Wildfire: Lighting the Flame

It was still dark when Air Raid got out of her Fiesta; locking her driver’s door she leant back against her car and shivered as a gust of late winter wind whipped over the almost empty hospital car park. Checking her watch she groaned at the digital readout like it was its fault she was standing here at five a.m. in the morning. Yawning she shook her head and trotted across the car park towards the main doors of Canterlot Royal Hospital, ‘I’m here again!’ She grumbled to herself as she extended her wings around her barrel for warmth. ‘They’ll be charging me rent at this rate...’

Sighing deeply, partly to hide another yawn, Air Raid thought back over the last twenty hours of her life. Yesterday midday everything had been normal. They, her and Slingshot, had called Darkstar to tell her they were coming home from their three month racing tour of Fillydelphia. Yesterday midday they had been laughing and joking, winding each other up, sharing in-jokes with each other.

Yesterday midday would be the last time anything would ever be normal again.

Walking with fatigue-induced leaden hooves Air Raid’s thoughts drifted to the phone call she’d received from Brightstar four hours ago. The phone call that had changed everything. It had been Slingshot’s turn to drive; she had been sleeping in the passenger seat when the royal blue unicorn had rung them. ‘The police have found a white unicorn mare dumped in Canterlot…’ he’d sounded distraught. She’d asked him what was up, after all there were many white unicorns in Canterlot. What he’d said next sent chills up her spine. ‘Cutie Mark Recognition Database says it’s Darkie. One hundred per cent match. Police says she’s been taken directly to Canterlot Royal.’ Air Raid had taken the wheel back following that call. Being just over halfway between Canterlot and Filly what should’ve taken them eight hours to drive she had made it in just under five. She didn’t care a damn about the speeding or the dangerous driving violations. She’d deal with those later. Darkie was all that mattered.

So here she was again. Walking through these too familiar doors.

Crossing the white marbled floor the lime green mare was almost like walking with muscle memory as she made her way towards the reception. As she walked she was quietly amazed at how many ponies there were in the hospital even at this ungoddessly time in the morning. Dancing to the left she just missed a stallion and mare carrying a colt, then immediately had to jink around a red unicorn with a bandaged eye just to get to the wooden framed desk. “Hi…” she yawned at the orange earth pony busy at the computer there.

Looking up from her already stacked up paperwork the nurse put aside her keyboard and pushed her glasses up her muzzle with a perky little smile that was at odds with the early hour. “May I help you?” She asked in a chirpy tone that matched her smile.

“Hey, Nurse…” Air Raid squinted through her fatigue at the mare’s namebadge, “Apple Turnover…you’re new, where’s Pureheart?”

“Nurse Pureheart works the day shift.” The receptionist sniffed as she shifted on her pad. “May I help you?” She asked again.

Air Raid kicked herself, ‘I guess it is unsociable hours’ she thought as her grey eyes began to droop. “I'm here for Darkstar, um…white unicorn, mare? She was bought in about three and a half-ish hours ago, I think.”

“And, you are?” Apple Turnover asked, tapping her keyboard and skimming through various windows on her screen.

“Oh…oh right, um, I’m Air Raid.” She stifled another yawn with her hoof. “I got the call from CMRD about Darkstar on the way back from Filly earlier.”

Apple Turnover adjusted her glasses once more and checked her screen, calling up the information. “Ah…yes, Darkstar…” she said finally after a few moments, “The police informed us you are acting in Brightstar's stead. I'm sorry to inform you, that Darkstar has not yet come out of surgery. If you can take a seat in the waiting room, I'll inform the staff you are here. Somepony should get you once she is out of surgery.”

“I got it, thanks for your time Miss.” Air Raid smiled and trotted across the white marble tiles of the hospital’s foyer to the adjacent spacious waiting room. Slumping on the nearest seating pad the pegasus leant her tired head against the wall and allowed her eyelids to drop.

Opening them what felt almost straight away she checked the watch on her right foreleg while she wiped away the drool from her mouth. ‘C’mon! Thirty minutes?’ she thought with a half yawn, half sigh, and wondered when this ‘somepony’ would come and get her. Grumbling to herself about hospitals and stupid waiting rooms she pulled out her phone with the intent of ringing Brightstar; ‘It’s only five thirty five…he’ll be asleep...’ changing her mind she started write out a text message instead. “I’m at hospital, no word yet.”

Almost instantly her phone beeped with a reply “No word? What does that mean?”

Air Raid sighed as she typed, whishing she had something more to tell her friend. “Means she's still in surgery mate, somepony'll get me when they're done.”

Her phone beeped; “She has been in surgery for three HOURS. What is happening!!!!!!!”

“Bright...I know...I know as much as you do. I've stopped a few nurses but I have to wait apparently.” That was a lie, but it was a little one, and as she was still wrecked from driving almost all night she didn’t feel guilty in the least telling it.

“It is so frustrating. Please keep me updated.” The lime green mare could almost hear the desperation in Brightstar’s text message.

“You got it Bright...hey, tell Moony I said hi...” It was a meaningless platitude, but right now it was the best she could offer.

“Sure…she is in a mood because of my mood.” Air Raid sniggered at that reply. A griffon in a mood wasn’t a thing she wanted to experience.

“So let her take your mind off it, I'll keep you informed.” When no reply came after ten minutes she put her phone back in her saddlebag and, deciding she was getting thoroughly bored with waiting she picked up the top five glossy gossip magazines and newspapers from the nearby stack, noting with an amused smile they were at least three months out of date. Skimming the Canterlot Centennial she caught the headline ‘University Student Blinded in Horror Attack’ and decided to pass in preference of a two month old Mayfair that promised to tell you how to cook the perfect Hearths Warming dinner.

Another thirty minutes later she was three quarters of the way through reading how to prepare a nut roast – as if she’d ever actually do it – when Apple Turnover appeared at the waiting room door with a polite knock of the door that made her jump a little. Hoofing open the door she walked in with a large steaming mug of coffee a tray on her back. “Sorry for disturbing you, my shift is over and the cafeteria doesn’t open for another hour. I figured you could use a coffee.”

“Thanks nurse, do you know anything about Darkie?” Air Raid asked as she gratefully took the offered coffee.

“I know it could be up to another hour, maybe even more.” She said softly, not unsympathetically.

“Oh, come on!” Air Raid exclaimed in helpless frustration. “Can’t you tell me anything?”

Apple Turnover had seen this reaction before of course, and to be fair she could entirely understand. Not being able to do anything was always hard on family and friends when a loved one was being operated on. She desperately wanted to go home to her bed but instead she smiled and took the pad next to the pegasus. “I can tell you the surgeon is Doctor Aqua Splash, she has been working on Darkstar since she arrived, and Doctor Splash is our best trauma surgeon. That should tell you something.”

“It tells me I best get a shit ton of coffee in me while I still can,” she took a welcome sip of the hot coffee and gave the nurse a half-amused smile, the accepting smile of one who knows deep down there’s no point arguing or making a scene, “Because I'm gonna be here for a while yet, right?”

Apple Turnover leant forward and with her hoof gently squeezed Air Raid’s own. “There is some good news, still.”

“Oh yeah?” Air Raid blew the steam rising from her coffee and yawned, “I could use some, Nurse Apple Turnover.” Raising the beverage to her lime green lips she swallowed some more, hoping the caffeine would wake her up. “I've been driving for fifteen hours and it’s now…stupid O'clock.” She finished, accurately reading out her watch.

“The good news is they haven't given up on her.” The orange earth pony said kindly as she stood from her pad to her hooves. “I’m going to stick around until I hear about your friend. Enjoy your coffee, I’ll bring you another in a bit, alright?”

Air Raid returned the nurse’s smile as she exited the room. “If know Darkie at all she won't let them give up on her.” She asserted definitely to the now empty waiting room.

Approximately forty five minutes later and Celestia had finally lifted the sun, bathing the land – and in particular this morning Canterlot Royal Hospital and its many patients – in a bright golden light, gently coaxing the dreaming sleepers to wakefulness. One by one ponies across Equestria woke up bleary-eyed to face the rigours of their day. All except one at any rate. Air Raid was fast asleep slumped half off of her seating pad, lime green head on the floor, mouth wide open, her tongue hanging out. The door to the waiting room opened and a neon blue pegasus with a purple mane and wearing green scrubs stained red with blood (and other bodily fluids) entered quietly. For a moment she was amused at the scene that greeted her, one of her favourite racers sprawled out with her right wing lodged in her mouth murmuring ‘MMmmm…Wily…’ leaning closer to her head the doctor said loudly in her ear, “Air Raid?”

Hearing her name Air Raid jumped up, snorting herself violently awake, a bright crimson blush spreading over her cheeks. “Yes!”

The doctor looked around at the others in the waiting room who were pretending they either weren’t looking now, hadn’t been looking at all or being very suddenly interested in the out-of-date glossies they were reading, some upside down. “I'm Doctor Splash, could you please follow me to my office?”

“Uh…sure, n-no problem…” the lime green pegasus proceeded to yawn herself fully awake as she followed after the retreating doctor, her still asleep brain trying to place her accent, her cold coffee forgotten on the waiting room table.

~ ~ ~

“Please have a seat, Miss Raid.” Doctor Aqua Splash absently pointed with her neon blue wing as they entered her office.

Air Raid took a moment to look around and collect herself as she took the indicated seating pad. The office was roomy, at least, and painted a two tone blue, with a darker cyan at the bottom and a much lighter eggshell blue at the top half separated by a wavy plum coloured divider. Whales and other sea life had been painted below, with various birds depicted above. Surprisingly Aqua Splash took the empty pad next to her on this side of her desk. “I understand that Darkstar's brother, Brightstar, has given you full power of attorney in regards to my patient. Do you believe the same?”

“Yeah...we talked it over on the phone,” Air Raid began, her now awake brain still trying to place the doctor’s accent. It definitely wasn’t Canterlot. “I understand and agree.” ‘This isn't good,’ she thought, ‘if she’s opening with that.’

“Do I need to candy coat this, or are you pony enough to take it straight?”

‘Trottingham!’ Air Raid cheered internally as she finally placed the accent. “Gimme it as it is, Doc. I'm not a filly.”

“Very well,” Doctor Splash said with a deep breath, “Whomever assaulted Darkstar didn't plan on her surviving. She was found in the Warehouse District. The police pony said it would have been Monday before she was discovered, but an anti-graffiti task force is why there were police there. She was medevacked to here. She was very near death.” The neon blue pegasus paused to look Air Raid in the eyes. “I estimate as near as an hour away.”

Air Raid listened quietly, her lime green fur going very pale, she was seeing Wily in her mind all over again. ‘Stay with it Raid…Darkie needs you…you got this…’ Absently she closed her mouth she didn’t realise was open, “Darkie...she, my friend was almost beaten to death?” She didn’t want to believe it.

Aqua Splash nodded sadly, feeling complete empathy for the other mare. “Among other things.” She said as she reached out her right wing and scooped up a clipboard full with many sheets of paper. “The police will want to talk to you; they don't have any leads. All they know for sure is she was placed there, but not attacked there.” She flipped the chart she held in her wing. “So, where to begin?” She asked, looking over the extensive chart.

‘No...no, no…’ Air Raid still didn’t want to believe it. She wanted this to be one of Darkie’s pranks, albeit a prank taken too far. “A-Amongst other things?” She almost didn’t want to know.

The doctor looked at the stricken mare with a great deal of sympathy. “She came in with four broken ribs, one of which punctured her left lung. We gave her eight pints of blood, thankfully at least she is a common blood type. Her left foreleg is broken in three places. Her left hind leg broken in two places. The jaw was broken and her left eye was damaged, but I believe we have saved her vision…”

Listening to this unsavoury laundry list Air Raid didn’t notice her mouth again hanging wide open, her eyes wide like saucers. “Oh...my...sweet Luna above!” She gasped, her hoof raised up to her still open mouth.

“I’m afraid there’s more; she was stabbed twice in the abdomen. Wound indicates it was a unicorn horn. We got DNA samples of that. All those wounds were made with the intent of causing her to bleed out. Slowly.” Aqua Splash emphasised that last remark.

Air Raid was stunned. To say she was pale was an understatement, she was practically white. “Th-that's it, right?” She asked, crossing her primary feather in hope. “I mean...I’ve seen injuries doing what I do for a job, but...buuuuck...” the lime green mare rubbed a hoof across her brow, trying to process it all.

Doctor Aqua Splash put her left foreleg gently around Air Raid’s shoulder, offering what comfort she could for what she was about to say next. “I’m sorry to inform you, she was raped by at least three stallions based on the DNA of the semen.”

“No. no, no...no…oh Darkie…” Air Raid’s ears were slicked back and she shook her head in disbelief as she started to weep. ‘It’s a prank…it has to be a prank…’

“Unfortunately we do know whose horn stabbed her.” Doctor Splash said gently.

Air Raid’s ears immediately perked up, “So...so the police are on the case right?” Subconsciously she crossed her other primaries.

“Air Raid, they weren't gentle and they fractured her skull when they cut off two thirds of her horn and used that to stab her; it was not found at the scene.”

‘They bucking did what!?’ For long quiet minutes that seemed to stretch for eternity there was silence in the doctor’s office as the distraught pegasus clung to the medic like a foal clings to its mother. “Say...say that again…” She eventually whispered.

“Whoever did this to your friend cut off her horn and used it to stab her.” Aqua Splash repeated boldly as she consulted her notes with a small shake of the head. What she hadn’t told her was the horn, made of a thickened keratin with a pliable, almost fluid, inner core, had been removed with the flat slicing edge of what appeared to be a kitchen knife. A dull kitchen knife. The amount of pain the unicorn had surely experienced must have been simply excruciating, like removing a leg with a penknife. No, nopony needed to know that. “Do you want to see her?” She asked, sliding herself from her seating pad.

Air Raid nodded, lost in a stunned silence. “Is...Is she awake?” She asked as she found her voice.

Doctor Aqua Splash shook her head. “I’m sorry, she is in a deep coma. It is hard to tell if she will ever come out of it, let alone when. Before you see her you need to know her right side was severely abraded, like she was dragged at a high speed. She is on her left side because of the punctured lung. There is a lot of bandages and casts do to the injuries. A machine is helping her breathe also because of the lung. There is a feeding tube and three IV's in place. She is not the pretty sight that I'm sure she was before this. Do you still want to see her?”

Again Air Raid nodded, “I...” ‘I could just go...NO! Don't you bucking dare...’ “I need to see Darkie, doctor.”

“Okay then,” the doctor shot her a fleeting smile as she held open the door to her office. “There is a small glimmer of hope in this. The stabs were located in a specific spot. She did lose three feet of small intestine, but both stabs punctured her womb. I was able to repair that. It shouldn't affect her if she ever wants a foal.” The neon blue mare stood aside to allow Air Raid to leave first then followed after her, putting a comforting wing over her barrel. “She is in ICU for now, and will be there for at least three days. She will be moved to a room after that if there are no complications.”

Subconsciously the lime green mare huddled into the doctor’s feathery hug, “And, that's…the good news?

“That and she is still alive.”

~ ~ ~

Standing at the door to ICU room two Doctor Aqua Splash paused to show her I.D. and name badge to the two impressively huge and imposing guard ponies that were positioned either side of the plain white door. Nodding to allow her and the lime green mare admittance the guards moved fractionally so that the doctor could open the door. Doing so she stood aside to let Air Raid enter first.

Cautiously, unsure of what she would see, Air Raid entered the ICU room. She was still hoping, albeit it was a long and far-fetched hope, that this was some kind of elaborate prank set up by the white unicorn. The pegasus went in prepared to yell and scream at her friend for taking this way too far. “Alright Darkie…” She said as she rounded the door, still holding to the belief it was a set-up, “This has gone on…on…oh…” her words died on her lips as her grey eyes beheld the scene. The misshapen lump lying on the bed covered in bandages and casts bore precious little resemblance to her friend. “Oh…Darkie…”

Doctor Splash was immediately at her side, her hoof again on her shoulder. “She looks better now than when I first saw her. You may touch her and talk to her, if you move a limb, only the right foreleg. I find the best thing for coma patients is physical contact and sound.”

