“That was great!” Tempest whooped with unbridled joy as the four ponies – Luna, Airmail, Wildfire and herself – materialised outside Emerald’s house in Canterlot. Completely unaffected by the teleportation, the violet weather pony reared up to her hind hooves in the moonlit street and hoof-bumped the Princess.

Three feet away from them, Airmail staggered uneasily on her hooves, her azure blue wings firmly clamped over her mouth, which was very green indeed. “I need to inspect that bush, now!” With that, she darted off as fast as her wobbly hooves could carry her.

“Uuuugh…m-me t-too...” a foot away from Airmail, Wildfire almost threw up then and there. With her wings over her mouth she ran anywhere really, it was pure luck that she found the bushes. She didn't care as she noisily and violently emptied up the contents of her belly.

“Silly fillies.” Tempest snorted derisively. Accustomed to class ten tornadoes, she thought the long range teleportation was fantastic, especially the sensations of being compressed and squeezed through a very tight tube. The ethereal stars and magical other-realm…ness was just a bonus. In her opinion it was the best carny ride ever! “You so need to do that to Requiem.”

Luna lifted her hoof to her mouth and giggled, her mood flipped one hundred and eighty degrees from the tense meeting on the Friendship Express mere seconds before. “Tempest, I'm glad you mentioned Requiem.” The Princess’s giggles died away but her tone remained light. “I may need her services regarding this matter. So, your plans now?” She enquired.

Tempest had to really fight her laughter. “Ahem, when they are done fertilizing these bushes, we will go and check in on Emerald. We’ll call up Air Raid, meet them and drag them off to the palace. Once you have assessed the damage we will go from there.” She said determinedly, “Air Raid was talking about escaping her parents and moving to Manehatten anyways.”

“Excellent.” Luna smiled and nodded. She approved greatly of this plan. “I shall await you at the palace then, tell the guard there you're all here to see me, Bulwark and Shieldwall will let you straight in.” The lunar alicorn’s face hardened then. She knew the unwholesome task that awaited her in the depths of the palace, in Room One Zero One, far below the dungeons. She didn’t look forward to what she had to do, but she knew it had to be done. “Now, if you'll excuse me Tempest, I have a prisoner to make very uncomfortable.”

Tempest shuddered involuntarily. The violet pegasus was in no doubt whatsoever what she meant by that, “I'll just forget I heard that, Princess.” She stepped forward and knocked on the door while Wildfire and Airmail continued to rearrange the contents of their stomachs.

“Until later, Tempest.” With a respectful nod of her head, Princess Luna vanished in a bright flash of magic and teleported to the palace, the dark part of her mind eager to be let free.

After a few moments Emerald cautiously cracked open the door, just barely so that the thirty year old orange pegasus could peer out through the gap that the security chain allowed. “H-Hello?” She stuttered nervously.

“Hello Emerald, I'm Tempest.” She greeted the painfully nervous mare with an easy friendly smile. “I was here on Thursday with Wildfire and Airmail.”

“Oh…of c-course,” Emerald smiled a relieved smile now she recognised just whom had come to call on her. “How c-could I f-f-forget my three saviours?” She unhooked the security chain and opened the door wide. “W-Won't you c-come in?”

“One moment, please.” Tempest held up her violet hoof. “Airy, Wily, are you ready to come inside?”

“Ugh…I think so, I could use some water.” Airmail groaned as she wiped her lower foreleg across her mouth and moved up to the door with a shaky smile on her muzzle.

“Y-Yuppers...” Wildfire likewise staggered up to her old family house. “Um, water would be nice.”

Tempest chuckled and turned back to Emerald, who was looking at them both with a quizzical look on her orange face. “Yes please, we can talk inside.”

“Ok-kay...um, are they b-both alright?” She asked, stroking her hoof through her emerald green mane as she stepped aside to allow the three mares entry to her house.

“They'll be fine,” Tempest let out a giggle, “just a bad case of motion sickness.”

“Yeah,” Airmail grumbled as she slouched over to the nearby couch seating pad, “when my stomach knocks, please let it in.” The azure blue mare was so out of it from the after effects of the teleport that she didn’t realise the very comfortable cream coloured couch was new.

“It’s not stopped moving yet...” Wildfire groaned as she too found the couch. “I'm never doing that, ever again…”

“P-Please, make yourselves c-comfy,” Emerald smiled warmly, she went quickly to her kitchen and returned with two glasses of ice cold water. “T-To w-what d-do I owe the p-p-pleasure?”

“Follow up visit to make sure you're okay and you have what you need,” Tempest answered in what she hoped was her best comforting voice. She looked around and noticed for the first time that the house was far neater and cleaner than it had been on Thursday. There was no smell of booze, cigarettes or salt lick in the house. “Our main reason for being in town is to contact some others that were affected by your husband.”

The orange pegasus almost dropped the tray she was carrying. Her smile dropped a country mile and her wings – whose clipped feathers were starting to regrow – fluttered in panic. “Oh I s-see…”

Airmail put out her hoof and helped Emerald lower the tray to the restored coffee table in front of the couch. “He is still your husband?”

Emerald nodded and set down the tray before sitting on her new cushioned fitted carpet. “Until the d-divorce c-clears.” She admitted sadly. She was just getting over the trial on Saturday. She had only been able to attend via monitor system as she had been in the hospital recovering. That she had been almost framed as an accomplice just added to the hurt she felt. “Who has he hurt n-now?”

“Don't waste your money on a divorce,” Airmail snorted as she reached a wing for her water. Only then did she start to notice the new furniture and the clean smelling house. “Capital crimes, I suspect he will leave you a widow very soon.”

“It’s been alleged he cut off a unicorn's horn.” Tempest explained.

Emerald went very, very pale indeed. Her orange coat was almost white, throwing into stark relief the bruises still on her neck and her healing black eye. “I-I’m sorry!” She squeaked pitifully and shrunk to the floor where she lay shaking in fear. “I r-remember her...I had n-no choice to lie f-for him!”

“Mum...” Wildfire couldn’t see her step-mum, of course, but she recognised that terrified whimper all right. She had made plenty of them herself over the years. “Mum, it's alright…”

“Do you remember any other victims that may need to be addressed?” Airmail asked gently, not wanting to push the panicking mare too far too quickly.

Emerald however wasn’t placated. Her panic was starting to overcome her. She was going to get beaten any second, she knew she was, she always got beaten when she panicked. “He w-was g-going to k-kill me!” she cried into her new carpet, her wings fluttered protectively over her face. She hated her face being hit. “I-I d-don't r-re-remember anymore...s-sorry…”

Airmail scooted off of the couch and moved around the coffee table and she gave Emerald a tight loving hug. “Calm down, there is a special investigation unit assigned to the case. You are not in any trouble, but some ponies may ask questions. Just tell them what you know and it will work out. He can't harm you anymore.”

Emerald didn’t fight the hug but she didn’t return it either. Her eye was only just starting to heal and she was still panicked. “I d-didn't w-w-want to, I really d-didn't…” It was only Wildfire’s use of the word ‘mum’ that managed to calm the stricken mare down. “W-W-Wildfire, y-you called me mum…”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire smiled warmly in her mother’s direction. It didn’t matter to her that the orange pegasus was only a few years older than herself. As far as she was concerned, she was family. Not only was she legally her step-mother, she had lived through the same kind of abuse she had. That was a bond, right there. “Well, you are my step-mum, aren't you?”

Tempest smiled and took Airmail’s place on the couch, laying a gentle nuzzle on Wildfire’s cheek as she sat down. “Looks like you've gained a daughter, Emerald.”

Emerald coloured up in an intense red blush. “I d-don't k-know if I d-d-deserve that…” she really wasn’t sure about this at all. Three days ago she didn’t know Wildfire existed, now here she was embracing her as her mum.

Airmail gently worked her muzzle under Emerald’s wing that was still covering half of her face and she coaxed the timid mare into a nuzzle. “We may need a place to crash for the night, if you don't mind. Not sure yet though. Wily, do you have Emerald's phone number?”

Emerald nodded as her clipped wings gradually returned to her barrel. “Y-You are all m-more than w-w-welcome, anytime.”

“I c-can g-give you m-my n-nu-number,” Emerald stuttered when her step-daughter shook her head ‘no’, and she got up to get a piece of paper from the dining table and she scribbled her number down before hoofing it over to Airmail for safe keeping.

“So, mum,” Wildfire started as she heard the scribbling and the paper being passed. “What are you doing with the house? I assume it's yours now?”

“P-P-Princess Luna said the house is m-mine,” Emerald replied with a happy smile. “She has go-gotten the b-bank to forg-give the mortgage! I'm t-turning it into a halfway house, and a d-drop in p-place for homeless p-po-ponies. T-There are five rooms upstairs and I'm c-converting the b-basement to b-be my room.”

Tempest nodded. She greatly approved of this plan, and if anypony deserved a bit of ‘help’ from Luna leaning on the bank, it was her, after everything she had been through. “You can make a difference in so many lives, Emerald.”

“That’s w-what I hope t-to d-do, Tempest,” Emerald replied to the violet mare.

“Wily,” Airmail said, gently removing herself from Emerald’s side now it seemed the orange mare had calmed down enough, “can you give Air Raid a call and see if she and Darkstar are available for a visit?”

“Alrighty, Pretty!” Reaching in her saddlebag, Wildfire retrieved her phone and navigated her way through her verbal menus to get to Air Raid’s number and she dialled.

Four rings later and Air Raid answered the call. “Hey Wily,” her tired voice came through the speaker of the blind mare’s cell phone. “I wasn't expecting to hear from you for a good few hours yet.”

“Hi Raid,” Wildfire’s – by comparison bright and chirpy voice – greeted her ex-marefriend, “can you and Darkie come to my old house a little early? Me, Airmail and Tempest are here…oh, do you want us to come pick you up?”

Air Raid sighed a heavily fatigued sigh. With everything that had happened that day already with Darkstar and the knife, not to mention recent events in general, she was worn down and she didn’t know which way was up right now. “It’ll have to be a taxi then, my car only seats two…” she paused as a thought occurred to her. “Wily, where we going? Still over to your old place?”

“Alrighty Raid,” Wildfire spoke into her speaker. Despite her feelings about Air Raid over the years, she knew her ex needed a hug. And a friend, it seemed. “We're getting a six-seater taxi from my step-mum's place to yours then to the castle, 'kay?”

Again Air Raid sighed. She was running on less than fumes. “Alright Wily, I just need a moment to get Darkie ready, then we'll meet you out front.”

“See you in a few, Raid.” Wildfire cancelled the call and then she busied herself with dialling a taxi firm to request a six-seater taxi to pick them up at Emerald's address.

Emerald looked from Airmail to Tempest to Wildfire disbelievingly. “Y-You're g-go-oing to see the P-Princess?”

“Princess Luna,” Tempest specified gently, “I’m not sure if her sister is still awake.”

Emerald blushed as she got up to her hooves. “I kn-know it's n-not much, b-but give her m-my be-best and m-my thanks for vi-isiting me in the hospital.” She bent and picked up the empty glasses on the tray and returned them to the kitchen to be washed.

“Thank you for your hospitality with us dropping in on short notice,” Airmail said when she stood up from the luxurious quilted carpet. She’d heard the taxi cab pull up already on the street outside. She had to admit she was impressed at the driver’s speed.

“Oh, p-please…” Emerald at last smiles a genuinely happy smile, “y-you three are always w-we-welc-come anytime!” And, she meant that too. These three had literally saved her life, of that she had no doubt whatsoever. She walked over to her step-daughter and gave her a tight loving hug. “E-Especially y-you my d-daughter. M-My d-do-or is always open for you.”

Wildfire blushed in her step-mother’s hug. “Gee, um…thanks mum.”

In the moonlight and glow of the out-dated gas lights outside of Emerald’s house, on the short path from the building to the taxi, Tempest put her violet wing over Wildfire’s back. “I’m really quite proud of you, Wildfire.”

“Proud?” Wildfire knew the taxi was waiting, but she paused at that and turned her head to Tempest’s direction. “Why, what did I do?”

Tempest snickered, typical oblivious Wily being adorably oblivious. “You made Emerald feel welcome in her own home, that’s what.”

“Yes,” Airmail waved her hoof at the taxi to let the mare driving know that they were coming before she nuzzled her little lover’s cheek. “I understand what it is to call another mare ‘mom’ that didn't give birth to you.”

