The following morning was fairly mundane, actually, most of that day was unremarkable. We had a casual breakfast, me with a mix of sunstones and sphalerite, and Fluffy with a hay and fruit bar I had made before we left. She mostly reminded me of how she wanted me to behave in front of her parents while we ate. Lunch wasn’t too different. I would have preferred it if she would have just let me keep flying as I had only prepared two meals for us and it would have just been more efficient for us, but Fluffy insisted we stop for something to eat. Well, now that I mention it, seeing the shocked faces of the ponies as they watched me enter the restaurant was quite amusing. It also didn't hurt to see so many pegasi in one place.

I asked Fluffy how everything was able to function and everyone keep from cuddling and purring at one another. She rolled her eyes at me for that and said that those things were reserved for ponies significant others and not everyone was in a relationship with a horny, overgrown lizard. When I asked how everyone kept everything from being covered in feathers, she simply said that ponies just preened themselves at home so they wouldn’t lose their feathers while in public.

The lunch stop didn’t last for too long, maybe an hour, so we were back in the air and heading for her parents rather quickly. I was happy to find out that they weren’t too far away from where we had lunch, only a few hours, after Fluffy told me that the mountains we were heading to were where they lived. When we finally over the mountains, Fluffy pointed out her parents' house. I was about to dive towards it, but she had other plans.

“Stop!”

I reared up slightly to bring myself to a full stop. It was only after I began hovering and felt Fluffy’s hooves tightly gripping me that I realized I might have stopped a little too fast. “What is it? Didn't you want to get to your parents today and introduce me to them?”

“I do, but ‘hey mom, hey dad, this giant dragon that just landed is my special somepony’ might not be the best way to introduce you to them.”

I was about to point out that was probably the best way before I remembered that pony sensibilities were quite different from those of dragons. I slightly grumbled before asking her, “Then what would you rather do?”

It took Fluffy some time but eventually, she came up with a plan. “You keep flying around for a little bit while I break the news that me and a dragon are a couple. I know my parents, and if there’s anything I can count on, it's their love.”

I just sighed at this. “Alright, but be quick, I’ve been flying for the last two days and would like to take a long break.”

“Thank you, Big Softy.” With that, Fluffy flew off my back, kissed me on the lips, and began a slow descent to the home in front of us.

As I flew down to my parents’ house, hundreds of thoughts went through my head for what I would tell them. How could I possibly break the news to them that I had not only found a special someone, but that special someone was a dragon, and to top it off, I was carrying his child? As I got closer to my old home, all I could think about was how little I had actually thought this through.

When I landed, I slowly trotted up to the door before raising a hoof to knock, only to hesitate. I was really straining to come up with something to tell them so that the next few days wouldn’t be so awkward, but nothing was coming to mind. I eventually just pushed my fears aside and knocked three times.

“Honey, she’s here!” The muffled voice of my mom resounded from the other side of the door as the sound of frantic hooves came racing towards me.

The door was flung open to reveal my mother with a bright smile.

“Hey mom, how’ve you been?” My voice sounded uncomfortable, as if I had snuck out of the house to go to a party, only to have to come home with my tail between my legs because my brother had found out and escorted me home.

My mom wasted no time in jumping forward and wrapping me in a hug. “Oh, I’ve been waiting for today since you sent that letter, I can't wait to catch up.”

I threw my forelegs around her in return and laid my head around her neck. Looking behind her, I noticed my dad slowly walking towards us, a content smile on his face.

“Hey kid, glad to see you’re doing well.”

I just nodded to him and leaned into my mom’s hug. It was always nice to see them. Despite our differences when it came to me putting myself at risk when I went exploring, they supported me nonetheless.

It was good to be home.

My mom eventually ended the hug and stepped back. “So, I’m guessing you have a bunch of stories to tell.” I watched as her happy smile turned coy before she continued. “And don't think I forgot that you said you found a certain somepony.”

And there it was. It had taken my mom less than a minute to bring that up. While yes, I had told them in my letter that I had found someone that I wanted to spend my life with, and that I wanted them to meet him as soon as possible, I didn’t mention that he was going to be coming along, nor the fact that he didn't exactly have fur or feathers.

