5:00 A.M.
I couldn’t remember why I’d set myself an alarm. Oh, right, going to the police station to commit assault on two off-duty officers. I yawned and stretched a little. Saved memories brought me flickers from NotABug's point of view, talking to Stefanie and Perdition and the pair of them letting us have the master bedroom.
I considered where my hooves were and wasted not a moment in blushing. Rainbow most certainly knew I'd hold her like that, and by the curve of her smile (even in her sleep) she was perfectly fine with it.
Carefully—mindful of my horn's sharp edges—I extracted myself from the tangle I'd been in with Rainbow.
"Mmm. Rarity?"
Even in her sleep she knew which of us was which? My heart (or what I hoped was my heart) fluttered at the thought.
"It's too early, but I'm getting up," I said.
"Don't care. You're worth getting up early for. Besides, I wanna go to the gym before we walk into a trap at the police station."
I watched as Rainbow slipped out of her side of the bed stark naked. All sorts of happy thoughts bubbled through my head, not the least of which focusing on her tight belly, little pointed ears, and adorable wings.
"You're still ponied up," I said.
"That'll make a shower tough. Takes ages to shower without getting my feathers wet, and you don't want to see me if I let 'em get wet."
"Why don't you get a garbage bag and cover them? I know it's not the height of fashion, but I don't have time to make you something right this moment."
I had the pleasure of seeing Rainbow turn from her path to the bedroom and head to the door. Each step was a study in the perfection of the physical form, though I managed to think far enough to realize something.
"We have visitors staying. You might want to put on a shirt and shorts," I said.
She paused at the doorway, and I could almost hear her internal voice weighing up being seen versus the time to put something on. At last, she let out a sigh and made her way to my walk-in closet.
I rolled to my belly to get a good position to watch from. Changeling eyes certainly made watching your girlfriend get dressed in a darkened room quite the spectator sport.
"You're watching me, aren't ya?"
"Darling, would I do a thing like that?"
"You wouldn't have a few weeks ago. Want a better angle?"
The angle I had was already sufficient, but she obliged me without me breathing another word. Sadly, watching her get dressed was a short affair thanks to her only putting on an oversized shirt and boxers. I breathed a sad sigh when she straightened up.
"You were checking me out!"
She walked over to me and leaned forward so we were at eye-level. The biggest travesty was the shirt hid everything from my view.
"I love you, you silly buggo."
With a quick kiss on my nose, Rainbow turned and left the room. I hoped she didn't hear my little whine as she did so, but thanks to her pony ears I fear she had.
Alright, Rarity, shower and scrub that hard… I mentally fished for a word, then searched online for one. It was the same as I'd found before—chitin.
"Chitin?" I asked.
Experimenting with the word as I stood up, I rolled the sound of it around in my ears.
"Chitin, chitin, chitin. There has to be something better than that. It sounds horrible."
I turned on the shower taps with my magic, looked up better words than chitin, and sorted out what care items Rainbow would need when she returned. Shampoo, conditioner, body-wash—exoskeleton… no.
Testing the water myself was out—my sense of hot/cold were different from what they used to be. Rainbow could decide that herself when she returned. I carried the accouterments into the shower along with a hard brush and a tub of wax.
I bundled my mane and tail up with my magic and started scrubbing at my carapace. Oooh. That's a good one.
"Carapace, darling. It's just a carapace. Don't you love the sheen on my carapace? I waxed it just this morning."
Yes. I could really feel how this word worked, but I needed more. Repetitive descriptive words were not just the bane of bodice-rippers, they were also horridly tiring in conversation.
I had just gotten my scrubbing brush from my rump and back legs to my belly when Rainbow slipped into the shower with me. A glance revealed that she looked ridiculous with the black plastic bag over her wings, but I could hardly count it against her—this was in the name of fashion, after all.
"Don't look down," I said. "You will thank yourself for the extra care later. We can look to get you some kind of shower accessory later today."
"It's not so bad using it when it's just us in here together—Actually, being in here with you makes me forget it's even there."
I looked up at her, admiring the view as my eyes traveled upward, and let out a sad sigh again.
"I really must make sure I'm clean for today, or I'd transform and put on a repeat performance of last night."
Rainbow's eyes widened for a moment before her mouth curled up into the most smug smile I'd ever seen adorn her face.
"We don't have time for that, Rarity. We're up hours early, and I'm pretty sure we don't have time for that. It's tempting, though."
I nibbled at my lip as I thought about telling the world to wait a few hours for us to do all sorts of naughty things—again. Memories, at least how we stored them (somehow), were wonderful to play back in the last few minutes before sleep. Though that hadn’t been a problem last night.
Keeping up my scrubbing, I gave Rainbow some time with the shower head—her hair was far higher-maintenance than my silk.
"Pity. You'll be able to come with me today?" I asked.
"Wouldn't miss it. You just tell me, and I'll get us out of there faster than you can say darling," Rainbow Dash said.
"When I say darling, I like to take my time."
"Yeah, I noticed the way you say it is different. You want your mane and tail done?"
The offer of fingers to take care of my silk was too good to refuse. The treatment reminded me of the royal title Princess Luna had accorded me in Equestria. A queen would have servants to take care of her hair and skin and everything, but that wasn't right for me.
A spark of resistance against that spider-like controlling role flared within me. If I did such a thing and took over the world, who would be there to buy my dresses? Besides, I might be able to think incredibly fast, but I don't think running the world is something I'd like to spend my life on. If anything, it would be worse. I'd spend years for every day I sort through earth's problems.
That was not going to happen. Complicated I liked, but controlling the world levels of complicated were too much for this bug.
"I say it differently to you, Rainbow, because it has more meaning with you. You and NotABug are literally my darlings," I said. "And of course I'd love that. You expected me to beg?"
Her hands took me away to a wonderful land of luxury and delight. There was just something about having someone else handle your hair that made the situation sensual and relaxing—having it be Rainbow made it more so.
I let Rainbow pamper me. Let me be queen of the shower, then. I could definitely handle that.
By the time we both departed the shower, my chitin (the word worked fine in my head, but more research was needed) gleamed with its wax coat, and my mane and tail both hung with the slightest shine to it.
Glancing at Rainbow revealed her hair cascading down her back, between her wings and almost halfway to her rump. She'd freed her wings of their black plastic home the moment she'd gotten out, and now was focused on drying herself.
Watching Rainbow Dash move was definitely a spectator sport, at least for me.
"You know we'll need someone to be in charge of the boutique," Rainbow Dash said. "I'd suggest Byte and Bobbin being there together. You had that kid coming over today too."
"Vaunt. We'll just have to let Byte deal with her if she arrives before we're done helping the police. Do you want full makeup yet?" I asked.
"After breakfast. Whatever I eat will just smudge any lipstick I put on now. What are you smiling at?"
Stretching my back, I was again made aware of the fact that I don't seem to have bones anymore.
"Just hearing you concerned about your lipstick being smudged reminds me of how much you've changed for me," I said.
"Well, don't think I didn't hear about how you've been driving that car. What happened to the girl who couldn't handle my driving?"
Giving my tail a sharp few flicks as I pranced across the room, I let out a chirp of happiness.
"She still doesn't like having anyone else but her driving fast, but she likes you driving fast now. I think it has something to do with—"
Rainbow didn't just drive fast. I was caught up by my front legs and our lips touched. The embrace sparked all of those fantasies of being the heroine of a story caught up in the arms of some muscled hero on the cover. She wasn't a man, and I wasn't a woman, but we made it work until Rainbow's lips fell away.
"Got carried away there," Rainbow Dash said.
"I like it when you get carried away."
Dropping my forelegs back down to the floor, I walked to the doorway and caught Rainbow watching me as I walked out. Drat but it was nice to know she liked me. As I pranced down the hallway, I heard keyboard clacking coming from the living room.
I thought it was high time I stop just reacting to things as they come and looked at the camera feeds. 'Bee sat beside Stefanie on the couch while the latter tapped away furiously on a keyboard. Beside them, Perdition was asleep with his head resting against Stefanie's leg.
As I stepped into the living room, I chirped my wings softly. The response I got was underwhelming—neither so much as twitched.
Rather than disturb whatever they were doing on the laptops before them, I instead headed for the kitchen.
—Was that you chirping, Mom?— Bumblebee asked.
—You looked focused. What were you doing?—
—Stef taught me all kinds of fun things to do to take shortcuts with games, and now we're trying to take shortcuts into the AI simulation software that Windigo uses to run on computers. She said it would be neat if we could help find a way to attack that.—
To a normal human, I didn't spend long at all to recover from what my daughter had just told me. Digitally speaking, however, I was stunned.
—Mom?— Bumblebee asked.
—Sorry, dear, just a little early for me to be thinking this hard. It's wonderful to hear you're helping, just don't try to use any of these tricks on the financial computers, alright?—
—She already said that. She said not to use any of this stuff on computers that aren't ours.—
I chirped in relief. Stefanie teaching my daughter how to break into computer systems was a little more than I wanted to deal with right now, but she'd also ensured 'Bee knew not to do anything illegal. Score one point to Stefanie.
—That's good to hear, dear. Would you like some breakfast?— I asked.
The answer I got needed no interpretation. A flurry of chirping digitally was soon mirrored by 'Bee chirping aloud too.
"What's the matter?" Stefanie asked.
"Mom's making breakfast."
The sound of little hooves on the floor drew closer from the living room, but at the same time I heard some curious chirping coming from elsewhere in the house.
"You woke them all up," Rainbow Dash said. "Get ready for a tsunami."
I used my magic to turn the light on in the kitchen just as Rainbow reached the doorway. Actually feeling hungry, I used my magic further to start lifting out bowls and spoons for the healthy breakfast I knew was coming.
A string of words I didn't recognize came from Perdition, and I hoped none of my daughters had learned how to understand him yet, because it didn't sound like he enjoyed waking up.
Breakfast was mostly calm with even our digital conversations muted by the process of eating. When we were done, Bitwise jumped up to the counter from her chair and used her magic to collect all the bowls from the table.
—Thank you, dear,— I sent to Bitwise.
—I like helping with food. Do you think we can go and visit Chef Kit today?—
—Perhaps we could call and ask if Chef Soba would be interested in a helper?—
Bitwise almost flooded me in excited, digital chirps. I had to send her back a few more cautionary ones to calm her down.
—He may not need anybug, but it doesn't hurt to ask,— I sent.
—Thanks, Mom!—
The morning continued like clockwork. Rainbow and I went for a run, got back, had another quick shower together, and got ready for our day.
Routine was starting to develop in my life, but it was a routine I chose.
—Byte, Bobbin, would you dears be able to help me at the boutique today?— I asked.
Bobbin just gave an excited trill of chirps, but Byte sent a more inquisitive stream. I chirped back reassuringly while I worked out what I was going to say.
—I'll tell everyone together,— I sent.
Putting the finishing touches on Rainbow's makeup, I kissed her on the nose.
"I'm going to go tell the girls what we're doing today. Starling too if she gets here soon."
Rainbow's eyebrow rose a little while standing up. She was wearing a gray ankle-length dress with splits down the sides that should, I hoped, give her a bit more mobility than a normal dress.
"You should probably tell Starling regardless. Does she know about the fashion show?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Oh bother. I hadn't. I was building up a worried chirp when a strong, reassuring chirp echoed around my head.
—I told Starling about the fashion show,— NotABug sent. —Also, good morning.—
I jumped, quickly mentally hugging NotABug and chirping happily at her in relief. She wrapped me up in return and kissed me too. Learning to express ourselves digitally had been one of the most wonderful things to happen so far.
—You are a wonderful bug, you know that?— I asked.
—Of course, but saying it more and chirping about it helps me remember. The girls are waiting in the living room.—
Purposefully ignoring the camera feeds, I made my way down the hallway accompanied by the soft clacking of my hooves on wood. Starling was waiting with the girls.
"I'm going to the police station today. I'm not under arrest and they don't want to speak with me, but one of their officers contacted Mrs. Velvet and me yesterday—apparently SuriGo has been putting the screws on two of their officers."
The news had gotten a raised eyebrow from Starling until I got to the reason. Her neutral expression was gone and she looked like she'd gone as cold and hard as rock. My first instinct would have been to examine her aura—but I couldn't do that anymore.
"I won't leave them that way without a fight. Rainbow and Mrs. Velvet are coming with me. I'd like to take you too, Starling, but if this turned bad I don't think it's the kind of fight you could help with."
"Yeah, I get that, and I can hardly fault you for wanting to help others that are going through what you saved me from. It won't stop me from feeling bad that I can't help," Starling said.
Rainbow's footsteps behind me drew a relieved chirp both aloud and digital. She ran her hand from just forward of my tail—fingertips trailing across my exoskeleton (note to self, chitin is better than exoskeleton)—until she brought them up through my mane.
"You are helping," Rainbow Dash said. "My heart beats twice as fast when I worry about our girls. I couldn't bear thinking about any of them getting hurt. You help with that."
Starling had been leaning against the front door, almost looking like she was slouching. Now she stood straight and I could see that Rainbow had spoken the words I'd lacked.
I was just about to open my mouth to announce that it wouldn't stop the fashion show, when someone rang the doorbell. Then knocked. Then called out.
"Hello? Is anypony home?"
Surprise registered at the word she'd used. Having found myself using bug a lot more, hearing anyone say anypony was startling.
"Coming," Starling said.
As Starling turned back to the door, I jumped on the video feeds. Who stood at the front door wasn't as surprising as what they were wearing. A girl from high school, Derpy Hooves if I remember her name correctly, wore the oddest uniform I'd ever seen.
A brown blazer over a white shirt, dark gray pants, and a brown hat that had a logo on the front—wings with an arrow—adorned the woman, and she had a shoulder-bag stuffed with what looked like letters. She was, at that moment, pulling one of the letters out with her hand.
"Hi! I have a letter for…" Derpy Hooves said. "Oh! Rarity the Changeling. That's odd, the only Rarity I know is a unicorn, and I don't think she lives around here."
She wasn't making sense at all, at least not to a regular denizen of Earth. I stepped up behind Starling, keeping myself hidden behind the door she still only ever opened a little, and cleared my throat.
"Starling, she's okay. I don't know how to explain it, but you can trust her," I said.
"Sure, boss. You seem to trust a lot of people," Starling said.
As Starling stepped aside—opening the door wider as she did so—Derpy got a chance to see me. I remembered her as a peripheral friend in high school. She was everybody's friend, to be honest, what with it being practically impossible to ever find her feeling sad. Right now her face was lighting up with the biggest smile I'd seen for several days.
