The residents of Ponyville soon became used to the presents of a new dragon in their little town, as well as the special little filly that lived with them. Nebula soon became their prim protector from the things that came from the dark forest of the Everfree and they had to thank the kind hearted Pegasus that watched over the two.
It took some time for the residents of Ponyville to get used to for the mare and the dragon being together, especially her friends, but things take time and time fixed it all.
They were a little surprised at the filly's abilities, super strength and being able to use magic without a horn. Having a bit of strength was understandable, being an earth pony an all, but being stronger then Big Macintosh ten folds was bizarre.
A few unicorns were a little threatened by the filly, just by using magic without a horn, but all Twilight did, the Librarian of the town, was offering lessons. The offer itself made a few unicorn feeling insulted and when a unicorn colt yelled out, "But she is not a Unicorn! There for must not be taught! She is all but a-" before he could finish, Nebula and Fluttershy glared daggers at him and dared him to finish the rest. With that, the colt gulped, lowered down and slowly started backing away from them. After that, Playtime accepted the offer and was now being taught by the Element of Magic herself and two other little filly unicorns named Dinky Doo, and Sweetie Belle.
Both fillies had a slight advantage with their horns to channel the magic with, but with Playtime, she had to concentrate a little harder just to levitate an apple. Even with the drawback, Playtime kept on going, improving her skills.
Twilight was happily teaching the three in her library home during the after school hours and on weekends. She was interested in on how Playtime used magic so she kept a close eye on her, making a few notes whenever she can. The side effect on using magic was even more intriguing to her. The glowing effect from her eyes and Cutie Mark didn't just happen when she used magic, it happened when she was in euphoric emotions like playing with her friends and parents. She can't explain why it happens, but every time she starts glowing, every pony around her starts smiling, it happened to her a couple of times as well. It's kind of like the filly is the double ganger of Princess Cadence in filly form, where every pony around the Princess smiles whenever they see her. She stopped questioning Playtime's abilities after three days and just figured she was a little bit like the pink party pony, Pinkie Pie, but her abilities still intrigued her.
In the small cottage home, Nebula stirred on the bed and yawned. He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision. "Good morning." he heard a gentle voice and looked at the mare resting underneath his wing.
He smiled at her and rested back down, "Good morning." he replied happily. She leaned in and kissed his cheek, causing him to blush.
They both looked at the stirring filly, embracing Nebula's tail tightly and made a sly smile. Fluttershy pulled her a little closer and kissed her forehead. Playtime smiled, "Mommy..." she mumbled in her sleep.
Fluttershy looked at Nebula, "Um... can you?" she said to him and he nodded. It's been a week now and every night, they both connected their minds in every dream.
He wrapped the two bodies with his and closed his eyes. Once he felt the mare finished getting herself comfortable, he concentrated on connecting their minds together. In no time, they were flashed to a new world.
They were in Ponyville's park together. They both looked ahead and saw a brief glimpse of themselves with Playtime, but both faded away and the filly looked a little confused on where her parents went.
"Mommy? Daddy? Where... where did you go?" she started to whimper and tiny dots of tears formed at the edges of her eyes. "Mommy... Daddy..." she rested down on the green grass and started to cry silently, covering her eyes with her hooves.
Fluttershy's heart broke when she saw her little filly crying by herself. She quickly started galloping, "Sweetie! Mommy's, hear!" she yelled out as she got closer to the filly.
Playtime looked at the mare and smiled widely. She stumbled up to her little hooves and started galloping towards her, smiling from ear to ear. "Mommy!" she yelled happily as tears of joy flowed down her pink cheeks.
They both collided one another and embraced each other tightly, Fluttershy wrapping her wings around the filly warmly. "Mommy's hear, sweetie." she whispered to her as the filly cried.
"I... I thought you and daddy... left me..." she said in between subs.
"We would never leave you, sweetie." she kissed the filly's head with affection. "I would never leave you." she said to the filly, stroking her grey mane, trying to calm her down.
Nebula got up to them both and looked down at Playtime in Fluttershy's embrace, leaned down and kissed her head as well. Playtime looked up with teary eyes and saw him, smiling down at her. She smiled back at him, "Daddy." she said to him, got out of Fluttershy's embrace and hugged him lovingly.
He wrapped his arms around her, keeping her close to him. She looked up at him with a big smile, he gently wiped her tears away, "I love you, daddy." she said to him.
"I love you too, Playtime." he replied and smiled.
Playtime looked at Fluttershy, "Can we go back home? I’m getting tired." she asked, rubbed her eyes with one of her hoof and yawned.
Fluttershy looked at Nebula for a moment and got closer to them both. She looked down at the filly with a smile, "Yes we can, sweetie. Just close your eyes and make a wish." she said to her.
