“It’ll be nice to see Emerald again,” Tempest said when they were in the back of the taxi on the way from Café Diem. Full of coffee and donuts, the violet mare was content indeed. “How many seconds before she puts a hoof on your belly?”

“Hmmm...” Wildfire cocked her head, apparently in thought as the taxi rattled along the cobbled streets. It wasn’t like Manehatten’s smooth roads, or possibly anywhere for that matter. Wildfire doubted that anywhere still had cobbled streets these days like Canterlot had. Like Tempest though, she was looking forward to seeing her stepmother. “I'd say thirty at the most. That is if we manage to get through the door first.”

Tempest giggled and placed her bet. “I'll say before you get through the door.”

“Then I'll stick with my thirty seconds.”

“I'm confident in that. And here we are!” Tempest snickered once the taxi came to a halt outside Emerald’s house. Whoever Luna and Dusk had gotten to do the place up had done good work on the outside. Where last time it had been faded looking and the grass overgrown and wild, now it looked clean, smart and landscaped. “You first, I don't need my belly rubbed.”

“Wuss,” Wildfire commented and, getting out of the taxi, the little yellow mare marched up to the door. She paused there for a moment though before she gave her customary two knocks with her left hoof. She knew full well that after the belly rubs there would be questions about the casts on her wings. No sooner had she knocked though than the door opened up a tiny crack.

As soon as Emerald saw whom it was at her front door, the orange pegasus threw it open all the way with a look of utter joy on her face. “Wily!” she cried happily, looking back over her shoulder into the living room, “She's here!” she didn’t give her stepdaughter a chance to get over the threshold before she pulled her into a hug and ran a forehoof over her belly. “Is she kicking yet?”

“And we have a winner!” Tempest laughed as she saw four other mares, two earth ponies – one pink and one green – a cream pegasus and a cobalt blue unicorn, gather in the hall inside. The pink earth pony had three long scars that ran the length of the right side of her face and down her neck.

Wildfire giggled like an overgrown filly as she rested her hoof on her stepmother’s orange one. “Not yet mom, she's only been there a couple of weeks.”

Emerald was unabashed, not pausing for a second. “Okay, I'll wait till you leave to check again. Come on in and meet the others. You too Tempest, no need to be shy.”

“Life is so hard, living in Wildfire's shadow.” Tempest laughed, adding a roll of her eyes that she wanted Wildfire to be able to hear.

“Oh yuppers, because a four foot tall mare casts a biiiiig shadow…” Wildfire could hear the eye roll in her herd-mate’s voice and she giggled. She did notice, and wonder, at how different her stepmother's voice sounded since the last time she had spoken to her just a few days ago on the phone. She sounded so confident and full, not stuttering once. It suited her.

As they entered the house, Emerald made the introductions to the other four mares that were currently living in the halfway house. The pink earth pony with the long scars on her face was called Wrangler. She had been there the longest of the four mares. The green earth pony and the cream pegasus were Butternut and Pistachio respectively. They had arrived on the same day and been there the least amount of time. In the middle was Whisper, the cobalt blue unicorn who was extremely shy and hardly said a word to anypony.

“Sit and chat with your daughter, Em,” Butternut said once the introductions had been completed, “I got the food covered.”

“And I have the refreshments in hoof!” Pistachio declared with a smile before she and Butternut both left the living room for the kitchen.

Whisper, who seemed to aptly live up to her name, was very shy in the extreme and hardly said a word. As Wildfire felt for the long couch she knew was in the living room, Whisper looked at Wildfire and her casts, seemingly working up the nerve to say hello. Her mouth opened and closed three times, but no sound came out.

By contrast, Wrangler was a stand-off-ish, gruff old mare. She said hello, but unlike Butternut and Pistachio, there was no hoof bumps. She did smile though, for when Emerald sat next to Wildfire, the blind mare dragged her into a very tight hug. Tempest was content to take a spot on the second couch next to the shy mare.

“Here we go!” Pistachio beamed as she placed a wide silver tray on the coffee table between the couches. “Complete with three sugars, Wildfire.” She put the coffee in front of Wildfire and then another before Tempest. “Straight. All the other coffees have cream and an ice tea for Whisper. We do have other drinks available if you like?”

Tempest however shook her head and raised her hoof. “Coffee is always welcomed, Pistachio, unless it’s decaf.” Like she had been gravely insulted, the cream pegasus tutted and shook her head.

“That's awesomes, thank you!” Wildfire, on the main couch next to Emerald, let out a delighted little squee. “I'm so coming to this café again!” Sat on the couch to the left of Emerald and Wildfire, Whisper looked like she was about to faint when Tempest sat next to her but she just kept it together. It helped Wrangler was on Tempest’s other side. On the third couch to the right, Butternut sat with Pistachio.

“How many residents have moved on from your house, Emerald?” Tempest asked after taking a long, welcome sip of her coffee.

“Oh, um four have, Tempest.” She’d had eight in total come through her doors since she had been set free from Cold Front, including the four that currently shared her home.

“Well, two were only here for a week.” Butternut put in as she too helped herself to her coffee.

Wildfire couldn’t help but smile next to her stepmother. “You sound good, mom, really good.”

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Emerald looked really sad. Her recently healed wings drooped as did her ears slick back to her head. “I-I'm trying, Wily.” She said quietly.

Pistachio leant across from her perch on the other couch and patted Emerald on the shoulder. “It wasn't your fault, Em, not at all.” Sat between Wrangler and Whisper, Tempest’s Mother Hen senses sensed something was amiss, but she worked hard to keep quiet.

Listening, Wildfire had her ears all over the place, her strongest sense as sharp as a tack. She picked up immediately on the falter in Emerald’s voice. “Is something wrong?” she asked, hoping it was nothing she had done. “Mom, I didn't mean to upset you.”

“Sometimes the pain is more than life can endure.” Every eye in the living room was all of a sudden focussed on Wrangler. If the gruff mare was bothered, she showed no sign of it. “Pistachio is right though,” she carried on in her no nonsense style, “it wasn't your fault Emerald. After all, I'm still here and that’s the path I wanted when I came.”

“Responsibility of a life is to the owner,” Tempest opined after she had considered it for a moment. It appeared that one of the mares had taken her own life. Now she understood. “Others can only help share a burden if they are willing to share it in the first place.”

Emerald shook her head, her green mane flowing over her shoulders. “I could have done more…” she didn’t get to complete her sentence as she was drowned out by a chorus of general disagreement from the other mares to her statement.

“Oh...” Realising what was being spoken about, Wildfire’s ears dipped back, but they were back up swiftly. “I get it. I understand, mom, I really do. But, like they all said, it’s not your fault.” She hugged her stepmother as tightly as she could, “You do awesomes amazing things here!”

Whisper, her voice almost non-existent, spoke up, though it was debatable whether just Tempest and Wrangler heard her. Her soft voice didn’t carry very far. “You’re right, Tempest.” As she spoke, her eyes never left Wildfire. It was as though she was scrutinising the diminutive mare. After a few moments, her eye went wide with recognition. “I know you…”

“I try, Wily,” Emerald smiled softly, very, very grateful that Wildfire was holding her at that moment.

“She does more than try,” Wrangler stated determinedly. “She kicks tail when it’s needed!” Pistachio giggled, almost snorting her coffee. It was a terrible, tragic shame what had happened to Cinnamon Surprise, but at least the overdose she had taken had been painless. Not everypony could escape their past.

“That's the mom I'm proud of!” Wildfire cheered, making four of the other mares giggle at her very heroic pose she made on the couch. Only Whisper didn’t giggle. She was still staring at the blind mare like she had seen a ghost.

Butternut spoke up next. “You have every right to be proud of her, Wildfire. We are all proud of her. So, when are you due?”

Wildfire sat back down on the couch and resumed her position at her stepmother’s side, nestled under Emerald’s wing. “In ten months’ time, ish, Butternut.”

All the mares, except Whisper, burst out into fits of giggles. “So,” Butternut laughed brightly, “I'd still feel the stallion's warmth if I touched your flank?”

“You're welcome to feel, Butternut, to make sure!” Wildfire shot back, joining in with the good natured laughter all around her. Even Whisper laughed, though her laugh was the quietest of all. Her laugh didn’t reach her eyes, and it did nothing to shake the haunted look she wore.

“Fear not, Wildfire!” Butternut declared on behalf of the assembled mares, “we will. Emerald wanted to give you a tiny bit of breathing room first, that’s all.”

“Hush you,” Emerald blushed, her orange cheeks turning a definite red. She didn’t, however, correct what Butternut had said.

“That's okay,” Wildfire sighed dramatically, even going so far as to raise her hoof to her forehead, “I resigned myself to being felt up. I believe I can take it.”

“True,” Tempest laughed, “her fiancé is always feeling her up for milk now.” Even the gruff stand-off-ish Wrangler couldn't help but laugh about that

Whisper let out an eeep, a noise that was even loud enough for the others to hear. When the sets of eyes turned her way, she blushed and tried to hide near Tempest's wing. Once she realised what she was doing, the cobalt blue unicorn blushed harder and stopped. Fortunately, Tempest unfolded her wing a bit, making it easier to hide behind. “Thank you...” she promptly hid under the violet wing.

“I understand, one can only look upon Wily's beauty for so long. I use shades!” Tempest then pulled a pair of shades from her saddle bag and Wrangler snorted a laugh through her nose.

“It's...it's not that, ma'am…” Whisper whimpered, her voice soft as ever.

Slightly confused, Tempest put the shades away. “Really, now?” she asked with a raised eyebrow at the extremely shy mare. She had known shy ponies before, but this was on a whole other level.

“I need the bathroom!” Whisper, unable to stand being in Wildfire’s presence any longer, got up, her hooves sinking a little into the thick carpet of the living room. She shot Tempest a pleading look that essentially screamed ‘come with me’.

Oblivious to Whisper’s plight, Wildfire happily sipped her coffee and she nuzzled her mother’s cheek and neck. She was soaking up Emerald’s scent and body warmth, committing as much of the meeting to memory as she could. “So...what else have you been up to, mom?”

“Good idea,” Tempest saw the look on Whisper’s face and she took the hint. “I forgot where it was. I’ll be back in a bit, Wily.” Curiously, the violet weather mare followed Whisper through the ground floor of the house to the bathroom. She of course knew full well where the bathroom was, but it was evident that something was up with the quiet unicorn and she had plainly asked for help. “Okay,” she said once the bathroom door closed, “I'm here. What’s up?”

The moment the door closed with an audible click, Whisper began dancing on her hooves in a state of nervousness so bad it looked as if she was about to have a heart attack. “I didn't know her name!” she squeaked softly, her eyes wide and watery, “I'm so sorry!”

“Who's name?” asked Tempest, an unpleasantly familiar ball forming in her gut.

“Thirteen!” Whisper fretted, keeping up her dance of anxiety, “I mean, Wildfire, I only knew her as thirteen!”

