//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Three's a Crowd 
// Story: Recherche 
// by Crescent Pulsar 
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While Rarity put on her glasses and prepared to pick up where she had left off with her work, Marshall stood a bit behind her and to the side, mentally preparing himself for the task ahead of him. He wasn't exactly sure what kind of demands to expect, regarding his ability to follow Rarity's unconscious input, and he didn't want to be a disappointment, so he kept his mind off of other things and tried to relax.

Before Rarity got started, she looked back at him with an expression that asked if he was sure and/or ready, and he replied with an affirmative nod of the head. Soon after, he began to sense what Rarity wanted to happen and willed it to occur with his magic. For the first several minutes his reaction time was a bit delayed and his movement of the objects often jerky, but within a half of an hour he was responding much faster and performing more smoothly, to the point of believing that they were synchronized.

By then he could tell that Rarity was in "the zone," although it was much different from the kind that he employed when it came to his own job at the deli: where he could go through the motions without much thought, which helped to keep his mind off of the agonizing passage of time. Instead, Rarity was smiling quite naturally while humming a tune that was unknown to him, looking full of energy as opposed to only putting in enough effort to get the job done and over with.

He could tell that she was genuinely happy, because he could feel it. Although he wouldn't admit it if asked, he was using that feeling to cope with what he was doing. It wasn't that helping Rarity was terrible, or even remotely comparable with his job, but it wasn't particularly interesting. What really didn't help, however, was how separated he was from the work being done: he was just standing there, virtually doing nothing, because he could help Rarity and still have plenty of his attention left over to think about unrelated things. It was boring.

Regardless, he couldn't help admiring what Rarity was doing. For many years he had entertained thoughts of being creative — in some way — himself, but they never amounted to anything worth mentioning. It wasn't that he didn't have the patience to learn, as far as he could tell, but there was a certain lack of... steam. That was especially apparent with anything that would require him to begin by learning the very basics, because starting from zero, or thereabouts, was both daunting and discouraging. That's how it had been when he had applied for a job at the deli, but necessity had been a strong motivator at the time, in addition to the fact that jobs often weren't readily available. As a result, he had ended up moving several counties away from home once he had gained employment, in order to be closer to his job, as opposed to finding a place to live that was closer to his family and friends.

On a positive note, he did find Rarity's work to be inspiring. It was amazing how many things she had hovering in convenient positions, or the number that she could move in very deliberate ways, and despite all of that she could still focus on doing precision work with her own magic and hooves. It made him wonder if he would ever have anywhere near that much skill before he had to put his transdimensional traveling days behind him, because it would be rather useful on top of being cool. Really, it was a shame that he couldn't use telekinesis back on his own world.

Since he was thinking about telekinesis, and he was bored, he decided to occupy himself with it, since he had more than enough of his concentration to spare. It didn't take him long to see something of interest: a stack of books on a small hutch. Picking up the one that was on the top of the stack with his magic, he brought it over until it was floating in front of his face, with its cover showing.

"A book about pony anatomy?" He thought to himself, wondering what Rarity would need it for. While he could suppose that it had some relevance to her work, such as in the case of the orthopedic shoes that one of his uncles had to wear, he couldn't think of a reason for why she would need it at the moment. Perhaps it had been left with the other books after a prior project.

Either way, it wasn't what he would consider to be interesting reading material at that moment, so he swapped it with the next book on the stack. This one was a book with a collection of picturesque scenery, with some details on their location and — if it applied — history. It piqued his interest a bit, so he paged through the first couple of pages without really thinking about the action, but he eventually caught what he was doing and was delighted that he could already use his magic with such finesse. After seeing a number of nice pictures, without figuring out the reason for the book's presence, he decided to move on and get back to it later if he didn't find anything more interesting.

The next book was one that covered astronomy. He wasn't sure if he would find anything interesting betwixt its covers, but it did bring to mind a part of his early childhood, when his father had picked up amateur astronomy as a hobby, which made him curious about the constellations that the ponies had developed. Since they were listed in alphabetical order, and he had no expectations to find any constellations that he would recognize, he decided to start with the first one that was listed.

Immediately, he had to pause and consider the significance of the name "Andromeda." While he wasn't familiar with most of the constellations from his own world, he knew that Andromeda was a notable enough character from Greek mythology, although he couldn't recall what story they had been featured in. He also knew the name from a galaxy and television series. Still, he didn't recall if there had been an Andromeda constellation, so he moved on, more distracted by the name choice than anything else.

He came across another familiar name a couple of constellations later, "Aquarius," only this time it was a constellation whose existence he was sure about, since it was one of the twelve from the zodiac. However, since he didn't know about its stars or their arrangement, he figured that a constellation bearing that name could just be a coincidence. Despite that, he was spurred to skip ahead a bit, to check for a constellation that he was more familiar with: his zodiac sign.

When he found "Cancer," saw that the constellation was Y-shaped, and that it was associated with the crab, he could only stare at it in disbelief. What were the odds that another world, in a different universe, would have the exact same constellation? Without a second thought, he began to look for other constellations that he would recognize. Not only did he find the rest of the zodiac, which he mostly knew by name only, but other notable constellations that he was more knowledgeable about, like Cygnus and Ursa Minor, which were nearby and connected to the pole star, Polaris, respectively. There was Ursa Major, of course, as well as Orion and his famous belt.

Before he could really begin to wonder what it all might mean, he heard Rarity say, "Marshall? Are you alright?"

