• Published 2nd Apr 2018
  • 2,562 Views, 36 Comments

How To Raise A Kirin In 12,371 Steps - Soothing Stone



After tying the knot with Spike in the future, Twilight gives birth to a kirin--a dragon-pony hybrid. This sends both of them searching for answers about their child.

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The First Step Of A Bazillion

Author's Note:

Yes, you're seeing this right. After cancelling this story several months ago, I'm resuming it. Just felt like something I needed to do, both for myself and for you guys. Tell me what you think of this new entry, I think you might notice a few differences in the writing style.

Sleep always came easy to Twilight, no matter what season of life she was in. When she was a filly, she slept early to make sure she got to class in time. Once she moved to Ponyville, she was up and it to tackle the next friendship lesson. After she was crowned a princess, she was up before sunrise to attend to her new duties. After her wedding with sleep, that was the first time she ever had trouble falling asleep. Sharing a bed with someone every night took some time to get used to.

Nothing could prepare her, however, for her new sleeping patterns with the dawn of motherhood. She woke up through the night to check on her daughter, just to see if she was okay, or to check for any signs of magical energy. It might have driven her crazy, but she didn’t want to drop the ball by any means necessary. That kind of paranoia was common among new mothers, she reasoned.

When the clock on her desk started ringing, she was fresh off another visit to Kunzite’s room. Spike groaned from the noise and turned the clock off, only to note that his wife was standing next to the mattress. “You’re already out of bed? You spent the whole night checking up on her, didn’t you?”

She squealed and nodded. “Only for half the night, tops. I couldn’t help it. What if I wasn’t there when she cried or needed sompony to comfort her? Is that wrong to do?”

He rubbed his eyelids and sighed. “Nah. Surprised you got any sleep at all, to be honest. That’s nothing to be ashamed over. If you’re that worried about her, that means you’re a good mother. Why don’t you check on her, and I’ll find something for her to eat? That’s one less thing for you to worry about.”

“Thank you, Spike!” She planted a kiss on his forehead. “I have a whole lesson planned for her, so this is perfect.”

That made him raise an eyebrow. “First lesson? Already? I’m not even a little surprised here.”

“You know me. I’ve just been looking forward to this for so long. I won’t let her down.” She rushed out of the room without another word. He chuckled to himself as he got ready for the day. It was going to be something, alright. He just hoped she knew what she was doing, and she sure acted like she did.

Matter of fact, she sorta had an idea. As she went to the bathroom to fix her hair and get dressed, she had the whole day planned in her head. From what Shining and Cadence told her, there was a good chance that the plan would be thrown out of the window twice a day, if not more, but she had it in the bag.

She changed into a regular shirt and jeans, and she looked at herself in the mirror for a good prep talk. You are a great mother, Twilight. You’ve been preparing for this moment. Now go out there and raise Kunzite right! Oh, and don’t forget to take notes while you do so.

When she went to go see Kunzite, the little kirin was already wide awake. Matter of fact, she was gazing at the painting on the ceiling, as if to wonder what she was looking at. The sight warmed Twilight’s heart. Was this was a sign that she was a curious one? Either way, she picked Kunzite out of her crib. “Hi, Kunzite! Did you sleep well last night? I know I checked a million times, but I might have missed something--”

Kunzite cut her off with a loud burp. A small plume of green fire escaped her lips, coming within inches of Twilight’s shirt. She yawned after the flames disappeared, as if this was totally normal.

“What was that?” Twilight gasped. Her heart pounded in her chest from the close call, and seeing Kunzite try to sleep in her arms didn’t snap her out of it. She had a feeling this kirin had some dragon properties, but she was taken off guard from the fire. Her mind turned to the shelves nearby, where she had placed a notebook or two. “I’m definitely keeping track of this,” she noted. She picked them up with her magic.

Still, Kunzite was peaceful and quiet as she was sat down on the floor. She clapped her claws together and couldn’t wait to spend some time with the cute purple person hanging out with her. Next thing she knew, she was given a book with a huge boat on the cover.

