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
After losing his last relative, Will is stuck in despair and sadness, only wishing to have a new family. And he's getting one, one that will never leave him. His wish granted and ready for a new start, Will is purged from the sadness of his old life by accepting to lose some of his memories and is no longer human, in a strange new land with two brothers that will never leave him alone. Literally.
How everyone is affected by anything is perceived differently for each individual. It's not a rule nor is it a fact, it simply is.
For Will Kelly, watching the very last member of his family being buried before his very eyes was nothing comparable to a good moment. Of course it's never easy to have to lose someone that you are close to, a friend, a sibling, a parent and everyone deal with this differently.
Some people have the luxury to have someone to comfort them in their loss, others are strong enough to deal with it alone. Will wasn't one of them. His friends were still there but they weren't very close, he didn't see them as much as he would like to and his last relative, his younger sister Emily, was now being covered by dirt silently dropped on her coffin at the familial grave.
Before her he saw both of his parents die in a car crash not even three months ago and now it was his sister fighting against an incurable cancer that was taken from him. His family was very small, no cousins due to his parents both being single children and no more grandparents, making him alone.
And right now that how Will felt. Alone. Completely alone despise the priest, the funeral directors and the few friends of her sister and a rare of his, already leaving the grave in silence as the grave was sealed again. He didn't move or rather he couldn't, he stayed here to watch all his family resting before him as he was stuck in his thin black coat, not noticing the sky getting grey.
"You should be here with me" He said with an emotionless voice.
He didn't even felt capable of emotion, because he knew that if he did he couldn't bare the weight of all that happened in such a short time. At barely twenty-five years old, with a normal life and a few projects in head, nothing should have broken his life but it did, and now he didn't felt capable to keep moving without his family.
So he remained here. For how long? He didn't know but when he finally started to come back to reality he realized that he was soaking wet, his coat shinning with the drops and his hairs now messy with the weight of water.
It was like the tears he couldn't let go right now. He cried so much with his sister at their parents funerals, he didn't got the time to get new tears for losing his sister.
"Why?" He simply asked to no one.
There was no answer. Many tried before to comfort him, saying 'that's life, sometimes shit happens' or 'I know it's hard but you need to keep going' but now he wondered why should continue. He was alone; sure his friends were here but he couldn't talk with them like he did with his family and right now he would have needed the familial love, the one that keeps pushing you forward no matter what and that powers you to accomplish anything.
What was he supposed to do without them? Who could share his childhood memories like his family? What could he do now?
"I miss you... I miss you so much" He said kneeling to be closer to the grave, looking at the fresh new name that had just been added next to his parents, surrounded by a few flowers that were the only source of color in this black and grey cemetery.
"Will? Are you alright?" Asked a voice to his left.
He looked around to meet the sad eyes of Merry, one of Emily's friends covered by a black umbrella. With a heavy weight on his heart, he stood up and starred in her eyes, seing the reflection of his lifeless ones.
"Where else should I go? They are all here. My family is here" He replied.
"And they will always be, you can come anytime to visit them but you should really go back to your house. It's not healthy to stray three hours in the rain. I know it must be incredibly hard but it won't do you any good to stay here all day" She advised by slowly taking him toward the exit of the cemetery.
He turned around to see his family's grave one last time today, completely unsure of what he would do next. Would he come back tomorrow? Later? Or maybe never if the pain grew to be too hard?
With a heavy sight, Will managed to turn his head and look toward the gates. Each step he made was like stretching an elastic, losing the only bond of his family with the distance making it harder and harder until he finally reached the exit, gently pushed by Merry.
"Do you want me to call a taxi for you? I'm gonna be honest I don't think your in condition to walk back home like that" Offered Merry.
"Yes. Yes it wouldn't" He replied not really listening to her, stuck in his blank mind.
"Okay, I'll stay with you until he arrives."
She pulled her phone and called a taxi while he looked straight in front of him, at the small street with a few cars parked around, the old walls of the few houses on the other side and the rain still falling around, washing his face constantly until Merry put her umbrella above his head.
Not a word was exchanged for the whole ten minutes it took for a taxi to arrive, it would have been too awkward and meaningless to talk seeing how unresponsive Will was. Merry told the taxi driver the address of Will's house and gave him enough money for the ride, standing next to the car.
"Try to relax a bit and... take your time. Things like that are never easy to deal with. Emily told me how hard it was for the both of you after the accident, I can't imagine how hard it is for you now but you need to be strong alright? I'll come see you shortly okay? Just to make sure everything's fine" She said with a great sadness in her voice before moving back.
The driver took it as his signal to start and restarted his engine, slowly getting out of the street adjacent to the cemetery. The man looked at Will through his mirrors with a sympathetic look, one that Will didn't noticed as he was too lost to even realize what was going on around him.
"So... I know it's not the best time to say something but I can't help it, how are you holding on?" Asked the driver with a genuinely concerned voice.
"..."
"Yeah I thought as much."
They kept going for a few minutes, driving on the small roads toward Will's home, the sound of the rain falling on the windshield and the roars of the engine filling the silence.
"Lost a member of your family?" Tried again the driver.
"The last one" Will managed to say still emotionless.
"Ah... I know what it's like. I had a daughter, a wife and a brother long ago. They are dead since long now, wasn't easy but I made it through."
"How?"
"Simple: I changed everything. I moved away, took a new identity, created a new family here and changed all of my beliefs. It took some time but I finally accepted that there are things simply meant to happen, that you can't change no matter what you do."
"I'm not sure if that's what I want" Said Will after a short break of silence.
He couldn't simply turn away and forget everything. How this man did it? He couldn't even start to understand and his mind was running too slowly to think about this kind of idea.
"Then what if fate was to help you a little bit? What if fate would give you another chance with a new family? Would you take it?" Suddenly asked the taxi driver.
"I- Maybe. Honestly it might be a bit to simple but... if I could restart, I'd like a family that I would be sure to never leave my side."
The taxi brutally came to a stop, the wheels screeching on the road for a few seconds, shaking Will thankfully attached with his belt. The driver cut off the engine and turned toward him with a very serious face.
"Listen kid, I can offer you that. Believe me or not, trust me or not it's not my problem but I can offer you a new life, far away from here and with that family that you are looking for."
That was crazy. Would Will have been in better condition he would have questioned that man but right now, that surreal offer looked really appealing. He had nothing to lose left, no family waiting for him and there he was offered to have all of that again. But even like this he wasn't sure he could forget about his real family, it was impossible to forget everything that simply and just move on, it wasn't like him.
"Looks nice, but I don't think I can forget my family just like that" He replied.
"Memories huh, so what if I say that I can remove all the memories of your previous family? I know it's not very respectful and all but if it can help you to keep going faster then I can do it" Said the driver taking a few notes on a notepad.
"Then... I think I'd like to accept. No memories of my family, in fact just remove everything it'll be easier like that." He accepted.
"Mmh. So what will be your new name?"
"New name?"
"A new life calls for a new name, what will it be?"
"I- does it matters if it's not really a common name?"
"I'm sending you somewhere where your current name would be the strange one, pick whatever you want."
"Then I'd like to call myself Sage."
"Great! Just to be sure, you're ready to do this right? I'm telling you that cause there's no going back, once it's done you won't be able to come back." The taxi driver wished to confirmed.
"Yeah, I could really use a new start."
"Your the boss, for once fate is truly in your hands. Or rather before your eyes" Said the driver putting down his notepad before looking straight into Will's eyes.
"It means?"
"It means good luck Sage. Know that for once fate was on your side, I'm sorry everything turned out so bad but when I saw you I thought that you deserved a little push from fate. We'll meet again I'm sure of that, enjoy your new life".
Will was about to reply when his vision started to turn black and he felt himself falling on the backseats, losing consciousness and all links with reality.
"Maybe I should do that more often" Said the taxi driver looking at the now empty backseats, restarting his engine before driving away under the rain.
Sage woke up in darkness, he couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not but it was absolute darkness. How long had he been here he had no idea. At least he felt warm, like if he was surrounded by hot water without need to breathe, he tried to move a bit but all his limbs touched what something looked like to be a wall.
Maybe he should be panicking right now but he didn't felt threatened or anything, it was even relaxing so he just stopped moving and let his body experience the warmth he was bathed it.
'Is it me or is it getting cold?' Sage wondered feeling a disturbance around him.
Fluttershy, a yellow pegasus pony with a pink mane and tail along with a cutie mark of several butterflies was in her cottage, preparing herself for a little trip in the Everfree forest. Winter was here already and the Everfree didn't look less scarier when covered in snow, the top of the trees and the ground covered by a layer of whiteness. The house, far from a modest size, was filled with dozens of animals going from mouses and bunnies to birds and even a bear outside despise the fact that he was hibernating in a cave for the winter.
If it wasn't for one very special rabbit she wouldn't have to go in the Everfree but she needed a few plants and it was too cold for him to go out there, he wouldn't be able to go very far so she took it upon herself to go collect all the plants he required.
"Come on Fluttershy, it's only the Everfree forest" She encourage herself, looking at the forest from a window of her cottage.
Putting her saddlebags on her back and a beanie on her head, she open the door and got out before looking at Angel still in the house.
"Don't worry Angel, I'll be back soon."
The white rabbit looked at her with concern before talking in this language that only Fluttershy could understand.
"If you're not back before the night I'll go tell Rainbow Dash" Warned the little rabbit.
"Oh no, it won't take more than a few hours. I'll see you later" She said closing the door.
'At least I hope it will be quick' She thought trotting toward the Everfree forest, leaving the safety of her cottage and all her little animals inside. The dark woods were a bit more illuminated with the snow but it was still that weird forest that was acting by itself, no pegasus to regulate the weather and wild animals with some of them being the scary timberwolves and the manticores. But Fluttershy was ready for this, she did it many times and was always very careful to not end up in a dangerous situation or at least to run away before it turned out like one.
Knowing where she had to go, she followed a precise path in the Everfree that she alone and maybe Zecora the Zebra could know, trotting through the snow and looking around her at all the wildlife leaving here and listening carefully to any noise coming from the weird forest.
For a good hour Fluttershy continued, going forward without any issue before she felt something strange. It was suddenly silent, very silent, too much for being normal. Very careful to not make any noise, she got closer to the bushes and tried to camouflage herself within, a bit of snow falling on her back and wings.
"Don't-t worry Fluttershy, there's nothing to be scared about. It's probably a little, tiny something" She whispered for herself.
She continued more careful and silent than ever before she heard it. A noise very recognizable, like wood scratching on a rock that only one creature could do along with several growls of frustration. Frozen on the spot, Fluttershy listened to where the sounds came from and went deeper in the bushes, a few wigs getting lost in her mane and tail before she arrived on another side of the bushes.
And there it was. A timberwolf, as big and scary as any other in a little clearing. His body made out of wood was creaking with the cold and the wigs and plants usually green looked brown due to the cold of the winter. This told Fluttershy that something was wrong. Timberwolves were not supposed to be here with this cold so the natural question that came to her mind was 'What is a timberwolf doing here?' and the answer soon appeared to her.
The large wooden jaws of the timberwolf were angrily trying to crush and destroy something in his mouth. At first Fluttershy thought it was a rock but the shape and color didn't matched and she almost let out a gasp of shock when she noticed a large red egg stuck in the jaws.
Deep down she knew that timberwolves, despise being scary and dangerous creatures, had to feed themselves too but it always felt wrong to see a predator trying to eat something not even born yet. But she couldn't do anything. She wasn't strong enough to go against a timberwolf and the stare couldn't affect this creatures closer to a living assemblage of plants than a real living being.
But strangely, the timberwolf was struggling to break that egg. It looked like he was using all of his strength on a real rock and his massive teeth only left little scratches all around the egg, making the wooden wolf angrier as he tried to smash the egg on the ground with no success.
Silently, Fluttershy was encouraging the egg from her hideout, looking at the timberwolf that circled around the egg, visibly looking for a crack or a weak point but no, there was nothing he could do to break it. Disappointed in this loss of time and energy, he swept the egg away, sending it to crash somewhere in the bushes, not far from Fluttershy who tried her best to not make a noise. She looked where the egg has been thrown away and at the timberwolf who had enough, leaving the small clearing through the trees.
Fluttershy waited a few minutes, looking where the timberwolf had disappeared before cautiously leaving her bush toward the egg. She spent a few seconds without finding it, a feeling of fear feeling her mind before a little red shape appeared in one white bush, clearly not normal.
Pushing the leaves and twigs away, she grabbed the egg in her right foreleg and pull it away, finally putting her hoof on this poor egg. To her surprise, it felt a bit warm at her contact but now was not the time to ask questions.
"Don't worry, everything is fine now" She said as she warmly hugged the egg.
She put the egg on her bag, carefully placed between her wings and started to go back to her cottage a bit quicker than before.
Only a few minutes passed before she felt her back getting colder so she put a wing on the egg only to feel it getting colder too.
"Oh that's not good. Don't worry, we'll be at my cottage soon" She assured to the egg before speeding up.
Almost running through the woods, looking regularly at the egg if it was still in place, it took her half an hour to come back to the treeline of the Everfree with her cottage not far from her. All this time she listened to the forest finally retrieving its sounds with more light and colors as she was getting closer to the exit. She didn't wasted a second before rushing through the grass and opened the door, immediately going near to the chimney and lightning up the fire with a few logs.
Many of her animals started to gather around as she placed the red egg on a cushion right before the fire. It looked like it was time as it was starting to get too cold for her and she added a little blanket on top of it, leaving an opening to let the fire warm up the shell.
Angel came close to her hoof and climber next to the fire, standing at Fluttershy's eyes level. He looked at her and at the egg a few times before speaking up.
"What is it?"
"It's an egg I found in the Everfree" She casually replied.
"In the Everfree?! Fluttershy it could be a monster's egg!" Angel screamed tapping his paw in frustration.
"Maybe but it doesn't matter. It's not even a baby yet and I couldn't leave it alone. I found it attacked by a timberwolf and even him couldn't break it so I'll make sure to take good care of it".
"And what if it's parents come to pick it up? We don't even know what type of egg it is!" He continued.
"Then I'll give them back their egg. Angel, it doesn't matter what it is right now. If I put him back in the forest it'll be too cold, I won't let any creature die because we don't know what it is, it would be very cruel" She said with a motherly tone.
"*sigh* Well you're right. I won't change your mind on that" He conceded.
"Thank you Angel."
"Did you get my plants?"
"Oh I'm sorry, I completely forgot when I saw the egg and the timberwolf" She apologized.
"What? But what about my special recipe?" He almost yelled.
"I'm sorry Angel but you'll have to wait a bit more. I won't return to the Everfree forest today but I'll make it up to you tomorrow, can you just be a bit more patient about this?"
"You really need to do it tomorrow" Angel said before jumping on the ground, leaving Fluttershy with the egg and the rest of the animals as he went back to his bed.
