“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. The roses have wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head. The roses stink, sorta like sheep but leave your name, number, and message after the beep. The roses are molding, the violets are rotten and I might call you back, if I haven't forgotten.”

“Well?” Air Raid asked as she pressed the tip of her hoof to the ‘cancel call’ button on her phone, leaving the recorded message and the beep that came after it hanging in the air between herself and the midnight blue stallion sat opposite her across from the coffee table.

Dusk Melody didn’t answer the lime green pegasus straight away. He looked first at the mug of black coffee with three sugars with a great amount of distaste before he reached over from the chaise he was reclined upon and took a delicate sip of his earl grey tea. The royal stallion took a moment to savour the classic hot beverage, at once both lemony and malty. “Aaaah…” Dusk loved this tea. He knew the lemony notes came from the use of Bergamot extract that was added to a dark, smooth-tasting tea, typically a Keemun or Assam. He loved how these teas had malty flavour profile, that was tipped with notes of honey, caramel, toffee, and wood.

Dusk allowed the silence to linger in the sitting room of his opulent suite in the east wing of the royal castle where he and his friend Air Raid were currently sat taking Friday afternoon tea. Quietly he took another sip of his drink and set the gold rimmed china cup back in its saucer. He looked away from the cell phone however. He couldn’t face it. Sat there on the exquisitely carved coffee table like some sort of silent accuser, reminding him by its mere presence of his sins.

He didn’t need to be reminded of what he had done. Every time he closed his pink eyes he reminded himself. He could see, feel and smell it. Number two science laboratory of Canterlot University. Despite the passage of seven days, the week had done nothing to dull it. Dusk hated to blink, he dreaded to sleep – even with his mother’s assistance, the nightmares plagued him every night, and sometimes in the day as well.

Dusk blinked. He was back there again, reliving that awful, terrible moment just after he had shown Blitzwing that infernal scroll and the crazed dark grey stallion had punched him to the ground. Dusk was there again in his own personal Tartarus;

Dusk fell to the floor with a loud oomph, all four legs sprawling from under him from the impact of the incensed pegasus standing over him. “Gah!” He winced, biting his tongue as his head struck the hard floor.

“Hey!” Wildfire whipped off her goggles and roughly shoved Blitzwing aside, bending down to check on her friend. “D? Dusk…Dusk are you alright?” She asked, concern on her face.

“What's happening back there?” Twilight called over her shoulder, her attention still occupied with writing out the experiment.

Blitzwing’s right wing found and seized the beakers of acid, and, without stopping to look what he’d grasped, threw them at Dusk.

“What the...” Wildfire caught the movement of Blitzwing’s powerful wing in the corner of her eye, and in that split second turned to face the dark grey stallion as he threw the beakers, the glass beakers shattered as they impacted her face, spilling the two concentrated acids straight into her wide brown eyes.

Blitzwing didn’t waste a second. He barged Wildfire aside with a shoulder, sending her spiralling to the floor, too stunned to realise what exactly had just happened to her and launched himself on Dusk’s prone form, rearing up to slam down upon him with both his forehooves.

Wildfire laid there silently for a millisecond. A tiny fragment of time that seemed to stretch forever. The millisecond passed all at once a moment later, with an ear-splitting “AAAAGH!!!! AAaaaaAAA!!” Wildfire screamed as the concentrated acids start to burn into her eyes.

Back in his suite, sweating a little, Dusk opened his eyes. The scream was the worst part. No…the worst part was hearing his best friend’s scream and knowing he had caused it. He, Dusk Melody, Prince Dusk, had gone against the advice of his mother, his mum and his aunt and in a cheap quest to score points against his long term tormentor. And he had succeeded. He had gotten exactly what he wanted. In the space of one minute he had destroyed a family stretching back over a thousand years…and in the process he had critically wounded his best friend.

Long, long minutes passed in silence, marked only by the ticking of the ornate grandfather clock in the sitting room. Only when Air Raid was about to lose it and yell out her question again, did Dusk finally answer. “Well what, Miss Raid?”

“Well what?” Air Raid was stunned. So stunned she abandoned the half eaten cucumber sandwich and almost spat out her coffee. “What do you mean, well what? Didn’t you hear the message?” She demanded furiously, “And since when did you start calling me ‘Miss’ anyway?”

Dusk sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a forehoof. He had been awake now for three days and he was exhausted. Sleep was impossible, even with his Vocal Chord nestled up to him in bed. He reached for one of the pills his mother had provided him with – medicine of Luna’s own invention designed to induce a dreamless sleep – and swallowed it with a sip of his earl grey.

“Miss Raid…I heard it, I’m just not sure what you want me to do about it.” Dusk said finally as he drained the rest of the tea from his cup.

“What…do I…what do I want…I want you to help me find her!” Air Raid exclaimed, slamming her hoof down hard onto the coffee table and spilling the remnants of her black coffee over what was doubtless a very expensive cream coloured Maretonian carpet.

Again, Dusk Melody sighed. “And just how do you want me to do that, Miss Raid?”

“I want you to get the hoof outta your ass, stop sulking like a prissy royal bitch and help me find your best bucking friend!” Air Raid thrust herself to her forehooves and upended the coffee table, sending the metal pots of tea and coffee, as well as the fine china cup and mug crashing to the carpet.

