High Moon Ch 5:

Lessons and Plans

“Spike, are you sure that you should be carrying all of those books?” Spike and Lily were already walking through the tunnels towards the temple while Peewee and Cinder flew above their heads to meet up with Wolf and the other females of the pack. When Lily showed Spike the High Moon archives, he was far be on impressed with the amount of knowledge that was sealed away in the ruins, and was given a surprise when he learned that in ancient times ponies in Equestria had an expansive knowledge about dragons.

However that knowledge wasn’t for good use as ‘dragon-hunters,’ used the knowledge to track and kill dragons of any age, and collected trophies out of their scales and bones. The information horrified Spike but at the same time gave a small glimmer of hope. Hope that maybe because of the dragon-hunters that Celestia banned the practice and buried any knowledge about dragon’s.

Thought Lily pointed out if that was the case, than Celestia still would have known more about dragons than she first lead onto, and she would have added to Twilight’s studies for her to be able to properly take care of him and Quill.

The thought slightly saddened Spike a little but Lily also said that Celestia could have been reluctant to teach Twilight about dragons for whatever reasons she must had a the time. Spike’s mood again quickly changed it to a much more cheerful one as they grabbed the last of the books before heading out.

“It’s alright Ms. Winds, I used to carry much more than this back at the library, and it’s not that much trouble,” Spike said, unable to look over the fairly large stack of books about dragon magic and culture. Lily looked over the comedic sight of Spike trying to walk with the stack of book over the top of his head while she simply just carried a single book in her hands. However this book would prove to be the most important one of the whole stack.

“Alright Spike if you say so, and you don’t have to call me by my last name. We’re in the same pack together, which kind of makes us family.” Going eight years without knowing where her hive was or what state it was in, Lily happily called the others her family since they’ve been more helpful than her old hive. Granted that Wolf and Lily weren’t on good terms until the twins arrival and the re-prioritizing of their collected focus.

“Okay M- Lily,” Spike said, catching himself, and getting Lily to laugh with him shortly following. It amazed Lily at how much twins had changed the pack in the very short amount of time they have been around, she couldn’t wait to see what else will change in the next few months, but only time will tell.

Lily placed a hand on the stack of books in Spike’s hands, stopping his movement as they came to the arcane-stone slab door while both Peewee and Cinder landed on Spike’s shoulders. Lily walked over to the stone slab and reached into a pouch on her side that was attached to a brown-leather belt Wolf made for her in exchange for a favor that had her sent to the Rainbow Falls. She pulled out a small piece of fire-stone that Blaze happily made her so she could visit anytime she wished.

The slab door started to move over allowing the two to walk in the large room. Upon doing so, their senses were filled with the smell of cooking meat as Blaze was instructing Quill how to cook meat, which was easier for the dragoness than it should have been.

Quill kept her attention on the task in front of her while Blaze turned to the other members of the pack still wearing the same outfit from yesterday. “Oh hi Lily, Peewee and Cinder, and stack of books?”

Lily laughed at the mare’s unintended joke while Spike just sighed from behind the wall of ancient tomes. “It’s Spike Blaze, he um...’offered’ to carry all the books from the archives.” With her hand on the back of his head, Lily led Spike over to the corner of the room where smoke chamber was at as Quill continued to slow roast the piece of rabbit meat. “Quill I thought you said that you can’t cook.”

The dragoness pause the steady stream of flames to take a few quick breaths. “I don’t, or rather couldn’t before, but this feels...right? I dunno,” She said, looking at the piece of rabbit meat hanging on a steel-thread attached to the ceiling. “So how I did?”

Blaze stared at the piece charred meat, having cooked meat for Wolf countless times over the last eight years, only one thing she could think to say about it. “I dunno.” Quill’s jaw almost fell to the floor at the mare’s seriousness of her voice. After all the instructions she been giving her about cooking meat, Quill had thought if anyone would be able to tell how she did it was Blaze. “In the sense, I don’t know how it taste. I just cook it and Wolf tells me how good it is or not, sometimes he just eats it raw, but most of the time he doesn’t complain.”

“Well how is that going to help me?”

“Hey, like every good chief says, taste it yourself and find out,” Blaze said with a knowing tone in her voice. Quill looked at the piece of meat with caution, she had no idea what it would taste like, and she was actually reconsidering the idea. However with the knowledge that dragons needed to eat some kind of meat, she pushed onwards as she took the meat off of the steel-thread, and brought it close to her nose for a quick whiff.

The smell was an odd one to her, yet her mouth started to water from it. Dull and slightly burnt by her fire but that’s what made it more delicious smelling for her, the same exact smell as from the camp fires Applejack showed her how to start without her fire-breath, and it brought a sense of nostalgia to the dragoness. She opened her mouth to take a piece of it in and started to chew the small bite. The hesitant chewing slowly turned into a more joy filled smacking as her fangs ripped apart the tendered smoked meat.

“Well Quill what you think,” Blaze asked, seeing the satisfied look on Quill’s face told her everything she needed to know. Instead of answering, Quill started to bite down on the rest of the rabbit meat, and used her sharp fanged teeth to wrench the smoked meat off of the bone. She had never tasted something so delicious before in her life, in comparison with the other foods she ate before, the slightly overcooked meat was far better than any gem-stone she had ever eaten before.

