//------------------------------// // Sweet Dreams // Story: Through Martyr's Eyes // by ShouldNotExist //------------------------------// -Sweet Dreams- Release me! ~~~ Twilight started awake, jumping to a seated position in her bed and throwing her sweat-soaked covers off of herself. She was breathing heavily and her throat felt sore. There was some lingering sense of fear, or dread, hanging onto the back of her mind like cobwebs. But if it had been a nightmare, she didn’t remember any of it. The loft was empty, her bed being the only one occupied. The curtains along the window shielded her from the early rays of the sun, saving her from the burning light in her still sleepy eyes. The bookshelf across from her bed remained blocked by the guest bed, pressed up along the bottom of it and otherwise cutting off direct access to the shelves. The sound of claws scuttling up the wooden stairs of the library made her ears twitch to the door in the study below. Spike slid into view a moment later, a chef’s hat and apron on his scaly form. “Twilight, are you okay?” he yelled up to her. He looked spooked, but the reason for it was beyond her at the moment. “Yeah,” she replied hoarsely, rolling off of the bed and yawning. “Why? What happened?” she asked, rubbing some of the sleep out of her eyes as she moved to the edge of the loft. “Well, you were screaming! Did you have a nightmare?” Spike asked, starting to look confused. “No, I don’t think so,” Twilight mumbled around a yawn. “Gimme a minute, I’ll be down in a bit,” she said, turning toward her dresser at the top of the stairs leading to the loft. It was simple, polished wood with a small mounted mirror. She looked at herself in the mirror, examining her bedhead. “I look like a mess,” she mumbled, lighting her horn with magic in preparation for a spell. She concentrated, the familiar pattern of magical energies flowing from her. It was a morning ritual of hers, a bit of a cheat around normal cleaning. With a flash of light, the slight sheen of sweat disappeared from her body, leaving her fur clean and fresh. Any blemishes vanished, and the stickiness around her eyes faded. She sighed in contentment, the familiar feeling of the magical tug on her horn wiping away the last of her tiredness. The spell was something more complicated than most unicorns could handle, but the magical toll of it was low and made it childsplay for her, even in the mornings. However, there was no spell that she knew of to brush a mane instantly. She’d looked. She returned her attention to the nightstand, using her magic to pull out the top drawer. Its contents varied, this particular drawer often acting as a dumping ground for whatever she had wandered to bed with. This often included quills, various parchments, random pencils and markers of mismatched colors. But, more importantly, her manebrush. She quickly brushed out her mane, mostly just making sure there were no hairs sticking out at odd angles. A growl and a tug from her stomach made her pause, and let her finally notice the delicious smell that had wafted up to her. “Ooh! Spike made pancakes!” she exclaimed, dropping her brush back into the drawer and dashing down the stairs. She skipped the last two steps, leaping to the bottom floor and trotting toward the kitchen in the back of the library. “I definitely smell pancakes,” she announced as she entered. The kitchen was simple, it could even be called the bare minimum. All the kitchen utensils sat on display on a set of shelves that pushed up against the wall. A set of tables acted as the countertops, instead of the more traditional cabinets. Most of the other plates and silverware were in the pantry, alongside the food that Twilight kept in stock there. A table sat within a nook in the rear, a continuous cushion acting as the seats along the wall surrounding it. The wooden icebox sat in the corner, the furnace and stove separated from it by a length of table. The furnace was kept separated from the wood of the rest of the library by a lining of brick on the floor as well as a set of safety spells that Twilight maintained on it. After all, it was a tree filled with old, dry, paper. Best not to tempt fate by keeping kindling, as in her house, near the furnace. Spike had returned to the stove, standing on a stool as he tended to his pancakes. He had laid out his batter and other cooking implements on the nearest table, where a window gave him ample light to work by. “Morning,” a familiarly smooth voice greeted. Marty was sitting on the edge of the breakfast nook, his forelegs resting on the table as he waited patiently for a plate. “Hello, Twilight!” Cherry jumped up, waving to Twilight from behind Marty in her seat. “Oh,” Twilight stopped her pace, “Sheesh, I almost forgot you guys were still here. Good