Growing Up with Scales

Chapters

Safe and Warm
To the Tooth
Simple and Clean
Marking Time
Dragon Study

Safe and Warm

Friendship is Magic: Growing up with Scales
By Winter Quill

--- Safe and Warm ---

After six months of being a dragon, Twilight Sparkle was coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t actually all that bad.

Gems had become an important (and delicious) part of her diet, with each type and even color having its own distinct flavor. She had a journal just for keeping track of them all. She had learned how to breathe fire, though she didn’t always have the best control when she got excited about something she was reading. Her parents had quickly found a fireproofing spell she could use on every book that she read.

Twilight had even discovered just how much she loved being a big sister, even when she had to change Spike’s diapers.

Though not everything that came with being a dragon had been good. Her bed hadn’t lasted more than a week against her new claws—even when they were dulled—and now she slept in a corner of her room wrapped up in blankets. There were always ponies that gave her wary looks every time she went outside, and a few had been outright nasty to her.

It had an effect on her parents as well, even though they tried to hide it. Some of their friends had stopped coming by, and invitations were canceled at the last minute. It had even ruined her father’s birthday dinner, after the restaurant had (politely) kicked them out. They had tried to pass off it as having change their minds, but Twilight understood what had happened. She told herself that it was only temporary, that sooner or later Celestia would find a way to turn her back into a unicorn, but until then she would have to bear it.

And then there was the cold. Twilight just couldn’t handle it anymore. It didn’t matter that she had a body temperature that was twenty degrees higher than the average pony—something she discovered after learning that being a dragon didn’t prevent her from catching the flu—the cold just seemed to sink in all the way to her bones. When Fall came around, she would keep her window open to allow the chilly night air in, and the first snowfall was always an excuse to run around outside, having snowball fights with Shiny and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. She had never really thought about how much of that love came from the thick winter coat she grew every year… until she no longer had it.

The first snowfall had been terrible for her. She had woken up all excited to see the city covered in white, but she hadn’t gotten three steps out the door before she was shivering, the cold pressing down on her from every side. The scarf and hat she was wearing did nothing to help. She wrapped the scarf tight around her neck and shoulders, then pulled her arms against her side. Finally, she had resorted to blowing fire into her cupped palms, which warmed them up but that did nothing for the rest of body.

It hadn’t taken long for her mother to notice and take her back inside. The few minutes out in the snow had left her scales cold to the touch, and Twilight spent the rest of the morning sitting in front of the large fireplace in the main room, just soaking up the flames from only a few inches away.

As the Fall officially became winter, the fireplace eventually became Twilight’s favorite place to sit. It was as old as their tower and big enough to heat the whole of it, and in the depths of winter it often did. She would come from school, or her lessons with the princess, strip off the thick sweater she wore, then curl up in front of the fireplace to do her homework, keeping as close to the fire as she could. She would stay there until bedtime, and by the time Hearth’s Warming had come around she had made a habit of falling asleep next to the flames.

It was the worst when the Canterlot Weather Bureau scheduled a deep cold snap. Even inside the tower Twilight could feel it prickling at her scales, forcing her to do anything she could to stay warm as she studied. She found herself moving closer and closer to the flames in order to get all the warmth she could—

“Twilight, Dear,” her mother said from across the room. “You’re sitting in the fire again.”

Twilight looked up from her book. She noted the flames burning bright around all around her, her tail draped over the burning logs. The flames rolled harmlessly of her body, her lavender scales shining from the glow as the rising heat caused her mane to flutter around her horns.

“Ah! Sorry!” Twilight checked the fireproofing spell on her school book, relieved to see that it was holding steady even while flames licked across the cover. She crawled out of the fire and used a brush to clear the ash and soot from her scales, but the cold returned the moment she was free of their embrace. She quickly wondered if it would be worth getting into trouble just to climb back inside. It had become a habit for her, and there had even been a few nights where she had woken up curled up with the ember of the previous night’s fire.

Her mother gave her a small smile as she rocked Spike in her forelegs. He was half asleep, his head tucked up against her chest, the edge of one of his tiny hooves stuck in his mouth. Twilight thought he was the cutest thing ever. “You need to stay clean,” her mother said, using her magic to pick up the thick stack of papers she was editing.

“I know, Mom. I’ll try.” Twilight opened her text book to where she had left off. There was a test coming up at the start of the week, and that only gave her the weekend to review. She was re-reading everything tonight, and would spend most of tomorrow going over all her notes to make sure she didn’t miss anything. She never did, of course, but that didn’t mean she was going to become lax in her studying.

Suddenly, the front door of the tower burst open, sending it a blast of cold air across the main room. Twilight edged back slightly, allowing the tip of her tail to drop back into the flames even as she looked up at the door.

Her father came in, a huge smile on his face. “You’ll never guess who I ran into at the train station!” He was followed by Shining Armor, his own face beaming. The last time Twilight had gotten to see her big brother was right before he was deployed to the Badlands, and that was almost nine months ago.

“Shiny!” she squealed, dropping her book and rushing towards her brother, almost leaping over her mother to get to him.

Shining Armor turned to look at her, the smile on his face suddenly falling away. His blue eyes opened wide for a moment only to narrow, his mouth pressing into a line. “Dad, lookout!” he said, rushing forward and shoving their father to the side, his horn starting to shine with magic.

Twilight only had a moment to process all of this before she ran snout-first into the familiar rosy glow of her brother’s magic. It stopped her in her tracks even as it wrapped around her, trapping her inside one of his shields. She slid to the bottom of the sphere, her claws pressed up against the field as she looked at her brother.

He looked back at her with a horrible expression on his face. His jaw was clenched tight with a hint of his teeth showing, his ears pinned back and his blue eyes glaring at Twilight like she was some sort of monster. It was an expression she had seen hundreds of times since she had changed, she had learned to ignore it on other ponies, but on her brother? It cut through her like a knife, hurting like nothing she had ever felt before. It was as if her heart was sliced in two.

Both parents reacted at the same time. “What are you doing?” “You put her down right this instant!”

Shining Armor kept looking at her, the anger on his face slowly fading away, his ears twisting forward before his eyes went wide. His mouth opened slightly for a second as he tried to speak. “Twily?” he finally asked, the word almost a whisper.

Twilight burst into tears. She felt the shield pop around her, dropping her to the ground. The moment her feet hit the floor she turned and ran, heading for the only place where she knew she would be safe. She leapt over the couch and dove headfirst into the fireplace, scrambling as far back behind the burning logs as she could.

She was only dimly aware of her parents yelling across the room. She curled herself up into a tight ball and cried,, her back pressed against the soot covered stones, her tears boiled away by the flames.

Twilight was slowly pulled awake by the shivering of her body. The cold air nipped across her scales even as she pressed up against what little heat she could find. She cracked one eye open, not at all surprised to find that she was in the fireplace again. She was covered in a layer of ash, and the remains of that night’s fire still smoldering up against her belly.

She started to crawl out of the fireplace when her eyes focused on the couch. Shining Armor was sprawled out on it, a blanket tucked over his chest. Everything from the night before came back to Twilight, the way he had looked at her, the fear that had been in his eyes. She scrambled back into the fireplace until she was once again pressed up against the far wall, watching and waiting.

There was no more fire to protect her, but that was something that could be fixed. She reached out with her magic, her twin horns glowing as she picked up some logs her field and brought them into the fireplace with her. She quickly stacked them on the ember, blowing in a blast of her own fire to help them light. It was only a small gout, just enough to catch the wood, but no more. Too much of her flame would turn the wood to ash in moments instead of igniting them.

That was when she realized Shining Armor was watching her.

Twilight sank down against the back of the fireplace. Maybe she could make herself as small as possible, just enough until the fire grew large enough to hide her—

“Twily. I’m so, so sorry for what happened,” he said as he slid off the couch. “I didn’t… I just acted on my training, and it was wrong.”

Twilight pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t look away either.

Shining Armor picked up a bowl from beside the couch, using in his magic to move it closer to the fireplace. It was filled with small gems of all sorts of shapes and colors. “Mom says you like these, and you didn’t get any dinner. You can have them if you like.”

Who did he think he was, trying to bribe her with food? She thought it was insulting that anypony would think something that primitive would work to get her to come out. Unfortunately her stomach was in complete disagreement, letting out a rumbling growl that shook her belly.

Twilight’s glared down at her body, then back to the bowl as it came to rest on the edge of the fireplace, almost within reach. It was covered with the rose glow of Shining’s shield, keeping her from just grabbing it with her magic and pulling it to her.

Reluctantly she moved forward, clawing over the logs until she was sitting just inside the fireplace. She reached out with one claw, letting it hover just above the shield, which vanished a moment later. Quickly, her hand shot out and scoop up a number of the gems and shoved them into her mouth. The mix of gems had a weird taste to them, all the different flavors mixing in her mouth and becoming a muddled mess that tasted more like dirt than gems.

A second handful followed, and a third before her stomach finally quieted down. All the while Shining Armor sat watching her from only a few feet away.

