A Friend Not Met

by Legioner8

The Last Day - Part 1

"Arrgh!" Twilight slammed her head into the metallic side of the machine.

It was a disaster! Every bit of electronic burned, every circuit fried, every wire melted, every thaum of the arcane energy dispelled. The machine was completely and absolutely unsalvageable, unless she needed a ton of scrap metal.

"There's no way I can determine if the malfunction was caused by the hardware!"

She looked at the base of the machine. The hatch that led to the power core was bent outward and melted.
Twilight didn't need to pry it open to know that the arcane cores were shattered into pieces.

She let out yet another heavy sigh. Everything else was not that bad, actually. The machine can be rebuild rather quickly, even its circuitry, though custom made, was rather cheap and could be easily replaced. But the cores... this failure would leave a sizable hole in her budget.

Not to mention that it would take up to a month to charge and calibrate the new cores.

"I should write to Sunset and tell her that if something pops up in the human world they are on their own." Twilight thought out loud.

With a sigh she removed her goggles and looked at a clock on the wall. She has been fiddling with the machine for only two hours and that was much, MUCH less than she had anticipated. Of course, she could spend some more time here, dismantling that pile of junk, but truth be told, Twilight saw no reason to do that. She’d probably just teleport it out of her castle and file a request for recycling or something.

Spike was surprised to see her out of the lab so quickly and told her that he didn’t start working on their dinner yet, but Twilight simply waved him off, telling him that it was not a big deal.

“Hmm, let’s see.” Twilight thought out loud as she made her way through her castle. “I’ll have to make some orders for the new parts. Also, there’s always a queue for the cores, the sooner I request the new ones the better.”

All the paperwork didn’t take much time either, and soon Twilight was left with nothing to do. She sat at her desk for a minute, thinking what to do, when her thoughts drifted back to the journal that she left in her library.

“Heh. It seems that I will look into this whole situation after all.” Twilight smiled to herself and teleported into the castle’s library.

***

It was easy enough to find the Town Hall, I saw it on our way down, not to mention that it is quite hard to miss a tall tower in the middle of the town.

As we approached the building something dawned on me - if I don’t know the first thing about decor, how am I supposed to evaluate if the Town Hall is appropriately decorated or not? Should I just wing it? It didn’t feel right, I would never do anything, that the Princess entrusts to me, haphazardly. But the pony responsible for the decorations was hoofpicked by the Princess, so I supposed that her skills were sufficient for the job.

When I opened the door we were greeted by a strong but very pleasant flowery smell. The first floor of the tower was a large round room with a big balcony on the opposite side of the main entrance and the tall windows all around. The walls were decorated with many bouquets of beautiful flowers and banners depicting the sun and the moon, big sky blue ribbons were hanging between the different pieces of the decor.

“Beautiful...” Spike breathed out.

“Yes, the decor is coming along nicely.” I agreed.

“This gotta be quick. I'll be at the library in no time.” I looked around the hall once again. Whoever was in charge of this preparations definitely knew her job. “Beautiful indeed.”

“Not the decor,” Spike shook his head and pointed his claw, “her!”

On the far side of the room, right underneath the balcony, stood a perl-white unicorn mare with a dark purple mane that was expertly curled. She was looking at the multitude of small ribbons that were floating in front of her, surrounded by the pale blue glow of her magic.

“How are my spines? Are they straight?” Spike asked as he ran his claws over his head.

I just rolled my eyes at him. However, I couldn’t help but smile at his antics, Cadance would’ve loved seeing him at that moment.

Well, I only need a report so I walked closer to the unicorn.

“Good afternoon...” I started, but was immediately interrupted.

“Just a moment, please! I'm 'in the zone', as it were.” She levitated a big red ribbon that was covered in glitter in tied around the support column of the balcony. “Oh, yes! Sparkle always does the trick, does it not? Why, Rarity, you are a talent.”

Rarity closed her eyes and nodded to herself.

“Now, how can I help yo-“ Rarity turned to me and started to speak, but as soon as she opened her eyes she let out a loud gasp. “Oh my stars, darling! Whatever happened to you?”

“Huh?” I stared at her for a moment. I turned my head around and looked myself over. My whole right side was covered in dust, with a big splotch of mud right over my cutie mark. I could only assume that my face and mane didn’t look much better, considering that I fell face first on the ground when Tzana pushed me. How didn’t I feel it was beyond me.

“Spike! Why didn’t you tell me anything?” I snapped. But apparently Spike didn’t even hear me. He stood staring at Rarity with an absolutely lovestruck expression on his face.

“It’s a long story.” I let out a sigh. “It actually could’ve been worse.”

If Rainbow would’ve crashed into me, I would’ve ended up in that big puddle of mud. I didn’t even want to imagine how I would’ve looked in that case.

“Anyway, I'm just here to check on the decorations, and then I'll be out of your hair!” I said. I could think of a way to clean myself after I get to the library.

“Out of my hair? What about your hair?!” She trotted behind me and started pushing me in the direction of the back door.

“Wait, where are we going!?” I tried to jump aside, but immediately felt Rarity’s magic around my body, as she lifted me off the ground. “Help!”

Am I being kidnapped!? That was as all I could think of while being levitated across the town. All initial cries for help fell on deaf ears, ponies around us just shared knowing glances or outright laughed. Either this happens all the time and nopony was surprised to see a crazy unicorn dragging a pony to unknown location, or everypony in this crazy town were involved in the pony trafficking!

