Love in a Time of Dragons

Chapters

The Letter
The Dragon Lord Cometh
Forming a Plan
An Unusual Form of Training
To the Dragon Lands!
The Gathering
A Prominent Individual
Friendly Conversation
A Firm Feel

The Letter

"Spike! Spike, get out here! Spike!" the sound of Princess Twilight Sparkle's voice went out through the empty halls of her castle. Hoisted over her shoulder and under her wing was a small, plain brown satchel bag, and the contents within was something the alicorn needed to show her dragon companion. She called out again, before realizing what was transpiring. "Spike, where in Celestia's mane are you? Out of all the times to be out of the castle... Rats!"

With haste in her stride, she made her way to the solid stairs that led to the bottom floor, and began trotting down them. As the chiming noise of hoof-on-crystal-steps went out with every motion of her feet, she soon noticed a new one commence through the air.

The sound, coming from somewhere on the lower level she was heading to, was of metal wheels screeching over the floor, echoing out in a most grinding manner that indicated that something heavy was placed over them. Thinking it to be her loyal assistant, she finished her descent, only to see a familiar, pink shape hauling a cart standing before her in the area that sat just outside of the throne room.

"Hello Twilight! How're ya doing?" Pinkie Pie greeted heartily, before motioning to the tower of chocolate and white frosting that laid on the cart before her. "I baked you a cake! But... huh. You look a bit... frustrated. Are you trying to find something?" She let out a gasp. "Did you lose a book?!"

"Oh, hey Pinkie. No, I didn't lose a book. I'm just looking for Spike," the alicorn greeted back in reply, taking her eyes off of the large pastry and turning them to her friend. "You wouldn't happen to have see him lately, have you?"

"As a matter of fact, I have," the pink mare answered. "He and Rarity went out looking for gems to dig up at Foal Mountain about an hour ago. I think Rarity told me it was about going on a hunt for fire rubies for one of her latest dress ideas. Why do you ask?"

"I just received a letter from Dragon Lord Ember," she said urgently, using her magic to lift the fold of paper she was keeping in her satchel. "Judging from what I saw was written, Spike needs to see it too."

"Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwait... Dragon Lord Ember? The same Dragon Lord Ember that you, Rarity, and Spike met all those years ago? The same Dragon Lord Ember who's been sending you all those notes about dragon culture? That Ember?" the hyperactive pony sputtered, the cake she had been pushing around all but forgotten at this point. Twilight nodded her horned head.

"Yes. I got it by dragonfire a little while ago," she stated. "It's pretty urgent."

"Hmm... mind if I see it for a sec?" Pinkie inquired, curiously. With an unsure expression, Twilight let the letter float to her friend, and Pinkie Pie snatched it right from the air with a hoof. Unfolding it and reading speedily, her blue eyes didn't scan more than three lines of the letter before growing wide as saucers. A toothy smile crept onto her face and she stared back at her friend with an expression that conveyed nothing but unbridled excitement. "She's coming here? To Ponyville? TODAY?!" she screeched loud enough to cause Twilight's ears mild discomfort. "Oh. My. Gosh! I've gotta get a welcoming party ready! There'll be cake, and confetti, and dragon-shaped cookies, and small gems -- for the dragons of course -- and lots and lots of-"

Pinkie, calm down!" Twilight interrupted, placing her hooves over the mare in question's shoulders, stopping her rapid vibrating after a short few seconds. Taking in a deep breath that expanded her chest deeply, Pinkie Pie slowly exhaled and returned to as calm of a state as she could muster.

"Whoa. Sorry..." she apologized with a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "I just don't know how to handle a situation like this! Spike's the only dragon that's ever cared to live in Ponyville as far as I know, but the Dragon Lord herself is coming! I've gotta plan out something big for her! Something unforgettable!"

"Why don't you look at the rest of it?" the princess spoke again. Shrugging and lifting the now slightly-crumpled paper to her snout once more, Pinkie began reading. Once she had finished a few dozen seconds later, she quietly lowered it without, unusually enough, uttering a single word. The look she bore resembled one of confusion and deep thought. Puckering her lip and letting out an inquisitive hum, she slowly looked back at Twilight.

"She only wants to speak with you and Spike, and she said she's only visiting for a short time," she sighed, sadly. Like a deflated balloon, her normally jumpy, pink form drooped to the floor in a depressed way. "Aw, phooey. There go all my hard-baked plans..."

"You just made those plans, Pinkie," Twilight smirked, patting her frilly-maned head. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll come by again someday."

"But it's been years since I've seen her in person, and she's never been to Ponyville in a long time! When will she actually come here for a while?"

"I'll find out," the princess comforted. "Tell you what: I'll see if I can ask her when she's available for a longer visit. We know each other well enough that I'm sure that both of us are pretty good friends by now. So don't fret about it."

"I hope you do," Pinkie pleaded with the puppy dog-eyed look she put on whenever she wanted to invoke a feeling of pity in another. Less than a second later, her entire demeanor switched back its typical cheery disposition in the blink of an eye, and she stood herself back up with a smile.

Twilight picked up the note from her friend's hoof and folded it up nicely, before placing it back into her bag. "I've got to go find Spike now," she said. "I guess I'm heading for Foal Mountain. See you later, Pinkie."

"Okey-dokey, Loki!" Pinkie waved, turning herself about and returning to the cart carrying her cake. "I'll just bring the cake to your freezer upstairs. See ya soon, Twi! Good luck! And don't forget to ask!"

Chuckling at her enthusiasm, Twilight opened the doors of her castle, large by pony standards, and managed to exit when they were ajar by just a crack. After watching the princess she knew so well and for so long leave, Pinkie looked to the towering dessert in front of her.

"Hmm..." she mumbled to it, placing a hoof over her chin as she looked at the stairs nearby. "How will I get you up there?"

The Dragon Lord Cometh

"Hey! Rarity!" A deep voice called out from below the earth's surface.

Rarity, the white unicorn with the long, spindly indigo mane sitting beside the freshly-dug dark hole lying in the grey, gravelly ground before her, quickly answered back. "Yes, Spikey-wikey?" she shouted down into it.

"I've found something!" the voice yelled back. With the sound of dirt and rock being scraped apart underfoot, as well as the noise of dry earth being clambered over, a large, mulberry-purple figure with bright green, ovular-edged spikes lining his head and back emerged from the ground; the wings he bore brushing against the entrance of the hole. There was also something held in both of his front claws; something Rarity spotted right off.

"Oh my..." she gasped, seeing the shining gems he was holding with pure clarity. "Oh, Spike, you're such a dear!"

Spike had grown considerably in the last few years. What was once a young, small, wingless whelp of an admittedly stubby shape and girth was now a drake of a much leaner build. Having matured naturally, without the aid of greed-induced growth to help or hinder its natural process, Spike ended up sprouting a pair of wings over his shoulders, which came as a rather hefty surprise, and enormous delight, to all.

He still remembered when he was just a child, always standing below his friends and family. But, as demonstrated now, he was at least few feet over their height in the current day and age, which was a fact he fondly reminded himself with pride. Looking down to Rarity, he let a grin stretch across his snout at the white-furred mare.

"These are all I found in the spot you said they were at," he said before shaking his body, brushing off the last of the dust covering his form. "Think they'll do?"

"These are absolutely divine!" Rarity complimented in an ecstatic tone, using her magic to lift a single ruby from his cupped claws and inspect its shimmering red surface up close before dropping it back with the pile. "They'll go beautifully with the gown and locket combination I have in mind! Oh, Spike, I can't thank you enough for coming and helping me with this! I'll have that set ready in no time now!"

"Yeah, well... I didn't really have any plans for the day," the dragon chuckled, bashfully. "You're very welcome."

Interrupting the otherwise-quiet noise given off by their surroundings, Spike's ears detected the sound of wingbeats coming from a distance. It wasn't a few moments after that Rarity heard them too, and the pair looked upward, spotting a familiar, purple shape flying to them speedily, and they knew who it was almost at once. Once Twilight Sparkle had landed and tucked her wings away, she took a few seconds to catch her breath.

"Hello there, Twilight," Rarity spoke with a cheerful tune.

"Hey there, Twi," Spike greeted as well. Hints of surprise and suspicion peppered his words, despite their casualness. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I came out here because I received a message a short time ago, Spike," she said, curtly. "It's from Ember."

Spike's green eyes seemed to lighten up the second he heard her utter the Dragon Lord's name. "It's from Ember?" he echoed.

Twilight nodded. "Yes. She said she's coming to see you and I in a short time from now. Care to read it for yourself?"

She lifted the folded-up piece of paper from her satchel in a purple halo of magic and levitated it to her assistant. With a curious expression painted on his face, Spike immediately accepted it and placed the rubies he had been holding down on the ground next to him, unfolding the paper with his claws afterward.

As he started reading, Rarity walked up to Twilight. "Did something happen?" the unicorn fashionista leaned in and whispered, clearly concerned.

"As far as I know, no," she responded. "All Ember wrote to me was that she was coming by for a brief visit." As Twilight finished her sentence, Spike finished the note. He walked up to the two ponies and handing the paper back to Twilight.

"She's going to be here at noon," he spoke, before turning his scaly head to Rarity, tapping his foreclaws together uneasily. "Um... Rarity, I think I need to get back to Ponyville now. I'm sorry. It's just that..."

"Oh, darling, don't feel bad. You've done more than enough," Rarity chuckled easily, using her magic to pick the gems up from the ground and float them to a sack she had lying nearby. "These rubies are more than enough to please my client. You'd best get to Ponyville and make yourself presentable for the Dragon Lord."

Smiling most happily at her understanding, Spike stretched his wings out from his back. With a single, mighty stroke of them, he took off into the air, scattering the dust and pebbles below him. Twilight changed her view from his flying form to Rarity, who she noticed was also watching her assistant rapidly shrink in the distance.

"How long was it since those two last saw each other?" the unicorn asked, finally looking to Twilight. "Ember and Spike, I mean."

"Almost two years," Twilight answered. "It was after Spike, Fluttershy and I helped repel a freak invasion of wild cockatrices up in the Dragon Lands. She and I have still been writing to each other every month, though."

"I wonder what could be so important as to cause the Dragon Lord to travel to Ponyville in person," the unicorn queried to her friend again. "Do you think something awful has befallen the dragons? Surely Ember isn't dropping by just to say hi in such a quick manner."

Twilight shrugged, ready to join Spike in his venture back to town. "Well, I guess we'll find out soon."

Though he masked his feelings well with a look of self-assurance, Spike felt both nervous and excited on the inside as he imagined how he'd handle seeing Ember again. Once the clock in the middle of town had struck twelve and sent out an appropriate amount of chimes, he and Twilight trekked to the front of their castle's entrance in expectance of their guest's arrival. And, for the next five minutes, it was there they waited.

"Twilight, do you think she'll notice it's me when she gets here?" the dragon suddenly asked, looking down to the pony by his side.

She grinned, patting his shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry, Spike. I've told her how much you've matured in some of the notes we've written to each other." No sooner had she replied, both looked to the sky as they caught something dark out of the corner of their eyes, and it was no bird when they each recognized the shape of its sleek, long outline against the sun.

Even if he lived in a place filled with a surplus of his kind, Spike would never mistake the brilliant cyan-and-turquoise figure heading toward him for another. In a graceful motion, the Dragon Lord was soon upon them and landed on the ground in a motion as swift as the wind itself. As Ember stood up to her full height, Spike could now see much more easily that in one of her claws rested the bloodstone scepter that cemented her position, and a small circlet of gold sat over her head and in front of her sapphire-tinted spikes, covered with similar, albeit smaller gems of the same crimson texture. After dusting herself off, her scales appeared to glisten in the sunlight, and the piercing red eyes lying just above her thin snout looked forward, focusing on the two now before her.

To Spike's partial surprise, Ember almost looked the same as when he last met her, though the spiraling pair of horns adorning either side of her head had clearly gotten a little longer, giving her somewhat of a more regal natural appearance to compliment her position. Being the first to break the silence that had befallen, Twilight spoke, beginning with her most formal welcome.

"Welcome to my castle, Dragon Lord Ember," the alicorn greeted, bowing her head courteously. She made a sideways glance at Spike, and noticed he was still staring at their guest in a way that conveyed enthrallment. Rolling her eyes, she tapped her elbow against his side, catching his attention.

"Oh, uh- yes! Welcome, Dragon Lord Ember," Spike also spoke in a quick and off guard manner upon being returned to the present.

Watching him so suddenly change his stance caused Ember to silently chuckle to herself. "It's good to see you again, little guy," she said. "It feels like it's been ages since we last got to speak."

Spike smirked back. "I'm not so little now, it seems."

"I barely recognized there for a moment, and... Wow. I see your wings grew in quite well," she smiled in return, examining the impressive pair of appendages attached to his back. "They're as big as mine now."

"Oh, these?" Spike asked, extending his leftmost one for both to see before tucking it in again. "Yeah, they're not the short, useless little gnat wings they were when we last saw each other, are they? Heheh..."

Ember joined in on the small bout of laughter with a giggle of her own before returning to her collected visage. "Spike, Twilight, I... didn't come to stay for long," she sighed. Spike nodded his head in understanding.

