The Luck Dragon's Melody

Nick was bored. He'd been stuck in the hospital for 3 weeks already! And Nurse Redheart said it would be at least a year. But today, after Octavia left for lunch, as he lay in his bed, Princess Cadance came in, pushing a stroller with her newborn daughter, Flurry Heart.

"Nick, I've got a special little visitor who wanted to see you!", she smiled, putting Flurry on at the foot of his bed, only for her to fly up and hug his head cooing, "Unca...Brav...ey."

"She wanted to see me?", Nick asked surprised.

"Yeah, I was showing her pictures of me and Twilight, and there was with you in it when you first came back. That's when she said, 'Unca.' Every time she sees someone in a picture with Mommy or Daddy, she automatically assumes that they're family, but that's alright. I see your wing has healed up nicely.", she smiled, looking at his right wing, which was whole again.

"Yeah, it's still a bit sore," he said, playing with Flurry, "But I'll be fine if I can get out of here! One more day, and I think I'll lose it! And the nurse says I have at least a year to recover!"

"I'm not surprised! You banged yourself pretty bad taking on Chrysalis like that! What were you thinking?", said Cadance in a voice that showed she was not happy.

"It might have had a little something to do with vengeance...", he said, trying not to look her in the eye.

"Nick...I know you're better than that! Like that time Me and Shining met you during your 10 year trek. We had such a good time with you. What about vengeance?", she asked disappointedly.

"My parents...she killed them.", he sighed, as little Flurry nuzzled him.

Cadance stood in shock for a second before saying, "Nick, I'm sorry about your parents. But next time, please be more careful. You mean so much to Equestria. You've been everywhere and talked to everypony. Not everyone was nice to you. But what about Braeburn? Or Aunt and Uncle Orange? Or Luna? Everyone would be crushed if something had happened to you. You should have seen how sad everyone was when we thought you died, Celestia cried so much, and even blamed herself for not showing up in time. And that was just Ponyville! Imagine if all of Equestria heard about it. You mean so much to us all..."

"I'm sorry, Cadance.", he said, as Flurry gave him Eskimo kisses, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure.", she smiled, sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed.

"Have you ever had the feeling that no one trusts you, just because of what you are? I had to live with that for 10 years, after Applejack was born, Granny finally accepted me as her grandson. But now, every time I get ready to go somewhere or do something, they get all super protective.", he sighed.

"No, I haven't. But that's because they want to keep you safe.", she answered.

Octavia came back with Applejack and Applebloom.

"Say bye to Uncle Bravey, Flurry.", Cadance smiled.

"I wuv you, Unca Brave...y.", Flurry Heart cooed giving him one last nuzzle before jumping into her mother's arms.

Everyone gasped.

"You said your first sentence! Wait till Daddy hears this!", Cadance exclaimed.

"I love you too, My Little Flurry Heart.", Nick smiled, waving his paw at her. She waved back.

"Wow, Nick, you certainly have a way with the young uns!", Applejack grinned, "How ya doing today?"

"Better than yesterday, what's up with you guys?", he smiled, hugging his little sisters.

"Applebloom here wanted to drop off an apple pie she made for you."

He looked around for signs of the nurse before whispering, "Quick! Hand it here! She doesn't like it when I get snacks unless I share with her. More like give it to her..." He crammed it into his mouth and swallowed quickly just as Nurse Redheart walked in.

"Did I smell an apple pie in here?", she said excitedly.

"What pie?", Nick said like he knew nothing.

"I must've been imagining things...", she sighed.

When she walked out of the room, everyone snickered.

"See ya tomorrow, it's getting late, night Nick! Oh, one more thing, Twilight wanted me to drop these off.", Applejack said handing him a small box.

As they left, he opened it up, inside was four medals, each with one of the princesses' cutie marks on them. And a note that said:

Dear Nick,

Here the princesses would like to present you with these medals as follows:

Celestia's Medal of Courage

Luna's Medal of Perseverance

Cadance's Medal of Selflessness

And Twilight's Medal of Tactics

He smiled as he put them on his nightstand, and looked at Octavia, who was on the couch asleep, and whispered, "Good Night, Tavi."