Immediately, the ball that had formed in Tempest’s gut transformed into a fire of rage that coursed through her veins and propelled her forwards. Rearing up on her hind legs, the violet pegasus got up in Whisper’s face with her forelegs either side of her head, pushing the unicorn back into the wall. “What were you in there?” she snarled, her muzzle pulled back and her teeth bared.

“Tw-Twe-Twenty five!” Whisper squawked in abject terror, her eyes wide, pupils very tiny, legs shaking so badly that she was having trouble standing up.

Slowly, warily, Tempest backed off, though not by much. “Did you know Autumn Leaves?”

Whisper nodded her head and, reaching up with a hoof, she parted the fur on her throat, revealing several rather ugly scars that ran from the top of her neck down to her chest. “She did this to me, she ruined my voice.”

Sighing deeply, Tempest backed away so that there was a clear foot of space between them. She wasn’t sure if she trusted her, but the scars were hard to argue with. “Okay, what was thirteen to you?”

“I want you to know, I had no choice...” Whisper looked down at the tiled floor like she was about to burst into tears at any second. “It was my task, in the home, to take thirteen to and from her punishments.”

Almost as if she was scared that Wildfire would overhear her, Tempest whispered very low, “The box?”

Whisper nodded, deep shame plastered all over her face. “She,” she wanted to say Amethyst Glory, but she couldn’t find the strength to utter those two words, “would unlock it, only she had the key, and I would take thir...Wildfire, back to her cell or to the doctor, whichever I was ordered.” Just talking about the box conjured up its image in Whisper’s mind. The simple three foot by three foot cube. So simple a thing, and yet it was the source of such fear and pain.

“Just so you know,” Tempest laid what she hoped was a comforting hoof on Whisper’s quivering shoulder, “Wily's fiancé tore Autumn Leave's head off, so she won't be bothering any pony again.” Yes, it was an embellishment, but it wasn’t that far from the truth.

“Good!” Whisper exclaimed vehemently, though her voice remained no louder than, well, a whisper. “I used to be a singer, in Canterlot, before I was taken. My name was Serenade. One time, to try and ease her suffering, I went to the box and sang to her. Warden Glory didn’t like that. She ordered Warden Leaves to take my voice away.”

“Fine,” Tempest stated softly after counting backwards from ten to one three times and performing her breathing exercises. “I believe you, for what it’s worth. You going to use the bathroom?”

Seeing as how she genuinely did need the toilet, Whisper nodded. Still, she wasn’t put at ease. “But...what do I do, Tempest? If she finds out, that it was me, what I did, she'll hate me!” The cobalt unicorn didn’t have to try very hard to conjure up the memories of thirteen screaming, begging her, pleading with her not to take her to the box, and then the wretch of a pony that she had to remove from the box afterwards.

Tempest used eye roll number two to very great effect. “I’m sure she will, just as much as she hated you when you sang to her. For now, she doesn't know you. She’s enjoying her time with her step-mom. Do what your conscience will stand.” She smiled warmly, “If she comes out swinging, I'm faster than her.”

Genuinely, Whisper smiled. “Thank you for the advice, Tempest, I think I'll use the bathroom now.”

Offering her a nuzzle, which the unicorn accepted, Tempest nodded and returned to the living room. Just as she entered, she saw the other's stand up. “You’re just in time!” Pistachio beamed, “Dinner’s ready.” With Emerald leading the way, the five mares filed into the dining room, where they were confronted by a fully set dining table that could seat twelve.

Wildfire, her ears alert as ever, noted they had moved from the carpeted floor to the tiles that made up the new décor of the dining room. “Honey, you okay?” she asked curiously, “You were gone a while.”

Tempest grinned, once more reminded that even though she was blind, there was very little that got past the little yellow mare. “I'm sorry, but peeing on you at your mom's place didn't seem like the best idea.” There were lots of giggles and laughs at that.

Laughing the loudest of all, Wildfire seated herself at the dining table next to her step-mother. “True, time and a place, I suppose,” she was still giggling, “mom's a good listener, by the way. While you were taking care of yourself I told her all about our day.” She had also told them all about why her wings were in casts, which had earned her a round of sympathetic hugs.

“So, Emerald,” Tempest began as she took her own seating pad, unable to resist a well meaning tease, “just how descriptive was she on eating the caramel donut?”

Wrangler snickered, “She was very descriptive. Em's only just got her wings back down.”

Once they were all seated and the food served up, courtesy of Butternut and Pistachio, the cream pegasus asked, “Where’s Whisper?”

Tempest had a very good idea where she was and what she was doing. Still, it wasn’t for her to say. “I got dibs on the bathroom being the older mare.”

Accustomed by now to Tempest’s voice and her inflections, Wildfire picked up on the fact that she had just lied, but she chose to say nothing. She figured her herd-mate had a good reason for doing so. A few moments later, Whisper returned looking all refreshed as if nothing had happened in the bathroom.

“I’m sorry I was so long,” Whisper replied. Though her voice was as soft as ever, her hooves were not. Her steps sounded clearly thanks to the floor tiles.

The second she heard the clopping of hooves, Wildfire’s sharp ears flicked straight to Whisper, her head cocked to one side. “Excuse me, Whisper?”

“Yes?”

“Could you just...walk out and in again, please?” asked Wildfire and, as she did so, Tempest just smiled and waited for what she knew was coming. Her herd-mate was a smart mare, after all. Listening attentively to the hoof steps, the cadence of the gait, Wildfire smiled broadly, her wings fluttering in her casts. Now, she was sure. “You sang to me. I remember you!”

Whisper, her eyes wide, wanted to run and hide. She made a valiant effort to, as well. Unfortunately, Tempest was faster than she was. Running interception, the violet mare caught her as she made to flee the dining room. “Who do you remember, Wily?”

Sat at the table, Wildfire could feel the other four mare’s eyes zeroing in on her. She was used to that. “I remember a mare telling me I had to be stronger than them. I remember a mare singing songs from the Phantom of the Opera to me. I remember a hoof on my shoulder and a mare saying she'd bathe me. That’s what I remember, Honey.”

By the time Wildfire had finished, Whisper was in floods of tears, crying into Tempest’s chest fur. “She didn't say twenty five, did she?” asked the violet mare softly, rather proud of how much better she was getting at this comforting stuff. She was just making sure that Whisper didn’t get away from the hug she knew was coming.

Looking in equal parts worried and confused, Emerald turned to Tempest, seeing as how Wildfire was now busy hugging Whisper as hard as she possibly could. “Um...what's going on, please Tempest?”

“Do you know where Whisper was before she came to you for healing?” Tempest began her explanation with a question of her own, though she hoped it wouldn’t take long, the dinner looked excellent and the more she looked at the steaming food, the hungrier she became.

Emerald shook her head helplessly. “All she said was a care home, and that was one of the few times that she'd say anything…”

Tempest nodded. That explained it all to her. “It was the same care home that Wily was in. Even in the darkest of clouds there can be a glimmer of light.” She didn’t know where she pulled that line from, but she was proud of it. She made a note to sell it to Requiem.

“Really?” Realisation dawned on Emerald and she suddenly knew why Wildfire and Whisper were hugging each other and crying into each other’s shoulders.

After a short few minutes, Tempest rolled her eyes and nudged both Wildfire and Whisper. She was all for tearful reunions, but she was hungry. “Girls, Butternut put a lot into this splendid meal, we should enjoy it and not let it go cold.”

“You're right, Honey,” Wildfire heard Tempest return to her seating pad and the little mare playfully nudged Whisper. “Come on, it does smell nice.” With a gentle bit of persuasion from Tempest, the two mares now sat side by side at the large table. As she ate, Wildfire said, “I always wondered what your name was. Whisper suits you.”

Whisper blushed, “Whisper isn't my given name, Wildfire.” As she began to speak, the other mares at the table listened attentively. The benefits of hardly speaking, she supposed. “My name was Serenade, back then. I suppose I was a moderately well-known singer in Canterlot.” She went on to tell them all how she fell on hard times, turned up to a recording drunk a few times, was cut from her label, and ended up on the streets. That's where Amethyst Glory found her and snatched her up.

“Is anypony else from the home?” asked Tempest as she took a rare break from the important business of eating.

Wrangler, the earth pony with the nasty looking scars, shook her head along with the others. “I'm from a marriage where the stallion I was with thought I was a punching bag. The last thing he did was leave me with these fetching scars.”

“This is a place to restart a life of living.” Emerald said with determination in her voice. Tales such as these had no place at the dinner table. And she was proper about that. “What’s next on your list of activities?” she asked, rather skilfully changing the subject.

“Well, I figured we'd crash here tonight, momma,” Wildfire replied after she had eaten some more of her dinner. “We’ll behave, sort of, in one of your rooms, and just feel what tomorrow brings.” She had in mind to visit Winter and her family now they were in Canterlot with some time to spare. Then, a thought occurred to her. A wonderful, meddling little thought. “Actually, Whisper, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Would you like to sing again?”

Whatever Whisper had been expecting, that had clearly not been it. “Well um, you see, the docs said it'd be too hard an operation...too delicate, too risky, to repair vocal chords.”

“But suppose it could be done,” Wildfire was not deterred, “would you like to be Serenade again?”

Whisper nodded, though she wasn’t really buying into it. “Of course I would, Wildfire.”

Tempest, who was not only keeping up but was several steps ahead of where she thought Wildfire was going with this, couldn’t help but grin. “I'm guessing she’s on your speed dial now?”

“Yuppers, I'll go and give Dusky a quick call!” Wildfire grinned with glee. “Mom, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make a quick call. I'll be right back!” She didn’t wait to be excused, and nopony stopped her, because dinner was almost done in any event.

In complete wonderment, Whisper watched Wildfire skip happily from the dining room. “Um...pardon me, but is she always like that?”

“I like her.” Wrangler surprised them all again, “she's like the hyper little sister I never had.”

Tempest beamed, like the overprotective Mother Hen she was. “Not always, no, but she's getting better at being like that.” Then, she giggled and shook her head when she realised whom Wildfire was going to ring. “Of course, she’ll call Dusky...that’ll work too, I suppose.”

At last, Emerald caught up with Tempest, though the other three mares looked mystified. “Were you thinking...” the orange pegasus’s eyes went wide with shock. So much so that she started stuttering again. A habit she was getting out of. “N-Not L-Lu-Lu…th-the one that came with Airmail? Oh my…”

“I was,” Tempest conceded, “but this will most likely make for a less dramatic outcome.” While Whisper looked confused, out in the living room, Wildfire had her phone out and she was calling her best friend. Tempest lightly placed a hoof on Whisper's shoulder. “There’s nothing to worry about, but Wily is a fountain of hope, so, just go with it.”

“Wily,” Dusk answered his phone on the third ring, “Are you coming over to my place?”

“Um...I wasn't planning on it, but...” though she was thrown off momentarily, she thought quickly on her hooves, as it were, “hey, where are you by the way, at your new place or your old place?”

