Spike's Ember

A few terms to clear up before we start: A 'drake' is a male dragon, a 'dragoness' is a female dragon, and a 'dragon' is gender-ambiguous. A 'brood' is basically all of the children born from one 'clutch', and a 'clutch' is basically what a group of eggs is called.

Ok, off ya go.

~ ~ ~

Spike arrived in the Dragonlands not long after the sun fully rose. He also noticed that the skies were rather barren, as was the ground on the way to the Dragon Lord's cave. Surely the other dragons had been called as well, as they had been when the previous Dragon Lord had challenged the others to claim his title, yet he was seemingly the only other dragon here. "Weird..." Spike whispered to himself, questioning if he was indeed the only dragon here.

Within a few more minutes, Spike stood at the mouth of the Dragon Lord's personal cave, knowing his way there well from his previous visits there to see and spend time with Ember, whenever both Twilight's and Ember's schedules permitted. He landed and folded his wings in, raising a claw to the thinner rock covering the entrance like a door and knocking. "Hello, Ember? Dragon Lord? You called me?" Spike called out, then waiting a moment before knocking again.

Soon, Spike heard the scraping of rock-on-rock as the 'door' shifted aside, with Spike looking to who had answered, smiling as he saw it was indeed Ember. Ember had grown just as Spike had, her own wings large and sprawling, her general body size quite large now since she too had hit her pubescent growth spurt. As she opened the door, his eyes went from the beautiful cyan scales upon her back and sides to her wings of the same color, the inner membranes a soft gradient of purple and blue. Then he looked to her chest and belly of a light turquoise, noticing that said belly was lightly pulching, undoubtedly due to the unfertilized eggs she now carried. A thought that made Spike feel a rush of itchy-hot through his whole body, especially around his groin.

Spike then looked at the two near-white horns on either side of her head, curving inward towards her muzzle, which was splotched with small patches of light-blue scales and her forehead having deeper-blue scales. Finally, Spike's eyes settle onto her eyes of a brilliant red, his own of emerald-green meeting them.

Ember cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes as he greeted her so formally. "That's Lord Ember to you, subject," Ember said, though the demand for his subjugation to her was halfhearted at best. After all, they were very close friends, and had he not surrendered the right to her, he would indeed be her Lord instead. Ember sighed, conceding with a smirk. "Hi, Spike."

Spike walked up to her and suddenly wrapped her in a hug, taking her off-guard as always as he showed her affection. He sat a head taller than her, his frame much larger than hers, but somehow that didn't make her feel intimidated. His superior size made her feel...safe as he held her like that, encasing her form with his, wrapping his wings around her. "Hehe, there's the pony-loving dragon I know..." Ember said with a hint of amusement, but with no malice intended as any other dragons saying those words surely would. Indeed, she always teased like that Spike whenever he'd show her any form of affection, with dragons generally being a very emotionally hard, uncaring species who viewed ponies' 'softer' emotions like love as weakness. Ember couldn't disagree more.

"So, there are those new wings you wrote me about huh? The letter didn't say they were so big and strong...very impressive." Ember said as she looked to Spike's closed wing, gently grabbing and tugging on its edge with a claw to have him open it. As he did, she saw that his wings were much broader than her own, the edges the same purple as the rest of him and his membranes the green of his underbelly. She played her claws gently along the soft inner membrane, feeling Spike shuddering from the sensation on such a sensitive place in his state; "Very impressive indeed..."

Spike smiled at the compliment, then suddenly moaned softly, a sharp surge of burning-aching going through his body upon seeing and smelling a female dragon so near to him, unknowingly picking up on the pheromones that Ember was emitting en masse.

Deciding the time was right, Ember decided it was time to bring up the reason she brought him here. "Spike, did you notice that I asked you, and only you, to come here at this time of year?" Ember asked, her expression now dead-serious; "Twilight did tell you what this time of year is as I asked her to, correct?"

Spike nodded softly. "She did. May I ask why you invited me here during our breeding season, Lord Ember?" he asked, his voice oblivious.

Ember simply sighed. "Are you really asking why a dragoness has invited a drake she...likes...to her personal cave during breeding season with a clutch full of unfertilized, hot eggs burning really uncomfortably in her belly...?" she asked, before giving a snort. "Very well, I shall elaborate. My obligations as the Dragon Lord require any dragons too young to mate at the time of their coronation, upon reaching breeding age and entering their first fertile season, to find a mate. A mate that must have proven themselves worthy of...." she said, pausing before looking to Spike, "...a drake worthy of giving me my first brood. A drake...a drake like you, Spike."

As she said those words, Spike's eyes went wide as he tensed up, breaking physical contact with her much to his body's chagrin. "A...brood? That's like...a lot of baby dragons, right?" he asked, only to receive a nod. His stomach sank as the reality set in; she'd asked him asked here to give her his seed and sire her clutch.