Spike had already found a wall to place the books against and was captivated by his sister tearing through the meat as if she hadn’t eaten in days--which both of them kind of have done. He too started to become curious about the taste Quill must be experiencing right now. Drool started to form around the corners of his mouth as his wanders lead him to believe that the meat must be the best thing in the world and Blaze caught this.

“Oh Spikey,” She called out to the drooling drake, who tore his attention from Quill as she continued to devour any pieces of meat her tongue could taste, and turned to Blaze whose horn was glowing a soft crimson as she levitated a piece of already cooked rabbit towards him. “I bet you're just as hungry as Quill.”

It wasn’t long before both dragons were devouring on the rabbit meat, Quill had already started to chew on the bones to get any reminding meat off it, and Spike took massive bites of just about anything he could sink his teeth into.

Lily tapped Blaze on the shoulder and motioned her head toward the other door to the temple. Blaze understood what Lily was trying to say as the two left the pair of dragons to devour their first ever meal of meat. Blaze activated the spell on the arcane-stone door to lead Lily to where Wolf was at.

“So what’s up,” She asked walking up the stairs, sure that they were out of earshot of the twins.

“It’s about Spike,” Lily sighed as she followed Blaze up the stairs and into the room where Quill spelt last night where Wolf was hard at work using his claws, that can carve through solid lime-stone, to carve out wooden chairs from fallen oak-trees. The mare’s short conversation grabbed the attention of the diamond dog as he fitted the last leg on the chair.

Wolf got up from the cold stone ground, dusting off any wood shavings from his hand, and walking towards the mare’s. “What’s about Spike?” As head of the pack, Wolf wanted to make sure that everyone was safe and secure within his territory, no matter the cost. “He’s not having second thoughts about anything, is he?” Wolf had a feeling that Spike’s resolve wasn’t strong enough for him to see through the change in lifestyle and could undo all of his plans for them and the pack before they could start.

Lily shook her head, only slightly upset that Wolf would initially think that Spike couldn’t handle being in the pack for more than two days, but she put that aside for more pushing matter had to be dealt with. “No, no, no it’s not that. In fact both he and Quill are downstairs tearing apart some rabbit meat. No it has to deal with something else entirely.”

Wolf raised an eyebrow, curious to what the mare could have meant, and by the tone of her voice it was something serious. “Alright I’ll bite, what is it?” Over the last eight years, Wolf had gone to trust Lily’s intuition and insight as it has helped save his life numerous occasions before, and if it could prove to help with both dragons then he is willing to listen.

“Both Spike and Quill have unsettled lust that is messing with them.” A long stretch of time passed after the mare’s words as Wolf stared straight at Lily, each second felt longer than the last for the mare while Blaze felt slightly out of place not sure what to do. However, that stretch of silence was shattered by Wolf erupting in hysterical laughter. His body doubled over onto the floor from the gut-turning laughter, all the years Lily had gave him advice on something, and bring something to his attention when it needed it the most; she goes and say the dumbest thing he ever heard of.

Merely glancing up to the mare was enough to send him back into a fit of laughter. “W-wait, wait...I think I’m going to throw-up,” Wolf said, holding his stomach from the side-splitting laughter. Eventually he did regained enough composure to stand and speak clearly. “Okay, Lily. What in Cerberus’s great name are you talking about?”

Lily sighed, finally getting the chance to explain herself better about the real pressing situation. “Right, I know it sounds odd, but it’s the truth. Just this morning, Spike was...experiencing these urges, and it’s only a matter of time before Quill follow suit.” Wolf looked towards Blaze, who--after doing her own studying of dragons--had a knowing look on her face that told the dog that the mares weren’t joking.

Wolf completely straightened out after realizing that the mares were serious about the matter. “Okay, so the two are going through urges, but what can we really do about it? It’s not like we can just walk into some town and force someone to have sex with them. No, this is something that they must overcome themselves.” Both mare’s nodded their heads in agreement, there was only so much they could do for the twins, and something like desires was out of their control.

“As true as that is Wolf, we do need to keep an eye on it, and keep Spike separated from Quill when they sleep,” Lily said, momentarily reliving the memories of the early wakeup call, and how she shameful she felt from enjoying Spike’s inexperienced hands. “Also we need to keep a closer eye on Quill. Judging by her personality, she’ll only become more aggressive as time goes onwards, and she may ‘force’ herself on Spike.”

Blaze started to blush by what Lily meant while pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, let’s not let that happen.” Lily nodded towards him, already thinking of a sure-fire way to keep the unwanted event from happening. Wolf carefully picked up the finished wooden chair and set it aside so it’ll be out of anyone’s way. “Well, we better head towards the falls. Its been awhile since I last bath, I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I can say that one is due for all of us.”

Blaze clapped her hands together in joy. “Oh good, I’m sorry Wolf, but dried dog hair smells just awful.” Wolf rolled his eyes while the mares shared a good laugh before walking out of the room and back down the stairs. The three saw both dragons nose-deep sharing a book while Cinder toyed with Peewee in a flying game the birds had created for themselves.

Wolf told the mare’s that he’ll grab a change of clothes for them, since Blaze has no problem with Lily wearing the bits of clothes that fit the mare, while they walked over to the twins. Blaze grabbed the book out of their hands with her magic, gaining their full attention. “Spike, Quill grab your things, we’re heading to a nearby waterfalls to bath, and I’m sure that you two could use it.” Both dragons lifted their arms to smell their efforts of the last near three full days of not bathing. Blaze started to giggle when it looked like Quill was going to pass out from her own musky scent. “You to packed a change of clothes when you ran from home right?”

