It was a fresh summer day, and Spike had awoken early out of excitement. It was time for his bi-annual meeting with Ember. Spike had had a crush on her for quite some time, so he looked forward to the meetings a lot. He wondered if he would be taller than her now. Last time they had seen one another, and then Spike had only been a slight bit shorter than her then. He had experienced another growth spurt since then, so was fairly confident he was indeed taller than her now. However, he could not be sure until he saw her. Luckily, he only had to wait 4 hours 26 minutes and 3 seconds.
"Twilight!!!!" Spike called as he ran throughout the halls, making his way to the young alicorn's chambers. He quickly found her room and barged in straight away. "Twilight! Wake up! We gotta get the castle ready for Ember!!"
Twilight mumbled in her sleep before giving into the dragon bouncing up and down on her bed and waking fully. "What is it Spike? This better be important. Its like..." Twi glanced at the clock on her bedside table before continuing. "Five am! Five am, Spike! What kind of pony wakes up at Five am!"
"I know, but Ember's nearly here!" said Spike, his excitement not diminished at all by Twilight's annoyance. Twilight huffed in annoyance but got out of bed anyway. She walked over to her mirror, grabbed her brush with her magic and after quickly brushing her mane she and Spike headed to the dining room.
After a rather delicious breakfast, Spike went to the gem storage room, where many various types of gems were stored for special dragon-related meals. After being gone for about an hour, Spike finally returned with a wide range of sapphires, rubies and emeralds. He burst into the throne room with a large sack of jewels over his shoulder, whistling a merry tune all the while.
"Finally, you took long enough picking those gems!" Twilight exclaimed upon seeing Spike enter the room. Whilst Spike had been selecting the gems, she had been decorating the throne room, and preparing Ember's guest room with the light blue bed cover spotted with diamonds that Rarity had made on one of Ember's visits. Always generous that mare, and a bit insane occasionally, practically forcing a dress onto the blue dragon. A dress which Twilight guessed Ember would've ripped off as soon as possible, if she could move her arms at all. Rarity, it turns out, wasn't as skilled at making dresses for dragons as she was ponies. The sleeves were a bit tight. Sure, the dress made her look beautiful, but it didn't seem to matter much to the tomboy. Spike trying to grab a gem from the bowl he had placed the assorted gems in brought Twilight out of her thoughts, and she quickly smacked his hand away.
"Ow! What was that for?? I was just gonna sample one..." Spike said, gingerly rubbing his hand. The lavender alicorn glared at him, brows lowered.
"Oh sure, and by one, you mean half the bowl" Twilight said incredulously. "And that's just before Ember crosses the border into Equestria." she added. Spike gave her his best glare, but they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Both Twilight and Spike were confused as Ember wasn't supposed to arrive for another 3 hours 11 minutes and 16 seconds. Not many ponies would be up this early anyway, so that only added confusion to the situation. Both Twilight and Spike went to answer the door.
There, on their doorstep stood a pony, a dragon, and a small foal, it seemed. The dragon was a deep blue colour, with large black and blue wings, black scales along his back and two horns curling around either side of his face. He had some scars on his face and chest, but other than that looked mostly healthy. The unicorn beside him was another story. Her white coat was soaked in blood, she had a large cut across her face, and several others on her legs and torso. The top part of her horn was almost completely not there, completely drenching her face with blood dripping from it, and you couldn't even see what colour her mane and tail were due to all the blood. Then there was the foal. She had a deep blue coat, with a mane and tail that started as black, and faded to a pale lilac at the tips. She too had horns curling around both sides of her face, matching the dragon's own horns exactly. Her turquoise eyes had slits in them instead of pupils, and she had large cuts across her chest and fore-legs.
Twilight and Spike were in shock, not sure what to do or say, when the dragon spoke. "Princess Twilight, please, you have to help us, we were camped in the forest, these wood-wolf creatures attacked, we barely escaped. Please, princess, you're the only one who can help them." the dragon's voice was slightly gravelly, but he spoke clearly, and panic was understandably heard whenever he spoke. His faded blue eyes met the alicorn's purple ones. "Please..."
