In the Heat of the Moment

Trixie didn’t even realize that she had arrived home until she was trotting past the front gate of her house. The sun was beginning to set by now – after Raindrops had left, she had spent a few hours running laps around the clearing, half in exercise, half in waiting to see if Raindrops would come back and see if the two of them could figure out what had just happened.

Her wait had been in vain, though, and Raindrops had been right: running around and around in circles only gave her mind a chance to wander…

Trixie was vaguely aware of the sound of a bunch of rocks hitting the ground as her telekinesis ended, but didn’t acknowledge it as she leaned forward, into the soft and warm and inviting kiss…Raindrop’s wing squeezed tighter around her for a moment, before she felt Raindrops pushing against her, surprisingly gently given who was doing the pushing as she felt herself being rolled over, onto her back. Her front hooves reached out and closed around Raindrops’ neck…a slight moan escape her mouth, an opening for Raindrops’ tongue to invade as the pegasus’ own hooves wrapped around Trixie, pulling her close and tight…

…Trixie’s eyes fluttered open, and she realized, quite suddenly, that this was not her mind playing tricks on her again, that this was not an illusion – she really was on her back, in the field, and it really was Raindrops, one of her closest friends, atop her, kissing her, Trixie returning it eagerly…the shock made her stop returning Raindrops’ affection…

Trixie stopped just before her front door. Her horn was glowing, and she found herself staring at an illusion of her and Raindrops, sitting next to each other, Raindrops with one wing over her as they kissed. It wasn’t even a delusion this time – her heat coupled with her magic had conjured up a real memory, something that had actually happened.

Trixie stepped forward after a moment, waving a hoof through the illusion and dispelling it into bluish mist. It was only after entering her home, locking the door behind her, and hanging up her cape that she realized she had dismissed the illusion more out of tradition than anything, without really feeling the heat of embarrassment.

“Huh,” Trixie thought aloud. “Wonder if that means anything – ”

“Aaaahhh!” Twilight Sparkle’s voice cried out. Trixie started even as she heard a crash from beneath her, in her basement. Without thinking, she rushed into her kitchen, where her basement door was located, threw open the door, and rushed downstairs to help, ignoring the slight lavender glow her basement door had been covered in. It occurred to her only as her hooves touched the basement landing that Twilight might not have needed help. That she was in heat too. That the cry didn’t sound like one of pain, per se.

Trixie looked up and saw Twilight.

“Aaaahhh!” Twilight cried out. She was – probably – not in pain.

“Aaaahhh!” Trixie screamed. She was not in physical pain. But as she did not know any amnesia spells, her mental anguish would now have to last a lifetime.

“Aaaahhh!” Twilight screamed as well, though the context was different as she glanced behind her and saw Trixie. It was probably a mood-killer for her, but Trixie didn’t feel bad about that at all.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Aaaahhh!”

“Aaaahhh!”

“Aaaahhh!”

Things were awkward for a few minutes.

Trixie stared at everything in the kitchen that wasn’t Twilight. Twilight was doing essentially the same thing for Trixie, rubbing one hoof against the opposite leg awkwardly.

“S…sorry…” Twilight said at length. “I, um…I th-thought I had a sound-dampening spell over the…the door…”

“You did,” Trixie said at length. She glanced at Twilight, blushed, and looked back down at her hooves. “Um…b-but I heard you up through the floor.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “Oh,” she said. “Um…oh. S-sorry.” Trixie nodded. The silence stretched a little further. “Um…I can t-teach you how to cast unseen servant if you want – ”

Trixie considered all the possibilities of how useful it could be to be able to conjure up a pony-shaped, invisible-yet-tangible force that, while unintelligent, was capable of being ordered to perform simple tasks, such as cleaning, without needing continuous concentration from the unicorn caster.

Or several unseen servants. Each of which could perform separate tasks. She had, after all, just seen a demonstration of their…utility. They had been invisible, of course, but judging from the position Twilight Sparkle had been in, she had to have conjured at least two, more likely three –

“Aaaahhh!” Trixie screamed, instinctively covering her eyes, though there was little she could do to block the vision of her mind’s eye. “No no no no no no no no! No! Noooo! No no no – ”

“Okay!” Twilight interrupted. Trixie stopped her tirade. “Okay, I’m sorry!”

“I thought you said who needs stallions when I’ve got books? That’s what you said! You said that!”

