• Published 23rd Sep 2021
  • 4,276 Views, 89 Comments

A three headed family - valexto



After losing his last relative, a young man in despair wish to have a new family. And he's getting one, one that will never leave him

  • ...
6
 89
 4,276

6: Of wings and flames

The sun had barely started to rise that Fluttershy was already up, attending to her numerous animals like any good caretaker would. Placing a few seeds for the birds, she tried to be as silent as possible every time she had to go through the living room where Unified was still asleep in his little bed, all three heads breathing slowly and their body going up and down under the cover. While it had never been a real problem, Fluttershy quickly learned that Skaly didn't like to be woke up too soon and had ask her a few times to be careful to let them sleep until they woke up naturally.

She even tried to stay in the air as much as possible to not make to much noise with her hooves and was pouring the last seeds in a little bowl with an exaggerated carefulness. Once done, Fluttershy looked at all her little friends, most of them already awake and them too trying to not make too much noise for the others, and she them turned her gaze toward Unified, happy to see that he was still asleep. Taking her bag of seeds with her, she barely started to fly toward her kitchen that all her efforts were thrown to dust.

CRASH

"Eeep!" Fluttershy let out as she dropped her bag, the seeds spreading on the grounds as the loud noise that came from outside took her by surprise, even shacking her cottage a bit.

"What, what, what?!" Sage asked very quickly awoke by the many disturbances to his sleep, throwing the cover away.

"Let me sleep." Protested Rex almost lifeless and eyes still closed.

"Arg! Who did this?!" Yelled Skaly already completely furious.

Fluttershy gave them an apologetic smile even if she wasn't the one to blame, knowing that she would have to calm down a very angry dragon. She lowered to the ground to start picking up the seeds as she talked to Unified.

"I'm sorry that you woke up like this but something happened outside."

"Then shouldn't you see what it was?" Replied Skaly bitter.

"Oh right."

Just as she was about to go check, the door of the entrance opened wide as a familiar cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail entered, her coat slightly darkened by a few spots of dirt.

"Hi Fluttershy!" Greeted Rainbow cheerfully.

"Oh hello Rainbow, was it you that crashed outside?" Asked Fluttershy linking the dots.

"Yep, I was so fast that I couldn't slow down in time." She said proudly like if it was a good thing.

"Could you let us sleep?" Asked Rex about to fall asleep again.

"Well it's rare to see you this early in the morning. Did something happened?" Whispered Fluttershy.

"Not really. Let's say I decided to become 20% more cooler for a future fan of mine."

"Who might that be?"

"Well that little dragon of course!"

"What?" Asked all three heads suddenly perfectly woke up and bearing different expressions going to shock, joy and surprise.

"Are you sure? I mean, maybe Unified is a bit too young for that." Said Fluttershy worried.

"You want to teach us to fly?" Asked Skaly no longer angry but surprised.

"Of course! You got wings and you don't know how to fly. What pegasus would I be if I didn't helped you to fly?" Encouraged Rainbow Dash.

"Are you sure we can fly?" Asked Rex a bit skeptical.

"Please teach us!" Cut him Sage completely woke up at the perspective to fly and already bearing a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, if it's me teaching, everycreature that got wings can fly! So what do you say?" Boasted Rainbow looking at the little dragon.

"Yes!"

"Of course!" Added Skaly.

"Well if they're okay so am I. Can we have breakfast first?" Asked Rex.

"Good thinking, it's never good to start flying the stomach empty."

"Mom?" All three heads asked looking at Fluttershy with puppy eyes and huge grins on their face.

Fluttershy could only watch as all were looking at her, waiting for her approval. She looked at Unified a bit worried of what might happen but she trusted Rainbow Dash and maybe it was right to start teaching him to fly now, she was able to help birds and bats to fly but she never learned about how dragons did.

"I suppose it's okay. I'll prepare you some gems." Fluttershy agreed with her small smile.

"Yes! Thanks mom!"

"Don't worry Flutter, they will be flying by the end of the day."

