Well, now you will get to hear about something I rarely talk about, me, getting nervous!

So, the day of the birth, that was something! One moment I was laying in our bed, sleeping, peacefully cuddling my fluffy marefriend, when suddenly, she sat up and started to whimper loudly while pressing her hooves into her belly.

Of course, that woke me up. Fluffy quickly and forcefully grabbed my wing, seeing as it was the closest thing to her belly, I could hardly blame her, before I even was fully awake and started to whimper once more.

“I think it's time!” she pressed out while sweat formed on her forehead.

My head sprung up and I waved my tail tip like a rattlesnake. “You mean, the baby is coming?”

“No silly,” she started to curl up out of pain, “I mean the train will arrive!” She groaned, “Of course it’s the baby! And it seems it is really eager to…” the rest of her sentence got cut off by another whimper.

“Okay, okay!” I started and half jumped out of the bed, only held back by Fluffies grip on my wing. “I’ll get the midwife… if you let me leave that is.”

Her grip got stronger for a second before she let go. “Yeah, sure…” she started to breath faster and sunk back into her pillow. “I’ll just wait here!”

I rushed out of the room, nearly turning the door to splinters by my enthusiasm, and yelled all over my lair, “Helping Hooves! Helping Hooves! Get over here! The baby is coming!”

Of course, that not only woke up the midwife, but everyone else in the lair. My Dad, Fluffies parents, her cousin, everyone that wasn't already awake, like my mother.

Yeah, I was not too fond of Daring being here too, but as I found out, it is common practice to have the ones closest to the pony giving birth around for when they have their first child. This, to my chagrin, meant that Daring was included in this case, though, fortunately, her brother hadn’t come.

Anyway, it didn’t take me long to reach Helping Hooves’s door, and without hesitating, I pushed it open and yelled loudly for her to wake up. Straight into her face actually, since she was already on her hooves and had been standing behind the now open door and had barely been missed her when I had thrown it open.

While she was still a bit dizzy from my screaming, I grabbed her and pulled her out of the room, pushing her in direction of Fluffy and my sleeping room.

“Quick! The baby is coming!”

Well, of course I was told how long the birth would take, meaning that it could very well be quite some time till something would actually happen, but I was far too excited to remember at that moment!

“Is it time?” Fluffies mom peaked out from their room, looking at me and the midwife as we passed.

“Yeah.” I nodded hastily without slowing down. “The blows have begun.”

“We’re going to be grandparents!” Fluffy’s dad shouted loud enough that I was able to hear him from outside their room.

Cloud Planter, her mom if you remember, stomped with her hooves in happy expectation. “Our little girl will be a mom soon!” She turned around and clapped her hooves together, “I can’t wait!”

And neither could we, I took off towards my and Fluffy’s sleeping room, not sparing a second thought to Fluffy’s parents. I pushed Helping Hooves in and followed right after.

Even if I had been away for a minute or less, the scene inside the room had changed. Fluffy had made herself comfortable by taking all blankets and pillows and using them to build a cozy nest in the middle of the mattress which she was now laying on top of.

I was impressed, but Helping Hooves was not. “Oh no, missy! You do not start nesting yet! She made her way over to the bed and removed some of the pillows by throwing them off the bed. “Come on, time to stand up and take a walk, hopp hopp!”

Fluffy just groaned, half in disapproval, half in pain. “I don’t think I can walk anywhere at the moment.”

“Good for you that I know you can.” Helping Hooves insisted, placed one hoof on the side of the bed and grabbed one of Fluffies forelegs. Carefully, but unyielding, she pulled, forcing Fluffy to raise up from her nest and get out of the bed.

Once Fluffy stood, restlessly stepping from one hoof to the other, Helping Hooves started to inspect her belly and other parts of her body. If another male had dared to touch her that way, I would have attacked him right then, but keeping in mind it was the midwife, I allowed it.

“Just as I thought.” Helping Hooves nodded. “It is way too early to nest now. The birth canal isn’t wide enough yet, so you have to trot around for a while first.”

“I don’t think I am able to trot around at the moment,” Fluffy groaned. “Why can’t I just lay in my bed and wait till this is over, huh?” She waved a bit as she talked, and it was no wonder, given that she looked very much like a barrel on hooves, a seasick, fluffy, barrel on hooves.

“Because that would not be good for you or the foal. Trotting around will support the contractions and eventually cause the amniotic sac to burst.” Helping Hooves nodded in the direction of the bed. “And you don’t want that to happen here, do you?”

“Right now, I don’t really care… “ Fluffy answered before another wave of pain coursed through her body and silenced her.

I rushed to her side and offered my wing as aid, which she gladly accepted. “I think the nest is the better choice.”

“No, it is not, now make yourself useful and take her out with you, the garden seems to be a fitting place.”

Despite the fact that I was a dragon and she just a pony, Helping Hooves was not satisfied with only giving me orders, in fact, she also started to softly push me and Fluffy forward.

Knowing my reaction to this, Fluffy quickly drew my attention to her again by a cleverly placed whimper and by increasing the support she needed from my wing to keep standing.

“Alright, alright,” Fluffy threw a last longing look at the nest she had build and started to trot to the door. “Come my big softy.” She grabbed my wing stronger. “Time for a little walk.”

“How long will this take?” I asked, a bit worried about Fluffies condition. Of course, she and the midwife had told me how a pony birth works, but I still had a hard time adjusting to experiencing it first claw. I mean, a hatchling just cracks the egg and ‘tada!’ there it is, but ponies…

“It shouldn’t take longer than an hour at best,” Helping Hooves reminded me. “After the amniotic sac bursts, it will only be a question of minutes till the foal shows up.”

