I awoke the next morning curled around Fluffy to protect her. Last night's sex had been wonderful, well, Fluffy would have probably been more into at first it if her brother wouldn’t have spoiled the mood for her. Nevertheless, I couldn’t complain about where I was now, with Fluffy pressed against my side and under my wing. I lifted my wing and folded it back against my side to reveal my mate, happy to see her content face next to my shoulder.

I snaked my tail up and began stroking her back as I just laid there looking at her. I watched as she shifted in her sleep, probably due to my actions, and smiled. Eventually, Fluffy rolled onto her side, pressing further into me, and exposing her stomach. I was more than happy to take advantage of this and brought my tail down and began to stroke it instead. I still hadn’t gotten over the fact that our child was developing in my mate rather than in an egg.

As I stroked her stomach, I couldn't help but notice how firm it was getting. While Fluffy had in no way been what I would describe as weighty, she was actually rather lithe, I did appreciate how soft she was compared to a dragon. Unfortunately, my careful affections seemed to rouse Fluffy as I watched her eyes begin to open and focus on my face. Upon seeing me she smiled at me and began to purr; closing her eyes again and cuddling into me more.

“This is nice, but couldn’t you have waited a little, Big Softy?”

I lowered my head and began nuzzling her cheek, closing my eyes as well and purring along with her. “I could have, but with such a sexy mate, why would I want to?”

Fluffy giggled at that before sighing and reaching a hoof up to stroke my muzzle. “If you keep talking like that I might just have to make last night a regular part of our stay here.”

I slowly allowed my tail to creep back until it found itself between her legs and against her marehood, eliciting a moan from her. “Well, I was thinking we should get started on our morning routine. I know how needy you can get if we forget it.” I stopped my nuzzling and moved my head in front of hers before kissing her, an action she did right back. After exploring each other's mouths for a few seconds I pulled back and continued. “And I would just hate for your family to think I’m not taking care of you.”

“Isn’t my horny lizard just so considerate.”

Fluffy brought her hooves to both sides of my face and pulled my into a kiss, something I eagerly permitted. The two of us began to use our tongues to wrestle one another, each of us slightly exploring each other’s mouths. Meanwhile, I began dragging my tail around her folds and flicking across her clit whenever I reached it.

Unfortunately, our personal time was interrupted by a knock on the door. Fluffy immediately pulled away from our kiss and pushed my tail away from her. No sooner did her dad come in with a smile plastered on his face.

“Hey you two. Glad to see you’re already up. Me and Cloudy are downstairs making breakfast so I came up to get you two to come down. Wouldn’t want you guys to come down to cold food.”

I glared at him slightly and began to growl, I was not happy that Fluffy and I’s fun time had been disturbed yet again while we were here. But my growl was quickly silenced by a kick from Fluffy.

“We’ll be down in a second, dad.”

Fluffy’s dad just nodded and closed the door behind him. When I was sure that he had gone back downstairs I turned to face Fluffy. “Care to explain why I couldn’t make it clear to your father that I didn’t approve of him disturbing our private time?”

Fluffy just glared back at me and moved to get up. “He’s just trying to be nice. He and my mom are making us breakfast and we are in their house.” Fluffy jumped off the bed and began walking to the door. “So unless you would like me to take away all of our fun times, you keep being nice to my family.”

While I was still angry that Fluffy’s dad had prevented me from having my usual morning fun, Fluffy did have a point. He had not intended to ruin our fun, unlike her brother, and had just come in at the worst time. I sighed and made my way off the bed to follow Fluffy. That had been the second time our fun had been ruined since we had arrived here, once out of malice and once out of ignorance. I would need to do something to make sure that this wouldn't happen again.

As we walked down the stairs we saw fluffys parents casually going back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room carrying plates or food, cups, and a few pitchers of water and juice.

When Fluffy’s mom caught sight of us her eyes seemed to light up. “Perfect. You two finally came down. Take a seat and we should get started soon.”

I gave her a polite nod and began walking over to the table with Fluffy. I sat in the seat I had been in last night, the one on the left side and closest to the kitchen, and unlike last time where she sat across from me, Fluffy decided to sit next to me. An act that earned her a purr from me.

