The Time

Spike walked into the local bar on a mission from Twilight; find and retrieve Starlight. It was not something he was keen to do, but someone had to do it. He looked around the place and saw the distinctive pink coat of his target at the bar. He walked over and sat down on the empty bar stool next to hers. She was slumped over on the bar, about a dozen empty mugs surrounded her. He tapped her on her shoulders, which caused her to stir. "Mmmm...huh?" she slowly got up, completely confused and drunk. She saw the baby dragon looking at her. "Oh...Twilight's slave, what's up?" she smirked, her speech slightly slurred.

Spike rolled her eyes. He had his fill of dealing with drunk mares to last a lifetime. "Come on, Twilight is getting worried." he urged her.

"Worried my sexy ass!" she slurred in a surly tone. "She is just scared I'll do something stupid..." she got up, barely staying on the stool.

"How much did you have to drink?" asked Spike.

"Uh...this many..." she immediately spread her forelegs wide only to lose her balance and fall back on the wooden floor. "I meant to do that!" she drunkenly proclaimed. "By the way, this mare is open for business!" she chuckled. "Good and sauced...vacant for a year! Male or female, dead or alive, all solicitations accepted!"

The dragon as got down on the floor next to the mare and helped her up. "Come on, time to go home." he said in a fatherly tone.

"No!" she complained like a little filly. "I still haven't ridden on the carousel yet!" she whined.

"Starlight! Focus!" he urged before slapping her on the cheek. The finally caused her to become quiet. She shook her head to refocus herself again.

"Sorry about that..." she apologized, momentarily sober again. "...I guess I went too hard on the alcohol." she tried to coordinate herself so she can walk without Spike's aid.

"You're not the only one." Spike related as he walked ahead and held the door open for her.

She struggled to watch her footing, but she managed to make it outside, only for her to fall flat on her face, rump high in the air. "Still open for business!" she declared, her voice muffled by the dirt.

"Maybe if you take Twilight's lessons to heart, you may find someone who will gladly take up that offer." Spike told her, he waited for the mare to cooperate again.

"Hey! I managed to get some without Twilight's help!" she slurred, offended. "I ain't no sad virgin!" she said as she got back up. "I'll prove it to you!" she looked around the street to see a stallion walking by. "Bingo!" she tried to make herself presentable, or at least what she thought was presentable in her inebriated state and drunkenly trotted over to him. "Hey you!" she yelled, causing the stallion to stop. "I'm drunk, horny and ready to be taken advantage of!" she said in what in her mind sounded like a sultry voice before turning around, lifting up her tail and showing off her goods.

The stallion just looked at her with disgust. "I'm sorry, I don't stick it in pathetic drunks." he stated with annoyance before walking off.

Starlight just looked on with offense. "Well, fuck you then! You cock sucking butt fucking coltcuddler!" she drunkenly yelled. She then attempted to use a spell on him, but as soon as her horn began to glow, the collar around her neck immediately tightened, choking her. "Oh come on!" she wheezed as she fell to the ground. Once she lost motivation to go through with the spell, the collar loosened up again, finally making it possible to breathe.

Spike looked over her with worry. "You okay?"

She just looked up at the sky in defeat. "Ah, who am I fooling?" she confessed. "I'm just a pathetic and sad mare, who can't make friends or get laid without forcing someone..." she got up, with help from the dragon.

"Oh come on, I'm sure you had at least once friend in your life-"

"Until he left to become a warlock." she interrupted with bitterness in her voice. "And he had to do so just as I was about to confess my feelings for him...the bastard." she walked off ahead of Spike, bad memories flooded her mind.

At Carousel Boutique, Rarity was reorganizing some boxes, and in one of them, she rediscovered her old school yearbooks. She looked at them all, but then came across her Sophomore year photo. "I can't believe I went through a punk phase..." she commented with shame. The front door opened and Rarity quickly closed her book so no one would ever see the photo. She looked to see Rainbow Dash and her foal walk in, looking sad. "Oh, Rainbow darling, what's wrong?" she asked with concern.

"Nothing, just some self-reflection." was all the mare said as she carefully and quietly placed her infant colt in a small crib that Rarity provided in case Dash tasked her to foalsit.