For anyone else that might have been very rude but Fluttershy was used to the stubborn and bold personality of the little bunny, almost the exact opposite of her shy and silent constant behaviour. Not minding a lot Angel that she knew perfectly able to take care of himself, she refilled a few of the bowls of all the bunnies, mouses, birds and other critters in the warmth of her house before attending to the egg.
She had no idea of what it could be. From the look of it, it was most likely a lizard with all the tiny scales protecting the shell despise the numerous scratches left by the timberwolf. But what kind of lizard? It was a bit too big for a normal one and she never saw an egg of a such a size. She didn't had a single idea of who else she could ask for help as she was the only caretaker for animals in Ponyville. Maybe Twilight would know something thanks to all her books?
"Don't worry, I won't let anyone hurt you" She said petting the egg with her right hoof.
"I need to go ask something to Twilight. Can I ask you to watch over him? That is, if you want to "
A little squeak from Mr Mousey gave her enough confidence to leave the house in tranquillity.
"Thank you, I better get going then"
She put back on her saddlebags and get out while the animals shared many looks, all wondering what kind of egg was left before their eyes.
Sage was still stuck in is infinity of darkness but many things had changed since he first awoke. First, it became cold. Very cold. Without any idea of how much time had passed, he could simply imagine that something was wrong or that it was cold outside but he couldn't guess what.
That is, until he was violently shaken in many directions, hitting the walls of his small prison of darkness and listening to some kind of creature growling outside. He had no idea of what it could be but at least he seemed to be safe in here so he didn't mind the shaking too much.
Then he finally got free for a few minutes before being picked up by something else. This time he heard some kind of voice, he couldn't make out any word as it was muffled but at least it was better than a dangerous predator trying to eat you up. And for several minutes he was left shaking in his prison again but at a much more comfortable rythme until many new noises came to his ears, along with the same voice as before.
And finally since the first time he arrived here he felt warm again. So much that he started to get too comfortable and went back to sleep like many times before all of this, feeling completely safe. Who knows, maybe he was with his family?
Fluttershy took her time to reach Ponyville, walking at her own rythme as she got closer to the town. Outside of the Everfree forest stuck in winter, it had nothing to do here. The pegasus weather team had choose a much different weather and here it was a pretty normal day, sunny with a few clouds above and not much more.
As she walked she even noticed Rainbow Dash sleeping high in the sky on a cloud, her multicolored tail falling a bit in the air as the only indication of her presence. Fluttershy remained silent, she didn't wanted to deprived her good friend of her certainly well deserved sleep so she entered the town where many ponies were going to their own businesses, all of them with a smile on their faces.
"Howdy Fluttershy! Ya here for some apples?" Called a very recognizable voice on her left.
"Oh hello Applejack, how are you doing today?" Replied Fluttershy with a small smile, looking at the orange earthpony with a blond mane and tail and it's stetson hat on her head.
"Good thank ya. Big Mac helped ma to bucked the apples that morning. So, care for an apple?" She asked.
"I don't want to be impolite or anything but, hum, I have a few questions for Twilight if you don't mind" Replied Fluttershy lowering her head and starting to whispering.
"Sure sugarcube, ya can come back anytime."
"Thank you Applejack."
Fluttershy resumed her walk across Ponyville and after a few minutes of trying to avoid everypony else, finally arrived in front of the tree-library of Ponyville where Twilight resided. Very slowly, she opened the door and passed her head between.
"Hello Twilight, I hope I'm not interrupting anything" She said so low that nopony could have heard her.
She entered and silently closed the door behind her, going inside the library where nopony was in sight.
"Twilight? Are you here? I can come back later."
She said it with almost the same intonation but there was one little purple and green dragon with an excellent hearing living with Twilight. Spike got down the stairs, thankfully having heard what Fluttershy said otherwise she was already ready to return to her cottage.
"Oh hi Fluttershy! Are you looking for Twilight?" He happily asked.
"Oh hello Spike. I don't want to disturb but I would, hum, need her help if it's not asking too much" She told him with more confidence.
"She's out seeing Rarity right now but she shouldn't be long. Can I help you find a book?"
"Why yes. I'm looking for a book about eggs."
"Looking for a new recipe?" He tried to guess already going toward some books.
"Hum no, it's because I found an egg in the Everfree forest and I was just wondering if Twilight had a book about eggs. Just to know what it is."
"In the Everfree Forest? Maybe we should wait for Twilight, she will certainly want to hear it from you" Spike assured leaving the books alone.
"If you're sure that- Eep!"
"Spike! I need a book about weaving magic" Called Twilight Sparkle entering the library, scarring Fluttershy at the same time.
"Sure! And Fluttershy wanted to ask you something" Replied the little dragon going toward the books.
"Hi Fluttershy, didn't see you there" Greeted Twilight, passing right next to the yellow mare calming herself.
"Sorry about that. I came to ask if you had a book referencing eggs" Whispered Fluttershy.
"I'm pretty sure we have one. Anything particular?"
"Hum, it's an egg that I found in the Everfree forest and I don't know what it is."
"An- Fluttershy! Why didn't you say so earlier!" Exclaimed herself Twilight with stars in her eyes.
"I- huh- I didn't know you liked eggs so much."
"But what if it's an egg of a new species? Or even if it's one we know, almost nopony was ever able to study an egg from the Everfree forest! I need to see it, do you have it with you?" Asked Twilight already preparing a quill and some parchment.
"I left it at my cottage, it was freezing so I left it close to the fire."
"So what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Twilight said gathering all her equipment in her saddlebags along with two books before going toward the door.
"Twilight, what do I do with your book?" Asked Spike coming with a big book with a needle and some thread around it.
"Can you bring it to Rarity? We have to get going!" She said grabbing Fluttershy and rushing outside.
"Sure, I can do it if it's for Rarity" Spike said closing the door behind him.
A few minutes later, on the way to Fluttershy's cottage, Twilight was asking all the questions in her mind with Fluttershy trying to answer at the best of her abilities and taking notes with her magic.
"So it's strong enough to resist a timberwolf's strength, that's definitely no ordinary egg" Twilight said completely overjoyed.
"Yes and after that, when I brought it home, I noticed it was getting colder so I put it in front of the fire" Added Fluttershy.
"Come on Fluttershy, we need to get there as soon as possible" Said the purple unicorn.
It took another set of minutes before they arrived in front of the cottage. Fluttershy pushed the door and Twilight immediately followed to have her eyes fixed on the big red egg in front of the fire, surrounded by many animals watching over it.
"So let's see what you are".
From a basic observation, the egg was definitely not normal. The color was a first point but the many scales spread all over it were definitely unusual. And it reminded her of one egg that she saw a few years ago, one that she knew very well but it was very unlikely to be of the same species.
"Fluttershy, you're sure it was in the Everfree forest right?"
"Why yes."
"Mmm, we don't know anything about hydra's eggs so it might be one. I don't know of any other creature that could match the look of this egg in the Everfree forest" She said levitating one book from her saddlebag in front of her.
Quickly turning the pages one after the other, she tried to find a similar egg in all those referenced in her book but none were matching the one if front of her. This book was a general reference for all sorts of creatures including some studied in the Everfree forest but no, it reminded her too much of the egg of the little drake living with her since a few years already.
Worried if she might be right, she grabbed her other book and went through it before stopping on the only page with a small similarity with the egg in front of her and her doubts started to transforms into confirmations. And it wasn't a really good sign.
"Fluttershy, I'm not one hundred percent sure but it looks like that what you found is a dragon's egg" She finally said after putting down her book.
"Oh! That's my first time seeing one, is it because it looks like Spike's egg? " She said a bit happier.
Twilight got closer to the egg and gently tapped it with her hoof, shaking it a bit before adding a few lines to her notes with her magic. The shell was now warm enough to be felt in a single touch but it wasn't burning nor did it seemed too hot. If it was indeed a dragon egg then it would explain the heat resistance as well as the scales all around it but it could still be another species.
"Yes mainly, everything seems to point toward a dragon egg. The size is a bit big but we don't really know about dragon's egg so it might be normal, about my leg in height with an extremely resistant shell. Fluttershy this isn't a really good news" Twilight warned.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Wondered the yellow pegasus.
"Dragons are extremely protective of their eggs if what my books says is true, I'm worried that if one of it's parents learn that it's here we might have a serious problem on our hoofs."
"We can just give it back right? Can we?" Asked Fluttershy a bit uncertain now.
"At least we can try. But if a timberwolf managed to get it's teeth on it then maybe it was left unprotected. There's too much variables, keeping it here might be more harmful than anything else. I think I'll have to contact Princess Celestia about it, she took care of Spike's egg before me so she probably knows more than us about it and I don't see anypony else to counter a dragon's anger."
"But- It's fine to keep it here for now? I'm sure I can take good care of it."
"Well I don't see why not, you're the one who found it and you clearly know what to do already. I'm going back to the library to send a message to Princess Celestia, do you want to keep my book for now?" Offered Twilight.
"If it doesn't bother you of course" kindly replied Fluttershy.
"It doesn't. Please don't hesitate to come see me if anything change, I want to see it when it hatches. I wasn't able to do any research when Spike hatched but now is a chance that I won't let go" Assured the purple unicorn leaving the book on the small table of the leaving room.
"Yes of course. Do you want something to drink before leaving? I have some tea" Suggested Fluttershy.
"It's very kind of you but I might have be out schedule now, I still have some things to do with Rarity as well as sending that letter to Princess Celestia" Replied Twilight walking toward the door.
"Oh. Well in that case I hope you'll get an answer soon."
"Me too. Take care Fluttershy" Said Twilight leaving the cottage.
"Goodbye Twilight" Waved Fluttershy before going back inside.
She looked at the egg still surrounded by many animals all curious but also many looking very worried. They were all smart enough to understand what Twilight said and it didn't ease their thoughts about this egg, let it be of it's nature or the risk of attracting a fully grown and angry dragon looking for it's egg.
"I'm sure there's nothing to be scared about, Twilight said that she will contact Princess Celestia. I'm sure she would have take the egg away if it represented a real danger" She told the animals.
"What if it's really dangerous?" Asked Angel who listened everything.
"Well right not it's not dangerous and it needs a warm place to stay, you don't mind if it's stays here?" Asked Fluttershy.
"Angel is right, it can attract a dragon!" Added a little robin.
"It can but who says that it will? You are all staying here because it's safe, I'm sure it's not that dangerous."
"And what will you do if a dragon shows up to take back it's egg? You think you can just give it back?!" Continued Angel still angry.
"Now mister, there is no need to yell. And yes I think I can give it back, I'm sure his parents will understand that I did my best to protect their egg and I won't change that now" Rectified Fluttershy with a little stricter expression.
A little silence followed her words with many animals returning to their beds with only Angel and a few birds and mouses still looking at the egg doubtfully. Fluttershy understood the fears of her little friends, and it would be lying to say that she wasn't scared at the thought of a big scary dragon coming at her house, but she knew that she couldn't accept to see herself in a mirror if she abandoned this poor little egg just because of what could be inside.
When the night started to fall thanks to Luna's magic, Fluttershy added a little log in the fire for the night, replaced the blanket on the egg and made sure that it wouldn't move before being satisfied.
"Good night everyone, see you tomorrow" Wished them all Fluttershy as she went upstairs.
Inside his egg, Sage woke up feeling still as warm as before. It was a really nice feeling but he still wondered what he was doing here or if he was still supposed to do something in the first place. He was still bathing in his warm liquid that seemed to not be able to drown him, still imprisoned in his cell of four walls with many sounds coming from the outside. This time it was quite silent, with only a few voices around him but he still couldn't understand what it was about.
"What do you think about it?" Asked Angel.
"Well, Fluttershy did say that it should be safe so I think we should trust her" Replied the little robin.
"Agreed. Think about this little egg, no matter what's inside it's only a baby that haven't even seen anything yet and we're already so prone to chase him away. I think it should be fair to leave him a chance" Added a little sparrow.
They all lowered their head in shame, acknowledging the fact that they were not even ready to give an opportunity to an unborn baby. On that note, they all returned to their beds for the night,
Sage just listened to the return of the silence before returning to his sleep, without any idea of what had been said, rocked by the warmth all around him pushing him toward the realm of dreams.
It has been a few days since Fluttershy picked up the red egg and nothing much happened. Twilight sent a letter to Princess Celestia and her reply was to keep an eye on the egg for now and she wouldn't come yet since there was no proof of what was inside.
The Princess also agreed with Twilight's wish to closely observe the egg and so she did. Almost everyday she came to study the red egg and all the other members of the mane six also heard about it at one point so all of them came to see it, even gathered for a tea party in Fluttershy's cottage just to speak about it.
Fluttershy was happy with it, the egg seemed to not have any problem and all her animals had almost changed their thoughts about the egg overnight. And to ease them even more, not a single trace of a dragon appeared, this little egg seemed to have been stolen by the timberwolf or abandoned by it's parents.
Twilight did a lot of research, combining them with her own experience with Spike to be prepared to raise this dragon if it was indeed one. Spike also expressed a lot of interest for the egg, impatient to learn more about his own species and even to teach it to a younger dragon.
But today was a special day.
Fluttershy was running toward Ponyville in the early morning to fulfill her promise, going through the streets and whispering tons of apologies on the way.
"Sorry!" "Please don't mind me!" "My apologize!"
Fluttershy rushed toward the library and stopped right in front of the door before knocking very gently. Her call was answered by Spike not looking very awaken yet.
"Oh hi Fluttershy, is everything alright?" The little dragon asked not used to see her like that.
"Twilight... egg... hatching." Said the yellow pegasus between two breath.
"Oh. Twilight! The egg is hatching!" He called going toward the stairs.
Fluttershy waited for a few seconds before a scream almost send her to the ceiling.
"WHAT?"
Twilight rushed down and grabbed her saddlebags already packed with every thing ready for the hatching along with Spike's lunch, placed Spike on her back and levitate Fluttershy with her as they left the library, all of that in less than three seconds.
"Come on Fluttershy! There's not a second to loose!" She yelled with both joy and excitement.
They got out of Ponyville and Twilight galloped for a few minutes, hanging Fluttershy in the air as Spike was trying his best not to fall with his tiny arms tightly hugging Twilight's neck. She almost burst through the door and stopped right in front of it, opening it just to see that the egg was shaking on it's cushion, the numerous animals of the cottage all looking at it while staying a few meters away.
"This is it!" She said overexcited, dropping Spike and Fluttershy before opening her saddlebags to take her quill and some scrolls of parchment.
Sage woke up with a brand new feeling. It was like if something he had waited for a long time was finally complete, he didn't know how or why but deep down he knew that if he tried, he could get out of his prison. With not much more than his head since he was too restricted to use his limbs, he tried to break the walls containing him.
