//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27: Story Time 
// Story: Fire and Steel 
// by shirotora 
//------------------------------//

I woke up sore.

Not because of the sparing. No, that was easy.

No, it was what Ember did to me.

I was pretty sure she was set on testing how durable an iron pelvis actually is.

Still, I couldn’t fault her logic. If we do it as much as possible, it will only help our chances of fertilizing her egg.

I had only just got out of the shower when I was tackled by a squeeing blue bullet.

"Ember, come on. I’m still sore and we have places to be. We don’t have time for another round," I pleaded.

She snorted in amusement. “That’s not it... though I wouldn’t say no to being a little late.”

I looked up at her, eyebrow cocked. "Okay... What is it, then?"

Her smile grew to near Pinkie levels. “I’m not horny!”

"Uh..."

She rolled her eyes. “Think about it. There’s only two reasons I wouldn’t be horny right now, and we one of them doesn’t last this long.”

My morning brain struggled to work without breakfast to fuel it.

Then, it hit me. "Wait... you mean..?"

Ember just nodded.

I jumped to my feet, letting out a howl of joy as I twirled Ember around.

"I’m going to be a daddy!"

The door between the rooms slammed open.

Smolder rushed in. “What?! Really?! Are you sure?!”

Ember blushed. “W-well, not completely, but I’m not horny and I haven’t laid it, so I’m pretty sure.”

"Wait, I said, pulling her close. I kneeled down, resting my paw on her belly and closing my eyes.

I reached out with my senses. Ember's life force was strong, almost blindingly bright. Still, I pushed through, searching.

There, hidden in the brilliance of Ember's soul, a spark, small and fragile.

I felt a tear trail through my fur.

"I... I'm a daddy... I'm a daddy!" I cheered

"You can feel it? Already?" Ember said, breathlessly. 

I looked up, meeting the eyes of the most beautiful mother in the world and nodded.

She let out a cheer, picking me up and spinning me around.

We barely heard the knock on the door. 

We did hear the yelp as Smolder opened it and pulled Sunflower into a hug.

"I'm gonna be an auntie!" she cheered. "Well, kinda. Who cares!"

Sunflower quickly joined the celebration. 





We practically danced into the dinning room.

Celestia was already there, giving us a warm smile. "Congratulations. I'm happy for you both."

Ember looked shocked. "Y-you know? How?"

Celestia giggled. "Everyone in the palace knows. Apparently Luke's telepathy becomes quite strong when he's so excited. You were even heard in the city. I have fliers out checking how far it actually reached and to prevent any possible panic, though I doubt any pony will panic at that message."

I blushed slightly, but my grin remained. "Can you blame me? I'm going to be a father."

"Well, then I do believe a celebration is in order," Celestia said. "It's a shame we don't have a premier party pony in Canterlot..."

She and a couple others that were eating glanced around, as if expecting something.

"Well shoot," Celestia pouted. "I was hoping that would work. Oh well. I'll make some arrangements for this afternoon. For now, why don't you come eat."

"Good idea. I could go for a gem omelet, extra gems," Ember said, giddily. "Need to build up that shell."

We all sat down and placed our orders. Gustav even brought them out personally to give his congratulations.

As we ate, Celestia asked, “So, Luke, I heard you and the eevee pack aren’t actually from the Everfree.”

I winced at that. "Yeah, that’s true."

“I have to wonder, then, where are you from?” she asked. “Surely it must be quite far away.”

Curiosity, suspicion, and mirth poured from her, with touches of concern and pity.

I sighed. "Yeah... but you already know how far, don’t you?"

Celestia took a sip of her morning coffee. “I know Lyra will be happy when she finds out.”

"I would prefer it if you kept this to yourself," I asked.

“Yes, I can understand your concern-”

"Oh, I’m not concerned for myself," I corrected. "It’s Leo and the others that are. I can always leave and go back to the dragon lands if I felt I would be... mistreated. They, however, can’t just leave so easily."

Celestia gave me a reassuring smile. “Well, you may be happy to know I have no intention of sharing this information until they are comfortable.”

"Thank you, your highness," I said.