Twilight looked at him, her eyes narrowing as she grabbed the bowl and pulled it closer to herself. She could feel the fire growing behind her as the fresh logs started to burn, the heat making her feel a little better. “Why?” she finally asked.

Shining Armor seemed to deflate. “Mom and Dad had told me that you got your cutie mark, and that they adopted our little brother, but they never said anything about what happened to you. If I had known…”

“I’m not a monster,” she finally said.

“No… at least, no more than any other little sister,” he replied with a forced chuckle.

Twilight snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Then why did you treat me like one?”

Shining Armor bit his lip, looking away from her for a few moments before he turned back to face her. “I didn’t think. At all. I just… reacted, like I was trained to react. If I had just stopped for just one moment to think, I would have realized that Mom and Dad would never allow a random dragon in the house. I would have seen it was you and hugged you like you deserved. But I didn’t, I just saw a dragon and reacted like a guard, and I was wrong.”

Her brother looked smaller then she had ever see him, hunched down, head lowered, ears sagging to the side. One of the strongest stallions Twilight had ever known, and now he looked as small as Spike. She didn’t know what to do, he was hurting as much as she was, yet he was the one who had hurt her. She couldn’t just forgive him for that, could she? He treated her like a monster, how could she just forgive that?

Because it was a mistake. A horrible, terrible mistake, but it was just a mistake. It was her brother, they were family, and she loved him even when he was acting stupid.

Twilight crawled out of the fireplace and hugged her big brother tightly around the neck. “I forgive you,” she said.

“Thank you,” he replied, wrapping a leg around her and pulling her tight against him.

They held it for a few moments before she pulled away, discovering an ash image of her face in Shining’s white fur. Blushing, she picked up the brush in her magic and quickly brushed away most of it, then started working on cleaning off her scales.

“I can’t ever do that again. Not to you, not to any creature,” Shining said to himself, watching his sister work, her natural lavender color being revealed from under the gray ash. “It’s early, but want to go to Donut Joe’s?”

Twilight’s eyes light up for a second, before she sighed and returned to brushing off the ash. “No,” she admitted.

“Why not?”

Twilight paused for a moment, then sat down across from her brother, her back to the hot flames of the fire. “Because a lot of ponies treat me like a monster, and I’ve had enough of that today.”

Shining frowned, and reached out with a hoof, placing it gently on her shoulder. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I promise, I’ll protect you from anypony that tries to treat you like that.”

That was the brother that Twilight had always know, the stallion who was always there to protect her, the stallion who would do anything for her. The one stallion she trusted more than any other pony outside of the Princess. She was safe with him, even after what had happened, she knew she was safe with him, and he would always be there for her.

It allowed her to give voice to her deepest fear. “What if I never turn back?” she asked, looking down at her claws, clenching them together for a moment.

“Do you think that’s likely?” he asked.

Twilight looked away. “Princess Celestia is trying to find a way to turn me back, and I was sure she would find it right away, but she hasn’t yet. Last time we talked about it she said she still doesn’t know how I did this to myself. I had thought it would only take a few days, but it’s been half a year and nothing has changed. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a pony again.”

Lifting his hoof, Shining motioned for her to come to his side. She reluctantly did so, not wanting to leave the warmth of the fire, but still pressed up against him. He placed a foreleg across her back, pulling her to his flank. “Whatever happens, you will always be my sister. That won’t change even if you never get turned back. Though I’m sure Celestia will find a way.”

“But what if Princess Celestia never does?”

Shining smiled down at her. “Is it really so bad being a dragon?”

Twilight made a face. “Of course it is! There are so many things I want to do that I can’t until I turn back. I haven’t even made any friends because I want them to know me as a unicorn, not the weird dragon.”

Shining nuzzled the top of her head, discovering that her mane was still filled with ash. “Twilight, you can’t put your life on hold waiting for something that you’re not sure will ever happen. Don’t wait for things to be right, or for them to change. Go and make friends, eat gems, be a dragon. Your friends will be happy for you when you turn back because it doesn’t matter if you have fur or scales, you’re Twilight Sparkle, and that’s what is important.”

“But I’m not supposed to be a dragon,” Twilight replied.

Shining smiled at her. “Maybe not, but you’re still the prettiest dragon I’ve ever seen,” he replied, pleased to see a hint of a blush that colored her scales. “You’re supposed to be you Twilight, nothing else, and you get to decide what that means. Those that really care about you will do so no matter what you are.”

Twilight closed her eyes, considering her older brother’s words. Was he right? Was it up to her to decide who she was, if she was a pony, or a dragon, or just herself? She didn’t know, but it sounded like it should be true.

Shining bent down and gave her another hug. “Whatever happens, I will always be your big brother, and you will be my little sister. Nothing will ever change that.”

She returned the hug, pressing up against him before slowly pulling away. “Even if I’m a big, ugly dragon?”

“Even then. Though I doubt you could ever be ugly,” he replied, using his magic to push some of her mane out of her face.

Twilight laughed and pulled herself out of his grasp. “I’m so glad you’re my brother.”

“I’m glad you’re my sister,” Shining Armor replied.

She looked back at the fire, it was burning hotly now, the flames pushing away the morning chill and warming the tower. It really was her favorite place in the tower, a place where she was safe, held in the hot flames that danced off her scales like water off a fish. If she could, she would stay there, warm and safe in the fire that cut her off from everypony else. Protected from the world and all of those who saw her as a monster, protected… but alone.

But fire wasn’t the only thing that could protect her.

Twilight smiled at her brother as she ran her claws through her mane, shaking out the last of the ash that was still clinging to it. “Why don’t we go get some donuts, just the two of us?”

“I would love that,” he replied. He lowered himself down and motioned for her to climb on his back. She quickly scrambled on, then grabbing her sweater and winter gear, they headed out the door.

Author's Note

Editing on this chapter by Klamnei.

To the Tooth

Friendship is Magic: Growing up with Scales
By Winter Quill

--- To the Tooth ---

Spring brought with it many wonderful things, but by far the best was it was warm enough that Twilight could once again enjoy a nice lunch outside. She could curl up under the large tree behind the school for Gifted Unicorns, the new grown leaves giving the sunlight a slightly green tinge. Unlike the fall before, this time she was joined by her friends.

Sadly, only Lyra and Minuette could be there, as the rest of her friends were occupied with taking a test on the history of magic. The three of them had already completed it the hour before, so now they could enjoy the sunny afternoon. Twilight was a little sad that she couldn’t share the warm spring day with all her friends, but there would be time for that in the future.

For now, the young dragoness sat with her back against the tree, gently rubbing her scales on the bark. Lyra and Minuette were laying on the soft grass next to her. All three of them were holding books in their magic, the remains of their meals spread out in front of them.

Lyra groaned, then slammed her face into her book, the impact surprising Twilight enough to make her drop the piece of amber she had been nibbling on. “Sparkler,” Lyra groaned.

Minuette looked over the top of her book at the aquamarine unicorn. “Sparkler?”

“I couldn’t remember her name during the test!” Lyra’s voice was muffled by her book. “The first pony to study heart songs and the creator of the first spell gems! How could I have forgotten her of all ponies?”

Minuette’s book slowly sank to the ground. “I… I answered Gusty.” A blush crossed over her blue cheeks, turning them lightly purple.

Twilight held back a smile. Sparkler might not have been Clover the Clever or Starswirl the Bearded, but she still was an important pony to the history of early magic. She couldn’t imagine forgetting her name.

Twilight closed her book and reached down to pick up her fallen gem. “It’s okay to miss a question or two. I’m sure you’ll both get high marks.”

“Says the dragon with perfect grades all semester.” Lyra said, gently poking Twilight’s scaly leg. “I think you would shed all your scales if you ever missed a question.”

“And set fire to your schoolwork,” Minuette added.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “My schoolwork is all fireproofed, thank you very much,” she replied with a bit of a smirk.

The mares both giggled. “But you would lose your scales?” the aquamarine unicorn asked.

“They would be everywhere!” Twilight replied with a laugh, taking a bite of her gem.

The moment her fangs closed on it she knew something was wrong. It was harder than the amber she had brought for dessert, a lot harder. It also tasted horrible, bland and bitter without the candy like sweetness of the gem. She bit down harder, feeling the gem start to crack, but at the same time felt a jolt of pain right through her jaw. With a yelp she spat it out, paw pressed against the side of her muzzle.

“Twilight?” said both of her friends at the same time.

She tried to say something, but she couldn’t form any words, pressing her paw firmly against her cheek. The pain was already fading to a dull ache, but it still hurt. Instead she searched the grass for her gem, finding it just out of reach. Closer to her was the river rock she had bitten into, a fresh crack running across the gray surface.

Minuette was on her hooves, moving up closer to Twilight. “Let me see.”

She didn’t protest, opening her mouth so her friend could look in. The unicorn’s horn flared with light as she peered into Twilight’s wide jaws. Lyra had come up behind her, looking over Minuette’s head to watch.

