Embers in the Dark
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Embers in the Dark

Splash!

Your foot quickly becomes wet as what you assume to be dirty cave water enters you shoe. You bring your shitty lighting to bear on the ground and you can confirm that yes, you did just step into a puddle that had formed on the cave floor. There's no way to tell how clean the water is with the small amount of reddish light you get from your crystal, but at least the puddle doesn't seem to be too big.

With a groan you continue your way into the cave, a little more careful where you put your feet. After all there might be things a lot worse than puddles to step into. Maybe you should try to be more positive about your current situation but there is simply nothing positive about it.

You're in a foreign world, thousands of miles away from the friendly locals that let you live with them, huge dragons that could end your entire existence are fucking everywhere, your lungs burn like hell because you were chased by said dragons, and now also one of your feet is wet. Perhaps you should be thankful that you at least stumbled upon this cave.

There's a small stream of water flowing out of the cave and the dragon that chased you seemed to let off when you got near it. Perhaps dragons don't like water? It's a possibility, but you didn't get the feeling the dragon was trying very hard to get you anyways. If he had you probably wouldn't have gotten very far.

You look back over your shoulder to make sure that you can still see the entrance of the cave. The last thing you need right now is to get lost in some dark cavern. Just a little deeper and you should be safe from any dragons snooping around the cave entrance.

You think.

You don't actually know whether a dragon could spot or smell you from that far away, but it's your best bet. All you need is a place to hide for a few hours and Twilight will be able to come in and rescue you.

A sudden glimpse of light from the side catches your eye. Upon closer inspection you can see that there is a large, uneven, metallic body on the ground. No wait, it looks more like a heap of things rather than one solid object. Curiously you pick up one of the objects, surprisingly heavy for it's size. It's a golden coin.

You drop it in horror as realization washes over you. You need to get the fuck out of this cave before the owner of this stash returns and rips you apart.

With cold fear running through your veins you turn around, moving back towards the cave entrance as fast as you can in the dark. Before you can even take three steps you can hear something move in what seems to be a nearby lake and your heart skips a beat.

You're fucked, you're totally fucked.

A large figure jumps in front of you, cutting off your escape route and dousing you with cold water. With a scream you fall backwards, scrambling to cover your head with your arms as if it would make a difference. A female, but very aggressive voice barks at you: "What are you doing in my cave!?"

"Please, no!"

In an somehow even more aggressive tone the voice repeats: "I said, what are you doing in my cave, you pathetic worm!?"

Your heart feels like it's ready to burst, and your voice is shaky as you reply: "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know this cave was yours. Actually I was just about to leave."

The dark figure seems to snort. "Then get the heck out of here before I'll have to remove you myself!" With a mighty leap the figure jumps towards you, making you cower in fear with your eyes shut tightly.

However, nothing ever hits you and after a second you can hear the metallic sound of the dragon touching down on it's hoard. It takes you a moment to realize that you have just been spared and you feel the greatest relief you have ever felt in your life.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" You waste no time in getting on your feet and stumbling back towards the cave entrance. It's probably a good idea to use this chance to get away before the dragon gives your pardon a second thought.

Unfortunately you seem to have dropped your light crystal when you fell, so you can't walk as fast as you'd like to. Still, walking through complete darkness seems more appealing than turning around and fetching your crystal when it's lying right in front of the dragon's hoard.

After a few steps you reach a wall and use it as a guide to walk a little faster towards the outside world. Where there are even more dragons.

You stop.

The relief you had felt before completely disappears as you realize you will once again be out in the open with dragons everywhere.

"What are you stopping for? Didn't I just tell you to beat it!?"

The sudden shout from behind you makes you jump a little. You can't go back outside. Unfortunately staying inside doesn't seem like an option either if what you know about dragons is true.

To your regret you hadn't paid much attention to dragonkind or it's territories during your stay in Ponyville, but what you do know is that they're huge, fire-spewing lizards that love treasure. They are very protective of their hoards and have zero tolerance for intruders.

Yet this one gave you a chance to explain yourself while the other dragons didn't even seem to need a reason to attack you. Maybe...

Nervously you turn around towards the general direction you assume the dragon to be in.

"Wait, please hear me out!"

The only reply you get is your own voice echoing from the depths of the cave. Taking this as a sign to keep going you take a deep breath before continuing:

"I did not mean to come to the Dragon lands. It is a dangerous place for me and I'm only here because a teleportation spell misfired. My location is probably being tracked as we speak, but it will be several hours until someone can come in and rescue me. I don't think I will make it that long if I leave this cave. I beg you, please let me stay until then, it's my only hope!"

You are met with silence after your speech, the only thing you can hear being the blood pulsing through your ears. After several long seconds you hear what sounds like a sigh.

"Fine, you can stay for a while."

Once again you are met with incredible relief.

"But..."

Instantly you tense up again.

"...you better stay away from my hoard, or you will regret it. Understood?"

"Yes, you won't even notice I'm here."

You gulp nervously.

"But please let me just quickly get that light crystal I dropped near your hoard."

Again you get no answer, but that's a probably a good sign. If the dragon didn't want you to get that near to it's hoard it would probably let you know.

Slowly you make your way over to the crystal, careful not to lose your footing in the dark. As you get nearer you start to hear the soft clinking of what you assume to be the dragon moving around on its hoard. Finally you reach your crystal and you pick it up from the ground.

From the heightened position of your hand it shines more light onto the dragon, letting you see a writhing mass of black. For a short moment two deeply red orbs flash up, almost making you trip. The sight of the dragon's eyes and the low sound of it's breathing remind you that you should better back off now. Thankfully you can now at least see where you're going now.
You can't help but feel nervous though as you walk back, probably because you are now turning your back to the dragon and you can feel it's gaze lingering on your back. You take a deep breath, trying to calm yourself. If the dragon wanted to maul you it would have done so by now.

Soon enough you're back at the cavern wall and luckily you soon find a somewhat dry spot to sit down on. The slanted, uneven cave wall doesn't make for good back rest at all but still you cherish the opportunity to at least somewhat relax your body and assess your situation.

You're trapped in a dark, damp cave together with a flying beast that could easily kill without even breaking a sweat.

Assuming dragons even do sweat.

Yet again you regret not having spent more time informing yourself about the creatures of Equestria and you rub your temple in annoyance.

As you do you so you notice that your palm hurts, covered in something weirdly sticky. Closer inspection yields that you have a small, and luckily not very deep wound below your thumb, likely from when you fell down earlier. You hadn't noticed the pain until now, probably because of the adrenaline rush.

Worried that you might have other, more serious injuries you check the rest of your body but find to your relief that you seem to be alright except for the fact that your legs and part of your torso are pretty wet right now.

Fucking great.

This cave is not very warm to begin with and you're already starting to feel cold from your wet clothes. You distantly remember having been told by a friend back on earth that staying dry is the key to survival in cold climates and that wearing wet clothing is even worse than wearing no clothing at all.

With a sigh you take off your shoes and pants, hoping your friend didn't just talk out of his ass. The sock you're wearing on the foot with which you had stepped into the puddle earlier seems to be completely drenched too, so you take it off, too. Seems like the other one stayed mostly dry at least.

Just as you spread out your pants and sock flatly on the ground next to you, you are hit by a sudden gust of wind that makes you shiver. You quickly put your shoes back on and make yourself as small as possible. You sit down with your head on your knees and your arms around your legs, helping you at least a little to shield yourself from the howling wind that has picked up from the mouth of the cave.

Your ears and fingers are already stinging but to be honest your legs are of bigger concern to you. They are still wet and you can already feel the heat leaving your body whenever the wind blows against them.

Hopefully Twilight gets here soon.

After a short time you begin to shiver and you rub your legs together in a futile attempt to keep them warm. At least they seems like they're slowly drying up. Still you feel like the wind is gradually getting colder. Taking a quick look at the cave entrance confirms that it seems to be getting dark outside.
Just your luck.

You'll need to stay awake no matter what, though you don't think you could fall asleep even if you wanted to. Every so often you can hear the sound of metal being shifted around, reminding you that you are not alone. You tell yourself that the dragon won't attack you as long as you leave it alone but there is just no way you can feel safe as long as you know that it's still there, lurking in the dark.

You don't know how long you've been sitting in that cave. It couldn't have been much longer than forty minutes but with no sensory input except for the biting cold it's difficult to tell.
You try to warm your fingers with the small amount of heat generated by your crystal but you have almost no feeling left in them. It's a clear sign of hypothermia.
The hours it would take for help to arrive had seemed like a mere annoyance at first but you are beginning to lose hope you'll survive that long even if the dragon doesn't decide to kill you first.

A part of you wishes it would just happen. It would at be a lot quicker than slowly freezing to death in some cave.

"What's that clacking sound?"

It takes you a moment to register that the dragon had just spoken to you. Without the threatening undertone in it's voice it sounds completely different.

"Tho-Those are my teeth."

You're trying your best to keep your voice steady but you're shivering too hard to do it.

"When you splashed me with water some of my c-clothes got wet so I had to take them off. I'm losing a lot of body heat so I shi-shiver and that makes my teeth clack together."

"I see."

There was something in the dragons voice that made it sound strange, kind of soft.

"Come over here!"

The more stern, commanding tone of voice seems to have returned.

In your current state you get up from your sitting position onto your numb feet and start walking towards the dragon without giving the order much thought. Halfway there the dragon seems to start digging around in it's hoard and you start to think about what you're actually doing. Your heartbeat quickens and you can feel some blood flowing back into your limbs.
You do not want to get anywhere near that dragon.

Still you continue onward. The dragon has commanded you to approach it and you have no choice but to obey.

Shortly before you arrive at the edge of the dragon's hoard a large, rectangular object lands in front of you.

"I got this brocade tapestry from the Saddle Arabian prince Dawn Star the Third. It had been in the possession of his family for seven generations with each new owner weaving in a new strand of gold. You may use it to warm yourself."

Somewhere in what the dragon just said lies an ambiguity as to how it had acquired the tapestry but you don't care. The mere mention of the word warm does things to you you cannot describe. With shaky hands you pick up the tapestry.

"Th-Thank you."

You're stuttering from both the cold and the sudden rush of hope that just hit you. It's impossible to tell where exactly on it's hoard the dragon is sitting right now but you sincerely hope that you faced in the right direction when you gave it your thanks.

"Keep it near my hoard and don't get it too dirty."

The prospect of having to stay near the dragon still fills you with unease but not as much as you thought it would. Even if it didn't go to great lengths to help you by giving you this rug it might very well have just saved your life.

That means the dragon must have at least some sympathy for you, right?

A sudden gust of wind hitting the back of your legs reminds you that you should put that tapestry to use as quickly as you can. You're supposed to be staying near the hoard so the best thing to do is probably to try and use it to shield yourself from the wind. With your crystal in hand you carefully round the hoard which as far as you can tell has a diameter of at least five meters. The dragon seems to be following closely behind you, hiding its body behind it's hoard as it watches you with it's glowing eyes.

Luckily you find a spot that's relatively dry and mostly shielded from the wind so you unfold the tapestry which turns out to be much larger than you anticipated.

You sit down on it and wrap it around your body, enjoying the way it feels against your skin even if it smells a little moldy. Immediately you feel warmer just from blocking the wind that was previously hitting your body and you cannot imagine a better feeling.

"You may call me Ember."

It takes you a second to react in your state of relative bliss.

"I- My name is Anon."

Though it was probably not designed for this purpose the rug does an excellent job at insulating you from the cold air and you're glad to feel your fingers again, even if they're hurting. Deciding to respect the dragon's- to respect Ember's wishes you take off your shoes under the tapestry since their soles have become pretty dirty after walking through all that mud and dirt. Actually you should have done that before wrapping yourself up with the tapestry but it's already too late for that.

You shortly open up your blanket to put your shoes down on the ground next to you but of course just then a gust of wind hits your exposed form. There's no substantial heat loss since you quickly protect yourself again but still a shudder runs through your body.

"The wind should be falling off soon, probably in half an hour at most."

Judging from the direction you can hear her voice from, Ember seems to have moved to the top of her hoard.

"What makes you think that?"

With a slight hint of amusement in her voice she replies:

"Experience. It's not just yesterday that I've claimed this cave. There is no nook, no cranny here that I do not know. The wind you're feeling picks up almost every evening and usually it dies off before midnight."

"But that sounds a little strange, doesn't it?", you ask with knitted eyebrows, "Why would the wind be doing that?"

The cave falls silent except for the howling of the wind and you instantly regret having opened your mouth. Dragons are known for their pride and so far you didn't get the feeling Ember was an exception to this rule. You didn't mean to embarrass her by asking a question she doesn't know the answer to, you were just being curious.

Hopefully she won't take this personally.

"The entrance you came through faces to the east, right?", Ember begins in a calm voice, "So when evening comes around the mountain we're under casts it's shadow over the nearby area, cooling it and causing air to sink down. This air then pushes into the cave and creates a wind towards the still sunny side of the mountain. Once the sun has set the air pushes down on both sides of the mountain so the wind stops."

"That sounds ... wow."

Plausible might have been a better term to describe what Ember has just told you but you're actually impressed by her knowledge. It makes you wonder whether your idea of dragons being brute beasts is wrong in general or if Ember is just the rare exception.

"To be honest I was worried for a second that I might have embarrassed you with my question but you seem to know a thing or two about meteorology."

"Of course I do." The self-satisfaction in her voice is palpable. "After all there is more to flying than just flapping your wings. Knowing where and how air moves makes all the difference between a relaxing glide and the struggle to fly against the flow."