Marshall turned his head in order to regard Rarity, who was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and concern. He also noticed that there wasn't anything being levitated or moved by his magic, and that told him that he had become too distracted by his discovery to maintain what he had been doing for Rarity — which was probably how he had garnered her attention.

"I don't know," he replied honestly, unable to shake his unease. "It's just... I think all of these constellations are the same as the ones from my world."

Rarity considered that for a moment, to divine what the issue was, before realizing what Marshall could be worried about, based on prior experience. "Oh, I wouldn't be too worried about such similarities. Twilight has been to a universe where many of us — myself included — also exist, and I wouldn't be surprised if the constellations there were the same as well." Seeing that she hadn't put all of his worries to rest, she sympathetically added, "If you need more reassurances that you're not imagining all of this, though, you can talk to Twilight about it later: she knows a lot more about the subject than I do."

Marshall nodded his head in agreement and tried to put his doubts out of his mind for the time being, since he didn't want them to spoil his experience whether said experience was real or not. While he was fairly certain that he wasn't dreaming, he knew enough about the brain's capabilities, in addition to knowing so little about it in general, to be unsure of the reality of his condition. For instance, if the brain was capable of producing phantom sensations for missing body parts, could that explain the convincing feelings that were coming from his tail, despite it being foreign to his human body? He just didn't know. He also didn't know much about multiple universes, beyond what little he could recall about the theory and what he had seen in fiction, so he couldn't be sure if any of the coincidences were normal or something that his brain had fabricated.

Upon noticing that he had lost interest in reading books, Rarity decided to engage him in conversation while she worked, to help keep his mind from being preoccupied with unwelcome thoughts. At first, the subjects stayed within the working relationship that they had, regarding some of the recent fashions that Rarity had been shown, and making plans for what to explore in the near future. Once that had been exhausted, though, Rarity began to ask him questions about his time on her world.

All things new, strange and overwhelming notwithstanding, his responses were unequivocally positive. However, one comment had stood out to Rarity, because of the feelings that she had felt from him while it was being said, so she made a show out of pausing in her work and asked, "Would you like to give flying a try?"

Marshall's eyes widened at the idea that was being suggested. "That can be done?"

"Certainly, darling," Rarity confirmed with a smile. "I had the distinct pleasure of having a pair of wings myself, you know."

"Really?" Marshall couldn't help blurting out in his excitement, before reining in his emotions and sheepishly adding, "How was it? Did it take long to learn how to fly?"

"Oh, it was simply divine!" Came Rarity's enthusiastic reply, as she recalled the experience. Of course, she couldn't help thinking about her shameful behavior at the time, as connected as it was to the overall experience, and a feeling of embarrassment tempered her enthusiasm. Knowing that her change in mood had been obvious, she cleared her throat before she continued to speak. "I didn't find it all that difficult to learn how to use my wings, all said. Which was a good thing, since finding out about Rainbow Dash's participation in the Best Young Flyer competition was so last-minute." A thought occurred to her, which prompted her to add, "Of course, it probably depends on the pony, because it took weeks for Twilight to become a competent flyer."

Although Marshall had caught that flash of embarrassment, he thought that it would be best to pursue a more relevant matter instead of prying. "Twilight didn't always have wings?"

"Oh, no," Rarity answered, realizing that she had yet to mention that detail about her friend. "It was only very recently that she earned her wings."

She opted to continue her work as she proceeded to tell the story of how Twilight Sparkle earned her wings and became both an alicorn and a princess, since she didn't want to be idle for too long if she could help it. That eventually led to the tale of how Twilight Sparkle's castle came into being, which had been particularly riveting to Marshall; so much so that he hadn't realized what Rarity had been in the process of creating, when it reached its current state of development, until she had finished recounting the incident with Tirek.

While he had some questions about what he had just learned, which had sounded like something that he would have only encountered in a fictional story back on his own world, he was a tad too overwhelmed to do so. It boggled his mind that, on top of all of the other amazing things that he had experienced already, he might actually be associating with honest-to-goodness heroines — superheroines, potentially. So, for the time being, he decided to pursue a subject that he was more comfortable with, in order to avoid doing anything embarrassing or awkward.

"Will a pony be able to wear something like that?" He inquired, with a gesture toward the kimono that Rarity was in the process of embroidering. While he didn't know much about fashion, his eyes were good enough to spot how restrictive the outfit would be, especially if it was meant to fit over the hindquarters and legs of a pony.

Rarity spared him a glance before she said, "Probably not in the way that you would expect. This outfit will require a pony to stand as a human does."

"Ponies can do that?" Marshall questioned, his brow slightly furrowed.

"For a time," Rarity answered, without pausing in her work. "It's not natural, of course, so this attire should only be worn for special occasions, rather than all day. Even so, I've worked some extra support into the design, in order to reduce the chances of soreness and injury."

Marshall deferred to her expertise on the matter, so he didn't voice his doubts. Pretty much all of his frame of reference was for humans, anyway: he had no idea how pony society would react to the kimono, whether it was new to them or not. Rarity certainly knew what she was doing better than he did, so he figured that it would be best to just support her endeavor and hope that things turned out well, rather than risk doing anything that might discourage her or instill self-doubt.

Since Rarity was rather approachable, much like her friends, as if they were neither royalty nor heroines, and his feelings of awe had faded, he eventually followed up on what they had been talking about before. Not only did he learn about the purpose of Twilight Sparkle's castle, but that Rarity and the others were the "elements of friendship," and what that entailed. What really got his attention was when he found out that Rarity was the element of generosity, which showcased her in a new light.

