Living in Equestria

The sun had set by the time Nightleaf and Scootaloo said their goodbyes in the orchard. While her daughter had begged her to stay the night at the farm and meet everypony, she just wasn't ready for that yet. They had been talking for quite sometime and while it filled her with a sense of relief and closure that Scootaloo had welcomed her back into her life, some of the things she learned this evening had been painful and downright shattering to her... so much so that instead of her flight path taking her towards the Crystal Empire as she should, Nightleaf found her wings taking her someplace else almost against her will.

Back to Cloudsdale.

She knew what she was doing was dangerous, putting in jeopardy all the work Cadence had done for her, but it had been a tough day... and she thought maybe she deserved one small root for the flight home.

After all, it would only take a tiny piece now that she'd been off it for so long and she was sure she could find a scrap left over in one of her stashes around her ex brother-in-law's house. Nightleaf hated herself for being weak but with every wing beat that took her closer to the lights of the floating city, she felt the old urges roaring to life again with eager anticipation of the taste.

It's a celbratory root! That's what it is... It's not every day a mother finds out her daughter is in a true herd! I wonder if she's thought about having a foal yet... Nightleaf thought to herself as she soared through the grand passageways between the upper crust area in the city, No... better yet, I need it because of Quickfire... Tartarus! Oh my poor colt! her thoughts leapt around to whatever made her feel better about what she was going to do.

But there was no easy reward for her decision to relapse waiting for her there. The house had been emptied along with her few belongings that remained and now sat vacant and brooding in the darkness. Nightleaf fought a battle of wills on the darkened stoop where Rarity had once used her magic to pick the very same lock on the door that now kept the dusk colored pegasus out. She should just return to Cadence and that's just what she was going to do... only first she might as well pop into the cider bar and see if anypony's around who might have a scrap of root to give her.

Nightleaf was so focused on her internal dialog that she didn't see the two pegasus who had been watching since her arrival in Cloudsdale, both wearing red hoods emblazoned with a white silhouette of a pegasus with wings outstretched. Voa and Vos were twins, brought into The Flock from birth and the first ordained ministers of order to publicly display the insignia in several hundred years. The brothers watched her enter the cider bar before nodding in silent agreement, flying off to leave the mare alone, for now, to search out her own demons.

And she found them.

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"Rarity..." Spike's small voice finally came long after the sun had gone down and she had almost fallen asleep in the dirt near his cage.

"Spike? Did you say something?" her head lifting to attention. Spike was sitting up, looking out at her with baleful green eyes, his little hands clutching at the bars.

"You can go home, you know. Y-your coat is getting dirty... I know how much you hate that." Spike said with a small amount of that old caring and understanding he had always shown for her.

Rarity's heart lifted at the sound of it, but fell quickly when he added; "... and won't your new boyfriend be worried?"

"Spike, about that... I-"

"No... you don't have to tell me. I know..." his head dropped, "...I know I'm not good enough for you."

"No! It's not that! I just... I..." Rarity struggled to find the words.

"What else could it be?" he shrugged with resignation, "I did everything I could think of to show you how much I liked you. Ever since the first time I saw you, I thought you were the one for me."

"You can't possibly have known that, Spike! You're just a young dragon! Surely it's just... just a crush, right? You don't really want to throw yourself on an older pony when there's a perfectly good dragoness out there waiting..." Rarity said with an almost maniacal look of encouragement on her face.

"It doesn't feel like a crush... especially lately. You're all I can think about and it's you that makes the... the urge happen the most." his hands left the cage and fell to his lap, covering himself there with a sudden need for modesty.

"What urge, Spike? What is the matter with you? I know what Applejack described to us was somewhat lurid, but that can't simply be the only thing causing you to behave such a way, is it?"

"I don't know what it is!" he shook his head and shrugged again, "All I know is whenever I think about you now, something happens! And it's been getting worse and worse ever since... ever since I discovered how to... to..." he looked down in embarrassment, not wanting to meet her eyes anymore.

"To what, Spike?" Rarity spurred him.

"...to trick my body into thinking it's mating with you." he said finally in a small, shy voice and rubbed his claw along the bar of the cage with bashfulness.

Rarity's eyes went wide and her head pulled back on it's neck, recoiling in shock. "S-spike! You... you do such things with me in mind?!"

The little purple head came up in the gloom of the cage, his eyes touching her's briefly before looking back down with shame. "I know... you think I'm gross, don't you. You all do... it's why I'm in this cage..."

The unicorn was speechless. She had never once considered Spike's affection for her as a mating thing, he just seemed too young and innocent for something like that. To hear such a blatant admission from him to the contrary was setting her perception of the dragon completely on it's side.

"You're in that cage because Twilight said you can't control yourself sometimes... and we don't want you to do anything rash!"

"I know..."

"It...it's those urges that have gotten out of control, then? You're sure of it?" she asked with a quivering voice.

He nodded slightly. "If I don't take care of them then the voices start..."

Rarity's heart was pounding in her throat. What Spike was telling her lead to only one logical solution. Even though the idea of what she was about to suggest seemed depraved to the normally prim and proper pony, she was willing to try almost anything to help her troubled friend out.

