It was mid to late in the Saturday afternoon when the three very tired but very happy pegasi landed in the backyard of their townhouse. Tempest of course was barely out of breath while Wildfire and Airmail resembled hot sweaty bundles of fur and feathers. Wildfire was wholly unsure what the time was, and quite frankly she didn’t care. The game of tag they had played on the way back from Kuppa's shop that had signified the end of the shopping trip had been the best fun in the world, and once she’d gotten accustomed to the way her new flying gear worked she even managed to win a couple of rounds.

Standing on the grass in the shade of the large leafy old oak tree to her left, the little yellow mare flared her wings to allow the cold gentle breeze to cool her feathers, while in front of her she heard Airmail clop onto the decking near the back door.

“I'm going to put point three here.” The azure blue mare said as she rooted through her saddle bag for the beacons that were connected to Wildfire’s flying gear and fixing the self-adhesive backing to the back door. “This is your landing zone whenever you want to come home.”

“Alrighty Pretty.” Wildfire nodded, making a mental note that point three was now ‘home’.

“Tempest,” Airmail asked, “How we going to work the pass key?”

Tempest shrugged in thought, “I could turn off the randomiser. We can get voice recognition software for the next place.” Airmail nodded her agreement and, using her pass key, she entered the four digit code that unlocked the house.

“That tag was fun!” Wildfire chirped happily, though still slightly out of breath as the three of them, Wildfire bringing up the rear, entered their house. “I…I think I need to work out though.”

Tempest giggled, “I'm the one that works out so you can stick with me. Airmail is just naturally lean and I think she works out when sleeping.”

“I think you're right there, Honey.” The diminutive mare giggled, then she paused as the sound of a truck’s screeching tyres outside the front of the house interrupted her.

“We have a delivery.” Airmail said as she pointed a hoof to the front of the house and trotted through the great room to greet the delivery unicorn before he could ring the doorbell. “Wily, your computer stuff is here!”

“Awesomes!” Wildfire exclaimed, clapping her hooves with excitement as Airmail took the offered pen in her mouth and signed the UPS stallion’s delivery note. “That was quick!”

“I’m just glad we got back in time.” Tempest smiled at her new herd-mate’s enthusiasm and Airmail shut the front door, the blue mare now surrounded by the electronics. “Let's get it upstairs to the office.”

“Alrighty Honey, is there anything I can carry up?” Wildfire asked eagerly.

“The heavy stuff,” Airmail snickered, “you're the one that says you need to work out.” She grinned as she took some of the smaller boxes under her wings.

Wildfire stuck out her tongue with a smile, “thanks Pretty.” With Tempest’s help the yellow mare took the twenty five pound box by the handle in her mouth, which she assumed was the tower and backup drive, the three pegasi managed between them to get everything up the stairs to the office.

“Wily,” Tempest asked as she ferreted through the box she had carried up and pulled out the new tablet. “You want to start a journal or diary?” She asked as she hoofed the tablet over to the mare sat on her seating pad while Airmail worked quickly to clear a spot in front of her and get the wires hooked up to the computer.

“Yuppers that would be a cool idea.” Carefully, Wildfire took the tablet from Tempest’s hooves, and she gave it a little cuddle, still disbelieving she actually had all this stuff, where just a few days previous she had nothing. In a barely audible whisper, she said, “I'm gonna love you.”

Deciding to let Airmail work, and that the best way she could think of to help was to get herself and Wildfire out of the way, Tempest gently nudged the yellow mare’s hooves to put the tablet down and, with a wide smile she got her off of the seating pad and out into the upstairs hallway so she could help her out of the very figure hugging collision suit.

“Thanks Honey,” Wildfire smiled a few minutes later once the flight suit was removed, “that suits gonna take some more practice I think.”

Tempest nodded, “I'll practice with you as often as you wish when I'm here or you're with me.”

“Like Kuppa said, don't wanna smear forty thousand bits worth of gear all over the ground.” Wildfire chuckled.

Burying her quick flash of irritation, Tempest kissed Wildfire’s lips which effectively silenced the little mare. “I don't want you smeared all over the ground. I can't love bits.”

“I’d best learn quickly then.” Wildfire raised up on the tips of her hooves and kissed Tempest’s muzzle. Then, she cocked her head to one side and had a brief think as she heard Airmail working away in the office. “Honey…you know Mistress gave me Independent Time? Well, what does she want me to do? Is it like Free Time?” She rattled off the three questions, utterly and completely at a loss as to what to do with her little self without another pony’s instruction and direction.

Hearing that, Airmail put her wires down and called out from under the table, “it means you’re on 'I'm not a Pet' time. I still wouldn't be rude to Mapper, but you can just be yourself.”

‘And just how do I do that?’ Wildfire thought uncertainly to herself. “Oh…oh right...” she scuffed her hoof nervously on the carpet. “So, right now I'm not a Pet?”

Tempest did her very best to breathe through her nose, exhaling frustration and inhaling calm and happy. “We talked about this at the lake, Wily. You don't have to be a Pet at home,” she paused, knowing full well that what she was about to say next would be received like a bucketful of cold vomit. “But, if it makes you more comfortable, then I can try to be a Mistress for you.”

“What!?” Airmail exclaimed, albeit predictably.

Tempest shook her head and offered her lover an apologetic look, “I said I'd try.” She said as Airmail said nothing, just working away at setting up the computer.

“It…well, it, it’s not that,” Wildfire fretted, that familiar feeling of being adrift, lost and not knowing what to do or how to do it. “It's just...strange, that’s all, having nopony telling me what to do.” She rubbed her right foreleg with her left, “I guess I could have a play with my tablet?”

Airmail surfaced from under the desk like an azure blue submarine with two cables in her mouth, “Help her get it hooked up to the Wi-Fi,” she mumbled at Tempest.

Nodding, Tempest reached into the office and taking the tablet up in her hooves she retreated from Airmail’s workspace back into the hallway. “See if you can do that yourself using the menus.”

“Alrighty, let’s have a crack at it.” Sitting on her haunches, Wildfire took the tablet in her wingtips and ran her hoof up the left side with the on button. Quickly finding it, she flipped it on and was immediately grateful for the specialised audio menu. Despite her working knowledge of computers being five years old, the menus were thankfully intuitive, and in short order she had it working.

“Give me the keyboard.” When Airmail nudged it over to her, Tempest took it and hooked it up to the tablet. “There, easier to enter the password with this.”

“Okay, I see her tablet on the home LAN.” Airmail smiled as she stood up from the desk. “Compy here is up and running too.” Then she shot it an almost resentful glance. “This thing is better than mine.”

“So I need to think of a password?” Wildfire asked, and when prompted by the tablet she immediately entered ‘Fireflight’ and repeated it to confirm it. “I have one I won’t soon forget.”

“That was for the router.” Tempest explained, “you can either have an audio password to unlock the tablet or you can use the keyboard, but that might not always be available.”

Wildfire thought about it. “I'll do an audio one, Honey.”

“Okay Wily,” Airmail called when she had finished setting up her audio password for the tablet, “come here and take a break from your tablet.” As Wildfire walked back into the office, the azure blue mare wiped her green mane from her eyes with a satisfied smile on her face. “Your work station is the first one to the left of the door,” Airmail directed her back to the seating pad in front of her new station. Once she had sat back down, Airmail took the keyboard back and hooked it to the tower on the desk.

“I gotcha, Pretty.” Wildfire smiled as she got herself comfortable on the seating pad and rested her forehooves on the desk so that they touched her new keyboard.

Airmail rested her hoof on Wildfire’s shoulder, “I want you to put stuff how you like. The tower is under the desk to your right.” She explained, “the power switch is at the top. Is that a good spot or you want it to your left?”

Wildfire thought about it, and after a moment replied, “to the left would be better, Pretty. I've always been left hooved.”

“One moment,” Airmail giggled as once again she ducked under the desk and quickly switched over the tower to the left side as Wildfire had requested. “I'm right hoofed, but at least you're in your right mind.”

“Don’t knock it,” Wildfire giggled, “this left hoof does all my favourite things.”

“Okay,” Airmail said, standing up again, “so the power button is top centre, you'll need to turn it on if we have a power outage. You can leave it on all the time. On the right side there is a cd button to open and close it if you want to burn some music for your tablet.”

“Uh huh,” Wildfire lowered her left forehoof and felt the buttons, starting with the top centre one and then the one on the right that Airmail had pointed out to her. “When we go shopping next I'll have to visit a music store.”

“The keyboard is right in front of you. Behind it is a connection. You can take it off that and connect it to your tablet if you want.” Airmail passed Wildfire a headset, “this is so I don't have to listen to your audio menu.” She giggled then, “If you feel along the cable there is a knot, a connector, and knot if you want to connect the headset to your tablet too.”

Wildfire smiled as she felt along the cable, feeling the knots and the connector with her hooves, “oh I see, so I can have the headset hooked up to the tablet too?”

“Yes,” Airmail nodded her agreement, “then you can listen to your writing or music without others hearing. Same thing if you want to write your poems without others hearing you can use the braille keyboard.”

“Hmm…” Wildfire mused with a smile, feeling the headset all over with her hooves and noting that it had earphones and the microphone built in to it, “that'd be cool if I write one for you both as a surprise.”

“Please set the headset down where you can find it easy.”

“Alrighty Pretty,” Wildfire felt with her left hoof to the edge of the keyboard and, finding a space, placed the headset to the immediate left of the keyboard, just a few inches away. “I'll be able to find it there.”

“Okay two more things.” Airmail said, her tone all serious like one teaching class, “I have a cable with two knots for your tablet and one with three knots for your flight headset. You need to put those where you can find them too. If you hook up your tablet it is the same as you carrying it. And, you can use the headset and keyboard like it was connected.” She paused to let this little info dump settle in the little yellow mare’s head before continuing, “hook up the flight headset and you can enter destinations and get updates.”

