Egg Scramble

Chapters

Hard Boiled
Frozen Custard
Sunny Side Up
Pickled
Devilled
Poached
Omlette

Hard Boiled

"You see, Your Lordship, I have something here that's going to revolutionize treasure transport..."

As the dragon in front of her chattered, Ember wondered to herself what crime he may have committed in a past life to have hatched out of the egg with scales that exact shade of puce.

The golden throne she was sitting in, with its comfortable red cushions, had been a gift from Equestria, and the gemstones that decorated various surfaces had been gifts from her friends among dragonkind and foreign dignitaries alike. It was a cave that had been crafted to impress, as well as provide contrast to the deep blue of its serpentine occupant. It was no Canterlot palace, but as the first Dragon Lord with a proper throne room, it was the most impressive in the Dragonlands by default.

She'd also been in it for so long today that even the comfy cushions on the throne weren't enough to keep her rear end from falling asleep, and she found herself contemplating the series of decisions that had led her to this one mind-numbing (and tail-numbing) moment.

One thing that Ember had picked up from other species was the concept of open court.

It was a simple enough idea. The position of Dragon Lord was no longer the biggest, angriest voice shouting "because I said so" down at other dragons. It now was an actual leadership position that made important decisions, and part of leading the people was being able to hear their problems. So Ember had started doing what rulers in plenty of other places did, and had a publicly-accessible cave where she would sit there with her scepter and hear what was bothering other dragons, to see if she could help.

This decision had been met with instant regret.

The puce dragon enthusiastically waved to a pair of other dragons, who left the cave and returned with a hunk of stone. This stone that been shaped into a disk, with a hole through it, and it took Ember a second to realize what she was looking at. Claws met face and harmlessly raked down her own scales. "Smoke--"

"I know it doesn't look like much, Your Lordship, but look." He gave the disk a nudge with his tail, and it started to roll along the cave floor. To his credit, the disk made an appreciable distance before it inevitably toppled onto its side. "The shape is purpose-built to move over terrain with minimal force."

"Smoke..."

"Now I know what you're thinking, 'what does that have anything to do with treasure?' And you see, the really exciting part is when you put two of them together, like so." The helper dragon swiftly fetched a second stone disk, along with a smooth rod of stone to stick through the holes of each. "With this, the two are much more stable. From there, you can place slabs on top them, and the treasure upon the slabs. I call them--"

"They're wheels," Ember finally said.

He blinked. "What?"

Ember rubbed her temples, doing her best to fight off the brewing headache. "Wheels. Most creatures have them already. They make them out of wood and metal, and use them to move heavy things, or each other."

"What?"

"Carts. Chariots. Trains. Haven't you ever seen any of those?"

"What?" It was a bit like listening to a skipping record, and Ember felt confident he'd never seen one of those either.

"Do us both a favour, Smokeblown," Ember said with a sigh. "And go take a flight or two outside of the Dragonlands before you come back in here, so you don't stand here in front of me and reinvent the wheel."

"She was my friend first!"

"But I make a better friend for a pony!"

Ember looked between the stouter purple dragon and slimmer dark grey dragon with exasperation as they bickered. She knew these two. They were Backdraft and Charcoal, respectively, two of the dragons who'd used to follow Garble around as his lackeys before he straightened his life out.

If he'd become Dragon Lord instead of her, they'd no doubt be enjoying some kind of high position in his new army that he'd planned to raise in order to raid the lands of the ponies. Well, enjoying it until the ponies scorched that army's collective hides; not even dragon scales could hold up to the destructive power of the sun, and most dragons had never put two and two together about the fact that there were ponies who could make that sun do what they told it to.

As it was, the two had reluctantly begun down the path of being less of a pain in the neck and being nice to other creatures. Results so far had been mixed, and this was the third time they'd come in here with friendship problems.

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do!"

"Alright, you two." Ember leaned forward on her throne. Her claws rested lightly on her scepter as a quiet reminder of her position. "Have you tried asking this pony friend of yours how she feels about this?"

Backdraft shrugged. "Well, yeah."

Charcoal rolled his eyes. "But she says she likes both of us."

"So the answer the question is obviously to...?" Her grip on the scepter tightened, just a little. They couldn't still be this dense, surely.

"For you to choose which of us gets to have her as a friend, Your Lordship!" Backdraft eagerly replied, exactly that dense.

"Yeah!"

"NO, YOU BOULDERHEADS!" The scepter struck the ground, both dragons flinching back from the stone's glow as it washed over them, making them almost instinctively cower from its light. "YOU SHARE! NOW GET OUT OF HERE AND STOP WASTING MY TIME!"

Both of them vanished so fast their their hind claws left marks in the stone. Ember then slumped back down in the throne with an exasperated groan, rubbing her temples again. "Next..."

"What part of 'I am in a relationship' isn't penetrating your thick skull?"

"Now, now, Your Lordship, don't be so hasty..."

The latest petitioner of the day was... large, though not so large that he couldn't fit in the cavern. His scales were deep black, with a sheen to them that could only be described as oily, and they overlaid muscles that clearly had never been earned, bulk borne of greed growth rather than exercise.

It wasn't a common sight within Ember's generation anymore, but even with her putting a ban on stealing treasures, some dragons still came into the possession of the right objects in the right amount through other means to spark small amounts of the growth. In those small amounts, stretched over a greater length of time, a dragon could adjust to the changes and keep their head about them, and given that this fellow could (unfortunately) still talk, he was managing the right balance.

None of those observations made Ember less livid with him. Her whole arm trembled with the force of her grip on the scepter. "Are you questioning my authority?"

He still had enough sense in his head to flinch back slightly. The greed hadn't clouded his respect for the Dragon Lord's position either. "No, no, not at all." Then he flashed a row of sharp teeth as he made clear he still wasn't quite smart enough. "I just question what you're currently calling a relationship."

The scepter came forward. Light flickered. "Choose your next words real carefully."

The toothy grin got wider, and it started to look like that maintaining it must be painful for his facial muscles. "I mean, everyone knows that you're with that Equestrian ambassador, but that's just... what? Letter exchanges most of the year, plus a few visits? What kind of husband would he make with that kind of schedule? Or father to your--"

Ember's whole body went stiff, and her spines stood straight up in fury. "Out." The single word came out, calm and cold, before he could finish his sentence.

"But Your Lordship--"

She forwent the scepter entirely. Instead, other petitioners ducked under the gout of furious flame that erupted from her mouth, and the would-be suitor yelped as he scrambled out of the cave, chased by her shout of, "I SAID OUT!"

"Are you feeling alright, Your Lordship?"

Ember paused in stretching her wings, at the mouth of the cave, to look behind her. The sun was setting in the distance, the orange rays glinting off the fixtures of her finely-decorated throne cave, and Crackle was standing there, one of her red-pupiled eyes focused on Ember with concern while the other gazed off to the side.

Crackle been standing upright for the last while, grasping various scrolls in her four forelimbs while her four back limbs and tail put in the work to keep her in that posture, the occasional bout of rapid flapping from her small wings aiding in her in keeping her balance.

Ember gave a weak smile that was almost a grimace. "I told you, Crackle. Once sundown hits, it's just Ember."

Crackle gave a sheepish nod. "Right, sorry Ember." Scrolls were arranged so one set of limbs could cross themselves in front of her chest. "But you're dodging the question. You doing okay? Today was a long day."

Ember sighed a little. "Yeah, I'll be fine. The flight home always helps."

"If you're sure." Paperwork was placed down and Crackle finally lowered herself onto all eight legs, a series of cracking sounds befitting her name sounding out that made Ember's own spine ache in sympathy. "I'll see if I can lighten your schedule a bit for the next couple of days, all the same."

The smile that came to Ember face in response was much more genuine. "You're the best, Crack." And with that, she took to the skies, relaxing as she soared through the cooler night air.

Lava and flames, Ember didn't know how Princess Twilight Sparkle didn't have a habit of throwing her subjects for distance, if ponies were even half as dense as dragons could be. Maybe alicorns just had some kind of magically-enhanced patience for dealing with idiots.

