It started out simple enough, Ember supposed. Most things did. Another day in the Dragonlands, another day of ruling over her kingdom. Well, kingdom being the polite way of putting it she supposed. After all, you could hardly call a group of farting, belching machismo male drakes who were pretty much only concerned with the size of the flames they could spew, the lengths of their penises or how fast they could slide down lava flows a kingdom, could you?

No, that would have been, quite frankly, generous.

Ember grumbled something under her breath, as she listened in into Garble’s conversation with a brown-scaled drake, named Rockbuster or something like that. She’d honestly stopped caring to learn her subject’s names, at least when it came to males.

“No, no dude,” Garble remarked. “Seriously, just no. I find it hard to believe your penis is fifteen inches. That is so much larger than I know it is. Seriously, I caught you pulling out of Blackburn’s ass not two weeks ago, and I know for a fact that it was ten inches then!”

“...It had an unexplained and freak growth spurt?” Rockbuster stammered out, the shorter drake wilting under Garble’s glare. Ember facepalmed.

“I don’t know what’s more disturbing, the fact that Garble’s a perv or that he actually took the time out to measure out Rockbuster’s penis size.” Ember thought to herself, tapping her claws on her throne in boredom. Day in, day out it was like this.

Honestly, what she needed was a change-up from the norm really. Something to say, hey! Maybe my life isn’t all bad, and it’s not worth diving into a Roc’s maw just so I won’t have to rule over these idiots.

She would have wondered how her father the former Dragonlord Torch dealt with this shit, but then she remembered he was a male himself. Ember winced at the imagery that came to her mind’s eye just then, her father comparing his penis to everyone else’s.

“Yeah… I’m going to need what Princess Twilight called Brain Bleach now, just for that. Thank you brain!” Ember told herself, shuddering in disgust.

Honestly, she couldn’t understand why she just listened to this crap. Bile fascination, maybe? Yeah, that was what she chalked it up to really. Had to be, only logical explanation.

Now, you may have been wondering why nobody had ever tried to hit on Ember… yet. Well, there was a simple explanation for that, and it was this. Every male drake with even an ounce of sense -And that was a surprisingly common thing- was scared of either one of two things. Ember herself, or her father.

Now Ember, she could fry you to a crisp or just banish you from the Dragonlands forever with just a simple wave of her scepter and a command, but her dear old daddy? Now he would just squash you into a bloody smear, and that would be the end of it.

Ember groaned, and rubbed her temples not for the first time this afternoon alone as she heard yet another conversation.

“Wait, you’re not accepting a date from that hunk of a drake?” a younger orange toned dragoness asked, one with dark purple eyes, Smolder, Ember remembered. One of Ember’s younger sisters, alongside her older sister Cynder and her older brother Flamespout. Now that she thought of it, she hadn’t heard from Flamespout in ages, not since he went to rest atop a mountain in near Ponyville for his 100-year nap. Spike had mentioned that a dragon had been chased away from Ponyville by that mare Buttershy, but she honestly didn’t believe it. Not after meeting that mare, who seemed to be the timidest creature alive. She figured he was just making it up. Why he would, she didn’t know, but she honestly figured he was.

“Hell no!” Cynder stated, the black and red dragoness grumbled, using a wing to rub her own temples. “Fume's an asshole, always spouting off how big and protective of a guy he is, when we all know he’d run from a Manticore at first sight! I’d honestly want someone who’d love and protect me, like this knight in shining armor as cheesy and ponyish as that sounds,” she stated. Ember smirked, Cynder was always the most sensible in the family. “Take my advice little sis, if he or someone like him ever asks you out on a date, just say no m’kay? Hardly worth your time, really,” she stated, wrapping one of her charcoal colored wings around the dragoness.

“N-Noted,” Smolder whispered, and Ember to this very day swore she heard the sound of something breaking. Smolder’s heart probably, Ember always knew she had this sizeable crush on Fume and his type for whatever reason and thought of them as everything she wanted in a mate.

She wouldn’t judge, everyone had their tastes and who knew right? Maybe as Smolder grew older her tastes in men would change. Nobody ever really decided who they liked when they were as young as her fifteen-year-old sibling was.

