//------------------------------// // The Joy Of Not Stepping On Grass // Story: How To Raise A Kirin In 12,371 Steps // by Soothing Stone //------------------------------// Spike wasn’t too sure where to take Kunzite for the day. Where do parents take foals to, anyways? It was such a long time since he was a hatchling, and he forgot what he liked to do when he was so little. Twilight couldn’t remind him of the places he liked to visit as a baby, so he had to improvise. He was wary of introducing Kunzite to other foals, even if Equestria had largely accepted her nature. Maybe tomorrow. No way was he taking her to the park just yet, either. That was for kids older than her. It took him a while to come up with something good, but he recalled that little sanctuary Fluttershy opened a few years back, not long before he gained his wings. Now that was a place that would be perfect for Kunzite. She could enjoy some fresh air, hang out around the fields, and maybe even learn about the types of animals there. Twilight would be happy with that. No downsides, all positives to think of, so let’s go. He grabbed a backpack, stuffed it with some baby food and milk, and carried Kunzite down to the sanctuary. The pegasi scheduled a sunny day with a light breeze, and the sunlight made the place look even more appealing. Even if the weather wasn’t as its best, fresh air never hurt anybody. When he got to the entrance, he observed Kunzite’s reactions closely to see what she thought about a place like this. As it turned out, she was in awe of the large forest wonderland. The large palette of colors, creatures, and smells were overload to her senses in the best possible way. It made her giggle with glee. “Heh, knew you would like it,” he commented. “We should find Fluttershy first. She’s really good about nature and animals, and she could tell you all about this place. She can’t be that far away.” The pegasus wasn’t anywhere nearby, so he took a step on the grassy field to find her. The sound of grass crunching rang in Kunzite’s ears, and she began to cry. “Huh? Something wrong?” She didn’t say a word--not that foals should be able to talk--but she twisted and turned like she was in pain. “Hey, nothing’s wrong. I’m here for you.” He took another step and crunched even more grass along the way. She cried and bit down on her claws, looking at the grass like there was a dead body there. “Okay, now I know something’s wrong. Are you crying because Mommy’s not here? She’ll be back in a couple of hours. It’s nothing to be worried about,” he pleaded with her. This was the first time she really cried like that after she was born. He felt guilty about it, as he suspected it was from something he did. Kunzite flew out of his arms and raced towards his legs. When she got there, she threw everything she had to get his feet off the ground, pulling at them with her claws. This was a matter of life and death for her. She kept tugging and tugging at him to get off. “That’s making you cry? You want me to get off the ground or something?” He shrugged and used his wings to hover off the ground. Wasn’t like he had any better ideas. Kunzite went down and looked all over the grass blades he destroyed, and she couldn’t stop crying from the sight. “Wait, that really was it? You were just upset over the grass getting stepped on?” he wondered. She nodded and flew back into his arms. At least she wasn’t crying anymore. “Okay, then. No more stepping on the grass. I had no idea you cared about it that much. It’s just grass.” That earned him a death stare from his own daughter. It sent shivers down his spine; he was very aware that she could destroy him if she learned to control her magic. Now that he realized that he shouldn’t screw around with nature, he stayed a few inches above the ground as he showed her around the forest. With the weather corporating like this, the animals were out in full force today. Even if they stayed in the entrance area, Kunzite could watch a giraffe drink from the river, a few foxes running around in the fields, and a bear resting up on the boulders. She thought they were all wonderful, and she left Spike’s grasp to go see them up close and personal. “Wait, some of them might be dangerous!” he shouted. He flew in to catch up with her. There was no way he was going to leave her alone when one of these guys could hurt her. It didn’t help that she was coming up on one of the foxes to check out its tail. By Celestia, he hoped that Fluttershy checked them all out for rabies…. However, something intriguing happened when she met the fox, which was a male one. He stopped his little trek to see who this mysterious creature was. Certainly wasn’t any pony he ever met before. Kunzite couldn’t stop grinning from how cute it was, and she reached out to pet him. Spike’s heart sank from imagining all the ways this could go wrong, and he was prepared to snatch her away from the beast. Instead, Kunzite brushed her claws over the fox’s head, and the fox didn’t move a muscle or appear irritated. Spike stopped in his tracks when he realized the fox wasn’t going to attack. In fact, he sniffed all over Kunzite’s face to see what was up with this scaled pony-like creature. She squirmed from