Or that was what her guards were for. Ember had certainly been considering hiring a few guard dragons expressly for such a purpose. It was just hard to find individuals she trusted enough for that. It had taken her long enough to hire Crackle as an assistant because she'd kneejerk protested the idea of someone else setting up her schedule. Still, her help had been invaluable and she didn't regret the hire in the slightest.

At least after this particular day of open court, she had welcome company waiting for her back at her personal cave. She also had no idea how other rulers could stand living in the same building that subjects were allowed into. Were mammals just allergic to the concept of privacy?

The flight back home was a good way to clear her head, especially tonight. Sometimes she had to dodge dragons who'd "forgotten" what times the court was open and missed the window, and so their solution was to try to fly her down and take "only a second of her time." She'd made the mistake of allowing it once, and after a hour-long conversation with a dragon who still hadn't gotten to the point by the time she'd lost her patience and flown off, she'd decided never again.

Even without that, there were still dragons who'd wave to her, who'd want a quick chat... some had even started asking to take a picture with her. Cameras hadn't caught on with all dragons, since many considered photographs a bit too delicate and easy to burn, but the younger generation was starting to get into the idea of hoarding mementos instead of traditional treasure.

This evening, however, it was quiet, which Ember running some of the encounters of the day through her mind without interruption. And it resulted in some daunting thoughts, even as she spotted the familiar purple and green at the mouth of her cave.

"Spike, can we talk?"

Ember saw frills twitch as Spike recognized her serious tone of voice, and looked up from their Scrabble game with a look of concern. Whatever he'd been contemplating as his next move seemed to be instantly forgotten, which was just as well, as she was pretty sure he'd already won and was just humouring her at this point. "Sure, what about?"

Ember took in a deep breath, leaning back in the beanbag chair that she'd purchased the last time she'd visited Equestria. "You know how I sometimes get dragons coming to open court trying to ask me out?"

Spike's brow furrowed, his answer of, "...Yeah, what about it?" sounding slightly cautious.

Ember sighed. "Well, I had one who was really stubborn about it. Kept going about how our relationship isn't a real relationship. And it got me thinking."

"...About what?" The caution had roughly doubled.

"Well, I was just thinking. We've been doing this long-distance dating thing for a while now..." She waved her claws in the air. "We're even coming up on our first anniversary."

He blinked at that. "Huh, yeah, you're right. A full decade together just next year."

Ember nodded. "And that means it's... y'know... getting pretty serious, right? And I've started thinking we might want to talk about what 'serious' is going to mean."

Spike eyed her curiously. "This didn't just come to mind today, did it? You've been thinking about this a lot."

She snorted, cracking a sardonic smile. "Well, if we end up with eggs, I'm the one laying them, so yes, I've been doing a lot of thinking." She saw his expression and the rapid colour-change of his scales it came with and rolled her eyes. "Flames, you are still so skittish about the weirdest things."

"You thought that far!?" he burst out while trying to cover up the blush.

"Yeah Spike, I did, because if things keep going, that talk's kinda inevitable. We're coming up on our first anniversary. My parents settled down on their second."

"Well yeah, but... I just... we..."

Ember studied him. Spike being flustered by the topic was one thing, but she realized that he looked downright uncomfortable in how he was fidgeting on his cushion, grabbing at his tail like a young, nervous drake would and struggling with his words. She frowned. "Do you not... want kids? Because that's okay. That's why I wanted to talk about it, to make sure we're on the same page."

"I..." He continued to hold his own tail in a vice grip, the single word hanging in the air with no follow up.

Ember's voice softened as realization fell over her. "Are you worried about raising drakes?"

He was silent a little while longer, before he admitted quietly, "A little." He let go of his tail, running his claws over his spines. "I was raised by ponies. How do I raise dragons?"

"Well..." She offered a reassuring smile. "Those ponies raised a pretty good dragon, so I'd say just do what they did." She playfully nudged his arm. "Besides, you'll have me, you goof."

He didn't look convinced. "But... is that enough?" He held up a claw to forestall the next bit of reassurance. "That's not feelings of inadequacy talking. That's practicality. You're the Dragon Lord and I'm an Equestrian diplomat. Do we have the time to dedicate to starting a family?"

Ember went quiet. She took another deep breath. "That's part of why I wanted to talk. My Dad was Dragon Lord when I was growing up, but Mom was always here in the Dragonlands." She leaned back, looking at the ceiling of the cave. The stalactites needed some cleaning and polishing. "But I mean... we can't be the most busy potential parents in the world. I'm sure we can make it work."

Spike snorted a small laugh. "Yeah, we're definitely not. That's probably my big brother and his wife." Her blank look must have shown, because he rolled his eyes at her. "Oh come on, you've met Cadance and Shining Armour, and I know for a fact you remember Cadance at least."

"I remember her!" She said quickly, holding up her claws defensively. "And I remember your brother. He stands out. And I know she's a ruler, but why are they even busier than us?"

"Because it isn't just that Cadance is the Crystal Princess, Shining Armour has also been juggling being the Crystal Prince and being Captain of Equestria's Royal Guard."

Ember blinked several times. "...Wait wait wait." She waved her claws in the air, then made a time out motion. "Your brother's one of the rulers of one nation, and runs the guard of another? Is that... allowed?"

He gave her a flat look. "Equestria and the Crystal Empire have been allies for ages."

"Still! That sounds real sketchy to me."

The look flattened further. "Ember. He's my brother. He's one of the most trustworthy ponies ever."

She raised an eye ridge. "The same brother who almost lynched Thorax?"

"That was... a misunderstanding." He waved away the topic. "What I'm getting at is, they raised a foal together, and Flurry Heart turned out pretty alright."

The ridge raised even higher. "...Isn't Flurry Heart the one who broke some big magical artefact?"

"By accident! As a baby! And they fixed it!" He huffed a sigh. "Look, you just said that doing what my adoptive parents did would work out fine. Why not look for advice from more of my family?"

"You have a point..." She shrugged. "Okay, let's go see your brother and sister-in-law and see what they think."

With that, the Scrabble game resumed. The serious conversation had only delayed the inevitable, and Ember was, as usual, utterly obliterated. The resulting squabbling, as she demanded he get up so that she could check under his cushion for a hidden dictionary, then consulted her own dictionary--the bookshelf was new, and enchanted with every fireproofing spell known to sapientkind--to look up several words that she was certain he'd made up, helped her finally put the heavy thoughts of the future out of her mind.

For now, at least. The trip to the Crystal Empire was going to be sooner rather than later, and she would have to figure out what to say so not to embarrass herself in asking for advice.

It was just talking to her partner's family. She'd done that before. Easy, right?

Frozen Custard

Traveling by train was still... odd.

As frustrated as she'd gotten over having a dragon showing up in her throne room proclaiming wheels as the next big thing, it was correct that most dragons had never needed any kind of any external transport in their lives, other than young drakes riding on their parents' back before their wings grew in.

If you came across a treasure you weren't strong enough to carry while airborne, then too bad, someone stronger would get to have it, and if there was somewhere that was too hazardous to fly, then tough luck, either push through anyway or fly away in shame. The idea of applying brains to the problem, of creating some kind of technology, just hadn't been something that would've occurred to most dragons.

The majority of dragons had never taken a train, and talks to introduce them to Dragonlands had been slow. Ember, as much as she had embraced a number of pony things, still couldn't help but feel out of place moving under anything but her own power. It was necessary in this case, though. The Crystal Empire was remote, and the chilling flight would tax any dragon's inner flame well past its capabilities to keep them warm.

It resulted in a lot of strange looks. None of the creatures milling about seemed to have recognized either of them yet--small mercies, as Ember was looking forward to a calm trip without needing to worry about camera flashes going off in her face--but just being dragons on a train was worthy of a few stares. She made an effort to ignore it all, focusing on Spike instead, seated across from her on the train car.

Despite the trip having been his idea, he looked tense and worried. He hadn't looked this nervous since first introducing her to his brother and sister-in-law, and even then, this seemed like something more than just typical anxiety. It looked more like some kind of dread was hanging over him that just got worse the more he thought on it.

"Hey..." her voice was gentle, and she waited for him to look up. "You okay?"

He put on a smile that wasn't at all convincing. "Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking how I'm going to bring up the subject."

"You sure?" she pressed, voice still gentle. "You look really tied up in knots."

