalt shouted.
She jumped at the dragon, using her green arm to slash at him and create streams of green light. One slice managed to hit the dragon's stomach, making him cry out in pain ad stumble backwards. Green light started to spread along his belly, and Cobalt laughed at the sight, but the green left when her adversary removed the soot from his body.
"What?!" Cobalt yelled. "That's cheating!"
She charged once more at the dragon, but her attempts to cut him with her arm were no longer working. She could still get hits in with her other limbs, however, something that was annoying her. Stremlin put her back to the blue dragoness' and the two rotated in place to switch who was fighting.
"What now?!" the ashen dragon complained. "I just want the parchment! I don't want a fight!"
"Too bad," Stremlin said.
Her 'tired' eyes fixed themselves to the dragon in front of her. She stomped forward, throwing kicks and punches along with twirls to smack the dragon with her tail. Strangely enough, he was meeting most of her attacks, but her strength was having a visible effect on the would-be killer.
"Conventional techniques aren't working well enough, Scarlet," Stremlin commented.
The yellow dragoness backed away, letting the ashen dragon lean over and pant in fatigue. His moment of resting didn't serve much purpose as he was confronted by Scarlet belching lava onto her fists and feet.
"You're crazy!" he shouted.
"Yes, but I'm certain that my crazy can defeat your 'sanity'," Scarlet.
The ashen dragon growled and took his position to meet with her blows. "Fine. I'll take this more seriously instead of just wanting to press forward and flee."
Scarlet threw a punch forward, one that was evaded by sliding to its side and throwing a left punch at her jaw. The large dragoness ignored the attack and corrected herself by bending her arm back and hitting the dragon in the chest with her elbow, sending him flying. Correcting their trajectory in mid-air, the ashen dragon managed to land on the ground and grind to a halt.
"Very clever," Scarlet praised. "You waited that I bend over to hit you so you could get one in on my face." She laughed. "But I'm not as easy to hurt as you are!"
The red dragoness jumped in the air and slammed a leg down, attempting to crush the ashen dragon with her heel. Instead of jumping out of the way, the dragon braced against the impact, using the opportunity to flip his adversary, but the molten fighting gear burned his hands and let lava seep out. He screamed in pain but still flipped her around, grabbing her leg to take with him into the air and slam down into the ground.
Scarlet responded by spinning on the ground after the impact to hit the ashen dragon multiple times in the jaw and send him soaring away. Battered and bruised, he could only get himself to stand upwards, regardless of how dizzy he was.
"You put up an impressive fight, but I'm not letting you off so easily, if you're not willing to negotiate."
"I...told you." He stretched out an open hand. "I just want the parchment."
"No," Scarlet answered dryly.
The dragon lowered his arm and said nothing else, leaving Scarlet to shake her head in disappointment. "I'm afraid, then, that I will have to deal with you in a more permanent sense considering your actions prior to our encounter and your clear relationship with the Red Sun."
"What? How do you know if I'm related to the or not?"
Scarlet pointed to the parchment behind her. "That parchment is sealed with a wax seal depicting the sun and moon. That's quite clearly from the princesses of the ponies. The fact that it was part of a caravan and you wanted to get it so badly must mean it's quite important."
"And because it was in these lands means it was either directed towards us or the current empress," Cobalt interjected.
Lovey said 'ooooh' at what the two dragonesses revealed.
Scarlet's lava weapons glowed brightly. "You've ignored the chance for a peaceful discussion, even after we fought with you, and your actions can only bring devastation to everyone in this world. I'm forced to be rid of you."
The ashen dragon growled. "Then I'll just have to leave and 'lock the door' behind me."
"What?"
The soot covering the dragon moved around so much that it was impossible to see their outline. A bright red glow appeared in the black fog followed by a tremendously enormous torrent of fire that engulfed the four dragonesses. Stremlin, however, dived in front of Lovey and covered her with her body and wings, protecting both the pink dragoness and the missive. When the torrent was over, the ashen dragon had vanished, leaving their soot behind. The three dragonesses, however, were scorched through their scales and could barely move. Lovey did not cry, but a vast well of emotions and 'rules' taught to her welled up inside her mind and soul as she tried to figure out how to react to the situation before Zoonzu came.
The Pueric Mother was holding up a large piece of broken glass to better see the tiny script on the missive Lovey had recovered from the burnt carriages.
"We came to the conclusion that that was a parchment from the princess of the ponies," Scarlet explained.
"Well, 'we' excluding Lovey, of course," Cobalt mocked.
"HEY!" the mockee responded.
Pueric nodded. "Yes. She's asking us to start patrolling the lands for any dragons that could be linked to the Red Sun while they look on their side for ponies." The giantess lowered the glass onto the floor and hummed pensively. "Normally, I wouldn't give this much thought, but the ashen dragon you spoke of has given this more significance than normal."
Stremlin let out a bellowing laugh. "Seems ta me like 'e should've left that parchment with Lovey."
"And this also proves that he's affiliated with the Red Sun. We need to track him down for questioning...among other things..." the titan mumbled.
"So what do we do?" Scarlet asked.
"Get some of the lovies more experienced with leading groups. Discuss this with them and determine where you need to go between yourselves. I would personally start with the stomping lands close to the ponies' border."
"Alright."
The three left the room, leaving Lovey all alone. Noticing this, the titan lowered herself to Lovey's level as best as she could.
"What's wrong?"
"Well...I wanted to talk with the rainbow serpent below."
"Really now?" Pueric mused. "And why should I let you down there again? There's no reason to. You're not better than anyone else here."
"I just REALLY need to talk to her. Maybe..." Lovey squeezed her fists and grumbled through her teeth. "To open up a bit."
"Ho ho. That looked like it actually hurt you to say."
"It did..." Lovey replied.
"Hold on then."
The titaness forced herself up, cracking her joints, and lowered the platform back down into the darkness of the volcano's core. The pink dragoness looked around for Emboreale but was perplexed that she wasn't around.
"You want me to help you look for her?" Pueric suggested.
"No. I'm good."
"Alright. I'll wait here until she decides to show up, just in-case. When you find her, I'll return to my chamber."
Lovey ignored the warnings of the Pueric Mother and hopped over chunks of hardened magma. She climbed others and looked around until a loud 'OW' reverberated in her ears.
"Looks like you found her," Pueric shouted. "I'll wait for you in my chambers."
The room filled with colorful lights while the titan slowly rose up on the platform. Lovey was thrown into the air and onto her back by the First grabbing her muzzle.
"That hurt!" she shouted. "Watch where you're going!"
"It's not MY fault you blend into the environment when you're not sporting your race attire," Lovey rebutted.
"I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it's supposed to be an insult." Emboreale rubbed her nose before talking again. "Dragon claws hurt...So what do you want? Why'd the Pueric Mother let you through?"
Lovey stood back up and cleaned herself of ash and soot. "Well, first, I was curious as to how the Pueric Mothers came to be."
Emboreale narrowed her eyes, knowing this to just be delaying, but she went with it anyways. "A Pueric Mother becomes one when I see her as being worthy. Most of the time it comes far later in time as a lovie dovie when they've proved themselves. And very, VERY rarely is it when they just become one of us that I can see the potential in them."
"So it all resides on you?"
Emboreale shook her head. "Of course not. What would happen when I died? They'd be in chaos. No. I can see those who would be great at leading your 'comrades', and most of the time, the Pueric Mother of the time sees it too. If they don't, then I nudge them in the right direction. It doesn't always work out, though, but that's how this works."
"And are they all that enormous?"
Emboreale laughed. "Of course not! The current one is just an exceptional specimen who drank her soup and the cauldron with it. She's by far the biggest Pueric Mother we've ever had..." The serpent's expression turned grim. "And the oldest..."
Lovey didn't say anything, preferring to keep quiet after understanding the tonal shift.
"So what do you want for real this time?" she asked.
"Well...I was wondering if there was a way to go back home now."
