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// Take Your Daughter to Work Day 
// Story: Batmare Beyond 
// by Tatsurou 
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	Bruce stood by the door, glancing at his watch, seeing time ticking away.  Grumbling to himself, he looked up.  "Rarity!" he called out.  "We need to get going!"

"Just a minute, Father!" she called out happily from upstairs.  She had become much more vocal ever since her last front tooth came in and she lost her lisp.  She had, in fact, refused to go out where she would have to talk with anyone else until that happened, which was why this had been delayed so long as it was.

Bruce grumbled under his breath, leaning back against the wall again.  After waiting a while longer, he glanced at his watch again before calling out, "Rarity!  We're going to be late!"

"Coming, Father!" she called back, clip-clopping down the stairs.  She was wearing a rather pretty blue sundress and silver hoofshoes, along with a ruby pendant Bruce recognized as having belonged to his mother.

Bruce blinked.  "Where did you get the outfit?"

"I made it," Rarity explained.  "I ordered the materials online.  I was hoping to surprise you.  Does it look good, Father?"

Bruce smiled.  "It looks very good.  And...the pendant?"

"My magic showed me an old jewelry box in the attic," she explained.  "It had so much lovely jewelry in it, so well made too...I just couldn't leave it moldering up there!  So I brought it down to my room to wear with some of the outfits I've made myself.  Is that alright?"

Bruce was silent for a time.  "...that was my Mother's jewelry box," he says at last.

"Oh dear," Rarity gasps, putting her hoof gently to the pendant.  "Do you think she'll mind?"

Bruce winced internally.  For all Rarity had taken to calling him Father and behaving as though they were already family - which they were only a few days of paperwork processing away from being - she still didn't know the family history.  "...I don't think she'll mind," he said at last.  He didn't want to upset Rarity just now.  She had already begun showing a flare for dramatic behavior when appropriate, and they didn't really have time for a storm of weeping.

Rarity smiled happily.  "Will I get to meet Grandma?" she asked hopefully.

"...someday," Bruce said at last, opening the door.  "Come on, it's time to head into the office."

Rarity let out a happy squeal, prancing over to the car.  "Can I drive?" she asked eagerly.

"No," Bruce replied immediately and firmly.





At the office, Bruce was surprised at how well things went.  He had three goals in bringing Rarity to the office, and so far all three showed good progress.

The first had been to test and see if Rarity's skills at Day Trading - which she described as 'finding rare gems in the market' - could be applied to situations in the work place.  So far, she had already identified three employees with underutilized talents that could benefit the company through a lateral move just by talking to them, and that was before they had even made it to Bruce's office to go over paperwork.

The second was to see how she handled herself with other people.  While her reallocation of personnel proved that she knew how to manage people, it didn't demonstrate social skills.  However, she quickly proved adept there, as she proved able to recall many details of anyone she met in the company every time she saw them, and engaged in small talk quite easily.

The third goal had to do with how she addressed him.  Given how her talents had shown, he had already set things in motion to clear the adoption paperwork to make her legally his daughter(1), he wanted to test the waters at the company to see how his employees felt regarding his new daughter...especially regarding the possibility of her being his heir, and eventually becoming head of the company.  So far, she seemed to be getting a favorable reaction from the personnel.  Those that didn't coo over how adorable she was were impressed with how she handled herself, and her mere presence seemed to reassure many of the lower level workers, especially after all the worry which had become palpable since the beginning of Powers' hostile takeover attempt, which - prior to Rarity's arrival - had slowly been gaining momentum.

So far, his plans seemed to be bearing fruit, and Rarity - for her part - seemed to absolutely love working with the company and managing things.  She had already found several accounting errors and missed details that allowed for a drastic improvement in efficiency.  Bruce wasn't sure if she was simply that good at spotting errors or if her magic was letting her 'sense' where things didn't quite add up.

At the moment, Bruce was waiting on a rather unpleasant meeting coming up.  As per usual, Powers would be coming in to once again attempt to convince him to sell the company, or at least a large enough portion of it for Powers to execute a merger.  Hoping to keep Rarity from being a focus of attention - or discussion - he had given her another mobile unit to play with at a desk off to the side.  Last he checked, she was day trading again.

At that moment, Powers came in.  "Bruce!" he said expansively.  "So good to see you again!"

"Powers," Bruce replied curtly.

"Oh come now, Bruce," Powers continued, still trying to be friendly.  "I was hoping, what with our upcoming business arrangement, we could be friends!  We will be working together after-"

"That arrangement won't be going through, Powers," Bruce interrupted.  "I've made other arrangements.  I have other plans for my family's company."

Powers' smile flickered briefly.  "Come now, Mr. Wayne," he continued.  "Don't you think you're being just a bit stubborn?  You've built up the company so well...you'll have to retire one of these days.  Wouldn't you rather the company held together?  Isn't it time to pass the torch to a younger man?"

"Or perhaps a younger mare?" Rarity suddenly spoke up, levitating her unit aside, still manipulating the holo-display as she turned her attention to Powers, her forehooves crossed over her barrel as she stared at him over half-moon sunglasses.

Powers blinked, having been caught off guard.  "And you are?" he asked sweetly, condescendingly.

