Dragon Lord Ember took her throne when she won the Bloodstone Scepter, and its ancient magic which controls dragon minds.
In a world linked to Equestria, a very different Ember chafes under her father's leadership, hungry to take ownership of the instinct-controlling power of the Bloodstone Crown.
Their two worlds are about to meet. And only one dragon will stand between Equestria and the deadly, unforgiving call of the wild.
* * *
Winner of the Imposing Sovereigns II contest!
"Equal parts character piece and action movie, and it is amazing. I can’t recommend it enough." –FanOfMostEverything
"For anyone who thinks that ‘mere’ fanfiction cannot be art, I can safely add this to the list of counterarguments." –cleverpun
"This is a good story, an important story, because it is so very relevant. Behind the fire, scales and teeth, is a very simple but incredibly real story about finding one’s true place in the world." –Venerable Ro
Highly Recommended by Present Perfect! "Treat yourself to the most unique story on Fimfiction ... a pulse-pounding thriller that explores Dragon Lord Ember in ways no one else has."
Featured by Seattle's Angels! "[Horizon] goes the extra mile ... if you’re looking for a great character-driven story about characters confronting their EqG counterparts, but especially if you are a fan of Ember or just dragons in general, then go check this out."
Recommended by brokenimage321! "Drop what you're doing and go read [it] ... A moving story about inadequacy and adaptation. And it has some of the best combat scenes I've ever read, in any genre, period."
Recommended by HapHazred! "Distinctively written ... Exciting, interesting, and gets more intense and cerebral as time goes on."
Reviewed by cleverpun! "[W]ell worth your time."
A huge thank you to Skywriter for prereading assistance!
First comment reserved for spoiler-free author's notes!
Contestiture: This was a literal last-minute submission for Imposing Sovereigns II. (Placed in the mod submission queue at 11:59 pm on the nose, managed to get the screenshot proof with about 20 seconds to spare.) This was working on the prompt of Ember and War, though you'll probably note at least a few of the other categories used as spices.
I feel a little bad about working on new content instead of Hard Reset 2, but c'mon … 1) this is a contest with an actual prize pool and stuff!; 2) I now finally have an Ember story published!; (even though there's no gratuitous embrax omg i have failed forever ;___;) and 3) look at the contest pitch: Administrative Angel was cited as a gold standard for the sort of story that could be written, and it's well known that an author's greatest weakness is flattery.
Sequelitis: So here's the deal. Officially, this must be unrelated to any prevously existing stories to qualify for the contest, and I followed the rules. It is 100% standalone, unrelated to any prior works, not requiring any prior reading, and not benefiting from any prior reading.
That said, this definitely shares broader themes with Administrative Angel and Devil May Care, if you squint and look at it the right way — namely, it's a story about a princess-adjacent character confronting the reality of the other side of the mirror and the flaws of their other self. Which arguably makes it something of a spiritual sequel. And if you want to headcanon this story as occurring in the same continuity as the other two, then I will be over here silently agreeing with you.
are you gonna keep trying to seduce us readers with epic pony (or dragon)/EqG self paradox stories
if yes, please continue
Ooh, a very intriguing start! I love how it sort of just begins with all these wolves, and you are eased into their life. In case my username didn't give it away, I love wolves, and this sort of story had always fascinated me. I do have one question: if the POV character (human-world Ember, I presume) is a human (and thus the use of herfingers and fistsrather than paws and claws) how come Dragonlord Ember becomes a wolf on this side of the mirror? Or is that question answered later on, and I should just read the next chapter instead of taking the time to write this comment?
Ooh, this is gonna be... interesting, to say the least. If she can make all the dragons feel the way she does, Equestria is going to be very confused trying to figure out what the dragons are trying to accomplish by hunting them all down like wolves.
Oof - I do love how well you've written this wolf-child as running off of pure instinct- very little language or speaking, which works very well, and is very hard to pull off. Excited to see how this wraps up!
Also -
That is so Spike. Well done.
I LOVED this story, and I'm not sure I can say that enough. Both Embers were written incredibly well, and the parallels were fantastic. I'm... not sure what else to say at this point, but this is definitely on par with Administrative Angel, and I'm certainly not dropping you, horizon, as one of my favourite authors on this site anytime soon.
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Thank you so much!
I'm glad to hear it's coming across well even in its current form — a few key parts of the story were written in the last few minutes before submission, and I'm definitely planning on doing some low-key later editing for polish. But I was happy with the core concept and how it came together, which counts for a lot :)
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(Spoilers on chapter 1 comments for the identity and species of the narrator, please!)
