//------------------------------// // The Morning After..: 3 // Story: Draconian Love // by Ponyess //------------------------------// . I feel the light of Celestia’s sun playing over my face, more than I am aware of the general level of light in the room in which I had found myself; as I woke up. Apparently, there are drawbacks in the connection between the chosen form, the Pony I had been impersonating; from the perspective of the Changeling being the impersonator, which would be me in this case. “Aww, my head!” I moaned, suffering from a severe hangover and the headache that inevitably came with it. Only this is no mere regular hangover, from common alcohol induced intoxication. Had that been the case, I could have rid my system fairly easily; even in this poor state. Had it been a regular hangover, I would not have felt this good, or the general high, either. I am certainly pinned down; between the Rock and the infamous hard place, right there. . I had just noticed the cause of the impediment in which I had found myself, there is a Dragon in the bed; I had apparently shared my bed with him all night. Had I been sleeping with him? It had been unthinkable, until I had gone to the same bed as him; the Dragon that had been riding on my back the entire previous day. There had been no escaping him or his presence, once he set his eyes on me, and his desire slowly invaded my mind. I had taken that bittersweet pill of a Dragons Love and Greed in an uncommonly thick mix. Maybe it was the desire lacing his emotion that had glued me under him, but now it is too late to turn back and run. It isn’t in the risk of exposure, or chancing the rest of what I have left of my hive. For all intents and purposes, my former Hive is forfeit to me now. The chances and risks are mote to me in this state. I could as well let go of them and have them make it on their own, as best they could; making it by their own devices. . What I had engaged, and what the choices had turned me into can not be reversed. I have no turning back. Of all the mates I could have been choosing, I had an adolescent Dragon on my shoulders. I had pulled him in and made him into my mate. Had it been a regular Pony, I may have been shunned by both sides; but I could have taken that hooves down any day. Now my fate had been locked with one that may outlive any of my common potential mates. Dragons are known to be long lived, and the one I have is barely ready for what is upon his shoulders now. There is the one advantage of the Dragon, he is not averted by the notion of his mate laying Eggs, but how long will it take me, and how long does it take our eggs to hatch? There is no knowledge of what I just put my hoof into. . Eggs, Eggs, Eggs. “Why am I thinking of eggs?” I pondered. Aside from the fact; that I apparently had chosen a new path for myself, and a fate I dare not truly think of, not right now, and most likely not ever. Of course, now I am bound to find out; where one who chose to live by and mate a Dragon is fated to go. I can no longer avoid, what I had chosen. Rejecting him would not change what I had become, and where I am going; I could as well take him with me, for what little good it may do me. My time is slowly ticking away for me; tick, tock, tick tock; I am bound to the sleigh and where it is taking me. Sorry, I do not believe in a hereafter. Maybe there is one for Ponies, and their likes. Even the Zebra and the Deer; but for a Changeling, there could be no such thing. Is it a blessing or a curse, to me one such as I? Am I to be long lived, or forever cursed to die well before my time? It is natural; that that old beast of a Daemon was to find me here, and at this point in time. Maybe there is no escape. Is there even a point in trying to bite back? . Strange how the old Daemon had managed to push me even closer to him, the one I should have feared. Not so much for strength or curiosity, but for what it is representing to me to mate him, and to mate with him. A Dragon is one of the least favourable mates, from the viewpoint on which I had been standing. Now something else hit me, I couldn’t disengage the Hive and the mind that goes with it. Am I suffering from the intoxication, or are there something with him? I can’t say at this point. Am I about to betray my people, and everything we were and stood for? Or, am I about to be their salvation? Fate is indeed cruel. - . There it is, and I feel a new wave of what I had always been desiring; both for myself and for all who are standing with me. Now, do I dare accepting it for myself? I have little choice, and the choices are quickly dwindling down to nothing. I reach out, touching him in the manner I should a mate of my own. I feel him under my touch and hoof, but this is no Changeling. Yet, I still do feel him, right there beside me; the sire of the next clutch of my eggs. Our eggs, as it were; I hastily correct myself before the word is taking root. I have to accept who I am and what I had done. Lying to myself only tell me just how far I had sunk. I can never accept to sink that low, not even in the depth of depression and under the influence of an intoxicant as strong as that of Draconian greed. Strange, this Dragon is much older than his size had told me. Had the Ponies weened him off of his natural greed this effectively? I can barely believe what I am feeling. Yet, he is still there by my side and under my very hoof. . It is a curse, to prolong the inevitable; when you already know there is nothing you can do to change your ill fortune, or a poorly considered choice. If my choice was poor and ill concieved, but there it is; I did what I did, and there is nothing I can do to change what is to come. In a sense, I guess I am fortunate, having a few more days in which to come to terms with what is before me. As a matter of fact, there is a week; even if there is a chance his Draconian genetics may screw that up. Dragons are not Changelings; neither in magic, nor in genetics. How this will change who I am, and what it is already doing to me; is what I am about to explore throughout the coming week. There is the obvious, and I am going to lay an egg by then. If I am lucky, I am only laying one, but short of that, I have a day’s reprieve between them. --- --- ---