How To Raise A Kirin In 12,371 Steps

by Soothing Stone

Advice From One Demon Baby To Another

When Spike and Twilight found out they were having a baby, they had a definite plan on raising their child. They would raise him or her together, stay in touch as much as possible, and be on the same page when it came to communication. It was a solid plan, but like most good plans, life forced them to throw it away and start from scratch.

What they failed to realize is how, baby on board or not, they were still Prince and Princess of Equestria. The royal duties weren’t going to stop just because they had a kirin daughter now. Spike experienced that firsthand when he had to take care of Kunzite by himself, and today, it would be Twilight’s turn to look after her. He would be off to take care of that meeting with the Hippogriffs, while she would stay at home to look after Kunzite and sign off on a few documents. Thankfully, she sent a letter to a couple of ponies that knew a thing or two about raising a strong and powerful baby...

She waited in the lobby of the castle, and Kunzite was sitting on a baby chair nearby. The kirin was more than happy to stay in place when she had a few packets of applesauce to keep her happy. The guests should be here any moment now, and Twilight was more than ready to greet them. Kunzite would love to have more playmates, although, her mother wasn’t entirely sure how it would go.

In the meantime, she flipped through the pages of her notebook. She had no idea that she already filled it up from cover to cover. Then again, Kunzite was a fascinating creature; if she did anything fascinating, it would earn a few notes in the notebook. Given this was Twilight, she had spare notebooks all around the castle, and she decided to grab one of them. “Hopefully, this is the last one I’ll ever need…”

Shortly after noting her notes for her notebook, she heard the sounds of pegasi galloping in the wind. It was showtime. She levitated Kunzite out of the chair and brought her outside to see who was coming. Kunzie reached her hands for the applesauce back at the chair, only to be in awe of the chariot waiting outside for them.

The Crystal Pony pegasi manning the charit brought it down near the entrance. There was an entire envoy with them, which was custom for Equestrian royalty. Three familiar faces waited inside the carriage, and their faces beamed when they saw Twilight and Kunzite down below. The chariot touched down a moment later, and the guards escorted them out of the place. A certain pink princess was more than happy to greet Twilight.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hands and do a little shake!” Twilight and Cadence sang together. Just like old times, even if Kunzite was wondering what the hay she was looking at.

“That never gets old!” Twilight laughed. “How are you? Oooh, Flurry Heart’s all grown up now!”

Flurry Heart stood next to her parents, slowly waving to her auntie. “That’s what I keep telling them, but they never believe me. Is that Kunzite? I’ve never seen a kirin before.”

“You’ve met her before. You might not remember it, but we saw her in the hospital,” Shining Armor pointed out. “Speaking of which, how’s it going with Kunzite, Twily? We haven’t heard from you ever since the ceremony.”

“Well, it’s been...it’s been really difficult,” Twilight admitted. “I thought we could handle it on our own, but it’s a challenge when your daughter has magical powers and talents beyond her years.”

“Does that make us soul sisters?” Flurry Heart pondered. She came over to look Kunzite eye to eye. The kirin was rather intrigued by this little alicorn, and she smushed Flurry’s cheeks together. “That’s something Mom likes saying. Did she set the castle on fire by accident? That would really make us soul sisters.”

Twilight had to stop herself from laughing. “Actually, that’s why I wanted you guys to come over. Flurry, you’re really good with magic and flying, and your magic was off the charts when you were a foal. I was wondering if you wanted to help Kunzite figure out her magic.”

Flurry winced at the memories. “I didn’t know what I was doing with my magic, and it freaked everyone out? I broke the Crystal Heart without even thinking about it. I still feel bad about it.”

“It’s okay, Flurry,” Twilight comforted her. “You were just a foal, and we know you didn’t mean to do that. You’re wiser now. The point is, you’re skilled with magic way beyond your years. As it turns out, Kunzite is a lot like you. Her magic is really powerful, and she needs to learn how to use it well. Do you want to help her with that? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Cadence whispered over to Shining.

“If something goes wrong, we’ll come in and put a stop to it. Between the three of us, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Shining responded. “I don’t like it either, but let’s just do it for their sake. Twilight has no idea what she’s in for, and she could use all the help she can get.”

