Buck couldn't believe he'd waited for so long. He'd been living next to Ditzy for two years, and he'd never guessed she was into him. It didn't matter now. Now she was here, and she was warm and soft and sighing in his ear.

He couldn't wait until the end of the night. He had spent a day at the fair trying to walk normally in spite of his boner, and now he was making lunch to surprise Ditzy, who was dropping Dinky off at Sunbursts'.

Ditzy's sweet sighs turned into a whine. She was sitting on the counter; the pillowy breasts inside her shirt cushioned Buck's face. His hands were seeing to other important tasks.

He hadn't waited, and he hadn't asked. He had lifted Ditzy up and stared into her, and her legs had opened for him without hesitation.

Lunch could wait, and so could the date. Buck had been burning for this woman for what seemed like years. He needed release. He lined himself up.

"Buck..." Ditzy moaned.

He reached the back in one brutal thrust.

"Buck!" Ditzy screamed.

Finally, after the tip-toeing and the chivalry, Buck was getting what he wanted. His teeth sharpened. Something tore itself from his back. Ditzy's lewd gaze turned fearful.

"Buck?"

Something was burning inside Buck. It wasn't a wildfire; it was a backdraft waiting behind a door. He had control, but only barely. He wanted to hold Ditzy down and pound another baby into her. He wanted to empty himself down to the last drop inside her.

Buck was finally starting to feel like himself.

"Buck! The pasta!"

Buck blinked. He was definitely still in his kitchen, but Ditzy Doo was at his side instead of on top of his cock. He looked down and saw the soggy, sticky wreckage of a ruined pot of fusilli noodles.

"GOD fuckin' damn it!" Buck said, slapping his forehead.

"Language. Saw you spacing out in here, so I just wanted to check. Did I distract you?"

"No, no, I just cain't cook for shit. That was way too fast! What happened to my timer?" Buck reached around a bunch of kitchen tools laid out on the counter, most of which weren't necessary for pasta. He tapped his phone, and instead of an egg timer app going, there were google results for "best easy date foods to make".

"Uh...maybe you forgot to set it? Uh, oh!" Ditzy reached out quickly to turn down the heat on a pot that looked about ready to start spitting molten tomato sauce all over the stove.

"Well, at least I remember how to fry chicken. So I can do half a chicken parm, at least." Buck sighed. He was slicing open a piece of fried meat with a kitchen knife. Ditzy took the first pot off the stove before any more pasta could burn to the bottom.

"Do you want me to do the other half...?" Ditzy offered.

"Please. God, this is embarrasin'. I was trying to cook for you!"

"Don't worry about it, Buck, you did good."

"I fucked it all up."

"Language! No, I can salvage this. You go relax, okay?"

"At least let me help clean it up..."

"We can do that later! I've got this, alright?" Ditzy said. One of her eyes was focused on Buck, but the other seemed to already be on the task of finishing lunch.

"Alright...hey." Buck slipped his arm around Ditzy from behind. She went still.

"Hm?"

"I love you, Muffin." Buck kissed the side of her neck.

"I love you too, Buck." Ditzy folded her hands over her lap. Buck frowned and let go.

He couldn't ruin their evening by acting like a dumb brute. Ditzy deserved to be treated better.

Buck slumped onto the couch, defeated.

"I can't be fuckin' this up already." He whispered.

When Ditzy looked over her shoulder, Buck was sitting up straight.

Lunch ended up fine. Ditzy hadn't had southern-style chicken parm before, and the additions she made to Buck's sauce were expectedly excellent. It should have been a nice afternoon, but Buck couldn't escape the fact that he'd screwed the dish up and needed Ditzy to bail him out. Dinky liked it, at least.

"Are you okay, Buck?" Ditzy said. While she cleared the table and counter, Buck started in on the dishes.

"I'm alright. I think I'm gonna do some writing before we go out tonight."

"Okay, well, I'm gonna bring Dinky over to Sunbursts' place. I'll come and get you around sunset, okay?"

"Alright."

A little kiss, a closing door, and Buck was alone.

It was a relief.

"Mama, is Buck my Papa?"

Ditzy felt her heart stop for a moment.

They were a few miles north of the apartment, walking down a street that was upsettingly cleaner and smoother than the hazard zones of their neighborhood. Dinky had been jumping over cracks in the sidewalk and humming quietly, but now she was stopped, looking at Ditzy with open-eyed concern.

"I gots homework, and we gotta write a thing about our mamas and papas! I wanna do it so I can run around with Auntie Scoots and Uncle Sunburst!"

"That's very responsible, Dinky! But, you know they don't always fight monsters?"

"Oh..."

"What's wrong, Dinky Doo?" Ditzy said. She stopped her trot and took a knee.

"I told about how you were so cool when you fought a dragon, and Miss Cheerilee told me good girls don't lie..."

"Aw, Dinky...that's a secret! Nobody else knows about it, that's all!"

"But you did! You did fight a dragon, I seen it!"

"Shh...you know how He-Man is secretly Prince Adam? We have to keep all this stuff secret!"

"Oh! Shhh!" Dinky mimicked the finger that Ditzy had put to her lips. They giggled at each other, and they continued their walk. "Mama?"

"Yeah, baby?"

"I don't wanna lie on my homework. Is Buck my papa?"

"...no, Dinky, he's not," Ditzy said, finally. Dinky looked at the ground. "Do you want Buck to be your papa?"

"I dunno..."

Before Ditzy and Dinky were a set of vast glass doors with a sign above that read 'TenPony Towers'. According to her text, Sunburst's suite when a few floors up, and just a bit further was where Adagio lived.

Ditzy prayed she wouldn't run into Adagio here.

Dinky oohed and ahhed at the flashy lobby, her troubled expression lost in the glamour of the ornate chandeliers and the elaborate patterns in the carpet.

Ditzy was suddenly surrounded by people bearing the weight of pretentious boredom, flanked by clerks bearing the weight of their luggage. Ditzy's finely honed food service sense told her that this meant a stuffy business convention was in town, and that would mean big orders with small tips were on the way at Sugar Cube Corner. Ditzy held on tight to Dinky's hand as they worked their way through the crowd, trying to find the elevator.

Somehow, they circled around back to the entrance. Ditzy worked very hard in that instant not to let Dinky see her grinding her teeth.

"Are you lost?" Said a familiar voice.

Ditzy turned to see tired blue eyes, long purple hair and a cup of coffee held in a death grip.

"Oh, hi Starlight! You know me; I could get lost on the way to the kitchen!" Ditzy said with almost a laugh.

"Well, if you walk along the wall from here, you'll hit the elevators on the other side in no time. Do you know where Sunbursts' floor is?"

"Yeah. I think I'll be able to take it from there...thank's Starlight!" Ditzy smiled.

"Don't mention it." Starlight said. A painful and awkward memory sat on Ditzy's chest, but Dinky stopped staring at the reflective ceiling and noticed Starlight's presence.

"Are you the lady from the fair!?"

"Uh...yes? I was there, yes."

"SHHH!" Dinky shushed and beckoned Starlight to kneel down. Ditzy smiled and nodded, and so Starlight listened to what Dinky had to say.

"The dragon stuff is a secret! But I like your magickey stuff! It's pretty neat!"

"Thank you?" Starlight stole another glance at Ditzy and saw a scowl in progress, which faded as she noticed Dinky's bubbly excitement.

"What's your name? I'm Dinky Doo!"

"Oh, Dinky, this is Starlight Glimmer! She's-"

"Leaving. I'm going out for the night. You and Buck stay safe tonight, Ditzy. I'll see you around."

"Will you...?" Ditzy mumbled.

Buck's fingers sprinted back and forth across the shiny, smudged keys of his laptop's keyboard.

It seemed like ages since he gotten an article out, and normally that thought would drive him to put something fast and dirty together in a flurry of creative angst.

Unfortunately, all he managed to do with that angst was write and erase an opening paragraph about fifteen times.

After staring at the headline 'An Idiot's Guide to Canterlot Gig Work,' for a daydream's length, Buck's hands stopped their meaningless prance. By then the sun was setting.

A click.

Buck's eyes darted through a drop-down of inexplicable friend requests to his one and only social media page. It was private, of course.

"Buncha dickheads..." Buck mumbled.

Two clicks.

Buck checked the email receipt he'd gotten after ordering new glasses. He hoped they were the most expensive purchase of the year.

Another click.

Buck's attention span limped across a field of people asking to set up interviews or talking about the boardwalk or Adagio or blah blah blah. None of them offered pay.

"Don't need to answer those."

And not a single bite for his writing. Another article pitch ignored, another short story offer thrown out. There wasn't even any criticism, just the word "No" in the form of a few flowery paragraphs.

Buck's forehead touched the desk.

"Am I in a slump, or has my work always been shit?"

He was tired of squinting at a screen, so he glared at the calendar and recieved another grim reminder. Rent was coming up.

The bit of financial cushion he'd gotten from that night with Harshwhinny had pulled him away from the edge of destitution, but it was only a matter of time before his debt or his rent or god forbid a hospital bill would take it away.

Tonight was meant to be an escape from that anxiety, but it had its own set of stressors jabbing at Buck's grey matter.

After a week of peace with Ditzy Doo, that familiar anxiety of 'what the fuck else is gonna shit in my bed' was starting to settle in. It reminded Buck of college.

Buck reached over and tapped his phone a couple of times.

"Hey, Buck!" Said Sunburst.

"Hey, babe. I just wanted to check on how Dinky's doin'."

"Buck, I've told Ditzy twice now that Dinky is fine! Scoots is reading a monster manual to her, and Dinky has been asking all kinds of great questions, like 'Does the tooth fairy visit dragons?', 'Do skeletons have families?' and, most frequently, 'How does it poop?'. " Sunburst laughed.

"Okay, okay. And she's got her toothbrush and everything? Do you need us to swing by and bring anything? Crayons?"

"Buck, it's just one night. You sound like she's going off to summer camp. You also sound stressed. What's the matter?"

"Is he over there worrying again? Tell him to stop worrying!" Scoots shouted from somewhere on the other line.

"I'm not worrying," Buck said. The line was silent. "Okay, I'm definitely worrying."

"I don't think you're in danger of any big bursts of magic, are you? Starlight and I have been working on something to help with that."

"No, I don't think I'm gonna explode tonight. That might be productive. I'm sittin' here with fuckin' writer's block, twistin' myself into knots." Buck sighed.

"And that's stressing you out."

"Yeah! I feel like I've lost the plot, Sunburst. Like I'm just goin' through the motions, just waitin' for some bad shit to happen. I just get this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be doin' somethin' right now instead of taking the night off."

"Yeah, that sounds familiar. You and Starlight should compare notes."

"That's real fuckin' funny, bro," Buck said flatly.

"You need to get out of your head. You've had an insane month and you need to relax. There's nothing wrong with resting; we're humans! We need to rest!"

"...right. But what if I screw it up? What if I say something that pisses her off? Or I come on too strong? What if even though we finally have a night to ourselves, she finally decides she can't fuckin' stand me? Ditzy said she wanted to go dancing, and she needs a nice night without any major crap-ups. What if I can't even provide that?"

"What do you want?"

"Like, like in terms of my life, or like, out of a relationship, or like, this week?" Buck heard the kind of sigh that often came from behind a GM's screen.

"Right now. What does Buck want right now?"

"...Buck just wants to be happy."

"Well, Buck, to be happy, you need to take care of your wants and needs. When you're with Ditzy, you can't take your eyes off her. When you aren't stressing, I see you two settle into a coziness that I'm frankly a little jealous of. And I know you, Buck."

"Better'n anyone."

"You need that. That comfort, that care for one another, that's what you need, right now."

"Uh-huh."

"But you've got writer's block. Sounds to me like you need a new outlet."

"Guess its a good thing we're goin' dancing, huh?"

"Buck, can I be perfectly honest with you?"

"Always, bro."

"Maybe you're feeling trapped because you've got what you need...but not what you want."

Buck shut his eyes and gritted his teeth. Somehow, Sunburst always managed to find a nerve that needed pinching.

"If you want my advice, you should enjoy your night and not worry about it too hard."

"You always say shit like that."

"And you always need to hear it!"

"...Fair enough. Love you, brother. I'll see ya on Tuesday."

Buck killed the call and stared out the window.

The door opened.

"Buck? Are you ready to go?"

Buck looked over and forgot where he was or what he'd been worrying about.

Ditzy stood with one hand on the doorknob of Buck's apartment, the embers of dusk spotlighting her with a warm glow.

She was wearing a pair of leather jazz shoes. A messy bun would keep her hair in check on the dance floor, with a pair of bangs framing her face. Red painted lips curled over a string of gleaming pearls. The rest of her was outlined by a little blue dress with a plunging neckline, showing off her glorious canyon of cleavage. She also happened to be wearing the blue bow with the little golden skull that Dinky had gotten her.

