Fire and Ice

Chapter Eight: History Lesson

The teenagers were hesitant at first, but they followed the alicorn while keeping themselves away from the dragon. The Draconian himself wasn’t doing so well. He was used to taking verbal abuse from his own kind, but receiving it from ponies--a far more benevolent race--brought him down further.

Princess Celestia continued down the cobblestone path that would lead the way to the infirmary. As they entered the central hub, several ponies turned to flee, or at least get out of the way. One pony in particular, however, did not. She was an earth pony mare from the farmlands, with a dusty orange coat, and her cutie mark was obscured by the harness attaching her to the cart she was hauling. Her light brown mane was done up in a braid, underneath a wide-brimmed straw hat. She passed by the princess, giving a lighthearted bow and a smile. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem to even notice the significantly large dragon right next to her.

Rhem kept his head low and forced a smile, only managing little success. He was still feeling sad, and the fleeing equines and expressions of horror of those who did not run didn’t do any good to lift his spirits. He was surprised that the earth pony didn’t take notice to him, being the brightly colored and sizable creature. The sound of a foal crying upon spotting him from the other side of the road brought him back down again. The mother of the foal shushed her gently, her voice belying her own fear.

The princess couldn’t help but sigh heavily as they reached the infirmary. Her little ponies getting used to Rhem was going to be far more difficult than she thought it was going to be.

A few inhabitants in the lobby turned their heads to the new arrivals, mildly curious as to who it was. A couple of the select few gasped--first in delight upon seeing their princess, then terror at the dragon accompanying her. Hearing the gasps, the rest of the ponies shifted their attention, only to repeat the reaction.

The general forced another tiny smile as he and the princess passed the visitors with the stallion still suspended by magic and the colts in tow.

Princess Celestia stopped at the front desk with a calm smile and gently set the stallion down on the floor. She ignored Rhem for the time being, certain he would behave himself.

“I’m here to drop off a patient,” she informed the nervous receptionist. “There’s been an accident. He was hit in the head with a ball, you see. I suspect a minor concussion, but he’s been unconscious for the past several minutes. I fear there may be more serious damage.” The tall mare emitted a short sigh. “Would you please take a look at him? His two sons are behind us. I’ve no idea on the whereabouts of his wife.”

A brief pause.

“Don’t mind my dragon companion. He’s… relatively harmless.”

The oldest colt was tempted to rebuke Princess Celestia’s last statement, but figured it was best to just keep his mouth shut about the dragon. He stepped forth, his eyes meeting the princess.

“We’ll take it from here, Your Majesty. Thank you very much.”

The alicorn had noted the child looked like he wanted to speak, yet said nothing regarding the situation outside of showing gratitude. She understood his desire to object, which was the reason she had said relatively harmless.

Rhem hadn’t meant to cause any harm, but she acquired the distinct feeling the general just didn’t know his own strength. Accidents were just that, accidents. Regardless, it would be a long while before he would find any sort of acceptance in her country at large.

The expression of depression on her visage was obvious, but she foraged a smile at the colt.

“Very well. Take care of yourselves,” she said, before nodding to Rhem and walking out without a further word.

Rhem took one last look at the brothers and their father then followed Princess Celestia back outside. Catching up to her, he lowered his head and pressed it against her shoulder as she strode alongside her.

Princess Celestia brought her muzzle to the top of the dragon’s head to nuzzle him in concern and draped a wing over him.

“Don’t get discouraged, General. These ponies need to build up trust in you, and building trust is like building… a city. Roam wasn’t built in a day.”

With the soft nuzzle combined with the comfort of the embracing wing, Rhem felt some of his depression subside. He nuzzled her back along her neck, keeping his head pressed against her soft coat.

“Hm… Where to now?”

She smiled lightly, withdrawing her wing.

“I was thinking we could fly out among the countryside. Perhaps take in a good view from the ‘bove. Less ponies out there.”

Rhem gazed up at the sun princess with a hopeful glint dawning in his eyes. Less ponies… The less there were, the less he would end up scaring. That aside, the countryside sounded pleasant.

“Okay.”

The mare grinned and extended her wings. Galloping a few feet away, she flapped them and took to the skies, glancing down at the dragon as she arced around towards the direction of the farmlands.

Unfolding his leathery wings, Rhem leaped into the air. Already he was beginning to feel better. The sensation of soaring with the princess proved to be what he needed to combat his funk.

The princess flapped her feathery extremities to climb higher. As she did so, she kicked her legs as if she were galloping on thin air. It didn’t really do her any real good, unless she were on a cloud, but it gave the impression she was strutting in the sky. Surveying the land, she picked up a few of the farmers tilling the fields, paying more attention to their work than to the sky.

