The Dragon And The Pony 2 The Adventure of Parenthood

I lazily laid my wing on Fluffies back, pulling her a bit closer so that I could more easily rub my head against her mane. She returned the favor by softly purring and fluffing up a bit more.

We were laying in our bed after having discussed the actual situation, in detail, repeatedly, until Fluffy requested we drop the subject due to her fatigue. I wouldn’t have minded another round of discussion, but with her family still around and Fiery napping on her uncles belly at the time, it wouldn’t have been possible.

Since I had agreed to improve my opinion of her family, Fluffy felt I needed a reward, and her parents were more than willing to take a walk through the forest outside my lair with Angorik as a sign of good will. And Never Ending? While he was still in the lair, I knew that even if he took issue with hearing what was going on, he wouldn’t be so rude as to complain about my and Fluffy’s activities.

I licked over Fluffies neck, causing her to shiver, before I then playfully began nibbling it.

“Stop it!” she playfully shouted. “Greedy dragon!”

I purred in agreement.

She turned around and kissed me. “Let a weak pegasus have her rest.”

“Weak?” I snorted.

She fluttered her eyes before more closely snuggling against me.

“Cute, not weak,” I countered before curling up around her once more.

“Whatever you say,” she yawned before pushing her snout between my arms so that her head would come to rest on my elbow, the most comfortable position for her.

Sneaky pegasus, I thought while adjusting my position so that we could both lay together comfortably. Though for her, it was hardly an inconvenience.

We had already considered the idea of moving to Equestria, in addition to some other topics, and at least for the time being, we would be staying here, despite the good reasons her parents had presented.

As I said earlier, there was a reason for her parents to insist at the time, one of the dig sites on a mountain near them was about to be auctioned. It seemed that in Equestria, at least in populated areas, one couldn’t simply claim as much land as they could defend. Ponies have some ‘way’ to share land between them, and it was based on bits it seemed. At least that was easy to understand.

So, with the land near them about to become available, they rushed over so as to set things in motion. I admit that from their point of view, it made a lot of sense. They really wanted to see their grandfoal and daughter more often.

So I forgave them for trying to use a fairly backclawed tactic on us.

And of course, as a black dragon, I would always be able to claim some land in Equestria later if I wished. So if Fluffy and I decided to move at some point, we need only do so.

The only reason I could imagine though for doing so would be for Fiery’s sake. Fluffy and I had spoken about schools and kindergarten again, and while I still had my reservations; being half-pony, Fiery had the right to at least get the chance to go.

Fluffy also brought up the point that with her out of the lair for half of the day, there would be more time for cuddling, the special sort of cuddling. It was a very good point, despite the fact that she only brought that up to convince me.

Speaking of that adorable little kirin, I unwillingly stopped cuddling with Fluffy. Fiery would be waking up soon, and it would be the best for every creature, especially her uncle, if her parents were around then. So when Fluffy made her first weak attempts to stand up, I didn’t hinder her… much.

***

Returning to the living room, an amusing view awaited us, at least from my point of view.

There laid Never Ending, snoring almost as loudly as Fluffy, and on his belly sat Fiery, waving her tail in joy as she watched him and cuddled into his chest fluff. Not only was the place she was sitting on cozy, but the sound of a snoring pony was much to her liking. A thing I think she got from her mother.

So, the scene found my approval, Never had made the best of the situation and was now functioning as a soft pillow for my and Fluffy’s daughter. A win for everycreature.

Though, Fluffy’s thoughts were quite different. I saw it in her body language that for some unknown reason, her brother was in trouble. Only his niece, due to Fluffy’s desire to keep quiet and not alert Fiery, protected him from Fluffy’s wrath.

Well, the peace didn’t last long, for as soon as Fiery spotted her mom, she let out a series of happy squeaks and rose to her hooves to get picked up.

This, of course, woke up her uncle, who yawned widely before his gaze landed on Fiery.

“Hey, Fiery,” he sleepy mumbled. “you woke up. Well, I hope uncle Never was a good napping spot?”

He must have been, otherwise he would have had an angry kirin on him. At least in Fiery’s opinion, he did great.

“You can’t sleep in while watching her, brother!” Fluffy scolded him while she picked up Fiery and nuzzled her before nestling her against her chest. “She could have hurt herself!”

“She was doing fine, sis. She walked back and forth on top of my stomach until she buried her head in my fluff and began taking her nap as intended.”

“You still have to watch over her!”

I rubbed my head against my mate and made my way towards our daughter, who purred welcomingly when I was near enough. “I don’t see what he did wrong, Fluffy.” I looked over Fiery and found nothing out of the normal. “We both join her in her naps from time to time, you never had a problem with that.”