Surprisingly there was no pain. It was like trying to break something resilient but at the same time very fragile. He tried a second time and he heard someone outside leaving very quickly before the silence resumed.
For a few minutes he tried to break the wall when a lot of noise alerted him that he wasn't alone anymore, with one voice looking far too excited to be a good sign. Pushing a little harder, he finally managed to break his prison and a flash of light entered as he heard distinctly the voices outside for the first time.
"Look! It's breaking the shell!" Said a feminine voice out of his sight.
Happy to finally getting out of here, Sage pushed harder and his head broke through the wall that was apparently his shell. He turned his head around to try to see someone, blinking his eyes a few times as everything was blurry and he felt like he just left a very sticky pool.
"It is a dragon! The head is a bit small though." Said a voice on his right, a purple blur that soon turned out to be some kind of pony with a horn, taking notes at an incredibly fast rate.
"It is, and a very cute one" Added another voice on his right.
He looked to the other side to see a yellow pony with wings and a light pink mane and tail, smiling at him. Just by the few words she said, he knew it was the voice he heard most of the time. Maybe it was his mom?
"Was I like that when I hatched?" Asked a third voice that he didn't recognized.
His head spin around again to see a small purple and green dragon looking at him with wide eyes. He also noticed dozens of animals surrounding him, of all colors and appearances spread in the room.
Sage tried to speak only to realise he never breathed before, taking one deep breath that seemed to burn his lungs as he coughed some kind of liquid.
"You can do it, just a bit more." Encouraged him the yellow pony.
He was about to reply when a shock through the shell stopped him. The three in front of him did the same with wide eyes, waiting for anything to happen until a second crack appeared right next to him with a small red muzzle pointing out.
"There's more than one! You see that Fluttershy?" Exulted the purple pony.
"Yes Twilight. I didn't know that there could be more than one dragon in a single egg" Replied the yellow pony apparently named Fluttershy.
The second crack was pierced wide open as a second head reached the air, gasping and coughing which made Sage cough at the same time.
And then for his biggest surprise, a third crack appeared on his right and the head of a third little dragon appeared in one single push, leaving all of them agape.
"Is this... an hydra?" Asked Spike that couldn't see three dragons fit in one egg.
At this time, the shell started to crack everywhere and crumbled with a tiny bit of liquid and the three heads fell forward like one. This got another gasp from everyone else and it took Sage a few seconds before he realized what happened.
His eyes looked down on his body, first a long neck that reached his red chest. Covered from muzzle to the tip of his tail were hundreds of tiny scales with a crimson color with the exception of under his chin reaching under his belly, a deep blue line was following his entire body until his tail. Two small looking wings were placed on his back and four little legs were supporting the rest of his body even if he couldn't stand up along with four claws on each foot, for now more cute and less threatening than anything else.
But all of this was nothing compared to the two other heads attached to his body, one to his right and one to his left, leaving him at the middle. He looked at his other heads only to notice that they were doing the same, examining themselves too with the same colors and tiny horns on the back on their heads.
"That's..." Said the purple dragon that was at the same level that Sage and the other heads even if the new dragon was on a cushion placed on a little table.
"It looks like a mix between a dragon and a hydra. But it doesn't make any sense!" The horned purple pony said completely lost.
"Aren't you a cutie?" The pony called Fluttershy complimented as she got closer.
Sage turned toward her as the two other heads did the same. The one on the left was simply looking just like him but the one to his right started hissing at the yellow pegasus, making her stop her movements.
"What are you doing? She clearly is our mom!" Interrupted him Sage hissing back at the right head, shocking all the others in the room.
"Who knows? I won't let her take us!" Replied the head with aggressiveness.
"I think we should listen to mom, she seems nice" Advised the left head much calmer and nicer than the right one.
"Yeah, listen to him" Agreed Sage.
"You're both naive to trust the first face before you! It could be a predator!" Continued the right head.
"Don't speak about her like that."
"What? I only see potential predators, we should not let them come closer!"
"That's it!" Hissed Sage before attacking.
Twilight could not have been more shocked. There was three head on a single slender body, similar to a hydra, but with all the other characteristics of a dragon such as the facial expressions, the wings and the overall appearance. But what really broke her was listening to the three heads bickering each other in perfect Equish, arguing if Fluttershy was their mom or not like if it was a normal situation. She also noticed that it seemed to be a male judging by the voices, young but definitely a male.
"That's it!" Said the head of the middle biting the neck of his right head.
A little scream of pain came out of the said head that couldn't replicate, unable to bend it's head enough to attack the middle head.
"Stop guys!" Called the third head.
It has no effect as the middle head kept biting until a little trail of blood appeared. Twilight was simply too shocked to react, looking at the heads fighting. That is, before Fluttershy intervened in a rather explicit manner.
"Stop it! It's not nice to fight between brothers!" The usually calm and silent pegasus almost yelled.
It worked pretty well as all heads stopped and looked at her, looking confused except for the agressive one that was still wary of her.
"Now, apologize to each other" Commanded Fluttershy.
"Sorry mom" Said the heads except the right one.
"You heard her, apologize!" Added the middle head with a different tone, much stronger and commanding.
"I'm sorry!" Instantly said the right head.
"There. Now, I think it's time for some proper introductions. Hello, I'm Fluttershy, it's very nice to see all three of you."
"Are you our mom?" Asked the left head of the dragon.
"Well, hum, not really but right now...I think so. It's been a little while since you've been living here" She said after a short time.
"Mom!" Called the left head stretching his neck toward her before being stopped.
The body didn't moved at all, still laying there with the two other heads.
"It's obvious isn't it? I'm the one in charge" Said the middle head as the wings and legs started to move with difficulty, visibly not really used to move his body.
"Oh don't worry! You have plenty of time to learn that" Comfort them Fluttershy extending her hooves to grab the little three headed dragon.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight tried to stop her.
Too late. Fluttershy grabbed the small body of the dragon in her hooves and hugged it with a great amount of love. The dragon, now fully extended and trying to hang on to her fur without success with it's four sets of claws, wasn't very big or impressive, a bit long but nothing much.
From muzzles to the tip of the tail, he was a bit shorter than the length of Fluttershy's body and on his paws Twilight estimated him to be barely half the height of Spike.
The heads were hugging back Fluttershy even if the right one still looked wary and a bit tense. It suddenly seemed much safer than Twilight thought so she let the hug take it's time until Fluttershy let down the dragon back on the pillow, the body moving without much coordination and the heads all moving at their own will.
It was truly a wonderful creature. A new dragon, possibly from a new species judging it's unusual characteristics. The colors weren't bad, same disposition as Spike but different, no fluffy ears, two very small horns on each head, wings that seemed a bit little and weak to fly. The six eyes were all the sames, golden with slit pupils, again similar to Spike but with a different set of colors.
But what was definitely uncommon was the ability to talk, recognize and to listen just moments after birth. That was a sign of great intelligence even if it seemed the reactions and personalities of the three heads were different for some reason, with the only common point being some childish reactions more appropriate to it's age.
"Hi, I'm Spike" Introduced himself the purple dragon.
"What are you?" Asked the right head still with a bit of venom in his voice.
"Chill. I'm a dragon just like you, a bit older and with one head though."
"Are you our brother?" Asked the left head.
"Huh... more like a cousin I guess?" Replied Spike.
"And I'm Twilight Sparkle, Spike's employer and family" Finally added Twilight, getting the attention of all three heads.
"More family!" Said the central head looking very happy.
From the few moments she spent to observe the strange dragon, Twilight noticed that the main head was indeed the one responsible for the movements of the body and also seemed to have a some degree of control over the other heads.
"Now, It's time to find you a name" Smiled Fluttershy already starting to think about that.
"Better think about three names" Reminded her Spike.
"My name is Sage" Interrupted them the middle head.
"What? You already know you names?" Asked Twilight shocked again.
"No, I just know that my name is Sage."
"He's right, his name is Sage" Added the left head.
"So... only Sage, the middle one, have a name?" Asked Twilight a bit confused.
"That's right" Repeated Sage.
"Finding a name for the right and left head. What about Meanie and Nicey?" Suggested Spike.
"You're not going to call me like that!" Instantly replied the right head.
"He's right Spike, it's not a very nice name. What about, Skaly and..." Suggested Fluttershy.
"I take that!"
"What?"
"Skaly. I'm sure it's hard to find a better name than that" Explained the right head.
"Oh alright. So we have Skaly at the right, Sage at the middle and..." Continued Fluttershy.
"Maybe Rex?" Said Spike.
"Oh I like that!" Agreed the left head.
"Wait what? It's way better than mine!" Complained Skaly.
"I think you have a pretty name" Said Fluttershy.
"Well... since it's our mom saying it, I guess it's not too bad" Agreed Skaly.
"I like those names" Added Sage.
Just as he said that a low rumbled came from the little dragon's stomach, the three heads looking toward their belly before looking at Fluttershy with three pairs of eyes that said everything.
"I guess it's time to eat" Fluttershy smiled, making the three headed dragon smile too.
"That's a great idea Fluttershy but do you have anything to feed a dragon?" Asked Twilight.
"I can share some gems" Generously offered Spike.
"Gems?" Suddenly asked Sage, visibly concerned.
"Well yeah, that's what dragons eat."
"It seems wrong" Said Rex
"Indeed, eating rocks doesn't sound very appealing" Added Skaly, agreeing with his brothers.
"Well what would you like to eat?" Asked Fluttershy.
After a few seconds of consideration, Sage replied unsure "I feel like it should be... milk?"
The two ponies and the little dragon froze, not really certain of what to do. The little dragon seemed to have a certain degree of knowledge of what was good for him or not but it seemed too close to a little pony.
"Excuse-me?" Twilight spoke.
"Milk?" Asked Rex looking at Fluttershy with insistence.
"Oh my." Blushed Fluttershy understanding what the dragon was expecting from her.
"Huh Twilight? What did you gave me when I was born?" Asked Spike thinking that taking his past would be a good idea.
"If I remember right, Spike was able to eat small gems just fine. What makes you think milk is what you need?" Asked Twilight turning to the newborn dragon.
"Don't know" Replied Sage.
"Huh?"
"We don't know. Kinda like a memory but different."
"Like a feeling" Completed Rex.
"Spike, can you share some of your smallest gems please?"
"Sure. Hum, emeralds might be a bit too bitter for now, rubis a bit too hot, a sapphire should be a good introduction" Selected Spike taking a ruby for himself before putting a small sapphire in his claws, right in front of the three heads.
What he didn't expected was for the three heads going for the small gemstone at the same time, resulting in all of them to hit each other before even reaching the sapphire. They let out a small cry of pain before hissing at each other.
"Oh you didn't hurt yourselves didn't you?" Asked Fluttershy petting the head of Rex.
"It's okay, I should have seen it coming" Apologized Spike who took out two other sapphires in his claws.
The three heads all went for their respective treat, catching the gemstones in their tiny teeth. Under the curious eyes of everyone else, they tried to eat the tough gems for a few seconds without success. It almost seemed like it didn't worked until Skaly, getting angry with his sapphire, clenched his teeth with enough strength to break it to finally chew on the gem with more ease.
"Huh. That's actually not bad, quite sweet actually" He said with tiny pieces of gem in his teeth, his brothers trying harder to achieve the same success.
"Now Skaly you shouldn't speak while eating, that's a bit rude" Scold him Fluttershy nicely.
"Sorry mom."
Both Sage and Rex managed to break and eat their sapphires but all three heads, without even sharing a word, felt like something was missing and all looked at Fluttershy.
The shy yellow pegasus didn't know how to react, not particularly shy but not sure of what the dragon was expecting. "Do you want something else?"
"We are thirsty" Simply responded Rex.
The message didn't took more than two seconds to get pass and Fluttershy blushed again at the desire of the young dragon for milk, something that she couldn't provide. At least not like that. "Oh my...hum, that's a bit embarrassing. I'll get you some fresh milk, I have some in my fridge."
Twilight looked at her shy friend go in the kitchen prepare a baby bottle that she probably used for some other animals. It was really lucky for them that Fluttershy was equipped to face any situation for her little animals as well as any that wanted her help. But she was still concerned about the dragon. There was definitely something off, she couldn't explain it but the fact that he was able to talk at birth was a pretty big hint. To her knowledge, there wasn't a single species where the newborn was as voluble as an adult, she wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't witnessed it. She would have to send a letter to Princess Celestia about him. 'Him or them? Its a single dragon with three heads, so it should be them but we can't call all of them or only one at the same time to get all their attention' She thought.
"What would you think about another name?" Twilight suggested.
"Why?" Wondered Sage not ready to change his name.
"It would be a name for all of you, sort of a common name. For exemple, if I want to talk to all of you I'm not going to call all of your three names all the time right? So a more unique name would make that a bit easier."
"That's a very nice idea Twilight. Do you have any suggestions?" Asked Fluttershy from the kitchen, still listening to the conversation.
"It can't be a lame name" Immediately interjected Skaly.
"What about Dreg?" Suggested Rex.
"That's lame."
"Aw."
"I think it should be a name that symbolise all three of you, one that is both easy to associate with you and easy to remember" Explained Twilight.
"What about Together?" Recommended Spike.
"No" Replied all of the heads.
"Something of the same type... maybe something like All-for-one?" Offered Twilight.
Rex seemed interested for some reason but the two other heads shook in disapproval.
"Hum... what do you think about Unified?" Wondered Fluttershy coming back with three baby bottles filled with milk.
"That's... not too bad" Agreed Skaly.
"I agree, it fits us" Added Sage.
"If my brothers are happy with it then it's good for me!" Joyfully accepted Rex.
"Then Unified it is. So, Unified, would you like some milk?" Fluttershy said with a smile, the three bottles in her right foreleg.
"Yes!" They answered.
"Alright. Spike, would you mind warming up these?" She asked to the purple dragon.
"Sure!" He said grabbing all three of them in his claws before letting a small breath of green flames run on the bottles for a few seconds. With an expert knowledge of his flames and cooking, he stopped right before it became too hot for Unified and handled the bottles back to Fluttershy. "Here you go."
"Thanks Spike. Now be careful and don't go too fast" Fluttershy advised placing a baby bottle on the cushion in front of each head.
Skaly, Sage and Rex quickly went for the bottles and began to greedily suck the milk inside. Twilight had so many questions in her mind just by looking at Unified. Let it be about it's very unusual appearance or it's extremely high intelligence and who knows, maybe he knew more about dragons than Spike even if it was unlikely.
She usually wouldn't expect much from a newborn but this was too different to be ignored. How was he drinking from three mouths at the same time? Did he had a single stomach or three? She quickly got an answer when Unified stopped drinking as not even half of the bottles were empty.
"Are you alright?" Asked Fluttershy.
"Mhm" Let out Sage resting his head on the cushion.
"It was good" Said Skaly joining Sage.
