“Ready to head home, love?” Airmail asked once they had both finished their ice creams. Licking her lips to get the very last dregs of chocolate flavour she could, Wildfire nodded she was ready. Getting up from her seating pad, the azure blue mare continued, “I’m looking forward to the herd reunited again. Between pregnant you and Serenity, I'll be the happiest mare in the middle. Stormy and Mapper on the outside.” Giggling, Wildfire got up and, side by side, the two lovers walked out into the afternoon sunlight. “Looking forward to moving your beacon?”

Wildfire knew, as they took their time negotiating the meandering dirt path home to their red brick townhouse, that her fiancé was referring to them moving to a bigger house and their herd becoming five again. That bought up its own slew of issues. The little yellow mare had been so focussed on her mother, her brother she didn’t know she had, as well as Autumn, she hadn’t thought about moving. Now she did think about it, her ears slicked back. “Yes, and no,” she admitted softly.

“Interesting answer,” Airmail commented, paying more attention to her lover’s body language than the picturesque lake they were walking past.

“I mean, yes, because the herd is together, it’s bigger, and we'll have foals soon...” Wildfire clarified, though there was a sigh in her voice, “but no, because I'll have to learn the layout again, learn where everything is, and I guess I'll miss the current place. I like the oak tree in the yard. I like the kitchen, where we made the picnic we shared last week. I like the dining room where Honey got me dusting and she teased me with the chocolate chips. I like the bathroom where we made up after that incident we had. I like the bedroom where you mounted me and I hoofed you…”

“Well it will be new to all of us too.” Airmail countered, though the older pony could well appreciate her lover’s concerns. “I haven't even asked if there is a tree at the new place, but this island is full of trees.”

Wildfire kept her ears back and her head down. “I know, Pretty, it’s just...another new thing, y'know?” she confessed what was bothering her. Even the feel of the afternoon sun on her scarred face and the gentle breeze blowing through her straight black mane offered little comfort. “I know it’s new for us all, not just me.”

“From what Stormy told me,” Airmail offered her thought with a giggle, “you thought the ‘new thing’ of your own office was rather nice.” She giggled even harder when she saw the blush colour Wildfire’s cheeks. She knew she had improved her mood right then. The wing hug made her little mare smile all the more. “We are not changing things to mess with you, but to make all of our lives better. Once we move in and you have the layout in your head, it will be home again.”

“Again,” Wildfire smiled and leant into the hug, seeing as how her wings were in casts she couldn’t return it. She had a sneaky suspicion that Airmail had mentioned the office thing on purpose. She was okay with that. “I know, love, and my office, well, it's mine, and it's an office and it's mine! I bet mum had an office. I'm just still pretty new to this whole "having things that are mine", thing.”

Leaning into the hug she had initiated, Airmail kissed Wildfire’s cheek. She was well aware she had precious little during her time at the care home, except her poem book. “When you want to go shopping on your own, you are free to do so. But until then, one of us will be happy to go with you.” The lead editor of the Manehatten Times nudged Wildfire with her wing, “You did buy some rather racy books.”

At that, Wildfire actually giggled, at last she sounded a lot like 'her' than she had done in a few days’ time. “Think you can manage the whole Pony Sutra with me?”

“I can get some toilet paper tubes to do the pony with two horns. I'm sure we can do the pony with four wings,” Airmail snickered, thoroughly enjoying Wildfire’s blush as she approached their house and took them both to the seldom used front door. “We'll just have to feel our way through it.”

Recovering from her blush, Wildfire giggled. “That's the idea. Pretend you’re the blind mare at the orgy. You just have to feel your way through it!”

Laughing out loud, Airmail used her key card to override the house’s expensive security system – provided by Caffeinated to all the members of his herd – and she hoofed open the front door. “As long as you wash those hooves first, missy!”

“Yes, Miss Prissy Hooves.” Wildfire stepped inside her home and treated her partner to an over the top bow, for which she was booped on the nose, “I even told Tinkerer to wash his on Friday night.”

So surprised was she at that, that Airmail paused by the table in the living room and stood open mouthed. “Did-did he hoof you?” she asked, her tone incredulous. Not that she was jealous, for they were a herd, but she considered hoofing to be ‘their thing’. Something special they did.

“No,” to Airmail’s great relief, Wildfire shook her head. “Nothing like that, but as a kind of relaxing-into-things-and-breaking-the-ice thing, I did ask if he'd like them licked. So I made him clean them first.”

“Oh,” Airmail giggled, as much to keep the relief from her voice as anything else. Even with her fiancé’s excellent hearing, she guessed she had gotten away with it. Just. “Yeah, I forgot you’re a mare of many hooves. Did Belle eat popcorn while she watched? And did she do the tickle thing on you when came?”

“She didn't do the tickle thing, but she did watch.” Wildfire explained, “She lent me her hoof care stuff and I spent a good while giving him a much needed hooficure. He needed it too, bless him. His hooves were all cracked and sore. Once I'd done he was right as a nine bit note. Then I tongued his hooves.”

“I'm sure the mouth feel was a lot better than if you didn't do his hooves.” Airmail commented with a smile. She was so proud of her little pony.

“Totally. There was no way I was licking cracked hooves. I had your voice in my head all the time.” Airmail was sure when her little lover said that she was going to burst from pride alone. Thankfully she didn’t. Instead, she turned and, wafting her scent over the room, she made for the stairs. Straightaway, Wildfire noticed where the scent was leading and she quickly followed the older mare up the stairs.

“I'll take your saddlebag, and you can put your gear away,” said Airmail once they were in the master bedroom. With a sigh, mostly due to the feel of the familiar carpet beneath her hooves, she dropped her saddlebag on the bed and, with her headset off, she took it to the office to put on the right side of her computer. Once back in the bedroom, she walked over to the closet to store her flight suit.

"The Phoenix rises, beneath the ashes nestled with burning twigs, the ground begins to shake. A fiery light of new beginnings in it's wake.

And within the time spreading it's wings, sparks of fire. Bright and fiery like the Star of David in a dark blue sky, he stood out like a beacon of endless revival. He was like a fire storm of orange cascading flames. He'd watch over those left in the wake of confusion and despair.

Gold-bright dazzling like the sun. Those moments were it's finest. And within the moments of life's tarnished darkness, it finds light that shines it's brightest."

In the bedroom, listening with rapt attention to every word, Airmail smiled as her lover recited the poem. “You should be recording this.”

“I am,” stepping out of the closet, Wildfire tapped her head. “I remember every poem I create.”

“I remember...the word remember!”

Giggling like a filly, Wildfire sniffed out her azure blue lover and, after a feel with her hoof to assure herself of location, she planted a kiss on her lips. “Still sexy.”

“I'll have to remember that,” said Airmail after she had returned the kiss with one of her own. Kiss delivered, she turned and rummaged in a drawer of the far night stand. Listening intently, Wildfire was sure they had never been in that drawer before. Climbing up on the bed, she had a curious look on her face, more so when she felt Airmail’s weight on the bed beside her. “Markers!” Airmail exclaimed in reply to the unspoken question. “I want to decorate your cast.”

“Aw!” sitting on her haunches, Wildfire clapped her hooves. “That's so sweet!”

“I do draw an excellent stick pony!”

“I want a heroic looking stick pony my mum would be proud of.”

“Oh, I can do that. I have a yellow marker.” Airmail laid out her colouring pens on the bed to see what she had. If she was honest, she had zero idea why there were colouring pens in the night stand, there just was. “What colour, other than black, is my Stealth Pony's suit?”

Wildfire had to think about that. “Mr. Kuppa did say there were blue light sensors on the sides,” she offered helpfully after a moment’s thought.

“Oh yeah!” Resisting the urge to facehoof, Airmail got the yellow pen in her mouth and got busy drawing what in her opinion was a rather excellent representation of a pony. If you squinted. And stood about ten feet away. She made sure to make the marker squeak as she crafted her masterpiece. “Okay,” she announced once she had drawn Wildfire in her flight suit on the cast around her left wing, “I found a purple marker! What luck. So, what colour suit would be best for Mother Hen?”

“Hmmm I'd say green goes well with purple, Pretty.”

“Okay, and maybe some red trim?” When Wildfire nodded her agreement, she again listened to the squeak of the marker pen as it was drawn across her cast. Airmail was careful not to apply too much pressure in case she hurt her. “Now,” she said after she had finished, “this last blue pony. Used to wear nothing but camouflage.”

Wildfire giggled behind her hoof. “I bet you looked awesomes!”

“If you could see me, yes, and those that could didn't look for very long.”

Rather wisely, Wildfire chose to gloss over that while she listened to Airmail add a third pony to her left wing cast. She did have a thought though. An important thought at that. “Um, can you add my mum, next to us?”

“I was thinking of adding a couple of pointy headed ponies on your other cast, but I could put her there too.”

Now it was Wildfire’s turn to facehoof, though she resisted the urge as she was still being drawn upon. She wanted to kick herself for forgetting Mapper and Serenity, no matter how briefly. “Oh! You so need to add them as well, totally!”

“What colour suit is Silverbolt wearing?”

“Blue. My mum always liked blue.”

“I gotcha.” As it happened, Airmail was rather partial to blue herself. Which was a complete coincidence. Completely. “She needs a super power name, though,” she said once she had drawn the fourth stick pony on her lover’s cast, “And Mother Hen is taken.”

Wildfire though was ready with an answer. “Thunderbolt.”

Airmail liked the sound of that, although it did seem a teeny bit ironic, given how Silverbolt had died. Nonetheless, she scrawled Thunderbolt on the cast above the drawing of Silverbolt. “Alright, now the teal pony could Sonic? That sounds like a cool superpower.”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire agreed, “I think it suits her.” The diminutive blind pony listened to Airmail colour and draw on her cast as she made Serenity’s suit blood red with burgundy trim. “I think I have Mistress's name,” she said when she felt the artist next to her stop drawing.

“The pink one?” asked Airmail with a giggle, “Something other than Salmon, you mean?”

“I was thinking Sledgehammer, mostly because of what she did to those poor trees on the side of Canterlot Mountain three weeks ago.”

“That is good, as I was thinking Heavy, because how she tosses her weight around. Sledgehammer sounds better. Still going to dress her up as an emo goth, though.” Wildfire burst out laughing at that and she didn’t stop laughing until her fiancé announced that she was done. “Finished!” she declared, happy with her art. “Now these Power Ponies can protect your cast!”

“I feel protected already,” Wildfire beamed out her signature wide smile, “thanks Pretty.”

Her craft completed, Airmail took a moment to put the coloured marker pens back in the night stand drawer. “I can't wait for the others to see your cast. I want to save it when they remove it.”

“I think we should too!” Wildfire exclaimed, clapping her hooves together on the bed. “Maybe we can keep it with the feathers downstairs?”

Snickering, Airmail got back on the bed and snuggled with her little lover. “Well, not on the feather rack, but it can have a place of honour.”

“Next to mum's medal?”

“We could,” said Airmail, the blue mare considering the suggestion. “It won't worry your mum having your cast beside her?”

“No, I don't think so, Pretty.”

