Simplified

The train ride to the south was as long as it was awkward. Ever since the moment Ember made mention that I would be getting a mate, she hadn't said anything to me since. I started to quietly think that she was probably looking to drag me away for a little bit of practice for her own self. But then she gave me a look, almost as though she was gonna kill me if I had kept staring at her, and that idea had gone as cold as a festival in Yakyakistan.

Safe to say she was off-limits.

When we got as close, it was time for us to start flying the rest of the way there. Since there was a large body of water separating us from the continent, we were gonna have to wing it from there. Our final stop on the train was Fillydelphia off the coast of Horseshoe Bay, and from there we flew southeast across the Celestial Sea.

I know what you're thinking, that's a long ways to fly. But in actuality, it's rather short for dragon standards since we were built to handle longer distances. There are even dragons who come from as far west as Saddle Arabia with no layovers, others do at least one or two before landing back home. So this was a short trip in comparison, I'm actually surprised Ember didn't make us fly the whole way out here. Maybe she thought I couldn't handle the distance and settled for a closer starting point. But I won't lie and say that I didn't appreciate the gesture.

Once we landed onto the lava-soaked, craggy and often jagged shores of the Dragon Lands, I made a mental reminder that we were no longer subject to Equestrian laws and standards. We were in an entirely different country, all under the jurisdiction of Ember herself. And with her being in the position she was in, a few dragons came around to check in on her.

As lord of the dragons, she grew wise to the many who thought to usurp her from power for their own gain. As such, she appointed her father, the former dragon lord of well over a thousand years, to hold guard over the Bloodstone Scepter. So whenever she left, he was the last one she saw, and the first one she'd see upon return. And due to his enormous size, no one was going to dare pick a fight with him to gain power. "Well if it isn't my own speck of pride."

"Well don't tell me you lost a battle yet, dad." She replies, causing him to show the scepter he's guarded between two of his smaller claws. He makes his own daughter look like a flea next to him. However, she's picked up a lot of his strength and mannerisms as the years went by. She's still trying to learn to be a empathetic ruler unlike his iron-fist method, but that's just how many dragons accept their rulers, and it has hardened her to a degree. So I can imagine her not being an easy one to negotiate with... And I can even wage that her fight record probably looks way better than Smolder's, who claims she hasn't lost a bout yet.

Yeah, being her mate would probably kill me. I'll pass.

"So who's the little purple runt?" He asks her with his booming voice.

"You know that's Spike." She points to me. "He's the Equestrian ambassador to the Dragon Lands, and the Ambassador of Friendship."

"Ah, the de-facto prime minister to the purple horse herself?" He looms large over me as he glares down. "And where are the promised shipment of pillows we were owed?"

"Well sir, we're still making one for your size. The others will be in within two business days." I reply, earning an earth-shattering cackle from the ancient dragon.

"I can already imagine how many of those ponies are going to struggle with bringing it in! It'll be most amusing to see them languish for my comfort!"

Ember, while hardened as the years went by, still showed sympathy towards the ones who worked hardest. "Dad, we've talked about this."

"Yeah, I know." He says as he gives her the scepter. "It's just hard to put aside old habits."

She reassumes her role along with her scepter before turning to me. "Now as for you, I need to know just how strong you are currently."

I point to myself nervously. "Me, what for?"

She points the scepter back at me. "Duh, so I can assess who to mate you with."

I can understand her purpose, but I am not going to challenge her in front of her dad of all dragons. I already know I'm going to lose, I just don't want it to be now. "Shouldn't we just let me go out in the Dragon Lands and see who I can beat instead of just fighting you?"

"You're seeking a mate, and you're already being this much of a cowardly wimp!?" Torch announced loudly. "What a weakling, Surely Equestria can put together a better representative than a weak little dragon like you."

...Even if I was going to lose this one off the rip, I still have my pride to consider. And if I wanted to be seen as weak, it would be because I was physically unable to beat one of the strongest dragons around here, not for running from the challenge. I have no other choice. "Okay then, you wanna see what I can do, then I'll give you my best shot."

As she positioned herself to brace for my attack, I'm sure she knew that I wasn't going to win. She pointed the scepter at me and made a mocking request. "You held this scepter once before, Spike. You remember how it felt when it's power surged through you before you gave it to me. So go on, call for it, take it back, accept the legacy you've taken, no matter how short it was!"

I run directly for her, not aiming for the scepter, but in an attempt to sweep her legs. But in my running for her, I hadn't noticed how she threw the scepter at me. Next thing I notice is the world being turned upside down. She had kicked my legs from under me, grabbed me by my tail and started swinging for the fences. She tosses me to the air and wait for me to stabilize before attacking me again. I barely shake off the dizzying attack from just a second ago before she pushes me into a craggy wall. All the air escapes from my lungs as I inadvertently heave a ball of fire into her face. My back aches from the pain of that impact, she pulls me out and throws me back to the ground. I try to fight back, but she rams a fist into my face before torch calls out. "Alright, that's enough!"

While I'm in a lot of pain, I see Ember heaving above me. She's staring at me angrily like I had called her out of her name and committed a grievous injury to her honor. I try to get her off of me, but she just shoves me back into the ground again before flying off.

