High Moon Ch. 37:

Temptation

Back in High Moon valley, Blaze had led the dragons towards the empty field where the four dirt circles lay in wait. Once there, she began to explain why none of them had been allowed to eat yet. Apparently, Blaze needed all of the dragons to be somewhat relying on their instincts so they wouldn’t have as much as control on them as they usually do.

This was done for a few reasons; one to get them to rely on their feeding instincts, and another was to force them to fall prey to natural dragon greed. This was already evident in Frost as more of her dragon heritage was making itself known, cutting off most of her changeling abilities.

Everyone aside from Quill, Isis, and Blaze, were given a slight shock by the changeling’s gradual transformation as her body began to represent more of her dragon blood. However, this didn’t seemed to dull Frost’s sharp mind, as she was able to retain mental control over herself.

While the changeling was displaying discipline that was unmatched by the others, both Spike and Cyclone were more or less fine, just hungry like the others. However, Quill was… hungrier than she should have been.

“Blaze,” Quill started, holding her empty belly, standing in her own circle like she was told to do with the others while Blaze sat in front of them on a wooden stump. “Can we please eat already?”

The others’ stomachs growled in agreement at Quill’s question, only making all of them feel hungrier than they already were. However, Blaze remained completely stone-faced as she kept the shard of fire-stone floating next to her. “Sorry, Quilly, not just yet, but you all will eat soon.” Blaze paused for a moment as she closed her eyes as if she was trying to fight something. “I promise.”

Quill threw her hands up in pure frustration and started to walk around in the circle, thinking of anything to distract her from the hunger in her belly. While Quill will was starting to crack, Frost kept her focus solely on the large shard floating next to Blaze. With each small pulse the thing gave off, she could sense more power coming from it, making her dragon bloodline threatening to overcome her mental control.

However, she did her best to make this unknown to any of the others, knowing this test was about will and self-control. If she ever wanted to be able to handle more magic, than she needed to have full control over herself.

Though with each stomach growl from one of the others, or from herself, this became harder and harder. ‘Got to remain strong,’ Frost recited in her head to retain some of her control, however, everyone had their breaking points. ‘This is my only chance to prove that I can-’

“I’m hungry...” All eyes turned towards Cyclone as she had her arms wrapped around her torso with a visible shake in her knees. That’s when the others started to shape up, Cyclone was the weakest one of them, and they needed them to be strong for her. Even Quill had to stop her pacing from the downcast tone in Cyclone’s voice.

“Clan-Mother...c-can I-”

“Cyclone,” Spike cut in before she could finish that sentence. Soon, the dragoness looked towards the friendly smile on the drake’s face, and did her best to return it. “Come on, we’ve only been out here for an hour at the most, and Blaze already said that we’ll eat soon.”

Cyclone slowly nodded her head as she forced herself to stand back up with the others. Frost looked over to the dragoness with a slight feeling of pity, of all of them Cyclone was the weakest one in both physical and magical aspects, and right now the most any of them could do for her was give words of encouragement.

“Yeah, Spike’s right,” Quill started with a smirk on her face while she stood proud with her arms crossed over her chest. “We’ve all been through worse than this, and besides, what else could happen?”

Blaze sat back and watched the four give each other words to keep themselves going. She was happy that they knew when to lend each other a hand; this would prove to be useful later, but she was here to test their individual resolve.

“Well now,” she started, crossing her legs, and leaning against the tree behind her while a gentle wind pushed through the clearing. Slowly, each dragon stopped their talking to see Blaze sparking her horn, and smiling towards them. “I’m glad to see you all working together, but…”

Suddenly, the fire-stone shard split into five separate fragments and one of them shot out towards each dragon. Each one came to a sudden stop right in front of their chests, still pulsing with the same odd type of magic, the likes of which none had seen before. Without time to understand the magic, a sudden flash of black feathers next to Blaze gave way to Isis.

