“Quick, up these stairs!” Calmatious Blossom burst into a tunnel and up a staircase, leaving it on me to follow her as best I could. That being said, her guidance wasn’t really necessary at this point. Currently, there was a sizable stream of kirins fleeing from the upper levels, quite thoroughly blocking the path up. To my relief, most of them seemed unharmed, and there was a good number of children among them.

“Make way!” Calamitous Blossom’s voice resounded through the staircase. It took me by surprise that not even Hades’ plague seemed capable of preventing her from being able to shout. Without delay, a very small corridor between the fleeing kirins opened in the middle of the stairs.

“Come on! Hurry!” She once more yelled when I got stuck between the mass of kirins. “We don’t have time for your dawdling!”

“I am trying!” This darn staircase was way too narrow for my liking. It was obvious that it wasn’t built for luftirins at all! If it had been, the open space in the center would allow me to fly up in the blink of an eye. Also, the constant growls and open displays of hostility the second one of the crowd recognized that I was an azure-kirin didn’t help.

“We don’t have time for this!” Calmatious Blossom turned around, and a moment later she was by my side. “You are a hundred percent sure you can calm down your dad without my assistance?”

“Yeah, why?”

Instead of an answer, she just grabbed me with her magic. All I was able to say was a short ‘hey!’ before she dragged me to the railing and pushed me up through the center of the staircase. It may have been too small to spread my wings, but ascending several dozen levels like this silenced those complaints..

“I will be right on your hooves! Go!” Calmatious Blossom yelled when she dropped me on the highest level.

At that moment, a loud, blood curdling roar arose in the distance. Yep, there was no doubt it was Dad looking for one of his bornlings. I really had to hurry!

“That’s your Dad?” Rythils voice suddenly sounded a lot more murky and hesitant. His grip around my neck got a little tighter. “Are you sure you can handle him? I mean like right now, without him killing everyone in sight?”

“He will not harm me, that much is clear,” I gasped while galloping forward. “And I’ll do my best to stop him from causing havoc!”

Now my scarf started to shiver a bit.

“It’s better if you stay away from me as soon as we spot him!” I said this not only to calm Rythil down, but because it was true. The more distance there was between me and anycreature else, the less likely Dad was to attack them!

There were several seconds of silence before Rythil’s response finally came. “I… I should stay with you. Fortuna made it pretty clear that she wants me to protect you!”

“You don’t need to from my own Dad!”

Based on the way he shifted and moved on my neck after I said this, I could tell he was fighting with himself about what to do. Finally he made a decision. “Okay, I’ll just fall to the ground and pretend to be dead as soon as we see your Dad.”

“That’ll probably be for the best!”

He gulped. “Shouldn’t you be able to roar out for him now?”

“Maybe, but then he would head straight for me, and through all the fleeing kirin in his way!”

“When you phrase it like that, yeah, that’s pretty smart.”

As soon as we reached the exit to the tunnel system, I was able to spread my wings and fly above the crowd. A series of growls and hisses were directed at me the second I did this as exposing myself like this made it quite obvious that I was the azure-kirin. However, I ignored them and flew higher. It didn’t take long for me to catch sight of the flames and smoke Dad’s rampage had caused thus far.

It was even worse than what the scout had told Calamitous Blossom! There was fire everywhere! The smoke, unable to really dissipate, had started to gather below the ceiling, and it was rather hard to miss the several walls with dragon shaped holes in them. Additionally, a fair few suspension bridges were dangling down with only one side still connected to a house, if not completely missing!

And, lying in the rubble, I could see dozens of injured kirins!

As fast as I could, I flew towards them. “Hey! Are you alright?” I shouted, and before I’d even finished landing, I placed my claw on one of their throats. They still had a pulse, they weren’t dead! I exhaled deeply. “Rythil, you stay here, see what you can do for them! I’ll put some distance between us and then neigh out for my dad. Whatever happens,” I said as Rythil uncurled, “do not get near me till I allow you to. You hear me? My dad will tear you to shreds if he isn’t one hundred percent calmed down, okay?”

“Will do,” he agreed and tended to the nearest kirin.

