Transcripts

"...and here we are in PONYVILLE!" Fireflare swung Moonshine around gently, giving him a panaromic view of the town as she walked down the street. "So how did you like your first camping trip, little guy? It'll be a little while before I can find the hotel we're staying at..." She still felt bad about uprooting the entire family for her job; Wishing Star especially, since she had moved from her hometown all too recently. Still, a contract was a contract, and at least Moonshine seemed excited. If a bit confused.

Ah yes, Ponyville. Flare had been in and out of her before. Usually when she worked here the problem wasn't too difficult; most monsters of high danger avoided Ponyville because of the whole Twilight Sparkle angle, or opened diplomatic relations or something. The small-town charm this place had, though, hid a lot of crazy crazy tales; Fireflare suspected that the mayor might have some sort of publicity stunt factory somewhere.

She looked at the unicorn walking beside her. "Um, Starry, are you... How are you right now?" Was she a worrywart? Yes, when it came to her wife, she worried a lot. Something Fireflare tried to control, but... it wasn't easy. "You know, I could carry your saddlebags as well as mine, all you'd have to hold is Moonshine! Heck, I could carry the crates too... tell you what, why don't we nip into this breakfast nook here and let me get you something to eat?" The pegasus smiled.

Wishing Star stopped staring into space and blinked her way out of a daydream when Fireflare started talking to her. The unicorn had been ruminating on the various shapes in the clouds for some time now, and honestly hadn't been laying much attention to her wife's chatter, but hearing her name spoken shook her out of it. Star glanced back at the cart hitched behind her with its two tiny crates of breakables and gave Fireflare a Look.

"Come on, I'm barely carrying anything as it is. I'll be fine. Breakfast sounds nice, though; what do they have here?" asked the chocolate mare, glancing up at the sign above the door of the shop they were standing outside of.

Sugarcube Corner, read the wooden signage. Why did that name ring a bell?

"Some kind of cake shop? I wonder if they have doughnuts?" mused Star aloud, pulling her cart out of the way and shrugging free of the harness.

"Um... pastries, apparently. Oh hey, maybe they have chocolate chip muffins!" Fireflare had a thing for chocolate ship muffins, sometimes devouring forty of the things at a time. She handed Moonshine over to Wishing Star and held the door open for both of them. "I think this is a home-grown shop, not a franchise. Homegrowns generally have better stuff then franchises, though." The inside was a little... pink for the pegasus's tastes, but she needed to reconnect with her feminine side sooner or later right?

There didn't seem to be anypony at the counter though.

"...Star, why don't you and Moonshine snag us a table?" Fireflare prowled toward the cash register cautiously. It could be a trick... or the proprietors could have been killed by that kelpie. "And... get ready to cover his eyes..."

With a sense of foreboding, she rang the countertop bell.

While Starry took Moonshine to go pick a table, a pale yellow youth with an orange mane appeared in the kitchen doorway and trotted over to the counter. A blue hair ribbon kept her mane out of her eyes, which matched the silken band almost exactly.

"Hi! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner, my name's Pumpkin. How can I help you today?" she asked politely around the wad of gum in her mouth. After she finished speaking, she blew an enormous bubble which obscured her entire face from view. Once it had reach a simply incredible size, it burst, and it seemed inevitable that gum would go everywhere and coat the entire room in sticky mess...but then a telekinetic field enveloped the torn bubble of gum and reeled it back into the filly's mouth. The scent of bubble gum overpowered the smell of baked goods for a moment, before fading away. It was obvious that Pumpkin had a lot of practice with this trick, and was showing off a bit.

"..."

Fireflare raised an eyebrow. She wasn't really too impressed.

"...How about thirty five chocolate chip muffins, um, six donuts... Starry, do you think we should start Moonshine on solids now, or what?" She looked back at her wife, flexing her wings; the pegasus wasn't sure when feeding was supposed to start, exactly, so she was just entertaining a passing notion. "Actually, if you have any milk, we're low on that. Just came here from Canterlot. Also, do you know anything about a Kelpie in the area?"