Foresight is probably an important trait to have when you're part of a species that lives to become a thousand years old. However, this just throws up another question for you:

"So that means that there's wind coming from the mouth of the cave because it's cold there while it's still warm on the other side of the mountain, right?"

"Correct."

"So wouldn't that mean that in the morning the wind comes from the other side?"

"It does, but what's your point?"

"Well, the air coming from the depths of the mountain every morning would be really cold, wouldn't it? I doesn't seem to me like waking up here would be very pleasant for a reptile, because I had a pet lizard once and when he got cold he-"

You are suddenly interrupted by a loud and metallic rattle from the center of Ember's hoard. The dragoness has as far as you can tell suddenly risen from her lying position on her hoard and for a moment you can see her red eyes flash up.

"Now listen here, Anon, and listen well because I will only say it once."

The tone in Ember's voice is cold and threatening, sending chills down your spine.

"I am not a reptile, I am a dragon. I am not cold-blooded, I am not slow, and you better believe I am not stupid. Are we clear?"
You gulp nervously.

"Y-Yes."

You don't recall having said anything about her intelligence or speed so that last was probably just her own associations with reptiles.

"I really didn't mean to insult you, I was just being curious."

Ember gives an annoyed sounding snort.

"Look, I'm sorry for making assumptions about you, and I really didn't mean to insult you. I'm very grateful for what you did for me and I wouldn't want you to think that I am not merely because of a poor choice of words on my part. Can you forgive me?"

You do not get an answer but the soft sound of metal being moved around makes you think that Ember lied back down on her hoard.

Sounding a little sulky she says: "I'll have you know that waking up in this cave is the most beautiful thing in the world. The warm rays of the sun shine down on me and once I open my eyes the entire cave is bathed in gold by my hoard. And then I need to take just a few steps to take a swim in my own, personal lake."

Ember's voice grows more serious. "There are other, more practical benefits of this cave though. Down that cliff there is a tunnel to a second entrance most dragons can't squeeze through."

Wait a moment.

"Down what cliff?"

"The one right next to you?"

From your sitting position you wave your light crystal around a little and now that you pay attention to it, two meters away from you there seems to be an area where the ground just vanishes. You're really glad that you didn't go over there.

"How high is that cliff again?"

"About two dragon lengths."

You have no idea how high that actually is but you'd rather not find out.

"Did you seriously not notice that cliff? What kind of diamond dog are you?"

Wait, what?

"You think I'm a diamond dog?"

"Well ... aren't you?" She doesn't sound so sure anymore.

With a small smile you reply: "Actually I'm not. My species has chosen to call themselves humans, and if anything I'm related to apes."

You chuckle a little at the ridiculousness of the situation. "Do I really look that similar to a diamond dog?"

"Well, you're large and bipedal like a diamond dog."

"But my arms are a lot shorter. And I don't even have a snout. And I'm hairless."

"Just shut up, okay!"

You're reminded that you should probably try not to provoke Ember and you quickly shut the fuck up. Though she doesn't necessarily sound angry right now. She sounds ... embarrassed?

"You still have some fur on your head, so I thought you were just sick and balding, what with all the shivering earlier. Also many pariahs and outlaws flee to the Dragon Lands so it's not like diamond dogs, being the scumbags they are, are a rarity around here. Actually your teleportation misfire story sounds just like what a dirty thief would say to get me to lower my guard."

You get the feeling Ember does not think very highly of diamond dogs.

"Well..."

You sigh.

"Unfortunately I don't know how I should prove to you that I'm not just some mutated diamond dog outlaw."

"I-I'm not saying you are, I'm just saying it's easy to confuse you with one. In all my travels I've never heard of so called 'humans'."

You give her a dry smile.

"It would have surprised me if you had. After all I'm not from this world."

For a moment it's dead silent in the cave.

"What do you mean, you're not from this world?"

"Well, pretty much what I just said. I was born in another dimension parallel to this one and then one day got sucked into this one by chance."

"Are ... are your people going to cross dimensions when they come to get you?"

You smile at the misunderstanding. "Not quite. When I said that I ended up in the Dragon Lands because a teleportation spell misfired I did not mean that that spell made me cross dimensions. The spell that transported me here was cast on my by a po- by a friendly local."

"You meant to say pony just now, didn't you?"

Fuck. There seems to be some animosity between dragons and ponies, so you were planning to keep the fact that you were living with ponies under wraps. An uncomfortable silence hangs between the two of you as you try to think of something to say.

Ember is the one to break it with a chuckle. "Lucky for you I don't have much of a problem with ponies or the apes that live with them."

You let out a breath you didn't notice you were holding and Ember starts laughing loudly, presumbably at how nervous you had just gotten over nothing. The sound of coins being moved around fills the cave as ember probably rolls around on her hoard with laughter and with a slight blush you say: "Come on, it wasn't that funny."

Ember stops laughing eventually, but there's still some amusement left in her voice when she replies: "Alright, Anon, I'll make sure not to hurt your precious, little feelings anymore." Another snicker. "You know, for an alien you have awfully thin skin."

You sigh at Ember's teasing when suddenly a thought strikes you: "Aren't you being a little too accepting of the idea that I'm from another world? I know that at least I would have my doubts if someone came to me and told me they were an alien."

"Hmm, how do I put it?", Ember begins thoughtfully, "Something about you being an alien just makes sense. I can't really describe it, but when I look at you it feels kinda off, like you're not actually there."

"Oh, uhm, apparently that's because I've only arrived in Equestria recently, and my body has not yet adapted. It's the reason why I was teleported into the Dragon Lands actually. You see, the town I live in has one of those big teleportation circles in case it needs to be evacuated because of a natural disaster. Unfortunately I tend to arrive off target whenever I'm being teleported, which is why for safety reasons measures were taken to reduce my instability."

"I get the feeling those measures were not very successful."

"Well, I was given this nifty crystal with the promise I would arrive 75% closer to my destination. Now, perhaps I unwittingly angered one of the princesses, but I don't think I was supposed to almost get eaten by a dragon in the process."

Ember laughs. "Not almost you weren't."

"Well, maybe I'll get a pardon if I tell the Equestrian monarchy of a more effective way to deal with dissidents. I'm in a cave with a dragon right now and it doesn't look like I'm getting eaten anytime soon."

In a threatening and low tone Ember says: "Maybe I just like to play with my food."

You're pretty sure Ember is joking, but the prospect still sends chills down your spine. Talking to her made you forget that she could kill you on a whim if she wanted to.

"Come on, Anon, you know I'm only joking, right?"

It seems you had unknowingly stopped talking from nervousness and you sigh.

"Yes, it's just that I can't help but feel intimidated by you. You're a lot larger than me, you have sharp teeth and claws, you can spit fire, and you can fly. What do I have against that?"

"Hey now, I told you you could stay here until someone comes to get you, and that means you're my guest", Ember says, trying to comfort you, "I wouldn't be hurting my guests, would I?"

"It's just that... I know I'm safe on a conscious level, but still my instincts tell me to be afraid of things lurking in the dark where I can't see them."

You do not get an answer from Ember the only sound reaching your ears being the echo of your own voice. You think she's still lying on top of her hoard since you didn't hear her move. Though that doesn't actually mean anything, does it?

Involuntarily your heart beat quickens and you attempt to resume the conversation you had with Ember to get a feeling for where she's at: "So, luckily the crystal that was supposed to stabilize me at least sheds a small amount of light or else I would be sitting here in complete darkness."

"That's pretty convenient, I guess", Ember's replies half-heartedly after a second. The moment of silence between the two of you was rather short, but still you could feel a slight panic well up inside of you. It seems that Ember is still lying on top of her hoard, though you did not expect her response to sound that low-energy and absent-minded.

Doesn't really help to keep the conversation going either. "It's kind of inconvenient though how the light is so dim and it's only red light at that."

You hold up the crystal in front of you for emphasis and turn it around a little in your fingers.

"It probably is."

"You know, you probably can't see it from the top of your hoard but the crystal core is not actually round but rather icosahedric in shape."

Instead of an answer you can after a moment hear the sound of metal being shifted around coming closer. Your hands become sweaty as you realize that Ember is descending from her hoard.

"W-Wait, what are you coming closer for now?" Ember seems to stop moving.

"You said that I couldn't properly see the core from the top of my hoard, so I'm coming down to get a better view."

"That's..."

Before you can think of a reply Ember starts moving again and you start to take deep breaths to try and calm yourself. This small change in distance ultimately means nothing, really. Soon ember steps off her hoard and you have trouble picking up the sound of her steps on the cave floor.

However, now that Ember is this close to you the red glow of her eyes allows you to see where she is. On their own her eyes don't even look that threatening. Despite their reptilian appearance they have an undeniable beauty to them It's mesmerizing how they are shimmering so bright even in this near-darkness. Then Ember blinks and you're brought back to reality.
Ember's face is really close now and you can feel her warm breath tickling your hand. If you wanted to you could reach out and touch her.

"So, Anon, the crystal?"

"Yes."

You hold the crystal in front of Ember so she can see it properly and with some effort you manage to keep your hand still even though your heart is beating strong enough for you to feel it pulsating in your chest.

"You're right, the core really isn't round at all."

Ember keeps her eyes fixated on the crystal, as though it's the most interesting thing in the world and you get the feeling she was merely looking for an excuse to come down from her hoard. If she wanted to make you feel nervous again, then she sure reached that goal.

Even this close the crystal doesn't shine bright enough for you to see any details of Ember's black body, but you can tell that like most dragons she has a very pronounced snout. There are also some weird, red thingies on the side of her head that catch your attention. You can tell that they somehow protrude forward but you have no idea what they are.

"Like my horns?" Ember's eyes are focused onto yours.

"I..."

"Go ahead, you can touch them if you like." There's a certain softness to Ember's voice that you don't think you have heard before, and while the thought of touching Ember fills you with terror, at the same time you can't deny that you're also curious.

After some initial hesitation you raise your hand and slowly reach out for one of her horns. Even before you touch it you can feel the warmth radiating off of Embers body and you can confirm that yes, dragons are definitely not cold-blooded.

Your index and middle finger make contact with Ember's horn and you run them carefully across it's hard surface, surprised by how smooth it turns out to be. The horn seems to converge in a point further down and you carefully prod it with your thumb. It's not pointy enough for you to prick your finger on it but being hit by this would probably still hurt quite a bit.

You put the tip of Embers horn between your thumb and index finger and trace it backwards, noticing how it seems to become thicker towards the base. Suddenly you bump with your hand against a warm, and slightly soft surface and you retract it in surprise. Should have expected to reach her head eventually.

"You can keep going if you want to." Embers eyes are looking up at you with an open, and somehow warm expression, but after hesitating shortly you put your hand down.

"Look, Ember, I can see what you're trying to do, but I don't think it's going to work. I appreciate the efforts you put forth for me, I really do, but fundamentally I think they're futile. When I think about how there is a real, breathing dragon right in front of me I just get scared, and no amount of petting will be able to change that."

For a split second Ember just takes in what you have to say, before suddenly closing her eyes. She lets out an annoyed sounding sigh, causing a hot, like actually hot gust of air to hit the hand you're currently holding your crystal with.

Instinctively you pull back your arm away from the heat, unfortunately causing you to send your crystal flying towards the cliff.

"Shit!"

After bouncing off the ground two times the crystal disappears from sight and about a second later you hear a small splash.

You groan. "Hey, Ember, is there by chance another lake down that cliff?"

"No, but there's a narrow, yet very deep creek running there."

Fucking great. You briefly consider getting up to see if the crystal is till visible from the surface, but you quickly decide against it. Slipping and falling down that cliff would probably not end well for you.

"Ember, could y-" Before you can even finish your sentence Ember takes off with a mighty flap of her wings.

Quickly she moves on top of the cliff where she starts to hover. The slow, regular beat of her wings almost sounds like a heart.

"I can't see it."

The beat of Ember's wings disappears for a split second only to rapidly reappear next to you accompanied by a gust of wind. You can hear Ember touch down and you're surprised by the lightness of the landing.

"How deep is that creek?"

"I'm not sure. It's a deep running fissure that becomes more narrow towards the end."

"That doesn't sound very promising." You close your eyes and rub your forehead, resigning to the fact that you probably won't see that crystal ever again. Not that closing your eyes makes any difference in this darkness. Hopefully you won't drop any more things down that cliff.

"Hey, Ember, is your breath always that hot?"

"Not usually." Her voice is strangely quiet and low, sad almost. "It's just that when I get frustrated or angry it stimulates my fiery glands."

"Well, I was just asking so I won't drop any more stuff into the creek." You sigh. "Not that I have much left."

Hopefully that crystal wasn't too expensive so Twilight will at least not get overly mad at you for losing it.

Suddenly you can hear Ember start moving back towards her hoard. After a second the soft sound of her walking on the cavern floor turns into the characteristic rattle of a dragon moving around on it's hoard. Except she doesn't seem to be moving from the base of the pile.

Is she ... digging? You're about to ask what she's doing when Ember suddenly groans and a second later something very massive is put down on the cave floor with a metallic, gong-like sound.

"What-"

A small, slightly bluish light suddenly appears in the cave near the spot where you just heard the thing go down.

Is it just you or is there something jagged in front of the light?

With a high pitched roar the light explodes, streaming outwards and filling the entirety of your vision. You cry out in surprise and shield yourself from the blinding light with your hands.
The roar stops and even though your eyes still hurt a little you try opening them again. You can't see much except for bright spots at the center of your vision but you can tell that the cave is no longer dark.

"Ember? What happened?"