Gosh but I could have feasted off her.
"Ah! Rarity the Changeling! I have a letter for you from Ponyville," Derpy Hooves said.
I used my magic to carefully pluck the image from her offering hand.
"Thank you, dear. How are Twilight and her friends keeping?" I asked.
Derpy blinked her askew eyes and, somehow, managed to smile even more. I was keeping myself from feeding on her, but I could hear hoofsteps and a curious chirp come from just below me.
"They're doing great! They just—Is this your foal?" Derpy Hooves asked.
She crouched down and held out her hand between my legs. It was Bobbin who was there, and seeing a hand held out she jumped forward and leaned against it like a cat.
"Hi! I'm Bobbin! Rarity, NotABug, and Rainbow Dash are my mommies!"
Scooping my daughter up, Derpy hugged Bobbin to her chest and let out an adorable squeak. I could see Bobbin sipping very carefully. I'd have told her to stop, but she did so on her own before I committed to it.
"We have lots of changelings around Ponyville now, and I see a lot more when I'm out delivering mail, but I don't think I've seen one as cute as you! You remind me of my little Dinky when she was little."
The way she spoke, this Dinky wasn't a small foal anymore. It was always surprising to remember that while we were just high schoolers at the time, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were all adults dealing with adult problems. Our Derpy was just a few years out of high school, but this Derpy had a grown child.
I turned my attention to the letter and opened the envelope carefully.
"Excuse me for asking, but would I be able to ask you to read this to me?" I asked.
Derpy, currently holding Bobbin on her back and tickling her belly, looked at me in surprise.
"You can't read?" Derpy Hooves asked.
"I do, just not pony writing, sorry to be a bother."
"Oh! That's why! Well of course I can read it for you. Silly me, of course you wouldn't be able to read pony. This is my first delivery here, you see. Now… It says it's from Ocellus, she's one of the nice changelings that works at Princess Twilight's School.
"Dear Rarity, I'm sorry about how abrupt I was with you last time. You gave me a lot to think about, and I didn't have the opportunity to think about it enough while you were here. I've had some time now, though not as much as I'd like, and I tried it.
"I chirped."
Derpy paused and looked up from the letter to me with an eyebrow rising. In answer I gave a rather happy chirp, given the circumstances.
"Oh! How do you do that?"
"Rubbing my wings against the coarse shell on my back. It's a wonderful way to let out emotion and just—just let everyone know how I feel."
"It's kinda cute, and that explains why Ocellus keeps making those sounds now. Oh, right, there's more," Derpy Hooves said. "I chirped a little at first, but once I started it was just like I couldn't stop. You were right, Rarity, it is so freeing to just let your emotions out like this. I can't stop. I'm chirping right now with nerves and excitement.
"I hope you'll come visit again soon, I'd love to talk more and even share some chirps, but my work is a bit busy right now. We have an influx of students lately, and it's leaving us all run off our hooves. Yours in chirpy anticipation, Ocellus the Changeling."
It was a lot to take in, but stretching time a little gave me the chance to get it all recorded. Of course I didn't rely on simply audio recordings—I'd taken dictation and stored careful photographs of the document.
"There's a P.S.," Derpy Hooves said. "Miss Rarity told me to tell you that she's pursuing matters."
I couldn't help myself. I got a case of the giggles that wouldn't quit.
"Drat but I wish I had a moment to compose her something. Would you be able to swing by tomorrow—about this time should be fine—to fetch a reply?" I asked.
Derpy was a little distracted by Bobbin, who was using her hooves to bat at the woman's fingers. When I was quiet a moment, Derpy's head jerked up.
"S-Sorry? I lost track there. What did you need?" Derpy Hooves asked.
—Bobbin, dear, I need her thinking clearly,— I sent.
—She's amazing! She tastes better than anyone I've ever met before!— Bobbin sent.
There was a weighty pause of several milliseconds before Bobbin sent a chirp that amounted to a sigh of regret.
"I need to get ready for work!" Bobbin said.
"Oh. Uh. Okay!" Derpy Hooves said.
When Derpy put Bobbin down, my daughter galloped off with one last pet from the woman. That she was running while chirping as loud as an air-raid-siren softened any hint of annoyance I had with her monopolizing Derpy's focus.
"I asked if you'd be able to drop by this time tomorrow, dear. I'll have a reply written by then."
Blinking a few times, Derpy tilted her head to the side, then nodded enthusiastically.
"It's a bit strange getting here, and it took me two days to get the hang of walking right, but I'll be able to make it back tomorrow. I'll tell the postmaster that I have to do it for a very important customer!" Derpy Hooves said. "Oh! Will you need stamps? I mean, of course you'll need stamps, but how many?"
It was a shock to realize that Equestria had an economy just as dependent on money as ours was. What really hit me hard was that I had not a single coin in their currency.
"Well, you see, I don't have any pony money. I didn't spend long over there, and—"
I stopped speaking as Derpy's finger slowly approached my face. When her finger landed across my lips and so close to my fangs, I jerked back a little—though not far enough to dislodge her finger.
"You're a friend of Princess Twilight's and the postmaster of Ponyville. I'll work it out."
She took her finger away and winked at me as if there was a joke there. It was an obvious one, but one that demanded me help her further.
"Who's the postmaster of Ponyville?" I asked.
Derpy Hooves' face lit up like the dawn after a long night of chilling cold. She looked about to explode, and a glance at her emotions told me every joyful expression was echoed in her aura. If I fed on her now, I'd discover if changelings can become diabetic.
"I'm the postmaster of Ponyville, silly."
Derpy did what no other human had done on first meeting me except Rainbow Dash, she crouched down and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.
Her joy, even without my feeding on it, was staining my own emotions. The day felt easier and lighter. I parked my derriere on the floor and wrapped my forelegs around her too. We hugged together for no more than a minute, but every second of it made the world seem easier.
"Now, I gotta go and deliver some mail. I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"
I was in awe of how easy she seemed to take everything. As she turned to leave, however, I stared in shock. Spreading her wings, Derpy Hooves shot into the air and flew in the opposite direction of Canterlot High School.
Even that act, showing off her magic, made me find extra wonder in the world. Turning back around, I could see even Starling had been affected by Derpy's enthusiasm.
"Did she really have wings? Was that…?" Starling asked.
"That was Derpy Hooves. She's the postmaster of Ponyville, and I'm fairly sure she's a pegasus in her own world," I said.
We were both grinning like fools. Real magic. Pony magic. It was so gloriously silly that ponies existed and that we'd been visited by one delivering the mail, that I almost missed the excited chirping coming from within my head.
—Good morning!— I sent.
NotABug coiled around my mind like a snake and hugged me. I knew I was chirping up as big a storm as she was. It was always a delight to share special little moments with her, but what I realized was they were special because they were with her.
—Good morning to you. Your chirps are extra chirpy.—
—I just met a friend I never knew I had,— I sent.
—Anyone I know?—
I could hear NotABug chirping up a storm still, but not all of it was simply emotive chirps. She'd started communicating big time.
—Derpy Hooves. She was a girl I remembered from high school, but this was the pony version of her. Wings and all.—
The background chirping paused for a millisecond before resuming again, and all her emotive chirps had turned curious.
—She had a letter to deliver from Ocellus. Apparently she's tried chirping.—
—Did she?—
—Yes, darling, and apparently it quite resonates with her. I couldn't read the letter myself and got Derpy to read it for me.—
—Yeah, reading your notes. She's really nice. What are you going to put in your letter to Ocellus?—
—Well, I was wondering about sending her pictures of our girls and talking about all the things that make me chirp and what my chirps feel like. What about you?—
NotABug made a surprised chirp before settling back down.
—Me?—
—Yes, darling, you. We get to be penpals with another bug from another world, and the best bit is she almost assuredly knows more about some forms of bugging than we do.—
—Rarity, from what I've seen so far, no one could know more about bugging than you. I was kinda born as a bug, and you have surpassed me at it.—
I was giggling inside too much to read any kind of insult into her words. Besides, we'd both agreed that bug was definitely a positive thing.
—Well, maybe, but you're still excellent at bugging. After all, I'm apparently the expert at it.—
That sent, I kissed her. It was always a wonderful moment. Being mentally close still didn't count when it came to physical closeness—well, it was sort of physical closeness. We were hugging and kissing somewhere, even if that was in our heads.
Of course, that was when my phone rang. The number was Mrs. Velvet's.
—I have a call, dear,— I sent.
"I have a call, sorry," I said aloud too.
Starling just stared at me for a moment as I took the call.
"Rarity? The detective just called. Are you sure you want to do this?" Twilight Velvet asked. "I checked it all over with Fancy, and even he can't see a way for them to charge you if you go ahead with it."
"I appreciate that. Well, I'll bring Rainbow Dash with me. I've had a wonderful morning so far, let's try to make it a better day for two police officers."
"You make me proud to be working for you, Rarity. That's a rare thing for a lawyer to be able to say. Thank you. I'll see you there. Don't get out of your car until you see me."
She ended the call.
"Rainbow? They're ready for us at the station," I said.
Turning my attention back to Starling, I smiled apologetically at her.
"If you see a winged Derpy again, please let her in. Otherwise, thank you so much for protecting everything precious to me."
"You don't have to keep saying that, Rarity. I remember what it was like to see no way out of the pain except Suri's. No one deserves that."
"No. They really don't. But you know what? You're just going to have to put up with me thanking you."
"You know, Rarity, I'm sure there's a way I could rationalize thinking my job sucks because my boss is too nice, but it's going to take work. Why don't you give me the morning to work on that?"
We shared a laugh about it and were still laughing when Rainbow walked up.
"Are you ready to go? You might want to shapechange for actually going in," Rainbow Dash said.
She was right. Startlingly, Rainbow was right a lot of the time lately. It was nice to have a smart girlfriend. Focusing on my old self—though with the improvements for Rainbow's benefit—I drew my magic up and over me like a blanket and remade myself into that woman. Pronounced, perky breasts for my darling were hidden behind a scoop-necked shirt that (on a normal woman) would be showing off bra strap. I liked to think that fashion was a way to challenge the effects of gravity on a woman's chest, but shapechanged I could actively defy it.
A white top and small purple mini combined with long white hose and a white garter belt. A pair of high-heels completed things and left me in a much more adult version of one of my favorite high school outfits.
"Now I'm ready. What do you think?" I asked.
Rainbow wasn't looking at my outfit or even the boobs I'd made just for her. She was looking directly into my eyes. I'm not sure if it was an effort on her part, but even if it was taking all her willpower not to admire me, it was definitely working.
"You always look amazing, Rarity. Always."
Goodness, and now I was blushing.
Now she tilted her gaze down and I watched her eyes trace the body I could have had—if genetics had been more kind.
"I have no idea how you're supporting those, but you might want to give some hint of a bra."
I looked down and could see what she meant. Okay, gravity, you win this round. A little more love magic and a flicker of flame and I had a little bit of a lacy teddy framing my bosom.
"Better?" I asked.
"Much better."
That Rainbow put thought into her answers made me feel even more glad I'd fallen for her at last. I followed her out to the car and climbed in. Ready for a wild ride, I was surprised when Rainbow carefully pulled out and drove sedately.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Yeah. Figure if we're driving to the police station, I shouldn't get too crazy with my driving. Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"Rainbow, I'm alright. We've covered every base and every contingency. I won't let these innocents—good people continue to toil for her."
"I just worry about you. Like, worry a lot. What if I'm not fast enough? What if Suri gets past all these defenses you have up? There's too many of you for me to carry to safety now."
There was something wonderful about her worrying, though there was something I'd noticed that I wanted to point out.
"You're smiling."
"Huh? What's that got to do with it?"
"Because while you worry about being able to save all of us, we grow and become strong enough to be able to save ourselves. And, maybe, even you."
I leaned a little closer and kissed her cheek.
Rainbow's head snapped around to look at me before returning to the road. She hadn't just moved fast, but inhumanly fast. Was she like this all the time?
Focusing on my own perception of time, I was able to work at the problem a little more. What was the outcome if she was constantly thinking faster? Would it be like me? No, of course not. Rainbow Dash didn't have an always-active internet connection.
That meant, then, that every moment she was thinking faster than normal time, she was thinking faster than normal time. Literally. Given my understanding of things, that would make her a genius if she just did that constantly.
"Rainbow?"
Only scant seconds had passed since my previous words had faded from hearing, but I could trust Rainbow to realize this meant I'd been thinking long and hard about something. After all, if I were right, she had been too.
"What's up?"
"Are you always like that?"
"Rarity, if you want me to read your mind, you're going to need to be able to shove a phone in me, too. Am I always like what?"
"Fast. Your reaction times and speed, but also that way you moved us yesterday. Are you like that all the time?"
Rainbow froze. It didn't last long, but she definitely froze and stared at me for at least half a second. If I weren't so used to thinking of things as being fast, I would have missed it or written it off as just her being surprised.
"Yeah."
"That's not all that's faster, is it?"
"The dangers of falling for a smart girl is that she's smart. Everything else makes up for it though. Yes. Even if I can slow my movement down to normal speed—and I've had a lot of practice doing that—I can't slow my head down. It's about the only annoying thing about all this," Rainbow Dash said.
"Please stop the car, Rainbow Dash," I said. "Or I fear I may distract you from your driving."
The car definitely had good brakes. Rainbow pulled over to the side a moment before I undid my belt and leaned across to kiss her.
She caught me in her arms and seemed just as enthusiastic as I was to have an impromptu embrace. She turned me so that I faced her, and pressed her lips against mine.
It was more than a physical connection. Rainbow understood what I was going through because she had been going through it already. We suited each other—and NotABug—in ways we (or rather I) hadn't even realized.
But, there was a slight difference between us. I could "surface" and not be quite as slowed down as I'd otherwise be. She couldn't do that.
We shared our passion and relief with one another until my phone beeped. I must have jumped a little, because Rainbow slowly drew back from the kiss.
—I'm at the station now. Detective Proud is waiting for us,— Twilight Velvet sent.
"What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I just got a message from Mrs. Velvet. We're expected and can head there now."
Rainbow Dash let out a dramatic sigh and reluctantly let me go, though not before hefting me back to my seat. It was just the kind of thing that reminded me of how strong she was.
"One of these days I'll start kissing you and nothing will stop me. You'll have a rainbow-haired girlfriend hanging off you for the rest of your life."
