Song Of Hope: Thanks for all the love in the first chapter! I thought people wouldn't like this one because barely anyone read my other story, Fairy Tail – More Than a Guild. It's probably because the beginning seems bad, but it actually makes a lot of sense later on in the story and makes it good! Trust me, everything makes sense in it! Anyway, I promised explanations!

This is an alternate timeline. The changes start when Lucy is a baby, which is when Layla gave away her Celestial Spirits. She decided not to, and instead started taking many potions and hired a healer to keep her health at the same level so that she could keep her Celestial Spirits. And, in this story, she has absolutely no connection to the dragons. I know that's an extremely popular theory, but I'm not using it.

The first chapter is about a year before Igneel disappeared, so the year X776.

Porlyusica, who previously couldn't use magic in Edolas, is able to use magic here. I know that she's never seen using magic in the show, and is only seen mixing potions and such, but since Mystogan could use magic in Earthland, I decided that so can Porlyusica, but I also put that she rarely uses it.

Any other changes between this story and the show will be self-explanatory, except for one, which I will explain in the next chapter. I hope that clears things up! That's it for explanations. I also want someone who likes art to do a picture for the cover photo for the story. If you want to design it, then send a link to me. You can go through my DA account, which is SongOfHopeOriginal (because someone took my username) and send me a note. R&R

"Hey Luce, watch this!" He set his hands on fire and started juggling balls of fire. Lucy laughed and clapped her hands. They were in a clearing in the woodsea, with the sun setting in the background, and Lucy was sitting on a log.

"That's great Natsu! You're really good!" He grinned and caught them before putting them out by squeezing them in between his hands.

"I would've thrown them up and eaten them, but I can't eat my own fire." She kept smiling at him.

"That's okay. It was still a neat trick." It had been nearly a year since Lucy had joined Natsu and Igneel. They were no closer to finding the wizard who had taken her memories than they were when she had first woken up, though in all honesty, they were happy as they were, and weren't looking very hard. The Fire Dragon had offered to teach her Dragon Slayer Magic, but she had kindly refused, saying that she wanted to learn Celestial Spirit Magic whenever she got the chance to find a teacher. The Fire Dragon understood and let it go, but Natsu was pouty about it at first, but eventually got over it, realizing showing Lucy tricks would be far more fun than teaching her them. She was having fun, and almost didn't want to find out her past so she could stay with Natsu and Igneel.

Her thoughts were interrupted by said dragon, who was flying in and creating monstrous winds, landing beside them and laying down.

"Alright children, it's time to go to bed. You don't want to be up too late, now do you?" Natsu pouted.

"But I was just about to show Lucy my newest trick!" Igneel sighed.

"But what if your trick went out of control? You could hurt Lucy." Natsu grinned, grabbing Lucy with his left arm.

"I'd never hurt Lucy! I promised to protect her, always!" Igneel nodded.

"And that's good." He put a claw over Natsu's heart. "You must not only keep that promise in your mind, but in your heart as well. Never let your heart forget this promise." Lucy smiled at Igneel.

"There's nothing to worry about Igneel! I trust Natsu not to hurt me! He's never given me a single reason to doubt him." Igneel smiled.

"And I don't think you've given him a reason to doubt you." He leaned down towards Lucy's ear and spoke very quietly, whispering so that Natsu wouldn't hear him. "As you've noticed, Natsu can be extremely impulsive and do things without giving them a second thought. You need to protect him as well, being a sort of common sense for him. Can you do that?" She nodded, Natsu looked really curious while Lucy smiled.

"I promise Igneel!" Now Natsu was even more curious.

"Promise what? Tell me!" She turned towards him and smiled.

"It's a secret!" Before Natsu could counter, Igneel stopped them.

"No more questions! You still need to go to bed. It's getting late. No excuses, no more complaints!" Natsu pouted, but he went to the side of the fire dragon and laid down, resting his head on his hands. Lucy did the same thing above him, her head not far from his. She smiled at him.