He averted his eyes, briefly wringing his claws. "I'm sure. I'll be okay."

Ember reluctantly dropped the subject. Chatter on the trip was minimal after that, topics sparking a bit of conversation and then sputtering out, but he had least seemed to be a little better when talking about anything but the visit or the advice they were hoping to get.

The sense of unease was infectious, however, and now she couldn't help but wonder about the couples' potential reaction. After all, Spike was clearly worried, and he knew those ponies a lot better than she did. Was there a chance they wouldn't approve of the relationship getting serious?

It seemed ridiculous, but the thought wouldn't leave her alone, the whole way there.

The stallion waiting for them at the train station should have looked older.

Ember wasn't very good at judging ages in mammals, but mentally comparing him to other ponies she'd seen that she was almost certain were as older as him or even younger, he had shockingly few signs of his age. His mane wasn't even fully grey, he still had the bulk on his frame that had helped him stand out in Ember's mind, and there was a minimal sign of wrinkles on his face. His pelt had a healthy gleam, his horn didn't have any signs of wear-and-tear that she'd learned to recognize...

Good genes, maybe. Or magic. Given that he was married to an alicorn, most likely magic.

It surprised Ember some that he hadn't grown wings himself, honestly, though she was still a little fuzzy on the criteria for doing so, especially given that some ponies could apparently be born that way. Spike had described the events surrounding his sister's ascension, and Ember's takeaway was that she'd been blasted so hard by a set of magical artefacts that she'd grown extra limbs by the time she hit the ground again.

His face lit up in a smile when he saw them, and the two brothers shared a hug, Spike lifting him right off the ground in his enthusiasm. He old stallion gave a laugh. "Great to see you, little bro!" As soon as he was set down again, he trotted over to Ember and offered his hoof for her to bump with her knuckles. "You too! It's been a while since the last visit."

"Well, you know how it is." Ember rubbed the back of her neck. "It's hard to get away from my subjects, and I don't want to stress out my assistant by doing it too often."

"Yeah, I get you. Cadance's assistant gets more grey hair every time she wants to leave the Empire." He gave an agreeable bob of his head. "Speaking of, come on, let's get to the palace. Cadance has been looking forward to seeing you."

It may not have been Ember's first time in the Crystal Empire, but as they were led through the streets, she still couldn't help but look around. She'd never, before or since, been somewhere this sparkly. Light bounced from surface to surface to local, occasionally landing in eyes of passerby, and other non-crystal-pony residents seemed to either be very adept at averting their eyes at the right time or very attached to their pairs of sunglasses. Thankfully, dragon eyes were better at resisting glare, and so the occasional beam of light in her direction only caused mild annoyance.

Then they passed by the statue, and Ember couldn't help but give a small smile at the rendition of Spike, even younger than he was when the two of them had met. He'd been a hero even before the Gauntlet of Fire, and while she was sure he had embellished the story when he'd regaled her with it, she still felt some extra pride, in standing next to such a dragon.

It made his nerves all the more worrying. As happy as he'd been to see his older brother, he seemed to get more fidgety the longer the walk went on. Hopefully getting the advice they were looking for would soothe whatever was bothering him.

Ember still had no idea what to do when ponies got huggy.

Alicorns were tall enough that one rearing up like that was big enough to wrap forelegs around her shoulders. And that's what Cadance had done, immediately upon seeing them, first Spike and then Ember. Forelegs and wings wrapped around her, and all she could do is stand perfectly still as the pink pony princess was relentless in her friendly affection.

Just like every time Cadance had done this, Ember was struck by the strength behind the gesture. She didn't have the overt bulk of her husband, but Cadance's body was lined with muscle, and Ember had the distinct impression that if she ever decided to turn that hug into a grapple, even a dragon was going to be in trouble.

That's what tripped up so many creatures about ponies. They had the power to conquer, if they wanted. They could take whatever they desired from other creatures by force. It wasn't just about the sun, but the fact that individual ponies themselves could pack much more of a punch than their small size would suggest.

Spike had explained away her reaction before as Ember not being used to hugs. It wasn't untrue, but the whole truth was that she always spent those few moments locked in a hug being reminded that ponies were kind and friendly by choice, and that all other creatures should be grateful they'd made that choice.

Cadance let her go eventually, all smiles. "It's so good to see you again, Ember!"

"Likewise." The smile hopefully didn't look as forced as it felt.

"I was so excited when we got your letter. I feel like we've barely gotten to really talk on your previous visits." She pranced in place briefly. "You haven't even seen the palace gardens before, have you? We'll need to fix that!"

The thought of spending the next while looking at flowers made Ember wince. "That's nice of you, but you don't have to--"

"No no, I think you'll really like these gardens." Cadance lit her horn, and magic suddenly encircled one of Ember's claws. Unicorn magic always felt strange, like whatever the pony in question had grabbed was starting to fall asleep. "We can leave the boys to catch up while I give you the tour."

Ember look back, and saw Spike fighting to hold back his laughter. Traitor. "That sounds... great."

She supposed a garden would work as well as anywhere to broach the awkward questions, but she still didn't understand the pony preoccupation with showing her flowers.

Sunny Side Up

"And this one is a Ruby Frost."

Ember suddenly had a whole new understanding of what it was like to be a herbivore.

Sometimes rulers of other lands liked to show off their gardens, when she came to visit. They had heard tale, or seen images, or even experienced the rocky, volcanic land of the dragons, and tended to universally come to the conclusion that she would be impressed by greenery.

Over the course of her still-young rule, she'd been shown all manner of flowers, shrubs, trees, vines, ferns, and other oddities of the floral world, in the hope that she'd been impressed. There were two problems with that.

One, she'd seen greenery on her many visits to Ponyville to visit Spike. Sure, feeling grass under feet had been a novel sensation the first time, and so had the first time climbing a tree--Spike had insisted on it being a climb instead of flying up for an authentic experience--but by now the novelty of green surroundings had already worn off.

And two, when you were used to being surrounded by and eating gemstones, plants were bland in multiple meanings of the word. Dragons could digest plant matter, sure, but didn't tend to really need it and few developed any kind of taste for it. Unlike a good percentage of other sapient species on the planet, she wasn't looking at a rare type of grass and immediately contemplating how it would taste.

Things, however, were different in the Crystal Empire. Whether it was adaptation to the northern climate or a side-effect of proximity to the Crystal Heart, a lot more than just the local ponies were partly crystalline. The animals that made their home beneath the Heart's barrier had their own shimmer, and so did the plants.

Ember stared at the flowering plant in front of her, taking in the petals made of ruby, each one tipped by ice crystals that showed no sign of melting even in the warmth of the palace courtyard. Ice was the very definition of an empty food, but some dragons had begun to see value in it as a subtle seasoning, and a visit to Yakyakistan had resulted in her gaining some fondness to it.

She looked at the plant, and had to make an effort not to drool. "It's... very pretty."

Princess Cadance looked at her with mischief in her eyes, and leaned over to speak in a whisper, despite no other creatures being around. "It is edible. I won't tell anypony if you want to try one."

Ember immediately ducked her head in embarrassment, but she didn't offer up any denial. She just plucked one of the blooms and nibbled at it, enjoying the blend of flavours. Satisfied, Cadance led her further through the garden, pointing out various other flora that piqued Ember's interest and appetite both.

Until the moment that she looked at Ember with a studying eye, and paused in the walk. "As much as I've been enjoying this... Maybe it's time to tell me why you're actually here?"

It took all of Ember's diplomatic experience not to freeze like a disobeying hatching and instead look casual. "What do you mean?"

She raised an eyebrow in response, clearly not buying it for a second. "Because this isn't an official visit, it isn't a holiday, and you've been unusually anxious during this walk even though we're well past the point of you needing to wonder if we accept you." Cadance shrugged. "I'd normally assume you were looking for relationship advice, but I can't sense any signs of trouble of that kind in either of you. So, what is it?"

Ember blinked once, and then her claws went skyward in frustration. "...What is it about you ponies and seeing right through me no matter what I do?"

Cadance giggled at that. "Well, in my case, I'm cheating. Alicorn of Love." She flicked her tail toward the heart on her butt, then offered a warm smile. "But seriously, Ember, if you have something to say, I'd rather know how I can help instead of dancing around it."

