Three days later

Ember gave a stressed sigh as she handled some more written messages from the local dragon tribes.

And considering that these days, there are more dragons than ever she had problems keeping up with it all.

It’s gotten to the point she’s had to hire helpers and get Torch’s assistance with running things.

And now she had received a message asking that she travel to Equestria and meet with the royals and Discord to fix everything.

She’s a royal too, she had responsibilities!

“And the tribe integration pages are…” Ember said looking tired.

“In your hand, again,” A gray dragon said.

“Agh… you're so patient Dumas, I’m swamped as is…” Ember said.

“Well, it makes sense, now that Equestria is fully populated by our kind we’ll need to find accommodations for them, perhaps this can be the excuse we needed to spread the dragon lands a little,” Dumas said.

“And again, I’m not risking all-out war with Celestia, the dragon population has increased dramatically and we need to find Ignia, the problem is it’ll be like finding a gem in a boulder pile, due to her shapeshifting abilities,” Ember said.

“She was one of the dragon mages of old, honestly though, how she’s even alive still is amazing,” The dragon named Dumas said.

“Alert the border guards, I’m heading over to Equestria to hash out what we’re going to do until Ignia shows up,” Ember said.

“You’re certain?” Dumas asked.

“Yes, and then I’m going to need to think of hibernation and the great dragon migration and then the…-” Ember was cut off by her own snoring but Dumas snapped his fingers by her head and she jumped realizing she was dozing.

“Ugh… alright, hang tight,” Ember said as she got up and walked out of the room.

Ember walked into an open flying area and took off, she had two dragons by her side.

“Alright, never thought I’d say this but be careful in the pony lands, many ponies are still adjusting,” Ember said.

“Ok,” The two dragon guards said.

The next day

Spike woke up on his now crushed bed and sighed.

He had grown bigger and smaller again, what was causing this? Why can’t he just stay big?

Spike hopped off his bed, left the room, and went into the bathroom.

As he brushed his teeth he couldn’t help but let his mind wander back to Rarity…

She was beautiful as a pony but as a dragoness?.... She was perfect.

Her beauty was blinding, and from the way she reacted she seemed drawn to his older form… so why can’t he-

“OW!” Spike grunted as his head impacted the ceiling and he looked around and saw he was big again.

“Crud…” Spike said knowing he could not leave the bathroom because the door was too small.

After waiting until he shrunk down Spike walked downstairs and saw Twilight reaching into the kitchen.

“Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Hey Spike… could you go in and make some breakfast please, I can’t fit in there anymore,” Twilight said.

“Sure,” Spike said as he entered and he made as many pancakes as he could.

When he exited he gave them to her.

“Thank you,” Twilight said.

“Don’t thank me, that was pretty much all the pancake powder,” Spike said.

“And we only recently bought some,” Twilight said eating the pancakes in one bite “I never knew big dragons had it so rough,” Her belly rumbled and she looked to Spike.

“Hey now, I need breakfast too,” Spike said.

“I’m still hungry… normal pony portions don’t seem to cut it anymore, what’ll I do?” Twilight asked.

“Um… hello? What are the walls and ceilings made of?” Spike said.

“What? Are you suggesting I eat my own castle?” Twilight said sounding appalled.

“You let Ember do it,” Spike said.

“Yeah, because…. I just don’t want to ruin this place just to placate my hunger,” Twilight said.

“Then I don’t know what to say,” Spike said before walking to the door to check for mail and saw a message.

“Twilight! Mail!” Spike called.

“Alright, one sec,” Twilight managed to squeeze in through the door and she examined there was a message for her from Starlight Glimmer about the school possibly closing down.

“Ooh… that won’t be good,” Spike said.

“Not really a problem, I just need to let them know that the closing will be temporary until normalcy is restored,” Twilight said.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any sign of Starlight or Trixie,” Spike mentioned.

“They're in Canterlot, remember that message that you delivered to me yesterday?” Twilight said as she shifted through the mail.

“Oh…” Spike said remembering now, that before Twilight looked at the next envelope and saw a reply to her message about the meeting, she saw that it had been approved.

“Alright, that’s good, perhaps we can find Discord now, he’s been absent since the incident,” Twilight said.

“Let’s get packing then,” Spike said.

Twilight made her way outside…. And saw the damage of the last few days…

Multiple houses were burnt down, ponies turned dragons having to take shelter in the ruins of their old homes, and dragons in general looked depressed.

It was also cloudy.

“Odd, weren’t we scheduled for a sunny day?” Twilight said.

