Dust and decay, very well what I had expected. And what else should be here? If you were wondering, at the time, I was somewhere in the middle of in an old, mhh, I figured it was either a temple or fortress of the old Kirin empire. It was a bit hard to tell actually, there wasn’t much left of the outer walls which would have been an indicator for the building’s purpose, and whatever the interior had once been made of, it had crumbled to dust a long, long time ago.

Well, I really did wonder if anything valuable would still be here. This was the place Dangers hastily made map had guided me to, and considering the hoovesteps before me in the dust, she was either here, or had been not so long ago.

I let out a quick growl, I was still a little bit angry at her, even with the fact that it had been two weeks since she had robbed me. Although, by now, I was calm enough to prefer ‘reparation’ over revenge. If you know what I mean.

Anyway, as I said, this dusty relict of an old empire didn’t seem to have what she was looking for. I mean, if there had been some artifact of power, something beyond what it took to ignite a candle, it would have been taken by some lucky knight already. Or crumbled to dust like everything else here.

This didn’t count for me though, my ‘treasure’ could still be here, and it left hoofsteps for me to follow. I rubbed over my nostrils and swept off the tickling from the dust. Well, we will see.

While I followed the trail in the dust, I couldn’t help but notice how straight it moved forward. It seemed Danger hadn’t taken the time to inspect the surroundings or examine some of the remaining ruble or walls. She hadn’t even turned in the wrong direction it seems, at no time did the steps enter a room only to turn around and try again.

So much for her being an archaeologist. I knew she was only a thief!

Still, I wondered why she knew which way she had to take. This thought kept me so distracted that I nearly missed the little light golden feather on the ground. Well, you may very well ask, what's wrong with that, it seems normal for a pegasus to lose some of these now and then, I had seen just that in my lair. But, it wasn't the fact it was laying on the ground that made me suspicious. It was the colour.

Fluffy was blessed with a cozy fur and cuddly wings in the colour of ocher. This feather, however, was in the colour of light gold.

I picked it up and turned it in my claw. Hmm, it was as soft and flexible as it should be for fluffy. Maybe these ponies change colours during seasons or get bleached by the sun? I saw something like this happen, though, not that fast. Two weeks was really quick, speaking from my limited experience on it.

I let go of the feather and proceeded to follow the trace. I would find out soon enough, though, if she had changed her colors, I had to make sure she was as fluffy and soft as before. You know, it totally wasn’t just as an excuse to cuddle her.

Anyway, following these hoovesteps took much longer than expected. Room after room I passed, also some staircases, leading deeper into the ruin. If my senses hadn’t fooled me, I was already a few levels below the surface.

And it started to get darker too. Like I told you before, this wasn’t much of a problem for me, but it would be for Fluffy. Good thing she had my Candle of Inspiration, it would mark her for me from miles away.

I smiled, not that I had forgiven her for the theft, but it could turn out to be in my favor now.

Still, I had to admit, she had a skill in finding her way around, it didn’t look like she was affected by the darkness, or better said, the lesser light from her... my candle. She was still leaving a direct path of steps, that was, until I found a large area where the dust had been disturbed, along with a few more feathers laying around.

Looks like a fight had happened here, and I started to worry a bit, but only on the first glance. When I looked a bit closer, it was more of a quick scuffle than a real fight. If I had to guess, I would say Fluffy had woken up some bats or something like that and had to deal with their unhappy reaction. Nothing serious.

I chuckled. Somehow it amused me to imagine Fluffy fighting wild animals. I mean, big eyes and fluffiness aren’t the best weapons after all. And I really doubt she would use anything serious like kicks or bites against them. These pony species were too friendly for that.

Nonetheless, she had dealt with them and had continued on her way, as far as the tracks proved.

I could bore you with more details about the ruin and the surroundings while I continued to follow the trail she had left. Like how nature had taken over again, or praise the architects skill with how perfect the stones lay on each other, even after all this time, but to make it short for you, eventually, around a corner, I saw a little spark of light after maybe half an hour or so of walking.

Strangely enough, it was not blueish white, like I expected from my candle, but a full yellow and reddish glow, like from a common lantern.

I hesitated and sniffed. Definitely lamp oil.

You stole a candle, that once ignited, would burn indefinitely, Danger Do, and you are so rude as to not even use it?

Or was there a second player involved now? The idea that she could have sought additional help hadn’t even crossed my mind until now, or maybe…

I crouched and spread my wings a bit. What if someone else was here too? Someone who she hadn’t brought with her? I snuck towards the light, silent and careful. Step by step, slowly, I approached the corner, peaked around… and smiled.

