Chapter Three
Solar stretched, sat up and rubbed her eyes. The room around her was gloomy and strange. She didn’t recognise it… Ah. Yeah. The move. Walking across the room, she opened the curtains revealing the colourful village of Ponyville. Various ponies walked around their day, visiting stools and having conversations. She sighed and looked back at the room, the entire house was dusty and would need to be cleaned. Or at least, she wanted it to be. Slipping on her clothes she checked her bits. Oh, only twelve… She had burnt through that hundred bits pretty quickly. Luckily, she still had seven-hundred from the vault job and an extra hundred from the necklace.
The Ponyville Town Hall actually held a small Bank of Equus inside, in a separate area to the meeting hall. Inside the Town Hall was actually interesting, they had not only a meeting room but a bank, court, town records and the Mayor’s office. A few pegasi were gathered in the meeting room discussing weather and there was only one other customer in line for the bank. Walking down the queuing area, Solar was gestured to one of the three booths to speak to an employee. While she waited for the stallion behind the counter to withdraw some bits, about three hundred, she couldn’t help but hear the pegasus beside her mention a certain someone’s name.
“Oh, yes. It is rather nice, Rarity made it for me the other day, it wasn’t quite what I meant but I think it came out much better than my original design.” She was saying. The mare was yellow with pink hair and light turquoise eyes. She was wearing, what Solar assumed was, the afore mentioned design of Rarity’s, a green blouse and skirt which came to around her calf. “It was really meant to be something I could easily get hair out of after dealing with the animals, which it does perfectly.”
“That’s nice. I have heard Rarity is quite the magician with meeting requirements. She never discloses their details either, a very professional mare.” Replied the earth-pony behind the desk. She was, surprisingly, also yellow, with a sky-blue mane. Handing a check book to the customer, she smiled. “Well, there you go Fluttershy. Hope all goes well with your animals and don’t hesitate to bring to me if there is anything wrong with them.”
“Thank you, Doctor Fauna, I will keep that in mind. Goodbye.” Fluttershy answered before turning and walking out of the Town Hall. With a slight cough, the stallion behind the counter brought Solar’s attention back to her own business. He had a large pouch, which he handed her. She thanked him, and he nodded. With that done, she decided to take this sum back to her house and choose a logical amount to shop with. During her journey back, she noticed that even this charming town had its fair share of ruffians. A group of three stallions and a mare hung in the alleys between houses, throwing dirty glances at passers-by. They could prove to be a problem at some point. Returning to the house, she decided to check around for a safe to keep her unused coin. Sure enough, there was one in the main bedroom’s walk-in wardrobe.
Having stored her bits, Solar pulled on a jacket since it was actually rather chilly outside. The changing of the seasons was not long away, and the temperatures were dropping. She hadn’t used her leather jacket for a while since the days were usually kept at a regular temperature in Canterlot, those unicorn teams were good at what they did. Much like her other clothing, the coat was black and quite comfortable with a convenient pocket that was just the right size for her butterfly knife. Double checking her money, she confirmed that she had the hundred bits she was going to use when shopping. As she closed the pouch she felt a pang from her stomach. That’s right, I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning… There would be somewhere in town she could get some food from, it’s not like she could use the old kitchen in its current state.
There were more ponies in town than there had been this morning, midday was a busier time to be there she supposed. A few she recognised from the train station last night and far more she didn’t recognise. She did however, spot Rarity and Fluttershy talking, seated in a nice-looking café near the centre of the town. While she did want to talk to Rarity and meet Fluttershy, she felt sure she would be dragged off before she could buy her supplies, so she turned her attention back to the task at hand.
A nearby store named Squeaky-Clean offered many of the things she needed, washing supplies, cloths, dusters and a vacuum. The stallion at the store even offered to have the items teleported to her home, which cost a few extra bits, but it was worth it considering that Solar had no idea how to take all of that back by herself. Helpfully, when asked about where to buy necessary items the clerk pointed in her direction of a store called Hoof-Mart. Surprisingly, she did actually manage to find everything she needed. This time the items did actually fit into a bag, so she didn’t bother asking about teleportation, although the mare at the counter did ask if she lived nearby, apparently this town was quite good at knowing each other which meant that when Solar took future jobs on she would have to be sure not to be seen. If a wanted poster got around, or even an accurate description it may cause… Problems.
--------------------------------------------------❆--------------------------------------------------
Wiping the sweat from her brow, Solar looked around the room. It was the final one to do and she figured it was finally as clean as the others. The amount of dust there had actually been was absurd, at least the house was now liveable and actually very nice. While she had been cleaning she had found a basement with some magic based appliances for washing which she had used to clean the bedsheets. Content with the state of the house, she opened the curtains and sighed in relief. Would Rarity still be at the restaurant? It was unlikely since she had taken around three hours cleaning. Still, she had mentioned owning a boutique, didn’t she? Surely Solar could ask around and find it, she did actually need some clothing so if need be that could be used as an excuse. Walking to the gate, she noticed that the garden was quite overgrown. I’ll have to cut this all down at some point.