Torch laughs as his daughter sulks away quietly. "Well that puts you out of the running!"

"What kind of assessment is this!?" I call out painfully.

"I thought she filled you in on that." He says while laughing. "Guess you're still no match for my pinkie claw, no matter how much you grow."

I'm slow to get up, still fighting against my injuries. "Okay, so why couldn't I just do this with someone on my own level?"

"It's dragon lord tradition to assess the strength of every dragon of the opposite sex. I've had a number of offspring when I was doing my assessments, at some point, I had about three hundred eggs with my seed fertilizing them in one year! And no one could stop me!" The former dragon lord cackled with enormous presence as his voice echoed throughout the ashy beach.

As I nurse my injuries, a thought came to my head as he spoke from his experience. "So wait, does that mean Ember could choose who she wants to mate with if they're strong enough?"

"Of course she can, but she doesn't lose! She's got my spunk, and I don't like losing to anyone for anything! And neither does she. I bet she sauntered off like that because she found out how weak you are."

"I'm not upset for that!" Ember's voice ring back out from behind her father. "I'm upset that he's too weak to mate with anyone here! He needs to get stronger, and that's going to take more than a month to develop! That's why I'm upset!"

"So you're upset that this is going to take twice as long?" I ask.

"Twice!?" She shouts. "Spike, you'll be lucky if it only takes a year to get you in shape!"

"What!?" I scream out in protest. "I can't stay here a year!"

"Don't you think I know that!?" She shouts as she flies back down, placing her claws on my shoulder. "I promised Twilight a month because I thought your heroic pedigree would've bought you some bit of strength! But fighting against you makes me see the truth! You're too weak! You won't even last a month if you don't start improving now!"

"You could always let him get crushed." Torch recommends.

"No way!" She answers vehemently, standing by my side. "Spike is my friend, I'm not going to just let him get crushed, nor will I let his dragon nature get the better of him. I don't want anything bad happening to him just because he had a different upbringing. The only thing I want for him is to be able to compete! Now it feels like he'll be in danger all while he's here."

I look down to my own self. My mind went back to the picture I unwittingly sent out to Twilight. I felt that I looked good enough to appease anyone. If anything, I felt my frame was ideal. I was really comfortable in myself. Now, I feel like that was more of me lying to myself. And now I was a problem. "...I could just always leave to some random island for a while until I calm down."

"Spike, dragons are competitive and territorial by nature. If you claim something, someone will look to claim it from you. If you can't defend that, you'll be better off wandering the globe for the rest of your life." She replies with a much softer demeanor than the one she had when she challenged me. "I want to help you avoid that at all costs. But living with ponies can only do so much for you until you lash out and do something you'll forever regret."

"Sadly, the days of pillaging and plundering ponies are long-gone. And if we're going to keep peace with those puny equines, we got to keep our reputation clean. This isn't how it was when I was in charge. Ember wants to do it her way, the way she learned with you." Torch adds. "Now she's giving back, doing what dragons don't normally do. You should be grateful."

As I think more on myself and my current circumstances, I see Ember holding a smaller rod made of what appeared to be obsidian. She issues the item to me and gives me a warning. "Carry this with you everywhere you go, and don't lose it. That's your protection."

I accept the item and question her. "What does this do?"

"I already told you, Spike. Just try to keep up with it, please." She says once more before flying off into the distance.

As I look at the item, I notice the many indentures that seemed to have been carefully constructed. It appeared to be crudely sculped into a staff as opposed to crafted with time and care. The edges are still frighteningly sharp. I look to Torch and direct my question to him. "So what does my having this mean?"

"It means you better keep up with that thing... or else." He answers with a menacing tone.

I gulp reactively. "Right."

After a bit of a flight across the barren lands populated by mainly rock and lava, I landed myself into a cave where I could store my stuff. After that drop off, making my temporary space to my liking, I began to look around the lands to see what all was being done around the place, especially since I haven't been here in some years.

So far, it doesn't seem that much has changed. I would've figured with their integration to Equestria's open trade policies that they would start building up some new buildings or monuments, maybe even a sign or two to tell any visitors where they were going. Not everyone can just memorize where a certain boulder is, give it a name, and fly off to remember where they are. It's a boulder for many, and they'll be bound to run into it a number of times before realizing that they're pretty much lost. Dragons don't use roads either... and I don't dare to think about the modest idea of sewage infrastructure. Bathing for them is taking a dive in the lava pool and jumping back out, and it also doubles as a toilet. Does it matter if a dragon shits in the lava pool, not really since it's bound to be crispy and crumbly by the time it surfaces as nothing more than ash, and urine turns to steam anyhow. It's perfect for them, everything is instantly disposed of and hardly any bacteria remains.

So yeah it does work, but I prefer scented soaps and water, keeps me smelling nice instead of sulfuric.

I finally get back and notice that there's a yellow dragon hunching himself over a pile of goods, namely all of my belongings. I call out in disagreement. "Hey!"

He dismissively pops an eye open and rolls over. "What do you want?"

"I was hiding out here!" I point out.

"No you weren't." He answers, throwing a claw in the air to wave me off.