"Yes Spike at least six to eight broodlings, as that's what most dragonesses produce. As the only member of what you ponies would call 'royalty', it is customary for the Dragon Lord to have a brood upon their appointment to the position in the following breeding season; to pass their clearly superior genes on to the next generation with a worthy sire or brood-mother of their choosing." She paused, her cheeks flushed a light purple as she became flustered at the subject. "I was too young at the time of my coronation to produce eggs and bear a brood. That's one of the main reasons my dad didn't want me to compete; he not only considered me to be unable to complete the trials, and as being too 'soft' to rule, but also knew it would be many years before I could bear a clutch of eggs.*"

She finally met eyes with Spike again, her bright-red eyes burning into his like fire. "Spike, I recently went into my first...well, what you ponies would call a 'heat' some days ago. My father quickly found out and told me that I was now ready to fulfill my obligation to have a 'Lord's brood' and that he expected me to find a worthy drake by this week's end...or that he would choose one for me himself. He told me he expected me to find a big, strong drake to give me a powerful brood, one physically strong and large...but after a lot of thought...Spike, I picked you."

Spike gulped, his head swimming and his legs weak, everything rushing through his mind at once as he considered what had been laid out for him: he was being asked to become a father, but not only a father but a father to dragon royalty! "I....uh...m-me?" Spike stammered out, nearly collapsing at the implications.

"Yes, you pony-dragon." Ember said with a smirk, "Ever since you saved me from drowning after getting knocked out of the sky, when you could have easily just let me die and have one less competitor for the Bloodstone Scepter, I've felt there was something special about you, and that feeling has only grown as I've gotten to know you more throughout the years. You've always had something that so many other dragons lack, something that Twilight gave to you by raising you as one of her own; the ability to love and be loved without expecting to gain something from it, the ability to show kindness and generosity to others even when it's not warranted by dragon standards. To work together towards a common goal without expecting a share of what it reaps. Spike, those traits are something I want my children to have. Something I know you can provide me."

Spike was once more dumbfounded as she spoke so highly of who he was, and of the traits that many dragons would consider as signs of weakness but that she clearly viewed as virtues. "S-so you want me to decide now?" Spike asked, finding he'd instinctively grabbed her in another gentle hug, holding his potential mate close to him as his instincts told him to.

Once more Ember gently pulled away, meeting her eyes with his again. This time, Spike could read an intense need in her eyes as he looked into them, seeing a fire burning hot; a fire he'd seen before in the eyes of ponies who were lovers and life mates. The unmistakable fire of love and lust combined. "Y-yeah. I could wait for another day or two given this is such a big decision for you, but now would be nice," she grumbled, looking away and scrunching her muzzle, "my eggs aren't getting any cooler, and won't be for the next four months without a mate. I'm sure your own desires won't sate themselves either..."

After a short while of silence, Ember then decided to try a clincher, wanting Spike to father her clutch and knowing this fact may sway him if he was considering not to; "I should also tell you that according to dragon law, if you reject me and I cannot find a worthy mate, I have to be paired with any other male dragons without a mate as well by the end of the second week of my heat. That means I would...basically be available to any drakes who would want to 'use me' to relieve themselves and fertilize my eggs...as happens to all dragonesses whose eggs aren't claimed by a single drake before the second week of the breeding season.  After all, if no single dragon wants to make a dragoness a mother, the whole dragonflight will..."

Spike huffed as his cheeks started burning hot, thinking of any other dragon treating a sweet dragoness like Ember like a common sex toy making his blood boil – and in his anger missed the fact that Ember would be assigned a single mate by her father should he refuse her. "...but can't you change that? You're the Dragon Lord! All of the dragons have to listen to you, right?"

Ember shook her head. "No Spike, there are some things that not even a Dragon Lord can change. One of those is the set breeding rituals, especially given that both genders suffer without a mate. The other is that a Dragon Lord has to have at least one clutch of eggs, and if they don't choose a single mate to have it with, the whole flight will mate her and make it a clutch 'of the flight'."

A deep-seated hoarding instinct triggered in Spike at the thought of losing his friend – his sensitive, lovely Ember – to such inferior, brutish males, making him grip Ember in a tight squeeze against him, softly smiling as he heard a gentle gasp from his sign of affection and possession combined. He was also reminded of his own physical and mental discomfort and, his breeding instincts speaking as much as his own desires, he nodded. Plus if what she said was true, and he had no reason to doubt her, he couldn't possibly leave her to be at the mercy of a bunch of horny drakes, nor even one other than him for that matter, to force themselves upon her and possibly make her have a mixed brood. Especially not her...

"Ember, I accept your proposal. I will be your...brood-father."

"Now?"

"Now, if you're ready now."

At hearing that, Ember felt a happy warmth bubbling up from her belly to her chest, before bursting and making her smile – before she remembered what dragon mating always entailed and felt a chill of ice-cold fear flush through her instead, her smile instantly fading as soon as it'd bloomed. She nuzzled into Spike's chest in fear as he rested his muzzle on her head, nuzzling softly with a small smile on his own face, as of yet oblivious to her reticence and thinking the nuzzle was simply her returning the affection for a change.

"Now's good. I'm...happy to hear that you're so eager." Ember said as she then stood, heading into her cave, "Please...c-come in and follow me to the bedroom."

Spike could swear he heard more than a hint of fear in her voice as she invited him in, but wasn't at all sure why she'd be afraid of making love.

After all, making love was always a wonderful experience for all species, right?

Right?