Hot Dragon Inactionby SilverNotesChaptersFirst SparksEmber's GlowFan the FlamesRoaring FireControlled BurnCozy WarmthFirst SparksIt was a little surreal for Ember, being back in Ponyville. Not that they were in the town proper, right now. She'd agreed to meet on the outskirts, and so she'd gotten her first look at the place in ages with a fly-over view. And while there's been some familiar sights during that look, it'd struck her how much it had grown in the intervening years. Years were easy to let slip by for a dragon. The eldest of her people could casually nap for a century, and the ones who hadn't quite reached that point of their lives still tended to find time vanishing in a blink. Among fellow dragons, years felt like days, and among other species, it was all the more stark. She'd had a long talk with Smolder after her graduation, about how a lot had happened during her time at school and yet it'd felt like she'd barely been there for any length of time at all. It'd seemed to be the first time that the young dragon had truly stared down the fact that their species' lifespan was so much more than most sapients, and that she would forever be working on a different timescale. (Dragons were not truly immortal, but with the hibernations of the eldest helping to stretch their lifespans out more and more, even the true immortals had historically found them a hard problem to just outlive. Dragons could die of old age, and did, but the last one who had had done so years before Ember was even hatched. Death tended to come to them in youth, and more violently. From opportunistic predators like rocs, from territorial rivals like grootslang... and from other dragons.) Ember, having little to comfort Smolder with, had briefly turned into her father when she repeated the weak words he had once said to her. You adjust. That was what Ember had been doing a lot of these last several years. Adjusting. Her father had been talking about having his first long sleep, but he'd been putting it off, because, in his words, things were finally getting interesting in their lands and he wanted to see it for himself instead of napping through it. (That was why the Dragon Lords eventually had to step down. When they became elders, they could not longer effectively reign, as they spent more time asleep than awake. Her father had felt the changes happening, and chose to step down on his own terms, setting the challenge for his successor, rather than just vanishing into his cave and letting the other dragons descend upon each other in bloody chaos over the scepter. She'd originally wondered why... but maybe on some level, the old brute had realized that a dragon like her, fierce and clever, who could overcome challenges instead of just win a fight, had been the right choice.) He could only put it off for so long, however. Eventually... Eventually she'd be on her own. (She hoped the hundred years went by extra quickly. But she'd never tell him that.) These last several years had been going extra fast, with everything she'd needed to do. Her people had previously kept to themselves, only passing through other nations on migrations or when searching for a cave to sequester themselves in for their rests. Those times were long over, as the world was becoming ever more interconnected. Creatures who were used to seeing other sapient creatures at a distance or hearing about them in stories were now regularly seeing ponies, griffons, yaks, changelings, hippogriffs, kirin, donkeys, cattle, zebras, diamond dogs, abyssinians... Ember had met her first kelpie just last year, and a creature made mostly of water strolling around by a volcano had been a surreal sight. Trade had been opening up. Tourism. Ember had managed to seize the position she'd always wanted shortly before it ended up worlds more work. The simple law of "do what I say" was being expanded into a whole constitution. Codes of behaviour that had previously been informal and passed on orally were being written down and codified. She was starting to delegate to other dragons she could find who had more than two braincells to rub together, and considering creating formal positions and titles for them. It was dizzying. It was moving way too fast. On the worst days, she wished she'd listened to her father and walked away from the Gauntlet entirely. Then again, if she'd done that, she'd have never made friends with Spike. It was funny. If her father had chosen to step down even a year or two sooner, he no doubt wouldn't have been there. Spike had been at the absolute minimum age to receive a summons. Only dragons who had reached the stage of their lives when they'd gained their wings were expected to attend gatherings, which was why it'd been surprising when he'd shown up. Turned out he'd been a bit of a later bloomer, and those who still hadn't completely accepted him would claim it was the pony influence stunting his growth. It'd been a blessing in disguise, though, since his need of her wings had been one of the things pushing them to work together. Without Spike, she'd likely be listening to some brute who wanted mandatory burping contests or to steal pillows while the rest of the world left them behind. Spike was the reason she was back here. She'd stopped personally accompanying dragon exchange students for their first day of school a long time ago, and Princess Twilight Sparkle ruled from Canterlot now, so it was the only reason she came back to Ponyville now. And for a long while, he hadn't been there, not for more than a couple of days at a time. While she'd become a ruler, he'd become an ambassador. Many a previously isolated community had reacted with shock to a young dragon strolling into town, announcing himself a representative of Equestria, and yet he often made that shock work for him, turning it into a sense of intrigue and using it to get the creatures he met to listen to what he was saying. He'd been making friends all over, and more than once, the curious creatures who Ember had found gazing at the volcanoes in wonder had admitted to her that it'd been him who'd put the idea in their head. After all, if Spike was so nice, clearly other dragons would be too, right? (Thankfully, that was true now. Mostly. There were some holdouts determined to cling to the old ways and refuse to listen to a Dragon Lord who was so small, and she was sure certain sleeping elders, when they woke, would have opinions on all of these changes, none of them good. She didn't know how she was going to handle those elders without her father.) She and Spike had seen each other a few times in the last few years, but only a few. Fleeting chats at diplomatic functions, when they couldn't put their roles down no matter how much they wanted to. She'd been stuck at home so often, him away from home so often, and letters weren't quite the same. Things were finally, finally settling down some, and now she was standing in grass instead of on volcanic stone, having carved out a few days just for her and her first ever friend. He looked so dorky standing there with a picnic basket in his claws and that big smile. She couldn't help but smile right back. "Please tell me there's real food in there and not pony food." Spike waved his claws. "Don't worry about it, it's a lot easier to find the good stuff here now. I made sure to put in extra sapphires, since I know you like those." Ember gave him a friendly smack on the shoulder. "Attadrake. My mouth's watering already. Let's go find a good spot." It hadn't been hard to pick one, not when the crest of the nearby hill had the best view, letting them look out at the sea of trees from the nearby orchard. And beyond the orchard was the town itself, one that had to be twice as big as it'd been when she'd last seen it. With blanket spread out and basket open, Ember took in the view as she munched on a sapphire-encrusted cupcake and Spike pulled out a submarine sandwich filled with several kinds of quartz. With how much he'd grown, she wasn't surprised he had an appetite. The little runt she'd met all those years ago was long gone. The lack of wings had long been rectified, and he was much taller and broader than she'd ever expected him to get. Not that Ember herself hadn't gotten taller. Well, most would instead say that she'd gotten longer. She was never going to have the boulder-like physique of her father, and instead had taken after her mother, a titanic serpent of a dragoness. She was longer in the neck, torso, and tail now, her limbs having stayed roughly the same. She was starting to instinctively coil her body when at rest, but at least for now, it was still relatively comfortable to sit upright. Spike, meanwhile, was almost more like a minotaur than a dragon in his body plan. Whenever he got to a size when he'd need his foreclaws to move as much as his back ones, it was probably going to take a very long time, longer than it would for her. "So I was thinking, when we're done lunch, I could show you what Ponyville's done with Twilight's old castle. It's a museum now, dedicated to our adventures. There's even a painting someone did of us based on when we ran the Gauntlet of Fire together! And then after that we could..." As much as he'd changed physically, though, he still was the most talkative dragon she'd ever met. His voice had deepened, though, and grown much smoother, so she hardly minded listening to him. Really, she could listen to Spike talk all day. Ember blinked. "...Don't think you've ever seen the fruit bat sanctuary. Mac's daughters have really been working on improving it..." She looked at Spike, but the words were sliding off her scales like drops of lava. Thinking about how he'd grown, that was pretty normal. Dragons always sized each other up like that when they met after an absence. The instinct was for gauging rivals, but even family and friends did it. That thought, however, had not been precisely friendly. When they'd met, Ember had been in late adolescence. He'd been a little kid, too little to be there, and she'd reacted accordingly. Only in hindsight had she realized that he was setting off a protective instinct in her, because his small size and lack of wings had made him look like a hatchling. He was a lot smarter than some hatchling, though, and it'd been easy to form a friendship with a dragon she felt she could actually talk to. Neither of them were kids anymore. Years had moved fast, and now, sitting next to her, was an adult dragon. Dragons took centuries to stop growing physically larger, but that was partly due to the effect amassing a treasure hoard had on their forms and magic. (There was the question of how that was going to work now that dragons were being generous. Trading and sharing instead of hoarding. How big would she get? Would it be big enough?) As far as actually maturing, both of them were done. In fact, if someone took their respective ages, measured physical maturity, compared it to their lifespans... they were in the exact same life stage now. "...And then we can have dinner at this new place that opened up a couple years ago. The family that runs it are changelings and..." The little runt had caught up in a big way. Big in many, many ways... no doubt including ways she hadn't seen yet... Ember clenched her jaw, razor-like teeth locking together. No. We are not doing this now. Or ever. It's Spike for magma's sake. Her brain realized that, that this was her first and best friend and that noticing that he'd become ridiculously handsome was weird of her. Her heart, and several things further south, didn't care. "So what do you think?" Ember blinked furiously, well aware that she'd been staring at his pale green pectorals for several minutes. Then her long tail curled around her hip, draped over her thigh, and slammed down between her legs like a trap door snapping shut. She forced a smile. "Sounds... great!" Elders save her, she was going to die. Ember's GlowThis was torture. It had to be against some of kind international law to put a dragon through this, being directly next to an attractive member of their species and unable to act on it. And if it wasn't, clearly it needed to be. It was like acknowledging the feelings had amplified them, and now just him moving enough for her to see the muscles beneath his scales, or listening to him talk, had her mind taking a vacation and her body making several increasingly loud demands. And Spike, magma bless his big, smiling, stupid head, was oblivious. It'd taken Ember several minutes to figure out why he was oblivious. After all, she was being incredibly, embarrassingly blatant about it, with more than the placement of her tail. Her body was running several degrees hotter and starting to lightly singe the blanket, the crest of spines along her head were sitting as upright as they could and, to her mortification, occasionally quivered in response to his voice, and she was certain she was giving off the scent of interest... Then it'd hit her. Spike was raised by ponies. The big, softhearted lug wouldn't have been able to recognize an interested dragoness if she literally pounced on him. She nearly did, in fact. The seventh time, when he'd leaned close to brush come crumbs off her chin, had been dangerously close to not being a nearly, and she'd clenched her jaw hard enough that she could hear her fangs grinding together. On one claw, it was perfect, since it meant that everything was only agonizingly awkward from her perspective. On the other, without him giving a clear signal of yes or no, her body couldn't calm down. She could only sit there and stew in this cocktail of desire while desperately trying to hold a conversation. She tried. Let the oldest of volcanoes know that she made every gargantuan effort to calmly sit, eat the food Spike had brought, and catch him up on what she'd been up to these past years. She felt she deserved a reward. A medal, maybe. She was the Dragon Lord, she could totally make up a medal for self-control in the face of the stupidly attractive and award it to herself as the first recipient. Then again, that'd be effectively telling every single dragon that she had a crush. Magma burn it. It was as they were cleaning up the picnic blanket--she hastily folded her end in a way to try to hide the scorch marks--that she saw her chance to escape the torment. "Spike? Can I ask a favour?" Not seeming to notice the quiver in her voice any more than he had at any other time, Spike tucked the blanket into the empty basket, brushed crumbs from his front, and smiled. "Sure, you can always ask me for things, Ember. What do you need?" For you to ki-- Slow inhale, and Ember managed to force some of the feeling down. Thinking about ice cream, cold baths, and flying in hailstorms provided just enough self-control. "It's just that... I've been thinking about how nice it'd be to fly around Ponyville. Not needing to go anywhere or do anything while I'm up there, but just enjoy the thermals." Spike beamed. "Is that all? I'd be happy to fly with--" "No!" Spike blinked and rocked back slightly, and Ember realized how loudly she'd said that. "What I mean is... you know what those boulderheads down in the Dragonlands are like. I can't get a minute to myself without being interrupted by something. Would you mind if I just took some time to fly solo, and we meet back up at dinner?" "Oh, uh, sure." He was drooping and she instantly felt bad. That was the thing that had really gotten under her scales about him at first, that he made her feel bad about being mean. But she knew it was the lesser of evils. "We can always do the other stuff tom--" Despite crude jokes to the contrary, dragons only had fire come out of one end. If anyone else had been there to see Ember rocket into the sky, however, they'd be forgiven for imagining they saw a gout of flame trailing behind her. "--morrow." The thermals above Ponyville were really nice for flying. Then again, ponies could control the weather, so she had no doubt they were being actively maintained by all the pegasi living here. She wasn't completely alone in the sky. There were some of the aforementioned pegasi, a couple of griffons and one hippogriff. A few seemed to recognize her, but other than a few smiles in her direction, none of them reacted overly much and kept a respectful distance. Which meant that she had plenty of opportunity to think as she put her flying on near-automatic, soaring circles above the town. What is wrong with me? Before she'd taken up the Bloodstone Scepter, it would have been nothing to just go into her cave and brood for a month as she figured her emotions out. It was the kind of timescale on personal epiphanies that dragons were supposed to follow. The world was faster