So, let's talk about wolves for a bit …
First of all, I started with the canon fact that Spike is a dog in EqG. I don't believe we've canonically seen any other dragons in Pedestria, but if you do a compare-and-contrast of dragon Spike's physiology and life circumstances with those of the rest of his race, I felt it was a pretty reasonable extrapolation that other dragons were also canines, and would have a very different relationship with humanity than dogs would.
What does this mean for EqG Ember and why the hell is she a human?
Basically, I don't have a particularly good in-universe reason for it, but I can talk your ear off about the thematic reasons I did it that way. The very first time we meet Dragon!Ember, her establishing characteristic is that she isn't actually qualified as a dragon. Torch forbids her to compete for the scepter, she tries anyway, and she gets cold-cocked and was about to drown without Spike's intervention. The dragons compete on strength and size, and she wins on friendship and tactics — then immediately sets about changing the dragons from inside in a way that is very much not representative of their prior culture. She's an outsider among her own people, who just so happens to be in a good place to initiate change because of her heritage. For EQG, I wanted an equivalent to the show's "Ember is an extremely pony-compatible being who happens to be a dragon" framing, and the trope of the girl raised by wolves felt like a much stronger way to explore that parallel than trying to do some weaksauce thing about, like, a German Shepherd gone wild.
I'll point out that we've seen cases in EQG where major characters have dramatic differences in life circumstance from their pony counterparts. For instance, the CMC go to the same high school the Mane Six do, instead of being grade schoolers as the pony show implies. If all three of them are half a decade older than pony world — on top of the Sirens being banished in ancient pony history, and Sunset Shimmer charging through the portal long before Twilight — that throws off pretty much everything about their world's timeline.
Also, the princess-goddesses' human counterparts are mortal high school administrators, though we've covered that already.
So I'm trying to take the AA/DmC tack here of introducing characters that are thematic parallels to their other halves, not carbon copies.
… Also, when I started planning this story, Princess Mononoke got stuck in my head, and I couldn't get it out. 😬
As someone who has trouble with action scenes, you don't know how impressive and hooking the extended Soarin/Ember/Ember/Spike fight scene was. Great story! You took what on the surface could have been a crackfic premise and turned it into a legitimate musing on the nature of power, complete with some lovely cross-universe parallels.
Hot damn. This is amazing!!
Just finished properly. This is amazing, and I love it. Very powerful story about Ember--and, as always, the interaction between the EqG and MLP characters is a wonderful concept.
I especially liked the combat scenes--wonderfully paced, excellently written, with high stakes all around. Amazing!
Favorite line: "Tools, bitch."
Two questions:
While fleeing Ember, Soarin' jabbed an elbow in his side, releasing a stinkbomb of sorts. I feel dumb asking this, but this is an actual stinkbomb, right? And not an exceptionally rancid fart he forced out of his degestive tract with that jab?Juvenile misreading withdrawn.Final question: any thoughts on the origin of Wolf-Ember? I'm curious how she ended up in the woods, where she found the crown, and
why she'shuman instead of a wolf.(answered in a comment below) Though I suppose that's all part of the mystery...Either way, amazing work!! This deserves a lot more attention than it is getting at the moment.
EDIT: Here's my humble review/reccomendation. [Link]
The final chapter leaves me very confused, what happened? Did the Ember of the human world return to her world?
Okay, so I absolutely adore that bite-sized (haha geddit) epic you've got here and the care and earnest world-building you put into your EqG stuff. It really keeps magic on both side of the mirror, and makes each kind feel unique.
I'd 100% get this and other tales in a horizon-words dead tree sequel collection.
I am at once pleased and disappointed that you didn't name Best Dragon's lupine counterpart Moon-Moon.
I especially love how, on a metaphysical level, Spike is just giving Ember the scepter on loan.
Also the green-blue conflict of instinct vs. intellect. Especially when compounded with red to make pure, civilization-smashing rage vs. explosive creativity. If there's a better allegory for Ember's struggle to modernize the Dragonlands, I'd like to hear it.
At first I was like "oh, Spike turned into a dog in EQG so this actually makes a lot of sense"
But then I was like,
Knowing your stories I'm pretty sure there will be an explanation. I'm eager to see where this leads!
"thick black-stained animal skins." Not how Sunset would normally think of her jacket, and I wish I could see her reaction to such a description.