Minuette shifted her head side to side a few times before pulling back away. “You chipped one of your fangs,” she stated.

Twilight couldn’t help but probe at it with the edge of her tongue, resulting in another jolt of pain running down her jaw.

“I remember once seeing a potion for fixing teeth,” Lyra said, rubbing her chin with her hoof. “I just have to remember where I saw it,”

Minuette seemed to think for a moment before nodding, her mane bouncing across her horn as she did so. “You’re coming home with me tonight. My parents are both dentists, they will know what to do.”

Unable to help herself, Twilight poked at the damaged tooth again and winced once more. “Are you sure? I’m not sure my parents would like that.”

“I’m sure. They would be happy to help, and Mom treats more than just ponies,” she replied.

Twilight chewed on the edge of her lip as she considered the offer. Her family had been going to the same dentist for as long as she could remember, but she didn’t know if the stallion would treat non-ponies, and this wasn’t the right time to find out. If Minuette’s parents knew how to treat her, it made sense to go see them right away instead of waiting.

“Okay, I’ll see your parents,” she said, just as the bell rang for the end of the lunch period.

The three of them quickly gathered up their books and the remains of their lunches before hurrying back to the school. There were still three more classes before school was out, and she wasn’t going to miss them just because of a little pain in her tooth.

* * *

In the months since Twilight and Minuette had become friends, the young dragoness had never had the opportunity to visit her friend’s home. She had expected they would be living somewhere near the palace; it never crossed her mind that they lived in the lower wards, down in some of the oldest parts of Canterlot.

“We’ll take the back way in,” Minuette said, turning down an alleyway. Twilight followed after her, looking up at the narrow building that her friend lived in. It was an old brick building with a number of cracks and repairs over the years. It looked like every window was at a slightly different angle to each other, and one corner had at one point been raised up to try and keep it level. There were some newer bricks on one side of the building that made the archway of the door while a couple of small openings under the street level had been filled with stones and mortar. There was a dentist office on the ground floor, the familiar sign of a large tooth hanging over the main door.

Twilight was no expert on architecture, but she guessed the building was a few centuries old; probably built after the Great Canterlot Earthquake.

Around the back of the building was a narrow staircase up to the second floor. The door at the top opened with a quick glow of Minuette’s field right as they reached it. “Mom, Dad, I’m home!” she called out as they walked into a well appointed kitchen. “And I brought Twilight Sparkle!”

A moment later, a sky blue earth pony stallion came into the kitchen. He was wearing a white smock and a pair of thick glasses that pinched at his muzzle, and his short pink mane was trimmed close to his neck, keeping it neat and clean. “Your mother is downstairs, but she’ll be up soon,” he said, then his eyes drifted up to Twilight, “Oh, Miss Sparkle! It’s a pleasure to finally get to meet you in the flesh… er scales,” he said, offering out a hoof.

Twilight reached out and pressed her closed fist against the proffered hoof. “It’s nice to meet you, erm...“ she paused, allowing his to fill in the name.

“Oh, I’m Archwire,” he said with a smile as he pulled his hoof back. “I think I met your parents a few months ago. Twilight Velvet and Night Light, right?”

Twilight gave him a smile. “That’s right,” she replied, her tongue brushing up against her cracked tooth, causing her to wince from the jolt of pain.

Archwire frowned, taking a step closer to the lavender dragoness. “Are you alright?”

“She chipped a tooth,” Minuette explained.

Archwire rolled his eyes and glanced to his daughter. “Oh, I see how it is. We only get to meet your friends when they need dental work? Do we embarrass you that much?”

“Daaaaad,” the filly said in the way that only a teenager could.

He chuckled softly then turned back to Twilight. “Okay, open up. Let me see what happened.”

Twilight opened her mouth, leaning slightly forward as she did so. Suddenly her mind jumped to the image of her sneezing and sending a blast of fire right into the stallion’s face, and a moment later she felt a tickle in her nose. She held her breath, trying to calm the growing heat she felt in the back of her throat as Archwire inspected her teeth.

“You have a chip on the side of your lower left fang,” he said, stepping away from her. “How often do you brush?”

She coughed into her fist, sending out a small puff of purple tinged smoke. “Twice a day, and I floss, too!” she said with a touch of pride. If anything fingers made flossing easier than it had been with magic.

“You would be the first who has,” he said with a small laugh. “Let’s get you downstairs so Silver Crown can have a look at that. She should have something to help fix it for you,” he said, motioning for her to follow him as he walked out of the kitchen.

They moved through a rather well-furnished front room to a large staircase that went in both directions. “How did you break your tooth?” Archwire asked as they started down.

“I tried to eat a stone that I thought was a gem,” she said, but then stopped when saw the confusion on the stallion’s face. “Dragons eat gems. I dropped the one I was eating and picked up the wrong one by mistake.”

Archwire paused halfway down the stairs, turning his head to look back at her. “You eat gems? Does that include diamonds?” he asked, glancing back to his daughter for confirmation, and she responded with a quick nod.

“Yeah, but I don’t really like them. They taste like ice,” Twilight said, sticking out her tongue.

Archwire’s ears twitched slightly as he cocked his head to the side. “Really,” he said before continuing down.

Twilight was sure that there was something on the stallion’s mind, but she wasn’t sure what it could be. She glanced at Minuette, who narrowed her eyes as she watched her father.

“Silver Crown! We have a special last minute client,” Archwire called out as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

A few moments later a black unicorn mare trotted out of the side room. Much like her husband, she was wearing the familiar white smock of a dentist. There was a clipboard in floating next to her, held in her dark green magic. “What sort of special client?” she asked, her eyes flicking down to look at Twilight.

The two of them looked at each other for a few moments before Silver Crownsmiled. “Oh, you must be Minuette’s dragon friend!”

A blush formed on Twilight’s face. “I chipped a fang.” she admitted.

“Oh? A dragon chipped a fang? Well, come along and we’ll see what needs to be done,” Silver Crown turned and headed back into the office, her silver tail flowing in her wake. A moment later, her husband moved up and quickly whispered something to the mare.

The office was like any other dentist office Twilight had seen: A large chair standing in the center of the a small room, equipment hanging from the ceiling, and couple of tables laid out next to the chair.

Silver Crown walked around the chair. “Jump on up and we’ll take a look,” she said.

Twilight set her bag down and climbed up onto the chair. Laying down on her back, she quickly discovered that it wasn’t exactly comfortable for her. There was a depression in the chair for a pony’s dock, but it was too small for her own tail. She squirmed a little bit, trying to get her thick tail tucked between her legs. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it worked.

The two dentists shared a few more quiet words, then Silver Crown pulled a chair over and sat down. “Can you open wide for me?”

Twilight opened her mouth as wide as she could, which was far wider than any pony. Her lips pulled back to reveal all of her intimidating teeth, as well as giving every pony a view right down her throat.

Silver Crown’s eyebrows rose up into her mane. “Well, that will make it easier,” she said as she pulled a mask over her face. Archwire pulled over a second chair and sat down, a clipboard held in his hoofs and a quill in his mouth.

Silver Crown quickly peered into Twilight’s mouth, then picked up a tool in her magic. She used it to check Twilight’s teeth in a number of different places. Every now and then Silver Crown would say something, and Archwire would quickly write it down. Twilight watched all of this out of the corner of her eye, wondering why they were focused on everything but her chipped tooth.

Finally, Silver Crown pushed back from the chair. “The good news is, a standard dental potion should be enough to fix the damage.”

Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I guess Lyra was right.”

“I won’t tell her if you don’t,” Minuette replied.

The fillies shared a laugh as Silver Crown slightly shook her head. “That’s the good news, but there is bad news as well. You eat diamonds, correct?”

Twilight sat up, worried about why both of them had asked her that question. “I can eat diamonds, but I don’t really like them.”

The two dentists shared a look before Archwire wrote something down. “If you can eat something as hard as diamonds, then you shouldn’t have chipped your tooth on an everyday rock,” Silver Crown said. “I’m also seeing some bleeding in your gums and possible cracks in two other fangs.”

This was the last thing the dragoness had expected to hear. She had always taken good care of her teeth, and never even had a cavity when she was a pony, why would being a dragon change that?

“Now, Twilight, be honest,” the mare said. “Other then gems, what do you eat?”

That was not what Twilight had thought the next question would be. “Eat? I… well I eat the same as anypony. Other then the gems, of course. Dragons need to eat gems.”

“So just fruits and vegetables?” Archwire asked, putting his clipboard aside so he could walk over and start rummaging through one of the cupboards.

Twilight nodded. “Do hayburgers and fries count?”

“Yes, they do,” Silver Crown replied. “I think you’re missing something important in your diet, and you’re doing damage to your teeth and gums without it. It’s the same way minotaur’s develop scurvy if they don’t get vitamin C.”

Her eyes went wide and she sat up on the chair. “I have dragon scurvy?!”

“It’s possible.”Silver Crown said as Archwire pulled out a green potion bottle from the cupboard. Silver Crown took it and floated it over to Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes flicked between the two adults. “But I eat lots of fruit! Especially oranges!” she protested.