now, however, and her time was valuable down to the second. She couldn't waste any of it drawing this out. She needed to think. When had this started? She'd certainly noticed at various functions that he was catching up to her. Each time she'd seen him, he was a little bigger, and little more fit, his wings a little more-- She felt her crest quivering and her body heating up. She bared her teeth and forced it to stop, easier to do when the source of the feelings was not present. Okay, so he was handsome. She'd been around plenty of dragons of all levels of attractiveness and that had never happened before. What was the difference? He was her best friend. He'd helped her at a time when other dragons wouldn't even have the idea enter their mind. He'd even given up power in order to give it to her. He'd always tried to make time to see her even a little bit, including today. She was a priority in his busy life, and he cared, openly, without needing to veil or deny it. A different warmth came to her this time, settling in her chest. She'd watched other young dragons become adults. It kind of came with the job, or at least it did now. Somehow she'd managed to turn being the Dragon Lord into becoming dragonkind's collective mother. In all of those cases, though, there'd never been a moment when she didn't still see them as one of the kids. Smolder was a good example, really. She'd grown to be a pretty dragoness, but to Ember, she was still Garble's kid sister. It would never cross her mind to be interested in her, and in fact the thought made her immediately queasy. Even dragons who'd always been close to her in age... Garble was a good enough looking guy, and she'd never thought about it. She'd known the big lug from when he was at his worst, and she was in charge of making sure he had encouragement to be less of a pain in the rear. There were plenty of dragons who she could objectively assess and say, sure, they weren't hard on the eyes, but ultimately... Ultimately, she'd either been around them most of her or their lives, or they were dragons she was otherwise directly responsible for. Spike wasn't one of her subjects. Technically, she could summon him just like she could any dragon using the scepter, but ultimately he was Equestrian, and if she tried to boss him around, his big sister with the big wings and big horn would come with a list of objections and the magic to turn her inside-out. In a lot of ways, they were on equal footing, her a ruler and him an adoptive relative of one. He'd been a kid when they'd met, but he'd never been one of "her" kids, not really. Was that it, then? She was lonely and being the Dragon Lord made the pool of potential mates that small? Ember cursed under her breath. Then a couple of chattering changelings flew past, light dancing over their shiny carapaces, and Ember quieted herself as she absently returned the wave one of them sent her. She then angled her wings, trying to get up higher, as if the altitude might help her think more clearly. Spike was her friend. She owed it to him to determine whether this was something real or not. Hm. Friend. Spike liked to talk about how friends working together could overcome impossible obstacles. Maybe she should ask a friend for advice? Smolder was pretty emotionally intelligent, thanks to her schooling and adventures, but going to her for advice would result in no end of teasing. She would never, ever let her forget that she once asked her for romantic advice. Maybe as an absolute last resort. Ember glanced at where the changelings had been flying past before. Thorax probably knew a lot about love. He used to eat it, after all. He could probably stroll up to her and smell her emotional state. The problem was that he was way off in his kingdom, and she'd only just started being able to carve out time in her schedule to travel. A letter wouldn't cut it for this. Garble had, surprisingly, become one of her biggest supporters these days, and she could even potentially call him a friend. But romantic advice? There were probably rocks more suited to that conversation. Her father? She would rather fly directly into the ocean. Who else? Ember flew a few more laps of the town. I... don't have a lot of friends, do I? It wasn't her fault. The job made it hard, especially when it felt like a ticking clock until the first elder woke up and everything went tails-up over her decisions to do things like play nice with ponies. Ponies. Ponies sometimes asked experts instead of friends for advice, didn't they? Maybe she could do that. That one cotton-candy looking princess pony with the heart on her butt was supposed to be an expert on love. The problem was that, if the Changeling Kingdom was hard to travel to on sort notice, the Crystal Empire was even worse. Twilight and her friends were supposed to be experts on friendship and romance was... friendship-adjacent, right? It was supposedly good to be friends first and foremost with a mate, or at least she'd heard that sentiment before. Of course, there was no way she was going to go see Twilight herself about it. Between her being part of Spike's family and being a monarch of a nation with a close association with her own, there was no measurement system that existed that could record the mess that that would be. Awkwardness off every chart, with a side of diplomatic incident for flavour. The other ponies... Ember found them blurring together in her mind. She hadn't gotten much better about telling ponies apart than she had been during her first visit to Ponyville, try as she might. At least Twilight had the decency to now be taller than any of the others. But one of them had to be good with this, right? Surely Spike had told her something about them that she could remember that was relevant to this situation. Wait. Ember paused, going into a hover. She barely noticed a gargoyle glide past, and didn't notice at all them tilting in the air as they checked her out. There was one of Twilight's friends that Spike always talked more about than the others. The one with tasty-looking gems on her butt. What was her name again? Novelty? Elusive? No. Rarity. It was Rarity. Maybe Rarity would be of help. Ember went into a dive, spooking a squawk out of--Wait, had that been a cockatrice casually sitting with a newspaper? Focus. Finding Rarity now, reflection on exactly how much a misnomer Ponyville was these days later. Fan the FlamesIt was easy enough to spot Carousel Boutique from the air. Ponies may have been hard to tell apart, but she could at least be thankful for how distinct they made their architecture. Her people could take notes on making their caves look different so that homes and budding businesses were easier to find and they stopped having tourists blunder into the wrong place. That one kelpie she'd met had been about to waltz right into a private residence. Ember's wings were burning by time she landed in front of the building, and she wondered how long she'd been up there. She looked at the position of the sun, and came to the conclusion that it amounted to too long, and that squashed down her hesitation. She'd already wasted too much time figuring out who to get advice from. She couldn't waste any of it dallying. She did, however, indulge in a single, steadying breath, and she raised her fist to give the door a knock. She was the Dragon Lord. She was allowed the occasional indulgence. She heard hoofsteps inside, then the door opened, and Ember was about eighty-five percent certain that the pony who opened the door wasn't Rarity. She couldn't see hindquarters from this angle, but she was reasonably certain she remembered the backdrop of the gemstones being something other than green. She was also relatively sure that Rarity was the kind of pony with a horn. "Oh! Hello, Dragon Lord Ember. What brings you here?" And she was very sure that Rarity didn't have such a masculine voice. The pony certainly seemed to know who she was, though, between the name-and-title thing and the respectful nod that came with it, and Ember opened her mouth to respond when a booming voice rang out from inside the boutique. "WHO AT DOOR?" Ember fought to keep her poker face. She was one hundred percent certain that that was the voice of a yak. "It's the Dragon Lord!" The pony stepped back from the door as he said that, gesturing with one foreleg for her to come in, and, now apparently stuck on whatever kind of ride this was, Ember obliged, stepping into the boutique. Was she in the wrong place? Had she mixed up Rarity's profession with someone else's? It was possible, but she could have sworn the gem-butt pony and dress-making pony were the one and the same. Ember cast a quick glance at his flank. Nope, not gems. With that confirmed, she looked around. The inside looked about like what she'd expected: very pink, and very frilly. Facsimiles of various different species were around, bipedal and quadrupedal alike--she had to pause and lean to one side to get a better look at one that seemed to have been made based on a centaur's body plan--and each had some kind of flashy, sparkly attire on it. Mostly dresses, but there were a few suits too, most notably one that reminded Ember a lot of a suit that Spike had worn to a recent diplomatic function. She supposed it'd make sense that Rarity would have designed Spike's clothes. If this was the right place, which she doubted all the more when a yak was indeed what stepped out from among the various clothing displays, each placement of a hoof making the floor tremble slightly. "Dragon Lord Ember! Yona so pleasantly surprised!" She managed a smile in response. "Just Ember. I've been hearing 'Dragon Lord' all the time for ages, and I'm on vacation today." "Of course." The well-dressed yak bobbed her head. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, Ember. How can Yona be of service? That was one thing to appreciate about yaks. They repeated their names so much that it was much harder to forget them. Why couldn't all mammals be so considerate? "Well, I was hoping to see Rarity..." Both of them glanced at each other, and something clicked in Ember's mind. Wait, Yona was one of the Smolder's friends, wasn't she? That meant that the pony was probably... Sand Dune? Sand Dollar? Whatever his name was, he's the one who spoke up. "Well, you see, Dra--Ember, Rarity doesn't run the boutique in Ponyville anymore." Yona nodded. "Sandbar right." Sandbar, that was the name. "Rarity have lots of boutiques. Rarity always travelling all over to check on them. She leave Ponyville in Yona's hooves." Ember realized that her frown must shown through when she hastily added, "But Ember in luck! Rarity coming to visit today." "Yeah, she should be here in a couple of hours," Sandbar added. Ember considered the time she'd been spending in flying alone with her thoughts, measured out a couple of more hours, and weighed it against dinnertime. There wouldn't be a lot of time to talk, just a short conversation. Not ideal, but then again, she'd worked with shorter deadlines. As she was thinking, he continued, "Would you like to come back later? Or you could join us for tea while you wait?" Yona nodded excitedly. "Yona have good blend for dragon guests. Smolder love it!" "Tea would be great." It wasn't like she had anything better to do; she'd just end up stewing in her own feelings again if she went back to flying. Yak and pony both hurried off to prepare the tea, and Ember managed a real smile. Maybe these two would have some embarrassing stories about Smolder to torment the younger dragon with when next they met up. That'd definitely be worth the trip. "...And then she had to spend all day with her scales like that." "Yona know who did it. Gallus have bad poker face." "But it took us a while to figure out how. Turned out he'd made a deal with this unicorn we'd shared classes with to rig her scale-wax with a colour-change spell. We found her shaking the filly and demanding the counter-spell." Ember couldn't help but chuckle as she held her teacup in her claws, imagining an alarmingly blue Smolder shuffling from class to class snorting irritated smoke from her nostrils. She took a sip of the steaming liquid, letting the unique blend of spices roll over her tongue, and she couldn't help but admit that they'd been right. This tea was good. She'd been led into a little side-room of the boutique, and was currently seated on a very plush, purple cushion around a small table. Yona and Sandbar were across from her, seated close together, and had yet to touch their own cups, since less heat-proof creatures tended to prefer their own tea at a temperature below boiling. It was strange to consider how much things had changed. Being the Dragon Lord had meant embracing unconventional dragonhood, and putting in the work to remove unconventional from the name at all. That had been anything from embracing Spike's ideas of friendship, to Garble's love of poetry, to even her own belief that intelligence, creativity, and adaptability were better leadership qualities than raw power and a dominating personality. Before, tea parties had been the go-to thing to mock ponies and their society with, yet, here she was, sitting with a pony and a yak and drinking tea. And enjoying it. "Yona get more tea." She paused and nuzzled lightly at Sandbar's cheek, who nuzzled right back. "Sandbar tell next story." Huh. Ember wasn't any better with mammal body language than she was with their names, but she was fairly certain that hadn't been a purely friendly nuzzle. Had Smolder ever said something like that, about her friends? A vague memory was stirring of two of them having dated, or at least gone on a date. It was a shame that Smolder's letters to her from those years were sitting in her cave so she couldn't look them over. "Something wrong with the tea?" Sandbar asked, and Ember forced on the small, vaguely-polite smile she'd gotten used to doing around other creatures for the sake of diplomacy. "No, no, it's great." She took another sip, mentally picking out a few more spices and comparing them to the gems they made her think of. "I can see why Smolder likes it." Yona soon came back, the teapot dangling from one horn, and she carefully tilted her head to refill her own, Sandbar's, and Ember's cups. Then the pair shared another nuzzle, miraculously not resulting in scalding hot liquid scorching any green pony fur. They both noticed the look Ember was giving them, then, and yak bluntness and compactness of sentences had the words out the fastest, "Ember not know Yona and Sandbar couple?" It took three blinks. "Well, I--Smolder mentioned that, but, you know, it was years ago, when you guys were still kids. So... congrats on still being together." Ember nearly cringed herself a foot shorter. Smooth as broken obsidian. Both of them seemed to take it completely at face value, however, smiling broadly as Yona set the teapot down and settled back onto her cushion. Sandbar, chuckling, then launched into his storyteller voice again. "So, after the scales incident, Smolder wanted to get back at Gallus, and she wanted to make it big. We found out later she'd roped in Ocellus, but at the time--" Ember tried to keep her face schooled, even as she nodded at what she hoped were the right times to feign paying attention. A pony and a yak as a couple. They were about as different as two mammalian sapients could get--she wasn't counting hybrids in that, like griffons; she could only imagine what a griffon and pony couple would've looked like--and yet they seemed to really be making it work. Even now, the casual affection between the two was very open, with Sandbar leaning against Yona as he spoke, comfortably using her great, fluffy bulk as a pillow. In a lot of ways, Spike was essentially a pony. There were some dragon things built-in that none of them could avoid, but he'd been hatched by and raised by ponies. (She'd tried to uncover his past, once, but the trail was cold. A smuggler had acquired the egg for a client who wanted it for alchemical purposes, but how remained a mystery. The supplier had covered their tracks too well, and no parents had come forward claiming to have lost an egg to a thief. It had taken Ember years to accept defeat, and it'd never stopped bothering her. She'd never told him what she was trying. Not after she heard what had happened with a dragon who had pretended to be his father. She had, however, eventually summoned Sludge for a little one-on-one chat about what was no longer acceptable behaviour toward benefactors.) It pretty much was an interspecies relationship. Or would be, if this went anywhere. If these two could make it work, maybe they'd be able to help her out. They just