"Probably not, hon. I think two weeks old is a little early for solid foods, don't you? I mean, he doesn't even have teeth yet. Some milk-saturated cake mush might be doable, but nothing too sugary. A doughnut would be perfect." said Star from the table nearby, trying not to laugh at her wife's bungling. Moonshine looked up at his mother in mild confusion; his grasp of language, while still far from totally usable, allowed him to at least snatch glimmers of understanding from the meaningless babble around him. Milk? they weren't out of milk. He had always had plenty of milk, whenever he wanted it; all he had to do was nuzzle up to Mommy and there it was.

Pumpkin Cake blinked at the pegasus' gruff manner and grabbed a ticket, onto which she scribbled the order.

"Okay, three dozen chocolate chip muffins and a half-dozen doughnuts. Do you want those glazed, chocolate, jelly, or what?" she asked, pausing to look up at Fireflare.

"Glazed is fine!" called Star from the table, shaking her head and muttering to Moonshine with a smile. He stared up at his mother, listening intently as she made fun of Fireflare to the foal.

"Right, glazed. Okay, that'll be right out. It all comes out to 37 bits, and I'll get your milk real quick, okay?" said Pumpkin, trotting off to deliver the ticket to her brother in the kitchen and pour some milk, smacking her gum the whole way.

"Huh. Wow." Fireflare plunked a good forty bits on the counter. "Well... now I'm embarrassed...." Was she a bad madre--?!

No Flare do not doubt yourself!

Shaking her head, the pegasus walked back to the table. "Anyway. Um... So. Starry, how are you feeling... about us being here?" She smiled a bit awkwardly, still a little guilty over just picking up the entire family and, well, taking them from their home. She would honestly be more comfortable... no, she wouldn't be more comfortable leaving them at home, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was another way. Like a two-way communication device.

"Well, I'm all for vacation time, and Ponyville seems nice enough. What are we going to do here, though?" asked Starry, looking out of the window for a moment. The little town was quite colorful and well-kept, and fairly bustled with activity, but it didn't look like a vacation town. Star didn't think there was anything too terribly exciting here except maybe for the Elements' homes and Carousel Boutique. Star had heard that their clothes were awesome, and she'd love to have a dress from there.

Pumpkin Cake came back out with a receipt and two glasses of cold milk.

"Here you go, and your food will be ready in just a few more minutes. Thanks for your patronage, and stuff." she said, before disappearing back into the kitchen.

"She's a strange one..." Star commented wonderingly, staring after Pumpkin. Something about her was striking the unicorn as odd.

"Camping trip?" Fireflare quipped. "Well, seriously... I think, maybe we need a little small-town relaxation. The cities are just crazy these days. There's a spa around here though! I remember that." She smiled, sliding in just a little bit. "Aaaaaand after Moonshine goes to bed... well, you got me. I can think of one or two games we can play." The pegasus leaned in and nuzzled her wife's neck...

...before suddenly leaning away with a mischievous grin. "But what about Moonshine?! Oh no, we cannot have him being bored, now can we!" She leaned down, tickling the colt. "Ochiikin lil Moony! Madre is Ochiikin you!"

Moonshine squealed with delight and squirmed as Fireflare tickled him silly. His shrill giggles brought a benevolent smile to Starry's face as she watched her wife and child at play; it seemed like everything in the world was pretty much perfect. She didn't even notice when Pumpkin Cake came and went, delivering their food.

After a minute or so, Fireflare stopped, leaning back with an embarrassed smile. "Aheh... yes. So. Um... muffins are here." She blushed, rubbing the back of her head. "Yeeeeeah. Okay... that was way too much fun."

Star giggled and said, "There's no reason to be embarrassed. After all, it's perfectly fine to have a little fun with your kids every now and then, and it's not like we're bothering anypony." She picked a doughnut out of the small box that had been delivered to them and tore it in half with Telekinesis, before stuffing it unceremoniously in her glass of milk. Taking a bite of the other half and eyeing the massive order of muffins, she couldn't help but wonder how it was that Fireflare kept her figure. Even with her daily exercises, the pegasus should have been huge by now. Some mares had all the luck.

