The Dragon And The Pony Side Stories: Parents Of Fluff.

by Schattendrache

Rating: mature
Tags: Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Sex
Length: 64793

Parents can be intimidating to visit, especially if they are going to be your in-laws. But what if you are a black dragon and those in-laws are soft, cuddly pegasi? How do the dynamics work then?

I heard you ask about how I had met Fluffy's parents and why my opinion of her brother is so low. Well, both of those questions can be answered by the same story; the time Fluffy convivence me to go with her to tell her family about us being mates before she was too far along in her pregnancy. It was an interesting three days of getting to know her family and learn more about ponykind's strange customs. I really think you are going to like this story, especially the naughty bits.

This story serves as a midquel between The Dragon And The Pony and The Dragon And The Pony 2 The Adventure of Parenthood and has been approved by the Author Azure Drache as a cannon part of his universe.

This story was originally supposed to be a guest chapter in The Dragon And The Pony 2, but due to my desire to see things through to a high level of completion, this ended up becoming its own story. :yay:

Published 2019-10-02 03:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2020-07-18 18:27:49 UTC

Meeting The Family

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.

A Pleasant Night

I stopped my growling as the door finally closed and I could return to what I had been doing. But as I was about to continue from where I left off after being so rudely interrupted, I heard Fluffy sigh. “What’s the matter? Should I go and teach that rude pony a lesson?”

“No, it’s fine. I just forgot what family can be like sometimes.”

“I had a feeling he was family. He looked like your brother.” Fluffy had been telling me all about her family after she told me she wanted to visit them a soon as possible. And seeing as the pony that had just kicked down Fluffy’s door perfectly fit the description of her brother, it seemed like a good guess.

“Yeah, he’s my brother, Never Ending. As I told you, he’s a little older than me so he has this need to protect me. He means well, just doesn't know when it's too much.”

Great, just what I needed, an overprotective brother disturbing things. Well, as long as this was his only mistake, I think I could come to like him. After all, we both wanted Fluffy to be safe. Not wanting the mood to be ruined by our temporary visitor, I decided to return to my preening of Fluffy, an act that earned me a purr of approval.

It didn't take too long for me to remove the last of the loose feathers from Fluffy’s wings. And when I was done, Fluffy turned around and gave me a kiss on my lips. “Thanks, you big softy. I think this deserves a reward.”

I instantly had a naughty grin develop on my face as I heard that. Even if helping her with her feathers wouldn’t have resulted in me receiving one of her massages, I still would have done it. I would always find some excuse to play with her soft feathers.

“Well, since I would rather not have my bed torn to shreds, If you somehow manage to control yourself this time, I might have something extra in store for you.”

Now that piqued my interest. She had already agreed to do my second favorite activity, I could only think of one thing that she might consider to top it off, sex. My naughty grin only served to grow wider.

Fluffy responded to this with a naughty smile as well. “Why don’t you get yourself comfortable?”

I rubbed my head against her and then slowly stretched myself out across her bed, extending my wings and tail to make it easier for her to reach the good spots. While her bed was a great deal smaller than the one we had in our lair, with almost two-thirds of my wings and the last quarter of my tail hanging off of it, I was sure that Fluffy would have enough to work with.

“So my giant naughty lizard,” she purred and rubbed her nose against me, “are you ready?” I only gave her a growl of approval, unwilling to move anymore.

I had to wait a moment though, and shifted my head to look back at her out of curiosity when Fluffy explained, “Don't worry, I’m just figuring out how to start. I was just thinking, you spent most of today flying, why don't I help you work out any sore spots.”

To my pleasure, she moved her body onto my back, stroking it with her chestfluff and wings in the process. Once there, she began to work the area right between my wing joints, causing my wings to involuntarily lift up. While I could get away with letting my wings move on their own, I would need to be careful not to let the tips of my phalanges or the talon on the wrist scratch at the bed.

I am proud to say though, I managed to stay silent for almost half a minute before I started to purr.

“My BIg Softy,” Fluffy purred into my ear and nuzzled me.

My purring only got louder.

Oh, the wonders and pleasure of having a fluffy pegasus giving you a massage. If you ever have the chance, just try it. Everything I could do to describe it would just be a shadow of the real thing, so I’ll spare you the details and just say there is a reason why it is my second favorite activity. And that was ignoring the fact that it also tended to lead to my favorite activity.

After a few minutes of this wonderful activity, I sensed Fluffy's breath getting a bit faster and her temperature rising a bit under her fluff. And I know exactly what that meant. She soon reduced the effort she was putting into the massage and instead started to cuddle me, rubbing her nose against me while brushing my wings with hers. Ultimately, this culminated in her starting to place little kisses along my back and neck.

“I assume that this is the ‘little bit extra reward?” My voice was a mixture of naughtiness and playful reproach.

“Hmm-hmm,” she agreed sweetly, nibbling on my scales all of a sudden.

“Well then, I should help you with…”

Suddenly the door of the next room was opened, and soon after loudly closed. Which, for some reason, caused Fluffy to stop what she was doing and tense up.

“What is it?” I asked concerned, lifting my head and looked at her. I had noticed how lustful her actions were becoming, so her stopping out of nowhere was concerning.

Fluffy pulled back from me with an exasperated groan. “Horseapples! I forgot our rooms were right next to each other.”

“Who’s room? What you are talking about?”

“My brother’s,” Fluffy groaned unhappily, “his room is right next to mine.” She continued her groan of frustratedly and slid off my back sighing. “We could always just cuddle, I know you enjoy that.”

No, absolutely not. While yes, I do enjoy the cuddling, there was no way that I was going to lose out on Fluffy’s reward for being such a nice dragon towards her parents! No way! Fluffy's brother had gotten in the way yet again and I would not stand for it.

I rolled myself over so that I could get off the bed, careful not to hurt Fluffy as she was still between my hind legs, and maneuvered my way off of the bed and onto the floor. As I began my walk over to the door leading into the hallway, remembering to relax my vent muscles so that my erection was not on proud display, Fluffy spoke up.

“What are you doing?” Fluffy’s voice was a strange mixture of shame and fear, most likely due to thinking her brother might have unwittingly listened in on what we had been doing.

“Going to talk to your brother.” The venom in my voice was almost palpable. “If he is going to keep causing problems with our private times, I’ll need to make it clear to him that that is something I do not find tolerable.”

Fluffy seemed to want to stop me, but whatever her reasons, she did not follow me into the hallway. Well, that was fine by me, this way I could tell her brother just what I thought and not have to worry about keeping Fluffy happy. I approached his door and gave it two firm pounds. Fortunately, he didn't bother to ask who it was or only open the door partway, it just made things easier for me.

When he had opened the door all the way and his tired eyes fell on me, I watched as his face went pale as he seems to shrink under my angry glare. Perfect.

I dropped my head so that I was staring him straight in the eyes, put on my most serious demeanor, and spoke to him, just loud enough that he wouldn't ask me to repeat myself, but not so loud that Fluffy would hear me. “I know that you and Fluffy are family, and I would never do anything to hurt her, but If you are going to be here, you are not going to be sleeping near us. I don't care if you need to sleep under the doormat, I couldn’t care less, just as long as you are far away from us, understand.”

The pony in front of me meekly nodded. I had to suppress the urge to smile knowing that I had put Fluffy’s brother in his place, I didn’t need him to see something from me that would make me seem less intimidating. I stepped back slightly and to the right, allowing him to exit, but blocking the hallway leading to Fluffy and I’s room, leaving no room for misinterpretation as to my seriousness.

“Right, see you in the morning.” Fluffy’s brother quickly walked out of his room, almost seeming to trot as Fluffy called it. But as he was walking past me, he stopped and looked me in the face, or at least tried, he mostly looked at my front left claw. “And, uh, sorry about walking in on you preening my sister. Won’t happen again.”

And with that, he was heading down the stairs and away from us. I made a huff of victory and was about to return to Fluffy when something struck me about that last interaction with Never Ending. He hadn’t blushed as Fluffy called it.

Fluffy had explained to me that when ponies’ faces turn red, it was because they were embarrassed. And since the topic of sex in any capacity seemed to fluster a pony, if Never would have heard us, I had a feeling he would have been just as red as Fluffy had been when I blurted out that we were mates. At least I could go back and calm Fluffy down about the possibility of her brother hearing us mating.

When I returned to Fluffy’s room, I found her sitting on the bed and looking at the door nervously. “You didn't hurt him, did you?”

“No.” I cuddled up next to her and began to nuzzle the side of her face. “I just explained to him that I would prefer if he would stay somewhere else so we could have our privacy.”

Fluffy sighed before bringing a hoof to the side of my face and moving it to bring me in front of her so she could kiss me. “Thanks for not hurting him. I know he might not have made the best first impression, but he’s still family. If you two can just find a way to get along, that would make me very happy.”

“Enough talking about your brother, I’m interested in the two of us.” I kissed her back. She seemed to welcome it at first, until she pushed me away slightly. “What's the matter?”

“Nothing. It’s just that… after that thing with my brother, I’m just not feeling it like I was earlier.”

“Well, I think I have a way to fix that,” I said as suggestively as I could, putting on my naughtiest grin. I lowered my head to the side of her neck and began to nibble her, slowly making my way down.

“Oh, you naughty lizard. Is sex all you think about?” Despite her words, from the hisses of pleasure and the way she was relaxing into my soft ministrations, I knew she wanted this just as much as I did.

When I reached her torso, I made my way up to her spine and began to follow it back to the area between her wings, going slower this time to make her want this even more.

Fuffy released a moan of desire at this. “You are so bad.” She tried to pull herself forward to bring my nibbling to the right spot, but all I did was follow her. I wanted to draw this out as long as I could.

When I finally reached the spot between her wings, I snaked my tail around and began to play with her special spot, rubbing up and down and occasionally allowing the tip to slip in just so far as to only permit her to feel the pleasure for a short moment before pulling back out. I was rewarded with lustful hisses and moans of pleasure as Fluffy melted under my experienced touch, rolling onto her side and against my own.

I purred in satisfaction knowing that I had made her forget about our little hiccup. But, I still felt like giving her one last tease, so I pulled back from between her wings and stopped my tail. “So, If you’re still in the mood, I think I’m ready to cuddle now.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Fluffy reached her front hooves back and grabbed my tail and pushed it towards her slit. I moved it at the last second to prevent her from forcing it in, resulting in it being pushed along her folds, stimulating her clit and causing her to moan with need. “You started this, now you’re going to finish it!”

I smiled a devious smile and brought my face in front of hers before giving her a small lick. “As you wish.”

I slowly drew my tail back, dragging it between her folds and making sure that I pressed hard enough to stimulate her button and send bolts of pleasure up her spine. This caused her to gasp before throwing her head back and moan with pleasure, eventually bringing both her hooves down to my tail and pressing it into herself.

When only the very tip of my tail was left and it finally reached her clit, I stopped my withdrawal and lingered there, circling it ever so slowly and occasionally flicking it. This resulted in even more lustful moans as she arched her back, driving herself against me as her body tried to find a way to encourage me to go further.

This gave me a devious idea. I dragged my tail tip across her clit one last time and continued across her folds before shooting forward slightly, driving the very end of my tail into her moist hole. Fluffy released a gasp of pleasure before relaxing into the feeling and starting to purr, only to stop when she realized that I had stopped moving. My tail remained motionless within her, refusing to continue its actions that would bring her satisfaction.

I lowered my head and whispered into her ear, “You know, I would really like to know if you're enjoying yourself. I just can't tell if I’m doing this right.” Now I chuckled. “It has been a while after all.”

She hissed at me. “Fine, if you won't stop teasing me, I think that I can help you understand.”

Fluffy moved to her hooves, my tail eliciting an ecstasy filled moan as it did its own magic inside her while she moved to her hooves. I still held it where it was though, knowing what it would do when I moved. I obliged her when she motioned for me to flip over, rolling over and spreading out my wings to show her that she was in control now, revealing myself fully.

Including the tip of my penis as it was beginning to peek out from my vent.

Fluffy smiled happily at seeing this, paying particularly close attention to my maleness. Her sounds of desire had prompted it to reveal itself, but I hadn’t been paying close enough attention to notice at the time. “It looks like I’m not the only one enjoying this.”

I purred back at her, encouraging her to continue. While I preferred to be the one in charge when we had sex; I knew Fluffy enjoyed taking control every now and again, and I have yet to be disappointed by her when she had.

Fluffy moved to between my hind legs and motioned for me to spread them a little more; I complied without hesitation. Fluffy then proceeded to place her hooves on both sides of my genital slit and spread it apart, revealing more of my shaft. “Let’s see if I can make you enjoy this even more.”

Fluffy lowered her head began to delicately lick around the head of my penis, working her tongue beneath the glans; sending a shiver of pleasure up my spine and causing me to growl with pleasure. Her attention was causing me to further erect, forcing more of my scaled shaft to present itself, which only served to encourage her to continue her to lick over every part of it as it emerged. When she had finally coaxed the last of my rod out, including the scaled muscles that served as my knot, she returned her attention to my head.

I began to purr as she worked on my head, licking and nibbling it gently. With how much pleasure she was giving me with her mouth, I figured I might as well see if I might encourage that. I began to move my tail in and out of her marehood, bending it in every direction to stimulate her. The moans and gasps I heard were the only answers I needed.

I started relatively quick with the use of my tail, but began to slow down as I began to stroke her g-spot. Every pass and rub I would do after this caused Fluffy to moan, and with how she increased her attention to my penis; now sucking it and bobbing up and down, I knew I had been successful.

Eventually, one of us would reach our climax, and based on our past experiences, the answer was obvious. The walls of Fluffy’s marehood began to contract around my tail before she pulling back from my shaft and pushed herself backward, driving my tail deeper into herself. I didn't deny her this time, I held my tail still and allowed her to have what she wanted.

It wasn’t something I was opposed to either, as the clenching and unclenching of her walls felt like a lovely massage as they attempted to draw my tail in deeper. I watched Fluffy enjoy herself before witnessing her slowly lay down on top of me with a contented smile, her body laying on top of my penis and only allowing the tip to peek out from between her chest fluff.

I looked at her with a smug grin as I pulled my tail out of her, eliciting a moan of both pleasure and pleading. I was happy with myself for having caused her to climax first yet again. “It seems you are still the more sensitive of us.” I shifted my left wing, bringing it in front of me, and began stroking her back. “That’s too bad, I was hoping to reach my own peak. But if you’re too tired, we can always go to bed, leaving me dissatisfied.”

“Who said anything about being too tired?” Fluffy still sounded like she was coming back to her senses after her climax. “We still haven’t gotten to the best part.”

With that, Fluffy used her wings to move my own wing away before she pushed herself up and made her way off of me. She walked away slightly before turning her head back to me and lifting her tail, revealing her glistening slit.

“I think we should finish tonight a little more… traditionally this time.”

I purred happily as I rolled over and made my way over to her. I first lowered my head to her vagina and gave it a little lick, testing to see how ready she was, but mostly to draw this out a little longer. She had brought me fairly close to my own climax, so the longer I could make this last, the more time I would have to mount her. While the gasp she released left no doubts that she would rather I just get right to it, I knew she would appreciate the end result.

I moved up and began placing gentle kisses along her back, slowly making my way towards her wings. Every second of my careful affections was accompanied by moans of desire and shifting back and forth by Fluffy. It was apparent that she was desperate for me to just get on with what I was doing and move on to the actual act.

These impatient moans became more lust-filled and satisfied as I finally reached the area between her wings and began to nibble there. I continued to purr as I slowly made my way up her spine and towards her neck, following the same path I had taken at the beginning, only this time, in reverse.

Fluffy's moans became even more excited as I traveled up the side of her neck and kept going, my nibbling becoming more tender as I went up. I made my way up to her right ear and began to alternate between using just my lips and ever so gently biting it. From the hisses and moans I was hearing, I could tell she was enjoying this almost as much as when I had been using my tail.

I stopped my attention to her ear and quietly purred to her, “Are you ready?”

“Yes. Now can you please stop teasing me?” Her voice was an airy hiss that sounded more like begging than her usual self.

I began purring even louder as a shifted so that my body was over hers as she crouched down slightly while keeping her hips raised. She was just slightly taller than my legs, and due to her preferring not to hold up my weight when we did this, this was the position we had settled on. So with Fluffy between my legs and begging for me to start, I pushed my hips forward to search for her slit with my penis.

I felt the hairs of her tail as my rod passed by, sending little jolts of pleasure through my system as I used it as a rough guide to finding her opening. I wanted to hit it just right and was going as slow as I was due to my penis not being too flexible and being unpleasant for both of us if I were to miss.

I eventually felt her moist folds on my tip, followed by a moan of joy from Fluffy. Not wanting to make her wait any longer, I thrust my hips forward and buried most of my rod into her.

“Mmm, yes. This is what I was waiting for,” Fluffy moaned from beneath me. I maintained my satisfied purring and began to smile to myself.

I was more than happy to begin the sex in earnest, pulling back before driving forward at a moderate but steady rhythm. I knew from our past sessions that one of Fluffy’s favorite aspects of my penis were the scales that covered it, saying that their texture was amazing when I was in her. So when we had our fun, I did my best to let her experience that, and based on her moans of pleasure, I was succeeding.

I slowly built up my pace, progressively becoming faster and going a little deeper. Eventually, I was thrusting into her almost as fast and as deep as we always did at the lair. I was being careful to not get too exciting since Fluffy had insisted we not let her parents hear our activities if we were to have any; something about pony sensibilities, I hadn’t paid too much attention.

My climax began to build up in my gut as I could feel myself getting ready to release my load. My purr began to shift into a growl, the signal I had for Fluffy to tell her I was about to release. Fluffy seemed to get the message as she began to rock back slightly when I would thrust, causing me even more pleasure as I got ready to reach my peak.

Finally, on my fifth thrust after Fluffy began to help me, I felt myself reach my climax, releasing all of my accumulated seed into Fluffy’s insides. I had to suppress a roar that I would usually release to accompany this, but for obvious reasons, I needed to clench my teeth and simply growl only a little louder.

When I was finished, I gently collapsed to my left before pulling Fluffy into my underbelly. Fluffy began to release the cute little purr she had for when she and I had had our fun, shifting herself so she could press more firmly into me while also finding a more comfortable position. I curled my head back, seeing Fuffy with her eyes closed and a satisfied smile across her face, and gave her a kiss as one final show of thanks.

As I laid there with Fuffy pressed into my underbelly and still impaled on my penis, I couldn’t help but let a content smile cross over my lips. While our sex hadn’t been as wild or as loud as I was used to, I was still happy that Fluffy was still willing to engage in some fun times while we were here.

Author's Note

Yay, my first crack at writing smut. I would love to hear your guys' feedback on how well I did this and possibly send me some advice/pointers on how to improve.

See you next week.:twilightsmile:

A New Day

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.

Golden Times

The walk through the forest surrounding Fuffy’s parents’ house was rather pleasant. Besides the occasional chirp of a bird, the air was filled with the rustling of the surrounding leaves and the sound of a small creek just a few meters to the right of the path Fluffy’s father and I were walking. It was all rather peaceful. I was starting to understand why Fluffy’s parents decided to live here.

As I was walking, I couldn't help but notice how quiet Fluffy’s father was. Besides the sounds of the forest and my own heavy claws hitting the ground, the only other noise was that of Gold Diggers hooves. While he wasn’t exactly talkative to begin with, I had at least figured he would be trying to interrogate me some more, especially since he had been the one to suggest we leave the house and explore one of his caves.

The pseudo-silence lasted for another few minutes until, strangely enough, Fluffy’s father decided to break it. “You know, I never get tired of walking through this forest. It always reminds me just how lonely a cave can be.” His voice was slightly far away, like he had something on his mind and was talking almost as a reaction.

“Hmm?”

“Don't get me wrong, a cave is nice, but when it's just you down there, when the only sound is a burning lamp or your pick-axe hitting the stone, you start to miss the little things. And when the only light you have goes out, and everything goes black, almost nothing compares to that kind of fear.”

I snorted slightly, releasing a small puff of smoke. “That may be the case for you ponies, but as a black dragon, I love the dark. And even if I didn’t, I can always breathe fire.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true. I’m just running my mouth. Haven’t met many ponies that take too well to what I do. Always get antsy when you get real deep and you're left with only your thoughts.” Fluffy’s father turned his head to the side and slightly up, in the direction of the sun. “Even I have my times when my mind starts messing with me, craving the sun and the sound of my wife beside me.”

I could definitely tell that something was up, Gold talking about caves like this was a bit strange considering we were heading to one, but before I could really respond, he continued. “I don't think Danger told you, but I used to take her and her brother to the caves every once in a while. She obviously warmed up to it faster than he did, but I’ll never forget her first time. Was shaking like a leaf when I took her to one of the deeper sections.”

I couldn't help but chuckle a little at the idea of Fluffy being so scared. She was always so confident that the thought almost seemed too outlandish for her. The last time I had seen her that scared was back on our first ‘date’ and when I saved her at the temple. “Did she ever help you look for treasure?”

“Oh yes, several times when she was younger.” Fluffy’s father turned his head back so he was looking ahead again, except, he still looked to be somewhere else. “Well, helped might be a little strong of a word. She wanted to help and be able to find treasures for herself, but she sort of just did her own thing. I remember digging out a tunnel to make it deeper, only to turn around and find her sticking halfway out of a little tunnel she had started to carve out.”

That image brought a smile to my muzzle, a younger Fluffy sticking out of a hole and trying to dig even deeper, it made her seem like a dragon. The two of us kept walking in silence for a few more minutes before Fluffy’s dad once again decided to break it, this time with a sigh.

“Your lucky to have her you know. She loves you quite a lot.” While his voice was still a little distant, there seemed to be a little more focus to it now.

“I would hope so. We have been together for quite a while.”

“Yeah, I think you said four months. While I’m not exactly happy that you got my daughter pregnant after the two of you first met, I’m not blind, she seems happy enough and that’s all I can ask for.” The distant look and voice of Fluffy’s father quickly become more concentrated as he turned his head towards me slightly, putting me firmly in his field of vision. “To be honest, I haven't seen her this happy since she earned her cutie mark. Even when she found her first real artifact when she started to take after her cousin, when she came to us she was just so proud of herself and wanted to show us what she had accomplished. I can tell she is ecstatic to be with you, I just hope you feel the same.”

I turned my head towards him, not even trying to hide the displeasure I was feeling after such an insult. “I would hope that my actions with your daughter would have proved that. She is MY mate, and as a dragon, I do not give up what is mine.”

I could see a Fluffy’s dad develop a lopsided smile as he went back to staring ahead of us. “That’s sort of reassuring. Still, I remember the last time she was overjoyed about something that didn’t go over too well. She was going through an old ruin and wasn’t being careful enough; the floor and ceiling collapsed in front of her. Would have likely trapped or killed her if her cousin hadn’t have been there to save her. She locked herself in her room for a while after that. Not because of what she did, but what she could have done. If this relationship goes bad, I don't know how she would take it, but I know it wouldn’t be good.”

“Well that’s not going to happen. I love her, and there’s nothing that's going to stop that.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Gold’s voice then took on an almost deadly seriousness. “I may not be as big or as strong as a dragon, heck, I’m fairly confident you could beat me if we fought, but if I found out you hurt my daughter, I wouldn’t hesitate to make you pay.”

My eyes widened and my head shot back in surprise. Of all the things I had been expecting, being threatened by a pegasus was not one of them. It took Fluffy becoming a Kirin for her to reach that point, but here was her father doing it on a casual walk through the woods.

“Are you threatening me after admitting that you wouldn’t be that big of a threat?”

“Yes.” The answer was immediate.

I couldn’t help but allow a wide smile to form on my muzzle. And how could I? Fluffy’s father had the guts to threaten me even though he knew he would surely lose. Despite the fact I had no tolerance for being threatened, I felt I could let this slide, at least this once. He had definitely earned my respect.

We continued in silence for a little while until it was my turn to break it. “You remind me of my own dad. “

“Oh? And how’s that?”

“I don’t know. If I had to say, it’s probably because you’re both so calm and seem to know what you’re talking about.”

Fluffy’s dad chuckled at that. “Your dad probably knows a lot more than me, if I had to hazard a guess, he’s got me beat by a few centuries. But, I’ll take that as a compliment.” He sighed as he tilted his head forward a bit. “With age comes perspective, after a certain point, you just stop trying to fight every little thing. It wasn't ‘til Never was about ten that I finally figured that out. Take it from me, don't make the same mistake with your kid. Just calm down and let them be themselves and everything will eventually sort itself out.”

I cocked an eyebrow as I stared down at him. “Are you telling me to just let my child do as it pleases? I would hardly call that being a parent.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Look, if your kid puts themselves in danger, if they start heading down a path you know won’t end well, then put your hoof down. Well, actually your claw but you get the point. Just remember that your kid almost never turns out the way you want them to, you just have to accept it.”

“And why do you think I would do that?” I was slightly interested in why he was thinking I would try to turn my kid into me. While he wasn’t wrong, I was interested in how he had figured that out so quickly.

“You aren’t as hard to figure out as you might think. For one, you're a new father. That’s always the first instinct. And secondly, your parents, or more specifically, your mom. You aren’t as talkative about her as you are with your father. I have a feeling you took after him more than you think. If a relationship with one of my parents was as bad as it seems yours is, I have a feeling I would make sure my child wouldn’t have the same experience.”

“Now you're really starting to sound like my dad.”

“Hopefully it helps you start calling me that sooner rather than later. I prefer the idea of my son-in-law not calling me Gold or Mr. Do every time we’re together, doesn’t sound right coming from my daughters coltfriend.”

I snickered a little at that. “Ok, ‘dad’. So, how far until we reach one of the caves ‘mom’ was talking about.”

“You may think you're being smart, but that does sound better than hearing you call us by our first names. And to answer your question, that’s it right in front of us.” Gold lifted his head and pointed it towards the side of the mountain we were heading.

Looking in the same direction, I noticed that I could just make out the entrance to a tunnel that had been carved into the mountain’s side. If I thought the entrance to my lair was small, this one took the cake. It was only just slightly bigger than I was, meaning I likely wasn’t going to be stretching my wings if they got sore in there.

“There's a nice vein of gems about three-hundred meters back. You should be able to find the gems you like there.”

With that, the two of us continued our trek down the forest trail and to the cave. When we arrived, Gold opened a wooden box that was sitting inside of the cave and removed a heavy cloth bag as well as a lantern before pulling out and putting on a helmet with a light on it. Strangely though, the lantern was actually a magical one rather than one that used a flame.

“With how you were talking earlier, I was guessing you used older style lanterns.”

“Yeah, I do prefer them, there is just something more comforting about the flickering if a fire. Unfortunately, I found a few pockets of lignite in here, and until I can dig them out, I would rather not risk an accident.”

I didn't know what this lignite was, but if having an older lantern would be a danger, I would prefer he keep us safe.

After Gold ignited his lantern, casting a whitish-blue glow against the walls of the tunnel, he grabbed a pickaxe in his teeth and headed down the tunnel. I began following him, grumbling slightly at the fact that my sides were almost scraping the sides of the tunnel, I needed to keep my neck level with the ground, and whenever my tail would swing, it would always hit the sides of the tunnel.

But through my displeasure, I remembered that there was a question that had been in my head for a while for both of her parents. I figured that since Fluffy’s father was here, I should probably ask him now and talk to her mother when we got back. “I was wondering, what tricks do you know of that would help with making a pegasus happy?”

“If you are referring to my daughter, the answer is basically what you’ve been doing already. If you are talking about me and my wife, just don't eat us, steal our things, or make Danger unhappy.”

“That wasn’t what I was talking about. I was wondering if there was anything I could do when it's just me and Fluffy having our fun. I already figured out that nibbling between her wings gets her in the mood, and since you and ‘mom’ are pegasi, I figured you would know of some tricks I could use.”

“Uh, now isn’t the best time for that. Let's just find you some gems and head back home.” Fluffy’s dad’s voice sounded extremely uncomfortable before he started to walk just a little faster.

“I don't see the problem with talking about that now, unless you would prefer it if your wife was there too so she could confirm what you say.”