“Yeah, about that… well.” How was I going to break that news? It's not exactly something that even I would have considered for myself before I met him. “He’s kind of-”

Before I could finish that sentence, my mom interrupted me. “Oh Danger, just look at your wings, they look awful.” She took hold of one of my wings and extended it, causing a feather or two to fall down. “No wonder it took you so long to get here, I know I would never try flying with a molt this badly.”

“Actually mom, I didn't actually walk here. I flew, just, now how you might be thinking. I kind of had some company getting here.”

Before either of my parents could question me on that, a strong breeze kicked up behind me with a very, very familiar sound accompanying it. Seeing my parents’ shocked faces, I knew that my oh so wonderful mate had decided that the whole minute that I had been down here would be enough for me to break the news to my family that the two of us were a couple. Well, I might as well try to make the best of this.

“Uh, mom, dad, this here is…” I paused and licked my lips before continuing “This is Big Softy, uhm… also called The Black Death,” I mumbled the last half as fast as I could, hoping they wouldn’t understand. “We met a few months ago and became… uh, really good friends. Big Softy, this is my mom, Cloud Planter Do, and my dad, Gold Digger Do.”

Horseapples. I had the perfect chance to tell them that we were a thing and all I did was just put it off.

My parents visibly relaxed, but I could tell that having a dragon suddenly land in their front yard out of nowhere had caused their hearts to stop for a few seconds.

“Oh, is he? So, uh, how did you two meet?” My dad seemed to be the one that was handling this the best out of the two of them.

“It’s a bit of a long story, but in short, he kind of saved my life when I was hunting a mystical item.”

My dad just shook his head and sighed. “How many times have we told you to be careful, Danger, when you're off having your adventures? Honestly, sometimes you’re just as bad as your cousin.”

“Ehe, funny you should mention her. We sort of-”

“No, I don't need to hear this now. This is the first time we’ve seen each other in over a year, we don't need to ruin it.” My dad had closed his eyes and had begun to rub his temples. My parents never really liked me hanging out with Daring, thinking she was a bad influence on me.

However, despite my dad being the first to get his thoughts in order after the shock of seeing The Black Death, my mom was actually the first to approach him. “I think it goes without saying, but there are no words to convey how happy we are that you saved our daughter.” She extended a hoof towards him, and after he gave me a quick glance and receiving a nod, he extended a claw out and had it grasped in both of my mom's hooves. “Now, we won't take no for an answer so you are going to be staying over for dinner whether you want to or not.”

I started to panic at hearing this. Big Softy was never very good at hiding his feelings and thoughts, preferring to be forward with everything he said. It was almost a guarantee that he was going to reveal that we were a couple just out of instinct. And all I could do was wait for everything to go downhill.

“Thank you very much, but it wasn't too much trouble, your daughter is very good with her hooves. She’s more than made it up to me with those.”

I could feel the blood flow out of my face at hearing that. Why, of all the things that he could have brought up, did he choose that? While it didn’t actually reveal that we were a couple, me using my hooves on him was practically a dead giveaway.

“So you enjoy her carvings?” My mother sounded happy as she said this.

“Yes, her carvings always look beautiful.” I could see him give me a glance and see my displeasure, he seemed to get my message. “Though after considering it, I would have to say that her singing has been even more pleasurable.”

I was shocked to hear him acting as if we were only friends and not sleeping together every night. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that at least my mate could control himself long enough to let me find the right time to finally let them know the full truth.

“Why don't we head inside, I’m sure the two of you are exhausted after flying so far, and you can tell me all about what happened while we get ready for dinner.” And with that, my mom let go of my mate's claw, turned around, and started walking back to the house.

After watching both my parents walk back inside, I let out a sigh of relief. While things hadn’t exactly gone the way I would have preferred, this could have always gone worse. Black Death walked up beside me and I leaned against him and nuzzled him on the neck. “Thanks for playing along. I’m sure I’ll find a good time to tell them we’re dating.”

In response, he brought his head down to the side of my head, whispered “You owe me”, before bringing his head around to give the area between my wings some nibbles for a few seconds.

You cleaver, naughty dragon.