Rhem watched curiously as he glided beside his friend.

“What are they doing, Princess Celestia?” he queried. Growing crops wasn’t part of Draconia’s culture. The only farming ever done by his race was raising their livestock.

“They’re plowing fields,” she answered. “Getting ready to sow their seeds in preparation for growing their crops for the next year. You see, we grow our own food here. We plant seeds, we water them, and make sure they get enough sunshine through our weather ponies so they will grow to their largest size and abundance. Almost all of the food you ate last night came from our farms.”

“Oooh.”

The mountain of pancakes he consumed that afternoon was only enough to moderately fill his belly. He was a large creature and he required more than that. Plus, with all of that activity in the labyrinth, he had burned a lot of calories. Now that it was drawing in to dinnertime, the mentioning of food reminded him how hungry he was.

“In fact,” Princess Celestia continued. “The pancakes you had were processed from wheat that was grown in the grain fields!”

The equine’s smile faltered, recalling Rhem’s punishment. She certainly didn’t agree with the king starving his own sentry, but at the same time she didn’t want to undermine his authority. Even if he was in her own land, she wasn’t sure whether or not to stick to it… or mentally spit in the tyrant’s face and sneak the general a meal.

“I hope I’m not making you hungry, talking about food.”

“I will be fine…”

The young dragon flew lower to get a better look at the ponies toiling in the fields.

Princess Celestia nodded, bending her wings to follow him. As she turned her eyes downward, she observed some of the ponies tilling the earth, tending to grown crops, and gathering water. Fillies and colts played with each other, as some of the adults conversed, significant others nuzzled and loved each other, with a few of the mothers calling their families in for dinner.

“I would like to learn as much as I can before going back to Draconia.” The dragon paused, removing his attention from the world below and directed it to the solar monarch. “And have more fun.”

“I would be more than happy to teach you as much as I can.” Princess Celestia beamed with a sense of pride. “What would you like to know?”

“Where do I even start?”

All remnants of the Draconian’s depression were wiped away by the sheer excitement of learning.

“Why not from the beginning? Equestria’s history!” he suggested, eyes blazing almost as brightly as the sun itself.

She went quiet and her smile dropped, but only for a moment. Fluttering her wings, she directed her body towards a rolling hill in the distance. She didn’t say much of anything, save for trying to drudge up her thoughts and long suppressed emotions about Equestria’s darkest days.

Tailing the princess, the dragon landed gracefully upon the grassy knoll, and sat himself down upon his rump at her side. He could sense something was heavily troubling her.

“If it bothers you, you do not have to talk about it. You can always refer me to someone else who is also knowledgeable on Equestria’s history.”

Princess Celestia shook her head, offering a small, sad smile.

“No, no, it’s all right. It would be better if I told it. Recorded history, even from our best scholars, has a way of losing information passed down from generations. I might as well relate the events from my own memory.

“As it stands…” She looked up into Rhem’s eyes, while laying down on her stomach. “There is truly no substitute for personal firsthoof experience.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“A long time ago… Canterlot as you see it did not exist. Even the ponies you see here did not live in true harmony. The unicorns, the pegusi, and the earth ponies were all in single tribes of their own kind, and only interacted with each other out of sheer necessity for survival, and barely tolerated each other otherwise.

“Eventually, a strange and enigmatic blizzard over-swept the land, which lead to a nationwide famine. The leaders of the tribes came together to a summit to try and figure out a solution to the problem, but it only lead to arguing and blaming one another. Unable to come to a mutual agreement, they went their separate ways and set out to find a new land--which led them here.

“However, when each tribe discovered Equestria, the other two had arrived at the same place as they did. They began to fight, and soon the blizzard followed them. It was the assistants of the tribe leaders that found out the blizzard was due to malevolent spirits called windigos, which created the storm by feeding off of feelings of hatred. Upon realizing this, the three tribes united as one, dispelling it. As the storm dispersed, the three tribes decided to remain as one nation to equally share the land between them… And that is how Equestria was formed.”

Rhem nodded in acknowledgement.

“What happened after that?”

She opened her eyes.

“That was… years before my time. Peace did not last.” She turned to Rhem. “There rose a powerful being, a draconequus by the name of Discord. He was everything his name implied--a disorganized creature made up of mismatched parts of other animals. The head of a pony, the horn of a goat, the antler of a deer, the arms of an eagle and a lion, the legs of a lizard and a goat, the wings of a bat and a pegasus, and the tail of a snake.

