High Moon Ch. 28:

From the Ashes

Veil and Cyclone continued to follow Wolf and Spike back to High Moon. During the trek, Wolf explained everything to the two. About his rules concerning living in city ruins, the ones they had to listen to, and the roles that they would have to fill if they were going to continue to live in High Moon.

Veil was hesitant at first, but without any other choice, she couldn’t refuse anything Wolf said. Cyclone herself was more or less willing to do anything she could to help out. After that Wolf started to nod his head, thinking of whatever roles a diamond hound and dragoness could do for High Moon--regardless how long they decided to stay--if at all. Spike then brought Wolf’s attention to the fact that the necklace around Veil’s neck was a large fragment of Cyclone’s dragon’s soul, and that without it, she wouldn’t be able to use much of her magic.

When Wolf asked what could be done to restore the fragment, Spike was at a loss, and said the only way he could think of doing that was Cyclone eating it. However, the dragoness refused to do so as the necklace was a birthday present for Veil a few years ago, and claimed that she was alright.

Veil didn’t allow her friend to lie to herself like that and said that it was okay if it would get her feeling better. Again, Cyclone refused to reclaim her dragon’s soul, begging for another way.

Spike then started to wonder if Dusk would know of a way to help in this situation and asked Wolf if he could go visit the half-breed tomorrow. Wolf agreed to Spike’s plan, since he only had a limited knowledge about dragons, but told him to talk to Blaze first to see if she could do anything.

Now with all that settled, Wolf thought it was best to get to the bottom of why their house caught on fire to begin with. “Look, I know it’s still touchy, but just why are you saying it was your fault for the house burning down,” Wolf asked Cyclone as she been constantly blaming herself for the house catching on fire.

Cyclone took in a deep breath and let out a small blue and white flame in a slow sigh. “Because it is…”

Today started out as any other normal day for the blue and white dragoness named Cyclone as she was downstairs fixing up lunch for her and the hound that let her live with her for the last six years.

Even after her greed-growth, which she was able to be pulled out of by the very same hound five years ago during the hound's birthday, she had given her a place to call home, but the town was quick to abandon the two to define on their own. In hindsight, she shouldn't have worried so much about not getting her something good enough for her, but after letting her stay with her for a whole year; she had to do something.

However, luck would have it that soon after she had reverted back to her normal size, she coughed up a pink gem, and had it quickly made into a necklace for her. Which she had to do on her own as large portions of the town were now afraid of her and wouldn't even look at her.

It took her time but she soon learned how to live with it. Strangely enough, as long as she was still friends with the hound, Cyclone couldn’t care less.

“Oh Veil~ Lunch is ready,” Cyclone called out to the gray diamond hound from the kitchen on the bottom floor. Veil slowly lurched out of the shared bedroom and down the stairs with her black and white hair a mess over her eyes. “Really Veil,” Cyclone teased upon seeing the hound in the disheveled state. Veil took her normal seat at the table and was muttering something underneath her breath. “How are we going to find someone to take care of us if you keep looking like that?”

Veil ran her hands through the mess she call hair to fix it out some before looking towards the dragoness. “Look, would you get off my back about that already? Besides, we don’t need some half-life ‘taking care’ of us,” she snarled, tired of the dragoness’ attempt to be in a pack with her. “I think we’re perfectly fine on our own.”

Cyclone rolled her eyes at the hound’s statement as she handed a plate of cooked pork and slices of oranges on the side. “Really because if last night was anything,” Cyclone started, getting Veil to brightly blush at the memory of last night’s early wake-up call. “I say we’re due for one.”

“Hey, you were the one groping me in your sleep again,” Veil retorted in a defensive tone while Cyclone continued to giggle at the the memory. “Why you keep doing that anyways? It’s annoying.”

Instead of giving a straight answer, Cyclone shrugged her shoulders, just confused about it as Veil. “I dunno, could have something with be being a dragoness, or it could have something to do with the hot piece of tail next to me.” Cyclone started to laugh when Veil almost coughed on piece of orange but quickly handed her a glass of water.

The hound snatched the glass of water from a laughing Cyclone’s hands and started to quickly down most of it in one go. Cyclone herself couldn’t stop her laughing at the sight of the hound gasping for air with a wild look in her eyes.

Once Veil was finally able to get control over her breath again, she looked up to see Cyclone wiping a tear away from her eyes. “Y-you’re fucking evil,” Veil finally said before going back to eating, this time more careful not to choke on her own food.

