The Days Passed

by SilverEyedWolf

Table Conference pt 1

Cadance put her forehooves together and tapped them loudly, a minotaur and dragon custom they'd seen her use often, smiling just short of maniacally.

"Put the teeth away sweetie," Shining muttered, elbowing her gently.

She coughed, covering her muzzle long enough to school her expression before she nodded at the group across the table. "Well, to start, let me be the first to congratulate you on finally coming together and finding an arrangement that will hopefully work for everyone involved.

"As for what's next," she said, her hooves once again meeting in front of her muzzle but this time creating a bridge for her to lean on, contemplatively. "I'd say you three need to hammer out exactly what you want from this relationship, and how long you look to keep the relationship going. Are you looking for a lifelong partner, a short fling, or something in between."

She held up her hooves at the looks the rest of the table were giving her.

"I know, I know, by this point it is fairly obvious that none of you are only in this for a fling. Nonetheless, you need to discuss what you are in this for."

Spike looked at both of the mares, who were looking at each other with small smiles.

Fluttershy started, looking at Cadance as she said, "I'm in this for Spike's companionship. We were friends before, though probably not as good as we could have been. A month and a half ago, he came to me after having been awake, and probably alone, for three days straight. We spent a surprising amount of that day together after he'd woken up, and I found myself startled by how nice of a time I'd been having.

"After that, he started coming by more often, at first because of Twilight, but then..." She blushed heavily, pressing her back against his chest. "But then he started coming over for me," she said, a shy smile playing across her muzzle as she rubbed her back against him gently, the smile widening as he wrapped his arms around her.

"And I think I would be happy with just that," she said, looking up. "I just want him to keep wanting to spend time with me. I'll probably want more, later, but for now, that is plenty for me."

He tilted his face down, pressing his lips to her nose in between her nostrils, smiling widely.

Rarity cleared her throat then, and everyone turned to her.

She took a breath, blinking slowly a few times, before she said, "I want, first and foremost, Spike's forgiveness. Not," she said, holding up a hoof to him as he began to speak, "not for breaking up with you. While I am extremely sorry for that, I still feel like it was one of the better things I could do at the time. No, what I'm sorry for..."

She sniffled once, pressing a hoof to her nose for a second before continuing, "I would like you to forgive me for not being able to tell you about my fear. I want your forgiveness for keeping such a thing, such a disgustingly central thing about me, a secret from all of my friends."

And then she gave a smile, one that quickly became watery, as she firmly stated, "And I would like to continue where we last were when we were truly together, free of my negative expectations, years ago."

Spike lifted one of his arms from Fluttershy, raising it over Rarity's head and pulling her close to the other two, looping everyone in a group hug that both mares reciprocated; Fluttershy by raising one hoof to his arm and one over to Rarity, who simply turned her body and pulled the other two into a hug Pinkie Pie would've been proud of.

He slowly relaxed, then looked across the table at Cadance.

"We talked about this a bit before, but I'm just sort of along for the ride," Spike said with a small chuckle. "I would like to keep these two happy, and I definitely want to help Rarity with her phobia. But as long as we're all happy, I'll be set?"

"And everyone is good with that?" Cadance said, looking in between the three of them with her eyebrows raised.

Rarity hummed slightly before, with a blush, she raised a hoof. "Uhm, at some point, I would certainly like to have a foal," she said, almost whispering.

An electric tingle went up Spike's spine, the spikes along it standing at attention with a victimized groaning and splintering noise from the chair he was on. His mind quickly descended into a static, soft white noise.

"Ah, well, Kirin are a thing," Cadance chirped happily, and Spike mechanically turned his muzzle from the white mare to the pink one. "What, they are! At this point, they're mostly descendants from older pairings between dragons and ponies, but every now and then another one pops up from, let's say a shorter family tree."

Rarity reached up with a hoof and gently tapped Spike on his arm, waiting until he moved his head back around to face her before she said, "Probably not anytime soon dear, and definitely not before everyone is ready."

Spike closed his eyes and slowly exhaled, opening them and nodding before kissing her forehead and turning back to the table.

Fluttershy raised her head and smiled at him, before rapidly wiggling her eyebrows and winking.

Spike groaned loudly and gently pushed her muzzle away, arching his neck away and back from the table, his head ending up somewhere between his shoulder blades as the group laughed at his expense, Fluttershy muttering about taking care of cute little foals between giggles.

When Spike returned from his temporary absence they settled and he once again laid his head on top of Fluttershy's, huffing as he came to rest.

"Alright," Cadance said, pointing at both mares, "that is an example of something important to talk about. Spike," she said, glancing up at him and chasing away her grin to give him a serious look, "what exactly are your feelings on foals? Are you open to the idea of siring foals, or Kirin as it were? "

"Uhm," he said, concentrating to keep from freezing up again. "Not opposed, definitely, but... I'm not sure really. I haven't thought about it in much depth. It feels like something that happens later?"

Cadance nodded before turning her head to the two mares. "And are you ladies okay with not having pony foals? The children would come out as Kirin, a race that is known for their mostly pony attributes but the fiery temperament and horns of dragons. They would be healthy, unlike some certain cross breedings, but they would be, very obviously, not pure-blooded ponies."

Fluttershy immediately nodded. "They would be my children, and the prospect of Spike being their father doesn't bother me," she said, biting her lip. "It sounds really nice, actually... As long as they could be happy and healthy, I would be too."

Rarity hesitated, and Spike had to do every mental exercise available to him for that not to rip out his heart.