“Discord was as every bit as discombobulated as he looked. He delighted in disorder, pleased by pandemonium. Every day was nothing short of unadulterated bedlam. You see, Discord was a trickster in every sense of the word, capable of illusions and appearing to alter reality at whim. Fish swam through the air, birds flew in the water, cats barked, dogs meowed. Day and night may as well have been the same. All there was… was chaos.”

Rhem arched a brow and his snout scrunched up as he tried to imagine such a creature with the description Princess Celestia provided.

“Strange. What became of him?”

She directed her eyes skyward.

“My sister, Luna, and I… we rose up. We couldn’t stand the unrest and chaos any longer. Discord’s torture over the earth ponies, pegusi, and unicorns caused us to seek out a way to put a stop to him. We combined our strengths, and working together, we used the Elements of Harmony to seal Discord in a stone prison.

“Even now, to this day he remains in the royal gardens, as a constant reminder to myself… and to my subjects everywhere of his insanity.”

The Draconian’s admiration for the princess only increased as the tale came to an end. It was quite inspiring to him.

“Maybe… that is what I need to do… Gain allies in Draconia and begin a revolt… It will have to be in secret though.”

A smile tipped the equine’s lips.

“That’s what Luna and I did. We had to meet in secret, the two of us, to think of methods on how to consolidate our power and strike Discord when his guard was down. It turns out, we didn’t really need to. Discord was… arrogant. Overconfident. He never used any flunkies. Never felt he needed to. Luna and I were more than a match for him.

“King Talonblaze, on the other hoof… is a different story.”

“Yes. He is cautious, but he can be very arrogant, especially when it comes to the strength of his warriors.” Dismissing the subject of his king, he dropped down onto his stomach. “Care to tell me about the more pleasant days in Equestria’s history?”

Princess Celestia was more than happy to.

***

King Talonblaze awoke to an uncomfortable throbbing. Apparently, the medicine only made the swelling worse, spreading to his other nostril and plugging it halfway. Groaning, he crawled out of bed and pulled open the door to summon a nearby guard.

“Fedge the nurse dad was ‘ere earlier,” he ordered with a half-growl, then returned to bed.

It did not take long for the nurse that had tended to him earlier to come sauntering in, her hips lightly swaying from side to side with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“You called for me, sir? What seems to be the trouble?” she asked, coming forward to examine him.

The Draconian’s rigidness tightened with a snort.

“Whad does id loog lieg?! Da swelling god worse!”

“What?” The nurse focused on his nose. “Oh, my, my, my. Wonderful. The medicinal juice from the garden plants didn’t work… And this looks far more serious than I thought it would.”

She narrowed her eyes in concentration. This was definitely going to be an issue. How was she to know that the allergy would worsen? She sighed, shaking her head. Perhaps Draconian systems were more different than equines than she had originally anticipated.

“Well! This is going to require a bit more concentrated effort.” She then turned around. “I’ll be right back. I just need to gather some things.”

The mare threw him a smirk and a wink as she trotted towards the door.

“Don’t you go anywhere, now.”

“Lieg I’m really going do do dad…” he said with a roll of his eyes.

The nurse just chuckled, shaking her head as she left. She returned a short while later, carrying a small bag on her back. Instantly approaching the dragon, she narrowed her eyes at the swelling tissue.

“Right. So. What I originally did was I applied an ointment from various plants said to combat swelling,” the nurse relayed, going through her bag. “Now, obviously that didn’t work. Apparently, you might be allergic to some of the plants we used. Though, I’ve no idea.”

She pulled out a syringe.

“In any case, what I have here is something that’s… still experimental. Our doctors and physicians are still developing this. It’s theorized that this may be used to treat life-threatening allergies… but your constitution is tougher than my kind. This might be better for you… but, seeing how we haven’t even perfected it, and we’re still in the process of seeing how it still affects ponies, I’m actually legitimately concerned about what it may cause or do for you.

“Alternatively, I can offer an ice pack, but other than that I’m at a loss for treatment. I’d have to discuss any other treatments with my boss, but this is the only thing I can think of on such short notice.”

“Just gib id do me…” he sighed in a growling tone, anxious to get the swelling down. He hated looking ridiculous, especially in front of others.

The nurse appeared a little surprised, but nodded. She could understand why he wanted it--she really wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to figure anything else out other wise. Dabbing a cotton swab, she rubbed it against one of his arms then held up the syringe to stick him.

The needle snapped in half like a twig upon attempting to pierce his scales. Drawing it back with a blank expression, the earth pony stared in slight bafflement.

Huffing irritably, he grasped onto the scale that had been swabbed and tore it right off. There was a burning pain that followed, but he was tough enough to endure broken bones.

“Dere… Now you gan penedrade my sgin.”

This time, the nurse really did look a little shocked. Sticking him again, even with the shorter needle, she injected the liquid, and removed it practically in one swift motion.