On her way to Rarity’s it began to rain, and she saw Fluttershy fiddling with keys to a cottage that stood even further from the village than Solar’s own house, if she had to guess she would say it was her home. Few ponies open a door to their friends’ house with groceries in their arms and get greeted by groups of animals. Besides, Doctor Fauna had referred to her animals earlier and not many ponies had homes full of animals. Ponyville didn’t actually have any cobbled roads, unless you counted the cobbled bridges, but rather just left bare grass between buildings. It gave the area a far more natural feel and Solar quite liked it, a welcome change from the usual surroundings of Canterlot.
Rarity’s boutique was larger than she had expected, with a lot of pink. It had two model ponies carved from wood on either side of the balcony that was attached to some kind of… Tower that sprouted from its centre. There was a sign on the front that showed a stylish pony wearing a dress with the words ‘The Carousel Boutique’ scrolled across the top and bottom in a cursive script. The front door was purple and had window at head height and she knocked, unsure if anyone would answer. For a few seconds she began to think that no-one was home, but as she turned to leave there came a kerfuffle of noise from inside. Like a bull had hit it, the door swung open revealing a white furred filly wearing a wet and dishevelled school uniform. Pink and magenta hair made up her curled mane, though it was quite messy, and her light green eyes stared at Solar with curiosity.
“Hello, uhm.” Dammit, what was her name! “Sweetie Belle, right?” Solar guessed, to be fair that conversation had been slightly forgotten after the hours of housework earlier. Sweetie Belle, who had to be around twelve or at least something similar, raised an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes.
“Do I… Know you?” She asked in a high voice, her expression showing an attempt at recognition that failed covered complete confusion. Like her sister, she was a unicorn, although clearly, she did not have quite the same love for clothing and cleanliness that her sister did. Judging from her creased shirt and slightly muddied stockings at least.
“No, but your sister, Rarity, does. I’m new in town and hoped she could help me out.” Solar began but was quickly cut short by the mare of the hour herself walking out from the back of the building.
“Sweetie, who is it?” Rarity called as she made her way to the door. It was actually quite a useless question to ask, since by the time she had finished the sentence she was standing beside her sister in the doorway. “Oh, Solar, good to see you! Are you here for the tour or something more business related?” No sooner had she asked that question did she actually glance at Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie! Your clothes! Please, please, please tell me you did not track wet mud into the house?” She cried, her eyes widening behind her glasses and her head moving back slightly, jostling the measuring tape around her neck.
“No! I took my shoes off by the door.” Sweetie huffed defiantly, crossing her arms.
“Well, that’s a small mercy at least. What in Equestria were you doing before you got here?” She folded her glasses and pulled the tape from her neck, stowing the former in her pocket and the latter on a table.
“Playing with Applebloom and Scootaloo at Sweet Apple Acres. Clothes just get dirty Rarity.” The filly retorted before going inside. True to her word her shoes were neatly placed beside the doormat, covered in mud.
“Go and change immediately. Dirt can be avoided but if you must insist of attracting it like a magnet then at least have the presence of mind to clean it once you’re finished.” Rarity replied, which sent Sweetie up the stairs. “Don’t mind her, she is quite sweet in most situations. She’s just moody right now, probably due to being caught in the rain with her friends. Anyway, do come in out of the rain. I’m sorry I didn’t offer that earlier, but it hadn’t really crossed my mind until now.” Rarity explained, moving aside to allow Solar in. The interior of the boutique was remarkably similar to the exterior, with a lot of pink and purple. I’d go mad living here… Luckily, her own home-made use of a lot of darker colours with most rooms being lined with spruce and coloured with varying reds, greens and greys.
“Thanks, originally I was going to ask about the town but... In this weather it would not be as fun. I do need clothes though, so I suppose you could help me with that if you aren’t too busy.” Solar said. Rarity’s eyes lit up and she nodded, closing the door and leading her upstairs. She was led into a large circular room that had shelves stocked with rolls of fabric, there was a large four poster bed against the wall and an area that consisted mostly of mannequins, sowing machines and clothes-racks. Apparently, Rarity worked in her bedroom, which made some sense. Looking around in confusion Rarity suddenly rushed back out of the room, only to return holding the measuring tape from earlier.