“Though, I am curious,” Celestia said, giving me a quizzical look. “How did you guess I knew?”

I chuckled, "I’m an empath, remember?"

Celestia was shocked at that. “You can sense my emotions?”

"Yeah," I replied, honestly. "It’s actually easier than most."

That left her more confused, though that quickly gave way to comprehension. “Right. You use this ‘aura’, not psychic abilities. I suppose I’m too confident in my abilities to hide my emotions. I’ll have to be careful around you.”

"You don’t need to worry about me abusing that ability against you, your highness," I assured.

Celestia laughed. “So long as you are honest with me, I will have no need to hide my emotions from you.”

“Well, you’re lucky, then,” Ember said. “Luke couldn’t hide his feelings if he wore a mask wherever he went.”

I rolled my eyes. "That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?"

Ember shrugged. “Meh, maybe a little.”

Celestia stood with a giggle. “Well, as much as I am enjoying myself, I am afraid I must prepare for court. Perhaps we shall dine together this evening.”

"You as well," I said.

“Yeah, don’t take crap from those stuffy nobles,” Smolder said.

Celestia looked back, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Oh, they know better.”





While Ember went off to try to learn some more magic with Smolder, I went to see if they made any progress with my biology.

As I made my way across the courtyard, I was approached by Ponton LaVey.

"Ah, Mister Luke," he said.

"Please, just Luke is fine," I said.

"Very well, Luke," he said. "I was hoping to speak with you."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? I suppose I have time. How can I help you?"

He gave me a friendly smile, despite his aura telling me it wasn't genuine. "It's nothing serious. I had just realized that I've never heard of your people before.

"Now, I like to consider myself a stallion of culture. Thus, I find myself more and more curious about your culture."

I smiled. "Wondering if I'm actually sapient or just a really smart creature?"

His eyes widened in shock briefly, but he quickly composed himself. "Yes... forgive me for the deception. I felt it would be better to ask about culture than to insinuate you are a lesser animal. As one indisputable part of being sapient is culture, I felt asking about that would be the best way to determine once and for all."

"I suppose there is no proper way to ask something like that," I admitted. "Alright, how about I tell you one of the stories of myth from my people."

"Folklore? You have my attention," he said.

I paused for a moment. "Actually, before we start, are classes in session, yet?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You wish to invite others to hear?"

I gave a smirk. "A story like the one I have in mind needs an audience."

He nodded. "Fair enough. No, classes are not in session."

"Excellent." I focused on my 'voice and projected it out wide. "Attention, there will be a guest speaker sharing folklore of a far away land in the courtyard in front of the biology department in twenty minutes. All are welcome to come and listen."

Immediately, Lyra appeared in a flash of light with a bucket of popcorn and a lawn chair.

It didn't take long for a crowd to start to form. There were many a murmur, most inquiring as to the manner of being I was. A couple seemed to have heard of me, mentioning that was the escort of the visiting dragon princess. 

Anyway, after the allotted time, I looked out across the yard. "Greetings, and welcome. Yes, I am the incredibly handsome bipedal canine standing before you. Yes, I am speaking in your head. Sadly, no, I cannot speak any other way.

"My name is Luke, and I hail from a land far outside Equestria. As such, the good chancellor here found himself curious about my culture, and so I decided to share with all of you one of the most popular stories from my people's folklore.

"This is the story of my namesake, the farm boy turned hero; Luke Skywalker. It all begins a long time ago, on a star far, far away..."





I had to change quite a few things around. For one, every character was a pokemon. Luke, Leah, and Ben were, of course, lucario, while most other characters were either lucario or eevees of some type.

Other than that, instead of spaceships, they traveled in massive airships, and instead of fighters, they rode flying pokemon.

I described the galaxy as a place where magic was lost. Only a shadow of it remained and that was the force. Of the force, there was the Aura side, and the Shadow side, again, taking some liberties to make it better fit.

Everyone was riveted. Even Chancellor LaVey was enthralled.

I only finished A New Hope, making sure to leave them wanting more.

Always leave them wanting more.