"Isn't that a good thing?" asked the unicorn to her friend.

"Not when you learn you're a selfish jerk, it isn't." she responded. She sat down at a nearby seat, by the fire.

"What happened?" she asked as she sat down next to her.

"I was so upset about Applejack being with Soarin, that I forgot to take her feelings into account, like I felt selfishly entitled to him or something..." she explained with continued shame.

"I know how it feels when you believe you're entitled to certain things." related Rarity. "Back in High School, I fell in love with the captain of the hoofball team, I did everything to have him, make myself like the same things as him, take every opportunity to be with him, but no matter what he did, he would always say that he wanted us to be nothing more than friends...and instead of accepting that, I just snapped at him and left." she told. "All because I felt like I deserved him...not taking into account his feelings...and I lost a nice friendship because of it."

"What happened to him?" Dash asked, curious.

"Does the name Run Shoot, ring a bell?" she asked.

"You had a crush on THE Run Shoot? Quarterback for the Baltimare Ravens? THAT Run Shoot?" Dash couldn't believe it.

"Yes, him." Rarity explained.

"Oh mane, you lost out big time, especially from what I have seen from the centerfold photo he did for Playfilly magazine, it was a really HUGE loss."

The unicorn looked at Dash with a deadpan expression. "Yeah, don't reminded me..." she got back on topic. "...the point is, looking back, I would rather have him as just a friend, than never have him in my life at all."

The cyan mare finally got the point her friend tried to make. "I understand." she nodded. "I just...never been..." she tried to find the right words.

"Emotionally mature?" Rarity suggested.

"Uh..yeah...that." Dash accepted the suggestion, since it was close enough to describe what she wanted to say.

"Don't worry, we all have been there...some of us just remain that longer than others." Rarity smirked.

"But have you ever...you know...fantasized being with him?" Dash asked with curiosity.

"Plenty a lonely night." she sighed with annoyance.

"Bravo! Bravo!" cheered Adam as he clapped his hands at Ember down below. "Never thought you'd make it on time, I'm impressed." he said before leaping down to the caldera floor below. Both he and Ember stared each other down. "Well, as promised, you are free to mate with me, you earned it." he stated.

"Like I would ever mate with you." snarled Ember with disgust. "I want the real Adam, not the stone that's controlling him."

"You sure?" he took out the stone. "Because you look a little...thirsty..." he smirked as the stone glowed red. Suddenly, Ember fell to her knees with a load moan.

"Damn...you..." Ember said through gritted teeth, trying to prevent another moan to escape from her mouth, she began to unknowingly walk on all fours towards the human. "I'll...not...submit..." she said determinedly, tail firmly between her legs to hide her excitement. She soon reached the human, her face level with his crotch. "No..." she tried to turn her face away.

"Don't deny it, you loved what you saw and you wanted it more." he laughed as the stone glowed brighter. But suddenly, he felt the stone escape his grasp, finally breaking his control over the dragon. Confused, he looked up to see a yellow pegasus carry the stone away. "What the?!"

Ember just breathed a sigh of relief before getting up. "Too bad you can't control ponies." she smirked.

Fluttershy decided to fly away as far as possible, stone in her mouth, as ordered by Ember, but as she did, she soon felt her mouth become empty again. She realized that the stone was gone. "Huh?!"

At that moment, the stone materialized on the floor opposite to both Adam and Ember. "So...it's a leadership challenge I see..." began Adam in a stand-off against the dragon, still under the control of the stone.

"Yup, and you know the rules, first one to get the stone and lift it high in the air, becomes Dragon Lord, loser-"

"-becomes the new Dragon Lord's lifelong slave." Adam smirked at the thought. His eyes a piercing shade of red. "Let's do this."

Both quietly nodded to each other before quickly sprinting full force towards the gem. Ember began to use her wings to fly towards it, but saw the human run next to her just as fast, he still had the abilities unknowingly given to him by the stone. He then grabbed Ember by the tail, stopping her midair and whipped her away. The human resumed his high speed sprint to the stone, only to once again, see Fluttershy swoop down and grab the stone. "Damn it!" cursed Adam.