the fox’s wet nose rubbing all over her face. It was so wet and ticklish, and she liked the feeling. Maybe, just maybe, she just made another friend. “George, what are you doing?” a familiar face piped in. Spike would recognize Fluttershy’s voice from anywhere, and he was happy to see her come in. As she grew older, she still retained her graceful form, although that wedding ring on her finger was taking some getting used to. “Hey, Fluttershy,” Spike replied. “Man, I am never getting over the fact that you’re married to Discord now. Who would have thought?” “Even I’m a little surprised that it happened,” she admitted. “Oh, your daughter’s so adorable! Why is she playing with George? He’s usually very shy around strangers.” “Yeah, I’m just as confused as you are.” As he was talking, Kunzite realized Fluttershy’s feet were stepping on the grass, and she started to cry again. “You might want to stay off the ground like I’m doing. She’s very sensitive if you step on the grass at all. Don’t know why, but she is.” “I’m so sorry, Kunzite. Here, I’m getting off right now.” She hovered off the ground, and Kunzite stopped crying immediately. “I never heard of anything like that before. I know some environmentalists, like Tree Hugger, and they don’t get upset over things like that.” “Huh. Wonder what that means if she’s getting upset over things Tree Hugger would see as no big deal…” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Can I be honest with you, Fluttershy? Just between friends.” Kunzite ran off to explore the other parts of the sanctuary, and Fluttershy kept a close eye on her. “That’s usually what somepony says when they’re about to share a deep, dark secret. How serious is this?” “It’s nothing that serious. Well, it kinda is. I’m worried that Twilight views Kunzite more like a science project than as a daughter.” She was startled to hear that. “Should I be in the middle of this?” The pain in Spike’s eyes told her the whole story. “Okay, just between friends. Although, are you really that surprised? Kunzite is the first known kirin born from a pony and a dragon, and we know so little about them. That’s the kind of stuff Twilight would go crazy about. Didn’t she run a few experiments on you right after you were born, since we had so little information about dragons at the time?” “Yeah, and I still have some of the scars,” he winced. “But that was different. She was just a filly at the time, not like she had any idea what she was doing. She’s an adult now and this is her offspring. Doesn’t that feel a little different to you?” She nodded. “I suppose you have a point. Have you talked to her about it?” “Not yet, but I want to. Is it better to speak up about it, or hope the problem fixes itself? No matter what, if it gets worse, I’m saying something. No if or buts about it.” “I hope it doesn’t get to that point for you.” She turned back to see Kunzite again, only to see a scary sight. “ By the way, where’s Kunzite?” Spike’s eyes shrunk down to the size of peas when he heard that. He was so preoccupied with venting out his problems, he didn’t notice that Kunzite was off on her own. “No no no no NOOOOOOOOO!” His heart stopped for a split second, and he sprinted across the sanctuary to find her. His eyes darted in all directions, trying to find any sign of her daughter around here. He wasn’t tired at all, but he gasped for air with every moment it took her to find the kirin. He had to use a lot of willpower to brush aside the guilt that he didn’t keep track her of her, and he found himself deep into the forest. Even if it was a stretch that she made that much ground already, he had to look for her everywhere at this point. The sounds of her laughter echoed throughout the forest. He could hear Fluttershy coming up from behind, but it barely registered to him. All that mattered was that he knew which direction Kunzite was in, and he flew closer to the sounds of her voice. He prayed to Celestia that she was okay, and that she didn’t pick a fight with someone twenty times her size. As it turned out, she was sitting on the branch of a tree. He almost screamed at the thought of her falling down from there, and he came up to grab her as quickly as possible. Only problem was that she wasn’t alone on that branch. A lot of squirrels had joined her up there. The squirrels themselves were calm and tranquil, some of them even accepting pets on the head. Kunzite was delighted to make even more friends, and she loved petting their bushy tails. They might not like it, but they didn’t seem to care. “Is she alright?” Fluttershy asked. She came to the tree trunk to see the same thing Spike did. “Oh, that’s so adorable! She’s getting along with all the little squirrels. Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?” “That’s what you’re thinking about? How cute this looks?” Spike gawked. “All those squirrels could bite or scratch her! That’s it, she’s coming down right now.” “Spike, wait a second. Isn’t it weird how they’re warming up to her? Most squirrels never warm up to a guest, ever. They run away as soon as they see somepony that’s not me. Maybe it’s a good idea to bring her down, though. Do you need my help?” “No, I got it. Kunzite, please come down from the tree,” Spike begged. “You could get a serious boo-boo if you fall down. Just come with me…” All the squirrels turned to the big dragon bully and reared up on their legs. Some of them even got ready to pounce on him. This was their kirin, and he wasn’t going to get in the way of cuddle times. Kunzite was upset to see all her new friends attack Daddy, and she started to whimper. The moment one of them was about to pounce on him, though, was the moment her mood shifted. Her horns glowed together into a menacing shade of red, and her eyes shifted to the same color. All of a sudden, the squirrels were knocked softly off the tree branch from a burst of magic. They weren’t seriously hurt, but they got spooked from the impact and ran off in all directions. “KUNZITE!” Spike snatched her up and brought her down immediately. “What did you do? What was that?” The kirin realized she did something really bad from his tone, and she turned away from him. It tore her up to see all her squirrel friends run away in fear, and her horns changed color once again. This time, it was a shade of blue, and all the critters levitated back to her. They freaked out and tried to get out the spell, but it was no use. She gave them all a big hug to make it up to them. Spike’s face was starting to pour from sweat, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to stop her at the moment. Kunzite hugged all the squirrels to calm them down, and it worked. They weren’t all that cuddly anymore, but they weren’t scared for their lives either. Once their moods had improved, she put them down gently into the tree branches. Couldn’t afford to let them break more grass blades, of course. Then, she went back into Spike’s arms and fell asleep on the spot. He turned to Fluttershy in bewilderment. She was just as surprised as he was, and they didn’t know what to say. He glanced down at Kunzite and dwelled on the way her horns changed color. What did they mean? “Guess her magic is tied to her emotions after all,” he whispered, trying not to break Kunzite’s nap. “You saw that, right?” “I couldn’t unsee it, even if I tried,” she meeped. “Please don’t let her harm the animals like that again.” “How do you think I feel about it? We knew she wasn’t going to be a normal pony, but we had no idea it was going to going this way. This must have been what Shining and Cadence went through when they were raising Flurry Heart.” “There is one big difference between you and them. Flurry wasn’t half dragon.” Spike gulped. “I didn’t think about that. Oh Celestia, I don’t know if I can do this. She’s already so powerful, and she’ll just get better when she grows up. Can I raise her the right way when all of this is going on?” Fluttershy’s heart soared for her friend. It was obvious to see he was trying so hard to do this right, so she said the only thing she could think of. “You don’t have to do it alone. Twilight’s helping you out, and you have a lot of friends on your side. We can help you if you need it.” Spike still felt overwhelmed, but his shoulders loosened up when he heard Kunzite snore peacefully. No matter what just happened, he couldn’t deny that she was the cutest thing he had ever seen. He cradled her face softly and sniffed from the emotions coming over him. “I just hope that when she grows up and living on her own, I don’t have too many regrets over how I raised her…” ------ As the years went by, the Dragon Lands never changed. Ponies, griffons, and hippogriffs may have visited it more than ever, and Smolder might have helped dragons warm up to friendship, but in terms of appearance, it didn’t change at all. A lot of ashy air, a lot of active volcanoes, and lava pools still made up the lands. No matter how much dragons learned about friendship, they were not giving up lava swimming or surfing. It was too much fun to just drop like that. Speaking of which, Fizzle was on the edge of a cliffside, looking over one of the bigger lava pools. His friends were down at the pool, waiting for him to make his big dive. The drop was at least twenty feet high, and he wasn’t eager to see how a drop like that would hurt. But he was Fizzle the Dragon. Fear wasn’t in his DNA up here. No, it was only there when he had to explain to Torch that he was dating the big guy’s daughter. “What’s taking you so long?” Garble sneered. “You’re just a big old chicken. Bawk bawk!” “You’re the big chicken! You’ve never tried this jump!” Fizzle pointed out. “I’ll do you one better. I won’t do a cannonball off this cliff.” “Boooo! Knew you were a chicken.” “I’m going to do a backflip off this cliff!” The dragons all gasped. “He’s not really going to do it.” “Doesn’t that leave a mark?” “Ember would be soooo ticked off if she was here to see this.” Fizzle turned his back around and spread his arms to the side. Deep down, he was terrified that this was going to hurt. Dragons don’t do fear, though, and neither would he. He was going to be a true dragon and do this right now. His feet hung over the edge as he prepped for the big move. “He’s gonna fail, trust me,” Garble said to the gang. Before he knew it, he jumped off the cliff and flew backwards. The air around him was one big whirl as he flipped back feet first into the