Me and Autumn tucked the two Kirins into bed, we had set up two beds in the spare room.

“But what if one of the slavers gets in?” Ruby asked, I smiled sadly.

“Don’t worry” I said, “they’ve all been locked up, and they won’t be getting near anyone for a long time, and if one of them does somehow get here, they’ll have to go through me” she giggled.

“Okay” Ruby said.

“There’s a good girl” I said “now go to sleep” she shuffled further down under the covers and I stood up, autumn was having a similar conversation with Garnet, she stood up as well and we walked towards the door.

“If either of you have a problem” Autumn said “just come to us, we’ll be up to a few more hours, okay?” they both nodded before settling down.

“Goodnight” I said, they responded in kind and I switched off the light in the room but left the door open, we walked outside and I whispered “I hope they don’t have any problems in the night, their whole life spent in a slavers camp, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, actually no, I tell a lie, I would wish that on three people that I can think of”

“Are you gonna tell me?” Autumn asked.

“Nope” I said “there from mine and Minions old life, the less you know about ’them’, the better” she gave me a look but didn’t press the matter.

---

Me and Autumn woke up the next morning, thankfully we didn’t have any problems in the night, I went to the Kirins room and woke them up.

“Rise and shine” I sang.

“Urg…five more minutes” Garnet mumbled before turning back over, I rolled my eyes, typical early teen.

“Come on” I said “we have a big day ahead of us, or do you want to miss your mother’s funeral” their eyes both shot open.

“That’s today!?” they both asked.

“Yes. Garnet, you’re with me, I’m gonna get you ready” I said, I then turned to Ruby “Autumn is going to get you ready” Ruby nodded, Garnet begrudgingly pulled himself out of bed, giving a yawn that exposed all of his carnivorous teeth, he then walked into the bathroom, grumbling as he did so, I walked in after him and turned the shower on, his reaction to running water was priceless, his reaction to heated running water was hilarious. He jumped under the stream of water, and looked for all the world like an excited Labrador, I eventually managed to grab hold of him and began to wash his mane and coat, a stream of years’ worth of muck and dirt began to drain out of the tub, eventually he was actually sparkling and shining like his namesake gem, I turned off the water and dried him off, I then showed him how to brush his teeth, when that was done I led him into the front room and laid a towel on the floor, I then began to cut his hair, shortening it and neatening it up, before going over it with a comb to straighten it, now I could get a true idea of what he looked like.

“Do a twirl” I said, he spun around and I nodded approvingly “not bad, if I do say so myself, right, let’s go get some breakfast” he looked confused.

“You mean you aren’t cooking?” he asked.

“Whilst I’m flattered you like my cooking, you should still try the food from the canteen, plus I want you to meet the rest of my family, friends as well” he nodded before following me out the door, his attitude had changed since yesterday, he carried his head high and almost had a regal appearance to him, we eventually reached the canteen and he stopped, seems he’d never seen so many people in one place, I chuckled, eventually he got over his shock and continued following me, several individuals stared at him, but thankfully it didn’t spread, I led him to where all of the food was and picked up two trays before walking along and selecting various different items of food, I then led Garnet to the tables, after searching I found the table that our group usually sat at, Winter Chill and Midsummer Night were already sat there, as was Blazewing, Frost Fang, Saphyrus, Cloddiwr, Minion, Aurora, Vinyl, Boris, Scar, and Vapaa, who was also with a young Albino (?) griffin, I sat down at the table, Garnet immediately dug into his food

“Who’s the griffin?” I asked Vapaa.

“This is John Henry” he said “he was the first slave that I met when I entered that place, he doesn’t have any family, so I’m taking care of him, who’s the…” he trailed off, not sure what to call Garnet.

“This is Garnet” I said “he’s a Kirin, that’s a hybrid between a dragon and a pony, the mother of him and his sister died when we found her, her last wish was for me and Autumn to take care of them”

“That dragon was their mother!?” Vapaa asked.