"I was just here for the past seven hours! I leave for, what, ten minutes, and you're just sitting here like you set all of this up!"

"I don't see your name on anything." He replies.

"I literally carved my name into the floor!" I point out, actively slapping my palm against the place where I scratched my name on the ground.

"Oh?" The dragon gets up from the mess of a pile consisting of all my stuff, leaps over to where my name was, and swipes his claws against the ground, striking out my name. "Whoops, that settles it. Guess I'm staying here."

I shout angrily, feeling myself becoming violent with each passing second of my patience getting worn. "GET OUT!"

He tilts his head and looks at me with a smug grin. "Or what?"

While I wanted to assert myself, I had to remember that I had a position and image to uphold. After all, it wouldn't look good on Twilight if her friendship ambassador had gotten into a fight on the first day I arrive to the Dragon Lands. I take a deep breath and mentally draw up a compromise. "You know what, never mind. Just let me get my stuff."

I walk past him, but he stops me with a claw on my shoulder. "Oh, what stuff?"

My patience already thinner than parchment, I peel the dragon's claws from off of me. "Don't worry about it."

I reach the pile and the first thing I get to is the obsidian staff Ember gave to me. Almost immediately, he hollers in defiance. "Hey, that's mine!"

"Where'd you get it from then?" I question.

"It was always there!" He lies instantly. "It doesn't matter how long it's been there! I claim it, therefore it's mine!

"I brought it in." I say in a calm but seething rage. The next thing I pick up is a friendship diary, a few quills and some ink, a few scrolls, and a homemade cotton-feather pillow I explicitly had custom made from Rarity. The pillow was probably what set him off the most aside from the staff.

"Where do you think you're going with my property!?" His nostrils begin to smoke, indicating that he's ready to incinerate everything I own.

"I was invading your space, surely you don't want any pony-perfume-smelling thing around here in your cave. So I'm taking it with me." I reply, getting more and more confrontational with his every step forward.

"I said that's mine." Flames jump out with every word he speaks. His intent is immature and all the more selfish. The corners of my mouth begin to glow with the warmth of the flames I was ready to distribute back to the fool-headed dragon.

But before it can get violent, a familiar figure lands at the mouth of the cave, calling out to the yellow dragon he quickly approaches from behind. "Hey, you!"

"Garble?" The dragon's demeanor quickly changes to a more subservient one. "Hey, what's the matter, dude? I was just getting the cave warm for you."

The red drake instantly sees through his his bullshit and calls him out. "Give him his shit back, and leave him alone."

He shakes his head and points towards both the pillow and the scepter. "Nuh-uh! All those things are mine!"

"So what is it then?" He asks.

"Just some decoration for the cave. It was already here." The yellow dragon replies meekly.

This time, Garble puts his claws on both the dragon's shoulders, letting his teeth show as he speaks in a low voice. "So how about this, you're either gonna give me everything in here, or I'll beat it out of you like I did the last four times."

It takes virtually no time for the yellow dragon to make a decision. He glances back at me and pouts. "You know what, this cave does smell too much like those stupid ponies!" He promptly flaps his wings and take to the air, leaving the cave with grumbling complaint. "I'm outta here!"

The red dragon who came to my rescue looks back to me with a frown. Meanwhile, I walk up to thank him. "Thanks a bunch, Ga─"

"Please don't tell me 'thank you'. It's bad enough you and my sis are running around with those ponies. Why can't you just be like other dragons and keep your snout shut?"

...I see he's still nervous about seeing me around. All it does is remind him that he's actively missing out on what both me and Smolder are getting into. But the conflict of being a dragon and maintaining that image still plagues his mind all too often. So his response tends to be abrasive, but not out of anger or disdain. "You know, you could always leave here and join us in Equestria proper."

"And be around ponies? No thanks, I have a reputation to keep." He's especially nervous about being seen as stupid with the new technology floating around.

I still plead with him to leave. "Garble, you wrote a book of poems and sent it to Starlight to mass publish. You don't even know how much of a hit you are, ponies love your poetry. I could give you a few bookings in Canterlot, if you want to get your feet wet."

"Tempting, but no." He answers fairly quickly.

"Just think on it a little more."

"Ugh, you and Smolder sound alike." He proceeds to mock the voice of his younger sister in an exaggerated manner. "CoMe To PoNyViLLe aNd dO YoUr PoEtRy ThErE, ThEy'LL lOvE iT! All that's gonna do is show the world just how stupid it looks for a dragon to be doing poetry."

"But you love your work." I point out to the prideful dragon.

"I love it because it's mine." He pauses for a moment before he realizes what he uttered. "Ugh! I hate saying that stupid word!"

For the longest time, it came to be that Garble never understood his disdain for ponies up until a certain pony helped him embrace his poetic doings more often, opening himself up to become more comfortable in his gifts. Since then, he's been secretly sending her what all he had written and performed for Smolder. She and he kept correspondence for a while, until recently when he discovered that her heart had belonged to a much more powerful creature. Since then, he's actively avoided the idea of leaving the Dragon Lands, all to avoid any chance of seeing her again. "Still can't get over her, huh?"

It's still a sore topic for him. "Shut up, Spike."