“A full hour… “ Fluffy mumbled and threw an uncertain look at her belly, “this is going to be fun.”

“Don’t complain too much, there are species that take even longer, and once your child is there, you can return to your ‘nest’.” Helping Hooves shook her head while she walked next to us. “I’ll never get used to the fact that pegasi build those, I mean on clouds, okay, they get poofed afterwards, but on the ground, ney.”

“Unicorns don’t build those? Or earth ponies?” Fluffies voice was filled with doubt. “Not even with hay or something?”

“No, earth ponies just trot around restless till the foal wants to be born, and then they lay down where they stand and let things happen, while unicorns are just too fancy for that most of the time.”

“What do they do?” Fluffy asked, but before Helping Hooves could answer, Daring showed up, holding her head like this all was just another adventure. And I was right about my thoughts about her, as she moved to Fluffies other side, taking the midwife's spot.

“Seems like this day starts with just another adventure, right, Danger?”

“Yeah, but this time there’s no doubt that I get the treasure,” Fluffy replied with a smirk.

“Sure you do, I don’t think I want that kind of treasure anyway.”

“What did you always say? Another day, another adventure, right? Means someday… “ Fluffy just smiled mischievously.

“Hey! I work alone, there is no place for a stallion in Daring Do’s adventures!”

“Working alone, huh?” I threw inbetween, “if you would be a bit nicer, you might get a stallion to help you with that.”

“I don’t need a stallion, I am very capable of rescuing the day alone.”

“He wasn’t talking about the adventuer part,” Fluffy giggled.

“He wasn’t?” Daring gave first her than me a confused look.

“I’ll explain it to you when you’re older,” Fluffy said shaking her head but giggling a bit more.

I rubbed my head against her and smiled myself. Being together for nearly a year had a good influence on her naughty humour.

*

I didn’t know what I should’ve thought about it. After we spent a little over half an hour walking around in my little garden, Fluffies blows had started to get significantly stronger and, well, it seemed the amniotic sac, as the midwife had called it, had burst.

It was a mess, a very disgusting mess that no hatching species created when giving birth, but, that was something to deal with later.

For now, Fluffies dad had brought her a nice little cloud, something he said had helped to calm down his wife a lot when she gave birth. I was doubtful at first, but Fluffy had clearly relaxed as soon as she had the cloud under her back.

At the moment, she was laying on her side, panting heavily and holding Daring’s hoof. With every contraction, a wave of pain pushed through her body and she groaned loudly. Not to mention that it left me very restless and aggressive. It was hard for me to just stand there watching while my mate was in pain, it was not something we dragon's were used to letting happen. Normally, we just applied violence to get rid of every source of negative feelings for our mates, this meant we tear every poor being that was to blame to shreds, but here I simple couldn’t do that.

So I simply walked up and down, growling, making the midwife kind of nervous, though, she did her job.

“You must push!” she commanded right at this moment. “Push!”

“I am!” Fluffy yelled back with a suppressed scream of pain in her voice. “I am!”

“Do it again!”

“Come on, Danger, just a little bit more.” Daring stroke over Fluffies sweaty head with her free hoof. “It’ll soon be over!”

Another scream, this time only containing pain, escaped Fluffies mouth and I shredded a little tree in frustration and anger that I was unable to help.

“You're not helping here!” Daring scolded me and the fearful gaze of the midwife supported her statement.

I growled at her.

With a quick wave of her hoof, Fluffy requested my head in it. “Come… here… Big Softy… “ She had to stop and pant while I moved over, rubbing my head, outraged, against the soft inside of her hoof. “Every… thing… is fine. No… one is… hurting me, this… is… quite,” she groaned and I wanted to hiss at someone, no matter who, but she grabbed my head and continued as calmly as she could under this circumstances, “normal, it is… quite normal.”

My unhappy growling intensified.

“I know… I know… it will be… over… soon… “ It was quite strange, she was the one who actually had to endure the pain and the struggle of giving birth, but she was the one who was calming me down and giving me support.

Ponies…

Another, this time far heavier, blow struck, and Fluffies body shook in pain and cramps, but before I could move and tear somepony else to shreds, Helping Hooves screamed, “I can see the Claws!”

The moment had come!

All attention was now focused between Fluffies legs, were indeed a tiny pair of white claws were hanging out.

Claws were good! It meant our child was more dragon than pony! Though my father would complain about the eternal shame that his grandhat… birthling would be white!

“Keep pressing!”

Fluffy did, and I offered her my tail to grab onto while I moved to her rear end, spending my attention on our child who was coming out from her belly, something that still felt very strange to me.

Fascinated, but still astonished, I watched as our child made its way out, blow after blow it moved, first the claws, but soon, those were followed by some skin coloured arms, or legs.

I raised an eyebrow. There were no scales on its arms! And the skin was pink! I was shocked, there were no scales nor coat!

And then the head came out.

This was the first time I saw our child's face… and it was the most ugly creature I had seen in my entire life!

Only a few blue scales covered the nose and went up to its forehead, the rest was covered in wrinkled pink skin! The eyes were pressed shut forcefully and covered with wrinkled skin too, the nose was ruffled, the ears, while formed like its mothers, were without coat or any fluff, and the fact that it was covered with slime wasn’t exactly helping matters!

If I had pony like ears, I would have flinched them back now! Our child was so hideous!

“How does she look?” While there was still pain on her face, Fluffy managed to smile and look happy. Whatever she had seen in her vision about our… girl, she had asked how she looked, it must have been very different from what I saw at this moment.

I simple couldn’t tell her.

“A bit too much like her dad,” Helping Hooves answered for me, “but she will surely grow out of that and become a pretty little half pony.”

