//------------------------------//
// Cozy Warmth 
// Story: Hot Dragon Inaction 
// by SilverNotes 
//------------------------------//

It was a nice restaurant.

There was a real dearth of nice restaurants in the Dragonlands. There was a shortage of restaurants in general, mostly because when it came to dragon skillsets, a species that knew how to breathe fire had shockingly produced very few cooks over the ages. Or maybe not so shocking, when they were omnivores with a strong lean toward geovorous. There were only so many ways to prepare a meal of stones, though she'd gotten to like some of the recipes invented by pony rock farmers.

Fusion cuisine had become the name of the game in a lot of cases. Foods that other creatures liked to eat, stuffed to the horns with gemstones. Sometimes that really worked, with the food that Spike had brought to the picnic having been a prime example, while in other cases it was abundantly clear that the one who'd developed the recipe had no idea what the different stones actually tasted like.

If Spike liked this place, though, chances were they knew what they were doing. She looked up at the sign, which was decorated with stylized changelings and little hearts, then at him standing there, holding the door open for her.

Such a dork.

But still a ridiculously handsome one.

She strolled over, and then, instead of going through the open door, lightly jabbed her claw into his side. "What's with the sudden pony manners?"

He ducked his head. "I'm just... being nice."

Ember rolled her eyes, and slipped through the doorway, subconsciously giving her body more of a slithering sway. "And lucky for you, I accept you, niceness and all."

He chuckled. "Yeah. Lucky me."

Her heart jumped at the lack of playful sarcasm at the words, and felt her body temperature slide up several notches. She gritted her fangs, taking several sharp breaths through her nostrils and trying to ignore the smoke curling from them on the exhales as she forced the sensation down. She needed to not read into it too much. She had to use her words here, directly.

But maybe she should use her words after dinner. She wanted to believe that Rarity's assessment of the situation was right and he was waiting for her to make the first move, but there was still a chance that this could go sideways. Their friendship would survive, sure, but it would be a shame to spoil the meal together with short-term awkwardness if he really wasn't interested in her that way.

She heard Spike talking to one of the servers--true to the sign, they were a changeling, their carapace all purples and blues--presumably about a table, and she took in a deep breath. She'd handled lunch together. She could handle a nice dinner. And then, afterward, she'd tell him that she'd really enjoyed the time together, and that she'd like to do it more.

As something other than friends.

I can do this.





"Twilight says she'll pay for the damages."

Ember, currently sitting on a bench in Ponyville's park, didn't remove her face from her scaled hands. "Great."

It was a quiet enough place to sulk, as with the sun going down, most of the creatures who'd been playing and socializing had already gone home. There were some stragglers--a pony leaving with her two young mule foals, one of whom was asleep on her back while the other followed behind, occasionally yawning, and an elderly pony couple walking together in the other direction were the ones she could spot from her seat--but none of them paid any mind to her stewing in her mortification.

"No one blames you, Ember." Spike's voice was way too soft and way too kind, holding a letter in his claws that had just materialized out of green flame. "The owner admitted that it was a major oversight not to fireproof the chairs and tables when offering foods that dragons and kirin would want to eat."

She finally looked up at him, her eyes peeking over her own claws. "I'm the Dragon Lord and I lit a chair on fire with my butt."

Spike, to his credit, only almost laughed, his face contorting in a few different directions before he smiled gently again. "And I've lit books on fire with my sneezes. It happens."

She groaned and buried her face again. "I lit a chair on fire and a pony princess covered it. I should at least be handing over the gems myself."

"I can tell her you want to take responsibility, if that would help? I think she's just used to stepping in when one of her friends or family goes somewhere and there's property damage."

That got a small snort of a laugh. "Yeah, guess she would be, after all the stories you've told me."

"See? For Ponyville, this is a Tuesday." He perched on the edge of the bench, and lightly patted her on the shoulder. "I'm pretty sure one of them is going to try to keep the ashes as a souvenir of the day the Dragon Lord visited."

The mental image got a few chuckles. "Maybe they'll ask me to sign them."

"Maybe!" He offered his hand. "Come on, I've got a plan B place, and I know that their stuff is fireproof."

Ember looked at his hand, and briefly reached out her own, only to pause. "...You're not going to ask why I set the chair on fire?"