*Yawn* was all that came from Rex, also mimicking his brothers and already closing his eyes.
"I guess despise Unified unusual appearance, he is still a newborn" Admitted the purple unicorn.
"The poor dear must be very tired" Giggled Fluttershy petting all three heads one after the other.
"So Fluttershy, now that we know who was inside that egg, do you still want Unified to stay here?" Had to ask Twilight.
"Of course! Hum... that is, if you don't mind" The shy yellow pegasus replied after a little outburst.
"No it's alright, I was expecting you to accept. Do you want him to sleep here or somewhere else?"
"I could prepare a better bed for him. Oh and I need to bathe him now, I don't think they'll like to be sticky in the morning because of those eggshells."
"Sure. I'll do that while with Spike and you can take care of the bath."
Twilight levitated Unified with her magic without him noticing, apparently all three heads were already asleep, and followed Fluttershy to the tub before gently placing him on the metal. She then went back to help Spike prepare the new bed and get rid of the eggshell's fragments.
With great care, Fluttershy placed the three heads on the edge of the bathtub and turned on the hot water, pouring quickly inside. A little jolt went through Unified's heads and they opened their eyes in surprise before instantly relaxing with the very pleasant feeling of warm water on their scales.
Once it was full enough to cover the whole body except the heads, Fluttershy started to brush Unified to cleaned him of all the little fragments of eggshell still stuck to him. It didn't took long but she made sure to thoroughly wash him, not forgetting any part and leaving the heads for last.
It was a bit trickier but she managed to pour a bit of water on each head and use her brush to clean them one by one, giving her the surprise to hear them purr when she was scratching behind the horns.
Once she was done, she pulled Unified out of the water and quickly dried him with a towel before going back down, the little dragon barely awake and waiting to finally be sure to be in bed to not be disturbed anymore. Thankfully Twilight and Spike made a quick job of their task and a small bed consisting of a large cushion and a blanket was nicely disposed on the couch.
"Both of you made a great job, I'm sure it will be perfect" Compliment them Fluttershy, placing the little dragon on the cushion as he tried to move around without success, his limbs not very responsive yet.
She spread the blanket nicely and all that was left was three heads asleep and breathing silently. For the two ponies and Spike, it was quite a cute sight that finished to erase all their fears of Unified.
"Well Fluttershy we won't disturb you much longer. I'm sure you have a lot to do so I'll come back tomorrow, maybe I'll ask Unified if he knows why he is so knowledgeable" Said Twilight collecting her notes and equipment.
"Are you sure? I have some tea" Offered Fluttershy.
"It's okay, I'll take it tomorrow. Have a good day!" She said putting Spike on her back.
"Bye Fluttershy!" Waved Spike.
"See you later" Replied the shy pegasus incapable to speak louder.
She returned to her cottage to see almost all her animals gathered around Unified. Fluttershy was a bit worried but she quickly noticed that there was no bad intentions toward the young dragon, only curiosity, kindness toward a newborn, and a bit of doubt.
"It is very kind from all of you to watch over him but it would be best to let him sleep. Babies needs to sleep a lot" She gently asked from her little friends who returned to their own occupations, letting Unified sleep on the couch, visibly exhausted by their short encounter.
Fluttershy was still in her house, occupied to feed and take care of all her animals and check on Unified, maybe more than necessary but she couldn't help it. He was a newborn after all. He had been asleep since he hatched in the morning and it was already noon. Fluttershy would have loved to keep watching him at all times but she had to go help Applejack to deal with some annoying vermin in her orchard.
"Could I ask you to keep an eye on Unified? I'll try not to be too long but I'm sure he'll be happy to have some company if I'm not back" She asked to all the animals present in her house.
"Don't worry, he won't go anywhere" Assured the little bunny Angel puffing out his chest.
"Oh I'm sure it'll be fine, he is too young to move."
"You can go easy, we will take care of him" Said a little sparrow with red wings flying right in front of her.
"Thank you very much Brightwing. I'll see all of you later" Fluttershy said before leaving, closing the door behind her.
The many animals gathered around the sleeping dragon. They had all agreed to give him a chance before judging him so they would let him stay here as long as he behaved. Most had been convinced by Unified attitude despise many having concerns for the right head of the dragon named Skaly, more agressive than the other heads.
After five minutes they all separated and went outside or just to do something else but both Angel and Brightwing choose to remain around the dragon and each with a different reason.
"Do you think he'll be hungry when he will wake up?" Asked the sparrow in a whisper.
"Maybe but it doesn't matter right? There's no gems for him here so he'll have to wait." Replied Angel a bit harshly.
"Can't you be a bit more tolerant? He's just a baby."
"A baby that speaks! That's not normal, I don't think we should trust him too much."
"Keep it down, we don't want to wake him up!" Brightwing scolded him.
"Pshh relax. He's a dragon just like Spike, it means he can't understand us."
"We can hear you." Said a groggy voice on the cushion.
The duo of animals looked at the dragon to see that Skaly was awake and visibly not very happy.
"You understand what we say?" Asked Angel in disbelief.
"Yeah? Is it that weird?"
"What are you talking about?" Sage said also waking up, raising his neck and forcing Rex to wake up too.
"The fact that you can understand us perfectly but still speaking in Equish. Before you I've never heard of a dragon understanding our language but don't worry, it's just a little surprising. Nothing to worry about." Reassured him Brightwing.
"Guys? Where's mom?" Asked Rex suddenly very aware of his surroundings, looking around frenetically.
"Oh no." Sighed Skaly already knowing what was coming.
"Mom?" Called Sage starting to panic.
"MOM!" Screamed Rex.
As no answer came, both him and Sage started to call for her with great screams and big tears, completely panicking.
"Mom where are you?" They both cried.
"Oh both of you are just crybabies! She probably just left to do... something, just stop crying!" Admonished Skaly getting angry at them, yelling for a different reason.
"Rex, Sage, calm down. Fluttershy just left to help Applejack, she will be back soon alright?" Tried to calm them Brightwing much more nicely than Skaly.
"Could you just stop crying?! You two are way too loud!" Added Angel.
"Angel you're really not helping right now."
"Mom!" They kept crying while Skaly was literally shaking his head angrily, incapable to stop the cries to enter his ears as he tried to go under the cushion without success.
"I swear you two are completely useless!"
What none of the three heads realized what that their cries attracting all the animals of the house, birds flying above them and landing on the beams above the dragon. The many mouses, bunnies and other critters gathering around Unified. When a ferret showed in front of them, Skaly finally noticed their presence and he did not appreciate that.
"Get back!" He hissed furiously as the two other heads kept crying.
"Unified, you need to calm down. Everything is alright, no one is here to hurt you, we are all your friends." Tried to calm them Brightwing.
"Don't come closer!" Continued Skaly.
All the animals stopped except for Brightwing who get getting closer very slowly, watching Skaly growling and not leaving her out of his sight. Carefully, she landed in front on Unified and tried to get the attention of the three heads.
"Rex, Sage, there is nothing to be sad about. Yes Fluttershy isn't here right now but she will come back very soon, you just need to be a bit more patient." Continued the sparrow, getting the attention of Sage.
"But m-mom, *sniff*, mom isn't here."
"Flutt- Mom didn't left you. She had to go help her friend Applejack, just because she is not here doesn't mean she won't come back right? Look around you, we all live with Fluttershy because she is a good friend and take good care of us. Do you think I would lie about that? That she would leave all of us?"
"N-no but-" Tried Rex still sobbing heavily.
"No but. She will come back, you just need to wait a bit. Do you think you can do that?" Brightwing asked with a genuine smile, just a bit more stern than before.
"Promise?" Both Rex and Sage asked, slowly stopping their tears.
"Yes, I promise."
"Well that's a relief. I swear Fluttershy never had such a baby in years." Said Angel getting closer.
"Be careful of who you call 'baby', little bunny." Growled Skaly.
"You're not that much taller than me so don't call me little. And you are a baby, a loud one too."
The two kept starring at each other for a few seconds before the sounds of hoofs trotting nearby were heard. Forgetting all the other animals around him, all the heads of Unified looked toward the door with an extreme anticipation until it finally opened. But it was quickly turned into a little deception as a purple unicorn wearing a saddlebag entered.
"Fluttershy? Are you here? I got some gems for you." Twilight happily said.
Her eyes quickly looked around Unified and she lost her smile, worried as why two of his heads had clearly been crying and looking at the dragon surrounded by animals.
"Is everything alright?" She asked, closing the door before coming closer.
"Aunti Twilight, do you know where is mom?" Asked Sage.
"Aunti? I'm not- *sigh*. No I'm sorry, I thought she would be here." Answered Twilight taken aback by how the dragon was seeing her.
"The little bird told us that she was helping Applejack." Replied Skaly calm again, relaxed by the presence of the unicorn.
"Oh that's great, I'm sure she won't be long."
Right after she said that, Twilight froze. It was another mystery, or an abnormality, that she couldn't understand. The fact that Unified could speak Equish was already shocking enough but for him to also be able to comprehend the animals language didn't made any sense. She looked at him with wide eyes as the three heads were getting uncomfortable by her reaction.
"Twilight? Are you alright?" Asked Rex.
"She isn't." Replied Skaly.
"Maybe she's sick?" Suggested Sage.
The small conversation was just enough to bring back Twilight who shook her head before addressing the dragon again.
"Huh Unified? Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"
"Sure! I love games!" Said Rex.
"Right. First, how do you know how to speak?"
"Why not?" Answered Sage.
She did not expected that. Of all the answers he could have gave her he just stated the obvious. But maybe that wasn't the right way to do.
"Yes but babies aren't supposed to talk right after birth right? Do you know why you can when nopony else can?"
"Huh..." Rex had no idea of what he could say so he looked at his brothers.
"Don't look at me, I don't know that either!" Avoided Skaly.
"I think I know but I can't describe it. It's like it's there but was already there before." Answered Sage as he looked to focus a lot, eyes closed tightly and with an uncertain voice.
"Before? Do you know before what?" Continued Twilight feeling that she was on the right track, her magic writing notes on a piece of parchment she took out of her saddlebag. She wouldn't admit it but she came here more to satisfy her curiosity than bringing the gems.
"No. It's like I always knew that." He finally replied, giving up as he couldn't remember or know anything else that could explain that.
"Too bad. I suppose it's the same with how you can understand animals?"
"You can't?" Asked Rex surprised.
"Well no, only Fluttershy can thanks to her cutie mark." Explained Twilight.
"Cutie Mark? What's that?" Asked Sage.
"Here." She said showing her flank, showing a mark representing a purple star surrounded by white ones. "My cutie mark represent my talent with magic while Fluttershy's represent her kindness and talent for animals."
"Incoming!" Somepony screamed outside.
Not a second after that shout a blue pegasus crashed into the cottage, passing right in the open door and right next to Twilight before landing on the ground brutally, slowing down with her hoofs before hitting the wall. Unified's reaction was of surprise before growling, Skaly apparently still extremely wary of everypony. Standing up with a groan, pushing aside her rainbow mane, the pegasus looked around excited before noticing Twilight.
"Hey Twilight! Have you seen Fluttershy?" Said Rainbow Dash.
"Apparently helping Applejack. What are you doing here?"
"Well it started because Pinkie told me that there was somepony new in town so we went to see Rarity. After that we choose to pick up Fluttershy but I didn't expected you to be here." Explained Rainbow Dash.
"Wait did you just said us?" Asked Twilight with a bad feeling.
Just after she said that, and just to prove her right, a pink glow passed before her and went through all the animals around Unified without even touching a single one. Twilight couldn't do anything as Pinkie Pie rushed before Unified and grabbed all the shocked three heads with her forelegs, a massive smile on her face before a torrent of words flowed out of her mouth.
"Ohmyyouresocute! My name is Pinkie Pie! I knew somepony new, or rather somedragon, was in town! I felt it this morning but it was weird, it was like if you were already here since a while but not here! That's crazy! And then I remembered the little egg! Do you like cakes? What's your favorite flavour? Apple? Chocolate or vanilla?"
Unified was too shocked by the large amount of words and the suddenness of the situation to properly reply but one head acted on pure instinct. Skaly lunged forward and chew Pinkie's mane furiously as his teeth went through the hairs without knowing what it was.
"Oh silly dragon, you can't eat that! Gummy do the same all the time but it's not good. Here! Have some cake!" Replied Pinkie pie taking a small cake out of her mane, forcing Skaly to stop his assault as all three heads were looking at the cake.
No need to say that it didn't took more for them to dig in, ferociously attacking the cake.
"Wait. That's the egg? A dragon with three heads? That's so cool!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash not shocked by Pinkie's behaviour and flying above Unified.
"Pinkie leave the poor dear alone, he's just a baby. I'm sure he can't even understand you and you clearly frightened him. And now look at your mane!" Rarity said, already at the door as she came along with Pinkie.
"Well I'm sure she won't mind right pinkie? And could you just move back a bit? I'm sure they would enjoy a bit more space." Twilight called the pink earth pony.
"Okey dokey lokey!" Cheered Pinkie before jumping away.
"Is everything alright?" An almost inaudible voice asked at the door.
Right there stood Fluttershy not very confident and visibly quite worried followed by Applejack, both of them surprised to see the rest of their friends in Fluttershy's cottage. Unified however didn't seemed to notice as all three heads were still inside the cake.
"It's because I felt that there was somepony new in town!" Explained Pinkie before Twilight could even speak.
"Oh. That's very nice of you to think about it Pinkie." Thanked Fluttershy flying toward Unified, landing next to him and petting his necks and forcing all the animals to walk back a bit, leaving more space for the mares.
All heads suddenly got out, face and lips bathed in cake, to see who dared to pet them before seeing the warm smile that Fluttershy was giving them.
"Mom!" All three cheered, hugging and muzzling her, leaving a few trails of cake on her clean fur.
"Mom?!" Asked all the other mares except Twilight.
"Yes. Girls, let me introduce you Unified. So...huh... it's a bit weird but there is Skaly, Sage and Rex." Explained Fluttershy with her small gentle voice and pointing at each head accordingly with it's name. "They all have a name and their shared name is Unified."
"So... mind explaining why he- they called you mom?" Asked Rainbow Dash.
"Well it was a bit unexpected but considering that I kept watching on them for a few weeks I think it's not wrong."
"Mom who are they?" Asked Rex.
"They're my friends. There is Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack. Along with Twilight and myself, we are the Elements of Harmony." Answered Fluttershy.
"Howdy partner!" Greeted Applejack swiftly bowing her hat.
"Nice to meet you darling, the pleasure is all mine. Even if some manners could help." Continued Rarity looking at the spots of cake in Fluttershy's coat with a slight disgust.
"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer of all Equestria and futur member of the Wonderbolts!" Proudly stated Rainbow puffing out her chest.