"Goodnight Natsu." He grinned back at her.

"Night Luce!" They both called up to Igneel.

"Night Igneel!" He smiled sadly at both of the children as he covered them with his wings for warmth.

"Goodnight Natsu. Goodnight Lucy. And Natsu, Lucy, never forget your promises to each other. Never." Natsu nodded and closed his eyes, easily going to sleep, but Lucy seemed worried.

"Why did he say it like a good-bye?" She didn't linger long on that thought long as sleep overtook her. Igneel sighed when he knew that they were asleep.

"Goodnight, and good-bye."

In the Morning

Lucy opened her eyes, trying to sit up and rub them, but realizing something heavy was keeping her from doing so. Said thing was Natsu, who was hugging her tightly. She blushed, a little embarrassed.

"Natsu?" She tried to get out, but the more she struggled, the tighter his grasp. She stopped, sighing. "I guess I'm just gonna have to wake him up. But Igneel's better at that than me. Last time I tried, I nearly got set on fire." She looked around for the dragon, but with panicked eyes, realized that he wasn't anywhere. "Igneel? Igneel?!" She forced her arms up and started shaking Natsu's shoulders. "Natsu, I don't see Igneel! I think he's gone!" Natsu's eyes slowly opened, still filled with sleep. He let go of her (not having yet realized that he had been hugging her) and started rubbing his eyes.

"What about a fawn?" Lucy's panicked state made it so she didn't bother correcting him.

"Igneel's not here, but he's always here when we wake up!" Natsu's eyes widened, standing up instantly and sniffing around.

"I don't smell him at all! Where'd his smell go?! I should be able to smell him at least a little!" Lucy started tearing up, and so did Natsu, clutching his scarf tightly.

"Did Igneel abandon us? Did he decide he didn't care about us anymore, even though he promised he'd always take care of us? Are we gonna be all alone?" Natsu, turned to her, knowing how scared she was. He got down and hugged her.

"We're not gonna be alone Lucy. We have each other. And besides, Igneel wouldn't just abandon us. He had to have left for a good reason. We'll find him, don't worry." Lucy sniffled.

"You really think so?" He nodded.

"Yeah." He stood up, bringing her up with him. He gave her a smile. "Come on. We're gonna have to get by on our own. Grab Michelle and your keys. We're going to go find some food."

Three Months Later

In the busy city of Magnolia, the annual Founding Day Festival was taking place. All over town, many people had happily decorated their houses and the main streets of the town were decorated in colorful stalls, filled with food, clothes, and other objects of interest. The people of the town were also dressed colorfully in order to match the mood of the event. Well, most of the people were. There were people dressed in dirty clothes and rags. That was unavoidable in any city. Another unavoidable thing were travelers. But two certain, young travelers wearing cloaks were only in Magnolia for one reason. They needed food, and had only one way of getting it. One of them, a boy, would distract a person a t the stall, while the other, a little girl, would grab whatever they needed. Said system was in place as the little boy walked n front of a fruit vendor, looking up at him. The vendor looked at the boy.

"Can I help you with something?" He nodded walking over to the left side of the stand.

"What kind of fruit is this? I've never seen it before." The vendor smiled.

"Those are fruits that I bred myself. It's a cross between grapes and watermelons. Normally, the two wouldn't be able to make a plant together, but with the careful use of magic and with a bit of luck, these came out! They've got the size and skin of a watermelon, but the insides are like that of a grape! Well, in flavor only. The texture is still that of a watermelon." The boy carefully kept an eye one the girl grabbing fruits from the stand slowly, but not too slowly. Going too fast would get easily noticed. Going to slow would arouse the suspicions of onlookers. She nodded after grabbing enough from that side and shoving it in a bag, motioning for him to bring the guy over to the other side.

"What are those ones?" He walked over to the side the girl had just been on and pointed while she quickly went to the other side of it, grabbing the crossbred fruit while the vendor went on about the other fruits.