“Isis,” Blaze began in a dark tone of voice while she kept an eye on each dragon’s reaction to the fragment of her pure nature magic. “Do what we’ve planned.” she continued with a darker tone of voice while the fragments started to periodically arc with magic

That’s when Frost was able to piece together what was happening, and what Blaze’s true plans were. One look towards the others only confirmed this. Spike was slowly reaching a hand out towards the fragment, Quill was moving to take it in her mouth, and Cyclone had fallen to her knees as she held the fragment in her hands.

‘This whole time she was waiting for us to break down and start helping each other.’ Frost turned back towards Blaze and Isis as the sphinx started to complete a spell she was instructed to do beforehand. ‘That way when she finally did separate us, it’d truly test our own wills.’

“Mistress,” Isis quietly whispered as her hands and eyes began glowing a crimson color. “The spell is ready.” Blaze stood from her seat and started to walk towards Frost as she was the only one left conscious to the world around her.

Once she was right in front of Frost’s circle, which had its own bluish-crimson glow to it, the motherly smile on Blaze’s face suddenly dropped into a stony frown. “The real test starts now,” she whispered in a grim tone before turning her back on the changeling half-breed. “Do it, Isis.”

“As you wish mistress,” Isis responded with a snap of her fingers that completed the spell. Suddenly, deep blood-red fields of magic surrounded each individual circle. The field of magic was so strong that it even blocked out outside influences, leaving only the red hue from the fire-fragment as the dragon’s source of light.

Blaze continued to stand in front of Frost’s dome, hoping that each dragon would be able to deal with their own greed, and wishing that there was something else she could do to help them. Blaze was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Isis walking towards her.

“Mistress,” she started, enclosing Blaze in her wings while she gently placed her hands on Blaze’s head to bring it down to her chest. “There is nothing to fear, they all are stronger than we think.” Blaze took in a slow deep breath and let out a long sigh as she wrapped her arms around Isis' back.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Frost snapped awake, opening her eyes with a sudden gasp of breath. Moments passed as she tried to get her breathing back under control and gather her thoughts. However, once she did, Frost found herself sitting in her mother’s throne room, on her mother’s throne.

She quickly tried to take in all of her surrounding to center herself; lit rows of torches lining the walls with a glowing green flame, towering doors made out of igneous stone that led out to other parts of the castle, a row of opened windows allowing any to view the mass-hive below along with the dormant volcano in the far distance, and finally the small legion of fully armored changeling guards standing at the doors.

For a moment, Frost truly believed that all of this was real. It felt like it. The smell of burning ash coming from the nearby volcano, dull heat from the lit torches, and the feel of the silk robes on her. Everything was as real as she could imagine it, but something felt...missing.

It felt like something very important was missing from her. As though there was a void in her heart, which now beat sullenly, as if reluctant to keep going without whatever it was that was missing. In fact, when she thought about it, she couldn’t feel much heat from anything. Even the heat from the torches wasn’t really heat, just a dull flicker in the wind.

Slowly, Frost remembered what happened moments before, and soon concluded that this was the final part of Blaze’s test. “How in the name of the threads did that sphinx do this?” she asked, standing in front of her mother’s throne, as she began walking away from it down the blackened marble steps.

As Frost continued to look around, she thought everything seemed to be exactly the same way she last remembered it. Walls made of hardened volcanic stone, glass tempered from the same volcano’s heat, and silk and cloth made from another breed of insect-equines.

Every little detail, from the tapestry hanging from the walls, to the buzzing outside, and the small click of her royal shoes on the stone floor. It was as though she was teleported straight back to her mother’s castle...but that was impossible.

There was no way Blaze or even Isis could have known where the hive was at in Everfree. By Tartarus, only changelings could ever find the mass-hive deep within the heart of Everfree. So how was Isis able to teleport her to the castle? It was simply impossible, unless…

She hadn’t been teleported.

“This is in my mind,” Frost said, the sudden realization hitting her. She felt like she could honestly do what Quill had told her about facepalming when she didn’t realize this fact earlier. Frost walked over towards the window to further confirm this. All she found was the buzzing was made by the massive swarm of changelings that kept the mass-hive up and running. Frost couldn’t help but feel a false sense of nostalgia wash over her at seeing the large numbers of changelings moving about to complete whatever task they were assigned since birth.