“Okay, let’s just pretend that never happened. You didn’t catch anything on fire, so...do you know what this is?” Twilight asked. “This is a book. Boooook. Here, look at it.” She pushed it up so Kunzite could see for herself. “It has a lot of paper, and it can teach you a lot of things!”

Kunzite saw the weird shaped thingy on the cover and tried to figure out what that shape was. Her claws threatened to poke through the paper inside as she grabbed it, almost sending Twilight into a panic attack. Thankfully, she pushed the cover to the left instead. Crisis averted. She looked up to her mother with her mouth wide open, like she just climbed a mountain.

“You already know how to open a book?” She went to town with her notebook. “You caught on fast. This is a picture book. See what’s on this page? This is a sailor. Sailor.” The picture on the book was a sailor on a boat, along with a sailor with weird allusions to the moon on her uniform. “Sailors go out to the sea. See?” She was already kicking herself for that pun.

Kunzite wasn’t fazed by the cheesiness of the pun. She just clapped her claws together and giggled. Another set of flames came out of her mouth from all the laughter. That sure got Twilight’s attention; she was in awe while her notebook had another page worth of notes on it.

“Here’s another picture. This is called a hippogriff. Hippogriff.” Silverstream’s mug was on it, and since this was a picture, she had her tongue sticking out on it. “They are ponies that can turn into birds or fish. This is one of my best friends on here. Isn’t she almost as cute as you?”

Kunzite huffed with that. She even turned her head to the side to pout that anybody could compare to her adorableness. “Wait, are you pouting? That sure looks like pouting to me.”

“Yeah, that looks like pouting to me. What did you do, run an experiment on her?” Spike poked in. He was carrying a packet of baby food with him. “And why am I not surprised that your lesson involves reading? You’re trying to get her hooked on books.”

“Eeep, you saw that?” She tried to play it innocent and shove it even closer to Kunzite. “It was her idea! Besides, it’s never too early to start reading. See, this is a basic picture book. Any foal could understand it. Nothing like a picture book, am I right?”

Spike shook his head and smiled. “If she catches your love for reading, we’re gonna need a bigger library.” One thing he took note of, pardon the pun, was the amount of notes his wife wrote down on the book. Anytime Kunzite did the littlest thing, there would be a new sentence or two on the notebook. Even when she turned her head to the left, that warranted more scribbling. “How’s it going with her, anyways? Other than the book reading, of course.”

“Just wonderful. Kuznite, your dad is here.” She pointed Kunzite over to Spike, and the kirin was delighted to see her father. She crawled over to see who this mysterious dad was, and it warmed his heart to see her come to him.. He gathered her up and snuggled her tightly. “She was able to open the book all by herself, and she’s already showing a lot of emotions. If I had to guess, she’s the curious type.”

“No, she’s the cute type.” He rubbed underneath Kunzite’s chin. “Aren’t you the cutest thing ever? Aren’t you?” Kunzite giggled from all the rubbing.

“Wait, she also breathes--”

Suddenly, Spike’s face was covered in ash. Kunzite just burped again.

“...fire…”

He blinked from the surprise attack and stood there for a moment. “Yeah. I can see that. At least she didn’t get the baby food.” Then he realized that some of the ash on his arms used to be the packet of food. “Don’t worry. I got more.” He wiped some of the ash off his face.

“We have more? Thought we were out. That’s why I planned to go to the grocery store later today.”

“Don’t worry about it. I took care of it last night when you were giving Kunzite a bath. We’ve got plenty for days.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Just how much did you get?” She went downstairs to see what he did. He actually wanted to see her reaction to what he bought, so he went down with her, making sure Kunzite was secure in his grasp. Surely, Twilight would be thrilled at what he did for their baby’s well being.

When the alicorn came down to the dining room, she gasped at the sight. The dining room table was full of baby food.There was so much baby food on there, she couldn’t see the surface of the table at all. Not only that, but it was stacked a few feet in the air. There was enough here to feed five babies for two weeks, let alone one.

“Spike, I think you might have overdone it,” she whimpered.

“What? Is that so wrong? I’m worried about Kunzite. We have all the money and resources to give her the very best, and I think we should do that for her. It’s the least we can do.”

