Winter is my favorite season, I can go outside any time and feel the cold breeze, the crispness of cold air, and the comfort it brings to my body, i was not just a cold blooded creature like a crocodile or a monitor lizard, I was a creature that needed to have a cold core in order to live.

This didn't mean that I couldn't enjoy some warmth now and then, specially body heat, that was fine, as my body was able to adjust my temperature accordingly, I just really hated hot days.

I had several ways to mitigate the heat, panting was the more mundane method, then there was my draconic power was attuned naturally to cold, I could cover myself in my own ice breath, release it as a mist instead of a cone, so it would surround me and cool the air around me, I also could use prestidigitation on the air around me, and cast it once every few minutes to keep myself cool, there also spells used by ponies to explore areas near the volcanoes to the south, ice shield, weather manipulation, and some others I was probably forgetting.

"Heeey Onyx did you slept well? Because you certainly slept a lot, it's almost noon... Aren't you hungry?" I had been awake for a bit but I was just thinking to myself.

"Yes... Morning mom! I'm going, just let me go to the bathroom first, then I'll be there."

"While you were asleep, I took all of the camping supplies, and all of the things weighting us down from the inventory, except the money, I stored the armor sets in the closet, I also stored the extra weapons in the basement dear son." Oh this was a relief, all that heavy gear was filling our inventory to the brim already, momma must have been busy, the armor is heavy, and she spent all morning doing this? I was surprised I had not woken up from!

"Thank youuu! the inventory was just too full, now without all of that we can store anything we need again in an emergency, I love you mom!" And I meant it

"That's really sweet, i love you too! By the way my lovely son, I just made you breakfast, is ready on the table, don't take too long or it will get cold." I nodded with a smile and got up from bed, walked to the bathroom.

Five minutes later I was at the table, eating my breakfast that was sort of lunch too, sunny side egg over toasted brioche with cheese and turkey slices, those griffin were the best butchers this side of Equestria, I suppose farms did raise animals to sell for meat then, since there are many meats sold in the market, except cow of course.

"Mmmhhhm! This is the best! Thank you so much for this food momma, come heeere~" I jumped off the chair and went to hug her after finishing the food, I loved smooching the side of her snout.

"Oh it's nothing son, I think a bit of normalcy and peace is what you and I need right now, I also took those used plates and the empty pot of food from the inventory, washed it all and dried it, and put it back in, not to mention I packaged everything like it should be, when we left the dungeon yesterday, you left singing so fast I had to pick up all the camping gear in my inventory, it came out the same as it went in, so I disassembled the tent and put it on its bag, and did the same with the mat, the bags, everything is packed and stored back, so relax."

"Wow... That was sweet of you! Thank you, I totally forgot, I felt like I was in a trance, full of energy and magic, it was very spontaneous, I felt like I wanted to let everyone know how happy, and how alive I was, and that song just came to me naturally, I mean I did know that song, from before, it's a pretty good song but this version was a bit different, either way now I wish I had a phone, a good set of speakers, maybe... Solar panels to charge all of that, maybe a big travel battery so I could plug the speakers and play music whenever I wanted." Would be really cool, but without access to the internet here, I would have very little music, I'd need to download each song manually and that would take forever, I had explained human tech to mom before, she understood some but not all of it.

"Ponies do have music Onyx, you just haven't really been to any musicals yet, there are even concerts, but I've heard those are more popular in Manehattan and Las Pegasus, here ponies prefer more classical music and orchestra, but some concerts are done from time to time."

"Maybe next time we should go to one, I like the orchestra, I suppose there is also opera singers too, right?" Mom nods at my question.

"Figures, I... Do like them both, specially live, it's wonderful to listen, I haven't been in so long... Makes me remember my... human family you know? I know I haven't told you much about them, but it's just painful to think about that for them I died so long ago now, but I know they still miss me, from time to time, I still miss them too." I close my eyes, remembering the little I could of their faces, a few tears run down my cheeks, mom pulls me into her embrace and I stay on her for a few more minutes, silently crying until I feel better.

"Dragons are supposed to be though, but I'm the complete opposite... Well, no other dragons to judge me here, is there?" I let out a small humorless laugh, but still feeling better emotionally.

"You are much tougher than you think, despite everything thrown at you, you endure and keep growing in power, the more you grow that power, the better you'll have to learn to use it, you are just starting to learn, if it makes you feel better, we could go out today and do some fun things! Do you wanna go somewhere?" She does her best to cheer me up.

