"That was pathetic." Said Spike as he and Ember were going over what the girls did wrong during the training match. They went until Celestia lowered the sun and all the girls were exhausted, and Spike was just disappointed. "How the hell are you girls the best the guard has to offer?" Asked Spike as he and Ember were watching the girls nurse their wounds.

Rainbow groaned. "What, you guys cheated, you used your I.T.I's to ram us."

Spike rubbed his eyes. "Dash, that happens to us on a weekly basis, nothing is cheating when on the battlefield."

Ember nodded. "Sneak attacks, sabotage, dirty tricks, those are all perfectly legit ways to win a fight, it's not our fault that you didn't decide to use them."

Twilight rubbed her head. "But those are cheap tactics that Sombra uses. Aren't we better than him?"

Spike nodded. "We are, but you can never win if you don't use the full deck. But let’s focus on what went wrong."

Ember nodded. "Ok, let’s start with team Butterfly. Pinkie, you need to focus on your surroundings. Do not focus on what Fluttershy is doing, you're the gunner, not the pilot. Fluttershy, you're flying a 3 ton hunk of metal so stop flying it like a grandma, if you're scared of getting attacked, don't be, Pinkie is there for a reason."

"Come on Flutters, turn left, now right, go down, now up. Spike's on our tail."

Fluttershy was crying as she was trying to get away from Spike. "I'm trying, but I'm scared."

Spike sped up and disabled Pinkie's turret, and jammed Fluttershy's steering. "Out!" Yelled Spike.

Pinkie and Fluttershy sighed. Ember looked at Rarity. "Rarity, you did good, but you're magical camo is still not perfect, you need to improve you're piloting skills, so you're not a one trick pony."

Rarity was cloaked and trying to stay undetected when Spike noticed a shimmer. "Smolder, below, right, open fire." Said Spike.

"On it." Said Smolder as she started blasting where Rarity was.

"Oh no." Said Rarity as she dropped her cloak and started panicking and flying sporadically. She dodged for a while, but Smolder landed a solid shot on her I.T.I.

"Sorry Sweetie, you're a stain on the island, you're out." Said Smolder.

Rarity huffed. Ember looked at Rainbow. "Rash, tunnel vision, hard headed, need I go on?" Asked Ember.

Rainbow was trying to take Spike on in a 1 on 1 fight, and at first it looked like she was going to win, but she forgot about Ember and the defense cannons. Ember took out her I.T.I's wing and Garble took out her propulsion. "Glide in with your broken wing, little bird, you're out." Said Garble.

Rainbow growled. "Cheaters."

Ember rolled her eyes. "AJ, you're a tank, not a racer, don't try and act like 1, pride is a stubborn thing to get over, but in the skies, pride is the fastest way to die."

Ember and Spike had to double team AJ's unit to take her down, but it was taking time. "Ember, take the left and I'll take the right." Said Spike, Ember nodded as they both took a swipe at the I.T.I.

This was their fourth pass and AJ was getting upset that she couldn’t hit them. "That's it, I've had it." Said AJ as she deactivated her hover mode and tried to use her primary cannons to take them out while clearly not being able to keep up with them.

Spike took this opportunity to get behind AJ and disable her forward propulsion, sending her into a tail spin before she stopped spinning. "Sorry AJ, but you're out." Said Spike.

AJ sighed as she looked at her hat, she had to clean it after training. Ember looked at Twilight. "And little miss princess, clearly has a grudge with me, seeing as she didn't even try and attack Spike."

Twilight was focusing on Ember. "Spike is too young to be sleeping with a female, I don't care, if he's my commander, he is my baby brother, and I will protect him." Said Twilight as she was trying to line up a good shot.

Spike sighed. "Twi, please, I do love her, and I know what we did last night was mean, but we're happy together, and I do want to start a family with her." Said Spike as he was flying upside down, right above Twilight and heard the whole monolog.

Twilight looked up at Spike and blushed. "But you're too young to have a nessfriend?"

Spike sighed as he pat Twilight's head. "I'm 18, and we started sleeping together at 17. Shining was dating Cadance at 15 and they had sex at 17."

Twilight glared at Spike. "That's different, you're my baby brother, I hatched you're egg, and I don't like it."