One yellow eye trailed up and down Buck's form, slovenly dressed in a lightly stained tank top and a pair of pyjama pants.

"I guess not." Ditzy giggled.

Buck scrambled out of his chair, trailing apologies as Ditzy took a patient seat on his couch.

After mumbling and thumping around for a bit, Buck emerged from his bedroom in a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of brown suspenders.

"So, normal date night; take two. You ready?" Buck smiled. He helped Ditzy up, then looked away as she adjusted his bow tie.

"I am...and now you are too!" Ditzy smiled, taking Buck's arm as they headed out.

As they approached Ditzy's car, there was a near stumble, but Buck's firm posture kept her steady.

"You're, uh...you're gonna have to let go of my hand if you're gonna drive us there." Buck chuckled as a fresh blush raced across Ditzy's face.

"Right, right, sorry! Kinda zoned out a little..." Ditzy panicked, dropping Buck's hand to fumble with her seat belt.

"Here...let me just put this right here. Is that alright?" Buck rested his hand on Ditzy's thigh. Ditzy went still and nodded. She was trembling, just a bit.

"You nervous?"

"Excited! Just excited to, uh, show you my moves!"

In a way, it was reassuring. Maybe she's just as wound up as I am, Buck thought.

"Hey. Muffin?" Buck squeezed her thigh as the car sputtered to life.

"Yeah, Buck?"

"Let's really cut loose tonight."

"Mhm."

The trembling stopped. The car drove out of the parking lot, bound for the business district.

Summer nights in Canterlot tended to be cold, wet, and miserable, and this one was gearing up to be the worst of those worlds. There was no rumbling in the overcast sky, just a grey mess of drizzling blurriness. Anyone who stayed out here for too long would be soaked to the bone.

It was lucky then that Starlight Glimmer hadn't had to look long. A beam of hazy cyan light led Starlight through the dim maze of alleyways in Canterlot's business district, the beam slowly getting brighter.

Before getting any closer to danger, Starlight stopped to answer a call in a relatively dry shadow, and now she had a hand on her hip, speaking in a hushed tone.

"I just think it would be better if we went with them. Just because they want a night off that doesn't mean evil will take a night off." Starlight said.

"Aw, as a double date?"

"As security."

"They need rest, just like we do."

"You rest. At least one of the defenders of Canterlot needs to be out here while mysterious cloaked figures are prowling the streets."

"You can't keep going like this, Starlight. I know that yesterday was a disappointment, but you don't have anything to prove."

"I still have some components I can use if things get hairy."

"That's not what I mean. You're exhausted, Starlight. You're burning yourself out."

"I know, I know, I know, alright!? But there's someone out here right now that can turn people into monsters! I need to chase this up while the trail is still hot."

"Maybe if we had asked Adagio, she would have-"

"Volunteered to ruin another date? No. Just because she played nice yesterday, that doesn't change anything. She only helped because she wants to get close to Buck."

"That may be, but if she's trying to keep Buck safe, even if she has other motives, she's useful."

"She doesn't get to play at being a hero just because she's after Buck."

"She saved Ditzy's life."

"Because Buck asked her to. She was just helping to get back in his good graces. I'm telling you, this is all part of her scheme, and we can't afford to trust her when she could lash out at any moment. I don't need her, anyway. We don't."

"Just..don't take any unnecessary risks tonight, alright?"

"You know you can count on me. I'll be fine."

The line was quiet. Starlight wondered for a moment if the call had dropped.

"Starlight?"

"Yes?"

"Come back to me." Starlight's cheeks turned rosey in the wet gloom of the alleyway.

"I will." She said.

"I love you."

"I know."

The call ended and a sudden chill shuddered Starlight's spine.

She turned around, clutching at a quartz crystal in her pocket, but the only sound was the light patter of rain on concrete, and the only assailant was the cold dampness of the night.

"Could've sworn..." Starlight muttered.

For just a moment, Starlight was sure that someone was following her.

She was right.

"Is this the place?" Buck said. After a desperate struggle to find an elusive business district parking spot, Ditzy and Buck walked quickly down a flight of stairs leading to a door with a flickering light. The sign above the front of the building said: "The Rainbow Factory" in a dazzling display of neon colors. "I mean, this ain't the first time I've entered a club from the side entrance, but how do you know this is the spot?"

"Oh, you just have to know, is all!" Ditzy smiled. She knocked precisely three times on the door and spaced them in a deliberate manner.

"Mysterious! You been gettin' insider scoops on dance clubs from your homies on the streets?" Buck chuckled.

"Yes! I mean, no, I..." Ditzy stammered. A little slat opened to reveal an intense stare.

"Who we got?" Said a gruff voice.

"Uh, It's Ditzy Doo. I'm on the list, and I brought a plus one." Ditzy said. The pair of eyes darted away for a few seconds, and then Buck heard a pen scratching paper.

"Got it. Come on through." The door cracked open, allowing Ditzy to lead Buck by the arm down a dark, dingy hallway. From the far end, Buck could hear a jaunty tune playing over the sounds of extroverts loudly extroverting at each other.

"...bold, Ditzy." Ditzy mumbled to herself.

"Huh?"

"I've been taking jazz dance lessons down and the rec for a while. My friends recommended this spot to me when I asked where to go dancing. I wanted to show you my moves!" Ditzy said.

"Huh, no wonder you charleston like a pro." Buck said. "What made you wanna try jazz dance?"

"Oh, no reason! Haha, just a little change of pace, you know? Don't wanna just sit around knitting in my free time! That'd be boring, and I gotta watch my figure somehow, right?" Ditzy tittered. Buck's eyes shifted to try and read Ditzy's face, then took a tumble down her cleavage on the way.

"I don't think you gotta worry about your figure, Muffin." Buck said.

"Why's that?" Ditzy said, looking up at him.

"I'm gonna be watchin' it all night."

The two of them stepped through the bright threshold, emerging onto a space filled with stomping feet and rolling hips. A basement club with a brightly lit bar and a wide floor space full of folks in outfits from the twenties and thirties getting down to the bassy beat and wailing trumpets.

The food at the bar wasn't much of anything to write home about. Ditzy saw Buck pick idly at a pile of greasy chicken wings while she stared down a small order of fries.

Yesterday's events hung on a hook in her mind. Somehow she had walked away a hero. Well, sorta. She had definitely impressed Buck, but when they got home, she had mentally deflated into the routine of putting dinner together for Dinky before calling it a night.

She had spent a long shower trying to wrap her head around everything that happened and kept coming back to the thought of Adagio smiling, telling her that she was sharing Buck's magic.

His care and affection.

It was the first time Ditzy had seen the horrible witch compromise. That was frightening, but what scared her more was the way Buck looked at her.

Adagio had come to mess with Buck; she'd had to. She even tried to beat Ditzy at the proving grounds, but the second Buck was in danger, it was like she became another person. She had taken charge without even thinking about it. Ditzy and even Starlight had fought by her side! What in the world was happening?

She just wanted Buck for his magic, right? That's all it was. She would do anything to get at him, Ditzy thought, but there it was again.

The image of Adagio's pained expression as she took a blast of flame in Ditzy's place. Buck holding Adagio in his arms.

She had even said she would give Ditzy and Buck some space.

And the whole time, while Ditzy fought by Adagio's side, she didn't feel scared or angry at her.

All she could think about was how much she wanted to protect Dinky and Buck.

And how exciting it all was.

"Muffin? Y'alright?"

"Yesterday was pretty exciting, huh?"

"More like exhausting. If I'd known we'd be dealin' with a dragon, I'd've blown off the fair completely. And don't get me started on Adagio showin' up outta the blue."

"It was kind of an emotional rollercoaster, wasn't it?"

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt, Muffin. We ought to send Adagio a tray of tarts or somethin' for that."

Ditzy frowned.

"...she called you 'Puppycakes'. What was all that about?"

"Well, uh, it's a nickname she made up when she was at our game night that one time. I play a Diamond Dog Bard."

"Oh, like a kobold?"

"Yeah, that's another name for 'em."

"I bet you'd be a cute puppy, Buck!"

"Yeah?"

"Mmhm...let me guess...you'd be a labrador!"

"Huh?"

"A big fluffy sweetheart that likes to sit in laps even though you're a big boy! Smart and sweet...and silly!" Ditzy laughed.

"And a soft mouth?" Buck smirked.

"Yeah! You handle things gentle-like. That's my Buck..." Ditzy said, letting the innuendo fly over her head.

"You think I'm gentle?"

"In here." Ditzy reached across the table and tapped Buck's chest.

"Well, I was surprised by you, yesterday. I never thought you could be so fierce, Muffin!"

"Fierce...you like girls that are fierce, huh? Is that why?"

"Huh?"

"Is that why you picked Adagio?"

Buck's lackadaisical expression fled the country. An association pinged in his head. This was important. He didn't know why, but this was important, and he had to confront it.

"...I mean, yeah, I guess? You know, even though I've done the work that I've done, girls don't really pay me much attention unless they're after somethin'. I think it's maybe because I'm kind of intimidating at first glance, or my reputation, or the way I talk. It's also a hetero thing; girls get conditioned to think that guys will just come and bother them if they're interested, which is true. But that ain't me, and so girls just sorta ignore me, or if they're interested, they don't do nothin', because I'm supposed to make the move. But how am I supposed to know? I'm an introvert; I'm not about to go bother someone unless there's a reason, and 'you got nice tits' is not a reason, you know?"

There was something in Buck that had been sad for a long time, and Ditzy hadn't seen it. Maybe he had been waiting for her to say something, and by the time she was ready to try, it was too late.

"But 'dagio was different. She saw me at speed dating and she gave me this 'look' you know? And when we talked, she made it clear as crystal that she wanted me. Just from a look; she decided that she wanted me, out of all the people in that bar. That's never happened to me before. I know it's not manly to say it, but it's...it's nice to know that you're wanted."

A cold fury settled into Ditzy. How long had she tried to get Buck to notice her? How many times had she cried in bed, thinking that she was invisible to him?

"Don't matter though. She wasn't really after me, anyway. It was my magic. She could probably smell it across the room. That's why it hurts, you know? I thought she wanted me, that there was a girl who was interested in me, just for me, but turns out she just wanted to use me. I should know better. Shouldn't let her trick me like that."

Ditzy took Buck's hand. She could see a pile of things he wasn't saying, but she tried to push through them.

"Then why, Buck? Why were you so warm with her at the fair? Why did you...why did you hold her like that?"

"Well, because she needed me. And you all needed me, too, and I knew...I trusted Adagio to save you. Because even though she's mean and cruel, even though she just wants my magic, she's not a monster, Ditzy. A part of her cares about me, and she's willing to fight at your side and save your life because if something happened to you, my whole world would fall apart! And I think she knows that." Buck had the smallest, most fragile smile on his face.

"I hate her."

"Muffin."

"No, please. Let me say this, and that's all I'm going to say about it. I hate her." Ditzy squeezed Buck's hand and spoke with a hushed, shaking anger.

"I hate that she looks at you like a piece of meat. I hate that she struts around like she owns the world, and I hate that you like that. I...I recommended speed dating because I was going to go there and surprise you."

"Ditzy..."

"I was going to show up and I would be like 'Hey! Hi, it's me! You know, your neighbor! The silly girl that fell in love with you and doesn't know how to tell you!'. But then she came along and took you away. And I had to sit and smile and watch her crawl all over you and treat you like a pet. And I knew she was bad, but I didn't say anything because at least you looked happy! Happier than I ever made you! And you broke up and all that stuff with the changeling happened, but I was glad! I was glad, because even though you went through a lot, I had you, and I could help you heal and keep you safe and love you, finally, I could love you!"

Ditzy was doing everything she could to stop herself from screaming. Buck could see tears starting to pool in her eyes, so he moved closer to her in the booth, silently holding her hand between his.

"I was so excited to go out yesterday, Buck. When she showed up, I thought I could beat her back and she would leave us alone. But then...I saw the way you looked at her. I thought she cast a spell on you or something, but she never did, did she? She just came into our lives and she, she just fucked everything up, but when she went down, you held her and you looked at her like she was the most precious thing in the world, like a treasure you didn't get to keep, and she doesn't even care about you!"

Ditzy reached up and held Buck's face in her hands, and the hurt in her eyes was so deep and moving that Buck had to fight back his own tears.

"But I love you, Buck! I've loved you for so, so long, and I'm jealous because even after everything she did, she gets to sit in this space in your heart that was supposed to be mine! I won't let her take you away again!" Ditzy sobbed. Her hands dropped to her sides and her face slipped down to sit against Buck's chest.

"I saw you first..." She whimpered.

