"He's welcome to try to woo my Rapidash. I don't anticipate he'll have a lot of luck."

"We'll see, I suppose."

"Renée has tried it, many times, and doesn't get anywhere," Bella says, as she leaves the building, releases Rachis, and hops on. "Fireflower is not my friendliest."

"Tony has astonishing powers of charm."

"What has Renée tried?"

"Bribing her with treats into letting Renée pet her on the nose till she's sick of it and bites, and talking half-nonsense half-'you don't wanna hurt me do you' type stuff, and getting me to intercede on her behalf," says Bella. "I can get Fireflower not to bite her, but the properties of her actual fire parts are not in my control."

"I see," says Sherlock. "No, that does not sound like Tony's sort of strategy."

"What'll he do then? Or do I just have to wait and see?"

"I would not care to venture a guess, and I doubt Tony himself could tell you until the moment approaches."

"Fair enough. He can borrow her if he can talk her into it, that'll make things interesting."

"Won't it just?"

"Fireflower actually lost a race the other day. Not with me riding her, just me and another Ace both had Rapidashes and we sent them around the block four times and she just barely came in second. She was mad."

"My condolences to Fireflower."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate that. And she'll appreciate winning even more."

"No comment."

"You think Watson'll beat her?"

"I have never seen her run."

"She's fast," Bella asserts.

"So is Watson."

"Well then," laughs Bella, "this'll be interesting either way."

"Indeed."

"I'm getting up in altitude, it's gonna be hard to hear you. I'll see you in a day or two," Bella says.

"I'll see you then."

A day later, Bella swoops in by the lake tower on Rachis.