Chapter IV

Hatchling

The four settled in and the place felt like home soon enough. Cerulean woke up early and decided to head to Sugar Cube Corner for breakfast. He was one of the first customers in that day. The ice mage sighed as he rolled over the information he’d received from his mother the previous day. “Something on your mind Frosty?” The voice snapped the man out of the trance and he looked at the pink haired pastry chef.

“Oh, morning Pinky. Why did you just call me Frosty?”

“Cause you seem cool and you can use ice magic.” She smiled. Cerulean chuckled at the girl. She sat down across from him. “So why don’t you tell auntie Pinkie Pie your problems?”

“Two things; I’m fairly certain I’m older than you. Second; it’s not a big problem. I just need to find out some information.” Pinkie sat back humming to herself.

“If you need to look something up, try the library. I’m sure Twilight would help.”

“Twilight? I thought she ran the guild?”

“No, that’s only when the Princess is away on royal business. Rest of the time she’s a librarian.” Cerulean finished his coffee and stood up.

“Thanks Pinkie. Where is it?”

“Just down the road. Look for a tree house.” He raised an eyebrow at the words.

“A tree house?” The man repeated in disbelief.

“Trust me. You’ll know it when you see it.” Cerulean shrugged and made his way out of the bakery. The small town was just beginning to wake up. Stores were switching their signs to open and the smell of fresh coffee filled the streets. After a few minutes of walking, he came across a large tree that was hallowed out into a house.

“Well I’ll be.” He said as he saw the Golden Oaks Library sign out front. He made his way inside and saw several shelves filled with books. The smell of oak was present in the library. Cerulean spied a vacant wooden desk with a bell resting on top. The archer approached the bell and gave it a ring.

“Be right there.” An adolescent male voice said. A door on the side opened to show a young boy, about the age of twelve with spiked green hair, spliced emerald eyes, pointed ears, several of sharpened teeth and nails. He was donning a purple hoodie and dark green pants. There were also a few purple scales scattered across his face and arms. Cerulean’s hand began burning again. “Need something?” The boy asked.

“Yeah, I’m looking for Twilight.” Cerulean said looking around at the bookshelves.

“She’s in the back. Should be down in a few minutes.”

“Thanks and you are?”

“I’m Spike. Twilight’s assistant.”

“Cerulean Frostwork. I work at-”

“Oh everyone knows about you. They say you killed a dragon.” The boy said in amazement. Fear quickly filled the young boy's eyes. “Gale is gonna have a few words with you about that.”

“Who’s-” He was cut off as he saw the woman he came to talk to come down from upstairs.

“Oh, hello Cerulean.” The scholar smiled.

“Hey Twilight. I was wondering if you could help me look up something.” Twilight smiled.

“I didn’t know you were a scholar.”

“Hardly. I tend to stick to fiction when it comes to books. More interesting.” The girl sighed and put on a pair of horned rim glasses. The man chuckled. “Okay, what up with the glasses?”

“These are enchanted glasses that help me search the library for specific books in seconds.” She said in a proud tone. “Watch. Spike name a book title.” The child put a clawed finger to his chin and thought for a moment.

“Um, ‘Cooking for Dummies.’” The glasses flashed for a moment and Twilight pointed towards the top shelf. The book then flew into her hand. “Might want to give that one a read through Twi.” The girl furrowed her brow at the boy.

“Har-har.”

“That’s handy. So you just say the name and then it’ll show you where it is?” Twilight nodded. “Okay, try Draco Venator.” Twilight repeated the words, but nothing happened.

“Odd. It usually works. It doesn’t sound like Equestrian though.”

“Okay, dragons.” As Twilight repeated the word several books glowed and Spike used a ladder to grab them. Cerulean looked at the covers. “‘Sword in the Lake’, ‘The Legend of the Red Dragon’, ‘The Adventures of Gabriel the Gallant.” The man sighed. “I’m looking for non-fiction books.”

“Sorry Cerulean, but I’m not sure if we have any. Dragons are usually too dangerous to approach and gather intelligence on.”

“Trust me, I should know.” Spike said.

“How?”

“I went to the dragon migration three years ago.” The boy said.