"Well, that is what your note said," he spoke sadly. "What prompted you to decide to come here on such a short notice?"

"It's just to deliver a simple, important piece of news, nothing else."

"We're all ears," Twilight assured, confidently. Taking in a deep breath, Ember began to speak.

"You see... something big is coming up soon. There's a tradition among dragons where drakes and dragonesses of our age all come together in a once-in-a-lifetime event that we call the 'Time of the Heartscale'," she started, looking directly at Spike as she explained herself. "It's going to happen when I call every viable dragon to the Dragon Lands exactly a month from today."

Spike appeared to be intrigued. "This gathering... what's it about?" he asked. Ember couldn't help but grin the moment his words graced her ears, revealing a smile that exposed some of her fangs in a most overjoyed fashion, as if she was holding in the punchline of the most well-humored joke ever created all to herself.

"Spike, it's where all the dragons find their life-mates, of course!" The dragoness told him in a tone that gave the impression that she was containing a powerful burst of innate delight. Instead of sharing her blatant enthusiasm, Spike was stricken into dumb silence by her reply. His expression was sent completely blank in awestruck surprise, as could be seen by both Ember and Twilight, prompting the former to slowly allow her smile to shrink a small bit. Holding the look for but a few seconds longer, Spike shook his head rapidly and returned to reality with a deep inhalation of air, stretching a claw over his back before returning it to his side.

"L-life-mate?" he finally stammered upon finding the right words, looking back to Ember. "As in... like... marriage?"

"Basically, I guess," she calmly said. "Twilight's told me enough about pony customs for me to know what that is. When two dragons choose each other at the Time of the Heartscale, it's a relationship they both share for life."

"F-for life? What? H-how?" His words came spouting out rapidly.

"I thought you wouldn't know about it," Ember mumbled. "I knew you were raised by ponies and all, and I wanted to let you know so that you would be prepared. After all, if you don't find a life-mate during the five days that the gathering takes place, in accordance to dragon law, you can never have one forever afterword."

These words hit Spike almost as worse as the ones from before. "F-forever? Oh, wow... oh wow..."

"Spike, are you okay?" Twilight spoke up, shaking his shoulder with a hoof upon seeing him in distress.

"Yep," he lied, shifting into a false mien of reassurance and standing straight, shooting her a thumbs-up with his claw. "Just fine. Very surprised, a bit shaken here or there, but fine. Peachy, even."

"It's good to see that you understand, Spike," Ember went on without pause, before changing her attention to the princess. "Twilight, I wanted to speak with you too because, after thinking it over for a bit, I've decided to allow you to observe how the Time of the Heartscale takes place. From a distance, of course."

"Oh my. Do you mean it?" Twilight almost squealed in joy, before immediately humbling her voice's pitch. "I'm... honored that you're allowing me this kind of access, Ember."

As Spike focused his attention to the ground, in an effort to calm himself and think, Ember let out another sigh. "Sorry to be so abrupt, but I'm afraid I need to go now," she apologized, rubbing a claw over the bloodstone scepter in her hands. "You know how the Dragon Lands are when it's unsupervised... can't leave it unmanaged for a minute before a dispute over territory breaks out, or something of that ilk. But that's why I'm the Dragon Lord."

Twilight was about to say a word of farewell, when another memory came to mind. "Um... Ember, before you go, my friend Pinkie Pie wanted to know the next time you were coming to Ponyville."

"Hmm..." she hummed, her reptilian eyes staring elsewhere as she placed a claw to her lips. "That's a tough request. Maybe we could plan for something sometime... after the event? How does that sound?"

"I'm sure Pinkie will be overjoyed to hear that," the princess thanked, bowing her head once more. "I hope your journey back to the Dragon Lands is pleasant, and words can't express how thankful I am that you decided to take the time to tell us this information in person."

Ember bowed back in mutual respect. "And I thank you for your time, Princess. Goodbye for now Twilight. And if you are attending the gathering, then I wish you have the best of luck on getting ready for it, Spike."

Spike switched his eyes from the ground to Ember as he heard his name being spoken. She was looking directly at him again with an expression he recognized as lighthearted. Possibly even hopeful, dare he presume as much.

Ember gave a firm nod at the pair and turned around. Her wings already outstretched, she took to the air with a quick series of flaps and was soon high in the blue, cloudless sky. When she was but a speck in the horizon, Twilight looked at Spike with a raised brow.

"Spike... are you okay?" she inquired in a concerned voice, repeating the question she had asked him a few minutes before. The dragon glimpsed at her, showing her a weary and unsure face.

"I don't think so, Twilight. I've gotta... think about this..." he responded in a slow groan, rubbing a sluggish claw over his face tiredly. "If you need me, I'll be in my room."

He trudged by his friend and entered the castle, letting the doors close loosely behind him with a loud, echoing thump. As he left, Twilight took a minute to think over what had just transpired.

"'The Time of the Heartscale'," she said to herself, making a large mental note on what Ember had spoken to her. Planting a hoof on her chin, she looked back to the castle and her thoughts turned to what tortured emotions her companion was most likely suffering through at the moment. "Poor Spike. I've got to do something... but what?"

Pondering her options to herself, Twilight trotted to the doors of her abode and quietly pushed them open, quickly vanishing inside.

Forming a Plan

As the radiant sun and azure horizon was lowered from the sky and replaced by the tranquil moon and a bed of flickering stars, Twilight still sat at her desk in the middle of her study. Surrounding her was her entire library, host to her massive collection of books and scriptures of times long past, some of which were stacked beside her on her wooden workplace, next to an inkwell that she typically dipped her quill into to write notes to her mentor in Canterlot.

One of them was right in front of her, and it was wide open. Reading fiercely, her eyes turned left and right as they scanned over its words. With the information shared by Ember's brief visit, coupled with Spike's decision to contemplate what to make of the news given, Twilight had been inspired to research diligently on what knowledge she could use to remedy the young adult dragon's quandary.

Speaking of her beloved assistant and friend, Spike had been in his room for just about the rest of the day. Missing dinner, Twilight brought it up to him and quietly slipped it into his room, as to not disrupt whatever it was he may have been thinking about or working on.

Happening sometime in the last two hours, Spike did come out of his room at last, emerging once or twice, but each time was in silence. All Twilight saw him do from the corner of her eye was attempt to stealthily pass by her, grab a volume-or-three from the bookshelves in his claws, and swiftly return to where his chamber lied without a word. Closely examining that which went missing after his departures (which wasn't really a challenge for the princess, seeing how she made quite the sport of organizing which tome went where), Twilight realized her assistant had nabbed many of the books that were based on her findings on dragon culture. With the information shared by Ember over the years, she was able to publish a few on the subject, and kept the originals in her library.

Twilight could feel herself dozing off with every minute that passed by. Soon she was snoring away in dreamland, only to snap back awake and to reality as her head slipped from her steady hoof and to the desk. Letting out a yawn, she realized what had happened.

Sighing, the alicorn looked to the clock hanging over the wall nearby and saw the hands were both pointing to the late hour of ten-twenty-five. Levitating a bright blue bookmark into her book and closing it, Twilight stood up from her seat, and, with the volume floating closely behind her in an aura of purple magic, began to walk out of her study and into one of the many halls of her castle.

She trotted along the long, dark corridor, occasionally shifting her view to the windows that showed the even darker outside. From them she could see the rest of Ponyville, looking as sleepy and calm as the night itself, causing a small twinge of envy in the sleepless princess. Finally reaching Spike's room after what felt like an hour in her drowsy head, Twilight looked at the large door that was its front and grabbed onto its handle, turning it after a small moment of delay.

"Spike, you awake?" she whispered as she creaked the door open a crack, causing its metal hinges to squeak in a most grating manner.

"Yes, I am," came the deadpanned reply. Calmly pushing the door open fully, Twilight could see that several candles were lit about in Spike's room, filling it with the glacé aroma of wax, and in the back, where a large bed lied with a pair of legs drooping over it, sat Spike himself. Surrounding him on his furniture of comfort was a rare sight, and that sight was the image of him willingly being amongst a horde of books. They were strewn about messily, each one clearly having been hastily read through, judging from the fact that some of them were still open.

"Is there something you need?" Spike asked, closing the one he was currently holding with an audible clap.

"I just wanted to check up on you," Twilight said, placing her own book down and stepping further inside. "To see if there was anything you needed."

"I'm fine, Twilight," he grunted, scrunching the wool sheets he sat atop of into balls in his claws. "Just a little irritated. And tired."

"I know you, Spike. And by that, I mean I know that isn't what you're really feeling," the princess went on, clearly concerned. "I just want to help you. Please tell me what's wrong." Spike only let out a bout of indiscernible grumbling.

"On second thought, I'm not fine. I'm furious," the dragon began to growl.

"Spike, listen. I-"

"This thing... this 'Time of the Heartscale'... only happens once in a dragon's lifetime, and if any dragon fails to find their significant other in the short few days it happens, they remain alone forever!" he bellowed in a muffled roar. "Why do dragons have to be so... crude with everything?"

Twilight sighed in understanding, before her face lit up like the candles planted around the room. "You don't have to be so hard on yourself over this, Spike. What about your feelings for Rarity? I always thought you two had something," she mentioned. Spike, after letting a few seconds drift by, began to shake his scaly head.

"Twilight," he started in a much more hushed voice. "I... lost my crush on Rarity years ago. I still care for her deeply, probably more deeply than most other ponies, but... just not in that way anymore."

He lowered his snout. "Twilight, I don't know what your opinion of this is, and I don't know if it's my instincts telling me to do this, but I think I want to go out there and try to be a part of the gathering. I want to see what it's like to be real dragon. I want to... try and find a life-mate, while I still have the chance."

His head slowly rose up and looked back to his friend, expecting her not to understand. Instead of seeing a look of disappointment or confusion however, Twilight was smiling. It was a gentle, maternal smile, one that quickly warmed his conflicted heart. "Spike, if you choose to become part of the Time of the Heartscale with the other dragons, then I want you to know that it's your choice, and I'm proud of you for making that kind of decision," she said, placing a hoof around his arm. "I'll always be proud of you, and I don't want you to ever forget that."

Unable to help himself in his exuberance, Spike leaned in and wrapped his long forearms around Twilight's smaller frame, bringing her in close against his green-grey chest in a large hug. Perhaps it was a little too close.

"Spike..." Twilight gasped, as the squeezing power of his natural strength became a tad too much to bear, "Spike, I can't... breath... hug is too... tight..."

Hearing her clearly, the drake instantly let go and chuckled in an embarrassed fashion. "Heh... sorry," he apologized as he watched her take in a few breaths. After fluffing her wings out, she shot him a droll look and turned to the door. She proceeded to pace over to it, and up to where she had let her book lie on the smooth floor.

"I've been reading something you might want to look at," she said, placing a hoof over it. "When you came down and took those books from the library, you forgot one. Sorry, but I was reading it for most of the night so far. I guess I wanted to refamiliarize myself with how dragons work, too."

Spike looked to the several tomes stacked about in his room, and then back to Twilight with a glum expression. "I thought I had all of them. Which one is it?" he asked.

"It's the one you definitely have to look over if you're going to try and participate with the other dragons," the princess grinned, traces of excitement drawn all over her face. "It covers the most details out of all of my other books on dragon customs, male and female behavioral patterns, and," she cleared her throat for the next part, "what may cause two to feel a mutual attraction toward one another."

Spike eyed the (rather thick-looking) piece of literature, before returning his view to the pony in front of him. "Ember shared all this kind of information with you?" he finally managed to ask, clearly awestruck by the sheer amount of it.

"I've asked her about a lot of things, Spike," she chuckled, reminiscing on the moments. "But if I were you, I'd read this in the morning. Even a dragon of your age needs some sleep."

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that," he yawned, scooping the book up in a claw. "Thank you for understanding, Twilight. For a second there, I thought you wouldn't. I hope you have a good night."

"You too, big guy," she smiled, playfully rubbing his head with a hoof like she so very often did when he was younger. "Sweet dreams." After flashing him another pleasant grin, she exited the door and closed it behind her with another squeak of the hinges. After she had left, Spike looked at, then opened the book to where he saw it was bookmarked, and skimmed the first few pages he met before closing it again.

"Ugh... Twilight's right. I'd better get some rest," he whispered to himself, brushing a finger over the bags that were already forming under his eyes. Without another word, he blew out all of the candles that lied around his chamber, put the tome to a safe spot on the side, and crawled into bed.

With the sun risen again and with the crow of a rooster, morning seemed to come at a breakneck pace, and the two inhabitants of the Castle of Friendship were up and about at an early time. After having a small breakfast, Twilight and her companion left to go have a small get-together with their friends at Sugarcube Corner, as they did many times before. Throughout the morning, and even along this walk he was sharing with Twilight, Spike was nose-deep in the book she gave him, researching as many facts as his mind could hold.

They casually strolled through most of Ponyville to reach their destination. All of the ponies in town had gotten used to seeing the sight of a dragon almost twice their height walking before them, and paid Spike no mind, save for when he was about to bump into them from lack of awareness.

