Wildfire was in a very good mood when she and Tempest landed at Manehatten Central station that Friday morning. Her second BDSM party at Caffeinated’s ranch the night before had been excellent, far better than her first had been, though on reflection that hadn’t been hard to achieve. Since they had all their travelling things with them, they had slept over at the zebra’s place like they had before.

Airmail had been the one to wake them both for the train ride to Canterlot. As it had been really very early indeed, Celestia hadn’t raised her sun when the alarm had gone off, it was just the three of them in the kitchen. Tempest, not a morning pony, was doing a passable impression of a zombie pony on Nightmare Night. Sat at the breakfast bar, the violet weather mare’s chin had slipped from her hoof on which it rested for the third time before her forehead hit the worktop with a thud.

With breakfast made, steaming hot porridge oats with chocolate sprinkles for Wildfire and Airmail, and honey syrup drizzled over it for Tempest, Airmail ate eat with them, determined to wring out every last second she could spend with her fiancé and her marefriend before she hugged them both and had to leave for work at the newspaper.

Once Airmail had left them, Tempest and Wildfire had half an hour until they had to leave the ranch. They quickly dived into the shower to get the smell of last night off of themselves, as well as the smell of sleep and bed sweat. Shower completed, they quietly got their saddle bags together and left for the station. Since Wildfire couldn’t fly, thanks to her wings being in their casts, she elected to ride on Tempest’s back. She had left her flight suit behind but had instead chosen to wear her helmet. She had gotten used to hearing the altitude, heading and air speed as she flew.

When she got off of Tempest’s back on the platform, in spite of the very sad parting with Airmail – it had been as though they’d never see each other ever again as opposed to only spending the weekend apart - Wildfire was in a good mood. She was pregnant, Autumn was dead, her wings were healing, Airmail wasn’t in prison, and she was looking forward to seeing her stepmother Emerald again. Everything was coming up pegasus!

Stood beside her diminutive lover on the almost completely empty platform, Tempest didn’t know what mood she was in. It was too early for sane decent ponies to be awake let alone be in any kind of mood. The sun was just cresting the horizon as she wiped her wing across Wildfire's muzzle for no reason. At the touch of her marefriend’s wingtip, the yellow pony smiled, feeling like nothing could possibly go wrong on this trip. “Hey Honey,” she sniffed and angled her ears, getting just the smells and sounds of the station and hardly anypony else. “I'm so looking forward to this!”

With a heavy sigh and a long yawn, Tempest rubbed the sleep from her tired eyes. Seven in the morning was way too early. “A day away from weather is a vacation day,” she stretched and pumped her wings in an attempt to force blood around her body. “Got plenty so let's spend them with abandon!”

“I like the way you think, wingpony!” Wildfire’s smile was firmly in place as a thought occurred to her on the platform. “Hey, you know while we're in Canterlot? I should totally take you to the university. I mean, you showed me yours while we were in Trottingham.”

Tempest’s tired sleep deprived brain thought that was a great idea. “I believe there was a desk you told me about. Think it's still there?”

Wildfire giggled, “If Calculus is still there, then her desk will be too. Oh! Oooh! We can go to Café Diem too! Raid said Java still owns it.”

“Zebra coffee?” asked Tempest with a wide yawn that split her face. Java sounded like a zebra.

“Java's an earth pony,” had Wildfire possessed eyes, she would’ve rolled them. Still, it was an easy assumption to assume. Even more so when you actually met him. He was a zebra without the stripes. “But, he went to the zebralands, studied ‘coffeeness’ with the zebras. He's one of the very few selling zebra coffee in Canterlot. Well, he was. There might be more now. My info is five years old.”

“That’s good news. That place we went to last time was, well, it was…coffee, at least.” Tempest managed a giggle. As bad as it had been, it was still better than the mass produced vending machine slop that was laughably called coffee. “We can redeem the place later then.”

“Yuppers!” Wildfire grinned, her previous trip to the nation’s capital still fresh in her mind despite it being over a month ago now. So much had happened in that time, it was hard for her to believe it sometimes. “I do believe that place was an emergency making-sure-Wily-who-wanted-to-get-drunk didn't get drunk place.”

A loud chugging sound heralded the arrival of the Friendship Express. “Our train is pulling into the station,” Tempest stated somewhat unnecessarily, “Should let us board in fifteen minutes,” she giggled, “If you're going to get drunk, you're going to get drunk on herd mares. And we’ll need another fridge.”

Just as Wildfire was about to fire back with a witty retort, and it would have been a brilliant and clever one, to be sure, the large television screen on the platform that had been showing a loop of tourist sites around Manehatten changed to show the news program. A tan coloured earth pony mare with a bright orange mane wearing a black fedora addressed the camera. “Good morning, Equestria. I'm Press Release, here on the scene at Canterlot Royal Hospital, where the police, following a lead from the dramatic collapse of Helping Hooves care home, have made a gruesome discovery.”

Tempest, like Wildfire, had paused at the mention of the care home. The violet pony turned to look at the screen and she was at once interested and revulsed. Whilst the news item was of the gravest nature, Press Release seemed to be practically salivating, licking her chops to tell the story. “In a secret cellar excavated under the hospital, the entrance hidden in a store closet assigned to one Lotus Stripes, officers have discovered the remains of at least ten ponies.”

Wildfire’s ears slicked all the way back to her head as she listened to the report unfold. She could tell that the few ponies that were on the platform with them had stopped to look as well. “Records taken from Helping Hooves, as well as DNA and cutie mark analysis, shows that all ten of the victims were former residents of the care home.”

Wildfire wanted to cry. Chatter around her ranged from outrage to disgust and everything in between and she just wanted to cry. She didn’t need to see to tell that the reporter was loving every second of the broadcast. Press Release forged ahead, “I've just had word that police have found the partial remains of five more buried a different location within the cellar, all bodies recovered so far show signs of prolonged torture and confinement. A nametag on one of the victims shows it was a hospital employee. The police fear all five are former employees.”

“A senior officer, Hoofbeat,” Press Release paused as the police officer’s picture flashed up on the screen, “said he had never seen anything like it in his life, while a number of junior officers have been sent home, too traumatised by the scene to continue their work.”

Nopony from the hospital has been available to comment. In shocking news, I can report that Shady Hooves care home in Canterlot is also under investigation. More as it develops…”

The news item then changed from the live report to showing a loop of Princess Luna, Prince Dusk, the wardens and the fall of Helping Hooves, though Wildfire didn’t notice. The little yellow pegasus didn’t notice anything. Every single ounce of her good humour had evaporated in a second. Her head was down, her ears were down, even her wings in their protective casts drooped.

Tempest, not the most perceptive of ponies – that skill belonged to Lavender – took note of her marefriend’s demeanour and sought to lighten her burden the only way she knew. Thanks to being with Mapper. “Seems Dusky didn't let go after that first screw up. Glad to see them getting to the bottom of it all.”

“What?” Wildfire’s head was still down, shuffling her hooves, Tempest’s words hardly even reached her. “Um...what? Oh, yeah, good news, right…”

“News.” Tempest snorted, living up to her namesake as her temper rose, thought of sleep dissipating for the moment at least. “Good would be it never happened. You shook up the establishment, Wily, and now the pain you and others suffered issuing justice.”

Wildfire sighed a very deep sigh that seemed to come from the depths of her very soul. “I don't recognise any of those names they read out in that report. Lemon Drizzle, Crescent Star, Holly, Blizzard or the rest.” The little mare looked and felt sick to her core. “They said they recovered twenty bodies from the home...”

Tempest couldn’t quite quell the bitterness in her voice, not that she tried very hard, it had to be said. “Twenty that escaped Prince Dusk's early investigation!”

“We were addressed by our cell numbers.” Wildfire sounded as hollow as she felt. “Not names. Only the wardens had names. Chattel, property, goods, we did not deserve names.” She could feel Tempest by her side, the warmth of her wing covering her back. “Maybe one of them was number Seven, or the second number Seven, or number Nine, or Ten, or Twelve?”

“What was your number?”

“I was Thirteen…”

“No!” Tempest yelled, the fur on the back of her neck standing up with her legendary temper. She was poorly equipped to deal with situations like this. She was no Requiem. Shouting and bossing her juniors on the weather team wouldn’t work here. “You're Wildfire. Not a number and none of them were numbers either!”

“They all died and I didn't,” Wildfire shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “Why did I live? What was special about me that wasn't about them? I bet Lemon Drizzle or Holly or whoever they were put up more of a fight than I did.”

Staring at Wildfire, Tempest forced herself to count backwards from ten, twice. “You lived to make Airmail happy! You lived because some stupid Prince decided you should live and took you to Manehatten. You live, because you have a train ticket and they don't let dead ponies ride in the passenger car! On the train now!”

Wildfire’s ears were still well down, stuck to her scalp as she allowed herself to be led onto the train. She offered absolutely no resistance whatsoever. “I'm nothing special.” She said softly. She had spent five years having that drilled into her head. She had never believed it more. “I wasn't even trying to escape when Dusk found me.”

“AAARRRRGGGGGGGH!” Tempest screamed, her long held temper at last boiling over like an active volcano erupting, spewing magma and rock all over the train carriage. Pushing Wildfire into the compartment she had reserved for them, Tempest ignored the startled looks from several of the other passengers. “You are the pony Airmail wants to marry and that makes you the most special pony in all of Equestria!”

Wildfire tumbled into the compartment, her mood not lifted at all. She heard Tempest slide the door closed and flick the lock down. Next, she heard the thud of saddle bags hitting the floor. “If I'm that wonderful then I should have gone for help, told somepony, done anything, but I didn't, did I? I just ran errands for Amethyst Glory and did as I was told.”

Seizing her herd-mate by the shoulders, Tempest thrust her roughly against the window of the compartment. “You going to fight back now, huh?”

“IT'S MY FAULT!” Wildfire screamed back. She knew Tempest was right in front of her face. She could tell by the hot breath on her muzzle. She sniffed as she was forced back to the window. Deep down she knew she could have saved those lives that the reporter had mentioned on the news had she not been so scared of the wardens.

“You have no idea!” Tempest almost slapped her. She would have done, years ago. Now though she just managed to keep herself together. Just. “You snivelling little pony! A lot of things are your fault, but you don't even know what they are!”