couldn't know what she was after, else it was sure to get to Smolder and she would laugh her tail off. Ember just needed to be tactful and subtle. Piece of cake. Roaring Fire"It took weeks to get rid of all of the confetti." Ember had gotten better at little, polite, fake laughs. It'd been a survival skill, figuratively and at least once a little bit literally. There was, however, nothing little, polite, or fake about the laughter bubbling up from her at the mental image of the chaos the two had been describing. She would have to give Smolder a much-belated pat on the back for a prank well done... after she was done ribbing her about having once having her scales been dyed blue. It had been her first time feeling relaxed since the picnic, and it made her almost forget the deadline of dinner weighing down on her and her mission to carefully pry information from the two mammals in front of her. As her laughter died down to chuckles, however, she saw her chance. "Sooooooo..." Both of them looked at her inquiringly, and she took a sip of her scalding tea to try to seem more nonchalant. "Uh, Smolder told me about you guys, but she never went into a ton of detail. How did you two get together?" Yak and pony glanced at one another, and it was the former who spoke first. "Long story." Ember shrugged good naturedly. "I've got time. Still a while until Rarity gets here, right?" The two shared another glance, and it was Sandbar who spoke up "Well, it all started when the school had its first Amity Ball..." He seemed to notice Ember's look of confusion. "Oh! Did Spike tell you about the Fetlock Fête?" "A bit," seemed like the safe answer. "It's basically that, only hosted at the school. The dancing, the dinner, the works. With all the students invited. Including the Pony Pals Competition. Well, Annual Amity Ball Award For Friendship, these days, but the first year it was still called Pony Pals." Yona nodded. "Sandbar ask Yona to be Sandbar's pony pal. And Yona want to be best pony pal. So Yona ask Rarity for help." Now that was a name Ember wanted to hear, and she perked up, leaning forward a bit. "So she's somepony you went to a lot for advice on that kind of thing?" "No," Yona responded with a cheery nonchalance. "Rarity just run Yona over with clothes rack in hallway and make Yona realize need dress." Ember's eyelid twitched. "I... see..." "And then Rarity promise to help Yona learn pony traditions and shove brussel sprouts in Yona's mouth." "Brussel... sprouts...?" Ember was pretty sure nictitating membranes weren't supposed to be able to also twitch, but here she was. "Rarity say brussel sprouts help Yona talk more elegant, like pony. And then we sing song about fitting in." Ember, half-expecting a rendition of said song to start, felt instant regret for every life choice that brought her to the boutique and opened her mouth to speak. Sandbar held up a hoof to stop her, shook his head, and mouthed what she was pretty sure was 'wait for it.' "And then Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy teach Yona pony dances and Yona break school gym." Ember possibly knew who those were. Rainbow Dash was one of the ones with wings, right? "Then Pinkie Pie and Applejack help Yona make applesauce." She was slightly more sure she knew who Pinkie Pie was, and it didn't inspire much confidence in how that applesauce must have turned out. "And all that..." Ember's voice was cautious. "Helped...?" That's when Yona started to laugh, the booming sound nearly causing the tea to spill. "Was disaster. Sandbar hate new Yona." "I didn't hate it." He leaned over to give her a nuzzle. "I just didn't like it as much as the old Yona." A small chuckle escaped him. "Though the fact that you started talking with Rarity's accent was a liiiittle unsettling, not gonna lie." Yona nodded, the amused grin still on her face. "Yak do sound silly trying to talk like pony." Sandbar smiled at Ember. "We had a talk afterward--" "Sandbar need talk Yona out of living in treehouse." "--About how Yona didn't need to be a pony, because I asked her to the dance, not some... imaginary pony version of her I thought she could be." "Then Yona teach everyone traditional yak dance." Ember held back the question of what a traditional yak dance would look like. Given what she'd heard about a destroyed school gym, she felt her imagination had filled in the blanks pretty well. Instead, she went over the story in her mind. "So... You guys just kind of... keep doing what you're doing, as a pony and a yak, and it all works out?" Sandbar leaned on Yona a bit more. "Exactly." Ember mentally chewed on that thought. Sure, one of the defining parts of her reign had been to encourage the virtue of be yourself, but it still seemed far too simple. Yet, she was staring at living proof, and if attempting to be more pony-like had really been so disastrous, she should take a lesson from that. Besides, she and Spike were friends. Close enough friends for even the chaotic nature of their occupations and little time to see each other hadn't broken that friendship. He clearly considered her to be a worthwhile companion already, and the cultural barrier hadn't caused too much trouble. Ember felt some tension in her shoulders relax, tension that she hadn't even realized she was carrying. Maybe things would be okay. Then Yona spoke up, her voice unusually sombre. "Yona do want warn Ember." She froze at the words. "Yona and Sandbar work because Sandbar like yak, and Yona like pony. Not every pony like that. Pony might not want dragon." Ember's eyes widened, and for just the briefest moment, she felt the urge to spread her wings and bolt from the building. She squashed the impulse, instead going to for her tea, trying to look nonchalant and buy time to mount her verbal defensive to carefully insist that she'd just been curious, and certainly wasn't looking to date a pony-- Yona didn't give her a chance. "And Ember bit young for Rarity." Ember choked, and Sandbar was forced to duck as the resulting coughing fit sent hot, spiced tea spraying across the table. "You kind of went for the throat there, honey," he commented from beneath the table. "But Ember being obvious." "It's Spike!" Ember half-shouted, half-croaked as her lungs found precious air again. "It's Spike, not Rarity! I'm not into ponies!" She clapped her hands over her mouth as Sandbar rose back into view, and both mammals were wearing the kind of grins that she felt should have a row of sharp teeth in them. She uncovered her snout to point a claw at them, mustering her full Royal Dragon Voice of Authority. "Not a word to Smolder. I'm using all of my authority as the Dragon Lord--" "I thought you were on vacation?" Sandbar asked, his voice the picture of innocence. "And Yona and Sandbar not dragons," came the voice of simple, practical yak nonchalance. Ember's pointing claw drooped, and she gritted her teeth. Right, these weren't her subjects. All the chest-puffing and smoke-snorting in the world wouldn't save her. She had to use her nice words, and so she ground out, "Please... don't tell Smolder." Almost instantly, the grins faded to gentler smiles. "Your secret's safe with us," Sandbar assured. "Yona clean up," The huge body who had taken the tea spray unflinchingly got up. "Then Yona and Sandbar tell Ember more stories." Ember found herself breathing a relieved sigh. That could have gone better, but it also could have gone worse. Now she just needed to wait for Rarity to arrive, and see what insight she had. She couldn't believe they'd thought she'd been interested in Rarity. Sure, taking interest in Spike was a bit like an interspecies relationship, but she couldn't fathom a dragon taking interest in an actual small, fuzzy, butt-stamped mammal. That'd be ridiculous. Controlled BurnWhen Rarity showed up, Ember was impressed. It'd been exactly two hours after her own arrival that the door opened, the bell chimed, and a melodious voice rung out with the words, "I have returned, darlings!" The latest story of childhood pranks went on hold as Sandbar and Yona got up to greet their boss, and Ember followed just until the doorway of the room, so she could look at the pony currently on the sales floor. She caught a glimpse of the correct gemstone image on her flank, and patted herself on the back for having remembered not only the right name and symbol combo, but having been right about her being a unicorn, and not green. There was a flurry of conversation between the three of them, and Ember fought not to tap her foot with impatience as they did so. She couldn't appear too in a hurry. She had to be polite about things, and let Rarity catch up with her employees, as much as part of her wanted to grab the mare and shake her until romantic advice fell out. Her patience paid off, as the pleasantly smiling face, framed by a grey-streaked purple mane, turned to look at her. "My, Dragon Lord Ember! To what do I owe this honour?" (Grey streaks... those were a sign of age in mammals, weren't they? How old was Rarity? How long did ponies live?) She smiled back. "Just Ember. I'm in town for a couple of days to see Spike, but I had a little time before we meet up, and I remembered that you used to work here, so... I came for a chat." Rarity's ears twitched, seemingly in thought, but smile only grew brighter. "Then I'll count us both lucky that my own plans had me coming home to Ponyville. I hope you haven't been kept long?" Ember gave a nonchalant wave of her claws. "I had good company." There was a bob of a dual-horned head. "Yona tell Ember about first Amity Ball." Rarity immediately flinched. "Oh yes... that... lovely little adventure." "And the brussel sprouts. And the dance lessons. And the--" "Splendid!" A grimace of a smile accompanied hasty hooves. "Then, if you'd like to start your evening early, I can look after the boutique and our guest myself. For old time's sake." Neither of the young couple protested that, and Ember was soon following Rarity back into the sitting room. Hopefully she'd made the right choice on where to look for advice, because time was nearly up. "So, Ember dear, what was it you wanted to talk about?" For a lot of creatures, another pot of tea would have them hopping from foot to foot looking for the little creature's room. Dragons' metabolisms were slightly different, which was unfortunate, because she couldn't use it as the excuse for why she was squirming so much under the gentle, patient gaze of the unicorn across from her. Something about Rarity had her immediately nervous, though she couldn't quite put her claw on why. "Well..." She took a breath, and took the plunge into the conversational lava. "You've known Spike a long time, right?" That earned a fond smile, and brief wave of a hoof. "Not as long as Twilight, but yes, I've known him since he was a tiny little Spikey-Wikey." A slow blink, and a small snicker. "...He let you call him Spikey-Wikey?" "He still does, with a few token protests. He knows it's affectionate." Rarity gave a small titter. "Once he outgrew his little drakehood crush, I think he accepted that I saw him a lot like a younger sibling, and was going to keep heaping the mildly-embarrassing nicknames on him no matter how old he grew." There was no spit take this time. That would have involved breathing. Instead, Rarity saw her owlish stare and tilted her head. "Did he never tell you he used to have a crush on me?" Ember shook her head, as her lungs remembered what they were for. "Can't... say it ever came up." She stared down at her teacup. "So... he likes ponies, huh?" Rarity hummed thoughtfully. "I think it would be safer to say that he liked me, and I happened to be a pony. He's rather blind to species, in my experience." "...Experience?" It was about all she had words for, now that her mind was going all kinds of places it hadn't before. She hadn't considered the idea that he might already have someone, and was mentally kicking herself hard enough to send herself soaring right back into her cave. "He's had fleeting interests," Rarity obligingly answered, "Nothing lasting. But it does run the gamut. Griffons, changelings... Spikey-Wikey has a talent for seeing beauty in all sorts of places." But possibly not in other dragons. "No one right now, though?" "Not that I'm aware of, though he doesn't always tell me about them. I think he's still a trace embarrassed about how he acted toward me as a youngster." She shrugged, and then Ember found herself under a slightly stronger stare. Still patient, still kind, still friendly, and yet somehow stripping her of her thick-scaled defenses like cracking open a geode. "Now, rather than beating around the bush... why don't you tell me why you're asking about Spike? And his love life in particular." Ember stared back across the table, considered the wrinkles at the corners of gentle eyes and curls decorated with grey, and made a choice. She told her everything, from the tense picnic, to her soul searching in flight, to her decision to come here, and why. She swept past the conversation with Yona and Sandbar some, mostly due to Rarity hastening her the moment brussel sprouts came up again, but otherwise spared no detail. "I see." Rarity eyed Ember for a long moment. "Would you like a brutally honest opinion, darling?" "Sure." She shrugged, and pushed away her tea cup. It was too cold now, anyway. "I don't think my ego can get any more chewed up than it already is." "I think you're making this much more complicated than it needs to be." When Ember opened her mouth to protest, Rarity's hoof went up. "You've just realized that you have some attraction toward a friend. And that is indeed terribly awkward to experience. Downright mortifying. But the only way to know if it can go anywhere is to, as dear Rainbow Dash would say, shoot your shot." "But I have no idea if this is real or--" "Nopony--" Rarity paused, cleared her throat. "Ahem, sorry, I still occasionally slip. What I mean to say is, no one knows if their feelings are 'real' when they're still locked up inside. The point of asking another creature out is to explore the feelings and find out together." "But I don't even know if he has any." "Again, that is why we ask. The worst he can say is no." She smiled gently. "If my friendship with him survived a crush, Ember, so can yours." "But... he's..." Rarity raised a hoof, causing the sputtering to silence, and when she spoke, her voice was even gentler. "May I ask you a delicate question, Ember?" She heaved a sigh, gesturing in the air. "Go ahead." There was a pause as she seemed to be hunting for the right words. "The reactions you described yourself having. The position of your spines, the increase in body temperature... Those are involuntary, correct?" There was an immediate surge of heat. This one was much more localized, however, being entirely centered on her face. "Well, I mean. I uh. I can make them stop if I concentrate enough--" Voice still soft, still gentle. "That's not what I asked, dear. They start happening regardless of whether you want them to, yes?" "...Yeah." It was about all she could say to that. "What, do ponies not have...?" "Oh, we do." With a dramatic sigh. "There are times when I have been scandalized by the acts of my own tail and its choice of positioning. But that's entirely my point." She gestured toward Ember, the front leg moving up and down to indicate her entire body. "You said that you thought Spike didn't recognize the signals because he was raised by ponies, but he's very well-traveled and driven to learn. I think he noticed just fine, and understood. I think he just kept in mind one thing he did learn growing up with ponies." Rarity leaned forward, and the surprisingly fierce eye contact came with a set of firm words that Ember could easily see her hammering into the mind of an adolescent. "Body language is not consent." "But he didn't react at all!" Ember protested. "He didn't even give the no signal to make me cool it, he just..." She froze. "He just..." The realization sank in, and she sat there, mentally staring at the puzzle pieces having clicked together. Rarity nodded, and gave voice to the thoughts in her mind. "He didn't wish to tell you no. He was just waiting for a clear question to say yes to." "He still could have said something!" she burst out. "I was sitting there burning a hole in the blanket!" "And you could have said something as well." Rarity gave a small giggle and sheepish smile. "That is one other thing you could blame on us. A good gentlecolt waits for the lady to approach him first, at least in cases where there's a single lady and single gentlecolt involved, but it seems that dragons are a little more egalitarian?" Ember distantly nodded to confirm