Rounding a final building, Twilight spotted Sugarcube Corner, and, sitting at one of the tables just outside of it, were her five other friends, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. A few of them had drinks on their person, apparently to hold themselves over in wait for Twilight.

"Twilight! Spike! Good morning you two!" Pinkie Pie greeted first, waving at them from where she sat upon spotting them. "Grab a seat!"

Smirking, Twilight made her way over to the awaiting table, with Spike not too far behind. After watching Twilight sit down and seeing that there wasn't much room left to hold himself, he decided to sit at the table adjacent to theirs; the metal chair creaking under support for his weight. After a few minutes of small talk, the ponies each began to regale to one another the latest news happening in their lives.

"Things are going pretty smooth back at the farm," Applejack revealed, proudly. "This year's apple-buckin' season is going greater than last year's, that's for sure."

"The Wonderbolts' last tour around Canterlot was spectacular!" Rainbow Dash shouted, nearly jumping from her seat with her enthusiasm. "And the best part? Yours truly performed a sonic rainboom at the most awesome time, right before the end! You all should've heard the cheers..."

"That sounds wonderful," Rarity congratulated, as she swished the tea around in her small cup with a spoon.

"Oh! And that reminds me of something else," Rainbow Dash suddenly brought up again, looking to Twilight. "How's Starlight Glimmer? Has she said hi to you at all lately?"

"She wrote to me that she's doing well in the Crystal Empire right now," she responded in a cheerful beam at the mention of her favorite student. "She's taught Flurry Heart quite a bit about how to use her magic alongside Sunburst. Cadence herself also told me the two are becoming great role models."

"That's so sweet," Fluttershy smiled in her typical light voice. The yellow-furred pegasus turned to Spike next. "How about you Spike? Has anything happened to you lately?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Fine," Spike mumbled nonchalantly, still keeping his eyes glued to his book and attention on anything but his surroundings. Applejack, hearing him and instantly sensing something was off, scratched her chin with one hoof as the other remained on the handle of her mug of apple cider.

"If you don't mind me askin', what's Spike so enamored about within that book a'his?" she inquired to Twilight, curiously.

"That? Um... that's kind of a long story," Twilight spoke back, tapping her hooves together awkwardly. "It all started when Dragon Lord Ember came by at noontime yesterday..."

As she began explaining to her friends what had transpired the day before, they each listened intently. Some of their brows curled in interest, and sometimes lifted in surprise, or instead let their eyes widen. Pinkie looked mostly indifferent, and sipped her glass of hot cocoa with gleeful bliss in her action.

"...and last night, well... Spike told me that he wants to go and become a part of it when the time comes at the end of the month."

The moment Twilight wrapped up her tale, Pinkie Pie spat a stream of cocoa from her mouth to the dirt-and-stone ground, staining it with a sweet, but soggy brown tint. Fluttershy and Rarity both gasped in complete shock. Applejack lowered her hat over her face and Rainbow Dash's agape jaw looked as though it was moments away from dropping from her mouth like a broken hinge.

Spike, hearing the commotion, pricked his head up and looked at the ponies. "What? Did something happen?" he asked. Instead of witnessing an unfortunate accident, his eyes were greeted by the faces of the five ponies that had just finished processing Twilight's words, each slowly turning to face him.

"Spike, you're trying to do WHAT?!" Pinkie cried out in a disbelieving screech, zipping up to him in a pink blur of movement, jumping upon his table, and stretching her head toward him until it was nearly touching his. "You want to go to the Dragon Lands and find a special somedragon?!"

The now-flustered dragon's cheeks flashed a vividly crimson color and he dropped his book to the table; the object slipping from his limp grasp. With shakiness in his eyes, he snapped his view to Twilight. "Twilight... you told them?!" he squeaked.

"I was only telling them what happened yesterday!" she said back. "I didn't think they would take it this harshly!"

"Harshly? Darling, this is wonderful news!" the sound of Rarity's overjoyed voice chirped in. "My dear little Spike is all grown up, and he wants to find someone worthwhile!"

"Rarity, please don't treat this like a... romance novel," Rainbow piped up with a hint of disgust at the end of her sentence. "Why do you even want to do this, Spike?"

"Because if he wants to find a life-mate, he has to participate in the event. Every dragon around the same age has to. It's dragon law," Twilight replied for him. "If he, or any other dragon fails to find one by its end, they are forbidden to do so ever again. That's what Ember told us."

"That sounds terrible," Fluttershy mumbled. "And you said it's only a month from now? Goodness... he doesn't have much time to prepare for such a thing!"

"Which is why I'm starting now," Spike growled, shooing Pinkie off from his table and snatching the book back up from it. "If you'll all excuse me, I have some reading to do."

"Spike, why don't you let us help you as well?" Rarity spoke again as she saw her dear friend clearly about to storm off. "If this is truly something you wish for, then you surely deserve to get the best training."

"Say what?" Applejack asked, shooting her head at the unicorn. "Ya do know that most of us aren't exactly experts in the field of what makes dragons kick, right?"

Rarity puffed without worry, flicking her hoof's wrist. "Oh Applejack, please. We have Twilight for that!"

"Yeah, Twilight can help with that part!" Pinkie Pie readily agreed, bouncing into the air. She glanced at Twilight with an optimistic expression. "Riiight?"

"I guess I could. But what does Spike think?" The alicorn in question said. All of the ponies turned to him expectantly, and were met with a leer of uncertainty from their reptilian associate.

Spike looked back with unsure eyes, and everything went silent. Exhaling deeply in a defeated manner, he finally gave them the reply they wanted. "If you all really want to help me with this, then... it's alright, I guess."

Rarity looked downright joyous at his response. "Oh goody! When do we start?" she said excitedly in a contained shout, tapping her hooves on the table with great rapidity.

"Now, I'd reckon," Applejack decided to answer calmly, fixing her hat and taking a final sip from her mug of cider, placing the empty stein back on the table with an audible thud.

An Unusual Form of Training

"Twilight, this is ridiculous," Spike complained in an opposing voice. He was already starting to regret allowing his pony friends the opportunity to help him the moment the words left his mouth, and what was happening now was doing nothing but strengthening this thought in spades.

Twilight sighed, rubbing a hoof onto her eyes before taking it off. "Now Spike, you know what you agreed on. At least make an attempt at this." What was sitting before them both in the grassy field they were standing in was a long-bodied, fake patchwork dragon of a very, very goofy complexion, propped up on a set of sticks as its limp head hung about like a semi-unconscious drunkard. It looked very much like what Spike remembered his friends had created when they tried to disguise themselves as a dragon during a certain great dragon migration; the same one he went to as but a child in an attempt to find out how real dragons behaved, which he found, to his surprise, very distasteful when compared to the pony society he grew up with.

With a begrudging glare overcoming his face, he finally asked her something. "What exactly do you want me to do with it, Twilight?"

"Now, it says that as soon as the gathering begins, all dragons try to impress, flatter, or otherwise woo another dragon they wish to become life-mates with," she started right off, reading directly from the book in her hooves. "They do so by various means, all meant to serve as ways to grab another's attention. Whether it's showing off, performing great feats of physical prowess, or expressing a 'rare' moment of consideration for another, it matters only to how the dragon wishes to make it. If successful in catching their fancy, the two will spend the rest of their time there attempting to get to know one another."

"Twilight..." Spike groaned again, rolling his eyes. "You don't actually expect me to speak or act like that toward a... dummy, do you? In front of you all, at least?"

"I expect you to try. And you definitely need our criticism if you want to know how well you are at it," she stated bluntly. "Just imagine this fake dragon we provided as a real one, and think of us as not being here."

Muttering something under his breath, Spike still looked doubtful about the whole experiment. Watching this predicament unfold from the side with the rest of her friends, Rarity decided it was her turn to speak up. "Come on, Spike. It's just a little test you can take as many times as you want; until the month ends, that is. A big, tough dragon like you needs to get ready to show what the lady-dragons are missing out on," she cajoled. "Try saying something that will attract her attention right off. Something that will... um... make her notice you!"

Sighing, Spike walked up to his 'opponent'. He got a closer look at the patchwork, serpentine, cone-horned monstrosity (as if there was any other way to describe it thus) standing before him, and looked into its googly-eyes. "Um..." he started quite hesitantly, rubbing his foreclaws together as he couldn't help but focus on its distracting, red-tinted, strip-of-cloth tongue, which hung loosely from it jaw like an ugly, lolling worm. "Hi, I guess? You look... nice."

"Oh, put some back into it!" Rainbow shouted, sending an echo throughout the field as she cupped her hooves around her mouth. "You're sounding like Soarin the first time he took me out on a date!"

"Rainbow, please," Rarity said again, before glancing back at her irked dragon friend. "Spike, why don't you try complimenting her scales?"

"Alright," he agreed, clearing his throat with a small cough as he returned his attention to the forged creature. "Your scales are a... lovely shade of green."

"Be more descriptive than that," Applejack continued on when he went silent after those few words. "Talk about something she takes pride in, or point out something about her that she hasn't noticed."

"And be more lively!" Pinkie Pie added. "Be much more lively!"

Deciding to actually humor them, Spike quickly thought up a more articulate conversation. Stiffening his face and with a regal bow, he started with an "Excuse me my dear, but would you care for us to get to know one another? Your scales look absolutely stunning in this lighting, your eyes dazzle with the glitter of a thousand stars, and I couldn't help but take notice of your entire, wonderful splendor from where I was just standing. It would be my greatest, and most humble honor if you were to become my life-mate."

Finished with his display, he turned back to his cohorts with a sardonic look painted on his face. "Happy?" he asked, stretching his arms out and trying his hardest not to crack a snicker some of their dumbfounded expressions.

Fluttershy appeared to be assessing the situation as she pondered what to make of it. "Well... it's a start, I guess," the pegasus finally said. "You were very sweet, but I think you might have been a little bit too... formal."

"What do you mean 'too formal'?" Spike inquired in reply, misunderstood frustration building up in his tone.

"That fancy-talk of yours might not be too well understood by some of the dragons," Applejack said once more, ringing a clear bell in his head. "Say good things about them like how you were just doing, but don't drag on and get dull."

"Like Pinkie said, be more lively," Rainbow agreed. "Be energetic. Flashy. Interesting."

Spike grumbled, turning back to the fake dragon. Letting a puff of grey smoke escape his nostrils, he thought of something and started again as all of the ponies watched with bated eyes and ears.

"This is the next challenge you'll most likely face, and, if you ask me, it's going to be even harder than the last one," Twilight enunciated. Where they all had ventured to now, not a short while after their last project, was just in front of Applejack's barn in Sweet Apple Acres. There, a dozen or so feet in front of Spike, was another creation of the ponies.

It was another faux-dragon, but this time it was made from several hay bales all stacked and strapped upon and onto one another to form an upright shape. With the way it was made, complete with a set of large, dead branches sticking from its back like a pair of haggard wings and 'snout' filled with sharp rocks that had been gathered and stuck there, it was around Spike's own height, and looked fairly more dragon-ish than his friend's last abominable creation, despite the items used in its making.

"If two dragons find that they want the same life-mate, they fight for it," the alicorn said. "It's meant to be a match of strength that shows who's most worthy. Whoever backs down first in defeat is declared the loser, and the victor takes their opponent's life-mate for their own, the latter of whom typically concedes to the matter willingly and wholeheartedly."

"I remember reading that part too," Spike sighed, remembering how he stumbled across the page containing the information not even a few hours before. "Can't say I'm too surprised about it either."

"Dragons do value power and strength above most other aspects of one's being. It's no wonder why many would view it as attractive," she spoke again. "Are you ready?"

"Come on, Twilight. Look at what it's made of. I could just breathe fire on it, and I'd win," he answered arrogantly and without any form of worry. Rolling her eyes, the alicorn's horn lit up with a bright glow.

"Just try and defend yourself physically. Fire isn't going to do anything to a real dragon in a real fight," she ordered as the magic animated the inanimate being like a puppet on strings. With a halo of purple magic covering its outline, the hay-dragon began to stomp forward, its maw snapping open and close, sending stray bits of straw falling to the green grass below like leaves in an autumn wind. Spike watched as the beast got closer, readying himself for what he thought was going to be more of a joke than an actual round of combat, when something unexpected happened.

Seeing something like this suddenly sent a sharp jolt down Spike's spine, as though he had been struck by lightning. Right off, the drake knew it was some form of his most basic and primal instincts kicking in, but one he had never yet experienced. As he crouched lower on all fours, he could feel his heart pounding away in his chest relentlessly, boiling his blood. He tried to calm himself with a series of deep breaths, but his sudden, sheer, unbridled anger at his enemy burned within him like a fire in a blazing kiln.

Claws outstretched and fangs bared, Spike lunged forth with a flap of his wings before Twilight had a chance to let her puppet get too close. Intercepting the creature as he let out a reptilian roar, the drake wrestled mercilessly with it. The two rolled about on the floor for but a single split second before he began to punch and tear at its dry silage flesh with his claws, pulling chunks of it out at a time and throwing it about like confetti.