"Those are pineberries. They're very similar to strawberries in flavor and in obvious appearance, although these are smaller and are white with red seeds. I bred them as well! In fact, all of these plants are ones that I produced myself!" The boy nodded.

"That's cool, but do they taste good?" The vendor nodded.

"Yes, they're very delicious. Try one." He handed a very small one to the boy. He didn't hesitate and grabbed it, gobbling it down quickly.

"Huh, it does taste like a strawberry." Out of his puerperal, the girl gave him a thumbs up, letting him know that they had all they needed. "How much?" The vendor smiled, thinking he had a sale.

"They're about 500 jewels per pound." He rolled his eyes.

"That's way too expensive! I'm outta here." He ran off, with the little girl running nearly as fast behind him. The vendor then, at that point, realized that many his fruits were missing.

"Hey, stop-! Thieves!" Some army people started chasing after them. They ducked into an alley, and the army guys went right past them as they continued running, eventually ending up behind a large building. The girl pulled down her hood, revealing her disheveled and very dirty blonde hair. The boy pulled off his hood, showing his spiky and very dirty pink hair. He looked very eagerly at the bag. "What'd ya snatch Lucy?" She sighed.

"I got those pineberries, the watermelon grape things, and some other stuff, but I don't know how they'll taste. Natsu, are you sure we can't just do street performances?" He nodded, being dead serious.

"Luce, we tried that. I didn't want to steal either. Street performances aren't enough. We have to steal the fruit and save the money we make for meat. We tried to go on just fruit, and it wasn't enough. We tried just meat, and that wasn't enough either, and we had less food cause meat was more expensive. This is the only way. When we're older, we'll make lots of money doing something and pay everyone back. By the way, did you catch the name of the vendor?" She nodded.

"The stall said "Mr. Fruity's Fruity Fruits". It was a weird name for sure." He nodded.

"Okay then, write that name down. Mr. Fruity." Lucy nodded, pulling a little notebook out of her cloak and writing in it.

"Got it!" She put the notebook away and held out the bag for Natsu to grab some of the strange fruit. "Now, let's eat!" He nodded, grabbing one of the watermelon grapes. He broke up open with a karate chop and started eating, smiling.

"This is really good! Who knew grapes and watermelons put together could taste so good?" Lucy laughed.

"You're so weird!" Natsu started laughing with her. Then, he thought of something.

"Hey, you said you wanted to do something the next time that we did a performance. I'm mostly just juggling fire. You don't know how to use magic, or your key thingies, so what are you gonna do?" she smiled.

"I'll sing and dance! I don't know much about either, but I do know that I'm super cute! I'm sure people will watch." Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"Cute? You just look like 'Lucy' to me." She pouted.

"But everyone else we've run into that wasn't a food vendor we stole from or a soldier trying to arrest us said I was awfully cute!" She giggled, thinking about the first time she had been called cute. They had met with a very, very chubby boy in a knight-oriented town. He had called her cute and Natsu had beaten him up because he thought that the guy was making fun of her. Since he was the son of a knight, they had to leave right after that and she had to explain what cute meant. Her giggling at the memory got a strange look from Natsu.

"You're such a weirdo Luce."

Later

A very young woman (who honestly would've looked like she was a barely teenager if one had only looked at her face) with brown hair and hazel eyes was pushing a light green baby stroller with two baby boys, both dark haired with hazel eyes. Next to her was a man who looked older than her, with dark hair and obsidian eyes. They were smiling as they looked throughout the town. Her green tank top and knee length blue skirt showed her feminine and well-gifted form, and on her upper left arm, on her shoulder was a yellow mark of a creature of some sort. The man wore a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans, and half of the same mark in an emerald green was visible underneath his t-shirt sleeve. She woman looked down at the two twins, who were bonking each other with plush toys.

"They sure love hitting each other, don't they?" The man laughed.

"Yeah. Let's hope that doesn't carry into when they get older. I've heard that the worst twins are the twins that fight." She laughed.

