//------------------------------//
// Chapter 33: The Hunt Begins 
// Story: Fire and Steel 
// by shirotora 
//------------------------------//

I stretched as consciousness found me, my bones popping. It was nice being home again. I didn't realize how much I loved our bed until we got back.

We had left Ponyville shortly after the last of the gifts were given. Star had been napping in the Castle of the Two Sisters the whole time, waiting for us to wake her.

Of course, she wanted to know everything that happened, so we told her. She was actually least surprised by the fact that Ember and I had an egg.

As soon as we got home, we fell onto the bed and made good use of it. Oh, we also slept a bit.

"Unless we're banging again, go back to sleep," complained the dragoness cuddled up beside me.

"Mm... yeah, let's do the first one," said the other dragoness cuddled up on my other side.

Ember peaked one eye open. "Hey, as fun as that was, don't think it'll happen all the time. Besides, that'll be the last time you do it at all until after you lay. Unless you want to be a mother."

Smolder chuckled as she rolled over and sat up, stretching herself. "Nah, I'm good. Besides, I think I'll want to find a mate of my own for that. I'm not raising a little pebble biter by myself."

"Hey, we'd still help you out," Ember said.

"Really? Why?" Smolder asked.

Ember shrugged. "I don't know. It seems to work for Luke's friends. I mean, there's two females and both have eggs, but they both act like all the eggs are both of theirs. Same with the males, even the ones that don't have eggs at all act like the eggs are kinda theirs."

"So... you're saying you want Luke to be both of our mate?" Smolder asked, confused.

Ember growled, glaring at Smolder. "No, he's my mate!" She calmed down a bit, taking a slow breath. "I'm just saying, even though he's my mate, we'll still help you out if he sires your whelp. Or, heck, even if some other male does but skips out. 

"We need to start helping each other out, anyway. There's far more strength in unity than with us always fighting."

"Okay, I think there's still some rules to dragon courtship I'm still missing," I said. "So, you would be okay if I had an egg with another dragon?"

Ember gave me a shocked look. "What?! No! I mean, if you wanted to sire an egg, fine, but you aren't having an egg with anydrake else."

"What's the difference?" I asked. 

Ember facepalmed in reserved realization. "Right... not a dragon. The difference is if you sire an egg, you just fertilize the female and that's it. Having an egg with a female means actually being a father."

"So... what are we talking about happening with Smolder?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm kind of confused, too," Smolder agreed.

Ember explained, "Well, I was talking to Velvet, that pony that actually knows what fun is, and she said she used to do fun stuff with something she called an 'uncle'."

"Wait, dragons don't have a concept of uncles?" I asked, completely caught off guard. "But, how do you have siblings but not uncles?"

"What's an uncle?" Smolder asked, her confusion confusing me.

"It's what ponies call their parents' siblings," Ember explained. "Apparently, they help care for the young."

"But, you aren't my sister," Smolder said.

"No, but it got me thinking," Ember said. "If a sibling can help care for your young, why can't a friend?"

"So, kinda like mates, but not really?" Smolder ventured.

"Yeah," Ember said with a nod.

"I like it. You guys can be my whelp's uncles and I'll be your whelp's uncle," Smolder said, excitedly.

I laughed. "You mean 'aunt'. An uncle is a male, a female is an aunt."

"Jeeze, how many words are there for creatures you're related to?" Smolder asked.

"I'll tell you later. Right now, I want some breakfast," I said as I got out of bed.

"Great, we can scrounge something up on the way," Smolder said.

I was about to ask what she meant when I felt a familiar anger bubble up from her.

"You're right. We've put this off far too long," I said. "Let's get ready to go."

Ember nodded. "Yeah. You get everything ready. I'll get ready to seal the cave."

Smolder and I went about gathering up a few things; a pot, some furs, salt, some harder to find seasonings, a tarp, a compass, and a few other things.

With everything split into three packs, we had a quick meal of sausages we brought from Canterlot.

After we finished, we stepped out of the cave and with a wave of magic from Ember the cave entrance was sealed up by a massive stone.

Then, we were ready.

"Finally," Smolder said. "Let's get going."

I couldn't help but look back in worry. I didn't like leaving our egg behind, but with the cave sealed and the magic blanket keeping it warm, it was safe.

"Alright, Smolder," Ember said. "Remember what I showed you."

Smolder nodded. "Right."

She closed her eyes, picturing her brother. I didn't know exactly what she was picturing, but sensing the mix of joy, sorrow, and longing, I felt for her.

Then, she opened her eyes and raised her claw. In a flash, a ball of fire shot out, flying west.

"It worked!" Smolder said. "Don't worry, Garble, I'll get that monster for you. It won't hurt anydrake ever again."

Ember and I threw on our cloaks and spoke the command word. The cloaks morphed into wings and the three of us took off into the sky.





Even just an hour of flying a day helped eat up the distance. That first hour we traveled further than we could have the entire day on foot.

Of course, when the flight cut out, it was a little scary. But then the feather fall enchantment kicked in.

We kept the cloaks on, though, as the weather was starting to turn. Soon enough, it would be winter.

The thought made me shiver. I wasn't looking forward to it. I was usually fine with it, but last winter kind of spoiled it for me. I was glad I lived in a volcano.

"Does that spell say about how far we have to go?" I asked as we settled down for the day.

"Not exactly," Ember said. "It kinda gives you an idea of when you're getting close, though. It gets brighter the closer you are."

"And about how much closer do you think we are?" I asked.

Ember looked at Smolder who cast the tracking spell again.