Cyclone rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand towards Veil before walking over towards the table. “Oh lighten up will...ya…”

Suddenly, the world around Cyclone started to spin as well becoming blurry, and forced her to use the table to keep herself from falling to the ground. Veil shot up from her seat and immediately went to the dragoness’ side. However, Cyclone couldn’t hear any of Veil’s words as her vision began to darken, and a constricting weight was felt all over her body.

The weight moved around like an army of snakes coiling around her body, all using every single one of their muscles to constrict around her. Cyclone started to wrap her arms around her body, trying to find some way to be rid of this unrelenting pain, but she had no such luck. Slowly, causing agonizing pain as they moved about, the army of snakes moved to her chest, and made her feel as if there was a volcano about to erupt over her heart.

Tears started to burn lines down Cyclone’s face as she begged for the pain to come to an end. Her begging was answered in a way neither she nor Veil was expecting. Suddenly, Cyclone felt something forcing its way from her chest and to her mouth, causing it to open wide and released a massive torrent of blue and white flames. The sprawl of fire quickly engulfed the kitchen and moved to the rest of the house.

Initially, Veil was scared off the dragoness as she continued to spew more of the flames in a painful manner, but she soon snapped out of the daze. She managed to grab Cyclone’s arm as she was coughing up black smoke and pulled her from the rapidly clawing inferno.

Once outside, Veil helplessly watched as her house was being claimed by the blue and white flames while Cyclone continued to hack up more black smoke, but soon realized the obvious truth. It was her fault. “V-Veil please I’m so sorry...I-I did-”

“Cyclone,” Veil started looking at the inferno taking the house she called home since she was a mere cub. Cyclone’s body froze at the sound of Veil’s hollow voice as she knew the hound was beyond angry with her. Veil turning around only added to the dragoness’ fears as her pale gray eyes shone with the embers from the fire behind her. “This is all your fault!”

Cyclone finished the story with a lone tear falling from her face as Veil wrapped her arms around the small dragoness. Wolf and Spike stared at the two with the look of pure disbelief, both of them quickly started to have an idea of what happened to the dragoness, but weren’t entirely sure yet.

“Veil...I-I’m so-”

“Stop it Cyclone,” Veil broke in before the dragoness could place any more blame on herself than she already had. “It wasn’t your fault, I was just mad and scared is all. Okay?” Cyclone couldn’t answer her but still nodded her head. Veil felt awful for putting any blame on the dragoness since it wasn’t really her fault. “So...Wolf? You really think that your marefriend will know what to do?”

Wolf nodded his head, sure that Blaze would have some knowledge about the dragoness’ condition, and if not the half-blood would. “I’m sure of it, now let’s keep moving before it gets too late to do anything about it,” Wolf said with a slight smile before starting off again towards the path back to High Moon. He wasn’t sure of it but something told Wolf that things were going to get interesting around Everfree.

Whether that was good or not remained to be seen.

Further ahead of Wolf and the others, Quill fought to stay in the air as Frost--who couldn’t sustain her dragoness form any more--had given up on waiting until they were at High Moon before she started to ‘feed’ on her, and now was trailing too far behind Peewee.

Now on her lover’s back, Frost took her time toying with Quill before taking small bites around her neck, and danced her fingers all along Quill’s body. It was hard enough before to keep the changeling in the air with her laying on her back, but now with her playing around and taking small bites, just flying was near impossible.

“Frost...quit it, j-just wait until we reach the temple,” Quill moaned, growing accustomed to the biting, and oddly finding pleasure in them. However, Quill’s plea wasn’t answered as Frost moved her tongue over the back of Quill’s ear, and took it in her teeth. “Frost!”

Frost moaned around Quill’s ear and let it go just to breath her hot breath over it. “Shh...my powerful dragoness lover, let us go somewhere more quiet.” Suddenly, Frost wrapped she arms around Quill’s waist and expanded her wings outwards to twice their size, and gave a mighty flap.

Quill wasn’t able to fight against Frost’s enhanced wingspan and was dragged up higher to large cloud where Frost pinned her down. She didn’t waste a single moment before she started to lick all along Quill’s neck again and bring her hand to Quill’s smaller breasts.

“Fucking damnit,” Quill moaned unable to fight against the changeling’s lust after the numerous venom infused bites she received during the strenuous flight. She soon gave up, knowing that it would be easier if she just went along with it anyway.

