Author's Notes:

Two days, two days until spring break, and two days until I can write like crazy. I hope that any questions was cleared up with the first part of this chapter. I didn't mean to outright confuse all of you like that but I wanted to leave you all blindly guessing. Oh while, next time I'll do a hanger like that again, I'll will make sure that all is vaguely explain. Thanks for hanging out with me so far.

-Till next time.

High Moon Ch: 10

Wants

After Celestia had teleported the four of them back to Canterlot, in Obsidian’s room, Celestia began to quickly explain herself to the lovers for the other alicorn laying down on both of their laps. Celestia explained that she spell she used on herself allows the user to clone themselves or someone else, all that was needed was a set amount of initial emotions. She also admitted that she used the same thing on Luna right before the Lunar Rebellion.

Celestia claimed that her attentions were true when she used the spell on Luna to separate herself from her dark thoughts. However, Celestia had gotten caught by Luna while she was still trying to use the spell. The two apparently had a huge argument over, not only that, but all the other selfish and foolish things Celestia had done in the past.

The argument caused Celestia’s worst nightmare to happen, the coming of Nightmare Moon, and the beginning of war. After imprisoning her sister on the moon for a thousand years, she soon she learned that Nightmare was angry because she only tried to take out Luna’s dark emotions.

Further in the explanation, Celestia revealed that Mia, who was a small part of her mind, had been around for quite some time, and had been around just as long as the ‘Molestia’ rumor has been. However, luckily, it was just that...a rumor. Mia didn’t really enjoy the thought of having sex with everything that moved, in fact the thought seemed to angered her slightly, but she seemed to be unable to properly show it for some reason.

When Sky questioned this, after getting over the fact she and Obsidian technically had sex with Celestia either way anyone looks at it, Celestia explained that Mia was given form by her magic and the couple’s emotions. Last night Obsidian nor Sky showed any angry or hostile emotions so the spell didn’t pick up on them.

Then it was Obsidian’s turn to question her, asking for more information on the spell. “So let me get this straight,” Obsidian started, rubbing the side of Mia’s wing as she ‘nap’ in his lap. “This ‘spell’--if you can barely call it that--allows the user to clone themselves or someone else as long as they have enough magic and using the emotions from others?”

“Mostly,” Celestia started, burrowing one of Obsidian’s large shirts to cover herself, and wished her ‘sister’ would do the same thing. “The spell requires a lot of emotions, not necessarily from others, but Mia insisted that we use your love, affection, protectiveness, and lust for Ms. Bloom here and also Ms. Bloom’s...um...kinks.” Everyone turned down to Mia, who was still wearing the blindfold over her eyes, and from the looks of things, wasn’t going to take it off anytime soon. “Also a few other things that we’ve picked up during the night.”

“Okay but why, and why us,” Obsidian asked, not sure to be honored, or angry that Celestia involuntary got them to have sex with Mia last night. “I mean, surely there’s a good enough reason you’ll go so far out of your way to do this. Right?”

Celestia giggled a little, always impressed by Obsidian’s inquisitive mind, and she knew that they at least deserved a straight answer. “Alright, the truth is Sergeant, I loved you.” Obsidian’s jaw could have fell off of his face, as the biggest bomb to ever be made, was set off inside of his head. As the dog stammer looking for something--anything--to say, Sky remained quite, appearing calm while Celestia continued. “At first, I thought of it as me having a simple crush on you for being there for me when the twins left, but I soon found myself constantly thinking about you.”

Obsidian continued to open and close his mouth, unable to think of a single thing to say while Sky took his job of rubbing Mia’s wings. “I’ve met a lot of ponies before, I’ve watched a lot of them move on from this world to the next, and I’ve met a lot that had the same feelings as I do for you.” Both lovers heard the sadness in Celestia’s voice, a sadness that only comes from generations of living, and watching helplessly as other die in front of her. “But I’ve never met someone like you Obsidian, smart, strong, and completely devoted to the one you love,” Celestia paused to look at the blank expression on Sky’s face, an expression even her many years could not peer through. “Which is why I leave you with her,” She continued waving a hand over Mia’s still naked from. “You’ve been a better soldier than I could ever ask for, more importantly, a better friend than I deserve. I know this is a lot for you two to bare, and I know that you may dislike me for this, but please, I want to give you something in return.”

Both lovers looked at Celestia with disbelief at what she was saying and doing, she was giving up a part of her own mind to the two of them to do as they pleased, but the responsibility was something that neither one was ready for.

Lighting her horn once again, Celestia got ready to teleport back to her room, but not before whispering, “I’m sorry.” In a bright golden flash, Celestia vanished from sight, and left the couple to somehow deal with the new alicron dropped in their laps.

Obsidian just stared a hole into the spot Celestia was in moments ago, unable to wrap his head around the fact that he stole the alicorn’s heart just by being a good friend, and not believing the extremes she was willing to go to show that love.

He was finally pulled from his thoughts by Sky leaning her head on his shoulder. Obsidian returned the gesture by laying his head on top of her’s. “Sorry,” He said, breaking the uneasy silence in the room. Without even knowing it, Obsidian has captured the heart of Celestia, and driven her to take out a part of her own mind and give it form. “I must be the world’s biggest idiot right now to you, and I understand if-”

“Stop talking,” Sky interrupted, not liking what Obsidian was going to say, and didn’t want to hear it now--or ever. “This isn’t you fault, its ours, and we just have to live with it.” Sky had no idea what they are going to do with an alicorn that supposed to give herself to Obsidian and neither did he. “Obsidian, what’s next, what are we going to do?”

Obsidian heard the shaking fear in Sky’s voice, knowing that now they have an alicorn to hide from Equestria, but right now he didn’t know anything that would work. “I don’t know Sky, I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll think of something right? Two heads are better than one.”

