In the Heat of the Moment

An hour later, Trixie found herself staring at the bomb on her floor.

Book.

Whatever.

It had landed on its back, meaning that she couldn’t see the stallion that was on its front cover. Its back cover, however, had its title displayed, as well as a description. Against her better judgment – not that her brain was being fully consulted on all of her body’s actions anymore – she lifted the book, making a point to not turn it around, and read its back.

Newly widowed after a shockingly brief marriage to an elderly Night Court lord, Honey Darling still aches with the pain of unexplored desire. And now her restless heart is leading her far from the protective bosom of polite Canterlot society –

Clearly the author had never been to Canterlot.

– to the perilous beauty of the Mild West…and to Western Wind

Breathlessly exciting but dangerously unpredictable, Western Wind is a loner whose blood burns hotter than the blistering desert sun.

That must have hurt.

Honey Darling’s wealth and title mean nothing to this stranger who’s passions rule his actions and his heart. But neither the wild desert stallion nor the untouched Canterlot rose can deny their irresistible attraction…

Trixie stared a moment, then let out a light laugh, smiling a little. That was the sorry excuse for a plot? It didn’t even mention what title Honey Darling had managed to inherit! That seemed like the kind of thing that would warrant description. “An elderly Night Court lord” was practically the same thing as just saying “some random pony” to anypony who actually knew how the Night Court operated. And besides which, why would a pony with Night Court connections want to leave Equestria entirely? The Mild West was on the other side of Cabelleria! Clearly this author had no idea what she was writing about. The book was harmless.

Trixie opened the book.

Trixie closed the book.

The book was illustrated.

In hindsight, Trixie realized that this should have been expected. A hack author like this would need the illustrations. Very carefully, she opened the book again, to the first page.

It was another scorching hot day, and the trail to Dodge had been a long, dusty one. Honey Darling was glad to see the wooden buildings of the city appear over the next rise. Her carriage-bearers were tired, and thirsty, and so was she. They descended the rise, and soon they were on the streets of Dodge. Honey Darling left her carriage-bearers with a good tip, and, now that they were getting a well-deserved rest, it was her turn. A few steps away, and the doors of the “Dusty Gulch” saloon beckoned. An excellent name, she thought…

So. Harmless, she decided, flipping through the book, as long as one avoided the pictures –

She stayed with him the night, and they made love two more times, long, drawn out, passionate affairs. He licked and kissed and stimulated her gorgeous body, until she was quivering with desire, and plunging deep inside of her –

“Gah it was a trap!” Trixie cried, hurling the book away, realizing only belatedly that she was still in her office and she was facing her front window. At the last possible second, she reached out and managed to telekinetically grab the book, stopping it from plunging through her office’s window and requiring her to call upon the services of Windowpane yet again. She breathed out a sigh of relief…until she realized that the book’s front cover was facing the window – and there was a jasmine-coated, blue-maned pegasus on the other side, one hoof raised as though she had intended to tap on the window to get Trixie’s attention.

Trixie stared, frozen in place. She was dimly aware of Raindrops leaving the front window, heading to her front door, and letting herself in, cautiously making her way to Trixie, who still hadn’t moved other than to lose her telekinetic grip on the book and let it fall to the floor.

Raindrops coughed. “So, um…” she said. “I had knocked, but you didn’t answer…went to try the window, see if you were in here…”

Trixie felt heating building in her cheeks. In a way, it was a welcome change from it building elsewhere in her body.

Raindrops shuffled. “It’s not her best,” she said. “Actually on the whole Rain Sprinkles isn’t really the best author…never really gets you invested in her characters, she just focuses on the sex. I prefer stories with more romance.”

Trixie slowly turned to face Raindrops at that. “What?”

Raindrops blushed herself. “I can have hobbies,” she answered indignantly. “Who says I can’t?”