“Y-yeah, I know I did,” Spike said, already having recovered from the blast of musky smell from him. Both mares then turned their attention to Quill, who stared at the ground like she trying to burn a hole through the ground. “Quill you did pack some clothes, right?”

Quill whipped her head towards Spike, immediately locking eyes with him. “No, I didn’t think I would need them, and I especially didn’t think we would have to run to Everfree forest. So no I don’t have any extra clothes with me.” The dragoness’s eyes burned holes straight through Spike’s head, sending him reeling back.

“Okay Quill that’s enough,” Blaze said, placing a hand on Quill’s shoulder. “Neither of you could have foresaw what happened, so it’s not fair for you to blame Spike like that.” The mare’s kind yet firm words was enough to get Quill to cease her fierce gaze. “Now I’m sure I have some old clothes that would fit you...with some changes,” She said, taking Quill by the hand, and leading her to her room. Before Blaze and Quill were out of the room, she shot Spike one last gaze, and made sure to look him dead in the eyes.

Even for that split moment, the twins locked eyes, and Spike could feel all of Quill’s lingering resentment about the ‘accident’ three days ago along with another look that he couldn’t place his finger on, he knows that he seen it before; on some of the mare’s back in Ponyville, but before he could take a guess she was gone along with the gaze.

Lily was able to catch the dragoness’s gaze and knew that it was only meant for Spike. While he didn’t know what the gaze’s true intentions were, being a female herself, and also having seen Blaze shot it to Wolf numerous times before. She looked over to Spike, only to find that he was still confused by his sister sudden aggression, and the other look the gaze held.

“Spike, are you going to be okay?” She placed a hand on Spike’s shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts, and gaining his full attention.

“Y-yeah, I’ll be fine.” Spike tried to put on the bravest face he could but Lily could easily see through the guise of toughness. Before Lily could further question it, Spike had already started for his book-bag that had his change of clothes, and also some of the books to read and study during the trip. “Come on Lily, Wolf and the others are properly waiting for us outside. Peewee, Cinder you two stay here, alright?”

“Spike, Lily! Let’s go,” Wolf called from the top floor of the temple. Spike didn’t waste any time before he started up the stairs with a concern Lily following shortly behind.

High on top of the Canterlot mountain, in the great hall of the city’s own castle, the heads of each individual department of the Solar guard were all in a mass meeting with Celestia about the twins’ somehow complete disappearance.

The meeting itself started off on the wrong foot when several department heads were a few minutes late after having to deal with a few of their squad members having disagreements amongst themselves about the twins.

After two full days of circulated searching detail had all the squads and teams on edge as most have already given up hope on finding them while the others want to continued to look for the runaway dragons.

All aside from Obsidian’s team, guards have returned injured by the creatures of Everfree forest, and by being constantly pushed be on what they all can do. This is the reason Celestia called for the meeting, to put an end to the guard's internal conflict amongst each other, and to find a compromise that would work out best in the end.

However even this turned to be a difficult task.

A golden armored hand slammed against the soiled marble meeting table that housed all five department heads, leaving massive crack lines alongside of the edge, and belonging to none other than Major Endive “I demand to know why you think that,” She shouted at Obsidian after his proposal about the situation. “Mutt, what you asking is-”

“Major Endive, that’s quite enough,” Celestia shouted at the high ranking mare, questioning her skills as an officer of the crown. “You had your turn and the motion was denied. Sergeant Obsidian will get the chance to explain his proposal just you and the others have. Now sit back down or I’ll have you removed,” The solar princess commanded with a glare that none of the department heads had seen on the mare before. After a few more moments, Celestia breath out a sigh to came the high-strung nerves that had work their way up. “Now Sergeant, you were saying?”

“Thank you princess,” Obsidian said, bowing his head respectively before going back his suggestion. “As I was saying, I think we should have one last search of Everfree with the elements of harmony, princess Celestia, and all five of us. This will be an one day expedition, expanding no longer than eight hours.” Hushed murmurs came over the department heads, the conflict amongst their teams, and the numerous hours wasted during the search had all of them considering Obsidian’s ultimatum. “In the case that we do find the twins, we are not to use force to get them back, instead we will allow them to choose if they want to remain living amongst ponies.”

Endive stood up from her chair so quick that she knocked it over. “That’s insane!” The attention of the entire room turned towards her as Obsidian was going to shout at the mare for contently trying to shoot down his plan but Celestia stopped him to allow the mare to explain herself. “May I remind you that they are still kids, how can you expect them to take care of themselves, and fight off those...monsters in that a caused forest?”

“May I remind you that they are dragons, teenage ones to be more exact.” Endive raised an angry eyebrow at the dog but was cut off before she could question him about. “And if you was raised in the Lunar Republics like I was, you would know that any dragon, regardless of age, are fully able to take care of himself before any foal even their cutie mark.”

Endive gritted her teeth at the dog’s higher knowledge of dragons than just about anyone in the room. “I don’t care what you think, mutt. All I care about is getting these children back home.”