"Fluttershy says you haven't been writing to her recently." I point out.

"Why should I? She's got that ugly thing hanging around her neck like a scarf. Why should I even care?"

Looking at his face, I could do nothing but relate. I still have my own pony crush that's gone unfulfilled. I'm not in any position to critique him when I haven't made any attempt to visit Rarity whenever I'm in the area of where she's doing business. If anything, I also try to avoid it because I know I'm gonna do something stupid. In that aspect, we are kindred spirits. "I guess I know how you feel too."

"You and me are nothing alike." Another thing Garble doesn't want to admit, seeing me and him standing on the same ground. Guess his pride is stronger than his will to move forward in life.

Of course, I do my fair share to point that out to him. "You crush over Fluttershy because she was a pony who embraced who you were and encouraged you to accept it. It is a different kind of strength, after all."

"Look, it's different with us than it is with you and your own pony crush, alright? If dragons found out why I wanted to go to Ponyville, they'd make me the laughingstock of all the Dragon Lands. It was already hard enough to fight for my poetry..." Garble freezes for a second in thought. "Please don't have me fighting for that now."

I answer happily to the despairing drake. "Your secret's always safe with me."

He rolls his eyes and grumbles in a low voice. "Eh, I owe you a gem." That's his prideful way of saying thanks, he was never big on saying thank-you to me. Besides, I'm not gonna turn down a free snack. "So, dragon lust, I hear you got it pretty bad."

"Yeah, and now I'm supposedly here to seek my first mate."

Garble seizes with surprise. "Wait, you haven't mated yet?"

"No." I confess.

Garble starts smiling, now realizing that my secret is probably outshining his by a wide country mile. "Wow! Now that's something that will spread around the place like some bad molt smell!" He begins to laugh, already throwing out his thoughts of me and his sister, despite him threatening me an innumerable amount of times to not get it in with her. "I know Smolder's hard to beat, but she didn't do you a solid while you were out there?"

"Nope. I can't even beat my meat with all the things Twilight has me running around and doing for her." I admit quite frankly, and a little annoyed with the aforementioned princess.

"Oh no, not the meat!" He groans out mockingly.

"Yeah. It's been a pretty long time." I conclude with my cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"But if you got dragon lust, you can beat at it for the whole day and it still won't matter."

I tilt my head at Garble, wondering if he had any similar struggles. "You sound like you have experience."

"I don't even wanna talk about it." He confirms with a nervous chuckle.

I fold my arms and think to myself out loud. "Wait, hasn't Smolder said that she went through it?"

"Oh yeah! She couldn't find a mate out here because most of the guys she'd wail on them too hard. Honestly, I'd think she give Ember a run for her money. I think the only one who'd beat her would be Torch. But have you seen the size of that guy? I don't think she'd want to try running a sesh with him."

That thought is giving a whole new image to the term bottle rocket. Pump it up and watch it fly... and crash to the ground in a pile of elder dragon spooge like a deep-dunked glazed doughnut. Yeah, not a pretty image. "How many times has she come over here to get that settled, by the way?"

"Just twice. Nowadays, she usually has a friend over there to help her keep stabilized."

Huh, I didn't think Smolder was in a relationship. I always thought she was like Rainbow Dash from a few years ago, often keeping it cool, never really talking about her personal feelings, maybe getting it in every once in a while to keep herself honest... or possibly sneaking off to the clouds, having a ride on the sky, and destroying the evidence promptly after. Then again, even she started opening up after some time, especially with Applejack in the past year.

I wonder if Smolder's really into something and she's just keeping it low. "She has a mate in Ponyville? I never heard her say that she had one."

Garble looks to me with a raised brow. "Yeah, I thought it was you. I know she's pretty chill with you, and you're the only male she's like that with other than me."

"I mean I've thought about it, but I don't think she's interested in me like that. She never gave me any hint that she was." I admit.

Garble chuckles and looks me up and down. "Yeah, she probably sees you like a little brother, though not as little anymore."

Well that does a lot to my confidence, thanks Garble. "That's not a good look to have."

He posts himself against a wall, trying to pose a little for the sake of appearances, especially since he still sees me as the little wingless drake that couldn't smash a phoenix egg. "So, Ember filled me out on why you're here. She assigned me to help you get stronger."

I glance back to him, a bit of annoyance in my tone. "Can I be honest with you?"

"What?"

"I'm not trying to be here for a month, much less a year." I complain. "The only reason Ember beat me up so bad is because I didn't want to fight her. I just took the beating and kept it moving."

"Uh-huh." He knows that I didn't just take a beating on purpose, and scoffs with a head shake. "It's not that I don't believe you, it's that I don't see you being ready when she fought you. You found out just how fast and strong she was."

I try to deny him. "I could've countered with something─"

"And she didn't give you a chance to do it. That's how it's supposed to be. It's no-holds barred, full-aggression, all-or-nothing. And you didn't give that to her, so it's natural you got your dragon ass royally served back to you."

"But that's the other thing, I don't like fighting." I complain once more.

Garble squints as he observes me and asks. "Spike, how strong are you?"

"Why?"

"You're gonna be competing with more than just that yellow-bellied douche from earlier. So I'll need to see some results, Spike. That'll tell me where you stand in all of this."