Wildfire nodded. She knew well what Tempest and Airmail were saying. She also knew what Emerald had suffered through. Yes, she wasn’t her real mum. Yes, she had lied for her dad, but she had no choice. Just like she had had no choice to obey Amethyst. That understanding left a ‘thing’ between them. “I'd say she's earned it, after what she's been through.”

“You can't earn what you just gave, Wily,” Tempest said kindly. “You can only receive it when freely given.”

Airmail nudged her diminutive marefriend’s left flank with her right wing. “You ready to meet the Darkstar of today?” she asked her gently.

“As…” Wildfire sighed and resigned herself to the inevitable as she and her herd-mates got in the back of the taxi. “as I'll ever be, Pretty.” She really didn’t know what to expect or what she’d find at Air Raid’s house. All she knew for sure was that Darkstar was her friend, and things weren’t as cut-and-dry as once she thought they were.

~ ~ ~

“Please wait,” Tempest said to the earth pony mare operating the cab following the thankfully short taxi ride from Emerald’s house to Air Raid’s expansive one storey villa in the Upper Noble Quarter of Canterlot’s Residential District, “we are picking up two more here.”

All ready and waiting just inside her living room, Air Raid saw the taxi pull up outside of her luxurious house. The lime green pegasus waved her greeting to the waiting taxi and she ushered her friend with her wing. “C'mon Darkie, they're here…” she trailed off to silence when she saw the sullen look in Darkstar’s yellow eyes. She’d had ‘that look about her since she had taken the knife from her earlier.

Air Raid sighed a deep reluctant sigh as she took Darkstar down the driveway past her white R8 to the taxi. She was really hoping the promise of seeing Wildfire again, as well as meeting her two new marefriends, would have snapped her friend out of her current depressive state. No such luck.

Airmail kept Wildfire in the cab, scooting over to make room while Tempest exited to wait for the two ponies to board. “Thanks…” Air Raid smiled to the violet weather pony as they boarded. Tempest studied both mares intently. While she didn’t have the ability of Serenity, she fancied she could read a pony fairly well.

“To the palace, please,” Tempest requested their new destination to the earth pony driver and once Air Raid and Darkstar were on board she too retook her seat. “We have a Night Court appointment, but there’s no need to rush.” She returned to studying the new arrivals as the taxi began to move. In her opinion, she’d never seen a pony look more crushed and defeated in her life. Then she turned her attention to Darkstar; the pure white unicorn had a pale grey mane and her cutie mark was of three black stars. Tempest thought she was cute and she looked healthy, but for the top third of her horn missing and the gold level-twelve inhibitor which she wore around its base stood out a mile.

Airmail leant forward as the cab took off down the moonlit street. “Hello, I'm Airmail, but you can call me Airy.”

“I’m Tempest,” the weather pony held out her hoof for a bump like Airmail did as she introduced herself properly. “But my friends call me Stormy.”

“Hey, I'm Air Raid,” the lime green mare gratefully accepted the hoof bumps from Airmail and Tempest. If she was honest she was just trying to keep the exhaustion from her voice and her whole demeanour. She failed on both counts. “Or just Raid, this is Darkie…”

In a flat toneless voice very reminiscent of the one Wildfire had spoken in after the BDSM session at Airmail’s parent’s house, the white unicorn interrupted her de facto carer. “I'm Darkstar.” Unlike Air Raid, she did not return the hoof bumps, her yellow eyes firmly fixed on the floor of the cab.

“Hey guys!” Wildfire smiled at her ex-marefriend and her old friend, beside her, Airmail and Tempest looked at each other and they shared some silent ear twitches between themselves. They both agreed that Air Raid wasn’t the evil bitch they had thought her to be. They were both equally shocked at Darkstar’s obviously depressed state.

Air Raid raised an eyebrow at Tempest and Airmail’s ear twitches, but as her focus was split between the white mare sat next to her and the blind mare sat opposite her, she paid it no mind. “It’s nice to finally meet you at last,” she said while Darkstar just shrugged silently.

“Raid...” Wildfire said, turning her head to her ex-marefriend, she was amazed that she still smelled the same – a definite scent of coconut oil was coming from in front of her in the taxi, “you…you came back for me?”

“Yeah,” Air Raid looked up across from Airmail and Tempest over to Wildfire and the twenty seven year old looked, really forced herself to look at Wildfire. She looked at her and really saw her. For the first time she saw past the acid scars that disfigured her face and she saw her marefriend looking back at her. She realised how much of a selfish mare she had been five years ago, and how lucky she was to have a second chance. “But you were gone from the hospital the next day, I'm so sorry…”

“No,” Wildfire cut across her. She wasn’t going to allow this self-pity to continue. “I'm sorry. I've hated you for ages and it wasn't your fault.”

Air Raid however wasn’t done hating herself just yet. She had to explain, “Running out on you was my fault, I shouldn't have done that, screamed at you and stuff…” Air Raid trailed off and didn’t finish her sentence. It didn’t really need finishing, did it? Wildfire was here, and talking to her.

Wildfire then turned to the sullen unicorn. She didn’t smell like she remembered. There was no hint of caramel coming from her old friend. She smelled wrong and she sounded wrong too. “Darkie...”

“Darkstar,” she answered dully, her gaze flitting from the taxi’s floor to her fetlock and the many scars barely hidden by her white fur. She didn’t feel happy at seeing her old friend, nothing much made her happy anymore, except the touch of her favourite knife on her skin.

“Darkstar...I'm sorry my dad hurt you,” Wildfire didn’t really know what to say. She wanted to hug her friend, hug her like old times, but she didn’t know what would happen if she did. She contented herself with fidgeting next to Airmail. “Why did you keep pushing?”

Darkstar shrugged. “You weren't in Fillydelphia,” she answered in that same flat deadened tone.

“So!” Air Raid, a little too heartily in an attempt to compensate for Darkstar, “you're living in Manehatten now?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire beamed a wide happy smile that lit up her whole face, “with Airy, Stormy, Serenity and Mapper.”

Seeing Wildfire’s beaming smile, hearing her say ‘yuppers’ one more time, Air Raid smiled. She couldn’t help it. The little yellow mare was like a soothing balm over her invisible wounds. She hadn’t expected this. She had expected her to be like she was on the train when she had called her, but, she supposed, her new marefriends had calmed her down to where she was now. “I met them,” the lime green mare recalled the meeting outside Winter’s house, “they were nice enough to listen to me.”

Wildfire nodded before she turned back to the unicorn, “Darkstar, how are you?”

For the third time Darkstar shrugged. “I’m alright today,” she started. She knew it was a lie, but she didn’t care. She knew everypony else in the taxi probably knew it was a lie, but she cared even less about that. “I have to take medication for depression and I have to wear an inhibitor all the time.” At least the medication had silenced the other one that lurked in her mind, the one that tormented her.

“Darkstar,” Airmail spoke up. She and Tempest had been content to allow the three mares to reintroduce themselves to each other, but there was something she needed to know. “Are you willing to risk it all to have your horn fixed?”

“Sure,” Darkstar replied. At last, she lifted up her yellow eyes and looked straight at Airmail, “it’s not like I have anything much to risk, but that's not my call to make.”

Airmail flinched at Darkstar’s gaze. It had been a long time since she’d seen a pony who was so dead inside. It was as if there was nothing behind her eyes. “Whose call is it?” She asked, she thought she saw the faintest flicker of ‘something’ there. It made her wish she had taken out Cold Front when she had the chance. But, Tempest had told her to stand down.

“It’s mine Airy,” Air Raid put in, “I have full guardianship over Darkstar.”

That piqued Tempest’s interest. She leant forward on her seating pad and said, “I was wondering why you instead of her brother?”

“Brightstar doesn't live around here anymore,” Darkstar answered that. There was the barest flicker of emotion in her voice when she spoke of her brother, “He moved to Fillydelphia to try and find you, Wildfire, before I was attacked.”

That didn’t really sit very well with Airmail. You just didn’t leave family. “Does he have a family there now?”

Air Raid nodded quickly. “Brightstar met a griffon called Moonbeak. She already had a kitten at the time and she was pregnant with her second. He’s married to her and he’s the step-father of her two kittens. Shortly after what happened to Darkie, he joined the Fillydelphia police department.”

Airmail sighed. At least this Brightstar hadn’t abandoned his sister for no good reason. He did have a family and a responsible job worthy of respect. “Raid, we're going to the palace so Luna can assess the damage to Darkstar. She says to not expect a miracle, but at best Darkstar will regain control of her magic and at worse, lose her magic completely.”

“Okay...” Air Raid took that in and nodded her understanding, “well, anything would be something, right Darkstar?”

“It makes no difference,” Darkstar answered glumly, “I can’t use it now so it makes no odds to me, really.”

Tempest caught the depression rife in Darkstar’s voice and the weather pony decided to try a different tack, “Mapper told us you are looking to move to Manehatten, Raid. Is that true?”

Air Raid nodded eagerly to Tempest, glad and relieved to change the subject to a happier one. “Yes Stormy, I...I mean we, have been looking to get out of Canterlot for a while, I just thought the change of scene would do her good.”

“Why do you have to wear the inhibitor?” Wildfire asked suddenly, the thought springing to her mind.

Darkstar turned her gaze to her friend then. A tiny spark in her mind fired. “I can’t control the magic. I'm as much a danger to myself and to others. Sometimes I can struggle to levitate a pen or I could implode this taxi. At my last therapy session I lost control and blew out a wall of her office.”

“Do you own your place here in Canterlot?” Tempest asked as Wildfire whistled in appreciation.

“Yes,” Air Raid nodded, “I do.”

“It just so happens both we and Mapper are putting our houses up for sale.” Tempest said with a smile. “We're buying a new place to move in together.”

“Our place is a two level townhome, street parking, one point three million bits.” Airmail picked up, “Mapper’s is a three level townhome with garage on the lower level and it’s two million bits. That place you were in looks like it should sell for four million bits, easy.”

“Thank you,” Air Raid murmured. It all seemed too good to be true, like she was dreaming. “It’s pretty much unchanged since you were in it, Wily.”

“Except for my room,” Darkstar said, her voice as emotionless as ever. “It’s padded.”

“Your room?” Wildfire was puzzled at that. “Raid said you were together, don't you sleep together?”

Air Raid blushed intensely while Darkstar retreated back inside herself and studied her scarred forelegs. “We're only together in the sense we share a house and I look after her. So, what do you all do in Manehatten?”

Tempest puffed out her chest with pride, admittedly, deserved pride. “I'm a major, in charge of the First Manehatten Weather Battalion.”

Airmail rolled her brown eyes good naturedly. “I’m the lead political editor for the Manehatten Times newspaper.”

“As you heard,” Tempest continued, “Serenity is an opera singer and Mapper is a carnie.”

Wildfire said, “And I start work at the Fire Department next Monday.” She smiled a very proud happy smile at that. She really couldn’t wait for her first day of work. Something however was bothering her, a lot, “Raid, have you been taking care of Darkstar all on your own?”

Air Raid nodded sadly, “Yeah, pretty much, but there is a nurse who comes when I'm away racing. Darkstar can’t be left alone, at all.” She looked across to her friend who simply carried on looking down at the floor.

“The place we are getting is just four blocks from Mapper’s current place.” Tempest interjected. She understood the need for the troubled young unicorn to be constantly supervised, given that she’d attempted suicide ten times.

“Cool,” Air Raid sighed, visibly relaxing at the thought of Wildfire and these ponies that were tentative friends being nearby. “So you'll all be pretty close then?” she couldn’t hide the hopeful tone in her voice.

“Raid,” Wildfire started as the earth pony mare pulling the taxi began to slow down as she approached the long wide avenue that lead straight to the palace gates, “you do know we're a herd, right?” That they were herd meant that they helped and that they were there for each other. Raid needed to learn that she wasn’t alone anymore.

Air Raid nodded with a reluctant hesitant smile on her face. “Mapper mentioned it the other day, yeah.”

The taxi cab came to a stop ten minutes later in the dull glow of the ancient gas lights that only just managed to illuminate the guard station at the palace gates. In fact, it was a common joke amongst the ranks that Luna’s moon lit up the streets more than the lighting did, and it was an even more common hazing for new unicorn recruits to be used as street lights.

Tempest left the taxi first and paid the cabbie while Airmail waited patiently for Wildfire, Air Raid and Darkstar to get out. When she stepped out next to the cab, the lime green mare looked up at the palace. “It’s been awhile since we were last here, right Wily?”