There was Fluffy, standing next to what I expected was a stone staircase, looking into the deep darkness before her. For some reason, she had placed the lantern she had brought with her a good bit behind her and in a way that it wouldn’t send much light into the room below.

In fact, it barely lit her up. I saw her tail and flank, but the colours were a bit hard to tell apart in this light. If I didn’t know better, I would say her flank was now light golden, like the feather I had found, while her mane… yes, her mane was now black with some grey in it. So either her species was able to change colour for good, or I was being fooled by the twilight.

Either way, what had definitely changed was her dress. Well, now she was wearing some sort of jacket and a hat.

Not the worst choice, but I preferred her with as few clothes on as possible, none being ideal. Hmm, not a bad state of affairs, I could change them for the better quite quickly.

I slinked on, getting closer and closer while Fluffy kept her attention on the room below. I was already really close when the mishap happened. Right before I was able to pounce on her, grab and cuddle her, a purr escaped my snout.

Dammit! I can’t control it, the promise of fluff was too much to handle without purring!

Her head sprung up and turned around as I hastily bounced forward, her eyes widened when she noticed I had snuck up on her.

The distance I had been able to cover before I gave away my presence hadn’t helped me though. With incredible speed, she flapped her wings and pushed herself to the side, not without aiming a good kick at me with one of her hind legs though.

It must have been the surprise of seeing me coming at her that caused her to try to kick me. But as I knew from before, it was harmless.

I would simply take the hit and grab her, or that had been my plan, before her hoof struck me like a sledgehammer and sent my head forcefully towards the ground.

Ouch! That had hurt real bad! Pushed forward by my own momentum and unprepared for her kick to really have an impact, I face planted, while my body made an unwilling salto, causing me to land on my back.

So much for my surprise ‘attack’. I groaned and stood up, just to see she had grabbed her lantern and was on her escape run already.

Since when was she so fast? I shook my head to get rid of the stars I saw. And since when had she had such a good straight claw… hoof.

“Oh, you won’t get away this time,” I said as I chased after her. Though you will find it hard to believe, I could barely keep up with her! I couldn’t help but notice how fast and confidently she made her way through the ruin.

I don’t know what happened in the last two weeks, but Fluffy surely had become a more skilled thief, that’s for sure.

We hurried through the ruin, room after room, and surprisingly, not the way we came down here. If anything, we only went deeper below the surface. Whatever plan Fluffy had in mind, I wasn’t able to foresee it.

I could have chased her this way till the end of time, though, she decided to play the clever one and try to trick me.

After another turn around a corner, when I lost direct line of sight on her, she threw the lantern through the darkness of the next door and rushed to the side of the doorframe, hiding there.

It could have worked too, if I didn’t have the ability to see in such low light conditions, or at least good enough to spot a brightly coloured pony.

So when I ran around the corner, I immediately saw that nopony was holding the lantern anymore, and, with just a quick glance into the room, I saw Fluffy, crouching next to the door, and of course, she noticed I had spotted her.

It was a strange situation, us looking at each other while the light quickly began to vanish. With a loud ‘clong’, the light vanished for a moment as the lantern had hit the ground, only to come back and nearly vanish again at the next impact on the ground. When the lantern stopped bouncing it began to roll in a wide circle around the room.

“Thief!” I accused her, quickly blocking the door with my wing before she could escape. I wanted to play the angry dragon here and decided to growl, but my desire to cuddle her was too strong. After two weeks of following her and having my mind consumed by thoughts of what I would do when I found her, my growl turned out more playful than threatening.

Her reaction was still the same though. It seemed like she wasn’t in the mood to notice the difference. On top of that, while I was still able to see her, she seemed to be having trouble seeing me, not least because of my scale colour.

Though her reaction was not what I would have expected from her, instead of her normal hesitant or seductive behavior, she attacked me! She reared up and sent a quick buck at me, which I was fortunately able to avoid by pulling my head back due to my newfound respect for her strength. She noticed the space she had just given herself with that attack and decided to take advantage of it, turning around and sprinting towards an exit.

I tried to sweep her off her hooves with a flick of my tail, but by some miracle, she noticed it in time and jumped over it, doing a quick roll when she touched the ground, only to be on her hooves again and resuming her run.

What the heck!

We both knew that, despite her new skills, she didn’t have a change of escaping from me without some light source, therefore, we headed for the lantern together. She was faster, but the two seconds she needed to pick it up was enough for me to pounce at her again.