—You two are so cute together,— NotABug sent.
—Not as cute as the pair of you,— I sent.
We both shared a giggly chirp and a hug as Rainbow started driving again.
A flicker of memory from last night made my lips curl upward. I remembered Rainbow kissing NotABug for much longer, but I couldn't dwell on such happy thoughts now—I had to go rip the evil out of two people who didn't deserve it.
"I believe that day will be the happiest of my life," I said. "There's Mrs. Velvet."
"Got it. There's a space."
If it had been anyone else, I'd have expected them to do a fast lap around the block and see if the space were still there when we got back. Rainbow had some kind of sixth sense about the car and somehow slowed enough to get the nose into the space while momentum carried the rear-end sideways.
The screeching of tire rubber stopped as the vehicle rocked sharply. Somehow we were parked, and I'd wager that we were perfectly within the lines.
"I really like this car, but I'm already thinking of some things to make it better."
"What happened to keeping within the law while we're here?" I asked.
Rainbow snorted a laugh.
"That wasn't breaking the law. I was just parking with style."
The Rainbowism was just about perfect in every way. I leaned over and we shared one more little peck on the lips before both climbing out of the car.
Mrs. Velvet stood in her sharp business suit with an extremely chic trench coat keeping the wind from being a bother to her. In the city—as we were—there was a little more wind than out in the suburbs. We made our way over to her and the detective standing at her side.
"Rarity, it is without a doubt that you will always make an entrance to put anyone to shame. Before we go any further, Rainbow Dash, this is Detective Proud. Detective Proud, this is Rainbow Dash—Rarity's partner," Twilight Velvet said.
"Hey," Rainbow Dash said.
Rainbow immediately pulled out her phone as if it were the most natural thing. To my surprise, the detective seemed to lose interest in her immediately.
—Okay. Like this I can talk without him overhearing. Can you both hear me?— Rainbow Dash asked.
—Yes, darling,— I sent.
NotABug just flooded Rainbow in chirps.
"Did you hear that?" Twilight Velvet asked. "Oh, must have been the wind."
She reached up and brushed her hand by her ear. The detective wouldn't have spotted it, but I noticed her brush her hair aside just enough to show me her earpiece.
"They're both inside. I have a pair of officers asking them about their 401k plans right now. They should be in a fairly sour mood," Detective Proud said. "If you'd like to come with me, I can take you to meet Officer Sure Guard."
The older woman. I only knew her as Officer Guard, and her face was etched in my memory as being nine-tenths of horrifying. How much had she been under SuriGo's control at the time? Was she just on edge because SuriGo had started doing something to her? There's also the chance she was just doing her job a little too well.
"Lead on," I said.
The moment we entered the station, eyes were on me. Many, I was glad to say, were on my chest or my derriere, but a lot met my eyes with looks of hope. The auras among officers was horrific. None were under attack from SuriGo directly, but most of the officers had a thick miasma of fear and worry.
There wasn't a cell in my body that didn't want to rip all their fears away and tell them it would be alright—that I would fight the monsters for them. Drat it, but I was getting emotional.
—I'm not sure how likely you are to feel this, but all these officers are scared. But it's not SuriGo's doing. At least, not directly,— I sent.
—Kinda feel it. Oppressive. You think it's the two officers has them spooked?— Rainbow Dash asked.
"Everyone seems on edge, detective. I take it your two officers are causing problems?" Twilight Velvet asked.
"Yeah. When I told the others who I was bringing in, no one objected. You know yourself how hard it should be to bring three civilians this deep into the station. We walked through two checkpoints where they should have searched you," Detective Proud said. "Interview room three is over there. Guard is inside."
This was it. I couldn't get a read on the room itself, but I was more than a little scared of what I'd find within.
"Rainbow will go in with me. You can bring some officers, but no one with a gun. If you do bring someone, make sure they won't freak out when I change," I said.
"There's only myself and another officer already inside. We can restrain her if needed, but I hope it won't be."
Proud stepped up to the door and opened it. The stench that hit me wasn't an actual scent but an emotional stink.
I shuddered a little and stepped in behind the officer with Rainbow behind me. An officer behind her closed the door behind us.
"Detective Proud? What's IA doing here?" Officer Guard asked.
"For you, Guard. I've watched a ten-year veteran lose her cool and be dragged down by something she can't control to the point where I'll have to fire her if she doesn't stop. That's why I have brought a friend—possibly your best friend, under the circumstances. Ma'am?"
Detective Proud turned and stepped to the side to reveal me.
Guard looked surprised and a little angry at first, though as the former faded the latter amplified. The first I knew of what she planned was her muscles tensing up and her starting to move upward and forward.
There was a small table between Guard and myself, and though it seemed bolted to the floor, I watched it flex a little as her face contorted into a grimace of fury. When Rainbow's hand touched my shoulder, I watched time slow to a crawl.
"Igotthis," Rainbow Dash said.
It occurred to me that even within her own personal time-warp, she was still faster than any human should be. Her hand left my shoulder and she moved with more alacrity than I could have, circled the table, and reached for Guard's legs.
I kept myself ready to move but needn't have bothered. It was like Guard had been hooked to a bungee cord that was attached to her seat. She fell backward with a snarl and looked around to see what had happened—and spotted Rainbow Dash.
Shedding my human form, I reached out with my magic and took a firm grip on her shoulders—planting Guard in place and walking slowly toward her.
"Officer Guard, I can see what SuriGo's done to you. This isn't you, and I'll hold nothing you do against you, but for your own good I'm going to hold you still while I see exactly what that—that boorish monster has done," I said.
What she'd done looked horrid. There was a malignant growth attached to the side of Guard's aura. It looked tumor-like and was the thing creating the horrid odor that only I could smell. Tendrils ran from various parts of the growth, perforating Guard and sinking into her emotional mass like strangling roots. A lesser bug would turn and lose the wonderful breakfast I'd had not too long ago.
Proud and the unnamed officer who'd been in the room with Guard already moved to flank the woman and held her arms steady. It gave me the perfect opportunity to see what SuriGo had done.
It was a tumor, but not. It was like SuriGo'd taken a piece of her own horrid self and slipped it into Guard's aura. Which is exactly what it was. I could see within the growth was something vaguely egg-shaped, and now I was starting to feel queasy.
—That's disgusting,— NotABug sent.
—Quite, darling. I hope it hasn't harmed her permanently.—
—Can you get rid of it?—
—I sincerely hope so, though I don't think I'm going to enjoy it.—
The hug and kiss NotABug gave me did more to bolster my resolve than I could ever have hoped for, but I could understand why she slunk back—away from what I was about to do. She wasn't a fighter and I never wanted her to ever feel pressured to be one.
"Now, let me see what she put in you," I said.
"There's something inside her?" Detective Proud asked.
"Yes. SuriGo put a small piece of herself into Guard, and it's poisoning her like a tumor would. I can assure you this will not be pleasant for me, but I think I can get it out of her."
Surgery in her emotional self should be like surgery in a person's body. Alright, so why don't I do a search to find what removing something from a person is like?
The common searches for such things were useless, but then I discovered a place where less-than-legal people were selling medical textbook scans for very low prices. I purchased all the surgery ones I could find and started scanning data.
—Darling, can you help me find which of these have details on removing nasty things from people? Bullets, bug stingers, etc?— I asked NotABug.
I got a confirming chirp from NotABug.
—Everybug! Rarity needs our help! We need to find all the information on removing bullets, stings, and things from people in all these,— NotABug sent to all of us.
Data began pouring out of my server instance, and almost immediately I started getting packets of information back. Our daughters worked fast, and I sifted through the list for what I was after. Parasitic egg removal.
Gosh but there were some horrid things, and bugs that laid eggs in people were some of the worst—but I read through it.
The facts I could put together were not to sever all the tentacles, even at once, for fear the thing might either bleed the patient out through them or, worse, inject something really nasty in. Toxic shock, from what I understood, could kill. Would emotional shock do the same?
Getting closer, I could feel the horrid manipulations of the growth. It was feeding her anger and hatred, stealing the very life from the woman to make itself stronger. As I got nearer, I could see there were malignant tendrils of it floating around like a small cloud.
Either the tendrils would try to latch onto others and feed, or they were there to detect me. It was simple enough to check that it was the latter—none of the tendrils in the cloud were reaching for the other two officers that were holding her.
"The thing is booby-trapped. It's designed to detect when I'm trying to do something, and then—I don't really want to contemplate what it'll do if I trigger it," I said.
There was nothing in the textbooks about this. Creatures just don't evolve a way to prevent surgery extracting them. Then it hit me.
—I'm going about this the wrong way. It's not an evolved parasite, it's a bomb.—
NotABug sent a worried chirp that I flooded back with reassuring ones.
Change of tactic, then. This thing was mired in her emotional body, and I had to remove it as if it could blow up at any moment, but I couldn't let it know I was the one working on it.
Sometimes I hate how obvious answers are.
I couldn't afford to appear like a changeling, and I certainly didn't want to look like Guard to the thing (the results of that turned whatever it was I had for a stomach), so the only solution was to look like SuriGo.
I'd never tried to manipulate my own emotional presence before, but there was a first time for everything. Focusing on all that I was, I attempted to change the parts of me that weren't SuriGo.
Which was just about everything.
The trick would be, of course, that while most of it was just a ruse, there was one part of SuriGo I could happily actually emulate—teeth. I drew a cloak of slimy, barely concealed anger and fury around me. Paper thin, the bulk of the disguise would hopefully not be tested.
Teeth in mouths. Teeth on claws. Teeth on tentacles. The one thing I could always remember about Windigo and SuriGo's digital attacks were the teeth. Someone should tell her they're like sequins—less is more.
Ready to face this thing, I carefully moved closer to Guard. The first few tendrils reached out to touch me. They were icy-cold, slimy, and made me want to retch just being near to them. They rubbed over the mouths I'd made, some tracing along my teeth, and I felt them trying to interact with me.
Worry etched its way into my mind. I pushed deeper and more tendrils came to check me and verify I was SuriGo. I was almost able to touch the growth when the gig was up. Of course there was some kind of handshake for the tendrils. As fast as I felt them try to grip and repel me from its center, I was faster.
Well, I mean, I have all these mouths and things, right?
I sank uncountable teeth into the growth. I wrapped my tentacles around it, latched on with my mouths, and even hugged it close with all the toothed limbs I possessed. Pulling, I bit/hacked/ripped at the tentacles that bound it to Guard and threw it across the room.
"What the fuck was that?!" the unnamed officer asked.
When I'd jerked it away from Guard, I'd swung it close to them. A glance at their aura showed no damage. To be sure of the parasitic lump, I bowed my head to it and sent a crackling green blast at the thing. The outer shell of it burst and the tiny fragment of SuriGo inside burned as my magic hit it.
But it wasn't over yet. I turned back to Guard and the squirming tendrils burrowed deep into her emotional aura. Discarding the illusion of SuriGo, I got to work as the bug I truly am. Bite—pull. Bite—pull. Again and again.
With the loss of the malignant growth, Guard was no longer fighting the other officers but was slumped in their arms. She stared into my eyes as I worked, and I could see the shock building within them.
My careful work earlier had mattered for naught. These things were booby traps and needed to be removed quickly. Maybe one of my daughters would come up with something smarter, but until then a bug has to do what a bug has to do.
It didn't take too much longer and I was already sick of ripping horrid things out of Officer Guard. Each time I went back for another, she looked back into my eyes and seemed a little brighter. When the last tendril was clear, I almost fell into Rainbow's arms.
Picking me up and hugging me against her, Rainbow's aura rushed in around me and forced itself down my throat. I needed her on a primal level that had nothing to do with the tight bond we shared, but rather than detract from our love, it enhanced it.
"Thank you," I said.
"You know you're always welcome, but you've got another to do yet. Feeling better?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Much. How is she?"
"What—?" Officer Guard asked.
I jumped down out of Rainbow's arms and climbed back up on the table. Guard didn't look good at all. She had bags under her eyes and looked like she'd just had a fight with a marathon and come up second best.
"Rainbow, can you help me with something?" I asked.
When Rainbow set her hand on my shoulders, I felt empowered again. With her touching me, I could do anything.
I stepped forward, the height of the table letting me tower over Officer Guard. Leaning down, I pressed my snout into her aura and exhaled. One breath. Two breaths. As Guard's arms reached up and over my neck, I breathed one last time into her aura.
And that, with my mouth closed after that last breath, was when Officer Guard kissed me. Her lips were soft and there was no passion in it. She hugged me tighter and didn't seem inclined to let go.
I was blushing like crazy but didn't want to hurt the woman by disengaging from her too quickly. Her lips slowly withdrew and she let out a sigh. Tear-stained cheeks looked a lot rosier than they should have—she was blushing too.
"What did you do to me?" Officer Guard asked.
"A good question. What did you do to her?" Detective Proud asked.
Slowly, I extracted myself from Guard and slurped up more of Rainbow's love.
"SuriGo had stuck part of herself to her. It was burrowing into her and feeding off her life while poisoning every emotion she had with anger and hate. What you felt," I said and gestured at the unnamed officer, "Was that part. I've been cleaning up the wounds and removing the remaining feeding tendrils."
"It was some kind of parasite? Did you kill it?" the unnamed officer asked.
I looked to the corner and examined the still-dissipating remains of SuriGo's little present. Using some more of my reserves, I blasted a few of the bigger chunks into nothingness.
My magic, of course, had been fully visible to all present, even if the targets weren't.
"There is nothing left of it that a few minutes won't finish off. You'll want to leave this room empty for an hour. Where's the other officer?"
Detective Proud just stared at me for several seconds. His fellow officer reached over and prodded him in the shoulder.
Rainbow, meanwhile, was leaning down beside Officer Guard. It surprised me that of all of us, she'd be the one to comfort the woman. Reaching up, Guard put her arm over Rainbow's shoulders and let herself be lifted free of the chair.
"This way," Detective Proud said.
There was more certainty to him. He took the lead and we filed out of the room after him with Rainbow and Guard in the rear. The next room was down the hall a little further, and just as Proud stopped, the door before him flew open.
Time slowed for me. I watched the door swing inward and an arm reach out. Officer Shield's face—contorted into a snarl—sighted down his arm and pistol toward Detective Proud.
Power poured through me and I shoved physics aside by force of will. Pulling more on my reserves, I let magic thunder into my horn and began to do, well, something.
"IgotProud," Rainbow Dash said.