“Now’s not the time for lame jokes Sidy,” Sky giggled from Obsidian’s unattended joke, which was a sign that everything really was okay for now. “I love you Obsidian.” Obsidian turned his head so he could kiss Sky on the top of her ear, making her giggle again, and help lighten the mood about their new situation.

“I love you too Sky Bloom, I promise I’ll figure something out.” Sky nuzzled against his fur, making him chuckle when she started purring like a cat.

“I know you will, you always do.”

While Obsidian and Sky where high in Canterlot, trying to figure something out for Mia, and find a way to further confront Celestia about the matter, Spike and Quill were showing off all the things they’ve learned over the two months.

Spike was working on his water-magic at the waterfalls near the temple, using his magic to make the downward current propel himself up the three towering water falls, and repeating the process over again when he reached the top. Quill worked on her flying as well as her fire-magic by creating fireballs as she’s flying and hitting a target--which was merely a rock or dead-wood--that Wolf or the phoenix pair throws up in the air.

While the three of them did this, Blaze and Lily sat at the waterfalls to soak their feets in the cooling liquid, and watched the twins further progress in their respective fields of magic. Since both dragons were just doing a little practice, and not learning anything new, the two took this time to simply chat amongst themselves.

“It won’t be long now,” Lily started, watching in awe at the speed of which Quill was flying, and her accuracy of shooting down the targets while Blaze was impressed how far Spike had gotten with his water magic. “Soon they’ll be looking after us.”

Blaze giggled at Lily’s wishful tone, she too have been thinking the same thing several times over the two months, but she knew she'd wouldn’t be able to allow the twins to face everything on their own. “I doubt Wolf would let something like that happen,” She said, rubbing her growing stomach, and overjoyed with the cub that growing inside. “No matter how good they get, Wolf won’t just let them protect us themselves.”

“Yeah you’re right,” Lily started nodding her head, knowing Wolf better than that to think that he’ll sit around while everyone do the things he wanted to do for High Moon. “Still though their growing quite fast and their first growth-spurt seems to be around the corner.”

A large splash near them, broke the two mares out of their conversation as Spike emerged from the water to start ‘water-sliding’, as he calls it, back up to the top water pool. “Yeah they are,” Blaze giggled at the drake’s cuteness when he’s not even trying. “But you know what that means right?”

Lily sighed, knowing full and well what Blaze was talking about. “Yes I do, but they have self-control, so I don’t see any immediate dangers.” It was highly evident by Quill’s aggressive attitude, and Spike’s ‘condition,’ that the twins were maturing in another way than just magical or physical ability. “But it’s also like Wolf said, we can’t rightfully stop them when they are ready.”

“I know, just hope either one makes the wrong choice.” While the mare continued their talk about the twins and anything else that could come up in her heads, Wolf made sure that Quill landed a hit on every target that was thrown her way, and that Spike was pushing himself with his training.

Man have these two grown, He thought picking up a piece of dead wood and throwing it high in the air, only for it to be incinerated by a purple fireball. Two months and look at them now, hell, look at High Moon. Wolf couldn’t be more happy with the way the twins had help out with cleaning up the city ruins and Quill help keeping the predator count low as well. If things continued on the path they were on now, by the time his cub’s birth came around, High Moon would be safe enough for it to run around in without worry.

These could be a little easier as some parts of the temple was too dangerous to wander in, but as far as things are going, Wolf could care less right now. Once he felt that there was no more targets to throw up, Wolf thought it was best if the twins finished packing for the camping trip with their old friends, and started to call the twins over.

“Quill, Spike come on it’s time to go!” They heard the dog shout at them as Spike reached the top waterfall, performing a backflip in the air before landing back down to the water’s surface at the top water pool while Quill was pulling out of a sheep aerial dive. Wolf chuckled when he saw the determined look on Quill’s face, no matter what she doing, Quill always somehow reminds Wolf of himself during his cubhood.

Moments where he had to fight alongside his brothers, all of them striving for the same goal, and all working together to achieve that goal. To this day, Wolf doesn’t regret his decision of leaving his den home in search of a pack to call his own, and he was sure the twins wouldn’t as well.

As soon as Blaze and Lily heard Wolf calling for the twins they started to get up, thinking that it was time for them to start heading back to the temple if the twins were going to be on time for their camping trip tomorrow. Spike and Quill also got ready to head back as Spike performed a swan-dive into the bottom water pool while Quill used her claws to slow her landing.

Wolf rolled his eyes at the dragoness’s brash landings, she was going to hurt herself one day, but the best way to learn is by you own mistakes. He turned to Lily and Blaze as they started to walk up to them and nodded to Blaze. “Lily could you walk back to the temple with Blaze? There’s something I want to talk with the twins.” He glanced towards the twins’ phoenixes, who were resting on their dragon owners’ shoulders. “In private.”

Lily soon understood what Wolf was going to talk about with the twins as she and Blaze had been wondering when he’ll give them the talk. “Sure Wolf, we’ll start getting their things ready so they can be ready to stay at Ms. Zecora's hut for the night.” Wolf nodded his head, glad to see that Lily was on the same page as he was. “Come along Peewee and Cinder, let’s get the carnivores their privacy.” Both fire-birds looked towards their owners, who just gave them a reassuring nod of approval. Soon Peewee and Cinder were of into the sky heading straight to High Moon; Cinder following Peewee.

Lily gave another nod before walking past Wolf to give both dragons a hug goodnight before heading back herself. “Well I guess this is goodnight,” Blaze said, giving a kiss on the cheek to both twins, and wrapping Wolf in tight hug as well. “Good luck Wolfie,” She whispered into his ear before skipping to catch up with Lily.

Once the mares were gone, Wolf started to lead the twins to the path to the higher waterfalls, but instead of heading to the right where the top pool was, Wolf continued up the dirt path. Both Quill and Spike were starting to wonder what was going on and why was the three adults acting so strange but before they could question it, Wolf suddenly stopped in front of them.

