“No, we don’t eat meat anymore, well we could if we wanted to, but after all the hunting we did in these forests, we needed to convert to exclusively fruits and other plants. We still have the fangs though.” Autumn Blaze stopped and opened her mouth widely to let us get a look at them. “See?” she mumbled. “They are sharp and lovely, but we don’t really use them anymore, still nice to have though.”

“And how about gems?” Fluffy asked. “Fiery ate one not so long ago, is that good for her?”

“Gems are a bit tricky, not all kirins can eat them, it depends on how closely related to a dragon you are.” She happily smiled. “I can still eat them, they’re just a bit hard to find around here.” She thought about it for a moment. “And sometimes you break a tooth if you aren’t careful.”

“I assume they regrow, like mine,” I asked. It was an uncomfortable thought to imagine Fiery losing a tooth and not having it regrow.

“Yes, they do,” Autumn nodded, “at least when it comes to the fangs. The other teeth,” she waved a bit with her tail, “they regrow too, but far slower, and you have to pull them out if they are only broken. If the stump stays, they don’t.”

“Hmm, good to know,” I said before turning to Fluffy. “That means we don’t have to worry if she loses one from time to time, like the time you almost cried when you first saw me lose a fang.”

“How could I not be shocked when my special somedragon suddenly spits out one of his fangs,” she reddened a bit, remembering the circumstances around that before quickly changing the topic. “Though I seem to remember how horrified you were and how you feared I might die when I started to molt.”

“I only lost a fang, you lost your wonderful feathers! That was far more concerning!”

Fluffy giggled. “You should have seen him,” she told Autumn Blaze, “he was all worried and afraid, I could hardly keep him off me.”

“I was not afraid,” I corrected her, “I was rightfully concerned.”

With all this talk of her losing her feathers, I felt compelled to check on them just to make sure. She was not going to molt again for some time, so if any of her feathers fell out, I would know something was wrong. I nuzzled one of her wings so she would open them, and when she did, I slowly and carefully brushed along her feathers with my muzzle, watching for any sign that something was wrong.

“See,” Fluffy said in this cozy, cuddlily, flirty tone that was reserved just for me while caressing my head with her wing. “All worried and… concerned.” She gave me this seductive, innocent smile as she fluttered her eyes.

“If you don’t want me to break into one of these houses and throw the inhabitants out so we have a place for,” I looked at Autumn Blaze for a second, “cuddling, you better be less sexy and seductive you naughty little pegasus you,” I whispered, breathing in Fluffy’s scent.

As expected, she slapped me with her wing, but I saw her happy smile. I had learned near the start of our relationship that as long as I called her sexy and beautiful when I was being naughty, even though she acted disapproving and would publicly scold me, she loved that I did it.

“Behave yourself,” she said.

“I always do,” I replied and kissed her. “I am a good dragon.”

“Yes you are,” Fluffy agreed before turning around so we could continue our walk through the village. I saw the happy swing of her tail and flank that I caused, and I smiled too.

*

“And this,” Autumn Blaze lifted up some crazy looking fruit, “is a dragonpear!”

“Dragonpear?” I asked sceptical. “It does not look like a dragon at all.”

“No, of course not, but dragons love them!” She tossed it over to me. “You really should take a bite, it is awesome. It’s sweet and spicy and juicy and… well it’s awesome for dragons,” she lowered her voice a bit, “ as well as for kirins, but only the ones with strong dragon heritages.”

“And how does it taste to ponies?” Fluffy asked out of curiosity, giving the fruit a closer look. “No, Fiery,” she added when our daughter stretched out her claws for it. “Let daddy try it first.”

“A dragonpear?” the saleskirin, a stallion, asked while he came over. “A very good choice, you will love it! From what I heard, it’s not only healthy, but gives you a warm and cozy feeling!”

“From what you heard?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t personally know anydragon that’s eaten one, but my dad told me that they loved to eat them back in the days. As I understood it, it’s like a good glass of wine for them.”

“Meh,” I snorted, “that kind of stuff doesn't work on dragons. We don’t get drunk, especially -” I looked closer at this purple fruit “- from something as small as this.”

“You don’t get drunk?” Autumn asked.

“Nope, they don’t,” Fluffy supported my statement with a grin. “Believe me, I tried to get him drunk when we had our first ‘date’.” She giggled. “Didn’t work at all!”

“You tried to get him drunk to seduce him?” Autumn Blaze wondered. “You are far more naughty than I thought. Though it was a good idea.”

“What? No!” Fluffy shouted. “I-“

“Yes, she is a most naughty pegasus,” I said. “And after she filled me up with wine, she pulled me into a close, cuddle filled dance, using her sexy wings all over my body, practically throwing herself at me.”