that. Gender didn't have any effect on those kinds of things, and as much as she tried to keep in mind the ways that other species were different, it wasn't as if she'd really needed to consider how pony romance worked before. She then placed her claws to her face, harmlessly raking them over her scales as she dragged them down and slumped in her seat. "So the whole time I could've gone for it?" "Now Ember..." Rarity's voice was soft again. Sympathetic. "Ultimately, I can't read Spike's mind. I know him well, and so that's what I suspect based on how you described him acting. But I can't know for sure. And neither will you, until you ask." "It'd be easier to hide in my cave for a month," Ember grumbled. "But is that what you want to do?" "...No." (She... reminds me a little of Mom.) She prodded at her teacup. Definitely too cold, now. There wasn't a hint of steam left. "How'd you get so smart about this?" "Trial and error. Emphasis on error. And in many ways, I'm still learning." Rarity gave a small laugh. "I could tell you stories." Tempting, but the clock had been ticking, and time was up. "No, I'd... I'd better get going. I have dinner plans." She slowly got up. "But... thank you. For the talk." "Anytime." Rarity offered a smile. "If it doesn't work out, you're welcome to come back. We'll open some tubs of Rocky Road ice cream, and I'll make sure to have one of the kind with actual rocks." Ember, despite herself, smiled back. "I'd like that." It took some effort to make her way to the boutique's door, the weight of what was coming bearing down on her with enough force that she wasn't entirely sure that she would be able to fly. She stretched her wings out anyway when she reached the outside, and it only took a few more flaps than usual to send her into the air. Their friendship would survive this. No matter what else happened, she'd make sure of that. Cozy WarmthIt was a nice restaurant. There was a real dearth of nice restaurants in the Dragonlands. There was a shortage of restaurants in general, mostly because when it came to dragon skillsets, a species that knew how to breathe fire had shockingly produced very few cooks over the ages. Or maybe not so shocking, when they were omnivores with a strong lean toward geovorous. There were only so many ways to prepare a meal of stones, though she'd gotten to like some of the recipes invented by pony rock farmers. Fusion cuisine had become the name of the game in a lot of cases. Foods that other creatures liked to eat, stuffed to the horns with gemstones. Sometimes that really worked, with the food that Spike had brought to the picnic having been a prime example, while in other cases it was abundantly clear that the one who'd developed the recipe had no idea what the different stones actually tasted like. If Spike liked this place, though, chances were they knew what they were doing. She looked up at the sign, which was decorated with stylized changelings and little hearts, then at him standing there, holding the door open for her. Such a dork. But still a ridiculously handsome one. She strolled over, and then, instead of going through the open door, lightly jabbed her claw into his side. "What's with the sudden pony manners?" He ducked his head. "I'm just... being nice." Ember rolled her eyes, and slipped through the doorway, subconsciously giving her body more of a slithering sway. "And lucky for you, I accept you, niceness and all." He chuckled. "Yeah. Lucky me." Her heart jumped at the lack of playful sarcasm at the words, and felt her body temperature slide up several notches. She gritted her fangs, taking several sharp breaths through her nostrils and trying to ignore the smoke curling from them on the exhales as she forced the sensation down. She needed to not read into it too much. She had to use her words here, directly. But maybe she should use her words after dinner. She wanted to believe that Rarity's assessment of the situation was right and he was waiting for her to make the first move, but there was still a chance that this could go sideways. Their friendship would survive, sure, but it would be a shame to spoil the meal together with short-term awkwardness if he really wasn't interested in her that way. She heard Spike talking to one of the servers--true to the sign, they were a changeling, their carapace all purples and blues--presumably about a table, and she took in a deep breath. She'd handled lunch together. She could handle a nice dinner. And then, afterward, she'd tell him that she'd really enjoyed the time together, and that she'd like to do it more. As something other than friends. I can do this. "Twilight says she'll pay for the damages." Ember, currently sitting on a bench in Ponyville's park, didn't remove her face from her scaled hands. "Great." It was a quiet enough place to sulk, as with the sun going down, most of the creatures who'd been playing and socializing had already gone home. There were some stragglers--a pony leaving with her two young mule foals, one of whom was asleep on her back while the other followed behind, occasionally yawning, and an elderly pony couple walking together in the other direction were the ones she could spot from her seat--but none of them paid any mind to her stewing in her mortification. "No one blames you, Ember." Spike's voice was way too soft and way too kind, holding a letter in his claws that had just materialized out of green flame. "The owner admitted that it was a major oversight not to fireproof the chairs and tables when offering foods that dragons and kirin would want to eat." She finally looked up at him, her eyes peeking over her own claws. "I'm the Dragon Lord and I lit a chair on fire with my butt." Spike, to his credit, only almost laughed, his face contorting in a few different directions before he smiled gently again. "And I've lit books on fire with my sneezes. It happens." She groaned and buried her face again. "I lit a chair on fire and a pony princess covered it. I should at least be handing over the gems myself." "I can tell her you want to take responsibility, if that would help? I think she's just used to stepping in when one of her friends or family goes somewhere and there's property damage." That got a small snort of a laugh. "Yeah, guess she would be, after all the stories you've told me." "See? For Ponyville, this is a Tuesday." He perched on the edge of the bench, and lightly patted her on the shoulder. "I'm pretty sure one of them is going to try to keep the ashes as a souvenir of the day the Dragon Lord visited." The mental image got a few chuckles. "Maybe they'll ask me to sign them." "Maybe!" He offered his hand. "Come on, I've got a plan B place, and I know that their stuff is fireproof." Ember looked at his hand, and briefly reached out her own, only to pause. "...You're not going to ask why I set the chair on fire?" Spike shrugged. "Do you want to talk about it?" "...Nooot really." "Then let's go get dinner." Ember glanced at his hand, then her own. Then she smiled, reached out, and took it. It was pony food, without a gemstone in sight, but Ember had to admit that it was pretty good. She hadn't known what to expect when she'd realized that Spike had been steering toward a doughnut shop of all things. The pony behind the corner hadn't been surprised at all to see them, and had happily gotten them some fresh, warm food. The place didn't serve dinner, precisely, but it had a lunch menu, and with a chipper declaration that it was always lunchtime somewhere, the employee had fixed them a pile of sandwiches, a couple of bowls of soup, and some lemonade to drink. On the house, too. Ember munched on her grilled cheese sandwich as Spike wolfed down his third, the act barely slowing down his talking. "...So, since I was such a big customer in Canterlot, after the franchise expanded down into Ponyville, I was invited to the opening. From then on I've been coming in every time I'm back in town." "And they comp you every time?" Ember asked as she looked at the mountain of food, trying to work out the math on how much that'd work out to in losses. "Nah." He waved his claws dismissively, before plucking up an asparagus wrap. "Just when I bring someone new in for the first time. They like me here, but they're still a business." Ember nodded at that, glancing sideways at the pony, who was busy with sweeping the floor. "Still, pretty good racket you've got going on. After all, you're the ambassador. You never run out of new friends." "Sure, but I don't bring just anyone here." Ember opened her mouth to respond to that, but the way that Spike was looking her had the words dying on her tongue. Those sharp green eyes of his, looking at her with an intensity that she'd never seen before. Her jaw worked uselessly for a few long moments, as the chair, true to Spike's earlier words, neither scorched nor smoked nor spontaneously combust. Then she huffed, turning away and grabbing up her iced lemonade, and took a long sip, more than happy to court brain freeze if it would make her body cool down. "Gee, you sure know how to pick a memorable place for first dates, then." Ember went rigid, realizing what she'd said, and looked back at Spike. "Stop looking at me like that!" She grabbed up one of the sandwiches and smacked him with it. "Stop looking at me with that big stupid grin, you--Doughnut pony!" "My name's Tim--" "Get me something with glaze and jelly filling to smack this dork with and I'll pay for the whole meal and help clean up." She'd never seen a pony move so fast. Not even a token protest that the meal had been intended to be free. Ember was pretty sure she could get to like him. But now wasn't the time to consider new friends, not when her first one was still looking at her like such a goof. She growled at him, snorted smoke, and eventually crossed her arms and slumped down in a sulk. "In my defense," Spike finally said, "Plan A was a fancy--" "You really did know the whole time didn't you?" Ember didn't have quite enough anger to make it a proper snarl. "Well..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, the only time I've left scorch marks in things I sat on was... yeah. I got control over it after a while, but..." "But I'm so pathetically lonely that I'm not used to having to control it." The doughnut pony returned, and instead of hurling the offered pastries, she grabbed one and viciously tore a chunk out of it with her teeth. "I know." "Hey, I never said--" "I've been trying to get a handle on this all day and all I've done is make a fool of myself. Yona saw through me, Rarity saw through me..." Spike's eye ridges shot up. "Wait, Rarity? You talked to Rarity?" "Yeah, I did." She managed a small smirk. The doughnut helped with lifting her mood just enough. "Which means I know allllll about your little crush on her now, loverdrake." It was his turn to cover his face with his claws. "I was a kid! And she reminded me of a ponytale princess! Cut me a break." "I might be persuaded to let that be one of the little things I forget about ponies." She took the opportunity to stuff the remainder of the doughnut in her mouth and lick away the glaze and jelly from her lips, letting it draw out the dramatic pause for her. "If. You do something for me." "What do you want?" She told him. And it was the best kiss she was sure any dragon had ever had. It was also how she found out that the table was slightly less fireproof than the chair. Ember sighed as she laid in the grass, looking up at the sky. It would be chilly soon, but there was enough warmth left in the earth for her to enjoy some stargazing without needing to light her inner flame. She looked up at the moon, and she felt like she was finally getting used to seeing it without the craters that ponies had called the Mare In The Moon. It was a bit surreal to think that the mare who had been in the moon was somepony she could fly off to a retirement home and have a chat with; long lives were nothing new to dragons, but none of them had ever flown high enough to reach the moon. Ember traced constellations with her gaze, picking out the ones that her parents had shown her when she was just a hatchling. All of them, naturally, had been dragons in some form, and each one had been a lesson. Ones of dragons flying, ones of dragons breathing fire, ones of dragons hoarding gems... Ones of dragons surviving rocs. (She'd never faced a single one, when it was her time to. She figured it out, after a while, that her parents had stayed closer than dragon parents were supposed to. No wonder I ended up the Softie Dragon Lord.) As she'd travelled, she'd seen how other species looked at the stars. Griffons saw griffon things, changelings saw changeling things, and ponies saw pony things. Every once and a while one would see something different, but when a pony saw a dragon, they saw it the way a dragon saw a roc. Dragons were danger. And now they weren't. Maybe in a few hundred years, or even thousand, a pony would point to the dragon constellation and call it a friend flying down to visit instead of a threat from the skies. She heard claws in the grass, and flicked her gaze toward Spike as he sat down next to her. "I hope I didn't mess things up with your favourite coffee shop," she commented. "You're good." He leaned back until he was lying down with her. "It was just a little singed. A new coat of paint, tops. Tim was even joking about keeping it that way. Said it gave it character." Ember smiled a bit at that, then let herself just breathe a bit as she watched Spike, staring up at the stars like she'd been. He'd no doubt been taught the pony constellations at first, but now, when he looked at the sky, she wondered what it was he saw. There was more on her mind than stars, however, and she felt so many questions swirling around in her head, about what had just happened and what the days, years, centuries later could possibly hold. What came out of her mouth, however, was a simple, "So, we're doing this now, huh?" He gave an amused snort. "Not quite the declaration I was expecting." "What, did you expect me to dress up all fancy, invite you for a slow dance under the stars, and read you some poetry?" She gave her own snort. "Oh wait, Rarity. Of course you were expecting that." "Hey!" He jabbed a claw in her direction. "You said you'd forget about that." "I said I might." She laughed when he grumbled at her for that, and she scooted closer so that she could curl her claws and playfully noogie the top of his head. "Hey, don't be so gloomy, Spikey-Wikey." He let out an agonized groan. "Sweet Celestia, she told you about that too." "Sure did, loverdrake." The mirth eventually faded, but she pulled her knuckles away from his head, she kept laying close to him. "But, seriously... that wasn't a one-time thing, right?" Spike smiled at her, and despite her previous teasing, his tone was still gentle. "Not if you don't want it to be." "You know what I want." She huffed. "What do you want?" He reached out, and Ember startled a little when his hand touched hers. "I'd like to see where this goes." She blinked a couple of times, and then huffed again. "Darn right you do. I'm a catch." They laid there, together, and slowly, Ember found her body relaxing. It wasn't a promise. This could be over in a blink. It was just an agreement to try, and see. And as she curled her claws to hold Spike's, she found that she was good with that. "You sure are." The words sent heat rushing to her face. "And after everything today, I can safely say that I'm dating Equestria's hottest a--" The creatures in Ponyville would tell a lot of stories about today. From the denizens of Carousel Boutique, to the restaurant owner, to the doughnut pony, to the ones who'd seen her riding the thermals and been gleeful when she'd waved back. There would also be the ones who'd been out that night, or looked out their windows at the right time to see two dragons racing through the sky, one slim and serpentine chasing one bigger and bulkier. Few did, and fewer still heard the booming laughter, and the declaration in the Royal Dragon Voice of Authority, enhanced with several extra decibles, that followed it. "GENTLECOLT MY SCALY TAIL! STOP LAUGHING! I'LL LIGHT YOU ON FIRE NEXT, WITH MY BREATH THIS TIME!" A few were alarmed. A few recognized the shapes in the air and wondered if it was a diplomatic incident in progress. A certain yak, unicorn, and earth pony exchanged bits. And Ember, no matter how hard she tried to keep looking angry, nearly laughed with him. It was hard to even pretend to be mad at Spike long enough for a chase, especially when she was thinking about the kiss she intended to steal when she finally caught him. Yeah, she decided as they raced through the sky together, she could get used to this.
