Author's Note

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Are, Are You Really Doing This Right Now? In Front of Everyone?

Twilight idly twirled a cigar between her fingers as she was led into Celestia’s throne room, the sun goddess seated on her throne, Luna seated on her own throne to her right. As she stopped in the middle of the room standing facing the sisters, she put the cigar between her teeth and pulled out her lighter, quickly lighting her cigar before pocketing her lighter. “Well then. Let’s get this over with,” she said with a smug smirk.

Celestia sighed and rubbed her temples, muttering to herself, “Oh this is going to be fun.” She stood and raised her arms, quelling the quiet susurrus of voices near the back of the throne room. “Nobles of Canterlot, you are here today to witness the trial of Twilight Sparkle PhD, MD, daughter of Night Light and Twilight Velvet, Element of Magic, National Hero, and my personal student. Twilight Sparkle, you stand here accused today of performing the long illegal art of Necromancy, and of being tainted with dark magics. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty on tainted with dark magics, and I’ll cop to Necromancy,” Twilight answered. “I put a lot of work into those golems. I’m proud of them and their hard work.” She pulled her cigar from her mouth and exhaled some smoke. “Also I created a dracolich that has since become a living, flesh and blood dragon. A dragon that I have always considered to be my son.”

Celestia nodded and crossed off a line from a sheet of paper by her side. “Both sides shall now present their arguments and evidence. Sir Gold Standard, as you petitioned this trial, you may present first,” Celestia nodded towards the stands, prompting a large Aetherial dressed in gold jewelery and opulent clothing to step out and pull a scroll from his pocket.

“Ahem!” He announced, voice deep and loud as he read off his gathered evidence, “The defendant has, provably, unleashed an army of necromantic golems upon the town of Ponyville during the one thousandth Summer Sun Celebration five years ago. Also among the evidence is written testimonials on the amount of property damage that she has caused wherever she goes!” In one shaking fist, the man held up a stack of paper nearly bigger than his grip could hold, each of the hundreds of written statements dealing in how much was lost in terms of property, housing, and in lives. “Furthermore, Miss Twilight Sparkle has also been responsible for the deaths of at least twenty of the illustrious Ripple Clan Vampire Hunters, of which the clan had only seventy five members previously!”

Stack after stack of paper slammed into a hastily conjured table, the red faced noble announcing each one in turn: “The sheer wreckage caused to the Whitetail Woods- a registered wildlife preservation- upon Nightmare Night three years hence! The amount of lives lost upon the 4:35 train from Ponyville to Manehattan approximately six months ago- of which it was lost to a terrorist attack that had previously done combat with the Elements of Harmony themselves! The noise complaints during the labor of the dragon in the mountains just outside of Ponyville- the dragon mated to her own ‘son’, might I note! The amount of blood ordered from the Ponyville General Hospital! The sheer amount of death row inmates she’s pulled from prisons and brought to Ponyville! The utter lack of regard that she treats her fellow citizens! An insurance claim nearly five years old from one Trixie Lulamoon on the loss of an arm incurred during an Ursa attack that, might I note, ended in nearly a quarter of Ponyville destroyed! And then there is the fact that she willingly consorts with vampires- all of them noted to have extreme kill counts and one that my sources have confirmed to be THE ORIGINAL vampire himself, ALUCARD! And then! AND THEN! THERE IS HER MARRIAGE TO SAID CRIMSON FFFFFFFUCKER!” With a final slam of his meaty palm against the table, Gold Standard adjusted his wireframe glasses and took a few deep breaths, muttering hoarsely, “I rest my case. This woman is obviously tainted by the dark magic she so carelessly wields.”

“Are you done talking?” Twilight asked. “Now then. In the order he presented his charges: The golems were not unleashed on Ponyville itself, but on the ghouls that were created by Nightmare Moon and were attacking the people of Ponyville. My golems protected the people while the Elements were recovered. Property damage was covered out of my own royal stipend. The Ripple Clan was trying to kill me and my friends and loved ones. Also, my title is Mrs. The damage to the Whitetail Woods was caused by the dragon that Luna and I were fighting. The train fatalities were caused solely by the Cobras, I gave fair warning that Selten would be roaring in agony as she laid her eggs, the blood feeds my wife, husband, and myself. The death row inmates were going to die anyway so I saw no harm in feeding them to my husband and using their souls for my necromancy, other citizens are treated with the proper level of regard, I paid Trixie Apple’s medical bills, Alucard is bound to me as my servant and has been since I inadvertently released him when I was six years old, and Alucard and I are very happily married with a daughter.”

She took a moment to blow out some smoke before continuing. “Everything I do, I do to protect the people I love. I am in no way tainted by dark magic.” She put her cigar between her fangs and grinned. “Also, the Ripple Warriors were killed by Celestia, Anderson, Alucard, and Schrodinger.”

Gold Standard sputtered for a moment as Celestia slammed her gavel against her throne’s armrest. “On the charge of being tainted by dark magic- as facilitated by a scan I myself performed on everyone entering the room and by the evidence given…. Not Guilty. Now, as you have plead guilty to the charge of Necromancy, your sentence has been reduced by the appropriate two weeks. However, due to the severity of the actual usage- that being hundreds of souls torn apart and repurposed as necromantic golems and as fuel for you and your husband… a fact to which I can personally attest….” Celestia sighed and looked to Luna for strength before turning back to Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, I hereby find you guilty of practicing the art of Necromancy. Your sentence will be two years exile from Equestria, shortened by two weeks as per your plea.” With one more slam of her gavel, Celestia ended the trial.

Twilight fell silent in shock as her cigar fell from her mouth and bounced across the floor. “E… Exile?! But, Princess…”

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but the law is the law. Even you are not above it. Guards, escort Mrs. Sparkle to the border. Heaviest magic restraints you can apply. Do not remove them until she is well into the next country,” Celestia stood, face impassive as she marched out the throne room doors and towards her private chambers. The only one to see the tears streaming down her face was Luna, who shot Twilight an apologetic look as she chased after her sister.

Twilight didn’t even put up token resistance as she was led from the throne room. Not until she came to Alucard and Integra. Stopping, she tightly hugged her daughter. “Mommy has to go away for a while, Integra. Be good for daddy, okay?”

Integra looked at Twilight in sad confusion as she was handed back to Alucard before watching her mother be led away. “No. No!” She yelled as she struggled and reached for Twilight, tears streaming down her cheeks. “No! MOMMY!!!”