“Oh really,” Obsidian asked with a dark chuckle. “Than tell me why is it you care so much?” The unicorn started to shake, weather it was from her anger, or Obsidian hitting the hammer on the nail; no one could know. “Why is it that any of us cares that they get back to princess Sparkle’s arms? Is it a sense of duty, for a quick paycheck, or do you not really care and just following orders?” Obsidian started to walk around the room, making sure to lock eyes with every department head, and continued towards Celestia.

“Mutt you better-”

“Let me tell you why I’m trying to let them fend for their own,” Obsidian again started, ignoring the glares Endive was giving him. “See, I left my home in the republics when I was merely ten years old, and I haven’t regretted much of it. I was raised to be my father’s replacement in the pack as alpha. Well, I didn’t want the job, so I left. During those eight years I’ve spent on my own, the world had taught me a lot.”

Obsidian finally reached the end of the room, where Celestia sat on top of a high throne design only for the meetings, and the two locked eyes. “The world taught me that life, sucks. Living on your own, unable to depend on anyone else is the hardest thing someone can go through.” He turned around to face his fellow head members to continue his speech. “I was on my own, I had to do things that I dare not tell any other, and I sometimes wish I could bury all of those memories. But life doesn’t work like that.”

Slowly, the other members started to become invested into Obsidian’s final pleas as some of them could relate to his life experiences. “I was alone, however the twins are not. They have each other and I firmly believe that nothing in this world can--or will--tear them apart. All of us are lucky enough know--or known--our parents, but the twins didn’t have such luck. The closest that they have to family is each other, which is why I believe that they will never separate from each other.”

He turned back around to Celestia, immediately locking eyes with her. “Princess, we all know that you yourself raised the twins, and we all know the feeling a mother goes through after their children move on. Which is why I’m asking you to allow the twins to make their own decisions, to allow them to prove themselves to this world we all call home.”

An elongated silence befell the room as everyone waited with extreme anticipation at what Celestia was thinking. Every passing second was another reason she could use to think how to shoot Obsidian’s plan down and another reason she could approve the plan. Each department head waited on the edge of their seats, they themselves haven’t fully been able to answer all of the dog’s weighing questions, and now all of the were considering his plan.

Most of them.

“You have got to be joking,” Endive started wrenching everyone out of their own separate thoughts. “We’re putting the lives of two innocent children--raised by Celestia herself--at risk on the pitiful life you once lived,” She scoffed in hopes to somehow poke holes through Obsidian’s reasoning. “The mere idea is-”

“Approved.” Yet again the room’s collected attention was drawn away from their thoughts and to Celestia as she stood from the throne. “Master Sergeant Obsidian’s plan will be put in full effect as of now. I want all department heads to be ready in one hour and outside of the air transport. That is all, you all dismissed.”

The walk from the temple to the nearby waterfalls was a brief and thankfully uneventful one as Wolf used the time to think about what Lily told him about Spike’s and Quill’s ‘problem’ and how it might affect how things are done around the pack.

While Wolf was musing over the affairs of his pack, Lily was concerned more Spike’s wellbeing, and also about how to deal with the evident depression on his face. She knew that it had to deal with the incident in Canterlot but she didn’t know just how to go about it.

Blaze on the other hand was concern about the obvious hostility Quill has towards Spike, if they ever had any hope of making it in the pack, then she need to learn how to deal with it. She also saw what Wolf was talking about when said that Quill resembled her a little, how would this affect anything only time could tell.

Soon the growing pack arrived at the waterfalls that Wolf and the other’s use to bath in. “Wow, that’s a lot of water,” Quill said, examining the three separate waterfalls as they flowed into each other, creating a large pool at the bottom of each one, and then into a small river at the bottom. “So all of these waterfalls flow from the river near the castle?”

“Yup that’s right,” Blaze said, placing both of her hands on Quill’s shoulders, and starting to lead her toward a path leading upwards to the higher pools of waters with Lily close behind. “Come on, we’re taking the second one. See ya in a little while Wolfie!” The mare continued to lead the young dragoness up the path that was covered by bushes and trees with an obvious sway of her tail. Lily stopped briefly to look back towards Wolf, who just waved the mare off, and started for the bottom water-pool.

Lily turned around to walk up the path to find that Blaze had already striped Quill out of her clothes and was using the home-made soap that Zecora taught her how to make to wash the dried dirt out from Quill’s scales.

The mare sighed while she took of her dress-top, letting her breasts hang free out to the cool mid-spring air, and stepping inside of the rather chilly water. It was a struggle but when her body and fragile wings were able to adjust to the sudden change in temperature, Lily was able to relax in the stress-relieving material bath.

She took a moment to simply enjoy the moment of peace she felt as the activities of the last few days had been stressful on not only her but the rest of the pack as well. So many things need to get done before they could take it easy but right now was a time to breath a peaceful sigh. “Blaze, I know how to wash myself!” Which would be easy if Blaze would attempt to do the same thing.

Lily looked over towards the other two females as Quill struggled against Blaze presented efforts to wash her, however it seemed that Blaze was able to wash herself along with struggling--more like playing--with Quill. “Blaze you really must let the dragon do it herself,” Lily added in, keeping her eyes closed. “I think she old enough to bath on her own.”

For a moment, Quill thought that Blaze would listen to the flutterpony, but her hopes were dashed aside when Blaze wrapped her hands around Quill’s head and buried it within her ample chest. “Aww, but I can’t help it, she’s so cute, and Spike did say that she can’t stay above water on her own.” Quill flailed her arms around looking for anyway to pull herself from Blaze suffocating chest, when her hands were able to grab hold of something, Quill pushed herself from the fluffy pillows. “Quilly, I didn’t know you were a frisky dragoness.”