"Fluttershy!" yelled the dragon. "Throw it to me before it disappears!" she shouted. Fluttershy was about to do as told, but quickly realized it was gone out of her grasp again.

The mare looked around to see it reappear in the caldera below. "Ember! Behind you at six o'clock!" she yelled at the dragon.

Ember, on cue, flew towards the stone, but Adam was also closing in. Just as he was about to reach down and grab it, Ember tackled the human by the waist and pushed him into the ground. "No you don't!"

The human, angry, swiftly kicked the dragon off of him, hitting her in the chin. "No one gets in the way of my destiny!" he snarled as he got up. "I was meant to be used by humans, not by one of your wretched kind!" he spat.

Ember also got up, spitting out a loose tooth as if it was nothing, and wiping the blood off of her lip. "We dragons refuse to ever submit to a foreign power." she snarled in return.

"But you submitted yourself to a human!" he pointed out.

"That's where you're wrong!" Ember rebutted. "When I submitted myself, I didn't submit myself to a human...I submitted myself to more than worthy opponent." she explained. "I submitted myself to a creature with more positive qualities than you can ever understand!" she pointed. "The Adam I fell in love with was brave, levelheaded, intelligent, quick thinking, and his heart and intentions were always pure!"

Fluttershy, quietly observing from above heard her. "Fell in love?" she whispered, stunned, never knowing that Ember developed feelings for her lover.

"You!" Ember continued. "You are not the one I submitted to, and never will."

Adam just chuckled evilly. "We'll see about that." he then sprinted towards the stone again. Ember did the same. Both ran neck-in-neck towards and then dived at it, both of them reaching to get it. But to their surprise, they both grabbed it simultaneously.

The stone glowed brightly in between the human and dragon. A tug of war for the stone ensued between the two as Adam looked to see his hand grow scales and claws, while Ember saw her hand grow skin and look human. But both continued, as the transformation traveled up both their respective arms. Both gave out a scream of anger as the bright red glow engulfed them both.

Fluttershy shielded her eyes as the entire caldera was swallowed up by a bright red column of light. Then, everything went silent.

Once everything was quiet, Torch began to slowly move, gradually realizing that he was no longer compelled to stay put. He slowly made his way over to the caldera's edge to see what happened. Fluttershy was already there, stunned from what she saw. Confused, Torch looked over at the pony. "Who won?" he asked with worry.

"Look down." was all the mare said. Torch did as told and saw a strange sight; in the middle of the caldera, stood a nude young human female holding the Bloodstone in her hand, held high above her head, near her, was Adam, completely unconscious.

The female stood there as her skin began to get covered by blue scales, and within a minute, was back to being a dragon. "I, Ember, am the new Dragon Lord!" she proudly yelled up at the sky. Torch and Fluttershy breathed sighs of relief from the news. The dragon race was safe once again.

The next day, Adam slowly woke up, to find himself in a cave. Confused, he looked around his strange surroundings, only to see Ember lounging on a pile of gemstones, and eating one. "Good morning sleepy head." she smirked.

"Ugh, what happened? How did I get here? How long was I out?" he asked with confusion, his body felt sore.

"Oh, the scepter teleported you here, but I managed to save your butt, unfortunately, it caused you to fall unconscious for the last 24 hours or so." she explained nonchalantly.

"24 HOURS!" he explained. He wanted to get up from the makeshift straw bed he slept on, but quickly noticed that he was completely naked. "I'm naked!" he exclaimed with embarrassment as he covered up his literal embarrassment with his hands.

Ember just laughed. "Relax Adam, your clothes are safe over there." she pointed to a neatly folded stack of clothes next to the straw bed. "Besides, I think I've seen plenty of you, so hiding it is pointless." she smirked. The human blushed even more. "Not impressive size-wise, but it is very aesthetically pleasing." she teased.

"I hope you didn't do anything while I was asleep." Adam said, still embarrassed as he reached over for his underwear.

The dragon just laughed again. "Relax, I didn't do anything inappropriate." she said. "Maybe take some good mental images, but that's about it."