You do not get an answer but you pick up a soft metallic clinking coming from the hoard. This is also where the light seems to be coming from though it's no way near as bright as it was a few seconds ago. Eventually you see a big, golden pile with a black, metallic thing standing in front of it.

The clinking sound is still there. The way it repeats at a slow and rhythmic pace sort of reminds you of a metronome. You try to focus your vision on the source of the sound but all you can make out is a brightly blue, slowly moving blob sitting on the hoard. After blinking a few times your vision clears and the blob turns into a small, winged lizard sitting on a wooden chest.
Is this ... ? You let your gaze wander up the slender body of the dragon until it falls upon it's head. It's head with two large, white horns at it's sides.

Like her body Ember's head was turned to the side until now but when you look at her face she meets your eyes with a slight glare.

"What are you looking at?"

"Well, I , uh, ..."

Again you hear the clinking sound, and from the corner of your eye you can see a blue, snake-like thing whiz from left to right behind Ember. Ember's tail seems to be snapping from side to side, sliding against the hoard and causing the sound.

"You better not think that you being bigger than me makes any difference", Ember says, sounding slightly pissed off, "I could still kick your ass if I wanted to."

"I'm not denying that."

To be honest you're still a little dumbfounded at the fact that the dragon you had thought to be a huge beast turned out to be so small. If she were to stand up she wouldn't even reach up to your shoulders - and that's counting the deeply blue fins on her head.

"Tss, whatever."

Ember goes back to looking off to the side, the cave wall apparently being more interesting than you.

Your eyes instinctively dart back to Ember's tail when it once again moves around behind her. Measured from head to tail tip she's definitely longer than you, though in no way heavier. You let your gaze slowly travel up her tail, noticing Ember's paw-like feet and slender legs in the process. When you reach her butt you linger.

Despite Ember's generally slim build her waist is quite well-defined and round, possibly the widest spot in her body. The way her buttocks flex when she moves her tail is kind of hypnotizing actually. You wonder what it would feel like to get a grab of that scaly rear. It would probably feel really smooth and-

You snap out of your trance when Ember moves her tail in front of her rump, blocking your vision. "Eurghh..." She sounds disgusted.
Looking up at her face you find that Ember is scowling pretty hard at you, though there's also a hint of something else that you can't quite put your finger on. Maybe ... embarrassment?

"Why do you keep looking at my body like that?"

"Well, I ... I'm just surprised by the way you look, that's all."

It's technically true. Unfortunately Ember doesn't seem to like your answer if the angry snort she's giving you is any indication.

"What's that supposed to mean, you're surprised by the way I look?"

Shit. You'd rather not tell her the specifics about why you were looking at her butt of all places.

"Well, to be frank with you, how do I put this?" Nervously rubbing your chin you try to buy some time. "I just didn't expect your scales to be of such a beautiful, blue color."

For a second Ember's face contorts in surprise, but it quickly falls back into a glare. With surprising speed she gets onto her feet and flares her wings threateningly.

"D-don't waste your empty flattery on me!"

You hold up your hands defensively but just as you're about to speak up again Ember flaps her wings and takes off. She rises up in a small circle and you can't help but admire the grace with which Ember moves through the air. Sooner than you'd like, however, Ember comes down her hoard, moving into what seems to be a crater-like depression at the top of it where you can no longer see her.

Well, guess that conversation is over.

It's probably better that way though. After all, Ember didn't seem very pleased with the way you were eyeing her body. You sigh and rub your face with both hands.

It's clearly been too long since the last time you saw a human female if you're instantly gonna have lewd thoughts about any random creature vaguely shaped like a woman. For your own sake you should get your mind out of the gutter and focus. The Dragon Lands are dangerous, and you're lucky you're warm, dry, and safe right now. What you definitely don't need is to have lecherous thoughts about the one dragon you owe this to. You should just sit down and wait quietly until help arrives, not risk getting on Ember's bad side just because she has a nice-

With conscious effort you keep yourself from thinking about Ember's butt again and you decide to take a look around the cave to find something else to focus on.

With the amount of light filling the cavern you can see that for an Equestrian cave it's relatively small, which is still pretty big actually. Now that the wind has died the lake next to the entrance has become almost perfectly flat like a huge, black mirror.

More pressingly though you turn around and take a look at the cliff into which you had previously dropped your crystal. It seems to have a pretty sharp edge so you could probably walk up to it and look down.

Could, mind you. You don't know how strong the ground is over there and you'd rather not find out. You probably wouldn't see much anyways since the light doesn't shine down there. Which brings you to the question of why the cave is suddenly so well-lit in the first place.
You inspect the heavy metal thingie Ember had gotten from her hoard and find it to be a large brazier standing on a massive pillar. It's slightly bluish flame is actually quite bright.

And hot. You couldn't have imagined it when you were shivering in the dark earlier but you're actually unwrapping yourself from your blanket to make yourself more comfortable right now.

Suddenly you remember that your pants are still lying near the entrance to dry out. Might be a good idea to put them next to the brazier. After putting your shoes on you walk to the cave entrance where your pants and one sock are still spread out in the dark. They're a little hard to see in the shadow of Ember's hoard but not to the point that it's becoming a problem.

As you pick them up you see Ember poke her head out from her hoard. Your eyes meet for a second and you're glad to see that she seems to no longer be angry. After a moment you break eye contact though, making your way back to the brazier.

You were hot just a minute ago but your bare legs are already feeling a little cold.

You can sense Ember's gaze lingering on your back as you spread out your clothes but the amount of discomfort you feel from being watched is barely noticeable anymore. Seems like seeing Ember for what she really is helped quite a bit to alleviate your fear of her.

"Do you always wear this many clothes?"

You stop what you're doing and look at Ember.

"Yeah, it's kind of a human thing."

You get back to spreading out your pants.

"Without them I'd get cold pretty easily, so I guess I'm lucky that you happen to have this brazier."

You stop again and knit your eyebrows. "Is there a reason why you didn't instantly ignite that thing instead of just giving me a blanket?"
Ember looks away. "I don't use my dragon fire lightly."

That sounds like some made up bullshit but you decide not to press it, and instead choosing to awkwardly avert your gaze. You look into the flame of the brazier and notice something strange: The fire burns without anything actually being burnt.

Probably enchanted or something.

After a few seconds the brightness becomes uncomfortable and you look away. You should probably take a few steps backwards too before you feel hot again.

The thought of heat makes you realize that you're actually feeling quite thirsty.

"Hey, Ember, is the water from that lake drinkable?"

"It is for me at least."

Well, guess it's probably not poisonous then.

You walk up to the edge of the lake and notice that there is a small drop from the cave floor to the surface. It's difficult to tell how high the drop is exactly since it's backside is shrouded in darkness, but it's definitely too high for you to comfortably reach into the lake. A quick look along the rim of the lake reveals that you're actually at one of the lowest points of the miniature cliff.

Great.

The idea of lying down on your stomach to reach the lake with your hand doesn't seem very appealing to you but it's probably the only option you have.

"What's the matter, big boy, need help with drinking?"

The sudden sound of Ember's voice from beside you startles you a little but you manage not to flinch.

"Well, it's not as easy as it seems to actually get to the water."

Ember laughs, and you're slightly annoyed at her for making fun of what to you is a very real problem.

"Perhaps I'm just a natural."

With that Ember walks up to the edge and bends down, using her long neck and snout to reach the water from the top of the cliff. The larger part of her body seems to have actually passed the edge but she actually keeps her balance thanks to her tail. From the sound of it Ember seems to start drinking from the lake and in her current position you can't help but notice the way her ass is being lifted into the air.

Now that you're this close to it however you realize that your earlier ideas about what Ember's rump looked like were utterly wrong. You had imagined she'd have a butt like a human would with a clearly defined crack and the tail protruding from her lower back. In reality though her abdomen transitions neatly into a very thick and long tail, and what had looked like butt cheeks are actually thighs located on the side of Ember's body.

Doesn't that kind of make it a butt though?

Despite it's somewhat alien appearance you can't help but admire it. From the looks of it it is very muscular and firm, so-

Suddenly Ember pulls her head back up again and you quickly turn your gaze away from her rear and towards her face. Luckily she doesn't seem to be looking in your direction at the moment and after raising her snout highly into the air she seems to be swallowing the last of the water in her mouth.

You find the scene strangely captivating. The way she swallows with some of the fluid running down her neck, followed by the satisfied, little sigh she gives afterwards just moves something inside of you. Then Ember turns towards you and you feel your heartbeat quicken.

"There, did that look hard to you?"

It takes you a moment to gather your thoughts, but luckily Ember does not seem to be suspicious of you.

"To be honest it didn't, but unfortunately I don't have a tail. If I were to lean over the ledge like that I'd probably fall head-first into the lake."

Ember just rolls her eyes at you. Still your dry throat convinces you to at least try to get some water out of the lake with your hand. You find a spot that's relatively dry and lie down on your chest with your shoulders just barely sticking out over the edge.

When you reach down you can actually put your hand into the lake and quickly notice that the water is cold as fuck. Still you form a spoon with your hand and bring some of it to your mouth, though unfortunately your palm makes for a pretty shitty spoon. The water tastes like it contains a fuckton of calcite but still it's a nice feeling to have the cool liquid run down your throat.

After about a dozen or so handfuls of water your hand starts to hurt from the cold and you pull back up with a groan. It's frustrating to have this much water right in front of you and yet have no way to reach it properly.

As you turn back around you notice Ember absentmindedly sticking out her pink, long, and forked tongue before quickly pulling it back into her mouth. You look at her and as she notices your gaze her eyes widen a little. Before you can ask what's up with her she walks back to her hoard and starts digging again.

What's she getting now?

After a few seconds of furious digging Ember pulls a small, wooden box from her hoard and carries it over to you. After opening it unceremoniously she pulls out an ornately crafted silver chalice.

Your eyes meet for a second and you feel like she's about to say something, but then Ember looks away to the side with the slightest hint of a blush on her face.
"You know, the sight of you lying on the floor like that must have been one of the most pitiful I've ever seen."

To be honest her remark hurt your pride a little just now but the prospect of being able to drink more than a few drops more than makes up for it. You expect Ember to hand, or rather claw you the chalice but instead she leans back down again and fills it herself, giving you another nice view of her backside. When she gets back up she holds the filled cup out to you and you take it gladly with both hands.

"Thanks."

You put it to your lips and start drinking. It's sort of uncomfortable to ingest this much cold water at once but it does it's job at quenching your thirst. When you're done drinking you notice that Ember is fiddling around with a second chalice in her claws.

Her eyes are fixated on it and she doesn't even look up when she asks: "Hey, uh, these goblets aren't meant for water and I have two of them. And also I have an open bottle of wine and it's bad luck to drink by yourself." Ember's claws suddenly to clamp down on the chalice and she looks into your eyes. "So would you like to, you know, have a drink with me?"

The dragon standing in front of you doesn't seem like the Ember you know at all. She looks meek and timid, almost scared even.

"Uh, sure."

Immediately Ember's pose seems to relax and she returns to her regular, more confident self.

"Great. I'll go get the wine." She quickly takes off, landing on top of her hoard and leaving you a little dumbfounded. To be honest you hadn't really paid attention to what it was that she was asking of you. She had just seemed so afraid and vulnerable that you automatically agreed to her proposal without even thinking about it.

Not that it made a difference. You'd take wine over cave water any day. With chalice in hand you walk back to the rug and sit down on it. From the sounds of it Ember seems to still be looking for that bottle of wine and your mind wanders back to the moment she had more or less asked you out.

Just why was she being so bashful about it? There's nothing special to what you're doing, is there?

Actually you can think of a reason for why she's acting like that, but there's no way that Ember feels like that about you, right? You can't deny that you feel ... something for her. Though you've only met her today there's already nothing you want more than to have Ember show you more of her warm, affectionate side that she seems to be hiding behind a tough shell. Not only in a friendly but also in a more intimate and admittedly sexual way.

Maybe the feeling is mutual? Or maybe she just wants to be friends with you and that's what she's being shy about. After all Twilight told you that in dragon culture showing affection of any kind is often equated with showing weakness.
It's maddening how you just don't know how exactly Ember feels about you and you rub your temples in frustration.

Suddenly you can hear a loud pop from Ember's hoard and as you look up you can see Ember come down with what you assume to be the previously mentioned bottle of wine. She stops in front of you with an expectant look on her face. Not knowing what it is that she wants from you your mind starts racing and your heart speeds up a little.

Ember seems to be growing impatient and with a slight scowl she says: "Make some room, will you! That is my rug you're sitting on and I'm not gonna lie down on the floor."

Slightly embarrassed by your slow uptake you scurry over to the side, making some room next to you.

After putting the bottle against the ground to keep it upright, Ember lies down on her stomach in a casual, and yet very graceful manner. The way her legs are pressing flatly against the ground makes her thighs stand out quite a bit and you quickly avert your gaze, wary of being caught staring again. Ember pushes herself up a little from her lying position and awkwardly pours herself some wine before wordlessly passing the bottle on to you.

After carefully filling up your own goblet the two of you raise your cups in a silent toast before taking each a sip. You've found that Equestrian booze is typically a lot less potent than what is common back on earth and the sweet wine you're currently drinking is no exception.

Slowly whirling her tail in circles, Ember stares silently into the fire. You kind of want to start a conversation with her but you can't seem to come up with a proper way to do it. Every scenario you play through in your head sounds utterly stupid to you and would probably end with your embarrassment.

Annoyed by your inability to think of something to say you swivel around the wine in your chalice, watching the red liquid go in circles.