~🐲~

The next few hours passed fairly uneventfully as I watched Fluffy and her parents catch up and prepare food. It was actually quite strange at the start after I asked to enter their house. They laughed at that and said they had already given me permission. Apparently, being told that I needed to stay for dinner had been their way of giving me permission to enter. But that wasn’t the only question that earned a chuckle, as asking about their nests earned me the response ‘I think you might be confusing us for griffins’ from Fluffy’s mom.

I was amazed though when I was finally inside of their home. With Fluffy’s entire family being pegasi, and thus having those soft feathers, I was curious about what they did with them. Her mom explained that they just needed to keep an eye out for when they would lose any so they could throw them away and not have them over everything. It felt like a bit of a waste to hear that since I figured they would at least use them in their own pillows. Other than that, it was interesting to see so many pictures of their family all over the place, especially nice when I found out that most of them had a younger Fluffy in them.

I had been doing everything to remain on my best behavior since then, helping Fluffy’s parents with anything they needed, staying out of their way when they just wanted to talk with their daughter, and most importantly, sneaking in little shows of affection whenever her parents weren’t looking. I had even managed to do my usual nibbling to Fluffy for a full thirty seconds while her parents were busy on something to do with the dinner. Fluffy wasn’t a fan, but since her parents were right in front of us and she didn’t want them to know just yet, my loving actions went unopposed.

Fluffy’s parents would often ask if I was able to eat something or another, all of which were given the affirmative. They seemed nice enough, even though I told them that I was an omnivore and could eat whatever they could, they still insisted on knowing if one meal sounded like it would taste better than another. It was eventually decided that we would have a simple pasta with olive oil, spinach, and onions, with a pine nut seed, fetta, and tomato salad on the side.

When we finally sat down to eat at their dining room table, one with three seats on either side and two at the ends, I was happy to see that they had taken my size into account and had given me a larger amount of food. We ate in relative silence, with Fluffy’s parents occasionally asking me about myself, and seemed to be having a nice time. Well, except when the question of how we got to know each other came up.

“I don’t think either of you told us how you got to know each other, only that he saved you.” Fluffy’s mom seemed to be interested in the details of what had happened between the two of us. And I didn't blame her, I didn’t doubt that I would want to know everything that had happened if my daughter told me she almost lost her life.

“Well, I was sort of having a disagreement with some griffins and minotaurs, and when they were getting ready to really rough me up, Big Softy here walked in and defended me from them.”

I had to roll my eyes at that. She made it sound like I was some savior who saw her in distress and just had to help her, not that she had pulled me into her little con that just incidentally resulted in me saving her life. Not that I wasn’t happy, I was, just wondering why she was hiding that little detail.

“After that, I went up to his lair and we kind of… hit it off. After that, he followed me to an ancient temple and saved my life again from a bunch of lizards that thought I was some kind of prophet. Since then we’ve been living together.”

I was surprised about how much of the story she had left out; our first ‘date’, our night of fun, everything that would have made it clear that we were mates. I could understand her not mentioning Daring after the reaction I saw earlier, but everything else just felt… off.

Fluffy’s mom smiled and turned to me. “I guess we should be more grateful to you than we thought. I hope our daughter hasn't been too much trouble, she does have a tendency to make things difficult.”

“Oh, she hasn’t caused too many problems.” I subtly snaked my tale under the table and started to mess with Fluffy, causing her to turn red with embarrassment. “If she would just stop making my lair such a mess all the time, and finish eating some of the food I prepare, she would be the ideal mate.”

Fluffy seemed to go from beet-red to chalk-white in a matter of seconds after I said that. I had a feeling that Fluffy was going to take ages to finally explain that we were mates, I figured I should give her a little push in the right direction.

Fluffy’s parents didn’t catch what I had implied and simply nodded at that. “We have been trying to get her to do better at that, but you can see how much success we’ve had.” Gold Digger chuckled to himself and continued to eat. “You said you make her food?”

“Indeed, I have a garden in my lair. When she moved in, she kind of convinced me to convert some of the beds into ones for fruits and vegetables so I wouldn’t have to fly down to the nearby town to pick up food.”