However, Peewee noticed the lack of fliers behind him, and turned around to see what was up. Quill caught the phoenix in the corner of her eye and quickly thought of a way to get him to leave. “Peewee...g-go back t-to--Frost stop it for a second--Spike, tell him we’ll meet up at High Moon.” The bird looked at the scene with a curious eyes and made Quill blush from being watched by her brother's bird. “Go bird.”

Peewee duck under the small stream of fire Quill spit out from her mouth and started to fly off towards Spike, leaving Frost to do as she pleased. Frost pulled Quill’s shirt over her small breasts to gaze at them before diving down on them.

Finally alone, Quill didn’t--and couldn’t--fight off any more moans as Frost’s serpent tongue circled around Quill’s nipples while one hand moved to her wing-base and the other to remove her shorts so she could play with her dragonesshood, which was becoming increasingly wet.

Quill’s moans became a shout when Frost sinking her fangs around the harden nipples. “Mmm…” Frost moaned, getting a dose of Quill’s lust, and regaining some of her magic from it. The desire to have more, Frost stuck two of her fingers inside of Quill’s tight dragonesshood, and slowly started to rub it. Even being hit with another dose of of love and lust from her dragoness, Frost wanted more, no, she needed more. But, she wanted Quill to pound her love into her, and begin to use the shaft-growth spell again.

“F-Frost...t-take it easy,” Quill begged, not sure if she liked being the submissive one, but in this situation didn’t have much choice. The power of emotions Frost was feasting on quickly changed into magic for the spell and made Quill feel like she was on fire.

The last time, it was nothing but a soft tingle that sent pleasure flowing through her whole body, but now it was a crawling inferno that threatened to push her over the edge. Suddenly, it felt as if a warm gentle fire was burning in Quill’s chest, and it served to coax her closer to the edge.

Frost’s eyes snapped opened when she felt the same insistent wave from last night coming from Quill and doubled her efforts on the spell. Frost removed herself from her dragoness’ breasts to look in the pleasure written on her face as well as the fire in her eyes. “Yes, yes! Show me your power, claim me as your mare!” Quill let out a savage roar that came in the form of a tall purple and black flame as her body tensed up from the spell and a climax as they reached their peaks.

Frost back away from Quill’s body as she calmed down from the mind-numbing climax. She licked her lips at the meaty rod standing tall in between Quill’s legs, the barbed sides looking more rigid, and the shaft looking bigger, than the last time.

Just looking at the shaft was enough to light a flame in Frost’s marehood and force her to discard her green shorts. “Oh my love,” Frost called out to Quill, who was mumbling something unintelligible, and breathing out small puffs of gray smoke. Soon, Quill turned her head towards Frost to see her spreading her marehood with lustful lick of her lips. “It isn’t nice to keep your mare waiting.”

A low savage growl came from Quill when she heard Frost’s mocking tone. Suddenly, her body whipped around, and pinned Frost to the cloud floor. Before Frost could even let out a single sound, her lips were already sealed by Quill’s, and their tongues were already wrestling for dominance. It wasn’t long before Frost found her tongue being circled by Quill’s.

The shaft started to brush up against Frost’s marehood, threatening to split her apart. Again, Frost was bombarded by the intense feeling coming from Quill and moaned in the kiss for more of it.

Quill, who was having trouble controlling her instincts, gave her mare what she wanted, and drove the shaft deep within her marehood. Quill broke away from the kiss so she could hear every single second of Frost’s joyful screams, making Quill thrust even hearer.

Frost mind became blank, not only from Quill pounding her lust inside of her, but from the intense wave growing as she quickly reached her peak. Wanting to hear the mare scream some more, Quill sat up on the cloud, dug her claws into Frost’s flanks, and started to lift her up.

Frost’s body started to tense up around the shaft in the new position as Quill lifted her up and down the barbed sides. She was even forced to wrap her arms around Quill’s neck for support while low, needy moans were being forced straight out of her mouth.

Quill used her fanged teeth to rip the black shirt to shreds so she could latch onto both of Frost’s harden nipples with her fangs, making Frost screams louder. “Ahh, y-yes,” Frost squealed with a fiery moan of approval. “M-more...show me more.”

Quill was happy to do so by using her claws to spread Frost’s flanks out, stretching her marehood around the barbed shaft, and pushing them close together to get her marehood to tightened around her. Quill continued to do this, quickly being able to find a solid rhythm to it, and sending Frost over the edge.

