//------------------------------// // Parents // Story: Spits Fire // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Spitfire shaped her magic as she got ready to cast her dragonfire spell. The matrix was the largest she’d attempted in the last five weeks, having worked on getting sections of it right up to now. The creation of the matrix only took a fraction of a second as Spitfire called forth her fire and shot the concentrated ball of fire in front of her. The section of the academy’s training area she’d been using had been cleared so she could practise safely without fear of harming ponies. The small concentrated ball of fire halted mid-air and expanded, the flames turning white and remaining stable at its current location in front of the captain. Spitfire’s barked out a laugh as she couldn’t believe she actually managed to get the spell she’d been working on, well, working. At least, it looks like it’s working... Well, there’s one way to test it! Taking a specifically coloured rock, Spitfire flung it at the ring of white fire and saw it collapse around the rock. She waited in suspense as she’d specifically made the spell delayed, a few seconds later another white fireball appeared quite a distance further in the direction she’d fired the initial bolt and spewed out the rock at the same speed it had entered. “Hah! Oh yeah!” She cheered, trying the entire procedure two more times and getting the same results for them too. That only left one more test for her to perform. There were a few staff members and Wonderbolts who’d taken interest and were observing from a distance, having gotten used to the practice but their captain had clearly made a breakthrough. Spitfire took to the air, gaining both some altitude and speed before calling on her magic once again, adjusting the ‘values’ of the matrix a little for her new test. Firing out a bolt, the spherical portal of fire formed right in her flight path and Spitfire tucked her wings as she entered it. The world around her turned to darkness briefly as she entered the void between locations, as energies of immense magnitude moved around her calmly like a gentle sea. It didn’t last though as the second part of the spell kicked in and spewed her out a hundred pony lengths ahead of where she’d entered. “Oh yeah!” Spitfire cheered as she caught herself and continued on her flight path, seeing the ponies who’d been watching cheer her on. Flying a couple more rounds, she eventually landed in the place the Wonderbolts that had gathered to watch, Soarin’ and Rainbow standing at the lead of that group. “So that’s what you were working on?!” Soarin’ exclaimed as I’d kept them out of the loop as to what I was working on, only Rainbow knew what I’d been attempting. “Teleportation?!” “What? Once you have the matrix down it becomes easy to start tinkering with it,” Spitfire smirked, though got more serious as she knew she wasn’t there yet. “I need to work on making the fire less hot, maybe even heatless, and I want to see if I can pick the colour myself.” “So you can pop around the place?” Soarin’ asked with a smirk. “You know, like Twilight?” Dash asked with a similarly large smile. “Oh boy, that’ll be fun.” Sptifire shook her head. “That’s much easier with unicorn magic. Dragonfire has certain constraints where unicorn magic has freedom and vica versa,” she explained. “This was the simplest version of teleportation dragonfire allows. I need to get a large gemstone, like the ones you find under Canterlot, to make a marker of sorts that I can use as an anchor for more complicated gates.” “You could just ask the princess for one?” Rainbow stated as we walked back to the headquarters, having gotten enough practice in for today. “Oh yeah, because sending the princess letters is so easy,” Soarin stated wit an eyeroll. “Personal messages aren’t meant for the chain of command and sending her one normally is going to take months if she gets it at all.” “We have our ways,” Dash smirked as we entered the accademy’s administration building. “Of course you do,” Soarin’ groaned. “You know, stuff was so much easier when you were just our workaholic of a captain.” “Hey, I’ve got a kid now!” Spitfire stated, giving the lieutenant a shove with a wing. “And just because I’ve made some interesting friends doesn’t mean I don’t do the majority off all paperwork!” “Yeah, yeah, I know, mom,” Soarin’ teased, receiving a wack against the back of his head from Rainbow’s wing. “Careful there, dufus, you’re outnumbered.” “And outclassed,” Spitfire added as the stallion was squeezed between the two mares. “Oh my, threatening the poor, poor, stallion now?” Soarin’ chuckled, placing his wings on the backs of both Rainbow and Spitfire. The two mares glanced at each other and nodded with a smirk. “Uh-oh.” Rainbow dropped to her stomach right at the same time Spitfire gave a shove to the side. With a surprised cry, Soarin toppled over, finding himself quickly under a tickling assault from both mares. “I surrender! I surrender!” He cried as his squirms prove futile. “So what will our terms be?” Rainbow snickered as she and Spitfire kept holding down their colleague. “How about I give him my paperwork so I can go pick up my girl from school?” Spitfire proposed with a smirk. “You mean that stuff about overhauling the training facilities?” Soarin’ asked knowingly, Spitfire raising an eyebrow and nodding. “Did that already, just need you to sign a few of the things.” “Wait, you did?” Spitfire said, surprised. “Cap, we all see how happy you are with that kid, and as you stated, you do most the paperwork,” He gave Spitfire a nudge as he was let up by his assailants. “Go be her mom, cap.” “You’re the best, Soarin’,” Spitfire smiled, Dash clearing her throat and smirking. “Oh shush you. Come on, let’s go see our