“Well isn't that sweet.” Cloud Planter gave me a smile before turning to Fluffy. “I sure hope your coltfriend takes as good a care of you as your friend here.”

Perfect, Fluffy now had the best opportunity to reveal that we were mates and then I wouldn’t have to keep from acting like that wasn’t the case.

“He is, though sometimes he can be a little overly affectionate.”

That was it, I couldn't take it anymore. “Wir sind zusammen!”

Everyone stopped eating, looking at me in absolute confusion. Even Fluffy was both confused and frightened.

“We are together. What your daughter has been trying to tell you since she arrived is that she and I are mates.”

In an instant, Fluffy’s face seemed to have all the blood in her body come rushing to it before she placed her head against the table and covered her face with her mane and forelegs.

“Oh, well that is… certainly, well… different.” This revelation seemed to be very uncomfortable one for Fluffy's mom based on this revelation. “If you would excuse us, my husband and I need to be excused for a moment.”

Fluffy’s father didn't even resist as his wife nudged him off his seat and towards another room.

I closed the door to the study as soon as Gold entered the room before beginning to pace. “How did this happen? Why is our daughter dating a dragon? What is going on?”

“Honey, please, just calm down.”

“How can I calm down, our daughter is dating a predator, and not just any predator, a dragon of all things. It might have been different if he was a griffon, I could understand that.” I continued to pace around the study, picking up speed the longer I thought about it. “How do we know he won’t put her in harm's way when he gets angry, or scare her with the bodies he brings back to eat?”

Gold just shook his head and sighed before approaching me and placing a hoof on my shoulder. “Cloud, you’re overreacting. First of all, he seems to have a good handle on controlling his emotions. He didn’t yell at Danger when he got upset with her not being upfront with us, he simply took it upon himself to tell us. And in regards to him hunting, he doesn't seem like he makes it a habit of eating meat regularly. You heard how he talked about his diet, I doubt he is eating whole deer in front of her. To be honest, I would have to say that he’s been a lot more cordial and deserving of being our son-in-law than any griffon I’ve met. In fact, until he told us that the two of them were together, everyone was getting along just fine.”

I lifted his hoof up so that he was touching my face. “I know, it's just… I want what’s best for our daughter.”

“I understand, but we need to look at how Danger feels about this. The entire time she’s been here the two have been almost inseparable, and if we think about it, she wouldn’t have brought him here to meet us unless she was certain that he was the one for her. Honestly, I’m surprised it took us this long to realize that they were in love given all the signs.”

Gold was right, Danger had grown up and it was her decision who her special somepony would be. She just wasn’t prepared for who she would choose to be that special somepony.

The wait for Fluffy’s parents to return was nerve-wracking. Fluffy had stood up and was pacing across the room, berating me the entire time, saying she was working on telling them. Fluffy was doing everything to make me feel terrible, and it was working.

When Fluffy’s parents came back into the room, I immediately straightened up. While I knew that there was nothing they could do that could force us apart, Fluffy still wanted their approval of us being together. Fluffy’s mom took a seat and motioned for her daughter to sit next to her while her father sat across from me.

Fluffy’s mother inhaled deeply before she turned to her daughter and began speaking. “Your father and I were just talking about what your dragon friend just said, and while it’s not exactly conventional, we understand that you both love each other, and because of that, we aren’t going to get in the way of your happiness.”

Fluffy’s eyes lit up at hearing that. “You mean, your fine with me dating Black Death?”

This time it was her father's turn to talk. “Well, fine might not be the right word, but if he is who you want to spend the rest of your life with, then we’re behind you one-hundred percent.”

“Really?” Fluffy seemed like she was almost about to cry.

Her father simply gave her a nod, causing her to jump out of her chair and slam right into my chest, hugging me with everything she had. I smiled at this and began to hug her back, wrapping both my arms and wings around her. The two of us stayed like that for a little while until Fluffy’s elation finally died down and she let go of me and I let her sit in the chair next to me.

“Thanks, it means a lot to hear you two say that.”

“It’s your life, Danger, all we want is for you to be happy” Fluffy’s mom softly chuckled to herself after saying that. “It's too bad though that you fell in love with a dragon, now we have to wait for your brother to finally find the right mare so we can have some grand foals.”