Alright, here goes nothing… I flew up and landed far enough away from Rythil that Dad wouldn’t instantly see him as a threat, at least I hoped so. I took a deep breath and then neighed as loud as I could, followed by cowering on the ground and looking as much in need of parental cuddling as I could.

I didn’t need to wait for long, I hadn’t even finished laying down when Dad’s reply came. A powerful roar that was already approaching before it had even ended. No matter the turmoil going on, no matter his rage, if my brothers or I called out for him, he would notice, even in the middle of an erupting volcano, I suppose.

In a matter of seconds I could hear his wingbeats, and in a few more, he was already in sight. Another roar followed as he made his way towards me, and right through one of the few remaining suspension bridges, but that didn’t seem to affect him overmuch.

Time to put on an act! I spread my wings and purred loudly, signaling that I was alright and that I dearly needed to be cuddled. It was most important that I showed no signs of fear, discomfort, or anything else that his dragon mind would see as the fault of these kirins.

Dad’s landing was a little bit different than I’d expected however. Instead of landing and checking on my well being before proceeding to cuddle me, he roared me down! He forcefully landed right next to me, spread his wings, and roared straight into my face!

He then began to check on my well being by rubbing his nose against me, sniffing for any signs of problems. Unfortunately, he found the cracked scales on my back along with the wounds on my claws. They weren’t bleeding anymore, and whoever had attended to them had done a great job, still, some creature had dared to harm Dad’s bornling!

I can tell you, the blood curling roar he’d released a minute before was nothing compared to the rage that now imbued his roar! Where the first one said ‘Fear me, run for your lives,’ this one now said, ‘I will find you! I will burn you! I will slaughter each and every one of you!’

Panic started to slip into my mind! In Dad's current state, my own merriment would be considered a possible threat! And I knew they were around here somewhere!

“Dad! I am fine,” I yelled while springing up and quickly rubbing my side against his chest. “I am fine! Really!”

The next second I was in the air, grabbed by my mane and placed on Dad’s back. I tried to grab onto Dad’s face, but he’d already directed his attention back to his surroundings, surroundings full of possible threats to his bornling. Threats he would attend to in the most dragonic of ways…

“Dad! Listen to me! I…”

A sharp hiss followed by that accursed parental purring silenced me most effectively.

Ponyfeathers! Parental purring is far worse than even the azure magic Oma can use on dragons! I needed to stop Dad, I had to prevent him from killing everyone he laid eyes on! Unfortunately, all I could do now was lay on his back like a well behaved bornling!

“Dad, please,” I quietly said, whimpering a little bit, but without any real force behind it. And when another dose of parental purring hit me, I laid still on his back.

That didn’t mean I didn’t notice the group of kirins that were coming our way, possibly drawn in by my neigh as well as Dad’s approach. Flittering Echo, Calm Tempest and Grounded Star. They all flew towards us, and there was nothing I could do to stop them!

As soon as Dad noticed them approaching, he did what any good dragon would, he charged forward for an attack!

I could tell the instant my kirins realized what was happening based on their faces. Looks of uncertainty, doubt, shock, and fear, more or less in that order, washed across their muzzles. It would have been fascinating if it wasn’t for the fact that they were in danger of being torn to be shreds by Dad.

“Watch out!” Flittering Echo screamed, and the three of them aborted their approach, scattering in different directions. The benefit to this was that Dad couldn’t attack all of them at once, the down side was that her screaming had gained her Dad’s attention.

“I am on your side! I am on your side!” she yelled over and over again while flying around the burning mushrooms and evading the lances of fire Dad spit at her.

“Fiery, do something! Stop him!” Grounded Star demanded. She had taken shelter under one of the broken stands next to the path through the village. “We are on your side!”

“I know,” I whispered. Not that she could hear me, but still.

Problem was, Dad could hear her just as well as I could. Without warning, he made a sharp turn, changing direction so he was aimed right at the broken stand. With a scream, Grounded Star just jumped out from under it the moment Dad slammed into it, flattening it completely. Unfortunately, she was still within his reach. With a swing of his tail, Dad hit her in the side and sent her flying several meters through the air before she hit the ground and rolled a good distance further.

I whimpered as loud as I was able to. “Dad, please! Stop!”

It had no effect.

