#fireflare

Fireflare pulled her hoof back from the door, giving her wife a look. "I don't know if this a good idea."

"Well, it's a lot better than just going in blind," Wishing Star pointed out.

"I mean, we'll have to tell them about, uh..."

The unicorn mare sighed. "I get that you're trying to protect me. I really do. But... if I can't handle it for him, then we're really going to be screwed over."

"I..." Fireflare's wings drooped. "I guess you're right."

"Look, they're a happy, healthy couple with three kids of their own. I'm sure they'll be happy to help out!" Wishing Star smiled. "What, are you embarrassed?"

The pegasus glanced away, a mild blush on her face.

"...Oh dear Celestia." Wishing Star put a brown hoof to her mouth, trying to hide a giggle. "Really? After all this time?"

(ChanceMod: The following is an rp between myself and the mod for Fireflare, who has four kids at the pony playground. It was a bit massive to record but they went to the effort to compile it in a readable form. So enjoy two parents getting to know each other :) )

Little foals, in general, have to come from somewhere. Or more specifically, somepony. This story chronicles the first meeting of two such someponies as they watch their foals on the pony playground.

***

A red pegasus stood off a fair distance from the playground equipment, her orange eyes darting over the crowd of entertained children. She idly tucked a strand of her mane back under her hat; it soon broke free again, a yellow thread flowing unnoticed in the wind.

"Well... Playground sure is shiny." The pegasus flicked her large wings, adjusting the cyan vest she wore. "Hmmm."

Her ears flicked at the clip clop of an approaching pony. She turned to see a green unicorn sit down, shed his saddlebags, and pull out a raggedy map.

"Hoofington, Hoofington... I could have sworn it was east off here... I must have gotten turned around.. again." The stallion sighed, glancing at the nearby playground. "Well at least Spirit's happy," he mused, chuckling a bit. "Maybe we could set up camp near by for a little bit... hmm..."

The pegasus rolled her eyes, walking over to the unicorn with a shake of her head. "Maps don't work here. It's a magic... thingy, my wife would be better able to explain it."

"Magic huh?" The unicorn blinked, setting the map down. "Figures. It's never been my strong suit, this horn's only really good for lifting things." He chuckled a bit at his joke, adjusting the yellow martial arts shirt he was wearing.

That got a sympathetic smirk out of the pegasus. "Name's Fireflare." She turned back to the playground, her eyes roving over the frolicking foals. "Mine are out there... that one with the alicorn's my youngest, those two over there are my eldest and... oh, there's Comet Trail! Which one's yours?"

"Nice to meet you Miss Fireflare." The stallion took her proffered hoof. "Name's Chance Meeting. Four? I'm impressed, I can barely handle just Spirit." He glanced at the playground, eventually pointing out a wild-haired earth pony missing part of her ear. "That's my filly, I believe she's... yes, looks like she's investigating the the merry-go-round." 

He shook his head, smiling to himself as the map was folded up and put back into his saddlebags. "You're welcome to have a seat, Plenty of room. So you're here alone? your... wife around somewhere?"

"Wishing Star's back home, doing... work. And yes, I'm a mare," Fireflare confirmed with a smirk. "Transgender pins."

She tilted her head away for a moment, her voice almost inaudible. "For the most part..." 

"Er, s-sorry, I didn't mean to be rude or anything. I was just curious..." Chance Meeting coughed awkwardly. "Nevermind."

Fireflare shook her head, shrugging off her own negative emotions. "Anywho, the way Starry described it, this place is.... hmm. Okay, you know Drakes? Eight foot tall lizard people, HUGE jaws, believe they're descneded from dragons or... are dragons, it varies from tribe to tribe. Basically, they're wannabe dragons, but they can't breathe fire or have wings cause they aren't actually... dragon... That's what this place is. It's not actually a universe but it wants to be, so it's linking to other universes and... yeah.... I'm complete horseapples at explaining this."

"...Ahh okay." Chance Meeting shook his head, chuckling at the strangeness of the explanation. "It's another one of those places... I've stumbled into a few in my travels. Though I don't think it's HER doing this time," he muttered to himself, glancing cautiously around. "I didn't see any eyes... "

"Your filly looks like she's been through a lot," the pegasus commented, looking out at the playground again.

"Yes, she has. She's such a cheerful child you wouldn't realize it, if it weren't obvious just by looking at her..." The unicorn's expression grew somber. "She's not MINE, by that I mean I adopted her a bout half a year ago, Her birth mother is...

He snorted, his hoof pressing into the ground as he stood. After a moment, he took a deep breath.

"Her birth mother was not a good pony, she was left to fend for herself in an enchanted wood when she was hardly old enough to speak. She's a strong filly though, by the time I met her she owned that place. The ponies outside the forest believed she was the guardian spirit of the woods." Chance laughed warmly at the memory. "You should have seen the look on their faces when they found the truth... But I'm getting off track. Spirit's been through a lot, so I try my best to make sure things go well for her now that she's with me... Though wandering around the countryside isn't exactly the best way to raise a filly. I guess I'm fortunate she's so 'woodsy'." 

He sighed, shaking his head.

Afer a moment, he turned back to Fireflare. "So if e're at a crossing point it's likely we're from different worlds. So what's yours like? By the way your carry yourself I'd venture you've led an active life..."

Fireflare consider the question. "Well... " She paused, trying to think of a good base point. "Okay, first off, how long ago was the return of Nightmare Moon for you?"

"Hmm." Chance pursed his lips thoughtfully "That was the unusually long night from a while back, right? I think I was in Neighpon back then before--"

He stopped himself for a moment.

"...Right, so about a year ago, maybe a bit more?"

The pegasus snorted, amused. "Wow, nostalgia. For me, it was around twenty five years. Still in college back then, went bar hopping with my buddy... even convinced him to take me to the Big Triple G, worst mistake of my life." She chuckled fondly. "But totally worth it to see that drunk unicorn rail the prince. Anywho, I was paying college tuition with a combination of winnings from my childhood martial arts contests and juggling three jobs, basically slept out in the park cause an apartment was too expensive... and once I graduated I joined up with the Demipower Aggressor Intervention Agency. Basically, mercenary monster hunters."

She waggled a hoof, realizing what she had said wasn't quite true. "Well, technically we could talk them down, but, you know, lots of monsters are animals and don't understand speech... spent around twenty years doing that. Then I fell in love with a mare from Fillydelphia, got married, retired, moved to Canterlot again... A lot of weird stuff went down in world politics around that time, but things are mostly cool now."