She heaved a deep sigh. Well, she'd been caught, so may as get it over with. "It's about kids."

A change instantly overcame Cadance. Her body went rigid, her eyes went wide, and she simultaneously gave the widest smile and loudest gasp that Ember had ever observed a pony do short of Spike's other pink pony friend. "Ember, did you--?"

Her horn lit, and she practically bounced a circle around the increasingly bewildered dragon. Ember felt that strange falling-asleep sensation across her whole body this time. "Oh of course! With a mammal I'd be able to tell, because there'd be a second magical aura, but for an egg layer there'd be such a shorter window when you'd be able to see--"

"I haven't laid eggs!" Ember burst out the moment she realized what was happening. "We're just talking about the possibility of starting a family."

The prancing pony princess instantly stopped in her tracks, and drooped. "Oh."

Ember snorted, rolling her eyes. "Sorry to disappoint with the fact that I haven't been keeping some kind of secret clutch from you."

"No no, just..." Cadance smiled weakly. "Sorry, it's probably a pony thing."

Ember tilted her head to one side in confusion. "...What is?"

"Well, whenever one of my friends is expecting a foal, we all get excited on their behalf and helping out however we can." Cadance seemed to perk up again as she spoke. "Shopping trips, giving advice, that kind of thing."

Ember pictured a bunch of ponies gathered around a pregnant one, moving from shop to shop. Then she made an effort to try to picture a bunch of dragons doing anything similar, and her brain nearly broke. "Yeah that's... definitely a pony thing."

Cadance's ears drooped even more. "Right. Well." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, what about children did you want to know about?"

Ember tried to gather herself. "Well, it's just... you and Shimmering Amore--"

"Shining Armour."

The apologetic grimace was reflexive by this point. "Right, sorry, still bad with names. But point is, you're a ruler like I am, and your husband's really busy, and your foal didn't grow up to be a supervillain, so you we figured you'd have some good advice."

Cadance looked at her, and snickered. "You've been reading Spike's old comic books, haven't you?"

Ember held up her claws. "It was... research. Knowing other species' pop culture helps with... diplomacy stuff."

The next snicker came paired with a smirk. "Uh-huh. Sure."

"Look, can you help or not?"

"Of course, I'd be happy to help." She gestured with a motion of her head, and the two rulers continued their way through the gardens. The various crystal plants continued to shimmer enticingly, but Ember managed to keep her focus on the conversation as Cadance continued, "Balancing rulership and parenthood is tricky." She giggled slightly. "Though sometimes it feels like it's the same set of skills."

Ember found herself laughing softly along. "Oh, I know exactly what you're getting at." Her mind went back to the struggles of open court. "Sometimes I feel like I'm not a lord and more of a mom trying to get a bunch of drakes to behave."

Cadance nodded. "Right! So there's a lot of overlap. The main difference is that it's easier to explain the reason you're doing something to an adult than a toddler." And then, with the voice of experience of somepony who had her own open courts she added, "Usually anyway. Children are often smarter than you think, and some adults--"

"Are a special kind of willfully stupid. I hear you."

The two shared a smile.

The conversation wandered some as the walk did. Cadance showed her Wooly Sapphires (short plants, easy to miss, but the moment they were pointed to her, the deep blue gem flowers with tufts of colourful wool similar to that of a Crystal Ewe were quite the sight), Emerald Mists (broad gem leaves with a dusting of those same never-melting ice crystals, with the extra trick that the plant could turn incorporeal in response to attempts to eat it) and Diamond Lilies (gem leaves streaked with various colours in fetching patterns) as they talked about their respective experiences with boulderheaded adults.

Stories about so-called innovators were swapped, with Cadance able meet the wheel story with the pony who'd been convinced he'd invented the typewriter. Stories of arbitrations went back and forth, each trying to top the other with the most juvenile thing they'd had to step in about. Tales of suitors needing to be let down and/or chased out were vented to one another as they fumed at the sheer audacity of it.

"You know," Cadance commented thoughtfully as the commerisating wound down. "I think we're both in similar situations."

"In what way?" Ember asked curiously as she nibbled at a leaf she'd managed to snatch off one of the Emerald Mist plants before it shifted into fog.

"Both of our lands are a little... behind the curve, so to speak," Cadance elaborated. "The Dragonlands have been in an effective stasis for centuries, and the Crystal Empire was shot forward in time a thousand years. Meanwhile, you've seen a lot of how other nations do things, and I was outright raised in Equestria. So we've experienced a lot of things our subjects haven't, and it can be frustrating when they don't have a lot of what we consider common knowledge."

"...Huh." Ember gave her emerald leaf another nibble. "You know, that's a good point."

"Though that's a good thing to remember, to bring around to the topic of children." Cadance smiled. "That sometimes they might act out just because they're young and they don't understand yet or haven't developed their impulse control. Because these things are learned. And they aren't going to learn unless you explain, so once they're at an age that you can talk to them, always try to."

"Makes sense." Ember gave a small, nostalgic smile. "I never was a fan of 'because I said so.' Drove me insane when Dad tried it with me and usually just made me do the exact thing he didn't want me to."

Like become the Dragon Lord.

Cadance nodded. "Right, exactly. Being a good ruler and a good parent means understanding them and helping them, as best you can, to understand you. You can't really brute force either."

Ember couldn't help but snort. "Much as Dragon Lords have tried. But that's probably why we didn't have a real government until recently."

Another small nod. "So, in essence... if you don't want kids that grow up to be villains, just treat them with respect and you'll be fine."

"That... makes me feel a lot better about this." She gave a soft, friendly smile. "Thanks."

Cadance smiled back, warm and bright. "Happy to help."

It also had her thinking back to her most recent open court. The stress had been starting to make her lose her patience with her subjects, she realized that now. Shouting at Backdraft and Charcoal had been a bit extreme. They'd made a friend, and that was progress. Learning to share was just the next step, just like it would be with a young hatchling. All of dragonkind were still learning, one step at a time, to be better, and it wasn't that long ago that she was a adolescent insisting that dragons didn't make friends at all.

She resolved to have the two summoned when the visit was over, in order to apologise, and to explain what she'd meant by sharing instead of just yelling at them.

Ember looked at Cadance with new respect as the two of them walked together. Spike was right, the frilly, pink pony princess was smart and had good advice. "Maybe we should do this more often," she said, and when Cadance looked curious, elaborated, "Meet up and talk about being rulers."

"And about being parents too?" Cadance asked.

Ember nodded. "And when it happens, about being parents too." She gave her a nudge in the side with her elbow. "I'll bet you've got a lot more stories than just the ones I heard today."

"Oh you have no idea."

Laughter followed them through the gardens, and Ember hoped that Spike was enjoying the quality time with his brother as much as she was enjoying the chat with Cadance.

Pickled

"Okay, walk me through it again..."

The two brothers were sat at a table, several sheets of paper between them. The Crystal palace's war room had been converted into a gaming room a long while back, but some old remnants of the previous purpose could be seen.

The walls of the room were etched with numerous depictions of historic battles, ones that had been old history even in the Crystal Empire's original time period. The table itself looked ancient, its crystal worn down and scratched in several places, and was large enough to sit at least a dozen ponies around it. The holders were still about for the candles whose flickering flames would have normally given the room the appropriate level of gravitas for planning battle, even if lighting was instead now handled by glow-gems.

There was a stack of books off to one side, four thick tomes and several slightly thinner ones, all in an array of colours. One particularly colourful one was grasped in Shining Armour's horn glow, the with a cover of red and gold and the words Nyx: The Dreaming proudly displayed along the top.

"Okay," Shining Armour said with the firm confidence of a stallion accustomed to commanding forces and solving enigmas with equal measure. "First you select your nyx's court, legacy, seeming, and their house if they're a noble."

Spike nodded hesitantly. "Okay."

"Then you distribute points between your nine attributes. You get one point in each by default. Then you distribute points to your talents, your skills, and your knowledges."

"...Right." Spike looked down at the character sheet with the same expression he'd normally have if he'd found a second Inspiration Manifestation.

"Then you pick out your backgrounds, your arts, and your realms."

"Um." He found the right part of the sheet, looking it over. "Which is which with the arts and realms again?"

