This story is a sequel to I Can Count On You

Ember, Lord of all Dragons, has been presented with a problem that has forced her to seek the help of her best and closest friend.

Now that Spike has arrived all she needs to tell him is her problem. An ancient law, one that no Dragon Lord can object against, has come into effect.

What's that problem? She is to be bonded with the winner of a special tournament as life-mates.

Additional tag: Action.

*If you are feeling generous you can buy me a Ko-Fi!!

*This fic will deal with a lot of fighting, but it shall not be gore related, and the blood will be kept to a minimum.*

**This is my first attempt at writing something based almost purely on fighting/combat in a tournament-like scenario.**

Artwork by Traupa.

This story is a sequel to Sister

Twilight wanted to help Spike be happy, and heal his broken heart about not knowing who his parents were. She became a teenage dragon to make him happy and bring a smile on his face. She does like this new look and transformation, but she realizes that being a dragon is not as easy as it would sound it would be. She asks for a certain friend that she knew to help her out with it, Princess Ember, the new dragon lord of the dragon kingdom, far from Equestria to help her out with that. Can Ember help Twilight be a better pony-turned-dragon?

Spike is friends with Ember, the new Dragonlord, and Thorax, a nice Changeling. They've never meet each other and Spike wants them to be friends.

In a surprise visit, Dragon Lord Ember comes to Ponyville with important news to give to her good friend Spike. According to her words, a great gathering among dragons is soon to be upon them, and in it, every dragon of age must find another dragon to become mated to by its end -- for life -- or risk becoming mate-less and alone forever, as stated by dragon law.

With such a sudden and perturbing turn of events, Spike, who is of the proper maturity, finds himself thrust into a most dire situation. Being raised by ponies has left him unfamiliar with his kind's inherent customs and traditions, but he knows that if he fails to participate or act like a proper dragon at the gathering, he fears he could lose his chance to show Ember the feelings he's been keeping from her for the past few years.

Does Spike have the ability to behave like the rest of his kind? And even if he succeeds in relearning his dragon instincts with the help of his friends, will he still be able to win over Ember's affections before someone else does?

A young dragon named Smolder was chosen by the Dragon Lord Ember to represent the dragons at Princess Twilight's School of Friendship. Smolder isn't too happy about going, but if she's being ordered to go then the least she could do is get to say goodbye to a few dragons before she leaves. Most importantly, she wants to say goodbye to her brother, Garble, but something tells her he's less than happy about her leaving as she is.

Hearth's Warming is almost here once again!

This year, Ponyville has a new visitor to enjoy the holidays. Dragon Lord Ember has been invited to sample some of the pony traditions of the season to try and better understand her new pony allies. Naturally it was Twilight's idea.

Smolder has been roped in as the Dragon Lord's guide in this wintry season. With a top student of the School of Friendship as her guide, there's no room for misunderstandings.

Written for Muggonny for Jinglemas 2022! Their stuff is great. If you haven't checked out any of their stories before, I highly recommend it!

The cover was compiled by me using a screenshot from the show and vectors from cheezedoodle96

Happy Hearthswarming everycreature!

Life is pretty unpredictable for me, but that alone is the predictable part of it. Pretty early on, I learned that I should expect the unexpected, and enjoy the brief moments of peace when they were there. Such an outlook helped me early on to keep from going crazy with all of the stuff that's happened to us all.

As the years passed though, I found my own source of peace: my closest friends.

My best friends were always there for me, and I for them. We held each other up when we fell below the surface of the sea of life, and offered friendly smiles and listening ears to each other when we needed it most. Even with all the insanity we weathered over the years, we became closer in spite of it...or, perhaps because of it. In a world of hoarding dragons, I may be the only one that cherished a small group of ponies over gold or jewels.

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Rated T for use of alcohol, language of a sexually suggestive nature, and implied sexual acts.

Cover art provided by Zwagyzonk, used with permission.

Note: Ponies are considered adolescent/mature at a much younger age than humans (six and fourteen, respectively). I've made an oversight on this, and I believe this explanation will fix that. Also, this will be a Spike-harem fic, but as with all my other submissions, there is no clop; just a heads up.

Featured multiple times!

Spike has a problem regarding inviting two of his royal friends over on the same day! To avoid a diplomatic disaster, can Twilight, Starlight, and Spike prevent these two from meeting? No. No, they can’t. Let’s move on to the real problem.

Thanks to Tired Old Man and Nova Quill for their edits and inputs!

Spike was always different from other dragons. Sure, he still had many of the standard abilities of a dragon (such as flame breath and really tough scales), but he also liked reading more than other dragons did and didn't enjoy many of the same activities that gave other dragons pleasure. He was also adept in the field of alchemy. His only friend growing up was the Dragon Lord's daughter Ember.

Now, however, he has a chance to find out WHY he is different from other dragons, even if it means saying goodbye to his only friend. However, if he isn't like any other dragon, then what is he like?

Is there another out in the world like him or is he truly alone?

If he isn't alone, then where will this new path take him?

Many adventures with new friends and dangerous new enemies will give him the chance to find out, for better or for worse.

The only way to see where he will end up is to keep moving forward and never look back.

Shortly after getting his wings, Spike decides he doesn't know enough about his own kind, and goes off to the Dragon Lands for a little vacation. His absence is keenly felt, which is why Twilight has six unwilling volunteers in mind to fill his role...

This'll definitely end well.