Spike flew around his room in a panic, picking up random objects and putting them in his small blue suitcase.
“How could I forgotten about the business trip?! It’s been the most important thing for a month!” Spike exclaimed to himself, folding up a suit and placing it in his suitcase. He zipped it shut and let out a breath of relief.
“Okay I’m completely ready, my train leaves in an hour and I have to meet Mr Rich at the train station.” Spike said to himself. It seemed like he had everything under control now. He would be going to Las Pegasus for the day trip to help Filthy Rich get extra funding for his mining business. It was his smallest business and was in risk of getting shut down.
“Daddy?” A voice asked. Spike turned around to see Scramble. She was wearing purple hoovies pajamas with Meeko in her magic grasp. She rubbed her eyes sleepily. She had just woken up from her after school nap. His face dropped and he picked his daughter up.
“How could I have forgotten about you?” Spike asked. No one could watch her while he was away. Twilight was in Canterlot for the weekend, Starlight was in the Crystal Empire visiting Sunburst, and Stormy Cloud had gone out of town to look for houses. She didn’t really like his other friends too much because she wasn’t used to being near them. Even if she was used to being near them, it wasn’t going to be any help. Pinkie was visiting Cheese Sandwich, Applejack was busy with the farm, Rarity still had her boutiques to run, Rainbow Dash had Wonderbolt practice, and Fluttershy was busy with the animal sanctuary.
The only options that he had was to either bring Scramble with him or stay home and risk losing his job. Someone pounded on the door, making Spike turn around in confusion. He flew downstairs and down the hallway to opened the front door. He was was greeted by a certain blue dragon.
“Ember!” Spike exclaimed, hugging her tightly. She uncomfortably patted one of the scales on his head.
“Are you ready for this weekends dragon training?” Ember asked, punching her hand. Spike shook his head.
“I can’t, I have to go business trip for a day.” Spike explained. Ember cringed.
“Ugh that sounds like boring pony stuff. I already took the whole weekend off so if I go back to Dragonlands, I’ll have to sit through boring meeting.” Ember said with an eye roll. An idea popped into Spikes head. Scramble was used to being around Ember.
“You don’t have to go back. What if you watched Scramble for the weekend.” Spike suggested. Ember looked at Scramble who stared back at her.
“That doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Why don’t you get Twistar Spinkle or Star Sparkle to watch her?” Ember asked. Spike chuckled at the misuse of his friends names.
“Twilight is in Canterlot and Starlight is in the Crystal Empire. I promise watching her won’t be too hard. I can show you where everything is.” Spike said. Ember let out a sigh.
“Fine, just tell me what to do.”
“And make sure to watch a movie with Scramble tonight, every Friday is movie night. I already set up the projector and the blankets.” Spike finished. Ember held a long list of things she should do. Spike kissed Scramble on the forehead.
“I love you Scramble, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Spike stated as he handed her to Ember.
“Bye Ember, I trust you with this. I’ll be back tomorrow night.” Spike stated before leaving the library. Ember listened to the front door close.
“Daddy...” Scramble whimpered out, her lip starting to quiver and her eyes filling up with tears. Ember gave a panicked look and quickly read through the list.
”Stuffed raccoon usually gets her to stop crying.” Ember read out loud. She looked around and found Meeko on the floor. She picked up the raccoon and shoved it into the babies arms. Scramble sniffled and looked up at Ember. Ember looked at the clock that was on the wall.
”It’s 5:00, Spike said she goes to bed at 8:00 so I just need to keep this up for a few hours.” Ember thought to herself. She looked at Scramble.
“What do babies do for fun?” She asked Scramble. She picked up the list and started to read through it again.
“Do you want me to read you a story?” Ember said with a forced smile. Scramble nodded her head, making Ember groan. She walked over to one of the bookshelves and looked through the books. She pulled out a wide, colorful book with big cartoonish characters on the cover. The title read ’The Very Hungry Manticore’. Ember sat down on the couch and placed Scramble on her lap. She flipped to the first page and started to read.
“In the light of the moon a little kitten lay in a nest.” Ember read out. By the first line she could feel her brain turning into mush. With every page she read she could feel herself getting softer and softer. After what felt like an eternity, she had finally finished the book. She tossed it across the room and shuddered.