“Now off with you, ya little scamp,” Cynder said, giving her younger sibling an affectionate nibble to the ear and ruffling her head scales with a claw. “Go on, go ride some lava flows on a board or something. Heard this old shield just dug up from the nearby Black Ridge Mountain Range, and it makes a really good lava board! Heard Hooktooth is challenging everyone to a race!”

Smolder smirked. “Oh, I am so on for that. He is going to get his scaly belly kicked!” she exclaimed, extending her wings and eyes narrowing before she rocketed off into the distance uprooting a long-dead tree as she did so with the sheer force of her powerful wings. That one there, Ember mused, she’d set some speed records when she got older with as lean as she was. Might outfly even her old man. Yes, so maybe life in the Dragonlands wasn’t all bad.

“But still, I do feel at times…” Ember mused, before she heard a voice coming from beside her.

“Thinking aloud again little sis?” Cynder asked smirking, resting a claw on the armrest of Ember’s throne, the other front claw on her chin. “Reminiscing on the complete and utter machismo and idiocy of the drakes here?”

“How did you…?”

“One, you were thinking aloud again like I said, and two, I know you Ember,” Cynder stated in her usual deadpan before her tone became softer, kinder. “You’ve always been different from the rest of us, never interested in anybody here. Hell, if I didn’t know better I’d have sworn you were Asexual long ago like dear mom and dad still do.”

Ember chuckled to herself. Not her fault she had good taste in men unlike over half of the other dragonesses here.

“Fair enough, I suppose. Okay, I admit just watching these idiots all day,” Ember replied, gesturing to both Garble and Rockbuster who were seeing who had the larger and smellier fart. “Well, it tends to grate on the nerves after a time.’

“No kidding,” Cynder replied in disgust, waving a claw in midair to disperse the smell. “You know, I find it funny how nobody has yet to figure out we’re sisters and everyone thinks we’re rutting each other night and day.”

“First off, eww, and two, drakes by and large are dumb. Seriously, I have this feeling drakes in the Dragonlands are born dumb by default.” Ember grumbled, and Cynder got this wily smirk that made her sister frown in worry. Whenever Cynder got an idea, it either turned out really good, or really bad. Like that time she dared Ember to kiss Garble. Never mind the fact that Ember did, in fact, kiss Garble, but the way she spat out in disgust led everyone in sight to conclude that Ember was either lesbian or asexual. Some thought both, which only increased the idea in Ember’s mind that most drakes were completely braindead.

“So, anyways, I was just thinking,” Cynder continued “There’s that drake outside the Dragonlands right? Spines or what’s his name?” she asked, pretending to be confused before snapping his fingers. “Spike, that’s it! What about him? He’s not your usual drake, to be sure. Being raised by ponies tends to do that I suspect.”

Now that Ember actually thought about it long enough, her sister had a point. Spike was definitely different from your average drake as proved during the Gauntlet of Fire affair.

“Nothing? You just risked everything to save her! And they're putting themselves in danger just to support you!”

“Well, that's just what friends do. Don't you have anyone who looks out for you?”

“Not really. Unless I count you. Which I don't! Because we were only helping each other get through the tunnel, and now we're through the tunnel, so that's it.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“Well, there's only one winner, one scepter, and one Dragon Lord. So I guess it's every dragon for themselves.”

“Oh. So we aren't really friends?”

“Maybe if we were in Ponyland, but like I said, dragons don't do friendship.”

Ember chuckled to herself, oh how naive she was…

“Dragon Lord Ember sounds a lot better.”

“What? No. You're the Dragon Lord now.”

“The Dragon Lord is whoever brings the scepter back to your father! Besides, you'll make a great leader. I was just doing this to protect the ponies. But I know you'll protect them just as well as I would have.”

“You sure about this?”

“Absolutely. My home is in Equestria with my friends”

“Well, you'll have at least one friend here too.”

Now that she thought about it, feeling Spike’s heartbeat as he hugged her had felt awfully nice. She, briefly for a moment, wondered what else about Spike would feel nice…

“You’re drooling, sis,” Cynder remarked, snapping her back to reality. A smile came to her face. “Thinking about Spike again, weren’t you? Knew I could jog your memory!” she cried out in triumph.