Unimpressed, Dad charged forward, intending to finish Grounded Star. Still reeling and disoriented from being hit by Dad’s tail and thrown like a ragdoll, she did her best to get to her hooves, frightfully aware of the danger she was in. Unfortunately, Dad’s attack had some lingering effects to it. As she tried to put her hooves under herself, it looked like she was trying to stand up on a rickety cart going down a gravel trail. Her legs kept giving out on her, and to compensate, she would throw herself in the opposite direction, only serving to make her more unsteady.

In a desperate attempt to help, Calm Tempest tried to swoop Dad and distract him. A quick strike of Dad’s claw however stopped her most effectively. She screamed out in pain and crashed into the ground. I couldn’t see in what condition she was in since Dad continued to rush forward. Grounded Star, desperate to get away, spread her wings and made an attempt to fly up. Unfortunately, Dad was faster.

In his rage, however, he fortunately wasn’t thinking straight. Instead of impaling her on his wingspikes or just ramming his claws through her head, he bit onto her back and shook her violently before throwing her away.

Her screams of pain and the sight of her mangled body would haunt my dreams for a good while.

Worst of all though, the spot Dad had thrown her in couldn’t have been worse, directly between Rythil and the injured kirins he was attending too. In the turmoil, I hadn’t noticed that the distance I had put between us previously hadn’t been enough.

Unable to really intervene, I would now have to watch Dad slaughter every one of the kirins over there, perhaps even Rythil if he caught sight of him. I fought the parental purring with all my might. I tried to stand up, growl, bite, anything to somehow distract Dad and make him stop, but it was like my mind was covered in glue the second I tried the slightest thing that wasn’t simply laying still like a good bornling.

“I can act quite fine!” Suddenly, the voice of Calmy broke through my thoughts. “I am not affected by Dad’s purring! And you are half pony too! Get your flank up and roar up to Dad!”

Easier said than done! Even being only half pony, my dragon side knew that I had to obey Dad, that he is responsible for protecting me at all costs!

“Let Roary help you! He is an azure! He might be able to help you break through!”

I waited for Roary to pipe up, but he stayed silent. In the meantime, Dad moved forward.

“You need to allow him to speak, remember? You ordered him to stay silent!”

“Oh right! Roary! Roary, I need your help!”

Silence.

“I allow you to speak to me again, quick! We need to stop Dad!”

“There is nothing I can do,” he finally grumbled. “Even an azure has to listen to their parents.”

“There must be a way to stop him!”

“He will stop as soon as there is no longer a threat.”

“That would mean everycreature would be dead!”

I wanted to consult my advisors further, maybe stumble across an answer, but it was too late now, Dad had reached Grounded Star and was going to finish what he had started. Suddenly though, Rythil bursted out from behind one of the injured kirins and hopped on top of her, hissing at Dad as loud as his small form could manage.

‘No, not Rythil too’, I thought, but miraculously, Dad stopped. He growled and stayed in a threatening stance, but he did not attack. Instead, he lowered his head to sniff and inspect Rythil further.

“Don’t you dare go near them,” Rythil roared, and even swung his claws in Dad’s direction. Not that he would be able to stop him for even a second in his current form, but still, the bravery he was showing was impressive.

And it was rewarded. Dad refused to eliminate him. At first I thought it was Fortunas doing, but then it clicked in my head. Rythil appeared to Dad like a child! Dragons do not attack little bornlings! Rythil’s curse had saved his life! For Dad, not being able to think this through logically, this tiny luck dragon in front of him counted as a little hatchling!

If I could, I would have cheered at that moment. His curse had not only saved him, but everykirin else as well! Dragons do not attack a protective parent either! I do not know if Rythil was aware of that fact, but as soon as I had the chance, I would praise him for his bravery in front of my Dad!

With there no longer being a target for his rage, Dad also began calming down. Since these kirins were no longer on the list of things to kill, and with Flittering Echo probably well hidden by now, his mind switched to returning me to Mom and my siblings. He thus turned around, spread his wings, and flew up towards the ceiling. Even if I couldn’t see it due to the smoke, it was clear that he was aiming for the hole he had dug into the ceiling. It was too small for the smoke to escape with any real speed, but for Dad and I, it was wide enough. When Dad reached it, he sunk his claws into the corner of it and began pulling us upwards, crawling through the tunnel towards the surface.

