Ember had not responded for six weeks, six days, and six hours. Twilight Sparkle knew all that because she had been counting, and waiting. And waiting. And eating and sleeping. And waiting some more. Sure there were the convenient weekly problems but nowadays all she had to do was have her friends or faithful student go out and fix them. If all that failed it usually came down to using the Elements; they gave off a pretty light show for those in attendance. Or magic lasers; Twilight’s favourite. So far her actions were eerily familiar but for the life of her she didn't know why.
But today... Today was going to be different. Today Twilight knew she would get a response from Ember. Totally not because of the screams and shouts of panicking ponies and the roar of a creature Twilight desperately hoped was not an angry dragon.
Crash!
“The horror! The horror!”
Stomp!
Twilight poked her head out of her balcony door and looked down into Ponyville then promptly mashed her right hoof deep into her face. It was a dragon. Why oh why was there a dragon in Ponyville?!
Six weeks, six days, and five and a half hours ago... In a land inhabited by dragons...
“And besides. I said NO!”
Ember was... annoyed to say the least. Like she told Twilight, ‘my dad’s like do this, do that. No! Don’t do that.’ She had grown used to the pure volume of work that was dumped on her. That work included but was not limited to, listening to petitions from different dragons, issuing orders and countermanding some overzealous peons who thought they could act in her best interests plus she had to keep the dragons in line and ensure peaceful relations between the Dragon Lands and Equestria, as for the rest of the races, Diamond Dogs, Griffins, and Yaks Ember could care less about them. But, like always, it was annoying. The only real spot of light came from the questions Twilight sent her way.
However, a major problem surfaced in the shape of her father. As much as she loved him and he her, it was like watching over a teething dragon. Ember would never volunteer to do that again; teething dragons were vicious, you could never find them when you needed to, and they were slippery when they wanted to be. Such was her father when she pressed him for answers to Twilight’s questions.
The first one was easy enough, all her life Ember had seen ‘powerful’ dragons with pets and they tended to flaunt them and make a show out of them. It was ridiculous.
As for the second question, Ember could only speculate as her father either obviously redirected the questions, or just pretended to be asleep. He was surprisingly good at acting asleep.
As for the armour, That was a secret. Ember had sworn not to tell anyone except for her fellow dragons. Easy solution, she would tell Spike whenever he got his wings.
As for the ninth and tenth question, they gave Ember ideas. Wonderful ideas. And of course like any good father Torch was right in her way before she could even act on them. He refused to even think about letting a pony into the dragon lands even if it was a Princess. He pulled the ‘I’m your father and you’ll do as I say’ card more than once, of course Ember the daughter of Torch couldn’t do anything. But Ember the Dragon Lord had power over all dragons and she used it. Conveniently enough, as she was going to leave a week after receiving Twilight’s questions, a set of ancient dragon laws showed up at her cave entrance.
Turned out she had to appoint a regent to act in her stead if she had to leave, ensure that her regent knew the risks and responsibilities by assuming the position of Dragon Regent and she had to ensure that all stonework concerning the matter had to be filled out. For her Regent, she chose Koal. He was smarter than he looked even if he did have a stupid affinity for pony pillows. Really, did he think he could hide the smell of the pony made pillow under his bed? She’d have to do something about his obsession when she got back.
As for the stonework, Ember was not too happy about it. It seemed to her that everything in the set of Laws she had in front of her was tailored specifically for her. But she was tired and annoyed and she wanted this to be over so she could get out of her new quarters and get to this Ponyville place. It couldn’t be that hard to get there because Twilight had left directions when she was here for the gauntlet. It was simple,
‘Fly northwest across the Celestial Sea until you get to Baltimare, follow the Horseshoe River (The only river there) and when it splits take the left branch and follow it past the Castle Ruins (Don’t go in them), Rambling Rock Ridge, and Froggy Bottom Bog (Watch out for Hydras) and eventually you’ll get out and into the Saddle River, you should be able to see Ponyville from however high up you’re flying. Good luck!
‘See you soon,
‘Princess Twilight and Spike’
Reading the note again, Ember sighed. It had been six weeks, and a couple of days and she was dying to get out. She still had a mountain of work to do... Or maybe... She grinned.
“Oooh Koal! I have something for you!” Ember asked in a sweet, promising voice.
Koal was not long in answering.
“Gimme a minute! I’m busy!”
Ember huffed, steam blowing out her nose and she smirked.
“I know your secret. I know about...her.” She said in a foreboding and dangerous tone of voice.
She had a response within seconds.
Koal came into the room with a burst of wind.
“No Ember please don’t tell them about Chell, please!” Koal had gotten down on his knees and was begging. Ember laughed.
“Thanks for getting here so quickly Koal. I have a very, very important job for you. If you do it properly I won’t tell any dragon about Chell. Okay?”
Koal feverently nodded, Ember grinned and patted Koal on the back.
“Alright big guy. You see that stuff over there?” Ember pointed out the pile of stone slabs with propositions, laws, and other junk on them. Koal’s eyes widenend.
“Emb-”
“That’s Dragon Lord Ember to you. You’re my Regent have fun. I’m going now. Bye.” As Ember was saying all that she quickly flew behind a stone pillar, dug around and withdrew a flying pack, stuck the Bloodstone Scepter in it, settled the pack under her, waved goodbye to Koal as she flew out of the cave entrance and began her journey to Ponyville.
A few hours later...
Ember had followed Twilight’s directions to the letter and she had made good time. However, she had picked up a companion along the way. A big green dragon. His name was Nail. And Ember regretted his company. He was telling her his life story and she needed an out.
“And I was sooo bored! So I thought to myself, ‘I don't care what happens I want action!’ Low n’ behold this lil’ green runt prances into my cave and starts eating my gems! So I ask him all threateningly like, ‘What are you doing in my cave? And why are you eating my gems?’
“That little punk tried to make up some excuses like how he ‘didn't know it was my cave’ and how he ‘didn't know they were my gems!’ So I growled at him and you know what he says? He says that it's us dragon against the world! Ha! That was the only thing he said that made any sense.”
Ember turned her head to look at Nail and venomously narrowed her eyes,
“Did you happen to find out that ‘runts’ name?”
Nail didn’t even look at her. The one time that she wanted to actually be the Dragon Lord and she couldn’t reach her scepter.
“Yeah, it was Spick or something like that. But now I want to know, what’s a little dragon like you doing wandering around the Everfree Forest. It’s a dangerous place. And then there’s that little Pony town. I’ve been meaning to pay them a visit... Say, do you-”
Ember spat at him.
“No! You won’t lay a claw on those ponies or I’ll banish you from the Dragon Lands and Princess Twilight will banish you from Equestria!”
Nail stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes wide and his pupils shrunk.
“D-Dr-Dragon Lord Ember?” He squeaked.
Ember smiled.
“Yeah. That’s me.” Nail’s wings snapped to his sides and he plummeted. Ember barked out a light laugh but it caught in her throat as she heard a voice shout,
“Twitchy T-OH Sweet Celestia! Dragon! Run for your lives!”
Nail crashed down onto the mainstreet of Ponyville and somehow managed to not knock down any of the buildings or destroy any pony homes.
In short, Ember had arrived.