“Yeah, trouble is, he’s in Equestria and I’m here, stuck ruling over these bozos and cretins!” Ember grumbled. Cynder snapped her fingers, and smirked before pulling out a scroll. Ember’s eyes widened upon seeing the seal.

“That’s…” she trailed off in shock.

“Princess Twilight’s. Yeah, forgot about this till just now. Just showed up on my doorstep, accompanied by some frightened gray pony offering me muffins, whatever those are.”

“Hey, don’t knock the muffins!” Ember replied, taking the scroll and reading it to herself mumbling words under her breath. “...Right, the monthly friendship summit. I forgot Miss Pretty Pink Princess calls all of the leaders of the nations together for these. Think she mentioned something about building a school one time to bring us all together like some big hug of friendship. Nearly barfed at that, but I can see the appeal. Long as it doesn’t bring in any stupid tourists who fall in a lava flow, I have to admit being allies with some other nations does like a good venture. And God knows I’ve caught you looking at King Thorax’s brother from time to time.” she smirked, and Cynder sputtered a bit, trying as hard as she could to deny that but to no avail. Eventually, she hung her head in defeat.

“Yeah, Phar-Phar, and you must never tell anyone I call him that, is quite the handsome bug. Strong as an ox as well!” Cynder remarked. “So, that settles that then. Get on going to your friendship summit, talk to Spike. Who knows, maybe it’ll blossom into something more eh? Rut him, rut him till he can’t stand straight and his eyes go all crossed!” she declared.

Ember chuckled. “Yeeeeah, maybe I won’t do that, as I’ll probably break him but I get your point. For a mate, he’s probably my best bet here. Especially when compared to… well, all of this.” she said, gesturing to the dragons in front of her involved in their various squabbles. Taking to the sky, scroll clutched in her claws, Ember waved goodbye to her sister, and began the long flight to Equestria, her goal firmly etched in her mind.

Eventually, about a day or so later -It had been a long flight, so Ember had to stop to take the occasional restroom or sleep break every so often- the Dragon Lord found herself touching down on the town limits of Ponyville, Princess Twilight’s castle of crystal rising high above in the distance, towering over every other building that dared even reach it’s height or splendor. Ember drooled at the idea of an entire castle made of gem and crystal but then grimaced. She remembered the first time she’d tried to take a bite out of the castle walls. Nearly broke her teeth doing so.

Ponies parted at the sight of the partially armored dragoness, Bloodstone Scepter in claw casually striding through the streets like this was normal for her. Well, she supposed they had every right to fear her. She was the Lord of the Dragonlands, Tiamat’s chosen! She should be feared. She then mentally slapped herself for that way of thinking. She was here to make friends, and that particular line of thinking would do her no such favors.

She envied Spike right about now, considering he could walk around town and get little to no second glances really. He’d grown up here, probably, so ponies were used to seeing a little eighteen or so year old drake wandering about probably doing his midday shopping or whatever pony raised drakes did. Maybe they just lounged about all day, eating hay and oats while reading these comic books Spike had mentioned. Who was to say? She wasn’t him, so she’d never probably know what his real day to day life was.

She idly wondered if Spike was dating anyone, and her fists clenched at the possibility. He was a handsome drake, she’d be the first to admit that, and there was this beautiful pony in town -Well, beautiful for a pony, she wasn’t into that species- and she knew her Spike had mentioned he’d had a crush on her once or twice. She growled in jealousy. What’d she’d give to show that slut who the real beauty was. And then probably flame broil her.

“Tiamat above…” Ember mused to herself, shaking her head as she continued walking forwards. “I’m hopeless. Okay, I admit I may or may not like Spike, and I’m starting to consider flame broiling rivals to my affections like my mother and a lot of other dragonesses do! I get that we protect our hoard with jealous fangs like swords and claws like deathly spears but there’s a thing called a line. Cynder’s right, I’ve never been like other dragonesses. I don’t have any desire to cook a pony solid just because she may or may not have any interest in the drake I’m interested in. Tiamat the Great Burner, why does conforming to pony norms have to be so damn hard!”

She groaned to herself, getting an image in her head of Garble snickering at the remark, thinking it some sort of lewd joke. She then groaned again, thinking back to her sister’s words.