“NO!” Gold rounded on me with a look of horror on his face, dropping his pickaxe in the process. I was actually scared slightly and almost flipped my head back into the ceiling. The amount of reverberation in such a small space made the shout far louder than I had been expecting. It was almost loud enough to sound like it had come from a dragon.

“Are you afraid that you’re going to reveal a secret technique you use on her? I’m pretty sure she already knows how you do everything.”

“It’s not that. It's just… you're asking me about… how to have sex with my daughter.”

“And? I don't see the problem. Dragon parents teach their hatchlings how to mate quite early. Before I left my parents, they had taught me everything about how I was supposed to please my mate. The problem is that their lessons were for dragons.”

Gold’s face returned to one of discomfort, and based on the reddening of his face, serious embarrassment. “Well… ponies are a bit different. We don’t exactly… talk about that so… casually, especially when it comes to our kids.” Gold lowered his head and picked up the pickaxe he had dropped. “Could we just get back to finding you some gems and drop the subject? I really don't want to talk about it.”

While I was incredibly confused as to why ponies were so against talking about mating, I felt I should simply leave the topic be and follow Fluffy’s dad. I couldn’t stifle a frown from appearing on my muzzle though. I had been hoping to learn how to improve Fluffy’s experience when we were having our fun times; sadly, ponies weren’t like dragons when it comes to mating.

I could at least still be thankful that neither of Fluffy’s parents were like my mom.

I continued to follow Fluffy’s dad for a lot longer than I was expecting through the tunnel, passing branches to the tunnel and sections of rocks with a smell that reminded me of coal, but far acrider. Those were likely the pockets of lignite he had been talking about. Eventually though, we reached the gems.

The tunnel widened out slightly, just enough for me to turn around, but not enough that it would be either easy or comfortable. As the light of the lantern began to illuminate the walls in this area, glints if gems that were half exposed began to sparkle. And based on the smells that I could detect, there were quite a few gems still here, and a good variety as well.

“So, just tell me what kind of gems you like and I’ll start working on mining some out for you. I can't promise I’ll have everything in here, but I can try to find things that won’t be too objectionable.”

“Just mine what you can and I’ll find and dig out the gems I want. When we get back to your house, I can sort through everything and find the ones I like.”

Gold fixed me with a skeptical stare. “Not to insult you, but the mountains here mostly granite.” He removed the pickaxe from his mouth and slammed it hard against the floor, causing a satisfying ring of metal to resound throughout the tunnel. “I had to have this pickaxe enchanted just so it would break the rocks around here without breaking itself.”

I gave him a smug grin before I began to smell the air, flicking my tongue to get a taste of any odor particles. As I approached one of the walls, I began focusing on a portion just slightly above what would be eye level for Gold, tasting something as I licked the wall. “Do I need to remind you I’m a dragon?” I raised a claw and started to scratch a small pyramid out of the rocks. As Gold had said, the stone here was far tougher than what I was used to, and was taking me a little more effort to carve, but it was still no match for my talons.

After only a short while, I was able to remove the section of the wall and hold it in one of my claws. I then squeezed it, and eventually, the rock shattered. When I opened my claw and blew off the dust, a small amethyst was revealed. “We are quite good at finding and digging for our own gems.” I then threw it into the air and caught it in my teeth as it came down.

“Well, this will definitely help things go faster.” Gold then turned around and began walking further down the vein. “Still, you have any preferences?”

“I don't like diamonds, garnet, or beryl. Most other gems I’m fine with or like.”

“You got it.”

And with that, the two of us began to remove gems from within the walls of the tunnel and place them in the bag Gold had brought. Gold was picking away and filling the tunnel with the sounds of rocks being broken up while I kept tasting the walls and carving out the gems I either knew I liked or new ones that smelled and tasted like I would enjoy them.

After a while, Gold stopped working on the walls and came over to me and dropped the gems he had just found in the bag and picking it up. “Ok, I think that should be good to keep you happy while you’re here.” He sounded a little worn out, and I couldn't blame him. Picking away at these stones seemed like hard work for non-dragons.

I just nodded and moved so that my right side was against the wall, allowing him to walk past me. After Gold had passed, I followed after him and tossed the last gem I found into my mouth. Chewing it, I found it had a nice, chewy flavor, reminding me of clinohumite, but without the intense sweetness.

“You have a lot of tasty gems in here I haven’t tried before. I might have to work my magic with Fluffy to convince her to have you send us some of them every now and then.”

“Is that so?” Fluffy’s father sounded a little strained. Obviously the bag of gems was a little heavier than what he was used to carrying. “Well, if you’re willing to offer me some of that treasure you were talking about earlier, I might be convinced to mine them to send to you.”

“Oh, and can I expect a family discount?” I smirked a little at turning the tables on him.

“You want to grow your hoard, I want a pool. I think we might be able to work something out. If you don't mind me asking, what gems do we have that you might like?”

“I just found it before you wanted to leave. It was white with black veins, looked very similar to marble.”

“Oh, that sounds like howlite. I hardly bother with collecting any of it, too common to be worth the effort. Have a whole box of it back in the study to practice carving.”

The remaining walk back through the tunnel was fairly uninteresting, mostly involving me telling him what my favorite gems back home were and that gems did have very different flavors. When we finally made it back outside, I couldn't help but flare out my wings and stretch my neck while Fluffy’s father placed the lantern and helmet back in the box, set the pickaxe beside the box, before then setting the bag of gems on the ground and leaning back against a tree. Even though I appreciated him taking me into the mine with him, pony-sized tunnels were not comfortable for dragons.

When I had properly stretched myself out, I turned back to Gold and noticed that he looked quite exhausted. “I can carry the gems. Fluffy probably wouldn’t approve of me letting you carry them, especially since they seem to be too heavy for you.”

“Thanks.” I picked up the bag and placed it on my back before turning back to him. “Yeah, I’m not the stallion that I once was. Wasn’t that long ago that I could have kept mining for several more hours and humped two bags heavier than that one without a sweat. Let me tell you, growing old isn't fun.”

Seeing the state of Fluffy’s father, I thought of something I could do that would probably help in getting him to approve of me being Fluffy’s mate. “If you want, I can always carry you back.”

“No, I can still walk, I just need to catch my breath. Thanks for the offer though, I would just rather not be carried around like a plushie by my son-in-law. Not exactly the best look for a stallion.”

“We’ll be able to get back sooner if I carry you, and I would prefer it if I could get back to my mate as soon as possible. I doubt that anyone will see me carrying you if that’s all you are worried about.”

Gold gave me an unsure look, but after a while, he eventually sighed. “Alright, I’ll let you carry me. I don't suppose that means I’ll be riding on your back?”

I bared my teeth slightly and growled at him. Just because I was playing the nice dragon didn’t mean I had to completely demean myself. “No. Only my mate is allowed to make that request.”

While I hadn’t entirely intended to scare him, my change in demeanor had obviously put him on edge. “I had a feeling.” As he got up, I stopped growling and did my best to return to how I had been before he had asked to ride on me.

He approached me though, still looking apprehensive about the prospect. Whether it was mostly due to him still not being comfortable with being carried by me or if my growling had made me look like I had been intending to attack him. If it was the latter, I wouldn’t hear the end of it from Fluffy. But I still had my draconic pride, and I would not permit anyone to ride on me save for her.

I simply reached down with my right foreleg and scooped him up, flipping him onto his back before standing up. I had done this a few times with Fluffy so I had mostly mastered walking around with a pony in one of my forelegs. “This comfortable?”

“Uh… yeah. It is kind of nice. Now I see what Cloud and Danger were talking about.” While Gold sounded a little calmer now, there was still an undercurrent of unease in his voice.

“I’m glad to hear you enjoy it too.” And with that, I began to walk back down the trail that the two of us had taken a little over an hour ago.

As I was carrying Gold, I couldn’t help but notice how different he felt from Fluffy and her mom. While Fluffy was overall extremely soft; with her thick coat, chestfluff, and playful feathers, and her mom was soft, feeling like fluffy except without the chestfluff and having a thinner coat, her dad’s coat and feathers, while being thicker than his wife’s, were much coarser. He did have the chestfluff though, so I did have him to thank for Fluffy having that.

“So… uh… I couldn’t help but start thinking about what you’re going to be eating while your here when we were finding you some gems.”

“Hmm? What about it?” This was an interesting change of subject. I wonder where this came from.

“Well, I was curious, how, uh, filling, are gems for a dragon?”

Now that was an interesting question. I don’t think even Fluffy had asked me what gems were like to eat. Granted, she had asked me what gems were my favorite so she could buy me some on our one month anniversary, and asked what they tasted like on several occasions, but never what it was like to eat them.

“They fill me up quite well. But since Fluffy moved in, I’ve learned to appreciate a little variety in my diet.” I turned my head towards him after saying that, looking at him with mild curiosity. “Why do you ask.”

“I was just thinking… if you, uh, want to eat something that we don't have, we wouldn’t be offended if you leave to go find it.”

“And what might that be? You seem to have a good variety of foods in your home.”

“You know. Ponies aren’t exactly known for having an extremely… welcoming diet for non-ponies. So if you feel like eating something other than gems and vegetables, we would, uh… appreciate it if you would, make sure not to… you know.”

I just raised an eyebrow at that. While their softness helped make them rather appealing, I was not in any way a fan of how indirect they tended to be. It always irritated me to no end when Fluffy would do this and not just tell me what it was that she was trying to say; now her father was doing it. Hopefully this wasn’t something that all ponies did.

Gold just seemed to become more uncomfortable under my gaze, shifting slightly and turning a bit red. “We wouldn’t want to be rude, just, us ponies are very restricted in our diets. And we don't do too well with seeing griffin food, or dragon food, or manticore food. Simply smelling or seeing leftover pieces is enough to make us feel not so good.”

I opened my mouth and was about to demand he not be so vague with what he was saying when it hit me. All of the creatures he had named were predators to one degree or another. “Are you asking me about me hunting and bringing back what I killed?” I felt a smile begin to tug at the corners of my mouth at that revelation.

My response appeared to have flustered my new dad even more as he seemed to turn a brighter shade of red under his fur. “I, uh, well, sort of, yes. I would rather not have to see any blood or smell death while your here. Don't take that the wrong way, I know that things like that are part of your diet and I’m fine with that. I would just prefer it if I don’t have to see it.”

I couldn’t hold back anymore, a wide smile broke out across my muzzle and I released a burst of hearty laughter. “Hahaha, oh, don't worry, Fluffy is already keeping me in line when it comes to that. And as I said last night, I can eat anything, so I won't need to hunt while I’m here, so don’t worry.”

Gold seemed to calm down quite a bit after that and just relaxed into my foreleg. I continued to walk for a while until he decided to restart the conversation. “I just noticed, is Fluffy your pet name for Danger?”

“Yes, yes it is. When I first met her, when I touched her fur, I thought it felt amazing. Since then, that’s just how I’ve been referring to her. And I have to add, I am so happy she inherited your chestfluff.”

“I… don’t know how I should be feeling about that. You do know she has an actual name, one that she’s been going by for the last two decades?”

“I know, I’ll call her Danger every once in a while, but Fluffy is just so much easier to say, and far sexier. After our first mating session, she really seemed to embrace the name. I have got to say, feeling her fur when she is cuddling me is nice, but it can't compare to when the two of us are having fun. There’s just something about me mounting her or her mounting me that makes her fur feel just that much better. When we were first going at it, after-”

“Big Softy!” The shout from Gold brought be out of my memories and back to the present. Looking down, I noticed that the coat around Gold’s face had turned an almost vibrant shade of red.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about your pony sensibilities.”

And with that, the remaining trip back to Fluffy’s parents’ house returned to how it had been when the two of us had come here, except I was now carrying Fluffy’s dad in one of my forelegs and had a bag of gems jostling on my back.

Study Discussions

Fluffy’s father and I were able to make it back to the cabin quite a bit faster than it had taken for us to get to the mine. That was mostly because my stride is a good deal greater than Gold’s, and neither he nor the bag of gems were all that heavy.

When the cabin came into sight, Gold decided to pipe up. “Hey, would you mind putting me down now? I would rather not be paraded into my own home in your arms.”

I blew a little smoke out of my nostrils at this but complied, placing him back on the ground. Even though I would have preferred to just keep walking, I could respect that he saw me holding him as a blow against his pride, and if I were in his position, I would want to be put down as soon as possible.

A dragon's pride was one of his most important possessions. For me, it was a close second after Fluffy of course.

Anyway, when we arrived, I was of course the first to enter. “After you,” was what Gold said if I remember correctly, showing respect to me being a dragon. The first thing I saw though, was Fluffy and her mom standing in the kitchen with this certain expression on their faces, telling me something was going on.

“That was quick, I take it you two didn’t need to dig too hard to get what you needed?” Cloud sounded just as cheerful as when we were having breakfast.

“Eh, still a pain in the flank.” Gold walked over to his wife and planted a kiss on her cheek, an act that, based on the smile that developed on her muzzle, was very much appreciated. “If gems and quality metals weren’t so common around here, I have a feeling I would have gone crazy a long time ago.”

“Then I’m glad we chose the right place to live. You’re much more attractive when you're sane,” Cloud said before beginning to nuzzle him.

I couldn’t help but let a smile begin to spread across my muzzle. It seemed like Fluffy had taken after her parents when it came to showing affection. As I was appreciating how similar Fluffy was to her parents, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized something. “I see your brother isn’t around. Did he return to his own home?”

“Well, when my daughter and I-”

“No, he’s still here. He just left once he finished what he was doing. He’s probably in his room.” Fluffy was quick to interrupt her mother, her face having become one of fear.

I looked at Fluffy with a raised eyebrow. I had a feeling that Never had done something to anger her, or more accurately, something that would anger me. Knowing how much Fluffy wanted me to get along with her family, it was no surprise that she would prefer that I don’t know about them fighting. Even if Fluffy didn’t want me to know, the way she was acting was telling me enough.

“If you want, you can put the gems in the pantry. I’m sure that if you don’t finish them you could always take them back to your lair,” Gold said, gesturing to the bag I still had slung across my back.

I nodded, removing the bag and clawing it over to Cloud, but not before reaching in and removing a clawfull of gems. After my little taster in the cave, and seeing all the unfamiliar stones I’d excavated, I thought it might be fun to try a few others.

As I watched Cloud move into what must have been the pantry with the bag, I remembered something that Fluffy’s dad said.

“Dad, didn’t you say you had a collection of that gem I sampled?”

Fluffy looked between me and her father several times before her gaze finally settled on Gold. “Dad? Did Big Softy just call you Dad?”

“Yes, he did. I figured that since he’s going to be part of the family now, he might as well start calling me Dad. As I told him on the way back, I’d rather he not be so formal all the time by calling me Gold.”

Fluffy then turned her attention to me, shock still very much on her face. “And you agreed to this?”

I simply smiled and wandered over to her, wrapping a wing around her to pull her closer before planting a kiss on her lips. “You did ask me to play nice with your family, didn’t you? This is me being a good dragon.”

Unfortunately, my affection didn’t seem to go over as well as I had expected. Despite her entire family knowing about our relationship, she didn’t respond back with a kiss. Instead, she almost seemed to have moved away slightly after I ended the kiss.

I had no clue why she was acting so distant now. All I did was kiss her, hardly the naughtiest thing I could have done. I had a feeling this had something to do with why she’d interrupted her mother when I had asked about her brother.

I couldn’t help but let a frown cross my muzzle. Whatever had happened, it was causing Fluffy to act strangely, and it involved her brother. If this is what happens when Fluffy and her brother were together when I’m away, I figured that staying with her no matter what would be my top priority.

Gold looked back over to me. “And to answer your question, Big Softy, I keep a bag of them in the study. Just open the treasure chest on the window sill behind my desk.”

I raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. “A treasure chest? Seems a bit indulgent for gems ‘too common to be worth the effort’.”

“Well, they’re still worth something. You can hardly blame me for wanting to keep them there.” Gold smiled back at me. “Makes me feel like Goldhorn whenever I open it. Go ahead and take what you want, I’m going to catch up with my wife and daughter.”

I hesitated for a moment, concerned about how Fluffy was acting, but decided with both her parents around, they might be able to get Fluffy acting normal again, and if not, I could always convince her we need some alone time to cuddle things out, so I grumbled and turned to leave the room. It was only after I had left that I remembered that no one had told me where the study was. While I would have preferred to have been told this before leaving, I could still go back and ask Fluffy. Despite my misgivings, as asking for help, even from her, would be a knock against my draconic pride, I decided to just put that aside for the moment.

On the plus side, this would allow me to cuddle with her once again.

I turned back around and made a beeline for Fluffy, interrupting the conversation that was just starting between her and her father as I lifted her up and dropped my head into her chest fluff.

“Hey! I was just talking with my dad!” Fluffy’s words were in the angry tone she usually used when I would do something like this back in the lair, she even poofed up the same way, encouraging me to cuddle her even more. She quickly calmed down and sighed. “I figured my dad bribing you with gems would have convinced you to go get them. And don’t tell me you already did, I know how long it should have taken you.” She sighed once more before talking softly enough that only I could hear. “I never would have guessed you could get so clingy.”

“What’s wrong with wanting to cuddle with my oh-so-fluffy mate whenever the opportunity presents itself?” I softly replied as I nuzzled her chest fluff once more, doing my best to make sure our conversation wouldn’t be overheard, before withdrawing my head so I could look at her. “I also came back to ask you where your father’s study is.”

Fluffy began to poof up slightly as her face became tinted red. “And you couldn’t have just asked me that from the hall?”

I recoiled slightly, doing my best to look offended. “I still have my draconic pride. How would your family look at me if I, a dragon, asked for help?”

Fluffy looked to be about to respond until she gave one last sigh and closed her eyes. “Walk out of the room and turn right, the study is the second door on your right. Now can you put me back down, I was about to talk with my dad.”

I planted a kiss on her lips before putting her back down and turning to exit the room, but not before giving her flank a naughty stroke with my tail, which she answered with an embarrassed slap with her own. I followed Fluffy’s instructions and took the second door on the right and was greeted with the sight of Gold’s study.

It was a fairly respectable room in my opinion. There were a few small couches and chairs situated around the room, a large wooden desk in front of a window on the left, and a far number of recesses or shelves along the walls with rocks, pictures, or other assorted odds and ends on them.

Examining the room, I couldn’t help but imagine having something like this back in my lair. While I wouldn’t be able to have a window if I made it in the inner lair, it would still be an interesting addition.

Speaking of the window, I looked over at it and saw the chest that Gold had been talking about. It was a fairly decent size, about half the size of Fluffy’s torso, and had a large geode, one purple, and one crimson, on each side of it.

I inwardly laughed a little at seeing this, as it looked very much like something I would do. I walked over to the chest and opened it, finding the bag that Gold said would be there. Looking inside of it, I discovered that Gold had been right. Based on their appearance, this howlite gem was the one I had tried in the mine.

Remembering what he had said, I figured I might as well take the entire thing, seeing as he’d offered me as much as I wanted. So rather than reaching in and grabbing a claw full of the jewels, I dropped what I had brought with me into the bag and removed it from the chest before closing it.

I was about to turn around to start my return to Fluffy when I thought back on what she had told me. It seemed she still wanted to catch up with her family, more specifically with her father, no doubts to ask him how well behaved I had been.

Being the nice dragon I was, I decided I would stay here and let her have her time with her father to learn how skillfully I had conducted myself. This way, it would be easier to convince her to have some more naughty times with me. It would also give me an excuse to sample the new gems I found.

I walked over to one of the couches and decided to lay down. While pony furniture was a tad bit smaller than what I preferred, it was still big enough to use. I placed the bag next to me on the floor and did my best to situate myself onto the couch before me. While I ended up hanging slightly off of it due to its lack of depth, and my tail was draped off of one end, I was still in a fairly comfortable position.

With that finalized, I decided to reach into my bag of gems and start snacking. When I pulled out the clawfull of stones, I was unsurprised that most of them were howlite, but there were two gems that I had brought with me. They were both fairly chatoyant, with one being predominantly a dark green and the other a mixture of oranges, reds, and yellows.

Intrigued by the possible taste that the two stones would have, I decided to try them first. I picked up the green gem with my other claw and tossed it into my mouth. When I bit down to crack it, I was met with the most atrocious taste I had ever experienced.

I had bitten down on a decaying piece of wood once before on accident, and the taste I received from this jewel was almost indistinguishable. It was a foul, plant-like flavor that seemed to just cling to every part of my mouth and assault it with its horrendousness.

I couldn’t spit out the shards fast enough. Were I to be back at my lair, I would have regurgitated the appalling thing onto the ground and burned it without delay. Unfortunately, that was not an option seeing as my surroundings were very much flammable, and spitting it out through the window was also not an option for similar reasons as well as the fact that the window didn’t look to be capable of opening. So ultimately, I had to settle for a less dignified solution,

I grabbed a metal plate covered in fake fruits off of the coffee table next to me, allowed the fruits to roll off and onto the table, before proceeding to disgorge the fragments of the gem onto it. I ran my tongue across all of my teeth after I felt that I‘d spit out everything, just to make sure that there were no stragglers caught between them.

When I was confident that there was nothing left in my maw, I glared down at the pieces shimmering on the plate. I had always hated the taste of diamonds, thinking them to be the absolute worst tasting gem to exist. Unfortunately, I had learned the hard way that there were in fact stones far more objectionable than diamonds. I wanted nothing more than to throw the plate holding that atrocious jewel across the room, but knew better than to possibly risk upsetting Fluffy, so I merely returned it to the coffee table; perhaps with a little more zeal than necessary.

I removed the other strange gem from my claw before tossing the collection of howlite I still had in my grasp into my mouth in an effort to rid myself of the residual taste that was still refusing to go away. As expected, the five or so stones I was now eating were more than enough to replace the flavor in my mouth.

When I finished consuming the howlite, I let out a satisfied sigh and relaxed into the couch. After several seconds of savoring the aftertaste, I remembered that I still had another gem in the palm of my claw. I looked down at it and began to move my claw around to watch the gem change colors as the light played off of it.

After my last experience with an unknown gem, I was not exceptionally thrilled with the idea of trying another. I continued to play with it for several minutes, debating with myself if I was actually willing to give it a try. On one claw, I had experienced first claw that gems more revolting than diamond exist, something I was not happy to experience once again. On the other claw, the howlite was quite good, tasting about as good as amethyst in my opinion.

I eventually decided to give the stone a try. While there was the possibility for the gem to be just as revolting as the last one, it was also possible for it to be better than ruby, and if that was the case, I would never be able to forgive myself for not learning that as soon as possible.

I placed it into my mouth and hesitantly bit down, bracing myself for the possibility of another foul jewel. When the flavor finally hit me I was pleasantly surprised.

It was mildly spicy with a slight warmth to it. If I had to put a name to it, I would have to say it felt like I had a fire burning in my mouth. I was rather satisfied with the sensation. While the flavor was not all too special, being about as good as the howlite, the fact that this was the first gem I had tried that had something other than a flavor was enough to earn my approval. I would have to remember to ask what the jewel was called so I could ask Gold how much I would need to trade him to convince him to send me what he finds.

“Well, your mate doesn’t waste any time when it comes to showing affection.” Gold had a smile plastered on his muzzle as he watched Big Softy head to the study. “But I can’t say I’m all too surprised. You wouldn’t believe what he said to me before and after finding the gems.”

I could see our daughter’s face redden several shades after hearing that. It seemed that she had a fairly good idea about what he had said.

I, meanwhile, couldn’t pass up this opportunity to mess with her some more. “Why don't you tell us, honey? I’m sure Danger already knows, but I’m dying to hear.”

“Ok, I’m going to check on Never. You two can carry on without me.” Danger’s response was immediate. There was hardly any time to reply as she practically sprinted out of the room. I could only chuckle slightly at her.

“And then there were two.” I turned to look at Gold. “So, what did he say? I can only guess that it was something Danger would find to be extremely embarrassing.”

Gold gave a nervous chuckle before starting. “Well, I have to say, dragon customs are quite a bit different from our own. When I was asking about why he always calls our daughter Fluffy, he started to go into their first romp in the sheets. He was also about to give me details on their other sexual activities on the way back before I stopped him. Apparently, dragons are quite open about their sex lives, they even teach their kids about it from a fairly young age.”

“Is that so? Well, I’m sure you listened quite intently.” I gave him a playful bump with my hip.

“Yeah, no. I already know how our daughter became pregnant, I don’t need to hear the play-by-play on each little thing they did to each other.”

“Aww, and here I was expecting you to tell me if our special techniques are really so special.” I smiled good-naturedly, but made a mental note to ask Big Softy personally if what my husband was saying was true.

“No, I’m not all too curious about knowing all the intricacies about our daughter’s sex life. I’m happy that she has one and that they're both happy, I just don’t need the details. If we’re lucky, Danger will put her hoof down on how their foal will learn about sex. The last thing I need is for our grandfoal to start describing in detail the best ways to make your partner happy when they’re only seven.”

“I wouldn’t be too opposed. It would give me another excuse to embarrass her in front of us. But, if you’re so opposed to talking about what our daughter and her dragonfriend like to get up to, I’ll be nice and change the subject.” I gave him a slap on his back with my wing while smiling before pulling in close to him.” Since you’re finally back and our kids ran off, it looks like you will be helping me with lunch.”

“No, I’ll handle that, you’re the only one left that hasn’t had a one-on-one interaction with Big Softy yet. I’ll get started on everything while you meet your new son-in-law.”

“Only one? And here I was thinking that it was me and Never that hadn’t had the opportunity to properly get to know him.”

Gold fixed me with a knowing glance. “We both saw the outcome of last night and how Never was acting this morning. It’s not too hard to conclude that those two had all the one-on-one time that Big Softy wanted.”

I allowed a small grin to spread across my muzzle as I inwardly chuckled at what I knew. “Ok then. I was planning to make pesto pizza seeing as the onions are starting to look a little questionable. Just make sure to double everything so we can have two pizzas. I would hate to leave Big Softy hungry.”

“With all the gems me and him dug out, and considering he’s currently raiding my stockpile of howlite, I doubt he’ll be that hungry. We usually have one or two leftover slices with our usual size, so I’ll just use about a third more to make it. Now go. And make sure he hasn’t eaten that turquoise I found. I want to show that to Bedrock when I see him next.”

“Will do.”

~🐲~

As I was laying there on the couch, enjoying a few more howlite pieces, I was brought back to reality by knocking on the door.

“Is that you, Fluffy?” I twisted my head around so that I was looking at the door. I was hoping it was her, as it would mean that I could finally return to cuddling my fluffy mate.

“No, it’s just me.” I watched as Fluffy’s mom pushed open the door before coming in and shutting it behind her. “I managed to scare my daughter off not too long after you left. She said she was going to talk to her brother.”

I couldn’t help but scowl at that. The fact she had chosen to run to her brother rather than me was annoying, and was only helping to sour my opinion of him even more.

He was preventing me from spending more time with my fluffy marefriend.

“So anyways, I was about to start work on lunch when my husband reminded me that we haven’t spent any quality time getting to know one another. And seeing as we are basically family now, it only makes sense.” Cloud’s voice was rather cheerful as she said this, sounding a lot like Fluffy even, something I was very happy with.

“That makes sense.” I turned towards one of the couches across from me and nodded at it. Cloud seemed to get my message and walked over.

When she’d taken a seat, she began to look over me and the smile on her muzzle dissipated. “Are you alright? You don’t look too comfortable.”

“Well, your furniture is a bit too small for me, but I can manage.”

Cloud fixed me with a skeptical glance, eventually focusing on my tail. “Are you sure about that? I won't pretend that I know much about dragons, but won’t your tail eventually go numb?”

“No, it won’t do that.”

“Ok then. As long as you’re comfortable.” She got into a more comfortable position herself before continuing. “So, my husband told me that you were getting quite detailed when discussing your sex life with my daughter while you two were off looking for gems.”

I inwardly cringed at hearing that. While I wasn’t ashamed at what I had done, I knew that if Fluffy disapproved of me doing that, I would lose my good dragon points, and if that happened, I might not get any more fun times while we’re here. Ultimately, it would be best to be honest and see if I could prevent this from getting worse. “Yes. It’s common for dragons to be quite open about that. But don’t worry, he told me about your pony sensibilities, so I’ll make sure I don’t bring it up again.”