Air Raid sniffled out a loud sob, tears starting to roll down her lime green cheeks as she reached for the untidy mop of her grey mane. “You…you can get up…Darkie, come on, the prank’s over, you win…” she tried one last time in vain, knowing in her heart she’d get no response. “Can I take a picture, for her brother? He'll want to see this.”

Aqua Splash smiled as she gently stroked her shoulder. “You may. I was going to ask if you want me to contact Brightstar or will you?”

Shaking her head Air Raid fished for and retrieved her iPhone from her saddlebag. “I'll ring him in a bit, Doc.” She blinked away her tears and steadied the camera on her phone and quickly snapped off several pictures of Darkstar lying comatose in the hospital bed. “How...” she whispered as she tenderly touched her right leg, “How... twenty-odd hours ago I was talking to her...she was in Café Diem, enjoying her macchiato...”

The neon blue doctor stroked her back between her wings, “Life can be very short, you should cherish every memory.”

“How...” Air Raid said quietly as she stroked Darkstar's hoof with almost no pressure, “How do you go from that to this in just twenty something hours?” She wiped away the tears cascading down her cheeks, but still more came. Looking at her friend laying there she noticed for the first time, probably because she was pointedly ignoring the severed stump of her horn, the gold and silver ring securely fastened in place. “Why is that 'thing' on her horn?” She asked, afraid of the answer.

“It’s there to prevent her from using magic.” The doctor consulted her notes, flicking through the many pages to check what a unicorn colleague had told her. “With a damaged horn a unicorn lacks control over magic; they may be able to regain some control, but this damage is very severe and even in a coma she might have an uncontrolled magic leak.”

Air Raid forced a smile, her hoof still stroking Darkstar’s mane. “That would be bad. Darkie’s talent was…is, illusions; powerful illusions, she could make you see and hear anything, and they were so real.” She said by way of explanation, recalling the time Darkstar had sent her voice to her when she had been driving away from the hospital. “Will she always wear it?”

“I’m afraid I can't answer that till she wakes up.” Aqua Splash put her clipboard aside on the nightstand beside the bed. “The police are treating this as an attempted ponicide so there will be a guard at her room. If you visit her in the ICU you will need someone from the hospital staff. Once she is in her own room you can visit as family. The police already have your details, they will contact you. Are you staying in Canterlot?” She enquired.

“Um…yeah, my place is in the Upper Residential District.” Air Raid stood and turned to leave but paused in the doorway, taking another look at Darkstar’s body. “We warned her not to do anything stupid, after what happened to me.” Taking a couple of steps back to her friend’s body she squeezed her white hoof. “I know who did this...I know where to find him…” Leaning close to her exposed ear she whispered, “He won't get away with this Darkie.”

“If that is true then please let the police handle it. I'd rather not have you in a bed next to her.” Aqua Splash gave her a concerned smile as they both left the ICU room. “Check in with reception when you come back. There are no restricted visiting hours for a coma patient.”

~ ~ ~

Sitting at a table in a corner of the now open hospital cafeteria Air Raid used her left forehoof to prop her tired head up and breathed in the heavenly scent of her black coffee with three sugars. The clock on the wall and the watch on her wrist confirmed to her it was a minute or two away from nine a.m. ‘Ugh…three hours…’ she thought as she took another coffee fuelled breath into her lungs. By now she was sure there was more caffeine than blood in her system. An hour’s sleep in two days the pegasus was beyond running on fumes. ‘Bright…I should call Bright…’ reaching into her saddlebag Air Raid first tried using her car keys to dial up Brightstar before she dug once more into her bag and pulled out her iPhone. Scrolling through her menu it took her three attempts to find her friend’s number. ‘Still be awake, please…’ she thought, fully aware that Brightstar would’ve been awake as much as she had been, as her hoof hit the green dial button.

“Yes?” Moonbeak’s shrill voice answered the call after just two rings.

Air Raid was so tired she almost called her ‘Bright’. Shaking her head and kicking herself with a smile she answered, “Hey Moon, it's Raid, is Bright about?” She asked as she took a sip of her coffee and shivered happily at the taste.

“He is, what do you need?”

“Can you tell him to fire up your pc? I've got some photos of Darkie I need to send him, and Moon...warn him they're...graphic.”

“Hold on.” Moonbeak said with an audible change in the pitch of her voice, becoming softer. “Let me ungag him and I'll have to hold the phone.” Air Raid heard the griffon’s paws on the wooden floor of their treehouse, then Moonbeak’s voice again, but faint, “Hi love it is the race driver and she has news about your sister, but I don't think it is good.” Brightstar’s voice sounded next, equally as faint, “Could you please untie me?” he asked as his partner assured him she would work on that while he spoke. Louder now the unicorn’s voice was clearer, she assumed the griffon was holding it nearer his mouth. “Raid! What is the news?”

Air Raid couldn’t help but snigger as she took another drink of her rocket fuel. “So, Moon took your mind off it then? Anyway...the surgery was six hours hun...the doc says whoever beat her...they didn’t want her to live.”

‘My sister is too tough to die that easily.’ He thought as his girlfriend began working on releasing the harness that bound him. “Did they say what happened?”

Draining her large mug Air Raid waved her lime green wing, signalling for another refill. “Oh yeah, they said alright...are you sitting or lying down?” She asked as the waitress came over and took her mug, she mouthed ‘two please,’ and the pony nodded. At this rate her bank balance was going to go on coffee.

“Flat on my back and hooves in the air, but Moon is getting me out of the harness.” Came the deep voiced reply, tinged with a definite hint of pride that the pegasus could identify with, like that time Cyclone had her in that rope harness.

“Alrighty, here goes,” Air Raid took a deep breath and readied herself. “She had; four broken ribs, front and rear left legs broken in three places, fractured skull, broken jaw, stabbed in the belly by a unicorn horn....”

“Buck!” Brightstar yelled, interrupting his friend the moment he heard ‘unicorn horn’, he struggled uselessly against the harness holding him. “Cold Front stabbed her!”

Moonbeak shot him a very disapproving look that immediately made him lie still. “Have they caught him?” She asked while the griffon worked her free clawed hand into the knots.

“There....Bright there's more hun.” Air Raid began reluctantly before she was again interrupted. Idly she wondered if there was enough coffee in the universe to help her right now. ‘Probably not…’

“Did she tell the police it was Cold Front?”

“No, because she can’t...” Air Raid smiled up at the waitress as the wonderful orange pegasus laid down a tray with not two but three coffees and a large cream scone, mouthing ‘on me, sweetie’. “She's in a coma, Bright.”

Brightstar’s anguished scream of ‘Noooooooo’ faded partway through the extended ‘ooooooooo!’

“How is she?” Moonbeak asked, her shrill voice raising an octave as her boyfriend called out faintly but audibly, ‘Give me back the phone and untie me!’

Air Raid sighed despondently, “She’s about as bad as you can be and still be alive Moon, give it him back, Bright needs to hear this.”

Moonbeak’s voice grew faint as the griffon clearly moved away from the phone yelling, “Calm down or I'll hang up!” To which there was a faintly whimpered, ‘sorry, please give me back the phone.’

“Raid, Is…Is she going to live?” Brightstar asked hesitantly, his voice was back at its full normal volume.

Air Raid took a moment to drain half of the nearest black coffee, swilling the sweetened drink around her mouth, relishing the strong taste as she mulled over her answer. “Honestly they're going hour by hour right now, if she makes it to tomorrow it's promising, but...hun...I wasn't done with her injuries.” She said, deciding to be as upfront as she could. ‘No sense in sugar-coating it…’

Brightstar’s voice came over all strained, “Broken bones, broken skull and stabbed, there's more?” He asked, unsure if he wanted to know what more there could be.

This time the lime green mare took the time to finish the rest of the coffee she had been working on. “Hun…she was raped; the doc found evidence of three different stallions and...”

“Th…Three?” The royal blue stallion gasped in disbelief.

“Yeah. Three…they'd, um, y’know...in her.” Air Raid tried to explain, without actually saying the words out loud, it was just too repulsive what had happened. “But, her horn...Brightstar they cut off her horn.”

The next few moments were lost in what Air Raid thought was the sounds of a tumultuous struggle, one that ended shortly and definitively with a loud thudding noise that the pegasus guessed was either a hand or the phone impacting a certain royal blue unicorn. “Hello you still there?” Moonbeak asked, notably slightly out of breath.

“I'm still here Moon,” Air Raid confirmed, hastily swallowing another mouthful of coffee. A little voice in the back of her head tried telling her she was drinking too much of it, and instead she needed actual rest as opposed to more stimulants, but she quickly drowned it with another full mouthful.

“Okay, Bright isn't doing too well.” Moonbeak understated, causing the pegasus to snigger mirthlessly - ‘you aren’t kidding,’ she thought, judging by the background yells and screams – “You said she was stabbed by a horn was... ah…was it...um...”

“Her own...yes it was.” The admission made Air Raid nauseous, the very thought that anypony, even a pony as utterly vile and disgusting as Wily’s dad, could do such a thing to another made her feel the need to vomit and never stop.

Air Raid moved her phone away from her ear as Brightstar’s yells of ‘I'll kill him. I'll kill him,’ momentarily drowned out the conversation, and she had to strain her ears to hear the high pitched voice of the griffon as she asked, “Who is the Cold Front he wants to kill?” Before she could offer an explanation Air Raid heard Moonbeak screech, ‘Shut up or you'll be tied up till next week!’ The silence that reigned afterwards spoke volumes.

“Um…he, he’s Wily's dad. You remember when me and Shot were first over there with you, I had a hairline fracture in my muzzle? Yeah that was him.”

“Oh, him...” Moonbeak easily recalled the time she had first met the racer, for the first week she had been unable to eat anything solid because of her muzzle. “Sweet Luna, I can't let him go kill some pony even if he is pond scum. Any evidence?”

Air Raid couldn’t help the bitter laugh as it escaped her throat. “Of course not. The three DNA samples weren't in the system. No witnesses either. If there hadn't already been police in the Warehouse District she'd be dead within an hour of being dumped there.”

Moonbeak clicked her beak, deep in thought. “I'll get my mom to sit for Athena, and my pet and I will be there early the day after tomorrow.” Sure, she’d lose Monday and Tuesday from her working week, but for Brightstar this was worth it. “Thank you, Raid, for looking after Darkstar.”

“Tell Bright on Silverbolt's grave I'll stay with her.” Air Raid said determinedly as she hung up the phone and wearily reached for her coffee, as much for something to do as to keep her awake. It was then, with half of her attention not being diverted by the unpleasant call she’d had to make, that she noticed the orange pegasus waitress literally hovering to her right. “Can I help you, Miss?”

“Oh…um, I’m sorry to um, bother you, I can see you’ve got a lot on,” she stumbled excitedly over her words, “But, my colt and I are huge fans of yours and I was wondering, if it wasn’t too much trouble, maybe you could, um…”

“Well…” Air Raid sighed inside. A fan right now was the last thing she needed, but she found it hard to refuse the mare. She had bought her three free coffees. “Go on then, who am I making it out to?”

“Oh thank you!” The waitress joyfully clapped her hooves. “We’ve watched all your races and exhibitions on Facetube!” Catching the weary ‘almost at her limit’ look on the lime green racer, the orange mare calmed herself down. “Sorry, it’s to ‘Autumn Burst,’ and my colt is ‘Sky Burst’.” She smiled a wide smile as her hero signed her napkin, her waitress hat, and posed for a few photos with her. Autumn Burst happily skipped behind her serving counter, imagining the jealous look on her little colts face when he checked his emails and saw the photos his mum had sent him. ‘Coolest mum ever, yay!’ Autumn even allowed herself a little celebratory hoof-pump, out of sight of course. Lost in thoughts of the joy on her colt’s face the next time she saw him, which was only two weeks away now, when the Junior Speedster’s Flight Camp had their spring break, Autumn Burst didn’t notice the large green earth pony on the other side of the counter waiting to be served. “Good morning Lotus, what can I get you?”

~ ~ ~

At precisely one minute past six in the a.m. of Monday the Friendship Express steam train from Fillydelphia pulled into Canterlot station. Excess steam billowed from the magnificent engine, framed against the darkness of the early morning and lit by the station’s floodlights. Guard whistles blew, signals were exchanged and the conductor opened the doors of the five carriages, spilling a crowd of ponies out onto the platform in a sudden buzz of bustle and noise. A good portion of the disembarking travellers quickly met up with family or friends and left the station to go about their day. As the crowd began to thin out one such couple, odd by most standards, alighted onto the emptying platform; the royal blue unicorn stallion carried two suitcases in his yellow magical aura as he walked a pace behind the dark grey furred flanks of the griffon leading him by the leash attached to the white and grey collar around his neck.

Moonbeak tugged on the leash to halt her stallion and pet as she surveyed the platform looking for the mare who was to be meeting them. For a brief moment she thought the she was late, then her sharp emerald green eyes caught sight of the lime green pegasus laid on one of the many benches on the now empty platform, her head propped up against a timetable sign next to it. “Raid,” she called loudly, “Over here!”

Air Raid snapped awake at the sound of her name and looked around to see who it was who had woke her up, then smiled as she found her two friends. “Hey!” She hurried over, looking very much like she hadn't slept since yesterday, or the day before.

“You look like crap Raid.” Moonbeak said bluntly by way of a greeting. “You driving us to the hospital, or are we flying?”

Air Raid raised a foreleg to her tangled blue mane and ran her hoof through the unkempt mess, snagging on a few knots. “Heh...fair enough…thanks Moony, nice to see you again too.”

“Raid can't fly, remember, Mistress.” Brightstar whispered discreetly in his partner’s snowy white ear.

“I've got us a cab waiting,” the lime green mare explained with a shake of her head, “We all won't squeeze in my car.”

Moonbeak winced at the whispered reminder, a large bright scarlet blush colouring her white feathered cheeks. “Good, I'm not that strong to fly two ponies.” She gently tugged the leash tight, “Lead the way Raid, and, ah…sorry for that.”

Air Raid sniggered at the older griffon’s fading blush. “Eh...it's no biggie, don't call me ‘Dodo’ and we're all good.” She pointed the rough direction with an extension of her left wing and proceeded to lead the way off the station. “I see you didn't waste any time getting Bright in a collar.” She added with a smile as the royal blue unicorn bought up the rear, keeping the leash slack and carrying the two bags in his yellow aura.

Moonbeak slowed her walk and spared her young lover an affectionate rub of her beak along his cheek, before playfully nipping his ear. “He spent the whole of yesterday talking about killing that unicorn. This is our compromise. I let him off the collar and he can do what he must.”

“I think it suits him,” Air Raid giggled as she checked out the two-tone dark grey and white collar. “I do like how it matches your fur and feathers.”

“Sounds like somepony's jealous...” Brightstar said quietly with a wink to the green mare…then gasped as his dom’s left wing flexed and struck him a hard glancing blow across his right cutie mark.

“When spoken to, at least in public, pet.” The middle-aged griffon emphasised her point with an extra tug on the leash.

“Yeah...” Air Raid watched the simple yet powerful display with an envious look in her grey eyes. She hadn’t played the sub since that time with Cyclone and her itch was getting desperate to be scratched. Coughing she forced her wings not to pop open, it had been that long since she had preened them she doubted they even could, “Look I wanna kill him too, but I also don’t wanna end up in bed two next to your sis.”

“Yes, but he is a unicorn, and you are not.” Moonbeak stated matter-of-factly as they arrived at the cab, one of only a few vehicles in the train station’s car park, as if that simple statement explained all of the pegasus’s reticence.

Pausing for a brief second at the cab Brightstar quietly, without need for instruction, surrounded the door handle in his yellow magic and opened it allowing his girlfriend to enter ahead of him.

“Thank you my love.” She rubbed her yellow beak across his cheek and got in, still holding the leash, giving it the gentlest of tugs to get her stallion in as well, and he obediently obliged.

“My, aren't we well trained?” Air Raid asked rhetorically as she followed the other two into the cab. “Canterlot Royal Hospital, quick as you like, please,” she instructed the driver.