This didn’t mean they were happy about it, of course. Like many of the insect-equines, changelings shared some traits with some species of insects. One of these was that the queen’s rule was absolute. And since the queen had mandated that every changeling have a place in society, and not deviate from it, the changelings had no choice but to follow.

In spite of ruling with an iron fist, the queen took care of her changelings. All had food and emotions to sate their hunger; roofs over their heads; jobs, tasks, and other assignments to keep them occupied. For the drones, work was peace in the hive. They weren’t allowed to think otherwise.

Frost wanted to change that. She wanted the changelings to be more malleable, more open to the other races. Yes, they required the emotions of other races to live, but that didn’t mean that they had to hide in the shadows and always steal what they needed. She wanted the changelings to have a chance at living.

As Frost's mind wandered over her plans for the future of the hive, she noticed that the buildings were all just as she remembered them. Everything, even down to the smallest house and vendor stand in the streets were as she remembered. This was before she ruled over her own hive. Before Equestria came to fear the Changelings. Before Chrysalis' misguided attempt at taking the Equestrian throne. When Frost had been a foal.

“This isn’t right,” Frost muttered to herself, looking down to the streets below, and seeing each individual face. If there was one thing Frost hated the most, it was being stagnant, never growing, or changing. To even believe that everything was the same as she once last saw it was beyond a mild annoyance.

“Nice try, but this isn’t going to distract me from what’s important,” Frost claimed as she turned her back to the window and walked towards the towering doors. However, the small number of guards standing at the door stepped in front of her to prevent her from leaving.

The guards’ sudden movement startled Frost for a moment before she regained her composure. “Step aside, I would rather live my life in strife, than sit here in content,” she proclaimed with an air of absolute authority.

However, neither of the large guards heeded Frost’s command, making her think there was more to the test than she first realized. “Do you not know your places? I said step aside,” she repeated with a sharp glare into the blank greens of their eyes. Frost realized that it would take more for her to get the two out of her way, and if words wouldn’t work then she would have to use force.

“This is your last warning,” Frost said, creating a frozen halberd in her right hand while the other one was being encased in a small cyclone of wind. “Learn your places. Step aside or be moved.” Again, Frost’s answer came in the form of more blank stares from the two guards. Frost knew she wasn’t going to get out of this...reality until she got past the guards, but she still didn’t want to cause harm to any without reason.

Well, going home was a good enough reason.

“I warned you.” Frost started to rush the two guards, knowing that she could easily take them down, but was stopped by the stone ground wrapping around her feet. She tried to struggle against the stone bindings, however, her efforts proved fruitless. Right as she was going to demand to know what was going on, the sound of someone walking behind her stole her attention.

“Frost, my daughter,” sang a tall changeling mare, as she walked out from behind the throne. She had the body of the fairest of temptresses, yet the mind of a professional killer. Frost didn’t even need to see the mare, her voice was more than enough to make Frost realize who it was. “Now why is my little queen making so much fuss?” she mockingly asked as she took her time to walk down the steps with a natural sway of her powerful hips.

Frost again tried to work her way out of the stone bindings around her feet, only to meet failure as her mother slowly approached. She no longer cared if this was a part of the test or not, just seeing her mother’s image was enough to get Frost’s blood boiling.

“Do stop trying.” Frost heard her mother continue with an exaggerated sigh followed by a shake of her head. However, Frost refused to listen to the fake motherly tone in the older mare’s voice, redoubling her efforts to get free. She even went so far as to try to use her frozen halberd to break the stone.

Seeing her daughter’s refusal to listen, Frost’s mother sparked her horn, yanking the frozen halberd out of her daughter’s hands. The yank was so forceful that it would have made Frost fall over if it hadn’t been for the stone bindings on her feet. Once she recovered, Frost still tried to free herself from the stone bindings. Much to her mother’s displeasure.

“Come now,” she started, walking up behind her daughter, and stopping her struggling by wrapping her arms around her shoulders. Frost’s body stiffened up at the embrace from her mother’s cold body and found herself struggling with the fear she was feeling.