He sighed before turning around to look both of them in their emerald green eyes. “Spike, Quill,” Wolf started with another sigh, kneeling down to their heights, and never breaking the lock on their eyes. “Now I know that you two may not look at me like some kind of...father figure, that understandable, but,” He paused for a moment to gather the right words. “But, I can’t let you two walk around completely naïve about your bodies.”

Both Quill and Spike started to blush when they figured out what Wolf was talking to them about, but wasn’t given the chance to speak as Wolf continued. “I can tell that you two are really smart, you also have the self-control to know what’s right and wrong, but you two are dragons and as such you need to know this,” Wolf again paused, this time standing up, and motioning the two to follow him further up the path.

“Spike,” Wolf started, figuring that it’ll be easier to start with Spike since he was a male as well. “Lily had told me and Blaze of your...’sleep-groping.’” The young drake started to blush from the shame of his condition and what it entails. “And I want you to know that its perfectly natural for a drake your age. However, you can’t just push it aside, understand?”

“Y-yeah, I understand,” Spike said, knowing what Wolf was saying, but having no idea how to approach the new venture into maturity.

The group reached a wall of ivy, which was brushed aside by Wolf, and allowed the twins to entre. Behind the overgrowth was a hidden hot-spring with bright plants around the small pool that reflected the pure crystal blue light. Neither Quill nor Spike could believe their eyes from the serine sight while it brought memories back to Wolf.

Wolf placed his hands on both of the twins shoulders, tearing their attentions away from the tranquil pool of water, and to the dog who was quickly filling a missing role in their lives. He knelt down again with another sigh at being faced with the hardest part. “Quill,” He started again, this time having no right idea how to approach the dragoness about her own urges. “Now, I don’t really know to say this, but I know that you are a strong and proud dragoness. Don’t let anyone take that from you, but don’t force yourself on anyone as well.” Quill nodded her head, guessing that Wolf was talking about her unnecessarily aggressive attitude, and was hoping that she found some way to control it.

“That goes for you two Spike,” Wolf said, rubbing the top of the drake’s head, and chuckling a little. “The both of you need to know the difference between love and lust.” From the twins’ looks Wolf could tell that they knew little difference between the two types of affections. “You see hatchlings, the difference is, love usually--not in all cases--comes first, then you have lust.”

Wolf pushed down on the twins’ shoulders, hinting them to sit down before he went on, and motioning them to close their eyes so they can focus only on his words. “Love is a privilege, it allows you to trust someone else with your deepest fears, and have them do the same to you.” Both Quill and Spike started to think back to the only pony that caught both of their attentions; Rarity. They started to question all the reasons why they worked so hard and fought over the mare for her affection. Spike did it because...well because he just really liked how good Rarity looks, only after did he even think about the rest of her.

While Quill did it for the same reason, however, started to lose interest in the mare after repeated times of being dragged around by her looks. It also didn’t help the fact that Rarity wasn’t even into females from the start, the thought upsetting her when she thought back to how she used her looks to get her to do things around the boutique.

Sure they both soon learned more about the mare, but that only served to push Quill farther away from her. Her high-class attitude towards things she liked, how needy she was over the simplest of tasks, and her melodrama drove Quill insane to where she just want’s to kick down the door to the boutique and tell her off. The only rightful reason she kept doing the things Rarity asked of her was because she didn’t want to sit back while Spike worked himself into an early grave.

It was pretty evident to the both of them that their initial reasons were for lust, which is why the love wasn’t ever returned in the same way. “I’m not saying that you have to know everything about the other, since that’s just a bit creepy, but don’t let their looks be the only thing you go for. Eyes are a very deceptive thing, they can play tricks on our minds, but our hearts will never lie.”

I never loved her, Spike silently thought to himself as Wolf’s words started reach him. I only did it because she resembled some of the ponies back in the castle. Back when Twilight, Quill, and himself moved away from Canterlot to Ponyville, Quill was the main one that looked forward to the move as it gave her a chance to do more as she pleased without Celestia around.

However, Spike wasn’t so happy about the move--well he was--but he still missed living in the castle back in Canterlot. Luckily, over the years he gotten over this, and had moved onwards. Rarity played a big role in this as she looked like some of the maids from the castle, which gave him something to remind him of his first home. I won’t make the same mistake twice.

“Don’t let someone else’s choices ruin your chance at happiness. Find your own life to live, find your own love to cherish, and never look back.” Wolf didn’t know exactly what kind of lives the twins lived with the elements so he didn’t know that his words were hitting as hard as they were, but from the growing smiles on the twins faces, he was in the right direction. “Love isn’t something that you should have to kill yourself over, regardless how romantic it is, dying for a loved one is actually a very selfish thing to do.”

Heh, guess he’s right, Quill thought to herself, thinking of all the times she thrown herself to Rarity just so Spike wouldn’t carry all of that mare’s weight by himself. It was Spike’s choice to go after Rarity, I gave up a long time ago, and I’m not going to be going back to her any time soon.

A long moment of silence overcame the three as Wolf allowed the twins to take in everything he said. Once both of the twins open their eyes, Wolf breath a long sigh of relief, thankful that the ‘talk’ was much easier than he thought, and was getting ready to leave before Spike raised his hand.

“Huh, oh right questions.” Great. This should be fun. “What is it Spike,” Wolf asked, wanting everything to be cleared up in one go so he doesn’t have to do this again...that is until his cub reached their ages.

“Um...yeah, I get everything you said, and it really made a lot of thing clearer.” Wolf allowed a self-satisfied smile stretched across his face at the drake’s unintended praising words but soon disappeared at his question. “But how do we...you know...do it?”

“Um…”

“Yeah I was wandering the same thing,” Quill spoke up, adding to Wolf’s nervousness, and continuing to add thing on. “Because you know, I’m not into guys really, and all I have to go on is Rainbow Dash’s vague explanation.”