After dinner, I went out to the gardens to find a nice quiet place. Finding a place, I sat down, cross-legged and placed a fist sized rock in front of me.

“Alright,” I said to myself. “I can do this.”

I held out my paw and focused on the rocks.

“Move,” I commanded. “Move. Move. Move.”

“That’s not how you do it,” came a voice behind me.

I jumped, damn near launching an aura sphere behind me. “Why do things keep sneaking up on me out here?!”

The voice chuckled as it resolved into a black dog/cat creature with faintly glowing gold rings. “Sorry, I can’t really help it. How’ve you been, Luke?”

I calmed down, chuckling to myself. “If it isn’t Abes. Of course you’d become an Emovee.”

He chuckled. “Surprisingly, I haven’t actually heard that one yet.”

I gave a gasp of mock indignation. “What a crime. That should have been at least the ninth time someone said that.”

“So, I take it you’re trying to learn psychic?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I thought it would be easy. I mean, I use aura to talk telepathically, so I figured I’d use aura for this too, but it doesn’t work. So now, I have to figure out a power I have no experience in.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure the rock wiggled, so you’re on the right path,” he observed. "You know... I could help teach you."

I gave him a hopeful look. "You know psychic?"

"Not psychic, but if the show is to be believed, it can work the same as telekinesis, so I believe the principle is the same," he said before giving a wicked grin. "Of course, what I have in mind, it won't really matter what kind of psychic power you're trying to use."

I chuckled. "If you think you're going to scare me off, think again. Let's do this," I accepted.

"As you wish."

Suddenly, Abes' eyes glowed red and I felt my whole body freeze up and raise several feet into the air.

"Fighting types are weak against psychic, so your aura won't help you," Abes said. "That means your only hope of escaping my grip is to overpower my telekinesis with your own psychic."

I smirked down at him. "Challenge accepted."





Challenge failed.

I laid there, panting for air.

"You did good," Abes said. "I felt your mind pressing against my telekinesis. Give it a couple more sessions and you'll have it."

"So, I take it we'll do this again?" I asked.

"Tomorrow night," Abes said. "I think we both need a bit of a rest."

"Yeah."

"Congratulations, by the way," Abes said.

"Huh? Oh!" It took me a second to realize what he meant. "You heard, huh?"

"All of Canterlot heard," he replied with a laugh. "Seriously, if it wasn't for the fact that so many powerful unicorns live here and what you actually said, there would have been a panic."

I laughed, "Yeah, sorry. I was just... happy." I turned to look at my creepy-in-the-moonlight friend. "What about you? Who's the lucky lady?"

He froze up. "What do you mean?"

"This doesn't just look like a dog nose," I said. "I can still smell her on you. It's a pony."

Abes grumbled something about dogs. "Fine, but you have to swear never to tell a living soul. Ever."

"Cross my heart," I said.

He took a deep breath. "It's... Luna."

I smirked. "Oh ho ho. So I'm not the only one looking at a royal title in the near future, am I?"

"Wait, what?" Abes said in surprise.

"Ember's technically a princess," I explained. "While that doesn't really mean anything to dragons, the title of dragon lord goes to the strongest, whoever completes the Gauntlet of Fire. Seeing as Ember's the only dragon with magic and that magic is alicorn-tier, she will win it. And when she does, she's going to revive the dragon empire."

"And with Ember as Empress and you as her mate, you're going to be an Emperor," Abes finished.

"Yeah... Emperor Luke..." I said, a touch of nervousness in my voice. I was going to be an Emperor. I was going to have a hand in ruling an entire nation.

Abes suddenly busted out laughing. "Holy shit, I just realized. Luke Skywalker is going to be an emperor!"

I blinked as that thought settled in before joining him in his mirth.

Suddenly, he got back to his feet, and, speaking with the odd inflections and tone of Palpatine, said, "Come my apprentice. Let me teach you the power of the dark side."

"Yes, my master," I said with my best Vader impression.

"Tomorrow, though," Abes said. "I have some things to take care of."

"Alright," I said. "See you tomorrow night. Oh, and don't tell the others about the egg. I want to surprise them."