When we were halfway through though, I felt something change. With every meter we ascended, the more and more the effect of his parental purring diminished. I couldn’t explain it, I didn’t even know how this was possible, but it happened! At first I was able to leave my cowering stance, no longer bound to lay motionless on Dad’s back, then, my emotions began to come through more clearly. It was like waking up from a deep slumber. Sadly, I couldn’t revel in this sensation as I had no time to lose! The moment we reached the surface was the instant I was no longer under Dad’s control. I jumped off his back and landed on the wet grass, right in front of Fertile Dessert and Rapt Glance.

“Fiery!” Both of them yelled in unison, trying to approach me, but I raised a wing warningly.

“Get back!” I ordered. And not a second too soon. They hadn’t even retreated two steps before Dad had already landed, roaring loudly. He was halfway to his senses now that I wasn’t in imminent danger, but still, better to play it safe!

“Dad! You need to stop and let me get back down there! These kirins need my help!”

He just growled and tried to bite onto my mane.

“Dad! Stop!” I evaded his mouth by dashing to the side. “Listen to me! I found Bliz and Heat Wave, they are alright! But the kirins down there need my help!”

As if convincing him would be so easy.

Unimpressed, Dad started to purr again. After all, he had to gather his bornling and fly back to Mom to make sure I was safe.

Fear slipped into my heart for a second. Dad’s purring was quite dangerous to my free will. But it was for naught. This time, it didn’t have any effect on me.

“Dad!” I slapped his cheek with my claw and growled warningly, adding a threatening hiss at the end.

It bought me a few seconds where Dad shook his head in confusion. His mind wasn’t really able to process what had just happened. Again, he intensified his purring and tried to lift me up by biting onto my mane.

I hit him again. I made sure to only hit him with the flat of my claw though and not the talons.

“I will not come with you, Dad! I will stay and help these kirins!”

When I raised my claw to stop his third attempt, he seemed to have gotten the message. For several seconds after, he acted almost like he was preying on me, looking for a different angle or other way to pick me up, but each time my stance made it clear I would attack him if he tried. Finally, he roared at me challengingly.

“Be a good bornling and listen to me!” he commanded before wipping the ground with his tail.

“If I do, all the kirins down there will die, Dad! They will die! I need to appease Hades so that they can live before I can come back with you!”

“They are not important, you are!” He roared back. “I am your father! I must protect you, not them!”

“And I must protect them!” At this point I started to notice the light blue light I was emitting. “They are part of my folk, Dad! It is my duty to protect them as much as it is yours to protect me!”

“Nonsense!” And without warning he charged forward, trying to grab me with his mouth or claws.

Instinctively, I hissed and jumped to the side. And when Dad’s claw grabbed me, I curled around it as best as I could and began biting and scratching it like a frenzied cat! I’m pretty sure I sounded like one as well.

This seemed to have had its intended effect as he let go of me rather quickly, only to try regrabing me with both claws almost immediately after.

I, on the other claw, charged forward as soon as my hooves touched the ground and jumped right at his chest and throat. If I was a real enemy, Dad would have impaled me with his wing spikes or talons long before I’d ever gotten close enough to attempt this, but with me being his bornling, he had to deal with me in a non lethal way. This gave me the tiny advantage I needed to connect.

I wasn’t able to do much damage, Dad is a full grown dragon after all, his scales were even thicker than my brothers, and even they I was only able to crack them due to sheer force, not via my fangs. However, it was enough to get my point across. So much so that Dad grabbed me by my back and slammed me onto the ground in one fluid motion.

Fortunately it was the soft swampy kind of ground and not the rocky kind like at home. In all likelyhood, that was probably the reason Dad did this.

“Fiery!” Fertile Dessert swiftly rushed over to check on me, but I shooed her away with a growl before Dad could. Even a single gesture of hers could trigger his Dad mode and then she and Rapt Glance would both be in grave danger. And given the fact I wasn’t sure how much sanity had returned to Dad’s mind at this point, it was best to assume the worst.