While I turned my head to Helping Hooves, unsure if I had heard right, Fluffy and Daring laughed.

“Hopefully,” Daring added. “We don’t want her to stay that ugly, right?”

There I stood, seeing our outstanding ugly daughter, and these three mares laughed! It was unbelievable!

While I was still unable to understand what was happening, our daughter made her way further out of her mom. It turned out, the scales from her nose continued over her neck and all the way down her spine till they ended at the start of her tail. A mix of dragon and pony tail that is. It had substance, it wasn’t only hair like Fluffy’s, but was very thin for a dragons tail. Also, our daughter had wings, something that wasn’t that surprising given that her mother and I had those, as well as everyone else in the family, it was still calming that they were there. Her’s were the fluffy ones with feathers though. Furthermore, her hind legs ended in split hooves, something that was, according to my knowledge, quite normal for the kirins. And, to top it off, she had a little cutie mark on both sides of her flank, something that seemed to confuse the present ponies for some reason. I didn’t mind though, all ponies seemed to have those, so it was the last thing I was worried about.

It was a little golden four clover leaf, the sign of luck, fitting if you ask me.

Still, what I was worried about was her general look, so few scales, pink skin, no coat, generally so… weak, and unfluffy! I didn’t know if I could get used to this. I confess, my heart was filled with doubt, but then, my daughter proved that she was worthy of my love and ignited the spark of my father’s pride just a moment later.

When she was fully outside, Helping Hooves cut the umbilical cord and picked my daughter up at her tail.

Even if I knew what would happen next, I was told a few dozen times, I had to bring forth all my willpower to not jump at Helping Hooves and tear her apart when she raised her hoof and gave my daughter a weak slap on her flank. I knew it was a common practise to support the breathing of a newborn child of ponies, but ugly or not, my fatherly instincts wanted me to protect my daughter.

Though, like I said, my daughter earned my fatherly pride and love that moment, when a loud scream echoed all through my outer lair.

It was Helping Hooves who screamed in agony!

I can’t describe how proud I was. How my heart filled with love and pride till it wanted to burst that moment.

What had happened you ask? Well, pony foals may be helpless when they are born, but dragon hatchlings are not when they hatch. Our daughter, as a half breed, was kind of defensible, so when the midwife gave her the little slap... she didn’t take it well.

She burst into flames, like her mother could with the help of the collar, and had curled around the foreleg Helping Hooves was using to hold her like a snake and sunk her tiny, beautiful fangs into her!

So adorable!

Helping Hooves thought different about it though, and began shaking her foreleg in pain and horror, tring to shake off my wonderful, burning little girl. Without success of course.

Given the adventurer that she is, Daring of course quickly tried to act and help her, but I would be damned if I let her lay her hooves on my daughter before I had the chance to hold her myself!

I jumped forward and grabbed Helping Hooves by her neck with one claw, lifting her up and holding her still while I carefully took my daughters head in my other one. Slow and softly, I pulled her, along with her fangs, to get her off the midwife. A slight hiss was heard when I managed to get her fangs out of her victim.

The adorability had been doubled!

I brought my head closer to my daughter, and naturally, a purr built up in my throat. I wasn’t doing it intentionally, it was something that just happened as nature had intended it. It wasn’t some standart purr, one I could modify as I wished, like the cadence or the intonation, no, it was the purr of a dragon parent for his hatchling, or bornling in this case. It was a purr I never would forget in my whole life, and, neither would my daughter. It was my special purr for her that would identify me as her dad for all my life. The purr that established our family bond, and of course, my daughter had one for me in return.

While I was still unfurling her from Helping Hooves foreleg, my daughters head turned to me, and the hiss was replaced with a purr, a purr that she wouldn’t forget as much as I wouldn’t forget mine for her.

And something in my head clicked. This terrible ugly creature was my daughter, and I loved her.

I barely noticed how Helping Hooves, now free, ran away towards the little pond in the center of my garden and jumped right into it. My gaze was fixed on the little eyes of my daughter, which had now opened a tiny little bit, revealing two deep, sparkling, dark blue irises.

I moved my snout closer to her and our noses touched, giving her the chance to memorize my smell. She sniffed and placed her little claws on my snout, but since I wasn’t her mother she soon turned her head around, trying to find her.

“I think our little girl is looking for you,” I said, still with a little purr, and turned around to Fluffy. “Though, I don’t think you would like to hold her like this.” I gently stroked over my daughters head, trying to calm her down so the flames would vanish, but the birth and the little slap might have been a little bit too much fuss at the time.

Good thing we were prepared for this situation.

Fluffy giggled in joy and waved at her little daughter, before I turned around and moved a few steps back, knowing what would come next. Daring was also privy and stepped away too, not without quickly grabbing some of the midwife's tools first.

When we had reached a safe distance, Fluffy touched the collar she had constantly been wearing for the last two weeks and spoke the magic words. A loud bang was heard, the shockwave shook us and the surroundings a bit, and the cloud Fluffy was resting on ‘poofed’, causing her to fall a few inches onto the stack of, this time fortunately, fireproof pillows.

And now Kirin-Fluffy was able take her daughter in her own hooves for the first time.

I stepped closer and extended my claw with our daughter in it towards her, and, attracted by the fire her mother was now causing, our daughter stretched out her tiny claws for her.

Even my heart melted that moment when Kirin-Fluffy’s hoof touched our daughters claws, and after a quick sniff, she quickly climbed over to her mom, nuzzling into her fiery mane and was embraced in her mom's burning feathers.

I couldn’t resist letting out a nearly unhearable ‘ahh’, but Fluffies sensitive ears picked it up anyway.

“Big softy,” she whispered with a smile.

“Don’t tell any creature,” I whispered back and moved my snout close to the spot our daughter was laying.

