“Do I have to get in a boat?” Sparkler whined when they had made it all the way back to Fluttershy’s cottage now with three of the six missing pets in their possession. Having decided that they should follow the alligator’s foot prints next, they had been led from the ruined cat flap to the edge of the river that ran past their teacher’s house. “Specifically, do I have to get in that boat?”
The boat in question was a small white rowboat on the near bank of the river that looked, on first inspection, like it had been built before Princess Luna’s banishment. It also only looked just big enough for the three of them, and that was if they got really familiar with each other.
“Well,” Stonecutter said, thinking out loud, “Gummy’s tracks end there, and this river heads south into the forest. The alligator must’ve jumped in the water. If that’s the case, he was swept downriver, because the current’s going too fast for him to swim.”
“Look at it this way,” Cloudburst offered, “At least you won’t get attacked by timberwolves or diamond dogs or quarray eels while you’re in the boat!”
Sparkler rolled her eyes at the pale blue pegasus. “Stop right there, CB. If we have to listen to how you narrowly escaped the jaws of the world’s largest quarray eel just one. More. Time, I swear I’ll levitate you back to the chasm and throw you in!”
“Whaaaaaaaat?” Cloudburst went for an innocent smile. She failed miserably. “I’ve only mentioned it once or twice…
“Try seven times.” Stonecutter interjected quickly, cutting her best friend off before she could build up a head off steam. Again. While she was of course very happy and relieved that Cloudburst and Tank were safe, hearing about it all the way back for the past hour had been a little grating.
“Whatever,” Cloudburst shrugged, “This little guy likes hearing the story, don’t you, buddy?” she reached over her shoulder to her backpack where Tank was poking his head out and scratched under the tortoise’s chin. He rewarded her with a slow smile and a nod of his head.
“He doesn’t count,” Sparkler shot back, “His opinion is biased.”
“Yeah well, I deserve a medal for doing your pet’s laundry,” Cloudburst shot back, loving the deep crimson blush that spread over Stonecutter’s slate grey cheeks at being reminded of her mishap with the swamp and at being called out as not only Sparkler’s marefriend but her sub. “Seriously, you were only in the water a few minutes, how could you get that mucky in a few minutes?”
Stonecutter gave her friend the most deadpan look she could muster. “It was a swamp, CB. Not a swimming pool!”
“Yeah, yeah, I get that, but I swear, that’s the last time I’m hand scrubbing the gusset of your shorts!” Cloudburst retorted with her arms crossed over her flat chest. “I swear there were more than just swamp stains there.”
“Why you featherbrained…”
“Mudpusher!”
“Girls!” Sparkler interrupted the argument before it could get out of hand with a very stern glare to them both as well as a short sharp slap to Stonecutter’s vast behind. She couldn’t handle raised voices, not since her parents’ split. It upset her so bad it set off her allergies which had, until then, not been so bad. Besides, they were setting Winona off too, and barking gave her a headache. “Bickering will not help us get Gummy back. We need a plan.”
“Sorry CB,” Stonecutter was the first to apologise.
“Yeah, me too,” came Cloudburst’s reply, both mares hugging it out on the riverbank.
“As far as I can see,” Stonecutter said after she had released a gasping pegasus from her tighter than necessary hug, “We get in the boat, let it take us downstream, we’ll end up wherever Gummy is, then we rescue him like we did the others. Easy!”
“Yeah, how hard can it be?” Cloudburst added, earning her an eye roll from the other two. Sparkler didn’t look convinced. The white rowing boat looked like it might break apart under a light breeze, let alone a trip down the fast flowing river. Even the pegasus noticed her hesitance. “Look, if you want, why don’t you two take the boat with Winona and the rabbit and I’ll fly alongside with Tank?”
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Sparkler had to concede that the pegasus had made a valid point. “Besides,” Stonecutter added, “The afternoon’s wearing on, Sparks, we need to get these pets rounded up sharpish before it gets dark. We don’t want to be roaming the Everfree Forest in the night time.”
“I don’t want to be roaming the forest at any time!” Sparkler snapped, although, she knew her marefriend was right. She didn’t have to check her watch to know it was four in the afternoon. The lengthening shadows all around them told her that much. And they still had three of the six pets to find and get back. The bright yellow unicorn looked around for another solution, any other solution, but none presented itself. “Fine. Let’s get in the damn rowing boat and get this over with before I change my mind.”
Walking down the wet grassy riverbank, Stonecutter pushed the wooden rowing boat into the water and she held it secure in her hands while Sparkler got in. Quickly, the slate grey earth pony joined her, and she sat on the seat at the back of the boat. “You okay, Sparks?”
Gingerly, seeing as how she had Winona on the leash around her hooves, Sparkler turned around in the boat and she sat herself down between Stonecutter's open legs, her back to her marefriend's front. She was not all that confident, not at all. She had never been in a boat in her life. She could swim, in a swimming pool, with properly appointed supervision and safety measures in place, but not in a flowing river. “I ah...I don't think I like this!”
Hovering over the water by the boat, Cloudburst made sure Tank was secure in her backpack and snickered, “Don't tell me you're allergic to the water now, too, little miss Canterlot?”
Stonecutter gave her friend the sourest look she could manage and, in an attempt to be helpful, she squeezed her thick thighs closer together around her Mistress, gripping her with her legs. “Are you feeling safer now?” she asked, taking up the oars. Though she quickly realised all she needed to do was steer the boat rather than propel it.
At first, Sparkler wasn’t sure. The river was fast moving, and she was buffeted around, mostly the back of her head into Stonecutter’s large breasts. That was something she liked, at least. “Oh yeah,” she said, her hands that were gripping the sides of the boat lessening, her knuckles had been white. “Safer. Much. Very much safer!”
“So, hey, Stone, you two a proper thing now or what?” Cloudburst asked as she flew alongside the boat. It didn’t take much effort for her to match her speed to that of the rowing boat. The pale blue pegasus would flap her wings a couple of times, glide for a short time, then repeat.
