— Ember —

Thinking was not Ember's strong suit and the throbbing bump on the back of her head wasn't making it any easier—at least, not in the normal way. In actuality, though, it did make it easier, because in combination with the fact that sounds were muffled and her vision was swimming, the actual thinking needed to come to a conclusion was minimal.

She'd been attacked.

She'd been attacked from behind.

And standing in front of her was Carnelia looking younger than Ember had ever seen her, with a monstrous right claw wearing a very familiar ring.

Ember's fist clenched, the feeling of her naked claw clear.

A very familiar stolen ring.

Not the first thing that had been stolen today.

No, not much thinking was needed at all.

And this time, she wouldn't let anyone escape.

She leapt, tooth and claw at the one who she'd thought was a friend.

— Fluttershy —

Oh dear.

Oh my.

Oh dear oh my oh no.

Three demigoddesses, two alicorns and two alicorn-dragon hybrids all converged on Spike, Drift and Kindle, all at once. It was, perhaps, a bit much. Yes, admittedly, Kindle was hurt, but not badly. Not like what was happening with the dragons left behind. Fluttershy had missed the beginning of the altercation, not actually being in the habit of going out of her way to spy on everypony and everydragon, but now... now she had half a dozen sparrows, pigeons and a meerkat or two watching what was happening in the old library, which wasn't really enough to do anything.

Twilight leapt at Spike, lifting the once-again-baby dragon into a crushing hug with all sorts of panicked inquiries and reassurances while all the rest drew up around the trio making a fuss of them all.

There was essentially no chance that she'd be able to get any of their attention, so Fluttershy kept running, wishing she hadn't left her bear friends back in the throne room. They were too slow for a dash across the city, though, and she hadn't expected things at the old library to go downhill quite so quickly, so all she could do was run.

Run, and gather up as many of her little friends as possible.

A yellow tide gathered up around the old library, but Fluttershy held them back from actually sending them inside. In theory, her control of her animal friends would keep them safe. She had, after all, saved the life of one of the dragons that had attacked Rainbow Dash by taking him over. There were just a few eensy, teensy, tiny problems with that.

First, there was the fact that any of the dragons swallowing an immortal demigoddess pigeon would go poorly for either the dragon or the pigeon, depending on whether she removed her goddesshood from it or not.

Second, of course, was the fact that introducing scores of tiny animals to a fight was not really the sort of thing that calmed people down.

What else could she do, though?

She... she supposed that, like the dragon that Rainbow Dash had killed, she could use her goddesshood to take control of Ember, but...

No.

No, she just couldn't. Not after the last dragon had killed himself to free himself of her. Ember wasn't mortally injured, so she wouldn't have to make that choice, but it was still wrong to take control of someone against her will like that. She was just fortunate that so many of her animal friends were so accommodating.

That only left one thing that she could do, then. She'd discovered, back during the dragon attack, that she could come apart into approximately forty-six squirrels, and since then she'd experimented a bit with that sort of thing, like combining Harry and Claude into one giant bear back in the throne room, but it still made her... well, a tiny bit uneasy, no matter that it seemed entirely, safely reversible.

She still wondered what would have happened if she'd removed her demigodesshood from those forty-six squirrels, though.

Anyway, that wasn't relevant right now. What was relevant was the crashing and scraping sounds coming from the old library, which she could hear with her pony ears now, as well as the mass of small animals gathered up around the door and windows.

Two more strides and she leapt into that yellow mass, exploding into the old library in the form of... in the form of... the form of what? There were too many disparate animals in the mass to give her any real direction. Something intimidating, she supposed. Something that could separate them. Something that they would listen to.

Oh. Well, yes, that would work. It was kind of obvious, wasn't it?

— Ember —

It wasn't so much a fight as it was a wild fury of tumbling, scratching and biting that went on long enough for her to lose track of time—though maybe that was the head injury.