Before he could really begin to see her in that new light, however, his ears flinched when he heard a disturbance somewhere else in the building, as if two solid-enough objects had banged into each other. He looked over at Rarity and saw that she hadn't reacted to the noise, so he was unsure if she was aware of it and didn't care, or was too focused on what she was working on to notice. A new, continuous sound, which grew louder as its source drew closer to their location, made him focus on the door and forget about mentioning what he was hearing to Rarity, which he could only guess were the sound of hooves — likely more than one set, if he was right — beating upon the floor in haste.

Seconds later, the door slammed open and a trio of young, female ponies — fillies, he belatedly recalled — rushed in, only to immediately skid to a halt upon catching sight of him. While they were bouncing their wide-eyed gazes between him and the pony whose body his own was a copy of, which looked rather comical to him, Rarity released something of an irritated sigh, stared at the fillies with a disapproving frown, and said, "Really, Sweetie Belle, girls; where are your manners?"

Rather than showing any signs of apology or embarrassment, the unicorn filly with the white coat and light green eyes, who had pale pink and purple hair, responded with mild indignation, which seemed to emphasize her squeaky voice. "But, you know how much we wanted to see the alien!"

Whether or not it was due to the first filly's initiative to speak back to the adult, because Marshall couldn't be sure, the pegasus filly with the light orange coat, purple eyes and purplish pink hair boldly added, "Yeah! The whole class went to the party after school, just like we planned!"

"Really?" Marshall found himself voicing aloud, who wasn't sure if he was up to entertaining children. He had no personal experience with tending or rearing children, which hadn't been helped by being the youngest sibling, and he had gotten mixed opinions about them from the friends who had become parents, so he was leery of handling a large group of them for any length of time — even with assistance. It wasn't that he disliked children, of course: it was just due to a general lack of confidence when it came to being able to handle them adequately, since he knew enough to know that they could be tricky, while their parents could be over-protective.

The three fillies perked up and became excited once they focused their attention on him, and the one that had yet to speak did so before Rarity could try to absolve herself of the blame being levied against her. She had a pale yellow coat, light orange eyes, and reddish pink hair. In addition to that, her mane was accessorized by a large, pink bow, and she spoke with the same accent as Applejack.

"Wow!" The filly in question exclaimed, before declaring, "She even sounds like your sister!"

"I know!" The unicorn filly replied in agreement, whom Marshall assumed was Rarity's sister, based less on her appearance than the fact that she had been the one to respond to the other filly's statement. "I'd almost forgotten what she looked like without her makeup on and her hair styled."

Apparently, Rarity didn't care much for being spoken about as if she weren't present, on top of the fillies' shenanigans in general, because she interjected with a very deliberate clearing of her throat and spoke in an admonishing tone. "Now, girls, you're being rude. Come; give our guest a proper greeting and introduce yourselves."

The fillies had the good grace to look sheepish, but only for an instant: because it was with much enthusiasm that they approached Marshall, greeted him, and gave him their names. In response, he said, "Well... My full name is Marshall Noel March, but you can just call me Marshall."

"March?" Apple Bloom inquired, who began to march in place. "Like this?"

Marshall had barely finished nodding his head once in confirmation, since the answer had seemed too obvious for him to have bothered researching the actual meaning of his surname, when Scootaloo followed Apple Bloom's inquiry up with, "What's a Noel?"

That brought Marshall up short, who felt embarrassed as he admitted, "I never bothered to find out."

"A knoll is a kind of small hill, isn't it?" Rarity helpfully offered.

Marshall shook his head. "That has a different spelling. I suppose I'll have to look it up when I get the chance."

"Speaking of learning..." Sweetie Belle began, as she regarded him intently. "Twilight told us that you'll be visiting for a while, so everyone was hoping that you could come to our school tomorrow. Could you?"

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo leaned over and sandwiched Sweetie Belle's head with their own, at which point they stared up at him imploringly and simultaneously pleaded, "Pleeeeeease?"

Marshall unconsciously took a step back and curled one of his forelegs up to his chest at the assault, as unexpected and bewildering as it was. Not knowing how to handle it, and not wanting to give in to such a ploy on principle, his beseeching gaze sought the only aid that he had access to. Unfortunately, Rarity merely smiled with amusement and said, "It's up to you, darling."

When Marshall returned his attention to the three fillies, they added really big smiles to their attack. He spared Rarity one more glance before he sighed in defeat and said, "Alright, fine; I guess I'll go."

His answer evoked a cheer from the fillies, which made him shake his head at the ridiculous display. Still, he took it all in stride, as the good-natured effort that it was, and asked, "When should I drop by? The earliest that I can get there is some time around noon."

Rarity chose to answer in the fillies' stead, since they were liable to take their unreasonable demands too far without realizing it. "The school day ends at three in the afternoon, so an hour before that should be fine."

Marshall chuckled inwardly at the look of disappointment that was clearly displayed on the faces before him, since he could remember a time when he also would have liked a half day off of school. Well, it was usually the whole day that he had wanted to skip, but still: he could relate. Hopefully, though, he wouldn't have any problems answering questions from a group of young ponies.

Now that the most immediate issue was out of the way, Apple Bloom decided to follow it up with a relevant question. "So, why'd ya leave the party, anyway?"