“You want me to help her?” Flurry puzzled at the idea. “Am I really that good with magic?”

“You have no idea,” Shining confessed.

“Honestly, you could be stronger than Celestia or Luna when you grow up,” Cadence added.

“That’s a big reason why I wanted your help,” Twilight agreed. “You may not know it yet, but you’re a natural at this stuff. I understand if you back out of it, but I wanted your help because you went through a lot of the same problems Kunzite’s going through right now.”

“Well…” She felt Kunzite’s claws smush her face again, and she really saw how adorable this foal really was. With those eyes, that dragon underbelly, and those claws that were poking her face, no wonder everyone thought she was adorable. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Twilight squeed in joy. “Wonderful! Whatever you want to do with her, we’ll do it. How should we do this?”

“Maybe we should do this inside?” Cadence offered. “All these guards might freak her out. No offense, guys.”

“They’ve been through worse,” Shining shivered. The changeling invasion alone was much worse. “We’ll help you get set up.”

------

A few minutes later, Twilight cleared the middle of the living room out for practice. Kunzite was rather curious why there were three ponies levitating furniture around, but she felt close to Flurry already. Maybe it was how she was the closest to Kunzite’s size out of the whole family. Flurry was too busy preparing her horn for practice to notice, and she calmed her mind for it as well.

Shining and Cadence watched the scene from the back of the room. They were more than a little terrified of what was about to happen, but Twilight was the complete opposite. Her second volume of notes were waiting to be written, and she was so excited over this.

“Mom says my emotions have a big part in my magic. Is that how Kunzite’s magic works?” Flurry asked.

“Seems to be the case so far,” said Twilight. “Her magic goes crazy when she has mood swings.”

“Okay. I have no idea how kirin magic works, but I’ll try to be her friend.” She raised her hands in front of Kunzite. “Patty cakes. Do you like patty cakes?”

Kunzite never played a game of patty cakes before, so she had no clue what Flurry was doing. However, she could tell her friend wanted to play with her, so she brought her claws up. She cooed in delight, knowing this was gonna be fun.

“Here, this is how you play.” Flurry clapped her hands with Kunzite’s to the beat of the song. “Patty cakes, patty cakes, baker’s man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can!” She did it a few times in a row so Kunzite could learn how it was done.

The kirin didn’t have any idea what Flurry was doing, but she liked it. When Flurry stopped to hold her hands out, Kunzite clapped her hands out to the beat of the song. She laughed and tried to sing along to the song, letting out a bunch of gibberish instead.

“You’re getting it!” Flurry smiled. “Do it a few more times.”

Kunzite squeaked and kept clapping with Flurry’s hands. It made her very happy to get along with her new friend, and her horns started to glow from it. Twilight gasped from the sight, and she leaned in to see what would happen.

Flurry stopped in her tracks when she realized Kunzite’s feet weren’t touching the ground anymore. The baby couldn’t stop laughing as she levitated up in the air. She didn’t need her wings to fly this time. If it wasn’t for the fact that her magical aura was loud, everyone in the room would hear Twilight’s pen going crazy.

“Should I be scared?” Flurry meeped. “I’m scared right now.”

“No no, it’s nothing to be worried about,” Twilight cut in. “She’s levitated like this before, but only in her sleep. This is so exciting! And you should be happy about this, Flurry. It looks like she’s doing this because she’s really, really happy to play with you.”

Shining and Cadence sighed from the news. “So she’s not going to hurt our daughter,” Cadence inquired.

Flurry was frozen still as she kept her eyes glued to the floating baby. She wasn’t sure what to do, but Kunzite kept clapping her hands together like nothing was happening. Flurry slowly lowered her hands to her side, and that made the kirin drop down softly to the floor. “Wow, she’s emotional, isn’t she?”

“You have no idea,” Twilight smiled. She finished up her notes and put the notebook away. “Did you have anything else in mind, Flurry? Whatever you want to try, we’re game.”

“Hmm. Maybe we could try out some spells outside?” the young alicorn offered. “I could show her a few things and see if she learns from what I’m doing. That’s what Mom and Dad did with me after a while.”