Continuing with the fake motherly act, the queen started to rock from side to side, and hum an off-tune lullaby. To any that heard the tune, they would instinctively think of it as a death-sentence, and Frost knew this.

“Don’t you think you’ve suffered enough?” Again, Frost’s body twitched from the cold tone in her mother’s voice, and started to pray it would somehow end on it’s own. “All this pointless fighting you do, there is no need. You could have it all if you just came home Frost.”

Frost lowered her head to the point her eyes were concealed behind her mane and did nothing to stop her mother from continuing. Something in her mother’s words sparked a small flame in her chest that was craving more power. “Sweetie, don’t you want it? The throne, the army of changelings ready to bend over just for you, and the power. It could all be yours if you just stay here.”

“Yes,” Frost quickly answered, forcing a smile to stretch on her mother’s mouth. In truth, Frost did want all of that, and so much more. The crown, an army of changelings backing her, and the power that came with it all. However, she wanted something--or rather--someone else as well. “I do mother, I want every bit of that, but…”

The smile on her mother’s face slowly dropped, and all of the fake comforting motions ceased as well. “But what, Frost?!” she spat out with volcanic venom lacing every edge of her voice. All the changeling queen got in response was a slight scoffing laugh from Frost that furthered her annoyance. “Answer me, Frost! What else is there that I can’t give you, I demand to know.”

“Oh mother,” Frost started, forcing her own gentle rocking motion, and continuing to laugh. “While you’re content with what you have, I on the other hand want more. That’s what makes us different.” The queen’s eyes widened at the increasingly mocking tone in Frost’s voice, not believing the defiance that she was getting from her daughter. “All you’ll ever know is what is inside these walls. Don’t you see? Your own power and title have made you a prisoner.”

“And that makes us different how?” the queen snapped with a deep scowl on her face as she failed to understand what more Frost could want. “You to want the same power as me, so what makes us different?” the queen questioned, only getting more mocking laughter as an answer. “I fail to see how I’m a prisoner of my own power, and that you are not.”

Frost continued to laugh at her mother’s darkening voice; she no longer had a reason to fear her. All these years and she hadn’t changed, she was still the same quick tempered mare from her youth, and wasn’t nearly as threatening as before. Frost would take the throne, maybe not today, or even months after this. But she would never stop growing stronger, she would never allow herself to grow complacent with her life; she would never stagnate.

Besides, this wasn’t even even real.

“I”m so sorry to disappoint you mother,” Frost started with a cheer in her voice that burned her mother straight through the core. “Though, we’re different even if you fail see it.” Suddenly, the stone bindings around Frost’s ankles started to slowly chip away as the guards’ eyes slowly changed from a blank green to a bright shining blue. “We both may want power, we both may want to own it all, but I have someone to fight with me.”

“Th-that changes nothing,” the queen started with a stammering shout, only adding to Frost’s laughter. “No one could ever truly lo-” Suddenly, the queen was cut off by her daughter ceasing her rocking. Before she could do anything to question the sudden stop, a strong blast of wind knocked the queen off of Frost’s body, and back onto her throne.

The impact with the harden volcanic stone knocked some of the air out of the mare’s lungs, but Frost kept going. “You’re all alone,” she stated, taking a look back at the shocked expression on her mother’s face. Even if this is nothing but a false reality inside of her head, Frost did take some joy knowing that her mother from her past was weaker than she is now.

It didn’t compare to the power her mother held now, but knowing she might eventually have a chance to beat her gave Frost hope. It gave her a reason to keep moving. “You may think you know what true power is, but that’s only made you blind.”

Frost turned her head back towards the legion of guards and glared each one in the shining blue eyes. “Step. Aside.” Not even two seconds passed before the door was clear of guards as each one of them stood aside to let the changeling princess through. Right as Frost placed her hands on the door, she turned to take one last look towards her mother. “I will be back, I will be much stronger, and I will take the throne from you.”

Without another word, Frost pushed open the doors, and walked out of her mother’s throne room, vowing to come back to take it from her. However, unbeknownst to Frost, as she started to leave, a soft smile grew on her mother’s face.

“I know, my dear Frost.”