“Now why in the name of Celestia’s beard did you do that?” Cerulean said shaking his head.

“Because I am a dragon, well at least partially.” The man raised an eyebrow at the child. He certainly looked human, but there were the odd parts about his body.

“You see,” Twilight started. “when I was eight I had to pass an entrance exam to get into Celestia’s School of Gifted Mages. That exam was hatching an egg, but my magic kinda went...out of control and I turned a baby dragon into a fifty foot monster.”

“Remind me never to piss you off.” Cerulean gulped.

“Anyway, Princess Celestia calmed me down and the magic wore off, but when Spike went back to normal size he turned into a human with some of his dragon traits still intact.”

“Huh, go figure.” He said standing up. “Thanks anyway Twilight, let me know if you ever get any non-fiction dragon books.”

“Come back any time.” Twilight smiled as he exited the house. Cerulean rubbed his chin and remembered what his mother had said to him yesterday. He decided to make his way back to the home he shared with the three women.

“Hey...um....Mr. Cerulean?” He turned around to see a blonde woman with grey wings and off center golden eyes. She was wearing tan slacks and a grey short sleeved collared shirt with the Equestria Mail Logo embroidered on her shirt. She was carrying a dark tan messenger bag filled with letters.

“Hey...Derpy right?”

“It’s Ditzy.” She said in a flat tone.

“Sorry. I’m still learning everyones' names in this town.” He said rubbing his head. The woman gave him a smile.

“It’s okay.”

“So, did you need something?” The woman then fished in her messenger bag and pulled out a letter.

“It’s for Sunset Shimmer. I figured since you live with her, you could deliver it so I could get a quick muffin.” He pocketed the letter and nodded.

“Sure. See you around.” The flyer spread her wings and took off towards Sugar Cube Corner. The ice mage made it back to his home and opened the door to see Sunset brewing coffee, Nix was reading the paper and Amber was brushing her tail. “Morning ladies.”

“Morning.” Sunset said with a smile.

“Where were you?” Amber asked.

“Just out for a small stroll. Morning air is good for you.” He reached into his pocket and set the letter on the table. “Ran into Ditzy.”

“Blonde hair, grey wings and off center eyes?” Amber asked.

“Yup. Letter for you Sunset.” The woman set her mug down and picked up the letter.

“It’s from my uncle in Vanhoover.” The girl smiled as she opened the letter. A slip of paper with a seal fell out of the envelope and landed on the table. The group crowded around it and Sunset quickly ducked under the table. “Hit the deck!” The seal glowed orange and there was a loud banging noise accompanied by a puff of white smoke. The other three jumped back in surprise.

After the smoke had cleared the group saw a large bird standing on top of the seal. The bird was covered in white feathers with the tips a blazing orange, the same as it’s eyes. It was bigger than an eagle and had talons sharp as knives. “Snow!” The bird squawked and hopped on the fire mage’s shoulder as it heard it’s name.

“He sent a bird?” Fox yelled.

“In the mail?” Nix said.

“Oh he does this sort of thing all the time.” Sunset said as she scratched the bird’s chin.

“Your uncle or your peacock?” Cerulean said as he looked at the bird who tried to nip at his hand.

“Snow is a phoenix.” Sunset corrected.

“Interesting.” Nix said.

“You know about them?” Amber asked.

“Phoenix tears have healing powers, they can carry twenty times their body weight and they turn into ash when they reach the end of their lifecycle and are reborn by the ashes.” She smiled. “They also bond to one person and hate everyone else.”

“Nerd.” The alchemist glared at the fox girl’s remark.

“She’s house broken right?” Cerulean asked.

“Yeah, his refuse burn up anyway.” She fed the bird a grape. “What about you guys? Any pets?”

“No, and I assume Amber could be her own pet.” Nix grinned at eh brunette. The fox girl whipped the alchemist with her tail. Sunset then turned to Cerulean.

“I had a dog a few years ago.” Cerulean said. “We had a bad winter and he died.”

“Oh, sorry.” Cerulean waved it off.

“It’s in the past. Right now, lets focus on finding some work. The rent won’t pay itself.” Amber immediately got to her feet.