“But...I mean...oh Celestia, there’s so much of it! I don’t even know where we can store it! We might need a second fridge at this rate. How did you even carry this all home? I’d have trouble carrying this all with my magic.”

“It took a few trips.”

Twilight facepalmed and pulled up a chair by the table. “It’s too much. Way too much. Can you warn me the next time you’re thinking about doing something like this? It kinda hurts that you did this behind my back.”

Spike’s ears perked down to the side. “I’m sorry. I just really wanted to make you happy. You have a lot to think about, and this is one less thing off your plate now.”

“I know. It was thoughtful and considerate. Just a little overdone. I’ll find a place for this later. Oh, I think it’s lunchtime for her.”

“Already on it.” He pulled up a baby chair and sat Kunzite down in it. “Who’s a hungry little kirin? You are! Get ready, because the train is coming!” He picked up a packet of Apple Bloom’s Baby Applesauce(trademark pending) and opened the lid. The smell was rather strong for something like this.

When the scent reached Kunzite’s nostrils, something within her woke up. Her stomach was growling louder than a dragon’s, which is already pretty loud. Her body looked like it was vibrating, and she was laser focused on the packet of food she needed. Her wings spread out all the way, and she wiggled to get out of the chair. All the while, Twilight was in awe of her daughter’s actions. This was something to note.

Spike was occupied fetching a spoon for the food to notice. Before he realized she was out of the chair, Kunzite swooped in and stole the packet out of his claws. She dove her head in and slurped all the food up. He jumped back and gasped from the surprise. As it turned out, he wasn’t the only one in awe.

Twilight’s jaw was firmly on the floor as she witnessed Kunzite hovering in the air, using her wings to stay up there. She brought her notebook downstairs with her, and she was filling up pages by the minute. “She’s a baby and she’s already flying? How is this possible? She might be as powerful as an alicorn, and she has the natural flying ability of a pegasus. What kind of daughter do we have?”

The dragon was barely able to comprehend it himself. He carefully approached Kunzite step by step. “Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just going to pick you up and take you back to your chair. Is that alright?”

Kunzite had no idea what he was saying. She just wanted to keep eating and get the growling in her stomach to stop. She scooted into Spike’s arms without any issue, and it wasn’t long until she was propped back into the chair. Her face was still planted inside the packet to get any food she missed. Spike pulled up his own chair and collapsed into it.

“She’s something, alright,” he breathed. “Just don’t know what to make of it yet. I’m willing to bet you do, since you’re taking so many notes about it.” He shot Twilight a dirty look over it.

“What? I’m so sorry. It’s just that she’s the first dragon-pony kind of kirin, maybe second. There are those kirin Fluttershy and Applejack met, but Kunzite is totally unlike them at all. She’s way cuter, for example.”

“Yeah, that’s what’s standing out to you,” he whispered to himself. “Just don’t forget she’s your daughter, too,” he said at a louder tone.

“I won’t.” She turned to another page of her notebook. As it turned out, she wrote her schedule for the day on that page. “I totally forgot that I still have some duties to attend to. Delegates from the Hippogriff Navy want to know when’s the best time for a diplomacy meeting. Don’t know how I’m going to squeeze this into my schedule. Kunzite should have top priority.”

“You know what, go ahead and do that. I’ll keep my eye on her for today. It will just be Father and Daughter Bonding Time. You go take care of your chores, and I’ll make sure she’s fine.”

“You sure? The whole load shouldn’t be just on you. I can help.”

“And you will. It won’t be like with me, where you had to raise me by yourself a lot of time. You’ll be the mother you’ll want to be, but you’re also a princess. Go be the princess Equestria needs you to be.”

“Really? Thank you!” She kissed them both on the forehead. “I’ll be back when I’m done. Tell me everything that happens while I’m gone!” With that business taken care of, she went off to attend to those royal errands.