"You mean if I'm forced to fight for a mate?" I question.

"Not if, but when." He says as he points to an area of the cave filled with some large craggy rocks. "See that rock over there? Move that over a bit."

I don't really see a point in all of this, especially since I'm not really going to be fighting while I'm here, and neither do I want to get into an altercation. But I do as he says and I walk over to the area he points out. I thumb a decent size rock that seemed to be the size of a kickball. "This rock?"

"No, that one." He causes me to readjust my sights to a much larger target, one that's about three of me stacked on top of one another high, and about five of me standing with my arms out wide.

"That's a boulder."

"Boulder, rock, same thing. Now move it." He says dismissively.

I groan and I shoulder the large hulking mass, putting a great effort to try to dislodge it from where it sits. It didn't take as much effort as I thought it would, so I try to find some measure of being able to roll the stone instead. In a few seconds I found myself toppling the stone over till it was moved some twenty feet away. "Okay, I moved it."

I'm a bit caught off guard by the expression on Garble's face. It seemed as though I had not just met his expectations, but probably bypassed them in a way. But he readjusts and tries to play it cool again. "Not bad. But now I see how off it makes the cave look. Move it back over a few feet."

I roll my eyes and push again, this time back towards the direction to where I started from initially. "Right here?"

He points back the other way. "Too much. Back to the left."

By this point, I'm incensed. So I push the boulder once more, even getting a little past where I had stopped the first time. "Here?"

"Eh, really throws off the feng shui. Little more to the right this time."

"How much more!?" I scream.

I'm about ready to chuck the damn thing out of the cave at this point. "I dunno, more-more?" And his shrug made it all the more apparent that it's probably what he wanted.

I let my frustration and impatience get the better of me, my claws sharpen to the point where I sink them into the boulder's side violently. I snag the boulder and give it a spin along with myself before shot-putting it out of the cave itself. It lands some hundred feet away with a craggy thud before rolling a little more to a complete stop. Garble stands in awe as I grunt my reply. "There! Now I'm done."

He looks back to the boulder out in the field. "Huh, for a particularly scrawny build, dragonwise anyhow, you're pretty damn strong."

"Told you." I answer back confidently.

"How'd you get that way?" He asks.

I started thinking out loud what all I did when I was younger. "Well I was always helping Rarity carry all of her supplies on her shopping trips, and that was when I was a wee-little thing."

"You mean the puny pipsqueak you were, you did all that heavy-lifting back then?" He questions curiously.

"I moved a boulder off of you during the race for the Bloodstone Scepter. And then you kicked dirt on me." I point out vividly.

"Yeah... A dragon that size isn't supposed to have strength like that." After that quick blast from the past, he acknowledges me with a sagely nod. "You've been holding out."

"Again, it's not that I'm not strong enough. I just don't like fighting is all." I say again for the umpteenth time.

Garble appears a bit more reserved, but still just as dumbfounded over my reasoning and restraint. "That's ridiculous. You're just as strong, if not stronger than the rest of us. Why don't you wanna fight to prove your strength?"

I close my eyes as I hint back on my past, all of it especially when I was playing the supporting role for the six element bearers of Ponyville. "I had to do a lot of it when I was younger. I saw a lot back then..."

The faintest shouts of danger filled my head, I could remember the countless scenes of ponies being thrown about, the dangerous beams of magic narrowly missing me, the number of dangerous obstacles and monsters that threatened my life, the sensation of my wings nearly being pulled off from my body, the terrifying aftermath of my once home being reduced into a pile of smoldering ash, blackened bark, and burning book pages. I could even remember the countless worlds Twilight and I saw when our future was changed right before our very eyes.

I could even recall the tension in the room as great evils were discussed, or as preparing parties readied themselves for the fight of their lives. Even as young as I was, I've seen life at it's inception for some... and conclusion for others. I've even seen the aftermath of the damage that was done, the mournful cries of family and friends, many horrible things that still replay in my mind to this day. I might not have ever served a day in the guard, but I sure know the costs more than many.

I wonder if that's how he feels at times.

"I saw a whole lot back then, went through a lot, everything and just about anything. I really don't like having to do it anymore. I rather make friends and provide good memories, than fight just because I'm a dragon and it's in me to do it." I look to him and give him a sad expression. "I've seen one creature in the past dedicate his life to fighting for what's right. He had all the technology, the weapons, a quick thinker, and all that, he could take down a creature five times his size in the blink of an eye. His species had known conflict and resolution for over thirty-thousand years, so fighting was firmly in his DNA. He took on one assignment, the right one... and he ain't been right ever since."

Garble hums to himself solemnly. "Wow, that bad, huh?"

"So bad that Princess Celestia pushed him to a desk job for the rest of his short career, so bad he couldn't look himself in the mirror for months, so bad that he retired after three years on the job and went into hiding in a coastal city far west of Canterlot. So bad he couldn't get it up for a whole year."

"Wow, that's... that's pretty fucked." He replies nervously.

"Seeing his story, that's why I don't want to dedicate my life to fighting. I know it's not a dragon thing, but I don't want my life to be like that. It's not anything a typical dragon will ever understand." I conclude.