“In Ponyville, of course, where else would I be?”

“I wasn't sure if Ivory Wind was bugging his nanas or not. Anyway, I have a favour to ask you, bestest friend ever!”

Dusk Melody rolled his eyes, so that the blind mare could hear him over the phone. “Okay, I'm sure I still owe you for what has happened.” If he was honest, he was scared talking to Wildfire after she was attacked in Manehatten like she was. He had been too scared to call her and now he realised what an idiot he had been.

Wildfire, who was not thinking about Autumn, or her attack, or anything to do with Helping Hooves, giggled brightly. “You always say that, D. No matter how much I say you don't. One day I'll owe you.” Before he could interrupt her though, she continued. “Aaaaanyway. I'm at my momma Em's place. There's a mare here who was at Helping Hooves with me. She...She helped me, D, at the home. She sang to me. She helped keep me 'me'. Amethyst damaged her voice box. Any chance you could get your mom to drop by and help out?”

When Dusk laughed, it was a laugh of relief. It was just like Wildfire to not hold a grudge. In fact, he was sure she had already forgiven him days ago for his error. Forgiving himself though, that was a whole other thing. “Sure, I'll ask if she can drop by Emerald's place. Who is this pony she’s looking for?”

“She's going by Whisper right now, but she used to be called Serenade. Do you remember her? she says she was a singer a few years ago, when I was out of the loop of things.”

Alas, Serenade was more of a 'club' performer, so Dusk naturally had no idea who the unicorn was. “Serenade? Do you mean Songbird Serenade?”

This time Wildfire rolled her eyes. Or she tried to, anyway. As dense as she was, even she knew who Songbird Serenade was. She also knew she was a pegasus, and not a unicorn. “No, D, just Serenade.”

“Sorry, Wily, I don't know her. May have to see her first. What’s her cutie mark?”

“Give me a sec, I'll just go and look…” Wildfire giggled at her own sarcasm, “I'm sure it feels very distinct.”

“You know, you could ask her or ask somepony else, like Emerald?” Dusk sighed, “Never mind. The name is enough. I'll call you back when mom tells me. So, you coming over today or not?”

“Um...Yuppers, we should be able to. What time is it? It’s been a bit of a hectic day. You would not believe it!”

This time when Dusk rolled his eyes, he made sure his best friend felt every single bit of the sigh he let out. “Um, Wily? I have a colt now. I think I have a small understanding of 'hectic'. And by the way, it’s about five ish in the afternoon.”

“Eh, fair point, you win.” Wildfire knew she couldn’t beat the colt card. She accepted the fact she had been top trumped with characteristic good grace. And a raspberry. “We'll tell you all about it when we get to yours.” When Dusk hung up the call, Wildfire skipped back into the dining room looking immensely pleased with herself. “Mom, is it okay if Tempest and I go and play at Dusky's house please?”

“I'm sure she just wants to play with a pony her own age.” Tempest snarked, “Ivory that is.”

Wildfire opened her mouth ready to rebut that but she knew she really couldn't. “Busted! Oh well. We'll be back for supper though mom, and I promise we won't talk to any strange ponies while we're out.”

“Unknown strange ponies. You can talk with Wily at any time.”

Tempest’s joke was met with gales of laughter, Emerald the loudest among them. “You two go and have fun!”

Walking over, Wildfire made sure to hug her step-mother really tight and she whispered, “I think you'll get a visitor before long, mom.”

Held tight in her daughter’s crushing hug, Emerald blinked. “Um, do you know who?” Even as she asked, she had a pretty good idea just whom might be calling at her house while Wildfire was out.

“Luna,” Wildfire whispered and affectionately nuzzled the older mare’s cheek. “You'll be okay as long as you have black forest gateau or fudge cake, she won’t eat you.”

Emerald knew Wildfire was joking, but she couldn’t quite shake the deer in the headlights look. “I have that. Those. I have them…”

“Mom, just be you, and you’ll be fine.” Wildfire again nuzzled her mother. “She's just a pony.” Then, a little louder, she said, “Anyway! Time for me to ride a Storm to Ponyville. That is, if you don't mind, Honey, I quite like the Tempest Express, with first class seating.”

Rolling her eyes, Tempest fetched Wildfire a playful swipe across her snout with her violet wingtip and, with a cheery wave to Emerald, Butternut, Pistachio and Wrangler, she led the way out and crouched on the garden path. “Climb on then.”

Wildfire quickly hopped up on Tempest’s back and she held on tight. “Hi Ho Tempest, away!” Snorting through her nose, Tempest performed a rapid vertical take-off and then, when she judged she had enough height, coasted all the way down to Ponyville.

~ ~ ~

It was eight thirty in the evening when the Friendship Express got Wildfire and Tempest back to Canterlot. The two mares were deeply curious as to whether Luna had been able to heal Whisper while they had been out. Their unspoken question was answered though as, when they walked up to the house, they heard the sound of singing coming from inside.

The two herd-mates shared a victorious hoof bump outside before they knocked on the door. They hadn’t set one hoof inside before they were pulled into a tearful hug fest led by Whisper, or Serenade as she now was. The tears and the hugs and singing lasted all the way through dinner. The cobalt blue unicorn was torn between hugging, singing and eating.

It was all thoroughly adorable.

“It’s getting late,” Emerald declared once dinner had been eaten and Pistachio and Butternut had cleared away the dishes. Wrangler was content to sit next Wildfire, or as she called her, the hyper little sister she never had, “and while I'm safe in the basement, I do hope my daughter doesn't keep the rest of you up all night.”

“As long as it’s happy noises,” Wrangler smiled – something she had done rather a lot of since meeting Wildfire and Tempest – and gave the yellow pegasus a nuzzle, “I’m sure I'll survive.”

Wildfire blushed rather adorably at that. “Hey, Serenade,” she grinned, “you got my back if I get too loud, right?”

Serenade, for she was happy to be called so now she had her voice back, nodded eagerly. “I saw a play in Canterlot, and I remember the songs. Best Little Whore...”

Spluttering, Tempest interrupted Serenade with a laugh. She couldn’t help but picture Octavia in the red outfit that Thespian had lent her, complete with the split crotch panties and the little hat. “Yes, those songs are a herd favourite, right Wily?”

“Definitely!” Wildfire nodded so hard she almost hurt her neck. “I think those will more than suffice, thank you!”

There was a round of good night hugs from everypony in the house. Serenade and Wrangler took three extra hugs before Tempest and Wildfire were allowed upstairs to room three which, as it happened, was Silverbolt’s old room before the house had been renovated. “So, my little Wallflower,” Tempest purred, “what shall we do to keep the guests entertained?”

Wildfire giggled brightly, “I thought you called me Wildflower then.”

“I did, as a pet name, not naming a pet.” Tempest replied, “You call me Honey, and it just reminds me how sweet I am.”

“You are pretty sweet, my love.” Wildfire giggled, her head to one side like she did when she was thinking. “As it happens, I do have an idea what we can do.”

“Oh goodie!” Tempest hopped up onto the bed at the same time Wildfire did. She didn’t know what she had in mind, but she knew it would be fun. “I want to feel up your idea.”

“Well, it's like a meal. A sixty nine for starters. You mount me for the main course, and for dessert I worship your hoof and you put it to good use seeing if you can fit it in me!”

“Oh, wow, yeah, that all sounds good.” Tempest mulled it over and liked what she was thinking. Moreover, she liked how her lover was thinking. With just a teeny tweak, that could definitely be a fun night. “Just let me duck out to the bathroom and give my hooves a good scrub.” At the door to the en suite, she paused. “Since I'm mounting you, you could give your hooves a good scrub and put that hoof to good use.”

“Good idea Honey!” Wildfire leapt off the bed and landed on her hooves. She had bought the stallionator along with her for just such an occasion. She didn't think to use it on the train because her brain was scrambled by the news article back on Manehatten station.

“We can scrub each other's hooves to be sure it’s something you want deep inside of yourself.”

“Now that sounds like a plan!” Wildfire declared, very glad that Tempest was giving her the chance to feel the shape and size of her hoof. Then again, she shouldn’t be surprised, given her lover was such a Mother Hen. “I'll clean yours so well that Airy would be proud!”

“Okay,” Tempest rolled her eyes playfully and nudged Wildfire’s shoulder, “but do leave some hoof please after you’re done.”

Wildfire giggled as, in the bathroom adjacent to their bedroom, the blind mare got busy gently scrubbing Tempest's hoof. She was pleased to feel that her step-mother had some very good hoof care products in plentiful supply. “At least you don't need as much attention as Tinkerer did.”

That didn’t come as any great surprise to the violet weather mare. She watched curiously as Wildfire chose the large brush to start with. She did the same, though it wouldn’t have been her first choice, she acknowledged the younger mare’s expertise when it came to hooves. “The most dangerous thing my hoof comes in contact with would be my keyboard. There are very few clouds out there with sharp edges.”

Switching to a finer cloth, Wildfire laughed as she began to clean around the inner white wall and the sole of Tempest’s hoof. She had to fight her mounting excitement for, in her mind, she was imagining where that hoof would be very shortly. “So, you want to be hoofed, huh?”

“I'm both excited and scared,” Tempest admitted, she was sure her ambivalence came across in her voice. She was sure though, when it came to hooves and hoofing, Wildfire was the mare to go to. “But, well, if the old featherhead could do it, so can I.”

“I'll let you into a secret,” Wildfire smiled, feeling the cloth now being lovingly caressed firmly but gently around her own hoof, “I was scared too, the first time I was hoofed on that cloud.” She kissed the older mare’s cheek, “But I'll make it awesomes for you, Honey.”

“I, Major Tempest of the First Weather Battalion will make it Awesomer!”

Now that Tempest's hoof was clean, and she was sure it was gleaming, Wildfire couldn’t help but giggle at her herd-mate’s rather heroic declaration. The pose she pulled didn’t help either. “I'll have to get you a mug made for work. Manehatten's Best Hoofer!”

Tempest erupted in giggles, her nerves fading just a little, though they were still there, in the bottom of her gut. “I’m sure they’ll think it’s a dancing reference.”

Wildfire snickered. Knowing Comet like she did, she could believe it. “Are you ready, sexy weather mare?”

Satisfied that she had cleaned Wildfire’s hoof just as thoroughly as her own had been cleaned, Tempest led the way back to the bedroom. She was glad it wasn’t a very long journey, for her legs were starting to wobble when she reached the bed. “I’m ready to make sure you're wet enough to take a hoof, Wily.”

Like an eager little beaver, Wildfire was up on the bed and on her back with her legs apart, the diminutive mare ready and raring to go. Smirking at her eagerness, Tempest moved over her lover so that she was nose to tail above her. “Ready…” she dipped her ass to Wildfire’s snout but quickly raised it up, “Set…” she did it again, “Go!” On the word ‘go’, Tempest flopped down, and she went to town on Wildfire's nethers.