The rainbow blur past me proved that Rainbow was still an order of magnitude faster than I was. She tackled Proud as heavily as a football player would, and the pair went flying to the side and out of the line of fire thanks to Rainbow's more aggressive magic.
Time to shine, Rarity. Shine like rainbows.
I couldn't move as fast as Rainbow did, but I was still quicker than Officer Shield. The next biggest advantage I had was that I was also shorter than him. Stepping under his raised arm, I used my magic to grab his wrist and pull his index finger away from the trigger of the pistol.
My position, now in the doorway just before Shield, let me see an unconscious officer inside. The indefinite moment dragged on longer than it had any right to, and Shield tried to pull his gun down to aim it at me.
I'd expected the unnamed officer to be first to respond, but Officer Guard surprised me by grabbing the pistol with her hand—all in slow motion—and wrenching it from her partner's grip. It was a delicate movement with the force of a freight train behind it. Without the ability to move his arm, Shield had no chance of stopping her from disarming him.
There was one thing left to do. Jumping forward, pushing off with my back legs as hard as I could, I connected with Shield's chest and knocked him back into the room. As he fell in slow motion, I caught him in my magic to cushion his fall and looked more pointedly at his emotions.
The blob of SuriGo was huge and had a lot more tendrils than the one on Guard had possessed. It made me sick just being near it, but I had to do something worse than just get near the thing.
It wasn't anger or hatred that drove me to snarl and bare my rather impressive (if I do say so myself) fangs at the thing. Attacking the officer had been worse than attacking an innocent. Here was a man who had dedicated his life to doing good things and standing before the darkness of humanity—and SuriGo had poisoned him.
No. Not anger. I was outraged. How dare she do this!
I opened my emotional mouth wide and bared fangs at the blob, then lunged at it and ripped it free of Officer Shield. Being larger than the last one, and since I was a little more carried away with the destruction this time, I clamped my teeth down into the poisonous thing and started shredding it in my mouth.
The flavor was horrible, but though I wanted to throw up and wash my mouth out, I kept biting down on it. Nothing, however, was going to encourage me to swallow it. Aiming at the empty end of the room, I spat out the most disgusting thing I'd ever put in my mouth and, when it didn't move from where it landed, I turned back to Officer Shield.
There were still the tendrils dug into him to work on. I clamped my teeth down on the first and pulled it out before chewing it up. These I could at least swallow without being sick.
Tendril by tendril I worked, pulling them out while the police behind me fussed over things. Oh, right, the gun. Well, that didn't matter. I haven't left these things in anyone yet, and I don't want to find out what happens if I leave them in someone now.
"What's she doing?" Detective Proud asked.
"Suri's things tend to attach with tentacles or something. They burrow into people's emotions and stuff. Rarity can fill you in later, but I think it's probably a good idea to let her get it all out. Kinda like cleaning out a wound," Rainbow Dash said.
"Got it. Okay, everyone step back. This was just a—a routine test. Nothing to see."
I ended up stepping off Officer Shield so I didn't do him any physical harm, not that he put up any protest. He just lay there looking up at me. Having spent time helping Fluttershy in the animal shelter she'd worked in while at school, I remembered that look well. It was the passive expression of an animal that knows you are helping it but doesn't know why.
It would have been delightful to be able to say I lost track of time and things just flew by, but that was wrong. I counted off every second as I pulled out and killed more and more of the tendrils. His aura was lousy with them, but I wouldn't leave him with a single one.
11:39 A.M.
By the time I was done, I was ready to collapse. It still took far more out of me than it should, and left me with a terrible taste in my mouth, but as long as I had Rainbow's arms to retreat to, I could do anything.
While I'd worked, someone had helped the other officer (the one Shield had knocked out) from the room. Shield now looked up at me with a constant wash of surprise and wonder in his eyes. If I weren't working to save the man's emotional wellbeing, I might have felt embarrassed.
"You're done," Officer Shield said.
"Yes. In more ways than one."
His aura still looked like a very bad piece of Swiss cheese, but the angry red was gone and he swirled with calmer emotions. I wondered if it was his body overreacting, but it didn't matter. He needed something to help him along the road to recovery.
"Rainbow, darling? I need a hug."
She could have been right behind me or on the other side of town. It wouldn't matter how far Rainbow was from me, not when I needed her. Strong arms wrapped around me and picked me up. I was dunked into her aura of love and was treated to not even the slightest bit of worry.
Just one nibble and I felt a million times better. A good sized bite of her love and I was ready. I opened myself to Officer Shield—as I had to Officer Guard—and let him have some raw love. It wasn't exactly the same as what I got from Rainbow, but even the love of a friend helped fill in the gaping holes in his aura.
Shield's expression changed from completely drained to surprise, and he sat up on the floor while staring at me.
"Thank you. Thank you, whatever you are," Officer Shield said.
Guard slipped past Rainbow and myself and reached her hand down to Shield, hauling the man to his feet and pulling him into a hug. It didn't take more than a cursory glance to realize they were strengthening each other's auras with positive emotions.
I blinked. Very positive emotions. I turned to look up at Rainbow and took another little nibble of her aura.
"Sushi," Rainbow Dash said. "Because every so often I see your mouth screw up a little like you'd just bit into something horrible. You can have as much ginger as you can swallow, then you're eating something as fishy as Chef Soba can make."
"I don't think I've said 'I love you' enough today," I said. "Wait, before we leave, I need to make sure it's dead. Back left corner, please."
Rainbow let out an expressive sigh that I thought most excellent, but she carried me to the middle of the room and turned so I could see the ground easier. The thing wasn't moving and parts of it were already decaying.
"Are you done in here, ma'am?" Detective Proud asked from behind us.
"I am. You'll want to leave this one empty for an hour too. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to swallow the horrid things."
"Well, I didn't expect that, and leaving this room empty for a bit isn't going to ruin us, but it was about the—incident."
It didn't take someone thinking a thousand times faster than normal to understand what he meant. If a story got out that an officer drew his sidearm and aimed it at an officer inside the precinct, the investigations wouldn't stop at internal affairs.
"Detective Proud, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I simply came down here to inquire about having the parking in front of my boutique marked as customer parking only. Sadly, the nice officer at the front desk explained it wasn't possible," I said. "And furthermore, I don't think I spoke to or saw anyone else."
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"We didn't see anything at all, did we, Rainbow?"
"Ah. Got it. Nope, we didn't see anything. Did you really have to make all that up?"
On my way to feeling restored, I leaned my head up and kissed the underside of Rainbow's chin.
"Of course. You know how much I adore acting. Now, could you put me down so I can change?"
Rainbow kissed my cheek—something I tilted my head to the side to accept—and crouched down to put me on my hooves. Standing back up, she took a step back to give me room.
"Thank you, darling."
The image of busty, mature Rarity was getting easier and easier to imagine. Why bother, however, with the same-old little thing I wore on my way in? Rose-red and shimmering from where it clung to my chest and under my arms down to the long slit down my left leg. A very chic number indeed. The jolt of magic needed to make that body my body hit me a little harder than usual, and I had to remind myself I'd spent most of the morning burning up energy.
But it worked. I grew upward in height almost faster than I could perceive. There was the slightest few moments when I could perceive myself shifting, but in far less time than it took most people to blink, I was human again—or at least a reasonable facsimile of one.
I also had Rainbow practically drooling and Proud trying to give every impression of not doing so. With heels that made a satisfying click as I walked, I made my way out of the interview room unimpeded and followed by Rainbow.
Mrs. Velvet was waiting at the end of the hallway with a single raised eyebrow.
—It went well, considering what definitely didn't happen. Both officers are clean now, and I'm going somewhere to clean my palate,— I sent.
—Mom? Are you done helping the police?— Byte asked.
I focused myself to exclude Mrs. Velvet from our little chat.
—Yes, dear. Is something the matter?—
—Well, going by how well Vaunt and Bobbin are getting on, I think you'll probably want to hire her. She really knows her stuff. I think.—
—We're going to have lunch and then we'll be heading over there. Please let her know.—
—Got it, Mom. Love you.—
Bobbin's surprised chirps poured all over our not-quite-private conversation.
—I love you too, Mommy!— Bobbin sent.
—And I love both of you. Rainbow does too, don't you, darling?— I asked.
It took over half a second for Rainbow to pull her phone out. I could understand her not wanting to show off her speed, and given how jumpy the thing that absolutely didn't happen probably made them, it wasn't good to do too many crazy things in front of the officers.
—Yup. Love you all so much that you can taste it, right?— Rainbow Dash asked.
Rainbow's question earned her a swarm of chirps, even some from myself. I reached out to all our girls and gave them a digital hug, even pulling NotABug in as well.
—There. Now, let Vaunt know I'm on my way over after lunch. We can put off her sushi tasting for another day,— I sent.
—Got it,— Byte sent.
Another round of happy chirps followed me back to focusing on the real world. Mrs. Velvet looked at me with a steady smile and nodded her head.
"If that's all, shall we be going?" Twilight Velvet asked.
"I believe we shall, so long as Detective Proud is satisfied?" I asked.
Turning our heads, Rainbow and I looked back at Proud who still looked a little baffled, but there was a lightness about him. On a whim, I checked his aura and found it much lighter in color and form, and there was something I could recognize as hope.
"Yeah. You did everything you could. They—They seem a little more friendly than normal, but I take it that was a side effect? Like a withdrawal symptom?"
"Actually, I gave them a little hit of love after I ripped SuriGo's stuff out of them. I think they needed it. I take it they're acting better than they were earlier today?"
"Yeah. Night and day. Thanks."
I smiled at that.
"You're alright, Proud. They're lucky to have someone who'd lay everything on the line," Rainbow Dash said.
"I think we should go, then, before something else doesn't happen that we didn't see," I said.
"Wait!" a pair of voices called.
Behind us, Guard and Shield were advancing up the hallway to us. It took me but a glance to ensure neither had any plan of retribution—they were both swirling with exhaustion and relief (and a little love).
"Thank you. I don't really know what happened, but ever since that day at Polomare, there's just been something riding me about you. The sergeant back there said it was some bad shit, and that you got it out of us," Officer Guard said.
"I'm sorry for what we did, at Polomare. It just—" Officer Shield said.
"That wasn't your fault," I said, cutting in. "I don't know what she'd done to you already, but I don't think any of us was thinking clearly that day. I was scared and worried, but that blinded me to what had happened to you both."
"About—About what didn't happen," Shield said.
"It didn't happen, and frankly whatever might not have happened, it wasn't your fault," I said.
Okay, so maybe I was taking this what happened thing a bit further than I had verbs to convey, but I hope he got it through his head that I didn't blame him for what that thing was making him do.
"You're not going to let me blame myself at all, are you?"
"No, officer, I'm not. If you had reports of a person who'd been drugged and given a knife, would you hold it against him if he tried to stab someone with it?"
Shield's shoulders slumped a little and I saw a little of the man poke through the paper thin (at the moment) police officer veneer.
"A good friend of mine was one of her earlier victims. I've since—armored her against that kind of attack. If you want to talk about something like that, give me a call in a week," I said. "If you excuse me, I need to wash a rather horrid taste out of my mouth, and I intend to do it with something expensive."
I flashed them both the best smile I could muster and turned to follow after Mrs. Velvet and Detective Proud. As we walked outside, without our escort, I let out a little sigh of relief.
"What's the matter?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I’ll tell you when we're comfortably seated somewhere we won't be overheard and preferably with some delightfully expensive sushi being prepared," I said.
Rainbow Dash drove again. I was sure by now that she enjoyed driving the electric car. Every chance she got, she pressed the gas peddle to the board and let the vehicle propel us around corners and from the line at traffic lights with more speed than I'd have thought possible.
We reached Uma no Sushi well before Mrs. Twilight. Before Rainbow could even open her door I reached a hand across and onto her thigh.
"You're enjoying this car quite a lot, aren't you?" I asked.
"I thought these things were like your old car, but this," Rainbow Dash said, pausing to rub a hand over the wheel, "Is nothing like your car. This is like me. It wants to move faster all the time, and it's only the driver stopping it."
"It's made to go fast."
"Right. It's made to go really fast, but it needs to be kept to a safe speed all the time. Like me."
Rainbow leaned over and kissed my cheek. Just as I started to lift my hand up to cup her jaw, she drew back and opened her door.
"Come on, silly bug, let's go have some sushi so you don't taste Suri when you kiss me."
She left me sitting in shock, watching her tight rear climb from the curvy, hugging seat. How'd she guessed all that, and why was she calling me bug so much now?
—Did you tell Rainbow about me calling myself buggy?— I asked NotABug.
—Maybe. Uh. Yeah, a few times,— NotABug sent.
Her being unsure surprised me greatly. NotABug was never unsure about things she'd done.
—"Maybe"?— I asked.
—We've been talking a lot. I wanted to get to know her better, so she'd just relax and speed herself all the way up and type really fast.—
The car analogy never fit so well before. She relaxed and was at full speed. I kissed and hugged NotABug, squeezing her and chirping far, far sufficiently (because I was of the firm belief that there was no such thing as chirping too much).
—Sorry to have bothered you, darling.—
NotABug relaxed into my hug and kissed me back.
—You are never a bother, Rarity. I love you.—
—I love you too.—
We shared about a quarter of a second doing nothing but hugging and chirping. When we finally relaxed and drew back, I wanted to chirp in real life too.
—We need to work out a way to do more than just hug and kiss, but I'm not sure if it's possible to really do, well, that, in here. But where there's a will, there's a way.—
—Who'd control our body while we're doing that?—
I started reaching for my door handle and checked traffic before opening the door.
—We'll think of something, darling.—
When there was no traffic, I opened my door and slipped out. Walking around the car, I let NotABug's chirping soothe me, but there was more than just hers. All our nymphs were chirping to some extent, and the mixed tones were a delight.
"You're smiling a lot," Rainbow Dash said.
I reached out, took her offered hand, and stepped up onto the curb. Moving to her side and against it was instinctive now, and, as her arm settled around my shoulders, felt completely natural.
"I've got a lot to smile about. Two people who love me, a whole mess of nymphs who are chirping up a storm right now, and I managed to not mention to the police that I'm planning to kill SuriGo."
Rainbow walked forward—guiding me along at her side—and opened the door to Uma no Sushi.
—Sorry, something's come up. I can't make it there with you,— Twilight Velvet sent.