“Good memories I hope.” Airmail walked up to the guard station as the taxi sped off to her next job. “Airmail,” she announced herself smartly, “party of five to see Princess Luna.”

Air Raid nudged the blind mare’s side. “Very good, right, Wily?”

Wildfire blushed a very bright incandescent shade of red that did a better job of lighting the avenue than the street lights. “Hush!”

Bulwark, a massive sandy brown unicorn that looked like he had been carved straight out of the mountainside, nodded down at Airmail. “Yes Ma'am, her Highness is expecting you.” After years of being a guard for the Princess of the Night, he had learnt you go with the flow around the palace. His Princess said they could go in, he let them in. “You may enter.”

“Thank you.” Looking the guard over, Airmail wondered if they had to make his gold armour specifically for him, or as he was literally a walking slab of muscle, if he needed armour at all. “May we have an escort, please?”

“Certainly, Ma'am,” Bulwark smiled. It wasn’t often he got to escort five very attractive mares, one of whom was his coltfriend’s favourite racer. He resolved to get Air Raid’s autograph, in the hopes that it would make up for missing his griffon’s birthday last week. “If you'll walk this way, I can take you to her Highness’s chambers.”

“Thank you, Sir Knight.” Airmail gave him a polite bow of her head and she fell in by his side, looking for all the world like a father taking his filly to school, their sizes were so different, and Airmail wasn’t a small mare by any means.

Bulwark nodded, grateful that they hadn’t requested a teleport. He was still learning that skill. “You're welcome, Ma'am.” The sandy brown stallion trotted off towards the palace proper with the five mares in tow behind him, his brain wondering how he could ask Air Raid to sign something without being the biggest fancolt in Equestria.

Wildfire sniggered as she smelled Airmail’s scent move ahead of her. “Heh, after you, ‘Ma'am’.”

Without warning, Tempest laid a stiff smack that landed on the blind mare’s right cutie mark. “What was that, Lady-in-Waiting Wildfire?”

“Ow!” Wildfire let out a surprised yelp that made even Darkstar smile slightly as they walked through the palace’s hallways. “I meant, after you, Princess Airy.”

Air Raid giggled, “You haven't changed, Wily.” It had been way too long since she’d heard the little mare yelp like that. She kind of missed being the one that caused it.

“Change is slow and from within,” Tempest giggled as she caressed the reddened spot on Wildfire’s ass with her right wingtip.

“Do you still do the hoofcuffs and the crop then?” Air Raid asked, all the time fighting a battle to keep her wings down at her sides.

Tempest nodded solemnly, thought that was ruined somewhat by the broad smirk on her face, “That isn't her favourite thing though; you did leave a lasting impression on her, Raid.”

Air Raid caught Tempest’s smirk and returned it with one of her own. “Let me guess, hoofing?” When Wildfire stuck out her tongue, the lime green mare blew her a playful kiss. “And, don't you be too sure Stormy. Did Wily never tell you about the teacher dream? The one we re-enacted with Darkie’s help on Calculus’s desk?”

“I am right here, you know!” Wildfire exclaimed indignantly as they navigated the corridors, hallways and stairs to the lunar alicorn’s chambers.

After a few minutes of walking, Bulwark stopped outside the ornately carved black marble doors to Princess Luna's private chambers. “We're here Ma'am. You are expected, so I shall take my leave.”

“Thank you again, Sir for your expedient escort,” Airmail nodded politely to the huge guard before she hoofed open the door.

“Good evening to you all.” Bulwark turned to leave, and at the very last moment he summoned his nerve and he used his magic to summon his old style instant camera to him from his locker. Air Raid for her part was only too happy to take a moment out and pose for the picture. She was even happier once the polaroid had developed to sign it to Bulwark’s coltfriend, Nereus.

Inside her chambers, Princess Luna looked up from her book that she wasn’t really reading – it was the old diary that her lover Sky Dive had written during the first few decades of her banishment that had been returned to her after her return. It always soothed her soul after an interrogation, and she knew it off by heart. It was like being hugged by her lover - at her door opening. Despite her efforts, the heavy smell of disinfectants still clung to her hooves. “Ah! Welcome, Airmail, and welcome to you all.”

“Good evening, Luna.” Airmail walked straight up to the midnight blue alicorn and gave her a very tight hug. “You may remember Air Raid and Darkstar.”

With a wide familiar smile, Luna returned the hug in the manner it was given, she loved the way this Manehatten herd wasn’t afraid to hug her, argue with her and love her like any other pony. “Good evening to you, my friend.” She nuzzled Airmail’s cheek before turning to the two other mares. “I do indeed remember them both.” She gave Darkstar a very meaningful look.

Once Airmail had released Luna from her forehooves, Tempest moved in for her hug, brazenly she licked up the Princess’s ear – a move that stunned both Air Raid and Darkstar equally. “Serenity likes the pegasus, a lot, and finding out about the unicorn was a heartbreaker.”

Hugging Tempest close to her, Luna tried not to whinny in pleasure as the violet mare found ‘that’ spot on her ears that she really liked. It wouldn’t do to show that side of her just now. “I'm sure it was Tempest. I will see what can be done for her. Wildfire, do I get a hug?”

“Of course, Princess!” Wildfire sniffed out the alicorn and moved in for a hug of her own, though for the one that had played a part in healing her wings, she’d have gladly been her hoof stool for a week.

Luna couldn’t help but giggle at the look on Air Raid’s face as she was almost tackle-hugged by the little blind mare. “Now, the last time you three were in the castle together, the cleaning bill for Dusk’s suite was up in the thousands. I trust that won't be repeated?”

Air Raid knew of what Luna meant. Intently she studied her lime green hooves. “No, Princess.”

Darkstar shook her grey maned head. “It won't, Princess.”

Airmail looked at Tempest and blushed, especially as the Thursday night was still fresh in her mind. “I cannot make any statement, affirmative or dissenting, on that matter.”

Tempest looked at Airmail and thought the same thing. “I'm with Airy.”

Luna giggled, “You were quite the party ponies as I recall, Air Raid?” She teased the racer, “You and Brightstar, re-enacting the siege of the palace, both swinging from the chandeliers in the dining hall with swords held in your mouths, wasn’t it?”

Air Raid blushed a severe blush as she vividly remembered that time – one of many – that had been fuelled by Moonshine. “Um…yes, Princess.”

“Good times.” Luna’s smile gave way suddenly to a very serious expression now that the ice was well and truly broken. “Now then, to the business at hoof. Darkstar, may I see you, please?”

Instantly Air Raid became defensive, throwing a protective wing over the white unicorn’s back, “Just what are you going to do, Princess?”

“With your permission, Air Raid, I am going to attempt to repair her horn.”

Air Raid breathed steadily, her wing still protectively held over Darkstar’s back. “O-Okay Princess, do what you need to do. Inspect her, mend her horn, help her, if you can.”

Luna nodded from Air Raid to Darkstar, who was busy inspecting the floor of her bedchambers. “Thank you, Air Raid,” the Princess trotted smartly over to Darkstar, looking her over a good few minutes with a very critical turquoise eye, giving lots of 'hmms’ and ‘aaahs’ like the most annoying doctor in the world.

Curiously, Wildfire nudged Airmail’s barrel with the elbow of her left foreleg. “Um, what's going on, Airy?” she asked, all she could hear was the Princess and her ‘oohs’ and her ‘aaahs’.

Airmail lowered her head to Wildfire’s left ear and whispered quietly, she didn’t want to be obtrusive. “I think Luna is checking out Darkstar,” an idea occurred to her then. Understandably Wildfire was curious, but she knew Luna needed to concentrate. To that end she flicked her ears in Tempest’s direction and said, “We should let Octavia know.”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire nodded, “that’s a good idea Pretty.”

Despite Airmail’s efforts to keep her whisper quiet, the Princess overheard her as she was studying the remaining two thirds of Darkstar’s horn. She could see it had once been a jagged cut, but had since been ground smooth. The high-level inhibitor intrigued her. “Airmail, you'll find Tavi in the new nursery, three doors down the corridor on the left.”

“New nursery?” That caught Tempest’s attention, as did the ear flicks from Airmail. Firstly, she nodded to her herd-mate, then she turned back to Luna. “That bodes well. Want to check it out, Wildfire?”

“Yuppers!” Wildfire squeaked with excitement. Her excited inner-filly forgot for the moment about Luna and Darkstar and she was all at once interested in Octavia’s new foal. “We can talk foals!” While Tempest ushered Wildfire out of Luna’s private chambers, Airmail opted to stay behind.

Luna raised her eyebrow, “Curious, Airmail?”

“Concerned,” Airmail corrected the alicorn. “I thought getting twenty-questions-Wily out of the way would be a good idea. I can take Raid to see the nursery too, if needed.”

Air Raid shuffled nervously next to Darkstar when Luna ceased her preliminary visual inspection. “Can you do anything for her, Princess?”

Luna turned to the fretting lime green mare and she smiled, “Good thinking, Airmail. You can both stay.” Then, she addressed the troubled pure white unicorn directly, “Darkstar, I do believe I can heal your horn,” she said with complete confidence, having spent the last few nights studying healing magic with Twilight.

Darkstar managed a smile at Luna; she was happy, but she didn’t dare hope for too much, “Thank you, Princess.”

“Now,” Luna explained in a very serious tone, “I can’t guarantee it won't hurt. It might sting a little. It might well be the most excruciating pain you’ve ever experienced. Do you wish to proceed?”

Darkstar considered that for a brief moment. Pain was no stranger to her. From her devastatingly brutal eight hour attack, all the way where she was now, she’d known pain. Usually of her own causing. Once she thought about it, she nodded to Air Raid. The lime green mare gave her suffering friend a last hug before she stepped away. “Yes, Princess.” The moment she gave her consent, Airmail stepped closer to move her away from Darkie and to offer Air Raid her support.

“Very well then,” Luna stated with a note of calm detachment. “We begin.” Lighting her horn, she magically sealed the ornately carved black marble doors to her chambers. Then, she stood in front of the unicorn and she held Darkstar’s shoulders with her forehooves. Very gently indeed, she touched her lit horn to the base of Darkstar's horn, channelling her powerful turquoise magic to her in a series of glowing pulses of light.

“Aaah...” Darkstar whimpered a little but she didn’t attempt to pull away.

When Air Raid hugged Airmail’s flank, the azure blue mare whispered to the younger pegasus, “Luna fixed Wily's wings after they were very badly damaged at the home her father stuck her in.”

Air Raid nodded in the hug, and she returned the whisper, “Then, she knows what she's doing?”

With Darkstar, Luna closed her turquoise eyes and she concentrated hard, sending steady pulses of power through her horn straight to Darkstar, shattering the inhibitor ring in seconds. With the release of her unpredictable magic straight to her brain, the white mare trembled with pain, forcing Luna to hold on tight so as not to break contact.

“Yes,” Airmail said quietly.

Air Raid wasn’t very relieved at that, though her concerns were sated for the moment. “T-Thanks Airy...but, the inhibitor...” she whispered as she watched Luna increase the frequency of the magical pulses, as each one reached the severed stump of the horn, it gradually increased in length, the repair slowly taking shape.

“Nggh!” Luna grunted with the sheer effort of what she was doing. She scrunched her eyes tight shut and she poured more power into the repair. The alicorn had thought healing Wildfire’s wings had been hard, but this was something else altogether.

“OOooOOoow!” Darkstar squealed painfully as her horn was almost fully regrown. The sensations, it was like what was left of her horn was being stretched and pulled from her forehead with each pulse of magical power that emanated from the Princess’s horn.

“For Wily, she fixed what was there, this is complete restoration.” Airmail commented, the awe in her voice palpable as she watched the magical healing in action. It was something to see, each transfer of power lengthened the white mare’s horn until it was almost a foot long. “She must be getting what is needed from Darkstar herself.”

“Uh huh...and how're Wily's wings, after they were fixed?”

“Good as new, weak as a newborn foal,” Airmail replied as she watched the horn develop a new rounded tip. Once that was complete a little spiralled groove cut its way from it all the way down the tapered appendage to line up perfectly with what was already there at the base. “We have her doing strength training.”

“Okay...I feel better…” Air Raid’s voice was barely audible. “Is she doing well with it?”

When Darkstar’s horn was fully regrown, Luna changed the nature of her magic. With a silent thought, the midnight blue alicorn now sent little dark blue tendrils of pure power up around the spiral grooves of the pure white mare’s horn until they spurted out at the new tip. “D-Darkstar...nggh…try to resist the flow, control it!”