"And I'm Pinkie Pie but you already know that!" Finished the over-excited pony.
"They are like Twilight?" Wondered Rex.
"Well yes, they're my best friends." Assured Fluttershy.
"That's four more aunts!" Rejoiced the head, not a single mark of the tears left.
"Yeah I know!" Sage agreed also suddenly overjoyed.
"How can you two be so happy after crying and whining like babies?" Asked Skaly still annoyed at how his brothers were far too emotive.
"Cry?" Asked Fluttershy suddenly very worried.
"I think I can explain." Intervened Twilight taking a step forward. "When I arrived I saw that both Rex and Sage were crying all their tears and it seemed to have been the case for a little time already. It turns out that when they woke up, not seeing you anywhere made them afraid. I had to explain that you were occupied helping Applejack and that you didn't abandoned them but your animals had already started to ease their fears. To resume, they simply were sad to not see you when they woke up."
"Oh Unified, I am so sorry." Hugged him Fluttershy right after Twilight finished her explanations. "You don't have to be sad or to worry about anything, I will never abandon you. I may not be always near you, but I will always be here if you need me."
"It's okay mom, we're sorry too." Nuzzled her back Rex.
"Well it's not that I don't want to stay but I need to get back to my boutique, I promised Sweety Belle to help her with her homework." Announced Rarity.
"Ah think I could do the same for Applebloom but ah need to help Bic Mac finish bucking the fields." Agreed Applejack.
"Well... you're a cool little dude but- I- I also have some cool stuff to do." Said Rainbow Dash only managing to convinced Unified.
"Oh! Oh! I need to make more cakes! I'm not supposed to be on break!" Jumped Pinkie before running out of the cottage.
"I guess I'll take my leave too, I got some answers from Unified. I believe there is much more to discover about him. Oh and here are some gems for him, Spike made sure that they were of suitable size and taste!" Finally said Twilight putting back her notes in her saddlebags to take the gems, proud of her assistant's awareness.
"Oh, okay. I'll stay here for the afternoon if you need me!" Replied Fluttershy in an almost whisper, placing the gems on the table, out of the little dragon's reach.
"Us too!" Cheered all the three heads of Unified.
"Sure! I just have a reply from Princess Celestia, she said that she would have loved to be there for it's hatching and that she will try to come see Unified as soon as possible. But she also warned that if Unified would and I quote 'do something regrettable', she would take the matter into her own hooves." Twilight said talking to Fluttershy while addressing a glance to the little dragon who thankfully didn't seemed to get the point.
"What does she mean?" Asked Fluttershy worried.
"She's the one who who taught Spike of Ponies values and rules and not to act against them, I think she would offer a similar teaching. But don't worry, it's Princess Celestia after all. And I'm sure everything will be alright with Unified." Waved Twilight as her and all her friends leaved Fluttershy's cottage.
The shy yellow pegasus returned to her proteges and dedicated to them for the rest of the day. Unified didn't remained long on her mind as not long after her friends had left, he kept talking with all the animals of her house. Seeing how he acted this afternoon, they all considered he wasn't a danger and was just in need for a bit more help and support, leading to them staying around him and playing, each head playing a different game with different animals. At the end of the day, they were so tired that they fell asleep quickly.
Fluttershy listened to her animals, how they helped Unified to deal with her absence, how they kept him company through the day which allowed her to spend a bit more time with the other animals rather than focusing on Unified. She rewarded them with a bit more food than usual for their meal. But just enough to not be too much.
Once they were all fed, she took a bit more time to remake Unified's bed and placed a small cover on his body, looking at him with a warm smile and an almost motherly gleam in her eyes.
Fluttershy went to bed her mind at ease, happy that all her friends were able to meet Unified, that her animals acted very nicely without asking them and happy to be able to take care of Rex, Sage and Skaly. She might not have been taking care of a baby dragon before but she was confident she would make a great job, certain that she was up to the task.
In the next three days, Fluttershy came to understand a bit more the small dragon. Even if Skaly had a bit of a more direct and harsh temperament, he was always doing it in the best interest of all three of them, more agressive to defend more efficiently. She tried to calmed him a bit but since he was born with this personality, it was likely a trait he would always have.
Then there was Rex, the gentle one and always prone to defend anypony else, even against Skaly, calmer but also very emotional. Every time one of Fluttershy's friend showed up, he would always be the happiest one, eager to see them and waiting for every opportunity to play.
Sage on the other hoof was... pretty normal. He acted like the others as he was a newborn, a child who wanted to play and stay close to his mom, but he was also a little mix of the two other heads. Kind but angry when needed, or also sad. One thing Fluttershy was proud of was that she stopped him to use his commanding tone too much with his brothers, it felt like her stare but only for his brothers so she was very careful to make sure he understood how wrong and dangerous it could be if used too easily.
With all her love and the patience of the animals of her cottage, Unified managed to find his place in the house. His cushion was moved next to the chimney on the ground to allow him to try walking, which he was very eager to try and took every opportunity to try walking, running and it took a long time for Fluttershy to make them understand that their wings were too small to fly. But it didn't discourage any of them, mostly Sage since he was the one in charge of the body, and each day they tried to walk with more or less ease.
Twilight came a few times already to question and examine the little dragon, drawing sketchs of his body and already starting to make assumptions on his future size and capabilities. She noted everything she could from the size of the wings, the claws and teeth to the softness of the scales, not without difficulty as the little dragon seemed to find all of this quite amusing, playing with Twilight only making her studies harder.
On the other side, she got a few answers from the dragon but overall she was disappointed. Unified didn't know much beside his name, that he was a dragon and that Fluttershy was his mom. Her mind was going crazy, trying to figure out how he was able to speak so soon, both in Equish and with animals, how he seemed to have a limited pool of knowledge before he was even born. Even after reading all of her books on the matter, not resting a lot in those few days, she couldn't find a single clue leading to an explanation of Unified capabilities.
Another point she tried to figure out was why he had three heads. She couldn't imagine a dragon and an hydra conceiving a egg, they were far too different and from what she read, dragons would probably be far too proud to go for an hydra.
The fourth day after Unified hatched, he was slowly waking up on his cushion and each head let out a little yawn before Sage started to move the body. He was getting used to it but he was now capable to walk perfectly well and was still trying to learn how to run properly.
With one small jump to the ground, Sage started to walk toward the kitchen with his four sets of claws on the ground. Twilight asked if he could stand on his two hind legs, which he could, but he wasn't able to walk like that and always ended up back on his four legs.
"What do we do today?" Asked Rex.
"I don't know. I just want to stay away from Angel, this little pretentious bunny is getting on my nerves." Grumbled Skaly who couldn't forget the many suspicious looks that the bunny glanced toward them and he felt that many were for him specifically.
"You tried to eat him twice!" Reminded him Sage.
"That's his fault, he tried to make me eat a carrot. " Was the only excuse Skaly could come up with.
"So we go see mom?" Suggested Rex.
"Of course!" Replied the two other heads vehemently.
Sage took them toward the kitchen where they could already hear Fluttershy bet to work to feed her animals. They quickly understood that she would most likely be wake up before them and that she would either be in the kitchen or feeding the birds outside.
His little claws scratching gently the wooden floor, he arrived in the kitchen where Fluttershy was indeed occupied to cut some vegetables to place them into bowls while others recipient were already full of grains and waiting to be delivered on the small table. Unified walked toward her and saw the large blade of a knife hanging in the air, placed on the short table a bit loose.
"Mom!" Called Rex.
"Oh hello Unified, did you all sleep well?" Asked Fluttershy addressing them a warm little smile.
"Yes."
"Thank you for putting the cover back on." Added Sage.
"It wouldn't happen if you weren't moving that much in your sleep." Complained Skaly.
"It's alright, I don't mind." Assured Fluttershy before returning to her cooking. "Are you hungry?"
"Yes!" Sage and Rex replied.
"Can we have meat?" Asked Skaly.
"Meat? Oh...hum it's... Don't you want gems?" Fluttershy replied sheepishly.
She understood very well that all carnivores needed meat but she was a bit hesitant to feed him actual meat or fish. Twilight told her that it was a possibility that Unified would come to ask for meat but she told her that even Spike never ate the flesh of another being. Fluttershy was quite reluctant to the idea as she didn't wanted for him to develop a taste for meat.
"Well it's not that gems are not good, they are really good!" Skaly answered with an enthusiasm that he rarely had. "But it's just that I know that meat tastes good."
Fluttershy froze instantly and looked to him with a bit of a harsher stare which made all three heads almost lowered to the ground in a futile attempt to calm her, covering before what was coming.
"Skaly, please don't tell me that you ate meat." She asked almost coldly.
"No I swear! Right guys?" He said panicked and looking at his brothers.
"Yes, yes! We never ate meat!" Replied Rex who didn't like to see his mom angry.
"Mom, we didn't but I agree with Skaly, we know that meat tastes good. It's just like how we can speak, we don't know why but we know." Sage answered with a bit more confidence than his brothers.
Fluttershy's stare immediately disappeared to be replaced with her usual soft and kind love along with a sigh of relief before she smiled at them. All three brothers immediately relaxed, raising their heads with an ever bigger relief than Fluttershy. They didn't know what would Fluttershy do if angered but they would rather avoid it.
"I understand, thank you for being honest. I know you would like to try meat but it's not possible. Maybe if it's alright with you, we could try to go see Spike and ask him what else he likes to eat." Offered Fluttershy.
"Thank you!" Accepted all three heads, eager to try something else and not wishing to disappoint Fluttershy.
"We can go see him later if it's okay with Twilight. I'll just finish preparing Angel's breakfast and I'll give you your gems. Do you mind playing a little while I prepare everything?"
"Yes mom." They replied.
Unified went back to the living room and looked around to find a playing partner, all three heads could play together but there wasn't that much they could do as they all shared the same knowledge and only Sage could control their movements. Thankfully Brightwing, the little sparrow with red wings, quickly noticed him looking around. She quickly became one of his favorite playmate as she was very caring toward the young dragon and always had good games to offer while making sure that he wouldn't do anything dangerous. Some other animals would also play with him but they were much more reserved and preferred to keep some distance with the dragon, especially Skaly.
Flapping her wings, she dived from her birdhouse to the ground and landed right in front of Unified and immediately got her his attention.
"Good morning Brightwing." All three heads greeted in perfect unison.
"Good morning to you too Unified, is there something I can do for you?" Brightwing asked with a cheerful chirp.
"Mom says that we can play a bit before eating." Answered Sage.
"Can we play at truth or dare?" Asked Rex.
"What? No! We already did that yesterday and even the day before. Plus we don't know enough to play anymore, we almost only did dare yesterday." Objected Skaly.
"So a new game perhaps?" Understood Brightwing.
"Yeah!"
"Yes please." Asked Sage a bit more politely.
"Hum... why not a staring contest?" Suggested the sparrow.
"Are you sure? There is three of us so... two...four...six eyes against only two, it's not very fair." Rex said a bit concerned.
"I'm sure we can have a bit more company, wait a second."
She flew up back to a birdhouse next to hers and stopped at the entrance before exchanging with the bird inside. However she quickly went to another and even a third one before a small robin joined her and she went to a little nest with a squirrel inside that climbed down to the ground. The three of them flew and ran to stop in front of Unified.
"Now it's fair. I'll go against Skaly, you can choose your opponent." Said Brightwing, choosing Skaly to ease her friends fears.
"I'll go with mister Squirrel!" Choose Sage.
"Then I'll go with mister Robin." Accepted Rex.
"Okay so take position." Readied herself Brightwing, stopping in front of Skaly who had a large grin on his face that could probably have scared any other animal. "Ready? Start!"
The tension between the six of them quickly rose up, especially with Brightwing and Skaly. He wouldn't let himself be beaten by a bird and was determined to win. Rex and Sage were far more relaxed, not taking it as a hard battle to win but for a proper game and were having fun to keep their eyes in there opponents ones.
Only half a minute passed before all of them started to have their eyelids twitching, trying their hardest to not loose. Skaly and Brightwing were okay, Sage and the squirrel too even if the dragon was slowly loosing his concentration and Rex was having a hard time, his eyes already at their limit and twitching like crazy.
"Ahhh!" Finally gave up Rex after a few more seconds, blinking his eyes a few times and shaking a bit his head.
"That was good." Congratulate him the winning robin, happy to blink his eyes too.
Now eliminated, the two of them watched the two other pairs and it was obvious that Sage and the squirrel were at their limits too, each doing their best not to close their eyes. It didn't took much longer for the next winner to be revealed.
"That's too much!" Gave up Sage quickly retreating his head and blinking nervously.
"I was about to stop too." Confessed the squirrel, rubbing his eyes with his tiny paws.
All eyes turned toward the last pair, Skaly and Brightwing. None of them looked like they were about to give up despise their eyes pleading to have their eyelids hydrating them and they were not phased by the results of their other playmates. Skaly wouldn't loose against Brightwing, he was already convinced before starting but now that his brothers had failed he felt like it was his duty to not be the third to loose so he did his hardest to not step down.
Brightwing on the other hand didn't shared the same will as Skaly. She did wished to win at her hardest but she couldn't go as far as him and she sincerely didn't wanted for him or her to get hurt in a simple game. Making it looks like she had enough, which was true, she finally closed her eyes after a few more seconds.
"Yes! I won!" Rejoiced Skaly blinking his eyes as much as Brightwing.
"Indeed, you're a strong opponent Skaly." Congratulate him the sparrow.
"Well done Skaly!" Cheered Rex.
"Indeed." Added Sage.
"I had to make it up for you. I swear you two gave up way too early." Proudly said the winning head.
"It's a nice game but it hurts a bit." Complained Rex.
"You're right, we'll have to find another game." Agreed Brightwing who also wished for something else.
Just then, as they were about to discuss about their next potential game, Fluttershy's voice came from the kitchen, with just a bit more volume than her usual voice but just enough to be heard.
"Unified, your breakfast is ready!"
"Coming mom!" All three heads immediately replied.
Unified started before anything else could be said. He ran off as fast as possible, his tiny claws scratching the wood of the floor as he crossed the whole room in a few seconds, the three brothers overexcited and focused on the entrance of the kitchen. Racing inside, he noticed the small table far too late and tried to dig his claws in the floor. It was again too late and not only his claws didn't helped him slow down, he also never had to do that before as he never ran that fast and he smashed himself in one of the foot of the table in a 'whack'.
Sage and Rex were a bit dizzy but even Skaly didn't manage to see the danger. The knife placed on the edge of the table jumped with the shock and fell right on Unified with it's sharp blade going straight for Unified.
In a single clean cut, the knife separate Rex's head from his neck.
The severed head fell on the ground and started to bleed profusely. Sage and Skaly looked speechless as Fluttershy let out a little yelp at the sound before coming over.