“Woohoo!” Blasting through the clouds, high above the ground, a certain purple and green dragoness tore through the clear skies. Flying high made Quill feel free from every worry that plagued her life. Feeling the rushing winds against her scales, hearing it pass by, her wings beating with power and strength that belonged only to her. All of this made Quill feel safe, and more importantly, free.

Somehow, she knew this was all still a part of Blaze’s test. After waking up falling in the skies, but quickly recovering, one would think that the mare had more planned, but to Quill it didn’t matter. Up here in the skies, she had no worries to weigh her down. Nothing could hope to touch her as long as she could keep flying.

So, she did just that.

“This is awesome!” Quill shouted as she ripped through the skies with the wind flowing freely around her. What more could she want? She had her powerful wings and all the time in the world to use them to their full potential.

All she could ever want was in the skies. She had it all to herself, no one to tell her what to do, no one to pull her down from the skies, no one that ‘needed’ her to do things for them. It was just her, and the open free world of the clouds.

Up in the skies, Quill was her own dragoness, and she didn’t have to worry about anything else any more. “Yeah!” She could waste the whole day spinning, flipping, and diving down to the ground all she want. She didn’t have to worry about anything; up here, she was...all alone.

Slowly, Quill came to a stop mid-air, just now feeling the hollowness in her heart eating away at her for her selfish choice to abandon everything around her, and realizing something very important was missing from her.

“Woo...woo-hoo,” she forced herself to fakely cheer while she continued to hover above the ground. “W-what more could a dragoness want…” A family, that’s what Quill’s true answer was. All her life, she had wanted to be accepted amongst the ponies, however the truth soon hit her like a sack of sapphire gems.

How could she be accepted if she was destined to outlive all of them? How could she hope to think any of the actually loved her if they knew nothing about dragons? Hell, over half of Equestria fears dragons. So what was really stopping them from turning on her one day?

“N-no, that’s not my life any more.” As much as she tried to push it away, Quill still couldn’t shake the feeling that one day she would have met the wrong end of an angry mob. Well, not any more so as long as she stayed with Wolf in High Moon, but why did she have this feeling in her chest? A feeling that told her one day, on her own terms or not, she’d have to face this pointless racism.

“Whatever.” No longer feeling up to flying, Quill started to lower herself to the ground, choosing a volcano as her destination. Just smelling the active magma and ash in the air was enough to make Quill think about the first time she and Spike tried to learn how real dragons lived.

Having nothing else to do, Quill closed her eyes to remember the short two days she and Spike spent with their own kind. During the short trek, as Quill wings hadn’t grown in yet, she had wondered what life would have been like if they were raised by their own kind. Would they still be the same? Would she be still the brash and proud dragoness that she is? Would Spike actually have a backbone?

Well, the only way she was going to get any of these answers, was if they actually made it to the dragon nest. However, when they did reach the top of the volcano, Quill was beyond disappointed with the answers.

As they reached the top, Quill found that the dragonesses were inside of the volcano instead outside with the other dragons. So, she had to leave Spike to deal with the tougher drake lifestyle while she ventured inside of the volcano. Quill could never forget what it was like being inside of an actual volcano, the feeling was like something she would never be able to fully understand. Nostalgia with a sense of resentment.

Back then, she didn’t know why she felt like that, but the answer came quicker than she expected. Right as she found herself inside the volcano, she was quickly showered in attention from all the older dragonesses. Most of which were trying to claim her as their own child. It was slightly overwhelming at first, but she soon found an elder dragoness to hang onto for the time being.

However, that’s when she learned of the dragonesses traditional lifestyle. Egg care-takers. Most of the dragonesses barely had any knowledge of how to function outside of caring for the young. And while Quill did enjoy having someone else do the work for her, she didn’t enjoy learning that this was the fate of most dragonesses: becoming nothing but a brood dragon.

To say this slightly enraged Quill would be a grave understatement. All this time she had thought that dragonesses were supposed to be proud and powerful, only to find that they were nothing but egg care-takers. Quill thought of her constant drive to become stronger as a way to spite the traditional dragoness lifestyle that she hated.