Ditzy thought then that Buck would leave. That he'd get up and go for a walk and she'd never see him again. Instead, he slid an arm around her and squeezed her tight, and let her breathe against him. He smelled like cologne, and Ditzy felt like she could fall asleep right here, right here in his soft, strong arms.

"Please say something..." Ditzy said.

"I don't wanna talk about Adagio tonight. You need to know that I'm out here because of you. Because I love you, Ditzy Doo, and I'm sorry for how confusing and chaotic things've been, but I want to make it up to you. I want tonight to be about you and me and nobody else. Do you wanna leave?"

"No, I wanna stay." Ditzy whimpered. "I don't wanna muss up the night."

"Alright. Then how about you sit here and take a breather while I go get us some drinks?"

Ditzy looked up and saw a sweet smile on Buck's face. There wasn't a hint of anger in him. He wiped a tear away with his thumb.

"Okay." Ditzy smiled, letting Buck get up.

"Okay? You sure? Because you don't have to drink if you don't want to."

"White russian!" Ditzy said.

"You sure?"

"Double!"

"Uh. You still gotta drive after this, don'tcha?"

"..Single!"

"Okay, Muffin!" Buck chuckled. He took a few steps toward the bar, then he turned around and hugged Ditzy again before properly heading off.

Back at Sunbursts' suite, a three-ring binder was opened with no small amount of pomp and circumstance. Within was page after page of numbers, notes, and scribblings. Dinky Doo excitedly flipped through it, looking at the pictures and crude drawings accompanying the data. She was captivated.

"Ughhh! I'm sooo boooored!" Scoots groaned from where she hung upside down from Sunbursts' couch.

"What's the matter, Scoots? I thought you'd be happy to relax after how chaotic the fair was?" Sunburst didn't look up.

At the moment, he was writing down notes around a very detailed illustration of the shoggoth tentacle that Adagio had recovered from the boardwalk incident.

"Why? I barely got to do anything..." Scoots pouted. "Starlight is out doin' batman stuff, and Buck and Ditzy are dancing and drinking, and they're gonna...boink. And I'm stuck inside bein' responsible and junk. Makes me feel boring to just lay around here."

"Really?"

"I'm not saying that you're boring, most of the time! I just...I dunno. I feel left out. Like nobody cares if I'm there or not. You ever feel like that, Sunburst? Like you're getting left behind?" Scoots frowned.

"Well..."

"This one! Tell me about this one!" Dinky said, holding up a sheet that showed a familiar-looking batpony with colorful hair and a missing eye. The drawing had both Buck and Sunbursts' signatures at the bottom.

Sunburst smiled and cleared his throat.

"Her name is Chillwing. She's a batpony rogue who's stealthy and stabby but not very subtle. Among her companions, she is easily the swiftest, and with her clever ears, she's the best at finding both loot and trouble! Despite her tendency to get the group into sticky situations, she is considered invaluable for her bravery and willingness to throw herself into danger at a moment's notice!" Sunburst said in a near booming announcer voice. Scoots blushed.

"Wow, wow, wow! That's super cool!" Dinky said.

"It's not that cool..." Scoots said, scratching her head.

"You know, Scoots, downtime is an important part of any job. You don't run every day, right? You've got to take time to recover to stay in top shape."

"I guess..."

"And besides, sitting around and being responsible can have its perks. I mean, have you ever met someone so interested in your character backstory?" Sunburst smiled and nodded at Dinky, who was dragging her finger slowly across the lines of text on Chillwing's character sheet, occasionally stopping and going back over it again.

"You want to know why Starlight and I put our lives on the line?" Sunburst said.

"...because you like fighting monsters and doing magic and stuff?"

"No. It's so people don't have to worry about all those monsters and magic and stuff. So families can sit around and be bored without fear of the things that could be skulking around the city streets." He gestured at Dinky. "That's what it's all about."

"Is Starlight your Mom? Did she give you that weird thingy?" Dinky said, pointing at the bottled tentacle.

"Yeah, Sunburst, do you call her Mommy?" Scoots snerked.

"No! She is, well, we...she's my girlfriend, Dinky. We love and care for each other." Sunburst said.

"Oh. Is she like Chillwing? I saw her do magic!"

"...your Mom probably doesn't want us to talk about that kind of thing, Dinky." Sunburst said.

"Okay..." Dinky said glumly. For Sunburst, this was heartbreaking. Curiosity should be rewarded, he thought, not suppressed.

"Starlight Glimmer is a beautiful and brilliant warlock of great skill! She doesn't have any special powers, but she uses her smarts to navigate the battlefield instead. Starlight is always fighting for justice and for the safety of the people around her, putting everyone before herself. She likes to fly around on a spear like a skateboard, and she has an arsenal of minor spells at any given time. She's a hero." Sunburst said.

"Wooow!" Dinky said. She scrambled across the room, grabbed some paper and crayons from her little backpack, and started scribbling a purplish blob.

"Oooh...are you sure that's okay?" Scoots said.

"Hero work is a thankless, dangerous job. We all want to be appreciated, right?" Sunburst said. "Besides, it can't hurt. Ditzy and Starlight seem to know each other pretty well."

"Yeah...what's up with that?"

"I don't know, Scoots. Even though the two of us are together, Starlight still has her secrets. I figure she'll tell me when she's ready."

"Are you sure about that?" Scoots said.

"I trust her. She's far more capable than she realizes. Just like you are."

There it was again. A slight chill running down Starlight's neck. She turned suddenly.

Was there a splash? Starlight saw nothing and no one. She rubbed her eyes, thinking maybe Sunburst was right.

Her tracking talisman had led her to a claustrophobic bit of alleyway. Starlight pocketed it as she hunched behind a dumpster.

Down the alley, under the shade of an overhanging roof, stood a cloaked figure. They were chalking out a spell circle on a bit of dry wall. There was a flash of yellow light, and then Starlight heard a familiar voice.

"Are you at the drop-off point?" It was low and matronly and buzzed like a dragonfly's wings.

"Yes! It's lovely to see you again, queen! How're things at the hideout?" The cloaked figure's voice was feminine and bizarrely cheerful.

"Spare me your inane pleasantries, human." Chrysalis spat. "Did you bring what we agreed on?"

"Of course!"

"Let me see it." Chrysalis said.

The cloaked figure produced two mason jars which would have been entirely ordinary if they weren't filled with glowing pink energy.

"That isn't his energy. His energy is like a flickering flame."

"Sure, but it's twice as much as you asked for!"

"It doesn't look anywhere near potent enough."

"Unfortunately, he's too well watched and guarded for us to make a move. We could offer you some of his rage if you'd prefer that?"

"Are you insane? If his rage is as potent as his love, then-"

"Then stuff the grumbling and take what we're offering, kay? We need more scouts to find more magically capable candidates, and the ones you sent are melting into goo. It's super gross."

"You expect me to produce capable spies with the paltry magic of this realm, and then offer me trickles as payment!? Who exactly do you think you're dealing with!?"

"An individual who is useful to the goals of my master. Nothing more, nothing less." The cheery candor turned to a still malice in an instant.

"You pathetic little toady..." Chrysalis growled.

"Look, you know that once our mission is complete, you can have all the raw mana that you want. Right now, we can only spare this much. Do we have a deal?" Starlight held her breath in the silence that followed.

"...very well, then. How many do you need?"

"At least enough to replace the ones you've sent."

"It will be done. You can expect them in the usual place." Starlight heard a sound like a laughing cricket somewhere above her head.

"Uh, no. We need to take these exchanges out of the city. There are eyes everywhere. In fact, I need to deal with some right now." The figure waved a hand, and the yellow light guttered out.

A chittering hiss was Starlight's only warning. She rolled to her feet just as a glob of green slime thumped into the spot where she had been.

Starlight squeezed a little clay effigy in her pocket, and a javelin tore itself free from the concrete and flew to her hand. She looked up and saw a crowd of dark shapes with glowing green eyes crawling on the walls.

"Ah. Starlight Glimmer! You've saved me the trouble of looking for you." Said the cloaked figure. Starlight turned to run and found three malformed, slavering changelings blocking her way. She turned back, sneering.

"Yes, I know who you are. You may want to put that stick down, sweetie."

"If you know who I am, you know I'm not just going to go quietly!"

The changelings laughed like a swarm of cicadas. The cloaked figure held a hand up.

"No maiming, now! Capture her alive!"

Starlight's eyes darted for some sort of escape, but the changelings were everywhere. She cursed herself for not having any more invisibility charms. No space to run. That meant that the only way forward was through.

Starlight took a step. A changeling shrieked through the air and found itself impaled.

In a way, this was a relief.

Another changeling came for her, but Starlight pivoted and splattered its head against the wall with her heel.

There were no messy emotions on the battlefield. Just the sound of her heart in her ears. Just a simple goal. No need for compromise, nothing but an infinite stretch of do or die, played out in a few critical moments.

Starlight knew she couldn't waste her components on these small fry. The real threat was at the end of the alleyway. A set of gleaming teeth under a dark hood. Starlight wondered why the hell she was smiling. It pissed her off.

The javelin shot a cold clarity through her hand. It was getting warm with the changeling's slime. There was a scratch at the back of Starlight's neck as she advanced through the flailing bodies. One at her hip. A blow to her side sent her bouncing off the wall, but she turned and used the momentum to strike the changeling in the stomach then pierce its face.

Her muscles ached. Her breath was coming out in ragged beats, but she kept walking forward; punching, snapping, stabbing until her arms and legs were coated in the foul smelling slime.

How many had she killed? Did they even count as alive? They were just bits of energy that was stolen from someone in this city. They didn't belong in this world.

Starlight's grunts turned to barks and then screams as she tore through the changelings with nothing but her javelin and her anger pushing her forward. She nearly fell to her feet as a changeling charged into her back, but she caught it's arm and smashed it against the alley wall with her shoulder over and over until it crunched like a stamped roach.

She knew if she had just the right opening, she could catch the cloaked figure, but what then? She had made a promise. She needed to see Sunburst again. She needed to prove herself.

More than anything else, she needed sleep.

The changelings prowled toward Starlight, tensing to pounce at any moment. Despite the mess of green goo Starlight had left in her wake, there were still more creatures to slay.

"You won't escape, hun! And there's nowhere you can hide. Not in my master's new city."

She had to think, form a plan. Her heart was thumping in her chest. Her leg ached from the cold.

With a shaking hand, she pulled a piece of quartz from her pocket.

The chattering of the remaining changelings ceased abruptly, leaving only the sound of gathered mist dripping down into the alleyway.

Over her own burning breaths, Starlight heard a noise that chilled her to the core.

The deliberate clacking of heels coming from down the alleyway.

A familiar song drifted out of the darkness, and streams of greenish energy leaked out of the disgusting creatures blocking Starlight's way.

"I must have misheard you. You're new, so I'll be sweet, and set the record straight." Said a voice dripping with playful malice.

A pair of wide, swiveling hips stepped around the sagging changelings as they melted into steaming puddles of slime. She was in heels, of course, but like Starlight, she was wearing a dark hoodie. One with a pink interior. Starlight recognized it as one of Buck's.

Her remaining hair had been pulled into a frizzy ponytail, and her eyes glowed red in the dingy shade of the alleyway.

"I'm Adagio Dazzle. And this is my city."

"So now its three in the mornin', I'm waddling out of the fuckin' Bay, I'm wearin' a feather boa, got a smiley face drawn on my dick with sharpie, and I say to Capper; 'You better fuckin' pay me back for this, man.' And he just looks at me--totally straight faced--and says 'For the business, or the pleasure?' And that was my first time at the Folsom Street Fair."

"Pfft-HAHAHAHAAH!"

Buck and Ditzy were both red-faced, a few drinks in, and laughing so hard they were starting to tear up.

"And what about Ragamuffin's yacht?" Ditzy said, between giggles. Buck's guffaw suddenly crashed into a thousand-yard stare.

"Well, I mean, it was his Dad's yacht, so..." He sipped at a mint green drink, eyes shifting around.

Ditzy stared at him for a moment, then started laughing again.

"Coast Guard's prolly still lookin' for it, if I'm bein' honest."

"I had no idea your college days were so crazy!" Ditzy said, finally coming down.

"Yeah, that was about the last year before everything went to hell, but it was all sorts'a wild! Sunburst can tell ya!"

"What're people on the west coast like?"

"Well, everybody's busy. Everybody's got a hustle goin' on, and they got places to be. The guys tend to be pretty holier-than-thou about tech shit, and the girls...."

"Pretty?"

"I mean, a lot of the ones I met were kind of awful. But pretty, yeah. Lotta knockouts over there, but I got tired of seein' preppy chicks in bohemian hoe clothes. Yoga pants and scarves."

"Wow. I wish I had the confidence to go strutting around in yoga pants."

"You know, you could exercise with me and Dinky sometime. You don't gotta do the jumpin' jacks, obviously, but I wouldn't mind walking you through some poses. Not because I wanna look at your butt in yoga pants!"