morning,” she greeted, moving to take a seat across from them. “Sleep okay?” she asked them, watching hungrily as Spike’s pancake pile slowly grew. “We was sleeping rockses, right?” Cherry asked, looking between Twilight and Marty, who nodded. “But, what about Twilight? Cherry was all shivery when the sun came up, and Twilight was rolling around in her bed,” Cherry asked, tilting her head toward Twilight with a confused frown. “Yeah, you sounded like you were having a pretty bad nightmare, or something,” Marty said, tilting his head in the opposite direction to Cherry’s and pointing his ears toward her. It was almost comical how alike, and how different they were, and how close they were. “I’m fine, I don’t even remember it. So, no harm done, right?” she assured, stifling a grin at them. “I’m sure that Luna was watching out for me, so it couldn’t have been too bad,” she said confidently, remembering Scootaloo’s story from when she had gone camping with Rainbow Dash. It had been hard to believe before she had confirmed it with the Princess herself. “I guess,” Marty said with a shrug, his nose twitching as he sniffed at the smell of pancakes in the air. “Spike, I can’t wait to try those pancakes, they smell great!” he said happily, sniffing deeply. “They’re almost done, and then I’ll bring you guys some plates,” Spike assured, flipping another pancake onto his steadily growing pile and using his tail to pour out the last of the batter into his pan. “Quick question, Twilight,” Marty mumbled in her direction, attempting to keep his voice low enough that only she could hear him. Not that Cherry couldn’t hear, too. “Does Spike wear anklets, or something? His hoofsteps sound kinda strange, and I didn’t really wanna bug him about it,” he said, shrugging sheepishly. Twilight hesitated to answer, confused for a moment as to why Marty would ask such a ridiculous question. Anypony could see that- Oh, she thought to herself. She breathed out a laugh and brushed her bangs to the side of her face. “Okay, you remember how you thought that Owlowiscious was a pony, when really he’s an owl?” she asked. Marty chuckled, smiling with a bit of embarrassment at that. “Yeah. So is Spike a griffon, then?” he asked quietly, scratching at his forelock nervously. “Well, no. Spike is actually a baby dragon,” she said flatly, watching Marty’s eyes open widely. It was kind of strange to see his faded orbs get bigger, like they had been replaced with eggshells. “Really? A dragon? Gah-” he stuttered, blinking quickly down at the table and rubbing at his forehead. “Sheesh, I hate when I do that. At least I knew Silverwing before I went blind, I knew what he looked like. I guess I didn’t expect to be in such varied company while I was here,” he said with a shrug, turning back to the kitchen as Spike walked over with the pancakes and several plates balanced in his claws. “Here you go, guys. I’m gonna go get my sapphires, I’ll be right back,” Spike said, untying the frilly apron he used for cooking and wandering out of the kitchen. “Silverwing was that griffon in the green room, right? I didn’t get to meet any of them, really,” Twilight asked as she levitated a few pancakes onto her plate. Cherry had already dived in, drowning her pancakes in syrup and munching messily on them. It seemed that the little changeling had a serious sweet tooth. Twilight almost couldn’t wait to show her Sugarcube Corner. Cherry might have a field day with that place. “Yeah, he joined my parent’s herd a few years after I was born,” Marty said, sniffing joyfully at the pancakes. He donned a sheepish grin again, his ears pointing back up at her. “I … uh … hate to ask you this, but … Could you help me with my plate?” he asked, tapping the plate in front of him lightly. “Oh. Uh, yeah, sure,” Twilight said, realizing how awkward it would be for him to try and find the pancakes and then navigate them back to his plate. “How many pancakes do you want, Marty?” she asked, picking up his plate with her magic and then lifting a pancake over to it. “Just a couple, I’ll start light today,” he said, shrugging almost imperceptibly. “Okay,” Twilight replied, floating another pancake onto his plate and setting it down in front of him. “Syrup? All we have is maple, but if Cherry keeps drenching her pancakes there might not be much left,” she said with a giggle, glancing back at the sticky changeling again. “Just a bit, if that’s all right,” he replied. Twilight complied, lifting up the syrup bottle and pouring a small portion of syrup over the pancakes, just enough so that all of the pancakes could get some on them. “There,” she proclaimed, scooting the plate across the table until it brushed against his hoof. Marty hummed, reaching forward and tentatively feeling around his plate with a hoof. His