Trixie stared, considered, and decided that it would be best if she pushed forward rather than tried to deal with the idea of Raindrops, the Element of Honesty, the weather mare, the pony with a serious anger problem beneath her carefully controlled exterior, the pony who could break solid stone with her bare hooves…reading romance novels. “Um…why are you here…?”

Raindrops rubbed one leg with her opposite hoof. “I, um…heard you were in heat – ”

Something inside Trixie snapped. “From who?” She demanded. “Who’s going around advertising this?”

“Well, you ran full-speed through the center of town yesterday…a lot of ponies caught a whiff,” Raindrops said. Her own nostrils flared slightly at that. “And you know that a town like Ponyville runs on gossip as much as silver…I wasn’t trying to find out, I just heard.”

Trixie quivered slightly. “So now you’re here to help?” she demanded. “Well, Luna’s told me to go buck myself, Lyra and Bon Bon wanted me for their sexual Olympics, Cheerilee shows up with a little box of smut and a few implements that I know can’t all be legal – ”

“Trixie,” Raindrops tried.

“ – I mean seriously, there is no way that something with that many protrusions is meant to be anything other than a torture device – ”

“Trixie,” Raindrops tried again, reaching out a hoof.

“I don’t like sex! I don’t want to clop! I just want this week to end! How is this so hard for you all to accept?”

Raindrops stared, as Trixie breathed deeply at her outburst. “Done?” she asked. Raindrops was no stranger to pent-up anger and recognized that Trixie just needed to vent a little. Trixie considered for a moment, before nodding. She was sweating again, great…Raindrops looked Trixie in her eye. “I’m not here for anything of those things,” she said. “I’m not going to try and get you to clop, I’m not going to try and get you laid. But I am here to help, in a way you’re comfortable with, hopefully.”

Trixie stared at Raindrops, and felt a slight swelling in her chest. “How?” she asked, daring to dream of a world where one of her friends actually had advice that she was willing to implement.

Raindrops sat back on her haunches. “Okay, this is what I do,” she said. “House as small as mine, I can’t exactly get alone time, right? Last thing I need is Snails to walk in. Or to have an awkward moment with my parents. But I’m not really comfortable trying to clop anywhere else where somepony else might come across me, not even in the Whitetail Wood. So, I figured out a workaround: exercise.”

Trixie blinked. “Exercise?” she asked.

Raindrops nodded, looking Trixie up and down. “Basically from dawn ‘til I drop, I just head out into the Whitetail, or else take extra shifts on the weather patrol, and run, stretch, fly, buck clouds, do push-ups and squats, anything to get me exhausted. At that point I’m so tired that it doesn’t even matter what my body wants me to be doing, ‘cause the desire to go home and get to bed and just sleep is too strong. And then I sleep like a log, which means I’m spending time asleep rather than trying to…” she waved one hoof in the air, her suggestion plain.

Trixie blinked a few times. “That’s…that’s really good, actually!” she exclaimed, making to hug Raindrops.

The pegasus’ wings flared a little at that, though, and she backed away. “Um, no offense,” she said, “but…well, I’ve got work in half an hour and I don’t want to have a Trixie-in-heat scent on me.”

Trixie was so elated at the suggestion that she wasn’t bothered at all, instead extending a hoof and receiving a bump in return from Raindrops. “I can help if you like, since you probably haven’t done much exercising in the past…no offense,” she repeated. “Walk you through a few basics, spot you if you need it. Say…first thing tomorrow morning?”

Trixie nodded fervently. “Absol – ”

There was a crash from Trixie’s window. The two mares in the room jumped away from it, turning quickly and finding that a rainbow-maned, cyan-coated pegasus was lying on Trixie’s floor, surrounded by broken glass and splintered wood.

“Boss?” Raindrops asked.

“My window…” Trixie mourned. Why? Why couldn’t she go more than a month without her front window breaking? Windowpane, the town’s window instillation and repair pony, actually gave her discounts now! Had her set up to buy new windows at bulk price!

