In the Heat of the Moment

Trixie started pounding on the door and didn’t stop until it opened, revealing a small, grey unicorn filly with yellow eyes. Dinky Doo looked more than a little tired, but her eyes widened at the sight of Trixie. “Miss Trixie!” she exclaimed, looking a little worried. “Um…Momma said I wasn’t supposed to see you ‘til she said it was okay…”

“It’s okay, Dinky, I just meant going over to learn magic,” Ditzy’s voice called, and the pegasus mailmare came up to the door, looking Trixie up and down with one eye, while the other one scrutinized the ceiling. “You’ve looked better…”

Trixie, meanwhile, was frowning at Ditzy. “You banned Dinky from seeing me while I was in heat?” she asked in a hushed voice, not that Dinky would have any real problem hearing her.

Ditzy held up her hooves defensively. “Not like that,” she insisted. “I just heard you were in heat and figured you’d want personal space…is that Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered, waving a hoof. “Hello – ”

“Wait, Twilight?” Dinky asked, pushing past her mother and Trixie to look at the purple unicorn.

Twilight backed away a step in surprise at the foal. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Oh, I remember you now, you were on stage with Trixie when – ”

“When you interrupted the show!” Dinky exclaimed. “And then you came backstage and said that Trixie was no good with magic and said that I didn’t know any better because I was just a foal but my Momma still says I’m smart for my age – ”

“Dinky,” Ditzy interrupted the foals tirade, coming forward and putting a hoof on Dinky’s withers. “Calm down a moment. I’m sure that Miss Sparkle here is very sorry for that – and for the other stuff that happened on the Eventime. Right?”

The last was directed at Twilight, who jumped a little at being directly addressed. She glanced between Dinky and Ditzy, one hoof raised as though she were planning to bolt, but after a moment – and after a glare from Trixie as the other mare mouthed the name ‘Raindrops,’ she wilted. “Yeah,” she admitted, looking down at her own hooves. “I’m sorry for interrupting the show. And…and for everything else that happened that night. I was an idiot.”

Dinky blinked a few times at that, considering, before closing her eyes and raising a hoof. “It’s okay,” she said, almost sounding like she was reciting something from memory. “You said you’re sorry, and you have to forgive ponies if they say their sorry and they mean it.” She opened one eye, looking pointedly at Twilight. “You do mean it?”

“I do,” Twilight confirmed.

“Pinkie promise?”

“What?”

“Later,” Trixie insisted, ignoring the slight movement she thought she had seen out of the corner of her eye, as she knew what it was and really didn’t need this situation to go off-the rails any further. She looked at Ditzy. “I need your help, Ditzy. Raindrops flew off and I don’t know where she is. We were exercising together out in the Whitetail Wood when she kissed me and – what’s with that look?”

Ditzy had shot a glare at Trixie suddenly, jabbing a hoof at Dinky. Trixie looked at the foal – who was glancing between Dinky and Trixie, trying to figure out what she was missing – and the pegasus, needing several moments to put things together. When she did, she reared back, neighing in surprise. “I meant that literally!” she insisted. “Exercising! Running laps, sit-ups, crunches!”

“Oh,” Ditzy said, calming down and looking a little embarrassed.

“What else would you mean?” Dinky asked confusedly. Her muzzle scrunched a little. “Does this have something to do with you being in heat?”

“Sort of,” Trixie said. She wasn’t sure how much Dinky knew about the birds and the bees – by her age, Trixie had known just about everything, but then again she had grown up in Neigh Orleans with a fairly open family, and knew that her situation was unusual. “Um…maybe, Dinky, you should go back inside.”

“Aw, why?”

“Dinky, I know you hate hearing this,” Ditzy said, using her muzzle to herd Dinky back into her apartment, “but I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“Aw….”

Dinky didn’t put up too much resistance, though, and once the door was closed – and once the three mares had trotted several paces away, just in case Dinky decided to listen at the door – Trixie pressed on. “Everypony kept coming over trying to ‘help’ me,” she explained in a low voice, with more than a little annoyance. “Lyra and Bon Bon wanted me to be part of their sexual Olympics, Cheerilee brought a bunch of stuff that cannot be legal in this province…”

“What about Carrot Top?” Ditzy asked.

