//------------------------------// // A simple tale of family // Story: The Dragon And The Pony Side Stories: A New Family // by Schattendrache //------------------------------// “Never, where did you put Soundy’s diapers?” “The new pack or the leftovers?” “Leftovers. Soundy had an accident and I can’t find her a replacement.” “Well, if they’re not in the changing cabinet, I might have left them-” “Never mind, found them.” Several minutes later, a small pegasus in a diaper came galloping into the family room where Never was sitting, heading straight towards the corner of the room filled with toys, followed not too long after by an earth pony mare. The mare wasted no time in moving over to the couch and collapsing onto it to cuddle into her husband and close her eyes. “When she starts flying, she’s going to be your daughter, not mine.” “And here I was believing the great Winterberry Hills could handle a single pegasus foal.” Never lifted a wing, draped it over his wife, and began to stroke over her side with a hoof. “She inherited your energy, and I only have the stamina to handle one overly energetic ball of feathers. If you would be willing to act less like your daughter, then we can talk about OUR daughter.” “Nah.” Never began to affectionately nuzzle Holly. “It’s why you fell in love with me. I couldn’t stop acting that way just because our daughter is a true Do.” “Then I hope you like changing diapers and dealing with filly problems because I just finished chasing your daughter around the house, and I am not prepared for trying to keep up with her when she finally learns to use her wings.” Holly lowered a hoof to her belly, which had started to really show as of late. “If I knew this was how Soundy would end up, I might have reconsidered us having another.” “Well, it’s a little late for that now. And besides, both of us grew up with at least one sibling, we both know that having someone our own age around the house growing up made things just that little bit more enjoyable.” “While that might be true, as I just said, I only have so much energy. Your daughter finally learning how to walk on her own was the death knell for my stamina. That’s why YOU -” Holly opened her eyes and looked up to Never’s muzzle before booping him on the nose “-better be praying that I’m not carrying another pegasus.” Never wrinkled his nose before looking down at his wife with a smirk. “As you said, I have the same amount of energy as our daughter, I’m sure I can handle two hummingbirds on my own. And as for having to deal with Soundy when she hits puberty, that’s fine. I have a sister you know. I grew up adjacent to filly problems, so if it comes down to it, I can always get in contact with her to get some help. Besides, when Soundy gets older, if she ever has a problem with a stallion, her aunt’s mate is a dragon.” Holly opened her eyes and turned her head to give Never an accusatory glance filled with displeasure. “What? You said I would have to handle her myself, and weren’t you the one who was saying I should be trying to make nice with The Black Death before the two of us buried that hatchet? “Yes, but I would have figured you of all ponies would’ve had the wherewithal to not encourage your brother-in-law to start up a grudge with another pony.” “I was only joking.” Never grabbed onto Holly with his forelegs and pulled her closer to himself before wrapping both of his wings around her. “Mostly.” Holly puffed up her cheeks slightly in indignation before closing her eyes again with a frown. “I’m still a little upset with you for not being honest with me about him.” “It’s been like two years. Are you ever going to let that one go?” “Perhaps. As I told you, we’re a couple, which means we have to be honest with each other.” Holly’s tone turned dark as she continued. “And that I don’t have to go to your parents house to find out my colt-friend has been telling me half truths.” “You're right, I know, I bucked up. I did promise I wouldn’t do that anymore after all.” Holly sighed before pressing into Never a bit more and shifting in a way that communicated that she wanted Never to hug her a little more firmly with his wings. “I know. I’m sorry for bringing it up. It’s just that caring for Soundy is not as easy as your sister makes it out to be.” “Well, in all fairness, Fiery is a kirin, so I doubt we can use her as an example on what to expect with Soundy here. Speaking of, what advice has Danger given you?” “Nothing my parents or yours haven’t already told us. Be aware of their sugar intake, keep an eye out for when they start to fly, make sure to lock up the cleaning supplies, remember to let them back inside before you go to sleep, that sort of thing.” “Nothing about what to tell your evil bird that decided it needs to play second mother?” Never jostled Holly to get her to open her eyes before gesturing with his chin to Soundy. Over in the corner, both of them could see Soundy playing with some stuffed dolls and occasionally dropping one onto the floor, only for Blue Ember, the Night Phoenix that Holly had rescued, to pick it up and put it back where he thought it should go. “Oh, stop that. He hasn’t done anything to you since our trip to your sister’s lair. As far as I’m concerned, that means he’s accepted you.” “Yeah, just give it another year, once Soundy doesn’t need to be watched at all hours, we’ll see how long that lasts.” Holly just rolled her eyes. “You keep telling yourself that, but just you watch, one of these days he’s going to fly over to you and ask you to stroke his feathers.” “And on that day, I’ll make sure you’re the first one to see my shiny new horn.” Holly chucked good naturedly before using her hoof to lightly punch Never on his foreleg. “Still, you can’t complain about how well he’s playing the part. If nothing else, him watching her like that helps us relax a little.” Never looked over to Soundy and Blue Ember, remembering the first time he’d seem him examining her from the rails of her crib. It had scared him half to death, all the bad experiences he’d had with that Tartarus pigeon, his first thought was that he’d been sizing her up to make a meal out of her. He’d sprung forward shouting and flapping his wings in order to create some wind, and hopefully look big enough that Blue would finally reconsitter fighting him. Yeah, it had not ended well. Rather than flying off or even just nipping at him for his sin of trying to protect his own