Fluffy gave a nervous laugh after coughing before she replied. "Hehe, funny that you mention it, hehe, uhm, since you brought it up..."

“Oh, don't take it the wrong way, I was just thinking out loud, I would never dream of forcing you to marry somepony just so I could have grand foals. That would be unforgivably selfish.”

“No, I’m not upset, we were actually planning to have a kid, maybe two.”

“Oh, that’s a relief.” FLuffy’s mom placed a hoof over her heart and looked down. “So the two of you are looking into adopting. That’s rather noble. Have you decided on if you’ll be adopting a pony or a dragon?”

“Not really.” Fluffy was starting to get tenser as the questioning went on. While I hated that these ponies seemed incapable of just getting to the point, I had already gotten onto Fluffy’s bad side once today, and I didn’t need to do so again. I was content to just watch this play out for now as I really wasn't as invested in them finding out as I had been before. “We’re actually going to have our own.”

Both Fluffy’s parents blinked when she said that before they seemed to become just as uncomfortable as Fluffy. “So, uh… the two of you have been… trying for a child the… conventional way?” Her mom looked and sounded like she was trying to do everything in her power to hold back what she wanted to say.

I actually felt sympathy for the two of them. While I didn't understand why these ponies seemed so reluctant to talk about mating, I could understand them thinking we were crazy. When Fluffy first told me about her carrying our child I was just as shocked. We were different species after all, there should have been no way for her to have conceived a child with me.

“Well, we’ve done more than just try, I’m actually pregnant.”

A stunned silence fell over the room. No one seemed to have the will to talk, simply choosing to let the information hang in the air. Because of this, I was able to reflect on why Fluffy had wanted to be so careful. Telling your parents that you had fallen in love with someone from another species seemed hard enough, telling them that you were also expecting a child despite everything saying that it wasn’t possible just made things more complicated. Now that I was thinking about it, I wasn’t looking forward to telling my own parents about this, more so my mom since my dad would probably approve of how fluffy my choice of mate was.

Eventually, though, Fluffy's mom burst into a smile and launched herself across the table to wrap her daughter in a hug. “Oh Danger, I am so happy for you. This is wonderful news.”

Fuffy’s father also seemed to be taking the news well as he had his eyes closed and was wearing a content smile across his muzzle. Fluffy’s mom launched into a barrage of questions, involving how she knew, how far into the pregnancy she was, and how well I had been treating her. It was all rather boring since I knew all the answers, so I mostly tuned them out.

Well, I greatly underestimated how interesting this news would be for Fluffy's mom since the questioning went on for nearly an hour and a half. You wouldn’t believe how many questions Cloud Planter was able to come up with, and, I admit, it was very important for grandparents after all. The interesting thing though was that her father was just listening intently while keeping mostly quiet while the two females talked on and on. When they were finally finished, the four of us headed into the living room to relax somewhere more comfortable. Fluffy’s parents took what I could only assume were their usual spots while I took a seat in the large, unoccupied couch. Fluffy was quick to follow and jumped into my arms upside down and cuddled up against my chest like she usually did when the two of us were in our lair. I was especially happy since I could be as affectionate as I wanted, seeing as her parents knew we were mates now. Well, almost as affectionate as I wanted.

I was in the middle of nuzzling her chest fluff when her mom decided to ask a question. “Danger, what’s the deal with your dragon friend holding you like that?”

“It's actually pretty comfortable to have him hold me like this, that and he really likes it.” Fluffy began nuzzling me back after she said that, only to stop a second later. “You should try it.”

“Oh no, I’m fine.”

“I insist. Just let me get down and you can try.”

I stopped my affections when she said this and gave her my saddest expression. “I thought you loved me. Don't you want to stay in my arms?”

Fluffy just looked back at me and motioned for me to come closer. I obliged and brought my head down so that my ear was next to her mouth.

“Just think of this as pony diplomacy,” she silently told me, “if you hold my parents like this, I’m sure that they’ll warm up to you sooner. And besides, I know you've been dying to hold them since I told you they were pegasi like me.”

I pulled my head away and saw that she had a devious smile plastered across her face. She wasn’t wrong, I had been looking forward to seeing just how her parents felt after I heard about them. I was actually curious about whether her parents shared her soft fur or playful feathers.