There's definitely some alcohol in there but it's mostly just grape juice. It's kind of unfortunate for your situation with Ember. Even if both of you were to drink a whole bottle of this stuff you'd get a little tipsy at most. If the wine had more alcohol in it maybe the two of you would end up...

Immediately you feel ashamed at your thought. That is not how you want to be with Ember. You look at the back of her head. If she's going to return your feelings you want it to be real, not because she's drunk. You'll just need to find the right words and hope for the best, won't you?

Suddenly Ember pushes herself up and you quickly avert your gaze. She seems to be drinking; probably can't do it properly with her head down. Lost in thought you stare into the fire, trying to come up with a smooth line that might win her over. Every once in a while you take a sip from your wine, until you notice movement from the corner of your eye.

Just as you look in Ember's direction, she briefly sticks out her tongue before quickly pulling it back in.

"What's up with your tongue?"

Fuck. You were trying to come up with a smooth line and that's what you ended up saying.

"That's..."

For a moment Ember looks sheepishly to the side before facing you again.

"It helps me to smell."

"Oh."

Makes sense, she's at least kind of similar to a reptile after all.

"D-do I stink?"

Her red eyes seem to widen in shock at your question.

"What?! No!" With a slight blush Ember looks away. "I think you smell nice."

She's saying it so quietly it's almost inaudible but there's no way you misheard that. You feel kind of light as pure joy fills you.

If she thinks you smell nice that must amount to something, right?

"What are you looking so happy for?"

You quickly force your face into a more neutral expression.

"Uh, I was just glad to hear that you like how I smell."

Ember's closes her eyes with a groan. "D-do you really have so little to your name that you're proud of something like that?"

With a slight glare the dragoness takes another sip from her drink but due to her lying position she accidentally spills some onto the rug, immediately scowling at her mistake.

"Damnit, that's gotta leave a stain for sure."

"Well, maybe you should sit on your butt instead of lying on your stomach then."

Ember scoffs at your remark: "Hey, genius, how am I gonna sit on the floor with this giant tail between my legs? I need something to sit down on with enough space for it if I'm gonna be comfortable at all."

You can feel your face become hot at what you're about to ask.

"Would you- ... you can sit on my lap if you want to."

After looking surprised for a second Ember blushes really heavily. If her face was all you'd be seeing right now you could think that her scales were purple instead of blue.

"There's a gap between my thighs where your tail could go. You know, so the rug doesn't get any more stains."

"Y-yeah, that would be bad."

She slowly rises to her feet and walks in front of you, staring down at you with unsure eyes. You can feel your heartbeat quicken as you realize that Ember is probably about to take you up on your offer. She turns away from you, giving you a close-up view of her wide hips. Ember's tail's snapping from side to side in front of your face and you lean back a little to avoid a collision.

There's something about her posture that makes her seem kind of insecure. It makes you want to give her a reassuring hug and tell her everything will be alright.

After a sharp intake of breath Ember clenches her claws and promptly lowers herself onto your lap with her tail bent towards you. The first thing you notice is how warm her small body feels against yours. Then Ember starts to shift around in your lap and her smooth, dry scales rub against your thighs in a way that feels strangely pleasant.

Suddenly Ember's tail is right in your face, slightly slapping against your cheek.

"Hey, careful with your tail!"

"Y-yeah, just give me a second."

Ember pulls her tail downward, sliding it through your legs towards your feet while leaning back into you with her upper body. You're still not wearing pants and when her tail rubs against your crotch and inner thighs it involuntarily makes your dick twitch. After a few seconds Ember seems to have gotten comfortable and stops moving.

You had offered for her to sit on your lap, but the position the two of you are in feels like way more than that. Ember has laid back so far against your chest that she is now basically lying on top of you with her tail swinging lazily between your feet. The only thing that's missing to turn this into cuddling is for you to wrap an arm around her.

Would she like that? It's possible, right?

You raise your hand and hesitate, trying to look at Ember's face but you can't see it with the way she's lying against you. After taking a deep breath you quickly wrap your arm around Ember's torso, marveling at how warm it feels against your skin. For a moment you can feel Ember tense up in your embrace but eventually she relaxes again with a drawn-out exhale.

Ember carefully places her claws on your hand, slowly entertwining her fingers with yours. Despite the fact that the tips of her fingers are way sharper and pointier than yours, her hands still feel small and fragile as you take one of it into yours. Although they're a little harder and firmer than a woman's hands, Ember's claws still feel amazingly tender and warm.

In response to your contact Ember starts to slowly draws circles on the back of your hand with her free claw, though the contact is very light. You're not sure whether she's worried about hurting you with her claws or whether she's just being shy about making contact in general. Regardless you find the thought of ember handling you with care deeply satisfying. You like being in physical contact with Ember in general actually, especially on your legs where nothing separates you from Ember's scaly thighs and muscular tail.

Unfortunately due to your positioning a large part of Ember's weight currently rests on your crotch. Whenever she makes even the smallest of moves her firm rear presses into you and you can feel your member swelling up slowly but steadily.

With slight panic you contemplate your situation: On the one hand you really like cuddling with Ember like this, to share such a simple yet deeply intimate experience with her. On the other hand that experience might soon end when Ember feels you poking her from behind.

You want to reveal to Ember how you feel about her but you don't want it to be in such a crude and blunt way. Deeply conflicted and unable to act you merely sit there with Ember in your slowly expanding lap until suddenly Ember stops caressing the the back of your hand and instead squeezes down on your thumb.

"I know that earlier when you said you were admiring my scales that was just an excuse. What you were actually doing was ogling my rear."

"Well, I..."

You sigh. Might as well be honest now.

"You're right, I did look at your curves earlier, especially the ones around your waist, but I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It's just that I expected you to be a huge beast, but instead you turned out to be the cutest, most beautiful dragon I've ever seen."

For a second Ember's only response is an intelligible dribble of syllables, but she quickly recollects herself.

"I-I told you to stop with the hollow flattery!"

You think that Ember's intent was to sound intimidating here, but with how flustered she's gotten it's not very effective. It makes you want to try harder.

"But it's not just empty flattery. From the moment I laid my eyes on you I knew that I wasn't dealing with an ordinary dragon. I was instantly enchanted by your gracious movements and mesmerized by the brilliant color of your scales. To see you fly is to witness perfection. If I could I-"

Ember abruptly pushes your hand away.

"Just shut up already!"

While it's fun to rile her up like that, you suppose you can let her off the hook. For now. With a smug smile you note that while you still cannot clearly see her face you can see a clear hint of red sneaking up Ember's snout. She's also breathing pretty hard right now, though you're not sure how to interpret that. Maybe you really should be more careful with your teasing.

After being pushed away by Ember you currently have your hand hovering kind of awkwardly in the air. You'd like to put it back on Ember's thigh but she probably wouldn't want that right now. Just as you're about to pull your hand back to your side Ember suddenly grabs it with both claws and twists it slightly.

"What's that on your palm?"

For a second you don't understand what she's talking about until you look at your hand and see the small wound you got earlier.
"Oh, that. Earlier when you jumped from the lake I fell down and probably cut myself on a sharp rock."

Ember lets out a relieved sigh. "That's good, I thought I- Never mind."

You wonder what she was about to say, but you probably shouldn't pry.

"Do you want me to lick it?"

"What?" Your mind involuntarily fills itself with lewd thoughts of Ember sucking you off.

"Y-Your wound, I mean. My saliva has minor healing properties, so your wound would be healing faster if I were to lick it."

"Umm... Sounds good to me." Can't hurt, can it?

Ember gets out of your lap and instead kneels down in front of you, taking your hand in both of her claws. After a brief second of eye contact which is quickly broken by Ember, she brings her head to your hand. She looks at it for a moment and you can feel her hot breath running across your fingers.

Then Ember opens her actually quite large mouth just a bit, giving you a glimpse of her pointy teeth. If Ember wasn't holding your hand still right now you might have jerked it away on instinct at the sight.

Ember sticks her forked tongue out far wider than you thought was possible and puts it against your wound. There's a slight burning sensation when her tongue makes contact with your wound, but most of all it just feels really warm and wet against your skin.

Are you weird for finding this sensual?

Ember briefly retracts her tongue back into her mouth before running it across your palm a second time, covering it in more spit. It makes you wonder what that tongue would feel like on your dick. Apparently done, Ember pulls her head back a little and looks up at you.

"There, that should make it all..."

You hadn't realized it until now, but during the whole thing you had been staring right into Ember's eyes, and now those red orbs are staring right back at you.

"...better."

Neither of you is breaking eye contact, and while you feel like this situation should be awkward, something about it feels just ... right. From the corner of your eye you can see Ember's cheeks starting to glow red in tandem with your own. And Ember is still holding your hand, squeezing it tightly.

Your breathing and heartbeat quicken, but there is no nervousness. When you put your free hand on Ember's shoulder her slitted eyes widen just a little, still focused onto yours. You slowly pull in Ember's face and close your eyes.

When your lips meet you feel as if fireworks are going off inside your body. Despite their toughness, Ember's lips feel incredibly soft and warm. When you try to prod them with your tongue however, Ember pushes you away with a muffled cry of protest.

You instantly feel the crushing rejection on your body as if it was an actual, physical pain.

Had you misinterpreted her behavior? You were so sure she'd want this, too. With some hesitation you open your eyes, your heart still feeling like it's stuck in a wrench.

Ember is still there, looking down at her claws. For a brief moment she looks up at you before guiltily looking away again.
"...Drag...don't..." Ember mumbles something under her breath, but it's too quiet for you to understand.

"Come again?"

With a troubled expression she looks at you before repeating: "I said dragons don't do kissing."

Her voice is still barely above a whisper, but now you can at least understand her.

"That's a pony thing."

"Well..." You sigh. "It's also a human thing. Didn't you like it?"

"That's..." Instead of finishing her sentence Ember decides to stare back at her claws. Though this time instead of fiddling around with them she just seems to tightly clench them together.

So did she like it after all?

There's a glimmer of hope and you hold on to it, putting one of your hands on the back of Ember's head while you bring the other below her snout. You gently turn her face towards yours, meeting no resistance aside from a slight tremble.

Ember's eyes are squeezed shut tightly and even though you don't have a lot of bodily contact with Ember right now, you can feel how tense she is. Carefully you close your eyes again and give Ember another gentle kiss.

This time when you prod her lips they part with some hesitation, giving you access to the dragonness' mouth. Your tongue makes brief contact with Ember's, causing her to retract it in surprise.

Eventually though she brings it back against yours, carefully getting a feel for the foreign muscle invading her mouth. You retreat your tongue back into your own body and Ember follows, rubbing her tongue against your lips along the way. It's at this point that Ember puts her claws on your shoulder blades and begins to actively return the kiss.

A little clumsily she explores your mouth, letting her forked tongue slide against your teeth until tenderly reuniting it with yours. Ember slides the tip of her tongue across the back of your muscle and you push up against her to intensify the contact. Your tongues become intertwined, the narrow, long nature of Ember's tongue allowing her to tightly coil it around yours.

Suddenly Ember pulls her tongue back, dragging you along to more neutral grounds. Eventually though Ember's tongue comes back into contact with you and once again she tightly coils around your tongue before retreating back into her own mouth. She repeats this process a couple of times, each time moving the point where your tongues meet a little further towards her side. You use the opportunity to get a feel for Ember's teeth with your tongue and find that they are a lot like your own, albeit somewhat bigger and pointier.

Feeling bold you put one of your hands on Ember's butt and give it a light squeeze, eliciting a small gasp from the dragonness. For a moment she stops moving her tongue and you worry that you went too far. To your relief though she quickly resumes kissing you with renewed vigor and you put your free hand on Ember's back in response, gently rubbing the spot between her wings.

You give Ember's rump another, more daring squeeze and you marvel at how firm it feels against your palm. Not only is Ember's butt extremely muscular, but also the scales covering it make it feel particularly tough. Slapping it would probably not do much aside from hurting your hands. Still, despite being relatively hard when compared to a human butt, Ember's thighs have a certain plumpness to them that you just can't get enough of.

Ember meanwhile has also started feeling up your body, letting one of her claws travel down your still clothed chest. Once she reaches your waistline she snakes her claw under your shirt, gently caressing your bare skin as she moves it back upwards. The way Ember touches you feels like electricity running down your spine and in a moment of passion you use both of your hands to grab her butt and pull her close, unintentionally pulling your mouths apart in the process.

You open your eyes just in time to see Ember's tongue whiz back into her mouth. Ember seems to notice your gaze following her tongue and when you lock eyes with her she looks away embarrassed before resting her head on your shoulder. She still has her claw caressing you under your shirt, currently drawing small circles on your back. With the way her body is pressed against yours there's no way she doesn't feel how hard you've gotten by now.

You turn your head towards Ember and spot a small hole located under one of her horns. After giving Ember's ear a small lick that you whisper to her as she shudders:

"Would you like to ... go further?"

The slow circles Ember's claw has been drawing on your back suddenly stop with a jerk.

"F-further? Like mating?"

"Yeah."

Ember pulls herself a little tighter against you before replying: "I guess I wouldn't mind if it's with you."

You can't help but smile at Ember's indirect response. By her standards that's basically a love declaration.

You plant a series of kisses around the base of Ember's horn, slowly traveling to the front of her neck. To your surprise you find that the slightly brighter areas on Ember's front don't actually consist of hard scales like you thought they would. Instead you find that Ember's front is made up of skin far softer than you'd ever expected to find on a dragon.

Judging by the soft noises Ember makes whenever your lips make contact with her skin it's also quite sensitive.

