Due to some unexpected strong winds blowing against the balloon's flight path, Sol, Twilight, Starlight, Spike, and Rarity didn't arrive at their destination until the following day. With the time they departed by balloon, Twilight figured that they would be able to get there not long after sunset and take the extra time to find a spot and get settled in. But, thanks to that little inconvenience on their way over putting them behind, they had to make do with sleeping in the cramped balloon basket for the night. It took them all a while, but after a bit of squirming around and readjusting themselves, they each managed to get themselves in a somewhat comfortable sleeping position. To help them make room for everyone to be comfortable, Twilight fell asleep with Spike wrapped in her hooves, cuddling together like they used to do when she was a little filly.
By the time the sun rose, Twilight started to awaken as well. When she did, the first thing she noted was the spell she placed on the balloon to keep it on course during their sleep was still active, guiding them to the Dragon Lands throughout the night and the dawn. The next thing that she noticed was that she didn't feel Spike in her forelegs, but instead, she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her while her front was pressed up against something soft and warm. Cracking an eye open to see what was going on, Twilight's vision was met with a wall of white.
Did I roll over in my sleep and bump into Rarity? she wondered.
While it sounded logical in her head, the extra warmth she felt emanating from the white body didn't feel quite right. Pulling her head back and looking up to see, Twilight immediately found her cheeks heating up when she saw that the one who she'd rolled over to and snuggled in her sleep wasn't Rarity, but Sol, who's sleeping face was mere inches away from her own. Eyes wide and face practically glowing red, Twilight froze as she internally began to panic.
Okay, this is NOT Rarity! she mentally screamed. Wait, did he do this to get back at me for that false letter to Celestia yesterday? Also, where's Spike?
Her worries shifting from the stalling before her to her assistant and surrogate little brother, Twilight craned her head around to see if he was still there. She did find him, but when she saw that he had moved over in his sleep into Rarity's hooves, Twilight wasn't sure whether to smile at the sight, or roll her eyes.
Alright, so Spike's perfectly fine, Twilight turned her head forward and nervously gulped, but I'm not. Okay, Twilight, think. How am I going to get out of this situation without waking him or the others up?
Still hearing the others lightly snoring behind her, and feeling the slow and steading breathing from Sol's chest, Twilight knew that he and the others were still asleep, so she had some time to think before any of them woke up. Of course, it wasn't easy with Sol holding her against him like this in his sleep. As she thought about how to subtle get out of his hold, Twilight eyes looked over Sol.
During the past month of him living with her, Starlight, and Spike, Twilight had managed to get to know Sol a bit better during the time he wasn't busy down in the Underkingdom. She was glad that he managed to become good friends with her friends, and that he was able to make some on his own, but what she was probably the most happy about was how Sol and Spike managed to bond over the course of his stay. It might've been because there was another male there that Spike could relate to and hang out with, or the fact that Sol was part dragon and would willingly tell stories to Spike about other dragons he'd met. Either way, Twilight was happy for them, and she would be lying to herself if she didn't like having Sol around too.
During the few times she dragged Sol along on her study binges and researching down in the Underkingdom, Twilight got to know Sol quite a bit better. With her already knowing about him being Celestia's son, and him being the Lord of Earth, Sol told Twilight everything that she wanted to know. After they were done, Twilight had asked Sol out of curiosity why and explained that he felt that since they knew the greatest of his secrets that it wouldn't hurt to tell her everything else. That, and the fact that Sol said that he trusted her.
However, even during their time together, Twilight never quite got as good of a look at Sol as what she was getting right now. And with the position she was in, Twilight felt that her senses had somehow gone into overdrive as she could hear his heartbeat, feel the gently rise and fall of his chest, and the softness and scent of his coat. Pressed up against him, she also feel the firm, rock-hard muscles of his body beneath his soft coat, the strong and gentle embrace of his arms wrapped around her, and lastly his face, which while still asleep, Twilight was finding to be quite alluring. As she discovered these new, but always present, features about him, Twilight felt her body heating up as certain thoughts started entering her mind. Thoughts that soon started leading her to consider the possibility of them being in a romantic relation-
Whoa, whoa, whoa! What?! Twilight mentally shouted at herself. What are you thinking?! Get ahold of yourself, Twilight! You can't start thinking about him like that! I mean, he's Celestia's son for pony's sake!
Despite the mental berating, Twilight was having great difficulty trying to convince herself as she continued to watch Sol's sleeping form.
... although... would that really be such a bad thing? After all, he is pretty strong, friendly, intellectual, can relate to me on multiple levels, he's capable of keeping up a conversation with me despite him still learning about our present time and not always knowing about what I'm talking about, and I'll admit that he is a pretty handsome stalliooookay! That's enough of that train of thought! Okay, get it together, Twilight. You need to get out of here before he wakes up or before I have anymore of those thoughts about him.