“Then that is where it will go.” On the bed, Airmail affectionately nuzzled Wildfire’s cheek. As she did so, she carefully looked over the blind mare’s body, from the casts covering her wings to the many cuts and bruises that dotted her hindquarters. “How are your wing and flank? Need a pain pill?”

Wildfire nodded. It was curious, she hadn’t really felt the pain in her body until Airmail had mentioned the pill, as soon as she had though, she felt it. “Actually, yeah,” she grimaced as a sharp throb of pain lanced its way from her left flank all the way up to her shoulder. “It's odd. I feel it more in my flanks than in my wings.”

“You did get a lot of stiches, love.” Airmail cast a lingering, worried look over the yellow mare’s body one more time as she hovered off of the bed and landed on the carpeted floor. “Stay there, I'll be right back.”

“Thanks Pretty,” Wildfire gratefully took the offered glass of water and the pill when Airmail returned from her short trip to the bathroom. “Do um...do they look bad?” she asked after she had swallowed her medication.

Carefully, as gently as she could, Airmail parted the fur on Wildfire’s flanks and around her cutie marks. She made sure to inspect everywhere. “You’re healing well, not red. The stitches are cool. I've had enough of those over the years.” She paused once her inspection was complete and kissed each of the stylised fireballs. “I don't think you'll get any cool scares though.”

Wildfire sniffed and snorted derisively. “I'm so over scars, Airy.”

“Do mine bother you?” asked Airmail, knowing well that her body underneath her neat azure blue fur was criss-crossed with scars from her years of service in the military, just like she knew Serenity’s was, though that was more from the excesses of her needs.

“No, not like that,” Wildfire sighed, “I meant like being proud of them, like I was before. I’m over that.”

Lovingly, Airmail laid a delicate kiss on the bit of Wildfire’s right wing that was showing. “Well, your scars don't bother me because they are what brought you to today. That you no long feel they define you is even better.”

Wildfire let out a gentle coo at the touch of her older lover’s lips on her wing. Lips that were as soft as air. “Your scars, our scars, they just show that we overcome and survive and we're still here. They don't define me. My love for you, my foal and the herd. They define me now.”

“I think the dictionary defines me,” Airmail counted with a giggle.

Playfully, Wildfire nudged Airmail’s ribs with her elbow and giggled, “Yuppers, under 'sexy mare'!”

“Yes,” the older pony agreed ruefully, “You’ll find me at the back of the dictionary. You are at the front, of course, under A for awesomes.”

“Yuppers, its hard being this awesome,” Wildfire felt for her fiancé with her foreleg and pulled the compliant mare into a tight snuggly hug, “but, I think I pull it off okay.”

“Ya think? I know.” Airmail let out a sound that was partway between a whinny and a snort as she suddenly and without warning began to pepper the blind mare’s muzzle with kisses. Caught unawares, Wildfire took the kisses like they were rare treats and snuffled her way into Airmail’s neck, kiss-nibbling with her lips.

Seeing the counterattack coming, Airmail deftly replied by inspecting the inside of Wildfire’s ear with her tongue. She knew it was a sneaky move, seeing as how she knew just where to get her for maximum effect. “Naaaah...” Wildfire squeaked and flicked her ear to no avail. “Aaah ju-just there!”

Unfortunately, Airmail did not stay ‘just there’. Instead, she carefully rolled Wildfire, decorated casts and all, over onto her back with her head on the pillows and moved, in a sixty nine position, lightly over her muzzle as she nibbled the yellow chest fur. Taking in a deep breath of the jasmine scent just above her, the blind mare leant up to kiss and nibble whatever she could reach.

Continuing on her way down Wildfire’s body, Airmail kept on delivering soft little affectionate nibbles to the skin underneath the yellow fur while all the time she made sure to keep herself just in contact with her lover’s lips. “Mmm!” Wildfire made a cute little whimper at the sexy kisses and, she did the same in turn, her hind legs spread apart ready.

As soon as Airmail made it to Wildfire’s left nipple, she was immediately reminded of the differences in the sizes of her and her lover. Blushing quite hard, she lifted herself up and adjusted herself so she could place one of her breasts in Wildfire’s mouth. That done, she returned to sucking on the hardening nipple. “Mmmm!” again there was that cute whimper. Immediately she started sucking, rolling Airmail’s nipple around on her tongue as it began to harden in her mouth.

Airmail’s pleasured moan was muffled somewhat by the breast and nipple in her mouth, but it was audible in any event. After a few minutes of this, she switched up and at the same time she lifted and moved her un-sucked nipple for her to lavish her attention on. Wildfire matched the very lusty moan from her lover’s mouth and, she took the freshly offered nipple in her mouth and bit the base, flicking her tongue over it. “Oooh...mmm A-Airy...” she started to get very wet between the legs.

Underneath her, Wildfire could tell Airmail was as wet as she was just by her smell. She could also tell her older lover wasn’t moving yet to let her near her crotch. Wildfire instead used her hoof to caress and flick the vacated other nipple as she sucked hard on the one in her mouth.

Releasing the nipple she had been sucking on, Airmail lifted herself and pulled hers out of Wildfire’s mouth as she now moved a bit lower down her little body and plunged her tongue deep into her cleft before she finally lowered herself onto Wildfire’s muzzle. The effect was immediate. “HmHmmmmm!” the moment she felt the tongue enter her, she arched her back a little.

Taking Airmail’s labia in her mouth, Wildfire used her lips only, and sucked all along them. On top of her, Airmail was going at her snatch with lips, teeth and tongue like a mare possessed in an effort to get Wildfire to scream her name. Reciprocating in kind, the blind pony lapped at her fiancé’s marehood in a similar fashion for several minutes until she absolutely lost it and, with a huge squirt, screamed, “AAAAAAAAAIIIIRY!”

After that treatment, Airmail was soaked. She didn’t last more than a few seconds longer until she reached her climax and, with a scream of, “WIIIIIIIIIILLYYYYYY!” she came, delivering a big kiss to her clitoris as she did so.

Squirming and bucking her hips on the bed, Wildfire panted hard as she rode out her raging climax. Slowly though, she came down enough to be able to speak. “W-Wow...wow...Airy...wow...”

Once she had come down from her high, Airmail rolled off of Wildfire and adjusted her position so that she could –carefully - roll to her right side, but she kept her head between her rear legs. “Wow is right my awesome little pony.” Teasingly, she nuzzled and gently licked her slit, loving the little spasm she got for her trouble. “I'm comfy where I am, are you?”

“Oh...I'm very comfy!”

“Good. Welcome home, love.”

“Best. Homecoming. Ever…” Wildfire sighed, though her sigh quickly became a giggle, especially as she knew she was talking to Airmail’s marehood. “Pretty, can I ask a question?”

“Snatchurly.”

Wildfire’s giggle fit got louder at that. “You single minded mare!” she then blew on her clit she knew was in front of her. She could tease too. “Well, the thing is...after the weekend, um, do I well, look different? It's silly, I know, but I 'feel' different.”

Airmail didn’t mean to laugh. She didn’t, but she couldn’t help herself. Her lover was being so cute and adorable it was heartrending. “Wily, my love, I don't think it works that way. My mom didn't show for almost two months.”

“I told you it was silly.” Feeling very foolish indeed, Wildfire blushed hard. “I felt something, that's all, like a big tingle inside, when I was with Tinkerer when he…um, you know, inside me. It felt warm and glowy and tingly.”

Airmail could understand that. Especially when there had been magic involved like there had been in Wildfire’s case. Having never been pregnant herself, who was she to say what was normal and what was not? “You felt the happy glow of motherhood. And maybe some of the Princess of Libraries magic too.”

“Wow...” Wildfire breathed, “I kinda knew, I mean, the Princess said it was guaranteed, but then, it felt so real!”

“It is real, love. Magic of Friendship and all of that. Just to be sure I'm looking, but I may need a flash light.”

Wildfire knew her fiancé was looking alright. “I-I-I kn-know...I-I can feel your breath on me down there!”

“Wait till you feel my snoring,” Airmail snickered, “At least, as wet as you are, you won't know if I'm drooling.”

With her head between Airmail’s hind legs, Wildfire let out a huge yawn and she nestled into the blue thighs, making a pillow for herself there. “I'm looking forward to Thursday, Pretty, to the party at Caffy’s.”

Just so she could breathe easier, Airmail moved a teeny bit. “Together, love. It will be a day with a loving herd. Bet you any amount of bits you like that Tink will feel up your belly.”

“Hmhmm...I bet he will, too. Together with the herd. I like the sound of that…” again, Wildfire yawned. All of a sudden she was so tired! “Whatever I end up doing, it'll be fun, and loving.” Airmail though didn’t answer her. She was already breathing softly, sleep having claimed her.

“I love you Pretty.” Moments later, Wildfire too began to slumber then snore, Luna’s dreamscape opening up to her as she entered a safe protected night’s sleep.

~ ~ ~

Airmail was a conflicted mare when she awoke early on Wednesday morning. The forty eight year old lead editor was sat in the darkness of the master bedroom deep in thought. At a quarter past five, the alarm set for five thirty had not yet gone off and even Celestia was two hours away from raising the sun. Yet, Airmail was wide awake. Chief amongst her troubles was the knowledge that she had to go to work, and second was that Tempest was not back from Mapper’s place.

Third among her worries, though related to the first two, was the prospect of leaving Wildfire home alone. True she wasn’t a filly like those old movies, but she was still concerned. Enough that she was up before her alarm. So lost in thought was she that she didn’t realise the alarm had gone off. Cursing herself, she quickly silenced it with a hoof before studying her diminutive lover to see if it woke her.

“Uugh...stupid alarm...” Wildfire muttered, that and the fact she was flicking her ears the only sign she was awake at all.

Flicking on the bedroom light – again cursing herself for not doing that sooner, it wasn’t like the light would wake her fiancé was it? – she leant into the bundle of blankets and kissed Wildfire’s cheek. “I must be off to work. Care to join me for breakfast?”

“Uh...huh...oh, okay Pretty,” the blind mare smiled when her older lover gently wiped the drool from the sides of her mouth. As she got up, the twenty four year old pegasus reached out with her hoof, intending to be careful not to wake Tempest. When she found there was no Tempest in the bed, she suddenly remembered why, that she was over at Mapper and Serenity’s house. “Huh...I'll ah, I'll join you.”

Seeing her reach out, Airmail knew who she was feeling for. “Dare we call her?” she asked with an amused smile in her voice, “You know you and I are the only morning ponies in the mini-herd.”

“Nopes.” Wildfire shook her head vehemently. “I will happily fly into a burning building but I won’t wake Stormy in the morning. Some things are just too dangerous.”

Moments later, when the morning ablutions had been completed, with both mares having washed, cleaned and scrubbed themselves in the sink and brushed each other’s manes and fur, Airmail giggled as she headed out of the bedroom and flew down the stairs. “Can you get the coffee started, please. Waffles or pancakes?”

Behind her, opting to walk down the stairs to the dining room and through to the kitchen, Wildfire made her choice. “Aaaah...I'll be adventurous and go for waffles, please love.” In the modest sized kitchen area, the blind mare felt for the braille label on the worktop that told her where the kettle was. “Yuppers, I'll get the coffee on.”