All the fight leeched out of Wildfire and she sagged against the window, sniffing all the time. If Tempest was going to hit her, she wished she’d get on with it. The sooner she felt pain the sooner she could at last start to feel good she was still alive and not dead like those names on the news. “I could have saved some of them...”

“What am I going to do with you!” Tempest screamed in the little mare’s face. “You really want what you deserve? Do you want it that bad?”

“Yes!” Wildfire screamed back almost before Tempest had finished speaking. She had been expecting a slap, or something like that. What she wasn’t expecting was for the violet weather mare to kiss her long and hard, mashing their lips together until Wildfire pushed her away. It was only when she absolutely had to breathe that the little mare did push her back. “Wh-What…what…was that?”

The kiss, long and passionate as it had been had given the tempestuous pegasus a chance to calm herself and gather her thoughts. These were primarily W.W.R.D, or what would Requiem do? “You said you had to tell somepony about it. Who did you tell?”

The little yellow pegasus was quiet for a long few moments, unless you counted her heart hammering away in her chest. “You and Airy, in Caffy's place, Honey.”

“What did they do?”

“They, I mean, you believed me, and told Dusk, and then you told me it would all be alright.”

“How many ponies did you save?”

“When Dusk came back, he said there was seventy two inmates that he and Luna removed from the care home.”

“So, it is totally your fault that those seventy two ponies were saved,” Tempest genuinely hoped that, as the train started moving, Requiem’s – and possibly Lavender’s - ears were burning, “That is a lot of blame. Know what else is your fault? Emerald is your fault.”

Wildfire sighed, the blind mare not budging from the window, mostly because the vibrations from the steam train’s movement was rather pleasant on her back, but also because Tempest kept her there. “Look, Honey, I know where you're going with this, but...that report, I’m sorry, it just got to me…”

“Good!” Tempest exclaimed, though this was a good cry out rather than a loss of temper. “It should get to you! It should let you know just how much you did to save those you could. It should get to you to know that even surviving that is a miracle!”

The violet pony though wasn’t quite finished. She had just paused for breath. Stormy was now on a roll. “But nooooo. Little Ms. Wily thinks she should have done more! Should have told somepony, other than me, who is best pony to tell. So, Ms. Wily, just who were you going to tell? That nice police pony being paid by Amethyst to keep an eye on you? That nice grocery pony you went to being paid by Amethyst to keep an eye on you? Maybe that stupid Prince you kicked out of your hospital room?”

Once Tempest started she found she couldn’t stop. She had been stewing on these thoughts every time recently that Wildfire put herself down. With nopony to stop her, the ‘storm’ at last broke. “I'm sure that Amethyst gave you an updated body count everyday so you'd know just how many ponies she had killed? Did the ones that broke your legs and wings tell you that you'll be the next pony they kill once their backlog was clear?”

“You, Little Ms. Wily, had no idea what was going on.” Finally, Tempest was running out of steam. “All you knew was pain and a three foot square box. If you had told somepony that, just how many ponies do you think you would have saved?”

“None.” Wildfire sunk down the window until she was sat on the carpeted floor of the train compartment. “I'd have been on that list of ponies they dug up, wouldn't I?”

“No, you wouldn't.” Tempest however rather thought that yes, she would have been one of the poor unfortunate torture victims found in the hospital. “I would never have known you. Airy and I would still be a herd of two because we couldn't get back with Mapper and Serenity. The world would have never known your name. Your father would still have his slave. Chill Wind's grave would remain unknown. Two colts in Canterlot would have always wondered why their Aunt never came to their birthday's anymore. You would have been forgotten even by those that kept looking for you. That, Wildfire, would have been your fate.”

Dragging herself up to her hooves, Wildfire felt for and punched Tempest’s shoulder, a wry smile on her muzzle. “You can stop now. I get it, I'm an idiot for being so mopey.”

Just like that, as fast as somepony flicking on a light switch, Tempest’s tone became cheerful and upbeat, like she had never yelled at all. “True, you don't need to be mopey to be an idiot!”

Wildfire groaned and made a show of rolling her whole head at her marefriend. “You know, it's a good thing you're a weather pony. With a bedside manner like that you'd be a lousy nurse…”

“Awwww,” Tempest giggled, putting on an exaggerated foal’s voice, “did I wain on wittle Wily's pawade?”

“Nopes, I'm not under a cloud!”

That made Tempest think about all the bright yellow clouds she had made throughout her life and her giggles became full on laughter. “That yelling has left my throat dry. I'm going to get a beer. Should I get you one too?” the fact it was still early was entirely irrelevant.

“Yuppers, yes please Honey. And I'll ease your throat when you get back.”

“Maybe,” Tempest smiled, a rather sexy idea occurring to her as she paused at the door to the compartment. “I still think you need some altitude adjustment on your attitude.” With that in mind, Tempest made sure to not only visit the club car but the kitchen as well before she returned. She had a plan, and thankfully the train staff had been quite accommodating. “Here’s your non-alcoholic beer,” she giggled once she had gotten back to their compartment, “And mine, with alcohol. Plus, I have daisy sandwiches.”

“My lady doth hath returned,” Wildfire laughed, searching her memory for a Romeo and Juliet line, but for once her vast poetry library had failed her. Instead, she took the offered beer bottle gratefully in her outstretched hoof. “Thank you for the beer, Honey.”

Settling down on the couch that took up the whole of one side of the compartment, Tempest took a big bite of her sandwich. “I do still need to do that adjustment I promised,” she purred slyly.

“Oh, I ah, I was kinda hoping you may have forgotten about that...”

“From all I know, this shouldn't affect your filly in any way, but if you say no, I won't do it. It involves this rather cold beer, you know how cold yours is, and this baster I got from the kitchen. So, I can drink my beer from the Wily tunnel of love.”

For three seconds, Wildfire thought it over and she liked where her imagination was taking her. It was something she had never done before and it sounded hot. “I agree!” she squeaked quickly, “For a moment there I thought you had the dreaded celery…”

“If I was to stuff your cunny with food, it would be cucumber.”

“Or a banana?”

“Naaaaah,” Tempest shrugged on the floor as she got herself into position, baster and beer by her side, “Bananas get too mushy, tried that on Airy once. Never again.”

Wildfire giggled at that and she arranged herself ready to receive whatever punishment Tempest saw fit to deliver. Try as she might, she couldn’t picture it. She had never ever thought about inserting a baster inside her. “I'm ready for my adjustment, Mistress.”

Gazing upon her lover’s neatly trimmed snatch, Tempest could tell she was ready. “Tell me to fetch peaches when you want to stop, okay, Wily?”

Wildfire lifted up her hind legs so that they were almost either side of her head to further expose herself and aid her dominant partner. “I understand, Mistress Honey.” No sooner had she said that than Tempest leant forward and she got to work with her tongue dancing all over the yellow mare’s pussy to make sure she was ready to receive the baster. “Oooh by Cadance I love your tongue!” Wildfire moaned, after just a few licks and sucks her slit was dripping wet and ready for more.

Once Wildfire was properly lubed up, her puffy pussy all glistening and shiny wet, Tempest filled the baster with as much cold beer as it could take, which was just half a bottle, and she quickly slid it inside her lover’s accommodating hole. She waited a split second to let the cold sensation set in and then she squeezed the bulb. “Ooh!” Wildfire squealed as the beer hit her insides, “Oooh it's coooold! It feels...odd…” she didn't know if to squirm or giggle so she did both equally.

After a very short time though, the beer filling her marehood like an enema became muscle clenchingly cold and it really made the blind mare want to pee, though she knew Tempest wouldn’t mind that in the slightest. Wildfire clenched and moaned, her whole insides cramping up. “A-aaa-Aaaah I w-wanna peeee!”

As much as she wanted to pee and release the liquid, Wildfire couldn’t. As soon as Tempest squirted it inside her, she sealed her moist entrance with her mouth and tongue. Twitching and begging, Wildfire cried for the beer to be released, but Tempest was only taking small sips of the warming beer.

Tempest, only allowing very small reductions in the beer, said nothing to her lover’s repeated pleas lest it all end up on the floor before she was ready. This was a punishment, after all. Wildfire, who was whimpering in pain from her cramps, was trying very, very hard to not pee, groaned as the clenching began to hurt more and more. “Mistress pleeeease, it hurts!”

At her sub’s crotch, Tempest decided to take pity on her and she drank the beer in one mouthful. The grateful moans of blissful relief that came from her little mare just made the beer taste all the sweeter. However, the poor mare’s relief didn’t last very long. Tempest quickly refilled the baster with cold beer and with a squeeze of the bulb filled her up once more.

This was repeated twice more, Tempest using Wildfire’s beer to fill her up. On the fourth time, Wildfire was a blubbering, whimpering mess. She tried very hard but she gave in. After the four repetitions, her cramped muscles couldn’t hold it any longer and she released her bladder, pissing noisily into Tempest’s willing mouth.

Swallowing as quickly as she could, the violet pegasus drank all that Wildfire had to offer, but even so, some of her hot yellow pee and warmed up beer escaped. “Hmmmmm, that was a very interesting flavour of beer, but now I'm in need of muzzle clean-up, pet.”

Wildfire screamed in sheer bliss as she released into Tempest’s mouth and then, when she wasn’t experiencing the cramps any more, she giggled. “Well, that was...something new,” she smiled, moving to intercept her lover's muzzle with her lips. It wasn’t hard to find, Tempest was very wet and incredibly sloppy.

“How are you doing?” Tempest asked once her muzzle had been licked clean.

“I'm okay, now.” Wildfire again found her marefriend’s lips and kissed her, this time it was all kiss, all passion and all intent. She felt like a completely different pony to the one that had gotten on the train in Manehatten. “Thanks to you.”

“If Airy taught me anything it is don't live your life with regrets, and be careful who you give a half feather to.”

“It's just...I dunno,” Wildfire scratched the back of her head with her hoof, “when the news mare said they were investigating another home...I thought, I was hoping we were the only ones. And then, I think Requiem called it survivors guilt? Something like that.”

Tempest thought that was something Requiem would say. “Your fiancé has a lot of blood on her hooves. She remembers every name, but has no regrets. When we get to Canterlot you can leave flowers for those that didn't make it out like you did, and some more for those that did make it out because of you.”

