Chapter 2
Wow, ok, I did not think this one all the way through. Storm mused as he sat in front of his house, his head resting on his right fore-hoof. He had made it all the way home without once thinking about how he was going to explain a certain pink fire-breather that was now sleeping on his back.
He got up, trotted slowly to the front door and pushed; it didn’t budge. Canterlot may be the grandest city in Equestria, but that doesn’t mean it was safe everywhere within the city’s walls, and the Quills weren’t exactly living in the “ritzy” part of town either. Most of the houses down this particular stretch of uneven road were single story and in desperate need of repair. While Storm Quill's house was by no means extravagant, it was a considerable step up from the houses surrounding it.
Needless to say, it made his folks very paranoid.
Storm sighed, he was hoping to at least make it to his room before confronting his parents. I guess that's out of the question now he thought. He knocked on the old wood door; inside he could hear the ruckus of several sets of stamping hooves.
The door burst open, revealing a hysterical mare, her blue mane disheveled, her teal coat matted, and behind her sat a white-coated stallion whose stern eyes were filled with barely concealed rage.
“Where in the HAY have you been boy? We saw your friends over by the square, and they said you went to that magic school. Now just what were you think . . .” the stallion’s rant was cut short when he finally spotted the pink creature snoring on Storm’s back.
“Wh-what is that on your back?” Storm’s mother asked, her hoof shaking violently as she pointed to the strange, baby dragon.
Storm turned slightly so as to give his parents a better view. “Mother, father, I would like you to meet Skyfire. She’s my dragon and proof that I passed the CSGU entrance exam. I was kind of hoping she could live with us?”
Storm gritted his teeth, stifling back a chuckle as he observed how utterly flabbergasted his parents were at their mixed feelings for the news they were just given. Just when he was sure his father was about to actually explode from anger, his mother finally managed to speak up again.
“Storm, go to your room NOW, we will discuss this . . ." she cautiously eyed the dragon as it stirred in her sleep, "situation, later.” She had straightened her mane and brushed the tears from her eyes, but they were still rather red. Storm's little escapade had really taken a toll on her.
Storm immediately compiled with her commands, as he had heard his father take that tone hundreds of times, but when his mother used it, he knew it was time to go.
His head hung dejectedly as he trotted slowly past his parents and towards the staircase on the other side of the room.
The door opened into a dining room, and the interior of the house maintained the same level of care as the exterior would have one believe. The hardwood floors were swept and polished, and there were no signs of chipped paint to be found on any of the walls.
Storm climbed the stairs that lead into the hallway which branched into the second floor rooms. His room was all the way at the end of the hall, the door covered in pictures of famous unicorns and other magical beings.
As soon as Storm reached the door, he came to a stop and starred at the pictures that adorned it. Most of the pictures were magically taken photographs of recent magical masters like Frozen Gaze, Starlight, Spark the Wise, Dearorah the zebra, and of course a modern photo of the princess. Some, however, were portraits of famous magicians like, Starswirl the Bearded, King Gold, and the dragon Flamewraith.
As Storm's eyes fell upon the portrait of the red dragon, his mind wandered to the tiny hatchling on his back. What will your destiny be little one. Storm took one last look at the portrait then opened the door.
His room was less of a "room", and more of a "place to store books that also happened to have a bed and desk." As soon as Storm closed the door behind him, he felt Skyfire shift around on his back. He levitated the dragon as carefully as he could down to his bed which at the moment was covered in scrolls and old books he had been studying the night before.
When Skyfire touched down on the bed, Storm realized just how exhausted he was; today had been quite long, and it wasn’t even half over, the sun still hung high in the sky. He pushed some of the books to the floor, making just enough room for him to curl up next to Skyfire. He let himself succumb to a mid-day nap with his new friend.
***
Storm awoke to the sound of his parents arguing; their shouts rang throughout the house. A quick glance out the window told him he'd slept through most of the day; Celestia's sun was already approaching the edge of the horizon.
He got up quietly so as not to disturb Skyfire who was still sleeping on his bed. He started to clear up the area around her when he heard the sounds scuffling hooves coming from outside his window.
"Watch where you’re putting those hooves pal." a female voice whispered.
"Then hurry up, Storm's folks could walk outside any minute!" the other retorted, clearly male.
Oh goodie, these clowns, Storm thought to himself. These idiots had gotten him in quite a bit more trouble than he was comfortable with, and he wasn't going to let them off easy.
After a few more whispered remarks, and one crashing sound that Storm was sure the entirety of the neighborhood had heard, a pair of unicorns finally appeared outside Storm’s window. The colt had a brown coat and a short "I just got out of bed" manecut, a smiling mask pasted on his flank. The other, a filly, had a powder-blue coat, and her long, well-brushed, blue mane had a mall teal streak ruining down the length of it. Her cutie mark was something of a mystery to most; to the untrained eye, it appeared to be an odd screwdriver with the end of it branching out into several odd-looking tools. To Nova, however, it was the first magical tool she had ever built, the magical All-In-One.
"Storm, psst Storm, let us in, quick." the colt half-whispered, tapping slightly on the glass window. Storm gave them both a blank stare, eliciting two guilty looking smiles form the pair. Finally, shrugging, Storm decided to go easy on them and opened the window.