Spike nodded. "Well, I don't care, also..." Said Spike as he used his fire to overheat Twilight's system, causing it to enter hover mode. "You're out."

Ember looked at Twilight and glared at her. "Now, aside from all that, none of you guys tried to take out Smolder and Garble's defenses, there were 5 of you, and only 2 of us, we couldn't have stopped you even if we tried. Second, if you teamed up, we'd be having dinner now. Lastly, this is only a taste of what we go through in training at the Knight academy, we'll be training like this every day until we're sure you guys won’t die." She handed each of the girls a report of what else they needed to improve upon. "Hand to hand starts at 10am, then its Ruby's class on in the field repairs, Peewee's stealth and infiltration, then lunch. After that, Spike will be going over our normal strategies, and then it's flight training until dinner. After that we're going to do some maintenance and repairs on the ship and wings, then until 10 you're free to do what you want, lights out at 11 and Twilight we would prefer to not have you listening outside the door." Said Ember giving the girls the basic time table of the crew.

Twilight blushed; she wasn't going to do that again. Spike nodded. "Ok, I'm going to the kitchen and starting dinner for us. Read over Ember's report and try not to feel too bad, you girls were trained like guards, but you need to be knights." Said Spike as he walked out of the helm and headed for the kitchen.

All the girls sighed as they looked at the reports. "Hey, seriously don't take it too hard, we are not sure about all of this as well, but soon everything will seem normal." Said Ember as she left the group and headed to her room to rest until dinner.

Twilight looked at the others. "This is weird." Said Twilight, everyone nodded. "Spike is our leader, he has more experience than us, and we got our tails handed to us by him. I did some research when I got our reassignment orders. Turns out that Spike and his crew are some of the youngest knights to graduate the academy. Spike is only 18 and he's already has the rank of major, and he's thought to be the next Dragon Lord. Ember is only 19, she's Dragon Lord Torch's daughter, and could have her own crew with how well she's regarded. Garble is only 22, he has flown almost 100 missions and he's known for being super strong and dependable. Smolder is 16 and she's already earned Spike's trust and while only on probation, she has seen more action than any of the cadets at the Guard academy. Ruby is 20 and even among the tech groups, she is like a super star, she developed hundreds of innovations that have helped both Guards and Knights alike." Twilight sighed. "I kinda feel like we're going to hold them back." All the girls were in their 20's, haven't flown as many missions as the Storm Dragons combined, and clearly didn't have as close a connection as they thought on the battlefield.

"Well, trust me, it's not all great." Said Ruby as she walked into the meeting area. "Spike is a great leader, but when he's emotional he tends to never see what's in front of him." Ruby took a seat and showed the back of her neck, there was a patch of broken scales and a large scar. All the girls looked at the scar and guessed Spike was somehow involved. "Spike and I were heading to a market one day, an Umbra soldier noticed us and decided to follow us. He knocked out Spike and kidnapped me. I was held prisoner for 3 days and tortured so I would work for the empire." Ruby sighed. "Spike and Ember broke into the facility I was being held in, and Spike didn't take what they did to me lightly. This was back when we were starting out as the Storm Dragons, but that wasn't always our name, we were just the Flame Dragons. But after Spike got me back, the Umbra started calling us the Storm Dragons. I'm not sure if it was because how Spike stormed the place, the fact it was storming when they did, or how loud Spike roared when they attacked, but the name stuck, and we've learned to live with it." Said Ruby.

Twilight gulped. "What about the others?"

Ruby nodded. "Everyone has scars, physical or emotional, but time heals all wounds and it helps to have friends and family."

The room fell silent as that sunk in. Ruby sighed. "Girls, trust me, I'm not going to tell you that everything is going to go as we plan, but Spike is not one to accept that laying down. He is going to do everything in his power to keep it right, until the moment we do something that earned us the honor of problem squad." Ruby then chuckled. "Just make sure you can handle explosions." Said Ruby laughing.

Spike heard the conversation through the ship’s intercom. "Which time are we talking about?" Asked Spike from the kitchen.

Ruby looked to the intercom. "I'm talking about how we blew up the island formally known as Yigal."

Spike winced. "Ok, not my best moment, but how was I suppose to know that Empire leviathan's core was going to blow?"