Wildfire smiled as she took all this in. She supposed it shouldn’t really come as a great surprise that the lead editor for the newspaper should know her way so easily around computers. Taking these two new cables in her forehooves she felt for the knots that Airmail had described and placed them very carefully to the right of the keyboard. “As it happens, I have a few destinations in mind, places around here I'd like to go.”

“That will let you pretty much program any destination,” Airmail said with a smile, her hoof again on Wildfire’s shoulder, “but if you're going on a long fight it would be nice to let us know so we don't worry.” She finished with a long lingering kiss to Wildfire’s lips.

Returning the kiss, Wildfire asked, “course I'd let you know Pretty. So I can program destinations into the headset as well as use the six pre-set points?”

“Yes you can. The six points are in there and mobile.” Airmail stepped back dramatically and gave herself a drum roll with her hooves on the desk. “Quiz time!”

As Tempest laughed out loud, Wildfire groaned. “I hate exams…”

Giving the blind pony a mighty raspberry, Airmail forged ahead regardless of whether she hated exams or not. “There are four cables. One with no knots, one with a single knot, one has two knots, and finally one with three knots. What are they for?”

For a moment, Wildfire was lost. She cocked her head in thought, but she had been so excited she had hardly paid much attention. At least this wasn’t Professor Calculus and her hated spot tests. “Um…I think…three knots is for the flight headset, two knots for the tablet,” then she started to struggle. She really didn’t want to get it wrong. Airmail – and Tempest – had been so good setting this up, she didn’t want to anger them and get punished for it. “Um...is the one knot the keyboard to the tablet and no knots is that the tablet headset?” She guessed.

“BUZZZZZ!” Airmail made the gameshow noise again, “You get the boobie prize.”

Seeing Wildfire flinch, and recalling what Requiem had said on the balcony of Caffy’s ranch the day before about what failure meant to the yellow pegasus, Tempest stepped in straight away, “That means you need to suck her boobies.”

Stroking the blind mare’s back comfortingly, Airmail giggled, “feel along the headset cable.”

Relaxing from her flinch, Wildfire giggle, “told you I sucked at quizzes,” she muttered as she felt along the headset cable until her forehoof touched a knot, then the connector and finally another knot. She figured that way when she took off the headset for her tablet it would connect to the one knot cable. Feeling along another cable she realised the keyboard cable had no knots on either side of the connector.

“Well?” Airmail asked.

Wildfire thought about it again, not wanting to get it wrong a second time. “Right, um…so the keyboard is the one that has no knots.”

In response Airmail swooped down and gave her a deep hug and an even deeper kiss.

Wildfire snickered as she returned the kiss, pressing her lips gently back into the wonderful scent of jasmine beside her. “The Professors at university should've used the kiss method, I might've learned more.”

Airmail thought about it and giggled again, “I think the ‘suck my boobies’ method has merit too.”

Wildfire and Tempest both snorted a laugh, “I’m not gonna argue there, Pretty.”

Airmail then smiled as she kissed her again, “It is going to be sweet when you're all milky.”

Wildfire giggled, “I’m really looking forward to that happening, Airy.”

“You can pay your penalty later.” Airmail said with a smile, “for now you can work with the gear so you can get used to it.”

“Alrighty,” Wildfire placed a gentle kiss on the azure blue mare’s cheek, “you'll have to remind me, y'know in case I forget.”

Now Tempest giggled, “She'll remind you alright, no problem there.”

“S'alright then.” Wildfire thought aloud as she brushed her forehooves over the braille keyboard, getting used to the feel of the bumps that denoted the different letters and functions. “I don't want to be naughty on my first night.”

“That depends,” Airmail replied, “define naughty.”

“Well…going to sleep with any penalties unpaid, only giving twenty kisses per day, that kind of thing.”

“Twenty,” Tempest giggled, “that would make you a slacker, Wily.”

“Exactly, Honey.” Wildfire replied, “I don't want to fall behind. Honey did mention a daily kiss minimum to cover the rent after all.”

“Well,” Airmail whispered kindly in her ear, “I'll let you split the rent between us then.”

“And I thought you'd both want to collect,” Wildfire pouted cutely.

Spinning the seating pad around, Airmail and Tempest both kissed Wildfire’s muzzle until it was damp. “We do,” Tempest said finally, “but we owe you half the rent each too.”

Kissing them back as best she could under the assault of the lips, Wildfire giggled, “at least paying the rent isn't going to be dull.”

Another forty minutes passed while Wildfire had a little play with her tablet and her computer, she got a little familiar with each device, in particular her tablet, with which she fully intended on filling up with her poems. Since this was primarily Tempest's office, the violet weather captain took up most of the available space. While Wildfire had her play, and Airmail watched and answered any questions she may have had, Tempest took the opportunity to do some prep work for the rain that was planned for Sunday.

While she had her little play, Wildfire had a thought. “Y'know the computer, can it download music and movies?”

“Sure,” Airmail was the first to answer as she looked up her very important research – and storing the cat video along with the rest of her collection – without a trace of a blush, “but a lot of the share sites are pirated and full of viruses.”

“You can always download stuff from facetube.” Tempest commented from her station.

“True,” Airmail agreed, “Me and Tempest can share our music files with you too.”

“So…if I typed in facetube here,” Wildfire indicated the search box on her screen, “I can search for Beautiful South songs?” Then a though struck her, regarding one of her favourite movies of all time. “And, have you two ever seen 'Scent of a Mare'?” She asked excitedly.

Airmail couldn’t help but laugh, “yeah, following Tempest.”

“No…” Wildfire laughed, “the movie silly, not that there's a movie about following Tempest...is there?”

Airmail giggled, “She does have some moves.”

“Airmail aside I've not seen that movie.” Tempest said with a shake off her head.

“Oh!” Wildfire clapped her hooves, “I'll have to get it then, you're in for a treat. It’s about this stallion who’s a blind depressed army colonel who has this young stallion look after him for a few days.”

Picking up on the not-so-subtle similarity, Airmail came over and gently nuzzled Wildfire’s cheek and her neck, “this isn't a reflection on your life is it?” She asked, her northern accented voice full of concern.

Wildfire returned her lover’s nuzzle with one of her own as she sensed the older mare’s concern. “No Pretty, I liked that movie before my accident, though I guess it kinda fits now too.”

Airmail however wasn’t convinced so easily. “Depression isn't a joke, love. Let us or Requiem know if you start down that path.”

“Yuppers, I will,” Wildfire said earnestly. “Though I really don't have anything to be depressed about anymore.”

Seeing the opportunity for a cosy movie night cuddled up on the couch with her two mares, Tempest spoke up eagerly, “I can make popcorn and we can watch and listen to your movie tonight if you want.”

“Can we really?” Wildfire squee’d like a little filly, “that'd be so awesomes!” In her excitement, she had a thought, regarding selecting and storing destinations. “So, to put locations into the flight headset, I just plug it in and tell it where I want to go?”

As she watched her with a smile, Airmail leant over. “More to it than that. You got the flight headset plugged in?”

Wildfire felt along the line of USB cables with her right forehoof for the one with three knots, “I got it!” She said triumphantly, though it still took her two attempts to plug it in, as the first time she had it upside down.

“Okay,” Airmail sniggered, “Put your headset on as you will need the mic.”

Reaching to the right for her flight headset, Wildfire put the apparatus on like Kuppa showed her earlier in his shop, the funny feeling bit in her mouth. “Okay, I got it.”

Airmail tried really very hard but she couldn’t stifle her giggles, “not the flight one, the other one.”

“Well…I, I knew that really…” blushing an intense bright red, Wildfire quickly swapped the flight headset for the one to the left of the keyboard.

Finally quieting her giggles, following a raspberry from Wildfire and a ‘look’ from Tempest, Airmail explained, “the bottom left key has the word start in braille that brings up the main menu and you will hear the list in the headset. You will hear the one you want and say that clearly in the mic.”

“Alrighty, bottom left key…” Wildfire said aloud to herself as she felt for it and found it, pressing the key with the toe of her hoof. In her headset she heard a list of options, one of them being 'flight helmet'. ‘Hmm…I guess that's the one…’ to the microphone she selected, “flight helmet.”

When Wildfire selected flight helmet from the main menu a sub-menu with three options came up, ‘edit commands’, ‘delete destination’ and ‘add destination’. Nearby to her right ear, Airmail was listening as the list was sounded out in the earphones. “Edit will let you change a command if you don’t like the default ones. Careful when you delete a destination as you can accidentally delete one of the six points.”

“Okay,” Wildfire smiled at how easy this was to use, even she could do it. “So I need 'add destination'.”

“You can use the keyboard or follow the prompts with your voice.” Airmail encouraged her gently, then she said with a blush that reached her voice, “I can't pronounce half the cities in Equestria so I'd have to type them.”

“Okay Pretty,” Wildfire giggled, “I'll feel how I get on with the voice prompts.” Finding that she was able to navigate the menus easily enough, she left and came back to the ‘add destination’ command. She smiled to herself. Now that she was free from Amethyst Glory, there was only one place in Equestria she wanted to be. Somewhere she hadn’t been in two weeks, somewhere she would go now as a free pony.

Speaking as clearly as she could into the mic, she said, “Canterlot, Residential District Cemetery.”

Immediately, Airmail’s ears perked up. “Oh, is that where you mom is?” She asked, while Tempest, who hadn’t heard the story from Dusk or from Wildfire, listened in from her workstation.

“Yuppers,” Wildfire replied as she followed the audio instructions to add and store the cemetery to her programmed list of destinations. “It’s been a little while since I last visited Silverbolt, sorry I mean, my mum.”

Tempest whispered softly, “visiting her means a lot for you.”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire agreed solemnly, her voice subdued from its earlier excitement, “before the home I used to go every Monday and Thursday, spend an hour or two with her...it’s silly I know, I used to nuzzle her headstone. Then…at the home, Amethyst would only allow me to go see mum when I had been a particularly good pony for her.”