Fluffy’s parents soon joined us, bringing in a large bowl of gems and placing it next to me, before sitting down opposite of us; Gold Digger across from me and Cloudy across from Fluffy. Fluffy’s brother soon joined us, but after seeing me quickly made his way behind his parents and took the seat at the far end of the table, picking up and carrying the plate that had been next to Cloudy as he did so. He was obviously trying to stay away from me.

“Never, why are you moving over there? Don’t you like sitting next to me?” Cloud Planter sounded somewhat hurt as she said this.

“No, I do, it’s just that Danger’s coltfriend is in my spot and I thought you might not like having to be between me and dad.” His tone was not too convincing and made it obvious that there was more to it, and by the look on Cloud’s muzzle, she wasn’t buying what he was saying.

“Ok, but you are sitting next to me for dinner.”

“Well, I’m glad you were able to spend the night here. We weren’t actually expecting you to get here until after breakfast today,” Fluffy's dad added, doing his best to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, I was originally planning to be here at six this morning, but after talking to Holly about it, she said I should be here to greet Danger.”

“Well, it was a pleasant surprise.” Fluffy's mom smiled as she said this, apparently glad that things were getting back to normal. “We should probably get to actually eating so we don't have to eat cold food.” And with that, Fluffy and her family seemed to nod in unison and begin eating.

Looking down, the plates in front of us contained a good variety of food, most of it unfamiliar to me. We had balsamic-covered tomatoes, hash browns, some flat golden rectangles, what looked like a puff pastry with small flowers sticking out of the ends, and a strange log covered in what looked like honey and cinnamon. I picked up the puff pastry first and took a bite. Sadly, it was quite tasteless, being mostly air and rather bland flowers.

As I was moving to try the “Oh, speaking of surprises, have you two decided on a name for your baby yet.”

Fluffy, who had been drinking juice at the time, began to cough. I looked over to her concerned and began to rub her back with my wing, doing my best to comfort her as she tried to clear her lungs. Never didn’t seem to be taking the news much better seeing as he seemed to have stopped moving with his eyes fixed to his plate.

After Fluffy seemed to have cleared her lungs and calmed down she looked across to her mother with almost the same shocked face she had given me when she thought I was going to hurt her when I rescued her at Fortunas temple. “Is now really the best time to talk about that, mom? Can’t we talk about something a little more normal over breakfast, like you two have been up to?”

“Danger, it's completely normal to talk about our future grandfoal, especially since we were a little too shocked to ask last night.”

Fluffy seemed to me shifting back and forth on her seat uncomfortably. “We haven’t decided on any names quite yet, we were going to name them once Big Softy finds out if we have a boy or a girl.”

Gold Digger seemed to pick up of what she had just said, taking a bite of his pastry before he joined in. “Based on how you phrased that, I’m guessing that you already know if you have a colt or a filly, no?”

Fluffy went slack-jawed when her father said that. “How… but…” She sighed before continuing. “Yes, I know. I want to keep it a secret until the birth and I don't want to talk about it in case I accidentally give it away.”

“Well if that's what you want, we won’t pry.” He then turned to me before continuing. “So, Big Softy, what’s your family like?” I couldn’t help but pick up a bit of a snicker as he said the name Fluffy insisted I go by.

“My father is a black dragon like me, and my mother is an azure dragon.” I let my chest puff out a bit and sat more upright as I said this.

“Oh, that’s nice. It looks like you inherited a lot from your father’s side,” Fluffy’s mom said, talking as if I had just told her todays weather.

While I was slightly insulted that I was not receiving my due respect for the fact that I was half azure dragon, I could understand why that was. Outside of dragons, the hierarchy of the dragons wasn’t as well known. Even with Fluffy I’ve been avoiding talking too much about my mom. I decided to try one of the strange logs covered in honey to take my mind off the topic. When I ate it, I was surprised at how good it was; apparently one of Fluffy’s parents really knew how to cook.

“So what are they like? I’m sure you took after one of them.”

Now it was Fluffy’s mom’s turn to make me uncomfortable. While I had no problems talking about my dad, especially seeing as me and him got along quite well, the problem was, if I talked about him, it would mean I would have to bring up my mom.