Twilight choked back a sob as she kept walking, making no attempt to stop her own bloody tears.

“Here we are, Mrs. Sparkle.” The guard spoke blandly as he removed Twilight’s restraints, leaving only the collar around her neck. “Do not attempt to remove the collar or it will transport you into a stasis field on the surface of the sun for three weeks each time you attempt to remove it. The collar will prevent you from crossing the established border to Equestria until such a time as your exile is over. Your activities will be monitored during this time to ensure that you are not taking action against the nation of Equestria. Your assets have been frozen until such a time as your sentence is carried out. Do you understand these terms?”

Twilight’s hand shot out and tightly gripped the guard’s throat. “Crystal clear. You made my daughter cry. I hope you realize your days are numbered. Once I’m back in Equestria, I am going to hunt you down and drink all of your blood. Then your soul will join my familiars. Do you understand me?”

“U-understood!” The guard choked out, face turning blue from Twilight’s grip as he clawed futilely at Twilight’s hand, “I-I’m just doing my job, sir! Ma’am! S-sir!”

Twilight nodded and starting spinning around with him in her grip before hurling him back across the border with a scream of impotent rage. “I WILL CLEAN HOUSE IN CANTERLOT WHEN I GET BACK!!!”

Unfortunately for her, none were around to hear her screams besides the quickly fleeing guardsmen. Spitting in disgust, Twilight trudged off into the wasted desert stretching out before her, the dark of night falling soon after and bringing with it both cold and wind.

As the night wore on, the sounds of chanting filled the air as a peculiar violet glow overtook the gloom of night- a glow recognizable as the exact same glow that all necromantic rituals carried if not in color, than in arcane signature.

Curious, Twilight started running toward the glow’s source to investigate, ready to fight if she had to. Even exiled, she wanted to protect Equestria from potential harm.

Arcane chanting filled the air as seven necromancers- all of them clothed in black, form concealing robes and hoods- stood in a circle around a crackling pentagram. The presumably one in charge- he with the fanciest robes and a long, black beard- raised his arms and shouted the last few words of the arcane ritual as the sacrifice in the center threw her head back and screamed, her body transmuting into a massive, demonic insectoid being with far too many of just about everything and the woman’s face contorted in agony atop its misshapen, disgusting head.

Twilight’s eyes glowed red as she growled. Moving with demonic speed, she was behind the ringleader before he even realized she was there and took off his head with a swipe of her open hand.

“Hello boys and girls! The spirit of Hearth’s Warming is here early and I’m here to tell you you’ve all been very naughty!” Twilight cackled maniacally as the six remaining necromancers stumbled back in fear.

The misshapen beast, on the other hand, spotted Twilight and roared its challenge- a shrieking, discordant wail more akin to a scream of agony than a roar of defiance.

“Oh come now!” Twilight near-sang, eyes blazing crimson and her fangs glinting in the light of the moon, “How about you all dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?” With a challenging cackle of defiance, Twilight shot forward, chaining teleports until the sky was awash in magenta light.

Her fingers shot forward as claws, each swipe tearing strips of shell and flesh from the daemon insect in front of her as it flailed ineffectively against her strikes. Shrieking and wailing filled the air as the thrashing monstrosity threw up waves of sand with each movement, knocking the fleeing necromancers down long enough that they witnessed Twilight standing atop their hellbeast with a mad grin, speckled in green-black blood and utterly unharmed.

“Hello… and goodbye,” she purred, stepping off of the hellbeast and strolling towards the closest necromancer without even leaving a single footprint in the sand. Behind her, the hellbeast gave one final gurgle as it simply fell apart into long, torn strips of savaged flesh and gore.

“N-no! No! Stay back! Stay away from me!” The necromancer shrieked, skittering back as fast as she could with an expression of abject terror on her face.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to say NO to that!” Twilight stomped down on the necromancer’s chest for emphasis, crunching through ribs and reaching the heart in a single swift motion. “See, if I let any of you go… I’d be wasting so much lovely, lovely blood…” She sighed in bliss as the dead necromancer’s blood flowed up her leg and was absorbed into her skin, leaving nothing behind but a soulless pile of ashes. “Mm, tangy… now, for the rest of you…. See, I’m a little distraught tonight- I was just kicked into exile you know,” Twilight monologued as she cast a simple paralysis spell over the area, striding carelessly towards her next victim and and picking him up by the scruff of his collar, “For practicing necromancy too! Isn’t that ironic? But you know what, being all sad and mopey isn’t my thing. Instead, I’m just going to drink my sorrows away…. With your blood, in case you didn’t catch my meaning.” With that, she sank her fangs into the neck of the necromancer in her hand and drained him as well, repeating the process another four times until she simply dipped her finger in the puddle of blood the head necromancer had left when she decapitated him and sucked away his blood as well.

“Mm, not a bad first for a night of drowning my sorrows… but it needs a little more… no more small fries… maybe… ooh, maybe I could… mmm, yeah….” Twilight smirked as she plotted, eyes glowing as she headed deeper into the desert.

Luna sighed as she watched Twilight through her connection to the moon, her son Sirius cradled in her arms. “Oh Twilight…”

A knock came at her door as Celestia stepped through, eyes puffy with tears and her breath smelling faintly of alcohol. “Sister… are you watching her…? Like I asked you to…?” Celestia muttered as she quietly closed the door behind her and leaned against it.

“I am, Tia,” Luna answered. “You’ve been drinking. Well, Twilight is drowning her sorrows as well. From the veins of necromancers and other dark mages.”

Celestia sighed and dropped to the floor, all trace of decorum lost as she tossed away her golden articles of office and pulled a small flask inscribed with a golden sun from the flowing depths of her dress. “I suspected as much,” she muttered as she took a swig and grimaced at both the taste and the bitter truth of reality, “I only hope… I only hope that she does not end up hating me for this…”

Sirius phased over to his aunt and hugged her, sensing her distress.

Luna smiled at her son’s instincts. “Twilight loves you like a second mother. She would never hate you, Tia.”

“I hope you’re right…” Celestia muttered, patting Sirius’ head gently as she took another swig of whiskey. “For both of our sakes.”

Luna took the flask from her sister’s hands. “Sister, drowning your sorrows is unbecoming. Especially since you’ll end up dealing with the nobles while hungover.”

“.... You’re right. That would be a torture beyond even the worst of Tartarus’ punishments…” Celestia chuckled, slowly standing up and rolling her neck as she cast a mild sobering charm. “Now… could you… could you show me how Twilight’s doing right now?”