Ruby sighed. "I told you right after you destroyed the limiters, we're just lucky that we evacuated the crew and the little village before it atomized the island."

Spike laughed. "Oh, it wasn't so bad, the island is still there."

Ruby groaned. "Spike, it was reduced to only 30% of its size, and the place is barely floating anymore."

Spike sighed. "Like I said, not my best moment. Also, tell everyone that dinner is almost done, and grab Peewee some feed from my room." Said Spike.

Ruby sighed. "Fine." Said Ruby as she got out of her seat and headed to Spike's room to get Peewee and some of his feed.

Twilight looked at the girls. "What are we going to do about this?" Asked Twilight.

"About what dear?" Asked Rarity.

"About proving to Spike that we're helpful, we're the best the Sky Guard has to offer and we couldn't even handle a group of knights that we outnumbered, and he's right, we need to stop thinking like guards, and start thinking like knights."

"But we've never been in combat as a full team." Said Fluttershy in a meek tone.

AJ sighed. "She's right, we've fought off the empire fine, but we don't have any group combat training, it's normally divide up the work and get stuff done."

Twilight nodded. "That's right, so why didn't we do that this time?"

All the girls looked at Twilight. "What are you talking about?" Asked Rainbow. "We did."

Twilight shook her head. "No, they picked us off one at a time, while the others didn't do anything to help. When Spike was attacking Pinkie and Fluttershy, why didn't we try and take out Ember as a team, or help them to take Spike down?"

Pinkie hummed. "Because he didn't tell us to?"

Twilight sighed. "Exactly, is Sombra going to take us on one at a time? No, he'll have an army of troops to try and take us out. Like they said, if we don't learn to fight like them, we won't beat them. So, here's the plan..."

Five minutes later Spike walked into the room with dinner in his arms and around his tail. "So, finally figured out what to do?" Asked Spike.

Everyone looked at Spike. "Wait, how did you know?" Asked Twilight.

Spike placed the food down on the table. "The intercom wasn't turned off, and I'm glad you girls finally figured out the first lesson that Blitz taught me when I joined the Storm Dragons. One is smart, many are dumb, but one is weak, many are strong, if a smart leader is leading the many, they are unstoppable, that is why we train in random teams, so we all know our strengths and weaknesses, and we can compensate for them. Take me for example, I'm impulsive, Ruby is smart and calm, we work well together, but Ember is easily embarrassed when sensitive subjects pop up, but Garble is older and knows that that doesn't matter. This is where we have problems, and you girls just needed to find that as well."

Twilight nodded. "So, are you willing to have one more round after dinner?"

Spike smirked. "Sure, loser has to clean up dinner?"

Twilight smiled. "Deal."

"Cool, and this time we won't hold back."

Peewee flew into the room and perched on Spike's shoulder. Spike scratched his head. "Peewee, me and you are going out on Smolder's wing with Ruby after dinner." Peewee nodded.

Ruby and crew walked into the room and Ruby placed down a pile of seeds for Peewee. "So, I heard my name, am I going out?" Asked Ruby.

Spike nodded. "Yep, one more round, the girls think they figured out what went wrong."

Ruby nodded. "Cool, I'll get Hawk out and ready after we eat." Ruby then licked her lips. "So, what's for dinner?"

Spike smiled. "Nothing much, just some burgers for us, and a hay casserole for our new crew members."

The girls gulped as they looked at Spike. "When did you start eating meat?" Asked Twilight.

Spike shrugged. "Not much else in the academy, sure they had salad, but grilled meat was too tempting."

Twilight gulped. "But..."

Spike grabbed a burger and placed it on his plate. "But what? I have fangs for a reason, I still like pony food sure, but meat is something I need to eat, now shut up and eat, it's getting cold."

Twilight sighed as she started grabbing the food.

After the crew had dinner, Spike, Peewee, and Ruby in her fully done Basalis, Hawk, flew out of the hangar and waited for the girls to get ready. They flew out moments later and got into formation. "Ok, Smolder, Ember, same configuration as last time, Garble, you're on standby. Girls, you have 10 minutes to stay up." With the rules stated, Spike started counting. "5...4...3...2...1...0."

