Tsundere Travels

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Discovery
Chapter 2 - Misunderstandings
Chapter 3a - Awakening (Ember POV)
Chapter 3b - Awakening (Limestone POV)
Chapter 4a - Freedom (Ember POV)
Chapter 4b - Freedom (Limestone POV)
Chapter 5 - Exploration, and a New Friend (Ember POV)
Chapter 6 - Family Time (Limestone POV)
Chapter 7 - (S)Lay the Dragon
Chapter 8 - Rescue

Chapter 1 - Discovery

"This is not good...not good at all."

Princess Luna turned to the Pie family patriarch, one Igneous Rock Pie, who had brought her deep into the Pie Family Mine that evening to show her something that only she could help with.

"When Pinkie Pie's letter stated that you were experiencing troubles with a Star Beast, I expected perhaps an Ursa Major or a Scorpious. But this...this one shall be much more troublesome."

"We thank ye for any help ye can give, Princess. Does this Star Beast have a name?"

"Yes, it does.

"Draco.

"Let us return to your humble abode so we may discuss this further with thy family."

The midnight-blue alicorn waited while the elder earth pony reached down to the lantern resting on the floor of the tunnel. He picked up the handle with his teeth; the handle creaked slightly as he stood up, then the stallion turned to trot back up the tunnel the way they came. The lantern’s meager light splashed over the rock walls as the elder Pie trotted away. Luna did not fear the dark - in fact, she longed for the oncoming darkness with a dark and sinister part of her soul. But, courtesy demanded she stay with the stallion and his light. So instead, she followed him along the tunnel as it sloped upwards.

It was so quiet in the Pie Family Mine that one could almost hear their own heart beating. The elder Pie’s hoof beats, normally quiet outside the mine, echoed faintly off the narrow tunnel walls. The Moon Princess could even hear her metal shoes grind against the rock floor, and they were heavily enchanted to be as silent as possible. The air did not seem stale, and the mare noted that she was not feeling light-headed from lack of oxygen. So she was certain the Pies were pumping air into the mine somehow.

As the two ponies slowly made their way to the surface, Princess Luna found her thoughts going back to earlier that evening. During the nightly meal she shared with her sister, Celestia had received a Dragonfire Delivery from Princess Twilight's drake, Spike. After briefly reading the scroll, Celestia passed it to her sister without saying a word. Her curiosity piqued, she unfurled the scroll and began to read. The scroll had been written by Pinkie Pie, the Bearer of Laughter. Strangely enough, the scroll did not explode with confetti as soon as Celestia had opened it. That in and of itself was concerning. The note stated that Pinkie’s family had run into some trouble on their rock farm near the town of Rockville. The mine on their property had been dug deeper and deeper over the years, and had served the family well. But the Pies had delved too greedily and too deep. They had uncovered a sleeping Star Beast, and were asking for her help in removing it.

The Lunar Princess ducked under a low-hanging wooden beam that the shorter Pie Patriarch easily passed under. She briefly contemplated teleporting the two of them to the surface, but did not want to risk offending the stallion. True, HE should be the one worrying about offending HER as she was a princess and he was not. However, most earth ponies preferred not to use magic in their daily lives and Celestia had convinced her that her public image was important. So she resigned herself to travel with the stallion like a commoner until they reached the surface.

The two reached a t-junction, with a well-worn rail track leading both left and right. The track was made of two narrow metal beams with wooden railroad ties supporting the metal from underneath. Much like a larger railroad track, the structure was designed for strength and longevity. The elder Pie did not hesitate at the junction and turned left to follow the tracks. The new tunnel was not wide enough for Luna to walk beside the stallion, so she continued following him as he trotted on. Large wooden beams stretched across the ceiling every so often, with each beam supported by a separate pair of beams that stretched to the floor. From what Luna remembered, these beams were used to help protect against cave-ins. The air smelled a bit fresher here, and Luna could feel a very slight breeze across her wings even though they were held snug up against her body.

Luna’s thoughts went back to the letter, and her presumptions on the risks contained therein. At the time, she had thought the beast to be as simple as a slumbering Ursa Major. While formidable when enraged, they are easily treatied with and might have become an asset to the farmers and their mine. Emboldened by her assumptions, she decided to leave immediately in hopes of catching the Pie family before they retired for the evening. Upon her arrival, Igneous Pie had agreed to lead her into the mine where she had made her ill-fated discovery.

The narrow tunnel the ponies were in had led them into a larger cave. The Lunar Princess trotted up to the elder Pie’s side so she could speak with him.

"It is good that you did not wake the beast, Igneous Rock. Draco was known to have quite the temper in his day."

"As you say, Princess. In all fairness, it was by the grace of Celestia that we did not awaken the beast."

Luna frowned at the farmer's use of her sister's name. While she did not mind Celestia being seen as a goddess, it reminded her that her name was normally used in curses and other derogatory fashions.

"How did you discover the beast?"

The two ponies reached a ramp that led up to a higher section of the cave. The ramp snaked up and across a tall wall, perhaps two or three stories tall, and was not wide enough for both ponies to walk abreast. As before, Igneous Rock led and Princess Luna followed. The stallion courteously waited at the top of the ramp for the alicorn princess to join him. Together, they began to cross an open area while the Elder Pie answered Luna’s question.

"My daughter Limestone Pie had been chasing a vein of ruby gems for a number of days. One afternoon, she came running out of the mine with a large gemstone in her hooves. It was a Dragon's Eye Ruby, almost three hooves' wide."

Luna was familiar with that type of gem. Dragon's Eye gems had a dark flaw in the middle of the precious stone, which made the jewel resemble the slit of a dragon's eye - thus the name. They were highly valued by collectors, and by those looking for something out of the ordinary.

"How fortunate. I believe the largest Dragon's Eye Ruby in the Canterlot Museum is just over three hooves in width."

"Yes, Princess. All Dragon's Eye gemstones fetch a large sum at auction, but most are not much larger than a single hoof. When Limestone claimed to have found more Dragon's Eye gems, I brought my entire family to have a look."

Luna noted several rail tracks entered the cave from other tunnels, and the tracks all merged together up ahead. Two of those tracks then led away and into a well-traveled tunnel that disappeared into the ceiling. Igneous Pie led them to that same tunnel and began to trot up the leftmost set of tracks, using the wooden railroad ties as steps. Luna began to ascend the other set of tracks the same way, and had to admit that the dual usage of the rail tracks was quite efficient. The tunnel sloped upwards at a reasonably sharp angle, so using the railroad ties as steps meant that a separate staircase did not need to be built. Luna noted that the tunnel continued upwards for quite a long way, and mused that the trip did not seem to take so long going in. She shook her head to dispel the thought, then turned back to the elder Pie.

"Your entire family being yourself, your wife Cloudy Quartz, and daughters Marble and Limestone?"

"Correct, Princess. My other daughters Maud and Pinkie live in Ponyville."

"I begin to see the connection. What happened next?"

"Well, Limestone is not a pony that tells lies; my dear wife and I raised her well. We indeed found many small Dragon's Eye gems in the surrounding rock. All four of us marvelled at our lucky find, and began to excavate the gems. The more we dug, the more Dragon's Eye gems we found. As you can tell by my current excitement, we were very pleased."

Luna looked over at the stallion, and could not find an ounce of excitement in his voice, expression or even in his step. It was as if he was made out of the surrounding rock.

"Our digging revealed a large wall made out of individual gems. Limestone had discovered a large Dragon's Eye sapphire embedded in that wall, resting about head high. She worked it free, and found a hole behind the gemstone. She held the lantern up to the hole, and from the hole came a blinding light. Once our eyes adjusted, we realised the light seemed so bright because we had been working in near darkness for so long. Limestone peered into the light and saw the Star Beast. We stopped our digging in fear of awakening it, then returned to the surface right away.”

The two ponies reached the top of the long tunnel, and entered a gigantic cave filled with crystals large and small. Luna walked around a large wooden winch with a considerable amount of rope wound around it, then followed the stallion along a winding path between the crystals. She remembered from the journey into the mine, that the path they were on led to the mine’s entrance.

"While we were reluctant to disturb you Princess, we knew that the Star Beasts were of your domain. So we sent a letter to our daughter Pinkie, who we presume sent a letter to you."

"You presume correctly, Igneous Pie. In fact, I received the Bearer of Laughter's letter this evening at dinner."

"We are honored you responded so quickly, Princess."

"Nay, dear Igneous. As you said, the Star Beasts are my responsibility and I shall never neglect my duty to the citizenry. However, I had expected this task to be an easy one. I did not expect to encounter Draco again."

"If I may ask Princess, who is Draco?"

Luna sighed audibly before composing her reply.

"Draco is no mere Star Beast. He is a Star Warrior pulled down from the heavens by Nightmare Moon. It was he that destroyed the Castle of the Two Sisters, in an attempt to cripple the capital. Considering that the nation’s capital is now in Canterlot, he succeeded.”

"That is strange. Celestia's teachings say that you first became Nightmare Moon in front of her, then after a short battle she defeated you and sent you to the moon."

The two ponies exited the mine into the cool night air. The entrance to the crystal mine was at the bottom of another mine, one of a large open pit design. Luna presumed the Pie family had started with the open-pit mine, then followed a vein of gems into the crystal mine they had just left. The Moon Princess smiled to herself as soon as she walked out into her night sky again. The two continued their conversation as they walked to a nearby ramp that led to the surface. Fortunately, this ramp was wide enough that they could walk abreast and continue their conversation.

"While that is technically true Igneous Pie, it is only part of the story. After becoming Nightmare Moon, I raised an army and laid siege to Equestria for a score of months. I had sent Draco to attack my sister's castle, but called him back when he became too destructive. I then sent him away, to await until I called him forth again. Not long after, I confronted my sister in the manner her story suggests and was defeated.

"I presume that Draco discovered that Nightmare Moon had been defeated and decided to hibernate until her return. Fortunately for all of us, he remained sleeping when Nightmare Moon did return some years back."

"I think I see, Princess. Can ye not return him to the night sky once again?"

Both Luna and the elder Pie reached the top of the ramp and entered the farm proper. The two trotted toward the Pie’s home, a small farmhouse nearby. A cool breeze pleasantly ruffled her fur and feathers as they crossed the farmlands. Luna could see the Pie matriarch, Cloudy Quartz, waiting for them on the front porch.

"Sadly, I cannot. It was as Nightmare Moon that I pulled him down, using dark magic that I no longer possess. He would no longer recognize me as his mistress."

"Then, we can do nothing. We must close the mine, in fear that we may wake up the beast."

"Not necessarily. Draco is a true dragon, though made of stars and magic instead of flesh and blood. The Dragon Princess may be able to help us in this endeavor."

Igneous Pie stepped on to his front porch, then turned to face his princess with a surprised look on his face.

"Eh? The dragons have a PRINCESS ruling them?"

"Yes. Her name is Ember, daughter of Torch."

Two alicorns stood in the largest open field on the Pie Rock Farm, not long after Celestia’s sun had risen. The cloudless sky gave the two an unobstructed view for miles around. Several days had passed since Princess Luna’s last visit to the farm, and all had been quiet since then. Considering who lay in slumber underneath the farm, Luna prayed that this day would be just as peaceful. But in her heart, she greatly feared it would not.

"Are you certain that the dragon princess stated that she would arrive today? Thou insisted that she would arrive not long after breakfast, and yet we have been waiting for two hours."

"Absolutely, Princess Luna! Her letter very clearly said that she would arrive this morning!"

"Twilight, you have been a princess for some time. We are equals now, so you may simply call me Luna."

"I'm sorry Prin - er, I mean Luna. Even though I have these wings and lots of responsibilities, I still feel like Celestia's student most of the time."

"I understand. Humility does make a good princess."

Time passed on the Pie Rock Farm, as Princess Luna and Princess Twilight waited for Dragon Lord Ember to arrive. The minutes and hours slowly ticked by, until Luna spoke up again.

"She is late."

"It's a long flight from the Dragon Lands. Maybe she got held up?"

"Tardiness is unbecoming of a Princess."

"While I agree, you try telling a dragon that. Especially a grown one."

"Excellent point, Twilight."

“And technically, Ember is the Dragon Lord - not a princess.”

“She rules her subjects, thus she is a Princess.”

“If she were ruling in Equestria, you would be correct. But the dragons call their ruler the Dragon Lord. It would be rude to call her a princess, especially since we’re asking her a favor.”

“I see. Very well, Twilight. I shall call her Dragon Lord. But to me, she shall remain a princess.”

More time passed. The lack of clouds and any sort of a breeze meant that Celestia’s sun bathed the two princesses in the summer heat. Fortunately, both mares knew spells to keep a pony cool when there was no shade nearby. And so they waited, feeling cool and refreshed. The sun had noticeably dipped from its peak in the sky before Luna’s keen eyes spotted something in the distance.

"I see flyers approaching from the direction of the Dragon Lands, Twilight."

"Oh, that must be Ember. Wait, you said flyers? Plural?"

"Aye. My eyes spy two flyers, where there should be just one."

"Hmm. Her letter didn't say anything about a guest. Maybe it's a guard?"

"Mayhaps. I can now see that they are dragons; the wing profile and flap speed is unmistakable, even at this distance.

"There seems to be a third dragon, 'twixt the other two. The middle one seems to shine and sparkle in the sunlight, while the left dragon is colored black and the right one is red."

"The middle one should be Ember; she owns a set of golden armor. I don't know about the other two.

"Oh! I can see them now. Your eyes must be very good, Luna."

"It is merely a spell of far-seeing, Twilight. I shall teach you the spell at some other time."

"Ooh, a new spell!"

Twilight lit up her horn, and a quill and piece of parchment floated out of her saddlebags which were resting on the ground next to her. Quill at the ready, the purple pedagogic pony prepared to take notes.

"What can you tell me about this spell, Luna?"

"Another time, Twilight. Our guests will be arriving soon."

"Really?"

Twilight looked over her parchment to see that the three dragons had grown noticeably bigger in the sky, and were getting bigger every moment.

"Oh! You're right!"

The quill and parchment floated back into Twilight's saddlebags.

“Goodness gracious! Those other dragons look so BIG next to Ember!”

“They are, Twilight. It seems our young dragon princess either prefers large guards, or she is preparing for a fight. Possibly both.”

In no time, the dragons arrived. Ember was wearing her set of gold and leather armor, the same set that she wore during the Dragon’s Gauntlet. She also carried the Bloodstone Scepter, which gave Ember the power of a Dragon King. Or Queen, in this case. The three dragons alighted gently upon the ground, all the more impressive due to the size of Ember’s guards. Their heads alone were the size of several ponies, and the rest of their bodies were simply enormous. Twilight tried to get a good look at the immense dragons as they landed, but she was having a difficult time due to their sheer size. However, she was sure that the red one was familiar from somewhere.

“Twilight!”

“Ember!”

Twilight reared up on her hind legs, and the two friends embraced.

“It’s good to see you again, Ember. Thanks for answering my letter.”

“Of course! If a dragon is causing you ponies trouble, it’s my job to take care of them.”

“Speaking of dragons, can you introduce us to your guards?”

“Sure. The black one here is Obsidian, and the red one is Loethar. You might recognize Loethar, he took a nap near Ponyville and covered the town with smoke.”

Twilight looked up at the large red dragon, and her eyes lit up in recognition.

“I thought you looked familiar!”

Loethar dipped his head in apology.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble, Princess. I didn’t realize my snoring let out so much smoke.”

Loethar’s voice surprised Twilight. She expected him to be very loud, due to his size. But he was speaking at a normal pony volume, even though his voice had a deep rumble to it.

“It’s okay Loethar, we know you didn’t mean any harm.”

“And Twilight, they’re not my guards. They’re here in case this dragon of yours decides not to play nice.”

“An excellent plan, Dragon Lord Ember. I am glad that we can finally meet, though I wish it was under better circumstances.”

Ember turned to Princes Luna, and a smile slowly stretched over her scaled muzzle.

“Nah, it’s cool. And it’s an honor to meet the Awesome Princess!”

“‘Awesome’, am I? You flatter me. But I assure you, my sister is just as awesome.”

“Celestia? Eh, she’s cool and all. But she’s like, the princess of prissy parties while you’re the badass Warrior Princess of dragon legend. You’re much cooler.”

“I thank you, kind Ember. I hope I do not disappoint.

“And it is my sincere hope that your large companions will not be needed, as a fight with Draco will most definitely destroy the farm that we stand in.”

“We also wish for a peaceful ending to this problem, Princess.”

Luna turned to see that the Pie family had joined them in the field. The one to speak was the Pie patriarch, Igneous Pie. His wife, Cloudy Quartz, was at his side. Behind him were two of his daughters, Limestone and Marble. Marble was currently hiding behind Limestone.

Igneous Rock turned to Ember, then looked up at the gigantic dragons as he spoke.

“My family and I welcome ye to the Pie Rock Farm, and we thank ye for your help. Though it is my hope that we can resolve this peacefully, as a fight between dragons will likely destroy my farm and my home.”

“We’ll be as careful as we can, Mr. Pie.”

Ember looked up at her very large companions.

“Right, boys?”

Both dragons nodded, and Obsidian spoke up. As with Loethar, his voice was lowered to pony volume levels.

“Yes, my brother and I will try to be careful. But if this ‘Draco’ wants a fight, I can make no promises.”

The Pie patriarch nodded sagely.

“I understand, and I thank ye for your consideration.”

Luna chose that moment to speak.

“I believe this would be a good time to ‘lay out my plan’, as it were. We have asked Dragon Lord Ember to come here in hopes that she can speak to Draco and convince him to leave for the Dragon Lands. We hope that this will come to a peaceful end, but Draco was made for war and he may not cooperate with the plan.

“If he wishes not to cooperate, or if he chooses to attack us, then Twilight and I will have no choice but to greet him with force. If we fail to best him, which is likely, it will be up to Ember’s warriors to hopefully vanquish him.”

Both dragons reared back slightly, and looked somewhat offended. Loethar spoke up to defend his honor.

“When my brother and I fight side-by-side Princess, there is nothing of this world that we cannot defeat.”

“I do not doubt your prowess, young drake. But Draco is a Star Beast, and not of this world. He will prove to be a formidable opponent for any creature. As such, you and your brother may well get your chance to prove your mettle this day.”

“Young?! We are over five hundred years old!”

“Compared to me and my many millenia upon this planet, along with my thousand-year banishment to the moon, you are a young drake indeed. Please be reassured, I meant no offense. I am certain that the two of you are up to the task.”

Luna solemnly focused on the Pie family.

"I require a Pie family member to guide us through the mines to Draco."

Igneous Rock turned to his daughters.

“Limestone, escort our guests through the mine.”

“Yeah, alright.”

Limestone took a few steps towards the open-pit mine to her right, then stopped.

“Follow me, princesses.

“The big dragons ain’t gonna fit, unless they can shrink to pony size or somethin’?”

Ember chuckled as she answered the mare.

“No, they don’t shrink. They’ll wait out here in case the other dragon tries to break out and escape. I’ll be going down there with the pony princesses.”

Limestone took a moment to size Ember up and down.

“Yeah, you’ll fit princess. Though you might have to duck down some. Come on.”

Limestone Pie began to walk towards the mine without another word.