That’s when Quill realized that the thing she grabbed onto was Blaze’s breasts and also that she still had them in her hands. “Ah, I-I am sorry,” She shouted, removing her hands from alluring breasts with a blush.

Blaze started to giggle at how cute the usually tough-acting dragoness was when she was blushing. “Don’t worry Quill, it was an accident so no harm done,” She said, reaching out to Quill’s head again, and this time gently placing it on top of her breasts again. Quill then took a moment to notice how warm the ample chest was and also how soft it was as well, almost mistaking them for pillows. Wolf get’s to sleep on these? Lucky.

Soon the affectionate embrace ended, much to Quill’s displeasure. ”Now turn around so I can get your back and wings,” Blaze said, turning Quill around for her so she could wash the scales on her back. Quill expanded her wings outwards, having a feeling that Blaze was going to ask her to do so anyways, and took in a sharp breath when she felt the cold liquid soap drip on her wings.

Blaze continued to wash Quill’s body while Lily took care of her own needs. Soon the only sound heard were the rushing water of the falls and the gentle spring breeze “Say how long have you guys known Zecora anyways. Me and Spike known her for...three and a half years, and not once had she mention anything about you guys being here.”

“Well,” Blaze paused for a moment to think to herself. “I’ve know Zecora for a long while, longer than I’ve been in Everfree. You see I had travel her with her but I wanted to push further in Everfree than she did so we parted ways--sort of.”

Quill turned her head slightly to look at Blaze with wonder at the knowledge that she had traveled from her and Zecora’s land to Equestria. “Wow, so you're from Zebracoria,” She asked, remembering hearing Zecora talk about her old home during visit that Twilight would take to her hut.

“Yup, south Zebracoria to be exact. I came here because of the easier access to resources for potions.” Blaze smiled at the faint memories of heading east to the Equestrian borders along with meeting Zecora during the near round world trip.

“That’s so cool, what about you Lily? How you know Zecora,” Quill questioned the other mare as she was finishing washing herself while Blaze moved onto her head spines, which were still slightly sore from yesterday’s hunting lesson.

“I know Ms. Zecora through Blaze, as well as Wolf, but I haven’t had the chance to speak with her in awhile,” Lily answered before dunking under the water to wash off the remainder of the soap. “Well I’m finished, what about you two?” Blaze again wrapped her arms around Quill and dunking under the water, dragging Quill with her, and reemerging. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Lily got out of the pool shortly followed by the other females in the pack.

Lily walked over to an oak tree where she placed her stuff at while Blaze led Quill over to a nearby evergreen tree where their change of clothes were at. As they were getting dressed, Quill noticed something shimmering in the corner of her eye, and turned to find that it was Lily’s butterfly wings reflecting the light from the mid-afternoon sun. “Hey Lily,” Quill started, getting the attention of the mare as she started to grab her clothes. “Your wings are shimmering.” Lily looked confused for a second before she realized what Quill meant.

“Um...oh you mean these?” Lily stretched out her wings, flicking any amount of water off of them and enhancing the reflection coming off of them to form a small yet vibrant rainbow around her still bare body.

Quill blushed from how beautiful the mare looked because of the reflecting rainbow. Not even Rarity, who stole both her and Spike’s heart at the same time, could hold a candle from the image that is now forever burned into her head, and the only mare Quill could think of that was even remotely close to Lily’s natural beauty was Celestia herself.

“Y-yeah, those.” Lily set her wings behind her back after all the water was shook off, that’s when she realized that Quill was still staring at her, and the dragon’s hungry gaze made Lily blush a little.

Blaze caught onto why Quill was staring and rolled her eyes. “Okay that’s enough flirting you two,” She said, grabbing Quill by her ear-frill, and pulling her away from the object of her sudden desires to get finish dressing. Lily stood in the same spot with her legs cross and the same blush on her face as she watch Blaze help Quill get dressed. “Here Quill you put these on, they should fit.” How does she do it? Lily watched in wonder as Blaze got Quill dressed in her old clothes that was too small for her but may be the right size for the growing dragoness.

For as long as Lily knew Blaze, all she could see the mare as is a happy go-lucky unicorn that managed to do something others fail at more times than she wanted to count. Eight years she known both Blaze and Wolf, along with the close relationship they had, Lily always just figured that Blaze was another smart--yet empty headed--unicorn, but ever since the twins found their way into their lives Blaze had been acting more motherly than Lily thought she could.

Lily pushed the thoughts aside so she too could get dressed in a long brown skirt that went to her knees with red tribal décor going down along the sides with a white midriff dress top with the same red décor along the sleeves. She also asked Blaze to help tie her white mane back into the bun it was in before the bath, even though Quill enjoyed seeing the mare’s mane scratch all the way down her back, and over her shimmering wings.

Blaze again choose to ‘borrow’ a pair of Wolf’s black long pants again, also tying the ends of the legs with some pieces of leather-straps, and using the belt loops to tie a small array of potions she brought with her while her top was simply a large piece of fabric wrapped around her chest.

“Come on Quill, we still got things to do today, and the boys are most likely waiting for us,” Blaze shouted after Quill pushed her from behind the evergreen so she could finish dressing by herself.