“It’s… complicated. Dragon families don't seem to work the same way as for you ponies. I don't know if you would be able to properly understand it.”

“If that’s what you think. If it wouldn’t be too personal, what about any brothers and sisters.” Cloud looked disappointed, but I was thankful when she didn’t try to press the issue.

“I don't have any. I was the only egg my mother laid.”

“That’s too bad. I know Never and Danger here were always able to keep each other entertained.” Gold Digger chuckled to himself as he finished. I even caught Fluffy and her brother roll their eyes at that. “So, seeing as you don't seem to be so forthcoming about your family, why not tell us more about yourself. So far, all we know about you is that you and our daughter live together in your lair inside a mountain, you have a garden in your lair, and you’re the reason our daughter’s pregnant.”

Hearing this, I couldn’t help but return to the posture I had taken when talking about my heritage. “Well, I was able to create my lair myself. While I did need to employ some individuals for a few tasks, the specifics are a well-kept dragon secret."

“Impressive, perhaps one of these days we could convince you to help us with our pool.” I could see from the smile tugging at the corner of Gold Digger’s lips that he wasn’t entirely serious, but I decided to play along anyway.

“That would depend on how much I would be receiving for being such a nice dragon. I have a rather large hoard, but since Fluffy here has joined me, I’ve been noticing that it has been depleting rather quickly.”I extended a wing and pulled Fluffy close to me, something Fluffy did nothing to resist and instead leaned in and began to nuzzle me.

“Well, hopefully, our daughter can convince you to give us a family discount and we can see about helping you grow your hoard some other way.” Fluffy’s father and I both smiled at that and continued our meal.

Cloud suddenly sat upright and finished with the pancake she had been working on. “Oh, you two just reminded me. Danger, your brother has a marefriend now.”

I had to suppress a chuckle as I saw Never begin to choke on the food he had been eating. When Never had finally recovered from the surprise of being brought into the conversation, he cleared his throat before beginning. “Really, mom? Couldn’t you have waited to let me tell her that and not almost kill me from surprise?

Unfortunately, Fluffy pushed off me so she could talk to her brother without my wing blocking him from her sight. “Really? You’re finally dating?”

Never sighed before turning to face her. “Well, since mom just has to reveal everyone's personal life; yes, I have a marefriend now.”

I inwardly groaned at this. Apparently the love lives of ponies were of considerable importance to their families, and I might just be in for a second round of an hour and a half interrogation, this time for someone I cared nothing about. I just turned my attention to my breakfast and did my best to tune out what they were talking about.

Fluffy seemed just as interested in knowing about Never’s mate as her mother had been about her pregnancy. “So, what’s her name?”

“Winterberry, but I call her Holly. We met about a month ago. You remember Dead Griffin’s Gorge?”

“You mean the one with all the jagged rocks and hairpin turns?”

“Yeah, that one. Well, I was testing myself and trying to see how hard I could push myself before things started to get hairy.”

“You mean how close you could come to killing yourself before you actually did or put yourself in the hospital.” Judging by Gold Digger’s tone, this was something he was both very familiar with and highly disapproving of.

“As I was saying, I was about a third of the way down the northern section when I might have woken up a cat that was living there.”

“And how big was this cat?”

“Not too big, it was a little smaller than you, but it's fur looked like it was made of thorns and the way it was jumping around scared the crap out of me. I must have flown past its den or something, because when I realized it was following me, it looked like it was ready to kill me.”

“And how does this tie into you meeting Winterberry?”

“I was getting to that. Well, I was flying through that wide section of the gorge with all those rocks that look like swords when I noticed this earth pony with this deep red mane coming down the side of the gorge. I did some impressive maneuvers between the rocks and ended up getting away from the cat. Well, with how pissed that cat was after it lost me, it seemed to take an interest in the mare. It didn't look like the cat would have been able to reach her, but I figured that If I saved her she would be pretty impressed, so I pushed myself to grab her and fly over the edge before the cat made up its mind.”

“So your first thought was to fly up to a random mare, grab her, and carry her back to the top of the gorge because you thought that a creature you knew nothing about was going to attack her?” Fluffy really didn't sound happy with her brother.