"Are you sure nothing else happened? Because all I remember was reaching for the scepter to give it to you...everything else is a blank." he admitted as he slowly began to put on his boxers.

"I promise you, nothing else happened." she assured, but that was a lie. But she felt it was for the best that he never knew about what he really did.

Adam chuckled. "Yeah, because imagine me, a Dragon Lord, like that would ever happen." he said.

Ember cringed a little when he said that, but she put on a straight face. "Yeah, anyways, I'll leave you to get dressed." she goes to leave.

"Ember," Adam said just before she left, it made her stop in her tracks.

"Yes?" she asked, back still turned to him.

"I'm sorry that it can't work between us." he began. "I think you're an amazing and interesting creature, but, I just can't get attracted to you in a physical way." he explained. "Plus, my heart lies with someone else already and all..."

"Oh, I understand, don't worry, you have a pretty nice and kind mare there." she said, trying to put on a brave face, but her voice faltered slightly. "If you're happy, I'm happy." she assured. "I'll be outside..." she said before leaving Adam alone to put on his clothes. But she suddenly felt a hand grab her hand, she looked back to see it was Adam.

"I know it must be hard to accept that fact." he said feeling sorry for turning Ember down. "But I am honored to have met you and I hope our friendship can continue." he assured, looking into her eyes.

The dragon blushed, but she was touched. She knew it was better to have him in her life as a good friend than to never have him in her life at all. "And I am honored to have met you to."

Both smiled at each other before Ember took her cue and left to give Adam some privacy.

Ember walked out of her lair to see Fluttershy sitting over the ledge outside of the cave entrance, looking at the volcanic rocky landscapes of the Dragon Lands. She walked over and sat next to her. "You love him too?" was all Fluttershy said in response.

"Yeah, should be obvious." the dragon said.

"Well...I don't mind that you do..." Fluttershy admitted, the dragon raised an eyebrow in response, she did not expect that response. "I don't mind sharing either...as long as he returns to me and tells me in advance." she explained.

"But aren't you jealous?"

"Of course I'm jealous...but I know that limiting him to just me is just selfish and cruel...he insists he wants to be only with me, but I know one day he'll get that urge to try something different, just like every other stallion..." she explained.

"But he's not a stallion, he's a human...maybe he'll be true to his word and stay with you." Ember assured.

"I just feel like he's limiting himself for me is all..." the mare sighed.

"You know, don't tell Adam this but..." Ember whispered over into the mare's ear. The mare perked up to hear what the dragon had to say. "...technically, since he lost the challenge yesterday, he's now a life-long part of my hoard, which means I can have him whenever I want." she explained. "But I know that doing that would be just as selfish and cruel."

"But what of your traditions and codes?"

"I'm the Dragon Lord, Fluttershy, I can choose to ignore them whenever I want." she chuckled.

"Hey ladies!" yelled Adam, as he jogged out of the cave, now fully dressed, happy to see Fluttershy is there as well.

"By the way, yesterday never happened." Ember whispered to Fluttershy before they turned their attention at the human and happily smiled at him. "Hey there." greeted the dragon.

Fluttershy flew over to the human and enveloped him into a tight hug, and then gave him a big kiss on the lips. "Glad that you are okay." beamed the yellow pegasus.

Adam smiled, holding the mare. "Yeah, me too." he said with relief. Ember then whistled to the valley below and within a minute, a giant phoenix flew up to the ledge. Both the human and mare stunned by the sight.

"It's a much quicker ride that way." Ember explained.

The couple happily got on the phoenix. The three said their goodbyes to each other before the giant bird flew away towards Ponyville. Ember waved them off as they flew into the horizon until they could no longer be seen. "Goodbye Adam...you'll always be MY Dragon Lord to me." she said to herself.

She was about to go back inside, until her father Torch, appeared before her from beneath the ledge, face-to-face since her father was massive. "What you did was extremely risky Ember." he told his daughter.

"I at least got the stone back into dragon hands again didn't I?" Ember assured her father. "Besides, it is now him that submits to me now."

"What do you see in that human anyways?" Torch asked with curiosity. He never expected for his daughter to fall in love with a non-dragon.