“You’ve been inside studying for several days Twilight, but don’t you remember that we have no pegasi anymore?” Spike said.

“Oh yeah, well, anyways I think we just need to find Discord,” Twilight said.

“Maybe Fluttershy knows?” Spike wondered.

“Alright, let’s check,” Twilight said turning to walk away.

“Um, what about me?” Spike asked.

“Spike, what if you get big again while you're riding on my back? You're a bit bigger than me when you transform,” Twilight said.

“...Ok,” Spike said as he followed her.

Twilight and Spike walked into the forest, thankfully because of Twilight’s size she didn’t have to worry about anything in the forest anymore.

As the two made their way to the forest they saw an unsettling sight.

Smoke, coming from Fluttershy’s house.

“Oh no, Spike come on!” Twilight and Spike hurried to where the fire must be… only to pause confusedly when they saw her lying curled up on the ground sleeping, her large body taking up much of the extra room in the Cottage area, and the weirdest thing was that she was cuddling her animals, who looked very uncomfortable sleeping with a giant dragon.

And to top it all off the smoke was billowing from her nostrils….

“This seems oddly familiar,” Twilight said remembering a certain red dragon.

“Hey Shy! Wake up!” Spike said.

Fluttershy just gave a loud yawn and resumed snoring out clouds of smoke.

“At this rate, she’ll cover Equestria in smoke clouds!” Twilight said finding this situation very ironic.

“Well? Wake her!” Spike said.

“You don’t just wake a sleeping dragon! You risk agitating them,” Twilight said.

“Didn’t you do that already? Besides this is Fluttershy!” Spike said.

“Who is a sleeping dragon, we need to let her sleep… unless this is one of those hibernation things…” Twilight said.

As they argued Fluttershy cracked a sleepy eye open and looked up, in her tired mind and blurry vision she saw two arguing purple blobs, suddenly a feeling of extreme defensiveness came over her when she found they were near her hoard, A.K.A, her animals.

She suddenly gave a roar startling them and she got up looking very irritable.

“What are you doing here? Get away from my hoard!” Fluttershy growled.

“F-Fluttershy? It’s us Twilight and Spike!” Spike said worriedly.

“LEAVE!” Fluttershy got up and her animals scattered as she stalked towards them.

“And I thought I was cranky when I woke up from a deep sleep,” Spike said backing away.

Twilight seeing only one chance scooped some water from the river next to her into her claw and she threw it in Fluttershy’s face.

“Agh! You-... Huh?” Fluttershy was still dead tired, but she could see the frightened dragons now.

“Spike? Twilight? Oh I’m so-” Fluttershy yawned “-Sorry!” Fluttershy said worriedly.

“What’s wrong with you?” Twilight asked.

“I… don’t know, I was working to the best of my ability to help my animals when suddenly I felt so… very tired, even now, I feel like sleeping for a long time,” Fluttershy said.

“It could be some kind of hibernating instinct, we should cancel and find out what is happening,” Twilight said.

“No, we got the meeting with the dragon lord, we should ask her,” Spike said.

“But what about Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

“...We could bring her along? Discord will be there,” Spike said.

“...Makes sense, hey Fluttershy, want to-...” Twilight trailed off when she saw Fluttershy had fallen asleep standing up and Spike snapped his fingers to wake her.

“Huh?!... Oh sorry,” Fluttershy said.

“Come along Fluttershy, maybe Discord has a solution,” Twilight said.

“But what about-” Fluttershy felt a soft blow against her scales and she looked down and saw Angel gesturing for her to go and he and Harry would watch things.

“Well… if you insist,” Fluttershy said.

They hiked out to Ponyville and made their way to the train station, they could see the modifications were coming along well enough.

Due to how many big dragons there were they had to rebuild the train to be at least three times bigger, thankfully others pitched in since they didn’t have anything else going on.

Today the trains were running.

“That’s good,” Twilight muttered.

As they made their way to the train they saw a dragon guarding it.

“Medium and small only, big dragons need to sit separately to avoid balance problems,” The dragon said.

“Got it,” Twilight said and she climbed into the middle and Fluttershy climbed into the back while Spike sat with Twilight.

“Is it fine if I sleep?” Fluttershy asked.

“Go ahead,” Twilight said and Fluttershy curled up and went to sleep.

“Let’s hope this train moves fast before we get more smoke problems,” Spike said.

“Agreed,” Twilight said.

As they got to Canterlot, it was worse than they thought, most of the houses were destroyed and multiple dragons were living in similar squalid conditions as in Ponyville.