As she busied herself mixing up the waffle batter, Airmail was again bothered by the doubts in her mind. Eventually, she couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “Wily, are you okay staying here, or you want to go into work with me?”

Prepping the coffee, Wildfire froze, her hoof resting on the coffee mugs while the machine did its work. Many, many doubts ran through her head. Each one seemed greater than the last, arguing with herself why she couldn’t stay at home on her own. Eventually though, she made her mind up. “I'll ah...I'll stay here. I'm thinking I'll break out that awesomes shampoo set I bought from Cloudhatten mall and have a long bath.”

“Sounds quite decadent,” said Airmail as she cooked the waffles. “Stormy will show up in the afternoon, I'm sure. I should be home by six tonight.”

“That's fine. I'm a big pony,” she paused and laughed, seeing the funny side of that as she was well aware she was quite small compared to most adult ponies. She knew for a fact, having seen the other members of the mini-herd in the shared dream experience, that she was at least a head shorter than all the others. “I was thinking, if I need company, I'd give Raid a call.”

That little nugget did give Airmail pause for thought as she pondered who until recently she considered a rival. While that had passed, and she found her pleasant enough, she was still not completely comfortable with the lime green racer. “With her, you may get three, you know.”

“And that'd be cool, but...” Wildfire started as she waited for the coffee machine to grace them with its life giving elixir, “we haven't had a proper sit down catch up, y'know? Not since we reconnected, anyway.”

“True, then I've taken up a lot of your time.” Airmail snickered as she flipped the waffles over, “I'm such a high maintenance mare.”

“Yuppers, I'm glad you know that.” Smiling, Wildfire leant up and kissed her fiancé’s lips. “Plus I know she still beats herself up over what happened between us and I don't want her to. It’s time for her to forgive herself and move on with life.”

Not for the first time, Airmail was so impressed and proud of her little lover. She was sure, were she an Element Bearer, Forgiveness would be it. “I think your forgiving nature is starting to rub off on me,” she slid the first batch of waffles onto the two waiting plates. “You want maple syrup, or blackberry syrup on the waffles?”

“Maple syrup, please Pretty.” Wildfire replied and, once the coffee was ready, she started to very carefully pour it into the two mugs. As she did so, she flicked her ears in Airmail’s direction. “Look, Airy, I know Raid isn't exactly your favouritest pony in the world, but that was then. It happened. There’s no getting away from it. But, she isn’t that mare any more. She’s changed.”

“I'll have the blackberry, both are in the right centre of the fridge door.” Airmail sighed when she realised she had been caught red-hooved. “You’re right, Wily. She isn't my favouritest pony, that’s true. Then I may be a tiny bit jealous of the time you've had together. I'm playing catch up.”

“I'll get them!” Wildfire turned and delved into the fridge that still bore the dent she had made in the door when she had been, for want of a better term, blind drunk. She felt around the middle shelf on the inside of the door, feeling the labelled jars. “I'll be with you a lot longer than I ever was with her,” she commented as she passed her lover the jars. “I'm flattered you're jealous though, cos you're a hot pony.”

Airmail wasn’t too sure about the last bit though as she got a second batch of waffles cooking on the griddle. “Very loving of you to say so. You are the one with the flaming cutie mark though.”

Sniffing up at the scent of the waffles, Wildfire heard the second lot start to cook and she had to fight between her empty belly rumbling and drooling. “I'm a loving pony!” she smiled before carrying the coffees over to the breakfast table. “You don't need to be jealous of Raid, Airy. You're the one I'm marrying.”

“I know, I know.” Airmail shook her head in annoyance at herself more than anything else. Her lover was right, of course she was, but still… “I'm a new chapter in your book of poetry. I don't hate her, but my opinion of her was really low when she called while we were on the train to Vanhoover. I do think those zebras will do her some good though.”

Wildfire could well understand that. “I know, Pretty. So was mine. I'm glad you don't hate her though,” she said, taking her place at the breakfast table. While it had been true that she had hated Air Raid for a long time, she was over that now. “I think...I think those zebras will do for her what you and the mini herd did for me.”

“I hope so for you and that all your friends find happiness in life.” Airmail replied as she laid out the freshly cooked second batch of waffles on the plates and transferred them to the table. “I can make more if you like, but best to eat them hot.” She poured maple syrup over Wildfire’s and followed up with the blackberry syrup on hers before she sat and sipped her steaming coffee.

“Everypony deserves to be happy, Airy.” Wildfire said as she took a bite of her syrup covered waffles and giggled to herself. “I'd have called Cy and got her over, but she's busy on her DVD filming this week.”

Now, that did interest Airmail a great deal. She did like the jet black mare a lot. It helped that both Lavender and Serenity liked her as well. “Maybe she can do a demo for us all tomorrow at Caffy’s place?” she giggled as she ate her waffles, “Oh, but I think her and Lavender are going to have a suit off.”

At that, Wildfire couldn’t help but shudder. “I really can't believe she's into that…” she was still shaking when she reached for her waffles to calm herself down. The excellent taste of waffle and syrup did the trick. Each to their own, and all that. “But she is good at talking with her mouth full of cream!”

Not understanding the reference, Airmail tilted her head and asked, “Cream?”

“Oh yuppers. On the phone the other day she used squirty cream and, I quote, said ‘My, your load is the sweetest of nectars’.” She laughed while Airmail performed a picture perfect spit take with her coffee and got up to get a napkin. “And let's not forget the immortal line – ‘My nipples are chaffed, could you spread some of that stallion cream on them?’ and ‘Sir! I've never seen a rod so large. I don't know if my little cunny can take it all in!’.”

Airmail gave up and got several more napkins to wipe up the mess she had continued to make. “Seems like she has found her calling in the world of porn. Hard to believe she is a foal part of the time.”

“I know, right? I think we all played a part in starting that off, but she really seemed to like it.”

Getting some more coffee to replace that which she had spat on the breakfast table, Airmail took a sip while Wildfire ate some more of her syrup covered waffles. “Tempest knows Bluefeather better than I, but I think she can keep the fame from overwhelming Cyclone. How is your other friend doing? Darkstar?”

Wildfire froze in mid-bite, slowly swallowing what she had in her mouth as her ears slicked back. “Fine, really fine. Really, really fine!”

“That's...fine.” Airmail had not been expecting that response.

With a very deep sigh, Wildfire quietly sipped at her coffee. She knew after a response like that, her partner would be requiring an explanation. “At Caffy's shop, she said...she said sometimes she thought it would've been better if she'd forgotten about me. But...she also said she was glad she hadn't.”

Understanding, Airmail reached over the small table to rest a hoof on Wildfire’s foreleg. “She did lose a lot trying to find you, but you need to let her know how much more she has gained doing so. Slate is a good zebra, and I think she is more grounded now than in her youth.”

“I will,” Wildfire smiled at the touch of Airmail’s hoof on her foreleg. “We've all gained a lot, I think. I know I have,” she then squeezed Airmail’s hoof in turn. “So…” she sniffed, trying very hard indeed to not cry, “what newspapery stuff do you have on today?”

“Well, on the political side of things, the Mayor is supposed to talk about the issues at the docks. Remember last week, some mare I know had to do a cloud delivery?” Rather conspicuously, the azure blue pegasus did not mention the fallout for her on killing Autumn Leaves a few days ago.

Slowly, Wildfire nodded her head. “I remember the bomb and the innocents we couldn't save, and the firepony who didn't come back.” With her, it was a personal thing. She was a born firefighter. She fought the fire. Every life lost was a personal loss where the fire had won. She didn’t like it. Once she had eaten her breakfast though, she got up and went around the table to nuzzle her partner. “I want you to be okay, Airy.”

Something in Wildfire’s tone told Airmail what she was referring to, but she attempted to blow it off. “I should be. Lavender has a first aid kit for paper cuts, and I'm fully immune to zebra coffee. I will try to not eat too many pastries though.”

Wildfire though would not be so easily dismissed. “You know what I mean. I know you won't say anything about what happened in the subway, but...I. Want. You…” she kissed her fiancé as deeply and passionately as she could, “To. Be. Okay.”

“You are in my life, Wildfire. I'm better than okay. You love me and that makes me fantastic.”

“Awesomes!” satisfied that Airmail was and would be alright, she smiled and kissed her a second time. “Now, go to work like a good filly, and I'll send you a picture of me in the bath in a bit.”

“RawR!” Usually, Airmail had very good wing control. At the promise of a naughty photo though, she allowed them to shoot out from her sides and stand erect. “You know I'll show them to Omega and Lavender, right?”

“I'm counting on it. Share the wealth, I say!”

Stood up, Airmail cleaned down the cooled waffle iron before helping Wildfire remove the dishes to the sink. That done, she gave her a lingering kiss. “I will my sexy mare. You got clean up, or need a hoof?”

“I got this, Pretty. You can leave it to me.”

Airmail had no doubt in her mind she could do just that. “Okay, I took care of the waffle iron, but the rest is in the sink. Have a fun day, and no diddling with yourself till after me or stormy is there to see in pony.”

“That'd be well naughty, right?” Wildfire leant up high on the tips of her hooves and kissed her fiancé goodbye. “Have a good day and I'll send you your present soon.”

~ ~ ~

The morning passed by extremely slowly for Wildfire. She did indeed have her scented bubble bath, complete with her new and as yet unused Cloudhatten shampoo set. She did take a few naughty photos of herself and send them to Airmail at the Manehatten Times. However, one can only bathe for so long until boredom set in. After an hour she got out and dried off.

It was as she was carefully drying herself that she heard the mail. Inspecting what had been delivered, the little pegasus was overjoyed to discover it was her purchases from Rizolli’s bookstore. Wildfire danced a very happy dance indeed at the Math for Beginners and her new copy of Wuthering Heights in braille.

Getting the math book did give her an idea though. One short trip up to the office and an investigation on her computer later and she was enrolled with Manehatten University on three of their ‘open’ courses. She chose Math, Firefighting Theory and Cloud Management. She was very surprised when, an hour later, a university pony appeared at the door with the first of her papers.

Sadly though, a short time later at eleven a.m., Wildfire was bored. Sat on the couch in the living room, she set aside her math paper, took a steadying sip of her freshly made coffee and, after a moment's thought, followed through on her earlier idea and she dialled Air Raid's number.

“Air Raid's phone!” Cream answered on the third ring. “Air Raid's answering service answering!” As it happened, thanks to their success in the race a week before, as well as her association with Caffeinated, a highly respected member of the Coffee Tribe, the cream coloured zebra had been allowed to become Air Raid’s co-driver on a permanent basis.

In the background, stood beside Ratchet in Caffeinated’s large spacious garage, Air Raid made an unsuccessful attempt to get her phone. “Cream!” she yelled, held at bay by the equipment in her way.

Wildfire snickered at all the noise on the other end of the line. “Oh hey Cream, it's Wily.”

“Hello Wily!” Cream greeted the blind mare with a smile and a devious look shot to her new lover. “Raid is pretending to understand Ratchet right now. You need to talk with her?”

“Am not!” Air Raid protested, much to the amusement of Ratchet, Sparkplug and Wheeljack who were busy servicing Air Raid’s Audi. The parts to repair the damaged bodywork from the race had appeared from a dealer in the city, as well as some engine parts and new suspension units. “What does Wily want?”