After one particularly long smooch you carefully bring your teeth to bear on Ember's neck, giving it a small nibble. With a surprised gasp Ember puts her claws on your shoulders and pushes you back.

"What are you doing? This isn't how you mate."

For a moment you were worried that you might have done something wrong but when you see the embarrassed look Ember is giving you you just smirk at her.

"Actually it is how I mate, at least when presented with such a beautiful, cute dragon such as yourself." If Ember wasn't already in full blush she'd probably be now.

She's trying to respond, but nothing intelligible seems to be coming out of her mouth.

With great care you lay Ember down on her back, using the opportunity to take off your shirt. When you pull it from your head you see Ember nervously lying under you, looking to the side with crossed arms.

"Oh? I thought a dragon like you would be experienced with this sort of thing but perhaps I was mistaken."

You feel like you're going a little far with your teasing but you just can't help it.

"O-Of course I'm experienced."

You feel the urge to poke her about that, but you should probably let up for now. Gently you take one of Ember's claws into your hand and start kissing it. She seems pretty tense at the moment so you decide to try and help her relax a little.

Slowly you run your lips up Ember's arm, using your hands to tenderly rub it in tandem with your kisses. Ember seems to like the attention you're giving her if the small sighs she gives each time you rub one of her muscles are any indication. Soon you reach Ember's shoulder and you plant another kiss on Ember's soft chest, eliciting a rather ambiguous gasp from her.

You're not making her feel uncomfortable, are you? You stop your ministrations for a second and look into Ember's eyes.

"When I do something you don't like I need you to tell me right away, okay?" You rub your neck a little awkwardly. "This is my first time being with a dragon so I don't actually know what I'm doing."

Ember's eyes widen a little. "No, It's -" She looks away. "I-I like it when you kiss my body."

You're in a way glad that Ember is looking away right now because you feel like the smile you're sporting looks pretty stupid. Something about Ember telling you that she likes what you're doing just feels deeply satisfying.

"Then let's get back to it, shall we?"

You pick up where you left off, traversing Ember's chest and shoulder with your loving caress before moving on to her other arm. Once you reach her claw you lean back a little to get a full view of the beautiful dragon laid out in front of you, her brilliant blue scales heaving with each breath.

Ember locks eyes with you and you lean down, giving her a passionate kiss on the lips that she hungrily returns. You move your head down a little, kissing the soft underside of Ember's snout. With a small moan she arches her head backwards, giving you better access to her sensitive spots.

Fueled by the rather girly sounds you're coaxing out of the dragonness you kiss and nibble your way down Ember's front, using your hands to gently stroke the sides of her slim body. When you get near her abdomen Ember's breathing seems to become more ragged and she grabs your hair.

You pull up and look into Ember's eyes, wanting to make sure she really is comfortable with the way this is heading. She still looks kinda nervous actually, but beneath her embarrassment you see a warm smile, encouraging you to go on. Slowly you resume your journey down Ember's body until suddenly your lips touch against a warm hole.

"Anon!"

Figuring that you've found what you've been looking for you pull your head back a little to get a better view. You focus your eyes on the spot you were kissing before, being presented with a single, circular hole between Ember's legs.

Wait, shouldn't there be two holes? Is this like a cloaca or something?

"Don't stare at it like that." Ember's voice has a pleading, almost afraid sounding tone to it.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that." You can't see her face since she's covering it with both of her arms but it doesn't exactly feel like Ember is smiling. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah, just keep going."

You feel a little like Ember is forcing herself at this point, but you'll respect her decision. Perhaps she'll calm down once things start; You'll just have to keep an eye on her and stop if it becomes too much.

"I'll touch it now, okay?"

Ember doesn't give you a verbal answer but what she does give you is a weak nod.

Carefully you extend one of your hands, gently rubbing the brim of Ember's cloaca, causing her to inhale sharply. You move your other hand to Ember's chest, massaging it in slow, big circles until you feel Ember's body relax under your hands. When you try to pay some attention to your partner's clit you quickly notice that it is a piece of anatomy Ember simply doesn't seem to have.

Oh well, you're sure you'll find another way to make her feel good.

Once you feel like Ember has gotten comfortable with your touch you move the tip of your middle finger directly on top of Ember's hole and push. With some effort you slide half of your finger in, making Ember gasp in surprise at the foreign object entering her body. She clamps down on your finger quite hard actually, making you wonder whether the two of you are even compatible in size.

After a few seconds she seems to relax though and the pressure on your finger decreases. Slowly you insert a second finger into Ember, noting that while her cloaca is not exactly overflowing with fluid it's still pretty moist and slippery. You begin to rub it's inner walls with your fingers, causing ember to tighten and gasp like she did earlier when you kissed her chest.

Strangely Ember's cloaca doesn't seem to be very deep as you hit a wall just a few centimeters in. You spread you fingers in Ember's tunnel to get a feel for how wide it is and find that it's quite stretchy. It's not wide enough for you to fit your fist in, but your earlier worries about size were definitely unfounded.

Also while cloaca might be the biologically correct term, in a literal sense it does not fit at all. Ember's hole makes you think of a lot of things, but a dirty sewer isn't one of them. Continuing to explore Ember's cavern you soon find an opening on it's bottom.

Is this ... ?

"Th-That's my colon."

Oh. Not exactly what you were looking for.

You continue to feel up Ember's insides with your fingers, eliciting the occasional moan from the dragoness.

"A little further up."

With Ember's guidance you soon find another opening within her cloaca and you can feel your dick throb from the realization of just what you are touching right now. Easily your fingers slip into Ember's vaginal tract and in response Ember arches her back, moaning loudly at your caress.

Guess you found your target.

You push in your fingers as far as you can, deliberately rubbing them against Ember's walls on your way in.

"A-Anon."

Though she's calling out your name she still has her face covered with her arms as if to hide from you. Deciding that this will not do at all you move your head up to Ember's while still stimulating her with your fingers. She does not seem to notice until you use your free hand to pull away her arms without meeting much resistance, revealing her flushed face.

Her half-lidded eyes have become sort of hazy, emitting a lustful gaze that you had not seen from her before. You give her a passionate kiss as you finger her, the stimulation causing Ember to occasionally break it with a moan. She moves one of her claws onto the wrist of the hand you have inside of her and the other onto your shoulder, not to return your affections, but merely to hold on to you as you rock her world.

Eventually the dragoness' breathing becomes ragged as she clenches her eyes shut.

"Anon, I-"

Ember's words turn into a mixture of loud moans and a reptile-like hiss as her whole body locks up in ecstasy. She holds on tightly to you, the claw on your wrist digging painfully into your skin. The pain quickly becomes unbearable but Ember's gripping you to tightly for you to pull away.

Suddenly you can feel your skin rupture as Ember's claw digs into your flesh, making you cry out loudly from the intense pain.

You don't think Ember even noticed in her current state. Unaffected by your predicament she doesn't let go of you even as the blood flows freely from your wound, staining her claws.

After what felt like hours of suffering Ember's muscles finally relax enough for you to pull your arm free. There are three deep gashes on your wrist, each oozing thick globs of blood onto the surrounding skin. Instinctively you use your undamaged hand to clamp down on your arm beneath the wound even if it makes the pain flare up again.

"Ember, I need a bandage!"

"Wha- ... I ..."

Apparently still dizzy from her orgasm Ember just looks at you confused.

"Ember, I'm hurt and I need your help right now!"

After shaking her head a couple of times Ember seems to come to her senses and quickly gets on her feet.

"H-Hold on."

She makes a dash for her hoard and starts to frantically dig around in it as you sit there in agony. After a few seconds Ember comes back with a small, wooden stick in her claw.

"Show me your arm!"

You obey and present your wounded limb to Ember at which she points the stick.

"Victus!"

A reddish light springs from the stick and engulfes your arm. For a second it makes you feel pleasantly warm, until the warmth turns into an overwhelming heat and your whole world becomes pain.

Your wound had hurt before, but now it feels like it's on fire, it's flames spreading to your whole body and clouding your senses.

You flail blindly as you scream, unable to even form coherent thoughts. At some point you feel something restraining you but you don't care. You just want to get away from whatever is causing you this pain.

Eventually you stop feeling like you're being burned alive, the sensation slowly fading away into nothingness. You take several deep breaths, disoriented and dizzy.

It takes you a few moments to remember where you are and what you were doing previously. You get up from your lying position and notice that you are alone on Ember's rug with Ember herself nowhere to be found.

"Ember? Where are you?"

The only answer you get is your own voice echoing from the darkness of the cave, making you feel slightly anxious. You try to stand up but the moment you put weight on your arm the pain flares up again, making you clench your fists It's not as bad as it was before, but still it's nowhere near pleasant.

You take a look at your arm and find that while bloodied, no new blood seems to be seeping from the wound. In fact, you don't seem to be finding any wound on your arm at all.

You carefully probe the spot where you remember the wound to be with your finger and find that your arm feels absolutely normal aside from the sticky feeling of your own blood. Even when pressing down on your arm with a little more force it doesn't seem to hurt but you find your skin feels sort of uneven at the point you were wounded.

What the fuck?

You really don't like the way it feels, but with your blood covering your arm you can't really see what's wrong with your skin. For a moment you consider wiping off your blood on Ember's rug until you remember that it's actually quite valuable.

However, when you actually look at it you find that the once white rug has already been stained with your blood anyways. Also the bottle of wine Ember and you were drinking from earlier has tipped over, leaving another huge stain near one of the corners.

Figuring that the rug is ruined either way you quickly wipe the blood off of your arm and find that where once you had a wound you now have a pretty big scar. You're glad that you probably don't have skin cancer or anything of the sort, but still it is a strange feeling to suddenly have your body altered like that. The scar is in the shape of three big, parallel gashes which sort of makes sense if you consider that it was Ember's claw that hurt you there.

Which reminds you: Where has Ember gone anyways? Again you look around, finding nothing. However, this time you can hear a faint splashing sound coming from the lake. Curious you stand up, taking cautious steps towards the origin of the sound.

Once you get near the edge of the lake sudden movement catches your attention. Now that you know where to look, you think you can actually see Ember sitting there, leaning down over the edge of the lake. When you get near her Ember's head pops up.

For a second your eyes meet and even in the half-dark you can see that her eyes are slightly reddened. You want to say something to her, but Ember's head quickly disappears behind the ledge again, cutting you off. After a second Ember reemerges from behind the ledge, apparently having splashed water on her face.

"I go-"

Ember coughs, trying to make her voice sound normal.

"I got some of your blood into my eyes, so I had to clean them together with my claws."

Ember's speaking very softly, and while her face is turned toward you her eyes are looking off to the side.

"Well, uhh, thanks for patching me up after you- after what happened."

"No problem."

Ember turns away from you, still cowering on the brim of the lake.

You continue to awkwardly stand there in silence for a few seconds, not knowing how to continue from this.

"So, uh, at least I now have this badass scar to show off, so it's not all bad I guess."

Ember doesn't react, and you're beginning to feel nervous.

"Though unfortunately it seems like I ended up getting your rug all dirty in the process."

Suddenly Ember jumps up from her cowering position, whirling around to you with anger in her eyes.

"Who cares about that stupid rug!?"

You continue to just stand there, stunned by Ember's sudden outburst. After a moment though Ember's eyes soften and she slumps her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I hurt your arm, and I'm sorry I panicked and botched the healing spell."

The dragoness hangs her head, looking utterly miserable. You snap out of your daze and do what you should have done from the start: You step up to Ember and give her a big, warm hug. After a moment of surprise Ember returns the hug, though you feel like she's holding back.

While she did wrap her arms around you her claws never seemed to have made contact with your back. Also despite her scales you can feel just how tense Ember is right now, trembling slightly in your embrace.

You sigh. "Look, I'm not very good with words. Of all the stupid things anyone could come up with in a conversation I'll easily pick the worst because I'm just a bid idiot. But even I know that despite your fearsome and imposing appearance you're a very kind and noble dragon who would never hurt anyone on purpose like that."

You don't get a verbal response from her, but Ember starts to fully return the hug at your words, gently rubbing her snout against your chest. It makes you realize just how much bigger you are compared to her. Kind of weird that she's the one who's worried about hurting you.

You smirk. "Besides, being with a dragon as cute and beautiful as you is worth getting hurt a thousand times over."

"Don't make me hit you."

In another context those words might have sounded threatening, but with the way she's mumbling into your chest you don't feel any hostility from her at all. After a small chuckle you put your hands under Ember's thighs to lift her up against you, allowing you to give her a small kiss on her forehead.

Ember lets out a surprised eep, though you're not sure if it's from you grabbing her butt, from you lifting her off the ground, or from you kissing her on the forehead.

"Wh-What are you doing!?"

Maybe a combination of all three. With a smile you pull her up closer against you.

"I'm carrying you."

"Yes, but why are you doing it?"

"Why not?"

Actually there's no specific reason why you picked Ember up, you were just being spontaneous. Although now that you're carrying her anyways...

You start walking back towards the rug with Ember in your arms. "I'm not yet done with you, you know. There are a million things I'd like to do to a dragon as cute as you."

Ember blushes with a groan. "Stop calling me cute already."

You arrive at the rug, still carrying Ember like a princess. "Maybe I would if you stopped being so cute all the time."

Ember does not seem pleased with your answer. "I'm the Dragon Lord, I can't be cute."

"You, the Dragon Lord?", you reply with an amused snort.