girl. See you on Monday, lieutenant.” After getting their saddlebags the two of them were off, soaring through the clouds in the direction of their shared home. Usually, this took about an hour of decently paced flying but this time it was different. Not more than a few minutes into their flight Spitfire burped out a scroll, having set up a method of sending her messages from a few magically infused candles. One of these fires had been given to the Guard’s intelligence branch in case they needed the captain to muster her ponies for a quick response. This message though made a shiver go up her spine. A dragon had been spotted heading straight for Ponyville... and by the dating on the document, it probably wasn’t long before he’d arrive. Spitfire immediately sent the intel through to Soarin as she didn’t want to turn around and lose the time flying back to where she’d just come from and blasted off. Any idea of holding back was gone, her wings burning as she increased her speed to start getting close to the sound barrier. Dash was right on her six, and though her top speed was higher, going supersonic would mean veering off to avoid knocking Spitfire out of the sky. Fifteen minutes into the flight at the immense velocity Spitfire came into view and noticed another spot, much closer, approaching the village... NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU! Spitfire let out a ferocious roar, calling on all her magic and pouring it into the portal spell she’d just managed to get the hang off, extending its range far enough that she’d pop out somewhere near the dragon. Dash had the good sense to get the absolute buck away from Spitfire as the bright ball of flame formed in her mouth, if that blew up in their face she would not be reaching Ponyville at all. Not that it did, the portal opened a little more violently than when she’d practiced at low power but not catastrophically so. Spitfire disappeared from the world and was spewed back out a fraction of a second later right in front of the dragon’s flight path, having guessed the distance perfectly. The pale orange dragon flared immediately, coming to a stop and stared at the newcomer in surprise. He was barely larger than Princess Celestia but Spitfire knew size didn’t mean its firebreath couldn’t cause massive damage. Not about to let the opportunity go to waste, she quickly overcharged a fire blast and shot it out at the larger creature. The explosion didn’t harm the dragon directly through its scales but it did make him lose a good bit of altitude. “You will not go further,” Spitfire stated coldly, adding a fanged growl. The dragon stared at her, looking utterly confused, but it didn’t take long for a smirk to form on his face and for him to slowly fly closer. “I said, don’t come- Aah!” The captain had severely underestimated how fast the dragon could accelerate and found herself tightly locked within the dragon’s grasp. “You’re feisty! I like that!” He laughed as Spitfire struggled to get loose, she only managed to do so when a rainbow coloured projectile impacted the dragon from the side. “Let go of my marefriend!” Dash roared as she drove the dragon against the ground and stood on its chest. “Good choice in mates too,” the dragon smirked, letting Rainbow stand on his chest and remained down. Dash glanced over at Spitfire to see if she knew what the dragon was going on about. “Who in Tartarus are you and what are you here for?” Spitfire asked as she too was getting confused now. His smirked turned into a more serious expression as he sat up, forcing Dash to go into a hover. “My name, is Firefang, and I’m here because the dragonlord got a message from Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was looking for a dragon that had a fling with a pony over two decades ago... Apparently, I’ve had a daughter for a long time now without knowing.” Spitfire had to land as she took that in, a storm of emotions hitting her as she realized she was face to face with the father she’d never met. Her mother had never blamed him for not sticking around, but Spitfire had had the occasional moments of resentment towards the dragon. “Y-You...” “Seeing you breathe fire... I’m your father and I don’t even know your name,” He said, sounding rather saddened. “Spitfire,” the captain whispered, her eyes filled with tears. “That’s a beautiful name, kiddo, your mom chose well,” Firefang said, smiling down on Spitfire. “Is your mom here too, or is she...” Spitfire stepped forward and hugged the dragon, starting to laugh while tears rolled down her cheeks. “No, she’s in Cloudsdale,” Spitfire said after getting a grip on herself. “I’ll send her a message the moment I get my hooves on some parchment.” “Sounds good to me. So where do you live, kiddo?” Firefang asked as he was released by his daughter. “Same village you were flying to, actually,” Spitfire smiled, “We should drop by Princess Twilight’s place first to see if she can empty out a room for you to stay in the castle. She did sort of inadvertently invite you after all.” Firefang barked a laugh. “That she did. Go on then, I’ll follow your lead.” Now with the dragon following both Dash and Spitfire took back off for the last bit to Ponyville. “Hey, Spits, I can lead your dad to Twilight’s so you can pick up Scoots?” “Good idea, it’ll be interesting to see how she’ll react to her grandpa,” Spitfire chuckled, slowing down to tell Firefang what she was going to do before breaking off and flying to the schoolhouse instead. The school was suspiciously quiet as she landed, though since the school was supposed to be in session that might be because the kids were working on some task or another. As she entered though, she was immediately pulled in and had the door slammed shut behind her. “Didn’t you see the dragon fly over