"What do you think this adolescent dragoness is coming here for? Do you think she heard of the dragons I killed?" I ask Celestia after we had the Throne Room cleared.

"I don't know, I do know that an adolescent wouldn't be much of a threat to us. There has to be something bigger happening in Drakonis and we'll just have to wait for this dragoness to arrive and state her intentions," she replies and sighs.

"We'll deal with it when it comes. Come on, let's finish court and then go back to our room where I'll give you a massage," I tell her, getting a smile in return.

"That does sound nice," she replies and sits back down on her throne.

We took a break for lunch and returned to finish court, we even took turns speaking to the people while the other played with Valiant.

Twilight visited us asking for permission to go to Terra to buy some materials for her elven magic studies and I gave her five-hundred gold coins for her to get what she needs, after she told us what she needed first and why. Don't need her going into forbidden magic now.

She returned a couple hours later and thanked us again before heading back to the Archive.

Once court was over, Celestia and I head back to our room where Silk is waiting for us. "Good evening, Adrian, Celestia. Luna and Cadence are inside waiting for you. Shella also sent a message saying she'll be home in an hour," she tells us.

"Thank you, Silk. We'll wait until Shella returns before ordering dinner," Celestia replies and I ruffle up Silk's mane playfully.

She giggles and bows. "Then I shall return once she arrives, unless you require anything else?" she asks us.

"That will be all, Silk. Perhaps Shining Armour could use your help for now?" Celestia replies with a wide smile.

Silk grins and bows again. "Of course, Celestia. I will be back soon," she says and quickly heads off down the hall.

I chuckle and open our room's doors for my wife and son. "After you," I say and gesture her in.

"Thank you my love," she says and kisses me as she passes by.

I close the doors behind us and then spot Cadence on the bed... with Luna suckling on her chest.

Luna turns to us with a white upper lip which she quickly licks off. "Ah, we take it court is finally over?" she asks us.

I quickly put my fingers under my nose and glad to find no blood this time. "Yeah, I'm about to give Celestia a massage if you're both interested as well?" I reply as Celestia strips out of her dress after giving Valiant to Cadence.

"We'd love one," Cadence replies as Celestia lies belly down on the bed.

I remove my armour and then straddle her thighs where I then begin to massage her neck and shoulders getting a sigh of approval from her.

We're standing out in the courtyard with Shining Armour, Twilight, Spike, and fifty guards armed with rifles and spears looking over to the south as reports indicated the dragoness is just a few minutes away from arriving and is being followed by a squad of pegasi as a precaution.

The sun is slowly setting to the west and nearing the horizon. "So, what do you think she'll be like?" I ask my wives who have gathered together while Discord is looking after Cadence, Mavis, and Valiant.

"If she is like any the other dragons we have ever known, apart from Spike, she'll be rude, arrogant, greedy, and aggressive," Luna replies with a huff.

"Well, personally I am hoping she'll be different from the others, she is an adolescent after all, she may have not been around the dragons long enough to pick up their bad habits," Celestia then says hopefully.

The others just give her a deadpan stare.

"There she is!" a guard points out towards the sky.

I look up to see a small blue object heading towards us at a decent pace with other objects behind it. As it gets closer, I can make out a few details, she has ice blue under scales and has two horns on the sides of her head curled downwards till they point forward, she also has deep blue fins on her head and a leaf like tail tip.

We wait for a few more minutes as she lands in front of us with our guards pointing rifles and spears at her.

"State your intentions, dragon," Shining Armour demands of her.

"I've come with a warning as my father plans to invade your lands soon," she tells us, her voice even sounds like a teenager.

I glance to Spike to see what he thinks as this is the first dragon he's likely met. I grin as he's red faced and wide eyed while he stares at her. I also notice a thin trail of blood dripping out his nose, ah that's right, dragons don't wear clothes like us.

I look back to the dragoness and notice she's more bipedal like Spike but unlike Spike, she has three joint legs like the ponies compared to Spike's and my own two joint ones.

"And why are you telling us this?" Shining asks her.

She scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Unlike my father, I actually want to see the world and not slaughter its inhabitants. How am I to learn new things if what knew them is dead? So I sneaked out and made my way here after a meeting my father had with a strange looking gryphon," she tells him.