“Thing?” Stonecutter raised her eyebrow at her friend. She knew full well what she meant, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t tease both Cloudburst and her marefriend. She rather liked Sparkler when she blushed. She looked cute. And, if she earned a spanking later, so much the better. “Like what, a pony with eight legs and a horn?”
“You know what I mean,” Cloudburst grinned and gave the couple in the boat the most salacious over the top wink that either of them had ever seen. The suggestive gestures she was making with her hands, miming a set of scissors was completely unnecessary. Didn’t stop her making Sparkler blush though. Her point made, she pulled her treasured harmonica from the pocket of her school hoodie and played them a love song as she flew along.
“Sure, she can play that harmonica and fly, but you watch her try to walk and chew gum.” Stonecutter giggled, happy to listen to the music her best friend played. She had given her the harmonica on her twelfth birthday four years ago now when she had shown a talent for it back in Old Cheerilee’s school. Cloudburst had treasured it ever since, cleaning it, caring for it, it looked like new.
Sparkler joined in with her marefriend’s giggles as she relaxed back into the soft folds of Stonecutter's round belly, using her fleshy breasts as a head rest. Yesterday, even that morning, she had merely fantasised about doing such a thing. Normally she would be blushing like crazy, but after what they had been through so far, she felt more confident that normal. “You know, you are very comfy, pet. I could get used to this.”
“She makes for a fine couch!” Cloudburst commented, swooping down low beside the boat. Though the river had meandered its way back into the forest, it wasn’t as dark here as it had been the other times when they had gone in after Angel and Tank due to the ribbon of water splitting the trees.
“I wore that one time!” Stonecutter groused, the earth pony huffing with temper. She wanted to cross her arms over her chest, but she couldn’t because she’d end up choking her marefriend out. “One time!”
Bursting out into fits of giggles, Sparkler ended up swaying the rowing boat side to side, so low that a little river water splashed into where she was sitting. “Oh! Oooooh! Wo-Woah...my goodness...” she meeped, having only just got used to the rocking motion of the boat, the unicorn really didn’t like this!
Smirking, Stonecutter squeezed her thick tree trunk like thighs tighter around the fretting unicorn, but she kept the boat rocking. “Is something funny, Sparks?”
“Please stop!” Sparkler squeaked in fright, her belly feeling rather upset with the constant rocking and rolling of the boat. “Please! I-I’m gonna be sick!” Unfortunately, over Winona’s pleasured barking and Cloudburst’s laughter, Stonecutter didn’t hear her pleading. “St-Stoooooop!” her gut felt very poorly indeed and, sure enough, after a few more moments of that, the inevitable happened.
“UUuuuuUUUUUUERGH!” Sparkler leant over the side of the rowing boat just in time as the vomit rose in her throat and she emptied the contents of her belly into the fast flowing river. “GuuuuUUUUUUH!” she stayed hung over the side, the last of her chunks leaving her mouth. When she sat back up, she looked more green than yellow.
“Are…you okay there, Sparks?” Cloudburst asked worriedly after she and Stonecutter shared a concerned look between them.
“Ye-Yeeeeeeah…” Sparkler groaned, feeling like she could easily throw up some more. Thankfully, she did not. Instead, she turned a deadpan look at her pet. “I’m so spanking you when we’re done getting the pets back to the cottage.”
“You…are?” Stonecutter asked somewhat nervously.
“You better believe it. You’ll be lucky if you sit down in a week.” Sparkler snorted as she resumed her seating position between the slate grey earth pony’s legs.
“Whoop!” Cloudburst cheered beside the boat, “You go girl! Wear that ass out!”
Sparkler chose to ignore the sour look that Stonecutter shot the pegasus. “And you can hush,” she said calmly now she felt her belly settling down, “I can inform Seafoam, you know.” That effectively shut Cloudburst up. She had been told to be a good girl today when her Master had allowed her the free time, as long as she behaved herself. Now that had been dealt with, Sparkler did feel secure between Stonecutter's thighs. “Now, if you please, I’ll just go back to imagining you as a couch. I assume it was a Nightmare Night costume?”
“To be fair, it was more of a love seat,” Stonecutter replied with a nod of her head.
“Totally a couch.” Cloudburst was aware she wasn’t helping. Not that she cared all that much. Flying along the river through the Everfree Forest it felt the safest she had been thus far.
“Did anypony sit on you?” asked Sparkler with interest. Like Cloudburst, she was most relaxed now, floating along at the river’s pace. No critters, bugs or insects bothered her at that moment. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could almost be back on her floaty in the swimming pool of her old house in Canterlot.
That was the past though. No sense dragging it back up.
“No, but Mr. Davenport complimented my outfit.”
“So...” Sparkler tried to return the conversation to the topic at hand. “Nightmare Night? Shall we make it a date?” she asked before she lost her nerve. That was a very real possibility. She was amazed, if she was honest with herself, that she had been this brave so far. Then again, it seemed resting her head on her marefriend’s huge breasts did her good.
“She could be a foot stool this time!” Cloudburst crowed, earning a solid blush from the tall earth pony.
Leaning back in the boat, Sparkler tilted her head upwards and she kissed Stonecutter's cheek. “You can be my footstool, pet, after we have a date. What are you going as, anyway?”
Stonecutter’s blush stayed firmly in place when she thought about the black and white cow costume she saw in Barnyard Bargains. “I ah, well, let’s say I've found a really moooving costume.”
“I’m going as Captain Celaeno!”
“She goes as Celaeno every year since the movie was made about the Storm King’s invasion,” Stonecutter rolled her eyes as Cloudburst stuck out her tongue in her direction, “And you, Sparks?”
“Princess Celestia,” Sparkler replied, “You see, I was working on the costume anyway, for a school project in Canterlot, then we had to move, so if I’ve got it, I may as well use it.” The bright yellow unicorn sighed, “I um, I don't usually bother with it, Nightmare Night I mean. After all Stargazer didn't care what I'm dressed as at the observatory, but my mom was all ‘go for it, go make friends!’”
