//------------------------------//
// 16: Off to the City in the clouds 
// Story: Dawn of The Ice King 
// by KingdomBrony16 
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I looked over the edge of the very large basket of the hot air balloon Goldy, Pinkie, and I was riding in and I felt my heart skip a few beats. I don't really have a fear of heights; I just have a fear of falling and breaking things. I mean now I could survive from at least this height but apparently Cloudsdale was higher up and I don't know if I could survive a fall from that height, which is why I went out of my way to find the second most powerful unicorn in Ponyville to apply the strongest and longest lasting cloudwalking spell on Pinkie and I, good thing I was best friends with her.

"Hey Shy, how much further until Cloudsdale?" I called out to her; she was pulling the balloon along.

"Oh not much further maybe, 15 minutes." She said not looking back.

"You know if you're getting tired we can just drift the rest of the way there it won't take that much longer."

"No it's ok, it's been a while since I flew it's nice to do it again."

"Alright if you say so, but the offer is still open." I turned to Pinkie and Goldy who were sitting on the basket floor playing a game of cards. "What are you playing?"

Pinkie was looking at her card with utmost concentration, must be an intense game, "Go fish, do you want to play?" or not.

I sat down, "Sure, deal me in, but I must warn you I was known as the Go Fish champion back in my world." I was handed my cards.

"Well I'm the Go Fish Champion of this world, so bring it." Pinkie challenged, making Goldy laugh.

After 10 minutes of playing, the Go Fish Champion had lost, but not to the party pony extraordinaire no, my own daughter. I hung my head in pride and shame but mostly pride.

Pinkie gave me an apologetic smile, "Better luck next Chrissy, though it looks like you have to give up your championship title to the new champion."

I nodded and held my daughter's hand up, "Well let's hear it for the new Go Fish Champion of both worlds GOLDY!" we all clapped and laughed and started putting the cards away.

"Alright, I'm going to see how close we are." As soon as I stood up the balloon jerk to a stop, "Never mind, guess we're here."

Fluttershy opened the hatch to the basket, "Yep, welcome to Cloudsdale Chris."

I was going to say something but I was cut off by Pinkie and Goldy running pass me and jumping off the balloon onto the clouds. Now I didn't doubt that the spell worked or that standing on clouds wasn't possible, after all I see Rainbow napping on them all time and I can see Fluttershy, Goldy, and Pinkie standing on them right now, along with hundreds of other ponies moving about the docking area. It's just hard to overcome the thought of clouds are just water vapor and not magical entities mad by pegasi. Fluttershy could tell I was nervous so she put her hand on my arm and gave me a reassuring nod. I took a deep breath and took my first step onto a cloud and I didn't fall through though I almost thought I did. Imagine walking on a bed or a pile of pillows, that's kinda what it felt like.

"Ok so I'm standing on a cloud, give me a minute to stop mentally freaking out."

'Am I good up there yet?'

+Almost… almost… and yes, you are done freaking out.+

"Good, alright, I'm ready to go, lead the way."

"Where do you want to go first?" Shy asked.

"Hmmm why don't we go to your parents' house, get settled in early, and explore the town later today?"

Pinkie gave off a whining sound, "I wanted to go back to the Rainbow Factory, I LOVE that place, and everything is super colorful."

"Sounds like a good place to go, but after we get unpacked and stuff. Would that be alright with you Goldy?"

She just gave me a happy little smile, "Yep, I like seeing Grandma and Grandpa."

"Cool, well off to see the wizard then." Ah references to classic movies that people only say are good due to nostalgia, that's right I said that.

As we walked through the cloud city I was getting looks left right and center which actually wasn't all that surprising to me, due to the fact that no matter where I went I got looks, whether it be due to not being anything normal to this world, of having horns, a tail, slit pupil, razor sharp teeth or that I apparently emit a rather powerful aura. Either way I get looks all the time, also improved hearing allowed me to hear what they were whispering about, now I'm not fazed by a damn thing they say but I heard a few mention Goldy and if I could hear them then she definitely could.

I looked down at my daughter but she was smiling and laughing and joking with Pinkie like she had the entire time we've been walking. If she heard them she either didn't care or she was hiding it really well.