"Quick, come in, all of you, Spike, show them to the throne room, I need to find that healing book Celestia mentioned." Twilight spoke quickly, and as the group hurriedly walked in she saw that the filly had a pair of mismatched wings, one being a regular pegasus wing and the other being a blue and silver dragon wing. She quickly ran to the library, as Spike showed them to the throne room. It didn't take long for Twilight to find the book she was looking for, re-organizing her library every month paid off.
"Try not to move too much" Twilight heard Spike say as she entered the throne room, and saw that he had just finished bandaging the filly's hooves with a first aid kit. The filly could only nod, seeming incapable of moving whatsoever.
"Could you tell me your name, Sir?" Twilight asked, looking at the dragon as she set the book down on the table.
"My name is Grell, the mare is my wife, Mayflower, and the filly is my daughter, Hydra" Grell said, as he smoothed the hair off of his wife's forehead, as it seemed she had fainted at some point. The action woke her not long after, and her turquoise eyes flickered open.
"Gr...Grell..." she said weakly. He immediately looked at her, not appearing able to form words. "Take care of our daughter..." then she looked over to Twilight. "Princess..."
"Yes? Does it hurt? Do you need some water? It shouldn't take long for me to cast the healing spell, just wait a minute..." the young princess said, obviously anxious about the spell, after all, somepony's life was in danger, and that wasn't something she took lightly.
"Princess...Heal...Hy..." her voice was even weaker now, and she couldn't even finish her sentence, before she stopped moving altogether. Both Twilight, Spike and Grell were shocked.
"May? May?? May!!!" yelled Grell, shaking his wife lightly by her shoulders. He couldn't hold back his tears any longer, and slumped over the still warm body. He remained like that for a few minutes, when after being healed by Princess Twilight, as per her mother's request, a younger voice spoke up.
"Daddy...Is Mama ok?" the young hybrid asked, and stared into the lifeless blue eyes of her father. She'd never seen him cry before, and though she was young, she was smart enough to know something was wrong.
"No, sweetie..." her father said weakly, trying to be brave for his daughter. "Mama's gone to a better place now, and I'm afraid she wont be coming back...". He was trying desperately not to break her small heart, but pain wasn't something he could avoid.
The filly said nothing, simply standing, staring at her father, before beginning to walk out of the throne room and towards the castle door.
"Where is she going??" Twilight questioned, worried for the foal. She hadn't realised she had been quietly crying the whole time.
"She's going for a fly, its what she does when she wants to be alone. I hate to ask this Princess, but can you follow her and make sure she's safe? One of my wings was injured..." Grell still spoke as though his wings had been ripped off entirely, but was trying desperately to hang on for his daughter. Twilight only nodded, and quickly ran after the filly, leaving Spike to clean up the dragon's wounds. She had almost entirely forgotten about Ember visiting until she spotted a blue figure quickly flying towards her.
"Hey Twilight, sorry I'm a couple hours early, my advisor was lecturing me about something and I couldn't wait to get out of there. Wait, is everything ok? You look like you've just been crying..." Ember greeted the princess happily, before noticing her sadness.
"Hello Ember, I cant really explain, but I've got to keep an eye on that filly" she motioned to the now airborne hybrid "So you can head inside if you want, Spike is in the throne room already"
"No, I'm gonna help you keep an eye on the filly, since I don't really want to walk into the sadness I can sense just yet." Ember wasn't smiling, and looked slightly saddened, though she didn't know what all the sadness was for. Twilight nodded and took flight and Ember quickly followed suit.
After keeping Hydra in sight for a few minutes, a passing cloud blocked their vision, and Ember was sure that if it weren't for her hunting skills that Twilight would've lost track of the filly. Thankfully, Ember's keen senses picked up on Hydra quite easily, and they found her lying on a cloud, head lying on a propped up tuft of the cloud, just overlooking the sky. There was an air of sadness to her, though she was not crying. Just sadly observing the passing clouds. Twilight was about to go and talk to her, but Ember stopped her, and flew over to the filly herself.
"Hey" she said quietly, and Hydra jumped at first, and looked about ready to take off, but when she saw Ember she stopped.