“You mean she isn't understanding?” Wildfire giggled and, as she had her phone on speaker, turned the page of her math paper and ran her hoof over the braille dots on the sheet. Time to put her idea into action. “I was wondering, if you aren't too busy, Raid, if you'd like to come and keep me company for a bit at my place?”

Thankfully for Wildfire, unfortunately for Air Raid, Cream had the phone on speaker too. From her position underneath the front end of the R8, Ratchet shouted, “Yes, she would love too!”

Air Raid barely had the time to raspberry her friend when Cream asked, “You have room for two?”

Bursting out into fits of laughter at that, for she could easily imagine the answer to what she was about to ask. She asked it anyway. “Cream, is she getting in the way? And yes, there's plenty of room.”

Ratchet slid out from under the car, a few parts held in her magical aura and fresh oil stains on what had been new overalls. “They'll be right over.”

Cream also decided to take the decision out of Air Raid’s hooves. Partly because she was worried if she tried to ‘help’ any more, Ratchet would insert those parts into her person. Sideways. “We'll be right over.”

Still laughing, Wildfire asked, “What do you drink, Cream?”

“My namesake,” Cream replied quickly. She never tired of her old joke. “But, I do add coffee to it every now and again.” Even Air Raid laughed at that as she had used that joke one time too many.

Wildfire giggled. She liked the sound of Cream. “Very good, I like that. Okies, well I'll get the drinks on, you two come on over.” She was especially pleased as it got her away from her new math book. When they exchanged goodbyes, she hung up and started to get on with prepping the coffee and biscuits. You had to have biscuits! When that was done, and her medication taken, she went back with some reluctance to her braille math book.

After taking the first practise quiz in the book she got in the mail, Wildfire was very pleasantly surprised that she only missed one question. The review she took afterwards showed that she forgot to carry a number, and that she got it right on the second try. “Oh wow!” Wildfire exclaimed, the blind mare very, very surprised following this unexpected success. Nonetheless buoyed, she decided to go right onto the next one.

~ ~ ~

Ratchet was annoyed. It had been several moments since Cream had hung up the call with Wildfire and her distraction was still in the garage under her hooves and getting in her way. “Raid!” she exclaimed through grinding teeth, “You're still here!”

“Trying to get rid of me, Ratchet?” Air Raid asked with as much of her cocky bravado in her voice as she could muster. Unfortunately she injected too much and the looks she received from Ratchet and Cream told her they didn’t buy it. “Got a mare stashed away somewhere?”

“One,” Ratchet countered quickly, pointing to her younger sister who was busy with the engine block that had been removed from the car and was hanging from a portable gantry. “But we're related, don't you?” The unicorn opted not to mention Scorch, the sexy flame red dragoness with the sexy orange scales on her back. Mostly because she was a driver for another team, but also because it wasn’t anything to do with Air Raid.

“I happen to have two very sexy mares, as well you know. So, why'd you want rid of me? I'm not in the way...” Unfortunately, just as she said that, the lime green mare turned and, without thinking, knocked over a box of bolts that were resting on the bonnet of her R8. “Oops…”

Seeing the glare from Ratchet, whom the bolts had almost hit, were it not for her quick casting of many levitation spells, Cream interjected diplomatically, “Maybe so you can visit friends without grease in your mane.”

“We have to go now? Right now?” Air Raid flustered, knowing full well that Ratchet, her chief mechanic, would recognise stalling when she saw it. It didn’t help her cause any that when she was walking in agitated circles, the lime green pegasus accidentally kicked the jack that was holding up the left side front wheel. This sent the left side crashing to the floor which in turn dislodged the brake hose, spilling oil and brake fluid onto the floor.

Again, Cream had to step in because it looked like Ratchet had murder in mind at that moment. She seized her fellow submissive by the pink collar she wore and almost dragged her to one side. “Would you like me to have Amethyst meet us at Wily's place?”

“N-No...um...I'll be fine with you...” Air Raid didn’t want to make any trouble, well, more than she already had. Nor did she particularly want to meet with Wildfire very much, if she was honest. That meant having to face up to her past, where she was quite happy wallowing in her misery. Alas, the universe had other ideas, it seemed. She relented and sighed, “fine, I'll go see her. I'm obviously no use to anypony here.”

That was putting it mildly, to say the least. “I have to potty. You could help by not picking up the mess you made and talk to Sparky about vroom.” As she trotted off smartly to the toilet, she communicated via a silent look that Ratchet please not kill her, at least not yet.

Walking over to the chirpy young unicorn, Air Raid sighed deeply, that old familiar feeling of cold dread settling in her gut. “I'm sorry about the mess, Ratchet…” she trailed off to silence and lowered her tail well between her legs when she got an angry glower in response, as the mechanic now had a two hour repair job ahead of her now. “Ah, hey Sparky!”

“Hi!” Sparkplug didn’t even bother to look up from the engine she was working on.

“I won't touch anything, I swear,” Air Raid promised, the pegasus made sure to not step too close to the hanging engine. A box of bolts and a brake hose was one thing. A very heavy and extremely expensive hoof crafted engine was quite another.

Once she had stepped inside the ranch, Cream took a small diversion on her way to the bathroom to pick up her saddlebag and her phone. Inside the toilet, she called up Amethyst. While she was loathe to disturb her Mistress at work, this was an emergency. “What's up, Cream?” Amethyst answered on the first ring.

“Nothing good Amy,” Cream used her lover’s nickname, as opposed to her title of Mistress, something she did very rarely and only in times of need. “Wily invited Raid over to chat and she is a complete mess, about to piss all over her hooves.”

“We knew this would happen sooner or later,” Amethyst sighed down the phone line. “You want me to come over?”

Cream very definitely wanted her Mistress to come over. Air Raid needed her head knocking straight. “Yes, it will take you forty minutes to get there, and we'll be there in ten.”

“Closer to fifty, I have to wrap things up here.”

“Fine, I'll stall if it goes bad, and if not it will be a pleasant surprise you showed up.”

“Okay, Cream. Text me if things go really bad.”

In the garage, Ratchet thankfully had the oil and brake fluid spill under control and was therefore in a better mood as Sparkplug waved Air Raid closer. “Biggest Brother is being a meanie pants. Listen to the varoom, Raid!” she lit her horn and with a grin on her face, she played with the throttle cable.

Carefully, Air Raid stepped a little closer, her hoof steps drowned out by the guttural roar of the hanging engine. She was able to manage a thin smile. “That sounds really cool, Sparky. You clean the inlet cylinder heads?” she asked before leaning in and whispering, “Why's Jackie being mean?”

Cheerfully, Sparkplug nodded her head. She had stripped the whole entire engine down to its parts, cleaned each one until it sparkled before reassembling it. “The grey lady was nice and even gave me some candy, but the striped lady is faster. I made this varoom for you and her.” She announced proudly. When she looked at Ratchet, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “He is still worried about you and driving. He doesn't want to lose these sponsors and you can be a mom sometimes.”

“A...” stunned, Air Raid’s mouth hung open. “I am not a mom!” As she said that, she realised that maybe, just maybe, she might be a bit of a mom. “Well, not much…”

Just then, Cream returned from the ‘toilet’ with a smirk on her face. “I don't see any smoke! I'll let Amethyst know you were a good filly, Raid.”

Ratchet called from underneath the car, “I put out the fire before you got back.”

“If you say so, mom!” Sparkplug giggled like an overgrown filly.

“I am not a mom!” Air Raid stomped her hoof, “Ratchey, tell your sister I'm not a mom!”

Again, Ratchet called out from underneath the car, “Sparky, a mare her age is more a grandmother. You should know better!” The whole pit crew was laughing at her now, including Wheeljack and Hoist who had been taking a break in the pool out the back.

“I have your walker,” Cream giggled, “let’s get you out of here.”

“At least you proved Wheeljack can smile,” Air Raid huffed and fluffed her feathers defensively, wanting to leave but not wanting to go to Wildfire's either. Why didn’t these interfering ponies understand she wanted to wallow? She needed to beat herself up! She had to atone for what she did. “Alright, Cream, let's go.”

On the way to the car, the electric colt that Caffeinated had very kindly said they could use as much as they liked while they lived under his roof, Cream asked, “Mom, grandmare, what was that about, Raid?”

By this point, Air Raid was getting tired of sighing. “It's a long story. You know Darkie, right?”

“The one who had her horn repaired. She is with Slate.”

“That's her,” Air Raid agreed with a nod of her head. “After her attack, before she got her horn repaired, she lived with me in Canterlot. I...at times I felt like a mother. She was suicidal and depressed, then there's Cyclone, I played her nanna when she was a foal. It was a long five years."

“Are you unhappy you were a mother to both of them?” asked Cream curiously, “Does the pit crew know about that?”

“No, I'm not unhappy I was the 'mom', it's just...every now and then it would've been nice to have a friend to talk to, y'know?” Air Raid sighed heavily as they crossed the garage leaving the pit crew behind. “Brightstar was in Filly, Cy was in Cloudsdale and not allowed in Canterlot, I just...I felt so alone.”

Cream paused and kissed Air Raid’s lips. She could practically feel the tension that ran all through the pegasus’s body. “You are not alone now. The past brought you to me and Amethyst and let us do with you what we had to do in hiding.”

When they reached the car, Air Raid returned the kiss, though her ears were well back to her head and her tail was down. “I'm scared, Cream.”

“Of the past, present, or future?”

The first thing Air Raid did was to open the passenger door for Cream to get in first. “All three.” She admitted once she was sat in the car and the doors were closed. “I've managed to mess up just about every relationship I've ever had,” she explained, staring straight ahead. “Slingshot, Cyclone, Appleglow, I treated them all like crap until they left, and let's not forget the stellar achievement that was Wily. I was such a selfish bitch...all I cared about was my image. I'm scared I'll do the same to you and Amethyst.”

“Truth?”

“Always.”

“If you leave,” Cream started, her hoof resting on Air Raid’s hind leg, “I still have Amethyst. If you leave, Amethyst may do something about it. We are zebra and we don't put up with pony bullshit. So the only way you are leaving is most likely with me, and that would leave Amy alone at our funeral.”

“Our funeral, huh?” Air Raid smiled as she started up the uninspiring electric car. She had to admit that wasn’t her preferred course of action or outcome. “Wouldn't want that. I tried to get over Wily. Ponies keep telling me to forgive myself.”

Again, Cream placed a tender loving kiss on her fellow submissive’s lips. “I forgive you.”

“I know, it's just...it's not easy, Cream. I'm trying, I can't seem to shake it off. Darkie thinks I like punishing myself.”

“That is Amy's job.” Cream asserted with a smirk plastered all over her face. “Only bad naughty ponies punish themselves.”

As she pulled out of the garage and drove to Wildfire’s place, Air Raid managed that thin smile again. Thankfully, as it was a weekday, the notorious Manehatten traffic was light. “I wish there was a 'getting over your shit' instruction book, y’know?”

“I find if I walk forward after I poop, and don’t look back, I don't have to worry about it.”