Twilight shifted. “Where do you think I learned the spell from?” she asked. “Unseen servant is one of the most basic conjurations there is! I learned it back in the Academy!”

Trixie’s eyes widened. “They teach that?!”

Twilight shifted. “N…not exactly,” she said. “Um, they do teach the basic spell to ponies who can learn it, but it’s not, ah…anatomically correct. But…well, it’s kind of an open secret around the Academy, how to change it so it is.” She laughed a little in embarrassment. “It’s just, you know…one of those things.”

Trixie blinked a few times, suddenly grateful that she never attended Luna’s Magic Academy and instead learned magic from Luna herself. “The Academy is a glorified brothel,” she noted, turning around and trotting towards her pantry. In spite of everything, she still had an appetite. “A…gah! Who does that? What would Luna think?”

Twilight chuckled again. “A-actually, the story is – and I don’t think it’s true at all, it’s just the story – but the story is that Princess Luna’s the one who created the anatomically correct unseen servant in the first place. Since, you know, she’s immortal, she doesn’t have time for lovers…”

“Oh, but she has the time to turn a spell for cleaning up around the house into…into…into summon sex-slave?”

Twilight frowned. “An unseen servant isn’t alive, it can’t think. It’s not a slave, any more than a, I don’t know, a bathtub is a slave.”

“You know what I – oh Stars,” Trixie interrupted herself, stopping her search. She sighed, head downcast as she turned to Twilight. “Stars. Lyra went to the Academy. Now I’m wondering if Lyra knows that spell. I think she can only cast music-related spells, but if there’s a way for her to have learned it, she will have. Thank-you for that, Twilight, that’s what I needed. Lyra. And Bon Bon. A-and..and Rainbow Dash…a-and…”

…and her, and Twilight Sparkle, all in Trixie’s basement, moaning and groaning and sweating and gyrating as unseen servants conjured by the unicorns of the group crowded around them, Trixie on her back, her hooves stroking and her tongue licking…there were five to each of them, six in the case of Rainbow Dash…

Trixie’s eyes widened. She looked so satisfied. Why did she always have to look so satisfied? It made everything look so inviting…she was surrounded on all sides by unseen servants, though they weren’t quite unseen anymore, instead having a vague, pony shaped – and anatomically correct – outline as they pressed around her…she didn’t know where Rainbow Dash and Bon Bon and Lyra had gone, but Trixie was still there, feeling the servants’ coats against her own. Twilight was still there too, looking shocked at first, though when one of the servants nibbled on her neck she seemed almost to shrug and decide to go along with it…

“Ahn…!” Trixie moaned as she felt hooves on her back and something else between her hind legs, not penetrating yet but getting ready to…maybe…maybe this was it, maybe it was time to just get it over with…

Then, a wing. Feathers laid across her back as she sank to the floor, onto her barrel. The hooves that had been there disappeared, as did the presence of all the other servants around her. Trixie, eyes glazed, looked and saw Raindrops looking back at her. Raindrops closed her eyes and pressed her lips to Trixie’s, and Trixie returned the kiss wholeheartedly. It broke after several long moments, but Trixie leaned in this time…

…and her lips passed straight through Raindrops, who disappeared in a blue mist. Trixie blinked, and found herself sitting down, alone in her kitchen but for Twilight, who was blinking rapidly as she looked around desperately, sweating more than a little. “Wh…oh, come on, Trixie!” She exclaimed. “Y…you can’t just…just…” she paused after a moment, looking at Trixie. “Wait. I thought you didn’t know how to cast unseen servant.”

Trixie blinked, only slowly taking in Twilight’s words as she thought about what had just happened. “I don’t,” she said absently. “But the best illusions can fool other senses besides sight and hearing, though it takes a lot out of the caster. They can provide touch as well…” As she said that, she placed a hoof to her lips.

“R-really?” Twilight asked, utterly oblivious to Trixie’s conundrum. She glanced down at her own hooves. “And I always thought illusions weren’t worth the time…s-say, do you have a book I can borrow on them?”

“Ignis Fatuus: the Book of Illusions,” Trixie said without thinking about the potential consequences. “Living room, top shelf.”

Twilight stood on slightly-shaking legs and trotted from the kitchen. Trixie didn’t really notice, instead looking beside her again. Cautiously, she set her horn glowing – intentionally, this time – and crafted an illusion of Raindrops. The glamor stared back at her.