Luna, Twilight and Ember looked at each other, somewhat surprised at the young Limestone’s brusqueness. Ember shrugged her shoulders and spoke her mind.

“Eh, works for me.”

She then set out to catch up to Limestone with Luna and Twilight close behind.

Limestone was right; Ember did have to squeeze her way through several narrow passages that were just big enough for a pony. It would have been a more miserable trip if she didn’t have excellent night vision, as the only illumination was from their guide’s lantern. Even so, the shadows thrown from that meager light made it very difficult to see what was shadow and what was rock. With how often the dragoness had hit her head or stubbed her toes on a rock hidden in those shadows, she swore that the cave was trying to kill her. Her lava-hot temper was one small rock from exploding, until she noticed that Luna was having similar problems. The alicorn was taller than the other two mares, and had to dip her head often so her horn would not scrape against the ceiling. Yet not once had the midnight mare complained. Ember decided that, if the Warrior Princess could put up with this then so could she. The dragoness made an effort to cool her temper down, and vowed to make the rest of the trip in silence. And so she did.

Ember’s patience had worn very thin by the time their guide hung her lantern on a convenient hook and called for a halt.

“Alright, we’re here.”

“O thank Faust, I thought we were going to hit the molten core of the planet before we found this dragon’s cave.”

“Nay, fair Ember. We would have to travel many months to reach the core, presuming the Pie’s mine went that far. Yet we have been walking for less than an hour.

“But I do understand, the trip does feel much longer than it truly is. And this is my second time down here.”

“Whatever. So, where’s this dragon?”

Limestone Pie pointed to a jagged hole in the rock near her head.

“You can see him through here, princess.”

Ember was at the back of the group in the too-small tunnel, so she had to squeeze past all three mares to get to the hole in the wall. Which was way too touchy-feely for her, but she had no choice. And even worse, the hole was at waist height. So to see anything, she had to crouch down in a very undignified way. But again, no choice. Once she was close enough, she could see the hole was roughly 4 inches in diameter. Just barely big though to see through.

“Here, you can’t see anything without the lantern.”

“I can see in the dark, get that thing away from me.”

“Fine, no need to get prissy.”

“Dragons don’t do prissy, now let me look.”

Ember tried to look through the small hole, but her long muzzle got in the way. So she turned her head to the right, and looked through with one eye. With a growl, she twisted her head around so she could look through the hole with her other eye.

“Rargh!”

The blue dragoness stood back up, and with a glow from her scepter she slammed her shoulder into the wall! The thick rock wall crumbled under the onslaught, and Ember walked through the wall like it was made of paper-mache and cardboard. Once in the cave proper, she paused for a moment to look around. Then strode confidently off to her right.

“What did you do that for?! You’ll wake him up!”

Ember replied without stopping her march.

“That’s the idea, pony! Besides, that wouldn’t wake up a slumbering dragon of this size. Now let me work.”

Ember kept walking, and quickly disappeared into the darkness beyond the limited light given off by the lantern.

“What should we do, Prin - I mean, Luna?”

“Perhaps some light would help us, fair Twilight.”

“Oh! Of course!”

A white bolt of magic shot out from Twilight’s horn towards the top of the cavern, and exploded into several sparkling shards like a firework. The shards spread out and up towards the vast ceiling, which was much higher up than anypony had expected. In an instant, the large cavern was illuminated.

The first thing Twilight noticed was the twinkling. The rock walls were covered in gems of all sizes, and in the light spell she just cast the gems all twinkled like stars in the nighttime sky. But in this case, the stars shone in all the colors of the spectrum. From red to yellow, blue green and purple, the lights were nearly an orgasm for the eyes. The sight quite simply took her breath away. If it wasn’t for the gigantic coiled dragon in the middle of the vast room, the purple pedagogic pony would have burst into the cave to catalogue all of the gems immediately.

Ah yes, the dragon. Its scales appeared to be an orangish-gold, but the lights from the gems playing over its form made it difficult to tell if that was the dragon’s true color or just an illusion. The dragon appeared to be a serpent in shape, as three coils of its body could be seen stacked upon each other. Each coil was taller than two ponies, perhaps even taller than Ember’s Bloodstone Scepter. The dragon’s body was perhaps 20 or 30 feet from the hole in the wall, where the ponies were standing. Neither its head nor the end of its tail could be seen.

Looking up, Twilight could see that the ceiling rose high above the dragon’s body. A quick mental estimation told her that the cave was about two hundred feet in height. The walls were curved and the ceiling was domed, with twinkling gems all over its surface. Ember could be seen down at the far end of the cave, and as they watched the dragoness disappeared around the other side of the dragon’s coils. Twilight gauged the length of the dragon’s den to be as long as it was tall, so another two hundred feet. As a matter of fact, the entire cavern looked to be a half-sphere in scale.

The cave was completely silent. Ember’s footsteps had already faded away, and left nothing to replace them with. Twilight had expected to hear the star beast breathing or snoring, but there was nothing to be heard.

“Found it!”

Twilight jumped as Ember’s voice suddenly echoed across the chamber. Twilight looked up at Princess Luna, who motioned her head in the direction of Ember. The mare smiled sheepishly, then trotted out into the cave. Luna followed immediately after her. Several seconds later, a frightened Limestone Pie quickly scampered after the pony princesses.

The three mares soon rounded the dragon’s body to see Ember standing at the back at the cavern’s wall. The dragoness was looking up above the star dragon’s coils. They followed her gaze upwards, and spied a large and gray knurled horn along with the tip of a large orange ear. The rest of the dragon’s head could not be seen. Once the ponies reached Ember’s side, she spoke up.

“Like I said, it’s hard to wake up a dragon when they’re sleeping. Especially one that’s been sleeping for over a thousand years. I’m gonna have to use the scepter to wake him.”

The dragoness held the Bloodstone Scepter out in front of her body, and grasped it in both hands. A look of concentration washed over her face, and the gem in the scepter lit up.

Then nothing.

More nothing.

Twilight and Luna gave each other a worried look.

“Um, can we help--”

“Shut up! I’m concentrating.”

“But nothing’s--”

“He’s deep asleep! If I wake him up too fast he’ll awaken in a blood rage and attack us.

“Gotta do it slow…”

A deep intake of breath echoed through the gem-encrusted cave. And with it, the horn above the snake coils moved slightly. It was followed soon after by a slow exhale, along with a low rumble that almost sounded like words. The immense snake coils shifted in place, and the dragon’s head lifted into view.

Its muzzle was low and flat, with two prominent nostrils on the end. Ridges of scales rippled down its snout, and ended at its closed eyes which faced forward like a predator’s. The ponies could see that the dragon had two knurled horns, one on each side of its head. Its gleaming orange-gold scales shimmered in an unbroken sea across its head and down its neck as far as the ponies could see. The dragon yawned again, showing off rows of sharp teeth that were ideal for skewering tasty ponies. Its nose sniffed once, then twice. Then it opened its eyes and turned to face the ponies. Twin orbs that shone like polished emeralds looked down at those that had disturbed its rest. Another low rumbling was heard, and the ponies realized that the dragon was TALKING to them.

“Uh, can you understand it Luna?”

“Aye, Twilight. But I cannot easily translate his words into Ponish. Fair Ember?”

“Can’t understand it myself. Maybe my dad would know, if he were here. Let me try the scepter again.”

The gem in the Bloodstone Scepter lit again. The gemstone flickered in time with Ember’s words, and hopefully translating their meaning to the immense dragon.

“Oh great Draco, I apologize for waking you from your great slumber.”

Draco gave a short grumble in response.

"I am here to bring you to the Dragon Lands, where you may live with your fellow dragons."

Another rumble, that sounded like a question.

“Ponies are mining around here, and they didn’t want you going on a rampage if they woke you up.”

A dismissive grumble, this time.

“They’re not going to mine somewhere else! They live right above us! Besides, wouldn’t you rather be with your fellow dragons?”

A snort of amusement, and a short mumble.

"What do you mean, 'you're better than a simple dragon'? You must obey me! I hold the Bloodstone Scepter!"

A grumble in a deeper tone, then Draco closed his eyes and rested his head on his coils. Ember turned to the ponies, anger written all over her face.

"He won't listen to me! Says he's better than us dragons and he's not going anywhere until his Mistress calls for him!"

Princess Luna sighed softly. "I was most worried that that would be his answer. His mistress was Nightmare Moon, and she no longer exists."

"Well, you were Nightmare Moon. Can't you just order him to leave or something?"

"Nay, Limestone Pie. While I still know the spells to control Draco, my magic is different now that I have been reformed. It is likely that my attempt would enrage him and cause him to destroy your family farm."

Limestone hung her head low, and whispered to herself: "Stupid unicorn magic."

Princess Luna's sharper alicorn hearing picked up Limestone's words, but she understood the mare's frustration and chose to ignore the slight.

"However, all that is left to do is try. And hope my creation will listen.”

Princess Luna bowed her head, and took a deep breath. She then lifted her head up, and somehow shouted a mumble up at the slumbering dragon. A mumble that sounded just like the mumbles that Draco had been speaking in. Draco’s head snapped up, his eyes opened wide, and he turned to look directly at the midnight blue alicorn.

"Woah, I didn't know you spoke ancient dragon, Princess!"

"I know many dead and dying languages, Dragon Lord Ember. Now, let me concentrate."

Luna shouted a mumble at Draco again. Drago returned the command with a deeper mumble of his own. The two continued to speak together in this way, while Ember ushered the other two ponies several steps back towards the entrance. That way, she could bring Twilight and Limestone up to date without having to shout.
.
"So, the Bloodstone Scepter isn't translating their words into Ponish, the language is too old. But it can tell me the meaning of the words."

"Oh, how interesting! I'd love to study it, if you'd let me!"

"You may not get that chance, Twilight. Princess Luna is trying to command Draco there, but like she said he's not taking the commands. He's saying something like, ‘Luna feels like his mistress but isn't his mistress’. Does that make sense?"

"Oh dear. It sounds like Luna was right, her magic has changed too much."

"Riiight. Oh hey, she's telling him that she was Nightmare Moon, and Nightmare Moon was defeated. And...oh, he's not looking happy--"

The humongous dragon let out a gigantic roar! Faster than his humongous bulk would imply, Draco's tail snaked out from behind his coils and slapped Princess Luna! His tail hit the midnight mare with such force that she smashed into the wall behind her! Her body disappeared behind a cloud of gem dust.

“PRINCESS!!”

Twilight ran towards Princess Luna, with no thought to her own safety. Draco’s coils began to shift and slide, as the gigantic dragon began to un-coil himself. Ember and Limestone Pie ran back towards the tunnel entrance, but were stopped when one of Draco’s coils blocked the tunnel entrance. The two could only stand there and hope that Draco didn’t notice them.

Suddenly, a blue beam of magic fired out of the dust cloud and slapped into Draco’s muzzle. Luna charged out of the dust cloud and followed her horn blast with a solid right hook. The dragon’s head snapped off to Twilight’s left, but turned back and let out a mighty roar!

A large, three-fingered hand covered in orange-gold scales abruptly rose above Draco’s coils and slapped Princess Luna as she hovered in the air. But this time, she recovered before hitting the wall. Instead, she simply hovered in place.

“Twilight! Hit him with a stun spell, mayhaps we can send him back into slumber!”

“O-of course, Princess!”

Both alicorns charged their horns, and sent twin beams of magic into Draco. The dragon sagged on his scales for a few suspenseful moments, then shook his head and let out another angry roar! He swiped a clawed hand at Princess Luna, who simply flew over it. At the same time, his tail swung at Twilight who yelped and used her wings to jump over it. The purple pony then took to the air to attack Draco from above.

It became quickly apparent that none of the alicorn’s attacks were having any effect on Draco. All they were doing was getting him madder and madder. The gigantic dragon thrashed and slammed his body against the walls of his cave, causing the ground to shake and quake. Ember and Limestone were still trapped in the cave, and even though Draco wasn’t targeting them directly they still had their hands (and hooves) full dodging Draco’s coils.

It was bound to happen. Limestone zigged when she should have zagged, and one of Draco’s coils knocked the gray pony off of her hooves. With a yell of fright, Limestone landed on her side and skidded across the rock floor. Her yell drew Twilight’s attention for a moment, and realized that the dragoness and farm pony were in serious danger.

“Luna! Ember and Limestone are trapped in here! They’ll get hurt if we don’t stop Draco!”

Luna ducked under a flailing claw before she could reply.

“And we have had no luck calming Draco down! We will need the help of the large drakes outside to defeat him!”

“Okay, I’ll try to teleport him to the surface!”

“I shall keep our foe busy! HAVE AT THEE!”

While Luna made a frenzied assault upon Draco, Twilight hovered in the air and closed her eyes. Her horn began to glow, and as she charged her spell her horn increased in brightness three separate times. At last, the spell was charged.

“READY!”

Princess Luna immediately flew back from Draco. At the same time, Twilight pointed her horn towards Draco’s immense body. However, the dragon had also heard Twilight’s cry. Draco’s tail came up and slapped Twilight across her muzzle, and the sudden shock caused Twilight to lose her focus. But instead of losing the spell, she released it instead. The teleportation spell fired off harmlessly towards the ceiling. But as luck would have it, the beam of magic hit a gemstone on the roof of the cave. The spell was then reflected down towards the floor. Right where a certain dragoness was helping a certain farm mare to her hooves...

The magical beam struck both Ember and Limestone Pie at the same time. Screams were heard from the two as the beam tore down at them. In a big bright flash, it was all over. Ember’s Bloodstone Scepter and empty golden armor clattered noisily to the ground. But the two females were no longer there.

Chapter 2 - Misunderstandings

Ember and Limestone Pie found themselves spinning around inside a swirling kaleidoscope of color and light. They went around and around the kaleidoscope, their bodies stretching longer and longer as they fell faster and faster. The light got so bright they had to squeeze their eyes shut - and suddenly, they stopped spinning. Despite some dizziness, the world felt normal again and their respective feet and hooves were on solid ground. Both females rubbed their eyes, then opened them.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!

The monster in front of them screeched in rage! Its bright, featureless eyes angrily flickered bright light on their faces. It’s silver flesh had a metallic sheen to it, and hot air from its mouth blew across their muzzles! It screamed at them twice more, while they cowered in fear at its feet.

“Hey! Get the heck out of the road!”

The metal monstrosity screamed at them twice more.

“Move it!”

Another scream.

“Fine!”

A metallic creak came from Ember’s right, then footsteps. Out of nowhere, something kicked the dragoness in the shoulder and knocked her to the ground.

“Get up, you idiot! Are you trying to get run over or something?”

Ember looked up at her assailant, and saw...a minotaur. Kinda. But it had no snout, and no horns. And no fur, except on top of its head. Its body was covered in some sort of fancy gray clothing, and it looked really mad.

“I said, get up! You’re blocking my car!”

“Car…? Cart?”

Just then, the creature noticed Limestone Pie lying cowering on the ground behind Ember.

“What, you brought your DOG on to the freeway too?”

The creature’s words snapped Limestone out of her frightened stupor.

‘Dog? I’m not a DOG?!’

The rock farmer sat up on the warm ground, then gave the creature a nasty look. But he missed it as he had turned his attention back to the dragoness.

Speaking of Ember, she had had a sudden realization. This wasn’t a monster ready to eat her, but a strange cart driven by this strange creature. And he dared to threaten her!

“How DARE you?!”

Ember clambored to her feet, and discovered that the creature was only a head taller than her. She brandished her clawed hands in a threatening manner, and yelled back at the creature.

“Don’t you know who I am? I’m the DRAGON LORD! How DARE you try to run over the Dragon Lord with your cart!”

The creature suddenly realized he had made a very bad mistake. Instead of a suicidal homeless man like he thought, the thing in front of his car was some sort of talking animal that was threatening him with his claws.

“O-kay, okay. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt my car.”

“Your cart? Don’t hurt your cart? I won’t hurt it, I’ll DESTROY it!”

As her temper burned in a hot rage, Ember turned to the compact sedan and dug her claws into the metal hood. With a rip and a yank, her dragon strength tore the hood right off its hinges! The Dragon Lord hefted the metal slab into the air and roared as mightily as her svelte frame would allow. Her anger not yet sated, she threw the metal hood to her right and over the median with all of her might. Almost instantly, the dragoness heard a crash of metal-on-metal, and more monstrous screaming. The scream was followed by a loud screeching, along with another crash. A cascade of screaming and crashes followed after. The inhuman screams brought a maniacal grin to Ember’s muzzle.

The dragoness gleefully turned to her right to see the carnage, but was shocked by what she saw. There were dozens of these metal carts, sitting five rows deep. They were all different sizes and shapes and colors. Every one she saw was driven by the same kind of creature, and all of them were mad. Some of the carts had smashed into the back of the cart in front of them, and steam was coming out of the broken parts. Horns blared from all over, and she suddenly realized that the monstrous screeching she was hearing were ordinary horns.

The ground under the carts was not dirt or gravel, but some sort of dark flat rock. She briefly wondered if it was some sort of obsidian. There were white lines across the dark ground, and all the carts she saw sat between the lines. Beyond the rows of cars was a grassy hill that stretched upwards. She could see a bridge off to her right.

Just as Ember tore the hood off of the car, Limestone had had the same realization as the Dragon Lord - this was no monster, but a cart driven by the creature! Her embarrassment at being fooled fueled her anger, and she turned to buck the cart as hard as she could! The car’s bumper crumpled under her hooves, and with a muffled ‘poof’ the car’s airbags deployed. The man screamed as his precious car was being destroyed in front of him! In a blind panic, he ran back to the driver’s door and jumped inside. The car’s door slammed shut and an audible click was heard as the driver put the car in gear. The damaged vehicle quickly backed up several feet and bumped into the car behind it. The driver wrenched the steering wheel to the right and floored the accelerator, cutting off the car in the slow-moving lane next to him. This action exposed Ember and Limestone to the nearby drivers and the rest of the freeway traffic.

The driver that got cut off slammed on the brakes, then honked her horn in outrage. She looked to her left to see why the driver cut her off, and saw Ember and Limestone. And stared. More car horns honked, until they saw the Equestrians. And those drivers stared as well. All the staring made Limestone feel really nervous, like she was being watched by a pack of Timberwolves.

One by one, the drivers rolled down their windows or got out of their cars to look at Limestone and Ember. Many of them held up these weird rectangles in front of their face. The flashing lights from the cell phones pushed a nervous Limestone back over the edge.

“STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!!”

Limestone ran up to the nearest car, and bucked her hooves into the front fender. Her muscular legs crumpled the thin metal, and shoved the front of the car over a few feet. The driver screamed and slammed on the gas. Her damaged car screeched forward and out of sight.

Limestone ran into the space left by the car, and planted her hooves aggressively on the concrete. She was so angry, she was literally frothing at the mouth as she screamed at the top of her lungs!

“WHO WANTS SOME?!”

Ember turned back from the other side of the freeway just in time to see Limestone kick the car, then threaten the rubbernecking drivers. She incorrectly assumed the creatures had attacked the pony, and the dragoness was ready and willing to defend her. Her hot rage flared up again, and she screamed a battle cry as she ran towards the cars.