After gesturing toward Rarity with a tilt of his head, Marshall said, "She left the party early so she could get back to work. Since the reason for why I'll be sticking around is to help her with her workload, I didn't want to make any excuses not to, you know?"

While Scootaloo and Apple Bloom perked up with interest, Marshall noticed that Sweetie Belle's ears had drooped instead, and he found her expression hard to read. He only noticed it for a second, however, because that was all the time that it took for Scootaloo to distract him with, "What are you working on? Is it something that you aliens wear?"

"Marshall is a human, Scootaloo," Rarity reminded, in an attempt to improve the filly's choice of words in the future. "And, hmmmm..." She paused as she considered Scootaloo's first question. "I suppose I've made enough progress to model it, so..." While regarding Marshall, she pointed toward the mirror that was set against the wall and requested, "Marshall, would you be a dear and stand over there, and model the kimono for me?"

This time, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other questioningly and mouthed the unfamiliar name of the outfit, Marshall had enough time to see Sweetie Belle's expression before he began to move toward the location that Rarity had indicated, and was able to determine that the filly definitely found something troubling. He didn't know what could be troubling her, though, so he focused on his current task and reminded himself to keep an eye on her.

Before he reached the mirror, Rarity levitated over a pair of shoes and set them down in front of it. The shoes in question appeared to be zori, only they were shaped for hooves and their soles were much thicker than he would have expected them to be. Since he was aware of how the kimono would be worn, he worked his rear hooves into the zori before raising himself onto his hind legs. It was then that he experienced the reason for why the soles of the shoes were so thick: the extra cushion made standing on two hooves comfortable, since ponies normally distributed their weight on four.

"What's he doin'?" He heard Apple Bloom whisper to her friends.

Since Rarity wasn't going to dress him in the entire ensemble, she didn't need his help to dress him in the kimono and obi. The tightening of the obi made him gasp a little, but it didn't interfere with his breathing, and its position and snugness seemed to make it a bit more comfortable to maintain his current posture. When she was finished, he looked at his young audience and saw that they didn't know what to think of what they were seeing. Well, except for Sweetie Belle, who seemed to have something else on her mind.

"With this piece," Rarity broke the silence, before it could become awkward, "the focus is on the scope of the panoramic image being displayed around the bottom half, which is a design that is difficult to successfully incorporate into what we traditionally wear, when standing on all four legs. However, the simple, cylindrical shape of the kimono accommodates such a seemingly-endless image quite naturally, as well as the ability to showcase it to others."

Rarity made a circular gesture with a hoof, with the underside generally facing the floor, so Marshall carefully began to turn himself about. While he was accustomed to operating with two legs, and such an action should have been simple, it didn't change the fact that his hind legs were configured differently at present, which would require some time and practice to adjust to. For the time being, he decided to settle for playing it safe, since he didn't want to fall and embarrass himself, or — even worse — damage what he was wearing.

He was reminded of the mirror when it came into view while he rotated his body, so he peered into it so he could get a better look at what he was wearing while he was showing it off. As far as he could tell, the base color of the kimono was black, in part because the scene took place at night, although much of it had been replaced with the dyes that composed the panoramic image. The image in question was of a coast, at the bottom of the kimono, mainly consisting of a beach and surf, a few objects that one was likely to find on a beach, and a lighthouse whose lamp shone like the sun. Opposite of the lighthouse, at the front of the kimono, was a softly-glowing full moon. Its light shimmered on the water below it, with the shimmering effect being aided by an array of gemstones that had enough facets to catch the light at virtually every angle. There were stars in the sky as well, and they also had gemstones set on top of them. A number of clouds graced the starry sky, partly illuminated by moonlight, although these were given more depth to their shape with stitching, which Rarity had yet to finish. Finally, there was the obi set above the scene, and he could only describe it as being wrapped up by an aurora borealis.

If not for catching sight of the figure that was wearing the outfit in the mirror, he would have spent some time to really digest what he was seeing of it, but his eyes were drawn to his alien appearance instead. When he didn't see his human visage, with its babyish countenance, hazel eyes and short, brown hair, he was struck by a strange feeling, but managed to continue moving in place instead of being caught staring at his reflection. It had helped that he had known what to expect, and had seen plenty of Rarity in the past few hours, but actually seeing himself — beyond his mind's eye — hadn't prepared him for the disconcerting effect that it would evoke from him.

Once he was facing his audience again, he could tell that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had a better understanding of the kimono's appeal, although they weren't so interested in fashion to offer more of a reaction than that. Sweetie Belle seemed to be scrutinizing the kimono critically, but he couldn't help getting the feeling that she was actually staring at him unhappily. It may have just been his imagination, but...

"Will ponies actually want to stand like that to wear it?" Scootaloo voiced her incredulity.

"Oh, most certainly," Rarity confidently replied. "The kimono has many appealing characteristics. I have no doubt that it will trend with the upper class, at the very least, and I also expect an element or two to have an impact on the fashion scene for a time."

Seeing as she wasn't going to get much in the way of feedback from the fillies, who seemed to be either uninterested or ignorant of what she was referring to, she turned her attention to Marshall and asked, "What do you think? And are the shoes and sash providing enough support?"

Marshall decided to address the second question first, since he could see what the first question likely was for a person like himself, who had next to no knowledge and interest in fashion: a minefield. "Well, uh, the shoes are comfy, and the sash allows me to relax my back and put some of my weight on it." He paused, and struggled to think of a good answer to the first question, before giving up and tentatively admitting, "And, um, I like the sash...?"