Trying not to panic anymore than she already was, Twilight tried to form a plan to get out that didn't involve abruptly waking him and/or the others up. However, right after she began to formulate a plan, her breathing stopped as she noticed that one set of snores had stopped. Fearing the worst, Twilight slowly turned her head around and froze when she saw Starlight looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
For several long seconds, neither of them spoke or moved, just staring at one another. It wasn't until Twilight mouthed "help me" to Starlight that that changed. Using her magic, Starlight slowly and carefully unwrapped Sol's arms from around Twilight, pulled her out, and sat her down in front of her.
Releasing a large sigh of relief, Twilight glanced back to Sol before she looked to Starlight with her face still reddened.
"... that wasn't what it looked like," Twilight desperately whispered.
"Really, Twilight?" Starlight quietly asked with a small smirk. "Are you sure that you weren't trying to get a little closer with a certain prince?"
Twilight gawked at Starlight. "Wha- no! It was an accident, I swear! I must have rolled over in my sleep and ended up there!"
Starlight blinked and glanced over to the sleeping forms of Spike and Rarity.
"You mean like how Spike just happened to roll over in his sleep and is now snuggling up against his 'secret crush' by 'accident'?"
"... it might be kinda difficult to tell with Spike, but in my case, yes."
Seeing the pleading and sincere look in Twilight's eyes, Starlight felt like she was telling the truth and decided to believe her. Of course, just because she believed her didn't mean that she was about to just let this go. If anything, she was going to use this to tease Twilight for a long, long time.
"Okay, I believe you," Starlight said. Hearing a waking groan coming from behind Twilight, they looked over to see Sol waking up. "Oh, looks like your coltfriend is waking up."
"Starlight!"
"What? You prefer I call him your Prince Charming?"
"Shush!" Twilight harshly whispered before putting on her best normal face and turning to Sol. "Good morning, Sol."
Letting out a yawn, Sol looked up from his spot to see both Twilight and Starlight already awake.
"Good morning you two."
"So, Sol, how'd you sleep?" Starlight asked, the corners of her lips twitching as she tried to keep herself from smirking.
"Apart from it being a little bit cramped in here, I... actually slept pretty well, surprisingly."
Starlight could no longer hold her smirk back now. "Oh, really? Any reason why?"
"I don't think so. I just feel really great for some reason," he shrugged before noticing Twilight's reddened face.
Wait... so he didn't do that? That really was all my doing?!
"Hey, are you alright, Twilight?"
A small "eep" escaped Twilight upon hearing talking to her.
"Yep! I'm fine! Perfectly fine!" she hastily replied, earning her a curious look from Sol.
"Are you sure? Your acting kinda strange and your face is really-"
"Oh, look! We're here!" Pointing at the horizon where the Dragon Lands were coming into sight, Twilight managed to distract Sol for the time being, which allowed for her to lean over to Starlight and bring up a wing to shield their faces from Sol. "We are going to pretend that that never happen and not tell a single word to anypony, okay?"
"Sure, Twilight. Whatever you say," Starlight chuckled. "But," she turned to Spike and Rarity, who were both still asleep, "what about them?"
Before Twilight could answer or think of a way, Rarity let out a cute little yawn before she felt something in her forelegs and looked down to see Spike fast asleep. Curious as to how he got there, and embarrassed that he was even there to begin with, Rarity looked up to see the others were all awake with Twilight and Starlight looking at her.
"... could somepony please explain to me how Spike got over here?" Rarity curiously asked without a hint of anger in her voice.
"We believe that he rolled over in his sleep," Twilight answered her.
Rarity's eyes shifted from them, to Spike, and back up to them. "So this was an accident and not because of his 'secret' crush on me?"
"Wait, Spike has a crush on you?" Sol asked, hearing them and being surprised by this news.
"He didn't tell you?" Twilight questioned. "I figured that he would've brought it up since you're a guy and all."
"No, he didn't."
Rarity sighed and gently let go of Spike as she gently laid him back down.
"Well, his crush isn't really that much of a secret, considering that all of our friends know about it, myself included as you've just heard," she said, looking down at the sleeping baby dragon as she began to gently stroke the spines on his head. "I do find it cute and rather flattering that he feels like that for me. He's done so much for me ever since he and Twilight first moved to Ponyville, and I have taken note of everything that he's done... but I just don't know if I feel the same for him as he does for me. I mean, I do love him, but not quite in a romantic sense."
"... why?"
Surprised by the question, the three mares turned to Sol.
"I'm sorry?"
"He's apparently done a lot for you, and if you already knew about how he felt for you, then why not give him a chance... or are you just leading him on?"
Rarity frowned. "No, I'm not trying to lead Spike on. It's just that... well, he's too young."