Before she could think better of it, Trixie closed her eyes leaned forward, pressing her lips to the figment’s. At first there was nothing, but then Trixie’s horn glowed brighter, and she felt real, warm, inviting lips kissing her back…parting just a little, head tiling slightly…Trixie’s horn glowed brighter, and now she could feel Raindrops’ breath, and her wing as she draped it over her back. Raindrops squeezed her just slightly with her wing, before she stopped kissing her. Trixie whimpered slightly at that, worried about what Raindrops was going to do, but the pegasus only nuzzled her, before laying her neck across Trixie’s back, squeezing her with her wing again. Trixie, despite herself, leaning into the hug, laying her head down next to Raindrops and taking in her scent, feeling her fur, hearing her heartbeat…

If Raindrops had wanted, she could have probably done anything she wanted with Trixie, and Trixie would have willingly gone along with it, losing her battle with her heat at long last. But Raindrops would never take advantage of her like that…

“Trixie, I – ” The illusion began. But the voice stuttered, as did the feeling of the wing on her back and Raindrops’ neck atop her, the scent in her nostrils. Trixie desperately tried to pour more power into the glamor.

“There are doodles all over this!” Twilight’s voice exclaimed as she trotted into the kitchen, holding forward a thin tome. “And how good a spellbook can it be if it has less than two hundred pages – ” she stopped at the sight of the flickering Raindrops, and Trixie’s horn glowing bright as she tried to maintain her spell. But it was too late, and Twilight’s distracting interruption made the effort finally too great. With a gasp, Trixie lost control over the super-real illusion, and it dissipated into nothingness. Trixie’s head whipped around, staring wide-eyed at Twilight. The purple unicorn shifted slightly at the expression. “I’m…uh…I’m sorry,” she said.

Trixie blinked a few times, then looked back down to her hooves. “S’ okay,” she said. “Just a figment…I can always conjure a new one…”

Twilight paused at Trixie’s tone, biting her lip as she looked at the book she held in her telekinetic grip. After a moment, she set it down on the kitchen counter, then trotted over to Trixie and sat down opposite her, looking her in the eye. “That was…Raindrops, right?” she asked. “Your friend? The bearer of the Element of Honesty?”

Trixie nodded. “She, um…” she said. “I was…exercising with her earlier today…trying to get through my heat, and…and she kissed me.”

Trixie’s horn unconsciously glowed again. In front of Twilight appeared a miniature illusion of Trixie and Raindrops, sitting together on the field, Raindrops kissing her. As Twilight watched, blushing, Raindrops gently pushed Trixie onto her back, though Trixie offered no resistance – at least until her eyes opened. The illusion didn’t provide sound, but there was some kind of exchange that ended with Raindrops flying off, disappearing and leaving behind Trixie.

Twilight blinked as the small look into Trixie’s memories disappeared. “When you, um…” she said, “when…oh, Stars, let’s call it what it was. When you conjured up that illusionary orgy, Raindrops appeared there, as well. And seeing her is what interrupted it, huh?”

Trixie tapped her front hooves together. “Maybe,” she said, shifting her hindquarters. Heat was building there again, hormones surging through her body and at once amplifying her emotions and desires, creating emotions and desires, and suppressing emotions and desires. She wanted to go outside and find a stallion and have sex until she couldn’t stand. She wanted to go outside and find Raindrops and just lie next to her with her wing over her back. She wanted to tackle Twilight and just satisfy each other’s heats. She wanted Raindrops here to help her satisfy her heat. She wanted to clop. She wanted to go back to the spa and spend all her money on the ‘deluxe service.’ She wanted none of these things and for her heat to just be over. She wanted to go to bed. But she wanted Raindrops in that bed. Or Twilight. But with Twilight it wasn’t the same…

“Do you like her?” Twilight asked.

Trixie glanced at Twilight. “I…I don’t know. Maybe? Yes? But I think it might just be my heat…but maybe it isn’t…I don’t know! I’m never attracted to mares except when I’m in heat. So maybe it’s just that!”

Twilight shrugged. “I’m basically the same,” she said. “Most ponies have a few same-gender ponies, though, that’d be an exception for them, even if they’re not in heat. So maybe Raindrops is one of those mares for you?”