“Finally, let’s get going!” The other girls nodded and got ready. The four exited their home and made their way to the guild hall. Once inside, the group started to look at the different job postings. Cerulean noticed that on the job listings there were letters stamped on the top left corner of each job description. “Oh come on, there has to be something here.”

“What about this? Farm work?” Sunset said as she took a posting with the letter E marked at the top.

“We have to split the pay and it’s not that much to begin with.” Nix said.

“No, but it’s something.” Cerulean groaned as he took the request. “Meet at Sweet Apple Acres. I think thats Applejack’s farm.” The four left the guild and made their way towards the farm on the edge of town. They saw a sign in front of a picket fence that lead to a large red barn and an old farm house beside it.

In front of the barn was a hulking man a few years older than the four guild members. He was wearing a red plaid shirt with the sleeved rolled up to his elbows and a pair of dark blue jeans that had been muddied. His hair was a rusty shade of orange and his eyes were like two emeralds. Amber licked her lips as she saw the man. Cerulean walked up to the farmer. “You must be Macintosh?”

“Eeyup. Just call me Mac, everyone does.” Cerulean stuck out his hand and he shook it. He was even stronger than Applejack.

“Cerulean. We saw your post in the guild hall.” The large farmer nodded.

“Okay, how many ya’ll know about farming?” Cerulean and Sunset raised their hands.

“I’ve grown potatoes and a few crops.” Cerulean said.

“I’ve read several books on the subject.” Sunset said. Mac gave a nod.

“Okay, you three go find AJ in the barn, she’ll give you something to do.” He then turned to Cerulean. “You and I are gonna chop some wood.” Cerulean nodded and followed the farmer out into the barn and got an axe before following him into the thicket of trees. The three went into the barn and found the blonde haired farmer.

“Morning gals.” She smiled.

“Tell me we’re not going to be dealing with pigs.” Nix huffed.

“Nah, ah got something better for you girls to do. We’re gonna be apple bucking.”

“What?” Amber asked. Applejack lead them to a thicket of apple trees with barrels beside the trunks. The blonde found a tree and walked up to the trunk. She marked the center of the tree and stood back. Applejack ran head first at the tree and slammed her boot into the trunk. The tree shook and several apples came falling down.

“Interesting way of doing things.” Nix said.

“It makes sure that only the apples that are ready fall.” She smiled. “Well, let’s get to it.” Sunset gave it a try, but no apples fell.

“Ow.” She said rolling her ankle. Amber stepped up and slammed her armored fist into a trunk. The three shook from root to branch and the apples fell.

“Easy.” She smirked. Nix rolled her eyes and started picking up the stray apples that missed the barrel. Meanwhile, Mac and Cerulean were at the chopping block and were splitting the wood from a fallen tree. Cerulean, felt the heat bearing down on him and removed his shirt. Mac had already done so.

“Not used to your guys’ heat yet.” He panted.

“I heard you grew up in the North.” The man said as the axe came down on another piece of wood. “What’s it like?”

“Cold, harsh, unforgiving. Make a mistake and it’s your head.” He said as he brought down the axe. The farmer looked at the man’s torso and saw several scars across his chest and back. The two heard a whistling sound coming from the trees. Cerulean looked over to see the fox girl ogling them. An apple then hit her on the side of her head.

“Get back to work mutt.” Nix said as she grabbed another basket of apples. Amber grunted and followed the girls. Mac chuckled.

“Lively bunch.” The farmer stated.

“Yeah, not even a day and they’re getting on my nerves.” He sighed.

“Ah’m the only guy working on the farm most of the time, ah feel your pain.” The farmer chuckled.

“So, just you and AJ?”

“Nah, ah got another sister, Applebloom. She’s about eight.”

“Where’s she?”

“Off playing with her-”

“Macintosh!” A high pitched voice yelled. The two looked back to see a girl wearing a yellow shirt, blue overalls and a red bow that kept her red ponytail on place came bounding out of the forest. Beside her was a girl with curly white and purple hair. Finally there was a flyer with orange wings and dark purple hair. The three ran towards the two men with fear in their eyes.

“Bloom? What happened?”