“I'm really not putting myself down, Tempest, really, I'm not but...I'm nothing special.” There was no shame or self deprication in her voice. She was just stating a fact. She wasn’t extraordinary in the slightest. “I'm not strong, or powerful, but here I am. Maybe mom was looking out for me, I dunno?”

“Is Airy stupid?”

“Of course not, nopony I know is.”

“Then it isn't about you being 'special', it is about you being you. Airy wasn't looking for a Power Pony, she was looking for a pony she could share her heart with. You may just be an ordinary pony, but to one pony, you are very special. I think you're okay too.”

Giggling, Wildfire nudged the larger mare’s shoulder. “Thanks Tempest,” she then hugged her tightly in a signature Wily hug. “You're not bad either, Wingpony.”

“I know!” Tempest joined Wildfire in her fit of giggles, “I have a little plaque on my desk. On it is written, You Done Good.”

“I have that on my desk too, but it's written in mare’s ink.”

“When things return to somewhat normal, you need to have Airy help you reapply that polish.” Tempest replied, kissing Wildfire’s lips. Then, a moment later, she let out a long, deep yawn. Being awake was finally catching up with her. “I was up way too early thanks to some crazy news pony. Wake me for lunch.”

“You take a nap, tired pony. I'll be your cushion!”

“I'm not Airy, so I don't need two little pillows, and I doubt the other cushion is kicking yet. But your ass seems nice and tender for my weary head.” Rolling Wildfire over with her hooves, Tempest kissed both cheeks first and then she laid down, fluffing it like a pillow to get comfortable. Tired as she was though, it didn't take long at all for her to drift off to a very contented sleep.

~ ~ ~

When Tempest and Wildfire disembarked the Friendship Express in Canterlot on Saturday morning, the violet pegasus was not happy. Her black mane, unruly at the best of times, looked like a lion had just had angry sex with a hedge. There were bags under her eyes the size of her saddle bags and, as she squinted up at the sky, she grumbled, “Did you know it was light out at seven in the morning? That’s a real waste of daylight.”

Beside her on the platform, Wildfire took a long, deep breath and twitched her ears in her marefriend’s direction. She picked up on the grumpiness immediately. “I did know, Honey. I can feel the sun on my face and smell the morning.” She giggled, “You doing okay there, not morning pony?”

Realising that Wildfire had her own ways to sense things, Tempest facehooved as they moved off of the platform to the street. “You win the round Wily, but I'll have my revenge.” She giggled and then shivered. Even though it was summer, it was still a little chilly first thing. “Coffee and breakfast got me started. So, Let's visit that pony I know has been waiting for you since the last visit. I bet she hasn't even moved since you left.”

“Nah...I think mom's happy where she is, all snuggly in her home.” Wildfire didn’t shiver. She was accustomed to Canterlot and seasons at five thousand feet. She took a moment to orient herself while Tempest went to buy the daffodils. When she came back, Wildfire knew exactly where she was and where the cemetery was. She had her helmet turned on, but she wasn’t following the directions. They were not necessary. “You have the daffodils, Honey?”

“Yes,” Tempest wafted them under Wildfire’s nose as they walked along the cobbled street of the capital city. She caught sight of the old style gas lights and wondered how on earth they coped here. “Six dozen. Cleared the seller out and made his day. Dozen for your mum, dozen for your brother, and four dozen for those left behind.”

The two mares were mostly silent for the walk from the train station to the cemetery. There was almost nopony about, even in the Residential District, though there were some stores owners opening up on the way. Tempest, walking on Wildfire’s right, noted that she wasn’t using her headset but still she was walking unerringly towards their destination. “Records do show that Chill Wind is in the same cemetery, so it shouldn't be too hard to walk around and find him.”

“Tempest,” Wildfire commented after a moment, “the cemetery is huge. We could walk all day and not find him…” the walk to the cemetery was not a very long one. She had made it countless times before, both when she could see and after she couldn’t. By now it was pretty much muscle memory programmed into her hooves. At the ornate wrought iron gates, she paused, ears slicked back.

Noticing her lover’s hesitation, Tempest bumped her shoulder with her own. “It's only a hectare, and I can do air recon, you know.” Although, that said, she suspected there was a deeper reason the diminutive pegasus had paused at the gates. Damn Requiem, she was getting good at this!

Like she had been frozen by a cockatrice, Wildfire didn't move. “I've never been nervous seeing my mom before, Honey.”

“Yeah,” Tempest’s natural sense of humour, enhanced by years with Mapper, took over. “I can understand. Knocked up and not even married yet.” Before Wildfire could say or do anything to stop her, she raised her voice and shouted, “It wasn't my fault!”

Wildfire burst out into fits of giggles. “Shut up silly,” she giggled brightly, her mood instantly lifted by her herd-mate’s antics. “What I mean is, I've always known what to say to her before. Now, I ah, I really don’t know where to start, Tempest.”

“Mom, remember the talk you gave me? You're right, I got pregnant.”

Shaking her head at Tempest’s attempt to be helpful, Wildfire took a step past the gates into the cemetery. After all, she wouldn’t accomplish anything stood at the gates all day. And, like Eirene used to say, nothing to it but to do it. Still, it felt better once she was treading the familiar dirt path. “Can you believe she had that talk with me when I was twelve?”

Tempest followed alongside the little blind mare, again impressed that, without any guidance or help at all, she was able to negotiate her way along the well worn dirt path through the cemetery. “I hear every parent is different. My brother got it early when he first looked at a mare in my mom's view. I told my mom I'd marry any mare I got pregnant.”

“When you wear that accessory of yours,” Wildfire replied, walking past row upon row of marble and stone grave markers, “I can easily believe you could get a mare pregnant.” Having been on the receiving end of Tempest’s strap on toy more than once, in her opinion it wasn’t much of a stretch.

Turning off the path at some predetermined point, and walking unerringly to Silverbolt’s grave, Tempest gave Wildfire a light shoulder bump. “Not when I use it in her ass,” she snarked.

Wildfire knew she was standing in the right place. She didn’t need any fancy gadgets or gizmos or anything like that. She just knew. Years of making this journey gave her the assurance to know that she was stood before her mother’s grave. She walked right up to the headstone, spluttering with laughter with every step she took until she had her hoof on the cold stone surface. “Hey mom, it’s me…” she was quiet for long minutes after that, trying to figure out what to say next. With no better option, she shrugged and said, “So...Fireflight, huh?”

Looking around them conspiratorially, as though she was afraid that the other graves were listening in and might hear a national secret, Tempest made shushing sounds. “Wily!” she hissed, “That’s her super secret Power Pony name…” As Tempest looked around though, the violet pegasus spotted the next stone over on the right of where they were stood and she facehooved with a smile. The search for Chill Wind wouldn’t take so long after all.

“I'm not mad at you, mom,” Wildfire had giggles in her voice as she imagined her mother as a Power Pony. “I just wish...I wish you'd have said something, when you were with me. I know what you did, back in Canterlot during the war. I met Captain Starbright, mom. He told me about you. About the Equestrian Star. I...” she paused and sniffed, trying not to cry, “I know what it cost you, when you were Flight Cadet 359, I know you saved lives,” she then saluted smartly and hugged the unyielding stone. “I'm so, so, so very proud of you.”

Quietly, Tempest hoofed over a dozen of the daffodils taken from one of her bags. “I didn't take a bite. Give those to your mom, Wily.”

Reverently, Wildfire placed her mother’s favourite flowers at the base of the stone. “These are for you,” she then stood straight at attention and sniffed out her ‘tears’ for a little while. She was unable to contain herself any longer and she sincerely wished she could cry properly. “Why didn't you tell me about Chill Wind, mom?” she asked when she could speak again.

“Wily,” Tempest whispered, though there was nopony else in the cemetery with them, “come and feel the next stone on the right.”

“Why?” Wildfire asked, though she duly came over to the right until she felt the marker. It was smaller than her mother’s headstone and made of marble. “I thought we were looking for...” she went silent as she felt the carved name and the dates of birth and death. Then it hit her. “Chill Wind...” she sat down hard in front of her older brother’s grave like the weight of the universe was pressing on her shoulders, holding her down. “He was here, the whole time?” she then remembered her dream and she touched the name again. “I didn't know! I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I swear!”

Without a word, Tempest hoofed over another dozen daffodils. Taking them equally quietly, Wildfire laid them down like she had done with her mother. She could tell by the overgrown grass that no mementos had been placed there for a long time. Reaching into her bag, she took out and placed a photograph of herself, Airmail, Tempest, Mapper and Serenity down with the flowers. “M-My big brother...I-I'm so sorry!”

“Sorry?” asked Tempest softly, her wing draped over her marefriend’s shoulder, “What are you sorry for, Wildfire?”

Wildfire knew exactly what she was sorry for. “I never got a chance to hug him, to prank him, or embarrass him in front of his first date. I would have been such an annoying little sister. We would have fought every day but loved each other so much…”

“The word you want is sad, Wily,” Tempest said supportively. “You are saddened. He died before you were born. Your mom never told you about him. It was during an event that changed so many lives, or ended them. I too, am sad by this, because it makes you sad, Wily.”

“I don't blame mom. I've seen things as a firefighter, Honey. Bad things. I can't imagine what she went through.” As she said that, thoughts of the massive fire at Trixie’s Place she had attended on her birthday all those years ago ran through her mind. “But, I want you to know, both of you, that I'll wear the medal you won when I get married, and I'll be so proud.”

“You both have a lot to be proud about.” Tempest said, nuzzling Wildfire’s cheek before she addressed Silverbolt’s headstone directly. “She has saved many lives, and will save many more when needed.”

“Mom knows all about that. She must, because you were looking out for me, weren't you? You and Heatwave, keeping me going during my dark times.” Wildfire was convinced that this had to be the case. There was no way she could have survived Amethyst Glory without somepony or something watching over her.

Lovingly, Tempest rubbed Wildfire's belly with her hoof. “Putting something off, are we?”

“I was getting to that!” the little blind mare exclaimed, though there wasn’t much conviction behind it. She had never felt more like a little filly in all her life. Why was she so nervous? She was a grown mare! “Mom, Chill, I'm pregnant. I'm having a foal! Isn't it awesomes?” What was she expecting, a reprimand?

