Thirty years ago, after laying her and Torch's first and only egg, Ember's mother Glazier gathered up her entire hoard and flew off, vanishing without a trace. Torch has constantly refused to talk about the whole affair, and Ember's been torn ever since becoming Dragon Lord: should she use the Bloodstone Scepter to force some answers out of him?

But then she learns where a piece of her mother's hoard might be hidden, and investigating it points her toward zebra shamans on the other side of the world.

Except...didn't Spike mention a zebra shaman when he was telling his whole story about going through the molt? And Ponyville's a lot closer than Zebrabwe...

Inspired by Charlie_K's request, I started this story as an entry for the Original Pairing group's May 2021 Contest, but I couldn't finish by the deadline. So here it is now!