"I told you already that--"
"Yes, yes. I know. I need to 'change', but I think I've changed quite enough."
Emboreale was resting her head on an open palm and looked at Lovey's 'innocent' smile with apathy and boredom. "You forgot that I can see into your heart, didn't you?"
"What?"
"You're lying. In fact, you've been lying the whole time since you met me. You've been balling everything up then venting it with breathing." The serpent giggled. "Funny how you developed new stress-relief techniques rather than attack the stress at its source."
"This again?!" Lovey brushed off. "I'm fine! I'm ready to go home."
"No you aren't. You're on the verge of breaking, and I can see it. You've just become adept at hiding it."
"N-no I haven't! I don't have any problems!" Lovey calmed herself, passing off her yell as a joke. "I mean, I can just go home now. There wouldn't be any--"
Emboreale smashed her fist into the ground, creating a tremor and making dust fall down. Her voice was deafening.
"This isn't a joke, Lovey! You're going to end up killing yourself, and the spell that brought you here is no joke, either! We didn't mean for them to hunt outside our world, but those they did bring back were easy enough to free of their issues. Thus we sent them back if they so desired, but you're another case." The serpent passed a hand through her fins. "In your case it's a double-edged sword. You could become healthy in body and mind, or become corrupt to the point that you'll end up killing yourself. You were already on the verge when you came to us."
"And you all made fun of me every second I was here!"
"Because they weren't expecting something like you! All the others, be they from here or elsewhere, were always just filled to the brim with too much ego. If you break the ego in a manner that isn't malicious, you can then explain to them that it was just teasing. After calming down, they think back to that point and realize we were telling the truth." Emboreale scratched the back of her head. "It might be malicious and mean-spirited, but it's worked in the past. They were always withheld by pride and egoism. You're held back by so much more. Only the Pueric Mother understood this when she saw you and stopped everyone."
"No I'm not!"
"THEN WHAT IS IT THAT PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING YOURSELF?!" the First bellowed. Lovey remained silent. "TELL ME!" Lovey clutched her head. "TELL ME!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" the pink dragoness erupted. "You think it's EASY to change like that? Just because you tell me that my way of thinking is 'wrong' doesn't mean you're right! It could mean you're wrong! My whole life, be it through my father, my mother, my cousins, or my friends, they've always taught and told me that men act this way. Men must BE this way, but then people like you come up and tell me 'No, you should act this' way while others say 'You shouldn't care what other people think you should act like'." The dragoness started letting out tears unknowingly. "My parents would get upset if I acted a different way, and others supported their view. They were never mean, but others, LIKE YOU lot, were extremely rude to me when it came to not following your points of view."
Emboreale pulled her head back in a flinch. Stunned by what she was hearing.
Lovey gestured with her hands. "My family supports one view and others support another. Some love and some hate both sides. How am I supposed to know what is right and what is wrong when no one can make the decision? How do I know if I'm allowed to like this thing when a whole group yells at me and another starts attacking that group. What I did brought fighting and rage. So I shouldn't do that again, but I still want to, but I don't want to cause more fighting."
The serpent's face slowly became overcome with sadness and realization at exactly what the pink dragoness had been holding in for so long.
"When I try to tell other people that what they're doing is wrong, they all yell at me and attack me and no one defends me, but then my own family tells me that they're all wrong for their own various reasons." Lovey turned to face Emboreale. "You would believe your family more than strangers, wouldn't you?"
"Yes," the serpent answered calmly.
"Then why is it that the masses yelling louder seem like they're in the right?! Are they just aggressive for no reason or are they telling the truth?! And why is there yet another group telling me to behave in another way?!"
Lovey started crying fully now. To Emboreale, this wasn't just suddenly breaking down as the Pueric Mother explained last time.
"She's actually letting it all out this time. I...was not expecting that."
"When you're told by your entire family that one way is right but goes against your wants and likes, are they wrong or are you wrong? When everyone yells at you for not acting yourself, are they right or wrong? What is the truth and what is a lie?! Is the family right and everyone else wrong or vice versa?!"
Emboreale remained silent. "I'll let her cry a little bit. She needs to let this out a little more, I believe." She sighed. "She's going to need a lot of work, this one."
"So...you're conflicted about how to behave because others have been imposing their ways of thinking onto you, and you don't know how to act because of it?" Emboreale wondered.
"Y-yes..." Lovey hiccuped.
The serpent raised her eye's lower eyelid. "Then you're concerned more with how they feel than your own well-being?"
"Maybe," Lovey answered between sniffles.
"Then you have been demonstrating, at least indirectly, that you do care for people, but you're the one who is afraid of what they might think of you, Lovey." Lovey didn't answer. "That means that you're only harming yourself by pretending to be mean, no?" Still no answer. The serpent sighed and flicked her fins. "Would you prefer if I called you by your real name?"
The pink dragoness nodded in response.
"Then what is your real name?"
"Oliver."
"...Oliver, then."
"Why DO you call me 'Lovey Dovey'?"
"It's part of our usual procedure, like I mentioned earlier."
"But it's hurtful."
Emboreale nodded and tilted her head left and right. "Perhaps but that's part of it."
"But I hate it." Lovey spoke with a strained, baritone voice. "You took away my body and my life. All I had left was my name, and then you took that too..."
The serpent remained silent for a moment. "Well, the idea behind that was embarrassment for the toxicly rude, prideful summoned."
Lovey wiped her snout. "That doesn't make it okay to call me that without my consent."
"Again, that wasn't the point--"
"The point doesn't matter!" Lovey shouted between tears. "You were just trying to confuse me like everyone else."
"And yet you did not concede despite being with us for a few months." A discreet smile started forming on Emboreale's face. "Regardless of what we did or said, you never ceded what you thought was the correct way to act."
"So?"
"You stick to your convictions. Why bother with what everyone else says when you've only been truly listening to yourself?"
"..."
"Am I wrong or right?"
"I...don't know."
The serpent hummed. "Well, what do you think?"
"..."
"You should learn to listen to yourself more often. When you don't, it leads to great confusion like this and causes tension to build up." She slithered up to Lovey. "Are you feeling better now, by the way?"
Lovey didn't look up, but nodded. She was stiff as a board and her arms were drooping by her side.
"Good. As for your name..." she scratched the back of her head. "I would rather have a discussion with the Pueric Mother about that...among other things..." she sighed. "If you want to stay here, you can do so, but I would prefer to have this conversation in private with her."
"Okay."
The pink dragoness waddled towards the platform landing and called the colossus leader. After a few minutes of waiting and information exchanges, Lovey went into Pueric's 'room' and the colossus stayed behind. She wiped some dust off of herself and approached the colorful serpent nervously.
"Lovey said you wanted to see me?"
"Y-yes..." Emboreale hesitated. "It's about quite a lot of things, actually."
The colossus dropped down, her body causing a small tremor and destroyed the volcanic rock beneath it.
"Like what?"
"Lovey's...psychological condition has made me realize that our methods of dealing with the strong headed like her won't work all the time."
"But it has always worked!" Pueric gestured behind her with outstretched arms. "We gave her her name because of how she was acting. The shock of becoming a dragon and being here is understandable, but her macho attitude and reluctance to do actions not 'conforming' to her society's view of males is--"
"Unfounded," Emboreale interjected.
"What do you mean?"
"She had a...moment of revelation to me, showing me that, wherever she comes from, there are no sex roles like we've seen in this world so far. It's all varied and random, by what I understand."
"Don't some of them stem from the base genetic functions that our unevolved ancestors had?" Pueric inquired.
"Yes, but her's is very complicated in that regard. I don't know what it is, and I frankly do not care. However, by treating her the same way as everyone else, I learned that, as the expression goes--"
"Putting all your eggs in one basket is a sure-fire way to lose your daily acquisition. I am aware."
"P-pretty much. Yes. The issue is that our old techniques no longer work. I'm worried what will happen to those that come after her."
Pueric brushed the idea off. "It doesn't matter if it didn't work with her. She's an exception to the rule."
