Little Ember

by Heresy Incarnate

Home

WHERE IS HOME?

-----------------------------------------------

The servant ran out and I was left crying in my room, I could feel I had spent too much magic and was nauseous with a massive headache. I just didn’t understand, I told the spell to go home and it ended landing me here after a flurry of other places, some I could never remember being in. I was lost and alone, Mother was beyond my reach and everything around me screamed at me ‘YOU ARE A PONY, YOU BELONG HERE.’ A glance in the mirror revealed my mane was tangled again, the way it always was back home, my bouncing trip must have done that, but it was too red, it was missing the ash and dirt of The Caldera, it was even more wrong than when there was a stranger looking at me in the mirror. This was me. I was a pony.

A knock on the door. I didn’t want to deal with anyone so I ignored it. The Lunar Sister’s voice carried through the door. “Little Ember, are you still here?”

I shouted at her, in mangled Draconic and Equestrian, switching languages on a word. “Go away! I do not want to speak to anyone! Just let me be!” Muffled voices from beyond the door.

I could hear Twilight saying something to someone, then The Lunar Princess spoke again. “We brought someone who we believe might be able to help, you were supposed to see him before Rarity stole you, I hadn’t realized she would leave immediately, and it seems that we crossed a line. I would ask that you blame me for this if he is unable to help, but please just let him in?” I didn’t respond… I couldn’t stop them if they wanted to come in anyways… I was just a weak pony…

More hushed conversation. “Uh, hello?” A new voice spoke from the other side of the door, it sounded familiar though… it didn’t take very long to figure out why. The speaker was a Dragon. He spoke Equestrian fluently but there was always the low bass rumble underlying his words, he sounded like Amber would be if he was younger and Equestrian wasn’t just a side language for him. “May I please come in?” I bolted up and swung the door open, on the other side was a young Dragon, he had to be maybe a decade older than me, about the size of Amber before his most recent growth spurt. “Whoah! Hey!” I ignored my headache and yanked him in with my magic, shutting the door on the others out there.

He rubbed the back of his head, I had accidentally flung him against the back cupboard. “How did you do that?”

I just stopped and stared at him. “Uhm… sorry I just- ow ow ow ow.”

He sat on his hind legs and looked at me. “Oh, overused your magic huh? Tugging around Dragons isn’t easy you know. High natural thaumaturgic resistance.”

I lowered my head and glared at him. “I do it all the time. It’s the stupid teleportation that went to fritz.”

He seemed to hum thoughtfully. “Oh yeah, you got taken away from my sister’s first lesson for you didn’t you. Lucky the spell didn’t explode in your face, your new thaumaturgic entropy value going to take a bit of acclimation to.”

I stopped to look at him, piecing together what he was saying and how some of his phrases seem familiar. “Wait… are you… are you saying Princess Sparkle is your sister?”

He looked straight at me. “Well yeah. Aren’t you saying the legendary Matriarch of Dragonspeak is your Mother?” I opened my mouth to object but found I was unable to, instead I needed to find out why he was here.

Lowering my head as low as possible “What are you here for, why are you talking to me?”

He shrugged. “Well, for one, I enjoy making new friends. Part of being raised by a pony… and I also feel I might be the only one able to help you with your identity crisis. Might just be a bit of that old draconic pride kicking in, but I think it’s because I went through much the same thing as you.” I gave him an incredulous look.

He continued, claws behind his back and head held at a neutral level. I couldn’t get a read on him. “Couple decades ago, when I was a hatchling, I had a bit of a crisis of identity. Wasn’t exactly the same, I was convinced that I couldn’t be a pony because I was physically a dragon. And you seem to be having the opposite issue. I ended up going to the Great Meeting as it was changing locales, to Dragonspeak Caldera.” He had my attention, but I was hoping he was going to get to a point soon. “I ended up being right. I wasn’t a pony… and you aren’t a dragon.” Really starting to dislike what he was saying, he must have noticed it was upsetting me because he quickly added. “BUT. That’s not what’s important! I learned how to be a Dragon… and I returned home. Because that’s where my family is. My pony family.” He was giving a big toothy grin… but… he had a point. Mother didn’t love me because I was like her. She loved me because I was like me, and Amber too, he wasn’t teaching me to be more Dragon-like, everything he taught me… and that I wanted to learn… was making me more pony-like. I would never be a Dragon… but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be my family.

He gave me time to think. “Ok.”

He raised his eyebrows in expectation. “Hmm?”

I steeled my resolve. “Then teach me how to be a pony.”

His grin was stretching from ear to ear. “Ok. First lesson. We ponies all refer to each other by name. Sometimes we use a title, but there are lots of ponies who are made uncomfortable by that. Take me for example. You can call me The Dragon of Ponyville… or Spike. So who am I?”

I began to respond but payed attention to what he said and corrected. “The Dra- No… Spike?”

He clapped. “Great! There’s still a lot to learn.” I nodded and we continued, a twinkle in Spike’s eyes. “So you know how you have a habit of lifting your nose high in the air?”

I did it to show my recognition for what he was saying. “Yeah, shows I’m trusting them with my soft undersides… mostly symbolic in my case.”

He looked a bit guilty for a moment. “Well… sorry to break the news, but for ponies looking up like that gives the impression you feel you’re better than them and tends to be insulting.”

I froze. “Wait… what?”

A nervous grin from Spike.“Yeah…”

I thought back to all the servants and teachers and even the Siste- Celestia and Luna and… “Oh nooooooo…” I still have a lot to learn before I can return home.

Comments

[sakuralovelight]

LOL LOVE IT hope to read more soon

[Heresy Incarnate]

6521762
Thanks! While writing this I decided that I actually liked Little Ember as a character, so I might write more for her in the future... but I'm just as likely to write for some other characters as well, since I'm not perfectly happy that her situation requires entangling canon characters like it does... you might notice I distanced myself from the canon by having it take place a couple decades in the future. Realizing that would mean Spike is just about the right age to talk to her about her problems was a happy accident as a result of my decision.

[sakuralovelight]

6521930 okay good to know thqnk you for letting me know

[Llisandur]

My only complaint is that it's entirely too short.

[Heresy Incarnate]

6522075
Thanks! I actually only had a week to write it for the contest, and if it weren't for that deadline I would have been inclined to keep writing... and writing... and writing... and it might never have made it onto FIMFiction.

I'm already drumming up ideas for a sequel of sorts... but given classes it might be a while before that becomes a reality.

[Heresy Incarnate]

6536046
In regards to all the stuff on language, I'm glad you appreciated the bit of effort I put in, the way I figured was that LE was learning the words to form sentences... but since the language she started with used those implied words, she has to remind herself to include them when forming sentences... and Amber is a picky teacher with a pretty firm grasp on the language.

I think if I had had more time I would have certainly tried to show the dragon culture bit... hmm... I'm actually getting ideas...

I actually called it Saddle Arabia because I remember reading it from another fic(can't recall off the top of my head), the fact that it actually showed up in the show with horses is news to me and interesting.

[Luckyfanisaac]

Continuation?

[Fistfire]

Iwould love to read more of this. I enjoyed it. Thumbs up!