“Well that’s enough soft things for me today, how about we get you something to eat.” Ember suggested. She picked up the list and read through it as she got up and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. She dropped the list to the ground and placed Scramble in her highchair. Ember walked over to the fridge and pulled out a jar of baby food.
“So baby changelings eat baby food? Weird. Baby dragons eat rocks and bugs.” Ember stayed as she inspected a jar of banana baby food. Ember opened the jar and placed it in front of Scramble. She stared at the jar for a few moments before sticking her hoof in it. She took her hoof out and licked it clean. Ember looked at the clock to see only 30 minutes had passed since Spike had left.
“Why is there a clock in every room? Do ponies have to know the time constantly?” Ember asked herself. She looked at Scramble who was still sticking her hoof in a jar and licking the food off. “Spike did say it was movie night. We can watch some movies until it’s time for bed.” Ember thought out loud to herself.
“Done!” Scramble exclaimed, getting Embers attention. Ember took her out of the highchair. She tucked Scramble under her arm and marched out of the room, leaving the list on the kitchen floor.
“We’re going to watch a movie!” Ember exclaimed to get Scramble excited. She let out a cheer and clapped her hooves together. Ember entered the room with the projectors and movies. She placed Scramble onto a pillow and looked at all of the movies that Spike had laid out. ’The Little Seapony, Snow Grey, The Princess and the Dragon.’
“This are all soft movies. We need to find you something tough and action packed!” Ember exclaimed as she went threw a bin of movies. She pulled out a handful of violent movies. “Now these are cool movies!” Ember exclaimed. She popped on into the projector and sat down next to Scramble. The screen went black for a second before heavy metal started to play. Big red letters appeared on the screen saying ’City Of Death.’ Scramble tilted her head in confusion. The first scene showed up and a ponies head got chopped off. Ember cheered and Scramble let out a gasp. She stared at the screen, not able to tear her eyes away from the violence. She slowly walked over to Ember and laid on her lap, still staring at the screen. This was going to be an interesting night.
Ember slowly opened her eyes, blinking slowly. She glanced out the window to see that it was sunny outside and well into the afternoon. She was laying on a very soft surface, which was odd because she didn’t have a bed in her cave. Well she did, but it was just made of rocks. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t have a window in her cave either. Her eyes snapped open and she jumped up from where she was laying and looked around the room in a panic. Scramble wasn’t anywhere in the room.
“Oh no...” Ember said in a panic. She had fallen asleep after the fourth movie and left Scramble all alone. Ember heard a childish laugh come from the kitchen. She flew down the hallway in a panic and entered the kitchen. Scramble stood on top of the table, levitating three very sharp knives. She let out a loud laugh and shot them at a nearby wall. Ember quickly scooped Scramble up into her arms in a panic. Not even baby dragons should play with knives.
“Why don’t we do something safer.” Ember said with a nervous laugh. Scramble let out an angry scream and bit down onto her arm.
“No!” Scramble exclaimed, kicking her legs. A yellow flame engulfed Scramble and she quickly turned into a squirrel, slipping out of Embers arms. She changed back to her normal self and flew out of the room, laughing to herself.
“Hey get back here!” Ember shouted. She flew after her. Scramble turned into a ladybug and flew under the crack of Spikes room door. Ember kicked the door open to see Scramble sitting on his bed, staring at her. Ember picked her up, holding her in a tighter grasp this time.
“You like fighting, huh?” Ember asked. Scramble grunted, straining her body for a bit. A large colorful beam of magic shot out of her horn, making a hole in the ceiling. Ember stared in shock.
“I have something that we can do.”
Spike walked into the castle wearing his fancy suit.
“Ember, Scramble, I’m back!” Spike shouted. When there was no answer, he started to walk around. He followed the sound of distant yelling until he reached a large empty room. The castle had a lot of spare rooms. He looked in to see Ember holding a training dummy and Scramble standing in front of it.
“Pummel it like it’s your worst enemy!” Ember shouted. Scramble charged at the dummy, screaming loudly the whole time. She impaled the dummy with her horn, still screaming.
“What are you two doing?” Spike asked. Scramble looked up from the dummy with a grin on her face. She flew towards Spike and landed in his arms.
“Dude, Scramble is super powerful for a baby. I’m training her to become a warrior.” Ember stated. Spike chuckled.
“She does have strong magic. Her parents must be strong changelings.” Spike said. He to himself thought for a moment.
”Are changelings this powerful?”