As the dark liquids soaked into the hoof-weaved Maretonian carpet, Dusk got quietly from his chaise and, walking past the outraged lime green mare, went to the wall mounted intercom without sparing the pegasus a second look. Flicking a switch, a stallion’s Canterlot accent spoke from the intercom. “Housekeeping, your Highness, how may we be of service?”

“Comet Tail,” Dusk replied, “send up your most able maid to my suite. Tea and coffee spillage, as well as fine china repair.”

Comet Tail, head of the royal staff, sniffed, somewhat offended. All of his maids were the best, that’s why they were employed at the castle. At least the Princesses were courteous. “At once, sir.”

Flipping the switch, Dusk spoke again. “Shieldwall. To my suite. Escort Miss Air Raid out.” Without waiting for a reply, Dusk snapped off the intercom and turned back to find Air Raid face to face with him.

“Dusk!” She screamed in his face, “what the hay d’you think you’re doing!?”

“I think, Miss Raid, I am getting my carpet cleaned, and then I am having you thrown out.” Dusk explained very simply as he made to walk past the older pony.

“Hey!” Air Raid thrust out her hoof and stopped Dusk from passing her. “Are you gonna help me or what?”

Dusk looked at the mare that he had called his friend for the past year. He looked at her ad if he was looking at her for the first time. “There is nothing to be done. She is in Fillydelphia. She is with her family. She does not want to be contacted, she…”

“Wildfire!” Air Raid screamed. “Her name’s Wildfire! Wily! Not ‘She’! Or have you spent so much time petting Vocal to forget your best damn friend?”

“How dare you!” Dusk raised his voice for the first time. “You are the one who dumped her you hypocrite! Oh yes, I heard about that!” He shouted in Air Raid’s stunned face. “What was it Eirene said? Aah…yes that’s it… ‘I have no room in my life for a blind mare. I can’t be a carer.’ And you presume to lecture me because you’ve suddenly grown a conscience? I don’t think so, you Dodo!”

That did it.

There was an unspoken line amongst the group of friends that they had agreed not to cross.

Dusk Melody just crossed it.

Unable to restrain herself, Air Raid pulled her left forehoof back and landed a stiff punch squarely across the Prince’s right jaw. “Buck you Dusk!” She yelled and drew her hoof back to punch him again. There was only one pony in Equestria she allowed to poke her about her well known disability that meant she couldn’t fly. “Buck you, you stuck up plot-hole!”

Ready for the second punch, Dusk blocked it and lifted his right forehoof to his lip and tasted the blood there. The red mist descended upon him now. “Get out!” The midnight blue stallion thrust his hoof towards the door of his suite. “How dare you strike royalty! I could have you arrested! I don’t know what I ever saw in a common featherbrain like you! Don’t wait for Shieldwall, get out!”

Her flash of temper evaporated. Air Raid knew she’d stuck all four hooves in it this time good and proper, and she was about to walk it all over her living room rug. “Wait…wait Dusk, I’m sor…”

“I said get out!” Spit flew from Dusk’s mouth. “GET OUT!”

As Air Raid slicked her ears back and walked out of Dusk’s suite with her blue tail tucked firmly between her legs, the young Prince somehow found his way back to his chaise. He didn’t notice when five minutes later the maid knocked on his door. He didn’t notice when she let herself into his suite. Dusk’s mind was elsewhere when she started to work her magic on the otherwise irreparably stained Maretonian carpet.

Unbidden and unwelcome, the memory of the rest of the worst day of his life came back to him;

Dusk sat on his seating pad beside Wildfire’s bed, watching his best friend’s chest raise and lower rhythmically as she slept under the influence of the drugs she had been given. Again and again in his head he ran through what he would say to her when she woke up. For what felt like the millionth time the midnight blue stallion glanced up at the clock on the wall. The hour that Doctor Cross Hatch had predicted that Wildfire would be unconscious had come and gone thirty three minutes ago.

Again Dusk sighed into his hooves, secretly very grateful for the extra time that Wildfire was asleep. Shamefully part of him wished she would sleep and sleep and not wake up for a long time. At least that way he would be spared the awful, unenviable task of telling his best friend the life she knew was over, and it was all his fault.

The incessant unrelenting ticking of the clock seemed to echo around the hospital room, the only other sounds in the room coming from Eirene, the sand coloured earth pony student nurse who was busy checking Wildfire’s pulse and temperature and making notes on her clipboard. An almost insufferably cheerful mare, she had volunteered to work with Wildfire after she eventually woke up because she was hoping to specialise in caring for the visually handicapped.

“Hmhmm…” Eirene murmured around her pen as she wrote her notes, “Respiratory rate is normal at thirty nine beats per minute, and temperature is normal at thirty eight point five degrees Celsius. Bandages all nice and clean, no leaking or bleeding.” The nurse flicked her dark brown mane out of her green eyes as she took a peek under the bandages and the gauze, “Scars seem to be setting nicely.” With her hourly checks completed Eirene placed the clipboard in the holder at the foot of the bed and sat on her pad opposite Dusk at the other side of the bed.

