06:51 AM
“Well, no matter," Rarity assured herself, “Sane or otherwise, the plan remains unchanged. This is fine." She nodded resolutely. "That's right. Everything is fine. Just find Twi and tell her what's going on. She’ll know what to do.” She stood still a moment longer and muttered to herself after a few blinks. “She'll know what to do about four girls in various levels of sanity, or lack thereof, scattered throughout an unknown town on an alien world while residing in alien bodies we know nothing about and full of alien magic we cannot control.”
Rarity looked past the little hill Applejack had disappeared over, hoping to see a pony with a familiar color scheme or hat reappear further down where the land leveled out, but no such ponies appeared. She looked around for pink, a color that so often stood out, and found an unusually high amount, but nothing pony-shaped. She looked up and found several ponies with wings flying about, but none were bright yellow or had rainbow-striped hair or tails. “Yes, this is fine. This was the plan. I just have to pick a direction, find a pony with features I recognize, and ask them where the princess is. What could possibly go wrong?”
Rarity closed her eyes, sighed, and mentally chastised herself for asking such a forbidden question.
“Alright then!" With her eyes still closed, Rarity began to turn around intending to pick a random direction but stopped when she felt a slight buzzing that startled her, causing her to lose her balance and almost stumble to her side. The buzzing subsided and she opened her eyes but saw nothing that could have caused it.
Thinking it best to keep her eyes open instead, she took in her surroundings. Twi's palace stood tall in front of her, seemingly an actual tree made out of crystal. A majestic sight. A thick trunk leading up to a multistory living area with multiple balconies. Above them a center spire grew into to the Twilights’ sign, or 'cute mark' as seemed to be the local nomenclature.
To the left was the hill Applejack had disappeared over. Left of that was mostly greenery: grassy fields sparsely populated with trees, shrubbery, and residential-looking huts. Turning further left …
“A marketplace!” Rarity smiled. "Perhaps there’s a boutique! I don't have any money, and Twi is unlikely to just happen to be in such a place right at this moment, but I could really use a quick stroll through my happy place to calm my nerves right now. Perhaps I’ll even find pony Rarity.”
Before setting off, she carefully scooped up the dress Applejack had so rudely discarded and brought it back inside. Without hands, Rarity could only think to balance the dress over one of her forelegs and flip it up over her back. The dress met the ground a few more times, and got up close and personal with Rarity’s face twice, but eventually came to rest on her back as intended. Getting it off was easier, but Rarity was glad no one had seen her shimmy in encouraging it to slide off of her and onto a bench inside the palace’s foyer.
Leaving the palace, and closing the door behind her again, Rarity finally set out. As she walked, as carefully as she could so as to not trip over herself in public, she looked left and right to take in the sights. Oddly, the buzzing from before kept reappearing in fits and starts, never all that strong, but enough to start getting annoying.
Eventually, while pausing in front of a jewelry store, Rarity could no longer ignore the buzzing and shook her head thinking small insects—horseflies?—were flying around her. No such bugs revealed themselves but Rarity noticed that the buzzing was strongest when facing the shop. A glance into the window brought a light blue glow to her attention and she leaned forward to get a closer look.
“What is—?”
Bonk
“Ow!” Rarity backed up a step having banged her horn into the shop window. “That’s going to take some getting used to,” she muttered to herself while glancing up at it only to realize the appendage itself was the source of the glow.
“Aah! My horn’s glowing!” she shouted in surprise. “W-what do I do?!”
Rarity turned and looked into the crowd. Earth pony, earth pony, pegasus, earth pony, pegasus, unicorn!
“Miss!” she called to the first unicorn she saw while moving toward her as fast as she could without falling. Her resulting gait not unlike a drunken stupor. “I … I have a horny problem!”
The unicorn mare startled back a step at Rarity’s advance. “Um, a what problem?”
“Could you help me with my horn?”
“Uh …,” was the unicorn’s reply. “I-in what way?”
“Can you douse my horn, darling?”
The mare’s eyes widened sharply. “I, uh, don’t think we know each other well enough.”
With that the mare galloped away leaving Rarity to look on at the audience the conversation had attracted. At least seven ponies, including a few unicorns, were giving her some very strange looks.
Rarity froze and shifted her eyes left and right, and then up at the sound of wings indicating her audience was even larger. That glance up also revealed that her horn had lost its glow.
“Ha!” she barked out a laugh. “Ha, ha … ha, w-would you look at that; it stopped! Everything’s fine! Absolutely fine. If you’ll all excuse me ….”
Carefully placing one hoof behind the other Rarity slowly backed up, remembering almost too late that she had four legs now instead of two and rushed her forelegs backward to keep up with the hind pair before her barrel touched the ground. Noticing that her behavior only attracted more strange looks, Rarity quickly came up with a fool-proof exit strategy.
“Is that Sapphire Shores?!” she yelled, pointing off in the distance behind her audience. Once all the ponies turned, Rarity made use of Pinkie’s earlier discovery and jumped with all four legs, pronking as fast as she could around the nearest corner.