“Give me a sec,” Quill called back from behind the tree.

Blaze huff out a sigh, tired of waiting, and wanting to show off her ‘outfit’ to Wolf. Lily caught the irritation in Blaze’s attitude. “How did she managed to push you from behind the tree anyways,” She asked while she sat on top of a large rock.

“She surprised me, on top of that she really quick, and much-” Rustling from some bushes grabbed the attentions of the mares as Quill came from behind the tree fully dressed in the outfit Blaze picked out for her. Quill was dressed in a small dull-red vest along with a white undershirt, that had two holes cut out of the back for her wings. With one pair of bright blue shorts, which had to be tied tight with a black leather-strap going around her waist.

Blaze also thought it was fitting to give Quill a pair of her old black-leather arm braces. After the day of hunting with Wolf, Quill had to abandon her black-dress shoes, leaving her bare-foot just like Blaze was when she was her age.

Before Quill could say anything, Blaze had already ran over to her, and again trapped her head in her large breasts. “Oooh Quilly, you look just like me when I was as young as you, and you look so adorable!” The trapped dragoness flailed her arms and wings around trying to get free of the comfortable jugs.

Lily giggled from the sight in front of her, even she had to admit that the dragon was ‘adorable’ to put it in the unicorn’s words, but they didn’t have time to ogled over the cute dragon for they still needed to get the twins magic lessons underway. “Okay that’s enough you two,” She started, “We still got stuff to do.”

“Fine, fine.” Blaze let Quill’s head free but still kept her close as the three of them walked down the path towards the last pool of water. “I wonder if Spike and Wolf are getting along,” Blaze open-mindedly asked while Quill gave into the mare’s embrace, finding it to be eventually comforting.

Quill wiggled in Blaze’s grip, find a more comfortable spot to walk in, and looked up towards the mare. “Why you ask that,” Quill asked, enjoying the warmth Blaze was giving off as it reminded her of the time she and Spike used to live in the Canterlot castle when Celestia was taking care of them.

“Well, they haven’t had much time to speak with each other, and I’m not so sure how Wolf will act around a male like Spike,” Blaze answered, remembering the last time Wolf encountered another male in Everfree, and how coldly he treated the poor sea-serpent. Quill continued to look a Blaze with curiosity towards the answer, which she quickly thought of a better way to explain. “Okay it’s like this, Wolf is an alpha diamond dog, and as such response highly toward another male near him.”

Quill slowly nodded her head, still not fully understanding the concepts, but she was sure that she’ll get it eventually. “Okay...but how does that affect Spike,” Quill asked as they started to emerge from behind the bushes in front of the path.

“Well that’s-”

“Come on, you can put up a better fight than that.” The mares and young dragoness turned their head towards the two--shirtless--males as Wolf had foot on Spike’s back to pin to the ground while he had his tail bent over his top head spine. “By the way, you’re really fixable for a drake.”

Quill placed her hands over her mouth to keep herself from laughing out loud to the misfortune that Spike was being put through, especially since she does it to him all the time. However, Quill’s small giggles were ended by Blaze glaring at her with a disapproving look, and Quill mistook it for Twilight’s while Lily walked over to the dog.

“Gezz Spike, you acting like you never been in a fight before,” Wolf joked, bending Spike’s back more, and not noticing the flutterpony walking behind him. Lily placed her hand on Wolf’s shoulder and gained his attention. “Huh, Lily can it wait? I’m-”

The diamond dog wasn’t able to finish speaking before Lily’s grip on his shoulder tightened along with her grabbing on to his collar and flipping him over her shoulder. Wolf’s vision was filled with his own knees as they connected to the tip of his nose before his body flattened against the dirt ground.

Lily then moved to help Spike up off the ground and helped dust him off. “Come along Spike, we need to begin your water-magic training, and this water pool will serve as a perfect spot.” The flabbergasted drake didn’t have the chance to respond before Lily lead him over to the other side of the pool.

When Lily began to instruct Spike with any knowledge she already know, Quill stood in just as much shock as Wolf was still in while Blaze knelt down to Quill’s ear. “Don’t mess with Lily,” She whispered in a low tone but still loud enough for Wolf to hear her. Quill turned her attention to Blaze as she started to walk over to Wolf. “Wolfie, are you okay? That was a hard fall.”

Wolf understood what Blaze was trying to do and started to get up from the ground, only slightly hurt from Lily’s surprise attack. “Yeah, I’m fine. Worse had happened before.” Still hurt like hell, through. “So Quill you ready to start your first lesson on fire-element magic?”

“Really! We’re starting now?” Quill’s eye started to shine brightly at the thought of learning more about the incredible force that was her fire along with any more information about dragons from the two.

Blaze walked back over to Quill and wrapped her arms around Quill nodding her head. “Yeah, but Wolfie doesn’t know anything about magic.” Wolf rolled his eyes at the obvious true statement as Blaze continued. “So I’ll be the main one teaching you, which should be easy since both of us enjoy fire so much,” She finished, lighting her horn, and creating several floating fireballs to ignite in the air around them. Quill looked at the bright balls of crimson with a wonder that surpassed anything else she experienced in her life, not even watching Celestia raise the sun brought her fascination as the brilliant balls of flames. “So Quill, you ready?”