Stonecutter leant forwards and very gently kissed her new marefriend’s ear. “Your mom was right, my love.”
“Totally!” Cloudburst encouraged, “Your mom’s a smart pony, Sparks!”
“But…” Sparkler huffed, “But that means going outside...with other ponies. And crowds. I don't like outside. Outside is noisy and dirty and messy and full of...creatures.”
Still with her muzzle close to Sparkler’s ear, Stonecutter said, “MooOOoo!”
“Although,” Sparkler was in danger of becoming permanently red rather than yellow. This was mostly because now she was imagining her pet wearing a very tight spandex cow suit that showed off everything. And then her imagination lead her to milking her cow and then she had to stop her imagination because she was outside and not in her bedroom. She did have her hands on Stonecutter's thighs, caressing them gently. “I suppose outside does have its good bits…”
Having sat back, Stonecutter leant forwards again, this time targeting the unicorn’s other ear. “Inside has its good bits too...”
“Oh my…” Sparkler fanned herself with her hand while Cloudburst made some very obvious gagging sounds at all the lovey dovey schmaltz going on. “I think I'm finally going to enjoy Nightmare Night!”
After roughly fifteen more minutes on the river, the waterway opened out onto a small lake bordered by pebble strewn rocky banks with overhanging, gnarled trees all around. In the centre of the lake was a little green island that was covered in trees, shrubs and bushes. Some bore fruit while others had thorns and brambles the size of daggers. Just as they were taking in the view of the island, a loud panicked screech from above them made them look upwards. “Oh…oh my gosh!” Cloudburst had to stuff her hand in her mouth to keep from laughing. “What the hay is that thing?”
That ‘thing’, as it turned out, was a rather large bird of prey with an impressive six foot wingspan. The bird’s pale grey plumage and black wings certainly were impressive, though what had drawn the three mares’ attention was the very large, very bright green Mohican-style crest that adorned the bird’s bald head.
“It’s a mohawk,” Sparkler supplied offhandedly like she saw one every day.
“A what, now?” Stonecutter asked, completely mystified.
“A mohawk,” Sparkler explained. “There’s a couple in the Royal Menagerie in Canterlot. We used to go on school trips and…oh! Look!” she exclaimed, pointing at the outlandish looking bird, “There’s Gummy!”
“You gotta be kidding!” Cloudburst exclaimed, for, hanging stubbornly onto the mohawk’s black tail feathers, was Professor Pinkie Pie’s pet alligator. “No wonder the bird’s screeching. The question is, how in the wide world of Equestria are we gonna get him back? I can’t zap it, I’ll hurt Gummy, and I’m not getting too close to that beak…”
“You don’t mind getting close to Seafoam’s beak…” Stonecutter put in with a giggle.
While they looked upwards and stared at the circling screeching hawk, the answer came to Sparkler in a flash of inspiration. “I’ve got it. I know exactly what to do. We need to make Gummy laugh.”
Stonecutter and Cloudburst both looked at the unicorn like she had taken leave of her senses. “Um…say what, now?” the pegasus asked, beating the earth pony to the question by mere seconds.
Sparkler looked from one mare to the other and saw nothing but blank expressions on their faces. The book smart mare couldn’t understand it at all. It was so obvious, why were they being so slow? “I said, we need to make Gummy laugh. That’s how we rescue him and save the mohawk’s tail.”
“Um, Sparks, don’t go thinking that I’m doubting you,” started Stonecutter, “But why exactly do we need to make him laugh? How’s that supposed to help?”
The bright yellow mare facepalmed in the boat so hard she almost rocked it over. She realised she’d have to explain it. “It’s really very simple. Remember the Ursa Minor?” she asked rhetorically. The nods she received told her that they did. “How did we get Angel back?”
“Stone here made it a dolly and gave it to the bear,” Cloudburst answered. She had been there, she knew that.
“We were kind, don’t you see?” more blank looks stared back at her. Sparkler snorted through her nose. “Angel is Professor Fluttershy’s rabbit, she’s the Element of Kindness, and we were kind? Do you see?”
Dots began to connect themselves to more dots in Stonecutter’s mind. “The diamond dogs. When we went to get Winona back, I was honest with them, and Professor Applejack’s the Element of Honesty…” she looked wide eyed, the obvious pattern emerging now.
Sadly, it wasn’t that obvious. “Huh, I thought we got Winona because Stone threw them a bag load of gems and we ran away,” Cloudburst opined, somewhat ruining the moment.
“Anyway!” Sparkler ignored the pegasus, “When you rescued Tank, you were brave and loyal. Just like whom?”
Even Cloudburst saw the connection now. “Just like Professor Dash! I’m as awesome as the most awesome teacher ever!”
Stonecutter and Sparkler both shared an eye roll at their exuberant friend. “So, you see?” Sparkler pressed on, “Professor Pinkie Pie is the…”
“Element of Laughter!” Cloudburst finished the unicorn’s sentence for her, earning herself a very, very upset glare that did not go away too soon. “Alright, making him laugh. I got this!” the pale blue pony flapped her wings hard and flew up to where the mohawk was circling around trying, without success, to get the alligator off its tail.
After trying several of her very best jokes and getting nothing, Cloudburst was about to give up when she had an idea. “Hey, Stone,” she called out to the boat below her, “Do you know what this is?”
“What is it, CB?”
“It's astounding…” Something in the way her best friend sang that line made the slate grey earth pony facepalm and groan. “Time is fleeting! Madness takes its toll…”
“CB, really? Is this the time for that?” when Sparkler looked at Stonecutter and mouthed ‘what’s she doing?’ the earth pony just said, “Watch, you’ll see.”
Cloudburst continued, now she was doing the strangest dance in mid-air that the unicorn had ever seen in her life. “But listen closely...c’mon Stone, give me the line, Magenta, but listen closely…” she repeated, gesturing for her friend to feed her the next line to the song.
“Not for very much longer!” Stonecutter blushed, particularly as she realised exactly what Cloudburst was up to, and the prospect of performing last year’s Friendship School play in front of her new marefriend horrified her. “You go, Riffraff!”