Somewhat frustrated that the first two times she didn’t get the chance to lick at her herd-mate’s crotch, when she descended the third time on ‘go’, Wildfire began lapping away enthusiastically at Tempest's crotch, her hooves keeping her ass down in case she was tempted to lift up again.

Muzzle deep in Wildfire’s wet marehood, Tempest wiggled her ass in order to get her own pussy as far down as she could. Locked together in the sixty nine position, it didn’t take either mare very long to reach their respective climax. Wildfire’s pleasured moan, though it was rather muffled by Tempest's marehood, was still noticeable, her tongue buried deep in and swirling around her muscular tunnel. The violet pony above her went from wiggling to grinding as she felt her body tense up and how moist she had become.

Likewise, Wildfire was now dripping wet herself. She wasn’t satisfied with just getting one orgasm from her lover though. The little yellow pegasus sucked hard on Tempest's engorged clitoris until she felt her tense up even more. Before she reached a second screaming orgasm though, she used her teeth on Wildfire’s nub. That was enough to send the blind pony over her own edge and, screaming out Tempest’s name, she arched her back and came a moment later. “Wow...” just about summed it up.

Once she had basked her after-glow for a couple of moments, Tempest took a bit of her weight off, giving her lover one last lick across her slit that made her squeak adorably. “I think you're wet enough now.”

“Yu-Yuppers...” Wildfire breathed like she had run a marathon, “I think so too…”

“Is it best to go one at a time?” Tempest asked, suddenly finding herself unsure as to how to proceed. She had watched Airmail do this to Wildfire, but actually being the one to do it, that was a whole new hoofball game. “Or do we do it together? The hoof thing, I mean.”

“We could do it in the sixty nine we're in, but I think it'd be more comfortable one at a time.”

“You go first then, so I'll be the expert that I am at everything I do.”

Wildfire giggled, “You modest pony.” When she felt Tempest’s weight move from above her to beside her on the bed, the yellow pony took a moment to search her bag for the lube she had bought with her. As she applied it, generously, she knew that even though there was bravado in Tempest’s voice, she was nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. That was why she was going first.

When she thought she had applied enough lube to her left forehoof, Wildfire squirted on some more, just for good measure. Getting into position between her older lover’s open hind legs, she carefully rubbed the toe of her hoof at the entrance to her marehood. “I think this is the closest I'll come to having a foal.” Tempest’s attempt at humour was more to calm herself than anything else. “um...speaking of which, is it safe for me to do this to you?”

Slowly, Wildfire nudged the toe of her hoof inside, feeling Tempest’s hole stretch around her. “Yuppers Honey, in a few months you could pat Fireflight on the head and tell her she's a good foal.”

Tempest breathed in and out slowly with pauses on every inhalation and she relaxed, all the time thinking 'If Airy did this, then I can do it too…' Though she snickered at what her lover had just said. “That doesn't sound safe at all. I think I’ll stay with patting your belly, so she can learn to kick.”

“That was a joke, oh modest pony,” Wildfire smiled warmly, and she slowly pushed forwards until she felt the bulbs at the back of her hoof touch Tempest’s accommodating snatch. Then, she paused at the point of full entry. “How you doing, you good?”

“I'm...yeah, I’m doing good, the thought of this being like the stallionator has vanished…” Tempest, at first, wasn’t wholly sure how she’d feel about this but, thankfully, Wildfire was taking slow and steady, making sure she was comfortable before carrying on. She appreciated that and now, watching with great interest, she was truly relaxed.

“Alrighty then,” with the go ahead given, Wildfire gently nudged her whole hoof inside, and she let it sit there for a moment. “Tell me if that changes.”

Tempest nodded her head. “I don't think I'll be able to see if it changes colours.” Wildfire just smiled and inched her hoof forwards, the foreleg going inside now as well. When she heard Tempest’s measured breathing return, she used her other hoof to rub circles around her clit. For distraction purposes. “Mmmm, yes, this must be what a donut feels like before the raspberry filling…”

Wildfire let out a snort of laughter as she slid her foreleg in deeper still. She then pulled out a little way and then she thrust gently back inside. Eyes wide, Tempest laid back, looking up at the ceiling. “Oh my, that touches all the right spots!”

“The best spot's still to come, Honey,” Wildfire assured her as she sawed her foreleg back and forth, going deeper and deeper with each thrust until she eventually, after a few minutes, she tapped her cervix.

Unprepared for that sensation, Tempest gasped, and she jumped a bit. She’d been tapped before, many times, but not by another pony’s hoof. This was something else! “That’s what lighting feels like!” Wildfire paused for a fraction of a second and then she pulled back with a smile and then she started to rut Tempest nice and firmly.

Tempest’s eyes were half lidded as she moaned in time with each deep thrust of Wildfire’s hoof. Every time she tapped and pulled out, it was followed by a lewd wet schlicking sound as her juices seeped from her tunnel. Her mouth hung open and her tongue lolled out. “You sound like you're having fun there, my love,” Wildfire grinned, all the time the right hoof was circling her clit as her left foreleg bucked her senseless.

Nodding, even though she knew Wildfire couldn’t see, Tempest clenched her abdominal muscles and she squeezed down on the blind mare’s leg as hard as she could. Now, riding along with the plunging leg, she was starting to buck with the thrusts. Wildfire just smiled and moved her hoof faster and faster so that she was tapping her with every in stroke. Tempest was grunting and drooling until she finally shouted out, “Harder, Wily! Harder!”

“Yes ma'am!” Now, sensing that Tempest was close to her climax, Wildfire really went for it, pumping her foreleg in and out like she was rutting her hard.

After just a few taps, Tempest clamped down hard and, without a thought for the other ponies in the house, screamed, “Yes! Yes...Oh Celestia yes!”

“There you go…” Wildfire purred softly, adjusting herself just slightly on the bed and lowering herself down so that she could lap at her hard throbbing clitoris.

“Gah!” Tempest screamed and quivered, her hind legs going into spasm from the riot of pleasure coursing through her body. “Aaaah…Ahhh, y-yeah, that was bucking intense!”

“A good bucking intense, I hope?” Wildfire asked, not quite managing to keep the mirth and amusement from her voice as she very slowly started to pull her foreleg out.

Tempest heard the tone of Wildfire’s voice, but she didn’t care. She had other things to worry about. “Ooooh wow, I bet you could drive the Friendship Express in there now…”

Once her foreleg was all the way out, Wildfire giggled, and she proceeded to lick her leg clean. “Do I look like the Canterlot tunnel?”

“Not yet…”

“Then neither will you, you silly mare,” Wildfire leant over Tempest’s prone body and affectionately, lovingly, she kissed her lips.

“Let me find my brain,” Tempest panted and then giggled, “I think you just pushed it out an ear…or two.” She was sure after that experience she could see sounds.

“It’ll give our listeners a chance to recover as well!”

“Do you think they do score cards like back with the herd?”

Wildfire cocked her head to one side like she did when she was thinking. “Maybe,” then, she realised she was thinking about it way too much and too hard. “Although, I think I'll be happy with whoops and cheers.”

After laying perfectly still and quiet for several long minutes, Tempest eventually said, “I think I'm recovered enough to give them a finale they’ll talk about for weeks to come.”

“Then let’s give them something to cheer about, shall we?” Wildfire asked eagerly, the little yellow pegasus rolling over onto her back. It had been at least a week since she had been hoofed and that was a week too long for her tastes.

As soon as Wildfire was in position, Tempest herself rolled over and moved down her body. Since she was so small it wasn’t a very long journey. When she was situated at Wildfire’s hind legs, the weather mare used the same lube that had been used on her. She didn’t stop applying the lube until she couldn’t see the violet colour of her fur. “If I do this even a little wrong you will stop me and tell me.”

“Of course, I will, Honey. I promise.” As soon as those words left Wildfire’s mouth, Tempest started. The older mare began like Wildfire had, pressing the toe of her hoof into her lover’s marehood. She moved with characteristic confidence and no hesitation. Happy to be on the receiving end, Wildfire smiled and relaxed herself. “That's one thing I love about you. Your confidence is very arousing, Honey.”

“You are very arousing,” Tempest corrected her, and, in one fluid motion, she slipped her hoof in all the way past the bulbs. “And you’re tight. Maybe this will help out Fireflight when she exits.” She wasn’t going as slow as Wildfire had with her, because she knew the little pegasus could take it.

“Ooooooh that feels so good Honey!” Wildfire could feel herself stretch to accommodate her lover’s questing hoof, helped along by how very wet she was. “I'm sure Flight will be grateful of the assist…”

Smirking, Tempest worked her way in past her forelock, proud of her accomplishment. “I'm always the helpful mare.”

“Buuuuck! Yuppers you are!” Wildfire screamed in pleasure and arched her back, panting like she was in heat as Tempest’s hoof entered her stretching tunnel. She felt every push and pull, the hoof entering her deeper and deeper each time. “Ha-Ha-Harder, please!”

Tempest however was slow and steady. Until she felt Wildfire’s cervical wall with her hoof. Happy she had gone as far in as she could, she pulled out and then, with the next push, she tapped it good and hard. “AAaaAAAAH right there! Buck me!” Wildfire screamed, and Tempest had a grin ear to ear plastered all over her face as she worked her hoof in and out.

With every second in stroke, she tapped Wildfire’s cervix and revelled in the mewling screams of pleasure she was getting as a result. “Hoooooney I bucking love you!” Wildfire cried, thrusting her hips upwards to meet Tempest’s hoof.

“I'm loving giving as much as receiving.”

“M-Me t-too!” Wildfire whimpered and moaned with every thrust that Tempest made. No matter how many times she experienced this, it felt like the first time every time. “I'm close! Ooooh I'm so close!”

“Not close enough,” Tempest said, the violet pony rapidly picked up speed, but she reduced the frequency of her tapping to just one in three thrusts. Happy that was driving her writhing lover crazy, she then lowered her mouth, so she could gently nibble on Wildfire's exposed, hard clit.

That did it.

“Oh buck...oh buck Honey!” Wildfire’s hind legs started quivering uncontrollably and then, going in deep, Tempest stopped thrusting and she just tapped away. “BUUuuuUUUUCK! Bucking buck buuuuuck!” she screamed and squirted like a gushing fountain all over Tempest's foreleg.

“Still the sweet mare, you are.” Tempest lapped up Wildfire’s ejaculate as her lover mumbled and rode out her climax. Tempest then very slowly withdrew her hoof, so she could lick it clean.

“Now that...was awesomes!” Wildfire gushed when she could speak in a coherent sentence.

“I will say I'm surprised just how ‘awesomes’ it was,” Tempest couldn’t resist a smirk, for she was thinking ahead. “I think this will be a lot of fun with Airy here to enjoy it too.”

Wildfire, still somewhat lost on her post-orgasmic high, giggled and sounded very silly indeed. “We could make a hoofing circle!”

“We will make it fun!” Tempest smiled and, once her leg was licked clean, moved up to get in some snuggles. “We can see what the rest thought at breakfast.”