It should have been simple. Ember had size and initiative on her side, and Carnelia didn't seem to have figured out the ring yet, but Carnelia... Carnelia had numbers. Ember had forgotten about Slag, but Slag hadn't forgotten about Ember, or wasted any time in coming to Carnelia's aid, and for all that Carnelia was probably the most delicate of the six of them, Slag was absolutely the most tenacious, even as a gnashing, biting baby.

All of that ceased to matter when the furious form of a massive golden dragon appeared in the room and roared.

Ember froze.

That wasn't possible. Carnelia had the ring, she was sure of it, and—and it just wasn't possible. It was real, though, without a doubt. The gleaming scales and shining white teeth were one thing, but more than that, she could feel its gaze bearing down on her like a weight.

Then... it was over, she could breathe again and she was standing there, awkwardly on top of Carnelia, with Slag hanging from her mouth by the tail, which tasted of blood.

Ember's jaw went slack and Slag tumbled down onto the floor. The bandages were gone from the baby dragon's tail, and the small partially-healed bite that Ember's father had taken out of it was circumscribed entirely by her own savage attempt at removing the appendage.

Oh.

— Carnelia —

On second glance, the dragon that had interrupted the fight was more yellow than it was golden, which did explain things a bit, but the fact that it was the most mild-mannered of the demigoddesses being not so mild wasn't entirely reassuring.

The subsequent appearance of the rainbow-maned one who had nearly killed three dragons on her own entirely by accident definitely didn't lower the tension in the room any either, and Carnelia had a difficult time remaining calm and keeping a tight leash on the Ring of Ashmund. She'd already lost a bit more of her arm to the monstrous transformation during the fight and she would really rather it not go much further.

Nevertheless, Carnelia did her best to focus on the real problem in the room. "Are you sufficiently satisfied?" she asked Ember rather bitterly as she scooted herself out from under her 'empress,' though she was reconsidering the girl's suitability for the title—and not because the Ring of Ashmund was currently truculently stuck on her own claw. "It seems we have come full-circle."

Ember didn't answer directly, occupied entirely as she was staring at the overlapping bite wounds on Slag's tail. "I... I am not my father," she insisted, eventually standing and turning her attention to Carnelia. "This is your fault! You stole the ring!"

"Yes! I did!" Carnelia shot back, unashamed. "I was not going to sit and let your insanity sabotage everything we strive for before we've scarcely even started!"

"I am not insane!" Ember shouted, stepping threateningly towards Carnelia, keeping an eye on the great big yellow dragon in the room. "Give it back."

"I cannot," Carnelia simply said, gesturing at her monstrous arm. "And I will not. Not until you are past this senseless insistence on blaming whoever is closest. I do not trust—"

"Um," the great big yellow dragon demigoddess said, creeping slightly further into the room. "I know it's important that you communicate your issues and you're doing great at that right now, but I'm just gonna..." Slowly, carefully she reached in between the two dragonesses and plucked the injured and bleeding baby dragon up with two of her fingers. "...Take her to the hospital now. Sorry. I'll be going now."

Nobody in the room moved as Fluttershy backed her very large draconic form out of the library, carefully cradling Slag in her arms. Five seconds after everyone thought she was gone, she stuck her head back in the door. "Please, continue your peaceful discussion... and, um, Dash: please make sure it stays that way. Without nearly killing them this time."

Nobody said anything for a significant amount of time in Fluttershy's absence. "You know," Rainbow Dash said, breaking the silence. "I worry about her sometimes."

— Rainbow Dash —

With the giant yellow dragon gone, however, the previous hostile mood returned to the room, Ember eying the ring on Carnelia's finger.

Great. Just... great.

Not really having any other choice, Rainbow Dash sighed and stepped in, inserting herself between the two sides, keeping a particularly sharp eye on Ember. "Look, I am so not the right mare for this and I have absolutely no idea what's going on, except that things have gone pear-shaped enough that two of your group are hurt enough to need the hospital, half of you got shrunk, a different half walked out on you and these two are about five seconds from following them with the Dragon Emperor's Toe Ring, so everyone calm the buck down and one of you explain."