“And what about-” Wolf placed his hands over both of the twins mouths to get them to be silent for a few moments while he gathered the appropriate words to ‘enlighten’ the twins on the nightly affairs.

Came this far… Wolf removed his hands from their mouths to rub the sides of his head and taking in a deep breath. “Okay,” He breath out before looking back up to the twins’ eyes that were filled with wonder. “I’m going to be straight up with you two, your best bets are to either find someone that knows what they're doing, or find someone just as inexperienced as you.”

“Well that’s not really fair,” Quill started with a deflated tone, not speaking for herself, but for Spike who had no knowledge of what to do. Quill could not believed that Wolf refused to tell them in the ends and outs of sex. However, she already had a head start on Spike after watching Wolf and Blaze share an intimate moment yesterday.

“Sorry, but that truly is something you have to learn on your own, but hey that’s what mating instincts are for.” Both Spike and Quill stared at the dog with blank faces before breaking out in laughter with Wolf following along with. “You two shouldn’t be worrying that much though. Like I’ve already said you two are smart and you make good choices, even if you don’t, you still stick with them to the very end.”

Wolf stood up from the ground, ready to get heading back to the temple before it gets too dark, and still needing to get them setting off to Zecora’s hut. “Come on, you two. We still need to get some stuff done before your camping trip tomorrow.” Both Spike and Quill got up from the ground to follow Wolf out of the hidden sanctuary.

His ‘talk’ may have not been as informative as they would have hoped, but Spike wasn’t joking when he said that it cleared up a lot of his questions. Questions that Twilight could have answered herself if she tried.

However, neither one of the twins thought of this as they looked forward to the next few days with the CMC’s, and sharing new memories with their old friends.

The next morning, after sleeping in Zecora’s hut last night, Spike and Quill stood at the edge of Everfree forest right outside of the Sweet Apple acres. To Quill’s displeasure, Zecora had awaken her with the awful smell of her potion-making while Spike--who is used to waking this early--was assisting with her daily routine.

Through the months of studying, Spike had grown fairly attached to Zecora. Much more than he would have by staying with Twilight. It turns out that Spike--and just about everyone else in Ponyville--knew little of the zebra, mostly because nopony wanted to be caught in Everfree after Luna and Nightmare had risen the moon. From the stories she had told him, Zecora came from a small tribal village where potion-makers, shamans, and tribal warriors thrive in peace.

Her father held an important role as chief shaman of the village, teaching her all he knew before she set off in her around world journey. Equestria, a much pleasant place to live in, wasn’t her intended destination, nor was it Blaze’s. Zecora’s journey had started but with a simple direction to where the sun raises and the moon falls; east.

In that journey, she met Blaze in a sea-port town doing the same thing as she was, which was looking for a new land to call her own. Since they were young to this very day, Blaze and Zecora had been friends to the very end, which as yet to come.

Spike and Quill wanted the same thing to happen with them and the CMC’s. So what if they were no longer living in the same place as they were, that did not matter, they still could met up and enjoys each other’s company.

However that would be easier if they would show up on time.

“Where are they,” Quill shouted out to the empty fields, tired of waiting for the teenaged fillies to show up, and still somewhat sleepy. Spike, sitting on a rock near a large dark oak wood tree, turned to his twin’s irritated look, and shrugged his shoulders. “You would think that since they are the ones putting this together, that they would show up on time.”

“What can you do,” Spike questioned with another shrug of the shoulders as he was more level headed than his sister but still did question the crusaders’ lateness. “Knowing Rarity, she properly making sure that Sweetie Bell had everything she ‘needs.’”

Quill threw up her hands in destine, a faint memory of ‘helping’ Rarity with her camping equipment a few short months ago flashed through her head, and it didn’t help with her irritation. “Great that’s just perfect,” She started, kicking an apple tree to knock out a few apples. “Leave it to little miss perfection to slow everything down.” Spike started to chuckle at how Quill sounded just like Rainbow Dash, getting her to raise an eyebrow at him. “What’s so funny? Usually when I down on Rarity like that, you come to her aid.”

“Well, I can’t help if it’s the truth.” Spike laughed, throwing Quill for a loop. “Hey remember when Pinkie Pie showed Rarity that donkey that lives on the outskirts of town? Oh man, I’ve never seen her freak out like that before!” The drake continued the laughter, holding his sides, and leaning against the tree so he doesn’t fall off.

Quill simply watched on with a small smile, it seems that Spike really has moved on from Rarity, and she had a feeling that Wolf’s ‘talk’ was what did it for him. She was glad to see that Spike was no longer looking to work himself to the bone to get the high-class mare’s attention any more. Now all she had to do was get him a marefriend their age and she could finally take it easy.

Or better yet, let him flail around until some lucky mare reaches out to him, and pulls him from the deep. Hey what are sisters for? Quill started to laugh at her own joke while she munched down on the bright red apple. “So Quill,” Spike started, breaking Quill out of her thoughts, and getting her attention. “Do you think I look alright?”

Quill instantly spit out pieces of the apple at Spike’s sudden question. “What?” Spike’s question caught her completely off-guard as she tried to wrap her mind around why and where the question was coming from.

“I mean the way I’m dressed,” Spike corrected, hopping off the rock and spreading out his arms as they started to show more signs of growth. Quill quickly looked over what Spike was wearing, a pair of Wolf’s black shorts tied at his waist with a alligator's leather hide and tied midway of his legs with some white cloth. He also had on his old purple jacket which he had to cut the sleeves off. “I had to borrow some of Wolf’s pants because mine were dirty.”

“Uh...you look fine, Spike.” Quill had to admit that it wasn’t Spike’s clothes that made him look good. His flat chest--not overly build--showed signs of muscle growth along with his arms, legs, and tail. Even she had grown just a little in muscle, her arms were still slender, but the muscle underneath was much denser than it used to be.