Fluttershy went to pick up a few sapphires and gave one to each head, she picked big ones to make sure they wouldn't be hungry soon and be ready for a morning of training with her rainbow maned friend. All heads devoured their share and quickly turned to Rainbow Dash, ready to go learn to fly.

It was something that both Sage and Skaly were looking for even if it wasn't for the same reasons. The former wanted to feel the freedom of flying and watch the world from above while Skaly was more interested by dominating everyone from the skies, like a dangerous eagle or a omnipotent watcher. But Rex wasn't sharing the same enthusiasm than his brothers. He wasn't scared or anything, maybe a bit anxious but he simply wasn't interested in flying. As simple as that. Sure he was looking forward to fly but it wasn't anything he considered important.

"Can we go now?" Asked Sage.

"That's the spirit! Come on!"

Rainbow lowered herself and in one swift move caught the little dragon in her forelegs before flying out of Fluttershy's cottage and raced through the sky toward her house. As soon as she took off, all three heads were trying to keep their eyes open as their lips were shacking due to how fast the pegasus was going but it didn't annoyed them. Instead, they were all laughing and enjoying the experience all the way until the house made out of clouds.

She dropped him on the clouds. And he went straight through it.

"Ahhhh!" Screamed Rex.

"Hahahahaha!" Laughed Sage completely oblivious and enjoying the fall.

"What the-!" Yelled Skaly.

They kept falling for a couple of seconds before a blue pair of hoof stopped them to go any closer from the ground.

"Sorry, I kinda forgot that only pegasus could walk on clouds." Apologized Rainbow Dash with a smile.

"That was awesome!" Exclaimed Sage.

"Terrifying you mean." Said Rex still shacking.

"Dont' drop us like that again or I'll kill you!" Seethed Skaly.

"Oh cheer up, I won't do it again."

She went to the ground beneath her house and dropped Unified that quickly turned to look at her, all three heads bore completely different expressions but still not discouraged to learn to fly. Maybe just a bit for Rex.

"Okay so first would be to teach you how to preen your wings but since you have different wings we're going to pass on that. I'll show you how I move my wings and then you'll start to do the same."

"Sure!" Replied Sage, really the most concerned since he was the one controlling the body and thus the wings.

Rainbow started to flap her wings very slowly, just for him to have the movement which he copied a few seconds later without any problem.

"Okay so flapping your wings is the easy part, what's comes after is a bit harder. You need to flap with more strength, not a lot mind you as your wings should naturally be strong enough to make you fly but also a bit faster to stay afloat." She explained.

"Are our wings big enough?" Asked Sage concerned as he flapped twice his leathery wings.

"You should ask Twilight for the details but for me they just look big enough."

"Okay."

Taking a deep breath, Sage tried to do the same as Rainbow, flapping his wings with strength. They were thrown into the air for a second before immediately falling back to the ground, catching themselves with their paws.

"Nah that's not quite right. You've puy too much strength into your wings, just a bit less and it'll be fine. Also, once you're in the air you need to keep flapping. Right now it was basically a jump using your wings." Rainbow tried to compare.

And she was right as Sage completely forgot to flap his wings once in the air, too focused on putting strength and not enough on the next step.

"Okay I got it."

He tried again, giving a flap that wasn't strong enough. Frowning, he did it again with a bit more strength which barely sent him above the ground but at least it gave him an idea of how much he needed to put in his wings.

"Just keep flapping and we'll be in the air eventually." Encouraged him Skaly. In his own way.

"I know!" Complained Sage before focusing again on his wings.

A good flap sent them a few thirty centimeters in the air and then he kept doing it as fast as possible, Sage closing his eyes tight as he felt themselves still in the air after a few seconds.

"Open your eyes!" Hurried him Skaly.

"Yeah! We're doing it!" Added Rex now excited too.

Sage opened his eyes slowly to see themselves hovering in the air, the wings almost flapping by themselves now as it took only a few seconds for them to become a little bit of an automatism.

"See? You're doing it!"

"You're right!" Sage exclaimed with a big smile on his face, bending his neck to look at the wings moving on their sides at a regular speed.

