A/N:
This chapter isn't exactly the most cheery, in true Stanley Parable form, but the next chapter will give a happy ending, I promise.


The queen is eternal, or so she claimed.

The queen is supreme, or so she claimed.

The queen is always right, or so she claimed.

No, Toothless decided. She was none of that. She wasn't his queen. She was vile. Pure evil. A demon. Yes, a demonic queen.

She used the dragons as fodder. She made them risk their lives to steal food to feed her gluttonous mass and commanded the dragons to fly into her maw when that wasn't enough. She used her control over the dragons to make them fight each other for her own entertainment.

And now Toothless found himself in the unique position to remove this blight from existence once and for all. She wasn't here in this volcanic mountain, but she had to be somewhere. Toothless would find her and make her pay for what she did.

He couldn't fly on his own, though, so another dragon would have to carry him. In fact, it would take all the dragons in this nest to take down the queen for how large and tough she was.

Toothless shifted the crystal around in his maw. According to the voice in his head, this was the source of power that controlled all the dragons. He could feel its power coursing through him. Control, after all, was the greatest form of power.

{And as the cold reality of his past began to sink in, Toothless decided that this crystal would never exert its terrible power over another dragon life.}

There it was again, that voice in his head, those projected thoughts from someone who wasn't a dragon. How wrong this creature was. It didn't have the slightest idea about the queen.

{For he would dismantle it once and for all. He knew it was his duty, his obligation, to put an end to this horrible place and everything it stood for.}

No, I won't! Toothless thought to himself. He looked down at the pool of magma below. It was frothing, with geysers shooting columns up into the air all around, as if eager to devour the falling crystal.

He would keep it, though. For now, at least. The hundreds of dragons surrounding him were still enslaved, but once released from the crystal's control, they would all probably just scatter to the winds. It would take time for them to come to terms with reality and Toothless needed them to act now. Together, they would destroy the queen. Vengeance would be theirs!

Looking around, he projected his orders to them. {DRAGONS, FLOCK TO ME. YOU THERE, YOU LOOK LARGE AND STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY ME IN FLIGHT. LET ME RIDE ON YOUR BACK. WE WILL FLY OUT TO FIND THE DEMONIC QUEEN, THEN KILL HER AND BE FREED FROM HER TYRANNY!}

The entire cavern erupted into a cacophony of squawks, roars, and fluttering wings.

{Oh Toothless, you didn't just try to use the crystal yourself to control the dragons, did you? After it kept you enslaved all your life you go and try to take control of it for yourself, is that what you wanted? Control?

{Oh… Toothless… I appreciate your effort, I really do, but you need to understand; there's only so much that crystal can do. You were supposed to let it go, destroy its grip on the minds of these poor dragons, and leave.

Firefly reached for the crystal in the dragon's mouth. Toothless knocked him down with a wing and glared at him. Was Firefly the cause of this? No, that couldn't be. How could a land-strider cause all this?

{If you want to throw my story off track, you're going to have to do much better than that. I'm afraid you don't have nearly the power you think you do. For example, I believe you'll find this pertinent:

{Toothless suddenly realized that he had just caused a massive destabilization of the entire dormant- well, formally dormant volcano.}

Toothless gave a startled yelp as chunks of the cavern broke loose and fell down, crashing into ledges, bouncing off each other, smashing into dragons. The whole mountain seemed to quiver. Magma splashed high in the air from the impacts. In fact, the entire magma pool was rising.

{Ah, now this is making things a little more fun, isn't it, Toothless? It's your time to shine! You are the star! It's your story now; shape it to your heart's desires.

{Ohh, this is much better than what I had in mind. What a shame we have so little time left to enjoy it.}

The stone bridge started to crumble and collapse. The pedestal on which Toothless stood groaned as the stone

supporting it crumbled and flaked away.