Luna nodded as she took Sirius into her arms. “Of course. Just let me put Sirius down for his nap.” She walked over to her son’s crib and lay him in it, tucking him in and planting a kiss on his forehead. Once the boy fell asleep, she went over to Celestia and led her to her scrying pool, calling the view of Twilight back up.

“I can’t believe she’s really gone….” Rainbow muttered, staring at the empty bed where Twilight would normally have been. “I mean…. Sheesh, when did she… when did Twilight get so tangled up in our lives that we’d do basically everything as a group?”

“Girl’s crazy, but that craziness really grows on ya, don’t it?” Applejack asked forlornly as she pulled her stetson over her eyes. “Seems like just yesterday she was marchin’ into town all pale and hittin’ Alucard for bein’ a pervert.”

“Mmm…. I hope she doesn’t get hurt…” Fluttershy sighed, sitting on the bed and taking a photo of Twilight, Alucard, and herself in her hands.

“It’s not Ponyville without Twilight…” Pinkie muttered, near tears as her hair lay flat and her colors muted somewhat while she munched on comfort cupcakes.

“Everything certainly seems more… quiet… without her around,” Octavia spoke quietly, sitting near Vinyl as the two of them simply reminisced about the interesting times that Twilight brought.

“Yeah… Twilight always knows how to liven things up,” Vinyl muttered while rubbing her belly. “We kinda took that for granted, didn’t we? Hey by the way, where’s Spike?”

“Off sulking, I think,” Trixie sighed, “I don’t blame him. He did just lose the closest thing he has to a mother today. I think it’s best if we leave him alone for a few days until… well, until we all recover.”

“E’yup,” Big Mac muttered in agreement as he held Trixie close to him.

“I think that we all need some sleep,” Maud spoke in her usual bland tone, stretching idly as she leaned against Facet. “Maybe we’ll feel better in the morning.”

“Actually,” Anderson said as he stood. “I think I’ll go check on Alucard. He’s probably taking this the hardest after all.”

“Good idea Anderson, Do you zhink zhe big guy vill be alright?” Schrodinger asked as he walked out from behind Anderson and handed Pinkie another batch of cupcakes, “On zhat note… vhat about little Integra? She’s probably taking zhis vorse zhan Alucard is.”

“The poor girl finally cried herself to sleep,” Fluttershy noted. “Breaks my heart, the way she was screaming as Twilight was led out of the throne room.”

“I think I speak for everyone when I say that it broke all of our hearts,” Rarity murmured as she took a sip of tea to calm her nerves.

“Just want to go to Canterlot and snap the necks of every noble that helped make that poor little girl cry,” Seras snarled with clenched fists.

“Aye, indeed I think all of us do, right ladies? Gentlemen?” Anderson asked, raising an eyebrow at the assembled group and nodding solemnly when he heard their chorus of affirmatives. “As I thought.”

Deep inside the Everfree Forest, chaos reigned as Alucard rampaged in his Level One release. He roared in rage as he tore a path through the forest, uprooting and hurling trees and ripping to shreds any beast he encountered.

Anderson looked around at the carnage as he followed Alucard from a safe distance. “He truly is depressed,” he murmured, taking note of the marks in one tree, “Usually he’s much stronger than this.”

Alucard suddenly stopped, breathing heavily. “Anderson. There’s something I need you to do.”

“Yes?” Anderson asked curiously, “What is it, Alucard?”

Alucard turned to face Anderson, tears of blood trailing down his face. “Fight me. Fight me so that I don’t charge into Canterlot and slaughter the worthless nobles that made my daughter cry!”

Anderson sighed and drew his bayonets, “If it will make ye feel better…. Come at me, ya damned vampire!”

With a scream of pure fury, Alucard rushed forward, abandoning his favored guns in exchange for pure ferocity. Hands lashed out as claws as a shadowy cloak enveloped his movements and lent them more power.

Anderson immediately fell back on the defensive, bayonets lashing out and deflecting each and every one of Alucard’s attacks as he gave more ground than he got. Grimacing, Anderson locked Alucard’s hands down with a pair of bayonets, pinning them to a tree for the briefest of moments before kicking Alucard in the head with such force that both vampire and tree were sent flying back and into the air.

Alucard screamed his displeasure as he was crushed beneath the tree, shredding it in an explosion of dark power and rushing forth at Anderson once more, only to receive a bayonet to the face that stalled him just long enough for Anderson to grab one of Alucard’s outstretched arms and tear it off in a spray of blood, then club Alucard in the face with his own arm to drive the bayonet even deeper into Alucard’s skull.

“Come on Alucard! Where’s your spirit!? Has losin’ yer woman made ya soft!?” Anderson cried, grabbing Alucard by the throat and chokeslamming him into the ground, “You are better than this! Now get up and fight me like a proper vampire or I’ll gut you like a fish and leave you to hang for the next two years!”

Alucard growled and pushed off of the ground, standing up easily despite Anderson’s grip. “You want a fight, Irishman?” Alucard grinned, baring his fangs and pulling Jackal from his inner coat pocket, “You’ve got a fight!”

Anderson grinned despite himself and booted Alucard away with a shout of, “Now that’s more like it ya filthy heathen! Come at me like a real man!” Anderson drew his bayonets as his grin grew from ear to ear, “Show me just how strong you really are!”

“.... You know, when Anderson said he was going to go check on Alucard, I thought he was going to give him a pep talk and take him to a bar or something,” Rarity muttered, irritatedly rubbing her eyes as she listened to the explosions in the distance.

Rainbow snorted and rolled her eyes, “Oh come on, they’re fighters and plus, one of them’s a vampire and the other one is a bayonet wielding psychotic preacher. Of course they’re gonna blow shit up to feel better.”

“They are men,” Fluttershy put her own two cents in, “All of them favor some form of destruction to feel better, either self or otherwise.”

“.... That’s pretty harsh, Flutters,” Rainbow muttered, “Not denying it though. Does look like a pattern…”

“Quite. Now could you close the window so the soundproofing will come back? I’d like to at least get some semblance of a good night’s sleep so I don’t have to feel all icky about Twilight being gone tomorrow,” Rarity sighed and flopped back down in her sleeping bag, sleeping mask firmly back in place.

“Sheesh, what a diva,” Rainbow muttered as she idly flicked the window closed and went back to sleep herself.