“We know what each other likes.” Moonbeak settled down next to Brightstar on her side of the seat that ran across the back of the cab. “Isn't that right love?” She asked, draping a wing around the unicorn, as the cab lurched into motion.

“We do indeed.” Brightstar leant into the feathery hug and nuzzled the white feathered jaw. “But, Moon's right Raid, you do look like Tartarus just ate you up and spat you out.” He grinned at the suddenly indignant look on his friend’s face, speaking more freely now they were in the cab.

Air Raid looked away out of the cab’s window, her reflection staring back at her from the glass. She really did look a proper mess. Her lime green fur was un-brushed, with tufts sticking out at all angles, there were broken feathers spoiling the line of her wings and her mane really did look as if she had slept propped upright against a noticeboard (which she had). “Darkie doesn't care what I look like…” she muttered aloud as scenery whizzed past the window.

With concern on her face Moonbeak leant forward and put a clawed hand on her hoof. “The rest of us care, and if Darkstar wakes up to that, you might put her back in a coma.”

“I...I...” Air Raid stammered, about to unleash a retort she just thought of before she again caught her reflection, especially her blood shot bagged eyes, and found her comeback died on her lips. “Fine, I'll go freshen up later.”

“I saw the photos you sent,” Brightstar said with a smile, “I dunno who looks worse right now, Darkie or you.”

Playfully Moonbeak swatted one of Brightstar’s ears, “Forgive my stallion. He tries to be funny when he's worried.” She placed a tender kiss on his cheek before asking, “Any changes since you last talked to us?”

Air Raid smile and internally ‘aww’d’ as she shook her head. “No…No, other than her going from ICU later.” The dark grey and white griffon nodded and Air Raid stifled a long drawn out yawn before her eyes went wide, a lightbulb going off in her head. “Oh wait, yeah there is, they fitted her with a stronger inhibitor last night.”

At this Brightstar lifted his head from his girlfriend’s embrace, almost enough to pull the leash tight, his ears pricked up straight. “A stronger…why?”

“She was...'leaking'…” Air Raid began hesitantly as Brightstar questioningly mouthed 'leaking?’ she took a deep breath before continuing, “As in the whole floor of the hospital saw the walls dripping blood, 'leaking'.”

“An illusion I take it?” Moonbeak asked with a whole body shudder that shook her very feathers.

Brightstar leant further into the embrace of his girlfriend’s wing, “Damn...yeah...Darkie always was a powerful illusionist.”

Air Raid nodded, “Theory is she's reliving it, up here.” She said as she tapped her temple with her hoof.

“Perhaps she'll project the plotholes that did this to her?” Brightstar wondered hopefully.

“Maybe...” In truth Air Raid didn’t want to think about what other nightmarish visions might leak forth from her stricken friends damaged mind. If the incident last night had been any indication, Darkstar was on the road to her own personal Tartarus, trapped in the confines of her own mind. “So uh, how's little Athena?” She asked, changing the subject as much for her benefit as theirs. She really didn’t want to think about the horrors her friend endured at the hooves of the three…evil ponies, that did this to her. “Did your mom mind having her?”

“Oh, not at all,” Moonbeak laughed a shrill tinkling laugh, “She will spoil her and wait till we come back to wind her up and turn her over. Still, her love is worth the tornado that follows.”

Even Brightstar joined in the joke, his shoulders shaking as he laughed. “A hyperactive griffon high on chocolate and e numbers...and Athena's just as bad…hey!” He exclaimed as she dug her elbow into his ribs.

“It's a good thing my mom loves you, Mr. Depends on what she desires at the time.”

To Air Raid’s questioning look Brightstar sniggered, recalling when she had taken him to meet the old griffon. “Eго член, больше, чем его рога?” To the pegasus’s even blanker look he translated the Griffonian with a twinkle in his yellow eye, “She asked me if my cock was as long as my horn,” to which Air Raid clutched her barrel, erupting in a very much needed fit of giggles as she pictured the scene.

Moonbeak giggled, “It's longer, but that horn can do things his cock can't.”

“I'll bet…” Air Raid coughed and pressed a hoof to her chest in an effort to calm herself. “How's the little one in there?”

Subconsciously Moonbeak ran her free left hand over her belly, looking distinctly rounded after just a month – of course already having one kitten didn’t help either – “I don't think he has poked his eye out yet, so doing fine.”

“Got a name?” The racer asked, now genuinely interested.

“We were thinking Zephyr,” Brightstar replied as the cab rounded a series of two corners and began slowing down. “Looks like we’re here…” he grimaced and his girlfriend squeezed him tightly one last time as the vehicle pulled up to a halt.

Moonbeak’s beak hung open as she glimpsed the truly huge, imposing and ornately detailed façade of the Canterlot Royal Hospital. Easily bigger than any in Fillydelphia, she was sure it was as big as a few of the high-rises too. “Wow, this is big…” Brightstar just smiled as he magically opened the cab door and levitated up the two suitcases.

“Hmm…I guess it is,” Air Raid got herself out of the cab and lifted a hoof in thanks to the driver, who returned the gesture. “You kinda stop noticing after your hundredth trip.

Moonbeak nodded her understanding. “Thank you for watching over my new sister.”

Air Raid sighed sadly as she hoisted her saddlebag onto her back. “The very least I can do, Moon.” Her voiced tinged with a great amount of regret. “I'm not one for repeating my mistakes.”

Without thinking Brightstar whispered, “She means her ex-marefriend she left…”

“Silence pet.” Outside of the cab, in the burgeoning rays of the dawning sun, Moonbeak’s commanding voice had returned. “Lead the way Raid,” she said slightly softer, ignoring her pet’s meeped ‘yes Mistress.’ “I'd get lost in here.”

“You got it Moon.” Air Raid pointed with her wing, extending her primaries towards the ornately carved and decorated main doors. “It’s this way.” Having already been paid for the journey over the phone when the pegasus had made the booking it pulled off as the trio made their way over to the hospital building.

Four paces inside the white marble tiled foyer of the hospital Moonbeak reached up to her lovers broad neck and unhooked the leash from the collar, but pointedly left the collar buckled in place. “Know I'm with you Bright.” She said placing a clawed hand to his chest over his heart just hard enough so her talons pushed against his skin.

Brightstar mumbled something barely audible as both Moonbeak and Air Raid extended a wing each over his back from either side, practically holding him up between their supporting wings. “Likewise mate. Reception's this way, guys.”

Approaching the ornately carved wooden surround of the hospital’s reception Moonbeak hung back with her stallion held securely under her dark grey wing. She looked around in awe of the lavish décor, from the white marble tiled floor, the intricately carved limestone columns and the ebony wood everywhere. Even Fillydelphia’s two hundred year old town hall wasn’t as fine as this, by a long way. Even the Museum of Art wasn’t as luxuriously finished as this hospital…and she’d never ever seen as much marble in her forty year life.

Realising she was taking the lead Air Raid trotted up to the reception desk and peered through the safety plexi-glass, grinning as she saw it was the pegasus nurse, Pureheart. “Good morning!”

Looking up from her morning paperwork Nurse Pureheart returned the smile with a genuine one of her own. “Good morning Ms. Raid, I see you brought company today.”

“Yeah Pure,” the lime green mare indicated the griffon and unicorn stallion with a sweep of her wing. “This is Brightstar and his much better half Moonbeak. Are we okay to go through and see Darkie?”

Nurse Pureheart flicked through a couple of screens on her computer, in a matter of moments noting the time and logging the three visitors into the system. “Of course, I wish we could meet under better circumstances Mr. Brightstar. Ms. Raid, have you fully briefed him on Ms. Darkstar's condition?” She asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“As do I, nurse,” Brightstar said with a bow of greeting.

“I've given it to them as it is, nurse, yeah.” Air Raid’s smile slipped a little as Darkstar’s extensive laundry list of injuries flashed across her mind.

“Okay, just so you know they plan on moving her at nine,” Pureheart stood from her seating pad and waved the three down the hall. “You'll be asked to come back to the waiting area during the move.” Pausing she looked at the obviously distraught stallion. “Never lose hope, she is depending on that.”

“We...I...” Brightstar smiled and huddled back between Moonbeak and Air Raid, immediately getting the comfort he was seeking. “I won't, thank you.”

Trotting down the corridor, the huddled trio turned three corners and took a second corridor to the ICU room to find Darkstar, Moonbeak was simply astounded at the sumptuous luxury of the hospital. More than once she had to remind herself this was a hospital and not a hotel. Were it a hotel it would surely rival the best in Las Pegasus. Nearing the closed door Brightstar once again took the handle in his magic and opened the door with a polite knock, allowing his girlfriend and friend to enter ahead of him.

Nurse Apple Turnover was in the room with Darkstar when they entered, busy with her patient’s exercises, bending and stretching her white furred legs so the muscles didn’t atrophy from lack of use. Air Raid raised her hoof in greeting, “Hey AT, how's she doing?”

Pausing with Darkstar’s foreleg held mid-stretch in her own hoof the nurse greeted them with a ready smile. “Getting her twice a day mile in. Oh, you must be Brightstar,” she said with a nod of her head to the stallion, “I can let you have some privacy then.”

“I am, and thank you, nurse.” He muttered quietly as Moonbeak took precisely one pace backwards and wrapped her right wing tightly around the royal blue unicorn’s barrel while Apple Turnover finished positioning the comatose mare’s legs and took her leave, giving them the promised privacy.

For what felt like an eternal five minutes Brightstar just stood there in stunned silence looking at his sister. Now lying on her back she could’ve been sleeping were it not for the casts, bandages, multiple IV lines and the feeding tube in her throat, not to mention the pure platinum inhibitor ring she now wore around the base of her severed horn. So lost was he in his silent little reverie he didn’t notice Moonbeak nudge him closer to his stricken sister until she took her left forehoof in her clawed hand and laid it on top of Brightstar’s own.

This simple act broke the internal damn that was holding in his tears. Howling out an anguished cry Brightstar laid his head on his sister’s left shoulder and vented his grief as his girlfriend retightened her feathery hug. “Let it out my love,” she nipped his left ear affectionately as she placed her hand on top of Darkstar’s white hoof.

“I'll…I’ll rip…him apart…for this…” Brightstar gasped out between his cascading tears that rolled down his cheeks.

Air Raid walked around to Darkstar’s heavily bandaged right side and carefully laid her hoof on her shoulder. “Bright...you can't...” she said, alarmed at the venom in her friend’s voice, alarmed that he may actually carry his threat through.

“I said I'll kill him!” Brightstar exclaimed as he squeezed his sister’s hoof.

“No you won't.” Moonbeak said quietly and simply into his ear. “You can watch his execution, but you will not be the executioner. If not for your sister, then for me and the kittens.”

Air Raid pointed her hoof at the distraught unicorn’s chest. “You go after Cold Front and Moon and I'll be visiting you next, if you're lucky!”

“Lucky?” Brightstar raised his head and looked incredulously through his tear stained yellow eyes. “You call this lucky!?”

“Moonbeak,” Air Raid appealed to the griffon in frustration, “You tell him how being an hour away from us planning her funeral as opposed to us here worrying about her is lucky!”

Moonbeak looked Darkstar over, who at least was breathing on her own now, unaided by the machine by her side. “Lucky to have a brother like you that is here for her and would have avenged her. She doesn't need vengeance now pet, she needs someone to hold her hoof.”

“But...nggghhh...but...” Brightstar groaned in impotent anger, then he sat back down and once again took hold of his sister’s white hoof.

“Thanks,” Air Raid whispered to Moonbeak as she sidled around the bed to stand by her left side.

“Don't thank me.” She replied without looking away from the two unicorns. “I can't begin to understand his pain. I can only be here for the two of them.”

A thought occurred to Air Raid as she watched what was undoubtedly a bonding moment unfold next to her, “So you were talking about the kittens, you think you two are long-termers?” She asked with a smile, “I hope so, at any rate.”

Pulling Brightstar into such a tight hug it made the stallion gasp at the unexpected lance of pain, Moonbeak replied, “He's a keeper, and he puts up with my oddities.”

Air Raid couldn’t help but grin, “I think he likes your oddities just fine, Moon.”

“I love her.” Brightstar said simply, not letting go of Darkstar’s hoof.

“I love the three of you too.” Moonbeak tightened her grip on her stallion, allowing her stallion, her lover, her pet, to grieve in silence. None of them said anything else as the minutes ticked endlessly by on the wall clock. There was nothing to be said.

None of them noticed the time approaching nine O’clock, until Apple Turnover reappeared at the door with a discreet knock that almost went unheard. “I'm sorry but it’s eight fifty. We are going to move Ms. Darkstar. You will need to go to the waiting room while we do so. It is just to the left.”

~ ~ ~

“I'll have double expresso please, Bright.” Moonbeak requested as she got herself comfortable on the seating pad at their table in the hospital cafeteria, the very one in the corner that Air Raid had used Saturday morning.

“Raid?” He asked automatically as he got to his hooves.

“Black coffee three sugars, please babe.” She placed her own order with a grin as Brightstar obediently trotted over to the counter. Idly she wondered if her friend had always been this submissive and she just hadn’t noticed, or if it was a side of him Moonbeak had brought out. With a shrug of her lime green shoulders she supposed it didn’t matter either way, as long as they were happy, and they were certainly that.

“Welcome to Starcolts, how may I help you?” The perky serving mare greeted him with a practised smile which, unlike many others, actually reached her eyes and lit them up in turn.

Brightstar found himself smiling in spite of his mood, the mare’s – he leant forward to get a look at her nametag – upbeat attitude was somehow infectious. “Good morning to you, Cinnamon, can I get a double expresso, black coffee three sugars and a caramel macchiato, please?”

“Coming right up!” Cinnamon chirped happily as she turned to the coffee machine to prep his order. “Any pastries with that?” She asked over her shoulder.

“Bear Claw” Moonbeak called out as he turned around to ask that very question, and Air Raid chipped in with ‘same for me!’ Turning back to the counter again he couldn’t help but smile at Cinnamon’s grinning face. “Two Bear Claws please, Cinnamon.” He placed the order, wondering if there was a way to bottle her enthusiasm and sell it. If there was he’d be rich, definitely.

Back at their table in the corner Air Raid was about to ask the griffon something important about her photography business back in Filly when her phone started to ring. “Oh...hang on guys…” she muttered, making a mental note to ask later as she fished her hoof in her saddlebag – why didn’t she keep its contents better organised? – “Hello?”

“Is this Ms. Air Raid?” A stallion voice asked on the other end of the line in a perfect Canterlot accent.

Air Raid was about to reply when an unexpected yawn snuck up on her and she unleashed it down the speaker. “Sorry, yeah this is Raid speaking”

“This is Detective Hoofbeat with the Canterlot Royal Police. I would like to interview you regarding the assault on Ms. Darkstar.”

Over at the counter Brightstar was about to take their completed order when his phone rang out from his bag. Pausing with an apologetic look to the serving mare he answered with a “Y’hello?” in a manner reminiscent of his sister.

“Go for it,” Air Raid held in another yawn as she answered the detective, “We're at Canterlot Royal Hospital.”

Seeing both pegasus and unicorn were both distracted by their calls, which seemed important, Moonbeak slid from her seating pad. “I'll get the order.” She said, padding up to the counter with a nod to Cinnamon.

“Are you available at one p.m. today?” Hoofbeat enquired.

“Yep, we’ll be here,” Air Raid replied, certain she could hear the scribble of a pencil on paper.

“We can arrange for the interview at the hospital. They have a room for that.” Hoofbeat offered after consulting his notes. “I'll call you just before the interview, say twelve fifty.”

“Thank you, Detective Hoofbeat.” Air Raid sighed as she hung up her phone, her tired nose sniffing out her sweet black coffee.

“Is this Mr. Brightstar?” A mare’s voice asked with a distinct Fillydelphian twang to her voice.

“It is, who's this please?” He asked, holding his phone in his yellow aura as he came back over to the table and took his pad opposite the pegasus and next to his girlfriend once more.

“This is Detective Pencil and I would like to know if you'd be available for an interview regarding the assault on your sister?”