"Don't say that Isi. Just because you said that, we're gonna get an even worse type of twins! What about the little devil twins, the ones that get along really well and play pranks on everybody? And since they're identical, what if they keep switching places? Of course, I'll always be able to tell them apart." Isi raised an eyebrow.

"Hope, pray tell, how will you always be able to tell them apart?" She smiled at him.

"I'm their mother. Of course I'll be able to tell apart the children I gave birth too." Then, she heard something. "Is that someone singing?" Isi listened closely was well.

"Yeah, I think so." Hope smiled.

"Whoever it is sounds like a little girl with a lovely voice. Let's go find them. I have the best hearing in all of Fiore." They followed the voice to see Lucy and Natsu with a bag in front of them that people were putting coins in. Lucy was singing a song that had the rhythm of a lullaby.

"Shining star above the sky
How far must I go?
To reach that place on high
Away from here below.

"All I want now is to be free
From the earth I tread
So shining star, can you see
My wish in my head?"

Hope smiled at her song.

"It's such a pretty song." She picked up one of the twins. "Look Tomi, isn't she cute? And isn't her voice lovely?" She sniffed the air a little. "But they smell a little like dragon. It could just be my imagination." She smiled at the baby in her arms, speaking in a baby voice. "Is Mama imagining things Tomi? Is she? Is she?" She rubbed her nose against his, and he promptly giggled grabbed her nose, saying "Mama" to her. Isi raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know that that one is Tomi?" She smiled at her husband, removing Tomi's hand.

"Like I said, I'm their mother. I always know. Grab Taro. I bet he wants to see it too." Isi grabbed Taro, holding him up. They listened to the little girl singing until her song finished. Her song had managed to put some of the younger listeners, such as Tomi and Taro, asleep. Those who were awake clapped and threw coins into the bag, and a few bills. Hope grabbed some coins out of her skirt pocket after she put Tomi down in the carriage, but Isi frowned at that as he put Taro back.

"You're not seriously giving her money, are you?" She looked at him, wondering why he would be against it as the soldiers started coming around for their normal patrol.

"Why not? She sounded pretty."

"I've never seen her before, and her cloak tells me she's a traveler. Things tend to go missing during festivals because of travelers going through town. Most travelers I'm fine with, but she feels guilty. If she didn't feel guilty, then I'd let you give her money, but since she feels guilty, I know she stole something." She glared at him, obviously upset at his accusations and unaware that Lucy and Natsu were trying to leave the area after having spotted the soldiers.

"Isi, those are children. Kids feel guilty about stepping on flowers, especially little girls like her. Even if they are stealing, they're probably doing it to survive. I'm not condoning thievery, because no matter the circumstance, it's wrong, but you can't expect people to let themselves starve based on morals. And not all travelers are-"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Hope and Isi turned around to see Lucy and Natsu running away as Fiore knights chased them. "You're under arrest for stealing!" Natsu was pulling Lucy along, trying to speed up their exit. Isi looked towards Hope with triumph on his face.

"See? They're- Hope?" He looked around, but she was chasing after the soldiers and the children. "Hope!" She didn't even bother looking back at him.

"Don't say a word to Master Makarov about this! I'm gonna help those kids!" He was frustrated with wife's sudden action.

"And what exactly are you going to do?!" He already knew the answer, but she turned towards him and smirked.

"What we Fairy Tail wizards do best! I'm gonna get myself in trouble with the authorities!" Before he could say anything else, she was gone. A dark aura surrounded him as he growled in frustration. Then, suddenly, the dark aura burst, and his eyes were red and pointed, filled with rage.

"THAT IDIOT WOMAN! I'M GOING TO KILL HER ONE OF THESE DAYS!"

Outside of Fiore

Lucy and Natsu had made it a fair way out of town with the soldiers still chasing them, but eventually, one of the guards caught up, grabbing Lucy's wrist and pulling her up. Natsu, not realizing Lucy had been caught, was still running, but then she screamed out in fear.

"NO! NATSU, HELP!" Natsu turned around, anger burning in his eyes.