Peewee flew off Smolder's wing to do his job, and Spike went forward, while Ruby was acting as support.

Twilight ordered the girls. "AJ, you're going to act like our shield, Fluttershy, spread out and provide perimeter fire for the group, keep an eye out of for the ships defenses. Pinkie, head on a swivel. Rainbow, speed is key, keep the defense cannons on you and out run them. Rarity, surprise attacks, I'm on support." With the orders given, the girls separated, leaving AJ to take on Spike's first attack.

Spike and group landed in the hanger, and the girls were upset, they lasted longer than before, but Spike and Ruby still beat them. Spike pulled Smolders wing into her workstation and looked at the girls. "Ok, that was a large improvement from before, and I'm proud that you girls did so well. But you still lost, head to the helm, gather the mess and head to the kitchen." Said Spike.

All the girls sighed, as they went to clean up dinner. Spike smiled as Ruby walked up to him. "They still need a lot of work."

Spike nodded. "Oh, I know, they would be dead it this was real. You and Moondancer weren't there for the first one, that was brutal, but that was an hour ago, and they have already improved. Ruby I'll man the helm tomorrow, you spend most of the time going through their wings and seeing what's holding them back, and when we hit Atom, listen to them about what improvements they should make, don't just go throwing a triple gem cannon onto AJ's or strapping rockets to Dash's."

Ruby shrugged. "Fine, but you want the good news?"

Spike sighed. "Ruby, with you, good news could be anything from not dying in an explosion to a great upgrade, so can you be more specific?"

Ruby huffed. "Hey, I resent that, not all my news is not dying, but just to make you happy, that cutie Moondancer helped me finish something to help you."

Spike cocked an eyebrow. "Cutie? I never pegged you for a ness snatcher, no offense. But what did you 2 come up with, and keep quite if it has more than an 80% of blowing me up."

Ruby smirked. "I play for both teams, and it was your fault that I didn't have time to install the new gem system onto your wing, before you decided to pop it in. The new system should be able to handle the fusion gem in the tank, without sending you across the sky, but I'm adding a boost button just in case you want to do that again."

Spike looked at Ruby. "Wait, are you into Ember?"

Ruby sighed. "Shut up, and no, I have a ness back home and a drake in the sky, waiting for me. You remember Onyx, right?"

Spike hummed. "Tall, black horns, facial hair, or the short one, with a black fin down her back?"

Ruby smirked. "Yep. I'll try and install the new system tonight, but I can't promise until tomorrow." Said Ruby as she smirked and walked away.

Spike looked at Ruby as she walked away from him. "Man, lucky bastard, Onyx was cute as hell back then."

"You better be talking about the drake Onyx?" Asked Ember, a little upset that Spike would be thinking about another ness.

Spike gulped. "Hey, you did great tonight." Said Spike, he really wasn't in the mood to die.

Ember glared at Spike, but her expression softened. "You know, Onyx, the ness came onto me during our time in the academy, but I had you, and she was also into Ruby who was into Onyx the drake, who I kinda liked but..." Ember shrugged. "Meh, it's not important, and thanks Spike." Said Ember as she kissed Spike. "But just so you know, Mina from the tech course had a thing for you."

Spike gulped. "Really, I wouldn't have ever guessed." Lies, Mina was a cute little brown dragoness with pink hair and blue horns, and honestly, she was very clear with her intentions at points. When he and Mina first met, Spike was coming into the workshop every day to get his sword repaired or his armor patched. Over time Mina and him got to know each other, and somewhere down the line that developed into Mina thinking that Spike liked her, which he did. She was smart, funny, a little short, but he had no right to talk seeing he didn't hit 5 feet until 2 years ago, and Mina's chest scales were some of the largest he had ever seen on a dragoness. Ponies have breasts, most of the time, they used their natural magic to conceal them, but it did leave some definite curve in the chest. Dragons don't have breasts, but from what Spike learned, every male no matter the race likes a girl with something in the front, and dragonesses had something close.

Ember smirked at Spike. "What would you say to seeing her when we stop back at Dracona?"

Spike was in hot water, say yes and get sent to the dog house, or say no and lose the possibility for a threesome. 'Shit, why can't I be defusing a bomb right now?' Thought Spike. Ember looked at Spike waiting for his answer. "Um..." Said Spike, still thinking about it.

