//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Breaking the News to the Fashionista 
// Story: The First Five 
// by Epimetheus 
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	“I must say Twilight; you certainly did clean up the place after Spike’s incident.” Rarity looked around the library, noting the new looking shelves and exceptionally clean floor space under them. The two unicorns were in the kitchen, doors and windows open to catch the early morning breezes, drinking tea, and munching on some cookies Rarity had brought along with the gems. Spike was eating away contently, sitting next Rarity and oblivious to the conversation around him. 
“Well, I figured a little redecoration was necessary for a while now, and I guess I took advantage of an opportunity.” Twilight was relaxed, like she was having any other of the numerous chats she’d had with Rarity.
“Well good for you. So, hear anything interesting?” By interesting, Twilight knew that her friend meant gossip, even if she’d never admit it herself. 
“Well, other than Derpy saying that there’s a two legged creature, nothing.” She tried to remain nonchalant, but a little nervousness edged its way out. Rarity misread her friends emotions, luckily for Twilight.
“Dear, please tell me you of all ponies isn’t taking that seriously. I mean two legs? As if!” She shook her head at how ridiculous the concept was. “Now I heard that Filthy Rich has not only been buying off politicians, but that he’s even got a mistress!” Twilight looked at her friend incredulously. While Filthy, or Mr. Rich as he preferred, was a cutthroat business man, he absolutely adored and doted upon his family. The idea of him having a mistress was about as logical as somepony going to the moon and back without magic.
“I find that hard to believe.” Twilight responded dubiously. 
“Well so do I, but Lily swears she heard Mrs. Cake discussing it with Ms. Cheerilee the other day!” Twilight, and the rest of the ponies in Ponyville, knew Mrs. Cake was the biggest gossip in town and anything she said, other than the prices of her food, was to be doubted. 
“You okay Twilight dear? You seem a little distant today.” Rarity looked at her friend with concern. Twilight had been drifting through their conversation that day, which only happened if she was preoccupied about something.
“Yeah. Rarity, can you keep a secret?” The question caused the white unicorn to look at her friend in shock.
“Of course I can sweetie! Now spill.” She leaned forward in a serious, yet eager response. Twilight smiled, amused at her friend.
“I think it’s better if I showed you.” Twilight got up and walked out of the kitchen. Rarity quickly followed her, ready, or so she thought, for anything her friend could show her. Spike continued to munch on a sapphire as big as his hand, unconcerned and sitting in his spot contentedly, a stupid grin on his face. They moved towards the door to the basement, but before she opened the door, Twilight turned and looked at Rarity with piercing eyes. 
“You have to Pinkie Promise that you won’t tell anyone outside of our circle of friends ok? You can only talk to Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Spike about this.”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Rarity made the corresponding movements with a dramatic flourish and raised her eyebrows at Twilight, as if to ask if she really doubted her ability to keep a secret. With that, she opened the door and the two entered the basement.





“Gin!” Megan shouted, causing Thomas to throw his cards on the table in irritation. Megan took deep pleasure in seeing him unable to speak and irritated at the same time.
“Now, now, nobody likes a sore loser. So what’s that make it; 8 games me, 1 to you?” She asked satirically, causing Thomas to grow even more irritated. The two were sitting at a table in Twilight’s basement, which she had converted into a room for Thomas. They had spent the previous night in sleeping bags as the guest bed hadn’t been moved down yet. All around them were various apparatuses and beakers, indicating that they space had been used as a laboratory before Thomas moved in, which only excited him more at the time, but at the moment he couldn’t care less. 
“Hey,” She raised her hands in mock defense “it was you idea to play cards while we waited. It’s not my fault that you happen to suck at gin.” Thomas scrawled on a piece of parchment to his right and shoved it towards her. Reading it, she looked up with a confused look, designed to get a reaction. It did. Thomas nodded fervently as he crossed his arms. 
“You want to play a different game? How about we play Simon Says, you can be Simon!” She laughed at Thomas’s glare and continued with the taunts. “How about charades, you’d be good at that! Or Pictionary! Oh, how about Name that Tune!” She fell out of her seat in a fit of giggles, unable to control herself at her Thomas’s expense. He continued to stare, glowering and turning bright red in anger. Getting up, Megan snickered.
“Don’t get too upset, you’ll look like Freddie Kruger.” Thomas threw up his hands in exasperation and walked away from the table. Ever since he was 7, he’d been terrified of Freddie and whenever his name was mentioned within an hour of sundown, Thomas was guaranteed to get absolutely no sleep that night. At this point they heard the door at the top of the stair open and saw two unicorns enter. Twilight was the first to enter, and a white coated, with a sparkling purple mane unicorn followed close behind and stopped when she saw the two humans. Megan waved, Rarity collapsed.