Rarity gave him a flat stare before snorting with amusement, since she had been well aware of the position that she had put him in. With that, she began to undress him and return the kimono to the table that she had been working at, while the obi and shoes joined the others of their type on another table, in addition to the other kimonos-in-progress, since she didn't have any mannequins that could accommodate them.

Once she was finished with that task, she announced, "Well, I need to get back to work." Turning to address the fillies directly, she said, "Girls, why don't you go and inform your teacher to expect Marshall tomorrow?"

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were eager to relay the news, and quickly turned about to leave, but Sweetie Belle hesitated, appearing as if she wanted to say something. Before she could make up her mind, one of her friends noticed her absence and asked whether or not she was coming, which spurred her to take her own leave. While she did so, she looked over her shoulder for a few seconds, with her gaze switching between Marshall and Rarity, as if she were unsure of whom she should be upset with, or upset with more.

When Marshall was fairly sure that the three fillies were out of earshot, he turned to face Rarity and asked, "So, is Sweetie Belle your sister?" After Rarity confirmed that she was, he casually added, "I don't think she likes me."

Rather than the dismissal that he had been expecting, like being told, "You're just imagining things," which was a common enough occurrence in fiction for him to expect such a response in reality, Rarity had no trouble giving her answer while she began to continue her embroidery work on the kimono that he had just worn. "Oh, she's probably just upset that I'm allowing you — a virtual stranger — to help me, since I don't allow her the same privilege most of the time."

"Oh..." Marshall voiced, who didn't know how to respond to that.

While Rarity refocused on her work, he ended up preoccupying his mind with his latest experience, and felt a little guilty regarding what had happened with Sweetie Belle. It reminded him of the time, not long after he had been old enough to attend school, when his father had been helping his older brother put a puzzle together, and he'd had a temper tantrum when they wouldn't let him help. Sure, intellectually, he knew that he wasn't at fault for how Sweetie Belle had reacted to him, but he still felt a bit responsible, like he could have done something. He didn't feel that way because he could relate to her to any degree, though: rather, the source of his feelings could be traced back to his days in junior high.

Back then he'd only had a few friends, so it had been easy for their class schedules to keep them separated from him throughout most of the school day, and only one of them had lived close enough to him that it would not have required any of their parents to drive them to the other's house. Between that, his situation at home, and some mild bullying, he had become a bit of a copycat and class clown to fit in and endear himself to his peers. It just seemed to happen, rather than it being a product of a consciously-made plan. Fortunately, it had worked out pretty well, and he had entered high school with more than enough friends to help him feel secure in that social environment.

At some point, he wasn't sure when, he had developed a bit of a habit of getting on good terms with people that he encountered regularly, especially if they were ill-tempered early on or he was pretty sure that he had rubbed them the wrong way. As a more recent example of this behavior, his co-worker, Simon, had been rather uninterested in interacting with him — for whatever reason — upon being hired at the deli. One day, during their break, Simon had complained aloud while he was reading a text message on his cell phone, so Marshall had decided to take a chance and ask him what the matter was. Simon had been upset enough to say exactly what the matter was, regarding a friend that wouldn't be able to play Star Wars: Battlefront that night, rather than blowing him off, and offering to fill in for that friend had opened the door to a better working relationship.

So, since he preferred it when people got along with him anyway, he began to think of some way to resolve the situation with Sweetie Belle before it had a chance to get any worse. After a couple minutes of contemplation, he decided to share the idea that he had thought of with Rarity. Once he had her attention, he said, "I was wondering how often you make things that an inexperienced person — er, pony — could make with instructions or a demonstration."

Rarity blinked her eyes and regarded him with some confusion. "Now, why would you—" She seemed to realize what he had been referring to, considering the subject of their prior exchange, because she began to stroke her chin thoughtfully and mumble to herself as she cast her gaze askance. Eventually, her face lit up and she exclaimed, "What a marvelous idea!" With a beaming smile, she returned her full attention to Marshall and said, "Yes, I'm sure that I could entrust some of my more menial tasks to Sweetie Belle."

Marshall responded with a reserved smile, since he wasn't quite sure what a "menial task" meant to Rarity in relation to her trade, and thus how that might come to affect Sweetie Belle. "Well, I hope it works out, then."

When Rarity continued to regard him with a warm smile, which was the kind of attention that made him feel a touch uncomfortable, he self-consciously asked, "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Rarity casually replied, before she went back to working on the kimono. "I was just appreciating your thoughtfulness."

Marshall didn't really believe that what he had done was an act of thoughtfulness, but he didn't want to contradict her and deal with what could follow.





Rarity had declared her workday over by mid-evening, happy that she had gotten a lot more accomplished in that time than what had become normal for her as of late. By then, Marshall had decided that his stint as her assistant hadn't been all that bad. It really made a difference when your co-worker was willing to chat, and was good at keeping a conversation going, which Rarity had been keen on doing after he had made that suggestion earlier, concerning her sister.

They had talked about a lot of things, which mostly resulted in getting to know the other better, but two of the topics — in particular — stood out in Marshall's mind as Rarity escorted him to Twilight Sparkle's castle. The first topic was Rarity's dinner invitation at her parents' house, which would be scheduled for tomorrow night, Equestria time. She had figured that he would eventually meet them by chance anyway, so she had reasoned that he might as well do so in a proper fashion. He was kind of nervous about seeing her parents, even though he wasn't in that kind of a relationship with their daughter.