“You mean...you want to teach her magic?” Twilight was overcome with emotion at the mere mention of it. “That would be...I want to see this for myself. It would mean the world if she learns her first spell while I’m there to see it. Let’s give it a try.”

Shining and Cadence looked at each other in horror. “You need to keep in mind that if Kunzite’s anything like Flurry, she’s going to be very powerful,” Shining piped up. “There’s no telling what kind of spells she’s capable of doing.”

“I realize that, Shining, but you won’t have to worry,” Twilight answered. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll use a bubble spell to stop any excess magic from destroying anything. We’ve had to use it a few times.” She let her horn glow to illustrate her point.

Cadence sighed. “Well, if you’re prepared for the worst, go ahead. What do we need to do here?”

“Well, I was thinking we could…”

------

They spent the next few minutes setting things up in the park right outside the castle. Flurry had a few stacks of hay set up next to each other, and she made sure that they were set as far apart as possible. Twilight was more than happy to assist in the effort, while Shining held his kirin relative closely. This was going to be interesting.

After that was all set up, Flurry and Twilight looked at their handiwork. The haystacks were all stable and looked ready to go. “Be careful not to touch the grass. For some reason, Kunzite’s really sensitive about that,” Twilight pointed out.

As it turned out, Shining was stepping in it himself. Kunzite glanced down at his shoes and realized what he was doing, and she started to cry. He got off the grass and brought himself down to a dirt road, and the crying stopping immediately. “You know why she does that?”

“We’re not entirely sure, but it’s possible she really likes nature. Flurry, what spells did you want to try out?” Twilight puzzled.

“Why don’t we try a few fire spells?” Flurry offered. “Those are really easy. That was one of my first spells, although it didn’t make Mom and Dad very happy.”

“No no, it’s okay. I was just freaked out when Dad’s mane was on fire, and I wasn’t sure what he did to cause that,” Cadence interrupted. “So that’s why you have those haystacks out there, so Kunzite can use them for target practice?”

“Right. Make sure Kunzite’s watching this.” She flew gently to the nearest haystack, and she charged her horn into a dark shade of red. Before they knew it, a pretty good sized fireball launched from her horn and set the haystack on fire. Kunzite’s eyes glistened from the fire, and she cheered from the sight.

“Not exactly a good sign that she likes fire, but that’s a start,” Twilight chimed in. “Alright, Kunzite, do what Flurry just did. You got this.”

Kunzite barely understood what her mother said, and she tried to follow Flurry’s example. The young alicorn led the kirin to the nearest haystack, and she concentrated as hard as she could to do what she just saw. That was a cool ball of something Flurry did, and she wanted to be just like the pretty purple-pink pony friend. Sweat poured down her face as she tried to concentrate. It was proving difficult to do, but she pushed through.

Twilight watched patiently from the sidelines. The thought crossed her mind that this might be too much too soon, but she ignored it for now. After all, Kunzite was showing signs of magical talent she had only seen once before, and the pony that did it before was teaching her right now. This was going to be fine.

Just when she thought about ending the lesson, a spark of fire came out of Kunzite’s horns. She gasped when the kirin’s horns suddenly glowed bright red, and a tiny fireball escaped from them. The haystack slowly caught fire from the spell, until it was consumed in flames.

Twilight had her notebook ready for the notes, but the sight was too much for her. Her muzzle was covered by both hands. “I just watched Kunzite’s first spell before my very eyes...I wish Spike was here to see it…”

“Wow, you’re a fast learner!” Flurry marveled. “You want to do it again?” She brought Kunzite down to the next haystack. “Just do it again. You got this, Kunzie!”

Kunzite understood that she was given a really cute nickname, and she turned her attention to the next haystack. Her horns would glow red again, but a spark of electricity came out of them for a brief moment. Twilight saw it and wondered what it meant--and then she saw a wall of fire come out of Kunzite’s horn. It hit the side of the haystack out of the blue, and the surge was so strong, she could feel the heat from here. Thank Celestia, Flurry was standing behind Kunzite this time.

Shining and Cadence nearly screamed from the sight, while Flurry was just in awe. “That’s a really pretty fireball,” she imagined.