"..."

"Okay, it's exactly 'cause I wanna look at your butt in yoga pants."

"That's really sweet of you to say. You know...most guys see a woman with a kid and they run in the other direction. Too much hassle." Buck leaned over, but Ditzy turned her head away.

"Well, I ain't most guys."

"Mm." Ditzy hummed an affirmative, but Buck saw her shoulders tense up.

"...Most guys'd miss out on your crafts, or your sense of humor, or your cooking, or all the little things you do that make the world a brighter place. Most guys'd miss watching Dinky grow into a wacky, brilliant kid. Most guys don't know what they're missin'. You're never too much hassle for me, Ditzy."

"Do you really mean that, Buck? Even though I freaked out a little earlier?" He saw her trembling once again. Buck placed his hand on the small of Ditzy's back.

"You want me to say it again? 'You're never too much ha-" Ditzy turned and kissed Buck. She grabbed his collar and held him in place. It was sweet and gentle, but it sent a shock through Buck and rooted him to the spot.

When Ditzy pulled away, her yellow, off-center eyes were glistening. She smiled, and the last of Buck's reservations about the night fell away.

The sweet opening strings of 'Moonshine' by Caravan Palace plunked across the dance floor. The lights dimmed down.

"Can we dance, now?" Ditzy said.

"Absolutely." Buck took Ditzy's hand, and they ran out to the middle of the floor.

Buck couldn't remember the last time he danced in a place like this. A dazzle of lights flashed overhead to the beat of the bass, and all around him were people two-stepping and spinning and laughing. There was no gossip here; there wasn't enough breath for it.

Surrounded by the heat and the music, he forgot the very idea of worrying about tonight.

Jazz dance was special to Buck. It was something he never had to practice because down in New Horseleans; it was a rite of passage. It was silly and frenetic and reverent. Buck remembered.

As he watched Ditzy grin and hike her skirt up, Buck remembered that jazz was sensual as well. A spin, a kick, a twirl of the hand, and suddenly the two were prancing together, smiling and laughing and daring each other to get wilder.

At first they threw the beat back and forth, but the look in Ditzy's eyes was magnetic, if off-center, and soon they got closer and closer until they were closing and separating, dipping and spinning with wild abandon.

Buck saw Ditzy look around nervously at the crowd, slowing down, worrying, so he spun around her and slapped her on the ass.

For a split second, Buck thought he'd screwed the pooch, but Ditzy's jaw only stayed dropped for a second. A familiar thirsty look came into her eyes, and she beckoned Buck closer.

By now, their first song had ended, and a grinding, carnal sax solo opened the next. Ditzy wasted no time. She spun into Buck's arms and let him throw her around the dance floor.

Buck could feel his heat rising, his pants taking on an embarrassing tightness, but the world ended past the lights on the dance floor. Nothing mattered besides Ditzy; her bouncing breasts, her swaying hips, her tapping feet, and her tiny, fluttering breaths as Buck dipped her.

He couldn't tell how long they had been dancing. He was hot and slick all over, and he could see it in Ditzy. She had never looked at him like this before, but as he barely kept up with her steps, stealing a quick peck here, a little touch there, he understood why Ditzy had wanted to go dancing. She was incredible.

Suddenly, as Buck swung Ditzy around, her sweat-soaked hand slipped free.

She stumbled, tottering and flailing her arms, trying to catch her balance.

In the space of a moment, Buck saw the excitement in her eyes give way to panic.

Buck dashed forward, caught her waist, and with the momentum of the fall, he swung her into a deep, low dip.

The song ended, and there they were, staring and panting at each other.

Ditzy looked around. There was a clearing on the dance floor that just the two of them filled. The club had been watching them. Ditzy's leg was up at Buck's waist, and her chest was heaving.

A clap in the crowd turned into a smattering of applause, and then a low roar filled with wolf whistles and cheers.

Ditzy smiled up at Buck and bit her lip.

"Well...I think it's fair to say you showed me your moves, Muffin." Buck laughed.

Ditzy kissed him; deep, hot, and thirsty. Even as Buck pulled up and the crowd went wild, Ditzy threw her arms around his neck and moaned against his lips.

Maybe it was the alcohol, or the mood, or the music.

It didn't matter.

Ditzy had her man, and there was no space for ambiguity between their lips.

When they finally separated, there was only one thing left for Buck to say.

"...you wanna get outta here?"

As Buck and Ditzy Doo tapped and laughed and spun around each other, the changelings charged at Starlight and Adagio as one.

Starlight fired a barrage of arcane bolts down the alley, but malformed bodies intercepted them before they could strike the cloaked figure.

"What are you doing here!?" Starlight shouted. She leaned on her javelin for a moment, sucking in air, then pierced an unlucky changeling mid-leap. A pair of fangs came for her throat, but a dart of ice spiked the changeling to the ground before it could connect.

"Saving your life, apparently. Are you so sleep deprived that you didn't notice you were being hunted?" Adagio said it as if they were on a casual stroll. Just above her open palm, the misting rain collected into a handful of frozen projectiles.

"You were following me!?" Starlight said. Down the alley, the cloaked figure had their sleeves together, poised to make a move, but didn't stir from the spot. Another two changelings swiped at Adagio, but Starlight caught both with a few well-placed jabs. Adagio swayed a bit on her feet, a hand on her stomach.

"Not at first...I have my own business to see to!" All around them, more changelings were waiting for a chance to pounce. Adagio's water whip lashed at the ground and walls wherever a changeling drew near. The three she had drained were quickly replaced with more to block the alley.

"I notice that you're a little unsteady. Have...you been day drinking?" Starlight said. Every changeling that avoided Adagio came after Starlight with a single-minded pursuit. She was hurling arcane bolts and stabbing at throats and stomachs, hoping desperately that Adagio would keep protecting her flank as the changelings charged.

"No! It's just that the mana from these gibbering abortions is disgusting and sickly!" Adagio said. Her back touched Starlight's just slightly, but Starlight heard Adagio hiss as if she was struck. "I notice that you aren't even trying to escape!"

Starlight stabbed and blasted, every step costing her another burst of energy as the changelings swarmed around her and Adagio. A changeling came for her leg and was stabbed until it stopped moving.

The cloaked figure tilted her head.

"I'm going to catch her." Starlight whispered between heavy breaths. She stumbled against the alley wall, but Adagio dragged her back to her feet by the sleeve.

"Was your reconnaissance not enough? You should flee while you still have your life." Adagio said.

"Why!? They can't keep coming!"

"And you can't keep fighting, sweethearts!" Laughed the cloaked figure.

"Finally, a voice of reason!" Adagio focused her flying ice darts upward, shredding a changeling mid-fall and causing the others to think twice.

"Why do you even care, Adagio? Why don't you get out of here!?"

"Well, I would love to, but if I let slip that you died on my watch, Buck and especially Sunburst would never forgive me!"

"You're saving me for clout!?" Adagio tasted a blazing fury.

"You're very welcome!" Adagio stumbled away from a set of snapping jaws, but another closed the distance and managed to scratch a tear in her sleeve before darts of ice perforated it.

"What are you dummies doing!? Attack them from all sides!" The cloaked figure snarled.

A slimy, chitinous blur surged toward the duo from every angle, and at that moment, the both of them were struck by the same inspiration. They backed up to each other, and their hands glowed in unison. Starlight's around a shrike's beak, and Adagio's around nothing. The water running down the alley gutter rose into a slender blade of ice just as Starlight's impromptu spear began to glow with cyan light, and then both projectiles darted around the pair, slashing and spearing everything that came close.

"I must admit, I'm impressed, Starlight Glimmer! It seems that even small minds can think like great ones from time to time."

"We're nothing alike." Starlight growled. While her fingers twitched like a puppeteer's, Adagio's hand waved and rolled like a conductor. Slime, screams and limbs scattered across the alleyway. Adagio counted twelve changelings felled.

"You must not be paying attention. I too was once a cocksure young warlock with no individual power, trying desperately to prove my worth to an uncaring world."

"Spare me your sob story!" Starlight shouted. Adagio smirked. She could taste the disdain rolling off Starlight Glimmer, and the misplaced pride that it came from.

"I'm feeling nostalgic, so I'll give you an opening. Jump when I say so, then run." Adagio said.

"What!?"

"Jump!" Adagio shouted, then dropped to the floor. A a pulsing ripple of ice coursed out from her fingertips and instantly covered everything with a sheen of rime. The troop of changelings was immobilized.

Adagio's hair turned pale, greys shooting through the orange curls.

"Ah. Simplicity itself." Adagio said.

"Show off." Starlight rolled her eyes.

"Look out!" Adagio pushed Starlight aside.

Suddenly, there was a whistling boom. Adagio howled in pain and stumbled forward, clutching for the spot on her back that was erupting with ice crystals.

The cruel smile beneath the dark cloak floated above Starlight's head, smiling down for just an instant before she lashed out again. Starlight blocked a shot, then shrieked as her assailant clutched at her bad leg in a grip that felt like dry ice against her skin. An unbearable chill tore through her veins, making her fall to a knee.

"Aww, it looked like you were favoring that leg, so I figured you must have an old injury there!" A swift kick sent Starlight's head rebounding off the wall. "Same with that back of yours, Adagio Dazzle! What's the matter? Did the dragon hit you a bit too hard?"

Starlight's vision swam as she tried to rise. She spat blood out of her mouth and tried to summon her javelin, but it just quivered in a puddle of rain and slime. She couldn't let this happen. She yelped as a fistful of her hair was yanked upward.

"Now, if you're finished struggling, I'll be taking you back to our base."

Starlight thrashed and kicked, but the grip on her hair was like cold iron. She couldn't let it end like this. She had to fight, but her arms were exhausted and she was so beyond tired.

"You should be honored. Humans with magical potential are typically very rare, but a vessel empty of magic is even rarer. You'll be an excellent gift for my master!" The figure said, with barely restrained glee.

Starlight heard a squishy thump. Then another, and another, and the cloaked figure pitched backward. Three javelins of ice had pierced her chest.

Down the alley, Adagio rose to her feet. She flashed a sadistic smile which was only matched as the cloaked figure straightened up. Her head turned with a sickening crack to look at Adagio.

"For a so-called scourge of Equestria. You aren't that smart. If impaling me didn't work yesterday, why would it work today?"

A bolt of cyan energy smacked into her face, blasting her hood back. A quartz crystal crumbled in Starlight's hand as her assailant was revealed.

She would have been beautiful, but some of the details of her face were just the slightest bit off. Her blue eyes were faded and pale, and her smile was just a tad too wide for her face. Her blue skin was sallow, while her dark blue and white hair seemed limp and dull.

"...haven't I seen you around town?" Starlight said. The woman's neck cracked as she glared down at Starlight. Her smile slowly dropped.

A light flashed in the alleyway. Adagio had taken a snapshot of the woman.

"...Well, nuts to this." The woman pointed a finger at Adagio and a beam of frigid black energy struck the siren in the chest. Adagio dropped the phone and wheezed, clutching at her heart. Her hair began to whiten, and her limbs shriveled up, shining with frost.

"What have you done!?" Starlight said, struggling to rise to her feet. She looked down and saw her bad leg wither and blacken where she had been grabbed.

"Oh, this power? A gift from my master, along with new life." The woman winced and clutched her arm. Tiny ice crystals protruded from her hand, right through the skin. "It's time for me to fly. I don't suggest you follow me." The woman said. A freezing wind swirled beneath her feet, lifting her swiftly into the night sky.

The alleyway was silent, save for the sound of Adagio gasping.

Starlight tried to shut her eyes to avoid showing weakness in front of Adagio, but it was no use.

Hot tears were already rolling down her face. She tried to move her leg, but an agonizing numbness made her gasp in pain. Starlight curled up and sobbed, refusing to believe she was here again.

Weak, hobbled, and in over her head.

"...will you stop that!? I'm...trying...to focus!" Adagio wheezed. She sang a shaky song, the same one she entered the alley with, and thin streams of green energy slithered from the frozen changelings all around and into her mouth.

Starlight gave Adagio a hateful glare, trying to stop her teeth from chattering. The color returned to Adagio's hair, but her muscles remained frostbitten and shriveled.

"I see that this is a teachable moment. Come here."

"Why should I!?" Starlight spat.

"Because I can't move my legs. Come here, so I can help." Adagio said it with all the patience of a middle school math teacher.

Starlight scowled, but she hobbled over to Adagio with painful difficulty.

"When you spied on my sisters and I, do you know what you did wrong?" Adagio said.

"I got caught."

"No. You got caught alone, without any way to deal with your opponent. You should have observed us from a distance, and taken whatever information you gleaned back to your superiors." Adagio said it without a hint of malice or mockery.

"Did you call me over just to lecture me!? What's your point?"