Trixie shivered, blushing furiously. “She was, uh, there when my heat hit me. At the spa. While I was getting a massage.” Ditzy began blushing as well at the implication, Twilight as well. “Pokey, at least, gave me space, and I guess you were too, thanks for that…but Raindrops, she showed up and had this idea as a work-around, that I just exercise and exercise and exercise until I was too exhausted to even think about…you know…and basically do that all week.”

Ditzy nodded a little. “I do the same thing, sort of,” she said. “Not exercise, really, just keep myself busy around the apartment. I don’t let myself stop for a moment.” She looked at Twilight. “Um…by the way…?”

Twilight’s blush deepened a little. “U-um,” she said. “I, uh…I had this plan…to, um…to maybe steal the Element of Magic from Trixie…”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Ditzy said. “The Elements are a part of us.”

“I know that!” Twilight snapped indignantly. “No, I had this plan that would have involved using this amulet I found, and…” she considered a moment, then shook her head. “Look, it doesn’t really matter. I teleported to her house while she was in heat, and then I think that triggered my own heat early, and Trixie’s been having such a hard time and I really didn’t want to add to that while she was in heat since she seems to get it so heavily, and then I didn’t want to do anything while I was in heat, and I’ve been doing some thinking, and…and, well, like I said. I’m sorry.”

Ditzy smiled. “I accept,” she said. She leaned forward, and nuzzled Twilight a little. “Making mistakes…I know all about them. Trust me, even summoning a space bear isn’t really all that bad compared to some things. Nopony was hurt, and you’re sorry.”

“Th-thanks,” Twilight said, returning the nuzzle. Her cheek slid along Ditzy’s, and she gently nibbled one of the pegasus’ ears. “I’ve…I’ve just been alone out there, in the woods…all by myself…so cold and alone…”

“Shh, it’s okay…” Ditzy said, her wings folding around Twilight and pulling her close. She pulled away from the nuzzle. “Don’t worry, I can keep you safe…”

The two kissed…

“Um, Trixie?” Twilight asked.

Trixie blinked, saw the illusion she had constructed, let out a yelp, turned, and slammed her head into the nearest wall. The world spun a little after that, and the next thing she was aware, she was on the floor, looking up at Twilight and Ditzy, both of whom looked concerned but were also blushing furiously.

Trixie let out a groan, closing her eyes. She was blushing at least as brightly as them. She was also drooling a little, and she wiped it from her mouth, even as her hind legs fidgeted, trying to almost rub out the heat she felt between them – or fan the flames, more likely, she wasn’t really in full control of that any more. “H-how much of that was…?”

“My apology,” Twilight said, “and Miss Doo’s accepting it.”

“And you wondered why I didn’t want Dinky seeing you,” Ditzy noted.

Trixie might have strenuously objected if not for the fact that she’d been loosing figments like that all day without wanting it. “Fair point,” she said, rolling over and climbing onto her hooves. “Ugh…okay, Ditzy, come on before I traumatize myself and everypony around me more. Short version: Raindrops kissed me earlier and I think she likes me likes me – ” Trixie ignored the giggle from Ditzy at Trixie’s wording – “but I was too shocked at the kiss to do anything and before I could stop her, Raindrops flew off ‘cause she thought that she’d taken advantage of me. She’s not at home.”

“So what do you need me for?” Ditzy asked, following as Trixie and Twilight both trotted from her apartments and out onto the Ponyville street. Outside, night had fully settled on the town, and the moon was just beginning to rise fully over the horizon.

“Well, you know everypony in town,” Trixie said. “You’ve known Raindrops longer than me. She’s not in Whitetail Wood, I know that. So where would she go if she just wanted to be alone?”

“You’re also a pegasus, so that helps, in case she’s hiding on or in a cloud or something,” Twilight noted.