Embarrassing and unladylike, the first three pronks were nevertheless effective in getting her around the corner. The fourth pronk got her privacy.
The fifth put her face in the dirt.
It wasn’t long before she heard the confused murmurings of ponies noticing there was no Sapphire Shores to beg autographs from. She was just righting herself and about to begin the process of brushing herself clean when she became aware of some of the voices, and footsteps—hoofsteps?—, growing closer. She began to slink back, looking for a dignified escape when a loud pair of crashes sounded from deeper within the marketplace drawing attention away from her.
*** *** ***
07:04 AM
After sneaking away, during the convenient diversion, Rarity continued further into the marketplace, her horn still buzzing from time to time.
“What are you doing up there?” she growled at it.
“Who me?” asked a pegasus coming in for a landing.
“Oh no, no. Ha, ha. Just talking to myself.”
Rarity slipped around another corner, into an empty alley, and sighed, closing her eyes. This only served to intensify the buzzing. She groaned and dipped her head. The buzzing changed in pitch. Confused, she tried moving her head around, effectively pointing her horn in different directions, each giving off different pitches and intensities like a radio or old TV homing in on a signal.
“What? Are you trying to lead me somewhere?” she asked her horn. “Is that something you can do? Do you know where Twilight is?” A moment later she blushed realizing she was essentially talking to herself and expecting an answer. Instead she set off again, this time following her horn.
“Well, I’ve heard of following one’s nose,” she mused to herself. “I suppose this isn’t too far from that.”
Grocery store. Hospital. Dentist clinic. Florist. Restaurant … also selling flowers, but as food, apparently. Quills and Sofas … what an odd combination.
A commotion near that oddly-named shop brought her attention to a pile of sofas, one with a hole in the back.
She was about to question the nearest pony about the scene when she realized that her horn was apparently detecting multiple signals, or whatever it was her horn was buzzing about, and some buzzings were stronger than others.
Deciding her horn was the more pressing concern, she following the strongest ‘signal’ and came to a delightful-looking building that seemed to look like a cross between a tent and a castle, or a merry-go-round. It was wonderfully decorated in blues, yellows, and purples with silhouettes of prancing ponies on an upper level. For a sign there was another pony silhouette wearing a dress and bridle.
“A boutique!” Rarity cheered. “All is forgiven, horn. You do know what I like.”
Rarity stepped closer to the front door, noting ironically it was an old-fashioned stable door. Sadly, there was a sign hanging on the top portion.
~
Carousel Boutique
Reduced hours due to business abroad
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Very sorry for the inconvenience
~
“Aw,” Rarity pouted and checked the clock tower in the distance. “That’s not for another three hours. What kind of proprietor leaves behind a perfectly good boutique without an employee to see to customers?”
Not ready to move on, Rarity peeked through a window and gasped.
“Oh my! Those are wonderful designs. Dresses, hats, shoes! Designer saddles and saddlebags. Even chic headdresses with lace bridles too. Sundresses by the windows to catch the morning light. Oh, those look like Shadow Spade costumes! Rarity shifted to another window for a closer look. “What attention to detail!”
Her eyes wandered over the dresses and, purely by happenstance, fell upon a sign with a familiar logo.
“That’s my logo! Is this my shop? I mean, pony Rarity’s shop?” She looked again and noticed several designs quite similar to her own works, just for four-legged bodies.
Rarity looked to the closed sign and bit her lip. “Oh please be like Caneighdians and leave your doors unlocked!”
She got to the door, happy to see rotating handles rather than round door knobs, and hooked a pastern in the upper door’s handle to give it a twist.
Click
“Eeee!” Rarity squealed (in a ladylike manner of course) as the door opened, but frowned when the lower door remained shut. “No matter,” she giggled, moving to turn the lower handle as well. Except the lower handle wouldn’t move.
She stood there, looking at the tantalizing wares within the boutique through the open upper half of the door. She looked around, she looked up. Ponies milling about around town, but all with their attentions elsewhere. She gathered her four legs, looked at the opened portion of the door with determination, and pronked.
Thud
If at first you don’t succeed ….
The second attempt managed to clear the lower door without adding to her head, and horn, aches but left her stranded on top of that door with her forelegs inside the glorious shop, and her rear, including legs, hanging outside.
Rarity risked another look behind her to check her dignity, happily noting that no one had yet to take notice, and wiggled herself forward. She faceplanted with a thunk; her lower half later sliding sideways to join the rest of her on the floor.
“Ow.”
Outside, a light olive earth pony watching, hidden within a bush, sneaked away unseen.
Rarity stood and took in her surroundings within the boutique. Absently she drew forward, her legs seeming to act without command.
And then so did her horn.
Shining brighter than ever before, Rarity’s attention was taken off the wonders within the boutique and up to her own forehead, and then the floor when she realized her horn wasn’t just lit but also dragging her whole body across the room.
“Horn! I can walk well enough!” Rarity tried to demonstrate by lifting a hoof, only to trip over her other three and end up on the floor again.. “Horn, stop!”
When her horn ignored her, Rarity looked ahead at her apparent destination. What appeared to be a closet.
The closet door was closed.