The colt fell through the window first, followed swiftly by the filly who managed to land right on top of the other, causing him to exhale violently. "Nova . . . can't . . .BREATH!", Nova, giggled slightly as she got up onto her hooves.
"Ah, sorry Quick, I'll try not to aim for you next time." Quick Wit got up slowly, his body still somewhat shaken from the uninvited mass that his "friend" had decided to gift him.
Storm watched the events unfold, and released a long and heavy sigh, "Nova, Quick Wit, glad you could join me. I thought you would be up at the castle now, selling me up the river to the princess herself."
His sarcastic remark had done the trick; the two unicorns looked down towards the floor, a slight redness on both of their faces. "Yeah, sorry boss. Your mom saw us when we went out to the square after that huge explosion, and, well, you know I can't lie to her." Quick Wit replied his face once again plastered with a guilty smile.
Storm looked them both over, the evidence of their regret clear as day. "Oh well, I guess there's nothing to do for it now." their faces brightened, and Storm felt the truth of his words wash away some of his own anxiety, for better or worse, what's done is done.
"That reminds me, there is someone I want you to meet." Storm stepped aside to reveal the tiny pink dragon sleeping on his bed. "Nova, Quick, this is Skyfire; she's my dragon."
If there was a contest for the furthest a pony could make their jaw drop, his friends would have both tied for first place. The shock on their faces amused him until he suddenly remembered that his friends were taking the CSGU entrance exam today as well. They must have just gotten back from the school. "Did you guys not pass?" Storm asked, a slight, nervous strain in his voice.
The two couldn't take their eyes from the sleeping reptile. Nova finally managed to close her mouth long enough to respond. "No, we passed, but we didn't have to do anything with a dr-dr-dragon." she stuttered.
Quick wit also finally managed to pull his face away from the tiny fire-breather, "yeah, all we had to do was move some objects around and answer some basic questions and stuff."
Storm was now very, very, curious as to the unique nature of his test, Why didn't they get the same test? Were there no more eggs? Where did the eggs even come from anyway, and how is hatching an egg even relevant to a magic school? Storm's brain was firing on all cylinders as he tried to make sense of today's crazy events; he hadn't stopped long enough to really think about it, but between the rainbow explosion, the little fillies magical mishap, and the dragons, today had turned out to be quite madness-inducing.
Before Storm's mind could finish deciding whether or not he was, in fact, going insane, the sound of his mother's voice rang out through the house.
"Storm, come downstairs . . . oh and bring Quick Wit and Nova with you, please."
Quick Wit gave a half-hearted smile at the realization that his sneak attempt had failed. Nova merely rolled her eyes, "I TOLD you they would hear us! We should have just gone through the door, but noooo, you wanted us to be sneaky. YOU, wanted us to scale the side of their house like a couple of crazy earth ponies." Nova's verbal chiding finally caused Storm to crack a smile. His friends may be clowns, but they were benevolent clowns.
The trio made their way down into the dining room, where a rather calm mare stood. Her husband was standing behind her, a defeated look on his face. "So, we have decided that while it was incredibly foalish and irresponsible for you to sneak behind our backs like this," Storm cringed, having it said aloud did make him seem like a foal. His mother continued "the amount of effort and dedication you've shown is proof that you really care about this, so as long as you keep your grades up, and promise to take responsibility for your… pet? We will allow you to stay at CSGU, understood?"
Storm almost couldn't believe what he was hearing; his parents were letting him stay at the school, and keep Skyfire? That thought alone sent the corners of his mouth racing viciously to his ears.
"YES, uh, I mean, of course, or rather, ohhhhh, YESYESYESYESYESYESYES" Storm couldn't contain himself any longer. He hugged his parents with all his strength then raced back upstairs, only catching a trace of the conversation still being held down stairs.
"Don't think you two are off the hook just yet. Your parents will be hearing from me about your little ruse.”
Skyfire had woken up and was waiting on Storm’s bed when he burst through the door. "OHHHH, Skyfire, I get to keep you! I can’t believe it; we're going to be together forever!" Storm lifted her in the air and sent her spinning playfully around him as he bounced up and down. Skyfire responded by smiling and giggling uncontrollably, until finally, all the excitement got the best of her, and a small jet of blue fire erupted from her mouth, almost burning one of the books on his shelf.
He placed her back down on the bed and fell next to her exhausted. The sun had disappeared, and the moon had begun to rise over the horizon. Storm couldn't quite wrap his mind around the day he had just experienced, he knew that today was the start, today marked the beginning of the rest of his life, he looked over to the, once again, sleeping dragon.
In his mind, whenever he thought of his grand magical destiny, he was always alone; not that he had a problem with other ponies, he just always figured that, whatever his future held, he would face it by himself and rise to greatness by himself.
But now, as he watched the baby dragon sleep, his entire plan fell through his hooves. He could see just how silly his ideas for the future seemed. Where once he could only see a future with him alone, now the very notion of being separated from Skyfire brought about an ache that he had only felt once before. He knew, somewhere deep down, Storm just knew that when he reached whatever pinnacle of his success, when his great destiny was finally realized, he would stand proud of all he had accomplished.
"And you are going to be there with me" Storm closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Chapter 4 is currently being worked on I promise, I'm desperately trying to fight the allure of KH.
It's a losing battle, but every day I add a little more =)
Thank you for your patience!