Whatever little remained of the poor hay-dragon a scant few moments later was scattered among the dirt below like a sheet that had been utterly savaged by a timberwolf. Returning to his senses immediately, Spike spat out the straw that had entered his mouth, rubbing a claw over his tongue to rid himself of the last of it. When he finished the task, he realized the ponies were all staring at him with wide eyes and blank expressions, stunned by the act of ferocity he had committed. Even Twilight had lost her concentration on what was supposed to be a challenging foe long before he looked up.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"N-nothing..." Pinkie replied for her friends. The earth pony then turned to Applejack, who stood beside her. "I think it's safe to say that he's got the fighting-and-defending-thing down. What should happen now?"

"We do it again, Pinkie," Applejack replied in a sigh, fixing the hat over her head before slowly walking over to her barn to grab more bales, as to begin the slightly-taxing objective of making another dragon from them. "Come help me get some more supplies, if'n you may."

Repeating the same two activities several more times, Spike and the ponies found their work cut out for them. By the time the day had ended, he felt exhausted, but through the savage wrestling and (at times embarassing) dialogue sessions, he also felt motivated by his friends' help. After he and Twilight returned to the castle, they both ate a small dinner in tranquil silence, and soon afterword decided it was time to rest for the night.

Things were still very quiet between Spike and Twilight as they walked together down the castle's hall. Their pace was as slow as a couple of slugs racing each other through a garden, and the looks they both possessed at the moment filled the air with a musk of uncertainty and capriciousness. As the dragon's door came into sight, as it was the room just before Twilight's own, he made a sideways glance to the pony.

"Twilight, does your book say anything else important about the gathering? About what comes after the 'courtship' and fighting?" he asked her, allowing the awkward silence enveloping them to finally subside. "The facts I read told me some things about it, but most of them were scattered in different sections."

"Ember mentioned the Time of the Heartscale itself once before, yes. It was a few months after we first met her, actually. It wasn't a subject I really touched up on, since I was still, you know, trying to take in as much dragon culture as I could," Twilight replied, uttering a small chuckle as she still walked beside him. "She said that after the courtship and fighting is decided fully, the two will be officially recognized as a pair, and when the Time of the Heartscale nears its end, the two dragons will take to air and perform a magnificent aerial display to signify their true love for one another."

"Any... instructions on how to do said aerial display, exactly?" He anxiously reached for the doorknob and pushed his door open, showing off the dark insides of his chamber. Twilight hummed, as if trying to find a proper way to explain it, before finally responding.

"Only that when it happens, they simply know how to do it. It's pure instinct and passion that drives them to enact the feat."

"Sort of like how I reacted toward those fake dragons you had me fight against?"

"I guess. You looked quite ferocious," she said in what sounded more like a compliment than a matter of fretting. "If you have to have a little tussle with another dragon, I'm sure you'll fare well against them. Especially if you never forget that you still have your smarts, Spike."

Spike let out an amused chuckle. "Yeah, I hope so. Sorry if I scared you and the others, I just felt so... enraged when I saw it. I can barely describe it as anything else but that. It was if someone was... taking something from me. Something I valued greater than any other item I've ever had. Is that bad?"

"Don't worry about it, Spike. Like you said, I'm sure it's just a natural reaction that's preparing you for what's coming up soon." Twilight's words gave the young drake a bout of much-needed comfort. With a cheerful smile on his lips, Spike started to enter his room.

"I hope you have a good night, Twilight," he spoke in a small voice over his shoulder.

"And good night to you too," she replied in kind. "You're going to do good when the time comes. With us helping, you'll do spectacularly, just wait and see."

Closing his door with a satisfied grin, Twilight began to trot off to her own quarters, leaving Spike alone. As he paced over to his bed, his tail thumping behind him the whole time, he took the alicorn's final words into account.

"I hope so," he said to himself in a small whisper. "I hope so."

To the Dragon Lands!

And so it went, for the next few grueling weeks, Spike trained long and hard. His friends were behind him every step of the way, helping him when problems arose, and lifting his spirits back up when he felt down and unsure. They taught him how to appear modest and desirable without becoming too overtly foppish. They showed him the best tactics he could use if, or when the time came to defend himself from another dragon. All that was left was to perfect his skills.

"...And so, without further delay in my words, it would be my my greatest honor if you were to become my life-mate," the drake finished, wrapping up the speech he shared with the the unliving, dumb-expressioned dummy-dragon with a long bow on one knee. As he stood up, he looked through the field to the ponies standing nearby.

"Good job Spike!" Rarity cheered on with her friends. "That was even better than the last one!"

"Heh... thanks," he chuckled lightly, rubbing his back with his claw, still not used to, nor too comfortable with having ponies around to hear him say things like this. Still, he was feeling ready. Ready to participate in the event that would determine perhaps one of the most important moments in his life. And it made him feel proud.

Then, as if on cue, he felt it. It was like a crisp, boiling sensation that crept under his scales, and then beneath his very skin. It was not a painful sting, nor something pleasantly warm, but something that just... irked him. It was like an itch that covered the entirety of one's body, but replaced the need to scratch with the need to dig. Within scant seconds, he completely recognized this feeling from a time long before, and also noticed the faint glow surrounding him that began to grow brighter.

"Uh... Twilight..." he started uneasily, as he already started to rub at his sides vigorously with both of his claws.

Fluttershy looked just as surprised as he did. "D-does this mean-?" the shy pegasus tried to ask.

"It's time," the alicorn answered the two, seriousness coated in her volume and glare. "The Dragon Lord is calling all dragons of the proper age to the Dragon Lands. The Time of the Heartscale is about to begin."

"The month's over already?" Rainbow Dash cried out, holding both of her hooves to her head. Returning to her cool appearance, she looked to Twilight inquisitively. "That was... surprisingly quick. What's the plan now, Twilight? You haven't told any of us too much about what would happen once the day came."

"I guess I forgot to ask," Twilight began again. Straightening herself, she looked to each of her pony friends. "Do any of you want to come with Spike and I?"

"I think I'll pass, if that's alright with you," Fluttershy was the first to say. "It's just that... well, I'd rather not go to the Dragon Lands again if there are no animals in need of care."

"I've gotta watch the farm," Applejack said in a regretful voice. "Sorry."

"And I have to stick with the Wonderbolts," Rainbow Dash was the next to tell her friends. "Our next show is less than a week away, and I have to be in prime condition."

"I'll go! I'll go!" Pinkie jumped up-and-down joyously.

"And what about you, Rarity?" Twilight inquired, as everyone's eyes spun over to the unicorn in question.

Her response was swift. "I will go as well."

"You will?" Spike and Pinkie asked at once, both sharing equal surprise in their respective tones.

"You'd better believe I'm going," she insisted. "There's no way in Celestia's mane that someone such as I is going to just let you two go off and help Spike with this by yourselves. This is much to serious to pass up on."

"Are you sure, Rarity?" Twilight asked. "What about your stores? All your customers?"

"Yeah, you really don't have to come if you don't want to." Spike agreed.

"Of course I should!" the unicorn replied. "I don't appear to have any clients at the moment, and besides, I've actually been hoping I could tag along to try and get some... inspiration from the dragons. It's been a pipe dream of mine to fashion a dress modeled after something of theirs."

The shining look on Twilight's face seemed to tell everyone that she was exceptionally happy with having another pony on board. "Then I guess it's settled. You, Pinkie and I shall accompany Spike. We leave at once!"

"When exactly is 'at once'?" Rainbow spoke to the princess from where she hovered in the air nearby.

"As soon as possible," she replied with a flick of her ears. "But first, we'll need to pack some things up."

"You're most certainly right about that," Rarity agreed with a laugh.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie threw their hooves up and let out screams of delight as Spike carried them through the air on his (currently glowing) back. Following not too far behind was Twilight, who found herself struggling to keep up with her assistant, and beat her own wings rapidly as she tried to match his speed and carry her belongings that she held strapped to her sides. Spike also bore some of the princess's items for her, as in his foreclaws were various bits of equipment; some of which one would associate with camping.

"Hey, uh... Spike?" Twilight began as she noticed nearly two hours passed since their departure from Ponyville, flapping up to his side. "Is it alright if we land so I can take a quick break? My wings need a rest."

"Of course," Spike responded. After watching Twilight begin her descent and fade through the low-hanging clouds to the ground below, he made a rapid dive downward, causing the ponies on his back to grab a much firmer hold onto his scales from the sudden change in movement that seemed very reminiscent of that of a roller coaster ride at the local fair. Rarity sounded terrified more than anything else, while Pinkie simply threw her hooves into the air, clearly having the time of her life.

After the dragon spotted Twilight nearing a plateau that seemed to jut out of the equally grey, rocky ground the land was made of, he went up to it as well and dropped what he was carrying onto it gently, proceeding to land on it on all fours afterword, allowing his passengers to disembark from his glowing form safely. After hopping off, Pinkie began to stretch her limbs out, as if she had been cramped inside a small metal box the entire day.

"Oh, ho-ho boy! I still can't believe I get to see the Dragon Lands with you guys!" she squealed in excitement as she finished, pulling both Rarity and Twilight up to herself.

"Now, Pinkie, you have to remember that it's exceptionally unwise to interact with any of the dragons while the event begins," Twilight warned her pink friend. "We're only here to cheer Spike on and observe what happens."

"Yeah, I know," Pinkie sighed. The earth pony's demeanor then lightened up, and a devious expression drew itself upon her face. "Since Ember knows about you coming, do you think that she'll stop by and say hi to us if she has the chance?"

"I'd hope so," she responded, as Spike began to walk off from the three to the edge of the plateau; something interesting catching his eye. "I can't guarantee it, but I'm willing to bet that she may just pop by before the event formally starts."

"How much longer until we get to the Dragon Lands?" Rarity asked, fixing her curly mane from the effects of the wind it suffered through. "I remember this terrain certainly matches what it was the last time we went, but I've not the foggiest clue as to how far away it is."

"I'm pretty sure it's-"

"We're here," Spike interrupted from where he stood, his gaze unwaveringly held to the near horizon. Overcome by their own curiosity, the three ponies turned to him and trotted by his side, before looking out to where he was staring at. Each of them let out gasps as the sight of hundreds of dragons in the far distance befell their view, each of the creatures circling in the sky above the land they flew over or gliding down to land. Large ones, small ones, wiry ones, brawny ones... all of them seemed to possess a glow about them not unlike that which Spike had, telling them right off that this was the right place.

Rarity let out a mighty, awestruck sigh as she took in what she was witnessing, before deciding to look over to Spike to see how he was faring. "Well, at the very least there'll be plenty of dragons to get to know, eh Spike?" she chuckled, elbowing him in a good-natured fashion.

All he did was gulp before nodding ever so slowly.

The Gathering

"Um... I'm not sure about this. There looks like a lot other dragons down there..." Spike nervously mumbled to his friends, taking a step back from where he stood on the cliff's edge. "I... I don't think I stand much of a chance with all that competition, guys."

"Don't tell me you've got cold feet, Spike," Twilight spoke to her assistant, shifting him a glance. "We came all the way out here, and you're already thinking of giving up?"

"You most certainly better not be thinking like that!" Rarity said, walking to his side. "We trained you for this! If there's any dragon more capable of going out there and finding their special somedragon among that throng, it's you, Spike."

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie swiftly agreed, pouncing onto Spike's back and wrapping her hooves around his sizable shoulders as best as she could manage. "You've got this, Spike! Never doubt yourself, and you'll do the best!"

Spike thought on their words through closed eyes as Pinkie slid off of him. Soon flashing open again, a smile came over his snout. "You're... you're right! I can do this!" he said with a grand sense of self-assuredness in his volume, closing his fists tightly. "I've been through a month of nonstop training for this once-in-a-lifetime event! I can't just let it pass me by like this. I've got to try!"

"There's my big brave Spike," Twilight smiled, gently hugging him close to her, which he returned. With a confident gleam in his eyes, Spike stretched his wings out after their embrace slowly came to an end and turned from the dragons in the distance to the three ponies.

"I'd better get over there, then," he started. "I guess I'll see you all a little later."

"We'll set up camp here and see how you do through the telescope we brought along," Twilight told him, already sifting her magic through a duffel bag and taking out several of the parts needed to construct such a device. "Good luck Spike."

"The best of luck," Rarity also wished, smiling proudly at her dragon friend. Nodding to them again, he jumped from the ledge, took off through the air with a powerful stroke of his batlike wings and soared over to join the rest of his kind.

Having landed but a scant few minutes before, Spike wandered through the horde of fellow dragons, many of whom were talking amongst themselves about the event they were all here for. He couldn't help but gaze in awe at just how many there were surrounding him. There certainly appeared to be more up close than at a distance, and being around such a huge group of his kind felt both alien to his mind, yet normal and calming to his instincts.

"Wha- no... it can't be, can it?" a deep, reverberating voice suddenly piped in from behind him, just a few minutes into his exploring. Spike turned around in acknowledgement and saw a large, muscular, crimson shape rapidly stomping up to him. His emerald eyes at first widened in surprise, before closing to thin, slanted slits when he realized just who it was, and he mumbled a small growl to himself.

