The Dragon's Kin'
Chapter 1 - Luna's Eclipse
Part 2
That random night
The kettle let out a lout whistling noise signaling that tea was ready. Rarity picked it up with her magic and poured it into two magnificent porcelain cups.
Rarity looked at Twilight and offered a smile while waiting for her to grab the cup with her own magic. She sat down on her new-found and quite comfortable chairs, next to a very low, glass coffee table.
Rarity began a light conversation, “Well, midnight tea, that’s a first!” she said in her cheery and slightly high-pitched voice.
“It’s nothing new for me, except I usually drink coffee at this hour.” Twilight mentioned while slowly sipping the hot liquid.
They both sat in silence slurping their hot tea for a few minutes, “Twilight,” Rarity began, while putting down her cup, “what you said is still buzzing in my mind… You’re not alone Twilight, and you know it.” She tried to make eye contact but Twilight refused to meet her gaze.
“I didn’t mean that kind of alone, Rarity…” It took a bit, until Rarity saw what was going on and she quickly saw potential as well. In an effort to once again cheer up her friend (which she wasn’t all that good at anyway) she bombarded Twilight with questions regarding… well everything really.
“Do you have somepony special in mind, Twilight dear?” Rarity asked in one of her more gentle voices, “That’s the problem…” Twilight sighed, “Nopony wants ME! And the only ones who might be worth my time are like the 90-year-old professors that I used to work with back in Canterlot Academy!”
Rarity stayed silent, for once she had no comment.
“Look at me, now look at Applejack, look at Fluttershy! Look at Rainbow!!!” She kept yelling “Even Spike has a family!” she shouted.
A second later there was a loud thump from upstairs followed by a long and loud “Ooooooow!” and then some quiet mumble. Unintentionally the two mares broke out in laughter. Suddenly Twilight stopped and with a serious look on her face asked Rarity, “Wait, how come he can fit the Carousel Boutique? He couldn’t back when you got married, so you had to go to that… whatever it was, hotel thing...”
Rarity slightly tilted her head “We had to rebuild. Don’t you remember?”
“The fire…”
“It’s been over a year already… hasn’t it?” Twilight whispered. “I wish I could have been here… I-I could have…” she sniffled.
“Twilight, you know how terrible Equestria is with news deliveries. You couldn’t have possibly made it in time anyway…”
Rarity didn’t like where this was going. This wasn’t at all good in the terms of cheering up.
“I still could have helped…” Twilight looked up for a brief second. Rarity bit her lip. “I could have saved him… I could have helped a lot of those ponies too… They could have lived their life to the fullest, not be handicapped and stuck in their houses!” Twilight shouted and broke down in one of the beanbags.
“I could have saved him…”
Could have…
…
Twilight stands in the Canterlot library. Everything seems so real, but she knows it’s not…
There is no dust on the large, old books, the sand of the giant hourglass isn’t falling… it’s too quiet…
Suddenly the library disappears in a black void…
Twilight knows where she is… one of her worst nightmares…
Just as the library disappeared a large fire rises all around her. Twilight can clearly see the enormous orange and red flames… she can hear vague screams of ponies…stallions… mares… fillies…
She begins to run, the fire isn’t hurting her. She keeps running until houses appear on the sides and the empty void is replaced by a simple, stone paved street…
The flames are licking the sides of the buildings and burning down the plain hay roofs to a crisp in seconds, she sees ponies running towards her… through her… she doesn’t exist… but why is she running? She doesn’t know but she knows that somewhere, something is calling her… so she keeps running.
She sees pegasus pushing cloud’s at Rainbow Dash’s speed. She hears coughs and thud’s as ponies fall to the ground. She doesn’t stop, she still keeps running.
In the distance she sees him… her goal… at least she thinks it’s her goal...
A yellow pegasus whit a burnt green mane is limping forward carrying a small something, tucked in a wet towel. He coughs and falls to the ground just as Twilight reaches him. She leans over to him, about to help but in a blink of an eye she’s right back at the, once grand, entrance of PonyVille.
She feels the smoke, she feels the heat. Its real now and she’s running out of time. Once again she runs inside the burning ruins of her hometown. As she enters she sees ponies exiting… their limbs burned and their coats covered in ash and rubble. She looks away…
Running… running…
Must keep running…
The smoke is thick and it’s filling her lungs. Her mind is too numb to cast any protections spells, she just keeps running…
After what seems an eternity she finally sees a yellow blur in the distance. Her mane is covered in ash and her hooves are burned and bleeding from the hot, cracked stone streets.