“Wow, I call that passion,” the stallion nodded approvingly.

“I agree, the result speaks for itself,” Autumn Blaze said. “And was that the same night you got her pregnant?”

“That is not-” Fluffy’s wings sprung open, but since she was still shocked from what I‘d said, I was once again faster.

“Of course, this wonderful, sex-hungry pegasus did not leave my bed until she was. And she also turned into a kirin for the first round.”

“Big Softy!” Fluffy yelled at me.

“Oh yes, you are right,” I nodded. “She set my bedroom on fire in the process,” I explained to the kirins.

While the stallion whistled astonished, Autumn was more bewildered.

“Wait, you can turn into a kirin?” she asked. “Ohh, or do you mean like with a costume and roleplaying, right? I have heard that fire attracts dragons, which kind of makes sense since we are half dragons and that works on us, but where did you heard it from? Also, I’ve got to say, besides the wine, it was a well executed seduction!”

“It was not… I didn’t...I…” Fluffy’s face turned red, half from shame, half from anger. “It wasn’t me who seduced him, he seduced me!” she finally yelled. “Lousy dragon tricks, approaching me while I was a kirin!” She gave me a very angry stare, but quieted her yelling as soon as Fiery showed the first signs of worry with questioning squeaks. “It was all him, I had nothing to do with it. He was the one who was enamored with my fluff,” she said as she stroked her fur against the grain, “and my feathers.”

“No, Fiery, mommy and daddy are not fighting.” Fluffy nuzzled our daughter, calming her down. “Daddy is just being overly naughty again,” she said before shooting a glare at me. “You know how your father is,” she added while she cradled our daughter.

“Daddy’s no less naughty then your mother,” I clarified, lowering my head to give Fiery a kiss. “Your mom is a wonderful pony, Fiery.”

“Don’t try using more of your honeyed words on me,” Fluffy scolded, but in her usual tone. “I’ll get you back for this.”

“You mean like what I just did? For your behaviour back at the town hall?”

Her eyes were sparkling as if she had lightning in them, but that was the only reaction she had, which was answer enough.

While I was enjoying the emotional tension between us, I knew it would be best for me to end it. I had used my naughtiness to make her happy, only to use that same naughtiness to make her angry. Right now, cuddling was the best thing I could do to turn things in my favor.

I tossed the fruit back to Autumn and picked up my marefriend and daughter. I didn’t say anything, simply closed my wings around them and began releasing a loud, clear purr.

As you know, I consider purring in public to be damaging to my social standing and my notoriety as intimidating. But I also know Fluffy knows this, and considering these kirins already thought of me as a cuddler, it was worth it. As always, purring at my family was a great feeling.

And it had quite the charming effect, for just as I can’t stay angry at Fluffy when she uses her pegasi tricks, she can’t stay angry when I do my dragon tricks. More so with a happy little kirin in her foreleg who was stretching out her claws to play with daddy.

“Of all the mares, you are the only one that can make me purr,” I said, “aside from this one of course,” I added as I nuzzled my daughter.”

“You can’t sweet talk your way out of this this time,” she insisted, but I could already see that my plan had worked.

I turned my head back to her. “The day I am not able to do that will be the day I’ll be in the deepest trouble possible.” I poked her nose with mine. “An angry marefriend is more frightening than a hundred azure dragons.”

“Only a hundred? You mean a thousand.”

“Of course, a thousand, if not more.” I smiled. “The only reason I’m still alive is because you love me so much.” I flickered my eyes before continuing. “The lucky dragon that I am.”

“Yes you are,” she agreed in a serious tone, but we both knew she wasn't angry anymore.

“It seems to run in the family, the luck thing, you know?” I said and placed her back on the ground. “Not only did it get me you,” I softly stroked over her chin, “but made the goddess of luck the godmother of my daughters as well.”

“Wait, Fortuna is your daughter's godmother?” Autumn Blaze asked. “Like in ‘the’ Fortuna?”

“Oh, yes, she is,” Fluffy said as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “She also brought me and Big Softy together.”

“So that’s why she has the four-leaf clovers on her flanks?”

“I guess so,” Fluffy nodded. “Now that you mention it, I wanted to ask why you guys don’t have cutie marks. Being half ponies and all. I keep my cutie mark when I turn into a kirin.”

“I don’t know,” Autumn lifted her hooves. “You have a clue?” she asked the stallion, but he shook his head. “Maybe Rain Shine can answer that for you,” Autumn suggested. “You should ask her when we get back.”

“Well, I shall do that then,” Fluffy agreed.

