Blooming Fire

   Nights in the Everfree forest is considered very dangerous by many, what with many predators roaming around at night. Who would not hesitate to rip your throat out. Not for the town of Blackwood.

  Granted it wasn’t exactly very deep inside the forest, residing on the edge of its borders, barely a mile in. It was still too close for comfort for anyone faint of heart. Not for the inhabitants of Blackwood though. No one who was raised here didn’t know how to fight. Heck they started fighting when they reached puberty, and even earlier did they start contributing to the town. While yes this town has been attacked from time to time by creatures that resided in the Everfree, the townsfolk and guards were more than able to handle the situation, with guards patrolling the perimeter and inside of the settlements walls in cycles with great discipline.

  Although despite the guards skill and dedication, they were unable to catch the figure sneaking around. The cloaked figure expertly keeping themselves in the shadows until they reached a small two story cottage on the outskirts of the village.

  The person walked cautiously to the front door, placing a basket on the front porch, before knocking on the door hard. Then seemingly vanishing out of sight in a blur.

  There were sounds of footsteps and the front door was opened. The one responsible was a tall, athletic earth pony stallion with brown fur, a copper mane, and brown eyes. The stallion looked left and right before he heard noises below him. Looking down, he saw a male human baby with brown hair and white skin. He only saw his eyes when they opened, revealing blue eyes.

  Curious, the stallion crouched down over the babe with a smile,”Hey little guy, what are you doing here all by yourself?”

  The Babes only response was cooing as he extended his small arms towards the stallion, making him chuckle. He than caught sight of a note on the cloth covering the child. He took it and read it as follows:

Dear Brass plate,

Right now, you are probably wondering why there is a baby on your front porch. Well, the answer is simple. So he will be safe. I don’t have to tell you why do I? With the kind of work we do, he will just end up another target for the government.

So what better choice than not only the most trustworthy, but most powerful friend we have?

While this is most definitely one of the hardest things for us to do as parents, to not be able to raise our own son, we know this is the right thing to do in order to protect him from very dangerous people that even we would have trouble with.

So please Brass, please protect and raise our son with the best of your ability and keep him secret from our enemies. We will be watching him from afar, but that is all we can do at the moment until we know he can protect himself from our enemies.

This won’t be the last we see each other and hopefully we will meet our son face to face again someday as well.

From your friends, Mary and Joseph Dragonfire.

P.S Oh and by the way before I forget, his name is Aiden.

  Brass had to think for a moment and read the letter a couple more times.

They had a son?, Was the question in his mind. They also probably had him recently since from what he saw, the kid couldn’t be older than two months. There is also the fact that they pretty much dumped the responsibility of their child on him.

  His attention was brought elsewhere as the baby cooed again. Realizing it would probably be  better to go inside. He picked up the basket and did just that. Once inside he sat at a wooden dinner table, placing the baby on it while doing so.

  Right now Brass didn’t know what to think. A lot of things just occurred in such a short amount of time. First, he found out his old comrades had a son. Second they asked him to raise his son. Lastly, he’s gonna have to talk to his wife about this.

  The thing about them having a son did make him happy, but why didn’t they tell him beforehand? He could have at least known before this happened and congratulated them. Than there was the fact of raising their son. Honestly, he wouldn’t mind too much if the fact he already has a son to take care of wasn’t there. Either way he would still raise the kid the best he could but could he possibly be the best guardian for the child. There was also how his wife would react. She was a kind women yes, but to suddenly get another son out of nowhere?

  Sighing, Brass dragged a palm down his face in exasperation. Guess I’ll just find out tomorrow, what time is it anyway? He looks towards the clock in the room showed it was half past midnight.

  Brass’ eyes widened. Wow it's late, I should really be in bed by now. He thought and rose from his seat to head upstairs to sleep. Until he heard another coo from Aidan.

  He turned and walked back to the baby, seeing he was almost on the verge of crying. Once he was back in its line of sight, it's stretched out to him again, tearing him up inside. The signs were clear, since Brass knew from raising his own son, he knew what Aiden needed. He didn’t want to be alone.

  Brass let a small smile show on his face before picking up the infant in his arms. Than moved over to the living room, and took a seat on one of the brown couches. After making himself comfortable, he looked back down at Aiden to see he was asleep now. The baby's head was crooked to rest on Brass’ chest, small breaths coming from him as he slept.

Was my son really this small? He thought. It wasn’t like he forgot his son as an infant, but it was still a shocker to actually see the size of an infant only weeks after they were born.

  Moving his hand to run through Aiden's small tuft of brown hair. He came to a realization.

Maybe it won’t be so bad?, He thought as he closed his eyes to sleep, To have another son.

  After that last thought. Both infant and supposedly new adopted father slept the night away. Unaware of the events that might unfold in the future.