“What time is it?”

Cloudburst knew exactly what time it was. Laid next to Seafoam in Fluttershy’s bed, the pale blue mare had hardly slept at all that night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw herself with a foal, and that pretty much shocked her awake. As she was not asleep, she didn't miss a beat. “It’s seventeen minutes past six in the morning.”

Behind his mare, taking up his position as the big spoon, which he did almost every night, Seafoam affectionately nipped Cloudburst’s ear. Part of him wondered how long she’d been awake, then he felt a little guilty when he realised it must have been a while, while he slept. In his defence, Fluttershy’s bed was as soft as a cloud. “Well,” he purred silkily in her ear, “I see a couple things we could do right now. Make breakfast, or make sure you're really pregnant.”

Reaching behind her, Cloudburst couldn’t help but smile when she felt her horny coltfriend’s morning wood press against her back. At least somethings never changed, though she usually woke him up in their dorm at the School of Friendship with her mouth taking care of that. She kept the smile in place though when she rolled over in the bed to face him, even though it was obvious she'd been up a while. “I'd like that, Sushi.”

After all, what was already done was done, and he had promised to stand by her.

“I'd really like that too,” Seafoam smiled warmly at his beautiful little mare. In truth, while the previous night may have not gone to plan, he couldn’t be happier with the outcome. To be a daddy, it was the best news he’d had since the pegasus had asked to wear his turquoise collar. “Cloudburst, would you allow me to sire a foal with in you. Will you marry me and join my life above and below the waters?”

Cloudburst thought about that for a fraction of a second while the morning sunlight shone through the bedroom window, landing partly on her face. “I will. Yes and yes.” She couldn’t think of a better tomorrow than to be married to the one she loved and obeyed.

Shuffling closer in the bed, so close his erect member rubbed up against her inner thighs, Seafoam ever so gently used his clawed hand to roll his marefriend onto her back. “This will be no accident, CB. This will be a sharing of our love for each other.”

The pale blue pegasus gave him a lusty half lidded gaze as she watched her lover get into position above her. “I really want that. I want you, Sushi...I love you so much!”

“I love you too, CB,” Seafoam, positioned above her with his cock lined up at her marehood, purposefully used his marefriend’s regular nickname. This wasn’t about Masters and pets, dominants and submissives. This was about them, him and her, and how much he loved her and she him. With a smooth thrust of his hips, he entered her, determined to make a loving production of it.

The sudden penetration made Cloudburst moan and her instincts drove her to grind upwards against her stallion. Once he was fully hilted inside her, Seafoam began to pick up the pace. He started to get more into it. He’d pull out almost all the way so that just his tip was left inside her, then he’d buck his hips, filling her all the way up again. He hilted inside her each time and his balls rubbed against her.

Underneath him, Cloudburst moaned in utter ecstatic bliss. She gave as good as she got, bucking her hips upwards in time with his movements. After a dozen or so thrusts, she wrapped her legs around his waist, locking them together and keeping him there as he made love to her.

Above her, Seafoam, at a steady pace, made love to his beautiful, perfect mare. As he filled her, time and again, he lowered his head and began nipping and licking at her neck, all the time hilting his member inside her dripping wet muscular tunnel. Several moments later, when he reached his peak, he screeched and climaxed, filling her depths with a sticky warm torrent.

Cloudburst could feel his fluids dripping from her well-rutted marehood, it had been one of the best love making sessions they had ever shared – outside of him dominating her - but the pale blue mare was far from ready for this to be over. She thrust her hips up to meet his, bucking herself on his rod fast and hard even as he moaned and trembled. Seafoam was at his limit, but Cloudburst was just getting started with her lover.

Still in the throes of her heat, the burning desire inside her kept growing. She wanted that thick hippogriff cock filling and rubbing every bit of her, and she did her best to make that happen. She lined up the flared tip and medial ring perfectly, rubbing them in just the right places. She thrust upwards and moaned loudly as her body rippled with pleasure.

Cloudburst could feel every inch of him as her body seemed to milk Seafoam’s shaft. For his part he was happy to oblige her. Still hard and ready to go, he moved his hips back and forth over and over again, spreading and filling her tunnel. She rubbed up and down, but it was if her body was resisting even an inch of it slipping out her as she clamped down hard on him. When he came a second time, he had no words. The blissful look in his eyes said everything that needed to be said about where Cloudburst had taken him with their fun.