After waking Fluttershy again they moved on to the castle, looking around there were clear signs that ponies couldn’t function like they used to as dragons.

When they got to the castle Twilight saw a guard dragon watching them and they approached.

“Princess Twilight, my assistant Spike, and the element of harmony Fluttershy seek an audience in the meeting of the royals, and with Ember,” Twilight said.

“Very well, this way,” The guard said and he led them into the castle, they made their way around and thankfully the halls were always so spacious, that they didn’t have to worry about being cramped.

As they made their way into a room that was clearly adjusted for dragons, they entered and saw Celestia, Luna, and Ember chatting, and unexpectedly Starlight was there too.

“Hello my student,” Celestia said.

“Hello Celestia, why is Starlight here?” Twilight asked.

“I came to share some of my research,” the pinkish-purple dragoness said.

“I see you and your friends are used to your new forms,” Ember said.

“Still getting used to it as a matter of fact,” Twilight sighed.

“Wh-where’s Discord?” Fluttershy asked.

“Right here!” Suddenly the guard pulled off his head revealing Discord.

“Ah!” Twilight yelped.

“Haha! It’s funny even with that look,” Discord laughed, poofing back to normal.

“Discord?” Fluttershy said.

“Hmm? Oh hello there Shy!” Discord said making himself as big as Shy and hugging her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Fluttershy said before turning to the others “If you don’t mind princesses, I have an issue I need to share first,” Fluttershy said.

“Go on,” Luna said.

“Ember, Discord, maybe you both can help me,” Fluttershy said.

“With what?” Ember asked.

“I’ve… been very tired as of late, and it seems no matter how much sleep I get it never seems to be enough, also I’m snoring and producing smoke clouds, I’m so confused and worried,” Fluttershy said.

Ember winced “Oooh, did that have to happen now?...” Ember asked.

“Did what?” Fluttershy asked getting worried something was wrong with her.

“You're having something called a ‘hundred-year hibernation’ pretty self-explanatory, you’re going to fall asleep for a hundred years, it happens to certain dragons, and interruption will cause grumpiness, bipolarism, and aggression,” Ember said.

“I-I-I’m going to fall asleep for a hundred years?!” Fluttershy gasped and the others looked shocked too.

“No need to worry, when you wake you’ll feel a lot better,” Ember said.

“That’s not the point! I don’t want to sleep for a hundred years! What about my animals back home?” Fluttershy said.

“Sorry, but there’s no avoiding it,” Ember said.

“But what about-” Twilight was about to say something but Discord got in front of them.

“Girls girls! I got the perfect solution,” Discord said before opening a portal and he pulled out a door and he opened it “Now get in,” Discord said.

“What? What is it?” Fluttershy asked.

“A certain continuity called it a H.T.C, but I call it a Sleep Zone,” Discord said.

“...A what?” Spike asked.

“Allow me to explain, a sleep zone enables you to enter a quiet and non-disturbing environment, I sometimes go there when I need some quiet time,” Discord said.

“B-but I still don’t want to go for a hundred years,” Fluttershy said.

“No need to worry, it can also be sped up to help time pass by quicker, I can make years pass by in minutes, so a hundred years is like a couple hours,” Discord said.

“So… I’ll only be gone for a few hours?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yep,” Discord said.

“And the smoke?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s pretty much a void, there’s not many places the smoke can’t go,” Discord said.

“This… solves everything,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Thank you Discord,” Fluttershy hugged him.

“No prob Shy, and look!” Discord presented her with a giant fire-proof plush bunny.

“Aw thanks,” Fluttershy grabbed it and turned to her friends “Well I should be getting some sleep then,” Fluttershy said, the tiredness evident in her eyes.

“Well, see you in a hundred years I guess,” Spike said with a chuckle.

“You guys too,” Fluttershy said before walking through the doorway into the white void curling up on the ground and giving a yawn before going to sleep, cuddling her bunny.

“Aww, even as a dragoness she’s so cute,” Discord said before closing the door, shrinking it, and putting it in his pocket.

“How long will she be gone again?” Starlight asked.

“A few hours,” Discord said before poofing them all into their chairs.

“Whoa!” Spike yelped as he landed on his chair.

“Now that we’re here, let’s begin,” Discord said.

“Alright,” Twilight said.

Author's Note

Which will continue next chapter, sorry about that, but I wanted to focus the meeting in it's own chapter.

Plus Fluttershy displaying dragon habits is fun to write about.

Till next chapter