A period of silence ensues as Garble gathers his thoughts on what I told him. He sits down and look at me with a uncertain gaze. "I can understand your reasoning, especially with what you saw. But you know, you're gonna have to explain all of that to Ember. She tends to take a lot of things at face value."

I sigh and walk out of the cave, taking Garble's advice. "Trust me, I know."

It took a half-hour of rummaging throughout the lava-dotted lands before I could find Ember. I landed in a bowl shaped area that appeared like snow from a distance, but was really bundles of eggs that were laid out to warm in the pits. Ember alone walked the paths, staring down at each egg with a smile on her face that appeared fond of what was to come. She seemed not just invested just the unborn drakes, but very much invested in her own emotions.

"That's right. Soak in all that heat. I wanna see you all take on the world pretty soon."

I sneak closer to see her crouching down to the eggs, speaking sweetly to them as she has this glow on her face. In the solitude, she becomes more of her true self, acknowledging her own emotions and even displaying them to the yet-seen faces she cared for. She really seems to like the isolation, almost more than she likes beating up the other dragons. I wonder...

"Hey!" I come out from hiding and call out to the dragon lord herself.

Her back immediately straightens and her tail shoots upwards in surprise, She pivots around quickly with a pinkness set in her cheeks. "Spike, didn't expect you! What's going on?"

"I just finished my workout with Garble. I actually wanted to talk to you about something." I inform her.

She turns her face away, going right back in the routine of looking at the eggs. "Sorry Spike, I got egg duty today. My attention is going to be on these little ones until later on."

"Well you don't have to pay me no mind then, but just hear me out." I suggest, still keeping a fair distance away.

She seems mildly inconvenienced, but not annoyed. "Okay, what's the deal?"

"It's about the spar from earlier."

"We all lose sometimes, Spike. It's just a part of life." Her tone is dismissive, a far cry from the cooing and gentle whispers she offered to the eggs.

I still inform her of what had happened. "What I mean to say is that I didn't really... try."

"They all say that." She quips back. "You're no different."

"I mean I held back." I say a little louder. "I wasn't in any mood to fight you."

"I heard that one thirty-seven times." She points out.

"I'm saying I don't like to fight."

She paused for a moment to count in her head. "Five times."

"Can you be serious for a moment?" I call out to her. "I feel like you're not even trying to listen to me, you're just pointing out how many times you heard something I said instead of trying to take me seriously. I'm trying to tell you that I'm not emotionally available to keep fighting for what I see as no real reason to do it! I don't like fighting, and I especially mean that whenever it comes to my friends. That's why I really didn't understand why you went in so hard against me earlier. I'm strong, but─"

"That's not surprising, Spike." She interrupts me as I was ranting. "You dragged me from an ocean while I was wearing armor when you were no higher than my kneecaps. As if I couldn't come to grips with how strong you were then."

"Then why did you call me weak?"

She rotates her wrist and glances away. "I called you weak because you didn't think to challenge me for real. How are you going to even mate with anyone when you can't even find the strength in yourself to be ready to fight for that right?" She points to me and sharply raises her voice. "What dragon female is going to even give you a shot if you can't be serious about your own strength? You might as well accept the fact that you'll be a cave-dwelling recluse never once getting the opportunity to perpetuate the dragon species."

I answer back to her. "Personally, I just don't see why we have to fight to have sex. Like what good does that do? What relationships do you forge with that kind of toxicity? How is that even remotely attractive?"

"Spike, stand over here for a moment." She orders, pointing to the spot next to her. I comply and approach casually.

"Okay. So what is it?"

"You see these eggs?" She points down to a pit of the many unborn dragons, all of which have still remained unhatched. "Most of these little ones will never get to know who it was that laid them, who it was that provided them the spunk to be who they are. They're fighting even now to get out of the shell that contains them. From there, they're fighting for resources to live, siblings will fight each other, those who do know their parents will be fighting against them once the molt happens. Then the real contest begins of who lives, and who doesn't."

"You mean when the rocs start trying to eat us?" I recall.

"That exactly." She confirms. "A lot of dragons don't make it out of that phase, Spike. Of the many that will be born here, only thirty percent will live to be where we are now. That's why there are so many eggs here every year, because we're fighting just to keep going. Dragons don't do familial attachments that often because of this. The fact that Smolder and Garble both came out is more of an indicator that they both deserve their spot amongst the rest of us. But our lives are nothing but fighting for the right to live, it's an honor and a rite of passage. That's why you have to be strong, to prove that the eggs you fertilize might actually be good enough to grow and survive on it's own."

I remember for a moment just how hard it was way back when to get a batch of eggs to hatch when there was a heat shortage in the badlands. It took a group effort to get those eggs to hatch the way they did. And not to mention the amount of trauma and beating the egg shells can endure.

~𝓟𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮𝓭~
Oh yeah, I should probably highlight a little something about dragon eggs while we're here.