With the tone of somepony who'd had this conversation many times and refined his answer with each go around. "The arts are what your nyx can do with magic, and the realms are what you can do the magic to."

"Uh..huh... Okay..."

"And then there's the merits and flaws, which are optional but really fun, the specialties, if you qualify for any, and..." Shining Armour looked up from the book. "I lost you again, huh?"

Spike smiled weakly. "Kinda."

Shining Armour set the book down, smiling back. "It's fine, first character is always a bit of a learning curve. How about you join my Vampony: the Masquerade group instead? That one's a pretty good gateway game, and then we can come back to this one later."

Spike chuckled. "Yeah, that might be a good idea. It's been a while since since I had to learn a whole new system."

Shining pulled out the appropriate book, and the two went over the system again, piece by piece. Appendixes were flipped to, obscure rules looked up, ideas for how a rare and supposedly dead bloodline of vamponies could be brought into a typical group of anti-heroic undead struggling with their natures, along with hashing out what would happen if vamponyism infected something that wasn't a pony at all.

It brought him back to his days playing O&O with the guys back in Ponyville. Discord had certainly made the experience... unforgettable, but he still looked back on that gaming group fondly. He'd learned a surprising amount of friendship lessons of his own around that table.

Shining placed the book back in the pile. "So, with that settled, what can I really do for you, little bro?"

Spike rubbed the back of his neck, leaning back in the chair, the crystal of it managing to hold his bulk for now. "Yeah, I guess it was kinda transparent that we're here for help, huh?"

"Kinda. Then again, I'm pretty good at reading both you and Twily like a book by now." Shining chuckled. "But I'm always happy to help out my Little Dragon Brother Best Friend Forever. So what's eating you?"

Spike took in a deep, steadying breath. "Well, Ember and I have been talking about maybe settling down--"

Shining's hoof came up as he grinned. "Say no more! It'll be my honour to plan your bachelor party."

"Wait, no, that's not--"

"Have you told Twily yet? Pretty sure asking her to be your best mare only smooths over her being the last pony to know about the wedding the first time it happens."

"No no!" Spike nearly fell from the chair as he frantically flailed his limbs at Shining. "We haven't planned anything like that yet. We've just been talking about what that future might look like, that's all."

Shining's grin didn't waver. "Right right. But just so you know, when the time comes, I've got you covered."

"Thanks, Shining." It was somewhat comforting to know his big brother had his back for an eventual wedding, but that still left the real issue, and he took in another deep breath before diving in. "What I was really hoping for was some parenting advice, though. Since we're thinking about the future, we also thought about kids being part of it. But with me being an ambassador, I'm not going to be around as much. Since you'd been going between Equestria and the Crystal Empire for a lot of Flurry Heart's foalhood, I figured you might have some tips."

Shining's smile faded to a more serious expression, and his ears twitched in thought. Eventually he placed both front hooves on the table. "Here's one thing I had to learn the hard way: Not every day needs to be a special day."

Spike blinked, tilting his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." The embarrassed smile of lessons learned from experience took hold on Shining's face. "Early on, I'd feel guilty about having so little days off, so I'd try to do something big when I did see her. Take her places, give her treats, that kind of thing."

Spike nodded slowly. "Well, yeah. That makes sense. Doing something nice to apologise."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking at the time too. Thing was?" He waved a hoof in the air, as if plucking a memory from it. "A while of that and I eventually had an upset foal in the middle of a fairground because all she'd wanted to do was sit and have me read a book to her."

Eyes widened as the memory also hit Spike's mind. It'd been a extended family outing, one of the few times everyone could get time off together. At the time, he hadn't understood why they'd all ended up with a bawling alicorn foal sitting in the middle of the park. "...Oh."

"Right. That's why Flurry had a meltdown that day. I'd been doing too much, and hadn't picked up that she was getting overstimulated." He sighed, shaking his head at himself. "Fancy trips and gifts aren't a substitute for quality time. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to just make time to tuck them in at night. You might not think it's special, but they do."

"True. I did always like when Dad read to me and did the voices. And he wasn't even away that much." A fond, nostalgic smile came across his face. "And, hay, when I come see Ember most of the time we just stay in and I trounce her at board games."

Shining chuckled. "Maybe you should bring her for the vampony campaign too. Always room for one more."

Spike shrugged. "I could ask her, but she's usually pretty social-ed out by the time she's done with her subjects. Always been kind of an introvert, you know?" He hummed in thought. "Come to think of it, that's why we started to do board game nights. I tried taking her out to nice dinners the first few times and she was way too exhausted to enjoy herself."

Shining nodded. "See? It's an easy pitfall. You think you've got to be Super-partner, or Superdad, to compensate for the distance, but what you really just need to do when you're there is... be there."

"Heh. Yeah. I was probably going to pull a Twilight and try to have the best family outing ever and it'd blow up in my face." He made an explosion motion with his claws for emphasis, 'fwshoom' sound effect and all. "Cannonball dodged. Thanks."

"That's what big brothers are for." Shining looked at him then, as if studying him closely. "Now, what's really eating you?"

"Huh?" Spike blinked. "I told you, I came here for parenting advice."

"That's not what I asked." He leaned forward a bit, his ears rotating to face Spike. "I asked what's bothering you. I can tell there's more to it than just that."

Spike suddenly knew what it must feel for for other creatures, being detained and questioned by guards who knew when they were dodging answering. Though at least his big brother didn't have anything on Pinkie Pie's brand of disorientating interrogation. "I mean. I um. You know." He sighed. "Answer honestly, Shining: Do you even think I'd be a good dad?"

He looked surprised. "Well, yeah, of course. You've always been good with foals."

"Yeah. Foals. Not drakes." He huffed a heavier sigh. "I don't know anything about the psychology, what the milestones are... Every dragon I've ever met has said that my aging was weird. I'd always been mistaken for younger than I am, there's the whole greed growth fiasco--"

"And you're also the dragon who stood side-by-side with the Bearers of Harmony, had a key part in saving the Crystal Empire, helped crown the current Dragon Lord, helped negotiate peace between the Abyssinians and the Diamond Dogs..." Shining smirked. "Should I go on?"

"...No, I get the point." He stretched his wings idly, flapping them a couple of times. "Ember said pretty much the same thing. That I turned out fine, so just do what Mom and Dad did."

"Yeah, and you should listen to me." Spike looked over in surprise as Ember strolled into the war room, with Cadance on her heels. "I keep telling you you're a pretty great dragon, and a whole lot of creatures in a whole lot of nations would agree with me."

Cadance, meanwhile, spied the pile of books and laughed. "Oh no, Shiny, are you trying to get Spike into Ponies of Shadows?"

Shining put his hooves up in mock defensiveness. "He asked what I was playing lately and I told him! The follow-up character creation was all his idea."

Seizing the opportunity for the subject change, Spike piped up, "He told me about your vampony, Cadance! And about how she once threw a carriage at a weretimberwolf."

"The weretimberwolf had it coming," Cadance said without missing a beat as she plopped down in a seat near Shining. "He threatened my favourite blood donor and made fun of my outfit."

Shining snorted. "Yeah, and you looked more upset about the outfit."

"It was designer!"

Ember's eye ridge raised as she moved over to take a seat as well. "What are you all talking about?"

Shining's eyes lit up, shortly followed by him grabbing up the vampony book again. "Let me show you!"

"Here we go..."

As Cadance continued to mock-protest and Shining started to recite lore to an increasingly confused Ember, Spike smiled. His family were, to a one, a bunch of royal dorks, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

But a tight knot of tension still sat in his chest at the idea of adding to it.

Devilled

What had started as spontaneous character creation had turned into a oneshot, and before anyone knew it, chaos had ensued as Shining Armour took on the task of herding along a newcomer to the game, a newcomer to games of this sort in general, and his wife along an introduction to the dark and terrible fictional world of Ponies of Shadows.

Who would be the hardest to keep in line was obvious, in hindsight.

"The cart splinters on contact with the werefruitbat," Shining narrated, with an air of resignation to the chaos. "Sending bits of wood and heads of cabbage flying in every direction as its slender body is sent sprawling with a series of distressed squeaks. Somewhere off to your right, you hear the dismayed cry of 'my cabbages!' uttered by an earth pony with a cabbage head cutie mark."