“Excuse me, Highness,” Eirene politely interrupted Dusk’s train of thought, her Baltimare accent derailing his self-pity.

"Just Dusk, please Nurse Eirene." Dusk corrected absent mindedly, not even having to think about the request.

Eirene blushed, “Excuse me, Dusk,” she corrected with an embarrassed smile, “I’m going for a coffee, would you like one?”

“Tea, earl grey, please nurse.” Dusk asked without looking away from the sleeping pegasus tucked in the bed.

"I'm awfully sorry Dusk,” the nurse smiled as she reached the door. “The best I can offer is foul tasting vending machine coffee, and the least said about the tea, the better.”

“In that case nurse,” Dusk allowed himself what felt like a rare smile, “Awful coffee will do nicely, thank you.”

“As you wish, Dusk. I'll be but a moment.” With a swish of her dark brown mane Nurse Eirene disappeared through the door to the vending machine just down the corridor.

“Yeah…” Dusk answered, still not looking up from his friend. Again he wondered how in the wide world of Equestria he was going to tell her what had happened. “I'm so sorry Wily.” He muttered as he squeezed her right hoof.

He was about to say something else when he was cut off by a squeeze of his own hoof. “Wily?” He asked quietly.

“Ugh…”

Wildfire squeezed the hoof that was holding hers again, this time a little harder.

"Ugh...wh - where am I?” She felt the comfortable softness of the bed under her, but it didn’t feel like her own at home, plus it didn’t smell of her marefriend, which put her ill at ease. She tried sitting up but the dull pain in her head blossomed into one that threatened to tear her skull apart so she gave that up as a bad idea.

“Wily…”

Dusk’s voice sounded from her right side, though she had never heard her best friend sound like that before. Turning her head in his general direction the very next thing she noticed a split second later was the dark. Why was it so dark? Wildfire had never experienced a dark like this. The blackness was absolute. Even the darkest room she’d ever been in had had some degree of illumination. Not like this.

Wildfire turned her head to the left then right again. No matter where she looked the darkness was total. Panic started to rise in her breast as a horrible realisation settled upon her.

She couldn't feel her eyes.

“Du…Dusk…” Wildfire croaked out, her brain registering the soreness in her throat where the ammonia gas had burnt her.

"I'm here Wily, don’t worry.” He said as he gave her hoof another reassuring squeeze.

“Dusk…wh – where am I? Why…why can’t I see anything?” She asked, his hoof doing nothing to quell the rising fear in her gut.

“Wily…there was an accident at school. You’re in Canterlot Royal hospital.” Dusk started to explain as the nurse came back in the room, carrying the three coffees on a tray balanced on her back.

“Dusk, here’s yours,” Eirene breezed as she took the handle in her mouth and passed the styrofoam cup to the stallion. “Wildfire I wasn’t sure if you’d be awake so I got you one anyway.” The earth pony placed the last two cups on the bedside cabinet on the left of the bed and took up her seating pad.

“How are you feeling Wildfire?” Eirene asked as she blew the steam off of her own coffee.

“Um…” Wildfire turned her head to the left, where she thought the nurse’s voice was coming from. “Dusk said I was in the hospital?” She asked uncertainly.

“That’s right, I’m your nurse, Nurse Eirene, or just Eirene, if you prefer.” The nurse winced as she sipped her coffee, and held a giggle as Dusk did the same. “I’ll be looking after you and providing the awful coffee.” She added with a snigger.

"Nurse...I just asked Dusk, but I’ll ask you, why can’t I see anything?” Wildfire asked, not at all sure whether or not she wanted the answer.

Dusk glanced over at the nurse, suddenly very grateful that somepony else was here to field this question instead of him.

“Wildfire,” Eirene started, only to be interrupted by the yellow pegasus laid in the bed.

“Call me Wily, please Nurse Eirene.”

“Alright, Wily it is.” The earth pony mare smiled at her patient. “Wily, the reason you can’t see is because the accident you had earlier today has left you blind.”

Wildfire lifted a hoof to her face and felt the bandages wrapped across her ruined visage. “AaaAAH!” She winced with the sharp pain as she touched on where her eyes should be, the sockets blossoming with agony. “I…I’m blind?” Wildfire asked, the fear clearly audible in her voice, “W – Will I recover?”

Eirene cast a nervous glance at Dusk, who picked up on the student nurses discomfort and took a deep breath, Wildfire’s hoof still held in his own. “Wily…you uh…you um…won’t recover. I’m sorry Wily.”

“What…I won't recover?” Wildfire asked, stricken and distraught at the news she had just been given. She didn’t want to believe it, believe that her life was over, that she was blind. “I’ll never see anything again? N – not ever?”

“No…” The admission all but crushed Dusk’s soul. “I’m so sorry Wily.”

“B – but…how…why?” Wildfire laid in the bed, confused as she tried to process what she’d been told.

“Blitzwing threw acids in your face, Wily. Your eyes…they um…the doctors say they exploded in your head.” Dusk explained, feeling sicker and sicker with each word, each syllable of each word, that he spoke. “I'm sorry…”

“STOP SAYING YOU’RE SORRY!” Wildfire threw Dusk's hoof back at him as her temper exploded. “I’M THE PONY WHO’S BLIND!” The pegasus screamed, not caring that her lungs and throat were burning raw, “WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU SORRY FOR?”

