“I’ll take them all.”
Ember looked at Fluttershy and raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure you want to say that?”
“They’re all so cute. I couldn’t say no.”
Fluttershy hugged the adorable baby dragons. They snuggled into her fluffy chest.
“Okay, but just remember that among dragons, our word is our bond. But you’re off the hook for now. You can’t be the official caretaker without a suitable mate.”
Fluttershy never thought the harmless conversation with Ember after the eggs hatching was serious and would change her entire life, but now she stared at the card and gift that the dragonlord had sent to Fluttershy’s wedding reception.
Hey Fluttershy,
Now that you have a suitable mate, I expect you to live up to your promise. Congratulations to being the adoptive mother to about 100 little dragons. Here’s a gift to help you prepare for them. I’ll bring them next week.
-Dragonlord Ember
The letter was also marked with Ember’s impressive seal, so Fluttershy knew it was genuine.
“What’s all this?” Discord asked.
“Um, I may have accidentally adopted an entire clutch of dragon babies when I helped out with the hatching.”
Discord looked over the letter while Fluttershy opened the large wooden chest that Ember had sent as a gift. It was full of sparkling gems and golden coins. To anypony who wouldn’t suddenly have 100 little dragons, it would have been a small fortune.
“But we just got married!” Discord said. “We haven’t even had our honeymoon. I wasn’t ready for kids! And certainly not so many.”
“Maybe Twilight or Spike can fix this while we leave for a few days. I don’t even know where we’d put all of them.”
Fluttershy hoped for the best. The very chaotic honeymoon kept her mind off of the matter until she stepped out of Discord’s portal and onto the path in front of her house. Twilight appeared with a loud pop.
“Fluttershy! I hope your honeymoon was good, but I have bad news. Ember got upset when I tried to explain that this was a mistake and give back her gift. I smoothed things over as best I could, but she’s still bringing you the baby dragons.”
Fluttershy’s heart skipped a beat. “Thank you for trying. Me and Discord will do what we can.”
“Most young couples get something like a pet,” Discord said. “But we’ll show everyone that we’re the best. The Lord of Chaos can handle 100 dragons easily. And after handling so many animals, my beautiful Fluttershy can handle some dragons.”
Twilight looked at them skeptically. “Okay, but if you ever need any help, just let me know. Oh shoot! I’m late for my next meeting. Here’s some notes from things I learned when raising Spike.”
Twilight dropped a binder full of papers and teleported away. Discord smiled and twisted around Fluttershy in a tight hug as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“100 dragons is perfect for me. Think of all the chaos!”
“Discord! Children need structure, not chaos. Um… where should we put them? We need to do some fireproofing. Oh, and we’ll need lots of gems for them to eat. Let’s see what Twilight wrote down.”
Fluttershy opened the binder and scanned the table of contents. The chapters were sorted by age. Several appendices sorted more general advice into categories like nutrition and education.
“Hmm… I’d double check with Spike before we follow all of her advice. Spike was always too nice to say it to Twilight, but I think he’d have some suggestions about how he’d do things differently. His childhood wasn’t as perfect as he’d have you believe. You go get the gems, and I’ll work on making the perfect home for all our little dragons.”
Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared with a pop. Fluttershy sighed and started flying toward Rarity’s boutique. Rarity knew the best places to get lots of gems, and Fluttershy was going to have to learn where they were.
“Oh no! They’re going to get me!” Discord hopped across the grass before a dozen little dragons jumped up and grabbed him. “I’m done for!” He flopped onto his belly as all the dragons gave a combined cheer and gave each other high fives as they climbed on top of him.
“I was the one who brought Dad down!” A little black dragon said.
Discord laughed. “You all did it together. No single dragon could ever beat the Lord of Chaos! Only your combined friendship could defeat me. Chaos noogies!”
Discord snapped and a bunch of copies of his hands suddenly gave the little dragons noogies. Some squirmed and laughed. Others growled and wrestled with the hands. Fluttershy smiled as she looked outside. Discord had turned out to be an amazing dad to all the little dragons, and he always looked so handsome when playing with them. Fluttershy turned her attention back to the oven as she heard the faint creak of the oven door. A tray of fresh gem cookies were baking, but a lanky little red dragon had slipped inside.
“Cinnamon, what did I tell you about eating things in the oven?”
Fluttershy gave the little dragon a harsh stare until she jumped back out.
“Sorry mommy. I won’t do it again.”
Fluttershy patted Cinnamon on the head. “That’s a good girl. You can get the first one once they’re done if you wait patiently.”
A crash in the front room ruined the sweet little moment. Fluttershy sighed and went to see what was going on. A gold dragon sat crying with a fresh scrape where his snout had bumped into the wall. Angel stuck out his tongue at the dragon before hopping away.
“Lucky, no chasing Angel or any of the other bunnies. Let me see. It’s just a little scratch. If you stop crying, you can go wait for cookies in the kitchen with your sister.”
Lucky quickly wiped away his tears. “Cookies? You’re the best, Mom!”
He scampered off. Some of his brothers and sisters made fun of him for being so sensitive, but Lucky was one of the sweetest dragons. Angel also constantly antagonized him.
It hadn’t been easy to welcome in so many tiny dragons, but Fluttershy felt that her and Discord had eventually reached a sense of happy acceptance of their situation. Each day was exhausting, but all the little dragons were so cute. It still melted her heart to hear them all call her Mom or Mommy.
The dragon parents hadn’t ever requested their children back, either. Ember said that many dragons were rather lazy or distant parents at best, but that was all the explanation that she ever gave Fluttershy about the dragons’ families. But that didn’t matter now. All the little dragons were part of her family.
Fluttershy opened the front door to yell out to Discord. “Lunch is almost ready!”
Discord began rounding up the hatchlings. Before long, they were all running inside. Fluttershy counted to make sure none were missing. She paused after the last one went by. She gave Discord a big kiss and rubbed his chest.
“You’re such a good dad. Maybe we should have one more.”
Discord’s face went red. “One more? Do we want a cute little pegasus? Or maybe a baby draconequus? I’m not even sure what we’d get.”
“Both sound so cute. And they’d have so many older siblings to take care of them.”
Fluttershy rubbed a wing along Discord’s chin and took a step toward the kitchen. The little ones were already shouting and growling. It was always a bad idea to leave hungry little dragons alone too long, but Fluttershy wouldn’t trade raising them with Discord for anything else in the world.
Author's Note
Short but sweet. I hope you all enjoyed it! The episode didn't really show any dragon parents doing anything, so I built on that and assumed they'd be happy to have a pony taking care of all the baby dragons.
I've loved all the great responses. BlueHeartTattoo did some great and amazingly cute art based on the story that you can see here: https://www.deviantart.com/kassitheplantwarrior/art/Fluttercord-Week-Day-Five-Children-Babies-828024855
