Thirty years ago, after laying her and Torch's first and only egg, Ember's mother Glazier gathered up her entire hoard and flew off, vanishing without a trace. Torch has constantly refused to talk about the whole affair, and Ember's been torn ever since becoming Dragon Lord: should she use the Bloodstone Scepter to force some answers out of him?
But then she learns where a piece of her mother's hoard might be hidden, and investigating it points her toward zebra shamans on the other side of the world.
Except...didn't Spike mention a zebra shaman when he was telling his whole story about going through the molt? And Ponyville's a lot closer than Zebrabwe...
Inspired by Charlie_K's request, I started this story as an entry for the Original Pairing group's May 2021 Contest, but I couldn't finish by the deadline. So here it is now!
So it had been decades since she'd been inside her dad's cave after dark.
So all those EmberSpike shippers who were so critical about RariSpike because of the age difference? Ember's a bit of a cougar.
"I'm the most reasonable dragon you'll ever meet!"
A low bar indeed for one of that breed.
Ohhh so we are going to see the past like what Twilight did in season 4
Boy this was a pretty interesting story and I do like the paring of Zecora and ember and pretty dark history about embers family mostly her mother it's a good thing that Zecora help her and ember was pretty in a mix feeling about what happened to her mom and what she did but at least she knows now this was pretty good story keep up the good work
Are you planing on making a sequel?
Because that’s be awesome if you did. This is an excellent story and I’d be more then happy to see what’s in store for Ember in the Zebra homeland.
Of corse only if you want to.
That was good.
Really good stuff. Love the lore, love the interactions between Zecora and Ember.
I didn't know I needed platonic Zecora/Ember, but good god do I ever. Excellent work. Real twist-in-the-gut stuff that still captures closure and hope.
This was beautifully and skillfully written. Crafty, even--if you're paying close attention, you get all the clues you need to really figure out what had happened to Glazier--or at least a pretty good idea--well before it's ever formally revealed. Not that doesn't make that final reveal any less of a gut-puncher, of course, because it definitely was.
It was a tragedy, what had happened. But in the end, you have to agree that the needed justice due was done, and now Ember can finish it by making the amends.
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To be honest, that's been fairly obvious since Smolder was introduced to the franchise, giving us an example of a dragon's age sitting between Spike's and Ember's, and thus demonstrating that Ember really is notably older than Spike (though by how much I suppose is left to fan interpretation such as this).
Though I suppose that it's important to remember that, by dragon terms, Ember's pretty young herself--those decades of age she's implied to bear is probably still a drop in a bucket in comparison to the elder still dragons.
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Particularly true since Spike has to be at least ten, but the show is absolutely determined to call him a baby dragon every five min. Dragon puberty is at least short. Can you imagine dragon zits for a century?
such heavy sequel bait practically requires a sequel
A superb story! It's always a treat to see Zecora, and she and Ember work so well together in this story. Good worldbuilding, too!
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The show is determined to humiliate him, period.
I sort of consider his getting his wings to being the start of dragon puberty. After all, it involved an unpleasant skin condition...
This was a very good one-shot. I could go for a sequel for this one-shot.
This was... beautiful. I never knew that characters like these two could work. I tried and failed tio come close but this beats me by miles. It was something i needed right norw and im so glad tio read this. It's wonder ful and would live tio read more like this.
This was wonderful. Well done! I especially liked Zecora's dialogue: it sounded completely natural, which is quite a feat when she speaks in rhyme. How hard did you have to work to get that right?
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Thanks, folks!
I spent most of May working on a different story because I couldn't think of an "original pair" to use in the contest. Then I saw the comment linked to in the story description, and suddenly, I knew I wanted to write about Zecora helping Ember track down her mother. I've always assumed that the green dragon joining Torch in attacking Flash Magnus and the other Legionaires in the third section of the "Campfire Tales" episode was Ember's mother, so that kind of set the tone right there...
I was also surprised to find that I hadn't ever written Zecora as a main character. I mean, I have a whole collection of Pony poems on the site here, but I've only ever had Zecora show up here and there and speak a few lines? What's was that about?
But now to get back to work on that other story I mentioned...
Mike
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It's a pity you weren't able to finish it in time for the contest--I'd like to think it would've had stood a good chance of placing. But regardless, I'm glad we're all getting the chance to enjoy it regardless.
This was great! Thanks!
I read this story yesterday as soon as I saw it. And today I'm still not sure what to say in response.
When I made that random suggestion, I had no idea it would even be picked up by anyone. And even if it did, I certainly didn't think it would result in something this deep and involved in terms of lore. You certainly went above and beyond the call of anything I could've imagined.
Thanks
I can't get over how good the rhyme schemes are in this, because they're really good. Everything flows so naturally, I don't know how you did it. A poet I am not, I guess.
Wonderful work in the buildup, character work, and Zecora dialogue. And everything else, but those stand out. I especially love how the effort with the flashback potion makes Twilight's easy use of it much more impressive in hindsight. Really, all of Zecora's alchemical efforts were neat to see.
Yeah, I can just summarize this as "great from start to finish." Even Torch's actions make sense; we've seen how he's the closest thing a dragon can get to overprotective. Thank you for an outstanding read.
Well done, if cliche and a bit wonky.
This here's an impressive tale. Though late you were, you did not fail. These characters, you wrote quite well. My reading it, you did compel. Your work here went to places dark, and gave Lord Ember quite an arc. Quite a difficult ordeal, but it was needed for her to feel.
A diamond pairing pulled from the rocks, has earned you a spot in the Featured Box. Your story's caught 400 pairs of eyes. I hope that that's a decent prize.
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Thanks, folks!
I don't get around much on the site here, so I'd never seen a story where anyone addresses the question of Ember's mother. I Googled it and found a Tumblr blog from a couple years ago, but that was it. So there was the beginning right there.
Add to that, like I said, the behavior of the two dragons in the "Campfire Tales" episode, and since I knew Zecora was going to be involved, I immediately thought of the potion from the "Princess Twilight Sparkle" episode. That to me has always been a big part of the fun in fanfiction--taking elements from the show and finding new ways to use them.
Mike
Finally got around to reading that. It was great, loved the reveal and the relationship between Ember and her dad. I’m also glad that you, unlike many, remembered that torch is wayyy older then Celestia and Luna.
Great work
Great story!
Whoa, this was good. A tense, soulful look into Ember, an unlikely friendship with Zecora, and Torch remaining a wholesome bro throughout. A+
Impressive stuff, glad I bookmarked this for later reading even if it took ages to finally get around to reading it ^^
Great balance of humor and drama too, and that ending was beautifully written.
A great look into Ember and Aecora interacting over something I always imagined the dragons capable of.
Really got the ending down right too.