“Woot! Woot!” Like an overgrown filly, Tempest began dancing. She was careful though to dance around, and not on, the two graves.

Wildfire couldn’t help but laugh. She could tell by the hoof steps around her that Tempest was dancing. Any and all tension leeched from her, though she still didn’t know why she had felt that way in the first place. “What she said. It was a member of the Herd, Tinkerer, and I'm so happy to be a mom, mom!” Then, she took a breath and steadied herself. “I'm going to name her Fireflight. Because I've been dreaming of that name for years.”

Tempest agreed, “It's a good name.”

“It's an awesomes name, Honey. The most super secretest powerfulest of names.” It was her mother’s real name. Of course it was the best.

“Silver can be her Power Pony name,” said Tempest with an affectionate smile.

Wildfire wanted nothing more than to stay there all day long, but she knew they had other places to visit. Important places. With a heavy heart, she hugged both her mother’s and her brother’s headstones. “Well, mom, Chill, it was amazing seeing you, and meeting you, but we need to lay some other flowers. Tell you what, we'll come back later with momma Emerald, okay? I know you two get along.”

Tempest placed a hoof on each stone like she was bumping hooves with an old friend. “I'll keep her from getting lost. See you later, Silver, Chill.” She turned to Wildfire and whispered in her ear, “I think that coffee on the train has worn off.”

“We can get more.” Wildfire affirmed as she kissed the marble and stone headstones reverently and hugged them both in turn. She needed the courage for what she was about to do. For where she was about to go. “Now...we have to go back there.”

It was obvious to Tempest where ‘there’ was. “You have point, Wily.”

Again, Wildfire didn't even need the map instructions from her headset. After negotiating Canterlot blind for five years, she knew exactly where she was. Still, while she could have walked, she hailed a taxi that took them through the Residential District and on to a very affluent part of Canterlot. She doubted she could have forced her hooves to make the journey otherwise. “Here we are,” she said sombrely when the taxi bought the short and quiet taxi ride to a halt. “Helping Hooves care home.”

Stepping out of the taxi, Tempest paid the fare and, with a wing draped protectively over Wildfire’s back and around her shoulders, she looked at the edifice before her. Though there was a high brick wall surrounding the former home, she could tell it was, or had been, a very grand and ornately lavish building. At least from the outside. The tales of spartan barren cells clashed with the building’s façade. “It's closed,” she said, leading the way over the road, “Follow me.”

“What's the layout, Wingpony?” asked Wildfire. Her ears swilled here and there, listening and on alert. Amethyst Glory may have been gone, but she almost expected her to pop up behind them like some pantomime villain that the audience loved to boo. As it was, she couldn’t hear anything. It seemed Canterlot was still asleep. “The news said they were excavating and stuff…”

“Must be inside then.” Tempest stated as she looked warily at all the yellow police tape that was wrapped around the gates, cordoning off the area. That wasn’t what caught her attention, though. “Here, we are one pace from the perimeter wall, and about ten paces left of the main entrance gate. Feel what is against the wall and I can tell you it all goes past the door.”

Extending her hoof cautiously, Wildfire immediately felt the first of many flowers, photo frames that she imagined held pictures of loved ones, teddy bears, and the countless other mementos that lined the wall along the sidewalk that had been left by bereaved family members and well wishers amongst the public. Wildfire felt each and every one and she started sniffing uncontrollably as the enormity of them sunk in. “Oh...ooh...sweet Luna...there's so many!”

“Yeah,” Tempest had to agree that it was a most sobering sight indeed. She couldn’t even see the wall, there were that many tributes left. Yes, she had heard Wildfire’s stories, read her poetry, but standing at the spot where it happened made it all very real. “I think the ones you saved are remembering the ones left behind.”

“Is there a picture somewhere of number Twelve?” Wildfire asked hopefully after a moment of scanning the pictures. “Something, anything? I'd love to know his name.”

Tempest looked around at the literal sea of tributes that had been left on the wall and the sidewalk in front of it. “There are lots of pictures, Wily, some with names, some without. I’m sorry, but there’s no number Twelve anywhere.”

“Whoever he was, he saved my life. More than once, when I was being starved, he passed me his food through the crack in my cell wall.”

That made Tempest more determined than ever to find him. “Tribe?”

“He said he was a unicorn.” Wildfire giggled as she recalled the stallion that had been in the cell next to hers. “We used to talk through the crack in the wall. I read him my poems and he gave me food. He said he had too much, he didn't want it to spoil.”

Again, Tempest looked around and she saw a poster with five unicorn stallion photos that were unaccounted for among the missing. “Here, Wily. One of these unicorn’s has no name and looks really old. The others are Steel Shoe, Morning Blaze,” she snickered, “Mushroom, and Ice Lace.”

“He was old. I remember that. He said he had a blue coat. He said he couldn't remember his name or where he was from.” Wildfire’s soft voice began to crack with the weight of emotion, “I knew he was lying about the food. Nopony here was given too much. We were all hungry, all the time.”

Tempest could well believe that. “The old one is dark red, but the one called Mushroom is blue, not that old though, he looks to be in his thirty's maybe. You know you could go to Dusk, he has the info, or he can get it for you.” She went and nuzzled her crying lover. “Put a dozen flowers at each end and on either side of the gate.”

“Mushroom.” Wildfire rolled it around, repeating it over and over like she was trying it on to see how it fit. She liked it. “That's a nice name.” Taking the flowers from Tempest, she laid the daffodils carefully before returning to stand at attention at the taped off gate. “I want Amethyst Glory to know we beat her. She didn't break us. We defied her and we survived!” Angrilly, she stamped her hoof hard into the sidewalk, not caring who saw or heard her. “It was me! I beat you!”

Smiling broadly, knowing full well that the slip the previous morning was now naught but a memory, she leant and affectionately nuzzled Wildfire’s cheek. “That you did, my love, that you did.”

With help, Wildfire rested her hoof on the blue unicorn’s photograph – obviously taken in happier times, for he was healthy looking and smiling, an agriculture award held in his hooves – and bowed her head respectfully. “Thank you, Mushroom. Thank you for giving me your food. Thank you for being my friend. I'm gonna get Dusk to find out who the unnamed stallion was. Nopony deserves to die a number.”

Wildfire stayed at the picture for a long, long time. Though Tempest was in dire need of coffee, she didn’t hurry her along. Presently, when she had made her peace with those that hadn’t made it out, Wildfire stepped away from the wall and she nuzzled Tempest’s cheek. “Come on. I’m ready to go somewhere else. Need a caffeine recharge, Wingpony?” she giggled, “there's a spot just over there.”

Tempest looked in the direction that Wildfire pointed and she saw a small café over the road in view of the care home. “I would take caffeinated mud right now.”

As she led the way over the cobbled street to the small café, Wildfire did a very good job of not laughing and she walked with a purpose. The blind mare knew exactly where she was, the café in question was one of her regular errand runs. “It's no Stripes, but it's a good place.”

“As long as it stops me from sleep walking, I don’t care.”

At that, Wildfire did laugh as she walked up to the counter, just like she had done every morning for the four years that Amethyst had believed her to be broken. “Excuse me, Mr. Grain, are you there?”

Grain, a particularly huge example of an earth pony who stood three heads taller than the yellow pegasus in front of him, greeted her with a wide easy smile. “Wildfire,” the straw coloured stallion beamed, “it has been a while. I heard about the home, so I’m guessing you're not here for the usual?”

“No sir.” She solemnly shook her head. “I won't be getting the usual ever again. May I please have a black coffee with three sugars and the strongest coffee you have for my partner?”

“Sure you can, Wildfire, on me.” Grain said softly as he began to make the drinks, “Bad news about that place. I'm glad to see you're doing well. Go sit, I’ll bring them over to you.”

Nodding, Wildfire led Tempest to an empty table where they both seated themselves, though Tempest had to support her nodding head on her hooves to keep from falling asleep. “Amethyst and Lotus got their coffee from here,” she explained, somewhat unnecessarily, “Mr. Grain always slipped me a caramel donut because he thought I looked too thin.”

Yawning, the weather mare rolled her eyes. “That is so pony. Something going on just up the street and you never notice anything,” she gratefully nuzzled Wildfire when Grain dropped off their order, complete with two complimentary donuts. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“You're welcome,” Wildfire smiled and proceeded to slowly lick the caramel coating from the donut in just the way she knew that Tempest liked, like she was making out with an intimate lover, “It's not like anypony knew.”

Perked up by the caramel make out show and the smell coming from the incredibly strong coffee, Tempest gave her marefriend a light kiss. “This coffee is old enough to have known,” she took a sip that manifested itself as a loud slurp and she was sure it could have been used as ocean liner fuel. In short, it was perfect.

Not expecting that, Wildfire burst out laughing, so much so that she snorted her own coffee over a two day old newspaper that had been left on the table. The headline, which reported that the extremely wealthy husband and wife couple Jet Set and Upper Crust had been arrested over the recent care home charity scandal, had a sub heading that noble heads were rolling in the streets of Canterlot. “Don't be mean to Mr. Grain,” she chastised playfully, “He's a sweetie.”

“I'm sure he is,” Tempest commented, looking over at the mountainous earth pony working the counter. Idly she wondered if he had been one of the ones keeping tabs on Wildfire as she had run her errands for Amethyst Glory. Ultimately, she decided it didn’t matter. “I don't put sweet in my coffee…”

“It's caffeine,” Wildfire snickered as she nudged her shoulder, “Enjoy it, cos I'll take you to the university after this little stop.”

“Been to uni and that is behind me.” Tempest attempted to half drink, half eat her sludgy coffee before she dunked her donut in it. “I do have a degree in weather management.”

Wildfire, who at last had licked all the caramel from the donut, gulped it down in two bites and it didn’t touch the sides, “It'll be fuuuuuun! Besides, I want to know if that desk is still there or not.”

Fuelled with coffee strong enough to put hair on her eyes, Tempest giggled, “May need a sniff and lick, just to be sure.”

“Well, I'm not about to polish it again, that's for sure!”

“Never say never, maybe Calculus was just upset she wasn't part of the polishing?” Tempest shot back with a straight face that could’ve won her a poker tournament in Las Pegasus.