“Hmhmm,” was all the response Air Raid gave that she had heard what Cream had said as she steered through what traffic there was. Instead of talking about what was bothering her, she used a typical Air Raid tactic of diversion. Plus what her lover had said had actually interested her. “Why in secret? You said you and Amethyst had to be all secret.”

It was obvious, even to a mare as stubbornly dense as Air Raid that Cream wasn’t answering her on purpose. The cream coloured zebra was delaying, determined to reveal the 'secret' after they park, but before the doorbell was rang. After long moments of driving in silence, the pegasus pulled up on the street outside the red bricked townhouse. “Cream? You're stalling.”

“What do you think the secret was for me and Amethyst?” asked Cream once the engine had been turned off.

“Well I admit I don't know zebras like Darkie does, so...I'm gonna guess you're from separate tribes? Like there's a rule that says you can't do the nasty with a tribe other than yours?”

Cream couldn’t help but giggle at the rather oversimplified explanation of the complex relationships between the zebra tribes. “Right in one! Most ponies think it is because we're lesbians. There is a pretty ridged caste system for zebras. The fact they let me go from my job to be with you full time is a big plus. For Amy, it will depend on if she turns a profit being your manager.”

Listening, Air Raid did actually understand, especially being born and raised in the nation’s capital city. “You know, that's not so different to Canterlot. There are royalty, major nobles, minor nobles, commoners in the city. You're expected to stay in your zone, y'know? And being gay has only just become acceptable.”

“Are you ready?” asked Cream, looking over the nondescript house before them.

“Not in the slightest.” Air Raid admitted as she opened her door then paused before getting out. “You called Amethyst 'Amy'. Let's talk about that. In very great detail!”

“Sure,” Cream snickered, not giving the troubled mare a second. “We can do that. In the car, on the front step, or have that as our conversation starter inside?”

“Fine,” Air Raid’s shoulders slumped and she at last got out of the car. She took the time to lock it up, even if she thought the likelihood of it being stolen remote. It wasn’t hers, after all. She walked up the small garden path past the well-kept flower beds like she was on the way to the gallows. “You win. I'm going in.”

“Coming!” Wildfire heard the knock at her front door and, setting her math paper down on the coffee table next to the tray of hot coffees, she got up from her seat on the couch and she trotted over to the door.

“Hello Wildfire,” Cream beamed a wide smile and the zebra moved in for a hug as soon as the front door was opened for them.

Air Raid though felt amazingly uncomfortable though as she stood there on the doorstep. She watched Cream hug her ex-marefriend and she rubbed the back of her blue mane with her foreleg. “Hey, Wily,” she spoke to the floor more than to the little mare, “You up for hugs?”

After a moment on the doorstep hugging Cream, the diminutive yellow pegasus released her vice-like hug wearing a wide grin on her face. “Always have been, always will be, Raid.” To demonstrate her openness for said hugs, she sat on her haunches and opened her forelegs.

It was when Air Raid moved in for her hug that she saw the decorated casts that covered Wildfire’s wings. “Um,” instinctively she pulled back, just out of hugging range. “Ah, Wily, what happened to your wings?”

Wildfire though would not be denied her hugs. She sniffed the all too familiar scent of grease, oil and brake fluid that was her ex’s perfume and she dragged her into what was a typically restrained Wily hug ™. “Oh that,” she said, her ears slicking back to her head. “I was attacked, on Monday.”

“Oh my!” Cream gasped, her hoof guarded at her mouth.

“By who?”

Cream shot Air Raid a look that spoke volumes. “Maybe we should move inside first, then we can talk.”

“Oh yuppers, come on in guys, your coffees are on the table.” Wildfire had her smile in place as she turned and felt her way back to her seat on the couch and to her paper, which she set aside. “Pull up a seating pad, there’s plenty. It was a warden, from the care home in Canterlot. She tracked me to Manehatten. She reminded me what her whip felt like.”

If it was possible, Air Raid felt even worse now than she did before. It was all on her, every bad thing that had happened to her ex was all on her. “Oh, I'm sorry Wily.” Was all she could think to say to that.

“It's okay hun. Airy took care of her, it.” Wildfire smiled broadly from her perch on the couch. “You still take coffee black with two sugars? I remembered!”

There was a great deal of sadness in the lime green mare’s voice as she pulled up a seating pad for Cream and herself around the coffee table. Sadness and an extraordinary amount of remorse. “Yes, please, Wily.”

“I like some coffee in my cream please!” Cream giggled, the zebra immediately impressed with how well adjusted this young pegasus was, considering everything that had happened to her. Granted, she didn’t know much, just what she had heard and had been told.

Wildfire pointed to where she thought the coffee table was – she was only off by a few inches - and the coffees on it waiting for their respective owners to claim them. Beside the black coffees were pots of sugar and a cream so they could prepare them how they liked. “Help yourselves,” she said, her ears flicking to the sound of Air Raid’s voice. “Raid, what's wrong?”

“It's all my fault, and now I've caused you to be attacked again.”

Cream was shocked by the morose tone in her fellow submissive’s voice. “What?”

As it happened, Cream wasn’t the only one shocked by the tone in Air Raid’s voice. Wildfire, who turned her head to the sound, had never heard her speak like that. Not ever. “Raid,” she started as delicately as she could, “what in the wide world of Equestria do you mean?”

Air Raid didn’t answer her, not right away, anyway. The lime green racer had dissolved into floods of tears. Emotions she had tortured herself with for five long years came to the fore. She cried. She cried hot salty tears for what she had done. All the hurt she had caused, she cried for all the pain that was on her, that Wildfire had suffered, that Darkstar had suffered. All of it was on her. Why couldn’t they see? “I-If…If…If I…If I hadn't left you that day, none of this would have happened!”

The little blind mare sighed and set aside the coffee she had picked up in her hooves. This again. It irked her that they had been over this at Caffeinated’s ranch. She had spoken with Air Raid about this, again and again and again! She shook her head and prepared to try one more time to reach the stubborn mare. “Raid, it wasn't your fault I was sold to Amethyst Glory.”

“It was!” Air Raid stomped her hoof on the living room floor, her wings fluffed in anger. Why couldn’t Wildfire, Cream, everypony for that matter see? Why did they insist on forgiving her? “If I hadn't left you, your dad wouldn't have been able to do that!”

On her seating pad, Cream patiently sipped her coffee and watched the exchange between the two ponies. “I don't think I've seen anypony so easily separated from their bits.”

Laughing out loud, Wildfire couldn’t believe how dense and stubborn Air Raid was being, even by her standards, this was a whole other level. “Raid, you're a fool. I was always going to Amethyst Glory!” she placed a heavy emphasis on the word ‘always’. “Don't you see? Dad made that choice for me.”

Calming herself, Wildfire reached for her coffee and drained the whole mug in one swallow. “If you had been there, in the hospital, five years ago, what do you think you'd have done, hmm? Amethyst Glory would've killed you in a heartbeat, ordered Lotus Stripes or Autumn Leaves to kill you, or taken you as well.”

“NO!” Air Raid screamed so loud she almost made Cream drop her coffee mug. “No way! Just, no! I would have fought for you. I-I...I should have fought for you!” Again, Air Raid’s temper left her and she broke down crying.

Wildfire let out a low growl. This was starting to get real old, real fast. “You'd have fought, yes, and you'd have lost. Miserably, in fact. You have no idea the tortures that Amethyst Glory would have subjected you to. You can't win everything, Raid.” For her, it was very simple. It happened, and that was all there was to it. Those events were in the past, where they couldn’t affect anypony in the present, or be affected.

“Cream wants cream!” the zebra exclaimed, at a loss for anything else to say or do. A distraction seemed the best option. “The frozen kind and Raid said there is a shop nearby.”

“Ooh yuppers, there is! I can show you if you'd like, Cream?” Wildfire asked while she heard the zebra pat the crying mare’s head. “I’ll just need a moment, okay?” she didn’t wait for a response to that, she got up and trotted up the stairs to the office, where her headset was waiting for her to the right of her computer.

While Wildfire had gone for the moment and left them alone, Cream leant over and kissed Air Raid’s tear stained lips. “I'll buy, seeing as how I'm rolling in winnings and I wasn't even in the car!”

“Fine,” Air Raid shrugged. She heard noise, but she wasn’t listening. “Just this once, I guess.”

Mere moments later, Wildfire reappeared in the living room with her headset in place and ready to go. She sincerely hoped that Cream had a plan for her ex-marefriend’s frame of mind. If they couldn’t get her over this, then she hated to say it, but she had no place for her in her life. “Follow me guys, you'll love the chocolate everything sundaes!”

Once they were outside the red bricked townhouse, Wildfire electing to use the seldom trodden front door path, Air Raid watched as the blind mare turned her headset on. Compass points and a map appeared on the visor screen, obviously Wildfire couldn’t see that, but she was getting directions and bearings in her ear. With the ice cream shop selected as their destination, Wildfire set off at a confident trot. “Nice day today, huh?”

“Oh, well…” Cream started, pausing when she saw Air Raid following along with her ears stuck back to her scalp and her tail well between her legs. She had to admit it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, a breeze made it not too hot, there was hardly a cloud in the bright blue sky and she could smell the sea from where they were. “It would be a nice day to drive with the top down, but Mr. Caffy's car doesn't do that.”

“It hardly does anything...” Air Raid muttered, the lime green mare scuffing her hooves along the grassy path. She wasn’t looking anywhere but down. She didn’t notice the bright blue sky, the smell of the sea or the chirp of the birds.

“I'm afraid I don't know about that, cars aren't my thing,” Wildfire giggled as she leads the way unerringly towards the ice cream store. Following along, Air Raid was impressed with how easily the little yellow pony used the kit.

Walking besides her lover, Cream was determined to make more pleasant conversation. “It would be hard to drive by braille, but I heard at the party you fly very well, Wily.”

“Yuppers, I do, Cream!” Wildfire replied happily. As she walked at her brisk pace, she had her black tail all kinds of swishy, a happy bounce in her step. One looking at the three would assume the difference between the yellow and green mares was as wide as night and day. “You know the suspension cables on the Narrow's Bridge? I flew through them!”

“How?” Air Raid asked in disbelief.

“I followed Tempest's urine scent trail. It was easy. I just did it. Like my old nurse Eirene used to say, ‘nothing to it, but to do it’.”

Cream was amazed. She had been over the Narrow’s Bridge many times. She knew there wasn’t much free space between those cables. “You weren't afraid?”

“Nopes!” Wildfire declared with justified pride. I'm done being afraid. And besides, I trusted Tempest and she trusted me. I suppose it's like you and Raid driving in the race the other day.”

That was something Cream could well understand and appreciate. Hearing that, she found she understood Wildfire a lot more. She understood why she wore the collars around her neck. Trust and love. It was the same reason she and Air Raid wore their collars. “Yes, I trust Raid completely behind the wheel. Part of being a team.”

Wildfire paused at the edge of the grassy path. Her ears turned this way and that as she got her bearings. She knew to her right was the lake, she could hear the ponies playing in the water. She had her directions in her ear, she knew where she was. “It's the same thing. I trust my tech, I trust my flying buddy.”

“I get that,” Air Raid interjected, something she wanted to know buzzing in her head, but she wanted to be delicate about it. “How do you get around as good as you do without, well, y'know, seeing where you're going?