Ember smiled. "I wouldn't mind."

Spike smiled. "Ok, Atom, the north for a day, rescue ponies, head home for a little R&R. That's the plan."

Ember rolled her eyes. "Fine, but just so you know, Mina is one horny ness."

Spike looked at Ember. "Wait, how do you know that?"

Ember giggled. "A dorm mate like her, you're bound to see her clawing herself, then you join in, and then... Well, I'll leave it to your fantasies." Ember stretched her arms. "Well, I'm going to get a shower, then I'll see you in bed."

Spike blushed as he just thought about Ember and Mina, then he looked down at Embers rear. "You know what, I'll join you." Said Spike as he followed his ness.

After a little shower fun, Spike was still up, and Ember was going over some reports that Luna had sent over about the attack on Ponyville. So Spike decided to go to the helm. When he got there, he headed to the window and looked at the night life of Canterlot. "I missed this sight." Said Spike.

"Bit for your thoughts?" Asked Celestia, as she stood next to Spike, her day finally over.

Spike sighed. "Mom, something has been bothering me for a while, long before I left."

Celestia leaned next to Spike as the 2 looked out at the bright city. "What's up Spike?"

"Why did you adopt me? Why not send me to the dragon lands?" Asked Spike.

Celestia smiled as she wrapped her wing around Spike. "I don't know, in all honesty that was the original plan, that or let Twilight raise you. But when I first saw you, something in me felt warm. Spike normally alicorns can only mate with magical beings with equal or greater magic. Meaning that unless a super powerful stallion capable of moving the sun suddenly drops from the sky, I'm kinda out of luck. Luna has a little better chance, but she's not holding her breath. Hell, Flurry Heart is only around because Shining Armor was a one in a million stallion with a massive magical reserve, and is just as powerful magically as Cadance, but that's not a long shot, she is the weakest of all of us. So, when I saw a little baby taking his first look at a world that he knew nothing about, something in me told me that I was destined to guide him, raise him, love him, like a mother would. 2 days later, and a lot of trying to figure out a good name for you, I had some adoption papers made and boom, Spike Solaris was my son, you're lucky too, it was between Spike or Scale, I'm just glad I went with Spike."

Spike looked at Celestia. "Really, Scale Solaris?"

Celestia nodded. "Hey, I was stressed, you wouldn't stop crying, and when I nursed you, your claws scratched."

Spike looked at Celestia in shock. "I nursed on you?"

Celestia nodded. "Yep, meat was hard to come by here, and I learned a spell back in my younger years. So, I brought them out and you just latched on for a solid 20 minutes each until I was dry."

Spike groaned. "I knew there had to be something, I guess that's why I like breasts." Said Spike as he shrugged.

Celestia sighed. "Where did the time go Spike? I remember holding you, sleeping with you, giving you a bath, hell I remember the day you asked me if you were just a scaly pony, then in a blink I had to send you away."

Spike sighed. "Yeah, I wonder that sometimes as well, I think it all started when I took an interest in I.T.I's. Then I met the girls with Twilight, we became close, and I started spending less time with you, until that day."

Celestia nodded. "Well, you did have a weird fascination with Rarity."

Spike laughed. "Yeah, it was kinda creepy that a 9 year old was in love with a 16 year old." He looked at Celestia. "But there was one mare that would always be the most important pony in my life."

Celestia smiled as she hugged Spike. "Thanks Spike."

Spike laughed. "Not you, Aunt Luna." Celestia glared at Spike. "She did something for me every night to help me go to sleep." Spike returned the hug. "She gave me a dream where you would sing me a lullaby to help me sleep." Celestia sighed. "But you are the only mare that will ever be my mother."

Celestia smiled as she kissed Spike's cheek. "You're lucky I love you."

Spike smiled as he missed being so close to her. "I love you too mom."

Celestia muffled her tears of joy at seeing that her Spike was still in there. "My little fireball."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Really, I'm pretty sure I'm not a little fireball anymore."

Celestia giggled. "No, you will always be my little fireball."

Spike sighed. "I don't even know why you called me that?"