"Of course you are! I told you it would be quick with me!" Rainbow stated proudly.

"We're flying!"

"Not yet. Hovering yes, flying, not yet."

This disturbed Sage who missed a flap and they fell to the ground, thankfully not too hard as they were not even a meter above the grass. They shook their head a bit and all six eyes focused on Rainbow, eagerly waiting for the next part of their training.

"Okay so now comes the good part. To move you have to bend toward the direction you want to go. Forward to go forward, backward to go backward. It might be simple at first but it's a big deal of balance and also how you orientate your wings." Continued Rainbow.

Starting again, Sage send them in the air and made sure to hover for a few seconds. All heads looked at the two wings flapping in perfect synchronisation, maintaining them in the air. They then looked at Rainbow Dash who was demonstrating how to move in the air, going way slower than usual to make sure the young dragon had the time to see how she was moving.

Trying to imitate her, all heads bent forward as Sage angled slightly the wings to go in that direction. Again they didn't succeed at the first try and went smash muzzle first in the dirt.

"Pouah! Come on Sage!" Grumbled Skaly spitting grass.

"Hey I'm trying! I'd like to see you try." He complained.

"That's the point! We can't!"

"Come on, let's try again." Encouraged Rex trying to ease the tensions.

A frown on his head, Sage got them back in position and then returned in the air.

"Come on dudes, you're already hovering. A bit more and you'll be flying. Not as well as me of course." Continued Rainbow.

"Of course we won't! We're barely a month old!" Skaly objected.

"That wasn't my point."

Sage ignored them and bent forward and all three heads instinctively did the same movement, perfectly natural and then the wings moved slightly. Still flapping, they moved on half a meter forward before Sage changed the orientation of the wings to try to hover again. This send them in a loop before they crashed again on the ground.

"You're starting to get it!" Said Rainbow.

"Obviously." Replied Skaly.

Not discouraged, Sage went back in the air again and didn't wait a single second before flying forward. They managed to fly on a whole five meters before landing on the ground and this time not on their snouts. It took them a few seconds to realize it, looking at their paws safely on the ground and turning their heads around to see where they took off.

"See! That's the thing!"

"Yeah!" Cheered Sage.

"Again! Again!" Said Rex ecstatic.

"As long as you don't put us back on the ground." Skaly said, silently happy to see Sage succeed.

Unified didn't needed anything else to try again and jumped into the air, hovering for a second before going forward and even turning slightly on the right which didn't ended up with their face on the ground. Getting the hang of it, they started to go faster and faster and doing better turns.

"Yeah! I told you that it wouldn't take long with me as a teacher!" Cheered Rainbow as she joined them, going much faster.

"It's awesome!" Rejoiced Sage.

They landed for a second, taking back their breath as their body wasn't exactly well exercised. After all the only real ways they had until now was to run around and even then Fluttershy was quite protective, not letting them out without supervision. Their tiny legs were thin but were already getting stronger but their wings never had the same opportunity, it would take some time before they would be ready to be used properly. Right now they had been trying and succeeding to fly for the past few minutes and their wings were already getting a bit heavy.

But all three brothers all got the same idea. Even if they would be too tired to continue in a few minutes, they wanted to do more.

Using his legs as springs to go higher, Unified flapped his wings quickly and took off with the only objective to go as high as possible. He kept ascending for a few seconds before he found himself ten meters in the air, hovering on the spot.

"You're doing great!" Called Rainbow passing right next to them before getting far higher than they could right now.

"Of course we are!" Proudly affirmed Skaly.

Dragons were quite proud creatures and Unified wasn't the exception so he tried to keep up for a few seconds before facing the fact that she was too fast and too well trained to be a suitable opponent.

"Why did you stopped?" Asked Skaly.

"It's getting hard to fly." Answered Sage with a visible strain on his face.

" *sigh* Alright, let's get back to the ground. But do it with style!"

Sage smirked as he had the same idea. They retracted their wings and dived toward the ground at full speed, getting all the thrill that they were expecting as they saw the ground getting closer very quickly. What they didn't took in account thought was that they didn't learned yet how to slow down after a dive and even less how to land after one and only too late did they thought about it.