Ember ran past the pony and at a driver standing outside of her car with the door open. The raging dragoness sliced the side view mirror off the car door in one swipe! The Dragon Lord’s attack sparked Limestone into action. She ran to another car on her right and smashed its headlights with her hooves! The driver Ember threatened screamed and got back in her car, while the Dragon Lord’s claws scraped over the door glass. Limestone turned to her left and kicked the rear quarter panel as the driver roared off, hoping to escape the rampaging duo.

Once they realized they were in danger, the other drivers got back into their vehicles and tried to drive off. But neither Ember nor Limestone were that forgiving. They chased and kicked and slashed anything that passed by them, causing a lot of damage and destruction. Their damage spree quickly came to a sudden end when Ember slashed a car tire as it went by. The immediate decompression violently slammed the dragon into the car behind her, which sat in the carpool lane. The momentum crumpled the passenger door and pushed the car into the concrete median. As the vehicle was only going a few miles per hour, the impact brought it to a sudden stop.

The car with a very flat tire kept driving away. Limestone turned and bucked the car that the Dragon Lord had crashed into.

“Take that, you mother-bucker!”

The world swum around Ember. It took more than that to hurt a dragon, but the impact had stunned her. Slowly, the world came into focus. The gray blob next to her resolved into Limestone, who was yelling at her for some reason.

“Come on, get up! There’s more of these things to smash!”

The impact had cooled Ember’s rage, and she looked around to see a veritable sea of these carts. They zipped by just a lane away, and there seemed to be no end to them.

“We...we gotta get away.”

“WHAT?! You’re going to just RUN AWAY?!”

“There’s too many to fight, they just keep coming.”

“No way!”

Limestone jumped on the hood of the disabled car, eliciting a scream from the trapped driver. She then jumped onto its roof, and got her first good look around.

“Oh buck, you’re right! And they’ll run us over if we go that way,” as she pointed across the fast-moving lanes of cars. Then she turned to look at the other side of the freeway, where the cards were still stopped due to the accident Ember had caused.

“There! The other way! The carts are stopped, we can go that way!”

Ember’s first instinct was to fly, so she opened her wings and prepared to soar across the freeway. But she was stopped by a hoof on her chest.

“Hey! Don’t leave me here!”

“Oh...sorry. Still dizzy.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now come on!”

Limestone dragged Ember over to the concrete median. The dizzy dragoness slowly climbed over the waist height wall while Limestone deftly hopped over it. Traffic was stopped in all lanes on that side of the freeway, so the two wormed their way across without incident. They crossed the freeway shoulder together, then collapsed bonelessly into the foliage growing on the embankment. For the first time since Ember had woken up Draco, the two females finally felt safe enough to relax. They stared across the expanse of concrete and cars in abject wonder.

Had the Equestrians grown up on this world, they might have recognized the concrete and metal wonderland as the 405 freeway in Southern California. The magical vortex had deposited them on the 405 North in the carpool lane during the noon rush hour. Their timing had been excellent, although they didn’t plan it that way. Had they arrived when traffic was lighter, they may have been hit by a car at speed and turned into very messy road pizza. But of course, neither Limestone nor Ember knew any of this. From their point of view, the past several minutes had been an incomprehensible mix of strange metal carts driven by even stranger bald minotaurs.

As they watched, the cars on the 405 South began to slowly move while the cars going north smoothly zipped along. The wrecked car stuck in the carpool lane had managed to move out of the lane and out of sight.

“What...what the heck happened? Where are we?”

Ember’s head felt a lot better after resting. So it was much easier to answer the pony’s question.

“There’s nothing like this in the Dragon Lands. Or from what I’ve seen in Equestria. How about you?”

“These look kinda like the roads in Manehattan, but they’re WAY bigger. And I’ve never seen carts like those there! Or the drivers! They kinda look like shaved monkeys.”

Ember gave off an amused snort.

“Yeah they do, don't they? I thought they were really weird minotaurs. Maybe we’re in the Storm King’s domain? He was some sort of primate, wasn’t he?”

“I dunno, the invasion never got to the farm And Pinkie’s stories of it make no sense.”

“Pinkie? The pink pony? You know her?”

“We’re sisters. Pretty crazy, isn’t it? The rest of us take after Mom or Dad, but Pinkie takes after our grandmother. Either that, or Mom cheated on Dad but Mom denies it.”

“Huh. I don’t get you ponies sometimes.”

“You dragons are pretty crazy too. Now come on, I’m not gonna just sit around here and wait to be rescued.”

“Sure, I’m up for exploring.”

Both females clambored to their respective feet and hooves, then easily climbed up the embankment. Once at the top, they found a medium-sized grassy area and decided to cross it. But they were soon blocked by a tall rusty chain-link fence that stretched in both directions as far as they could see. On the other side of the fence was a road, and beyond the road were some brick buildings. The only thing Ember recognized was a large white sign that contained a picture of a yellow shell.

As the Equestrians looked around, a car drove by from their left and sped on by without noticing them.

“What, there’s MORE of these things up here?!”

“Ugh, these monkeys are obsessed with these things.”

Limestone turned and bucked the metal chain link fence, fully expecting it to fall down. But to her surprise, the fence held! The mesh stretched outwards like a spring, then snapped back and knocked the gray pony off her hooves.

“Hey!”

Ember didn’t even try to hide her laughter, which earned her one of Limestone’s meanest frowns.

“Fine! You try and break down the fence!”

In answer, Ember extended her wings and gave them a single flap.

“I would fly over it. I could just toss you over the fence but…”

While she was speaking, Ember was looking up and down the fence trying to find something. Her eyes lit up when she found what she was looking for.

“...I have a better idea. Follow me.”

The dragoness turned to her right, and strode under the branches of a large tree. Limestone reluctantly followed, and facehooved when she saw Ember stop next to a gate in the metal fence.

“And here you go. One gate in the fence! You ponies should try to be as smart as dragons, sometime.”

Limestone said nothing, but the red in her face and her gritted teeth would warn any pony nearby that she was about to explode. However, Ember was looking at the fence and missed Limestone’s reaction.

“So, we lift the latch and--”

The Dragon Lord tried to lift the metal latch on the gate, but it barely moved.

“Huh. That’s weird.”

Ember took a closer look at the latch, and noticed a padlock holding the latch closed.

“It’s locked? Why would someone lock a gate that anyone could fly over? Well, it’s easily fixed.”

The dragoness grasped the lock in her hand, then with a grunt of effort she squeezed her hand into a fist. The metal of the padlock didn’t stand a chance against her dragon strength, and the metal split open. With a quick yank, the padlock came free of the shackle, and a simple twist removed the shackle. The latch was then easily lifted and Ember swung the gate open.

“There we go! After you, pony.”

Limestone hid her shock at how easily the dragoness had broken the metal lock, and quickly trotted through the open gate.

“My name is Limestone, dragon.”

Ember followed after Limestone, and closed the gate behind her.

“And my name is Ember, ruler of all dragons. Better remember it.”

Now past the restrictive fence, the two females looked at their options. Ember first noticed a small building, just off to their right. It had a large overhanging roof, much bigger than the little building needed. Both the building and roof were painted white, with yellow and red stripes on their sides. A couple of metal carts were stopped there, just sitting under the large roof. The carts were parked next to these strange pillars that didn’t even reach the roof. Even stranger, there were these weird black ropes that stretched from the pillars to the carts. There were some words on the pillars, but Ember couldn’t make them out from that distance. But the small building clearly said ‘Food Mart”. To the right of the building was the large sign Ember saw earlier, the one that had a large gold Shell on it. The sign had some other words she couldn’t make out, and red numbers on a black background.

As if on cue, Ember’s stomach rumbled.

“I heard that.”

“Whatever, pony.”

“My name is LIMESTONE. If you want to work together, learn my NAME.”

“Fine, fine. Limestone.”

“Thank you. And I’m hungry too.”

“Look, it says 'food' over there. I don't know what a 'mart' is, but it better be good."

"Yeah, but there's a donut shop over there."

"Where?”

Ember’s eyes followed Limestone’s outstretched hoof. To their right, across another road with more metal carts, was a small white and orange building. But what caught Ember’s eye was the gigantic sign in the shape of a donut, with the words ‘Randy’s Donuts’ on it.

“Oh, that's a big donut. You really want to eat there?"

"Yeah, I want a donut or three."

Ember rolled her eyes. "You ponies and your sugar addiction. Fine."

The two females stepped off of the grass and into the street, where they were greeted by a loud car horn and the screeching of tires. Ember looked to her left at the offending cart, and screamed at it with all her might.

"HEY! I'M WALKING HERE!!"

She threatened it with a middle claw, meaning business. The cart screeched around the two, then sped off down the street. They continued walking across the street to the corner, then proceeded to walk across the cross street without stopping. Neither female recognized the red light and white crosswalk signal, they just presumed that the carts had stopped for them and were politely letting them cross.

Once on the other side of the street, Ember and Limestone walked up to the front of the donut shop. The shop’s menu was hung up on the front of the store, so the two could decide what they wanted ahead of time.

“Man, Pinkie would love this place.”

“Hmm? She likes donuts?”

“She loves anything sweet. And there’s stuff on this menu I don’t recognize, and she adores trying anything new.”

“Huh. You know what you want?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

Ember pushed her way to the front of the line and slammed her fist on the counter.

“Hey! I’m ready to order!”

An employee walked up to the order window.

“Sure, sure. Whaddya want?”

“I want a Devil’s Food Cake and two Bear Claws.”

“Devil’s Food and two Claws. Anything else?”

Limestone hopped up and put her front hooves on the counter to place her order.

“I’ll take a Maple Long John and a S’Mores Raised.”

“Maple John and a S’Mores. That it?”

“Yes.”

The employees gathered the requested donuts, and placed them in a paper bag on the counter.

“Okay, that’ll be nine dollars and forty cents.”

Ember tossed a few tiny gems onto the counter.

“That should be enough.”

“What are these, plastic toys? We only take money here.”

“You got any bits, Limestone?”

“Nope, we don’t carry any when we’re on the farm.”

“That’s all we got, monkey boy. I’m sure your pony princess can turn them into bits or whatever you take here.”

“Who you calling ‘monkey’? We don’t take no IOUs, here. Pay in cash, credit or get out.”

Ember was already irritable due to her hunger, and the bald monkey had pissed her off.

"Don't you recognize me?! I'm the Dragon Lord! My name is Ember!"

"What are you, some crazy cosplayer? No money, no donuts."

The employee snatched the donuts back from the counter, then slid the order door closed.

“GRRR!! I’m hungry, give me those DONUTS!”

Ember slammed her fist into the safety glass and shattered it.

The first employee turned to another. "Call the cops."

After a few more punches failed to give her the donuts, Ember scooped up her discarded gemstones and stormed off.

“I’m going to the ‘food mart’, come on. Maybe they’ll take my gems there.”

Limestone took a last fond look at the donut shop, and wished that she had brought her bits bag. But who knew that she’d be blasted away to a different country by Princess Twilight’s magic? The farm pony reluctantly turned to follow Ember, right as her stomach gave her a warning growl.

The two stormed across the street again to the Shell station’s Food Mart. While the traffic signal wasn’t in their favor this time, traffic was light enough that they were able to cross without any problems. Ember stomped her way to the door of the Food Mart, and had the door not already been open the dragoness would probably have slammed it open. She stepped into the cool, air-conditioned area, and stopped cold.

She could smell MEAT here! It was so difficult to get non-sentient meat in the Dragon Lands, now that they had a treaty with the ponies. But here! There was meat here! She didn’t care how much it cost, she had to have it!

Ember staggered her way across the Food Mart, where a carousel of hot dogs was sitting on the counter next to an attendant and a cash register. She slammed her hands on the clear plastic cover, and began to drool all over the machine.

Limestone followed Ember into the Food Mart, but wrinkled her nose at the distasteful smell of cooking flesh. She knew that some predatory species found her species tasty, but it was a whole other thing to see it first hoof. She turned her head away from the spectacle, then looked at the rest of the store.

It was a small store, with two tiny rows of stacked bags and boxes of what Limestone presumed was food of some sort. The walls of the building were lined with large metal boxes with glass fronts. Inside the boxes were rows and rows of strangely-shaped bottles. The mare placed her hoof on the glass, and could feel the cold radiating from within.

Ember had lost herself in her desire for meat, and had begun to pound her fist on the hot dog carousel. This got the attention of the attendant.

“You want some hot dogs? Sure! Just don’t break the machine or you’ll have to pay for it.”

That sounded like a good idea to the dragoness. So she tossed all of her gemstones at the attendant, then smashed her fist through the plexiglass cover! She reached inside and grabbed a steaming hot dog, then took a bite of the delicious, mouthwatering flesh.

Dragon Lord Ember found herself in carnivore heaven. She let out a guttural moan as she swallowed the rest of the hot dog whole. The dragoness shivered in pleasure while the meat slid down her throat, before reaching out for another tube of mouthwatering meat.

Had either Ember or Limestone been paying attention, they would have heard a loud wailing sound approaching their location. The locals recognized it as a police siren, and looked around to see where it was coming from. A police car came screaming down the street and quickly pulled into the donut shop’s parking lot. The lone officer got out and approached the front of the shop, and the employees pointed over to the Shell station across the street. The officer went back to his car, drove across the street and parked on the far side of the pumps near the open Food Mart door. He then walked over to the Food Mart and entered through the same door that Ember and Limestone had used.

The first thing that he saw was a blue animal that kinda looked like a lizard or a dragon from a cartoon. The creature was currently stuffing its face with hot dogs, with grease or drool running down its chin and onto its chest. The employees at the donut shop said some crazy costumed person had smashed their window, so this had to be him. It had to be a person in a costume, anything else would be crazy talk.

The officer pulled out his sidearm, and pointed it at Ember in a two-handed grip.

“Police, FREEZE! Put down the hot dogs!”

Ember turned to look at the uniformed bald monkey, and swallowed the hot dog in her mouth.

“No. I’m still hungry.”

She then turned back to the hot dog carousel and grabbed another meat tube in her claws.

“Back away from the counter, NOW! This is your only warning!”

Ember sighed, clearly the monkey with the stick wasn’t going to let her eat in peace. She turned to face the officer, and pointed the hot dog in her claw at him.

“Now, you listen here--”

The officer noted that the costumed perpetrator had pointed something at him, and instinct took over. He aimed at its center of mass and pulled the trigger twice. His aim was true, and two bullets hit Ember right on her sternum.

The metal smushed on her hardened scales and clattered to the floor.

Ember was unharmed by the bullet impacts, but they sure stung like a motherbucker.

"OW!! That hurt! BURN!!!"

The enraged dragoness opened her muzzle and unleashed a torrent of flame at the officer! Fortunately, the officer dove off to the side so Ember’s flame shot harmlessly out the open door behind him. As soon as Ember shut off her flame, the officer jumped up to his knees and aimed his sidearm at the dragoness again. But before he could fire, something slammed into his left side and knocked him back to the ground. When he looked up, he saw an angry pony standing over him. It had a nasty snarl on its face, and was trying its best to look dangerous. The back of his mind thought it looked adorable when it was angry.

“What are you doing, attacking my friend?! That’s Dragon Lord Ember! Don’t you recognize her?”

The officer did not. What he did know, is that he was outnumbered and that he should retreat to safety. Especially when one of the perpetrators had a flamethrower. He scrambled to his feet and ran out the open door behind him, then sprinted behind his patrol car.

Ember, by then in full rage mode, watched him run out the door and screamed after him.

“COME BACK HERE!!”

She stormed out the door after the officer, with Limestone following behind.

The officer leaned on his patrol car as he sat on the ground. He reached to his shoulder and activated his walkie talkie.

“Dispatch, this is 1712. There’s a female wearing a blue costume here, armed with a
flamethrower. Requesting backup, preferably a SWAT team.”

“With a WHAT? Say again, 1712.”

“You heard me right, a perp with a flamethrower. And some sort of armor, I hit her dead center and they bounced off.”

“Confirmed 1712, backup en route.”

“Oh, send Animal Control here too. The perp’s got a pet horse that’s causing trouble.”

Ember exited the Food Mart and looked around for the officer. But she couldn’t see him. Her rage demanded that SOMETHING must burn, so she let loose a jet of flame at a white cart to her left. The cart caught fire, and the crackling of the flames was literal music to her ears.

The officer heard the gout of flame from behind his patrol car. When it stopped, he poked his head over the fender. To his shock, a car next to the pumps was on fire! His immediate thought was to hit the emergency stop for the gas station, or the flames were going to get a lot worse. He quickly glanced around for an ‘emergency shut off’ sign, and he saw one. It pointed towards the front of the building, off to his right. Without another thought, the officer leapt to his feet and ran to the front of the station.

Unfortunately, Ember spotted him. She sent another plume of flame across his body..

Fortunately for the officer, Ember forgot to lead her target and missed again.

The officer rounded the corner of the building and spotted the shut off switch. As fast as he could, he lifted the protective panel and pushed the switch. There was no klaxon or alarm, but the shouts from the customers when their gas pumps shut off told him it had worked.

He had also hoped that the station had a fire suppression system installed, but one look at the burning car showed it still in flames. Fortunately for him, there was a fire extinguisher in a sealed case right next to the cut off switch. His sharp elbow smashed the glass, and he pulled the fire extinguisher out of its metal housing. A finger yanked the retaining pin out, then the officer ran back to the still-burning car.

As he rounded the corner, he plowed into the blue woman with the flamethrower and knocked her off her feet. He ignored her angry cries and sprayed the flames with the fire extinguisher. In moments, the dry powder from the extinguisher had smothered the flames and the danger was over. With the flames out, the charred metal steamed and smoked lazily in the early evening air.

Suddenly, he was slapped on the shoulder so hard it knocked him off balance.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!”

It was the woman with the flamethrower. And she still looked mad.

“Come on! You gonna attack me again?! I’m ready for you now!”

The officer realized that he had better de-escalate the situation before she hurt someone. Stall for time, calm her down, or both. While they talked, the office slowly backed up a few steps. He wanted some distance between them in case she attacked him again.

“You know, I’m really sorry about that.”

“What?”

“Shooting you, I mean. I thought you had a gun in your hand, and I panicked.”

“What, that? That was a hot dog! I was going to eat it before you interrupted.”

Limestone Pie stepped around Ember, and sneered at the officer.

“Yeah, that was a stupid thing to do, attacking a dragon! You’re lucky she didn’t mess you up!”

“I guess it was pretty stupid. But did you have to damage the car? That’s going to cost a lot of money to fix.”

Ember waved her hand dismissively.

“Eh, it’s no big deal. I’m sure the pony princesses will take care of it.”

“The...princesses?”

“Yeah. Celestia and Luna, right?”

“Right, right. Them.”

"Besides, didn't your mother teach you not to piss off a dragon? You kinda asked for it."

All of a sudden, the officer sprayed the fire extinguisher across both Ember and Limestone. The dry powder got all over their faces, which made them close their eyes and cough harshly. The officer set the fire extinguisher down, then drew his stun gun. He aimed it at the blue woman and fired. But to his surprise, the prongs simply bounced off and fell to the ground. Thinking quickly, he popped off the front of the stun gun; this action not only released the loose prongs and wires, but also exposed the 50,000 volt contacts inside the gun.