The mare started to sink her fangs into the side of Quill’s neck, only adding to the pleasure she was feeling, and started to shake violently. However, Quill’s rough thrusting didn’t end as she continued to lift Frost up and down the throbbing shaft, and growling when she felt her own climax building rapidly on her.

Deep gray smoke seeped from Quill’s nose as Frost was just coming down from her first mind-shaking climax and was building quickly into another one. Frost removed herself from Quill’s neck, only barely having the strength to wrap her arms around her neck, and allowed Quill to have her way. “Y-yes my...love,” she managed to moan out through Quill’s thrusting as she felt the shaft throb heavily inside of her marehood, just waiting to burst forth. “C-claim me...fill me with your seed,” Frost moved to Quill’s ear to take it in her teeth before continuing in a much darker tone, “Make me queen.”

Quill removed her mouth away from Frost’s breasts, turned her head up to the sky, and let out another savage roar with a much brighter flame than before following after as her shaft erupted and filled Frost with her hot cum. The sudden volcanic eruption inside of her marehood forced Frost to be overtaken by another, much more powerful, climax.

Quill forced a few more thrusts into Frost, filling her up with more of her cum before collapsing to her side, taking Frost down with her, and instinctively wrapping her in her wings. A smile was widely plastered on her face as the world around started to fade into blackness.

Quill slowly opened her eyes as it felt like a storm was dying down in her throbbing head. As soon as she caught the sight of Frost’s nude body, waves of her ‘feeding’ flashed through her head, but she could only remember small parts of it.

As usual, it felt awesome to her despite the pain numbing her pelvis, and the soreness of her throat. Not wanting to ruin the sight in front of her, Quill laid her head back down onto the soft cloud bed to gaze at her sleeping lover.

However as time started to push on, one memory started to become more prominent. ”Make me queen.” The words echoed in Quill’s mind, taking priority over the cloudiness in her head.

Quill started to think of anything that would explain the dark sound of Frost’s voice when she’d said that. It could have been her instinct, as Frost had used a lot of magic trying to save that house in White Tail, which usually lead to her changeling instincts overpowering her control. But there still was a part of her that questioned it.

“Mmm...Quill?” Frost finally started to open her eyes, expecting the blissful smile of her lover, but was met with the worried frown. That’s when Frost felt the sickly wave of worry coming from her dragoness, only making Frost even more concerned that she did something horrible while her instincts took control. “Quill, Quill sweetie is thing wrong?”

Quill snapped out of her thoughts and was met with the only one that could truthfully answer her questions. Suddenly, Quill wrapped her arms around Frost’s waist, and rolled over to her back.

Frost didn’t have time to question the sudden move before Quill sealed her lips in a forced kiss. Again, Frost was hit by the intense wave of...feeling from Quill, and started to moan in the kiss. However, this only lasted for that moment as Quill removed her lips from Frost’s, and stared into her changeling’s eyes.

Frost’s eyes fluttered opened to the purple shine in her lover’s. “What was that for,” she asked, still taken back by the sudden kiss, and momentarily forgetting the worry that was coming from Quill.

“Just making sure my ‘queen’ is all better.” Frost started to giggle as she lean down into Quill’s face when she realize that Quill wasn’t trying to make a joke and sat back up wide-eyed. “Yes, you did,” Quill quickly answered the mare’s questioning look. Frost looked way from Quill and did her best to hide her face in her mane. “Frost, I think its time we talked about it. What do you really have planned?”

Frost peered with one eye through her mane at Quill, one look down at the resolved-filled purple eyes told her that she wasn’t going to be able to get out of this one, and sighed in defeat. “Alright...r-remember when I said that my mother is queen of the entire changeling race in Everfree?” Quill nodded her head in affirmation, not seeing where Frost was going with it. “And how I wanted to prove her wrong about things?” Another nod came from her dragoness, this time, she could feel Quill making some connection in her head. “Well, part of that was taking her crown.”

“Frost,” Quill sighed, knowing what Frost was trying to do, and having a feeling that it was going to end bad if something went wrong.

“I know Quill, I know,” Frost cut in before Quill could continue that thought. “It’s just a dream anyways, there’s no way I can take on my mother at the power level I am now, and I don’t want the others to be dragged in it as well. Just...just forget about it.”

“No,” Quill said in a firm voice as she sat up from the cloud-floor and took Frost’s hands in her own. “No Frost, that’s not just some dream, its your goal, and your goals are mine.” Frost took in a sharp breath from the unexpected reaction Quill had to her--rather--selfish dreams. “Frost I love you and I would do anything to see you smile, even if I had to charge through an army of changelings, just to see you smile.”