The little thing had made itself comfortable on her mothers chest, with her belly and head getting warmed by the fire of Fluffies mane.

“I wonder if she’s fireproof when she isn’t burning herself?” I couldn’t resist stroking her softly with my nose. “Though, she is quite ugly when she’s not burning, isn’t she?” I quietly asked with concern in my voice.

Fluffy just giggled.

“What? Haven’t you seen her? All the pink and wrinkled skin?” I looked up to Fluffies eyes. “She doesn’t have much of a coat or many scales for that matter.”

One of Fluffies wings stretched out for me and stroked over my head. “Silly,” she scolded me softly, “they will grow, she’ll be covered in a beautiful white coat, don’t worry.” She giggled again, “No way she’ll be as ugly as her dad.”

“My dad will call that a shame for the whole family,” I mumbled and gave her a lick over her cheek. “Did you just insult me?”

She tickled my nose with her tricky feathers. “Did you just call my daughter ugly?”

I snorted to get rid of the tingle. “You mean my daughter.” I added a nearly unhearable hiss to not disturb the little one we talked about.

“Mine,” Fluffy hissed back as quiet as I did as she added her second wing to our daughters back.

“Mine,” I responded and covered both of them in one of my wings.

Fluffy bit my wings radius, “Mine,” she mumbled.

“Deal,” I rubbed the top of my head against the back of Fluffy’s head and we both purred.

*

After we had our little family moment, it was time to present our little girl to the rest of our relatives. Daring was the first who got the chance to hold her, and I was too happy and proud to really complain. Fluffy waved her nearer with a burning hoof and removed her protective wings from our daughter back.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Fluffy asked, keeping her gaze on our daughter, not giving Daring much attention.

“She is perfect,” Daring assured her, though I saw that she had as mixed of feelings about our daughters appearance as I did. Or she was just worried how she should hold her, even with the fireproof gloves we had organised for her.

“What’s her name?” Daring asked to buy herself some time, though, maybe out of real curiosity, I don’t know. I am still a bit biased about her.

Fluffy looked up to me. Due to her not wanting to spoil which gender our child would be, we weren’t able to talk about a name till now. Sure, we could have considered names for both genders, but I refused to do so.

“Taking Lead?” Fluffy asked unsure.

“Mhh, why not something more dragon-like?” I suggested, giving my daughter a closer look. The little four clover leaf and the front claws instead of split hooves seemed noteworthy to me. “How about… Lucky Strike?”

A frowned eyebrow by Fluffy told me enough. “Lucky Hunter?” I changed my idea.

“Nothing that aggressive maybe?” she requested. She looked in the distance for a moment, thinking. “Leading Way?

“Fiery Bite!” Helping Hooves threw in, waving her injured leg in front of us. “Your daughter is… “ She froze when I brought my face in front of hers. I hadn’t paid much attention to her coming back from the pond, but I would not allow her to speak bad about my daughter.

“Lovely, quite lovely.” Helping Hooves finished her sentence, before she quickly stepped aside and grabbed some of her tools, bandaging her leg.

I kept my gaze on the midwife for a moment, only to snort and return my attention to more important things. “Lovely…” I said slowly, tasting the sound on my tongue. “Lovely Bite, that sounds good.”

“Lovely Bite Do?” Daring asked with a raised eyebrow, “that sounds horrible.”

“Do?” I asked. That was so erroneous that I hadn’t even thought about that. My daughter wouldn’t carry the name ‘Do’ around. She is part dragon, and dragons don’t have a family name.

“Yeah, ‘Do’,” Fluffies cousin repeated. “She is part of the family.”

“Yes, she is,” I spread my wings a bit. “Part of my family.”

“No, she is a ‘Do’,” Daring once more insisted. “Since you too aren’t married, she is first part of our family, not yours. And that also means that Danger chose the name, not you.”

I am quite sure she would have shouted the last part at me if my daughter wasn’t resting so peacefully on her mothers chest.It was the same reason I didn’t roar her back into her place actually. Instead, I just spread my wings out completely and lifted my claws off the ground, ready to bounce at her most silently.

No! What do you think I was going to do? I wouldn’t harm her at the birth of my daughter, nor in the presence of Fluffy, just pin her down and maybe give her a good spanking. I doubt Fortuna would have allowed me to do much more anyway. Remember, Daring is still protected by luck.

You probably forgot, but Fluffy didn’t. She remembered that there was no real danger to Daring. However, even with that knowledge, she was begrudging to let me have even that little bit of fun.

“Stop it, both of you.” She yelled, silently, but with some force behind it. “We will figure something out, peacefully.”

“But he,” Daring started, only to get cut of by Danger with a hoof wave.

“If you make her cry with your shouting, cousin,” Fluffy softly stroke over our daughters back, “then Celestia may have mercy for you, but I will not.” She caught Daring’s gaze, “And not even Fortuna will save you from a mother's rage.”

Daring gulped, then she nodded.

“Same goes for you.” She pointed at me and my smile about Daring being put in her place vanished. “If you make the baby cry, not even your mother can protect you from me.”

Kirin-Fluffy really had a certain charm about her! I returned to her side and nuzzled her, not undermining her motherly authority, even if it was an empty threat, but expressing my love and liking of her being more bold when turned into a Kirin. And, by the way, not making the baby cry was the most important task I had in the following months. But more of that later.

With Daring and me no longer arguing, Fluffy thought of a way to find a solution. “I would like her to have the name ‘Do’ along her full name,” she said while rubbing over my snout tenderly, “though I won’t insist on her carrying the family name right in front of everypony.” She looked at me. “You know what I mean?”

“I guess so, I don’t want her name to be pony dominated on the other claw though.”