The blue woman was still coughing and waving her arms to try and clear the air around her. The officer slipped between her arms, jammed the end of the stun gun against her throat and pulled the trigger. The woman immediately convulsed and shook as the electricity coursed through her body. A moment later, she collapsed on the ground unconscious.

The officer stared at the blue woman for a moment, just to make sure she wasn’t moving. Then he turned his attention to the small grey horse. It was coughing and waving a hoof in front of its face, just like the blue woman. He debated finding a rope to use as a halter, but then remembered that it spoke to him earlier. So he jammed the stun gun into its neck and pulled the trigger. The horse’s limbs shook and it also collapsed, unconscious.

As both threats were neutralized, it was time to secure them. He rolled the blue woman over onto her front, then pulled her arms behind her back and cuffed her wrists together.

Several sirens began to wail in the background, and they were getting louder.

The officer stood up and looked over the two perpetrators. One was secured, but he had no way of securing the horse. He had to hope that it would stay asleep until Animal Control got there.

"This is going to be one hell of a report to write."

Chapter 3a - Awakening (Ember POV)

Ember awoke to her head pounding, like her brain was demanding to be let out and go for a walk. The throbbing pain was really intense, but it wasn’t the worst pain she had felt. That honor literally fell to the time when she was very young and had fallen down a mountain. On that day, she had flown to the top of that same mountain and had misjudged her landing. Her left wing broke when she slammed into the mountain face, instead of the cave entrance she had been aiming for. And it had been a very long way down.

The dragoness took a deep breath, then groaned aloud. Remembering that childhood mistake wasn’t going to help her wake up. She realized that her throat felt really dry for some reason, and she couldn’t remember when she had gone to bed. Wherever she was, it certainly wasn’t her cave in the Dragon Lands. She was lying on her back on a hard surface, with what felt like a rough pillow under her head. And she had somehow tangled herself up in her blanket.

Before opening her eyes, Ember instinctively sniffed the air. Immediately, she got a whiff of something really nasty. Unwashed animals and the strong scent of urine hit her sensitive nose, so she immediately reached up to cover her muzzle with her hands. But for some reason, her arms were stuck. She struggled and rolled around, but her arms were pinned to her chest and crossed over each other.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a gray ceiling. There was a wall directly to her right, and open space to her left. She guessed that she was lying on the floor, and her first thought was to get up and look around. So she rolled over onto her left side so she could stand up. But when she rolled onto her side, she rolled off whatever she was lying on and began to fall. In her panic, she imagined that she was falling off that childhood mountain again. An instant later, she landed face first on a cold surface. Relief flooded her mind as she realized she wasn’t falling off a mountain, but then her muzzle started to ache. Ember tried to get her arms under herself so she could push off the ground and stand up, but her arms were still pinned to her body. And she realized, her wings were also pinned.

The Dragon Lord realized that she was going to have to stand up the hard way. So she twisted and wiggled her body until she got her knees up under her. A quick shift of her weight back towards her heels, and with a grunt of effort she lifted her body to sit back on her heels. A little more effort, and the dragoness was standing on her knees. Ember paused for a moment to take a breath, then shifted her weight to her left knee. In a quick motion. she pulled her right leg out from under her body and placed that foot on the ground. A shift of weight to her right leg, then a lean forward, and one final push of her leg muscles got the dragoness to her feet. Ember breathed a sigh of relief, then took a look around.

She discovered she was in a small room, and was facing a gray wall. The wall looked like it was made of rock, but it was too smooth and the color was too even. Maybe it was carved out with magic? To her left was a similar wall, with a low shelf maybe two feet off of the ground. On the shelf was a pillow. Ember quickly realized that the shelf was where she had been sleeping. To her right was another smooth, bare wall. A stray thought told her that the room was barely big enough for her to spread her wings open wide. The dragoness rotated in place and expected to see another smooth wall. But instead, she saw metal bars. Imprisoned! She, the Dragon Lord, had been put in a prison!

“Hey!”

No one was visible outside of the bars, just a blank wall and a narrow hallway that went left and right. She could see the end of the hallway on her left, but the hallway continued out of her sight to her right. Ember reached out to grab the bars, but yet again she couldn’t. Her frustration spiked, and she was determined to find out why she couldn’t move her arms.

For the first time since she woke up, Ember looked down at her body. She was surprised to see that she was wearing a white shirt of some sort. As she wiggled around in the shirt, she noted that the fabric felt rough and stiff against her scales. The sleeves of the shirt were really long, and she could feel that they wrapped around to her back when she tugged on them.

Intuition struck: it was no mere shirt, she had been RESTRAINED. Her temper instantly boiled over, and she flexed her powerful dragon muscles against the stiff fabric. With a loud ROAR, she yanked her arms outwards and tore them free from the straitjacket’s embrace! Still raging, the Dragon Lord grabbed the fabric over her chest in her claws and tore it to shreds. The ruined straitjacket fell to the floor, and the dragoness stretched her wings open wide. Oh, it felt so good to close her eyes and stretch everything out!

The dragoness had heard the sound of a door opening in the middle of her invigorating stretch. She opened her eyes to see one of those bald monkeys standing outside of her prison cell. It was dressed in some sort of dark blue clothing. The outfit looked kind of formal, like a uniform. But what did she know about clothes? The only thing she ever wore was armor. The guard had slipped a long stick between the bars, and was trying to poke her with it. Ember knew that a simple stick couldn’t hurt her, but curiosity made her look down at its point anyway. Something was tied to the end, and she saw the electrical arc just before it jabbed into her chest.

A sudden sensation of bees crawling over her scales hit her, and her entire body cramped up. Ember’s legs collapsed from under her, and she fell hard to the floor. The dragoness realized that the feeling was very familiar just as the blackness overtook her mind, and she fell unconscious.

Chapter 3b - Awakening (Limestone POV)

Limestone Pie’s head was pounding, like a dozen miners were trying to pickaxe their way into her skull. She was cold, almost chilled, like something had sucked all of the heat out of her. The floor beneath her was hard and cold, and she couldn’t feel a blanket covering her. And her face felt funny, like there was something on it. Limestone wondered if she had fallen asleep in the mine again.

Then she remembered.

Her eyes snapped open. Then squeezed them shut them again when the pain in her head screamed in protest. When the pain quieted to a dull roar, she slowly and carefully opened her eyes. She saw a gray wall, almost perfectly flat but with a rough texture. It didn’t look natural, no one would take the time to smooth a rock wall like that. And from her point of view, the wall was on its side since she was lying on her right side on the floor. Limestone glanced to her left and only saw a featureless ceiling. From where she was, she couldn’t see anything else. So she decided to get up off the floor and look around. Her muscles were stiff from the cold, so it took a lot more work to stand up than she expected it to. They were so stiff that she guessed she had been on the cold floor for several hours.

There wasn’t much to see, after all. The room was rectangular, with a back wall maybe ten feet wide and featureless gray side walls that were about three times as long as the back wall. The front of the cell - and Limestone knew it was a cell, what else could it be - was made of metal bars covered in a wide metal mesh. There was a metal bar running down the middle and a square box on the right edge. It made sense to her that the door to her cell was on the right, with the hinges in the middle on the metal bar. She was sure she could kick her way out, as only her sister Maud had stronger legs.

Then, there were the strange sounds. She could hear the whine of distressed dogs, and an occasional bark. No voices. There was a hum coming from the ceiling outside her cell, somewhere near the bright lights. And now that she paid attention to it, the whole place smelled like dogs. Dog sweat, dog pee, dog crap. The smell was one of the reasons the mare didn’t like dogs.

Limestone’s nose was suddenly itchy, but when she reached up to rub it she hit something else. Her muzzle felt funny, but she hadn’t paid attention to it until then. Something hard was wrapped around it; the thing sounded like metal when she tapped on it. Strong straps wrapped around her head to keep the thing tight on her muzzle, and she could feel buckles holding the straps in place. They would be nearly impossible to get loose with just hooves. Whatever was stuck on her, it would be staying there until she got some help.

Realization slowly dawned upon her. This thing on her muzzle, WAS a muzzle! Whoever threw her in here had muzzled her! And it was humiliating! Limestone could feel her face reddening in embarrassment, and her temper flared up in a full raging fire.

“GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!”

Limestone ran up to the cell bars, then turned around to kick the lock open. Several well-placed kicks, however, had failed to open the lock. She could feel the metal of the lock bending, so either the lock was stronger then she thought or she had just jammed it shut.

“YOU BUCKING BUCKERS! LET ME OUT OF HERE!”

The mare’s rage focused on the center metal bar of her cage, where she was sure held the secret to escaping. She stomped over to face the metal bar, then turned to buck it with all of her might! She knew she felt the metal give. Four more bucks with her hooves, and she was positive the metal was bending. Soon, she would have her freedom!

Limestone’s right cutie mark suddenly erupted in pain, like she had been stung by a hundred bees all at once. At the same time, the muscles in her body suddenly cramped up and she fell hard to the floor. The stinging sensation continued until her vision narrowed to black and she fell blissfully unconscious.

Chapter 4a - Freedom (Ember POV)

Ember awoke with a serious feeling of déjà vu. She was lying on her back on a hard surface, with what felt like a rough pillow under her head. And she couldn’t move her arms, so she figured that she had somehow tangled herself up in her blanket.

Then she remembered.

The dragoness snapped her eyes open. Just like the last time she awoke in this place, when she opened her eyes all she saw was a gray ceiling. There was a wall directly to her right, and open space to her left. But she remembered that she was on a bed and not the floor, so she knew not to just roll off the edge. Instead, she wiggled her legs around until her feet were off the edge of the bed. Then wiggled some more until she was able to stand up. A glance downward showed that she was wearing a similar white shirt that restrained her arms. But this time, there was a white belt that wrapped around her arms and chest.

Ember frowned at the new addition. The belt was holding her arms closer to her body, but it looked like the same material as the shirt so she figured it would rip just as easily. The dragoness flexed her strong dragon muscles and yanked her arms outwards. But this time, the fabric didn’t tear. She pulled and pulled, but she just couldn’t get free of the shirt. The belts holding her arms must be stronger than she thought. She snorted in frustration, and smoke curled out of her nostrils.

Smoke? Ember would have slapped herself on the forehead if her arms were free. The Dragon Lord sucked in a deep breath, then let loose a torrent of orange flame all over her chest and arms. Of course, dragons were immune to dragonfire so all she felt was a pleasant warmth over her scales. But her restraints were far from fireproof. The sleeves and front of the straitjacket instantly caught fire and burned away. Ember was able to shrug off the rest of the material, like a blanket draped over her shoulders. She stretched her arms out to their extremes, and sighed in relief.

Now to get out of her prison. There was only one way out that she could see, and that was through the barred door set in the middle of the prison bars. There was a metal plate on one side of the door, with a small metal circle at the edge of the plate. To Ember, this was obviously the lock. She stepped over to the cell door, and gave it a few shakes. The lock made some metallic clicking noises as the internal mechanism rattled, but the door itself didn’t budge. She stepped back and gave the lock a hard kick; the rattling noise was louder, but the metal didn’t even bend. The dragoness reached over and grabbed two adjacent bars in the door, and used all of her strength to pull them apart. She could feel the metal flex slightly under her hands, but they didn’t bend.

All of a sudden, a loud screeching sound filled the prison cell! Ember winced at the painfully loud sound, then covered her ears and looked around for the sound’s source. She found it on the ceiling, a small round white box that was extremely loud for its size. She also noticed there was some light smoke around the ceiling. Her eyes quickly followed the smoke downwards, and realized that the shirt that she had burned off was still smoking.

The dragoness guessed that the smoke was why the box was screaming at her, but she didn’t know how to turn it off. Well, there was an easy way every dragon could stop something like that. For the second time that evening, Ember blew out a gout of flame at the noisy box. The screeching sound warbled then shut off, as blobs of something dropped down from the device. The Dragon Lord smirked, quite pleased with her quick-thinking action. But her mood dampened considerably when cold water began to spray down from the ceiling. The deluge of water quickly soaked her and everything else in the prison cell.

The defeated dragoness slouched in the sudden rainshower, and wondered to herself what she had done to be treated so poorly. Her self-pity session was interrupted by a faint rattling sound, one that came from somewhere outside of her cell. At first, the sound reminded her of the rattle her cell door made when she shook it. But when she turned around, there was no one outside the cell. The only thing outside the cell door was a narrow hallway that ended just to her left, but she couldn’t see the end of the hallway to her right. The noise continued somewhere off to Ember’s right, but out of sight from her cell.

Then she remembered the guard and the stick and the stinging from earlier. She deduced that the sound was from another door, and the guard was trying to open it. She had to get out before she got poked with the stinging stick again!

Ember inhaled deeply, then let loose her dragonfire on the cell door lock. But this time, she narrowed her lips which turned the orange flame blue. In mere seconds, the metal plate covering the lock glowed white-hot. A moment later, the metal began to sag. This was the sign the dragoness was looking for. She cut off her flame, then reared up and gave the lock a hard kick! The cell door slammed open and sprayed molten metal all over the far wall. Ember burst out of her prison cell and bolted down the right hallway. She barely registered the bare wall on her left and another prison cell on her right -- but she did see the open door in front of her. A guard was standing in the open doorway, holding a long stick in one of its hands. And it was staring at her with its eyes wide open.

The Dragon Lord put on a quick burst of speed, and tackled the guard just as it was reaching for the end of the stick. The two tumbled through the doorway into the room beyond, and the dragoness made sure that she was on top when the two hit the floor. She straddled the guard’s body while she slammed its head on the hard floor until it stopped moving.

Ember let go of the guard’s head and sat back on her haunches. She watched the guard breathe slowly while she tried to catch her own breath. She idly noted that her position on the guard was much like a sexual position she was fond of. Fortunately, she didn’t feel any big bulges under her tail or the whole thing would have felt a lot more awkward. The puzzled dragoness wiggled her butt around, and was surprised that she didn’t feel any bulges at all. Her curiosity piqued, she leaned over and sniffed at the guard’s exposed face and neck. Three sniffs later, and she was sure that the guard was female. With some creatures it was easy to tell the genders apart by looks, like with the ponies. She had learned that male ponies had a wider muzzle than the females, and adult males were taller than the females. She still had some trouble telling the hatchlings apart, however. But these bald monkeys all looked the same. This guard was wearing the same uniform as the other one, as far as she could tell. Did they all wear the same uniform, or was this the same guard? Ember was sure there was some way to tell the genders apart, but she wasn’t going to stick around and ask them. They’d probably just poke her with another stick and capture her again.

Speaking of pointy sticks, the dragoness looked around for the one that the guard had been holding. She saw it a moment later, some several feet away. With the guard unconscious and the stinging stick out of easy reach, she stood up and stepped away from the guard. Ember was sure that she’d hear the guard if she woke up and tried to get the stick, so she was confident the guard was no longer a threat. She was also pleased that she couldn’t smell blood, so she knew she hadn’t hurt the guard too badly. Probably just have a nasty headache, which suited Ember just fine.

The first thing Ember noticed about this new room was that it wasn’t raining. Everything looked to be nice and dry. She was surrounded by rows of small tables that she thought were called ‘desks’ that stretched out in front of her and to her left. There were four desks in the row that stretched out in front of her, and to her left she counted eight desks in the second row. Each desk was covered in stacks of parchment, and most had a chair behind it with a second chair next to it. Beyond the second row was a large platform that Princess Twilight had called a ‘counter’, though this one was covered in stacks of parchment instead of doughnuts and pastries like the one in the shop in Canterlot. Ember suddenly remembered that the shop was called “Pony Joe’s”.

Suddenly, a set of double doors on the far wall slammed open! Two guards wearing the same uniform as the other one burst through the opening, and pointed these small sticks at Ember. The doors bounced off of the walls and bounced back into the guards, but the two didn’t seem to notice. They both shouted the same phrase at the same time.

“FREEZE! DON’T MOVE!”

The dragoness saw the sticks in their hands, and while they were shorter than the other stinging stick she wasn’t going to take any chances. She reached out to the nearest desk, and used her dragon strength to lift it into the air. Parchment and other items went flying as Ember lifted the desk over her head, then aimed it at the guards! The guards realized what she was about to do, and ran back through the doorway just as Ember threw the desk at them. Luck was with both the guards and Ember; the doors had begun to close after the guards, so the desk hit the doors instead of flying down the hallway after them. When the desk hit the doors, the doors slammed shut and the desk slid up against them. The doors were now held shut by the desk.

Ember stared at the closed doors and couldn’t believe her luck. But as she stared, she heard the doors rattle as they were shaken from the other side. Then she heard a thump, and saw the doors move slightly as the guards rammed the doors from the other side. The Dragon Lord did not trust the desk to hold the guards forever, so she knew it was time to find a way out.

From Ember’s position, the double doors were on the far wall. That wall was lined on both sides with chairs. The walls themselves were covered in paper with pictures and writing on them. To her right was more walls covered in paper, but no windows. To her left was another wall without a window, but on the other side of the counter was a door! The dragoness hoped that it led outside, or at least led somewhere without guards. She ran around the counter and to her left, then came to a stop in front of the door. She looked for a door knob, but didn’t see one. Just a long bar that stretched across the door. She pushed on the door, but it didn’t open. She next tried to pull on the bar, but the door refused to open even though the bar moved a bit. In desperation, she pushed on the bar instead. To her surprise, the door opened! Her nose smelled fresh air past the door, so she pushed the door open all the way and ran through the doorway.

Outside! She was finally free of the prison! The air smelled kinda funny, but it was cool and reasonably fresh and right then it smelled like FREEDOM! Ember continued to run into an open area right outside the doorway. She looked upwards to see if there was room to fly, and there was. The sky was dark but the ground was lit by some sort of lanterns on poles. Her dragon eyes had no issues seeing in the dark of night nor the bright of day, so she quickly unfurled her wings and leapt into the air. The dragoness beat her wings furiously to put as much distance between her and the prison she just escaped from. Farther and farther she flew, until she simply disappeared into the midnight sky.

Chapter 4b - Freedom (Limestone POV)

“WAKE UP, PONY!”

Limestone was dragged out of a bad dream by the sound of someone pounding on the metal mesh in front of her cell. The bluish-gray mare had come to hate that sound. Her jailers did the same thing whenever they brought food or tried to get her to talk. It was so humiliating.

She groaned as she stood up from the ice cold floor. The cruel sleeping conditions always left her chilled to the bone and her body in pain. The food wasn’t any better. Stale hay and rubbery carrots did not make her happy, and they left her feeling queasy afterwards. She tried telling them the food was bad, but these weird monkeys got even weirder whenever she talked. So she decided yesterday to start a hunger strike. Her empty stomach decided to grumble at her, but it was better than feeling sick all the time.

“Come on girl. I’ve got someone who wants to see you.”

The rock farmer rolled her eyes, then slowly walked over to the front of her cell. There were three of the hairless monkeys this time. Two of them were her jailers, but the third she had not seen before. She sat down in front of the metal mesh, then looked up and listlessly stared up at the three. They all stared at each other in silence for a number of seconds, then one of her jailers spoke up.

“Well, say something! You had plenty to say about the food yesterday.”

Limestone did nothing but stare contemptly at him. She absolutely refused to act like a trained animal, so she was determined not to make a sound. The jailer turned to the third man and spoke.