Quill spun around on her heel to face Blaze in the eyes. “Yeah I am,” She shouted with a fiery determination which rivaled any before. She wanted to learn as much about her magic as possible, not just to protect Spike, but the whole pack and also to somehow prove to Wolf that she and Spike will be a constant help with the pack’s safety. She no longer wanted to be someone’s ‘assistant,’ she no longer wanted to watch the world pass her by from a library window.

Blaze looked into the dragoness’s determined emerald-green eyes, the bright orbs of pure will reminded her of herself of a time before she couldn’t do much of the things she could now, and also the rewarding feeling she got every time she learned something new after many days of hard studying. “Right then if you’re really ready, then your first lesson is doing this,” She said, scratching her hand out to her side, and using her magic to move the fireballs towards the space above.

Quill watched in awe as all the crimson orbs fused together, becoming larger with each one, and also changing in coloration. The once pure red fireballs were now a chaotic mixture of reds, whites, and black; just how her fire was the other night. Blaze allowed the fire to disperse into the air, creating a small flare of fiery colors for Quill to gaze at. “I want you to make one of these, without using your fire-breath, but it doesn’t need to be of this size since this is your first lesson. Think you can handle it?”

“Yeah,” Quill answered with more energy than before and ready to start the lesson. While his sister was learning the wonders of her fire-magic, Spike sat on the ground--still without a shirt--with his legs crossed, and performing slow breaths as Lily instructed him to do.

Lily watched the rise and fall of Spike’s flat chest with care, impressed by his ability to focus, but continued to make sure he was following her instructions. “That’s it Spike, breath and let your mind wander, allow all of your worries to flow from your body, and allow your magic to take hold,” She reminded him while she continue to pace in front of him.

Spike kept his eyes closed but still nodded his head, feeling that he would have mess up whatever Lily was trying to get him to achieve from the breathing if he did open them up. Lily knew that her magic was far different than dragons--and unicorns for that matter--but like life itself, all magic had some common ground, and it was from this common ground where Lily hoped to build a strong foundation for Spike to grow and ameliorate.

The first step in this was learning just how Spike stands when it comes to concentration, so far he was promising. “Okay Spike, now I want you to describe how it feels when you’re breathing fire,” She said, knowing that his normal fire-breathing is connected to his water-element.

“It feels...weak, forced even, like I have to try to do it rather than it being natural like Quill’s,” Spike answered after breathing out and resuming the breathing techniques. All of their young lives, Spike always felt that Quill was more able with her fire-breathing than he was, rather it was because she used it more than he did he wasn’t sure, yet it was still him that sent Twilight’s friendship reports ever since Quill accidentally destroyed one of the letters with her hotter fire-breath. “I’m not sure, but it feels like I have to put more effort in it than I should, and I get really sleepy after using too much of it.”

Lily nodded her head as she took a seat in front of him, sitting in the same position as him. “I see. Tell me Spike, you said that you disliked burning things, but could you tell me why?” The drake took a moment to think of a proper answer before speaking. Memories of the Canterlot library burning down, along with a few fire related nightmares he been having since the greed-growth, flashed through his head.

He was able to keep focus with the slow breathing as he thought of the answer to Lily’s question. “Because...because fire destroys things, sure that it provides warmth and allows things to live, but it also causes devastation. I’ve hear of times where ponies’ homes were lost because of a fire. After me and Quill’s greed-growth, when I saw the amount of damage we caused in two hours, it scared me.” Lily was stunned from the knowledge that the two went through a greed-growth and was able to come back from it. Overcoming one’s greed was spoken as legend amongst dragons. “It scared me to the point where I didn’t want to ever use my fire-breath again but I had to ‘cus Quill fire-breath was too strong.”

“I’m assuming you mean anything Twilight needed to send to Celestia,” Lily said, recalling the twins telling her and Wolf about their lives as Twilight’s ‘number-ones assists,’ and how Twilight was the student to the sun goddess. “So Spike I must ask, if you had the chance to not use your fire-breath, would you do it?”

A brief moment passed as Spike used the time to think about how destructive and useful his fire-breath was. All the times it somehow gotten in his way, when it caused other harm, or when it destroyed a quarter of Ponyville. Then there was all the times it helped saved it, gave aid to Applejack when Quill wasn’t around, or to Fluttershy when she need help with caring for her animal friends. “No, no I wouldn’t stop using it. It’s a part of who I am, and as much harm it could do, it could still do so much good too.”

Lily smiled, Spike knew the dangers of his fire-breathing, and even if he feared it he was disciplined enough to use it properly; all of this should aid with him learning water-magic. “Good, you understand the harm that you could cause, but you still use it when need to. This shows that you have self-control, as well the discipline to learn to control your element.”

Lily stood from her spot on the ground to walk over to Spike and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I think you’re ready to learn just that.” Spike opened his eyes to look up at Lily’s snow white eyes, which only spoke of trust and kindness towards the drake. “Come along Spike, the first step to this is seeing if you have an idea of the concept, and building from there.”

Spike got up from his spot on the ground and walked over to the side of the water pool where Lily already stood. He came to a skidding stop, almost falling into the water if it wasn’t for Lily grabbing onto his shoulder. The mare giggled a little at Spike periodic cumbziness while he simply blushed and scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

“So this is like a benchmark test,” He asked, moving the lesson onwards.