It was Garble. Were there any dragon Spike actively despised over any other, it was Garble. And another thing the young drake noticed as well, to his ire, was that Garble, like himself, had grown greatly since when they had last met. Though Spike was a head taller than he was when he encountered him at the Gauntlet of Fire years ago, Garble was now nearly a third higher than that. The golden dorsal spines that lined his head and back looked all the more longer and sharper now, his tail was of an intimidating length and visibly strong enough to effortlessly whack down several trees in one fell swing, and his wings, though currently folded, clearly would express an intimidating span if he were to open them. All-in-all, he was perhaps one of the largest dragons Spike had seen so far since getting here.

"If it isn't my favorite little pony-dragon!" he said again in a deceivingly friendly tone, wrapping his arm and elbow around Spike's neck before he had a chance to react, pulling his smaller, glowing shape close to his, and forcing Spike to fight against it for the chance to breathe. "Oh man, it's been a while, hasn't it? How've you been, squirt? You haven't been consorting with all those dumb ponies, have you? Oh who'm I kidding, you have been. I can smell them all over you..."

"Let... go of me... Garble!" Spike managed to choke out coldly, before finally breaking out of the hold he had on his neck. Rubbing his now stiff throat with a claw, he cast a leer back at his tormentor, who was now examining him closely with a smug expression on his long snout and a hand on his chin.

"Nice wings, whelp. Not as nice, big and strong as mine, but nice," he complimented in a sarcastic fashion. "You know, I thought you'd never actually grow a pair. Guess I was wrong."

"When have you never been wrong?" Spike quipped back at him with a sneer. His foe's webbed ears flattening in that instant, Garble's entire demeanor changed with the insult he received, and tried vainly to find a perfect retort.

"Yeah, well... shut up!" he shouted. With a bellow, Garble shoved Spike to the ground before he could expect a blow to come his way. Letting out a hearty laugh, he planted his foot on the younger dragon's back and stared down at him maliciously, fangs bared. "You're not gonna stand a chance of finding any dragon once I'm through with you, Spike..."

"Hey, I thought we were supposed to save the fighting for when two of us are brawling for a life-mate," he growled, pushing Garble's leg off, standing up and brushing himself off. "You wouldn't wanna go and break dragon law, would you? I'm sure it could lead to some pretty dire consequences."

To these words, Garble stood back and gave a thoughtful look, before common sense won out in his mind. "Ah, forget it," he mumbled, folding his arms together and turning his long-fanged muzzle away from Spike uncaringly. "I'll beat you up some other time. Who knows? It may come soon enough..."

"We'll see about that, Garble," Spike grunted defiantly. No sooner had he finished speaking, a big, dark figure flew overhead, blotting out the sun for a brief moment, and casting a shadow over all of the dragons. Turning his full attention to it, Spike saw the enormous shape of a mountain-sized dragon soaring through the sky. When the sun was revealed again, it illuminated who it was, and just by seeing the massive, winding horns of bone and the permanent leer etched onto his stern and rocky face, Spike and the others knew who it was who had arrived.

It was Torch, the former Dragon Lord, and Ember's father. His bulky and thick bluish-gray shape, covered in armor as black as smoldering charcoal, headed for a large rock formation many hundreds of yards away from the crowd. Right as he was floating over it, his giant wings stopped flapping, and his body dropped from the air. Torch's landing heralded a ground-shaking crash to rival an earthquake, dismantling, shattering, and pushing away some of the rock making up his new seat.

Though everyone else had their eyes set on Torch's intimidating form, a smaller silhouette was noticed by Spike accompanying the titanic creature. To his joy, he quickly recognized that it was Ember, and her comparatively tiny, blue shape was also covered by a flaring sheen like everyone else. As she gracefully touched down on a boulder sitting in front of her father, a mirthless, serious visage covered her face, and her eyes, open and alert, looked to her father before going out to the horde of her kind and addressing them thusly.

"Greetings, everyone. As you all should know, I have summoned all able and fit dragons of the appropriate age here for one reason, and one reason alone: The Time of the Heartscale," she started with her voice echoing across the area for all to hear, and rubbing a claw over her scepter as she spoke. "It is a cherished tradition we dragons have held and maintained for ages immemorial. It is a time where each of us finds the one, special dragon destiny and fate has been holding onto for us, waiting to be fought for with tooth and claw, and claimed if deemed worthy enough. And now, it is our turn to uphold these values, and let love blossom from the foundation our forebears have set for us."

Ember lifted her scepter above her head, and the red bloodstone that rested on its tip began to radiate with a blinding light. With a sizzling noise, a red beam shot out of the scepter and fell over all of the dragons present, showering them in its crimson glimmer. When the light dissipated, the glow that had been covering all of them disappeared in an instant. Spike sighed as the minor, but still annoying burning sensation that had been digging under his scales was finally silenced and gone, giving him some relief.

As the last dragon had their glow fade away, Ember continued on. "It may seem as though we are ready to begin, but the last thing you must all know is that for now I will be stepping down as Dragon Lord," she said, using a claw to take her golden circlet off. "Until the Time of the Heartscale has reached its end, my father will once again serve as Dragon Lord in my place, as is custom. From here till then, I am just a normal dragon looking for her life-mate, like you all."

She turned about and presented her bloodstone scepter to Torch, and the far larger dragon accepted the ornate, crystalline staff into his outstretched, mighty palm. Closing his tree trunk-sized fingers around it, he held onto the familiar authoritative item with a nostalgic grip he used once before when he was the Dragon Lord. With a confident nod to her father, Ember hopped down from the boulder where she stood and glided down to the crowd of dragons below. As she descended to the front of it, Spike desperately tried to spot where she landed from where he was standing, only to quickly lose sight of her in the living tide of scaly bodies.

Back on top of his high-up perch, Torch looked over all of the younger dragons with a predatory gleam in his aged, reptilian eyes, before clearing his throat. "ALRIGHT YOU YOUNG WHELPS, YOU ALL HEARD HER, RIGHT?" the great, mountainous creature boomed like a crack of thunder to all of the dragons standing below him, distorting the very air around him with the sheer magnitude of his voice. Everyone, Spike and Garble included, all began to rapidly shake their heads up-and-down and murmured words of agreement in response.

"GOOD," he roared, his voice thickening intensely. "I WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO SEE THE TIME OF THE HEARTSCALE GO ALONG SMOOTHLY AND APPROPRIATELY, AND YOU HAD ALL BETTER REMEMBER THAT THOSE WHO I CATCH DISRESPECTING MY AUTHORITY OR PERTURBING THE LAWS OF OUR TRADITION WILL HAVE TO FACE ME PERSONALLY. ARE WE CLEAR?"

The majority of the crowd responded back with a mixture of the words 'yep', 'uh-huh', 'yeah', and the ever-elusive 'of course'. Torch, snorting a small cloud of smoke through his horned nostrils, unleashed a satisfied grin through the crooked, yellow fangs lining his mouth, finally ready to give the words he had been wishing to utter since arriving here. "VERY GOOD. NOW... LET US ALLOW THE TIME OF THE HEARTSCALE TO OFFICIALLY BEGIN!"

A Prominent Individual

Prominence flew a fair ways above the cluster of dragons on the ground below, and swiftly passed by those that were also soaring around in the sky. She was a thin-framed dragoness who bore a pinkish complexion to her scales, long ears on either side of her head, and wiry limbs that ended in more muscular and thick forearms and forelegs; both as powerful as any other dragon's. On the crown of her head, growing through the tuft of purple hair-like spines, were a pair of small horns that pointed upward.

Tapping her index claws together and with a face that constantly swiveled to and fro with prying eyes, she looked, and she looked, and she looked for who it was whom she wished to seek out. Yet, in spite of her efforts, she couldn't seem to find any drakes who matched the large, red, bulky description she had formulated within her mind.

There was quite a bit of pent-up emotion that she was longing to express, and her body trembled with excitement as she flew. Oh, how she had been looking forward to this day! Ever since her parents told her as a hatchling that a moment would come in her life, where another dragon would become destined to be hers, she simply could not wait for this time to come, yet here it was!

And her sights, still scanning about the ground intensely, were set on the drake known only as Garble.

Garble may be a bit of a blustering bully and an intimidating figure altogether, but those were only a couple of traits he was known for well in the vast dragon community. Not to mention just how attractively strong he was famed for being. If Prominence wanted a drake all to her own, a big, strong, powerful dragon who could easily fend off other dragons from a hoard of treasure or a clutch of eggs was the kind to search for.

A few minutes more whizzed by, and then, to her relief and pure joy, Prominence finally saw him. He was casually relaxing on a rock beside a large and wide crater on the ground, the contents of which was filled with a pool of lava deep within. Several other male dragons - clearly his friends - were hanging around him and doing a similar activity.

Being the first day of the Time of the Heartscale, most all dragons were merely getting acquainted with one another. The small group of eager female dragons surrounding Garble and his friends were no different. All of them were attempting to speak to him or his cohorts if they caught their raw fancy, and when it appeared as though all their attempts to talk all at once was in bad taste, they each started to line up and take their turns. Garble himself didn't seem that interested in what the crowd had to share though, as his eyes were lazily focused over to the snow-capped mountains far away from the Dragon Lands in the horizon, and his laid-back demeanor held as it was.

Oh, but the second he saw her, surely he would be brought to attention! Prominence kept this very idea lively and fresh in her head, and landed on the coarse ground gracefully. Wiping herself of any dust that had the slim chance of sticking to her scales, she readied herself until she felt fully prepared, and hurriedly rushed into the small horde of female dragons, joining them.

Spike wandered through the crowd for what felt like hours before he broke out of it. There was still no sign of Ember, and this fact was beginning to weigh heavy on his mind. He did not despair however, and inhaled a long, calming breath as he remembered that the day was not yet over, and there were still four left after this one.

His claws scraped over the ground as he strolled forward. There were greatly fewer dragons away from the horde, many of whom were in pairs that he could tell were blissfully entwined. Spike walked past most of them, before a few shapes of a greater magnitude in their number snatched away his prowling gaze. He saw quite a few dragons in a group that was still paltry compared to the crowd he had recently escaped from; a large, bright crimson shape in particular being the one to really distract him. His eyes focused on the medium-sized group, and then, to his minor surprise, he saw that it was Garble who was amidst them.

Just seeing the older dragon's larger burly form provoked a feeling of discomfort within Spike, but still he found himself curious at just what it was that was going on over there. Getting closer, he could then clearly see what it was they were doing.

They were just lurking beside a lava pool. As the molten rock bubbled in the deep pit behind them, their eyes, Garble's in particular, seemed to rove about and scan over the area. There were many dragonesses surrounding them; at least twenty, and all were looking to the males and vying for their attention with words expressing desires to know if they felt interested in them, some of whom did indeed receive it with frabjous and gleeful grins adorning their beaked faces.

But not Garble. All he did was look off into either the lava pool, the sky, or the crowd, blatantly ignoring the vocal advances of the female dragons. Spike was a perceptive individual, and he sensed something very fishy was up with this behavior from the usually boisterously swank and loud individual he knew. Garble continued to sit there for a time longer, and just as the current female's turn talking to him was finished and a certain pink-scaled one strode forward, Garble caught Spike's shape from the corner of his eye.

"Well, well. Hello again, Spike!" he greeted with an arrogant tone, sitting up a little straighter on his perch and turning fully away from the pink dragoness before she could even start talking. "Any luck on finding someone who actually likes you? Or have you already given up?"

"I'm still looking, Garble," Spike responded in as much of a passive tone as he could give. "Why aren't you?"

"Pssh. I don't need to look..." he chuckled, waving a claw in a dismissing motion. "Look at all these dragons that already think I'm worthy. They know the reputation I've been building up in the past few years. Besides, I only have one particular dragon really in mind, and I just have to wait to fight for her and win. Which I'll easily do."

"Oh, and who is that, might I ask?" Spike inquired, folding his arms.

Garble smirked; his grin expressing his large, knife-like teeth in their full, horrible glory. "Ember."

The second he heard the name, Spike's arms fell from his chest and his eyes widened. Without realizing it, a small, quiet, but very much malevolent growl began to reverberate from the back of his throat as his teeth ground together from behind his lips. "Why?" That was the only word he was able to ask and form when his brows lowered into a glare.

"Because if I win her over, it will make me the most powerful dragon in all of the Dragon Lands," Garble replied, sneering foully. "By dragon law, if a dragon becomes life-mates with the Dragon Lord, it will give that dragon just as much power over the Dragon Lands as them."

"What are you... saying?" Spike's voice began to deepen as the crisp, searing feeling of rage began to spark in his chest and fill his blood with molten flames of what he could not deny as boiling hatred.

"What I'm saying is that I'm going to become Ember's life-mate," he nastily repeated, poking his chest with a thumb. "And when I do, I'll become the most feared and dominant dragon in all of Equestria itself."

"You... you shouldn't become life-mates with a dragon for the sake of power!" Spike argued, stomping closer to him. Garble didn't seem phased in the slightest by his noisy advance, and kept the calm visage even after he went on. "If you want to spend your entire life with another dragon, it's because you care for them! It's because you like them for who they are as a person!"