Firefly clung to Toothless' tail, quivering with fright. The dragon hunched down and, by some miracle, the land-strider had the wit to climb on top and hold on for dear life. Together, they mounted the back of a much larger dragon and flew around and around, desperately seeking a way out, but none could be found.

{Mere moments until the whole mountain falls down and magma shoots up, but what precious moments each of them is! More time to talk about you, about me, where we're going, what this all means… I barely know where to start!

Shrieks and wailing filled the air. The panicking dragons all around flew into each other and into the stone walls. Chunks of stone broke free from the ceiling of the cavern and impacted unfortunate dragons, plunging them into the magma below. Some hit the surface with a resounding smack and instantly died. Others survived the impact only to flounder around for a moment before the extreme heat snuffed them out.

Toothless just barely saw a large chunk of the cavern's ceiling in time to leap off his impromptu mount, who shrieked in panic all the way down to the magma pool. A short, unstable glide landed him on the back of another dragon large enough to carry him. He tried commanding all the dragons to fly in an orderly manner, in one direction, but panic dominated their movements. It was all so frustrating that they were acting like nothing more than mindless animals.

{What's that? You'd like to know why you alone are in control of yourself? A moment of solace before you're obliterated?

{Alright, I'm in a good mood, and you're going to die anyway. I'll tell you exactly what happened to you. I knocked the crystal's control out of your head. I set you free.}

Toothless froze. He craned his neck to look at the land-strider on his back. Firefly was… this was him talking! He was projecting these thoughts! He was thinking with his lips!

This was all conspired by him? How?! No matter, Toothless would remove the cause of his problems! He bucked and sent Firefly falling to the turbulent magma below.

{These are precious moments, Toothless. Time doesn't grow on trees.}

Firefly emerged from below astride a dragon's back and rolled his eyes.

{This is not a challenge. It's a tragedy. Will you desperately cling to your frail life, or will you let it go peacefully?

{Another choice! Make it count. Or don't. It's all the same to me. All a part of the joke. And believe me, I will be laughing at every second of your inevitable life, from the moment we fade until the moment I say: Happily Ever…}

Toothless blinked.

Stillness. Perfect, absolute stillness and silence.

It took him a moment to come to terms with what he had witnessed. Everything just suddenly stopped, frozen in place. The cavern's shaking stilled. The dragons stopped flying and falling. A large glob of magma hovered motionless next to Toothless, poised to devour him along with his mount. All of time had completely ceased.

From the back of the dragon that was also immobilized in the moment, Firefly surveyed the chaos and destruction all around with stooped shoulders. His eyes were leaking and his whole frame quivered.

{Oh, look at the two of us. How we wish to destroy one another. How we both wish to be free.

Can you see? Can you see how much we need one another?

{No, perhaps not. Some things cannot be seen.}

Toothless cautiously padded toward the tip of the wing of his mount, which was surprisingly rigid, and hopped the gap to Firefly's dragon to stand snout-to-face. He knew, somehow, that if he attacked the land-strider, time would resume and they would both die.

{I don't like this, Toothless. The fighting. The killing. The death. I don't want that. Only the incompetent resort to violence to solve their problems. There must be a better way, Toothless, there must! Please! Show me the way!}

Toothless had no response. Even though land-striders could manage to think with their lips in a clumsy way, they have always been deaf to a dragon's projected thoughts. Even if Toothless could speak to Firefly, there was nothing to say.

Firefly turned. He leaned precariously over the edge of the dragon on which he stood to look at the magma below.

{Of course you wouldn't talk to me. How could you? Why would you? I cannot blame you. Farewell, Toothless!}

Everything blurred into motion again. The entire ceiling of the cavern came crashing down as the lake of magma rushed up. The world went dark.

{Farewell Toothless, cried Firefly, as Toothless was dragged helplessly into the consuming magma.

{In a single visceral instant, Toothless was obliterated, as the entire cavern ceiling collapsed into the magma and crushed every bone in his body, killing him instantly.

{And yet it would all begin anew again and both Toothless and Firefly knew it. They would be back in the forest, as alive as ever.