+You know you should talk to her later about it.+

'Yeah I know, if I don't who knows what'll happen in the future if she runs into the extremists out there who think anything abnormal shouldn’t exist.'

+Which is silly because no one is normal.+

'Exactly, I mean look at me, I'm the most abnormal thing within a thousand mile radius and yet I have friends and a family and people who care for me. I'm also a prince and best friends with all the Princesses, So what is normal? Not a damn thing.'

+Agreed, in olden times Dragons had to conform to be a killer or be killed at least before I ruled. When I did however I accepted all the abnormal dragons, the dragons like Spike, who enjoyed reading, music, art, dancing, etc.+

'As it should be.' After that short conversation I was lost in my own thoughts for a bit before I bumped into Pinkie.

"Huh why did we stop?"

She gestured to the building in front of her, it was a 3 story house made of clouds, duh, so there wasn't much color to it but going up the pathway to the front door was rows of flowers, you can grow flowers on clouds? Ok, "Because, we're here. Now, Pinkie, be you. Goldy, be on your best behavior. You too Chris."

"Aren't I always?" I wiggled my eyebrows and she just deadpanned. I sighed in defeat, "Aye aye ma'am best behavior I shall be on." She had a relieved smile and walked up to the door and knocked on it.

The door opened to an older Black Pegasus with silver hair and tail, on his shirt was the mark of the big dipper, which apparently you could fucking see here, blew my mind the first time I figured that out. When he saw Shy his eyes widened and he took her into a hug, "Flute, I knew you said you were coming today but we didn't expect this early."

I snickered, 'Flute, like the instrument? Cute.'

+More original than Shy.+

'Shut up.'

She embraced the hug, "Hi papa, sorry it's so early."

"No need no need." He saw Goldy and let go of shy only to lift Goldy into a near bone crushing hug, "My little Ray of Sunshine, oh I missed you. Oh Pinkie, it's good to see you too, it's been far too long."

I smiled at the display of affection, I hope I end up being that good of a father when I reach old age, whenever that is.

Finally he spotted me behind everyone and put Goldy down, "Ah and you must be Christopher." He held his arms open, "Well come on son, give an old man a hug."

Eh why not, I walked up to him and we shared a manly hug, "Good to meet you Sir."

He laughed, "Please, just call me Soaring Dipper, or Dipper or Soaring, or whatever you please." I just nodded not really knowing how to respond, "Well just don't stand out there, come in come in." He started to push us in the house and when we were all in he closed the door. "Well make yourselves at home, your bedrooms are on the second floor, just enough for you all too, kitchen is down the hall to the left,  living room to the right. Restroom down here, 2 bathrooms on your floor and the 3rd floor is for my wife and I. Speaking of, she is in the kitchen cooking lunch right now."

"Hmmmm, Shy, how about you and Goldy go see your mom and I'll go unpack our stuff, I should be done real soon." I gave her a kiss and headed up stair with our luggage in tow before anyone could say anything in protest, I could hear another pair of footsteps behind me and I just assumed it was Pinkie. After a few minutes of unpacking I came downstairs with pinkie beside me and walked into the kitchen to see Fluttershy talking with a mare who look almost exactly her at the table which had a plate of sandwiches on it, the only difference was the other mare, assuming her mother, Bumble Bee, was a bit more petite and had streaks of white in her otherwise pink hair and tail. She had the mark of a Bee on top of a flower, fitting.

"So there's the Colt who won my little song bird's heart." She said with a slightly cold smile.

I involuntarily shuddered, 'Oh god she is the scary parent.'

+Yep, you're on your own here.+

'WHAT?! No, don't leave me alone!' I got no response, 'Shit.'

"Well, come sit down I won't bite." She patted the chair next to her.

I nervously walked over and sat down next to Shy's mom, "Uh, nice to meet you ma'am."

"Nice to meet you too hun, now, there are some questions I have for you." She picked up a sandwich and handed it to me, which I accepted albeit a bit shakily and took a bite and chewed slowly, it was surprisingly good despite not having really any meat or gems

"First off I'm curious as to what your story is."

I swallowed my bite roughly and coughed, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that."

"Your story dear I want to know what it is."

"I mean I got that but, what do you mean my story?"