Cloudburst, now fully immersed in her role, did indeed ‘go’. “I've got to keep control!” she sang, dancing so outlandishly in the air that the mohawk hovered in place to watch what the strange pony was doing. “I remember doing the time-warp, drinking those moments when the Blackness would hit me, and the void would be calling...”
Stonecutter, watching below, was ready for her next part. Taking a deep breath, she sang, “Let's do the time-warp again!” she then nudged Sparkler and gestured for her to join in, and they both sang, rather awkwardly, “Let's do the time-warp again!”
“It's just a jump to the left,” Cloudburst called out in a loud voice, making the aforementioned jump.
“And then a step to the right!” Stonecutter yelled back, by now getting into the performance as well.
“With your hands on your hips,” Cloudburst had her hands there ready, and in the boat, so did Stonecutter and eventually Sparkler as well, who was convinced they were both crazy ponies. “You bring your knees in tight,” sang the pegasus and earth pony together now, both of them doing the dance, “But it's the pelvic thrust, that really drives you insane! Let's do the time-warp again!”
Gummy was already cracking a smile when Cloudburst finished the first chorus, but when Stonecutter, who was enthusiastically doing the dance managed to capsize the boat and send both her and Sparkler into the lake, the little green alligator was laughing so hard he released his vice like grip on the mohawk’s tail. Fortunately, Cloudburst was ready to catch him and, by the time she had him secured in her bag, Stonecutter had pulled a very grumpy looking Sparkler from the water and they were back in the boat along with Winona, who shook herself over the two wet mares and made Sparkler even more grumpy than she already was.
Seeing the sort of mood that Sparkler was in, Cloudburst thought it prudent to stay up high for the flight back to Professor Fluttershy’s cottage. Gummy agreed with her and stayed in her bag. Tank was content to stay on her back. Stonecutter had obviously elected to row back seeing as they were going against the current. Judging by the look on Sparkler’s face, it would be a long trip back. As she flew along in the late afternoon sun, her phone rang. Taking it from her pocket, the caller ID said it was Seafoam. “Hey Master!”
“Hey baby,” the turquoise hippogriff smiled in their dorm room, relieved to hear his pet’s voice. “Are you still doing that pet thing?”
“Yeah, they kinda got away from us. Literally, as it happens.”
“Um, so, you're not at Professor Shy's house?”
“We were,” Cloudburst admitted, “It was alright at first. We were looking after them okay...ish, then her evil rabbit went nuts and made a scene. The cottage went crazy! I ended up in a cupboard!”
Seafoam could hear the shudder in his special mare’s voice. He knew well how she felt about enclosed spaces. “Woah, in a cupboard? So, you’ve obviously calmed back down from that. Was it before or after your post that Stone and, um, what's her name hooked up?”
Hearing the love and concern rife in her sexy hippogriff’s voice sent a huge swell of affection coursing through the pale blue pegasus’s body. Only he could make her feel like that. “I’m okay. Stone got me out. She lifted the cupboard off of me. Sparkler helped calm me down. She's actually kinda cool, for a book worm.”
Cloudburst took a moment to check on the pets she was carrying. Thankfully both were just fine so, she turned her attention back to her phone. “They were flirting all morning. They finally hooked up about two hours ago. One minute they were walking holding hands, next thing I see they're kissing!”
“I remember you saying that Stone was looking for somepony like me,” Seafoam commented curiously. She had mentioned in the past that she wanted a dominant partner of her own. “Do you think she’s going to find that in, um, Sparkler? Odd name, that.”
“Oh she already has!” Cloudburst had been waiting on tenterhooks to tell ger Master this little piece of gossip. “Get this, about an hour Stone slipped and ended up in a swamp! Little miss Canterlot neat freak only levitated her out and ordered her to strip off. Then she said if she hugged her before she cleaned her up, she'd enjoy spanking her!”
“Good for Stone!” Seafoam exclaimed. For the moment he didn’t question the whole ‘fell in a swamp’ bit and he abandoned his desk in favour of the double bed he shared with his pet. “So, do I need to go to Kinks and Flowerpots to see if they have large collars of a certain colour?”
“Oh yes please! That'd be so awesome! Can you get the biggest brightest yellow one you can find?”
“Can do,” Seafoam acknowledged with a satisfied sigh as he laid back on the bed. He rather fancied he wouldn’t be going very far into their flowerpot department later on, though he was sure they’d have a BDSM ‘starter kit’ in stock. It was the least he could do. “So, where are you now if you aren’t at Professor Fluttershy’s?”
“Um...right now?” Cloudburst had been somewhat dreading that question. She knew her lover was very protective of her. “Well, at this moment, I'm above a river in the Everfree Forest heading back to Professor Shy's place. I just grabbed Professor Pinkie's alligator from a mohawk!” when her statement was greeted with silence, she continued, “Oh! Oooh! You should've seen me about an hour ago, Master, I was so awesome! Professor Dash's tortoise was trapped in a chasm, and I saved him!”
“What in sweet Celestia's name are you doing in the Everfree Forest!?”
The pale blue pegasus held her phone away from her ear when Seafoam shouted at her. He didn’t raise his voice very often. When he did, it was because he was worried about her. “Rescuing the pets, I told you Master. The rabbit made a scene, we got trapped in the cottage, they scarpered. So, we went to get them back. Simple!”
Seafoam didn’t think it sounded all that simple. He resolved to punish his pet for making him worry. ‘Worry more than I normally do, any way…’ he thought with a smile all over his beak. “Where's the adult in this group?”
“They're in the boat below me. Stone can't really talk though, she's busy rowing back up river.”
He rubbed the bridge of his beak between his thumb and forefinger. “When are you getting back, 'cause I'm a missing you and my paddle is missing its target.”
“Uuuum...I'm not sure,” Cloudburst checked her watch and saw that it was not that far away from five in the afternoon and there was two pets to go yet. “We still need to get Professor Rarity's cat and Headmare Twilight's owl. I'm hoping we’ll be back at the cottage before it gets dark,” she blew him a kiss down the phone, “I'm missing you too.”