An idea struck Tempest then as she listened to Wildfire talk about her mum, “can you get some time off Airy?”

Airmail rolled her brown eyes at her violet lover and gave her a ‘duh, I’m the boss’ look. “I'm in charge, and it is Canterlot after all. What about Thursday?”

“Yuppers!” Wildfire exclaimed, her earlier excitement and enthusiasm returning all at once. “I’d like us all to go, then I can introduce you to her. Heatwave, my old partner, is in there too.”

“I would like that too.” Tempest smiled from her computer, the week’s duty rosters almost finished.

Airmail nuzzled Wildfire’s cheek tenderly, “yeah that would be great to visit your mom.”

“You’d have liked her I think, especially you Honey” Wildfire smiled as she talked about Silverbolt. She hot that warm fuzzy feeling in her heart that she used to associate with Air Raid, and that she now associated with Airmail and Tempest. In particular Airmail. “She worked the Canterlot Weather Team, first as Storm Generator then she was a Trainee Instructor.”

Tempest whistled her appreciation as she placed Frost in temporary charge of her duties from Thursday onwards, “that is a prestigious assignment.”

“She was good at it too,” Wildfire nodded, justifiable pride in her voice. “She wasn't in charge of a whole squad or anything like you are, Honey.”

“That took a lot of time and work love, and I've only got one battalion so far.”

“Yeah, she wants the whole brigade.” Airmail snickered behind her hoof.

“You'll get it, Honey, I know.” Wildfire smiled a wide smile, picturing her mum and Tempest flying together. “Mum's speciality was creating lightning storms. She was supervising a group of trainees who were tasked with creating a class ten thunderstorm over my school the day she…she…” Wildfire sniffed and rolled her shoulders, “the day she…died.”

That earned her an immediate and sustained group hug from her two mares that after a good ten minutes showed no sign of stopping any time soon. “When it's time to go, go doing what you love.” Tempest whispered tenderly.

Airmail draped her foreleg around Wildfire’s shoulder, “others you love will carry you though the pain.”

Gratefully the blind mare returned the hug, “a faulty substandard Nimbostratus cloud made it through the Canterlot Weather Factory’s quality control, and while she was working with the trainees it couldn’t hold the charge and it hit her with a lightning strike. My mum was dead before she hit the ground.” In her mind, Wildfire could remember being in school, looking out of the window, screaming, begging her to pull up as she watched her mum fall to the ground, legs and wings all at odd awkward angles…and then watching her slam lifelessly into the playing field.

Tightening the hug until she threatened to break her shoulders, Airmail whispered, “you can show off your new herd to her.”

“I will, Pretty.” Wildfire gave one more deep sniff before she lifted up her head and smiled in the midst of the jasmine and sandalwood scented hug. “Maybe I'll write something while we're there. She used to help me with a poem every now and then.”

“You have your tablet and you can write as many poems as you wish.” Airmail smiled as Tempest went back to finalising her battalion’s duty rosters.

“Yeah I know, and I'm grateful for it I really am, it’s just amazing.” Wildfire replied before going a little silent as she thought about writing poems with her mum way back when. “You see, shortly before she died mum gave me this book I used to write in, real nice. It was black leather, real leather, with parchment pages.”

Tempest’s ears perked up at the mention of such a personally significant item, specifically the absence of such a personally significant item. After all, genuine leather products were rare in Equestria, especially one that was a gift from her departed mother. If it meant that much, and it clearly did, where was it? “Wily, what happened to the book?”

Wildfire gave a particularly loud sniff. “About seven months ago, Amethyst took it off me...” she sniffed, “because…because I was a really bad pony…she said she burnt it…”

“Damn her!” Airmail was just about to finally release her hug too, when she heard that little gem she applied it all the tighter until the little yellow mare gasped for breath. “Damn that mare to Tartarus!”

“Yeah,” Wildfire muttered miserably, then she brightened a little, “but now I can start again though, thanks to you two.”

Airmail showered her scarred face in multiple kisses as Tempest frowned at her computer. “Yes,” the violet pegasus interjected, “and your mom will love these poems just as much, Wily.”

Wildfire returned the kisses without hesitation, “It's not a complete loss, I can still remember her favourite poem I wrote for her.”

Airmail smiled as she finally, albeit reluctantly, released the hug and sat next to Wildfire for once on her right side. “Why don't you record it into your tablet right now?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire grinned, excited at the prospect of breaking in her new favourite toy. “It can be my first one in this new book.” She said with a smile as she heard Tempest move from her workstation to sit on the other side of her. “Alrighty,” taking the tablet in her forehooves, the diminutive yellow mare made sure it was still switched on from her earlier play with it.

“Attach it to the two knot cable and you can use your headset to record.” Airmail prompted her gently.

“I gotcha Pretty.” Reaching to her right, she felt along the row of cables until she came to the right one and took the two knot cable and, once she found the port on the tablet, inserted it as she was still wearing the headset. “Am I good?”

In a stunningly bad imitation of Serenity – complete with an attempt at her Fillydelphian accent - Tempest said, “all ponies are bad ponies, but I love you anyways.” She finished with a loud giggle.

“Yeah you’re good Wily,” Airmail confirmed with a giggle at Tempest, “you just need to say record twice to start it and stop twice when you're done.”

Wildfire sniggered at Tempest. “Alrighty, here we go. Record, record.” And then, she began the recording of her first poem in her new tablet.

“Stop, stop.” Wildfire said when she was done, taking a deep breath as she wondered whether or not her two herd-mates had liked it or not.

“And the greatest of these is love,” Tempest commented softly.

“She loved me reading that.” Wildfire smiled, picturing her mum’s happy smiling face. “Oh hey, is there any where you two would like to add to the flight headset?”

Airmail shook her head, “no I'm good.”

“Not this trip love.” Tempest replied, “I want to see the place you once called home.”

Wildfire thought about it then, her head to one side as always the visual clue she was thinking. “I’d better add the Residential District Fire Team station then too, that was home when dad got really bad. Hot Spot used to let me crash in his office.”

“Okay.” Airmail said as the front door bell rang.

Before either Airmail or Tempest could get up to answer it the door opened anyway. “Hello, everypony!”

At once alarmed and then relieved, Airmail facehooved and called out, “In the office, Mapper!”

Likewise relieved at just who had brazenly entered their home, Wildfire heard Mapper’s hoof-steps coming up the stairs with Serenity’s in tow behind her as she continued to scroll through the flight helmet menus until she once again got to ‘add destination’ option. Speaking clearly she said, “Canterlot, Residential District Fire Station.”

“I see you are playing with your new toys Wildfire.” Mapper smiled as the pink unicorn stuck her head through the open office door. “I brought your other toys with me.”

“Thank you Mistress,” Wildfire smiled as she turned her head towards the sound of her clipped Canterlot accent, “I’m having a little play with it, with Pretty and Honey’s help.”

Mapper smiled, “you’ll pardon me if you find any grey hairs on one toy.” Nodding at Serenity who was waiting out in the upstairs hallway, the teal unicorn floated the MiAC bag containing Wildfire’s purchases to her Mistress, who took the bag and set it down in the office. “Junior Pet insisted I test it on her.”

“Which toy is that?” Airmail asked, her curiosity piqued.

“The riding crop dear.” Mapper smiled with satisfaction as she recalled whipping Octavia at the train station until she cried her safe word.

“I take it Junior Pet displeased you Mistress?” Wildfire asked.

“Hmhmm…” Mapper nodded, “to the point where Mistress Luna wanted to watch. I do believe that she has gained some understanding.”

“Aah.” Wildfire smiled in understanding. Seeing an opportunity to confess her own transgressions and to be a good Pet for her Mistress, Wildfire said, “I believe your Middle Pet has behaved badly as well Mistress. I was very sarcastic with Mr. Kuppa in his shop.”

“I heard Middle Pet,” Mapper replied, walking over and putting her pink hoof comfortingly on Wildfire’s shoulder. “But I believe you were trying to please the old stallion and you were on Free Time. As punishment I'm only going to give you one kiss.” Leaning in, Mapper placed a gentle kiss on the pegasus’s lips.

Greedily, as if it was the last she’d ever experience, Wildfire accepted and returned the kiss, then when she pulled away she smiled a smile that lit up her face. “Thank you, Mistress.”

“You're such a harsh Mistress.” Tempest commented with a giggle.

Looking at her wife starting to fret in the hallway, Mapper eyed both her and the handle of the cricket bat sticking out of the full saddle bag she was carrying. “I wish you all the best, but Senior Pet needs some loving so we will be off.”

From out in the hallway Wildfire could hear Serenity's hooves doing a little happy dance and the yellow mare giggled as she heard the two unicorn’s trot out and down the stairs.

Once the front door had slammed shut, Tempest eyed the MiAC bag like it was going to explode. “Wily, you going to show us what is in the toy bag that Airy and I had to sit with Caffy while you shopped?” She asked, nudging the bag to Wildfire’s forehooves.

“Of course, Honey.” Wildfire smiled again as she took hold of the bag and upended it, spilling the contents out in a neat pile. “I hope you like what Mistress helped me pick out.”

Searching through the little pile, Airmail’s brown eyes lit up like a filly on Hearths Warming morning. “Ooh, you got a stallionator too. I didn't know you liked to mount mares, Willy.”

“Well um…I-I'm not sure that I do,” Wildfire replied with a tiny smile, “but Mistress asked in the shop, and she made it seem very appealing at the time.”

Tempest hugged her gently, “It is very appealing.” In her ear she whispered loudly, loud enough for Airmail to hear, “maybe we can give Airy a double mounting.”

“Um...” Wildfire murmured, “we can try.”

“Airy?” Tempest looked over to her long-time lover only to find her with a vacant stare and a little drool coming from her mouth, “Airy? Airrrrryyyyy?”