“Well when you say it like that you make me sound like I did something wrong.” Fluffy just raised an eyebrow at that. “Ok, maybe it wasn't the best choice, but I kind of learned that after she started to guilt trip me worse than mom does.”

“As she should.”

“Anyways, she reamed me out over grabbing her out of nowhere, and when I tried to explain myself she pulled my to the edge by my ear and told me that it was a cactus cat and was just trying to scare me away, not attack.” Never began rubbing his left ear as he said this, apparently he still remembered the feeling too.

“She was there to look at a rare shrub that only grows in gorges so she could help with some conservation work. I apologized, even offered to fly her down and back up to make up for scaring her.”

“And I take it she wasn’t too keen on having you grab her again?”

“Yeah. She said about the same thing too. But she did say that if I wanted to make it up to her I could treat her to some coffee and pastries at Bailiania’s. So I flew over there and waited for her. When she arrived, we talked a little and we sort of hit it off. I’ve been doing my best to find her really rare seeds and young plants that she’s had problems getting because they’re hard to find or get to as a non-flyer.”

“Well, at least you’re probably getting on her good side after that Celestia awful introduction.”

Never began to rub the back of his head at that comment. “Ehe… not really. She likes that I do that, but I can tell that it’s not that important to her. We agreed that she gets to decide what we do every other date, and every time she just wants us to cuddle together on the couch. I just don't know what to do, she seems like she just wants me around but it just feels… awkward. I want to make her happy but I don't know how I do that by just sitting there.”

“Never, just stop thinking about it. If she just wants you to be there, just be there, that's all you need to do.”

“It's not that-”

“No, it is that easy. Just stop thinking about what you want to do and just listen to what she’s telling you. “Look,” Fluffy said and leaned against my side, “I don’t need to say anything at all to make my mate understand what I want from him.” She opened her wing a bit and purred ever so softly. Of course, this caused me to purr too and lower my head to rub it against hers, feeling the warmth of her cheeks and sneak a little kiss from her before I moved my wing under hers, covering the side of her belly with it, pulling her closer in the process. Only when Fluffy stroked my chin softly with her hoof did I stop pulling her and instead moved my head along her foreleg and onto her neck, resting it there while keeping my purr audible. “See,” Fluffy whispered to her sibling, “it is that simple. It’s how we’ve been getting along.”

I couldn't see Never, but I was hoping this was making him uncomfortable. Fluffy eventually pulled away and returned to eating her breakfast, signaling me to continue as well. I discovered that the brown rectangles were called hay bacon, and that I was not a fan of them. The rest of the meal passed by fairly quietly as everyone finished their plates.

With everyone finished with their breakfast, I decided to lean back slightly to relax before I noticed the bowl of gems still sitting beside me. Not wanting to be rude, I grabbed an emerald from the bowl and took a bite. One thing I found strange about it was that it tasted saltier than what I was used to. I looked down at the gem but didn't see anything that looked like salt. I ate the rest of it and tried a ruby, only to find that it too was saltier than what I was used to. Perhaps Equestrian gems were just saltier than the gems at home.

Fluffy’s mom seemed to look over at me, seeing my confused face and the way I was picking through the gems to take all the diamonds out. “I’m sorry if we don't have as many gems as you would have liked. Gold can always take you out to one of his caves after breakfast to find some more for you.”

“It’s alright, I’m just used to the gems tasting a little different where I’m from, and am not a big fan of diamonds.” I finally managed to remove the last of the diamonds and set them in front of me on the table.

“Come on son, let me take you to get some gems for your stay here. I insist.” Fluffy's dad gave me a look not too dissimilar to one my dad would often give me when he wanted me to do something. “Besides, I’m pretty sure that my wife and Never still have some questions for your mare friend.”

I looked over to Fluffy, and while she looked a bit hesitant, I could tell from her expression that she wanted me to go with her dad; probably so I could make sure he had a good impression of me. After seeing this, I turned back to Gold Digger. “Alright, lead the way.”

Author's Note

It has come to my attention that I forgot to post this chapter. I wish to apologize for the inconvenience and confusion this may have caused. Hopefully, this hasn't made things too horrible.