The second topic was one that he had brought up himself: using a more pony-like name while he was a pony, instead of his human name. While Rarity had assured him that "Marshall" would be fine, he didn't like to stand out or seem too distant, so he felt that it would be a good idea to have a more relatable name. Once he had her on board with him, he had suggested that she pick out the name for him, since she should have a better idea of what would make a good pony name — that, and he considered himself to be rather bad at coming up with names in general.

His thoughts were interrupted when Rarity suddenly stated, "Recherché."

"What?" Marshall replied, who hadn't been paying enough attention to catch what had been said.

"Recherché," Rarity repeated, as she glanced over at him with a self-satisfied expression on her face. "How does that sound for a new name?"

Marshall wasn't familiar with that name, and it sounded like it wasn't an English word, so he asked, "What does it mean?"

"Rare, or carefully-selected," Rarity informed him. "I thought that it would be a fitting name, since we're practically twins."

"Recherché, huh..." Marshall mumbled to himself, as he considered the name. It sounded more feminine than androgynous, but, well... his current body was female, after all. There was also a certain appeal to how it sounded, and he was pretty sure that he wouldn't have a hard time remembering that it was his name when being addressed by it, so he turned to regard Rarity and said, "Sounds good enough to me."

Rarity smiled happily and replied, "I'm glad to hear that, because I was already growing attached to it."

"It isn't that good," Marshall teased.

In response, Rarity expelled a playful harrumph and turned her nose up at him. "Well, see if I ever provide you with any of my services, out of the goodness of my heart, ever again."

They continued to banter like that for a time, until they neared the doorstep of Twilight Sparkle's castle. It was hard for Marshall to speak when his proximity to the castle made him realize just how immense it was, and he couldn't help gazing upon it as the light from the setting sun played on its crystal surface, as well as taking in the features that he hadn't noticed from a distance. Rarity didn't seem to mind him being distracted, so the silence that prevailed until they reached the castle was of a companionable nature.

Once they had ascended the stairs at the base of the castle, which Marshall had climbed at a pace that he could handle without incident, Rarity opened the double doors with her magic and — out of simple curiosity — asked, "Have you ever been to a castle before?"

Marshall shook his head, even as he got a glimpse of what the inside of the aforementioned castle looked like. "Nope. And I've probably seen more fictitious ones than I have real ones."

As they stepped into the castle, and entered the main hall, Rarity allowed him some time to stop and take in the sights. If he had known how, or whether or not it was even possible, he might have whistled in appreciation. Instead, he drank in the view silently and saw several things of note, beyond the height of the ceiling and open space in general.

The floor appeared to be made out of large, crystal tiles, and their surface was perfectly smooth in addition to being fairly reflective. Much of the floor was covered by a carpet, which was a faded red color aside from its borders, which were maroon. Among the faded red were light orange patterns in the form of swirls, which reminded him of plant tendrils. The carpet went through a large, fancy-looking entryway, to a stairway at the far end of the hall, which — he could just make out — branched off into two more stairways at its upper landing, but not before splitting at an intersection, where he could see several doors lining the wall that he could see on either side of the entryway.

The doors in question came in pairs, and were slightly convex at the top. Above them were lunettes, and both they and the doors were set within golden, arched frames. The walls around them, as well as the other walls within sight, were a muted purple, with images on their surfaces that were composed of other shades of purple. The images themselves were predominately those of trees, though there was at least one that was of a waterfall, which reminded him of the one behind the castle. On at least one side of the intersection, the walls extended only as far up as the balcony; from there, the walls beyond had more of a brick and mortar appearance, with a color scheme that he supposed was slate, or something thereabouts, because their gleaming quality made it hard for him to judge what color they were.

Another notable feature were the crystal pilasters, especially since two of them made up a part of the large entryway. Then there were the swallowtail banners that hung on the wall via rod and bracket, displaying varying colors and imagery, although all of their vertical borders were gold, which was the same color as the two tassels that dangled from the two points at their bottoms. Finally, there were the light sources, although the only kind that he recognized were the few sconces that he could see. Aside from them, however, were glowing gems, of a variety of colors, which seemed to be threaded through thin cords that hung from practically everywhere: the ceiling, the pilasters, and even the sconces.

Once he felt that he had seen enough, he turned to regard Rarity and asked, "So, where to?"

"If I know Twilight," Rarity replied, as she began to walk ahead, "she's probably in the library. So, let's start there."

The library, Marshall discovered, was in the "house" portion of the "tree house," which meant that he had a great many more stairs to tackle. While that turned out to be a pain, it had given him enough practice to climb them just as well as Rarity, so he was glad that he wouldn't have to worry about such a problem in the future. He was also glad that he had Rarity for a guide, because the corridors of Twilight Sparkle's castle were a maze: the ceilings and floors were the same, as well as the doors and pilasters, which were arranged in a similar, repeating pattern. There was the occasional blank space between pilasters, instead of a door, but it wasn't enough of an indicator of where one was. Considering the lack of flesh-based security, he had to wonder if that was why Twilight Sparkle hadn't bothered with helpful signs and/or plaques.