Ember was too preoccupied being defiant, so it was Carnelia who got a word in first. "Simply stated, Ember's book on the dragon empires has been stolen, and she seems speciously certain to an unreasonable degree that one of us is responsible, accepting no sound assertions of innocence, responding instead with violence to our denials. Spike did the sensible thing and stepped out, while Slag and I attempted reconciliation. Sadly, she refused to listen and we were forced to subdue her and separate her from the ring—though seeking to use it has so far been unsuccessful, as one of its components has refused me while simultaneously obstructing its removal."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Did you swallow a thesaurus or something?" she asked, but didn't bother waiting for an actual answer. "Okay, so, stolen book," she continued, thinking out loud. "You know, weirdly, that's not a friendship problem we ever had to deal with, I think, but I can totally imagine Twi breaking bones over it if it did come up. Not so much with the biting, though, and only at the end of an entire day of hijinks finding out who it was." Of course, the list of things that Twilight would do at the end of a day of hijinks wasn't exactly a short one.

"Anyway," she said, turning to Ember. "So, that's one side of the story. You got anything to add? Or subtract? It'll have to be one or the other, because that's about the limit of my ability to do crime-math."

Ember barely even looked at Rainbow Dash. "It had to be one of them!" she insisted, glaring Carnelia down and taking another step closer. "They took the book—they took the ring!"

Not wanting a repeat of the last time a bunch of dragons had refused to back down, Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof before Ember could get any closer, producing a flash and a crack of thunder between the two, forcing Ember to back off. "Hey, hey," she said, "Back off, yeah? Look, forget the ring for now—that came later. What made you so sure before then that it was one of them that took it?"

"There is no one else!" Ember shouted, snarling in Rainbow Dash's face.

Rainbow Dash waited for the rest of the sentence that would explain that statement, but Ember seemed to think that she had made her entire point. "Um? You wanna use a few more words there, maybe throw in a concept or two? Because believe me—there are more people out there. It's getting to be kind of a problem, even if it's gotten a bit less crowded with the dragons since you did the thing."

Ember threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "No one else knew about it!" she insisted.

Rainbow Dash had to stop and think of a way to respond to that that wasn't pointing out all the demigoddesses and princesses that had been told about the book. "...Yeah, sure, but maybe they weren't after it specifically? Could be someone was poking around because this place looks half-abandoned already, and they just happened to see it."

"It's a book," Ember said, implying by her tone that she didn't think that anyone would steal a book. You'd better believe that Rainbow Dash had something to say about that, but before she could open her mouth, Ember specified that it was, "A history book."

"...I mean, okay, point, kinda," Rainbow Dash reluctantly admitted. "But I bet it was one of those big leather-covered ones with brass corners and something embossed on the front or the spine, right? Maybe there was even gilding on the cover or the pages?"

That drew Ember up short, as she clearly did not want to admit that any of that was true. "Nothing else was stolen!" she insisted instead.

Rainbow Dash walked over to one of the boxes with all of Spike's pots and pans and pulled out one with a mottled appearance that still had a thin layer of rainbow-colored bismuth crystals in spots on the bottom where they hadn't been broken free. "Yeeeah," she said, drawing out the word. "That doesn't surprise me. I mean, I get it; it's the kid's first bachelor pad," she said, then reconsidered since, you know, he'd been sharing it with six girls. "...Or, you know, close enough, anyway. Point is, there's not much here worth stealing."

Ember let out a groan of frustration. "Augh! Now you're just saying whatever makes it sound bad!"

"It does sound bad!" Rainbow Dash said, losing her patience out of exasperation. "Even if it did look like one of them had done it, they're your friends, aren't they? They should be the last people you accuse of something like this right off the bat! Don't they deserve the benefit of the doubt? Don't you trust them at all?"

Ember grit her teeth and looked away, silently avoiding meeting anyone's eyes.

The lack of an enthusiastic defensive response said all it needed to, which floored Rainbow Dash. "I guess not," she surmised, completely baffled.

The awkward silence was broken by a soft, deep, "Oh my," that still managed to sound delicate and feminine coming from the large draconic head that was poking through the door of the old library once again.