Spike's claws settled over his heart sympathetically. "That poor salespony."

Ember, meanwhile, smirked at Cadance. "Nice shot."

Cadance grinned like a cat who'd devoured her weight in the highest quality cream. "Vampony super strength, dexterity for days, and thrown objects count as weapons for using my skills. I'm unstoppable."

"You're also fighting on purely empty streets from now on," Shining snarked as he rolled the dice.

Cadance waved a wing. "Nah, you like describing the set pieces too much to do that to yourself."

"Not as much as you like destroying the set pieces."

The banter between the married couple went on for a while, and Spike glanced over at Ember, who was smiling and laughing along, eyeing the dice in eagerness for her own turn, and he couldn't help but grin, the tension he'd been feeling easing somewhat. It'd been a rocky start with his family--her tendency to mix up ponies or forget names had been mistaken for malice initially, and he'd needed to coach her through the first round or so of apologies--but she when she relaxed and let go, she fit in more than she would ever give herself credit for.

Then reality invaded the situation once again, as Cadance gave the two a small smile. "So, I'm curious, what got you two talking about kids in the first place?"

Spike felt his insides tie up in knots again, but Ember answered the question with a casual air. "Well, things have been getting pretty serious, and it sort of seemed like an inevitable topic." She snorted, a hint of smoke curling from her nostrils. "Especially since my subjects keep bringing up the idea of me settling down eventually."

"And you two both want kids?" Cadance said, and Spike saw the way that she was looking between the two of them. Empath. Of course she was trying to get a read on both of them. "It might be an inevitable topic, but it's not an inevitability. You shouldn't feel forced."

He watched Ember seem to sit with her answer, thinking it over and how to phrase it. "I do," she said with firm certainty. "I still have some things to work on before I do. Things that will make me a better ruler, and hopefully parent. But eventually, when I'm ready? Yeah, I like the thought of raising up some drakes of my own."

Cadance looked at him, and Spike fidgeted.

It was hard to lie to Cadance. Not just because successfully lying to somepony who could sense emotions was the kind of thing professional spies went through long bouts of training for, but there was something about her that just made someone balk at the idea of trying to deceive her. When a creature spoke to Cadance, they wanted to tell her how they really thought, and felt, and it took an active effort to not.

He supposed if anypony would be spurred to cultivate that kind of presence, it'd be her.

"...Still a little hesitant?" Spike admitted finally, tapping his claws with pent up nerves. "But I don't think that it's that I don't want to, exactly. I like kids, I really do, and when I think about it on its own, I like the thought of having some. But I'm still not sure if I should. All the good intentions in the world don't matter if I'm not qualified. I just feel like I have no idea what I'm doing."

Shining Armour and Cadance looked at each other. Then there was a snicker from him, a snort from her, and both ponies started to laugh. The kind of laugh that was so warm and genuine that it was hard to be angry at it, even when he felt like the mirth was at his expense.

Cadance was the first to speak. "Spike... no parent has any idea what they're doing."

"Especially not first time ones," Shining added.

"Parenting is a skill," Cadance went on. "Even ponies with cutie marks for it still need to learn. And it's a pretty rare mark in the first place. Just like leadership is. There might be creatures that have a bit more intuition for either job, be it a mark or otherwise... but at the end of the day, you've just got to commit to learning."

"Besides," Shining said as he looked to Cadance with an adoring smile, "You two are supposed to be a team."

"Right!" Ember playfully planted a fist against his shoulder. "I keep saying, you'll have me right there with you, so quit being so freaked out. We'll work together, just like we did in the Gauntlet of Fire back in the day. Neither of us would've gotten to the scepter on our own, but everything worked out in the end. Just like it will with any drakes."

"And not just each other." Cadance gestured between herself and Shining with a wing. "You'll have us, the rest of the family, all of your friends... This kind of thing is a team effort."

Until it isn't. Spike saw Cadance's eyes narrow, and he tried to shove the feeling of dread aside. "Yeah, but isn't that..." He searched for a right word, his claws moving like he were conducting an imaginary orchestra as he tried to sort his words out. "I dunno, cheating? I'm not qualified, so I just... claw the job off to everyone else? Wouldn't everyone resent that, including the kids?"

"It's not a competition," Shining said with a shake of his head. "You remember what I said about trying to be Superdad? Nopony and no one should expect to do everything themselves."

"Foalsitters exist for a reason," Cadance chimed. "Speaking as somepony who made good bits that way all through high school."

"...That's something I always wondered about," Ember cut in. "How did a princess end up doing something that... normal? My parents would barely let me out of their sight, let alone something like that."

Cadance shrugged. "Auntie Celestia wanted to make sure I stayed in touch with other ponies. I think she wanted to make sure I was humble and adaptable enough to help steer the Crystal Empire when it returned."

Ember gave a small laugh. "Right, she must've seen that heart on your butt and known it meant you'd be sitting on the Empire's throne eventually. It'd be convenient if dragons had those. Then maybe I'd have had a butt-stamp of the scepter I could point to when someone said I was too small to be Dragon Lord."

Cadance shrugged. "Well, like I said, leadership is a rare mark. My special talent isn't even for that. It's for things relating to love. It's just that the Crystal Empire being protected by an artefact that utilizes love magic makes me pretty good with it."

"Yeah fair." Ember gave another soft laugh. "With my luck I'd have a butt-stamp that had nothing to do with the scepter and that would've just made the pushback harder."

Shining looked at Spike. He made an effort to stop wringing his claws. "Hey, I have an idea. Maybe instead of talking to us, you should have a talk with Flurry Heart? It sounds like you'd benefit from her perspective."

Spike considered that, and smiled a little. "You know what? Good idea."

"But first..." He nosed over the dice. "Go on and take your turn."

"Oh, I know exactly what I want to do." He tapped a section of his character sheet. "Time to make those points in charisma work for me and defuse the situation."

"Bo-ring," Ember teased. "You've gotta go and be an ambassador, even in a game." She then grinned at Shining. "I'm gonna grab the nearest cart and heft it up, in case the werefruitbat doesn't listen."

Amused laughter broke out around the table, and Spike managed to smile a little as he got into character and delivered a proper Friendship Speech befitting his role. It helped his confidence some to feel like he was in his element, instead of the uncertain flailing about the parenthood topic.

Maybe the upcoming chat with Flurry Heart really would help.

Poached

The Crystal Guard had had a long and fraught history.

Even with Sombra's defeat, the memories of the crystal ponies were a little bit scattershot. Sometimes piecing together their whole history took a lot more than asking. Books would be uncovered and consulted, different art pieces that had survived Sombra's reign would be examined, and occasionally outsider accounts from that era would be looked into, while being aware that said accounts were bound to be biased toward the culture of the observer.

All of that uncertainty meant that the deepest history of the guard, and a lot of their traditions, had been lost. After all, Sombra had felt he had no need for a royal guard. He'd tended to rely on his own magic and every dirty trick that he could possibly employ with it to protect both himself and the things he didn't want anypony to touch. Any guards who had survived his takeover had been stripped of their status, at minimum, in short order.

It had made rebuilding the guard a high priority when Cadance had taken the throne, a job that Shining Armour had taken incredibly seriously. For a long while, he'd been de-facto leader of both Equestria's and the Empire's guards, adding more to an already incredibly full plate. He'd needed to find locals with the desire and correct temperament, handle their training, and hunt for those ponies with officer material, including one good enough to replace him at his job.

Where he'd eventually found that new captain had been both unexpected and, in hindsight, made complete sense.

Leadership may not have been any of their marks, but it did still seem to run in the family.

A pair of dragons in the barracks tended to get stares. The crystal ponies had started to get a lot of more used to other species visiting, and at any given time there were changelings, yaks, reindeer, and other various creatures coming to see the splendid shining city in the north. Dragons, however, were still a rarer sight in colder climates, even with the Heart keeping things warmer. And so various guardponies looked up from what they were doing, surprised and confused.

Then realization dawned across several faces.

"It's Spike the Brave and Glorious!"

Walking down the street, Spike could usually avoid that reaction these days. The statue in town depicted him much younger, even before his wings came in, and didn't reflect the colours of his scales. For the average citizen, he flew under the radar. Guardponies, however, were not average citizens.