Both of us released a hum of thought.

I coughed. “Let me tell you something, not typical for me. I have a compromise to offer.” I really could see the ‘Big Softy’ in her eyes. I snorted. “What if we use your idea of leadership and just add a bit of fire to it? Like Fiery Leadership? I know there is no ‘Do’ in it, but you have your leader-thing in it and you can come up with a nice nickname containing a ‘Do’ later.”

“Like Fiery Do?” She suggested.

“Fiery Do?” I repeated, letting the words roll on my tongue a few times. “Yeah, that would… “ I paused for a second “Do.”

Her face expression was priceless. Though, I really wouldn’t advise trying to make fun of her family name if you weren’t me.

“Then it is settled,” she agreed, “Fiery Leadership, also called Fiery Do, daughter of Danger Do and Warm... “

I hished quickly, nodding in Darings direction.

Fluffy rolled her eyes and just formed the words with her lips.

Better.

*

Well, now that our daughter had a name, it was time to call in the rest of the necessary family, her and my parents. I don’t need to tell you this was going to be something!

Of course, my parents were the first to join us, not because I don’t like my fluffy, cozy, parents in law, but because of my mothers standing. Having her not be the first to see her granthatch… bornling, would be a direct challenge of her authority, something that wouldn’t end well. It had cost us a lot of persuasion already, only to allow Daring to be present during the birth process, not to mention the opportunity to hold our child. It was only due to Fluffy’s pony magic and her condition that she was able to get my mothers permission, by bringing up that it was a tradition and that it was for her emotional support to have her best friend around. To avoid any provocation though, now Daring was with Fluffies parents, waiting for their time in my inner lair.

The midwife however, was from such a low standing in my mother's opinion, that she counted as nothing more than a slave, as nothing, and therefore could do her job without my mother being protest.

Anyway, my father didn’t have such strong restrictions. He didn’t dare try to lift Fiery Leadership, not before my mom could, but he dared to walk a bit ahead of her and threw the first glance at his grandbornling.

He was so excited!

He just gave Kirin-Fluffy a curious short look, adding a mix of a smirk and an approving naughty gaze, showing his approving of my choice for a mate even more, and then lowered his nose till he nearly touched Fluffies protective feathers which lay on our daughter and sniffed.

Generously, Fluffy removed them slowly and allowed him to see Fiery.

By the view on her back, the blue scales and the little burning wings my dad had started to purr.

“Ohhh is she pretty!” His purr became louder and I saw he wanted to lift her up so badly. He shuffled from one foot to another, impatient waving his tail. “Come, you must see this!” he yelled to my mom. “She is so beautiful!”

I would have loved if my mother would have simply done this, but the dragon she is, she took everything else into consideration too. Giving the mess around us a good bit of attention, and didn’t even attempt to cover her disapproval.

When she reached us, however, something in her gaze changed. While my father made a respectable amount of space for her, she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at our daughter and Fluffy.

“A pegasus nirik?” She seemed kind of surprised. “You told me she could turn into a kirin, not a nirik, and I wonder how your daughter became a nirik too.”

She made it sound like this all was something bad and it was all my fault again.

“She isn’t in the first place, mom, she just got angry at the midwife and hasn’t calmed down yet.”

“Hmm, interesting,” my mom said and inspected Fiery further. “I assumed that a dragon and a pony would have kirin progeny, that it depends on the tribe of the pony which kind of kirin it would be, but I never thought the ability to turn into a nirik would be innate.”

While she stood there thinking about this, my dad took the initiative and rubbed his head against her side. “If you don’t want to lift her up, I sure do.”

Giving him an indeterminable look, my mother opened her claw and reached out with her talon for Fiery, and stroke over her back. Our daughter however was too lazy to react to this, she kept her eyes shut and ignored it.

Well, azure dragons have a problem with being ignored as you may have already assumed.

My mother snorted and tried to grab Fiery, but she hadn’t thought about Fluffy may take this personally. With a loud hiss, Fluffy closed her wings and pushed away my mother claw. My mother’s behaviour must have looked too aggressive or dangerous for Fiery in Fluffies opinion.

My heart skipped a beat, that could turn out disastrous!

Without thinking I pushed forward, trying to get between Fluffy, my daughter, and my mom. But by some miracle, it wasn’t necessary. My mom didn’t roar, or attack, or even look angry, she simple pulled her claw back, stepped back, and watched me getting between them.

“My apologies, lady of the lair, it was not my intention to trigger your protective instincts.”

And my jar nearly dropped. Never had I experienced my mother apologize to somedragon lower than another azure dragon, not to mention to another species.

My thoughts, of course, were clear to see on my face, and it was my father who discreetly grabbed my wing and pulled me out of the way between the two females.

So I stood a bit aside when they settled this dispute. Fluffy kept presenting her fangs for a moment, even keeping her hiss audible, while my mother just watched, giving her time. In the end, Fluffy calmed down, at least enough to let my mother approach again and try to get Fiery’s attention. She kept a close eye on my mother though.

Softly, my mother stroked over Fiery’s back again, but didn’t stop there, instead, moving to the side and over to her belly, turning her carefully around that way.

Fiery wasn’t pushed out of the fire by this, meaning the warmth stayed and she didn’t really complain. She grabbed my mothers talon though when she placed her claw near Fiery’s belly as she was laying on her back. What happened next showed that my daughter would not be willing to give it back anytime soon. Instead, she kind of curled around it and the whole claw.

For a second, my mother was unsure of what to do, but then she tried to free her claw by slowly lifting it up and ever so slightly shaking it. Only to have my daughter’s grip get stronger and Fluffies gaze become more disapproving. So she had to stop and lay it back down.