Now, admittedly you don't know much about dragons, but you're pretty sure you read in one of Twilight's books that the position of Dragon Lord is given to, or rather taken by, the biggest and strongest Dragon around. That's not exactly a description you'd choose for Ember. You find the notion of a squirt like Ember being the Dragon Lord so ridiculous in fact, that you can't help but start laughing, much to the displeasure of Ember.

"Stop laughing!"

She seems really pissed actually if the hot air coming from her nostrils is any indication, so you try to get yourself back under control. After all, even if Ember is trying to bullshit you right now there's a limit to how much you should tease her. Just when you manage to hold in your laughter however, the pouty glare Ember is giving you sends you right over the edge again.

As you burst out laughing you can see Ember glare change from annoyed to furious. "Why, you stupid..."

With an angry yell Ember wraps her tail around your ankle and pulls hard, bringing both of you down on the rug. She starts wrestling with you, trying to get on your back. After a second of surprise though you realize what she's trying to do and start resisting, in turn trying to pin her under you with your weight.

While you'd say having long arms and a generally large body is beneficial in a grappling fight, Ember's superior strength and dexterity more than make up for her small build.

To be honest this is not looking good for you. You were on the defense from the start, but with how things are going that's not going to change any time soon. It takes Ember quite some time to overwhelm you actually, but eventually you tire out, allowing her to throw you on your back.

Before you can react she has you pinned, using her legs and arms to hold down yours. For a moment you try to raise your limbs but find that she has you completely immobilized. You let your head slump on the rug, resigning to your defeat.

Both of you are breathing heavily, you more so than her. Ember brings her face in front of yours, giving you a toothy grin.

Is she just going to have her way with you now that you've lost?

For a few seconds she just silently looks into your eyes and you become very aware of Ember's body on top of you. Not just of her fiery eyes staring right into yours, but also of the way her scales are rubbing against your skin as she holds you down.

"So", Ember says in between breaths, "Who's the Dragon Lord?"

Seeing as you've already lost you might as well let her have this victory.

"You're the Dragon Lord." If it's that important to her you'll go ahead and entertain her fantasy.

Ember's smile grows even wider at your admittance and she let's out a happy laugh. You're not sure whether she laughs because she won against you or because she's just happy that you acknowledged her, but you find the sound mesmerizing all the same. It makes you want to kiss her and hold her close.

At this point you realize that you've actually gotten quite hard from being held down by Ember, the thin fabric of your undergarments doing next to nothing to keep your erection down.

Ember, apparently oblivious to your condition, let's go of your arms and puts her claws on your shoulders to push herself into an upright position. With the way she's straddling you she's hovering right above your crotch.

"I think we should -GAH"

Ember's speech is cut short when she unintentionally pushes her abdomen against your dick, causing her to flare her wings and gasp in surprise.

"Is that your ...?" She looks down at what's going on between your legs before turning back to you with a blush on her face. "I can't believe you got hard from this."

You give her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I simply can't help myself with such a cu-, such a gorgeous dragon right in front of me."

Ember quickly turns away at your compliment, but you can still see her face light up as she stares at your chest.

She starts rubbing up against your erection with her crotch and even through the fabric of your underpants you can feel the tip of your dick brushing up against her dragon hole.

"You know, earlier you did all the work and only I got to feel good", the dragonness says while still not looking you in the eye, "So it's only fair if I return the favor, right?"

Ember looks at you with an expression that feels like she's trying to be confident but she still seems pretty nervous actually. With a reassuring smile you use one of your arms to push yourself up from the ground while putting the other on Ember's neck.

You pull her in for a brief, loving kiss on the lips. It only lasts for a second and when you pull away Ember seems to have relaxed at least a little.

"I'd love that." The words feel more like a formality at this point actually.

Ember gives you a smile, not mockingly like she did when she dominated you, but rather in a way that makes you feel like right here, in this very moment, she is truly happy. Though to be honest with her large teeth showing like that it looks kind of weird, threatening almost, but still you love the sight of it.

Ember leans in for another kiss, quickly invading your mouth with her tongue once given the chance. After a few seconds of making out with you she pulls away, choosing to instead give you a soft kiss on your neck.

You feel like she's imitating what you did to her earlier, though she's being a lot more direct in her approach: Instead of teasingly kissing you all over her lips seem to be making a beeline straight for your crotch.

She quickly reaches your waist, and with that the only part of your body still covered in clothing. Ember stops nibbling on your skin and instead moves her snout in front of the tent you're spanning between your legs.

She takes a deep breath, though you're not sure whether it's to take in your scent or to calm herself down, before digging into the waistband of your underpants with her claws.

You lift your ass up a little as Ember pulls down your undergarments, allowing her to finally fully unclothe you. Your erection springs free, lightly slapping against the dragonness' face and eliciting a small eep from her.

It seems to become the sole focus of Ember's attention as she stares at it closely with a flushed face, her hot breath making you twitch with each exhale.

"It's ... different from what I expected", Ember says meekly.

You feign offense: "Are you saying I have an ugly dick?"

Ember tears her gaze away from your groin, looking up at you with a slightly panicked expression. "Wh-what? No that's not what I meant!"

You break your act and laugh a little at her response before saying with a grin: "Sorry, I couldn't resist messing with you because you getting all flustered like that is just too cute."

Ember looks away embarrassed before saying quietly: "I like the way it looks."

With a probably really dumb looking grin on your face you start to gently caress the back of Ember's neck with one of your hands. There's something deeply satisfying about getting your junk complimented by a woman. Well, technically she's not a woman, but still.

A few awkward seconds go by where neither of you says or does anything, though the silence is eventually broken by Ember: "S-so, where do we go from here?"

Oh, you know a lot of ways this could be going, but let's start slow, shall we?

"Well, for starters you could try caressing me with your claw."

Ember looks at her claw for a second before following your instructions and putting it on your shaft. After giving it a careful squeeze she starts awkwardly moving her claw back and forth. Looking up at you she asks:

"Is this good?"

You give her a smile. "It's perfect."

Ember starts pumping you with a little more confidence and you give her an encouraging moan. Though she's being a little clumsy, Ember's claw still feels pretty good after having been erect without release for so long. With a twitch you can feel a drop of pre-cum leak from you tip, causing Ember to suddenly stop.

"Anon, there's fluid coming out of your penis. Does that mean you're already cumming?"

"Not quite, but it's a sign that I'm getting there."

"So, should I continue like I did until now?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

As Ember starts moving her claw again she briefly sticks out her forked tongue before pulling it back in, making you focus your gaze on her mouth. She has a pretty long tongue, hasn't she?

"Actually there's something else that I'd like you to do."

Ember stops, looking at you attentively.

"How do you feel about giving me a blowjob?"

"Blow ... job?" With a quizzical expression on her face Ember looks at your dick, then back at your face.

"Is breathing on it really going to feel that good?"

"Well, I'm not asking you to literally blow on it."

"Oh, okay."

You knit your eyebrows. "Didn't you say you already did this sort of thing before?"

"I did", Ember hastily defends herself, "It's just that..." She sighs before looking away meekly. "I never did all the pony stuff." She seems to be feeling pretty negatively about her inexperience.

"I'm glad actually." With a surprised look she turns back to you. "Because that means that only I get to do these things with you. Only I get to see you for the cute, lovely dragon you really are."

"You really are an idiot." Though her words are sharp, the soft smile she's giving you makes you think you found the right words.

"Anyways, when I say that I'd like you to give me a blowjob what I mean is that I'd like you to caress my penis with your tongue and mouth."

"Well, I..." Ember looks back at your crotch, apparently imagining what it would be like to suck you off. After a few seconds of silently staring at your junk she absentmindedly licks her lips before focusing back on your face. "Y-yeah, I think I can do that."

You smile as Ember aligns her moth with the tip of your dick, making you twitch in anticipation. Slowly she extends her long, forked tongue from her mouth and carefully places it on your glans. Though the contact is only light the rough texture of her tongue still feels fucking amazing.

Ember slowly wraps her tongue around the tip of your cock, thoroughly coating it in her saliva. She does the same half-squeezing, half-pulling motion with her tongue that she did when she was kissing you earlier, except now it makes you gasp loudly in pleasure. The hold Ember's tongue has on your dick is not very strong however, and so it eventually slips back into her mouth, sliding roughly against your most sensitive spots. It makes you buck your hips a little and you suppress the urge to grab Ember by her horns and just ram your dick down her throat.

As your member is once again exposed to the cold air Ember squeezes her eyes shut accompanied by a small shiver running through her body.

"Are you okay?", you ask with slight worry in your voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, the smell is just a little overwhelming."

Right, she's smelling with her tongue, isn't she? The direct contact with your dick is probably pretty intense for her.

You're about to ask whether you should maybe stop if what you're doing is making her feel uncomfortable when Ember puts her mouth back on your cock, eliciting a small moan from you. This time she's not using just her tongue, she's using her whole mouth as she wraps her velvety lips around your tip. Again she's using her tongue to wrap it around your dick, though this time it's already lubricated from before, making the movement much smoother.

Instinctively you close your eyes and put one of your hands on the back of Ember's head as a familiar pressure builds up in your loins. Even if she doesn't know exactly what she's doing, the sensation of Ember's wet, hot mouth traveling down your length will soon send you over the edge. You open your eyes again to the sight of Ember slowly moving her head back and forth on your cock, and you notice that her eyes have taken on a slightly hazy expression. It will be a little longer until you cum but you should probably give her a warning beforehand.

Suddenly you can feel something jagged and hard scratch against the top of your shaft, making you jump in surprise and pain. "Ahh, please be careful with those teeth of yours."

Ember looks up at you, without taking your dick out of her mouth. "Sowwy."

Well, at least you know what she meant to say. A little more carefully Ember resumes her work, and you find that the short impulse of pain did nothing to dampen your pleasure.

When Ember's tongue gives you a particularly strong squeeze your dick twitches involuntarily, signaling that your climax is near. "Ember, I'm gonna cum soon."

Well, maybe soon was not the correct choice of word here, because just as the words leave your mouth you cum, shooting a strand of semen down Ember's throat.

Ember let's out a muffled cry of surprise and it takes quite a lot of willpower to not just push Ember's head into your crotch and make her drink every last drop. She doesn't pull away though and so you fill her mouth with another burst of semen as waves of pleasure wash over you. Eventually though your orgasm passes and you let your dick slip from Ember's mouth with a relaxed sigh. You bask in the afterglow, the damp air of the cave feeling pleasantly cool against your member when compared to the heat of Ember's mouth.

Unfortunately Ember herself doesn't seem to have it quite as good as you do: After letting go of your dick she grabs her snout with both of her claws, frowning. You hope your cum doesn't taste too bad.

After a moment you can see Ember throw her head back and swallow multiple times before letting out a breath she seemed to have been holding. Though you feel a little bad for putting her through this, the fact that Ember is willing to drink your cum just because it's yours actually feeds your ego quite nicely.

A shudder runs through her body before she mutters lowly: "Your cum is really smelly." She sounds a little disgusted actually.

"Oh well, you didn't have to go ahead and swallow it", you say, trying to be considerate, "If you had spit it out that would have been fine, too."

Ember let's out an annoyed snort. "No way, then your smell would have stuck to the tip of my tongue for hours."

Oh, okay, so she just didn't want to smell your semen all day.

"What are you looking so disappointed for?"

"It's just..." You sigh. "I had assumed you'd taste it less if you spit it out, so I was thinking that you were swallowing because you liked me, not because it's easier for you."

"Well, seems like you were wrong." Suddenly Ember's eyes widen in shock. "About the swallowing part I mean. I didn't mean to say that I don't like you, because actually I..."

She looks at you with cheeks glowing as red as her eyes. "What I'm trying to say is that I sort of..." Ember looks at her claws before continuing quietly: "...like you."

A warm feeling spreads throughout your stomach at Ember's confession, making your face contort into a smile. In a moment of passion you pull her close, eliciting a small gasp of surprise from her.

"I sort of like you, too."

Apparently happy with your response Ember returns the hug you're giving her, contently putting her claws on your shoulder blades as she snuggles up to you as closely as she can. The two of you remain like that for a minute or two, merely enjoying each other's company.

Then Ember let's go of you and turns around in your arms, sitting down on your lap like she did earlier. Well, like earlier except this time there is no clothing separating your body from Ember's, allowing you to feel her smooth scales on your whole body.

Also you find that neither of you seems to have left any reservations about touching the other. You put one of your hands on Ember's chest, gently rubbing the soft skin of her front while using the other to more roughly caress one of her scaly thighs. In turn Ember puts her claws onto your hands, enjoying your touch as you cuddle her. Her tail has taken to lazily swinging from side to side between your legs, it's writhing motions kind of reminding you of a snake. You haven't paid much attention to that part of her body yet, have you?

Slowly you lift up the hand you have on Ember's thigh and put it on the base of Ember's tail, rubbing it in gentle, but firm circles. The reaction you get from Ember is instantaneous and quite satisfying actually. At your touch her whole body locks up in your arms as she lets out a cute gasp. It's a gasp of pleasure though, right? Slightly worried you stop your ministrations, allowing Ember to relax again.

"So, uh, about your tail..."

"It's a sensitive spot for me."

Well, you figured as much.

"I'm not hurting you when I touch you there, am I?"

"No, no, I was just a little surprised."

"Okay, then."

With how tough dragons are you probably couldn't hurt her unless you really tried to.

You go back to stroking the base of Ember's tail with your hand, enjoying how firm it feels under your fingers despite being covered in relatively soft skin. This time Ember seems to be prepared for what you're doing though as her body stays mostly relaxed.