This time I would get her! My claws already nearly around her belly… when she did one of this roll things again and evaded at the last possible second.

This was crazy!

Well, she didn’t seem to complain, and while I grabbed at the empty space where she used to be, she started an attempt to escape again.

Effortney! As if I was just somedragon that she used to know!

I spit a lance of fire at the door she was going to pass and straightened up. She fell back on her flank and slid a few meters before she stopped right in front of the fire.

“That’s enough!” I commanded, “I am not going to chase you through this whole ruin all day!”

Unimpressed by my declaration, she just turned and headed for another exit.

I had to block that one with fire too and rushed over to her.

Still, she wasn’t in the mood to give up. Instead of letting me grab her, she slapped my claw and made a backflip over my head, only to land on the other side and get wiped off her hooves by my tail. Finally, I had hit her. Though, this darn little fluff ball just rotated in the air and avoided landing on her back by giving a flap of her wings, which also brought her a good distance away from me too. Only the lantern had left her grip and had slid into the next room.

I was about to give into despair!

Along with her new appearance, which now was clear to see in the light my fire had caused, she had gained a lot more skill in fighting, and who knows what else.

“Is that some kind of pony stuff?” I asked annoyed. “Acquiring a new colour and some skills for free? You really should have told me your species is able to do that, Fluffy!”

She stopped in the doorframe of the last exit and turned to face me. “I can’t say we have met before.” She tipped her head. “Wasn’t my pleasure.” And with those words, she ran away.

“You can run but you can’t hide Danger Do!” I yelled. “I will find you!”

I kicked some rubble through the air with my tail and made an attempt to follow Fluffy when she appeared in the door frame as quick as she had vanished.

“Did you just say, Danger Do?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

I growled at her. “Don’t try to fool me Fluffy! You are the only pony here, you can’t fool me with a new outfit and coat colour. I don’t know how you managed to paint your eyes dark pink, but be sure I…”

“Wait,” she interrupted me, “what coat colour did I have before?”

My growling intensified.

“Seriously,” she took a step towards me. “what was it?”

“You know very well what colour you had!”

“Just pretend I really forgot.”

Now I was confused, I held her gaze, looking for any signs of scoff. But I found none. She really seemed to not know. What kind of trick was this? I tried to find an answer, but besides some magic effect by another artifact, I couldn’t think of one, and the artifact answer seemed too unrealistic.

“Ocher,” I said. “and before you ask, hazelnut brown eyes.”

“Dammit!” she yelled and stomped a hoof, “I told you to stay at home Danger!” Obviously, she wasn’t speaking to me right now. “What were you thinking?”

“Speaking of yourself in the third person now?” I asked as I came a little bit closer.

“What?” She looked back at me. “No! I am not talking about me, I talk about Danger Do, my cousin!” She groaned. “Say, where did you see her?”

I tilted my head and gave her a suspicious look.

“Come on, tell me! I am not her!” She even moved to let me see her flank in detail, which had a compass and not a campfire as the strange mark there now. I am not sure if it meant anything, to change ones tattoo, but I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Well,” I raised my head, smirking with pride. “Last time I saw her, she was laying in my bed, after we had a good night of fun.”

My grin intensified a lot when I saw the astonished, or more likely disbelieving, expression on her face.

“That was before she stole some of my bits and a very precious artif…” I didn’t get any further in my story before Dangers cousin interrupted me with a yell.

“You slept with my younger cousin?” She added a nice growl to it.

“Uhm,” I shrugged, “well, yes,” I said a bit confused about her anger.

“How dare you!”

Obviously that was a bad thing in her world, a very bad thing. Without further warning, she bounced at me now! This pony had gone crazy!

With a face twisted with rage, she pushed forward, jumping up, and just before she reached me, turned around in the air and used the momentum to send a kick at my head.

I was so perplexed by her reaction that I nearly forgot to evade. Only the memory of how hard she was able to kick saved me. At the last possible moment, I turned my head to the side and only received a glancing kick against the back of my skull as she passed me.

“Whoa lady!” I turned around. “No need to exaggerate things!”

Unfortunately, she seemed to be of a different opinion, since she had already lined up for another attack on me. I admit, with the fire behind her, she did look really angry, and dangerous.

Soon, I found myself covered in a series of kicks and punches. This little pony knew how to fight. While I would normally fight back with my full fury, I chose to hold back, mostly because I didn’t really want to harm her. I mean, it wasn’t really my intention previously, but if she really is Fluffy’s cousin, well, I am pretty sure she wouldn’t take it so well if I hurt her.