"Right now, there are some roadblocks for me," she admitted, looking up at Spike apologetically. "I would like for that not to matter, and I very much want it not to matter, but for now I'm afraid it does. Not enough to not want to try this, of course," she said quickly, placing a hoof on his shoulder. "Again, I don't want this to matter, and I hope that it won't for long."

Spike finished his train of thoughts, letting them settle and analyzing them before he nodded.

"I understand, sort of," he said slowly. "I won't say that the answer doesn't hurt, but I will say that I understand, and if you'll let me, I would like the opportunity to change your mind in the future."

Rarity blushed, pushing on his shoulder with the hoof there. "That's a better pitch than some of the ponies looking to partner up with my Boutique," she said with a smile. "I am more than willing to receive your attempts."

"Alright," he said with his own smile. "Besides your phobia, any other things you can think of? Fluttershy?" he also asked, gentle ruffling her chest fluff with a paw.

"Well," Fluttershy said, glancing over at Rarity shy, "I think we both have a short bridge to cross when learning about we communicate romantically, especially with each other, but that's an over time lesson more than a sit-down and talk. I think I am ready for whatever the next step would be with helping Rarity with her phobia."

"I've had an idea about that, actually," Cadance said, looking across the table at them. "I'm just not too sure about how all three of you will feel about it. It could put some strain on the relationship Fluttershy already has with Spike, and it will certainly stress Rarity."

Fluttershy glanced over at Rarity with a smile. "I'm confident in the strength of what we have."

Rarity swallowed dryly before reaching a hoof out and taking up her teacup, sighing when she found it still clean and empty. Levitating over the pot, she poured a drink and downed it before filling her cup and setting the pot back where it was.

"I'm ready for whatever it is," she said, taking on a steely gaze and nodding to Cadance.

Who giggled. "It's nothing that bad. Honestly, it'll probably have the most impact on Spike." She nodded as he cocked his head. "What I have in mind is a sort of immersion therapy called exposure therapy, where Rarity would be constantly, well, exposed to her phobia. Through repeated interaction with this phobia, she would slowly acclimate to the source of the phobia, and eventually reconcile her fear to the point that it wouldn't impact her, at least nowhere as strongly."

"So basically, I spend time with her, being a dragon?" Spike asked, his head remaining tilted as he gave a small, but confused smile.

"You spend as much time together as physically possible," Cadance corrected sternly, raising her eyebrows. "You spend every waking minute as close to her as possible. As her mind processes you and your presence, it should get used to a dragon being near, and at some point, it'll stop mattering that you're a dragon at all. I think this is what was happening when Rarity panicked the first time and broke off with you."

Spike and Rarity looked at each other, understanding dawning in their eyes. Spike looked unsure, while Rarity was actively nervous with just a bit of a grin curling her muzzle.

"You want us to move in together?" Spike asked.

Cadance teethed her bottom lip, not quite biting it, before smiling and nodding.

"Yeah, that should work. Leave your bed behind, though."

Author's Note:

So much for Saturday releases, huh. Ah well, I suppose. Updates are updates, as long as they're decent updates. This one doesn't feel completely decent, to be honest, but it does feel necessary. Quality should pick up when they get back to home base, which should be soon.

Anyhow, see ya bois later

Comments

[lazyreader19]

Wait, wasn't he already plenty immersed with her before the breakup? She's known him since a baby and had time to acclimate when he was "properly" draconic as the years went on as well. 🤔

Also yay update and #lifegoals!

Trying to imagine a Fluttershy based Kirin now. Sprout flames AND the Stare? What a combo!

[KinkyToffee]

10083331
Yeah it's explained that that's WHAT was happening before the breakup. It's just that Rarity broke it off while the exposure wasn't quite strong enough to effect her outlook on ALL dragons, not just Spike. This time they're going to be trying for the proper removal of the dragon fear.

[Alondro]

"Ah, well, Kirin are a thing," Cadance chirped happily

Actually, the mythological pairing of a horse and dragon produces a longma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longma

Like this one!

img00.deviantart.net/ba3b/i/2018/125/e/d/tianhuo_them_s_fightin_herds_by_up_world-dcarhb3.png

Kirin/Q'lin have a very mixed appearance, mostly with two antlers, sometimes one, and sometimes a horn like a unicorn. They often have ox-like bodies and always have cloven hooves. The heads are usually leonine, tiger, dragon.

However, there is a statue of a one-horned creature that looks very much like a classical unicorn WITH WINGS... dating all the way back to the Northern Wei period between 386-534 AD!! But this creature, only referred to as a one-horned q'lin… IS CLEARLY AN ALICORN!!!

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/2015-09-23-110304_-_Historisches_Museum%2C_Einhorn-Keramik_aus_der_N%C3%B6rdl._Wei_Periode_%28386-534%29.jpg

PROOF that Equestria and our world MUST have made contact! WE CAN FIND THE PORTAL TO OUR SMALL HORSE GODS!!! And once there we shall be joyously subject to their lascivious lusts! (leers at Celestia, who's staring at the crazy, somewhat smoking, naked biped who just appeared through a random portal)

"NOPE!!" cried Celestia, picking up the grotesque thing gingerly with her magic as though removing used cat litter. "NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!!! SO MUCH NOPE!! ALL THE NOPES!!" She then flung it through the portal and welded it shut with a magical blowtorch.

Alondro smashed into his workbench again, receiving a fresh allotment of cuts and chemical burns, "I don't get no respect!"