“Because I know the area.” Wildfire replied confidently. This was the area where her Mistress Mapper had taken her and Serenity on the parade back at the BDSM party. A party that felt like a lifetime away now. “Right now we're on grass. There's a dirt path coming up. I can feel it under my hooves, I can hear the excited foals, and I follow my directions.”

When she heard that, Cream put two and two together. She had assumed the headset Wildfire wore was for safety. “Is that why you're wearing a helmet, not in case you run into something?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire smiled as she adjusted her course, “It's voice activated and I just ask it for a location, it tells me where to go. Including crossing points and other safe areas.”

Cream laughed, “Raid doesn't like the navigation system bossing her around.”

“Sounds like Raid,” behind her, she could easily hear Air Raid mutter ‘whatever…’ under her breath. Though her ears flicked back to Air Raid's direction, she chose for the moment to ignore it. Instead, she trotted along the dirt path and then the grass to the ice cream store. She could tell they were there thanks to the smell of the place. “Aaaaand, we're almost there,” she pointed her hoof dead ahead. “Ice cream store!”

Like she had been treated to a stage magic show, Cream clapped her hooves in appreciation. “Looks like a busy place.”

“It is!” Wildfire squealed joyously, “Always busy. Vanilla Sprinkles, the owner, is a sweet sounding mare.”

Cream glanced over at her lover and had to suppress a grimace at her downturned expression. “Chocolate and coffee for you, Raid?”

Air Raid’s ears were still back, seemingly welded to her scalp. “Yes please.”

As she stepped into the ice cream parlour, Wildfire heard the tone in Air Raid's voice. She was very, very close to having had quite enough, thank you very much! She managed to force the irritation from her voice though when, at the counter, she ordered a salted caramel ice cream with chocolate sprinkles and coffee for herself, Cream requested a coffee and chocolate in a cup for Air Raid and a cookie and cream shake for herself.

After Wildfire had been directed to an empty table which was at her four o’clock position by Vanilla Sprinkles, the blind mare felt her way over and sat down. Cream said nothing, but followed Wildfire to the table. Air Raid followed along, all the time expecting Wildfire to stumble but she just didn't. “I don't mean to be rude,” she asked once the ice creams had been delivered to their table, “but how do you do that?”

Wildfire cocked her head to one side, pausing an inch from her ice cream. “Do what?”

“Walk around like it's nothing.”

Now, Wildfire’s ears turned backwards. She was at once reminded of all the beatings she had endured at the hooves of Amethyst Glory or Lotus Stripes or Autumn Leaves for the slightest transgression, the slightest stumble, fall or trip. She had learned. And she had overcome. “I've had practise, Raid. Let's leave it at that, please.”

“I think she comes to this shop far too often!” Cream put in diplomatically before shooting Air Raid the kind of glare that could cut through a bank vault. “Wily could ask you how do you know to turn left on the race track?”

Her mood instantly lifted by Cream’s little joke, Wildfire giggled brightly. “And who wouldn't come here as often as they could?” she asked before turning serious once more. “Thing is, I struggled at first, of course I did. But I've had five years to get good.”

Air Raid didn’t touch her ice cream. She instead studied the table top. “I guess…”

Cream, bold as brass, took a couple of slow licks of Air Raid’s as yet untouched ice cream as she marshalled her thoughts. Something had to be done, and quickly, or she’d need to call Amethyst again. “What would be your other guess, Raid?”

The lime green mare just mumbled, “It doesn't matter…”

Finally, Wildfire had heard enough. In a very rare show of temper, the diminutive yellow pegasus reared up and slammed her hoof down on the table and, letting out a bellowed snort of frustration which startled Air Raid and a few other patrons, snapped. “Luna damnit Raid!” she yelled loudly. Had her wings not been in casts, they would have flared outwards. “I was the one that was abused, not you!” Having never experienced ‘angry Wily’ before, Air Raid looked stunned. “You messed up one time! One bucking time, Raid! Pony up, will you‽”

“But...Bu-...”

“No!” Wildfire exclaimed angrily, “This is beyond stupid, Raid! It has to stop! You need to get over it!”

“Speaking of stupid,” Cream cut in brightly, her tone perhaps a little too perky, “I have a story!”

“I'm so-...”

Still angry, Wildfire silenced the wide eyed Air Raid with a snort of breath through her nose. “You say ‘I'm sorry’ and I swear to Celestia I'm going home!” Forcing herself calm, she turned to Cream and asked, “What is it?”

“Raid asked me a question on the way to your place, and well, you know how she drives. I could barely get my seat belt on before she arrived, let alone answer a question.”

With a huge, supreme effort, Wildfire forced herself back to a calm enough state to listen and sat back down on her seating pad. “I'd like to hear it, please, Cream.” To help in her calming endeavour, she took a long sip of her coffee and swilled it around her mouth, savouring the taste.

Cream decided to start at the very beginning, for the benefit of both the other mares at the table. By now, the few other patrons in the ice cream shop had gone back to their own conversations, their own business. “Did you know that Mistress Amethyst is my Mistress and Raid's Mistress?”

Wildfire nodded her head. As it happened, she did know that. “I did, I mean, do, know. I remember her meeting you at Mr. Caffeinated's ranch last week at the gaming night party.”

“You have a Mistress, Wily?” asked Cream, again stealing from Air Raid’s ice cream, though having noted the collars worn proudly around her neck, it was obvious that she did have at least one, perhaps even three.

“Yuppers, Mistress Mapper is my Mistress, as is Airmail and Tempest, from time to time.”

Cream smiled, her initial guess confirmed about Wildfire’s situation, she took a moment to again lick Air Raid’s ice cream, though it was offered this time rather than stolen and sipped her shake to gather up her thoughts in order to forge ahead. “Do you have a pet name for Mapper? One you may use with Airmail, or Tempest, or even if you are alone with Mapper?”

Wildfire shook her head. It had never occurred to her to choose a nickname for Mapper. “No, I don't. I call her Mistress, because that sums up how I feel about her, I love her and trust her completely.”

“Ah,” Cream smiled, “that in lies my story. I called Mistress Amethyst, Amy on the drive here.”

“Oh?” Licking her ice cream, Wildfire cocked her head to one side in true ‘Wily’ style, all at once very interested in what Cream had to say.

Just like Wildfire, Air Raid was listening intently to what Cream was saying. “How long have you known Mapper?” Cream asked.

“Just over a month, though for a week and a bit of that I wasn't with her,” Wildfire answered, thinking of the period of time she spent travelling from Canterlot to Vanhoover then on to Ponyville, Cloudsdale, Trottingham, Fillydelphia and finally back home to Manehatten. That week had been so hectic her hooves had barely touched the ground the whole time.

Without realising that Wildfire couldn’t tell she was doing it, Cream nodded her head. “How long have you known Raid?”

“Um...” Wildfire really had to think about that because, in her time at the care home, she found she rather lost track of the passage of time. Sometimes it was hard to get her thoughts in order. “I'd say…um, ten years. Ish.”

“Did you have a pet name for her? Or one you used with your other friends?”

“Yuppers, I do.”

The sly smile that split Cream’s face unnerved Air Raid to no end, as she knew exactly what that name was. “Oh,” the zebra turned her smile to her lover. “Do you know what it was, Raid?”

Very slowly, Air Raid nodded of her head. “I do,” she blushed so hard that her lime green cheeks turned a bright red. Her wings fluffed up and her blue tail rose. “Her pet name for me was Dodo.”

“Sexy Dodo,” Wildfire corrected her with a giggle.

“Raid, I'll not tell this to Amy,” Cream promised as she giggled around her milkshake, the pegasus’s humiliation was beautiful to witness. “So, Wily, if Mistress Air Raid was your Mistress, but just us naughty ponies were eating ice cream, and I asked how was your Mistress doing, what name would you use for her?”

“Oh,” Wildfire continued to giggle, much to Air Raid’s annoyance, “I'd say Mistress Dodo was doing just fine, Cream!” in response, Air Raid’s wings were all ruffled up.

Giggling some more, Cream took a sip of her drink to steady herself before she spoke again. “I've known Mistress Amethyst all my life. She is one year older than me. Zebras are very tribal but the stone tribe outnumbers the coffee tribe. Amy lived across the street from me. We only have so many schools, so we went to school together up through our second year of high school. Then I went to an accounting school and she went to a Jewelsmith school.”

Pausing a moment, Cream lapped at Air Raid’s rapidly melting ice cream, though this was a tactic to gather her thoughts. And she didn’t want her semi-stolen treat melting. “I called her Amy when we first met, and later after we fell in love, we had to keep it secret because she was a different tribe. Now, I call her Amy if I'm a naughty pony, like in the car with Raid, or when I'm being very serious and we don't have time to be Mistress and pet.”

“I see. I call Airmail Pretty, Tempest Honey and Serenity Beauty. The names come to me.”

“But no name for Mapper?”

“No,” Wildfire frowned, her brow furrowed so deeply that her face looked even more scarred than usual. “I find her hard to read. The way she acts and carries herself most of the time reminds me very much of a pony I'd really like to forget.”

Cream said softly, “A pony whose name is the same as my Mistress?”

Wildfire nodded her head. “Amethyst Glory.”

“Raid,” Cream spoke now to her new lover, “did I answer your question?”

Air Raid, who had been absently licking at what was left of her ice cream, nodded her head. “Yeah, ah, yeah, you did, thanks Cream.” Taking a breath, she now addressed Wildfire. “I don’t know how you can stand to say her name, Wily, I really don’t, after the Tartarus she put you through.”

That was easy. Thanks in no small part to Airmail, Tempest, Mapper and Serenity, she knew the answer. “Because she's gone, they’re all gone, and she has no power over me anymore.”

“You said it was a name you wanted to forget. Will you ever forget that name?” Cream asked, cutting straight to the chase.

Wildfire laughed out loud, catching everypony but Cream by surprise, Air Raid included. “Of course not. But she doesn't haunt me anymore.” She paused and rubbed a hoof over her belly where she knew there was a new life growing inside her. “I have better things to focus on now.”

“Air Raid,” Cream started with a sigh, “I want you to do something that is normally very hard for you, but you've been doing it well here in the ice cream shop. I'm going to ask Wily three questions and I don't want you to say anything. Fluffy wings or flagging tail is okay.”

Intrigued, Wildfire turned her head to the sound of Cream’s voice. “Go on.”

“Wily,” Cream silently prayed to the Goddess of the Night that Air Raid would stay quiet, “will you ever forget the day Air Raid abandoned you in the hospital?”

“Never. I remember it like it was this morning.” Wildfire answered her quickly and honestly, an answer to which Air Raid had a stunned open mouthed look.

“Wily,” Cream pressed onwards in case her lover should interrupt her, “will you ever forget the day you shared with Air Raid on the cloud?”

“Of course not.” Wildfire’s honesty had Air Raid’s blue tail flagging upwards and her wings twitching set to shoot out fully erect at that.

“Wildfire, when I say, 'Air Raid', which of those memories do you think of?”

“I'll be perfectly honest,” said Wildfire after a moment’s quiet thought, for she carefully considered her answer to this. It was something that had plagued her for a long old time. Now, finally, she had an honest answer. “For a long time it was the first one. Now, it's the second. I much prefer the second, Cream.”