“So, that settles that then. Get on going to your friendship summit, talk to Spike. Who knows, maybe it’ll blossom into something more eh? Rut him, rut him till he can’t stand straight and his eyes go all crossed!”

Ember let out a little growl, and briefly cursed her sister for planting those thoughts and that image in her head appetizing as it was.

“I am not doing that. Taking this slowly, I have to remember, Spike was raised differently from other drakes,” Ember staunchly reminded herself. “I don’t think he’d take kindly to me broiling his friends, or having me shove him up against a wall and asking him to rut me like some sort of whore. No, knowing him, his sex life is probably more gentle, and sweet.”

Ember resigned herself to that possibility, and also resigned herself to the fact that at his age, Spike couldn’t probably last very long before giving out as it were. He was only eighteen, compared to her thirty years of age after all. Ponies probably would have balked at Ember’s line of thoughts, but she didn’t really give much of a damn about their thinking. She was a dragoness, and she took what she wanted. And what she wanted, was the noble drake named Spike. She had to stake her claim, grab him before anyone else got the smart idea about what kind of drake he was and nabbed him for themselves. Now that she thought about it, she had noticed King Thorax eying Spike from time to time. Wasn’t surprising really, considering if what Spike had told her in his last letter was correct, he was Thorax’s first real friend and the one that helped show Changelings weren’t all horrible love sucking monsters.

“Great, so I’m going to have to fight for Spike’s affections from not just that Rarity mare, but from my fellow ruler as well! Just lovely, just absolutely fucking lovely,” she thought, breathing a puff of smoke from her nostrils in annoyance. “Why couldn’t anything be just so simple, and Spike raised in the Dragonlands like any normal drake would have been?”

She groaned again and sighed. If Spike had been raised in the Dragonlands, he wouldn’t have been even half of the drake he was today. She supposed she had to thank Princess Celestia in some ways, her finding Spike’s abandoned egg like she did -She could only really speculate on how the Solar Invictus got her hands on a dragon egg- resulted in a turn of events that led to her becoming crowned, and Equestria being saved a few times and gaining a few new allies in the process. She supposed Spike needed more credit than he really got. Sure, the Crystal Empire thanked him with a statue, but did the rest of Equestria acknowledge his feats of showing that not all Changelings or Dragons were bad? She didn’t think so, or at least Spike had never mentioned such a thing occurring. Pausing at the door to the castle, she took a deep breath and knocked on it twice. Well, it was now or never…

A few hours later, Ember wanted to die just about then. The conference over who would be going to the school, and when and where it would be built was mind-numbingly boring as all Hell, and if she didn’t know better she would swear Twilight was some sort of Changeling intent on sucking all joy from a room.

She looked to her left and saw Thorax trying as hard as he could to desperately stay awake and alert to listen to every word. Sadly, and in all honesty, he was failing quite badly and had pretty much resorted to drawing a pair of eyes over his shut ones to look as if he was even paying attention at all. She had to give him points for trying at least, and for lasting this long.

The Prince of the Yaks? Rutherford, -if Ember remembered his name correctly- well what about him you might ask? Well, suffice it to say he wasn’t fairing much better. He’d already fallen asleep, even with several tankards of beer (Barley Wine and Chhaang) to try and keep himself awake. Ember suspected that, in fact, that these drinks had actually put him to sleep early.

That old griffon with the fez whom Ember never bothered to remember or care much about was just grumbling to himself about the old days when griffons and ponies kept to themselves, and nobody bothered either side with words of friendship and the like. The ponies pranced about, and the griffons hoarded their treasure. Ember sensed a kinship with him and suspected he and her father would have gotten along quite well enough ironically.

Twilight, perhaps not surprisingly, took no notice of this and continued rambling on about this school with only her friends paying any sort of actual attention to her plans.

“Geez, make this grand plan of yours go on a little longer, why don’t you? Ramble on about hugs, kisses, and snuggles, make me even more pissed off than I already am!” Ember snarled mentally. Starlight tossed her a sympathetic look.

