The Bar at the Edge of Nowhere

by Syric Philharmonica

New Girl in Charge (Ember Part 1)

"Dragons are a territorial and aggressive race, and the environment they live in reflects that. As such any information about them is understandably sparse, due to their pride making them unwilling to converse or work with any other race. However, every now and then throughout history a single Dragon will be hatched who defies everything we know about their aggressive nature to be understanding and kind. It is because of those few Dragons that we know as much as we do."

-C. Whinny, Book 4: Our Scaled Neighbors from his series: On the Origins of Other Species, Self-Published in 1859.

---

Stalwart was having a peaceful day, he had just locked up behind the last customers of the day and it looked like he wasn't needed to contain any magical artefact. So of course it was exactly then that one of his alarm spells rung out, specifically the one that alerted him to the ascension of a new ruler. With a excited gait he trotted to up the stairs to his 'Knight Room'. a room adjacent to his bedroom where he kept everything he needed when the Knight was needed.

Stalwart looked to the map pinned on the wall upon entering, his eyes quickly locating the blip that pulsed to alert him deep in the heart of Dragon territory. "The Dragon Lands has a new ruler eh?" Stalwart mused as he stood before the large map, idly tracing a route from The Sleeping Alicorn to the volcanic region where his quarry was clear on the other side of Equestria. With a interested hum he turned to the ponequin where his armor rested and began to don the gambeson and enchanted metal. As he attached the plates around his barrel his brow furrowed, realizing an important part of his plan that would not work. "How the hell am I going to send them a message?" His eye flicked to writing desk tucked into a corner and conceded the fact that a letter would not survive the journey to the land of very active volcanos and lava and turned his gaze back to the map.

"The direct approach it is. I have not travelled to the Dragon Lands for a few centuries, hopefully they have found a cure for Scale-Rot Madness. I would much rather not need slay any more Dragons than I and the army had in the past." After another few minutes of soft clanking and the tightening straps of his armor there Stalwart stood, fully donning the visage of the knight he was a long time ago. With a small flare of magic he lifted his helmet to his side and strode out of the 'Knight Room' to pack supplies for the long journey to the land of fire and brimstone.

"I wonder who Torch conceded the staff and throne too?"

---

High in the air above the north side of Hayseed Swamps from the direction of the Dragon Lands is where the new Dragon Lord Ember suddenly felt a shiver travel up her spines, causing her to stop mid-flight and cast a furtive glance to her surroundings, sure that something was actively watching her. Seeing nothing however did not put the dragoness at ease, just caused her to continue flying at a far slower pace so as to not miss any threat that could show itself. As Ember continued on her way to Ponyville Castle, which was visible on the horizon, She thought about the letter that had been the reason for this admittedly sudden and unannounced visit.

"An exchange of experiences she said, hmph." Ember tightened her grip on the Bloodstone Scepter as that feeling intensified momentarily before fading altogether, causing Ember to blink before scanning the land beneath her again. After a few minutes where nothing happened Ember let a confidant smirk slid across her snout, content in the thought that whatever had seen her was, at least in her mind, scared away. "That's Right!" The silence of her peaceful flight was forcibly shattered by Ember's victorious shout. "Run away coward!" Once she had reasserted her dominance over the empty sky and land Ember continued on her way, enjoying the freedom of the wind over her scales.

Now that any immediate danger had passed, Ember brought Princess Twilight's letter up from where it was clutched in her claw, slowing her flight enough to read it again without difficulty.

Dear Dragon Lord Ember,

I hope this letter finds you well. Although it hasn't been very long since our last correspondence, I felt that it was prudent for us to set up a meeting to compare our experiences with ruling over our respective domains. The differences in our cultures is too much to adequately cover through letters as I'm sure you can agree. I feel that meeting face to face again will allow us to come up with and follow up on our ideas for coexistence as well as allow a cultural exchange.

Yours Truly, Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Ember snorted lightly as she rolled the letter closed and sped up her flight significantly, the land beneath flowing by in a tapestry of slowly shifting colors as her mind raced again. 'Well, at least I can show her some REAL Dragon culture!' With that thought a grin split her snout again as many ideas of the things she could show the Princess flashed across her mind, at least, they did until she saw Ponyville quickly growing as she began to slow down and entered a slow and languid glide.

---

Princess Twilight Sparkle was enjoying a nice and quiet day of reading she had scheduled so as to not be interrupted, letting out a small sigh as she turned the page with her magic and took another draw from her teacup with a small content smile on her face. So engrossed on the book was she that Twilight did not notice when Ember alighted on her railing, the dragoness miraculously making no sound. Ember, seeing a chance to mess with the composed mare, stealthily slid down from the railing and snuck around to Twilight's back with a conniving smirk on her face.

Once Ember was in position, she slowly crept closer to Twilight's ear, holding her breath as to not alert the pony. Once Ember had deemed her self close enough she decided to spring her trap. "Boo." Although her voice was quiet, Twilight's reaction was anything but. With a sharp inhale and a heavy jolt Twilight sprung from her cushion into the air where her wings flapped ineffectually a couple of times before she fell to the ground, spinning around with a hoof over her chest and deep heaving breaths as she beheld the laughing dragoness on her balcony floor.