“It’s not fruit that’s missing from your diet, dear,” Silver Crown replied.

“Then what do I need to eat?”

Silver Crown sighed and shook her head. “Twilight, I don’t know for certain what dragons are supposed to eat, but your teeth say you’re an omnivore, and that means meat. You probably don’t need it all the time if you’re just now having issues, but I’d guess a couple times a week at the least.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. Meat? She was supposed to eat meat? She knew some of the fancy restaurants her parents went to had meat, and she had gotten to eat some fish years before when they visited Las Pegasus, but having it as a regular part of her diet, could that be right?

Of course it wasn’t as if she knew everything there was about being a dragon. There were so few books on them, so she had to learn everything on her own. Most ponies had never even met a dragon before, so they only knew what they had read in fiction. The only pony who had any really experience with her kind was Princess Celestia.

Silver Crown held the bottle in her magic, the potion inside starting to glow a soft green. “Eat a big dinner, then drink this before bed. It will repair the chip on your fang and the cracks I saw. You’re mouth will taste horrible when you wake up in the morning, but that’s normal.”

Twilight took the bottle. “Thank you.”

Archwire took a paper off his clipboard, quickly folding it with his hooves and offering it to Twilight. “And take this to you parents. It will tell them what we found.”

She took it from him, holding it in her other hand. She looked down at it, not sure what her parents would say when she told them that she might have to start eating meat. She just hoped that fish would be enough for her health, fish was easy enough to get in Canterlot, but the other kinds of meat were less so.

Twilight slid off the chair, picking up her bag and putting the potion and the note inside it. “I will make sure they get it.”

Both of the adults smiled. “We’re happy to help any of Minnie’s friends when they have an emergency,” Silver Crown said, mussing Minuette’s mane with her hoof. The filly had been standing at the door to the office, watching everything that had happened. She pushed the hoof a way and shot her mother a dirty look, but didn’t say anything.

“We would like to see you again in a few months so we can see how your teeth are doing,” Archwire added.

Twilight returned the smile. “I’ll ask my parents,” she told them, but sure that her parents wouldn’t mind. The stallion then ushered her and Minuette out of the office and back upstairs, but she only stayed a little bit longer before she left for home.

It felt weird walking back through the streets of Canterlot, climbing up through the city to the upper wards and the palace. She felt different, but she couldn’t put words to how she was different. Nothing was different about her, she was still the same dragoness she had been for the last nine months. Changing her diet didn’t change who she was!

She couldn’t help but wonder how much meat she should be eating. Was it at every meal, or she have a little bit once or twice a week? It was frustrating being the only dragon in Canterlot. Princess Celestia was her second best choice, but even she had admitted she didn’t know much about dragons.

It was hard to find the answers when you didn’t even know what questions to ask. She couldn’t help wondering what other surprises her new species would have in store for her.

Author's Note

Editing on this chapter by Klamnei.

It seems likely that both Minotaurs and Centaurs would have the same broken gene that prevents humans (and related primates) from synthesizing Vitamin C.

Simple and Clean

Friendship is Magic: Growing up with Scales
By Winter Quill

--- Simple and Clean ---

Twilight Sparkle dug her claws against the scales on her side, trying to scratch a deep-seated itch that had rooted itself seemingly in the scales themselves. It had been a growing problem for the last few weeks, ever since summer proper had arrived and brought the summer heat with it. It wasn’t new, she had been getting the small itches now and then for months, but lately it was getting strong enough that it was starting to drive her to distraction.

Even worse, all her scratching was causing the skin under the scales to swell and become irritated, lifting the scales away from their neighbors. It gave the scales the texture of small pebbles that just made the itching worse. She had found herself trying to pick at them, like somehow ripping off the scales would take the itch with it. It was stupid, the itch was on the skin under the scales, she just had to reach it!

“Twilight?”

Grunting, the young dragoness clenched her teeth and kept digging at the itch on her side, trying to force the tips of her claws down between the scales. Her claws were supposed to be tiny and dainty, but today they felt absolutely huge.

“Twilight, are you paying attention?”

Finally, with a twist of her fingers, she was able to get the point of one claw through the small gap, lifting up one of the scales and allowing her to finally get to the inflamed skin. It was a tiny little scratch, but it felt so good to finally get at the itch itself and not just the scales over it. Letting out a sigh, she slumped slightly in her chair as she scratched the one small spot.

“Twilight, are you feeling okay?”

The words finally managed to work their way through the itch and into Twilight’s mind, causing her head to snap up as she yanked her claws away from her side, her other arm coming down to try and cover the itchy scales. “I’m sorry Princess Celestia, I’m just…” she frowned, unable to think of a way to describe it without embarrassing herself.

The princess walked across the tea room they were seated in, leaving behind the chalkboard covered with the notes for their lesson. She had a look of concern on her face. “Please, allow me to take a look?”

Her first instinct was to refuse to show her, but this was Princess Celestia, she couldn’t just tell her no. Especially not after losing focus in the middle of her private lesson. “It’s really itchy,” she finally admitted, lifting up her arm to reveal where she had been scratching. The lavender scales were covered in small gouges from her claws, her skin—which was very light lavender—was visible in the gap she had made between the scales. One scale was lifted slightly from the irritated skin under it, which was a reddish blue color and seemed to shine from the sunlight coming in through the large open windows.

The princess leaned in, taking a closer look at the irritated areas. “I’ve seen this before,” she said, gently touching the area with the glow of her magic, causing Twilight to wince and pull back. “I’m sorry,” she added.

“It’s okay, Princess,” Twilight replied, putting her arm down to cover it again. “It just itches really bad.”

“I would imagine so,” the mare said, her eyes slightly unfocused as she looked up at the ceiling, then a moment later they snapped back to look at Twilight. “I believe I know what this is. If you will excuse me for a moment?”

She nodded.

With a flash of yellow and the sound of inrushing air, Princess Celestia teleported away. Twilight wanted to go back to scratching at the itch, but forced herself not to. Instead she tried to focus on the equations written on the chalkboard in Celestia’s looping horn-writing. Unfortunately, they were only half-finished and she had missed the explanation of what they were for. She could try to work it out herself, but the moment she tried, her hand started creeping back up to scratch even more.

Instead she forced herself to turn her attention to the open windows, slipping off the plush chair to go stand in front of them. The tea room was in one of the many towers of the royal palace, providing a view out over Canterlot and the mountain. From there she could see all the way down into the lowest wards of the city, near the base of the mountain where everything was centuries old.

Thanks to her draconic vision, she was able to see as if everything was right in front of her. It allowed her to make out all the little details, like how the oldest buildings had very few windows, or the ways the streets followed the contours of the mountain instead of the rigid grid the upper city had. One thing she had never noticed before was that there was a tall chimney rising up from the center most building of every small street, taller than every other chimney around them. They were almost all closed up, and many were falling into disrepair, but they stood out for how regular they were.

“Maybe it’s an old heating system?” Twilight asked herself, only to be interrupted by a gust of displaced air as Celestia teleported back into the room.

She spun around and rushed back to the princess as she settled back down onto her chair. Celestia was holding an old book in her field, the pages roughly cut and stained with age, as well as covered with a layer of dust. There was no writing on the outside of the book, but there was a deep indentation on the cover. “I’m sorry for taking so long, Twilight. This wasn’t with the rest.”

“What is that?” Twilight asked, returning to her own seat.

“My diary,” Celestia replied as she opened the book, dust billowing off from the pages. “This one covers the spring and summer of 437.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, her ears twisting in excitement. That was over five hundred years old!

“I had it propping up a table in the old new reading room,” the princess said with a soft chuckle as she flipped through the pages. “I must have done that a century ago. I always say it’s only for a few days, but then something happens and I don’t even go into the room for the next decade,” she mused to herself.

Twilight had no idea how to respond to that.

Dust flew from the pages as Celestia flipped through them, only touching the paper with the shine of her magic. She finally stopped and let out a pleased sound. “Here it is! General Nova—he was a dragon that was helping us during the second expansion—he had the same thing. He called it a stone scale, and said it was because he wasn’t able to properly bathe.”

“I bathe!” Twilight protested, crossing her arms over her chest and rising up to her full height… which didn’t look at all intimidating. “I take a bath every morning, and I scrub everywhere with soap.”

Celestia just smiled at her. “Not that kind of bath, Twilight. He said that dragons have natural oils that help keep their scales pliable, but they build up in certain places, causing stone scales like you have. These oils can’t be washed off with normal water.”

Slowly, Twilight looked down at the scales on her arm. She had noticed that there was always a little bit of an oily shine to them, but it never seemed to come off. She had always assumed that it was just a natural part of being a dragon, just like the oils a pegasus had to take care of their feathers. “What do I need to do?”

“At the time he had to settle for cleaning himself with dry sulfur, but he said that a dip in lava was the best way to clean his scales,” Celestia said, gently closing the diary.