“You are terrible!” Wildfire squealed in delight before she kissed Tempest’s lips and drained the last of her own brew. “But I love you. Ready to go?”

“Just let me chew the last bit in my cup,” Tempest snarked and made loud chomping noises just to emphasise the quality of the drink she had endured. “Okay, now I’m done.”

“I swear I can't take you anywhere,” Wildfire, giggling, got up and on the way out, she made sure to give Grain one of her signature bonecrushing hugs. On the sidewalk outside the café, Tempest hailed them both a taxi. Not that she couldn’t walk there, she just wanted a snuggle. “Feeling awake yet?” the blind mare asked as she duly snuggled into Tempest’s chest on the back seat of the cab.

“Canterlot University please driver,” Tempest requested, before settling into Wildfire’s deadly snuggles. “I'll make it through this, unless your profs have the same monotone voice mine did.”

“Principal Legacy was a bit droney at times but then, he was a history teacher.” Wildfire explained as the taxi sped along the ancient streets of the capital city. “Calculus was alright when she wasn't teaching me math.”

“Well, after the classes you've been passing lately, I think you can teach Calculus a thing or two about math,” Tempest whispered, “Just make sure you give her the problem in dots.”

Wildfire mulled that over thoughtfully for a few moments and she grinned. “It would be nice to show her I wasn't just being dumb.”

Very lightly, Tempest booped Wildfire on her head with her hoof. If she thought for a second she was seriously putting herself down, the boop would’ve turned into a slap. “You're not dumb, but you did have a disability. One your current disability has cured.”

It wasn’t a very long ride from the care home to the university, especially so as the roads were more or less empty of traffic save for those going to or from work. That said though, Canterlot was starting to wake up, as evidenced by the increased numbers filling the sidewalks. Once they arrived, Tempest saw that it wasn’t that far from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Both looked like rather grand and imposing edifices, all sculptured marbles and columns with inlaid gold and the Princesses cutie marks everywhere. Getting out of the taxi, Wildfire smiled up at the building she remembered. “Very Canterlot, isn't it?”

“Yes,” Tempest agreed with a wry grin, “then that might be why they put this Uni in Canterlot.”

The older pegasus’s snark earned her a raspberry from Wildfire. “What I mean is, all the spires and the tapestries, and marble and gold...I always thought it was a bit…unnecessary,” she paused at the entrance, “You know, I remember the first and last time I was here, Honey.”

Tempest really did have to agree that the décor was a bit much, but then she was reminded where she was. All of the buildings around her were grand, luxurious and imposing, a lasting testament to architects and builders no doubt long gone. It was wealth and privilege and power as blatantly advertised as a neon sign in Manehatten. Which, she was sure, was entirely the point. “I'm sure the Headmare of the school next door had something to do with the decorations. After all, one can't detract from the castle’s image.”

Wildfire had to agree with Tempest’s assessment, because it was completely accurate. Still, she hesitated at the entrance, her hooves seemingly glued to the floor. The last time she had left that place was when she had been blinded. The violet mare gave her a none too subtle shove that sent her over the threshold. “Nothing to it, but to do it. So, which building do you want to visit first?”

“Hey, that's my line!” Wildfire exclaimed with a giggle, though she had to admit Tempest had a point. “May as well go for the main building. You'll like Professor Last Legacy. He's a great Principal, Honey.”

“Admin it is!” Tempest started to walk along the marble halls, briefly wondering if all of Equestria’s marble was in Canterlot, before she noticed Wildfire wasn’t keeping up with her. “Place is quiet on a Saturday…hey, what’s wrong, Wily?”

“Oh...nothing’s wrong, I just realised something,” her yellow cheeks coloured up in a bright red blush that even reached the tips of her ears, “I've never walked around here blind.”

“Pfft,” Tempest snorted, “Like that’s going to stop you,” she then placed a wingtip to Wildfire's side, just above her wing cast. “The sign says we need to go this way.”

“It's not going to stop me,” Wildfire replied, though her blush showed no immediate sign of dissipating. She walked along with Tempest, following her guiding wingtip. “I'll just need to use your eyes, that’s all, because I don’t think I know where I’m going otherwise.”

“Are they the prettiest eyes?”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire answered quickly, her blush becoming a smile, “because they belong to an awesome mare who yells at me when I need it and hugs me for the same reason.”

Walking along the hallway, it was Tempest’s turn to blush, her violet fur bearing a definite red tinge on her cheeks, though she said nothing for a few moments, not until they had gotten where they were going. She was proud to have played her role, and she would do it again in a heartbeat if necessary. “We are now at the entrance to the admin building, and the door is open and there is a pony behind the counter.” She dropped her voice to a whisper, “Do you think she'll think I'm too old to register?”

“You can try. Mom used to say you're as old as the pony you feel,” Wildfire giggled and, with Tempest’s helping wing guiding her, the diminutive yellow pegasus walked up to the counter and announced herself with a polite cough. “Excuse me, miss? We're looking for Principal Last Legacy.”

The unicorn mare at the reception counter had to look twice because, as it was up to average chest height, she could only see Tempest and the tips of two yellow ears beside her. Leaning forwards, she saw the tiny Wildfire. She blinked once then twice and she remembered the question. “Professor Legacy? I'm very sorry, he's been retired for two years now.”

“Oh...” Wildfire’s ears went back a little. She had been looking forward to seeing her old Principal, too. “I didn't know.” She shuffled her hooves uncertainly, “Then it must be Principal Water Colour, right?”

Again, the receptionist corrected her. “Oh, no, he is still the Vice Principal.” She lowered her voice like she was sharing a closely guarded secret. “He didn't want the job. The Headmare is now Ms. Calculus.”

Tempest snorted, the weather mare almost licking her lips at the joke that was on the tip of her tongue, “Well that adds up, Wily.”

“What!?” Wildfire exclaimed, her mouth hanging open for a long while until Tempest thoughtfully reached over and closed it for her. “Ah...is ah...well um, is she available, please?”

“Who should I say is calling, please?”

“Major Tempest, with the Manehatten Weather Service,” Tempest stepped up to the counter and used her ‘official’ authoritative voice that all pegasi commanders learnt at college and then she pointed to her marefriend, “and this is Lieutenant Wildfire, with the Manehatten Fire Department.”

The unicorn receptionist reached for the phone on her desk, “One moment please, ma’am.”

Quickly, Wildfire took off her flight headset and she stored it safely away in her bag, then she whispered, “That was a very well rehearsed intro, Mother Hen.”

“That’s why I'm the Major.”

“Good morning, Headmare,” the receptionist greeted Calculus when she answered the phone in her office, “there are two ponies wishing to speak with you. Yes, both from Manehatten. Major Tempest and Lieutenant Wildfire. What? Oh, yes, the Lieutenant is blind. Okay. Yes, ma'am.” She then glanced over her desk at the two visitors, “Do you know where the Headmare's office is?”

Wildfire sighed, “When I could see I could take you there with my eyes shut.” As she snorted a breath through her nose, the irony was not lost on her. “Can you give us directions, please?”

The receptionist looked at the both of them like Wildfire had asked her to slap a Princess. Luckily Tempest helped her out. “I'll take a building map, please. Point out the room.” Leaning over the counter, the mare indicated Room 401 on the map and she hoofed it to Tempest. “Now, Ms. Wily, I want you to march to the Principal’s office, eyes closed!”

“Oh, now that brings back memories,” Wildfire muttered, though there was a snicker in her voice. “I’m sure it's this way…” she promptly marched off in completely the wrong direction until the receptionist coughed politely and she turned around. “No, it’s this way. I got this!”

Walking alongside her blind lover, Tempest was happy to let her make her own way, wrong turns and all, that is unless she went and got herself really lost. Wildfire did take a couple of wrong turns along the way but she corrected herself almost straight away. “Can you believe I used to be sent here a lot? The Principal’s office, I mean.”

“That explains why there is a track worn into the marble floor.”

“Shut up, you!” Wildfire giggled, “Everyday was a fight, either with Bliztwing or one of his dogs.”

“Well, I wonder if they have achieved half as much as you have.”

Wildfire shrugged her shoulders as she walked along, every step she took she got more and more confident in her route. It was like she had never left the university. “I have no idea. Bright said that Blitz had been released from the asylum, I couldn't tell you about Boudica or Fido. Couple more turns I think, and we're there.”

“Wait,” Tempest held out her hoof and stopped Wildfire in her tracks, just in front of the door they had come to. Sure enough, it said ‘Principal Calculus’ on the door plaque. “I think there’s a paint chip on the door right at your normal knocking height.”

Pausing at the door, Wildfire turned to give Tempest what would have been a killer deadpan look had she possessed eyes. “You know, you should quit weather work and go into comedy,” she said with a snicker, completely ignoring the fact that there was a dent at the bottom of the door that she herself had left there a long time ago.

Tempest was unabashed. “So, you going to knock and prove me wrong?”

Grumbling something under her breath, Wildfire lifted her left forehoof and she knocked on the door, her hoof lining up perfectly with the chip and the dent in the surface of the door. Practically the moment her hoof touched wood, Calculus’s voice came from the other side of the door. “Enter.”

“Oh yeah,” Wildfire was transported back in time to standing outside the math professor’s office door. “That's taking me all the way back,” she took a moment to compose herself and take several deep breaths before she hoofed open the door.

As Wildfire and Tempest walked into the office, Calculus looked up from her computer. She hid her gasp at the state of the yellow mare’s face very well, it was the first time she had seen her former student since her accident. “Welcome back, Lieutenant Wildfire. You’re a long ways from the Canterlot Cadet I used to know. Do you prefer Major over Professor, Tempest?”

“I earned both, but I like my working title, thank you.” Tempest replied with an easy nod of greeting.

“It's been a while, Professor Calculus,” Wildfire greeted her old teacher with a great deal more respect than she ever had before, and she inclined her head politely. “Thank you for seeing us on zero notice.”

Calculus waved them to sit down, and Tempest guided Wildfire to a vacant seating pad not far from where she was stood. “I've looked over the news about you Lieutenant.” The recent fire in Manehatten had made the national news, and Wildfire had been on that broadcast. “You've proved your ability. So, an 'I told you so' that math really doesn't matter.”