“If it means anything to you,” she whispered out. “I tried to convince Twilight to tailor it down a notch, but she’s a stubborn mare. Doesn’t listen to her elders very well, I’ve found.” the slightly older mare confessed with a sheepish blush and a laugh.

“Fuck this shit, I’m out…” Ember muttered, getting up from her chair and clearing her throat in an attempt to make Twilight look at her. This way, she could think up some sort of excuse like she needed to go to the bathroom to remove herself from this Kukulkan-derived insanity.

“Go, just go,” Starlight said. “I can handle things from here, just you watch!” she stated, and Ember gaped at her.

“How…?” she trailed off before Starlight turned herself into an exact duplicate of Ember’s image before the original’s very eyes.

“Always been good with magic,” ‘Ember’ winked before shooing her off with a claw. “Now go on, do whatever you have to do. Not very friendshippy of me, but I can tell you’re about fed up with this.”

Ember gave her a grateful nod.

“And for what it’s worth, Spike’s in the upper left wing of the Castle, in his room. Said he was reading comics, not sure I believed him to be honest,” Starlight replied, and when Ember gaped at her again, she smirked.

“Oh please, I think we both know the real reason why you’d drag yourself down here and endure this misery, you like him. Now go get him!” Starlight exclaimed -Twilight continuing to ramble on unimpeded in the background- before slapping Ember on the back and shoving her out the door.

“Thank Tiamat for unicorn ponies and their studies!” Ember thought to herself, letting out a relieved sigh and wiping the sweat off from her brow. Honestly, if she’d stayed in there any longer she probably would have burnt anything and everything to ashes!

“Spike?” Ember called out as she wandered through the castle corridors, yelling his name again and again. “Spike, where are you?”

Eventually, she came to this large gold and gem-encrusted wooden door that had to be Spike’s quarters judging by the little flame carving in it. Ember wanted to reach for the curved door handle, and walk right in but curiosity got the better of her when she heard what sounded like a soft grunting coming from the other side.

“Oh yes….” Spike’s voice called out.

Ember’s eyes widened, that sounded almost like… No, it couldn’t have been. Could it? Yeah, it had to be. Anyone Spike’s age and gender, and especially drakes were horny little bastards. Fighting back a growl of jealousy, at first thinking there was someone else in there with him, she turned her brain to the logical state of mind. Unless Spike had this hidden marefriend, he was surely alone as all of the other potential suitors were down with Twilight!

She smirked to herself, might just have made this easier than she thought it’d be. At first, she thought she’d have to convince Spike to do this, but now that she remembered this little factoid, well that made things a lot less difficult for her. Turning the doorknob and opening it, she was surprised when she found Spike letting out a scream of shock and quickly hiding away a opening magazine covered in bodily fluids under a pillow. He then used his wings to hide his quite fully erect penis.

“P-Princess Ember!” Spike exclaimed, his face flushing a bright shade of crimson red. It was rather cute, if she was to be perfectly honest with herself. “I’m so sorry, didn’t mean for you to catch me like this! I swear, I really didn’t!”

“Right, raised by ponies,” Ember reminded herself for the umpteenth time that day. “Of course he’d be embarrassed by this whole thing, me walking in on him like that. Ugh, what was I thinking?” she cursed herself before taking the magazine out from under Spike’s pillow.

“Not going to fool anybody when they come to clean your bedsheets and pillow, and they’re likely to catch wind of the smell as well,” Ember remarked in her usual blunt fashion. No sense trying to reassure Spike about matters like this. She glanced at the mag for a brief second and sighed. “Can’t really see why Spike is attracted to this mare, bit too thin for my liking really. Okay, I admit the Fleur De Lis on her butt gives her this sense of mystery and exoticness but well if you ask me so not his type.” she thought, tossing it aside.

“Yeah… I suppose,” Spike muttered. “It’s just really hard for a guy to get some privacy around here, especially when you live with two to three mares. And let’s not even get into when Starlight brings Trixie over for ‘sleepovers’.” he said, making air quotes with his claws leaving no illusions as to what these sleepovers really were.

“Three?” Ember questioned, raising an eyebrow and sitting down beside him on the bed. “I thought you only lived with Twilight and Starlight.”