“I’m sorry Rob, she just wouldn’t shut up yesterday.”

“It’s cool. She doesn’t look like a normal pony, does she?”

“No. We’ve been trying to figure out what breed she is, but no luck. Then she woke up and started yelling. And I don’t mean braying, but swearing in English. Freaked us all out.”

“That would be freaky, hearing a pony talk.”

“Yeah, well I figured you knew all about weird cartoon ponies so I called you up.”

The stranger sighed aloud.

“I tell you about a cartoon I liked once, and you never shut up about it.”

The jailer lightly punched Rob in the shoulder.

“What else are brothers for? Besides, she’s got some weird tattoos on her hips that make her look like one of those ponies. She look familiar?”

“I don’t know, I’m not that much into the show any more. But she’s not shaped right for a pony, anyway. Her eyes are way too big and her muzzle is too short. And they normally don’t sit like that. She’s sitting like a cat would.

“And that’s one nasty sneer on her face. Definitely not normal.”

The stranger sighed aloud again.

“Fine, Randy. I’ll take her off your hands.”

Randy pumped a fist in the air.

“Yes! You owe me 5 bucks Joey! You said I’d never get the gray meanie adopted!”

Joey groaned and reached for his wallet, while Randy turned back to his brother.

“Go ahead and head up front, I’ll get her ready for you.”

Limestone watched the monkey called Rob walk away to her left. She wasn’t completely sure what the whole conversation was about, but it sounded like she was going to leave this place with that stranger. Which suited her just fine. Once they got far enough away, she’d escape and start looking for Ember. Then they’d find the local Princess, and hope she could help them find a way home.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her jail cell opening. Randy and Joey carefully walked into Limestone’s cell, and Joey made sure to close the door behind them.

“Alright Joey, let’s take it easy with her. I’m thinking if we both use slip leads on her, that she won’t try and fight us.”

Limestone rolled her eyes. She knew she could take these clowns easy. But then she’d still be stuck in jail, and she didn’t want that. So she calmly sat there while they each slipped a noose around her neck.

“Come on, girl.”

Randy gave his leash a light tug, but Limestone was already getting up to her hooves. The two jailers led her out of her cell and down the hall to the left. They kept pace on either side of her, but kept the leashes loose enough so she didn’t choke. Both males were tense, clearly expecting the rock farmer to cause trouble. She couldn’t help but smirk at their actions, it made her feel proud that they were so afraid of her. The trio walked past about 8 cages on either side of the hallway, not that Limestone was counting or anything. At the end, they turned left; then almost immediately turned right through a set of double doors. This new room was pretty large, with one wall filled with smaller cages and the other wall had large metal tables against it. The smaller cages held cats of different breeds and sizes. There were boxes and animal carriers all around the room, seemingly stuffed anywhere that they would fit. Her jailers kept her moving and guided her through another set of double doors on the far side of the room.

This room was smaller than the last, but had small chairs lining the walls and a large counter just off to her right. But most importantly, the far wall was made of glass windows and it had a door to the outside! Her jailers rounded the counter, and the stranger named Rob was standing there. He glanced over at her cutie marks, and she saw his eyes open just a bit wider.

“So, why two leashes?”

“We thought she’d fight us when we pulled her out bro, but she’s been super calm and stuff. Maybe she knows what’s up.”

“Maybe. I finished the adoption paperwork, my new ‘dog’ is ready to go.”

“Awesome. Want us to help you bring her out?”

“Nah, I think I got this.”

“Your funeral, bro.”

Randy removed one of the slip leads from Limestone’s neck, then handed the handle of the other to Rob. Rob looked down at Limestone, and gave her a warm smile.

“You ready to get out of here?”

Limestone smiled, she was born ready. The two calmly walked to the door, where Rob kindly opened the door for her. They walked outside into a large open area which was covered in some sort of smooth rock. There were several metal carriages lined up in a row on the other side. The sun was low on the horizon and the shadows were long, so Limestone knew darkness wasn’t too far away. A small breeze tousled the mare’s mane as Rob led her to one of the large carriages. He used a key to open a door in the back, then swung it open.

“Up you go.”

Rob’s intent was clear, and Limestone had no problem jumping up into the back. She was standing in a small carpeted area, and there were two rows of seats leading to the front. Rob cleared his throat, and she turned to face him. He let go of the lead around her neck and let the end dangle around her hooves.

“Okay, now that we’re alone I can tell you what’s going on. I know your name is Limestone Pie, you’re sisters with Pinkie Pie, Maud Pie and Marble Pie, and you live on a rock farm.”

Limestone was so stunned, her mouth hung open. After being treated like an animal for the past two days, it was a total shock to hear anypony say her name.

“Wha...but...how?”

“Long story, but we have children’s stories that have talking ponies. One of those stories has Pinkie Pie telling her friends about her life on the family rock farm. She describes you and her other sisters, and your parents too.”

“I don’t.. How could...WHERE THE BUCK HAVE YOU BEEN THE PAST TWO DAYS?!”

“Alright, calm down. My brother just called me this morning, and I’m here now. If he’d called me sooner I would have been here.”

“Grr, alright fine. Can we get out of here? This place gives me the creeps.”

“You got it.”

Chapter 5 - Exploration, and a New Friend (Ember POV)

Ember was finally free of that prison! She celebrated that freedom by flying higher and higher into the cool and refreshing night air. Up and up she went, until the carts she could see on the ground were as tiny as ants. Only then did she halt her ascent and look around.

Overhead, she could see the stars twinkling in the night sky. But no matter where the dragoness looked, she couldn’t find a single constellation that she knew. Ember knew then that she was very far away from the Dragon Lands. Lessons from her childhood came to mind, ones where she was taught how to find constellations in the sky and use them to navigate her way home. But if the stars were all different, how could she figure out how to get home?

The Dragon Lord next decided to look for a castle nearby, or some place that looked like it had a princess living there. She hoped that that princess would help her find where the pony had been dragged off to, and also help them find their way home. So Ember looked down at the ground, and gasped in wonder at what she saw. The Dragon Lands were sparsely lit by the volcanoes there, but she knew the pony lands were mostly dark at night. Not here! This place was brightly lit in comparison; not even Canterlot was this bright at night. A lot of the lights were laid out in a grid, along what she guessed were roads. And she could see lights moving along those roads. She wondered, were those the strange carts that the monkeys rode in?

She was too high up to hear anything, but she wondered if the carts would creak and squeak like the Equestrian ones or growl like the ones she saw when she first arrived. Off to her left, she could see many of those zipping lights going back and forth; but they were going much faster than the ones directly below her. So she decided to fly over and take a look.

Many, many carts raced by at an impossible speed! Five rows wide going both ways, the speeding red and white lights across the roadway amazed the dragoness. She found herself drifting lower to get a better look, and wondered at everything she saw. As she descended, she could hear the growls of the carts as they sped by. She saw lines between the rows of carts, and a short wall that separated the carts going in opposite directions. There were trees framing the gigantic road, and there was a large, curving bridge that let more carts join the race from the other side. As Ember slowly drifted over the freeway, her wings felt the slight increase in temperature and she automatically adjusted for the warmer air. The smell reminded her of a belching volcano near where she grew up, and the memory made her a little homesick. Not that she would admit that to anydragon. Or pony for that matter.

Just then, a huge wagon raced past - one that the dragoness hadn’t seen before. It had a large, curved front and belched hot gasses from two big pipes. Behind the pipes was a large box, easily 4 times longer than the front. Even though Ember was still high above the freeway, the roaring wagon still amazed her. It sorta reminded her of a snoring dragon, with the noise and smoke it spewed into the sky. She cart-watched for a number of minutes, mesmerized by the speeding vehicles, before shaking her head to clear it. Sightseeing was fun, she mused, but she had a princess to find. So the Dragon Lord leisurely floated across the freeway to the other side

Directly beneath the dragoness were some cottages spread out amongst some strange trees, and off to her right were some blue and white buildings that were packed closely together. Farther off to her right were some tall buildings, and behind those she could make out bright lights and noises. Ember’s curiosity won her over, and she decided to check the scene out. But she figured it was best not to be seen doing it, as she didn’t want to be dragged back to that prison again. So the dragoness aimed her flight above the tallest building instead, figuring she could peek down on things from there. A few strong flaps of her wings, and she was able to soar above the tall buildings. However, once there she realized she had three places to spy from; three tall buildings that oversaw the same scene. Her thoughts were frozen in indecision for a few moments, until she realized she could eventually use all of them. So she shrugged and headed to the leftmost building.

Conveniently, there was a large circular clearing on top of the building. And even better, the clearing was marked with the number ‘18’. Ember descended slowly and gently alighted in the middle of the clearing. To her surprise, the clearing was not made of dirt but some sort of rough rock. The Dragon Lord wondered at the mystery, then shrugged her shoulders. It mattered not that they had a suitable dragon landing at the top of the building, only that they had one. She walked to the edge of the landing pad, then used her wings to glide down to the roof’s surface. From there, Ember made her way to the north edge of the building so she could see what was going on.

And there was a lot going on! There were a lot of those hairless monkeys walking around, talking and laughing and having a good time. There were many brightly-lit signs, some that read ‘HHLA’ and ‘Islands’ and ‘Ben & Jerry’s’. A popular place was called ‘Buffalo Wild Wings’. The name made her wonder if the place was run by buffalo, or served cooked buffalo. A green sign said ‘Starbucks’, and she wondered what the deer from the Everfree Forest were doing there. The last sign she could see on her right said ‘Dave & Busters’, which made no sense at all. The monkeys walked in and out of doors beneath these signs, and growling carts went in and out of tunnels beneath them. Laughter and voices drifted up to Ember’s ears, but nothing she heard made any sense. It all sounded like mindless gossip, but they sure seemed to be having fun.

And the smells! Her sensitive dragon nose smelled cooked meat and vegetables all over the place! Different smells came from doors near each sign, which she realized were for different shops. Ember wished she hadn’t used all of her gems at the ‘Food Mart’ earlier, but also realized that she couldn’t visit the shops at all. Not once had she seen another race, only the bald monkeys. This land must not know of Equestrians or dragons, and probably didn’t know Equestrian currency or princesses. If she was seen, she’d probably be poked with those stinging sticks again and dragged back to prison. Nope! She’d have to wait until the shops closed up, then see what she could find.

Ember waited for HOURS.

But finally, FINALLY, the shops closed one by one and the monkeys left in their noisy carts. Many of the lights and signs were still on, but for the most part things were quiet. The dragoness wanted a closer look at things, so she left her rooftop hiding place and flew over to the roof above the ‘Dave & Busters’ sign. And there she waited for her prey. Fortunately, she did not have long to wait. A bald monkey came out of a doorway, pushing a wheeled garbage cart in front of itself. It was dressed in some sort of uniform that she’d seen some of the other monkeys wearing. The garbage can it pushed was full of black bags, but Ember could smell the scent of meat clinging to both the monkey and the bags. The monkey whistled to itself as it pushed the garbage cart past the ‘Dave & Busters’ sign and onto the sidewalk in front of the building. Ember followed the monkey from the rooftop as the creature walked and whistled its way down the sidewalk.

The monkey’s journey took it past a set of moving staircases. The dragoness would have marveled at the amazing feat, but she was too focused on the enticing smell of meat coming from the garbage cart. Farther down, the monkey turned into a large entranceway that Ember remembered said ‘Service Only’. The wheeled cart got louder once in the entranceway, then she heard some other noises and a metallic clang. Shortly afterwards, the monkey wheeled the empty garbage cart out of the entranceway and returned the way it came.

Ember watched the monkey walk away with its cart, then jumped off of the rooftop. Her wings snapped open a moment later, and she deftly flew into the large service entrance. Her flight made no noise as she glided down the wide hallway, then banked left once the hallway ended. She landed near some large metal bins that were full of black bags. She sniffed the air once, then twice. Her third sniff finally narrowed the scent of meat to the fourth bin. Her claws flung the large lid open with a bang, and she leapt into the bin. Her claws ripped through the bag on top to find her reward: flat patties of cooked MEAT! The smell alone set her nerves on fire from the anticipation. The dragoness snagged one lukewarm patty in a claw, then quickly stuffed the meat into her mouth. She moaned aloud in carnivorous ecstasy! Her rump flopped down to sit inside the trash bin while she chewed slowly.

Travis was grumbling to himself as he made his way to the service dock. Sometimes he really hated this security job at the Howard Hughes Center. He didn’t mind dealing with the rowdy drunks, they weren’t so bad once you calmed them down. But the homeless folks could be a real pain. The crazy ones could go into a blind rage when you got too close. The local homeless population had discovered that no one bothered to lock the dumpsters, so they were always coming around and raiding the trash. For some reason, Travis’ boss always picked him to run the homeless folks off. Like now. Someone had heard a loud noise by the dumpsters, and he was told to go check it out.

He slammed open the door leading to the service dock, and saw someone wearing a blue coat sitting in one of the dumpsters. The blue color was unusual, but not the most colorful thing he’s seen someone wear there before.

“HEY! GET OUT OF THERE!”

The homeless person looked up at the noise, then turned to face Travis. The man could see that the vagrant had a burger patty hanging out of his mouth, with both hands full of more patties. The two stared at each other in silence. Travis was surprised, while the bum only looked mildly curious.

‘What the hell is he wearing? Is that a dragon mask? It’s not close to Halloween, so where’d he get it from?

‘Doesn’t matter, he’s gotta go.’

“Beat it! You can’t hang out here and eat the garbage!”

The homeless person threw his face up and tossed the burger patty in his mouth into the air. When it came down, he snatched it out of the air and swallowed it in one piece. Then he turned to Travis and yelled back at him.

“Buck off, buddy! I haven’t eaten all day, and this meat is delicious!”

The bum then stuffed another patty in her mouth and began to chew it.

Travis just stood there, his mouth gaping open. He wasn’t sure anymore what he was looking at. First off, the voice was definitely female. Wouldn’t be the first time he guessed a vagrant’s gender wrong. But that mask was way too realistic. The way she was eating those patties with the mask on...it looked like a real mouth. And the blue on her wasn’t a cloak or a cape, it looked like her skin. And she had claws instead of fingers. What the hell was she? His brain finally unlocked and he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"What...what are you?!"

"I'm Ember, the Dragon Lord! Who the hell are you?"

‘A dragon? No way!’

"I'm...I'm Travis. I'm a security guard here."

"Why do I have to leave, Travis?"

"Um, I'm not supposed to let anyone into the trash. They make a mess and might get sick on the food."

"Well, I'm a dragon and we can eat anything without getting sick."

"Dragon, right. I still can't let you stay here."

Ember rolled her eyes and sighed audibly.

"Fine, I'll go. You're lucky you're cute, for a hairless monkey."

The ‘dragon’ who called herself Ember grabbed two big handfuls of burger patties, then jumped out of the dumpster. To Travis’ surprise, instead of hitting the ground she opened a set of wings and soared down the passageway! She hooked a right at the end and disappeared from the man’s sight. Travis ran after her and out the service entrance, but Ember was nowhere to be seen. He removed his hat, then ran his fingers through his short hair. And wondered what the hell he had just seen.

"I don't know who or what that was, but I'm just gonna report this as a homeless person in the dumpster. Man, what a crazy night."

The rest of Travis’ shift was fortunately uneventful. He clocked out just after 4am, then got into his old Honda and made his way home. While the man wasn’t tired just yet, the lack of traffic at that early hour made the drive home dull and boring. So much so that he barely remembered driving it. He mindlessly pulled into his apartment complex’s underground parking, then turned into his single parking space. As he left his car and walked up to his apartment, his mind was already on the video game he wanted to play. Travis found it hard to fall asleep right when he got home, so he would play a fun yet mind-numbing game until he was ready to doze off.

Travis turned his key in the lock of his door and opened it. Inside he walked, then swung the door closed with a slam. The man didn’t care if he woke up his neighbors, ‘cause they always woke him up in the afternoon when he was trying to sleep. He had just begun to unbutton his work shirt when there was a pounding at his door. Travis growled in frustration, fully expecting to get bitched out by one of his neighbors for making too much noise. But when he opened the door, he saw a certain blue dragoness instead.

"Hi. Can I come in?"

Travis had no answer, he was too busy staring dumbly at her. Who in his opinion, was a lot sexier standing in his doorway then she was dumpster-diving for day-old burgers. But Ember didn't wait for Travis to reply, she just pushed past the male to enter his apartment.

At first glance, the apartment was small and cozy. The front door opened into the corner of the tiny living room. A dingy blue loveseat sat against the left wall, right in front of the door. A beat-up wooden coffee table with glass inserts was in front of the loveseat, and it was covered in game controllers and beer cans. On the opposite wall was a large flat-panel TV mounted on the wall, with a couple of older game systems on the dark blue carpet in front of the TV. Just beyond the TV was a doorway that led to the kitchen, and on the opposite wall next to the kitchen was a tiny hallway that led to the bathroom and the bedroom. The white walls were completely bare of, well anything. But the paint seemed clean enough.

"Eh, kinda a dump don't you think?"

"What? Hey! Whaddya mean, a dump? I--"

Ember interrupted Travis' rant with a smile and a claw over his lips.

"Relax, I'm just yanking your tail. Sure, it's no palace. But I can appreciate a home with just the bare essentials."

Travis was stunned into silence once again, so he did nothing but watch Ember as she walked through his living room and into the kitchen. A few moments later, he heard his cabinet doors being opened, one by one. His brain noted that the kitchen light was off, but the girl didn't seem to have any trouble getting around. Travis suddenly realized he was standing there with his front door wide open, so he swung the door closed. He next heard the oven door slam shut, then heard Ember speak.

"Looks kinda like Sparkle's kitchen. What's this?"

Travis next saw some light appear in the kitchen, which he guessed came from the refrigerator.

"Ooh, nice and cold!

“Is that cow milk?

"Smells like it."

‘Shit! Homeless girl is raiding my fridge!’

Travis made for the kitchen, but the room went dark again. Ember walked back into the living room and nearly bumped into Travis.

"You mind if I have a glass of milk later? We don't get that stuff in the Dragon Lands."

'Dragon Lands? This homeless chick is crazy.'

"Uh, sure."

"Thanks!

"What's down here?"

Ember turned to her right and walked the few steps down the tiny hallway. She looked in the room to the right, which was a small bathroom. The dragoness walked into the bathroom, then almost immediately walked back out.

"What's that room for?"

"Uh, it's a bathroom. You never seen a toilet or a shower before?"

"Nope. Oh, wait. Bath...room! I know what that is now. But why's it called a bathroom if there isn't a bath?"

"I guess it's too small for a bathtub. Most people just use the shower."

"Huh. Then I guess the 'toilet' is where you do your thing?"

"Yeah."

'This is one weird conversation.'

"Hmm. The ponies just squat over a hole in the ground. We dragons just do it over a lava pit and it all burns away."

'Yup, one weird-ass conversation.'

Ember walked into the remaining room, which was Travis' bedroom. This time, he decided to follow her. As he crossed the threshold into the dark room, he instinctively flipped the light switch with his right hand. The Dragon Lord's response was swift.

"OW! BUCK! Warn me before you do that next time!"

"Sorry."