Having received what she knew in her heart was an honest, considered and well thought out reply, Cream placed her hoof on Air Raid’s foreleg and gave it a squeeze. “And you dare to wonder why she could forgive you. Shame, Raid, shame.”

“I...I don't know what to say…”

“Anything, Dodo, as long as it’s not ‘I'm sorry’.”

“Now hug, kiss, and Raid, you may cry a little.” The zebra mare checked Air Raid’s ice cream bowl only to be disappointed with the lack of content inside. “I'm creamed out so we can go back to Wily's place now.”

For the first time in the day since that morning, Air Raid's ears were standing up all alert as she leant over the table for a hug. Wildfire though had other ideas, the little yellow mare slopping a tonguefull of ice cream all over the older pegasus’s nose with a playful ‘Ooops!’

All giggles, Cream happily volunteered her services to clean all present noses with her tongue, just in case the other two couldn’t manage it. Once they were all outside the ice cream shop, the zebra mare nudged Wildfire’s flank. “Lead the way, Wily. I will walk with Raid and allow her to hug me with a wing. You may walk on the other side and do the same.”

“Alrighty, here we go,” activating her headset once more, Wildfire set her destination for home and she did lead the way. Somewhat happier than she had been all day and in herself for a very, very long time, Air Raid placed herself on Cream’s left side and she hugged her with her wing all the way back, her ears flicking up and down with every step she took.

When they neared the townhouse though, Air Raid and Cream saw Amethyst approaching from the direction of the subway station. “Cream,” she said when they were all in earshot, “when did you add another pony to your harem?”

Wildfire’s ears swivelled to the sound of the new voice and she offered a polite bow, as was the dominant zebra’s due. “Mistress Amethyst, good morning.”

Air Raid, lost in her thoughts, was a little slower, to greet her lover. “Mistress, I ah, I wasn't expecting to see you…”

“Somepony's buuuuusted!” Wildfire giggled playfully.

“I thought about it Mistress,” Cream ‘admitted’ with a giggle, thoroughly enjoying the look on the pink mare’s face, as well as Air Raid’s seemingly improved mood. “But, then I thought what Airmail might do if I poached Wildfire from her.”

Amethyst patted her pet’s head. “Wisdom of youth, right there.”

“Unlike our dear Raid, she isn't into stripes.” Cream sighed, lifting her hoof dramatically to her forehead. “Just feathers and horns. Right Raid?”

“Stripes are awesome, least I think so anyway.” Air Raid smiled, which, after being deep in thought all the way back from the ice cream store, was actually a genuine, if tentative, little smile.

“Raid likes anywhere where she can polish a desk, right, Dodo?” Wildfire asked and, as a response, Air Raid’s lime green wings shot out very erect.

Cream noted Amethyst’s curious look, both at Wildfire’s use of the name and at Air Raid’s response to it. “Kwamba ni Wildfire's kucheza jina si kutumia.” She said quickly, informing her Mistress that the pet name was Wildfire’s alone to use.

Amethyst nodded quietly, taking note of that. “Itakuwa kuchukua kwamba maanani,” she replied, promising to take what Cream had said into consideration.

“I think Wily loves to tease Raid. At least out here her tail won't be caught in the ceiling fan.”

Wildfire, who was giggling as hard as Air Raid was blushing, just knew from past experience that the green mare's tail was raised up high. Somethings just never changed. “Well, we should get inside though, before Raid gives a passing youngster an early education on mares.”

Amethyst snorted and waved her hoof dismissively in the air. “Pfft, this is Manehatten, all foals are properly educated in the ways that matter.”

Cream though was thoroughly enjoying the raised tail and spread wings. They were all providing her some shade from the sun. Snickering behind her hoof, Wildfire stepped up and let herself and the others into her house. She found she rather enjoyed teasing her ex. “Especially after the time when Mistress Luna spanked Octavia with the pink sock at the fountain…”

“I heard that story,” Amethyst said as she wiped her hooves on the welcome mat before stepping into the living room and taking a look around. It was a modestly appointed house. The occupants were obviously well off, but it wasn’t rubbed in the face of a visitor. She approved. “Did you witness it?”

“Yuppers, I was there, Mistress Amethyst,” Wildfire grinned as she switched off and removed her headset and set it down on the coffee table, shaking out her straight black mane. “It was an awesomes Saturday, just two days after I came to Manehatten.”

“Ms. Thespian did that to me the other day, before I met Mistress Amethyst and Cream,” Air Raid put in, much to the other three mares’ amusement.

Cream asked, “She spanked you with a sock?”

“Thespy is a rad mare,” Amethyst liked the sound of spanking her pet in public, with a sock or something harder.

In Wildfire’s living room, Air Raid nodded, her wings very hard indeed. “Yes, she spanked me while a load of ponies watched. It was amazing!”

“Noted.” Amethyst smiled a sweet little smile while Cream just giggled. The pink zebra smiled for she imagined that day when the Goddess of the Night spanked her wife at the fountain was educational for any foal on what happens when they were naughty. Nightmare Moon will spank you with a sock! Amethyst then placed a hoof on her lime green pet’s shoulder and looked her in the eye. “Where is your mind at, right now?”

Using her fabled ‘Wily sense’, which as everypony knew was quasi-magical, Wildfire just knew that Air Raid and Amethyst were having a private sort of moment and in an attempt to give them a little privacy, announced loudly, “Who wants coffee? I do!” As it happened, Cream had a very similar magical ability to sense a private moment and she rushed after Wildfire into the kitchen, leaving pegasus and zebra alone.

Smiling at her lover and her Mistress, Air Raid nuzzled at the striped foreleg that rested on her shoulder. “It's in a better place now than it was an hour ago, Pinks.”

Amethyst’s eyes went wide for the tiniest second, the merest fraction of an instant, at being called ‘Pinks’. Air Raid wasn’t the first to call her that, but she was the first she hadn’t punched. Hard. In the face. This time though, she rather liked it when it came from her pet. “There is foolish, there is brave, and then there is foolhardy.” She leant in and kissed her lips. “Welcome home.”

Feeling somewhat adventurous, Air Raid returned the kiss, with a little tongue action thrown in for good measure. “Thanks for helping guide me home,” she said once she broke away so that she could breathe. Her smile was still there, like a visible weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “I feel like I can fly. I think I might need my Mistress though, just to make sure my head stays there.”

“Neither Cream, nor I have a license, but we need a car that you can fly in and maybe teach us to drive.”

“There is my R8…” Air Raid started then she changed her mind partway through that sentence having thought better of it. “Then again, I think a safer learning tool might be the colt though. I'd be honoured to teach you and Speedy, Pinks.”

Smiling that same sweet little smile, Amethyst leant forwards, moving her head past Air Raid and bit her ear rather hard. Advice. Don't wear that out lest it move from cute to bad idea, my pet.” She then licked the inside of the bitten ear.

Air Raid’s wings, that were lowered, shot out again as she sighed out a pained hiss. “Hmm…S-Sorry Mistress…”

Just when Amethyst leant forward to nibble at the presented wing in front of her, Cream came back into the living room with Wildfire, both mares carrying coffees between them. “Wily, don't look!” Cream snickered, “Mistress is giving a wing job to her pet!”

After the drinks had been set down on the coffee table, Wildfire made a show of covering her scarred face with a hoof as Air raid murmured happily and raised up her blue tail in response to the preen she was receiving from her Mistress. “I think our student has learnt from today's lesson, Cream.”

“It may take more than one lesson to truly learn, but thank you for helping her see the truth.” Cream smiled, knowing full well that Air Raid wouldn’t be able to properly hear her now that her Mistress had moved onto delivering a most sensual preening. Now the crisis with the pegasus seemed dealt with, she turned her attention to the paper on the couch. “What were you reading when we showed up, Wily?”

While Air Raid was indeed happily far away in her own little subspace, the submissive pegasus enjoying the preen she was being treated to, Wildfire had to think about Cream’s question. It had been a little while since she had thought about it. “Oh, it's a math paper. I got it from Manehatten University. They run open courses you can do at home, and you have to go in for the big exam!”

“I have my masters in math,” Cream giggled excitedly, the accountant in her getting very excited at the prospect of numbers in any way, shape or form. “And, I do love reading by the numbers. May I have a look?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire giggled at the sheer amount of excitement in the zebra’s voice as Air Raid moaned in utter bliss not too far away from her. She could understand and appreciate her feelings towards numbers, she felt the same about poems. “I'm also doing Firefighting Theory and Cloud Management courses.”

Looking at the paper, Cream discovered that she didn’t actually know braille. To her the page was just a collection of raised dots on the page. “Do a math problem for me, please?”

“Alrighty,” Wildfire felt for the paper on the couch and hopped up to sit next to Cream. She opened it to the third page which she was on and ran her hoof down to the first unanswered question.

Very good at number patterns, Cream asked, “Could you say the numbers out loud, please?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire ran her hoof over the raised dots and smiled as she read out the question. “For this one, I need to complete the number line. I've been given 5, 7, 9, __, 13, 17 __, 23. I need to fill in the blanks.”

Cream furrowed her brow. “That one is tricky.”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire readily agreed with her friend’s and fellow submissive’s opinion. “I thought it was. But, at the start, there's a tutorial, and it says all about prime numbers. So, it took me two tries, but eventually I got it. The answer is 11 and 19.”

Justly impressed, Cream smiled at Wildfire’s efforts. Not knowing any better, she passed her opinion. “You must have done well at math in school, Wily.”

Even lost in her state of heavenly preening bliss, Air Raid snickered at that, and Wildfire herself burst out laughing before the pegasus could embarrass herself by saying something silly. “Oh nopes!” she declared, “I was hopelessly thick! The numbers seemed to all merge into a big mess on the page. I couldn't do it at all.”

Hearing that, Cream studied the braille dots. There was a pattern to them, and the zebra was good with patterns. “Are the dots for numbers, symbols, and letters all different?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire began to explain, pausing for a moment while Air Raid moaned and quivered, even drooling thanks to Amethyst’s preen. “Each number, letter and symbol is made up of a different combination of one to six dots. Letters and numbers can share the same combination, but there's a special dot that comes first that lets me know what follows it will be a number or symbol.”

“Like a secret code?”

Seconds later, Air Raid moaned loudly and the lime green mare came noisily and messily over the living room carpet. Smirking, Amethyst lifted her muzzle up from her lover’s quivering wings. “Pet, ask Wily where she keeps the cleaning supplies so you can clean up the mess you've made.”

“Wi-Wily...where...hmmmm!” Air Raid tried to speak, but it was strangely difficult, given her Mistress was sucking on a primary feather and she was riding out her high.

Fortunately, Wildfire took pity on her ex-marefriend and pointed her hoof to where she knew the small connecting hallway was that lead from the living room to the dining room. “In the supply closet in the hall between the living room and dining room, Raid, before you get to the kitchen. It’s on the left.”

“May I look at the book?” asked Cream while Amethyst not-so-gently nudged Air Raid in the right direction with the toe of her hoof. Looking at the front of the paper, the cream zebra guessed that it was the number of chapters which made her think it was a 1st year college level math book. “If I could write braille I could give you the math questions that Raid makes me figure out.”