Rainbow Dash groaned a little, standing up only slowly, on shaking hooves and quivering wings extended for balance like a newborn foal still trying to work out how her limbs worked. “Hah…s-sorry…Little out of it today…I’ll pay for the damages…” she said, flashing a slight smile at Trixie and Raindrops. “You guys…you guys are friends with Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon, right?”

Trixie slowly nodded.

“Woo…” Rainbow Dash said, turning around and climbing out the window. “Friends with benefits, I hope…they’re…yowza. Fourteen hours straight.” She spread her wings, considered them, then tucked them back against her sides. “Think I’m gonna just walk for today…I’ll go get Windowpane…”

Raindrops and Trixie both blushed as Rainbow Dash trotted out of sight. “And…on that note…” Raindrops declared, “I’ll get going.” She looked to Trixie. “Tomorrow, crack of dawn. Sound good?”

Trixie nodded. “Thanks,” she said.

“No problem,” Raindrops responded as she left – through the front door, not the shattered window, out a sense of tradition if not necessity. Trixie let out a sigh of relief as she trotted from her office.

A moment later, she galloped back in and grabbed Riding Western Wind. The last thing she needed was for Windowpane to come across it while fixing her window. Within just a few moments, the evil tome was safely deposited in Trixie’s trash can – which was promptly taken out into her backyard, doused in lantern oil, and set aflame.

Windowpane managed to arrive, fix Trixie’s window, and leave in record time, sympathetic to the fact that Trixie just wanted to be left alone at the moment. He had even shown up wearing nose-plugs to prevent himself from taking in Trixie’s pheromones and therefore potentially distract him from his craft.

Trixie may have been in love with Windowpane for that. Just a little.

The unicorn had just settled down to dinner, one that was nearly half again the size of her usual evening meal – the other problem with being in heat was that it resulted in a greatly increased appetite – when there was once again a lavender-hued flash and pop from about five feet away.

“Oh Stars Above!” Trixie cursed at the top of her lungs when Twilight Sparkle again materialized near her.

Twilight Sparkle sniffed the air, then waved a hoof in front of her nose again. “Still?” she demanded.

“Yes,” Trixie answered, standing up and away from her table. “Today’s only my second day.”

She considered trying to subdue Twilight so that she could be arrested, but decided against it. The mare had some serious magic power behind her, Trixie knew, and besides, she was an expert at teleportation magic. Even if Trixie somehow managed to gain the upper hoof, Twilight could always teleport away. This meant that there was really only one thing Trixie could do: make small talk until Twilight decided to go away and leave her in peace.

Twilight let out a long-suffering sigh. “I had this all planned out…” she moaned, levitating a carrot from Trixie’s plate and taking a bite out of it. “But no, you have to be in heat…”

“I am very sorry that my biological clock did not conform to your maniacal plan, whatever it is,” Trixie deadpanned, glaring harder at Twilight due to the fact that she was tucking in to Trixie’s dinner without asking permission.

Twilight glanced at Trixie again, then sighed even as she considered what had once been a tomato before Trixie had started adding spices and hot peppers and other foods to it. Without caution, she swallowed the whole thing in three quick bites, grimaced a little, and began sweating slightly from the hots but otherwise seemingly unharmed as she began to work her way through the caramel-topped broccoli.

Trixie stared. She had unusual taste in food. She knew she had unusual taste in food. She had never known anypony outside her own family, however, to tuck into a dish of her own creation so…unquestioningly. She quickly levitated some of the broccoli over to her lest Twilight gobble it all. “You…” she ventured uncomfortably, knowing that she’d played a big role in Twilight’s current predicament, “you haven’t been…starving, have you?”

Twilight glanced to Trixie in confusion for a moment, then laughed. “Oh! No, no, of course not,” she said, closing her eyes. With a flash and pop, a large chest materialized from nowhere and opened itself up, revealing itself to be about half-full of silver bits – thousands of them. “No, money’s never been a problem for me. The House Starlight is one of the wealthiest in Equestria.” She unsummoned the chest and turned back to Trixie’s dinner. “I’m just…really hungry right now, for some reason…”

Trixie eyed Twilight’s ‘cloak.’ “So what’s with the potato sack?”

