//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Destinies Intertwined // Story: How To Raise A Kirin In 12,371 Steps // by Soothing Stone //------------------------------// The last week was a crucial one for Spike and Twilight. With the new boundaries they put in place, they were finally on the same page when it came to Kunzite. For now. There were still kinks to work out, but they were closer than they were at the start. Cadence would likely need to keep giving them more advice, but at least they weren’t going to burn the house down with another mistake or two. If someone went to the palace now, they would be treated to a more welcome sight. “This is the sun. Sun. Celestia raises the sun every morning. And this is the moon. Moon. Luna raises it every evening!” Twilight taught. She was sitting down with Kunzite in the kirin’s bedroom. So far, things were going well. Kunzite giggled. “Mo..moo…moon!” She didn’t know what she was saying, but it sure sounded good. Moon was a funny word. “That’s her third word!” Spike gasped. He watched the two of them from the doorway. “So repeating words over and over actually works on her? Wonder why it didn’t work on me. Maybe I just wanted to smush your cheeks together when I was a baby.” “Who knows? Every baby is different. I’m gonna try to test out a few more words with her and see how it goes. Must be nice, seeing this without any note taking.” “You have no idea.” Despite the promising results, Kunzite didn’t learn another word that night. Still, three words in one week was a good number. Just like Spike did all those years ago, she spent more time smushing Twilight’s cheeks than learning her lesson. Looks like she picked up a thing or two from her father other than the dragon scales. After giving her a few packets of applesauce, Kunzite started to trail off and fell asleep. Spike brought her to the crib and tucked her in for the night. Even if she woke up, at least she would get to the see the stars...that were painted on her bedroom ceiling, of course. The roof wasn’t blown off from an accidental spell just yet. “You think she’ll get along with Ember’s son, daughter, whatever their egg turns out to be?” Twilight asked. “So you’ve been wondering about that, too,” Spike noted. “If you ask me, it doesn’t matter. You weren’t getting along with your friends when we moved to Ponyville, and that didn’t stop you from beating Nightmare Moon. I hope that they’re good friends, but if that doesn’t work out, that won’t stop them from fulfilling their destiny. It’s making sure Kunzite grows up to be a wonderful woman that I’m worried about.” “Hmm, good point. It’s out of our hands, so we oughta focus on what we can control. Don’t worry, I already have her preschool education in mind. It won’t be too taxing, and when she goes to magical kindergarten, she’ll be one step ahead of the lessons.” “Twilight, don’t be too demanding on her. She’s just a baby.” “I won’t. She’s already showing a lot of intelligence for her age.” They headed for bed themselves, and they left the door open to Kunzite’s room. They couldn’t wait to rest up for the night, up until they saw the hallways flashing with a bright green light. It came from the kirin’s bedroom, and it grew brighter by the second. Their hearts exploded from the sight, as they knew who was the source of it. When they sprinted into the room, Kunzite levitated herself from the crib. The whole room shook from the surges of magic coming from her horns, and Twilight kneeled down from the strength of it. Spike stood next to her and thought about grabbing Kunzite, snap her out of it, but part of him knew it was best to ride this out, even if they were both terrified for her well being. Kunzite cried out as the magical surge concentrated itself into a magical orb. The orb looked for all avenues to get out of the area, and it settled for the door leading to the rest of the castle. It zipped out of the bedroom at the speed of sound. Twilight saw the orb from the bedroom window, and she opened the door to see it flying out into the distance. “I think that might be the direction to the Dragon Lands,” she noted. “What was that about?” When she looked to Spike for the answers, she caught him putting Kunzite back into bed. The magical surge was gone, and she was sound asleep. Spike was about to have a heart attack, and he stumbled down to his knees. “I really hope this stops happening with her. I can’t take it happening every week.” “Hopefully, that’s the end of it. Whatever that was, I have a feeling it’s very important. Maybe I’ll ask Ember about