"Strange looking gryphon?" I ask confused.

"Yeah, he was larger than a normal gryphon and had a face similar to yours actually," she replies with a raised brow at me.

I frown in thought before going wide eyed. "You don't suppose that was the gryphons so called Sphinx God?" I ask my wives but then notice Shella watching the dragoness cautiously. "What's the matter, Shella?" I ask her while wrapping my right arm around her waist.

"Dragons have been known to wipe out entire Hives just to eat us... I'm just worried about my Hive," she replies.

The dragoness then looks surprised herself. "You're a changeling? That complicates things then," she says and looks to the south.

"How so?" I ask as I place myself between them.

She sighs and sits down. "A dragon that has eaten a changeling becomes addicted to the taste and will do nearly anything to have another, they're like a delicacy to them... If the other dragons of Drakonis find out there's a large Hive here as well as a Queen, they'll do anything to get to them," she tells me with a frown.

"Then you should know that we aren't going to let you go now right?" I warn her and frown back at her.

"I don't want to go back as my father seems to have lost his mind and is making preparations to attack Equestria," she replies still with her frown but then looks to Spike. "And why is there a dragon already here?" she asks looking him over.

"He lives here with us and is keeper of our Archives," Celestia replies.

"Interesting... It seems my theory of living with other races wasn't just a theory," she says as she gets up and walks over to him.

The guards stay on alert as she circles around him while Spike's eyes never leave her. "Erm, hi," he mumbles to her and she raises an eyebrow at him.

"What's your name?" she asks him and to his embarrassment she sniffs at him a few times.

"S-Spike," he replies and then yelps as she places one of her claws between his legs.

"Hmmm, you are quite a strong and healthy male despite your oddly shaped legs... how have you survived in a land that doesn't eat meat?" she asks him.

"I-I've ate s-some fish now and t-then along with a l-lot of gems..." he replies blushing furiously. "W-What's your name?" he asks her.

"I am Ember, daughter to Dragonlord Torch," she replies like it wasn't a big deal.

Celestia gasps and walks over to her. "Torch? He is now Dragonlord?" she asks Ember.

"He has been for the last seven-hundred years," Ember replies and continues to examine Spike.

"This isn't good, the last time I saw him is when he tried to steal all the funds in the royal treasury centuries ago before I managed to repel him... If he's now the Dragonlord, why hasn't he attacked again with all the dragons?" Celestia wonders aloud.

Ember looks from Spike to Celestia. "I think he's been waiting for an opportunity to attack for years now, but whatever that strange gryphon told him seems to have given that chance," she replies and looks back at spike who is just two inches taller than her. "I like you, so I shall claim you as my mate!" she declares surprising everyone.

While Spike now looks redder than a tomato, Twilight's notebook and quill drop from her hands and she glares at Ember. "You will do no such thing!" she yells and gets in between them both with a glare.

"Oh? And who are you to deny me my choice in mate?" Ember demands and shoves Twilight aside, fortunately she uses her new levitation spell to hover herself in the air before setting down on the ground.

"He is my little brother and number one assistant! He knows nothing about you and might not even like you!" Twilight tells her and stands her ground.

"Your brother? How? You are not a dragon," Ember asks with a growl.

"I hatched his egg when I was younger and he has been a part of our family since!" Twilight replies through gritted teeth.

"Even so, it is dragon tradition for the females to pick their mate. The males back home didn't appeal to me with their single minded obsessions for gold and gems. Here I find a male who doesn't care for that and is a knowledge keeper as well. I can sate my curiosity for knowledge and have a mate around my age to be with," she replies and before anyone could react, she bites down on Spike's left shoulder hard leaving teeth marks on his scales with small licks of deep blue flames.

Spike's eyes widen and his pupils dilate as he takes a deep breath before returning the bite on her shoulder, leaving his own teeth marks and small bits of green flames.

They both stay like that for a few seconds as their flames both change to a light cyan colour before letting each other go and Spike blinks blankly for a few seconds before hissing in slight pain. "The hay just happened?" he asks us while rubbing his shoulder and head.

Twilight, despite her anger towards Ember is writing furiously in her notebook.

"We have marked each other and are now life mates," Ember tells him.