"Oh as matter of fact, I do! I wanna buy another chest to store the gold we got back there, better than letting it sit on the basement loosely, also ideal for storing the gemstones I got, but other than that I want some ice cream, and maybe more than some... Let's go!" I levitated the dirty plate to the sink and opened the faucet for a few seconds, soaking it so it's easier to clean later, then closed, all from the living room, I could feel around with my telekinesis after all.

"Well done son! Thank will make washing easier."

"I'm gonna wash them when we get back too, so don't worry! Now get your saddlebags on, time for a shopping spree! I-i mean to buy some things!"

Mom gave me the stink eye, but then smirked and shook her head "Hatchling, you're lucky you're so adorable, or I'd have to ground you for even suggesting that, however... I haven't exactly gone shopping for just the fun of it in a while, so I accept, but we aren't going over 15 thousand bits, you hear?"

"Ow... Fine I suppose that should be enough for some things, it's not like I intend to spend too much anyways, lets go, I'm riding on your back, and don't worry Ill be careful with your flank, I know you're still... That." She glares at me a bit harder, but I just smile and go to jump on her back, on top of her saddlebag that was full of bits, being small and agile had its perks.

We headed out, locking the door behind us, the day was chilly and there were some clouds, but it was still not snowing, it was mid December, technically not winter but close enough. "Ohh, what a lovely weather we're having today, don't you agree?"

"I find it quite cozy, but ponies don't seem to like it as much, they're all wearing clothes, normally ponies don't wear clothes, but for me its fine, this chilly weather reminds me of my tribe, maybe sometime we could go visit... Maybe help them on a hunt, I don't mind having left them because I honestly I was more concerned about you, they can fend for themselves, but it never hurts to check up on family... Sorry." She seems to realize what she said out loud in the end, and apologizes.

'It's fine, I died back home, they know I died, it's been years, they have grieved and they have healed by now, going back and telling them that I'm just fine and that I didn't really die, first would be a lie, I did die, and second it would be extremely confusing and probably hurtful.' I decided to say this telepathically because there were a few ponies around, going about their business.

'Yeah, I imagine how that would feel, they would think you are lying, they won't believe it and will feel horrible that someone was pretending to be you, to trick them, that's what you think right?' She hit the nail in the head, we walked on the streets, some ponies were always outside in this city, always walking somewhere, sometimes even carriages would be pulled carrying some noble of some kind, dignitaries, etc.

'You know me well my dear mother, I know it's best for my mind to just think of them as just gone, but I will come back to my world to visit eventually when I have the right spell and equipment.' I knew our latest for has a spell capable of traveling to other dimensions, and I will learn it in time, maybe from the spirit gem itself.

She looks at me with some concern and doubt, probably unsure of my idea to travel there, but that was for the future, now we arrived at the ice cream parlor, it was old school looking, maybe that was... Modern looking for here? But I wasn't sure because some things looked modern in Manehattan, maybe this city had to keep a theme probably by law so no building would look too out of place.

Inside there were was a bored looking young unicorn stallion with light brown coat and two tone white and brown mane, when the door bell rang, he looked up at us and his eyes widened in recognition, I suppose he did remember us when we last came for ice cream, I never really talked much with him before because usually it was much busier during summer when we come here.

"Good day dear costumers, welcome to Coconut Cream's ice cream parlor, the tastiest ice cream in all of Canterlot! It's good to see you two again, glad you stopped by in winter, not many ponies enjoy a cold cone when it's cold outside... Honestly I probably should just close in winter from the lack of costumers, but the occasional pony or other creature who comes during off season make my day!" Its nice to see him being so friendly, I approach and stand on my hind legs, reaching the top of the counter with my snout.

"Hello mister! You are Coconut Cream right? So this means you own this store?"

"Hey little colt, yes I am the owner, Coconut Cream, I inherited this business from my pa, now I'm the owner and since my talent is making ice cream I enjoy working here a whole lot, seeing the smiles of my costumers and the enjoyment is the best!" He says dreamily, smiling and gently patting my snout.

"Hello mister Cream, I'm Sylf, this little dragon's mother, nice to meet you formally, we have seen each other before but usually just to order and pay for the ice cream, how do you do today?" Sylf seemed chipper today, she was happy to make conversation with the stallion, approaching the counter, but he seemed to not mind and smiled seemingly happy with her.

"You can just call me Coco, ms. Sylf, it's good to meet you in a more relaxed moment, I'm doing well today, but I'm a bit bored from sitting here waiting for costumers that rarely come, but seeing you two made my day!" His happiness is genuine and I am tempted to go there and nuzzle him, but the counter is between us, so I just give him a genuine and happy smile in return, mom however does something unexpected and moves closer and nuzzles him which makes him blush a bit, but slowly return the gesture.