Exquisite work from start to finish. A wonderfully innovative yet eminently logical translation of both Ember and dragons in general across the mirror, while making excellent use of the most useful part of "Spring Breakdown," the revelation that there are other portals between the two worlds.
Gripping fights, gripping drama, really just a lot of gripping in general. Which is appropriate, given how the main character learns to appreciate her hands. Again, outstanding work. Thank you for it, and best of luck in the judging.
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I'm pretty sure Soarin' deployed the smoke trail usually used in Wonderbolts shows. He is in his uniform, after all.
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Derp. Forgot about those. Thanks for the reminder!!
(For some reason, I thought their smoke trails were just an inherent part of their flying--like Rainbow and her trail.)
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As I'm reading it: Dragon-Ember's last strike knocked Wolf-Ember unconcious. While she was down, they brought her back to the human world, took the Bloodstone crown, made sure she was comfortable (hence the blanket) and had Fluttershy look her over.
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Horizon offers a little explanation for that particular decision here:
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Eh
Now this was a very interesting beginning!
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Okay, that bit wasn't explained in the story, but I don't care - the rest of it is just too good.
Normally I'd highlight one aspect of the story or another that I liked, but I can't do that here because this story is great all around. And I know I'm biased here, but I really appreciate the detail that went into the portrayal of the lupine PoV.
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ASDFJLKASF;ASDFA;J;;KLKL;L;;
…
…okay, I am so tempted to ninja that in.
I'm going to reluctantly keep the original name because I put a lot of effort into tone and theme and a meme reference would wreck the mood. But I assure you that's all that stays my pen.
History like the rest of the comments of others has left me more confused.
Is the ember of the human world, is it a human or a wolf?
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It's actually a slight misdirection. EqG Ember is a human living with wolves, but the Bloodstone Crown gives her the skills/strengths/instincts needed to compete as a wolf.
Technically, Ember was the one who was a dog until she went back through the portal again. 😉
This was an epic fight scene, by the way. On of the mast enthralling I've ever read, on this site or elsewhere.
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As someone who is eagerly awaiting the continuation of Hard Reset 2, I can tell you this detour was well worth it
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Thank you!
Wrt Ember, it was a fascinating contrast to write, because neither of them are as simple as their stones would suggest. Both of them basically ended up with the bloodstone that contrasts with them rather than complements their core strength.
Despite EqG!Ember's willingness to give herself completely over to the Bloodstone Crown and throw away her intellect (which ends up costing her the fight), look at how she behaves without it. Look at the first deer kill. Look at her rich inner monologue throughout, her continuous cunning and self-adaptation, despite her aversion to language. What she does in the last chapter is learning from her counterpart, yes, but it's learning to work with that part of herself instead of discarding it. Her big lesson isn't how to become non-feral, it's how to embrace the parts of her that aren't, to realize that being a wolf doesn't have to mean throwing away her advantages.
And Equestria!Ember, despite possessing the Bloodstone Scepter and its intellect control, is not the reflexively intellectual sort. We see this in the show, but also here, with how she's happy to just leap straight into the fray and solve her problem through violence, only reconsidering when she realizes she's on the losing side of the battle. What makes her Dragon Lord is her intellect, absolutely -- but her instinct is first and foremost to be a dragon, to try to be strong, and she adapts because she has learned she isn't particularly good at that; thinking outside of the box is what gets her what she wants. It's a lesson she'll probably have to relearn a few times.
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I would be super curious to see what FIMtG cards come out of this! Do you have any plans to do an Imposing Sovereigns edition now that we're no longer getting new episodes?
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Ah, but she never actually saw wolfgirl Ember until Chapter 4! And all her indirect evidence suggested her counterpart was a canine.
Thank you!
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Hope you don't mind I quoted you in the story description.
This is super late since I spent most of the week getting sucked into work (and in post-publication micro-edits to smooth out the second half of the story), but thank you so much for the review! I'm thrilled it left such an impression on you!
I can confirm the "uniform smoketrail release" theory. As for your other question, you are correct that they knocked her out and took her back. I made a few wording changes which hopefully hint that a little better, but it's going to be tricky being super clear about that from the perspective of someone who wasn't around for it.
As my other comment noted, I don't have a whole lot to say about the in-universe backstory of that; there's no solid answer in my head. If I revisit this continuity later on that may be something to further explore
Or if my fanfiction inspires anyone else, I'd be tickled to see how they interpret it!