They were mobbed in an instant, as if every guardpony had instantly transformed into foals eager to meet their favourite film star. Ember had a rare experience of not being the centre of attention, and she obligingly stepped aside to let Spike engage with his adoring fans. She watched him sign autographs and pose for pictures, all with a faint smile of bemusement.

A place that had never seen a dragon before, or at least had only done so far enough back that nopony remembered, and their first experience had been of one with heroic qualities. There was nothing in them that felt an urge to recoil, no old stories about treasure-stealing or village-burning dragons to work against. They just knew Spike, and that Spike was a good creature, and that was enough for them.

It reminded her what she was working towards, and bolstered her hope that it was possible.

"I was wondering when you'd come by to say hello, Uncle Spike."

Ponies looked over, and hastily backed up away from their idol to take up proper guard poses again as Flurry Heart stood there with small smile on her muzzle and amused twinkle in her eyes. She stood there in her crystalline armour, helmet tucked her wing, and Ember found herself wondering how she kept those voluminous blue-and-purple curls contained within a helmet in the first place. She'd certainly taken after her mother, too, with her long legs, strong-looking wings, and sharp-looking horn.

Spike grinned. "Flurry!" He stepped closer and threw his arms around her, yanking the young alicorn into a tight hug. "It's great to see you."

"Great to see you too, uncle." After the two broke off the hug, she nodded politely in Ember's direction. "And it's a pleasure to see you, of course, Your Lordship."

Some of the guardponies were looking at her with new eyes, and she hastily waved a claw before anypony got the idea to start asking for her autograph next. "It's not an official visit. You can just call me Ember."

Flurry giggled slightly. "Alright, Ember. Turning off formality mode, just for you." She trotted closer, and held up a hoof. Ember obligingly bumped it with her knuckles. "Still, it's good to see you. Last time was a few years back, when you and I had that javelin toss."

Ember laughed slightly at the memory. "I still want a rematch, you know."

Flurry Heart tossed her head. "Why wait, then? Come on, I'll go get them."

"Oh you are on, mare!"

A couple of hours later, out in the barrack's training yard, a very smug alicorn was prancing in a circle, her subordinates cheering her as she celebrated her victory. Several javelins were sticking out of the ground nearby, one significantly farther away from the gathered creatures than the others.

Ember, meanwhile, had her arms crossed, her snout lightly smoking. "You cheated."

Flurry stopped and struck a pose like a model on a runway, the curls of her mane and tail bouncing. "No need to be jealous of my alicorn power, Ember. You're basically up against the one of the strongest earth ponies, most agile pegasi, and most precise unicorns all at once."

"There is no way you didn't slip magic in there. Javelins don't move like that on their own."

"Maybe for you, they don't." Flurry flashed a wide grin, jabbing Ember in the ribs with a wing. "I think you just need to work on your throwing technique, Your Lordship."

More smoke snorted from her nostrils as she swatted the wings away. "Flames, you're infuriating."

"Why thank you." The audience was dispersing, and once they had relative privacy on the training field, the smugness faded and she glanced from dragon to dragon. "Okay, we've had our fun and the ponies got their show... So maybe want to tell me why you're really here?"

Spike frowned. "I can't just want to see my niece?"

Flurry quirked a brow at him. "Come on, Uncle Spike. We both know you're a busy creature. I don't doubt that you wanted an opportunity to spend time with me and watch me trounce your partner at javelin-throwing again--"

"I still say you cheated."

"--But we both know that you rarely go anywhere for just one purpose." She looked between the two again. "So is this a business thing? Something to do with the Dragonlands that you can't discuss officially?"

Spike hastily shook his head. "No no, nothing like that. It's more... personal."

Ember snorted her last cloud of smoke, and breathed a sigh. "Let us explain."

And so they did. They relayed the talk that had led them to the Crystal Empire in the first place, Ember's talk with Cadance, Spike's talking with Shining, and the chat as a group that had eventually led them to the barracks. All the while, Flurry listened thoughtfully, nodding occasionally with a serious expression. Every word seemed to be taken in and thought over, with no attempt to hurry either dragon to get to their point.

"So... Yeah." Spike ran a hand over his head-spines nervously. "We were hoping to get your perspective on all this."

"Since. You know." Ember shrugged. "You haven't tried to take over the world, so clearly someone did something right."

"That you know of." There was a brief flash of a playful grin, before her expression became more thoughtful again. "And I'd say that that's a low bar to clear, but I know what Uncle Discord got up to back in the day. And Aunt Starlight. And the army that Uncle Thorax was part of." She counted off with stomps of her hooves as she named names. "So I get it. The odds of somepony in this family going mad with power is definitely non-zero."

Flurry seemed to think on it more, and then she shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you two, honestly. I like to think my upbringing was pretty good, not just from the obvious fact that I don't have any particular desire to conquer and enslave my fellow ponies. I've got a lot of good memories."

"So it wasn't so bad having busy parents?" Spike asked, the hint of hope in his voice tentative.

Flurry shrugged again. "Not really. It taught me pretty fast that I'm not the centre of the world. That everyone has responsibilities and they can't drop everything and come running just because I want them to. And that's pretty important for a foal to learn, especially an alicorn foal. I can't just wave my horn and have things my way, because the world is bigger than just one alicorn."

Spike hesitantly pressed forward. "You didn't feel... neglected or anything?"

"No?" Flurry blinked as if she couldn't even fathom the question. "There was always someone around. Whether that was you and Aunt Twilight, Uncle Sunburst and Aunt Starlight, or anyone else. No one could drop everything for me all the time, but someone always had time for me."

"But they still weren't your mom and dad--"

"Uncle Spike?"

"Yeah?"

Flurry took to the air, her slightly-oversized wings aiding her in taking on an effortless hover. It placed her at the perfect level to knock one of her hooves against his skull, punctuating each tap with the words, "Herd. Spec-ies." She landed again, folding her wings and rolling her eyes. "Besides, weren't you basically half-raised by Aunt Twilight? You spent a chuck of your drakehood living with her."

"She's got a point," Ember said with a cross of her arms. "And I'm going to again point out that you turned out fine."

"...That's... true..." Spike shuffled his feet. "But a lot of our families are pretty busy these days, not to mention that the drakes would be living in the Dragonlands. Sending them to Equestria or the Crystal Empire every time we need a sitter isn't really...."

"Garble would drakesit. So would Smolder." Ember said without hesitation. She thought for a second longer. "Come to think of it, Crackle likes kids too. We could probably talk her into helping here and there. And that's just off the top of my head."

Spike visibly hesitated. "Yeah, that... works..."

Flurry tilted her head, giving him a studying look. "You still don't sound fully convinced." She narrowed her eyes. "This isn't really about being busy, is it? What are you really worried about?"

Ember watched several emotions play out across Spike's face. He wrung his claws, tugged slightly at his head-spines, and grasped at his tail, one after another, as if he couldn't decide on a nervous tick. All the while, his wings flapped behind him, as if they had a life of their own, never quite enough for him to rise from the ground.

"It's..." His voice cracked slightly, and his voice dropped to nearly a whisper. "...What happens when they molt?"

Understanding washed over Ember, and she came closer, placing a hand on his arm. "That's what you've been really worried about, isn't it? Not just about being busy or having been isolated from other dragons growing up. You've been staring down that question."

"I can't just kick them out and leave them to the rocs!" Spike burst out. "It was luck that I managed to get my wings in time to be able to fight back when one went after me." He gives a worried cringe. "And that 'luck' was mostly just it deciding to grab Zecora and Rarity first. I nearly lost two friends that day and I just... the thought of forcing my own drakes to leave the nest when they're vulnerable and not ready and there are predators--"

"Then we won't."

Spike blinked, and stared at Ember. "We... won't?"

"We won't." Ember shrugged, and smiled weakly. "My parents didn't. Not really. It took a long time to get them to admit it, but they kept nearby and kept watch over me until I got my wings." She managed a laugh. "I mean, come on, do you think with how protective they are, especially my dad, that they'd have done anything but?"

"I..."

She placed her claws on his shoulder, speaking gently. "We don't even have to go through the motions of pretending to kick them out, not if we don't want to. I'm already trying to be an example for other dragons. Might as well put my gold where my mouth is and show them all how to really raise a family."