Anderson panted as he stared across the burned out clearing at Alucard, both men grinning despite the carnage around them, “So, ye heathen, are ya done having a tantrum like a wee little baby?”

“Oh shut up you fake Catholic,” Alucard replied, “I’m busy waiting for my wife to get home so I can wreck her like the Titanic.”

Anderson snorted, “Just don’t end up like DiCaprio.”

“Blueballed at the bottom of the ocean?” Alucard chuckled.

Anderson rolled his eyes, “I meant dead in the water, but that works too. Now come on, I have a wife to get back to and you have a wife to wait for.” With that, Anderson turned and began walking away, whistling a jaunty tune with his hands in his pockets.

Alucard holstered his guns and walked toward Ponyville as well. “Well, I’ve got a wife waiting for me too. And together we have a shared wife to wait for. And I suppose we both have children waiting for us.”

Anderson nodded, “See? Getting better already. Now come on and let’s get some sleep before the crushing reality of tomorrow sets in.”

“I don’t sleep, remember?” Alucard asked with a smirk. “Probably going to be up with Fluttershy all night.”

“.... Ye do realize that there are other people in the library right now, yes?” Anderson raised an eyebrow, “So unless ye know how to put up a soundproofing spell, I suggest ye don’t.”

“Twilight recently put one on the master bedroom,” Alucard explained as they walked. “As in, right before she was taken to Canterlot for her trial.”

“Well in that case, make sure it doesn’t fall before morning,” Anderson shrugged and continued walking. “And make sure ye keep little Integra from hearin’ ye.”

“Obviously,” Alucard answered with a punch to the back of Anderson’s head.

Selten stirred from her slumber and jolted to her feet, immediately racing over to Spike’s side and prodding him with her nose, “Spike! My love! The eggs, they’re hatching! Wake up!”

Spike was groggy and slow to wake before the eggs were mentioned. At which point he fully woke and grinned. “They are?!” He got to his feet and looked at the divot in the ground that the eggs were kept in. Sure enough, they were jostling and slowly beginning to crack.

Selten circled closely around the divot and kept careful watch, cooing and nudging the eggs here and there to encourage them further. “Come, my darlings,” Selten murmured, “Come and face the world….”

Spike moved closer to the eggs with wide eyes as he too nudged them. “The moment’s finally here. My kids hatching. If only mom could be here to see.”

With a final burst of shell and amniotic fluid, all seven baby dragons crawled out into the open air, squealing and shrieking their delight as they shook themselves clean. Selten crooned as the babies hatched, prompting them, one by one, to look up and make direct eye contact.

Gurgling again, all seven dragonlings immediately swarmed Selten, imprinting upon her as their mother and crowding around her for their first meal. Selten was happy to oblige, gently pushing her way over to the divot, then blasting it clean with a burst of fire before vomiting up a slurry of metal, blood, and half digested meat into the freshly cleansed bowl in the rock.

As the dragonlings descended upon their first meal, Selten sidled up to Spike and whispered in his ear, “After their meal, you know they’re going to want to imprint on their father, my love.”

Spike smiled and nodded. “I know, sweetie. They’re so adorable.” He looked at them closer as they ate. “Looks like four males and three females.” He looked at Selten. “I name the males and you name the females?”

Selten nodded and rounded up the females, sensing the sparks within that would grow to their breath weapons, and counted them off in turn, “Dromoka… Kolaghan… and you, my little firebreather, are Atarka.”

Dromoka and Kolaghan excitedly let off small bursts of searing light and lightning respectively while Atarka expelled a greenish red flame.

Spike went over to Selten’s side and cooed at his daughters. “Hi there. I’m your daddy.”

All three little dragonlings squealed and rolled around, butting up against Spike’s claws as they lightly nibbled the tips.

Spike chuckled and nuzzled his daughters before looking at his sons. “And my sons. The ice breather is Ojutai, the poison breather Silumgar, the metal spitter Smaug, and the darkness breather is Ancalagon.” The four brothers gathered around their father as they let off spurts of their respective breath weapons, nibbling his claw tips with their sisters. “Aren’t they adorable, Selten?”

Selten nodded and curled around all seven children, “Adorable and yet, when they grow older, they will be the fiercest dragons alive, I think.”

“I think you’re right, my sweet,” Spike said right before he and Selten began glowing. “Uh… Why are we glowing, honey?”

Selten growled and lashed her tail side to side, “The Dragonlord calls. How… annoying.”

“You mean Ouroboros?” Spike asked, assuming that Selten referred to the dragon progenitor.

“Nothing so grand,” Selten snorted as she stood and placed the children upon her back. “No, I refer to Torch, the current wielder of the Bloodstone Scepter and -eugh- the ruler of all dragons.”

“So there’s a single dragon besides our representing god that the rest of our kind is beholden to, and he’s summoning us. That sum it up?” Spike asked with a tilt of his head as Kaagyollaas landed on his head.

Selten nodded, making her way to the mouth of the cave while unfurling her wings. “Unfortunately so. Come. The longer we wait the worse this will get.” With that, she took to the air and headed vaguely west.

Spike sighed and took to the air as well, following after his family.

Rarity stared up at the most unusual sight in the sky, and that was saying something. “Are Spike and Selten glowing? Or are my eyes playing tricks?”

Blueblood nodded and shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked up, “Indeed they are. Quite a strange shade of red as well. You think it’s important?”

“Perhaps it’s some facet of their culture that we don’t yet know about,” Octavia pondered as she tapped her chin. “Oh well. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

Vinyl shrugged, “Y’know, should we follow them like we did during the Migration? Might be funny… or cute. Or both.”

Facet sighed and pulled out his scroll, placing a call to Night Shift to scramble a stealth jet. “Here we go again.”

Spike looked around at the assembled dragons as he landed with Selten, his gaze coming to rest on the truly massive elder dragon that sat perched on a massive rock formation, and then his gaze panned over to the teal dragoness that hovered beside the elder, her own body glowing. “Selten. Who is that dragoness beside Torch?”

Selten crinkled her snout and sneered, “Ember. The princess.” Clearly, she did not appreciate any female younger than her also being technically in charge of her.

Spike continued to look at Ember, taking her measure until she looked down and met his gaze, looking straight into his eyes.

Selten took that moment to slap Spike upside the head with an annoyed hiss, “Don’t stare at her. You’re mine.”

Spike rubbed the back of his head and looked at his mate. “I was taking her measure in case I have to fight her for some reason.”