"He's not just any human dad...he's the most amazing being I have ever met." she explained. "He would make a great dragon."

"A cunning dragon in fact, just like you." he observed. "But I do hope you'll at least find a suitable dragon mate."

"Don't worry, as soon as there's one that can give me a good challenge, but I will admit, that human sure did set the bar pretty high." she smirked before walked back inside.

Torch just rolled his eyes before walking away to leave his daughter to her duties.

Ember walked back inside her lair and sat down on her throne. She looked over to the side of her throne to see a Bloodstone, now re-attached to a new scepter, leaning against it. She picked it up and held it in her hands. "Now let's see if there's anyone who can surpass that high bar he set." she smirked as the stone began to glow red.

It wasn't long until all the male dragons of around Ember's age noticed their tails begin to blink, it only met one thing...a mating tournament has been called.

For Ember, she knew that whoever won the tournament won't be able to come close to what Adam achieved, but she was at least interested in seeing them try. She was going to enjoy this greatly.

Starlight woke up with a pounding headache. But she was not too concerned about that, she was more concerned about anything dumb she did when she was intoxicated. She washed her face with cold water at the bathroom sink when Spike walked in. "Twilight is wondering if you're coming down for breakfast." he asked.

"I'm on my way, don't worry." she answered as she started to straighten out her mane so it would not look so messy.

"How are you feeling?" the baby dragon asked with concern.

"Did I do anything embarrassing last night?" she asked rhetorically.

"Apart from soliciting a stallion...not much." he answered.

"Explains why my jaw feels a little tender." she mumbled before she gave a sigh. "Sorry you had to see me like that." she apologized out of embarrassment.

"We all do stupid things at time." he assured. "But that doesn't mean you should get discouraged, I'm sure you'll be fully reformed in no time."

"I don't want to be reformed, I just want my life back." she answered. "I want to be left alone."

"No pony deserves to be alone." stated the dragon.

"I do." she rebutted. "Everyone I've ever gotten close to all just abandon me, what's the point." she sighed.

"Like your friend that became a warlock?" he said. That struck a nerve in the mare, but tried to keep her composure.

"Go tell Twilight that I'll be down shortly." she said trying to calm herself down. Spike decided to do as told since he could sense that the mare could use some privacy. Once the door was closed Starlight looked herself in the mirror. "All cutie marks do is cause pain and unfairness..." she said to herself. "...and I'll make sure that every pony realizes that fact." she began to grit her teeth, trying to suppress her building anger.

Rainbow Dash arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, and found Applejack bucking some apple trees. She floated over to her and then softly landed. "Hey." she began. That got the orange coated mare's attention.

"Oh, hey." she said in a less than friendly tone. Awkwardness fell between the two.

Dash took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." she admitted.

"For what?" she turned to the cyan mare with an eyebrow raised with suspicion.

"For being an entitled jerk." Dash admitted with shame. "I should've been happy for you...but I was too busy thinking about myself."

"About time ya grew up and took the initiative." Applejack said bluntly.

'Yeah, with the foal, I had to do a lot of growing up." she agreed.

To Dash's surprise, she was met by a tight hug from her friend. "Ah know." she said. "After my parents passin' ah had to grow up fast too."

"How was it like raising Apple Bloom at such a young age?" she asked as they broke the hug.

"Lots of hard work, but ah had a lot of support from Granny and Mac, and seeing her grow up made it even more worth it." Applejack related. "By the way, did ya ever figure out who the father is?" she asked.

"Uh..." Dash really wanted to tell Applejack the truth, but she was afraid that she would ruin the moment. "...I'll probably never know." she explained. "It was all a blur."

"So now there's a stallion out there who has no idea he has a foal? Leaving ya to do the work, what a no good jerk." Applejack mumbled. "He needs to be held responsible for that foal."

Dash just nodded at that statement, if only Applejack knew the truth, but she did not want to ruin anymore lives, she would rather have Big Mac remain blissfully unaware of that fact so he can be happy and live his life. Especially now that he's found a new mare to be with. "So uh...you coming to Fluttershy's later? I heard she's going to give an announcement today."