Lily placed a finger to her lip in thought, for a moment, wondering why he would look at it like that, but soon seeing the small connection. “Um…odd way to look at it, but yes. Now place your hand over the water and focus your will on it,” She instructed as Spike slowly kneeled down to the waterside and placed his hand over it.

He closed his eyes to begin the same breathing techniques Lily showed him, figuring that it would help with the lesson. As Spike started to focus on bending the water to his will, Quill was finding her first lesson to be rather hard.

“Come on Quill, you almost got it,” Blaze continued to encourage while Wolf was resting his head in the mare’s lap as he had his eyes closed napping--since he prove to be no use to the dragons’ first lesson.

Quill strained to keep her hand from shaking as a small--yet bright--purple flame struggled to come to life. The same flame had appeared and disappeared from Quill’s grip several times now and she was starting to believe--the once thought--simple task to be too much for her. “I can’t do it,” She gritted through her teeth.

“Yes you can, now focus. You have a talent for this so prove it.” Blaze believed in Quill, she knew that she could pull it off, but for it to work she needed to think that herself. “You can do this Quill, just stay calm, and remember to breath.” Trusting in Blaze’s knowledge, Quill closed her eyes as she took in a deep to ease her nerves, and refocused on the small flame. “Yeah, just like that. Now breath and let the magic flow.”

Quill started to slowly breath in and out with each breath the small flame grow larger as she immediately started to feel the difference from when she was struggling with the small flame. Soon the flame grew into a small spherical shape, burning a bright purple, and becoming stable.

A bright smile appeared on Blaze’s face as she hopped up off the ground, knocking Wolf off her lap, and running over to Quill to wrapped her arms around her head. “Oh Quill, I knew you could do it, I just knew it, and...” Blaze bend over to place her chin on top of her shoulder and her mouth right next to her ear. “Give it time, I’m sure your flame will glow brighter, and burn much hotter with passion.” She lit her horn again, creating another--smaller--fireball, and mixing it with Quills that somehow managed to say alight during the mare’s excited celebration.

The two spared colored flame fused together, forming a radiating ball of fire, and burned with crimson and purple flames of the two. Again, Quill’s eyes were filled with wonder and astonishment at the pure intensity of the two flames as they danced along with each other in a tempest of bright reds, and dark purples.

Wolf slowly got up after being rudely awakened by Blaze sudden movement and witnessed the sight in front of him, the joyful wander on Quill’s face, and the proud look of Blaze. That’s when Wolf started to muse over the thought of their cub experiencing the same thing when the time for its birth arrives. Something that he’ll be looking forward to for a long while.

Wolf wasn’t the only one who caught the two’s celebration as Spike was still struggling with even moving a single drop of water and was quickly losing hope while Lily looked onward with distance. I know he understands. He’s figuring things out faster than I did, so what’s stopping him? Lily questioned herself as the drake’s teacher but she didn’t lose faith in him and she was going to make sure that he didn’t as well.

However the sun was starting to move passed the horizon and it’ll be time for them all to head back to the temple soon. Guh, I hate to do it, but looks like we’ll just have to pick this up later. Lily walked over to the struggling drake and placed a hand on his shoulder. Spike ceased his attempts at activating his water-magic but kept his gaze downwards to the pool. Lily could tell that he was deeply upset that he couldn’t get a single drip to move while Quill was able to at least get a foothold of the lesson.

“Spike, that’s enough for today. We can pick this up first thing in the morning if you like.” After a few more seconds of staring at the pool, Spike sighed in dejection, and turned to grab his stuff--still forgetting that he’s without his shirt, but no longer caring about it. He also refused to look Lily in the eyes, making the mare think that he’s somehow upset with her as well as the lesson.

The two walked over to the other three as Quill started to quickly get the hang of creating fireballs to the point where she was able to have two of them going at the same time and spinning them around in orbit around each other.

Both Wolf and Blaze turned to the two, only to see the defeated looks on their faces, and the two lovers realized that Spike’s lesson went with less success than Quill’s. However the dragoness didn’t catch this as she spun around on her heels to Spike with a bright wide simile; blissfully unaware of the bad luck her twin was having.

“Spike, Spike look,” She exclaimed waving the purple fireballs around with much control. “Isn’t this great? We’ve learned so much in just two days!” Not wanting to ruin Quill’s joy, Spike put up a false smile, and nodded his head. “I can’t wait to see what we do tomorrow.” While Quill was expected to learn something new, Spike just wanted to crawl up into a ball, and let brew over his own failures.

It’s what he did back in Ponyville and- “This is awesome, we would have never done this back in Ponyville.” Spike’s eyes started to widened at the realization that they weren’t in Ponyville anymore, that their old lives of being kept safe in the library was forever over, and that it wouldn’t be fair for him to quit after one small failure.

So what if Quill was learning faster than he was, so what if he had the harder element, Spike wasn’t going to just sit around and let Quill protect him from everything, and now was the time for him to start. “Hey Spike, you want to do some reading after we get back,” Quill asked, breaking Spike out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m sure it’ll help out as well.” The other three were thrown off by Spike’s unexpected joyful cheery voice, that by the time they had realized that it was really Spike talking, he and Quill had already stated on the path. “Come on, I race you back there-”

“Spike? Quill?”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the slow update, but as a senior in high school, I got to make sure I walk across that stage. Oh and CHILFFHANGER!! But I'm sure that all of you smart readers know what's a happing next...maybe. Till next time.