Panting for breath, Cloudburst laid back on the bed and sighed happily as her fluids mixed with his and began to drip down from between her thighs. She loosened her legs from around his waist and they embraced and kissed. “Mmmm...by the Queen’s fins I love you…” Rolling onto his side with her, Seafoam was happy to let nature take him out of her, as he was too spent to move otherwise. “Mount Aris,” she said after a few moments, “I wanna live there with you.”

Seafoam snickered, wrapping his left wing around his lover in a feathery embrace, “I guess that is easier than having a unicorn casting cloud walking on me every day in Cloudsdale.”

With a roll of her eyes, Cloudburst nestled into her stallion’s arms. “Nothing keeping me here.”

“Graduation?”

“Pfft…” Cloudburst returned Seafoam’s deadpan look with one of her own. “Grad isn’t that long away, and besides, it's only a friendship school.”

Smiling, Seafoam booped her nose with his beak. “Best thing that ever happened to me is you because of that 'only' a friendship school.”

“Yeah, I am awesome, aren’t I?” she asked rhetorically, because everypony knew she was awesome. And, if they didn’t know, she’d soon tell them. Inclining her head, she placed a soft delicate trail of kisses all along the side of his face up to his ear tuft. “I got you too, Master, don’t forget that.”

Seafoam checked the time, which according to the wall clock was coming up to eight in the morning, and gave his mare a wink. “I'm guessing the other two won't be eating a zebra breakfast. How does pancakes sound for all of us? We can have ours now, and I can make them theirs whenever they get here.”

Cloudburst liked the sound of that. “Sounds cool. I could go for pancakes. Especially yours. You know how I like them.”

Now that Seafoam was fully withdrawn from her marehood and his member was back in his sheath, the turquoise hippogriff at last hauled himself out of Fluttershy’s bed, albeit reluctantly. “Shower first. Come along, pet.” Smirking, Cloudburst got out of the bed and, getting down on her hands and knees, the submissive mare crawled to the bathroom behind her Master. “When you're further along, I want our foal to be taken well care of, but for now all is good.”

Cloudburst loved it when the dominant hippogriff petted her mane like she was a favoured family pet. She reached up and nuzzled his hand with her cheek. She was a good pet. “I'm sure I can get a job in Mount Aris, Master.”

On the way to the bathroom, Seafoam considered that. Pegasi were highly sought after around the extreme south eastern Equestrian coastline. “Hippogriffs can't control the weather. Better a resident than hiring outsiders.”

“I'm good with a cloud or three, especially if you want a lightning bolt here or there.”

Once Seafoam had the shower going, he got in and, holding the curtain aside for his mare with one hand, reached for the honeysuckle shampoo with the other. “I can think of a few that could use a lightning bolt up their asses…” he snickered when she joined him under the hot water.

~ ~ ~

“I have brought you through the forest safe and sound,” Zecora stated as she led Sparkler, Stonecutter and the six animals with them to the very edge of the Everfree Forest. The zebra lifted her hand and shielded her eyes against the light of the warm Sunday morning sun. “While it was nice I must turn around. Try to keep the pets from further harm, so their owners will not raise alarm.” With that, and without further ado, she waved her hand and turned back into the dark shadowy depths from whence they had come.

“Good bye ma'am!” Stonecutter waved to the departing zebra and she took Sparkler’s free hand in her own. In her other hand was Winona’s leash as well as the tether that prevented Tank from flying off and away from them. Angel was, once more, in her backpack. “You know what? I am so glad to be out of that forest!” she exclaimed, taking a moment to fill her lungs with fresh, bright, clean morning air.

“I'm just glad I'm not fearing for my life!” Sparkler smiled. Like her marefriend, she was revelling in the air outside of the forest. That, and the lack of a cloying, unbearable sense of dread that hung in there like the cloud of insects over their heads. She had Opalescence and Owlowiscious on leashes and Gummy in her bag. However, when the two young lovers began to walk up the rough dirt path back to Professor Fluttershy’s cottage, Stonecutter had not taken more than two steps before she started crying. She wasn’t just crying, tears were streaming down her chubby face like waterfalls, the stress of the recent situation getting to her at last. Unprepared for that, Sparkler stopped and stared at her before wrapping the larger mare in a tight hug with her face buried between her hefty breasts. “I’ve got you. You're safe now.”

Stonecutter didn't cry very often, hardly ever, even, but she was crying now. Her chest heaved, her shoulders shook and all her emotion came pouring out. “I'd…I’d,” she sniffed up her tears, but more came in their wake, “I’d have been wolf chow if it wasn't for you, Sparks…” she eventually managed to get her sentence out, though she was sobbing and hiccupping around every word.