"You over-extended yourself, and you suffered for it."

"I suffered because of your cruelty!"

"Cruelty? Aria would have torn your limbs off, one by one. Sonata would have had a casual conversation with her through the process."

"You terrorized me!"

"So that we could drink your fear. And then I let you go. You are alive because of my mercy."

"MERCY!?"

"And you apparently learned nothing, because you repeated the same mistake tonight." Adagio could taste the bitter fury rising in Starlight. In any other time, she wouldn't have bothered to educate the arrogant little upstart, but the pain in her back and limbs left her little choice. That, and she took a spiteful, queer pleasure at prodding a creature so similar to her younger self.

"Now, do you know any healing spells? I have very little talent at them; that's why my back isn't fully healed." Adagio said. Starlight glared at her for a moment.

"...I've memorized a basic healing spell, yes. Not that it matters since I don't have any components." Starlight said. Adagio rolled her eyes.

"If you get healed, will you go after that frigid bitch?"

"Oh, absolutely." Starlight growled.

"Fine, then. Take some of this disgusting changeling magic."

"What?"

"Don't be coy! I saw the footage of your fight with the queen. You have a drain magic spell, so use it." Adagio smirked.

Starlight Glimmer scowled. She punched the concrete beneath her, then wiped at her tears. Her frustration tasted like scalding hot tea. It was a flavor that Adagio knew well from her academy days.

With indignity in her eyes, she pulled a bit of jade from her pocket and held it out. The acrid green energy flowed into Starlight, and the barest hint of a smile touched the corner of her mouth.

"Greedy thing! That was more than half of what I took!" Adagio said.

Starlight muttered an incantation, and the feeling returned to both their frostbitten forms.

"Now, we're even." Starlight said, standing up.

"Are we really?"

"No." A snap of Starlight's fingers summoned her spear to her side. She mounted and floated into the air.

"Oh, no, don't wait for me, I'll catch up!" Adagio called, giving a lazy wave.

Adagio straightened her hoodie out, sighed, and strolled past the melting forms of the changelings. She sniffed the air, turned a corner, then another, and found the street again.

Just down the way was a building with a neon sign that said "Rainbow Factory." Emerging from the alley next to it was Buck, with a giggling Ditzy Doo on his arm.

Adagio sighed, then held her breath as the two walked down the sidewalk.

Several paces behind Buck and Ditzy was a man who looked entirely inconspicuous to the uninitiated.

As that man stepped past an alley, a tendril of water snatched his ankle and dragged him into the darkness. There was a gasp, then a threatening hiss, and finally a squishing crack.

"Helpless. He's helpless without me." Adagio sighed.

Hungry.

By now, Starlight and Sunburst's combined understanding of equestrian magic was formidable, to say the least. They had each studied independently, and having pooled their knowledge together; they had a firmer grasp of the topic than most of the Pillars Organization. It was a fascinating field of study, equal parts art, science, and spiritualism, but with time and dedication, it could be understood and even mastered.

Hungry.

But magic was not native to Starlight's world. On earth, equestrian magic took on wild, unpredictable properties. It defied conventional study, so magic users on this side of the portal had a big pile of guesswork between them and efficacy.

Hungry!

Sunburst had labored for years now, trying to compose a theory that would give them a broader view. A different way to understand magic. Something concrete that could provide direction to practice. Starlight knew the dangers of meddling with untested sources of magic. Magic was tied to emotions, wants, needs, and expressions. Everyone had these feelings, and so, in theory, anyone could find magic within them.

Anyone but Starlight Glimmer.

She had been following the trail of her tracking talisman. She was surging with the changeling magic she had taken from Adagio. It made her feel hollow and famished. It made her feel powerful. Was this what it was like whenever Adagio drained someone?

The misty night was streaking past her. She felt energy crackling at her fingertips.

So much power. Not much. Enough. More. She needed more. No. She wanted more. She had enough to capture that monster that had embarrassed her. Adagio. No. Focus! The blue woman. She had been stabbed and pierced. She had some sort of ice powers. She was strong. Why was she strong? Someone had given her strength. Who? Starlight needed to know. She needed to know to assess the threat.

The cyan beam banked upward sharply. Did she know she was being followed? Didn't matter. Starlight had power now.

She had spent so long practicing incantations, figuring out formulas, memorizing spells that she could never use. But now, she had power.

Starlight followed the beam up to the clouds. It was cold, but she couldn't feel it past the tingling current of energy coursing through her. Her leg didn't even hurt anymore, and that meant she could run again. She could fly.

The clouds were coming closer. The blue woman was somewhere among them.

Starlight's smile faded. Glee was replaced with determination as she mumbled an incantation. She knew how to direct power and wield it with precision. She wouldn't let it take her over. Too much was at stake.

At long last, Starlight Glimmer could make a difference.

Her name was Minuette. For the longest time, her friends had called her Colgate. She couldn't remember their names anymore. She couldn't remember much of anything from her old life.

Her new life was the mission. Her body was the mission. Minuette was the mission.

She couldn't feel anything, and yet she was cold. She was being pursued. Likely by the siren.

Minuette had prepared for concussive shrieks, water magic, illusions. She had a plan for any of the siren's tricks and faith that her master's power would carry her through any altercation. The siren would come, and Minuette would defeat her. Perhaps capture her. She could be a powerful weapon in the right hands—another tool for the master.

The sea of clouds beneath her split open. Minuette cut through the air just in time to avoid a beam of greenish light. She dodged another lance of energy and then another, looking around, searching for the source.

"I'm going to give you one chance to give up. I'm not a monster; if you surrender, you will be treated fairly. Nicely, even." Said Starlight Glimmer's voice from nowhere.

"Where are you?" Minuette muttered.

"But you will tell me who you are and answer my questions. It's going to be a short night for me, or a very long night for you. You pick." Starlight said.

Minuette spun and fired a beam of frigid energy in the direction of the voice.

"I know all about you, Starlight Glimmer! Your lame little parlor tricks are nothing! To my master's power, yours is just a drop in the ocean!" Minuette said.

"Well, you know what they say..."

A ball of crackling green energy parted the clouds, and there stood Starlight Glimmer atop her concrete spear. She had a scowl on her face, which curled into a smirk as a pair of equine ears formed on her head. Her hair lengthened ever so slightly, and a green aura enveloped her body.

"When it rains, it pours."

Starlight casually flicked her wrist, and a shield of energy deflected a beam of cold. Minuette lunged at Starlight, hand outstretched, catching nothing but air. Starlight flipped through the mist, just out of Minuette's flailing reach.

There was a flash, and Minuette was tumbling through the clouds, with Starlight right behind. Minuette muttered something, then rolled and skidded across the cloud top like it was solid ground, her legs sinking and kicking to keep her aloft. Her hand dipped into the icy vapor and came up with a wave of thick hailstones, but the smug warlock disappeared in a spark of light before they could connect.

"I've figured you out. You don't take damage from most physical attacks. You can shoot beams of ice at range, or use it as a touch attack But I don't need to touch you to defeat you!" Starlight said. A ball of green mana formed in her hand and was hurled like a dodge ball at a smiling Minuette.

The ball of energy stopped just before her outstretched hand.

"You forgot one other trick of mine!" Minuette said, about to throw it right back.

"Did I?" Starlight laughed. The ball of green energy blasted into Minuette's face like buckshot, tendrils of force entangling her like a spider's web.

Minuette fell to the clouds beneath her with a thump, struggling and writhing.

"Did you know that the cloud walking spell doesn't make you less dense, it just increases the density of vapors directly adjacent to you?" Starlight said.

"MMPHH!"

"Which means I can do..." Starlight slammed Minuette's head down. It rebounded as if the clouds were concrete. "This to you!" Minuette lay still.

"Well, that was easier than expected," Starlight said. Her ears flickered as a thread of arcane force tethered her hand to the threads binding Minuette. She began to pull her assailant away, but the bindings ballooned outward and burst in a gust of freezing wind that knocked Starlight back. She righted herself in the air, but then a shock of freezing force struck the side of her head. Canterlot spun all around her as Minuette savaged her with blows.

Minuette was shrieking, pulling on the tether, beating Starlight about the face, but the blackened spots where she struck glowed green and turned pale purple again, then her fist struck Starlight's forearm, and then a shield of arcane force.

"Is that the best you can do?" Starlight said. Minuette screamed, and the clouds formed a funnel filled with jagged hailstones.

"Ugh. To hell with taking you unharmed! Just barely alive will have to do." Minuette laughed as the tunnel of frozen death came down to tear Starlight apart. The swirling fury swallowed Starlight entirely, but there were no screams of pain, just a sound like a rock tumbler spinning up.

Minuette peered through the vortex, and suddenly a flash of green light exploded outward, hurling hailstones in every direction. Starlight floated just above Minuette, still holding the rope of arcane energy, unmoved by the show of force.

"That's funny. I was just thinking the same thing about you." Starlight said.

Minuette thought she couldn't feel anymore.

All at once, she remembered the simple fear of facing things far greater than you.

Minuette slapped the tether out of existence, turned, and dove beneath the clouds, and then she was charging through the night above Canterlot, zig-zagging frantically, diving between buildings and under bridges, but every time she looked back, Starlight's stoic glare was right behind her.

She was gaining.

Fear had become alien after her master's intervention, but now it squeezed her heart and widened her eyes. It was a feeling she would do anything to banish.

Minuette's strategy began and ended at overpowering her opponent, and now knowing that Starlight's tricks were superior to her own, she had to find some means of escape. She could not get captured at any cost, or the mission would be ruined.

It was time to play dirty.

Adagio had returned to the alley. With a twirl of the finger, the ice around the unfinished changelings melted, and they all deflated into stinking puddles of slime. By the end of the night, the rain would wash away any evidence of a scuffle.

"I wonder if that's a defense mechanism? Do they all melt upon death, so they leave little trace?" As Adagio recalled, it was fruitless to capture a changeling scout because they would simply kill themselves in captivity. "Well, they may be of use to me yet." Adagio stuck a finger in the hideous muck, and after steeling her will, she took a deep, long sniff.

Her revulsion was interrupted by a light in the sky. It seemed that Starlight Glimmer was handling the situation. Her opponent was in the process of fleeing like a coward, which would have brought a smile to Adagio's face if she didn't recognize where she was going.

Adagio ran out to the street, and hailed a taxi.

"I'll pay triple if you break the speed limit." Adagio said. The taxi rocketed down the street.

After a few seconds, Ditzy Doo's car pulled out of a nearby parking lot and drove lazily in the opposite direction.

"Get back here! I'm not done with you yet!" Starlight shouted across the night. She had overpowered her opponent so thoroughly that she seemed to be in full retreat, ducking around buildings and flying in abstract patterns to get away.

Starlight could feel the changeling magic waning; the aura of power around her form was begining to waver and flicker.

She knew a few spells for capture; it was her specialty after all, but none of them would avail her in the moment.

"She can break through tethers...the arcane trap needs setup, and crystallization would take too much energy. I've just got to catch her close!"

She had just decided on a plan of attack when she saw what her assailant was doing. They had gone on a wild goose chase around the city, and at first, Starlight thought that this was meant to tire her out, but as the skyline rushed beneath her, she realized where they were.

Tenpony Towers was just a few blocks ahead, and the ice witch was floating straight up the glass face of the building. Adrenaline rushed into Starlight's brain as she realized there was only one place she could be going.

On the wall next to Sunburst's desk, the castrated cuckoo clock had just rung 9pm.

"Uncle Sunburst? Will you read me a bedtime story?" Dinky Doo yawned as Sunburst helped her up from her little book nest. He'd decided to tuck the tyke in and crash on the couch after bringing Scoots back to her dorm.

"Sure, Dinky. What kinds of stories do you like? Let me guess; ones with spooky monsters?" Sunburst said.

"Yeah yeah yeah!"

"Is there anything left to drink?" Scoots said from inside the fridge.

"You'll have to wait until we go for groceries if you want to keep cleaning out my soda stash!" Sunburst barked.
The doorbell rang.

"Who could...Scoots, would you mind seeing who that is while I put Dinky to bed?"

"Roger dodger!" Scoots chirped. She scratched her butt and ambled over to the front door. "Who is it?"

With a deafening boom, shards of glass blasted across the living room. The window had exploded, and as the high winds tossed every loose object in the space, a mist-soaked figure entered.

It happened in the space of seconds. A bolt of freezing mana blasted the front door right after Scoots ducked away. A pair of sunken blue eyes looked around. A hand outstretched.

The jar on top of Sunburst's desk shattered, and the still writhing tentacle flew into Minuettes' hand.

The nightmarish limb whipped outward, smacking Dinky Doo into the wall with a sharp crack, then dragged a thrashing Sunburst out into the night.