Celestia giggled. "You sneezed one day and burned my mane with a fireball."

Spike sighed. "Ok, that makes sense." Spike yawned, which didn't go unnoticed by Celestia.

Celestia smiled as she decided it was probably time for Spike to head to bed. "Hush now, sleep now, my little dragon, it’s time for those tired eyes to close for the night. Tomorrow will be great, but first you rest. Hush now, sleep now, my little drake, for night has fallen and the stars will watch till the time you awake, and greet the morning with the last snore. Close your eyes and rest your mind, for tomorrow will have no sorrow for the sleepy little drake. So, fill your dreams with all that you hold dear, and upon the time you wake, they will be there with you."

Spike yawned, that was the song Luna made his dream Celestia sing, and it was working like a charm. "Mom, I still need to get to my bed." Yawned Spike.

Celestia smiled as she just kept singing. Spike felt his eyes close, and soon he was asleep leaning on Celestia. But she kept singing for a few more minutes, until she was sure Spike would sleep well tonight. Celestia sighed as she turned her head to the side. "Hello Ember." Said Celestia.

Ember sighed as she walked over to Spike and Celestia. "Princess." Said Ember as she leaned next to the mother and son.

"Ember, please protect my little Spike."

Ember smiled as she watched Spike sleeping. "I'll do my best, I do want a clutch, and that's kinda hard when my mate is dead. You know at night he talks in his sleep, most of the time I just ignore the rambling, but every once in a while, he talks about his mother, and how he wanted to be with her."

Celestia smiled as she looked at Spike laying on her chest. "So, does he really have a thing for boobs? I know dragons don't have them, but even you have a curve."

Ember shrugged. "He likes to kiss and play with it, but I don't mind."

Celestia sighed. "Ember, do you love him, truly love him?"

Ember smiled. " Truly, he's a health hazard, an idiot, a bolder head...."

Spike mumbled in his sleep. "Love...you too... Babe."

Ember sighed. "But... he is the drake that I am willing to overlook those qualities for, he has a heart of gold, and a will to fight for what's right."

Celestia smiled. "Thank you, and is the sex good?" Asked Celestia.

Ember blushed. "Whew, out of right field with that one."

Celestia frowned. "What is my baby not able to make you happy?"

Ember blushed. "No, he's just fine, a little big for me and his knot is a pain sometimes when he goes in my tail hole, but he never leaves me unsatisfied."

Celestia was confused. "Wait, how many can you take at once?"

Now it was time for Ember to be confused. "What do you mean how many? Spike only has one, just like 80% of all drakes, right?"

Celestia looked at Spike. "Oh, you probably were worried that others would find it weird." She looked at Ember. "Ember, Spike has 2, I should know I've seen them both when he was a baby."

Ember looked at Spike. "But drakes with 2 are always smaller than guys with one, and I've seen some drakes, Spike is big."

Both women looked at Spike, still asleep leaning on his mother’s chest. "Ok, Ember, you can question Spike about this tomorrow, but first he should get to bed."

Ember nodded as she helped Celestia take Spike to his room. They placed him on the bed and watched as he just snored away.

Celestia sighed. "Take good care of him Ember, I'm not asking as the princess, I'm not asking as the sky guard leader, I'm asking as a mother."

Ember smiled as she sat on the bed. "He can die, when I tell him he can."

Celestia smiled as she gave Spike a kiss on his forehead. "Goodnight Spike, mommy loves you."

Spike growled in his sleep. "Come on my little lusty lizard. Mina I'll get to you in a moment. Ruby stop sucking on my tail." Said Spike having a fantasy.

"I'll tell Luna to avoid this one." Said Celestia as she teleported to her castle.

Ember sighed as she just had to put the idea of Mina into his head, she crawled into the bed and got close to Spike. "Spike, you wanna fuck?" Asked Ember.

Spike snored. "Sorry, fucking Ember right now, have fun with Mina and Ruby." Said Spike.

Ember sighed. "Well, at least I know I'm having fun." She kissed Spike's cheek. "Love you Spike."

Spike growled. "Really? But...Awe fuck it, I'll do both." Said Spike as he just kept dream fucking Ember.

Author's Note

Yeah, I don't know where the time went with this one, I'm sorry for the long wait.