“I-I’ll…I’ll try…” Darkstar winced as she tentatively lit her horn in a dull yellow glow that was almost instantly snuffed out by Luna’s magic.

Luna grimaced internally at Darkstar's apparent lack of control. She was only using the tiniest fraction of her considerable power now to keep her dark blue tendril wrapped around her horn. This was a foal’s exercise and she was struggling. “Trust your ability, resist my flow, Darkstar!”

“I’m trying…” Darkstar lit her horn and tried again, whimpering with the sheer effort involved. She tried again to push the alicorn’s tendrils back, this time her magic glowed yellow at the tip of her horn before it petered out. “I-I can’t, Princess.”

Airmail nudged Air Raid’s barrel, “I think Darkstar could use your words of encouragement.”

Air Raid nodded. “C'mon Darkie, you know you can ace this!” The lime green mare stepped up and she rested her hoof on her friend’s white shoulder. “You got this, hun.”

Luna subtly reduced the power of her magic by quite a lot. It was evident to her after that brief display that a considerable amount of Darkstar’s power had been lost – which admittedly wasn’t that much of a surprise after four years of not using her magic at all, but she didn’t need her ‘patient’ to realise it.

Her yellow eyes closed tight, Darkstar concentrated all her remaining power and ability on her horn and, with a bright shining yellow glow now that there wasn’t much to overcome anymore, she started to stop Luna's magic from tipping her horn. “I-I'm doing it! Raid…Raid I'm doing it!”

“Good Darkstar, well done!” Luna smiled a satisfied little smile. While her power was vastly reduced, at least her control was as sharp as ever. “Now, push me back, all the way to the base of my horn.”

Trembling as she concentrated very hard, Darkstar’s white fur was covered in a glistening sheen of sweat from the amount of exertion she was putting herself through but, slowly and steadily, millimetre by millimetre, she began to push the dark blue tendrils back down her new horn.

~ ~ ~

Leaving Princess Luna’s private chambers, Tempest and Wildfire successfully navigated the tricky route to the nursery - three doors down back the way they had come and on the left – and the violet weather pony knocked on the carved white wooden doors with their gold inlays. “Knock, knock.” she called out, pushing the hardwood door open.

Octavia, busy with arranging the crib and playpen, looked over at the door as it opened. Curious as to whom was visiting, the old grey earth pony mare trotted to the door and her pink eyes went wide in surprise. “Oh! Tempest, Wildfire!” she affectionately nuzzled both of her visitor’s cheeks, “What a lovely surprise!” She then stood aside to let them both enter the new nursery.

“News about a new nursery travels fast,” Tempest snickered as she walked to the middle of the room. Everywhere was a riot of candy pink and bright summery yellows, greens and blue. Freshly painted murals of forests and mountains covered the walls. She recognised the Celestia Six painted in various poses around the walls and, with a certain degree of pride, she recognised a very familiar H shaped white ranch painted in the corner of one of the walls. “Or, at least when the source is somepony's wife.”

Octavia giggled like a filly and she bounced on the padded soft play area already decorated with many, many plushies like a pony a fraction of her age. “We're trying for another foal!”

Tempest rolled her blue eyes when Wildfire let out an excited squee. It was hardly news seeing as they were stood in the nursery of all places. “You picked a due date yet?”

“Not yet,” Octavia said with a shake of her charcoal grey mane, complete with silver streaks of age in it, “right now I'm enjoying getting the nursery set up ready.” She giggled, “Dusky and Oils gave us a hoof with the lifting of things yesterday. I was thinking we might have our filly at a similar time to yours, Wildfire.”

Wildfire joined Octavia in her happy bounces, the twenty four year old and the sixty two year old one and the same at heart. “They can be cousins!”

“The vote for Wily to join the herd proper is Thursday,” Tempest said with a smile as she ran her wing over the playpen and studied the plushies, “and then I'm sure she will be spending a lot of time with Tinkerer and Belle after that.”

“Excited, Wily?” Octavia asked with a grin once she had stopped her bouncing.

Wildfire giggled, “Did the bouncing give it away?”

“Just a little,” Octavia replied with a grin and another nuzzle to the blind pony’s cheek. To Tempest, she said, “Thursday is games night? I have a feeling we'll be there, you know Luna and her games.”

Tempest nodded, “Both of you are always welcome.”

“As you are always welcome here,” Octavia giggled as she sat herself down on one of the seating pads in the nursery. While her attitude towards her age had been considerably improved as of late – thanks in no small part to Mapper and Serenity, her arthritic joints still hurt after a while. “I noticed you spirited my Luna away from me again earlier.”

“It was Airmail,” Tempest snitched on her herd-mate immediately as if she was reporting her to the strict headmistress, then she sat herself down on a second seating pad, “but, I'll stand guilty as charged as well. I’m hoping that Luna can help to fix some mistakes of the past.”

“Oh it’s no trouble,” Octavia waved her wrinkled leg affably in the air, “if she has business to attend to I'm sure I'll hear about it sooner or later. I assume it has to do with your father, Wildfire?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire replied as she sat herself down on the soft padded play area. “A lot to do with him.”

“So!” Octavia caught the unhappy tone in the blind mare’s voice, as well as the shadow that came over Tempest, and she breezily changed the subject, “do you like the nursery?”

“I can barely remember mine growing up,” Tempest commented as she looked around again at the brightly painted walls and the armies of building blocks, shape sorters and plushes. “I'm sure this is the look that Wily would like. Is it okay if she feels her way around?”

“Of course it is,” the old earth pony nodded, “you help yourself, Wildfire.”

“Yay!” Given her free reign, Wildfire got up and trotted off on an explorative tour of the nursery.

Octavia smiled a wide, very motherly, smile at Wildfire’s antics as she watched the blind mare sniff and feel her way around the room. “Lulu tells me you all saw each other the other night?” she asked Tempest, her brain fishing for a new subject of conversation.

Lost watching Wildfire explore, marvelling at how the blind mare found her way around, Tempest tilted her head then it dawned on her that she was in fact being spoken to. “Oh! Oh, you mean in the dreamscape!” The violet pony snickered when the contents of her dream that night flooded back to her.

Bowing as low as her arthritis would allow her, Octavia giggled. Luna had of course told her everything. “Did you have fun, Princess?”

Tempest let out a loud belly laugh. Of course Luna would have told her wife about her alicorn dream. “My fun was indeed doubled!”

Octavia giggled politely behind her hoof. “Oh, so was mine, after Lulu had a chat with Mapper.”

“Oh?” Now Tempest was very interested; she smelled gossip that Lavender didn’t know, for once. While Wildfire was sniffing and poking around the shape sorters and plushies – oblivious to their conversation – the violet mare decided a gentle investigation was in order. “Other than a brief report about Serenity's singing gig, which included Air Raid, Mapper didn't say much about her time here after we left for Vanhoover.”

“No?” That did surprise the elderly soon-to-be-mother, “I’m surprised. Lulu took Serenity for a walk around the gardens, apparently she was a good little pup, and well…” the grey pony blushed, “Mapper was a very well behaved foal for me.”

“Sweet Celestia's Tail,” Tempest almost fell off of her seating pad at that little revelation. “Mapper did nappy play?”

“She did, and she did it very well.”

Tempest let out a low whistle of approval. “She's always had them in her toy box, but she’s usually the mommy. Lavender went through a time where she like to be a foal. As for Serenity, she is very good at role-playing just about anything.”

Octavia’s blush was still in full effect as she went on to explain, “Mapper and I had a little play with Serenity and Lulu first, we had them both in some splendid nappies that Serenity purchased.”

“Serenity?” Tempest asked, her violet ears standing to attention, “I smell a prank.”

“She went shopping while Mapper and I had some tea time fun with Lulu.” Octavia smiled fondly at the vivid memory of her wife with a ring gag in her mouth holding a funnel while they forced her to drink tea while she pleasured them. “We then had them walking the halls in their nappies. We were going to have lunch with Tia but Lulu used her safeword first.”

“So…” Tempest paused, she really, really, had to struggle to keep her powerful wings under control given the imagery in her brain at that point. “So…Octavia, will you be the one giving birth again?” she decided a change of subject was in order.

“I am, yes Tempest,” Octavia lit up like a Hearths Warming decoration hanging from the tree. She was absolutely thrilled to talk about this to her new friend, “We’ve decided between us that we're going for a magical method to conceive this time, because Lulu wants to be more involved with the conception.”

Tempest was sold. She could just picture the scene in her head, Luna and Octavia being together with each other after enjoying a day long date. “Now that sounds so romantic. I wish the two of you well. I'll make sure Wily stays in touch when she and Tinkerer work out the conception date. Serenity plans on having her foal around the same time too.”

“Lulu can be quite the romancer when she wants to be…” Octavia trailed off to a very girly set of giggles, best not to reveal all of her wife’s secrets. “So, if Wildfire's filly and ours are to be cousins, I assume Serenity's and hers will be sisters?”

“Herd sisters,” Tempest gently corrected the earth pony.

“That's so sweet!” Octavia beamed to Tempest before turning to the young blind mare who was currently being adorable, playing with the shape sorter, presumably thinking she wasn’t being noticed, “Wildfire, is Fireflight the name you have chosen?”

“Yuppers!” At the mention of her name, Wildfire dropped the shape sorter like it was red hot, “I’ve had that name in my head for ages, I don’t know where it’s from, I just like it.”

“Wily,” Tempest said through her giggles as the shape sorter spilled its contents onto the padded play area, “hasn't Serenity picked out a name too?”

“Oh, yuppers, she has, we were talking about it on the train here from Manehatten. For a filly she's chosen Hope.”

“Does that mean you'll be available for foal sitting, Octavia?” Tempest asked, somewhat cheekily she thought, with a little giggle.

Octavia didn’t think it was cheeky at all. She nodded her head eagerly. “Certainly I will,” she joined Tempest in her giggles, the more foals the merrier in her opinion. “Lulu's said I can chose our filly's name, I'm quite taken to Midnight Symphony.”

“I don't know,” Tempest pretended to think, tapping her chin with her violet hoof. “You think she will have any exposure to music growing up?”

Now Octavia laughed out loud. “Maybe just a little, Tempest.”

“You’d better be careful if you ever foal sit Hope then.” Tempest snickered, “You already know what music Serenity likes. All of it.”

“As long as I'm not expected to sing Lauper songs to her,” Octavia snickered. She recalled the events of the open mic night at Caffeinated’s shop just as well as Tempest did, and of course she was being teased about it, and rightly so! “I'm sure our foal sitting will go just fine.”

“Wily got her a Steps CD,” Tempest teased. “You may welcome Lauper.”

Octavia affected a very shocked expression that reached to her voice, “Wildfire, how on earth could you do such a terrible thing?”

“Whaaaat?” Wildfire whined innocently, her hooves toying with the wooden building blocks, “she liked it, mainly because Mistress didn't.”

Octavia suddenly understood. “Aaah, I see…” the old earth pony’s mind engaged, fully imagining Serenity singing along to her Celestia-awful CD while Mapper tanned her hide with the cricket bat.

“Is this common knowledge yet?” Tempest asked, pointing a hoof to Octavia’s belly and then at the nursery as a whole.

“Our plans for a foal, you mean? It’s common knowledge amongst the staff, so yes, I'm sure it’s throughout Canterlot by now.”

“Okay,” Tempest teased, flashing a sly look over at her herd-mate, “because Wily is a notorious name dropper and won't be able to keep quiet about it.”

“Hey!” Wildfire pouted up from the blocks, momentarily distracted from trying to work out why the raised lettering spelled out ‘breast milk’. “You make it sound like I do it on purpose!”

Octavia giggled, “I’m sure you don't, Wily...much.”

“Any other noteworthy ponies coming along on Thursday?” Tempest asked as she decided she had teased Wildfire enough for the moment. “Need to prep Thespian in case of a random plushie inspection.”

“Twi will come.” Octavia stated definitely in reply to the weather pony’s question, “Lulu's been talking with her at very great length as of late about spells to affect sperm to get fillies, so she's interested in meeting you all.”

Again, Tempest’s ears went straight up. “Really? That is interesting. I'm sure Serenity and Wily would be interested in that.”

Wildfire sat up straight when she heard the Princess’s name mentioned, “Professor Twilight's coming?”

“There's a good chance she'll come with us Wily,” Octavia replied kindly, “plus I know she wants to talk to you about your poems that she’s distributed to all the libraries.”