Fortunately, Dad didn’t seem interested in her or her actions, instead, he decided to rush forward and grab me by the neck with his fangs. Once again he started to use his parental purring to calm me down, but whatever had protected me from it before still seemed to be in effect. So instead of calming down, I roared and squirmed around, trying to scratch or hit Dad with my wings. The light I was emitting at this point was so bright that we were both awash in a blue aura. Eventually, I was able to hurt myself on Dad’s fangs, leaving a slight scratch over the side of my neck. Instantly, Dad dropped me.

It was irrelevant how rebellious I was being, hurting me completely went against his current goal.

So now we stood there eye to eye, him growling and restlessly swinging his tail around and me hissing and standing in position to attack once more. Neither of us really wanted to hurt the other, but we both had every intention of getting our way. In the end, Dad roared one last time, trying to dominate me. I replied in kind, first roaring, then rising to my hind hooves and neighing a challenge while striking the air with my claws like Mom would with her hooves.

And then, a wonder happened. Dad gave me a long look, snorted angrily and turned around to fly off towards my merriment, or more accurately Mom and my brothers. I watched him disappear into the fog. I may have won this round, but as soon as he returned with Mom I would be finished for good! Like I said before, fighting Dad is one thing, fighting Mom was a whole different story!

Aware that I needed to be quick, I turned around to Fertile Dessert. “We must hurry, onc… “ I stopped midsentence and looked down at her in confusion. She was laying flat on the ground, shivering in fear with her hooves covering her eyes. A quick glance also revealed that the same was true for Rapt Glance. Both of them were cowering on the ground with their tails curled up next to them, neither daring to look up at me.

“Whats up with you two?” I moved over and grabbed Fertile Dessert by the elbow, lifting her up. Once I touched her though she whimpered in submission. “Stop it! We need to be quick now. Once Dad comes back with my Mom, I won’t be able to resist her like with Dad!” For a split second Fertile Dessert dared to look up at me, but quickly lowered her gaze again, only whimpering louder.

“You’re scaring her with your aura, Fiery.” Calmly explained. “A hearthwarming tree barely comes close to you at the moment. You appear to her like Oma would to non-azure dragons.”

Once Calmy brought my attention to it, I noticed indeed that the whole area was covered in a blue light coming from my forehead and back. I rubbed over my scales here and there, but that didn’t seem to accomplish anything.

“You are far too emotional right now. After all, you just fought Dad over your right to be an adult. That had to trigger your azure heritage.”

“Makes sense,” I replied. “How do I turn it off though?”

“Once you’ve calmed down and don’t need to display your dominance any longer, it should stop on its own,” Roary piped in. “You should be able to control it as soon as you figured out the mindtalking.”

“I’ll put it on the list, right behind claiming the throne of Shakirin-La…”

“Fertile Dessert!” I ignored her submissive behavior for the moment. “You and Rapt Glance,” he flinched at the mentioning of his name, “will try to reason with my Mom as soon as she shows up. Tell her that the kirins down there will die from Hades curse if I don’t make it right again. Therefore she has to prevent Dad from interfering or they’re all gonna die! Do you understand?”

She nodded hastily.

“Good. Don’t try to argue with my dad directly though, he’s probably not going to even listen.”

This time they both nodded.

I added ‘find a way to stop scaring your merriment’ to my to-do list as there were more important tasks that needed to be done at the moment. With one last look in the direction Dad had flown in, I approached the smoking hole we’d come from to make my way back down when I remembered what had happened to Grounded Star and Calm Tempest!

Ponyfeathers!

“Rapt Glance! Quick, Grounded Star and Calm Tempest are injured and need your help! You need to come with me! Bring your medical supplies! Hurry! Dad bit Grounded Star and hit Calm Tempest with his claw. Rythil is doing his best, but we need some kind of first-aid attendant down there!”

Luckily, he was already equipped since the two of them had been waiting for my kirins to come back up and potentially be wounded. The fact Dad had been the one to wound them had probably taken them by surprise.

Anyway, as soon as I was sure he had everything we may need, I grabbed him and began flying down.

Author's Note

Schattendrache : Edits and Pre-reading
QueenChrysalisForever: Pre-reading

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