> The Dragon And The Pony Side Stories: A New Family
>  by Schattendrache
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The beginnings of a relationship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a little cafe known as Bailiania’s in the small town of Shires Bay, a blue-grey pegasus stallion was nervously shifting in his seat and unconsciously adjusting his wings as he stared at the entrance intently. He had already ordered and consumed a coffee in hopes that it would help to settle his nerves, but with each click that resonated from the clock behind him, his heart rate ever so slightly increased. His mind, meanwhile, was buzzing incessantly with hundreds of concurrent thoughts, as it could only focus on the innumerable possibilities for the upcoming conversation.

Eventually, though, the door was pulled open, and with it, the heavy chime of a small bell reverberated through the stallion's bones. A grey-olive earth pony mare walked in, causing the waiting stallion’s heart to redouble its pounding. This was the pony he had been waiting for.

As this mare made her way inside, her eyes seemed to pass over him, but it didn’t appear as if she had paid him any mind. Instead, she walked over to the counter next to the long, pastry-filled display case to place an order. The stallion’s nervousness continued to skyrocket as he watched her talk with the mare taking her order, the wait practically killing him.

When she finally finished at the counter, the mare casually turned around and began walking towards the table where the stallion was sitting. “So, I hope you don’t mind, but seeing as I was quite clear on you owing me for that little stunt you pulled back at the gorge, you’ll be picking up the tab for this.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, I did agree to that. I really am sorry about flying over and grabbing you out of nowhere. I really thought that-”

The mare butted in, waving her hoof and shaking her head. “I already told you, you didn’t know that the cactus cat wasn’t going to attack me, so it’s not that big of a deal. You were trying to do a good thing.” She then proceeded to sit down in front of the stallion and lean on the table with her forelegs. “It just so happened though that your ‘good deed’ was less good when you actually looked at it understanding what was going on.”

The stallion leaned back slightly in his chair and bit his bottom lip with a rather pained expression. He probably should have at least read up on what lived in the gorge to know what wasn’t so good to run into, but having wings and being able to go faster than most creatures he could think of sort of made doing so less than pointless.

As the mare leaned back slightly so she would be in a more casual, relaxed position, she fixed the stallion with a soft smile. “So, now that we’re both here, and since it would be a little rude to just get you to pay for my meal and leave, we might as well have a conversation.”

Cocking his head, the stallion looked at the mare as though she was some previously unheard of species. “I… wouldn’t you… huh?”

Lifting a hoof up to cover her muzzle, the mare closed her eyes and began to laugh gently. “Oh, that face was priceless. If I’d have known my ‘savior’ made such a cute face at the mention of having a conversation, I would have told you that at the gorge.”

As the stallion was trying to process what he was hearing and why she was acting so casual and friendly, his eyes widened and the fur on his face began to take on a red hue. “I… no, I was just… you’re being really casual for, well, you.” The stallion reached up and began to rub his left ear. “You practically tore off my ear to get me to come to the edge of the cliff after I set you down.”

“Last I checked, a pony has the right to be more complicated than a toaster,” the mare responded as the last of her giggling died down. “I did tell you that I wanted to meet you here. It would be a bit inconsiderate to not at least talk to you. If I’d have wanted to get you to make it up to me for grabbing me out of nowhere, I could have just asked you for an apology or something and have us part ways to never meet again.”

“So, uh, why didn’t you?”

The mare gave him a slight shrug. “I don’t know, probably because despite you not knowing anything about the gorge, you still had the decency to try to help me when you thought I was in danger. You just seem like a nice pony.”

As the stallion was about to respond, a pegasus waiter arrived at their table with a tray on both wings. He reached behind him, grabbing the one on his right wing with the small sandwich and two drinks and placing it in front of the two before taking off.

Picking up the small sandwich with her hooves, the mare continued. “In any case, we’re both here, so why don't we chat? I’m Holly.” As she was about to start eating, Holly suddenly shot her head back up. “Oh, the second drink is for you, I ordered a hibiscus tea, hope you don’t mind.”

“Never, Never Ending Do.” At him saying this, Holly brought her hoof back to her muzzle and began softly giggling again. “I take it you are familiar with Daring Do then.”

After swallowing, Holly smiled back at him. “Oh, don’t think I’m making fun of you, I just think it’s funny that Do is an actual name. I figured A.K. Yearling simply made it up.”

Never relaxed back into his chair a little and grabbed the tea to start drinking. “Yeah, we get that a lot. Just don’t go asking where she keeps all the treasures she gets on her adventures, already heard that one before.”

“Wasn’t thinking about it. But, seeing as you are a Do, and we just so happened to meet when you were careening down Dead Griffin’s Gorge, would it be fair to assume you were trying to emulate a fictional character and their accomplishments?”

“Hey, the things Daring does in the books aren't as unrealistic as you might assume. But yeah, Dead Griffin has some nasty turns, and trying to fly it without knowing the layout is just asking to die or find yourself in the hospital.”

Holly’s smile turned into a slight smirk at Never’s words. “Is that so? It seems you were begging for trouble then seeing as you didn’t know about cactus cats until about an hour ago.”

“As you probably saw, I can outfly a silly house cat, so I’ve never really had a reason to account for running into one.”

Holly just shrugged and went back to her sandwich and tea, looking at him expectantly as she did so.

“Anyways, I was trying to see how good I’ve gotten at flying, and Griffin’s is the best testing ground for doing that. I was planning to fly the whole length in under fifteen minutes, but, well, you saw the results of that.”

“Well, in all fairness, that wasn’t entirely your fault. If you would have come careening down the gorge a few minutes earlier or after I’d finished what I was there for, I‘m pretty sure you would have at least gotten your whole flight in.”

“Ouch, not even a comment on me being fast enough to succeed?”

“My only experience of seeing you fly was getting grabbed out of nowhere and flown to the top of the gorge. You may be fast in a sprint, but as you said, unsafe turns and a high skill requirement. Speed is not the same as maneuverability. Just look at hummingbirds.”

Never couldn’t help but let his fur raise slightly in indignation. He knew she wasn’t trying to be insulting, but it still reminded him of what his little sister would say to him to get under his fur. “Well, that may be true, but that’s where my special talent comes in.” Never stood up and turned so Holly could see his side and used his wing to point to his haunch, directing her attention to the wave, horseshoe, and aerial hoop arranged in a triangle. “I don’t get tired easily and can push myself a lot harder and longer than other ponies.” He finished with a smile, hoping that this would at least get her to recognize his skills.

Holly just smirked back at him before leaning forward to address him. “I did see your cutie mark earlier, it’s not like anyone hides it. And even if I wouldn’t have seen it, I would have believed you when you said your special talent was… I’m guessing it has something to do with athletics. You didn’t need to get up just to show me your flank.”

Never’s smile dropped as he felt a little dumb for being so egotistical. He sat back down and hung his head slightly in embarrassment.

“I’m not saying what you did was wrong, Never, just a little unnecessary.” Holly lifted up her cup and finished off the last of her tea before placing it back down and pushing it and the empty sandwich plate to the side. “At least now I have a fairly good idea as to why after taking me to the top of the gorge, your apology didn’t sound like you believed what you did was right.”

Never looked up at Holly after she said this with furrowed brows. “Like I didn’t believe I was doing the right thing? What makes you think that? I was confident saving you was the right thing to do.”

“True, you did think so, but as soon as I told you off, your response sounded more confused than confident. If you thought what you were doing was the right thing and were doing so to help me, you would have understood why I was upset and explained yourself. Instead, I’m guessing you assumed I was going to thank you or stay quiet long enough to let you explain yourself. In short, you wanted affirmation that what you were doing was right. You enjoy and desire being recognized and liked.”

Never’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but lean back slightly away from the mare in front of him. “Are… are you some kind of psychologist? How did you get all that from just how I talked?”

Holly just closed her eyes and laughed gently before sitting back in her chair. “No, that would be my dad. You can thank him for teaching me and my sibling how to read ponies. I’m not too good at it, but I do remember a few lessons. You seemed kind of interesting so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get to know you a little better. You know saving ponies is the right thing to do, but you also want praise for it, while at the same time you don’t demand said praise. You have a good heart, you just seem to put it in the wrong place sometimes.”

This interaction was definitely not something Never could have or would have planned for. “Wow. Now I really feel bad for doing what I did. Here you are being nice and friendly when you don’t have to be to a complete stranger who grabbed you out of nowhere for not the best reasons.” Never dropped his head again, this time even lower than before. “Heck, I hardly even know you while you’ve probably figured me out completely. Sorry. I’m not exactly doing very well at this whole conversation thing. I should have been asking you about yourself and not making this all about me.”

Holly leaned forward slightly, looked him in the eyes, or at least tried to, given he was staring down at the table, and continued with a kind and sympathetic tone. “Hey, don’t say that, you’re great company. I just haven't given you much of an opportunity to ask about me. And as for me being kind, it’s just what any decent pony should do. I’m not blind or deaf, it wasn’t all too hard to figure out you weren’t acting selfishly when you grabbed me and took me to the top. Even if my dad wasn’t an expert at reading ponies, I’m confident I would have been able to tell you deserved some degree of common decency.”

Never looked up from the table and gave Holly an awkward, half-smile. Despite her words, he couldn’t shake the feeling that every moment he had been near her he had done everything wrong. Even now, he was pulling a stuck cart trying to say anything to continue the conversation, but the only topics that were coming to mind emphasized his perceived failings.

Holly, noticing Never’s expression and body language was not dissimilar to a foal who was trying to make friends in a new town, decided to throw him a line. “Well, you did have a point earlier, we have been mostly talking about you, So to be fair, why don’t I tell you a little about myself.”

“Yeah, uh, that… yeah, that sounds good.”

“Well, you probably discerned from what I told you at the gorge that my talent, or, at least my hobby or job, involves plants.” Holly waited for Never to nod in understanding before continuing. “My talent is the care and keeping of wild plants. I know it might not be the most glamorous talent or as interesting as what you have, but it has its own charm.”

“Don't say that, you have a great talent! Who doesn’t like… well, plants?”

Holly giggled softly at Never’s response. “Thanks, it’s just that what I do best is more… unseen. I mostly go from place to place across Equestria and help advise ponies on what’s wrong or can be done better to preserve the natural environment. So unlike a florist or gardener, what I do isn’t something the average pony can fully understand or appreciate.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, if you don’t really get any recognition for what you do, why do you do it? I know I wouldn’t.”

“Let me ask you, do you ever hike or fly near a mountain?”

“Well, yeah. My parent’s house is in one of the nearby mountains. We’d always take hikes or do something on them growing up.”

“So, since you said you grew up around here, I take it that your parent’s house is near a forest.”

“In the middle of it. Dad and Mom wanted to be surrounded by them when they were planning out where to live, so as a result, our closest neighbor was the family of squirrels that lived in the tree outside of my room.”

“It sounds like you enjoyed living there.”