“If you get killed out there, I'll dig you up and spank you!”
Cloudburst rolled her eyes down the phone and she made sure he heard it too. “I'm not getting killed, baby. I was way too fast for the eels. But you're welcome to spank me anyway…”
“Eels?” Seafoam interrupted her with a concerned squeak.
Lost in her head of steam as she was, Cloudburst didn’t hear the alarm in her coltfriend’s voice. “We were stood on the chasm and I was like 'I'll get Tank' and then I was like swooping down, and then this eel stuck his head out, and I was like roll to the right, yeah!” she got more and more excited and animated as her description of her daring rescue progressed. In her mind she was there again in the moment. “And then I shot a bolt at it, then I freed Tank, and another eel came out, and I was like, super swooping down and I got him just in time! It was so cool!”
Seafoam facepalmed on their bed. Shaking his head he was once more reminded that his idea of exciting and cool was vastly different to hers. That was why he loved her so much. “Yeah, okay,” he sighed, “I think I'll have a bit of a lie down and you take care of the Professor's pets. Yeah, I'll do that.”
“I'm so getting spanked, aren't I?”
“Yes, you are so getting spanked.”
“Yay!” Cloudburst giggled, sometimes it was worth making him worry about her. The punishments she received as a result was proof, if any were needed, of how much he loved and adored her. “So, how's your day been without me? Whatcha been doin?”
Seafoam let out a deep exasperated sigh, looking over at the stack of textbooks on his desk. “I'm so bored I'm studying.”
“One of us has to be clever, my love,” Cloudburst did have a thought though, as she flew along over the rowing boat down below her. Sparkler was smiling again, so something must have happened that she missed. “I’ve got something for you to do, if need saving from the books?”
The turquoise hippogriff didn’t like the sound of that. One could never really be too sure with Cloudburst if it was a genuine request or a set up to a prank. His paddle arm almost wanted it to be the latter. “What?”
“We ah, kinda left Professor Shy's place in a bit of a mess,” Cloudburst started somewhat hesitantly. She knew that Seafoam would always help her and her friend out if he could, but there was always a price that the pet had to pay. Not that she minded in the slightest, of course. “If you felt like being the best coltfriend and Master ever, it could do with a clean?”
Seafoam almost fell off the bed when he heard that. “For you to say 'messy', it would have to be a total disaster, CB.” Living with Cloudburst in their dorm room at the Friendship School was like living with a walking flying tornado. More than once the dominant hippogriff had to employ some corrective measures to get to clean up after herself.
She really couldn’t argue with that, though after the last two hour paddling session when she had been bent over the end of the bed and tied down, she had done better picking up her stuff. “Weeeeeeell…” she said innocently, at least this mess wasn’t her fault, “One of the windows is totally smashed, there's soot and pet food everywhere, the door's hanging off and the curtains are down.”
“Fine, fine. I'll see if I can get Blackbeak to help. You can sneak off to Cloudsdale and get us a case of beers.”
“Oooh yes!” Cloudburst liked Blackbeak. The griffon was like an older brother to her and his coltfriend was a gem too. “And, we can have a picnic at the Professor's place when we get back! There's plenty of food and we were told we can stay there until they get back from sorting out this problem in the Badlands.”
“Okay, yeah, the statuettes thing. There are reports that ponies all over the country are turning into them and then turning back after an hour or so. But sure, I'll grab him and we'll head over there now. He might bring Cloudy Skies with him too, so I know there will be one good cook there.”
“Hey!” Cloudburst protested, though there wasn’t much fight behind her objection, “I'm not 'that' bad...and...after we get back, why don't you stay over with us? There’s plenty of room at the Professor’s place, and we can have some fun upstairs after the picnic.”
“Would that Sp…Spaa…the yellow one, be on board with that?”
“Sparkler, Master.” Cloudburst corrected him gently, “And yes, I told you, she's cool.” A sudden thought occurred to the flying pegasus then as they rounded a bend in the river, Fluttershy’s house coming into view as they passed a row of overhanging gnarled trees, “We can give the newbies a masterclass!”
Seafoam was more than up for that. He did like Stonecutter. He wouldn’t say they were super close, but he knew her well enough to call the chubby earth pony a friend. He respected her immensely, particularly how protective she was of his special mare. Cloudburst was naïve, and Stonecutter knew how devoted the pegasus was to him. And how that could be abused in the wrong claws. He had assured her that he was the right claws. “Fine, I'll include Dom training for free. As long as I see her spank Stone's ass.”
“Deal! Oh, hey, I better go, we're close to the cottage. Before I do, have you heard anything from mom and dad?”
Seafoam hated the hopeful sound in his pet’s voice. He hated it because he knew he’d have to crush that hope. “I haven't checked messages lately, but not that I know of. Sorry, CB.”
She had been expecting it, sure, but the news still came as a body blow straight to her gut. There was a Wonderbolts show in Ponyville in two weeks time. Usually she had her free tickets by now. “Pfft, fine, whatever,” Cloudburst tried to put a brave face on it, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “It’s not like I was expecting anything.” A blatant lie, she hoped he wouldn’t call her out on it. “Fine. I'll um, message you later when I know more what's happening, alright?”
“All right,” Seafoam chose to let the fact she had so obviously lied to him pass. He knew as well as she did that there was a Wonderbolts show coming up. He’d seen the fliers advertising Misty Fly and Wave Chill’s new stunt. He also knew he’d gain nothing by forcing the issue. “I'll call later if you don't.”
“Take care, baby.” Cloudburst put her phone away when Seafoam hung up, he knew she liked to have the last word. Flying lower as she got closer to her professor’s cottage, she landed on the ground just as Stonecutter hauled the white rowing boat back up onto the grassy riverbank.
After eating a light snack of apples, bananas, pears and oats taken from their three backpacks and washing it down with the bottled water that Sparkler had, the three mares recharged themselves under the late afternoon sun. They made sure the four pets had their share, but the meal was eaten in silence. Cloudburst had her ‘parents are crap, don’t ask’ face, so the other two didn’t ask. Something she was grateful for.