Taking her own seating pad, Tempest snorted, “I think not, math puts the world into order.”

“You were right, Professor, math is important, just as important as Shakespony. And it has a place.”

“Oh, that so sounds like a challenge!” Tempest crowed, only too pleased that this had come up in the way that it had. She had hoped that Wildfire would get a chance to show off her new skills. “I'm sure you’ve got a question ready for such an occasion, right, Prof?”

Calculus reeled in her chair. She had not ever, ever in the world, expected Wildfire of all ponies to admit that math was important. She had also not expected to ever have to test her, ever again. “Well, um, yes…” she stuttered, as it happened she had been grading some papers and had some stock problems up on her screen. That wasn’t what concerned her. “But, um, how...exactly…”

“She can see just fine,” Tempest waved her hoof dismissively in the air, “once it’s translated.”

“Oh come on, really, a spot quiz?” Wildfire tried to sound outraged, but her giggles belied that to a great degree. If she was honest, she had been expecting something like this, because she knew Tempest. “I suppose somethings never change. Alrighty, go for it, shoot, I’m ready.”

“Very well, then, Wildfire. A test.” The Headmare scribbled down the first math problem that was at the top of the screen on her computer and she hoofed it over to the blind mare. “Solve that for me, please.”

Tempest intercepted the paper and looked at it, 4x + 2y = 38 and 3x - y = 16, solve for x and y. She knew that would be a challenge for her lover, but she also had every confidence that she could solve it. “Wily, where is your braille labeller?”

“I have it in my bag, Honey.” Wildfire reached into her bag with a hoof and she dug around before pulling it out once she had seized it. It was at the bottom amidst more interesting ‘fun’ things she had bought with her. “Here you are.” She passed the device to her marefriend’s hoof.

Taking the labeller, Tempest performed the data entry, typing in the equation that Calculus had given her and, once it had been printed out on a ribbon of tape, she hoofed the braille tape over to Wildfire, along with the labeller. “Now, to do it.”

“Hmm,” as Calculus and Tempest watched, Wildfire ran her hoof over the raised bumps several times, taking in the equation over and over until she had it down. “Okay, now,” she could do it! She knew this! “Let me double the second line and add it to the first…” she typed away on her labeller once she had the solution. “Okay 7x = 70, so x is 7, then y is 5. Right?”

Calculus laughed, she couldn’t believe her ears. “Yes Wildfire, that is very right!”

“We think she can't jumble the numbers with her hooves like she could with her eyes,” Tempest put in, very proud of her little herd-mate.

“I've been taking classes at Manehatten Community Uni,” Wildfire explained, no small degree of pride in her voice at her accomplishments, “Because I never graduated here.”

“Well, I'm in a position to say that if you get that degree from MCU,” Calculus started, “then I will give you an honourary degree from CU. Not worth much, perhaps, but it’s something for the wall.”

Wildfire however, disagreed with that wholeheartedly. “It's worth a whole load, Professor, at least to me, thank you.” She sniffed a little at that, before she smiled a broad smile. “While I’m here, the more sensible older me would very much like to apologise for the things that the past me did.”

Calculus shared a knowing smile with Tempest, the teacher at once surprised and impressed to hear Wildfire talk like that. Clearly, she had matured with the passage of time. “I think you did enough time with Colour and Legacy to make up for that.” That said, time had matured and changed her, too. “Of course,” she couldn’t resist an impish urge though, “you and, her name slips me, the race car driver, on my desk. I left that in my old office.”

“Air Raid, Professor.” Wildfire could all but feel Tempest’s grin when her ex-teacher mentioned the desk. “She's in Manehatten too now, with Darkstar. You ah, you still have the desk?”

“Professor Fraction now heads the math department.” Calculus’s grin was only matched by Tempest’s. “He inherited the desk. I didn't feel the need to elaborate on its past.”

Wildfire had to laugh at that. The little yellow mare guffawed a proper belly laugh until she was forced to hold her sides. So hard did she laugh that she almost fell off the seating pad she was sat on. “Oh…I-I'm sorry,” she snickered when she was able to speak, “I'm sorry. Does he um, polish it, very often?”

“I cannot say,” that impish grin that wouldn’t have even crossed her face five years ago was still there, “but I doubt he uses mare polish.”

At that, Tempest lost it completely, joining Wildfire in a fresh round of laughter. “Is the desk available for viewing?” she asked once she had recovered her composure.

“Professor Fraction isn't in, but I do have the keys.” She levelled her best student scaring glare at the yellow pegasus, a glare that managed to reach her voice, “As long as there is no repeat performance, Lieutenant?”

“We won't do a repeat performance, I promise.” Tempting though it was to do just that, Wildfire didn’t fancy spending the night in a prison cell when she could be with her stepmother instead. “Um, do you mind, I'd like to feel the science labs too.”

“So, a tour is requested. Better than my endless paperwork.” Professor Calculus was only too happy to give her visitors a tour of the university. Though they only wanted to see the math room and science labs, she gave them a tour of the whole facility. As they walked around, listening to Calculus speak about the different departments, Wildfire fancied that she seemed considerably less stuffy than she remembered her, she was almost as laid back as Legacy, but not quite.

Though Wildfire was interested in seeing the old math room again, what she was really interested in was the science labs. Specifically, Laboratory Two, where she had been blinded all those years ago. Walking into the lab, she made her way unerringly to the spot where it had happened, on the floor behind the desk that she and Dusk had shared on that fateful morning.

Wildfire knelt at the spot where the acids were thrown, touching her hoof to the floor like she was mourning an old friend. All the tiles had been replaced, but she swore that she could tell the difference. “So,” Tempest said softly, like she was wary of interrupting a sombre reunion, “this is where you started you new life?”

“Yuppers. This is where it all changed. Right here. Blitzwing was stood on the other side of the desk, by the Bunsen burner. Professor Twilight had the acid there, on the table. It was all over in a heartbeat…” she took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose. If she concentrated, and cast her mind back, she could smell, hear and taste that day like it was yesterday.

Wildfire heard Dusk’s voice by her side, five years of time slipping away in an instant, she was eighteen all over again;

“No,” Dusk smiled smugly as the dark grey stallion picked up the scroll and cracked it open, “this is me changing the rules so I win. I believe that's check and mate.”

Blitzwing read the scroll through once then twice, and a third time as his eyes grew to saucers with the realisation of what he was reading. He read the signature at the bottom, and again a second time.

Princess Celestia had abandoned them. Ravenwing was a Luna matter. The realisation sunk in his family were effectively through. “Buck you!” He slammed his forelegs into Dusk, his wing reaching back to the station for something, anything to throw at the hated pegasus sprawled on the ground in front of him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What the...” Twilight turned to see what the all the noise was about behind her as another scream from Wildfire silenced the rest of the class.

“AAaaaaAAAAGH!!” Wildfire’s lungs burned from the screaming, she clutched her hooves to her face, unable to see as steam rose from her face, her eyes boiling away in her skull.

Blitzwing mounted Dusk’s barrel, the Prince still too stunned to react effectively. Rearing again he rained down a series of punches to Dusk’s chest and shoulder.

“ENOUGH!! Twilight overcame her moment of indecision, finally grasping the enormity of that was happening. Seizing Blitzwing in her magical field, she lifted him off of his mounted position as she quickly trotted over to the altercation.

Wildfire grovelled in pain on the floor, a sticky white mess dribbling slowly through her hooves grasping at her ruined face, “AAAAGH!! H-he-lp m-me!”

Blitzwing struggled uselessly in Twilight’s hold, trashing his limbs against the lavender bubble encasing him. “I will kill you if it is the last thing I ever do!” he screamed, pure murder in his eyes, his anger focused entirely on Dusk.

“W- Wildfire!” Twilight maneuvered herself around the workstation and froze in shocked horror at the scene that greeted her. Wildfire’s screams had dulled to a low whimper as she squirmed in a foul smelling puddle of viscous muck on the lab floor.

“It…b- bu-rns! Burns! AAIIIIEE!!” Wildfire tried to sit up but slipped in the mess at her hooves, the mess that used to be her face.

“Shh…” Twilight held her still and used her magic to wash out and cleanse the affected area of her student’s face. “Oh sweet Celestia!” The Princess swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat as she delicately cleaned out Wildfire’s face. She could clearly see empty, scarred and pitted sockets, her eyelids melting together under the effects of the acids.

Tempest’s hug dragged Wildfire from her reverie and back to the present. “Not the best way to get to today, but here you are, my beautiful pegasus, the mare with the prettiest eyes.”

“I'm here, Honey.” Wildfire hugged her lover as tightly as she could, knelt on the tiled floor of the lab. Nice as the visit was, and it had been, for the closure alone, she was ready to go somewhere else. “I think I'm ready for another coffee after that. How about you?”

“You mean to say that there is ever a non-ready for coffee time?” Tempest giggled, standing up with Wildfire by her side to address the other mare with them in the lab who, respectfully, had remained silent up to then. “Thank you, Headmare Calculus, for the tour. Some happy memories, some sad memories, but a lot of closure I think. Wily?”

“Do you take hugs, Professor?”

“I do, Lieutenant…aaaah!” the older mare squeaked out in surprise when Wildfire launched herself into one of her signature Wily Tacklehugs and squeezed her hard. For a moment, her breath was taken away. “I'm ah, I’m glad you've taken control of this life,” she said once she had been released, “Don't be a stranger.”

Wildfire giggled and said, “That was going to be my line. Seriously though, I'd love it if we stayed in touch. Plus, I have to let you know how I do at MCU, right?”

“You do, only if you want an extra diploma for your office.”

That wasn’t Wildfire’s only reason for wanting to stay in contact. “I'd like a friend too, if you want?” Years ago, she couldn’t imagine ever asking Calculus to be her friend, but now, things were different. They were different.

“I can be friendly,” Calculus said, that impish sense of humour coming to her again, “but I'm not ready to polish a desk with you just yet,” she broke off as Tempest lost it in laughter once more.

When Wildfire too had stopped laughing, she replied, “For that, you get an invite to my wedding in Manehatten in a couple of weeks’ time.” When Calculus graciously accepted the offer, Wildfire continued, “I'll email it to you in the next couple of days, I promise, Professor.”