Her wings were slightly longer but refused to grow larger for the power she craved. Other than that was the same for her arms, slender in design, but holding power that some females dream of. She was glad that Spike still had some kind of pride, but one question still was on her mind.

“Why?”

Spike started to scratch the back of his head with his trademark sheepish grin and red blush on his face. “Well you said that Sweetie had a crush on me so I was thinking that I, you know, try impressing her.” Quill shook her head and chuckled, she should have guessed that Spike would have tried to move on in the weirdest way possible; by going after the younger sister.

“You’ve got to be joking,” Quill started, getting Spike to blush even more, and walking over to the love-dumb drake. “First Rarity than Sweetie Bell. Spike do you have a thing about white mares?”

Spike snapped out of his sheepish grin after realizing that there was a pattern to his crushing. “What no just that well…” He stopped for a moment, only making Quill that much more suspicious. “It’s not because of her fur, Sweetie is a really cool mare.”

“So is Applebloom and Scootaloo.” Spike again started to blush when he realized that Quill was right. “Want to give any specifics lover-drake?”

“Well she smart, funny, a really good friend, and um…” Spike tried to think of anything else he could use to describe Sweetie Bell in a high light. “A good singer, never gives up, and…”

Quill sighed at Spike half-minded thinking and at the fact that he took her seriously. “Okay Spike, I was joking around, and if I wanted a filed report on her I would have asked,” Quill said flatly, getting the drake to blush even more as she started to shake her head at his denseness. “That’s another thing Spike, you’ve got to stop taking everything so seriously.” Spike stopped his blushing to look straight into Quill’s eyes. “If you’re going to have any hope with either of the crusaders then you need to lighten up alright?”

“Heh, yeah I guess you’re right.” Quill rolled her eyes at the drake’s periodic annoyance, but someone had to deal with it. “So what about you?” Again Spike’s question threw her back, and she was not sure of what exactly he meant. “I mean, you have to like one of them right? So which one is it?”

Quill sighed an irritated groan, she had wished that she could have one of the crusaders, however she was meant with the same issues as Rarity. “None of them,” She flatly answered, going back to munching down on the apple. “Neither Scootaloo nor Applebloom like girls so that dead before it could start.” Spike’s mouth made the shape of an ‘O’ as he realized that--yet again--he said the wrong thing. “But meh, I’m sure that I’ll get lucky somehow.” Yeah right.

“O-oh I see.” A fore-looming silence befell the two of them as Spike was too afraid of saying something stupid again while Quill was brewing over the odd fact that all lot of mares seemed to be straight regardless of the sewed pony gender ratio.

She guessed it had something to do with mares’ tendency to join herds. Figures.

The twins went back to waiting for their friends so they could start the--hopefully--three day camping trip if Everfree doesn’t literally rain on their parade. Soon, their wait came to an end when Spike spotted the familiar colors of the crusaders along with two mares that they didn’t know and...a flying diamond dog?

Neither Spike nor Quill had the time to question the sight of the unknown dog flying with pair of dragon wings that could put Quill’s to shame before Sweetie ran up on Spike. “Quill, Spike you guys made it,” Sweetie Bell cheered, wrapping her arms around Spike, and getting a pleasant surprise at the tough muscles underneath his jacket. Everyone watched with awkward silences as Sweetie started to nuzzle against his chest and purring slightly. “I’ve missed you Spike.”

“Ya mean that we’ve missed him right,” Applebloom asked, wearing her usual camping out fit of a tied plaid shirt and short jeans. Sweetie looked back to her friends to see that both Applebloom and Scootaloo had their arms crossed with a displeased look on their faces.

“Yeah right, we have missed you Spike,” Sweetie corrected, unwilling removing herself from Spike’s body to skip back over to the other crusaders, her light-purple shirt swaying with each step she took. When Sweetie stopped her skipping, she turned on one heel, and waved her hand towards the three new faces. “Oh right, Spike, Quill I want you guys to met Sketchy,”

Both twins looked over to the white fur unicorn mare, who had her three tone black mane tied back in a ponytail behind her head, and was wearing another sleeveless blue sweater in tight black skinny-jeans. “Hello, it’s nice to met you. Sweetie Bell had told me a lot about you two,” Sketchy spoke with an air of maturity that resembled Lily’s.

“Jinx,” Sweetie continued, waving a hand over to a light-blue unicorn mare with a two tone blue and green mane tied into long pigtails on the side of her head and wearing a short-sleeved dark-blue jacket in a pair of black shorts.

“Hiya, I don’t know much about you two, but I’m sure we can be friends.” Spike chuckled at how Jinx sounded a bit like Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy at the same time, but then his attention was drawn to the winged dog.

“And their dog/drakefriend, Dusk Flare.” Quill was thrown back at the halfbreed’s size as he was almost as big as Big Mac but not quite. Through his sleeveless purple jacket, Quill could tell that he had stronger muscles than Spike, and all of that weight was perfectly supported by the large set of dragon wings on his back.

Dusk stepped forward towards the twins, the smile on his face betrayed the thickness in the air around them, and for some reason, Quill enjoyed it. “Hey, name’s Dusk, and if you were guessing, I’m a dragon and diamond dog halfbreed.” Dusk’s voice was something Spike had dream of for years now, deep and smooth, like the manliest of men. “Nice to met another pair of twin breeds again,” He continued, taking his hand out of his out of his pockets, and stretching it out to the twins. “So you’re the famous Spike and Quill I heard so much fuss about.”

“Yeah,” Quill said, taking his hand, and giving it a firm shake. “The name is Quill Dragul and that’s my twin Spike Dragul,” Quill said, introducing her and Spike to the halfbreed as he gave the same firm shake to Spike. “So you said that you’ve met another pair of twin dragons?”

Dusk nodded his head, already starting on the clear dirt path in front of him with the other’s close behind. “Yup, back in the republics, I was friends with a pair of twin breed dragons,” He said, sparking the curiosity of both twins.

