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// Chapter 3 – Life in the Castle and Introductions 
// Story: Royal Ventures 
// by Draconis Bliss 
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Several months passed since the new dragon resident of Canterlot Castle made a home for himself, Princess Luna made sure he was well taken care of and well-fed. Draconis grew a little during the months and can speak some words; Luna made sure he would stay out of sight from the nobles since most of them are still wary of Princess Luna after Nightmare Moon except for Fancy Pants and a few others. Whenever Luna’s royal duties prevented her from taking care of Draconis, she would entrust her best royal guard to watch over him, so she can be kept from worrying about him being left alone.

Despite her busy schedule, Luna would take some time out of her busy schedule to spend time with Draconis since she is as gifted with foals, or in this case, baby dragons as much her elder sister is. At first, most of the Lunar Guard was very reluctant for taking care of Draconis because not that he is a dragon, but because nowhere in the job descriptions that they had to be a dragonsitter. Eventually, they come to like the little dragon and hope one day they have a chance to train him on how to fight like the royal guard.

Princess Luna thought about introducing her new son to the few nobles that were decent, as well as Prince Vladimir Blueblood, too. Luna was not sure what to think of Blueblood since he was supposedly pompous and her nephew as well, but after being told by Celestia that the pompous attitude he has is only a facade to wrangle in the more snooty nobles on a short leash and push away any mare that only loves him for his title.

Princess Luna met most of the nobility of Canterlot, some nobles she did not like, others were decent to her such as Fancy Pants, Luna thought he was genuine and kind to others despite being surrounded by ponies who acted pompously toward others of the lower class in Canterlot City. Luna also met Fleur De Lis, a supermodel, and avid buckball fan. From their behavior of being together, she can tell that they were not the typical couple and prefer expensive tastes most of the time. Luna would also see that Fancy is surrounded by an entourage by rich, uptight unicorns that only care about themselves and their money and the alicorn can see he has to appease them in some way that she thought she could see it visibly annoyed him.

Lastly, she met the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor and older brother of Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence, the princess of love; Princess Luna could tell by how they’re a couple. Cadence told Luna that she foalsat Twilight before she became Celestia’s student and later Spike, whenever Twilight was busy with her studies. Shining Armor has been in a relationship with Cadence for a while and soon to be married, with Twilight not knowing about them together even shocking Luna with that revelation of Twilight not knowing something.

It was like any other day; the morning was crisp and clear in the Canterlot Gardens, the group consisted of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, Prince Blueblood, Fancy Pants, Fleur De Lis, and the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor mostly talking about miscellaneous things, also what Spike and Twilight up to mostly from Celestia with her visits to Ponyville.

Luna was off in her mind for a moment thinking about Draconis, right now a Lunar Guard is dragonsitting playing with the toys to play with and gems for snacks since his teeth grew in several weeks after his adoption. Luna kept her mind on him until she has snapped back into reality thanks to Cadence trying to get her attention that she had not heard from her the first time around.

“Whuh-huh?” Is the response from Luna.

“I said, I heard from a few Royal Guards, even some Lunar Guards, that you adopted a dragon, too,” Cadence said with the rest of the group, minus Celestia, was surprised to hear this.

“Uh... Well, yes, We have adopted a baby dragon. We suppose We have adopted a baby dragon.” Luna said glaring at Shining Armor as a threat and making him scared.

“Don’t blame Shiny like that, he didn’t know about it until I brought it to attention,” Cadence said standing by and defending Shining.

Luna sighed and knew Cadence was right and a lot Royal Guards knew about the baby dragon thanks to those two guards that were with her that night. “Thou want to see him, then?” Luna asks.

Her question earned several quick nods and a smile from Cadence along with some nods with the rest of the group doing the same thing and smiling too, with Luna being reluctant and not so sure about until Blueblood spoke up.

“I would love to see and get to know the little guy, I haven’t seen Spike since he moved to Ponyville with Twilight Sparkle,” Blueblood said a little unhappy.

“Yes, as do I. Spike is such a wonderful kid and I miss his company very much.” Fancy Pants said trying to keep his spirits up of the departure of the said dragon.

“Oui, he is magnifique and a gentledrake occasionally would accompany me to the buckball games,” Fleur stated despondently in her Prench accent.

“Okay, okay, We’ll go get Draconis and introduce thou to him, he deserves that much. He might be a little shy meeting other ponies.