While Fluffy had her conversation with the kirins, I didn’t pay too much attention to the topic of the cutie mark. Fluffy had explained the concept to me, and I had already accepted that our daughter had one, so I took one of those dragonpears from the stand in the meantime. Upon closer inspection, it looked a bit like a small purple pumpkin with a blue stalk.

I sniffed at it, but the smell was not familiar. When I licked over it however, it indeed tasted spicy, along with some sparkling fruity undertone. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to take a bite, I thought, consuming half the fruit in one chomp. It had a very fruity taste, with a flavor almost like caramel mixed in, a taste I had gotten more familiar with since meeting Fluffy’s parents.

What, you didn’t think Fiery was the only one who was bribed with treats, did you?

Overall, the fruit was a strange one. Its flesh was slightly sour, but when I bit down on one of the many seeds it had, there was a sudden explosion of sweetness. It was a strange mix, but as Autumn had said, a tasty one.

I ate the rest of the fruit.

“And?” I heard Fluffy asking me. “How is it?”

She had ended her conversation with the kirins and all three of them were looking at me now.

“Well, it does taste good, but I don’t think it has any effect on me.” I licked over my teeth. “Still, we should maybe take some with us when we go.”

“A very good idea!” the saleskirin agreed and rushed over. “They are just four bits per fruit! And they only grow around here, so you should take a lot!”

There it was again, this bad habit of paying for things I could easily take. If it wasn’t for Fluffy, I would have told this kirin what I thought of him demanding money from me, instead, I simply lowered my head to his level and offered him one bit per fruit instead.

“No,” he said, “that is too little. I can offer you three per fruit if you buy five or more though.”

How dare he! Not only reject my offer but demand I take a certain amount to get a discount at all, as if I was just a random customer!

I growled.

He smiled and growled back.

It took me a moment to realise that he had really done that. He really growled back at me! Who does he think he is! This level of arrogance and stupidity! I would teach him how to speak to a dragon! Before I had recovered from the shock, however, Fluffy rushed to my side.

“Big Softy!” she yelled and stopped my claw with her hoof before I could toss the whole stand aside and talk face to face with its owner. She was lucky that despite my anger, I realised that it was her who had gotten in my way, otherwise she would not have been able to stay my claw.

I roared at the stallion, who just now seemed to realise who he had growled at. He stepped back and lowered himself in the process.

“Big Softy!” Fluffy yelled again and raised to her hind legs, placing her free hoof on my chest. “Stop it! I am sure he did not mean to challenge you!” She placed Fiery on the ground and added her second hoof to my chest.

“But he did!” I shouted back while keeping my gaze on the now shivering stallion. He had laid down and covered his eyes with his hooves.

“He did not mean it that way, I am sure of it!” She threw a short look at him too. “It’s surely just part of their trading habits, to growl and hiss over the price!”

“Surely not with a dragon,” I replied, though, his open display of submission to my superiority helped calm my anger, just a bit. Still, I growled at him once more.

“It is like I said,” Autumn Blaze hastily threw in, “our conversation skills are not the best at the moment.” She also tried to calm me down with gestures. “We just got back our voices so we don’t always think when we use them.”

It seemed Fiery shared my opinion though, as without me or Fluffy noticing, she had heard my second growl at the stallion as well as the heated emotions. Recognising all this, she had hopped closer to the stallion and did what she had failed to do when I had hunted down Angorik for her, she hissed at him too, the best thing I could think of for her to do.

It was quite a loud hiss for her size. She had also raised her tail along with getting her bushy mane to become stiff. All this combined with her spread wings made her look rather threatening I would say.

I forgot about the unimportant stallion, allowing pride to fill my heart instead. There stood little Fiery, hissing at the source of daddy’s anger.

“Fiery!” Fluffy started to yell, but I laid a talon on her snout, trying to make it so she would be quiet.

It seemed Fluffy still wanted to stop her, but one look at my happy face caused her to pause.

I lowered my head and purred approvingly at my daughter. “Spread your wings and raise them higher while keeping your fangs visible and lowering your head,” I told her. “Creatures shall see the fangs and fear them while you look even more intimidating with raised wings.”

Fiery simply kept her gaze on the stallion and continued to hiss, so I carefully adjusted her stance myself, showing my approval of her behaviour with a rub of my snout over her neck when I was done.

Sadly, she stopped threatening the stallion when she noticed my caresses of approval. She turned to me and the anger was already forgotten and replaced with happy squeaking at daddy’s approval.

I scowled at this, but still purred. “And now you ruined it,” I said, but cuddled with her when she rushed over to lick over my head. I took my time, but finally picked her up. “No creature can deny you are half pony. One moment the offspring of your father, the next, soft and cuddly like your mother.”