After a few moments spent being idly jealous of her wife's metabolism, Star fished a small chunk of milk-sodden doughnut out of her glass, shook off the excess liquid, and carefully fed it to Moonshine, watching for signs of choking. The colt gummed the cold, sweet treat without incident, letting the majority of the milk run out of his mouth messily before swallowing the masticated lump of sugary bread and smiling beatifically. He liked that, whatever it was.

His mother chuckled and mopped his face with a napkin, before grabbing a bit more doughnut-pudding and feeding it to him. She also chose another of the sweet treats for herself, taking a bite and savoring the slightly-salty flavor of sugar and fat. Another pang of jealously struck her regarding Fireflare's apparent ability to eat such things with impunity, and she decided to ask about it.

"How in Celestia's name do you intend to eat all those muffins and not come out of here ten pounds heavier? I'd look like a hippo after eating all that..."

Fireflare sighed. Well, they were married....

"...it's the wings. They're, like, ludicrously large for a pegasus. Which also means they're ludicrously heavy. I don't show it because I keep in shape, but if I ever gave up on my exercises and let myself go, I'd have serious back issues... I never told anypony though, because, you know, big wings. They wouldn't understand. It's be like having a two foot long horn, every unicorn would be jealous but you know it would have awful neck problems. Do you know that I've been asked whether these things are natural or not?" She flicked the feathers for emphasis. "I'm... kinda worried that our kids might have problems, actually. The pegasi, anyway."

She swallowed a muffin. "So yeah, this gives me energy to carry two huge masses of feathers that aren't any use when I'm not flying or fighting. It's a little overkill, but I don't do it every month so I should be okay, right?"

After a moment's thought, it all made sense. How often had she sheltered under one of Fireflare's wings, wearing it like a cloak as the pegasus hugged her close? All too often; At one point, Star had gotten so used to the comforting position that she felt cold when the wing was missing. Of course, she had never thought about why one wing could cover her back from withers to rump. It had just never occurred to her. It also explained why the rather bony and angular pegasus was so comfortable to lean against.

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess. I bet they get way heavier when they're wet, don't they?" said Star casually, before an image of a wet-maned Fireflare popped into her head. The unicorn shifted uncomfortably in her seat and tried to banish the idea from her mind's eye; now was not the time to get all hot and bothered. Moonshine bounced in her lap and squeaked for another bit of doughnut, and she gave it to him whilst trying to dislodge the picture in her mind, but...it wasn't easy.

It had been a while since she'd done more than kiss Fireflare, and ignoring something like that was getting harder every day.

"Uh...ahem. Well, I've never had a problem with them, but I suppose carrying them around all the time must get a bit tiresome. I know exactly what it must have been like; after all, I doubt your wings were much heavier than Moonshine."

"Well, a bit. The water usually slides off, but some of it gets caught in a downpour." Fireflare snarfed down another muffin, noting the uncomfortable and embarrassed shifting. Dang it, she couldn't wait for Star to get the stitches out of her... self, she always seemed happier when she... got to play. And also it would give them a chance to switch things around, let the pegasus carry a foal to term. "I guess they're not as heavy as he was, and they do support themselves a lot... wow, when it's my turn I'm really going to get some spine-snapping, aren't I?"

The pegasus nuzzled her wife gently. "But you know, I think I'll be able to make it just by looking at your face... not garunteeing anything, but I think I will be." She smiled and kissed Wishing Star.

After a minute, she came back up and glanced down at Moonshine. "What do you think, little guy, you ready to be a big brother yet? Or should we wait a while?" A few more muffins disappeared down her throat.

Starry gave a frustrated huff and tore off a huge chunk of doughnut when Fireflare released her from the kiss. Chewing her doughnut angrily and blushing like a stoplight, the unicorn glared at her wife and scowled. Didn't she realize that she had just made everything worse? What had been a minor discomfort was now a major problem that was an absolute chore to ignore. The pressure would fade in a few minutes, but they would be hellishly uncomfortable minutes. Fireflare really didn't know anything, did she? What a moron.