“Huh? What?” Coming back to the room, Airmail wiped the drool from her lips and blushed, “oh…yeah, that just might be a lot of fun….a lot…of fun…”

Wildfire fretted and rubbed her foreleg. “But...what if I'm no good at it?” She asked, her voice full of worry. While she had been mounted many, many times against her will at the home, she had never ever done the mounting. “I don't want to hurt you Airy.”

Tempest gave her a little kiss to calm her nerves. “Love, if you don't like it you don't have to do it. And if you want to try, then practice makes perfect.” She then gave her another kiss for good measure. “You worry too much.”

Investigating the goodie pile, Airmail spoke up, “Who suggested all the clamps?”

At once Wildfire brightened up and beamed a very wide smile to the office, “they were me, as were the hoofcuffs.”

“Okay,” Airmail said, putting them to one side, “so that is your little pleasure.”

Inspecting the toys as well, Tempest picked up a thin strap of fabric. “The blindfold matches your fur colour, Wily.”

“Ooh…Mistress picked out a yellow one?”

Going for the riding crop next, Tempest gave it a close look over, “I don't see any sign of Octavia on the riding crop. Who suggested that, Wily?”

Wildfire blushed a little, “Well, I said I liked being spanked, but that you weren't keen on it, Mistress bought it anyway.”

“Hmm…” Airmail said as she reached the bottom of the pile, “Mapper can go a bit too far. But I see she was thinking of me with the Strawberry lube.”

Just then the doorbell rang again but this time it doesn't open. Tempest grunted in frustration as a few minutes later it rang a second time. “Maybe Mapper’s gone and locked herself out. I'll go get it.”

“You like strawberries too?” Wildfire asked as she heard Tempest grumbling to herself as she trotted out of the office and made her way down the stairs. “Mistress asked me if I like them, I said I did but wasn't keen on peaches.”

Whatever Airmail was going to say in reply to that was cut off by Tempest’s voice from downstairs. “Hi Caffy, by Celestia's Mane, you two have to come and see this!”

~ ~ ~

Landing in front of the steps that led down from the white façade of Caffeinated and Thespian’s ranch, Dusk Melody tucked away his wide powerful wings as Brush Stroke slid off of the velvet saddle on his back that was a part of the dress he now wore.

While his coltfriend adjusted his mid-blue dress, that just happened to be the same shade of blue as Oils’s coat, the earth pony stallion marched up to the main double doors and knocked upon them smartly with his hoof as Dusk walked up behind him, keeping a half pony’s length behind him.

Following Luna and Octavia’s departure via teleport mere moments before, Thespian opened the door and once again her jaw dropped comically as she took in Dusk’s appearance. In addition to the elegant mid-blue dress that reached the floor, the midnight blue pegasus was dressed in matching mid-blue silk socks that ended in horseshoes, a mid-blue collar buckled around his neck with a heart shaped tag that was engraved ‘Oils’ upon it while his lips were adorned with silver lip gloss that matched the silver highlights in his wings. Completing the look was the tight ponytail that held his dark grey mane up.

Panting, clearly out of breath from his flight from Luna knew where, the young Prince – who looked far more like a Princess – said, “H-Hey...Thespian....is Wily here?”

Wondering what had rendered his wife speechless, Caffeinated came to the open door and gave an appreciative whistle and ducked his head to look at Dusk's undercarriage as Thespian found her voice. “Sorry Dusk.” The blue / grey earth pony mare replied, “she should be at home with Airmail and Tempest by now.”

“You like her?” Brush Stroke smiled to the large orange zebra, “I thought I'd dress my marefriend accordingly.”

“At…Airmail and Tempest’s…right...” Dusk panted, “I got something to give her.”

Inquisitively, Caffeinated nosed his way past the hem of Dusk’s dress, on a quest to find any observable stallion bits.

Thespian smiled at Dusk, “do you have her address?”

“I don’t, no.” Dusk shook his head, “can you give it me please?”

Brush Stroke noticed where Caffeinated was looking, much to his ‘mare’s’ discomfort, and he chuckled, “you won’t find any.” He said, “all locked away, darling.” He explained, referring to the very secure sheath lock and the tight blue panties under the dress.

“She is lovely indeed Oils.” Caffeinated rumbled in his deep voice as he stood up to his height. “I can walk you there. Thespian has to get ready for work.”

Dusk blushed an intense blush under Caffeinated’s scrutiny. “Thanks Stripes, I could use a walk. Tricky thing flying in a dress, as I tried telling Oils.”

Brush Stroke beamed at his mare. “I assure you she got plenty of admiring whistles on the flight here.”

Turning with a wide grin on his orange muzzle, Caffeinated placed a tender kiss on his wife’s lips. “Later love, don't wait up for me.”

“Dinner after my rehearsal?” Thespian asked with a warm smile as she returned the kiss to her husband.

“I wouldn't miss it love.” Caffeinated proceeded to lead the way and Thespian went back inside the ranch to get ready for her rehearsal later that day. “It is about a mile, and there is an ice cream shop on the way if your cutie needs a treat.” The large zebra said to the mid-blue earth pony stallion as they fell in side by side with each other, Dusk silently bringing up the rear walking behind his stallion.

“Hmm…” Brush Stroke thought aloud, thinking of what they had to give Wildfire and picturing her joy, “I think she's earned an ice cream, come on love.”

As they walked along the street, smiling at the odd whistle and admiring glances that Dusk was getting from passers-by, Caffeinated said to the artist, “Did she happen to mention her make over by Thespian and Trails?”

“Oh yes, she was very proud of that,” Brush Stroke replied, talking to the larger stallion in kind as if Dusk wasn’t there at all. “It inspired my highlights of her wings and the lip gloss. The pony tail though was Dusky's idea.”

Caffeinated smiled as he steered the little group over a cross walk. “When Trails wants to be, she is a mare. She can show you some tricks to soften the muzzle to a rounder appearance.” The zebra glanced over his shoulder at that and noticed again what he thought when he had looked at Dusk’s foal and colt pictures, that the stallion was already pretty effeminate looking to begin with. The dress and the socks merely completed the picture. “Even voice lessons to change pitch without losing volume.”

Brush Stroke smiled as he saw the ice cream shop hove into view in the near distance. “Dusky would love those, wouldn't you dear?”

Behind his stallion, Dusk nodded eagerly, “yes Sir I would.”

“Your mom teleported home about five minutes before you knocked.” Caffeinated commented over his shoulder to the submissive pegasus, “your mum has a sore ass, so I’d step lightly.”

“I see,” Dusk replied, “thanks for the heads up Stripes. It might be best to head home tomorrow then, let mum get over it.”

“Don't be surprised if your mum has taken to wearing pink either.” He rumbled as the trio arrived at ice cream shop, pausing just long enough to hold the door open.

“Pink.” Dusk replied as he made his way to a nearby empty booth pointed out by Brush Stroke. “Mum. Mum in pink?” He deadpanned as he slid on to the bench seat. “Riiiiight.”

“If you're a really brave little girl you can ask about her pink socks!” Caffeinated found he really, really had to pause at that moment due to his laughing so very hard and instead he motioned them both to place their order with the waitress that came over.

Smiling, Brush Stroke sat next to his mare and opposite the still laughing zebra. “Hmm…that almost sounded like my girl was answering back didn't it, Caffienated?” He commented as he placed two orders for chocolate and strawberry mix ice creams.

“What do you say?” Brush Stroke asked of his mare with a sideways glance while Caffeinated caught his breath and ordered a chocolate and vanilla swirl as well as a pint of peach ice cream.

After a few moments of drawn out silence, in which Dusk considered what he’d said, and in which time the ice cream orders arrived, Dusk answered, “I’m sorry Stripes.”

Brush Stroke smiled a wide smile at how fast his mare was learning. “Good girl, Dusky.” As a reward, the mid-blue earth pony stallion slid over his ice cream to the midnight blue stallion.

Swallowing his first mouthful of his chocolate and vanilla swirl, Caffeinated looked up and glanced between Brush Stroke and Dusk and back again, at last seeing what was staring him in the face. “Ahh so she is more than just your marefriend, Oils?”

“A little bit more,” the dominant artist replied with a proud smile, “I must say she's unusually very well behaved for one so new to the game.” He commented as Dusk sat quietly, eating his ice cream and not interrupting what the stallions were talking about.

Caffeinated nodded his agreement, “Mapper gave Luna several tips on the proper care and feeding of Pets. I'm not as well versed in the matter so you'll have to forgive me, Oils.”

Brush Stroke shook his head, his short red and yellow mane waving about his eyes, “nothing to forgive, darling.” He took a spoonful of his own ice cream with a smile, “from what I remember of Mapper she seems quite capable, wouldn't you agree Dusky?”

Only now he was directly addressed did Dusk look up, “yes Sir, very capable.”

“Dusk,” Caffeinated’s deep voice cracked with barely contained mirth, “you should ask your mum about the particularly brutal beating your mom gave her at the public fountain.”

“Oh?” Dusk commented with a raised eyebrow, “not like mom to spank mum in public.”

“It was terrible. I thought for sure Serenity would cry.” The zebra couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory. “The sheer force of that pink sock across your mum's ass like the kiss of a summer breeze. It was terrifying.”

“Oh...ooooh I see.” Dusk at once realised what had happened, and he snorted with laughter. “Yeah mum really hates pink, you may have picked it up.”

An idea suddenly struck the artistic earth pony stallion, and he laid a hoof gently on his midnight blue ‘mare’. “You know sweetie, pastel pink would look super against your midnight blue fur.”

Dusk almost dropped his spoon at the thought of being dressed in pink silk socks and a pink dress. “Yes Sir it would,” looking over at the orange zebra, he said, “how did the shopping trip go? Did Wily get everything she wanted?”