“W-we were playing and-” The girl’s words were cut off as the bushes the three came out of were crushed by a large manticore. The three girls hid behind the two men as the beast locked eyes with them. Cerulean put his shirt and jacket back on.

“Mac, stand back. This I can handle.” The ice mage said as he cracked his neck. The beast charged at the group. Cerulean kept his eyes on the barbed tail and dodged a strike. The man dodged a swipe from the beast’s claw and a large icicle formed in his hands. With a sharp thrust, he slammed the large shard of ice in the beast’s jaw and pierced through it’s skull.

The monster dropped like a sack of bricks and the icicle vanished. Applejack and the other three came running up to the group.

“Are ya okay Bloom?” AJ fussed over her sister.

“Yeah, just a scratch.” The girl held her palm out. “It’s from a rock when I tripped.”

“Let’s clean that cut and get a bandaid.” Mac said. Cerulean walked over to the manticore and scratched his chin.

“Hey Mac, if no one’s officially called dibs, can I have this thing?” The farmers looked at him in confusion. “What, I always wanted to taste manticore meat,” He put his hand on the fur. “and it’s fur would make a warm coat.”

“Um, sure?” A curved icicle blade then formed in his hands.

“Okay, time to gut this thing.”

“I’ll help.” Nix said. “I want to see it’s poison gland and synthesize an antidote.”

“Fine, then you’re helping me lug this thing into the forest so I can gut it.” He said as he grabbed it by the scruff of it’s neck. Nix sighed and attempted to pick up it’s rear by it’s legs, but it was a bit too heavy for her. Amber chuckled and grabbed it by it’s tail.

“Leave this to the grown ups.” Amber said as she patted Nix on the head.

“I will strangle you!” She hissed.

“Can you even reach my neck?” Purple sparks came off the alchemist’s hands. Suddenly a pile of snow fell on the two women.

“You two need to chill out.” Cerulean sighed.

“Only an ice mage could make a pun that frigid.” Nix deadpanned.

“I wasn’t making a pun.” He groaned. “Let’s just cut this thing up before it spoils.” The two freed themselves from the icy mound and carried the beast off of the farm, so the gut pile wouldn’t attract more animals. Cerulean successfully cut into the beasts gut and started removing the organs.

“So you’ve done this sort of thing before?” Amber asked.

“Not to a manticore, but plenty of wolves, bears and dire wolves.”

“Dire wolves?” The fox girl said in confusion.

“Think of a wolf that’s three feet tall and teeth like butcher knives.” He said as he continued to remove the organs. “It’s rare they come towards people, and they’re intelligent.”

“Really?” Nix said in disbelief.

“They coordinate attacks with one another and formulate strategies to take down larger prey.” He said as he finished taking the last organ out. His hands and clothing were stained red with the beast’s blood. “Now, we need to haul this thing back to the house.”

“I am not hauling this thing back to the house.” Nix said in a flat tone. The bushes started rustling and Sunset came out of the thicket.

“Hey AJ has a carriage with two horses outside for the manticore.”

“Well, that solves that problem.” Amber said as she and Cerulean grabbed the beast. They made it out with the animal in tow and threw it in the back of the cart.

“Thanks Applejack.” Cerulean said.

“No problem. Least we could do for ya after you killed it for us. That thing’s been skulking around the farm for a few weeks and all we’ve been able to do is scare it off with Lil Mac.”

“Lil Mac?” Sunset asked.

“Mac’s shotgun.” The farmer said. “It’s a bit old, but it works well enough and scares the tar out of anything that tries to sneak on our farm.” She chuckled as the carriage clunked along the dirt road of Ponyville. They soon arrived in front of the house and the stronger three of the group lugged it to the backyard.

Cerulean clasped his hands together and made a large ice shelter. He lead the others inside and set the manticore down on an ice table.

“Okay, this next part gets messy. Thanks for the muscle Applejack.” He said as he formed a smaller knife and started to skin the beast. AJ and Amber left the shelter as the man started. The farmer reached into her pocket and pulled out a bit bag.

“Heres today’s pay.” She handed it to Sunset. “Plus a little extra for the manticore.”

“Thanks for your generosity.” Sunset smiled. Applejack squinted at the fire mage and adjusted her hat.