it when I get the chance. Kunzite, please be okay…” She embraced Spike and did whatever she could to calm him down. Kunzite snored in her sleep, peaceful and quiet. Whatever went down just now, it didn’t seem to bother her one bit. In fact, it would turn into the best night’s sleep of her life up to that point. ------ “So you had an egg with my daughter already? I would say I’m too old to be a grandfather, but I stepped down from being a Dragon Lord for a reason. You’ve been treating her right?” “Y-Yes, former Dragon Lord Torch,” Fizzle gulped. “It’s perfectly fine, like you ordered. She kicks my rear end all the time, and she hasn’t lost a spark. Nothing going wrong over here?” “Come on, Dad, give him a break,” Ember groaned. “He hasn’t done anything wrong, and it was my idea to hang out with him. He’s kinda cool. Aren’t you here to see the egg, anyway? You know this is a big deal for us.” “Right, right. Let me get a good look at it.” It was impressive that Torch could fit his whole frame inside Ember’s cave, but here they were. The whole time he was there, Fizzled was in fear for his life. Granted, Torch knew about their relationship for a while, but that didn’t stop him from being frightened just from the sight of the former Dragon Lord. He could have quashed almost anyone with his pinkie if he wanted to. Sweat poured down Fizzle’s face when he lifted the egg in the air, letting Torch get a better look at it. He did everything he could do keep his feet planted on the ground firmly. If he let it go, Torch wouldn’t be the only one wanting to kill him. “Ah, I like what I see. Firm shell, good color, all signs that this will be a strong and mighty dragon. It could make for a dragon almost as strong as me. Well done, Ember. You chose your partner well. Do you know when it will hatch?” “I dunno, I just had it,” Ember reported. “We gotta get our hoard together before it’s hatched. Every dragon needs its own collection before they’re born.” “Y-Yeah, and we’re just starting o-on it,” Fizzle stammered. He brought the egg down and nestled it snugly into a small pile of gold. “S-See? We’re g-good parents that totally won’t screw it up.” “We’ll see about that, little one,” Torch stated calmly, which only made him more intimidating.. “I know Ember won’t screw it up, but you on the other hand…” “Dad, I think you’ve teased him enough for one day. You got him shaking in his boots!” Sure enough, Fizzle trembled and swayed all over the place. If he was gonna die, at least the others wouldn’t be around here to tease him about it. “I suppose you are right. Don’t forget that I am proud of you, Ember. I might not like how soft the ponies are, but the dragons here are happier than they have been in centuries. Spike’s made a good impression on me, and if Fizzle makes you happy, I’ll stop teasing him about it.” Fizzle fell on his knees. “Oh thank you, thank you sir! I promise I won’t hurt ever, ever hurt her! Not that I ever, but I’ll make sure it stays that way. You don’t know how big of a deal this is for us. We wanted an egg sooner or later, and now we got one. If you look, the egg is sitting on a brand new pile. That’s going to be the start of his or her own hoard.” Torch grinned from the image. “Now that’s how you put a dragon on the right path. Well done, little one. Maybe when you grow up, you’ll be able to keep up with Ember. Knowing who her mother was, that’s going to be hard to do.” He stuck around for a little while, looking over the cave and seeing if his daughter had everything in place. She went out of her way to make it look like she had it all together, which she did. This wasn’t the same little dragon he raised when he was younger, and he would be around to see his grandchild after the hatching. He would leave a little later, but Ember watched from the mouth of the cave to ensure he really was gone. “Thought he would never leave,” she sighed. “For the record, he picks on everyone like that, even me. I put a stop to that when I earned his title. You okay?” “Yeah. I’m still alive, for one,” he admitted, wiping the sweat off his body. “Did you ever really like him?” “He could be a pain in the side, but whenever I did something awesome and powerful, he loved it.” She patted him on the back. “You think that little pile is enough for the egg? It’s rather tiny. Wouldn’t mind giving it a little extra gold before it hatches.” “It’s fine for now. It’s not even born yet. You ever seen a dragon out of the egg? They’re really tiny. If anything, that’s a really big pile. We got it in the bag, like Spike would say.” “Hmm, now