Travis could now see that Ember was standing in front of his bed, which was directly across from the bedroom door. Her back was to him, but he could see that she was covering her eyes with an arm. As he watched, she slowly and gingerly lowered her arm.

"Okay...okay...I can see again. That sucked."

"Said I was sorry."

"It's fine. Now what's in --

"WOAH!"

Travis couldn't help but smile at Ember's reaction. She was staring at a poster on the far wall, a poster of a large red dragon standing over a large pile of gold and bones. (This one: https://annestokes.com/wp-content/uploads/Dragons-Lair.jpg)

"Awesome, ain't it? It's called 'Dragon's Lair', by Anne Stokes."

"Oh, yeah. Sexy, too. He looks so fierce, it makes me feel all tingly."

"Riiiight. Yeah, dragons are awesome."

"We are, aren't we?"

'She's really playing this whole dragon costume thing up'

"Oh...uh, I got a little dragon statue too."

Ember tore her eyes away from the poster and frantically looked around the room for the statue. When she couldn’t find it, she turned to Travis.

"Where?!"

He pointed to his right, Ember's left.

"Over there, on the desk."

The dragoness turned to her right, and as soon as she focused on the desk she quickly walked over. The desk was actually a small table, and contained an open laptop, some disorganized papers and school books, and one nine-inch tall statue of a bronze dragon. (It looked like this: https://www.gothicplus.com/image/cache/catalog/pacificgifts/11544-bronze-age-dragon-statue-650x900.jpg)

"Ooh, he's a cutie."

"Yeah, kinda like you."

'Did I say that out loud?!'

At first, Travis had been weirded out by this weird homeless girl. She followed him home, then just barged her way into his apartment. But while she was acting really weird, she didn't act like she'd been living on the street. She didn't smell bad, for one. He had to admit, she was kinda cute in her own way. Maybe she was some crazy cosplayer or something?

"Cute? Cute?!"

The enraged dragoness roughly put the dragon statue back on the desk, then turned on Travis. Her wings flared out from her sides in a show of force, and she stomped over to the man in a way he found completely adorable. She poked a claw hard into his chest, but not so hard that it broke his skin.

"You take that back!"

While Ember had been close to him before, that was the first time he'd had a chance to REALLY look at her. He'd seen some really good cosplays that one time he went to Comic-Con, but when you got up close you could see all the glue and makeup and all the parts that made up the costume. But this one...this one still looked real this close.

'No way. This has got to be a fake!'

Without thinking, Travis reached out and grabbed Ember's muzzle. Then gave it a tug. He expected her mask to come loose, but it was stuck on good.

"Hey!"

He first turned her head left, then right, and finally up; but he couldn't see the seams in the costume. Nor the paint on the mask, it all looked like real scales.

"Stop that!"

Travis pulled Ember close to himself, so close that they were nearly touching. The dragoness grabbed his arms and tried to push herself away, but Travis held her fast. He peered down at her eyes, trying to see the makeup that blended her eyes into the mask. But it all looked like one piece of flesh, with tiny scales all around her eyes. And he realized, her mask didn't feel like plastic but warm soft flesh. And her breath was hot against his hand.

Eyes wide at his sudden realization, Travis let go of Ember's muzzle. The dragoness took a step back and rubbed her muzzle with a hand.

"What the heck was that all about?!"

"You're real."

"What was that?"

"You're real. A real dragon!"

Ember crossed her arms in front of her chest and smirked at him.

"Well, yeah. What did you think I was?"

Travis was suddenly overcome with emotion, and he reached out under Ember's arms and lifted her up in the air.

"You're real! Dragons are real! Haha!"

"Stop that! Put me down right now!"

"Okay, okay!"

Once Travis had put Ember down, she swatted his arm gently.

"Don't do that again! I'm not good with all that touchy-feely stuff."

"Sure, sure. Oh! You wanted a glass of milk, right? I'll go get it for you!"

Ember watched the crazed human run out of the room, then heard him exclaim "Dragons are real!" She stood there in the bedroom with a bewildered look on her muzzle as she heard Travis run around for a bit, then heard the sound of metal clinking against metal. Then Travis ran around some more. The dragoness stood nonplussed in the bedroom for a while longer until Travis called out to her.

"Come on out here! I've got your milk all ready!”

The Dragon Lord left the bedroom in a bit of a daze. She still wasn't sure what to make of the bald monkey's strange antics, but she had to admit he was pretty cute when doing them. The smell of cold milk finally drew her out into the living room. Once there, she saw Travis sitting down on the loveseat looking up at her with a smile. On the clean coffee table in front of the loveseat was her glass of milk, nice and tall as she liked it. Travis also had a drink, but it was in a bottle with a white and blue label on it. From what she could smell, the bottle had alcohol in it.

"Come on, I don't bite!"

Ember slowly walked over to the couch and picked up her glass of milk. Sure enough, the glass felt nice and cold. When she looked at Travis again, he gave her a wide smile and patted the cushion next to him. The dragoness looked at him warily, then climbed onto the couch but sat on the armrest instead. She took a sip of her cold cow milk, and sighed happily.

"So, what's your name?"

"Ember. I told you that before."

The dragoness took another sip of her milk. The cool refreshing flavor was soothing her nerves from her rough treatment earlier.

"Right, right. And you're from the...Dragon Lands?"

"That's right."

"Can you tell me about the Dragon Lands?"

"Well..."

Ember answered Travis's questions, and eventually asked him about who he was and about his life. The dragoness had another glass of milk while Travis had a couple of beers, and they talked until long after the sun's rays had peeked through the curtains. They had found something in the other that they liked, and became fast friends. When they decided it was time to go to bed, Ember made a nest in Travis's bedroom out of his spare blankets and pillows. In no time, she fell asleep and began to lightly snore.

Travis, on the other hand, was too excited to sleep; there was a real dragon in his bedroom, after all. So he settled for watching Ember sleep for a while. He couldn’t help but smile when her snores turned into soft trilling, and those adorable noises finally lulled him into a deep and peaceful sleep.

Chapter 6 - Family Time (Limestone POV)

“Can we get out of here? This place gives me the creeps.”

“You got it. Careful, I’m closing the door.”

Rob swung the back door down, and it latched solidly with a muffled thunk. Limestone then watched him walk down the left side of the carriage. Rob opened a door on that side, then sat down in front of a round wheel. Afterwards, he spoke to Limestone without turning around.

“This is going to be a bit noisy, but we should still be able to talk.”

Rob reached over to something on the front panel, and did something with it. Limestone nearly jumped out of the carriage when she heard a loud ROAR! The mare ducked down behind the rear seat, convinced that a monster had appeared and wanted to eat her. While the rock farmer huddled in fear, she felt the carriage start to move backwards. It turned to the right, then stopped and began moving forward. After some seconds had passed, Limestone felt the carriage turn right. Its front dipped down slightly, then it stopped. As she hadn’t yet been eaten by the growling monster, Limestone decided to poke her head above the back seat. Out the front, the mare could see other carriages zipping back and forth at some ridiculous speed. Rob was looking left for some reason. But after a few moments, the carriage lurched forward and turned to the right. Limestone wasn’t prepared for the sudden movement and was thrown painfully into the back door.

Once Limestone had regained her balance, she poked her muzzle over the back of the seat again. To her surprise, she saw that they were moving really fast down the road; faster than she had ever seen a carriage move without crashing. But the carriage wasn’t bouncing around like crazy, only little bumps now and then. And the wind wasn’t blasting her in the face, despite the high rate of speed. She wondered how much weird unicorn magic had been put on the carriage. The loud roar had quieted down to a growl, which calmed the mare’s nerves enough to let her think. She suddenly realized that the noise was coming from the carriage itself, instead of a hidden monster. The sound was still unnerving, it made her feel like she was surrounded by wild animals. But she figured she could get used to it.

“You okay back there?”

“Uh, yeah. Just peachy.”

Limestone was definitely not peachy. But despite how freaky the carriage was, she refused to show any fear. After all, everypony knew that crazy magical carriages could sense fear.

“So, we have a bit of a drive ahead of us. You wanna talk to pass the time?”

“Sure, I guess. What about?”

“Well, why don’t I tell you how I know about you and your sisters?”

Limestone and Rob spent the twenty or so minute drive talking. By the time Rob stopped the carriage next to a house, the mare knew a lot of things about these My Little Pony stories. Most of them didn’t make any sense, like what a ‘cartoon’ was. But the conversation made her feel a little better about Rob, so she figured she would stick around for a while. Staying in a house was much better than sleeping in the wild, and Rob had promised to help her get home. The rock farmer had decided to accept his help, but wasn’t sure if she could really trust him.

Limestone was busy looking at the house outside when the roar of the carriage suddenly stopped. She turned in time to see Rob leave the carriage and close the door behind him with a slam. Rob walked around to the back of his SUV, then opened the back hatch to let Limestone out. As soon as the door was open, she deftly jumped down to the concrete driveway.

The man noticed Limestone’s slip lead sitting on the carpeted floor of his SUV, and reasoned that she had removed it sometime during the drive. He knew there was no need for the lead, so he left it where it was and closed the hatch. Next, Rob walked past Limestone and around the other side of the SUV, then stopped in front of a side door of the house. The man thought that calling the door a ‘side’ door was pretty strange. It might as well be called the ‘main’ door, as it was the door he and his family used more than any outside door. But it couldn’t be called the front door as it was on the side of the house. Rob shook his head to clear out his rambling thoughts, then used his key to unlock the screen door. Rob tried the inner door and found it unlocked, so he opened it and walked inside. Next, he turned to hold the screen door open for Limestone. The mare peered inside the house for a moment, then slowly walked inside. Rob then closed and locked both doors behind her.

The side door led into the home’s small combination kitchen and laundry room. Just to Rob’s left was a washer and dryer, both painted an off-white, with a small table set between the two machines. On the far wall were several pastel blue cabinets and drawers for food storage. To the right of these was an opening in the wall that led to the living room. The vinyl floor covering had a yellowish floral pattern, and it gave way to a light tan carpet in the living room. A wooden dining table and chairs could be seen in the living room. The front door was between the dining table and the kitchen. Immediately right of the door was a large white refrigerator, and on the right wall was a sink, stove, a counter and more blue cabinets. A woman was facing the stove, tending to a large pot with steam billowing up from it. The room was filled with the scent of cooking pasta, bubbling tomato sauce and garlic.

“Hey honey, I’m home.”

“I know, I saw you drive up. What did your brother want?”

“For once, he had something important to show me. I’ve brought home a guest, let me introduce you.”

Rob’s wife turned away from the stove to politely greet her husband’s guest. But as soon as she saw Limestone, she recoiled slightly in shock.

“Oh my goodness!”

“This is Limestone Pie. Limestone, meet my wife Dora.”

“Hey.”

“She talked!”

“Yes Dora, she did. She’s a pony that lives on a rock farm, just like the ones on the My Little Pony show. I don’t know how she got here, but she’s real enough.”

“Oh...wait. Your sister is Pinkie Pie?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh goodness, this will take some getting used to. You see, the ponies here are just animals. They don’t talk.”

“Yeah, I figured that out.”

Limestone sniffed at the air, the smell of the food on the stove was making her mouth water.

“What’s cooking?”

“Spaghetti with meatballs, with garlic bread and green beans on the side.”

“Sounds great, I’m starving.”

“You’re just in time then. Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”

“Thanks, Dora. Let me introduce Limestone to the girls.”

Rob turned to the living room and shouted to his children.

“Girls! Daddy has someone he wants you to meet!”

From the other room, Limestone could hear two young voices yell ‘Daddy!’ Hooves stomped across the floor as the owners of those voices ran to the kitchen. Two young monkeys rounded the corner into the kitchen, and came to a complete stop once they saw Limestone. The smaller one was wearing a off-white flowery dress with pink flowers, and the other was wearing a blue shirt and brown pants. While Limestone couldn’t tell exactly how old they were, they seemed mighty young. Suddenly, the girls screeched in happiness as only young children can do.

“You got us a pony, Daddy!”

Both girls ran up to Limestone and fiercely hugged her. Their parents made cute noises at the adorable sight, but Limestone was far from happy.

“Hey! Leggo of me!”

The two girls immediately pulled back, their faces covered in shock and surprise. The taller one turned to her father and spoke.

“You got us a talking pony. Daddy?”

“Not exactly, she’s not a toy to play with. She’s our guest, so be nice to her. Limestone, these are my daughters. The one in the dress is Nancy, she’s four years old. The taller one is Ruth, and she’s six. Girls, this is Limestone Pie. She’s from Equestria, and she’s gotten lost.”

Both girls lit up in glee, and spoke up in unison.

“She’s a My Little Pony! Oh, thank you Daddy!”

“Remember girls, she may be a pony but she’s a person too. Be nice to her.”

“Okay, Daddy!”

“Alright Limestone, go off and play with the girls. Dinner will be ready soon.”

Limestone slowly turned her head to face Rob. Her muzzle was flat and expressionless, yet her eyes burned with anger.

“I hate you. I hate you so much.”

The mare turned and trotted off into the living room without another word.

Dinner was served. The family and Limestone were sitting at the dining table in the living room. The table looked to be made of a darkly-stained wood, with matching chairs and light brown cushions on the chairs. The table was filled with steaming food, most of it in pots sitting on pot holders. Each person at the table had an empty plate in front of them, along with silverware and a tall glass of milk. Rob and Dora sat across from each other, while Nancy sat next to her mother and Ruth was next to her father. Limestone was on the far end of the table next to the young girls. And the mare looked very, very unhappy. Her mane was filled with plastic barrettes and beaded hair ties, with strands of hair sticking out all over.

Rob turned to his daughter and spoke.

“Ruth, pass me Limestone’s plate please.

“Limestone, how much spaghetti do you want?”

“Pile it high, I’m starving.”

“Got it. How many meatballs?”

“Meatballs or wheatballs?”

“Meatballs. With meat. Not your thing?”

“Nope.”

“Okay then, more for me. How much sauce?”

“Drown it.”

“Garlic bread?”

“Yes.”

“Green beans?”

“A little.”

“Okay Ruth, use two hands and be careful.”

Ruth set down a large heaping plate of spaghetti and marinara sauce in front of Limestone. Two pieces of garlic bread sat on the edge of the plate, along with a small pile of cut green beans. The smell of the garlic bread and the pasta made the mare’s mouth water. Her stomach loudly growled, and she was unable to contain herself any longer. So the mare shoved her muzzle in the pile of pasta and began to noisily eat.

Limestone had only gotten a couple of mouthfuls in before the sound of girlish giggles assaulted her ears. She looked up to see what was going on.

“What?”

Nancy pointed at Limestone’s muzzle. “You’re so messy!”

Limestone looked down at her muzzle, which was covered in marinara sauce. The giggles from the girls got louder as Limestone’s eyes crossed for a moment.

“Messy eater! Messy eater!”

“Now, girls. That’s not very nice.” Dora continued to admonish her daughters. “She is our guest, so don’t make fun of her.”

“But Mommy,” Ruth asked her mother, “you tell us to use our forks to eat our food. Why doesn’t she have to?”

“Because she doesn’t have hands, Ruth dear. How is she supposed to hold on to a fork?”

“Oh. But the ponies on the TV can hold onto things with their hooves!”

“True, but that is a cartoon and this is real. She may not be able to use her hooves that way. Now let it drop, and finish your food.”

Limestone had returned to eating her meal, but was still listening to the conversation. She decided not to tell them that she was perfectly capable of holding a fork in her hooves, and had this been a meal with her family she would definitely be using a fork. But she was too hungry to bother with a fork that night.

The room was filled with the sounds of eating, and the young voices of the girls excitedly telling their parents about their day at school. Limestone cleaned her plate (quite literally, she had licked the plate clean) and managed to lick most of the sauce off of her muzzle as well. A napkin had taken care of the rest. While Rob and Dora cleaned the table of dirty dishes, Limestone leaned back in her chair and rubbed her full belly. So much better than rubbery carrots!

Rob and Dora returned to the table with steaming cups of coffee in their hands. Once he had sat down, Rob addressed his daughters.

“Alright girls, what do you want to do now?”

“STORY TIME! STORY TIME!”

“Okay, settle down. What kind of story do you want to hear?”

Ruth pointed to Limestone. “I want a story from her!”

“Ruth, it’s not polite to point.”

“Sorry, Mommy.”

Nancy turned to Limestone. “Can you tell us a story, pwetty pwease?”

Limestone sputtered. “B-but, I don’t know any stories!”

Both girls chimed in. “PLEEEEEEASE!”

“No! My mom was the storyteller of our family, not me!”

“Awwww! That’s not fair!”

Rob interjected before his children threw a temper tantrum. “It doesn’t have to be a fancy story, Limestone. Maybe you can just tell us about life on the rock farm.”

The mare never liked being the center of attention, and thus was feeling very put upon by the family. And she was still really sore at the children for messing with her mane, as well as Rob for making her play with his children. So, she refused to be their entertainment for the evening.

“What’s to tell? We farm rocks.”

“Why farm rocks? They’re nothing special here.”

“That’s just what we do, ROB. Rock farmers farm rocks.”

“Any special kind of rocks?”

“Nope. All kinds of rocks.”

Nancy whined out her frustrations. “Daaaady, this story is booooring!”

Rob wondered why Limestone was so unwilling to talk about her life. She talked just fine in the SUV earlier. But he had two children to entertain, so he changed the subject.

“Alright girls. Maybe we can show Limestone a My Little Pony episode to jog her memory. What episode do you want to watch?

Nancy and Ruth looked at each other, then shouted in unison.

“Hearthbusters! Hearthbusters!”

Rob chucked to himself. The girls never remembered the episode’s name right.

“I think you mean Hearthbreakers. Right?”

His two daughters nodded frantically.

“Excellent choice. Do you remember which DVD the episode is on?”

Nancy looked puzzled, while Ruth excitedly raised her hand.

“I do, Daddy! It’s on the Holiday Hearts DVD!”

“Alright then, go get it and set everything up. We’ll start the episode when everyone is ready. Nancy, please help her.”

Both girls bolted from their chairs and ran over to the bookshelves on the other side of the living room. Rob then turned his attention to Limestone.

“You looked puzzled.”

“Yeah, what the heck is a deeveedee?”

“It stands for ‘digital video disc’. The world here has a way of taking thousands of pictures in a row, then replaying them so fast it looks like it’s one picture that moves. They were originally called ‘moving pictures’, and the name was later shortened to ‘movie’. A DVD is a special way of storing movies so you can look at them over and over.”

“That makes no sense.”

Rob shrugged. “You don’t have to understand how it works, just that it does. See that black rectangle over there, by the couch?”

Limestone turned her head over her right shoulder, and saw the large black rectangle. It stood upon a narrow wooden table against the wall, with a small table in front of it and a dark blue couch behind the tables. While she watched, Nancy picked up a small black box off of the middle table and pointed it at the black rectangle. The rectangle immediately lit up with bright lights, to Limestone’s amazement.

“Uh, yeah?”

“That’s where we’re watching the movie. Why don’t you sit down on the couch with the girls? Dora and I will sit on chairs for now.”

“Uh, okay.”