Emboreale's concerned expression turned to one of great dour, and her colors started flickering to more 'sinister' shades.
"Yes. I've been wondering about that. Exactly how many like Lovey have you not told me about? Her reactions and stress build up have not been diminishing much since I last saw her." She leaned closer to Pueric. "It's been getting quite worse."
"I--"
"She was on the verge of killing herself, the only thing preventing being that liiiiitle slimmer of hope that she could trick me into sending her back, which that spell won't allow."
The pueric mother was sweating and fumbling with her fingers. "She's the only one that's been like this."
"But how many have you lost to the world, who tried to 'escape' us?" the serpent queried as she narrowed her eyes.
"Y-you make it sound like we're imprisoning her!" Pueric shouted. She was visibly insulted.
"Are we not?" Emboreale wondered. "I was just expecting our gradual form of 'breaking down' would take quite a while. However, as I mentioned earlier, with Lovey, it only took a week, if not less. I'm curious as to how that is, because she's far too stubborn to be so easily...mmm...'dissuaded', shall we say?"
Guards of the city of Cancremol were occupied with some card games, reading, or sleeping on the high walls.
"Uff..." one of them sighed. "There's never anything happening here, although maybe that's for the better." She grinned. "But nopony can deny the thrill and excitement brought by fighting, eh?"
"What?! The excitement of fighting? You're talking about war!"
"Yeah!"
"Wh..."
A loud brouhaha started reaching the ears of the guards, interrupting what might've been a rather aggressive conversation. Leaning over the inner-side of the walls, they could see a large mob chasing the relatively pony-sized dragons towards the gates. Gates which, as it would turn out, were not open. Some of the guards armed themselves and galloped or flew down to reach the site below and blocking the mob from the terrestrial dragons.
"What's the meaning of this?" the elder guard shouted.
"They've been torching the city! Every time we've received shipments of products from them, the whole place gets burned down!" one stallion shouted. "Get them out of here and we won't have these problems anymore!"
"In fact," a mare interjected. "Chase them out of Equestrian territory for good!"
The mob all shouted in agreement.
"But it's not us!" one of the dragons said in a worried tone. "Why would we suddenly want to destroy all your cities?! You're the est providers of gems anywhere. There's no gain to destroying everything you've made!"
"That's a lie! Since you want our gems then you would just chase us away from our mines!"
A younger stallion stepped forward with two saddle-bags full of gems and dirt and put one in his hood. "If you want our gems and lands so bad, then here! Have them!"
The others grabbed their own share and started stoning the poor dragons while the guards above started to open the gates.
"If you all keep this up then we'll have a reeeeeeal problem on our hooves!" the old guard threatened.
A voice in the back of the crowd shouted. "The guards are with the dragons. They're trying to take everything for themselves! Do we want the corrupt 'protecting' us?" the voice mocked.
"Hey, they're right!" a mare agreed. "Get them out of our city!"
"Are you insane?!" the guard bellowed.
It was too late, though. The mob had already formed their own minds, and so were deciding to attack the guards all across the city as soon as word spread out.
"It's true what they say: A pony is smart, but a herd is stupid."
Lovey opened her eyes after being blasted by bright rays of sunlight, and groaned in pain. She rolled over then fell to the ground, scaring her awake.
"I didn't fall asleep on a rock," she mumbled to herself. "Hm?"
She checked her hands to see that they had become--
"My hands!" Oliver cheered. He rubbed them all over his face like they had a healing lotion slathered on the palms, and then he came to realization. "I'm myself again!"
He looked around to see that he was in his living room, the sun still shining outside and the air still fresh as ever. His happy mood didn't stay as bright as the sun, and he grew more suspicious by the second. His smile gradually made way for a narrow mouth and squinted eyes.
"What is this?" he wondered aloud. "What's the catch? Some kind of weird dream?" His kicked the coffee table over and yelled in pain when the impact fully affected his tibia. "S-so that's still a thing," he noted through a tear. "But dreams can make you THINK you're in pain when you're not." He rubbed his chin and looked towards the transparent doors of his and hummed. "The first thing I should check is if that stupid mark is still there. If it is, well...I'm not sure, but I won't be falling for the same trap twice."
He carefully slid the door open then hid behind the wall. Peeking around the corner, he maintained his behavior stepping on the grass to see that the mark was actually still there.
"HA! I knew it!" he shouted. He pretended to wipe his 'sleeves' of that thing by wiping his wrists instead. "I've done my time with you, kidnappers. I don't need to deal with you again." The man looked up to see that a few dark clouds were coming up on the horizon, and he chuckled. "The rain should watch that crap away. I'm just going to relax in my couch and--"
Oliver found himself incapable of walking forward again. Looking down, he could see the grass had caught his ankles, but this time, he knew what to expect. He kept his cool and reached down to grab the blades ensnaring him and ripped them off rather easily.
"Hm...That was easier than before..." he pondered.
The man shrugged the event off and continued his way, but two things were waiting for him in his house. It was Ember and the Pueric Mother at around Oliver's size. He looked at them with as much suspicion as he did the rest o this 'day'.
"Oh. You two are here. What is it now? You're going to stay there silently, and then I'm supposed to approach you and then you turn into some kind of Lovecraftian horror show?"
Ember gave a single laugh. "No. She is," she indicated.
She pointed behind Oliver. Turning around, he saw that Lovey Dovey was standing on the mark outside and casually walked inside.
"Stay out of my house," Oliver threatened.
Lovey lifted her fingers and flexed them, all while grinning. "That's not for you to decide."
She slashed angrily at Oliver, slicing through his arm. He grabbed it and backed away, looking at Lovey like she had betrayed him.
"Ow! That fucking hurts! What the hell is wrong with you?" He blinked a few times. "Wait...why did that hurt so much, and why am I not bleeding?"
"You sure seem indecisive and stupid, I must say," Lovey commented.
"He should become one of us, don't you think?" Pueric asked Ember. "A better place than as himself. There's nothing to go for there."
Oliver felt something tickling his arm and, when he removed his other covering the wound, witnessed a flood of pink scales gradually growing on and pushing from under his skin. He tried to scrub off the scales with his other hand in a panic, and after a few minutes, managed to stop it progressing. He heaved a sigh of relief and punched Lovey in the face with enough force to send her flying through the glass doors.
"Don't you EVER do that again!"
"But it's already started. You'll become one of us," Pueric said in monotone.
"You'll become a dragon. All tiny and cute," Ember chuckled.
Oliver keeled over, feeling the bones in his arm snapped and twist. He could somehow feel all of it, and was paralyzed. He twisted and turned for some benign reason related to the pain, then he found himself in a black corridor flanked by the colorful and varied dragons he had seen so far, and they were all cheering Lovey into catching him. Looking over his shoulder, Oliver could see Lovey stomping after him while his arm continued to contort and snap painfully while skin was pushed off by the scales growing underneath. He got up to his feet and rushed away from the pink abomination, hoping to escape from her.
"You can't flee forever, Oliver," Lovey said.
"You're going to be like us whether you want to or not!" the crowd shouted.
"Jeerusalem! This is like a creepypasta!" Oliver stuttered. "Get away from me!"
"You can't flee forever!" Lovey shouted. "It's already coursing through your body: The essence to becoming one of us forever."
Oliver felt his legs snap and he fell over hard, skidding along the ground a few centimeters. Much to his horror, his tibias and knees were twisting and spinning around, shrinking as well. His pants and shoes burned off, showing the little legs and clawed feet of the pink dragoness reforming from the snapped bones and torn skin and ligaments. Lovey stood over him, hands on her hips and a smile on her face.
"There ya go! No point in fighting it. Just let it overcome you, and I'll take over from there. You won't need to worry about anything any longer." She patted Oliver's head, and from every pat grew a horn that gradually extended outwards.
Oliver felt himself become drowsy and start to fade away, but his rage broke through that, shocking 'Lovey'.
"No!" he shouted.
"What? But you're me, and you don't like being me! Just let go!"