"No one takes Lucy away from me! Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" He jumped up and punched the guy in the face, making him drop Lucy. Not far behind was Hope (who was responsible for there only being one soldier chasing after the two), shocked at his attack.

"Did he say dragon?! So I wasn't imagining that smell." Natsu helped Lucy up.

"Come on Lucy! Let's go! We're gonna get in trouble!" She nodded.

"Right!" They started running. Hope recovered from her shock, chasing after them.

"Wait, stop!" Natsu started running faster, pulling Lucy behind him.

"Hurry! They're getting closer!" Hope shook her head, not realizing that Natsu and Lucy couldn't see them.

"Ni, I'm not here to arrest you! I'm here to help you!" She sighed, knowing that they wouldn't stop unless she was in front of them. She turned around, running backwards, and took in a deep breath and aimed her mouth towards the ground.

"Gemstone Dragon Diamond Destruction!" A stream of tiny diamonds of all different shapes erupted from her hands. The attack propelled her up in the air, letting her land in front of them and grabbed them both, Natsu with her left arm, Lucy with her right. "I'm not going to hurt you!" They both struggled. Lucy was really scared and pleaded with her.

"Let go of us!" Natsu tried biting her arm, but she turned it into diamond and he hurt his teeth.

"Ow!" He looked up and glared at her. "No fair! I didn't know you could do that!" She sighed, covering their mouths.

"Looks, I'm not here to arrest you. I'm not even a soldier. I'm just a guild wizard!" She turned them to show them where they had come from. "You see that way? Notice how there aren't any soldiers chasing after you? I stopped them, so if you'll shut up and let me explain, I'll put you down and we can talk. If you try to run away, I will catch you again. Agree?" They nodded. She put them down and they turned to face her. She smiled. "Good. Now we can get somewhere." She held out her hand. "Hello, my name is Hope Kiyoyama, and a Fairy Tail wizard." Natsu suspiciously shook it.

"Natsu Dragneel." Lucy shook her hand as well.

"I'm Lucy." Hope looked concerned.

"Just Lucy?" She nodded.

"I don't remember my past up until about a year ago. Some wizard took my memories away." She smiled warmly at them, with a motherly face (despite the fact that she looked 14).

"Well then, I won't dwell on that subject. Nice to meet you Natsu and Lucy. Now, why were the soldiers chasing you? Don't worry, no matter what you say, I'm not gonna turn you in. I've done my fair share of damage as well, and if I actually went to jail for everything I deserved to go to jail for, then I probably wouldn't be here. In fact, my damage is probably far worse than yours." Lucy and Natsu looked at each other. They both nodded. They turned back towards her and Lucy spoke.

"We stole some fruit from a vendor. But we were gonna pay it back! We've been writing down everyone we stole from so that we could pay them back later!" Hope raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you steal? You seem to have made a lot of money from your singing." Lucy looked down at the ground.

"We never make enough. We only ever make enough to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables or a little meat. We can't afford all of them, unless one of us wants to go hungry. That's why we steal fruits and vegetables. We buy meat with what we make since meat's more expensive." Hope nodded, getting on one knee and at her level.

"But you wouldn't steal if you could afford all of them, right?" Lucy nodded.

"Right! I know stealing's wrong, and I hate having to do it, but I don't wanna die!" She sighed.

"Didn't you think about going to an orphanage? They're supposed to take care of children there." Natsu stomped his foot forward, holding up his fist in a menacing manner.

"If you try and stick us in one of those lady, then I'm gonna beat you up!" Lucy's eyes widened in shock and she chided him.

"Natsu! You can't talk like that to people!" She looked back at Hope. "We did, for a little while, but it was awful there. All the adults were mean, and the kids stole my food and my blankets because I was weaker than most of them. Natsu had to fight them to get my stuff back." Hope raised a concerned eyebrow.

"Then why did you leave if Natsu protected you?" Lucy subconsciously grabbed the edge of Natsu's cloak.