“Wildfire…please calm down,” Eirene put her hoof on her patients shoulder, causing her to jump in panic. “I'm sorry Wildfire, but you need to calm down.”

“Wily…” Dusk started, his head in his hooves as Wildfire started to take deep breaths. “It…it was my fault.”

“What?” Wildfire asked.

“Oh I’m sure Dusk didn’t mean anything by it Wily.” The nurse tried to intercept the outburst she could see coming. Sadly she wasn’t quick enough.

“Shut up, nurse.” Wildfire snapped, silencing the student nurse who ‘eeped’ as she turned her head in her direction. “Dusk,” she said dangerously, “What do you mean, it's your fault?”

“You weren’t paying attention in the science lab.” Dusk said quietly, each word ripped from him. “I showed Blitzwing the scroll that made him snap. It was all me, Wily. I…I’m so sorry.”

“So…he was aiming for you?”

"Yes....yes he was.” Dusk almost whispered, unable to look at his friend.

“Why?” Wildfire asked, her simmering temper barely held in check from her earlier outburst.

“Why what, Wily?”

“Why show Blitzwing that scroll? So what he won for that second. So what Dusk? You had to know how he’d react, D.” Wildfire demanded of her friend.

“Wily, I had no idea he’d lose it like that, I swear!”

Wildfire raised a hoof for silence and cut across the midnight blue pegasus. “You knew he’d react though, didn’t you?” She whispered as her voice threatened to give out, “You wanted him to react, you wanted him to rise to that stupid scroll. Well congratulations D, he reacted, and here we are. Was it worth it?”

“Wh – what?” Dusk asked, disbelieving of what he’d heard. “Wily please…”

“DON’T CALL ME WILY! GET OUT!” Wildfire screamed again, causing a doctor to look around the door frame, only to be waved away by Eirene.

“Wil…Wildfire…” Dusk couldn't remember the last time he’d used his best fiend’s full name. “You don’t mean that, please!”

“YOU DID THIS TO ME! GET OUT!” She screamed again, her hooves searching her bed for something to throw. Finding nothing she seized her pillow and threw that instead.

“Wily, what the buck?” Dusk exclaimed as the pillow missed him by a clear four feet to bounce off the walls to the floor.

“Prince Dusk…” Nurse Eirene stooped to pick up the pillow, “I think you should leave, please, my patient doesn’t need this stress.”

Dusk slid off the seating pad he was sat on, but made no movement to leave. “I'm not leaving!” He said with a stomp of his hoof, “We need to work this out.”

“GET OUT!”

Dusk was crying. For how long he didn’t know. When he came back to himself the maid was long gone. The coffee table was repaired, as were the fine chine mug and cup, and the stain was gone leaving the carpet pristine. The Prince had no words for how miserable and wretched he felt. He hadn’t meant to lose it with Air Raid. She was right, wasn’t she?

Turning his back to his room he rolled over on his chaise and wept quietly. He had to get this out of his system, it was Friday and Vocal would be round in a few hours for a weekend of puppy love. With a supreme act of will power, the royal pegasus shoved thoughts of Air Raid and Wildfire out of his mind. His coltfriend needed him, and Vocal always knew how to make forget everything and make him feel better. At least until he closed his eyes.

~ ~ ~

“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. The roses have wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head. The roses stink, sorta like sheep but leave your name, number, and message after the beep. The roses are molding, the violets are rotten and I might call you back, if I haven't forgotten.”

“Wily, it’s Raid…” Air Raid paused at the sound of the beep after the poem had ran its course. “Your dad said you were visiting family in Filly, well…if you get this babes I’ve been shopping, I’ve got your favourites in. I um…I even got those super rare red crested hen’s eggs you love, y’know, to welcome you back when you come ba…” The beep of the answer phone cut her off in mid flow.

“Damn!” The lime green mare stared at her phone like it was its fault that Wildfire wasn’t picking up. “Stupid damn thing!”

“Still no answer huh, Raid?” Java smiled sympathetically as he floated over a steaming mug of black coffee to her table along with a large caramel macchiato and two salted caramel donuts.

“No…” Air Raid replied glumly and she looked at despondently at the second drink and donut. “You expecting Darkie, Java?”

“I am,” the cream coloured earth pony sat on the seating pad at the outdoor table next to the lime green racer and brushed his coffee mane out of his green eyes, “ever since I gave her a call and told her you were sat in her spot wearing a face like a smacked flank.”

Air Raid stuck out her tongue. “I don’t have a face like a smacked flank, Java.”

“No, maybe not,” the café owner smiled, “but you are in Darkie’s spot, so I’d move over if I were you. You know how she gets about her spot.”

“Pfft…whatever.” Air Raid still shimmied over onto the next pad over though. She was in absolutely no mood to argue with Darkstar over whose spot was whose. “Ugh. Java what do I do?”

“Well,” the earth pony grinned in the rays of the late afternoon sun. “You eat the donut, drink the coffee, then you order some more and help to make me a rich pony!”