“Our revels now are ended...” Wildfire murmured happily, and she smiled contentedly as she snuggled deep into Tempest's side. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep…”

It only took Tempest a moment or two to recognise the passages that Wildfire was quoting. The book named after herself, as she liked to think of it. “You know, I do love that book. But I think it needs a companion on the shelf. Any suggestions?”

“Yuppers. Would you consider me a changeling if I suggested an author other than Shakespony?”

Tempest giggled brightly, “I would consider you well read, maybe you could recommend a book of poetry?” As it happened, Tempest had a sneaky wonderful plan in motion, one she had managed to arrange on the quiet with a local bookstore.

“I was going to suggest Gaston Letrot's Phantom of the Opera, or perhaps Moby Dick, but I do know an awesomes poetry writer laying not far from you.”

“Oh, cool, I liked it when Serenity was in Phantom, I wasn’t here when Thespy did it.” She had liked that play, as she recalled. Shuffling in a little closer, she elected to make herself the big spoon and she kissed the back of Wildfire’s head. “If the poet's ego gets any bigger, I may have to sleep on the floor.”

“We did it in Uni once. I was going to be Christine, but I was ill that week with feather flu.”

“After breakfast we can go, I think the stores here open around eleven on Sundays.” That wasn’t a guess in the slightest, especially as Princess Twilight had confirmed with her over text message exactly when the bookstore would be open.

Unable to turn to kiss more of her herd-mate, Wildfire contented herself with kissing Tempest’s forelegs. “Sounds like a plan, Honey.” She then laid still for a moment and added, with a yawn, “Took me ages to talk to Dusk again, stealing my role like that…” It wasn’t long after that, with both mares yawning, that sleep overtook them.

Elsewhere in the house, Emerald, Butternut, Pistachio, Serenade and Wrangler all agreed that a score of fifty out of fifty was more than fair.

~ ~ ~

As Sunday’s are often wont to do, it followed Saturday. This particular Sunday morning found Wildfire wide awake in her step-mother’s house and, as usual, it found Tempest dead to the world. That was not unexpected, seeing as how it was still the morning, 9:30, according to her phone which she had left on the night stand. She knew it would be some time before her herd-mate would be able to be a functioning pony so, with some care, she disentangled herself from Tempest’s legs and got out of bed.

The carpet was thick and soft under her hooves, so much so that every step felt like a gentle embrace as she headed on downstairs. “Good morning Wildfire,” Butternut greeted her from the kitchen, “Do you want waffles or pancakes?”

“Oh hey there, Butternut, a good morning to you!” Wildfire, now at the kitchen door, could smell the freshly made coffee, which she couldn't till she was down the steps. She inhaled deeply and smiled a very giddy happy smile indeed. “Pancakes would be awesomes, thank you,” Entering the kitchen, she took another sniff, “where's the coffee at?”

Obligingly, Butternut gave Wildfire the lay of the land. “Counter left of the fridge, to your right is a counter, fridge, and coffee. Cups and mugs are in the cabinet above.”

Attentively, Wildfire listened and took it all in, acutely aware that this wasn’t ‘her’ house anymore. The décor and layout had changed, naturally. Still, she wanted to be helpful. “Do you have a drink already, Butternut?”

“I do dear, on the table, four feet in front of you just to your left,” the green earth pony mare replied with a smile as she cooked Wildfire’s pancakes. She’d already made a stack, adding a few more wouldn’t be any kind of chore. “Can't let the others have coffee without testing it first.”

As she very carefully made her way around the kitchen, Wildfire grinned. Following Butternut’s instructions, she found the coffee machine and, extremely carefully indeed, she made herself a coffee. She took her time and made sure she didn’t burn herself. “That is a very responsible attitude to have, ma'am!”

“There’s cream and sugar on the table if you need it.” Butternut called over her shoulder. She didn’t look what Wildfire was doing, she trusted her to make her own way and, if she couldn’t, to ask for help.

“Thank you!” Beaming, Wildfire sat at the table and felt out the sugar, adding three and ignoring the cream. She really appreciated the fact that the earth pony mare in the kitchen wasn’t hovering over her like she was a helpless pony. “So ah, I hope we weren't too loud last night?” she asked tentatively.

Butternut smirked as she set the freshly cooked pancakes on the table along with the stack she had already made. “It was nice. Truth be told, it has been sometime since I last heard loving love.”

Moments later, Pistachio walked in, a wide smile on her face when she saw what was for breakfast. “Good morning, Butters, ooh, pancakes! I’ll get me some of those!” First though, she went for the life giving essence of nectar that was coffee. “Get much sleep, Wildfire?”

Wildfire heard Butternut and Pistachio giggle like schoolfillies but, she did not blush, rather she was quite proud of herself. “Eventually, when I couldn't feel my hind legs anymore.”

Still giggling, Pistachio joined Wildfire at the breakfast table now that she had her coffee in hoof. “I’m not sure how that felt, but that was a sound many of us miss.”

“Good morning, Wily!” Emerald greeted her daughter seconds later when she too entered the kitchen, having come up from the basement, what was affectionately called her ‘lair’ by the other residents. As soon as she was in the kitchen, the orange pegasus went straight in for a hug. “I see you found the coffee okay. Is Tempest coming down?”

“Hey momma!” Wildfire hugged Emerald until she heard the older pegasus gasp for breath and then she let her go. “Honey will be down after eleven,” she whispered, not very quietly, “she's allergic to the mornings.”

Emerald giggled, “We’ve had a couple of those here too.”

“I'm a complete morning mare. Well, I am now, anyway.” She chose not to add ‘since my time at the care home’ to her sentence. There was no need and she didn’t want to be the one to bring the mood down. She instead took a very long drink of her coffee and sighed. Moments later, she heard a plate pushed in front of her.

“Maple syrup is to your front right, and there’s blueberry to your front le...” Butternut started and then corrected herself with an eye roll, “Well, it will be after Pistachio puts it back.”

The moment she heard the blueberry get placed back on the table, Wildfire went for her front left once Pistachio was done with it. “Yummers! I'm coming to this café again!” The only thing better than blueberry on pancakes was chocolate, but that wasn’t an option, so blueberry it was.

Emerald couldn’t help but giggle. Wildfire was such a breath of fresh air with how bubbly and sparky she was after everything she had endured. She was an inspiration to her to keep her chin up. “You're welcome any time and you know it!”

“I'll have to get up earlier then, for the fresh pancakes.” Wrangler yawned and rubbed her eyes as she entered the kitchen and, unlike the others, she went for some juice rather than coffee.

“I know, momma!” Wildfire gave her a blueberry flavoured nuzzle and beamed as she swallowed another mouthful. “These really are good, Butternut!”

“She’s head chef now.”

“I let others cook, when I'm gone,” Butternut nodded her head to Emerald’s comment about her being the head chef. She didn’t mind the designation in the slightest. She was good at it and it was her way of contributing to the house. She joined in with the group laughter and, after she had served Wrangler with her breakfast, at last joined the table herself.

Sat beside Wildfire, Emerald asked, “So, what’re your plans today, Wily?”

“I'm taking Tempest to the bookstore to expand her library, then I think we're going to see an earth pony family I saved from a fire one time.” Wildfire answered her mother, her voice thick with having to quickly gulp down her pancake to avoid talking with her mouth full.

“I have house work today,” Pistachio sighed in a most dramatic manner, “very exciting.”

“I have shopping and I'm not trading.” Butternut declared. As the appointed chef, she was totally on board with deciding what filled Emerald’s cupboards.

“I have an off day,” Wrangler said with a smile after she had made a serious dent in her maple covered pancakes, “And will be reading while listing to music.”

Wildfire giggled, this whole table reminded her very much of the times she would sit and share breakfasts at Café Diem with Air Raid, Darkstar, Brightstar, Cyclone and Dusk. They had been good times. “I find housework and shopping more exciting when Tempest teases me with a crop and errant chocolate chips.” She paused while the others laughed, Tempest having told them the story of the blind maid. “Oooh...Wrangler, what music?”

“The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,” the heavily scarred pink earth pony replied quickly, “and I'm reading Shadow Spade.”

“Octavia does do some good pieces, doesn't she?” Wildfire asked somewhat rhetorically, for everypony knew how good Luna’s wife was. Shadow Spade though, Wildfire was rather less familiar with. Velvet Quill had not allowed anything other than Equestrian Classics in his class. “I carried her cello a couple of weeks ago,” she added, not showing off, but more for something to say.

“Oh, um, well, I really don't know all the players in the Orchestra, but I have heard of Princess Octavia.” Wrangler hadn’t sounded so quietly impressed before. “You...You know her personally?”

Sympathetically, Emerald reached out and patted Wrangler’s foreleg, something that would’ve earned the earth pony’s ire normally, were she not so shocked. “She is a close friend of Prince Dusk,” Emerald explained, “but don't let her name dropping get to you.”

Wildfire blushed, she could feel her cheeks turn red. She hadn’t meant to be all name dropping like that. “Dusk was my bestest friend, and he is again, now we've reconnected. he was the one who took me from the care home to Manehatten.”

“Em has told us that story. Three times.” Butternut added the last little bit and smirked when Emerald rolled her eyes at her.

“I’m glad he did,” Pistachio put in, “especially for Em.”

Setting aside her half eaten breakfast for a moment, Wildfire found and tacklehugged her step-mother once again. She was a firm believer that you could never have too many hugs! “Me too, cos I now got an awesomes momma!”

More laughter from the group of mares met Wildfire’s comment, as well as her sudden hug. Not that she minded. She knew they were laughing with her, not at her. “I find the music makes housework go a lot easier, Pistachio smiled, and not long after that, they all wrapped up their respective breakfasts. “I have the dishes, Butternut.”

As Butternut nodded her thanks and allowed Pistachio to clear away the breakfast things, Wrangler leant in to Wildfire, whom she saw as the ‘hyper little sister she never had’ with a smile in her voice. “Do you want to join me in the living room?”

“Yuppers, I'll join you!” Wildfire agreed eagerly, oblivious, as she stood up, to the stunned looks on the other three mare’s faces. Wrangler, always stand-off-ish and gruff, had never such an offer before. After she had found and thanked Butternut for the very tasty breakfast, the diminutive pegasus walked with Wrangler to the living room. “Which couch?”

“Have you read any Shadow Spade?” Wrangler asked as she directed Wildfire to the main couch that was opposite the large fireplace, the one that had the gramophone next to it.

Butternut, who had come with them, giggled, “I think those books are as old as me.” That earned her a semi-professional eye roll from Wrangler before the pink mare started the music. All of them agreed there was a right way and a wrong way to listen to Octavia play. On a hundred year old gramophone was definitely the right way.

“Actually no, I haven't. I've read Shakespony, Poe, Dickens mostly poems and stuff like that.” Wildfire was genuinely curious, as she hopped up on the couch, to hear what her literacy professor had called ‘bit store trash’ was like.