Tempest giggled at that, “Another autograph hound…”

Wildfire giggled nervously as she left the ‘breast milk’ building blocks alone and she felt her way back to where she was sat originally. “Um…they aren't anything special really...”

“Still,” Octavia smiled. She wanted to scoop up the blind mare and mother her ‘till the end of time. “Lulu says she has been researching the spells for you, which knowing Twi means she hasn't slept since Friday.”

“As Dusky would say,” Tempest snickered, “that is the checklist just to do the checklist, checklist.” When Wildfire and Octavia both burst out laughing at that image, knowing full well he would indeed say that. “We are still getting a lot of mileage out of that dating checklist, right Wily?”

“Right we are,” Wildfire laughed at her best friend and his ‘Questionnaire’ story. She supposed it was high time by now that they stopped teasing him about it, but it was just too funny. “I’m sorry, Octavia but that story will never ever get old. Not ever. You'll have to ask Professor Twilight about it Thursday, Honey.”

“I think to fluster the Princess of Libraries, I'd have to ask for a Mare Stallion dating checklist.”

Octavia simply shook her head. “Just don't get her dancing, please.”

“That will have to wait for open mic night in a couple of weeks…” Suddenly Tempest held up a hoof to her forehead and gasped, “We do have Dance Dance Revolution!”

“Oh sweet Celestia,” Octavia’s pink eyes went wide in terror, “No, please, I beg you don't get her dancing, Tempest, pleeeease!”

Chuckling, Tempest put on her deep masculine stallion’s voice, “You have brought this doom on yourself, fair maiden!”

Octavia sniggered behind her arthritic hoof, “You have been warned, on your head be it.”

“You've been to Caffy's place,” Tempest commented with a smirk. “All of us are disasters waiting to happen. It is a good thing that Luna brought that Twilight plush on her last visit. She has a complete collection of Princesses now.”

Octavia nodded solemnly. “I was going to ask if there was any plushies she needs for her collection?”

“I'm not that up to date on Thespian's plushie collection,” Tempest shrugged, “but that can be fixed, if you don't mind me using my phone?” When the grey earth pony nodded her ascent, Tempest giggled and took out her cell phone. “Just let me put it on speaker,” She grinned and pushed the speed dial button.

“Hello Tempest,” Thespian answered her call on the third ring. There was a general hubbub of noise in the background. “I’m getting ready for a show.”

“Yes, it’s me, and I just got word you may have your plushies inspected on Thursday, any you need to ensure your safety?”

“What!” Thespian’s calm demeanour shattered in an instant at the thought of anypony inspecting her collection, let alone royalty. “Who, what, how do you know...oh by Celestia's mane, I need a medium or small or one of each Octavia plush! I don't want Luna to think I'm dissing her wife!”

“Hello Thespian!” Octavia giggled and she spoke loudly into the speaker of the cell phone. “I'll tell Lulu to get you them. Oh, how is your Twilight plush?”

“Stormy!” Thespian’s panic showed no sign of abating any time soon. It was a good thing the veteran actress had her own dressing room. “Ahh, it is fine Octavia. She is sitting to the far right of the other Princesses, and I even put a book between her hooves.”

“Aww that’s nice,” Octavia smiled. She just couldn’t help herself. “I'm sure she'll appreciate the book when she has a look on Thursday…”

“What? Wait!” Thespian foundered desperately, almost falling of her seating pad. “Dusky said she is married to the Wonderbolt, right? I only have small plushies of the five captains!”

“That's right,” Octavia supplied, “she's married to Rainbow Dash.”

“Would it be possible to get a small Twilight too?” Thespian asked as she finally got herself under some sort of control.

“Of course, Thespian.” Octavia smiled, “I'll make sure we bring them for you when we all come over Thursday evening.”

“Thank you, Octavia,” the blue grey earth pony said, “Mapper never seems to have any Twilight plushies.”

“It’s my pleasure, Thespian.”

“Anything else other than giving me a heart attack, Stormy?” Thespian asked, her tone only slightly grumpy when one of the theatre workers reminded her of the time, “I'm due on stage in thirty minutes.”

“No,” Tempest breezed casually, “I just wanted to see if I could cash in on that insurance policy. Break a leg, Thespy.”

“Hey Thespian,” Wildfire spoke up, “what's the show?”

“Chicago, I'm playing Mama Morton.”

“Nice!” Wildfire smiled. “Break a leg!”

Laughing out loud, Tempest hung up and she stowed her cell phone back in her bag. “Now, that was fun.”

Octavia giggled like an overgrown filly. “We are such teases!”

“Mapper loves to tease Thespian about her plushies,” Tempest commented with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “Almost as much as she complains about Caffienated winning them.”

“Nothing wrong with teasing…” Octavia started as she got up from her seating pad. She had been seated a while and her joints demanded she stretch them, so she went over and nuzzled the violet weather pony’s cheek. “Right, Princess Stormy?”

Wildfire let out a loud snigger at that, “Teehee, th-that was that your dream, Honey?”

Tempest sniffed with an air of indifference as she very gratefully accepted Octavia’s affectionate nuzzle, “I believe I look rather good with a horn and you look rather good in slave filly clothes.”

“Oooh really?” Wildfire’s wings shot out from her sides, standing very firm and erect indeed with that image firmly planted in her head. “D’you want to play that out when we next have the time, your highness?”

“Note to self,” Tempest deadpanned, “take Wily shopping for slave outfit at the MiAC store. I don't know if Coco carries that line.”

Wildfire giggled, “Now that's gonna be a fun shopping trip!”

Tempest tilted her head to the side in apparent thought. “Although, Airy, Mapper, and Serenity would also need outfits to do it just right.”

“Well, I'm sure that can be arranged, 'Princess'.”

Grinning a very wide grin at Wildfire’s flippancy, and at her air quotes she had made with her hooves, Tempest pulled the crop from its resting place under her right wing and the violet weather pony landed two stiff smacks with unerring accuracy across both of Wildfire’s cutie marks. “Did you forget I still have the crop, Wily? I expect the title said with the due respect!”

“Oooh oow!” Wildfire let out a deliciously cute yelp while Tempest and Octavia both giggled. “Y'know, I did forget…” she gave her herd-mate a very low bow, “thank you for the reminder, your highness.”

“That is what you can look forward to with Fireflight.” Tempest declared as she put the crop away under her wing.

“What, you gonna teach her to spank my ass?” All three mares shared a giggle at that, then Wildfire’s countenance became uncharacteristically serious, “Hey, Stormy, do you think it’s going well with Darkie?”

At that out of the blue question from the diminutive blind mare, Octavia gave Tempest a quizzical look. “The real reason we are here,” Tempest supplied quickly. “You remember Dusky's friends that came over to study? Darkstar was attacked four years ago by Cold Front.”

“Oh, I remember them all coming over, not always to study though…Las Pegasus, anypony?” Octavia smiled, then, after a second’s thought, her smile faded to a very saddened look indeed, “I also recall Darkstar being attacked. Wildfire…that was your father?”

“Yuppers…it was, I’m sorry to say…”

“I figure they will show up when Luna is done,” Tempest said gently as she and Octavia both took up flanking positions on the little yellow pegasus and nuzzled her neck and her cheeks. “I guess we just want to improve her healing skills with regular practice.”

Octavia blinked her pink eyes once then twice, “Lulu's healing your friend's horn?”

Tempest nodded sadly, “The top third was cut clean off.”

“Yuppers, my dad did that.”

“Oh…oh my...when did Lulu find out about this?” Octavia asked, her mind was slotting together the bits and pieces of the day, and why Luna had suddenly disappeared with no warning, and her very dire mood when she had returned. “Um…was it earlier, on the train?”

“We had to call around Wily’s friends to find out just what happened, and then Airmail got Luna involved by asking for a pick up tonight,” Tempest explained quickly. “It has rolled along pretty quickly since then.”

‘Hmm…’ Octavia thought to herself, ‘that explains her dark mood when she got back.’ The old grey earth pony settled next to Wildfire and draped her foreleg over her shoulders. In a soft gentle voice she said, “You do know severing a horn is a capital offense? I'm sorry, Wildfire.”

“Sorry?” Wildfire tipped her head questioningly, “What fo...” she trailed off to silence when the shocking realisation dawned on her. “Oh, oh right. Well, he…he deserves it…”

“He did go out of his way to earn it,” Tempest snapped derisively.

“Yuppers…yuppers, he did, didn’t he…” Wildfire let out a loud sniff. Her dad may have been a complete bucktard, but he was her dad nonetheless. “Octavia? Um…when's it going to be done?”

Octavia’s voice was soft and quiet, though it carried a hard edge to it. “Knowing my wife, it already has been. Again, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“At best, he will be sent to Tartarus with no chance of parole and declared legally dead,” Tempest snorted as she hugged her sniffing marefriend, “or, they have mercy on him and just execute him.”

~ ~ ~

“Well?” Airmail asked when she watched Darkstar – with no small amount of effort – force Luna’s glowing dark blue tendrils of power back down the spiralled grooves of her horn until the barely glowing bright yellow light was the only magic there.

With a grim smile, Princess Luna cancelled her foal’s testing spell. “My assessment is complete Airmail,” the lunar alicorn answered simply with her turquoise eyes still closed. As she stood up to her full height she opened her eyes and smiled kindly down at the young white unicorn. Her cutie mark of three black stars seemed to glow now that her horn was repaired. “Your horn is fully repaired Darkstar, and you have control over your magic.”

Darkstar looked up at the Princess through disbelieving yellow eyes. “I-I do? R-Really?”

Air Raid didn’t dare to believe what she was hearing. Her friend, her charge, was healed! Really healed! “It…it worked, Princess?”

Luna nodded solemnly. She hated to be the one to temper this happy moment. Alas, she was. “However...”

Air Raid sighed. She knew it was too good to be true. “What,” she interrupted, “what is it?”

Inwardly, the Princess sighed. Outwardly she maintained the aura of calm detachment. “Darkstar, your magical power has been severely reduced both as a result of your attack, and the amount of time you’ve worn the high level magical inhibitor. You have full control of your magic, you just don’t have a lot to control.” Having said all that, and seeing the unicorn on the verge of tears, she smiled a comforting smile. “Remind me, what magic did you study?”

“Illusions, Princess,” Darkstar replied dully, studying the floor of Luna’s chambers. “My special talent was illusions.”

That peaked Airmail’s interest. While there were unicorns in the herd, none of them had any proficiency with illusion magic. “What sort of illusions?”

“I could muffle my hooves, make my voice sound from across the room.” Darkstar answered Airmail’s question. She didn’t sound happy, only barely was she relieved. “I can make you see, hear, smell and taste what I want you to, I even learnt invisibility, though it took a lot of effort.”

Airmail rested her hoof on Darkstar’s shoulder. “Start simple and work your way up.”

“Indeed,” Luna nodded to Airmail’s very sensible suggestion. “Could you cast a couple of the more simple illusions for me please, Darkstar?”

Air Raid, at her friend’s right side, put her lime green hoof on Darkstar's other shoulder. “You can do it Darkie, you got this hun.”

Nodding somewhat reluctantly, the young unicorn lit up her horn with a yellow glow and, as she concentrated on her chosen spell she started to sweat with the effort almost straight away. Airmail wondered just what magic she was casting until her voice sounded from behind her. “I’m behind you, Airmail.”

When the hairs on the back of her neck went up, Airmail turned her head so fast in the direction of the voice behind her that she nearly got whiplash. “Okay, that really had me fooled.”

Next, with her horn still lit with the pale yellow glow, Darkstar’s voice sounded in Airmail's left then right ear. “Nuh huh, over here…no, I’m here!” After that, she began trembling with effort.

Airmail couldn’t help it, she looked to her left then her right. Of course she knew nothing was there, but it was so real! Blushing, she smiled at the white unicorn. “I take it you were the diversion to get past the bouncer at the club door?”

Shivering all over, dripping sweat from her brow, Darkstar cancelled the spell with a wry smile. “It usually worked…”

Air Raid let out a snigger when she recalled the time they got refused entry to Trixie’s Place, “It only failed the once.”

Pretending not to hear the self-confessed underage drinking, Luna turned to the sweating mare. She had more immediate concerns, “Darkstar, can you try your muffle spell for me, please?”

“Um…uh…” Darkstar wasn’t at all confident she could pull this off, given how much exertion it had cost her just to throw her voice. “Um, sure…I'll try, Princess.”