"True, he is younger," Sol nodded in agreement, "but during the last month that I've lived here with all of you, and from the stories I've heard from everypony, my mother included, I've noticed that while Spike is a bit younger and may act like a kid at times, his mental state is closer to that of an adult at times. Hay, there have been times where I've seen him act more mature than even actual adults.
"And if we're talking about his age, then he'll grow to his own soon enough. From what I understand about growing dragons, once they get to their mid-teenage years, they're hit with a big growth spurt. When that happens, Spike will grow from what he is now to about the size of a full-grown pony in a matter of a few days."
"But Spike is in his teen years," Starlight interjected, "so shouldn't he have grown by now?"
"If he is and hasn't, then he's probably just a late bloomer and could hit his growth spurt any day now."
"Did that happen to you too, Sol?" Twilight asked, quill and parchment floating in front of her as she'd been taking notes of what Sol just said about the growth of dragons.
"No. Since my body is half-pony as well, I grew at a more natural and steady pace like a normal pony. Also unlike dragons, I won't grow to be as tall as an adult dragon is. If I had to guess, I'll probably grow to be about as tall as mother, maybe even a little taller." Sol paused his explanation to Twilight and turned back over Rarity, silently judging her expression. "So, when that happens and Spike does grow up, would you give him a chance then?"
Rarity bit her lip. "Well... perhaps, but..."
"... or are you being hesitant because he's a dragon?" Sol frowned, causing Rarity to wince slightly.
"Well, not exactly..." she slowly replied. "I'm just... not so sure."
Sol let out a quiet sigh. "If that's the case, then I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you. I mean, just take me for example. My mother and father both loved each other very much, and they were both doing perfectly fine until... yeah..." Sol shook his head from that unpleasant thought. "Anyway, I have a feeling that you and Spike will be fine if you do end up choosing that path. And if you're still worried about it, you can always go to mother and talk to her about it. I'm sure that she'll be more than happy to help you if you need it."
Rarity blushed. "I... I'll think about it... and keep your suggestion with the princess in mind."
Happy to have that settled and possibly give Spike a chance, Sol turned to face the Dragon Lands approaching them. A few minutes later with the three mares talking behind Sol's back, Spike stirred and woke up with a loud yawn.
"Hey guys," he groaned, stretching out his tired and stiff limbs. "Are we there yet?"
Twilight nodded and pointed in the direction they were traveling. "We are just about to pass over into Dragon Land airspace."
Hearing that they were pretty much there, Spike got up and made his way over to the front of the basket. Jumping up and pulling himself up to take a look, Spike saw them passing over the shores of the Dragon Lands, and off in the distance, he saw dragons flying about their business.
"So, how much farther do we need to go until we meet with your friend?" Sol wondered.
"The Dragon Lord's Throne isn't that far away. That's where Ember will be," Spike replied with squinted eyes. "... actually, you can see it from here."
Seeing Spike point, Sol followed the direction of his claw to where a large rock jutted up from what looked like a large quarry. As he looked over the place, Sol quickly spotted a pair of adult dragons flying directly towards them. However, instead of the dragons attacking or circling them, they instead flanked the balloon and flew along side it as they escorted them to the Dragon Lord's Throne. Once they safely arrived, the two dragons flew away, leaving them to land on the edge of the flat surface of the dragon-sized throne. Taking this as his cue, Sol leaped out of the balloon basket with a rope in his claws and flew down with the balloon in tow to a rock he could tie it to. With the balloon landed and firmly tied down, the others hopped out of the basket onto solid ground.
"Oh, thank heavens we're finally out of that cramped place," Rarity said in relief, finally free to roam around and stretch her legs. "One can only remain stationary in such a small space for so long."
"As nice as flying in that balloon was, I'm gonna have to agree with you on that one," Starlight agreed.
While Sol and the other ponies were stretching themselves out, Spike started looking around for his friend.
"Where is she?" he asked himself. "She hardly leaves this place and said that she'd meet us here."
"Spike?"
His ear fins perking at the rough yet feminine voice, Spike turned to his immediate right and saw the dragoness he was looking for.
"Ember!"
Happy to see her again, Spike ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Chuckling at how excited he was and seeing Spike again, Ember returned the friendly gesture and wrapped her arms around Spike's smaller body in a hug.
While those two were busy, the others were watching off to the side. Apart from Spike calling her name, as he looked the dragoness over, Sol was starting to see some resemblances between Ember and Torch. Granted that Ember's blue scales were a bit lighter than Torch's, and her spines were a midnight-blue to Torch's orange, but their horns, while also of a different color, were exactly the same shape, which Sol remembered that, according to Torch, was a unique hornstyle that ran in his family.
Breaking their welcome hugs, Ember smiled down at Spike.
"It's been a long time, Spike," she said before blushing slightly and quietly adding, "I was actually starting to miss you."