“You’re from the republics,” Spike asked, never meeting anyone from the Lunar Republics before, and always wanting to visit the many lands that dwell within Luna’s and Nightmare’s rule.

Again Dusk nodded his head towards Spike. “Yeah, to be exact, I’m from a small island call Nebula about deep north into the snow regions.” Dusk chuckled at the memory of his home island being covered in snow and ice, making the perfect wonderland for all of the young children of the small fishing island. “So what about yourselves? From what Sweetie told me, you guys ran away from Ponyville not too long ago.”

Dusk’s bright purple eyes connected with Quill’s emerald green, having an unintended effect on her. “Heh, yeah.” Quill scratched the back of her head with a slight blush on her face, she wasn’t into guys, so why was she acting this way around Dusk? “A few things went down, and we learned that Equestrians don’t know enough to care for dragons, so we left.”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that,” Dusk said with genuine concern, now believing the rumors about Equestrian's lack of dragon knowledge, and seeing how it may have affected the twins. “Hey if you two got any questions, I’m happy to tell you what I know.” Again, Quill and Spike locked eyes with the older dragon halfbreed, and realized that their biggest first-hand knowledge about dragons was walking right in front of them. “Dad made sure I knew as much about dragons as I could before we left the republics.”

“We,” Spike and Quill asked in unison, making Dusk laugh at the two of them.

Dusk pointed a thumb back towards the teenage fillies and mares walking behind them, specifically towards Jinx and Sketchy as they talked amongst themselves. “Me and marefriends, duh.” Both twins smacked each other on the head for their own empty-mindedness, making Dusk laugh from the odd pair. “Yeah, after high school ended a few months back, we started looking for a new place to live, and here we are.”

Quill and Spike nodded in response, both of them having dreams of traveling to lands far away from Equestria, and to the rest of the outside world. To met not only a--half--dragon that was willing to help them, but also someone from another nation, got the twins day-dreaming about going on adventures around the world to find riches be on their wildest dreams and to see exotic creatures just like Dusk.

“Wow that’s cool, but um...we kind of have the dragon thing covered,” Spike said, forcing Dusk to raise his eyebrow in mild-disbelief. “You see, there’s an ancient city ruins here in Everfree that has all kinds of knowledge about dragons, and me and Quill has been studying them for the last two months.”

“Oh I see,” Dusk said in thought, he didn’t know much about Everfree, so he couldn’t question the information Spike was giving him. “Well studying only gets you so far, you two know of your elements right?” The twins nodded their heads, already acquainted with their elemental-magic, and guessing that Dusk has his own. “Well, how much do you two know?”

Both twins put a finger to their chins in thought, that’s when Spike spotted a river leading further into Everfree, and an idea coming to his head. “Well I can do this,” He said, handing his back-pack to Quill, and jumping on the water’s surface before anyone could question him.

Instead of falling in like everyone thought he would, Spike landed on his feet in the flowing stream of water, and using his water-magic to propel himself forwards against the natural flow of the water.

Everyone stopped walking to watch in awe as Spike moved against the waters current without much effort on his part, still shaky when he had to jump over a rock or two, but keeping his balance before shooting out of the stream with a sideways flip.

Spike landed on the ground with a skidding stop before he looked back up to Dusk with a cocky smile that Quill though didn’t fit him well. “Water-magic huh? Well Spike that makes you a diamond in the rough,” Dusk said with a chuckle, only having met a few small number of other dragon-blood creatures that could use water-magic; one of them being his sister Wave Flare.

“Yeah? Well watch this,” Quill said, handing her and Spike’s stuff to Dusk, and spreading her wings to take flight in the air. Dusk was impressed at the speed Quill ascended the air as was much faster than any dragoness he met before, only his younger sister, Vernil Flare, was as quick as Quill.

Once she reached a high enough distance, Quill pressed her fists together, and reared her head back as she took in a large amount of air. Draconem flagro. Keeping her lips close together, Quill let loose a small stream of concentrated purple fire before it expanded outwards into a massive fire-ball that engulfed the most of the clouds near her.

The fire-ball burn so hot that the clouds instantly evaporated into hot steam before vanishing into the air. Soon Quill ended the stream of fire after the fire-ball dispersed into the air and landed back down to the ground with a toothy grin.

Dusk let out a long whistle of amazement, never seeing a dragoness with so much raw power before outside of his family. “Woo, you go dragoness. With that kind of heat, you properly already can use blood-fire.” Quill cocked her head at Dusk, not recalling reading about the ominous term, and Dusk caught onto this. “So you don’t know yet huh? Well, keep working on that fire of yours and you sure will.” Dusk handed Quill back her stuff and tossed Spike his before continuing down the path again.

Quill snapped out of her inexplicit daze and started after Dusk with the crusaders and his marefriends right behind. “Okay but what about you,” She asked, jogging back up to him, and getting his full attention again. “You must have an element-magic too, even if you’re a halfbreed.”

“Yup that’s right,” Dusk answered, nodding his head with his eyes closed. “But mine is completely different from either of you two’s magic.” This time it was Spike who cocked his head at the halfbreed, and before either of them could question him, Dusk took off the large camping bag off of his back, and handed it to Spike.

Once the bag was out of Dusk’s hands, Spike almost tripped from how heavy the thing was, but then realized that Dusk was carrying not only his stuff but Jinx’s and Sketchy's as well. “You see, not every dragon is blessed with one of the four makers’ magic, and I’m one of the few that aren’t.” Dusk quickened his paced, and something told Spike and Quill not to try keeping up with him. “However, this isn’t a bad thing, but it does make it harder for me to learn any spells or techniques like you two. But when I do…” Suddenly, archs of purple and black electricity started to swirl around Dusk’s body in a violent display of power along with control.

As his foot started to reach closer to the ground, Dusk’s entire body disappeared in a purple flash, and all that was left was a few residual arcs of electricity. Before either the twins or CMC’s could understand what happened, Dusk reappeared behind the twins, and placed his hands on their shoulders.