I let Fluffy jump down and watched as she did her best to convince her mom to lay in my arms for a little while. Eventually, Fluffy won, and her mother slowly walked towards me, not entirely sure of what to do. When she was right in front of me, I slowly leaned forward, careful not to go too fast and scare her, and lifted her up, flipping her onto her back so that she was in the same position as Fluffy had been in.

Cloud Planter was tense at first, but eventually calmed down and relaxed into the position. “You were right, this is rather comfortable.”

Happy to know that Fluffy’s mom approved of the position, I figured I should probably give her the same treatment as I had been doing for Fluffy. Since she did tell me that this was pony diplomacy, I figured that they might find it rude if all I did was hold them. I leaned my head down and began to nuzzle her in the chest. Unfortunately, Fluffy’s mom didn’t have that lovely chest fluff I had gotten used to, but she did have nice soft fur, so that definitely made up for the lack of fluff.

This didn't seem to work out quite as I had planned, as Fluffy’s mom gently pushed me away after only a few seconds, looking completely flustered. “While I appreciate your, uh, friendliness, I think you should save that for your, uh, marefriend.”

I nodded to this and just decided to hold her for the rest of the time. For what it was worth, Fluffy’s mom seemed to be enjoying being in my arms quite a lot. Eventually though, she was ready to get down and let her husband have some time in my arms.

“Gold, you really should try this. Laying in his arms is a lot more comfortable than you would think.”

“I’ll take you and your daughter's word for it. I’m not really feeling like laying in our son-in-law's arms at the moment. And besides, we were going to take our night walk in not too long.”

Cloud simply pouted at that but began to shift in a way that suggested she wanted to be let down. I reluctantly put her down and returned to my sitting position, ponyless.

“The two of us are going to take a little walk around the forest before we turn in for the night,” Fluffy’s father said before looking over to Fluffy, “I trust you can find your old room alright?”

Fluffy simply nodded.

Fluffy’s dad released a shallow sigh before turning to me. “Well, I would usually ask that you stay in the guest room, but considering the situation, that ship has already sailed.”

I watched as Fluffy blushed at that remark and continued to do so as her parents left. When the two of them were finally outside, and the door had closed, I quickly snatched Fluffy up in my usual position for her and smiled naughtily. “Now that your parents are gone, how about we head up to your room and see where that leads us?”

Fluffy gave me a little purr. “Now that sounds enticing. Though, I would really like some help with preening before we do anything too interesting, like your massage.”

“I think that can be arranged.” I nuzzled her in her chest fluff as I made my way up the stairs and followed her directions to the third door down.

When I opened the door, a feat of considerable difficulty when you took into consideration that my claws were full carrying Fluffy, I was greeted to a room decorated with all sorts of adventure-themed items from what looked like fantasy maps to pictures of what appeared to of ancient ruins.

“I take it your love of adventure is only a resent interest.” I got a soft bap to the nose for that remark. I do have to admit though, that had been one of my weaker quips.

“These loose feathers are really starting to bother me. How about we get started on that before you regale me with any more of your attempts at being funny.”

I just smiled and placed her on the bed before getting on and curling up behind her. “I think this would be a nice place for us to preen, don't you?”

Fluffy just rolled her eyes before turning her head away from me and unfurling her wings, giving me the perfect opportunity to enjoy the sight of her lovely feathers.

While I would have loved to just stay there and admire her lovely body, I knew that she had asked me to help her with this, and my love for her would always outweigh my other desires. So I started to do what I usually did when I helped her preen, allowing my teeth to draw along her feathers and collect the ones that had come loose. I would then drop the feathers next to Fluffy and start again. This continued for a few minutes until the sound of the front door bursting open and a string of muffled curses followed that sounded like they were coming from a male, but the tone of the voice was different from Fluffy’s father.

I don't know who it was, but whoever they were, they had just made a terrible mistake by disturbing my time with Fluffy.

~Ten minutes earlier~

Cloud Planter and I had just left the house and were making our way to a little clearing in the trees we liked to call Luna’s Grove, as it provided us with an amazing view of the night sky when we sat in the bench I had built in its center.