Small tears started to flow down Frost’s face as she couldn’t believe Quill would do so much for her. “Quill,” Frost started, biting back more tears, and gripping Quill’s hands. “Y-you don’t have to do that for me,” she said with a shake of her head as her hands gripped Quill’s tighter. “I’m happy just being with you.”

“Yeah, well guess what princess,” Quill started with a cocky grin as she flared out her wings and removed her hands from Frost’s to pull her closer by the hips. Frost, taken back by her dragoness’ sudden move, blushed as they were now nose to nose. “I have a queen to take care of and I plan to do just that.”

“Oh Quill,” Frost started, wrapping her arms around neck, and placing a kiss on her lips. Frost started to giggle when Quill flicked her tongue underneath Frost’s before parting ways. “Thank you for loving me.”

Quill fell to her back and dragged Frost down with her, smiling the whole way down. “Thank you for giving me something to live for.”

At long last, Blaze and the other three had finally made it to their final destination. A place where nature and magic met, a place where the natural magic of the world is at its peak, a place where any can witness the greatest prowess of Mother Nature's fury, and a place that is home to many of Everfree’s magical plants: the Arcane Fields.

It is here that sunflowers can grow to three times their size, where fly-traps eat more than just flies, and where the rarest of plants dwell. It is here that Blaze and the others will find the plant that is required for the plant growth potion.

“Alright everyone,” Blaze started, knowing that the worst thing living in these fields are the very plants themselves. “Be on the look out for a large tree with yellow star shape fruits growing out of it. We’re here for the leaves on that tree, and some of that fruit couldn’t hurt either,” she informed, licking her lips at the thought of the juicy star fruit.

“Blaze are you sure you should get near that tree,” Lily queried with a slightly wary tone as she, Cinder, and Isis faithfully followed the mare. “The last time we were out here your magic had a rather volatile reaction to it.”

A small, yet visible, shiver went down Blaze’s spine at the memory of her losing brief control of her magic, and almost getting both Wolf and Zecora to have sex with her by a wayward attachment spell. The shiver was strong enough to get Blaze to stop dead in her track before she turned around to the others. “Let’s not talk about that.”

Only Lily was able to giggle at the memory while Cinder and Isis was left wondering what happened the last time. After shaking away the embarrassing feeling she always had of that memory, Blaze continued through the fields, and kept a watch out for the special tree. Thankfully, Isis was able to see it further down the path with her keen eye-sight.

The others strained their eyes to see an empty clearing with the tree sitting right in the center. Feeling bold, Cinder flew from Lily’s shoulder, and dashed toward the tree. However, she didn’t see the bright yellow eyes trailing her flight, and wasn’t quick enough to dodge the small volley of large and sharp thorns being shot at her.

Blaze gasped when Cinder let out a pain filled screech as the thorns pierced her body and pinned it to an oak wood. “Cinder!” Blaze shouted, not believing what just happened right in front of her, and praying that the bird was okay. However, before they could make it to Cinder’s body, a wooden wolf leaped from the brushes, and started to growl at the three.

It didn’t take long before Blaze recognized the wolf as a thorn-fang, and from its size, was an alpha male. Thorn-fangs, were essentially the same as timberwolves, except they had larger upper bodies and a tail capable of hurling thorns at devastating speeds.

Lily and Isis were preparing to use their magic to fight off the beast, not knowing that it was slightly resistant to many forms of magic, and that the thorns in its tail were a highly poisonous neurotoxin.

“How dare you,” Blaze started out in a low dark tone that gained the attention of both Lily and Isis. The two turned to see her horn and eyes glowing a blood-red as she took a step closer to the twisted wooden beast. “How dare you harm one of my friends!”

Blaze reached to the small set of toxin infused throwing knives at the side of her belt. Unknown to both Lily and Isis, Blaze’s knives were infused with a toxin that destroyed the bloodstream of any creature and was a fast acting agent, especially when the target was moving. Right as the thorn-fang was going to leap at the mare, Blaze threw four of her set of ten with added force from her magic.

The thorn-fang was able to take the first two knives, landing on part of its back and right shoulder. However, when the last two knives followed suit of their brothers, they hit their marks on the wolf’s legs. It jumped back a little from the pain, attempting to put most of its weight on its back legs, however failing at this.