“Just…start thinking some stuff up,” Trixie said. “I’m gonna go get Cheerilee and Lyra and Bon Bon and Pokey. Raindrops’ parents think that I should just give her space so they’re no help and maybe they’re right, but I can’t just leave Raindrops thinking that she’d taken advantage of me! I can’t leave her thinking that she hurt me somehow, she didn’t!”

“So you’re basically gonna try tearing the town apart to find her?” Ditzy asked. “In the middle of the night?”

“Yes!” Trixie exclaimed, turning on Trixie. “Raindrops is my friend…I can’t lose my friend!”

“I’m just saying, can’t this wait until – ”

“Trixie.”

Ditzy, Twilight, and Trixie all froze at the voice. Trixie knew that voice, even magnified as it was to put the weight and power of the full forty thousand years of its age behind it. She knew it very well in fact – after all, she had lived in Canterlot Castle for the past ten years before moving to Ponyville, and the owner of the voice had been all but her surrogate mother in that time.

Luna was not like her sister. When she made her entrances, they were at once subtle, yet jarring. Trixie, Ditzy, and Twilight turned to look at the origin of the voice, and found the Princess Luna simply there, standing in the street as though she had been there the entire time, mane glittering with starlight and wings spread wide in imperious authority. Ditzy and Twilight both yelped and bowed low out of instinct, Twilight beginning to sweat visibly. Luna, however, had her eyes locked on Trixie.

“Trixie, I’ve given you these past four days to respond to me,” Luna intoned gravely. “I do not like being ignored, least of all by – ”

“Luna! Perfect!” Trixie exclaimed, dashing up to her mentor. “You’re exactly the mare I needed right now!”

“I – what?” Luna asked. She had, perhaps, expected anger from Trixie, or fear, or embarrassment. She had not expected Trixie to dash up to her with a look of determination and relief, and didn’t seem quite prepared to handle it. “Trixie, you’ve been ignoring your appointed duties as a Representative of Ponyville. That’s a very serious – ”

“Yeah, hang on,” Trixie interrupted, holding up one hoof as she looked back to Ditzy and Twilight. “Okay, new plan,” she said. “Ditzy, get up a list or something of places Raindrops likely is while I go and get everypony else. We’ll get together and start looking. Luna, you’ll do that neat split-body thing that you can do, and one of you will go with each of us while we search.”

“Search?” Luna asked. “Trixie, I – ”

Trixie ignored her at the moment. “If anypony finds Raindrops, that Luna can get back to the one that’s staying with me – you and your clones are in constant contact, right?”

“N-not normally,” Luna said, raising an eyebrow. “Though I can if I choose. But – ”

“Great!” Trixie exclaimed. “Okay, once we find Raindrops, Luna or Twilight can teleport me to her and we can sort this whole thing out! Sound like a plan?”

There was a moment’s pause, as Ditzy looked between Trixie and Luna. The latter was glancing about herself, confused, even more so every time her eyes fell on Twilight Sparkle. Trixie, however, had a look on her face that was a mixture of determination and desperation, a pony who really needed help from her friend right now. She rose from her bow, and nodded to Trixie. “I’ll go and get Pokey and Cheerilee, you get Lyra and Bon Bon, it’ll be faster,” Ditzy said. “I’ll also go and get Rainbow Dash. If anypony can search the town quickly, it’s her.”

“Maybe Pinkie Pie, too,” Trixie said, though a part of her couldn’t believe her own ears at that suggestion. “We might have to hit up the farms as well…if we do we’ll start with Carrot Top and work from there.”

Ditzy gave a salute and galloped off in one direction; Trixie went the other, leaving behind Twilight and a very confused lunar princess, glancing between the two of them, one hoof raised.

“Wait…” Luna said, though her apprentice didn’t slow down her trot at all and didn’t seem to notice that Luna wasn’t chasing after her. “Wait, I’m missing some context…Trixie, I’m really quite…oh, whatever.” Luna rolled her eyes and sighed, resolving to wait for her student to return. “We’ll talk later.”