Happy with what she caught, Fiery let out a little purr, starting to nibble on her catch. I don’t know why, but that seemed to calm her down most effectively. Must be some pony habit. Anyway, not long after she started to nibble on my mothers claw, she turned back to her ugly form.

That caused us all to gasp, for various reasons. While Fluffy and I panicked that our daughter may not be fireproof in that form, my mother had other reasons.

But first things first, Fluffy screamed and ripped off the collar from around her neck, causing her to turn back into a pegasus, while I grabbed my mothers claw with Fiery around it and lifted it up quickly, collecting my daughter from it, luring her into my claws with my special purr for her, checking her for any signs of burns. Luckily she had none.

Heh, a good side effect I forgot to tell you about, with my special purr, I am able to convince her to come to me or some other simple tasks without her starting to complain or hesitate. But if you wonder why I don’t used it to calm her down, that is not how this works. Imagine it like yawning or hiccups, one can tell if you fake it. And I didn’t see anything threatening with her being in her, what my mother called, nirik form.

Speaking of her, she didn’t spare too much attention to the dangerous situation, she was more concerned about the colours of Fiery’s back. Had they been a bit darker and mat during her being a nirik, now they were shiny and clean, shimmering in azure blue.

“A Kirin-leader,” Perle des hohen Berges said respectfully, “it's been centuries since I saw those.”

“A Kirin-leader?” I asked confused, “what do you mean?”

“Azure blood,” she explained, “your daughter has inherited my blood from you, making her to kirins what I am to dragons, a noble, a leader if you will.”

“What a lucky coincidence.” A new, but very familiar voice stated from behind my dad.

Fortuna had decided to join us.

“Who could have guessed the chances for that to happen, huh?” As usual, when she was not angry, and quite proud of herself, Fortuna spoke in this cheerfully, light tone. “A Kirin-Leader, from all possibilities, that is what I call luck.”

“Fortuna,” my mother greeted her, this time more welcoming than a few month ago.

“Perle des hohen Berges,” Fortuna slightly nodded in her direction, “I see you changed your mind about my doings about your family?”

“That remains to be seen.”

Fortuna giggled. “Yeah, maybe it is. Anyway, I assumed I have to be here, now, at this moment?” She gave Fluffy a questioning look.

Confused, Fluffy exchanged one with me, before Fortuna reminded her that she was the godmother, or at least that was what Fluffy had said she was.

“Oh, right, year, the godmother, of course,” Fluffy shook her head and sat up. “Actually, you are a bit early, first the grandparents, than the godmothers and fathers.”

“I think we could make an exception here, right? We shouldn’t forget who you all have to thank for this, right?” She made an eye-catching pose for a second. “And of course, I take the label godmother to a completely new level.” She gave us a generous smile, “your welcome!”

A moment of silence followed, but with the soft nature of ponies, Fluffy granted Fortuna’s wish. She was sure her parents wouldn’t complain if they were not the first after my mom and my dad to hold Fiery. Though, first it was my dad’s turn, he had waited for this the whole time.

With a purr, he approached Fiery to let her know that he had no bad intentions. And despite her now ugly appearance, he gingerly took her from my claw in his and started rub his head against hers. Something she seemed to like, giving that she started to purr. In no more than a few minutes, and a little purr, my dad was already under her spell.

Patiently, we gave him a while to enjoy his time with his granddaughter, but eventually, it was Fortunas turn.

The goddess of luck didn’t purr or otherwise use some dragon behaviour to approach Fiery with, she simple walked over and started to glow a little bit brighter than usual. Thinking about it, she wouldn’t be very good at playing hide and seek with her godchild with this, but for getting her attention, it was enough. A short moment after her glow had intensified, our daughter raised her head and began looking for the source of it, finding it soon to be Fortuna. She rolled around on my dad’s claw and sniffed, though, Fortuna didn’t smell much it seemed, causing Fiery to wonder and stand up on her hind legs, raising her nose higher and sniff again. Still, whatever she smelled didn’t give her an indicator about who she may face, friend or foe.

Unsure, she looked back to the owner of the claw she was standing on and then back to Fortuna, it was clear that her instincts failed to make a decision here. So I made one, I began purring encouragingly to let my daughter know that Fortuna wasn’t a treat.

I don’t know if you remember what I told you about Fortuna. As I said, she is that kind of goddess that does good most of the time. You know, helping creature and stuff, also, after all, she had arranged for Fluffy to become pregnant and whatever else that meant, she was to blame for Fiery’s existence. And not to mention, if my daughter managed to befriend her, she would be even more lucky than her aunt Daring, keep that in mind too!

With my approval, all what Fortuna needed to do was extending her claw, and my daughter grabbed one of her fingers, rubbing her nose against it, still trying to smell the goddess of luck, and when she doesn’t get any negative sense, allowed her to pick her up.

Heh, how wonderful the world of a child can be. For any adolescent, the glowing and the eyes of stars would have at least been irritating, but for a newborn, it was the most common thing in the world. Had Fortuna suddenly turned into a fish and flown around with her on a surfboard made of cheese, she’d have simply accepted it.

Or try to eat both, let’s be honest here.

“Hello Fiery Leadership,” Fortuna said, moving her open claw before her face, “a pleasure to meet you.”

My daughter just raised on her hooves again and placed one white claw on her godmothers nose, giving her an interested look.

“I never had a godchild,” Fortuna said to no one particular, turning Fiery in her claw slightly. “This is a completely new experience for me.”

“Don’t screw it up,” my mother said, but her tone made clear she would be angry if Fortuna did.

“I… “ Fortuna started but Fiery had other plans than to let her speak, she grabbed Fortuna’s nose and giggled loudly, placing her other claw on her godmothers tongue, pretending her from speaking anymore.