Soon, the wooden beast fell over to its side with a howl of pain and discomfort as the poison from the knives reach its bloodstream. Again and again, it tried to get up, only for its strength to fail each time. The poor creature had no idea what was happening to its body. However, Blaze knew all too well. Each single cell flowing through the thorn-fang’s body was now swelling like balloons until they eventually collapsed in on themselves.

Seeing that the creature couldn’t do any further harm in the state that it was in, both Lily and Isis were sure that the beast was done for, but Blaze had further plans for the monster that dwelled in this dangerous part of Everfree Forest.

As she glared into the creature’s fading eyes, an unwanted thought slowly crept into her head. One day, her child may face creatures such as this when they comes to this world. “I’m going to make sure you don’t ever get the chance to harm another,” she darkly said, walking toward the beast, and stopping a good distance away. Blaze pointed her left pointer finger at the thorn-fang’s head and spoke in a dark, grim, tone, “Solis indignationem.”

The beast’s body suddenly sparked with blood-red and black flames, quickly becoming fully engulfed by the flames, and burned to the point not even ashes could escape Blaze’s furious rage.

Lily and Isis, after getting over what Blaze did to the beast and how easily she did, walked over to her side and Lily placed hand on the trembling mare’s shoulder. “Blaze are you alright,” she asked, never having seen her act in such a manner before.

Suddenly, Blaze turned around to wrap her arms around Lily, and started to cry in the mare’s chest. “W-why? Cinder was a good bird, so why?” Lily wrapped her arms around he crying mare, knowing that she was just as attached to Cinder as Quill was, and knowing the news was going to be as bad for her as it was for Blaze.

However, Isis simply walked over to the bird to examine the damages. Thorns were embedded straight through several parts of her wings, forcing cartilage to jet out, causing severe bleeding. Though it seemed that the more vital parts of the phoenix were spared.

“Mistress,” Isis started, getting Blaze to look up from Lily’s chest over at the sphinx. “May I be so bold as to remind you that Cinder is a phoenix?” Just as Isis finished those words, Cinder’s body became engulfed in a purple fire and disintegrated into ashes, falling free from the thorns and tree bark. The pile of ash collected neatly at the base of the tree beside Isis’s feet. A few moments passed before the pile of ash started to glow in a purple light, quickly erupting as Cinder came soaring out of the ashes with new vibrant life.

Blaze’s mouth dropped when she saw the purple embers coming from Cinder’s body but soon began frowning as she remembered that Cinder was in fact something that can’t die from outside causes; a bloody phoenix. “Oh right,” she muttered under her breath, pinning her anger mainly on her pregnancy even if she was just two months in.

Cinder landed on Blaze’s shoulder and nuzzled against her head, even when hurt and pinned to the tree, she was still able to hear and see everything that was going on around her, and was overjoyed that the mare was that concerned for her.

“Oh Cinder,” Blaze started tearing up as she returned the nuzzle. “Don’t scare us like that again.” Cinder seemed to blush, if it was possible for a phoenix to do so, and dipped her head slightly in acknowledgement while Isis continued down the path with Lily following behind.

Blaze soon ran to catch up to the sphinx as she kept her eyes locked firmly on the tree ahead of them. That’s when Lily saw the blankness in the sphinx’s eyes. “Isis, are you alright? You seem to be in deep thought.”

“It is nothing miss Lily, just thinking of a saying revolving around phoenixes.” They soon finally made it towards the clearance to the star-bearing tree. Tall, bright green grass was lit by the high noon sunlight. The sight of a single small yellow butterfly flying through the clearance in such a dangerous area of Everfree would have given any a sense of peace and hope.

Blaze chose to ignore it. “I would love to hear it,” Blaze said, walking to the sphinx’s side, and smiling with Cinder on her shoulder. Isis giggled a little at her mistress’s silliness and sudden changes of emotions as it reminded her much of Luna when she was much younger.

“Very well mistress…”

From ashes they rise, from time they fall.

All one day succumb to time’s unrelenting force, even those that claim immortal life. Kingdoms rise and fall with the push and pull of time, friendships are constantly tested, and love is placed on the line. Lives themselves are given way to time to one day fall and join all others. None can escape its everlasting crawl, ticking away faster than a clock’s hand, and counting the very seconds of our lives.

They are no different, those fire-hawks.

Flying high above the lands with pride shining brighter than their own feathers and proving that even in death, they can rise. Becoming shining pillars of hope in the lives we claim as our own.

