A few years have passed and Philomena wonders about her family.
It has been about 6 years now since Philomena came back home from running away. When she see's birds with their families in the trees she wonders where her family has gone and goes on an adventure to find them, but comes home to find a tragedy.
Philomena sat on the little stand that Celestia had made for her after coming home from running away.
She was watching Celestia do her paperwork when she heard something outside. She turned to look out of the window and saw a mother bird flying with her chicks. As they flew out of sight she began to grow sad. She had often wondered what had happened to her family. All she knew was Celestia found her and rescued her from dragons as an egg. She didn't know anything about her parents or possible siblings. After a moment of thought She flew over to Celestia and perched on the table beside her.
"Celestia, could I ask you something...?" she chirped.
Celestia put the paper she was writing on down and looked at her sad phoenix.
"Is something wrong, Philomena?" she asked.
"What happened to my family?"
Celestia sat there in silence for a moment. Philomena waited patiently.
"I don't really know, Philomena..." Celestia sighed, breaking the silence. "All I know is you were in front of me as an egg and there were dragons chasing you."
"I remember walking back from exploring the forest and getting some air." Celestia sighed. "I had felt an object landing on my head before landing on the ground."
Philomena looked at Celestia with interest.
"As soon as I picked it up, I heard a roar." she continued. "I turned around and found dragons chasing me. I held on tight to you, and ran for my life."
"What happened next?" Philomena chirped.
"I tried to shoot at the dragons with my magic, but missed at first. Out of instinct, I shot another beam, causing them to fly into the air."
Philomena chuckled, imagining the dragons flailing into the air.
"I continued walking home. Right when I opened the door, I grabbed a pillow and put you on top of it. I turned around about to walk away, but then I heard a cracking sound. I turned back and found you, you where the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I picked you up in my hooves, and fell in love with you right away."
Philomena looked at the floor.
"What do you think happened to the dragons?" she asked.
"I don't know. They probably ran off." Celestia sighed.
Philomena stared at the floor more.
"Why don't you go and get some air?" Celestia asked. "Go clear your head. We can talk more later."
"Sure."
She flew to the window, but stopped for another question.
"Remind me again how long it has been since you found me?" she asked.
"Almost 6 years ago, why?"
"Just wondering."
Philomena flew out of the open window. She knew where she was going to go.
Philomena flew by her family's old nest. Celestia had shown it to her on one of their flies together.
She then flew into the nearby cave before hearing a loud snore. She perched on a rock to think for a moment.
"I need to know..." she thought.
She slowly walked into the cave.
The cave was dark and cold. Due to the low visibility she eventually bumped into something.
She looked up to find a pair of glowing eyes opening. It stood up. She noticed other eyes opening and standing up. They blew a small flame to put in some light into the cave.
"What are you doing here?" a deep voice asked.
Philomena quickly came to the realization that she was in the presence of dragons.
"I asked you a question, phoenix." the voice boomed.
Philomena gulped, trying to show no fear.
"I came to ask you dragons a question." she chirped. "Around 6 years ago, you tried to take an egg from an alicorn. What did you do with the other phoenixes?"
"Why should we waste our time on this phoenix?" Another dragon growled.
"What did you do with them!" Philomena yelled. "What did you do with my family!?" She glared at the dragons who stared at her in silence. "Tell me!"
The dragons, surprisingly, showed fear in the face of the little bird.
"Tell me now!"
"We don't know!" A smaller dragon replied, fear causing his voice to quiver.
"We were hiding in the bushes. But Zolor here couldn't stop moving his tail." The dragon muttered.
"I have a twitchy tail, you know that!" Zolor growled.
"Shut it, Zolor!" the first dragon yelled. "As I was saying, the phoenixes heard us. So they flew out at us and attacked. One flew into the sky, and created a beam of light to try to blind us, and then flew away with the other one."
"Still, the bush wasn't my fault." Zolor mumbled.
The dragon ignored him and continued.
"We couldn't find any of the eggs in the nest, so we looked around to see if any had fallen out. We then saw that filly holding one. So we chased her."
But she hit me with a blast before I could get close and I bumped into everybody, causing us all to fall to the ground."
"We haven't seen her since."
Philomena stared at the ground and thought for a moment.
"Do you know where they went?" she asked.
"No."
"Thank you for telling me."
Philomena flew out of the cave, leaving a gem behind.
The dragons cautiously took it, and added it to their stash.
Philomena flew into the night. After some thought on where to start she entered the Everfree Forest. She wouldn't stop until she finally found her family. She had spent a few hours flying. Her wings grew tired. She was resting on a tree branch when she heard some chirping in the distance. Her hopes raising, she followed the sound.
She saw a small flock of phoenixes. She felt like she knew them.
She noticed that they were speaking with one another. It took a few minute but she finally got enough confidence to speak to them.
"Um, hello?" she chirped.
The phoenixes turned to face her. One gasped.
"Could it be...?" it whispered.
She walked up to Philomena, who stared back in confusion.
"Sister?"
Philomena stood there in shock.
"Is it you...?" the phoenix asked.
"What happened to your missing sister?" Philomena asked, her heart racing.
"We lost her when she fell out of the nest."
"It's you! I've been searching for you all day!" Philomena chirped. "Where's mom and dad?"
Philomena's sister hung her head.
"We don't know what happened to dad. He disappeared after what had happened. He saved us, but left once we were safe."
Philomena stood silently, processing the new knowledge.
They heard a squawk in the distance.
"Mother!" Philomena cried.
The new phoenix's face immediately brightened as she came closer to the duo.
She walked up to her and embraced her.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"Princess Celestia found me and took me in."
Philomena was truly happy to find her family, but she remembered that her sister had said about her father.
"I suppose you should know..." Philomena's mother said after a moments thought.
"I was sitting in the nest, watching over the eggs and your father arrived. I was happy to see him but we heard something in the bushes. It didn't take much for us to come to the conclusion that it was dragons. We left the nest to go take care of them and I suppose that's when we lost you. We didn't notice. I was over at the dragons trying to get them away but it wasn't working, noticing this, your father flew into the sky and shone a bright beam light, and told me to take the eggs. I noticed that while I was about to pick them up, they had hatched, so I told your father I would need assistance on carrying them. I picked up half and your father picked up the rest. We flew away."
"Then mom realized that you fell out of the nest and so dad went back for you." her sister finished.
"We haven't seen him since."
Philomena's sister hugged her mother.
"I'm sorry about dad..." Philomena sighed. "But I came to find you guys so maybe I could find him. WE could find him."
"It's been 6 years, sis. I don't think we could do it."
"I found you guys after all this time, I'm sure we can find him aswell." Philomena chirped.