{What exactly did Firefly think he was going to accomplish?

{When every path you can walk has been created for you long in advance, death becomes meaningless, making life the same.

{Do you see now? Do you see that Toothless was already dead from the moment he took his first breath? Same with Firefly. He was a dead land-strider walking for how little choice he ever had in life.

{Let's just restart. Let's try again to figure this all out. Again.}

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{Something was very clearly wrong. Shocked, frozen solid, Toothless found himself unable to move for the longest time.

{Then, a land-strider came trundling up and cut him free of the vines that had entangled him. A blink of the eye later, the land-strider was under the dragon's paw, pressed against a rock, claws straddling his neck and poking at his shoulders.}

Toothless spared a moment to glance around. The sun shone through the leafy branches swaying above. Birds chirped. A butterfly perched on his nose to fan its wings before fluttering off again.

He looked down at Firefly, completely helpless to defend himself. This land-strider shot Toothless down. Sure, he cut the dragon free, but that hardly made them even.

Toothless took in a deep breath of air and gathered a large amount of fuel in his throat.

{Oh, Toothless, you really shouldn't do that. That's not part of the story, You really should take a moment to-}

Toothless heaved out a torrent of fire on the land-strider's head. Hair burned, skin withered away. Firefly struggled for a moment and then went completely slack.

Toothless continued to spew out as much fire as he could. Blood boiled and smoke billowed. A moment later, Firefly was nothing more than a charred skull atop a body of burnt flesh.

Toothless turned and walked away. He would choose his own path, but trying to fly was no use; he knew that already. He would find his own way to get his flight back and kill that demonic queen. He had to. There was nothing else worth living for.

{What?! Really?! I was in the middle of something; do you have zero consideration for others?}

Toothless looked back with a startled yelp. Firefly stood, alive as ever, flesh and hair growing back into place as if his entire head wasn't just charred to ash.

{Are you that convinced that I want something bad to happen to you? Why, I don't know how to convince you of this, but I really do want to help you, to show you something beautiful. Look, let me prove it. Let me prove that I am on your side. Give me a chance.}

Toothless walked along and found himself facing two caves side-by-side in the side of a grassy hill. Jagged rocky walls rose up on either side leaving nowhere else to go.

{Now, listen carefully, this is important. Toothless walked into the cave on his left.}

Toothless walked into the cave on his right. Everything suddenly went black for a moment before he found himself back in the forest, facing the two cave entrances in the side of the hill.

{Aha. Perhaps you misunderstood. Toothless walked into the cave on his left.}

Toothless walked into the right cave again. Everything reset and Toothless saw a massive cave entrance with a gravel walkway leading up to it and a large pile of fish at the mouth of the cave. Way off to the right was another cave, and it was much smaller.

{I still don't think we're communicating properly. Toothless walked into the cave on his LEFT.}

Toothless snorted at Firefly but decided to cooperate this time. He wasn't exactly accomplishing much at this rate anyway. Besides, he made a statement, which was good enough.

A boulder slid into place behind him, blocking any retreat. With nowhere else to go, he started running down the tunnel.

{Oh, I am so glad you are willing to listen to me. Do you realize I really have wanted you to be happy all this time? The problem is all these choices, the two of us always trying to get somewhere that isn't here, running and running and running just the way you're doing now. Don't you see that it's killing us, Toothless?}

It took awhile for Toothless to realize that he had passed the same familiar formation in the tunnel several times. As he kept running in the same direction, he passed by that very point again and again, much to his befuddlement.

{I just… I want it to stop. I would, we would both be much happier if we just stopped. And I think, well, I think I have a solution. Here, let me show you.}

Finally, the end of the tunnel came into sight.