"O-oh... you are really sweet Sylf! I only make a small amount of ice cream during the winter because there is no need for larger amounts, so I may not have as many flavors as you remember, but which one do you want? I have... Of course, Coconut Cream flavor, Tiramisu flavor, dark chocolate and natural vanilla, and wildberries with cream flavor.

"I... I think I w-" I start before Sylf interrupts me, her tail is wagging excitedly and she is staring at the stallion intently, a predatory look to her, i was slightly worried.

"I want you Coconut Cream, you think you can give me that?~" What?! Did she just... I could tell she serious now, she was blushing slightly but did not backing down, the stallion on the other hand, was blushing a lot more, speechless, swallowing audibly, he looked at her, then at me, then back at her. She gave him a hungry and very lustful look.

"B-but w-what about your son? He still wants his ice cream, I'll... Get it ready for him a-and then we will... see what happens?" His voice was shaky as he spoke to the large wolf, there was a hint of excitement in his voice too, she nodded with a happy smile.

"I just want half a kilo of natural vanilla" I try to sound as casual as possible, the stallion nods with a red face still, but goes to work and quickly I have a crunchy wafer and a good amount of ice cream on a big glass cup, he asks if I want chocolate sauce and I nod, then he puts the plate on the counter, I go and retrieve it.

"I'll be outside on the benches, take your time and have fun!" I give them both a wink and thumbs up, mom hands me the home keys then I leave out the door and go sit outside, honestly while I was shocked at first, I was happy mom decided to get the help she needed with her heat.

'Sorry son, I just cannot resist, this heat, it feels like I'm going to go crazy and with everything that happened, I can't help myself! I-i hope you aren't upset...'

'Oh mom don't worry about me! Honestly when I was human I was going through the same, more or less, just... Have fun, contact me when you two are done okay? Over and out!' and with that, I relaxed and started eating my ice cream in peace, the sign on the door was flipped to closed.

Nothing like enjoying a homemade ice cream during winter, while you waited for your mom to get laid.

That day the she wolf and the stallion both realized what they had been missing out on, and that realization would change their lives forever.

less than an hour later

Mom was really going at it, I could feel it, her emotions through our psychic link, despite myself I was blushing, I may not have been showing it down there but this intense emotions were the closest I could feel to arousal, I shook my head, trying to not focus on them.

It was getting overwhelming and as happy was I was for mom I didn't want feel something that was private, as soon as the sensation intensified I ran to the nearest alley and hid behind something, then used the menu quickly and escaped to the second dungeon.

Thank goodness, the connection was severed by switching dimensions, the link only worked within a certain radius of my companions, about 5 or so kilometers, I could turn it off but that would mean I would not know what was happening to my party, what was good about this link was that it did not send things that would cause me to be crippled, like extreme pain, just enough to know something was happening, I had it set up in a way only i could feel this emotions to not scare the others.

I was still blushing somewhat, but I was calming down, now that I was here I decided to deal with the corpse of that pony we killed here, I grabbed it with telekinesis and moved it to the outside, and decided to use Cone of Cold to freeze it into a two piece statue, and stored in my inventory, this spell waranteed a complete freeze of a body instantly and completely all the way, but other spells probably would do the same.

Once that was done I was free to try some other things I had in mind, I pulled out from my inventory the legendary item that I had obtained from the necromancer, his spirit gem. It had a dark blue color, similar to the deep sea, I held it in my hand and used my telepathy on it.

'Post Mortem, are you here?'

'Oh, so this is what awaits me after death, being the hatchling's toy, how ironic, I said I was going to make you my toy, if I recall correctly.' I rolled my eyes, his words were menacing but his tone was different, he sounded... Defeated.

'I did not want to fight you, Post Mortem, but I had to in order to survive, do you know what happened to you?'

'I died, killed by that bitch, but she made me the biggest bitch in the end, I died humiliated beyond belief, begging and screaming, I had a pathetic death and now I'm trapped in here in a project of my own creation, have you come to gloat? Were you not satisfied and wanted to 'punish' me as well?'

'No, I think you already had enough of that from my mother, and if it makes any difference, I don't like the way she ended you, I would have simply used a spell to destroy to destroy you and give you a quick death, or cut off your head in one strike, in her place, the latter.'

