In my fanfic, The Shining Silver Star of The Apple Family, there was a section planned in Arc 2. A section where Silver's past as a "Do whatever it takes to get maximum profit, prioritizing anything that looks challenging and fun" past catches up to him. And a lot of what I predicted about Dragon Culture turned out to be true. In fact, the only thing that was wrong was how the Dragon Lord (Even got the name right!) passes on his leadership using a possibly-magic sceptre given to anyone that completes trials, rather than the current Dragon Lord getting killed by an Usurper and that guy becoming the new Dragon Lord. Also, a complete lack of enslaved ponies might count, but since that's kinda dark, the show probably wouldn't show it even if it did happen. I say probably, because we did see the AUs Starlight caused when she messed up the timeline for the stupidest reason ever. Also, the previous Dragon Lord in my story was a green one and his daughter was the smartest and fastest Dragon alive, not just the smartest. Still, I guessed the dynamic between them correctly. In any case:

A few years ago, Silver Star went treasure-hunting in the Dragon Badlands, a group of Replicas following him as backup, for if he needed any. One loot-seeking spell later, and he'd find a cave guarded by three Dragons, filled with loot. Impressive to a pony, but a solid "Meh." to a Dragon. He proceeded to use an Ice Spell to lower their core body temperatures until they could barely stand, and then, he mocked them. The leader of the three Dragons, known as Blaze, challenged him to a "Real battle, with no dumb Pony magic", and Silver, a sucker for gentlemanly acts of violence, accepted. He dispelled the magic and let the three catch their breath, and then fought the Dragon hoof-to-claw. Silver won, and proceeded to mock the defeated Dragon. After that, he used magic to enhance the Dragon, giving him an orange star on his right eye as a reminder (Transmuting the scales around that eye into their new colour, so it couldn't be washed out, and it would stay its new colour indefinitely). Finally, he kicked the three Dragons out, daring them to come back when they could actually challenge him. He proceeded to take the loot, and kinda forgot about it.

Anyway, in Arc 2, the Dragons became relevant again, Blaze had crowned himself the new Dragon Lord after killing the old one, the old one's daughter fled to Equestria, and he turned the Dragon Badlands into a militaristic hellhole where winning the next war and training for it is all that matters, an invasion of Equestria was planned, and the land of Equestria was threatened with war. Silver would state he would fix this mistake, and go to the Dragon Badlands. However, his friends showed up along the way, telling him that they'd help him. And so, he took this pre-emptive strike team of himself, Twilight Sparkle, and [spoilerS REDACTED] right to Blaze's throne of gems and black diamond, enslaved ponies forced to work on it, and while his friends fought the army, Silver would battle Dragon Lord Blaze in the center of an active warzone, explosions and battles clashing around them. It would be epic. Hey, I'd have to top the season one finale SOMEHOW, right?

Anyway, I can still use this plot... Mostly. I like Ember, she's awesome, so I probably won't kill her off. I'll probably use a contest of some sort instead.

Anyway... I predicted a lot of stuff correctly. +700 points to me!

As for the episode... I kinda liked it. It was definitely better than that godawful Maud episode. The moral of "There is more than one kind of strength" is nice, but it didn't really work here. Ember didn't win due to possessing "A different kind of strength" her brute-force-every-day father overlooked when it came to intelligence, accurately detecting crushing-gem patterns and thrown rock trajectories, or when it came to the strength of determination/the heart, in getting back up every time she was knocked down and continuing on, or walking through psychological mind-screw magic flames, a cavern filled with mind-screw hallucinogenic smoke, or ultra-lava and refusing to turn back, stop, or give up no matter what she saw or how much anything hurt, while bigger and stronger-looking dragons huddled and shivered at the cave's mouth, minds broken. She didn't really earn this victory at all, not even a little. She would have died and drowned in the first few seconds if not for Spike saving her, and from then on, it was constantly Spike doing the saving, the helping, and pretty much everything besides having wings. Also, Spike being told to go grab the scepter was ok, but it would have been more moral-ish if Spike told Ember to go get the sceptre, Spike was badly losing the fight against Garble, and Ember turned around at the last second to save Spike. Then again, that also would have been really cliche, and I like the way this turned out. Spike being Spike when he got the power of the Dragon Lord was a nice touch. Seeing Spike as more of a generic Straight Man and The Universe's Chew Toy was a nice change. And ponies are weirdly cute in those rock/tree outfits. Garble being a jerk to Spike made the audience hate him, so that character served his purpose. Do you think that on his "Hug every Dragon" adventure, he got attacked or beaten for hugging someone he shouldn't have? Also, why did Garble instantly know what a hug was, even though Dragon Lord Blaze didn't? Did he spend time amongst the ponies before? Perhaps that would explain the hatred of them he has. And why he wasn't just ashamed and furious when on his Hug Quest, but outright tearful, as if it's bringing back memories of his time as a pony's sla- "Assistant".

This "There is more than one kind of strength" and "It takes more than brute force to be a great leader" plot would have been pulled off a lot better is Blaze had been a competent Dragon with a chance of winning on her own, but there was one challenge she could only get past when working with Spike. As opposed to being unable to ever complete most of the tasks without his help. The moral came out more like "Befriend any boy that could help you, but don't be afraid to abandon him when you no longer need his help, because if you do end up needing his help, he'll be by your side anyway no matter what, because he doesn't want to give up on you and you 'Proved' you were a good person by saving that guy's friends after he saved your life twice."

By the way, for a challenge designed to emphasise Strength and choose the strongest as the winner, there sure was a lot of stuff only a very Agile dragon could have won. Btw, Spike casually shoved a boulder Garble couldn't bench, Spike is Hyper-Strength Dragon Jesus confirmed!

And while I'm sure most of the crazy Maud fanboys probably didn't migrate immediately to this new character, let me say anyway: I like Blaze. She's awesome, and I hope the show does a romantic subplot between her and Spike, seeing him treated well by the one he loves will be a nice change. The show also subtly displayed that "Rarity doesn't really respect Spike's ability to do anything beyond carry baskets and other menial labour tasks, despite the time he kicked the ass of Diamond Dogs for her" thing again at the start of this episode, which will hopefully lead to a very important moral more shows should teach kids: There are plenty of fish in the sea, and most of them aren't going to see you as a slave, servant, basket-holder, back-warmer, sentient wallet, letter-sender, or whatever else you can do that they can't do or don't want to do. Love, real love, is a beautiful thing, not some stupid reputation-grind sidequest where you need to spend a ridiculous amount of time "Proving" your love to him/her to get Love Points for you to eventually go on a date and marry, with money and Love Points being exchangeable at a £150-1LP rate. Go out and find someone you truly love, someone who truly loves you back, someone you can form a deep emotional attachment with, don't just attach yourself to the first pretty flower you see and hope she'll eventually love you the way you think you love him/her. Also, when you can't decide between the two people you love, pick the genuinely better option, not the one you just happened to meet first. Also, don't be a jerk about it, but that kinda goes without saying.