"Unified? Is everything alr-"
She never finished. When she saw the head on the ground in a little pool of blood, she lost all her colors and could almost have been called the white mare. Fluttershy couldn't even react to the horror before her eyes and fell on her side without saying anything else, losing consciousness.
Sage and Skaly looked at each other for a second before the former asked a very simple question.
"Do heads grow back?"
"I don't know. Maybe. I don't feel any pain so maybe it's normal." Replied Skaly trying to sound brave, even if inside he was sweating bullets.
"Huh."
They looked at Rex's neck for a few seconds before something happened. Under their very excited yet worried eyes, Rex's head grew back in a few seconds and it ended with him taking a big gasp of air, shaking his head.
"Rex? Are you okay?" Asked Sage worried and a bit disturbed by what he saw.
"Yeah, it scratches a lot and it's really, really uncomfortable but I'm okay." Replied Rex with more annoyance in his voice than usual.
"I guess heads do grow back." Added Skaly.
"That's so cool! Are we immortals?" Sage excitedly wondered.
"I wouldn't bet on it. I mean, I just don't want to try and see if we are or not." Said Rex.
"Huh me too actually."
"Is mom alright?" Asked Skaly looking at the mare on the ground.
"Mom?" Called her Rex.
Unified walked right next to Rex's previous head without even noticing it and stopped in front of the mare's face. She was still unresponsive and completely immobile if not for the small breathing and her belly going up and down. They looked at each other before looking at her again.
"Mom?" Asked again Rex.
"You need to wake up." Said Sage.
Skaly didn't said anything and licked her face, trying to wake her up. Soon it was all three heads licking her fur and thankfully not too long after, Fluttershy's big eyes stared to appear with her eyelids opening. She was a bit confused before her gaze focused on Unified, passing a hoof on her face to straighten all the licked fur.
"Mom!" Cheered Rex.
"Oh my goodness, I thought that you lost your head!" She relaxed before grabbing Unified in her fore-hooves in a big hug.
"I did."
Fluttershy froze again and looked at him very seriously. "It's really not nice to make bad jokes like that." She warned.
"Look!" Called her Skaly and pointing at the severed head.
She looked but didn't react. Her eyes went from the head to Rex a good ten times before she stopped on him with big teary eyes and crushed the little dragon even tighter in a bear hug, tears falling on his faces.
"I thought that you died! What happened? Are you okay?" She asked quickly, shacking like a leaf.
"Not sure if I died but I did lose my head, I feel perfectly fine!" Joyfully replied Rex.
"His head grew back almost right after it was cut off." Explained Sage suffocating.
"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have left the knife on the table." Blamed herself Fluttershy not stopping her hug. She didn't need to open her eyes to see the severed head in her mind, it was like if it has been printed and couldn't remove it and of course she saw the knife right next to it.
"It's not your fault, we were a bit too excited and we hit the table."
"What should we do with my head?" Asked Rex.
All of them looked at the head, Fluttershy with more disgust than the dragon who felt more curious than anything else.
"Should we eat it?" Skaly suggested.
"No!" Categorically refused Fluttershy, horrified that he even suggested something like this.
"Sorry mom." He quickly apologized.
"I think we should go see Twilight, she will know what to do." She thought before gently dropping the little dragon on the floor.
In a very short moment, Fluttershy took a little bag with an extreme feeling of sadness mixed with a bit of disgust. She already saw dead animals before but that was a step too far. She picked up the severed head to place it inside. She then put the bag in her saddlebags and turn to pick up the little dragon.
"Are we going outside?" Sage asked.
"Well yes, it's the only way to go see Twilight." Answered Fluttershy.
"That's the first time! But are you sure it's safe?" Wondered a bit Rex.
"Don't be a chicken, we've spent I don't know how long to look by the windows. There's nothing dangerous out there. And even if there is then we'll bit them." Reassured him Skaly, impatient to go outside too.
"You'll need to hold on. Are you going to be okay?" Asked Fluttershy as she placed the dragon on her back, right between her wings that acted like a crib.
"Sure!"
She open the door and quickly closed it behind her before heading to the small path leading to Ponyville. Trotting fairly quickly for the shy mare that she was, it wasn't really to the taste of the head of Unified.
"We're not going to fly?" Eagerly asked Skaly.
"I'm sorry but I'm not really good at flying." Apologized Fluttershy.
"It's not a problem, we can see so much from here!" Said Sage.
And indeed they could. Unified was a bit restrained inside the cottage and even if it hadn't been a long time they already got the time to explore most of the house and watching from inside wasn't really exalting. Now that they were outside, there was so much of everything.
Their ears were filled with the songs of the birds, the almost silent sound of a very light breeze, the clip-clop of Fluttershy's hooves on the ground. Their eyes were absorbing everything as what was before them was a world of wonders and colours. Everything seemed so much more alive outside the cottage, they could see so far away and see many things they never saw before, flowers and plants of all shapes and colours, a few new animals all around them minding their own business, the perfectly blue sky and even the dirt was interesting. Dozens of smells reached their nostrils, stimulating their minds even more as each head was looking in different directions.
"That's beautiful." Simply stated Rex looking at a small stream of water with animals and plants all around.
"And it looks tasty too." Added Skaly looking at a small brown mouse who gulped under the stare of the dragon.
They kept looking at everything until they arrived at Ponyville and their eyes shinned with wonder again. The many colourful buildings were everywhere and each head of Unified was looking in a different directing, trying to see everything from a very large tree to a very pink building apparently make out of gingerbread.
"That's Ponyville?" Asked Sage.
"Yes and we're going to the library, that's where Twilight lives." Answered Fluttershy.
They quickly arrived in town and the dragon kept looking everywhere even if Skaly was not relaxed anymore. Instead he was eyeing with suspicion any pony passing nearby as many ponies that were also looking at the strange dragon on Fluttershy's back. They all knew of her shyness and how easy it was to scare her so seeing her with a dragon was a quite unexpected surprise.
Skaly was darting from pony to pony until a creme colored pony with blue mane passed a bit too close to them. He hissed at her and the poor mare, surprised, ran away leaving only a small cloud behind her.
"Stop harassing everypony else." Asked Sage.
"They are too close and they might be dangerous. I won't let anybody come closer." He refused.
"Okay." Skaly simply agreed but still eyeing all the ponies around. For once the inhabitants of Ponyville did their best to avoid the pegasus, and it wasn't because of her shyness.
They continued until Fluttershy stopped in front of the large tree and to Unified greatest surprise, saw that it had a door and a few windows as well as a balcony on one of the largest branches. All three heads kept looking around as Fluttershy knocked on the door.
"Coming!" Replied a voice that the recognized from the inside.
The door soon opened to reveal Spike who immediately got a smile on his face when he saw Fluttershy and the three heads of Unified coming from her back.
"Fluttershy! And Unified! What can the number one assistant of Ponyville do for you?" He asked happily.
"Hum... is Twilight here? It's a bit urgent but it can wait if she's occupied." Almost whispered Fluttershy.
"Sure. Come in, I'll wake her up."
He let them pass and once again Unified was shocked. This time it was by the numerous books displayed on the many shelves of the Golden Oak Library. He could hardly believe that a tree could be use at a house in the first place but all those books made it even less believable.
"So many books." Said Rex.
Fluttershy brought Unified on a cushion as Spike went to shake Twilight's shoulder, almost looking like a statue as she was immobile and reading a big book on a little pedestal, taking her out of her thoughts.
"What it is Spike?" She asked, barely raising her head.
"Fluttershy and Unified are here for you."
"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed looking around as her eyes fell on the little dragon and her friend. She got up immediately and came closer to them with a smile on her face. "Hi Fluttershy, it's nice to see you. And you too of course Unified."
"Hi Twilight. You see, I was at home with Unified, preparing his breakfast as well as for all my critters. When I called him, he ran a bit too fast and slammed in the table." Fluttershy started already getting emotional
"Oh is he alright?" Twilight asked looking at the little dragon still looking at the books under Spike's eye.
"Well that's why we came. After he hit the table, a knife that I had left there fell and... and... it cut off Rex's neck!" She said before exploding in tears.
"Huh are you sure? I mean, he seems perfectly fine to me." Doubted Spike with a weird look, checking Rex's neck that was scarless.
"I have to agree with Spike." Said Twilight.
"I know but... when I saw that I fainted and when I woke up, his head grew back." Continued Fluttershy starting to go through her saddlebags.
"She's right." Supported her Rex.
Fluttershy finally got the small bag which contained the severed head, her foreleg shacking as she handed the bag to Twilight. The purple unicorn immediately noticed the small red stain at the bottom of the bag and a frown appeared on her face, she grabbed it carefully and took a look inside. Her head shot up immediately and she stared at Unified with wide eyes, incapable to understand what she was seeing. She looked again at the bag and at the small red dragon before her face took a very serious look, a purple glow appeared on her horn as a quill and a sheet of parchment flew in front of her.
"Tell me everything." She commanded Unified.
"Should I start?" Asked Rex.
"Yeah, it's your head that got cut off." Replied Skaly.
"Okay. So huh... we were running very, very fast and we hit the table which made the knife fall on my neck. I remember seeing the knife cutting my neck and after that I woke up. It was very itchy for a bit but after that was fine." He explained
"I see. That's clearly something unique, did you two have anything else to say?" Twilight asked turning to Sage and Skaly.
"We didn't felt anything but we saw his head fell on the ground, mom came to see a few seconds after and she fainted." Started Sage.
"After a few seconds, Rex's head grew back and he just felt a bit itchy. As he said." Completed Skaly.
"Well I don't really know any creatures that can do that. I mean, grow back an entire head! Just like an hydra but for a dragon!" Exulted Twilight.
"Don't heads grow back?" Asked Rex.
Fluttershy, Twilight and Spike shared a look before looking at Unified, not certain if he was joking or not.
"Rex, if you were not... you, I'm certain your head wouldn't have grow back. Nopony can do that, you should be dead by normal standards." Bluntly said Twilight.
"That's a bit scary." Confessed Rex.
"Not really, we know that our heads can grow back so it's not scary for us." Skaly reassured him.
"He is right. Maybe we are immortal!" Added Sage.
"I wouldn't recommend to even try this. We still have no idea if it's a one time thing, if only your heads can grow back or anything else, you shouldn't be too confident with that and I strictly recommend the highest caution for all three of you." Twilight warned them.
"Okay." All three heads replied, not really disturbed by what she said.
"It's still a bit weird to hear all three reply at the same time." Noted Spike with a little shiver.
"Hum, Twilight?" Fluttershy called.
"Yes?"
"Do you want to keep the head? I was thinking to bury it otherwise, that is if you don't mind."
"Well I actually do mind, I would like to study it a little to determine if it's normal for him or not. You don't have to worry about it, I'll bury it somewhere after." Replied Twilight, not disgusted by her own words only thanks to her thirst of knowledge taking over her.
"Oh okay."
"Mom?" Unified asked jumping from his cushion.
"Yes?"
"Can we have breakfast?"
"Oh my! I'm so sorry, I completely forgot! And I don't have any gems here. And I haven't distributed their breakfast to all my animals!" Fluttershy realized with horror, her eyes widening and she looked through her saddlebags for any food for the little dragon.
"I'm sure Spike can spare three gems. It should be enough until you get back home." Offered Twilight.
"Are you sure? I don't want to you to force yourselves."
"Don't worry, if Twilight said that you can it means that it's okay. And I really don't mind." Said Spike as he went to the kitchen and came back with two blue gems and a green one.
Sage was the one to get the emerald while the two other heads got the sapphires. It took a few seconds for their teeth to crack the tough gems but they eventually managed to and eagerly ate them. Rex and Skaly were looking at Sage, waiting for his opinion of the green gem as they enjoyed the sweet taste of their sapphires.
"It's not bad, different and a bit stronger but it's okay." Judged the middle head.
"It's good. Can you return on my back? I really need to feed Angel or he is going to stay mad at me again." Asked Fluttershy.
"Sure!" Agreed Unified as he jumped on her fur, climbing quickly without causing any pain to his mom.
"Thank you very much Twilight, I just didn't really know what to do with the head."
"It's okay, I admit that I'm quite surprise myself. I'll make sure to take a good look at it today and I'll come see you if I find anything interesting about it." Assured Twilight.
"Thank you."
"Bye-bye!" Said Unified.
Fluttershy went back to the door and opened it, waving at her friends as Unified was trying to do the same but almost fell and just looked at them with a smile as they started their way back to the cottage. They again got all sorts of weird looks but they managed to get back home and Fluttershy was finally able to give their breakfast to all of her proteges. Including Angel that requested an extra of carrots on his salad.
Twilight was preparing herself for Nightmare Night, putting on a costume of Star Swirl the Bearded of the highest quality with a long dark blue cape with stars and moons as well as a long pointy hat of the same color. Small bells were attached on the edge of both the cape and the hat and a long grey beard was completing the costume, attached with a single grey noose.
She was putting the final touch when a little angry voice came from downstairs.
"Come on, Twilight! We're gonna be late for the Nightmare Night festival." Spike groaned angrily.
She got down the stairs with a proud smile on her face, happy that her costume was an exact replica of how Star Swirl was depicted in her books. Twilight moved her hat in front of Spike, trying to impress him.
"Huh? Are you that one kooky grandpa from Ponyville retirement village?" He asked confused.
"I'm Star Swirl the Bearded." She replied annoyed.
He only gave her a sheepish look.
"Father of the amniomorphic spell?" She tried.
It didn't changed much.
"Did you even read that book I gave you about obscure unicorn history?"
"Um..."
Two knocks on the door interrupted their little conversation, for Spike greatest relief.
"That sounds important." He said running for the door, passing by Twilight who gave him a bored look.
The little dragon rushed at the door and open it wide, ready to welcome any visitor.
"NIGHTMARE NIGHT!" A loud scream demolished his ears and made him jump of fright.
"Ah! A chimera!" He screamed even louder.
A day earlier
"Nightmare Night?" Wondered Sage.
"Yes. It's an old tradition for little foals. It's supposed to be funny but... I don't really like it, it's a bit scary." Replied Fluttershy.
"Scary? That looks interesting." Said Skaly.
"Well little foals are supposed to disguised themselves and go collect candy. By scaring other ponies." She explained a bit uncomfortable with the concept, even if she was well aware of how happy little foals were at this time of the year.
"Oh! That sounds similar to...to..." Started Rex.
"Yeah I know, I'm sure I already heard of something like this." Added Skaly trying hard to remember.
"Can we disguise too?" Asked Sage.
"Oh I'm sure if you ask Rarity she would be happy to make you a nice costume." Assured Fluttershy.
"I think we should be something scary, like a lion or... or a wolf!" Skaly said already excited.
"Why not a superhero?" Suggested Sage.
"Aw, I want something cuter." Rex said sadly.
"Mom said it was supposed to be scary, not cute." Opposed Skaly.