"Oh you know, where you come from, what you are, what you do for a living, what you have planned for the future all that. Our little song bird has told us mind you but I'd like to hear it from you."

"Ok… uh well I'm a Drakon, half human, my original species, half dragon. I have said Dragon living in my head, her name is Ixis, she was the last known ruler of all the Dragons. And because of her giving me her powers my body has been getting used to the immense amount of magic, which is why I have random assortments of dragon parts, eye, tail, horns, teeth etc. Also the fact that I can create most near anything out of ice as long as I have enough magic to do so." I demonstrated by making a little copy of myself on the table.

She picked it up and examined it, "Interesting, very interesting, what about where you come from?"

"Oh I come from another planet called earth, I was transported here due to the same dragon granting my wish of exploring a place the human race has never seen before. And I can't really say my wish wasn't fulfilled." I laughed, not bitterly, I got over my own dumbassness with that a while ago.

"I see I see, so why did you disappear for 5 years and leave our daughter to raise your daughter on her own? And for that matter do you plan on marrying her? Do you have a job to help support your family?"

See, I saw this coming, "To answer the last two, yes and nes."

"I have an engagement ring, sort of." She held up her hand and showed her the ring I made last night.

"You made a ring out of ice?"

"Yep, won't melt, virtually indestructible, made of draconic magic and because of that it probably costs more than any ring I could possibly buy."

She studied it, "It's fine for now but you better get her an actual wedding ring. Now what did you mean by nes?"

"I meant that I don't have a job but I can easily support my family. And besides Shy has a job, not saying that's an excuse though."

She kinda sorta, completely scowled at me, "So you don't have a job, but you can support your family? I don't think you would be able to save up for an entire lifetime in the span of however long you've been here."

"I didn't have to, to fully answer your 3rd question I have to answer your first one about where I went for 5 years."

She humphed, "Well don't keep us waiting, explain."

"Well, simply put I had to train to be a prince, I'm a prince, I was adopted by Cadence into the royal family, so I basically have as much money as I need for as long as the royal family exists. Though personally there isn't much I can use it on so I have a good chunk sent to random charities every month. The rest I use for whatever I feel like."

Shy's parents' eyes widened and they stood up and bowed immediately, simultaneously speaking, "We're sorry your highness, we didn't know you were royalty, nothing was shown in the papers."

I laughed, "It's fine and please don't start with the highness stuff, I'm still just me I suppose. But I had it kept hidden, though an announcement is to happen on Monday."

The stood up straight but Ms. Bee, looked a bit uncomfortable and left the room.

Dipper sighed heavily, "Sorry about that, my wife can be a bit overprotective of Flute. But it's good to know you have their best interests in heart."

I waved it off, "I just want to make sure my family is happy is all. Speaking of, where did Goldy go?"

"Oh she's outside playing with Pinkie, those two get along very well."

Shy nodded, "Yes, Pinkie has been like a big sister to Golden."

'Too bad she'll outlive Pinkie and everyone else… whoa, where did that come from?' I shook my head. "Alright, well I'm going to go check up on them." I peered out a window, which was really just a hole in the wall into the backyard, it was just a huge expanse of clouds but I could still see the edge from here I called out to Goldy and pinkie who were apparently playing tag, "Goldy, Pinkie, be careful of the edges ok?"

"OK DADDY!"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's super-duper safe!"

I trusted her on that and went to go sit in the living room with Shy for a bit, "So this is your home huh?"

"Yep, this is where I grew up, Rainbow's old house isn't too far from her, I wonder how Prism Bolt is doing…"

"Is that Rainbow's dad?"

"No it's her older brother, her dad died a few years before you came here."

"What about her mom?"

"During birth."

"Oh…. Oh man… no wonder Rainbow acts so hard all the time." I rubbed my tail nervously, as I always lay it across my lap when I sit down. "I'm going to get her something from here." I pulled out a bit of paper and a pen and wrote a note, when I finished, I pulled out my scroll gem and tapped it quickly having it light up. I quickly put my scroll to it having it sucked into the gem.

"What was that about?"

"Just asking for a favor, is your mom ok?"

She rested her head on my shoulder, "Yes she's fine, just a bit ashamed for talking to a prince like that. If you could talk to her that would be nice."