“Oh, for sure. It was always really quiet, and the sounds of nature there were always good for letting my mind relax. Not to mention the hiking trails. There’s several around there that you just had to do on certain days or times to really see them at their best.” Never finished his explanation with a content, nostalgic smile on his muzzle. However, a thought crossed his mind a few seconds later. “Wait, weren’t we going to be talking about you? Why are you asking me more about myself?”

“To prove my point,” Holly said, simply and happily. “Based on how you were describing it, you really appreciated the natural beauty that you were living around.”

Never gave her a nod, but his face was scrunched up slightly in confusion.

“And that is why I do what I do. I may not get the recognition personally, but everywhere I go and help, I know that hundreds of ponies will appreciate what I did, and that brings me joy. I’m not going to lie and say that I wouldn’t love for ponies to know what I do and give me a little recognition, but that isn’t what’s important to me.”

“Well, I’m not going to say it makes too much sense to me, but if it works it works.” As he was saying this, the waiter pegasus from earlier came back around with a pitcher of fresh tea and refilled both of their glasses. “So, uh, anything interesting happen on any of these trips you said you take?”

“If you want me to be specific or tell you all the highlights, not unless you want to stay here for the next ten hours. And even if you did, I have my doubts the owner would take too kindly to the two of us staying here for that long.” Holly put a hoof to her chin before looking to the ceiling for a few seconds in contemplation. “But, since you asked, I would probably say that the most interesting thing that’s happened is finding an orphaned noctnix and adopting him.”

“A noctnix? Never heard of that species. Does that mean you're a mother?”

Holly chuckled good-naturedly. “Not in the way you are thinking. No, Noctnixes are known as night phoenixes. They’re a little smaller than a true phoenix and look quite a bit different, but the reason they are called such is because they’re able to burst into a ghostly blue flame at will.”

“Wow, and you were able to raise one as a pet? I can’t even be trusted with a pet rock and here you are being good with plants and animals.”

“In all fairness, he isn’t really my pet, and I found him when he was just a chick, so caring for him wasn’t too different from raising any other raptor, just keep giving him meat and water and everything should turn out fine. I tried to set him free when he was fully-fledged, but that didn’t end how I’d expected. He simply wouldn’t fly away, and when I did take him outside, he refused to go anywhere where he wouldn’t be able to check that I was still around.”

“Ah.” Never snickered. “I would say he adopted you then. So, what’s it like having a child taking care of you?”

Holly smiled back at him while sticking out her tongue. “Not too bad, but the constant feedings can get a little old. You can only have so much rabbit before you start craving something different. Why do you think I told you to meet me here?”

“And here I was thinking that bat ponies were likely the only ones who might be able to eat meat.”

“Hey, for all you know, one of my parents might be one.”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to call shenanigans on that, not fluffy enough.”

“Oh? Since you seem to be such an expert on genealogy, you must also doubt that I’m the only earth pony in my family.”

“No, that makes sense. Met a few unicorns and pegasi whose parents weren’t one as well. Really rare, but not that weird. Must have been awkward growing up though.”

Holly sighed before taking a sip of her tea and looking up at the ceiling. “Yeah, you could say that. Both my brother and sister are unicorns, like our parents, so while they got lessons in magic from them, I more or less had to figure things out on my own. Don’t get me wrong, Mom and Dad were really supportive and never made me feel like I didn’t belong, it’s just that… well... a griffin can only teach a pony so much about what it means to be a pony.”

Seeing that the conversation was about to veer off to somewhere rather awkward, Never decided that he should probably change the subject. “Ouch, two siblings? I just have the one, and she’s more than enough to deal with. I can’t even imagine having to live with two of her.”

“They’re not that bad. My brother might come across as a little abrasive, but after living with him for as long as I have, you learn that that’s just the way he talks. And I’m sure that you would get along well with my sister though, neither of you try to hide your emotions, or at the very least, neither of you do it very well.”

“Hey, on the bright side, you have a sister. I bet that that brought you some comfort when you needed to get away from your brother.”

“Wow, you and your sister must really but heads. But no, the three of us always got along and did most things together. Night Wisp did always baby me somewhat, and while it did make sense since he was older, I always suspected it was because I wasn’t a unicorn.”

“You don’t know the half of it when it comes to me and my sister. But it looks like you and my sister have at least that one thing in common, you both have an older brother. So, where do you land in the sibling hierarchy?”

“The middle. Night’s two years older and Water Mint’s four years younger, so that’s something both of us share, having a younger sister.”

“Yeah, and the funny thing is that my sister is also two years younger than me. The five of us should meet up sometime and swap stories.”

Holly smiled at that. “That does sound like fun. But, if we are going to do something like that, ” she picked up her cup, finishing the last of her tea again before returning it to the table and fixing Never with a mischievous smirk. “I think it would be best for us to get to know each other a little more. I can’t go inviting my family to meet just any pony that I strike up a conversation with.”

Never felt like his entire barrel had become hollow. “Are… are you saying you want to go on a date with me?”

“Perhaps, but only if that would be something that interests you. I had a lot of fun getting to know you, and was hoping that the feeling was mutual.”

Never licked his lips and swallowed, his throat having suddenly gone dry. “Yeah.” His voice cracked slightly when he said this. Wanting to save himself from the embarrassment of having his voice suddenly squeak, he cleared his throat and repeated himself. “Yeah, I would love to.”

Holly tilted her head and closed her eyes as she gave him a warm smile. “Great. Why don't we meet at the ferry to Balikun Island next week? The walk around the island is really great since the residents have been keeping the island from getting developed, so it still has that small-town charm.”

“That, uh, that sounds nice. So, uh, what, what time do you want to meet?”

Holly gave an amused snort at Never’s returned awkwardness. “Why don't you figure out a time and date and mail me tomorrow. Oh, I should probably give you my address if we’re going to do that, be right back.” She then got up from her seat and went over to the ordering counter to talk with the pony at the register. Not too long after, she returned to the table with a scrap of receipt paper and a pen in her mouth. 

Never waited nervously for Holly to finish. He didn’t think he was breathing at that moment as his chest was starting to get warm, but he was only aware of this in the most superficial sense. When she finally finished and slid the paper over to him, Never picked it up and read over it with surprising intensity, trying to commit everything to memory.

“So, uh, you live in Whinnytchee. That’s just East of Seaddle and Vanhoover, right? You’re a ways away from your home.”

“Well, I did tell you that I traveled Equestria helping ponies care for wild plants. It would be a bit silly if I wasn’t occasionally a good ways away from my home.”

Never reached up and began to rub the back of his head while giving Holly an awkward smile. “Yeah, I should have thought about that.”

“Well, I’ll let you get back to attempting that flight of yours, I’m going to head back home and wait for that letter you promised.”

With that, Holly got up and began to make her way out of the cafe. Never remained sitting and watched her leave, his mind too busy processing what had just happened to even move or speak up to simply say goodbye. After sitting like this for several seconds, his mind came back to him, and in a bur of motion, he jumped to his hooves, galloped to the counter, paid for what he and Holly had ordered, and flew off back to his house. 

He couldn’t waste any time if he wanted to plan out the perfect date. Something that would make up for everything that had happened today.
> Dangle and Kitty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This date was not turning out as well as Never had been hoping. He and Holly had been going out for several months now, becoming coltfriend and marefriend in the process, but he still hadn’t gotten a sense of what he was supposed to do on dates, let alone how to be a good coltfriend. When they had started dating, the two of them had agreed that they would take turns deciding what to do on each of their dates, and even though Holly had been the one to propose this one, taking some pressure off of him, they were doing something more his speed.

It had been a little over two months since Never had gone to his parent’s house to see his sister and catch back up with her after she mailed their parents about wanting to drop by. He had been surprised to find out that she had done this to introduce them to who she had gotten together with. It was even more shocking when he found out that the individual she was together with was a dragon, and on top of that, had gotten her pregnant.

During their visit, Danger and her dragon friend had given him some advice on how to be a good coltfriend, or more precisely, Danger had given him advice, while her dragonfriend just told him to cuddle with her and be more than a little affectionate. He had been trying to follow his sister’s advice, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness that came with not trying to prove to Holly he was everything a stallion should be.

As such, he had started to cut back on the number of dates where they went on hikes or something similar, and instead proposed smaller things like going swimming at a public pool, mini-golfing, or simply attending one of the weekly farmer’s markets in Seaddle. And his efforts didn’t seem to be in vain, he could tell that Holly was happier with him not trying to make it so each of his dates outdoes the last. 

These changes also had the added effect of getting Holly to start proposing less low-key activities. Never wasn’t really sure how to feel about this though, since every time she would lay next to him and lean into his shoulder during the dates she would usually have them do, he would be reminded of what Danger’s dragon friend had told him, and he wasn’t quite ready for his relationship with Holly to escalate to that point just yet.

The biggest downside to this change however was a date like this. It had been Holly’s turn to propose what they were going to be doing today, and she had chosen a hike through the sandstone ravines around Dead Griffin’s Gorge. 

The problem was, going on a hike for a date had always been one of the activities Never defaulted to when coming up with ideas. Because of that, even though he had decided to follow his sister’s advice, he couldn’t help looking around for something he could do to possibly impress Holly.

Suddenly, Never felt something bump into his left side. “I can see you looking around like a paranoid squirrel. I chose this hike specifically because of the tight walls, so no flying off like a bowerbird.”

“What? What are you… A bowerbird?” Never turned to look at Holly in utter confusion, but only received a content smile with the slightest degree of smugness tugging at its corners.

Holly pushed past him slightly, forcing Never to pick up his pace a little to keep up with her. “Every time we go on a hike, you feel like you need to fly off to collect some rare plant or seed I show an interest in. And even though you have been getting better at not flying off to get them as of late,” Holly lifted her left forehoof off the ground and began to drag it along the side of the ravine wall. “I took that into account as well. The sandstone is too smooth to get enough traction to climb. You’re stuck down here with me, fly-boy. As such, I’m going to be forcing you to enjoy being with me on this date.” Holly then removed her hoof from the wall and leaned against her coltfriend.

Never released a defeated sigh and leaned into Holly in return. “You didn’t have to go so far to get me to stay around you, I love being with you! But, am I really that predictable?”

“More than you know. But, I will give you credit, after your visit with your family, you’re not as bad as you were when we first started to date.”

“You can thank my sister for that. She was rather insistent that I quit it with trying to move the sun and moon for you.”

“I’m glad you took her advice, it’s far more enjoyable to go on a date with you when you aren’t spazzing out the entire time. I’ll have to thank her personally one of these days.”

“Yeah… I don’t think you need to do that. I’m sure she would be fine with you just sending a letter.”

“Her colfriend couldn’t have been that bad. Honestly, I’m positive you’re just being overly protective. There’s no reason that you need to be with me when I meet your sister and him. I know you said he had anger issues, but I doubt he would have any reason to attack me.”