“I don’t know! She flew off before I could find out! I mean, she’s really strong and stoic and puts up with me even when I’m at my worst but also knows how to take me down a peg when I need it, but I know that she’s got this soft side inside of her, she’s vulnerable just beneath the surface and I just want to…” she shivered, “I want to go down on her but I also just want to hold her and snuggle with her but maybe that’s just my heat…a-and she thinks she took advantage of me and maybe she did…but I don’t know!”

“Wait,” Twilight said, holding up a hoof. “What was that last bit?”

Trixie looked to Twilight. “She flew off,” Trixie explained. “We were kissing, and I thought it was just an illusion at first, but then I realized, so I stopped kissing her, and she stopped. Then she flew off after thinking that she’d taken advantage of me. I was too shocked to really try and stop her – ”

“Wait, what?” Twilight demanded, standing. “You let a pony fly off thinking that she’d just assaulted you?”

Trixie stared up at Twilight, eyes wide, before she realized what Twilight was saying. The heat inside of her seemed to ebb low, and Trixie finally realized just how distraught Raindrops had looked, how horrified of her own actions – Trixie had been focusing on her feelings and her confusion, but Raindrops –

“Oh no,” Trixie said, standing up and trotting back and forth. “Oh no! She thinks…I have to go to her…but I don’t know how I feel!”

“You still have to go,” Twilight insisted, pointing out Trixie’s front door. “Look, I might not know much about having friends, but I do know that Raindrops seems like she might care a lot about you and right now, she thinks that she might have hurt you. You can’t leave her thinking that!”

Trixie’s pacing didn’t slow down. “But what do I say?” she asked. “I mean…do I tell her that I like her too? Or that I don’t really, not like that? I…do I have sex with her? I want to! But that’s just my heat! I mean, I think I might be okay with it ‘cause she’d like it, I bet, but then it’d be gross still…even if it was her…I think…gah!”

“Trixie!” Twilight exclaimed. “Just go!”

“But I don’t know what to say!”

“It doesn’t matter!”

“Yes it does! Because it’s Raindrops and she’s really more vulnerable then she lets on!”

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud…” Twilight grunted, stepping forward as her horn glowed. Before Trixie could react, there was a lavender pop all around Trixie. The next thing she knew, both she and Twilight were standing outside in front of a small, but familiar, house in Ponyville. The sun had nearly set by now, and nopony was visible on the streets, though several lights were on in the buildings of the area, including the one in front of the two unicorns.

Twilight grunted as she got behind Trixie and began pushing her towards the door with her hooves. “Go!” Twilight insisted.

“How do you know where she lives?” Trixie demanded, fighting against Twilight’s pushing.

“I know where all of you live, it was part of the plan,” Twilight exclaimed. “It doesn’t matter, plan’s off now, I lost the stupid amulet anyway.”

“Get off me!” Trixie demanded, wondering what the full details of this ‘plan’ was, but deciding that it probably wasn’t important at the moment. Twilight complied, but only to wrap Trixie in her telekinetic aura. Trixie fought against it, but was powerless as Twilight ran up to the front door, knocked on it a few times, then dove into a nearby bush. Her aura didn’t disappear from around Trixie, however, who found herself forced into a standing position as the door opened.

Trixie found herself looking at Snails, Raindrops’ little unicorn brother. He was a little slow, but a fundamentally good colt, and ordinarily on seeing Trixie he would almost immediately brighten immensely, as he and his best friend Snips loved Trixie’s irregular but spectacular magic shows, possibly even more than Dinky Doo.

At first, this time appeared no different from any other. However, after a moment, his face darkened immensely. “Go away!” he shouted, slamming the door shut.

Trixie blinked, starting. Twilight apparently did too, as her magical aura disappeared and she stuck her head out from the bush in confusion. Trixie’s immediate instinct was to run, but Snails’ belligerence was shocking enough to warrant further investigation. She knocked on the door again.

“I said go away!” Snails’ voice called from the other side of the door.

“Snails!” Trixie demanded. “What did I do?”

There was no immediate answer, but the door did open. In addition to Snails, Trixie found herself looking at a sky-blue, blond-maned pegasus stallion – Dewdrops, Raindrops’ father – and a yellow-coated, blue-and-white maned pegasus mare – Shutterbug, Raindrops’ mother. Neither of them looked happy to see Trixie, though Dewdrops and Shutterbug looked only displeased, rather than incensed as Snails did.