Quill and Frost, after getting washed up in a nearby stream and putting on what was left of their clothes, landed right outside of the temple doors. Even if Frost didn’t think it was the best idea, Quill vowed to make her dreams of becoming queen true by any means, but both knew that it would be quite some time before she could do so.

As they entered the temple, they made a stop in Quill’s room to grab some fresh clothes, and to replace the shirt Quill shredded with her teeth. Honestly, she didn’t know what came over her when she did it, but it felt...good. Great even, ripping something apart, and taking what was hers.

Frost didn’t tell her, but, that ‘feeling’ Quill got from doing something like that was really her more native dragon instincts finally taking hold. It wouldn’t be long before more of them start making themselves known, and begin making her protective of her.

Yeah...that’s not going to happen. Frost knew that Quill was already planning on a way to quickly get stronger to make her dream of being queen come true, and she knew she was planning to do it alone.

As much as she would disprove, Frost couldn’t let Quill try to take on her mother without her, and vowed to do anything to help her. Even if she had to kill her own mother to do it.

Soon, after reaching Blaze’s work area, they were met with Wolf asking what took them so long, and Quill quickly made an excuse saying that they saw a manticore moving towards the temple. For the sake of moving things on, Wolf let the obvious lie side for this one time, and began introducing both Veil and Cyclone.

It was then that Veil realized the dragoness that froze the fire was in fact the changeling mare standing right beside Quill. However, before any altercations could come up, Cyclone quickly ran to hug Frost, and gave words of praise for saving what was left of the house.

Veil was slightly taken back by the dragoness’ quick move to praise the changeling. Sure, neither one really cared about what happened in Canterlot during the invasion, but after all the rumors they heard about changelings, Veil was always nervous about them.

However, she had little right to question it at all. Frost, whether or not a changeling, stopped the fire, while she may not have saved the entire house, she still gave them closer that would have been burnt away with the fire.

As Wolf got things moving along again, Blaze and the others came down the stairs, and were surprised by the new faces. “Oh, um...hello,” Blaze started, looking at the two newcomers with a slightly questioning gaze, quickly turning it on Wolf.

“I’ll tell you later, for now Blaze, Cyclone here,” Wolf waved a hand towards the blue and white dragoness, who waved to the mare with a shy grin. “needs your help.” Blaze cocked her head slightly before Wolf motioned to Spike to take her and Cyclone off somewhere so they could talk better in private.

Blaze nodded her head, realizing if it was bad enough to get Wolf to have even a remotely grim tone, then it was really bad for the dragoness. She led the two upstairs to her room, where she turned towards Spike and Cyclone, and began questioning them as to how she could help with whatever was happening.

While they did this, Wolf turned his attention to Veil to get a rough feel of her plans for the future, though even he wasn’t sure how to go about helping them find a new house. High above their heads though, the phoenix pair watched them make arranges for the two newcomers, but Peewee noticed something different about his life-long companion.

The red fire-bird nuzzled against the taller purple phoenix to get her attention and to see what was wrong with his friend. However, Cinder didn’t returned the nuzzle, keeping her eyes glued to the floor of their nest. Peewee didn’t abandon the bird, instead wrapping a wing around her, finally eliciting a return nuzzle from Cinder.

Soon, the two became invested in the conversation below again, and wondered what was wrong with the shaking hound. “Alright so what’s next?” Veil asked, holding onto her arm to keep it from shaking uncontrollably with a lost look in her eyes.

“Listen Veil,” Wolf started, placing a hand on her shoulder, and trying to sound as convincing as he could. “I know this is a lot to take in, anyone would be just as lost as you, but until we know what’s wrong with your friend, we can’t take any chances.” Veil forced herself to nod her head, obviously fighting back tears, and completely worried for Cyclone. “As for what’s next, that can only be determined by Cyclone’s health, but I’m sure that Blaze knows what to do.”

“Okay… Thank you, for everything.” Wolf nodded his head and patted Veil’s shoulder before turning towards the four remaining in the room.

Wolf took another look back at the hound as she took a seat at the dinner table on the other side of the room and buried her head in her arms. No doubt finally letting more tears fall. Isis saw the distant look in her master’s eyes and didn’t enjoy seeing his mind so burdened by the heavy thoughts. “Master, is everything alright?” Wolf looked towards the sphinx’s golden and blue eyes, only to see concern not only in her eyes, but in the others as well.