"This is an interesting development, isn't it, Starlight Glimmer!?" Minuette called, just as Starlight caught up. The defenders of Canterlot hung helplessly over the city streets; one caught in the biting grip for a cursed creature's arm, and the other halted mid-assault.

"Let him go!"

"Is that what you really want?" The ghoulish woman dangled Sunburst further away from the windowsill. Her wide smile gleamed in the glow of the city lights.

"Let him go, or I'll rip you in half!" Starlight growled, her eyes flickering green.

"Do you really think you can do that and also save his life? Your precious little boy toy? Yes, we know all about your sniveling little weakness, here. Listen up, Sugar Plum. I'll make it simple for you. If you let me leave, I won't use this cute little...appendage to tear your ball and chain's neck out, okay?"

Starlight raised a hand to prepare a spell, but her aura of changeling magic flickered like an old TV.

"Oooh...looks like someone's burning the candle at both ends! How embarrassing would it be if I just...dropped him? And you couldn't catch him?" The biting tentacle coiled around his body muffled Sunbursts' screams. The woman's thin arm waved the tentacle around effortlessly.

"If he dies, I'll come for you, next!"

"Temper, temper, sweetie! What's it gonna be? Will you let me go? Or try your luck? Clock's ticking!" The smile grew in width and savagery. It looked like it would split the woman's head at any second.

Starlight grimaced, her teeth grinding as she desperately searched her mind for a way out of this. She had enough juice for one more burst of magic, but she'd never catch Sunburst in time. The woman held her pose and smiled, still as a mannequin as Starlight agonized.

The answer came with a sound like a cleaver through fresh meat.

The blue-skinned woman's arm was severed clean through by a thin disc of ice. It came back around and split her cranium from her lower jaw. There was no blood as Minuette fell from the air.

Adagio stood, hand out, in the threshold of Sunbursts' apartment. Starlight saw her smile.

Time slowed.

Starlight dove for Sunburst as the tentacle uncoiled. He fell one story.

Two, three, four.

Starlight winced against the rushing mist in her eyes. She blasted downwards in a flash of green, praying.

There was the unmistakable crack of a body hitting concrete at terminal velocity.

Sunburst's scream halted abruptly.

And then Starlight flew back up to the window, cradling Sunburst in her arms.

He was still breathing. Better than that, he was shaken but unharmed.

"I told you I'd come back." Starlight smiled. Sunburst laughed, then fell as Starlight's arms and leg gave out.

Scootaloo was leaning against the door frame, hyperventilating, a bright blush on her cheeks. She looked a bit sallow.

Starlight rose and stomped in Adagio's direction, seething.

"What? I knew you would catch him, of course." Adagio smirked.

Starlight balked. Her hands flexed and clenched as if she would try to throttle Adagio at any moment. But before she could choose violence for the second time in one night, Sunburst stood between her and Adagio.

"Thanks, Adagio. Looks like I owe you one, this time. You helped Starlight tonight, didn't you?"

"Oh, I just happened to be out and about. I only happened to save her from a little kidnapping. But really, it was more of a collaborative effort, wasn't it, Starlight? I might even admit that you did most of the heavy lifting!" Adagio said.

Starlight rolled her eyes.

"I'm not that heavy, am I...?" Sunburst muttered.

"And well done, little birdie! If you hadn't answered the door, I might not have found the energy for that last spell." Adagio said, winking at Scooaloo.

"That was...way more tongue than necessary." Scoots squeaked.

"I take it you and your people can handle it from here, Sunburst?" Adagio said, stepping over to the window.

"...yes. I'll make a call and get this window fixed, and I've got some healing charms for any injuries you might have taken."

"That won't be necessary for me, Sunburst. After all, my night was interrupted by this episode." Adagio said, looking out across the concrete jungle.

"...Oh. Well, then, I guess you should get going."

"Yes, I think that concludes our business." Adagio stepped to the edge of the windowsill. She whistled a gentle note, and the ice disc came flying back. It flipped onto its side, allowing Adagio to step onto it.

"You may want to wait."

"Hm?"

"You may want to wait to check on him. He's probably having a nice night, Adagio." Sunburst said.

Adagio didn't turn around, but Sunburst could see the blush at her ears as she flew off into the night.

The living room was in shambles. The tentacle was missing. Scoots was flustered, and Starlight had a look of typical grumpiness on her face. It was almost a successful night, in Sunburst's opinion, but then Dinky Doo got up from where she was lying against the wall.

There was a big, ugly bruise in the middle of her face. She looked to Sunburst, then to Scoots with wide eyes, reached up to touch her nose, and her fingers came away bloody.

"Whuh...waahhh...MAMAAAAA!" Dinky wailed.

"Scoots, get the jewelry box from my desk! In the study, Scoots!" Sunburst said.

"Uh...Okay!" Scoots scrambled.

"Starlight, get some tissues!" Sunburst said.

"...right." Starlight went for the kitchen, leaving Sunburst to kneel at Dinky's side.

Dinky Doo kept sniffling snot and blood, coughing and wailing.

"It's okay, Dinky, it's okay. Auntie Starlight and Scoots are going to help." Sunburst soothed.

Scoots ran back with an open velvet box filled with little trinkets.

"Is this it? It smells like eucalyptus soap!"

"That's the one. Now, Dinky?"

"Uhh...uhhhuhh?" Dinky whimpered.

"This is going to sting just a little bit, but then it's going to feel all better, okay? Can you be brave like a yak and close your eyes?" Sunburst said. Tears were rolling down the child's face, but the moment Sunburst mentioned yaks, her expression tightened into a trembling sort of determination. She nodded.

"Okay. Now hold still.." Sunburst said. He pulled a pebble of amethyst and a few loose leaves that Scoots didn't recognize from the box and muttered something into them. In a little spark of yellow light, the components dissolved into dust, which Sunburst blew from his hand. A twinkle of stardust glittered across Dinky's face, and when it passed, the bruise was entirely healed.

Despite the blood on her face, Dinky Doo was fine. She touched her face, and her eyes widened as she felt no pain.

"There...all better, right?" Sunburst said. Dinky smiled and nodded at him.

"Oops! Now hold still..." Sunburst said. Starlight turned Dinky around and wiped the yuck from her face.

"Thank you, Uncle Sunburst!" Dinky Doo said.

"Oh, you should thank Starlight, here! After all, she protected us and the whole city tonight!" Sunburst smiled.
Dinky's wide yellow eyes looked up at Starlight like she was nothing short of a superhero.

"Thank you, Starlight," Dinky said in a nervous, wandering voice. Starlight gave Sunburst a bewildered look that bordered on irritation. Sunburst gestured at Dinky, who was still staring up at her in awe.

"Uh...no problem." Starlight said, patting the child's head. Dinky rushed forward and hugged Starlight Glimmer with her stubby arms.

"I wanna be like you when I get big. Strong and...and...magic!" Dinky mumbled. Sunburst and Scoots shared the same smile. Starlight kneeled, stiff as a board, while Dinky embraced her. It was almost like panic, the look in her eyes, but panic is rattling and twitchy. This look was the one a person got when they received bad news they had come to expect.

Starlight slowly wrapped her arms around Dinky Doo.

Then she reached into her pocket and pressed a replica memory stone to the child's head.

There was a flash, and when Dinky Doo let go of Starlight, she blinked her eyes as if she was seeing a dream. A yawn shook Dinky's whole body, and she passed out on the spot.

"What'd you do!?" Scoots said. She looked from Sunbursts' quiet anger to Starlight's tired sullenness.

"It's protocol."

"Starlight, she didn't even see anything!"

"You used magic to heal her!"

"But I never said it was magic! For all she knows, it could be first aid! She was thanking you!"

"I don't need thanks. I do what I have to."

"Starlight..."

"Now I'm going to go to the ground floor and see about the body. You call Sweetie Drops and arrange for a fix-it spell for the window and door."

"Starlight, why did you-"

"The job isn't over until we clean up. I did what I had to, Sunburst." Starlight turned for the doorway, but her voice trembled.

She left without another word. A wet summer breeze whistled into the suite.

"Scoots? Can you put Dinky to bed?"

"Yeah."

Buck and Ditzy giggled their way up the apartment stairs.

"Easy, easy...man I really shouldn't've let you drive like this..." Buck said.

"No, no, I'm good!" Ditzy laughed.

"Whatever you say, Muffin." Buck maneuvered around Ditzy to get at his keys. She was nuzzling against his chest and squeezing him like a plush doll. "Here we go...now, how about we get you some water?"

Ditzy let go of Buck and flopped onto the couch.

"Is that a yes?" Buck said. Ditzy gave a thumbs up.

"I like this couch, Buck! Where'd you get it?"

"Uh, it was your couch, Ditzy. Remember, Sunburst was throwing his couch out?"

"And you sent me a picture and asked if I wanted it!"

"Yeah, but you already had a couch, so we threw mine out and I put yours in here."

"And you and Sunburst got a truck and brought his over here."

"We moved four whole couches that day. I think my back still remembers." Buck laughed. He sat on the couch, placing the water cups on the coffee table. Ditzy inchwormed over and laid her head in his lap.

"It was sweet of you to think of me, Buck." Ditzy mumbled.

"Well, I figured that Sunbursts' couch was tall enough for Dinky to make a pillow fort, and soft enough for you to just flop after a hard day of work. It'd be wrong for me to take it away from you, so I asked you first. You deserve nice things. Like a wild night out!"

"I cried in your chest."

"Yeah, but the night wasn't boring, now was it?"

Ditzy's smile dropped slowly. She sat up and took a drink of water.

"Buck, do you think I'm boring?" Her cheer was lost.

"What? 'Course not!"

"Compared to other girls you've been with?"

"No one compares to you, Muffin." Buck adroitly dodged the loaded question.

"Big ol' smoothie...I just...I wouldn't blame you if you did. I guess this and hanging out at the fair is just...me trying to show you that I'm not just a dull girl who sits around watching trash tv all day, no life outside of work and being a Mom. You know? I used to be really, I dunno, intrepid! I used to jump at any chance to try something new! I used to be Ditzy Doo, with an exclamation point! Now...I'm just Mama." Ditzy said.

"Aw, Ditzy, I don't see you like that! I..." Buck paused. A whole monologue about the things he loved in Ditzy unrolled in his mind. He imagined his girlfriend blushing so brightly that she melted into a puddle on her seat. "You're one of the most vibrant, wonderful people I know. You do what you got to because you love your daughter, and you always manage to smile, even when times get hard."

"Really?"

"Tougher than me by a country mile. And fun to be around." Buck chuckled. "Whole reason I went out tonight is 'cause I want to hang around you."

"You think I'm fun?"

"Well sure! But it goes deeper'n that."

"Yeah?" Ditzy laid her head against Buck's shoulder.

"When I'm with you, I get this idea in my head that I'm enough. That even though I make so many mistakes, you're able to care about me just the way I am. Like when you look at me, what do you see, Ditzy?"

"I see the sweetest man in the world, who gives everybody a chance except himself."

"And whenever I think I might just be enough for you, another voice in my head says that you deserve better, and it kills me. I want to be better because you deserve a man that can provide for you and take the weight off your shoulders, not a guy that falls to fucking pieces in your arms, or constantly lusts after you like a horny teenager, even though you ain't into that. I'm so scared that you're going to look at me one day and see a waste of potential, just like everybody else. Because you're incredible, Ditzy Doo, and you deserve someone incredible too."

Ditzy's eyes fluttered open.

"Is that why you keep running away when we're flirting?"

"You...do this little thing when I'm making you uncomfortable. Like a tic. You fold your hands in your lap, and that's how I know that I'm bothering you, so I ease off. You do it when I flirt too hard, so I try to-"

"This? You mean this?" Ditzy mimicked the pose. Buck had seen it a thousand times. Buck nodded.

"Oh...that's not...okay, Buck, hear me out. I started doing that because when people get stressed, they often need to see that the person helping them isn't aggressive. So social workers keep their hands down when they handle people having an episode. I learned it while I was volunteering--that's another story--but I started doing it around you when you got nervous to help you relax. I thought you understood that. I'm trying to give you open body language to know you're safe, not push you away!"

"So you were trying to tell me to keep going?"

"Mhm."

"I'm a fucking moron."

"Don't say that! It was just a misunderstanding! Buck, do you remember when you came back home the night after speed dating? You broke a glass?"

"Yeah, that was after Adagio, well, nevermind. Yeah, I remember you helping me calm down because I was freaking my dumb ass out again."

"Stop that. You're not dumb. You were stressed out. But, before I went to work that day, when I put your head in my lap, do you remember what I said to you?"

"...you're safe with me."

"Did you think I was lying?"

"No! There's nobody in the world I trust more'n you, Ditzy!"

"Well then, maybe we should have trusted each other enough to talk through this. Just because we're dating now, that doesn't mean we stop talking to each other about feelings. If anything, we should do it more!"