Garble huffed. "Well, clearly you still haven't got a grasp on how a dragon's supposed to act and what they're supposed to want when this time comes around. But what can I say, I didn't expect any less from a pony-raised dragon like you."

"Um... I think that what he said sounds rather appropriate," the pink dragoness voiced up from just behind Garble with a raised claw and a small smile, agreeing with Spike's words.

Garble rolled his eyes and looked at her dryly. "Quiet, you," he ordered. Hesitantly obeying his words, she did as he said and lowered her snout with a sigh.

"I may have been raised by ponies, but I've learned what the Time of the Heartscale is and what it means in dragon society," Spike went on after his rival returned his attention back onto him. "What you want is not about love. It's greed and selfish ambition, plain and simple."

"So what if it is?" Garble's voice was downright mirthful as he agreed. "That's not something to be ashamed of."

Small streams of gray smoke left Spike's nostrils as he heard these simple words, becoming infuriated beyond measure by them, and barely clinging onto his rage in sudden realization of what could happen if he were to give into it. "You don't even sound like you want to be Ember's life-mate for her! Just for what she is!"

"And that's basically the truth," Garble nonchalantly responded. "Ember herself is just a bonus."

The smoke cloud forming from the tip of Spike's snout grew in size and darkness, but then, no sooner had it done so, it ceased and soon vanished. Seeing now that arguing with Garble was a foolish and vain endeavor to begin with, and one that could only end in him losing to his temper at a time where it was not allowed, Spike took in an immensely deep breath to calm himself and coldly looked at him a final time. "Garble, unlike you, when I find my life-mate, whoever she may be, I'm going to treat her better and more respectfully than any treasure I'll ever collect in my lifetime. I'm going to cherish her because of who she is, what she means to me, and never stop loving her until my heart stops beating."

"Oh..." the pink dragoness from before delightfully sighed, prompting Garble to turn to her with an annoyed snarl on his face. "That sounds like such a wonderful thing one would do. Don't you think so, Garble?"

"I said quiet!" Garble roared instead. Jumping to his feet and reeling his mighty arms back, he pushed the dragoness away. She was unprepared to receive such a blow and was sent to the edge of the lava-crater, where her heels tripped on the stone lining it. Unable to keep her balance, she fell into the pit with a startled cry; her wings flapping uselessly in a vain effort to catch air until she had plopped completely into the lava.

Spike's jaw opened slightly in horror at Garble's action, as Garble in turn unleashed a bellowing laugh. "I did warn her," the drake shrugged with a satisfied grin, sitting back down on his rock as everyone, turning their heads back to their own businesses, began to act as though the incident hadn't happened in the first place. Instead of doing as they had, Spike immediately ran up to the pool's corner and peered into it.

At first seeing nothing, the female dragon's head suddenly broke through the surface of the lava with a gasp, splashing about until she was floating stably. From what Spike could see of her current expression, she looked very much shocked and upset by this horrid turn of events.

Without a thought against it, Spike opened his wings and glided down to where she was, intent on helping her. Upon noticing a shadow lurking out of the corner of her eye, the female looked up and saw Spike's shape flapping above her own with a look on her face conveying only frustration mixed with newfound confusion.

"Take my claw," he spoke, extending his arm to her. Her jaw still hanging loosely, she was quite shocked at this form of kindness a fellow dragon expressed toward her, and only hesitantly lifted her own limb after a few seconds had passed.

"Uh... thank you," she spoke lightly. Accepting his claw, she was lifted from the lava, holding onto his appendage for balance in the air until she was able to properly fly on her own. Smiling at him, together the two left the pool and landed on the rocky ground just on the surface of the crater; opposite of Garble and the other dragons there.

The dragoness wiped the remaining molten liquid from her scales and shook her horned head free of the final specks of it before turning to her savior. "You pulled me out of there," she began. "That was very... nice of you."

"After seeing you getting knocked in there, how could I not help you out?" Spike replied.

"Dragons never stick up for each other, much less help each other from... embarrassing moments," she spoke, rubbing her shoulder sheepishly with a claw. "Th-thanks again, I guess."

"Don't mention it," he smiled back. The female dragon mumbled something to herself and turned slightly before continuing on.

"All I was trying to do was get Garble's attention. I've been waiting to do it for almost three years." She paced off a few feet before finding a rock and sitting down on it. "I guess, judging from how he pushed me into that lava, he doesn't find me as appealing as I thought he would. Oh... phooey."

"Don't say that. I think you certainly looked... 'hot' in there," Spike joked, then regretting the awful pun the moment it left his mouth, which then wrinkled as though he had just sucked on a particularly sour lemon.

Tittering slightly in well-found amusement before putting a claw to her mouth to stop it, the dragoness thought of the obvious thing to say next to her kindly rescuer. "Um... I don't think I've ever met you before. My name's Prominence. And... yours?"

"Spike," Spike answered. "In case you didn't catch it from Garble, I'm not from the Dragon Lands, so I wouldn't expect you to recognize me as you would another dragon."

Prominence hummed as the name struck a chord in her mind. "Wait a fire-breathing second... you're that small dragon from back during the Gauntlet of fire! The small purple one!" she accused, pointing to him in astonishment at just how much he visibly changed since last seeing him. "I remember you! You and Dragon Lord Ember worked together to get past all of the challenges! That was very... clever."

"And... weren't you the one who wanted to make burps an official greeting or something?" the drake inquired back as the memory returned to him.

She chuckled and shrugged. "Guilty as charged."

"Well..." Spike coughed into his claw and started to look away. "If you'll excuse me Miss Prominence, I need to go find somebody. Goodbye, I guess. I hope you find your life-mate in the days to come."

"Goodbye to you too, and I... hope you find yours... Spike." The way she spoke his name possessed a dreaminess she simply could not hide. Spike didn't seem to take notice of this fact though, as he had already quickly scampered off, back into the crowd of other roving dragons in his ceaseless search for Ember. Prominence watched him disappear into the horde of scaly bodies, the gears in her mind shifting about until they had snapped together in wonderful comprehension.

To Tartarus with that ignorant Garble! she thought, rubbing her claws together with vigorous glee as a wide and sharp-toothed grin curled over her snout. Now that's a drake worthy of somedragon's attention...

Friendly Conversation

Spike began returning back to his friends' camp with a somewhat heavy heart in tow. He spent the whole day trying to find Ember, the one dragon he wanted to discover in the great crowd, and he came up with nothing and nobody to show for it. The sun had long since set and a bed of stars overtook the sky, each and every one twinkling with the allure of glittering gemstones along the roof of a deep cavern.

The wondrous sight did little to improve Spike's mood, and his head remained hanging low. Forlornly, he grew ever nearer to the plateau, jumbled thoughts set upon the near future rolling around within his weary cranium. The sound of familiar voices going out was what convinced him to raise it, and when he did, an utterly unexpected surprise befell his eyes.

He immediately saw the shapes of Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Twilight, the latter two of whom were working on the telescope set up earlier in the day. But there, right beside Rarity, was her. Ember stood there at one edge of the plateau, her golden, gem-encrusted crown once more over her head. Spike knew not why she chose to wear it again, given how her father was still acting as Dragon Lord till the end of the event, but that idea was one of the last things to circulate in his mind with what was going on. And oh, how it made her alluring visage glitter that much more.

From what Spike could more plainly see and hear as he slowly and silently flew closer, both she and Rarity were having themselves a happy little conversation. Putting a claw to his ear, he listened in and hoped neither would catch him in the act.

"...and that was how I was able to finally get that cantankerous old wyvern to stop pestering that drake." Ember finished her tale up, chuckling as she did so. Rarity couldn't help but laugh alongside her friend.

"Oh Ember, it seems as though you simply cannot find the time to catch a break with all the commotion that occurs here," the unicorn said as her laughter died down. "How do you do it all by your lone self? Surely it can't be because you're the Dragon Lord alone."

"Hey, I'm the daughter of Dragon Lord Torch," she shrugged. "The will and fortitude to lead and command runs in my blood."

"I'd could only ever assume so, given what I've seen you do in the past. But even still, this is... such a big event," continued the unicorn. "How, dare I ask, are you faring throughout it all?"

"Me? Well... it's going okay, I guess." Ember sighed aloud and lowered her head a little ways, a claw scratching at her left shoulder. "I just wish Spike decided to come and be a part of this. Truth be told, I kind of wanted to see how good he would do. He's a strong and smart drake. There are plenty of dragons I know of who would've taken an immense liking to him..."

Pinkie Pie, who had been listening in as she helped Twilight dismantle the last parts of her telescope for the night, tilted her head in confusion and she scratched her mane with a hoof. "But he is here!" she exclaimed. "We saw him go off to join the crowd of other dragons earlier, and Twilight's been watching his progress through this telescope-thingy."

"Wait a second, Spike did come? He's attending the gathering?" Ember asked, eyes widened in surprise. Her expression now devoid of any emotion, save for seriousness and a lowered jaw, she dashed over the the pink earth pony and grabbed her by her sides, hoisting her gleeful form into the air like a child and looking at the mare dead in her ever-mirthful eyes. "But I wasn't able to find him today! Where is he right now? Tell me! Tell me!"

"Right, um... here," Spike finally spoke up as he finally landed on the ground behind them all, lifting a claw. Instantly dropping Pinkie like a weight, Ember's horned head spun around and saw his shape standing before her. And as soon as she did, a wide, joyous grin overcame her face.

"Oh, h-hey, Spike!" she greeted in what Spike could only make out as an overly-buoyant tone. "You... came. You actually came, eh?"

"Um, yeah, I did," he confirmed with a happy, albeit nervous look of his own. Both slowly shedding their awkward visages, Spike decided it would be best to give a more proper greeting. "It's good to see you here, Ember."

"Good to see me?" she questioned with a playful, weak shove to his chest. "It's flipping great to see you, Spike! You actually came here! You want to be a part of this! Do you have any idea how much this means to me?"

Spike put a claw to his lip as he tried to imagine it. "I... don't think I do..." he eventually responded. "I had no idea you wanted me to come here so badly." Ember's exuberant expression dulled down after a few seconds passed by, and she cleared her throat before straightening herself out into a more regal disposition.

"Well... it does mean a lot. More than you know," she said, smiling again at her dear friend and in a way that made a twinge of warmth build up within his chest. "First off, how're you feeling? About this whole thing, I mean. I know you, of all dragons, must have had at least some trouble getting ready for it, right?"

"Well, I'm feeling extra confident right now," proudly said he, "and it's in part due to my friend's help in getting ready for it."

"Oh, stop it, you!" Pinkie Pie bashfully spoke up, dashing up to Spike and poking him in the side with her shoulder twice before dashing away again in the blink of an eye and leaving the two to continue their conversation. Ember kicked away a rock laying by her feet before speaking again.

"I tried finding you at the event today, but when I couldn't, I feared you decided not to come," she said to him in a voice a little quieter than the last one. "I'm just glad I found you now."

"No kidding!" Spike said back in a vexed tone, before letting out a good-natured laugh. "I spent the entire day looking for you, but there's so many other dragons here, I got lost in the crowd."

Infected by his happiness and chuckling with him, Ember only stopped when her eyes widened as a sense of comprehension took hold. "Wait, you were looking for me? Just me?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I wanted to tell you that I came. And... I wanted to spend a little time with you today."

It was then that Spike realized that all the ponies sharing this spot with him had stopped anything that they were doing and observed his and Ember's conversation, as though they were a delighted audience watching a show pan out. "Ember, do you think we can talk about this... elsewhere?" he asked her, motioning to the beaming ponies with a turn of his scaly head. Ember smirked and nodded.

"Of course. Follow me," she spoke, extending her wings. In a single motion of them she took off into the night sky far above, stopping only to wait for Spike to join her. Spike looked back to his friends and gave them a reassuring nod.

"I'll be back soon," was all he said. He didn't give any of them a chance to respond to his statement, as he took off from the ground and bolted toward the sky, pushing up a cloud of rock dust that covered the ground of the plateau with the effort he used. When the cloud dispersed a few seconds later, the ponies could see that he and Ember were flying off together.

Rarity approached Twilight after waving away the last of the dust with her hoof in order to properly see. "Twilight," she lightly spoke. "A thought just came to me. Do you think that Spike may perhaps... feel something for Ember?"

At first appearing skeptical of the theory, Twilight's eyes widened and then lowered in realization after hearing the unicorn's words. Putting a hoof to her mouth, she turned to Rarity and Pinkie. "Now that you mention it, when Ember visited us a month ago, he did seem a little bit... captivated by her. And how they were speaking just now bore more than a passing resemblance to what I previously saw then."

Pinkie, as usual, looked ecstatic. Her hooves clapped together loud enough to leave a small echo in their wake and she unleashed a cheer. "That's so cute! Spike likes Eeember! Ember likes Spiiike!" she sang out, bouncing on her hooves and doing cartwheels around her two friends. "This. Is. TERRIFIC! If they get together, I can throw them a party, and there'll be giant balloons, and I'll make a huge cake in the image of a dragon that will go perfectly with the colors of the confetti that'll come later, and..."