And looked rather solid.
Thunk
“Ow.”
Rarity took a calming breath and stood, growling up at her horn. “Alright, horn. What is so important you had to throw you and me both into a closed door?!”
She reached up to grab the door’s handle but stopped when she realized there was no handle and rather a plain, round door knob. She looked at her hooves. “Now why would hooved creatures design round door knobs?
“I don’t suppose you can do something about this?” she looked up and asked her horn.
She received no reply.
Left on her own, she reared back onto her hind legs and trapped the doorknob between her forelegs. She squeezed her forelegs around the doorknob and twisted. However, the doorknob refused to budge for she could get no traction while wearing the stockings from Twi’s armoire.
Dropping back to all fours, Rarity tried to strip out of the stockings by trapping one under a hoof and pulling. This proved to be of little effect as the stockings were well fitted and had little traction over each other.
For plan B, Rarity carefully bit the end of one to pull it off with her teeth. This gave her a gross reminder that she had been walking around town with them on.
For plan C, Rarity worked from the top, rolling the fabric down her legs until both stockings popped off.
Forelegs now naked, she frowned at the black ink stain on her hoof, but tried the doorknob again.
She reared back onto her hind legs and trapped the doorknob between her forelegs. She squeezed her forelegs around the doorknob and twisted. And twisted. And twisted. And lost her balance.
Pulling herself up off the floor again, Rarity fumed, scowling at her hooves and then the doorknob. “I’m going back to the dresses, thank you very much!” Rarity declared at any interested parties and turned back to the room full of wonderful designs.
Her horn had other ideas, however.
Thunk
“Ow.”
Rarity looked up from the closet door her face had again been pressed against. A brief glimpse of murder in her eyes.
“Fine!” she declared. “I can figure this out. All these ponies have hooves, they can’t all be stumped by doorknobs.”
Looking closer at the doorknob she realized it wasn’t perfectly round, like many doorknobs back home, as it was slightly elongated, being taller than wide, and had a bowl shape at the top. Switching to look at her hoof revealed similar. In fact, the nail growing out of her hoof was somewhat heart-shaped, with a dip at the top, unlike equines in her own world.
She raised one leg to the doorknob and placed a whole hoof over it. The hoof and nail were even flexible, allowing her to squeeze for a better fit. A simple twist at the pastern opened the door easily.
She looked down at her hoof again, flexing it, noticing that she could flex it so far as to join the open tips like two fingers, making it truly heart-shaped. “Well. A heart in every hoof. That’s rather adorable.”
Finally inside the closet, her horn lit up again, actually being useful this time as the room was quite dark. The buzzing returned and Rarity felt herself drawn forward to what appeared to be a treasure chest.
Thankfully the latch was already open and Rarity was able to simply push up on the cover to open the chest.
Inside, lit by the soft blue light of her horn, were gems. Gems of all sorts. Rubies, sapphires, opals, diamonds.
Rarity’s eyes widened, her breath caught, two of her knees gave out and she clung to the rim of the chest.
“Oh my.”
With a hoof hooked over the rim she touched a few. They were real. She pushed a few around. There were more underneath. She scooped a diamond up into her hoof. She named it Jerry. She smelled Jerry. He … didn’t really have much of a smell. Something she had always wondered about. But he was gorgeous.
“Oh my. Just … just one of these could … NO! These are not mine,” Rarity warred with herself. “These belong to pony Rarity. But she wouldn’t mind sharing, right? I suppose we are sisters after a fashion. Why … how does she even …? Wait!”
Rarity carefully, and reluctantly, put Jerry back in with the other gems, turned around and started toward the main room, but stopped after a few steps and looked challengingly at her horn. She slowly swung her head around a little bit, and gave it a few taps. It didn’t light up and there was no buzzing so she continued on but still kept a wary eye on it.
Back among the lovelies, Rarity got closer and took in more details. “A diamond studded saddle? Rubies in this headdress? Opals lining these boots? This whole belt is just strung together gems!”
She checked the price tags but the numbers didn’t mean anything to her without having any point of reference with the Equestrian economy. Then she noticed a simple handkerchief—hoofkerchief?—behind the counter with her cute mark in the corner. Those diamonds weren’t printed on but rather real diamonds arranged to match the design. "Hopefully that's just ornamental and not functional. Such a cloth could be painful if the user is not careful."
Lost in thought, Rarity kept walking, leaving the shop and heading into the residential portion of the building.
“These gems aren’t for her. They’re nothing to her except one more tool to improve her designs for her customers. To make them …,” she looked up, taking in the new room she found herself in, “fabulous!” she gasped.
Rarity’s eyes sparkled brighter than any gem upon finding a back room filled with supplies and unfinished designs. Around the room were spools of thread, piles of materials, pony-shaped mannequins—poneighquins?—more gems, and photos and sketches of old designs.
“Her inspiration room!”
Finally, by the far wall, stood an easel holding a canvas with pony Rarity’s latest work, still unfinished.
“This? But, I … this is a design I’ve been working on!” She looked around at the supplies, thought back to the gems.
“And now I know how to finish it!”