Fluttershy looked from Ember to Carnelia and back again, which was very noticeable when the head doing the looking was the size of an entire pony. Eventually, she seemed to decide that there wasn't any violence imminent, and quietly closed the door.

Moments later, there was a cacophony of wing flaps, scuttering, skittering and even a bark or two before the door reopened and plain, ordinary Fluttershy stepped into the old library, quietly closing the door behind her.

— Carnelia —

"In her defense, it has scarcely been a week," Carnelia allowed with uncertain grace. "Though I had assumed that a certain solidarity had started to spring—a supposition that I expect the others would substantiate—it seems we were mistaken."

Rainbow Dash looked like she wanted to say something about how 'mistaken' five out of six of them could be on the subject, but she visibly held back and gave a still rather doubtful, "Yeah, sure."

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had circled around the group in order to get a look at Carnelia's malformed arm and the ring that was trapped between the plates, and was nearly nose-to-knuckle with Carnelia. It took a moment for her to realize that the attention of the room had shifted to her.

"Oh... sorry," she said, taking a step back, though still glancing at the appendage in question.

"Apologies are unnecessary," Carnelia informed her, lifting her arm to look at it herself. "It seems passingly stable, though it is... decidedly stiff and strained—not sore, but there is a cyclical pulsing in step with the circulatory system."

Fluttershy gave Ember a brief, wary glance, then got closer again and laid a hoof on Carnelia's wrist, shaking her head moments later. "We should get you to the hospital, too," she said, nudging Carnelia towards the door and leading her out. "They'll be able to tell if this is putting too much stress on your heart or not."

That... was not something that Carnelia had thought of, and she suddenly felt that a visit to the hospital was indeed a very good idea. "...Do you foresee any way to separate me from this troublesome treasure?"

Fluttershy stopped and looked back down at the ring, biting her lip with concern. "There should be something, I think... It might be no worse than getting a hooficure, or it might need surgery; the doctor will know more... and if all else fails—um—there might be something I can do."

Well... if that didn't sound ominous. Carnelia wasn't sure she wanted to know the exact details of how the rather unsettling demigoddess would help her, especially if she was uneasy about it herself.

There was a commotion behind them, as Ember moved to follow and Rainbow Dash flapped over to stand in the way. "Hey, cool it," she said, pushing Ember back with her hoof. "Why don't you let them go deal with that and we can all calm down, yeah?"

"I am not letting that ring out of my sight," Ember insisted, trying to push past Rainbow Dash, which wasn't the wisest thing she could have done.

Fortunately, it took more than a simple push to break whatever force kept Rainbow Dash's body acting like flesh instead of lightning and she was careful enough to move with the motion, flapping back and putting some distance between them before landing with an intentional blast of light and sound leaving another black scorch mark on the floor of the old library.

"Yes, you are," Rainbow Dash insisted. "They're going to a hospital, not jumping the border."

Ember grit her teeth and looked like she was about to jump Rainbow Dash, but a glance down at the mark on the floor under her made her reconsider and all at once the fight simply left her and she fell to her knees.

Once it was clear that Ember had given up, Fluttershy and Carnelia moved to leave, and after a moment, so did Rainbow Dash, who apparently felt it necessary to make one last comment.

"I'd say you could come and visit her later on at the hospital, but if I remember right, that's reserved for friends and family."

— Twilight —

"You're sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" Corona asked Kindle, who was easing her way into one of the booths at the Hay Burger, one of Ponyville's few remaining fast food restaurants from before ponies and now dragons had begun flooding into the city, for all the distinction was actually worth.

The Celestias, of course, took significant pleasure in visiting these sorts of places, but what was surprising was that they looked openly eager to get their hooves on some hay fries, as well as being appreciative of the fact that the teenager at the counter was a dragon. Twilight, too, thought that it was a good sign, but the fact that the Celestias didn't seem to find it necessary to act the prim and proper princesses to the same extent really drove home how they—and Equestria—were different than their previous incarnation.