However, Kunzite’s mood was rather different when the fire spell was finished. She realized that the spell set a lot of grass blades on fire, and it broke her heart to realize she did that. She swooped in and tried to swat all the fire away with her wings. The effort produced a decent gust of wind, and it went over the flames and put them out. It took a lot of energy from her, and she was exhausted from the effort. So exhausted, in fact, that she fainted and started falling to the ground.

“KUNZITE!” Twilight’s motherly instincts kicked in, and she raced to pick up Kunzite right before she hit the ground. Flurry got there first and grabbed Kunzite just in time. She handed her to Twilight without a word, and she checked every part of the kirin’s body to make sure she was alright. “I am so sorry. Please forgive me.”

Kunzite was still in her arms, passed out from the spells and wing flapping. Thankfully, she wasn’t hurt or anything. She slept peacefully and didn’t seem the least bit disturbed, although her body was very sweaty from all that work she did.

“I did this, didn’t I? I am so sorry,” Flurry cried.

“Don’t be. If anything, thank you,” Twilight corrected her. “You saved her from getting hurt. I should probably take her inside her crib for now, but don’t beat yourself up over it. This is on me. I’m the one that pushed her into this.”

Shining and Cadence came in to check up on them. “Thank Celestia, they’re both okay,” Cadence chimed in. “Do you need anything? Please, don’t be afraid to ask.”

“I think she’s fine. She just needs some rest. Thank you, though.” Twilight calmly stepped aside and took Kunzite back inside the castle. She was solemn, focused on her child and nothing else. The entrance door was shut behind her.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Shining noted. “Do you think this is a good thing or bad thing?”

“Both,” Cadence replied. “Twilight’s going to be shaken up for a few days, at least. Nothing’s worse for a mother than feeling like they messed up, but I think she’ll be fine in the end. But she was so happy when Kunzite cast her first spell. That has to help.”

“I hope they’re okay. This is all my fault,” Flurry sighed.

“It’s not your fault, Flurry. We just didn’t know what we were getting into,” said Shining. Something caught the stallion’s eye, however. He found Twilight’s discarded notebook and pen discarded out on the lawn. He wasn’t sure why his sister was carrying a notebook to begin with, so he flipped through the first few pages. “This is weird. It’s a bunch of notes on Kunzite. It looks like Twilight’s been studying her to understand the kind of kirin she is.”

“That’s Twilight for you,” Cadence shrugged. “She always was a notetaker. This is the first time she’s done it with a family member, I think. Spike doesn’t count, she was just a filly when she did that.”

“Do you think Spike needs to find out about this?” Shining questioned. “I don’t feel good about this. He should probably know what his wife’s been up to, especially when he hears about the accident.”

“I don’t feel good about it, either, but I hope it doesn’t strain things between them…”

------

When Spike got the letter over the incident, time crawled to a standstill. He did his best to look calm and rational in front of the hippogriffs, but he was freaking out on the inside. Sure, Shining and Cadence emphasized that Kunzite was okay, but that’s not what a parent hears when they find out their child was in an accident. They tend to assume the worst. Spike was no different. What if Kunzite had internal injuries, or she hurt Flurry without realizing it?

The meeting was over an hour later, thank Celestia. Once it wrapped up, he didn’t bother to use the carriage to go home. He flew himself back to Ponyville as fast as he could. His heart was beating out of his chest from all the worst case scenarios, and he couldn’t get home quick enough if he tried.

Even when he found himself in Ponyville again, it still felt like a million miles to his home castle before he finally got there. His hands trembled as he opened the front door, and he was prepared to scan the whole place to find his daughter. Thankfully, she was right where he hoped she would be, sleeping soundly in her crib within her bedroom.

Twilight stood there quietly by the crib, watching her daughter just as closely as Spike did. Her eyes were glistening from the tears wanting to come out, and she wasn’t aware that he was standing there with her. Rather, Kunzite had her full attention, and she was almost in a trance-like state. It eventually dawned on her that Spike was by her side, and she threw her arms around him.

“This is all my fault,” she whispered. “Please don’t be angry.”

“Is she okay?” Spike worried. “Did she get hurt? Did Flurry get hurt? I heard the whole thing. Please tell me she’s okay.”