She had hoped that one day, she’d grow strong enough to free any dragoness from this misconception, and show them that there’s more to life than laying and caring for eggs. She also hoped to see the dragon empire, to see what kind of kingdom the dragons could forge on their own, to really know how a dragon lives. And she couldn’t do that alone.

She needed others by her side, she needed to find a way to prove to the world that she wasn’t just some other dragoness that was destined to grow into a monster. Quill wanted to make sure that everyone that committed crimes against dragon-kind was dealt with in their own way.

The mysterious unicorns stealing dragon magic, dragon-hunters, and even Celestia. All of them had a hand in Equestria’s fears of dragons, they were the reasons that dragons were shunned and feared throughout the kingdom.

There was no way she was going to allow them to walk away free like they hadn’t done anything wrong. And there was definitely no way that she was going to let Celestia walk away, not until Quill had all of her answers.

“I want out,” Quill started in a low whisper before she turned her head up to the sky. “Get me out of here!” she shouted towards the skies above with a tower of flames erupting from her power. “There’s still so much I need to get done, so much that I want to do. So. Let. Me. OUT!” Suddenly, the volcano that Quill was standing on erupted with its own roar of power and anger.

Columns of lava sprung forth from the ground surrounding Quill in a ring of magma and fire. “I will not stop, not until I’m ready to!”

Hours had passed since the dragons had begun the final part of the test. During the day, Lily had brought Blaze and Isis lunch, informing Blaze that Wolf was back with Veil asleep. When Blaze questioned why Veil was asleep, Lily told her that Wolf said she’d fallen asleep walking back to High Moon, and that the farm-hand job was a complete bust.

Knowing that there was nothing else that could be done, Blaze thanked the flutterpony, and waved her off to do whatever else she wanted to do that day. However, before Lily left, she asked how the dragons were doing with their tests after eying the domes of dull red and blue covering over where she suspected them to be.

Blaze simply said that they were doing fine and that they would be done any minute. Lily took another minute or so to stare at the domes covering over each dragon before she took Blaze’s word.

The very moment the flutterpony had left, Blaze let out a long sigh, and made a slight vow to make it up to Lily one day. She lied, the test wasn’t going alright, and the dragons weren’t doing as well as she had hoped they would. At the very least, she expected Cyclone to quickly break through Isis’ illusion spell before anyone else, then she thought Spike would follow with Frost and Quill right after.

However, instead of an hour or two, nearly four hours had passed, and she was starting to become increasingly worried. Even with Blaze hiding much of this, Isis was able to pick up on the subtle signals that her mistress was giving off, and moved quickly to comfort her.

“Mistress, please calm down.” Blaze looked up towards the sphinx standing next to her. When Blaze locked eyes with Isis, she could feel the worry in them just as much as she was feeling, however, that only made Blaze worry even more. “I’m sure that they are fine,” Isis continued comforting Blaze knowing that the dragons would be fine regardless of how this ended.

Right as she was going to further try to quell her mistress' worries, Isis suddenly got a strong feeling coming from two of the magical domes, and knew that it was two of the dragons completing the test. “In fact, here are a couple of them now.”

Blaze quickly looked from the sphinx towards the four glowing domes of illusion magic. Soon after, one of the domes started to slowly fade away, leaving Frost standing with her eyes closed. Both Blaze and Isis rushed towards the changeling half-breed as she collapsed to the ground with a wheezing breath.

“Frost, Frost, please tell me you’re okay,” Blaze begged, worried to death about the younger mare, and fearing that she was somehow hurt by Isis' illusion spell. However, the changeling didn’t respond to any of Blaze’s pleas, furthering her worries. “Frost, please speak to me.”

Frost placed a hand on top of her head and started to blink away the blurriness in her eyes. “Y-yes, yes I’m fine,” she started to get up from the ground, feeling a dull pain on the left side of her head.

As her mistress was helping the mare up, Isis felt another strong feeling, this one much more volatile than Frost’s. Looking towards the dome of magic over Quill, Isis spotted the deep crack lines growing along the dome’s walls, and the small embers of purple flame. “Oh-no, mistress, Frost, get away from there!” she shouted, fearing that the dragoness was breaking through the illusion with force, and that Blaze and Frost would be caught in the sudden explosion that would be the result.