horn flashed, a small section of one of the pancakes breaking off and floating up to his mouth in a wobbly hold. They ate quietly for a few moments, savoring Spike’s cooking. The chef returned a few moments later, a large blue gem and a grinder clutched in his claws. Twilight stopped after a moment to think, her breakfast forgotten. “What’s on the calendar today, Spike?” she asked, idly pushing her food around her plate. “Not a lot,” Spike grumbled, crunching on a chunk of sapphire thoughtfully as he recalled the preplanned calendar. “We’re supposed to go visit Rarity!” he said excitedly, hopping up as he remembered. “Yeah. You guys were gonna plan another gem hunt, and she wanted to see if there was a different nearby gem deposit,” Spike explained, shoving another cut of sapphire-sprinkled pancake into his mouth. “Oh, yeah,” Twilight agreed, thinking back and remembering it. “Hey, while I’m doing that, and since you won’t really get to talk with Rarity, why don’t you show Marty and Cherry around town?” she suggested, making Spike pause and glance back over at the other occupants of the table. “Are you sure that it’s a good idea to take a blind pony and a changeling around town? It sounds like the set up to a really bad joke,” Spike said bluntly, pointing over at Cherry and shrugging. “After all, Ponyville is a pretty traditional town. Who know’s what everypony’ll do when they see her,” he added. “Spike,” Twilight said reproachfully, putting down her utensils and looking at him with a glare. “That’s totally out of line, how could you say something like that?” she asked, pointing over to the other two very confused occupants of the table. “I don’t have anything against walking around town with Cherry,” Spike defended, lifting his claws up in the air. “I’m just afraid that with the wedding only having been a year ago, that some ponies in town might have some ... unresolved issues with changelings. I just don’t want to put ‘em in a bad situation, you know? Like when Zecora came to town, only ponies will actually have something to build it on,” Spike explained, trying to let Twilight see what he meant. “Hmmm, you might have a point there,” Twilight relented, putting a hoof up to her chin as she thought. When Zecora had shown up, the reaction of the townsponies had been less than pleasant. And at the time, they hadn’t had anything against her but speculation and rumor. With Cherry, they might have more ammunition. And as influential as she was, she wouldn’t be able to stop a lynching. This was, of course, a worst case scenario. There was no reason for her to think that ponies would instantly attack Cherry or Marty, even as different as they were. “Maybe if we help her make a disguise? That way, nopony would really care. And Cherry isn’t doing anything wrong, especially if Marty’s still giving her his love, right?” she asked, motioning toward Marty and Cherry to see if either of them had any ideas. “Twilight is to be helping Cherry make up pony?” Cherry asked with a smile that could have put Pinkie to shame, standing up in her seat and looking toward Twilight imploringly. “I might be able to, but I think Rarity would be better at it,” Twilight said, nodding toward the changeling. “Her boutique is only a short walk away, we could wrap you up in a blanket and just head over there. Then we could get her to help you make a disguise,” Twilight said, starting to like the idea more as she talked. If they could convince her to help them, Rarity’s eye for detail could help them create a totally original pony, and do it so well that nopony will ever suspect her of never existing in the first place. It was a perfect plan. “If that’s for the best,” Marty said with a shrug, aiming his ears toward the happily hopping changeling. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Cherry cheered, shoving the last of her syrup souped pancakes into her mouth and hopping up again. “Let’s go!” She jumped up, buzzing clear over Marty and hopping up and down in the kitchen. “Maybe you should take a bath first, Cherry,” Twilight giggled, watching the once again sticky changeling. Cherry tilted her head in confusion for a moment, thinking. “Oh! Cherry knows what to do!” she announced, taking a deep breath and scrunching up her face as she concentrated. Bright green fire erupted out from the chinks in her chitin, embers tracing paths through the coating of syrup and effectively wiping it away. It did, however, have the side effect of filling the room with the smell of burning sugar. “There! Now we go?” Cherry asked, hopping up and down in excitement again. Marty laughed, covering his nose with a hoof. “Somepony’s very excited,” he said, lifting up a piece of the last of his pancakes. “Maybe we shouldn’t keep her waiting,” he suggested, popping the