“She got more than she hoped for.” Caffeinated replied as he too enjoyed his chocolate and vanilla swirl. “Stuff for her writing, for flying solo and safe, and some toys from Mapper.” He paused to snicker out loud, “Wildfire forgot where she was for just a moment.”

“Yeah,” Dusk thought aloud, which earned him a tap on the hoof from his stallion, “she does that sometimes.”

“Oh? What happened?” Brush Stroke asked, suddenly curious, “she make a faux pas I take it?”

“Wildfire gave a flippant answer to a question from Luna. Mapper did one of those, 'Pet?' things and Wildfire quickly corrected herself.” Caffeinated explained, “she only got a taste of the new riding crop Mapper bought for her.”

“Sounds like something Wily would do.” Dusk replied with a smile as he thought about the priceless package his stallion carried in his bag. “What we've got to give her should make her day, I think.”

“I agree,” Brush Stroke smiled, “it is rather special.”

“Of course, your mum didn't fare so well under Mapper's attention.” Caffeinated rumbled on.

“I bet she didn't,” Dusk giggled in such a fillyish fashion that for a moment the zebra believed he was a mare, “you think Mapper’s soft on Wily?”

“No,” Caffeinated shook his head straight away, “Mapper isn't soft. She always believes punishment should fit the crime. I'm sure Wildfire felt those kisses of the riding crop, but her crime was minor and self-corrected.”

Brush Stroke perked up a little then, “my little Dusky was naughty last night, and I had to punish her.” The dominant earth pony smiled when Dusk blushed so intensely it showed on his midnight blue fur, “she didn't think much of the paint brush at first, until I showed her they aren't just for painting with…” he finished with a wink at the zebra.

Caffeinated laughed at that, “I've found a solid wooden hairbrush is a multi-purpose instrument.”

“For the flanks yes.” Brush Stroke nodded, “however a three quarter inch flat watercolour brush can do wonders on the primary feathers.”

“Hmmm, well that is interesting.” Caffeinated smiled, making a mental note of that little gem. “I may have to get a few for our next playdate.”

“You really should, just drop a quarter inch for the secondaries, then another quarter inch again for the tertiaries. This one,” Brush Stroke patted Dusk's ponytail lovingly, “was crying begging for release for forty five minutes once I got started.”

“Did she earn it?” Caffeinated enquired.

“Eventually she did, yes.” The mid-blue earth pony smiled as he finished up his ice cream, “after another twenty minutes of denial. I was greatly inspired by her recounting of the 'butterflying' your friend Omega does.”

“Yes,” Caffeinated commented with a wry grin all over his orange muzzle, “I've experienced that first hoof. Most refreshing.”

“She was quite fond of that story as well.” Brush Stroke smiled as he patted Dusk’s hoof, “shame the poor thing passed out though.”

“Well they can be intense.” Caffeinated shrugged, “maybe you'd like to visit with your marefriend?” He invited, fairly sure that Dusk especially would jump at the chance.

“I'd love to of course,” the earth pony stallion took him up on his offer eagerly, “I didn't want to presume an invitation.”

Caffeinated merely smiled in response as both he and the artist finished up their respective ice creams. “If you're brining Dusky, think of it more like meeting the in-laws.”

“Excellent.” Brush Stroke nodded, “is it much of a ways to go to her friend's house?” He asked without looking to see if Dusky had finished eating or not.

“No, not at all and besides, I need to get this ice cream delivered before it melts.” The zebra replied with a sly grin as he slid out of the ice cream shop’s bench seat. “If we're lucky we'll be interrupting something.”

Dusk smiled as he too stood up to his sock clad hooves. “They were pretty hot together that first afternoon outside your place, Stripes.”

“Yes,” Caffeinated commented over his shoulder as once again the midnight blue pegasus fell in line submissively behind the other two stallions, “and Wildfire just did her first in city and outside city solo flight with a game of Pegasus tag.” Then he chuckled lightly, “so she may have her nose in her new tablet or in one of her marefriends.”

“Really?” Dusk spoke up incredulously, “those flying aids are good enough to allow her to play tag?”

Without looking this time, Caffeinated replied, “Wildfire dropped seventy five thousand bits on that gear today.”

“Bucking Tartarus...”

Brush Stroke shot his mare a severe look, “sweetie, language!”

Immediately, Dusk shrunk as he felt an inch tall. “I…um…. sorry Sir. I meant I’m glad that compensation money being put to good use.”

“So yes,” Caffeinated couldn’t quite hide the amusement in his voice as they walked on down the street towards Airmail and Tempest’s – and now Wildfire’s – house. “The stuff is good enough to play tag with.”

“From what I hear though Wildfire was accomplished as a flyer anyway,” Brush Stroke commented to the zebra.

“Tempest called her a precision flyer.” The orange stallion affirmed as he led them onto the next street over and around a corner.

“I haven't seen her fly while being here,” Dusk commented, “I've heard the tales though.”

“Your mom praised her flying so that should count for something.” Caffeinated stated simply as he led the two other stallions down the row of well-maintained townhouses.

“It does,” Dusk nodded, “don't get me wrong I knew what she was capable of before, and she was good then.”

“When she was a firefighter, yes?” Brush Stroke asked to clarify what he had been told.

“Here is the townhouse.” Caffeinated announced before Dusk could answer his stallion’s question. “The lake she likes so much is behind it that way.” He commented with a hoof pointed in the lake’s general direction. Then, with the two stallions alongside him, the zebra trotted up the small path and rang the doorbell.

Getting no immediate response, Caffeinated rung the bell a second time, only to be rewarded with the sound of approaching hooves from the other side of the door. Standing back slightly with a wide smile on his face, he waited eagerly for whomever it was to open the door.

“Hi Caffy,” Tempest opened the door and almost immediately her mouth hung open in sheer disbelief. “By Celestia's Mane, you two have to come and see this!”

Her attention now well and truly caught by Tempest’s excited voice, Airmail stood up and nudged the little yellow mare next to her. “Come on, Wily let’s go see what has Stormy so excited.”

“Okies, I wonder what it is?” Taking off her computer’s headset and placing it carefully next to the keyboard, Wildfire followed the azure blue mare out of the office and down the stairs to the great room.

Seeing the sight that greeted her in her great room, Airmail froze at the bottom of the stairs and was very nearly rear ended by Wildfire behind her. “Oh Luna, she is so cute!”

Having fully recovered from her initial shock, Tempest walked a full circle around the young Prince, taking in every minute detail from her mid-blue silk socks and dress to the ponytail and the collar that adorned her neck. “Cute enough to mount.” She passed her verdict after a few moment’s silence.

Stepping out of the way, Airmail leant in to the diminutive yellow mare as she stood next to her. “Wily, Dusk is dressed in drag and 'she' looks great.”

Unable to contain herself, Wildfire snorted with laughter. “Y-You…” she giggled, “you're joking, right?”

“Oh no,” Tempest said, her voice full of appreciation for the amazingly feminine form stood in her great room, “even I'd buck that.”

At a ‘look’ from his stallion, Dusk quickly inclined his head, “thank you, Tempest.” He said with a smile.

“Ahem…” Airmail said to the two stallions, “hi Caffy, Oils.”

“A good day to you, Airmail.” Brush Stroke nodded politely before turning to Tempest, again as if Dusky wasn’t there at all, “you can buck her if you like, I get to watch though.”

“D, please, I have to feel this...” Wildfire asked, wholly managing to not keep the snigger from her voice, “please?”

To Brush Stroke’s comment, Tempest laughed, “well she will need another hole, I'm not putting my toy in her ass.”

“Make sure you feel underneath the dress, Wily.” Airmail informed her, “that corset has 'her' sheath covered and the panties has 'her' balls pretty well hidden.”

“Go ahead Wily,” Dusk grinned, “have fun.”

“You need to get one of Trails’s outfits,” Tempest said as Wildfire stepped forward, “she makes the nips stand out like breasts.”

Reaching her best friend, Wildfire felt around Dusk's body, very slowly taking in every aspect of 'her'. As she felt the ponytail and then the collar around his neck, her giggles got harder and harder to suppress, and by the time she had reached the silken socks and the ornate saddle she had stopped trying and openly snorted her mirth. A mirth that only increased as she explored the dress and the panties underneath that hid Dusk’s balls, it all proved too much and Wildfire collapsed to the floor in fits of giggles.

“What brings you around?” Airmail asked, “Showing off your mare?”

On the floor, Wildfire finally was able to speak, “this is better than our makeover!”

“Yes and no.” Brush Stroke replied to Airmail’s question, “I am showing her off of course,” he said proudly, nothing but love in his voice for his mare, “but my Dusky has a special something for Wildfire.”

Hearing that, Wildfire stopped laughing, and in a slightly serious tone asked, “you got something for me?”

Tempest smiled warmly at the blind pony as she sat up on her haunches, “you sure today isn't your birthday, Wily?” She asked as the mid-blue earth pony stallion fished a hoof into his saddle bag and retrieved a very plain, very ordinary looking package wrapped in brown packing paper and passed it to Dusk.

Taking it very carefully in his hooves, Dusk explained, “yeah…see, a clean-up crew at the care home found this in a hidden wall safe in Amethyst Glory's office.” He paused for a brief moment to take Wildfire’s hoof in his wing and hold it out. “They passed it on to Aunt Tia. She took a look at it and called me, got Oils's address and had a bat pony guard fly it here.” Unable to hide his smile he gently put the A4 sized parcel in Wildfire’s hooves as Airmail and Tempest both looked on, interested to see what it was. “Remember this, Wily?”

“Birthday?” Wildfire smiled, “more like all my Hearths Warmings, Honey.” Feeling the weight of the wrapped parcel in her hooves, she teared at it with her teeth, unwrapping it in the manner of an excited filly. When an old familiar smell of leather and parchment and ink hit the back of her nose she paused in utter disbelief. “N-No...no it's not....my mum's book?”

“Yep!” Dusk, along with Brush Stroke, beamed a wide smile. “All intact and all yours.”