“Trixie,” Dewdrops said slowly, taking a single step from his house, getting close to the unicorn mare, “I don’t know what happened today between you and Raindrops. I don’t much care. It takes a lot to my little filly cry, and – ”

Trixie stumbled backwards at that, eyes wide. “What?” she asked.

“Oh, don’t pretend like you don’t know!” Shutterbug exclaimed, coming out from the house and taking to the air, wings beating rapidly. In sharp contrast to her slow-speaking husband, Shutterbug moved and spoke at a mile a minute. “Raindrops was walking on starlight when she came home last night after spending time with you and she didn’t say anything but I know that she was happy to be spending time with you and she was looking forward to more today but instead she comes home looking angrier than I’ve ever seen her and she just shut herself in her room and we thought we’d give her time, but what do I hear when I go to check on her half an hour later? Tears! My baby was crying her eyes out!”

“I thought you were cool!” Snails put in.

Trixie blinked rapidly. “I…I didn’t do anything!” she said. “She kissed me!”

Dewdrops held up a hoof, touching Shutterbug to slow her down. “You’re in heat, Trixie, so you’re not acting yourself,” he said.

“You smell!” Snails exclaimed, covering his nose. He was too young for Trixie’s pheromones to be attractive to him.

“N…no, wait,” Trixie insisted. “Wait, please. I didn’t do anything! She kissed me, and I wasn’t expecting it, and then when I realized what was going on she flew off because she thought she’d taken advantage of me, but she didn’t! Please, let me just speak to her – ”

Trixie tried to walk forward, but Shutterbug blocked her progress by flying in front of her. “Even if we wanted to let you in, which I for one do not, it wouldn’t matter,” she said. “When I went to talk to her, she flew off on me. On me! Her own mother!”

“You don’t know where she is?” Twilight asked. Shutterbug and Trixie both leaped at her sudden entrance into the conversation as Twilight trotted out from the bush she had been hiding in.

Snails’ eyes widened on seeing her. “You’re the one who brought the Ursa Minor into town!” he exclaimed, pointing a hoof.

“She’s – uh, she’s under arrest,” Trixie lied. Fortunately, Twilight didn’t object to that statement. “Don’t worry about her, worry about Raindrops! Where is she?”

The two pegasi and one colt unicorn eyed Twilight, but Dewdrops did respond. “We don’t know,” he said. “Trixie, I don’t really know what’s going on. But I think you should go home and wait out your heat before you do anything else and hurt Raindrops more.”

Trixie blanched at Dewdrops’ words. Hurt Raindrops more.

Hurt Raindrops again would have been more appropriate. Trixie had done it before, when she’d revealed just how much Raindrops’ angry side terrified Trixie, and how Trixie, in her shallowness, had assumed that all there was to Raindrops was her rage, and the façade she put up to hide the rage. They had been friends, of a sort, before the rainy day a few months ago that had brought them closer together…but it wasn’t until after that day that they’d really become best friends. And it had taken Trixie nearly destroying that friendship first.

And now she’d done it again, just as Raindrops had tried to take their relationship further.

“No…” Trixie breathed, turning around and dashing out into the middle of the street, looking around as though she stood a chance of divining Raindrops’ location simply by sight. “No, no, no, no! Raindrops! Where are you? Raindrops!”

Several ponies had already come out of their homes when Snails had first shouted at Trixie to go away – Ponyville ran on gossip as much as bits, after all – and at Trixie’s antics, even more came out, a small crowd of ponies that Trixie was utterly obvilous to, since none of them were a yellow-coated, blue-maned pegasus with three water drops for a cutie mark.

“Trixie!” Twilight exclaimed, dashing over to her and stopping Trixie from dashing off in a random direction. More than a few ponies recognized her, but Twilight ignored them. “Trixie, she probably can’t hear you, and I think that her dad has the right idea. Maybe you should just wait out your heat – ”

Trixie turned to Twilight, looking at her with desperate, watering eyes. “No,” she insisted. “No, Twilight. Not again, I…I don’t know if I like Raindrops, but I do know that she’s my friend and I’m not going to drive her away!”

Twilight opened her mouth to continue objecting, but did a double-take on the look that Trixie was giving her. It was not a look that would brook argument, nor any other attempt to dissuade her. “Okay,” Twilight said, “okay, Trixie, fine. Fine. But where would we even start? Ponyville is pretty big, assuming she’s even still in Ponyville…”

Trixie looked away, then smiled. “That’s okay,” she said, “because I have friends who can help me.”