As she went on making a list of all things she would include in her hypothetical celebration, Twilight and Rarity traded looks nothing short of worried to one another. "Do you think that's really the case?" Twilight inquired in a whisper.

"Twilight, Spike said he spent most of the day looking for her. And Ember herself said the same thing," replied the unicorn. "They're good friends, Twilight. More than just good, in fact. They've known each other for a long time. They're of a similar age, and have interests that coincide. It wouldn't be too out of the ordinary if something... more were to blossom from that friendship." She paused for a second to look over a memory before going on. "When we're out looking gems together, Spike sometimes likes to inform me of the 'awesome' things he did with Ember in the past -- even things I was there to witness as well. I thought it was cute and all, but now that I'm really looking into it..."

"If that's really the case, then... Oh dear..." The princess turned her view up to the small shapes of the two dragons they were discussing who were now in the far distance. "Spike... Spike, be careful."

Spike and Ember found a tall ledge overlooking a steep cliffside to sit off of, from which the pair decided to spend their time. For a good long hour, they talked without any prying ears to listen in. As he paid close and unblinking attention to her, Ember gave to him a few tips on how to better make it through the coming events that would be hosted in the days that remained of the Time of the Heartscale. The biggest one she told him about was how tomorrow would function, in which all the drakes and dragonesses would showcase, flaunt, and compare their skills, power, and talents to one another.

"And remember," Ember went on with a tap on his shoulder, "don't go and overdo it. You and what dragons you seek to challenge are to spar only. If there's one dragon who's caught your fancy, do it in front of them; it'll serve to help impress them for what'll come in the days after."

"Noted," Spike agreed, shifting a glance her way before looking back over the expansive, rocky land they sat over. A silence came between them like an insidious mist, daring one of them to break it. The occasional dragon who had camped out somewhere in the distance could be heard emitting low bellows that echoed just loud enough to be heard from where they rested, but all it served to be was like that of a cricket's chirp. Twiddling his thumbclaws for a few seconds as he tried to find the right words to end the maddening quiet, Spike thought long and hard on them before choosing to speak. "Ember, do you think that maybe... we could spar together tomorrow? For a little bit, anyway."

"Us? Spar? Sure," she serenely agreed. Inflating her cheeks and puffing out a stale stream of purple smoke, Ember then realized a small issue with the idea. "Of course, first we'll have to find each other."

"That could be a bit tricky. What happened today is proof that it might not be too simple. But if there's anything I've learned in my time with my friends back at Ponyville, most tricks have solutions to them. Is there something we can do?" he asked.

"Something we can do? Hmm..." Ember's brow furrowed and she let out a long hum as she thought on his. Her claw tapped against her chin several times before Spike decided to speak again.

"It can just be a place where we'll be able to meet up," he suggested, hopefully. With that, Ember's face lit up like a light bulb. She looked out from the cliffside they sat at and stared out at some of the places of interest the area had to offer. After making her choice, she voiced her plan.

"I've got it. When you hear my father's roar signalling the start of the second day, meet me... there!" she closed one eye and pointed a claw out to distance, and Spike's head followed where it motioned to. It was a peculiar, unique formation adjacent to the one mountainous, inactive volcano that lied on the edge of the landscape, where a long bridge of rock formed over the ground, creating a noticeably tall, natural arch of sorts any dragon would find standing out immensely from its surroundings. "Meet me there, at Fafnir's Arch, right next to Mt. Conflagration. We can practice our fighting there and maybe... I don't know... talk, or something while we do it? Does that sound like a plan to you?"

"The best one," Spike agreed with a quick nod. He peered Ember's way, only to find himself staring directly into her lovely red eyes, highlighted into the likeness of the glimmering rubies adorning her tiara by the light of the stars shining down from above. Ember stared back up into his handsome green ones with a confident grin on her face, and for what seemed like the longest of whiles they remained like this, though in reality it was a scant few seconds.

It only, and finally ended when Ember blinked twice and then shook her horned head about, regaining focus as she remembered that this form of expression was not allowed at this current time. She knew what punishment would await them both if they were to violate the traditions. The last thing she would want was that.

Silently inhaling a deep breath as Spike was regaining his own wits, Ember cast a warm smile his way and readied herself to leave, as to get a good night's rest and prepare for the day to come. "I'll... see you then, Spike," she bid to him happily. "Goodnight."

Standing up from the ledge, she opened her wings up to their full length and abruptly leapt from it, flying away through the night sky and back in the direction of her own, current abode. Spike watched her leave, his heart beating away in his chest rapidly until it finally died down after a short time. He balanced his head upon his slacked knuckles as he leaned his body down a little and thought of what had happened.

"Tomorrow... at Fafnir's Arch..." he repeated to himself several times, his hope rekindled like a log rejuvenating a dying flame. "Meet her tomorrow at Fafnir's Arch..."

A Firm Feel

At the dawn of the second day, Spike flew off to where Ember had instructed: Fafnir's Arch.

It was an entertaining trial in and of itself to just get to the location to be sure, given the strong draft trailing down the massive mountain it neighbored that pushed at him relentlessly. For all the power it packed, it was far from being powerful enough to knock him off balance in flight. Braving the winds tenaciously until they pestered him no more, he kept low to the rocky terrain, trying to be as discreet as possible in an effort to keep others from deciding to follow and potentially hinder his date with Ember by challenging him. Thankfully, he saw no dragons tailing him by the time he reached the arch and descended downward.

To his immense delight, Ember was already there, her arms folded and a beautifully competitive glare all ready to go as she waited for him.

Fafnir's Arch looked rugged from a distance, but it hosted much more space than a sideways glance from a mile away would let on. The best part of this particular location, as Ember explained upon his arrival, was the fact that it was one of the more secluded parts of the territory this massive event was being held in. Not another dragon was around; most were out in the open of the area of land past Mount Conflagration, bellowing their wishes for a willing partner to flaunt their power upon. Even here, far below the arcing, naturally formed stone of the titular arch; surrounded by tall and rocky outgrowths jutting up from the ground and beside the craggy, steep slope of the nearby mountain, the roars, bays and cries of other dragons could be heard going out in the distance.

On Ember's word, the two engaged each other in fierce combat as all the other dragons had been doing since the day's beginning. And they fought hard, putting great effort forth to best the other with all of the brawn, teeth and claws at their disposal, yet not hard enough with any of these features to inflict true, grievous harm. Sparring was a session of expression and preparation, and so while one was expected to showcase at least a taste of their power first-hand to other dragons, to mete out genuine harm on opponents on this day was forbidden by dragon law. And Spike had no need of knowing what sort of penalties awaited a lawbreaker...

For how strict the law sounded, the drake found it far too easy to obey it, and Ember appeared to share his adroitness of following the tradition, as well as the enjoyment this session provided. Spike could see it with every swipe of her arm he either blocked or avoided. With every flying kick that sought to send him off balance; with every breath of flame to exit her maw; with every distracting, crackling whip of her long tail. Watching, blocking, and fighting back as he did with tactics similar to these, something most peculiar took its insidious, but not unwelcome effect on Spike soon enough.

He helped take down threats to Equestria with Twilight and her friends, and he had wrestled with many beasts and evil-doers over these many years alongside them. What he was doing now, though, was not like that. Playfighting as he was with Ember, it was like... something else entirely.

It was... odd. Odd in the fact that he couldn't quite name the sensation. It was like the tips of a long set of claws were tickling the insides of his stomach, tickling his very soul just seeing her go at him with such vigor, yet with zero hate or malefic intention in the show of it. She got a few good hits in on him, but instead of experiencing pain from such a thing, there was only a lingering feeling of soft, tender warmth. It was a feeling that permeated his entire being, through every draconic nerve and muscle he had. It was a feeling that made his blood light up with a searing, alien pleasure. It was a feeling that made him honestly smile.

"So... if I might ask, what is the bigger meaning behind this whole sparring portion of the Time of the Heartscale?" He spoke this to Ember almost casually as he ducked low, dashed behind and flanked her, locking his elbow around her neck. It wasn't too firm a grip, but was still enough to keep her horned head from squeezing out of it.

"Heh. It allows one to get a..." Ember paused her answer, a hand snatching onto Spike's wrist and prying from where it held onto her. With a grunt of honest effort, she not only completely pulled her friend off of herself, but flung him with a great force into the mound of rock ahead of them both. Unable to halt himself while spiraling through the air, the purple drake's back impacted against the wall of stone with a thunderous crash. His body cracking its surface with the power of the throw, it failed to so much as wind the young, infatuated wyrm.

Seeing him jump back to his feet, Ember, rolling the arm she used around in its socket and stretching it in preparation for another assault, huffed out, "...It allows dragons to get only the firmest feel of others. Both figuratively, and I suppose literally."

"I love the concept." Giving out a grating purr of amusement, Spike crouched low and arched his back, ready to pounce. Ember did the same.

Within seconds they both had lunged at one another in unison. Grappling with each other in the air, they tumbled, twisted, and spun before letting go and flying back to where either had launched from. Seeing Spike all ready to do it again, Ember instead stood up and shuffled toward a rocky mound near her.

"So," Ember started to say while sticking her claws into the side of it, tearing out a massive, bulky, near-spherical chunk of stone with all the semblance of a pony crafting a simple snowball from a snowbank. "How did you prepare for this event? How exactly? The thought's been biting my brain, to tell you the truth."

"Really? Heh! I'll have you know that my friends helped me prepare. And let me tell you; they went all out. They built me dummies to... test myself against. Granted, the things weren't the most alive of opponents, but... well, I feel ready!"

"That's actually a pretty neat way to go about it," Ember complimented, turning to and lifting up the absolutely gigantic boulder she had formed over her head as a mirthful smile snaked over her azure snout. In a motion of pure ease, she chucked the tremendous object right at Spike with all the dangerous resemblance of a trebuchet in a castle siege. Smirking, Spike dug his hind claws into the earth and pushed off on his powerful legs, jumping to the left and avoiding the missile most nimbly. Missing its target completely, the great rock crashed to the ground where he stood but a second prior, splitting apart into thousands of small, jagged shards and pebbles in the process.

The sound of the rock shattering rang in his ears. Adrenaline pumped through his body, filling it with enough vibrant energy to take on the entire world. Indeed, this experience was unlike anything else he had done before; unlike any of the countless, perilous adventures he had partaken in. It was more than just a rapid flurry of emotions that he could not identify. If he was sure of one thing, it was that it was... almost titillating!

Acting on this geyser of uncontainable energy, Spike stretched his wings out, jumped into the air and flew high. He got to an apex many hundreds of feet above the earth, turned downward, and then dove right in Ember's direction on the ground below, intending to divebomb her.

Ember saw his silhouette rain its shadow down on her against the blinding light of the sun, but didn't move an inch from where she stood. She simply took aim, her mouth filling with a purple glow.

Spike had to try and move about as bolts of fire began blasting at him in a purple barrage. For all the close hits that scraped by him, he was certain that he would avoid all of the fiery projectiles. That was what he believed he could do, when, suddenly, one of the flares finally hit his left wing. Eyes widening in surprise as he spiraled out of control, he was unable to stop and reset his descent properly.

Ember didn't realize she had actually hit him against the sun's glow, and by the time he was close enough for such a fact to become obvious, it was far too late to do anything about it. She was just able to give out a shrill "Yeep!" the second before Spike hit her.

The colossal force of Spike's impact ensured that he and Ember slammed into the ground together as a bunch of wings and scales, sliding a good several meters over it and leaving a trail of parted rock and trampled dirt in their wake. They came to a grinding halt at long last, a thin cloud of dust and smoke rising from the crater that had been formed.

Coughing the dust out of his lungs and shaking his dizzied head, Spike lifted it up after a few seconds and gave a groggy sigh before his dazed vision came onto Ember. With only the greatest clarity he realized that he was laying atop her, his claws wrapped around her shoulders as hers held tightly onto his. Much too stupefied was he to to pry his eyes from her now, he only continued looking at the dragoness below him, his face showing only embarrassed bewilderment in comprehension of what had happened.

Ember, in turn, looked back up at Spike with a shocked and bashful mien of her own. Her azure cheeks were as red as his now, and her eyes were as much like dinner plates as the drake's own.

The cloud of debris around them began to settle as they both caught their breath, taking in the stares each gave to the other. Only slowly did they unravel their arms from each of their strong and firm, if still trembling forms, the scope of their situation quickly evolving from astonishment and mortification to the blatant comedy of their clumsy accident. The expressions of shock quickly turned to smiles as they sat up in the crater, still breathless as their souls were beset by a phenomenal sense of heat not unlike the fire Ember had blasted Spike with that allowed the situation to become what it did.

The small smiles shown by Spike and Ember soon transformed into comparably larger grins as they both looked to each other once again. And all the two could do then, in unison, was laugh as loud and as boisterously at one another as they could, tears of earnest exuberance and gaiety beginning to well up in their eyes by the time their moment came to its end a good five, long minutes later.

Unbeknownst to Ember or Spike, they were being watched this whole time. That spy who observed them, hidden from their view behind a cover of rocks and boulders, was none other than the dragoness Prominence.