Approaching the stunned yellow mare, Tempest asked softly, “this is your poem book?”

“Y-Yuppers…” Wildfire sniffed a long loud sniff, her shoulders rolling with each sniff, crying like a foal as she cradled the book in her forehooves. “I haven't had this for months...I...I thought they'd burnt it…” still in shock, she ran a hoof over the black leather cover, embossed with her name in gold on the front. “They…they said they’d burnt it!” The whole room was silent as they watched the reunion. “D…thank you D...I have no words for this.”

Stepping up to Wildfire’s left side, Airmail nuzzled her gently. “Hugs are like pictures and worth a thousand words.”

Dusk smiled, “I'll go for a hug, Wily.”

“Yeah…” Wildfire sniffed and launched herself at her best friend, hugging the midnight blue stallion so tight around his neck that it could easily be mistaken for a wrestling hold. “D…Dusk, I-I'm sorry...it’s too much…” she sniffed again as Airmail and Tempest both looked on with happy smiles on their faces.

“I’m just glad you have it back, bestie.” Dusk said tenderly as Brush Stroke looked on with a proud smile.

“I…I’m sorry I laughed at you…” Wildfire whispered, her voice barely audible.

“Shh…” Dusk stroked her black mane comfortingly, “don't be, it’s okay.”

After a few moments, Wildfire was forced to break the choke hold – or ‘hug’, as she called it – when her best friend began to gasp for breath. “Pretty, Honey, if you want to read it, you can go ahead.”

Understanding Wildfire’s need to share her book, Tempest nonetheless shook her head. “After we get in on some of this action.” Hugging Dusk tightly, the violet mare whispered, “you are pretty enough to buck.”

Likewise Airmail followed up with a hug and kiss, “thank you Dusk.”

Almost combusting under the weight of the hugs and the kisses, Dusk smiled, “it's my sincere pleasure guys, honestly.”

“Tempest.” Waiting until the moment had passed, Caffeinated spoke up, “Mapper said I should pick this up for you all when I had a chance.” He hoofed over the pint of peach ice cream.

“Um…” confused, Tempest took it anyway. Mapper had her reasons, she always did. “Thanks Caffy.”

As Tempest hurried to put the ice cream in the freezer, Brush Stroke hugged Dusk and in a not very quiet voice at all, whispered, “I love you, you pretty mare.”

Coming back into the great room, Tempest had an idea. “Wily, we can transcribe this into your tablet and then keep the book for your foal to read when she is old enough.”

“I um…I-I’d like that…” Wildfire replied, evidently still a little stunned, “thank you.”

“You guys want to stay for drinks or something?” Airmail asked, finally thinking of being a good host to her guests.

“Thanks Airmail,” Caffeinated replied with a raised hoof and a shake of his head, “but I have a dinner date with the wife I need to get ready for.”

“We have to say no too sadly,” Brush Stroke said with an apologetic look on his face, “I want to whisk my Dusky away for a just reward.”

Dusk found another shade of red to blush and did so, brightly. “Uh…can we stop by another time though?”

Giggling, Tempest nudged Wildfire and whispered, “It's your house too.”

Wildfire smiled, “of course you can silly, you're always welcome D, and your stallion is too.”

When Caffeinated, Brush Stroke and Dusk had said their goodbyes and made their departures, Tempest lovingly nuzzled Wildfire’s right cheek. “Luna has smiled on you Wily. If you like, we can look at your book together?”

Wildfire merely sniffed over and over, cradling her book in her forelegs like it was a new-born foal. “I got it back...I got my mum back!”

Tenderly, Airmail nuzzled her left cheek. “Do you want us to read that in the bedroom or in the office?”

After a few minutes, Wildfire stopped sniffing, “Um…bedroom, please, Pretty.”

Smiling, Airmail guided the little yellow mare up the stairs and, helped her on to the very middle of the bed and immediately scooted around to her left, snuggling in to Wildfire’s side and covering her with her right wing as Tempest entered the bedroom and snuggled next to her on her right side. “Sometimes good things do happen, Wily.” Tempest kissed the blind pony’s cheek. “May we read your poems?”

Glowing from the unexpected gift, Wildfire placed her book down on the bed in front of her. Carefully she hoofed open the black leather cover to reveal to Airmail and Tempest the one hundred A4 parchment pages therein. The two other mares could see the pages were divided up into sections marked Air Raid, Heatwave, Mum, Friends, Beautiful South. They did notice as well, curiously, that the last ten pages were in braille, while the rest was written. “Of course you may Stormy, just pick a section.”

Looking over Wildfire’s little shoulder, Tempest didn’t really know where to begin, so she said, “I'd like to start at the front and read your first one.”

“Alrighty.” Wildfire passed her book to Tempest, who took it reverently in her hooves.

Looking over the first section in the book, the violet mare could see that it was easily the biggest section too, entitled simply Air Raid, it took up twenty five pages. Starting as she said she would at the first page, Tempest began to read aloud;

When Tempest had finished the poem, entitled simply ‘Crush’, Tempest asked, “who is Air Raid?”

“Air Raid…Raid…” Wildfire rolled her ex’s name around on her tongue as if she was testing it for the first time. Her voice became noticeably emotionless as she spoke, “in Canterlot, at university, she was my long time crush and my first marefriend before my accident.”

Picking up on her change in tone, Airmail hugged her closer. “You don't sound happy.”

Wildfire leaned into the hug. “No, no I don't.” She sighed deeply. “We were together for just over a year, maybe eighteen months at the most. Luna’s sainted mane I loved her so much! She’s a race driver. I used to watch as she raced, she loved rally cross. We…we were happy. Really, really happy. Then I had my accident.” Wildfire’s voice went dead again, “In the hospital, Air Raid came to visit me once. My nurse took the bandages from my face and she screamed at the sight of me. She said she couldn't be seen out with somepony like me.”

Both Airmail and Tempest held Wildfire close and nuzzled her tenderly. “I hope you will let yourself be seen with somepony like me.” Tempest whispered in her ear.

“And me.” Airmail said as she too kissed her cheek.

“The way I feel it, it’s her loss.” Wildfire stated simply, thought there was a trace of regret in her voice. “And, I wouldn't want to go anywhere without the both of you.”

Deciding it was probably best, and in the interests of not killing the mood, Tempest skipped over the rest of Air Raid’s section and moved onto the next, entitled Heatwave, and read the first poem she found there.

Now it was Airmail’s turn to sniff as she shed more than a couple of tears while Tempest read the poem out. “That is beautiful. That's how I feel about Rye, my foster father.”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire smiled at the memory of her old mentor / teacher / instructor / father. “Heatwave was simply the best.” As she laid there flanked by her two herd-mates, a thought entered her head. “Tell me about your foster parents, Pretty.”

Smiling a very wide genuine smile, Airmail took a breath. “Rye is seventy two, a wheat coloured earth pony married to a sixty eight year old powder blue pegasus named Bluesky. I was seven when they took me in nineteen eighty nine. I was a brat and called Rye lots of names, but he never stopped loving me. I learned that wings don't make a pony.” Airmail paused for just a moment before she carried on, “a year later they had their first foal. Followed by three more over time. Two pegasi fillies, Raindrop and Silver Cloud, born in nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety two. An earth pony colt named Grain in nineteen ninety four and then finally a pegasus colt called Sundown in nineteen ninety six.”

Wildfire decided she liked this family a lot. “Rye sounds nice, I like the sound of him. That’s what a proper dad should be like, like Heatwave was to me.”

Airmail nodded, a nod that Wildfire could feel as she was still being nuzzled. “Bluesky used to be on the Vanhoover Weather Team, now she’s a Milk Mare. Rye still farms…” she giggled a loud giggle, “rye.”

“Did they treat you different to their own foals?” Wildfire asked gently.

“Oh Luna no, I was treated like the first born.” Airmail replied, “they had given up having a foal when they took me in.” She giggled again, “I might have a touch of magic and mom would...aaahhmmm...” she trailed off then to an embarrassed silence that thankfully Wildfire broke.

Wildfire giggled, “Heatwave never had foals, to him I was his daughter. I remember he pestered Captain Hot Spot for a month to let me on the Residential District Fire Team.”

Tempest said gently, “he must have loved you a lot.”

“He did, Luna bless his soul.” Wildfire smiled as she remembered the one pony apart from her mother that’d had a guiding effect on her life. “He died the in the afternoon of the day Air Raid asked me out in the evening, after we put out this huge four storey fire.”

Turning the pages, Tempest flipped to the last of the Heatwave section of poems.

Hearing the parchment moving, Wildfire turned her head to her right, “found a good one Stormy?”

“The last one in the Heatwave section, Wily.” Scanning it bought a tear to Tempest’s blue eyes, but she read it out loud anyway.

“I remember that one,” Wildfire commented with a smile when Tempest had finished reading. “It was while he was training me. Damn he was such a hard teacher.”

Airmail spoke up, “the best teachers are.”

“Yuppers, he didn’t stand no messing about come training. The one and only time he ever bawled me out was when I didn't take it serious enough one time. He said if I was more concerned with joking about to get my flank out the door.”

As she listened to what Wildfire had to say, Tempest carefully flipped to the first poem of the next section, marked ‘Mum’ and the violet pegasus read it aloud.

There was no way no how under Celestia’s sun that Tempest was hiding her tears after something as touching as that. “Are there any pictures of her in here?” She asked, eager to see the mare that had inspired such a poem.

Wildfire nodded, thinking of the little five by four photo paper clipped to one of the pages. “There should be, Honey. It should be clipped to the top of one of the pages.”

Looking at the photo, Airmail at once saw a smiling middle aged pegasus mare, rounded out a little from bearing a foal but by no means fat, with a bright yellow coat and a crimson mane. “I see where you got your beautiful fur.” Admiring the photo a little closer, Airmail could see the beautiful chestnut brown eyes that everpony had associated with Wildfire since they had met her.

