[Fluttershy's House, Outskirts of Ponyville, 2:10 pm Standard Equestrian Time (SET)]
Discord slowly circled down towards the home of his first friend, having a few last minute thoughts about handing the egg over to her. After all, he hadn't seen which monster had laid the egg. Once again, he shuddered at the thought of the bottomless pit of a monster, the one that so resembled a giant pickle with legs, arms, a mouth, and an endless stomach. Even he, with all his power, kept a distance from them when he visited that world. What were they called? Davel Jo, or something similar to that. But he was getting off track. Time to ask Fluttershy if she would care for the egg. If it was a baby Davel Jo (Devil Show, maybe?), he would simply take it back to its own world. Even the small ones were left alone. Landing, he raised his curled talons to knock, but first took a last look at the egg. "If you want out of this, last chance to say anything." The egg didn't respond. The draconequus shrugged. "Fine. I won't go against your choice." Hoping he hadn't condemned the small animals inside, the Lord of Chaos knocked four times.
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[Living Room, Fluttershy's House, 2:09 pm SET]
A yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tail hummed quietly to herself as she unwrapped a bandage from around a hawk's chest. The hawk emitted a cheerful squawk and flapped her wings in thanks. "There you go. All better. Now, you be more careful the next time you're flying, okay?" The hawk nodded and squawked again. Fluttershy smiled. "Good. Go on, go home." Spreading her wings, the hawk flew through the open window, and out into the wilds. The Element of Kindness gave a small sigh and turned to go to the kitchen for a cup of tea. She was about halfway to her destination when she heard knocking at the door. She looked at her favorite animal. "Angel Bunny, could you please get that?" Angel shrugged and hopped towards the door. Fluttershy smiled again. "Thanks, Angel." Trotting into the kitchen, she had gotten out the mug and tea bag when she heard Angel shriek. Next thing she knew, the little rabbit was holding onto her leg, hiding behind it and peering out to glare at his least favorite being. Fluttershy followed Angel's glare. "Oh! Discord! I wasn't expecting you back so soon." Discord cast an irritated glance at the rabbit bravely glaring at him from behind Fluttershy.
"To be honest, I wasn't either. A series of…events, let us say, led me to coming back from the other world earlier than I had intended. In any case, I have a favor to ask of you. You see, I-" He was cut off as somepony knocked on the door once more.
"Oh, my. Excuse me, Discord. Let me see who that is." The draconequus rolled his eyes and waved her on. She gave him a small smile and went to open the door. She nearly jumped out her skin when she did so.
"HI, FLUTTERSHY!" This loud and exuberant greeting just about had her fainting on the spot from fright.
"Pinkie, I think that greeting was a little too enthusiastic. Sorry about that, Fluttershy." Coming back to her senses, Fluttershy saw that both Pinkie Pie and Twilight had come to her cottage.
"Oh, it's okay. I suppose I should be used to it by now. Would you like to come in?" Twilight nodded.
"Sure. We actually came here to see Discord." This made Fluttershy blink in surprise.
"Why? He hasn't done anything wrong, has he?"
"Nope! My Pinkie sense told me about a HUGE doozy, and that Discord had something to do with it, and that he was over here with you, so we came here!" The pink pony grinned, showing no signs (as usual) of exhaustion from her rambling.
"Well, she's right about me being involved, and that I'm here. I don't know if it's much of a doozy right now, though." All three of the ponies turned to see the Lord of Chaos, who was sitting on nothing and whose right arm was currently gone. Pinkie was the only one out of the three that wasn't surprised.
"Hey! You know about hammerspace, too?" This question had an alicorn, a pegasus, and a draconequus staring at her. Twilight was first to speak.
"You…know where his arm is?" The Party Pony nodded.
"Hammerspace! Where do you think I keep my party cannon?" Discord had developed a look of concentration.
"I'll scan you for chaos magic later. Right now though… … …oh, where is it?" He stuck his left arm and head inside the hammerspace hole, still speaking, though his voice was now slightly muffled. "One of these days, I'm going to clean this thing out…endless or not, I can't find anything when I need it…ah, here it is!" He pulled out of the hole, and closed it when he was through. In his mismatched arms was-
"Is that an egg?" Discord looked over to Fluttershy. Her expression was a mix of excitement, curiosity, and disappointment.