Sparkler was quite happy with her face buried between her crush’s heaving chest, but, she supposed she should comfort her. It was easy for her though. She just compartmentalised everything that had happened in her logical, organised brain and dealt with it later. “If you weren't carrying me, I wouldn't have thought what to do. That let me tell CB what to do and how to save her from doing it.”

Stonecutter thought about it, and she didn’t have to try very hard, she could feel the timberwolf’s breath on the back of her legs, she could hear the snapping of the underbrush as it relentlessly pursued them. “I just dread to think how that could've ended without you there. I never would have thought of that.”

“That's why we are a team!” Sparkler said with a reassuring smile on her face. She was well aware, just like the other two were, that they had been seconds of time and a bad decision away from death. “We each do our part, and your part is to be extra snuggly.” The unicorn had her hands gently squeezing the earth pony’s pudgy belly, “Oh, and real strong and talented.”

Stonecutter blushed hard at that. “Ha, strength...” she smiled, though there was a hint of sadness to her voice that matched her tears, “I love how smart and in control you are. It’s very sexy.”

“Yes,” Sparkler laughed, “I’m very controlled when I'm not in a total panic, or when there aren’t icky bugs everywhere, or some other gross thing all over me,” she giggled in an attempt to lighten the situation.

“Then, I'm there to remove the bugs so you don't panic.” The large slate grey earth pony wiped her eyes and sniffled, feeling incredibly silly all of a sudden. “I'm sorry, Sparks, I don't cry very often.”

“When you were carrying me, that was really nice.” Sparkler lifted herself up onto the very tips of her hooves and she placed a tender loving kiss on her lips. “I felt safe and calm so I could think. When you were holding me in bed, I felt safe again.” Again, she kissed her marefriend, “If you need to cry, you can get my shoulder wet anytime, okay?”

“Th-Thank you…” Stonecutter smiled finally, wiping away the last of her tears, “I might have to take you up on that, Mistress.”

“I'm sure I'll take up being carried by you.” Sparkler did love being carried by her lover. There was just ‘something’ about being held in those amazingly strong yet gentle and loving arms that made her feel like nothing in the world could hurt her.

Wordlessly, Stonecutter bent down and, in just her free arm, scooped up Sparkler as effortlessly as if she was picking up a bag of feathers. After the unicorn had let out a squeak of surprise, Stonecutter adjusted the way she held her so that she was holding her like a bride. “Back to the cottage then, Mistress?”

“Tally Ho my faithful steed!”

Stonecutter rather enjoyed that. The image of her wearing a saddle for her lover to sit on and ride her like the steed she was flashed through her mind and made her flush. “Yes Mistress!” she then marched back towards the cottage in the distance, carrying Sparkler with one arm like she was no weight at all.

“So,” Sparkler started, her yellow face very much bright red because her cheek was pressed right into her marefriend’s breast, each hoof step bouncing it just slightly, “do you think CB got the place cleaned up, or do you think she just made a bigger mess last night?”

“If Seafoam is there, I know he got it cleaned up all good and proper.” Stonecutter spoke with surety as she opened the little white gate and walked up the garden path to the cottage. She didn’t know Seafoam all that well, but she knew enough that when asked, he would drop whatever he was doing to help out. She liked that about him.

“Are you going to carry me across the threshold?”

“Yes Mistress, I do believe I'd like that a lot…” then, it was Stonecutter’s turn to blush when she realised what she had just alluded to.

Sparkler giggled, because they were both blushing like love sick foals. “This might become a habit…”

When she reached the repaired wooden door, Stonecutter appreciated the work done before she knocked on. The door looked good as new, literally there was no sign that it had ever been damaged in the pet frenzy the day before. “Well, I’ll say this much, they fixed up the door real good.”

“Just open it,” Sparkler giggled at her own naughty suggestion, “You never know, we may catch them doing something!” Liking the way her marefriend thought, Stonecutter giggled and, not waiting for an answer, pushed the door open and carried Sparkler inside. Unfortunately, the only thing they caught Cloudburst and Seafoam doing was sharing a coffee in the kitchen. There were a few empty beer bottles on the coffee table in the living room, evidence of the night before. Upon closer inspection, the living room looked immaculate, like nothing untoward had ever happened. To their delight, the kitchen was in just good a shape. “Any coffee left for us?” she asked hopefully, then she whispered to her marefriend, “Put me down please.”