I got some more licks over my scales as she purred at me.

“Next time, you can add some fire to the mix,” I whispered.

“Or she can just make her father proud as she is,” Fluffy suggested before making sure she received some of our daughter’s love too.

“Well,” I couldn’t resist smiling, “that would also be fine. Still, the fire would be a nice thing.”

Fluffy gave me a raised eyebrow along with a kiss.

“Okay, being fluffy as she is also works.”

“Ooffi,” Fiery said suddenly, stretching a claw out for her mother.

My jaw dropped and Fluffy’s wings sprung open as she fluffed up, making her look like a walking pillow.

“Fiery,” she whispered, unable to speak further, astonished by the sensation of hearing our daughter attempting to speak her first word.

“Ooffi,” Fiery repeated, giggling happily. “Ooffi!”

Fluffy took her from me and held her up before her snout. The sun barely came close to how much Fluffy was shining at that moment.

“Fluffy,” Fluffy said slowly, emphasizing every letter. “Fluf-fy, or mom-my,” she repeated.

It took Fiery a few tries and a lot of babbling, but finally, there it was.

“Fluffy,” Fiery said.

The effect on her mom was outstanding! Fluffy pressed her against her chest and started dancing around in pure joy, shouting out our daughter had said her first word for all who wanted to hear, and even to those that didn’t. She was so happy that she even flew into the air a bit.

I did not want to miss out on her happiness for all the treasure in the world, so I grabbed her tail and pulled them both into my embrace, holding and cuddling them.

“Our daughter said her first word!” Fluffy practically yelled into my face.

“I heard,” I assured her, “half the village also heard,” I added. “You made mommy very happy, Fiery,” I continued and licked over my daughter's cheek.

Even though she had no clue about what was happening, the fact that she had made mommy happy was very clear. Based on Fiery’s squeeks, she was nearly as happy as her mom.

Now Fluffy started to cry. No, don’t you worry, there was nothing wrong with her, it was and is a normal reaction ponies have to such things.

“Her first word,” she repeated, half whispering as she wiped away the tears. “Our baby said her first word.”

Being familiar with strange pony behaviour, I simply nodded. “Yes she did.”

“I am so happy!”

“Oh really? I didn’t notice.” I smirked and played a bit with her ear.

“Oh you,” she giggled and flickered the ear I was playing with.

“Congratulations,” a voice to our left said, which turned out to be Autumn Blaze. She and several other kirins had gathered up around us and were cheerfully saying the usual stuff about it. Even though it was mostly mares that had gathered, Fluffy did not care to hiss at them.

I lowered my head to whisper into my daughters ear. “Seems you have the same magic as your mother, making creatures happy and calm.”

I know it was very unlikely, but I could have sworn Fiery blinked at me.

*

A good while later, I found myself sitting on the edge of a crowd of mares surrounding my mate. I was learning how quickly the simple act of Fiery saying her first word was capable of changing our situation.

Something I was finding rather amusing though was how Fluffy had gone from looking at every kirin mare with suspicion or open disapproval to now being all sunshine and rainbows. Fluffy was not only allowing the other kirins to approach us, but more specifically me, without thinking about tearing off their horns, but was also permitting them to hold Fiery for a time.

Fiery herself was in a very generous mood as well. The joy she was showing seemed to be the result of the praise she was receiving, especially from her mom, for allowing the kirins to hold her and pick her up. She knew they would all praise and cuddle her, so she was hardly being shy.

I was so consumed in my thoughts about it that I only realised Autumn Blaze was by my side when she carefully pulled at my wing two times.

“Hmm?” I looked down at her.

“If you don’t mind the question, I am a bit curious, how do you guys live?” she asked. “You saw a lot of our village already, but you didn’t say much about your own home.”

Before I answered, I took one more look in Fluffy and Fiery’s direction, making sure there were no threats in sight, or too many stallions around her. “We live very dragon like, I, we, have a huge lair.”

“You mean like a cave? I know dragons do like those.”

“Not exactly, it is a lair, not a cave. It also has some comforts than one would expect; warm water for example, a toilet, a shower. You can see it like a home you guys have here, just underground.” I pushed out my chest a bit more. “And we have a huge garden with fresh water, as well as a waterfall and a small pond.”

“You have a garden under the earth? In your lair?” she asked doubtfully.

“There are some holes in the ceiling to allow daylight to fall in, it sounds strange maybe, but I like it that way.”

“Must have been a lot of work to create it?”

“Oh yes, it was.”

“And do any other dragons live nearby, some friendly cuddlers like you?”