"You're right."

"And I appreciate you caring for my boundaries and not wanting to make me uncomfortable, but you know by now that--"

"This ain't a nunnery, and you aren't against me touching on you and bein' horny."

"I want you to want me, Buck. I love that you want me! We've both been pretty silly about this, but it's okay. No matter what's bothering you, whatever it is; I'll be there for you."

Ditzy heard a little hitch in Buck's breath. She turned and saw tears.

"It's okay to tell me how you feel, Buck." Their foreheads touched. It was like a little code between them. There were no barriers here.

"I love you so much, Ditzy Doo. I love you so much..."

"There's my Buck." Ditzy smiled. The kiss they shared was beyond tender at first, but it warmed into an intense, thirsty moment. Ditzy put a hand on Buck's chest and pushed, and he backed up.

"Can we try again? Can we pretend we just walked in and try this again?"

"Sure, Muffin." Buck sniffled.

When Starlight Glimmer made it to the ground floor, eyes red, she had to muscle her way through a small crowd of people at the entrance to TenPony Towers.

The police had come and put up tape around a very strange smear on the ground. It was dark and human-shaped, but tiny ice crystals jutted out of the bit of pavement that it covered.

There was no corpse to be found.

Starlight tried her tracking talisman. It was still active, pointing East toward the Everfree Mountain Range.

The door to Buck's apartment opened, and two sets of shuffling feet came through it.

"I wanna thank you for going out with me tonight, Buck. I had a great time!" Ditzy Doo caught Buck around the neck and gave him a little eskimo kiss.

"Yeah, well, you're about the best damn dancer I've ever swung around a club, so the pleasure's all mine," Buck said.

"It's been a nice night...but it doesn't have to end right now."

"That so?"

"Well, I got a little problem."

"Embarrasin', huh? What, you need me to screw in another lightbulb?"

"Somethin' like that. Could I...maybe show it to you in your bedroom?"

"Sure, Muffin. Whatever it is, I'm happy to help." Ditzy took Buck's hand and pulled him through the door of his bedroom. The lamp clicked on. Music was coming from Buck's phone, but it was muffled as the door closed.

Ditzy let go of Buck and sat on the edge of his bed, beckoning him to sit next to her. Her hands were in her lap. Her off-center eyes seemed to search the floor as she took a deep breath.

"You're always helping me, Buck. With Dinky, and projects and broken things."

"Ah, well, I try to be handy," Buck said.

"You are! But...I really need you right now. So please..." Ditzy scooted backward, raised the hem of her dress, and opened her legs. No panties. She was absolutely soaked.

"Oh..."

"Could you help me with this?"

"Come here..." Buck growled. He reached down, but Ditzy grabbed his wrist.

"I, uh...wait. Um, you said you wanted to treat me like a proper lady." She said. She wouldn't meet his eye.

"Yeah? That I did, Muffin." Buck smiled.

"If I was a proper lady, how would you treat me, right now?"

"...I'd start here."

Ditzy froze as Buck's lips met hers. It was brief and sweet and teasing; Buck kissing her lips, then the corner of her mouth, then along her jaw. She had imagined that Buck would be forceful and greedy, but now she realized that's just what she expected from men in general. Buck was different. The touch of his lips along her neck was as delicate as the wings of a butterfly. His strong hands, which had supported her and caught her were nothing but feathery fingertips that wandered up the curve of her back until they found her zipper.

"It's...been a while. I um...I don't really know where to put my hands." Ditzy mumbled. The zipper came open slowly, and Buck scratched at her back. She hadn't even known she was itchy back there, but the dragging of Buck's nails was a world of relief.

"Do you usually lay back and just...?" Buck said. The heat of his breath against her neck made her shiver.

"Mhm. Is that bad?"

"You want me to take you, Muffin? You want your big, strong Buck to hold you down and take you?" Buck growled. A shiver of terror jolted Ditzy.

"Um...could you be gentle with me? Please?" Ditzy squeaked.

"I can do that." Buck said.

Buck shifted around to Ditzy's back and guided her to lean against him as he sat at the wall behind the bed.

"Comfy?"

"You're warm, Buck..." Ditzy sighed.

"Too warm?" Buck said.

"Just right." Ditzy giggled. Buck peeled Ditzy's dress off her shoulders and slid it down to reveal Ditzy's cutest bra. Bras in her size rarely ever came cute and affordable at the same time, so it was a beige, wide-strapped thing that often itched in the back.

"Now, let's see...ah. Lucky me. It's an easy one." Buck pinched the back of the bra. Ditzy's arm flew up to stop it from falling off entirely, seemingly on instinct.

"Are you hiding your girls from me?" Buck laughed.

"Mm...maybe they're a little shy? They've been waiting to meet you, Buck."

"Is that right?"

"Do you wanna meet my girls, Buck?" Ditzy giggled, shaking her shoulders just a bit. Her breasts bounced just the slightest bit, a nipple nearly peeking out.

"You know I do, Muffin..." Ditzy bit her lip under Buck's hungry gaze.

She slid her arm up slowly and let her naked breasts fall free. They were round and springy, sagging into Buck's waiting hands.

"Well, hellooo ladies...unf, these are heavy..." Buck said. A gentle squeeze pulled a gasp out of Ditzy.

"They're 36 I~."

"I have no clue what that means." Buck chuckled. "Lookit these tiny nipples...! They're so cuuute!" Buck's voice rose to a decidedly feminine pitch as he ran his fingers over Ditzy's nickel-sized nipples. They were flat and almost flush to the skin, but Ditzy squeaked and shuddered all the same when Buck pressed down on them.

"Ehhah!"

"Oh?" Buck kissed along Ditzy's shoulder and neck, gently squeezing her breasts in deliberate circular motions.

"Eeeee...!" It was almost like a ewe's bleat. Ditzy reached down to steady herself on Buck's thigh. Her knees turned inward.

"Tell me about it..." Buck chuckled. He closed his fingers and ran his hands up Ditzy's breasts, letting them fall out from under them, then he rubbed slow sensuous circles around her areolas with just the tips of his fingers.

"Ah! Eeehaah...!" Breathy squeals escaped from behind Ditzy's hand.

"Is that good, Muffin?" Buck said. Ditzy gave a quick nod of the head. "Look at these..." Ditzy's nipples had stiffened. Buck rolled them between his thumbs and index fingers, giving the very slightest of twists.

Ditzy squealed and squeezed Buck's thigh.

"Why're you covering your mouth, Muffin? Are you hiding something from me?" Buck gave Ditzy's breasts a firm squeeze.

"Aah!" It was almost a bark.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were tryin' to hide how good this feels...tell me, Muffin, tell the truth." Buck's fingertips slid along Ditzy's areolas once again.

"Uh?"

"Are you a screamer?" Buck growled and pinched her nipples.

Ditzy jumped and squeaked like a small dog getting kicked. Buck's hands fell away immediately and touched her shoulders.

"You okay?" Buck said. Ditzy took a shaky breath and patted Buck's thigh.

"Gentler...please. Don't stop...touch me more, Buck!" She was breathless as she leaned against him, looking up and biting her lip.

Buck squeezed Ditzy's shoulders, then slid his fingertips down, down down, over her nipples down to her stomach.

"C'mere, Muffin..." Buck pulled Ditzy into his lap, her back tight against his chest, their foreheads touching.

"Buck..." His lips brushed briefly against hers. She rushed to kiss them before they could run away. Sweet, tiny smacking sounds filled the space between them as Buck dragged his nails up Ditzy's sides. Little striped ridges lined her hips and stomach.

Every light caress of her naked body caused a ripple through Ditzy Doo. Her needy kisses and her shallow breaths drove Buck crazy. He had wanted her for ages, and now, finally, he was holding her and treating her the way she deserved.

Ditzy's hands rose and took Buck's forearms, pushing them down gently toward her thighs.

"Don't mind the stretch marks...it's a mommy thing." She whispered. Buck bit her lower lip and ran his hands up and down her thighs. One hand squeezed while the other held her still at the waist.

"Your body is beautiful, Ditzy...Let me take care of you." Buck said, between tender kisses. He slid a hand down to Ditzy's valley. The lightest fingertip along her outer lips shook Ditzy. She reached out frantically to grip Buck's suspender.

She moaned against his lips as he traced along hers. It had been a while for her, so Buck went for a classic.

His tongue teased gently until Ditzy let it through, moaning softly as Buck slid his index and ring finger up and down her outer labia. While their tongues mingled, Buck's middle finger crept down and prodded at Ditzy's entrance.

"Mmm...! Mmm..." Ditzy's eyes shot open, then lidded back down. She trembled against Buck as his finger slid in and out with a slow pace. Ditzy pulled away from his lips, trying to catch her breath.

"Buck! You're...you're so sweet...I didn't...I didn't think you'd be sooo..eeeee...!" Buck squeezed her lips together, around his rolling finger.

"Did you think I was an animal, Ditzy Doo? Be honest." Buck said, wiggling his fingertip inside her.

"Nonononono! I just, I didn't I...mm!"

"You ever had multiple orgasms in a row, Ditzy?" He kept up the pace; squeezing, wiggling gently.

"I...uhhh...don't laugh...I...haven't...ever orgasmed? Like...ever?" She blinked and saw a look of unbridled shock on Buck's face. He'd gone stock still.

"I can fix that."

Buck pulled his finger out of Ditzy slowly and got the distant look of a rocket scientist running calculations in his head.

"Huh?"

"I can fix that. Lay back, Muffin." Buck commanded.

"Buck, it's okay, I read that some women can't, don't feel like you need to--" Ditzy protested, laying down without thinking.

"I can think of a few reasons why. It can be a little complicated. Physical factors, mindset, stress, your specific equipment, your partner..." Buck mumbled.

He pushed Ditzy carefully so that her head was near the opposite end of the bed, then he dropped to his stomach in front of her legs.

"What? Buck, it's not that serious...Eep!" Ditzy squeaked as Buck grabbed her thighs and parted them wide open.

"You've got bruises on your thighs, Muffin. You work full-time, and you've got a kid, and you take care of me. It's not fuckin' fair that someone like you doesn't have orgasms. I don't accept that." Buck ran the side of his hand along Ditzy's inner thigh. The look in his eyes was severe, even sorrowful.

"Buck, I'm okay!"

"Do you want me to stop?" Buck said.

"...no."

"Gimmie your hand, Muffin."

Ditzy reached out, and Buck laced his fingers in hers. He squeezed her hand and kissed her fingers like they were covered in a queens' rings. Buck slid an arm under Ditzy's leg, letting it rest on his shoulder.

"Breathe, Ditzy. In...out....I don't want you to think about me. I want you to think about you. Your body. How it feels. Don't tell it to me, just relax your jaw...let your shoulders drop...and close your eyes."

The world turned dark for Ditzy Doo.

For Buck, the world was a pair of thin grey thighs, a little blonde landing strip, and a pair of drooling, blushing lips.

He kissed along the inside of Ditzy's thigh, taking his time. She breathed deep.

He nibbled gently where her thigh met her stomach. A hitch in her breath.

He planted delicate kisses along her outer lips. A whimper.

Then with one slow motion, he dragged his tongue from the bottom of her opening to the top. Ditzy jolted and let out a rattling squeal.

Hypersensitive. Had to be.

That meant slow and gentle. It meant a careful pace. It meant...

Ditzy squeezed Buck's hand. He had opened her lips with a pair of fingers, and now his tongue rolled back and forth over the top of her clitoral hood.

"Mm...mm..." Buck sighed as he savored Ditzy's heat. His tongue danced deftly around her clit and began a steady flicking rhythm right at its tip.

"Eeeh! Ah! Ooohhh...." Ditzy whined. Her leg squeezed on Buck's head, pulling him in.

In return, Buck lapped at her with more of his tongue, adding his drool to the mixture of Ditzy's flowing lust.

She was floating in the clouds; the sensation of her nerve endings firing with each tiny slip of the tongue was the only thing she could hold on to. Buck anchored her in pleasure, not slowing nor speeding up his ministrations.

A thick, stubby prodding came for Ditzy's waiting hole, reaching in with teasing curiosity, sliding upward until suddenly Ditzy felt an electric shock shake her core. A pebble of pure pleasure was pressed from the bottom and the very top.

Her shivering bleats opened into a bubbly moan.

Ditzy was rising into the stratosphere, her legs quivering, her chest heaving with each shaking sigh. Every tiny push and savory lick brought her higher and higher, closer to the edge of space until it stopped.

Buck's finger slid out of Ditzy's wet, aching snatch, and her eyes snapped open to see Buck smiling smugly. He sat up, and with one hand, he began to unbutton his shirt.

Ditzy had almost forgotten he was here.

"Whuh?"