“It’s awesome. Isn’t it?” Quill and Spike whirled around in shock at how fast Dusk was able to move using his elemental-magic, just giving them proof that they have only scratched the surface while Dusk was already through the mantle plate.

From whirling around too quick, and still carrying the heavy camping bag, Spike tripped on his feet. Again, everyone was given a demonstration at how fast the halfbreed was able to move, by him grabbing the bag with one hand, and Spike’s jacket with the other saving him from being crushed underneath the bulky bag.

“Whoa, careful there drake.” Dusk pulled on Spike’s jacket to straighten him out on his feet and set the bag back on his back. “So where was I...Oh right, my elemental-magic,” Dusk started, resuming along the path with a very invested Quill on close heel while Spike started to jog to catch up with the two. “As you can see,” Dusk again started, raising his hand near his face, and allowing his lighting-magic flow freely. “I can use electricity, but really it’s lighting. Since my element isn’t of the original four, that puts me in an awkward position.”

“How’s that,” Quill asked, pushing past how strong Dusk is in comparison to Spike.

Again a bright heat rose to Quill’s face when she locked eyes with Dusk and immediately turned away, reminding herself that he had two marefriends, and that she wasn’t into guys. Right? “Well that’s because lighting-magic is the product of two of the four original four elemental-magic. Mine being fire and wind, making lighting.”

“How,” Spike asked, unable to follow the logic behind the new type of elemental-magic.

Dusk turned to Spike and shot a toothy grin. “Well how is lighting made in the real world?” Spike put a finger to his chin and started to stroke it in thought, remembering all of the books he read about how pegasi control the weather and made storms. then changing it to fit how it would work without pegasi.

“Well, hot air blast past cold air, making it split apart and slam back in on itself.” Dusk reared back at Spike’s knowledge, usually when his ask that question to someone, it’s meant as a joke not a literal question.

“Yeah right, well you just said the answer, heat and air--or wind--whatever you want to say.” The twins nodded their heads at Dusk answer, seeing what he was talking about, and how it made sense. “So you can see, I had to learn not just lighting, but fire and wind magic first. Which was a major pain.”

The group finally had reached the first camping-site Applebloom told Dusk about and everyone took a moment to rest their feet. The CMC’s were already hard a work setting up their tents with much failure until Spike came over and put the tents together with ease.

“Wow, Spike, you sure you never been camping before,” Scootaloo asked with her usual scratchy voice that Spike found cute sometimes. When Spike looked over to her, that when he noticed what Quill was talking about the three of them have grown, and had to shake those thoughts out of his head so he could stay focused on getting with Sweetie Bell.

“Yeah I’m sure,” He answered with his usual sarcastic voice that got the other two crusaders laughing, more importantly Sweetie. “So what exactly have you guys been doing lately? You know, besides getting into trouble every single day.” While Spike made conversations with old friends, Quill was still questioning Dusk about dragons and his home.

However the halfbreed had troubles answering the question because of the pesky, overcomplicated, tent-set that Sketchy brought from Ponyville. Jinx held the instructions in her light-blue magical aurora while Sketchy was checking each step before Dusk, who was on his knees, moved own with building the tent that was supposed to be large enough for the three of them.

Which would be easy if the instructions wasn’t written in a different language, if not, in some kind of code that neither Jinx nor Sketchy could crack. So as a fallback, Dusk was going by his own knowledge of how tents should look like, and used the pictures on the hieroglyphic instructions. “Come on you stupid piece of…” He strained to get a--supposedly--flexible rod to bend into a loop-hole on the sides of the dome-like tent.

When he finally did, much to his pride and joy, Dusk realized that he missed one of Quill’s questions. “Huh, oh sorry Quill you were saying?”

Quill waved a dismissive hand after seeing Dusk struggle with the tent, knowing that he was far stronger that either her or Spike, and again was impressed by his ingenuity. “Nah it’s fine, that looks a little hard anyways. So I was asking did you ever heard a...voice inside of your head?”

“A voice inside of my head? Oh you mean my ancestor speaking with me,” Dusk asked, remembering days during his cubhood where he heard a voice talking into his head, and revealing itself to be one of his dragon ancestor speaking to him. “Yeah that happens to every dragon, why haven’t you spoke to it yet?”

“Oh y-yeah I have,” Quill said, remembering all the things her ancestor told her a few days ago, but still had questions that she wouldn’t answer. “Is she really supposed to go away after my first growth-spurt?”

Dusk sat on a log in between his mares with a sigh. “Unfortunately they all do, some too soon, and others too late.” Quill sat down on an adjacent log, not liking the darkened tone in Dusk’s voice about the topic. “You see, you ancestor is to act as a guardian, and protect you until you’re ready to do that on your own.” Quill thought back to her first time hunting, all of the damage she took should have done a lot more than it did, and it didn’t until her ancestor stopped holding back the pain for her.

Then she got the thinking about all the times some kind of misadventure had her and Spike running for their lives, or when some chore around the library went wrong and sent a stack of books tumbling on their heads; it should have killed them. The mass pile of books falling from the bookshelves, a prank from Rainbow Dash that had them falling from the sky--before Quill grown her wings--and that time they fell into that lake during winter wrap-up.

She and Spike should have been long since severely injured or dead, yet the worst to ever happen to them was a fire-breath cold, which should have been the only reason they were trapped in the library.

Hell, the only time she even experienced pain--true pain--was the day she learned that Rarity couldn’t care for her. Quill wasn’t the one to put in so much work only have it put to waste like that, regardless of what it was.

“But then there are times where they leave too late,” Dusk started again, pulling Quill out of her thoughts, and regaining her full attention. “You see Quill, as good as it is to have our ancestors looking after us, they must leave at some point, and if they don’t the dragon goes under...changes.”