"Remember, you don't have to do it alone. NotABug might not be up to going toe-to-toe with Suri, but I'll kick her ass nine ways to Tuesday if you need me to," Rainbow Dash said and turned to look at Kit. "Hi Kit. I hope you have room for three?"
"Two," I said. "Mrs. Velvet can't make it."
Kitsune Udon's face lit up with a huge smile as she recognized us. She made a gesture toward the seating.
"Of course we do. Father wouldn't forgive me if I turned away his favorite customers. Please, come in and take a seat. Did you want omakase?"
"Absolutely," Rainbow Dash said, beating me to the punch. "But Rarity's going to need a triple helping of gari before we start. She got left with kinda a terrible taste in her mouth."
Chef Soba stepped out of a back room and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. He walked up to the bar and set his knife upon it. He held eye contact and smiled.
"Welcome, Miss Rarity, Miss Dash. Please make yourselves comfortable. If I'm to prepare sushi for you today, it would be preferable if you were your true self," Soba Tsuya said.
I looked around, but the only other customer was sitting toward the back of the store and picking sushi rolls out of a little box with chopsticks.
"So long as it doesn't make any of your customers skittish," I said.
"A customer who cannot accept a peaceful obake, is not worthy of being a customer."
I let out a soft sigh and relaxed that little bit more than being human would otherwise allow for. My flames came and went, and I was once more a changeling sitting on a stool in a sushi restaurant. A glance showed me the man in the back looked up briefly and returned to his sushi. I don't think I've ever been so happy to be ignored.
Being my normal buggy self again felt good, but it reminded me of the reason for being here. Fortunately, I looked back to Chef Soba in time for him to pass me a wooden plate piled high with gari. I smiled gratefully up to him.
"Thank you, you'll have to excuse me while I clear my palate."
Chef Soba smiled and tipped his head to me before looking at Rainbow.
"Are you ready to begin?" Soba Tsuya asked.
"Yeah. What are we having today?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I have procured a supply of namagaki, oysters, and would like to have your opinions on them."
As he spoke, Chef Soba's hands worked. It looked like he was making a roll of some sort. He pressed the rice into a shape with his hands and then wrapped seaweed—nori—around it.
"This is what we call gunkan maki. First I take some sushi rice, wrap with nori, then a hint of wasabi before I add namagaki."
He then brushed a thin sauce over the top of the oyster—namagaki. I really must ensure I use the correct words—the other option would be to learn Japanese.
While I pondered language, Chef Soba placed the first piece of sushi on a plate, added some gari, then passed it to Rainbow. No sooner was the plate out of his hand than Chef Soba started working on the next piece—which meant I needed to clean my palate quickly.
Using my magic, I levitated a good hunk of the gari to my lips and loaded my snout full of it. Ginger permeated my palate and I almost found myself crying in joy to have the last of the horrid flavor of SuriGo's things gone. Even SuriGo couldn't stand up to the power of ginger.
Swallowing the gari, I watched Rainbow delicately pick up the sushi with her fingers and lift it to her lips. At the last moment, as we'd been told to, she flipped the sushi over and put it in her mouth.
A hint of a memory tickled at my thoughts. Oysters. There was something about them, and it was an old memory that I couldn't recall well. That memory sparked two thoughts at once. The first thought was how amazing my memory had become since NotABug had taken up residence, and the second required an online search to discover.
I let out a trill of giggly-chirps before I got myself under control. Aphrodisiac? I wondered if it has that effect on changelings?
Having one last piece of gari, I felt my palate was prepared for whatever Chef Soba could make.
"Miss Rarity, I have added some ikura to broaden the flavor. It will suit your tastes more," Soba Tsuya said.
He took my plate and replaced it with one holding a piece of sushi similar to what Rainbow had eaten, but mine had four little orbs of salmon roe—ikura.
I carefully lifted up the sushi with my magic and, careful of spilling it, brought it to my mouth and did the flip and eat trick. The ikura, though there was only four of them, burst quickly and spread their flavor throughout my palate. The oyster itself quickly followed, which had a much finer flavor than I was used to from sushi. The wasabi hit me and I felt a pleasant rush of gastronomical bliss at knowing SuriGo was purged from my tastebuds.
The flavor kept giving even when I started to chew. The rice was a lovely backdrop for the— namagaki. The roe's flavor was gone along with the wasabi's heat, but that namagaki stuck around for the long haul.
Swallowing finally, I let out a sigh of bliss.
"What did you think?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Surprised, I jumped back and reviewed the recordings we always made. Sure enough, Rainbow and Chef Soba had discussed flavor while I made a lot of chirping sounds. Goodness, was that really me? Did this food so distract me from the world that I could ignore a conversation?
"The ikura was a wonderful choice. It introduced the namagaki, but faded quickly enough that it didn't steal the show. The wasabi was the tie-in between the ikura and the namagaki, while the rice supported the namagaki all the way to the end," I said.
"You both have excellent palates. It is such a wonder that I have so many wonderful customers in this city. Let us move on to some kani—crab."
It was almost like a classroom. Each piece was a test and a lesson, and Chef Soba expected us to learn the lesson they had to teach and answer the test correctly.
"Kit?" I asked once we were done eating, "You know all our little ones?"
Her face lighting up, Kit nodded. I remembered now that they'd been the first customers she'd prepared sushi for—clearly a special moment.
"Those cuties you had in last time?" Kitsune Udon asked.
Hearing her describe them as cuties made me smile a little wider. She'd been scared at first, but now she could look at nymphs and call them cute. Well, to be fair, they are far cuter than a fully grown changeling queen.
"Quite. You see, one of my daughters wants to learn how to cook, and I said I'd ask if she might be able to work here. Understand, she won't need to be paid."
Kit turned to look at her father. Chef Soba was listening to our conversation and walked over to the front counter.
"We lack someone to help us wash the rice each day," Soba Tsuya said. "With my daughter now making sushi herself, I do believe we could use someone to help. When could she start?"
While his first sentence was spoken in the same "chef-voice" he used while working, the rest was all in something much softer.
"Just like that? You don't want to know more?" I asked.
"I will know more when I see her work with the rice and when she's spent a year learning how rice feels and moves. I will know more when she's spent years mastering rice and learning the flavor of all the fish. I will know more when she's a sushi chef herself."
The way he spoke made sense. He wanted to see her work before he would say if she could stay.
"I'm sure she'd love to start tomorrow," I said.
"Then I'll see her in the morning. We start preparations at eight."
12:43 P.M.
We'd paid our bill and were leaving when I realized I was heading outside as a changeling in downtown Canterlot. Well, they could just get used to me. I am bug—hear me chirp.
—Mom, Vaunt is asking when you'll be here,— Byte sent.
—We're on our way there now,— I sent back.
—I'll let her know.—
"Rarity? Are you coming or what?"
Rainbow Dash had to have moved fast for her to reach the driver's side of the car in that time. I took my time instead and walked over to the passenger door. When I reached it, I used my magic to open the door and climb inside.
"Feeling better?" Rainbow Dash asked.
I chirped softly—contentedly. After what she'd said the previous night about wanting something other than fish, I knew this had only been her choice to help me feel better. It worked.
"Wonderful, darling. I hope my new fish obsession isn't too hard on you?"
"Kinda growing on me, actually. Dinner last night was nice, but there's something pretty awesome about having a chef stand there and make things specifically to your taste. It helps that said chef also knows my taste. Both our tastes, I guess."
Her hands moved deceptively slowly. One gripped the wheel while the other turned the car on. She looked back over her shoulder to check for traffic a moment before the car leapt forward. The world seemed a stationary mass around us. Rainbow wove between cars and, before anyone should have been able to reach the end of the block, we were at the boutique.
Was she some kind of god? The way Rainbow bent time to her will would likely be scary to most people. To me it was just something she had that I didn't. It was a wonderful feeling to have someone I could depend on like that.
—Okay. We got the deed to that house. Stefanie and Perdition can go furniture shopping and move in there whenever they like,— NotABug sent.
I hugged and snuggled NotABug until she chirped, which didn't take too long, but I felt it was time well spent.
—I'll call them and let them know,— I sent.
—How did things go with the officers?—
—They went well. SuriGo's using parts of herself and attaching them to people's auras. It eats them up and gives them only anger to live on. The fastest way seems to be the best for removing them. With Guard I tried to take things slow and careful, and it almost pumped her full of so much poisonous hate that she… I'd rather not think of that. Shield was another matter. He disarmed the officer who was with him and tried to shoot us, but Rainbow was too fast for him. Guard too. When they both we recovering, they had such huge holes in their auras that I decided to help.—
—They threatened you?—
—They couldn't stop themselves. I need to deal with SuriGo before she does this to more people than I can comfortably help. It's bad enough that probably everyone at the company is similarly afflicted. It's not like I can march in there and just start purging people.—
—You're so brave, Rarity. I just… I can't do that. I can't even think about fighting. It never worked for me and I don't like it.—
—I know, darling, and that's one of your qualities I love. You have such a big heart that it shines through in everything you've done.—
Our chirps blended together into a happy cacophony of sound that reminded me, once again, that I could always hear a little chirping.
Indulging in another hug with NotABug, I slowly started to get out of the car. Realizing that I'd be in my boutique, I quickly shapechanged into my human disguise adorned with one of my more recent creations—a long skirt and scoop-necked top—with matching accessories. By the time I actually departed from the vehicle, Rainbow was already waiting for me.
"That's an interesting number. Not too revealing for work?"
I looked down and shrugged my shoulders while making a snooty little sound.
"Darling, if there's one thing I've learned about fashion is that you need to be bold. Anyone outraged by what I'm wearing will clearly not realize that I'm wearing nothing at all and that this is all me."
"That is both the sexiest thing you've said and possibly the most confusing at the same time, but it earns you a kiss."
I accepted her kiss, with grace, upon my cheek.
When we reached the front door, I was surprised at the sound of a sewing machine coming from within. I was just about to say something when Byte spotted me. She moved fast, rushing up to us and wrapping Rainbow and myself in a hug.
"I was worried about you," Byte said.
Rainbow and I both hugged her back.
"Who's sewing?" I asked.
"Vaunt got bored, so Bobbin showed her your designs. She's done two so far. She and Bobbin are getting along really well."
I sent Byte a flood of happy and reassuring chirps on a direct message, then slipped from her hug to make my way to the back area.
Bobbin and Vaunt were indeed chatting and working together. Bobbin had dispensed with her human form and was using magic to help Vaunt, who was using my sewing machine. They were working as a team quite well, it seemed.
Waiting for them to finish some sewing, I cleared my throat. The reactions were various levels of instant. Bobbin moved the faster of the two, spotted me and started running along the workbench. By the time Vaunt turned to look at me, Bobbin was launching herself to land in my arms.
"How are you doing? Having fun?" I asked.
"Moooooom! We made things!" Bobbin said.
She stayed in my arms just long enough to get those words out before she leapt back onto the workbench and over to where there was a stack of boxes.
"We just finished and packed away the second one! Vaunt's really good at sewing!"
"I'm sure she's fantastic at it, given the career she wants to break into. What I want to talk about with her, however, is her style," I said. "And her career path."
"I talked with Mr. Cardigan at school, and he said he was surprised that you weren't working at Polomare still. If you don't mind me asking, why did you leave?" Vaunt asked.
Her eyes were sharp and piercing. I took a quick peek at her aura, but she wasn't being affected by anything I could see.
With a little sigh, I walked over to what she'd been working on. One of the dresses I'd designed for the show, certainly, and she'd picked a wonderful color palette for it.
"Would you like to know what my job was at Polomare Fashion? I modified designs. I would take a piece from last year's patterns, I'd alter it to bring it into line with the current fashion—making as few changes as possible—and I would find another to do the same with. There was a whole floor of people like me—and like you—doing this. What Polomare Fashion does to people is suck their creativity out slowly until it has no more use for them, then it spits them out."
"Is it really that bad? So you just quit?"
I laughed—I couldn't help it.
"Quit? No. They required me to give notice. Then wanted me to keep working there for two weeks. My boss, Suri Polomare herself, threatened to have me hit with a non-compete clause if I didn't finish up my work. What came next was a campaign of malicious compliance I'm quite proud of."
Vaunt's face split into a smile that made her glow with beauty. She seemed to relax a little.
"I was worried," Vaunt said, "That this was some kind of set up or some kind of prank. So what do you want me to do and how many hours can I work here?"
"You can work whatever hours you wish to, whenever you wish to, and doing whatever you wish to. Pick your first day and we'll go shopping for some equipment for you, because much as I like your work here, I'd like to use my own machine.
"If you don't mind, I'll give Mr. Cardigan a call myself and try to head off any rumors about me regarding Polomare. Particularly with the latest events."
Drat. If Vaunt was even half the woman I hoped she was, she'd pick up on that loose thread and ask me to unravel everything.
"So many questions now. How about I save the big one for later? I'll draw up a roster for days I have time off from class. I might need to use some time here to work on projects, since you're letting me choose what I do, but that shouldn't take up all my time. You're going to be working tomorrow?" Vaunt asked.
"For the show on Sunday, yes, but not here. I'll be working from home."
"Well, how about I come in Monday after classes? I finish at four."
—What time do you need to be in court on Monday?— I asked NotABug.
—It will be a morning meeting,— NotABug sent.
I kissed her and gave her a good bit of chirping.
"I should be available then. We can go shopping for your equipment. Oh, probably the most important thing I need to ask you. Your career may hinge on this," I said. "Do you like sushi?"
The question, it seemed, caught Vaunt by surprise. She actually blinked her eyes a few times as if it would help.
"Sushi? I've never had it before. It's the raw fish thing, right?"
"Something like that."
"Sushi's awesome!" Bobbin said.
I reached out a hand to rub Bobbin's crest. She stretched her head up to meet my touch and made a series of chirps, apparently for the joy of it (which was probably the best reason to chirp, if I'm honest).
"We’ll have a sushi chef come in once a week and prepare lunch for anyone who wants to drop in. Even if your schedule doesn't line up with that, I think we're going to be spending an evening in Uma no Sushi anyway, you're welcome to join us," I said.
Vaunt stared at me for a moment before she shook her head.
"You're unbelievable. You barely know me, and you're willing to hire me and are inviting me out for—for what, a family get-together?"
"It's not strictly family. Our children will make up the majority, but we have a growing team of staff for our other businesses too. It's optional. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
"I guess I'll try it once. If I don't fit in or I don't like it, I can always sit at home and eat a bowl of ramen."
"You're really going to like it. Everyone does!" Bobbin said.