"Hum, why not do a mix of the three? If it's okay with you." Offered Fluttershy as a mediator.
"What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!" A wolf, a superhero and a... unicorn asked from Spike.
Each head was wearing a costume, very cautiously and precisely sewed that made it perfect and all the necks joined at the costume of a hairy suit, making Unified look like something of a construction of multiple creatures and ponies mixed together.
"Oh! I almost didn't recognized you." Said spike before disappearing behind the door.
"Hi Unified. Great costumes." Congratulate them Twilight, coming to the door.
"We are terrifying!" Skaly screamed again.
"Yes you are!" Agreed Twilight.
"And cute!" Added Rex.
"Indeed. Hum, where is Fluttershy?"
"She stayed at home, she don't really like Nightmare Night. Can we have candies?" Sage said.
"Of course. And I can't say that I'm not surprised by Fluttershy." Twilight replied as Spike arrived with a bowl of candy.
Using her magic, she grabbed three candies and flew them into a little bag hanging on the neck of each head. All heads looked at the candies flying with wide smiles on their faces before turning to Twilight.
"Thank you!"
They walked away, crossing a pink chicken giggling with a candy bag around her torso. Happily going around town, they kept receiving a few looks from some inhabitants still not very used to see the three-headed dragon even if some just agreed to see them as a new Spike.
"We already got six candies each!" Rejoiced Sage.
"I'm sure we can have way more! Come on, walk faster!" Skaly energetically said, shacking his neck to try to force his brother to go faster.
"We have the time, it's just the beginning of the night." Sage groaned.
"I want to play games!" Rex said looking far forward.
The two other heads looked in front to see Applejack dressed as a scarecrow with big wooden water tanks filled with apples and some ponies diving their heads inside to catch apples with their mouths. Skaly let out an annoyed groan as Sage walked to the farmer mare, to the greatest pleasure of Rex.
"Hello Applejack!" Greeted Rex.
"Oh howdy Unified! Are you enjoying Nightmare Night?" Applejack asked turning toward the little dragon.
"Yes, there is a lot of candies and it's so fun!" Replied Sage.
"Can we play a game?" Asked Rex.
"Sure! Foals usually play to throw-the-spider, you can give it a try, just ask to Red Tulip." Applejack said pointing to a pink mare wearing a bee costume.
They walked to the mare who was giving a spider to a stallion dressed as a dog.
"Hello Ms.Red Tulip! Can we play?" Asked Rex.
"Just one throw." Skaly warned grumpily.
"Or two." Added Sage.
"Of course but can you throw anything?" The mare said with a small smile.
"Can we use our teeth?" Rex said.
"Hum sure."
Sage walked to the bowl of fake spiders and both him and Rex grabbed one before walking in front of the big spiderweb installed in near the stand.
Rex went first, shacking his head from left to right quickly for a few seconds before opening his mouth, releasing the spider that flew through the air to land right in front of the spiderweb in a small 'pompf'.
"Aw." He said disappointed.
"Here, you can take mine." Sage offered holding the spider between his teeth.
"Thanks!"
Readying himself, Rex looked with a very serious stare at the target before shacking his head again and soon releasing the spider. It flew for a second before landing almost at the middle of the web and sticking there. He looked at it in disbelief before turning to his brothers. Sage had a smile on his face while Skaly just looked a little less grumpy, actually proud of his brother but not really okay to show it plainly.
"You did very well!" Congratulate him Red Tulip.
"Thanks! It's a funny game!"
"You played and you won so now can we go get more candies?" Asked Skaly.
Before Unified even had the chance to move further, they got surprised by a smoke of green dust appearing on a little scene installed in the middle of Ponyville, not far from them. Curious, they got closer to see Twilight and an overfed Spike listening in the middle of a crowd to a zebra inviting the foals to follow her with rhymes. Naturally Unified followed too.
They walked for a few minutes out of town before arriving in front of a big statue of a scary pony, the scariest one any of his head ever saw. Even if Skaly found it rather amusing to look at.
The zebra, apparently named Zecora, started to tell the tale of this scary pony with a heavy support of her magic dust that took the form of the mare depicted on the statue and scared most of the foals as well as Rex. Named Nightmare Moon, this mare was the very reason they all dressed with costumes in the first place. And there was also a price to pay to avoid her wrath, in the form of a few candies. Which didn't really matched Skaly intentions to devour all of the candies he got.
Nevertheless, he left one candy in front of the statue while his brothers left two, enlarging a bit the small pile of candies already left by the group of foals that ran away with a scared Pinkie Pie.
They were about to ask a question to Zecora and Twilight, the only ones that remained here, when thunder blew up above them. Sage immediately lowered himself to the ground in terror as Rex did the same. Skaly and the two mares were the only ones to see a large cart being pulled by batponies come out of the storm and go over Ponyville.
Looking at each other for a second, they all went back to town. Twilight and Zecora leaving him behind as his short limbs were not good enough to ran at the same speed and for the same time.
"What is the matter with you?" A tall dark blue pony with a horn and a pair of wings and an ethereal mane filled with stars asked as she pointed her foot to several ponies lying on the ground.
"It's Nightmare Moon!" Squealed a pony as Unified arrived in town, exhausted after this long run.
"Very well then. Be that-" Started the big blue pony as she turned away.
"You're tall for a pony." A voice said beneath her, interrupting her speech.
The big mare looked down toward a little amalgamation of three creatures that she didn't managed to see coming in front of her before her eyes managed to discern the little faces of three dragons. All belonging to the same body.
"We... hum, we are royalty. It is why we are taller than other ponies but pray tell, who are you little dragon? Or maybe dragons?" The mare asked slightly confused by this strange dragon.
"I'm Sage."
"I'm Rex."
"And I'm Skaly. Who are you? A princess?" Asked the impetuous head.
"Why of course! We are Princess Luna, rightful ruler of the night!" Proclaimed the now named Luna.
"Do you know why all those ponies are like that?" Asked Sage.
The question seemed to inconfort her a bit as her gaze turned away a bit before focusing on the little dragon again, with a clear pain in her eyes that the dragon barely managed to catch.
"They are afraid of us, they believe that we are still... the nightmare."
"The statue?!" Rex asked shocked.
"Not you too." She complained with a heavy sigh.
"That's so cool!" Skaly exclaimed with stars in his eyes.
"What?" Luna said dumbfounded.
"You can look that scary? It's awesome! And at the end you even have all the sweets!"
"I... have all the sweets?" She said not sure to follow everything. 'Is this dragon even aware of what really is the nightmare?' She wondered.
"Princess Luna." Called Twilight who had quit bowing. "I think that what Unified is talking about is the legend of Nightmare Moon, not your past."
"And what do I have to do with candies?" Asked Luna.
"If you allow me."
Twilight took some time to explain everything to Luna, what was the legend of Nightmare Moon for the young foals and all the activities around it. Unified followed them as they went through town, got to see a few more games and Luna got a bit more jovial while the ponies relaxed around the night princess.
"We must admit, this festival in our honor is of great matter. And this fun! Tis better for our subject to know us as such compare to the monster of before." Luna proclaimed with great delight as she talked with Twilight.
"Glad that you think so too. I mean, not many knows of what really happened to you and it seems wiser to let them forget." Replied the purple unicorn.
"Hum, Miss... Princess Luna?" Asked Sage that remained close all the time.
"Yes little subject?" Said the night princess.
"Well we were wondering, what are you?" He said bluntly to Twilight's horror. She couldn't believe that one could be so rude toward the princess and ask such a question.
"We beg thee pardon?" Luna asked shocked.
"Well you are both a unicorn and a pegasus." Skaly told her.
"Some kind of mix?" Suggested Rex.
"We are not both a unicorn and a pegasus. We are those as well as an earth pony. Our kind is known as Alicorn and only those can pretend to the title of royalty." She explained much more relaxed, even finding funny the rudeness of the little dragon and how innocent his question was.
"Oh okay. And you won't take our sweets right?" Asked Skaly looking with suspicion at the princess.
"No. While we do enjoy sweets, in that domaine, tis our sister that... takes the cake."
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.
After destroying Twilight's book, waiting for her to calm down while being berated by Fluttershy, Unified was forced to apologise. Not that they had to do much for that, they felt pretty bad about burning her book and so all three heads gave her their most sincere apologies, swearing not to do it again.
Thankfully for them, Twilight was a rational and fair pony, who understood the mistake of the young dragon, even if she did let out that the burned book had been a perfect exemplary of Canterlot Fauna, volume 2 and that she would have to order another one. So Twilight told Unified that she would teach him the way to transport letters through fire just like Spike, but only when they were older.
Happy with that, Unified was brought back to the cottage where he got another talk from Fluttershy along with a disapproving glare that made quick work of the baby's nerves. As a punishment for destroying Twilight's book, they were grounded for two days.
The morning sun was already high in the sky when Sage woke up, yawning as he looked to his two brothers still asleep. Today was a great day, one of great importance! It would change their life! Mark them forever till the end of time.
Today their punishment was finally reaching its end.
Being grounded was not fun, and all three heads learned that the hard way. Forced to stay in, forced to watch ponies and animals alike walk or fly outside while they were stuck in their mother's cottage. They weren't mad about it, they were mature enough to know that they had been wrong and shouldn't have burn Twilight's book. But it didn't made the wait any shorter.
A pair of yawns took him out of his reverie and he turned to both sides to watch Rex and Skaly waking up.
"Hmm... You should have let us sleep more." Grumbled Skaly.
"Its not my fault that when one of us wake up, the others do too!" Replied Sage on the defensive.
"Not again." Mumbled Rex, tired of his brothers bickering that soon in the day.
"You still wake us up!" Countered Skaly.
"I'm the first one to wake up. We don't even know if we can wake up if I'm not the first to wake up." Argued Sage.
"Then let me do it."
"How?" Asked Sage blankly. "How am I suppose not to wake up?"
"I- You should- Just do it!"
"Unified, stop fighting. Its not a good way to start your day. Please." Fluttershy asked more than commanded.
All three heads turned toward her, having been too stuck in their little fight to notice her approaching. Just seeing her instantly made them stop and they nearly forgot about what they were arguing about.
"Good morning Mom!" All three heads said at the same time.
"Good morning to you too. Here, you must be hungry." She smiled down at them, bringing a sapphire before each head that made quick work of the little gemstones.
"Shanks Mom." Happily crunched Rex.
"Its nothing. And, please close your mouth when you eat. Its more polite." Advised Fluttershy, mindful of what Rarity would think of the little dragon's lack of manners. Even if he was literally a baby so he should be excused.
Finishing their gems in silence, Skaly was the first one to talk again.
"What are we doing today?"
"Well... today is supposed to be my weekly visit to the spa with Rarity, but I told her that I had to take care of you. And its not a problem." Softly replied their mother.
"But do you want to go to the spa?" Asked Rex concerned.
"I like it but-" She started.
"Then you should go! I'll take care of Rex and Skaly!" Happily replied Sage.
Both the other heads and Fluttershy looked at him with slightly dumbfounded faces. On the other hand, Sage didn't seem to understand why they did.
"What?" He asked after a few seconds.
"Who's going to watch you?" Bluntly asked Skaly.
"Oh." Finally realised Sage.
"Unified, its really not an issue. I already told Rarity and she was very understanding." Added Fluttershy, touched by the mindfulness of her charge, even if it wasn't all well thought.
"Isn't there anyone else that could watch over us?" Asked Rex.
"I don't know." Mumbled Fluttershy. "I don't really want to disturb my friends."
"Why not Spike? He can watch over us. Plus, he is a dragon too, he'll know what to do." Suggested Sage.
"I guess we could ask him." Accepted Fluttershy.
"Yay!" Cheered Rex.
With that settled, Fluttershy packed up a little cushion in her saddlebags, along with some gems, and took Unified on her back, ready to head to the library. The peaceful walk from the cottage to the edge of Ponyville is shortly made, with no interruption, only the observations of the little dragon about everything and anything, ranging from curiosity at seing a swarm of bees warmingly greeting Fluttershy much to the dragon's dismay and fear.
"But they're bees!" Exclaimed Skaly.
"They are very nice bees." Corrected Fluttershy. "I helped them move their beehive a little further out of town so that they're not disturbing anypony. And they even let Harry take some honey, as long as he protects their hive from other predators."
"I don't like bees. They sting, they're loud and dangerous." Mumbled Sage, agreeing with his brother.
"As long as you leave them alone, you have nothing to fear." Added Fluttershy just as they entered Ponyville.
Not many ponies were trotting in the street at the moment, so they enjoyed a quick and quiet walk to the library, where Fluttershy very lightly knocked on the door.
"Do it harder." Said Skaly as no-one seemed to have hear them.
He had barely said that, that Spike opened the door.
"Hi Spike!" Greeted Rex.
"Hi Fluttershy! Hi Unified! Are you here to see Twilight?" Jovially asked the purple dragon.
"Not exactly. Not that I mind seeing her!" Quickly replied Fluttershy.
"Don't worry, she wouldn't mind. Are you here for a book? Or is something wrong with Unified again?" Asked Spike.
"Oh no, everything's fine, thank Celestia." Assured the yellow pegasus. "You see, I normally spend an afternoon with Rarity at the spa. Since I have to take care of Unified, I told her that it wasn't possible and I was going to have to reschedule to next week and-"
"And its this afternoon, right?" Easily guessed Spike, politely cutting Fluttershy.
"Yes. I was wondering if you could watch over Unified for me, until I come back."
"Of course! You'll see, I'm great at watching over. I'm basically watching over books all day." Assured Spike puffing his chest out.
"He looks like a bird." Silently laughed Rex, the three heads close to each other and snickering as they agreed on Spike's look.
"That's very nice of you Spike, thank you. Unified? What do we say?" Asked Fluttershy, turning around to look at the dragon still on her back.
"Oh, hum, thank you Spike." Sage managed to say, stopping his snickering just in time.
"I brought his cushion if he wants to take a nap and some gems for his lunch. I know you have your own gems, so you won't have to share them." Said Fluttershy as she walked up next to a sofa, gently placing Unified on the ground and then taking our the cushion and the little bag of gems out of her saddlebags.
"Nah, don't worry about it, I wouldn't mind sharing. Its a bit lonely to be the only one around eating gems so its great to have someone else to share them with." Shrugged Spike, watching Unified who started to walk around the library.
"Unified? Just a word before I go." Called them Fluttershy.
"Yes mom?" All three replied in perfect synchronisation.
"Wow, dude. That's creepy." Commented Spike.
"I want you to behave while I'm out. I trust you, alright? Don't burn any other book, don't attack anypony, and listen to what Spike says. If he says that you shouldn't do something, then you don't do it." Fluttershy sternly said, even if she kept her tone light.
"Yes mom." Unified replied, unwilling to have a repeat of the last talking Fluttershy gave them.
"Good. See you later!"