'Your mother, I see, so that bitch is your mother, well you have the ugliest and filthiest mother ever, I can't say that I approve, but then again, only a disgrace of a dragon like you would get adopted by the lowest of the low, a wolf bitch who can't even find one of his own to make her own offspring.' His tone was dry and hateful, I growled in anger at his words, no one spoke of my mom like that!

'You know I can just extract your spells and knowledge from you and make your consciousness disappear right? I also know a lot of spells and I'm able to cast magic thanks to her, she taught me most of what I know, she's a smart and powerful creature, more than any pony I've seen perhaps except the princess!'

'You lie, why haven't you done so yet if you can?
You may think yourself unique as a dragon mage? The truth is that dragons used to wield magic as much as ponies, and before ponies did, until the downfall of their civilization.'

'That I did not know, who taught you this, mister Post Mortem?' I tried to be respectful, maybe it I showed him some good manners he would tell me more.

'You think I don't see what you are trying to do, whelp? You won't get me to tell you my knowledge by just asking nicely, I propose a deal, you answer my questions and I will teach you what I know.'

'I... Hope you aren't planning anything bad to me or those I care about, so I won't tell you information that may put me or them in danger, anything else I will answer.'

'In this condition, I have no choice but to accept those terms, I will go first. What are your plans with me?'

'I want to obtain your knowledge, and maybe have someone to talk to that is neither another foal or my mother, someone who is... More experienced.'

'Are you delusional or stupid, hatchling? I am the most feared mage of my generation, and with good reason, I have tortured and killed hundreds, I ravaged both the ponies and the griffons for decades, I have traveled the world and done as I pleased to those who got in my way, yet you want to have me as a role model?'

'Welll, not exactly a role model but someone to share my thoughts or exchange ideas, does that sounds so bad? If you don't want to cooperate I will have to do something bad to you, but I think your memories will be useful to me.

'What will you do if I don't want to cooperate? The gem has no way of being destroyed, you cannot do anything to me here, not even magically, probably not even Celestia herself could do anything to me here.'

'I can absorb all of your arcane knowledge, in turn deleting your memories and sending your soul to the afterlife, as a blank slate, I can do this, but I can not prove it to you, as proving it would mean doing it and I don't really want that, I want more than your arcane knowledge, I want your knowledge of the world, of distant lands, untapped resources or places that could have something of use, like artifacts, I want power, and yes, obtaining your spells and knowing much more about magic would be perfect, I feel I would miss out on other interesting things, so what do you think?'

'Its hard to believe you, but I don't have a choice, I want to keep existing as I am for now. But why do you seek this power then? What is your ultimate goal?'

'I want to become more powerful than the one who still sits on the throne of Equestria, after almost a thousand years, I want to be unopposed and have Celestia bowing to me, she is a tyrant and deserves to be put in her place after all that she did.' I said with total sincerity, I couldn't like Celestia after what the Overseer told me, she was never wrong before.

'Hahahahaahaha you innocent and delusional hatchling! Who do you think you are? If you think you can even stand up to her you are absolutely retarded, even I would not stand a chance against her, not even for five minutes, the only thing I could do was stall her, and manage to cast a spell to teleport away, she had blocked teleportation to another location inside the plane so I switched to another plane and ended up in the worst place, one sealed and with no escape.'

'You were in the dream realm over 900 years.'

'Are you serious? That actually explains a lot why everything was always the same. I must have gone crazy there, I also couldn't really control myself, I felt like something was constantly making me emotional, I couldn't think more than just want to kill you once you interrupted me. Do you know what happened?'

'Yes I do, while in the dream realm you contracted a parasite, and it had been feeding inside your brain for years, or centuries, it's impossible to tell, we cut off your head then from inside a pitch black centipede appeared, covered in slime, it tried to use magic but I stopped it and with my companions help, we killed it, it's called a Nightmare parasite, they originate in the dream realm, or are attracted to it by negative emotions.'

'That... Is most concerning whelp, I can't exactly tell if you're honest or not, but it would explain my absent mindedness, my lack of intellect and critical thinking during that battle, I was not in control, I had every advantage and I wasted it, as if the parasite was holding the reigns.'

'I think it just was not as smart as you normally would be in combat, it just took whatever you had and tried to use it instead of thinking outside the box, the nightmare just forced you to act out your impulses and not fight to your full potential because of that, that I theorize.'

'I use subtler, less combat oriented spells in battle, mind control, illusions, I can see why i lost that fight if the creature controlling me was so unrefined, very well, I will tell you about what I have learned, but it will take months for you to learn my spells, some are even impossible for you to use, if don't you have the necessary power.'