"No!"
He forced himself upwards on his smaller feet despite the misshapen distribution of weight. "A REAL man faces his fears AND his rage!"
"B-but..." Lovey couldn't understand. "You're NOT A MAN ANYMORE! You're a dainty little dragoness! Cute 'n cuddly and the opposite of anything 'manly'. What would your parents say about this?!"
The pink dragoness pointed to the side, and a gray dragon with a blank face stepped forward with a mirror in claw as big as it was tall, showing Oliver to have become Lovey again, his joints and face contorting into place, but Oliver didn't care.
"I couldn't care less! A dragon is a dragon, and YOU are MINE!" He pointed to his chest using his thumb. "I was having trouble before, but I'll learn to deal with it, like a real man! There's no point in complaining when little shits like YOU keep trying to confuse me."
The false Lovey straightened herself out. "And then what? You're just going to seal me away or cast me out? I'll always be here!"
The real Lovey waved off the idea. "Pffff. Not something so easy."
"Then what?! Without me you're nothing!"
"That's not true and you know it." Lovey glared at the doppelganger with wide eyes and cracked her knuckles. The false dragoness faltered in fear. "Remember how I said men face their fears head on?" She tilted her head from side-to-side to crack it as well. "I'm going to beat the shit out of you."
"Get away from me!"
The false Lovey turned tail and tried to run, but the ground was only pulling her back towards Oliver grinning as mischievously as she had been just moments before.
"Now I'M the nightmare and YOU'RE the dreamer!" Lovey shouted. "I'm going to enjoy this."
The false Lovey fell to the ground and turned over, protecting her face. "No, please!"
Lovey woke up cuddled next to Scarlet and Zoonzu in the garden. It was the middle of the night and the stars were still showing in the sky. She looked around a little more, trying to figure out how she came to be where she was. A little moment of breathing and she lifted her fists, remembering her dream and smiling.
"Heh heh. Idiot," she whispered to herself. "That feels so much better," she chuckled. "But I don't like being next to these two rolled up like cats."
Lovey's attempts to escape Scarlet's grip were pointless as the massive dragoness prevented any attempts to escape by grabbing Lovey and pulling her closer to her chest. The pink dragoness was absolutely enraged, but as she had no way to escape, she stayed in place, hoping to find a way to sleep comfortably in this situation.
Lovey was awoken by a loud explosion and debris plonking her on the head multiple times.
"Lovey, wake up!" Scarlet shouted? "We're being attacked!"
The red dragoness punched another incoming stone while Zoonzu amused herself by running around and catching the boulders in mid air. One of the smaller lovies stopped her and told her something Lovey couldn't hear, but she understood when Zoonzu started lobbing the boulders playfully over the wall, even going so far as to hit a large dragon flying in the air further away. The other massive dragons followed her example and started lobbing the blocks over head and into the would-be attackers.
"What's going on?!" Lovey asked.
"I just told you!" Scarlet shouted. "While you were sleeping...somehow..." Scarlet's yell shifted into a confused, judgemental tone. "This large group of dragons came out of nowhere, with one yelling at us for 'holding back dragon kind' or something absurd like that."
Lovey was clearly apathetic to the whole situation. "So? It's not like they can come in here easily. They'd be stupid to try that."
"There's some!" a male voice shouted.
Lovey leaned over from her sitting spot to see two dragons around Scarlet's size rushing in. The shifting of posture showed Lovey the presence of large chimneys of smoke rising from the gardens.
"Oh..." Lovey trailed off.
Scarlet ducked a punch by the male dragon and punched him in the gut, the hardened lava around her fists creating overheated sparks. She followed with an uppercut and an elbow bash into his chest to throw him further away. The dragoness accompanying him tried to tail whip Scarlet in the face, but that only served to give the red dragoness something to grab. The attacker was hoisted into the air then slammed onto the ground, inches from Lovey who cursed at the red giant. Scarlet spun the intruder around then threw her into her companion, throwing the two through a bush-wall.
Scarlet panted and rubbed her forehead. "Come on, Lovey. We have to get you to a safer place while we deal with this."
"Somewhere safer? Where? The tower?!" She slapped Scarlet's outstretched hand away angrily. "No! I'm going to get Pueric. It's time her lazy ass does something for once."
The tiny dragoness rushed forward, despite Scarlet's protests, and used her 'small' size to navigate the damaged walls and the rocks left over from attacks. Her behavior actually surprised the red giant, but Scarlet had no time to follow her friend due to the influx of more invaders. Lovey's trip through the battlefield and towards the tower showed her quite a bit of carnage. Lovies and 'regular' dragons embroiled in combat, with fire and fists flying every which way. The pink dragoness was almost engulfed by a stray fireball deflected by a giant dragon, easily around Zoonzu's size. This was no lovie dovie. This one was cruel and kicked the two lovies backing away from it far out into the garden, taking it upon herself to change direction and go towards said tower.
The pink dragoness snuck around, doing her best to avoid being spotted by the intruders even though some of them still saw her and chased after. Lovey was still capable of defending herself against those around her size. Even those technically taller than her had trouble, mainly because Oliver had learned a thing or two when he was growing up: Just because someone is taller than you doesn't mean they're any stronger. It's also easier to get them off balance due to higher center of gravity, but you need to know where you need to hit, after all.
About an hour had passed already when Lovey had awoken, and the colossus had to deal with many waves of lovies attacking her, the dragons around her size being preoccupied by the same sized dragons charging in from the outside. Lovey was panting like crazy, rubbing her forehead of moisture while she rested in the shadows of piled stones.
She huffed longly and peeked through a crack to see the colossus making her way forehead. "The hell is this? A kaiju movie? I'm not yet used to this body like I should be after that...release..." she spoke with disgust. She looked at her hands and flexed her claws, then looked at her feet and her clawed toes there as well. She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. "I'm still a dragon, so I can still do this. I just have to go next to her and rushed towards the Pueric Mother." She took another peek and pumped herself up with a punch to her chest. "Okay, let's do this!"
Lovey hadn't even taken a step that the entire tower exploded outwards, hitting the approaching colossus multiple times. The stones, despite having been thrown outwards, refused to fall, and after a certain distance had been met, remained in place, slowly rotating from whatever kinetic force had cast them out in the first place.
"Is that the leader of these offense against dragon kind?" the colossus yelled.
"Yes it is," Pueric answered from the screen of dust.
"Then come and face me. We'll take care of this dragoness-to-dragoness."
The colossus flexed her claws and aimed her glare straight ahead, anticipating whatever attack Pueric might perform once she was out of the smoke. Her loud steps indicated how close she was to the colossus, but something was...off for her. The shadow through the smoke did not stop at her eye-height. It went higher, and higher, and higher! And the colossus' will to fight went lower, and lower, and lower...
A massive hand grabbed her, squeezed her tightly, and lifted her up to the face of the angry old dragoness. "You attack MY home and then come to kill me?!" she yelled.
Her voice was so strong it deafened everyone nearby and caused much of the fighting to stop for a short few seconds as the intruders stared, gawking at the literal titan standing in front of them all. Pueric wasted no time throwing the colossus hard into the ground then stomping hard on her, creating a depression beneath her foot.
"You all will get out as well!" she shouted. "Filthy invaders destroying centuries of hard work in minutes!"
The titan started focusing threads of magic between her fingers and pointed her open palms to each other, letting the magic meld and focus together into a thrumming ball of unstable 'silk' sparking and writhing in every direction.
"No lovie dovies shall be cast away! Only the filth that contaminates our gardens!"
She straightened out her hands upwards, then with a slight rotation of her wrists, pointed her left hand forward and the right to herself. A beige orb expanded from the silken orb between her hands. It started slowly, then became an almost instantaneous dome surrounding the whole garden and beyond. The colossus smashed into the ground was thrown out the crater and far away into the air. Fights stopped just as quickly from the invaders being thrown away like garbage. There was one issue, however, when the expansion had started.