When they reached their destination, Rarity simply opened the door and entered, so he followed her example and did the same. The library wasn't of the kind that he was more accustomed to seeing, with ranges of bookshelves that made books accessible on both sides whether they were divided by a panel or not, a clearly-defined system of organization, and a catalogue of the library's contents. Instead, perhaps because the library contained a private collection, there was none of that: only bookshelves that covered the vast majority of the walls, which were tall enough to reach the bottom of the domed ceiling, and a few tables to take up a small fraction of the space that was left over. He also took note of a few posters on the pillar-like crystal formations that divided the bookshelves, with all of them displaying the same pith helmet-wearing pegasus.

At one of the aforementioned tables sat Twilight Sparkle, poring over one of the open books on the table, alongside a short stack of unopened ones. She hadn't noticed their entrance, or — if she had — didn't seem interested in having her current activity interrupted. Marshall decided to stand by and watch while the princess was approached by Rarity, who cleared her throat upon arriving at the table and clearly said, "Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle looked up with some surprise. "Oh, Rarity." Upon noticing Marshall near the open door, she acknowledged, "Marshall," before apologetically adding, "Sorry. I just wanted to see if I could learn more about magic-based sympathetic resonance."

"Sympathetic resonance" sounded familiar to Marshall, but he couldn't place where he had heard the term before. Rarity seemed to know what Twilight Sparkle was referring to, though, because she asked, "Such a thing is possible?"

"In theory," Twilight Sparkle granted, with a nod of her head, before sparing her books a look of disappointment. "Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that have prevented any substantial — or credible — study and documentation of the phenomenon. All I've been able to find are hypotheses and anecdotal evidence, at best."

"I can imagine why," Rarity replied, before a thought made her pause. "Wait... You think that's what Marshall and I are experiencing?"

Before Twilight Sparkle could answer her, Marshall decided to interject himself so he wouldn't be completely left out of the loop, since he could read enough into the conversation to know what her answer would have been. "Um, what's sympathetic resonance?"

Rarity turned her body aside and regarded him with a somewhat guilty expression. "Oh, I'm sorry, dear. Do you know anything about harmonics?"

"Not much," Marshall admitted, before he could give the subject some more thought. He had a general idea of what harmonics pertained to, and he understood well enough what resonance was, so he was able to recall the last time that those things had been relevant in his life, which had been during his early years of primary school. "But, if I had to guess, are you talking about something like: making a tuning fork vibrate because another is vibrating?"

Twilight Sparkle brightened upon hearing that. "Yes! I mean, it's not exactly the same with magic, but you've got the right idea."

"Well," Rarity voiced, who regarded Twilight Sparkle with a half-lidded stare, "while we did agree to an examination, to assure that we're healthy and sound, you haven't been thinking about turning us into a research project, have you?"

Twilight Sparkle's eyes widened and her wings extended a bit from her body at the insinuation. "Oh, no! Of course not!" She denied, before turning her head away in an evasive manner. "I mean, sure, it would be a shame to miss out on something that is probably a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, and the scientific community at large will be deprived of valuable knowledge, but," she turned to smile at the other occupants of the room, who easily noticed that it was too unnatural for it to be a sincere one, "you're my friends, and friends come first, right?"

Rarity let Twilight Sparkle hang in the ensuing silence for a few seconds before she giggled and said, "Twilight, darling, I was only teasing you. You don't have to hide how you really feel about it for our sakes." While Twilight Sparkle flushed with embarrassment, she added, "So long as I'm treated with dignity, and it doesn't interfere with my work, I would be willing to submit myself to your tests."

Unexpectedly, Marshall found Rarity giving him an expectant look, so it was with an absence of finesse that he followed her up with, "Oh, uh, sure: what she said." He didn't really know what he might be getting himself into, but he felt that he had gotten to know Rarity well enough to give his trust in her a chance.

Twilight Sparkle didn't seem to notice anything wrong with his reply, since she was smiling happily. "Well, as tempted as I am to make that request right now, I think it would be more prudent to make sure that you two aren't having any issues with this arrangement."

With that said, Twilight Sparkle rose from her cushion and began to lead them to her lab, where she had the equipment that could detect both physical and magical maladies. Along the way, not long after they had left the library, Marshall's curiosity inspired him to ask, "Is that magic resonance thing really that rare?"

"Sympathetic resonance," Twilight Sparkle corrected without thinking, before addressing the question. "And, yes: it's really, really rare."

Marshall wanted to know some specifics, so he followed his last question up with what came naturally. "Why?"

"It's mainly due to biology, dear," Rarity joined in, even though she was sure that Twilight Sparkle could have handled his inquiry on her own. "You see, our wombs are only meant to accommodate one foal."

Twilight Sparkle nodded her head in confirmation. "In addition to that, it's rare for us to have multizygotic births, and even rarer to have monozygotic twins." She paused, as if to consider what to say next, or how to say it, and became more somber. "Until fairly recently, relatively speaking, bearing multiple foals carried a very high risk of death. Not only could one or both foals perish, but the mother was liable to as well."

"Not only that," Rarity spoke softly, "but even if one or both foals lived, it was very likely that at least one of them would not be... whole. It was common for them to have trouble enjoying life as other ponies do; that is, if they did not die young."

"Oh..." Marshall voiced quietly, who felt bad for asking. His head was level with his body, as if he were weighed down by what he had just learned, and he could feel his ears tilted to the lowest point that they've ever been.

Rarity walked up beside him and gave him a gentle nudge of encouragement and smiled, to show that she wasn't upset about his question. "Don't feel bad about it, darling. All of that is mostly history, now."