"Hello..." Hydra said in a whisper, barely loud enough for a pony to hear, but a dragon could hear just fine. Ember could sense something in the way the filly talked that reminded Ember of the way she herself had talked once.
"Was it your mother or your father?" Ember asked after a short silence. She saw the small foal's eyes widen and her head lifted off of the cloud pillow, but then she sighed and dropped her head to its previous spot.
"My Mama. Daddy says she's gone to a better place and wont be coming back..." her sentence trailed off, and she pushed her whole face into the cloud, Ember didn't know how to comfort the filly as she had never been good with foals. However, she knew one thing that Spike had taught her. She reached her wing out and pulled the filly in for a hug. She knew it was probably a bit strange, as they had only just met, but the foal needed comfort, and Ember was one of the few ponies, or should I say dragons, who would understand. She wrapped her arms around her and let her wing fall back to her side. She felt the filly tense momentarily, before sighing and sinking into the embrace.
"My names Ember, by the way" Ember said, trying to lighten the situation a bit. And to her surprise, the filly giggled before introducing herself.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Ember. My name is Hydra" said the deep blue filly. She giggled again, and it wasn't until then that Ember fully noticed Hydra's appearance. The dragon horns, slit eyes, and one dragon wing meant that she was definitely a hybrid. Her father had sent away several dragons who had fathered hybrids, so she vaguely knew of them. Along with her unusual features, the filly had what looked like healed, but fresh wounds on her chest and fore-legs. Magically healed most likely. Speaking of which, the element of magic flew over to the pair.
"Do you want to go back to the castle now, Hydra?" Twilight asked, giving her a kind smile. The filly nodded and the trio spread their wings and headed for the castle. It wasn't hard to spot, thankfully, and they got back quickly.
Once they arrived in the throne room, they all saw Spike trying to comfort Grell, who had stopped crying, just holding his head in his hand now, looking up when he heard the trio enter the room. Hydra noticed his sadness, and though saddened herself, decided to try to do something about it. She spread her mismatched wings and took flight, doing flips and tricks to cheer up her father. He chuckled, and when his daughter flew close enough to him, he pulled her down onto his lap for a hug. Then he noticed Ember staring and his face went blank. Hydra hopped off her father's lap and walked over to Spike, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the room.
"What are you doing?" asked Spike, confused by the filly.
"Come on, the grown ups need to talk, and as much as you want to be, you're not a grown-up dragon yet" Hydra said, leading him out of sight, and towards the library. She must've noticed which direction Twilight went in when they arrived.
"Grell?" Ember asked, after taking in the sight before her. He certainly looked like Grell, though she didn't act much like him...
"Princess Ember" he said, bowing lowly. "Its been a while" Now Twilight was confused.
"You two know each other?" Twilight asked. She had learned quite a bit about dragons from Ember, but was not sure if there were more than one colony of dragons, or if they all followed one dragon lord.
"Yes, he was a commander in my father's army" replied Ember, studying the other dragon's appearance. He had fresh scars on his face, and his left wing looked to have been slashed in places, and was a dark brownish-red colour, most likely dried blood.
It was then that Spike returned without Hydra, presumably having left the filly in the library. "Twi, you would not believe how much that filly is like you" Spike said, sounding rather exhausted despite only having been gone a minute or two. "She's made a book fort and is reading 'A Detailed History of Equestria' as we speak".
Twilight blushed at this, remembering all the good times she had with her history books and her book forts. She decided she'd go and talk to the filly who seemed so much like herself. Excusing herself, she left the three dragons alone.
"So...is he your mate?" asked Grell after an awkward silence. This, however, only increased the awkwardness, and both younger dragons blushed.
"W-what?! No! Spike's just a friend" Ember said quickly, shaking her head the entire time she was speaking.
"Y-yea! We're just friends..." Spike said, though he said it in a way that had layers of meaning behind it. Layers that Grell decided to quickly peel away to help the situation.
"Well, I know its not my place, but from the way you said it, both of you, it sounds like you want to be a lot more than just 'friends'" Grell said, and if he hadn't just lost his wife he would most likely have been smirking. He walked out of the room before either could reply, leaving the younger dragons staring at one another, scales so blushed it matched the fire most dragons breathe.