"Ha, ha, Java.” Air Raid giggled, then all of a sudden her giggle vanished. “Seriously Java, what the hay do I do?”

Patting her shoulder, Java stood up from the seating pad he was sat on and trotted into his café. A few seconds later and his clipped Canterlot accent came floating from the inside through the propped open door. “Coffee Pot, you have the shop for a bit, okay?”

Air Raid wasn’t really listening. She wasn’t even really aware of the café, the seating pad or the table with her salted caramel donut on it nor was she that bothered by the presence of her coffee. Sighing a very deep sigh she reached for her cell phone and for what felt like the thousandth time that week she hit the re-dial button.

“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. The roses have wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head. The roses stink, sorta like sheep but leave your name, number, and message after the beep. The roses are molding, the violets are rotten and I might call you back, if I haven't forgotten.”

“Damn it!” Again, Air Raid cancelled the call. Again she hit the re-dial button.

“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. The roses have wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head. The roses stink, sorta like sheep but leave your name, number, and message after the beep. The roses are molding, the violets are rotten and I might call you back, if I haven't forgotten.”

“Wily…where are you love? You haven’t been home in ages. I…I know you’re visiting family, but the bed, the house, just doesn’t feel the same without you. Wily…please call me back, I love you, you know that.”

The lime green mare hung up and slumped on her seating pad and brushed her dishevelled blue mane from her grey eyes. With a shaky forehoof she reached for her black coffee that was laced with several sugars. She knew she looked like crap. She felt like crap. She hadn’t slept or preened in days, and she’d lost count of the messages she’d left on Wildfire’s answer phone.

“I love you Wily…” she murmured as she swallowed her coffee. ‘Didn’t tell her that though did you, when you had the chance?’ She thought to herself as she put the mug back down.

“No. No I didn’t.” She answered her own question miserably. She knew full well what she had done. She had behaved disgracefully, selfishly, cowardly, and she hated herself for it. Unhappily, the memory of the most shameful day of her life came back to her;

“AIR RAID!” Wildfire clapped her hooves together excitedly, smiling a side smile towards the door. “Babes I missed you, where've you been? What’ve you been doing?” Wildfire gushed, too thrilled to let her marefriend answer, “It doesn't matter you're here now! I've missed you so much! C’mere, I wanna cuddle!” Wildfire opened her hooves and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Ten minutes later and Wildfire still had her hooves open waiting for the cuddle from her marefriend. “Raid? Babes what's wrong?” She asked in a tremulous voice.

Eirene shot the immobile pegasus a nasty dangerous look and mouthed to her silently ‘Get. In here. Cuddle her. Now!’

Air Raid looked from one mare to the other and rolled her grey eyes, mouthing ‘fine!’, the lime green mare clipped her hooves hesitantly into the room towards the open forelegs of her waiting mare. “Nothing’s wrong Wily, I'm fine. I…I'm here for you sweetie.” Pulling Wildfire into a tight hug Air Raid buried her head into her marefriend's shoulder. Hidden by her black mane Eirene couldn't see the pained grimace she pulled as she smelt the acid-damaged scars under the bandages.

“Put your homework down a minute Wily,” Eirene pulled Wildfire’s black bangs from her bandages and noted the discolouration there. “I need to change your bandages and clean your scars.”

Air Raid instinctively pulled away from the all-to-brief cuddle and looked with a barely contained disgust at her marefriend’s bandaged face. “Y – You have to do that now?”

“Yes!” The earth pony stamped her hoof in indignation. “Yes I do.” Eirene seethed inwardly at this selfish mares utter lack of interest in what was supposed to be her lover. She shook her head; sadly she’d seen this too many times, especially here in Canterlot where a pony’s ‘image’ was everything. Smiling sweetly at the green pegasus she tried a different tack. “Actually, you timed your visit nicely. You can observe what I do for when you have to do this yourself.”

“Yuppers Raid,” Wildfire giggled, “You get to be my sexy home nurse!”

Air Raid stood stock still, her right forehoof still on Wildfire’s left shoulder, grey eyes wide as saucers as Wildfire’s eight words sank into her stunned brain…”You get to be my sexy home nurse!” What little smile had been on her face quickly slid to be replaced by an uncertain frown. “N – Nurse? I…I dunno about that…I'm not exactly trained…” Air Raid wrong silent as her voice trailed away to nothing. This was it, this was the end of her career. The great and talented Air Raid, winner of almost every major race Canterlot had to offer. She was young. Her career was a promising one. Now it was a good as over almost before it began.

“Rubbish, Air Raid.” Eirene snapped, the nurse very quickly approaching the end of her rope. “You don't need medical training to tend to Wily’s scars. Just watch me, and please, do pay attention.” The nurse then proceeded to tear the medical tape securing the soiled bandages at the back of Wildfire’s head under her black mane. With a practiced ease Eirene started to unwind the bandages, taking the time to explain to Air Raid what she was doing and, what to look out for when changing the bandages, where to apply a soothing cream and how tightly to reapply them.