'Thank you, maybe someday I will give you a body of your own to control again, if you teach me useful spells that is.' I could probably do this, make an artificial body where his spirit gem would be the core, but i had to make it weaker than me, and easy to disable by me, I was not as dumb as to trust blindly.

'Well aren't you generous, you little lizard, I'm sure you already are thinking of ways to keep me in check and give me a body you can easily override control over, but... Despite that, it is better than being trapped here, with only my own thoughts as company.'

'Good to see you are already accepting your new situation, well let's start, I'm interested in learning this subtler spells, have in mind I don't have a formal magical education so I may be slow to learn at first.'

'Wow, I could not have guessed that, youre an uneducated idiot!' Okay now that was just rude.

'Hey! It's not my fault! I'm trying to learn as much as I can at age 8, you can insult me as much as you want, but at least make it fair, that damned Celestia only teaches offensive magic to her most trusted guards, it was a pain to get access to the combat magic spells I know, only mom was my teacher and she is not even a mage, she has limited magical ability, so... Give me some credit at least, Im not lazy when it comes to learning and practicing my magic...' I said with a mental huff, he was getting me a bit upset, I calmed down and sighed.

'I... See, well that is Celestia for you, she was also a student of Starswirl, but he taught her more than anyone as he knew she would ascend, that old bastard, he was a good teacher, I will admit, with him I learned fast and increased my potential quickly, I suppose for not having any good teachers, you did... Adequately.'

'Enough talk then, let's start, teach me what you know and I will keep you around, I will even entertain your questions.' I impatiently said, then we started, he gave me the formulas and mentally shared runic symbols with me for the different spells, I checked them over and with my knowledge, many I did not know, but slowly we pieced together one spell, it was difficult as he could only transmit limited information though our link, only small mental images, not full complex patterns, meaning I had to piece together the runes and tell him how I was ordering them and connecting them one by one, let's just say for just one spell it took over 6 hours to figure out the formula this way, as I had to be explained every step.

We stayed like this all day, I learned two spells, I needed someone to practice them on, at least the ones that are safe to try, I wouldn't cast hurtful spells on those I cared about of course.

The imprisoned consciousness was more helpful as he realized he was at my full mercy and he had no way of harming me, the spells he gave me were checked and double checked by me, and all of them were correct, the math checked out, the runes were in order, when it came to magic usually a spell would fail to cast if the runes were in the wrong order and it would have negative side effects if the runes were incorrect, the incorrect runes however, could be identified by using a small amount of energy to make them resonate, and the effect of that rune would become apparent for the caster as mental representation of what it symbolizes but some types were much harder than others to understand.

This meant that I could check any rune I was not sure of, and see what it's effect would be by itself, and by connecting them and their order I would know what their combination would do, while this were complex it was almost like speaking a language, with all it's complexities and nuances.

A language I had learned since I first had access to the book about runes I found at the book store, very useful and oddly publicly available.

The difficult part was designing new runes and make them actually represent something, it not only required an extremely deep understanding of magic, but also the height of magical might and also the knowledge of the topic the rune represented, for example if I wanted to create a rune for a specific type of mind manipulation, I would need to know not only how the mind worked on a scientific level, but also generally how intelligent creatures think, and imbue all of this knowledge, compressing it into a single symbol, and make it "stick" to reality, even then it was not waranteed to work, that is why it was easier to rediscover and use ancient runes, rather than come up with new ones, because anyone could rediscover them and just figure out what they meant by running a bit of magic until they resonated, then interpret those results to the best of their ability.

At the end of the day I had come out of this exchange knowing the following new spells: Vicious Mockery and Crown of Madness.

I memorized the spell matrixes and knew how to cast them, knew the theory, but I had no practice, also they were forbidden spells in Equestria, as they were considered dark magic, attacked the mind directly, or controlled it, this spells were much more frightening than mere elemental magic spells for me, as they could directly affect the being's psyche by controlling the mind, or hurting it directly.

Still its good to know them and have more ways to protect myself, I planned on traveling after school and I wanted to be ready to face anything the world could throw at me.

I explained my teacher our lessons would happen once in a while, but not every day probably, he was okay with this, and he was of course always snarky and sarcastic and honestly pretty disrespectful to me, dismissing me as stupid or insane, but I just ignored this jabs, i know I wouldn't get fully on his good side no matter what I did, only time would tell if he ever would be less of a dick, but I really doubted it.

Author's Note

I decided to omit the sex part just because the story I have made has no sex tag