When Stonecutter set Sparkler down on the floor, the bright yellow unicorn immediately got busy helping to get the six pets unpacked or unleashed as necessary, leaving the earth pony to look around and get a good sense of the repairs that had been done. “You even mended the window! Wow Foam, you did good!”

“He did very well, Stone,” Cloudburst gave her friend a very salacious wink that was full of meaning that nopony in the room missed for a micro second. “I'll get coffee, Sparks!”

“During the clean-up, did you find the food that the pets really like?” Sparkler asked the hippogriff and pegasus after she was sure the six animals were safe and secure in the living room. Plus, she was sure they weren’t going to do another runner after being threatened so effectively by Zecora.

“Oh, yes, we did!” Cloudburst exclaimed when Seafoam quietly tapped the back of her hand, giving her permission to speak. “Master noted all the best stuff is marked with the different Professor's cutie marks. How about that?”

Sparkler facepalmed as she walked into the kitchen. She had noticed the tap to Cloudburst’s hand though, how easily he dominated her without saying a word, how she submitted so willingly. The way Stonecutter did to her. “Huh…about how we didn't do that to start with…” in her defence, she had been otherwise distracted the day before.

“Well, we weren't really paying attention...” Stonecutter put in, in an attempt to explain away the rather obvious glaring error that they had all made. Like Sparkler, the earth pony had noticed the intimate gesture between the dominant hippogriff and the submissive pegasus, but she had seen it that many times before that it didn’t phase her.

“You were too busy looking at Sparks's ass you mean,” as she had spoken out of turn, Seafoam gave her a lift reprimanding tap to her behind. As Stonecutter mumbled something indistinct, the pegasus helped her with the coffee.

“Some asses are harder to find,” Sparkler commented as she walked into the kitchen proper and she sat at a vacant chair opposite Seafoam at the breakfast table. She stared openly at Stonecutter’s fat rear that was barely contained in her cargo shorts and licked her lips. “I like them easy to find so I can spank it. Right Foam?”

Poor Stonecutter was bright red in the face as she and Cloudburst both set down four freshly made coffees down on the breakfast table. The pegasus though had a spring in her step that made them think she was using her wings when she wasn’t. “He knows where mine is at all times,” Cloudburst grinned, before sitting down beside her lover.

“Yes,” the turquoise hippogriff rolled his eyes at his pet and held her hand firmly, “It’s always behind that mouth of hers.”

Cloudburst affected a most affronted expression on her face and she fanned herself with her free hand. “I’ll have you know I've been a good girl, well, since I woke up…” With her face still beet red, Stonecutter elected to just sit and take a sip of her coffee. Giddy as a foal on Hearths Warming morning, Cloudburst kissed her Master’s beak and whispered, “give them the thing!”

“After.” Seafoam tapped the back of Cloudburst’s hand. “Did you two get breakfast at Zecora's?”

Shaking her head ‘no’, Sparkler shuddered involuntarily at the memory of the failed breakfast attempt earlier that morning. “I looked in her zebra cooking bin. I decided I wasn’t eating there in that hut.”

“That would be a no,” Stonecutter giggled, recalling how green her marefriend turned back in Zecora’s hut.

Cloudburst couldn’t resist a tease, whether it earned her a spanking or not. Definitely worth it. “Did you nearly have a boat incident again, Sparks?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

To that, Sparkler just gave Cloudburst an unamused deadpan look that could’ve felled a charging manticore. “Right,” Seafoam announced in an attempt to break the silence, though that was ruined slightly by the hungry rumble that came from the unicorn’s empty belly. “One breakfast, coming right up!”

Stonecutter was eminently grateful that he hadn’t ordered Cloudburst to make the breakfast. As much as she loved her best friend, and she did, a lot, the pegasus could not cook to save her life. “Thank you, Foam,” she said after sipping her coffee in time with a loud rumble from her own belly.

“Did you two have a good night?” asked Cloudburst, trying to talk her way out of the faux pas she had made just a few moments ago.

“Zecora's place is nice and cosy.” Sparkler squeezed Stonecutter’s hand and the two mares shared a lingering half lidded look between them. Both recalled waking up on the floor of the zebra’s hut having laid on the two sleeping pads pushed together to make a double ‘bed’ of sorts, with the unicorn drooling on Stonecutter’s chest.