All in all, as Wildfire and Tempest left the university, the diminutive pegasus had to agree it had been a most successful meeting. Now though, with both mares in need of coffee, she knew just where to take her herd-mate. The only coffee place in Canterlot. Café Diem!

~ ~ ~

Canterlot was well and truly awake and bustling by the time the taxi arrived outside Café Diem in the Residential District. Ponies – and even the odd hippogriff and zebra – were milling around on the streets, hurrying to or from whatever business they had. “Did you know they sell coffee and donuts here?” Tempest snickered as she got out of the cab, “It’s amazing!”

“At a café?” Wildfire replied with a deadpan expression that reached her voice, “Yuppers, what a stroke of luck...”

“It’s a lovely day,” Tempest stated after she had paid the cab’s fare. Now it was gone eleven, and the day had reached a point where a sensible pony should be awake, she was in a far better mood to enjoy the warm summer sun. “Should we go inside to keep away from your book fans, or outside, and run the risk?”

“Outside. I like the sun on my feathers,” Wildfire grinned and giggling, she took a moment to enjoy the warmth on her scarred face. “As if anypony will recognise me anyway.”

Nodding, Tempest moved past the six tables that were outside the café, only one of which was occupied, by a bat pony mare and a bald pegasus stallion who didn’t seem old enough to be bald and she stepped up to the counter with a wing out enough to touch Wildfire's side. “Should I get my usual,” she asked, “or something fru fru for the occasion?”

“The usual,” Wildfire stated confidently. “I'm getting a caramel donut and black coffee,” she smiled, listening with her keen ears for what she remembered was the owner’s voice. “I wonder if Java's serving? He's a cream coloured earth pony.”

“No sugar?” Tempest asked suspiciously, placing a hoof on Wildfire's forehead. “Are you okay?” her eyes narrowed in a scrutinising fashion, “Or are you a changeling infiltrator?”

Wildfire giggled, “I thought the three sugars were mandatory, Honey.”

“Okay,” Tempest breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief, “You had me worried there. Yes,” she said after scanning the serving cunter, “there is a cream coloured pony that looks old enough to be my father.” The violet mare stepped up and got his attention, “By your nametag I'm guessing you're Java. My friend here says we should get a ten percent discount. Isn’t that right, Wily?”

“Yuppers!” Wildfire exclaimed, bouncing happily on her hooves. Following the closure at the cemetery, the care home and with Calculus, she was in a very good mood. “That was what always what you used to give us, Java, especially when Darkie came with us.”

Java, who hadn’t seen Wildfire in five years, rubbed his old eyes to make sure it was her. He beamed when he looked again, for there wasn’t anypony that short or that chipper in all the land. “I should have charged you a surcharge for the zebran lessons I used to give her. Now, what can I get you two fine mares?”

“Coffee straight up, and another three spoons sweet.” Tempest placed their orders, the weather mare immediately deciding that she liked this affable old stallion. Knowing what she did of Wildfire’s friends, it was easy to see why they kept coming here. “Two jelly and two caramel donuts, too, please.”

“I’ll have it right up, take a seat inside and I'll get it to you.”

“Thanks Java, we're going to take them outside,” Wildfire answered the barista, pointing with her hoof to where she thought the door was, “And it was Darkie who had the lessons, not me!”

The moment Wildfire said that, Java’s ears slicked back to his skull. He cast a furtive glance outside where the bat pony and pegasi couple were sat. “Weather has been unpredictable, high chance of storms out there. It’d be best inside.”

Now, seeing as the weather was sunny and warm with not a cloud anywhere in the blue sky, Tempest raised a sceptical eyebrow at the earth pony’s statement. “I’m Major Tempest, pleased to meet you. I'm a weather manager in Manehatten, unpredictable, you say?”

Not expecting that, Java stuttered, caught on the back hoof. “Um, ah, let me just get your drinks and donuts…” as he worked, he kept shooting nervous glances outside. He knew who that was sat outside, and he knew of the fractious history between the stallion and Wildfire.

While he was working away on their order, Tempest lowered her voice to a whisper for only Wildfire to hear. “How old is that stallion now?”

“Java?” Wildfire had her head to one side, deep in thought. Honestly, she didn’t know, but she was willing to have a red hot guess. “He's about late fifty something, I think. Why? What's up?” what concerned her though was the sudden change in the tone of his voice. “He sounds nervous.”

“Listen, I know weather, and I know that was a lot of drivel,” Tempest said quietly for Wildfire’s benefit as she took their order on a tray and walked out to the outdoor patio with a wingtip still touching the blind mare’s side.

Wildfire really had to agree with her herd-mate’s assessment. “I’m no weather mare and even I know the weather's awesomes out here!” The moment that sentence left her lips, the dark grey pegasus stallion sat with the bat pony mare’s ears flicked with recognition.

“There are plenty of tables,” Tempest announced to her companion, “I'd rather not be next to the street, too much noise.”

“Yuppers, Honey, I get you, Darkie's favourite spot used to be a table to the left of the door. Is that free?”

The stallion’s ears, already alert when he had heard the mare behind him say ‘awesomes’, now perked right up at the use of ‘yuppers’ and ‘Darkie’. There was only one mare in the whole of Equestria he knew spoke like that. A mare that he hadn’t seen in five years. He turned and breathed, “No way...it is her…”

“Yes,” Tempest confirmed, still leading the way, “that table is available, my good mare.”

“Alrighty!” Blissfully unaware of the stallion and mare watching her every move, Wildfire felt her way carefully over to the table, which happened to be just one away from her audience. Tempest did take note of the couple staring at her lover but she just chalked it up to Wildfire's disfigurement. As long as they did nothing about it, she was happy to say nothing to them.

The blue bat pony mare, whose name was Echo, looked concerned as her coltfriend stood up and took a step forward. Although he was the same age as Wildfire, he looked to be a good ten years older, bald, with deep lines on his face and a fading red beard. As Wildfire and Tempest both sat down, he said, “Wildfire?”

Straightaway, Wildfire’s ears were up and alert, her face a stunned mask when she heard that voice. Though it had been five years, there was no mistaking that voice and whom it belonged to. The voice that had taunted her for so long, the stallion who had bullied her and Dusk at university. “Blitzwing...no way!”

At the same time, Echo and Tempest both stood up, both mares alert to anything that could negatively happen in the next however many minutes. As soon as she had heard the name ‘Blitzwing’, Tempest was ready to fight, her wings flared in a threatening posture. Almost at the exact same time, Blitzwing and Wildfire exclaimed, “It is you, isn't it? It is! It’s you!”

“B-Bl-Blitzwing?” Wildfire looked, felt and sounded poleaxed. “What...What are you doing here?”

The dark grey stallion pointed a wing to the table he had shared with his marefriend. Time seemed to be slowed to an absolute crawl. “Um, coffee?” He didn’t know what else to say.

“Yuppers, the same...” Wildfire was at a loss for something else, anything else, to say. On her hooves, she was guarded in case anything might happen, but the sound of her old tormentor’s voice seemed off. He sounded different, somehow. Then again, it had been a while, for them both.

Up on her hooves, hackles up, Tempest moved forwards to put herself between Blitzwing and Wildfire, and Echo then quickly did the same with a weak smile. It should have been funny, really. The four of them looked like they had been taken straight from a Dodge Junction Old West reunion. “My, my…look at that, ponies getting coffee in a coffee shop.”

Wildfire, her ears sharp as ever, turned to face Echo’s nervous voice. It wasn’t a voice of one about to attack. “Who's your friend?”

“Echo, she's a bat pony, my marefriend and um, well, my nurse, too.”

Wildfire sat back down at her table, though she was visibly trembling, the diminutive blind mare did not retreat within herself like she had done on the Friendship Express the day before. She took a deep breath and said, “Won't you two please join us?”

“I'm sure Rainstorm and I would be happy to...” Echo started, though she eyed Tempest and her ‘ready’ stance warily, “If your friend is agreeable to that, that is.”

Cautiously, Tempest reached out with a wing and she touched Wildfire's shoulder. She had been expecting an incident like the one on the train and this time she wouldn’t have blamed her one little bit. “Wily, are you sure about this?”

After a moment's thought, Wildfire nodded her head. After all, she had confronted many demons that day already, what was one more? “I'm sure, Tempest,” she said confidently. She actually was as confident as she sounded, which surprised her a little bit. “It's okay, really.”

With a nod from Echo, Rainstorm used his wings to move the half full coffee mugs and pastries on the plates from the table they had been sat at over to Wildfire's. Now that the threat of imminent violence seemed to no longer be an issue, Echo brightened up like a new button. “I've heard about you Wildfire, and even got a copy of your book. I should have brought it to be signed.”

“You like my book?” Wildfire blushed very hard indeed, though she did nonetheless look very pleased with herself. “I mean, you've heard about me? Isn’t that nice? Um, good things, I hope?”

Once everything had been moved over, Rainstorm sat down next to Echo, the dark grey stallion immediately getting an affectionate hug and a nuzzle from his lover. “We've read it together, Wildfire.” He said once he had assured her that he was alright.

“Your poetry is very good, Wildfire,” Echo commented very genuinely as she took a welcome calming sip of her coffee. She got the book to pre-read before she allowed Rainstorm to see it, just in case it was something she wouldn't want him to read. As it happened, they both enjoyed it.

“Thank you, Echo,” Wildfire smiled, lifting her own coffee to her lips for a long draught, “May I ask, was there any in particular you liked?”

At that, Rainstorm shuffled his hooves and tried to be as small and as inconspicuous as possible. He didn’t succeed in the slightest, seeing as how he was the biggest one of them at the table. “Rainy and I both agree, that your, darker, writings were very intense.” The bat pony mare looked at Tempest, who didn’t look away, “Although the last few poems were very uplifting.”

Considering that for a moment, Wildfire had to agree. “Those poems were written from a dark time of my life. I survived Helping Hooves…” a thought managed to catch up with her though and the little yellow mare paused, looking quizzically at the other two. “I'm sorry, but who’s Rainy?”

“That would be me,” Rainstorm spoke up with a raised hoof like he was back at school, even though Wildfire couldn’t see that gesture, “My name is Rainstorm, now.”