Playtime did as she was told and everything went dark. Playtime slowly woke up from her sleep, blinking her half closed eyes. She quietly yawned and saw her parents looking at her with gentle smiles. She smiled back at them and was nuzzled by the mare, "Good morning, sweetie." she greeted the filly.
Playtime snuggled up to her and nuzzled the mare's side with her partly wet cheek, "Good morning." she replied and looked at her, still smiling. Her eyes and Cutie Mark started glowing dimly as her heart warmed from her parents embrace.
Playtime then looked at the mare's necklace, dimly glowing white. Ever sense she saw the object around her mother's neck, she's been a little curious of what it was exactly. She inched closer to it and looked at it a little closely, "Your necklace looks very pretty." she lightly nudged it with the tip of her nose and looked up at her, "What is it made of?" she asked.
Fluttershy opened her mouth to answered, paused for a moment, a little confused and looked at the filly, "I don't know actually." she looked at her dragon, "What is it made of?" she asked.
"Well, the metal is made of hardened Steel and the stone is made of Star Dust." he answered.
"Star Dust?" the two said in unison, perking both their ears up.
"Yes. You can only find them in outer space in comates and meteors. Even rarer to find them intact on this planet." he said to them both. What he didn't say though, is what it could do, but he'll save that for another time.
"Am I really that special?" Fluttershy said.
He smiled, "Every being have their special love." he rubbed his cheek on hers in affection, "And your that my special love." he said to her.
Fluttershy smiled and pecked him on the lips, "Then you're my special dragon."
For all her life, she feared the dangerous, winged, fire breathing beasts, but this one... this one she wants to see every day, and every morning beside her, keeping her warm and safe, with the little filly of course.
Fluttershy looked at the little filly with a smile and kissed her forehead. The filly giggled, "I love you too, mommy."
Fluttershy pinned her down and her expression became predatory, and before the filly knew what was going on, the mare started tickling her. Playtime laughed and giggled at Fluttershy's assault, bringing a sly smile on Nebula's face.
In the Everfree forest, not far from Ponyville was the cloaked figure, waiting for its prey to immerge from its library home. "Come on, little pony. I have a plan that won't wait any longer." it said. The dark mare looked to the side to see her wolves crouching down, waiting for her command.
After a moment, she saw the lavender unicorn and her assistant on her back, walking out. As they went out of their shielded home, the dark mare jerked her head, signalling her minions to go.
As all ten went creeping towards the mare and her baby dragon, the dark mare summoned up another one of her wolves with a swirling cloud of black magic. The creature stood up and shook its body, "You're coming with me." she said to it. They turned into a cloud of smoke and swiftly went along the edge of the forest to go find their main target.
As Playtime played on her father's body like a jungle gym, Nebula's ears perked up and looked at the entrance door. He stood up, "Another attack?" he heard a gentle voice to his side.
"Yes." he started walking towards the door and opened it with his magic. The little family got out and Nebula gently grabbed his daughter from his back and puts her down on the grassy ground. He patted her head with a smile. Playtime sat down on her hunches and smiled back at him.
Fluttershy followed him out of the shield, "Be careful, okay?" she said to him and nuzzled him with her cheek.
"I will." he answered with a smile and teleported away.
"Mommy!" she heard Playtime's frantic call. She looked towards her cottage home to see a dark wolf staring daggers at her, baring its teeth. She spread her wings to fly over the creature, but something dropped down onto her back and pinned her to the ground. She tried to look, but the side of her head was slammed against the ground.
"Finally... it took forever for me to finally catch you." it said to the frightened mare.
"Mommy!" Playtime called out for her and took a step forward, but quickly got back in as the creature clawed at her. She whimpered as tears started to form, "Mommy..."
The dark mare looked back at Fluttershy, "This is so bitter sweet." it said to her, rose up and struck her head hard with her hoof.
"Nebula! Your left!" Twilight yelled from her assistants back, riding him like a trusty steed. Nebula swung his tail like a baseball bat and struck two of the creatures, turning them to smoke.
Suddenly, he collapsed on the ground, clenching his chest tightly, drawing blood with his claws. He roared out loudly in pain as tears started to flow from his eyes. “Nebula! What's...? Nebula!" Twilight yelled as she saw the creatures piling up on him, biting and clawing at him. "Spike! Hel-" before she could finish, the creatures were knocked away from him and flailed in the air like ragdolls and started being crushed, bitten and slashed at by what look like the new Nebula.
His coat was replaced with a jet black scaly body, grew two more set of horns, his wings changed to what looks like bat wings with clawed tips, his talons grew longer and pointed like an eagle and the tip of his tail replaced with a sharp arrow head. What disturbed the two the most is his eyes. They weren't their normal light blue eyes, the pupils were thin slits and the irises an electric purple, his tears seemingly evaporated away from his cheeks and eyes.