"W- would it help if I..." she swallowed against the lump in her throat, "...I helped with your urge?"

Spikes head snapped up, his mouth dropping open. "Wha.. what?"

"If I did this for example..." her white horn began to glow with a golden light and Spike's eyes flared as he felt a sensation of something warm and soft brush against his ear flap.

"Rarity... what are you... what... ahh...." he sighed and relaxed backwards, using his arms to prop himself up as the sensation moved down his chest. His penis was already beginning to swell between his stumpy legs.

"While I'm afraid mating with me is completely out of the question, Spike..." Rarity said with a slightly demure tone, "Perhaps a little magic can help you without too much bother?" she smiled as her magic's caress caused the little dragon to flop weakly onto his back with a pleasurable groan. The strange pink, fleshy cock was already stiff, poking straight up out of his scales like a pointer between the two stubby feet she saw from her angle.

"Ra... Rarity..." he moaned, "Don't..."

"Shhh... Let me do this for you at least, Spiky Wikey... You've suffered enough..."

Spike's mind went blank as the warm soft feeling of her magic surrounded his shaft. He'd never felt anything this good before and moaned loudly when it began to slide along it's smooth length, feeling better than his clawed hand ever did. He didn't know what to think. Rarity was pleasuring him in a way he'd only recently imagined existing and even though he still felt a pang of jealousy surrounding her, the fact she was doing this for him made it feel silly and unimportant right now.

Rarity tilted her head to the side with a smile at how Spike was reacting. It made her feel better that this simple act of intimacy could have such a dramatic effect on him. This might be going over the line for just being friends by a little bit, but that was alright in her mind... it was much better than him suffering alone. Who knows... maybe this may cure him?

She watched as his member grew, small veins appearing first and then the whole shaft turned a deep red color as more of his blood filled the pointed tube of his dragonhood. When the color reached the end, she watched with mild wonder as small, spongy thorn looking things popped out suddenly from the previously smooth flesh along it's length like a full balloon to give it a menacing, yet erotic appearance.

It had been so long since she'd seen any male member that even Spike's small, strange penis that was so unlike a stallion's was sending a flood of unexpected arousal to her neither regions. It was a big change for her to engage in something like this. Her heart continued to pound and she felt her tail twitching with nervous excitement. Hopefully it would be worth it.

Spike's belly began to heave as the pleasure Rarity's magic was giving him along his dick spiraled well beyond anything he'd managed to feel by himself. Recognizing the sensation building behind the scales between his legs, he tried to warn her.

"It... nuh..." was all he could manage before the fire in his belly belched a small green flame from his mouth in response to the contraction of his orgasm. He felt his watery, stringy cum fill the sack just under his shaft with a shiver of ecstasy and then the squeezing began, shooting the semen out of his penis in an unbroken, streaming fountain of liquid that fell back to coat his chest, belly and blankets underneath him. Some even arced high enough in the first second or so to stick to the blanket that was over the cage and Rarity watched as the blobs dripped down in hanging, thin strings that shook with the cage's motions.

Spike's body writhed as it emptied itself of the biggest load he'd ever shot and the smell of his release hit Rarity's nose with the force of a sledgehammer. It was like the warm, scaly smell that usually hung around him and was identified in her mind firmly with the little guy's presence, but was intensely strong. It was so... so Spike-ish in its quality that she could easily imagine the whitish fluid that sprang forth from his body in a shower was his own pure, personal essence.

The constant stream slowed and then dribbled down the side of his member, flowing around the wiggling crown of soft red thorns that circled the skin of the shaft before stopping completely, leaving him panting and covered pools of his own cum.

"Goodness..." Rarity remarked with an impressed tone, "That was quite a release!"

"Uuuggghh..." Spike moaned thickly, still coming down from the experience and after a few more moments, Spike came around, sitting up and looking down at his deflating penis and coating of semen in his lap, "Rarity, that... that was amazing! Does this mean we're special someponies now?!" he asked hopefully with innocent, eager enthusiasm.

"Spike... we can't ever be that." she shook her head with a patient smile, "But if a simple magic touch can ease your problem occasionally then I won't deny you the pleasure. It's the least I can do for my little Spikey Wikey while he deals with this troubling period."

"Oh..." he said crestfallen, but not crushed like he had been before. He could think clearly again and his normal ability to sense other's emotions as a dragon had returned as it usually did when he wasn't consumed by the fire in his veins. As much as he longed for Rarity to return the passion he felt, he secretly had known all along that she never would. The fact she was finding another to share that special relationship with had only brought it up to the painful surface and being lost in the grip of whatever was controlling his life right now had made it all the worse.

Even though he heard the final blow to his dream land with her soft words, he was strangely alright with it. A part of him had always been scared to death about how he would live up to what must be exhaustive standards to keep her heart happy. Rarity had shown that she does care for him in her own special way... and that was enough last him a life time.