“Lava?” Twilight asked, still looking down at the scales on her arms. She knew she could withstand being in the fire, but cleaning herself in lava?

“The royal spas should be able to provide you with sulfur that you can use to help clean yourself, but it will take some time for them to collect it,” the princess said, a soft chuckle escaping from her as she set the book aside. A moment later the golden glow of her field reached out to touch Twilight’s chin, lifting it until they were looking at each other. “For now, how would you like to go with me on a little trip tomorrow?”

* * *

What Celestia had called a little trip had required them to leave Canterlot just as soon as the sun was over the horizon, leading to a long ride in a sky chariot until they were deep into the Badlands. It was just before noon when they finally reached their destination.

Which was how Twilight came to be standing on the edge of a large pool of lava, looking down at the churning surface as it bubbled only a few feet below her toes. The air around her was boiling hot, but it didn’t bother her at all, only feeling just a little bit warmer than normal. The smell of sulfur was heavy in the air, making the whole place smell like a box of matches being lit all at once. It stuck to her tongue and the roof of her mouth, and tasted oddly pleasant, like a flavored salt.

This wasn’t a place for ponies. She doubted there was a unicorn alive that could stand as close to the lava as she was and not be injured from the heat. Only a dragon should have been able to withstand it.

“I assure you Twilight, it’s completely safe,” Princess Celestia said from beside her. The alicorn had forgone her usual regalia, leaving her in just her fur and feathers. Her mane had been pulled back into a ponytail, though it still fluttered against her neck. It wasn’t a look that Twilight had seen before.

Twilight couldn’t help but rub the back of her neck. She trusted the princess almost as much as she trusted her own mother, but this was lava! Everything she knew said that trying to swim in it was a bad idea, yet they had come here to do just that. She truly wanted to believe her mentor, but it was still a leap of faith.

Celestia glanced down at her, then let out a soft laugh. “You will be fine,” she insisted.

“But what about you?” Twilight replied, trying to deflect her worry as she tapped the tips of her claws together. “Wouldn’t you be hurt?”

She shook her head. “Compared to the sun, this could hardly be considered warm. I will be just fine,” she said, then smiled at the young dragoness. “Shall I show you?”

Twilight considered it for a few moments. She wanted to be brave, and there was a part of her that was urging her to drive right in, but she needed more. “Please?”

Unfurling one wing, the princess brought it down to wrap around Twilight. “Very well, I will show you that it’s safe.”

“Thank you,” she replied, letting out a sigh of relief.

Celestia smiled, a familiar twinkle dancing in her violet eyes. A twinkle that the dragoness had seen a few times over the past year, and each time it was right before she pranked somepony. Twilight tried to push away from the wing, but before she could move a foreleg was wrapped around her, pulling her tightly against Celestia’s side. Then with a kick of her powerful legs, the princess leapt out over the lava, pulling Twilight along with her.

There was just enough time for Twilight to cry out in surprise before they slammed into the lava pool. The surface was firm, without the give that water had. Instead it flowed, seemed to slide around the two of them, enveloping their bodies as they vanished below the surface. It was the hottest thing she had ever felt, not even her own flames could come close, yet it didn’t burn her. She could feel the heat radiating down through her body, all the way to the core of her being. It was like she had spent her whole life freezing cold, and this was the very first time she had ever been truly warm.

Celestia’s legs kicked at the lava, forcing the pair of them back towards the surface. The molten rock pulled back against them, trying to keep them inside, but it wasn’t strong enough to stop them from breaking through the surface. Once at the surface, Celestia finally released her hold on Twilight, allowing the dragoness to slip away from the mare.

Twilight shook her head, feeling the mane flopping against her horns. The hair had become matted with the lava, which was quickly cooling off in the air, yet her mane hadn’t even been singed. She ran her claws over her face, easily wiping away a thin layer of the goopy lava, then turned to glare at her mentor.

The princess was doing a backstroke, swimming as easily as she would in water. Every now and then the edge of her wings would peek up from under the lava before vanishing back below. They must have been working hard under the surface to help her move so effortlessly.

It wasn’t that easy for Twilight. The lava was thick and viscous, sucking at her arms as she pulled them free. It was thicker than she had ever imagined, yet at the same time was nothing like she had expected it to be. When Princess Celestia had told her that they would be going for a swim in lava, her mind had gone right to honey, but it really wasn’t like that at all. It didn’t really stick to her, instead just sliding off her lavender scales, leaving them shining. Even her hair wasn’t a problem, as a quick brush with her claws dislodged the lava that was solidifying in it.

Celestia came back around to her, having finished a lap around the oddly shaped pool. “Enjoying yourself?” she asked, rolling over to rest on her stomach. The lava didn’t seem to be touching her at all, leaving her white fur pristine. Even her mane was still fluttering against the surface, though the hair tie she had used was gone, probably burning up the instant they had jumped in.

“It’s not what I had expected,” she replied, dipping her hand under the surface to pull up a clawful of the lava, watching the thick globs dropping down between her fingers. “It’s really nice though,” she added after a few more moments of thought.

The princess smiled. “Then swim around as much as you like, and make sure to give your scales a good scrubbing,” she said, lifting one wing out of the lava to brush it over Twilight’s head.

Twilight blushed a little at the touch, then kicked her feet in an attempt to swim. It took a lot of effort to move through the lava, each stroke being a workout all its own. Yet soon enough she found herself moving gracefully in it, like her body knew just the right amount of force to use to make it feel natural.

She swam across the lava pool, and then back to where they had started, really starting to enjoy herself. When she reached the side of the pool, she noticed a small protrusion of rock jutting out over the lava. Without thinking about it, she quickly scrambled out of the lava and climbed up over the black rocks towards the point. Even with how hot the air was, she found it down right cold the moment she was free of the lava. Not enough to cause her to shiver, but it was still a bit of a shock.

Twilight hurried up onto the protrusion and started running along it. She picked up speed and leapt into the air, doing a flip before diving claws first into the lava. The surface parted for her, allowing her to sink down deep into the pool, the temperature increasing the deeper she got. Her descent slowed and then came to a stop, leaving her floating in the lava as the air that she had brought down with her bubbled up towards the surface.

It felt good, warm and safe, like she was enveloped in the most caring of hooves. A small part of her wondered if that was how being in an egg felt, and after a few seconds she decided it must have been.

She stayed there until her lungs started to protest, then kicked her legs, propelling herself up towards the surface. Without thinking about it, she opened her eyes. The inner eyelid was still tightly closed, protecting her eyes proper and making everything slightly blurry. Not that there was anything for her to see other than the color of the lava pool. It was filled with bright oranges all the way to dark reds, including some darker shades of red that she knew ponies couldn’t see.

As she broke the surface, she opened her mouth and allowed the lava to flow down over her teeth and tongue. It tasted like normal rocks—bland—but with sulfur mixed in. She squirted it out of her mouth in a thick stream, letting it splatter onto the surface of the pool. That was followed a moment later by her belching out a gout of purple flame.

“Excuse me,” she said, covering her muzzle with one of her hands.

Celestia was only a few feet away, her wings spread out wide to rest against the surface, allowing her to float on it with almost no effort at all. “Enjoying yourself?” she asked, a smile on her face.

“I am,” she replied, making her way over to the princess. “Thank you for bringing me.”

“It’s the least I could do for my favorite student,” Celestia replied, leaning down to nuzzle the young dragoness. “It’s not often I get a chance to just relax where I know no pony could bother me. It’s nice to share this with someone again.” Her smile grew weaker, and she quickly turned away from Twilight, looking off into the distance.

That lasted a few moments before she turned back to face Twilight, her smile returning as quickly as it had vanished. “Now, how about we get you all scrubbed up so you won’t have any more stone scales?”

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Twilight declared. She dove back down under the lava and swam in a random direction, her short legs kicking hard to push her along.

Celestia watched her go, shaking her head and laughing before finally giving chase.

Author's Note

Editing on this chapter by Klamnei.

Marking Time

Friendship is Magic: Growing up with Scales
By Winter Quill

--- Marking Time ---

Twilight was almost skipping as she made her way home, the trips of her claws tapping against the cobblestones with each step she took. There were only a few weeks left of school before summer break came. It wasn’t something she normally cared about, but the princess had just told her that they would have their private lessons four days a week during the break, which gave her something to look forward to while away from school.

Until then, there was still finals to look forward to. That only applied to some of her classes, but she was eager to start studying for them. There was always something exciting about finals, being able to put all she had learned during the past semester to the test, making sure she really did know and understand what she had learned, and pushing herself to do better than she had at the end of last semester.

Her goal was to finally be able to get a perfect score on every one of her finals, something she hadn’t been able to do just yet. There was always something she hadn’t quite understood, a fact that hadn’t made its way into her notes, or sometimes she had simply made a mistake in transcribing the spell arrays onto parchment. It added up to only a clawful of missed questions every year, but she had a good feeling about this time!