“Certainly was cosy under that blanket, wasn’t it?” the earth pony fluttered her eyes at Sparkler. She hadn’t minded in the slightest where her marefriend and Mistress’s head had ended up.

Sparkler blushed hard and shifted just slightly on the stool. “I did stay warm all night.”

“I'm sure you did,” Seafoam grinned as he looked through Fluttershy’s kitchen cupboards for inspiration. Not seeing anything immediately leap out at him, he decided to fall back on an old favourite. “Pancakes good for you all?” he asked hopefully, seeing that his teacher did have blueberries, chocolate chips and syrup.

“Yes please,” Sparkler would have quite happily eaten the pancakes from the hippogriff’s bare hands she was so hungry.

“Oh Celestia yes!” Stonecutter would have eaten from a dog bowl if she was made to wait any longer. “Yes please!”

“Did you sleep well, CB?” asked Sparkler as she took a long sip of her coffee. She was pretty much sure that with just them two in the cottage, there may not have been much sleeping going on.

“Eventually, yes, thanks Sparks.” Cloudburst just left it at that. As she rested her hand on her belly, she knew, as did Seafoam, that something else had happened last night, but she didn’t want to talk about that just yet. She wasn’t ready, and she was very glad that her partner had respected her decision to remain quiet for now. ‘Until we’re certain,’ she had said.

‘Until we’re certain…’ Cloudburst held her hand where it was while her lover cooked away at the stove. She ignored the delicious scents coming from the pan. She didn’t really need to wait. She had been in heat. She knew. She was just too nervous to tell her friends. And Seafoam knew that too.

“You didn't...”

Cloudburst was shaken from her reverie and she glanced up at Stonecutter, a flash of a grin playing across her muzzle. “We did, three times!”

“You must have been a good filly, if you're sitting okay…” Sparkler said, making Seafoam laugh out loud as he added the blueberries and the chocolate chips to the two frying pans he had on the go.

“Well,” almost on cue, Cloudburst shuffled on the stool she was sat on. “I did receive a little spanking last night…”

“My pet has some coming, but I've reduced the total.” Said Seafoam from the stove. The pancakes were coming on nicely, but that wasn’t the entire reason that he had reduced his mare’s spanks. There was no way he was going to risk hurting her or…anypony else, for that matter. They meant more to him than that. “She is a comfortable ride, Sparkler.”

“Ride?” Stonecutter asked, spurting her coffee everywhere as her mind went in all manner of dirty directions at once.

“Ah!” Sparkler exclaimed as drops of snorted coffee splashed over her tee shirt, “Get your feather brain out of the gutter!” At that, Cloudburst finally lost it in fits of giggles and, laughing so hard she fell off the stool she was sat on and she had to use her wings to hover in the kitchen. Likewise, Stonecutter laughed, snorting her coffee all over the table this time. In contrast, Sparkler quietly rolled her eyes. “Maybe I should do stand up?”

Still giggling, Stonecutter wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, much to her marefriend’s distaste, “But I am comfortable, at least when I woke up on top of you,” she then kissed Sparkler’s lips, which the unicorn didn’t find distasteful in the slightest.

“I like his mind just where it is, thank you!” Cloudburst snickered, eventually she stopped laughing enough to land on her hooves.

“No comment,” Sparkler’s tone was snippy, but there was a smile on her face when Seafoam delivered two plates piled high with pancakes which he set on the breakfast table along with knives, forks and the maple syrup. “Food!” the unicorn let out such a squee that she clapped her hands excitedly. “Pony food! Actual pony food!”

Stonecutter very nearly dived in headfirst into the plate of pancakes that had been placed before her like a gift from Celestia herself, but at the last minute she stopped herself and showed restraint, she picked up the knife and fork. Cloudburst found that highly amusing. “You got her trained already, Sparks!”

Sparkler did not look up from her plate. “Eating.” Her arm was like a mechanical excavator, each time it was thrust into the food she shovelled so much pancake into her mouth that her cheeks bulged. Since Stonecutter was also busy eating her share of the pancakes, Cloudburst just sat and hugged her Master’s arm. “Well,” the unicorn said thickly when she had finally finished, “I do hope that the Professors are back soon. Thanks for helping us out, Foam.”

“I hope so too,” Cloudburst spoke up, her head resting on the hippogriff’s shoulder, “The taxi driver last night on the way to Cloudsdale said a couple of his fares had turned into statuettes while they were in his cab.”

Sparkler shuddered, “If I turn to stone please keep the birds off me.”

