Despite what had transpired in the bedroom, Rapid Souffle acted no different after the encounter than she had before, other than the occasional sly wink at Pound which gave him a mild case of the blushes.

The rest of the day, however, proceeded rather calmly. The three of them unpacked all of their things (after Pound and Pumpkin had a very thorough sheet-cleaning session), and by the time the moon was about to come up, they were all settled into the house for the night.

“So, what is there all to do here in Ponyville, anyways?” Rapid asked the twins as she read over a good book she'd purchased before leaving Canterlot. They were in the loft on the upper floor of the house, where there were bean bags and a large window with a good view towards the mountains. Directly below them was the fire, the warmth from the flames creeping up to comfort the ponies.

Pound Cake had Pumpkin sitting in his lap, his front arms wrapped loosely around her as he leaned back in a recliner. They had figured that they might as well behave how they wanted to, now that Rapid Souffle was aware of their relationship. Pound was absentmindedly rubbing Pumpkin's shoulder with the heels of his hooves, carefully rubbing the tension from her muscles.

“Really, not much actually. It's a small town and all, so there usually isn't anything going on that you haven't heard about weeks upon weeks in advance,” Pumpkin said.

“Actually-” Pound said, speaking up. Both mares turned their attention to him, causing his ears to flick back unintentionally. “The local weather team has monthly races, and seeing as I'm on the weather team now, I've been joining them. I got third place in the last one, and I'm going to try it again tomorrow.”

Pumpkin leaned back, tilting her head up and looking up at Pound.

“You joined the weather team? I... didn't know that,” Pumpkin finished as she leaned back forward.

“I was going to tell you tomorrow, actually,” Pound assured her. “I wanted you to come watch my race. Rapid, I'm sure Pumpkin would love to have you come along as well.”

Rapid Souffle tossed her mane to the side, giving Pound a lidded smile.

“I'd love to, Pound.”

However, by the day of the race, Rapid Souffle was having second thoughts as they walked through the town for the first real time.

“There are certainly a lot of... mares here, aren't there?” Rapid said more than asked, rather intimidated. Surely enough, a full three-quarters of the fliers in the race were mares, well-toned and beautiful.

Pound and Pumpkin led the way before Rapid. Being brother and sister, they were close to each other, but Pound refused to entwine his tail with Pumpkins as they had on the way to the train before she'd left.

“But why?” Pumpkin was still arguing. “Why is now so much different then? Nopony cared then, why would they care now?”

Pound had his ears flopped down, not enjoying being under the berating tone of his sister.

“Pumpkin, first off we were seeing you off for four months, usually families are allowed to get a little more touchy in those situations.”

“That doesn't explain why nopony said anything about you kissing me before I left. That was a little bit more than a family member seeing off just another family member, Pound.”

“You did what now?!” Rapid gasped, shocked. “In public?!”

Both of the siblings ignored her.

“We got lucky,” Pound said. “Think about it, you're the smart one. This town is very traditional. Incest is something ponies used to be hung for, do you really want to go looking for that sort of trouble?”

“So what does that mean, Pound? That I embarrass you?” Pumpkin rolled her eyes to keep a tear from welling up. “Because trust me, you've embarrassed me far more times than I ever embarrassed you.”

Pound groaned slightly, running a hoof against his temple.

“That's not what I mean at all, Pumpkin, I-” Pound suddenly looked around, spotting a narrow alleyway between two small shops. Before she could ask what he was doing, Pound had grabbed her hoof and pulled her along into the alleyway, stretching out his wings to block the view of them from the main street.

Once they were comfortably hidden, Pound leaned down and pressed his lips against Pumpkins, letting her calm down. Eventually, Pumpkin broke the kiss by slowly taking her lips away.

“And why did you do that?” she asked.

“I want to see,” Rapid muttered out of the side of her mouth, her back up to them as she waved away any pony who got too curious.

“Because I love you, Pumpkin, and don't think for a second I don't. But these ponies, I don't know if they will accept us. I just want to be sure before we do something that might ruin us. So I'm just asking you to wait. Please.”

Pumpkin chewed on her lips slightly irritated that Pound had actually made a good point.

“For me?” Pound asked, pressing his forehead against Pumpkin's. Pumpkin sighed, a small smile strewn across her face. She couldn't resist him when he used that, that had been her weakness to him for years.

“Fine,” she said, but stopped Pound from walking away by grabbing his chest and pulling him in for one last kiss. One of their kisses, passionate and meaningful.

“Uh, guys-” Rapid began, but as soon as the two heard her they broke apart casually, trotting off on their merry way.

As the trio arrived at the field where the race would begin, Pound flapped his wings quickly, getting them ready for the tough flight ahead.

“Do you think you're going to win?” Rapid Souffle asked Pound.

Pound shrugged a wing. “I want to win, yes, and the grand prize is a nice win, but I honestly don't know. I barely got third last time, and most of these ponies are cycled from other towns. I have no idea what I'm going against.”

Pumpkin, meanwhile, was lost in thought.

“He's been doing better with his confidence since I got back, I noticed, I bet the weather job probably had something to do with that. But if I want him to ever feel secure enough to walk with me as his mare, then he'll need to win this-”

Pumpkin felt her eyes go wide as a breeze blew by, but it wasn't the breeze that got her attention, it was a little bit different. Every part of her felt the breeze.