"Rarity Wayne," Rarity said firmly.  "Father's been introducing me to the workings of the family company."  Her smirk could have been friendly, but Bruce bet it was in response to the back step Powers had taken at her emphasis.  "And I don't see why Father would want to get into business with your company, Mr. Powers, all things considered."

"Oh?" Powers asked.  "And why is that?"

Bruce watched carefully.  He could see that Powers was starting to get a bit unsteady.  Something Rarity was saying was getting to him, putting him off his game, and he was interested in seeing what her plan was.

"Well, it's just that several of your recent business decisions seem rather...questionable," Rarity explained.  She brought the comp unit back to in front of her.  "Your recent explorations of the arms market appears to have over extended your company's capital, and despite your reports to your investors, unless you're able to accomplish this merger with Wayne Enterprises - or acquire a rather large dose of liquid capital - you may yet have to file for bankruptcy...especially as those weapons you decided to invest in producing proved less than effective, especially with the new generation of body armor Wayne Enterprises has provided for law enforcement and the military."  She smiled sweetly.  "You know, you really should have a clean house before you try to buy your way into someone else's."

Bruce narrowed his eyes as he watched this interchange.  Powers was actually sweating!  He didn't know where Rarity got this information, or what she was planning to do with it, but she was playing Powers like a fiddle.

Moments later, Powers' mobile unit went off with an alert.  "A moment," he said, taking it out of his pocket and checking the display.  After a moment, his grin turned vicious, and he confirmed a transaction of some sort.  After a time, the unit confirmed that the transaction was complete.  "I don't think that's something you - or I - need to worry about anymore, Miss Wayne."

"Oh, do you mean the seven billion dollars you just acquired for your personal stock shares in your company?" Rarity asked sweetly.  "Voting share at that...a full 25% of the voting shares if I'm not mistaken.  Rather risky to let go of that much control of your own company, don't you think?"

Bruce felt his eyes widen in shock as Powers face paled.  "How could you possibly-" Powers began.

"Oh, and to someone with the username 'Lady Mysterious'?" Rarity continued.  "Certainly a risky venture, to give so much over to someone about whom you only know that they have the funds and...'a vested interest in the outcomes of your dealings'?"  As Powers' face contorted in rage, Rarity sat back in her chair.  "I think you'd best consult with your investors before you make any more big decisions about your company.  You may find things have changed drastically."

Powers growled.  "A minor setback," he grunted.  "Still not enough to control the direction of the board of investors, and when they learn you're-"

"Oh, but 'Lady Mysterious' isn't my only anonymous account I Day Trade with," Rarity interrupted.  "It's perfectly legal to use multiple anonymous accounts after all.  Perhaps you'd best check your Board members list again.  A few names to keep an eye out for...PrettyPonyPrincess, RareGem, DiamondGirl, and PinkPuppy?"

Blinking in confusion, Powers looked at the list of his Board of Investors, and discovered that many of those with voting shares had recently sold theirs off for triple their current market value.  Four particular accounts had acquired those portions of the voting shares in Powers Technologies.

PrettyPonyPrincess owned 5% of the voting shares.

RareGem owned 10%.

DiamondGirl owned another 5%.

And PinkPuppy owned 6%.

Powers slumped in on himself like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.  He glowered at Rarity.  She had, right under his nose and in the same room as him, played him like a lute and become the majority shareholder in his company...right under his nose.  With one last glower, he turned and stormed out.

"Have a nice day now, darling!" Rarity called after him.  As soon as the door was closed, she fell back in her chair and giggled.  "Oh, Father, that was so much fun!  Are any of your other business rivals such mean-spirited idiots?"

Bruce chuckled.  "No, Rarity, he was the only one."

"Pity," she sighed.  "Still, it was quite fun."

"Rather amusing to watch, as well," Bruce admitted.  "Just one thing, though...PinkPuppy?"

Rarity tittered.  "Well, Ace was so adorable when I prettied him up that I just had to take a picture with your camera.  I was at a loss coming up with new account names, and that picture made the perfect avatar, so..."

"Ah," Bruce replied, nodding his understanding.  He sat back, watching Rarity as she went back to shifting happily between day trading and company paperwork.

His suspicions were confirmed.  He had felt her intellectual development was outstripping her physical development by a good margin.  Short of her being a member of a race of 'miniature ponies', there was no biological reason for that.  Which implied a magical reason.  Her easy handling of Powers confirmed his suspicion that it was not only natural talent, but suppressed experience that was allowing her to handle such things so easily.  This meant she had undergone some form of age regression.

The only questions that left was how, why...and how to prepare her for what would come.






(1) The Alien Foundling Act of 2030, as passed by the UN at the urging of the Justice League, stated quite plainly that an infant that arrived from the stars, the depths of the sea, another plane of existence, or another dimension could be claimed as ward and child of the one who found them if the child proved to be content in the arrangement one year after arrival.  It also stated that entities from the Foundling's point of origin who shared enough genetic commonality with the Foundling to be identified as parents would have to prove justification for the child being lost and why to reclaim them outside that one year time period.  The act was instated to be retroactive, so Superman - as Clark Kent - didn't have to worry about legal issues involving his legal lineage.