Unusually, Stonecutter finished last. She hadn’t been beaten in an eating ‘race’, not that it was much of a race, because Sparkler had utterly demolished her. She was really that hungry. “You have my word, my love.”

“Good thing you didn't turn into a statuette when that timberwolf was chasing us,” Cloudburst opined, still nestling into Seafoam’s arm.

“I heard all about that.” Seafoam smiled, lovingly he caressed his marefriend’s mane. He genuinely couldn’t imagine his life without her by his side. The thought of losing her made him feel sick to his stomach. “If you turned to stone, they wouldn't eat you.” He managed to smirk, masking his feelings, “Might use you as a piss post though.”

Cloudburst caught the look that Seafoam shot her and, looking down at her hooves, she just blushed. The beet red blush did not go unnoticed though and Stonecutter giggled. “You did that last night too, huh?”

“Ewwwww!”

“Each to their own, my love,” Stonecutter frowned ever so gently at her marefriend though, when she stood up, she kissed the back of the unicorn’s hand. “I got the dishes!”

“Can we show them yet?” Cloudburst asked Seafoam excitedly the very second the dishes landed in the sink.

The hippogriff shook his head slowly. He did so enjoy making her wait. “Yes, only when the dishes are done.”

Sparkler, who thought that was an inside joke, waited patiently. Cloudburst though bounced happily like a filly on Hearths Warming morning and rushed to help Stonecutter with the dishes. “Heh, you're keen, CB, something up?”

“You'll see! Plus I was kinda happy to stand up.” The pegasus washed while her friend dried. “My tush is a teeny bit sore.” She was so excited to show off what they had bought, now that the problem with the pets had been put to bed at last.

“Last night was a lot of fun,” Sparkler spoke up in an attempt to fill the silence while Cloudburst and Stonecutter washed the dishes. “Did the two of you have fun?”

Seafoam snickered at the kitchen table, giving Sparkler a knowing wink. “Oh, and just how much fun was it?”

Stonecutter’s blush at the sink spoke volumes. “I slept warm, comfortable and very safe.” Sparkler nodded to her marefriend, whose blush simply deepened to the point where she was threatening to combust in a ball of fire.

Cloudburst erupted into a fit of giggles, her arms covered in soap suds, “I see somepony blushing!”

“I am not...” Stonecutter’s muzzle scrunched up though, because her bare faced lie was just that, a bare faced lie, and it was so obvious to all of them in the kitchen. Ponies in Canterlot were aware that she was blushing.

Once the dishes were done, cleaned and dried, Cloudburst bounced excitedly on the heels of her hooves. She was so barely containing her excitement sparks of electricity was shooting from her fingertips when she clapped her hands together like she was about to get a lollipop. “Can I give them the thing now, Master, please?”

Seafoam rolled his eyes. The turquoise hippogriff doubted he could keep her from giving Sparkler the neon pink MiAC bag any longer even if he tried. “I don't know,” he chuckled, enjoying the look of frustration on her face, “is this cottage fireproof? You could roast a marshmallow on that blush.”

Playfully, Sparkler stuck out her tongue. “No one teases Stony but me, thank you.” She gave her chubby lover a hug and a kiss straight to the earth pony’s lips. “We did talk a lot last night,” she continued, suddenly unsure of herself now that three sets of eyes were on her. “But, I'm not sure if I’m ready to take the step to where the two of you are.”

Seafoam scooted around the breakfast table and rested his clawed hand on the unicorn’s shoulder. “We didn't get to where we are in a day, Sparkler.”

“Totally!” Cloudburst agreed quickly, getting to Sparkler’s other side and wrapping her up in a hug. “We've been together six months, he's been my Master for five.” She then ran through to the living room and the couch where the MiAC bag was waiting and she snatched it up in her hands and presented it to Sparkler as they followed her in from the kitchen. “We arranged this for you, Sparks, ‘cos I think you're cool!”

Taking the bag, Sparkler peeked inside and she saw a whole lot of yellow. “Oh my, is...is this what I think it is?” Slowly, she realised just what was in that pink bag she held in her hands. Staring intently at the contents, she kept Stonecutter from looking over her shoulder.

“Yup!” Cloudburst squealed, “Sushi here went and bought it, I told him what to get. Thought you'd like a helping start.”

“I know I wanted this, thank you, Foamy.” Feeling a very warm glow spread through her breast, Sparkler pulled out the yellow collar and held it up for the slate grey earth pony to see. “Come here, pet.”