"Yes, it is. I didn't steal it, if that's what you were wondering." The disappointment cleared up when he stated that. "As you know-or, as Fluttershy knows, at least-I like to travel to other worlds, and explore them to see how different from our world they are. The last one I visited had creatures far more deadly than the ones here. There are at least two that are considered living forces of nature." He paused to put the egg down and took a sip of chocolate milk. For once, he actually drank the milk. Setting the glass down, he continued. "There are many different regions in that world. I traveled to a volcanic region, since from what I had heard from the humans of that world the rarest items were in that area. Now, at the same time, a group of hunters had been dispatched to take down a monster that got too close to a village. Something happened, no, I don't know what, and the egg of the monster came tumbling down a cliff, and would have smashed into the ground and shattered had I not caught it. The hunters are very thorough. I doubt that the monster, even if it won, lived after the battle. That's how good they are. Guessing that they would come after the egg, I brought the egg here, in the hopes that Fluttershy would take care of it." Fluttershy squeaked at this.
"M-me? B-but you said it was a m-monster's egg."
"I did say that. However, 'monster' is the general term for the creatures. They are actually different species of wyverns." The yellow pegasus visually relaxed at this statement.
"Oh. What's a wyvern?"
"A species of reptile as diverse as humans and ponies. The humans have many different species of wyverns in their world. Some are similar to dinosaurs, others to sea serpents and leviathans, still others to dragons." This did not cause the reaction Discord expected. Fluttershy had jolted upright, then had fallen over like a goat does when it's scared. "Something I said?"
"Fluttershy isn't a big fan of dragons," Twilight responded. "Spike's okay because he lives with us, and won't eat a pony. But the bigger, wild dragons? She doesn't sit well with those." Needless to say, Discord was shocked.
"You're telling me that the pegasus who stared down a cockatrice, defied a minotaur, fought off changelings, and reformed me is scared of dragons?"
"Yep. I guess it's a prey reaction." During all this, Pinkie had been examining the egg.
"I don't think she'll need to worry about that. It doesn't look like a dragon. It looks more like a dinosaur." The spirit looked at her, bemused.
"What?"
"Yeah! My X-Ray glasses let me see through the shell. It's close to hatching, too." Fluttershy had recovered by now. She trotted over to the egg and felt it.
"Oh, my! Discord, you said this egg came from a volcanic region?" He nodded.
"Yes. Why?"
"It's getting cold! Since the egg was on or near a volcano, it's mother didn't need to sit on it, since the heat from the area would keep it warm enough. But now, it's in a colder enviroment, so it needs heat from something else! Twilight! Do you know any heating spells?" The alicorn shook her head.
"Sorry, Fluttershy. The closest I can get is an illuminating spell." The Element of Kindness's face grew determined.
"Well then. I'll just have to do it myself." Discord's face lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree.
"You mean you'll take care of the wyvern?" Fluttershy nodded.
"Yes. Now please, I need some space." The three of them left her there, and she began her task. Piling blankets next to the fireplace, she moved the egg to sit on top of them, then lit the fireplace. Finally, she curled herself around the egg, just barely fitting.
'I don't care if you do look like a dragon. You're just an egg, and I WILL take care of you. You're safe now. Nothing will harm you here.' Made drowsy by the warmth, Fluttershy slipped off to sleep, stilled wrapped around the object that had awoken her maternal instincts.
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[Unknown place, unknown time]
The scratchy voice was talking a lot, talking and talking and then a softer voice came through, so soft that he relaxed, and then two new voices, a loud a hyper one and a voice that sounded like no-nonsense. He preferred the soft voice. Whatever he was in before, it was gone now, because he no longer felt like was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, he knew where he was, well, not exactly, but still, he felt normal.
And then the cold. The cold that he feared, dreaded, despised, hated. It was seeping into his body, his body that was just about ready, but the cold couldn't come, no no no no no, not now. He wanted to meet the warmth he called Mother, the warmth he was sure the soft voice belonged to. The soft voice became more urgent, and the other voices left, leaving only the soft voice. Then the warmth came back, and it felt so much better, but it wasn't from Mother, no, this was like what he first felt, the warmth that was always there. Then Mother's warmth came back, and he felt the last of his changes happen. He was ready, ready, ready to meet the warmth, the soft voice, ready to meet Mother.
After this chapter, I'm limiting myself to only the top or bottom for the Author's Note. Anyways, in Monster Hunter, the types of monsters are as follows: Brute Wyverns, Flying Wyverns, Fanged Wyverns, Beast Wyverns, Psuedowyverns, Leviathans, and Elder Dragons. Everything I said about the Brachydios egg was made up. I honestly have no idea how they raise their young. Yes, Pinkie knows what hammerspace is. It's where she stores whatever she needs. It's not just her. Characters in Sonic the Hedgehog, Discord, LEGO minfigures from the video games. There are a whole lot of beings that use it. Total words, not including the A/N's: 1,780. Next chapter: We meet the baby Brach!
jsun25, logging off