town, miss Spitfire?” Cheerilee hissed, glancing out of of the window fearfully. “Well yeah, I was escorting him,” Spitfire deadpanned, looking into the classroom to see all the fillies and colts sheltering below their tables. “Hey Scoots, you coming?” “Mom?” the filly in question said before shooting out from under her table and jumping into the bigger pony’s grasp. “What’s going on? Why is there a dragon here?” “Well... I was just going to pick you up to introduce you to your grandfather,” Spitfire smiled, lowering herself to allow Scootaloo to hop on. “Your students are safe miss Cheerilee, Firefang is here on the invitation of Princess Twilight.” “O-Of course, thank you for telling me... Wait, Scootaloo’s grandfather?” Spitfire’s smile grew even further. “Of course, that dragon is my dad. I’ll see you later, miss Cheerilee!” Spitfire immediately took off from the schoolhouse, heading straight back to the castle where a small crowd had gathered. The town slowly coming back to life as they realised the dragon wasn’t there to start fires. “...so you’re all safe, just a friendly visitor!” Dash called out, the crowd starting to disperse slowly. “I didn’t think my arrival here would be this controversial,” Firefang grumbled as he noticed his daughter approach. “It’s just their initial reaction, now they know you’re not here to harm them they’ll smile and wave you like they’d anyone else,” Spitfire shrugged. “So who’s the small one?” he asked, leaning forward and sniffing. “Doesn’t smell like yours though she smells like you.” “I adopted her, she’s my kid,” Spitfire shot at her father, narrowing her eyes. “Yeah!” Scootaloo called out as she got over her astonishment, having stood up onto Spitfire’s back and looking at the dragon defiantly. “She’s my mom and no bird-brained lizard is going to tell me otherwise!” Firefang burst out laughing, “Ha! I’m happy to call anyone with that kind of spunk my family! So what’s your name, kid?” “Scootaloo!” the filly chirped as she hopped off of Spitfire’s back. “Well met Scootaloo, my name is Firefang.” The attention of the three ponies and dragon was redirected as somepony cleared her throat from the direction of the castle. Twilight standing at the top of the stairs leading to the main entrance, her crown on her head and wings spread slightly. “Ahh, Princess Twilight, the dragonlord sends her regards,” Firefang stated as he lowered his head a little. “I wish your kind no ill will, I just want to spend some time with my new family here.” “Of course, I had not expected that Ember would find you this fast,” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ll make a room available for you as I don’t think you’ll fit into the captain’s house.” “Captain huh?” Firefang asked as he looked back at Spitfire. “Hey, I’ve got a life too,” she said, sticking out her tongue. “Of course... We should send that message to your mother, I would like to see Stormy after all this time,” he stated. “We’ll get on that in just a bit. If you could join me inside,” Twilight stated, opening the doors to her castle. Firefang nodded. “We’d love to.” Soarin’ along with Fleetfoot and Misty had shown up not ten minutes later, not having received any updates on the situation, expecting to have to draw a dragon away from town only to be pleasantly surprised as they were invited in to meet Firefang. Spitfire quickly sent messages around to inform Guard intelligence to her mother of the situation, the latter of the two arriving at Ponyville one and a half hours later. “Where is he!” Stormy demanded as she barged in through the front door of the castle, Firefang peaking his head out from the dining hall where everypony had gathered. A fanged smile formed on Firefang’s face as he saw the mare he’d had a fling with so many years prior. “Stormy Flare!” He roared with a laugh, scooping the pegasus uf the ground and pulling her into a hug. “The one pegasus crazy enough to pick up a horny dragon for a night!” “Hey, it sounded like a fairly safe way to have some fun,” she stated, kissing the dragon on his cheek. “I didn’t know that eight months later I’d get my baby out of it.” Firefang’s smile dropped and was replaced by a sad frown. “I’m sorry I was not there for that.” “You didn’t know. Hay, I didn’t know,” Stormy stated, poking at Firefang’s chest. “But I managed. Maybe not perfectly, but in the end she turned into one good kid.” Spitfire, meanwhile, was doing her best to hide her face as the two of them talked, hoping her mother wouldn’t start telling some of the more embarrasing youth stories. “Say, mister Firefang, we’ve been talking for a bit now so I have to say you do not strike me as the normal type of dragons we encounter,” Soarin’ stated. “My hoarding instinct has never been as strong as most of my peers,” Firefang shrugged, “That might contribute to me being a bit of a weirdo.” “So how long do you even intend to stay?” Spitfire asked. “It’s going to be hard to show you everything in just one day.” “Well that magic that you’ve been using with your dragonbeath is rather amazing, I would love to get to know how to do the stuff you do with it,” Firefang stated, looking over at Twilight. “If you are okay with that, Princess? I am certain the Dragonlord would be interested in me studying this art.” “I... Uhh, will have to ask Princess Celestia,” Twilight said sheepishly, summoning a scroll and a quill. “I have some time,” Firefang chuckled before looking back over at Spitfire, Scootaloo, Rainbow, and Stormy. “Right now I want to get to know my family a little better anyhow.” “Mom, can we introduce him to the crusaders?” Scootaloo asked, giving Spitfire the biggest puppy eyes she could. “No need for extortion this time, Scootaloo,” Spitfire chuckled. “You know how to contact me Princess, we’ll be around town.”