First SparksIt was a little surreal for Ember, being back in Ponyville. Not that they were in the town proper, right now. She'd agreed to meet on the outskirts, and so she'd gotten her first look at the place in ages with a fly-over view. And while there's been some familiar sights during that look, it'd struck her how much it had grown in the intervening years. Years were easy to let slip by for a dragon. The eldest of her people could casually nap for a century, and the ones who hadn't quite reached that point of their lives still tended to find time vanishing in a blink. Among fellow dragons, years felt like days, and among other species, it was all the more stark. She'd had a long talk with Smolder after her graduation, about how a lot had happened during her time at school and yet it'd felt like she'd barely been there for any length of time at all. It'd seemed to be the first time that the young dragon had truly stared down the fact that their species' lifespan was so much more than most sapients, and that she would forever be working on a different timescale. (Dragons were not truly immortal, but with the hibernations of the eldest helping to stretch their lifespans out more and more, even the true immortals had historically found them a hard problem to just outlive. Dragons could die of old age, and did, but the last one who had had done so years before Ember was even hatched. Death tended to come to them in youth, and more violently. From opportunistic predators like rocs, from territorial rivals like grootslang... and from other dragons.) Ember, having little to comfort Smolder with, had briefly turned into her father when she repeated the weak words he had once said to her. You adjust. That was what Ember had been doing a lot of these last several years. Adjusting. Her father had been talking about having his first long sleep, but he'd been putting it off, because, in his words, things were finally getting interesting in their lands and he wanted to see it for himself instead of napping through it. (That was why the Dragon Lords eventually had to step down. When they became elders, they could not longer effectively reign, as they spent more time asleep than awake. Her father had felt the changes happening, and chose to step down on his own terms, setting the challenge for his successor, rather than just vanishing into his cave and letting the other dragons descend upon each other in bloody chaos over the scepter. She'd originally wondered why... but maybe on some level, the old brute had realized that a dragon like her, fierce and clever, who could overcome challenges instead of just win a fight, had been the right choice.) He could only put it off for so long, however. Eventually... Eventually she'd be on her own. (She hoped the hundred years went by extra quickly. But she'd never tell him that.) These last several years had been going extra fast, with everything she'd needed to do. Her people had previously kept to themselves, only passing through other nations on migrations or when searching for a cave to sequester themselves in for their rests. Those times were long over, as the world was becoming ever more interconnected. Creatures who were used to seeing other sapient creatures at a distance or hearing about them in stories were now regularly seeing ponies, griffons, yaks, changelings, hippogriffs, kirin, donkeys, cattle, zebras, diamond dogs, abyssinians... Ember had met her first kelpie just last year, and a creature made mostly of water strolling around by a volcano had been a surreal sight. Trade had been opening up. Tourism. Ember had managed to seize the position she'd always wanted shortly before it ended up worlds more work. The simple law of "do what I say" was being expanded into a whole constitution. Codes of behaviour that had previously been informal and passed on orally were being written down and codified. She was starting to delegate to other dragons she could find who had more than two braincells to rub together, and considering creating formal positions and titles for them. It was dizzying. It was moving way too fast. On the worst days, she wished she'd listened to her father and walked away from the Gauntlet entirely. Then again, if she'd done that, she'd have never made friends with Spike. It was funny. If her father had chosen to step down even a year or two sooner, he no doubt wouldn't have been there. Spike had been at the absolute minimum age to receive a summons. Only dragons who had reached the stage of their lives when they'd gained their wings were expected to attend gatherings, which was why it'd been surprising when he'd shown up. Turned out he'd been a bit of a later bloomer, and those who still hadn't completely accepted him would claim it was the pony influence stunting his growth. It'd been a blessing in disguise, though, since his need of her wings had been one of the things pushing them to work together. Without Spike, she'd likely be listening to some brute who wanted mandatory burping contests or to steal pillows while the rest of the world left them behind. Spike was the reason she was back here. She'd stopped personally accompanying dragon exchange students for their first day of school a long time ago, and Princess Twilight Sparkle ruled from Canterlot now, so it was the only reason she came back to Ponyville now. And for a long while, he hadn't been there, not for more than a couple of days at a time. While she'd become a ruler, he'd become an ambassador. Many a previously isolated community had reacted with shock to a young dragon strolling into town, announcing himself a representative of Equestria, and yet he often made that shock work for him, turning it into a sense of intrigue and using it to get the creatures he met to listen to what he was saying. He'd been making friends all over, and more than once, the curious creatures who Ember had found gazing at the volcanoes in wonder had admitted to her that it'd been him who'd put the idea in their head. After all, if Spike was so nice, clearly other dragons would be too, right? (Thankfully, that was true now. Mostly. There were some holdouts determined to cling to the old ways and refuse to listen to a Dragon Lord who was so small, and she was sure certain sleeping elders, when they woke, would have opinions on all of these changes, none of them good. She didn't know how she was going to handle those elders without her father.) She and Spike had seen each other a few times in the last few years, but only a few. Fleeting chats at diplomatic functions, when they couldn't put their roles down no matter how much they wanted to. She'd been stuck at home so often, him away from home so often, and letters weren't quite the same. Things were finally, finally settling down some, and now she was standing in grass instead of on volcanic stone, having carved out a few days just for her and her first ever friend. He looked so dorky standing there with a picnic basket in his claws and that big smile. She couldn't help but smile right back. "Please tell me there's real food in there and not pony food." Spike waved his claws. "Don't worry about it, it's a lot easier to find the good stuff here now. I made sure to put in extra sapphires, since I know you like those." Ember gave him a friendly smack on the shoulder. "Attadrake. My mouth's watering already. Let's go find a good spot." It hadn't been hard to pick one, not when the crest of the nearby hill had the best view, letting them look out at the sea of trees from the nearby orchard. And beyond the orchard was the town itself, one that had to be twice as big as it'd been when she'd last seen it. With blanket spread out and basket open, Ember took in the view as she munched on a sapphire-encrusted cupcake and Spike pulled out a submarine sandwich filled with several kinds of quartz. With how much he'd grown, she wasn't surprised he had an appetite. The little runt she'd met all those years ago was long gone. The lack of wings had long been rectified, and he was much taller and broader than she'd ever expected him to get. Not that Ember herself hadn't gotten taller. Well, most would instead say that she'd gotten longer. She was never going to have the boulder-like physique of her father, and instead had taken after her mother, a titanic serpent of a dragoness. She was longer in the neck, torso, and tail now, her limbs having stayed roughly the same. She was starting to instinctively coil her body when at rest, but at least for now, it was still relatively comfortable to sit upright. Spike, meanwhile, was almost more like a minotaur than a dragon in his body plan. Whenever he got to a size when he'd need his foreclaws to move as much as his back ones, it was probably going to take a very long time, longer than it would for her. "So I was thinking, when we're done lunch, I could show you what Ponyville's done with Twilight's old castle. It's a museum now, dedicated to our adventures. There's even a painting someone did of us based on when we ran the Gauntlet of Fire together! And then after that we could..." As much as he'd changed physically, though, he still was the most talkative dragon she'd ever met. His voice had deepened, though, and grown much smoother, so she hardly minded listening to him. Really, she could listen to Spike talk all day. Ember blinked. "...Don't think you've ever seen the fruit bat sanctuary. Mac's daughters have really been working on improving it..." She looked at Spike, but the words were sliding off her scales like drops of lava. Thinking about how he'd grown, that was pretty normal. Dragons always sized each other up like that when they met after an absence. The instinct was for gauging rivals, but even family and friends did it. That thought, however, had not been precisely friendly. When they'd met, Ember had been in late adolescence. He'd been a little kid, too little to be there, and she'd reacted accordingly. Only in hindsight had she realized that he was setting off a protective instinct in her, because his small size and lack of wings had made him look like a hatchling. He was a lot smarter than some hatchling, though, and it'd been easy to form a friendship with a dragon she felt she could actually talk to. Neither of them were kids anymore. Years had moved fast, and now, sitting next to her, was an adult dragon. Dragons took centuries to stop growing physically larger, but that was partly due to the effect amassing a treasure hoard had on their forms and magic. (There was the question of how that was going to work now that dragons were being generous. Trading and sharing instead of hoarding. How big would she get? Would it be big enough?) As far as actually maturing, both of them were done. In fact, if someone took their respective ages, measured physical maturity, compared it to their lifespans... they were in the exact same life stage now. "...And then we can have dinner at this new place that opened up a couple years ago. The family that runs it are changelings and..." The little runt had caught up in a big way. Big in many, many ways... no doubt including ways she hadn't seen yet... Ember clenched her jaw, razor-like teeth locking together. No. We are not doing this now. Or ever. It's Spike for magma's sake. Her brain realized that, that this was her first and best friend and that noticing that he'd become ridiculously handsome was weird of her. Her heart, and several things further south, didn't care. "So what do you think?" Ember blinked furiously, well aware that she'd been staring at his pale green pectorals for several minutes. Then her long tail curled around her hip, draped over her thigh, and slammed down between her legs like a trap door snapping shut. She forced a smile. "Sounds... great!" Elders save her, she was going to die.
Ember's GlowThis was torture. It had to be against some of kind international law to put a dragon through this, being directly next to an attractive member of their species and unable to act on it. And if it wasn't, clearly it needed to be. It was like acknowledging the feelings had amplified them, and now just him moving enough for her to see the muscles beneath his scales, or listening to him talk, had her mind taking a vacation and her body making several increasingly loud demands. And Spike, magma bless his big, smiling, stupid head, was oblivious. It'd taken Ember several minutes to figure out why he was oblivious. After all, she was being incredibly, embarrassingly blatant about it, with more than the placement of her tail. Her body was running several degrees hotter and starting to lightly singe the blanket, the crest of spines along her head were sitting as upright as they could and, to her mortification, occasionally quivered in response to his voice, and she was certain she was giving off the scent of interest... Then it'd hit her. Spike was raised by ponies. The big, softhearted lug wouldn't have been able to recognize an interested dragoness if she literally pounced on him. She nearly did, in fact. The seventh time, when he'd leaned close to brush come crumbs off her chin, had been dangerously close to not being a nearly, and she'd clenched her jaw hard enough that she could hear her fangs grinding together. On one claw, it was perfect, since it meant that everything was only agonizingly awkward from her perspective. On the other, without him giving a clear signal of yes or no, her body couldn't calm down. She could only sit there and stew in this cocktail of desire while desperately trying to hold a conversation. She tried. Let the oldest of volcanoes know that she made every gargantuan effort to calmly sit, eat the food Spike had brought, and catch him up on what she'd been up to these past years. She felt she deserved a reward. A medal, maybe. She was the Dragon Lord, she could totally make up a medal for self-control in the face of the stupidly attractive and award it to herself as the first recipient. Then again, that'd be effectively telling every single dragon that she had a crush. Magma burn it. It was as they were cleaning up the picnic blanket--she hastily folded her end in a way to try to hide the scorch marks--that she saw her chance to escape the torment. "Spike? Can I ask a favour?" Not seeming to notice the quiver in her voice any more than he had at any other time, Spike tucked the blanket into the empty basket, brushed crumbs from his front, and smiled. "Sure, you can always ask me for things, Ember. What do you need?" For you to ki-- Slow inhale, and Ember managed to force some of the feeling down. Thinking about ice cream, cold baths, and flying in hailstorms provided just enough self-control. "It's just that... I've been thinking about how nice it'd be to fly around Ponyville. Not needing to go anywhere or do anything while I'm up there, but just enjoy the thermals." Spike beamed. "Is that all? I'd be happy to fly with--" "No!" Spike blinked and rocked back slightly, and Ember realized how loudly she'd said that. "What I mean is... you know what those boulderheads down in the Dragonlands are like. I can't get a minute to myself without being interrupted by something. Would you mind if I just took some time to fly solo, and we meet back up at dinner?" "Oh, uh, sure." He was drooping and she instantly felt bad. That was the thing that had really gotten under her scales about him at first, that he made her feel bad about being mean. But she knew it was the lesser of evils. "We can always do the other stuff tom--" Despite crude jokes to the contrary, dragons only had fire come out of one end. If anyone else had been there to see Ember rocket into the sky, however, they'd be forgiven for imagining they saw a gout of flame trailing behind her. "--morrow." The thermals above Ponyville were really nice for flying. Then again, ponies could control the weather, so she had no doubt they were being actively maintained by all the pegasi living here. She wasn't completely alone in the sky. There were some of the aforementioned pegasi, a couple of griffons and one hippogriff. A few seemed to recognize her, but other than a few smiles in her direction, none of them reacted overly much and kept a respectful distance. Which meant that she had plenty of opportunity to think as she put her flying on near-automatic, soaring circles above the town. What is wrong with me? Before she'd taken up the Bloodstone Scepter, it would have been nothing to just go into her cave and brood for a month as she figured her emotions out. It was the kind of timescale on personal epiphanies that dragons were supposed to follow. The world was faster now, however, and her time was valuable down to the