Cadence was waiting at the tower she got home, the teenage alicorn was laying on the grass under the oak tree that was partially grown over the old stone wall. She was half reading a book and half keeping an eye on Spike. The colt was busy playing in the short grass, chasing the bugs that were hiding among the blades. He still hadn’t quite mastered walking just yet, sometimes tripping over his hooves, but only occasionally falling.

“Hello, Cadence,” Twilight called out as she started up the path from the cobblestone street.

The mare looked up from her reading, smiling as she saw the young dragoness. Cadence was at that awkward stage between being a filly and being a mare, which left her all lanky in the legs and neck. “Hey Twilight, how was your session with Celestia?” she asked.

Twilight beamed as she walked over towards the tree, allowing her satchel to slip from her shoulders as she did. “She gave me a new spell to learn. It will let me send messages to her using my flame. She wants me to study it for the next few days, but not to try to cast it until our next lesson,” she said as she dropped down onto the grass.

A moment later Spike trundled up to her, making a sound that could have almost been her name. He was rushing towards being a year old, and was already showing himself to be smart as his siblings, already having a vocabulary of a few words. “Hey Spike, having fun?” she asked, reaching down to run the tips of her claws through his mane.

He gave a quick nod, then spotted something, his head snapping before he hurried off through the grass, bounding along as fast as his short legs could carry him.

“That sounds like a very interesting spell, why don’t you explain it to me?” Cadence asked, setting her book down and smiling at Twilight. While officially she was Spike’s foalsitter, she always made time for Twilight as well. Making sure she never felt left out, but at the same time giving her the space she needed for her school work, or just to have some time to herself.

Pulling her bag over, Twilight used her claws to undo the buckle and started to dig through it, searching for the scroll Celestia had given her. Of course, it had fallen all the way to the bottom, so she had to pull out her school books to reach it. They had been kept in pristine shape throughout the year—without even a single scuff or bent corner—which made the battered textbook stand out even more as she took it out of the bag.

She froze the moment she pulled out the book, then hurriedly tried to shove it back into her bag without Cadence seeing it. While it was a textbook for one of her classes, it wasn’t her book. Her copy of the book was sitting on the top of stack, looking just as well cared for as all her others. This book was from one of the other ponies from her class, probably Ruby Facet as he had been sitting next to her in the study hall. Somehow, without even thinking about it or even noticing what she had done, she had picked up his book along with her own.

It was easy to say that it was an accident, but accidents weren’t regular events, and this was something that just kept happening. It seemed like not a week would go past without her accidently taking home a book that didn’t belong to her. Most of the time it was school books, but twice she had discovered something from Celestia’s personal library that she had taken without even thinking about it. She would have to return it in the morning, no matter how much she didn’t want to.

So far, no pony had caught her doing it, usually she placed the school books back in the common area of the school, or back into the classroom. It was harder to slip the books back into the princess’s library, but she had managed to do so before. She knew that sooner or later though her sticky claws were going to get her in trouble, but she didn’t know what to do about it.

“Twilight?” Cadence asked, breaking the young dragoness out of her thoughts.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something… about school,” she replied, pushing the stolen book back to the bottom of her bag and finally grabbing onto the scroll. She pulled it free and set her bag aside, offering out the scroll to the teenager. “Here’s the spell.”

The alicorn unfolded her wing, reaching out for it with her feathers, only to have Twilight pull it away. “Use your field,” she lightly scolded the mare.

Cadence pink cheeks turned flush as a flash of embarrassment crossed her face. “You’re not,” she mumbled.

It hadn’t been hard for Twilight to spot that Cadence had been reluctant to use her magic. She hadn’t thought much about it until she had accidentally overheard a conversation between her mentor and the young alicorn. It had been a shock to learn that Cadence had actually been born a pegasus, and had only become an alicorn a few months before Twilight had been turned into a dragon. Twilight had never expected to find anypony who had gone through the same thing she had, and it had quickly become a way for the two of them to bond. After that, she had decided she was going to help the alicorn master her own magic.

Allowing the magic to flow through her own twin horns, Twilight let go of the scroll, leaving it to float in the soft lavender glow of her field. Reluctantly, a soft blue glow started to collect around Cadence’s horn, which slowly reached out to grasp at the scroll. The edges of the field were uncertain, and were somewhat wispy, but it would be enough to hold something as light as a scroll.

As the blue glow wrapped around the scroll, Twilight pulled hers away until it was being held completely in Cadence’s field. It floated back towards the mare, slowly unrolling in front of her. Her eyes started to scan over the parchment, moving over the lines of text and the complex runes inscribed for the spell itself. As she did, the look on her face went from one of curiosity to confusion.

Leaving her bag, Twilight moved around to sit beside Cadence, where she could see the scroll herself. At the same moment Spike went rushing by the pair as fast as his short legs could carry him, chasing after some bug that was hopping through the grass. He was laughing happily and babbling at the same time.

“Tell me about it?” Cadence asked.

Smiling, she reached out the tip of one claw to point at the start of the runes on the parchment. “This part means that I would be casting the spell on myself, and the next will allow it to be self-powered if I want it to be,” she explained, noticing her brother out of the corner of her eye as he leapt out to try to catch the bug with his forehooves.

It was impossible to ignore the moment his hooves hit the ground, as the ground itself seemed to hit back. It rolled upwards under the colt and tossed him into the air as dirt and rocks were thrown across the lawn. The whole yard was undulating, the ground rolling like ripples in a pond even as the grass was torn asunder by the force. Even the tree they had been sitting under was starting to sway, making the leaves rustle and the stones of the fence creak in protest. The only other sound was a low rumbling that seemed to rise up from the ground itself.

Twilight moved in an instant, leaping forward to catch Spike before he could hit the ground, even as the ground seemed to fall out from under her. Pulling her little brother tightly against her chest, she tumbled forward towards the ground that seemed further away than it had any right to be. She twisted her body, putting herself between Spike and the ground. She braced herself for the impact only to feel hooves wrapping around her body as her fall suddenly stopped.

The rumbling lasted a few more moments before finally falling into silence, the whole thing having lasted only a few seconds. As gentle as a feather, Cadence lowered them back to the ground as Spike started to cry, pressing his face tightly up against Twilight's scales. Twilight tried to reassure him, stroking her palm along his back and rocking him gently in her arms. “It’s okay Spike, you’re okay.”

Finally, she looked up at the yard, shocked to see the state it was in. A large cone of dirt had erupted out from the grass, rising up as tall as a pony with a rock the size of Spike crowning the top of it. The previously flat grass was now frozen in waves radiating out from the pile, while other parts of the ground had been ripped open in narrow arches that seemed to be nearly as deep as she was tall.

“What happened?” Cadence asked, looking out over the damaged yard. Her wings fluffed out across her back, ears twitching and her tail flicking widely behind her. She was shifting her weight from hoof to hoof, like the ground was about to give way under her if she stayed in one place too long.

Twilight was still rocking her brother even as she realized that he needed to be changed. “He had a magic surge,” she explained. Spike was still whimpering against her, but the tears had already dried. Magical surges were something that all unicorns had to deal with when they were young, but she had never expected that an earth pony could have a surge, but Spike had quickly proved that wrong. It had been months since the last time he had one, and was stronger than any of the others had been.

Small rivulets of dirt were rolling down the huge pile, with the occasional rock following suit. The massive rock itself was sinking even as she watched, the dirt spreading out under it like dough. Cadence took a step forward, putting her hoof on the edge of the pile, sinking into the dirt up to her fetlocks.

“Go get Spike changed, I’ll take care of this,” Cadence ordered, moving to put herself between them and the pile.

Twilight nodded, and holding Spike close she hurried back into the tower. The ripples in the grass didn’t quite reach the base of the structure itself. As surprising as it was, it wasn’t as strong as an earthquake, it was just some displaced dirt. The tower was fine, not a stone or painting out of place.

She took her time to get Spike changed, making sure he was completely clean and dry before putting a fresh diaper on him. The combination of her field and claws made it easy for her, and kept her from touching anything unpleasant—though she still washed up when she was done.

After that was done, she carried Spike to the kitchen, filling one of the glasses with water and casting a small spell on it to keep it from spilling. Her little brother hooked his fetlock through the handle and pulled it to his lips, drinking it all as noisily as possible, followed by a belch and a grin.

She fluffed his mane with her claws as she put the cup away, then the pair of them headed back outside.

Cadence had her forehooves on the dirt pile, pushing down against it with all her might, wings fanned out and her hooves almost glowing through the dirt that covered them. The dirt itself was sinking back into the ground even as she watched. Even the ripples in the grass were slowly flattening out, returning to the way they had been before. It must have been taking all of the teenage alicorn’s strength, as a layer of lather was coating her breast and neck.

Then she reared back and slammed her hooves right onto the large rock, forcing it, and the last of the dirk pile, back into the earth. After that she stood in place, her eyes closed and chest heaving like she had run across the city and back.

Twilight set Spike down under the tree and tapped a claw on his nose. “Stay right here,” she said, then turned and rushed back into the tower. She filled a pitcher with ice water and grabbed a bath towel before heading back outside.