Satisfied with herself, Fluttershy gave one last smile to both Spike and Unified before heating to the spa.
"I probably should tell Twilight that you're staying with me. She's going to panic if she doesn't know where I am." Thought aloud Spike.
"Why? She is afraid to lose you?" Asked Sage.
"No. Well, I hope she would be if it ever happened, but that's not it. I'm her number one assistant and she needs me to clean the library and help her take notes, make the food, shelving the books and all kinds of other things." Explained Spike as he walked toward Twilight's study room on the other side of the library.
Unified watched him go, waiting patiently next to his cushion.
"He sounds more like a servant to me." Noted Skaly with a slightly concern expression.
"You too? It sounds like he's doing everything. I hope that he is at least getting paid for that." Agreed Sage.
"He probably likes to do that. I mean, Twilight wouldn't force him to be his assistant, right?" Said Rex.
"I don't know. Mom never told us what dragons are supposed to do." Replied Sage.
"She never told us what ponies do. Mom take cares of animals, Rainbow Dash flies clouds, Twilight likes to study magic don't like when you burn her books and I don't know about the rest. None of them do the same thing!" Complained Skaly.
"Does this means that once somebo- no, somepony, somepony have a job, no one else can have it?" Wondered Rex.
A little silence followed as all three heads thought about it.
"It seems dumb." Finally let out Skaly. "There can't be a single pony that likes magic."
"Or a single pony that likes animals." Added Sage.
"Or a single pony that move clouds." Continued Rex. "Or a single pony that-"
"Enough!" Cut him out Skaly sharply. "If there's not a pony for each things, its probably the same for dragons."
"Meaning that we could do whatever we want." Concluded Sage as he started to imagine what he could do in the future.
"Not exactly. Don't you remember how most ponies reacted to us? Unsure, threatened and scared. They don't wish us good, they're not open to the idea of having us around. It would probably be wise to leave Ponyville as soon as we're mature enough."
"Mom likes us, she isn't scared." Countered Rex.
"Don't be naive, she saw a defenceless egg and decided to take care of it not even knowing what was inside." Continued Skaly.
"But everypony seems to like Spike and he's been here longer than us. Plus, no one tried to attack us." Opposed Sage.
"Yet. We did burned Twilight's book, even if it was an accident, so I wouldn't be surprised if she were to try getting rid of us."
"Now you're just overthinking it." Said Sage as he rolled his eyes.
"Don't be fools!" Snarled the right head, standing taller in an attempt to prove his point. "We don't fit here. We're the only ones around who share three heads with one body. Not a single pony even has two heads. I'm not saying they hate us, but we should be careful around ponies, at least until we can become big enough to not be threatened by them anymore."
"Mom don't hate us. Twilight don't hate us. Spike don't hate us. Rainbow don't-" Started Rex.
"Yes! We get it!" Snapped Skaly. "Why am I stuck with you two?! Incapable to see what's in front of you! You're too blind to see the dangers around us! I'd be better on my own!"
Both Sage and Rex watched him with looks of horror, Rex almost on the verge of crying as he felt a deep pain in their shared heart. However, even if Rex was the one that Skaly replied to, Sage was far more appalled and angry with Skaly's words.
"You don't really mean that." Weakly countered Rex, moving his neck backward as he talked.
"I do! The both of you cry at anything, you don't care about our survival, and always say the dumbest things!" Continued Skaly, emptying their lungs as he shouted and making Rex cry silently as tears rolled down his face.
"Stop talking!" Commanded Sage with a snarl, getting right into Skaly's face. "You say that we're bad?! You've literally done nothing but complaining, attacking, and trying to push away anyone that comes next to us!"
Skaly tried to reply but his mouth literally wouldn't obey him, snapped shut as he glared at his brother, even though his eyes showed that he was far less confident already.
"You don't get to insult us like that! We are brothers, sharing a single body. I get that you don't like how we act, but I sometimes I don't like how you act and I don't say anything. And I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to get along than having to fight all the time!" Continued Sage, pushing Skaly's head down with his own.
"Sage. I think that's enough." Came a voice on their right.
All three heads turned to see both Twilight and Spike, standing there a bit awkwardly even if Twilight had quite the stern expression on her face. Spike just looked a bit uncomfortable, but he didn't look away from what was happening.
"We heard you shouting. Is everything okay?" Asked the little purple dragon.
"There's no problem." Grumbled Sage as he looked away.
Their expressions couldn't have fooled anyone. Rex was still weeping silently, knowing that his brother's words weren't true, but it didn't do anything to lesser the pain he felt. Sage was still pissed, rightfully so in his own opinion, not liking that the brother to the right was so agressive when all he wanted was for them to have a family. And Skaly was looking down mouth still shut, not daring to look up.
"There's definitely something wrong Sage. It's better to let it out than ignore your feelings." Wisely replied Twilight.
"He insulted us!" Defended himself the middle head.
"I understand, and while it's not a nice thing to do, it's better for him to speak his feelings aloud than fostering his anger until it blows up. Like it did just now." Calmly continued Twilight, who then turned to Skaly. "Now, Skaly, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Skaly looked up with a sad look, before shaking his head and mumbling something even if his lips remained close.
"Sage." Sternly warned Twilight.
"*sigh* You can speak." Sage gave up.
"Good. Now, Skaly?" Resumed Twilight.
"I didn't mean to be so mean." Instantly said Skaly.
"I'm sure you are. Anger can push us to say things that we would normally never speak aloud. But, could you please tell us what made you so angry?"
"I- It's just that, it feels like I'm the only one who think about our safety. Rex is completely carefree, and Sage almost never takes into account what I say when I'm warning him. And- And it feels like I'm the only one that's mature enough to see that. They're always so happy and excited, its exhausting and annoying to me." Skaly let out quite quickly, giving a few glances at his brothers.
"I understand. I was the same when I was a filly. Always more concerned about my studies than my friends and family, even if I never lashed out against my brothers. We had a few fights here and there, but nothing serious. You know why? Because our parents always made us talk our hearts out. It helps a lot to calm down everypony and it made us realise that most of the time, there were easy solutions to our conflicts." Twilight explained as she walked closer, lowering herself in front of Unified. "But your situation is unique. All three of you can never be separated from each other, meaning that you have to learn to live with each other's traits and personalities. And what I'm saying also applies to you two. I'm not saying that you have to tolerate all of Skaly's more aggressive nature, but I know he means well. It's his way of caring about you."
All three heads looked to each other with a bit of sadness in their eyes, not speaking a word but all recognising the truth in Twilight's words.
"She's right." Conceded Skaly. "I don't want to be rude or angry at anyone, and I don't hate you or anything like that, but... you two are just too happy all the time that it's hard for me to let my guard down. And sometimes you say stuff that annoys me. What I mean is, I'm sorry for lashing out like that."
"Apologie accepted." Instantly replied Rex, a small smile coming back on his lips.
"Skaly." Slowly started Sage as his brothers looked at him. "You're right, we probably don't think about our safety enough. Rex did loose his head once already so we're probably not very careful. But you are always on the edge, always on your guard, even when you don't have to. I don't really mind it, but maybe tone it down a bit? I swear to listen to you more if you can stop threatening everyone else."
"Alright, I'll try." Agreed Skaly without much difficulties.
"And I may have a solution for you." Added Twilight.
"What is it?"
"You should make some safe zones."
"Safe zones?" Echoed all three heads.
"Yes. Safe zones could be places where you know you won't be attacked by anypony, where you can allow yourself to be more relaxed. Like Fluttershy's cottage. You don't expect to be attacked there right?" Explained Twilight.
"Not by ponies but-" Started Skaly.
"There really isn't many creatures that are dangerous to us coming this close to town. The worst are probably the Timberwolves, but they never leave the Everfree forest." Instructed Twilight. "But as I was saying, you know that ponies won't attack you in your home."
"Yes."
"There we go! Now, you don't have to only make one safe zone, you can make as much as you want. I'm sure this will help you. Do you think you can do that?"
"I guess I can try." Accepted Skaly.
"Good!" Suddenly exclaimed Twilight with an accomplished but tired expression. "That should have been a conversation between you and Fluttershy. You will tell her what happened, what you've learned, and she will most certainly be proud of you."
"Sorry." Unified said still feeling a bit down.
"Now, I still have work to do, so I'll leave Spike to take care of you. But don't hesitate to come see me if there's a problem, alright?"
"Yes Twilight." Agreed Unified.
Feeling proud of having solved another friendship issue, Twilight returned to her study, already thinking about the friendship report that she would send tonight. Now alone with Spike, Unified was left to think about what the purple unicorn said, with Skaly being the most affected.
He still felt like he needed to be careful and aware for his brothers who never seemed to care about this, but he had to give it to Sage, he was probably overdoing it. Twilight's idea was interesting even if he still had some doubt, and she was right about the fact that he would have to deal with his brothers for the rest of his their life. He didn't meant what he said about being better off on his own, only that he would probably have an easier time surviving alone compared to his brothers. Though, that was probably why they had adults to watch over them. Because they weren't adults yet. Because his brothers could allow themselves to be more childish now, enjoy life without the need to watch out for danger. And, should they never change, he would do it for them.
"So... would you like to play a game?" Suggested Spike after a few seconds.
"I'm not sure." Replied Sage, giving a small glance at Skaly.
"Come on, I know some games that needs teamwork. That's exactly what you all need right now!" Encouraged them Spike.
"I want to play." Voiced Rex, finally coming out of his silence.
"I'm up for it. Skaly?" Asked Sage.
"Okay, we can play. What games do you have in mind?" Agreed Skaly.
"Well, there's a favourite of mine, but it might be a bit hard to start." Teased Spike with a little grin.
"We're not babies! We can play hard games."
"Not sure about that. But, have you ever heard of Ogres and Oubliettes?"
A yellow hoof knocked on the door of Ponyville's library, waiting for somepony, or some dragon, to come open the door.
Fluttershy felt really relaxed after her day at the spa, very much enjoying the feeling of clean fur along with the various massages that did wonders to mollify her muscles, especially her wings. Though she had never stopped thinking about Unified, worried that something might go wrong or that he would burn a book again, no matter how unlikely that was. Both Rarity and the spa sisters reassured her many times, saying that Spike was a serious dragon and that he could be trusted, that Unified was still a baby so there wouldn't be much risk for him with adults around.
And now, she was back at the library to collect her charge. She still hadn't really come to terms with the fact that she was now a mother, if an adoptive one. She didn't really minded being called Mom by Unified, but it was just so different from taking care of her many animals that she sometimes felt like she wasn't up to the task.
Waiting a couple more seconds, with apparently no one coming to open, she knocked again. Anxiously, she knocked a third time and still had no answer.
"Twilight? Spike? I'm coming in." She warned as she pushed the door open.
A couple of voices came from the other side of the library, explaining why she wasn't heard. Softly closing the door behind her, she made her way toward the voices that became clearer as she neared them.
"You rolled a natural 1." Came Spike voice.
"What?! Roll again! I can't have a one! Not now!" Complained Skaly's angry and indignant voice.
"Sorry, that's the rules. Your fire breath completely miss its target, lighting up a nearby tree." Replied Spike.
"My turn!" Cheered Rex. "I take the flower pot in my bag and throw it at the goblin!"
"Okay lets see... its a 16. Your flower pot flies through the air and smashes right in the goblin's face, making him unconscious."
"That's dumb." Grumbled Skaly just as Fluttershy turned around the corner a bookshelf, watching with a bit of surprise Unified and Spike, sat around a table that had a board game with dices, figurines and several sheets of paper around.
"There you are!" Warmly greeted Fluttershy, instantly getting the attention of all four dragons, including three that erupted in joy at her sight.
"Mom!" Shouted Unified as he hoped down from his cushion and ran straight to Fluttershy, hugging her tightly with his necks as she shared the hug with a foreleg and a wing.
"Hi Fluttershy!" Said Spike.
"Did everything went well? They all behaved right?" Asked Fluttershy, even thought it was clear that they had been enjoying themselves.
"Ehh, mostly?" He shrugged, instantly worrying the yellow pegasus before he continued, instantly brushing her concerns away. "But nothing big, just a talk between brothers."
Letting out a sigh of relief, she looked at Unified and noticed that all three heads bore slightly guilty expressions, with Skaly's being the guiltiest.
"Could you tell me what happened, please?" She asked very gently.
"..." Skaly didn't said a word, looking down as he tried to find a good way to explain himself.
"We were talking about... about... I don't remember what, but we fought over something." Started Sage, honestly not recalling what had sparked their little scuffle.
"Yeah, it wasn't a big deal." Agreed Rex.
"It was my fault." Let out Skaly with a sigh. "I said some bad things to Rex and Sage, he told me that I was wrong and Twilight stopped us then."
"She explained that we were brothers, that we should be patient with each other, listen to what we all have to say and try to get along." Summed up Sage.
"We fought a bit, but Twilight told us how to avoid it." Intervened Rex.
"Thank you for telling me. And Twilight is right, you should always stick together. Even if that's already the case for you." Fluttershy joked lightly. "And what are you playing at?"
"Ogres and Oubliettes!" Exclaimed Skaly very happy, all traces of negative emotions gone from his face. "Its fun and a good way to think about fighting."
"Can we finish later?" Sage asked Spike.
"Sure. There aren't many ponies who knows this game so I can keep it aside." Replied Spike as he began to put the game away.
"Great! Can we go home now?" Asked Rex, feeling a bit tired after this long afternoon.
"Of course." Said Fluttershy as she put Unified on her back and gathered her saddlebags, but not before taking a little pouch from it and giving it to the purple dragon. "Here you go Spike. Thank you for watching over them."
"Whoa! Thanks Fluttershy!" Cheered Spike, looking at the few bits in the bag, enough for him to buy gems or a few ice creams.
"You're welcome. Unified, what do we say?"
"Thank you Spike." Said Sage and Skaly in unisson.
"Thanks Spike." Yawned Rex, resting his head on Fluttershy's soft back.
Looks like their excitement rush was ending. They did spent most of the day awake and played quite a lot, with a more emotional interlude in between, so it was to no surprise that they started to fall asleep.
"Looks like nap time." Said Spike.
"We don't *yawn* take naps. We're not tired." Denied Skaly even as he lied down, along with Sage.
"Of course you are. Let's go home." Smiled Fluttershy. "See you soon Spike!"
"Bye!"
Waving one last time, Fluttershy started the walk back home, happy that everything went well. She was indeed a bit concerned about Unified's disagreements, but no matter how much Skaly denied it, they were still babies, so a brasher attitude and pointless arguments were to be expected. Thankfully, Twilight and Spike dealt with the issue with brio, so she was happy to bring her son(s) home.
Three little snores echoed around her until she reached her cottage, where she gently placed Unified on his cushion and then went to take care of her animals, as the day wasn't over yet.
