• Twi would be satisfied with some science kit she doesn't have yet, or something made with love.Better still, get her books from outside of Equestria.
• I'd get Rarity a crystal-growing farm kit, she could enjoy having a bonsai crystal.
• Pinkie would LOVE some novelty toy with minor prank potential.
• Applejack? Something useful would be a good thing. Maybe get her an alternate awesome hat.
• Fluttershy would probably like a basket made of scented cane, so it'll always be fragrant :3
• For Rainbow Dash, I'd totally get her some customized weighted exercise bands.

edited 21st Dec '12 11:54:03 AM by AceOfScarabs

The teen dragons were immune to lava, but not immune to phoenix fire. An adult dragon would presumably have a greater fire immunity, but we don't have any evidence of how far that immunity goes. We also don't know the full extent of Celestia's firepower. So any attempt to definitively rank two complete unknowns is going to make us look very silly.

Plus Celestia presumably has light magic and is known to have dark magic.

I understand that, but there was nothing to worry about.

edited 21st Dec '12 12:26:02 PM by DavidtheMouse14

Pretty flower thing.

I'd watch it.

Of course. But I'm not just talking about adult dragons, but their royalty. But it's just headcanon of course. Like Badwolf, I think that each race has their own equivalents to alicorns. Some of which are far more powerful than alicorns. Draconequii (yes, more than one) for a start (though I think that Discord is the strongest Draconequis).

Yeah, if pony royalty can wield the power of the sun, then it makes sense that dragon royalty could withstand that power.

Awww.

How uncouth.

I'm sure there's an "elder dragon" of sorts out there, but I wouldn't call them "royalty". I doubt that the dragons even have a cohesive civilization.

Why wouldn't dragons have a civilisation? According to the map they've got lands. In Dragon Quest we see they've got some culture and do events together.

edited 21st Dec '12 12:58:52 PM by Badwolfwho

All evidence suggests that they are solitary and fiercely territorial, with the exception of the Migration, which is probably just mating season. A society would require the sharing of wealth and knowledge, but dragons are greedy hoarders by nature.

"Royalty" might indeed be incorrect term, but you've clearly grasped the concept.

In the Tolkeinverse, you could assign it to Glaurung the Golden and Anclagon the Black.

The Dn Dverse has Io, Bahamut, Tiamat, etc.

edited 21st Dec '12 1:03:43 PM by Sereg

Dragons who are greedy hoarders above all else appear to become bestial in nature. All dragons we've seen have suppressed that instinct dominating their lives. I'd say that implies they'd have a society, otherwise why suppress it?

edited 21st Dec '12 1:04:57 PM by Badwolfwho

I wonder which dragon has the highest Diplomacy score.

@Bad Huh? Every single dragon we've seen has been a greedy hoarder except for Spike, and even he has possessive issues and relapses occasionally. A group of like-minded altruistic dragons could probably form a society, but they'd be exceptions rather than the rule, and there's nothing to suggest that they exist.

EDIT: I just want to say again that I don't have any issues with people's headcanon, but if we're arguing facts and evidence, then headcanon can't come in to it.

edited 21st Dec '12 1:14:48 PM by PerpetualLurker

@ Lurker: No, in SOME Spike becomes bestial when he hoards, most likely because unlike other dragons he wasn't taught not to let that urge dominate his life. In Dragonshy, Owl's Well and Dragon Quest all the dragons are clearly sapient.

edited 21st Dec '12 1:14:23 PM by Badwolfwho

So, I've been out of the loop for a while. What's up with all the Sibsy X Mandopony art floating around lately?

Greedy hoarders are capable of having a society as long as they respect each others belongings.

Being sapient doesn't mean that they weren't greedy hoarders. I never argued that they weren't sapient.

Yes, but there's no evidence to support they they would, especially given the teenage dragons' behavior in Dragon Quest.

edited 21st Dec '12 1:18:10 PM by PerpetualLurker

@ Lurker: But are you arguing there's a difference between Spike's and their behaviour? Because look at how strong Spike became when he gave into his impulses. If dragons only cared about themselves why wouldn't they do the same?

I don't think he was disputing their sapience, just pointing out that all the adult dragons we've seen thus far seemed to be fiercely territorial and prone to hoarding wealth. Even with the teenage dragons a lot of their games and such are simply emulating those sorts of power struggles. Just because they're sapient doesn't mean they aren't generally predisposed to certain types of behavior; in this case isolation. They probably do have some sort of culture, but I'm guessing it's a lot less social than that of the ponies.

As for Spike, he's either a different subtype of dragon, or being raised by ponies did something weird to his development. My personal theory is that dragons can mature in different ways. They can either do what Spike did in "Secret of my Excess" in which they give in to hormones which jumpstart the process but leave them as far more brutish and bestial (or it's just a phase that they natural progress out of before maturing normally) or they can take the slow path, which tempers the greed a bit more.

edited 21st Dec '12 1:20:25 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Really, all the dragons we've seen are Spike, one that didn't watch where he slept, one that tried to kill an intruder and teenagers. We don't have much to infer out of the teenagers, and the rest are very different among themselves, so we can't really say much.

@CDRW They're IRL friends, and some like to speculate. Sibsy herself has drawn some of it, so...

edited 21st Dec '12 1:22:11 PM by Lopiny

@Bad Spike didn't stop being sapient when he was on his rampage. He was clearly able to plan and adapt. And what happened to Spike wasn't as simple as just "giving in", otherwise he would have transformed plenty of times by now given his poor impulse control. What did happen is up to headcanon, but it's irrelevant to the current debate.

On this I agree completely with JT. I actually think that there are many ways for a dragon to mature whch will affect how they eventually end up. I even think that Spike's fantasy from A Dog and Pony Show is something he is capable of growing into (admittedly, this is mostly me thinking, "because it'd be cool!")

@ Lurker: Being able to adapt doesn't mean he was necessarily sapient besides you can quite clearly tell the difference between Spike and the other dragons in that state Spike couldn't speak, all other dragons we've seen can speak and it quite clearly was giving into the instinct to hoard because we're told that in the episode.

I still don't really know how you could argue against dragon civilisation. They quite clearly interact. We've seen a total of two dragons other than Spike who weren't with company. Dragonshy's, who was sleeping so it was unnecessary to have company, and Owl's Well, who is clearly an outlier since unlike all other dragons he attempted to kill a baby for being in proximity to him. The fact that all dragons don't turn out like Spike did means they must be raised to not be like that or they wouldn't know not to act like that so they must have family units at the least.

edited 21st Dec '12 1:36:30 PM by Badwolfwho