"Uh, I'd guess we have another three or four days' travel," Ember ventured. "So long as we keep the same pace."

"Are you sure you can't fly?" Smolder asked. "Then you could give Luke both those cloaks and we can fly two hours. I bet we'd get there at least a day early, then."

"I told you, my wing may look fine, now, but the muscles are still weak," Ember said. "It'll be at least another moon before I'll be able to fly."

"There's nothing we can do about that now," I said. "We only have an hour before sunset, so lets get set up. Smolder, can you fill our water skins?"

I emptied one of the skins into the pot that Ember conjured a magic flame beneath for dinner and put it with the other four before Smolder grabbed the empties and flew off.

I took a sip from the last skin and handed it to Ember so she could have some as well.

I started chopping up some potatoes while Ember started cleaning a pair of rabbits we found along the way. It wasn't going to be a very fancy meal, but it was a meal.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Ember asked.

I laughed. "Yeah. Maybe we can send Smolder on ahead and find an animal to maul you up a little."

"Ha! I don't think so," Ember countered. "It's hard to believe it's only been two seasons."

"Yeah..." I thought back through everything that I went through over the past year. Or 'month' by the local calendar. I still wasn't used to that.

"Funny how things work out," Ember said with a slight smile. "When we first met, I thought you were a whiny, whimpy loser."

"And I thought you were a narcissistic bitch," I added. "At least one of us was right."

"Oh?! You wanna go there, do you?" Ember said in mock indignation, making a show of her claws slicing through the meat.

We laughed together for a bit before going silent.

"How much will things change in another two seasons?" she asked.

I paused for a moment before tossing the potatoes into the pot. "I don't know. But isn't that what we want? You've been saying since we first met that you want to bring change to the dragon lands."

"I know, but not all change is good." She cleaned her hands with a jet of fire and slid the bunny chunks to me.

With one paw I directed my psychic power to levitate and rotate the meat into a mix of seasonings.

"You're getting better at that," she said.

"Abes is a good teacher," I said.

After a bit, I tossed the meat in with the potatoes as I continued, "So long as we try to make the right changes for the right reasons, I think we'll be alright."

"But how do we know the changes we're making are the right ones?" Ember asked as she leaned against me.

I put an arm around her waist. "I suppose we can't. All we can do is what we think is right and hope it actually is."

"Smolder's been gone for a while," Ember said, looking around. "You think we should make sure she's okay?"

I smiled. "She's just over there, by that tree. She's giving us space."

"Aww, thanks, Smolder," Ember called.

An orange claw peeked out to give us a thumbs up.





The next morning dawned much like the previous one, with me sandwiched between two dragonesses.

Unlike the previous, though, we weren't cuddled up in post coital bliss but in a warming ball to keep the cold away.

Winter was fast approaching.

We ate a bit of leftover rabbit and potato stew before Ember blasted the pot clean with her breath.

Meanwhile Smolder once again filled up the empty water skins we drank last night and I rolled up the furs we slept on and under.

"So," Smolder said when she came back. "How are we going to be doing this? When we find the dingonek, how are we taking it down?"

I thought for a moment. "It'll depend on what kind of terrain it calls home. If it uses a den, as is most likely, we'll want to lure it out. Outside, we'll have the advantage if we can use our cloaks. We lure it out, cut off its retreat, and take it out."

"We'll try to make sure you get to finish it off," Ember said.

"I don't care about that," Smolder insisted. "I just don't want anydrake else to die. I just want to bring home whatever remains of my brother. He deserves better than to be some animal's chew toy."

"I'm very proud of you," I said. "Your priorities are in the right place, I think."

Smolder nodded. "Alright. Let's get our heading and move out."

She held out her claw and her homing fireball shot out.

It moved a few feet west before stopping.

"Uh... what's going on with this thing?" Smolder asked.

The ball of fire suddenly shifted to green and shot back. In the blink of an eye, the fire expanded, forming a ring of fire. A black claw shot out, grabbed Smolder and yanked her through with barely enough time for her to scream.

It all happened too fast for even my reflexes to kick in before the ring of fire collapsed, leaving me and Ember in stunned shock, staring at where our friend was just two seconds before.

<<"Wh-what?">> I asked aloud, my brain still trying to make sense of what it saw.

"S-smolder? Smolder?!" Ember panicked, looking around, frantically. "Smolder, where are you? This isn't funny!"

I calmed myself as best I could and focused, trying to sense her.

"I can't feel her aura," I said.

"I... I'm going to find her," Ember said.

"Wait! What if it takes you, too?" I said, my fear of losing Ember, too, overwhelming me.

"Then get ready," Ember said. "If it happens again, we grab whatever that claw is, rip it out and beat it until it gives us Smolder back."

Ember lit her claw and cast the spell. Her tracking spell, taking the form of a falcon, took off.

Ember and I watched the spell, both of us seeing the same thing.

"It's going in the same direction as Garble."





Smolder yelped as she was slammed into the wall of a cave, green magic pinned her arms and legs.

She was surrounded by strange creatures that looked like some kind of cross between insect and pony with blue eyes.

"What the heck are you?!" she demanded. "Where am I? Where's my brother?"

The creatures parted as the sound of clawsteps approached. Into the dim light, she saw familiar red clawed feet, followed by an equally familiar red scaled body.

"B-bro?" Smolder said, watching the even more familiar face come into view.

A deep voice chuckled. "Close... but not quite."

As the figure stepped into the light, Smolder looked into his eyes.

And the void stared back.