“What do you say we follow that trail?” Stonecutter suggested when they had eaten their fill and sated their thirst. Feeling reinvigorated after almost a full hour of rowing back up the river, she pointed out the purple bow that Opalescence had been wearing on her head that was snagged on a bush near where they were sitting. A little further away, she could see a blue opal that had been adorning the collar the cat wore laying in the middle of a narrow path that lead southeast back into the forest.
“Sure, back into the forest, why not?” Sparkler sighed, resigned to the fact that they were once more going back into her favourite place in the whole world.
“Hey guys, if you don’t mind, I kinda wanna be on my own for a bit, okay?”
“Okay CB,” Stonecutter knew better than to argue with her best friend. She’d come round in her own time. It was useless to push. Getting up, she held out her hand for Sparkler to hold. “Keep us in sight though, alright? We don’t want to be lost from each other.”
“Yeah, okay Stone.” Cloudburst made sure that Tank and Gummy were secure before she took off, shooting straight upwards into the sky that was now a definite orange as the sun started to get lower and lower.
Sparkler once again had Winona on her leash and Angel, for the moment, was content to hide away in Stonecutter’s bag, the threat of the Ursa never far from the rabbit’s mind. “Just two more to get and we can relax!” the unicorn smiled. Holding her marefriend’s hand tightly, she barely gave notice to the spooky trees this time.
“Yeah, can you believe CB's dance got the alligator to laugh like that?” asked Stonecutter somewhat rhetorically. She was about to say something else when the slate grey earth pony saw another shining blue opal laying in the middle of the narrow path. “Hey, look,” she picked it up and added it to the one she had picked up before. “That looks like what was on the cat's collar.”
Sparkler moved closer to her lover, pressed in by the trees encroaching upon the path. “Is the cat trying to get rid of the evidence or leaving a trail, do you think?”
“I think Opalescence is leaving us a trail, whether she meant to or not. What do you think, Winona?” When she sniffed the opal and then the part of the path it was laying on, the brown and white dog barked happily, straining at the leash to get to her fellow pet. “Well, that’s good enough for me!”
Sparkler rolled her green eyes, “If you go to the dogs, we'll have issues.”
“Will we?” Stonecutter giggled and squeezed the unicorn’s delicate little hand. “I haven’t seen you take a pill in a while, how're you doing with all the bugs and stuff?”
If she was honest with herself, so much had gone on and happened in the last few hours that she hadn’t been thinking about her allergies or her phobias. Like a typical Canterlot unicorn, she sniffed with her nose in the air. “If there is a bug, it is your job to remove it. Dead or alive.”
“Yes Mistress,” Stonecutter grinned and brushed her hand over Sparkler’s shoulder, dislodging a woodlouse that had hitched a ride. “Is that my only job, your personal bug remover?”
“I don't have a full stock of your skill set yet, but I do hope horn massages are one of them.”
“I'm sure I can learn.”
“I’m sure you can, too.” Sparkler was sure and certain that Stonecutter was not the stereotypical big dumb pony. Far from it. “And I expect you keep up your own personal appearance. You shall be as clean and presentable as you can be at all times. From what I saw of you earlier, you keep yourself trimmed, which I like, and once I got your mane cleaned, I could tell you kept it clean.”
Stonecutter blushed heavily at that. She hadn’t realised that she had shown off quite so much of her most intimate area when she had been cleaned by the side of the swamp. “That I can do. I might need a gentle reminding from my Mistress though, if I happen to have stone dust in my mane.”
Sparkler was sure she could do that. She was doing that in her mind right at that moment. “I like clothing that accentuates your curves. Your shorts really show off your thighs and your legs, but I think a tee one size smaller should look good on you.”
“You really think so?” Stonecutter looked down at her belly. The tee she was wearing was tight over it, though that may have something to do with it being dunked in a swamp and cloud laundered. She could only imagine how tight a smaller size would be.
Smiling, Sparkler placed her free hand on Stonecutter's belly. “I do think so. I bet you look really nice in a two piece…”
Stonecutter’s intense blush returned in full force, the slate grey mare’s cheeks turning very red indeed. “I-I h-haven't worn a swimsuit in ages, Mistress…” it had been an unequalled disaster and she had been laughed out of the swimming pool. Since then, she hadn’t even tried to wear anything like that. “Like I said before, I don't care what other ponies think. I care what you think.”
“I think I want to see you in a tiny two piece and me putting on the lotion…” Sparkler had to remover her hand from Stonecutter’s belly then because there was a fair amount of drool coming from the corner of her mouth that needed wiping away.
“I have one, in my closet. Mom bought it for me a couple of years ago. It's still in its wrapper.” Seeing as they were alone on the narrow path, and that she had already seen it, the earth pony smiled and lifted up the hem of her stained tee shirt, exposing her belly. “Just for you, Mistress.”
Before she placed her free hand back over her pet’s exposed belly, Sparkler bent and picked up yet another blue opal. They were at least on the right track to finding the cat. “I also expect you to make a sculpture of me. As a reminder of who owns your collar.”
“I'd be honoured to sculpt you. I'll even wear the two piece while I do it.”
Sparkler then got up on her hoof tips so she could whisper in Stonecutter's ear, “That will be more than I'll be wearing.”
Now, she was the one drooling. “Re-Really?”
“I'm not one to make idle statements. Just don't ask about my boasts!”
Stonecutter quickly kissed Sparkler’s nose and then her lips. “I like that. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Always the best way.”
“So,” Sparkler started once the kiss had been broken and they started to walk the path once more, “I don't know all the BDSM stuff that Cloudy does, obviously, but I know that if there is something you don't want to do, you need to let me know.”
“Do's and don'ts,” Stonecutter acknowledged with a smile, “I get you. No treadmill or Running of the Leaves,” she giggled, “Seriously though, I'll have to have a think on it because, you may have noticed, I'm not all that experienced myself, y'know, physically, I mean.” In fact she wasn’t experienced at all, outside of her right hand and the occasional movie when her heat kicked in.