Spike blushed as well. "Y-Yeah. I've missed you too."
Clearing her throat from the unusually sappy moment, Ember put back on a straight face.
"So, what's new with you? Anything exciting happen since your last letter?"
"Eh, not much really," he shrugged. "Things have actually been kinda quiet lately."
"Sounds kinda boring if you ask me. But, I suppose that it's not exactly a bad thing either once in a while."
Spike smirked. "Yeah, but as it turns out, there is something, or rather, someone, who we did find, and he's been wanting to meet you. But first..."
Gesturing with a claw, Spike led Ember over to the others.
"It's really good to see you again, Dragon Lord Ember," Twilight said with a small bow, which Ember rolled her eyes to.
"Come on, Twilight. I told you before in our letters that you don't need to call me that, just like how you asked me to not call you by your title."
"Oh... right," she chuckled. "Anyway, I'd like for you to meet my friend, Starlight Glimmer."
Starlight stepped forward and held out a hoof. "Hello, Dragon Lord Ember."
"Hey."
"Starlight was my student up until just a few months ago when she graduated," Twilight continued. "I did consider sending her to the Dragon Lands to help assist you with making the dragons more friendly, but I later decided against it."
"What? You think that we wouldn't get along or something?" Ember smirked.
"Just the opposite, actually. I thought that you two would get along just fine. It was some of the other dragons that I was worried about."
Ember's smirk fell as she rubbed her head. "Well, I'm not gonna lie, there have been a few dragons that have been more difficult to deal with. One in particular."
Spike gulped nervously, already having a pretty good idea of who Ember was talking about.
"You mean Garble, right?"
"Yeah. Not only is he refusing friendship and claiming that it'll make us weaker, but he's also still pretty upset about the outcome of the Gauntlet of Fire... and what you made him do, Spike," she added with a smirk. "I've considered using the Bloodstone Scepter on him, but I don't want other dragons to think of me as some tyrannical ruler or something."
"That's probably for the best," Twilight agreed with a sigh. "And while I don't really like it, I've accepted the fact that there are just some who just aren't willing to be friends with anypony... or dragon in this case."
Ember nodded and looked at the next pony in line. "I don't think I've seen you since you came to support Spike during the Gauntlet of Fire. It's... um... Diamond, right?"
"My name is Rarity," she curtly corrected, frowning at being called by a different name.
"Oops. Sorry, Rarity," Ember apologized.
Seeing the bit of tension growing between the two, Spike thought quickly and diverted Ember's attention away from Rarity.
"And this," he began, dragging Ember to Sol, "is Solar Rupture, or Sol for short."
Being introduced to the last member of their party, Ember's eyes wandered over Sol's body as she looked over him with mixed expressions.
"Just what the heck are you supposed to be?" she asked, walking around Sol as she inspected him. "You look like a pony... but at the same time, you also look kinda like a dragon too."
"You're pretty much right," Sol said as Ember walked back in front of him. "I'm what's called a kirin, a hybrid of a pony and a dragon. My mother is a pony, and my father was a dragon."
Not expecting such a reply, Ember found her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at Sol.
"No way." Ember looked over to Spike, who only nodded to her, confirming Sol's claim. "You're joking. I've never even heard of a crossbreed before!"
Sol raised a curious eyebrow. "Really? Torch knew of me."
Ember blinked. "My dad?"
"From what I've heard, yes. Does he still have dark blue scales, orange spines, wing membranes, and eyes, likes to speak with a loud, boisterous voice?" Sol paused in thought for a moment. "Although, that was a thousand years ago, so I'm not sure if he's quieted down or not, or if his scales have started going pale with age."
"Wh- a thousand years?!" she gawked. "You're kidding me! You don't even look much older than we do!"
Sol was about to reply, but became distracted by something tied to her back. Peeking his head around to look behind her, Sol saw a familiar purple, crystalline staff, that ending in a three-pronged claw holding a large blood-red stone in its grasp.
"Hey, is that the Bloodstone Scepter?"
Ember glanced back to the scepter on her back. "Yeah?"
"Wow. I haven't seen that thing since Dragon Lord Inferno had it," he finished with a grimace.
By this point, Ember stood completely dumbfounded. As Dragon Lord, she was required to learn of each of the Dragon Lords before her, including Inferno, who almost led the Dragon Lands to ruin during his rule.
"... barely anydragon even remembers Dragon Lord Inferno, let alone know of him," she quietly said in disbelief that he knew of him. "Okay, just who and what are you?"
Sol smirked. "My name is Sol, and I'm-"
"EMBER!"
There was barely any time for any of them to react before they felt a powerful gust of wind from a pair of wings, followed by a loud thud that caused the ground beneath them tremble. Recovering from the mini earthquake, Sol looked up behind Ember the towering form that had casted a shadow over them and gawked at the sight of his oldest friend all grown up.