Pearl flew lower and lower, her massive dragon body half blotting out the sun as she neared her target. This time, she would get that pest. Landing she took a large deep breath.
"Hello, Pearl." Kohaku didn't even bother to lift his head up. "You're getting better. I didn't hear you till you were almost five hundred meters away this time." Flurry smiled as she lifted her head from Kohaku's shoulder and waved hello.
"Damn your fox ears..." The Red head grumbled as it turned away, the White one slowly sneaking around and nuzzling Kohaku.
"Say when are you going to ditch the Crystal Princess and hook up with a real mare?" the White head giggled with hearts in her eyes as the other four heads groaned in annoyance. "What? He's cute. I like him," the White head pouted as Kohaku laughed along with Flurry.
Pearl wrapped a claw around her White head's muzzle as she looked down. Even she had to admit how attractive he had grown up to be, his sleek body having turned many a mare and stallion's heads growing up. His nine tails swished behind him as Flurry teased his ears. "Sorry about that, she still hasn't accepted Flurry as your mate yet."
“No harm done," Kohaku smirked.
Flurry didn’t even bat an eyelash. She’d heard plenty of times over the centuries. Hearing it from Aunt Pearl, in a roundabout way, was still weird though. “Shouldn’t you be with auntie Twilight?”
All of Pearl’s heads groaned. “Have you been with her when she gets stuck in one of her sorting moods? I swear it gets worse and worse every year,” her pony head replied, rolling all of herself, or as much as she could, being fused into the Blue head.
No matter how long he had known his best friend could do this, or that she could change which dragon head her own head sat on, the sight still set Kohaku’s head spinning. “And yet you still made her your mate,” he smirked.
One Pearl returned as she changed back into her alicorn form. “What can I say? I’ve loved Twily for as long as I can remember. And I will sneak up on you one of these days,” she grumbled.
“No you won’t,” he chuckled as he stretched and rested his head on his raised paws with a knowing smirk. “Now. I do not think you came out here just to get away from Twilight sama for a few days.”
Pearl’s eyes twitched. Oh, there was that damn smugness she had long ago learned to love, but still drove her insane even after a thousand years, as she reached into her saddlebags and pulled a pendent. “It’s not. Remember this?”
Kohaku looked at the pendant. Something about it seemed familiar. “Should I?”
Pearl groaned. Was he doing this on purpose? “You gave this to me the morning Twilight and I left for the Blight. I only had to use the foxfire once thankfully thanks to your golem. I’ve held onto it for old time’s sake I guess. But I can’t hold this back any longer.”
Flurry gave the pendant a confused look. “Hold back what? You told us the story of what you did.”
Pearl shook her head. “I didn’t tell the whole story. Only Twilight knew about this before now, and she knew better than to say anything about it. She didn't believe it was real for a long time. But it’s long past the point it would change anything.”
Kohaku shifted his look over to Pearl and sat up, cracking his back loudly until Flurry slapped him upside the head. Chuckling at his mate he laid his nine tails about her body. “You’re talking about that dream you had about me being mated to Flurry here and you being a dragon alicorn. Right?”
Pearl nodded. “That wasn’t all the dream showed. Remember the planar invasion five hundred years ago?
Nodding softly Kohaku yawned. “You mean that pesky annoyance to my forest I had to deal with? Yeah I could have done without it. I’m still picking pieces of demons out of my trees.”
Flurry sighed and shook her head. Leave it to her husband to be more concerned about a grove of trees than ponies. Sitting up she groaned and placed a hoof on her swollen belly.
Pearl, though, couldn’t bring herself to even smile. “There’s more that you don’t know. Didn’t you ever wonder why Twilight wasn’t with me when I did what I could to keep it from spilling outside your forest? Even when it would have helped?”
Flurry tapped her chin. “It did seem odd she did not. She loves family too much to just sit back and do nothing. Especially for something like that and right on Ponyville's doorstep as well."
Pearl sniffed as she nodded. “Twilight was supposed to die during it. Killed as she protected me. I had to make her Pinkie Promise to stay out of it.”
Kohaku nodded slowly as he taped the pendant, the three intricate circles turning into nine. “It was never guaranteed that she would have. That’s the problem with prophetic dreams, you never see the whole picture. After all, you and Twi got together a hundred years before you did in the dream. And so far Flurry and I only have five children.” A smirk crossed his lips. “Your favorite currently ready to pounce on you like a rabbit.”
“Daddy!!!” little Pearl pouted. Her twin white tails swished as she poked her head up from the tall grass, earning a laugh from her parents and godmother.
Pearl rolled her eyes as she picked her namesake up in her magic and nuzzled her. “I wasn’t going to take that chance. Everything else was going exactly like that dream. Damn it all if I wasn’t going to do something about it."
Nodding again Kohaku smiled at his friend. “And that was the other piece. Foreknowledge can help alter events. Sometimes it can be better, sometimes worse. Mother was always careful when dishing out future events. Great Grandmother too. I never gave that dream a second thought.”
“Which is why I don’t say much about it,” Pearl grumbled. “We’re almost at the point where I woke up too. I stopped worrying about it a long time ago. Leave it to you to beat me to it though,” she groused.