“Yes” I said, I then began to introduce Garnet to everyone, soon Autumn and Ruby arrived, and I quickly recapped who everyone was for Ruby’s sake.

“You have a big family” Ruby said.

“So do you, now” I said “my family is your family, speaking of which, I need to contact my Mom about you two” their ears perked up at that.

“Later” Autumn said, their ears drooped, remembering what was happening today.

“Oh, yeah” Garnet said, sighing and slumping slightly, I put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner.

“You’ll get through it” I said.

“How do you know I’ll get through it?” Garnet shot back.

“Because I’ve, to use a term from my world; been there, done that and got the tee-shirt” I said “I understand what you are going through, Minion does as well, if you need someone to be there for you at any point, go to me or him, same applies to you, Ruby” the female Kirin nodded, but looked very down cast, I sighed, today was going to be a long day, scratch that, it was going to be a long week.

---

Autumn and I led the two Kirin into a park just outside the town, in a traditional draconic burial ceremony, the next of kin and their parents/guardians would go to pay their respects before the ceremony, Minotaur’s have long had a close friendship with dragons, and once even worship them as gods, so whenever a dragon dies, the funeral procession would travel through the town towards the cemetery, allowing the whole town to pay their respects, that was another reason why we were going now, we eventually came to a large temple-like building and we led the two Kirins inside, a Minotaurian priest of some sort greeted us.

“Are any of you the next of kin?” he asked.

“These two Kirin are her children” I said “we are acting as their guardians, as-per their mothers final wish” the priest nodded.

“Very well” he said “if you would follow me, please” he then lead us into a large hall, at the end of it the dragoness was laid out, curled up slightly as if sleeping. The priest left out of respect and we walked up to the dragoness but none of us said anything, what could we say? I heard Ruby sniff and saw her eyes watering, I knelt down and brought her close to me and she began crying silently, Garnet soon did likewise and Autumn began to comfort him, I could start to feel tears welling up in my eyes, partly because this reminded me of when I saw my dad after he died (it wasn’t pretty) and partly because it broke my heart to see them in such pain, no child should have to go through something like this even if they are in their early teens, after about ten minutes we left, we ended up carrying the two children out, what we saw when we walked outside surprised us, two large dragons were stood outside.

“Who might you be?” I asked.

“We are the siblings of Emerald, the dragon that has died” one, a dark blue male said “What business would you have paying your respects to her?” I placed Ruby on the ground and Autumn did the same with Garnet.

“Guardians of her two children, as-per her very final request” I said they raised their eyebrows at that

“How did the situation arise to make her choose you two as their guardians?” the other a bright green male, asked.

“We busted a slavers camp” I explained “her and her two children were locked in a cage, she was already dying when we got there, she had just enough time to name us as their new guardians before she died” the bright green one made to charge at me and I instinctively activated my Kenohi Hau, protecting the four of us.

“Forgive me” the green dragon said, backing up “I did not intend to cause any harm, it was merely to test your worthiness as their guardians”

“You could have perhaps used slightly different methods” I suggested “preferably ones that don’t put them in danger”

“your heart is in the right place” the dark blue one said “we deem you worthy to act as their guardians, under Draconic law, they are legally your children, and as such, any relations on all sides shall be treated appropriately, until such a time when you invoke the nullification of the legal document” he then conjured up a piece of parchment and passed it to me, I quickly read through it.

“So, put simply, they are now classed as our children and any family on mine or Autumns side is classed as your family as well?” the dragon nodded.

“This also extends to your siblings and their descendants, all of them are now a part of their family” he said, gesturing to the two Kirins.

“So that means I’m now a part of…” I quickly counted off “seven separate families” everyone gathered looked at me in surprise.

“How do you figure that?” Autumn asked.

