Dragger walked into Sugar Cube Corner. He had gotten a letter from his friend Moon Light saying that there was something important he wanted to discuss with him at sugar cube corner. Dragger looked around the shop, his magenta eyes scanning each table to see if he can find him. Eventually, his eyes fell on a cyan stallion sitting in the corner at a table that's rather out of the way. Dragger trotted over to the table and sat down.
"Hey Moon, I got your letter," Dragger said. "Why are you sitting in a dark corner you didn't suddenly get photophobia did you?" Dragger asked Moon, considering that his friend is a bat pony that was probable but not likely. Moon looked up from the milkshake he was drinking.
"Well I don't like all the weird looks ponies cast my way, I know that thestrals are rare but staring is rude," Moon said looking at Dragger with emerald eyes. Dragger knew how that was, after all, he is a dragon that has to use dragon magic to change himself into a pegasus just so he could fit into the buildings of ponyvile. He would get a few strange looks too but he paid them no mind.
"Ok, you don't like that kind of attention I get it. So why did you want to meet me?" Dragger asked sitting down at the table. A smile grew on Moon's face reviling the bat ponies fangs.
"It's a girl," Moon said. Dragger was confused at first by this statement, looking at him in a way, asking for clarification. Then he realized just what he was talking about. Moon's wife, Selena is pregnant with a little foal. Dragger's expression lit up happy for his friend.
"Wow, that's great, but I thought you wanted for it to be a surprise," Dragger responded. The bat pony gave a small chuckle.
"Ya, about that. you see we went to the doctors today for a checkup, you know to make sure that the foul was alright, considering that she is due rather soon. And Selena just could not handle the suspense and asked whether it's a filly or a colt." Moon looked down at his empty cup, sad that the milkshake was gone but had no effect on his overall mood. Then Moon looked up at Dragger.
"Hey D, your kind of old, you probably looked after a baby or something, got any pointers. " Dragger leaned back in his chair with a hoof to his chin, deep in thought.
"Well for one thing looking after a foul won't be easy, you and Selena will have to take lots of time to take care of her. You probably won't be able to do what you want all the time anymore." Dragger responded eyes closed and still deep in thought. "And you will need to be patient with your daughter and your wife, taking care of a foul can be stressful."
Dragger opened his eyes to find a pair of emerald eyes staring at him as if he said something to make the thestral suspicious.
"What? Was it something I said?" Dragger asked, trying to figure out why his friend looked like he was going to interrogate him.
"It seems like you have had quite an experience with raising someone, is there something you're not telling me Dragger?" The Bat pony leaned in closer to try to intimidate the pegasus look alike.
Dragger pushed the thestral back a little, "There are lots of things I'm not telling you, you are going to need to be more specific." That was one of his favorite responses to that type of question. But it seemed to fail to amuse the bat pony.
*sigh*
"Well, once upon a time I had a daughter and a wife too. I don't like to talk about them much. It brings forth many bad memories." tears began to well up in Draggers eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry I did not know. I shouldn't have asked." Moon said getting out of his seat, putting a leathery wing around the Dragon in disguise. He was silent for a moment but finally replied with three small words.
"I miss them."
Sky wandered through the royal library looking for a book to read, her mother had some studying to do and brought her along. The sky blue dragon hatchling carefully looked at each of the books in search of one she has not read yet. She finally came across one about different flying technics for dragons. Sky, still being only a hatchling could not fly and thought that this book might help her for when her wings grew out. She nabbed the book with her mouth and scampered off to find her mother. Sky founder her in an open area curled up reading some old looking scrolls. Sky curled up next to her mother and began to read the book she found.
Without looking up from the scroll she was reading the white dragon asked, "Find a good book little one?" Sky nodded and went back to reading. The book wasn't really that interesting, Sky looked up at the scroll her mother was reading and decided to ask about it.
"Mommy, whatcha reading?" Her mother looked down and nuzzled her daughter, "Well Sky I'm looking at all the other Dragon leaders of the Omega." using her Dragon magic her mother levitated the scroll so she could see. It was just a list of names, some she recognized like her grandparents King Light and Queen Prism Rulers of the Omega, Sky briefly looked down the list and saw her mother and father on the list, Amillia Dragon Princess of Light and Dragger Dragon King of Darkness. Her mother noticed that Sky was staring at Dragger's name and pulled the list away. Sky gave no reaction, simply kept staring as if it were still there. She nuzzled her daughter and tried to comfort her.
"I know you miss dad I do too, but we both know it's better that he left." Amilia was never the best at comforting her daughter on this matter. Sky said nothing, instead cuddled up to her and pulled her book up close to hide her face. But that did not matter she could hear a few sniffles escape her. Amilia hated it when Sky is upset and did not know how to make her feel better. Amilia went back to her scroll and Sky stared at the pages of her book, she was not reading them. Instead, she was thinking of her father. The two sat there for quite a while about a half hour passed before another dragon came. Sky looked up from her book to see a big mechanical dragon was talking to her mother.
An animatronic Dragon! she thought. Sky had only heard of them but had never actually seen one before. The robotic dragon gave her mother a letter and walked off. Her mother opened the letter and read it silently. Sky's curiosity was peaked. She was about to ask what it said when her mother said.
"Oh no, what am I going to do?" Sky tapped a claw on her mother's thigh to get her attention, it worked. "Sky I have been summoned to a decade-long royal meeting, and you can't come." Sky's head fell ten years without her mother, she had never been away from her mother for that long. The longest her mother left her was for a week. But an idea popped into Sky's head.
"Mommy maybe when you're gone, perhaps daddy can watch me?" Sky asked with big puppy dog eyes. Her mother opened her mouth as if to argue on why she couldn't but then closed it. Amilia thought about it for a while.
"Sky I would like to say that that's a bad Idea but I suppose Dragger deserves a second chance." Amilia got up and used her wing to help Sky onto her back. Sky climbed up the lavender membrane and got comfortable on her back and the two were off.
Dragger got back to his cave on top of Dragon mountain, he shed his pegasus form long ago but even still his claws felt stiff. He looked out of the mouth of the cave and saw that Celestia was lowering the sun, Ponyvile looked so amazing with the sun setting in the background. Dragger curled up and was ready to fall asleep when out of nowhere, there was a big flash Dragger opened his eyes and was awestruck at what he saw.
"Amilia? Sky? is that you?" The latter slid off of her mother's back and ran up to him to give him a hug. But Sky was still rather small and was only able to hug an ankle. "What are you two doing her I thought-"
"Yes I know what we agreed to but I decided to give you another chance. I have been summoned to a royal gathering thing that is a decade long and I need you to watch Sky." Dragger was still surprised that they were actually here.
"Wait, a decade-long, that's rather short for an royal gathering," Dragger said.
Amilia simply rolled her eyes "Yes I know, now the only requirements I have for you is for Sky to be healthy and I want you to send her to school or educate her yourself now if you excuse me I have to get ready for a gathering." Amilia gave Sky one last nuzzle and Dragger a glare saying "Don't mess this up D," and with a flash of light, she was gone.
Sky, was still holding on to his ankle. "Ok, sweety I don't know what time it was in the Omega but here it's time to sleep." But no response came from the hatchling. Upon further investigation, he found her already asleep with an adorable little smile on her face. Dragger let out a soft chuckle and got comfortable for bed, he drew his wing to cover the sleeping hatchling like a blanket. And for a while Dragger just watched her sleep, his eyelids grew heavy and eventually he was asleep too.