"I'm all for as soon as possible. My stitches are due out in three days, right? Three more days..." said Star, her mood going from frustrated and angry to anxious and impatient all at once. Three more days. If she could stick it out for less than half a week-

Of course, she could always take care of it herself if it came to that, but some part of her mind saw it as wimping out, cheating somehow. Taking a shortcut. She could wait; it was only three more days. Feeding her son the last of his milk-sodden half doughnut, Star did her utmost to banish all thoughts of sex from her mind and return to the sense of contentment she had had just a few minutes ago.

"I await the day with great anticipation." Fireflare kept her grin hidden, stuffing muffin after muffin into her mouth. Really, the mare was like a vacuum cleaner the way she chewed... although she slowed down when she realized she might be a bad example for Moonshine. She was a madre now, and she had to be looked up too when she was ON the ground... The pegasus wrapped a wing around her family warmly.

"...so. Should we go for the penthouse apartment or do we want to save some cash?"

"We'll do perfectly fine with a regular hotel room, hon; after all, blowing all of our bits on a fancy hotel room won't leave any to have fun with!" said Starry, watching Fireflare destroy muffins at an absolutely disgusting rate and feeling oddly guilty about it for some reason. Maybe she should start cooking bigger meals or something; Flare had never complained about the amount of food she cooked, but there was always the chance that she was underfeeding the obviously ravenous pegasus. It wouldn't be unthinkable to assume that Flare just ate what Star gave her and then went to bed hungry without complaining about it.

"Hon, do you...get enough to eat at home? I mean, I never make this much food, but you always order a huge heaping pile when we go out to eat..." she asked, unable to let the nagging question slide. She had to know.

"What?" Fireflare blinked. "Oh, no, I get... I mean, um... I never actually thought about it. I kinda, you know, use my martial meditation training to... even things out?" She tilted her head, seriously considering the question. "Do I get enough at home... Er... well. I can survive on less then what I get at home, I know that from when I needed to forage... on the other hoof... I honestly don't know. Don't go wasting grocery money on me," she added quickly. "If you want me to have big meals in the home take care of yourself and Moonshine first, okay? I'm not going to eat my own family out of house and hoof."

She should never have brought up the wings. Now Star was going to spend every waking moment worrying about her and trying to come up with the best recipes and stressing herself out... Juggling that, her child, her now nonexistent maid service career--Fireflare still felt guilty about that... The unicorn was going to be really stressed, and going to need regular bursts of stress relief. The most powerful of which she couldn't have until three days later.

The pegasus sighed. "Hey... when we're done here, why don't you and Moonshine head for the spa. I'll drop our things off at the hotel and meet you there, okay?"

Wishing Star's face fell a bit more each time Fireflare illustrated how much Star had been underfeeding her. Mentioning having to menditate to stay comfortable, comparing the amount of food she was served to foraging in the forest, saying that it was enough to survive on. It hurt Star's feelings, made her feel as though she had failed to take care of Fireflare somehow. She knew that the pegasus couldn't cook to save her skin, and depended on her for hot meals. By the end of Fireflare's staggering, clumsy attempt to comfort her, Wishing Star's ears were plastered firmly against her neck and her lip had started to quiver ever so slightly.

"Don't worry about stupid grocery money. If you aren't getting enough to eat, you have to tell me. Going hungry just because you don't want to hurt my feelings or whatever isn't acceptable!" she said hotly, angry with Fireflare for her total lack of communication and trying not to cry.

"But that's the point! I'm not going hungry!" Fireflare, insensitive but genuinely caring, facehooved. "I mean, I can eat big meals but I don't have to! Arrrgh... Star, you are doing fine, okay? I love your meals, they're great and actually quite filling! It's like... like you manage to pack this entire plate of muffins into something more normal-sized. I am not starving because of you." She rubbed her forehead, leaning back with a sigh. She hadn't realized how seriously the unicorn would take this... The pegasus felt like a complete jerk.

Fireflare's tone spoke to Star far more than her words did; the compliments fell flat in the face of her exasperated tone of voice and irritated body language. Sure that she had overstepped some sort of boundary, Star sat back in her chair as well, hanging her head and petting Moonshine. The foal looked up at his mother, and sensing that she was upset, cuddled against her and watched her face forlornly. Why was mommy sad?

"Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Me and Moony will go on to the spa now, I guess." Star said, setting Moonshine on the floor and standing over him. The colt walked along between his mother's forelegs, the tips of his ears just barely brushing her chest as he bounced unsteadily back and forth between her knees.

Fireflare watched Star go....

Then she turned and stared into nothingness.

After a moment, though, she began banging her head on the table. "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!" Why the hay had she said that? Why had she--the pegasus sighed, waving at the counter. "I need these to go, and... yeah." She was a terrible pony, and she hated it when Star suffered because of her own stupidity. Gathering up the remaining muffins, Fireflare walked out and hitched herself up, the passive magic of pegasi allowing her to drag the cart through the air to a hotel called the Bluebell inn.

She registered herself, Star, and Moonshine in the book, placed all their things in the bedroom... then she walked out of the hotel

"Okay. So when I get there, I'm going to say... I..." Fireflare glanced around. "Roses! Right, I'll buy some roses, hey you!" Pulling out some bits, she made the transaction quickly. Roses... no, that was too generic, too thoughtless. She browsed the florist's shop again. Um... Lilacs were death flowers, but tulips were pretty--she bought some of those--and bluebonnets....

By the time she had managed to get to the spa she was carrying a haphazardly mixed bouquet of eight different species. "Excuse me! Excuse me. Is a brown unicorn here, star cutie mark, platinum blonde? She's have come in with a little grey colt..."

Snowbird trotted into the spa, waving her members' pass at the counter as she passed.

"G'morning Lotus, just stepping in for a quick soak." She picked up a towel from a nearby rack, trotted the halls for a few minutes while deciding on what to do first, and eventually stepped into the bath to freshen up. Sitting down next to a brown mare, she figured she might as well strike up a conversation. "Hello. You come here often?"

As Lotus explained to a frantic Fireflare where to find the pony she was looking for, Wishing Star was floating on her back in the massive bathtub with moonshine perched on her belly. The colt was held securely above the water, kept pinned in place with gentle application of telekinesis so he didn't slip off and drown.

"No, it's our first time here. Are you a regular?" she asked somewhat morosely, carefully tilting her head to look at the new arrival. A completely monochrome pony sat on one of the benches at the edge of the bath, giving her a politely curious look. Star found herself wondering where Fireflare was. Had she been so upset about Star's little outburst that she had decided not to come to the spa?

"Starry I'm so sorry I was being a stupid idiot and--"

The pegasus paused, looking at the other pegasus in the room as she froze, bouquet extended.

"...oh, um, Hi! I was, er, expecting... you know, she would be alone..." Fireflare blushed. "Um. So... like I was... saying, I did something without thinking and I'm really sorry about that and I have flowers for you now..."

Snowbird raised her hooves in a gesture of surrender. "Don't mind me, I'm just here to relax. But yeah, I have a joint members' pass at just about every spa in Equestria."

"That's okay, hon. You didn't have to get me flowers; I shouldn't have yelled at you about something so dumb as how much food you eat." said Wishing Star quietly, trying not to upset her precarious balance in the water. She couldn't afford to move much, lest her buoyancy fail; she didn't want to dunk Moonshine and risk killing the poor colt. He was safe enough as long as she didn't move too much. He seemed to enjoy splishing his hooves in the water that managed to lap over her whenever she took a breath.

Slowly, carefully, making sure not to upset herself, Wishing Star employed an easy backstroke to get to the shallow benches at the edge of the tub. Picking up her son and lifting him out of harm's way, Star sat down on one of the benches and started to weave an enchantment around Moonshine. Once it was done, the spell would make sure that the colt's head never went underwater, under any circumstances.

Snowbird was about to climb into the pool and begin relaxing in earnest when Lotus stuck her head in the door. "Terribly sorry, ma'am, but there's a message here for you. If you could come pick it up..." Snow turned and trotted out the door, her towel still on her head.