"What's...going...on?!" Lovey strained.
She was pushing against the dome while others phased through it. They didn't understand the situation and only watched, their brains still processing the event. Lovey's little feet were digging into the muddy grounds as did a few other of the invaders, but her efforts were for naught, as she was thrown away like the rest.
"Lovey!" Pueric shouted.
It was too late, however. The tiny pink dragoness was flung out of the gardens like the intruders were, and the Pueric Mother had no way of stopping the spell. On Lovey's end, flying against your will was one thing, but it was another for one who couldn't even use her wings. She was obligated to use her tail to direct herself to the larger dragons and use their bodies to brace for the impact, impact being just as heavy as the force that launched everyone. Dragons landed like sport balls, bouncing up and down and spreading along the ground before coming to a halt. The smaller dragons were thrown that much further, as was Lovey when the force of the landing of the large dragon she clung to transferred to her and sent her flying even further away.
"Why didn't the spell protect her?!" Pueric panicked. "It was supposed to protect all Lovie Dovies!"
"Because she doesn't see herself as one, and that likely will never change," Emboreale explained.
The titan turned to see the serpent walking along the ground, her colors slightly faded. She shielded her eyes from the sunlight and audibly demonstrated her displeasure and pain.
"I should've gotten out of the volcano a long time ago."
"What are you doing out here?!" Pueric whisper-yelled.
"I've seen through you and that pink 'thing' that the path the lovies have taken is distorted from the original, even with my presence. It seems I needed to be a bit more 'present' for that."
"Then--"
"I'm going after Lovey. I'm bringing her back."
"After you've been dormant underneath for so long?" Pueric worried.
Emboreale huffed. "I warmed up coming up here."
Celestia was in the gardens, having a discussion with a gardener about what flowers to use for the new castle decorations for the upcoming festival dedicated to the young talents of her school. They were in a long debate about using purple or orange when a guard rushed to the two, interrupted their discussion.
"Princess Celestia!" she shouted. "An urgent letter for you! Like, really REALLY urgent!" she insisted.
"Hoof it here, then!" Celestia said.
The pegasus passed the letter to the white alicorn who took no time opening it with her magic and reading the contents.
"What is the meaning of this?!" she bellowed.
The gardener and guard both flinched from the sudden yell.
"The dragons are attacking our settlements?! What about the Red Sun?"
"W-well," the guard started. "I don't know much, but I'm guessing that whoever was at the head of this problem saw this happening and went ahead with whatever plan they had."
"The letter even says that the ponies have added into it! The guards of the towns and cities have given the willing civilians weapons to fight back." She lowered the letter and looked to the guard. "Get as many ponies to alert the generals to the council room. This might be a war, even if it was caused by an outside party."
All the rejected intruders groaned in pain, some punching away those who had fallen on top of them. Lovey rolled onto her back and panted heavily. Her heart was racing from the fear of falling so high and so fast.
"I can't believe I survived that," she said. "I JUST got my self-confidence back! I think..." she trailed off.
With some difficulty and wobbling, she managed to stand on her legs, but had to hold herself with hands on her knees. One of the smaller intruders, leaning against one of the still knocked out giants, rubbed her dizzy face to try and get her vision back. That's when she spotted Lovey wobbling around in a drunken stupor. She fell on the floor multiple times.
"I don't remember drinking ten beers," Lovey mumbled.
"Hey...It's..." The intruder vomited before she could continue talking. She spat once and wiped her mouth, leaving way to anger. "It's one of the lovies! She was thrown out with us!"
One of the giants, still too dizzy, rolled over onto his side to look at her. "How do you know?"
"Look at her!" the small dragoness pointed.
Lovey slapped the sides of her head several times to try and 'sober up' again. It worked partially. The world still appeared to wobble, but she could see clearly instead of in a fuzz. She got to see dragons around her size coming to 'rough her up'.
"If we beat her up some, the others will have no choice but to come out and face us like real dragons!" the intruder shouted.
"Yeah, and you're totally going to succeed in your ploy," Lovey mocked. She stood straight up and looked at the dragons head-on. "I'VE BEEN THERE FOR MONTHS! I KNOW HOW TO KICK YOUR ASSES!"
"What?"
"FIRST, IMMA PLANT YOUR ASSES, IN THE GROUND! Then I'll grow them and have asses to kick every year!"
The dragons scratched their heads in confusion and ignored the bizarre threat. Two of them charged at Lovey and managed to punch her in the face and left ribs. She shared the same pain by hooking the rib puncher in the snout and grabbing the arm of the other, pulling in towards her and using the imbalance to break their elbow. Lovey managed to dodge a few kicks from new attackers, but still got hit twice. The pink dragoness started fuming at the mouth from frustration and jumped in the air, smacking many of the dragons away with her tail. She wanted to have fun. She really did, but unlike friendly sparring, this was a fight for her life and well-being, and it wasn't going on very well.
"Just because you slap us with your tail doesn't mean you're good at fighting, you pink flower."
Lovey blinked at the dragon and gradually displayed confusion. "Really? 'Pink Flower'? That's the best you can come up with?" She waved the dragon away. "Pffff. Some insult."
The pink dragoness narrowly dodged a punch thrown by that dragon during her mockery. She slid under his arm, to his side, then knee'd him in the hollow area below his ribs, forcing him onto his own knees.
"I may not be some black-belt master of karate or some master in muay thai, but I am a master when it comes to kicking you in the face!"
She hopped over his back and did just as she said, but there wasn't much she could do with the stronger dragons, or even the bigger ones. There were limits to what someone of her size could do to dragons sized like Scarlet on her own. Thus, Lovey found herself kicked up into the air and blasted away with a fireball, leaving her battered and bruised in the black impact crater a little further afield.
The responsible giant laughed at her inabilities. "The pink one can't even breath fire! I bet she can't even--"
A loud 'thump' sound, seemingly amplified in an echo chamber, sounded over the dragon's voice, and in that split moment, Lovey saw all of them lean to the right a bit, then get jettisoned far away to the left. Another thump saw them repeat the motion, but once up, and then hard into the ground, creating numerous craters. One of the colossi forced himself out of the crater and looked around to see the cause of the pain. It was Emboreale, casually walking towards Lovey. The dragon hissed at the serpent, and was about to breathe fire, but the serpent's 'fins' flickered, and a pale-blue aura surrounded the colossus. To Lovey, it looked like they were being twisted and contorted far beyond what any living creature could live through within the bubble. Yet, when it popped, the dragon dropped back to the ground, unconscious and unhurt.
"It's illusion magic, Lovey," Emboreale explained. "Makes you think you're suffering what is being shown, but nothing is actually happening to you." She plucked the pink dragoness from the ground and placed her on her back. "There we go. You'll have to stay there. I can't take you back to the gardens."
"First: Why not? Second: What are you doing outside the volcano?" Lovey asked.
"Because the current Pueric Mother is defending it and sent several large groups of lovies to the pony border. The second is because you showed me that the methods of helping new members with their 'issues' is far too aggressive and dangerous to be effective, so I'm stepping in." Emboreale scratched her head. "Although it does make me wonder just how long this has been happening."
"Why the ponies? What do they have to do with this?"
"Your pueric took what little information she already had based on your rather 'recent' discussions with pony kind, including some dragon surrounded with 'ash'."
"She told you all that so fast?"
"Wh...It took an entire night."
Lovey looked to the side then scrunched her lips. "Oh yeah. I was sleeping after that."
"I also noticed you to be in good spirits, compared to before."
"I had an epiphany."
"Wooooow," Emboreale exaggerated with wide eyes. "Your muscles actually went to your brain this time." She looked straight forward and nodded. "Quite impressive."
Lovey's mouth started sparking against with pink flames, but this was ignored by the serpent she was riding on.
"If I were to fly in the air, do you think you would be able to recognize the place you fought the ashen dragon?"
"As long as the carriage is still there. Why?" Lovey asked.
The serpent snorted. "Because I have an idea about what it might be...or at least, what it's a leftover of."