“Hmm....Don’t you know Twilight from somewhere?” Sunset gulped and vanished in a flash of orange light. The farmer blinked in surprise. “Well, that was odd.”

“Probably just wanted to tell the Princess we completed the request.” Amber said with a shrug.

“I’m gonna be a while.” Cerulean called out from the ice shelter. Amber shrugged and decided to head towards the guild with the short alchemist trailing behind. The two soon caught up with Sunset at the guild hall and she handed them each a small bit pouch.

“This is all we get?” She grumbled as she looked at the small amount of coin.

“Well, there were four of us and the guild does get a cut of the profit for the upkeep of the place.” Sunset said as she sat down across from the group. Nix looked at other jobs and noticed the other jobs had the letter stamp.

“Hey what does this mean?” She pointed to the letter. Sunset and Amber walked up to the board and saw the letter.

“I don’t know.” Sunset said.

“Need help with something?” The three turned to see two women standing before them. One had short lime green hair with a white stripe running through it and was wearing matching mage robes. On her hip was a golden lyre. Beside her was a woman with pink and dark blue hair. On either side of her belt were a pair of brass knuckles.

“Lyra and Bon-bon right?” The two nodded at the fox girl. “What’s the deal with the letters stamped on the jobs?”

“That’s their rank.” Lyra said.

“Rank?” Sunset asked.

“You see,” Bon-bon started. “every job that gets submitted has to get rated by the guild council.”

“The what?” Nix said.

“A group of nine of the strongest mages in Equestria. They make sure all the guilds are following the rules. Princess Luna is on this council.” Lyra said. “If any guild get’s out of line.” She clenched her left hand into a fist and slammed it into her right hand’s open palm. “They take care of it.”

“Back to the whole ranking thing.” Amber said.

“Right, well every job that gets submitted, goes through them. They rank them based on the difficulty, pay and location. They rank them E to A; E being the lowest and A being the highest.”

“So higher the rank, higher the pay?” Nix asked.

“Correct, but you can only take higher ranked missions on if you have someone of the same rank in your group.”

“Wait, we get ranked?” Amber asked. Lyra had a confused look on her face.

“You haven’t been ranked yet?” The trio shook their heads.

“How do you-” The alchemist was cut off as the group saw a large pillar of light shoot into the sky. Several people raced outside and saw the pillar was coming from the new member’s home.

“Rain check on that test.” Amber said as they raced towards the house. The light was gone by the time they reached the home. The house looked intact but the top of the ice shelter Cerulean had made had been blown off by the blast. Sunset rubbed her arms and saw her breath.

“It’s cold.” She said as she saw the grass frozen.

“Did that moron make it snow?” Nix hissed. There was cold air coming from inside the small shelter.

“Cerulean? Are you okay?” Sunset asked as she poked her head inside the shelter.

“Yeah, just um...don’t freak out.” He said as he coughed. The blue haired man emerged from the ice shelter his hair was a mess and his clothes were scorched. Cerulean stumbled out and fell to his knees. Amber and Sunset quickly helped him up.

“What happened to you?” Amber asked.

“Remember that blue rock I picked up from the dragon?”

“Yeah?” Nix said. The group then heard a small squeaking noise.

“Well,” He said as he stood up and went back inside the small shelter. The trio looked at one another with perplexed looks on their faces. “it wasn’t a rock.” When he came out he had something in his arms. It looked about the size of a full grown house cat, instead of fur it had bright blue scales and a long tail with a blue crystal like spike at the end.

Two leather like wings sprouted from it’s back and it’s eyes were like two emeralds of the deepest green. At the end of it’s legs there were sharp claws. It’s front two hands seemed to have thumbs. On top of it’s head were two horns pointing towards it’s back. “It was an egg.” Cerulean groaned and dropped to the ground. The small hatchling scampered out of his arms.

“Cerulean!?” Sunset got to his side, but froze when the small creature hissed and snapped at her. Purple sparks arced around the small beast and a cage formed around it. Much to it’s dislike. Amber saw blood coming from his right hand and quickly wiped the blood away to see a symbol etched into his hand.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long.
Here's a more accurate picture of the baby dragon.