“He tried to kill me! Twice! In front of the entire family! The only reason he didn’t was because my sister was able to hold him back. And it only worked since we’re family, so I would rather not risk it by having you meet him without me there to at least get in his way.”

“I’m still unconvinced that you aren’t being histrionic, but if you don’t want me to meet with them without you, I’ll respect that.” Holly then pulled away and gave Never a kiss on the cheek. “But I expect you to take me to meet them soon, no stalling in hopes that I forget.”

Never gave her a kiss back with a smile. “I make no promises, but we’ll see how things progress.”

“You are so bad.”

“I know. So, was there any other reason you decided to have us have a hike here other than preventing me from flying?”

“It looks nice.”

“...”

“What?”

“It looks nice. I thought you loved plants, not claustrophobic chasms of dirt.”

Holly snorted good-naturedly and hit Never in the shoulder. “My life doesn’t revolve around my job. And it’s not just dirt. Look around, it’s layers upon layers of deep reds and browns. It’s closer to art than anything. You can’t find something like this by digging any old hole in the ground.”

“I stand corrected. So, what is so interesting about taking a hike through ‘artistic’ dirt?”

Holly just rolled her eyes at Never’s quip. “It’s not something you can see all that often. Only this area and maybe somewhere in the Badlands have the right conditions to even form something like this. Too much rainfall and plants can grow to mitigate the erosion, or the rain could simply just widen the stream and turn this tight ravine into a gorge like what formed Dead Griffin’s. And that’s not even mentioning the soil and rock composition. You can’t have any rocks or tougher stones mixed in or else you won’t get smooth narrow walls like this.”

“Ah, so you like novelty. I’ll have to remember that for our next date.”

“Yeah, that’s why the first few dates we had that I planned involved us just sitting together at my house and reading.”

“Well, you could have just been resorting to familiar habits in order to cope with a drastic change in your life and taken a little while to reveal your preferences.”

Holly snorted as she tried not to laugh at what Never had just said. “Ok, that’s cute.”

“What? What’s so funny?”

“How you are trying to read me since you know I know how to do that.”

Never began to blush and slow his pace at hearing this. “You said try, I’m guessing you said it that way because I wasn’t successful.”

“No, No you were not. The coping strategy you are likely referring to describes why ponies fall back on unhealthy habits when experiencing stress that exceeds what they can usually tolerate, and revealed preferences is an economic thing from what I remember.”

After she finished her response, Holly looked over to Never and saw that his ears were laid back and his head was hung slightly. Leaning back up against him, Holly continued speaking with a more comforting tone. “Hey, I still appreciate the effort to learn a little bit about what I know. If you really want to learn how to read ponies, I’d be happy to teach you, just fair warning, once you know how to do it, you can’t turn it off.”

Never released a heavy sigh and used his wing to lovingly pull Holly closer. “Yeah, I think I’ll take you up on that one of these days.”

“Stop being so glum. We’re out here on a date so we can enjoy each other’s company. How many times do I need to tell you, we’re already dating, there’s no point in doing things to try and impress me. Just stick around me and don't go galloping off out of nowhere, that’s all you need to do.”

“I know I don’t have to impress you, especially after hearing what my sister told me, but it’s just something I feel I should be doing. I want to prove to you that you didn’t make the wrong choice when you decided we should date.”

“I understand. It’s why I told you that if you want to get something for me while we’re out, you can’t use your wings to cheat. If you’re really so driven to get me whatever it is that you see that you think I’ll be interested in, you have to really go out of your way to get it. That way, you have the satisfaction of doing something to impress me, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that it was something you had to work for and not just a trivial show of affection. More than likely, you also find having to work harder to get something for me more fulfilling than just flying over and getting it that way.”

Never cocked an eyebrow and looked towards his marefriend. “Seriously, are you sure your special talent isn’t something to do psychology? If I didn’t know you better, I would swear that you’ve been manipulating me every time we get together.”

Holly smiled back at him before planting a kiss on his lips. “Not every time, just when I feel like it. And as I said, once you learn how ponies think, it’s not something you can turn off.” And with that, she sped up a bit.

The next hour or so was spent mostly in silence, with the two walking side by side and enjoying the calm stroll through the slot canyon and the sound of the wind blowing through. Eventually, they arrived at a section of the ravine that opened up significantly, becoming about three times as wide and allowing a fair bit more sunlight to pour in. At the other end of this section, rather than contracting again and mirroring where they’d just come from, the canyon forked, becoming two different ravines.

“I’m pretty sure we head left here. There should be a place where we can stop to take a break in about a quarter of an hour, but....“ Holly’s face scrunched up slightly as she reached into her saddlebag and started to rummage around.

“You alright? What are you doing?”

“Looking for the map I have showing all of the canyons around here. Don’t tell me… horseapples! I forgot to pack it. I thought I would’ve remembered that.”

Never smirked slightly before walking over to Holly and bumping her on the shoulder with his own. “Maybe you were a bit too distracted trying to assure I wouldn’t be able to leave your side.”

“Oh haha. I’ll be sure to remember this next time you pick the date. Let’s hope you don’t forget anything, or else that comment won’t be aging too well.” Holly smirked back at him before giving him a kiss. “Now, why don’t you be a good coltfriend and fly up to see where each of these goes?”

“And leave you?”Never’s smirk became even more self satisfied. “Wasn’t the whole point of having our date here to prevent me from going off alone? And besides,” Never began to nuzzle and rub his face against hers, “it was your idea to make me promise not to fly when we went out on hiking dates.”

“As I seem to remember, my suddenly rules abiding coltfriend, that promise specified that you couldn’t fly off to grab seeds or a plant for me. So if you are so concerned with splitting hairs, I never made you promise to not fly on a hike, just to never do it to get a plant or seed.”

Never pulled back from his marefriend before booping her nose with a hoof. “I’ll make sure to remember you said that on our next trek, kitten.” Never then flared out his wings and took to the air. “And remember, you’re the one who told me I could do this.”

Holly sighed and shook her head before smiling up at him. “Just look for a section of the canyon that’s far wider than the rest of the canyons around here and looks like a horseshoe.”

Never then took off from inside the canyon and several hundred feet into the air. As he was looking around, he caught sight of a section of canyon that sort of looked like what Holly was describing; he had been expecting a tighter curve, but it still made sense she would describe it like she did.

As Never was making his way back down, he caught sight of something in the roots of a long-dead tree at the top of the fork in the canyon. He could make out some kind of light coming from behind the tangle of this cadaverous, sun-bleached, and wind-scared tree’s mass of exposed roots, and was about to write it off until he realized that something about this light didn’t sit right with him. 

He‘d initially thought that it was just the light from the sun coming in through a hole that had opened up near the tree, but the light almost looked to have a subtle bluish tint. He began to fly over to examine just what was causing this.

“Excuse me!” Holly shouted from the bottom of the canyon. “One, did you find where we need to go, and two, why are you looking at that tree?”

“Yeah, we head to the left like you said. And I’m just trying to find out what I’m seeing right now. There’s this light coming from behind the roots here and I want to know what that is.”

Holly squinted up at where Never was looking, and after a few seconds, responded. “I think it’s coming from a plant, a species of cave flower to be precise. I’ve seen things like it a few times when I’ve surveyed a few locations around Equestria.”

“Ok, but how can you tell it’s a cave flower and not something else. From where I’m hovering, it just looks like slightly blue sunlight.”

“Fair enough. Hey, when we finish our hike, how fast do you think you can fly to Shires Bay? I want you to pick something up before the store closes.”

Never looked down at Holly with a raised eyebrow from how random that question seemed, but looked up at the sky a few seconds later before turning back to Holly. “Probably about ten minutes, seven if I stay low to the ground.”

“Weren’t you able to fly from there to here in like five this morning?”

“Yeah, but I had a tailwind then. Going back, I’m going to have a headwind, and from the looks of it, it’s gotten a little stronger since this morning.”

Holly gave Never a smug smirk. “And that’s how I know it’s the light of a cave flower.”

“What?”

“The same way you are able to tell how long a trip will take is the same way I’m able to differentiate between light sources.”

“I’m still lost.”

“Ok, so, how much of a headwind is there and how can you tell?”

“Well, based on how the clouds are moving, it’s about twenty-five knots two-hundred meters up.”

“So, because you have experience flying, you can use small visual cues to tell the direction of the wind and how fast it’s going. It’s the same sort of thing with me. I’ve studied and dealt with enough plants over the years that I can tell the difference between natural and biological light signatures.”

“I’m still a little lost, but I’ll take your word for it. So, how many cave flowers have you come across?”

“Just one.”

Never’s eyes nearly bugged out of his sockets. “Only one? How are you able to tell that that’s the light of a cave flower when you’ve only seen the one? Shouldn’t you be guessing that it was something else giving off the light? And didn’t you say you’ve seen something like this a couple of times?”

“As I said, it’s the light signature. Mushrooms don’t produce enough lumens to be seen in the day, animals that produce light tend to have a pulsing or other such variation in theirs, and bacteria has more of a blue or a green tint. Cave flowers are the only ones that give off a strong, continuous, white light. And I probably could have been a little more clear. I’ve only seen a cave flower with my own eyes once, every other time has been like this. They grow in the hardest to reach places, they’re practically impossible to find and see with your own eyes.”

Hearing this, several gears in Never’s head began to turn. “Do they look nice?”

“Oh, like you would not believe. They’re extremely varied from what I’ve heard, but the one I saw had the structure of a lotus, but the color patterns of an orchid.”

At hearing this, the parts of Never’s mind that were still adamant he prove his worth to Holly went into overdrive. Then, a devious little idea came to mind. Before Holly could register what he was doing, Never flew into the mess of roots and began twisting and pulling himself through them in an attempt to make it to the flower.

“Wha… Never! What are you doing?”

Never didn’t respond though, as he was too preoccupied with his current task to pay any mind to anything else. He had made it most of the way into the tangle of petrified wood, with only his hips and legs remaining outside of the root system, and could now see the flower Holly had been talking about. 

It was a very strange sight, but based on what Holly had said, it was something he should have expected. The ‘flower’ in front of him looked more like a stem that was covered in long, light-blue, almost hair-like structures. Never was more than a little confused at what he was seeing, and was questioning if Holly had made a mistake in identifying what this was, but given that she was the plant expert, he was willing to just accept that this was just a type of cave flower and wait for her to give him an explanation as to why it looked so odd.

However, as he tried to push forward, extending his foreleg in an attempt to reach for the strange flower, he realized that he wasn’t moving. He had managed to work himself into a position that allowed the hardened roots around him to squeeze onto him like a vice and hold him in place, 

He pulled and twisted and did everything he could to dislodge himself from their hold of him, but despite everything, he remained restrained. After about a minute of this, Never released a defeated sigh and quietly mumbled something just loud enough for Holly to pick it up.

“Are you done quite yet? And were you trying to tell me something just now?”