daughter, Blue burst into flames and just laid into him. Claws and beak pierced his flesh with all the ferocity of a rabid dog. If Holly hadn’t been alerted to something happening due to him yelling followed by the shrill screeches of a night phoenix, Never was sure Blue would have caused some permanent damage. Holly was quick to reprimand Blue, shooing him off, before quickly rushing over to Soundy’s crib to comfort the crying foal. As she was rocking her in her forelegs, Holly looked over to Never, partially in concern, partially irritated, and demanded to know what happened. When he told her, a good deal of her irritation turned to indignation. It was then that he learned from her that night phoenixes were famous as adoptive parents, taking care of orphaned birds, even of other species. When she’d brought Soundy up and put her into her crib, Blue had followed her and perched on Soundy’s crib to look at the strange thing Holly had with her. In all likelihood, Blue figured out that Soundy was Holly’s child, so when he had run towards him and Soundy, Blue had taken that as a threat to Soundy’s safety. Never unconsciously rubbed the back of his foreleg against his chest, where one of the most prominent scars was. In all fairness to the pygmy cassowary, he had definitely seemed apologetic for the miscommunication, acting ‘polite’ around him, specifically, not attacking or pestering him when the opportunity presented itself. Granted, that might have been mostly down to Holly giving him a reaming about trying to kill her husband, but at this point, he was willing to take anything that meant he wasn’t being antagonized by an uppity mass of feathers. Never was thankful though that he and Blue had sort of come to an unspoken agreement when Soundy learned to walk. They would both give each other space when one of them was around Soundy, Never was responsible for handling things Blue could not, and ultimately, Holly had final say when it came to what happens around Soundy. “I just can never get over seeing Soundy so close to a bird of prey. Every cell in my body is telling me to run over there and defend her from him.” “Do that again and you’re on your own. I won’t be getting up to save you.” Holly pressed herself more firmly into her husband. “And you do realise Blue is no more dangerous than a golden retriever. Or are you going to lay there and tell me that a bird that’s only nipped you out of jealousy scares you more than something that is still genetically a wolf, or even your brother-in-law?” Never smiled and gave her a brief, firm hug. “I would like to invoke Article Twelve.” “You would. So, have you finally decided on what we’re doing with the spare rooms yet, or do I get three drawing rooms?” “We just moved in.” “If by ‘just’ you mean in the last two months, then yes.” “It’s been five weeks.” “Yes, that’s in fact, less than two months.” Never released a defeated sigh. “Well, I’ve wanted to get into scale modeling for a little while, why not let me make one of the rooms for that?” “Where did this come from? You never said anything about that.” “I don’t think that last sentence was propper Equish.” “What… oh haha, just answer the question.” Never gave her a smug grin. “Don’t know, just always liked seeing the 3D models of canyons and such that ponies make to show what someplace actually looks like, but small.” “Alright, you can have your stallion stable. So, what about the other room?” Never went quiet for several seconds before finally responding, although, without his usual confidence. “A second guest room?” “Seriously?” “What? You were the one who listened to my parent’s suggestion to get a large house. You’ve been to their cabin, it’s huge. I’m ninety percent sure we never even used like three rooms in there.” “Yeah, but you heard them, when you find somewhere you want to live, if you get a house that will give you the ability to expand, you’ll never need to move or buy a new one. It made sense to me. And don’t act all high and mighty, you were involved just as much as I was when it came to buying this house.” “Fair enough. Well, we can always decide what to do with it later. I’d rather not discuss my parent’s strange fixation on big houses. And it’s not like if we don’t decide now the room will up and disappear.” This elicited a soft giggle from Holly. “If nothing else, we always have the option of growing our family to fill the empty rooms.” “Yeah, not interested. You won’t be the one carrying them for eleven months, and Celestia help me if you put another pegasus in me...” “As I said, we can always talk about what to do with the empty rooms later. They’re not going anywhere.” As the two of them were settling in to watch Soundy from the couch, said foal quickly jumped up with a doll in her mouth and ran over to them before sitting down and extending both forelegs towards them. A signal asking for a piggyback ride. “I take it I’m the one who’s going to be handling this?” “She is your daughter. I don’t know why you’re asking a stranger what you’re supposed to be doing.” Never released a chuff of amusement. “I thought she would stop being your daughter when she started to fly?” “Did you see her wings going when she was running over here? That looked like flying to me.” Never rolled his eyes as he got up from the couch before laying down on the floor to let Soundy get on. When she did, Never burst up, tossing Soundy into the air slightly, eliciting no small amount of shrieks and giggles of enjoyment from the filly, and when she landed back on him, he began to trot around the room. “Well, seeing as you are no longer her mother, I figure you’ll have no problem with me-” Never flared out his wings and began to lightly beat them “- getting a head start on her flying lessons.” “Sounds good, just make sure you don’t fly through any trees. I can’t find the disinfectant paste, so if she gets scratched, you’ll have to go to the store to get more.” With that remark, Never began to pick up his pace and go into other rooms in addition to circling the family room, all the while flapping his wings, much to Soundy’s approval. Never liked to do this wherever Soundy wanted a ride from him. It was a little game he had where he would trot around with his wings going, pretending to be flying around clouds or through trees. It was particularly enjoyable for Soundy given she was also a pegasus, as she often beat her wings along with his, pretending to be helping him stay aloft.