She keeps running…
She finally reaches the yellow pegasus just as he breaths his last breath. His hoof loosens and a little lime colored filly rolls out of the ragged and burnt towel.
Twilight lifts the little one up in front of her, paying no attention to the flames nibbling on her tail. The little pegasus filly slowly opens her eyes.
In a sudden twitch she throws the filly far, far away from her. It flies and hits the ground in a bad angle. Breathing loudly she slowly begins to back up.
The filly twitches and rises from the ground. Its body seems twisted and wrong. It gets up on its fours but its head is turned backwards….
Slowly and whit terribly sounding pops and cracks the filly turns its head around. A large smirk runs all across its face, revealing its jagged and sharp teeth. Where its eyes should have been… it’s a pitch black nothingness…
Suddenly the smile disappears and she can feel the town fading away in the never-ending void…
The filly is slowly starting to approach her, its wings turned into tendrils of darkness and black magic nopony would ever dare to wield. Its eyes, now completely blood red and glowing, like the demons of the tales of the Everfree.
A young voice barely able to pronounce its vowels says: “You killed my daddy…”
As it echoes in the darkness, the filly thrusts it’s full, tiny body forward and strikes her right in the chest, knocking out whatever air was remaining in her.
Twilight tries to use her magic but it’s blocked…
The filly is approaching slowly and it pokes its nose right against hers. She feels cornered in the darkness awaiting her demise. The filly whispers, “You killed my daddy…”
Just as she thrusts her sharp tendrils at Twilight’s heart, she wakes up with a scream… too close for comfort…
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It was the nightmare Twilight kept having for about a month after the biggest fire in the Equestrian history. The Ponyville Fire.
A witness, her savior, a pegasus by the name of Wind Chaser found her curled in a ball around the little filly that still sometimes haunts her dreams.
Twilight was given a medal for bravery but was taken to intensive care to treat her burns. She didn’t have a chance to meet her friends and they didn’t have the chance ether, since everypony who could move, helped on rebuilding Ponyville. And that’s why it’s now named New Ponyville.
Months went by and the need to meet her friends was pushed aside for more pressing matters. As Twilight was assigned to study the ancient arcane healing spells and other medical related stuff, her mind had drifted to 99% study mode.
The only thing that helped her emotionally recover was the fact that everypony, besides that one stallion, was fine-enough to keep on living again. And a little something that made her heart ease was the fact that most Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy’s cottage and her own Grand Tree-Library-Home was fairly fine (besides a few burnt roofs and a few hectares of missing apple orchards). Rarity and Pinkie weren’t so lucky though… (and Dash had used her own cloud home to extinguish the flames)
Just like Celestia, Twilight blamed herself for all that happened. As much as she tried to suppress it, it will always haunt the back of her mind…
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“Twilight… Twilight… Twilight!” a familiar voice brings Twilight back in reality from which she had accidentally slipped away. She had remembered her nightmares… so vivid… But they are in the past now… more pressing matters are at her hooves.
“Oh, sorry Rarity… I must have…” Twilight began.
“Hush dear,” Rarity gently placed her hoof on Twilight’s lips, “it’s ok. You look tired, we can sleep down here tonight, you no idea how fabulously comfortable these beanbags are!” she tried for the umpteenth time to cheer up her friend with meaningless pep-talk.
“I’d love to,” a smile snuck up on Twilight’s lips, “but I can’t. I promised Rainbow and …Spitsy…” she said that name with an odd tone and slightly shuttered.
“That I’d…” she stopped and suddenly remembered the promise of ‘patient confidentiality’ she made.
“I… umm… keep your mouth shut about this.” Twilight hissed. Rarity widened her eyes a bit but quickly regained her classy lady charm. She cleared her throat and said, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” followed by the appropriate gestures. Twilight had never seen Rarity perform a pinky-promise before, which meant she really did mean it.
After a judging glare at her best friend Twilight continued. “Ok,” her tone lowered to a whisper and Rarity was forced to lean forward which signaled the fact that she was about be caught gossiping. Caught by whom? The high-class lady inside her, obviously.
“Ok, first of all you didn’t hear it from me,” Twilight clarified, “secondly,” she made a dramatic pause raising Rarity’s tension to its highest, “Dash and Spitfire… wanna’ be moms.” She rushed the last part out of her mouth almost stumbling on her own words. Rarity gasped as she had never gasped before, if a vacuum-cleaner had such power, it would have sucked up an entire house by now.