last of his pancakes into his mouth. “Alright,” Twilight said, taking one last bite of her pancakes and starting to stand. “What about you, Spike?” she asked, shifting out of her seat. “I’ll catch up, I gotta do the dishes and stuff,” Spike said reluctantly, not moving from his spot as he helped himself to another pancake. “Plus, uh … it could get kinda freaky if Cherry’s …” he waved his claws around, wiggling the fingers a bit. “Okay, just don’t burn down the library,” Twilight said jokingly, leading the way into the front room. Cherry followed, tugging Marty along behind her. “Let me get a blanket to hide you in, Cherry. Then we can go,” Twilight said as she wandered over to a closet, opening it up and looking for a thin blanket. It was still early fall in Ponyville, the leaves already off of the trees. So any blanket would probably be fine, and she wouldn’t have to worry about making Cherry uncomfortable in a smothering blanket. She pulled out a thin, blue blanket, moving it over to Cherry. “Go ahead and put that on, Cherry. Then you and I can go see Rarity and get you that disguise,” she said, watching the changeling grow confused again. Cherry grasped the folded blanket, pausing to tilt her head toward Twilight. “Marty is not being coming?” Cherry asked, looking crestfallen. “But Cherry has to stay with Marty,” she protested, clutching onto Marty’s leg and putting on a determined look. “Okay. I just thought that it might be easier if we let Spike show him around while you and I set up your disguise,” she said carefully. For whatever reason, if Cherry wanted to stay with Marty, there really wasn’t a reason for Twilight to refuse her. Cherry smiled once she realised that she wouldn’t have to leave Marty behind. She buzzed up onto Marty’s back, wrapping herself up so that her face was barely visible underneath the blue fabric. Twilight tugged at it, adjusting it and making sure that it was wrapped snugly around Cherry. They left quickly, the stiff air catching her mane as she led Marty out of the house. It was a little strange for her, even if the walk was short to get to Rarity’s boutique. Her mind vaguely wondered if ponies would think of her walking so closely to a new pony in town as strange. But that had never stopped her before, Marty was her friend, after all. And there was that one time that she’d gone a little overboard, a few times actually, and ponies didn’t really look at her any different for that. The walk was easy, and there were only a few ponies out this morning. Rarity’s boutique was fairly close to the marketplace however, so they would have to dart in as fast as they could so that they wouldn’t be stopped by anypony. “Good morning, Twilight!” A voice said not even a moment before the previous thought entered her mind. It was Time Turner, his distinctive hourglass cutie mark and that ridiculous bow-tie letting Twilight recognize him instantly. “I see you have a new friend,Twilight. I haven’t seen you around town. Are you new here, sir?” he asked, motioning toward Marty. “Yeah, just dropped in from Manehattan for a bit,” Marty replied before Twilight could try and cover for him. “It’s already so much quieter here, makes it a lot easier to concentrate. And no crowds so far either!” Marty said, tapping against the back of Twilight’s hoof. “Keep cool, and keep walkin’,” Marty whispered to her, Time Turner going unaware of the exchange. “Good morning to you too, Doctor,” Twilight said, starting to walk again. Time Turner was a Physicist as far as she knew, what he did beyond tending the machinery in the clock tower was beyond her. That bow-tie still threw her off, however. “So, Manehattan,” Time Turner continued, following them along as they walked. “What do ponies do over there? Big city, and all that,” he asked, looking toward Marty. “Being blind keeps me from doing a lot of the stuff most of the ponies there do,” Marty said. “I usually end up just listening to music, or playing when I feel like it,” he said cheerily, not acknowledging that for every second that Time Turner talked to them, the more likely it was that he would notice the changeling hiding on Marty’s back. “Oh my goodness, a blind pony? I’ve never met a blind pony, I was starting to wonder if they actually existed,” Time Turner said, dropping back as they finally approached the boutique. “Well, I can see that you three are on some errands, so I’ll leave you be. Tell your changeling friend that I wish her luck, can’t be easy living in this time,” he said, darting off before they could put a word in. They heard Cherry stifle a giggle from under her blanket, a few folds shifting up to cover where her face peeked out. “He’s funny,” she giggled from underneath her blanket. Marty was grinning wildly. “How does he always manage to do that?” Twilight