Emboreale straightened herself out, and from her body came four transparent wings peeling off like a thin film on her scales. Two at the level of her forelegs, and two just a bit forward from her hind legs. They fluttered in what little wind there was, prompting Lovey to want to question the possibility of flight. Her attempts were rebuffed by the 'skin' straightening out instantly and creating enough lifting power to send the two dragons high into the air.
"You okay?" Emboreale asked.
Lovey smacked the sides of her head to unplug her ear canals, groaning in pain and annoyance. "No. I feel like I fell in the wrong direction, and my ears are plugged."
"When you learn to fly, you'll adapt to that." The serpent continued to ascend, causing the land below to shrink and lose its details. "I had the same when I started."
"I see...So you said you had a hunch about the ash dragon?"
"Yes. Just moments ago."
Lovey nodded and remain silent for a few seconds. "So is this a scenario where the 'big bad' you and a group of adventurers defeated on a mighty quest makes a terrifying return even though their prior displays were actually quite incompetent?"
"Hey!" Emboreale shouted angrily. "Leave my clichés alone!"
It took quite a while for Emboreale to reach a height she agreed with, allowing Lovey to reluctantly lean over her and look down. She was scared at first but gradually became accustomed to the height. The first thing she saw were the pony cities in the distance being attacked by rows of dragons. Some of them had huge splotches of black pushing against the reptiles. The pink dragoness could even see some of the larger figures collapse and be engulfed by the black.
"Can you see it yet?" Emboreale asked.
"For the last seventy-seven times, no! It's not because you keep asking me that that--Oh. There it is." Lovey frowned while Emboreale snickered. "You and your clichés," Lovey complained.
The destroyed caravan was still here, but a rancid smell accompanied it, one that Lovey couldn't stand, forcing her to clench her nostrils closed.
"The ponies haven't cleaned this up yet?" she wondered. "I thought they would've cared for this!"
The serpent slithered around, pushing the charred wood and decaying bodies to the side for a better look at any potential clue hidden in the wreck.
"Evidently not. It seems they haven't been informed of this and couldn't send any search parties seeing as there was much instability around here. Sending a search party could have caused more ponies to vanish, I imagine."
Lovey nodded and looked away. "Makes sense, but I still think they should have at least tried."
The serpent looked up from her investigation with a raised brow. "What's to say they didn't?" she asked with judging tone."
"I..."
"It's easy to find the faults in others, but it's harder to fix your own, isn't it?"
The pink dragoness slumped in shame, but perked up when Emboreale walked over the ruins and wiped her hands clean on the dirt.
"I can't really figure out if this is caused by anything but an unusually strong breathe of fire from a dragon. Hopefully, my confusion was unfounded and it's just some pony using magic to disguise themselves." Emboreale scratched below her eyes.
"So what? Magic is that easy?"
"Transformation magic is extremely difficult. I only know of one race of which that comes naturally and another that doesn't use magic for it. However, with what the current Pueric Mother told me, this one doesn't have it mastered that well."
"So what should we do now? Go back and tell this to everyone still at the garden?"
"No. We'll continue looking around for them. They might be mixed in with the rest. They could actually be part of your 'Red Sun', unless their goal was coincidence."
Lovey climbed back onto the serpent's back, and it was back to surfing on the air currents.
"I can see some dragons intervening with the fights and pushing the invading dragons and aggressive ponies away." Lovey's eyes widened. "I'm impressed. There's more lovies than I thought."
"I noticed. I don't recall our numbers being so big during my time."
"Down there!" Emboreale noticed. "I see a large influx of dragons. The members of this 'Red Sun' might be gathered there on both sides."
"Aren't you supposed to help them out?"
"Yes I am!" Emboreale shouted.
She plummeted to the ground, focusing a cone of magic just beneath her. When her feet impacted the ground, a large circle of electricity lashed out, electrocuting everyone there save for the lovies and Lovey Dovey seeing as she was on Emboreale's back. The dragons and ponies did not pay much heed to the pain and continued their 'war', surprising the serpent.
"Strange. That should have knocked them out."
"You could just be out-of-practice," Lovey thought.
"It's true that I haven't been really doing much with--Woah!"
The serpent jumped away from an attack by ponies wielding spears, throwing Lovey off her back in the process. The pink dragoness dodged a ballista shot meant for Emboreale, the giant bolt nearly lopping her head off. A massive blast of fire engulfed a small portion of the immense walls and burned the siege weapon off its hinges. Lovey followed the trajectory, leading her to see an angered dragon with one straight horn jutting out of the right side of his head. His body was a dark red with ashen-black hands, lower-legs, and feet. He looked to Lovey and frowned.
"Ssstupid pink dragon!" he shouted. "You lovies were supposed to be preoccupied."
"You're the ashen dragon?!" Lovey shouted.
"No! I'm just going to kill you and the other lovies here is all!"
He threw a fist forward and another, eventually going with his claws to slash down at the dragoness. Lovey didn't have the martial ability to properly counter him and found herself at the mercy of a large, downward chop. The pink dragoness braced for a strike, yet she found herself protected by a large red arm blocking the chop.
"So you're that ashen fool who didn't play fair?!" Scarlet growled.
The red dragoness tried to round-house kick the 'ashen one' in the face, missing by half-a-hair of an ant's leg, giving her time to check on Lovey.
"Are you okay, Lovey? I saw you fly away and couldn't find you when I went out to check."
The pink dragoness twitched her eyes at the name, but took it upon herself to accept it, if only for now and because it wasn't the time to argue about this.
"Yeah. Emboreale saved me and dragged me along into this."
"Emborele?" Scarlet repeated quizzically.
Lovey pointed to the serpent grabbing two smaller dragons with her hind legs, smacking them together, then passing them to her forelegs to use as weapons. The serpent threw one at the mouth of a larger dragon about to exhale fire, blocking their mouth and causing an explosion that knocked the two out at the same time. The other was thrown at a colossus near the size of Zoonzu, blinding them temporarily and allowing Emboreale to wrap around their body and flip them over onto their stomach, creating a loud 'whump'.
"Woah," Scarlet awed.
The red giant was suckerpunched by the ashen one, allowing their fight to continue while Lovey ran to safety...at least, she tried. In one direction you had angry ponies shooting at her and trying to impale her, on another you had dragons trying to crush and disembowel her.
"I really wish this was just a dream right now," Lovey cried in her mind.
The fights kept on going and going, with more dragons and ponies joining the fray. The lovie dovies were well-versed in combat, but they couldn't deal with so many attackers at once, and this was a three-way free-for-all. It had no true rhyme or reason in the great span of things, with each side having its own goal and steps to undertake to fulfill. Lovey felt over her head here.
Lovey dodged left and right to avoid getting hit by anything. To her, this whole thing felt like a game of deathly dodgeball. Scarlet and the ashen one were still locked in combat, with the two exchanging hits, blocking others, and the ashen taking damage every time because of Scarlet's lava gloves. He slid in between two punches, getting right in front of red dragoness, allowing him to headbutt her hard. The dragon followed up by thrusting his elbow into her sternum to push her back and have her keel over, facilitating his job of lifting her up and slamming her back down.
Sure of his success at knocking the dragoness out, the Ashen One waltzed over the crater. That was a bad idea. Scarlet hopped out of the whole, landing in front of a surprised dragon. She swung her arm around swiping him via his torso into a lariat lock. She spin around, jumped in the air, and, with hand on neck and on leg, performed a backbreaker with the dragon. She repeated the first movement, doing another backbreaker, and then followed by spinning high into the air stopping with her up top and the Ashen One below her, and body slammed him hard from the air.
Scarlet laughed and crossed her arms multiple times for her stretching. "I got him good," she chuckled.
The Ashen One groaned in pain, incapable of movement. "Sssstupid dragons!" he yelled. "I'll show you what I can do!"
His body became engulfed in the warping and twisting smoke of ash and cinders. This did something to his body, removing whatever pain and damage had been caused, and allowing him to fight Scarlet to his fullest potential.