second. She couldn't waste any of it drawing this out. She needed to think. When had this started? She'd certainly noticed at various functions that he was catching up to her. Each time she'd seen him, he was a little bigger, and little more fit, his wings a little more-- She felt her crest quivering and her body heating up. She bared her teeth and forced it to stop, easier to do when the source of the feelings was not present. Okay, so he was handsome. She'd been around plenty of dragons of all levels of attractiveness and that had never happened before. What was the difference? He was her best friend. He'd helped her at a time when other dragons wouldn't even have the idea enter their mind. He'd even given up power in order to give it to her. He'd always tried to make time to see her even a little bit, including today. She was a priority in his busy life, and he cared, openly, without needing to veil or deny it. A different warmth came to her this time, settling in her chest. She'd watched other young dragons become adults. It kind of came with the job, or at least it did now. Somehow she'd managed to turn being the Dragon Lord into becoming dragonkind's collective mother. In all of those cases, though, there'd never been a moment when she didn't still see them as one of the kids. Smolder was a good example, really. She'd grown to be a pretty dragoness, but to Ember, she was still Garble's kid sister. It would never cross her mind to be interested in her, and in fact the thought made her immediately queasy. Even dragons who'd always been close to her in age... Garble was a good enough looking guy, and she'd never thought about it. She'd known the big lug from when he was at his worst, and she was in charge of making sure he had encouragement to be less of a pain in the rear. There were plenty of dragons who she could objectively assess and say, sure, they weren't hard on the eyes, but ultimately... Ultimately, she'd either been around them most of her or their lives, or they were dragons she was otherwise directly responsible for. Spike wasn't one of her subjects. Technically, she could summon him just like she could any dragon using the scepter, but ultimately he was Equestrian, and if she tried to boss him around, his big sister with the big wings and big horn would come with a list of objections and the magic to turn her inside-out. In a lot of ways, they were on equal footing, her a ruler and him an adoptive relative of one. He'd been a kid when they'd met, but he'd never been one of "her" kids, not really. Was that it, then? She was lonely and being the Dragon Lord made the pool of potential mates that small? Ember cursed under her breath. Then a couple of chattering changelings flew past, light dancing over their shiny carapaces, and Ember quieted herself as she absently returned the wave one of them sent her. She then angled her wings, trying to get up higher, as if the altitude might help her think more clearly. Spike was her friend. She owed it to him to determine whether this was something real or not. Hm. Friend. Spike liked to talk about how friends working together could overcome impossible obstacles. Maybe she should ask a friend for advice? Smolder was pretty emotionally intelligent, thanks to her schooling and adventures, but going to her for advice would result in no end of teasing. She would never, ever let her forget that she once asked her for romantic advice. Maybe as an absolute last resort. Ember glanced at where the changelings had been flying past before. Thorax probably knew a lot about love. He used to eat it, after all. He could probably stroll up to her and smell her emotional state. The problem was that he was way off in his kingdom, and she'd only just started being able to carve out time in her schedule to travel. A letter wouldn't cut it for this. Garble had, surprisingly, become one of her biggest supporters these days, and she could even potentially call him a friend. But romantic advice? There were probably rocks more suited to that conversation. Her father? She would rather fly directly into the ocean. Who else? Ember flew a few more laps of the town. I... don't have a lot of friends, do I? It wasn't her fault. The job made it hard, especially when it felt like a ticking clock until the first elder woke up and everything went tails-up over her decisions to do things like play nice with ponies. Ponies. Ponies sometimes asked experts instead of friends for advice, didn't they? Maybe she could do that. That one cotton-candy looking princess pony with the heart on her butt was supposed to be an expert on love. The problem was that, if the Changeling Kingdom was hard to travel to on sort notice, the Crystal Empire was even worse. Twilight and her friends were supposed to be experts on friendship and romance was... friendship-adjacent, right? It was supposedly good to be friends first and foremost with a mate, or at least she'd heard that sentiment before. Of course, there was no way she was going to go see Twilight herself about it. Between her being part of Spike's family and being a monarch of a nation with a close association with her own, there was no measurement system that existed that could record the mess that that would be. Awkwardness off every chart, with a side of diplomatic incident for flavour. The other ponies... Ember found them blurring together in her mind. She hadn't gotten much better about telling ponies apart than she had been during her first visit to Ponyville, try as she might. At least Twilight had the decency to now be taller than any of the others. But one of them had to be good with this, right? Surely Spike had told her something about them that she could remember that was relevant to this situation. Wait. Ember paused, going into a hover. She barely noticed a gargoyle glide past, and didn't notice at all them tilting in the air as they checked her out. There was one of Twilight's friends that Spike always talked more about than the others. The one with tasty-looking gems on her butt. What was her name again? Novelty? Elusive? No. Rarity. It was Rarity. Maybe Rarity would be of help. Ember went into a dive, spooking a squawk out of--Wait, had that been a cockatrice casually sitting with a newspaper? Focus. Finding Rarity now, reflection on exactly how much a misnomer Ponyville was these days later.
Fan the FlamesIt was easy enough to spot Carousel Boutique from the air. Ponies may have been hard to tell apart, but she could at least be thankful for how distinct they made their architecture. Her people could take notes on making their caves look different so that homes and budding businesses were easier to find and they stopped having tourists blunder into the wrong place. That one kelpie she'd met had been about to waltz right into a private residence. Ember's wings were burning by time she landed in front of the building, and she wondered how long she'd been up there. She looked at the position of the sun, and came to the conclusion that it amounted to too long, and that squashed down her hesitation. She'd already wasted too much time figuring out who to get advice from. She couldn't waste any of it dallying. She did, however, indulge in a single, steadying breath, and she raised her fist to give the door a knock. She was the Dragon Lord. She was allowed the occasional indulgence. She heard hoofsteps inside, then the door opened, and Ember was about eighty-five percent certain that the pony who opened the door wasn't Rarity. She couldn't see hindquarters from this angle, but she was reasonably certain she remembered the backdrop of the gemstones being something other than green. She was also relatively sure that Rarity was the kind of pony with a horn. "Oh! Hello, Dragon Lord Ember. What brings you here?" And she was very sure that Rarity didn't have such a masculine voice. The pony certainly seemed to know who she was, though, between the name-and-title thing and the respectful nod that came with it, and Ember opened her mouth to respond when a booming voice rang out from inside the boutique. "WHO AT DOOR?" Ember fought to keep her poker face. She was one hundred percent certain that that was the voice of a yak. "It's the Dragon Lord!" The pony stepped back from the door as he said that, gesturing with one foreleg for her to come in, and, now apparently stuck on whatever kind of ride this was, Ember obliged, stepping into the boutique. Was she in the wrong place? Had she mixed up Rarity's profession with someone else's? It was possible, but she could have sworn the gem-butt pony and dress-making pony were the one and the same. Ember cast a quick glance at his flank. Nope, not gems. With that confirmed, she looked around. The inside looked about like what she'd expected: very pink, and very frilly. Facsimiles of various different species were around, bipedal and quadrupedal alike--she had to pause and lean to one side to get a better look at one that seemed to have been made based on a centaur's body plan--and each had some kind of flashy, sparkly attire on it. Mostly dresses, but there were a few suits too, most notably one that reminded Ember a lot of a suit that Spike had worn to a recent diplomatic function. She supposed it'd make sense that Rarity would have designed Spike's clothes. If this was the right place, which she doubted all the more when a yak was indeed what stepped out from among the various clothing displays, each placement of a hoof making the floor tremble slightly. "Dragon Lord Ember! Yona so pleasantly surprised!" She managed a smile in response. "Just Ember. I've been hearing 'Dragon Lord' all the time for ages, and I'm on vacation today." "Of course." The well-dressed yak bobbed her head. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, Ember. How can Yona be of service? That was one thing to appreciate about yaks. They repeated their names so much that it was much harder to forget them. Why couldn't all mammals be so considerate? "Well, I was hoping to see Rarity..." Both of them glanced at each other, and something clicked in Ember's mind. Wait, Yona was one of the Smolder's friends, wasn't she? That meant that the pony was probably... Sand Dune? Sand Dollar? Whatever his name was, he's the one who spoke up. "Well, you see, Dra--Ember, Rarity doesn't run the boutique in Ponyville anymore." Yona nodded. "Sandbar right." Sandbar, that was the name. "Rarity have lots of boutiques. Rarity always travelling all over to check on them. She leave Ponyville in Yona's hooves." Ember realized that her frown must shown through when she hastily added, "But Ember in luck! Rarity coming to visit today." "Yeah, she should be here in a couple of hours," Sandbar added. Ember considered the time she'd been spending in flying alone with her thoughts, measured out a couple of more hours, and weighed it against dinnertime. There wouldn't be a lot of time to talk, just a short conversation. Not ideal, but then again, she'd worked with shorter deadlines. As she was thinking, he continued, "Would you like to come back later? Or you could join us for tea while you wait?" Yona nodded excitedly. "Yona have good blend for dragon guests. Smolder love it!" "Tea would be great." It wasn't like she had anything better to do; she'd just end up stewing in her own feelings again if she went back to flying. Yak and pony both hurried off to prepare the tea, and Ember managed a real smile. Maybe these two would have some embarrassing stories about Smolder to torment the younger dragon with when next they met up. That'd definitely be worth the trip. "...And then she had to spend all day with her scales like that." "Yona know who did it. Gallus have bad poker face." "But it took us a while to figure out how. Turned out he'd made a deal with this unicorn we'd shared classes with to rig her scale-wax with a colour-change spell. We found her shaking the filly and demanding the counter-spell." Ember couldn't help but chuckle as she held her teacup in her claws, imagining an alarmingly blue Smolder shuffling from class to class snorting irritated smoke from her nostrils. She took a sip of the steaming liquid, letting the unique blend of spices roll over her tongue, and she couldn't help but admit that they'd been right. This tea was good. She'd been led into a little side-room of the boutique, and was currently seated on a very plush, purple cushion around a small table. Yona and Sandbar were across from her, seated close together, and had yet to touch their own cups, since less heat-proof creatures tended to prefer their own tea at a temperature below boiling. It was strange to consider how much things had changed. Being the Dragon Lord had meant embracing unconventional dragonhood, and putting in the work to remove unconventional from the name at all. That had been anything from embracing Spike's ideas of friendship, to Garble's love of poetry, to even her own belief that intelligence, creativity, and adaptability were better leadership qualities than raw power and a dominating personality. Before, tea parties had been the go-to thing to mock ponies and their society with, yet, here she was, sitting with a pony and a yak and drinking tea. And enjoying it. "Yona get more tea." She paused and nuzzled lightly at Sandbar's cheek, who nuzzled right back. "Sandbar tell next story." Huh. Ember wasn't any better with mammal body language than she was with their names, but she was fairly certain that hadn't been a purely friendly nuzzle. Had Smolder ever said something like that, about her friends? A vague memory was stirring of two of them having dated, or at least gone on a date. It was a shame that Smolder's letters to her from those years were sitting in her cave so she couldn't look them over. "Something wrong with the tea?" Sandbar asked, and Ember forced on the small, vaguely-polite smile she'd gotten used to doing around other creatures for the sake of diplomacy. "No, no, it's great." She took another sip, mentally picking out a few more spices and comparing them to the gems they made her think of. "I can see why Smolder likes it." Yona soon came back, the teapot dangling from one horn, and she carefully tilted her head to refill her own, Sandbar's, and Ember's cups. Then the pair shared another nuzzle, miraculously not resulting in scalding hot liquid scorching any green pony fur. They both noticed the look Ember was giving them, then, and yak bluntness and compactness of sentences had the words out the fastest, "Ember not know Yona and Sandbar couple?" It took three blinks. "Well, I--Smolder mentioned that, but, you know, it was years ago, when you guys were still kids. So... congrats on still being together." Ember nearly cringed herself a foot shorter. Smooth as broken obsidian. Both of them seemed to take it completely at face value, however, smiling broadly as Yona set the teapot down and settled back onto her cushion. Sandbar, chuckling, then launched into his storyteller voice again. "So, after the scales incident, Smolder wanted to get back at Gallus, and she wanted to make it big. We found out later she'd roped in Ocellus, but at the time--" Ember tried to keep her face schooled, even as she nodded at what she hoped were the right times to feign paying attention. A pony and a yak as a couple. They were about as different as two mammalian sapients could get--she wasn't counting hybrids in that, like griffons; she could only imagine what a griffon and pony couple would've looked like--and yet they seemed to really be making it work. Even now, the casual affection between the two was very open, with Sandbar leaning against Yona as he spoke, comfortably using her great, fluffy bulk as a pillow. In a lot of ways, Spike was essentially a pony. There were some dragon things built-in that none of them could avoid, but he'd been hatched by and raised by ponies. (She'd tried to uncover his past, once, but the trail was cold. A smuggler had acquired the egg for a client who wanted it for alchemical purposes, but how remained a mystery. The supplier had covered their tracks too well, and no parents had come forward claiming to have lost an egg to a thief. It had taken Ember years to accept defeat, and it'd never stopped bothering her. She'd never told him what she was trying. Not after she heard what had happened with a dragon who had pretended to be his father. She had, however, eventually summoned Sludge for a little one-on-one chat about what was no longer acceptable behaviour toward benefactors.) It pretty much was an interspecies relationship. Or would be, if this went anywhere. If these two could make it work, maybe they'd be able to help her out. They just couldn't know what she was after, else it was sure to get to Smolder and she would laugh her tail off. Ember just needed to be tactful and subtle. Piece of cake.