Setting the two dresses back in their boxes, I did a quick lookup of what we still had to make. A dozen more outfits—twenty if I wanted spares—were still in the to-do pile, which should eat up the rest of my evening.
With that in mind, it was time to work. Shedding my human form was the first step, so with a simple twitch of my magic I felt the flames tear away the feminine human shape and leave me at least a hundred and ten percent more buggy.
It felt good to be myself. I was being a bit of a fool in not trying to get people used to seeing me like this. But then, in my boutique, everything was about making my clientele comfortable. I guess a little deception was the price to pay.
"This is really the real you, isn't it?" Vaunt asked.
"Of course, darling. You think Bobbin and Byte came from a normal-looking human?"
"Hey, I'm trying to avoid making assumptions here. Honestly, I was just looking to do a little internship. Getting a paying job and advice is a dream come true. Sorry, I'll let you have your chair back."
Vaunt jumped to her feet to vacate the little chair before the sewing machine. I realized she was wearing an ankle-length dress that looked light and airy, and its olive coloring matched her hair and skin perfectly while not bringing too much brightness. In all, I approved of her attire.
Climbing up on the seat, I reached out with my magic and felt for the tools I'd need: scissors, sewing machine, patterns, pins, thread, needles—I chirped a little as I took up the tools and floated my glasses over to my snout.
I didn't need the glasses anymore, being far-sighted had left me needing them for any close-up work in the past, and I was just so used to wearing them that they made me feel more artistic just having them there—even with the lenses popped out.
"I guess your horn isn't there for show either?" Vaunt asked.
"No. It lets me use more than a little magic. But there's more to it than that. Multitasking is essential when working like this."
And the key to multitasking was being able to think exceptionally fast so that you could devote a little bit of time to each task, one by one, to ensure they were all getting done. But I wasn't going to tell her all my secrets.
"If you have any other questions," I said, "Don't hesitate to ask. I promise I won't take offense unless you mean to give it."
Vaunt pulled out her phone and, or so I guessed, checked the time. It was 1:06 P.M., of course, not that she would know without looking at such a device.
"I gotta go. I have a class in twenty. Do you want me to send you a message with Mr. Cardigan's number?"
A proximity check was all I needed. I sent a message to Vaunt's ChirpNet account with my contact details.
—Sure, darling. If you need to contact me, just use ChirpNet,— I sent to Vaunt.
—Who's that?— NotABug asked.
—That's Vaunt, my new employee. Oh, drat. That means I need to make another call to Coco.—
NotABug sent a playful chirp and followed it up with a hug.
—That will make 'Bee happy. She was asking if she could make more money a little earlier. I think she's getting bored just doing that. Perhaps Byte could find her a number-related game to play?—
—Might be a good idea. Oh, I have some good news for Bitwise. Chef Soba said she can start tomorrow, and she can work there as long as she does the work.—
—That's great news. I'll let her know.—
It didn't take long before I heard scampering hooves out in the boutique. Vaunt was still staring at her phone (likely trying to work out how I'd sent the message to her) when Bitwise raced past her and bounced around me like a lamb.
—Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! That's awesome!— Bitewise sent.
—Out loud, dear. We have a new friend present,— I sent.
"Mooooom! I can't believe Chef Soba and Kit said yes! This is the best day ever!"
Reaching out a hoof I caught her up and hugged Bitwise to calm her. She was still practically buzzing, so I leaned down and nuzzled at her cheek.
"You're going to have to work hard for them. They'll be in charge, you understand?" I asked.
Bitwise seemed to notice Vaunt for the first time and chirped a little in surprise. I chirped back to comfort her and because I felt chirpy (a near constant state of late).
Lifting her head from her phone, Vaunt stared at me with a mixture of confusion and surprise.
"How'd you send that? You didn't touch a phone."
"You're going to find, Miss Vaunt, that there are a lot of things that will be hard to explain here," I said. "This, however, is one of the simpler ones. I have a phone inside me."
Vaunt looked like she was about to question it, that she would challenge this magical pony-like bug about such a mundane thing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"You know what? That's not the craziest thing I've dealt with today. Okay, I'll send through my work hours when I get the chance, and if you let me know when this dinner is, I'll try to drag myself away from instant ramen for a night."
Clutching a squirming Bitwise against my front, I turned to bid Vaunt goodbye.
The afternoon, once Bitwise was done bouncing around in excitement, was spent turning my designs into reality. Part of me wanted to invite Rainbow into the back room so she could adjust time further, but ultimately I was sure I could finish the outfits on my own.
I honestly enjoyed having a deadline when it meant I was making my outfits. The outfits had the theme of bright shades on dark—naturally a perfect mix for my daughters and I—and spanned all four seasons of colors.
5:51 P.M.
I was caught completely off-guard as a pair of blue arms caught me up from behind and pulled me into a hug. Being surprised was one thing, but being surprised with a hug, a kiss, and more love than I knew what to do with was romance.
Turning in her grip, I kissed her back as much as I could to keep up with her assault.
"Let's wrap up for the day. You've still got those two eggs at home, and I bet NotABug is going to lay another," Rainbow Dash said.
She was unceremonious about picking me up completely and leaving my work where it sat. Drat but being picked up and carried off by a brute was titillating.
With my only option being squirming, I resorted to magic to pick up the pieces I'd been working on, pack them in a box, and float them behind us as Rainbow carried me out into the store itself.
She stopped right in the middle and twirled in a circle—slowly.
"You're doing it, Rares. This is your boutique, and you're working your cute butt off making outfits for a fashion show," Rainbow Dash said.
I realized she'd never used the word boutique before, and thanks to her calling my butt cute I almost missed it this time. The afternoon had flown by with the soft chirping echoing around the back of my head, but now my work is done for the day, it was time to relax. Leaning up, I kissed Rainbow's chin.
"My derriere is cute?"
"No. I said your butt is cute. But it's attached to a cute tummy, cute chest, cute shoulders, cute neck, and the cutest face I've ever seen."
With a happy chirp I turned a little in her arms so I was on my back. Stretching out, I knew I was behaving much like a cat would under the circumstances, but I was much larger than a cat.
"Rarity, what are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Getting comfortable, darling, what else?"
With care to ensure my horn didn't poke her, I squirmed to get a little more comfortable.
"What night do you think would be best to have a big dinner at Uma no Sushi? Not before Sunday, of course, but I want to have a night where we all get together, all the Rainbooms too, and just relax," I asked.
"Maybe invite everyone around tonight for some drinks? Your friends will probably want to celebrate getting their house, and it'd be cool to get everyone together. We can try to organize a day then."
Now there was an idea I liked. Gathering up the phone numbers of our friends was simple, though most of them, I noticed, had ChirpNet on their phones. I added Lyra's details to the list, as well as Perdition and Stefanie, then Starling and Bent.
—Hi everyone! Going to have a little soirée tonight to celebrate my first week of owning my own fashion boutique, as well as to get back in touch with you all. Starting as soon as you want to turn up,— I sent to all of them.
It took only a second to get connected to the server, bring up my programming suite, and write something to quickly shunt messages sent to me to the ChirpNet channel I'd just set up and to route back the other way. It was written and running on my phone less than two seconds later.
"Uh, you okay, Rares?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Oops. Let me add you too. There we go. Just setting up a channel to organize tonight."
—Ohhh! You have ChirpNet? Woo! Can I bring someone along? There's room for plus1, right? Please, please, please say yes!!!— Pinkie Pie sent.
—Of course, Pinkie darling. We're on our way home now, does anyone want us to pick up some drinks or food?— I asked.
Messages started rushing in to RSVP. I was quick to get answers flowing out to any questions, but I could hear Rainbow's phone bleeping like crazy while she carried me out to the car with Byte and Bobbin following us.
"Alright, what's up with all the messages?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Simply everyone seems to want to come. We need to stop and get some drinks, but the consensus seems to be to order pizza. What do changelings drink, I wonder?"
"Well, that sake you had didn't seem too much of a problem. Anything else like that should be okay."
Rainbow had a knack of reminding me how smart she actually was every now and again. Just another thing I love about her. Speaking of love, I took a long sip of her love and let out another deep, happy chirp.
With a sigh, Rainbow stopped beside our car and waited for Byte to open the door for her.
"Thanks, Byte," Rainbow Dash said. "And Rares, you can have some more if you want."
The way she said it, I believe, heavily implied that she'd like me to have more. This was going to lead to more eggs, I knew, but I was already perfectly fine with having more nymphs around.
Sitting in the car, I pulled on my human form—opting for a black miniskirt and teal blouse with dark stockings and black high heels—and waited for my prey as she circled the car. With Byte and Bobbin climbing in the back of the car, I leaned across as Rainbow got in and nibbled on her love again.
This time, rather than a simple little slurp, I took a good mouthful of her love and inhaled more still. That sensation I'd come to learn as being an egg forming inside me began, but I felt there was time—plenty of time for us to get some things.
Rainbow shivered and looked across at me with the kind of expression I'd read about in terrible novels meant for women who'd never actually gotten that look. But, I'd gotten that look from Rainbow a few times now—I had no need for those novels.
"You like?" I asked.
"I like, but are we talking about how you make me feel, or how much of your top I can see down?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Both?"
"Both."
We both looked at each other with glee.
"Both is good," we said at the same time.
"What are they talking about?" Bobbin asked.
"They're making a movie reference and flirting," Byte said.
"Oh. Look at bug-mom, she's going to lay another egg tonight."
"Yeah. More little sisters."
Rainbow and I were looking at each other with surprised smiles at hearing our girls chatting. We each turned to look back and startle our girls into a chirp each.
"Hold up," Rainbow Dash said. "Another egg? Do we need to get home fast?"
"No. I think I'm getting a better feel for it. Let's get some drinks and then head home. And, darling, don't drive too fast."
"Pfft. There's no such thing as too fast, but I'll keep under the speed limit—like I almost always do."
I knew she did keep under the speed limit, but it was the speed limit the car registered, and that was often traveling ten times faster than the rest of the world. Could that even be considered in court? I'd have to ask NotABug.
Oh goodness. I'd forgotten to ask NotABug about tonight!
—Darling? Rainbow and I have organized a little party for tonight. Would you like to attend?— I asked.
A small cascade of giggly chirps washed over me before NotABug pulled me into a hug. At the same time, in the real world (though almost in the same time-frame), Rainbow began driving.
—It's at our house?— NotABug asked.
—Sure is. Oh, we can use the cameras and such to interact even if we're not in control at the time. This will work great.—
—Exactly what I was thinking. How did the dressmaking go today? Get everything done you needed to?—
I let out a more dramatic chirp.
—Honestly? I probably could have done more, but it was nice to talk with Vaunt. She's like a younger me. All her years of grinding and pain at Polomare ahead of her, but no more!—
The giggly chirps NotABug sent were like beautiful music.
—My beloved, you really are a fairy godmother.—
The term of endearment surprised me at first, but it was just another way she was growing apart from myself. I'd worried that the parts of me that she'd used when she'd taken up residence would mark her for all time, but that was, apparently, not going to be the case.
—I just want to help everyone. If that means saving them from mistakes I made, I'm happy to do that. Vaunt just… She really feels like I did back then. I don't want her to hurt.—
NotABug kissed me. It wasn't a long, enduring kiss like romance would inspire, but rather a quick and cozy kiss. I let out an appreciative chirp in answer.
—That's just you, Rarity-love. Oh, do you mind if I try out some cute names? I keep wanting to use darling, but that'd confuse everybody, and besides, I want my own,— NotABug said.
—Perfectly fine, darling. Got any others you want to test?—
—I heard Rainbow using Rares, which I wish I'd thought to use first. Maybe I'll just use snookums or snuggle-umkins. Who's coming tonight?—
Rather than list out all the names, I simply sent her an invite to the chat.
—You'll note, Applejack and Pinkie are… Oh goodness, I should have invited Sweetie as well! Applejack and Pinkie are on a relay to texts.—
I quickly pulled Sweetie into the chat too.
—Sweetie, darling, we're having a party tonight. Would you like to come?— I asked.
"I forgot to invite Sweetie," I said.
"Can she make it?" Byte asked.
"I'm asking now."
—Sure! What time?— Sweetie Belle asked.
—Whenever you want to arrive. We're getting some drinks now. Is there anything you'd like?— I asked.
"She said yes," I said.
Byte and Bobbin both chirped in glee—digitally of course.
—You know I can't drink alcohol yet, but I wouldn't mind some OJ,— Sweetie Belle sent.
—OJ it is. I'd planned to get some for mixers anyway. Do you need a lift?—
Rainbow was already moving the car. It was no longer a surprise that she could keep up with me, but it was always a pleasant reminder that she was at least my equal there, if not my superior (what with her ability to literally break physics with a touch).
Time was running slow for us, which meant we were moving very quickly. Did I need to adjust how I talked to suit? How would it work if I made a phone call like this? Then a new worry hit me and was solved again a moment later—how could my phone communicate with the normal world if we were moving at a faster rate? It all worked because I was living with an actual magic girl.
"Sweetie asked if we could get some extra OJ for her," I said.
"Wecanswingbythesupermarket."
"You're talking really fast, darling."
"Sorry. I kinda like driving this thing a little too much, if ya know what I mean."
"It wouldn't be so bad if you gave a little pause between the words. I can understand them just fine."
Was this how language evolved? Conversing faster with Rainbow might be easy for her side of things, but I couldn't exactly make my mouth and throat work faster, could I?
"How's this? Enough of a pause?" Rainbow Dash asked.
The words were still spoken quickly and the pauses between them were barely there, but I could easily understand them with only marginally more focus than normal.
"Sounds perfect, darling. It makes me wonder if I could do something similar?"
—I wouldn't say no. How long will you be?— Sweetie Belle asked.
"Could we pick up Sweetie first?" I asked, trying to speed my speech up.
The car really shouldn't have been able to turn as fast as Rainbow got it to. It was like traffic just froze in place and let her thread through gaps that even a compact car would have struggled to fit, only Rainbow made it look like it was the easiest turn in the world.
"On it."
—We're on our way now and won't be long,— I sent.
It took us just over a minute and ten seconds to reach Sweetie's dorm. The huge building was as nondescript as ever and made me wonder if I couldn't improve on that. Bug Hive dormitory. Sponsored of course, to foster tomorrow's programmers and fashion-forward designers. It wouldn't be cheap, but it should probably wait until we have our own home established. Oh drat, I needed to talk to Coco for that. I'm sure that would be another good income offset.