"I told you I didn't want to fight with you!"
"Well that's too bad!" Scarlet shouted. "You brought this on yourself!"
The Ashen dragon growled and charged at Scarlet, feinting a punch for a sweeping maneuver followed by an uppercut into her back and a breath of fire that engulfed the dragoness, although it wasn't enough deter her from fighting.
"You're going to have to do better than that!" Scarlet mocked. Her opponent preferred keeping silent than answering in any way. Scarlet shook her head and readjusted herself. "Why are you even doing this? You seem to be in the know more than the others."
Emboreale landed next to the two dragons on a large group of smaller ones and moved her lower jaw left and right. "That's because he's part of the Red Sun."
Scarlet nodded. "I thought so. He knew way too much and was doing quite a few 'precise' maneuvers uncharacteristic of regular dragons."
The ashen one looked insulted. "So? What if I was a lovie dovie? You'd have never known."
"Don't be absurd," Scarlet waved the notion off. "Lovie Dovies are only female."
The gray dragon became puzzled. "What? Why?"
Scarlet and Emboreale's eyes shot open and made no eye contact while only humming 'Uuuuuhhhhh' for the longest time.
"It doesn't matter anyways. What's done is done," he said. "And you can't stop it, sssstupid dragons!" he hissed.
"Stupid dragons, huh?" Emboreale mused.
"Yes! You all behave the same way! Brats with poison in their mouths!"
"Then you don't see yourself as a dragon?" the serpent wondered. "You seem more than capable of convincing these dragons to fight on behalf of your group."
"Because they're idiots!"
Scarlet put an arm in front of the serpent, surprising her briefly. "Don't get too close to him. He's dangerous."
"Oh please. There's more happening here than you think." Emboreale body started pulsating with magic, creating an increasingly loud shriek over time. "He's been slandering the dragons instead of the ponies, which he was fighting earlier. He hasn't once mentioned them during his rant there, preferring to stab our species."
"What are you doing?" the Ashen One asked.
"Just this."
Emboreale's body shone brightly and with bits of color, blinding everyone in the immediate vicinity by the sudden expansion of light. When the light faded, there was a large cone of burnt land expanding away from the serpent.
"Where did he go?" Scarlet asked. "Did you kill him?"
Emboreale looked at the dragoness with an insulted expression. Lovey's need to dodge everything was improving her reflexes and timing, but it didn't prepare her for the body flying at her. She instinctively brought her arms up, but it served no purpose. The figure landed on the ground and slid in front of her. Lovey was awestruck by what she was seeing.
"What the hell is that?!" she shouted.
The silence created by the blinding light allowed her verbal shock to reach most people around and look towards her. There was a pony around her size right in front of her, but it was...off. It turned to look at her, face filled with absolute rage. There was a horn coming out of the right of its head in a short arc leading to a straight point. He had another, smaller horn right next to it and surrounded by the short-curve. This one had a spiral design on it, strangely. His body was an exchange of red scales and purple and red fur. His right eye was pony-like, but the left had a reptilian slit and was surrounded with scales. His snarling mouth showed a random assortment of horse teeth and groups of two or three sharp dragon teeth. His forelegs ended in hooves with sharp claws growing out of them, splitting the material. The hind legs were mostly equine, if not for the scales and right hind leg having a single claw growing out of the hoof. His mane and elongated tail were very unkempt and mostly purple with small streaks and patches of red. His left flank was but scales, and one of the ponies fighting pointed out something curious.
The three spies had climbed onto the wall to have a better look of everything happening and assess the situation accordingly, but Redflare noticed the entity and raised an eyebrow. "That's the pony from the night when the warehouse exploded."
"Look! He's got a red sunset on his flank!" the mare yelled.
"And that's the idiot who kept spewing hatred towards the dragons."
"No it's not!" the Ashen One shouted. "It's just scales!"
Redflare shook his head in disappointment.
"Betraying so easily after months of doing this for her group," Flossy Cotton grumbled. "Just because the thing you were following wasn't a pony. Pathetic."
Cornwell looked around and scratched his head. "How long has this been going on? Two hours?"
"About," Redflare answered.
"It's over, crossbreed," Scarlet said. "Or would you prefer the name 'Red Sun'?"
The small crossbreed's scowl turned to a smile. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."
Fighting resumed across the land, although many of the previous participants, be they pony or dragon, stopped altogether. Lovey looked around confused.
"Why don't they stop?"
"Because the idea of the Red Sun won't be extinguished so easily!"
"You say that," Emboreale started. "But what will you do now that we know who the leader of the Red Sun is?"
"I'll--"
"Both sides know now that you're neither dragon nor pony. You've lost the trust of both."
The crossbreed was fuming with rage.
"Why would you start something like this?" the serpent asked.
"So that you all know what it feels like!" Everyone looked at each other, confused. "Even now you judge me by my appearance alone! I still remember my mother and father! A pony and dragon! They conceived a child: Me! But they never let me out. Not like you!" he pointed at Lovey accusingly. "YOU know what it's like to have people care about you. I only had my parents, and they were killed by their own! I was waiting in my home for my mother to come back, but other ponies came instead. They were supposed to help me, but they all looked at me with abject horror and disgust." The claws on his forelegs folded into the dirt. "They literally tore me out of my own home and threw me into the streets, eventually throwing the things in my house at me. They thought I was a monster taking up refuge there!"
He pounced on Lovey, rolling them around then throwing her far away angrily. Scarlet was going to intervene, but Emboreale stopped her.
" 'Ew, what is that thing?' They would say. 'Get away from here, mutant!' others would spit."
"That's no reason to take it out on me!" Lovey said.
She blocked a few hits and kicked the crossbreed. "I learned I wasn't a pony, and thus was chased out of where I lived, just because of my appearance. Stones, clubs. ANYTHING could be a weapon against me."
"And so you went to the dragons thinking they would be more accommodating to you, but you discovered--" Lovey started.
"That they were just as bad. I learned then that they were the ones who killed my father. They recognized me as his child and beat me around. I was left for DEAD HUNDREDS of times! The only ones who ever ignored me were the lovie dovies, too preoccupied with keeping the peace between all of them."
The Red Sun's right eye began to glow red, followed by his smaller horn channeling magic into his draconic one, leading to him creating a veritable cyclone of fire. Lovey narrowly dodge but still got her whole left arm burnt.
"That's why he wasn't interested in fighting us," Emboreale noted.
Scarlet stomped the ground angrily. "He's killing her!"
"Be patient. I'll intervene when the time is right," Emboreale explained.
"I never gave up, hoping to AT LEAST make one friend, but it was just like with the ponies! Different reactions with the same outcome! No friends and no family! No home and no food! I fled once again, somewhere deep in the dragon lands and found solace. A place that took me in and took care of me."
"A shadow, you would say?" Emboreale interjected.
The Red Sun looked at her and nodded reluctantly.
"I thought so. I thought he was dead.
"He is."
"Then how?"
"Death only kills the body. It doesn't kill the spirit."
"What are you talking about?" Lovey complained.
The Red Sun ignored her and faced the serpent.
"I'm afraid I'll have to get rid of you," she sighed. "It's not something I want to do."
"Why? Because I'm engulfed in shadows?"
"Mainly," she answered dryly.
"Ssssstupid dragons! Darkness is not the epitome of evil nor is light the representative of absolute good. With just enough darkness you can hide and stay safe in its embrace, but if there's too"much light, you become blinded and cannot see!"
"Very poetic," Lovey noted.
The Red Sun turned to face and her and pointed towards her. "And you! Why do you stay with them?"
"What do you mean?"
"You could come with me!"
"And why would I do that?" Lovey asked with a raised brow.
"Because we've lived through the same things."
"Elaborate."