Spike shrugged. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"...Nooot really."

"Then let's go get dinner."

Ember glanced at his hand, then her own. Then she smiled, reached out, and took it.





It was pony food, without a gemstone in sight, but Ember had to admit that it was pretty good.

She hadn't known what to expect when she'd realized that Spike had been steering toward a doughnut shop of all things. The pony behind the corner hadn't been surprised at all to see them, and had happily gotten them some fresh, warm food. The place didn't serve dinner, precisely, but it had a lunch menu, and with a chipper declaration that it was always lunchtime somewhere, the employee had fixed them a pile of sandwiches, a couple of bowls of soup, and some lemonade to drink. On the house, too.

Ember munched on her grilled cheese sandwich as Spike wolfed down his third, the act barely slowing down his talking. "...So, since I was such a big customer in Canterlot, after the franchise expanded down into Ponyville, I was invited to the opening. From then on I've been coming in every time I'm back in town."

"And they comp you every time?" Ember asked as she looked at the mountain of food, trying to work out the math on how much that'd work out to in losses.

"Nah." He waved his claws dismissively, before plucking up an asparagus wrap. "Just when I bring someone new in for the first time. They like me here, but they're still a business."

Ember nodded at that, glancing sideways at the pony, who was busy with sweeping the floor. "Still, pretty good racket you've got going on. After all, you're the ambassador. You never run out of new friends."

"Sure, but I don't bring just anyone here."

Ember opened her mouth to respond to that, but the way that Spike was looking her had the words dying on her tongue. Those sharp green eyes of his, looking at her with an intensity that she'd never seen before. Her jaw worked uselessly for a few long moments, as the chair, true to Spike's earlier words, neither scorched nor smoked nor spontaneously combust. 

Then she huffed, turning away and grabbing up her iced lemonade, and took a long sip, more than happy to court brain freeze if it would make her body cool down. "Gee, you sure know how to pick a memorable place for first dates, then."

Ember went rigid, realizing what she'd said, and looked back at Spike. "Stop looking at me like that!" She grabbed up one of the sandwiches and smacked him with it. "Stop looking at me with that big stupid grin, you--Doughnut pony!"

"My name's Tim--"

"Get me something with glaze and jelly filling to smack this dork with and I'll pay for the whole meal and help clean up."

She'd never seen a pony move so fast. Not even a token protest that the meal had been intended to be free. Ember was pretty sure she could get to like him. But now wasn't the time to consider new friends, not when her first one was still looking at her like such a goof. She growled at him, snorted smoke, and eventually crossed her arms and slumped down in a sulk.

"In my defense," Spike finally said, "Plan A was a fancy--"

"You really did know the whole time didn't you?" Ember didn't have quite enough anger to make it a proper snarl.

"Well..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, the only time I've left scorch marks in things I sat on was... yeah. I got control over it after a while, but..."

"But I'm so pathetically lonely that I'm not used to having to control it." The doughnut pony returned, and instead of hurling the offered pastries, she grabbed one and viciously tore a chunk out of it with her teeth. "I know."

"Hey, I never said--"

"I've been trying to get a handle on this all day and all I've done is make a fool of myself. Yona saw through me, Rarity saw through me..."

Spike's eye ridges shot up. "Wait, Rarity? You talked to Rarity?"

"Yeah, I did." She managed a small smirk. The doughnut helped with lifting her mood just enough. "Which means I know allllll about your little crush on her now, loverdrake."

It was his turn to cover his face with his claws. "I was a kid! And she reminded me of a ponytale princess! Cut me a break."

"I might be persuaded to let that be one of the little things I forget about ponies." She took the opportunity to stuff the remainder of the doughnut in her mouth and lick away the glaze and jelly from her lips, letting it draw out the dramatic pause for her. "If. You do something for me."

"What do you want?"

She told him.

And it was the best kiss she was sure any dragon had ever had.

It was also how she found out that the table was slightly less fireproof than the chair.





Ember sighed as she laid in the grass, looking up at the sky. It would be chilly soon, but there was enough warmth left in the earth for her to enjoy some stargazing without needing to light her inner flame. She looked up at the moon, and she felt like she was finally getting used to seeing it without the craters that ponies had called the Mare In The Moon. It was a bit surreal to think that the mare who had been in the moon was somepony she could fly off to a retirement home and have a chat with; long lives were nothing new to dragons, but none of them had ever flown high enough to reach the moon.