“Yeah, that’s the way it was till the whole incident with the Storm King and Twilight brought this mare named Tempest Shadow into the castle. They’ve hit it off quite nicely, all things considered, and that’s all well and good with mom getting herself a marefriend but…”

“No privacy?” Ember answered.

“It’s not just that,” Spike sighed, shaking his head and his wings folding downwards in shame. “It’s also making me quite jealous truth be told. See, now that Starlight and Twilight have marefriends, it got me thinking about just how alone I really am.”

“Ah, I see,” Ember said in sympathy. “But aren’t you friends with at least five other mares, and Thorax? Surely at least one…”

“Thorax, I don’t swing his way. We’re only best friends. Applejack, too focused on work. Rarity, so far out of my league. Fluttershy… I really don’t want to trifle with Discord. Rainbow, she’s definitely swinging the other way no matter how much she tries to deny it. Pinkie… Well, she’s far too hyper for my tastes, like she’s constantly on this sugar high,” he replied, listing off the flaws for dating any of them on his claws. “So yeah, haven’t even dated anyone, and sex? It’s definitely been out of the question.” Spike sighed in resignation and hung his head.

“Wait, you’re a virgin?” Ember asked in surprise, eyebrows reaching the top of her head. “But surely, someone like you would have offered themselves up for even this one night stand with such a handsome and frankly heroic drake like you…”

“Yeeeeeaaah, I don’t think anyone in town is attracted to dragons, really,” Spike deadpanned. He didn’t even seem bothered by this point that his cock was fully erect and he was sitting and talking about sex with his fellow dragon. “Or if they are, they’ve been too scared of mom to ask me out on a date,” he grumbled.

“Mares? Scared of the bookworm?” Ember asked in disbelief. “The bookworm right now who’s down there giving this completely boring set of plans for a School of Friendship as she calls it?”

“Trust me, you haven’t seen her pissed. When Tirek blew up the old library, she went ballistic. It was kinda scary, but pretty awesome at the same time. Sorta like something out of that old Drake Orb Z manga I’ve caught Starlight reading now that I think of it…” he trailed off. Ember looked disbelieving, but then again Spike had never lied to her before and why would he now. “Plus, there’s this little other thing.”

“Don’t tell me it’s your cock, because I can safely assure you that’s not little,” Ember teased good-naturedly. Spike shook his head, flushing once more at the reminder.

“No, it’s not that. Hardly that!” Spike exclaimed. “It’s just I’ve been saving myself for this right girl to come along, that’s all.”

Ember’s jaw dropped in shock, and it took her a few moments to regain the power of speech. When she finally did, she replied: “That’s… that’s surprisingly sweet of you. And just one of the many reasons I fell in love with you…” Ember whispered, capturing Spike’s lips in a kiss making his eyes widen. Their tongues entwined and dueled for a moment, Spike being surprisingly accepting of this as he fell back into the bed with Ember gently shoving him into the sheets before she pulled away.

“H-How long?” he breathed out.

“Since… Since I guess the Gauntlet. Took me a while to admit it, even to myself, but yeah Spike, I am in love with you.” Ember replied softly, catching his lips in for another quick kiss. Spike didn't deny this one either, or the next or the one after that. Eventually after a few moments of tense and curious kissing, exploring every aspect of each other's bodies with claws beginning to wander Ember tossed Spike a smirk and lifted her tail.

"Are... are you sure about this?” Spike asked nervously. "I... I mean I've never done this before.”

Ember smiled sweetly at him, and gave him a reassuring nod. "Relax, I'll walk you through this. It's not that hard, trust me. And Spike, truth be told? I'm a virgin as well, and I would have no-one else take my virginity.”

Spike knew what she wanted, and quite happily obliged her. Ember let out a small gasp at the suddeness of it, but eventually the two eased into a rhythm of sorts.

Ember's hips bucked, and Spike let out a gasp of his own as in only a few minutes his load was released into her.

"R-Ready to go again?" Spike breathed out. "This is sorta exciting, and I still have a bit of energy left."

"Trust me, Spike. I've been waiting on this for weeks, so believe me, another round is defintely fine by me. Question is, can you keep up?" she smirked, and Spike tossed a smirk back at her.

"You know it." he said, before once again plunging into her...

FIN