that I think about it, you’re right. Look at that! I would have killed to have a hoard like that when I was little. Father had me earn every little bit when I was growing up, and our little hatchling’s gonna have head start. So, what do you want to do now?” “Hang out? Ever since you’ve sent that letter to Celestia, there hasn’t been a moment where we could do that. We’ve been meeting up with ponies, meeting up with Torch, and I want some time with just the two of us before we’re officially parents.” Ember smiled and kissed him on the lips. “You might be a jerk, but you’re my awesome jerk. I haven’t counted the amount of gold we’ve had in a while. Why don’t we fix that?” “Now that’s my idea of a good time. We better have a million gold pieces, or else I’m gonna do something about it.” They wound up doing that for the rest of the day. Every single piece was counted and recounted, and it wound up being the quiet moment they needed. As it turned out, they had exactly 999,674 pieces, which made Fizzle very, very upset. The sooner he could fish out some pieces from a sunken ship, the better. Then again, didn’t he drop a treasure chest over the side of the mountain recently... After they were done, they needed some rest from all that counting. That, and Fizzle had to resist the itch to go treasure hunting. They sat down around the egg and pictured themselves as a family. Was this the kind of stuff Twilight and Spike went through when they were about to have their first child? Ember thought about asking Twilight about it through mail, but Fizzle thought they could use a moment of quiet until then. That moment wouldn’t last long. The egg started to move in the middle of the pile. They saw it and thought it was from the pile giving way underneath it, so they set it gently on the floor. It only trembled more after it was moved, and then it dawned on them what was really going on. Ember gasped and watched in awe, while Fizzle drew closer to the egg in case something bad happened. He wouldn’t take any chances here. A crack formed on the side of the egg. Then another, and another, so many more cracks. Pieces of the shell started to come loose as a result, and they fell inward. Fizzle freaked out and pulled the pieces of shell away before they caved in. “Be careful!” Ember cried out. “We can’t afford to hurt it.” “What do you think I’m doing? I don’t want to hurt it, either,” he gasped. A clearing emerged from the top of the shell, and he peeked inside. “I think it’s a boy! Come over here. He’s...wow.” Ember scooted over to see for herself. When she did, she saw a baby dragon with blue scales and a white underbelly. He squirmed within the shell and struggled to break loose. She realized he couldn’t break out on his own, and she broke the top of the egg off to get him out. Fizzle saw what she was doing and broke other parts of the shell loose. After a few minutes of effort, they finally got him free of the egg. Once the hatchling was out, he grumbled and started to cry. He flailed around in his mother’s arms, and she was in shock over the child she was now holding. It was a tiny little beast, and she saw a lot of her features in his face. The slender eyes, the claws on his feet, it resembled her to a tee. This was her son. She was a mother now. “...wow. I didn’t know what to expect, but he’s beautiful,” Ember whispered. “Look at that. That’s our child, right? We’re really doing this?” Fizzle saw lot of himself in the newly hatched dragon as well. That white underbelly was just like his scale color, and that tail...that was his tail. He was a father now. “We’re really doing this,” he trembled. “Oh man. Oh man, this is happening. That’s our kid. We have a kid of our own…” “Crazy, isn’t it? He’s not even doing anything and I love him already.” The dragon baby’s cries slowed down as he went to sleep, tucked around Ember’s waist. “Oh my gosh. I’m going to cry. Dragons don’t cry.” “I think it’s okay to cry this time.” He was already starting to do it himself. He sat next to Ember and watched every little snore from the little dragon. His world changed forever and he realized it at that moment. He wouldn’t have the time to hang out with his friends like he used to, and he would have to teach his son about how the world worked. Yet, that was fine with him. It just felt right. With that blessing, Ember started bawling her eyes out openly. She felt the hatchling’s cheek and was overwhelmed by the soft skin. She knew of other dragons that had children before, and they didn’t think it was a big deal. Screw that, this was a huge moment