There was a lavender-hued flash and a pop from behind her. Luna glanced over her shoulder and found a distinct lack of a certain purple unicorn. Frowning, her horn glowed, there was a midnight-hued flash and pop, and Twilight reappeared. She looked around in confusion for a moment, before blinking a few times at Luna, then smiling weakly. “Um…s-sorry,” she said. “I had to try.”

Luna stared at the unicorn. “Your family is very worried about you.”

“I…I know,” Twilight said, sighing. “I’ve been an idiot…b-but for the record, I think I was going to turn myself in anyway after tonight. A…and I’d like to help Trixie first, if that’s okay.”

Luna nodded. “On one condition,” she said, turning around and facing Twilight. “What in Tartaros is going on?”

Gathering everypony in one spot had been an interesting experience, especially as they kept exclaiming in surprise at the presence of Luna and Twilight. Though the exclamations were muted in the case of Lyra, Bon Bon, and Rainbow Dash, all three of whom were apparently still exhausted from their experiences of a few days previously, which Trixie might have thought made sense if she had allowed herself to give any thought to it at all, which she emphatically did not. Rainbow Dash had even stepped things up when she called up several of the nighttime weather patrol to help in the search.

“It’s a quiet night,” the polychromatic pegasus had explained, “and besides, I can’t let my best worker wallow in a hole somewhere. Then nothing would ever get done.”

Trixie had been genuinely surprised at the positive way in which Rainbow Dash referred to Raindrops; the relationship between the two was sometimes difficult to parse. There was obviously respect there, at least.

Ditzy had made up a list of places Raindrops might be hiding in town, but the list was woefully short, and had been exhausted under half an hour – but it did, at least, serve to alert everypony else in town to Trixie’s efforts. The next thing she knew, it seemed like the whole town was awake, searching rooftops, back alleys, gardens, and everywhere else for any sign of the jasmine-coated pegasus; sense of community was strong in Ponyville, though Trixie couldn’t help but think that the fact that Princess Luna herself was a part of the search was lending it some weight. Trixie thought she might have heard a song or two about searching in there, but she pointedly ignored them and didn’t take part as she looked.

Internally, Trixie was tearing herself apart. This was her fault – her fault. Yes, Raindrops had been the one to kiss her, and okay, maybe it had been something like a cheap shot, pulling this while Trixie was in heat and vulnerable – but Trixie had been the one who had been too shocked, too dumbfounded, to react, to make it clear to Raindrops that she didn’t feel like she’d been taken advantage of.

It quickly became apparent that Raindrops wasn’t in town, nor in the skies directly overhead. The search rapidly began moving outwards, then, to the surrounding fields and farms. Trixie was on the edge of the Whitetail Wood, looking over a tree with blue horn-light the foals of town referred to as the Castle Tree, when she heard somepony – Lyra – call her name.

“Trixie!” The mint green unicorn exclaimed as she came running, Bon Bon in tow and horn glowing gold to provide light. Trixie didn’t question how the two had found her – she seemed to have misplaced the Luna that had been following her – as she looked down from where she was, amidst the branches of the Castle Tree, about twenty feet up. “Trixie, we found her – we were at the edge of this apple grove and then there’s this wheat field with a big rock in the middle of it. She’s there.”

Trixie had already begun scrambling down from the tree at Lyra’s appearance, earning more than a few scrapes and fraying her cape and hat more than a little. She paid the damage no mind as she dashed up to the two. “Where?” she demanded.

“Come on,” Bon Bon responded, turning and galloping off, Lyra and Trixie in tow.

“Did you say anything to her?” Trixie asked. “Did she say anything to you?”

Lyra shook her head as she ran. “No – once me and Bon Bon spotted her we came and got you. Pretty sure if we’d tried to talk to her she’d have just flown off.”

“Trust us on this one,” Bon Bon said, “it’ll have to be you and just you. We’ll keep anypony from interrupting.”

Trixie nodded as the three continued to gallop. It took several long, hard minutes that seemed to stretched forever, but eventually Trixie found herself on the other side of a wooden fence that separated the dirt road under her hooves from a field of golden wheat that waved slightly in the nighttime breeze.