“Rarity, can you hear me?” The voice was paired with something that smelled strong. She could feel her head being held up and she slowly opened her eyes. Twilight was crouching over her with a concerned look, her hooves on the ground. Wait, if her hooves here on the ground, who was holding her head and the smelling salts? She looked up and shrieked in terror. A creature with six long scars on its face and emerald green eyes had a hold on her.
“Rarity, wait!” Twilight shouted, but before she could do anything, Rarity let out an uncontrolled burst of magic, created on instinct that struck the creature square in the chest and sent it flying back into the basements wall with a resounding thud from the wall and grunt from… whatever that thing was. She looked back at Twilight, who was rushing over to the creature.
“Twilight, what are you doing? That thing could hurt you!” She ran after her friend, but stopped short of approaching the creature. Twilight showed no fear and bent down to check on the creature, crumpled on the floor and groaning in pain.
“He’s harmless! His name is Thomas and he was helping me get you to wake up!” Her horn glowed and she concentrated, trying to check on the condition of his bones and internal organs. From what she could tell, he was fine, but he was hard to read.
“I don’t think you hurt him too badly.” Her statement was confirmed when Thomas raised himself and sat against the wall, rubbing the back of his head.
“But how?! I know that should have incapacitated him at the very least!” Rarity exclaimed, now terrified of the creatures resilience. 
“They seem to be resistant to magic.” Twilight explained.
“THEY?! THERE’S MORE?!” She looked around wildly and focused on the door, where Spike was finally entering. She rushed up to him and leaped on him in an effort to protect him. 
“Careful Spike, there are these strange creatures infesting Twilight’s library! One tried to snap my neck!” She continued to look around wildly, searching for more of them.
“Um, they aren’t infesting the library Rarity.” Spike said, trying to get out from under Rarity, who was fighting him. “Their names are Thomas and Megan and I really doubt they were trying to snap your neck.”
“You know them!?” Rarity was lightly stunned by the sentence, allowing Spike to get up and straighten his spines as he spoke.
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool if you get to know them. Megan is at least, Thomas is a nerd on Twilight’s level.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the lavender pony, gently helping Thomas back to his feet.
“But, where’s the other one?” Rarity said fearfully.
“I’m down here!” A voice called from a table covered in lab equipment. Huddled under it was a creature similar to Thomas, but much more feminine and with a long brown mane. 
“I ran for cover when I saw what you did to Thomas.” She looked over at him, still woozy from the collision with the wall, and commented.
“He seems to be everyone’s punching bag recently.” She got up from under the table and tentatively climbed the stairs. As she approached, Rarity hid behind Spike quivering. Under normal circumstances, Spike would have relished a chance to show her how brave he was, but he knew she was in no harm, so he remained relaxed.
“I’m Megan. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m a friend of Twilight’s.” She sat down at the top if the stairs, her legs crossed and she looked at Rarity with deep green eyes that seemed to be sincere. Rarity slowly moved out from behind Spike and approached Megan. These creatures were incredibly strange to her. They were quite tall, had very little fur, other than the stuff on their heads, and there were distinct differences between the genders. Megan had a softer face, her skin was smoother, part of her torso stuck out further, her hips contrasted sharply with her waist, and yet she seemed to have more muscle than the male. The male on the other hand had shorter fur, needed glasses, and seemed a healthy skinny that lacked defined muscles. She had no idea what in Tartarus they could be.
“I’m Rarity,” She softly replied “and any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine.” She sat down in front of Megan and continued to look her over. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you exactly?” The creature took it in stride, responding earnestly and kindly.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m a human, and I’m from another planet.” At this point, Rarity’s heart stopped. Another planet? She’s an alien?
“Did you say another planet?” She squeaked.
“Yes, but we got here through a fluke of magic. It’s a long story. If you’re willing, I can tell you.” Her calmness seeped into Rarity, something about this human reminded her of herself. 
“Sure.” She responded. With that, they walked down to the table and Megan began to explain everything, from the hunting trip, to the field, to the meeting the other night. Rarity’s eyes went wide with all the information. Towards the middle, Thomas and Twilight joined them, Spike having gone back in to finish off his gems. At the end, Rarity sat there in silence as she processed it. She turned to Thomas after a moment and looked at him in shame.