The mare was still standing where she had been, her breathing having slowed as she slowly pawed one hoof against the flattened dirt. Her wings were fanned out, the primaries flexing with each breath she took. Spike was pressed up against her hind legs, watching her with his large eyes.

“Cadence,” Twilight said.

Her purple eyes slowly opened, bags sitting heavily under them. They took a moment to focus on the small dragon before flicking down to the pitcher in her claws. “Thank you, Twilight,” she said, taking the pitcher with her magic and lifting it up to her lips, gulping down the water, draining the pitcher in a few moments. She then returned the pitcher to the dragoness and took the towel, holding it in her field almost effortlessly as she tried to dry herself.

Twilight sat down next to Spike, allowing the colt to snuggle up against her side, pressing his muzzle up under her arm. She wrapped her arm around his chest and pulled him close to her.

“That was more effort than I had expected,” Cadence said as she walked over to the pair, towel floating in her field, her hornshine almost invisible in the sunlight. She carefully sat down next to the pair, draping the towel across her shoulders, her wings still slightly fanned out. “I need more practice with earth pony magic,” she added.

“You did fine,” Twilight replied, running her claws through Spike’s mane as he started to drift off to sleep. She looked down at her little brother, watching his tail twitch against the grass. “Spike’s a strong pony,” she added a few moments later.

That made the mare laugh and nod her head. “He is,” she said, then fanned out her wing and draped it across the pair of them. The three of them sat like that for a few minutes, relaxing in the sun as Spike's ears twitched in his sleep. Twilight couldn’t help but smile at that, he might have been adopted, and he might have supposed to have been a dragon, but what he really was, was her brother.

Eventually Cadence stood up, only to stumble and nearly fall back to the ground, tripping over Twilight’s bag in the process. She didn’t even notice as the books spilled out over the grass. “Can you take Spike to bed?” she asked as she got her shaking legs under her. “I… I think I need to lay down.”

“Of course,” she said, gently scooping up Spike in her arms and carrying him back into the tower. By the time she was finished tucking him in and went back down stairs, Cadence was laying on the couch, chin resting on the arm as she was drifting off to sleep as well.

Twilight didn’t even question that her bag was sitting on the floor next to the couch, and she never noticed that the purloined book was now sitting at the very top of the bag, nor the hurriedly scribbled note that had been slipped between the pages.

Author's Note

I'm not exactly happy with how this part turned out. It's okay, and does set up some stuff for the next few, but it just feels like more of a collection of moments then much a narrative. Still, I wanted to at least get something for you before the end of the year. Hopefully the next part will come faster (this one took ages to come together with a lot of false starts).

Dragon Study

Friendship is Magic: Growing up with Scales
By Winter Quill

--- Dragon Study ---

Twilight Sparkle had her head down, eyes focused firmly on the book in front of her as she read over the carefully printed text. In one hand she held her quill, using it to scratch out her notes on a piece of parchment sitting on the table next to her. One corner parchment was being held down by her inkwell, while the book itself kept the other side end from curling back up. She knew just how important the history of magic before the founding of Equestria really was, but the author who wrote the textbook somehow made even the most interesting things about the past sound boring.

It made it hard to focus, as her mind wanted to drift away from her studying and into her own imagination of what it must have been like, which was usually far more exciting than the reality was. But that wasn’t the only distraction she was dealing with.

“He’s looking at you again,” Moondancer said in a whisper as she leaned in a little bit closer to Twilight.

With a twitch of her ear fin, the young dragoness carefully rested her quill in her inkwell and slowly lifted her head from her book. The ‘he’ in question was Ruby Facet, and just as Moondancer had said, the colt was looking her way, though was also trying to hide it with the edge of his book. There was a slight blush on his cheeks, hidden by the ruby red of his fur, his grey eyes looking toward her then back down at his book, only to glance back a moment later.

Twilight really didn’t know what to make of all the strange looks he had been giving her for the past week. She got the feeling the unicorn colt wanted to ask her something, but couldn’t gather up enough courage to do so. They only had one class together, as he was a year ahead of her, so it couldn’t be for help with his studies. Maybe he knew she had been the one who had taken his book? Though she didn’t know how he could have possibly found out, as she had left it in the back of study hall the next morning before anypony else had come in. He would have just thought he had misplaced it, not that Twilight had accidently taken it.

“You should go talk to him,” Moondancer said, moving a bit closer.

“Why?” Was all Twilight could think to ask, turning her head slightly to look at her friend.

Carefully the unicorn floated her own quill down into her ink pot, giving the ink a little stir before she lifted again. “Because colts don’t usually look at fillies as often as he’s been looking at you,” she said.

That made Twilight snort softly and shake her head. “I think he would have noticed that I’m not a filly,” she said. It was true, but it was also a fact that still bothered her. She missed being a pony, being a unicorn just like the rest of her family. She wanted to be that again, she wanted to be what she was meant to be, she just wanted to belong again… no matter how much she enjoyed being a dragon.

“That isn’t the point,” her friend replied with a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a laugh as she turned her attention back to her book, the nib of her quill scratching along on her notes. “He’s a colt, you’re a girl, and you’re also exotic. Clearly, he has some interest in you, otherwise he wouldn’t be paying so much attention. If he won’t talk to you, you should speak to him.”

Twilight pushed her book away, and turned towards Moondancer. “I tried talking to him, and he ran off as soon as I approached,” she said.

Moondancer looked up from the book, her eyebrows raising up into her bangs. “That is even more evidence that he’s interested in you. You really must speak to him soon in order to resolve this before it becomes a schoolyard crush.”

Letting out a sigh, Twilight ran her claw over her face. Moondancer was right, as she often was. If Ruby Facet had somehow gotten it into his head that he was interested in her like that, talking to him might help dissuade him before it was too late. Though there was also the chance that it could backfire and make the situation even more awkward for everypony involved.

She glanced back to where the colt was sitting. He had his head down in his own book, but was surrounded by two other colts who were whispering and nudging him, which just seemed to make his blush grow even brighter. She had no idea who the other two colts were, as they didn’t share any classes with her, but it was clear they were Ruby’s friends.

Finally, his eyes looked back up at her again, freezing the moment that he realized she was watching him in return. There were a few moments where they just stared at each other across the study hall before he grimaced and shook his head. While ignoring his friends, he closed his book, picked up something in the nearly invisible grey glow of his field, and stood up. There was one more moment where he seemed to be speaking to himself, then he started walking across the room towards where she was sitting.

Twilight gave Moondancer a nudge as she watched the young stallion as he approached. He still seemed reluctant, slowing down after a few steps but not actually stopping. His eyes were focused on her the whole time, never looking away even though his blush was growing brighter.

Folding her claws together on her book, she watched as he approached, hoping that things weren’t about to get strange or weird. Moondancer just shifted away from her, providing the illusion of space between them, but both of her ears were turned in her direction.

“Twilight Sparkle,” he said as he finally reached her table, keeping his voice down to a low whisper, though the silence spell over the table would help muffle his words. She could see there was a small piece of paper in his field, the edges of which were starting to waver as he tried to keep himself composed. Though the consent swiveling of the ears gave him away.

“Ruby Facet,” she said in turn, leaning forward a little bit. “I’m guessing you want to speak to me?”

He swallowed and floated the piece of paper towards her, his field sputtering out and vanishing only inches from her, allowing the paper to fall on top of her open book. “I found this in my school book the other day. I just wanted to know if you actually sent it,” he said, his voice cracking a little between the words.

That wasn’t at all what Twilight had expected. She hadn’t left him any sort of note, why would she? Maybe it was some sort of prank. She reached out to pick up the paper, carefully unfolding it to reveal the words written in shaky, but also familiar, horn writing.

Twilight Sparkle is interested in you. You should ask her out.

She frowned at the words, taking a few moments to really process what they said. While she did, Ruby started to speak again. “I just wanted to be sure this wasn’t some sort of prank. I’ve been pranked like that before, told that somepony wants to ask me out, but is too embarrassed to do it, so I go up and ask them only to be rejected.”

“I didn’t write it,” Twilight said, a frown on her muzzle, pulling at the corner of her mouth and showing a hint of her fangs. She didn’t write it, but she knew who had. Cadence must have put the note in the book after Twilight had accidently taken it, but why would she do something like that?

Ruby let out a long, and relieved sigh, the tension melting away from his body. “So, a prank then. I’m glad I checked with you first. Though it’s weird, I don’t know anypony who would try and prank me like that with you. I’m not even interested in you, and all my friends know that.”

“Somepony probably thought it would be funny to watch you try and ask out a dragon,” Moondancer said.

He jumped, like this was the first moment he had realized that Twilight wasn’t alone at her table. He looked at the mare for a moment, then back to Twilight. “I mean… it’s not that I don’t like you or anything, you’re really nice for a dragon. I guess, I’ve never met another dragon before, let alone a girl dragon, but you're nice. It’s just that… well… you’re a mare,” he said, and as if that somehow explained everything turned and hurried back across the study hall towards his friends.