“Yuppers,” Wildfire smiled, easily conjuring up the image in her head from memory, “she's pretty isn't she?”

Turning the pages, Tempest selected two more poems in the Mum section and read them out.

~ ~ ~

“Aaah,” Wildfire smiled, “that second one I wrote for mum’s forty seventh birthday present, I didn’t know it would be her last.”

Tempest once again nuzzled the diminutive yellow pegasus. “I can hear the love in your poems.”

“Everypony I knew was amazed that I didn't get a cutie mark for writing.” Wildfire commented.

Tempest then turned to the last ‘mom’ poem there was to read, and immediately she noticed the mouth writing was different to all the other poems thus far. Before she read it out, Tempest asked, “when did you write this, Wily?”

“Oh…my nurse wrote that for me in the hospital shortly after my accident,” Wildfire replied, “I dictated it to her.”

Deciding that she had cried quite enough for one day, Tempest thought she’d play it safe and flipped the page to the first poem in the friends section and saw there was a five by six photograph of seven very happy smiling eighteen year old ponies arranged in two rows looking back at her from the page. Dusk, she recognised straight away. Wildfire was in the centre with her wing around a lime green pegasus with a blue mane whom she assumed was Air Raid in front centre, a pink earth pony stallion with a white mane on Dusk’s right, while a jet black pegasus mare sat to Air Raid’s right. To the other side a royal blue unicorn stallion stood to Dusk’s left and a pure white unicorn mare with a grey mane sat in front of him to Wildfire’s left. “You still have pretty eyes, Wily.” Tempest smiled at the picture.

“Maybe, Honey, but they were prettier back then.”

Tempest nuzzled Wildfire tenderly, “Eyes are the windows to the soul and you have a beautiful soul.”

Smiling, Wildfire nuzzled Tempest in return, “That photo was a good day as I remember. We'd all been to the fun fair in Canterlot. Air Raid arranged it as a nineteenth birthday treat.”

Grinning, Tempest returned to the book and read the first friend poem she found under the happy photo.

Wildfire smiled a very, very wide smile as Tempest read out the poem to her and Airmail. “Honey, I wrote that one after we all met for the first time in High School. We shared classes at school then we all went to University together.

Curiously, Tempest turned the pages of the book until she came to the last one written in braille. “Wily, will you please read this one to us?”

Wondering which one Tempest had requested, Wildfire took the book back from the violet mare and ran her left forehoof over the braille, her shoulders slumping as she read and recognised the poem. “I…I…Honey I will read it, just this once. I wrote this on Hearths Warming eve four years ago, after my first year at the care home.”

In stunned silence Tempest reached over with her hoof and closed the book in an effort to shut ‘that’ away. “I'm glad you have this back with every poem in there.” She kissed Wildfire as tenderly as she could manage. “Happy and sad for I love you all the more.”

In response, Airmail moved her right wing over to cover both Wildfire and Tempest.

Surrounded either side by both her mares, Wildfire couldn’t help but smile. “I'm glad I have it back too. It’s a miracle is what it is. I'm not reading that last one again though. That's how I felt back then in the home.”

“Tomorrow is another day in your future.” Airmail smiled as she yawned a little yawn. “Will you be able to sleep tonight?” She asked as she noted the shadows getting longer and longer on the yard and under the oak tree outside the house.

“Yuppers,” Wildfire yawned as well behind her hoof before she could stop it. “I should be alright. That first night after the party at Caffy's place I was scared to go sleep in case I woke up back there and it was all a dream.”

“Well…” Airmail lovingly kissed Wildfire’s lips. “Tonight I hope you dream of us.”

~ ~ ~

Sitting back at the breakfast table, Tempest sighed the sigh of a mare with a belly full of sugared oatmeal and strong coffee. Looking about herself the violet mare beamed in satisfaction as the others, Airmail and Wildfire, both had similar expressions on their muzzles as well. Taking a last swallow, emptying the dregs of her coffee, Tempest said, “I have to be on site at ten a.m. this morning.” Turning to Wildfire she asked, “you want to play weather pony again Wily?”

“Well, she needs a job, Wily can't live on free kisses forever,” Airmail commented as she too drained the remains of her morning coffee.

“Actually Stormy,” Wildfire spoke up, her own chocolate covered oatmeal and coffee long since gone, “I was going to check out the Fire Station in Manehatten, see if they'll have me.”

Tempest thought about that for a moment, impressed that Wildfire wanted her old job back. “There are several Stations in Manehatten, one of which is not that far from here.”

Airmail shot Tempest an exaggerated look. “So, take her to your office and visit the Chief.”

“Duh! Of course!” Tempest exclaimed, complete with a hoof slapped to her forehead. “I can take you to City Hall where my dusty office is and introduce you to the Fire Chief.”

Wildfire was beside herself with excitement. “Honey, could you? Really!? Thank you! It would be properly awesomes to get back into work now that I can.”

Getting up, Tempest smiled at the diminutive pegasus’s enthusiasm. “Okay, I got point six with me for the weather duty, but maybe you get the job and need it at the Fire House.”

Catching on, Airmail stood from the breakfast table as well, and nudged Wildfire’s foreleg with her own. Let’s get you suited up to fly into town and we’ll add ‘City Hall’ to your destinations.”

Wildfire giggled as she followed Tempest and Airmail up the stairs to the office in order to get her flight suit on, as well as get her headset updated with the city’s key locations. “Hmm...that's if I get hired straight away Honey,” she thought out loud, “the Manehatten Chief might just laugh me out the building.”

“And what if he does?” Airmail challenged when they got to the top of the stairs, “you're Wildfire, don't let somepony intimidate you.”

“If he does,” Wildfire said in a determined voice as she started to dress herself in the wondrous flight suit, “I'll go straight back in and ask again.”

“Rung isn't a bad stallion, though.” Tempest considered as she hooked up the flight headset to Wildfire’s computer.

“True,” Airmail agreed, taking her role as flight suit fitter very seriously, especially when it came to using her muzzle to make sure the crotch was secure.

“You…aaah, you know him?” Wildfire asked, her voice rising in pitch when Airmail’s muzzle went a little too deep.

Tempest nodded, busily downloading the city’s most important locations – chief amongst them Caffy’s coffee shop – into the headset. “We work, if I ever showed up, in the same building.”

Airmail spoke up, “I've interviewed him a few times.” She said as she stepped back to admire the tight, very, very tight flight suit. Airmail admired it for a good long time. ‘Damn…if Wily was carrying bits under that, you’d tell which side was Celestia and which was Luna…’ she thought, biting her bottom lip.

“Oh…um, what's he like?” Wildfire asked nervously, “if he's anything like Hot Spot he'll be a hard pony to please.”

“He’s straight and to the point,” Airmail replied, “he doesn't play politics.”

“I've said hi to him a couple of times.” Tempest put in, her job almost complete. “All I've ever done is assign a pony to ferry clouds to him as and when needed.”

Wildfire grinned a wide grin. “He sounds almost like Hot Spot’s twin.” She giggled, brightening up. “Hey! I can ferry clouds about, I've done that before!”

“That is actually a good idea, Wily.” Tempest agreed as she disconnected the headset. “Cloud Burst leads the Fire Team pegasi, but they can't spare any for moving clouds.”

Airmail smiled, patting Wildfire on the shoulder. “Looks like you have an in, Wily.”

“Yuppers, it does!” She smiled as she took the headset from Tempest and placed it very carefully on her head. “Providing cloud cover was my main job when I was with the Canterlot Fire Team. Heatwave and I were the only two pegasi on the Residential District Team, so we got called out a lot.”

Sparing a moment, Tempest double checked Wildfire's directions, and after a minute or two stood back, happy that everything was programmed in just right. “Good, that will take you to the Pegasus Landing Pad. The PLP is between the north and south bound flight paths. We will leave here heading north across the sound, over Battery Park and up Bridleway. You will go up to get to the landing area.” Tempest paused as she explained all this to the blind mare. “It is a twenty foot hollow cube in the centre of the building.”

Airmail simply rolled her eyes as her lover was about to enter full ‘mother hen mode’. “Stormy, you worry too much.”

“And you don't worry enough.” Tempest countered straight away. “I want you to lead Wily, you okay with that?”

“Yeah Tempest, I'm alright with that.” Wildfire said, determined to do this right, after all this would be her first time flying as lead pony in the heart of Manehatten’s flyway.

~ ~ ~

Flying along in the beautiful mid-morning sunshine, Wildfire was greatly amazed that the journey into town was as uneventful as it was. There had been a few soft collision alarms sounding from her suit’s sensors that turned out to be seabirds flying out to feed.

It was a good fifteen minutes into the flight that Wildfire got her first true taste of flying in Manehatten. While flying straight and level, maintaining an altitude of three hundred feet above the ground, and a city-safe speed of thirty miles per hour, Wildfire got a soft collision alarm from the flight suit at two hundred and seventy degrees with an elevation of plus eighty degrees. Listening to the alarm, she muttered, “damn collision warning…” slowing her speed slightly, she rose six feet to clear the obstruction.

To Wildfire’s consternation however, the alarm only got louder and more urgent in spite of her evasive manoeuvres. ‘Oh…you bucking fool!’ Wildfire kicked herself, ‘a plus elevation means I need to descend! Uuugh…I got this…’ angling herself downwards, the diminutive yellow mare descended twelve feet in order to correct her error and to clear what was potentially in her way.

As she made the course corrections, her suit alerted her that the first soft target had now moved to three hundred and thirty degrees with an elevation of plus forty five degrees. A second soft collision alarm then sounded, this one moving to one hundred and eighty degrees with an elevation of minus fifty degrees.

Concentrating hard, Wildfire thought, ‘the first to my left, almost in front and has gotten lower, the second is behind me and lower…’ in response, the yellow mare adjusted her course to the right, thinking to put distance between herself and the obstruction on her left.