"They were gonna separate us. Some rich old guy I'd never even met said he wanted to take me, but he wasn't gonna take Natsu, so we ran away from there." Hope smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry that that happened, but if a rich guy wanted to adopt you, why wouldn't you go with him? And I'm sure Natsu would've been fine on his own." Natsu shoved Lucy behind him protectively.

"No one's taking Lucy away! I'm always gonna protect her! I can't do that if I'm not with her!" Lucy nodded.

"And we tried different ones, but they kept trying to separate us for some reason, so we ran away and just stopped trying." Hope frowned, thinking how hard it must've been for those two. Then, she smiled as a thought came to her mind.

"You guys don't want to be separated, right?" They nodded. "Well, underage guild members are required to live in the same town as their guildhall, missions being the exception. If you were to become a member of any guild, fishing, hunting, merchant, or wizarding guild, then you'd be able to stay together. And I think I've got the perfect guild for you two, called Fairy Tail! It's a wizarding guild though, but we never turn anyone down. Even if you can't use magic, you can still join. You'll just have to learn magic. I know that Natsu uses Fire Dragon Slayer Magic because I saw him attack that soldier. You must've learned it from a dragon, am I right?" Natsu blinked.

"Huh? How would you know about dragons?" She smiled.

"I was raised by a dragon as well. I promise to give you the full story if you join Fairy Tail." Natsu readily agreed.

"Okay then!" Lucy smiled, nodding.

"Okay, if Natsu goes, then I'll go too!" She smiled, holding out her hands for them to grab.

"Then let's go." They were about to take her hands, but shouting prevented it.

"STOP!" Soldiers headed towards them. Hope smiled sweetly at the two children.

"Looks like we're gonna be a bit held up." The soldiers stopped in front of them.

"You, Hope Plein Song Kiyoyama, are under arrest for assaulting the Fiore Army, and you two kids are under arrest for theft!" She smiled at them, chuckling.

"You can hardly count that as assaulting the Fiore Army I beat up a few soldiers who I thought were wrongly accusing these kids. There are laws that let citizens assault soldiers if they believe the soldiers are abusing their power. I thought that they were, because I honestly thought there was no way that these kids were bad. I wasn't wrong, but they did steal. I will, however, pay it back in full, and even throw in some for pride damages." Lucy's eyes widened. She tugged on Hope's skirt.

"Miss Kiyoyama, you can' do that! We promised to pay it back ourselves!" She looked down and smiled at her.

"Then you can pay me back in smiles. Honest, happy smiles. I'll be able to tell if they're forced, so don't do it. Only smile if you feel like smiling." She turned back towards the soldiers. "So, taking the justified assault out, then what do I owe you for the stolen fruit?" The soldiers were taken back by that. They've never seen anyone willing to pay for things someone else stole.

"Um, it was about 1000 jewels worth of fruit." She frowned.

"You're chasing children for only 1000 jewels worth of fruit?" She sighed and pulled the money out of her pocket, adding in 300 jewels more than owed. "There. Just take the money to the vendor and leave these children alone. If you want damages for me "attacking" those soldiers, then I'll happily pay for those as well. But for now," she held her hands out to the kids, who grabbed them, "I'm taking them back to Fairy Tail. I'm sure Master Makarov will be happy to let them join." She smiled at the two. "Are you ready, Lucy, Natsu?" They both nodded, smiling. Together, they headed off to the guildhall.

Song Of Hope: I wanted to do more, but I was already dragging the chapter on for a while, so I'm ebnding it here. I'll explain more in the next chapter. For now, here's this. Hope Song (here she's Hope Kiyoyama) is a commonly used OC of mine, mainly in Metal Fight Beyblade, but I've used her in other places (though those stories I haven't posted). Like Stephen King, I reuse characters a lot. This Hope is different from my normal Hope. Yes, she's a Dragon Slayer, but her situation is a lot different from Natsu's, Gajeel's, and Wendy's. I'll explain everything in the next chapter, hopefully. If it doesn't fit, then I'll try for the next chapter.