Another barely audible noise that Holly could only just make out was Never’s response.

“You’re going to have to speak up, Never. If you are trying to tell me something, I’m not catching any of it.”

After a few seconds of silence, Holly finally heard Never meekly ask, “I got stuck. Would you mind helping me out of here?”

Holly blinked a few times in disbelief at what she was hearing. “What?”

“I thought I could push my way through the roots and get at the flower, but now I’m stuck. Can I please get your help getting out? I broke a few roots and now they’re stabbing my barrel.”

“Why do I have a feeling this was you trying to be cute?” Holly mumbled under her breath. She sighed and began looking over the walls around her for anything she could use as hoof-holds. She eventually caught sight of a few sections of wall to her right that weren’t as smooth as the rest of the canyon, and, after assuring that she could make out decent imperfection going all the way to the top of the canyon, she put her saddlebags on the ground beside her and began to climb.

“Never, I hope it was worth it to see that flower. I was only partially joking about not wanting you to try climbing the walls around here. I never figured I was going to need to scale them to help you.”

Holly didn’t hear a response from Never, and when she looked over, she simply saw his lower half hanging limply from out of the roots. 

After a difficult few minutes of climbing, Holly finally made it to the top of the canyon and began to make her way over to the tree that she knew was currently holding onto her coltfriend. When she made it to the edge, she began to look over the edge and down at the surrounding roots and canyon walls for anything that looked like it would help with climbing down.

Seeing an opportunity, Holly figured that she might use this situation to mess with Never a little to hopefully lighten the mood. “How are you holding up, Dangle?”

“Really? Dangle? That’s the pet name you’re choosing for me? Kitty is at least cute and normal sounding.” Holly’s statement obviously got Never’s attention, as he sounded quite miffed. He had even kicked out his hind legs slightly in indignation.

“Well, I think it’s cute. And I’m sure when I explain why that’s your pet name, ponies will think it’s cute too.” Holly had found a fairly safe route down to Never’s position and began scaling down the cliffside.

“Maybe your friends, but if Danger or my parents ever hears you call me that, I’ll never hear the end or it. Please, I’m begging you, pick another pet name, please.”

“Alright, I’ll pick a new name for you, since I’m such a nice mare friend.”

Never breathed a sigh of relief and completely relaxed himself. “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means.”

As Never said this, Holly finally reached him. “That being said though,” Holly gave Never a naughty slap on his hind-quarters, causing him to suddenly tense up. “The name is rather cute, like you, so I’ll just make sure your family doesn’t hear me call you it.”

“Hey! You promised to pick a new name!”

“I did, but I never said you wouldn’t still be Dangle to me.”

Never released another defeated sigh. “I guess it’s no use fighting you over it. Fine, I guess Dangle is a little cute. Now can we get back to setting me free? It feels like these roots are trying to stab into my ribs.”

“Alright, if you insist,” Holly said after releasing a mild chuckle. “I’m going to move into the roots underneath you and try to force them open a little to give you some room to wiggle your way back out. Sound good?”

“Yeah, that sounds like it will work. Just tell me when I should start going.”

“Alright.” Holly then began to make her way slowly and carefully down and along the edge of the roots. While they were currently holding Never’s weight, there was no guarantee that every root was like that, so Holly wanted to be careful and not do anything too risky until she had to.

When she had made it to the section of roots beneath Never, Holly looked up to examine which roots she was going to need to push in what direction and couldn’t help but release a giggle at seeing Never with his hind legs pressed together and tucked slightly into his barrel.

“While I appreciate the thought, Never, It’s not like I haven’t seen it before. We have been together for quite some time after all.”

“Can we please get this over with? This is already embarrassing enough as it is.”

Without further delay, Holly wedged herself into the tangle of roots and pushed her way up until she felt she was close enough to Never that when she pushed apart the roots, he would be able to work his way back out.

So, with her back against one section of roots and her hooves against another, Holly put all of her strength into straightening out her legs. Due to the density and thickness of the roots, she wasn’t able to pry them too far apart, but it was still enough for the compressive force keeping Never restrained to lessen, allowing him to throw his body side to side and back, until he was finally able to fall out of the roots and take flight.

When he was sure that he was able to at least hover without issue, Never began to make his way back over to Holly. While doing so, seeing that she was still pressing on the roots, and given her last comment, he figured she wouldn’t be opposed to him checking her out as well.

When Holly looked to her side and over at Never when she heard his wind beats, catching him looking her up and down, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “You know, while I appreciate your attention, I would much rather be getting it from you when we’re both on the ground, not when I’m hanging an unsafe distance above it.”

Taking one last second to appreciate his marefriends form, Never responded. “Ok. if you can make your way out of there, I can fly up to you and bring you to the ground.”

“Alright, but make sure you’ll also be ready to catch me if these roots break. The last thing we need to do after all the fun we just had is to take a trip to the hospital.” And with that, Holly began to carefully work her way to the outermost section of the roots so that Never could grab a hold of her. 

When she was mostly freed from the roots, Never hovered over to Holly, and with some effort so as not to hurt her while pulling her out or knock his wings against the sharp ends of the petrified tangle, extracted her and began to descend while holding her upside down in his forelegs.

When he looked down at his marefriend, he couldn’t help but give her a sheepish smile. “So, uh, thanks for the help. I guess I’m going to be owing you for this.”

“I think we can work something out.” Holly then closed her eyes and began to cuddle into her coltfriend. “I think that you flying me back to Shires Bay in your hooves like this after we finish this hike would go a long way in paying off that debt.”

“Well, we’ll need to finish this hike then.” Never had finished descending and was now hovering only a few inches above the ground. “That is, unless you’re a little too comfortable lying there now and would prefer that we call it now.”

Holly opened her eyes and shifted her weight to indicate that she wanted Never to let her down. When she was back on her hooves, she walked over to the saddlebags she had put down before climbing. “No, we planned this hike and I want us to finish it. And besides...” As Holly walked past Never towards the left canyon after having put her bags back on, she flicked her tail over so that it smacked him lightly in the face. “You still owe me some cuddling time since you decided you just had to leave me alone this morning.”

Never blinked once before shaking his head and quickly trotting to catch up with Holly. “I told you, I was going out to get us some breakfast. Besides, how was I supposed to know that spending like an hour on the couch with you pressed up against me reading was some sacred activity?”
> A simple tale of family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Never, where did you put Soundy’s diapers?”

“The new pack or the leftovers?”

“Leftovers. Soundy had an accident and I can’t find her a replacement.”

“Well, if they’re not in the changing cabinet, I might have left them-”

“Never mind, found them.”

Several minutes later, a small pegasus in a diaper came galloping into the family room where Never was sitting, heading straight towards the corner of the room filled with toys, followed not too long after by an earth pony mare. The mare wasted no time in moving over to the couch and collapsing onto it to cuddle into her husband and close her eyes. 

“When she starts flying, she’s going to be your daughter, not mine.”

“And here I was believing the great Winterberry Hills could handle a single pegasus foal.” Never lifted a wing, draped it over his wife, and began to stroke over her side with a hoof.

“She inherited your energy, and I only have the stamina to handle one overly energetic ball of feathers. If you would be willing to act less like your daughter, then we can talk about OUR daughter.”

“Nah.” Never began to affectionately nuzzle Holly. “It’s why you fell in love with me. I couldn’t stop acting that way just because our daughter is a true Do.”

“Then I hope you like changing diapers and dealing with filly problems because I just finished chasing your daughter around the house, and I am not prepared for trying to keep up with her when she finally learns to use her wings.” Holly lowered a hoof to her belly, which had started to really show as of late. “If I knew this was how Soundy would end up, I might have reconsidered us having another.”

“Well, it’s a little late for that now. And besides, both of us grew up with at least one sibling, we both know that having someone our own age around the house growing up made things just that little bit more enjoyable.” 

“While that might be true, as I just said, I only have so much energy. Your daughter finally learning how to walk on her own was the death knell for my stamina. That’s why YOU -” Holly opened her eyes and looked up to Never’s muzzle before booping him on the nose “-better be praying that I’m not carrying another pegasus.”

Never wrinkled his nose before looking down at his wife with a smirk. “As you said, I have the same amount of energy as our daughter, I’m sure I can handle two hummingbirds on my own. And as for having to deal with Soundy when she hits puberty, that’s fine. I have a sister you know. I grew up adjacent to filly problems, so if it comes down to it, I can always get in contact with her to get some help. Besides, when Soundy gets older, if she ever has a problem with a stallion, her aunt’s mate is a dragon.” 

Holly opened her eyes and turned her head to give Never an accusatory glance filled with displeasure.

“What? You said I would have to handle her myself, and weren’t you the one who was saying I should be trying to make nice with The Black Death before the two of us buried that hatchet?

“Yes, but I would have figured you of all ponies would’ve had the wherewithal to not encourage your brother-in-law to start up a grudge with another pony.”

“I was only joking.” Never grabbed onto Holly with his forelegs and pulled her closer to himself before wrapping both of his wings around her. “Mostly.”

Holly puffed up her cheeks slightly in indignation before closing her eyes again with a frown. “I’m still a little upset with you for not being honest with me about him.”

“It’s been like two years. Are you ever going to let that one go?”

“Perhaps. As I told you, we’re a couple, which means we have to be honest with each other.” Holly’s tone turned dark as she continued. “And that I don’t have to go to your parents house to find out my colt-friend has been telling me half truths.”

“You're right, I know, I bucked up. I did promise I wouldn’t do that anymore after all.”

Holly sighed before pressing into Never a bit more and shifting in a way that communicated that she wanted Never to hug her a little more firmly with his wings. “I know. I’m sorry for bringing it up. It’s just that caring for Soundy is not as easy as your sister makes it out to be.”

“Well, in all fairness, Fiery is a kirin, so I doubt we can use her as an example on what to expect with Soundy here. Speaking of, what advice has Danger given you?”

“Nothing my parents or yours haven’t already told us. Be aware of their sugar intake, keep an eye out for when they start to fly, make sure to lock up the cleaning supplies, remember to let them back inside before you go to sleep, that sort of thing.”
“Nothing about what to tell your evil bird that decided it needs to play second mother?” Never jostled Holly to get her to open her eyes before gesturing with his chin to Soundy. 

Over in the corner, both of them could see Soundy playing with some stuffed dolls and occasionally dropping one onto the floor, only for Blue Ember, the Night Phoenix that Holly had rescued, to pick it up and put it back where he thought it should go.

“Oh, stop that. He hasn’t done anything to you since our trip to your sister’s lair. As far as I’m concerned, that means he’s accepted you.”

“Yeah, just give it another year, once Soundy doesn’t need to be watched at all hours, we’ll see how long that lasts.”
Holly just rolled her eyes. “You keep telling yourself that, but just you watch, one of these days he’s going to fly over to you and ask you to stroke his feathers.”