On top of that, whatever luck had protected her before, was now with her again. More than just one punch slipped through my defenses and hit me. Not that it did much damage, but it was absurd! It was like Fortuna herself guided her attacks. Oh, and of course, her defence too!. Whatever I tried, I couldn’t manage to do more than give her a little scratch or what barely amounted to a bruise.

It felt like fighting one of those heroes from the adventure books! You know, when the villain never hits the hero, no matter what they try, even if they shoot a thousand arrows at once. If one would write a book about this fight, no one would believe it!

I couldn’t let this go on much longer, either she would get hurt, or, with her luck in mind, I would. This meant I would have to hurt her to prevent her from continuing her assault. I needed to calm her down, and I had to do it fast.

And I already had an idea.

The next time she jumped into the air to send a heavy kick in my direction, instead of blocking it, I let it slip through, which got her unprepared, taking the hit, which hurt a lot, I pushed forward and embraced her.

Well, I might not be able to hurt this ‘blessed by destiny’ pony, but her luck didn’t seem to mind me giving her a hug.

On the other claw, she did…

A wave of curses and invectives flew over me, together with her attempts to bite and punch me. Fortunately, without the required space to use her full force, it was harmless.

I pressed her closer to my chest and folded my wings around her, suppressing her struggling even more. Though, it didn’t seem she would calm down anytime soon.

So I decided to do something untypical for me… I stroked softly over her mane and whispered calming words.

Turned out, I wasn’t good at it, since she only got angrier.

“Keep your dirty claws at yourself!” she demanded.

“Could you please calm down for a second?” I asked politely.

“You perv! Tempter! Seducer!”

“Charming,” I acknowledged. “Listen, pegasus, I had some fun with your cousin, that's right, no need too…”

“You filthy dragon!” She interrupted me again. “How could you!”

By now I admit I was tempted to hurt her a little. Destiny's chosen or not, I couldn’t miss her now, right? So I extended my claw to scratch her, just a bit to show her who was in charge here, but without logical reason, a stone from the ceiling came loose and landed on my head.

Ouch! Destiny made her point very clear. Or Fortuna, didn’t matter, both are above my league, so hurting her was off the table.

So I had to bite into the sour apple and sit it out it seems. Literally.

I took a seat and held this pegasus close, till it calmed down by itself. And let me tell you, it took some time!

Okay, it may have gone faster if I had resisted testing her cuddliness. But what did you expect? She was the second pegasus I saw in my life, and she was, despite her more adventures style, still fluffy to a degree.

Yes, sadly, her clothes hid her chest fluff, if she had those too, and of course, she wasn’t as soft or as fluffy with all her muscles. But if you have ever held a pegasus close yourself, you would know how soft they all are, no matter their physical fitness.

Needless to say, my cuddling hadn’t changed her mind about me being a perv.

So, as I said, it took awhile for her to calm down. And I would like to add, I behaved quite well all thing considered, I didn’t play with her tail or wings for example.

When she did calm down, however, we finally started to have a civilized conversation.

She groaned and held still after a final attempt to kick me. “You can let me down now,” she said.

“If you promise to not run away or attack me again.”

She grumbled. “For the time being.”

“Fair enough.” I placed her on the ground, ready if she tried anything funny, but she stayed calm. More so, she took a very deep breath and rubbed her temples.

“Alright... alright,” another deep breath, “I will allow you to apologize and send me the invitation to your wedding.” She brought her face closer to mine, piercing me with her gaze. “Do that, and I won’t consider breaking every bone in your body!”

I gave her a flat look. So much for her effort to stay calm.

“No one said anything about a wedding.” I pointed out.

“What? Don’t you dare tell me it was just a one night stand!” Yep, there was the growl again.

“More or less… “

She cursed me again and was already halfway in the air, ready to attack me, when she remembered her promise. Very unwilling, she backed off.

“I swear, if you made her unhappy then…!” She left her sentence incomplete, but I got what she was saying anyway.

“I very well think that she was satisfied.” I lifted my claw to stop her from an angry reply. “But that is not the point. Look, I am here because I assume she would be here too, and I am sure she could clear this all up for you.”

“Danger is here?” She tapped on the ground, “in this ruin?”

“I think so.”

“Ponyfeathers!” She stomped the ground once more. “What should I do with you cousin?” she asked the ceiling, “I told you it’s too dangerous for you!”