“Well, today's been rather interesting, wouldn’t you say?”

“I think that might be a bit of an understatement,” Cloud chuckled, “our daughter comes home pregnant with a dragon as her coltfriend, and he was the one to give her the baby. If today hadn’t been so long, I would have believed that I was just having a really strange dream.”

“Well, it happened, and the two of them are probably enjoying their time alone as all new couples do.”

“I’m sure our daughter’s a little more considerate than that. I have a feeling she convinced her dragon friend to avoid any funny business while they’re here.”

“I know, it's just…” Cloud leaned up against me, sensing my unease, causing me to release a sigh before I continued. “Can you think of any times a dragon and a pony have gotten together? There just isn’t any way for us to know how this is going to turn out. But watching how she jumped onto him after we told her we were fine with them being together, and how she didn’t hesitate to jump into his arms and cuddle up to him when we went to the living room to relax. She just seems so enamored with him. I just don’t know what I’m going to need to prepare for if things don't go well. Heck, I don't know what I’ll need to prepare for if things go right.”

“True, but we were never guaranteed to be together for so long, but here we are. You just need to have faith that they will be happy together, they seem to be getting along just fine.”

I sighed as I looked up to the starry sky. “I can’t help but think that they are taking advantage of their time alone.”

“Well, you seemed rather impatient to leave for someone with such little faith in our daughter. Tell me, did you really want to leave so we could do our weekly night walk and avoid being held by your son-in-law, or did you just want an excuse to give the two of them some time together away for the boring parents?”

“A little of collum A, a little of B.”

Cloud released one of her wonderful laughs at that, causing me to smile. “I figured. I can’t say I’m very innocent either, I had an idea what you were up to and thought it was a good idea.”

The two of us continued our walk in silence and with content grins, enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature. We had almost made it to our little clearing when we noticed a pony on the path walking towards us. While we were surprised to see him here so late, it was a welcome surprise that he was at least able to make it today.

“Hey mom, hey dad. Sorry I’m late, had a date last a little longer than I expected.”

“Oh, don’t you worry! Don’t you worry at all!” My wife yelled and galloped over to him, embracing him in a big, motherly hug. And before I could even start my greeting, she had already poked him in the side and was practically yelling at him “Guess what! Guess What!” over and over again.

My son was smiling about her enthusiastic welcome and quickly nodded to me before he answered.

“I assume you found a large deposit of gold recently and can finally build that pool you’ve been talking about for the last few months?” he joked. And it was a common joke in the family since we’d really wanted to build that pool for a while now, but had never gotten around to it.

“No, no!” Cloudy giggled and waved that topic off with a hoof. “Oh, you’ll never figure this one out!”

“Why don’t you just tell me then, Mom?” He passed her and gave me a hug too. “If it’s so important, just spit it out.”

“Your sister, she came this afternoon,” she stated before jumped a bit on the spot out of happiness.

“Dang, and I was really hoping to be here to greet her.”

“Unfortunately you’re a little too late for that.” I watched as he deflated slightly at hearing me say that. “But, your mother is so happy because of a little something else.”

“Well, what is it?” Never asked impatiently.

“She brought her special someone along!” Cloud was practically jumping by this point as she was almost yelling. “Never, she’s finally settled down and found a special some…”

“She did what?” My son yelled before Cloudy, who was still dancing a bit, could tell him he was a dragon. By the tone of his voice, he was just as happy as Cloudy. “Wow, so Danger found somepony. Damn, I thought I would have been the first, especially since she seemed to take after Daring with her whole ‘adventure first’ mindset. I’d really like to hear when and how they got together. So tell me, what's did you guys think of him?”

“He’s rather… different. He’s nice enough, your mother and I liked him. But it’s not our place to say, it’s your sisters. And from what we could tell, she’s over the moon for him.”

Never gave a small smile at hearing this. “Good to hear she found someone that she loves. I’m going to go congratulate her.”

“And she’s already pregnant too! The two of them are having a child!” Cloudy burst out, unable to hold back her excitement. I would have preferred it if Danger would have been able to tell him herself, or for Cloud to wait for a better moment, but here we go.