"...and I shouldn't have ignored your concerns." Fireflare sighed, sitting down next to her wife quietly. "I... really do think you make great meals, I just... didn't want you to think I didn't because of... my own needs. And I guess I didn't realize... Well, anyway, I bought you flowers. It's kind of silly, but... here you are." She place the bouquet between them quietly, unsure whether she should just hand them over or not.

"...so Moonshine likes the water, apparently?"

Moonshine, now enchanted to be drown-proof, was released into the water. The foal drifted away from the benches in the center of a dodecahedral depression in the water, which seemed to tumble along beneath him as he moved. The colt couldn't get more than knee-deep before the spell bottomed out and buoyed him up. He trotted around in the scented bathwater, cooing in delight and nibbling the petals of lavender that floated in the water here and there. He was having a blast, totally unaware of the slight turbulence his parent were enduring.

"That's sweet of you to say, hon. And yeah, Moony seems to like the water. It's nice and warm and it smells good, so of course he likes it." said Wishing Star, picking up the bouqet and carefully plucking a couple of petals off to chew thoughtfully. They sat there like that until Star had managed to nibble her way through one whole flower.

She got up and slipped back into the tub, drifting across the water until she bumped gently into Moonshine. He giggled and crawled over her chest, wanting to play in the water; this was fun!

"Thanks for the flowers. That was sweet of you." said Star, fondling Moonshine's ears and tussling gently with the tiny pony when he headbutted her chin in challenge.

Fireflare smiled, gently. "I just don't like seeing sad ponies. Especially when they happen to be the best ponies." She slid into the water--this probably wasn't the place for a cannonball, after all--and swam over to the neofloating Moonshine. "Hey little guy, what are you thinking? You want to grow up some day and change the world? I'll tell you something right now; you'll change the world even if nopony ever hears about you." She playfully splashed a little water at him.

Snowbird trotted back into the room, grumbling about the book of friendship or something. "Well, enough of that. I don't believe I ever introduced myself. I'm Snowbird, you?"

The water that Fireflare splashed at Moonshine ended up missing him for the most part; the buoyancy field that Star had wrapped around him only allowed so much water within, and at the time it was mostly to capacity. A sparse sprinkle of water managed to dampen the foal's mane, with the majority of it rebounding off and hitting Wishing Star. So it was that Star got around a pint of water right up the nostrils.

Hacking and coughing mightily, Star lifted Moonshine off of her and rolled over in the water, struggling to the edge and hanging over it to empty her lungs. She clung to the plank boundary and coughed wrtechedly, limp as a rag throughout.

"Oh geeze--" Fireflare, torn between protecting Moonshine and making sure Wishing Star wasn't dying, decided to gently drag the colt to the edge of the bath. "I didn't mean to do that, are you all right? I mean, do I need to do CPR or the Heimlich or something because I can do that and oh geeze oh geeze I'm sorry Starry--"

While Fireflare was freaking out over Star's predicament, Snow figured that mindless babbling wasn't going to empty her lungs and gave her a few hard thumps on the chest, until a bit of water bubbled out of her mouth. "Feeling better?"

Wishing Star's vision started to swim when Snowbird struck her for the first time; the other mare had managed to hit her immediately after a cough, and it had driven every last iota of breath out of her body. Before she could manage to inhale again, though, the second blow struck. Her diaphragm, already bottomed out, started to spasm from the extra impact. Her lungs were paralyzed, she couldn't breath, she could barely see, everything was spinning-

Starry fainted, the effect of so many blows while her lungs were totally empty proving too much for her diaphragm to handle. She started to slide off the wall as a thin trickle of water ran from her slack mouth; if she was allowed to fall into the water, her lungs would fill inexorably with the scented bathwater and she would surely drown.

Fireflare didn't even pause to think, ragging Star out of the bath and performing CPR as fast as she could without risking her wife's life. If she weren't so worried about her, she might have yelled at Snowbird for improper medical technique or perhaps made sure Moonshine was on dry land. As it was, she was focused on saving a life; those things could come later.