Selten rolled her eyes testily, “And perhaps for somethi-”

“Dude! It’s him! Spike, how ya been, wyrm!?” came a very loud, almost shrill interruption as Garble and Crusher landed in the empty space before Selten and Spike, a wide, toothy grin on both of their faces.

“See, told ya it was him. Ain’t no other black dragons, remember?” Crusher smugly stated as he crossed his arms.

Spike smirked as he looked at his onetime wingdragons. “I see you two recovered from that beatdown I handed you the last time we saw each other.” Kaagyollaas landed on his head as he glanced at his kids on Selten’s back. “Though there is one other black dragon now.” He looked at Ancalagon as he said that.

Garble blinked and looked over at Ancalagon, then up at Selten’s face, then back to Spike. “Wait… you mean….”

Crusher coughed in surprise, “You have kids now!?”

Garble blinked, “.... Well would ya look at that. Our good buddy here is no longer a free dragon!” Melodramatically, he mimed fainting into Crusher’s arms, “Oh woe is he, Crusher, bud! Quick, we must make his bachelorhood’s funeral arrangements! I’m going to need a lot of iron pyrite and a lava pit!”

Crusher snorted and dropped Garble, “Congratulations, big guy.”

Spike chuckled at his friends’ antics. “Thanks, guys. The worst part was when the eggs were laid. That was a long week.”

“SILENCE!!!” Torch’s voice boomed across the wastes, silencing the assembled dragons immediately. “I HAVE CALLED YOU ALL HERE BECAUSE MY REIGN AS DRAGONLORD HAS REACHED ITS END, AND SO BY THE LAW OF OUROBOROS, I MUST PASS THE MANTLE TO THE NEXT GENERATION!!!” He held up a scepter with a single blood red stone set into its claw like tip. A scepter that was tiny in his claw. “THE BLOODSTONE SCEPTER!!! ALL OF YOU SHALL TAKE PART IN THE GAUNTLET OF FIRE TO FIGHT FOR THIS, THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGONLORD’S POWER, GRANTED BY OUROBOROS HIMSELF!!!”

“......” Selten sighed and began calming down the children on her back as they began squealing in distress at the sound of Torch’s shouting. “Wonderful. And they had just fallen asleep too.”

Garble rubbed his ear fins and grumbled, “Y’think they heard the boss back in that Equestria place?”

Crusher shrugged, “Maybe he should shout louder. I don’t think they heard him in the serpent waters.”

“YOU THREE WITH THE BLACK DRAGON!!! I DID NOT GIVE YOU LEAVE TO SPEAK!!!” Torch snapped at the trio of dragons, which only further distressed Spike and Selten’s children.

Spike growled and started growing to match Torch’s size. “Hey, you’re scaring my kids. Can you take the shouting down to normal talking levels?”

“YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT, YOU INSOLENT WHELP?!” Torch snapped as the Bloodstone Scepter flared to life, its power coursing through him and blasting into Spike, paralyzing him with the Dragonlord’s divine authority and bringing him to his knees while groaning in agony.

Selten immediately cried out in distress and bowed low to the ground, “Please forgive him, o’ great dragonlord! He was raised by the humans and does not know of the customs!”

“Y-yeah! Please let him go, your highness! He just wants to keep his kids happy n’ all!” Garble shouted, prostrating himself low to the ground.

Crusher merely nodded his assent and bowed low as well, silently communicating his deference with his posture.

Torch regarded the three for several seconds as he looked at the distressed hatchlings. “Those whelps hatched mere days ago, didn’t they?” he inquired as he looked at Selten, not yet letting up Spike’s torture.

Selten shook her head, “They are yet but newborns, my lord. The call came barely after they were named.”

Torch considered this and let up his torture of Spike, who gasped for breath as he shrank back down. “I don’t know how you are able to change size at will, whelp. But I forbid you to do it during the Gauntlet. Is that clear?”

Spike looked up at Torch and slowly nodded. “Clear.” Another lance of pain shot through him. “Clear, Dragonlord.”

Selten breathed a sigh of relief and herded her children off of her back, scorching a pit into the ground to keep them warm as she nuzzled Spike, “Please, my mate, never do something so foolish ever again.”

Spike got to his feet as he gave Selten a sheepish grin. “I’ll try not to, sweetie.” He looked up as the ground slightly shook from a landing. Standing before him was Princess Ember. “Princess,” he greeted in a more respectful tone than he’d initially used with her father.

Ember tossed her head and smirked haughtily, “So I see the human raised bumpkin does have some manners after all. Good thing too, it’d be a waste to see such good looks wasted by a lack of a brain.”

Selten growled under her breath as she pressed closer against Spike to serve as a warning to both Ember and Spike.

“Oh I’ve got more brains than most dragons. Comes with being raised by a scholar,” Spike quipped as he took note of the tension occurring between Ember and Selten. Hoping to defuse it, he subtly brought his mark from Selten into Ember’s view.

Ember raised a brow, then smirked. A lustful glint came to her eye as she plotted, but outwardly she spoke, “Ah, of course you’re mated already. Alas, why must all the good ones be taken or gay?”

Selten snorted as Ember strutted away with her tail swishing. “Disgusting strumpet of a princess,” she muttered, “I’d like to see her strung up in the Hotlands for a week. See if that keeps her from preying on another dragoness’ mate.”

Up in the stealth jet, Facet looked down at the scene in curiosity. “Well this is certainly interesting. Looks like jealousies and flirting with married men happens among dragonesses as well. Still, for what amounts to royalty to take interest in Spike, he must be quite extraordinary by the standards of his kind.”

Rarity tittered behind her hand, “Indeed he must. Still though, have you noticed that, among every single dragon assembled, there’s literally only two dragons with black scales? Why is that, I wonder…”

“Black may not be a natural scale color among dragons,” Facet pondered. “Either that, or it’s exceptionally rare.” He looked up at Rarity as she lit her pipe. “Should you really be smoking, Rarity? You’re pregnant after all.”

“Oh please, Facet. I do know the spells for filtering the gunk out of the smoke,” Rarity snorted in a most unladylike manner, “And besides, this is the first time I’ve lit up in months. Let me have my moment.”

“Alright. I won’t trouble you about it,” Facet relented as he put a cigarette between his lips and lit it, exhaling some smoke as he watched the proceedings on the ground. “I wonder if we’ll have to go down there at any point.”

“Hey wait a minute, how come you get to smoke when you just called me out on it?” Rarity questioned, crossing her arms indignantly.