He finished off the rest of the dark creatures and roared out loudly with his bat like wings spread to their full length. He then teleported away and left the two.
"Wha... what happened?" Twilight said, still trying to analyze what happened to their once kind dragon.
"I... I don't know." Spike answered and walked over to where their friend stood before he went away.
Back at the cottage, the dark mare summoned up a black dagger like object and looked down at her beaten up Pegasus, barely breathing. Playtime was crying within the magical shield, yelling out for her mother. She smiled evilly at her victim, "All is now finished. The Night! Will Last! For-" she then felt sharp spikes digging into her sides, lifted off the beaten mare and being shook violently in the air. She felt her lungs being flooded with her own blood and then thrown across the air and slammed onto a tree.
She opened her eyes to see her wolf being ripped apart into nothing but smoke. She coughed out her blood and struggled to get herself on her hooves. She stumbled up and looked ahead once more to see the dragon charging towards her with a loud war cry.
She quickly turned herself into a black cloud and retreated into the Everfree forest to escape her attacker.
Nebula got to the edge of the forest, looking frantically for the one who attacked his only guide to a happy life. His anger fumed and roared his loudest yet, to be heard from miles around.
Playtime slowly got out from the shield, watching the dragon that attacked the bad pony. She looked at her limp mother on the ground and quickly galloped up to her, "Mommy..." she went around to see her mother's bruised face, bit of blood going out her nose and mouth. "Mommy... Mommy please wake up..." she started looking around for help, "Help. Help! Please help! Please Help! My Mommy's Hurt! Any Pony Help! Mommy's hurt...!" she started to cry as she backed away to her mother.
She spun around to see her mother still lying there, "Mommy..." she went up to her and gently went under Fluttershy's hoof to try and feel comfort from the mare. “Mommy..." she lightly nudged the mare's head with her nose to try and wake her, "Mommy, please wake up..." her lips quivered. “Daddy...” she scooted a little closer to her and closed her eyes as her tears flowed freely.
Nebula ears perked up, hearing subs behind him. He looked away from the forest to see Fluttershy and Playtime together on the ground. He looked back into the forest and started moving away, realizing what just happened. He looked at himself in shock and saw blood doing down from his clawed chest.
He shook his head and started moving towards his little family. "Playt-" he stopped. His voice was even more low then usual and his throat ached in pain.
As he continued advancing towards them, Playtime perked up her ears and looked at him in fear. She started shaking and moved closer to her mother's limp body. As the footsteps got louder and louder, she started imagining being eaten up and killed by it like what happened to the pony that attacked her mother.
As the footsteps stopped, she took a peek and saw the black dragon looking down at her. She quickly covered her head with her fore hooves, "Please don't hurt me! Please don't hurt me!" she pleated, shaking.
Nebula looked at her in shock and backed away from the two. He just traumatized her, he just hurt her. He looked at himself once more and back at the two. He wanted to help them both, but can't because of the shaking filly with her injured mother, his love. I tried to reach out but didn’t want to frighten the filly anymore.
He looked back at Ponyville and looked up to the clear sky. He then shot out a bright cyan fireball high in the air and exploded in a variety of colors. He shot out two more and looked at the two one last time before teleporting away with a flash of light.
Playtime started hearing galloping hooves getting closer to her and her mother. She looked and saw the armored ponies and her mother's friends coming towards her, but her father wasn't one of them. She then heard her mother moan and shifted her head a little closer to her.
"Fluttershy! Playtime!" Rainbow Dash went up to them first and landed down with a thud. "Are you okay!?" the mare asked the filly and inspected them both for injuries.
"Mommy... Mommy's hurt." Playtime sniffled and wiped her tears away as she sat up to her hunches.
"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled from Spike's back as they got closer.
"Twilight! Go get a cart! We need to take Fluttershy to the hospital!" Rainbow yelled.
Twilight nodded, jumped off of Spike's back and teleported away with a flick of her horn.
"Darling! Are you okay!?" Rarity went up to the filly and hugged her tightly.
"Mommy... Mommy's hurt. Mommy’s hurt…" Playtime answered as she looked at the injured mare and reached out with one hoof for her mother.
"Mommy will be just fine, dear. She'll be just fine." she kissed the filly's forehead and caressed her grey mane.
"Mommy... Daddy..." she sniffled, "They left me..." she started to whimper in the mare's embrace.
Rarity kissed her head once more and tightened her embrace, "No they didn't dear... No they didn't..." she looked at her battered friend on the ground, and started wondering where their protector went. "No they didn't."