“And on that day, I’ll make sure you’re the first one to see my shiny new horn.”

Holly chucked good naturedly before using her hoof to lightly punch Never on his foreleg. “Still, you can’t complain about how well he’s playing the part. If nothing else, him watching her like that helps us relax a little.” 

Never looked over to Soundy and Blue Ember, remembering the first time he’d seem him examining her from the rails of her crib. It had scared him half to death, all the bad experiences he’d had with that Tartarus pigeon, his first thought was that he’d been sizing her up to make a meal out of her. He’d sprung forward shouting and flapping his wings in order to create some wind, and hopefully look big enough that Blue would finally reconsitter fighting him.

Yeah, it had not ended well.

Rather than flying off or even just nipping at him for his sin of trying to protect his own daughter, Blue burst into flames and just laid into him. Claws and beak pierced his flesh with all the ferocity of a rabid dog. If Holly hadn’t been alerted to something happening due to him yelling followed by the shrill screeches of a night phoenix, Never was sure Blue would have caused some permanent damage.

Holly was quick to reprimand Blue, shooing him off, before quickly rushing over to Soundy’s crib to comfort the crying foal. As she was rocking her in her forelegs, Holly looked over to Never, partially in concern, partially irritated, and demanded to know what happened. When he told her, a good deal of her irritation turned to indignation. 

It was then that he learned from her that night phoenixes were famous as adoptive parents, taking care of orphaned birds, even of other species. When she’d brought Soundy up and put her into her crib, Blue had followed her and perched on Soundy’s crib to look at the strange thing Holly had with her. In all likelihood, Blue figured out that Soundy was Holly’s child, so when he had run towards him and Soundy, Blue had taken that as a threat to Soundy’s safety.

Never unconsciously rubbed the back of his foreleg against his chest, where one of the most prominent scars was. In all fairness to the pygmy cassowary,  he had definitely seemed apologetic for the miscommunication, acting ‘polite’ around him, specifically, not attacking or pestering him when the opportunity presented itself. 

Granted, that might have been mostly down to Holly giving him a reaming about trying to kill her husband, but at this point, he was willing to take anything that meant he wasn’t being antagonized by an uppity mass of feathers.

Never was thankful though that he and Blue had sort of come to an unspoken agreement when Soundy learned to walk. They would both give each other space when one of them was around Soundy, Never was responsible for handling things Blue could not, and ultimately, Holly had final say when it came to what happens around Soundy.

“I just can never get over seeing Soundy so close to a bird of prey. Every cell in my body is telling me to run over there and defend her from him.”

“Do that again and you’re on your own. I won’t be getting up to save you.” Holly pressed herself more firmly into her husband. “And you do realise Blue is no more dangerous than a golden retriever. Or are you going to lay there and tell me that a bird that’s only nipped you out of jealousy scares you more than something that is still genetically a wolf, or even your brother-in-law?”

Never smiled and gave her a brief, firm hug. “I would like to invoke Article Twelve.”

“You would. So, have you finally decided on what we’re doing with the spare rooms yet, or do I get three drawing rooms?”

“We just moved in.”

“If by ‘just’ you mean in the last two months, then yes.”

“It’s been five weeks.”

“Yes, that’s in fact, less than two months.”

Never released a defeated sigh. “Well, I’ve wanted to get into scale modeling for a little while, why not let me make one of the rooms for that?”

“Where did this come from? You never said anything about that.”

“I don’t think that last sentence was propper Equish.”

“What… oh haha, just answer the question.”

Never gave her a smug grin. “Don’t know, just always liked seeing the 3D models of canyons and such that ponies make to show what someplace actually looks like, but small.”

“Alright, you can have your stallion stable. So, what about the other room?”

Never went quiet for several seconds before finally responding, although, without his usual confidence. “A second guest room?”

“Seriously?”

“What? You were the one who listened to my parent’s suggestion to get a large house. You’ve been to their cabin, it’s huge. I’m ninety percent sure we never even used like three rooms in there.”

“Yeah, but you heard them, when you find somewhere you want to live, if you get a house that will give you the ability to expand, you’ll never need to move or buy a new one. It made sense to me. And don’t act all high and mighty, you were involved just as much as I was when it came to buying this house.”

“Fair enough. Well, we can always decide what to do with it later. I’d rather not discuss my parent’s strange fixation on big houses. And it’s not like if we don’t decide now the room will up and disappear.” This elicited a soft giggle from Holly. “If nothing else, we always have the option of growing our family to fill the empty rooms.”

“Yeah, not interested. You won’t be the one carrying them for eleven months, and Celestia help me if you put another pegasus in me...”

“As I said, we can always talk about what to do with the empty rooms later. They’re not going anywhere.”

As the two of them were settling in to watch Soundy from the couch, said foal quickly jumped up with a doll in her mouth and ran over to them before sitting down and extending both forelegs towards them. A signal asking for a piggyback ride.

“I take it I’m the one who’s going to be handling this?”

“She is your daughter. I don’t know why you’re asking a stranger what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Never released a chuff of amusement. “I thought she would stop being your daughter when she started to fly?”

“Did you see her wings going when she was running over here? That looked like flying to me.”

Never rolled his eyes as he got up from the couch before laying down on the floor to let Soundy get on. When she did, 
Never burst up, tossing Soundy into the air slightly, eliciting no small amount of shrieks and giggles of enjoyment from the filly, and when she landed back on him, he began to trot around the room.

“Well, seeing as you are no longer her mother, I figure you’ll have no problem with me-” Never flared out his wings and began to lightly beat them “- getting a head start on her flying lessons.”

“Sounds good, just make sure you don’t fly through any trees. I can’t find the disinfectant paste, so if she gets scratched, you’ll have to go to the store to get more.”

With that remark, Never began to pick up his pace and go into other rooms in addition to circling the family room, all the while flapping his wings, much to Soundy’s approval. 

Never liked to do this wherever Soundy wanted a ride from him. It was a little game he had where he would trot around with his wings going, pretending to be flying around clouds or through trees. It was particularly enjoyable for Soundy given she was also a pegasus, as she often beat her wings along with his, pretending to be helping him stay aloft.
> Familial differences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Mom, can you tell Dusk to stop practicing his magic around us! He keeps hurting me!”

“Soundy, you know your brother isn’t trying to be rude. Just be a little considerate, he’s still trying to learn.” Holly did her best to make sure her tone was diplomatic. Soundy had been getting a little more bipolar when it came to her brothers as of late. Sometimes she would be doting on them like a second mother, others, she sounded like she considered them no different than overgrown flees.

Soundy, putting on the most offended face she could muster, turned to her father. “Dad! Tell Mom I’m trying to play with Fiery and Dusk is being stupid! 

“Soundy! I will not have you calling your brother stupid.” Never’s tone was hard, a far cry from how he usually sounded. Well, so long as you didn’t live with him. Never had become a lot more serious since Dusk Light and Wandering Cairn came along, not least because raising three kids was not the least bit easy.

Soundy shrunk under her father’s gaze, and the way he had yelled at her had made her subconsciously take a step back. “But I-”

“No buts. Just because your brother’s having some trouble controlling his magic, that doesn’t give you an excuse to use that kind of language. If he’s really bothering you that much, there’s an entire lair around you where you won’t have to worry about what he’s doing.”

Soundy just looked between Holly and Never, trying to come to terms with being yelled at while simultaneously feeling like she was being treated unfairly. Fiery, seeing that staying there may not be in her or Soundy’s best interest, chimed in.

“I know, why don’t we go see what Grünchen and Blue are doing? I’m sure they’re doing something funny like they always do.”

With that, Soundy followed Fiery as she dashed north, deeper into the outer lair in search of their ‘pets’. As soon as they left, Holly got up to reassure Dusk, who had curled up slightly next to the tree he’d been practicing near, feeling slightly ashamed that he’d caused his sister to get yelled at.

Never, for his part, dropped his head onto the table where he, Holly, Black Death, and his sister were sitting. “Have I ever told you how much I envy slash hate you two?”

“Oh, don’t give us that, we know you love us. And I think you handled that rather well,” Danger said before sipping her tea.

“Well, you’re not the one with… ok, bad example, better one, all your kids are part dragon, so you don’t exactly have to deal with all of them taking forever and a half to grow up. I remember when we saw Fiery at the Peaks of Peril, she was running around and behaving a good deal older than I would have expected of her. Soundy wasn’t that mature till she was three. And based on what you two said about Night Flame, he took even less time to get there.”

“You do remember we have three kids as well? Kindling hasn’t exactly been racing to adolescence.”

Said foal’s head suddenly popped up from under the table. “Yes?”

With a smile, Holly placed her hoof on top of his head and began stroking his mane. “No, we weren’t calling you, just talking about all you foals.

“Oh. Ok.” Kindling looked around for a second at all the adults before moving to lay back down and get back to organising the ‘hoard’ he was building, only to pop back up. “Oh, Uncle Never. Do you want to play a game together? I haven’t gotten to play with you yet, and I thought it might be super fun.”

“Uh, sure, what kind of game were you thinking about?”

“I don’t know, let me see what I have.” With that, Kindling took off into the inner lair, beating his wings as he galloped in an effort to give himself some sort of boost to his speed. 

Danger chuckled at her son’s antics. “You better remember he’s still a foal, Never, so none of your competitive shenanigans.”

“I’m a father too, if the last few minutes haven’t made that clear. Or do you think I would honestly go all out against them?”

“I’m just giving you a fair warning. Remember, there are two dragons here that wouldn’t ask what happened if Kindling got hurt, and if he comes running in here after you thoroughly beat him at something, then you’ll have me to deal with.”

“Again, father.” Never exasperatedly replied while rolling his eyes.

As this little back and forth was going on, The Black Death was leaning down to examine what his son had been doing. When he came back up, he had a slight scowl across his muzzle and was releasing a growl that was barely above a whisper.

Seeing and hearing this, Danger began to stroke his side with a wing and look up at him. “What’s the matter?”

“Kindling looks like he’s trying to make a hoard like his brother. If he wants to do that, I’m going to have to teach him what a hoard is supposed to look like.”

Looking rather confused, Holly leaned down and looked under the table at what Black Death was talking about. What she saw appeared to be a random collection of items from around the lair. A few toys, some sticks and leaves, a river stone or two, there were even a few pieces of cutlery that looked to be buried in there as well.

“It doesn’t look too bad to me. A little unfocused, but if it’s his first attempt at a hoard, I don’t see the problem.”

Black Death snorted derisively. “Composition is everything. When making a hoard, the most important thing is what you put into it. It’s a display of your most valuable things, a sign of who you are. You can't just put a few sticks and stones from around your lair into a pile and call it a hoard. At the very least he’s copying his brother and has a few spoons and forks in there.”

“No, I’m already competing with Night Flame for possession of everything in the utensils drawer. The last thing I need is YOU teaching our other son that he needs to be hoarding everything else his brother isn’t stealing,” Danger piped in.