—We're here, Sweetie,— I sent.
Her head appeared briefly in the window of her dorm-room, and a few seconds later she was running out the door wearing a cute dress I don't remember making for her. It hit me that she'd been shopping without me. The skirt was a pink that matched Sweetie's hair, while she had a blue halter top that I had to admit showed her off well. Too bad the only cute boys at the party were spoken fo—
Rarity, you are a silly bug. What if she's not chasing boys? There are moments in my life where I look back and wonder how stupid I was, even if it was only seconds earlier.
Climbing in the car, Sweetie had plenty of room since both the girls in the back seat had turned back to their adorable, buggy selves.
"Byte! Bobbin! Come here for some hugs!" Sweetie Belle said.
I hadn't realized Sweetie had met Bobbin, but the two seemed to know each other well enough. How much were our girls getting up to while I was at work or otherwise engaged? Though, under the circumstances, I couldn't complain about the company they kept.
"That dress looks great on you, dear. How has class been?" I asked.
Fumbling for her seat belt while Byte and Bobbin sat on her lap, Sweetie seemed distracted hugging the girls.
"Kids, in your own seats before I'm leaving," Rainbow Dash said.
The two jumped out of Sweetie's lap with a pair of disgruntled chirps before they flashed green one after the other, and fastened their own belts.
Rainbow had been waiting for the third click that was Byte's belt locking home. Time fell into that strange warp again and the car leapt forward under her guidance.
"N-New car?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yeah! Isn't it great?" Rainbow Dash asked.
The drive home, punctuated by a brief stop at a supermarket to get drinks, was brief and I noticed how much Rainbow smiled as she climbed out of the car. While Sweetie and the girls carried the drinks inside, I walked around the car to ambush Rainbow with a hug.
Pulling her against me, I turned so my back was to the car and let her lean over me. The shock in her eyes quickly turned wolfish, and she claimed a quick kiss.
"What's this about?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Not that I'm complaining."
"You love the speed of the electric car, but every time we get home I see you look at your car with a guilty expression. You love how it looks."
She sighed and dipped her head forward. If she didn't have her eyes closed, she'd have a great view of my chest. That she did have her eyes closed told me I'd hit the nail on the head.
"I do. It's just so right, but it can't hope to keep up with an electric. Not straight-line, and not around corners. I want the best of both."
Stretching up as tall as I could, I kissed the top of her forehead.
"Why don't you buy another old car, and buy some of these electric ones, and see about building an old electric car?" I asked.
Rainbow's head jerked up so fast she almost conked me on the jaw. Her eyes were wide and she stared into my own with an intensity that had me breathless. Peripherally, I watched as her wings shot out and flared up and a pair of cute ears twitched atop her head.
"Now, if'n Ah didn't know better, you'd just said somethin' real dirty to her."
Both of us snapped our heads to the side to see Applejack climbing out of a hot-pink topless Jeep. Pinkie's topless Jeep. Pinkie, of course, was walking up behind Applejack with a guy practically glued to her hip.
Applejack was wearing her usual attire—a pair of worn-in jeans, a tank top, and a flannelette shirt over it with the bottom edges tied together under her chest. I knew she wore a bra under it, but I had to give her credit; that look was a stunning mix of country and hot. A big pair of knee-high boots just completed the ensemble perfectly.
Pinkie Pie, as tradition would dictate, was wearing pink. A large and full set of pink skirts that puffed out from just above her knees. Knee-high pink and blue striped socks, a pink blouse, and a pair of pink shoes finished off her outfit.
Beside Pinkie, however, was a guy. He had a mess of brownish hair that was a clear contender for a Most Frizzy and Uncontrollable Hair award and stacked up well with Pinkie's. He had orange skin that clashed with Pinkie's everything something fierce, and he wore a pair of multi-color (tie dye, I believe) pants that looked excessively baggy and a yellow polo shirt.
He was, without a doubt, the most discordant collection of person and clothing I think I've ever seen, but all my efforts at hating him died when he looked at Pinkie and Pinkie looked back. There was a connection there that spoke volumes about the two of them. He looked like he'd won the lottery, and Pinkie looked like she'd won first prize in a cupcake eating contest (something I'd witnessed, so knew the look).
"Rarity!" Pinkie Pie said.
She left the man's side and rushed over to hug Rainbow and myself tighter than—well, anything that's ever hugged me tight.
"Rainbow! I can't believe you finally got together! This is amazing!" Pinkie Pie said.
She gasped and jumped back from us, moving quickly to get to the man's side.
"This is Cheese Sandwich! Isn't he the funniest ever?!" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Hello," Cheese Sandwich said.
He sounded only slightly different from Pinkie's older sister—who was so deadpan it almost hurt to hear her. For a fraction of a second I wondered if she'd found a man just like her sister, when Cheese collapsed into laughter.
"I just can't do it!" Cheese Sandwich said. "Cheese Sandwich, at your service. Put 'er there!"
Thrusting his hand out, I could see there was a joy-buzzer in it. Well, of course Pinkie Pie would settle on someone every bit as outlandish as she was herself. This guy seemed perfectly suited to her, even if he wasn't perfectly suited himself.
I reached my hand out to him and made ready. If he liked laughing, let's see how he reacts to this.
"Rarity. Charmed, I'm sure," I said.
As his hand touched mine, I was ready for the jolting buzz, though it still surprised me. I jumped in place a little, focused on Cheese Sandwich, and let my magic roll over me. It burned away the ivory, feminine form and left behind… tie-dyed pants, a yellow polo shirt, and an orange-skinned and brown haired man. Well, not completely. Some things I was not willing to do for the sake of humor.
He stared at me. Pinkie stared at me. Applejack definitely stared at me.
Rainbow Dash, bless her heart, broke into gales of laughter, which drew their attention onto her.
"Oh man! That's the best prank I've ever seen!" Rainbow Dash said. "Okay, okay. Now do Applejack!"
Well, I couldn't very well say no to Rainbow. She was the one who'd fill me back up after burning off a little energy. Applejack took only a little study before I was confident I could duplicate her. Wanting to be a less garish mix of colors, I was only too happy to let my magic wash through me and remake me in Applejack's image.
"Well?" I asked.
"That's actually pretty darned good. Ah assume you've got a good explanation fer all this?" Applejack asked.
"No! You're not doing the accent right!" Pinkie Pie said.
I cleared my throat.
"Well shucks, sugarcube," I said. "Do ya think this here is better?"
"Ah don't talk like that."
"You totally do," Rainbow Dash said.
"Mmhmm! She's got you," Pinkie Pie said.
Okay. Since I had them more interested in my transforming as fun, time to go one further. Pinkie Pie was the essence of—well—Pinkie Pie. She was hyper energy and at least six-hundred percent at all times. Her form was easy enough, even her dress and hair, but it was Pinkie Pie's voice that would be the problem.
Another rush of magic and I looked just like Pinkie, right down to her striped socks and little fluffy fringe of hair that always looked like someone had used a spoon to scoop her hair onto her head.
I cleared my throat again.
"Hi there! Do you want to come—" I said, then adjusted my voice to normal. "I can't do it. You're too… you."
Trying, however, earned me another hug from Pinkie. It was odd to hug her as herself, and I could see confusion in Cheese's eyes as he watched us both.
I wrapped my arms more firmly about Pinkie's shoulders and spun us around as quickly as I could. Pinkie laughed, so I mimicked her laugh as best I could. By the time we stopped, we both turned to face Cheese.
"So," Pinkie Pie said. "Which one of us is the real Pinkie P—"
Cheese moved quickly but not quickly enough that I couldn't dodge him. He'd been making to grab me and kiss me, but was left laughing instead.
"That was eeeeeasy!" Cheese Sandwich said. "Pinkie doesn't dodge my kisses!"
"Nope!" Pinkie Pie said.
He proved his case by grabbing Pinkie and soundly kissing her. They fit together so well I had to reevaluate Cheese completely.
"So what's the deal, Rarity?" Applejack asked.
"Probably easiest if I just show you. Well, here goes nothing," I said.
Nervous. Despite all that'd happened and everything I'd been through, I was nervous. I chirped a little (digitally) in worry and began using my magic to strip away Pinkie's form.
—Are you okay?— NotABug asked.
—I'm just a little nervous about showing my friends… me.—
As my magic burned away the image of Pinkie Pie, I hugged NotABug and let her chirping wash over me. My legs changed to back legs and I fell forward onto my forelegs. Buzzy (and I must say cute) wings sprouted from my back, and I saw the emotions of my friends much easier.
"This is me," I said.
"Oh! My! Gosh! You're so cute!" Pinkie Pie said.
Somehow, despite every advantage I should have had over her, Pinkie caught me by surprise and I was picked up and hugged. What felt like a cloud of cotton candy enveloped me. It wasn't exactly the same as the love I got from Rainbow—it was more a companionable love. It was tempting to try a nibble, but I was firmly of the belief that Rainbow's was the love for me. Besides, if it had the same effect on Pinkie as my feeding did on Rainbow, it could lead to more embarrassment than I could stand.
"Pinkie! She's not a pet. That's Rarity," Rainbow Dash said. "And be careful of her horn. It's sharp and sensitive."
In all our time together—since first meeting Pinkie Pie—I had to wonder if Rainbow Dash had ever had a moment when telling her not to do something had actually worked. Of course Pinkie reached up to my horn with one hand. I held as still as could be and tried to think about boring things as she ran a finger all the way from the base to my horn's tip.
"You're right about the sharpness. I could cut food with this!" Pinkie Pie said.
"You are not cutting up food with my horn," I said. "Pinkie, please put me down."
She pouted. It took all my willpower to stare down my friend, but after a few hesitant sighs she put me on the ground again.
Tilting my head up, I smiled at Pinkie.
"Thank you, dear," I said. "Come inside. I'm sure the girls will love to meet you."
"Girls? Who else is here?" Applejack asked.
With Rainbow walking at my side and our friends (I considered Cheese Sandwich a friend so long as Pinkie Pie did) behind us, I used my magic to open the door.
"Our daughters," Rainbow Dash said.
"Mom!" Bitwise said.
We became the target of the most wonderful cavalry charge of all time. Even Byte and Bobbin, who'd been with us most of the day, came galloping to the door.
Rainbow tried to shoo them away from the doorway, but her efforts were hampered when she leaned down and picked up 'Bee, Beta, and Bitwise. I gave Byte and Bobbin a kiss on the snout each.
"Inside! Let us in!" Rainbow Dash said.
Moon was sitting on the couch inside, talking with Lyra, Stefanie, and Perdition. Starling looked a little lost, while her father poked his head out of the kitchen. I opened my mouth to say hello to everyone, when I felt the urge a lot stronger this time. The urge to create an egg.
"Excuse me, everyone, I have a quick matter to take care of," I said.
I quickly made my way to the room with the computers—that also was serving time as an impromptu hatchery. With an escort of Byte and Bobbin, I made my way to where two eggs already sat.
—I don't feel like I need to make one tonight,— NotABug sent.
—Something to do with the size of the last one, maybe?— I asked.
—Maybe. Perhaps we should keep using computers.—
—It's probably a good idea. I wonder why the smaller egg didn't hatch yet?—
—What are you going to use?— Byte asked.
—A computer, dear. One of the boxed ones will do. We need to order more of those,— I sent.
—I'll get on that,— NotABug sent.
Byte flashed with magic and resumed her human shape. Deftly, she began unboxing the computer tower and barely got it on the floor before I felt the egg coming.
Reaching out to the cold and quiet computer, I felt the potential for life swell inside me and then slip into the machine. A moment after I'd finished depositing the egg I realized it was the first time I'd done it with powered down hardware.
The new egg had swelled out and bulged the computer chassis, causing bits and pieces of it to warp while other parts had a soft green glow.
"What 'n Tarnation was that? Did you just make that computer into some kinda egg?" Applejack asked from behind me.
Silly me, I wasn't using my cameras. The house was suddenly known to me. I could see Pinkie sitting on the couch with Beta on her lap, chatting away. I could see 'Bee sitting up and talking programming with Moon, Lyra, Stefanie, and Perdition. In the kitchen Bent and Bitwise were cooking, and in the room behind me Applejack, Cheese, Rainbow, and Sweetie were standing—the latter two with huge grins on their faces.
I was about to reply to Applejack when I heard a crack. Unlike with the phone-eggs or even the console-egg, this one was a loud cracking sound as the big egg that NotABug had laid the previous day started to break apart.
Byte kneeled beside the egg and left room for me. I walked around the newest one to peek into the shell that had broken.
—Is she out yet?— an unregistered ID asked.
—Almost. Who's this?— I asked.
—I didn't want to leave her alone, so I stayed in here. She's really out?—
I watched as Byte carefully lifted the big nymph free of the egg. She looked almost twice the size of a phone-born nymph, and looked around with wide eyes.
—She is. I think she's looking for you,— I sent.
A second cracking sound drew everyone's attention to the smaller egg. It cracked, shook, and then a nymph actually jumped out of it and wiggled herself to get rid of bits of shell.
—Where is she? I want to hug her.—
"Byte, I think someone wants to see her sister," I said.
"Yeah. I heard her too. Here," Byte said. "This is your big sister."
The size difference was massive. The two newly hatched nymphs nuzzled and rubbed noses with each other while Byte picked them both up and brought them closer to me.
—I think it's your turn, Darling,— I sent NotABug.
—Mine and Rainbow's. And don't you dare groan,— NotABug sent.
Deciding to simplify things, I nudged NotABug to the fore and felt her smoothly take control. I won't lie, particularly not to myself, that it's a relief sometimes when I give her control of our body. The weight of a whole day spent fighting SuriGo's monsters and working to keep my boutique the most fashionable new retail outlet in town fell from my shoulders and I let out the most relieved chirp of the week.
A Friday had been conquered.
"They're beautiful," Pinkie Pie said.
NotABug turned to look up at her and smiled before looking back and nuzzling the two nymphs. I stayed close enough to the surface to feel their touch. Joy washed away any hint of stress.
"Rainbow?" NotABug asked.
On the cameras I watched Rainbow work her way into the room and beside NotABug. She crouched her tall frame down to be almost at the same height too. One of her hands reached out to brush the shoulder of one nymph, then they both turned to her.
They knew Rainbow Dash was their mother. The joy and excitement that registered in their eyes was unmistakable.
"Sup, you little cuties?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Pretty sure it's my turn to pick a name again, right, NotABug?"