“Certainly Ma'am,” Brightstar answered the Filly detective, making room on the table for the tray of coffees and pastries Moonbeak was carrying. “We'll be at the Royal Hospital all day.”

“You're where?” Pencil asked, “Not in Fillydelphia?”

“No Ma'am, my partner and I are in Canterlot, visiting my sister.”

“Oh…” the detective said, sounding a little disappointed, “Will you be there for the rest of the day?”

“Yes Ma'am, all day.” Brightstar replied, they were indeed going to be in Canterlot all day. They weren’t scheduled to leave until ten that night, where they’d take the overnight express back to their home.

“Can you hold please?” Pencil asked.

“Of course,” he stated as Moonbeak placed the tray in the space her pet prepared for her, handing out the black coffee with three sugars to the lime green mare and the caramel macchiato to the unicorn, to nods and muttered thanks from them both in turn. Barely one minute later and Pencil’s voice sounded again in the earpiece of his phone. “Okay, Detective Hoofbeat will call you shortly to confirm. I understand that he spoke with Ms. Air Raid for a one O'clock appointment. Thank you, and good bye.”

“Alright, goodbye Ma'am.” He smiled to himself as Pencil hung up before he said ‘Ma’am’.

Taking his macchiato in his yellow aura the royal blue stallion raised his mug to his lips to take a welcome sip of the steaming sweetened drink. Just as he swallowed his first mouthful his phone rang again. “Y'hello?” The unicorn answered it, a little testily.

“Is this Mr. Brightstar?” A stallion with a distinct Canterlot accent asked.

“It is, Sir. Would this be Detective Hoofbeat?”

“Good Detective Pencil has filled you in. I'm interviewing Ms. Air Raid at the hospital at one, would you be willing to interview with her?” Hoofbeat enquired, his pencil again busy on his notepad.

“Of course, Sir.” Brightstar confirmed, taking a longing look at his hot coffee as Air Raid took great pleasure by taunting him by happily drinking hers.

“I'll call you at the same time right after calling Ms. Air Raid to confirm. See you at the hospital.”

“Thank you sir, we'll see you soon.” Brightstar put his phone away with a welcome sense of finality as he went back to his macchiato.

Moonbeak took a mouthful of her espresso and gave her stallion a telling look. “Try not to go yelling and screaming when they interview you, love.”

~ ~ ~

The ever-present Nurse Apple Turnover was there to greet them as the three entered the hospital’s almost empty coma ward. Besides Darkstar there was just one other occupant. “Ms. Darkstar is in room five zero one. There is a stallion in the room too, also in a coma; there are beds for two more. The stallion has been here for four months.” The upbeat orange earth pony explained enthusiastically to them as she showed them through the ward past four other rooms easily big enough to accommodate up to four comatose ponies. “You may meet his wife who stops in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.” Apple Turnover explained casually as she led them to the open door of the room. When they had moved her they had at least placed Darkstar’s bed near the window. “This room is under video surveillance twenty four seven in case a patient ever moves.”

After she showed them to Darkstar’s newly located bed Air Raid stopped the nurse with a hoof. “Hey, AT, any chance I can get one of the beds? I don't want to leave her.”

“In this room or in the family quarters?” The nurse asked.

“In here, please.” The lime green mare answered without a seconds thought.

Apple Turnover gave her a reassuring smile, and laid a hoof on her foreleg. “I can ask, they will most likely say yes, as the stallion's wife stayed her for the first month and sometimes overnights on Fridays. You must know that if the beds fill you'll have to stay in family quarters.”

Air Raid nodded her agreement, “Of course AT, thanks.”

“I'll make sure it is okay, but I don't see a problem. Is it just you tonight?” Apple Turnover asked, looking at Moonbeak and Brightstar.

“Yes, it's just Raid.” Brightstar answered, casting a look at his girlfriend who nodded back. “We'll need to be home for the kitten tomorrow.

“We do need to be back, but we trust you to hold things down here Raid.” Moonbeak said, nipping her stallion’s ear as the nurse bustled out of the room. “Why don't you read to her Bright?” She asked with a little wink.

“That's a good idea love.” Brightstar walked over and sat next to his sister’s bed, taking the seating pad between her and the window. “Hey sis...remember that poem Dusk taught us?”

Brightstar started to recite the old poem as Moonbeak took the seating pad next to his and leant her body against his, wrapping her right arm around his left foreleg; in return the unicorn leant into her, his collar resting against her feathered chest. Listening to her friend recite the poem Air Raid had a very acute flashback to the fun fair when she and Wily had danced on a cloud to that very poem.

Brightstar finished the poem and sat up with a tiny smile on his lips. “And, that's how Luna makes the night sky…” he laughed, recalling what had happened the first time Dusk had told them the poem. “Darkie hated it at first, as there are no dark stars in the sky…”

Moonbeak rubbed her beak across his jawline as she sensed the change in his tone. “Princess Twilight the Arch-Librarian says there are dark holes in the sky though.”

Brightstar giggled at that, and at his jaw being tickled, “Oh yes...that perked you up didn't it sis?” He asked the unresponsive white mare in the bed. “Huge powerful dark holes in the sky...remember you loved that?” Desperately he nudged her hoof with a hard squeeze, trying to get any response from his sister.

“I’m sure she still does.” Moonbeak squeezed his royal blue hoof delicately with her hand.

“She's still the same Darkie, Bright.” Air Raid said kindly from across the bed.

“But...Darkie was never this small and fragile...with tubes everywhere…” Brightstar stammered, fresh tears threatening to take him. He always thought his sister was indestructible, the life and soul of any party, up there with Cyclone singing and dancing the night away with their group of friends. Seeing her like this, so very vulnerable and weak, was the most jarring thing he had ever had to deal with. As Moonbeak squeezed his hoof again, he took comfort from the gesture, Brightstar offered thanks to whatever deities might be listening that he didn’t have to deal with this alone.

~ ~ ~

Midway through the morning, at exactly ten twenty three in the a.m., had anypony bothered to check the wall clock, and Nurse Pureheart knocked politely on the door to coma room five zero one. “Ms. Raid, I have a note for you.” She said as she trotted quietly into the room, almost scared to make too much noise. “Conference room one twelve has been reserved for one p.m.”

Air Raid stretched on her seating pad and slid herself off to meet the nurse part way into the room. “Right you are, thanks Pure.”

Accepting the thanks with a grateful smile Pureheart bustled about the hospital bed, checking and double checking the numerous wires, tubes and hook-ups to the various machines arrayed at the head of the bed; and the IV tubes and drips, especially the catheter tubes that may have been knocked or kinked during the move. “Also, the Administrator has approved of you staying in this room as long as a bed is available. It is five hundred bits a night with three meals included.” She added, once she was satisfied that the move crew had everything set up correctly.

Back on her seating pad on the left side of Darkstar’s bed, Air Raid nodded absently. “Thank that pony for me, would you, please?”

“I will indeed pass that along Ms. Raid.” Nurse Pureheart said as she annotated the chart at the foot of the bed and left the room with a smile to the three around the bed.

Looking sadly at Darkstar lying immobile in the bed Air Raid sighed deeply. “You'd think I wanted to see every room in this place.”

“Raid,” Brightstar said gently, his hoof still holding his sister’s, “You don't need to be here every hour of every day.”

Moonbeak planted a tender kiss on her stallion’s cheek, “We are happy you're going to watch over our Dark, but do not neglect your life. You heard what the other nurse said about the wife of the stallion behind that curtain.”

“I'm not leaving.” Air Raid maintained, not shifting her grey eyed gaze from her friend’s bed. “Bits aren’t an issue, I can keep this room for ages.”

Moonbeak lifted her head from Brightstar’s, looking at the pegasus with a deep frown that furrowed her white feathers. “That's not the point, and we have bits to help cover costs if you wish them. The point is you didn't live with Dark before this, so you don't have to live with her now.”

This just made her feel worse rather than better. “No...I lived with Wily before, and I didn't put her first when it counted, now we're here.” Air Raid admitted with a slump of her shoulders.

Brightstar sighed an exasperated sigh, “This is different, Raid!” Turning to his girlfriend he begged her with his yellow eyes to appeal to her. “Love, tell her she can’t not race.”

Moonbeak patted Brightstar’s hoof with her clawed hand. “She's a grown mare, who I hope will not shirk other responsibilities for the sake of this responsibility. Doing this will not redeem yourself for what happened with Wildfire. Still, I thank you for being willing to do this.”

“Thanks Moon...” the lime green mare started before the griffon cut across her.

“Bright,” she said, her shrill voice alive with excitement and a twinkle in her emerald green eyes, “You should tell Dark about your Saturday morning, then tell her about the train ride here.”

This made Air Raid giggle with anticipation. “I wanna hear about that too!”

Brightstar smiled and leant forward so his muzzle was inches from Darkstar’s left ear. “Well sis, the shrill sounding griffon you just heard had me tied up in a rope harness suspended over our bed, before the Dodo on your right interrupted us…”

“Hey!” Air Raid interrupted, an indignant pout on her face, “I'll make sure she gets you for the Dodo comment when she wakes up.” She finished with a long loud raspberry that made the griffon chuckle.

Smiling wide and still leaning near his sister’s ear Brightstar whispered, “Moon's even got me wearing her collar, you always said I'd find a Mistress…” his voice trailed off as in his eye-line the pure platinum inhibitor glowed a bright yellow as it neutralised the magic emanating from Darkstar's severed horn, both pulsing in tandem with each other.

“Guys...look she can hear you…” Air Raid gave an awed barely audible whisper.

Within literally seconds of the inhibitor activating a bright yellow unicorn nurse, by the name of Sunny Hills, going by her nametag, entered the coma room, a clipboard with many sheets of paper held in her amber aura that matched perfectly her eyes.

Slightly panicked by the nurse’s sudden appearance Brightstar looked up from his position near his sister’s ear. “Nurse...is she…alright?” He asked with a panicked edge to his voice that made the griffon next to him squeeze his royal blue hoof.

Ignoring the unicorn for the moment Sunny Hills stopped in front of Darkstar’s bed and brushed her white mane aside as she studied the scrawled notes on the clipboard she carried. Laying it down for a moment on the crisp bedsheets her horn glowed brighter as Nurse Hills extended her magical field to fully surround the white mare. For a few moments she ‘hmm’d’ as doctors and nurses are wont to do before finally turning her attention to the stallion sat by the bed. “She is a rather powerful mage?”

Brightstar paused, considering his answer. Darkstar was strong yes, but not ‘strong’, strong. “She’s…powerful, yes, but not...'offensively powerful' as such…if that helps?”

“She was…is, naturally gifted with illusions, nurse.” Air Raid supplied helpfully.

Flicking through her notes Sunny Hills stopped at the third page and started to magically tick off a small checklist. “Hmhmm…would you say you are as strong, stronger or weaker than your sister?” She asked, pausing at an unchecked question.

Again Brightstar took a moment to consider his reply. “I'd say about the same, I suppose, I mean my illusions aren’t as good as hers, but I can teleport up to thirty feet and hold two ponies still at once.” He supplied as modestly as he could.

“May I scan your aura?” The nurse asked as she flicked to the next page of her notes.

“Of course you may,” as Brightstar nodded his acquiescence the amber glow that was currently surrounding his sister widened to encapsulate both brother and sister. The stallion felt a not wholly unpleasant series of tingling vibrations course up and down his body then eventually dissipate as Sunny then levitated a pen to the floor in front of him. Her glow left the pen, but not the two ponies

“Please pick that up for me?” She asked, her clipboard ready.

Brightstar nodded and lit his own horn as he concentrated on casting one of the basic elementary of all unicorn spells; focusing his magic on the pen he wasn’t entirely surprised when at first the pen didn’t budge. Smiling he gradually poured more power into the spell as he gauged the simulated weight of the pen. After a few moments he grunted slightly with effort – by now he estimated the pen’s weight at around ten tons - and with his horn glowing like a one hundred watt lightbulb he lifted the pen.

Scribbling some more notes Sunny Hill brushed her mane from her eyes, “Please put it back down.” She requested as she closed her clipboard with an audible snapping noise. The nurse offered him a smile as she watched him carefully lower it back down to the floor, where she took it up in her own amber aura. “Thank you and yes, your sister is fine. Her subconscious is hard at work though with your presence and voice. I'm going to have to requisition a level seven inhibitor; the level five she is wearing is leaking, but I don't think it is a danger. Please continue what you're doing.” She turned to leave, and then turned back. “Oh, did any of you have any questions for me?” She asked, almost as an afterthought.

“Will she need to wear that when she wakes up?” Brightstar asked straight away, glancing down at his sister. “Raid was saying earlier she made the walls appear to bleed.”

Sunny Hills quickly checked her notes once more, this time with a definite frown. “Oh, that isn't in my report. She needs to wear it now, after she wakes it will depend on what level of control she has as to what she will need to wear. Based on your strength she could wear a level five and overcome that to do some basic tasks.”

Now it was Brightstar’s turn to frown. Level seven rings were government regulated and hard to come by, most commonly found in jails. “You said a level seven, aren't they regulated?” He asked, then added with a slight sullen tone. “She isn't a prisoner…”

The nurse sighed, rubbing her muzzle with her yellow hoof. “Based on her strength and being in a coma, we will need to prevent any further use of magic. What she has now isn't doing the job. Yes it is government controlled, but luckily we are a government controlled hospital.” She explained testily, “Just takes more paperwork.”

Brightstar looked aside with an embarrassed blush. “I apologise, I didn't mean to be as snappy as that sounded.”

Sunny Hills shrugged with an understanding smile. “She's your sister, I'm staff. I understand. I have to remind myself of that, which is why I almost walked out before making sure you were okay.”

“Thank you nurse.” The stallion’s blush faded to a thankful smile as he felt Moonbeak’s clawed hand tighten on his hoof.

“You're helping her. That last spark shows she is in there waiting to come out. It will take time to get a level seven so I'll leave you to letting her know you're waiting for that.” Nurse Sunny Hills said with a brush of her white mane as she turned and trotted out of the coma room, being sure to close the door behind her.

“I've never seen you struggle so hard to pick up a pen.” Moonbeak teased gently.

Brightstar grinned, “It was an enchanted ten ton pen.” He said as he placed a kiss on his girlfriend’s feathery cheek.

“Meh…I can kick ten tons before breakfast.” The griffon replied nonchalantly.

“I know my love,” He extended his left foreleg around her shoulders and gave her a tight hug.

“You never said you were that strong Bright…” Air Raid finally commented, having briefly won the internal battle she had been waging to keep her eyelids open while the yellow nurse had been here.

“One doesn't always have to blow their own trumpet, Raid.”

“Yeah, that's my job.” Moonbeak quipped as she placed a tender kiss on her stallion’s cheek while the lime green pegasus erupted in a fit of giggles that almost made her fall off her seating pad, so violently was she shaking with mirth.

“See Darkie, she can laugh after all.” The stallion sniggered before he leant in close to her ear. “You should've seen me on the train, Darkie. Mistress Moon had my mane and tail all braided and tied up, a chastity on and we had a walk through all the carriages…twice.”

Moonbeak smiled and gave her lover’s ear an affectionate little nip. “He does strut so well, Dark.”

“I do my best for my lady,” Brightstar said proudly, “And, when I don't her wing reminds me to do better.”

“How long did you make him wear it?” Air Raid asked, recovering from her giggle fit and propping her head up with a hoof to stop it drooping forward.

“Till we got back to the cabin.” Moonbeak smiled at the memory, then at the pegasus. “There are certain duties he can't perform while he’s wearing it.”

“Sounds like you had a...eventfull trip…” Air Raid yawned widely as Brightstar blushed.

“It got us here.” Moonbeak cooed serenely as she adjusted Brightstar’s black mane with a claw.

“Same for going home?” She asked, snapping open eyes that felt like they were attached to heavy leaden weights.

Brightstar lovingly nuzzled along his girlfriend’s feathery cheek and jawline, “If I'm a very lucky pony, yes.” He said, planting a tender kiss on her beak.

“Still need to get through the interview after lunch.” She whispered, returning the nuzzle to Brightstar’s broad neck, above his collar.