But before that could have happened Rarity choked on plain air and that gasp was cut short. She began violently coughing and Twilight had to pat her on the back and give her a sip of the already cold tea. After the coughing had stopped and Rarity had regained her voice she began questioning Twilight.
“How?” she exclaimed almost forgetting to swallow the sip of tea “Are they going to get a guy? A conspiracy? Cheating!?”
“No, no, no, no, NO!” Twilight calmed her friend before she managed to think up any more crazy ideas, “They just came around and asked for a spell. That’s it. Magic and nature will do the rest.” Twilight gave the shortest answer possible.
Rarity’s pampered eyebrows were as high as they could go. This news was amazingly intriguing and would probably keep her up all night. Instead of saying anything she just coughed.
“*cough* I better be going now. They’re probably wondering where I went.” Twilight said as she began struggling to get out of the overwhelming beanbags. “I guess so…” Rarity paused, “but do come around for a visit, here in New PonyVille business is slow but it’s honestly for the best. Manehattan and their nitpicky ponies. Humph!” Rarity did her best to regain her ladylike charm.
As she escorted Twilight do the door she mentioned “Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll help you come up with something to solve your… eee, problem.” They hugged and Twilight vanished around the corner.
After showing the tea-set in the kitchen and turning off the lights Rarity trotted upstairs. She didn’t bother to turn the light on in her bedroom though, so she just slowly felt her way to the bed from which radiated light snoring sounds. After tucking her tired body under the sheets she felt something touching her belly. She opened her eyes and saw a pair of big, green, glowing, cat-like eyes staring right back at her. “I thought you were sleeping?” she softly said.
“I was waiting for you.” Her dragon mate Spike replied.
“awww…” was all she said and leaned over for a kiss.
After rearranging their different sized bodies Rarity gently emitted purr-like sounds as she settled in Spike’s bosom.
Spike gently ran his finger across her big belly.
“I love you.” He whispered.
“I love you too Spikey-wikey…” she quietly replied and dozed off in her loved one’s embrace.
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Twilight returned home with a light trot. She never realized that something as simple as talking and gossiping can brighten your day… or in this case night.
As she went around the large tree to the entrance of the library she spotted two figures and one of them resembled a lamp.
“There you are!” Rainbow Dash said the very moment Twilight entered the small lit area of her porch.
“Where were you? We’d been waiting for about 15 minutes!” she didn’t sound angry nor disappointed, she just sounded a bit... worried.
“Sorry I got a bit caught up at Rarity’s but I… Spitfire…? Why is there a lampshade on your head?”
The yellow pegasus whose head was completely covered by a big red lampshade made out of creped paper spoke. Her voice was slightly muffled but Twilight could still make out her words. “Let’s just say…” she turned her eyes to Dash (at least that’s where her eyes should’ve been, but you couldn’t really tell) “Dash is a bit too energetic for a dancer…” Rainbow blushed.
“Ok, we’ll get inside and I’ll see what I can do.” Twilight said in a serious tone but inside she was cracking up as she had never cracked up before.
As Rainbow helped Spitfire to the couch Twilight quickly lit the library. After the fire, since the town had to be rebuilt anyway, ponies decided to trust this new and amazing technology know as electricity. Since the old tree was saved and suffered little damage except for a minor flood, there were only a couple of lamps and overall electric devices, so Twilight still had to rely on candles.
“Much better!” she said as she lit the last candle.
Without saying a word Twilight walked over to Spitfire who was holding Rainbow’s hoof in her iron grip.
A swift move with her magic and the lampshade popped off bringing along only a few hairs from Spitfire’s orange mane. As the two lovestruck mares gazed in each-other’s eyes it was followed by an embrace as if they haven’t seen each-other for months.
Twilight emerged from a corner whit the same book she held this morning and found the two mares getting ready for a long make-out session.
“*ahem* Save it for upstairs will you?” Twilight interrupted while looking away
As the two, noticed the sudden interruption Rainbow gently and quickly pushed Spitfire away to the other side of the couch while the two were blushing. Twilight just giggled and sat down in front of them while slowly flipping the pages.
Rainbow entered full-on-worry-mode. “So, will it work? Is it safe? Will it work?”
“You asked that already, and I'm sure you’ll be fine, just relax.” Twilight replied without even lifting her eyes from the book.
“She’s right Dashie, we’ll be fine.” Spitfire smiles as she placed her hoof around Rainbow’s shoulders and huddled a bit closer.