Holly smiled at the idea of Danger and Black Death’s kids stealing everything in the lair. “In that case, you two will have to send me and Never a list of everything your sons are putting into their hoards so we can try to help prevent everything not nailed down in here from getting added to their collections.”

“That would be helpful. Unfortunately, I doubt my utensils drawer is going to stop getting raided that easily,” Danger replied.

“Anyways, as we were saying, indeed, dragons most definitely have an advantage over ponies when it comes to growing up.” Everyone watched as The Black Death sat up slightly and puffed out his wings to look bigger. “I just wish Kindling would have inherited that. I still can’t stand the fact you ponies need diapers.

“Funny, I remember a few items of mine that were turned to ash because some tiny dragon had a ticklish nose. Or are you going to tell me that flammable sneezes are an advantage that dragons have?” Holly stated with a cocked eyebrow.

“It’s not my fault you ponies can’t spit fire. I can’t imagine not being able to, it’s such a great ability to have.”

“Before we get too lost in the weeds regarding the wonderment that is diapers and children spitting fire, the point I was trying to get across was that you two have it easy as far as I’m concerned.”

“You’re just being histrionic, Never.”

That elicited quite the raised eyebrow from Never.

“What?”

“Histrionic?”

“Yes, your being very dramatic.”

“Where in the world did you learn histrionic? I’ve never even heard of that word.”

“Believe it or not, Big Softy isn’t keeping me locked in here, and strange as it might sound, I enjoy reading books.” As she said this, Danger began to rub herself against Black Death’s side.

“Indeed, I can show you the dozen or so books we have laying around that attest to that.” Black Death’s voice was even, but the mild irritation and sarcasm laced in his statement weren’t too hard to make out, earning him a slap in the side from Danger’s wing.

“As I was saying! Just because Soundy, Dusk, and Cairny are taking a while to grow up, that doesn’t mean me and Big Softy here have it easy.”

“I will remind you that Dusk is a unicorn, and as you may have noticed -” Never reached a hoof up and tapped his forehead “- neither me nor Holly have a horn.”

“You told us last time we saw each other that Holly’s siblings are unicorns and they’re teaching him how to use his magic,” Danger replied. “In that sense, you have it better than me. I only have Big Softy here to help deal with problems I don’t know how to handle.” 

“Well, yeah, but it’s not exactly like we can call them up at any hour of the day and say ‘Hey, we need some help with teaching Dusk magic, and while your here, how about you answer these other ten questions.’ They have jobs as well.”

“Oh boho, all that means is you have one colt that’s just a little harder to raise. Look at me and Big Softy, we couldn’t be happier raising our kids.”

“And you forgot to account for our third child. He…” Never’s head immediately launched off of the table and began to frantically whip around. “Horseapples! Holly, Cairny wandered off again. I’ll go look for him, you can comfort Dusk.” And with that, Never was off and running in search of his and Holly’s youngest son.

“Make sure you check the tunnel leading outside. The last thing we need is him getting outside,” Holly called out after him before going back to stroking Dusk’s back and reassuring him that he was just learning how to use his magic, so he was going to make a few mistakes and that that was alright.

After Never was out of sight, Danger turned to Holly with a look of confusion. “Me and Big Softy can look after Dusk so you can go search for Cairny. I know you said he does this fairly often, but you almost seem a little too calm. I know I would be an emotional wreck if something like that happened with one of our kids growing up.”

“I am a little panicked, who wouldn’t be scared having one of their foals wander off like he does? It’s just that he does this just often enough that it’s become less scary. He never goes too far, and we almost always find him just playing somewhere out of our sight. Still though, while I’m confident your home doesn’t have a million and one dangers that could seriously put him at risk, there’re just enough unsafe things in here that I want me and Never to keep him in our sights.”

Danger brought back one side of her mouth in an expression of both concern and uncertainty. “Ehh… I think I’ll go help Never find Cairny. I don’t feel right just sitting here when one of your foals is wandering around in here alone.” With that, Danger moved to get up, getting somewhat stopped at first as The Black Death’s wing was holding her down slightly, but a quick look of mild annoyance followed by some quick cuddles removed that hindrance.

“Alright, I’ll keep your dragonfriend company while you go looking,” Holly replied

Danger shot a half-serious glace at The Black Death. “Just because I’m leaving and she’s saying she’ll keep you company doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to be cuddling with her, Softy.”

Black Death smirked before leaning forward and rubbing the end of his muzzle against hers. “You know you’re the only pony for me. The thought never even crossed my mind.” 

With a roll of her eyes, Danger set off after Never. It didn’t take long for her to catch up, finding him pushing open some bushes after only about half a minute of looking.

“Never, hold on, I’m gonna help you look for Cairny too.”

“Thanks. You have any ideas where he might have been interested in going? Couldn’t have gotten too far. Remember seeing him playing with the doll Soft’s dad made of himself when we were talking about our kids.”

Danger looked up and to the left in thought while cocking her head. “If I had to guess, either in the section of the garden with the sunning stones or somewhere around the stream and pond.”

Never bit his inner cheek as he gave a close-mouthed grimace of worry at hearing that. “Not good. He shouldn’t be around the stream or pond unsupervised. You go check the pond, I’m going to fly up and make sure he didn’t start ascending the path to the tunnel just in case.”

With a sudden explosion of his wings, Never took to the air before Danger even had a chance to respond. Not wanting to just stand there doing nothing, Danger picked up her pace towards the pond.

Weaving through the trees in the southern section of the garden, it didn’t take her long to finally reach the pond at the center of the outer lair. However, looking left and right, as well as in the pond itself, Danger couldn’t see Cairny or anything that would suggest that he was around. Even after taking to the air slightly to get a better view of the sunning stones, she just couldn’t see any signs of her brother’s youngest foal.

What she was able to see though was Fiery and Soundy over by where the stream, that bisected the outer lair, entered a little hole in the wall. Hopeful that they might be able to assist, Danger glided over to them as fast as she could in an effort to get over there quickly, but not scare them by suddenly landing next to them and worrying them with questions about Cairny’s whereabouts.

“No, I’m telling you, I saw Grünchen fly over here. Blue’s probably by the waterfall.” As she was getting closer, Fiery’s voice was the first to reach her ears.

“What are you two talking about?” Danger said as she landed and began trotting the rest of the way over to her daughter and niece.

The sound of her voice caused both of the fillies to immediately tense up. When they turned around to face her, they both had nervous smiles plastered on their muzzles.

Soundy was the first to respond, shuffling on her hooves uneasily as she did so. “Oh, nothing, just, uh… playing… uh-” 

“Hide and seek,” Fiery blurted out, likely more forcefully than she had ment. “We convinced Blue and Grünchen to fly off and hide and now we’re trying to find them.”

“Is that so?” Danger narrowed her eyes slightly. She very much wanted to call her daughter out on that, but right now, she had more pressing issues. “Well, I’m trying to find your baby brother, Soundy. He wandered off after you two left to start playing with Grünchen and Blue. Is he also playing hide and seek with you two?”

Soundy looked over to Fiery, and after an exchange of looks and a shake of heads, Soundy turned back towards her aunt. “No, we haven’t seen him. Do you want us to help look for him?”

“No, I have a feeling the two of you will need to finish your game of hide-and-seek before your mom decides she has to join too.” 

The look on both fillies faces as she said this was all Danger needed to see. Turning around and flaring her wings to fly back into the air, Danger began going over every possibility of where Wandering Cairn could have gone in her head. Additionally, she was also cursing her brother and sister-in-law for naming one of their foals the way they did. She didn’t believe in numerology or sacrunomenology, but her nephew Wandering Cairn was making a very strong case for it being true.

Going over every location in the outer lair in her head, the only two that made sense would be near the lair wall in the northern garden, or by the waterfall. She and the rest of the parents had been sitting in the clearing just outside of the inner lair, so both locations were out of sight from there, and based on what Never and Holly had told her about him, the most logical option would be by the waterfall.

Hurriedly flying over to the waterfall, Danger kept her eyes trained on the pathway that lead from the outer lair to the tunnel, praying that she would see her brother leading a small colt back down. Unfortunately, no such scene manifested before she reached her goal.

Worse still, Cairny seemed to have the special talent of either hiding like a snake or somehow turning invisible without being a unicorn. No matter where she looked around the waterfall, no matter how many ‘hiding spots’ she knew of around the area, there just wasn’t a single sign of Cairny anywhere.

Right about now, Danger was halfway tempted to call up Fortuna to see if she could sort some things out. With how abysmal her brother’s luck was, Danger was starting to feel like Fortuna specifically had it out for him. Even with Fortuna giving her some of her favor, her brother's lack of luck still seemed to be rubbing off on her whenever he was around. The next time Fortuna was around, she was going to have to remember to ask if she reduced her brother’s luck a bit because she and Daring already had so much. 

Seeing as Cairny didn’t seem to be here, The next place to look would be the northern garden. Turning to the right, Danger immediately set off at a rapid trot, calling out to Cairny. 

Yet again though, not a single sign of the young colt. The only things around here were trees, the sunning stones Softy and Night like to use, and the sounds of rustling leaves from the slight air current that was created from air traveling through the entrance tunnel and out through the holes in the ceiling.

As she looked over to the sunning stones, Danger couldn’t help but let the beginnings of a frown start to form on her face. “Why, of all the days, couldn’t Night have been here?”

Cairny had taken a shining to her draconic son, and the two were starting to be seen together more often than not around the lair since Never and his family arrived. If Night would have been sunning himself on the stones here, or relaxing by the waterfall as he tended to do, she was sure Cairny would only be a yard or two way, if not right up against him.

Wait.

That was it!

Danger face-hoofed with how obvius the solution to finding Cairny was. All she needed to do was find her son! And, knowing him, if he wasn’t in the outer lair enjoying himself, he had to be relaxing somewhere in the inner lair.

Rearing around, Danger immediately set off at a gallop towards the inner lair. Weaving in and around the trees, Danger was like a camazotz out of Tartarus. 

As she entered the clearing where her mate and Holly were sitting, both of them scrunched up their faces in confusion, with The Black Death looking slightly worried as well. She would have loved to explain what was going on, but currently, finding Cairny was more important, so talking to them would have to wait.

Passing through the entrance to the inner lair, Danger instantly began to whip her eyes back and forth in search of either Night Flame or little Cairny. After a second of this, Danger’s ears picked up the sound of classical music coming from the gramophone in the living room.

Proceeding at a brisk trot, Danger made her way into the living room, and was greeted to the sight of Cairny laying down and against Night Flame while drawing in a little sketchbook as Night simply listened to the music with closed eyes.