“Luckily the…cafeteria food is…pretty good…” this time there was no disguising the yawns she let out as she answered.

“Do you think they will have any of Gustave le Grand's éclairs?” Moonbeak asked excitedly, a definite twinkle in her emerald green eyes. “I do so love the cream filling.”

“D-D...Definitely...” Air Raid’s grey eyes drooped all the way closed and she let out the biggest yawn yet.

“Seriously Raid, when did you last sleep?” Brightstar asked, concern all over his face.

“Huh?” The lime green mare snapped her head up, her tired eyes wide before they both began to droop again. “I…uh...Friday? Maybe? I had about an hour Saturday in the waiting room...”

Disentangling herself from her stallion Moonbeak gave the exhausted pegasus a stare as dangerous and sharp as her beak, then she pointed her left wing to the empty hospital bed behind her. “Bed now,” she ordered, her already shrill voice raising a couple of octaves, “Or I’ll have Bright use his stallion ways on you.”

Air Raid cranked her head away from Darkstar’s prone form to gaze longingly at the empty bed. She didn’t even realise her legs were moving her towards the bed until she was halfway there, then the rest of the way was an easy stumble to the inviting mattress. “Fine...I guess I can have a nap.” She murmured as she laid down, her eyes closing fully the moment her head touched the pillow.

Moonbeak kept a beady emerald green eye on Air Raid until the pegasus began to fall into the steady breathing rhythm of proper sleep, a state confirmed to all in the coma room when after ten minutes she started to snore.

“She's going to end up in here properly love if she carries on at this rate.” Brightstar began with a whisper then after a self-deprecating smile spoke at his normal volume. There was after all no need to whisper, not with Air Raid blissfully doing her impersonation of a broken ambulance mating with a chainsaw.

Moonbeak sighed, “You need to let her do what she wants. She thinks torturing herself like this will clear her conscience, even if we know different. You okay to skip lunch till after the interview? She needs her sleep.”

“Я в порядке, чтобы пропустить, если вы.” Brightstar said confidently in her native Griffonian, looking around to see it was just them before adding, “любовница.”

“Good pet,” Moonbeak smiled as she continued to stroke his mane, she did love it so when her stallion took the time to talk to her in her own tongue. “Do continue to speak to your sister. We both like that.”

Brightstar chuckled into Darkstar’s white ear, “Hey Darkie…we've finally convinced Raid to go to sleep,” he supported himself with a carefully placed hoof so as not to disturb the many wires and tubes under the bedsheets. “Well, Moon did. She used her 'Mistress' voice on her.”

Moonbeak sniffed in a haughty manner most affected when impersonating a Canterlot noble. “My primaries outrank her primaries.” She broke into a shrill tinkling laugh.

Brightstar joined in the laugh, “Between us sis I like her Mistress voice. You'll have to listen to Raid’s snoring in the bed next to you though, so, sorry about that.”

Still giggling like a little kitten Moonbeak leant next to the royal blue stallion to also whisper playfully in Darkstar's ear, “If you're listening to me snore you must be in my bed, and somehow you wore me out more than I you.” She carried on her giggling as the remaining third of the white horn flashed twice before being contained by the platinum ring.

“I've done that once or twice,” Brightstar smirked with more than a little bit of pride in his voice.

Moonbeak gently angled her head and placed a delicate little kiss upon Brightstar’s muzzle. “You do please me, my lovely young stallion.”

Returning the kiss with one of his own the stallion smiled. “We should tell Darkie about Gino's Steak House the other day.”

“You just want to see if that nurse runs in here again.” Moonbeak sniggered as she ran her taloned finger around the edge of her pet’s collar.

“Yes I do, true.” Brightstar giggled as his Mistress tickled his neck, “Y'know Darkie would've thought what we did was the best prank ever.”

~ ~ ~

Twelve forty nine, forty nine minutes after midday and Air Raid was still snoring away, her consciousness away in the Dreamscape. A Dreamscape created of her own mind, her own desires and dreams. A Dreamscape where she didn’t leave Wily, where she gladly gave up her career and stayed with the pony she loved, where she cared for her marefriend like the loving mare she was supposed to have been all along. And she was happy. So very happy. The happiest pony in Equestria, because she had her Wily, and Wily had her. Air Raid and Wildfire, like it was always meant to be.

The way it should have been all along.

Then the clock on the wall clicked its long minute hand to the next number along, reading twelve fifty and the wondrous Dreamscape shattered; falling away from her desperately grasping hooves in a swirl of colour and a blinding flash of light. At twelve fifty her phone rang, the discordant noise shocking her rudely awake in an instant.

“Shit! Shit, my phone!” Air Raid sat bolt upright in the hospital bed next to Darkstar as she snapped fully awake. “Shit where’s my phone!?” She panicked, launching a futile search of her bed for the ringing phone.

Smiling smugly Brightstar floated her phone out of her saddlebag and moved it over to her.

Plucking it out of the shimmering yellow aura with an almighty pout the lime green mare flicked the green button to receive the call. “Yes?” She asked, a little more tersely than she had wanted.

The voice on the other end was the perfect Canterlot accent of the officer from earlier in the cafeteria. “This is Detective Hoofbeat, are we still on for a one O'clock meeting?”

In reply Air Raid let out a huge yawn that split her face. “Yes!” She exclaimed as soon as she was able, “Yes we are, definitely.”

“Is Mr. Brightstar still with you?”

“Yeah, he's still here,” Air Raid confirmed as she attempted to straighten her mane.

Hoofbeat seemed genuinely pleased with this, “Good will he be there with you then?”

“Yuppe....yeah, he will…” Air Raid almost said one of ‘Wily’s words’ but managed to catch herself at the last moment.

“Hopefully you got a note.” Wherever he was Air Raid decided it was probably the car park as there was traffic in the background. “I have conference room one twelve reserved. See you there in a few minutes.”

Absently Air Raid nodded her agreement. “We did indeed, see you in room one twelve.”

“You may want to take a brush to your mane.” Moonbeak suggested as the pegasus hung up the call and tossed her phone back in her saddlebag.

Brightstar sniggered behind his hoof, “More like a chair, a whip and a lion tamers manual.”

Air Raid raspberried her friend as she once again delved into her bag, fishing about for her brush. Once again she pouted when Brightstar smugly floated it up from the nether regions of her other bag entirely. “He always this helpful?” She asked ruefully.

“Oh yes,” Moonbeak smiled, stroking a claw delicately over her stallion’s foreleg. “Even more so when he is needy.”

Taking the brush to her mane, a mane that hadn’t seen whisper of a brush in at least two days Air Raid tried to brush her unruly mop into submission. “When he...OOOW! Wants his sheath lock off...NGGGH! You mean?” In a temper at hitting two knots in a row she threw the brush on the bed.

“Oh let me...” Brightstar rolled his yellow eyes in mock exasperation and surrounded his friend’s blue mane in his magical field, using it to separate all the knots, tangles and even this tough little colicky bit that tried to deny him but failed.

Moonbeak looked on amusedly as her pet prepared the mane for brushing. “He does do a very nice job of preening too. Did you and the girls teach him that valuable skill?” She asked, genuinely interested as Bright’s preens were very good.

Air Raid smile with a brief nod as Brightstar obediently began to brush out her mane, using long slow deliberate strokes to finally get the mane under control. “He used to watch...very closely.”

“I'm still studying horn care…” Moonbeak replied, her shrill voice almost a husky whisper, “Very thoroughly I might add.”

“Oh...she's very thorough,” the royal blue unicorn smiled happily as he started braiding Air Raid's mane. As he worked the braid into her mane he cast a critical eye over her wings. Wings that hadn’t seen a preen in as many days as her mane hadn’t been brushed till now. “Hmm…no time for a proper preen, but I can get these looking like actual wings again, at the very least.” He lit his horn, his yellow magic encapsulated both of the pegasus’s wings, and a rippling shimmer later had all the broken and misshapen feathers lying in a heap on the bed.

“You look like you're among the living again Raid.” Moonbeak smiled as Brightstar completed the five minute makeover. “Let's get moving.”

Air Raid chuckled as she slid off the bed to stand on her hooves with a quick stretch. “Any more of that and he'll turn me into an actual girl.” She giggled as she fell into step alongside the griffon.

“Heaven forfend that should happen, Raid.” Brightstar said as he dutifully fell in line behind his girlfriend and Mistress.

Moonbeak giggled as they made their way down the short flight of stairs to the reception. “Good thing he didn't braid your tail or your marehood would be showing.”

Air Raid returned the giggles on the stairs, “I’m willing to share, but not right now...thanks Bright, you did a good job here mate,” she said appreciatively as she shook her wings and found all the feathers actually pointing the right way.

“For five minutes, yes.” He agreed from behind them as they exited the stairwell and walked over the white marble floor up to the reception.

“Hey Pure, where are we going?” Air Raid called out as they neared the ornately carved area and saw there were no ponies queueing up to be seen.

Without looking up from her small stack of paperwork she was currently entering into her computer, Pureheart pointed with her left wing down the adjacent corridor. “Down there first left second door on the left.”

Air Raid lifted her hoof in thanks before she realised the nurse hadn’t looked up. “Thanks Pure. Will we see you in the cafeteria later?”

“Maybe Raid,” the nurse replied, still not looking from her screen but with a detectable smile nonetheless, “Depends on what those ponies out there decide to do to get in here.”

“I'll get you a coffee if I see you?”

“Deal.” Pureheart agreed, moving the stack of completed paperwork further aside to make room for more.

Giving the nurse a smile she didn’t see Air Raid led the way down the corridor that the nurse had indicated to her on their way to the conference room assigned to them for the duration of the forthcoming interview.

“New friend?” Brightstar asked from his position behind them.

“Pretty much, Bright yeah.” Air Raid lead them around the left turn and up to the second door. “Pureheart’s pretty cool, got this ‘Shrink to the Stars’ sister in Manehatten she wants to go live with.”

They found the door to conference room one twelve open and a grey unicorn stallion with a turquoise mane and tail and wearing a police jacket already in the room waiting for them. As they entered the room he turned to face them, briefly showing his cutie mark of a horseshoe pointing up with a white quarter note inside.

“Detective, hello.” Air Raid greeted him as she walked into the room and around the desk, taking the seating pad furthest from the door and nearest the wall.

Hoofbeat stood and nodded respectfully to them, “Greetings Ms. Raid, Mr. Brightstar and…” he paused for a briefly, checking his extensive meticulously written notes, “Ms. Moonbeak. I'm Hoofbeat and I wish this meeting was under better circumstances.”

“At least I'm not being arrested this time.” Air Raid attempted a smile as Brightstar waited for his Mistress to seat herself on her chosen seating pad before sitting himself.

Once they were all sat the detective seated himself, flashing them all a warm reassuring blue-eyed smile. “We don't have a lot to go on so far, which is why we're having this interview. Ms. Darkstar was found in the warehouse district on 3rd Brick Way. Have any of you been there or know of Darkstar going there?”

“No sir,” Brightstar replied with a shake of his head.

“Not the Warehouse District.” Air Raid agreed, “She'd never go there on her own, and especially not in the freezing morning.”

Hoofbeat consulted his notes, flicking from one page to another. “She was found between an empty building, which was searched and hasn't been entered in months. The other building belongs to Office and More. I show no record of any of you working there.”

Brightstar’s temper flared just briefly, “No, look, we know full well who did this to my sister detective!” He exclaimed.

Hoofbeat shot him a quick look, “And whom might that may be?” He asked in his perfect Canterlot accent.

The royal blue unicorn leapt to his hooves, suddenly very irate, he raised his voice to a low yell. “Cold Front! Who else?”

“Wildfire's dad.” Air Raid supplied, “It was him.”

Holding his pen in his blue magic Hoofbeat began taking even more notes in his little book. “Probable cause?”

Air Raid sat up in her seating pad, her grey eyes meeting the blue. “Before Hearths Warming, he discharged Wildfire from here. He told us she was in Filly...”

“Which we know is rubbish!” Brightstar interrupted his friend, still on his hooves. “We all started to look for her.”

Air Raid sighed, “I looked in Filly, I had some races out there. We came back Saturday.” Hoofbeat listened in silence, taking note of every word the pegasus and unicorn spoke. “I thought I saw her out there, little yellow pegasus, and I told Bright, who went out as well to look.

Brightstar lowered himself back to his pad next to Moonbeak, “That's how it happened, detective.”

“Saturday, midday, Darkie called me from Canterlot as we set off to come back from Filly.” Air Raid elaborated, “She was excited; she said...she was close to finding Wily.”

“What motivation would Cold Front have to lie about his daughter's location?” Hoofbeat asked, his pen poised on a clean piece of notepaper.

“Because he's scum!” Brightstar yelled before the pegasus could answer.

“I don't know, detective.” Air Raid said, struggling with the memory of the last few days. “Darkie said she'd dug around here, and this orange pegasus in the cafeteria, must be Autumn Burst, told her how she saw Cold Front meeting with a purple mare from a care home.”

Hoofbeat’s ears pricked as she gave him more details. “Which care home? Do you have the name of the mare?”

Reluctantly Air Raid shook her head. “I don't know, just that she's a unicorn and runs a care home in Canterlot.”

“You have Cold Front's address handy?” Hoofbeat asked, his ever-present pen at the ready.

“Of course, Sir,” Brightstar quickly gave the detective their old friend’s address.

“There's something else, detective. When Darkie called she was at Cafe Diem, when she hung up, she sounded off...weird, like.” Air Raid told the detective.

“What time was that call made?” Hoofbeat asked, ready to take more notes. “We didn't find a cell phone on the victim.”

“It was about one p.m., here, you can check my phone.” Air Raid offered her phone to the detective to check and verify her claim.

“We are in the process of getting a court order for her phone records and to search her place.” Hoofbeat commented, quickly scrolling through the pegasus’s recent records and making another note. “Even with your permission Brightstar we still need the court order. We will be doing that search tomorrow. Do any of you wish to be there? Also the location is taped off in case any of you wish to go there today.”

“No, we'll be back in Filly, sir.” Brightstar supplied.

“I'm not leaving her side.” Air Raid stated in a manner that suggested it was not up for debate. “Yesterday, I spoke to Java, from the Cafe, he said Darkie had thanked him for a donut he didn't give her, and she seemed, drunk, she was staggering as she left there.”

Hoofbeat noted that in big with bolded letters. “Does Darkstar drink?”

Air Raid shrugged, “No more or less than the rest of us, but...when she started the call she was as sober as a priest on Sunday.”

“I'll have officers check all locations for probable cause so we can get search warrants. Did Darkstar have any enemies other than Cold Front?”

“No!” Brightstar exclaimed indignantly. “Outside of a few pranks, everypony loved her.”

“Any gambling issues, debt, and / or any illegal actives you may know of?” The detective asked, watching the two ponies for their reactions.

Air Raid shook her head, “Nope. Definitely not, no way.”

Hoofbeat sighed deeply, breathing out through his nose. He hated interviews like this. Family and friends were always emotional and unpredictable. “The job seems very professional. No fur or wing dander. Except for being raped. Even then we can't tell if that was from the same ponies that hurt her, or even if it was before or after the damage was done.” He paused for breath and turned the page in his book. “We do know it was to send a message. She wasn't meant to be found alive. Are any of you in possible trouble? Is there other friends of Darkstar that may have problems?”

Now it was Brightstar’s turn to shake his head. “We aren't, over in Filly, and Cyclone is in Cloudsdale.”

Air Raid leant forward on her seating pad, an action that immediately caught the detective’s attention. “I...well I...” she was about to tell him about the time Wily’s dad had broken muzzle but...she sighed a defeated sigh. “No...I'm fine, detective.”

Brightstar turned on his friend disbelievingly. “Raid, tell him!”

Air Raid shuddered as she relived the incident a few months ago. “Cold Front...before we left for the races in Filly, he broke my muzzle, slammed his door in my face…”

“And he used to beat Wily!” Brightstar put in, on his hooves once again.

“Cold Front assaulted you?” Hoofbeat asked, his pen ready.

Once again the lime green mare shook her head. “I-It was...an accident.”