“He-ey” Fortuna mumbled. “Lit-ohh.”

My daughter didn’t plan on doing that though, instead, she giggled even more and tried to pull the tongue out, turning to real laughter when she succeeded. It was clear that Fortuna let her, but my daughter celebrated her victory over the goldish-pinkish thing anyway. And like most children do as I have heard, this was done by trying to put it in her mouth and bite it.

“No!” I said loudly, “No Fiery!”

My daughters head sprung around to me, but she didn’t let go of her spoils. Only when Fortuna tickled her with the tip of her wing, Fiery squeaked happy and let go.

“What a nice child,” Fortuna said after she had shook her snout a moment, “I am sure this godmother thing will be wonderful.” She nodded, “Time for my present it seems.” Without explaining what it would be, she took a deep breath and slowly released a cloud of golden, sparkling flames, which playfully flowed around Fiery and covered every piece of skin or scales while looking like a swarm of fire-dragonflies.

“Hey!” Fluffy protested and I was as quick on my feet as my mother and dad, but before the situation could escalate, the swarm had already started to vanish, revealing a happily giggling little half dragon who had snatched a few sparks which now tickled on her tongue.

“What did you do?” My mother asked with a little growl in her voice and also Fluffy and me growled. Godmother or not, there was a limit.

“Just gave her my blessing,” she moved her snout to my daughters head and gave her a kiss between the ears. “May luck follow you on each step.” With those words the she moved over to Fluffy and stretched out her claw. A quick little purr by Fluffy and our daughter just jumped off the claw into her mother's chest fluff, cuddling deep into it till only a tiny bit of her body showed out here and there.

Seems we both shared a liking for Fluffies chest fluff.

*

Well, the short, tense, moment with Fortuna was quickly settled afterwards since no harm was done and a little blessing of Fortune never hurts anyway. Yeah, my mother and I and especially Fluffy hished a bit and such, but it was nothing serious anymore.

So, the last thing on the list for the day however was that Fluffies parents got their time with their grandchild too. I think I should add this here too, for the sake of completeness.

*

“Isn’t she lovely?” Cloud Planter Do whispered when she had the sleeping Fiery on her foreleg. “Look at all this tiny scales all over her head, and this cute little snout.” She moved her hooftip almost unnoticeable above Fiery’s had.

“Yeah, she is wonderful.” Gold Digger nodded and put a wing around his wife. “Her ears remind me a bit on yours from the form.”

“Ohh silly you.” Cloud Planter denied, but it was clear to see that the comparison pleased her. She softly cradled my child in her arms a while longer and enjoyed the warm feeling before she eventually passed it carefully over to her husband.

Poor guy, not long after he had Fiery on his arms, she woke up and, after a little bit of bubbling and something that reminded me a bit of squeaking, she got grumpy and tried to escape his grip.

Not that he had intended to hinder her to go, but he wasn’t willing to just drop her either due the fact she may hurt herself. So he struggled a bit with an unhappy Fiery, getting a few scratches, which he commented on each with either an ‘ouch’ or ‘arg’, before he managed to give her back to her mother.

Fluffy giggled by the sight of her dad getting a few harmless scratches by her daughter, but quickly took Fiery in her own arms. A little mother-daughter purring and all was good again, or at least for a few seconds, till Fiery remembered why she got grumpy in the first place. And so she started to search for something to solve that problem. Though, since she was just a bornling, and the solution was out of her direct line of sight, she couldn’t find it and began to cry for it.

“Shh, shh, everything is fine Fiery,” Fluffy calmly whispered, stroking over her daughters back, “mommy is here.”

It didn’t work though. Fiery still looked around, unsure what to do, and like small children have it when they are helpless, cried on.

“Maybe she’s hungry?” Cloud Planter suggested, “I remember you nearly drank your own weight of milk right after your birth, sweety.”

“Mom,” Danger gave her a flat look, “I didn’t do that.”

“Oh you did, you did. Your dad can tell you too, he saw it himself.”

He hastily nodded, “Yeah, your mother is right, if I had to guess, you drank three or four liters right away.”

Fluffy waved off, “You two are exaggerating, I surely didn’t do that. Anyway,” she shifted her body a bit more upright, “If Fiery is hungry, I should feed her.”

That was the point she and I had argued a lot about previously, what would our child eat. Fluffy, of course, went with milk from her mother, meaning herself, while I bet it would be most likely meat, or gems at worst. Just to be sure, and to give each a fair try, we had everything ready.

By the way, that was one of the deals Fluffy and I had, with our child being a mix of our both species, we give both cultures a fair chance. I would teach her how to be a dragon and Fluffy would teach her how to be a pony. In the end, Fiery would have to decide which way she would like to follow, or, if she went on her own after a while, something either a combination of both worlds or something completely new. Either way, we wouldn’t hinder her at developing her personal way of life, at least after we taught her the basics of course.

Surely things hadn’t been safe and sound at all times, we had our moments when we had heated arguments about this, but that is for later.

So for now, let us see what Fiery liked to eat. And yes, that much I can spoil, she was indeed hungry.

When Fluffy had gotten comfortable in her new position, she picked Fiery up and placed her between her hind legs, offering her an opportunity to drink.

Well, if I may interrupt here once more, the fact non hatching species do that, I mean giving milk which their own body produce to their young, strongly irritates and disgust me. Really, for me that feels like something that a vampire would do! Just imagine the scene, Fiery, with her fangs, drinking milk from one of Fluffies teats! Crazy, isn’t it?

Back to the story, our daughter indeed approached said teats, sniffing at them. Luckily though, she didn’t seem to have a clue what to do with them. Another sniff, a look to her mother, than to me and back to her mother, then, crying.