“He is no longer associated with the family that Prince Dusk disgraced,” Echo stated firmly, the nurse laying a comforting hoof on her lover’s foreleg and squeezing it gently, letting him know she was there for him, just like she always was.

“They visited me once,” Rainstorm said softly, the stallion very glad of his partner’s hoof on his foreleg. As always it gave him the mental strength to carry on. “They made it quite clear I was no longer a Ravenwing.”

Knowing the value of family, especially having grown up with the one she had and how she had, Wildfire was saddened upon hearing that. To be disowned, she hadn’t wished that on anypony. “Oh, hey, I'm truly sorry about that, really.” Tempest, sat by Wildfire’s side, wanted to snort in derision, but she remained quite busy with her coffee and donut.

Rainstorm then looked at Echo for moral strength, strength which he received from the slender bat pony in spades. Which was good, because without her by his side, he doubted he’d have the courage to say what needed to be said. “Wildfire,” he said softly, “there's something I need to say to you.”

Wildfire blushed. It was almost like she could read his mind. Instinctively, she knew what was coming and it really wasn’t necessary. They were both changed it seemed by the passage of time. “Um...you really don't have to-”

“Oh, but he does!” Echo interrupted her, now getting Tempest’s full attention.

“For everything I did to you in university, all the bullying, and ah, for throwing the acid, I'm truly, deeply, completely sorry.”

“Rainstorm-” Wildfire had to halt herself, because she almost called him by his old name.

“Please, let me finish.” Rainstorm held up a hoof and Tempest laid hers on Wildfire’s shoulder, quieting her. He had roleplayed this apology with Echo in his many, many therapy sessions in the asylum, and now it was the real thing, he had to make it count. “I wish I had apologised to you properly when they bought me to see you in the hospital. I genuinely, sincerely wish I could reverse what happened. But, I'm sorry, Wildfire.”

“I'm having flashbacks,” Tempest stated, sipping her coffee. When Echo gave her a curious ‘what do you mean’ look, she continued, “I was quite the bully in my time. After a couple of mares took the effort to reform me, I had to do an apology tour. So, I know when it isn't faked.”

In an almost mirror of the other two, Wildfire rested her hoof on Tempest's foreleg. “Rainstorm, I want you to know, I never blamed you for what happened in the science lab that day.” It was strange, if anything. She had waited all this time for the apology, now it had happened, she realised he was as much a victim as she was.

“Blamed solely for what happened, you mean.” Tempest interjected, though there was no venom or accusation in her voice, “The acids didn't toss themselves.”

“But I...”

Wildfire interrupted the stallion. She’d had a lot of time while in the care home to think about the incident in the science lab. A lot of time to consider blame and fault and which belonged to whom. She had come to terms with it, in the end. “Dusk was as much to blame as you, more so, even. He admitted to me his part in what happened. I made my peace with him, and I can with you, too.”

“You mean…”

“Of course, I forgive you, Rainstorm.” It felt good to say it out loud. It was like shrugging off a particularly heavy coat. One she had no interest in wearing any longer.

Tempest clapped her hooves lightly, “Wily sees things a lot clearer now than she used to.”

“Besides,” Wildfire added, “I'm pony enough to admit that I wasn't completely blameless. I gave as good as I got, more than once. So, I want to apologise to you, too.”

“Well,” Rainstorm laughed, any remaining tension he felt leeching from his body like he had come away from a five hour massage, “I ah, I have to say, this isn't how I ever saw this meeting happening.” Never in his wildest dreams had he seen it going this smoothly.

“Hoof fights isn't Wily's style, nor really mine,” Tempest grinned, “but the other option isn't at all pleasant.” The other option of course being Airmail, but thankfully right now she was over a thousand miles away no doubt at work in Manehatten.

Echo furrowed her brow at what was to her at least a cryptic statement from Tempest. “You seem to joke a lot,” she said after a moment’s thought, “even about her blindness.”

Tempest shrugged, “Better to laugh than to cry.”

“Yuppers,” Wildfire agreed, “And I've done enough crying to last me a lifetime.”

Rainstorm looked down at his hooves, “I understand, Wildfire.” He said heavily, his ears and wings drooping ever so slightly, “I've seen the news. Helping Hooves was a bad place.”

“Pardon me,” Wildfire shot back quickly, “but it doesn't sound like where you were was a holiday camp either.” The little blind mare had never visited the asylum in Canterlot. Not even when Brightstar and Darkstar had asked her to come and meet their mother. Such a thing seemed a deponification to her, something akin to lining up and paying a gold coin to laugh at the circus freaks. Wildfire found it abhorrent that in decades past, the asylums had been open to the public for that very purpose, before a reform had outlawed such practise. As such, she didn’t know what the place was like, but she had heard the stories.

“Such a thing can't be compared,” said Echo, quickly swallowing the bite of her pastry, “Prison is of your own choosing, Enslavement is not.”

“She has you there, Wily.” Tempest conceded with a nod to the bat pony mare, “You were in a bad place.”

“Yuppers, but now I'm not. I survived and I'm looking forwards.” Wildfire sipped her coffee and smiled, very interested in hearing some properly juicy gossip now that the awkwardness of the meeting had long since passed. “Soooo, you two?”

Rainstorm smiled proudly, “We are a couple, yes.”

“One of those therapist and patient falling for each other stories,” Echo added.

“How long?”

“Three months away from our four year anniversary,” Rainstorm answered Wildfire’s question.

“To answer your other question,” Echo put in, “he was released after three years.” Quickly draining what was left in her cup, the bat pony mare lovingly nuzzled the stallion’s cheek, “He has grown a lot over that time.”

As Rainstorm affectionately nuzzled Echo and kissed her cheek, Wildfire laughed brightly, “I'll be growing a lot soon too!”

Solemnly, as seriously as she could, Tempest nodded. “A diet of dill pickle ice cream will do that to a mare.”

Wildfire giggled, “and being pregnant helps too.”

“Congratulations!” Echo beamed before her stallion could get the chance. “We only recently started talking about the idea of foals.”

“Thanks!” Wildfire drained the dregs of her coffee with a smile, “I wish you all the best of luck with it, really I do.”

Echo reached over the table and shared a hoof bump with the little blind mare. “Always taking it one day at a time.” She then nudged the pegasus hard in the ribs, so that he almost choked on his pastry. “Hey, tell them what you're doing now, Rainy.”

“MmmMMPH!?” Rainstorm choked for a moment and gasped for breath, much to the amusement of the three mares sat at the table. “O-Oh! Yes, well, now that my probation period is over and I'm out of the halfway house and living full time with Echo, I'm training to be a chef at Saffron Masala's restaurant, Spice up your Life.”

The pride on Echo’s face couldn’t have been more pronounced if she tried. “I'm a taste tester!”

Even Wildfire could see the amount of pride that Echo had in her stallion. And rightly so. Everypony deserved a second chance, and it seemed Rainstorm was grasping his with both hooves. “Oh snap, I bet that's the bestest job ever!” she then took a bite out of her donut. “How come you were in a halfway place?”

“Ah, well, you see, after I was released from the asylum, the authorities kept a tight leash on me.”

Wildfire giggled at that. “My marefriends do the same thing!”

“That’s why she has the collar,” Tempest added with a twinkle in her eye, “in case the leash needs to come out.”

Rainstorm nodded, “I did wonder what the fetching accessory was for.”

“It’s a reminder that she is loved,” Tempest added, stroking Wildfire’s straight black mane like an owner would pet a cat.

“So, the next time you're in Canterlot, you must come to Saffron's place,” Rainstorm beamed, “I've been told my spicy chilli ice cream is as inspired as my vegetable curry.”

“We definitely will, Rainstorm, and that's a promise!” Wildfire said firmly, mostly because she was sure the ice cream in particular was something Mapper and Serenity would love to try.

After a few moments, Echo noted they had finished eating and she stood up, closely followed by her stallion doing likewise. “Thank you for being so welcoming to us, Wildfire. We look forward to your visit to the restaurant.” While they shared friendly familiar nuzzles, Tempest held up her second donut in a salute but said nothing.

“Hey, wait, here's my number and email, don't be a stranger, okay?” Wildfire stopped them leaving as she wrote down her details on a scrap of paper and passed it to Echo, who let Rainstorm take it. “I have an online poem blog too, and well, I have to admit, you're kinda okay.”

Rainstorm took the piece of paper like he had been handed the crown jewels of the Crystal Empire. Reverently, he placed it safely in his bag. “Thank you, Wildfire, this means a lot to me, to us.”

“That's Wily,” the blind mare corrected him, “and thank you.”

When Rainstorm blushed, it was so intense it even showed against his dark grey fur. “Wily, then. Are hugs okay?”

“Hugs are definitely always okay!” Following the sound of his voice, Wildfire proceeded to engage him in a signature tacklehug for which she had become known.

Now, Tempest also stood, her aspect open and inviting. “You can't stop at just one, Rain.”

“No ma'am!” Rainstorm moved around the table to hug Tempest while Wildfire treated Echo to a hug that the bat pony wouldn’t forget in a hurry. Thankfully, Tempest’s hug to her was far less spine crushing. Just to make sure the hug fest was complete, Tempest hugged Wildfire and, once that was done, Rainstorm got in a last hug with Wildfire. “Thank you, again, Wily. We’ll see you soon.”

Sitting back down at the table, Tempest returned to polish off her donut and, when Rainstorm and Echo had gone, she said, “I don't think I'd have handled that as well as you did, my love.”

“Well...at first, I was scared.” Wildfire admitted, because she was sure that Tempest had noticed, “Hearing his voice almost sent me back to the science lab, but then I heard it. He sounded different. Like he'd been broken down and rebuilt. Like me. I know how that feels. I can guess what he went through. So, I gave him a chance.”

“But for Airmail and Mapper, that was the path I trotted. I'm glad I didn't have to bust any heads today.”

“Me too,” Wildfire smiled, feeling considerably better now that this particular demon had been faced down and banished. “I imagine he looked like he sounded. But, everypony deserves a second chance. What you do with that second chance is on you.”

Tempest considered that for a second. “While I do disagree, I do understand your principle, Wily.”

That was good enough for Wildfire. Lovingly, she kisses Tempest's lips and then she giggled, “I've had a very good day so far today. I think it's time to go see momma Emerald.”