“That’s completely different.” She replied. “When you take a nap with her, your daughter will not leave your side, even if she woke up earlier, she would try to wake you up. Same goes for me.” She rearranged Fiery on her chest. “But you, brother, can’t do that! Who knows what she would do while you are sleeping!”

“Probably crawl deeper into my fluff and enjoy the warmth I offer?” he suggested while standing up, stretching his wings, and shaking his shoulder a bit to get rid of the last stiffness of sleep. “Either she cuddles with me, or calls out for mom and dad, which would have woken me up anyway.”

“While I agree that she,” I once more rubbed my head against Fiery, “likely wouldn’t leave your side, I think Fluffy’s warning still had a valid point, even though it might not have been the one she intended.”

My mates head turned to me. “And what would that be?” she asked with an accusing undertone.

I smiled and poked her with my wing before answering, and when I did, it was directed at Never Ending. “You could get into a lot of trouble if I trust you with watching over my daughter and I end up hearing unhappy or sorrowful cried from her echoing through the lair. I can tell you, Fiery would not have to wait long for me to come to her aid, and I’m not sure you would want to be the focus of a worried father. Especially when that father is a dragon.”

“Uhm, that sounds uncomfortable,” Never replied.

“I’m just giving you a heads up. Now that you have my permission to be here and play with your niece, you better not fail in your duties as uncle.”

“Big Softy,” Fluffy stroke over my nose with her wing, “didn’t you and my family agree to treat each other more nicely just an hour ago?”

“No, sis, it’s fine,” Never interrupted. “That is part of the deal, he warned us previously, so we can react accordingly while here.”

“And in return, I don’t get mad when they screw up something that they wouldn’t have known,” I added.

Fluffy snorted unhappy. It was clear to see that she was not completely okay with this yet. It also didn’t help that she still wanted to scold her brother. Problem was, if she did that, Fiery would see, and that was something that she really wanted to avoid. She had brought this on herself.

Remembering that she specifically told me not to growl at Never when Fiery was around, I smiled at the irony of Fluffy’s current predicament.

“We will talk about this later, brother,” Fluffy finally said. “Don’t think you are off the hook already!”

“Oh come on, sis, Fiery had a really good nap with uncle Never.” He extended his hoof and petted my daughters head. “Nothing bad happened, and if you wouldn’t have shown up, she would still be sitting on my chest and enjoying my chest fluff.”

“Don’t forget the snoring,” I added mischievously. “You successfully convinced your daughter that snoring creatures are the good guys, Fluffy.” I placed a kiss on her ear. “Lovely snoring pegasus that you are.”

She pulled a snout and fluffed up angrily, making her even more cute.

“Aww,” I adored her while Fiery started to purr seeing as she was still was in mommy’s chest fluff.

“You guys are impossible!” Fluffy huffed, though, she couldn’t stay grumpy for long, a happy kirin prevented that most effectively.

I watched the magic my daughter was doing to her mom for a moment before my belly started to grumble. After all, we had been engaged in a great deal of physical activity for the last hour, so it only made sense that it was time to eat something.

“Alright, I think it is time to prepare dinner.” I moved in the direction of the kitchen before remembering that it was on Fluffy to set the table for her family. “Wait, you agreed to do the chores for the time being.” I looked at Fluffy and stretched my claws out for Fiery. “Mommy has to do some housework for a change, Fiery, come to daddy.”

It was clear to see that my comment had not found Fluffy’s approval, but she had indeed agreed to this. With a sigh, she kissed Fiery and hooved her over. “Come on, brother, you can help me in the kitchen,” she said, before trotting in said direction.

I exchanged a look with Never, we both knew she would use this opportunity to scold him further.

“Never thought you pushing the housework on her would be a punishment for me,” he half said, half sighed.

I shrugged.

“Never!” Fluffy yelled from the kitchen.

“Coming, sis.”

I held Fiery up. “And that is why you never anger your mom. At least if you are not a huge dragon.”

She purred agreeingly.

*

The rest of the day passed quickly. We told Cloudy and Gold about our decision when they came back. They were a bit disappointed, but understood and respected our choice. And as we said, eventually moving to Equestria was not completely off the table.

I admit, the school and kindergarten part was not especially to my liking or interest, but, having her pony grandparents babysitting her every now and then was not a thought I found to be unpleasant. I mean, for dragons it is quite common to have one's hatchlings around them all day, but just an hour for me and Fluffy here and there…

Anyway, we did decide to visit this village Cloudy had spoken about sooner rather than later. Best case, they could give us some good advice on how to treat a baby kirin and what is and isn’t good for her. Sure, I had no doubts that we were doing quite fine and were perfectly capable of raising her ourselves, but if there was the chance to do it better, it was our duty as parents to at least give it a look.

So, let me tell you about our visit to the Peaks of Peril...