“No, my territory is quite large, I would not allow them around. Even more so since I have a daughter, they would be a threat.”

That statement seems to make her a bit sad.

“From what I’ve learned about ponies, even if your only half, you have something on your mind, little kirin.”

“Well,” she took a seat too, “it’s just... I was hoping there were more where you came from, you know, dragons. Wouldn’t hurt to have some more around from time to time.”

“I assume you are referring to having some more potential mates around?”

She smiled. “Dragons. You always speak your mind, and it is a naughty one.” She waited for a reply from me, but I remained silent. “No, not as mates, or not only as mates, but as guests in the village.” Her tail waved behind her a bit. “For some reason, you guys make us happy. It’s like a missing part of our heritage that’s coming back to us.”

“You don’t seem to miss ponies as much as dragons.”

“True, I don’t know why though.” She shrugged. “Maybe because we’ve kept more of our pony heritage and culture than our dragon one. As you see, we live above the earth and eat mostly fruits and thelike. And when Applejack and Fluttershy visited us a few weeks ago, they weren’t as different from us as you would assume.” She looked up to me. “You know them?”

“I heard about them from Fluffy’s parents, never met them though.”

“I see, well, from what they told us, they have a similar culture to us, you know, newspapers, theater, singing. What we don’t have is…” she stopped for a moment. “I don’t even know what we don’t have, but I’m sure there’s parts of dragon culture we should have.” She pointed at the salestand. “It would also be nice to have somedragon around to deal with the things we do get from dragons, like the growling between you and Spring Light. We used to growl and hiss to negotiate a deal, but obviously we do it all wrong today.”

“That's an understatement, if not for Fluffy, I would have broken some of his bones for the affront of growling at me.”

“That’s what I am talking about, we don’t know better,” she said before flicking her ear. “I paid for the fruit you ate by the way.”

I raised an eyebrow but nodded in approval.

“There are so many little things you guys would be useful for, besides the fact we find you very attractive. We never would’ve had the problem with the Stream of Silence if we had somedragon who could have tamed or at least caught the kirins who turned into niriks out of anger.” She hit her forehead with a hoof. “Oh, I totally forgot to tell you, when angry, kirins can turn into niriks, you must be careful with your daughter.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that, which got Fluffy curious, causing her to look at us. But when she was sure Autumn Blaze wouldn’t try anything funny, which she checked on again a second later, she turned her attention back to the crowd around her.

“I know about that,” I said. “Not only did Fluffy turn into one, though we still call it her kirin form, Fiery did so too when she was born.” I smiled widely. “She caught fire and bit the nurse.”

“Really,” Autumn now laughed too, “I heard about those, but always thought it is just stories.”

“No, she really did. The nurse gave her this little slap, and woosh! All fire and fangs!” I looked at my little girl. “She was so ugly when she was born, but that moment, she claimed her place as my daughter.”

“I would have loved to see that,” Autumn longingly said. “Like all the other stuff you told about your lair. It must be very impressive. Say, do you have some treasure too?”

“Of course, every dragon does. It is a lot of gold and some very mighty artifacts.” Okay, maybe they were not all mighty, but she didn’t have to know that.

“I have a hoard too,” she whispered. “I collect shiny stones and crystals, if I can find some.”

“See, you have some dragon culture as well.”

“I know I have, or we all have, but we don’t understand most of it, and that was my point. There is still the stuff only you dragons can do, but we would like to do too, like flying. Before you came here with your mate, it must have been over a hundred years since we had a pegasus kirin in the village.”

“You had?” I asked, “where did they go?”

“Back to their village I assume, there are other kirin villages of course. Though, we aren't friends with them anymore.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, it was before I was born. And the Stream of Silence thing didn’t help with that.”

“You brought that up a few times now, the Stream of Silence, what is that?”

“Oh, it’s a long, sad story,” she replied.

“So you don’t want to talk about it?”

“No,” she said, “I rather…” she jumped up and started dancing…”siiiing!”

That was a surprise! I did not expect her to suddenly sing, and when Fluffy and the others noticed, they were a bit baffled at first too. Though, after a moment, everycreature calmed down again and enjoyed the show…

Author's Note

Well, there are still so many ideas I have to add to the story, but also I want the story to make progress and come to an end someday too. Since I want to start with the next part of the story, TDATP3. where they actually go on an adventure again, like I originally had planned.

So I have to choose how much details and key events I can actually place in the story, without stretching it that far it gets boring. If you guys have any thought on this, let me know in the comments Like stuff you wanna see, or things you think would happen but should be skipped in your opinion.
***

Editor: Again, my friend Schattendrache