asked herself. Interactions with the Doctor ended with a familiar situation every time it seemed. Shaking her thoughts from her head, she pushed the grinning pair toward the door of the boutique. She knocked firmly on the door, the dull sound of her hoof on the decorative wood of the door making Marty’s ears twitch toward it. “One moment,” a refined voice called out distantly from inside. The door opened a moment later, Rarity’s familiarly prepped appearance greeting them. “Oh, good morning, Twilight, Marty. Please, do come in,” she said, backing away and letting them come in. “You’re a bit early for our gem-hunt planning,” she noted as they passed her into the boutique. “Yes, actually we were wondering if you could help us with something first,” Twilight said, turning back to Rarity as the door closed. Marty shuffled around her, using her as an anchor so that he wouldn’t wander into a wall, or one of Rarity’s many decorative pieces around the front room. “Really? What do you need?” Rarity asked. She balked as the lump of blanket on Marty’s back shifted. Cherry shook the blanket off of herself and smiling wildly as she looked around the room. “Oh! Hello,” Rarity sputtered, surprised at herself for not noticing the changeling. “We wanted to see if you could help us make up a disguise for Cherry. We were sort of hoping that your eye for detail could really make it work,” Twilight explained, watching the changeling cheerfully examine the room around her. “You see, we’re sort of afraid that everypony might not be very happy with her. Just look at what we did when Zecora came to town. It might be worse with a changeling,” she explained, the tiny changeling hopping off of Marty’s back and looking around from her own hooves. “Oh, I see,” Rarity said, looking toward Cherry thoughtfully. She carefully glanced between the other two unicorns, an imperceptible hum escaping her lips. “Well, it’ll be a little bit different from designing dresses, but I suppose I could help,” she said with a little reservation. She wasn’t sure of the little changeling, as innocent as she seemed. She simply didn’t know her, but if Twilight was going to help her, then she might as well, too. She walked over to the little changeling, making her pause her examinations as she became the subject of another’s. “Well, let’s just see what I can do. You said your name was Cherry. Didn’t you, dear?” she said as she looked at her, trying to smile warmly. Cherry nodded but otherwise remained quiet as Rarity looked at her. “Alright, Cherry. Why don’t you come with me, and we’ll go up on the stage so we can get started. How does that sound?” she asked her, motioning toward the back of the shop. Against the far wall was a small, raised platform. Mirrors surrounded one side of it so that a pony could see themselves from three angles at once in the decorative frames. Cherry happily hopped up to it, jumping into the center and looking up with wonder at the stage’s decorum. Rarity quickly locked the door to the boutique, flipping the closed sign up and shutting the curtains so that nopony could walk by and see them. After all, if Twilight’s worries turned out to be true, it wouldn’t do good for any of it to be aimed toward her fabulous mane. “Now let’s just see,” Rarity said, tapping a hoof on her lips as she thought. “Okay, let’s try a bright red little filly,” she suggested, motioning for Cherry to transform. Cherry grinned and nodded happily. She scrunched up her face and concentrated, green fire spitting out from her chitin and burning paper look revealing red fur in its wake. However, that was all that was replaced. Cherry’s eyes remained compound orbs, her horn and insect-like wings right where she had left them. And her tail and mane remained a tattered looking grey frill. Even her fangs had remained. “Oh!” Rarity said, shocked that Cherry had taken her words exactly to the letter. She had said nothing about Cherry’s mane, tail, wings, horn, or fangs. “Okay … So, are you going to be Marty’s little sister while you’re here, or just his friend? Because if you’re his sister, then you should probably disguise your wings away. And make your horn more rounded on the tip, like a little filly’s,” she suggested, inspiration starting to lick at her mind. “Oh! And fillies don’t usually have fangs, dear.” Cherry complied quickly, hiding her wings and horn, and fixing the look of her horn in the same way she had changed her chitin to fur. She shook herself as she finished, little sparks of green magical fire flipping off of herself. “How about, since I never had any siblings, she could be a cousin,” Marty suggested where he stood, unmoved from where he stood. He couldn’t really help with what Cherry looked like, but he could help make them a cover story for them. “Maybe from … Neigh Zealand?” he suggested, shrugging his shoulder. “Yeah,” Cherry replied, breaking her uncharacteristic quietness for just a moment. “Sounds good,” Rarity said distantly, pausing to glance over her back. Marty and Twilight remained exactly where she had left them. She hid the roll of her eyes by turning back to Cherry, re-donning her thoughtful expression. “Traditionally, a pony’s magic is the same color as her eyes. What color is your magic, dear? Or can you change it if you want?” Rarity asked, Cherry turning her head to think for a bit. “Is being green, but is being hard for me to change the colors,” Cherry mused, taking another deep breath before starting to do another adjustment. Green fire burst from underneath her eyelids, and when she opened them they had changed to that of a pony’s. They were a brilliant green, just the same color as the flames that had just passed. “Like this?” she asked. “Yes, just like that,” Rarity said encouragingly. She had a little sister, so she knew how to help a project along without sounding too bossy by now. “Now, how about your mane and your tail? Maybe a nice, deep blue? That would go well with the red, and it might even bring out your eyes a bit,” she said with a smile, she was starting to get into this. Cherry complied again, bright green flame giving way to soft strands of deep blue. It was flat and limp, hanging down like Pinkie’s was when she, very rarely, became upset. Rarity hummed in thought to that, looking over Cherry’s new mane and tail. “Alright, now comes the part where we do the makeover!” Rarity said excitedly, clapping her forehooves together and drawing an excited smile from Cherry. “Come with me, and we’ll get you an absolutely fabulous mane-do!” she said, grabbing onto the newly shaped filly and guiding her toward the stairs. “You’ll absolutely love my bathroom, I have everything a lady could possibly need!” Rarity said to Cherry as they climbed the stairs, eventually disappearing into the balcony above where Rarity’s ‘house’ was. “Looks like Rarity warmed up to her alright,” Twilight noted to Marty, who had simply listened to the entire exchange. “Sure sounds like it,” he agreed, one of his ears flicking to the side for an instant as somepony walked by noisily outside. “So,” he said after a moment, “what sort of stuff is there to do in Ponyville? I can already tell there are some real characters here, if that Time Turner guy is any example,” Marty said, nodding his head in the direction of the door behind them. “Yeah, the Doctor is a bit of an enigma,” Twilight said. He had simply shown up one day, dragging a big blue box no less. “Well, Ponyville has a lot of parks, there are a few good restaurants. And I don’t know if Pinkie already told Cherry about Sugarcube Corner, but I’m sure she’d love it there. That’s the Cake’s shop, selling cakes, ironically,” she said, gaining a snicker from Marty. Twilight paused for a bit, glancing around the boutique with nothing else to really do. “Do you want to sit down, Rarity might take a little while with Cherry. There’s a couch right over there,” she suggested, realizing that they had simply been standing in the middle of the boutique. Quite close to each other, actually. She felt her face heat up again at that revelation. It’s just because he doesn’t have his cane, he does the same thing with Cherry, she thought to herself, quelling any other doubt to it in her mind. “Sure, no point standing around if they’re gonna be awhile,” Marty agreed, waiting for her to take the lead. Twilight quickly walked to the decorative couch nearby, settling in once Marty had climbed up. “She must use a lot of perfume,” Marty noted, taking a few sniffs of the air. “I can hardly smell anything but roses.” “Rarity’s a pony who is very … dedicated to her appearance,” Twilight said carefully, unsure of what the fashionista could hear from where she was. “But she’s a very generous pony, I’m sure she’ll do everything she can to help Cherry,” she reassured. Marty nodded and sat back in his seat, his ears bobbing to a beat that only he could hear. After a moment, Twilight remembered the subject they had been on before Marty’s nose had interrupted. “The Running of the Leaves was a few weeks ago,” Twilight stated, gaining Marty’s attention again. “So that means that Nightmare Night isn’t that far off, only about another three weeks,” she said, the antics of the last Nightmare Night in Ponyville bringing a smile to her face. “Oh,” Marty said with a smile, perking up. “You know, I don’t think I’ve done a proper Nightmare Night since I was twelve. And I don’t think Cherry’s ever had a Nightmare Night! Maybe we should stick around for that, it could be a lot of fun,” he suggested, turning toward her. “You’d really like it,” Twilight agreed, nodding