“She didn’t give me the impression of making very clever decisions,” I commented, still with an upcoming smile on my face. I liked her decisions so far.

“Seems so,” the pegasus said and gave me a meaningful look.

“Hey!” I protested, “that’s not fair.”

She snorted and adjusted her hat. “If you say so.” Then she groaned and trotted past me.

“Hey wait, where are you going?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” she said without stopping, “rescuing my little cousin.”

I turned and followed her. “Rescuing from what?”

“From herself,” she stopped and raised a hoof to stop me too, “and from you, perv!”

“I am afraid that lay beyond your skills... sweety.” I knew this would make her angry, but that was my intention.

As expected, she growled, “Don’t you dare go near her, you ruffian salamander!”

I smiled. “Fluffy still owes me some things, I better accompany you.”

“I... work... alone…! “

Somehow I had the impression she had said this more than one time in her past.

“I… come… with… you…! Or I could carry you around in my claw. Your choice.”

She spread her wings and headed to escape. “Really? Bring it!” she yelled.

I chuckled. “You promised to not run away!”

She stopped mid air, hovering on the spot. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I heard another mumbled curse. Then she turned back, landing next to me.

“Arg, fine,” She growled again. “You may come with me. But when we find her, I-” she pointed at her chest- “will do the talking!”

“We will see,” was all I was willing to admit.

“I mean it, she is my cousin!”

“And she stole from my lair!” I countered.

We both stepped closer till our snouts touched and growled at each other, neither of us were willing to back off.

I guess we could have stayed there for all eternity, considering her willpower. Though the worry about her cousin took over after a while. “We don’t have time for this now, we have to find her, quick.” She broke the stare and turned around. “We will clarify this when we’ve found her. This place is too unsafe for her to roam around on her own.”

“Unsafe?” I asked, straightening up again. “I haven’t seen anything dangerous since I came here.” I demonstratively pointed at the surrounding. “Only dust and silence, except for you that is.”

“Oh yes? Then let me show you something.”

Without further discussion, she moved over to her lantern, picked it up, and set it properly to light again. “Come on,” she said and trotted on, leaving it to me to follow her.

Well, hard to accuse her of fleeing with the tempo she was walking at, even more so with the explicit request to follow her. So I did.

“And what is it you want to show me?”

“You’ll see when we are there.”

I sighed interraly. “This is the beginning of one of the best friendships,” I said ironically.

At least, it didn’t take too long to reach our destination, it was the same room we had met originally.

“And what do we do here?” I wondered aloud.

“Shhh!” she made and placed the lantern behind the door, where it wouldn’t illuminate the room in front of us. “Look,” she said, sneaked over to the staircase and pointed down.

I raised an eyebrow, but moved next to her. I had to suppress an whistle of astonishment when I reached the staircase. In fact, is was less of a staircase and more of a very long drop down into a huge cave.

And at the far end, after hundreds of stairs and a little sea of silvery water, there was activity. A lot of small lizard like creatures were roaming around, holding some primitive ritual. They danced around a fire, and from what it looked like, where singing. It was too far away to really hear it though.

Confused, I looked back at Dangers cousin. “You consider them as dangerous?”

“Not all of us have fire breath and thick scales you know? Also, not for me, for Danger.” She shook her head. “Still, it's not them I’m worried about. I am more concerned about their leader.”

“And this is which one?” I looked back down.

“She isn’t there yet,” Dangers cousin said after she gave the scene a longer look, “but she was before. She is a Kirin, but one with wings. I saw her breath fire too.”

I hesitated and lifted my head. “A kirin?” I asked. “Was this kirin perhaps wearing a collar? A silver one?”

She lifted her head and gave me a suspicious look. “You’ve seen her before?”

I nodded. “If I am right, I very well have…” I turned my attention back to the dancing creatures and waited. It didn’t take long until my speculation was proven correct as the leader Danger’s cousin had referred to joined the ritual a short while later.

Carried by eight of the creatures, the kirin sat on a stone throne, waving generously to the crowd.

I smirked, it was Fluffy, in her sexy kirin form.

Author's Note

Well, this chapter was a little shorter then I original planned, but I did listen to my readers who took part in the vote in my blog. Means a little bit adventure is ok, but the main focus should be on the cuddly stuff.

Therefore, i cut some details about the surroundings out and added more thoughts about the cuddliness of ponies as you read.

I hope it was to your liking

And again, many thanks to my editor, Drache Schatten, who made me able to present you this chapter in this accurate way and not in some basic english. He really is a great help and trustworthy.