Ember traced constellations with her gaze, picking out the ones that her parents had shown her when she was just a hatchling. All of them, naturally, had been dragons in some form, and each one had been a lesson. Ones of dragons flying, ones of dragons breathing fire, ones of dragons hoarding gems...

Ones of dragons surviving rocs.

(She'd never faced a single one, when it was her time to.

She figured it out, after a while, that her parents had stayed closer than dragon parents were supposed to.

No wonder I ended up the Softie Dragon Lord.)

As she'd travelled, she'd seen how other species looked at the stars. Griffons saw griffon things, changelings saw changeling things, and ponies saw pony things. Every once and a while one would see something different, but when a pony saw a dragon, they saw it the way a dragon saw a roc.

Dragons were danger.

And now they weren't.

Maybe in a few hundred years, or even thousand, a pony would point to the dragon constellation and call it a friend flying down to visit instead of a threat from the skies.

She heard claws in the grass, and flicked her gaze toward Spike as he sat down next to her. "I hope I didn't mess things up with your favourite coffee shop," she commented.

"You're good." He leaned back until he was lying down with her. "It was just a little singed. A new coat of paint, tops. Tim was even joking about keeping it that way. Said it gave it character."

Ember smiled a bit at that, then let herself just breathe a bit as she watched Spike, staring up at the stars like she'd been. He'd no doubt been taught the pony constellations at first, but now, when he looked at the sky, she wondered what it was he saw.

There was more on her mind than stars, however, and she felt so many questions swirling around in her head, about what had just happened and what the days, years, centuries later could possibly hold. What came out of her mouth, however, was a simple, "So, we're doing this now, huh?"

He gave an amused snort. "Not quite the declaration I was expecting."

"What, did you expect me to dress up all fancy, invite you for a slow dance under the stars, and read you some poetry?" She gave her own snort. "Oh wait, Rarity. Of course you were expecting that."

"Hey!" He jabbed a claw in her direction. "You said you'd forget about that."

"I said I might." She laughed when he grumbled at her for that, and she scooted closer so that she could curl her claws and playfully noogie the top of his head. "Hey, don't be so gloomy, Spikey-Wikey."

He let out an agonized groan. "Sweet Celestia, she told you about that too."

"Sure did, loverdrake." The mirth eventually faded, but she pulled her knuckles away from his head, she kept laying close to him. "But, seriously... that wasn't a one-time thing, right?"

Spike smiled at her, and despite her previous teasing, his tone was still gentle. "Not if you don't want it to be."

"You know what I want." She huffed. "What do you want?"

He reached out, and Ember startled a little when his hand touched hers. "I'd like to see where this goes."

She blinked a couple of times, and then huffed again. "Darn right you do. I'm a catch."

They laid there, together, and slowly, Ember found her body relaxing. It wasn't a promise. This could be over in a blink. It was just an agreement to try, and see. And as she curled her claws to hold Spike's, she found that she was good with that.

"You sure are." The words sent heat rushing to her face. "And after everything today, I can safely say that I'm dating Equestria's hottest a--"





The creatures in Ponyville would tell a lot of stories about today. From the denizens of Carousel Boutique, to the restaurant owner, to the doughnut pony, to the ones who'd seen her riding the thermals and been gleeful when she'd waved back.

There would also be the ones who'd been out that night, or looked out their windows at the right time to see two dragons racing through the sky, one slim and serpentine chasing one bigger and bulkier. Few did, and fewer still heard the booming laughter, and the declaration in the Royal Dragon Voice of Authority, enhanced with several extra decibles, that followed it.

"GENTLECOLT MY SCALY TAIL! STOP LAUGHING! I'LL LIGHT YOU ON FIRE NEXT, WITH MY BREATH THIS TIME!"

A few were alarmed. A few recognized the shapes in the air and wondered if it was a diplomatic incident in progress. A certain yak, unicorn, and earth pony exchanged bits.

And Ember, no matter how hard she tried to keep looking angry, nearly laughed with him. It was hard to even pretend to be mad at Spike long enough for a chase, especially when she was thinking about the kiss she intended to steal when she finally caught him.

Yeah, she decided as they raced through the sky together, she could get used to this.