Wildfire proudly showed off her math paper like it was a prized possession, because she didn't have many of those in her life, even now. Like a good pet, Air Raid staggered up to her hooves and she made her way through the living room. As she went, she wafted her scent behind her. “What math questions do you figure out, Cream?”

“For Air Raid, I do acceleration and deceleration math.”

“Oh...” Wildfire’s ears slicked back to her head, the little blind mare suddenly feeling very inadequate. “That's a bit beyond me I think…”

As Air Raid stopped at the closet in the small hall, Cream giggled and rested her hoof on Wildfire’s foreleg. “Like how fast Raid's scent is filling this room. I would need to put a question in braille for you to try. Almost all my work is just addition and subtraction.”

At that, Wildfire perked up with a wide smile. “I think in this instance, with her scent, she's faster than Dusky!” she giggled and nodded, “Your adds and minuses are done like super-duper fast though. I can’t do that.”

“Yes, I can picture numbers in my head, and I can convert numbers as needed. Like miles per hour into feet per second.”

“I've only just got used to the numbers not making a huge jumbled mess!” Wildfire laughed, “Reading braille helps with that, I’ve found.”

Now that Air Raid had the cleaning materials in her hoof, Cream giggled behind her hoof. Her fellow submissive looked a little funny carrying all the things. “Braille doesn't let you read ahead. What's this book?” she asked, pushing the braille copy of the book that she had been reading to Wildfire’s hoof.

The little blind mare felt the cover of the book that had been pressed to her and she smiled. “That's a book called Wuthering Heights. I love this book so much!”

Cream blushed heavily. “I haven't read that.”

“If you'd like to learn braille,” Wildfire offered, “you can borrow it if you like. I have The Tempest too, by Shakespony.”

“It is interesting,” Cream admitted, “and maybe I’ll take you up on that offer another time once my current life changes have settled down.”

“The Tempest was my favourite play in university. Remember the cloud, Raid?”

Air Raid looked up from her work cleaning her cum out of the carpet with the scrubbing brush with a genuine nostalgic smile on her face. She remembered that night on the cloud as well as Wildfire did. “Of course I do. Oh brave world, that has such wonders...”

Wildfire cut across her with a bright happy giggle. “I just love how she still mis-quotes it after all this time. It's cute!” she cleared her throat, “It should be, Oh brave new world, that has such ponies in it. Miranda says it to her dad, Prospero on his island when...” she paused then as she realised she was about to go into a very long rant about how much she loved The Tempest, instead she blushed and sipped her coffee.

Amethyst caught her lime green pet snickering and she silenced that with the toe of her hoof to the ribs. “Passion is a good thing to have. Are we staying for dinner?” she asked when her belly rumbled loudly.

“I'd love you to stay a little, if you have the time. You're a nice distraction from my college papers. Cloud Management is hard. I'll make something I liked from home!”

Air Raid knew just what Wildfire had in mind. A true delicacy that Zesty Gourmand herself gave three hooves in the highest quality restaurants. “Triple fried egg sandwich and chunky hayfries?”

“Yuppers!”

Though she wasn’t sure, Amethyst caught Cream’s slight nod and she changed her mind. “Alright, I'll risk it and stay.”

“Both of you like chilli and chutney?” Wildfire asked, thinking of the two other important parts of the dish.

“I like curry, so chili will be fine.” Amethyst commented, though she didn’t really know what the other thing was. She assumed it was a pony thing. Judging by Air Raid’s reaction, it was a thing she would have to get used to. “Chutney is a fruit thing, yes?”

“Yuppers, mango chutney. Cream, you want to lend a hoof?”

“Yes!”

Playfully, Amethyst swatted at Cream’s ass as she and Wildfire again made their way through to the kitchen. “Pet, you are now my taste tester.” Her submissive lover gave her a bow before leaving the living room. Wildfire led her through to the kitchen again, to start cooking the eggs, while Air Raid was cleaning diligently, determined to do a good job. Her blue tail swished as she worked.

A few minutes later, when the smell of frying eggs filled the whole of the downstairs, the front door opened and in walked Tempest, fresh from her evening and morning with Mapper and Serenity. The moment she saw Air Raid cleaning her carpet, she paused and grinned. “Another maid? I can barely afford the one I got!”

“She is in training,” Amethyst said, condescendingly patting her pet’s head, “and who better than Wily to train her?”

As she was already in that position, head down and her ass up, Air Raid offered the violet weather pony a low bow without even being ordered to. “Good afternoon, Ms. Tempest.”

“Wily?”

Pointing a hoof towards the kitchen’s general direction, Amethyst explained, “Making lunch and showing Cream some fancy cooking.”

Tempest raised an eyebrow, “Canterlot?” she asked, wondering what she was in for.

“Triple fried egg sandwiches, Ms. Tempest,” Air Raid supplied helpfully, the lime green mare being especially careful to mind her manners and be as respectful as she could be, after the ear bitten reminder she had received from her Mistress.

“Hmm, I'll get undressed and be right back down,” Tempest grinned a very toothy grin. Since she wasn't wearing anything, Air Raid looked harder and finally noticed she was still wearing the stallionator, the toy hanging down between her hind legs. While Amethyst snickered but said nothing, Air Raid paused in her cleaning and stared very long, very hard until Tempest had disappeared upstairs.

Seeing as her pet was stood motionless, staring at the stairs, the pink zebra swatted Air Raid’s steering wheel cutie mark so hard with her hoof the slap resounded around the room. “More cleaning, less staring!” she made sure she said it loud enough to ensure she was heard upstairs and in the kitchen.

“EEEP!” Air Raid let out the surprised squeak and very quickly she got back to cleaning up her mess, very aware that the others were sniggering giggles at her expense from the kitchen and her wings extended once again.

Once she had the toy removed from her waist, Tempest came back down the stairs. “Only because I know where it's been is the reason I didn't ask your maid to clean my…'equipment'.” The violet mare giggled at her own joke, a vision of Serenity’s gaping open asshole swimming across her vision as she headed for the kitchen.

Amethyst asked curiously, “Where might that be?”

Over her shoulder, Tempest replied, “A unicorn's ass.”

Fortunately, Air Raid wasn’t the only one who was staring open-mouthed. As such, she was safe from being swatted again. Busy in the kitchen, Wildfire’s ears perked up at the sound of the familiar hoof steps. With the way she walked, there was no mistaking who this was. “Honey!”

No sooner had she entered the kitchen than Tempest descended on Wildfire and engaged her in a lip lock tongue wrestle to see if she could make her forget what she was doing. Since it's been a whole few hours since she kissed Tempest’s lips, Wildfire completely abandoned the eggs as she took the kiss, her casts twitching. Thankfully, Cream was on hoof to take over the cooking.

Wildfire, her forelegs wrapped around Tempest's neck, didn’t care one jot about the eggs as she held the kiss until she needed air. Tempest though held it long past that, the violet mare continuing to kiss the face off of her little lover until Cream had finishes the eggs. At last, finally, she broke the kiss. “I'm the reason why we need a smoke detector,” Tempest said with pride.

Breathing hard, Wildfire stumbled onto her ass on the tiled floor. “Wow...I needed that!”

“Yes,” Tempest grinned, rather proud of her skills, “Wily lights my fire.”

Gently, Cream tapped the diminutive mare’s shoulder. “Masterchef, what’s next after the eggs?”

“Fire...ah, um...ah, the ah,” Wildfire babbled for a moment until she coughed, remembering that she was indeed still in her kitchen. “The chunky fries should be done about now. Then it's just building the sandwiches, three eggs on each, with chilli and chutney between the eggs. Hayfries on a plate, brown sauce on the fries.”

In the living room, Air Raid had just completed cleaning up of her mess. The carpeted floor was spotlessly clean. Inspecting her work, Amethyst was so impressed that she granted her pet a chaste kiss to the cheek. “Well done. Now, put the things away and clean your hooves. Then we can see if lunch is ready.” Glowing from the tiny kiss, Air Raid had the cleaning things away in an instant and, as fast as she could, she almost galloped up the stairs to the bathroom.

“Hey honey,” Wildfire smiled suddenly while Cream busied herself with finishing off the hayfries and loading up the plates, “you know the math paper I got? I did the practise section and guess who got them all right on just her third try?”

“Was it a pegasus?”

In true Pinkie Pie style, Wildfire bounced excitedly on her hooves. “Yuppers! It was a pegasus!”

Tempest burst out laughing at Wildfire’s antics. She was sure her lover couldn’t get any more adorable. “Then it must be...Wildfire!” Wildfire then proceeded to let out a huge squee as Tempest hugged her very tightly indeed. “Who's the smart pony?”

“Me! I is the smart pony!”

“Yeah you are, Wily,” Air Raid grinned as she at last came down the stairs to the kitchen having cleaned herself and her hooves in the bathroom. Following the recent events not only in the ice cream store but in the house as well, she was walking like a million tonnes had been removed from her shoulders.

“Greetings Mini-Herd number two. All of you are looking well. Very well.” Having met Air Raid more than once and been in her presence for a few hours at a time, Tempest could tell the difference in the way the lime green mare walked, held herself and carried herself. Something had changed within her. A good something, by the look of it.

Cream smiled as she set out the plates on the dining room table. “Somepony had an attitude adjustment!”

“Didn't even hurt…” Amethyst, though she was proud of her pet, seemed a little disappointed at that.

“Yeah,” Air Raid started with the most genuine smile she had smiled in a very long time, further evidence, if any were needed, that the monkey was at last off of her back. “It was a long time coming, I’m not gonna lie.” She then rubbed the back of her mane with a hoof, “I found my way in the end, with three helpers.”

Wildfire giggled at that. “I might have shouted, a bit.”

Giving her diminutive lover another kiss, Tempest was reminded of the one and only time she had seen and heard Wildfire shout. That time in Caffeinated’s ranch after the dungeon had been enough to leave a lasting image in the weather pony’s mind. She could appreciate then how experiencing Hurricane Wily would alter one’s attitude. “Assertive Wily is assertive. I also note you didn't break out the table cloth for this meal.”

“I remember how Raid eats. About as messy as she cooks.”

Air Raid shrugged, not willing to challenge Wildfire’s assertion. Not when it was true, at any rate. “Guilty as charged!”

“Messier than Airy?”

“It must have to do with the Air in her name, Tempest. Stuff flies everywhere!” Amethyst laughed and they all sat to eat. Air Raid, in light of her new attitude, was allowed to use the seating pad at the dining table. As they ate, the conversation was light, mostly revolving around Thursday and the upcoming BDSM party at Caffeinated’s ranch. Wildfire was pleased to learn that in addition to the herd, Air Raid would be attending with Amethyst and Cream, as would Bluefeather and Cyclone, Slate and Darkstar and Moonbeak and Brightstar would also be there.

The conversation remained light until the end of the meal, with the topics being the upcoming party or Wildfire’s recent dalliance with Tinkerer and the resulting pregnancy. Air Raid’s new mood endured throughout though and, when it was time for them to leave, her attitude was still in place.

It seemed the old wound had at last been healed.