What One Will Do For Her People
"Citizenship for all dragons living within the boarders of Equestria."
The young mother looked at the princess, flabbergasted. "You're kidding, right?"
The princess looked on stoically.
"You expect me to sell my baby for citizenship?" The mother enunciates, getting more confused and enraged by the second.
When she had been called here to negotiate the rights of her people, she had expected there to be bargaining. Nothing is gained for free, particularly not thousands of new citizenships being handed out. But her baby? How could anyone expect her to trade one of her babies for this?!
"The child will want for nothing. He will be fed, cared for, and provided with anything he could desire." Celestia once again responds, keeping perfectly calm in the face of an ever increasing storm.
"What could possibly make you think that I would agree to this?" The mother seethes, clutching the eggs in her pouch closer to her. Celestia simply levitates out the paperwork.
"You are one of the main ambassadors of the dragon race, and the leading expert on pony-dragon relations. If anyone would be willing to agree to this, you would." The mother backs farther away at the consistently placid tone.
"Why do you even want one of my children? You wouldn't even be able to hatch them! No pony has ever successfully hatched a dragon, not even you." She hisses, her cool all but gone. Diplomat or no, there are some lines no one should cross.
"Exactly. I'm going to use this child to find someone specific. The person I am currently looking for should be able to do the impossible, the unexplored." She says as she levitates the papers even closer to the mother. "Besides, I only ask for one baby in exchange for thousands of lives being cemented and protected; not to mention the baby will come out of this perfectly fine. They just won't be yours anymore. Is that really too much to ask?" The princess asks. Her tone is placating, even if her 'bargain' is anything but.
The mother is sobbing by this point, holding her eggs close to her chest. She wants to say 'Yes, yes it is too much! This is my baby, no one can take them from me!'...but she can't. She can't refuse this. The princess had never even offered green cards to her people before, as the locals considered them too much of a threat. She never expected to be offered such a good deal at all. This would allow her people to not only come in and out of the kingdom of the most powerful specifies in the land, but to live there without consequence. This was something the princess was taking a big risk by doing, as it would most definitely upset her people. This was a chance they would never get again. But her child? She would truly have to loose her child for this?
Finally, the mother spoke. "Promise me." She said quietly. "Promise me my baby will hatch. Promise me they will grow big and strong, and someday I will hear of their health." She said, finally looking back at the princess. Her eyes left no room for argument, her gaze leathal.
The princess still did not flinch. "I promise." The dragon slowly removed the smallest egg from her pouch. The runt had the least chance of scaring the ponies while growing up, maybe it would have a chance of being happy here. The princess levitated the egg away and left the signed treaty in the mothers hands. The citizenships were comfirmed, the screening and accepting would begin soon. The mother took one last look at her baby, and turned to leave. She didn't glance back, she couldn't. She wouldn't be able to leave them if she did.
Ten years later, the mother and her remaining five hatchlings were well. They lived in Equestria now, in the badlands not too far from Appleloosa. The ponies were wary of them, but never hostile.
After her success in getting citizenship for her kind, she had quit politics. She had given above and beyond what she was expected to for her people, she couldn't give anymore. She was happy with her new life; even if there was always a small void, right on the edge of her mind.
She went to town every two weeks or so for supplies and to pick up a newspaper-or twenty. Just because she quit politics didn't mean she wasn't interested. She was looking at the Global Canterlot one day when a specific article had her collapsing in tears. There -on the front page of one of the biggest newspapers in Equestria- was her missing baby, standing next to the newest princess. She knew he was hers. The purple scales, the bright eyes. And those little green scales that he got from his father.
He was okay.
And though she would always miss him, always wonder if she did the right thing; seeing him standing there, happy and smiling-well. It was enough for now.
The children had known their whole lives they were missing one. As the three girls and two boys played in the sand, climbed the mountains, and explored the world around them, they could feel a small void that was always there. The one thing that could even partly fill that void was their eternally brave, forever strong mother. Then one day, she wasn't strong. She was crying.
She hadn't done anything different, just been reading her paper. Then she broke down. When she went to her room to get it all out, she had left the paper behind. They swarmed it. There they saw him; a little purple dragon on the front page of the big newspaper. It was decided without a word. That was the missing piece. The one thing that made their mother weak and their world incomplete. The one thing they needed back. So without a word they packed their rations, wrote their goodbye notes, and followed behind the two oldest that had already sprouted their wings. They were heading to Canterlot. It was time to bring bubby home.