“Ok, darling. If you would just take your jacket off and stand with your arms out straight and legs slightly out I can take your measurements.” She said, slightly out of breath from her run. Solar obliged, her legs apart and her arms out to her sides and her legs slightly apart. Grabbing a notebook and pen off a desk, Rarity began wrapping the tape around different sections of Solar’s body before writing some numbers down. Every now and then she looked surprised at what she wrote, double checking herself but then she merely continued on. Starting at her ankle, she moved up to her calf, thigh, rear, waist, chest, biceps, forearms and neck. Solar felt slightly awkward, but it made sense that custom clothing would require custom measurements, it wasn’t exactly her regular habitat to be standing still for measurements or to be this close to another pony.
“While I generally try not to pry into customers reasonings or… Anything. You are quite thin for somepony of your age, Solar.” Rarity said, moving her eyes from her notebook to look at her in concern. In hindsight Solar was actually not doing to well in terms of food, she had actually not visited a restaurant as she had planned to earlier and hadn’t eaten anything for almost two days, no wonder she was having pangs of hunger. When she visited ‘Hoof-Mart’ earlier she had bought some cans of food, in case, and a few other food items which she could eat when she got back.
“Oh. Sorry about that. Perks of financial issues I guess. Now that I have some more bits that should solve itself.” She joked, nonchalantly, hoping Rarity would drop the subject. She obliged and just nodded before writing in her notebook again.
“Okay, well if you are right about having more bits then I may as well tell you the price it would cost to have this made. Generally it would be around eighty bits to have clothing made for you, depending on what you want made. So, what would you like? Or do you not have an opinion on it?” Closing her notebook, she swung her arms with a smile on her face. Her horn illuminated with a blue glow and a cup of half-drunken tea floated over to her waiting hand which she drank as Solar considered.
She realised that she had no idea what she would actually wear. “To be honest, I don’t know. Just some guidelines I suppose, dark, comfortable and casual I suppose. Although for the footwear I always have and have a feeling I always will wear knee-length boots.” Honestly, she had always just worn what she could, which was usually a shirt and jean combination.
“Of course, I do boots all the time. I get a lot of ponies who don’t know what they want, in fact that usually ends up being most of my job, deciding what will look good on them.” She chatted idly, as she wrote Solar’s word in her notebook. Crossing a large line along the paper, she wrote in larger letters ‘Solar Eclipse’ and closed it. “Well, I’ll get to work on that and let you know when it’s done. If you have any epiphanies on specifics, then let me know and I’ll implement them.” She smiled and put the notebook in her pocket, turning to the doorway. “Well, I suppose that’s all for now. I’m sorry I can’t take you around Ponyville today, but the rain is just too much. Did you settle into your new house well?” Solar then noticed the window, it was dark outside, she would have to get home.
“Yes, thank you. Well if that is all I suppose it is getting late. I hate to cut our visit rather short, but I have to get back for now.” She said, making her way to the front door and pulling her jacket on.
“Of course, I have to see to Sweetie Belle anyway. Hopefully tomorrow we can go around town. It is still raining out there, I have an umbrella you can borrow. Just please remember to return it at some point, I only have so many and the last time I lent one I never saw it again. Goodnight” Rarity picked an umbrella out of a stand by the door and handed it to Solar.
“Thank you, Rarity, I’ll try and bring it by tomorrow. Goodnight.” Solar opened the door and walked out before opening the umbrella. It did as umbrellas do and stopped the rain as she made her way through the dark paths of Ponyville to her home. Thank Celestia they have streetlights.
--------------------------------------------------❆--------------------------------------------------
What Rarity had said poked into Solar’s mind as she walked out of the rain. Locking up the door, she decided to make some food since she was starving. A delicious can of stewed apple later and she felt much better. Entering her bedroom, she stripped off her clothes and laid back in the freshly washed sheets. The bed was far more comfortable since its wash and she felt the bliss of comfort wash over her. It had been about a decade since she had lain a comfortable bed. Feeling her fur against the sheets reminded her of the facility. That, after all, was the last she had a sheet since in the clocktower she had simply laid on top of the improvised bed. Thinking about that place brought something new, another pang, not from her stomach though, just a very slight throbbing in her fangs. Damn, this soon? She had hoped that it would be far longer before she would need to feed again. Risking her reputation in this town would not be worth the risk, she would either have to deal with the discomfort until her next job and hope no-one notices the lightening discolouration in her fur or… Would that… Work?