What I saw next confused me. Cloud brought a hoof up to her mouth before beginning to chuckle. “Oh, don't worry about it, you’re fine. While I wouldn’t suggest you bring it up in so much detail, as long as you don’t do it around Never or my husband, it’s fine.”

I looked back at her even more perplexed than I’d already been. “Gold didn’t seem to want the subject brought up at all.”

“Well, from how he described it, you were going to go into quite a bit more detail than ponies give, and we also don’t tend to be so open about that part of our relationships. That being said… I am quite curious about how you two are doing in that regard. I tried asking Danger for the details, but... it seems she took after her father when it comes to talking about it.”

“You… are?” I was quite surprised at the fact that she didn’t have an objection to me talking about it. The way Gold had described it, no pony would enjoy my openness in describing how me and Fluffy mated. Then it hit me as to exactly what she said. “Wait, you asked Fluffy for the details?”

“Well, yes, I am her mom. While Gold is happy just knowing our daughter is happy, I much prefer to know how happy. And besides, we are both mares, I hardly think there’s much she should be embarrassed about. I should tell you, when I was trying to get ‘Fluffy’ to open up a little with me about the topic, she did tell me you were a little more gifted in regards to your equipment than a stallion.”

While I was a little confused at first as to what she was talking about, it eventually clicked for me, causing me to raise my eyebrows in surprise. “You asked her about that?”

“It was the first thing I brought up. You are obviously a fair bit more sizable than a pony, so it only makes sense to know if what you are packing fits your stature.”

This was quite the surprise. Apparently Fluffy’s mom had the same sensibilities as a dragon when it came to talking about sex. I was also slightly bewildered by the fact that she had just used my name for her daughter. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but sit up straighter while smirking at the her stating my maleness surpassed a pony’s.

“So, seeing as Fluffy isn’t as forthcoming with your two’s nighttime activities, it only makes sense to ask you about it.”

My smirk became a smile at how familiar this was to me. I shifted myself a little to get more comfortable before addressing her. “What would you like to know? And, I would hope you don’t tell Fluffy about this. She wouldn’t be happy finding out I talked to you about this.”

“Understood. Well, first off, I want to know what you two often do when you’re in the bedroom. I want to know if you’re doing everything to help my daughter enjoy herself.”

“Well, I usually use my tail to play with her private parts.” I lifted my tail slightly and began to move it around. “As you can see, it’s quite flexible, and I have a good amount of control over it, so it’s more than capable of pleasuring her. Other than that, I’ve found that nibbling between her wing joints is the best way to get her in the mood.”

“That’s certainly good to hear. But, I may have some advice for how you could do better.” The smirk on her face almost made me want to break into a smile as well. It took some effort to maintain control, but I managed. “You see, if you were to bite down on the back of her neck while you two are going at it, and if you were to hold where her waist meets her hips with your claws, I’m positive you will be giving her far more pleasure than you’ve already been.”

“Hmm, that hips thing sounds interesting, but I need to ask, are you sure asking me to bite her neck is the best idea?” I pulled back my lips for a few seconds to show my fangs before continuing. “As you can see, my teeth aren’t exactly the safest to try that with. My parents gave me the same advice for ‘when’ I took a dragoness as a mate, but since you ponies don’t have protective scales, I have avoided trying it when we mate.”

“Would you ever try biting her hard enough to hurt her?” Cloud asked as she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

I pulled my head back offended and began to growl. “Never! I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her!” The fact that she would even ask such a question was an insult. To have someone question my decisions when it came to Fluffy was inexcusable.

“Then why are you so afraid? You know how much you love her and how little you want her to be hurt. So as long as you keep that in mind while you are doing it, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Oh, she was trying to prove to me that I was just being overly concerned. I had to admit, I was really coming to like Fluffy’s mom. While I still had some reservations about biting Fluffy’s neck due to the potential dangers, I was willing to give it a shot. If it really was something I could do to make Fluffy happier when we mated, I would be doing her a disservice by not trying it at least once.

“Alright, I’ll make sure I do those the next time we have our fun time.”

“I hope you will.” Cloud smiled at me, got off of her couch, and began to make her way to the door. “Gold’s fixing lunch right now so it won't be too long. If you’re going to stay in here, I’ll make sure to send Fluffy in to get you.” As she opened the door and was about to leave, she turned back to me. “Oh, Black Death, I told my daughter this but I figured you should know as well. I would appreciate it if you two wouldn’t mate while you’re in my house. I try to keep everything nice, and having to experience the smell of sex every time I walk by her room doesn’t fit that description.” And with that, she left, closing the door behind her and leaving me to my own thoughts.

I was not happy with being told that I could not have any fun times with Fluffy while we were here. While I still found Cloud to be to my liking, her telling me this had not helped my opinion of her. Nevertheless, It was her ‘lair’, and I had promised Fluffy I’d behave. That being said, I would need to find a way to get away with having my fun times while here.

The rest of the day was fairly calm. Lunch was enjoyable, and thankfully Fluffy was a lot more receptive to my affections after her time with her brother. This was most likely due to how little we had seen each other today.

Fluffy and I mostly sat around and cuddled after lunch and enjoyed each other's company. Fluffy’s family spent the time planning something for us to do tomorrow, but I didn’t pay it much mind, I had my cuddly mate to occupy my thoughts. They tried to get us involved, but I made it clear we were busy. Fluffy tried to join in at first, but a quick application of my wing over her back and a gentle push down prevented her from leaving me. She grumbled a bit at this, but after a little bit of chastising from her, mostly her calling me a clingy scaled dog, she settled back into my embrace and continued our cuddling.

A Naughty Morning

I awoke quite early the next morning to the sound of crickets and the occasional racket of a woodpecker. I yawned rather widely and shifted my wings slightly to chase out the remnants of my deep sleep before closing my eyes again and readjusting my position so that I was more tightly curled around my sleeping mate.

Waking up like this was not something I felt I approved of. Back at the lair, mornings tended to be rather quiet, save for Fluffy’s snoring. I found that waking up to those sounds was something uncomfortable, though, Fluffy seemed to like it. I was willing to tolerate this drone of noise if it meant she would be happy. According to her, her mood had an effect on the baby, so I was very intent on making sure she stayed in a good mood. But still, I much preferred the sweet silence of my lair. The noise only reminded me about why my lair was where it was and why it was so deep underground.

However, I would always prefer the rumbles that came from my sleeping mate over silence, despite how troublesome they could be when it came to getting my own sleep. Speaking of which, I felt the membrane of the wing coving Fluffy begin to vibrate due to said snoring, sending a shiver up the back of my neck from the strangeness of the feeling. I opened up my right eye and lifted my wing so that I could check on my cuddly pegasus.

Well, I can't say that she was the most attractive sleeper, looking more a rok had dropped her there from almost a kilometer up, with her legs and wings splayed out in every direction. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but let a smile cross over my muzzle. When she slept like this, it always gave me access to her more cuddly and fluffy parts.

I snaked my head around and began to rub my snout along her stomach and up into her chest fluff before coming back down again. As I was doing this, Fluffy seemed to be waking up. Her snoring ended and her legs began to curl into her chest and sides. After only a few more minutes of this, she woke up and began to stroke my head with her hooves while purring.

“Mmm, well aren’t you being the affectionate dragon today. Couldn’t wait for me to wake up myself?”

I smiled before stopping my administrations and laying my head on her belly and chest, an act that allowed her to better reach my head and muzzle. “I wasn’t trying to, you just happen to be unable to resist being awake when I want to cuddle.”

Fluffy returned my smile and continued to pet the side of my face and muzzle, eventually bringing her head forward and kissing me. “Naughty dragon.”

I lifted my head slightly and returned her kiss. After a few seconds of us locking lips, Fluffy gently pushed me away before lifting my wing out of her way to look at the bedside clock on her nightstand. When she saw it, she released a sigh, dropped my wing, and fixed me with that cute glare she gave me when she was upset but not truly angry.

“Could you not have waited just a little longer? It’s not even six.”

I folded my wing against my side, being careful not to hit Fluffy before moving my head back and beginning to rub the side of my face against hers. “What’s the matter? At the lair, you would already be up by now and begging me to help you relieve your… naughty desires.” After I said the last word, I gave her an affectionate lick across her cheek.

Fluffy just puffed up her cheeks at that as her face turned slightly red, becoming even cuter in the process. “Well we’re not back at the lair, we’re at my parents’ house, and they said no sex.”

I grumbled unhappily at being reminded about that. I couldn’t get why Cloud didn’t want me to have sex with her daughter while we were here, especially after she told me how I could pleasure Fluffy even more. I would have liked nothing more than to ignore what Cloud told me, but as I said, it was her ‘lair’, so I had to tolerate that she made the rules. If Fluffy’s family only lived closer to my lair, Fluffy and I could just go there and have our fun before coming back.

Just then though, an idea came to mind, and I just couldn't help but allow a naughty smile to cross my maw.

“Big Softy, why are you smiling?” She then fixed me with a suspicious glare. “I hope you aren’t planning to be naughty.”

“Oh, I am, but don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll approve.”

Fluffy’s suspicious glare quickly became doubtful. “And what, pray tell, might that be?”

“Well, you remember when I went out with your father yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“I was just thinking, since your parents wouldn’t approve of me and you having our fun here, why don’t we go to that mine he showed me and do it there?”

Fluffy looked confused at first, but quickly caught on. She too began to smile before reaching out and returning to stroking the side of my muzzle. “I have grown to enjoy our underground romps. While it might not be the same without a bed, I’m sure we’ll manage.”

I planted one last kiss on her muzzle before shifting myself to allow her to get up, while at the same time cuddling even more against the side of her face. Fluffy released an irritated sigh at this, which became a ‘Softy!’ when I began to nuzzle her side and she felt me slowly pushing her off of the bed. I continued to aggressively rub my muzzle against her; from her sides under her wing, to between her wings, to even her haunches, all in an effort to show my affection while also getting her moving.

Fluffy fluffed up in mild irritation before smirking back at me when I was finally able to nuzzle her off of the bed. “Naughty evil dragon.”

I just beamed and rubbed the end of my muzzle against her cheek before giving her a playful lick. This caused Fluffy to fluff up even more, but this lovely sight unfortunately came to an end a few seconds later when she turned and walked towards the door. Not wanting to delay my fun times, I quickly got up and followed her.

After quietly opening the door and sticking her head out for a few seconds, she fully opened it and looked back at me. “Ok, it doesn’t sound like my dad is up yet. Follow me, and make sure you keep quiet.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that. As I had proven time and time again, I was more than capable of sneaking around without being heard. However, seeing her so concerned about being discovered by her parents was extremely cute. Being the good mate that I was, I pushed my head below her wing while I had the chance, nuzzling her feathers and purring in the process to calm her down, but mostly to feel her soft and lovely body.

“Shhh!” she whispered, but stroked over my head nonetheless.

“I can’t suppress it when you are so fluffy,” I replied. “Purring is what you force me to do.”

“My dad’s usually up by now, and I don’t want him catching us.” She looked at me under her wing and smiled cockily, “That is, unless you prefer purring and cuddling over...” she licked the front of my muzzle seductively, “the more fun form of cuddling.”

I smirked from underneath her wing and rubbed against her one last time before pulling back and allowing her to continue. Fluffy quickly began making her way to the stairs with me following close behind. When she arrived at them, she jumped forward before opening her wings, silently gliding to the front door.

Surprised, I made a mental note to commend her on being able to do that. Unfortunately, my wingspan was a fair bit too large to copy her, so I instead had to take the stairs. It wasn’t all bad though. As I made my way down, being careful with my steps so that I avoided any stair that felt like it would creek if I put my weight on it, I watched Fluffy’s adorable face as she feared I might ruin our escape.

Feeling mischievous, I began to swing my tail ever so slightly, bringing it close to connecting with the wall, but stopping it just before it actually hit. I was rewarded by getting to see most of the color drain from Fluffy’s face. I always loved seeing her drop her calm demeanor, especially when I was the reason why. When I had finally gotten down the stairs and reached Fluffy, I was greeted with a punch to my chest.

“What was that!” She was halfway between whispering and talking normally in terms of volume. “You could have woken everyone up! What were you thinking?”

I just smirked before giving the front of her muzzle a loving lick. This caused Fluffy to puff up her cheeks and her fur to stand on end, making her look even more fluffy, earning her another affectionate lick.

Fluffy released one of her cute chuffs, turned around, and opened the door. After I followed her outside, she slowly closed the door while holding the lever down so that it wouldn’t click when it finally closed. When she concluded this, she let out a sigh and hung her head slightly.

“Hmm, your skills at plundering ruins seem to be quite helpful at sneaking through your house. I have to say, I was very impressed when you flew to the door.” I began to nibble along her back, starting between her wings and traveling up, earning me a shiver from Fluffy. When I reached her right ear, I switched to massaging it with my teeth, causing Fluffy to moan.“Perhaps I can convince you to let me teach you some of my hunting techniques.”

“Cut it out you massive raunchy reptile.” She reached up with her hoof and pushed me away. “And I learned to do that before I started exploring ruins. It helps to be able to sneak out of your house to go exploring when your parents ground you and your brother is a tattletale. Now come on, you’ve riled me up enough already.” Fluffy pushed past me and began walking away from the house, but not in the direction of the mine.

“Where are you going? The mine your dad took me to is this way.” I swung my head in the direction of the tall mountain to emphasize my point.

“I know, but it takes a while to get there. I know where most of his mines are, at least the ones from before I left. There should be one not too far from the house.”

I shrugged with my wings and decided to follow her, she knew this area better than I did after all.

We walked for a few minutes, with me following her for the first few seconds until I decided to walk next to her and wrap my wing over her, for protection of course. We also wouldn’t have made it very far with her flank shaking right in front of me and her cinnamon tinted smell lingering in the air. We eventually arrived at an opening on the side of a large hill that looked to be the mine Fluffy had been referring to. It was slightly overgrown around the edges, but seeing as the entrance was mostly dirt, it made sense.

She giggled, one of the soft, naughty kinds of giggle only she was able to do. “What do you think, my lovely dragon, shall we go in and find a nice spot?” She flicked her tail, spreading a lot more of her scent into the air.

I purred deeply, lifted my wing, and rubbed my head against her side, impatiently pushing her forward.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she giggled before galloping into the mine. “Catch me if you can!” she yelled.

I grinned and allowed her a head start. It only seemed fair since I could see far better than her in the dark. I paced a little as I did my best to give her this head start, but after about a minute, my impatience won and I casually made my way into the mine.

As I walked through the tunnel, I did my best to be quiet and listen for any noises. This was helped by the fact that the floor here was softer than at the lair or in the other mine, thus preventing my claw falls from making much noise and echoing off the walls.

After going a fair bit into the mine, I noticed a few feathers on the ground, as well as a tunnel branch to my left. When I reached them, I could immediately tell that they were from Fluffy, and seeing that they were going down the branch, I looked down it and saw her peeking around a corner on the right a good way in.

I inwardly chuckled at Fluffy’s obvious attempt at trying to surprise me. I knew she would be able to see me, or at least my outline, since we hadn’t gone too far into the mine. And seeing as she knew this area, she had the advantage. Rather than play into her little trap, I made a show of examining the ground along the tunnel she had gone down before looking back at the dropped feathers and continuing straight.

“You won't be able to trick me that easily, Fluffy,” I purred loudly. “I’m coming for you.”

I walked a little faster down the tunnel until I came across a branch to my right. I knew that I was just deep enough that Fluffy wouldn’t be able to see me in the darkness. I just had to wait for her to try her luck at finding me.

I quickly moved into the branch, turned around, and dropped to the ground. Despite how much I wanted to purr though at the plan that was about to unfold, I had to control myself to not alert Fluffy. So I made sure I kept myself completely still and resolved to just smirk.

As expected, I eventually watched as Fluffy slowly walked in front of me, trying to see anything in the pitch blackness around her. Seeing my chance, I carefully pounced on Fluffy, gently tackling her to the ground and flipping her onto her back.

Knowing how hard it was going to be for Fluffy to see me, even when we were this close, I breathed fire at the ground a few meters away. While it wouldn’t last for too long, it would allow her to see me. “Looks like I caught a lost little pegasus.” I slapped the floor with my tail and used my wing to break a little rubble from the walls, doing my best to look intimidating. “Don’t you know how danger-ous this place is for naughty little ponies?” I then rubbed my snout against her muzzle.

“Cut it out Big Softy. We both know where this is going,” she said in her sexiest voice as she began rubbing the side of my head with hers.

“I agree, I think I’ve made you wait long enough.” I quickly moved back, confusing Fluffy at first, only to come back forward and lift my mate into my forelegs, making sure to keep her on her back. Fluffy gave a cute surprised squeak at being suddenly picked up, but just as quickly closed her eyes and began rubbing her head against my chest while purring.

It was a shame though that while I was enjoying her doing this, my fire I buried out, plunging us back into darkness. Knowing it was best if Fluffy and I were able to see each other during our more… intense activities, I began making my way back to the entrance to retrieve a lantern. The entire time, I was purring and enjoying the feeling of my mate as she rubbed against my scales and released cute pegasus noises that were mostly happy, but tinted with impatience.

However, contrary to what I had been expecting, as I was walking back, I noticed a lantern hanging from a hook along the wall that I must not have noticed earlier. So, while holding Fluffy as best I could, I managed to expose the lantern’s wick and breathed a small bit of flame to light it.

I was grateful to see that it still had some oil in it as it lit and stayed burning. When I looked down at my mate, seeing her lovely face still rubbing against me, I couldn’t help but smile.

“I know it might not be the most comfortable place without some burning pillows and a shredded bed,” I said before kissing her on the lips and slowly lowering her to the ground, “but I’m sure I can make it as hot as you’re used to having it.”

“I’m looking forward to it, my handsome lizard.”

We began to passionately kiss each other, our tongues fighting one another for control. While I had the obvious advantage, I still allowed Fluffy to gain the upper claw every so often and dominate the loving fight. After the better part of two minutes of this, I broke off the kissing and began to really start our fun.

I slowly went down her body, kissing, nibbling, or rubbing against her neck and chest. With each action, Fluffy released a hiss of pleasure, eventually bringing her hooves to the sides of my head and trying her best to get me to be more forceful, but I much preferred making her wait just a little longer. So, in frustration, Fluffy leaned forward and bit onto the back of my neck. It wasn’t an aggressive bite, but the soft growl that accompanied it told me all I needed to know about how badly she wanted me to just get on with this.

Fluffy let go of me soon after, and I continued my affections, eventually making it to her stomach, where I paid particular attention. When Fluffy was on her back like this, I often enjoyed laying my head on her stomach. It just felt right seeing as she was carrying our child. So with her laying like this, and in the middle of sex no less, I couldn’t resist giving her that little bit more affection.

Despite her sighs of pleasure at my administrations to her stomach, we both knew this wasn’t why I was moving down her front. With one last rub of my head against her, I moved down to her most special place.

I began by gently flicking my tongue against her clit, causing Fluffy to gasp in pleasure and her leg to twitch, followed shortly after by my tongue being dragged along the edges of her folds. I was careful to only stimulate her lips, prolonging my teasing. This earned me dissatisfied hisses from Fluffy as well as her doing everything she could to force me to properly satisfy her.

“You naughty lizard! Quit being a tease and get on with it!” she hissed out, her need tinting her words.

I smiled and ever so slowly licked her across her opening with a slight flick at the end when I reached her button. I was rewarded with a moan that was half satisfied and half desperate. “Fine, if you aren’t in the mood for playing around, I guess I could be a little more…” I lowered my head and stuck my tongue quite far into her before pulling it up and out, causing Fluffy to groan in pure pleasure, “forward.”

All I received in terms of a response was a happy hum, telling me all I needed to know. I brought my mouth to her mare bits and began either using just my tongue to lick into her or pressing my muzzle into her as I did this. If it were up to her, Fluffy would have only had me doing the latter, as her increased moans and hooves on the back of my head suggested, but I preferred to still tease her just a little. I had to be just a little naughty. And all the while, I didn’t need to look down at myself to know my body was more than ready to be a bit naughty!I eventually pulled my head back, much to Fluffy’s chagrin based on how she tried to bring her legs together to stop me. Not to mention her hiss. I began making my way back up her front, kissing and nibbling as I went, causing Fluffy to sigh and groan unhappily. These sounds quickly became ones filled with delight as I brought my tail forward to replace my tongue.

“Ohh, yeah, that’s more like it.” Fluffy seemed to be enjoying what I was doing, and I was more than happy to oblige.

I leisurely made my way towards her head, stopping at her chest fluff and rubbing my muzzle against it before continuing. As I was rubbing her though, I felt her wings come up behind my head and wrap behind it. A smug grin spread across my muzzle as this confirmed that I was doing a good job. Nevertheless, I proceeded on, allowing Fluffy’s lovely feathers to drag over my scales as I went forward.

Once I passed her collar bone, I stopped switching what I was doing and decided to only nibble at her fur. Fluffy didn’t seem to mind, continuing to moan and shifting her head to the side to give me better access, something I was greatly appreciative of.

Continuing up her neck, my nibbling eventually led me to her cheeks before I finished at her left ear. Here, I slowed my pace, at first biting at the edge of it, but eventually shifting to sensuously gnawing on it. I was always careful not to apply too much pressure, but made sure I was still using some as Fluffy told me she preferred it when I was a little rougher. I had to be careful for both our sakes as neither of us wanted my fangs to pierce her flesh; me for obvious reasons, and her because she would likely not want her parents to see that and ask questions.

All of this resulted in a very happy pegasus. Fluffy’s moans became louder once I began biting her ear, only getting louder as I steadily increased the speed of my tail, the force that I used, and the variety of my movements. In less than a minute of this, Fluffy’s wings were replaced by her hooves as she grabbed onto my neck just behind my head and used this to hold herself up slightly and add her own movements to the fun.

It was only a matter of time until Fluffy reached her climax, and I was more than happy to help. When I felt she was about to blow, I used my tail to tickle her most sensitive spot, focusing on it and enjoying the gasps and moans she made. This was followed soon after by Fluffy biting onto my scales and tightened her hold on my neck right before I felt her walls clamp down on my tail and start massaging it.

When Fluffy’s climax finally passed, I felt her loosen her grip on my neck, and I followed by letting go of her ear. When I pulled my head back to look at my mate, I was greeted to the sight of a very happy pegasus. “Well isn’t that a shame. I had been hoping you would be able to hold out for longer. It doesn’t seem very fair for only one of us to be left satisfied, does it?” I said as I smirked down at her.

Fluffy fluttered her eyes at me before smirking back. “No, it doesn’t. How could I help make up for being so inconsiderate?”

“I have an idea.” I gently picked Fluffy off of the ground and flipped her onto her hooves causing Fluffy to look back over her shoulder at me with a sultry expression as she slowly began shaking her hips and tail. “I think I can help you with that idea!”

With Fluffy being so willing, now seemed to be the perfect time to implement the advice Cloud had given me. I slowly approached her, and when I was practically on top of her, I reared up slightly and reached out with both claws to grab her around the barrel just in front of her hips. I then moved my talons back until they were touching her upper inner thighs and increased the pressure.

Fluffy released a cute gasp as I did that before continuing with a happy sigh. “This is new. Are our new surroundings encouraging you to experiment?”

Instead of immediately responding, I extended my wings slightly and sunk the spikes of my phalanges into the walls to help support myself and not put too much of my weight on Fluffy. I then snaked my head down to her ears to whisper my response. “You could say that.”

I shifted my weight a bit, trying to get comfortable in this new position. It wasn’t that I hadn’t mounted her like this before, but still. After all, my pride as a good lover prevented me from doing anything that might make Fluffy unhappy.

“What are you waiting for?” Fluffy giggled, giving me a cheeky slap against my underside with her tail, “this pony is ready to make her big strong dragon friend very happy.”

“Just you wait, little pegasi!” I replied and lowered my head on the level of her neck, “just you wait,” I whispered again, the sensitive spot of her neck almost between my fangs. While I was still a little hesitant with going through with this, the attention I usually gave to her ears was enough proof that I could manage to control myself.

“Waiting for wh…”

Fluffy’s response was immediately cut short by a sharp inhalation, stiffened wings, and wobbling legs. “What are you doing?” Her voice was a pleasant mix of sexual pleasure and confusion. I could feel her pulse increase beneath my claws. Cloud was right, this was indeed a great way to make Fluffy happy when we had our fun.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t exactly respond to her seeing as I had a cuddly pegasus between my jaws. I instead decided to just purr, earning me a moan from said pegasus.

While it was nice to know that this technique was something that was making my marefriend very happy, I too had my needs. And I had a strong feeling she would be more than happy with me satisfying them. I moved my hips forward to get my growing maleness into position.

When I was finally in the proper stance behind and over her, I pushed forward softly, letting my shaft slip ever so slowly into her, causing her to moan and hiss in the process, as well as making my hold on her neck more difficult since I did not wish to hurt her. It took a great deal of willpower to not just push into her hard and forcefully, but I knew how to drive her crazy, and assure the baby wouldn’t get hurt. While I would have liked to tease her for just a little longer, I was more interested in reaching my own climax now.

The position was slightly awkward for me as I rocked back and forth while inside of her though. Usually, my front legs would be next to her own, and on whatever we were using so I wouldn’t put my weight on her while my head and neck extended out in front of her. It was slightly uncomfortable to be using my wings and hind legs to hold myself up while having to keep hold of Fluffy’s neck with my mouth as I moved.

But for her, it was worth it.

As I was doing this, I began experimenting a little in an effort to improve Fluffy’s experience, to both of our satisfaction. I began slowly increasing the pressure I was using to bite the back of her neck until it was just slightly more than I used on her ear, resulting in happy moans from her. Hearing this, I began to purr out of self satisfaction. Apparently though, me purring seemed to pleasure her even more. Being the kind and generous mate that I was, I continued to do so, only louder and deeper.

Much to my joy, I was not the first to give in to the pleasure. Fluffy, unsurprisingly, began moving on her own in an effort to reach her orgasm. The amount of stimulation I was giving her seemed to be more than enough to drive her to finish first. Once she did though, and I felt her walls begin to rhythmically squeeze my shaft from the base to the tip, I was not far behind, climaxing only seconds later.

Once the last waves of my orgasm concluded, I could feel that Fluffy’s legs were about ready to give out from under her. Carefully, I loosened my grip on her neck and freed my wings from the walls. I then moved my claws along and up her sides, feeling her body pulsing with excitement and warmth. It was a pleasurable sensation. Her body shaking ever so softly while I stepped back, making sure she could relax from our fun and lay down. I held her as her legs wobbled and tenderly guided her to the ground.

When I had successfully laid her onto her side, I moved my hips back, freeing my shaft from her grip before laying down next to her and pushing my head underneath her exposed wing and resting it there.

“I take it you were happy with my new skills,” I said, peeking out from underneath her feathers before rubbing against them, unable to resist their softness.

“Wow, that… that was incredible. We’ll have to do that again when we get home.” She tried to twist her head around to kiss me, but seeing as she wouldn't be able to do that with how I was positioned, I met her half way and scooched forward under her wing and pecked her on the lips before retreating back under her wing and continuing my rubbing.

Fluffy sighed in amusement before extending her wing and exposing my head. “You know, you can cuddle more of me than just my wings.”

I growled at her for taking her feathers away from me, not threateningly, but softly, and unhappy.

Fluffy just rolled her eyes at this as she proceeded to flip onto her back and grab onto my neck with her wings and forelegs. “You know it’s true, and I know you love doing it too.”

I quit my growling and smiled down at her before leaning down and starting another one of our long, passionate kisses. This went on for a little while before I pulled away and smirked at her. “True, but sometimes I just feel like feeling your soft, bouncy feathers on my scales.”

Fluffy gently pulled on my neck with her wings and forelegs to bring me back in to continue making out, something I was more than happy to get back to. After several seconds of this, Fluffy stopped holding me so tight, signaling that she had something to say.