It helped, of course, that they were able to sit in a booth along with everyone else. Yes, they were still taller than even Luna, but not by much, and less so than most of the dragons when they were standing upright. Simply being able to be treated like any other pony in that regard was no doubt an incredible relief after so many years of needing special accommodations for the simplest of things. Twilight had never experienced that sort of thing herself, technically, but she had seen the extent to which it could twist a society in Somni and Fati's memories of Utopia.

"I'll be fine, really," Kindle insisted, easily sliding into the booth at her new smaller size. "I'm just bruised, honest—not that that makes it okay."

"Of course not," Luna agreed, sliding into the large, horseshoe-shaped booth on the other side. "I may have thrown Twilight off a building and a cloud or two, but it was all in good fun at the time. This is something quite different."

"What did happen?" Twilight asked, sitting next to Luna.

Kindle glanced at the front of the restaurant, where Spike, Drift and the Celestias were ordering for them. Fluttershy had disappeared almost immediately and Rainbow Dash had followed her just about as soon as anypony had realized that she was gone. Rarity had stuck around to make sure that Spike was doing alright, but had begged off lunch at the Hay Burger, leaving just the four princesses and three dragons, which was still a sizable group. "We should probably wait to really get into it, but the short of it is: Ember's book on the dragon empires was stolen and she freaked out. Like, major paranoid you're-all-out-to-get me vibes. It was weird."

"That is indeed troubling," Luna mused. "I didn't get the impression before that she was unstable, just driven. Is it possible that there is an external cause?"

"You mean like her father using the Bloodstone Scepter on her in secret?" Kindle asked, seeing what she was implying. "I dunno. I never got the impression that Dragon Lord Torch could even pronounce the word 'subtle,' but you'd have to ask Ember, Carnelia and Slag about that since they're the ones that actually grew up in the dragon lands. If it's anything like the ring, though... I haven't gotten the impression that affecting a single dragon is something it can do unless they can see the dragon in question, but I'm just guessing there."

They were interrupted, then, by Spike, Drift and the Celestias filing into the booth, and spent a moment explaining to them what they'd already gone over.

"Is it possible that it is the ring instead that has had an effect on her?" Candesca asked, though Twilight got the impression that it was just to cover all of their bases rather than any great suspicion.

"It seems a bit sudden for that," Drift observed. "And from what she told us, the ring is supposed to be how order was maintained in the dragon empires, so it would be odd if it had a destabilizing effect on the wearer." Twilight thought that it might be the most that she'd ever heard the most laid-back of the dragons say.

"Would it, though?" Kindle asked. "A little paranoia is probably appropriate when you're trying to keep multiple empires of dragons in line.

The simple nods that that statement garnered from the Celestias were telling.

"Or," Twilight said. "There's no external force making her crazy and she's just the kind of person who's perfectly fine until she isn't. The kind of person who, when things are going her way, or she's faced with something she knows how to handle, she doesn't hesitate, but doesn't know how to handle it when she runs out of options."

The table was silent for a moment as a mint-colored dragon in an apron brought them several trays of food.

"Not that I know anyone like that," Twilight added, slightly flushed.

"She has options, though?" Kindle countered, sounding rather doubtful. "I mean, we were all right there and she didn't even ask—just went straight to blaming everyone the moment she set eyes on us."

Spike, meanwhile, was availing himself of his non-hay-based nuggets, drumming his claws on the table and thinking. "You know—forgetting about Ember for a second—is it weird that Torch isn't overtly using the scepter? I kind of doubt that he's going to just disappear, but it's been a few days now and there's been no sign of him."

Candesca shook her head. "I think, no matter how much one is used to relying on brute force, that being shrunk to such an extent must engender in him a sense of vulnerability. We—" she gestured at Corona and herself. "—Are still coming to terms with aspects of our own transformation, and it is not so great a change, nor are we truly any weaker in most practical matters. Torch may not even remember a time when he couldn't fly, and he must know that if there is any sign of him, he will not escape from those of us who are not affected by the scepter."