We both saw as something seemed to snap behind Never’s eyes as his smile faded to the poker face he would put on in front of us when he didn't want us to know what he was thinking.

“Oh, is that right? Well, I’ll just have to go congratulate her on that as well now won't I.” And with that, he walked past us and towards the house.

We watched in silence as our son did his best to look calm and composed, but due to how fast he was walking, it was perfectly clear that he was anything but.

“He took the news well.” The sarcasm in Cloud's voice as she chuckled those words was almost enough to bring a smile back to my face after the sudden change in Never took it away. “Tell me, do you think that our daughter and new son waited to start enjoying their alone time?”

“For Never’s sake, I hope so.” I shook my head as I gently nudged Cloud to continue our walk. “Now let's get back to why we came out here. I’m sure our sons can avoid trying to kill each other for at least a few minutes.”

Who does this no good, shameless, temptuous, dirty, filthy, CASANOVA get off on impregnating my sister before they even have a chance to get married? When I see him there won't be a damn thing even the princesses could do to stop me from teaching that pony a good lesson.

I was absolutely livid at whoever it was that though it to be a good idea to not wait for the two of them to be married before making Danger a mother. I was Danger's older brother, it was my job to look out for her and make sure something like this wouldn't happen. If some sleazy pony thought he could get away with knocking my sister up like this and not pay the price, oh boy did he have another thing coming.

By the time I made it to the house I was seeing red. The only thing on my mind was to have my revenge on whoever it was that had slept with my sister. I didn't even bother with slowing down to open the door properly, instead, I reared back onto my hind legs and just put all my weight into slamming the door open. In the back of my head, I knew that mom and dad were going to chew me out for that and make me pay for any repairs that that little stunt would entail, but for the moment, all that mattered was my sister.

“Where is the scoundrel that mounted my little sister!?” Seeing the stairs, I figured I had a fairly good idea where he would be. So storming up the stairs, I continued to shout my anger about what I had just heard “I’ll tear off his feathers, crack his horn, rip off his tail, I... " My anger immediately died as I kicked down my sister's door, only to be met with the sight of her laying down on her bed with a growling dragon behind her.

“If you would be so kind, the two of us were in the middle of something, so I would appreciate it if you would just close the door and not try to destroy the house.” Danger’s voice was extremely calm and even, almost like when mom would tell us off for misbehaving in the house.”

Too shocked to even think straight, I calmly closed her door and walked down to the dining room table in a haze. The entire time my mind was running through just what I had seen. It wasn’t until my parents were back that I even registered that I had gone to the dining room and wasn’t staring down an angry black dragon.

“Ah, I see you met our new guest. I’m glad to see you didn't decide to have it out with him, I would rather not have to send for a doctor at this time of night because one of you took things too far.” My dad almost sounded like he was telling a good joke based on his tone.

“Why is there a dragon on Danger’s bed with her?” My voice was hardly a whisper as I asked the question that had been festering in my mind for who knows how long.

“Well you see, that dragon is your sister’s coltfriend. Or is it malefriend seeing as he isn't exactly a colt? I do remember him calling her his mate. Well, whatever the answer, he’s going to be your brother-in-law.” My father sounded like he was just reading the newspaper with how calm he was.

“Just a quick question. Don't you think that this would have been something I should have been told about before I nearly had my head bitten off?” I was going into panic mode now that the reality of the situation was starting to sink in.

“Don't be so dramatic.” I could hear the eye-roll in my mother's words. “We were with him for several hours and I would hardly say he was a monster, he was actually quite the gentlestallion. Just find a way to look past the scales and you might find that you two have more in common than you think.”

That was easy for her to say, she wasn't the one who had just looked her sister’s ‘mate’ in the face. His snarling, angry face, made of teeth. Very sharp teeth you could see quite well with the lips pulled back and shaking with hated.

“I… I think I’ll just go to bed.” I got up from the table and proceeded towards the stairs.

“I hope you realize you will be paying to have repairs done after your little stunt,” my dad called out to me as I ascended the stairs.

Author's Note

And the chapter is out and late. Yay, I'm already behind.

The next chapter shall contain smut, so a warning beforehand for those not wishing to read such things.