When I pulled back, I saw Fluffy’s gorgeous face smile back at me seductively. “I do feel a little bad though. You were kind enough to satisfy me twice, and here I am having only done it once for you.” She lowered her forelegs and began rubbing the sides of my throat with her wings. “It doesn’t feel right to not return the favor for such a kind and loving mate, especially one so sexy.”

I felt my still exposed member twitch at hearing that, bringing a devious smile to my face. “Well, I’m still ready to go, and it hasn’t been too long since we came in here. If you’re up for it, I think we could have one more round so you can rectify that.”

“I think that would be-” Just then, the both of us heard something outside of the mine run past its entrance, and I watched as Fluffy’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. “Oh no.”

Before I could react, Fluffy hit the left side of my face with her hoof quite a bit harder than I thought she was capable of. I reeled back as she scrambled to her hooves and looked towards the entrance slightly crouched and with her ears folded back and pressed firmly against her head.

When I finally recovered, shaking my head and blinking a few times from both pain and surprise, I reached up with my claw to where she had struck me. As I was rubbing the area, I couldn’t help but notice that there was something hard sitting on my tongue, as well as the unmistakable taste of blood. I lowered my claw and spit out the object that had found its way onto my tongue.

Unsurprisingly, it was one of my fangs. As I felt around my mouth with my tongue, I found the empty, bleeding area of my gums where the tooth had come from. While it was irritating to have one of my fangs knocked out, I was glad that it had been that one at least. I had felt it becoming looser over the last few days in preparation for being replaced, so I at least wouldn’t have to wait long for the new tooth to come in. Unfortunately, having a fang be knocked out of my mouth still stung a great deal, so I knew the next few hours wouldn’t be too pleasant.

Relieved that nothing too bad had happened, I looked up at Fluffy to assess what she was doing, only to find her looking at me with tears in her eyes and her hooves in front of her mouth.

“I’m so sorry. I… I… I didn’t mean to hurt you.” As Fluffy squeaked this out, the tears in her eyes began to come faster and her voice became more shaky. “I just thought… but I didn’t…” At this point, all Fluffy could do was cry. She laid down, covered her head with her hooves, and just let the tears flow.

I didn’t know why Fluffy was getting so upset about simply knocking out one of my fangs, while I didn’t appreciate it, it was far from the worst thing she could have done. I needed to calm her down, especially for the sake of our child.

I walked closer to Fluffy and laid down in front of her and began rubbing her with the right side of my face. “Don’t cry. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. It was only one of my fangs, it’s nothing to be so upset about.”

“But it is! I got scared and hit you, now you don’t have one of your teeth and it’s all my fault.”

“It’ll grow back, it’s not that big of a deal. Even if you wouldn’t have hit me, it would have fallen out in the next few days anyways.”

Fluffy lowered her hooves and I pulled back so she could look at me. When she did, I could see that her eyes were slightly red. “R-really? Your teeth grow back?”

“Of course they do. They get replaced every so often, keeping me looking as good as I do.” I looked at her and cocked my head to the side in confusion, but did my best to give her a reassuring look. “Isn’t it the same for ponies, I mean, except yours not being sharp?”

Fluffy sat up and wiped her face of any lingering tears. “No. No we don’t. Once we lose our baby teeth, we have a permanent set. Is… is it really going to grow back?”

I just smiled at her, grabbed her in my arms, wrapped my wings around us, and began cuddling her. “I would never lie to you, except when I have have something naughty on my mind”

We stayed like this for a while, Fluffy enjoying my affection while I did my best to settle her nerves. After a little while, Fluffy pushed on my chest with her hooves. I loosened my grip and pulled my head back so we could talk.

“I’m so sorry for hitting you and scaring you by crying. I thought that someone was going to see us and I panicked. And when I turned around and saw you spitting out one of your teeth, I just thought I did something really terrible.”

“It’s alright, I forgive you. And even if my fangs didn’t grow back, I would never be angry with you for something that happened while we were being naughty.” I then returned to holding her close and cuddling with her, just a bit more naughty.

Fluffy closed her eyes and began rubbing her head against my chest. “It must be nice to have teeth that replace themselves.” She extended a wing a bit, “just like how my feathers grow back.”

I gave her an affectionate lick on the snout before bringing my head to her left wing and returning to rubbing it. “True, but I much prefer your lovely feathers. I can survive without a few fangs, but your feathers are magical.”

“I have a feeling that if I would have seen you spit out your tooth for no reason, I would have probably reacted the same way you did when I first molted.” Fluffy began rubbing the back of my head with her hoof as I paid attention to her wing “Speaking of that, we should probably talk about all of the other quirks we have so we don't overreact when it first happens.”

I agreed, and after enjoying her wing for just a little bit longer, I set her down and we layed next to each other, with my wing draped over her, and talked about any traits we might have that might scare the other. Thankfully, Fluffy had next to nothing that would scare me as bad as her molt. I, on the other claw, needed to explain losing my scales and taking lava baths when I was sick. The lava baths were what scared her the most though. But after I explained that lava didn’t hurt me and that it cured me from everything except for things like grey rot, she calmed down.

When that was finished, Fluffy said that we should probably head back so that no one would get worried and come looking for us. I agreed, and with one last kiss, I let her get up and proceeded to follow her. On the way out, I remembered the tooth I lost and offered to use it along with a few other fangs that I would lose to make her a necklace or a collar of them. She said she would have to think about that.

Family Hike

The walk back to Fluffy’s parent's house was rather pleasant, not the least bit because Fluffy was practically glued to my side the entire way, causing me to purr happily. When we finally arrived at the house, Fluffy quickly ran ahead of me and to the door before slowly and quietly opening it. I followed her inside, and just as she was closing it again, a voice chimed in.

“There you two are, I went to look in on you two this morning but didn’t see you in your room. I take it you two wanted to have a nice walk in the woods this morning?”

I turned to the dining room where the voice had come from and noticed Gold Digger sitting at the table and examining one of the stones we had collected yesterday, though it might have just been one he had already had.

“Oh, hey Dad. No, I was just taking Big Softy here to the cave where I dug my own tunnel. I didn’t know what you wanted to do today and I thought I should try to show him that before we left.” Fluffy seemed to be trying to sound calm, but I could pick up the nervous tells in her voice.

Gold put down the gem he had been examining with concern. “Oh. You probably should have told me that before you went and did that. I’ve been meaning to go back there and sure up the walls. The rock bolts are coming loose and I’m fairly sure that it’s going to collapse somewhere. Thank Celestia you two are safe. Just don't go back there.”

Fluffy lowered her head and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “Alright, Dad.”

“As a dragon, especially one who lives in a lair, I would know if there was a problem, and I didn’t see anything that would suggest we were at risk.” I puffed up my chest, pulled my head back, and flared my wings slightly in a display of pride.

“Remind me to show you bolt fifteen along the Delta branch, that one comes right out. You might live in a lair, but I’ve been digging mines for going on thirty years, I know the signs of a mine that’s on borrowed time.”

I began to growl softly at that, as well as flaring my wings slightly more than they already were. “I know what I am talking about. It’s safe enough for me and Fluffy to be in there.”

“If you say so.” I was getting ready to put Gold in his place for making that comment, but Fluffy cuddled up firmly against me and began stroking me with her wing, prompting me to turn to look at her and see her shaking her head, asking me to be nice. “Anyways, on a less serious topic, it’s only six thirty, so you two are the only ones else awake. Since I’m guessing neither of you were listening last night, me and your mom were thinking about taking your dragon friend here on a hike today so we could all get out of the house and get to know each other better.”

Fluffy turned to face me with an uncertain stare. “Is that something you'd want to do? You might be a little tired tomorrow when we go to fly home.”

I simply lowered my head and began to nuzzle the side of her face while smiling. “Don't be ridiculous, I would never be too tired to fly with you. I’m part azure dragon, I could never do such a thing.” I lowered my voice before continuing, “Especially since I’m always willing to chaise your sexy flank.”

Fluffy began nuzzling me back before reaching up with a wing and stroking my face. After a few seconds of this, Fluffy pulled away and turned to her father, to my disappointment. “Alright then. Just make sure you three come back quickly, I know Big Softy enjoys our cuddle time and would hate it if you kept him from it.”

Hearing my mate say this brought a purr to my lips, and I couldn’t help but begin to rub against one of her wings, earning me a happy sigh from Fluffy as she leaned more readily against me.

“You’re coming too, this was meant to be a family hike. When your mother wakes up and takes her shower, it shouldn’t take her too long to get down here. And once your brother wakes up, we can start getting ready to go.”

That last part caused my purring to stop. I was not a fan of having to deal with Fluffys brother any more than I had to, and having to spend an entire day around him was not my idea of pleasant.

Fluffy picked up on my purring stopping and spread her wing so that she could cover my head with it while stroking my chin with her hoof. “It’s not going to be so bad. I’ll stay right next to you the entire time, how's that?” She waved with her feathers a bit.

I remained still for a moment, thinking about her offer. While being around her brother was an irritating prospect, the fact that Fluffy would not only be there, but be right next to me, letting me feel her lovely fur and feathers, was all the incentive I needed. I began rubbing my head across the bottom of her wing and returned to purring.

“You two love birds should probably take a seat, Cloud and Never will probably be awhile. I’m just making sure all these gems I’m taking to Bedrock’s next week don't have any left over stone.”

I began to growl a little at Gold’s comment. I had just gotten comfortable and was in the middle of cuddling with my sexy, fluffy mate. I was not going to allow him to interrupt this.

Unfortunately, Fluffy was. She gave my chin a few more rubs before lowering her hoof and removing her wing from my head. “Come on, Big Softy, we can cuddle on the couch while we wait.” She then began walking towards the family room.

I still kept growling, unhappy about being forced to take a break from cuddling with her, but did so much quieter as I followed her to the couches.

On the plus side, when I arrived at the large couch and laid down on it, I was able to grab Fluffy in my claws and pull her into the optimal position for us to continue our cuddling, much to Fluffy’s approval. The rest of the family slowly made their way to the family room and witnessed me and Fluffy purring and cuddling with each other.

“Aw, isn’t that sweet.” Fluffy’s mom sounded very approving of seeing us like that, causing me to feel an immense sense of pride. “I hope we’ll be able to convince you two to separate in a little, your father and I were thinking about having a family hike.”

“I wouldn’t count on that, Mom,” Fluffy giggled. “But we know, Dad told us,” Fluffy responded with closed eyes as she nuzzled against my chin.

“Alright, but we still need to pack some lunch and snacks for it, so I would really appreciate it if I could get your help.”

“I’m a little busy at the moment, Mom, but if you could convince Big Softy here, I’ll be happy to lend my hoof.”

Cloud didn’t immediately respond, instead, she turned to the kitchen and walked off. I was extremely happy that not only had my mate told her mom that she would rather keep cuddling with me, but her mom had not tried to stop us, causing me to purr even more. Apparently, my display yesterday that I would not tolerate having my cuddle time interrupted had been understood. Unfortunately, this was a message that her brother had not received.

A little while later, her brother made his way out of his room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning.

“Oh good, you're finally up. Could I get your help in the kitchen? Your father and I decided that all five of us will be going on a hike today and we need to pack some food.”

“Alright, be right there.”

The two of them were working in the kitchen for some time after that, talking about where Cloud and Gold were planning for them to go while preparing lunch and snacks. But during a lull in the activity, Never must have either picked up on our purring, or noticed us cuddling.

“Hey, Danger, you think you can stop with the loving and come help by making breakfast? He said as he came over, receiving an angry growl and bared teeth from me as I brought a wing in front of Fluffy, causing him to quickly make his way back to the kitchen.

I received a light slap on my wing from Fluffy as well as a disapproving ‘Big Softy’, but I didn’t care, I had made my point. I lowered my head and gave her a lick across her muzzle, causing her to puff up her cheeks and glare at me. I knew she was mad at me for still not getting along with her brother, but I knew as long as I just growled at him, Fluffy wouldn't be too angry.

“Never,” Cloud said accusingly, “have you learned nothing about dragons? You sister’s his most valuable treasure now, you can’t just go in there and demand he hoof her over, not unless you want to fight him, which I will not allow in this house.”

He sighed. “But she should really be helping us in here though.”

“She could, but if you keep pressing the issue, you won’t only have to fight Big Softy to seperate them, but your sister as well. Are you sure you want that?”

He shivered. “No thank you.”

Sadly, our cuddling session eventually had to end. Gold went to the kitchen after I had made it clear that me and Fluffy were doing something more important than helping to start breakfast. After he called out to us that it was ready and to come over, I could hear Fluffy’s stomach growl. She gave me one last kiss and pushed at my forelegs to get me to let her go. I reluctantly complied and folded my wing back to my side as well so she could get up. When she did, I rubbed my head along her spine as she got down and began walking.

The two of us made our way towards the dining room, with me following behind her, but as soon as she looked into the room, she jumped back towards me and put her hooves on my chest. “Don't go in yet, breakfast isn’t ready!” Her tone was obviously panicked, confusing me to no end.

I looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. “Didn't your dad say it was ready?”

“Yes, but they still need to do some things.” She thought for a second, looking around hecticly. “Hey, didn’t you say you wanted to make me a necklace with that tooth you lost?”

“It was only an idea, I’m fine if it wouldn’t interest you.” I leaned down and began nuzzling her cheek. “You always have me to cuddle with.”

“Well I was just thinking that it would be something nice to have for when I’m waiting for you in the lair. Why don't you go to our room and put it in my saddlebags?”

I stared down at her, still trying to figure out why she sounded so panicked. I don't think she would be this concerned about breakfast not being ready when her father said it was. It would be irritating, but I wouldn’t be angry with him for simply being a little too fast at declaring this. Nevertheless, I shrugged and planted a kiss on her lips before heading up towards our room.

I released a sigh of relief at seeing Big Softy heading up to our room, but immediately turned back to my confused looking family to fix this.

“We need to get rid of those, now!” I said pointing towards the pile of pancakes at the center of the table.

“What, why? Why are you so freaked out about us having pancakes?” Never asked.

“They’re made with eggs, Big Softy will be furious if he sees those! Now hurry, he’s going to be back any second now, I’ll tell you later.”

“Ok, but I expect an explanation.” Dad grabbed the plate in a hoof and began making his way back to the kitchen. “I’ll fix up a large fruit salad as fast as I can. Hopefully your dragon friend won't have an issue with that.”

I watched as Dad walked back into the kitchen and placed the pancakes into several plastic containers. My heart was practically pounding out of my chest as I feared Big Softy coming back down, noticing what Dad was doing, and asking about it.

Fortunately, Big Softy was having a hard time finding my saddlebags as Dad was able to store the pancakes in the refrigerator and start on making the fruit salad before Big Softy showed back up.

When he made it back downstairs, he gave me a kiss and lifted me into his forelegs. “Sorry it took me so long, I had to wrap the tooth in some spare cloth to make sure it wouldn’t damage anything.”

I leaned up and kissed him before motioning for him to let me down. “Don't worry, Dad just went to grab a bowl of gems for you. Why don't we sit down with everyone while we wait.”

Big Softy and I sat down in what had apparently become our seats, with Never getting ever so slightly farther away from Big Softy. I internally sighed at this, I probably should have more firm when I chastised him for growling at Never. At this rate, they weren’t going to start getting along until Never and I were both old and grey.

I was relieved that while we were having breakfast, Big Softy didn’t start questioning what had brought about my sudden desire to keep his tooth. Unfortunately, the conversation did turn to our morning excursion.

“So, I can't help but ask, did I hear you right when you said that your dragon friend here lost a tooth?” my mother said between pieces of fruit.

I sighed. “Yes. Me and Big Softy were exploring the tunnel Dad took me to where I dug my own little tunnel this morning and I accidentally hit him.”

My mom gasped when I said that, and I couldn’t help but sink down into my seat a little. “You hit your special somedragon?”

“It was an accident, we were going around in the dark because I thought it might be fun to try hiding from him, but then he came out of nowhere and scared me.” Big Softy, sensing my discomfort, pulled me closer to him with his wing and lowered his head to mine. I reached up and began stroking the side of his face where I had hit him, feeling the missing tooth under his skin. “I felt really bad, but my generous and awesome dragonfriend here said he wasn’t angry and that he was going to lose the tooth soon anyways.”

This time it was my father’s turn to respond. “He was going to lose it anyways?” I could see out of the corner of my eye that his gaze was now fixed on Big Softy, and he did not look happy. “If you were going to lose that tooth because of neglect, you best hope to Celestia I never hear that my grandfoal is taking after her father.”

Big Softy immediately jumped out of the chair and began growling as he flared his wings, causing everyone else to shrink back in fear. Wanting to prevent this morning from becoming unsalvageable, especially since I had just prevented that not even ten minutes ago, I touched his chin to get him to look at me while beginning to stroke his chest with my wings. “Remember, I had no clue either. And Dad,” she turned to him, “it’s not a good idea to threaten my dragonfriend, okay?”

Thankfully, Big Softy stopped growling. He nuzzled the side of my face with his before turning to my dad to answer. “No, it was not due to neglect. Dragons simply lose their fangs occasionally. They are constantly being replaced so none of them become too dull.”

“Oh, sorry if I may have insulted you there, I didn’t know.” Dad gave Big Softy an apologetic nod as he and everyone else did their best to return to the positions they had been in. “Let’s hope our grandfoal inherits that trait from you then. Would save both of you a great deal on dental.”

The rest of breakfast passed rather uneventfully after that, though I did see Big Softy enjoying some of his gems a little bit more than usual. If they were the equivalent to candy for him, I might have to think about setting a limit on them for him. I didn’t want him getting unhealthy. I knew he would growl and hiss when I proposed it, but I knew what to do to convince him.

When breakfast was finished, Dad and Mom were hasty in getting us moving; collecting plates, grabbing the bowls of fruits and gems, and gently nudging Big Softy and I to get moving. I wonder why she tried this, she must have known by now that Big Softy wouldn’t like this. And of course, he growled at her when she tried pushing him. And even when I glared at him, it did not quiet him down. I had to tell my mom to stop pushing him before things escalated. Mom just rolled her eyes at this and told us to get going on getting to the kitchen before she began walking to the front door. Big Softy was still perturbed about how my mom had acted, but when I started to head towards the kitchen without him, that seemed to take precedence.

When we both got there, we saw Dad messing with something in his saddlebag before he looked up and told us to grab a saddlebag each and head out the door.

With that, everyone but Dad headed outside and grouped up around where Big Soft had landed. And as expected, Big Softy wasted no time in pulling me close to cuddle as we waited, while Never stood off to the side and away from both of us.

The wait for Dad wasn’t too long though, as he came out and locked the front door as I was just getting comfortable.

“Ok, seeing as Danger is pregnant, we were thinking we might want to go a little easy on the hike today. Me and your mom were thinking we should take Panorama to Observation Peak and come back on The Emerald Glen.”

I puffed up my cheeks slightly at that. “I’m not crippled just because I’m pregnant. Why don't we just take The Spill up and back? We’ve done than one dozens of times so it's hardly a challenge.”

“Honey, you do remember you’re molting.” Mom gave me a gentle yet firm glance as she said this. “You need your wings to be in their best condition for that route. And the trail isn’t wide enough for your dragonfriend here to join us if we did take it.”

I knew mom was right, but I still wasn’t happy that we were taking the easiest hike around here. The only thing that kept that route from being a foal’s hike was it’s length. I still kept my cheeks puffed though, and I was starting to feel the feathers on my wings begin to ruffle from my frustration. Big Softy, seeing this, began nuzzling my wings and purring.

That’s one of the wonderful things about having a concerned dragonfriend, the slightest sign of annoyance causes him to cuddle me to calm me down.

“I think your parents' idea is great. They likely know more about this than we do. If they say we should take the easy route we probably should.” He then pushed under my wing and started nuzzling against the side of my stomach. “I would hate to put our child at risk, we need to be careful with them.”

I sighed, I knew Big Softy just wanted what was best for me and our child, but it was at times like this that I wished dragons didn’t lay eggs. “Fine, let’s go on the hike Mom and Dad chose.” I then turned to Big Softy and used my wing to push his muzzle away from my side. “But I hope you know you’re going to have to make this up to me.”

Big Softy just smiled and brought his muzzle up to mine, giving me a kiss and a gentle parting lick on the lips before whispering his response. “With such a sexy and generous mate, I’m sure I’ll be able to find a way to make amends.”

I could feel myself blush at that before I gave him a gentle slap with a wing. “Naughty dragon.” I hated when he pulled his mischievous dragon tricks, they weren’t fair.

“So, now that Danger is onboard, let’s head off.” Mom began pushing Never to get him to begin walking toward the trailhead while me and Big Softy started to follow them, walking side to side.

“Danger,” Dad called out from behind us, causing both me and Big Softy to turn to look at him, “if I could borrow you for a second, I need to ask you about something.”

Big Softy began growling at that suggestion though as he unfurled his wing slightly and used it to firmly bring me to his side. “I have been trying to cuddle with my mate all morning, and every time I do, one of you tries to separate us. She also promised to stay by my side the entire time, so I am going to hold her to that. I’m beginning to rethink my opinion of you and your family.”

“It’s just a quick little thing, it won't take more than a minute, and once I’m done, I’ll make sure nopony else bothers you again today. Deal?”

Big Softy just continued to growl, obviously Dad wasn’t going to be able to convince him. “Big Softy.” I touched his side with my hoof and did my best to look at him past his wing. “I promised my dad I would explain something to him as soon as I could. And I promised I would be with you the entire time for the hike, and we haven’t started the hike just yet, have we?”

Big Softy’s growls became deeper and louder after this before abruptly stopping as he lowered his head so it was right in front of mine. “You never said that it started when the hike began though.” His voice having a dark undertone.

I lifted a hoof and began to stroke the side of his face. “I also never said it would start before the hike either. Look, this is important to me. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Big Softy grumbled for a second before planting a kiss on my lips and removing his wing from my side. “I’m going to hold you to that, and it better be worth it.” He then moved his head over to my ear before finishing his response in a whisper. “I expect tonight’s massage to be extra wonderful for being so generous and well behaved.”

I stepped back slightly so we were standing face to face before planting a long, loving kiss on his lips. “Naughty dragon.” I then bopped him on the nose with a smile. “So we have a deal. I’ll be right there, go catch up with my mom and brother and we’ll be right behind you.”

Big Softy gave me a naughty smile before turning around to do what I said, and as I was turning to face my dad, I felt Big Softy gently slap me on my right cutie mark with his tail as he left. I rolled my eyes and smiled before walking over to my dad.

“So, about this morning.”

“Just… hold on for a second.” Dad held up a hoof and watched Big Softy with a critical eye for several seconds before beginning to slowly follow after him.

“Wait!” I turned and trotted so we were walking side by side. “I thought you wanted to talk?”

“I do, but I also would prefer not being growled at by your Dragon friend again today, and judging on how long it took him to let you go, I’m guessing you had to convince him to let you talk to me.”

I didn’t immediately respond, instead pulling my head back slightly at how good of a deduction that was. “Yeah.”

“Well, I thought it might be best for the both of us if we walk just out of earshot and talk about this morning. That way, you two get back together sooner, and I hopefully stop being the villian in his eyes.”

“You're not the villain to him. He’s just…”

“Clingy?”

“Yeah, that’s about right”

“So, unless we want to talk about breakfast later and risk his ire again, I would suggest you explain the whole egg thing.”

“Right. Well, you see, the egg thing is something instinctual for dragons, they lay eggs, so if you give him something with egg in it, he… doesn't take it well. It’s like you are cooking one of their hatchlings.”

“Hmm.” Dad began to stroke his chin with a hoof as he looked towards Big Softy. “That makes some sense. I take it you had to learn that the hard way?”

“Yeah, I tried to make pancakes for breakfast once, trying to be a nice marefriend, but when I asked him where the eggs were, he didn’t take it well. When I explained that we use eggs for baking, he got really angry, saying we were barbarians. He got really pouty too, he didn’t want any cuddles and just gave me the silent treatment all day.” I lowered my head slightly as I said this, the memories of that day still being painful.

“Hey, don't be so down, you didn’t know.” Dad bumped my side, doing his best to get me out of my own head. “Seeing how you reacted and that you’re still together, I’m guessing you two made up.”

“Yeah. When we were about to go to sleep, I went to talk to him about why he got so angry about the eggs. He reminded me dragons laid eggs, so me asking if he had any eggs we could use to eat was sort of a bad move. Thinking back on that, I probably should have realised that eggs wouldn’t have been in his diet sooner, especially after I had to explain pregnancy.”

“Ahh, yeah, understandable. Well, silver lining is me and your mom won’t have to worry about you overeating any cakes,” Dad said, the smile evident in his tone.

“Ha, I wouldn’t count on it. I was able to figure out good alternatives for eggs when baking, so while they don’t taste the same, Big Softy can eat them and not feel guilty.”

“Probably should have seen that coming. Adversity breeds ingenuity after all.”

We walked in silence for a little while longer and soon came to where Mom, Never, and Big Softy were waiting for us. As soon as I arrived though, Big Softy carefully swept my off of my hooves and was now holding me upside down in his forelegs. He lowered his head and began to nuzzle my chest fluff while purring.

After a few seconds of this, he stopped his nuzzling and moved up to give me a kiss. “Now that that is over, I’m going to make sure I hold you to your end of our deal. I think it shouldn’t be too difficult to stay with me the entire time if I’m holding you.”

Seeing and hearing what Big Softy was planning to do, my mother chimed in. “If you don’t mind me saying, it would be best if she walks. A pregnant mare needs to keep strong for herself and the baby.”

Big Softy looked down at me with wide eyes and a mildly sad expression. “Is that true?”

I looked up at Big Softy and gave him my most innocent smile. “As you said, Mom went through this before, she should know what we should and shouldn’t do.”

Big Softy frowned slightly, but ultimately put me back down and turned to my mother and gave her a nod and a smile. “Thank you for looking out for Fluffy. If she needs to take hikes around our lair for herself and our bornling, I’ll make sure she does it.”

“Oh, no. As long as she stays relatively active, she should be fine. She doesn’t need to do a hike like this all the time, just some light activity to keep her healthy. We just thought it would be good to give her one long hike while she’s still able to do it.”

Big Softy nodded in approval and fixed me with a naughty glance. I knew what kind of ‘light activity’ he had in mind, but I would let him have that. It wasn’t like I was opposed to the idea. So with that, Dad walked over to mom and the two of them started to walk the Panorama trail. Never made a move to follow, but Big Softy growled and explained that he could follow us instead. I slapped him with my wings for that, but Never complied, so me and Big Softy ended up walking side by side not that far behind Mom and Dad while Never followed us.

The hike was fairly mundane, as it always was, though, the views on this trail were likely the best around here. While I tried my best to get Big Softy to look around and appreciate the views, all I got were these corny lines about how ‘no view of your parents’ mountains could ever compare to your beauty’ and the like as he pressed into my side and occasionally snuck in a few naughty moves here and there.

While his lines were overly sweet and ered on the side of sycophantic, they were no less effective at getting me to blush and lean into him.

We all walked in silence for a bit, relatively speaking, as Big Softy couldn’t help but purr as we walked, until I remembered something about half way to Observation Peak. Mom and Dad’s plan was for this hike to be a chance for Big Softy to get to know my family a bit more. I looked over my shoulder at Never and saw that he was keeping his head down as he was walking.

Felling bad for him and how he and Big Softy were not getting along, especially when I thought about how uncomfortable having to walk behind me and Big softy while we were practically glued to each other must be, I decided to try to get something going.

“So, Never, we didn’t get to hear that much about your marefriend Holly yesterday. Why don’t you tell me more about that while we walk.”

Big Softy began to grumble after I said that, until I looked up to him with pleading eyes. “I promised to be with you while we’re on the hike, and I still am. But Mom and Dad planned this hike so you can get to know my family and for them to get to learn about you. The least you can do is give my brother a shot.”

Big Softy turned his head so it was pointed at Never before glaring and replying with a voice filled with contempt. “I did, and he has been nothing but a fang in my tail since he got here.”