“I can read it to you.” Wrangler pointedly ignored the look of open mouthed shock on Butternut and Emerald’s faces. Yes, she had never read aloud before and yes, she had never let anypony near her treasured books, but Wildfire was worth the exception. “This is book seven in the series and there are references to earlier books, so you should be able to follow what’s happening.”

“Go for it!” Wildfire giggled and clapped her hooves excitedly.

“Okay, well I'm in chapter four, but that shouldn't matter much.” Without further ado, Wrangler started to read as the music played in the background. After about twenty minutes, Butternut quietly got up to go and get her shopping done. Emerald was happy to remain next to her daughter and enjoy Wrangler’s reading. She was rather good and she hoped she would read to them again. It was nice seeing her open up.

After an hour, Pistachio, who was done with her thorough cleaning of not only the dishes but the whole kitchen, came out and sat with them as well on the second unoccupied couch. She resolved to not vacuum until Wrangler took a break. A hoof to the face often offended, after all.

When two hours had passed, in which Wildfire had not moved a muscle and had paid rapt attention to every word Wrangler read out, Tempest at last came down the stairs. “Cooooffeeeeeee!” she requested simply, making Pistachio, Emerald and Wrangler laugh at the violet mare’s zombie like movements.

“It needs to be made, I can do that.” Wrangler stopped Wildfire with a hoof when the blind mare was about to get up from the couch.

“And I can vacuum!” Pistachio exclaimed with glee.

“Cooooffeeeeeeee nooooow!”

In stark contrast to Tempest’s walking dead tribute act, Whisper came dancing down the stairs, singing with every step she took. “I need coffee for my soul,” she sang and danced around Tempest, the violet mare looking at the unicorn like she was from a different planet. “Only coffee makes me whole!”

“Morning afternoon ponies…” Tempest dragged her carcass to the kitchen where she grabbed the remains of the coffee before it was poured out and, adding nothing, swallowed the thick sludge.

“Good morning, Whisper,” Wildfire greeted the cobalt blue unicorn with a smile from the couch, “or are you sticking with going back to Serenade?”

The unicorn had to think about that one. “I think I'll keep Whisper if I'm to re-start my career. It has been some time so, a new name for a new voice.” She sat at the breakfast table to wait for the freshly made coffee courtesy of Wrangler.

Having drank the dregs from the coffee maker, Tempest too sat expectantly with an empty cup. “Good to have a stage name separate from your true name,” she muttered, trying to sound alive, “I have all the 'you rained on my parade' mail go to Stormy.”

Hopping off the couch, Wildfire trotted through to the kitchen and she busied herself helping Wrangler make the coffee because she knew, instinctively, that Tempest would be sat with empty cup and she giggled brightly, “Like that time we made it rain in Manehatten and we upset Brush Stroke?”

“That was a well thought out and crafty plan done weeks in advance to get Dusky hooked up.” Tempest stated with a smug smile. When the coffee in the machine was ready, Wrangler let Wildfire pour Tempest’s for her and the violet pony inhaled the magic life renewing scent. “Once I have enough coffee to make it out of the house, we need to get some coffee and donuts before the book store.” She had a sneaky plan.

“More coffee?” Wildfire asked with an eyebrow raised, gratefully thanking Wrangler who had made not just her a fresh coffee but Emerald and Pistachio as well, “You wanna put some blood in your coffee stream, Honey?”

Tempest shook her head and sipped her drink. “Nah, too sweet.”

“While we're at the store and getting you Phantom, I think I'm going to look at the Shadow Spade stuff.” Listening to Wrangler read the seventh book out loud for two hours had piqued her interest, though that may have been the way the pink earth pony had put on the character’s voices too.

“I would highly recommend that,” Wrangler started as Whisper smiled, “Either the set or start with the first, ‘The Adventures of Shadow Spade’.”

“You read it really well, Wrangler!”

“Why, thank you, my hyper little sis.”

“What time is it?” asked Tempest after she had consumed half of her coffee.

“The time is eleven thirty,” Wildfire answered her after Emerald and Wrangler both whispered in her ears. “It’s late enough you won't burst into flames if you step outside the house.”

“Maybe, we have some time to spare.” For her sneaky plan to work, they’d need to get a wriggle on. “Let’s go get some donuts, Wily, before the bookstore.” Saying their goodbyes and getting in hugs all round, Wildfire led Tempest in the direction of Café Diem. Tempest though had a different destination in mind. “Isn't that fire station you worked at near here?” she asked innocently.

“Hang on...” Wildfire stopped in her tracks and, much to the amusement of the passing ponies, she waved her hooves about like a demented windmill. Contrary to what those passers by thought, she had not gone mad, but rather she was checking off her internal map, seeing as how she knew Canterlot like she knew the herd's hooves. “Um...” she stuck out her tongue in concentration and turned on the spot some degrees and pointed ahead. “It's over there, the large four storey brick building.”

Looking the way Wildfire pointed, Tempest was impressed for, sure enough, in the middle distance was the fire station. “I'm taking you camping so I don't get lost next time.” Tempest giggled and nudged Wildfire as she headed off towards the large building. “I figured cadets worked a station close to home.”

“My magic compass only works for Canterlot, Honey,” Wildfire snickered as she walked along with her herd-mate and lover. “It took some training, but I know exactly how long it takes to get to and from anywhere to anywhere else.” Like earlier, she didn’t feel the need to mention why she was so good navigating around Canterlot. She was sure Tempest knew. “You know, I still can’t believe how well yesterday went!”

“Yesterday was a nice day,” Tempest agreed quickly. That day looked like being good too, at least judging by the glorious weather. “Last night was, dreamy. Should we get more daffodils for Sliver? She may have eaten them all last night.”

“I think we should,” Wildfire giggled, “Mom did used to get hungry at night.”

“When the day is done, we’ll get Emerald and pay her and Chill Wind a visit. I do have an ulterior motive for stopping at the firehouse though.”

If she was completely honest with herself, Wildfire wasn’t wholly surprised to hear that. Thankfully, as she led the way to the building, their short journey was uneventful. ‘It’s strange,’ she thought, ‘Nopony’s freaking out at the way I look, nopony’s screaming at me…’ then, she giggled, because that may be due to Tempest. “Are you being sneaky, Wingpony?”

Tempest shrugged, “They do have the best coffee and donuts next to the police.”

Wildfire burst out laughing as she crossed the street at the crosswalk spot and walked up to the fire station. She knew from memory the large doors where the engines came out were in front of her and to the right was the smaller door. “Here we are, Honey. Should I go buzz the door?”

When Tempest gave her an encouraging whap on her flank with a violet wing, Wildfire trotted smartly up to the side door and felt for the buzzer. It took her a few attempts, but as soon as she found it, she pressed it hard with her hoof. Almost straightaway, Inferno answered. “Hello, Canterlot Residential Fire department, can I help you?”

“Inferno!” Wildfire recognised his voice like she had never been away. “It's Wily, let me in!”

Seconds later and Inferno remotely opened the side door. Wildfire and Tempest took no more than a few steps inside the fire station before they were greeted by a deep booming voice from the top of the stairs. “Come on up, Wily!” Hot Spot called down from the staff cafeteria, “Very nice of you to visit, Mare with the Cross of Valour!”

Tempest heard the assorted snickers coming from the open cafeteria, she was sure Wildfire did too. “Your fame proceeds you,” she giggled, “Let’s go and use it to buy coffee and donuts. Wily,” she paused on the stairs when she saw the hesitation on the little mare’s face, “It’s okay to say you are part of a team, but please take the praise you're going to get with grace.”

“Alrighty Honey,” Wildfire smiled. Tempest’s calm reassuring voice beside her made her feel so much better about herself where all of a sudden, she was faltering. “I'll try, it's just that, well, genuine praise is still a new thing, y'know?”

“Love you,” Tempest gave her small lover an affectionate nuzzle and she carried on up the steps.

“I love you, Honey.”

At the top of the stairs, Tempest and Wildfire were treated to a round of traditionally poor fire house singing by the whole team, lead by Hot Spot who was conducting with his hooves. “For she's a jolly good hero, for she's a jolly good hero. Wildfire is a hero to all of us!” When they were all finished, and while the rest were applauding, Hot Spot was the first to get a hug in.

Blushing as bright red as her stylised fireball cutie mark, Wildfire hugged her old captain tightly like it was the first time she had ever done so. “I hear your singing hasn't improved, sir.”

“Why improve perfection?” the old stallion asked, a playful twinkle in his eye as the rest of the fire team erupted in some good natured laughter. He had missed his favourite rookie more than he would ever admit. Truth be told, when she resurfaced, he was hoping she would return to him but, alas, Rung had her now. “So, did you get these,” he gently touched the casts on her wings, “during your daring mission?”

Tempest sighed softly but she chose to say nothing. As it was, she needn’t have worried. “Aah, no, not as such,” Wildfire replied confidently and she laid a nuzzle on her old chief’s cheek. “A warden from the care home caught up with me. She's been dealt with though, so it’s all good now.”

“Oh my, come in, come in,” Hot Spot tried not to bluster. He had seen the news two days ago, about the care home that Wildfire had been held prisoner in, and the hospital connected to it. Still, this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. She seemed happy and well enough. “We have no cake, but we have plenty of donuts.”

“And coffee?” asked Tempest hopefully, scanning the cafeteria for signs of sweet caffeine.

“And coffee,” Hot Spot confirmed with a grin.

“Then it's a party!” Wildfire very gently kissed Hot Spot's nose, which earned her a round of ribbing and teasing from the other fire ponies in the cafeteria. While they were distracting her partner, Tempest passed Hot Spot a note. Written on the front was 'DO NOT tell Wily about this note or talk about it till we are gone'. “So, guys,” Wildfire said once the laughter had died down, oblivious to the note, “How've you all been? Inferno, you mastered the microwave yet? First Aid, saved the recipients of his cooking?”

Inferno made a very good attempt at looking offended. His snickering kind of undermined that though. “I'll have you know I'm onto the stove now!”

First Aid snuggled up to his coltfriend and gave Inferno a peck on his cheek, “Yeah, the microwave took him long enough!”

As they all laughed, Red Alert and Hot Spot passed out the donuts, not content until everypony had at least two each. “Soooo,” Wildfire started, her voice thick with a chocolate donut, “you all want the story?”

“Well, we don't want to hear the tale of First Aid getting together with Inferno, again,” Red Alert chuckled, laughing out loud when they both rolled their eyes at him.

“Those are the stories that last. For Wily, she was just trying to get out of a test.”

First Aid laughed at Tempest’s joke, “Now that I can believe!”

“Hey!” Wildfire’s grin said that she wasn’t as outraged as she was tying to make them believe. “I so want to hear that story!” Having demolished her first donut in record time, she started on her second. “So, my big adventure. I did this flying test, at the weather factory. Not sure if I passed right then or not. Then the call went up, big fire in the Broncs, and I was tasked with shoving an eight stack to the scene.”