for her and she was going to treat it that way. That mixture of blue and white on the infant’s body was perfect, and she wanted to cherish this occasion for all its worth. “What should we name it?” Fizzle asked. He nuzzled up to his mate and son. “We stopped to think about it.” “Moonshine,” Ember trembled. “I’ll name him Moonshine. He’s got the same colors as a moonstone, after all. What do you think of the name?” “Moonstone? I love it. Heh, I can see how he looks like one now.” He traced his fingers over Moonstone’s head. “And best of all, everyone will know what it means. Moonstone, son of the Dragon Lord.” Ember chuckled, only to find herself crying again. “That does have a nice ring to it…” Right when the moment sank in, however, they saw something come into the cave. It sounded like a gust of wind, but the green light it carried with it wasn’t natural. A few seconds later, they saw the source of the light: A big green orb of energy, at least, that’s what it looked like. Fizzle scrambled to his feet at the mere sight of it. “What is that?” The Dragon Lord shielded Moonstone from the orb as it came closer. “Whatever it is, don’t let it hit anything!” she commanded. “I’m not gonna let it hurt Moonstone!” The orb went around Ember’s arms without warning. Before she had the chance to flee from it, it hit Moonstone right in the forehead. She gasped when she realized what happened. “No, please, no!” She searched all over his body for any signs of damage, anything the orb might have done to him. To make it even worse, Moonstone’s eyes were bright green, no sign of pupils to them. “Oh no….no….” “What did it do? What did it do?” Fizzle screamed. He ran over to see what was happening, and he was freaking out just like Ember. The hatchling dragon flailed his claws around in the air, like he was struggling with the atmosphere itself. A few seconds later, the glow left his eyes and he returned to normal. It wasn’t long until he fell asleep again. Ember and Fizzle sighed together. The orb didn’t seem to harm their child from the looks of it. In fact, if it wasn’t for that sudden magical surge, nothing looked out of the ordinary when it came to little Moonstone. “I’m sending a letter to Twilight about this right now,” Ember whispered. Her nerves were still all over the place. “I don’t know what that was, but that was the scariest moment of my life.” “That looked like the kind of magic Wildfire had going on. You think that was kirin magic?” Fizzle pointed out. She paused and thought about it. Once it dawned on her, she gasped again. “It was similar! He said something about Moonstone and Kunzite, how they were closely tied together, and maybe that was it! That would be something Twilight would know about. Whatever this is, it’s big.” “No kidding. Still, I keep wondering what Wildfire meant by that. At least Moonstone’s safe.” “Yeah, he’s safe and sound.” She hugged her son tightly and took a heavy, deep breath. “I don’t want anything bad happening to him again.” She wound up sending that letter that very night. It only took a minute to get a return letter, and she couldn’t believe it when she found out that Kunzite herself sent that orb to Moonstone. They debated back and forth through several letters on the meaning of this event, as they were both worried about it. After some discussion, it dawned on them that this was likely tied to Wildfire’s prophecy over the two babies. You know how crazy this sounds, right? Ember wrote. Has anyone even heard of this happening before? Only once before, and that was with Princess Celestia, Twilight responded. We’ll keep an eye out on this. Don’t worry. You won’t have to handle this destiny alone. I better not. If anything happens to my Moonstone, I don’t know what I’m going to do. He means a lot to me already. So you truly are embracing motherhood after all, Dragon Lord Ember. It only gets better from here, trust me. Moonstone didn’t seem to care about any of that. He was enjoying his nap too much to notice. Just like the little kirin miles away from him, he was in the middle of a wonderful dream, just happy to have his parents around. They snuggled up to him after the letter exchanged, falling asleep with him. The first night as a dragon family was just as crazy as they expected it to be. What they did know, however, was that the coming days, months, and years would be important. They had to maintain close ties to Kunzite, to Twilight and Spike, to all of Equestria and the Dragon Lands. That wasn’t a mystery at all. What laid for them in the future, now, that was the true mystery.