However, neither mares were able to heed her warning before the dome continued cracking like stuttering glass. Isis quickly teleported between the dome and the mares, setting up the strongest barrier she could make in the half-second before Quill’s dome erupted with volcanic fury.

The empty field was now filled with the sound of the dragoness' roar as she let out a towering purple and white inferno. Frost nearly lost control at the display of Quill’s full power while both Isis and Blaze feared that she had given in to her greed.

Quill’s display of fire-magic burned so bright that grass underneath her feet started to ignite from the sheer heat coming from her. Blaze quickly placed a small barrier around Quill’s circle to prevent the fire from spreading outwards while Quill continued to roar.

Soon, the towering inferno began to die as Quill dropped to her hands and knees with a ragged breath. Frost quickly moved to support her lover, but was stopped by Blaze who told Isis to go fetch them some water.

Isis quickly flew off in search for the nearest stream to carry out her mistress' order while the two mares went to the dragoness' side. Again, Blaze told Frost not to touch Quill until they knew exactly what was wrong with her, but asked her if it was possible for her to use healing-water on her.

Frost shook her head saying that Quill’s fire dried the air around them, making her dragon-magic completely useless in this situation, however she still had some changeling magic on her.

She closed her eyes as her horn sparked with magic to send some of it for Quill’s dragon’s soul to latch onto. As Frost begin to use some of her magic to restore some of Quill’s, Isis landed with an orb of water encased in her own magic, and quickly moved to help the changeling.

Frost quickly switched magic, leaving her feeling slightly drained, but still able to use her water-magic to stream the water over Quill’s body. However, as it got close, some of the water began evaporating nearly instantly.

Soon though, the water was able to reach Quill’s body, allowing Frost to start using the healing-water technique on Quill, and quickly started to show good results. Quill’s ragged breaths soon slowed down to calmer breaths, which rapidly returned to her normal breathing.

“Th-thanks Frost,” Quill started with her voice still cracked a little with a slight cough following right after. She then tried to stand on her own, only to be forced into Blaze’s large chest.

“Oh Quill,” Blaze started, sounding like she was near in tears, and tightening her grip around Quill’s shoulders. Quill struggled to get free from the mare’s surprisingly strong grip, and was soon helped by Isis placing a hand on Blaze’s shoulder. Blaze soon blushed when she realized that she was suffocating the dragoness like she used to do all the time two months ago.

When Blaze finally let Quill free, the dragoness almost stumbled back, but was saved by Frost stopping her fall. However, before Quill could thank her mare, Frost spun her around, and sealed her lips in a deep kiss.

Quill was cut off by her mare’s sudden movement, and found herself returning the gesture, soon reclaiming dominance over it. Though, Frost pulled back before her mating instincts could fully take control. “Quill,” she started in a low whisper as she ran her hands down Quill’s back. “What happened in there?”

For a moment all Quill could do was blankly stare into Frost’s shining eyes as she felt something different about them but soon her words processed in her head. “H-huh? Oh, nothing, I just kind of got mad at some old memories.”

“Memories like?” Isis started walking towards the couple with Blaze following close behind. “If they were painful memories I must apologize,” she continued, bowing her head towards both of the lovers, and raising it to fully answer their questions. “The spell was my doing but I didn’t mean to do any harm.”

Frost sensed the worry and remorse coming from the sphinx and knew she really didn’t mean any harm to either of them, neither did Blaze. “It’s okay,” Quill started, rubbing her slightly sore throat to get rid of prickly soreness out, but knew that it was only going to heal in a short while. “They’re nothing but some memories of when the dragon migration came around here.”

“You were in the migration?” Blaze asked, remembering the once in a lifetime event of the dragon mass-migration that happened not too long ago. She had wanted to follow and study the dragons, but Wolf had stopped her when he said those dragons would roast her on the spot.