Despise opening their wings wide to slow down, not a word was said before they hit the ground on their stomach, forgetting to put the paws first because of how fast they were going. Their landing was closer to a crash and they hit the ground hard, taking out the air out of their lungs as pain spread out on their chest and stomach.

"Aouch." Rex said almost expressionless.

"Yeah, it kinda hurts." Agreed Sage not moving.

"..." Skaly silently hummed, fumming internally.

"Hey are you okay?" Asked Rainbow who came to them only after she noticed them crashing.

"Don't think we have anything broken." Replied Sage as he moved their paws to stand up.

As soon as they did, all three heads got the big surprise to see a small line of black smoke right in front of their eyes. They tried to shake their heads but the smoke only followed their movements, staying in their line of sight.

"What's that?" Grumbled Skaly shaking his head.

"You're smoking. You're all smoking!" Explained Rainbow Dash a bit surprised to see the smoke coming out of their nostrils.

"Huh? Like smoke from a fire?" Asked Rex.

"I think dragons can breathe fire." Suggested Sage.

"Yeah they can, Spike do this all the time." Said Rainbow.

"Really?" Skaly wondered before turning his heads toward and empty spot in the air.

He opened his mouth wide, exposing the many small yet sharp teeth, and tried to breathe fire. Instead only a bigger trail of smoke came out, getting in front of his eyes to his biggest disappointment.

"That looks fun." Said Rex before he tried too.

Repeating his brother's actions, he did the same only to have the same result but he wasn't angry at all. In fact he was having a great time breathing smoke and trying to make shapes with a huge grin on his face, moving his head from left to right as he tried to make a smoky snake.

"My turn." Said Sage.

He took a bit breathe and only got the same result, a black smoke that was moving upward before his eyes. He closed his mouth and the smoke came out by his nostrils again. In fact all three heads were trying to breathe fire without much results and only smoke.

"Maybe you need to be older?" Suggested Rainbow Dash.

"Maybe. How can we turn it off?" Asked Skaly with a annoyed grunt.

"Huh? Don't ask me that, I'm not a dragon. Just stop breathing smoke."

They all stopped but the smoke kept coming out of their nostrils, quickly becoming an annoyance as it stood in front of their eyes. They tried to stop it, focusing on their lungs or whatever part of their body that was making the smoke but it was to no avail, the smoke still rising much to Rainbow's fun as she watched them make funny faces in their attempts.

"Why don't it stop?" Asked Sage also getting angry.

"I don't know. It was fun but now it's jut getting annoying, I can't even feel my nostrils anymore." Replied Rex.

"Can you take us back to mom?"

"Sure."

Rainbow grabbed them with her hooves and went straight toward Fluttershy's cottage, leaving a rainbow and slightly grey streak behind them. It didn't took long for them to land in front of the house and Rainbow entered, not really thinking about her friend privacy.

"Flutter? Are you here?" Called Rainbow.

"Oh! I'm coming." Replied Fluttershy apparently behind the house based on her voice.

The smoke was starting to accumulate in the air, sticking on the ceiling, right when Fluttershy entered. She immediately noticed the smoke coming from Unified and rushed to him, worried sick without even knowing what happened.

"Unified! Are you alright?" She asked taking him in her hooves.

"Yeah, we learned how to fly." Said Rex.

"But we crashed and now we can't stop breathing smoke." Added Sage.

"And it's really annoying!" Complained Skaly.

"Oh my. Hum... have you tried taking deep breathes?" Tried to help Fluttershy.

"Yeah! We tried to but no matter how we breathe it doesn't stop. We can make more smoke with our mouths but it's completely useless."

"Well I don't really know what to do, I never heard that dragons could have problems breathing fire."

"Can you make it stop?" Asked Rex with pleading eyes.

"I'm not sure I can but maybe Twilight will know how. She practically raised Spike so I don't know anypony else that could help."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Cheered Rainbow Dash flying outside.