“So I hurt you for no reason after you’ve already been scarred by Spike?” Her voice was full of the shame that was on her face as well. Thomas nodded and scribbled something on a piece of parchment.
It’s fine, no damage done. 
“Oh, but I must make up for hurting you some how!” She exclaimed. Then her face lit up as an idea struck her. 
“I know just the thing! Twilight, its Sunday, so my shop is closed, can you teleport us all there?” The lavender unicorn nodded, seeing where this was going. Thomas was suddenly sitting on the floor of a boutique, with Megan sitting nearby, both utterly confused. The boutique had rolls and scraps of fabric everywhere, along with mannequins of ponies, namely mares. The curtains were drawn, making it dark, but enough light seeped through for the two to see. The two unicorns were standing; expecting the sudden shift in scenery, and Rarity quickly dragged Thomas by the sleeve of his shirt to a pedestal in the center of the room and shoved him onto it. 
“I know you’ll just absolutely love this! It’ll be exciting to work with only two legs and a vertical body structure!” Rarity had a measuring tape enveloped in her magic and was quickly measuring his arms, chest, waist, legs and everything in between. She moved around him in a blur, having him completely measured faster than anything Thomas had ever seen. 
“Now, so I can get an idea about how to fit the fabrics, and to get better grasp of what I’m working with, I’ll need you to remove your shirt and pants.” She said flatly, not noticing the intense blush on Thomas’s face and the slightly lesser one on Twilight, but Megan only smirked. Since he couldn’t voice a protest, he did as he was told. He was soon standing on the pedestal in his skivvies, feeling completely vulnerable with three girls in the room, one of whom was pointedly laughing at his discomfort. Rarity turned around and completely disregarded Megan, too focused on her work.
“Now, for the shirt I was thinking silk, as that would go with the suit material, but lets experiment a little.” With that, she started to match swatches of fabric against his face and shoulders, making quick remarks at each pair, keeping one, then the other, then neither, going back to one. It all went so fast that Thomas couldn’t keep track of what color they were, let alone the material. Before he knew it, she had a bolt of white fabric which he was able to identify as silk. She began to cut and stitch, forming a shirt around his torso and not thirty minutes later all it was missing was the buttons. 
“Now, for your trousers.” She raised a pair of scissors that made him nervous and began. The process was much the same, except there was no flurry of fabric, as she had set her mind on what to work with. He stood as still as possible, but when she zipped up a zipper rather quickly, he jumped. This caused a fit of giggles from Megan and Twilight, leaning on one another. Thomas only glared at them before Rarity made him look forward so she could work on the jacket. Rarity kept telling him to stand still, but as far as he could tell, he was, but he soon realized he kept moving his arms in nervousness. He steadied them and relaxed. Before he knew it she stepped away.
“There, what do you two think?” She turned to the two girls, who nodded their approval, Megan whistling.
“Incredibly well done.” Thomas walked off the pedestal and looked into a nearby mirror. The person in it shocked him. Standing in his scars was a man dressed in a tweed suit and silk shirt. He hadn’t even noticed the vest she’d put on him. He turned to see his back and legs and nodded, liking the suit, the way it moved and how it fit. He turned to Rarity, completely flabbergasted. 
“I think he’d like to say that it’s amazing and thank you.” Megan spoke for him, and he nodded in agreement.
“Thanks are not necessary. I owed you for knocking you into that wall earlier and a lady never neglects her debts. Now,” she turned to Megan “you’re next. Hop on the pedestal please.” 
“You don’t owe me anything! And neither Thomas nor I can pay you.” Megan said, caught off guard by Rarity’s generosity.
“Pish posh, my dear. I’ve made him a suit, so it’s only polite for me to make you a dress.” With that, she led her up the pedestal that Thomas had recently vacated.
“Now if you’ll please.” She motioned towards her shirt and pants. Megan blushed and quickly looked towards Thomas, who had already turned to look at the incredibly interesting wall behind him. 
“Well dear? It’ll be a lot harder for me to measure you and make your dress.” Rarity heard Megan mutter something about it not being proper for Thomas to be here. Taking a hint, she asked for Thomas to go wait in the front room. 
“Rarity, where’s Sweetie Belle?” Twilight asked suddenly.
“Oh, she’s over at Applejack’s with Applebloom and Scootaloo. Applebloom was rambling on about aliens and a new brother and sister the two had to meet. Why?” She answered absentmindedly before turning to see Twilight and Thomas teleport in a flash of light. 
“Well, that’s a little rude.” She commented before turning back to Megan and asking “Are you ready?”