“In your own time, Darkstar,” Luna watched her carefully to see how she performed.

Darkstar turned to Airmail and smiled as she wiped her foreleg across her brow, “M-May I cast it on you, Airy?”

“Sure!” The azure blue mare literally almost jumped at the chance to volunteer, she already had a target in mind for some deviousness, “It’ll let me sneak up on Willy.”

Air Raid sniggered. She liked how Airmail thought. She liked her alot. A whole lot of alot, especially as she was observing the older pegasus’s ass. “That's what we used it for, sneaking.”

Offering Airmail a weak smile, Darkstar nodded. “N-Now...you know why…” she gasped as she lit her horn, “I was the prankster.” She concentrated very hard and, after a couple of seconds, a faint yellow glow surrounded all four of Airmail's hooves. “Right, t-try walking.”

Looking curiously at her hooves, Airmail noticed nothing was different apart from the faint yellow glow. She started out walking lightly, to see if the magic worked and, when she noticed she made no sound on the polished marble floor of Luna’s chamber, she moved up to a normal step. Still nothing! She was amazed, and even more so when she jumped in the air and landed a four hoof stomp. Darkstar grinned, happy that her spell worked. “Feels weird at first, doesn't it?”

Airmail nodded. It was so disorienting. She expected there to be noise. There should be noise. But there was nothing. No sound whatsoever. “It…It’s sort of like cloud walking.”

Air Raid giggled, her grey eyes still glued to Airmail’s ass as she walked and jumped about. She wished her green tail wouldn’t get in the way all the time. “We used to have some fun with that.”

Luna smiled, she recalled the time that she herself had been pranked by the muffle spell. “Now, can you try something a bit harder please, Darkstar?”

“I-I don't know...” she mumbled as she cancelled the muffle spell on Airmail’s hooves. That had taken alot out of her. She didn’t know if she could cast anything harder.

Air Raid squeezed her friend’s shoulder, “You got this, Darkstar.”

Airmail did likewise on her left shoulder, “Give it your best shot.”

Darkstar grinned at the amount of support she was getting. Feeling somewhat buoyed by their encouragement she nodded. “I-I'll try...” she fired up her horn again, this time igniting it like a small sun as she attempted the most powerful illusion she knew. “Ngggh!” She grunted and struggled with the invisibility spell, her lower legs going transparent but stopping short of full invisibility.

Airmail whistled appreciatively, “Okay…that was cool!”

Scrunching up her eyes real tight, Darkstar poured ever more power, as much as she could manage, into casting the spell and her transparent legs went wholly invisible while the rest of her body stayed firmly in sight. “S-Sorry...” she gasped, “I...can’t do it, Princess…”

Airmail was still impressed, regardless of her level of success. She was determined to give the young white mare something. “It would still be cool on Nightmare Night. ‘I'm the Legless Pony coming to steal your hoooooooves’!”

Luna giggled at Airmail, not wanting to admit out loud that she had been given a very good idea for Nightmare Night herself, “Do not worry Darkstar, it was a commendable effort. Can you do anymore?”

The guardian in Air Raid told her ‘no’, she shook her head, “I don't want to push her, Princess.”

“No,” Darkstar panted and smiled, “no, I'm sorry I can’t.”

“Being a pegasus,” Airmail started, “I have no clue on how unicorn magic works even after watching Mapper and Serenity work it. Is it a skill that can be improved with practice? Or fine-tuned to meet what magic is available?”

Luna considered that question for just a moment, mulling it over carefully before she replied, “Like any skill, it can be improved with practice, in much the same way as Wildfire's wings can and are being improved.”

“And...” Darkstar panted, her breathing quickly returning to normal, “Once learnt, a spell can be fine-tuned, mastered, if you like.”

That made a great deal of sense to Airmail. The azure blue mare only really had one question left. “So...you don't need the inhibitor any more, what about the rest of you?” the lead editor asked kindly, her hoof still on her shoulder. “Are you going to live another day?”

“Darkie...?” Air Raid asked tentatively.

“I…well…” Darkstar shrugged her shoulders, “well, I guess…”

“Air Raid,” Luna spoke up as she turned to the lime green mare, seeing as she was the unicorn’s legal guardian, “with your permission, I have a dream therapy course I can use with Darkstar's dreams.”

“I know a pony that can work with Darkstar too,” Airmail said as she caught Luna’s eye and affectionately nuzzled the white mare’s cheek. “You like the theatre, Darkstar?”

Darkstar couldn’t help but smile. “Please, call me Darkie...and, yeah Airy, the theatre's another kind of illusion isn't it? It's its own magic.”

Airmail smiled when Luna nodded at her ‘look’ she gave her. Both mares were thinking the same thing; Requiem, “When did you guys plan on moving to Manehatten?”

“We were gonna leave tomorrow,” Air Raid answered that one. “Pack our stuff in the back of my car, be on our way by road then stay in a hotel ‘till we get a house sorted for ourselves.”

Little jewel encrusted gears turned in Airmail’s head. Plans and plans within plans formed in her mind. “What do you all think about zebras?”

Air Raid grinned, her eyes still flitting down to the older mare’s ass. “Well, I’ve never met one but I’d like to, they're cool.”

Darkstar nodded, “The same.”

“I know Mapper has an eye on a new house,” Airmail’s gears were still turning, “but I have no idea on the move in date for it. You could crash there, but it would be crowded with four. One bedroom is an office so they only have one. Caffienated, the zebra, has a place with four bedrooms. If both of you come over to his place on Thursday we can see about living arrangements till the house is ready for you.”

Air Raid simply could not believe what she was hearing. Nopony had stepped up to help them in four years, yet here was a mare they barely knew doing everything she could for them. “That sounds amazing, thank you! We can easy get a hotel ‘till Thursday…” Only then remembering what the Princess had offered, she turned to her, “I'd like you to start the dream therapy, please, Princess.”

Luna nodded her acquiescence, “It’s my sincere pleasure, Air Raid. Airmail, Thursday sounds more and more fun all the time!”

“Never a dull moment, Luna,” The azure blue mare smiled before she nuzzled Air Raid’s cheek. “Caffy is a pushover and Thespian’s not much harder to use deadly puppy eyes against.”

“Thank you so much for all your help,” Darkstar whispered, her voice barely audible. “But…why? Why do all this for me, for us?”

“You really have to ask?” Airmail smiled kindly and gave both of them a hug. She could only imagine what these two had struggled with more or less alone all these years. “We are herd, Wily will be joining that herd Thursday. You are Wily's friends, therefore you are friends of the herd.”

“Thank you Airy,” Air Raid blushed as she returned the hug to the older pegasus. “We appreciate it. Oh...where's the place to pay speeding tickets in Manehatten?” she asked, hopefully nonchalantly.

Airmail, not fooled for a second, snorted through her nose, “Depends on what borough you get the ticket in. You can do it online if you don't contest the ticket, but twelve points will cost you your license and you get four points for a speeding ticket.”

“Well, I haven't got any right now, but come on, it’s like, a thousand mile trip and my car can do one hundred and ninety five…” she trailed off and giggled, it was so unfair that the flying pegasi could go any speed they wanted, but she was stuck at the speed of her car. “The right hoof gets a little heavy, y'know?”

“Air Raid,” Luna shot the lime green mare a jovial wink, “I'll pretend I didn't hear that…”

Airmail shrugged, “I'm not law enforcement so not my problem.”

Darkstar rolled her yellow eyes, “Air Raid...”

“Fine.” Air Raid pouted and stuck out her tongue. “Speed limits all the way. Boring…”

Airmail snickered and gave Air Raid a friendly nudge. “That sounds like something Dusky would say.”

“Dusk cheats!” Air Raid’s pout just got more accentuated. “He can go supersonic. So not fair!” and, it was so not fair! Air Raid would love to go that fast, and in her dreams she did, alot.

“Well he has a 'boring' stallion now so speed is hard to achieve.” Airmail said through her giggles and she looked Luna square in the eyes. “You tell him that, and I'm so owning up to it.”

“Oh, I will Airy,” Luna giggled behind her hoof like an overgrown filly. “I might let it slip out. Besides, Oils isn't that boring, he's got my Dusky wearing the most beautiful dresses.”

Darkstar blinked once then twice. She couldn’t really believe that. “Dresses, really?” Then again, the more she thought about it, the more it did seem to make sense. Dusk was always an effeminate stallion.

“Oils does have good taste, I'll give him that,” Airmail conceded to Luna. Quietly to herself she had to admit that when Dusk was Dusky, he was a really rather attractive ‘mare’. A thought occurred to her then, as she noticed the time ticking onwards. She didn’t want Tempest or Wildfire to worry, “Should we relieve Octavia of her foal sitting?”

“Yes, why not?” Luna nodded her agreement with a wide smile. “I can show you all the new nursery.” To Darkstar, she gave a nuzzle, “I recall you used to favour the hoof cuffs and the crop, if you ask Caffy nicely I'm sure he'll oblige you. Airy, at your earliest convenience, could you please call Requiem, get her to add Darkstar to her list of clients for me, please?”

Airmail nodded that she would, in fact she was already thinking of doing that very thing, “She should be at work now, so I'll text her after we join the others.”

“Thank you Airy, I appreciate it a lot.” Getting up, Luna trotted across the polished marble floor of her chambers and led the small group out into the hall, “Follow me, please, the nursery is just down here.”

When the group of four were just outside the door, three down on the left, Darkstar paused and put her hoof up to stop the Princess from opening it. “Wait, just a sec…” at their puzzled looks, she lit her horn with a yellow glow and with a little effort she successfully cast her muffle spell on Airmail’s four hooves. “You wanted to sneak up on Wily, right?”

Airmail inspected her forehooves and gave an experimental stomp, which came back completely silent. “Totally!”

Air Raid sniggered behind her lime green hoof, “You do know she gets all pouty when she's upset, right?”

“That would depend on how I upset her,” Airmail shot back with a sly grin that spoke absolute volumes.

Air Raid sidled up to the older pegasus’s flank, “I like you…”

“Um...guys?” Darkstar groused. “I'm casting here, y'know?” She concentrated on adding a secondary layer to her spell, one that masked her jasmine scent as Airmail spared Air Raid her best eye roll.

“Yeah,” Air Raid offered Airmail and her sexy flanks her best salacious wink, “I'm casting too…”

“Nggh…” Darkstar let out an audible grunt as she began to shake with the exertion of casting her moderately complex multi-layered spell, “can you chat her up later?”

Airmail giggled, “I am old enough to be your mother.” While it was true she was also old enough to be Wildfire’s mother as well, the fact was she loved Wildfire, she only barely liked Air Raid. The lime green mare, while pretty in her own right, had a lot of ground to make up.

“So?” Air Raid gave the azure blue mare her best bedroom eyes. “Don't mean we can't have some fun…” Truth be told she was very nervous about that indeed, though she’d never admit it. It had been almost four years since her brief romance with Appleglow, and she wanted to see if she still had it.

Darkstar shook her head like she had done back at university as she completed her spell, “Seriously...some foals…”

Airmail snickered out loud, “Time will tell, Air Raid, time will tell.” Seeing the yellow aura glowing around her hooves she tested the spell with a big stomp to see if she was suitably sneaky for Operation Bury-The-Muzzle-in-the-Yellow-Pony’s-Crotch. To her delight, she was, even her scent was muffled.

“Nggh...” Darkstar grunted with the effort of maintaining the spell, “y-you have about five minutes left I think, if Miss Horny Wings here is quite finished!”

Satisfied she was sufficiently prepared for Wildfire pranking, Airmail nodded quietly to Luna for her to open the door to the nursery. “I don't think she is nearly as horny as you,” she giggled as she looked Darkstar up and down.

“Right,” Luna snickered, “here we go…” She lit her horn and took the door in her turquoise aura, very delicately pushing it open.

Very quickly, Airmail moved in behind the plainly unsuspecting Wildfire, who was lost in foal conversation with Octavia and Tempest. As she walked, the azure blue mare flicked her ears to her herd-mate, and Luna lifted her hoof to mime ‘shush’ to her wife. Tempest at once caught onto what was about to happen. She saw her marefriend’s glowing hooves, Darkstar’s glowing horn and put two and two together. “Luna, Air Raid and Darkstar!” The violet mare greeted them, “how nice of you to join us.”

Octavia’s pink eyes settled on her wife and she greeted her like she hadn’t seen her in years, although it had only been an hour or so. “Hello love!”