Princess Luna stands up from her seat then walks backs to castle to retrieve Draconis, it takes half an hour do so as he is returned with Luna on his back and is now accompanied by two Lunar Guards following along, the ponies gathered instead got the message as the guards are protective of the baby dragon. Said baby dragon popped his head out from Luna’s mane to see the environment and the new ponies around him, he felt nervous and looked to his mother to see her smiling at him, which reassures him a little more with the strange ponies that are around him.

Draconis is soon engulfed by Luna’s dark blue magical aura and now held in her arm and forced to look at the ponies who he is not familiar around, except for Celestia since he has seen her plenty of times with Luna. The first pony to come up to him is the pink alicorn who is very excited to see the cute baby dragon after being heard about it for the past several months, Draconis recoiled at the sudden movement of Cadence and tried to hide himself within her chest and arm.

“Hey... ‘Tis quite all right, little one. She won’t hurt thou. This is Cadence, thine cousin.” Luna spoke softly like a mother that the group around her was shocked to hear the first time except for the guards of course. Draconis came from his attempted hiding place and gave a long look at Cadence, before reaching for her to be held to which Cadence obliges engulfs him in her aura and holds him in her arm to play with him a bit which makes him giggle before showing him to the rest of the group.

First of the group is Blueblood, to which he greets the baby dragon with a sincere smile, but was reluctant to meet the pony, “Hello there little one, I’m your cousin, Prince Vladimir Blueblood. Pleased to meet you.” He said, booping his nose lightly with the baby dragon scrunching his face up then sneezing lightly.

Next in the group was Shining Armor, introducing himself to the baby dragon, “Hello little guy, I’m Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard.” Draconis took an instant liking to him since he is a royal guard, he is surrounded by them for most of the day and also likes his kind attitude, as Shining and Cadence entertain him for a moment before introduced to another pony.

Next, Draconis was introduced to Fancy Pants, “Hello, little one. I’m Fancy Pants, its an honor to meet you.” With his charming personality, he was instantly liked by the baby dragon much to Blueblood’s dismay and annoyance since he wanted to bond with the baby dragon as much as he wants to, then giving the baby dragon to the last pony in the group.

Lastly, Fleur De Lis had the chance to meet and introduce herself to the baby dragon, “Bonjour, little dragon. It is a pleasure to meet you. You are the second cute baby dragon I had the pleasure meeting!” Fleur cooed, tickling Draconis’s belly earning a giggle from the baby dragon.

The group of ponies, excluding Celestia, Luna, and a couple of the bat pony royal guards that joined them, were playing with the baby dragon, mostly Cadence and Fleur giving the most attention to him and giving the baby dragon a couple of gems every so often for Draconis to snack whenever he felt hungry.

At the end of the day, Luna had to leave with Draconis to get him to bed after a day of playing as he showed signs of drowsiness, much to everyone’s disappointment but they relented and bid goodnight to the baby dragon. Knowing it will not be long before they see him again, it was Blueblood and Cadence who came up with plans in their head to spend a day with him.

Though at first, Luna was a little worried about how Draconis would meet the five ponies and how his response would be meeting them, seeing him enjoying himself with the group, she was glad that he had the chance to meet them. Pretty soon Luna would have to introduce Spike, Celestia’s adopted son, to Draconis and she would hope they will get along well to forge a bond; though it would be a while until Draconis would meet Spike, or the main 6, she will have to worry about it some other time when it happens.

For right now, Luna will need to be there for Draconis whenever she can to watch him grow into a great dragon in her eyes; she turned to her desk away from the small sleeping form of the baby dragon to write in her journal. The purpose of this journal is to record how much Draconis is grown, changing behaviorisms, anything sprouting out, and any friendships he manages to make, like today when he met the group and writing about it. As she was writing the day’s events down in her journal dedicated to her, she could not help but smile to herself on how proud she is of her son with meeting new ponies. After writing her entry she closed the book then stood up from her seat to walk to her bed where Draconis is sleeping and went onto the bed with him, wrapping her forehooves around him and snuggling her chest.

Meanwhile, after Shining Armor escorted Cadence to her room, she immediately started on a chart on shipping for Draconis so she can ease her shipping sense when to ease herself in the future; a sense like Pinkie sense, but starts with an eye twitch and a pull of the mind. After Cadence was done with Draconis’s new chart, she places it on a wall next to Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and even Prince Blueblood. She clasped her hooves together and giggled in her own amusement with her work, and since she is the princess of love, Cadence has a bad habit of shipping others together. After her brief giggling spell the princess of love felt sleep soon overcome her with a yawn and then she climbed onto her bed to allow sleep to claim her.