Flicking open her butterfly knife, Solar looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Was she really about to do this? If anyone caught sight of it, they would certainly misunderstand. Sighing, she slid the blade quickly along her wrist, cutting it. Quickly, she locked her lips over the wound and began to drink her own blood. She had never managed to actually sink her fangs into her own arm but this… seemed to be working. The throbbing in her teeth died down and the delicious taste she recognised flooded her mouth, though it was nowhere as prominent. Having to pull herself away from her arm she wrapped a magically sealing plaster over the wound which she then covered with a bandage, successfully bandaging the wound. Washing the blade, she looked at herself in the mirror, seeing the slight red tinge leave her irises. If anyone asked she would just have to say she slipped with a breadknife, they should buy the excuse. It was then that she noticed her mane in the mirror, it was darker than usual and very messy. While the modifications to her had usually stopped the need to shower, they didn’t affect her mane. Taking a shower would do the trick but doing so before bed would be rather pointless. She would do it tomorrow.
Turning off the lights, she laid her head on her pillow. Her mind wandered, imagining scenarios and making plans for them. If her new method of feeding failed? Take on a job and take on an opportunity. If Rarity or anyone saw her fangs? Oh. What would she do? How could someone explain their way out of that? A relative being a bat-pony maybe? A curse? If the time comes then hopefully all present will buy one of those reasons. Probably the bat-pony one. As her mind wandered from plans to play she began to imagine various scenarios she had to break through. Soon, however, sleep won the battle of consciousness.
Gasping, she tried to sit up and quickly gave herself whiplash from the restraints on her limbs. She was still in the facility. Lying back, she tried to fiddle herself out of her restraints. No impact was made when a voice beside her began to speak, causing her to freeze in fear.
“I wouldn’t do that if that I were you.” The voice was male and clearly trying to sound kind. “You’ll hurt yourself doing that. I’ll open them for you.” A pair of hands made their way to each of her restraints, one by one undoing them. With her new-found freedom, she turned to sit on the bed. She was wearing some sort of white gown which ended between her thighs and knees. The stallion sitting in front of her had a brown mane in a simple comb-over style. His fur was not much different, being more of a brown-tan colour. He had green eyes and was wearing a shirt with smart trousers. There was a suit jacket draped over his chair which, much like the rest of her room, was bleak and minimalist. “Do you know who I am?” He asked gently. Shaking her head, Solar looked around the room, hoping for some deus ex machina. An open door or something. No, too easy, they were never that sloppy. “I am Fleet, Blueblood assigned me to look after you during your… Treatment.” Blueblood. That damn name haunted her, all the staff mentioned it at one point or another. What did he want with her?
“Look after me how?” She pressed, slightly worried as to what he meant. Looking over a clipboard, Fleet stared at her for a little bit. “Like, make sure I don’t die or something?” She continued, not sure what she would need looking after for here. She may be just a filly, but it wasn’t like anyone came in here who wanted her dead. Or at least, were willing to actually act upon it.
“No, well kind of. I’m here to explain to you what is happening to you, why it is a good thing and to make sure you are mentally healthy as best I can. I’m sort of like a therapist, but I would rather you view me as a friend.” Fleet smiled warmly and looked back at his clipboard. “You know, you are quite the little anomaly right now. Your natural scent resembles roses, you are growing teeth no other ponies possess and this isn’t even all the modifications that will be made. But, even before you came here, you were special. Have you seen your cutiemark, Solar?”
“Yes, it’s some sort of moon with rays coming from it. Why does that matter?” She didn’t know what it represented and frankly, she didn’t even know why it appeared. During an inspection one day, she had been in the corner of her room, drawing on the wall with a pencil one of the researchers had dropped and hadn’t even noticed the stallion walk in before he walked back out. At that point her hip had begun to glow and before she could check it a group pushed their way into the room and began inspecting it before one of them pointed her out to the others. She was then asked repeatedly why she hadn’t been in the room earlier, but she maintained that she had. Eventually they concluded that she had been, and the earlier stallion was mocked for not seeing her, though he continually said she hadn’t been in there. Annoyingly they took her pencil too. Eventually the mark had been noticed and she once again was given a slap on the wrist for not saying anything about it; it wasn’t exactly her fault in her opinion because they had never mentioned her reporting strange marks to them but apparently it was big news.
“Well, Solar, that mark represents manipulation, basically you can hide, lie, flank and seduce your way through many things. We realised that when the guard sent to your room didn’t notice you despite the room’s size. Even the group took a while to see you. You were far more suited to this than we thought.” Fleet said, bringing her back to reality. “Now, I will be here for you to answer your questions, so I want you to promise me that you will tell me anything that bothers you, alright? For now though it will have to wait, as some ponies are waiting to see you.” He stood up and donned his jacket. As he stood in the corner several doctors and nurses entered with a cart and a guard. The guard pushed her down on the bed and roughly put her restraints back on. On the faces of all the ponies around her were either expressions of disapproval or concentration. All but Fleet’s. He showed slight sorrow and even flinched when the guard pulled her arm up to a strap. At least he showed some morality.