The Red Sun's angry voiced became a little softer. "I saw you when you went to the dragon lands on your own, and I've been watching you the whole time through the darkness. We were both torn from our homes and forced to live lives that we despise. We are in bodies that aren't ours, and have people who patronize us and mock us every day! Even if they've 'helped you' in some manner, that will just lead back to them trying to get rid of you or change you against your will." He extended a hoof and smiled. "We could be friends and live our own lives. I could even find a way to get you back to your old life eventually."
Lovey looked at him and then the sky where pegasi and dragons exchanged fire and blade and she herself bared her teeth.
"No."
The Red Sun became saddened, a sad frown gradually forming as the realization of Lovey's words hit hard. "Wh-why?!" he asked. "We lived through the same things!"
"No we aren't. Don't do the 'We're the same, you and I,' speech unless you're absolutely certain of your statements."
"But--"
"I'm learning to live with this body, and I'll eventually be able to go back to my home, but in the mean time, I'm staying with the weirdos. It's still a dragon's body regardless of its sex and appearance." She crossed her arms, and tapped her claws. "I'll still hate them for forcing me to do this, but I'm adapting to the situation. I'll endure the name they gave me, for what it's worth," Lovey grumbled. She looked to the hybrid. "But, from what I heard, you had someone to take care of you despite all of your problems." She shrugged. "Likely one who loved you considering how adamant you are at destroying everything. Why didn't you just live with them if you wanted a friend or something? You could've ignored us all and let us kill each other."
"It doesn't change what they did!" he yelled. "Then maybe YOU can tell me what I am. I'm neither a pony nor a dragon as both rejected me, but I have the appearance and genes of both. Tell me then. WHAT AMI?!"
Lovey opened her mouth to answer, but found nothing.
Red Sun spat at her silence. "I thought so," he spoke with disdain. "They'll suffer for it. They brought this on themselves anyways. All I wanted was to live with my mother and live in this world comfortably. I didn't even need to destroy anything!" His anger subsided and he recovered himself. "I just have to watch," he chuckled softly.
Oliver's entire dragon body became engulfed in darkness that spread across the battlefield like a fog. During this time, Celestia's chariot arrived above the wall, the mare witnessing the ash-filled fields below. She noticed a single object burst out through the smog and rush towards the horizon where a few mountains were. Ignoring the minor inconvenience, she spread her wings open and spoke with the Royal Canterlot voice.
"Enough of this fight! There has been no reason to start this apart from the incitement by scared ponies and dragons!"
The ponies and dragons ignored Celestia and continued on their merry way, emphasizing how this had become a war, albeit one of attrition.
"Hey look, it's that colorful horse-thing from the meeting when I first got here," Lovey pointed out.
Scarlet rolled her eyes. "That's Princess Celestia of the ponies."
Emboreale scratched her chin. "Does she speak for the king and queen?"
"No. The ponies are ruled by princesses."
"Wait...I'm confused."
"We all are," Scarlet sighed. "She's one of their rulers is all you really need to know."
"That means I can have a discussion with her and try to sort this whole thing out."
Scarlet watched the serpent fly upwards towards the white alicorn while Lovey walked towards the red giant. The mare was reluctant at first, but Emboreale explained the situation to her, prompting her to dismiss the guards.
"I see. I also didn't believe any of your dragon species still existed. I must admit, you still look as spectacular as the murals and paintings depicted."
"I can also see you took some color lessons from us," Emboreale joked.
"So what should we do? They're still fighting," Lovey said.
"Well," Scarlet started. "We had some of our faster fliers going around to try and find the current dragon em--"
"THEY WHAT?!" a booming voice exploded through the lands.
It was strong enough that it blew everyone back a few centimeters from the wind. Loud flapping noises started out very quiet in the distance, but they became louder the more a figure closed the gap between it and the battlefield.
"Oh..."Scarlet stammered. "T-that's the ex-emperor of dragons."
"And?" Lovey brushed the fear off.
"He's not exactly 'calm' and 'collected'."
Lovey's doubtful turned to curiosity as she watched the massive dragon slam violently into the ground. While he yelled at the dragons, he would pluck them up and throw them off into the distance to vanish.
"I DIDN'T SAY ANY OF YOU COULD DECLARE WAR ON THE PONIES! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE?!" He looked around and noticed Scarlet and Lovey. "AND WHAT ARE THE LOVIE DOVIES DOING HERE?!"
"Calm your tits, you giant potato!" Lovey bellowed.
The titan leaned over towards the two dragons and narrowed his gaze. "ARE YOU THE ONE WHO SAID THAT, RED DRAGON?!"
"FOR THE LOVE OF EVERY GOD, STOP YELLING!" Lovey shrieked. She walked out from behind Scarlet's legs with her hands against her head. "How can YOU even think what with you being so damn loud?!"
"I--"
The ex-emperor felt a slap on his back and turned to see the Pueric Mother wagging her fingers at him in her way of saying 'hi'.
"O-oh. It's you..." he looked away.
"Why yes, it's me. I thought you would miss me more than that," she pouted.
"I didn't...How did you sneak up on me?"
The Pueric mother sprinkled sparkling dust whilst moving her hands to the side. "Magic."
The ex-emperor facepalmed and looked around. "Where is my daughter? Where is Ember?" he asked.
"At our gardens," the Pueric Mother asked.
"What in the world is she doing there?!"
"Giving a good thrashing to the ones who attacked us as part of a declaration of war."
The ex-emperor laughed wholly. "That's my daughter."
Lovey leaned towards Scarlet. "What are they talking about? What's going on?"
"I have no idea, but I say it's for the best. I just want to go back to our home and sleep."
"That reminds me," Emboreale said. She slowly descended next to the two dragons. "Lovey and I need to have a talk with the lovies as soon as possible concerning an important bit of information about her."
The tiny dragoness clenched her fists and bared her teeth. "Don't call me Lovey," Oliver growled quietly.
"Really now?" Scarlet wondered.
"We should first have a discussion concerning this whole...event, and see what we can do now that the Red Sun is out in the open," the Pueric Mother explained.
In a cave system deep in the ground, the Ashen One stomped around the damp floors, throwing droplets of water everywhere. Mushrooms and moss would glow light blue and deep purple with every tremor they felt, but their luminosity paled in comparison to torches adorning the walls. These sculpted receptacles of stone lit up with intense purple flames, illuminating the whole tunnel system.
The cross-breed slid down a natural slide, landing in what was his first true home after his...'removal'. He took a dented metal pan taking in the drips of water from the ceiling and rank some of its contents, relishing the flavor. He walked up to a destroyed statue thrice his height depicting what should be a sitting dragon, but a large chunk of its upper torso had been lopped off diagonally. All that remain of the upper torso was the left shoulder.
"What should I do?" the crossbreed asked it. "I tried being cautious and sneaky, but I still got caught."
"But you still nurtured the seeds of doubt and hate growing everyone," a male voice said from the caves. "Yes, but I was caught, and the lovie dovies ruined everything."
"I did say that you should have either left them alone or found a way to kill them all at once," the voice stated in condescending tones. "I told you they were more interested in dragon-dragon relations, not dragon-pony. Even if the princesses were going to them for discussions, it was only to talk with the new empress."
"But I--"
A large, transparent hand made of black shadows formed in front of the statue and pet the crossbreed's head. "This was a learning experience. If I were to chastise you for every error you made, you would be too afraid to do anything and become too incompetent and fearful to pursue your dreams." The voice became a bit more serious. "I'll only get mad if you repeat the mistakes."
Red Sun nodded. "I understand."
"Don't forget that you have no obligation to do this. I can keep you safe until you feel you have grown sufficiently in physical, magical, and mental ability."
The cross-breed tried to say something but held himself back.
"What is it?" the voice asked.
"I think that I need more training before I can be properly competent enough for all of this."
"Then let us play a few strategy games, then. Teach you a few more complicated maneuvers by using other people this time. Then you may dine. It has been a long and grueling day, I can imagine."
The cross-breed put a clawed hoof to his back and bent it, creating cracking noises. "Yeah. I met a rather...gruesome dragoness with weird fighting techniques."