Air Raid watched with a morbid fascination as Wildfire’s nurse slowly unwound the bandages covering her marefriend’s damaged face. Every single instinct screamed at her to run away, to get in her car and get as far away as equinely possible. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get her hooves to obey her. She found her breath hitching at the sight of more and more burnt and discoloured yellow-brown fur as it was revealed. “It hurt, Wily?” She croaked out, finding her throat had gone dry.

Wildfire turned her head in the direction of her marefriend’s voice. “Yeah Raid, it hurts. Only when the morphine wears off though babes.”

Eirene paused halfway through removing the bandages. “I'm afraid Wily will be in a constant amount of pain for a while to come yet Air Raid,” Eirene sniffed, pointedly using Air Raid’s full name. There was just, something, about this mare that didn't sit with the earth pony. Not at all.

Air Raid didn't like the sound of that very much. A constant amount of pain sounded like it needed a constant amount of care. Care, if she was totally honest with herself, she didn't know if she was prepared to give. The more she heard the more it sounded like her career was expected to at best be put on hold, at worst over. ‘It’s not fair! I've worked bucking hard to get where I am…why should I give it up?’

“Y – Yuppers…” Wildfire started then winced and hissed with pain as Eirene put a little too much pressure across the bridge of her nose. “It hurts like a bucker, but at least I have you to look after me…right?” She asked nervously when Air Raid didn’t reply straight away.

"Sorry Wily, my bad.” Eirene giggled as she unwound the rest of the bandages, “You can spank my flank after, okay?”

“That's what you said last time!” Wildfire laughed, forgetting that Air Raid still hadn't answered.

“Yes I know,” Eirene sniggered as she finished removing the bandages, “And, no matter how much I begged you still didn't spank me hard enough.” The nurse laughed at hers and Wildfire’s little in joke then she gave her a little peck on the forehead, an action that made Air Raid’s skin crawl under her fur, and stepped back. “There we go. We’ll let some fresh air get to those pretty scars of yours. Do you good before we put you on some clean bandages.”

Just before the earth pony stood back Air Raid reflexively turned her face away. ‘Pretty scars? Who’s she kidding?’ For an extra measure she clamped her eyes shut, having no desire to even look at her marefriend.

“Thanks Eirene!” Wildfire exclaimed with a wince as the room temperature air of the hospital room made contact with her now unprotected face. “Raid, babes, my nurse says I'm still pretty. What do you think, am I still something to wake up to?” Wildfire asked uncertainly, crossing her hooves under the bedsheets. ‘Please don't leave me…please don't leave me…say I'm pretty, Tartarus Raid, say anything!’

‘You used to be pretty…ugh how can I wake up to that?’ The thought shot through Air Raid’s brain. “You uh, you look just fine, Wily. Just fine.” She said through her closed eyes.

"Aw babes! You're so sweet!” Wildfire giggled, clapping her hooves together in delight from what she perceived was a genuine compliment.

Eirene was outraged by Air Raid’s attitude. Wildfire had told her all about this mare after Darkie had left yesterday afternoon and from she had been told about the pegasus, if anypony would be empathetic and understanding it would be her. Now confronted with the most unsympathetic, uncaring and downright selfish behaviour she’d had the deep misfortune to witness. It was all the infuriated earth pony could do not to erupt in a rage then and there. ‘Sweet, my left fetlock,’ she thought angrily.
Smiling dangerously Eirene decided it was time she ended this charade right here and now. She had seen this type of behaviour before and she had no doubt she’d see it again. Loved ones turning on or abandoning family or partners because the relationship wasn't easy anymore. Ponies like Air Raid made her sick. Still, having her eyes closed like that gave her an idea how to resolve the situation. She only hoped Wily wouldn't be too affected. She liked that pegasus.

“Wily, I'm just going to the other side of the room for your supplies, okay?” Eirene didn't wait for a reply before she clopped her way noisily around the bed. The earth pony smiled vindictively as she rounded the end of the bed and walked close to Air Raid’s tail. ‘Wily, forgive me…’ With that thought in her head the nurse walked past the pegasus sitting on her haunches and stomped her left hind leg down hard on her blue tail, impacting scant inches from where it met her dock. “Oops…”

“Aah!” Air Raid gasped more in surprise than pain and without thinking opened her grey eyes and found herself looking directly at Wildfire’s ruined face. Reflexively Air Raid staggered backwards away from the hospital bed, away from the injured pegasus. “AAAAH!” This time her gasp was one of fear and revulsion as she drank in the burned yellow of the discoloured fur around Wildfire’s face, the green / brown of the pitted acid marks, the melted and scarred flesh that stretched across her face where her beautiful chestnut brown eyes used to be. Air Raid tasted bile and vomit in her mouth as she looked in horror at her marefriend’s scarred tissue. She could see the sunken skin of the now empty eye sockets covered by the acid scars, and it was all she could do not to throw up in disgust.

Wildfire heard the sharp intake of breath from her partner sat by the left side of her bed. “Raid? Babes what's wrong?” She asked, turning her head slightly towards the sound of the gasp.

‘Oh Wily, what have I done?’ Eirene thought with her back to them both.