She had seen Spike flying towards Fafnir's Arch earlier in the morning, and when he didn't return so that she could openly challenge him as she wanted nothing more than to do this day, she decided to head here herself and saw what, and with who, he was currently spending time with. Time that he should have been spending with her. And in equal measure to the merriment he was showing with Ember, Prominence now felt nothing but anger.

She was quite restless, actively fidgeting where she stood. Seeing Spike and Ember acting so... so... close with each other had quickly set her blood to boiling. Ember didn't deserve Spike! No sir! Spike belonged to her; to Prominence, and no others! She decided that yesterday after that insipid and ignorant Garble's rejection, and by the scales on her back, she was going to make certain of it by the Time of the Heartscale's end...

When Prominence arrived here, she didn't decide to come alone. Not far behind the spying, seething dragoness were a pair of drakes. One, Fizzle, was a rather small and thin male with scales as white as snow as eyes that showed red and pink; a quite common trait of the albinism he had. The other, Scalio, was a rather massive fellow covered in horns and scales that more closely resembled darkly-hued armor than the hide of an average dragon. His mouth was filled with long and sharp teeth that glistened like pearl-tinted knives in the late morning light, while his wings and forearms were comparably small when put against his companions'.

Why they were here as well was no accident or coincidence. They were both some friends Prominence had made as a whelp, and ones she delighted in ordering around. While doing so was an easy thing that had little chance of objection from either one, that wasn't to say they didn't possess feelings or thoughts of their own

"Prom, are you sure about this whole thing? Doing this just doesn't feel right," Fizzle spoke up, raising a white claw. He looked to Prominence with a most concerned, outwardly slanted-brow visage at her tense mannerisms, then turned his view up to Scalio with an expression that was only filled with love. "I mean, I already found my life-mate, after all. And I wouldn't trade him up for any other dragon in the Dragonlands..."

"Oh, stop it, you!" Scalio giggled, the cheeks on either side of his large-fanged jaws reddening with the vivid hue of fresh cherries.

Prominence only rolled her eyes at the laughter and coos they gave off, caring only about her own ambitions that loomed overhead in this fragile moment. She left the cover she was spying from, walking up to the two in a frustrated strut.

"Guys, focus! Please," she insisted, her voice bearing trace hints of desperation. "This is important to me. Spike over there is the kind of dragon I've been looking for. I want him to be my life-mate, more so than any other dragon I know of. And right this second I can see he's got his eyes on the Dragon Lord."

"Torch?" questioned an honestly perplexed Fizzle, remembering who was currently serving the position.

"No, Ember," Prominence huffed. Her sharp teeth grating together, she let go of her view on her comrades for just a second to rush back to her cluster of rocks and peer back at the dragoness in question. Both she and Spike had gotten back up by that point and resumed their sparring session, now testing out how well one could block physical attacks against the other. Seeing this all too clearly and recognizing the air of harmony they were sharing that was as thick as a trail of smoke, her claws began to curl over the gray, stone flesh of her cover with a sharp squeaking sound, white lines forming in their wake.

She grunted and growled, "I remember clearly that those two have done a lot together since they first met during the Gauntlet of Fire all those years ago. I'm guessing they have tons in common, and even now I see them going at each other like... like something more than what simple friends would do. That means they must have some form of a chance of getting... together." The sound of her sentence finishing rolled off of her tongue like hateful venom. "But I swear by my scales, Spike will be mine. All mine. Heheheheee..."

Chuckling most maliciously, her expression became thin and maleficent; almost foxlike in its quality. She looked to Scalio and Fizzle with that same look, almost freezing the blood in their veins with just how perturbing it was, especially from one so commonly brutish and straightforward as she.

"And you two are gonna help me do just that."

Her claws rubbing and pressing together, another long, low snicker left Prominence. Complimenting the sound, her mouth curled into a foul and crooked grin. Sensing something most appropriately devious in her tone and motions quite well for one with a head so thick with horn and scale and bone, Scalio shifted an unsure glance Fizzle's way. Fizzle traded back a raised-brow, wide-eyed look of utter befuddlement and shrugged.

Before either could react, Prominence had ceased her mischievous claw-tenting and had zipped behind her allies quick as a flash. A magenta hand on either of their backs, she used but a fraction of her strength to push them both forward, encountering only small resistance in her forcible movement of her friends. She pushed and pushed until Scalio and Fizzle were beyond the cover and out in the big wide open. With one final thing left to do, she took a moment to gleefully pick up and toss a stray rock the way of Spike and Ember, pettily hoping to hit her rival for the purple dragon's heart from the lengthy distance. It missed, of course, but it did the job of attracting their attention well enough. Before Ember or Spike could turn the way of where the unmistakable sound of a rock went clattering, Prominence dashed behind the cover of boulders again, leaving her companions exposed.

Ember and Spike were visibly caught off guard by the two drakes they spotted, not at all thinking that they would be receiving company. And also unknown to them, said company had been given a crude script of words to recite as thought up by Prominence just a few minutes before. So, chomping his fangs together as he struggled to remember the words he was previously told to say, Scalio was the first to talk.

"Hey, uh, Ember! We got something we wanna say to you!" he bellowed aloud.

The awkward silence that followed told Fizzle that Scalio had forgotten his last line of corny dialogue he himself had little want to speak. Wanting more than anything to remedy his dear partner's plight more than avoiding the pain of doing this whole charade for Prominence's benefit, Fizzle pointed a colorless claw Ember's way and spoke as well, continuing in Scalio's stead.

"We wanna spar with you! Spar, as in fight you for a little bit! We just... um, have a mighty itch to face someone as strong as the Dragon Lord! To... prepare us! Prepare us for the days to... come! Which are soon!" While not yet done with his speech, his tone promptly dropped as he sensed the ridiculousness in this whole debacle creeping over him. "Eh... just for a little while is all. Is that an issue? Because, if it somehow is, we can always come... back in an hour...?"

The sound of Prominence's palm slapping her own muttering face from the background went unnoticed by all four dragons in the open. Good for her, however, the two dragons she sought to separate didn't seem to see the farce that was presented to them, and in fact only witnessed something they could not ignore.

Ember knew all too well that it was a common, if not expected thing for dragons to train with more than just one partner on the second day, and most rarely gave up on goading another to spar alongside them until they had their opportunity sated. Her view quickly turned to Spike, and the visage he now wore was an understanding one.

She read his expression like a book: If it's for a little while, then I suppose it's fine -- for now, of course.

Ember in turn rolled her eyes and huffed before looking to the two dragons interloping on their activity. Silently sighing, Spike read her movements just as well.

Well... alright, then. She then whispered "Be back as soon as I can." Putting on a grin, Ember lifted her head high and nodded Spike's way. Her pointed tail snapping about like an unfurled bullwhip, she marched off to meet the two dragons in a confident strut.

"If you boys really wanna test your mettle against someone like me, then be my guests," came her taunt, her wings extending. One flap of them later and she, like a bolt of blue lightning, was several meters up in the air. Seeing how quickly she had gotten into the sky, Fizzle and Scalio jumped into the air behind her on their own wings and joined her.

Spike watched Ember wait for her unwittingly reluctant pursuers to catch up, and she looked back to him. She gave a single, small, reassuring wave of her claw his way, then a wink, and departed with the two in a southward direction.

Spike watched her the whole time she left. He was already beginning to feel lonely as their shapes began to transform into small dots treading over the horizon, when the trap laid by a certain pink dragoness was sprung at last.

Amidst the sound of fading wingbeats, the young drake was torn from his vision of Ember when the apparently joyous cry of "Spiiiiike!" went streaking through the air behind him. Taking heed of it immediately, the unmistakable sting of unwanted surprise coming over him, his head swiveled around over his shoulder just in time to see a large, pink shape quite literally flying his way.

He had no chance to dodge the character racing at him, both far too overwhelmed by shock and with the figure already a meager few feet from him. With nothing to hold the shape back, it hit him with the force of something akin to a freight train. Much like the laughable incident had happened between Ember and himself just minutes before, though far less devastating to the terrain, Spike and this new interloper were thrown into a tumble and halted in a chaotic pile.

Spike didn't take long to recover from the collision, and just seeing who had tackled him as they had made his again-dizzied mind clear up immediately. Laying atop his prone body, casting down a great white grin, was a familiar-looking dragoness with pink scales.

"Do you remember me, Spiky?" she giggled girlishly, apparently unfazed by the impact.

Spike did, if only after a short time of thought. "P-P-Prominence?" he sighed, still breathless from the impact.

"Yessir! That's me!" the dragoness couldn't help but snortle. She leaned her head in closer to his, putting her beaked mouth just a dangerously meager inch from his own. "And as if I could forget you. How's it hangin'?"

"Um... f-fine, I suppose..."

"Fine? Oh, pff, surely you must feel more than fine now that I'm here. You sure looked lonely from where I just was, but I guess you aren't anymore, are you?"

"What do you mean by th-"

Spike couldn't finish, for Prominence pushed a finger to his flapping snout and close it gently, hushing him.

"Shhh... no need to question anything right now, Spiky," she tenderly whispered to him. "I just want to spar with you, while the day is still young and fresh. Just you. I want so dearly to see how much blistering heat you can take from me..."

Raising one of his own hands, Spike removed Prominence's from his mouth and spoke freely again. "I... guess I hate to say this, but I can't, Prominence. I was training with Ember."

"...And she, from what I've seen, is currently gone. Isn't that right?"

Prominence ended what sounded like a sudden, vicious snap with another unsettling purr. "Yes, she's gone now with those two drakes who I know as a fact you saw, too. And while they're busy doing their own thing, how about we..." she ran a scissored pair of claws over his chest like two voluptuous legs walking over scaly-looking rocks, slowly sauntering them up to his shoulder, "...perhaps do a little combat-related thing of our own? I mean, the only real action I got to see of you so far was when you helped me out of that pit yesterday after what that big bully Garble did to me..."

Spike hadn't realized his cheeks had reddened until he noticed how uncomfortably warm his face felt. Not liking it, in spite of its similitude to what he had shared with Ember not a short while ago, Spike shook his head, intending on remaining defiant to her advances.

"Prominence, I would... um... I would love to spar with you. I really would! But, you see..." Spike gulped, reaching a hand over and grabbing Prominence's stray wrist off of his chest, but gently so. Holding onto it for only a few moments, he slipped out from beneath her and sat up. He looked back down to her and frowned apologetically.

"I'm waiting for Ember to get back." He got next to his feet, briefly straightening himself out as he did so. "I don't... want to... to get in the middle of something when she returns and make her have to wait for me."

"But of course you would do a thing like that. So... attractively selfless." Giving off a light, suggestive growl, she nonchalantly flicked a claw along one of her long ears to show her lack of worry, using the other arm to hold her head as she lay against the ground in a relaxed pose. "It won't take them long, so I'm willing to bet it won't take us long either. I'm just seeing if you're a drake who can hold his own if he were to inevitably... fight for a certain somedragon when the right time comes."

Bouncing to her own two feet as her tail swished about behind her, Prominence gave a bow of her horned head. "Please can you, Spike? It'll be just until Ember gets back, I swear."

"You swear?"

"Uh-huh!"

Spike took a moment to think over this predicament of his. Ember was currently gone (for how long, he didn't truly know), and this new challenger, Prominence, wanted to be his sparring partner now, albeit for reasons that were blatantly flirtatious. And if he did choose to engage her now, it would be a harmless little thing for certain. Today, after all, was a day for many dragons to test their might against each other. Ember was out there now, most likely making short work of tiring out the two dragons that swept her attention away from him. For all he knew, she was probably going to get back in no time at all. And if she did get back and Prominence refused to leave due to having no one to fight with, it may just happen all over again...

"If it really is just until Ember gets back here, then... I guess it would be fine with me," Spike finally relented, exhaling slowly.

Unlike Spike, Prominence looked positively thrilled on receiving this greatly sought-after answer. "Yay!" She jumped up and down twice on the balls of her heels with her joyous squeal, shaking her fists gleefully. "Oh-ho-ho, yes! You're going to enjoy wrestling around with me, Spike. After we muck about on the ground for a little while, I should really show you how amazing my flying skills are when-"

Prominence was cut off when the thunder of something -- or someone -- landing on the ground behind either of them went out, shaking the floor of stone upon which they stood with its sheer impact. His gaze on Prominence faltering no sooner than had he chosen to freely give it, Spike thought in the span of the split second that followed that the source of the noise was Ember, returned so quickly after leaving. Hope, so delightfully warm in its sensation, enveloped him in that moment.

He spun around with a smile on his face he could not hide, expecting so fully, and desperately, to see Ember beaming back at him.

But instead, looking back at him was not the Dragon Lord his heart yearned for, but the thuggish face of Garble. And he was leering down at Spike most bullishly.

Author's Note

Well, I'm back. And I must admit, I'm a little hesitant to finish this fic. Reason being is that I found a new, stable ship in Thorax and Ember/Embrax/Thember. Or Pharynx and Ember/Phember. Maybe even a little something lays between Smolder and Spike/Smike/Spolder. Shipping still confuses me, but, as the saying goes, when life gives you almonds, you make almonade.