“Disguise.”

“Ah. I see – hey!” Trixie grabbed a bread roll before Twilight could swallow it nearly whole. “This is my dinner!”

Twilight swallowed what was in her mouth, then smacked her lips. “Right,” she said. “Sorry…hey is it hot in here? You should open a window.” Twilight trotted towards the nearest window, walking past Trixie – just as Trixie inhaled through her nose.

Three things happened:

1. Her eyes widened;

2. She began to cough, and desperately wave a hoof in front of her nose before her hormones could surge to action again; and

3. When the cough finally began to subside, she glared at Twilight and shouted “that is just contrived!”

Twilight blinked, stopping just as she was about to open a window. “What?” she asked.

“You’re in heat too!”

Twilight blinked a few times, turning her head slightly and sniffing. “Oh, huh,” she said, smiling sheepishly as she rubbed a hoof behind her head. “What do you know…heh. I knew it was coming in the next few days, I actually wanted to get this whole plan thing moving and done with before it set in…I guess catching your scent probably drove my body to kick things off early…” she laughed sheepishly.

She was laughing.

She was laughing.

Like it was no big deal.

Trixie lunged at Twilight. No magic, no telekinesis, no magic words – just her bare hooves and, if she could help it, her horn. Twilight gasped in surprise, throwing up her own hooves and catching Trixie. The two fell to the floor in a tangle, the tangle not helped by Trixie’s cape or Twilight’s cloak/burlap sack at all. Trixie managed to get behind Twilight, grabbing at Twilight’s cloak with her teeth and pulling¸ trying to suffocate her.

Twilight pushed herself forward, though, landing on all four hooves and then bucking like a bronco, causing Trixie to fly off. Twilight’s horn glowed, then, grasping Trixie in its telekinesis and throwing her to the floor. Trixie’s own telekinesis managed to throw off Twilight’s magic, though, and she charged again, horn down. Twilight avoided it, grabbing Trixie about the neck and once again bringing both of them to the floor. Trixie writhed under Twilight’s grip, turning in place, wrapping her hooves around Twilight’s head and pulling her down, towards her waiting horn…Twilight struggled and resisted against the pull, responding by driving her rear hooves against Trixie’s sides…

Trixie managed to pull Twilight down further. Twilight managed to move to the right slightly, however, such as Trixie’s horn was now brushing against her cheek…Trixie gasped as Twilight’s own grip on her tightened, as her hips began to gyrate…Trixie’s hind legs lock around Twilight’s hips as Twilight’s tongue snaked out and licked down the length of Trixie’s horn, straight to the sensitive nerve cluster located at its base…Trixie moaned at the feeling, nuzzling Twilight’s neck, nibbling on her ear, until the two looked at each other and…

…their breathing, quick and desperate at the feelings from their hindquarters grinding together, moving as one…their eyes locked…their lips pressed together…

Trixie snapped back to the here and now, shaking her head and gasping for air. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Twilight was blushing and staring at her own front hooves, also similarly out-of-breath. The air was thick with their pheromones, and neither of them appeared to have moved from the spots they had been standing in.

Twilight glanced at Trixie. “Do…” she ventured. “Do you ever get the feeling that two ponies are thinking the exact same thing…?"

Trixie glared at her. “No. Now get out!”

Twilight sighed. “F-fine,” she stuttered, horn glowing and disappearing with a pop.

There was an identical, simultaneous pop from right behind Trixie. The blue unicorn sighed. “You took my dinner, didn’t you?” she asked of the empty room. “Great…” she turned around…

…and found herself staring at her intact dinner – well, intact but for the parts that Twilight had already eaten – but with a new addition, a basket laden with colorful, wonderfully scented, and above all else delicious-looking wildflowers.