“Running of the Leaves, what’s that?”
With a deep sigh in her voice, Stonecutter replied, “It's an annual race held in Ponyville every year before the weather pegasi bring on winter from Cloudsdale. Ponies who take part run through all the woods in town and the thundering of their hooves shake the leaves from the trees. I don't bother with it.” She hadn’t bothered with it since her weight began to pile up. Getting laughed at for coming last three years in a row twenty minutes after everypony else had finished wasn’t her idea of a fun time.
Sparkler shook her head. “Small towns are strange. Really, strange.” She then shot her pet a sly smile. “Still, I could take a front row seat to watch you on a treadmill for a few minutes.”
“How strict you are, to punish me so severely!” Stonecutter raised a dramatic hand to her forehead and she giggled, hoping that she might be joking about the treadmill.
“Putting you on a treadmill is severe punishment?” Sparkler asked, raising her eyebrow curiously. In her mind she was imagining how jiggly her marefriend would be on a treadmill, tied to it so she couldn’t get off unless she allowed it. It was a most pleasant thought and was now her favourite fantasy. “It would be a pleasure for me to watch you jiggle…I mean, run. For now though, spanking is my personal limit. Like I said, I've read a lot on the subject, and I saw one of mom's videos.”
“That sounds good to me. Start small and go from there together,” she kissed Sparkler's hand and, after picking up another opal, they walked together in silence, both mares content for the moment to share each others’ company. Presently, after a further thirty minutes walk, the narrow path opened out into a small forest clearing. In the centre was an ancient looking stone well. A few feet away from the well was the crumbling rotted remains of what once was a wooden hut, the occupants long since gone.
Stepping up to the well, Stonecutter and Sparkler saw that the edge was made up of a low stone wall that had been expertly dry fitted together with some considerable skill. A slate roof, covered in what may have been centuries of moss, sheltered the well from the sky. There was an old, rickety looking wooden handle attached to a wheel over the well that had been, at one time, used to raise and lower the rope that dropped down into the depths of the well.
Looking down over the wall of the well, Stonecutter peered into the darkness. She couldn’t make out the bottom, it was too far down. She also couldn’t believe that the old and frayed rope was still there. It looked to her like it might snap at any second. While the shadowy walls of the well disappeared deep underground, she could hear a faint meowing coming up from the darkness below. “Yeah,” she said, turning to Sparkler and Cloudburst who had landed beside her, “Opalescence is down there, alright.”
“Hey,” the pale blue pegasus spoke up, pointing to the board attached to the front of the well, “What’s that?”
“Hang on, I’ll have a look,” Sparkler lit her horn and used her magic to scrape away the cobwebs and the dirt that covered the face of the board. Once that was done, she could just about see some words written in an ancient equine language she thought looked familiar that formed two paragraphs.
“What the hay does that say?” Cloudburst looked over Sparkler’s shoulder but the words, faded by time, were incomprehensible to her.
“I have no idea, CB,” Stonecutter commented, “They make about as much sense as one of your essays that I have to sort out for you.”
Before Cloudburst could retort with a well timed raspberry, Sparkler held up her hoof for quiet. “It’s written in Old Ponish.” That dated the well to back beyond Nightmare Moon’s banishment, almost back to the unification of the tribes. It was inconceivable it was this well preserved after all this time.
“You can read Old Ponish?” asked the other two mares as one being.
Sparkler blushed. “There’s not much to do in the royal library besides read. Yes, I can read it, just about. Give me a moment.” When they grew quiet, she studied the first few lines of text. “I think it’s a warning of some kind. It says this is a magic wishing well…”
“A magic well?” Cloudburst interrupted with a laugh, “Really?”
“Really, now shush!” Sparkler turned her irriated gaze back to the wooden board. Now she thought about it, she could sense an old magic in the ground around the well. From the look on Stonecutter’s face, she knew the earth pony could feel it too. Old, ancient magic. “It says here that a long time ago, when the Sisters were young, ponies would come to the well and drop in gold bits, asking for wishes. At first the well granted those wishes, but, as more and more ponies came, it began demanding more and more offerings before granting them.”
“Wait…the well got greedy?” Cloudburst asked, shuddering when she heard Opalescence’s frightened meows.
“Yes, that’s what this says,” Sparkler sighed in frustration. “Now, it says the ponies couldn’t afford the offerings and they gradually stopped coming. Over time, the well was abandoned and the Everfree Forest grew around it.” She was about to read the second set of text when the faint words shone with a bright golden light. When they all looked again, the words were clear as day and written in current Equish for them all to read.
“I am a well of wishing and I wish you well,
You seek a pretty purring pet which down me fell.
My depth is great and my sides are steep,
What I have taken is mine to keep.
If you wish to save your feline friend,
With me your trinkets will have to end.
I wish for gold aplenty or a favourite toy.
A treasured necklace that brings you joy.
The most secret of recipes or a pair off rings,
What it is doesn’t matter, these are just things.
What I truly wish and will bring me great bliss,
Is for you to give me that which you’ll miss.”
“So…all we have to do is chuck some stuff in there and we get Opal back?” asked Cloudburst, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a handful of bits from her allowance that Seafoam had given her that morning.
“No.” Sparkler shook her head. “It’s not that easy. See the last bit? It has to be something that we’ll miss.”
“Pfft, it’s a well! How’s it going to know the difference between a gold bit and whatever else we throw down?” before they could stop her, the impulsive mare threw five gold bits into the well and tried to turn the handle to raise the bucket. Unfortunately, it was so old and rotted that it broke the instant she tried to use it.
“So, now what?” Stonecutter asked, feeling hopeless.
Sparkler rolled her eyes at the other two mares. “We have to give it things that are important to us!”
“Those bits were important to me!” Cloudburst protested, “I could’ve bought some salt lick with that!”