As Marshall's spirits were lifted, Twilight Sparkle addressed the final limiting factors that were relevant to his question. "Now, even under the best of circumstances, there are still issues that mitigate the ability of identical twins to experience sympathetic resonance. The first issue is the likelihood of being born with different dimensions, since they had to contend for the same source of nutrition in the womb, and there's also the possibility of there being at least one mild deformity. The second issue is that they will deviate even further apart as they grow older, due to their diet and lifestyle, as well as whatever maladies or injuries they happen to come by. The third — and possibly the most important — issue, is how their magic functions. This aspect affects unicorns more than the other pony tribes, although the passive and largely-innate nature of Earth and Pegasi Pony magic may greatly limit how sympathetic resonance is expressed, if it's exhibited at all."

That had given Marshall plenty to think about, so he remained silent for the remainder of the trip. Once in the lab, however, the technology awaiting within gave him plenty to talk about, since a lot of what he could see appeared to be far more advanced than what he had seen anywhere else in Ponyville, up to that point. Of course, as he was already beginning to tell, Twilight Sparkle was perfectly willing to talk about things that were of an intellectual or scientific nature.

Fortunately, the examination revealed that both Rarity and himself were problem-free. With that out of the way, he was shown to the room that he would be using during his stay, since it was nearly time for him to return to his human body anyway. Along the way there, Twilight Sparkle learned about the name that he was going to go by as a pony, since Rarity had used it with that intention in mind. It had been a pleasant surprise for Twilight Sparkle, who had been supportive and complimented Rarity on the name, since she had been familiar with its meaning.

The room that he was shown to was fully furnished and seemed fairly ordinary to him, aside from the canopy bed. He didn't know if he would ever need to use the nightstand, footlocker or dresser, or the vanity mirror on said dresser, but a fully-stocked bookcase looked like it would be a good distraction, since he could make out a few titles that were clearly aimed at educating him about the world that he was visiting. However, whoever had stocked it hadn't accepted any sacrifices when they had encountered insufficient room on the shelves, because there were a couple stacks of books on top of the bookcase.

Once Twilight Sparkle was standing in the middle of the room, on a large, round, blue carpet, she turned around to face Marshall and asked, "So, what do you think?"

"It's probably more than I'll need," Marshall honestly replied, "but it'll work. Thanks for putting this together for me."

"Think nothing of it," Twilight Sparkle graciously replied, waving it off with a gesture before the look in her eyes became more focused in purpose. "Now, before you return to your body, I'd like to organize a schedule for you."

Marshall couldn't fathom from where she had gotten her quill, inkwell and parchment, which was a cause for some distraction as he replied, "I need a schedule?"

"Not really," Rarity remarked, as she spared Twilight Sparkle a cocked eyebrow. "However, we probably should discuss our immediate plans, until we settle into a routine." Turning her attention away from Twilight Sparkle, who was slightly disappointed that her services wouldn't be needed, she looked toward Marshall and queried, "On weekdays, for instance, I assume that you'll normally be acting as my assistant?"

Marshall nodded his head before adding, "Except tomorrow, because I have that thing at the school."

Once Twilight Sparkle had been properly apprised of that particular situation, they decided to work out what Marshall would be doing the following day. Since a proper tour of Ponyville had been in the "welcoming committee's" original plans, which had been discarded because Marshall had opted to leave the party early and help Rarity, he agreed to be taken on the tour before going to the school. When Rarity mentioned his desire to fly, Twilight Sparkle was happy to accommodate him, much to his delight and gratitude.

Aside from stopping by Sugarcube Corner during the tour, because Pinkie Pie had expressed interest in the kinds of treats that humans made for themselves while Marshall had been gone from the party, he would spend some time with Twilight Sparkle after he had dinner with Rarity's family, so she could teach him a spell that would make it a lot easier for him to convey information. Beyond that, the only other plan was for Marshall and Rarity to be studied by Twilight Sparkle for a few hours during the weekend, for the sake of her sympathetic resonance research, which they had decided to agree to.

Before Marshall got ready to leave, Rarity recalled his earlier concern, regarding the reality of his experiences, and mentioned it to Twilight Sparkle. While he hadn't been able to completely wrap his head around the explanation that had followed, regarding multiple universes, he had understood enough for it to allay his concerns. Plus, he highly doubted that he had the knowledge and imagination for his mind to relate everything that Twilight Sparkle had, so there was that as well.

A few minutes later, after Twilight Sparkle and Rarity had left, Marshall got comfortable on the bed and followed the former's earlier instructions on how to move his consciousness back to his own body. He hadn't expected to be successful on his first try, or so quickly, so he was a bit surprised when he was suddenly reintroduced to his body and its familiar sensations, and saw a familiar — if nondescript — ceiling above him.

If not for his need to empty his bladder, he probably would have laid in bed for a while and contemplated his experience as a female unicorn in a magical world. It was just as well that he got such business out of the way, though, since Rarity would be connecting with him before too long. Plus, he was famished, so he figured that he should take care of that as well, while he was up.

It was while he was eating a bowl of bran flakes at his computer desk, as one of his playlists on Youtube was playing King Harvest's Dancing in the Moonlight, that he felt Rarity connect with him. Since he was beyond caring whether or not Rarity was aware of his ability to notice her connection to him, he preemptively asked, "So, what do you want to do first?"

"...Perhaps I should introduce myself," responded an unfamiliar — yet undeniably feminine — voice. "I am Princess Luna. Marshall, I presume?"