“Okay but how, does it make the dragon weak or something?” Quill didn’t like the sound of that really, after working so hard to the point where she thought her bones fall off, and be in a coma-like state for hours on end from training with Wolf for whole days. To lose what she worked so hard to gain would outright destroy her.

However, her initial worries were set aside by Dusk shaking his head, but new ones started to spring up at his low tone. “No, nothing like that--or rather--nothing to that low of a level.” Dusk hanged his head low to the ground to where Quill could no longer gaze into his eyes and both of his marefriend placed their hands on his chest in concern. The soft touches got his body to twitch and his wings to wrap around them.

The sound of Spike and the CMC’s walking towards them went unnoticed by Dusk as he continued. “No, dragons that are unable to move past their ancestors, unable to live with them are doomed to a faith--that I find--worse than death.” By the grim tone in his voice, Spike could tell that Dusk was talking about something serious, and made sure to pay close attention to his every word. “The greatest humiliation any dragon could go through, being transformed into a Wyvern.”

“Wyvern, isn’t that just another word for dragon,” Spike asked, remembering the term from the only book he managed to save from the fire in the Canterlot library.

“No!” Everyone jumped from Dusk sudden angered voice and the dark plumes of smoke coming from his nose. After seeing the fearful looks in the twins’ eyes, and feeling Jinx shaking in his wings, Dusk closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No,” He started after a few moments of breathing the dark smoke out, this time in a much more calm tone. “Wyvern is not another term for dragon, it is an insult to any dragon’s pride and honor, and it is the price one pays for not accepting their ancestor’s guidance.”

Dusk lifted his head up and breath out a special type of fire that’s known as spirit breath. The faded purple flame danced into the air taking the shape of an elder dragon’s outline. Spike and Quill watched as the fiery creation started to soar proudly above their heads like any dragon should be, but something was wrong, something felt...missing from the dragon.

“Any healthy dragon can come to live for decades, in some rare cases, centuries.” The image of the dragon dive down towards the twins, only to pull back up. “However, if a dragon grows to dependent on their ancestor for aid…” Spike and Quill watched in horror as the fiery dragon suddenly was without its proud wings and crashed to the ground. As the dragon started to get up, it was hacking up sickly smoke clouds, and moved as if it was a hurt animal.

“They lose so much more than just their strength or wings,” Dusk finished as the image of the dragon started to distort and shrink in size. “They lose not only their pride as a true dragon, but also the everything that connects us to our ancestors, a dragon’s soul.”

Dusk blew another puff of spirit breath over the image of the sickly dragon, changing it into a much smaller creature, no bigger taller than to Scootaloo’s knees if it was in scaled comparison. “Wyvern…those pitiful and sad creatures, once powerful dragons the size of two-story buildings, reduced to the size of a mere house pet. Without their dragon soul, magic is but a distant dream to them, and shame is placed upon them and their entire clan.”

The twins watched as the wyvern wander about, as if it was lost, and without the security of a place to call home. “Smart they are, responsible for more than half of the written knowledge about dragons, but that’s all they're good for; bookkeepers.” Suddenly, the wyvern stood up on its back legs, somehow pulling out a blank book and quill to take notes on anything that caught its fancy.

“However, they are only given this much credit, other than that wyverns are the shame of the dragon race.” From Dusk, another blast of spirit breath. To the wyvern, piles of wrapped bodies. “Shame can only follow you for so long, most wyvern barely make it after the tenth year after their transformation, and the oldest one to ever live turned to only be thirty-two years old.”

Quill had to fight back tears as the lone wyvern walked amongst its fallen brothers and sisters, their times have long since past, and his was head of him as well. The wyvern became encased in bindings just like the others and then the dirt. Dusk’s spirit-flame soon started to fade away, taking the memory of the once proud dragon with it, and leaving only a mixture of pity and hollowness towards it.

Dusk took in another deep breath as it still took a lot out of him to use such a flame that his father and other elder dragons use as a means of telling of the past and of the future. “You see that’s why it’s important that you two keep doing whatever training you’ve been doing.” Quill and Spike looked up to met Dusk straight in the eyes, they knew he had to had some experience towards the great humiliation, and knew that he didn’t want to talk about it to anyone for a long time. “You guys understand what I’m saying right?”

“Y-yeah,” Spike started, his hands shaking a little at the fear of being turned into one of those wyvern. “So that voice in our heads, we should listen to it?”

Dusk shook his head with a slight smile. “No, not all the time,” He said in chuckle that betrayed the grimness of his words. “You are to listen to your heart, follow what you believe, and prove that you are deserving of calling yourself a dragon.”

“A-and if we can’t,” Quill asked in just as much fear as Spike.

Dusk slowly turned his head towards the reding sky as the sun started to make it’s descending journey over their heads; a fitting sense in Dusk’s eyes. “Then I pray to the four makers to have mercy on your souls.” Sound around the camping friends, died upon his words, and created a dreading silence that everyone was afraid to break.

Rumble. Aside from Jinx’s empty stomach.

Everyone turned their heads towards the blushing mare as her stomach made itself known to them by a series of rumbles that could scare even a hydra. Jinx tried to hide underneath Dusk, only succeeding of drawing more unwanted attention to her.

“What, I’m hungry.” Once again silence befell the group until Dusk broke it by his deep laughter, more than happy to change the mood of the air around them, and quite hungry himself.

“Yeah it’s about that time anyways.” Dusk stood from the log seat, forcing Jinx and Sketchy to do the same thing, and unwrapping the two from his wings. “I’ll go get some firewood. Spike Quill you two think you can start a big enough fire for us with what’s around camp?”

“Heh, sure we got this,” Quill said looking around the campsite to find that there was already a few dozen pieces of dry sticks in the area. “Come on Spike, help me build this thing. Everypony else, help also.” Everyone then started to do as the dragoness order, ready to eat so they can continue their venture to the Rainbow Falls, and to live their lives as much as they can.

Because you never know when is your last day until its upon you.