As much to create a further distraction as she was eager to see her wife, Luna rushed into the new nursery and gave the elderly earth pony a tight hug and she laid passionate kisses all over her lips and her muzzle, especially the lighter grey patches, “Why, hello my little cutie…”

Wildfire sniffed the air and flicked her ears as she heard her ex-marefriend and her old friend approach. “Hey Raid, Darkstar, how'd it go?”

Sneaking along with her hooves and her scent muffled, Airmail got herself in the prime position and in two quick silent steps she moved up and under Wildfire's black tail as the diminutive yellow mare was about to say something and she plunged her muzzle directly between her hind legs. “Who turned out the lights‽” she cried out before lapping her tongue straight up the centre of her marehood.

Completely and utterly caught by surprise, Wildfire jumped a country mile in the air. “Aaaah sweet Mercy!” she squealed in a mixture of panic and arousal while Darkstar and Air Raid both sniggered at the prank.

“It's a miracle!” Airmail said loudly, licking her lips. “I can see again!”

“Y-You...evil...evil mare…” Wildfire giggled when Airmail revealed herself. She still couldn’t work out why she couldn’t smell her or hear her hoof steps, “How…how'd you do that?”

Suppressing a giggle, Airmail quickly ducked her head under Wildfire’s tail and, sticking her tongue out, snuffled and lapped at Wildfire’s sweet marehood a second time, “Like this!”

“Whoa!” this time when she jumped she cleared a good two feet off of the ground. “Whoa...what the buck? Airy!”

“S-Sorry W-Wily!” Darkstar didn’t sound very sorry however as she and Air Raid erupted in fits of sniggering giggles.

Tempted to snuffle her little lover’s crotch for a third time, Airmail shrugged and thought better of it. “It’s not my fault you smell so nice…”

“But how?” Wildfire turned her head this way and that, sniffing the air as she did so. “Where are you? Why can’t I hear you?”

“That’s my fault Wily,” Darkstar owned up to her old friend as she cancelled the spell she had been maintaining. In all likelihood it would’ve ended anyway as she felt herself running low on magical ether. “I muffled her hooves. For pranking purposes.”

Air Raid laid her wing comfortingly over Darkstar’s sweat covered back and she giggled, “Just like old times.”

Wildfire, about to launch into what she felt was an entirely justified pout of legendary proportions, quickly swallowed it down and forced up a smile instead, “Did…did it go well then?”

Darkstar nodded and, shuffling forward from under Air Raid’s protective wing, she went over and gave Wildfire a very tight hug indeed, just like she had all those years ago back in the hospital bed before her blind friend had been removed to the care home. “It went ok, my horn's all fixed and I can cast again, I'm a bit weaker than I was before though.”

“Well, she casts better than me,” Tempest laughed as she too went over and gave Wildfire a hug to stave off the attack of pouty Wily before it occurred. “Airy, Octavia was telling us how much fun Mapper and Serenity were on Friday. She hopes we can be half as much fun.”

“Oh yes,” Octavia snickered as the old grey earth pony broke away from Luna's embrace, “they were so much fun!”

Looking at the stylised foal clock on the wall, Tempest saw that it was gone ten-thirty already. She didn’t know where the time had gone to. “We've kept you from your duties long enough I think, Luna.” The violet pegasus was sure by now that the Princess’s time could be better spent elsewhere, with a certain grey mare, for example. “Thank you again for coming to our aid.”

Luna smiled at her friend. “It was my pleasure as always, Tempest. I do have a favour to ask of you though...”

“You need only ask, Luna.” Tempest replied quickly. Anything, literally anything that was within her ability to do, she would in a heartbeat for this mare.

“Darkie,” Wildfire smiled as she nuzzled her renewed friend, “we all deserve a second chance. I’m not big on third chances though.”

“Right…” Darkstar returned the affectionate nuzzle with one of her own. “I'm sure Princess Luna sweeps in and heals everypony in Canterlot all the time. I know how lucky I've been today, Wily.”

Luna smiled at Tempest, “The next time you come over, can we just have a coffee? And yes, Darkstar,” she said as kindly as she could while she tapped her head, “I try to heal ponies where I can.” The midnight blue alicorn gave a little giggle when Tempest offered her a noncommittal shrug, promising nothing. “Besides which, all this teleporting on and off trains, leading arrests and adventuring through Manehatten is a job for the young...”

“Nonsense you!” Octavia interrupted her wife with a wrinkled arthritic hoof to her lips, “Like I told Mapper, you're as young as you want to be.”

Airmail giggled at that, very pleased that Octavia’s attitude seemed at last well adjusted. “Maybe for the well-rested.”

“Yes indeed,” Luna commented as she sat by her wife’s side on the padded play area in the nursery. “The biggest thing I want to worry about at our next meeting is whether there's sugar in my coffee or not.”

Tempest burst out laughing, “Don't pick up Wily's cup by mistake.”

Airmail walked over to Luna and held out her now non-glowing hoof for a bump. It was odd, as prissy as she was regarding her hooves, she had liked the glowing effect of Darkstar’s spell. “Deal.”

Immediately, Luna returned the hoof bump with her left forehoof. “I'll be sure not to, Tempest.”

“We will see ourselves out, then.” Tempest stated. They had after all intruded upon Luna and Octavia’s time together quite enough for one night, and she for one had no desire to impose any longer than necessary. Besides, she really wanted to see Emerald again.

“If you don't mind, Tempest,” Octavia smiled gratefully. “My Lulu has some ‘urgent duties’ she needs to attend to. Urgently.”

“I do?” Luna looked puzzled for just a very brief moment before she remembered what she had promised her wife prior to Dusk telling her of Airmail’s call earlier that evening. A promise involving pink socks, a pink paddle, hoof cuffs and a urethral vibrator. Her turquoise eyes went wide indeed. “Oooh…yes I do!”

“Yes,” Tempest caught ‘that’ look straightaway and she knew whatever was planned had nothing at all to do with the Night Court, “matters of state must be taken care of, after all.”

Luna giggled while her wide powerful wings fluttered outwards slightly, “I'll be sure to have her…I mean, them, well in hoof, Tempest.”

Tempest snickered at the slip of the Princess’s tongue, but she didn’t make anything of it, merely playfully rolling her blue eyes. “I’m sure your head is in the game Luna…” she let it hang in the air between them all as to just what ‘game’ the alicorn’s head was in. “Let's go, Wily.”

“Alrighty, Honey…” Wildfire agreed as she got up to her hooves from the padded play surface. She was about to feel her way to the door of the nursery when she had a thought and at the last moment she changed direction. Sniffing and listening, she zeroed in on the Princess’s position and she promptly charged her, wrapping her in a tight and perfectly applied tackle hug that Apple Honey would’ve been proud of, “Thank you Princess! Thank you for everything!”

Like Tempest, Airmail rolled her eyes, though she appreciated the sentiment behind the gesture. “Wily is such a stoic pony.”

Tempest chuckled at the Princess’s slight discomfort at being so suddenly and unexpectedly hugged. “We really should work on that.”

Wildfire didn’t care that she was hugging royalty. She didn’t care she was breaking probably a gazillion rules of protocol. All she cared about was the fact she had her friends back. Yes, she counted both mares in that regard. Darkstar had never abandoned her, and Air Raid had tried her best to put right what she had done. That was all she cared about as she planted lots of kisses all over Luna's face. “Thank you!”

Smiling broadly under the assault of Wildfire's lips, Luna at last managed to gently push the blind mare away so she could breathe. “Don't you ever change, Wildfire. That’s an order.” She looked eagerly around the nursery, “Is anypony else for hugs?”

Air Raid saw her opportunity to do something she hadn’t had the chance to do for almost five years. “I'll go for a hug, Princess!” straightaway she went in for her hug and wrapped her forelegs around Luna’s barrel.

“Um…sure…” Darkstar managed a tentative smile as she too got up and hugged the lunar alicorn.

Tempest went next in the hug line up, and after she was satisfied with that she moved onto a rather stunned, but grateful Octavia. When Tempest had her fill, Airmail likewise hugged both mares while Wildfire, Darkstar and Air Raid indulged in a three way hug-fest that was five years overdue. “Oh, I get hugs too!” Octavia beamed, overjoyed at getting hugs from Tempest and Airmail.

“Yes,” Airmail giggled as she pulled out her cell phone and arranged a taxi cab for Darkstar and Air Raid, “but not too hard, we don't want to squeeze the baby maker too much, do we?”

~ ~ ~

“Pretty,” Wildfire asked once she, Airmail and Tempest were flying back towards her step-mother’s house, “How did it really go, with Darkie?” They had waited, at Wildfire’s insistence, with Air Raid and Darkstar at the palace gates until the taxi that Airmail had ordered arrived.

Airmail looked down from their position a few hundred feet above the sprawling capital city and watched the lights of the taxi weave around the streets until she lost it in a sea of gas lights below. “Her horn was repaired, but her magic is about what it was when she started primary school. She will have to relearn some things, and fine tune others to improve her ability. That is the physical. Mentally...”

“So...kinda like my wings then?” Wildfire asked as they flew along in the chill of the night sky. She smiled reflexively, she loved the feeling of the wind on her face. “In working order, just a bit weak...” her ears flicked towards her azure blue herd-mate and at once she caught the tone of her voice. “What, mentally?”

Airmail tried once again to find the taxi, without success, though if she was honest she was stalling. “I don't think she is suicidal anymore, but there are issues that linger, nightmares and self-esteem problems. Luna will do what she can for the nightmares and I've asked Requiem to do what she can for the rest.”

“Well,” Wildfire replied hopefully from her position behind Tempest’s black tail, “that’s something, isn't it?”

“It’s hope,” Tempest commented over her shoulder.

“She’ll be fine.” Wildfire stated determinedly. “I know she will. She’s a survivor like me,” she then giggled to herself, loud enough to be heard as they flew along in the moonlight. “So Airy, how long did it take for Raid to hit on you?”

“About five seconds after she was sure Darkie was going to be okay,” Airmail giggled, in fact she was sure it hadn’t even taken the lime green pegasus five seconds. But, she had at least waited until she knew for sure that her long time charge was going to be alright. That at least held some water in her eyes. “Although, I'm now surprised she went after you.”

“What, why?”

In mid-air, Airmail adjusted her course and laid an affectionate nuzzle on Wildfire’s cheek, “She seems to go for older mares.”

Up front at the head of their little formation, Tempest snorted out a laugh, “I think the word you're looking for Airy is 'breathing' or maybe 'not getting away'.”

Wildfire returned the nuzzle with one of her own as she giggled, “Well, she'll not mind me saying this,but she wasn't just fast on the track…” She paused to concentrate on her flight path while they banked and changed direction, “Honey's right, you are breath-taking. You certainly took mine when you crept up on me.”

Airmail laughed at that. “That ‘muffle’ spell of Darkie’s was a lot of fun, and it let me put my nose under your tail.”

“Twice,” Tempest stated the obvious, somewhat unnecessarily as she levelled off.

Wildfire sniggered, “Darkie's illusions were always fun. Did she manage to cast her invisibility spell?”

“That one does need a lot of work,” Airmail replied after a few moments thought. Darkstar had tried her absolute best, of that she was quite sure, but the fact was she had failed in the attempt she was going for. “She did do the legless pony, which will be a hoot on Nightmare Night.”

“One time she managed to cast an invisibility bubble on me and Air Raid,” Wildfire grinned like an excited little filly at the memory of that particular afternoon’s fun. “That nearly got me expelled from university.”

“Now that is the type of prank that Stormy would do.”

“Gee,” Tempest spared Airmail a look long enough to stick out her tongue, “thank you for your vote of confidence.”

“Air Raid thought it was a good idea to have sex on the math teacher’s desk.” Wildfire smiled somewhat proudly before she carried on and explained. “Professor Calculus caught us right at the point when we came on her desk. See, the thing with being invisible, it hides you, but it doesn't hide your noises...” she paused and blushed bright red, “or your smell.”

Again, Airmail flew over and nuzzled her diminutive lover, “Or a rocking desk, I would suppose?”

“That too,” Wildfire admitted with a giggle, “or the fluids that polished the desk. It was such a good idea at the time.”

“I've heard that line many a time before.” Tempest said as she saw Emerald’s house down on the street below and she started to descend.

“I reckon everypony's got a story like that,” Wildfire commented as she too adjusted her course and began to fly lower to land, “and if they don’t, they should have.”