“Bullshit Raid!” Brightstar slammed a hoof on to the table’s surface. “Tell him!”

“Did you or him file a police report on the incident?” Hoofbeat enquired.

“No, no I didn't, and I don't want to now.” Air Raid stated clearly.

“WHAT!?” Brightstar screamed, his horn firing multi-coloured sparks in anger.

Moonbeak hooked a claw into Brightstar’s collar and pulled him down hard to his seating pad giving him a vicious stare.

“You've given us some leads. I'll try to get a court order before we interview Cold Front, but probable cause of 'Keeping you from asking about his daughter' may not carry much weight. We'll run a check for any abuse reports to help back it up.”

“Wily never pressed any charges, detective.” Air Raid explained, “She was too scared.”

Hoofbeat lifted himself off of the pad he’d been sitting on and straightened his jacket, a signal the interview was almost over. “I'll still run his name for something, and maybe he has a file. We are treating this case as attempted ponycide and maiming of a unicorn's horn. Both carry very stiff penalties. I'll keep all of you informed of our progress, most likely in a weekly report.” He took his notepad in his blue aura and floated it away. “Thank you all for your time. I'm sorry to have taken you away from your sister for the short time you have here.”

Brightstar stood as well, “You're welcome, detective. Please, please find who did this.”

“We will put every effort into this.” The detective offered a hoof to the two ponies and the griffon, who each bumped and shook his in return, before making his exit from the conference room.

“Why didn't you press charges Raid?” He asked, rounding on his friend almost the moment they were alone.

Air Raid looked him in the eye, not flinching as she stared him out. “Because what happens if I do, huh, Bright?”

“He'll get caught, that’s what!” He yelled back, stomping his hoof on the floor in utter frustration.

“No, Bright!” She yelled back, “I'll get put in a coma in the next damned bed, or perhaps even a damn sight worse!”

“You can't run her life Bright,” Moonbeak said gently as she laid a comforting clawed hand on her stallions shoulder, squeezing just enough for him to feel her talons. “But, I'd expect more from you Raid. Still you have a lot to lose, even more now.”

“You heard him, the detective!” The lime green mare exclaimed, stomping her own hoof at her friend with a snort of fury. “Darkie was a message Brightstar! STOP LOOKING. And, it’s received and understood.”

“Hopefully he has screwed up and the police will take him down.” Moonbeak reasoned. “Now both of you stop shouting or I'll treat Dark to a spanking of you both.” She added with a twinkle in her emerald eyes.

Brightstar opened his mouth few times, “I...I...” he fell to his haunches, defeatedly crumbling. “I'm sorry love.”

“Yeah, me too, Moon.” Air Raid said quietly.

Moonbeak chuckled, “And I thought you'd both keep yelling. Let’s go back upstairs At least Dark won't talk back.”

~ ~ ~

“How’s your cheesesteak, darling?” The griffon asked pointedly, her shrill voice – usually calm and collected – almost high enough so that only dogs would hear it clearly emphasising each syllable. Narrowing her emerald green eyes she cut into her own cheesesteak, her knife poised to take a slice of the beef and melted cheese.

“MMmmm…” Brightstar murmured in reply, his attention clearly elsewhere, a tiny bit of drool leaking from his mouth to land on his own cheesesteak as he gazed off to the distance to the nearby bar.

Following his faraway stare Moonbeak saw to where he was looking and her powerful dark grey wings spread slightly in anger. Not only was he very plainly ignoring her and the expensive food, her date was busy ogling an attractive young-looking mare in a crimson dress who was currently commanding all the focus at the bar as she overly delicately sipped the glass of whatever it was she was drinking.

‘Hmmm…she’s gorgeous…so pretty…’ Brightstar thought as he stared, carefully taking in every inch of the pegasu’s flank hugging dress; the way it followed the curve of her back, the precisely placed holes for her perfect wings, the shimmering of the sequins as they flowed down over her flanks and around her mint green tail. So perfectly proportioned, everything just where it should be to excite the imagination and, Brightstar’s imagination wasn’t the only thing excited.

‘Perfect, pretty, hateful bitch!’ Moonbeak thought, glaring sharp pointy daggers at the utterly unsuspecting pegasus who was obviously deep in a flirtatious conversation with the middle aged earth pony stallion beside her. ‘Whore!’ The griffon stared hatefully at the mare from her seating pad at the table which had taken a month of waiting to acquire, and it wasn’t even one of the better tables at Gino’s Steak House, subconsciously she couldn’t help but compare her body to her own – especially as her date was undoubtedly doing the same. Slim and attractive in a dress that should’ve been outlawed as a dangerous weapon, Moonbeak couldn’t help but feel deep pangs of jealousy as she glanced down at her own four month pregnant body. Already not as slim as she’d like to be from having had one kitten, she was starting to show the rounded distended swelling of her second pregnancy, which she knew wasn’t going to do her figure any favours. Add to this the fact that this mare was clearly at least ten years younger than her and the griffon was fantasising about beating the pegasus to a pulp, closely followed by her date.

After another fifteen minutes she decided she’d had enough. “Brightstar…hello…Equestria to Brightstar!” Moonbeak’s high pitched voice squeaked in frustration as she waved a clawed hand in front of the royal blue stallion’s yellow eyes. “Hey! Brightstar I’m over here!” Again the older griffon waved her hand in front of the distracted unicorn’s face, this time reaching over the restaurant table with a heaving groan and slapped his foreleg hard.

“Wha…what, oow Moonbeak what was that for?” Brightstar rubbed his foreleg where he had been slapped, his wandering attention turned wholly back to his date; when it did he couldn’t help but shrink back on his seating pad and away from the very furious look he was now receiving.

“What was that for?” She squeaked, her beak hanging open in stunned fury, her sharp claws digging small trenches in the dining table’s surface. “We have been in this restaurant for an hour and a half and you have spent eighty of those ninety minutes staring at that orange pegasus over there in the crimson dress!”

Brightstar blushed a faint red against his blue coat at having been caught out. He had indeed been staring, though obviously not as subtly as he had first thought. “I wasn’t staring…” he defended lamely, his yellow eyes unable to meet his date’s emerald green ones.

“Not staring, really?” Moonbeak bristled, some of her white feathers standing up on end contrasting with her grey fur. “You were drooling into your cheesesteak for Luna’s sake!” The fuming griffon pointed out the little bit of drool currently on the top of the food.

“You’re imagining it, Moony.” Brightstar replied, a confident smirk on his muzzle. “You’re probably hormonal or something like that,” he said dismissively with a wave of his hoof as he picked up the cheesesteak in his magic and instead of cutting off a little refined piece proceeded to take a huge bite, his cheeks bulging outwards with the quantity of food he was eating.

‘Hormonal?’ Moonbeak almost choked on the steak in her mouth. Struggling to swallow she was so angry she bent the knife held in her right claw. “How dare you! Do you have any idea how hard it was to arrange tonight?” She pounded her fist into the table top, rattling the plates and cutlery, nearly sending their wine glasses crashing to the floor.

Brightstar actually deigned to look at his furious date, turning bored yellow eyes upon her. “Yes I know, by Celestia’s sweet fetlocks do I know!”

“What’s. That. Supposed. To. Mean?!” Moonbeak asked, struggling to keep her voice as even as she spoke, her temper simmering just under the surface, ready to explode as she carefully enunciated out each word.

“Well,” the unicorn sighed, putting down his cheesesteak and wiping his muzzle purposefully with the tablecloth, not the napkin. “I’ll tell you, shall I?” He asked dismissively. “How can I not know ‘how hard it is to eat here’ when all you’ve done for the past week solid is bang on about coming here? Every time you open your beak it’s ‘Gino’s this’, or ‘Gino’s that’ or ‘hey guess where we’re going?’ every day counting down like a Luna damned Hearths Warming advent calendar!”

Moonbeak had heard enough. Suddenly planting her balled-up claws on the tabletop the pregnant griffon thrust herself upright to her paws, looming over the dinner table with her distended belly resting upon it as she leant over and with a swipe of her right arm delivered a resounding slap to the left side of Brightstar’s face, the sharp points of her clawed fingers leaving little trails that began to bleed straight away. “Bastard!” She screeched, her already shrill voice practically inaudible, utterly uncaring of the other diners in the restaurant putting down their knives and forks to watch the unfolding scene that had been brewing for the past ten minutes. “I’m going home!” Leaning forward so her beak was inches away from her date’s nose she gave him the barest flicker of a wink just for him.

Sneering back at her Brightstar rubbed his hoof along the shallow cuts at his cheek and laughed, "Dear, do sit down you’re making a scene; ponies are looking at you.”

“Пусть смотрят!” Moonbeak yelled, her rage evident as she reverted to her native Griffonian tongue. “Я так роговой, я хочу тебя прямо сейчас!” By now the whole restaurant, including the staff, had stopped whatever they were doing to watch the drama as the irate griffon slapped her date’s right cheek – her second strike equally as hard as the first – before leaving him sat there alone at the table as she angrily stomping out of the building.

Gradually the other diners returned to their own food and conversations in the aftermath of Moonbeak’s eruption. Sighing happily at a job well done Brightstar lifted the remaining half of his cheesesteak in his magic, this time taking a more reserved bite, he didn’t know whether to be aroused or scared so he settled somewhere between the two.

Fifteen minutes later having finishing off his drink, and being grateful Moonbeak didn’t throw it over him like last time, Brightstar took care of the bill and left the restaurant to walk the three quarter of a mile back to the treehouse he now considered home.

He laughed out loud as he walked. ‘Treehouse’ was doing it a disservice, it really was; Moonbeak’s Fillydelphia house was a large open plan single storey four bedroom log cabin supported by the branches of three large oak trees. Larger than the house he had shared with his sister in Canterlot, Brightstar had fell in love with the treehouse ever since his girlfriend had taken him home after their first date at Gino’s Place three months ago when Air Raid had took the last photo his sister had seen before her attack. ‘Three months ago…’ Brightstar’s cheerful mood turned morose at the thought of his sister. His walk, already slow to give Moonbeak sufficient time to get home, slowed to a virtual stand-still and he leant against a nearby wall, doing his absolute best to fight back the tears that threatened to pour down his scratched cheeks.

Moonbeak had gone with him to see her the first Saturday after her attack. They’d only been together a few days, not even a full week. There had been no question, no argument. As soon as her mother, a griffon in her late fifties – Brightstar had been too polite to ask her exact age – by the name of Astraea had been able she had gladly minded her daughter's one year old kitten Athena. Sitting by his side in the hospital room, Moonbeak hadn’t said a word, she just gently placed her clawed hand on his hoof and sat quietly while he had openly wept at his sister’s condition. Nineteen years old he hadn’t cried like that since the age of fourteen when his mom had been committed to the asylum; he had cried that day though. For hours he’d cried; he’d begged Darkstar to get up, pleaded with her to wake up, he’d even screamed at her, anything to get at least some sort of reaction from his comatose sister and through it all Moonbeak sat without a word, just holding his hoof. He’d known then that evening on the way back to Filly he was going to grow old with her. She was a keeper for sure.

Thinking of Astraea cheered him up almost instantly. She had the unusual combination of razor sharp intellect and wit sitting happily alongside a foalish sense of humour and absolutely zero shame. She reminded him of an older lewder version of his sister and Cyclone put together in one glorious package. They had been dating for one month when Moonbeak had taken him to meet her mother. Brightstar had been so nervous, right up to the point she had opened her beak. Instead of introducing herself like any normal being she had spoken straight to Moonbeak in their native Griffonian, ‘Его член - дольше чем его рожок?’ Astraea had asked, which from his languages major at Canterlot University he had understood to mean ‘His cock - longer than his horn?’ Brightstar knew he was going to like this wonderful old lady. Of course, his reply to her of ‘Она не жалуется, когда я использую один из них,’ had all but sealed the deal, once she had stopped laughing long enough to welcome the unicorn into the family that is.

That had been the only time he had made Moonbeak blush, in fact she’d still had a blush visible through her white feathers in her car on the way back to the treehouse. He laughed at the memory of her swatting him between gear changes. “Did you have to tell my mother that ‘She does not complain when I use either of them’?” She had groused at the wheel of her saloon car.

Chuckling, thanking Celestia for the gift of Astraea and her ability to lift his spirits, the stallion started walking down the street towards home once more. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when it occurred to him that he hadn’t called Air Raid for a few days – true Moonbeak’s photography business had kept them double busy, what with everypony wanting to get married in May - but still, no excuse for not thinking about her and Darkie. Lighting his horn as he walked Brightstar levitated his iPhone out of his saddlebag and dialled his friend’s number, confident she’d be up in spite of the hour nearing ten O’clock at night.

Air Raid answered by the second ring. “Uh…wh-what’s up, Bright?” She asked, her voice heavy with weariness like she hadn’t slept in days and a distinct sniffle that betrayed a hastily recovered bout of tears.

“No, what’s up with you Raid?” He asked, his left ear perked up at his friend’s tone. “You sound like you’ve driven through Tartarus the long way round. Twice.”

Air Raid sniffled and choked back a few barely held tears. “I’m fine. Totally absolutely fine.”

“Bullshit Raid. Tell me what’s up or I’ll get Moony to come and spank you again.”

Air Raid had to admit that prospect was tempting. A griffon’s spanking was like being flailed by several tiny knives, sharp enough to make you bleed but not too sharp that they caused lasting damage and, under any other circumstances the lime green mare would’ve jumped at the opportunity. “Oh…it’s, it’s nothing really, I’ve just had a falling out with Slingshot that’s all.”

Brightstar almost dropped his phone. ‘A falling out with Slingshot?’ He thought incredulously. “No Raid, that’s not ‘nothing’. What happened?”

“Um…well, ‘Shot, he um, paid a visit earlier; wanted to know why I haven’t been racing when we’re only a quarter way through the season. He was pissed we’d missed eight races off the Canterlot circuit, said the sponsors were gonna drop us, well me, if we didn’t start entering some. I said there was no way I was leaving Darkie’s bedside. We uh…had a ‘disagreement’. He said Darkie was nothing but a transparent attempt to make up for abandoning Wildfire. I um…I yelled at him to get out, and he did. He just left.”

“Oh Raid…Raid I’m sorry,” Brightstar comforted, “Hey, it’s Wednesday now, how about we drop Athena with her nan and come up on Friday for the weekend, give you a bit of a break?”

“I don’t need a break. I need to be here for Darkie.” Came the ever stubborn reply.

“Raid…I’m willing to bet you haven’t been out of that hospital in three months.” Brightstar asserted firmly. “At least Darkie doesn’t have to endure the food. We’re coming up on Friday, you’re going to go home and rest, even if Moony has to hoof-cuff you to your bed.”

"Bright I…thanks Bright.” Air Raid’s stubborn defence crumbled before the weight of her tears, like an old dam struggling to hold back the weight of the water behind it.

“Get some rest Air Raid, before they put you in a bed next to my sister.” Brightstar said kindly as he hung up. “We’ll see you soon hun.”

Brightstar rounded the corner onto their street and cancelled the call, floating his phone back in his saddlebag as he approached the base of the treehouse. Looking up he noticed all the lights but one were turned off, namely their bedroom. ‘Uh oh…that’s trouble…’ he thought, remembering the way Moonbeak had stormed from the restaurant. Suddenly he wasn’t sure if he’d left it too long coming home. Oh well…only one way to know for sure. Lighting his horn again he began to charge up his magic, igniting it in a bright yellow mini corona as he concentrated precisely on the treehouse, specifically the small circular area in the entrance hall reserved for teleportation, brought the image to his mind’s eye and imagined himself occupying that exact spot in space. Channelling his raw power she thought of the words of activation for the spell and the familiar sensation of being squeezed through a narrow pipe overcame the unicorn as she disappeared from the spot at the base of the largest oak tree with a bright flash of yellow light, leaving behind him a slight smell of ozone in the air.

“Ложиться. Теперь.” Moonbeak’s high pitched voice sounded the instant Brightstar materialised and his shining yellow aura had dissipated. Despite there being a good forty five minutes since they’d seen each other there was still a spark of anger in her voice that sent chills down the unicorn’s spine.