Roaring Fire"It took weeks to get rid of all of the confetti." Ember had gotten better at little, polite, fake laughs. It'd been a survival skill, figuratively and at least once a little bit literally. There was, however, nothing little, polite, or fake about the laughter bubbling up from her at the mental image of the chaos the two had been describing. She would have to give Smolder a much-belated pat on the back for a prank well done... after she was done ribbing her about having once having her scales been dyed blue. It had been her first time feeling relaxed since the picnic, and it made her almost forget the deadline of dinner weighing down on her and her mission to carefully pry information from the two mammals in front of her. As her laughter died down to chuckles, however, she saw her chance. "Sooooooo..." Both of them looked at her inquiringly, and she took a sip of her scalding tea to try to seem more nonchalant. "Uh, Smolder told me about you guys, but she never went into a ton of detail. How did you two get together?" Yak and pony glanced at one another, and it was the former who spoke first. "Long story." Ember shrugged good naturedly. "I've got time. Still a while until Rarity gets here, right?" The two shared another glance, and it was Sandbar who spoke up "Well, it all started when the school had its first Amity Ball..." He seemed to notice Ember's look of confusion. "Oh! Did Spike tell you about the Fetlock Fête?" "A bit," seemed like the safe answer. "It's basically that, only hosted at the school. The dancing, the dinner, the works. With all the students invited. Including the Pony Pals Competition. Well, Annual Amity Ball Award For Friendship, these days, but the first year it was still called Pony Pals." Yona nodded. "Sandbar ask Yona to be Sandbar's pony pal. And Yona want to be best pony pal. So Yona ask Rarity for help." Now that was a name Ember wanted to hear, and she perked up, leaning forward a bit. "So she's somepony you went to a lot for advice on that kind of thing?" "No," Yona responded with a cheery nonchalance. "Rarity just run Yona over with clothes rack in hallway and make Yona realize need dress." Ember's eyelid twitched. "I... see..." "And then Rarity promise to help Yona learn pony traditions and shove brussel sprouts in Yona's mouth." "Brussel... sprouts...?" Ember was pretty sure nictitating membranes weren't supposed to be able to also twitch, but here she was. "Rarity say brussel sprouts help Yona talk more elegant, like pony. And then we sing song about fitting in." Ember, half-expecting a rendition of said song to start, felt instant regret for every life choice that brought her to the boutique and opened her mouth to speak. Sandbar held up a hoof to stop her, shook his head, and mouthed what she was pretty sure was 'wait for it.' "And then Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy teach Yona pony dances and Yona break school gym." Ember possibly knew who those were. Rainbow Dash was one of the ones with wings, right? "Then Pinkie Pie and Applejack help Yona make applesauce." She was slightly more sure she knew who Pinkie Pie was, and it didn't inspire much confidence in how that applesauce must have turned out. "And all that..." Ember's voice was cautious. "Helped...?" That's when Yona started to laugh, the booming sound nearly causing the tea to spill. "Was disaster. Sandbar hate new Yona." "I didn't hate it." He leaned over to give her a nuzzle. "I just didn't like it as much as the old Yona." A small chuckle escaped him. "Though the fact that you started talking with Rarity's accent was a liiiittle unsettling, not gonna lie." Yona nodded, the amused grin still on her face. "Yak do sound silly trying to talk like pony." Sandbar smiled at Ember. "We had a talk afterward--" "Sandbar need talk Yona out of living in treehouse." "--About how Yona didn't need to be a pony, because I asked her to the dance, not some... imaginary pony version of her I thought she could be." "Then Yona teach everyone traditional yak dance." Ember held back the question of what a traditional yak dance would look like. Given what she'd heard about a destroyed school gym, she felt her imagination had filled in the blanks pretty well. Instead, she went over the story in her mind. "So... You guys just kind of... keep doing what you're doing, as a pony and a yak, and it all works out?" Sandbar leaned on Yona a bit more. "Exactly." Ember mentally chewed on that thought. Sure, one of the defining parts of her reign had been to encourage the virtue of be yourself, but it still seemed far too simple. Yet, she was staring at living proof, and if attempting to be more pony-like had really been so disastrous, she should take a lesson from that. Besides, she and Spike were friends. Close enough friends for even the chaotic nature of their occupations and little time to see each other hadn't broken that friendship. He clearly considered her to be a worthwhile companion already, and the cultural barrier hadn't caused too much trouble. Ember felt some tension in her shoulders relax, tension that she hadn't even realized she was carrying. Maybe things would be okay. Then Yona spoke up, her voice unusually sombre. "Yona do want warn Ember." She froze at the words. "Yona and Sandbar work because Sandbar like yak, and Yona like pony. Not every pony like that. Pony might not want dragon." Ember's eyes widened, and for just the briefest moment, she felt the urge to spread her wings and bolt from the building. She squashed the impulse, instead going to for her tea, trying to look nonchalant and buy time to mount her verbal defensive to carefully insist that she'd just been curious, and certainly wasn't looking to date a pony-- Yona didn't give her a chance. "And Ember bit young for Rarity." Ember choked, and Sandbar was forced to duck as the resulting coughing fit sent hot, spiced tea spraying across the table. "You kind of went for the throat there, honey," he commented from beneath the table. "But Ember being obvious." "It's Spike!" Ember half-shouted, half-croaked as her lungs found precious air again. "It's Spike, not Rarity! I'm not into ponies!" She clapped her hands over her mouth as Sandbar rose back into view, and both mammals were wearing the kind of grins that she felt should have a row of sharp teeth in them. She uncovered her snout to point a claw at them, mustering her full Royal Dragon Voice of Authority. "Not a word to Smolder. I'm using all of my authority as the Dragon Lord--" "I thought you were on vacation?" Sandbar asked, his voice the picture of innocence. "And Yona and Sandbar not dragons," came the voice of simple, practical yak nonchalance. Ember's pointing claw drooped, and she gritted her teeth. Right, these weren't her subjects. All the chest-puffing and smoke-snorting in the world wouldn't save her. She had to use her nice words, and so she ground out, "Please... don't tell Smolder." Almost instantly, the grins faded to gentler smiles. "Your secret's safe with us," Sandbar assured. "Yona clean up," The huge body who had taken the tea spray unflinchingly got up. "Then Yona and Sandbar tell Ember more stories." Ember found herself breathing a relieved sigh. That could have gone better, but it also could have gone worse. Now she just needed to wait for Rarity to arrive, and see what insight she had. She couldn't believe they'd thought she'd been interested in Rarity. Sure, taking interest in Spike was a bit like an interspecies relationship, but she couldn't fathom a dragon taking interest in an actual small, fuzzy, butt-stamped mammal. That'd be ridiculous.
Controlled BurnWhen Rarity showed up, Ember was impressed. It'd been exactly two hours after her own arrival that the door opened, the bell chimed, and a melodious voice rung out with the words, "I have returned, darlings!" The latest story of childhood pranks went on hold as Sandbar and Yona got up to greet their boss, and Ember followed just until the doorway of the room, so she could look at the pony currently on the sales floor. She caught a glimpse of the correct gemstone image on her flank, and patted herself on the back for having remembered not only the right name and symbol combo, but having been right about her being a unicorn, and not green. There was a flurry of conversation between the three of them, and Ember fought not to tap her foot with impatience as they did so. She couldn't appear too in a hurry. She had to be polite about things, and let Rarity catch up with her employees, as much as part of her wanted to grab the mare and shake her until romantic advice fell out. Her patience paid off, as the pleasantly smiling face, framed by a grey-streaked purple mane, turned to look at her. "My, Dragon Lord Ember! To what do I owe this honour?" (Grey streaks... those were a sign of age in mammals, weren't they? How old was Rarity? How long did ponies live?) She smiled back. "Just Ember. I'm in town for a couple of days to see Spike, but I had a little time before we meet up, and I remembered that you used to work here, so... I came for a chat." Rarity's ears twitched, seemingly in thought, but smile only grew brighter. "Then I'll count us both lucky that my own plans had me coming home to Ponyville. I hope you haven't been kept long?" Ember gave a nonchalant wave of her claws. "I had good company." There was a bob of a dual-horned head. "Yona tell Ember about first Amity Ball." Rarity immediately flinched. "Oh yes... that... lovely little adventure." "And the brussel sprouts. And the dance lessons. And the--" "Splendid!" A grimace of a smile accompanied hasty hooves. "Then, if you'd like to start your evening early, I can look after the boutique and our guest myself. For old time's sake." Neither of the young couple protested that, and Ember was soon following Rarity back into the sitting room. Hopefully she'd made the right choice on where to look for advice, because time was nearly up. "So, Ember dear, what was it you wanted to talk about?" For a lot of creatures, another pot of tea would have them hopping from foot to foot looking for the little creature's room. Dragons' metabolisms were slightly different, which was unfortunate, because she couldn't use it as the excuse for why she was squirming so much under the gentle, patient gaze of the unicorn across from her. Something about Rarity had her immediately nervous, though she couldn't quite put her claw on why. "Well..." She took a breath, and took the plunge into the conversational lava. "You've known Spike a long time, right?" That earned a fond smile, and brief wave of a hoof. "Not as long as Twilight, but yes, I've known him since he was a tiny little Spikey-Wikey." A slow blink, and a small snicker. "...He let you call him Spikey-Wikey?" "He still does, with a few token protests. He knows it's affectionate." Rarity gave a small titter. "Once he outgrew his little drakehood crush, I think he accepted that I saw him a lot like a younger sibling, and was going to keep heaping the mildly-embarrassing nicknames on him no matter how old he grew." There was no spit take this time. That would have involved breathing. Instead, Rarity saw her owlish stare and tilted her head. "Did he never tell you he used to have a crush on me?" Ember shook her head, as her lungs remembered what they were for. "Can't... say it ever came up." She stared down at her teacup. "So... he likes ponies, huh?" Rarity hummed thoughtfully. "I think it would be safer to say that he liked me, and I happened to be a pony. He's rather blind to species, in my experience." "...Experience?" It was about all she had words for, now that her mind was going all kinds of places it hadn't before. She hadn't considered the idea that he might already have someone, and was mentally kicking herself hard enough to send herself soaring right back into her cave. "He's had fleeting interests," Rarity obligingly answered, "Nothing lasting. But it does run the gamut. Griffons, changelings... Spikey-Wikey has a talent for seeing beauty in all sorts of places." But possibly not in other dragons. "No one right now, though?" "Not that I'm aware of, though he doesn't always tell me about them. I think he's still a trace embarrassed about how he acted toward me as a youngster." She shrugged, and then Ember found herself under a slightly stronger stare. Still patient, still kind, still friendly, and yet somehow stripping her of her thick-scaled defenses like cracking open a geode. "Now, rather than beating around the bush... why don't you tell me why you're asking about Spike? And his love life in particular." Ember stared back across the table, considered the wrinkles at the corners of gentle eyes and curls decorated with grey, and made a choice. She told her everything, from the tense picnic, to her soul searching in flight, to her decision to come here, and why. She swept past the conversation with Yona and Sandbar some, mostly due to Rarity hastening her the moment brussel sprouts came up again, but otherwise spared no detail. "I see." Rarity eyed Ember for a long moment. "Would you like a brutally honest opinion, darling?" "Sure." She shrugged, and pushed away her tea cup. It was too cold now, anyway. "I don't think my ego can get any more chewed up than it already is." "I think you're making this much more complicated than it needs to be." When Ember opened her mouth to protest, Rarity's hoof went up. "You've just realized that you have some attraction toward a friend. And that is indeed terribly awkward to experience. Downright mortifying. But the only way to know if it can go anywhere is to, as dear Rainbow Dash would say, shoot your shot." "But I have no idea if this is real or--" "Nopony--" Rarity paused, cleared her throat. "Ahem, sorry, I still occasionally slip. What I mean to say is, no one knows if their feelings are 'real' when they're still locked up inside. The point of asking another creature out is to explore the feelings and find out together." "But I don't even know if he has any." "Again, that is why we ask. The worst he can say is no." She smiled gently. "If my friendship with him survived a crush, Ember, so can yours." "But... he's..." Rarity raised a hoof, causing the sputtering to silence, and when she spoke, her voice was even gentler. "May I ask you a delicate question, Ember?" She heaved a sigh, gesturing in the air. "Go ahead." There was a pause as she seemed to be hunting for the right words. "The reactions you described yourself having. The position of your spines, the increase in body temperature... Those are involuntary, correct?" There was an immediate surge of heat. This one was much more localized, however, being entirely centered on her face. "Well, I mean. I uh. I can make them stop if I concentrate enough--" Voice still soft, still gentle. "That's not what I asked, dear. They start happening regardless of whether you want them to, yes?" "...Yeah." It was about all she could say to that. "What, do ponies not have...?" "Oh, we do." With a dramatic sigh. "There are times when I have been scandalized by the acts of my own tail and its choice of positioning. But that's entirely my point." She gestured toward Ember, the front leg moving up and down to indicate her entire body. "You said that you thought Spike didn't recognize the signals because he was raised by ponies, but he's very well-traveled and driven to learn. I think he noticed just fine, and understood. I think he just kept in mind one thing he did learn growing up with ponies." Rarity leaned forward, and the surprisingly fierce eye contact came with a set of firm words that Ember could easily see her hammering into the mind of an adolescent. "Body language is not consent." "But he didn't react at all!" Ember protested. "He didn't even give the no signal to make me cool it, he just..." She froze. "He just..." The realization sank in, and she sat there, mentally staring at the puzzle pieces having clicked together. Rarity nodded, and gave voice to the thoughts in her mind. "He didn't wish to tell you no. He was just waiting for a clear question to say yes to." "He still could have said something!" she burst out. "I was sitting there burning a hole in the blanket!" "And you could have said something as well." Rarity gave a small giggle and sheepish smile. "That is one other thing you could blame on us. A good gentlecolt waits for the lady to approach him first, at least in cases where there's a single lady and single gentlecolt involved, but it seems that dragons are a little more egalitarian?" Ember distantly nodded to confirm that. Gender didn't have any effect on those kinds of things, and as much as she tried to keep in mind the ways that other species were different, it wasn't as if she'd really needed to consider how pony romance worked before. She then placed her claws to her face, harmlessly raking them over her scales as she dragged them down and slumped in her seat. "So the whole time I could've gone for it?" "Now Ember..." Rarity's voice was soft again. Sympathetic. "Ultimately, I can't read Spike's mind. I know him well, and so that's what I suspect based on how you described him acting. But I can't know for sure. And neither will you, until you ask." "It'd be easier to hide in my cave for a month," Ember grumbled. "But is that what you want to do?" "...No." (She... reminds me a little of Mom.) She prodded at her teacup. Definitely too cold, now. There wasn't a hint of steam left. "How'd you get so smart about this?" "Trial and error. Emphasis on error. And in many ways, I'm still learning." Rarity gave a small laugh. "I could tell you stories." Tempting, but the clock had been ticking, and time was up. "No, I'd... I'd better get going. I have dinner plans." She slowly got up. "But... thank you. For the talk." "Anytime." Rarity offered a smile. "If it doesn't work out, you're welcome to come back. We'll open some tubs of Rocky Road ice cream, and I'll make sure to have one of the kind with actual rocks." Ember, despite herself, smiled back. "I'd like that." It took some effort to make her way to the boutique's door, the weight of what was coming bearing down on her with enough force that she wasn't entirely sure that she would be able to fly. She stretched her wings out anyway when she reached the outside, and it only took a few more flaps than usual to send her into the air. Their friendship would survive this. No matter what else happened, she'd make sure of that.