Sighing in annoyance, more so at discovering that her new friend had such a bad habit, Sparkler reached inside her bag and, reluctantly, she pulled out her new brass telescope she had bought at the market earlier in the morning. “Sparks,” Stonecutter was wide eyed, “What are you doing?”
“Being generous, don’t you get it? Professor Rarity, Generosity?” she explained likes she was addressing young foals. “CB, give it your harmonica, Stone, your sculpting kit.”
“What?” Cloudburst angrily flared her wings, “No way! I love that harmonica! It…it was my birthday present…”
“It’s okay, CB, I can get you another one, don’t you worry.”
“Not like this one!” Cloudburst took out her treasured instrument, “Stone gave it me when I was twelve, when mom and dad started doing regular Wonderbolts shows together, y’know, when I started seeing less and less of them.”
“I know, CB.” Sparkler held her telescope with a heavy heart. “This was to replace the one that daddy gave me, my last birthday before he split with mom.”
Stonecutter’s hands were trembling as she held her sculpting kit. “Momma and papa gave me these tools at my cutecinera. I did this sculpture at Cheerilee’s school and got my cutie mark for it.”
“Let’s just get this over with, before I change my mind,” Sparkler stepped up to the well and dropped her shiny new telescope into the dark depths. She was rewarded, almost instantly, by words of thanks from the well written magically on the board as well as a strange gurgling sound that was the water level rising. Opalescence’s meowing became clearer as she was brought up with it.
Sighing deeply, Stonecutter approached the well and with a heavy heart like Sparkler, she dropped her prized sculpting kit into the well. She too was rewarded with fresh words of thanks written on the wooden board. Seconds later and the gurgling sound of rushing water could be heard again. Looking down into the well, she saw Opalescence sat in the bucket, but too far down for her to reach. “Go on, CB. Your turn.”
“I…I can’t…” tears were streaking down her cheeks at the prospect of giving up her harmonica.
“It’s okay,” Sparkler placed her hand on Cloudburst’s right shoulder, “We’re here for you, CB.”
“And we love you, featherbrain.” Stonecutter rested her hand on her best friend’s other shoulder with a soft reassuring smile, she gestured to the well and the forelornly meowing cat.
“Fine…” before her resolve failed her completely, Cloudburst stepped up and dropped her harmonica into the well. She didn’t see the message of thanks that the well gave her though, because as soon as she let it go, she pulled away from her friends and, sitting on the grass, she wrapped her wings around herself and cried like a foal.
As much as Sparkler and Stonecutter wanted to go and comfort the pitifully sobbing pegasus, they couldn’t, right away because the bucket was raised all the way up revealing a very upset, very cold and very soggy Opalescence. Once the earth pony picked her up out of the bucket – Sparkler refused on principal to touch her until she was dry – the writing changed yet again on the board.
“With gifts and daring you have saved the cat.
It yowled and complained like an aristocrat!
Now leave me ponies, to my treasure hoard,
To my lonely existence, silent and bored.
Nopony ever visited for the longest time,
It makes me wonder why I bother to rhyme!”
“It’s lonely?” asked Sparkler incredulously as she took a dried Opalescence from Stonecutter and began to groom the disgruntled white cat while the earth pony tried valiantly to calm her still crying friend on the grass.
“Yes,” came the quick reply on the wooden board.
“You want company, is that what all this was for?” Sparkler wondered why she was conversing with a well but, on reflection, that wasn’t the strangest thing she had done that day. Her main focus though, as she groomed and combed the cat, was to make her look a bit less like a wrung out dishcloth.
“Yes…” this time the reply was slower in coming, like the well was wrestling with some inner turmoil, “Please.”
Sparkler’s first instinct was to tell the well where it could go, how far it could go and even draw the thing a diagram showing it how to get there. But, as she carefully combed Opalescence’s fur, getting a purr of gratitude from her, the unicorn was struck with a great degree of sympathy for the well. She knew what it was like, having no friends. “Why should we help you?” she asked, wary, “You’re a mean, greedy well!”
“I am…I am so-so-sorry.”
It sounded like that was a word the well hadn’t used in a very, very long time. Sparkler saw that Stonecutter had managed to calm Cloudburst and was now hugging the mare tightly. Grooming the cat, the unicorn was reminded of her recent friendship lessons, in particular generosity and forgiveness. “What if, once a month, we came back, and paid you a visit?”
“I should like that, very much, young pony.”
Stonecutter, cradling Cloudburst in her arms, looked at Sparkler like the unicorn had finally gone stark raving bonkers. However, she cut across her before the earth pony could say anything. “Very well then. In four weeks from today, we will come back. We’ll have a picnic here in this clearing and spend the whole day with you. What do you say?”
The wishing well, for its part, didn’t say anything. Sparkler though felt the magic in the area change, the aura felt different. The wheel turned under its own volition and the bucket descended into the depths of the well. With a loud gurgling noise, it raised up a few moments later bearing the three things the mares had given to the well. “Guys, look at this!” Sparkler looked incredulous, when she lifted up her telescope, it was clean, dry and pristine, like no water had touched it at all.
Similarly, the sculpting tools that Stonecutter had given were not just returned but they had been cleaned, as had Cloudburst’s harmonica. Everything was in better than new condition. “Pegasus,” the well had written, “This is for you, as you gave the most precious gift.”
Though she was still sniffling and rubbing her snot covered nose on the back of the sleeve of her school hoodie, Cloudburst tentatively looked into the bucket. She couldn’t believe her eyes. “This…is this for me?” when she received a ‘yes’, she reached in and reverently picked up the old, old General Firefly Wonderbolt doll with shaking hands. “Thank you!”
Each mare then placed their hand on the stone wall of the well and they introduced themselves one after the other, each making the promise to come back in four weeks. The well sent them one last message, a simple ‘thank you’, before it bid them a good day. What was left of the day, anyway. As they turned and walked back along the path, going back the way they came – Opalescence, still a little grumpy, was hiding away in Sparkler’s bag, seeing as how she was the only one not carrying a pet – they failed to notice the fiery, predatory, red eyes that stalked them.
The timberwolf was hungry.