Stepping forward from the entrance hall into the darkened main room of the treehouse Brightstar felt the thick quilted carpet beneath his hooves – one of the reasons the treehouse was so warm – he hastened to obey his lady and laid down right there like she had ordered. That she was still talking Griffonian meant she was still pissed.

“Хороший мальчик. Копыта сейчас.” Moonbeak ordered with a quiet authority, unwinding a thin length of red silk in her clawed hands, though the colour couldn't be seen in the dark. Flapping her powerful dark grey wings she hovered over to the obedient stallion laid on the floor. “Good boy.” She smiled, her sharp yellow beak glinting in the half light as Brightstar raised his forehooves up in front of his head like she had requested. Hovering above him she slowly lowered herself down until she was straddling herself across his chest. Leaning forward she quickly looped the ribbon of silk around his forehooves, loosely tying them together. “You've been a bad boy tonight though, haven't you?”

Brightstar shivered with excitement as he felt the ribbon snake around his hooves. He could break it of course; as a restraint it was more symbolic than it was effective, which of course was entirely the point. He saw the shadowy shape of Moonbeak sitting on his chest, he felt her warm sex pressed against his fur, rubbing wet and moist against his skin. Slowly she ground herself against him, her labia leaving slick trails on his fur marking her passage. Every time she rubbed against him his sheath twitched as his member reacted to the stimulus, already the flat head was starting to emerge, followed by the rest of him as the griffon continued to tease him.

“Who was a naughty boy?” Moonbeak asked sternly, leaning back and sliding her wingtips along his inner thighs.

“I was…I was naughty Ma’am.” Brightstar answered immediately, the stern tone of his girlfriend’s tone making him harder by the second.

“What did you do?” Moonbeak writhed around on his chest, sliding lower to his belly where he felt her distended belly pressed to his flatter one, his now erect stallionhood resting against her buttocks.

“Nggh…I…I took my beautiful griffon out for a meal Ma’am…and I spent the night ogling a young pegasus.” Brightstar gasped as she raised herself up and moved backwards over his erect shaft, hovering her hindquarters just above it.

“Hmm…you are bad aren’t you?” He could hear the dominant sneer in her voice. “What do you say?” She asked as she rested her dripping wet sex against the underside of his penis.

“S-sorry Ma’am…” Brightstar whimpered pitifully. “I’m sorry for eyeing up that young mare! I truly am Ma’am!”

“Oh…you will be, маленький мальчик.” Without warning Moonbeak thrust herself downwards but instead of lowering herself gently onto his throbbing shaft she used her bodyweight to force it flat against his belly earning her a very satisfying yelp of surprise and pain then needy desire from her stallion as she rubbed herself along his length.

“AaaAAGH…AaaOOOW! I…I’m s-sorry Ma’aaaam!” Brightstar screamed as she crushed his erect stallionhood to his body a second and third time, the last time Moonbeak ground herself onto his balls, rolling herself around and bouncing her weight up and down on his tender pained nuts. His forelegs flexed instinctively, millimetres from snapping the delicate ribbon, but he knew that wasn’t allowed.

“MMmm…you know what?” She asked rhetorically, “I think you are sorry.” The griffon smiled in the half-light of the main room as she ground against his throbbing hard member one last time, drawing another pained whimper from the poor unicorn. “Would my little boy like a reward now?”

“Aaah…aah…y-yes, Ma’am…pl-please, reward me.” He groaned in delightful agony.

Frowning Moonbeak raised herself up fractionally and landed on his testes again, harder this time, making him almost break the ribbon. She knew he never would. “Stupid little pony. Ask me properly.”

“Ngggh…AAAAAGH!” Brightstar shook with pain under his griffon, he knew what she wanted and he knew she loved making him beg. “Я прошу вас вознаградит меня Сударыня!” He begged for her in her native tongue.

“That’s better, much better.” This time when she lifted herself up she gently took hold of his abused stallionhood, gripping it carefully in her sharp clawed hand Moonbeak guided the flat head to her wet vagina and slowly, very slowly started to lower herself down upon it. “You’ve earned this, for being such an obedient pony.”

“HmMMmmm…” He moaned lustily as he felt rather than saw her purposefully slow descent. After his torment she was trying to get him to buck his hip upwards, but the unicorn knew better than to try it. She would deal swiftly and painfully with any such attempt. ‘Luna above she’s so tight!’ He thought as he felt the moist walls of her tunnel stretch and expand to accommodate his length and girth within herself.

Moonbeak stopped at his medial ring and placed both of her clawed hands on his broad firm chest. Like that she held herself semi impaled on his throbbing cock for a whole five seconds, until she was sure her stallion was a heartbeat away from bucking his hips before she lowered herself the rest of the way to hilt herself upon him. As she did so with a malicious smile on her beak she dug her claws into the flesh of his chest.

“YEeaaARGH!” With the pain in chest causing wonderful endorphins to course through him and the sudden hilting inside his girlfriend Brightstar almost came right there. “Th-thank y-you…” He gasped as she started to ride him, pulling herself up over his ring then sinking back down to hilt herself once more.

“S-say…hmmm…say my ooooh…name!” Moonbeak groaned, the coppery scent of her stallion’s blood driving her almost to her peak, as well as from her grinding and teasing. Again and again she hilted on his shaft, her overdue climax starting to build in the depths of her core. “Say it!”

“M-Moon…aaaah…b-beaaaAAAK!” The unicorn screamed in pure ecstasy as he was ridden, already he could feel his balls begin to tighten, he knew his own orgasm wasn’t far away.

Leaning forward so her distended belly was touching his she lifted her claws from his bloodied chest and slid them up his body to close them around his neck. “Fuck me.” She snarled in his ear as her claws dug past his blue fur and pierced his skin again. “Трахни меня сейчас!”

“Uuh…aaah…uugh…” Brightstar gasped and struggled for breath as her claws tightened around his oesophagus, robbing him of air and making white stars explode in eyes as with her blessing he finally lifted his hips, bucking them hard to ram his cock into her, easily matching her rhythm. With each exhalation Moonbeak squeezed tighter, preventing the next breath he so desperately needed while at the same time heightening the sensations he was feeling with each deep thrust inside her.

“Ooh…B-briiIIIGHHHT…MMmmm…y-yeeEEES!” Moonbeak screamed her climax in her lover’s ear, her claws still tight around his neck as she sank down on him, riding out the tidal wave of pleasure she was feeling all through her body, her wings outstretched and fully erect.

“Ga…gaaAAAAH MOOOONY!” Finding valuable breath from somewhere Brightstar expelled it in a scream of his own as his penis erupted deep within her, coating her insides with his hot semen as it mixed with her own ejaculate that started to leak from her. “I…l-love y-you…” he gasped, the multi-coloured stars still blossoming against his retina as his intense climax subsided. One thing registered in his oxygen starved brain; she wasn’t letting go. He was really starting to choke. Really properly choke.

“R…Rose…”

Immediately he felt the claws lessen their hold around his neck and as he gulped down the delicious much-needed air the ribbon was removed from his hooves. His ear tingled as he felt warm breath of his girlfriend still above him; felt the affectionate nip of her beak at the tip of his ear. “You did so very well, my lovely amazing stallion.” She cooed, giving his ear a tender lick that made him shiver with prideful excitement. Still breathing deeply Brightstar drank in the sweet air, his body starting to tingle and itch as feeling slowly returned to him. Dimly he felt Moonbeak lift herself off of him, he heard the wet ‘schlopping’ sound as his spent stallionhood came free from her. Wondering exactly what she had planned next for him the royal blue unicorn whimpered as he felt two strong arms slide under his back and lift him up, pulling him close against a feathery chest.

“I think the bath will still be warm for you my love.” Moonbeak whispered in his right ear, the back of his head supported by the crook of her left arm as her right arm held him at the knees of his hind legs, his back resting just above her large belly. Nestling in her strong comforting embrace Brightstar felt them both rise up as her wings flapped, propelling them through the treehouse to the large bathroom.

As she opened the bathroom door with a kick of her right leg Brightstar couldn’t help but stir in his girlfriend’s arms at the sight that greeted him. The lights had been dimmed and almost every free surface – the sink, windowsill, the shelves, the large flat-topped sides of the bath – were covered in strawberry scented candles, creating a warm glow that permeated the spacious bathroom. As they neared the large double bath another scent tickled the back of his nose.

“Strawberry and kiwi?” He asked with a surprised smile, looking lovingly up into her emerald green eyes. “When did you have the time for all this?”

“Shh, hush now my love.” Moonbeak cooed gently as she lowered them both carefully into the heavily scented still-warm bathwater, the smell of strawberry and kiwi oils even stronger. Still taking the lead she pushed him gently backwards until his head rested against the bath, his bottom of his black mane floating in the water. Scooping up a handful of the water she poured it over the claw wounds on his chest, making him hiss slightly as she bathed him. “You've earned your favourite oils and scents. Enjoy them.”

“I earned them?” Brightstar asked with a grateful smile as he felt his tired muscles soothe and relax in the warm bath. “What did I do?”

“You, my clever blue lovely, played your part wonderfully at the restaurant that's what you did and,” she purred, stroking a claw delicately down his cheek to his neck, “You were a very good pony when you came back.” She finished, kissing her beak tenderly to his lips.

“Yeah…about the restaurant, Gino had a word after you left, he wants to know if we can knock it off for a while? Says he's getting of watching the show after the fifth performance.” Brightstar chuckled at the memory of the irate stallion as Moonbeak continued to wash his fur.

“Oh…I suppose we could,” the griffon smiled, “You need to heal before the next time anyway.” She said, kissing him again just as tenderly as before. “Bright…you um…you weren't really ‘looking’ looking at that pegasus, were you?” She asked, suddenly uncertain. At thirty five she knew she wasn't exactly a chick anymore, and that she was lucky to have a young toycolt like Brightstar.

“Moony…baby, there’s only one heart for me, and it beats in your chest. I won't deny that pegasus wasn't pretty,” he said as his lover’s face fell, “But you’re beyond pretty, you’re beautiful, and you're mine.” Brightstar smiled and pulled her into a cuddle next to him in the bath.

"Really? You were ages coming back, I um, I thought…maybe, y’know…maybe….”

“What?” Brightstar smiled up at her in the embrace, “That I’d rather be with a vapid depthless mare just because she’s young rather than be with the world's most perfect griffon?” The stallion smiled warmly at his girlfriend. “Besides, didn't you hear what Athena called me yesterday?”

Moonbeak looked down and blushed for only the second time since they’d been together. “Она называется тебя ‘папа’.”

“Exactly my love. Your little kitten called me ‘daddy’. You think I’m really gonna swap that for anything?” Pulling her back into the tight embrace the unicorn and griffon snuggled and kissed until the water turned cold.

~ ~ ~

“Mum! C’mon mum it’s the first day of school!” Fireflight buzzed her little wings happily, completely unable to hide her excitement as she bounced on her parents’ wide double bed.

“Ugh...” without opening her chestnut brown eyes Wildfire blindly reached her hoof out and felt around for her alarm clock, which was a difficult task under the orbital pegasi bombardment that her filly was currently unleashing upon her and her wife, who amazingly was still asleep. Blearily she cracked open an eye. ‘It’s still dark out…that’s not good…’ finally managing to focus the pegasus looked at the clock like it was its fault she was up. “Flight…it’s five a.m.!” She groaned.

“I know! I know!” Fireflight squealed with delight, landing a huge bounce on the concealed snoring lump next to her mum that was her mom Air Raid – who was either really asleep or a really good actor – who grunted out a loud snore and rolled over. “The whole day is almost over! C’mon, it’s school, I wanna go!”

Wildfire slumped exhaustedly back in her bed. “Sweetie…school doesn’t start for another four hours! Go back to bed…” ‘pleeeeease!’

“But…muuuum!” Fireflight landed on her mum’s chest and gave her a little nip on the base of her neck that she knew she liked and nuzzled her tiny muzzle in deep into her yellow fur, getting her wet nose right against her skin. “I’m too excited!”

Wildfire sighed in defeat. “Alright then, I’m up little one. Have you brushed your teeth?” She asked, propping herself up on her foreleg.

“Um…no mum.”

“Alrighty…well, have you at least had a bath then?” Wildfire yawned and stretched her wings as she sat up properly in the bed.

Her excited filly didn’t answer; Fireflight’s scarlet blush told her everything she needed to know.

“Yuppers, I thought not,” she grinned, wrinkling her nose playfully. “Go and run yourself a bath you smelly filly.” Wildfire giggled as she bopped her daughter’s nose with her hoof. “You can’t start school smelling like your mom after a day at the races.”

“Alrighty mummy!” Fireflight chirped as she took off like a rocket to the upstairs bathroom.

Wildfire rolled over on the bed, now fully properly awake and accepting that sleep had been robbed from her. “You…” She grinned into her wife’s exposed right ear, “Are an evil pony for not waking up with me.” She whispered, nipping the tip of her lime green ear hard. Very hard indeed.

“Ooow! Wily!” Air Raid grunted, her grey eyes still closed as she flicked her ear. “Too early. Need sleep. Make it up to you later.”

“I’ll wear my firefighter’s uniform; you’d better make it up to me.” Wildfire kissed her cheek as she heard the bathwater running. “I’d better go before she floods us again. You just go back to sleep like you don’t have a care in Equestria.”

Chainsaw-like snores were her only reply from the pony-shaped lump that was her wife.

~ ~ ~

“Alrighty…for the ninth time of asking, are you ready?” Wildfire asked her bubbling filly who was almost trembling with excitement as the wall clock announced the time of eight twenty five.

“Yes mum I’ve got everything, let’s go, c’mon we’ll be late let’s go!” Fireflight squealed as she pushed her glasses up her muzzle.

“Flight…we have twenty five minutes to make a fifteen minute walk.” Wildfire smiled as she placed a reassuring hoof on her daughter’s shoulder, trying in vain to calm her down. “We’ll be fine, you’ll see. Now, have you got your saddlebags?”

“Yes mum it’s here look!” Fireflight turned to show off her clearly visible bags slung over her barrel.

“Textbooks?” The yellow mare asked again.

“Yes mum! I have everything; textbooks, notebooks, pencil case, spare pencil case, spare glasses, everything!” The little filly pouted indignantly up at her mother. “You’ll want me to have spares of my spares next!”

“Hey little madam, no need to be sassy.” Wildfire extended a wing over her little filly and pulled her, bags and all, into a feathery hug. “You aren’t too big for a spanking y’know.” She added with a wink as she ushered her out of their front door into the bright Monday morning sun.

“Like the ones that mommy Raid gives to you?” Fireflight asked innocently as she cocked her head up at the (slightly) larger pegasus.

“Yes…” Wildfire blushed a faint red on her cheeks and smiled down at her little filly. “Though you won’t get the hoof-cuffs.”

“Aww!” The little filly stomped her hoof in adorable indignation as she walked beside her mother. “But, mum! I wanna try them they look fun!”

Wildfire paused on the path to the schoolhouse, a smile reaching her brown eyes. “They don't make them in your size, sweetie.” She laughed at the pout her little filly was making. “Grow a bit, then maybe we’ll get Santa Hooves to bring you a set for Hearths Warming, okay?”

“Okay mummy! I'll grow super fast you'll see!” Fireflight buzzed her little wings so hard and with such enthusiasm she left the cobbled path and landed perfectly upon her mother's back.

“I'm sure you will honey,” Wildfire couldn't help but laugh, not to be in any way cruel, her filly’s joy was just too infectious to not at least giggle with her. “Why I bet you’ll be the bestest growerer in Canterlot.”

Now it was Fireflight’s turn to laugh, giggling delightfully into her mother's black mane. “Mummy those aren't proper words, you made them up!”

“Of course I made them up sweetie.” Wildfire giggled to the little pony currently nestled tight to her back. “All words are made up at some point Flight, that’s how language evolves, honey.”

They walked along in silence for a good few yards, both ponies enjoying each other's company in the beautiful morning sunlight. “Mum…” Fireflight whispered, almost inaudibly into her mother's ear, “Mum I'm…I'm scared, a bit…well a lot, sort of…”

“Sweetie…you have nothing to be scared of…nothing…nothing…

It was no use.