“Why am I suddenly so sensitive? This has been going on the past few days, please don't kick back up today, please don't kick back up today-”

“Pumpkin!”

Pumpkin broke out of her stupor to face Pound, who had been calling her name.

“Yes?” she asked.

“They just called me up,” he told her. “I'll see you once I'm done.”

“Once you win,” she corrected him, a small smirk on her face.

“I'm not certain that I'm going to w-” Pound started, but was stopped as Pumpkin interrupted him.

“Yes you are going to win, because if you don't, then you aren't going to be getting any of this-” she took a moment to spin herself around for show, “- for a week. Now, shoo.”

Pound opened his mouth to respond, possibly counter, but Pumpkin was having none of it.

“Shoo!”

Pound took a step back before he allowed himself to grin.

“That's right, Pound. Know the prize. Want the prize. Earn the prize.”

Pumpkin directed Rapid Souffle over to a set of bleachers for the spectators to watch. The entire course was in the sky, so every seat had just as good of a view as the next. Taking theirs on the lower stands, Rapid immediately started trying to initiate a conversation with Pumpkin.

“Do you think he's going to win?”

Pumpkin nodded resolutely as the racers took their marks.

“Certain of it.”

“That was some pretty deep incentive for him, though. But, I suppose I could allow myself to be a replacement, should he lose-”

“Rapid!” Pumpkin practically shouted, mortified. “This is my brother we're speaking about!”

“Yes, this is your brother we are speaking about, the one who you want to win so you can buck- I'm sorry, do forgive me for my language, but... damn girl. You got some issues that you need to work out. Are you feeling okay?”

“Peachy,” Pumpkin replied as the starting pistol went off.

And to her joy, Pound stormed ahead of everypony.

“Oh... my... Faust...” Rapid muttered as she watched him speed through the course faster than she thought was possible.

“Either he is really horny, or he really loves you,” Rapid said quietly.

“And how I wish I had somepony like that,” she thought to herself, not daring to say something like that before Pumpkin.

Pound was tearing up the course. He was already halfway done, and the closest behind him had absolutely no possible way of catching up.

“Yes,” Pumpkin heard herself mutter, letting herself feel better. Then he was going to win, and then he was going to mount her-

“Oh my...” she whispered to herself as the image flashed through her mind of Pound taking her right there, in front of everypony. And strangely enough... it turned her on.

“Go, baby, go...” she whispered.

She didn't even have to cheer. Pound was the victor by a long shot.

“Wooo!” Pumpkin shouted as she rushed to where Pound was touching down. She rushed towards him and tackled him in a full-body tackle.

“You won! You won!” she heard herself say over and over.

“Yes, I won-” Pound started to say, but was interrupted by a pink pegasus mare that Pumpkin had just noticed Pound had been talking to.

“So who is this, hot stuff, your fillyfriend?”

Pound opened his mouth to inform her that this was his sister, but before he could say anything-

“Yes, actually I am. And who are you calling hot stuff?”

Whoa.

“This just took a downhill turn.”

Pound tried to stop any conflict before it could happen. Of course, as soon as he thought of the possibility of conflict, his stammering started to come back a little.

“N-no, this isn't m-my fillyfriend. This is m-my sister, P-Pumpkin. However, we w-were just about to leave. B-Bye.”

Pumpkin turned the flames of Hell upon Pound as she followed him away from the pegasus, who just scoffed at the ordeal and took off into the air. The trio stopped by a desk to receive a little blue ribbon, and then they took their leave.

“What was all that about?!” Pumpkin yelled at him as soon as they were far enough away from the field that she could scream as loud as she wanted to about whatever she wanted to. “I know you want to act like we're a big secret and all, but first you off flirting with some random mare, and then you tell her I'm not your fillyfriend?! What else could I be, your buck buddy?!”

“I told her you were my sister, which is what you are-”

“But she didn't know that! You said it yourself, we don't know half of the ponies here! How would they know if we're related OR bumping hips?!”

“Pumpkin, dear, you might want to bring it down a few notches, girl!” Rapid insisted, her alternating speech patterns starting to get on Pumpkin's nerves.

“Oh, and don't even get me started with you, miss I wanna bed your brother. He's mine, got it? Mine. Now, Pound, I believe we have something to attend to.”

“What is tha- HOLY CELESTAI WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

Pound had gone from confused to flat out mortified faster than he'd ever before when Pumpkin suddenly dropped her torso down, waving her rump in the air and flicking her tail to the side.

“You won the race, now take me. Go on.”

“Pumpkin, not here! What is wrong with you?!”

“Yes, Pumpkin,” Rapid agreed with Pound, “You're kind of freaking us out a bit-”

Suddenly, a stroke of realization washed across Rapid's face.

“Pumpkin, when was your last cycle?”

“Cycle?” Pumpkin asked, confused.

“You know,” Rapid said, nodding her head while doing a little whistle, pointing towards her-

Pumpkin's eyes were suddenly the size of saucers.

“I'm in heat, aren't I.”

Rapid nodded as she led the poor Pumpkin home.

“Yes, dear, it would seem you are.”