“Your right Spitsy, I can always trust my friends. I can always relay on them... I'm loyal like that.” They both giggled.
“Ok, I think I'm ready.” Twilight said as she raised up whit her head still in the book.
“You’re ready? What about us!?” Dash snapped, it seemed that this was extremely important for her, since she was overacting this much.
“Relax Dashie, take deep breaths.” Spitfire tried to calm her marefriend as she imitated loud breathing sounds.
“You’ll be doing a lot of that if this thing works.” Twilight tossed out a joke. The two just looked at her weirdly.
“I uhh... umm… nevermind…” Her trying to sneak in a pregnancy joke didn’t quite work as well as planned.
“Wait, you “think” you’re ready… Does that mean it can… uhh, like, like go wrong?!” Rainbow stumbled on her words trying to find the right ones
“All spells are bound to fail at some point, Rainbow. It’s just the way magic works.” Twilight began a lecture “These however, are… different from the regular ones.” Twilight flashed the book’s cover. On it in bold letters was written: “Useless Spells.”
“Useless?” Dash questioned while pulling her eyebrows in a matching pose/grin.
“Yes, useless. Spells like puffing your pillow, making dust bunnies into living dust bunnies, making yourself smell like hay-fries and other random and stupid ones.” She slightly smiled “Spells that are next to extinct due to their stupidity or uselessness... or just ones that are hard to cast and the finished product isn’t worth it…”
Twilight paused and the three were just staring at each other for a while.
“But. That doesn’t mean they don’t work.” Twilight continued. “Most of the time…” she mumbled to herself.
They stood there for awhile doing nothing again. The clock chimed 4. “Well if we’re gonna’ do anything we better do it now!” Spitfire cut the silence.
“Umm. Ok, I'm ready. At your signal girls.” Twilight leaned forward pointing her stubby little horn at her friends.
Spitfire looked in Dash’s eyes and smiled. They quickly kissed and took a steady position. Twilight squinted through her hair and saw the two nod.
As Twilight concentrated all her magic into her horn a small purple aura began seeping through the very top. Like syrup it lingered awhile and then began lazily floating towards the two pegasus mares.
After about the minute the two were completely engulfed in the transparent aura. Not as swiftly as it came, the aura suddenly bursted into tiny star-like sparkles which quickly fell to the ground. Twilight fell to the ground exhausted but the two barely felt anything.
“Did… did it work?” Dash asked. Her voice was trembling just a bit.
“I… I think so.” Twilight replied while she was picking herself off the floor while slightly panting.
The two examined their hooves, stretched their wings but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Suddenly Spitfire was overcome by an odd sensation. She gently stroked Rainbow’s forehoof while she was checking her cutie mark. Rainbow did a swift move whit her head in reflex and bumped her nose into Spitfire’s.
For a second they’re both eyes widened but then went into that kinky half-closed position.
They began kissing once more and Twilight unnoticeably nudged them in the direction of the stairs.
Eventually they got the hint and began swiftly ascending the stairs. Rainbow slightly fell behind and said “I… umm, sorry for the sheets…”
Twilight just giggled and replied “Do you have any idea what the substitute-librarian has been doing up there? Don’t worry… eeeh, have fun…”
Dash giggled and offered a simple smile instead of words.
She turned around and ran up the stairs.
“I umm... see you in the morning!” Twilight called out before Rainbow vanished the corner.
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As the sound became louder and louder Twilight forced her head under the pillow. She, in all honesty didn’t want to be a witness in this… strange expression of passion and love.
She just dug deeper into the pillows hoping sleep will come soon. The painful thought that she was avoiding struck her heart once again. She was still alone… If something as bizarre as Dash and even Vinyl having a marefriend and possibly kids pained her.
Overoccupied by that thought Twilight didn’t realize how easily she fell asleep and only woke when the Sun was already out.
She yawned and looked around. She was still alone. On her couch. Downstairs. It was 10 in the morning. A light snort came from upstairs proving that she hadn’t dream the entire thing about last night.
Twilight fell of the couch and slumped to the kitchen. Maybe that punch wasn’t all that good of an idea last night (knowing Pinkie Pie, Celestia knows what she’d put in there).
Twilight hastily prepared two cups of coffee but then she remembered about her two friends upstairs. She made two more and by the time they were done she heard a noise coming from the stairwell.
“Good morning Rainbow. Coffee?” Twilight said the very moment she saw her cyan friend.