"Yeah, I can do that, also do you know why Twilight wasn't home this morning?"

"Maybe it was princess stuff? Do you ever get called away randomly?"

"Mmmm sometimes, it isn't often it's just when it has to do with me specifically."

"Oh if that's the case then…" She paused looking like she remembered something, "No never mind."

"What?"

She sat up and avoided looking at me, "N-Nothing, uh go talk to my mom please? Thank you." She pushed me off the couch.

I tilted my head in confusion but decided to ignore it, man she hasn't acted like that in a while. I walked up to the third floor and knocked on the only closed door and I gotta come in.

"Ms. Bee are you ok?"

She jumped and turned around on the bed when she heard my voice, "Oh yes I'm fine and please just call me Bee."

I nodded, "Dipper and Shy told me you were upset that you talked to me like that because I was a prince?"

"Yes, sort of, it was a mix of that and that I talked to you like that in general in front of our song bird." Suppressed snicker.

"Hey it's fine and I understand, I'd do and probably will do the same thing to whoever decides to date my Goldy. It's just a parent thing so no hard feelings, and about the prince thing. It's more or less a title sure I have all the power that comes with it but I'm still just a normal person, well if this is normal anyway." I gave a little tug on my horns.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

I sat down on a chair in the room "Not at all, no nerves, just bone. Say may I ask how you got your cutie mark?"

"Oh not at all, you see when I was younger, but older than the normal time a pony gets their cutie mark, I was on the ground a lot, much like our daughter and I used to work with flowers, one day while I was attending to the azaleas a Bee floated by and landed on one of them, it looked deathly ill and sadly it didn't make it, so I decided to finish it's pollination job for it and poof it appeared."

"So your special talent is essentially pollinating and growing flowers?"

She blinked, "It sounds silly when you put it like that doesn't it?"

"Not at all, pollinating is an essential part of the ecosystem and flowers are as well, I'd say your special talent is very special indeed."

She smiled at that, "What about you, do you, humans, have any special talents?"

"Sadly no, we just kinda have try our hands at everything until we find something that sticks and even then that's not guaranteed. "

"Poor dears, that must be very hard."

"Eh it can be, but the biggest shared talents humans have is the ability to adapt to any situation so we got used to it pretty fast. Actually back on earth I was pretty much in the same position now, well financially anyway, socially I was in a hole so deep I couldn't even see the top."

"Why is that?"

"Well you see-" "AAAHHHHH!"

We both stood up, "That was Goldy/it came from outside." We rushed to the window to see Pinkie standing over the edge looking over it.

She looked up at us with tears in her eyes, "I looked away for a second I swear!"

I growled and jumped out the window, instincts taking over as I sprinted passed Pinkie and leaped off the edge of the cloud and dove straight down, I could hear screaming from above me but I was more concentrated on my daughter who had passed out from fright.

+Chris, you won't survive landing from this height!+ Ixis yelled in my mind.

"I don't care, I will not let my daughter die!" I put my arms in front of me and formed a cone of ice in order to break the wind in front of me lessening the friction, it sped me up enough to be able to grab hold of Goldy and hold her close while flipping onto my back so I would act like a cushion.

After a few seconds she woke back up, "D-Daddy…?" She looked past my shoulder and then buried her face in my chest.

"Shhh it's ok, I got you, we'll be ok." I ran my hand through her hair.

+Chris.+

'Not now Ixis I want to spend my last few moments with my daughter.'

+But Chris.+

'Not now!'

+CHRIS!+

'What?!'

+You have wings!+

"I have what?!" I looked behind me to see very large blue wings. "When in the… how?"

+Your body must've sped up your next transformation and just said fuck releasing all the energy back out because you have way more in here than you did with every previous one.+

"Awesome but we have another problem, I don't know how to fly!" I shouted out.

+Hold on I'm working on it I'm working on it!+ Man this was a long fall, not that I'm complaining. +Here got it, all the knowledge we have learned about flight. Normally I wouldn't give you the knowledge straight out like this, but considering the circumstances.+

"Got it thanks, just-oh…" Well that felt weird, imagine getting brain freeze, a headache, and light headed all at once. That's basically what it felt like to have a crap ton of knowledge inserted into your brain at once. "Ok Goldy, hold onto me as tight as you can ok?" I felt her squeeze me, which was a good yes.