Rarity rose to her hooves and moved towards the barn, "Lets get you cleaned up... I'll be right back." she said and a few moments later returned with a small bucket of warm soapy water. "Come on out of there Spike. Now, you're not going to turn into a monster on me again, are you?" she said, smiling at him as her magic swung the gate open.

Spike stood in the yard and allowed himself to be cleaned by Rarity who used a wet sponge to gently wipe his scales free of the mess. It was a loving act, one done with tenderness and gentle looks between them that only re-enforced Spike's new assessment of their relationship. She even cleaned his penis carefully (the first time it had been clean in weeks) and scrubbed good under his tail for him without flinching and when she was done, he felt completely fresh and rejuvenated.

He waited until she'd dried him off before suddenly embracing her in a hug that came from the bottom of his soul.

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"Bucking dogs!" Ashley spat on the ground as she walked with an angry strut, "Stupid mutts..."

This was the last straw for her. She was never going back to The Underground ever again. Brock had taken all the bits she made today, all three of them, and then laughed at her while he and his friends ate, refusing to give her the share she'd been promised. Ever since Shepard passed away, the new leader of the camp had made her and the other young orphans who called The Underground their home miserable.

Despite the tough exterior she put on to show the world... she knew staying on the streets alone was dangerous and she was very scared. Running away like this from the only place she considered safe was stupid, but she just couldn't take Brock anymore... and without Shepard's watchful eye, some of the colts had gotten braver with her during the pitch black, echoing nights in the dorm.

Shepard had always believed that sharing and compassion was the only way to live together and every member of the camp in the tunnels below Dodge City got their share, provided they made an effort to contribute, no matter how small the day's offerings were. But Brock was only interested in helping himself and his friends and didn't care that his new 'tough luck' attitude was driving the old safe haven for castaways apart.

The thought of Shepard caused that stupid feeling of needing to cry again and she fought it down. Crying was for little baby dragons... and she wasn't a baby dragon!

I'm a tough dragoness who doesn't take shit from nopony! she thought.

A tough dragoness with fire so weak you can barely burn paper? her own voice mocked her in repsonse.

She fought harder against the tears as she walked faster through the nighttime streets with no particular destination in mind. She had nowhere to go. The Underground had been her home since she could remember and it was where she'd learned to survive after her parents were drafted into the Drake War that still raged in the Badlands to the south, completely unknown to the ponies of Dodge City and beyond. Shepard had been her father, brother, mentor and bodyguard after finding her, wandering weak and starving, in the southern barrens between the city and the cliff's edge.

Dragons were known for being distant and uninterested in mixing with the other citizens of Equestria, preferring to keep their world and struggles private. The only reason the hospital was here is because Dodge City had sprung up around it a century ago and the dragons simply tolerated the developing metropolis. Shepard had told her all this one day while they fished the river to the east together when she was younger and about how unusual it was to find a baby dragon all alone. It was why he had adopted her, and also why she was the only dragon in the orphan's camp in the tunnels below.

But Shepard tried hard to raise her with all the knowledge she would need. Even going so far as to spend his own small daily bits and risking his life to find a dragoness to tutor her in everything that the big, shaggy dog couldn't. To teach her how to be a dragon. Everything from how to make a nest, mating, laying eggs, breathing fire, hoarding gems... and everything else in between, including how troublesome male dragons are until they grew up. The old dragoness had been kindly to her, almost like a grandmother even when talking about the embarrassing things that had made Ashley's white spines quiver.

It was during this period she discovered her fire problem.

The dragoness had scolded her for not trying as hard as she could, that even baby dragons could breath flame hot enough to melt wax, vaporize paper and ignite candles. But no matter how hard the little red and white dragon with the sparkling red eyes tried... she could only manage to singe the edges of the practice scrolls her tutor had given her.

Without fire, baby dragons were defenseless and Ashley had to learn other ways of protecting herself from the colts and male puppies that made up the majority of the young camp. She'd learned that a swift tail slap in just the right place on em usually did the trick and when it didn't... her claws were pretty damn sharp. She also learned attitude went along way towards being left alone. As long as she was mean and didn't take crap from the others... she pretty much got her wish to be passed over for the worse of the teasing and gross boy stuff that happened after lights out.

But tail swipes and claw rakes only worked most of the time on the ones her size and almost never on the biggest ones. She knew that up here on the street's surface there were ponies and creatures that would love to take advantage of a little dragon like her. Ashley had managed to practice her fire enough that she could at least get paper burning now when she flamed on it long enough, but she knew it still wasn't going to protect her if it really came down to it. She just hoped she could survive long enough for her wing buds to grow in and then she could leave this place and go somewhere far away where people were nice to each other... like Shepard had been.

When she looked up from her tumultuous thoughts, she noticed she was close to the train station. It was practically deserted at this time of night and with nowhere else to go, exhaustion setting in and nothing in her belly to fuel her anger anymore... she found a weak board that could be pulled away and crawled under the wooden platform. Brushing away the litter and spiderwebs, Ashley curled up in a ball to try and sleep in the cool space under the train's loading dock. The dry, dusty earth quickly soaked up the three silent tears she allowed to leak from her frightened, glittering red eyes.