Spike just stares at her for a minute before fainting and falling onto his back.

I blink slowly as I open my eyes and look around. I'm laying on a couch while Twilight and Ember are talking to each other next to a desk. Adrian and the Queens are sitting on the other couch as they let the others talk.

Huh? When did I get into Celestia's office?

"Spike!" Twilight yells as she notices that I'm awake. "Are you alright?" she asks and looks at my left shoulder.

I look there as well and notice the teeth marks in my scales. I then remember what Ember did to me.

"I think so... so what was the biting thing about?" I ask and rub my eyes.

"I have picked you to be my life mate," Ember replies.

"I don't even know you," I tell her and frown.

"And we have centuries to get to know one another," she replies and sits beside me. I look at her left shoulder and see teeth marks on her as well... did I really bite her back?

"Ember told me about dragon courting rituals. I'm afraid this is more than just a marking, you both injected each other with a small amount of your flames... you're basically soulbound together now," Twilight tells me.

I look from her to Ember and then back to Twilight... "So... erm... does that make us married then?" I ask confused.

"What is this married?" Ember asks.

After a long winded explanation from Twilight, Ember gets the idea. "I see, then yes it's similar to that," she tells us.

I frown and lean back into the couch... I just got married without even realizing it. Not how I imagined my wedding day to go. I don’t even know anything about her...

Though I will admit she looks gorgeous and seems nice enough, if a little forward. "So there's nothing we can do about this?" I ask just to make sure.

"No," Ember replies sternly.

"Fine then," I say getting a satisfied grin from Ember. "But I’m taking you on a date tomorrow then. If we're to spend the rest of our lives together, I want to know the mare... err dragoness I'm with," I tell her getting a confused expression from her.

I notice Celestia, Luna, and Cadence giggling to each other while they cuddle up to a smirking Adrian.

And after another explanation from Twilight, Ember gets it again. "Ah, well... I've never known a dragon to do one of these, dates… but I will admit I am intrigued and would like to learn about this, dating," she says.

"Well then. We'll leave you both to get to know each other better," Celestia tells us and pulls Adrian by his arm towards the door, followed by the other Queens.

Twilight sighs and gets up as well. "I'll look after the Archives until you get back." She tells me and heads out the door leaving me and Ember alone... together.

"So..." I start with a nervous chuckle. "what's the dragon lands like?" I ask her.

"Do you think we can trust her?" I ask my wives.

"For now, but we have some of our thestral guards watching them from the shadows just in case," Luna replies.

"I agree. While her warning is appreciated, she is an unknown and until we get to know her better we'll keep an eye on her. Though I do believe she alone isn't a threat," Celestia says.

"Well I thought she was nice, though the whole claiming Spike as her mate really threw me off," Cadence says with a frown. "There was little to no love there, as if it was more instinctual than anything else."

"We'll just give it time and see where they go, but as for the matter of the Dragon Lord, how do you suppose we deal with the whole of Drakonis invading us. One or maybe two dragons sure, that's possible, but a whole swarm of them?" I ask them with a frown of my own. "Unless Infernus' flames can melt through lava proof dragons I don't have much else..."

We reach our room and I open the doors for them.

"We'll have to ask Ember tomorrow about all she knows and any possible way to deal with her father," Celestia replies and walks past me.

We see Discord on the floor with both Mavis and Valiant giggling as he manipulates a couple of stuffed manticore dolls to cuddle and play with the foals.

"Ah, Adrian! I must say spending time with the little ones is such a delight!" Discord tells me and picks up the foals into a gentle hug.

"Thank you for looking after them while we dealt with the dragon,” I reply and take Mavis from him while Celestia takes Valiant.

"Anytime! Now I must be going, I have a card game with a couple of trolls in Dangurak Marsh on Terra! Ciao!" he says and disappears.

After putting the foals to bed and Celestia and Luna doing their thing with the sun and moon, we all strip out of our clothes and get into our own bed and cuddle up. "Goodnight," I say to my lovers and get one from each of them in return.

'I hope Spike knows what he's doing,' I think to myself with a smirk before drifting off to sleep.

So Ember is staying for the long haul? And what did the yet unseen Sphinx God and Dragonlord Torch discuss?