Trixie froze. She could see the rock, but not Raindrops, though she thought she heard some pounding that might have been hooves stomping in the dirt. She looked to Lyra, then Bon Bon. “Wh…what if she doesn’t want to see me?” she asked. Suddenly her resolve to see Raindrops and set things right had evaporated. Faced with the possibility of seeing Raindrops now – of seeing her angry, or worse, in tears – hearing her say that she hated Trixie…all of Trixie’s confidence evaporated into nothing.

“Won’t know unless you try,” Bon Bon responded before Trixie’s self-esteem could sink any lower. She got behind Trixie and gave her a slight push. “Go on, get moving.”

“I think I hear some ponies coming,” Lyra said, looking up the road. Indeed, she could see the glow of horns and lanterns coming up the road, more eager searchers. “I’ll let them know to hold off…” she galloped off, though not before tossing a wink at Trixie.

Trixie swallowed again, then nodded to herself, climbing over the fence, and cantering towards the rock – towards Raindrops.

Trixie had let the glow of her horn die down, and moved cautiously around the rock in the wheat field. She found herself staring at a jasmine-coated pegasus, the pony herself, staring at the ground as she kept, raising her two front hooves and driving them into the ground, muttering “stupid…stupid…stupid…” to herself again and again, her voice hitching every now and then. With only the light of the moon and stars to go by, Trixie couldn’t see Raindrops’ face, but the tone of her voice and the way she hung her head spoke volumes.

Trixie grimaced, taking off her hat and setting her horn glowing again, as gently as possible so as to not startle Raindrops. It didn’t work – Raindrop’s wings flared in surprise at the new light, and she was instantly on her hooves, ready to take to the air. “No, wait!” Trixie shouted – begged? – at the sight of Raindrops nearly flying away on her again.

Raindrops froze mid-leap, glanced behind her, and saw Trixie. “T-T-Trixie!” she exclaimed. Trixie let her horn glow bright, and she saw Raindrops’ face.

She wished she hadn’t. Raindrops’ eyes were bloodshot, wide, and rimmed with tears and lined with dirt, the last likely from rubbing them after continuously pounding her hooves into the ground. Trixie glanced down, and saw that Raindrops had managed to dig quite deeply. The pegasus’ hooves seemed a little worse for wear, but nothing a good hooficure wouldn’t fix – she hadn’t been injuring herself, at least.

Trixie looked again at Raindrops. “H…hi,” she said softly.

Raindrops blinked a few times, rubbing tears from her eyes again. “I…I…” she stuttered, before closing her eyes tightly and turning around, wings once again flaring as she lifted herself from the ground. “I’m sorry – I’m sorry!”

“Wait!” Trixie exclaimed, not letting Raindrops escape again. She leaped forward, grabbing Raindrops’ tail with telekinesis, hooves, and teeth all, pulling the pegasus towards. Raindrops let out a yelp of pain at that – nice job, Trixie, the unicorn thought – and instinctively redoubled her efforts to get away. Raindrops wasn’t a fast flier, but she was a strong one, and Trixie felt herself being lifted off of the ground and carried dozens of feet before Raindrops had the presence of mind to land. With a pony directly underneath her, though, she ended up falling in a heap, and Trixie fell down after her, landing next to her and atop one wing. Raindrops let out another cry of pain.

Trixie was off her in a moment, hooves at her mouth as the glow to her horn died down to nothing. Breaking one of Raindrops’ wings was the last thing she needed to do. “Oh no,” she said. “I didn’t – did I…?”

Raindrops rolled over easily enough, however, flexing and unflexing the wing. “No,” she said, as one hoof moved across the ground, and came up holding something long and jasmine and a little rumpled. “No, wing’s fine, ‘cept for this feather you pulled…they grow back.”

Trixie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, but the breath was a trembling one, and a lump was forming in her throat. She suddenly felt tears in her eyes, even knowing that Raindrops was fine. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I screwed up again and I’m sorry! I hurt you and I’m a horrible friend and I’m sorry!” she threw herself onto Raindrops again, this time careful to avoid her wings and instead burying her face in the pegasus’ neck.