“Please, just give him one more shot, I’m sure you two will eventually stop your fighting, just give it time.” I watched as Big Softy narrowed his eyes at Never, and when I looked back at him, I saw he was retreating slightly, doing his best to get Big Softy to stop glaring at him.

I stepped away from Big Softy for a second and exened my wing so it could lay against his side while I looked up at his face with the best puppy dog eyes I could manage. When he finally looked back at me, I made my request again.

“Please, for me?”

Big Softy sighed and grumbled something about evil fluffy pegasi tricks before turning back to Never and addressing him in the most neutral voice I had heard him use. “Fluffy asked you about your marefriend.” I cleared my throat, earning me a slight growl from Big Softy before he continued in a more irritated tone. “And I would like to know about her as well.”

I looked back at Never and did my best to look encouraging. Hopefully something about Holly and his relationship would get Big Softy to be less hostile towards him. After a few seconds of Never coming to terms that I was finally getting Big Softy to behave, he cleared his throat and straightened up, walking closer to us until Big Softy growled.

“Well, as I said yesterday, she isn’t the biggest fan of the kind of affection Dad or Mom had while we were growing up, or you and your dragonfriend, so when she picks the date, we usually just cuddle at home. I was in charge of the date last week, so I decided to try something different and took her out to see Summer Cherry Petals.”

I couldn't help but chuckle at that, cutting off what he was about to say. “You really sat through that? I would have thought that that would have been the last movie you would want to see.”

I watched as Never went red in the face out of both anger and embarrassment. “I thought she would like it, ok? And she did. We cuddled the entire time and she thanked me for doing that for her.”

“Never, I was just giving you a hard time, I think it’s sweet.” I smiled at knowing Never wasn’t entirely hopeless when it came to finding and keeping a marefriend. Out of the corner of my eye though, I saw Big Softy almost perk up at what Never had said, making me smile even more.

“I don’t know what these movies are, but if they help one cuddle with their mate, I’d be more than happy to take Fluffy to one.”

“Well, you might be a little big to fit into an actual theater, but if you could find a fly-in one, I’m sure you and my sister would have a good time. I would just suggest you go for something scary if you want her to cuddle you even more.” Never seemed to be trying his best to get along with Big Softy, but he still sounded a little on edge. But despite appreciating what he was doing, I was a little peeved at his last sentence.

“Never! I don't need you puting any more bad ideas in his head. You know I can’t watch scary movies while I’m pregnant.”

Big Softy began purring and started to nuzzle between my wings. “Well, as long as we get to cuddle, I’m sure it would be fine. Although, I would like to know what these movies are though.”

I flipped my free wing up and gave him a light slap for that. “Naughty dragon. Movies aren’t just for cuddling, you’re supposed to enjoy them too.”

Big Soft just moved his head in front of mine with a smirk and gave me a lick on the lips. “And I will, as long as I’m cuddling with you.”

I puffed up my cheeks, which only made Big Softy smile wider.

“As for movies are,” Never chimed in, “imagine if there was this large picture that covered an entire wall, but instead of being static, everything moved and had the appropriate sounds, making it seem like you were there.”

Big Softy scrunched up his face in confusion. “That sounds interesting, but how do they do that? Is it some kind of magic?”

“No, there are devices that allow ponies to record things, and other devices that show what was recorded.”

“I am still a little confused, but I’m guessing I’ll need to experience one for myself.” Big Softy then leaned down and began nuzzling the side of my face. “Specifically while I’m with my mate.”

“Again, they're not all for cuddling.” I turned back to Never so we could get back on track. “Anyways, what do you usually suggest for your dates, seeing as taking your marefriend to see such a sappy romance was so different?”

“Well, I normally suggest we go hiking or climbing for a weekend. She gets to see and collect all the plants she likes, and I get to stretch my wings.” Never’s tone shifted to a more melancholic one after he said this. “Unfortunately, I cant use any of my ‘pegasus tricks’ to get any of the interesting plants I see.”

“You might have to explain that ‘pegasus tricks’ thing. For me and Big Softy, it's probably a lot different.”

“You see, she made me promise that if I was going to retrieve a plant or seed for her, I couldn’t fly up to get it. I’ve had to get really good at rock climbing all in an attempt to impress her. It sucks too since every time we do something like that, I always see something that I could only get to by flying.”

“Never.” I stopped and turned to face my brother, forcing Big Softy to stop so he could stay next to me. “What was it that I literally told you yesterday?”

“Not to worry about trying to impress her.”

“Yes, so why are you still moaning about that?”

“I’m a Do! We should be able to prove ourselves, but with Holly, she just doesn’t want that. I want to show her that I can be a good coltfriend, but nothing that feels like it would be the perfect thing to do is what she wants from me. I just feel… unneeded. She was doing just fine without me, so she never asks me to do anything other than just be with her.”

“And? She told you that that’s what she wants from you. Look at me and Big Softy here. Since I don’t know that much about taking care of a lair, he takes care of most of that. He was also doing just fine before I came along, but that doesn’t matter to him, I just need to be there to cuddle with him to make him happy.”

“Cuddling is very important!” Big Softy joined the conversation to my surprise. “I had everything except company before you arrived at my lair,” he continued, sneaking in a rub between my wings with his muzzle. “You came to my lair with exactly what I needed.”

I saw his smile and was too distracted by his sweet talk to realize what he would surely say next since he is the dragon he is. “A lot of cuddling and great sex.” I was too surprised to react at first to immediately react, a fact he took full advantage of. “That is also one of your purposes as Holly’s mate, to satisfy her needs. So make sure you please her when you two have sex… you do make her happy, don’t you?”

I should have expected him to say that. I definitely should have expected that.

“Big Softy!” I stepped away from him slightly and glared up at him. “How many times do I have to tell you that ponies don’t talk about things the same way that dragons do!” I looked back at Never and saw how he was just as shocked as I was, with his mouth slightly agape and his face as red as a ruby.

I sighed and turned around to continue the hike. Big Softy was quick to follow, immediately turning around so he could stay right by my side, while Never seemed to stay paralyzed for a few seconds before galloping to catch up with us.

“I hope you’re happy with yourself,” I grumbled at Big Softy while keeping my head pointed down the trail. “We were having a nice conversation with my brother and you just had to bring up sex.”

Big Softy lifted his wing and draped it over me, pulled me closer to him, and snaked his head around to look at me with a slightly worried expression before beginning to nuzzle my muzzle with his. “It’s not my fault you ponies are against talking about it.”

“I know, it’s just that I want them to like you, and you to like them.” I sighed, hanging my head slightly. After a few seconds of silence, where I thought about how Big Softy usually acted, I figured out what I had to do, and I knew he wouldn’t like it. “I don’t want to do this, but I would appreciate it if you promised me that you won’t bring up sex again in front of my family while we’re here.”

Big Softy pulled back slightly and scowled. “Fluffy.” His tone was dark and bordered on threatening.

“I know, a dragon’s promise is binding, Pacta Sunt Servanda. I’m not demanding that you promise, just…” I lowered my head so I was looking at the trail, feeling a little bad for asking Big Softy for yet another favor. “...to consider how ponies are.”

Almost immediately after I finished, I felt Big Softy stop as well as him putting a claw under my chin. He lifted my head up so that I was staring straight at his smiling face. “Ich verspreche, dass ich das Thema Sex deiner Familie gegenüber nicht mehr ansprechen werde, zumindest während dieses Besuches. If it will make you happy, I’m willing to do anything.”

I looked up at him, slightly confused but also happy. “What... what did you just say? Was that old draconic?”

“Yes, yes it was.” Big Softy just leaned forward with his head and gave me a loving lick across my cheek. “And I promised more or less what you asked me for. I just thought that if I was going to promise you anything, it would make you more happy if I say it in the language you love to hear so much.”

I smiled and couldn’t help but grab his head with my hooves and bring him in for a kiss. After we parted, I continued to smile at him. “Thanks for that, it means a lot. I’m guessing though that this is going to cost me.”

He looked back at me with that caring face he would always make when he comforted me and wasn’t being naughty. “You're my mate, and you’re carrying our child, I can’t let you be sad.” His caring smile turned naughty though after saying this. “But don’t worry, we can discuss how you can reward my good nature when we get back to our lair.”

“Naughty lizard.” I leaned forward and pecked him on the lips. He smiled and turned back to looking down the trail, and the both of us returned to our usual pace.

Mom and Dad didn’t seem to have noticed that we had stopped as we walked for a while after this without seeing them ahead of us. It wasn’t until we reached the summit that we saw them again.

“And here we were thinking that you three somehow got lost,” Dad happily called out when he saw us. “Did you all stop to get a good look at the mountains?”

“No, we just slowed down so we could talk to Never about his marefriend.” I turned back to Never and nodded.

“Well, you two can fill us in on what Never told you while we all have lunch,” Mom said, smiling at us as she removed the blankets she had packed and spread them out.

“Mom! You don’t need to ask that. Can’t you just let some things just be between me and my sister?”

“Did you tell them anything you haven't already told me and your father?”

Never looked away slightly at that. “No.”

“Then what are you being so defensive for? Just let your sister and her dragonfriend fill us in on what you’ve told them and we can have a nice little chat about it.”

“If I told them nothing new, there is no need to clue you in, right?”

“Perhaps I would like us to have a conversation while we eat, and seeing as your sister was just told this, I might want to hear what her thoughts are.”

“Telling you her thoughts and asking her to tell you specifically what I told her are totally different, Mom,” he sighed, “but fine.”

Mom smiled at Never and went back to making sure everyone had something to lay down on, well, everyone except for Big Softy. While she had brought as many blankets as her saddlebags could carry, Big Softy was just a little too big to fully lay on what she had for him. He was fine though, saying he didn’t need any, but I convinced him to at least use what she had brought for him. We each removed our saddlebags and laid down to begin digging into what my family had packed. Obviously, I laid down against Big Softy’s side and allowed him to drape his wing over me so we could cuddle as we ate.

My family seemed to have made Neighples sandwiches as well as packing a fresh apple and a container of nuts and dried berries for everyone. I was happy to see that the second saddlebag they had given to Big Softy was about half full of gems, meaning that even if he wasn’t a fan of everything else, he would still have something to eat.

“So, what was it that you three were talking about on the way?” Dad said after a bite of his sandwich. “Never’s probably told us everything about Holly, so I doubt you’ll be able to surprise us.”

I was about to respond when Never beat me to it. “They just wanted to give me their two bits on how I could be a better coltfriend.” Never rolled his eyes as he finished and began to dig through the nuts and dried fruits to find all the raisins.

“And was their advice helpful?” Mom gave my brother a smug look, knowing what the answer would be.

“Sort of,” Never’s said, almost under his breath.

“What did I tell you, just roll with what she gives you. Look at me and your mom. She was the one who had to get me to start going on the crazy adventures.”

“Is that so?” Big Softy seems to have taken an interest in my parents, bringing a smile to my muzzle. Hopefully, this was because he was actually interested and not because he was trying to make me happy after everything I said to him.

“Yep. She’s the actual Do in this relationship, I just married into this craziness.” Mom lightly slapped Dad for that, but based on her smile, they were just messing with each other. “I had hoped that at least one of our kids would have taken after me, but unfortunately, Never is too energetic, and Danger is just about a carbon copy of her cousin.”

“Well, I am of course grateful that Fluffy took after her cousin, at least when it comes to her adventurousness, but is even more fluffy.” Big Softy then leaned down and began to nuzzle me down my spine before pulling away with a slightly naughty grin. “If she wasn’t so bold, we never would have met, and I would have never found such a soft and lovely mate.”

I could feel myself start to blush at that. “Oh, stop it you. You still have all the food my family went out of their way to make, the least you could do is eat some of it.”

Big Softy just smirked, but did as I said, turning back to his food and deciding what to have first. I looked down at what I had as well and decided to move on to the sandwich. As I lifted it up to start eating, I noticed that Big Softy had decided to try it as well, or was simply deciding to mirror me.

“Wait, the way you said that makes it sound like you met Daring?” Mom sounded more than a little surprised at that.

“Indeed. I met her when I was chasing after Fluffy a few weeks after she’d stolen my candle of inspiration after our first date.”

Dad turned his gaze to me and I instinctively tried to get as small as possible. “You stole from him during your first date?”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. I was just playing with him, and we’re together, aren’t we?”

Mom sighed and slowly shook her head. “Your cousin is a bad influence, we keep telling you that. We’re going to have to sit down later so you can tell us exactly what happened.”

I looked away from them to try to save myself the embarrassment from them learning about that part of my and Big Softy’s relationship and started to eat my sandwich. After taking a bite, I was slightly surprised at the taste. I’d had these sandwiches before, but this time it tasted a little too spicy. I opened up the sandwich and saw that while there were still some banana peppers, there weren’t quite as many as there were usually.

Seeing me opening up the sandwich, my mom piped up. “I cut back on the peppers for your sandwich. I remember when I had your brother I wasn’t as much of a fan of them. Do you like it?”

“Yeah, it’s just a little spicier than I remember.” I began removing the banana peppers and putting them into my empty nut and berry container, surprised that I wasn’t enjoying them. After I removed them all, I lifted the container up and looked at my dragon friend. “Big Softy, do you want them?”

Big Softy gladly took the container of peppers and immediately tossed them into his maw. As soon as he swallowed them, he lowered his head and began to nuzzle into my chest fluff, resulting in him having a few pieces of my sandwich fall out from between the bread and land on his head. I chuckled at seeing this, especially at how he didn’t even react to it happening. I just smiled and sighed before using a wing to brush off what had landed on his head, earning me happy purrs from him.

“Hey, Danger, are the peppers too hot for you? I never thought you would be so weak someday,” my brother said sarcastically, trying to ruffle my feathers as we tended to do towards each other. Unfortunately, I had to jump forward and wrap my hooves around Big Softy’s snout before he could turn towards my brother. I could see by the way that he inhaled that he had been planning to spit fire at my brother.

We struggled for a moment, with me clinging to his snout and him pulling and whipping his head slightly in an attempt to get me to release him. I could tell though that he wasn’t actually trying to get me off of him as I knew how much stronger he was than me. I started to purr as well while restraining his muzzle, hoping to calm him down. Eventually, he stopped throwing his head around, ending his attempts at trying to get me off, but he began to softly growl.

When I was sure that he was done trying to hurt or threaten my brother, I let go of him and allowed him to pull his head back before grabbing it between my hooves and looking him in the eyes with the cutest expression I could muster. “Don’t roast my brother, Big Softy. Please, be a good dragon.” I placed a kiss on his snout before continuing. “I know dragons don’t care that much about their siblings, but ponies do. It’s why I’m fine with him doing that. Please, I want you to promise me that while we’re here you won’t hurt him.”

He increased his growling, but I knew he was just posturing, so I let go of him. “I can try to be more forgiving with him, for you, but I can’t promise since you know how binding that is. At least not with how he has been behaving.” He then turned to my brother with a glare. “Don’t mock my mate,” he hissed, “or I'll show you something too hot for you!”

Never turned pale at Big Softy’s statement and gave a few horrified nods before returning to his food.

“Never, haven't you been paying attention to how your sister’s dragon friend is around her? You should have expected something like that.” My mom seemed to be taking this in stride, much to both my and Never’s shock.

Never turned to Mom with a look of absolute astonishment. “I was just ribbing her. How was I supposed to know that he was going to get so defensive? And thanks for having my back, Mom.”

“I have to agree with Never on this one,” Dad piped up, setting aside the apple he had been eating. “Whatever you were thinking about doing, Big Softy, I would not have approved of it. I know dragons have a different mentality, but while you're here, I expect you to not act so aggressive.”

“I will do everything that is necessary to protect my mate,” Big Softy hissed while blowing a small smoke from his nostrils at Dad before turning back to me. “I will do anything to protect you, you are my mate! It would be shameful if I was too weak to do that.”

I smiled at him and placed my hoof on his nose. “My knight in shining scales,” I said before adding a kiss on his scaly nose. “But you don’t need to defend me against my own brother, I can handle him.”

He wanted to reply to that, but I silenced him with my hoof. “I know, great awesome strong mate of mine, I’m sure everypony understands that.”

Luckily, this seemed to do the trick as he snorted agreeingly, meaning we could return to our meal without any serious harm.

Sadly, when I had jumped onto Big Softy’s muzzle to stop him from attacking my brother, I had dropped my sandwich onto the blanket, causing it to come apart and spill out in front of me. Seeing this, Big Softy turned to my brother and grabbed his sandwich with his teeth before Never could react. He turned to me with a smile as he presented the sandwich. I knew Never wanted to say something, but with what had just happened, I knew he was going to keep his mouth shut.

I internally sighed at what Big Softy had done. I knew that I was never going to be able to convince him to give it back, so I might as well accept it. I happily took the sandwich from his jaws and proceeded to open it up to remove all the peppers. Big Softy was more than happy to keep his mouth open so I could toss the peppers I removed in.

When everyone was finished with their lunches, we began packing up to head back to the house, folding up the blankets and putting them in our saddlebags along with our empty food containers. Big Softy was given the responsibility of cleaning up the spilled sandwich and bringing it and the apple cores back in his bags. He was about to burn the food waste so he wouldn’t have to before my mom chimed in saying she wanted to use it for fertiliser, asking him to not go through with what he was about to do.

While we were walking down The Emerald Glen, I couldn’t help but feel that I should try to get Big Softy to keep talking with my parents. While I would have prefered trying to get him to become more friendly with Never, I knew that for the time being, that was a lost cause.

I rubbed my side against his belly. “Hey, Big Softy, why don’t you ask my mom and dad about themselves.” Big Softy didn’t seem to acknowledge what I said, but I knew he heard me. “I could always talk to them myself, but if I were to do that, I wouldn’t be able to cuddle you as much.”

I could see Big Softy glance back at me before looking towards my parents. It was obvious that he didn’t need to be told anything else to convince him.

“I seem to remember Dad talking about how he had to be convinced to do all the exciting things you wanted to do, Cloud. So, are there any tricks you used to convince him that might work on Fluffy?”

Crap, I should have thought about him asking something like that. I knew he promised not to bring up sex, but I had a feeling he was fishing for the right way to get them to talk about sex without breaking that promise. I stopped cuddling him for a second and instead looked at him with suspicion.

Big Softy turned to me and smiled before nuzzling my chest fluff. He did this for a few seconds until I just sighed and began stroking his head with a wing, getting him to start purring.

Evil dragon tricks.

Mom looked back at us, and I could tell by the smirk she seemed to have a good idea about what was going on. “Sorry to disappoint, but I didn’t need to use any tricks to get him to join me on an adventure or two. I just had to ask him really nicely if he didn't seem like he would be up for it.”

“Yeah, I was more than willing to go along with most of her off the wall expeditions when she asked, and when that didn’t work, she does have the best puppy dog eyes I’ve seen.” Mom slapped Dad with her wing for that, but it was apparent that she knew he was just messing with her. “It’s the reason I asked if she would like to date me.”

“You’re just saying that because I was the only mare that was willing to join you in your little tunnels.” Mom smiled at Dad before she moved over and kissed him on the cheek.

Big Softy pulled up from nuzzling my chest and looked towards my parents. “Hmm, well now I know how Fluffy got so good at that look. But I’m sure she’s far better at it than her mom though. So, how did you meet?” Immediately after he said this, he lowered his head between my wings and began to nuzzle me there.

While I was appreciative of the affection, I would prefer it if he could go more than a few seconds without cuddling me and instead just talk with my parents, I had promised to cuddle him if he talked with my parents, so the least I could do would be to return the favor. So with a wry smile, I cuddled up closer to him.

Dad was the one to respond this time. “Well, I was in the middle of digging out an offshoot tunnel to a mine I’d recently started. I had more or less made it my home over the last week trying to find anything of value in there. It's actually not that far, probably only about a half an hour flight west of here in the smoky mountains. Anyways, while I was digging it out, Cloud here came flying in thinking that it was some old ruin entrance.”

Mom bumped Dad with her hip for that. “I did not. I was just wondering what a hole in the side of a mountain was doing there. And you have to admit, a hole in the side of a mountain in the middle of a forest is rather interesting, especially when there's the possibility of it being more than just a random cave.”

Dad reacted to that with a soft snort before actually responding. “As I was saying. After Cloud here stumbled into the mine I was digging, we really hit it off. She told me she came from Cloudsdale and was exploring west of there to find any interesting areas to check out. She began to tell me about herself, and I did the same. I was quite surprised when she told me that her special talent was cloud shaping, specifically in making cloud homes. Given that she prefered to be underground half of the time or off exploring, you can imagine how strange it sounded to hear she excelled at being up in the clouds as a homemaker.”

“Gold.” Mom’s tone had a warning tone to it, telling him he wasn’t being funny. His comment also earned him a slap across his back from her wings.

Dad, for his part, just smiled and continued on. “So, after your mother here told me about herself, she asked me about what I was doing there. I explained to her that my talent was finding gold and gems. I even handed her my pickaxe and showed her where she should swing. She ended up with a rather nice piece of blue zircon, she still keeps it in a box on her bedside table. While I was explaining how I evaluate the strength of rocks and find the easiest areas to dig, I managed to break into a cavern.”

Never suddenly cut in before Dad could continue. “Hold on, why is this the first time you're telling us this story? I thought you told us all your cool mining stories. I remember you told us natural caverns were extremely rare.”

“Yeah, I have to agree with Never on this one, why didn’t you ever tell us this story when we were growing up?”

Dad turned his head to look at us and with a raised eyebrow. “I did, though it seems like my little story just went in one ear and out the other for you two.”

I lowered my head and cuddled in closer to Big Softy after that.

“As I was saying, I managed to find a natural cavern while talking to Cloud about mining. It’s actually because of that that I started to call her my lucky charm. We explored the cavern for a while, finding it was actually a system of the things, and it wasn’t until Cloud asked what time it was that we realised that we had been exploring the caverns for the last six hours. We said our goodbyes and she left to go back home while I stayed in the caverns.”

Dad then released a few light chuckles before continuing. “Ha, that funniest thing though, the next day, I woke up to this lovely mare here shaking me and demanding I get up.” As dad said that, I watched as Big Softy snaked his head down with a smirk before giving me a kiss.

“Like mother, like daughter. These Do mares are quite lovely.”

Dad seemed to agree, laughing good naturedly before lightly bumping Mom with his hip, earning him a smile from her. “Apparently, me telling her about how strange this system was got her interested in exploring it. While there weren’t any ancient civilisations that lived there, Cloud still seemed to enjoy them all the same. We actually learned that the caverns were old magma chambers that had drained several centuries ago. It’s most likely why the Smoky Mountains got their name, seeing as we found dozens of vents leading to the surface and letting in light.”

Big Softy perked up at that. “Oh, so do these caverns still have some magma in them somewhere?”

“Not quite. In all our searching, all of the old dikes are either sealed from cooled magma or no longer lead to any liquid magma. The best guess we have is that a xiulcoatl was living in the magma chambers and eating the magma, but then there must have been some kind of event that cut off the chambers from what was feeding them, meaning that as it ate, the chambers depleted.”

Big Softy had begun to growl at the first mention of this xiulcoatl, even baring his fangs. “Serves it right, those pests are just as bad as the ventalas.”

I looked up to Big Softy in confusion. “What are ventalas?”

“Vile little birds that steal a dragon’s gems and eat them. It’s difficult to get rid of them since they’re so nimble. Even catching them with our claws or fangs is a hard task. We would burn them if we could, but like the phoenix, which is a much nicer bird, they’re immune to fire.”

“To finish my story, we didn’t find anything all that interesting in the caverns, but, if it wasn’t for Cloud here happening across the mine I was digging, we might have never gotten together, and I would have never met the most amazing mare in Equestria.” Dad finished by rubbing noses with Mom while smiling.

“Wait.” Big Softy had grown a wide smile, one I usually only saw on him when he was being naughty. “Are you saying that you and her met because she found you and couldn’t wait to come back to your lair, only for both of you to fall in love?”

“Well… I wouldn’t exactly call that mine I was digging my ‘lair’.”

“But you were living there, no?”

Dad looked back at Big Softy quizzically for a few seconds before responding. “I guess you could say that, but I had to leave about a week later after some pony that didn’t know anything about mining bought the land.”

Big Softy smiled and turned back to me before giving me a kiss on the forehead. “What did I say, like mother, like daughter. It seems finding a mate in their lair and using their charm is just how Dos find partners.”

I could feel my face turn red from that. “How I met you and my mom met my dad are completely different. The only similarity is that we both met our significant other while in a cave and while we were exploring.”

Big Softy smirked at that. “I think there are a few more similarities than just that, especially since you ponies are so against talking about naughtier topics.” Big Softy then leaned down and began nuzzling my chest fluff. “Unfortunately, because of my promise, I can’t ask how similar our meetings were.”

I scrunched up my face and began to growl slightly at how even though he promised not to bring up sex, he was still able to skirt the line. While I wanted to pull back or push him away for still being naughty, he was keeping his promise.

After that, the conversation died down a bit, with my parents not exactly knowing how to continue things after Big Softy’s comment. However, because of my earlier statement about wanting him to talk to my family so that he would keep getting cuddles, he was quick to break the silence that had developed. His first question was about what I was like as a foal, much to my embarrassment, especially after my mom started to tell all the worst stories of me as a filly. For the most part after this though, Big Softy’s questions were much less personal, most likely due to him seeing how red my face had gotten after my mother explaining my childhood.

Eventually though, mostly to save myself the embarrassment, I asked Big Softy if he wouldn’t be opposed to just walking the rest of the hike in silence while we cuddled. He couldn’t have agreed faster, pulling me closer with his wing, starting to rub his muzzle against my neck, and releasing a quiet, happy purr. The walk back home after this was rather uneventful, with everyone staying quiet and enjoying the views. When we did get back, I pushed off from Big Softy’s side, earning me a look of hurt from him.

At seeing this, I flew up, struggling slightly, took his muzzle between my hooves, and gave him a kiss. “Don’t give me that look. I was next to you the entire hike cuddling with you.”

“Yes, but why are you leaving?”

“I just want to talk to my mom before we head inside.” Big Softy was still giving me that betrayed face, so I figured I needed to elaborate slightly. “It’s about mare stuff.”

Big Softy looked down towards my stomach before smiling slightly and giving me a lick. “Alright then, I’ll go inside, but don’t take too long, I enjoy feeling my fluffy mate under my wings.”

With that, I let go of him and landed on the ground. As I watched him and everyone else walking towards the front door, I called out to my mom and told her I wanted to talk with her. She nodded towards me before giving Dad a kiss and heading back towards me.

“What is it, Danger.”

“Hey, I just wanted to thank you for helping with Big Softy. I really enjoyed walking with you guys.”

Mom smiled before pulling me in for a hug. I responded in kind and the two of us embraced for several seconds before she pulled away. “I know you, Danger, and I’d like to say I’ve gotten a read on your dragon friend. He may be more than a little clingy, but I’d like to say his heart is in the right place.”

“Still, thanks for talking him out of carrying me. While I love it when he carries me, I still enjoy being my own mare.”

“I figured as much. It’s still nice to see that you found yourself a stallion, or in this case a dragon, that is willing to move mountains to make you happy.”

I chuckled slightly at that. “Don't give him any ideas. The last thing I need is for him to cause an uproar.” I sighed, lowering my head before looking up to the red and orange glow of the evening sky. “I just wish he would cool it a little with Never. I know he loves me and wants to protect me, but attacking Never just because of a few slip ups is now what I would call being nice to my family.”

Mom walked over and wrapped me in a hug again. “I know, Danger. You just need to give it some more time. You can't expect that the love of your life is going to instantly get along and care for everyone in your family. I’m pretty sure your dragon friend is just tolerating me and your father so that you’re happy. I’m sure that if you just keep telling him that it would make you extremely happy if he would just get along with Never he’ll find something to like about him. Just give it some more time.”

I released a sarcastic exhale before gently pushing off from my mom. “I appreciate your optimism, but with Softy, I think it will take a little more than me batting my eyes at him.”

“Hmm, you never know. You would be surprised what I’ve been able to accomplish doing just that.”

I couldn’t help but to chuckle at that. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll keep that in mind. Perhaps Big Softy was right and I‘m a lot more like you than I’d care to admit.”