That left Spike alone with his little kirin. He looked at her suspiciously “You don’t have any other surprises for me, do you?” Kunzite actually shrugged and reached for another packet of food. “Alright, you get one more. You gotta show me how you learned to fly so quickly. I had to wait years for my wings…”

------

The mountain ranges were tall and menacing in all directions. Snow would usually cover their peaks, but not during this season. There was always fog to them no matter what, however. On the other hand, the valleys between the peaks were nice and peaceful. They were grassy, leaving to picturesque surroundings whenever a wind current blowed through. It didn’t hurt that they were easy terrain to trek through.

Celestia learned that quickly as she trekked through the valley. A legion of guards followed her, and despite their insistence that she bring a carriage for the journey, she insisted on walking. She didn’t want to leave Starswirl behind on this journey, even though he was making good ground for a middle aged unicorn. It was important that they made the journey together.

It was getting late, however, and the road was long and wearisome. Once they got out of the mountain range and found themselves at the entrance to the forest, they made camp there for the night. The guards took inventory and prepared dinner for that day. With the amount of ground they made, it would take just another day or two to make it to the kirin’s roaming grounds. They weren’t far off from the Equestria-Dragon Lands border, so the guards would keep watch overnight for any rogue dragons.

Celestia enjoyed the taste of a dinner roll, and she looked over Starswirl’s notes under the light of the campfire. He debated on trying out this mead he heard about, but settled for plain old water instead. It was intriguing for him to see his former student look over his notes and understand everything on the first readthrough. The last time he saw her, he had to explain every little term and word to her young, impressionable mind.

As he observed her studying, he would notice little ticks and signs of hidden emotions. For example, he could see a tear try to form in her eye, only to push it away. It wasn’t hard to see that it wasn’t caused by dust in her eyes. “What’s on your mind?” he inquired.

“To be honest, I’m emotional about a few things. It just dawned on me that the previous season of my life is over,” she replied calmly, still looking over the notes.

“What do you mean? Seasons come and go all the time. You know that better than anypony in the world. Yet, I sense that something about that troubles you. What was it about this last season?”

She sniffed and raised her head up to meet him eye to eye. “For the last twenty years of my life, I’ve been acting as a mentor to somepony’s life, from Sunset to Twilight. I served as their mentor as long as I can remember. I believe I did a good job, so there’s no regrets there. Sunset is doing well in the other dimension, and Twilight requires no explanation.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of. So what’s at the heart of this issue?”

“The thing is, Twilight’s started a family. We still talk every now and then, but I can feel a difference in our relationship. It doesn’t seem like I’m mentoring her anymore. Now, it appears like we are equals.”

Starswirl nodded and rubbed his beard. “You view her as your daughter.”

Celestia glanced at him in bewilderment. “My daughter? Not at all. She has parents of her own. They’re still involved in her life. I’m just a mentor to her, that’s all.”

“Yet, from what I’ve read, the way you’re acting about it is how mothers act when their daughters graduate from school, marry, and have foals. Your behaviour over Twilight’s actions are very motherlike.”

The princess took a moment to give the idea some thought. “I suppose you’re right. I was proud of her when she ascended to alicornhood, and being there when she found love was a touching moment, one of the most touching in all my life. But I shouldn’t be sad that our relationship has changed. She’s happier now than ever before, even if she’s a little confused over the nature of her daughter. Speaking of which, what do you expect we will find with this other kirin?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. He stroked his beard in thought once more. “It was not a erroneous idea to bring these guards with us, as this type of kirin can be very powerful. If our stranger is the threatening type, we might have no choice but to fight him or her. With any luck, it won’t come to that.”

“So you don’t know for certain.”

“No. It’s best to be prepared for anything, no matter what is to come.”

Celestia sighed and got up from her post. “Advice you’ve taught me a million times, and it’s served me well. Regardless if it’s wise, I will aim to avoid it, for Twilight and Spike’s sake. They need all the answers they can get. I will rest for now, and may Luna’s moon watch over you.” She then went to her tent for the night.

Starswirl remained alone by the campfire, and she was nice enough to leave the old notes behind for him. He couldn’t help but look over them himself, just to be prepared. Whatever nugget of information he forgot over the years, he should probably find them tonight. It was best to have them and not need them rather than the other way around.

After all, it was best to be prepared for anything. Advice he should probably heed himself.