"Oh, don't worry...I'm just getting ready for the good part...let me just..." Buck reached down and inward. Ditzy gasped and squeezed her thighs around his arm. He was pinching, rolling his thumb over her pleasure button with the lightest of touches possible, still maintaining that rhythm. Around and around, Ditzy's hips shook and bucked as her man undressed with his other hand.

Suspenders came off, then pants unbuttoned.

"You okay, Muffin?" Buck's voice echoed from another dimension.

"Naaah! Nnneeh...ah!" Ditzy squealed.

"Don't tell me nobodies' ever gone down on you!" Buck said.

Ditzy nodded frantically.

"You're breaking my heart. Don't worry. I'mma take care of you. Just a sec..."

Buck's clever, thick fingers left Ditzy. She whined pathetically at her hollow state.

"Shh..." Ditzy heard the rustling of cloth and the jingling of metal clasps. The bed squeaked.

Ditzy opened her eyes. Buck's wide purple shoulders were exposed to the air. He was much hairier than Ditzy had imagined. Stocky hands spread her legs once more, and Ditzy's gaze traveled down from Buck's tender smile, past her own breasts, and to his fat cock resting on top of her lips.

"Hi, Muffin." Buck growled.

"That's...that's a big boy..." Ditzy said. She reached down and touched Buck's thick rod.
Buck tore open a little wrapper and carefully stuffed himself inside a bright pink condom.

"Mmhm. And you're pretty small down here, so please tell me if you feel uncomfortable, okay?" Buck placed a hand on Ditzy's hip and lined himself up.

"Ooookay...okay..." Ditzy's heart fluttered.

"Don't be scared of me...it's okay..." Buck mumbled. "Just breathe."

Buck pushed in slowly and watched as his cock bent a bit at Ditzy's entrance. It was unbelievably tight, almost as tight as Scoots had been, but it was slick and hot.

Another push.

"Slow! Slow...slow!" Ditzy squeaked. Her hand shot out and touched Buck's stomach.

Buck pushed even more gently. With a slight, slick noise, he gradually slid inside Ditzy Doo.

"You're squeezing...take a breath, Muffin...just relax..." Ditzy's eyes shut as she tried to catch her breath.

"I'm okay, I'm okay..."

"Right here...right here is fine..." Buck said. Ditzy coiled around him and clamped down, squeezing his hand. She was shaking.

Buck rolled his hips back and forth, trying to push in just a little bit at a time. Each thrust got a gasp out of Ditzy.

Something in him loved seeing her like this; her teeth gritted as she tried to acclimate to his girth, but a more tender part reached out with his hand and stroked her cheek.

"Hey...Muffin, it's okay if it's too much. Am I hurting you?"

Ditzy looked at him with a trembling lip. Buck couldn't tell if it was panic or if he had upset her.

"Nonono, please, please...I can take it!" Ditzy said.

Buck pushed forward and hit the back. Ditzy yelped and shut her eyes again. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow..."

"Okay, I'm gonna--"

"No, Buck, I love you, please, please just give me a chance!" Her eyes were wet as she reached out to hold Buck. She looked terrified.

Buck leaned down and kissed her, fingers trailing through her hair. She squeezed him tightly around the waist.

Even as he pulled lips away from hers, she hugged him tight.

"Please don't be mad at me, Buck." Ditzy whimpered.

"I'm not mad, Ditzy. It's okay. Do you want to stop?"

"No, don't go, Buck! I-I can take it, I just--"

"No, you don't need to do anything. Just relax, Muffin. Just relax and let Buck take care of you..."

Buck sat up and pulled out to the tip.

Ditzy was still hot and squeezing and wet. She was covering her face with both hands.

"Nice and slow, Muffin...nice and slow...just breathe." Buck's tip slid in and out of Ditzy's entrance with a lewd slurping sound.

"Ah....ehh! Ehh! Eh!" With each sweet little push, Ditzy relaxed a bit more. Tiny squeaks came from behind her hands as Buck worked her, his hips sliding back and forth along a silent beat.

"You like that, Muffin? This spot, right here?" Ditzy nodded and moaned. "Help me out...put your hand right here and guide me."

Buck took Ditzy's hand and placed it at his hip. Ditzy looked at him with one half-lidded eye and pulled him gently along his rhythm, then a little harder, her squeals getting louder as she pulled him deeper. Her grip on his cock relaxed into a tender squeeze, and Ditzy finally started to lose herself again. Her other hand came down to pull more insistently.

"There you go...you're doin' so good, Muffin..." Ditzy pulled Buck in deeper and gasped.

"FFFuck...you're so big...!"

"Language!" Buck laughed, stroking her cheek.

"Ssssshush...big goof!"

"I'm your big goof, Muffin."

Ditzy held out her arms, and Buck leaned over her, sliding his arms under her back. Their foreheads touched, Ditzy's arms around his neck.

"My Buck...my Buck!" She squeezed him tight in every sense of the world. He simply couldn't fit all the way. He was stretching her, pressing into her with each breathless push, but he could feel her limit.

"My Ditzy," Buck said. He kept his thrusts nice and shallow, but Ditzy bounced her hips up to meet him.

"Please fuck me faster, Buck!"

Buck's cock scraped along the top of Ditzy's tunnel at a quick, unyielding pace. Ditzy gasped and grabbed at the sheets with both hands, hanging on as her pussy made a chorus of wet shlicking noises. Her squeals returned and rose between her frantic breaths.

The world was speeding up. She was soaring again, losing herself in the relentless pumping between her thighs and the hammering of her heart.

Buck leaned down and suddenly his hands were groping Ditzy's breasts, squeezing them together. She squirmed, the intense pleasure flooding her head.

"Ohhh...! Eee...eeee!" Ditzy's grew louder and shorter.

Buck sucked on her nipple, twirling his tongue around it at the same frantic pace.

Ditzy's squeals exploded into screams as the first orgasm hit.

She didn't care if the world heard the bed squeaking or her frantic screams. Her body quaked under Buck's effort and it felt too damned good to stop or slow or care.

"Buck! BUCK! AHHHH!"

"Get it, Muffin! Get it!" Buck kept up that pace, thrusting upward and holding Ditzy's hips. His mind was focused exclusively on pushing her further over the edge. Buck was rewarded by the bounce of Ditzy's breasts and the shortness of her breath.

She was beautiful, even as her voice cracked under the stress of a drawn-out scream.

Buck slowed to a mercifully tender grind, pulling a bit of his length from Ditzy's quivering snatch.

"Nonononono...don't stop Buck, don't stop!" Ditzy panted. She shuddered and bit her lip as Buck grazed her clitoris with the tip of his finger.

"Uh oh...someone's a little cock drunk." Buck chuckled, twirling his finger around Ditzy's button.

"Buuuuck...!" Ditzy whined, then yelped as Buck returned to his quick, light thrusts at her entrance, his fingertip dancing over Ditzy's clitoris.

Her second orgasm arrived with an even louder scream. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, but the open smile on her face told Buck to keep going, please keep going!

The night stretched on and on as chained lightning rocketed through Ditzy's nerves. Every time she seemed to be coming down, Buck pressed gently on her clitoris or changed the angle or fondled her nipple until he finally pulled out of her entirely.

And then he started eating her out again.

Ditzy gripped two handfuls of Buck's hair and mashed his thrashing tongue against her sopping wet pussy. Now there was no discipline or careful pacing. Buck lapped at her like a thirsty dog, and Ditzy broke into pieces as she careened back down to earth.

When Ditzy returned to consciousness, her throat was hoarse from screaming. A tender tingle had settled into her privates, especially at the entrance.

The cool night breeze was whispering in through the window.

A glass of water was placed on the little chest of drawers next to Buck's bed, and Ditzy gulped it down without hesitation. Her hair was a mess and she was sweaty all over.

She plucked at her stomach and found a curly purple hair.

And suddenly she looked around frantically. He wouldn't leave her after all of that, would he?

The bed squeaked, and there he was. Buck slid under the covers next to her, and without a word, he kissed her on the forehead and held her in his arms.

"Buck, that was...I never...I don't even know where to start!"

"Well, you don't gotta leave a review, or anything. Was it good for you?"

"I've never had one that big before, and I definitely never...came. Is it always like that?" Ditzy yawned.

"Oh, no, no it ain't always like that. I just wanted to spoil you, so I uh, I pushed your buttons. Seems like light and fast is what you like, Muffin. Light and fast." Buck mumbled, peppering Ditzy's cheek and neck with tiny kisses.

"Ah...You're so fuzzy! It's kinda tickly!" Ditzy giggled.

"I'll shave in the mornin'." Buck settled into big spoon position behind Ditzy.

Ditzy felt the curtain of sleep dropping.

All of a sudden all the physical exertion of the night washed over, and satisfaction incarnate wrapped a pair of big beefy arms around her. Ditzy couldn't remember the last time she felt so safe.

She slipped a hand into Buck's and squeezed.

"I'm sorry I'm not as experienced..."

"Shh...don't compare yourself to her anymore. I chose you, Ditzy. Because of who you are, I chose you."

"Mhm."

"You know, Ditzy...we could do this again. I got a chunk of change from that...work I did, and I wouldn't mind spending it on us. We could do this every week! You know, date nights. Saturday. We can have Sunburst look after Dinky, and we could just go do something for us. You and me. Just bein' Buck and Ditzy."

"Buck and Ditzy sounds like a folk band." Ditzy yawned.

"So do you wanna do it?"

"Again? I'm kind of exhausted, Buck."

"No, I mean the date nights."

"Oh. Yeah, I think that's just what we need. That's a great idea, Buck. I wanna cuddle all over you and touch your butt." Ditzy mumbled.

"Okay, it's sleepy time, now."

"Mhm. Love you, Buck."

"I love you too, Muffin."

The curtain fell, and Ditzy Doo finally found a restful sleep in Buck's arms, leaving him to look out the window at the stars peeking through the trees.

Adagio leaned against the back wall of Buck's apartment, just beneath his window.

She had come to check on him, make sure he was safe, and now she felt a pain in her heart that she wanted desperately to deny.

She had heard most of it. She was certain that half the city of Canterlot had heard the end of it.

Ditzy Doo's had bathed in Buck's passion and found the bliss that Adagio had come to crave.

Adagio's fists had clenched so tightly she nearly drew blood from her palm.

If it was just a simple fling, Adagio wouldn't have cared. She might even enjoy watching Buck at work, but this was far more than simple physical attraction. The emotions she had tasted were leagues deeper than the blazing lust that Buck felt when he first met her.

Jealous didn't even begin to describe it; Adagio was outraged.

After the selfless charity she had performed at the fair, Buck hadn't thought of her even once while he was inside Ditzy Doo.

"Sensual connection. An obsession with protecting her. It's almost...patriarchal." Adagio muttered.

But there was more; the need to perform well, concern for her health, and the want to hold, caress and embrace.

A kind of emotional fulfillment that Buck had never felt between Adagio's legs.

Comfort.

Peace.

Far in the back, just the faintest glimmer of...

"Worthiness? Oh, Buck...you poor thing."

There was more, of course, in Buck's rich cocktail of emotions, but as Adagio wiped away a tear that she refused to acknowledge, the tiniest of smiles pulled at the corner of her lip.

For everything she had tasted from the union, there was one sensation that was critically missing.

Satisfaction.

Buck had put his hands to the task of pleasing Ditzy Doo, and he had succeeded. The thirsty little trollop sounded like it was the first time she had felt satisfied with a man. But Buck hadn't been given the same treatment.

He hadn't cum yet.

Adagio's smile grew toothy. Just yesterday, she had tasted a bit of this tenderness when Buck held her. He loved her still, but he was simply distracted at the moment.

Ditzy Doo was sleeping soundly, secure in the thought that she had won Buck's heart.

But men are fickle little things, and now that Adagio saw something Buck needed, it was time to play a new game.

She had been right, back at the fairground.

This was far from over.

Author's Note

HOO BOY, with this one.
I had to rip this one apart and do big re-writes twice to make it work for the narrative.
The first draft on this one was basically all plot and severely lacking in a good character struggle. Blech. I think I got a bit nervous since this story is approaching it's close and there's still a lot of plot that needs to happen before we hit end game, but focusing on that instead of character drama is missing the trees for the forest, so to speak.
Honestly, I think my most valuable lesson from this project has been learning the art of the edit. It's no small wonder why people get paid to do it.

Song Review: I freaking adore Whitney Houston's music. I Wanna Dance With Somebody says everything it needs to in the title. I imagine the dancing sequence playing back to back with the fight scene in the alley. Buck and Ditzy finally find a real whirlwind romance and have a legit romcom moment that's been denied to them until now, but it's at the cost of their loved ones busting their asses to keep them and the city safe. Something I've tried to do with this story is show that relationship problems tend to look completely different from either partner's perspective. That's absolutely the case with Buck and Ditzy's relationship, but for this one night, they just get to dance.