“There’s my dad’s side, my mum’s side, my step-dad’s side, your family, Auroras family, Vinyl’s family and now their family” I said, gesturing to the Kirins and dragons “and that isn’t even going into cousins and such, the next family reunion is going to be chaos”

“We must go and pay our respects now” the blue one said, I nodded and they both walked inside, we then lead Ruby and Garnet away, they walked the same as when we led them onto the ship the first time, we returned to the ship so me and Autumn could get ready for the service, I but on a tuxedo that I’d had summoned from earth, I sighed as I adjusted the tie in front of a mirror.

The last time I wore this” I said “was at my dad’s funeral” Autumn got up from brushing her mane and tail, she was wearing a dress that Rarity had made for her, it was made from darker colours, perfect for an occasion like this, she walked over and put her arms around me comfortingly.

“I’m here for you” Autumn said “if you need a shoulder to cry on? I’m here” I turned around and kissed her.

“I know” I said, I then pulled away from her “come on, let’s go and get the kids”

---

We walked down the main street behind a huge cart that they were using to carry the dragoness, the entire town was lined up on either side of the street, and most were putting down flowers as we went past, we soon reached a chapel and walked inside several individuals were already there, most notably the dragonesses siblings, I nodded to them and they nodded back, a Minotaurian priest began the ceremony, which mostly consisted of retelling the story of her life, and blessing her body, although I didn’t really pay much attention, I was merely here to comfort Garnet and Ruby.

Eventually the service ended and everyone walked outside to watch her be buried and to talk amongst themselves, I ended up talking with the two dragons.

“So you’ll be checking in on us every now and then?” I asked.

“Of course, you’re family now” the green one said “how might we contact you?”

“My niece, Aurora” I said “she can send messages via dragon flames, or you just look for the massive ship with the name Jörmungandr hauled by an ice drake”

“You’re on a hoard ship?” the blue one asked.

“it used to be, now it’s a part of the equestrian navy” they raised an eyebrow at that “we plan to head into the unexplored southern lands, quite hard to do when you only have a crew of 500 in a ship that should have 70’000, so I made a deal with Princess Celestia of Equestria, the Jörmungandr becomes a part of her navy, and in exchange I get crew and funding” the two dragons nodded in understanding.

“That is quite a deal” the green one said.

“It helps when you are friends with royalty” Princess Celestia said, making everyone present gasp.

“Where the hell did you come from!?” I exclaimed, before hastily bowing.

“Canterlot?” she suggested, I falmpalmed.

“Of fucking coarse” I muttered “may I ask my you are here?”

“I heard about a slavers camp being discovered” she said “and by chance you were in the exact same town, coincidence?”

“Far from it, we recently had another human join our crew, he was the one who found it” I then quickly looked for Vapaa, who was talking with the priest, I called to him “Vapaa, get over here” he walked over.

“Who is this?” he asked.

“Princess Celestia, the one who moves the sun” Vapaa just stood there, I deadpanned “you know, it is customary to bow to royalty”

“Not for Americans” he said “plus there is only one god I bow to, and he doesn’t look like that, no offence ma’am”

“None taken” Celestia said “you are not my citizen, nor are you in my country”

“I’d still bow anyway” I said “considering you have the power to wield the sun”

“We can talk about this later” Vapaa said, he then smirked “or do you want to anger your ‘god’” I went to retort but Garnet and Ruby walked over, looking at Celestia, who knelt down to get closer to their level.

“And who might you two be?” Celestia asked softly.

“Garnet”

“Ruby”

“They are the children of a dragoness that was a slave” I said “she was dying when we found them and her last wish was for me and Autumn to take care of them, they are now officially our children, according to Draconic law” I showed her the document, she stood up and levitated it towards her.

“If we were meeting under better circumstance I would congratulate you” Celestia said “not just for them becoming your children but also because they are the first Kirin that I have encountered in over 500 years”

“Are you telling me they are part of an endangered species!?” I asked, not trying to hide my surprise, Celestia nodded.

“Sub-species but close enough” Celestia said, I sighed.

“well that just made things interesting” I said.

Next Chapter: Chapter 36 Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 15 Minutes