unnecessarily again. “The whole town gets into it, there’s a big festival, and all the fillies and colts go out for candy. It’s great fun! There’s even Nightmare tours into the forest,” she said, seeing Marty’s smile brighten. “That sounds like a lot more fun any Nightmare Night I’ve had,” Marty noted. “Manehattan doesn’t really get into the holidays as much as other cities. And candy hunting becomes a chore with all the high-rise apartment buildings,” he said, rolling his blank eyes. “Judging from how much of a sweet tooth Cherry has, I think that she’d really love it,” Twilight giggled, drawing a snicker from Marty as well. “I think I’d make a great zombie, with the right costume,” Marty went on, smiling widely as he thought about it. “With the blank eyes, and all. Plus, when I was getting therapy for my blindness, I was taught this weird shuffle thing that was supposed to let me feel out the ground before I take a step. I’ve been told it looks like a zombie walk,” he said excitedly, already liking the idea. “We’ll pitch it to Cherry, see what type of costume she might like.” “Sounds like you’re really getting excited about it. You’ll just have to stick around for it, I guess,” Twilight said. Hoofsteps from the staircase attracted their attention, drawing the conversation back to a close. “Ladies and gentlecolts,” Rarity announced, dramatically flourishing her hooves. “I present to you, the fabulous Cherry!” she beamed, stepping to the side and revealing the primmed filly. Cherry’s coat had been brushed, letting it shine from the lights in the room. Her bright blue mane had been properly brushed and fluffed up, standing and styled now. In all, she looked exactly like a little filly. There was no evidence about her to say that she wouldn’t be. “Now, admittedly, she probably could’ve looked better. It’s the best I could do. It’s not every day that you get to design a pony,” Rarity admitted, letting the filly run up to Marty. “She looks fantastic, Rarity,” Twilight said, seeing the filly jump up and down in front of Marty. “Look, Marty! Look look look!” she said happily, hopping excitedly in front of him. “I has a pretty mane, and tails, and furs. Rarity has so many stuffs in her closets. There was a-a-a qui-billion dresses!” she squeaked. She jumped up and put her hooves on one of his shoulders, as if to accentuate her statement. “Okay, okay,” Marty said, lifting his hooves up. “Here, let me see,” he said. Cherry sat down next to him on the couch, happily holding still. Marty lifted his hooves up, placing them down on Cherry’s head carefully. “Let’s see … Yep ... ooh, your mane is curly,” he said, his hooves brushing over her blue mane. “Hmm ... cute, little ears … A little horn … puffy cheeks and a pretty little muzzle,” he listed off, gently feeling out Cherry’s new features. “All in all, a pretty little filly, if I had to guess,” he said, ruffling Cherry’s new mane playfully. “That is adorable,” Rarity said, having snuck around to Twilight’s side while Marty had been examining Cherry. “Hmmm, I think I’ve got something!” she exclaimed, hopping up and trotting away toward the stairs again. “You two come back if you need anything later! Sorry I have to run off, but I must strike the iron while it’s hot! I’ve been inspired!” she exclaimed as she ascended the stairs, leaving them be in the abandoned boutique. “Twilight said we was seeing Ponyville,” Cherry’s voice cut in, drawing Twilight away from questioning Rarity’s sudden retreat. “Can we go? Can we go?” she asked, hopping up and down on Rarity’s couch and bouncing all three of them. “Sure, now that we won’t cause any riots,” she said jokingly, standing up from the seat and moving toward the door. Cherry led Marty behind her, and they all finally stepped out of the boutique. Unbeknownst to them, however. Rarity had stopped at the top of her stairs, peering down at them to make sure they left. She smiled wickedly once they had gone. Now that they were gone, not only could she work with the inspiration that she had started herself on, but she could begin her plans. Honestly, she thought to herself, turning back to move toward her work room. That mare can be so thick at times, as bright as she is. I’m sure that all the dear needs is a little push in the right direction, she mused. She entered her project room, the organised chaos that was strewn about it comforting. Her horn alighted itself as a thickly bound book floated its way over to her, its metal decorations glimmered in the window’s light. She knew she had a few favors around town that she could call in, and she could simply … help things along, that’s all. Let’s see, she thought, flipping through her pages before stopping on a specific page. Aha! Gustave le Grand owes me a favor for that repair on his suit. Perfect ...