“Because you’re the one carrying a child,” Facet answered. “Anything going into your body will also affect the child in some form or another. I’m a water elemental, so I can filter out toxins with ease.” He gave her a small smirk as he finished answering her question.

“Hmph!” Rarity pouted and looked away, then turned back to watch the screen. “Hm…”

Torch threw the Bloodstone Scepter into an island volcano several miles away, a beam of red colored mana erupting in a wave from the island. “The Bloodstone Scepter, and the title of Dragonlord with it, is now up for grabs. The first to take hold of it will declared Dragonlord. The Gauntlet of Fire will now begin!”

Spike stared out at the island and raised an eyebrow, “.... Why do I get the feeling that this is going to suck?”

Selten shrugged and dug out a proper pit, blasting the rock around her into lava as she laid down within the dip with the children snugly ensconced between her wings. “I have no idea. What matters to me is that you either retrieve that scepter or give it to someone trustworthy.”

“Not going to take part are you?” Spike asked. “Alright then. Take good care of the kids.” Giving Selten a quick kiss, Spike took to the air and flew toward the island along with the other dragons, none of them noticing the following stealth jet.

As the dragons neared the island, one bright dragon in particular sidled up to Spike’s flight path, their golden armor gleaming in the sun.

“Well hello there, handsome,” Ember purred, wisps of blue flame crackling from between her jaws as she openly all but flirted with him.

Around the pair, numerous dragons went splashing down into the ocean as they were knocked out of the air by other, bigger dragons.

Spike blasted one out of the sky with a lightning bolt before sparing a glance for Ember. “Did you already forget that I’m married? And what’s with the armor? Our scales are stronger than any armor that smiths can make.”

Ember chuckled and twisted around, spraying necrotizing blue fire in a wide arc around herself, shearing wings, armor, and flesh apart in spurts of black, dead cells and causing more dragons to either die, run, or simply give Spike and Ember a wider berth. “Oh come now, just because you’ve got a mate doesn’t mean I can’t simply…. Observe~”

Ember’s fire had absolutely no effect on Spike, who simply grinned. “Necrotizing fire that causes anything it touches to rot and decay. Not a bad breath weapon. Unfortunately for you, I’m completely immune to such effects.”

Ember’s eyes widened as her ever-present smirk grew, “My my, but you do keep providing so many reasons to try and poach you away.”

Spike snarled and rammed Ember into the side of the volcano’s slopes, pinning her in place. “I’m not some dick ruled bastard that you can just charm. I love my mate, and I’m not going to betray her trust.”

Ember choked and struggled against Spike’s hold, grinning widely the whole time, “You may love your mate, but…” A quick twist of her head and neck dislodged her largely useless armor just enough for Ember to blast a molten hole straight through the thin rock layer and into the lava, “If I get the scepter, you’re all mine, handsome!” As Ember disappeared into the new spray of lava, she saluted Spike teasingly and swam deep into the volcano’s depths.

Spike tried to follow her but found he couldn’t fit through the hole that had allowed the slimmer and more streamlined Ember passage. Pulling back, he roared in anger. A roar that transitioned into a sort of high pitched scream as light gathered in his mouth. Pointing his mouth at the hole, he unleashed a blast of antimatter that obliterated a large chunk of the area around the hole, allowing him to pursue Ember through the depths of the volcano.

The energy wave that blasted forth in Spike’s wake had, unfortunately for about half of the remaining competitors, knocked every single one of them out of the sky and left most of them with deep burns and scars from the sheer amount of heat released.

Facet stared at the destruction with wide eyes as he checked the instruments to make sure the blast wave hadn’t compromised the jet’s vital systems or its stealth tech. Once sure they were alright, he looked at what Spike had done. “Triton’s beard…” he muttered. “With that one blast, he atomized a chunk of a mountain and incapacitated most of the other dragons.”

“... Well, that was…. Something,” Rarity mumbled under her breath, unable to express properly the sheer amount of shock she felt when she saw Spike’s attack.

“Through Spike we witness even more of Twilight’s madness. It’s almost like she hasn’t left,” Facet said as he lit another cigarette. “So… Let’s see if this jet can get into the volcano’s innards.” Hitting a switch, the jet began diving toward the side of the volcano as it drew in its wings and slimmed down, a lightdrill coming to life at the nose as rune barriers came up to protect the craft and its crew from the heat and pressure.

“Wait what!?” Rarity screeched as she gripped her seat’s armrests and shrank back as far as she could. “No no no no no no no no! Do not go in there!”

Facet couldn’t help chuckling as the jet plunged into the mountain like a knife into butter, easily burrowing through. “This is the newest model. Capable of both aerial and subterranean reconnaissance.”

“You could have told me that earlier!” Rarity mumbled, a heavy blush coming to her cheeks as she slowly relaxed.

“But then I wouldn’t have had your melodrama to amuse me,” Facet said with a smirk as the radar guided them toward Spike, following the GPS chip in his scales.

Ember screeched a warcry as she burst into an open chamber, flames blasting down at the unfortunate dragons in her path and causing them to rot away. Some flailed in abject, rage filled defiance, but none even came close to even touching her with their last attacks.

“Come on you lily livered lizards!” she roared, “Where are your breath weapons!? Where is your strength!? Come! Fight me!”

Her answer came in the form of a high pitched scream below her before Spike unleashed his antimatter breath at Ember.

“Whoa!” Ember jumped back, barely able to keep from being engulfed by the blast wave, though she was thrown and ragdolled across the rocks of the cavern, and the tip of her tail had been sheared clean off and cauterized.

Spike pulled himself out of the ground, molten rock streaming off of his body and casting a hellish light to his appearance. “What’s wrong, Princess? I thought you wanted someone to fight you!” he mocked, stomping over amidst Ember’s hisses of pain.

“Oh I’ll fight alright… I’m going to rot you from the inside out for burning off my tail!” Ember shrieked, unleashing a blue hot wave of plasma from her mouth and ringing the entire floor of the cavern with lines and arcs of blue flame. “Burn! Burn and rot in Tartarus!”

Spike stood calmly at the center of the inferno, towering over Ember by a single head length. “.... You do remember that I said that I’m immune to your fire, right?” he asked, raising a single brow.

Ember smirked and charged at Spike, curling up into a ball in midleap and catching fire, turning her into a flaming disk of destruction.

Spike’s eyes went wide as he just barely ducked out of the way, yelping as Ember’s flames scorched a thin line across his back. “Hmph! So you got a neat trick!” he taunted, “but a single little trick won’t beat me!”