“AAaaaaAAaaaHHH!” Air Raid screamed. And screamed. For a full minute she screamed, unable to vocalise her emotions any other way. Finally after what seemed like an age the green mare ran out of breath and shuddered to a haggard awkward silence that, in the wake of the terrified scream, seemed to stretch for eternity. An eternity in which the only sounds where the breathing of the three mares.

"R – Raid…Raid…wh – wha…” There was so many things whirling around Wildfire’s brain that her questions all muddled and what came out of her mouth was a garbled mess.

“W – Wily…I'm sorry I can't do this…” Air Raid interrupted, standing to her hooves.

“Wha…what d’you…I don't understand….you said I was p – pretty…”

“I lied! Okay I lied! I'm sorry Wily but look at you…you aren't my mare…she was pretty; you…you just aren't.” She turned on her hooves and started to head towards the open door.

Wildfire heard the clopping of her hooves, “Raid…please, I'm still your Wily, come back…”

Air Raid didn't bother to turn around or even look over her shoulder as she paused halfway to the door. “I can’t do it Wily…I can't care for you. I have my career…my racing…you're hideous...I can't be seen with you looking like that…” Feeling thoroughly wretched Air Raid took another loud step away from her now snivelling mare.

"Raid please..." Wildfire reached with her hoof, grasping at the very air. "Come back, talk to me, please!"

Air Raid just carried on walking. “Sorry Wildfire...we had fun while it lasted. Fun’s over, babes.”

“Raid!” Now it was Wildfire’s turn to scream, as the sound of hooves receded away. “AIR RAAAAID!” Wildfire reached out further with her hoof, hoping to catch the retreating mare. “Come back…please, please come back!”

“Air Raid!”

“Huh…wh-what?”

“Equestria to Air Raid!” Darkstar waved her pure white hoof in front of her friend’s vacant grey eyes until the older mare blinked and seemed to focus on her, then they slipped again, seeing something that the unicorn couldn’t. “Buck this…Air Raid!” Darkstar ignited her horn with a bright yellow glow that matched the intensity of her eyes and set off a few of her magical flash bangs around the lime green mare’s head, and then for good measure she magically made her voice sound in both her ears at once. “AIR RAID!”

“D-Darkie!” Air Raid spluttered, finally getting those last awful screams out of her mind, “there’s no need to shout.”

“Thinking about Wily again, hun?” She asked kindly as she lifted her mug to her lips in her yellow aura and tasted her caramel macchiato.

“Hmm…” Air Raid mumbled as she shifted her weight on the seating pad and absently reached a hoof for her mug of coffee before she remembered she’d drunk it all. Pleasantly however she found it full of steaming black liquid. “Where’d this come from?” She asked after she took a swallow.

“You’re welcome.” Darkstar bowed her grey maned head. “You owe me fifteen bits.”

“Gee, thanks mate.” Air Raid groused good naturedly as she took another sip, then her grey eyes settled on the large dusty bottle of 2001 vintage moonshine sat on the table between the two mares, complete with two glasses. “Huh…where’d that come from?”

“Courtesy of Java and his cellar.” Darkstar explained.

“Java doesn’t sell moonshine.”

“No, but he does keep some for emergencies.” Darkstar smiled a wide smile and uncorked the twenty four year old bottle and in her yellow magical aura she poured them both out a generous serving. “On the condition that you aren’t gonna drive anywhere today. This is the good stuff.”

“I could use the good stuff,” Air Raid muttered.

“You could use a shower, two nights worth of sleep and a decent preening too,” Darkstar chuckled once she had poured out two glasses of the moonshine.

“I’ll sleep when Wily comes home from Fillydelphia, Darkie.” Air Raid commented as she took the glass in her hoof.

“Are you still getting no reply?” Darkstar asked, switching out her macchiato mug for the moonshine.

By way of response, Air Raid simply pressed re-dial on her cell phone.

“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. The roses have wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head. The roses stink, sorta like sheep but leave your name, number, and message after the beep. The roses are molding, the violets are rotten and I might call you back, if I haven't forgotten.”

“I see.” Darkstar quietly sipped her moonshine thoughtfully. “So how come you’re moping here? In my spot?”

"I’m not moping.”

“Liar.”

“Fine.” Air Raid replied, gulping down another mouthful of her moonshine. “Maybe I am moping. I have a right to mope.” She was about to take a third mouthful and then she caught the severe questioning look from her friend. “This past week I’ve lost Wily, I’ve lost two races, I’m close to losing Slingshot and I think I’ve just about lost Dusk, too.”

“Firstly, boo bucking hoo. This isn’t about you, Raid.” Darkstar replied shortly. “This is about my very good friend, your marefriend and us not knowing where she is. Second, what’s up with Dusk? The last I heard from Lady Octavia, he was sulking in his suite with Vocal.”

“Well…funny story, that.” Air Raid commented as she reached for her glass of moonshine in the late afternoon sunshine.

“I’m listening.”

“See, what happened was, I went to the castle earlier today.” She drained the last of her glass and stretched her forelegs out on the seating pad. At Darkstar’s encouraging nod, she continued. “I walked into the throne room, I went up to Princess Celestia. I pleaded my case and then I asked to use a Time Scroll so I could go back a week and change what’s happened. Because I love Wildfire more than I love racing, more than I love my next breath.”