“I’m glad I could help. Now, let’s head inside, your father thought we should play a game of Gold Digger with dinner to relax after the hike.”

Game Night

As I was walking inside, Fluffy’s father told me that we were going to play a game as a family, and that I should collect some pillows for us and find a place on the family room floor. I thought for a second about what Fluffy would need before the obvious solution came to mind, and a smile spread across my muzzle. I ran up the stairs into Fluffy’s room and proceeded to grab all the pillows and blankets I could find. After that was done, I rushed back down and began to work on making a sort of nest.

When Never came in and saw me working on this, he gave me a disapproving look. I just glared and bared my fangs at him. He got the message rather quickly that I didn’t care for his opinion on the matter and proceeded to quickly walk into the kitchen. With that taken care of, I went back to fixing up my and Fluffy’s nest so that it would be perfect for her.

As I was putting the finishing touches on the collection of pillows and comforters Fluffy and her mom walked into the house. Cloud was the first to see what I had done, raising a hoof to her mouth and chucking as she continued to walk towards the kitchen. Fluffy on the other claw looked almost dumbfounded as she approached me, her eyes moving back and forth between me and the nest, trying to figure out what I had done and why.

“Uhh, Big Softy, why are you trying to make a nest out of my bedding in the middle of the family room?” Fluffy almost sounded concerned as she said this.

“Your dad said to collect pillows so we can play a game.” When Fluffy was close enough, I leaned my head down and began to nuzzle the side of her face. “And since you are my mate, you deserve the most comfortable spot.”

Fluffy released a soft laugh before nuzzling my head back and lifting a hoof to begin stroking my face. “I have a feeling my dad was referring to you getting everyone a pillow or two to lay on, but I’m guessing even if he told you that, you would have still done the same thing.” Fluffy moved away from me before looking down and over to the nest I had built. “How about this, you go get everyone else a pillow or two and I’ll fix up your nest so we can both be comfortable.”

I looked at her with a slight bit of perturbation. “What is wrong with the nest I built? It looks more than good enough for the two of us.” Hearing this was quite the knock to my pride, hearing my own mate questioning my work.

“Well, If you just do this,” Fluffy grabbed hold of several pillows and comforters I had placed in the center of the nest and proceeded to wrap the comforter around the pillows before returning it to the center, “you get more cushion out of the same materials. You also don't have to work so hard, and it looks a lot nicer.”

I reached out a claw and pressed on the section of the nest that Fluffy had ‘fixed’, and found that she was right, it did feel softer and more comfortable than what I had made. But before I could start to feel sad that I hadn’t been able to make Fluffy a decent nest, she hovered up to me and planted a kiss on my muzzle.

“It was still a good first attempt, and you’re still my handsome dragon. Now, why don't you go get those pillows while I fix up the nest. When you get back, I’ll give you another kiss for being such a good dragon.”

I smiled and nodded before planting a kiss on her lips. “Alright” And with that, I left her to fix up our nest, heading into the kitchen to talk to Gold and Cloud.

When I arrived, I saw both of them working on making tiny sandwiches, having already filled a small bowl with some gems for me, and I could see Never doing something or another, but I couldn’t be bothered to figure out what it was. “Where are the pillows you wanted me to get?”

Interestingly, Cloud was the one to respond rather than Gold. “Just look in the hall closet, it’s the one on the right of the hall before you reach Gold’s study.”

I nodded and left the kitchen, heading in the same direction as I had when going to retrieve Gold’s supply of howlite. When I reached the door and opened it, I was met with the sight of a closet filled with everything from pillows, to blankets, to several of what Fluffy called jackets. I began digging through the pillows, trying to find some for Fluffy’s family to use. I found two large ones, both light-blue, that both almost felt like clouds wrapped in cloth, those would be for Fluffy’s parents, and one off-green pillow that was slightly smaller and felt much firmer, that would be for Never.

I grabbed all of these and placed them on my back before closing the door to the closet and walking back to the family room. As I returned, I noticed that Fluffy had fixed up our nest to look much softer than how I had done it. The center looked to be a single comforter covering what I could only assume to be a collection of wrapped pillows, while the outside edge was covered in comforter-wrapped pillows that stuck up slightly. It looked far more inviting and comfortable than what I had made, and that was only helped by seeing Fluffy nestled in the center with her eyes closed, enjoying her work.

I smiled and got to work removing the pillows from my back and placing them in sort of a triangle, leaving plenty of room between each of them and my and Fluffy’s nest to allow for things to be placed between us all. I did need to figure out where everyone should lay though, and despite not wanting to separate Fluffy’s parents, due to knowing how irritating being separated from Fluffy was, the idea of Never laying next to me was even more distasteful, so I positioned his pillow across from my and Fluffy’s nest, separating her parents.

After that was sorted out, I went back over to my mate, got into the nest with her, and laid down so that I was curled up along the outer edge of the nest before then stucking the end of my tail under her front legs so that her fluffy chest was nestled comfortably on my tail tip. My left wing was then extended and draped over her so that only her front half was visible. This position was a favorite of mine as it allowed me to give her the most protection. It also gave my very fluffy mate the opportunity to lean against my side, allowing her to enjoy my warmth.

As I did this though, Fluffy released a squeak of surprise before looking over at me with her cute, puffed up cheeks. “Naughty lizard. Is cuddling all you ever think about?” She then took my head between her hooves and forced me to look towards the kitchen. “I brought you hear to meet them.”

I purred and brought my head out from between her hooves and down to begin nuzzling her. “True, but they’re not here right now, are they? And to answer your question, no. Sometimes I think of more fun things I can be doing with you.” This only got her to puff up her cheeks further and fluff up in frustration, only encouraging me with how cute she looked.

Fluffy eventually gave up, releasing a sigh before allowing me to have my way with cuddling her. My smile grew wider as I brought my head down and began rubbing the end of my muzzle in her chest fluff. Eventually though, I brought my head out of it lookeing at her with a smug smile.

“I almost forgot, if you look in front of you, you’ll see that I was a good dragon and brought back pillows for your family. And if I’m remembering correctly, you said that means I get a thankful kiss.”

Fluffy rolled her eyes at that before giving me a quick peck in my lips. “There, and I better not hear you complaining mister. You’re already being bad with your tail, I don't need to encourage you to do anything that would make my parents uncomfortable.”

I smiled back before planting a kiss on her lips, except I lingered there far longer and was quite a bit more attentive before pulling away. “I would never dream of it,” I said before growing a naughty smile and leaning forward to whisper in her ear. “Especially when I’m going to receive the a massage from the best marefriend in the world,”

I got a light slap in my face from her wing for saying that, along with an accusation of being an overgrown, lecherous lizard, but I didn’t mind, I simply went back to cuddling against her lovely chest fluff.

When Fluffy’s family returned from the kitchen, I shifted from cuddling with Fluffy to look at them. I saw that they were carrying the bowl of gems for me, a plate with sandwiches, as well as a fairly beaten up cardboard box.

When Never arrived and placed down the plate of sandwiches in the middle of the pillows, I watched as he backed up and began to look over how I had arranged them. As he did this, he not so subtly glanced at me and Fluffy occasionally while shuffling from hoof to hoof before looking back at the pillows, eventually deciding to hesitantly move towards the one on my left. I fixed him with a harsh glare, being careful not to do anything that would make Fluffy upset, and spoke in the most commanding voice I felt I could get away with.

“I would prefer having your parents laying next to us. You can lay over there, across from me and Fluffy.”

“Come on, do I really get the green pillow? That’s the worst one.”

‘Don't be such a baby, Never,” his mother scolded him as she set down the gems in front of me. “Danger’s dragon friend set them out for us so you can at least be appreciative. And if you don’t like it so much, just get a different one.”

Never grumbled and scowled slightly, but ultimately laid down on the pillow and quieted down. Fluffy squinted and looked up at me sceptically, figuring I had done exactly what I did, but wasn’t sure if she should accuse me. I just gave her my best innocent dragon look before licking her muzzle and turning back to her family.

As I did so, I saw Gold unboxing the game the family was going to play, and as he was taking out and unfolding what looked like a cardboard map, he began to talk. “If you want, you can join us, Softy. The game’s a little complicated, but I’m sure we can walk you through how to play.”

“That’s fine. I’ll just cuddle with my mate and watch for now.” I began to flick my tail up and down against Fluffy’s chest fluff after I said this to punctuate my statement.

Fluffy puffed out her cheeks at this and slapped the underside of my wing with one of her own. “Mom and Dad planned this so we could have some fun, the least you could do is to give it a try.” She caught my tail with her hoof and gave me an accusing, pleading look.

Cloud sighed and shook her head at her daughter. “Calm down, Fluffy, just let your dragon friend sit this one out and see how it’s played. Perhaps he can join us for the next round.”

Fluffy, me, and Never all looked to Cloud with surprise at that, with my mate voicing all of our thoughts. “Did… did you just call me Fluffy?”

“I did, it seems like you are responding to it more than Danger, so I figured I might as well use the name you seem to be more comfortable with.” Cloud closed her eyes, cocked her head, and smiled as she said that.

Fluffy just looked at her mom with her mouth hanging open. She tried to respond, her face getting more red at each attempt, before she finally dropped her head into our nest and finally found her voice. “Mom, that’s what Big Softy calls me because that’s just his special name for me. Could you just… not call me that? It sounds weird when you say it.”

Cloud began to giggle at her daughter’s embarrassment. “I know. I just wanted to see how you’d react to me referring to you like your dragon friend here. You really shouldn’t be so sensitive about that, it’s adorable that that’s his name for you.”

I lowered my head and began to nuzzle her as she lay there, taking advantage of the opportunity to be a supportive mate, but mostly to cuddle. “Your mother’s right, it is an adorable name for you.”

Fluffy sighed before lifting her head and turning to her father. “Can you please deal the money and cards so we can start the game and prevent mom from embarrassing me further?” She then turned to me and glared slightly. “And you.” She poked my chest with her hoof. “You’re going to join the next round.” She looked at my already moving tail tip again. “Before you get any ideas of what to do to pass the time!”

Fluffy’s dad rolled his eyes before placing a pile of colored papers and brown cards in front of everyone. “Honey, you really shouldn’t be teasing our daughter so much. She brought her dragonfriend here because she wanted to introduce us to him, and you see how nervous she is.”

“I know, but we never see her, so I think it’s only right to give her a little bit of a hard time while she’s here. She is family after all, and it’s all in good fun.”

“You saw how ‘all in good fun’ worked out for Never. I would rather not have you risking our good cloud-pillows just because you want to go back to how things were when she was around.”

“Oh, he would never do that.” Cloud turned to me and winked. “Not after what I told him. Anyways, who’s going first.”

“Well, Danger just got back, and I doubt her ‘mate’ would take it too well if we don’t put her on some sort of pedestal,” Never said, almost sounding bored.

“Hey!” Fluffy turned to her brother and glared angrily.

Never lifted an eyebrow and just stared at her unamused. “Tell me I’m off base and that he isn’t overly protective.”

Fluffy stuck out her tongue at her brother before turning back to me and beginning to stroke my chin with her hoof. “Yeah, but I sort of love that about him.”

Never sighed before looking down and shaking his head. “Why can’t you and Holly love creatures that aren’t frogstones that try to kill me? He’s almost as bad as Blue Ember.”

Fluffy looked away from me and back to her brother. “Who’s Blue Ember? And aren’t you dating Holly? I thought you two were in love.”

“We are, he’s just this bird she adopted that hates me. It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later. Just take your turn so we can get started. I would prefer not to keep having these awkward family talks while we sit in front of a game and not even play it.”

“Fine.” Fluffy looked at the board and eventually slid most of the colored papers she had been given over to her dad. “I’ll buy Pine Gulch.” Her father then took the money, put it in front of him, slid over a red card, and flipped over a token on the board, revealing an eight. When she flipped the card up and looked at it, she scowled before putting it back down face up, showing that it had a red five on it. “Aw stallion.”

“What’s the matter?” I began to nuzzle Fluffy in an effort to make her feel better.

“She just got a really bad mine,” Cloud explained as she took a sandwich from the plate as Fluffy’s father slid her over a card with four gold circles on it. “She has a mine with only four gold and with the absolute highest difficulty of extraction. Danger, can you do anything else or would you like to pass the turn?”

Fluffy picked up one of her cards and placed it in front of her. “I’ll play Hired Some Thieves on you, Mom, and make you lose two-thousand bits, then I’ll be done.”

“Ouch. You start with a crap mine and don’t even have any cards to play to help.” Never looked at the board before placing down one of his cards. “I’ll prospect Sheerhoof Ridge.” He then flipped one of the tokens on the board up so that only he could see what it was. He looked at it for several seconds, looking like he was debating whether or not he liked what he was seeing, before dropping the token down and pushing the same amount of paper as Fluffy had towards Gold. “I’m buying Dragons Ridge.”

Just like with Fluffy, one of the tokens was flipped up, and two cards were dealt, this time, the token was a three and the card with a yellow three was revealed. Once this was done, Never placed two cards down, “I’ll play one pickaxe to extract one gold and then play Stabilize Mine to prevent a cave-in or increase to extraction rank. After that, I’m done.”

“Well then, it looks like it’s my go,” Cloud proclaimed. “Since you seemed to have done the hard work for me, I think I’ll take Sheerhoof Ridge.” She then slid almost all of her money over to dad and proceeded to flip up the corresponding token, revealing a ten.

“Shouldn’t have done that, Mom. I wanted to trick you or at least get one of you two to think that it was a decent investment.”

Cloud pouted at that, giving her son a similar look as Fluffy would give me when she was upset. “And we were so kind to invite you to come visit your sister.”

“Hey, it’s just a game, not my fault I was able to trick you.”

“Well, if it’s just a game, then you wouldn’t mind a little payback.” Cloud put down a card and smiled innocently as she slid it over to her son. “Pay the bank the rest of your savings due to unpaid taxes.”

“Oh, it is so on!”

The game progressed back to Fluffy after that and the cycle continued, except after everyone else had their turns, Gold joined and began taking his turns after Fluffy as a banker rather than a digger. Everyone seemed to be having fun playing the game; mining gold, hurting another pony’s chances, and at one point, it looked like Cloud was going to lose. All the while, I was casually snacking on my bowl of gems and sneaking in cuddling with Fluffy.

To everyone’s surprise though, Fluffy’s mom was actually the one to win that game in the end, sticking back and letting Fluffy and Never fight each other before suddenly doing something that caused both of them to lose all their bits and gold. As Gold was collecting everything and shuffling the cards together, Fluffy began to cuddle against my side a little. “Ok, Big Softy, your turn to join. You figured out how to play?”

“Yes.” I then brought my head down, shifted my wing up, and began to nuzzle between Fluffy’s wings. “I hope I don’t beat you too badly, I was looking forward to my massage tonight, and I would be so sad if me winning would make you too angry to… properly enjoy it.” I began flicking my tail against her chest fluff as I said that last part, earning me a warning stare from Fluffy’s mom.

“In your dreams you predatory fire salamander. I’m going to beat you, and maybe I might be getting a massage tonight too.”

Oh, I liked it when she got feisty. While I enjoyed her calling me something to do with fire—being a dragon and all—with its… naughtier implications, and her willingness to convince me to give her a massage, I was not a fan of being called a salamander. I was going to do everything that I could to beat her. I might even give her that massage she wanted even though she would lose, especially since it would likely convince her to get naughtier.

I smiled and turned back towards the game, preparing myself for playing my first round. After everything had been passed out, Gold asked all of us to pick a token, and whoever picked the lowest one would go first. Unfortunately, this turned out to be Never as he got a two. The tokens were then mixed together and distributed on the board and the game began.

This game went for slightly longer than the last one, and somewhat to my displeasure, Fluffy won. While It was nice seeing how happy she got at beating all of us, I was nonetheless upset that I had lost, especially when she eliminated me after her brother was knocked out.

Fluffy, after winning, cuddled up against my side and began to nuzzle it with closed eyes and a content smile. “It looks like I’ll be getting a massage tonight. I hope you’ve been paying attention, Big Softy.”

I, in turn, pushed my wing down, holding her more firmly, and began to nuzzle her cheek for how brazen she was being. “If I am remembering correctly, I never agreed to that.”

Fluffy just stopped her cuddling, pushed my head away, and gave me her best hurt pegasus eyes, as well as a quivering lower lip. “But I won, and I am your mate. Shouldn’t my big, strong mate want to make me happy by fulfilling such a small request?”

I knew she was just pretending, and that she honestly didn’t care if I gave her a massage or not, but her evil, cute pegasus magic was too much to handle, I couldn’t stand seeing her sad. “Fine.” I planted a passionate kiss on her lips and used my tongue to play with her for a little bit before pulling away after seconds of this. “I’ll give you a massage after I have mine.”

Fluffy smiled back at me and went back to cuddling. “You’re such a considerate dragonfriend.”

I savored having Fluffy cuddling me like this and began to purr. I was still slightly upset over having lost that last game, but feeling Fluffy on my side doing what she was doing was going a long way to eliminating that.

That being said, I still wanted to win a game, and after last time, I think I had a far better understanding of how to do that. “This game seems to be quite entertaining, I want to play again. How about your dad joins in as a digger?” I looked over to him, “I want to show him that his daughter’s mate doesn’t lose so easily.”

Never immediately piped up at hearing that. “Yeah, how about no. I prefer to play games to have fun, not lose within two turns.”

“I have to agree with Never on this one,” Cloud said. “Unless Daring is here, we don't let Gold play as a digger, it’s got something to do with his cutiemark letting him always find and get what he needs. It’s only because Daring seems to be so lucky that she can hold him off from winning.”

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Fluffys ears had perked up and I heard her snorting “Well, as I recently found out, that luck isn’t exactly natural.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Cloud said as she turned to look at Fluffy.

“Ahh, nothing.” Fluffy waved her mother’s question away, but her family could clearly see she was hiding something.

It was Gold’s turn now to interrogate his daughter. “Danger, what do you mean by her luck isn’t natural? Don’t tell us she found some magical artifact that makes her luckier at board games.” He chuckled slightly as he finished his last sentence.

“It’s not really an artifact,” Fluffy mumbled under her breath, but loud enough for the others to have heard.

Gold Digger placed the stack of cards on the ground and gave his daughter a serious look. “What do you mean by not an artifact,” he then pointed at her, “do you want to tell me your cousin uses magic to win when we play games? That she’s cheating?”

“I wouldn’t call it cheating,” Fluffy clarified, “and thinking about it, I’m not sure if I really should tell you.”

Cloud fixed her daughter with a firm stare and began talking with a measured tone. “Danger, you brought this up. If it wasn’t something you should tell us, we wouldn’t be talking now, would we?”

I saw how uncomfortable it was for Fluffy that she had brought this up to them all now. In all fairness, not even Daring was aware that she had the luck that she did, granted, she didn’t even believe in luck, but that is besides the point.

Be it as it may, Fluffy now had to decide what she was going to do. She sighed. “Alright, but I need you to know, Daring had no idea about it herself until a few months ago.”

“We’re listening,” Cloud said.

“Well, I recently found out Daring once drank from a pool of luck when she was starting her career as an adventurer. Yes, a real pool of luck, not only helping her survive all of her dangerous adventures, but also working in normal, everyday situations, like -” she pointed at the stack of cards “- winning a game against her relatives.”

“A pool of magic? Are you sure about that?” Never asked. “Sounds a bit like a fairytale.”

“It was the same kind of magic that allowed this,” she said as she stroked over her belly. “ So yes, I am sure about it. Daring has a good amount of luck, and to be fair, I may have a bit of that too by now, since I drank from a similar pond.”

“You did what?” her parents asked unison.

“Mom, Dad, it is not that big of a deal, okay? I don’t have the same amount of luck Daring has, it’s just a bit of luck. It’s probably not enough to affect if I win a game or not.”

Fluffy’s family went silent for a few seconds before Dad shook his head and picked up the stack of cards again. “If that’s true, she owes me back those twenty bits, and she’s not allowed to play any more board games with us.” He then turned to his daughter and fixed her with a gravely serious stare. “And we will see about your luck little miss Do. I’m going to play a few rounds of Gold Digger against you later, and if you suddenly have the same luck as Daring against me, you won’t be allowed to play with us anymore either, at least when it comes to games that can be affected by luck.”

After he said this, I heard Fluffy silently whisper to herself. “She is totally going to kill me for this.”

I just turned towards Gold and smirked. “Still, I want to play against you. As a dragon, I doubt you will be able to best me.”

“You did hear what my wife said, didn’t you? I’m fine being the banker, I’d rather not kill the fun for everyone.”

My smirk turned into a full blown smile at that. “Now that I know how to play this game, I’m positive I’ll be more than capable of holding my own.”

Dad sighed and stopped shuffling, pushing the cards and all the money over to his wife. “Fine, but just this one game. So, everyone flip up a token so we can see who goes first.”

Everyone except Cloud reached out and flipped up one of the tokens, and to my surprise, dad won by flipping up the two. The tokens were then blipped back over, shuffled, and then placed on the appropriate areas by Cloud before she distributed everyone’s cards and bits.

After all of us had what we needed to start, Gold looked around to confirm this and started to play. “Ok, so my go.” He looked around at the plots of land in play for several seconds, hovering his hoof over the board until he finally stopped. “Ok, I’ll buy the Junction Ridge plot.” He pushed seven thousand bits towards Cloud before flipping up the plot token, revealing the number one token, being given an ease card, and revealing a number three.

“Alright, I’ll play a gold river from hoof, giving my plot a gold filled river and then use one shoddy dynamite card on my own mine, causing three mine events and then triggering one collection.”

Cloud flipped over the top three cards of the stack revealing a fissure, gem cave, and a drought.

“So fissure doubles extraction of gold and gems, gem cave gives me my third extraction source, and drought dries the river and brings in all uncollected gold from the river, which should be five since the mine itself has a value of ten. Then from the dynamite, I collect four gold and two gems.”

I watched what Gold was doing with a great deal of shock, impressed with what he was doing. I was starting to understand why Fluffy’s family never let him play as a prospector.

“I’ll sell the gold and gems I’ve gained to the bank for full price and then spend the last of my starting money on three event cards.” Without missing a beat, Mom pushed three cards from the stack over to dad along with twelve-thousand bits. After looking over the hoof he now had for several seconds, Dad nodded and placed down two cards.

“I’ll play false reports and bribed officials, losing one-thousand bits, and lowering costs for all available properties to half the price for this turn. I’ll then spend ten-thousand bits to buy all remaining plots, winning the game.”

I couldn’t help but let my snout open up in shock as I looked at what Gold had done and tried to understand it. On his first turn, before anyone else could play, he had won the game.

“Well look at that, the thing we said would happen happened. So, Big Softy, how does it feel to know that I was right?” Never said smugly.

I turned to face him, narrowed my eyes, and began to inhale slightly so I could breathe fire at him. Unfortunately, right as I was starting, I remembered what had happened at lunch today. Fluffy had shown that she deeply cared about her brother, and that me burning, or otherwise doing something to hurt him, was not an option. I still breathed in deeply though, gathering as much air as I could, before exhaling through my nostrils, sending an extremely thick cloud of smoke at him and began to release a deep growl.

As soon as the smoke reached him, Never was sent into a fit of coughing. He was wheezing uncontrollably, and through the smoke I could also see that the fur around his eyes was becoming saturated with tears. When the smoke eventually dissipated, and Never’s coughing had subsided slightly, I finally responded verbally to his insult.

“If Fluffy didn’t love you, my response would have been far worse for you than a face full of smoke.”

Never opened his now bloodshot eyes, looked at me with a pain filled, fearful expression, before falling back into a fit of violent hacking.

“Big Softy!” I turned to look at Fluffy, seeing her completely fluffed up as she glared at me. “I thought I told you I didn’t want you hurting my brother, and now look at him, he sounds like he’s about to cough out pieces of his lungs!”

“He insulted me! I can’t-”

“I don’t want to hear it! I know you two don't like each other but this was unacceptable.” Fluffy pushed off my side, got off our nest, and walked angrily towards her room.

I looked on with a mixture of surprise, hurt, and irritation. Obviously, I had stepped over a line with blowing smoke at her brother, and with how loving ponies were, it made some sense she would be upset at me, but it didn’t change how much her walking away stung, nor how frustrating her brother was. I simply watched as Fluffy stomped upstairs.

“Softy.” The way Gold said that one one word carried with it the same message as a dragons growl, he was threatening me. “I am inclined to support Danger on this. That was entirely over the line.”

“I know you might not want to hear this now,” Cloud quickly interrupted before things got out of claw, especially since I was just considering reminding Gold who he was talking to, “but you should go up and talk to her. Danger always had quite the will, so you should probably try to smooth things over before she gets too upset. Just take the pillows and sheets you get from her room up with you and we’ll clean up the rest. I’ll talk with Gold and see about getting him to look past this little hiccup.”

I grumbled at this but didn’t do much more. She had a point, I knew that Fluffy was extremely angry with me over what I’d done to her brother, and I would rather her be happy, especially since she was carrying our child. I got off the nest that Fluffy had built and began to collect it all and put it on my back.

When I was done, I shot Never a dirty look while growling before turning around and starting my way up the stairs. As I walked towards Fluffy’s room, I began to think about how I might get her to forgive me. I was never going to apologise for defending my or her honor, that was out of the question as a dragon. However, she did seem to be keen on getting a massage, so perhaps I could do that. I had tried it before in the lair, so this might be a good opportunity to practice on her.

When I arrived at the door to her room, I pressed down on the handle and poked my head in slightly. When I did this, I caught sight of Fluffy in less than a second, and she looked furious. I pushed the rest of the way in, closed the door behind me, and began to make my way over to my mate.

Unfortunately, when I reached her and lowered my head to begin nuzzling her, I received a slap from one of her wings before she backed away, still looking just as angry.

“No, you don’t get to cuddle me tonight, not after what you pulled. I told you to try to get along with him and you promised me you wouldn’t try to kill him. Well, you very well could have killed him based on how I was hearing him cough.”

I frowned slightly, both angry that Fluffy’s brother was ruining my cuddle time with my mate, and upset that Fluffy was this agitated. I needed to figure out how to get her to calm down, especially because I hated to see her like this. I pressed forward again to try to cuddle her, only to be met with the same reaction.

“I said no! You were a bad dragon, so I don’t feel like cuddling with you.”

Yep, I definitely couldn’t allow Fluffy to stay this mad at me. Not simply because I wanted to feel her lovely fur and feathers against my scales, but because it was likely not good for the bornling she was carrying, nor for our relationship. I thought for a second before an idea struck that would fix this problem.

I shifted my body so the bedding on my back would fall off while at the same time starting to purr slightly and lower myself into a crouched, predatory position, with my wings held slightly of my sides and my tail moving slowly side to side. Fluffy, however, wasn’t too keen on letting me make it up to her for making her so upset.

“Oh no, no, you are not going to use any of your evil dragon tricks to weasel your way out of this!” She was trying to sound assertive, but we both knew that I had the advantage in size and strength, and with her molting, she wouldn’t be able to get away so easily.

I let a wide, toothless smile cross my muzzle as I increased the volume of my purring and lowered my head even further, preparing to strike. Fluffy began to somewhat growl at me while looking around in an effort to find an escape route, but it was already too late.

I pounced forward suddenly with my forelegs outstretched, causing Fluffy to flare her wings and try to fly away, but as I said, with her molting, she was easy to catch. I wrapped her in a tight hug, holding her back to my underbelly, and began to purr loudly as I sat down on her bed and began to nuzzle the top of her head.

“Let me go you overgrown salamander! I said no cuddling and I meant it! Stop it!” Fluffy was thrashing around in my forelegs but wasn’t strong enough to break free. I did stop nuzzling her head when she started to whip it around, but instantly went back to doing that when she’d calmed down.

I continued to just hold her like this, purr, and nuzzle her while smiling. Fluffy, while still angry, had resigned herself to letting me cuddle her to try to calm her down. Eventually, I began lessening my grip of her, and when I didn’t feel her try to escape again, I shifted her position so that I was now holding her belly up before beginning to nuzzle her there.

Fluffy still looked angry at me, but it was more a look of disappointment and displeasure than the ire filled face I had been met with when I’d come in.