Chuckling Kohaku walked over and hugged his friend. “I come from a whole line of seers. I’ve memorized every journal my mother and all her mothers have written. And I gleamed one truth.” Tapping Pearl's nose he chuckled. “Never worry about what the future holds.”
She chuckled too. He always knew what to say to make her feel better. A part of her was still annoyed he could, but she no longer cared. “Well then. You won’t mind if I leave you out of the baby shower then? Leave it to Twily to work, even when the doctors told her to lay off.” She giggled at the look of surprise that crossed her friend’s face. “Didn’t see that coming did ya?”
Shrugging Kohaku walked over to his mate and rested both paws on her shoulders. “Nope. But then unlike my mother and her mothers, I’m not a seer. I’m a gardener.” he chuckled with a grin. “And I know about stubborn pregnant mares. This one insists on doing modeling shows when she should be resting at home!” he half growled as Flurry giggled. “So I can relate to your problem with Twilight. This one takes after her aunt.” Kohaku sighed as Pearl and Flurry laughed.
Pearl wiped her tears away with a wing after a moment. “Summer and Autumn are over the moon of course. Don’t know what we’ll do if she’s another alicorn. Three are bad enough. More so when two are teenagers!"
“Oh, I know all too well. My two alicorn boys are more than a paw full. I lost count of how many times I’ve been called away to the principles office of the Crystal Academy.” Shaking his head he smirked. “But at least they’ve kept all major damages to a minimum this year.” Flurry nodded in agreement. “Why did I let you talk me into sending them to the Crystal Empire for school?”
“Because it’s not flammable love. You know how Mac gets when his temper goes off. And AJ, well less said about that situation the better.” Flurry sighed. One boy gifted in flames and the other like his father, a natural with plants and animals. “Mother’s still trying to undo the water damage he caused to the Crystal Library.”
Pearl snickered. She loved the two like they were her own. Mac and AJ were both almost like she had been in her younger years. Maybe even worse sometimes. But she still loved him and his twin just as much. She only wished AJ had his namesake’s pension for hard work.
Flurry put on her best pout face, honed from years of getting her way with her family. “You’re not going to come out all this way, and then just leave are you, aunt Pearl? You don’t visit much, and I know what auntie Twilight is like when she’s in this mood.”
To make it even worse, young Pearl did the same, even putting a lip wobble into the works. Older Pearl internally groaned. Darn it. One of these days, she would be immune to this.
“Forget it, Pearl. These two have us wrapped around their tails and you know it.” Kohaku chuckled answering his friend's thoughts. Pearl shot him a smirk and the sharp look she always did when he did this to her. How he always knew what she was thinking when his mind was worse than deciphering one of Twilight’s books was yet another thing she had grown accustomed to but still hated. “And yes your room is still just as you left it last time you visited during one of Twilight’s ‘moods. I’ll tell the house staff to ready it later and put another plate out for dinner.”
Pearl finally gave up and laughed. “Okay, okay. You win. I need a break anyway. A long one.”
“And while you two are getting cozy. I’ll go see about, literally, pulling Twilight from her work. Both of you need a vacation. Especially with a newborn on the way.” Kohaku stood up and with a single word, vanished in a flurry of leaves.
“I take it that’s the other reason you came here, isn’t it? You failed to get her to stop so you came to him,” Flurry smiled mischievously.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.” Pearl laughed and looked up at her namesake, sitting on her head gripping the long-scaled horn and calling out pirate terminology. “This way I get what I want and avoid a five-hour lecture. And I don’t have to go to Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?” Little Pearl asked, leaning down and getting super close.
Pearl smirked. “Breaking out my Dragon form, and letting the girls browbeat her into listening to me. It’s worked before. Four semi-independent minds come in handy in those times. Twilight hates it when I do it though." Her eyes briefly flashed a deep blue, her mouth moving to a conversation only Pearl could hear. "One of these days, my White head will get the message about Kohaku."
Flurry rolled her eyes. Even knowing all of that for most of her life now, it still weirded her out to some extent. Not that she would ever say that out loud of course. You piss one head off, and all of them were soon after your blood.
Pearl didn’t really care, though, as she finally allowed herself to really relax for the first time that day. This was just what she needed. ”So, when are you due?”
Flurry rested next to her aunt and smiled. “Oh, not for another few weeks. Thankfully Kitsunes birth earlier than foals. They're just harder to carry. I can feel this one’s Lil claws nightly,” the Crystal Princess groaned. “I am glad you two are going to relax. Kohaku won’t say it but he’s been worried about you two. Working so hard. And not taking time to enjoy the sweet things in life.”
“I know. I don’t mean to worry him. But we’re going to relax now. And it couldn’t be in a better place.” Pearl laid there with Flurry. Looking over the vastness of the Everfree and how beautiful it was in the setting sun. the green leaves tinted with hints of fire.
Pearl was content. She had everything she wanted in life. Family, friends, and a job she enjoyed doing that wasn’t of her parent's design. For the first time in a long time, she was excited about the future and thanks to her best friend. All the uncertainty it entailed.
Author's Note
So, to explain what was happening to Pearl at the start. Each of her heads is semi-independent of her to a certain degree. But each is a different aspect of Pearl's own personality and feelings. Anything they say, it's Pearl own feelings. Even if she wouldn't normally say them out loud herself. They'll be happy to.
She can out snark Discord when she puts her minds to it. Much to his annoyance.