With a deep sigh Wildfire carefully removed the pen from her mouth, laying it down on her paper so she knew where it was for when she needed it again. ‘Nothing to be scared of’, she’d written that line over a dozen times now in over a dozen different stories that she'd written about her little filly, and every time she'd gotten stuck at that line. No matter what the story was, she just couldn't get past that line. No matter what she wrote the line just seemed so fake, so…untrue, that she couldn't bring herself to carry on.

‘Nothing to be scared of…’ Wildfire gave a derisive laugh at those five simple words. Such a lie they were. “Nggh…” She grunted aloud as she shifted her body, leaning herself slightly more to the right to alleviate the pressure on her badly bruised ribs and the pain she felt in her abdomen. The stiff surgical cast around her whole right foreleg hindered her movement somewhat, and instead of pushing with her leg she had to use her body to roll herself over, which hurt her all the more.

'Damn thing...bloody damn thing...' She thought to herself irritably, mentally kicking herself. The moment she’d thought of the cast protecting the break of the humerus above the elbow and the radius below the infernal thing started making her itch again, and although Wildfire had worn it for a month already, the yellow mare knew she would need it around her leg for at least another two weeks. A parting Hearths Warming gift from Lotus Stripes, Wildfire was dreading her broken leg healing. Again she snorted out a laugh at that; here she was actually dreading her leg healing, dreading the day her cast was removed by the care home medic. She knew she’d only have a few minutes, maybe hours if she was really lucky, before either Lotus or Amber came to her cell and broke a different leg. If they were following the cycle her right hind leg would be next, same as always; Amber Leaves would hold her leg out straight in her magic while Lotus delivered the two blows that would easily fracture her femur and cannon bone. After the breaking she would be left on the floor of her cell for at least two hours before the medic came to set the leg.

And then six weeks later the cycle, the seemingly never-ending cycle, would continue.

Wildfire didn’t even know what they wanted from her anymore. If she stayed down, they beat her. If she stood up, they beat her. If she cried out in pain they beat her, but if she stayed quiet they still beat her. Regardless of how well she did or did not follow whatever arbitrary rule was given to her the result was always the same. Sometimes they didn’t even give her a reason, just enter her cell and beat her until they were tired then just leave, all the time with no comment at all.

Wildfire had stopped talking to her mum. Every day she asked for a miracle, for somepony to find her, to take her home…every day, nothing. Like Mistress Glory told her every time she spoke to her, ‘this is her life; this is her existence now, Wildfire was nothing. Less than nothing. She was her Mistress’s property, nothing more or less than an object to be used.’

After nine months of the constant rhetoric, Wildfire was starting to believe it.

Lowering her muzzle to the paper the yellow mare picked up her pen in her mouth and with her left forehoof felt amongst the sheets of paper for a clean piece. Eventually, after roughly ten minutes of leafing through page after page of paper filled with the regular bumps of her braille writing, pages and pages full of hopes and dreams (dreams of the foal she had always wanted to have with Air Raid), each one of them the strands of a future that she knew deep down would never now happen, she managed to locate a page that was half empty.

Placing her pen to make the first indent of the first letter Wildfire paused as she decided what this story would be about. ‘Fireflight, of course,’ she giggled to herself. ‘This time she can be a firefighter, like me…oooh we can team up!’

~ ~ ~

“Mr. Stripes, Miss Leaves, your reports if you please.” Amethyst said quietly, sifting through the small stack of mail she held in her magic, sorting them into several piles; one that warranted urgent attention, one that required a reply, one that was ‘read only’ and a fourth that was junk. Most of the mouth-written envelopes automatically ended up in the trash. She was about to deposit one such letter in the trash can beside her desk when Amber Leaves spoke up, diverting her attention and making her pause, and in doing so she recognised the writing on the envelope. This was beyond urgent.

“The new stallion in cell six is ready for breaking, Warden Glory.” Amber’s eyes shined with pride at a job well done as she gave her report.

“Really?” Amethyst couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice as she lowered her mail and looked over her half-moon glasses at her faithful lieutenant. “So soon?” Her surprise was justified, it had only been here two months.

“Yes Warden Glory. It has been denied sleep for four days now, my thornwhip and I have personally ‘entertained’ him for the past two days.” Amber Leaves was so excited she even stopped pacing from forehoof to forehoof. “I estimate one more day and he…it, will accept anything you want it to.”

“Very well, Miss Leaves.” Amethyst magically slit the envelope she was holding in her aura. “You have done well. Very well indeed. Make it happen, Miss Leaves.”

“As you order, Warden Glory.” The unicorn mare looked over at Lotus fidgeting subtly on his seating pad across from her and couldn’t disguise the smirk on her muzzle. “Unlike some here I get the job done.”

Indignantly Lotus opened his mouth to give his colleague a heart-felt retort when the Head Warden raised a hoof without looking away from her letter. “Ah, ah! Miss Leaves, we will not resort to foalish bickering. Not in my office. Now then, Mr. Stripes, my sources tell me the pegasus from the hospital cafeteria has returned from Cloudsdale this past week. I trust you are tying up this loose end?”

Now it was Lotus’s turn to smirk as the huge earth pony ran his hoof along the necklace he was wearing, brushing over the three matching pairs of orange primary feathers. “I am, Warden Glory.” His hoof paused over the three teeth dividing the feathers, one still had dried blood on it.

“So I see, Lotus.” Amethyst grinned as she watched the titanic earth pony admire his hoofiwork, “Mind you do not get lost in your work, I still need you clear-headed and present at the hospital.”

“Yes Warden Glory, I understand.” Lotus said, not a little reluctantly, thinking of the young pegasus currently languishing in her shackles holding her tight to the cold brick wall of the dank tiny space hidden under the floor of his supply cupboard in the Canterlot Royal Hospital, where she’d been for the past three days. “One more day please, Warden, her screams are such beautiful music!” He enthused, thinking of the day before when he had slowly taken his time with her. At the end of the session when she had been dribbling blood, before he had forced the gag back in her mouth, she had begged him to kill her, by almighty Celestia he had almost orgasmed on the spot.

“As you wish, Lotus. I want the pegasus in the ground by day’s end tomorrow.” Amethyst smiled remorselessly as she signed Autumn Burst’s death warrant. She didn’t know her name, didn’t know or care she was about to make an unsuspecting colt an orphan, or deprive a handsome stallion of his fiancé. Had she been asked the director would’ve admitted, somewhat callously, that she didn’t even know what the mare’s name was. Indeed, she only knew her coat was orange because of her primaries hanging from the trophies adorning Lotus’s massive neck.

Amethyst Glory went back to finishing the mail she had almost discarded had it not been for Amber’s comment. The director couldn’t help but smile at what she read.

‘Dear Ms. Glory,

I have dealt with the nuisance that was snooping into our business. Rest assured she won’t be bothering either of us again. Me and the boys worked her over good; let’s just say she won’t be tight for her future stallion, that’s if she ever wakes up at all.

HA!!

I’ve even sent you a little photo, with love from the back of my van. Hope you like it. It’s put her other friends off from even thinking of looking for W now. Speaking of her, if you can arrange for her to send me letters saying how well she’s doing, how she doesn’t want to see them again, how distraught they left her and how she’s moving on, that would seal the deal.

CF’

Amethyst’s smile went so wide it practically split her head in two. This was truly excellent news indeed, and the only downside of it from her point of view was that the letter was rather outdated – she put that down to him drinking - the unicorn in question was still in her coma even now, months after her attack, according to the report from Lotus.

No, what made her smile now was the idea of the letters. ‘How deliciously simple…’ Amethyst had to admit this was a wonderfully…elegant way of making it just ‘disappear’ from the face of the realm. Though she was loathe to do it, in this instance she had to give Cold Front his due. Admittedly her expectations of him were never high, but here he had managed to surprise her. Which didn’t happen very often.

“Lotus, Amber…regarding the property in cell seven. Change of plans. It’s taken us a long time, longer than usual,” she directed her pointed gaze squarely at Lotus Stripes who flinched on his seating pad. “No matter. I know we’re close with it now, after the ‘training’ was stepped up. I want you two, both of you, to keep on it; do not let up now we are so very close.” Amethyst grinned as a nasty idea swam through her head and she started scribbling out a note for her two subordinates. “Take this and go to it. Break its wing. Get it to write this down, make sure that IT writes it, that is very important. If it does not comply, break the other wing. Understand?”

“Yes Warden Glory!” They both answered in unison.

~ ~ ~

“There!” Wildfire smiled as she finished the last letter of her sentence, the last sentence of her little story. This time she had written Fireflight as a superhero, the sixth and newest member of the Power Ponies team heroically saving the day in Maretropolis. Reverently the yellow mare placed the loose piece of paper back on top of the others that were lying between the black leather embossed cover and the first parchment page. Taking the precious book in her mouth she slid off of her bed with a muffled grunt of pain at her ribs and nudged it with her muzzle so it was hsafely under her bed.

As her right foreleg was still tightly bound in it’s protective cast, and therefore inflexible below the rotation of the shoulder joint, the little pegasus spread her wings in the confines of her cell and flapped them to get her up off of the floor and back onto her bed. “Ooof…” she grimaced as she landed a little too roughly, bumping her cracked ribs against the wooden piece of wood she laid on.

“Ugh…” Wildfire wrinkled up her nose as she entertained the idea of eating the celery that was sitting in the bowl beside her on the bed.  She didn’t really entertain the idea of not eating it anymore, her ribs hurt her just too damn much. As it was she had been kicked and punched so often she couldn’t remember a time where she could breathe without wincing and grimacing in pain. “Just…let…m-me…breathe!” She screamed to the empty cell, lowering her forehead to the bed as she whimpered. Even reaching for the celery hurt her.

She lifted a piece of the celery to her lips and took a large bite, so hungry she swallowed it without chewing, as did she the next piece and the piece after that. Reaching for another piece of the despised celery her hoof scraped the bottom of the bowl; she hadn’t even been aware she’d emptied it. ‘If I’m lucky maybe they won’t beat me today…’ she thought miserably.

Taking long, slow breaths Wildfire found a rhythm that didn’t hurt her very much and settled into it, resting her head on both of her outstretched forelegs. As she rested her mind began to wander she thought back to the fire she had attended where Heatwave had died, to the dressing down Hot Spot had given her and to the visit she had paid to her mother’s grave. “I’ll never see mum again…” she sniffled with sadness at the thought of Clear River standing alone at her husband’s graveside, then going to see her mum in her place.

As she sighed deeply and gave a loud sniffle of despair the sense of hopelessness she’d been feeling for days now threatened to overwhelm her. Again she was tempted to give up. What was the point in resisting? All it was doing was earning her day after unrelenting day of agony. Bowing her scarred face to her forelegs Wildfire felt nothing but utter despair…then as she carried on breathing deeply a song came to her mind. An old song she and her mum used to sing along to on the radio together.

“Line one is the time

That you, you first stayed over at mine

And we drank our first bottle of wine

And we cried

Line two we're away

And we both, we both had nowhere to stay

Well the bus-shelter's always OK

When you're young

Now you're older and I look at your face

Every wrinkle is so easy to place

And I only write them down just in case

That you die

Let's take a look at these crow’s feet, just look

Sitting on the prettiest eyes

Sixty 25th of Decembers

Fifty-nine 4th of Julys

Not through the age or the failure, children

Not through the hate or despise

Take a good look at these crow.s feet

Sitting on the prettiest eyes

Line three I forget

But I think, I think it was our first ever bet

And the horse we backed was short of a leg

Never mind

Line four in a park

And the things, the things that people do in the dark

I could hear the faintest beat of your heart

Then we did

Now you're older and I look at your face

Every wrinkle is so easy to place

And I only write them down just in case

You should die

Lets take a look at these crow’s feet, just look

Sitting on the prettiest eyes

Sixty 25th of Decembers

Fifty-nine 4th of Julys

You can't have too many good times, children

You can't have too many lines

Take a good look at these crow’s feet

Sitting on the prettiest eyes.”

Finishing her song Wildfire rested her head back on her legs, the pushed away despair and feeling of unbearable hopelessness slowly started to return. Wildfire knew it was just a matter of time before they won, what was the harm in just giving in?

‘Heatwave never gave in!’ She chided herself, slapping her left hoof across her face. ‘Mum didn’t give in when she was trying to restore that cloud…’

‘Air Raid gave in when she dumped you…I told you she’d leave you, you worthless pegasus. Every. Pony. Leaves. A. Worthless. Mare. Like. You.’

Wildfire heard her own argument, just like she heard it when she had flown back from the fire at Trixie’s Place. Unlike that time though…the yellow mare couldn’t find the strength to argue back. She just couldn’t.

So lost in her thoughts was she that she didn’t hear the key turn in the lock holding her cell door closed. She didn’t flinch or bother to look up when she heard the heavy metal door swing on its hinges and hit the wall with a loud clanging bang. It was such a regular occurrence by now she was used to it. Staying perfectly still on her little bed she barely dared to breathe as she heard the slow methodical hoof-steps of Lotus Stripes enter her cell and walk slowly alongside her, stopping roughly where her left shoulder was. Still she stayed still. Then, when it seemed bad enough, she heard the lighter, more delicate steps of a pony that sent pangs of fear shooting through her enter the cell . ‘Oh no…Amber’s here!’

Now…Wildfire knew she was going to hurt today.

Without any kind of warning whatsoever she felt Lotus move a step to the left and towards her, seizing the back of her mane in his right forehoof the giant stallion lifted her bodily off of the bed, holding her balancing on the tips of the toes of her hind hooves as he held her painfully aloft.

“AaaAAH! I…b-but I a-ate it!” Wildfire squealed in fear and pain as her black mane was yanked back hard, forcing her to ‘look’ up to the ceiling of her cell. “I…I ate it all! I swear I did, please…please don’t hurt me please!”

“Shut up pegasus.” Amber growled in her right ear. “Do it Lotus.” She said as she lit her horn and levitated her bullwhip out of her saddlebag.

Before Wildfire could wonder what ‘it’ was that she wanted Lotus to do, and how much ‘it’ would hurt her, she felt the enormous stallion shift his grip slightly before his powerfully strong foreleg thrust her down towards the floor of her cell, or so she thought. The yellow pegasus braced herself, expecting the tiled floor to rush up and meet her, but it didn’t.

“YaaAAAaaARGH!” Wildfire screamed in pain as the thin hardwood edge of her bed impacted her already injured ribs; she definitely heard another one of them crack, sending waves of excruciating agony through her abdomen. Slumped bodily over her bed, supported by her knees on the cold floor, she whimpered pitifully trying desperately to inhale through her freshly broken ribs.

“I…didn’t leave…any…ate it all…” the injured mare gasped between pained breathes, Lotus strode over her hind legs to stand at her right side, the earth pony watching with detached satisfaction her attempts to just draw her next breath.

“Shut up, pegasus.” Looking at Lotus the sadistic unicorn gave him a nod of her head. “Hold it.” Amber ordered simply, her voice cold and even.

Without a word Lotus leant forward and took hold of Wildfire’s right wing, pulling it roughly the powerful stallion extended it outwards to its full span. Before the pegasus could utter a sound of complaint he slammed his left forehoof down hard on the tip of her wingbone, trapping her wing to her bed.

“Aaah…oOOW! H-hey!” Distracted momentarily from the intense pain in her ribs Wildfire tried in vain to free her trapped wing, each struggle sending spikes of pain down the length of the feathery limb.

Behind her Amber placed a hoof on Wildfire’s back, squarely between her shoulders and kicked hard, forcing her chest deeper onto the hard unforgiving edge of the bed, two more audible cracks emanating from her ribs. “I said ‘Shut. Up. Pegasus.’" Floating her whip into position Amber took aim at the thinner bones of the radius and ulna, and with a truly evil smile splitting her muzzle released her whip, the tapered tip cracking as it created a mini sonic boom as the weapon first broke the sound barrier then proceeded to break the wing.

Wildfire’s agonised screams could still be heard long after the wardens’ had closed and locked her cell door.