Because of our unique anatomy, our egg shells are often so hard that the yolk has to be heated enough where the shell can break easier. In the yolk is a chemical compound that reacts with the heat, making the inner wall of the shell much softer to break. The higher the temperature, the more reactive the fluid becomes, the softer the shell becomes, the easier it is to break. And once they free themselves, the outside air will rapidly cool the fluid on our scales, making it easy for us to get picked up. So when the eggs are trying to hatch and it's too cold, the baby dragons will rock and bash in their effort trying to break free. Time is usually limited with that process, and waiting too long will risk the life of the dragon before it's even born. I'm what dragons call a 'cold hatchling', meaning that my shell broke with the absence of the heating component. Though to be fair, that was really brought about when Twilight had her entrance exam for school.

With that explanation out of the way, let's snap back to where we were.
~𝓟𝓵𝓪𝔂~

"Wow, I didn't think our existence was so predicated on fighting." I reply with some sarcasm in my voice.

"It's always been this way. We aren't exactly apex predators, you know." She says as she kneels down to look over the eggs below our feet. "But yeah, fighting's in our DNA. And if you don't have enough of it now, you're not gonna have enough for when you need it most. Not exactly a turn-on, you know."

I shake my head and reply. "I understand your view of it all. But there's got to be another way other than fighting."

She giggles at my statement, thinking how absurd it is to her. "Well if you find one, let me know. I can't find a mate to save my life."

I initially take her words for ignorance, then I stop and realize what exactly she said, and the manner she said it. "Wait, you too?"

She scoffs as she places her hand on one of the eggs. "Have you seen what the gene pool consists of in these parts? Not much to look at, nor is it anything to admire. And most of the guys here aren't strong enough to beat me. I'm just too good, and plus female dragons are notably better fighters than males. So my reason for not finding a mate is way different from yours."

"Your dad did say that you couldn't be beat." I reply quietly. I look towards the sky, seeing Twilight's sun creeping towards the edge of the horizon. It's getting late. "Well... I guess maybe you could ease up on the next guy, if that'll help. I'm gonna head back to the cave."

As I try to take to the sky, I hear her call my name in a firm voice. "Spike!" I look back to see her holding an egg, nervously looking down as she cradles the unborn dragon in her arms. "How do ponies mate?" Her voice is quiet, but curious.

"Well... Um... They don't fight, I know that much." The topic rouses my interest, and my bout of dragon lust is urging me to present myself to the dragon lord. I pivot away from her, to avoid giving her an unwanted surprise cresting from within my scales. "I guess I can simplify it this way. If girl meets boy, boy likes girl, girl likes boy, then they do stuff together, talk, eat, laugh, hug, kiss. Then I guess if it works out from there, then boy hops on top of girl and I'm pretty sure you can fill in the blanks."

Her voice trembles for a moment. "You said hug."

"Yeah?" I reply slowly, still trying to hide myself.

"I mean, you used to do that a lot to me when you were smaller. I know then I thought it was pretty awkward that you did that when you were so small."

"Well a hug doesn't have to be sexual. It can just be a show of emotions, like how happy I was to see you." I clarify to her, not wanting her to get the wrong idea.

I hear her groan in a slight discomfort. "So you have to do all that mushy stuff just to get to that point? Seems like a lot of work."

Really? Absolute carnage and domestic violence is the way to proposition for a quick fuck, but flowers, hugs, and conversation is a lot of work? I know I'm a horny bastard but this is ridiculous. "Well if you want it to be easy, it can be, all you gotta do is be upfront with it."

"But I like easy. You pick one out, you wrestle, beat each other senseless, and fertilize a few eggs. See, easy!"

I'd much rather fight Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow again. At least there's some legitimate merit for me to fight there. "Yeah, I guess that's the dragon way. But me, I don't mind establishing a relationship with someone before we get to that point. Cut the fighting and work up to something that's a little more steady, and easy."

"Why would you wanna do all of that?"

Yeah, I can tell she isn't too well-developed emotionally. "Well... I know I can get sex easily... I think by pony standards. But I don't think I'll be satisfied with just that. To me, it'll feel like I'm just using you."

"Didn't you proposition Smolder just yesterday?" She aptly points out.

I turn around to face her, covering myself as I gave my rebuttal. "That's different! We've know each other for years, interchangeably! We live just a town over! Anything could grow from that!"

Ember rolls her eyes as she places the egg back with the others. "So what you're saying is that if you know someone, you're more likely to bond with them? Is that it?"

"Well, yeah." I bluntly confirmed.

She flies up to me and points a claw into my chest, angrily trying to make her point. "So lets say you do the unthinkable, and you proposition someone like one of your pony friends. What's that white one's name again?"

"Rarity? Oh I would stay by her side each and every day if she'd let me." I confess.

She points out a valid argument. "But you used to do that, and you still didn't get anything like that from her. All that mushy stuff you did, all those flowers, the long talks, the hugs, and you got nothing but unresolved emotions and a pent-up sex drive! Look at you now, you haven't mated once because she's altered your perception of reality! You wanted pony love, and you've got nothing now! How is it that you can accept that?"

I still keep myself concealed as I respond to the astute point she brought up. "I didn't accept it, I just put up with it and accepted her decision. I loved her... still do."

She pushes me even further on the issue. "So you feel that part of your heart is why you haven't mated with anyone yet?"

"It's a pretty huge reason, yeah." I admit.