Red Alert was suitably impressed. “That's a big stack. How many helpers?”

“I was on my own for the first bit, Red.” Wildfire replied quickly. “I had a smaller stack first and I had to abandon that, fly back to the weather factory and get the bigger one. About halfway there I got two helpers.”

Tempest clarified, using two pieces of donut and a coffee mug to demonstrate, the larger piece being the eight stack, the mug was the scene of the fire and the smaller piece the weather factory. “She had travelled thirty of the fifty miles when the other two showed, but it did make her step up her game.”

“It was so cool!” Wildfire enthused, “I had Comet in the earpiece of my helmet telling me where and when to go with the cloud!”

Tempest was quite sure she couldn’t be prouder of her little lover when she saw the admiration and respect on her former team’s faces. She sincerely wished Wildfire could see what she was seeing. “It helps that she is a precision flier.”

“Thanks to Heatwave,” Wildfire smiled and brazenly stole another donut as the general murmur of agreement went up around her. “I mean, it wasn't cool the fire happened, but stretching my wings like that, working again, pushing myself and what I could do, that was awesomes!”

“The chief said Wily cut thirty minutes off the response time.” Tempest put in, earning her marefriend another generous round of applause, “Saved lives, she did.”

“Yuppers, I did!” Wildfire squealed around the donut she was trying to eat and blushed, “I ah, I did do that.”

“Captain,” Red Alert chuckled, getting Hot Spot’s attention, “Are you sure we can't hire her back? She could teach Inferno a few things…” straightaway, Inferno treated him to a mighty raspberry for his cheek.

Hot Spot saw Tempest’s look and he shook his head, affecting a most sad and maudlin expression. “Alas, I think we've lost her, Red.”

Though Tempest was carefully monitoring Wildfire’s reaction, she was pleased to see that her worry was unnecessary. The diminutive yellow mare was in a very good upbeat mood, if a little on the blushy side. The weather mare was most relieved that she was taking it all in good spirits, along with coffee and donuts. “Hey Inferno,” she grinned, “you want to try my helmet?”

Fortunately, Red Alert’s joke about Inferno preferring First Aid's helmet died on his lips after a glare from First Aid himself. Inferno though wasn’t ready to rise to his colleagues tease. He was most curious to see how it worked. “Sure thing Wily,” when she held it out, he took it and placed it on his head, the visor covering his eyes. “How does it work?” Wildfire demonstrated to him the voice commands with a request for altitude and heading to the castle and immediately the heads up display showed it to him in glowing green as well as telling him via the earpiece. After a moment, a bewildered Inferno gave it her back. “Whoa...how do you not get overwhelmed?”

“I got skills!” Wildfire beamed proudly, passing her headset around so they could all have a go.

“Precision flier,” Tempest corrected her, though she had to agree with her in principle.

“What she said,” Wildfire giggled, taking her helmet back and placing it safely in her saddle bag. She didn’t need it for getting around Canterlot.

Tempest took note of the time while all that was going on and, while she would have dearly loved to stay and chat a little longer, there was the book store. That was a super special surprise for her herd-mate and they needed to get a move on if they were going to make it. “I’m afraid I need to continue my Wily guided tour of the capital,” she said, “Thank you for the coffee and donuts. Please bill the Manehatten Weather Factory.” Outside, once Wildfire had hugged everypony at least twice, Tempest nudged her. “That was some fine coffee, and it was good of you to leave me a donut.”

In the early afternoon sunlight, Wildfire giggled, “I didn't fancy wrestling you for the last one, Honey.”

“Shall we go straight to the book store,” Tempest asked, “or do you want another diversion?”

“Let's go straight there, Honey,” Wildfire took Tempest’s hoof in her own and she smiled, leading the way. “Another good day, I think.”

“Indeed,” Tempest agreed, though as they walked, the violet pony purposefully took a wrong turn, just to see if Wildfire’s magic compass was as good as she claimed it was.

True to form, Wildfire caught the error quickly, almost as soon as Tempest turned a street too early. “Not this way, Honey, it's this way,” she pointed with her hoof.

“I think my caffeine levels are still low,” Tempest chuckled and duly, she corrected her heading at the next corner and then she went back to correct street, but she crosses it for a one block error, again on purpose.

Confused, Wildfire paused and turned to face the older mare, whom she suspected was playing with her. “Honey, is everything alright?” she asked quite seriously, “You're all over the shop since we left the fire station.”

Realising she had been caught out in her little game, Tempest stopped and she giggled like she had been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. “Maybe I’m the one who needs the leash and collar?” they both laughed at that and, after a long enough pause, she turned around and headed down the correct street.

Brightly, Wildfire giggled, “Tempest, I've been thinking. Like, properly thinking. Mostly yesterday and today, about stuff. I'm not quite sure how to put it into words though…”

“Use Equish,” Tempest snarked, “I'm terrible at Zebran.”

Wildfire just chose to roll her eyebrows at that. “Hum...well, I've been thinking, that maybe the bad things that have happened to me haven't really been 'bad' bad. Uuuugh! I mean, I know they're bad, but like, I'm appreciative of them, if that makes sense? I hope it makes sense?”

To Tempest, what Wildfire had just said made a great deal of sense. More than that, it showed her just how far the little mare had come. “Events have helped you grow and mature.”

“Yuppers!” Wildfire exclaimed, relieved that Tempest understood what she had tried to say. “And like, I am who I am as much due to the bad as the good, and a lot of good things wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the bad!”

As she treated Wildfire to a hip bump, Tempest thought that last sentence showed a great amount of maturity. “I wouldn't have my golden shower buddy!” she giggled, smiling broadly as she could now see there were a throng of ponies lined up outside the book store.

“Damn right!” Wildfire giggled and bumped Tempest’s hips before the two mares walked up to the book store. As they got closer though, her ears flicked forwards, towards the crowd assembled ahead of them. She could hear the murmured voices of chatter. “Is there a queue?”

“It does look crowded,” Tempest agreed and, now they were at the store, she used her off wing to pull a sign from her saddle bag that read, 'Please be considerate this is to be a surprise for Wildfire'. The noise from the crowd noise did continue, but it die down to a very low murmur.

Wildfire shrugged her shoulders. “I bet there's a new Daring Do book out or something like that,” she giggled, “Never my thing…” that was more Air Raid’s territory when they had been together. However, her train of thought was somewhat derailed when she noticed that Tempest was marching past the line up to the doors. “Honey! Are you sure it's okay cutting ahead?” strangely though, nopony seemed to mind.

“That is Major Honey to you, Lieutenant, so yes it’s okay.” Tempest smirked, grateful that the crowd were at last playing along. She wanted to keep the surprise a surprise until the very last moment if she could.

Wildfire giggled, “Alrighty boss lady, let's go get you some books!” she just assumed the line was waiting to meet some famous pony, and as they weren’t here for that, that was why nopony was minding what they were doing.

“Oh, look!” Tempest squealed the very moment they were inside the store, “There’s a table full of books and somepony is waving us over. May be a hard sell though,” she giggled, waving a hoof of recognition to Princess Twilight Sparkle who was stood by the stack of books flanked by two security ponies. “They’re all hard covers.”

Wildfire groaned a groan that started at her hooves and travelled up through her body, granted it wasn’t a long journey. “Uuuuugh...Honey that was just awful!” Like a good little marefriend though, she did still laugh as they walked over. “So who's the guest author they’re all waiting for? Is it somepony we know of?”

“I think so.” Tempest found Wildfire’s obliviousness to be the most adorable thing in the world right then. She laid a wing tip to her diminutive lover’s side. “Maybe we can even get a signed copy to take home.”

“Hello Wildfire,” Twilight greeted the blind mare with an easy smile and a brief hoof bump which became a hug, “my you're a whole five minutes early. Quite the change from your University days, as I recall.”

“Professor Twilight? You're the author?” Wildfire giggled brightly, her smile never wavering and the little mare unfazed about being in the presence of a Princess. “My punctuality has improved with age, fortunately.”

Twilight Sparkle's eye twitched in that manner it did when she was confronted by something or a response that she hadn’t planned for. “What, no…why would you think that?” she then did what she usually did in such a situation, she consulted her checklist. “What did you tell her, Tempest?”

Tempest flashed the Princess a most innocent smile that fooled nopony at all. “That there was a table full of books and we might get a signed one.”

That just served to confuse the alicorn even more. She didn’t like the feeling. She liked to be in control at all times, everything regimented and accounted for. That was her way and it had served her well thus far, in spite of Luna and Rainbow’s attempts to get her to ‘lighten up’. “Don't you already have a signed one?”

Tempest shook her head. “That one’s Airmail's,” the violet weather mare explained, loving the snort of frustration she got from the young Princess.

All the while that Tempest and Twilight were talking, Wildfire’s ears were going back and forth, tracking the banter and connecting several dots in her head. “What's going on, Honey?” she asked, though she fancied she had a pretty good idea what was going on.

“See, I told you she was a smart pony, Princess.” Tempest knew her lover would figure it out eventually, still, she’d had her fun. “Wily, you need to be on the other side of the table. Oh, and check out the books stacked there.”

Princess Twilight facehooved. This was something Rainbow or Pinkie – the godmothers of pranks - would do. In spite of herself, she smiled, “You didn't tell her, did you?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Tempest grinned from ear to ear as she showed Twilight the sign that she had held up outside. She couldn’t help feeling like that coyote from those old Saturday morning cartoons.

As Tempest had suggested, Wildfire walked around the table, feeling her way, but with every step she took her smile was spreading wider and wider. Once she was seated, the blind mare felt the book that was in front of her and her grin was so wide it looked impossible. The hardback book, finished in black leather, had a gold embossed title in both print and braille.

‘Poems from Darkness to Light’ by Wildfire.

“It's...It's my book!” Wildfire scanned the front cover several times to make sure it wasn’t an illusion. It even felt like her book that her mother had given her. “They’re my poems!” She soon found that each page also had both the poem in print and under that it was repeated in braille.

“This is the second printing?” asked Tempest curiously.

Twilight nodded her head, “Yes, the first printing only had a run of one thousand across a few select libraries. This will have a run of one hundred thousand.” Demand for the book of poems really had been that high.

“Wily’s going to wear her hoof out.” Tempest snickered, and even the two mountainous security guards cracked a smile.

“I can fix that,” Twilight beamed, “and there is only one thousand books here for the signing, but some will bring in their first editions, I'm sure.”

When she heard that, Wildfire’s ears were slicked back to her scalp and, if she had eyes, Tempest was sure that they'd be wide and amazed. She could easily understand her reaction. “One...hundred...thousand?” Wildfire stammered, “Of my book? All those ponies out there...are here...to buy my book?” She suddenly didn’t know if she liked this at all. She wasn’t famous or a celebrity like Serenity or Songbird Serenade, or used to being in the spotlight, again like Serenity or Dusk or Luna, she was just Wildfire.