Releasing a deep sigh, Danger felt as practically every muscle in her body went slack. While Cairny wasn’t her foal, having him disappear like that, not knowing where he had gone, had practically sent her into a panic attack. As far as she could remember, neither Fiery nor her brothers had never done something like this growing up. The worst that had happened was one or more of them walking out of her sight and towards their father. Granted, the hundreds of times someone in the family set something or someone on fire was also up there, seeing as Kindling hadn’t developed or inherited a resistance to it. Which had been especially problematic when Night had tried to dry his twin like Softy tended to do with him.

She would have to remember to do something for Holly and her brother for the next Hearth’s Warming. If this is what they were having to deal with when it came to Cairny, they definitely needed some recognition.

“Hi Auntie Damegjur.” The sound of Wandering Cairn’s squeaky voice brought Danger out of her thoughts.

Looking up, Danger was greeted by the little colt doing tiny little waves in her direction with the end of a crayon sticking out of his lips, which were currently pulled back almost imperceptibly from their normal position into a reserved grin.

“Hey. I was just looking for you. You shouldn’t go walking off on your own like that, you scared me and your father.”

“I wasn’t alone, I was with Night Flame.”

“I can see that. However, when you want to go be with Night, but you’re with your parents or me and Softy, you need to tell us so we don’t get worried that you wandered off without us.”

“Ok,” Cairny replied before going back to drawing. 

Danger very much wished that she could believe Cairny when he said this, but judging by what Never and Holly had said, she figured that he had been told something along those lines more times than Softy had lost his fangs, so she wasn’t about to hold her breath.

“It seems like you two are getting along quite well, Night. It’s nice that you’re becoming friends with your cousin.”

Danger got a nod in response. “I like him. He’s not fluffy like Kindling, but he’s still a little soft, so he’s good for cuddling.”

Danger couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at her son’s response. He was so much like his father, obsessed with everything small, soft, and fluffy. It was a small consolation that neither Cairny nor his brother had fur that was as downy as her’s, otherwise she had a feeling he would try to claim them as a part of the hoard he was currently building, and that would be just one more thing she would have to reclaim from him. 

So, after fully calming down and bringing her heartbeat back to something that resembled what it would be normally, Danger began to make her way back to her mate and sister-in-law. 

She would go out to find her brother to tell him that she’d found him, but the tunnel leading down here was rather long, so finding him, especially if he’d gone outside, was going to take just as long as finding Cairny had. Ok, that wasn’t entirely true, she was confident Never hadn’t gone more than a minute’s flight into the tunnel, she just wasn’t in the mood after the last search. She was sure though that having Softy roar out would get Never’s attention and cause him to come back.

As soon as Danger walked out of the inner lair, both Holly and Softy turned towards her, with looks of confusion and concern still plastered across their faces. When she reached her mate, Softy immediately grabbed onto her and pulled her in close, embracing her somewhat tightly as he began to purr and rub his head against her.

Holly, looking like she did not fully grasp what was going on, was the first to speak up. “You seem to have calmed down. Did you find Cairny?”

After a few more seconds of cuddling Black Death back, Danger pushed him away so she could properly respond. “Yes, I did. Fortunately, Cairny’s more interested in Night Flames company than going off to explore the outer lair by himself. He’s in the living room right now, laying against Night Flame and drawing in that sketch book he has.”

Holly visually relaxed at hearing that. “Thank Celestia.” After a long sigh, Holly seemed to perk up, and her voice took on a more jovial tone. “Seems one has to be careful in your lair these days, snuggle dragons are lurking around every corner.” 

“Indeed. You ponies are so soft, how could we resist?” Softy replied before launching back into rubbing his head against Danger.

Rolling her eyes while smiling, Holly giggled at the display. “You know, it always surprises me seeing you two interact. With how affectionate and doting you are with her, the fact you and Never took so long to get along seems like a lie.”

“He interrupted our private time.” Black Death said with a growl, having stopped rubbing against Danger. “Interrupting such an important event is inexcusable!” These statements earned him a wing slap and a little smile from his mate.

“I know, I know, Never told me all about it. Still, if somepony told me you and him were brothers, like Kindling and Night Flame, I’d be tempted to believe them. Your obsession with displaying your affection is like a carbon-copy of his.”

Before Black Death could respond, Danger spoke up. “Big Softy, if you wouldn’t mind, could you roar out for Never? Since I found Cairny, it would probably be best if we informed him so he’s not panicking for longer than he has to.”

Straightening his neck, Black Death released a powerful roar that caused Holly to flinch back from where she was sitting and cover their ears from the unexpectedly loud bellow. Danger, on the other hoof, smiled and pressed an ear against her mate’s chest. She had grown a fondness for the way he vibrated when he roared like this.

When Black Death finished his roar, he curled his neck back around to get back to cuddling his mate. Holly straightened back up, looking mildly ill-at-ease from hearing Black Death call out like that.

“Oh, uh, that was a little… surprising.” Holly was holding a hoof to her chest as she said this.

“It’s not too bad. It scared me a little too the first few times he did that, but it’s grown on me.”

Holly looked towards her sister-in-law with a good deal of incredulity. “Yeah, I think I’ll pass on coming to respect your mate’s bellows. Sweet Luna that was loud. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a dragon roar like that before.”

“Were you calling us?”

“Yeah, is something going on?”

Everyone turned to face Night Flame and Kindling as they quickly came walking out of the inner lair, asking their respective questions. Wandering Cairn followed soon after, but didn’t appear nearly as concerned as his cousins.

“No, Dad was simply calling your uncle. Now that we know Cairny is just hanging out with you, Night Flame, we thought it would be best for him to stop searching and come back.”

“Oh.”

Night was the first to turn back around, with Wandering Cairn quick to follow, but after a gentle purr from Black Death, he reversed his course and headed straight for his father. Kindling remained still for a few seconds, a look of confusion affixed on his muzzle before he shook his head and trotted forward to his dad as well.

To Holly, the scene that unfolded before her was more than a little humorous. While The Black Death wasn’t what she would describe as a small dragon, the fact he was actively trying to cuddle both his wife and two sons lead to a good deal of him getting concealed by a mixture of fur, feathers, and scales that were of an ever so lighter shade of black.

Even more entertaining was the constant purring that was emanating from the amalgamation of dragons and pegasi. This combined with the way that The Black Death and Night Flame rubbed against everyone on the pile, Holly couldn’t help but think of the two as pixiu rather than dragons. Despite knowing Black Death and Night for a while now, she still hadn’t getten used to the sight of dragons being so clingy and cuddly.

Perhaps feeling a bit left out, Wandering Cairn trotted over to his mother and began to snuggle up next to her. Smiling, Holly leaned against her son and began to stroke his mane with her hoof in the way she knew he enjoyed the most.

After a good minute of this, both Night Flame and Kindling, the latter of which staying for a few seconds longer due to having been slightly crowded out by his brother during the cuddle session, left to return to the inner lair. Wandering Cairn, seeing this, quickly wiggled free of his mother and set off after Night to get back to what they had been doing.

“That was certainly interesting. Does that always happen when you roar? Seems like it might cause some problems when you're only trying to call one of them to you,” Holly stated after turning back around from watching her son wander off with his cousin.

“No, I have a special roar for each of them, including my mate.” Black Death redoubled his cuddling as he said the last part, earning him some purrs of agreement. “However, since I don’t have one for Never, I just used my general roar for calling someone.”

“Ah, ok. Well, we’ll just have to see who shows up first then, Fiery and Soundy, or Never.”

“I would put my bits on Never,” Danger replied between cuddles. “Our daughters seem to be up to something they would rather us not know about.”

“Is that what you saw when you went out looking for Cairny?”

“Mhhm. They told me they were playing ‘hide and seek’ with Blue and Grünchen. But, given how they were acting, I have a feeling they weren’t exactly being honest.”

Sighing, Holly leaned back from where she was sitting. “Hopefully, Blue is at least keeping an eye on Soundy, whatever she’s doing, and making sure they both don’t do something too dangerous.”

After a stint of silence, the sight of Never rushing back out of the tunnel came into everyone’s view, followed not long after by the hurried sound of wingbeats as he drew closer. 

When he landed, he immediately jumped into asking questions. “What was the roar about? Did something happen? Should Holly and I be worried?”

“No, everything is fine, I just asked Softy here to roar out for you. I found Cairny, he was relaxing with Night in the living room.”

Just like with Holly, Never’s posture immediately went into one of relief. “Oh thank Celestia.”

After a few deep breaths to fully calm down, Never went over to his wife and cuddled up next to her, draping a wing over her and pulling her into his side. “When we get back home, remind me to ask your brother to cast a spell that will let us know exactly where Cairny is at all times.”

“Unfortunately, I have my doubts that that’s a spell, else he would have offered to cast it the last time he was over.”

“I can dream. But if it was, given how fast he found him, do you really think he would offer to cast it?”

“He’s not that cruel. His special talent is just perception, so finding Cairny isn’t such a big deal for him.”

“Speaking of,” Danger managed as she pushed The Black Death away so she could properly join the conversation. “I’ve only heard-”

“Uh… did you… were you calling us?” The voice of Fiery could only barely be made out. It was uncharacteristically meek and submissive.

Turning in the direction her voice had come from, all four adults were treated to the sight of both Fiery and Soundy shuffling out of the garden with their tails tucked between their legs, their ears laid flat against their skulls, and their heads lowered. 

Raising an eyebrow, Danger decided to press her daughter for why she was acting the way she was. “Fiery, what’s the problem?”

Instead of answering, both Fiery and Soundy simply looked down and seemed to lower themselves to the ground. 

“Fiery, Soundy, what happened? I‘m not going to be angry. If something happened, I want to know what it was so I can figure out how to fix it.”

A blanket of silence fell over the garden as Fiery and Soundy’s parents watched the two fillies uncomfortably shift on their hooves and claws. Finally though, Soundy spoke up, but not loud enough for anyone to make out what she had said.

“You’re going to have to speak up, Little Sparrow, we couldn’t hear what you said,” Holly gently stated, trying to assuage her daughter’s guilt. In the meantime, The Black Death got up and moved over to his daughter to do something similar, albeit with a great deal more cuddling and calming purring.

“We lost Blue and Grünchen.” Fiery finally said, loud enough that everyone could hear.

“Lost? How?” Danger stated

“We wanted to play with them, but when we found them, Blue was perched on a tree branch, and Grünchen was playing with some sticks on the ground. I asked Grünchen to go see if Blue wanted to come down and play with us, but when he flew up there and pecked at him, Blue poofed up and burst into flames. Then, both of them flew off in different directions.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Holly said while nodding her head. “Blue was probably sleeping, so when Grünchen pecked at him, it probably scared him and caused him to get a little defensive. Knowing those two, Blue probably found somewhere dark to hide until he calms down, and Grünchen… does he have any nests in the garden that you know of? Ventalas tend to have quite a few crevices and huecos they like to hide in.”

“I…” Fiery scrunched up her face and cocked her head to the side. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him go into one.”