Fluttershy grabbed Unified tighter and left her home, making sure to close the door behind before darting toward the Golden Oak Library, afraid for the health of the little dragon that she almost considered as her son. She wasn't his real mother but she did feel like it and would make sure that no ill would happen to Unified.

They didn't took too long to arrive at the massive tree where Rainbow already briefed Twilight on the problem even if the purple unicorn wasn't sure she understood everything.

"Fluttershy, is everything alright with Unified?" Asked Twilight concerned.

"Good morning Twilight. Sorry to bother you, but Unified can't stop breathing smoke, do you know anything about this?" Meekly asked the yellow pegasus.

"Hum, I vaguely remember something like this, but I think Spike was very young and so was I. I'm not sure if I can help, we don't know that much about dragons."

"Great. The sooner it'll stop the better." Grumbled Skaly.

"Luckily for us, I should still have my notebook of Spike's observations. I noted there everything I learned during Spike's growth."

"You're a real egghead." Said Rainbow a bit disturbed.

"Come in." Twilight said as she ignored her friend remark.

They all followed her inside and Fluttershy quickly put down Unified on the ground as the smoke started to raise in the air again. Twilight immediately went upstairs and left them for a few minutes while they heard a great deal of things getting moved before they finally got a reply.

"I've got it!" Twilight cheerfully said as she came down with a old and small notebook.

She put it down on the pedestal and started to go through the pages, going quickly at first before she took a stop.

" 'Spike first flames', that should be it."

"Good." Said Sage.

Twilight continued, mumbling all along as she was slowly flipping the pages.

"Maybe this. Fluttershy? Could you give a little tap on Unified's chest?" Asked Twilight raising her head.

"Oh, are you sure?" Doubted the yellow pegasus.

"Don't worry you don't need to go hard, just a little tap should be enough. It apparently did the trick when Spike was stuck burping fire."

"Okay."

Fluttershy picked up Unified and, gently but still doing her job, tapped him on the back. This got all three heads to let out a slightly bigger cloud of smoke but it didn't stopped anything, they kept breathing smoke and even a darker one.

"You made it worse." Rex grumbled, something he rarely did.

"Yeah I wasn't sure. But there must be something else!" Persevered Twilight.

She returned to her book and it took her only a few seconds to find another solution.

"Aha! This should... huh no... let's not do that." She quickly went from joy to a shocked expression.

All of them gulped but didn't said another word. Twilight kept going through her book before returning to the beginning to read again, taking a bit more time but not saying another word as a frown got on her face.

"Is there anything helpful?" Asked Fluttershy.

"No that's the problem, I can't find anything else that is even close to Unified case."

"Oh maybe you-"

At that moment the door opened to reveal Spike carrying two bags full of groceries.

"Twilight! I got- Oh hey, what are you all doing here?" He asked.

"Spike! Just the dragon we need." Twilight said with a smile.

"Well of course, I'm kinda the only dragon you know. No offence Unified." Proudly stated Spike.

"It's okay." Said Sage.

"Spike, Unified is having a smoke problem. Do you think you can help?" Asked Twilight.

"Huh it's been a while since last time I got one." Replied Spike.

"We can't stop making smoke." Explained Rex.

"And it's starting to be really annoying." Added Skaly.

"Hum I got an idea but I need to ask. Unified, did you ever tried to eat a ruby before?" Asked Spike.

"Huh no, don't think so."

"We've only got sapphires." Said Rex.

"Do you have something that could help Spike?" Asked Fluttershy.

"Yeah."

Spike let the groceries in the kitchen and quickly ran upstairs and quickly came back with three red rubies. They almost looked alive as a very small glow was coursing around them.

"What, you want us to eat gems?" Skaly asked sceptical.

"Trust me, if it doesn't work then I don't think anything else will."

"Spike are those the rubies that I got for your birthday?" Twilight enquired with a worried face.

"Yep."

Unified three heads looked at the gems placed a bit doubtful, they shared a look before shrugging, ready for anything to get rid of the smoke that was still pouring out of their nostrils. They grabbed the rubies between their teeth and then crushed them before eating the broken gems. It didn't took long for them to react.