Moondancer rolled her eyes. “Colts. He’ll grow out of it the moment he finally notices the length of Amber Gem’s tail,” she said with a snort and a shake of her head. “Stupid puberty,” she added under her breath.

For her part, Twilight just watched as Ruby gathered up his books and hurried out of the room, his friends following right on his tail. She didn’t quite know what to make of it, should she be insulted? Or was it funny? It’s not like she had ever been asked out before. She might have been the right age to start being interested in colts, but that wasn’t something she wanted to do, at least not until she was back to being a pony. She doubted that any colt would be interested in a dragon anyways. Let alone one that looked like her.

That thought gave her pause. Before she had become a dragon, she had always assumed that she was rather plain looking mare. Sure, she had been told how cute and pretty she was, but that was the sort of thing you told ever foal, it didn’t mean anything. Anyways, long tails ran in her family, and the odds were good when she was a full-grown mare her tail would be just a full as her mothers, so she knew that no matter what there would always be some stallion that would have eyes for her.

Yet when it came to dragons, she had no idea how she actually looked. Was she pretty by dragon standards, was she even old enough to be interested in colts? She knew dragons lived a lot longer than ponies, but that didn’t mean their childhoods were shorter. Dragons hatched from eggs; they may develop far faster than ponies. Maybe by dragon standards she was already an adult?

The thoughts went around and around in her head, making it start to spin. Ever since she had been changed, her new body had been the cause of constant surprises. There were some biology books on dragons, but they were all about full grown adults, it said nothing about growing up, or how much meat they needed to eat, or how to clean their scales, or which sort of gems she should and shouldn’t be eating, or what would happen to her when she started puberty as a dragon, if such a thing even happened. She wasn’t even sure if there were boy dragons… Well no, that was silly, of course there were boy dragons, otherwise Spike wouldn’t be a boy at all.

She started slowly to rub the side of her head with the tips of her claws, trying not to allow the thoughts to take over, but finding that it was becoming harder to focus on anything else. The more she really thought about it, the less she realized she knew about herself. As a pony she had thousands of books to read about pony biology, and failing that she could always ask her teachers or her parents. As a dragon she didn’t have any of those, the closest thing she had was Princess Celestia, but when it came to dragons, she only seemed a little bit more knowledgeable than the average pony.

It was surprising, she had always thought that Princess Celestia knew everything, but maybe that was only about ponies and pony magic. What she knew about dragons came from her working with them in the distant past, did she still talk to those dragons? Maybe Celestia could get them to answer all of Twilight’s questions. All she had to do was ask.

Twilight wouldn’t have to wait long to speak to the princess, as they had a private schooling sessions after her normal classes. Even so the young dragoness found herself preoccupied through the remainder of her classes for the day, not quite focusing on what her teachers were saying or the work she was doing. It didn’t cause anything to blow up in her face, not like what seemed to happen to Lyra every time her mind drifted in class, but it was still below her own personal standards for her work.

The moment her last class was over, she quickly gathered her books—making sure that they were only her books—and rushed off to Princess Celestia’s private office at the school. Twilight arrived only a few moments after the end of class, stopping at the door and pausing to catch her breath before lifting her hand to knock on the door.

“Come in,” the Princess said through the heavy wooden door.

Grabbing the handle, she pushed the door open, stepping inside. The office itself was actually one of the oldest and smallest ones at the school, and it was overflowing with books, many of the many bookshelves were sagging under the weight of the tomes they were supporting. Every other surface that could support them was also covered in books; the only exception was the floor. There was a window on the far wall, looking out into the quad, but it was partly filled by a large potted plant, with many of the leaves pressed up against the glass. The center of the room was a large wooden desk, the white pine surface stained a dark brown from centuries of spilled ink. The desktop was no longer smooth, instead it waved up and down from being constantly used. Piles of papers were scattered across the surface, with one being much taller than the others.

Celestia herself was sitting behind the desk, bent down and carefully reading a page, quill floating in her field. She had her mane pulled back into a ponytail, though Twilight had no idea how the ethereal hair could be held in place. A pair of reading glasses were perched on her muzzle, making her eyes look even brighter than they normally were. A book was propped up next to her, and every few seconds she would glance between it and the paper she was reading.

“Twilight Sparkle, may I have a few minutes to finish?” the mare asked, glancing up from her work to the young dragoness.

Twilight nodded as she moved to the one bench in the room, sitting on the near side of the desk. A small table was sitting next to it, a place for her to write her notes during their lessons. In the week since the last time she had a lesson in the office, three books and two empty tea cups had already found their way onto it.

Sitting down on the bench, she set her bag down next to her then carefully picked up the three books, scanning over the titles. They might have been books that Princess Celestia wanted her to study, but they may have also been books she simply put there because she was going to use them in their lesson, or she had just sat on the table to get them out of the way.

The first book was horn written in a language she didn’t understand. From the flowing shape of the letters and the way they moved across the page from right to left, she was pretty sure it was from the griffon tribes that lived near Saddle Arabia. The next one was a collection of speeches, though there were many notes scribbled on every page, all in Celestia’s long lopping horn writing. Comments, corrections, and at least one page simply had the word NO written across it in heavy ink, while another page simply had a crude word filling the blank space. The last book was just one of her textbooks, though it was almost ten editions behind the one currently in her bag.

“Just put those anywhere,” Celestia said, putting her quill back into the ink pot, the paper she had been reading floating over join the larger pile, the book she had been referencing floated behind her to take its place on one of the many overflowing shelves.

Using her own magic, Twilight picked up the books and floated them over to another set of shelves, making sure it wouldn’t cause anything to fall down. “Princess Celestia, there’s something I wanted to ask you,” she said, once the books were safely in place.

“Of course, Twilight, please ask,” the princess said, gently taking her reading glasses off and setting them down on her cluttered desk.

Nodded her head, Twilight leaned forward slightly. “When I had the stone scales, you talked about a General Nova, which is how you know how to treat it. Is it possible that you could send a message to him? I have so many questions about being a dragon, to the point I’m not even sure I know what questions I would be asking.”

Celestia shook her head, lowering her head slightly. “Sadly, he’s passed away.”

“That’s too bad,” Twilight replied. “Do you know any other dragons I can talk to? I just… need answers.”

Carefully, Celestia placed her hoofs on the desk, her eyes closing as she took in a deep breath. “Twilight, when it became clear that it would take time to learn how to turn you back into a pony, I reached out to the one dragon I know who is still alive. Torch… and he refused my letter. Sending the courier back to me with my missive unopened, he’s sent every courier back, the last with a warning not to try to contact him again.”

“Why?”

The princess let out a long sigh. “Torch is the ruler of the dragons, or as much of a ruler dragons could ever have. We used to be…” she paused, lips pressed tightly together as she let out a small sigh through her nose. “I suppose close will suffice, but the years between us have not been kind. Border issues, dragons hunting ponies, ponies hunting dragons. Dragons napping in the worst places, and that’s just the political problems, the personal ones were greater. There has been a great deal of friction between us over the years. I didn’t want to lose him as… as a friend, but I did, and I have nopony to blame but myself,” she seemed to deflate a little as she spoke, slumping down behind her desk, head sinking lower, ears dropping down and wings sagging.

Twilight wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was clear that there was far more than what Celestia was telling her, and even saying that much was hurting her. It wasn’t her place to try and push for more of an answer, she was the princess after all, and she knew what she was doing. “I see,” she finally said, though it felt far too small of a response.

Celestia nodded, lifting her head a little too took at Twilight over the top of her reading glasses. “I knew that he wouldn’t be willing to answer my questions directly. So, I was asking him to send a smaller dragon to help you, someone who could teach you how to be a dragon, and all the things that I don’t know about. I’ve tried a number of different ways to contact him, and there is one final one left. I have been reluctant to try it, because it is a risk, and could cause more problems than it solves.”

“Oh,” she said, sinking down a bit more. She wouldn’t want to ask Celestia to do something for her that could cause problems, as her problems could be much larger than what most ponies could deal with.

The princess gave her a wan smile. “I supposed I had hoped that I would learn how to turn you back before it became necessary, but it’s far more complicated than anypony had expected. I apologize, Twilight Sparkle; I’ve let you down. I shouldn’t have allowed my own past with Torch to prevent me from doing what must be done to get you the help you need. It is an error that I don’t intend to allow to continue much longer. I will contact Torch, I will make him finally listen to me, and I will get you the help that you need.”

Twilight smiled, sitting up on her bench. “Thank you, Princess Celestia,” she said.

Celestia returned the smile, this time it was filled with the warmth that made her face shine. “Of course, Twilight Sparkle, it will be my pleasure,” she said. “Now, shall we start your lesson?”

Pulling out her notes, she eagerly nodded her head, happy to know that soon she would finally have some of the answers to her questions, and probably many more questions after that.

Author's Note

No, the story isn't dead... I'm just coming off a long bout of burn out. Hope to see more frequent posting on everything if possible.