"Don't ya worry, ah'll be there, just got to finish my chores and all that." the mare nodded. "It was great talking to ya again."

"Yeah, me too." smiled Dash. Applejack got back to work and Dash decided to take that as her cue to leave. She flew up to a nearby cloud to see her colt Zap, wings tied down, sculpting a piece of cloud, making it look like an apple. "Hey, that looks pretty good." Dash pointed out, impressed by how good it looked. "Can you sculpt anything else?" she asked her son. The colt gave her a blank stare before nodding. He took another piece of cloud and sculpted it to look like a lightning bolt. He proudly showed it off. Dash gave a heartwarming smile in response. "That almost looks like my cutie mark." she carefully took the piece. "Come on little Zap, let's go see grandpa and grandma." she placed the colt on her back before she flew off to the sky. Hopefully, things will truly become easier as time goes on, now that she has her friends to help her.

The phoenix soon landed in front of Adam's house. Both the human and pegasus got off, happy to finally be back home. The giant bird flew away back to the Dragon Lands again, leaving the couple alone.

"Anyways..." began the pegasus. "...just thought I'd let you know that all of our friends are over at my place right now for the engagement announcement." she revealed to the human.

"Oh right." Adam just remembered that none of their friends knew about the good news yet. "It's very great news." he smiled with happiness. "Can't wait to tell them the news." he proceeded to go to Fluttershy's cottage, but was stopped when the mare floated in front of him.

"Actually," Fluttershy began, blushing beet red. "I was thinking of maybe a well...quickie...before we go...but I can understand if you don't want to, I don't want to force you and all since you might be too tired and you don't want to keep our friends waiting and-" she was swiftly silenced by a passionate kiss on the lips from the human, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her body went limp.

The human caught her in his arms, chuckling a little. "You need to relax hun." he pointed out as he carried her inside his house.

The mare just blushed. "I-I know." she smiled with embarrassment as she was carried bridal style through the front door, looking forward to the fun and wanting to enjoy the moment as much as she could. "The greatest being in the world is going to be my husband...I feel like the luckiest mare in the world!" she celebrated in her mind.

At an unknown location, a purple unicorn with a red mane observed the human carry the pegasus inside before closing the door. She had a scar over her right eye and a missing horn. "This human is the key sir." she reported to an unseen figure. "He could be useful in our plans."

"I sense much potential in him." said the unseen figure. "Untapped and great potential."

"So what do you want us to do?" asked another voice.

"For now, Grubber, we wait and observe, I want to see more of this human in action." their leader said, pleased.

"Well, this human did single-handedly kill Princess Celestia, I can give him that." added the mare. "Good riddance, because he unknowingly made it easier for us."

"That he did Tempest...that he did..." he laughed evilly.

"So...what kind of wedding should we have?" asked Fluttershy as she brushed her messy pink mane to be straight and presentable again. She sat in front of a mirror in her human lover's bedroom.

Adam, who was getting dressed thought about for a minute before coming up with a suggestion. "Well, how about a small outdoor wedding, with just our close friends and family in attendance?" he suggested.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea!" she explained with excitement. "I always preferred simple and small weddings." she was now really looking forward to their wedding day. She soon found herself wrapped within the human's arm, she blushed in response. "And the honeymoon?" she asked.

"Hmmm..." he thought playfully. "...how does Neighpon sound?" he answered while he kissed the top of her head.

"Oh my goodness! I always wanted to go there!" she exclaimed with excitement. "Oh, this will be so amazing...I finally get to be what I always dreamed of, a good wife." she smiled with joy.

Adam was glad that she was happy. "By the way, do you need help to reattach your tail extension?" he asked as he held up the extension.

Fluttershy blushed. "Uh...if you don't mind..."

Adam chuckled. "Yeah, maybe don't wear one when we're being intimate, especially since you sometimes like your mane and tail to be pulled." he explained.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I like to be treated as pray in the bedroom." she rebutted playfully.

The human just chuckled even more as he got to work in reattaching the mare's tail extension. He was going to enjoy spending the rest of his life with her, regardless of how long that will be.

To be continued...