"Wha- I- you- EMBER! What are you- How did you get here!?" Twilight's chest heaved as she tried to calm her racing heart, the horror of something getting that close to her without her noticing taking far longer to fade. Ember, for her part, was still on the ground. The Dragon Lord was clutching her stomach with both claws, tears beading at her tightly closed eyes as she rocked back and forth with her tail trashing about in her jubilation.

Watching the young dragoness in the throes of such pure joy quickly beat down Twilight's irritation and she soon found herself giggling along with Ember, now that the terror of the moment had passed Twilight could look at the situation objectively and find the humor in it. Rolling her eyes Twilight took her seat again and tried to bring Ember back to the present. "Alright, you got me good Ember. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Ember cracked an eye open to regard Twilight from where she was laying on the crystal floor, body relaxed as all that laughter took it's toll on her. "You told me to come so we could, uh." Ember rolled the letter open again to glance at is as Twilight's eyes lit up in realization before they rolled at how literally the dragoness took her words. "Compare our 'experiences' with ruling." Ember had lifted her other claw to give air quotes along with her words causing Twilight to smother a laugh with her hoof at the dramatics before she held it out to Ember, Who gazed at it with no small amount of trepidation before rolling her eyes and grasping it.

"I didn't mean right this very second Ember." Twilight explained with a patient smile as she lifted the dragoness to her claws, Ember's eyes widening at the strength behind the motion. "To be honest, I WAS expecting you to show up without warning, you were just MUCH earlier than I ever expected." As Twilight turned around to clean up the mess the flying teacup had caused and retrieved to book Ember watched for a moment before she blinked and a frown crossed her snout. "Why don't we move to-!" Twilight was forcibly cut off as she was spun around to face Ember again, the dragoness' eyes narrowed as they scanned across Twilight's form.

"Ember wha-"

"Since when were you and I eye-level with each other?" Twilight was cut-off once again but this time the rudeness of the action was forgotten as Ember's question floated to the forefront of her mind. Blinking in confusion Twilight could only stare owlishly at the dragoness as she was roughly handled to and fro. "It's only been a few weeks since I was here last and I KNOW you ponies don't grow that fast, and I'm pretty sure you were already fully grown!"

Twilight managed to stop Ember's investigation by teleporting out of her claws and keeping a healthy distance between them. "Ember. Let me explain." Ember gave the princess a incredulous look before crossing her arms with a huff and leaning against the railing, gesturing with a claw for Twilight to continue. Twilight for her part only rolled her eyes at Ember's impatience before explaining. "It's due to my Ascension as an Alicorn. This sudden growth is my body assimilating the Alicorn magic I was granted with these," Here Twilight ruffled her wings for emphasis. "And changing me accordingly. Eventually I'll be as tall as the other Princesses with my own unique attribute." Twilight shuffled her wings nervously at the thought. "Frankly It's terrifying how quickly the change is taking place, it's feels like just yesterday I was looking up at all my friends and now I'm eye-level with the tallest one and I'm going to keep growing until what? Will I be taller than Celestia?"

Ember nodded for a moment before speaking. "Listen Twilight, I'm not going to even pretend I understood any of that." Ember's blunt statement startled a laugh out of Twilight, taking the edge off the panic that was forming. "Dragons don't have that problem. The more power a Dragon has the bigger we grow, it just makes sense to me." After she said her piece Ember gave Twilight a shrug, causing the Alicorn mare to giggle again.

"I understand, and don't worry." Twilight gave Ember a small smile. "Your unique take helped me more than you realize." Ember held Twilight's gaze for a moment longer before looking away with a flush, unused to the sincerity twilight was showing her.

"OK! Enough with the sappiness, you're going to make me sick." When Twilight laughed again it was Ember's turn to roll her eyes, thoroughly unfamiliar with the situation. "Come on, Didn't you call me here for business?" Twilight's laughter died down at Ember's question and she regained her composure, walking past Ember into the depths of her castle.

"I did. Follow me, I have the perfect place in mind to continue our discussions." Ember trailed along behind the pony, resting the Bloodstone Scepter across her shoulders as she cast her gaze all around to see if anything else had changed while she was gone.

---

"Well that can't be right." Stalwart Shield muttered to himself as he took off his helmet at a intersection between the Whitetail woods and Las Pegasus, putting in on a hook hanging from his saddlebags while he looked at his enchanted map. His original destination WAS the Dragon Lands, but it seems that fate was taking it easy on him today. The magic pin on the map that told him where the new ruler was had moved from the heart of the Dragon Lands to Ponyville, cutting his needed travel time by a lot.

After taking a moment to recast the enchantment to see the dot unmoving from it's place in Ponyville, Stalwart shrugged before rolling up the map and putting his helmet back on. "I'm not going to complain, I'm too old for cross continent hikes."

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Discord doesnt need to see teh future, he just has to remember what hapened to get to the future he came back from.

At least when facing young female dragons, his old glamur spell hasnt chnaged over time, say by discord, into an Enamour spell?

[Glutbier]

(Stalwart Shield-Ember) let's see how Ember gets along with Stalwart Shield !