pool. He was only in the air for a second, but it felt like an eternity. Before he knew it, he saw nothing but red lava as he dove below the surface. Oh man, it hurt so much on his legs. Definitely wouldn’t do it again. He rose back above the surface and spit out the lava from this mouth. The dragons rose to their feet and applauded his performance. “Fizzle! Fizzle! Fizzle!” He felt like a million gems as they picked him up and paraded him all around the pool, like he just won a grand battle for all of dragonkind. “What? WHAT? He did it?” Garble said in disbelief. “He actually did it! Showoff…” “Told you I could do it! Say my name!” Fizzle roared. “That’s right, who’s the best dragon around here? I am! I am!” “Thought that was me,” a certain blue dragoness cut in. Just from that one sentence alone, all the dragons stopped their act and dropped Fizzle back into the pool. He flailed around from the drop and climbed out of the lava in a huff, shooting the other dragons a dirty look. Then he saw the Dragon Lord herself standing in front of him, tapping her claws on the floor, and he realized he was in for some good old fashioned chewing out. “Well...maybe the second best dragon around here?” he squeaked. “Everybody else, get out of here,” Ember shot at them. “I’ll deal with Fizzle myself.” The rest of the gang sprinted out of the pool as fast as they could. They were in fear for their lives, as Ember made it very clear that she was not to be trifled with. “You are so screwed right now!” Garble laughed. Ember made sure they were all gone, even checking to see they left the side of the mountain completely. Once they were gone, she came into the pool and planted a kiss on Fizzle’s lips. “You big old brute! I saw the whole thing. What made you think you could do a backflip like that?” “I didn’t,” he admitted. “I just wanted to show them all up, that’s all. You know how Garble’s like. Any chance I get to shut his face, I’m gonna take it.” “He made fun of you again, didn’t he?” she sighed. “You don’t need to prove anything to him. Don’t forget that you have me. That’s something he’s never gonna get.” “Heh, that’s right. Next time he pokes fun at me, I’m just gonna ask him where his Dragon Lord is. That will remind him who’s the luckiest dragon in all the land.” “Stop it. You’re just gonna make me fall in love with you again.” She gave him another kiss, and all the stress Garble put Fizzle through was gone. He returned the favor and embraced her tenderly, reminding her why they fell in love in the first place. Later, they had some fun with the lava pool. Ember never got tired of splashing Fizzle’s face with lava, and he was more than happy to splash her back. The next couple of hours were spent like that, going back and forth between playing and cuddling. It looked Ember picked up on a few things from the ponies over the years. After a long while like this, they were spent. They climbed out of the pool and rested down on the side of the mountain. He kissed her again as he laid down on his back. It was just the right moment to start thinking about life after an outing like that, and that’s just what he did. “How do you feel about having hatchlings?” he inquired. “Okay, what’s bringing this up in your mind?” Ember smiled. “You don’t just think about these things, Fizzle. Have you been thinking about this for a while?” “I’m not exactly a subtle dragon,” Fizzle commented. “We’ve been mates for what, a year now? Two years? I’ve met a lot of dragons, and when they’ve been mates for this long, this is the point where they’re expecting a hatchling.” “Maybe, but we don’t have to be like everyone else. That’s a big reason why I’m the Dragon Lord. I did friendship at a time where dragons didn’t, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit I’ve thought about it. Were you wanting some hatchlings of your own?” “It wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen. Who knows, maybe I’m secretly a great dad and I don’t know it yet. If I had kids, they would grow up to be the fiercest dragons that ever lived. Just think about it. You and me, we’re already strong together. Just imagine what kind of kids we could have.” “Heh, that would be kind of cool. I’m not in a hurry to have eggs, but if it ever happens, I’ll do the best I can. Why not? They’re going to have a really awesome, powerful dragon as a parent, and then the other parent will be the Dragon Lord.” Fizzle grinned. “You’re just inflating my ego at this point.” “Not like you’re complaining.” The rest of the night went the same way, just two dragons hanging out and having fun. Anyone that tried to mess with them got one hay of a death stare from Ember, and the rest didn’t dare get in the way. It was a fun night for them, which she could use after another day being the Dragon Lord. Once they were done, they rested on a big pile of gold over at Ember’s cave. No matter what she learned about the world, there wasn’t a better bed in the world a pile of stuff her father may or may not have stolen. It didn’t take long for Fizzle to fall asleep, leaving Ember alone to think about the whole hatchlings idea. That might be worth thinking about, given some of the pains she experienced in her stomach lately...