The movement of her tail is increasing quite a bit though. It hastily swishes from side to side under your touch and you can feel it's powerful muscles contract with every movement it takes. Ember's gasps are becoming more frequent, making her labored breathing seem even more ragged. If the sounds she's making are any indication you think you've just found a new spot to have fun with Ember.

You can't quite see her face from this angle, but you can clearly see her tongue hanging from the side of her mouth. It makes you wonder if she-

Your thoughts are suddenly cut short when something soft, yet firm takes hold of your member. It's your turn to freeze up and in a weird, unhuman motion Ember twists her neck all the way around to you to give you a shit-eating grin as she fondles your junk with her claw.

Oh, two can play that game.

You move your hand away from Ember's tail and up to her cloaca, swiftly inserting two of your fingers into her. Instantly Ember's grin disappears as she lets out a surprised moan, stopping her from moving her claw. She's gotten quite wet actually, allowing your fingers to slide in and out of her with ease. After a second Ember resumes her movements though as the expression on her face changes to one that could be best described as concentrated.

She has closed her eyes and you feel like she is focusing solely on the contact between the two of you. You can't say anything else about yourself though. The whole world seems to fade away as the only thing important becomes the small dragonness in your arms. At this point you notice that you've gotten quite turned on from the attention Ember has been giving you actually, your hard rod pressing firmly into Ember's backside.

You lean down to put your mouth against Ember's ear before whispering: "How about we take this to the next level?" In an instant Ember winds out of your grasp, turning towards you to give you a passionate kiss.

You'll take that as a yes.

You put your hands on Ember's thighs and pull her body against yours, causing your dick to rub against her abdomen. In turn Ember puts her claws on your shoulders, squeezing lightly each time your tongues meet.

You're about to push her onto her back when suddenly Ember pushes herself away from you, breaking the kiss.

"A-Anon, wait!"

Though it's definitely not what your instincts are telling you to do right now, you respect Ember's request and stop, silently waiting for her to tell you what seems to be the problem.

"What about my claws?"

Now that you think about it, the two of you should probably be careful with those. The problem with them is that when she cums she bores them into whatever she's holding, right? Maybe...

"How about this?" You take hold of one of Ember's claws, putting each of her four digits between two of yours, palms pressed closely together. With her claw spread out by your in comparison much bigger hand the sharp ends of it are harmlessly pointing away from you. If Ember was a human you'd call it holding hands.

"Try squeezing down on my hand." Ember puts some pressure onto your hand, trying to close her claw, carefully at first, then in earnest. However, with the soft inside of her fingers being the only part that presses against you all that happens is that your hand hurts a little from being squished.

Still not perfect.

"Or maybe how about this?"

You put your free hand onto the wrist of Ember's other arm, effectively holding her claw away from your body. After briefly looking at both of her claws, her gaze settles on the one where your fingers are intertwined. With a slight blush she murmurs: "I think the other way is better."

Smiling, you let go of Ember's wrist, instead holding her claw like you're doing with the other. You feel like Ember's preference is not based solely on safety aspects, but you would be lying if you said that it was any different for you. After all, holding her claws like this while she's straddling you feels like it's a pretty intimate experience, even across species.

"S-so", Ember begins, looking into your eyes, "Are we gonna do it like this?"

Why you certainly could.

Originally you had planned to be the one on top but having her ride you like this should work just as well. With a smile you lean back, pulling a slightly surprised Ember with you into a more horizontal position on the rug.

"Whenever you're ready."

After briefly adjusting to her new position Ember leans down for a quick, loving kiss as she aligns her cloaca with the tip of your dick. Slowly she lowers herself against you and you can feel your member pressing against Ember's dragon hole. Though unfortunately with nothing to guide it, your dick just slips away to the side without effect.

Well, without effect might actually be a poor choice of words here since considering that even without penetration you can clearly feel the heat radiating off of Ember's nethers. With a slightly annoyed look on her face she let's go of one of your hands to hold your penis in place with her claw as she gives it another try.

Filled with anticipation you watch Ember fiddle around with your cock. You put your now free hand on one of Ember's muscular thighs, egging her on with an impatient squeeze. Finally Ember seems to get your dick in position and you can once again feel it press against the hot entrance of Ember's cloaca. Unlike last time however, Ember is holding it in place and after a brief moment of suspense you can feel yourself push into her moist love tunnel, causing both of you to moan loudly.

Breathing heavily Ember stops, giving your hand a tight squeeze with her claw as she's getting used to the feeling of having half of your dick buried inside of her. She slowly shifts around on top of you, giving you the slightest hint of stimulation. With some effort you resist the urge to just force your whole length into her with the hand you have on her rear, instead opting to simply return the squeeze of her claw.

Luckily though Ember quickly readjusts herself, taking you ever deeper into her cloaca. Eventually you bottom out, causing Ember to let out a hot exhale as she reconnects her claw with the hand you still have on her leg. Ember closes her eyes as she starts to slowly move her body up and down on top of you, causing her abdomen and tail to lightly slap against your crotch with each movement.

You'd like her to go a little faster, but you decide to for now let Ember work out a rhythm she's comfortable with, instead focusing on the unique feeling of her cloaca. It's tightness is in no way as uniform as that of a human vagina, instead being relatively loose at the entrance, but deeper down, after it splits, it's suddenly becoming extremely tight.

Eventually Ember starts to pick up speed as her breathing becomes more ragged and intermixed with moans. As she holds on tightly to your arms as leverage for her movement you notice that while the pace at which Ember is riding you is getting faster, her thrusts are still very short, keeping almost your entire length in her cloaca at all times. You try to push up against her just as she comes down, though you don't have a lot of space.

However, even with what little space you have to move you manage to elicit a pretty loud gasp from Ember as her eyes shoot open in surprise. As before, the sudden stimulation makes Ember contract her muscles, making her squeeze down on your hands with her claws and on your dick with her cloaca, and in turn causing you to let out a gasp of your own. You have to admit that at least for a short time the entirety of her insides can become crushingly tight.

Ember looks into your eyes with a needy, slightly hazy expression as she moves her snout down give you a deep kiss. By moving her crotch a little further upward, she gives you more space to move against her. Immediately you use the chance to thrust back into her, causing her to moan into your mouth. Ember breaks the kiss, leaving a thin thread of saliva between the two of you as she hungrily stares at you with her reptilian eyes.

Both of you start moving again, uncoordinated at first but after a few seconds the two of you find a rhythm that allows you to synchronize your thrusts with Ember's. Each time you reach the deepest part of her you can feel Ember's cloaca tighten all around you, slowly building up a familiar pressure in your loins. The pace at which Ember and you move against each other increases rapidly and with it do the frequency and pitch of Ember's moans.

"A-Anon!"

Suddenly, when you give her a particularly hard thrust, Ember let's out a loud cry of pleasure as she freezes on top of you. Her claws and insides press down on you hard, making it impossible for you to move as Ember climaxes, her cry turning into a low hiss after a second. It's quite frustrating actually because just a little more and you would have cum as well. After a few seconds the tension seems to leave Ember's body as she closes her eyes, breathing heavily.

However, since you already blew a load in Ember's mouth earlier, this wasn't quite enough to get you to your second climax. Carefully you roll Ember off of you onto her back, making your dick slip out of her in the process. Though in her current state Ember doesn't seem to take in her surroundings as sharply as she usually does, she definitely seems to notice when you start moving her body around.

Lazily she opens her eyes to see your large form looming over her. "Wha...?"

"I want to go on."

Ember looks down to see your still hard cock hanging over her cloaca, making her eyes widen a little.

"O-okay", she says with a slightly intimidated expression, "Just ... give me a minute."

Ember closes her eyes again, taking several deep breaths. The way her body is sprawled out in front of you is really tempting actually, especially with her hot breath tickling your chest like that. Unable to just wait doing nothing but reluctant to just ravage Ember's claca when she has asked you to wait, you instead settle for a compromise, slowly rubbing your dick against the skin around Ember's hole. It's nowhere near enough for you, but it keeps you occupied for the time being.

Finally after what felt like an eternity but was probably no longer than twenty seconds, Ember opens her eyes again, looking into yours. Her glowing red orbs make for a stark contrast to the cool colors of the rest of her body, making you realize just how beautiful Ember truly is.

"I'm ready."

And she's all yours.

Not wasting any time you use one of your hands to align your member with Ember's cloaca and push, already feeling the sensation of it's embrace in your mind. After a moment you can feel Ember's folds part before your hard rod, engulfing your tip in their familiar heat. You let out a satisfied grunt, mirrored by a small gasp from Ember as you push yourself halfway in.

However, with Ember's back pressed against a flat surface the angle at which you penetrate her is a little awkward, forcing you to reposition your waist before being able to push your entire length into her. Remembering what you did earlier you take Ember's arms and put them to her side, putting your hands over them as you effectively pin her under your weight.

You stare into Ember's half-lidded, hazy eyes as you have her pinned beneath you, completely at your mercy. With a smile you lean down, giving Ember an aggressive kiss as you start moving. While Ember does nothing to resist being held down by you she does put up quite the fight against your tongue invading her mouth, pushing back as hard as she can, trying to instead move the battle into your territory.

However, with your dick hammering away away at her cloaca her efforts are soon interrupted by moans and gasps, leaving her unable to fend you off much longer. Not to say that you're not moaning from being buried to the hilt in Ember's tight snatch, but with you being the one who controls the stimulation Ember doesn't stand a chance, allowing you to completely dominate her mouth. You use this opportunity to suck on her long tongue, causing Ember to gasp loudly.

Suddenly you can feel something warm make contact with one of your shins, taking you by surprise and making you stop your movements. Looking down you see that it's Ember's tail wrapping around your leg, giving you a gentle squeeze. It's weirdly intimate. Inspired by the tender treatment she's giving you you decide to return the favor, giving Ember another kiss, though this time you're being less forceful, allowing Ember to equally return your affections.

You don't slow down your onslaught on her cloaca however, making both of you cry out in pleasure with each thrust. Also it's just too much fun to have Ember squirm under you in pleasure, feebly arching her back as you force her towards her orgasm, but otherwise unable to move. Both of you are close, you can tell.

Determined to get your release this time you speed up your thrusts, until you can finally feel the pressure from your loins explode outwards, familiar waves of pleasure shooting through your dick. You push yourself into Ember as deeply as you can, hitting her insides with the first spurt of your cum. You break your kiss with Ember with a grunt, allowing you to fully take in the feeling of emptying yourself in the dragonness' tight cloaca.

You don't know whether it's just from you pushing so deeply and forcefully into her or whether it's from being filled up with your hot semen, but Ember also seems to be pushed over the edge, crying out your name as she cums. Her cloaca squeezes down on you hard, intensifying the pulses running through your member. She also locks up her muscular legs behind your waist, making it impossible for you to pull out even if you wanted to. Eventually though you can feel the last of your cum flow into Ember, allowing you to relax your muscles and lie down on top of her. You're careful not to put the weight of your torso onto her though, instead supporting yourself with your arms as to not crush your partner with your weight.

Both of you are panting from your respective orgasms, taking a rest after your intense love-making. After a few seconds you can feel Ember pull her claws out of your grasp, instead using them to gently stroke your back in the afterglow. She also releases the pressure of her legs on your back, and you use the opportunity to pull your deflating member out of Ember, eliciting one last gasp from her.

You then roll off of her, lying down on your back where you're quickly joined by Ember for post-coital cuddling. She rests her head on your arm, pressing her soft belly against the side of your body as she tenderly wraps her legs around one of yours. You take hold of one of her claws, gently caressing it and causing Ember to let out a surprisingly girly giggle.

Looking into her eyes you find that while she does look a little embarrassed about the sound she just made it's nothing compared to how happily she's smiling at you right now. She starts returning the ministrations of your hand with her claw as you move in for a soft, tender kiss.

The contact is short, but loving, as neither Ember not you feel the need to engage anything more lustful right now, instead content with just comfortably resting in each other's embrace. You enjoy this moment of tranquillity and think to yourself that all things considered this teleportation mishap actually turned out pretty great.

The next morning you awake feeling weirdly warm and cold at the same time. After a quick status check you realize that the areas you're warm in are those where you're in contact with the small, blue dragon you remember you had sex with last night. Said blue dragon seems to be awake already, currently drawing small circles on your chest with her claw.

After a second she seems to notice that you're awake though, lazily lifting her head to look at you with a dreamy expression. There's something feeling off about the way she looks though and you find that the slightly bluish fire of the brazier seems to have gone out. Instead the cave seems to be illuminated by the golden light reflected by Ember's hoard.

You gently put a hand on her cheek before whispering to her: "Seems like you were right, waking up in your cave like this really is beautiful."

It's not only the illumination you're talking about and judging by the warm smile Ember is giving you right now she seems to be feeling the same way.

"We should have sleepovers more often", you say to her suggestively.

Ember stops for a second, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks. "Y-yeah, totally."

You let out a short laugh. It's just so cute how flustered she sometimes gets. You want to move in for a quick kiss, when you're suddenly hit by a sharp pain in your neck, making you get up into a sitting position.

While being cuddled up with Ember was certainly nice you were still lying on the hard ground all night, leaving you quite sore. The rug you were lying on was definitely helping a little, but it's far from what you'd call comfortable.

You rub you neck with gritted teeth, trying to alleviate the pain. "Next time, let's do it at my place."

With a sympathetic look on her face Ember also gets up from her lying position, climbing into your lap. She puts her claws on your neck, affectionately rubbing your aching muscles.

You let out a satisfied grunt as she works your neck and shoulders, enjoying the attention. You're about to reward her with a kiss when you're suddenly interrupted by a loud bang coming from your side.