“She’s fine. She didn’t get hurt. We stopped before it got that bad. But I shouldn’t have pushed her into magic like that. She’s just a baby…”

Spike made sure Kunzite really was safe and sound, and took a deep breath when he realized she was. “We’re taking this to another room, alright? We can’t wake her up, but I need to talk to you right now.”

Twilight nodded. She trembled from the emotion coursing through her veins, but she was able to pull herself away from Kunzite. He brought her to their bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. He held his head and tried to relax in vain.

“Spike, I realize you’re mad at me for pushing Kunzite like that, and I’m sorry,” Twilight sobbed. “I really want to be a good mother and make sure she’s the best she can be, but that doesn’t mean I should keep doing this to her.”

“You know what? I’m not angry at you. I’m upset. Shining and Cadence told me that you’re still taking notes on Kunzite. Can you see why that gets to me?”

“Wait, they told you about that?”

Spike rubbed the temples on his forehead. “It’s not really a secret. I’m really upset that you’ve been doing that. Sometimes, it feels like you treat her more like a science experiment than your own daughter. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the way it seems.”

That was enough to bring out the tears she was holding back. “I realized that when we were outside, that’s why I left the notebook. It wasn’t right to do that to her. It’s just that...that’s what I did as a foal. I had to push myself to be good at magic. But she’s not like me, isn’t she?”

“Just because she’s a kirin?”

“No. Everypony learns magic differently. She won’t learn like me, even if I want her to. I just want to be a good mother…”

Spike stopped what he was doing and embraced her tightly. “You are a good mother, Twilight,” he said, his voice starting to quiver. “If you weren’t, you would have kept going with the magic lessons. And it’s not like you’re the only parent messing up here. You saw all the baby food I bought her the other day?”

Twilight kept sobbing in Spike’s arms. “I-I do. We’re never getting rid of all that food...Spike, are we supposed to be parents?”

“What?” Spike looked her dead in the eye, keeping her in his grasp. “Of course we are. We just don’t know what we’re doing yet.”

Twilight gave it a moment to let it sink in, and she wiped the tears from her face. “It gets scary at times, doesn’t it? You have no idea what it was like to see her do that. It was kind of cool that she’s that powerful, but I kept thinking she hurt herself or worse, and it was because of me. That’s the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”

“Yeah. I can only imagine how that felt.” He kissed her forehead softly. “Look, we both suck at this. You were taking notes on her, and I was babying her way too much. We’ve got a lot to learn from the looks of it. But we’re learning together, right? That’s what good parents do. They don’t just raise a baby. They learn from each other.”

She smiled and leaned into the kiss. “We are. It helps that I got the perfect dragon to teach and learn from.”

“Hey, we both know who’s the better teacher around here. It was your idea to open up a school on friendship, after all.”

“Heh, I get carried away sometimes. Okay, no more notetaking, and we won’t try to push her magic or go overboard with supplies. Deal?”

“Deal. I love you, Spike.”

“I love you too, Twilight.”

They stayed in the bedroom for a moment, giving themselves some time to relax and cool down. They would still feel overwhelmed from the burden of raising a daughter, but they were honest with themselves over what it would take now. It was better to be honest about it than pretend everything was picture perfect.

After a while, they decided to check up on Kunzite to make sure she was still okay. She was in the middle of a nap, and just like last time, she was levitating off of the crib by a few inches. The smile on her face told them the whole story, and it left them feeling more at peace than they had in a long time. It truly felt like they were starting to put the pieces together on how to live as a family.

Not quite. There was still one more surprise life had in store for them.

Author's Note:

This was a hard chapter to get through. Through a combination of feeling like I was just repeating myself and dealing with some personal issues, it took some time to gut through this chapter. I'm glad it's over now, because my goodness it was painful.

That said, this is a big milestone for the story, as it concludes the big Spike and Twilight arc. There's quite a bit more to the story, of course. There's a reason why Ember and Fizzle have had scenes in the story, and I haven't forgotten about Starswirl and Celestia's journey. The next few chapters will show where I'm going with those.

Comments

[zerofireking13]

I realized that when we were out there. That’s why I left the notebook out there.

The second out there is repetitive, just use outside also a comma between there and that's.

[Viper Pit]

well they are learning

[Soothing Stone]

9199087
Thanks, and fixed.