“Don’t worry about it, Ventalas tend to make dozens of false nests, and are very careful about not leading anyone to them unless you’re their mate. If you want, I think Never will be able to help with finding him, seeing as I’m not as vertically inclined as you two.” Holly lifted up one of Never’s wings as she said the last part.

“No, he can’t help, he promised he was going to play with me.” Kindling’s voice cut in. 

A few meters in front of the opening to the inner lair, Kindling was standing there with an irate expression and a hoofball between his forelegs. 

Never glanced back and forth uneasily between Fiery and Kindling before looking towards his wife. 

“Don’t worry about it, go play with Kindling. I’m sure the girls, your sister and Black Death over there can handle finding Grünchen. I’m going to look for where Blue skulked off to.”

“Alright then.” Never gave Holly a quick kiss before turning towards Kindling with a smile. “So, hoofball. Do you have a game in mind to play?”

As Never walked over to his nephew, Holly turned towards everyone else. “Ok, as I told Never, I’m going to go find Blue with Dusk while you four get to have fun searching for a ventalas. I would start by checking near the top of the cavern and working your way down. Ventalas try to nest in the hardest to reach spots they can find, so the top of your lair would be the prime location.”

Black Death shifted his wings and straightened his posture in a show of confidence. “Ha, this should be quick, with my nose, finding Grünchen should be trivial.”

“Weren’t you the one who informed me that vetalas are usually lair pests?”

“Indeed.”

“And that a dragon discovers that they might have one poaching their gems when they start noticing said gems going missing or a feather in their hoard?”

“Yes. What is your point?”

“What does Grünchen smell like?”

“A lot like Fiery, but mixed with several different types of gems.”

“So, he smells like your daughter, who he’s constantly around, and what he eats.”

“Yes, why does…” Black Death’s confident demeanor began to slip, being replaced by one of confusion, until finally a look of realisation washed over him. “Oh.”

“Yeah, if I’m right, you’re going to be able to find his nests, but finding him will be a separate issue.” As she said this, Holly watched as her daughter seemed to deflate somewhat. Not wanting to see her daughter so down, Holly walked over and cuddled up next to her. “Hey, don’t look so down. Think of it like hide-and-seek. I’m sure you four are going to find him if you all just work together.”

Soundy seemed to perk up at this, looking a good deal less disheartened and more like her jovial self. “Alright. I’ll go help find Grünchen.”

“That’s my girl.”

“We could also try calling out for him as we’re searching,” Danger suggested. “If he just got a little spooked, he might be willing to come out of his nest and fly down to us.”

Holly knocked a hoof against the stone beneath her, causing a click. “Dang. It seems like you stole my idea for finding Blue And here I was hoping I was going to get back here first.”

“Well then, let’s go find Grünchen, Fiery.” 

Upon releasing his daughter from his cuddling, Fiery was quick to rush over to Soundy, and after some quiet chater, they set off into the air, calling for the little green bird. After watching the two set off, The Black Death started to flare out his wings in preparation to follow them, when suddenly, he felt something jump onto his tail and start running up it.

When he turned his head around to see what was running up his spine, he watched as Kindling finished ascending his back and proceeded to hug him between the wings. “Aw, but Dad, I wanted you to come play with me too. Can’t you play with me and uncle Never first and then go looking for Grünchen?”

Purring, Black Death reached back with his head and began to nuzzle his son. “No, not right now, I need to help your sister find Grünchen. When we get done with that, then I’ll come play with you.” He then turned to Never. “If your uncle would be willing to join, we can probably find him a lot faster, and we can get to playing sooner.”

Kindling then hopped up from his dad and dashed back to his uncle. Once there, he ran behind him and began to push him forward, or at least tried to. “Come on, uncle Never, I want to play with you and Dad, so we need to find Grünchen.”

After staring at his nephew with some confusion, Never turned to his wife. “Well then, looks like I’m being dragged into another search mission today. Anything else we should know about ventalas before we set out?”

“Not really, just look in every natural alcove you can and you should find him soon enough.”

“Got it.” Never began to trot forward, causing Kindling to rush around him and take to the air, only to stop a few seconds later. “I have an idea.” Turning around, Never called back to the inner lair for Cairny and Night Flame.

“What is it?” Once again, Night was the first to exit the inner lair, followed closely by Cairny.

“Hey, the rest of the family is going searching for Grünchen, why don’t you come join us?”

“No.” Night didn’t even hesitate. Instead turning around to head back to the living room.

Taking a moment to think about it, Holly smiled to herself before she rushed forward infront of Night to get between him and the inner lair. “Come on, Night. I know you care about your sister, so helping your father and uncle find Grünchen should be a no-brainer.”

Night released an incensed growl and tried to make his way around Holly.

“It’ll be fun,” Holly added while moving into his way again, doing her best to sound convincing while making an attempt to nudge him towards the outer lair.

Pulling back one side of his snout in a snarl, Night lurched towards Holly while flaring out his wings and hissing. Surprised and significantly scared, Holly fell back on her haunches and tried to, unsuccessfully, scoot back.

“Hey! Don’t you dare-”

Never’s shout and subsequent attempt to run towards his wife and nephew were cut short by The Black Death pouncing on him, driving him to the floor with one claw, all the while releasing his own threatening growl.

“Holly!” Danger yelled in an accusing tone as she ran over. “What do you think you are doing? We aren’t at your place!” She stopped for a moment to look down at her son and caress his head with a wing before nudging him towards the inner lair. “Unless Softy or I told you otherwise, you can’t order him around! He is a dragon, and you are not the lady of the lair here!”

“But…” Holly started while getting back on her hooves, but Fluffy just ignored her.

“And you!” Danger turned around, trotting quickly over to her brother. “You are lucky that Softy is going so easy on you! Running towards a bornling like that would’ve resulted in any other dragon attacking you for real! And…” she raised her voice in order to drown out the response her brother was about to give, “if you feel so bold that you think you can try that again, you better hope Softy reaches you before I do!”

Said dragon growled agreeingly.

“You can let him go now, Big Softy,” Danger added while starting to push him up with her shoulder, purring and cuddling him all the while. “The same goes for Fiery, you two,” she added while turning her head towards her brother and sister-in-law. “She will not respond kindly if you act like you have any authority over her when we didn't tell you to watch over her.”

“It was just a friendly request,” Holly said, still confused about what happened. “I didn’t mean to order him around.”

“Mom,” Kindling piped up from his fathers back, “if you are done with scolding uncle Never, can we go search for Grünchen now? Dad said he would play with us as soon as we found him.”

“Of course you can, Kindling,” Fluffy said.

With a happy squee, Kindling drummed his hooves on his fathers back. “Come on, Dad, let’s find Grünchen!”

Both Holly and Never looked on with no small amount of bewilderment after Danger’s beratement of their actions. Even Cairny had an uncharacteristically unsure expression adorning his muzzle, looking between his parents, his aunt and uncle, and the retreating form of Night. After several seconds of this, he began to slink back towards the inner lair, doing his best not to draw anyone’s attention.

Shaking his head, Never scowled and began to trot after his sister as she and Black Death walked away, miffed with how she’d just handled what had just happened. “Wait. You can’t be serious. Your son threatened Holly, his aunt, just because he didn’t like what she was doing. You also said that your daughter wouldn’t have reacted any different. How in Celestia’s name can you be alright with that?”

“Night is a dragon, and Fiery is a kirin. If you haven’t been paying attention at all to anything me or mom and dad have told you about Softy’s parents, may I remind you of the importance of a dragon’s lair and how much influence that has on how everyone inside is supposed to behave.”

“Indeed.” Black Death added. 

Never squinted back at his sister in anger with his mouth hanging open, trying to come up with a response but failing to find the adequate words. “Well… fine, that’s all good and dandy, but that doesn’t make it any less rude by, you know, pony standards, which you are by the way if you haven’t noticed lately. It would have also been nice for me and Holly to have received some advanced notice that acting like we normally would around foals would not be acceptable.”

“Dangle,” Holly interjected, stoking Dusk’s mane in an attempt to calm him down as he had run up to her crying after witnessing his cousin and uncle go after his parents and embraced her in a tight bear hug. “There’s no need to-”

Danger sighed and turned back around to face her brother. “We told you a hundred times that dragons place more emphasis on who’s in the dominant position than we ponies do. Night did warn you, he growled when Holly stepped in his way the first time, and by doing so again, she challenged him. What did you think he was going to do?” She shook her head. “Listen, Night and Fiery will not tolerate being challenged or ordered around by anyone unless we tell them otherwise. As Never was opening his mouth to respond, Danger raised a hoof and continued. “However, when we are at your place, in your ‘lair’, they’ll understand that we’re guests in your territory.”

“I… that’s…” Like his sister, Never released a deep sigh. He then closed his eyes, and let his head drop. “Alright, if that’s how you’re raising your foals and that’s what makes sense to you, so be it for me to tell you otherwise. Just… just promise me you’ll remember that Kindling is a pegasus. Even if you’re raising him like one right now, him being so calm about what just happened is going to cause him to have a hard time integrating with other ponies.”

“Never, you’re-”

“No, I’m not. I can understand if he’s more understanding of how dragons act, but if you are raising him as a pony, I hope you are reinforcing the very clear differences in how pony culture views and does things.”

“Me and Softy are raising him like a pony, and we are taking into account how ponies interact with one another, especially seeing as we are taking him to interact with other ponies when we get the opportunity. You shouldn’t forget though that he also has relatives from Softy’s side and need to know how to act around them too.”

With one last, quick exhalation of breath, Never responded. “I can’t wait for Kindling to grow up some more, then I can say for certain if your plan for raising him actually results in the outcome you’re looking for.”

Danger smirked back at her brother and turned around to get back to following Softy, speaking over her shoulder. “I can’t wait as well. On that day, I’ll get to laugh in your face for being right.”

Not wanting to push the issue, Never wandered back to Holly, who was just getting finished with comforting Dusk. When he arrived, he wrapped them both in a firm embrace with both his wings and forelegs. “Going forward, we’re going to have to start inviting them to our house more often. I don’t think I’m prepared to learn about any more aspects of dragon ‘etiquette’ from my sister.”

“As much as I would like to say otherwise, I have to agree with you on that.” Holly then kissed her husband on the cheek and began to gently push him away with a hoof. “Anyways, you have a ventalas to find and me and Dusk her need to go look for Blue.”

“Are you sure we have to find him? He seems like he enjoys it here, I’m sure Danger would be willing to let him stay here.”

“No, I know you love him too.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Don't pretend I haven’t seen you feeding him and-” Holly released a gasp and held a hoof to her muzzle in an exaggerated manner “- daring to go into a room alone with him.”

“You know as well as I do that I’m trying to get him to stop looking at me as a ‘threat’ to his relationship with you.”

“Still, doesn’t make it any less cute. As I said, it’s only a matter of time before you two warm up to each other.”

“Doesn’t make it any less irritating that he’s been mad at me longer than Black Death, and he tried to kill me, twice.”