“I’m still upset with you. Breathing smoke at my brother was uncalled for.”

“He deserved it, and I can’t stand having you upset with me, besides, you always love being cuddled.”

Fluffy chuffed before glaring at me somewhat, but didn’t do anything to try and stop me from loving on her. I continued to nuzzle her stomach and purr with a smile on my muzzle for some time, and while it was working to calm her down, I could still tell the fact that I had blown smoke at her brother was still making her upset. So, since cuddling her wasn’t working in getting my mate to forget about what had happened, I decided to change my tactics.

I pulled my head back and saw the look of confusion of Fluffy’s face, but before she could ask why I had stopped, I moved over to the bed and rolled her off my forelegs so she was laying there on her stomach.

“What are you-”

I smirked as I placed a talon on Fluffy’s lips, causing her to cut her question short. “I thought I might give you that massage you were asking for earlier. You still seem so upset, and I can’t let my lovely mate stay like that.” I then shifted my position so I was standing over her on the bed, sat down, and began to work on her back with my claws.

Fluffy tried to respond, but either because of the pleasure from my massage or her inability to think of what to say, she closed her mouth, laid her head between her forelegs, and relaxed. While I was probably not as good as she was at massages, seeing as I had yet to turn her into a heap of purring and melting fluff under my claws, I was still able to make her happy. I felt as her muscles slowly loosened up beneath my administrations, and eventually, Fluffy let her wings spread out, signalling that she was no longer so irritated with what I’d done.

I let a satisfied smirk cross my face, proud that I had managed to placate Fluffy and get her to forget about what had happened. I kept massaging her, focusing on the spot between her wings and along the side of her stomach and hips. I still didn’t understand how this was helpful for our bornling, but that was what Fluffy had told me, so that was what I was going to do.

When I felt I had spent enough time there, I moved on to her wings, beginning to massage the joints and muscles there. I always loved it when Fluffy would do it on me, especially since the nerves there were not as heavily protected by scales, leading to her pony magic working a lot better there, so I figured she enjoyed it as well. It also didn’t hurt that she tended to release soft coos and sighs of pleasure whenever I did this.

After massaging her wings for a little while, I figured I might as well help to preen her seeing as I was already working on her wings. As I was working on the wrist of her wing, I lowered my head, bit down gently on the feathers, and drew my fangs across them to remove any loose ones.

Fluffy was shocked at first, shooting her head up and looking back as she instinctively tried to retract her wings, but when she realised what I was doing, she calmed down and went back to relaxing. As I was preening her, I could hear her beginning to purr softly, making me all the happier.

As I finished with her left wing and was about to move on to her right, I couldn’t help but try playing with her a little. I pressed the front of my muzzle into the spot between her wings and began to gently nibble her there. While Fluffy initially released moans of pleasure as I did this, she wisened up fairly quickly, lifting up her head again, turning towards me, and growled.

I raised my head and smirked at her before planting a kiss on her lips. When I withdrew, I was still smirking, knowing that I had finally gotten her to forget about her brother. “Alright, but you know I can’t resist playing with my mate whenever I find the opportunity.”

I watched as Fluffy puffed up her cheeks and chest fur in that cute way she does whenever she doesn’t approve of my naughtiness. “Overgrown lecherous lizard,” she mumbled. “Just finish preening me.”

I happily obliged, moving on to her right wing, collecting any loose feathers and enjoying the sounds that Fluffy was making. It was a hard task to not stop and purr seductively at her, but I managed.

When I was finished with her preening, I laid my head and neck down on her back and began to purr. After everything that had happened today, this position just felt right.

“Mmm, while I’m enjoying this, I think you are forgetting something, Softy.”

While I was hesitant to lift my head and give up the wonderful position, I knew I would be getting my massage now, and that sounded like the more enjoyable experience. I lifted my head off of her and lowered it to her side before pushing it under one of her still extended wings. You know, the fur under the wing is even more fluffy than just about anywhere else!

After I did this, I heard Fluffy release a pretend irritated sigh before pushing up off the bed and walking back before climbing onto my back and beginning to work on the scales between my wings.

I immediately began to release a content purr as I relaxed my wings and melted under Fluffy’s touch. She always knew just the right places on me to work on, and would reduce me to a mewling mess in a matter of seconds. The way Fluffy moved her hooves on my scales and pushed into my muscles was almost as pleasurable as when we had our naughty times.

After massaging me there for a little bit, Fluffy began to work her way up my spine. My purring slowly became happy rumbles as she made her way from the base of my neck to my head.

“You’re lucky you did such a good job on your own massage tonight, I might not have been so willing to give you such a lovely massage otherwise.”

When she had massaged about half of it, Fluffy stepped down off of my back, moved to the right side of my throat, and continued her administrations up the rest of it.

“Mmm, can you do that thing I like?” I managed to quietly get out over my own purring as she was finishing up with the back of my neck.

“Greedy dragon, but since you asked so nicely.” I could hear the smirk Fluffy had as she said this, obviously enjoying how I melted under her hooves. “I’ll see what I can do.” When she reached my head, having finished my neck, rather than stopping, she continued the massaging on the crown of my head, causing me to purr even louder. We had discovered not that long ago it was especially pleasurable.

After a few minutes of me purring and flicking my tail back and forth in bliss because of Fluffy’s expert hooves, Fluffy stopped working on my head. “Now, since you were nice enough to go with me on the hike today and listen to my mom, why don’t I help work out any soreness in your legs.”

Before I could figure out what she meant by that, the next thing I knew, Fluffy had my right foreleg and claw between her hooves and was somehow managing to work her pony magic on them. I growled in approval and just let her do whatever she had planned, making a mental note to request she do this more often. It was not like I needed it, I am a strong dragon of course, but it felt good.

She worked from my claw to my shoulder on both my forelegs before moving on to my hindlegs. While I did think about rolling onto my side so she could access both the inside and outside of them, I was too comfortable where I was.

When Fluffy finished with all of my legs, making them feel a lot better after what she had done, I felt her get back on top of me and start working on my tail. While the nerves I had there were buried a little deeper in the muscles, I nonetheless enjoyed it whenever she would work on it, as it always somehow felt easier to move after she would do something like this.

As Fluffy was almost finishing her administrations there, I decided to play with her a little and began to lazily move the back half of my tail back and forth. This earned me a half-hearted, playful ‘Softy’ from Fluffy for making her task more difficult, and I just smirked to myself as I stopped moving it and let Fluffy get back to her massage.

When I felt Fluffy finish working on my tail and say she was done, I stood up on the bed, shook myself to feel how well she had made me feel, and turned around and gave her a kiss. However, as she was kissing me back, I stuck my tongue into her mouth and began to play with hers, as well as lifting up a claw and beginning to pet her chest fluff.

As I was doing this though, Fluffy withdrew from me slightly and gently pushed my claw off of her before I got a hoof pressed against the end of my muzzle. “Softy, I may not be angry anymore because of your evil dragon tricks, but I’m still not happy about what you did to my brother, so no naughtiness tonight.”

The smile I had plastered on my face quickly turned to a scowl at hearing this, as well as my purring becoming a low growl. I was sure I’d gotten her to forget about her brother. He was like some kind of anti-Fortuna for me, angering me and either preventing or delaying my and Fluffy’s fun times.

Seeing this, Fluffy took my head between her hooves and fixed me with a soft and caring, yet firm, stare. “Softy, I understand that with you being a dragon, my brother rubs you the wrong way, and I forgive you for what you did, but, if I just let you cuddle your way out of me being upset, you’ll never get along with him. I want you to at least not want to kill him when you're around each other, and not hurt him and cuddle with me afterwards expecting I’ll forgive you.”

I released a frustrated exhalation and increased my growling. I understood that Fluffy loved him and didn’t approve of how I treated him, but every interaction with him had angered me like nothing else had. Despite what Fluffy wanted, I was positive that I would never be able to get along with her brother.

I helped Fluffy fix up the bed after this, grumbling and making my displeasure known, but Fluffy either ignored my complaints or gave me displeased glares when I was apparently being too loud. But when we finished fixing up her bed and Fluffy laid down, when I tried to lay down and cuddle with her while we slept, I was given a firm look and told me that she didn’t want to cuddle tonight.

I tried to speak up to convince her to reconsider, but the look she gave me before I even said a word told me she was not in the mood to change her mind on this. Now it was my turn to be angry. While I loved that she was standing up for herself and behaving like a dragon, because she was doing so towards me, and over us cuddling, that appreciation was overshadowed.

The thought that I wouldn’t get to feel my cuddly mate lying against me, or her fur tickling the underside of one of my wings was unacceptable. While Fluffy said she’d forgiven me, telling me that I couldn't cuddle with her while we slept did not sound like forgiveness to me.

So I began to release a growl. A full fledged, displeased, draconic growl.

Fluffy, to her credit, just kept looking at me, unaffected by my anger. I began to pace back and forth around the room, whipping my tail, growling, hissing, and occasionally breathing out smoke from my nostrils, trying to figure out some way to convince her to change her mind.

After around a minute of this I thought of something I really didn’t want to do, but right now, I could think of nothing more important to me than cuddling with my mate while we slept, so this was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I returned to Fluffy and rubbed my head against her wing, earning me a little growl from her, but I repeated my rubbing. When she lifted her wing to drag it away from me, I released a small, unhappy whimper, begging for my mate to caress me. Fluffy was caught off guard by this and froze.

“Did, did you just whimper?” She sounded quite surprised at hearing that from me.

I repeated the sound and added a quiet, demanding purr to the end of it, letting my mate know how important this was.

I saw from the look in her eyes that she was torn between her desire for me to get along with her brother, and therefore punish me for blowing smoke at him, and her desire to have a happy dragonfriend.

Though, I could always count on her soft pony nature, so in the end, her wing found its way to the top of my head.

“BIg Softy,” she snorted, but I could see a caring smile at the corner of her mouth.

I waved the tip of my tail happily while purring, but as I got onto the bed and tried to position myself in an even more optimal position for cuddling, she growled at me. I lowered my head so it was below my shoulders, dropped my tail onto the bed, and began to whimper again, doing my best to give her my widest eyes.

“Be grateful with what you get!” she reminded me.

I wanted to growl at that, but I knew better than to push the issue too far. I placed my head next to her side so she would cover it with her wing while curling up slightly around her so the end of my tail was just touching her belly slightly on her other side.

Valuable Memories

~🐲~

When I awoke the next morning, still simmering about last night and how Fluffy had told me we couldn’t cuddle with each other like we always did, I opened my eyes, expecting to be met with the wonderful fur and feathers of my sleeping mate, only to find that portion of the bed vacant. I grumbled and quietly growled at that, especially when I noticed through a window that the sun was just about to crest the top of the mountains. She should still be asleep, if the last few months were any indication.

I turned my head to the door and closed my eyes as I released a wide yawn. I was about to push up onto my claws so I could head downstairs and find my mate when I heard the unmistakable sound of Fluffy’s snoring to my left, along with the membrane of my wing vibrating.

I turned my head to look at my left side and lifted my wing there. After I did so, I saw Fluffy pushed up against me, peacefully sleeping in what I thought was a sensible, curled up position. I smiled at seeing this, and as I was about to start purring and cuddling with her, I thought about how she might react to that. She made it obvious that she wanted to punish me last night, so it only made sense that waking up to me purring and cuddling her in her current position would make her upset again.

So, instead, I simply lowered my wing, placed my head back where it was when I was sleeping, and closed my eyes. As I laid there, pretending to be asleep and waiting for Fluffy to wake up, I began to ponder why Fluffy was where she currently was. I obviously hadn’t moved, as I was still in the same position as I was in when I went to sleep, so either Fluffy had crawled under my wing in her sleep, or she’d done so on purpose during the night.

I couldn’t help but to smile as I thought about this, that Fluffy decided during the night to actually cuddle with me.

The next half-hour or so was great as I ‘slept’ with my mate cuddled up firmly beneath my wing and tickled my side and the bottom of my wing with her fur, feathers, and snoring. But, Fluffy did have to wake up eventually, and with it, I would get my answer to if her being there was an accident.

I listened as her snoring stopped, and soon after, as she released a yawn. She remained still for several seconds before slowly and carefully lifting my wing off of her. She moved out from under me smoothly and with barely any noise. When she was out, she stopped for a few seconds, holding my wing up, and went completely silent. Again, she waited for several seconds like this before placing my wing back into position and making her way to my head, laying down, and placing her wing back on my head.

I couldn’t help but smile at this. Fluffy had indeed gone under my wing on purpose last night to cuddle with me. She had stopped those two times to likely listen to my breathing, to make sure I was still asleep, so that she could sneak back into position and pretend that she hadn’t done what she had.

While I was loving having Fluffy positioned like this, I was more interested seeing if Fluffy’s mood had improved from last night. I ‘woke up’ shortly after this and stretched my wing in front of me to begin lightly stroking her. “Well then, it seems that you were the one who couldn’t resist cuddling last night. And here I was being such a good dragon. At least this confirms what an excellent mate you are.”.

Feeling and hearing this, Fluffy removed her wing from atop my head and smiled back at me. “It seems my attempts at being stealthy were for naught.” She purred approvingly as she said this, much to my enjoyment. “I hope you didn’t have to wait for me to wake up for too long though.”

“Not at all, however…” While I was happy to see that she was back in her usual, happy mood, I would much rather feel her cuddling me. I gave her a small lick at the base of her wing, causing her to slam her wing back on top of my head from surprise, whereupon I went back to rubbing my muzzle against her. “You said I couldn’t cuddle with you last night, so I’m going to enjoy this.”

Fluffy released a knowing sigh before standing up, earning a displeased growl from me as I could no longer nuzzle her without moving my head. Thankfully, Fluffy walked back over to my side, and while I lifted my wing so that I could cover her with it, she just pushed the wing back against my side and cuddled up against it. “Well, you were a good dragon last night, and I think you’ve learned your lesson.”

This was definitely something worthy of a purr. I curled my tail around so it formed a sort of protective barrier before moving my head back and beginning to nuzzle her chest fluff. I was especially happy when Fluffy laid her head on top of mine and purring back.

After a few minutes of this, I drew up and fixed my lips to her’s, and as she was returning the gesture, I snuck my tail around to the side of her belly and began to stroke her there. I was enjoying the naughty times me and Fluffy seemed to be ramping into, even parting my maw slightly and adding that to our passionate kissing, when, to my surprise, Fluffy pushed up onto her hooves and pressed forward with her whole body.

Taken by surprise, I opened my eyes, pulled back my head, and shifted my weight to keep our lips locked but allow Fluffy to move. This turned out to be exactly what Fluffy had wanted. As soon as she had pushed my head back enough, she smiled as she suddenly broke from the kiss and dove under my foreleg and pushed up, causing me to flip onto my back.

As I was trying to figure out what had just happened and flip back up, Fluffy jumped onto my underbelly, laid down between my forelegs, and began to purr. “Well, now that I’ve bested the big, strong dragon and found a more comfortable position, I think I might want a reward.” As she said this, I could feel her tail flicking back and forth on my underbelly, just short of my opening.

I smirked up at her and planted a kiss on her lips before retreating again. “Well, it looks like I can always count on you being in the mood when we wake up.” I then curled my tail back on itself and began to stroke her haunches and the base of her tail. “We did tell your mom though that we wouldn’t get up to any naughty business in here, but I’m sure we know how to solve that.”

Fluffy chuckled before increasing her purring, closing her eyes, and laying her head down on my neck. “I was actually just thinking about going back to sleep like this you naughty reptile, but your idea sounds good too.”

I purred back as I nuzzled her cheek. “Well, if my lovely mate is still tired, I could always carry her somewhere where we can both have some alone time.”

Fluffy released a pleased hum before opening her eyes and giving me a sensual look. “Only if you let me ride on your back.” She then slowly got off of me and layed down on the bed. I, by contrast, wasted no time in flipping back up, moving off the bed, and laying down next to it, purring encouragingly at her to tell her I was ready. I was happy to feel her hooves step onto my back followed by her laying down between my wings after only a few seconds.

When I felt Fluffy purring contentedly through my scales, I quickly rose to my claws, but did so smoothly enough that I wouldn’t jostle Fluffy. I then made my way towards the door and out of the room.

I couldn’t help but let a proud grin cross my muzzle as I closed Fluffy’s door again and quickly walked towards the stairs. While she had been cross with me last night and denied me the pleasure of falling asleep while truly cuddling with her, she had not only decided to cuddle with me at some point while I was still sleeping, but was also willing to indulge in some naughtiness like always.

I couldn’t have asked for a better mate.

Once I had my way downstairs, and just as I was about to open the front door, Gold’s voice broke the silence. “Oh, there you two are. We’ve been waiting for you to get up for a while now. Come, sit down, where about to have breakfast.”

I was livid.

I hadn’t heard anything as I was coming down the stairs, and it was still early by my accounts, so Fluffy’s family being up was not to my liking. I grumbled and growled, but ultimately made my way towards the dining room. As I did this, I could hear Fluffy growling quietly too, not loud enough that her parents would hear, but so I would know she was just as eager for our fun times.

When I arrived, I laid down to allow Fluffy to get off of me, whereupon, she walked to my front as I was getting back up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “We can always have our fun tonight after your massage.”

I grumbled again, but licked her in the end of her muzzle and gave her knowing smile nevertheless. “I’ll hold you to that.”

The two of us got onto our seats, however, before I sat down, I pushed my chair closer to Fluffy’s, so that when I did take my seat, I was able to wrap my left wing over Fluffy and hold her close. She did release a playful, irritated sigh, but after being denied our fun, and seeing as this was our last day, she nuzzled into me as we had our meal, and very much to my delight, she even fluffed up a bit.

The breakfast however was rather uninteresting, simply some fruits and gems, with Gold and Cloud’s justification being that it was best we not eat too much before doing a long flight. I wasn’t too opposed to the small offerings, but I did keep my eye on Fluffy, as she was supposedly eating for both her and our child.

“So, Danger, Softy, I know my daughter told me all about your lair, but I wanted to ask this with both of you around; have you considered how safe your lair is for a newborn? I mean, I know you will both be around and watching over them, but is your lair as it is now really the optimal place to raise a foal?” Cloud asked, interrupting the quiet meal we were having.

I scoffed at this, adding a slight growl to my voice as I responded. “We will be more than capable of keeping our child out of danger. My lair won’t be an issue.”

“Our Lair,” Fluffy corrected.

I purred agreeingly.

“But if it is? Neither of you know what kind of child you’ll have, so it’s not like you will be able to plan for what they might need.”

I increased the volume and tone of my growling, both because of Cloud questioning the quality of my lair, and because she had a point. I didn’t know anything about what a bornling would need, though I was sure my… our lair would be capable of giving them a home.

I was in the middle of contemplating what I might need to do to the lair before Fluffy birthed our child when I felt her stroking my side with her hoof. “I know what you’re thinking, Softy, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it. We still have over half a year before that’s even an issue.” She then turned to her mom and fixed her with a firm stare. “And mom, I’m sure you mean well, and you know how protective Softy is when it comes to me and our baby, but as you may have already figured out, dragons take a lot of pride in their lairs, so questioning our lair like that is a little rude. It’s why he’s growling, it’s his way of saying to stay out of this.”

Cloud rolled her eyes and released a quick, irritated sigh. “This is going to be my grandchild, Danger. I am entitled to be concerned for their well being.” My growling became more aggressive at that, but a hoof pressed into my side and a stirn look from Fluffy got me to quiet down, although I did give Cloud a death glare. “But fine, I’ll drop the topic. I heard you say that it’s going to be giving birth in more than half a year. So, do you have an idea of when that will be?”

“Sort of. I know it’s going to be in about five months from now, but I can’t get more specific.”

Cloud lit up at that, beaming with a broad smile. “Oh, that is wonderful news! So, have you picked out a hospital, or are you doing an at home birth, and if so, have you picked out a midwife?”

“Whoa, slow down, Mom! I’ve only been pregnant for about six months, I haven’t exactly planned out every last detail!” Fluffy sighed and lowered her head after saying this before continuing with a calm, even tone. “But yes, we did decide on that, well, we really only had one option, so decide is not the right word. I’m going to be giving birth in the lair, and before you ask, no, I haven’t found a midwife.”

“Well, as long as you find one sooner rather than later, I can’t complain. Though, I expect an invitation to that lair of yours when you're getting near. I want me and your father there for the birth of our grandchild.”

I began to release a quiet growl while glaring towards Cloud. I did not approve of her presuming she could intrude on my and Fluffy’s lair whenever she felt like it. I was about to tell her such when I felt Fluffy place her wing on my side and look up at me with her wide eyes.

“Softy, I know it’s a dragon thing to not want to let others into your lair, but it’s really important that my parents are there when I give birth. It’s a pony thing.”

I grumbled slightly at her using her pony tricks on me to get her way, but I was willing to give her this without a fight… well, not much of one. I nuzzled her cheek before turning back to Cloud and gave her a stern look. “Fine, but they will have to ask permission to enter. I still have my draconic pride, so I will not allow anyone to come and go as they please.”

Cloud snorted at my demand, but nevertheless nodded, showing me she understood. Fuffy, meanwhile, nuzzled my shoulder in appreciation while pushing up more closely to my side.

After all of that, breakfast quieted down to just the sounds of eating. While I was still irked about Fluffy’s mom’s comment, and the fact that Never exists, he hadn’t said a word all morning, and Cloud did seem to be asking out of genuine concern, despite how rude it was. I decided just to enjoy the brief silence and deepen the cuddling of my mate.

When everyone finished their meal, Gold was the first one to speak. “Alright then. Never, why don't you and mom go upstairs and help Danger prepare to leave while I keep Softy company.”

Fluffy sat up in her chair and her voice took on a playful quality. “Oh, really? It sounds like you’re trying to get rid of us.”

“You’re both well come to stay. Celestia knows I can use the help with excavating gems.” Both Gold and Fluffy laughed at his comment before Gold took on a calmer tone. “But in all seriousness, we’re going to miss ya. Your mother and I just figured that we should get you both going so we don't hold you hostage with conversation for the next eight hours. You told us in your letter you were only going to be here for these last two days, and we’re not going to keep you, especially since you two seem to have everything flush in that lair of yours.”

Fluffy turned to me and smiled. “You heard him, I should head upstairs and get my stuff squared away while you and dad sit around and count gems.”

I leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips before pulling back, taking my wing off of her, and smirking. “It’s not my fault I’ll only be bringing my bag of gems. But why don’t I also come up and help you?” I brought my head down next to her ear before continuing in a whisper. “The faster we get out of here, the sooner we can have our fun.”

Fluffy gave me a light slap with her wing, but I could tell it was more out of habit from me being slightly naughty than her actually being upset with me. This act even elicited a giggle from her mom, who more than likely had an idea what I had said. “Well, I did want to spend a little more time with my brother before we leave, and with how you two have been getting along, I think I’ve had enough drama for one visit.” She then gave me a kiss on my cheek and got out of her chair and motioned for her brother and mom to follow, which they did, and the tree of them disappeared upstairs, leaving me and Gold sitting at the table.

As I moved to get up, Gold chimed up. “I set your bag of gems by the front door already, and since the bags you and Danger brought are upstairs with her, I’m figuring there isn’t much else you were planning to take with you. If you want we can just mill about until Danger and them get back, or if you prefer, we can head into the living room to relax and do some reading.”

While his offer was mildly tempting, as I remembered how long it took Fluffy to get everything together before we came here, I was not in the mood to relax, so I decided that I would rather look around the house a bit. I hadn’t gotten that good of a look on my first day here, particularly when it came to the wonderful images of Fluffy as a child.

I wandered all around the bottom floor looking at every picture I could find of little Fluffy. Gold walked with me while I was doing this and explained when and where each and every one of them had been taken. However, the best of those pictures had to be one on a hall table of her running around the house looking totally fluffed up and with an angry face while her mother chased after her with a towel.

“Ah, yeah, that’s one of the pictures Danger hates us to have in the open, but you can’t deny, it is really funny. This was after her little excursion to that dig site she took you to yesterday. Cloud saw her completely covered in dirt and rocks and decided she would wrange her into the bath. Needless to say, after Cloud had gotten her cleaned off and was in the middle of drying her, Danger decided she was done with bathtime and wanted to run around the house like her tail was on fire. Took us a good quarter-hour to finally get her and finish drying her off.”

It was while I was in the middle of examining this photo and appreciating how fluffy she looked in it when Fluffy, her mom and brother came down carrying her bags. “Alright, we’re done, I think-” Fluffy sounded happy at first, but as soon as she saw what I was looking at, her voice caught in her throat. “Dad! Why are you showing him that!”

“Well, it’s a cute photo, and your mother and I enjoy seeing it every now and again.”

Fluffy’s muzzle was tinged slightly red now, and based on her expression, it wasn’t out of anger. She looked like she was about to respond when Cloud up behind her and rested a wing on her daughter’s back.

“Your father’s right, Danger, you look adorable in it. And besides, why are you so embarrassed? The only ponies that ever see it are your family, and I’m sure your dragon friend here has seen you in far more embarrassing positions.”

I watched as Fluffy turned an even brighter shade of red, as well as her father turn away slightly and cough while I just purred while remembering some of those ‘positions’. When Fluffy finally found her voice, it was a perfect match to how she looked. “Alright, we’re going now, I’ll be out front. Softy, forget you saw that picture and grab your gems.” And with that, Fluffy bolted out the front door with Never following closely behind.

Gold was the next to head that way, and not wanting to stay much longer, especially when I had been promised naughty times, I followed close behind. After I had picked up my bag of gems and was heading out the door, Cloud called out to me and asked me to come back real quick. I grumbled slightly. “What do you want?” I said, unwilling to do as she said, but she simply waved me over again.

I growled once more but turned around. Better deal with it quickly then risk an angry Fluffy for being rude. “So what is it?`” I asked when i stood next to her again since she had a knowing smile plastered on her muzzle, something I was rather suspicious of.

“So, Softy, it seems like you were taking a particular interest in that picture of Fluffy when we came down, and I was just thinking, I might have a deal for you. While I do like looking at that picture and remembering that day, if, say, my daughter’s dragon friend was willing to let his mate’s family stay in his lair for the birth, I might be inclined to put the picture away like Danger wanted, but be a little careless when it comes to where that is. Say, inside of a bag of gems?”

I instantly perked up at hearing that. She was offering to give me the picture in exchange for letting them stay in the lair for the birth. This was a deal I couldn’t pass on, and I was going to instantly agree, until I remembered one issue with that. “Only if this deal pertains to only you and Gold. I will not let Never into my lair, and that is non negotiable.” I said this as sternly and firmly as I could to make it clear that she was not going to be able to convince me to reconsider.

Cloud opened her mouth before closing it again, doing this several times, likely trying to find the words that would get me to allow Never to enter my lair, only to grumble her response. “You can do better than since I’m being so nice as to let you have this precious photo of my daughter, your mate.”

As I said, I liked Fluffy’s mom for having the courage to try to negotiate with me, but there was nothing that would get me to reconsider my decisions regarding Fluffies overly annoying brother! I stood up as straight as I could, looking down at her, and began to release a quiet, low growl while pulling back my right lips to show my fangs.

Cloud stared at me for a few seconds, seemingly ignoring my growling before finally responding in a tone that sounded very much like the one Fluffy used when challenging me. “We’ll see about you letting my son see his niece of nephew,” she poked my chest with her wingtip, “but that’s a conversation for a later date. I have some conditions though if you’re going to take the photo. You’ll need to make sure that Danger doesn’t damage or get rid of it, that is something she’ll probably try to do, as well as making sure it’s easily visible. I don’t want this gift to go to waste by having this photo locked up in some box.”

I smiled at that before nodding. “Deal.” Cloud’s ‘conditions’ were fairly pointless, as I had every intention to make sure nothing EVER happened to that picture. While I would be letting her and her husband stay in my and Fluffy’s lair longer than I would have originally agreed to, it was well worth it for a photo of a super young, super fluffy Fluffy.

Cloud returned the gesture before grabbing the picture, flying up, and slipping it into the bag of gems on my back. The two of us then made our way outside to find Fluffy, giving her dad a hug and her brother next to them.