I flipped over and spread out my wings which jerked us to a slow fall then I gave one good flap and took off skyward, I kept going until I reached the cloud edge and landed on it. I set Goldy down who immediately ran over to Shy, "Ok… now that that heart attack is over…" I straight up collapsed and was out cold for about an hour. When I woke up I realized I was laying on my stomach. I looked to my side and saw everyone looking at me.

"Well… this is strange… I can understand the strange looks from everyone except Shy and Pinkie, ya'll have seen this before." I sat up and stretched.

"Yes well…." Shy started out.

"Your wings are GINORMOUS!"

"Huh? Uh… do you guys have a full body mirror?" Dipper nodded and pointed down the hall, "Thanks." I walked up to the mirror and my jaw dropped at what I saw. Pinkie was right my wings were indeed rather large, The joint where the folded at was a good 6 inches above my head and they had little hook claws on the like a bat but instead of one there were 3. The bottom of my wings were up off the floor by a measly 3 inches. The inside of my wings were a lighter blue than the outside bit which was comprised of hard, but flexible dark blue scales.

"Well this is inconvenient. Yo Ixis, why are they so big?"

+My guess is because you didn't have an actual iceplosion this time your body just kinda kept it all in as you needed to be awake to get back to safety. So the magic just made them bigger than necessary. Though once you're able to control your transformation into a dragon and what not, if you decided to just bring your wings out they should be a proper size.+

"But until then I'm stuck with these giant things?"

+Afraid so, maybe you can wrap then around you?+

"Worth a shot." I did so and hooked both sets of claws together and relaxed my wings and surprisingly it held. "Huh looks like I just have my own special kind of cloak on, that works." My wings did drag a bit on the ground like this but I didn't mind really.

"Ok is that better?" I asked walking back into living room. I got a lot of nodding, "Alright time to explain to you what just happened." And so I did.

"Well I don't have any questions what about you dear?" Dipper asked Bee to which she just gave a simple no.

"Goldy what about you, do you have any questions?"

She looked up at me, "Does that mean that'll happen to me but in reverse?"

We all laughed at that, "No, you're fine."

"So what do we do now?" Shy asked.

"We tour the city of course, you guys pack a few things maybe some snacks and stuff I'll go get Pinkie." I made my way upstairs and saw Pinkie's door closed, I heard sniffling and I didn't decide to knock I just went in. Pinkie was laying on the bed on her stomach, her head under a pillow though part of her hair was sticking out and that along with her tail were straight.

I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her back, "Are you ok?"

"N-no…"

"Do you blame yourself for Goldy falling?" She just nodded, "Don't, it's ok, it was an accident, it could've just as easily been you who fell too, or me, or anyone really."

"Would you still have saved me if it was?" She asked through muffled sobs.

"Of course I would, why wouldn't I?" she stayed silent, not knowing how to answer that, "Pinkamena Diane Pie, you silly pony you, would you like a hug?" She nodded again, "Well you gotta sit up and take the pillow off your head."

"Don't wanna…."

"Don't make me do something drastic." She groaned, "Fine I warned you." I supercooled my hand and placed it on her back, she made a really high pitched screech and sat up quickly, making the pillow fly across the room.

"Chrissy that was mean!" She punched me in the arm.

"Got you to sit up though." I unwrapped my wings from around me and held my arms open, "Come on you said you wanted a hug." She scooted over and hugged me, "Better?"

She mumbled out a yes, "Good, now get your butt in gear, we're going to the Rainbow Factory."

She jumped up and rushed to the door, her poofiness back at max power, "Well what are you waiting for come on."

I stood up and followed her, for the rest of the day we all had fun, the rainbow factory was cool I even got to taste rainbow and Jesus is it spicy. We visited the Wonderbolt stadium and training grounds, pulled a few strings there. We went out to eat at a restaurant, which was paid for by Dipper and Bee, though I offered to pay several times. Sure I got a few more weird looks but eh whatever, still have to talk to Goldy about that. Came home and my requested package had arrived and I got very excited for that. At the end of the day I was in bed with the mare I loved, my daughter was safe, one of my friends was happy and I was on good terms with Shy's parents. Today was a damn good day.