"Of course, that is all the more reason to expect something of him eventually," Corona added. "Assuming this latest theft isn't him to begin with."

"Would it be so bad if it was?" Drift asked. "Reading it seems to have done Ember some good, from the sound of it."

"Well, we know it has information on the Ring of Ashmund," Kindle pointed out. "What if it has more information on the Bloodstone Scepter that tells more ways to use it?"

Twilight didn't much like that thought, and none of the rest of the table seemed all that enthused about it either. Imagining Spike being controlled like that sent a shiver of personal fear down her back like she hadn't felt since becoming an immortal alicorn.

Admittedly, that time when she'd thought that Equestria was out to eat her was a close second, but being afraid for yourself just wasn't the same as being afraid for someone you were close to.

"Right, well, that thought certainly makes this an urgent issue if it wasn't already," Twilight declared. "Luna and I will start with a visit to the guard station so she can get them on it and so I can move the portal to his lair into a cell there, which will free up the ones on this side to help out with the search. Spike?"

Spike scratched at his rounded jawline. "The girls and I could talk to people, I guess, but with kindle and I this size, I dunno how many people are going to listen to us."

"Do you think that Ember could be convinced to restore you?" Candesca asked. "I'm sure she wants this book found more than anyone."

Spike shared an uneasy look with Kindle and Drift. "I... really don't know about that."

"I think," Drift said. "That going back immediately will only cause problems."

Kindle agreed. "Yeah—I mean, there was a reason we walked out, and it wasn't because she was being reasonable. Maybe Spike or I can check in on her later, but for now I think she needs some time to think. Carnelia is the most eloquent one we have; maybe she'll be able to get Ember to see reason."

— Ember —

Ember sat alone in the old library, mostly because... well, what else was she supposed to do? Without the ring—without the book—what good was she? If she got into a fight, which she had to admit was fairly likely right now given her mood, nobody would even believe that she was this so-called empress that none of them had ever seen.

It was pathetic. really, and that patheticness was depressing. Even at his most oppressive, her father had never made her feel this... useless. This... small.

Tartarus—she even felt small, which was ridiculous. Carnelia wasn't even able to use the ring on herself, whatever that was about. It wasn't as if anybody had actually explained what had happened while she was unconscious.

Why would they? She wasn't their friend, she was their empress, which apparently didn't mean very much right now.

Ember blinked, looking at her claws. Was it just her, or did they look a bit smaller? Not as if she'd been reverted completely, but she would swear that they looked just a bit less fearsome than they were supposed to.

Slightly trepidatious, Ember got to her feet and made her way to the back of the library where the bathroom was. The bathroom mirror wasn't all that helpful, but she did look... not quite right, like she'd lost a few years and a few inches.

Carnelia. It must have been. She may not have been able to control the Ring of Ashmund, but it must have done this to her anyway.

Great. Just what she needed; to get some of her lanky gawkiness back. Now they definitely wouldn't believe she was the empress.

No. No. It was fine, she told herself. She was overreacting. This was only temporary. The terrifying yellow demigoddess had said there were several things they could do to get the ring back from Carnelia. Then, they'd give it back to her and she would go out and find the book.

If they gave it back to her, and if she was able to find it.

A single book in an entire city.

No—it had to be one of them. It just had to be.

She didn't even want to consider what it would mean if it wasn't. Not only would getting it back be all but impossible, but it would mean that she... that Spike and the rest...

No. It was one of them, and she'd prove it. The book obviously wasn't here—though she'd check all the boxes to be sure—so where else did that leave?

Ten minutes later, the old library was even more of a mess than before, and Ember was winging her way out of the city.

Author's Note

Thanks go out to those supporting me on Patreon and ko-fi, pomegranate horsie, Sunny, Zervon Tora, Katharine Berry, LD, Jan Sterba, senaxyva, Ersmiller, Canary In The Coal Mine, J T, Nineite, Andrew Pam, Southpaw, Andrew Denton, Trellmor, Kirishala, djthomp, SirHoli, IamUnknown, fused and CvBrony

Come back tomorrow for the next chapter!