Limestone climbed down off of her chair and walked over to the couch. A quick hop got her on the couch, then she turned around and sat down on the middle cushion. When she looked up, she realized that the black rectangle (now bright with a strange picture on it), was directly in front of her. While she watched, the picture changed to a red picture with an official-looking emblem of some sort; then it faded away. In its place, several glowing crystals rotated and moved around the screen. A bright white glow took over the picture, and the crystals suddenly formed what looked like two words on the screen. But Limestone couldn’t make out what they said before they disappeared.

The rock farmer was floored. Rob had said the picture would move, but she hadn’t believed him. Who would? A moving picture was just fantasy! But that fantasy was right there, in front of her own two eyes. All she could do was watch and see what happened next.

The screen suddenly went black. Another moving picture slid downwards, and showed a grassy field with fireworks going off. The view began to move forward, and Limestone noticed what looked like bald monkeys standing in the field. Suddenly, a big firework went off which revealed a word that Limestone also had trouble reading. If the mare was amazed before, the realism of the fireworks stunned her. It felt so real! She could even FEEL the explosions in her chest, as well as hear them! And feeling them was the best part!

The picture faded into a white one that had two ponies wearing scarves on it. The one with the white fur and purple mane kinda looked familiar, but she wasn’t sure from where. A song began to play, one which both Nancy and Ruth sang along with.

“My Little Pony...My Little Pony…”

Glowing boxes moved around the screen for a short bit, then stopped. Rob then spoke up behind her.

“Okay Limestone, we’re ready. What we’re going to watch is a 20 minute movie that tells the story of when the Apple Family came to your rock farm to celebrate Hearth’s Warming.”

Limestone spun around and stared at Rob, who was sitting on a chair behind the couch. Shock and a little fear showed all over the mare’s muzzle.

“HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!”

“Like I told you in the car ride home, we have stories about things that have happened in Equestria. Your sister Pinkie, along with her 5 friends, are the main characters. But you and your family are part of the stories, too.

“Now, let’s go ahead and watch the movie. After it’s done, you can tell us what really happened and what didn’t. Okay?”

Limestone found herself speechless, and had to settle for a slow nod. She woodenly turned around and slumped back into the couch. While she watched, the picture first faded to black then opened onto a snowy scene in the clouds. The picture moved downwards to reveal a town covered in snow, with a castle in the background. The scene faded into a room, where Princess Twilight Sparkle and a small dragon were decorating the room for Hearth’s Warming Eve. Soot fell from the unlit fireplace in the background, and a pony popped out to say, “Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve!”

“Wait! That’s Pinkie!”

Rob paused the movie, then answered.

“Yep, that’s her. How does she look?”

“Wow, yeah. She looks like someone made a really good drawing of her, but it’s really her! And it sounds just like her!”

“Yup. How about Princess Twilight and Spike?”

“Spike?”

“The dragon.”

“Oh. Never met him before, but that looks just like the Princess.”

Rob didn’t answer, but simply unpaused the movie. Limestone didn’t interrupt again until Pinkie and the Apples arrived at the rock farm, and the cartoon Limestone appeared.

“Wait! Stop!”

Rob paused the movie, and chuckled.

“Yes, Limestone?”

“That’s...me! How did I get in there?!”

“We don’t know, Limestone. Until I saw you, I thought these were just made-up stories and pictures someone drew. So your guess is as good as mine.”

Rob unpaused the movie. This time, Limestone was quiet until the credits began to roll.

“Is..is that it?”

“Yes, that’s the whole movie. So, tell us - was it real? Did things happen that way?”

Limestone turned first to her left, and saw Nancy looking at her eagerly. She slowly turned to her right, and saw a similar expression on Ruth. The mare sighed, and took a moment to answer.

“All of it. Well, all the parts I was there for. But it’s exactly as I remember it.”

Both girls cheered, and suddenly pounced Limestone in a crushing hug. They pulled back, and Ruth spoke up.

“And you’re just like the show, Limestone! All grumpy and mean but nice too!”

“Grumpy? I’m not grumpy! You take that back!”

Laughter lit up around the room, while Limestone began to seethe. This time, Dora chimed in.

“Please forgive her Limestone, she meant no harm. Now girls, it’s time to get ready for bed.”

Nancy and Ruth whined loudly.

“But we want to watch another episode with Limestone!”

“Now, now. You know the rules. One episode before bed on a school night. And Limestone will be staying with us for a while, so you’ll be able to spend more time with her tomorrow. Go brush your teeth.”

The children chimed up in unison.

“Okay, Mommy!”

Ruth and Nancy got up off the couch and ran into a hallway to the left of the TV. A light suddenly clicked on, and the sound of running water was heard. When giggles came from the hallway, Dora sighed aloud and stood up from her chair.

“I’d better check up on them and make sure they didn’t start another water fight.”

She casually walked into the hallway and disappeared from view. Rob then got up from his chair, but instead of following his wife he walked around the couch and sat down next to Limestone. The mare looked shell-shocked, with a blank look draped over her muzzle.

“You okay?”

“I guess. I’m not sure what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

Limestone waved a hoof at the TV.

“That. The movie we just saw. How did they make it without us knowing? Are they watching us right now?”

“Uh, I hope not. It’d be really weird to find myself in a My Little Pony movie or fanfiction.”

“What’s fanfiction?”

“Uh, stories about Equestria that aren’t made into movies. Just stories to read.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. But about that movie. I don’t know how it happened. Like I said, I thought these were neat stories until I met you. Now, I don’t know what to believe.”

“Are there more stories about me?”

“A few. You first appear as a foal when Pinkie tells the story about how she got her cutie mark. Then there’s this episode. Hmm...I think you appear in a few other movies but none as long as this one. Maud appears a lot more often since she moved to Ponyville. A lot of the movies happen there.”

“Oh. And her new coltfriend?”

“Mudbriar?”

“Yup. Answers that question.”

“He first appeared when Maud met him and Pinkie got jealous. Then she went back to the rock farm for a while.”

“I remember that.”

“The girls will probably want you to watch those episodes with them, so you can tell them if it’s real or not.”

“Yeah, about that. You know I’m not a foal, right? I’m nineteen, and I’m not good with foals.”

“I know you’re not a foal, Limestone.

“Alright, look. It would really help me out if you could help entertain the kids. I’m doing you a favor by feeding you and helping you find a way home. Can you help me out?”

Limestone growled under her breath. She could look for Ember on her own, but the food was good and this would be a warm place to sleep.

“Fine.”

“The help would be appreciated, especially when our girls get home from school. As you’ve seen, they can be quite the handful. Or hooffull, in your case.”

Right then, Dora walked back into the living room from the hallway and declared that the girls were finally in bed. She made her way to the one empty spot on the couch on the other side of Limestone, then sat down.

“Those hair ties look uncomfortable. I’m surprised you haven’t taken them out already.”

“I tried, but they won’t come out!”

Limestone tried to grab a barrette between her hooves, but she couldn’t open it and she couldn’t pull it free.

“Argh!”

“Here, let us help.”

In short order, Rob and Dora had unclasped all of the barrettes and untwisted the hair ties from Limestone’s mane. The mare then ruffled up her mane and got it looking decent within a few shakes.

“Oh hey hun, I agreed to help Limestone here find her way home.”

“That’s nice of you Rob, but how are you going to do that? Equestria isn’t on this planet, and we have no magic to search for it.”

“Someone will come to rescue her eventually. I figured I’d keep an eye out for her rescuers and lead them here.”

“Makes sense. Where will you start looking?”

“I’m not sure. If they get caught and sent to the pound, my brother will tell me. Maybe I can look around the place where Limestone first entered this world.

“Where was that, Limestone?”

The rock farmer was still distrustful of these bald monkeys, so she wanted to keep Ember a secret. And telling them about the fight with the carts and the donut shop would lead them to Ember, so she decided to lie. It never occurred to the mare that lying would make it harder for her to get home.

“Oh, uh...I was hit by a spell and when I woke up, I was in a forest. I ran around for a while until I got captured and put in that prison you found me in.”

“Strange. My brother said you were captured at a gas station, trying to steal some food. And there was some woman in a blue costume with you. Then he said something about the blue woman having a flamethrower. That sounds like a dragon to me, so I’m guessing Dragon Lord Ember came here with you?”

Rob looked down at Limestone, in that way parents look at their children when they have been caught in a lie. The mare couldn’t stop herself from blushing, she knew she had been busted.

Rob paused for several seconds to let the rebuke settle in.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll still help you, of course. When you decide to help me help you, let me know. In the meantime, you can stay with us as long as you need to.”

Limestone squirmed under the two human’s pointed stares. So she did the only thing she could think of: she faked a huge yawn.

“Oh, I’m soooo tired. Got a bed I can sleep in?”

Rob looked at Dora and rolled his eyes, and Dora hid a laugh behind her hand.

“Alright sweetie. We have a spare bedroom for guests that you can sleep in. Follow me.”

Dora stood up and walked back into the hallway, followed closely by Limestone. But when Limestone entered the hallway, she stopped and turned to look at Rob. He returned her look with a smile, and wished her goodnight. The mare paused a moment longer, then turned to follow Dora who was waiting just past the open bathroom door. Dora led her to a small room that was not much bigger than the twin-sized bed that sat inside. The bed was covered in a soft-looking teal comforter with a single teal pillow. The carpet was still the same light tan as the living room and the hallway. There was a small nightstand next to the bed, which held a small lamp. The walls held a couple of small paintings, but the rest of the room was bare.

“Here you go. Just let us know if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

Limestone trotted to the side of the bed, then hopped on to it. She wriggled under the covers, then looked over at Dora. The woman smiled, then flicked the light switch and plunged the room into darkness. She then turned and walked away down the hallway. If Limestone cared enough to guess, she would guess that the woman was going back to the room with the couch and the magic black movie box.

Despite what she had said earlier, Limestone wasn’t actually tired. She just wanted to get away from that awkward conversation. She lay there in bed for a long time, her thoughts going back to all the craziness that happened since she arrived in this strange land. And wondered whether she would ever get back home again. Eventually, sleep claimed her.

Chapter 7 - (S)Lay the Dragon

Travis was having the best day of his life, he was sure of it. After he woke up that afternoon and saw Ember was still in his bedroom, he called in sick to work that evening. The night after that was his normal night off, so he had two whole days to spend with the cute dragon. He giggled internally at the thought of the word ‘dragon’. An actual, bona fide real dragon! And even better, she wasn’t bloodthirsty like the ones he had read about. She was his size, and she thought he was cute!

Right at that moment, Travis was playing one of his favorite games: Spyro the Dragon. Ember had picked the game for him to play, but after the first ten minutes she stopped asking questions about it. They were both sitting on the loveseat, him on the left and the dragoness on his right. Which was awesome, in his opinion. However, she looked like something was bothering her but couldn’t make up her mind about it. He had caught her reaching out to him several times, but she always snatched her hand back before she thought he noticed. From past girlfriend experience, Travis knew better than to push her before she was ready. So he just left her to it. In the meantime, he kept playing his game.

Ember couldn’t make up her mind how she felt at that moment. She had followed Travis home last night because she thought he was cute. Finding out that he had an obsession with dragons was a nice bonus. And earlier that afternoon, she realized that she was crushing on him pretty bad. There was something about the bald monkey, the ‘human’ as he called himself, that appealed to her. If he had been a dragon, she would have known exactly what to do. They would have fought until one was defeated or surrendered, and the winner would dominate the other until they were satisfied. For Ember, who always won, that usually meant rutting the male until he passed out from fluid depletion.

But this male, this Travis, she didn’t want to dominate. She wanted him, she NEEDED him, but she didn’t want to destroy him. For the first time in her life, she wanted to touch a male instead of punch him. To have him hold her gently rather than beat her senseless. And to give him pleasure instead of taking it for herself. It was so un-dragonlike! And on top of that, she would have to TOUCH him! She did NOT do the touchy-feely stuff! But, a part of her wanted to touch him SO bad. The indecision was making her miserable.

Ember had caught herself reaching out for his leg several times that day. But each time, she managed to snatch her hand back before he noticed. Or at least, she didn’t think he noticed. She was sure he would have teased her mercilessly if he had - that’s what dragons do, after all. She was sitting to his right on this soft and comfy ‘love seat’, as he had called it. Just the name made her want to blush with the implication. But the thought enticed her as well. If...if she couldn’t touch him just yet, maybe she could sit a little closer?

The dragoness leaned forward, and flipped her tail from her left side to her right. She had put her tail between the two of them as protection, in case he tried to get closer to her. But that wasn’t her plan any longer. She almost held her breath - she was unprotected, and the male might take advantage of her. But she waited. And waited some more. Finally, Ember let out a quiet sigh of relief. Travis was too absorbed into his game to notice her vulnerability. She wasn’t quite sure what she would have done had he noticed, hopefully something more than freeze up. But regardless, it was time to make her next move.

Ember pushed her hands down on the soft cushion, and inched just a bit closer to the human. She snapped her arms up to her chest, expecting him to lash out. Yet again, her fears were unfounded. She felt so nervous, she could hear her blood pounding in her ears. But something inside her pushed her to continue. The dragoness was so close to Travis that she could barely fit her hand between their legs. But she had to try. So she reached out and set her hand as close to the male’s hip as she dared. Then inched closer, so close she could almost feel his body heat.

But then, disaster struck! As Ember pulled her hand back, she brushed up against his blue pants. He had to have noticed that! The dragoness leaned away from Travis and steeled herself for a blow. But the blow never happened. Once again, he didn’t seem to notice. How had her luck held for so long?

Travis was staring at the TV, but his focus was fully on the dragon sitting next to him. He’d felt every little shift she made, and definitely felt her hand brush against his jeans. Her antics had turned him on something fierce, and his member was getting mighty uncomfortable. If she didn’t make her move soon, he’d have to adjust it. And he was sure that if he moved she’d freak out and run. So he’d just have to put up with his semi stiffy for a little while longer.

Ember felt like her whole body was shaking. She was so close to what she wanted, and what she also feared so badly. She wanted to run, to escape somewhere safe and calm down. But she also knew if she ran, she’d never get her courage up to try again. So she had to push on.

Her left hand was in her lap when she made her last push. She felt her shoulder touch his, and the bare flesh of his upper arm rested up against her scales. The dragoness had swum in boiling lava, and yet his body heat burned hotly against her flesh. Part of her realized that Travis still hadn’t reacted to her touch. But the rest of her was too wound up to think about it. She only knew that she had the physical touch that she both craved and despised, all at once. And worse, she wanted MORE.

It was a small movement, but yielded so much. The dragoness moved her left leg just enough to rest her thigh against the male’s. His flesh was covered by the coarse fabric, but to her it was ELECTRIFYING. She glanced up at his face, but he was not looking back. It was as if this ‘game’ had drawn him in and blocked everything else out. So she dared to take one, final step. One that she dreaded to take, that he just couldn’t miss. But the desire for his affection burned hotter than her fears. Ember lifted her left hand from her lap, and slowly, shakily, moved it over the human’s thigh. Her heart pounded in her throat and she started feeling lightheaded, as she leveraged all of her draconic bravery and willpower. Her hand shook for a moment as it hovered over the male’s thigh, then she let her arm drop so her hand slapped gently against his denim-covered flesh.

Ember’s eyes were wide open in anticipation and fear. She could feel her vision darken around the edges as she awaited his reaction. What would he say? What would he do? Would she get what she desired, or lose it all? She had to know if he noticed. The dragoness slowly turned her head to look at his face, fearing the worst.

But what she saw instead, was a warm smile.

"Took you long enough."

"Huh? You-you knew?"

"Yeah, the whole time. But you looked like you needed to do it yourself, to know that you really wanted it. So I waited."

Ember felt the tension leave her body all at once, and it left her feeling cold. She leaned into Travis’ body, desperate for his body heat to keep her warm.

"R-really?"

Travis pressed a button on his controller, and the Pause Menu popped up on the screen. He turned to look Ember right in her eyes, and his soft smile warmed her all over.

"Really."

Ember felt her face flush under her scales, and she could feel herself smoldering at the male. Yet as soon as his hand touched hers, that small flame ignited into a searing blast. Travis curled his fingers around Ember's hand, and gave it a light squeeze.

"And I like it. I like it a lot."

Her body felt like it was baking in a blazing inferno of emotions. She felt hot, really hot, and felt a familiar tingling down in her nether regions. Impulsively, she darted over and kissed Travis on his lips. As she tasted him for the first time, she felt the burning heat turn into a hot glow that filled her up all over. She swore that she was melting in his heat.

At last, she broke the kiss. She slowly opened her eyes to see surprise on Travis’ face. But the surprise vanished quickly as the corners of his mouth turned upwards. Suddenly, the male leaned down and returned her kiss with a passion that both surprised and pleased her. That hot glow rekindled into a burning flame, and she realized that she needed this male NOW.

In one fluid motion, Ember stood up and straddled Travis so her groin pressed up against his. She began to grind herself back and forth across his zipper, quickly coating the fabric in her fluids. Travis recovered quickly, and reached up to pull her into a rough and passionate kiss. The dragoness broke the kiss and growled fiercely at the man.

“Lose the pants or I’ll do it for you.”

Ember flexed her sharp claws for emphasis. Travis was no fool, so in a flash he unbuttoned his pants and unzipped his soaked fly. The dragoness lifted her hips just enough for him to push his jeans and underwear to his knees, and his turgid cock popped out to slap against his belly. Her spicy scent was everywhere, and he could feel himself get rock hard almost immediately.

Ember reached down to grab his member in her right hand, and quickly aligned herself over it. She eased the head between her outer lips, and gasped sharply at the jolt of pleasure it caused. The dragoness slowly let her legs relax, and let out a guttural moan as his length slowly slid into her deepest depths. She could feel his oddly-shaped member pressing against her insides in all sorts of new ways, and it made her want him MORE. Ember looked down at him with a fiery passion in her eyes, and found the same passion burning back at her. In a well-practiced move, the dragoness pulled up off of his lap until his head was all that remained. She slammed back down and took him fully again, the pulse of pleasure nearly driving her mad. As she began to ride the male and his alien cock, she felt the heat deep within her begin to burn hotter.

Travis gasped aloud as Ember sank down onto his cock. The back of his mind noted that, while she felt like the other women he’d been with, she somehow felt different at the same time. Better. And hotter, too. The male groaned aloud as he felt his bare hips meet hers for the first time. She felt so good around him, that she could have just sat there and he would have been in heaven. He felt a burning desire to look up at her, and caught her just as she locked eyes with him. His heart caught in his throat as he saw her need, along with her hot fiery passion for him. His heart surged as his loins ached for more. Then, the dragoness began to move. She lifted herself off of him, slowly exposing his wanton flesh to the cooler air. He was filled with an intense urge to be inside her again, but he knew this dance well; he just had to wait. Just before she released him fully, she slid back down his length and gave him what he desired. Ember began to ride Travis in a rhythm as old as time, and they both gasped and moaned in their shared pleasure.

Ember’s hips wetly slapped against Travis again and again, sending shivers of pleasure through both of them. But Ember wanted more. That wonderful alien cock made her feel SO good, and was touching her in all the right places. Well, almost. There was one amazing spot that he wasn’t quite hitting right, but Ember knew how to fix that. She slowed down and took shorter strokes, keeping him deep inside yet still rubbing up inside of her. She leaned her body backwards, and placed her left hand back on Travis’ thigh. Her other hand followed the first, leaving the dragoness leaning back and pressing his cock against her inner walls. She began to pump longer and faster, the turgid member inside of her finally rubbing up against her sweet, sweet spot. Each touch sent jolts of pleasure up and down Ember’s body, and she moaned aloud in ecstasy. Yet she knew this was just the start of the lava flow, she could get more out of this male.