“Really. You.” Darkstar merely raised her left eyebrow as she scrutinised her friend. “You. Air Raid. You walked up to the Goddess of the Sun, Princess of the Day, Celestia herself and demanded to use a Time Scroll? Something only the highest level unicorns can use safely? A thing so unstable only two unicorns have used one in the past twenty three years?”

“Yep.” Air Raid used the bottle that Java had left them and poured herself another glass of moonshine. So what if she got drunk? At least she’d forget for a while. “That I did, Darkie.”

“Then what?”

“Well…as you can imagine, the Princess kindly asked me to leave her throne room. I didn’t want to leave her throne room. I was just on the verge of making a scene that no doubt would’ve ended with me in the dungeons for a day or two when Dusk appeared and whisked me into his suite.” Air Raid paused for breath and she sipped her drink while her friend snickered at her. “The meeting with Dusk didn’t go well.”

“How not well?” Darkstar asked.

Air Raid squirmed uncomfortably on her seating pad. “Ha, ha….well, you see…”

“How dare you!” Dusk raised his voice for the first time. “You are the one who dumped her you hypocrite! Oh yes, I heard about that!” He shouted in Air Raid’s stunned face. “What was it Eirene said? Aah…yes that’s it… ‘I have no room in my life for a blind mare. I can’t be a carer.’ And you presume to lecture me because you’ve suddenly grown a conscience? I don’t think so, you Dodo!”

That did it.

There was an unspoken line amongst the group of friends that they had agreed not to cross.

Dusk Melody just crossed it.

Unable to restrain herself, Air Raid pulled her left forehoof back and landed a stiff punch squarely across the Prince’s right jaw. “Buck you Dusk!” She yelled and drew her hoof back to punch him again. There was only one pony in Equestria she allowed to poke her about her well known disability that meant she couldn’t fly. “Buck you, you stuck up plot-hole!”

“So…you wound him up until Dusk lost his temper and called you a Dodo, and then you punched him!?” Darkstar asked incredulously, almost dropping her lead crystal glass she was holding in her glowing yellow magic.

Air Raid nodded sadly.

“I’ll give you this much, Raid.” Try as she might, Darkstar couldn’t keep the smirk from her pure white muzzle. “When you buck something up, you buck it up real good.”

“You know me,” Air Raid sighed despondently, “I don’t do anything by halves.”

“Hmm…” Darkstar’s yellow eyes narrowed a little. “I thought I did, but now I’m not too sure.” Darkstar emptied her own glass and gave her older friend a very piercing look. “Raid, I have a question. I'd very much like the courtesy of an honest answer.”

“Alright.” Air Raid found she couldn’t quite return her friend’s gaze. “Shoot.”

“You say you love Wily.” Darkstar led off as she sipped her moonshine and let that opener hang in the air for a brief moment before swallowing her mouthful. “Did you really, or was she just an easy lay for you?”

“Wow...” Air Raid breathed and reached for the now three quarters empty bottle.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Darkstar levitated away the bottle out of the lime green mare’s reach. “Honest answer first.”

Air Raid sighed. “Alright. At first, yeah, I saw her and I wanted her. I saw how she looked at me. I knew she was into me. yeah, at first I thought, ‘I'll tap that’. But…but then I found out I was loving her.”

“When?”

Again, Air Raid let out a deep sigh. “It was after the fun fair. When we were both laid on the cloud after the Ferris wheel. I told her about my Scootaloo’s Syndrome and we danced…” the racer began crying openly. “Sh-She said she’d stand by me no matter what…”

“Then why did you stop?”

“Honest answer?” Air Raid asked, but then she quailed under her friend’s look. “I was scared - not of her, of course not - but of everything else. I finally got my career where I want it, I had my mare...Tartarus I had my mom even supporting me. Then…then all of a sudden all I could see was it was gone. I was a selfish coward, Darkie, and I hate myself for it.” Air Raid actually did look at her friend, tears streaking tracks down her lime green fur. “B-But…sh-she'll come back, right?” She asked desperately. “Once she's done in Filly, Wily'll come back, won't she? Darkie, please say she'll come back!”

Darkstar levitated the bottle over to the crying pegasus and, lighting her horn with a brighter yellow glow she created a perfect magical facsimile of Wildfire standing between them. So perfect was the creation, from the jet black mane and tail to the sun yellow of her coat and the red of the stylised burning fireball cutie mark, that momentarily Air Raid stopped crying. With glistening eyes she studied the illusion.

"W-Wily? Wily come back...when will you come back?" Air Raid asked through fresh tears.

Controlling the illusion, Darkstar made the ‘Wildfire’ put its hoof on Air Raid’s shoulder as she filled her glass for a third time. “I don’t know Raid,” it spoke with Wildfire’s exact voice, and looked sympathetically with her chestnut brown eyes. “But you won’t get the answer at the bottom of that bottle, or the next one either.”

Darkstar got up and slowly walked away, leaving her friend hugging the Wildfire illusion she had created. The pure white unicorn walked until she couldn’t hear her tears anymore. She held the illusion until she couldn’t hold it any longer. “Poor Air Raid…” she thought, wiping away her own tears.