“There.”

“Good. Now les see if dis does da drig. I don’d wand do walg around looging lieg dis. Id’s hideous!”

The scaly beast lowered his head closer to the nurse’s eye level, his muzzle tilted away as he glanced off, looking slightly pouty.

“I have an ice pack,” the nurse offered. “It will at least help with the swelling, though you may have to hold it against your muzzle.”

Turning his head back to her, he stretched out his neck. Their faces were much closer now, only inches apart, but the dragon king only meant to gesture to the pony to put the ice pack on his snout.

The nurse smiled, retrieving an ice pack from her bag and placing it upon his muzzle.

“There you are,” she giggled. “Don’t you look cute with that on your nose!”

Now this befuddled the Draconian. Eyes widening, he stared at the mare in bemusement.

“E… exguse me?”

“I said you looked cute. You know, darling, delightful, endearing. That tiny ice pack on that big snout of yours just looks kind of silly with that baffled expression of yours.” She made a small snorting noise. “It’s actually kind of adorable!”

King Talonblaze was uncertain how to respond to this. He had never been treated this way before…

She must want something from him, he surmised.

“Uh… Alrighd. Whad do you wand?”

“I’m sorry?” she inquired, arching an eyebrow. “I don’t want anything. I was just saying you looked cute… For a dragon, anyway.”

The dour expression made it clear he didn’t believe her.

“No one comblimends a king lieg me unless dey wand someding, or are sugging up!”

The nurse lowered her eyes halfway, chuckling and shaking her head.

“Now what exactly would the king of the Draconians have that I, a mere pony commoner, could possibly want? Though, if I’ve offended my liege, I apologize--‘twas not my intention.”

“I hab much a gommoner gould wand,” he replied with a snort.

“Oh?” She smirked with a slightly teasing expression. “Such as… what?”

“Bower, for one ding,” he said, sinking his scaly brows further.

“Bower…?” the mare repeated, before realization dawned upon her. “Oh, power. What use would power benefit me? I’m a nurse. My job is to help others.”

“Blease. Ebryone wands bower.”

“… I don’t,” she stated softly with a frown.

Lifting his brows, he focused his full attention on the mare curiously.

“Seriously?”

She nodded.

“Ever since I was a young filly, I’ve always loved making ponies feel better. Whether it was nursing wounds, bruises, or sores. Nothing gave me greater pleasure than being able to care for the sick and the weak. It’s… my passion. My calling in life, if you will.”

“Hrmmm…”

King Talonblaze sighed, quite perplexed that she was even sharing something like this with him.

She nodded again, turning her side to him and raising her foreleg to point at her cutie mark.

“This mark here proves it. This is my cutie mark--nearly everypony has one, and it demonstrates my unique special talent--what sets me apart from everypony else. This symbol explains who I am… What I’m meant to be.”

“I see…”

The large male gave a single nod as his eyes traveled to the mark on her flank… then further back to stare at her behind.

She glanced over her shoulder at him with a smile. As she noticed him staring, she narrowed her eyes and gently shook her rear.

“You like what you see?”

Growling softly, he tore his eyes away. He mentally admitted that for a pony, she was quite attractive.

“I mighd.”

The nurse giggled, blushing.

“Oooh? I’m flattered, sir.” She turned to him fully. “Is there anything else you need?”

Exhaling deeply, he returned his vision to the mare.

“An egsdra blanged.”

“An extra blanket? Of course, my liege. I’ll fetch you one right away.” She gathered her things in her bag and left, returning a few minutes later with another blanket, draping it over his body. “There you are.”

Shifting in position slightly to get more comfortable, he nodded once more.

“I don’d wand any oder medig bud you chegging in on me.”

“Any other…?” she parroted, a little surprised. “Very well, I shall inform the doctor, and I’ll be in to check on you in the morning.”

“You bedder. I will be angry if you don’d redurn,” he stated with a mild glare.

The nurse smiled, apparently not believing him, but nodded nevertheless.

“Well, we certainly don’t want that, now do we? What sort of a nurse would I be?” Reaching up, she rubbed his chin. “You just rest that regal head of yours and get some sleep. I’ll be by tomorrow morning.”

The dragon’s eyes went round at the physical contact, having not expected it.

“W… whad was dad aboud?”

She blushed and gazed off aimlessly.

“… Sorry. Force of habit. It’s nothing, don’t… don’t worry about it, Your Highness.” Another smile spread itself across her face and she headed off. “Have a good night.”

Grunting and pressing the ice pack to his nose, the reptile rolled over so his back was facing her. Right now, he was feeling confused, a strange emotion beginning to stir within him.