Ember inched her hands back along her lover’s thighs, pressing his engorged tip harder and harder against that electric spot deep inside. Her alien lover moaned in time with her, the extra friction dragging his pleasure to new heights. But still, she wanted more. She reached back with her right hand and placed it on his knee. But as soon as she put her weight on that side, her hand slipped off his knee. Her eyes wide in panic and pleasure, the dragoness began to fall.

Travis felt his cock rub up against Ember’s inner walls as the dragoness leaned back. He’d never had a lover do that before, but he was quickly becoming a fan of it. Suddenly, he felt her hand slide off of his knee and sensed her begin to fall off of him. He reached up to grab her arm, but they were behind her so there was nothing to grab on to. As she fell further and began to slide off his stiff rod, he knew he had to go with her or they’d both be hurt. Time began to slow as he sat up as fast as he could. But she was falling faster then he could move, and he realized that she was going to hit her back on the corner of his coffee table. Well, he couldn’t have that happen. Somehow, he knew just what to do. He lifted his right hip up off of the loveseat, which pushed Ember away from the coffee table. He then shoved himself off the loveseat and followed Ember to the floor. The dragoness landed on her back with Travis right above her, and his momentum slammed his still hard cock back inside. Their hips fiercely met, and they both gasped as a strong bolt of pleasure spiked through them once again.

They panted breathlessly on the floor for several moments while they recovered from their sudden fall. Travis pulled himself up to his elbows, which let the dragoness breathe easier. Ember looked like she was about to say something, but Travis cut her off with a kiss. As they broke it off and looked into each other’s eyes, he whispered down at her.

“My turn.”

Travis pulled his hips back, then slammed them home. Ember could only gasp aloud. Within a few strokes, he had found his groove and pistoned himself in and out of his dragon lover. She wrapped her arms around his torso and held him close while she cried out for more. Their euphoria grew and grew as Travis pounded Ember, and he felt her breath coming out in short little gasps. He felt he was getting close, so very close. But he had to make sure Ember hit her peak first. Suddenly, Travis was there. He was almost hanging over his edge, when he felt his lover quivver underneath him.

Ember inhaled sharply, then let out a loud, guttural moan that was almost a scream. The intensity of her orgasm made her fling her arms out to her sides and dig her claws deeply into the carpet. Travis could feel her inner walls convulse around him, and the feeling kicked him violently over his edge. He breathlessly let out a silent scream as he came inside of his dragon lover. His turgid member pulsed as he splashed her insides with his hot seed. Suddenly spent, the man collapsed onto the dragoness as their bodies trembled together in their shared afterglow. They lay there, entangled in each other’s arms, while they recovered.

The dragoness gave Travis a tender lick on his cheek, and she felt his flesh crinkle in a smile. He propped himself back up on his elbows as he slowly softened inside of her, and gave her the same warm smile that set her off earlier. But before he could speak, Ember beat him to it.

"That was fun, but awkward. And quick."

"Give me a few minutes, and we can go again."

“So soon? You monkeys are awesome.”

“Heh. Monkey. I can deal with that for dragon pussy.”

Ember poked Travis in his chest, but did so with a smile on her face.

“You better.”

The dragoness went silent for a moment, and a blush stole over her cheeks.

"A little slower, next time? I really want to enjoy it."

"Absolutely."

Chapter 8 - Rescue

Over the 405 freeway, not far from where Ember and Limestone Pie had arrived, an empty space above the pavement began to slowly warp and ripple. At first, the effect was barely noticeable to the cars that sped by. They were distracted, after all. Many of the drivers were leaving work, and were tired after a long day. Others were heading to work and were still waking up. So one could forgive them for not noticing the effect in the air that warped the late afternoon sun. All of a sudden the ripple darkened, then OPENED.

Two purple ponies jumped out of the portal and landed deftly on the concrete. The darker one had a set of saddlebags on her hindquarters, the flaps of which showed her cutie mark of a star surrounded by five tiny stars. The other, lighter-colored mare had a cutie mark of a purple and white star with two blue streams leading up and away from the star. Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer took a moment to look around and see where the portal had left them.

“Exactly as planned, Starlight--”

“LOOK OUT!!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Both mares disappeared in a burst of teleportation just before an SUV blasted through the spot they had been standing in. They appeared about fifty feet in the air, directly above their starting point. In a move that would make Rainbow Dash proud, Twilight immediately snapped her alicorn wings open and easily hovered in the air. Unfortunately, Starlight was only a unicorn and began to plummet back to the pavement below. Her screams echoed through the air as she fell. Abruptly, Starlight’s screams were cut off. The mare slowly floated back up to Twilight’s side, held aloft in a field of Twilight’s magic. The alicorn lifted an eyebrow at Starlight’s antics, and the former villain grinned sheepishly in response. A moment later, Starlight’s horn lit up. The dark pink magic that surrounded the mare changed into a light teal as Starlight’s levitation spell took over.

“Hehe, Sorry. Panicked.”

“So did I, Starlight. But you need to react faster than that. If we had split up, you could have been hurt.”

Both mares looked down at the roadway beneath them, and the speeding vehicles zipping by at an almost unbelievable speed.

“In this case, EXTREMELY likely to be hurt.”

“I can see that. Thanks for saving me, by the way.”

Twilight’s mouth widened into a warm smile.

“Of course. But no skipping Rainbow Dash’s speed lessons anymore.”

Starlight facehoofed, then groaned aloud.

“Her lessons would have really helped you here--”

“Yes, yes, Twilight. I will take her lessons more seriously from now on.”

“That’s all I ask. Now, let’s find Ember and Limestone.”

Starlight Glimmer closed her eyes for a moment, then cast her locator spell. Two beams of teal light shot out from her horn, and pointed in two directions.

“Huh. Looks like they split up for some reason.”

“Maybe they got separated?”

“Maybe. I wonder, which one is closer?”

Starlight concentrated for a moment, and one of the beams of light disappeared.

“There’s your answer, Twilight.”

“Perfect. Off we go!”

Starlight began to float off across the freeway, while Twilight flew by her side. The two followed the beam of light as they crossed over the freeway and began to fly across a residential area.

Both Twilight and Starlight stood in front of a door to a house, but had yet to knock on it.

“Are you sure this is the right place?”

“Yes, Twilight. You saw for yourself that the spell pointed at this house every time we circled it. All ten times.”

“I know, I know. I just want to be extra sure that we have it right.”

Starlight rolled her eyes and knocked her front hoof on the door. After a few moments, the two heard some metallic clanking noises as somepony unlocked the door. It swung open, and a woman wearing a blue summer dress stood in the doorway. The mares’ heads only came up to the woman’s waist, and they gaped in wonder and surprise as they looked up and up and UP. The woman looked confused for a moment, until she looked down at the mares. Twilight barely recognized the woman as a human before she spoke.

“Oh! More ponies! You must be here for Limestone.”

Starlight opened her mouth to reply, but Dora had already turned back inside the house.

“Limestone, your friends are here!”

The sound of hooves galloping across the floor were heard. Then a gray streak dove out of the doorway and huddled at Twilight’s hooves. The alicorn looked down and recognized Limestone Pie immediately. She was surprised to see Limestone’s mane and tail braided, and both were full of colorful clips and ribbons. The rock farmer looked up at Twilight, and she saw that the mare’s face was covered in badly-applied makeup. Twilight was suddenly reminded of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ early attempts with makeup; it was that bad.

Limestone’s eyes began to tear up as she wrapped her forehooves around Twilight's neck.

"Save me! Save me, princess!

“Save me from THEM!"

"Now now, my daughters aren't THAT bad. Would you two ladies like to come in for something to drink? Perhaps tea or coffee?"

Twilight’s eyes went wide, and she smiled at Dora.

“Ooh, I would love to have some tea!”

Dora turned to Starlight.

“Coffee for me please.”

Dora backed up out of the doorway and held the door open for her new guests.

“Certainly! Please come in.”

Twilight picked Limestone up in her magic and quickly trotted into the home, with Starlight following close after. Limestone’s panicked eyes were the last thing to be seen before the door closed after her.

As twilight gave way to evening, in an apartment not too far away, Travis and Ember were cuddling on his loveseat. Travis was dressed in his usual pants and a t-shirt, while Ember was wearing one of Travis’ t-shirts that he hadn’t washed yet. She said it was because the shirt smelled like him, so who was Travis to disagree? The dragoness had even managed to tuck her wings under the shirt somehow, instead of ripping them through. An empty pizza box sat on the coffee table next to a couple empty beer bottles and a mostly empty glass of milk.

As usual, Travis was holding on to a game controller while he played a video game. The dragoness suddenly smirked up at the male, then grabbed the controller out of his hands in a claw. For some reason, Travis didn’t resist; he only smiled. Ember casually tossed the controller away, then snaked her way up to straddle her man’s lap. She placed her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes until she had his attention. The dragoness then leaned down to kiss Travis hard on the lips.

The male leaned up into the kiss, then slid his hands over her warm thighs. Their kisses became more passionate once he slid his hands over her scaled buttcheeks, and gave them a tender squeeze. The two began to pant between their impassioned kisses. Ember reached down to tug Travis’ shirt upwards. Her claws slid under the material, and came to rest up against his chest. The dragoness began to slowly buck her hips against her lover, telling him without words that she needed him and she needed him NOW.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

Ember broke the kiss and pulled away, a thin line of saliva briefly connecting the two. She tugged Travis’ shirt up, and the man lifted his arms up into the air to help her out. The dragoness flippantly tossed the t-shirt behind her, then leaned down to his chest and wrapped the tip of her tongue around a nipple. Travis gasped, then slid a hand behind his lover’s head.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

“Hello? Anyone home?”

Ember growled softly as her annoyance grew. She leaned back while still straddling Travis, tucked her muzzle and horns through the neck of her t-shirt, then grabbed the material with two claws and lifted it off of her body. Now naked in front of her lover, she tossed the t-shirt over her shoulder and leaned down to kiss him again.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

“Are you sure she’s in there?”

“Absolutely. Maybe she’s asleep?”

Ember snarled in anger, and pushed herself off of Travis’ lap. She stomped over to the front door, turned the handle and yanked the door open just enough to see outside.

“GO AWAY!”

“Oh! We’re so sorry. We’re looking for a dragon named Ember.”

“What?”

The dragoness finally focused upon the intruders, and saw three ponies standing there. She recognized Princess Twilight Sparkle and Limestone, who was standing behind the princess, but the third pony was a stranger. Actually, the dragoness realized the third pony was nearly identical to Princess Twilight; so much so that if she had met the strange pony alone, she would have thought she WAS the Princess. Ember opened the door all of the way, revealing herself to the visiting ponies.

"Princess?! How did you get here?"

“Well, after dealing with Draco it was a simple matter of tracing yours and Limestone’s magical signatures. Since it had been less than twenty-four hours since you disappeared, I was able to use Star Swirl’s ‘Where Did They Go’ spell and determine your eventual destination. Unfortunately, we discovered that you had not only been sent off-world, but to a different dimension altogether! For that reason, it took much longer to calculate a safe way of traveling here AND a way of getting back. Without careful study, Starlight and I might have been trapped in this world like you--Hey!”

Starlight had bumped Twilight with her shoulder to interrupt her, then gave her a knowing stare until Twilight got the hint. The alicorn pulled back slightly, and gave a sheepish grin to both Starlight and Ember. Limestone merely facehoofed.

“Sorry, sorry!

“So! Are you ready to go home, Ember?”

Ember stared at the ponies for a moment, until the question sank in.

"Oh. Yes, of course. Give me a moment."

Ember then slammed the door in the ponies’ faces.

Twilight and Starlight reeled back slightly, then turned to look at each other with surprise all over their muzzles. Twilight reached up to knock on the door once again, but was interrupted by a loud moan coming from inside the apartment.

“What was that?”

Starlight blushed slightly.

“Uh, I’m not sure.”

Both mares leaned in to press an ear up against the door. They quickly heard a rhythmic noise, the unmistakable sound of two bodies slapping together in an act of passion. Twilight immediately pulled back from the door, a hot blush rushing over her muzzle. Starlight stayed however, and grinned devilishly while she listened. Another, louder moan could be heard from inside the apartment. Twilight used her magic to create two ear plugs, and popped one inside each of her ears. Limestone merely rolled her eyes and looked impatient.

After a short time, two screams could be heard. Then some unidentified bumping and clunking. Suddenly, the door flung itself open and Ember was standing there. Her eyes were wide open and was panting heavily, clearly trying to catch her breath.

“Ready!”

Twilight stared up at Ember, and was desperately trying to ignore the smells rolling off of the dragoness. Had she looked, Twilight would have seen Starlight with a wide grin on her muzzle. Behind the pair, Limestone grimaced and waved a hoof in front of her nose. Twilight made the ear plugs disappear, then stammered out a reply.

“Of-of course! Get ready, Starlight.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer both lit their horns. Starlight reached out to touch Ember’s leg, while Twilight reached back to touch Limestone’s foreleg. The two magical mares touched forelegs, and a purple glow surrounded them all. In a bright flash, all four Equestrians disappeared.

They reappeared inside Twilight’s Castle inside the Throne Room, off to the side of the Cutie Map table. It would have been a horrible shame if Twilight and Starlight had miscalculated and appeared INSIDE the table, of course. Starlight looked over to the table a scant few inches to her left, and let out a sigh of relief.

“You’re back!”

Ember turned to see both Princess Celestia and Luna standing on the other side of the Cutie Map table. In front of them was Spike, who had spoken, and was smiling widely while he held on to the Bloodstone Scepter. Princess Luna walked around the table to Ember, and bowed briefly before her.

“Well come, Dragon Lord Ember. We apologize for thy unintended journey, and hope that you were not unduly troubled.”

Luna turned to Limestone Pie, and smiled.

“And to you as well, Limestone Pie. We have a chariot ready to return thee to thy home as soon as thou art ready.”

The midnight blue mare sniffed the air, then took another, deeper sniff. She then turned to Ember with a knowing smile on her muzzle.

“It seems you had a good time while you were gone."

Ember blushed furiously, the red stain of embarrassment easily visible beneath her blue scales.

"Um, Twilight - got a lava bath I can use?"

"No need, Dragon Lord."

Luna’s horn briefly flashed with magic, and Ember was left feeling clean both inside and out. Everypony (and dragon) sniffed the air, and all but one gave a quiet sigh of contentment. Starlight just pouted instead.

"Oh, that works too."

Princess Celestia and Spike had followed after Luna, and had joined the others on the far side of the Cutie Map table. Spike waved a claw in front of his nose, and complained loudly.

“Eww, what was that smell?”

“Uh...Ember just fell in some mud in the other dimension, Spike.”

“Weird. Didn’t smell like mud, Twilight.”

“Um, yeah. We’re not sure why it smelled that way either.”

Spike looked up to Ember for a better explanation, who had nothing better to say.

“Well, that part was kinda messy. But I’m gonna miss it too.”

Luna looked askance at the dragoness, but said nothing.

“Oh hey, is that my Bloodstone Scepter?”

“Oh, yeah! I was holding on to it for you, so no one could take it!”

“Thanks Spike, you’re the best.”

“Aw, shucks.”

Spike handed the Bloodstone Scepter over to Ember. As soon as she touched the scepter, licks of red flame rolled all over her body to establish Ember as the owner of the scepter once again.

“Anybody see my armor? It didn’t travel with me to the other world.”

“We have it here, fair Ember. Our guards were able to retrieve it after Draco departed.”

“Oh yeah, him. How did that work out?”

“It was a long and drawn out fight, where neither side was able to gain ground on the other. It only ended when night fell, and I had to lower the moon while fair Twilight guarded me. Draco recognized the magic as the same spell Nightmare Moon used, and was able to see me in a new light. He eventually agreed to leave for the Dragon Lands and continue his slumber there. Your two drakes helped to dig a tunnel from the surface, and escorted Draco to his new home.”

Limestone sighed aloud, knowing what that last part meant.

“I bet Mom and Dad are really pissed about the new hole in their field.”

“They were displeased, yes. But once they saw all of the Dragon’s Eye gems lining the cavern below, they changed their minds very quickly.”

Luna chuckled before relaying the next memory.

“Your drakes were most disappointed that the battle had ended without their involvement. And were most distraught when they discovered that you had disappeared. Fortunately, Twilight was able to retrieve young Spike from this castle in a brief amount of time. He was able to take possession of the Bloodstone Scepter, and the drakes were willing to take his commands.”

“Yep! I went to the Dragon Lands with them just to make sure no dragon tried to take over while you were gone. Nice and easy with the Bloodstone Scepter!”

Limestone took that moment to ask a question.

“How long were we gone for, exactly?”

Pinkie Pie suddenly popped out from behind a nearby pillar, and pounced her older sister.

“Only a few days, Limey! It’s good to see you again!”

Limestone struggled to talk while her sister squished her face from the side.

“Good...to...see...you...too...Pinkie.”

The party pony suddenly let her sister go, then excitedly pronked in place.

“Ooh! You should go see Maud’s home! It’s in an underground cave and everything!”

“Yeah, I guess I can visit Maud while I’m here.”

Limestone looked up at Princess Celestia.

“When is this chariot thing supposed to take me home?”

The alabaster mare smiled one of her enigmatic smiles.

“Whenever you wish. If you would like to stay for a few days, simply tell Twilight or Spike when you are ready to head home and a chariot will be here within the hour.”

“Cool. Thanks Princess.”

Several days had passed since Ember had returned to the Dragon Lands. The dragoness was relaxing in her favorite lava pool, a private one reserved just for her and her guests. She reached over to pick up a package that had just been delivered by a pegasus courier not five minutes earlier. She unwrapped the package and threw the wrapping into the lava, where it quickly burned to ash. The box inside was made of a stiff material, which glowed blue as it got closer to the lava.

‘Must be enchanted to resist fire. Smart move by whomever sent this to me.’

Ember opened the box, and found that it contained a small bottle and a note. She pulled out the note, and when she unfolded it to read it she noticed that the parchment also glowed blue.

Dearest Ember,

Inside this box is a bottle with a special liquid, which I have enchanted with the scents I removed from thy body when you returned from that other world. You seemed quite melancholy when you thought back to your time there, thus I surmised you left a lover behind. The liquid and its scent will refill itself and never run dry, so you may leave it open to fill an entire room or you may keep it closed for a more ‘private’ reminder. I hope that this gift will give you pleasant memories for years to come.

Your friend,

Luna

The dragoness reached into the box and removed a bottle. The jar was about four inches tall and two inches thick, and was closed with a cork at one end. Ember easily popped the cork free from the glowing bottle, and took a deep sniff of its contents. She sighed deeply, then slipped a clawed hand into the lava and between her legs. The Dragon Lord began to slowly stroke her clit as she thought back to her short time with Travis.

"I will miss that male dearly. But at least I have his scent here, to remind me of my time with him."

END