Ember skidded to a halt and let her flame coating dissipate, “Oh that wasn’t a trick. That was just a distraction.”

Spike tilted his head in confusion, then took a detailed look at the flames surrounding the cavern. “Oh you sly little bitch.”

Carved and melted into the rock of the cavern floor was a massive runic array written in draconic script.

Ember smirked, “You were, perhaps, very handsome and intelligent, but alas, I’m not letting anyone get between me and that scepter!” With a resolute stomp, the circle activated and immediately turned the floor into a web of grasping lava chains that dragged Spike deep beneath the surface and down into the depths of the planet’s mantle.

“Damn you!” Spike roared ineffectually as he was dragged under. “Damn you to the depths of Tartarus you bitch!”

Ember shrugged and pranced away, ignoring the dissolving corpses of the dragons too slow to run. “Sorry, handsome. Nothing personal. It’s just good business.”

“N-no… I… he’s…. Gone…?” Rarity watched in horror as Spike was dragged beneath the surface and the rock re-sealed above him. “I- we have to help him, Facet!”

“This isn’t our fight, Rarity,” Facet pointed out. “Besides, he’s not dead. From what I can tell, all she did was immobilize him.”

Rarity frowned, “Still, if that awful dragoness gets to the scepter, who knows what she’ll do with all that power! Spike’s the only contender left- other than those two idiot dragons who have been circling the island for the last hour, that is. Wait…. What’s that odd blotch there?” She pointed one perfectly manicured nail at the image on the screen, flicking through the views until she hit thermal, revealing a slightly cooler bubble surrounding the intense heat source that was Spike. “What could be making that strange… bubble?”

Facet looked at it closely and smirked. “It’s an air pocket. Probably created by Ember’s spell. She never intended to kill him. Most dragons would be stuck until released. But for Spike…” He let out a small chuckle. “I’m sure it’s childsplay to escape from.”

“.... Oh dear, I do believe that dragoness is… to put it crassly… boned.” Rarity smirked and sat back. “.... This ship needs a popcorn machine.”

Just barely inches before Ember could grab the Bloodstone Scepter and claim her place as Dragonlord, she had to throw herself backwards as a massive, glowing beam of positrons tore through the rock at her previous position and allowed Spike to pull himself free, inadvertently causing him to grab the scepter as it fell beneath one of his claws.

“You…” Spike growled, “you weren’t even trying to kill me, were you? You were just trying to get me out of the way. Why?”

Ember gulped and took a hasty bow, “B-because I couldn’t bear the thought of not having the chance to at least get to know you, Dragonlord!”

Spike stopped at that and realized what he held in his claw. “Well… How about that.” He looked back at Ember. “So you want to get to know me even though I have a mate and brood, and my mate is rather attached as you’ve noticed. Why?”

“Because you… you are powerful. Any dragon with any training in magic can sense it rolling off of you like an endless wave of hellfire. And… you are, if I say so myself… rather fetching,” Ember looked away, hiding the blush that shone through her scales behind what was left of her armor.

“I wasn’t hatched from an egg,” Spike said. “I was created by a powerful necromancer as a dracolich, and I got a major power boost during my time in the Crystal Empire. And when I met Selten, I ended up being given true life by the magic of a phoenix egg. An egg that also hatched into my pet. I am in no way a normal dragon, Ember.”

Ember snorted, “Normal? Normal is boring. I like things that go against the norm!” She stopped suddenly and bowed again, remembering that despite his youth, Spike was still capable of commanding her to do whatever he wished.

Spike chuckled at that. “You know. Selten said the exact same thing right before we consummated. But like I said before. I’m devoted to Selten. I’m a one girl dragon, you know? But being the Dragonlord, though it seems like a sweet gig, I’m really only interested in getting back to my small town home and raising my kids. So…” He tossed the scepter at Ember’s feet. “Take it.”

Ember blinked and looked up at Spike, “R-really? Y-you’re just… giving it to me?”

“What, did you hit your head?” Spike snarked. “Yes. I’m giving it to you. Long as we have an understanding. I’m flattered that you’re interested, but I’m taken already. We clear on that?”

As she picked up the scepter, Ember grinned. “Thank you, thank you so much for this… Um, I don’t actually recall you ever telling me your name?” she looked up at Spike curiously, suppressing a wince as a twinge of pain went through her severed tail.

Spike looked at her from where he was about to take off. “My name is Spykoranuvellitar Sparkle. But everyone calls me Spike.”

“Spike, eh? A fitting name,” Ember grinned and raised the Bloodstone Scepter, calling upon its magics to enforce her words, “then, Spike, as my first decree as Dragonlord, I hereby demand that you must share me with your mate Selten! So mote it be!”

Spike’s jaw dropped as he stared at Ember incredulously. “I… I thought we had an understanding! Give me that scepter back!”

Ember smirked and purred, “Too late, dear Spike~ Now, why don’t you and I consummate our little mating right here… right now…?”

Spike gulped and backed away from Ember as she advanced on him at a seductive gait, her beauty only slightly tarnished by her tussles with him. “I’m already mated for life! Selten will never share with you!”

Ember shook her head and held the scepter up, “Oh Spike, I thought you were smart. When the Dragonlord tells a dragon to do something…” a crushing weight slammed down on Spike as Ember’s eyes glowed bright crimson, “they do it.”

Spike fell to his knees groaning in pain. “Alright. I get it,” he grunted as he struggled back to his feet. “But I’m telling Selten that you tricked me.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way~” Ember all but sang, letting up on the pressure so that she could nuzzle up against Spike’s side.

Spike shuddered as she slid against some of his personal erogenous zones. “What have I gotten myself into?”

Facet struggled to hold back his laughter at the sight he and Rarity were being treated to. “Well this is certainly unexpected.”

“Indeed. It appears that Spike made quite the foolish decision this time around,” Rarity noted as she filed her nails, “One must take care to never give any stalker-ish kind of admirer any power over their daily routine. Otherwise, things go straight to Tartarus.”

“Speaking from personal experience?” Facet asked as he lit a cigarette, grinning as he watched the dragons.

Rarity shuddered, “Let’s not speak of the follies of youth unless they’re coming as a source of entertainment on a screen, shall we?”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Facet said as he exhaled some smoke. “Speaking of mysterious things, there are rumors floating around Night Shift. About some new mystery agent doing long range, low key field work.”