"It's hot!" Screamed Rex puffing smoke.

Sage was stuck coughing big clouds of smoke, it even seemed to be painful like if he was trying to threw up.

"What are these rubies?!" Yelled Skaly.

"Well they're just extremely pure rubies, collected by Rarity." Explained Twilight worried.

"For dragons that eat gems like us, it means that it's like eating an extra spicy sauce." Added Spike with a huge smile, knowing what was coming.

Unified's body shook and it looked like all three heads were about to puke, the amount of smoke having doubled by now. Then it happened as Spike tried to contain his laugh with his claws on his mouth. All heads let out a massive burp of fire that thankfully didn't reached any of the books of the library as Fluttershy let out a little scream of fear. The burning in the little dragon was like nothing they ever felt before and it forced them to empty all the fire in them.

"Whoa!" Said Rainbow Dash moving out of the way, avoiding the flames by a short second.

They kept spitting flames for two more seconds uninterrupted before they finally stopped, panting heavily as their body shook in pain.

"You *pant* tried to kill us." Skaly said giving a dark glare at Spike.

"No but at least it got you to stop smoking." Replied the little purple dragon.

All three heads looked at each other to see that beside a few last remains of smoke, they were finally stopping to breathe out smoke. Letting out a last pant, they each let out a smile of relief as they finally took a big breathe that didn't let out any smoke.

"Whoa Spike, you really know what to do." Cheered Fluttershy.

"If you have smoke it means you have a fire, it just needed to get out."

"At least we're not breathing smoke anymore." Thanked him Sage.

"Yes, it was quite annoying." Agreed Skaly.

"Do you think we will be able to breathe fire again?" Asked Rex a bit sad to lose that ability.

"I don't see why not, you're a dragon after all. But right now you probably used all of it so you'll have to wait a bit."

The three heads let out a sigh of relief, happy to hear that it wasn't irreversible and now they knew how to solve the problem should it ever happen again. Fluttershy trotted to them and hugged them tightly, sharing their relief as she got really scarred that it would be something permanent or anything bad.

"Thank you Spike." She said.

"No problem Fluttershy, that's why I'm the number #1 assistant!" Spike said puffing out his chest.

"I'm going to buy a few gems for the ones you had to use."

"Nah it's okay. Instead buy a few regular rubies for Unified, it will help with make a good meal and he will be able to keep working on his fire."

"Hey Spike?" Interrupted him Sage jumping to the ground.

"Yes?"

"You use fire to transport stuff right?"

"Well mostly letters but yes."

"Huh."

All three heads turned around and looked at a book resting on the ground nearby. Before anypony or dragon could say something, they let out a small stream of flame that reduced the book to ashes in a matter of seconds. Silenced ensued for a second before being broken by a few buzz and all looked at Twilight who had an eye twitching as her mane and tail had small electric lightnings running around, ruffled and it looked like she was able to explode.

"Unified! That wasn't nice at all!" Scolded Fluttershy with an angry frown.

"Sorry mom, we thought that we could do the same as spike." They said head low.

"Hum... you might want to leave." Suggested Spike looking at Twilight.

The purple unicorn looked like she was about to explode. They all started to back away and Rainbow took the initiative.

"Well... see ya!" She said before flying out at great speed.

"Don't think you're not going to get punished." Fluttershy said as she picked up Unified who flinched at her words before darting out of the library quickly followed by Spike.

They were barely out that a purple explosion shook the library, bright to the point to almost blind those looking at it, and a shock-wave spread through the air.

"MY BOOK!" Yelled Twilight in what was an almost perfect imitation of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

Author's Note:

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry it took so long to have this chapter out but I'm really not having a lot of time right now to keep writing. Don't worry the story still have a good number of chapters planned so it won't stop anytime soon but it's just going to take more time to have the chapters out. I want to do a hearthwarming chapter but I realize that it won't be possible in the storyline or only at a side story like the Nightmare Night special.

Tell me if that would be okay.

Have a great day/night!