Cozy WarmthIt was a nice restaurant. There was a real dearth of nice restaurants in the Dragonlands. There was a shortage of restaurants in general, mostly because when it came to dragon skillsets, a species that knew how to breathe fire had shockingly produced very few cooks over the ages. Or maybe not so shocking, when they were omnivores with a strong lean toward geovorous. There were only so many ways to prepare a meal of stones, though she'd gotten to like some of the recipes invented by pony rock farmers. Fusion cuisine had become the name of the game in a lot of cases. Foods that other creatures liked to eat, stuffed to the horns with gemstones. Sometimes that really worked, with the food that Spike had brought to the picnic having been a prime example, while in other cases it was abundantly clear that the one who'd developed the recipe had no idea what the different stones actually tasted like. If Spike liked this place, though, chances were they knew what they were doing. She looked up at the sign, which was decorated with stylized changelings and little hearts, then at him standing there, holding the door open for her. Such a dork. But still a ridiculously handsome one. She strolled over, and then, instead of going through the open door, lightly jabbed her claw into his side. "What's with the sudden pony manners?" He ducked his head. "I'm just... being nice." Ember rolled her eyes, and slipped through the doorway, subconsciously giving her body more of a slithering sway. "And lucky for you, I accept you, niceness and all." He chuckled. "Yeah. Lucky me." Her heart jumped at the lack of playful sarcasm at the words, and felt her body temperature slide up several notches. She gritted her fangs, taking several sharp breaths through her nostrils and trying to ignore the smoke curling from them on the exhales as she forced the sensation down. She needed to not read into it too much. She had to use her words here, directly. But maybe she should use her words after dinner. She wanted to believe that Rarity's assessment of the situation was right and he was waiting for her to make the first move, but there was still a chance that this could go sideways. Their friendship would survive, sure, but it would be a shame to spoil the meal together with short-term awkwardness if he really wasn't interested in her that way. She heard Spike talking to one of the servers--true to the sign, they were a changeling, their carapace all purples and blues--presumably about a table, and she took in a deep breath. She'd handled lunch together. She could handle a nice dinner. And then, afterward, she'd tell him that she'd really enjoyed the time together, and that she'd like to do it more. As something other than friends. I can do this. "Twilight says she'll pay for the damages." Ember, currently sitting on a bench in Ponyville's park, didn't remove her face from her scaled hands. "Great." It was a quiet enough place to sulk, as with the sun going down, most of the creatures who'd been playing and socializing had already gone home. There were some stragglers--a pony leaving with her two young mule foals, one of whom was asleep on her back while the other followed behind, occasionally yawning, and an elderly pony couple walking together in the other direction were the ones she could spot from her seat--but none of them paid any mind to her stewing in her mortification. "No one blames you, Ember." Spike's voice was way too soft and way too kind, holding a letter in his claws that had just materialized out of green flame. "The owner admitted that it was a major oversight not to fireproof the chairs and tables when offering foods that dragons and kirin would want to eat." She finally looked up at him, her eyes peeking over her own claws. "I'm the Dragon Lord and I lit a chair on fire with my butt." Spike, to his credit, only almost laughed, his face contorting in a few different directions before he smiled gently again. "And I've lit books on fire with my sneezes. It happens." She groaned and buried her face again. "I lit a chair on fire and a pony princess covered it. I should at least be handing over the gems myself." "I can tell her you want to take responsibility, if that would help? I think she's just used to stepping in when one of her friends or family goes somewhere and there's property damage." That got a small snort of a laugh. "Yeah, guess she would be, after all the stories you've told me." "See? For Ponyville, this is a Tuesday." He perched on the edge of the bench, and lightly patted her on the shoulder. "I'm pretty sure one of them is going to try to keep the ashes as a souvenir of the day the Dragon Lord visited." The mental image got a few chuckles. "Maybe they'll ask me to sign them." "Maybe!" He offered his hand. "Come on, I've got a plan B place, and I know that their stuff is fireproof." Ember looked at his hand, and briefly reached out her own, only to pause. "...You're not going to ask why I set the chair on fire?" Spike shrugged. "Do you want to talk about it?" "...Nooot really." "Then let's go get dinner." Ember glanced at his hand, then her own. Then she smiled, reached out, and took it. It was pony food, without a gemstone in sight, but Ember had to admit that it was pretty good. She hadn't known what to expect when she'd realized that Spike had been steering toward a doughnut shop of all things. The pony behind the corner hadn't been surprised at all to see them, and had happily gotten them some fresh, warm food. The place didn't serve dinner, precisely, but it had a lunch menu, and with a chipper declaration that it was always lunchtime somewhere, the employee had fixed them a pile of sandwiches, a couple of bowls of soup, and some lemonade to drink. On the house, too. Ember munched on her grilled cheese sandwich as Spike wolfed down his third, the act barely slowing down his talking. "...So, since I was such a big customer in Canterlot, after the franchise expanded down into Ponyville, I was invited to the opening. From then on I've been coming in every time I'm back in town." "And they comp you every time?" Ember asked as she looked at the mountain of food, trying to work out the math on how much that'd work out to in losses. "Nah." He waved his claws dismissively, before plucking up an asparagus wrap. "Just when I bring someone new in for the first time. They like me here, but they're still a business." Ember nodded at that, glancing sideways at the pony, who was busy with sweeping the floor. "Still, pretty good racket you've got going on. After all, you're the ambassador. You never run out of new friends." "Sure, but I don't bring just anyone here." Ember opened her mouth to respond to that, but the way that Spike was looking her had the words dying on her tongue. Those sharp green eyes of his, looking at her with an intensity that she'd never seen before. Her jaw worked uselessly for a few long moments, as the chair, true to Spike's earlier words, neither scorched nor smoked nor spontaneously combust. Then she huffed, turning away and grabbing up her iced lemonade, and took a long sip, more than happy to court brain freeze if it would make her body cool down. "Gee, you sure know how to pick a memorable place for first dates, then." Ember went rigid, realizing what she'd said, and looked back at Spike. "Stop looking at me like that!" She grabbed up one of the sandwiches and smacked him with it. "Stop looking at me with that big stupid grin, you--Doughnut pony!" "My name's Tim--" "Get me something with glaze and jelly filling to smack this dork with and I'll pay for the whole meal and help clean up." She'd never seen a pony move so fast. Not even a token protest that the meal had been intended to be free. Ember was pretty sure she could get to like him. But now wasn't the time to consider new friends, not when her first one was still looking at her like such a goof. She growled at him, snorted smoke, and eventually crossed her arms and slumped down in a sulk. "In my defense," Spike finally said, "Plan A was a fancy--" "You really did know the whole time didn't you?" Ember didn't have quite enough anger to make it a proper snarl. "Well..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, the only time I've left scorch marks in things I sat on was... yeah. I got control over it after a while, but..." "But I'm so pathetically lonely that I'm not used to having to control it." The doughnut pony returned, and instead of hurling the offered pastries, she grabbed one and viciously tore a chunk out of it with her teeth. "I know." "Hey, I never said--" "I've been trying to get a handle on this all day and all I've done is make a fool of myself. Yona saw through me, Rarity saw through me..." Spike's eye ridges shot up. "Wait, Rarity? You talked to Rarity?" "Yeah, I did." She managed a small smirk. The doughnut helped with lifting her mood just enough. "Which means I know allllll about your little crush on her now, loverdrake." It was his turn to cover his face with his claws. "I was a kid! And she reminded me of a ponytale princess! Cut me a break." "I might be persuaded to let that be one of the little things I forget about ponies." She took the opportunity to stuff the remainder of the doughnut in her mouth and lick away the glaze and jelly from her lips, letting it draw out the dramatic pause for her. "If. You do something for me." "What do you want?" She told him. And it was the best kiss she was sure any dragon had ever had. It was also how she found out that the table was slightly less fireproof than the chair. Ember sighed as she laid in the grass, looking up at the sky. It would be chilly soon, but there was enough warmth left in the earth for her to enjoy some stargazing without needing to light her inner flame. She looked up at the moon, and she felt like she was finally getting used to seeing it without the craters that ponies had called the Mare In The Moon. It was a bit surreal to think that the mare who had been in the moon was somepony she could fly off to a retirement home and have a chat with; long lives were nothing new to dragons, but none of them had ever flown high enough to reach the moon. Ember traced constellations with her gaze, picking out the ones that her parents had shown her when she was just a hatchling. All of them, naturally, had been dragons in some form, and each one had been a lesson. Ones of dragons flying, ones of dragons breathing fire, ones of dragons hoarding gems... Ones of dragons surviving rocs. (She'd never faced a single one, when it was her time to. She figured it out, after a while, that her parents had stayed closer than dragon parents were supposed to. No wonder I ended up the Softie Dragon Lord.) As she'd travelled, she'd seen how other species looked at the stars. Griffons saw griffon things, changelings saw changeling things, and ponies saw pony things. Every once and a while one would see something different, but when a pony saw a dragon, they saw it the way a dragon saw a roc. Dragons were danger. And now they weren't. Maybe in a few hundred years, or even thousand, a pony would point to the dragon constellation and call it a friend flying down to visit instead of a threat from the skies. She heard claws in the grass, and flicked her gaze toward Spike as he sat down next to her. "I hope I didn't mess things up with your favourite coffee shop," she commented. "You're good." He leaned back until he was lying down with her. "It was just a little singed. A new coat of paint, tops. Tim was even joking about keeping it that way. Said it gave it character." Ember smiled a bit at that, then let herself just breathe a bit as she watched Spike, staring up at the stars like she'd been. He'd no doubt been taught the pony constellations at first, but now, when he looked at the sky, she wondered what it was he saw. There was more on her mind than stars, however, and she felt so many questions swirling around in her head, about what had just happened and what the days, years, centuries later could possibly hold. What came out of her mouth, however, was a simple, "So, we're doing this now, huh?" He gave an amused snort. "Not quite the declaration I was expecting." "What, did you expect me to dress up all fancy, invite you for a slow dance under the stars, and read you some poetry?" She gave her own snort. "Oh wait, Rarity. Of course you were expecting that." "Hey!" He jabbed a claw in her direction. "You said you'd forget about that." "I said I might." She laughed when he grumbled at her for that, and she scooted closer so that she could curl her claws and playfully noogie the top of his head. "Hey, don't be so gloomy, Spikey-Wikey." He let out an agonized groan. "Sweet Celestia, she told you about that too." "Sure did, loverdrake." The mirth eventually faded, but she pulled her knuckles away from his head, she kept laying close to him. "But, seriously... that wasn't a one-time thing, right?" Spike smiled at her, and despite her previous teasing, his tone was still gentle. "Not if you don't want it to be." "You know what I want." She huffed. "What do you want?" He reached out, and Ember startled a little when his hand touched hers. "I'd like to see where this goes." She blinked a couple of times, and then huffed again. "Darn right you do. I'm a catch." They laid there, together, and slowly, Ember found her body relaxing. It wasn't a promise. This could be over in a blink. It was just an agreement to try, and see. And as she curled her claws to hold Spike's, she found that she was good with that. "You sure are." The words sent heat rushing to her face. "And after everything today, I can safely say that I'm dating Equestria's hottest a--" The creatures in Ponyville would tell a lot of stories about today. From the denizens of Carousel Boutique, to the restaurant owner, to the doughnut pony, to the ones who'd seen her riding the thermals and been gleeful when she'd waved back. There would also be the ones who'd been out that night, or looked out their windows at the right time to see two dragons racing through the sky, one slim and serpentine chasing one bigger and bulkier. Few did, and fewer still heard the booming laughter, and the declaration in the Royal Dragon Voice of Authority, enhanced with several extra decibles, that followed it. "GENTLECOLT MY SCALY TAIL! STOP LAUGHING! I'LL LIGHT YOU ON FIRE NEXT, WITH MY BREATH THIS TIME!" A few were alarmed. A few recognized the shapes in the air and wondered if it was a diplomatic incident in progress. A certain yak, unicorn, and earth pony exchanged bits. And Ember, no matter how hard she tried to keep looking angry, nearly laughed with him. It was hard to even pretend to be mad at Spike long enough for a chase, especially when she was thinking about the kiss she intended to steal when she finally caught him. Yeah, she decided as they raced through the sky together, she could get used to this.