She saw the tension in his shoulders relax, and he gave a slow, relieved smile. "...Thank you, Ember."

Flurry looked at the couple and gave them an approving nod. "Feeling a little better about things now?"

"Yeah, I am." He gave a faint laugh. "Still a little nervous at the thought, but I think for something that big, we should feel a little nervous.... but we're not facing it alone."

"Exactly, you big dork." Ember grinned. "Now, come on. We don't want to be late for dinner."

Two dragons and an alicorn left the field, heading for the palace where the other alicorn and unicorn were waiting for them--

No, the young couple left the field with their niece, to meet up with her parents, so they could have dinner together as a family. And Ember, as she looked at Spike, his fears finally eased and wearing the most relaxed smile he had in a while, couldn't help but feel her heart grow warm.

Yeah, everything was going to turn out just fine.

Omlette

"He was my friend first!"

"But I make a better friend for a pony!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do!"

Dragon Lord Ember was sat coiled around her throne. She'd grown too long of body for it a while back, but it'd been a gift, and so she'd gotten in the habit of wrapping her serpentine form around it as she listened to her subjects in open court. adding cushions to rest upon where necessary.

The gemstones she'd gathered over the years were now joined by paintings, tapestries, and sculptures from all over the world, most of them depicting dragons together with other species. She'd begun to worry some as her body's length had increased that it'd all started triggering greed growth, but thankfully, there were ways to mitigate that.

The two dragons arguing in front of her were young. Post-molt, but not much older. Both roughly the same size, fiercely glaring at each other as neither showed any sign of backing down.

Ember gave a patient smile as she uncoiled from the throne, lifting herself up on her hind limbs as her foreclaws grasped the scepter. "And have either of you asked your pony friend what he thinks?" she asked gently, already anticipating the answer.

"Well... yes," admitted one quietly.

The other huffed. "But he says he wants to be friends with both of us."

"That's why we're here, so you can pick, since he won't."

"What she said!"

Ember slowly shook her head, and slithered her way over to some of her gems. She plucked a large diamond in her claws as she spoke. "Have you ever noticed about ponies, that they usually travel around in big groups? Three and four, or even five and six. Do you know why that is?"

Both dragons shook their heads. Ember slithered closer, still holding the diamond. "Because ponies are a herd species. They'll all come together like that, and all be each other's friends. You'll have six ponies, and each one will all share five friends, making them all richer than if they'd gone it alone."

She could still see the confusion on both their faces, and so she tossed the hefty gemstone up and down, letting it catch the light and draw both their attention. "Say that both of you found this diamond. You could fight over it until one of you won, and then one of you would have a new diamond, and the other would have nothing." She stopped tossing and catching the gem, holding it tight. "Or, you two could share it. Both of you would have a new diamond, it just wouldn't be directly under your claw all the time."

Both seemed to be thinking it over, and so she continued. "It's the same with friends. You could hoard that pony all to yourself, and one would get a new friend. Or you could both be friends with him, and both be richer." She polished the diamond against her scales. "Not to mention, while a diamond doesn't care about who keeps it... if your pony friend does want to be friends with both of you, then you'd make him sad trying to force him to only keep one of you. You'd be making him poorer. And you don't want to do that to a friend, do you?"

Both dragons drew back, looking stricken as the question sank in.

"...I didn't think of it like that," one admitted with a tone of quiet horror. "That his friends are his treasure too."

"We'd be robbing him," exclaimed the other. "He'd cry, and I hate seeing ponies cry. It makes my chest hurt."

Ember smiled triumphantly, and tossed the diamond toward the two. They both moved forward instinctively to catch it, which resulted in both of them holding it together. "Here. Keep this. You can practice sharing it, to help you also share your friend."

The two stared in awe at the huge gem, one piping up, "You're giving this to us?"

Ember shrugged. "Sure. Why not? I've got plenty of gems. They don't all have to be under my claw all the time."

The two scurried out the cave together with their treasure, taking flight in a hurry as if afraid she might change her mind, though Ember noted with approval that they did so while uttering profuse 'thank yous.' Someone at least had taught them manners, even if it'd fallen to her to give the sharing lesson.

It was progress.

"Is that the last one for the day, Crackle?" she asked.

Crackle looked at one of her scrolls, followed by a nod. "It is, Your Lordship." Her lips curled in a smile. "Were you thinking of heading home early, then?"

Ember chuckled. "Yeah, I figured I'd surprise the kids. That okay?"

Crackle nodded and made a good-natured shooing motion. "Go on, have fun with your family. You deserve the break."

Ember smiled warmly at her assistant and friend. "You're the best, Crack."

"Mama!"

Ember landed at the mouth of the cave, and smiled broadly as six excited drakes came rushing to meet her. She flattened herself to the cave floor, laughing softly as she was mobbed. Scales of purple, pink, orange, cyan, yellow, and pearly white contrasted with her deep blue as the youngsters climbed all over her, all chattering at once.

Ember looked over at the drakesitters, giving Backdraft and Charcoal a friendly smile. "How was it?"

"Oh they were great, Your Lordship," Backdraft said, with the forced smile of exhausted sitters everywhere.

"Little angels, all of them," Charcoal chimed with the same smile.

Ember tut-tutted at them. "I told you two, when you're in my home, it's just Ember." She twisted her long neck, looking down at her brood where they were gathered on her back, a feat that never failed to elicit squeals of delight from all six. "Were you all being rowdy with your drakesitters?"

"No Mama!" they all chorused, save for one.

"...A little," admitted the smallest, sunny yellow drake.

Ember chuckled, and looked at the two worn-out looking adult dragons again. "Don't worry, I'll pay you extra for tonight." That earned some more genuine smiles from the two, and that's when she noticed the scroll sitting nearby on the table. "Oh? Did that arrive while I was out?"

It had taken some work to get Spike's letter-sending trick to go to a place instead of a specific creature--as funny as it could be to see some of the petitioners' faces, she'd wanted to make sure that scrolls that dropped out of thin air to land on her head were only the ones that urgently needed her eyes--but eventually they'd acquired an enchanted candle to act as a conduit. Emergency letters went straight to her, while routine correspondence went to the candle to greet her after a long day.

Backdraft nodded. "Yeah, about partway through the day."

"We told the kids they had to wait until you got back to read it," Charcoal added.

"Well!" She craned her head to look at the children again as she got up from the floor. "In that case, would you all like to listen to me read Papa's letter?"

Cheers broke out, and Ember felt her heart fill with a deep, long-lasting warmth.

Dear Family,

I arrived in Anugypt safe and sound. The current pharaoh has been very hospitable, and apologetic about the more unfriendly reception his father gave last time. It seems like he really wants to hammer out a formal alliance with Equestria and make it work, and I'm pretty optimistic. If all goes well, he'll no doubt be approaching other nations next, so you may find yourself with a jackal diplomat in the Dragonlands in the near future.

Of course, since things are going well, that means that there's probably shenanigans on the horizon. There's always some kind of unexpected complication when I meet a new friend, but at least it usually gets wrapped up before too long. Maybe I'll even get to sing a song this time.

But enough about work. I got the drawings you all sent, and I look at them every night before I go to sleep. You're all getting to be quite the artists! Maybe we can all make one big picture together as a family when we get home.

Speaking of, this'll be the last assignment, and then I can come home and enjoy a few weeks Friendship Mission free. Break out the board games and storybooks, because I'm really looking forward to some quality time with you all, and catching up face to face about everything I've missed.

I've been thinking about getting us a set of those communication crystal balls. They're getting more popular these days, and their spells are getting more refined. I think I'd miss reading and writing the letters, though.

If you're feeling up to travel, maybe we can even pay a visit to Equestria or the Crystal Empire once I get back, but I don't mind the opportunity to rest and spend time at home either. We can take things nice and easy without having to worry about long flights or train rides.

I hope Crackle's doing well too. After hearing how she's been going above and beyond lately, it sounds like she needs a vacation too. I hope those new sitters you talked about in the last letter have been working out, as well, and they haven't been run ragged by the usual family antics.

I miss you all, and I love you all very much,

Spike the Brave and Glorious, Ambassador Dad