She was slightly miffed that Wolf stopped her from making the once-in-a-lifetime choice, however, after a bit of thought, she did finally see his side of the argument. But to hear that the twins were in it made the curiosity in Blaze spark. “How long did you two stay? Did you meet any elder dragons? How did they live their lives? Ohhh, tell me everything!”

Silence was Blaze’s answer as everyone, even Isis, took a step back from Blaze. None of them expected the fury of questions. However, Quill was able to regain some composure to begin to processing Blaze’s questions. “Um, we were only there for two days, I did, dunno about Spike, and…”

Suddenly, Frost sensed a massive drop in Quill’s emotions, going down towards bitterness and anger, but pushed it aside as she continued to answer. “I-I kind of didn’t ‘agree’ with the dragoness lifestyle they had.” Blaze’s excitement died down a little when she saw the bitterment in Quill’s eyes and started to worry that she brought something up that Quill didn’t want to. “T-they were...egg care-takers, nothing more.”

“Oh, I see,” Blaze started with a slight frown at the somewhat disappointing news. Just like Quill, Blaze thought of a dragoness a proud and powerful creatures, but then she thought of something else. “So wouldn’t that mean that Cyclone would have been like that as well?”

Again, Frost felt Quill’s emotions shift from bitterment to a growing rage, and quickly thought of something to quell her dragoness. “Most likely,” Frost answered quickly to get the mare’s question out of the way so she could take Quill somewhere quiet. “Quill sweetie,” she began, wrapping her arms around Quill’s midsection, and moving her mouth towards her ear. “Could I speak with you…” Frost moved closer towards Quill’s ear to whisper, “in private?”

Quill slightly tilted her head towards her mare to see that her eyes were shining slightly, still with a different feel to them. “Uh...s-sure Frost,” she answered with a slight nod. Quill then turned towards the two adults, who was looking at the two lovers with a large amount of curiosity. “Hey Blaze, is it cool that we fly up to a cloud while Spike and Cyclone are still testing?”

“Sure you two, just no magic okay?” Both Quill and Frost nodded their heads in an answer towards the mare that they both held high respect for. “We’ll call you if something comes up,” Blaze continued, waving the two of them off with a bright smile.

Quill and Frost returned the smile and nod before unfurling their wings and taking off towards the nearest cloud that was high enough from the ground. Isis watched the two fly off while Blaze walked over to their circles and lit her horn. Slowly, two lightly pulsing fire-fragments were lifted out of the dirt, and floated towards Blaze’s hand.

“Well mistress,” Isis started, looking back down from the sky and towards her mistress. “How did they do?” she continued to ask, walking over to Blaze as she still studied the light pulsing in the fragments, and knowing there were two parts to Blaze’s test. Both lovers seemed to have passed the first part fairly well, however, what her mistress had to say would prove if they really passed it or not.

Once right behind her mistress, Isis wrapped her arms around her body, and moved towards her ear. As Isis continued to rub her mistress' stomach, which was holding the future of High Moon in it, she took a small nibble on Blaze’s hear. However, the mare seemed to be too focused in her studying to pay much mind to her sphinx’s motions.

Soon, Isis ceased her rubbing, and released her mistress' ear so she could further add her input on the matter. “Quill seems to have more power than before and there’s something different about Frost,” Isis noted, knowing that it had to deal with something about the test, but wanting to hear what her mistress' verdict was.

Blaze continued to eye the two fragments as they orbited around each other with their own magical gravitation. Each blood-red pulse helped lead Blaze to an answer, however as she slightly feared, it seemed to be neither good nor bad.

“They passed,” Blaze concluded before she sparked her horn to fuse the two fragments together as one slightly larger shard and still pulsed with her and Isis' magic. Again, Blaze began to slowly breath just like this morning as the magic trapped inside was pulling at her own dragon’s soul, but she was able to retain control.

However, the same couldn’t be entirely spoken for about the two lovers. Blaze could tell that she and Isis weren’t the only ones to notice the difference in them. Whatever Frost had to ‘speak’ with Quill about was sure to be something about the test.

Blaze clenched her fist on the shard and placed it into a small pouch at her side before turning around to face Isis. “But they only did just so.”