{Hmm… what do we want? What are we looking for?}

Toothless burst out and blinked at the light assaulting his dilated pupils. As his eyes adjusted, he could see water gently lapping at a sandy beach. The setting sun lit up a clump of clouds the most beautiful shades of pink. Seagulls cawed all around. A rainbow stretched across the entire sky. A stream that trickled off to the side was so densely packed with fish Toothless could blindly stick his open maw in and be assured that a meal would literally swim right down his throat.

{Here! Yes! Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it? If we just stay here, in this place… Toothless, I think I feel… happy. I actually feel happy.}

Toothless took a long moment to look around. The stars were coming out and some were even streaking through the sky. The beach stretched on in endlessly uniform perfection.

It was all so beautiful. So perfect. So idyllic. So… so…

Toothless snorted derisively. So unreal. So predictable. So boring.

No adventure. No thrills. No danger.

No choice.

The demonic queen was still alive, squatting in her nest, reducing countless dragons to mindless thralls and sending them to feed her gluttonous mass.

And here stood Toothless, idly doing nothing, incapable of doing anything. He felt entirely helpless. This was so surreal. He didn't want it. He knew there was only one way out.

Toothless noticed a narrow pathway carved at a steep angle up a rocky cliff along the beach and started towards it. Firefly gave a startled yelp and trailed along, frantically waving his arms.

{No, wait… where are you going?}

Toothless resolutely climbed up the steep ridge. The top was quite high in the air.

{Oh no! Stay away from that ledge. If you hurt yourself, if you die, this story will reset! We'll lose all of this!}

Toothless reached the precipice and looked down. It was quite the drop. Then again, he did survive getting shot out of the sky.

Firefly ran up and tugged at the dragon's tail only to be casually flicked away. Toothless had to end this somehow. He couldn't kill Firefly, so that left only one other option.

{Please, no, Toothless, let me stay here. Don't take this from me! Please, Toothless, think about what you're doing!}

Toothless couldn't take this anymore. He closed his eyes, pressed his wings tight against his body, and stepped forward into empty air.

A cloud of sand exploded upon impact. It knocked the wind out of him and he felt unstable and sore as he got up, but that was all.

It wasn't enough. He needed more, so he started up the ridge again. Again, Firefly followed, trying in vain to stop the dragon.

{No! What are you doing?! Toothless, please, I'm asking you not to take this away from me. I can't go back to what I was before! If you die, we'll both go back! Why are you doing this?!}

Toothless stepped up to the precipice and looked down. Firefly, having given up trying to shove the dragon around, was on his knees, shoulders stooped, eyes looking at the ground.

{Do you just not believe me? Is this really how much you dislike my story? That you'll throw yourself from this ledge over and over to be rid of it?}

Toothless answered the question with action. A loud crunch could be heard from his right foreleg. Pain shot through his entire body. Yet, he was still alive.

Firefly's emotional hum was that of a maimed animal awaiting the killing blow. He sauntered up to Toothless, dragging his feet.

{Or maybe you're just getting a kick out of it. I don't know anymore. I just wanted us to get along, but I guess that was too much to ask. It looks like you wanted to make a choice after all. Well, this one is yours.}

Toothless gave a mournful look at Firefly. Nothing made sense. Nothing was right. He had to escape!

{Toothless, let's go back to just enjoying the view. You must be thirsty and hungry and that stream can satisfy you indefinitely. Please be happy here. Can you do that for me?

Toothless limped over to the stream to drink some water and eat some fish.

{There, see? This is what you want. Your leg will heal right up in time. This is where we can both be happy, we really can. If we stop moving… we just have to stop moving. Just… stay here.

{Are you… you are going to stay here, aren't you?}

The dragon started limping up the ridge again. Firefly resigned himself to waiting at the top for the inevitable.

{I wanted us to be happy, here, Toothless. I really did. I wish I still thought that was possible.}

Toothless looked down and noticed a spot a little to the right where a large flat rock peeked through the sand. To think he never noticed that before. Oh well, better late than never.

He took a step forward and made sure to dive head-first.

{Is it over? It's going to restart, isn't it? I'm going back.}