Thank you again! Your engagement with the story was really awesome to see and I'm sorry that I left you hanging.
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High praise. Thank you all so much!
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Just confirming that the answer brokenimage321 already gave was correct in both cases. I've gone back and polished the back half of the story some to hopefully make those things a little clearer.
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Well, as it turns out, that's a thing you can do!
Fang and Flame is not in Songs of the Sisters, but both Administrative Angel and Devil May Care are. I'll definitely keep this one under consideration in the event there's demand for a second collection.
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Seeing as I have the first collection, this was what I was hoping for.
Relevant.
i.imgur.com/DhfNUP7.jpg
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Never having seen this meme before, this was my approximate thought process on viewing it:
1. "Huh. I wonder which Otherkin documentary this is from. Probably a newer one."
2. "I wonder if I know him?"
2b. "... no, those are lighthouses in the background, which probably puts him on American East Coast out of my physical range, and my links to the therian side of the community probably aren't strong enough that I would have run across him online."
3. "... not to mention, if it's a recent meme, he probably cut his teeth on the idea long after I'd stopped being a significant voice in the movement." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
9945763 Golly, that's more thought than I expected from a mere meme.
I did find it interesting that though she was a human, her 'spirit' version that grappled with Ember was still a wolf. So, yeah, on every level except physical... Even when she was in the pony world, she wasn't a wolf...
So a wolf version of a dragon is a human, even though in that universe a dragon became a dog even though he was unofficially a pony, except in the spiritual world where the human was a wolf after all, but the dragon version was still a wolf in the human world...
geekandsundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/star-trek-3D-chess-1024x537.jpg
Nice story! I liked it, it was pretty much a constant ramping up of tension throughout the whole thing. Good luck in the contest, friendo!
This was really good, for reasons that have already been said. I think one of the highlights was Soarin being a total badass—that bit where he was running away from the horde of dragons was stunningly evocative.
The other thing I really appreciated was how much care went into the language of the narration. I felt myself nodding and going “yeah, that’s how a wolf would describe stuff” pretty often—though “rocket” felt a bit suspect on that front.
Still, this was really good! Thanks for writing
9967636
Well, at least that one's easy to fix
Thank you for the kind words, and glad you enjoyed!
I wrote a critique/review of this story. It can be found over here.
Congrats on winning the contest.
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Thank you, on both counts!
So. This is interesting. I was thinking that Ember was simply a wolf, and that would be a perfectly logical parallel all things considered. Then the mentions of arms and fingers came in, and I had to double-check to see if I hadn't missed anything about the bloodstone letting her shapeshift or something, so now I'm wondering if she isn't a feral child or something similar... but then why is Equestrian Ember a wolf?
Nothing for it -- gotta read on.
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derpicdn.net/img/2017/12/29/1619166/large.png
Okay, this is probably bad.
Huh. That's a bit of a revelation about EqG Ember. How unexpected.
Your comment on the subject was enlightening, by the way.
Oh no.
Yeah, this fic deserved to do well in the contest. A lot went into it, and it shows.
The epic fights don't exactly detract from it, either.
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So would you say this is more Gruul vs. Izzet, or Gruul vs. Temur?
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Specifically Atarka vs. Niv-Mizzet, which may be the best possible way to express the inherent conflict of Ember's character through the medium card games.
(For those unfamiliar with the characters in question, Atarka is an insatiable, animalistic eating machine whose followers must propitiate her lest she devour them, while Niv is equally ancient and egotistical, but is also the smartest creature in his entire universe and has effectively turned Aperture Science into a productive and indispensable part of society.)
This was a great ride. The ending feels exciting and ominous, like Ember's pack (I wonder if she's taken the name Ember now) will be lurking in the background of this universe.
I also kinda wonder if there are any legends in EqG Earth about a wolf king wearing a crown.
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A belated thank you for your kind words! And yeah, as you can probably tell, my headcanon is that there's a heck of a lot more adventure going on in Pedestria than the show ever shows us. In the future of EqG, there is 100% some sort of crazy Princess Mononoke thing going on.
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I'd just like to repeat my earlier comment that I would love to see some sort of Imposing Sovereigns edition of Friendship Is Card Games if you start running thin on official show content. Including the first competition, too; that inspired some magnificent stories I'd love to see translated!
This is amazing. And confusing! Consulting my vast repositories of internet lore, I must assume this is a Warrior Cats crossover. :V
I am going to watch a pony die tonight. <.<