“Time to land,” Airmail called out when they were just a few feet above the path, not all that far away from where Wildfire and herself had decorated the nearby bushes when they first arrived from the teleport from the Friendship Express earlier that evening. “I hope we aren’t too late for Emerald to let us in.”

“Mum did say her door was always open,” Wildfire said as her hooves touched down on the path outside her step-mother’s door.

“I think you should still knock,” Tempest said as she folded away her wings under her saddlebags.

Wildfire nodded, “It’s only polite to knock, Honey.”

“Yes,” Airmail thought aloud as her belly gave a very loud and pronounced rumble. “and I’d like a snack, now that my stomach is back where it belongs, it seems to be rather empty.” In all the excitement and drama of the evening, she hadn’t thought of her belly. Now it was all over, for the time being at least, she could focus on being hungry.

“Yuppers, I could eat something too,” Wildfire said as she walked up the path to her step-mother’s door and knocked her usual two knocks with her left forehoof.

“C-C-Coming!” Emerald called, her slightly panicked voice coming from inside the house. A minute or two later, after the sound of several locks opening had gone, the front door opened a fraction as she looked out to see who had come to visit. “Oh He-Hello!”

“Thank you for receiving us so late,” Airmail smiled. She understood this flighty stammering mare’s need for the many locks on her door after what she had endured over the years.

“Oh d-don't b-be silly, you're always w-w-welcome here!” the orange pegasus stood aside with what was a rare smile to allow the three mares in to her house. “D-Do you n-need anything?”

“Something simple to eat would be nice, please,” Tempest replied as she walked into the well-lit, thoroughly modern looking living room, now that it had been redecorated. It was only then that the violet weather pony noticed that Emerald had tied her green mane back in a ponytail. This pleased her considerably. She wasn’t hiding behind her mane.

“Certainly T-Tempest...are m-mushroom omelettes alright?”

Airmail’s belly answered for her with another loud rumble, “That would be lovely!” Like Tempest, she too had noticed Emerald’s new mane style. It suited her, she thought with a smile. Yes, she still had the remnants of her black eye and bruises on her neck, but she wasn’t trying to hide them anymore.

Emerald gave a somewhat confident smile, “M-Make y-yo-ourselves at home, I'll be j-just a moment…”

“Thanks mum!” Wildfire, ever the stoic pony, tackle hugged her step-mother tightly around her chest before feeling her way over to the seating pad on the new couch she had rested on earlier.

Once her daughter had released the hug, Emerald stood stock-still, almost as if a cockatrice had petrified her on the spot. The only thing that changed was her orange cheeks. They coloured up in a furious red blush at being called ‘mum’ like that. “Ah…b-beers,” she said in an attempt to cover herself. She wished her mane wasn’t so tied up then, “w-would you like b-be-ers?”

Airmail had to fight the urge to hug the younger orange mare, “Just juice for me, please.”

“The same please,” Tempest smiled, walking over to their hostess and giving her a feathery hug with her wing after she dropped off her bags, “and please, let me help you.”

Very grateful for the help – and the hug – Emerald gave a broad smile that showed a couple of her missing teeth. “Thank y-you T-Tempest. W-Wildfire?”

“Oh, I’ll have a beer, please, mum,” Wildfire replied as Airmail got herself comfortable on the couch next to her.

At this point, poor Emerald was almost seventy-five percent blush. “Um…th-the k-kitchen's this w-way…”

When the thirty year old mare walked off to her kitchen, Tempest followed quickly behind her to lend her a hoof in preparing the omelettes. Again she was amazed at how clean and fresh the house smelled and looked now compared to how it was three days ago. “I know it has only been a couple of days,” Tempest started as they entered the pale blue kitchen with its gleaming stainless steel appliances, “but how are you doing?”

“Um…f-fine, thank you...b-better now he's g-g-gone,” Emerald stammered as she reached into one of her cupboards for the frying pan and set it on the gas stove. “How are y-you all d-doing?”

“Tomorrow we start our trip back to Manehatten,” Tempest answered her. As she did so she wondered idly if she always had her speech impairment or if it was a side effect of her time with Cold Front.

“Y-You and Airmail have be-been dragged into all this…” she smiled as she poured in the oil and got the eggs from the refrigerator. “Y-You always have a r-ro-oof here in C-Canterlot, if y-you n-need it.”

“That is good to know, and of course, the same can be said for you in Manehatten should you visit.”

“I w-will, as soon as I g-get the ch-chance,” Emerald promised as the eggs began to cook in the pan. She didn’t know exactly when she’d get that chance, as she had her first appointment with the psychiatrist, Doctor Relook, that the Princess had helped organise for her, coming up in a couple of days.

While Emerald busied herself cooking the mushroom omelettes for them, Tempest made herself useful and got the juice poured out for Airmail and herself. “What are you having to drink?”

“I'll join my d-daughter in a be-beer,” Emerald answered quickly, the fear that she’d get hit if she delayed still uncomfortably fresh in her mind. “Oh m-my that feels odd t-to say…”

With the glasses filled with a summer fruit juice cocktail, Tempest sidled over and hugged Emerald with her wing and nuzzled her bruised neck. “Airy lost her birth mother when she was seven. We just visited her mom in Vanhoover. The one that raised her. When Wildfire calls you mom, it is because you are. Not a replacement for Silverbolt, but the living and breathing mother whose shoulder she can cry on if needed.”

“It's j-just odd that I d-didn't kn-know they existed unt-till Thursday,” she moved the pan from the heat and smiled, “I l-like being a mum though…” she continued as she added the mushrooms. “Is W-Wildfire always so accepting so q-quickly?”

“Always?” Tempest asked while putting away the juice and pulling two beers from the fridge, “I can't answer that, I've only known her for a couple of weeks. I do know she is intelligent and caring, and she learns quickly.”

As the omelettes were almost done cooking, Emerald moved over and retrieved four plates out of the nearby wall cupboard. “Um…w-what's she l-like? She seems pr-pretty fun,” she blushed hard at that, realising she may have said something wrong. “Not t-that y-you aren't, y-you all d-do!”

“Like?” Tempest took a moment to consider that as she poured out the beers into two glasses. “She is young, a little naive. She had a large part of her life stolen from her by Cold Front. Now she is leaning she is not alone, and that blindness does not define her.”

Emerald nodded silently and she served up the cooked omelettes on to the waiting plates. “It’s h-hard to b-believe he w-w-was n-nice once…” she muttered, her voice barely audible. “I'm l-looking fo-forward to g-getting to kn-know W-Wildfire.”

Once poured, Tempest pulled out a tray and she rested the drinks safely on her back. “I’ll give you our phone numbers and email addresses. They’ll stay the same. Our physical address is changing soon so we will get that to you when we can.”

Getting a bigger tray, Emerald put the four plates along with forks on her back, balancing it perfectly through years of practise. “Um, are y-you s-s-st-taying the n-night?”

“Yes, we are.”

“Th-That’s n-no p-problem,” Emerald stammered as she opened the kitchen door with her hoof and allowed Tempest to go first. “You c-can ta-take your pick of the f-five rooms upstairs.”

“We will just take one,” Tempest smiled kindly as she walked past the younger orange pegasus, “and you are more than welcome to join us.”

“Hmm…I j-just might d-do that,” she replied and she followed the violet mare through the rooms.

“Drinks are served, good mares!” Tempest declared loudly as she set the tray she was carrying down on the dining table in the corner of the living room.

“The f-food's here t-too…” nervously - so nervously she almost dropped the tray - Emerald placed the plates down on the dining table. “I d-do ho-hope th-they're okay,” she stammered, her nervous state worsening her stammer. “I c-can c-cook more if y-you d-don't like th-them…”

Airmail interrupted the poor fretting mare with a light tinkling laugh, “Food, Emerald, it is my favourite eats.”

“Mum,” Wildfire got up and hugged her step-mother tightly; she had been in a very similar situation with Amethyst Glory, she understood the pressures of getting something right and the consequences if it wasn’t. Her mum needed to know it was alright now, “if this tastes like it smells you so have nothing to worry about!”

Again, Emerald blushed, feeling silly at panicking, “Thank you, W-Wildfire.”

“Please call me Wily, mum,” Wildfire gave her step-mother a loving nuzzle as Airmail and Tempest both proceeded to chow down heartily on their mushroom omelettes.

Emerald took a sip of her beer, “T-Tempest says y-you're leaving for M-Manehatten t-tomorrow,” she said as she watched Wildfire plunge her head into her plate, foregoing the fork, which went unused.

After the impromptu meal had been consumed and the drinks had been drank, Emerald busied herself with clearing away the dirty dishes to the sink. “We have an early start tomorrow,” Airmail started as she tried and ultimately failed to stop her burp, “so could you show us to a bedroom that will hold all of us please, Emerald?”

“Of c-course Airmail,” Emerald inclined her head politely, “all the be-beds are b-big enough t-to s-sleep four.”

“It’s how we sleep,” Airmail explained as Emerald led them all up the stairs to the first floor above. Both Tempest and Wildfire were hesitant as they remembered the way it had been before, but as it turned out their worries were needless. “We are a herd after all.”

“Oh I d-didn't sleep up here, Airmail,” Emerald commented as she gave them the brief tour. Every one of the bedrooms had been extensively redecorated with several coats of fresh smelling paint in warm reds and orange hues. “I s-slept d-downstairs in the ba-basement,” she paused as she opened the door to room one. While it was as basic in its décor as the others, it was warm, inviting and the bed looked comfortable. “Here w-we are!”

Airmail looked around the room and found it most to her liking. She could well imagine when this was an active halfway house the ponies getting their lives together in rooms like this. “Do you have a particular side or location you like when you sleep?”

“I’d like o-one of the ends p-please.” Emerald blushed. It was still unusual for her to have a bed at all. Her husband had kept her chained by the neck to the cold hard floor of the basement after the day was done. There had been that one time when he passed out drunk he left her there for almost a week. “I ah…I usually s-slept alone.”

“Not tonight,” Tempest stated in an air that said there wasn’t any arguments. “I’m the mare in the middle, Airy, behind me, Wily to my front and Emerald you can be in front of Wily.”

“Yuppers Honey,” Wildfire snickered as she got up on the bed in front of Tempest who had wasted no time at all in getting snuggled down. “C'mon mum, you'll love this!”

Tentatively resting her forehoof on the bed – it was still tempting to just lay on the floor in the familiar position – Emerald grinned, “Y-Yu-uppers?”

Laid down next to Tempest, Airmail rolled her brown eyes. “Wily tends to use some modern form of language or a secret code we haven’t been able to translate or decipher yet.”

“We're not sure which it is yet,” Tempest snickered and licked her tongue up Wildfire’s ear.

“Oooh…oh I s-see…” Emerald giggled and got up on the bed to lie next to her daughter.

“Muuuuum!” Wildfire whined playfully as she snuggled her muzzle in close to her step-mother’s chest fur, “The big ponies are being mean!”

Immediately and without hesitation, Emerald wrapped her forehooves and her wings around Wildfire and added a loving nuzzle for good measure. “Th-There, t-there you po-or filly, let momma hug you be-etter,” she giggled. “C-C'mon W-Wily, you're a bi-big mare, and momma’s hugs are q-quite excellent!”

Airmail snuggled into Tempest’s back and kissed that spot that she knew she really liked to be kissed. “I'm not so sure of that, I think further testing is needed.”

“I agree,” Emerald smiled as she kissed Wildfire’s nose, “shall w-we be-begin t-testing?”

“Yes,” the azure blue mare agreed, “only through science can we see if your hugs are excellent or not.”

“That’s my kind of science!” Wildfire squealed with joy as the very hesitant orange pegasus opened her legs and wings and she accepted the hugs and cuddles of Airmail and Tempest before joining in with a big four way hug with all of them together. “Yuppers, I think you're right mum, hugs are excellent,” Wildfire giggled after they had each been hugged twice. “Hey,” she said when a thought occurred to her, “do you want to come with us in the morning and say hello to my other mum?”

Tempest, her voice full of pride at the maturity that Wildfire had demonstrated towards her step-mother, gave them both a kiss on the cheeks. “I think that is a great idea.”

“Y-Your other...” Emerald was absolutely stunned at that and for a long few minutes she couldn’t speak a reliable reply. “Oooh um…y-yes W-W-Wily I'd l-love to, thank you!” The orange mare hugged her daughter again and much snuggling ensued as Airmail and Tempest both moved off to sleep.

“Good night mum…” Wildfire whispered, the last of them to drift off to sleep, held tight in her mother’s embrace.