When Fluffy released her father, she looked over towards Cloud and dashed over to wrap her in an even tighter hug. “I’ll miss you, Mom. it was fun being back here.”

“It was nice to see you too. Remember, you two can drop by any time. And don’t hesitate to send us a message, we love hearing from you.”

“I will.” Fluffy pulled away from her mom with a smile and motioned for me to get down so she could get on my back. While I was still not happy to have anyone see me being ridden, especially Never, they had seen me this morning, and Fluffy was still molting, so I reluctantly got on my stomach.

Once Fluffy had positioned herself on my back, I wasted no time in rising to my claws and grabbing onto Fluffy’s bags, showing Never my fangs in a silent threat as I passed him. When I had the bags in my front claws, I unfurled my wings and began to beat them down forcefully.

As I was taking off, I could feel Fluffy moving around slightly on my back. By my guess, she was likely waving at her family. However, as she was doing this, I felt her stop suddenly as I was just about to start flying off. I turned around to look at her and saw her clutching her stomach with a hoof.

“Are you alright? Do I need to land?” I was extremely worried, she’d never done this before, and I did not want to fly off from her family if this was something serious.

‘No, it’s fine, you can keep flying, it was probably just a kick from our baby, nothing big.” Fluffy sounded really calm as she said this, and since I didn’t know what a kick from our child meant, if Fluffy wasn’t concerned, I wouldn’t be. So, I just turned back towards the direction we had come from and started to fly off.

“Wait. A kick? I felt a kick. I felt a kick! Oh my gosh I felt a kick! Mom, Dad, Never, I felt a kick! I felt a kick everyone!” Fluffy began to thrash around and shout out to her family as we flew off. Apparently, feeling a kick was a good thing. After a few seconds of this, Fluffy spun around on my back and began to hug as much of the base of my neck as she could. “Our baby just did her first kick.” And from the sound of her voice, she had tears or joy in her eyes.

Apparently, this was a REALLY good thing.

To Begin

“Oh, come on! Why are your feathers all over the place?” I was looking at the disaster that used to be my well-kept living room. Well, now that Fluffy and I were mates, it was technically our living room, but come on, I had spent so long alone that it was hard thinking of it as anything other than mine.

The living room was a complete disaster, with piles of unsorted items strewn everywhere. Everything from clothes, to treasures she had collected over the years, to some of my own things she had either taken out and failed to put back or what she wanted me to take on the trip to her parents. And amongst all of it were at least two dozen of her fleecy, ochre feathers.

I could somewhat handle the living room being a disaster. After having Fluffy living in my den for the last few months, I had gotten used to how quickly everything started to turn into a disaster. While I didn't like it, it wasn't as much of a problem for me now as it had been at the start. The feathers, while a welcome part of Fluffy, occasionally came off when we had our fun, but never in this amount. So seeing them covering most everything in the room was concerning as it would mean just another thing I would need to clean up with Fluffy around.

But what really set me off was when my gaze crossed over the half-eaten bowl of food just sitting on top of one of my favorite wooden tables. “Seriously? I worked so hard on breakfast and you barely even touched it!”

While I had learned some time ago that she tended to pick at her food rather than just eating it all at once as I did, It was still frustrating to see. I had even gone out of my way to convert a sizeable portion of my garden into fruits and vegetables for her. That was partially due to my wanting to save time when it came to getting her food, but mostly due to her not appreciating the way I usually got her food. I’ll tell you, ponies are so sensitive when it comes to using your strength to just take what you want.

Anyways, the half-eaten bowl of food mostly set me off since it had been my first attempt at making pony food using what I had been able to grow in the garden, and I was rather proud of the results. So seeing it treated like any other meal felt like an insult. Had she not been my mare friend, I would have had a serious growl with whoever insulted my efforts like that.

“I know my overgrown lizard, but you know I’d rather savor your cooking. And besides, I still have to get ready for our trip.” Fluffy yelled back at me from the bedroom, doing Fortuna knows what. “And about the feathers. I’m molting now, so I’m going to be losing my feathers for a while.”

“Wait a second.” I was reaching for the bowl when she said this, and I was glad I hadn’t grabbed it yet since I probably would have dropped it after hearing this. “You're losing your feather! Are you sick, should I take you to the doctor, are they going to come back?”

My head was spinning and my mind was going a kilometer a second at the implications of this molt. Since this was the first time she had done this since I had met her, and I knew next to nothing about what ponies or pegasi were like, I was panicking. While Fluffy didn’t sound too worried about this, molt as she called it, the possibility of her permanently losing those playful and soft feathers of hers was horrifying to me.

When Fluffy came out of our bedroom carrying some pillows and saw me panicking, I could make out a smile forming on her muzzle. “No, you silly lizard, I’m not sick. And yes, my feathers will come back. Pegasi just lose our old feathers twice a year so we can get new, softer feathers.” She had made it over to me as she said this, and when she got to the last part, she brushed her wing against my side as she passed.

I calmed down immensely after hearing this. And hearing that her feathers were only going to come back softer and more playful just helped to turn the revelation from bad to amazing. I could definitely handle her feathers being strewn around the lair if it meant that I would get to experience them at their most pleasurable.

Fluffy seemed to notice the lust-filled grin that had formed on my muzzle and swatted me with her tail as she began looking over the things she had brought out. “I know what you're thinking about you naughty dragon, and I hope you didn’t forget about your promise to me."

I growled at her mentioning that. She had told me that she was hesitant to get naughty when she was back at her parent's house, so if we were to do something, it would have to be rather tame. So in other words, not as fun. I was at least grateful that I wouldn’t have to go the full three days without having any fun times as she had originally wanted. I was glad that I was able to convince her that we could still attempt to have some fun. But that was mostly because I reminded her about how often she was in the mood as of late when she got up.

Fluffy chuckled at hearing my frustration. “Don’t be so grouchy, it's only for a few days, after that, we can go back to our regular activities. Now come help me figure out what we should bring. I don't want to get to my parents and find out I forgot something.”

Looking over the mass or disorganized items strewn around the living room, I couldn’t help but doubt that her not bringing something would be avoidable. But nevertheless, I did my best to help her go through everything to find what she wanted to bring. I was sorting through my stuff, mostly to start putting them back where they belonged as I refused to take more than I would need, when Fluffy stopped her lovely humming to say something.

“You know, now that I think about it, I really should have put my hoof down about taking an airship. I knew I was going to start molting now so this is just going to make things more difficult.”

I had to stifle a growl at that. Fluffy had wanted to take an airship to get to her parents but I was adamant that we fly there with our own wings. I was not exactly the friendly type, so spending a day around other creatures would have resulted in me either burning the ship or converting a section of the ship into a temporary lair. One that only Fluffy would be allowed to enter. I had briefly considered putting my reservations aside for the potential of meeting more pegasi and their fluffy wings, but it was only briefly. When I thought about it, why would a pegasus ever use an airship when they could just fly there themselves? If the only creatures I found pleasant were not going to be on the airship, I saw no point in taking one.

“I’ve told you this dozens of times, both of us have wings, I see no point in us spending gold on something we could do ourselves.”

“I know, but with me losing feathers I can’t fly nearly as well.”

I couldn't help but snicker at that before turning my head to face her. “Are you sure it's the feathers? Because you are carrying our child in you.” I internally cringed at saying that. I still hadn’t fully gotten used to the idea of pregnancy. I mean seriously, that's strange stuff!

Rather than immediately responding, Fluffy put down the clothes she was going through and began to flap her wings to take off. Only, she didn’t take off right away. She kept flapping her wings faster and faster, harder and harder until her wings were almost a blur, at which point she was finally airborne. She flew up to my muzzle, already breathing heavily from the strain of flying.

‘Yeah, I’m sure.” Fluffy almost seemed to have been forcing the words before she slowed her wingbeats and returned to whatever it was that she was doing. “So unless we want to help me deliver the baby before we get to my parents' house, I would suggest you finish what you're doing and help me pack.”

I just rolled my eyes at that. Fluffy had already told me that ponies were pregnant for almost a year, so we had more than enough time to get to her parents’ house. But still, I picked up my pace and began helping her pack as I did so.

“Still, it’s too bad it's a little too late to buy airship tickets. We could have gotten to my parents in only a day. After that little impromptu demonstration, I have a feeling it might take us a week to get there.” Fluffy’s tone was a little defeated but quickly changed to a more humorous one. “Well, that is unless some big strong dragon lets me ride on his back as he flies there.”

“No. Not going to happen. I’m not your pet you can’t ride on whenever you please.” My tone was a little harsher than I would have liked, but even if she was only joking, I really did not want to do something so demeaning.

But not wanting to let my last comment linger in the air and spoil our good mood, I decided to change the topic. “But, I can think of someplace I would rather have you ride.” I snaked my muzzle between her wing joints and began to softly nibble. I knew that doing this always drove her crazy and put her in the mood for having some fun in the bedroom, or wherever really. It didn't hurt that she had been smelling a lot better as of late. I couldn't put my claw on just why that was, but I didn't really care.

For this, Fluffy extended her right wing and quickly flapped it up, slapping me in the muzzle and causing me to instinctively pull back. It didn't hurt me so much as surprise me due to my scales. “Not now you horny reptile, we're not even close to being finished.”

I gave a quick exhale out of frustration. This would happen occasionally with her. She would decide on doing something and no matter what I did or said she would refuse and just keep doing what it was she wanted. It wasn't like anything was going to go anywhere, I hardly think a temporary distraction would ruin her plans.

But before I could get back to work, Fluffy turned around and began to nuzzle my neck where it met my torso. “I know it was hard, but thanks for agreeing to not be too friendly while we’re at my parents.”

I was surprised that she thought I was frustrated about that, well, I was, but that wasn't why I had just exhaled. Fluffy didn't know how her parents would react to her having me as a mate, so she had me agree to control myself while I was there. It had been a blow to my draconic pride that I hadn’t been able to negotiate for something in exchange for playing the nice, well-behaved dragon, but for Fluffy, that was a price I would be willing to pay. I would also have to face the indignity of being called Big Softy the entire time there. I absolutely refused to let her parents call me by my real name, and Fluffy insisted I not use the name I had chosen for myself as she said it might scare her parents. I, unfortunately, had to settle for being called Big Softy by her and her family.

Fluffy’s show of affection seemed to become more assertive as she began to nuzzle me a little more forcefully while audibly breathing in through her nose more. “You know, you have been smelling a lot better lately.” This comment was punctuated by a slow sigh as Fluffy finally stopped nuzzling me and instead moved to my right side and lovingly leaned up against my side with her head resting against my neck. “Have you been changing how you wash your scales to prepare for meeting my parents?”

I laughed slightly at that before unfolding my wing and used it to hold her closer. “No, but I can’t deny that I’ve been thinking the same thing about you.” I curl my neck around and kiss her right on the lips, an act that fortunately went unopposed.

Fluffy eventually broke off the kiss with a smile before gently pushing my wing off of her. “Your naughty habits just gave me an idea. Since you seem to be so opposed to carrying your poor, helpless mate, why don't I sweeten the deal.”

I raised my eyebrows, intrigued at what she was saying. Since me being naughty had given her an idea, I felt I had an idea of where this would be going. A proud grin crept it's way onto my muzzle as I lowered my head to be on eye level with my beautiful mate. “Sex when we stop?” Bear in mind, I had only promised to behave myself while we were at her parents, she never said anything about the trip there.

Fluffy smirked before playfully baping me in the muzzle with a wing. “No, silly. I was thinking I could give you a massage each night before we go to sleep. I know how much you like those.”

Oh, while it might not be sex, it was the next best thing in my book. I hardly needed to think about how good it would be to feel her hooves and soft feathers pass over my scales. Shifting my eyes over the current carpet we had in the living room, I was reminded of the deep crevices my claws had carved into the stone from the last time she had given me a massage that the carpet now hid. Fluffy had already given me a message four times since we had returned from Fortuna’s temple, and a bed, a couch, and two carpets had been the casualties of us learning that I could not control myself under the careful ministrations of her pony magic. While I would normally refuse to receive a massage outside of the lair due to how embarrassing it was as a dragon to be rendered a barely intelligible mass of scales, seeing as Fluffy would likely be the only one to see both that and me carrying her, I felt it would be well worth the embarrassment.

“I think that would be nice.” I leaned down and gently began to nuzzle the area between Fluffy’s wings, I knew nibbling there wouldn’t work as she was still in the middle of packing, but that wouldn’t stop me from taking in that wonderful scent of hers.

Fluffy began to release her cute little purr in response to my affections. While it wasn’t a proper purr like my own, there was just something about it that captured my interest. “Well, since we both seem to be enjoying how each other smells, why don't we add a new scent?”

“Oh, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?

“I might be.” The suggestive smile on her muzzle only served to confirm my suspicions.

“Weren’t you just saying that we don't have time for such things, that we still needed to pack?”

“I did, but the quicker you help me finish up, the sooner we can start. That is, if we finish before we need to leave.”

~🐲~

The sun was starting to set in front of me behind a range of mountains with giant letters spelling out ’APPLEWOOD’ as I started to look for someplace me and Fluffy could settle down for the night. We had departed from our lair not too long after the two of us had had our fun times and eaten lunch. Fluffy was currently laying on my back just between my wings. Since Fluffy couldn't exactly hold onto what she had packed, it was up to me to hold on to them. Fortunately, I only needed to carry a small bag for myself and a moderately sized bag for Fluffy.

Fluffy seemed to enjoy being carried around as she would hardly stop talking after I took off. That didn't last for long though as she stopped talking around the time we were passing over the South Luna Ocean, mostly since there wasn’t anything to talk about other than the nearly empty skies and the baron sea. She had actually fallen asleep some time ago. I found it rather cute when I looked back and saw her curled up between my wings. Eventually, I saw a cloud that looked large enough that the two of us could sleep there. I made a small dive before quickly returning to the altitude I had been at. I only needed to create enough force to wake Fluffy up.

“Rise and shine, I found us a nice cloud we can sleep on tonight. It's bound to be more comfortable than my back.”

“Aw, but I like your back.” Fluffy seemed to force the words out as she yawned. “It’s so relaxing to just listen to you breath and feel you fly.”

While my immediate thought was that she was just being nice or joking around, the several times I had found her on top of me when I woke up seemed to suggest that she did find something about listening to me breath pleasant. Nevertheless, I carefully flew over to the cloud and dropped our bags onto it and allowed Fluffy to hop off of me. I was about to help her start unpacking what would be our dinner tonight when I remembered seeing a tree below us that looked familiar.

“You get set up, I’m going to check something real quick.”

With that I took off to find out if what I thought I saw was correct. While I wasn’t the most knowledgeable dragon when it came to plants, an only friend, Angorik, had spent enough time in the wilds that he had taught me about a few plants that were edible. When I finally landed, I was relieved to see that I was right, it was an olive tree. Dozens of olives littered the ground while even more looked to be weighing down the branches. Even though we had brought food, it would still be nice to have something else to add some variety. I grabbed two clawfull of the olives and began my flight back to Fluffy.

When I returned, she had our dinners out and separated. She had a container of nuts and a small carnation, clover and pansy sandwich. Fluffy had been telling me about how she loved flower sandwiches so I thought I might try my claw at a sweet one for her. I on the other claw had a small assortment of citrin, aquamarine, and ruby, a mix of gems Fluffy liked to call my spicy piña colada, and a container of jerky.

I smiled as Fluffy turned to face me. “I have a surprise for you.” I placed a clawfull of the olives in front of her. “I saw them as we were landing and thought you might enjoy having something else for dinner.”

“Thanks, you Big Softy. I was starting to think you left your defenseless marefriend to visit Las Pegasus.”

I huffed at that, I was too much of a gentledragon to do such a thing. “Never!” I laid down next to her and pulled her close to me with a wing. “I’m too nice to want to do that.”

“Or to horny to risk upsetting me.” Fluffy had a mischievous smile as she said this, punching me in the side before reaching out to try one of the olives I had brought back.

I reached out too and grabbed a few. When I placed them in my mouth and started to chew, careful to avoid the pit, I was surprised by their taste. They tasted alright, but there was a very strong flavor to them that I had never experienced before. I wasn't sure whether I liked these or not as they were nowhere close to the taste of olives I was used to. Fluffy on the other claw seemed to be enjoying them far more than I was, so I subtly moved some of my olives over to her pile.

“You brought up something earlier, some Las Pegasus. Could I find any ponies there with feathers as playful as yours?”

“Maybe, but would you actually go there to find out?”

I just turned my head around and laid it across her back. “Not in my lifetime. Not unless you were there too.”

Fluffy chuckled at that and responded by wrapping a foreleg and her head around my neck. “That was so sappy, but it was nice to hear.” She let me go and we both pulled away from one another. “Now, let’s finish eating. You’ve been flying all day and I would prefer it if you don't arrive at my parents’ house complaining about starving to death.”

“If you insist.” I turned to my dinner and picked up a few rubies and began to eat them.

“If you’re so curious about Las Pegasus, I could always tell you more about it. It wouldn’t be too hard, it’s right over there.” Fluffy lifted a hoof and pointed at a massive congregation of clouds that seemed to be lit up by at least a thousand lights. The sun had hardly set and the place was already brighter than a dozen dragons breathing their fires.

“I think that would be nice.”

So for the next half hour, I listened to Fluffy talk all about how Las Pegasus was a hotbed of gaming and fun, how many of the big businesses there were modeled after famous places from ancient times that she desperately wanted to go to herself. She also explained that there were plenty of stage shows that would go on to just sit down and enjoy oneself. It was actually quite interesting, well, except when she started to bring up cooking and ponies use of eggs. It was horrifying to think that these sweet ponies used an unhatched egg for food.

“I think we should get to sleep now, wouldn’t want you to be too tired tomorrow when you meet my parents.”

Fluffy pushed the wing I had draped over her aside, got up, and began to shape the cloud to better suit as an impromptu bed. When she finished, she wasted no time and immediately jumped into what looked to be the softest area of the newly constructed bed.

I chuckled slightly at seeing this. “Aren’t you selfish. Taking the best spot, especially since I’m bigger and was nice enough to carry you here.”

Fluffy just looked over to me with the biggest eyes and put on the saddest tone she could manage. “But what if some creature drops by and tries to snatch your pegasus away while you sleep?”

“Since you put it that way.” I walked over to the bed and curled around her, placing my head and wing on top of her, completely covering her. “I guess I have no choice other than to protect what’s mine.”

Fluffy began to slowly cuddle up next to me, pressing herself as close as she could to me. I was closing my eyes and was about to start falling asleep when Fluffy suddenly pushed herself up, throwing my head off of her and causing me to start flailing around out of surprise.

“I almost forgot, I still owe you your massage.” Fluffy almost seemed to be panicking as she said this.

“While that would be nice, did you need to scare me like that?” I had finally recovered from being taken by surprise and was giving her an incredulous stare.

“Well, unless you would rather not have a massage, I feel scaring you was justified.”

I closed my eyes and gave a half-hearted sigh before allowing a smug smile to cross over my muzzle. “As long as my wonderful mate is offering such an amazing gift, how could I say no?”

And with that, Fluffy climbed onto my back and proceeded to engage in one of my favorite activities.

Author's Note

And so, the beginning of the editors take on the Dragon And The Pony mythos.

Familial Prying

With dad taking Big Softy on their little outing, me and mom began collecting the dishes while Never put away the bowl of gems that hadn’t been eaten. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of doing the dishes, occasionally finding some way to get Big Softy to cover them for me, I hadn’t been home in so long that I felt I should spend as much time with everyone as I could.

“So, uh, how did you and your, uh, dragon… friend meet exactly?” The way Never seemed to be asking me made it sound like he was expecting me to explode on him.

I just sighed as I placed the dishes I was carrying into the sink and turned on the water. “Yes, he is my dragonfriend, but if that’s too hard just call him my mate. And I would appreciate it if you could just get over the fact that I am dating a dragon.”

“I kind of already have. My issue is that he kind of seems to want to kill me! Or am I misremembering last night?”

I turned to face him and glared. “Well, you did barge into my room without warning, and were sort of threatening to attack whoever was responsible for getting me pregnant. Or am I misremembering last night?” Never opened his mouth to respond, but quickly closed it and turned away blushing.

I sighed yet again and turned back to the dishes and picked up the sponge to start scrubbing them. “As for your question. I met him when I was trying to find a lost civilization. I made some poor decisions by trying to pull a fast one on a gang of griffins and they didn’t take it too well. Long story short, I saw him come into the bar where the gang and I were having our disagreement, I roped him in by saying we were dating since he looked scary enough to get the gang to back down, he played along and convinced them to let me go and have an actual date with him, and from there we sort of hit it off.”

“So you're telling me you saw a random guy, a dragon no less, and what, you told the griffins you were dating him?”

“Not… quite.” I was slightly clenching my teeth at that. It was a valid question, just, not one I was expecting. “I sort of called over to him and apologized for missing our date.”

While my eyes were fixed on the dishes I was washing, I would tell that both Mom and Never were giving me that look.

Never was the first to recover. “Oh, I’m sorry. So you saw a random dragon, one you knew nothing about, thought to yourself, ‘yeah, I know, I’ll say we’re dating, this is smart idea’, and you place all your faith in him just going with it. Yeah, that’s the smartest thing I’ve heard you do in a long time.”

Never sort of had a point, but that didn't mean I wouldn’t take offense. “And how you met your marefriend was any better. You didn’t know what lives in the gorge, you did something equally stupid and could have put someone at risk.”

“It was just a cactus cat. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone.”

I turned to face Never and fixed him with an incredulous glare. “And did you know this before you ‘saved’ your marefriend?”

Never turned beat red, realizing for the second time in our conversation that I had used the same logic he was using to point out the hypocrisy. Never just turned towards the pantry and quickly walked over to it in silence. In all likelihood, he was going to start getting everything for lunch prepared to avoid having his words used against him a third time.

“Well, I’m still curious about what your dragonfriend is like.” The tone of my mother’s voice made it quite obvious that she desperately wanted us to stop fighting about our current love lives. “He seems like he’s quite protective.”

“Yeah, he is, but he means well.” I turned back to the dishes, putting the dish I had been washing on the counter so mom could put it in the dishwasher. “I think he just gets a little overzealous since I’m two-thirds his size, but it might just be him being a dragon.”

“Well I for one find him quite charming. He’s very affectionate. Is he always like that?”

I snickered at my mom. “I’m sorry mom but he’s already spoken for. And I don't think Dad would appreciate you dumping him for his son-in-law.” This earned me a chuckle from her. “And yes, he’s always like that, more so when we’re in his lair. If he isn't cuddling me or making us meals, he’s always up to something. It doesn't hurt that he has access to all the flowers he could ever want.”

“I can certainly believe that.” My mom sounded rather happy as she said this, but when she continued, her tone was a little more mischievous. “So, tell me, was it his wings that convinced you to consider making him your special someone?”

I looked over to my mom with a raised eyebrow. “What do his wings have to do with anything?”

My mom just smiled. “Oh, don't act so innocent, I know you know wing size is a good sign of a stallion with more to give.” She then bumped her hip against mine. “I already know he’s quite the virile one.”

I don't know if I turned pale or if I blushed harder than ever before after hearing that. In that moment, the shock of hearing my mom ask me how big my mate was when it came to what he had between his legs was just too much. I just looked over at her with my mouth agape, unable to come up with the right words.

I eventually came back to my senses and looked at her in horror. “What? Mom… seriously? You're asking that?”

Never sputtered before joining in. “Uh, yeah Mom, I’m kind of here too you know.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. It’s not like you've been trying to keep it very secret. I saw Never practically run down the stairs last night and into one of the guest bedrooms. I figured your mate probably threatened him again and was not about to have that in my house. After I finished with the dishes, I went up to knock on your door and set some things straight with him, but as I was about to, I couldn't help but hear you two going at it. And I must say, based on the moans I heard, I’m guessing he is quite blessed indeed. I’m not surprised Never came rushing down after hearing that.”

“Aaand I’m going.” Never was blushing like mad as he just about bolted out of the room, leaving everything he was working on in a disorganized mess.

I, on the other hoof, couldn’t move. How could I? My mother had just told me she had not only heard me and Black Death having sex, but that our little act was loud enough that she could clearly make out what was going on. I just stood there and looked in the vague area where my mom should be.

Mom laughed at this development. “Hahaha, I’m glad you and your dragonfriend have a baby on the way. If this is how your brother responds to what goes on in the bedroom, I’m not sure he’ll be giving me and your father any grandchildren.”

My mom eventually noticed my catatonic state and bumped me with her hip again before continuing with her typical easy-going tone. “Come on, Danger, I was just trying to yank your chain a little. I’m happy that you two are so loving. Celestia knows your father and I weren’t much different when we first met.”

I could feel my face heat up after she said this, my embarrassment boiling over. “It’s just… Mom, you're my mom, it’s just kind of…”

“Uncomfortable talking to me about you and your mate having sex and me hearing it?” My mom sounded slightly sympathetic to my plight.

“Yeah.”

“I understand, but you're an adult now, Danger, that means you’re able to make your own choices. You don't need to be afraid of talking to me about anything. You’re also pregnant, I sort of know how that happens. Or did you forget that I have two kids?”

I turned back to the dishes and continued to work on them. “I know, it’s just… weird knowing you… heard that.”

“I’m not going to lie, while I appreciate you two not informing the whole house about what you were doing, I am not too happy about you two going at it while you’re here.” Her tone had become extremely serious, a far cry from what it had been just a few minutes ago. “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t get too friendly while you’re here. I’m not a big fan of the possibility of your room smelling like sex for the next few weeks.”

“Okay.” While I was happy she wasn’t angry with me and Black Death, It was going to be a little difficult, but mostly strange, to start being so open with her about my life. “I’m sorry about last night. I wanted me and Big Softy’s stay to be a little less exciting, it’s just that I’ve just been getting so needy lately, it's just so hard to keep my hooves to myself.”

“I take it you and him are making love quite often then?”

“Yeah. It’s sort of become part of our morning routine.” For some reason, saying it out loud to my mom just made me feel a little ashamed, like I was admitting to doing something bad.

“I’m glad to hear that you two are enjoying each other's company.” My mom quickly returned to her usual tone. “So then, seeing as your brother is gone and you know we can just talk now, I really need to know; how is your dragonfriend when it comes to his downstairs?”

“He’s… good. Probably a bit bigger than a stallion.” I was doing my best to make my mom happy, but I would have preferred it if she would not ask for me to go over my entire sex life.

“Oh, that must be nice. Are you two being careful? You are pregnant after all.”

“Yeah, we are. We make sure not to let things get too crazy.”

I noticed my mom look back at me as a sly smile crept across her muzzle out of the corner of my eye. “Well, I think I’ve pried enough for now. Looking at you, I’m sure your father would think you’ve come down with a fever.”

I breathed a sigh of relief at that. Hopefully I won’t have to field any more questions about me and Black Death for the rest of the day. If I’m lucky, she won’t ask about anything else that private for quite a while.

“So, on a less serious note, I do have to say, I’m quite disappointed in you.” I scrunched up my face as my mom said this, especially with how jovial she sounded. How was this not serious? “I really wish you two would have held off on having a child. Your father and I would have loved pestering you two to finally get around to giving us a grandfoal or two whenever we got together. You know how much parents love that. I feel a little betrayed that you two took that away from us.”

I laughed at my mom. She definitely knew how to bring a smile to my face, and it was much appreciated after how uncomfortable she had been making things for the last few minutes. “Tell you what. Why don't you nag us about giving you a new grandfoal after we’ve gotten comfortable with the one? That way you and dad can have your fun with bothering us every time we meet.”

“You know, I think that sounds like a lovely idea. I do need to ask though, do the two of you have enough space in your dragonfriends lair for a family? I know you two said it was comfortable, but you never explained what it’s like.”

“Well…” I spent what felt like the next hour going over every detail of Black Death’s lair, what the two of us did when we weren’t having sex, and explaining to her that the two of us were doing just fine and didn’t need their help with anything just yet. Despite how nosy she was, I couldn’t deny that I had sort of started to miss her perpetual prying when I was away.