“For you to sign the book they buy,” Tempest corrected her gently, softly laying a reassuring wing over the trembling mare’s back, “or the one they own.”

“Or both,” put in Twilight in what she hoped was a helpful manner, “but I have a good forelock healing spell, so don’t worry!”

“Princess, um, Professor, can I please make it so any profits go to help blind charities?”

Twilight and Tempest both shared a knowing smile and a nod between themselves. “Yes, that’s how the first book went, so I'm glad to know you don't want to change it.”

Wildfire’s reaction didn’t surprise Tempest in the slightest. Her herd-mate’s selflessness was one of her more sexy qualities. Didn’t mean she couldn’t tease her about it though. “Watching her swim in bits does get old.”

Being compared to Scrooge McDuck made Wildfire burst out into fits of giggles. They did serve to banish her nerves though. Still giggling, she nudged Tempest’s flank, “I'd rather it stay as it is, so I can help as many as I can.” She then felt the book’s cover again. “This is so cool! I wish mom and Heatwave could see this!”

“It is time.” Twilight checked her watch against her meticulously planned schedule.

Tempest stepped aside to let the alicorn step up. “You first, Princess.”

“No, I, ah, I have book number one thousand in my saddle bag so I'll go last.” Twilight Sparkle couldn’t quite keep the blush from her cheeks. She had her own first edition back at her castle for reading, three copies in her library for the public and this one, this one was going in cellophane wrapper to join her pristine Daring Do collection.

Tempest took the opportunity while it presented itself. “I'm first then!”

As Tempest tapped her hoof on the book that was waiting in front of her, Wildfire could hear the book store staff open the doors to let in the waiting crowd outside. Twilight loudly welcomed them all and then there was a pen placed in her left forehoof. “Oh my gosh!” Wildfire let out a squee of delight that this was really happening and, as she signed Tempest’s book, she looked like she was on cloud nine. “I hope you enjoy it, ma'am!”

Leaning in, Tempest whispered, “I will enjoy it, with a very private reading on the train.”

Before Wildfire could respond to that, Tempest walked off, stepping aside to make room for a turquoise earth pony stallion who looked like he was still in high school. “Hi, I'm Riverside!” he placed a book in front of Wildfire with an eager thump, “My friend got your first edition and it was cool. This is even better!”

“Hey there, Riverside, I'm glad to hear you like it!” Wildfire signed her name in both print and braille, loving the excited tone in the young pony’s voice. “I hope you follow the blog too?”

“Totally!”

Several ponies later and none had quite matched the hero worship that had been Riverside. Waiting his turn, Hot Spot stepped up with a book and a smile. “Hey, Wily, a certain violet pegasus told me you'd be here,” as he set the book down in front of his best rookie, Tempest pointedly looked the other way, though they caught each other’s eye and nodded. “This one is for the fire station.”

“Captain, sir!” Wildfire didn't know which hoof to salute him with, so she used both and giggled when she almost stabbed herself in the face with her pen. “It's a pleasure, sir,” she said as, like before, she signed her name both ways.

“The pleasure is all ours, Lieutenant.” Hot Spot made sure to get in a hug and a nuzzle, before he left to make room for those behind him. The line seemed never ending.

After three earth ponies, five pegasi and an extremely giggly unicorn filly that was all braces and glasses so thick they made her eyes seem several sizes too big had come and gone, none other than Calculus set her book in front of Wildfire. “Greetings Wildfire,” she said warmly, “Seems there’s an interest in your book, and I'm one of them.”

“Professor!” Wildfire squeaked, surprised indeed to hear Calculus of all ponies stood in front of her, “um...I mean, Headmare?” she giggled as, with a flash of inspiration, she wrote out the math problem that she set for her yesterday and then she signed her name, “It's so cool you're here!”

Calculus leant in over the table and gave her ex student a nuzzle, “Thank you for sharing your poems.”

“Hello Wildfire,” Winter beamed a most motherly smile when she stepped up with her two colts and husband – make that three colts – after a trio of pegasi, two parents and very bored filly, had moved aside.

“Good to see you again, aunt Wily!” Summer grinned, sticking his tongue out at his brother that he got to say hello first.

Autumn pouted at his brother and was about to shoot back a retort but a look from Spring silenced the young earth pony. “Hi, aunt Wily.” He said in the end, opting to play it safe.

“All of us are here to get a book!” Spring stood beside his wife and placed the book in front of Wildfire with a small thud so she’d know where it was. He had chosen to carry it in order to keep any fighting between his two colts to a minimum.

“Could you make it to all of us please?” Winter asked, the earth pony mare having to really fight her mothering instincts and not wrap the tiny pegasus up in a hug.

“Ms. Winter!” Wildfire almost fell off her seating pad. “Oh my, yuppers!” Overjoyed that they had made it to the book signing, she immediately dedicated the book to them all with a little paragraph aimed at them all in turn and signed each one individually. “I hope my two favouritest nephews are being awesomes?”

Again, Summer got in first, much to the chagrin of his brother. “I'm still studying to get into University. When I do, I’m going to be a paramedic like First Aid!”

Elbowing him out of the way, a burgeoning fight that was stopped before it started by Winter and Spring separating them both, Autumn piped up, “I'm working with Hot Spot and Inferno, waiting for my chance to go to the Fire Fighter's Academy.”

“Oh wow, you guys!” Wildfire was genuinely impressed to hear that. “That's so cool! Can I get a quick hug?” Wordlessly, the two huge security guards, who had been quietly standing to either side of the table, moved aside so that both colts could come in for hugs on either side. “I've missed you two a lot!” Even though they were earth ponies, she gave them a slightly less crushing hug than she usually would before nuzzling Winter and Spring in turn.

Smiling, once it was his turn, Rainstorm stood in front of her, holding what he considered a personal treasure. “Hello Wildfire,” he set down the immaculate first edition poetry book in front of the blind mare. “I'm glad I got a chance for you to sign this.”

“Rainstorm, hi!” Wildfire recognised his voice like she had done at the café and she signed his copy of her book with one of her favourite quotes, ‘Our past is not today’, before giving it him back and bumping hooves. “We’ll see you at Saffron’s soon, I promise.”

Next, Velvet Quill, Last Legacy, and Water Colour all stepped up to Wildfire’s table, each holding a book to be signed, though Velvet’s was a first edition. “I’m first!” the literacy professor exclaimed as he put his book down in front of his ex best student ever. “I'm glad you've made good use of all that education, Wily.”

“Professor Quill!” Wildfire then let out a rather undignified and prolonged hyper fangirl squee and, beaming, she readily signed his book the ‘Bestest Teacher Ever’.

“My oh my,” Last Legacy grinned, the smile coming through in the old pony’s voice, “This is a change, me coming to your office for once!”

“I only spent half my time in your office, sir,” Wildfire retorted as she signed his book, “The other half was in the vice principal’s…but seriously, thank you, for all your advice.”

Speaking of the vice principal, Water Colour was next. “How are you doing now, Wildfire?” he asked gently as he placed his own book down to be signed. On some nights when he didn’t take his medication, he still had nightmares of the day when she had been blinded in the science lab. “I read in the paper about your actions in Manehatten. “We’re all very proud of you and the mare you’ve become.”

“So, we have a coffee dark, one three sweet, jelly donut and caramel donut, oh and a book!” Java declared, much to Tempest’s relief when he stepped up to take his turn. Of course the violet pony had contacted the café and told him to come. And he had, straightaway without question.

Tempest, who hadn’t had a caffeine injection in over an hour and a half, swooped upon the offered treats like a starving manticore would attack a wounded prey animal in the Badlands. “I’ll just get that dark coffee and jelly out of your way Wily!”

“Hey Java! You are a legend for bringing the coffee!” Like Tempest, Wildfire was ready for a coffee break. Her fetlock was ready for a break too. Thankfully, as she signed the book ‘To Java and to Cafe Diem, seize the coffee’, the Princess was on hoof to cast her healing spell.

Eventually, after another four hours and two more coffee breaks and one rather close call emergency bathroom break, Princess Twilight was the last in line. Or, rather, one of her guards was the last in the line. The young royal just took his spot when he stepped up. That would teach him for saying guarding the Crystal castle was a ‘make work’ job. “Well it’s my turn.” She already had the book out of its protective wrapper. “Book number one thousand and your one thousandth, two hundred and fourteenth signature!”

“Uuuugh…has it been that many, really?” Wildfire giggled brightly and, as the alicorn placed the book down in front of her, the diminutive yellow pegasus dedicated the book to ‘Twilight Sparkle, the bestest of Princesses for giving me my filly’, “Here you go, Professor, thank you for today and for the healing spell. I really needed that.”

For good measure, the Princess cast one last fetlock healing spell before she levitated her signed book back into the protective sleeve and then back in her saddle bag. “There’s a reception area, just over there behind you to your left if you'd like to talk to fans?”

There were rather a lot of ponies milling around in the area Twilight had indicated, no doubt they were waiting a chance to have a more intimate one on one time with Wildfire, Tempest safely assumed. “We do have about thirty minutes before we need to head back to Emerald's place,” she whispered in her lover’s ear.

“I'd like that, Professor, Honey, if there's anypony still here.” Wildfire wasn’t aware of anypony hanging around. Then again, all her attention had been focused on the never ending line of ponies.

“Looks like about forty,” Tempest supplied.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of questions,” said Twilight with a knowing smile. After all these years of royal duties, she had an idea finally how these things worked and just how Celestia dealt with them. “I can make sure you two get out on time for your next event.”

“Thank you!” When Wildfire stood up, for the first time in three hours, the muscles and joints in her legs popped like she was a one pony maraca band. Giggling, not thinking, she seized Twilight in a very tight hug indeed, before backing off with a blush. “Um, that was okay, right?” she suddenly thought of the guards.

“I’m not the Princess of Friendship for nothing,” Twilight eagerly returned the hug while Tempest just giggled.

“Alrighty, let's do this meeting!” Tempest and Twilight flanked Wildfire, gently leading her to the assembled group of waiting fans. Ass Tempest suspected, her herd-mate was very well received, with roughly a quarter of them asking about the yellow mare’s eyes and what it was like to be blind, another quarter wanting to know about living in Manehatten and the Fire Department, while the remaining half asked about her inspiration for the poems from beginning to end.

Wildfire made sure to spend time with each and every pony that spoke to her, and even one very shy colt who couldn’t do anything else but squeak and hide behind his mother’s legs. Like her own personal guard, Tempest never left her side, but Twilight allowed her face her first public engagement on her own. She was pleased to see she handled the attention rather well.

Once the meeting was all done though and the last of her fans had left, Wildfire collapsed on a nearby seating pad. “Phew...” she gasped, “I feel like if I smile and wave one more time I'll explode!” Tempest and Twilight both patted her head sympathetically.

“You did very good in there,” Tempest said, giving her lover a much needed nuzzle, “Now let’s see what Emerald has for us to snack on before we go and visit Silver and Chill.”