Raindrops’ wings flared in surprise at the action. “Y…you’re sorry?” she asked, pushing Trixie away. “Why? I…I’m the one who couldn’t keep a lid on her own stupid hormones! I’m not even in heat! I have no excuse! I knew you were in heat and…and dragged you out into the Whitetail Wood…I-I mean, I know I said it was for exercise, and it was, and I did want to help…” She was choking back tears of her own now, “b…but I was hoping…hoping that one thing would lead to another…I took advantage of you, Trixie!”

“N-no you didn’t,” Trixie insisted.

“Yes I did!”

“No you didn’t! I don’t feel taken advantage of!”

“Well you should, ‘cause I did!” Raindrops beat her wings a few times in anger, though she didn’t take off.

“I don’t, though,” Trixie said, wiping her eyes. “I…I was surprised, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry.” Raindrops looked away. “I’m…I’m sorry that I kissed you.”

“I’m not,” Trixie responded.

Raindrops looked back to Trixie at that, eyes wide. She fidgeted a little, as an awkward silence began. She didn’t let it get very far as she spoke again. “Does…” she asked, tapping her front hooves together, wings twitching in agitation, “does this mean that you…that you like me too…?”

Trixie started a little at the question, wincing. Raindrops noticed, and her wings sagged low as she hung her head. “I don’t…I don’t know,” Trixie said finally. “I mean…I mean, right now, right here…I want…” she shivered, glancing away from Raindrops herself. “Right now what I really want is for you to just bowl me over and have your way with me. Or maybe me bowl you over and I have my way with you…stupid heat…and I’ve never been attracted to mares before except when I’m in heat, but that might just mean that I’ve never met the right one…and…and I know that I do admire you. Your strength…your honesty. I’m not like that. I wish I could be.”

Trixie put a hoof under Raindrops’ chin then, lifting her face and looking back into her eyes. “I guess,” she said, “I guess what I’m saying is…is I don’t know. But I want to find out. I really do – I know I do.”

Raindrops looked Trixie over. At length, she took in a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. “I…I have the weekend off,” she said. “Your heat should’ve passed by then, right?” At a nod from Trixie, Raindrops pressed on. “How about we…we go into Canterlot on Saturday? Get dinner? See a play, or one of those new moving pictures things?”

Trixie smiled a little. “I’d like that,” she said. Before she thought better of it, she leaned forward, brushing her lips against Raindrops’ own, causing the pegasus’ wings to flare in surprise. The kiss didn’t last for more than a second, anyway, as Trixie pulled back afterwards, smiling a little. “It’s a date,” she said.

Raindrops blinked a few times, before laughing a little, leaning forward and nuzzling Trixie. Trixie returned it – this was an affectionate nuzzle between friends, not something that was going to lead to a bedroom, and even Trixie’s quivering hormones could tell the difference.

The two ponies’ ears twitched then, however, as both heard some annoyed mumbles from somewhere nearby. Glancing back towards the rock that Trixie had found Raindrops behind, the two saw nothing – except for, poking out from behind it, a star-studded, flowing tail.

“P…Princess?” Trixie demanded.

At first, there was no response, but then Luna leaned out from behind the rock. Swiftly following her, however, was the sight of Lyra, Bon Bon, Pokey Pierce, Cheerilee, Ditzy, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and somehow even Carrot Top and Pinkie Pie, though the presence of the last probably helped explain how so many ponies had hidden behind the rock in the first place, as it wasn’t that big.

Trixie felt herself seizing up at the sight of what to her, at the moment, felt like half of Ponyville having watched what Raindrops and Trixie had just gone through. Raindrops, herself, seemed shocked. Both were blushing furiously. “You were all spying on us?” Raindrops demanded.

“You said you’d keep everypony away!” Trixie exclaimed as she pointed an accusing hoof at Lyra.