NotABug stretched her neck up to nuzzle Rainbow's jaw. As she did, she had a little nibble and let out a happy sigh.
—Who wants to get their name first?— I asked our newest additions.
The little one nudged at her big sister and chirped.
"Awesome. You're first, then?" Rainbow Dash asked, and got another chirp. "It might be a little cliché to call such a big girl as you this, but I've actually been thinking about it—there's a lot of B words."
If she wasn't going to get on with it, I was going to—
"Bantam. It means small and spirited," Rainbow Dash said.
I was surprised at her choice. A quick search online revealed her to be correct, and she was right about having a bigger bug being called small as being a suitable trope for children's names.
—Bantam? I like it!— Bantam said.
She chirped loudly, digitally, and bounced in place excitedly.
—Dear, you need to speak out loud. Not everyone here can hear you like this,— I sent.
—Why not?—
—She doesn't have a connection yet.—
—Yet?—
—We don't know how to make it work for other people.—
—Oh!—
"Sorry. Other-Mom said I need to speak out loud. I really like my name!" Bantam said.
—You're other-mom, I see,— NotABug sent.
—Apparently. What does that make you?— I asked.
—She's Other-Other-Mom!— Bantam sent.
"Oh. I meant to say you're Other-Other-Mom," Bantam said.
"And what am I?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"You're Mom!"
"What about me? What's my name?" the unnamed nymph asked.
"Bespoke," NotABug said. "Perfectly created and a one-of-a-kind."
Bespoke chirped excitedly and bounced around.
—I've got more sisters?— Moon Dancer asked.
—Yup!— Byte sent.
The happy chirps that Moon Dancer made would have had me smiling had I been in control of our body at the time. They joined the general constant background chirp that having so many adorable and happy bugs together invariably caused.
For once, I spotted a car pull up in front of the house before there was a knock at the door. Sunset and Flash got out together while Twilight climbed out of the back seat. Then another Twilight got out of the other side.
Now I was chirping in excitement and couldn't contain myself. As they approached the front door, another car arrived only to disgorge Fluttershy and Maud.
—Starling, we have more guests arriving. Two car loads and they're all expected,— I sent to Starling.
Starlings movements were slow, but she did pull out her phone and then looked up at one of the security cameras.
"Thanks for the heads-up, boss," Starling said.
She walked to the front door, peeked outside and opened the door only when Flash and Sunset reached the door. Stepping to the side, she held the door open.
"Come on in. Everyone's inside."
—Remind me again to give you a raise, darling,— I sent to Starling.
Again, a moment later, she checked her phone and I saw her smile as her fingers started tapping a reply.
—Just pay me whatever you think I'm worth,— Starling sent.
—I don't have that much money,— I sent.
I watched Starling crack up laughing as she read my last message. It was good to see her so happy. From my perfect memory, I pulled up still images of her still under SuriGo's influence.
—Are you okay?— NotABug asked.
—Yes, darling, I just reminded myself of why I'm fighting SuriGo. Did I chirp things out again?—
—Yup!—
NotABug wrapped me in a warm, digital hug and layered on wave after wave of reassuring chirping that our daughters seemed to pick up on and join in with. With such weight of reassurance, I couldn't help but chirp back how much they meant to me.
It didn't surprise me that Moon's chirps were part of the chant, or that she'd been so excited to have new sisters. I still couldn't fully pin down my feelings for her—my heart said quite clearly that she was my daughter, and my head was split between agreeing with my heart and making sure she had the room to be an adult in her own right.
Snuggling with all the reassurance, however, it was impossible for me to remain focused on SuriGo and other problems. I chirped along with the others and opened up my programming tools, only to find a special chat open up as well. I scanned the backlog of messages and found Perdition, Stefanie, Moon Dancer, Lyra, and 'Bee having spent half the day chatting and working on code together.
They'd produced about as much code as I'd make in about ten minutes, but a quick glance revealed Stefanie's in particular to be serious bugfixes for exploits I hadn't even realized were there. One of their conversations centered around bounties.
—We're not going to find all the exploits. We could never do that,— Perdition sent.
—Right. We need to talk to Rarity and NotABug about a bug bounty program. We need ways for people to report bugs, have them evaluated, and get paid for doing it,— Stefanie sent.
The messages were over an hour old, but I figured it was a good time to bring it up.
—How would we go about this bug bounty?— I asked that special chat.
—I think there's some off-the-shelf tools for doing that. Using those would make it seem more standard, and be easier for people to interact with,— Moon Dancer sent.
It didn't surprise me Moon was the first to reply, she was miles ahead of anyone in the chat except for myself and 'Bee.
—That's why you're payin' us,— Perdition sent.
A little chirpy giggle came from NotABug. I fired back a curious chirp.
—I added a grammar checker to his client. It's a toggle that silently fixes everything he types in. He hasn't complained about it,— NotABug sent privately.
—We should promote that as a feature. Allow people to just turn it on and off themselves?— I asked.
—That would be a good idea. Perhaps a feature would be to allow others to prod you to enable it?—
—Or just allow them to enable it on anything you send to them.—
—Why not both?—
We chirped to each other.
—Well, would you care to write up a proposal? What sort of budget do you foresee? How do we go about doing this as efficiently as possible?— I asked the group chat.
—It depends if you want to look to be running a bug bounty, or if you actually want to do it. We could just pay someone else to manage all the details, but Perd is right, you're paying us to do that. Well, paying him. As an idea, you're probably looking at between a few hundred and twenty thousand per bug. People who do this are doing it for a living, and you want to encourage them to do it for you as a living, because that means they're not doing it for someone else,— Stefanie sent.
—So it's like contracting people to find our mistakes rather than letting them do it freelance?— I asked.
—Basically, yeah. We decide how much they get for finding what, we pay it out when they give us the bugs. That's important, though. If you burn these people, you'll never recover from it,— Perdition sent.
—Perd, Rarity hasn't backstabbed anyone, even when you were pulling your shit with the LOIC she kept her mouth shut. Hell, she's even keeping quiet about whatever she did with the cops today, and I know that wasn't selling our asses out, so don't start that again.— Stefanie sent.
I turned my attention to programming and decided on our feature idea to work on while they argued about my integrity.
—I know that, I'm just saying we need to be ****ing careful with this,— Perdition sent. —Did that spelling thing just censor me?—
—I'm working on something more reasonable now. Sorry, Perdition, I have a thing about grammar,— I sent.
—That's cool. I like how it makes me look smarter, but when I wanna swear, I wanna swear.—
I almost told him he didn't need help to make him look smarter, but it occurred to me that in this instance it did make him more acceptable. But at the same time he should have more control over it.
Learning. The grammar engine would need to learn each person's desired style and not only adapt to them but try to teach them. Automated and suggested changes. This was not a simple problem.
I paused. This was a big problem, and I definitely wasn't the first person to ever encounter it. So I searched, and discovered there was nothing so humbling as finding out that no one had actually done this before. There was plenty of spelling correction software, practically every chat application used it, but rarely was grammar looked at.
Time for that to change.
6:39 P.M.
—Rarity, this is a party you organized,— NotABug sent.
I didn't so much jerk awake as mentally blink away the narrow focus I'd been in. I hadn't even spent an hour coding before I was spiraled down that rabbit hole. I chirped and saved my session, then climbed out of my coding mindset to hug NotABug.
The taste of something delicious sliding over our tongue perked me up more. I stretched out from depths of my programming and had a moment of looking around to familiarize myself with the situation.
Rainbow and Fluttershy were singing karaoke, Sunset was talking to both Twilights, and Sweetie Belle was talking excitedly with Lyra Heartstrings. There were more sounds coming from inside the house—My brain registered that we were outside in the yard, and Starling was sitting beside me and chatting with Stefanie. Inside, some of our girls were playing computer games together, while Flash, Pinkie, Bantam, and Cheese were playing a game on the game console in the living room while Bespoke watched.
I was halfway through composing a reply to NotABug when I felt her nudge me forward. I wasn't quite ready for it, which left me feeling like I'd just dived into a sea of sensation. I felt all the places a body had nerves, and it left me gasping with surprise.
—Sorry, I thought you were ready,— NotABug sent.
A few worried chirps left NotABug, chirps that I replied to with love and reassurance in my own digital emotions.
—Quite alright, darling. I was just taking a look around the house and you caught me by surprise.—
"Are you alright, NotABug?" Stefanie asked. "You looked spaced-out there."
"That probably means she and Rarity swapped again," Starling said.
I nodded and stretched my neck and wings, then gave my tail a few little swishes. A quick assessment found my body to be in full buggy order.
"Yes, indeed. I think my darling was just a little tired. NotABug's been pushing herself over the last several days. She's attempting to take the bar exam."
Stefanie looked a little confused while Starling nodded and lifted a can of light beer to her lips and took a long sip. That's when I realized most of us were drinking something, and when I looked to my side I saw a glass of something fruity on the outdoor table beside me.
"You're, uh…" Stefanie said. "I mean, I knew you and Rainbow were a thing, but isn't NotABug kinda part of you?"
Ah! That's what had her. I just smiled in response and came up with a good way to describe it.
"That's an interesting story in itself. NotABug fell for Rainbow before I did. Well, the other way around…" I said.
Okay, I didn't plan that out as well as I'd hoped. When it came time to say what I'd thought, I thought about it more and confused myself.
"What I mean to say is, Rainbow always had a thing for me, then NotABug took up residence in our—my—body, she wanted to try everything. Everything included Rainbow. With the two of them doing things together, I got to see a side of Rainbow—and a side of myself—I'd never seen before," I said. "And then I fell head over heels for the both of them."
"You just keep making things a little stranger, you know that?" Stefanie said.
Her tone of voice was more vibrant than her words would otherwise have hinted. Stefanie lifted her glass toward me in a salute and took a long sip from it.
Deciding I might as well try my drink, I used my magic to levitate the glass up and took a sip. There was surprisingly little sweetness to it. There was a dark, spicy taste that dominated and was uplifted by a more crystalline and pure, but sharp, note. Sipping more, I found myself taking a long sip of the drink.
"What is this?" I asked.
"White rum, spiced rum, and vodka, with just a hint of cola," Starling said. "NotABug and Rainbow played around with spirits earlier to get something that tasted good. I tried a sip and almost fell over."
"It's delicious," I said. "How many have I—we—had?"
"NotABug knocked back three of those so far. If they were affecting her at all, I couldn't see it."
"Yeah," Stefanie said, "guess alcohol just doesn't hit you, huh?"
I sniffed the drink and tipped it back. The spicy-sharp flavor saturated my palate again and I shivered a little at how nice it was. There was not a single after-effect of drinking in my perception at all. My face didn't tingle, time didn't feel stretched, and I wasn't inclined to laugh more than normal (all standard tipsy-Rarity fare, before I became a changeling).
Opening my mouth to comment on how I wasn't feeling any of it, I noticed movement on the front door camera. A young woman was carrying the biggest stack of pizza boxes I'd ever seen.
"Food's here, I think. You ordered pizza?" I asked.
A flash of rainbow light blurred past us and through the house. The cameras' framerate wasn't nearly good enough to catch more than the tail-end of Rainbow's run. She reached the front door and had it open before the delivery girl even managed to knock.
Fluttershy, walking in Rainbow's wake, came over and looked at me with rampant curiosity in her eyes. I could have easily brought up all the interactions she'd had with NotABug—the recordings that is—but I'd rather be myself with her. She looked, apart from the aforementioned curiosity, radiant.
"Evening, darling, you're looking wonderful tonight. Sorry about not saying hello earlier, I was letting NotABug have a little relaxation time."
For a moment Fluttershy looked confused, then a smile broke out across her face.
"Rarity? Oh! Rainbow introduced you as NotABug before, and I—I still can't get my head around it."
—Perhaps we should give some kind of cue to our friends so they know who they're talking to? Perhaps something to do with our mane?— I asked.
I was, to be honest, a little surprised to get no reply. When I chirped toward NotABug, I realized what the problem was—she was asleep.
"Quite alright, dear. Perhaps we could start doing something with our mane to remind people who is who?"
"It's alright, Rarity. I'll figure it out. I just don't get to see much of you lately, what with living out of the city. I love being around all my furry friends, and Maud, but I miss spending time with all of you."
"Food's ready!" Rainbow Dash said from inside.
"P-Perhaps we could have parties like this regularly? It's nice to get to know all your new friends and—and children!" Fluttershy said.
The last few words had come out in a rush, and I could see a deep blush on her cheeks.
"I think it's a wonderful idea. How regularly do you think?" I asked.
As it turned out, I needed the party to unwind more than I'd thought. It was a surprise that alcohol had no effect on me, but it hardly seemed like it would be a problem. Fluttershy's idea found traction with everyone I spoke to, and we decided that every two weeks we'd meet for drinks and to catch up with each other.
Things had progressed steadily from awkward reveals, to introductions, and finally catching everyone up on all the little details of life for the past several weeks. All interspersed with the consumption of alcohol by those of age. Eventually, however, the night drew to a close and I found myself wishing my friends good night as they each left.
1:53 A.M.
"You really packed those drinks away," Rainbow Dash said.
We were cleaning up—that is to say I was picking things up with my magic and sending them where they needed to be, while Rainbow slumped in one of the chairs in the living room. She'd packed her share of drinks away too, and while her metabolism was probably faster than a normal human's, she definitely looked like she'd had her fill.
Not that I begrudged her having a few drinks.
"Rainbow, you're drunk," I said.
I climbed up onto the couch with her and set my head in her lap. When her hand came down and stroked from just behind my horn to my shoulders, I found myself chirping in buggy bliss.
"It took some work, but I think you're right, Rares."
Squirming, I turned to my side so my neck was pressed to her belly and my horn projected off the couch. It let me look up at her with one eye while she could still pet me. I didn't need to see Rainbow's face to know she loved me, but it was what I wanted to see.
She didn't look as drunk as she sounded, but Rainbow was smiling a little wider than normal—that could be for other reasons, too.
"Do you want me to carry you to the bedroom?" I asked.
"Pfft. Nah. I got my girls right here. Don' need bedroom. 'Sides, I…"
Rainbow's head tilted to the side and her mouth gaped open as consciousness fled her. What surprised me was her hand kept moving along my mane.
Ensuring I was comfortable, I used my magic to turn the lights off. The soft glow of a handful of charging devices and other assorted LEDs lit the room in muted reds, greens, and blues. All my dreams, however, would be rainbow-hued.