Instinctively you snap your head towards the origin of the sound to see a very confused looking Twilight Sparkle stand there in front of you. Ember and you both freeze up, taken by surprise by Twilight's sudden appearance.

Twilight herself meanwhile seems to start registering what Ember and you must have been doing just as she interrupted, her face growing redder by the second. You can't exactly say anything different about Ember's face though, or even your own at this point.

Eventually you speak up in an attempt to break the awkward silence hanging in the air: "Uhm ... hi, Twilight?"

Twilight snaps out of her daze at the sound of your voice, quickly looking away to the side in embarrassment. Similarly Ember also starts moving, quickly getting out of your lap to nervously stand next to you with crossed arms. Both of them echo your greeting, barely acknowledging the other's presence with the lowest of mumbles.

You're about to ask Twilight what she's doing here when she blurts out: "I didn't mean to barge in on you like that, there was an emergency yesterday evening and I couldn't track Anon until now, and he lost his crystal so I couldn't scry on him properly, and I didn't know what the two of you were doing until I ported here, and-"

Though she doesn't seem to be done, Twilight had eventually run out of breath, allowing you to get a word in.

"It's okay, Twilight, I understand."

Now that you think about it it's probably a good thing that Twilight arrived only now.

"I was luckily taken care of anyways." That sentence sounded unintentionally suggestive but Twilight seems to be glad that her delayed arrival did not seem to have put you in danger or anything like that.

Now that you take a closer look at her, she looks pretty tired actually. Probably had to deal with that emergency all night.

"So, are you here to take me back to Ponyville?"
Twilight looks at you apologetically. "Not quite. I can't port you back because of your instability, and I can't just send ponies into the Dragon Lands to come and get you." A slightly forced looking smile spreads across Twilight's face. "So, uh, maybe it's good that you're here with Ember because now I won't have to send her a letter and ask her to make sure you get back to Equestria safely."

Wait.

"Do you two know each other?"

Twilight looks at you incredulously. "Of course I know her, I was here when she became Dragon Lord and we've been in contact ever since."

The wheels start turning in your head.

"So Ember really is the Dragon Lord?", you ask, though it feels more like a statement.

You look at the small dragon standing next to you, still with her arms crossed. To think that she's the Dragon Lord, she, such a tiny dragon that you've ended up having sex with, that you've pushed down and fucked, it...

As much as it makes you feel like a scumbag for thinking that way, you're actually a little proud of the fact that you've been able to have your way with such a powerful ruler.

"Anyways", Twilight says, interrupting your train of thought, "Ember, can you please make sure Anon gets back to the Equestrian border in one piece? I'll send somepony to handle the rest from there."

Ember blinks, taking a moment to take in what Twilight said before replying surprisingly collected: "Sure, I can do that. How about Firegut's End as a rendezvous point?"

Twilight nods. "Alright, then I'll arrange for a chariot to pick Anon up there in about ninety minutes."

Eventually the two of them manage to agree on all the necessary details, and you can't help but feel a little helpless as they decide for you how you'll get back to Equestria as if you were a little child.

With a tired sigh Twilight turns to you. "I'll be porting back to Ponyville ahead of you. There are some other things that I'll need to take care of. And Ember", she says, turning towards the dragon, "I'll keep what I saw here today to myself."

"Th-thanks", Ember says with a slight stutter in her voice but otherwise composed.

After saying your respective goodbyes, Twilight's horn lights up and after a second she disappears with a pop.

As soon as Twilight's gone Ember crouches down, clutching her head with her claws as she groans loudly. "I can't believe Twilight saw us."

You crouch down a little yourself, putting your hand on Ember's shoulder in an attempt to reassure her. However, as soon as you make contact with her, Ember jumps up into a standing position, almost making you lose your balance.

"And you!", she yells at you with anger in her eyes, "You didn't believe me when I told you I'm the Dragon Lord, did you!?" Each of her words is accentuated by a jab of her claw to your chest, slowly pushing you backwards. Despite her irate behavior however, you can't help but feel like she's actually hurt.

When her claw starts moving towards your chest again you intercept it with your hand, holding it out in front of you. "Look, I'm sorry for thinking you were just making things up to impress or intimidate me or whatever." Your voice sounded a little more annoyed than you intended just now, so you intentionally soften it as you continue: "In my mind the Dragon Lord is this huge and scary dragon and I just didn't feel afraid of you at all."

Ember's anger seems to subside somewhat as your words sink in, though she still looks a little upset.

You're about to give her a hug when she pulls her claw out of your grasp, looking at you with a serious expression. "No one must know what happened here, understand?"

You sigh and close your eyes. "Yes, I understand."

Ember does not seem satisfied with your half-hearted answer. "Anon, this is important! My entire reputation as Dragon Lord could be ruined if word got out about this. Promise to me that you won't tell a soul!"

It kind of hurts to know that Ember wouldn't stand by her relationship with you in public but you can see her point. "I promise I'll keep it a secret."

Apparently happy with your promise Ember gives you a small smile and you attempt to give her the hug you couldn't give her earlier.

However, just as you start moving your arms towards her she takes off, landing on her hoard to grab some scepter with a huge red gem on top of it. "Let's get moving then, we wouldn't want to keep your ride waiting."

You awkwardly let your arms fall back to your sides before replying in a forcibly neutral voice: "Yeah, let's go."

Twenty minutes later Ember and you leave her cave, at least partially cleaned up. Ember took a quick dive into her lake to clean herself, but when you felt how cold the water is you decided to be less thorough with your cleaning. You'll be able to take a proper shower once you're back in Ponyville.

The thought of leaving Ember behind makes you feel a little sad actually. But unfortunately she must stay here and you really don't think you could be staying here in the Dragon Lands with her. Living in the mountains far away from civilization as you know it really isn't something you could do.

You and Ember start walking towards the landmark designated as your extraction point. Luckily you ended up near the border to Equestria so you'll be able to get there by foot. The walk is mostly uneventful. There are some dragons curiously watching the two of you from a distance but they don't seem too eager to approach. You can't really blame them.

Despite her size Ember looks pretty fierce right now, leading the way with an air of authority. You sort of want to spark up a conversation with her, but after the promise you made to her you don't want any of the watching dragons to get suspicious. You choose to just silently follow her, wondering if this really is the same dragon who had kissed you and called out your name in ecstasy.

Eventually the two of you get to a narrow trail running along the mountainside. According to Ember at the end of it lies the plateau commonly known as Firegut's End. You traverse the path in silence as you try not to think of the steep drop right next to you.

Suddenly after rounding a corner your path is blocked by a red dragon fiddling around with the mountainside. The dragon seems to be as surprised as you are actually, dropping the root he was pulling on to turn towards you. "Woah, what's up with the shaved diamond dog?"

He -as you can tell from the dragon's deep voice and broad shoulders- is about as tall as you are with a big, orange fin on his head. Despite being caught off-guard you manage to keep your composure, confident that the slight feeling of dread welling up inside of you isn't showing on your face. You steal a quick glance at Ember who seems absolutely unimpressed by the dragon standing in front of you.

"I'm not a diamond dog, I'm a human", you reply dryly. For a second you were tempted to give a snarkier reply since being called a diamond dog pretty much amounts to an insult around here but it's probably better not to provoke him unnecessarily.

"He's been ported here by accident so now I'm returning him to where he came from", Ember adds, "So step out of the way already, you're blocking our path."

The dragon is about to comply with a low grumble, when suddenly he starts sniffing the air. "Hey, what's that smell?"

The dragon approaches you slowly and you keep your face as still as possible as cold sweat starts running down your back.

You're not still smelling of sex, are you? Ember double-checked to make sure that you're clean before you left the cave.

The dragon stops in front of you, still sniffing as you clench your sweaty fists. "That smell...", the dragon hisses with a scowl, "He smells like ponies!"

The dragon is currently staring at Ember as if expecting an explanation, making you sort of feel like he's talking to her rather than you.

Ember returns the stare with a bored and slightly annoyed expression as she responds: "Of course he smells like ponies, after all that's who I'll return him to."

The dragon glares at you with an aggressive snort and you can feel the corner of your mouth switch as you struggle with not letting your fear show.

"Actually one of the princesses paid me a visit today and we negotiated for his safe return." You notice how Ember stresses the safe part, and the dragon thankfully backs off again.

"I still don't understand why we have to be so nice to those dumb ponies and their oversized pets", the dragon says as he throws up his arms in annoyance.

Ember seems to be losing her patience. "That's because you're an idiot. Three times we've gone to war with the ponies and three times we've lost. I'm telling you not to mess with them because unlike you I'm not too stupid to see where that path leads."

The dragon silently takes Ember's scolding, not daring to speak up against her.

"Now move out of the way before I'll make you!" She threateningly points her scepter at the dragon to accentuate her words as she stares him down.

After a moment the dragon breaks eye contact, letting out a defeated sigh. "Yes, Lord Ember."

Before you know it he has jumped off the ledge, quickly disappearing behind a protruding rock. You stare after him for a moment, thinking to yourself that Ember really seems to be an authority figure around here. You're kind of impressed by how she can just go around calling other dragons idiots, but in your mind there's still somewhat of a dissonance between the strong and dominant Dragon Lord Ember and the cute, little dragon you fell in love with. Then you notice that Ember seems to have gone on without you and you quickly catch up to her.

After a few more minutes of walking you arrive at your destination, apparently ahead of schedule as the carriage that's supposed to pick you up is nowhere in sight.

"Well, seems like we could have gone a little slower", you say, slightly winded from the steep hike. Ember stares off into the distance and you can't help but notice that in the glistening rays of the sun she looks even more beautiful than in some cave.

"Actually we're pretty much on schedule", Ember says, still not looking at you, "I can already see the carriage on the horizon and it'll be here in a matter of minutes."

You look in the direction Ember is facing but you really can't make out anything other than a few clouds and mountains. Eventually you notice Ember turning towards you from the corner of your eyes and you face her with a heavy heart, realizing that this is where you'll say goodbye.

"So, uhm, I'd like to let you know that...", you begin, but shortly afterwards Ember looks away to the side, throwing you for a loop.

What is she doing? It sort of looks like she's looking out for somethi-

Suddenly Ember grabs your neck with her claws, pulling herself up to give you a deep, passionate kiss. It only lasts for a second though and she quickly pulls away with a slight blush on her face.

She gives you a small smile as she wipes the saliva from her snout before taking off with a mighty flap of her wings. You lightly put your fingers against your lips where she kissed you as you watch her glide into the distance, her blue form slowly blending together with the sky.

You never told her just how much you appreciate her, did you?

Eventually you lose sight of her but you feel like you can still see her, the memories of her graceful form fresh in your mind. You still stare off into the distance when you board the carriage, leaving the Dragon Lands for good.

You silently stare at the piece of paper in front of you, trying to come up with the right words.

It has been three days since you've returned to Ponyville and you've been a mess ever since. You can't focus on your work, you can't sleep at night, and you can't even write a goddamn letter.

Why is this so hard?

You would have no trouble speaking to her, why is it so hard to write her a letter? You look back at the crossed out scribbles that you have produced so far.

'Dear Ember, how are you doing-'

'Hey, Ember, this is Anon-'

'Hello, Ember, how are things going over there-'

No matter what you write down, your words just can't express how you really feel. With a frustrated groan you throw down your quill, rubbing your eyes in an attempt to keep yourself from flipping out. You need some fresh air.

You step out onto your balcony, lazily letting your gaze drift over Ponyville. All the ponies have already gone to sleep, preparing themselves for the next day. Only you are still awake, trying to write a letter to someone you might never see again. Inadvertently you start looking off towards the mountains again.

Would it really have been that hard for you to live in the Dragon Lands? You would have had to do without some luxuries, but surely you could have managed, couldn't you? And you could always come up with some bullshit excuse for why you'd be staying in Ember's cave, secretly spoiling her whenever you can.

With a sigh you try to remind yourself that what's done is done, and that it's useless to think about what could have been had you stayed but it's just no use. You miss Ember, you want to see her cute face again, you want to feel her smooth scales against your skin as you hug her, and you want to hear her soft giggle as she draws slow circles on your chest. And it hurts to know that you just can't.

As you sadly stand there and try to cope with your loneliness, a sudden, soft thud coming from the other end of the balcony catches your attention. You look at the origin of the sound and your eyes widen. It's a little hard to see her form in the moonlight, but you would recognize those eyes anywhere.

Those beautiful, red eyes.

In an instant you have your arms wrapped around her, and your heart skips a beat as a familiar gasp hits your ears.

"I've missed you", you say, still feeling like you might wake up any second.

"I've missed you, too." Ember puts her head on your shoulder, gently nuzzling into you as she wraps her arms and legs around you in a tight embrace.

You start to feel a strange warmth, not because of Ember's hot body pressed against yours, but rather a warmth coming from deep within you, as if suddenly you had become whole again. After a minute of silent hugging Ember pulls her head back from your shoulder, instead bringing it in front of your face.

You stare deeply into each other's eyes before Ember closes the distance, giving you a tender kiss that quickly turns into a heated and sloppy battle of her tongue against yours. You move your hands onto Ember's rump, giving it a series of tight squeezes that eventually make her break the kiss.

She looks at you with a slight blush as she whispers to you suggestively: "I'm here on a diplomatic mission, but my appointment won't start until tomorrow evening."

"Let's not waste any time then", you say to Ember with a lewd smile as you carry her into your bedroom.

You gently put Ember down on your bed, and you feel like all of your worries were really silly. Because at this very moment, even if no one will ever know it, she is yours.

And you are hers.

-fin