Rarity raised a perfect eyebrow, “Oh? Is that so? What do you mean, ‘long range, low key field work’?”

“As in, so low key that standard procedure in case of failure is belayed,” Facet said, puffing his cigarette. “In normal field work circumstances, failure to complete the objective or reach the extraction point afterward within the allotted time leads to deployment of weapons of mass destruction to glass the mission location, erasing all trace of our activity. But this agent is different. Apparently so skilled and low key that glassing is not an option. All we know about this agent is their codename: Zamiel. And whoever he or she is, their identity is known to only one person on the entire planet: Princess Luna.”

“Well that’s… certainly mysterious,” Rarity murmured, “Do you think it might be someone we know?”

“Possibly,” Facet pondered. “Or maybe it’s someone we’ve never met before. Anyway. Let’s focus on the dragons now.”

Ember purred contentedly as she landed upon the beach and held the Bloodstone Scepter aloft, “Dragons! I am Ember! Your new Dragonlord!”

All around, those dragons left surviving and those that had not partaken bowed, a rippling wave of scales and color marred only by Selten’s unamused raise of her eyebrow as she just barely inclined her head enough to be somewhat respectful.

Spike gulped as he slowly approached his mate. “Uh… Selten? There’s uh, something you should know.”

Selten looked up from her pit, having just finished setting the last of her brood to sleep, “Yes, my mate? What is it?”

“Well… I got the scepter first, but then thought I had an understanding with Ember, and gave it to her,” Spike hesitantly admitted. “And… her first decree is that… that you have to… share me with her…”

Selten stared for a moment, then silently stood, walked over to the nearest large, burly, and thoroughly intimidating dragon, then proceeded to, without any warning nor quarter given, dismember and incinerate the poor, unprepared dragon into a pile of ash within three seconds. “Spike?” she asked, her voice completely level.

“Y-Yes, Dear?” Spike asked, trembling in blood chilling terror as he watched the brutal killing, fearful that he was next, and feeling thoroughly emasculated.

“The next time the Bloodstone Scepter is in your grasp, you will keep it. And if Ember is still alive by then, you will dismember her for it.” Selten’s eyes glowed with unholy fury as she just barely fought down the urge to incinerate everything within sight. “And no matter what she says, you are mine and mine alone. Understood?”

Spike rapidly nodded. “Crystal clear, Selten. Crystal clear.” He froze as he felt Ember slide her side against his and twine her neck with his. “H-Hello, Dragonlord.”

“Hello yourself, my newly chosen mate,” Ember sighed happily and nipped at Spike’s neck, blissfully ignoring Selten’s mounting fury despite the violet corona slowly building up behind Selten’s eyes.

Spike trembled in fear despite Ember’s affections, convinced that one of two things was going to happen. Either A) He was going to die in the near future, or B) Ember and Selten would come to blows, and one or both of them would die.

Selten trembled in abject rage as she padded up to Ember and curled almost seductively around the smaller dragon, “Oh, Dragonlord, I would discuss with you~” A quiet, dangerous purr worked from Selten’s throat, carrying with it a thin mist of violet, near invisible plasma that all but melted the ground in a five foot radius.

Ember froze and smirked, meeting Selten’s challenge with her own mist of flames. “Oh, and what would that be, worm?”

“This!” Selten roared, catching Ember by the throat and lifting her into the air, the two of them jetting off and landing in the very caldera of the volcanic island where the Bloodstone Scepter had lain not half an hour prior.

Spike turned and looked at where the two had gone, sighing in dread as Garble and Crusher landed beside him. “Guys. What should I do? Get in the way or just let them kill each other?” As he asked, he gently collected his sleeping brood onto his back.

Crusher snorted and curled up in the warm sand of the beach, “And get caught in the middle of that? Good luck.”

“Yeah, two dragonesses fighting is… well, as the sire always said, never have two dames fight over you because you will regret it,” Garble added as he plopped down next to Crusher, “I’m starting to think he might have had experience in that, by the way.”

“So just watch?” Spike asked as he set into a low hover, his brood not even stirring. “I’m not interested in becoming a single parent.”

“Oh please, either your mate will win or the dragonlord will win. Best case scenario is-” Garble cut himself off as his ear fins twitched, “Actually, I don’t think you have to worry.”

Spike stared at Garble in confusion. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Facet lit a cigarette as his cheeks turned a cheery red at the sight below him and Rarity. “You know. The last thing I expected to see on this trip was draconic hate fucking.”

Rarity stoically kept herself from facing the screen as she telekinetically turned the volume to its minimum. “Indeed. Lesbian hate sex was lower on the list, though. It seems like we are, unfortunately, cursed to have the worst of both worlds.”

“And yet we both know that Vinyl would enjoy this sight,” Facet noted, glad that the DJ’s responsibilities had prevented her from accompanying him and Rarity. “So… Should we go home then?”

“Most definitely, unless you’d rather stick around for the… show,” Rarity muttered.

“There are many things I would love to immortalize on canvas,” Facet said as he turned the jet on a heading for Canterlot. “This is not one of them.” Once they were out of draconic earshot, he punched it and made the jet go supersonic.

Spike’s ear fins perked in another direction besides the caldera. “Hey Garble? Crusher? Did you two hear that?”

“Hear what?” Garble asked curiously, “I was too busy listening to the angry lesbian hate sex on that island over there.”

“Guess it was nothing,” Spike muttered as he looked at his kids, gently nuzzling Atarka as she shifted in her sleep. “At least my kids don’t have to worry about losing their mother.”

Spike sighed and settled down to wait for his mate while watching his children sleep. Watching his kids made him lose track of time, which made him flinch a tad when a pair of weights landed near him. Looking up, he saw Selten and Ember had returned.

Ember dropped to the ground, panting and looking very much worse for the wear, while Selten stood proud and, though scratched and bruised, looking very much pristine despite her injuries.

“We have resolved our dispute,” Selten stated simply as she plopped down next to Spike and began cleaning her wounds.

Ember nodded weakly and pulled herself over with her staff, then sighed, “Perhaps we should go a few more rounds to make sure that there’s no lingering resentment…?”

“How about you just not fight and agree to play nice with each other?” Spike suggested from between them, not sure if he wanted them to be in the same vicinity.

Selten deadpanned, “That remains to be seen.”

“I think I’d rather drown,” Ember muttered spitefully.

“Cadance would laugh if she saw me now…” Spike muttered as he rested his face in his claws, feeling a migraine coming on.