As she moved, the soft target that was behind and below her suddenly decided to accelerate up and to her left. The next thing Wildfire heard was wings slapping and an angry stallion’s voice up to her left. “Watch where you're going you idiot!”

‘Damn!’ Wildfire cursed herself, “I’m sorry!”

Up above her and to her front a voice called out, “what? Oh, hey, I'm the one who’s sorry.” The alarms went silent then as both soft targets moved away from her.

“Uugh...Kuppa said this'd take practice,” Wildfire grumbled as she got herself back on course for a direct approach to the City Hall. “I thought I'd caused that…” When she got closer to the large building, the automatic ILS beacon took over her headset, instructing her to follow its gentle guide slope. Following the flight controller’s instructions, Wildfire came in to land safely on the Pegasus Landing Pad.

With a flaring of her wings, Tempest landed next to her little herd-mate. “You okay, Wily?” She asked, having witnessed the altercation in the sky from her tailing position.

“Yuppers…” Wildfire sighed, “I'm fine, Tempest...just weirded out I guess. Hearing a collision I avoided I was worried I'd reacted wrong that's all.”

Deciding upon the best course of action for just such an occasion, Tempest hugged Wildfire tight before they moved themselves off of the PLP. “You did okay, you just need more practice. I saw that idiot almost run into you, but somepony closer took action. Asshole was texting.”

Wildfire giggled, “maybe they’re the ones that need flying lessons.”

“They should outlaw flying and texting is what they should do...” Tempest snorted, “well come in and see my office and then I'll take you to the Chief’s office.”

Wildfire giggled, proud though ninth less that Tempest was happy with the way she had flown all the way here with just her instruments. “I’d love to feel your office Honey, bet it's all super official.”

“Wily, we landed on the thirtieth floor.” Tempest explained, “Weather offices are on the twentieth, Fire Chief is on the third. My office is a cubby hole that collects dust.”

Wildfire sniggered behind her hoof as they walked down one of the winding corridors from the PLP. “How come you don't use it much?” She asked curiously.

“One simple reason,” the violet mare giggled, “I can watch Airy's ass from home.”

“Yuppers, I imagine that's a better view than your office walls, if it looks half as good as it feels.” A thought struck her as they walked along, one that had been bothering her since they had awoken in each other’s hooves that morning. “Honey, how did you like the movie last night? Your popcorn really was nice, I thought it made it better.”

“Movie was sweet and I don't think Airy yawned more than ten times.” She sniggered out a loud laugh at that, for she herself had taken great pleasure in the past to bore her Airy senseless, now it seemed did had a playmate in her fun. “Secret of good popcorn is how many seconds to set the microwave.”

“Hmm…I don't think ‘Scent of a Mare’ was Pretty's kind of movie.” Wildfire reflected ruefully. “Not enough things exploded.”

“Yeah,” Tempest agreed, “chase scenes and gun shots is her type of film. And really, the only time I come into the office is if someone is in trouble, and to work for official functions.”

“Hey!” Wildfire exclaimed suddenly, making Tempest jump in shock, “I know a movie Airy would like, one called 'Drive Angry'.”

Tempest laughed, “yeah, that sounds like her speed.”

Wildfire continued, “the female lead in it wears these cute little denim shorts the whole time.”

“Do you want some cute little denim shorts?” Tempest asked, her mind racing ahead, picturing little Wildfire in cute, tight, cute shorts…

“Yuppers, they'd be cool. Then I can dress up for you both.” At that the little yellow mare blushed an intense blush. “Y’know...last night in bed I was trying to think up a poem for you both.”

“Your poems are very sweet and I'd love to be in your book.” Tempest replied as she led Wildfire to one of the express elevators. After another short elevator ride that lasted barely a moment, the two mares arrived at the Weather offices, which were staffed and busy with ponies bustling about their respective duties.

A light grey pegasus stallion caught sight of Major Tempest and called out, “Attention!”

Returning the salute he gave, albeit reluctantly, the violet mare waved the over-zealous stallion on with a curt, “Carry on.”

“It was hard to get my ideas in order, though.” Wildfire commented, happy that her new lover would be proud to be in her book. “I just kept coming back to a line from my favourite play, ‘o strange new world, that has such ponies in it’.”

Tempest paused slightly at that quote. She was sure she’d heard it somewhere before. Then it hit her. “I've heard of that...oh! It was at a play named after me!” Smiling, Tempest addressed a scarlet coloured Pegasus stallion, “Sergeant Twotone, is everything on track for today’s weather front?”

“Yes Ma'am.” Two tone replied smartly, bringing his hoof up in a sharp salute.

Tempest spared him a brief nod, “thank you, Sergeant. Carry on.” Then, she led Wildfire to a room that was indeed little more than a chubby hole. “Here is my office,” she said, hoofing open the door and standing aside to allow Wildfire to enter first. “At least the speciallist dusts in here. Please feel free to feel around.”

“Alrighty, Honey.” With that, Wildfire proceeded to explore the office, both of her wings outspread for good measure. “We did a version of the Tempest back in university, I was Miranda, and not very good.”

“That's cool,” Tempest commented as she watched with intense curiosity the way Wildfire explored a new place, how she carefully went around the sides first. “Serenity was in the opera I saw. She played the spirit, but I can't remember her character's name.”

“Ariel.” Wildfire said over her shoulder.

“I'll take your word for it, but that sounds right.”

“Air Raid played her.” Wildfire said as she made her complete circuit around the eight by ten foot office. She had found that the desk was centred, with two seating pads in front and one behind. There was also a small bookcase along one wall, and knew framed items hung on the wall behind the desk. One of these was very large. “Surprisingly, Raid was a good actress.” Her little tour finished, she turned to the sandalwood scent and smiled. “You have a really nice office, I like it, it's good you have something to show for how many years you worked at it.”

Tempest giggled at that, “Wily, what I love the most is the ability to work at home.” Hugging the little mare tight, after all it had been a good fifteen minutes since she was last hugged, Tempest asked, “ready to go down and face the stallion?”

“Well,” Wildfire commented with a sly grin, “we both know the view is better.” Another thought struck her then, as they both shared a laugh, “Do you see your parents much? Pretty has told me about her foster home, you know about mum and my useless excuse for a dad.”

“Mine live in Trottingham, so at least four times a year I visit.” Tempest answered with a smile as she thought of her family, “my brother still lives there so keeps me up to date.”

“Oils sounds like he's from Trottingham I think.” Then, having decided that she’d stalled quite enough, she squared her little shoulders and put on her determined face. A face that was do adorable Tempest had to really fight not to d’aaaaw there and then. “Yuppers, let’s go meet the Chief.”

“Okay everypony, things look good. Excellent work, and I’ll see you at the front later.” As they both left the offices, Tempest leaned in and whispered quietly in Wildfire’s ear, “they will be talking about my unexpected visit for weeks, you watch.”

Wildfire just nodded in reply, then she said, “ponies pay attention when boss lady walks in.”

After another short uneventful elevator ride, both Tempest and Wildfire emerged on to the third floor and trotted across the level to enter an office. Looking up, the mare that either the reception asked, “hello, how may I help you?”

“Yes Ms…” Tempest bent her neck to read the name plate on her uniform, “Ms. Thistle, is Chief Rung in, please?”

Ms. Thistle quickly checked her computer’s diary and shook her head. “I'm sorry you can’t, it's Sunday. He is off today.”

Tempest metaphorically – and very almost literally – facehooved. “Of course, well, can I make an appointment with him for tomorrow please?”

Thistle opened up a file on her computer, and after a moment’s scrutiny looked up at Tempest with a smile. “Yes, is nine a.m. good?”

Tempest nodded eagerly. “That should be fine, right Wildfire?”

“Yes, that'd be great, thank you Ms. Thistle.”

“Please put Tempest and Wildfire down for the nine a.m. slot, Ms. Thistle.”

Thistle looked up suddenly at the mention of Tempest’s name. “Oh, are you from the weather office upstairs?”

Tempest merely nodded a ‘yes and Thistle was overjoyed. “You guys are doing great! My garden is really blooming. I have you both down for nine, see you tomorrow.”

Wildfire nodded her head in the direction of Thistle’s voice. “Thanks for the appointment Ms. Thistle.”

Once they were outside the office, Tempest turned to the diminutive yellow mare and gave her a tight hug. “I'm sorry Wily, I didn't even think about it being Sunday. I guess I should have called first.”

“Meh…” Wildfire shrugged her shoulders, “it's okay, Honey. The day wasn't a total loss, I still needed the flying practice didn't I?”

Tempest grinned, there she had a point, and a good one too. “You going to head back and keep Airmail busy?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire said with a nod of her head, “I think I will. We don't want Pretty getting bored, do we?”

“You can sweet talk her and try out that new toy of yours.” Tempest leaned in and whispered suggestively, “she might even cuff you and use the nipple clamps…” she finished with a deep kiss to the lips.

Prench kissing Tempest in return, Wildfire smiled, “I'm already there at home.” She giggled, “As long as you're sure you don't need a hoof here?”

“I have an hour to kill, there is a deli on the main floor.” Tempest replied, “I was going to get a bite and catch up on news. I should be back home by five p.m.”

“Alrighty,” Wildfire smiled, “I'll feel you later then Honey.”

“I'll walk you back to the elevator, just in case.” Tempest said, the mother hen in her coming out again, “The signs are in braille, but on the thirtieth turn left and it will go straight to the landing pad for you to take off from.” Pausing at the doors she asked, “Home is at what point?”

“It’s point three, mother, and Airmail has point two.” Wildfire replied quickly, putting Tempest’s fears to rest.

Grinning, Tempest pulled her into a kiss at the elevator. “I love you.”

“I love you too Honey,” As the elevator doors closed, and it began to rise to the thirtieth floor, a thought occurred to her. ‘First time on my own in Manehatten!’