Snowbird helped shove Star out of the water and onto the tile floor, before gently scooping Moonshine out of the water. After all, she doubted the spell keeping him afloat would fail, but there was no point in taking chances. She placed him on the floor next to Flare, trying to keep him distracted while the unicorn's wife nursed her back to consciousness.

Flopping limply onto the cold floor with a wet smack, Wishing Star didn't respond to Fireflare's ministrations for a good twenty seconds. Eventually, though, her blood oxygen levels went up enough for her brain to resume normal operation, and she awoke to one, extremely demanding sensation.

Her ribs were now bruised quite deeply, and every time Fireflare compressed them it sent a spike of pain through her chest. Taking a great, shuddering gasp of air, Star weakly pushed her wife's hooves away from her and curled up on the floor, clutching at her bruised chest and groaning.

Moonshine whimpered and circled Starry worriedly, stopping every few moments to mewl and nudge at her with his nose. Star gave another racking cough and started to stir from her protective fetal curl, reaching out a hoof to comfort Moonshine.

"*kaff kaff* I- *ahack!* I'm okay, sweetie. Don't worry about me, okay?" she rasped through wrecked vocal cords, allowing Moony to tuck himself under her arm and nuzzle her. The spell attached to him pushed the water out of her coat wherever it made contact, so that the spot where Moonshine lay was perfectly dry.

Fireflare let out a heavy breath. "Oh geeze... Just, just take slow, deep breaths Star, I am so so sorry about that..." It was quite apparent she was avoiding hugging her wife, holding herself back so she could breathe normally but desperately wanting to clutch her tightly. The pegasus nuzzled her gently.

Snowbird sat back a bit from the two mares, not wanting to get within easy reach in case either one wanted to kick her through a few walls. "I'm really sorry about that, and allow me to make it up to you. I'll wait for you outside, and once you're done here I'll take you both out to dinner, my treat. Anywhere you want to go."

"Ugh, my chest is killing me..." said Wishing Star as she got up, nearly slipping in the pool of water on the tiles but managing to recover before she fell on Moonshine. Once she had completed the complicated process of regaining her feet, the unicorn limped back over to the bath and flopped into the water, grateful for the heat. It made her chest ache less.

"We just had lunch like fifteen minutes ago. Did you have to punch me in the chest while I was coughing up water?" sighed Starry, rubbing her ribs gingerly and feeling the slowly growing welts there. Those were going to be obvious hoofprints in a few hours; hopefully nopony would get the wrong idea and assume that Fireflare had been beating her up.

"I think you've done enough," Fireflare said coldly, glaring at Snowbird as she slid in next to her wife. She managed to soften her gaze and turn it on Moonshine, just to make sure he was okay. That was probably very scary for him... "Come here little guy. Mommy's okay now." Gently she scooped him up, marvelling at the magic holding him above water as she manuvered him between them. "We're all okay now..."

"Understood." Snow turned and trotted out of the bath, but rather than leaving went straight to the front counter. "The brown unicorn and red pegasus in the baths, give them whatever they want. Make this the best day they've ever had, but be sensitive to the fact that they have a foal with them. I'll pick up the tab when they're done."

AnonPony wrote:My first response to finding out our campaign began in a tavern:
"How high do I have to roll with 'It's Witchcraft' to reanimate a frog and have it sing 'Ragtime Gal'?"

I rolled a Nat 20 on it (first roll of the whole game, I think it also counted a CM critical)

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:So I noticed at one point in the transcripts you highlighted "maybe it was because he was a hippogriff" and said "This was entirely 7 of 9's idea, not mine".

Am I misreading things? Because...I'm not sure who you were supposed to be referring to here. If it actually was 7 of 9, I missed it.

Quietkal wrote:@note n, I had crit failed a perception roll to see how much attention everyone else was paying to what Kal was doing. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention, so I went ahead and set Kal thinking that they were watching his every move, and that anything he attempted would instantly be seen.

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Well, here's my first transcript of the Investigators of the Odd.

Philadelphus wrote:

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Well, here's my first transcript of the Investigators of the Odd.

Nice write-up. I've been following the thread, so I read it more for the comments you included. I love reading those, it's like watching commentary on a DVD or something.