As much as he wanted to say everything was alright, he couldn’t lie to the four. “No,” he started in low voice, which only carried worry for the hound and dragoness. “No, it isn’t. From what they told us, and from what Spike could gather, Cyclone went through a greed-growth five years back, and is missing a large chunk of her dragon’s soul.”

Quill’s eyes widened from the knowledge that the small dragoness went through a greed-growth as well while Frost covered her mouth in shock. “It’s not...’lost,’ for a lack of better terms, but instead she gave it to Veil as the necklace around her neck.” The four females look towards the hound, who was toying with the pink gem that was encase in a golden locket. “Cyclone refuses to take the gem away from Veil and now we’re looking for a way for her to...’grow’ more of her dragon’s soul.”

“Wolf,” Frost started quickly coming to a conclusion of her own, and knowing what the small dragoness has to do to reclaim more dragon’s soul. “There’s very few things that she can do.” Even with the changeling whispering, Veil was still able to pick up on their conversation. “The fastest way is to just take back what is lost, but from the sounds of things, that’s not an option.”

Wolf shook his head, seeing that being the last thing that’s going to happen. “Nope, what’re the other ways,” he asked, willing to help the dragoness out in anyway possible, and so was everyone else.

“The other way is for her to train just as hard, if not, harder than the twins,” Frost answered, knowing that Cyclone’s body and magic would quickly adapt to the sudden change in her environment and lifestyle. “Her dragon’s soul is sure to start growing again if she pushes herself.”

“Right,” Wolf started, slowly thinking of a way to work this around everything else that’s going on with High Moon as far as everyone’s roles. “Okay, since Spike is kind of in the same hole as Cyclone, they’ll be training together, and I’ll need someone else helping me watch over their training.”

“I will,” Lily quickly spoke up. “It would make more sense anyways since I was originally helping Spike with his water-magic.” Wolf nodded his head, knowing that they couldn’t just forget about Spike’s magic either. “Frost, would you be kind enough to help me with this considering that you know more of its arts?”

“But of course,” Frost said with a nod of her head, knowing that water-magic was the most difficult of the four elements to control. “However, I sensed another element from Cyclone, but I can’t figure it out.”

“Fire.” Everyone turned their heads towards the arcane-doors to see Blaze standing with a harden expression with Spike and a slightly saddened Cyclone. “It’s fire, her other element,” she continued as she walked over to the group with Spike while Cyclone sat next to Veil. “Though I’m not sure how that’s going to work.”

Frost dropped her head with a slightly blank look and gaining the attention of the others. “It doesn’t,” she said, knowing other scorpios with conflicting elemental-magic, and remembering the tough time they had just getting a foothold on their magic. “Rarely have I seen a scorpio gain much control of their magic when they had opposite elements. It would be best for her to simply learn healing and small defensive spells.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Blaze started, wrapping her arms around Wolf, and nodding her head against his chest. Wolf didn’t think much of the embrace as he knew Blaze’s feet must be killing her from all the walking she did while carrying a cub inside of her. “Now what of her friend? We shouldn’t let a diamond hound sit around idly, trust me, we really don’t need that.”

Wolf rolled his eyes, knowing what Blaze was referring to, and started to fakely laugh at the poor excuse of a joke. “Oh ah-ha,” he stated while the others were slightly confused to what Blaze was talking about. “You’re too funny Blaze, but you’re right. Veil would go stir crazy being locked up somewhere, I know I would, so she’ll be helping me with some odd tasks every now and again.” Everyone took a moment to look back to the two, who were talking amongst themselves, and from the looks were trying to comfort one another. “Anything else will be dealt with only when it comes up.”

“That seems fair enough,” Blaze started with a nod of her head as the others did the same thing. “So, who wants some lunch?” Wolf shook his head at the mare’s sudden change of subject but admittedly, with everything that been happening, he nor the others had a chance to eat just yet.

Spike and Frost quickly set out to fix up a small lunch for everyone before they had to resume their tasks for the day. All of them wanted to help the two, to show them that they weren’t alone, but at this moment in their lives, too much was happening all at once. All of them had to prepare for their own futures that was shortly approaching.

Wolf hated to shove the two into a new environment without making sure they knew how to live with it, but at the moment, they would have to learn how to get stuff done on their own. He, nor the others, had any plans of abandoning them, but they would have to stand up.

From the ashes of their old lives.

Author's Notes:

I again want to thank my two proofreaders/editors, they're a great addition towards this story, and I can't wait to continue to work with them.

-Till Next Time~