“Shh, Shh, no need to cry Fiery,” Fluffy tried to calm her down once more and continued in her soft tone, “just give it a try, you will like it.”

But Fiery didn’t want to give it a try.

Smiling, and sure of victory, I said, “Seems our daughter doesn’t like milk.”

Fluffy gave me a disapproving look, but just snorted. Allowing me to try.

I pulled out a little piece of fresh meat from a cooling box. “Fiery,” I whispered, “Fiery, look what daddy has for you.” I moved the meat in front of her nose, moving it a bit from side to side to trigger her hunting instinct. “Fresh and tasty,” I added.

Now Cloud Planter and Gold Digger wrinkled their noses, they of course knew I eat meat, but in respect for Fluffy, I never had done so in front of them. Ponies are so sensible when it comes to others being non herbivores, or gemmivores to be fair. That is something they do, tolerate for some reason. At least Fluffy had discard her complains about it and accepted me being me on that matter. Oh, that doesn’t mean I could regularly eat a fresh kill next to her, but as long as I ate meat only rarely, like once a month, and used my manners and don’t push it in her face, she got used to it.

However, the meat got Fiery’s attention and her head soon started following the little movements of the meat. My feeling of triumph raised, I saw it in her wriggling of her hip and tail that she was ready to strike, preparing to sink her fangs into the meat.

And not three seconds later, her head sprung forward and her claws and fangs penetrated the meat. My triumph was perfect!

And lasted for less than a second when Fiery spit out the small portion of meat she had in her mouth and let go, hissing at it, but not longer willing to bite into it.

Now it was Fluffy’s turn to smile, and at her parents to release a sound of relief. They really would have have a problem with it, if their grandchild had turned out to be a carnivore.

I made a sour face, before I flipped the meat up and snatched it out of the air with my mouth, swallowing it.

“No need to waste it only because she didn’t like it,” I explained to Fluffies parents. “Would be a shame otherwise.” I mean, it was just a very little piece, nothing that should shock them that much.

I only got a slightly agreeing look from them, more than anything else it was disgusted. Well, at least Daring didn’t said anything to it this time, I assume Arisotl, or was it Aritzotel? Meh, the guy she was with in the past, may have some eating habits her parents wouldn’t approve of too.

Fluffy spared me a accusing look and tried the second time to feed our daughter instead, this time with a little bit of hay. “Fiery,” she lurkely said, “Fiery, look here.”

Of course Fiery obayed the request of her mother by instinct and followed more her voice than the words. Still, she looked at her mother again.

Like a present, Fluffy offered her the little ball of hay and our daughter took it in her own claws, sniffing at it.

“She will like it,” Fluffy assured me with a hopeful smile. And I could see her parents pressed the hooves and wings too that she did. The tense was really to feel in the air when Fiery dropped everything except for one stray and turned it around in her claw, examining it. And then the unavoidable happened, she put it in her mouth and bite on it.

A little noise of exultation was heard from Fluffies parents and also Daring stomped one hoof, but like me, they celebrated too early. Though, Fiery chewed on it a bit, but it wasn’t to her liking, as in the end, she spit it out.

Like I said, small Children do put everything in their mouth at first.

The unhappy ‘owww’ might as well have been shouted with how clear it was to hear. Well, another try for her dad.

Without any comment, I picked up a gem, a shiny green emerald, and simply offered it to my daughter. She took it, even nibbled on it, then tried to bite into it with her fangs, but wasn’t able to crush it yet. That meant, even if she would like gems, she couldn’t eat them for the time being. So, after Fiery lost interest, I took the emerald, a bit disappointed, and ate it myself. Even the little aquamarin I had excavated for her stayed in the small picnic basket. I had just brought it along incase my child simply disliked the taste of emeralds, like I do with diamonds.

Yes, our daughter was really a nitpicky eater.

To shorten this up a bit, let me just tell you, we tried a lot of other things, like different fruits (she more liked to rub her head against them than attempt to eat them), vegetables (She didn’t even show any interest in them as long as they were not of a dark colour. Still, even then she didn’t eat them) and also some sweets (she liked to lick them a bit, but not to swallow them). Nothing helped.

“Seems we have to find something else,” Fluffy said worried when all what we had brought along didn’t showed the desired effect. I confess, I too was worried, feeding our daughter was something very important, and if we wouldn’t be able to find out what she would eat soon, it would be bad for her development!

Though, luck came to our aid, when Fluffy raised from her spot and, a bit shaky, on her hooves again, Fiery quickly jumped down from my arm and went under her belly, more exactly between her hind legs. While Fluffy, still surprised, watched what she would do, Fiery already pressed her claws against her teats and nibbled on her nippels, drinking her milk.

“Ha!” Fluffy yelled, “one to zero for her mother!”

All it had needed was the right position to trigger Fiery’s instincts, when Fluffy had half sat on the pillows, her instincts had failed, but with her standing there, Fiery had known exactly what to do.

Now we all watched our little girl greedy drinking, pushing the teat with her claws to make them give more milk.

Fluffy giggled.

“Just wait till she uses her fangs on you,” I said a bit grumpy about my loss.

“Nah, she wouldn’t do that, she is mothers little darling.”

“At least she drinks like her mother,” Cloud Planter added and we all laughed, except Fluffy, but she smiled… a bit.

Author's Note

Wel, this turned out far longer than I had expected Like things have it, as soon as you add soemthing, something else must be added too and therefore...

Anyway, i hope you all liked this inside on the circumstances about Fiery’s birth, this little one will have a big role in the comming events

***

Ohh... and please leave a comment what you think about this! Slice of life stuff is still new for me and I need to know what you guys expect