“Eh, why not.” Rainbow replied after a yawn. She grabbed a cup of coffee and gulped it down in one go. Twilight noticed her mane was much tardier than her usual uncombed mess. But she still said nothing as she felt that Rainbow, deep down inside, still felt embarrassed for going after a mare rather than a stallion.
Lost in thought Twilight didn’t notice that Spitfire had entered the kitchen as well.
“Mornin’ Spits’!” Rainbow’s loud and cheery expression almost made Twilight jump. Luckily they didn’t notice.
“How do you feel?” Spitfire gently asked while helping herself to the coffee. Her mane was all messed up even for Mohawk standards.
“I dunno’, I feel alright I guess… Do you think it worked?” Rainbow turned to Twilight.
“Even if it did it takes about a week for the first… symptoms to show.” After slight brainstorming Twilight replied, “It takes time for that kind of stuff to work, ya’ know.” She added.
“Speaking of time,” Spitfire interrupted, “it’s time for us the head back to Cloudsdale and get the sale done once and for all.”
“Sale?” Twilight didn’t understand.
“Yea’ were gonna sell our mansion and move to Ponyville. I’d thought you’d told her Rainbow?” Spitfire clarified while looking at her mate.
“We didn’t agree on that!” Rainbow defended herself.
“Well whatever anyway…” Spitfire ended the topic.
“Wait, so you came here for literally one night?” Twilight asked while dumping a half-ton of sugar in her 2nd coffee.
“We’re Wonderbolt’s Twi’. We come and go just like the wind.” Spitfire slowly waved her hoof as if she was stroking the horizon and the wild blue skies.
“But we’re coming back so don't worry!” Dash clarified.
The clock struck 11 with a loud ring. Spitfire strained her muscled and stretched her wings. Like a guard dog she looked at a single point in her view for a while and suddenly began shove Rainbow in the direction of the front door.
The sudden push made Rainbow spit her coffee and begin an argument, “Woah, woah, woah, woah, Woah! Slow down! What’s the rush?” Dash tried to reason but it didn’t work. Spitfire just kept pushing her until they both slammed int the door.
She finally let go and Rainbow lopped on the floor. Spitfire turned to Twilight and moving her mouth about half the speed of Pinkie (which was really fast) said “We really, really gotta’ go, helps for… I mean thanks for everything I will never forget it yada-yada-yada, we’ll drop by soon, BYE!” and she began to shove Dash through the ominously opened door.
“WHAT is the rush?!” Dash snapped and dug her hooves in the ground preventing further movements.
“I promised to meet Soarin on the way!” Spitfire hissed through her teeth.
“Oh… I… I'm sorry I yelled Spitsy… I… Let’s go meet Soarin ok?” Dash smiled and used her hoof to raise Spitfire’s chin.
She looked away but then the hugged her mate.
They began walking down the road and right before they spread their wings and took off Rainbow turned her head around and mouthed “You’re the best, bye!” to Twilight. She said nothing and just waved as the two took off into the cloud layer.
Twilight turned around to enter the library and continue whatever she was doing until she head Rainbow’s voice shouting in the distance “Hi Rarity! Bye Rarity!”
Twilight turned around once more and saw a white figure approaching in the distance. As it got closer you could easily tell it was none other than Rarity, just by the sheer amount of makeup she always had on her.
“Rarity what are you doing here?” Twilight trotted forward to meet her friend half-way.
“I *gasp* thought *gasp* of *gasp* a solution!” She said as she was gasping for air.
“Solution to what?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Twilight, the one that we talked about yesterday?” Rarity said in her ‘I'm better than you’ voice after catching her breath.
“Oh… that…” Twilight nodded her head and began to examine the pebbles at her hooves.
“Cheer up darling!” Rarity placed her hooves in Twilight’s shoulders. “It’s been staring us in the face all along!”
“I'm not catching your drift…” Twilight looked in her friends eyes in confusion. Rarity was gleaming with pride of sorts. “Your killing me! Just spill the beans!” Twilight let out a small laugh and that’s what Rarity was waiting for
“What did you use on Rainbow Dash last night?”
“A-a spell…” Twilight cluelessly answered.
“What kind of spell?” Rarity continued.
Like a sledgehammer, it hit it. Twilight understood what all this commotion was about. An enormous smile creped on her lips as she whispered “Becoming a mother…”
“Under our noses all along…” Rarity confirmed.
“The spell…”
So simple. Too simple…
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Big thanks to AzureKaRyu for editing this beast