Lyra rolled her eyes, pointing her own hoof at Luna. “Right. Because I could stop an alicorn from doing what she wanted. And after that it really wasn’t fair for the rest of us to get left out in the cold…”

“I did not get woken up after a hard day of work just to not see what was going on,” Carrot Top insisted.

“Needed to make sure my best worker was okay,” Rainbow Dash explained.

“I needed to take notes for the party!” Pinkie Pie said.

Cheerilee, Ditzy, Pokey, Twilight, Bon Bon, and Luna all at least had the decency to look like they knew they’d been caught stealing cookies from the jar. Luna coughed slightly. “Yes, well,” she said. “Congratulations, Trixie. Enjoy your date. We can discuss your ignoring…” she considered what she was about to say for a moment, then finally just shook her head. “Oh, I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you took the week off. We’ll just call it your vacation time.”

Trixie’s eyes went wide. “I get vacation time?” she demanded. This was news to her.

Luna didn’t respond, instead looking to Twilight. Twilight looked back, before sighing and nodding. “Okay,” she said, and glanced to Trixie. “I’m…gonna be going to Canterlot now. I think I have a lot of explaining to do and stuff to make up for…”

Trixie smiled – not at the thought of Twilight on trial, exactly, as much as Twilight finally taking responsibility for her actions at the Eventime. “Maybe we can work something out where you’ll be here in Ponyville for whatever you end up being sentenced with,” she said. “I think the library doesn’t actually have anypony working at it…might be a good way to start paying back Ponyville.”

“Hmm,” Luna said at that, as Twilight smiled at Trixie – whether at the thought of working in a library, or the fact that she and Trixie appeared to have come to some sort of friendship, Trixie wasn’t sure. “There is symmetry there…we’ll see. Come along, Twilight.” Her horn glowed blue, and the purple unicorn and midnight alicorn disappeared in a flash and pop.

That was that, then. Trixie looked at all her other friends, then to Raindrops. “Right!” she said. “I’m gonna go home before all this turns out to be some kind of figment of my imagination. Raindrops, I’ll see you Saturday.”

Raindrops nodded, though she stopped Trixie from leaving with a wing over her withers. When Trixie turned to look, Raindrops leaned in and kissed her again, a longer, somewhat more forceful kiss than the one Trixie had given Raindrops earlier. It sent a jolt straight from Trixie’s lips down to her hips, though the higher part of Trixie’s brain knew that wasn’t Raindrops’ intention. She was still frozen in place when Raindrops pulled away. “It’s a date,” the pegasus promised, as she beat her wings a few times and took to the air, flying off…

…and taking Trixie with her, up into the sky, held in Raindrop’s strong embrace as the two soared ever high while Raindrops hooves reached ever lower, stroking and rubbing, flying upside-down so Trixie didn’t have to hold on as tightly, flipping Trixie around so Raindrops’ tongue and Trixie’s own could have an easier time pleasuring one another…

Trixie regained her senses – and managed to hold her hooves in place, though her tail and hind legs were twitching a little – just in time to watch Raindrops disappear into the night sky, and more to the point just in time to watch the muscles of her flank and hindquarters stretching and retracting with each wing beat. Trixie swayed a little bit, before glancing at her collection of friends that were still here. “Quick,” she said, “my bath is broken, where’s the nearest lake or pond or whatever?”

The ponies collectively blinked, before Carrot Top started grinning for some reason, and she pointed behind her. “There’s a pond about a half-mile that way. Through the apple trees and next to the big barn. Can’t miss it.”

Trixie was off. It wasn’t until half an hour later, well after she have dove in, driven the heat from her body for the moment, and at length climbed back out, that she realized the sheer amount of apples she was surrounded by – apple trees, an apple cart, the barn had a big, dark red apple drawn on it…

She had just relieved her heat by diving into the pond that the Apple clan used to water their fields. And she was fairly certain that they used it for their drinking water, as well.

Trixie blinked a few times at the pond, and the fortunately still-dark farmhouse in the distance. She let out a long sigh as she gathered her hat and cape and began trotting back home. “They probably filter it,” she decided.