"So you can't let go of that either, huh? I don't know how I'm gonna fix you in a month at this rate."

"It's not like I can't let go, it just takes some time." I tell her, all while still trying to sell myself that idea. "I'd like to think I could maybe have that kind of relationship with someone else. I wouldn't mind trying."

Ember turns away, rolling her eyes in disgust once more. "Hmm, guess we have a lot of work to do to get you a mate."

"Yeah. Fair enough." I agree.

She flies back down to her work, looking over the vast amount of eggs collected. "You know, you don't have to stick around to watch the eggs. I can handle it on my own now." After all of that, I'm sure that was her way of trying to invite me to stay, that or her special way of telling me to get lost.

"Maybe I wanna help." I'm gonna bank on the former option.

She looks away, but I still get a glimpse of the smile that crept on her lips. I land next to her, she turns away to try her best to hide it. "If this is your way of trying to proposition me, you might want to reconsider."

"I can't just help a friend?"

"The term 'friend' means a lot of things these days."

"I know what you mean."

Ember and I spent the entire evening together, just watching over the eggs to see if any would hatch. She had a few questions about how Twilight is raising and lowing the sun. I told her about the one tool both former princesses gave to her to be able to control the sun and moon. But as time went along, Twilight eventually got to where she didn't need the tool anymore, that her magic had finally gotten strong enough to be able to handle the load.

Ember really likes the stars at night. She told me a story of how she and Torch stayed up one night looking at the falling stars, it reminded her of her pre-molt days. Though she didn't talk much about her past, she did lightly hint that her dad was heavily involved in her being able to make it past her first molt.

We talked more about my relationship with Rarity. She respects her for who she is and what she's done for the world, but harbors some anger for how the situation with me was handled. It seems that she was watching our development from a considerable distance, wanting to see how it all played out. But then I was appointed Friendship Ambassador of the nation and I was so engrossed in my duties that I never really had the honest chance to focus on myself. In essence, that same reason is how dragon lust manifests in the manner it does.

She went into greater detail of how it affects all dragons, especially females. For males, it makes them want to assault basically anything and everything that's not their own species as well, but in a more feral manner than anything else. If unchecked, it's possible that a male would sooner conclude business with a timberwolf if not possible with a female of his own species. Males do often compete with one another as well, and males also outnumber females in a 2-1 ratio in many instances. So it makes it all the more harder to secure a mate for the season if he loses a fight. For females, they like to claim their mates, and they fight not just the males for privilege, but females for territory. It is possible that a female will simply beat a male into submission for mating, but considering the ratio, those instances are considered rare. It was a lot of information, but I managed to absorb it well enough.

I'm beat. It was a long day and I was more than tired from it all.

Finally, I get back to my cave. But to my surprise, there was a brown dragon sitting on top of a pile of all of my stuff. I was already up to my head with annoying dragons looking to claim all of my stuff as theirs, plus I was tired. So I was obviously not in any mood. "Hey!" I called out to the dragon.

"Sorry, loser! This is my cave now!" She announces shamelessly, waving her arm back at me to send me away. "You can go somewhere else!"

"This isn't your cave!" I strongly argue.

She then pulls out the obsidian staff that Ember gave me earlier in the day. "Oh? And what's this then?"

"It's something that was given to me. It's a gift." I inform her strongly.

"How do I know this isn't yours when you don't know what it is, or what it does?"

The words of Ember's warning play back in my head on repeat. I start to assert myself in preparation to get the item back as quickly as possible. "It's for me to know and you to imagine!"

She dangles it in my face as she flies to the ceiling of the cave. "Keep-away!"

My anger is already at an all-time high, mainly exacerbated by the dragon lust that I'm afflicted with. Self-control becomes a secondary thought, while my first is to get back what's mine. "GIVE ME THAT!"

I dart into the air after her, she dives down to avoid me, landing on the ground to offer yet another taunt. "Can't catch me!"

"You..." For a moment, the vision in my eyes flash for a second as my voice grows deeper out of both greed and fury. I grab a piece of the rock from the cave's ceiling and hurl it at the dragon's direction. Instead of it being a small something to pelt her with, I failed take into account my strength and found a large boulder hurled her way. She stops short to avoid being crushed. She looks back at me nervously as I drive my claws into the boulder that kept her pinned between me and it. I snarl at her as I took back the staff. "THIS! IS! MINE!"

She stammers as she appeared to look at me with some mode of fear in her eyes. "Wow... That's pretty aggro of you."

"You don't know anything about me." I growl to her.

She buzzes her lips and kisses her teeth in a sudden show of confidence. "Of course I do." Her entire body is engulfed in turquoise flames before the spitting image of my face appears before me, also speaking with my voice. "See, now I am you."

I'm disturbed by the sight of my own face smiling back at me. Obviously this is a changeling I'm dealing with, and I need to calm myself before I make more of a mess of this. With caution, I question the figure before me. "Who are you?"

"Aw, am I that good? Here, let me give you a hint."

In the flash of turquoise flames, the changeling transforms before me to their original form. I'm even more surprised by the sight of a familiar turquoise changeling with pink, fluttering wings. "Ocellus?"

"Hi there, mate."