“Oh, don’t be so overdramatic, darling!” Rarity chuckled as I made my observations known. “I merely want to offer you a bath.”

“A... bath?” I raised my eyebrow at that. “You kidnapped me to offer me a bath?”

“Would you accept my offer otherwise?” She turned to look at me with a serious expression of her face.

“I... well... no.” I admitted. “I am on a strict schedule, so I’d just...”

“And that I simply can not allow!” Rarity turned away from me making an irritated ‘hum!’ sound. “Darling, you have such a lovely coat color, it is an actual crime to let you go around all muddy like that! Not to mention how good your mane goes with the color of your cutie mark, simply divine!”

I was taken aback by her comments. Of course I receive some occasional compliments from time to time, but never before anything about me was described as ‘divine’. Was that... was she flirting with me?

“Ah! Here we are!” Rarity said happily as we approached an unusual looking building that had a distinct carousel theme to it. Rarity opened a door and levitated me inside.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique." She announced with pride in her voice.

To my surprise, this place looked bigger on the inside, I even briefly considered a possibility of the dimensional magic, but quickly dismissed that thought. There was no way a small store in the middle of nowhere could afford that kind of magic. The effect was achieved by the layout of the floor and a bunch of tall mirrors along the walls. There were some ponyquins that displayed various dresses and garments, and I must admit some of them were really eye catching.

Rarity brought me to the second floor, that apparently was a living area of the building, and into a bathroom. She opened a faucet and the bathtub began to feel up with the warm water. As Rarity’s magic started flying around the room, adding all sorts of bath salts and oils to the water, she finally lowered me to the floor.

“There, darling. A nice warm bath to wash off all this dreadful grime!” Rarity said as she turned around and began to walk out of the room. “Just relax and enjoy yourself. Take as much time as you need.”

As she closed the door, I half expected to hear a click of a lock, but thankfully there was none. I turned around and looked at the water. It was steaming lightly and had a nice smell to it. After a brief consideration I decided that it would be okay to quickly wash myself, besides Rarity probably wouldn’t allow me to leave otherwise.

***

The bath was great! I didn’t know what kind of bath salts she added, but they were on par with the best salts you can find in Canterlot, actually they probably were from Canterlot. I couldn’t help but take some extra time to relax in the warm water, but this day was so stressful that I felt justified to have a moment of peace.

After a few minutes I got out of the bath and dried myself off with a quick spell. My coat was clean and my mane felt really silky to the touch. I was somewhat surprised to realize that I was grateful to Rarity, despite her rather rude way of making me take a bath. She was a good mare, if a bit eccentric, after all.

When I found my way back to the first floor of the boutique I saw Rarity levitating a bunch of folded clothes around a small podium that was surrounded by mirrors, with Spike, still in his lovestruck trance-like state, carrying around the huge rolls of fabric. As I got down the stairs Rarity turned around and gave me a beaming smile.

“There, darling. Now you look much better!” She paused for a moment as if trying to remember something and let out an exacerbated gasp, “My stars! Where are my manners? I completely forgot to ask your name!”

“That’s quite alright.” I assured her. “I am Twilight Sparkle. And I’ve been sent here from...”

“Twilight Sparkle! What a lovely name!” She interrupted me, looked at the stacks of folded clothes and levitated several dresses in front of me. “I have just a thing that would perfectly highlight your natural beauty!”

I felt my cheeks start to redden. Again with the compliments! Was that flirting? Where’s Cadance when you need her? She’s is an expert in that sort of thing, not I! But after a moment of rationalizing I calmed down a bit. That was a boutique after all, she was probably just trying to sell me something.

“I-i appreciate the compliment, b-but I really don’t have the time.” I protested.

“This will only take a minute. I was dead serious when I said that your coat is beautiful, Miss Sparkle. There are no ponies of this lovely color here, in Ponyville, and I simply can not let this opportunity slip away!” She moved closer and fluttered her eyelashes. “Please? As a ‘Thank you’ for the bath?”

Was there even any point in trying to reason with the locals in this town? They never listen to me! But the bath was nice... I guess I did owe her one.

“Fine...” I let out a defeated sigh. “And call me Twilight.”

“Thank you, Twilight!” Rarity beamed and levitated even more dresses. “You won’t regret it!”

I regretted it.

Immediately.

That Mad Seamstress used me as one of her ponyquins, dressing me into numerous dresses, each more ridiculous the next. Was that a joke? Where did all the nice dresses go, the ones that I saw earlier? What did I get myself into?

“Now go on, my dear. You were telling me where you're from.” Rarity casually reminded me as if she wasn’t trying to smother me with a corset.

“... I...” I tried to speak but could only whizz one word at a time. Why did she tug on that damn corset so hard? Did she imply that I’m fat? “I've... been... sent... from... Canterlot... to...”

As I said that, Rarity released her grip on the corset, letting me fall on the floor in a heap. A moment later she pulled me up and stood almost face to face with me. I could practically see the stars in her eyes.

“Canterlot?!” She exclaimed, and swung her head to the side in a dramatic fashion, holding a hoof to her forehead. “Oh, I am so envious! The glamour, the sophistication! I have always dreamed of living there! I can't wait to hear all about it! We are gonna be the best of friends, you and I...”

She was pulled out of her fantasies by a ringing of a bell that indicated that somepony had entered the boutique.

“Oh, do excuse me for a moment, my dear.” Rarity told me and turned around to greet a new customer.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magni...” She stopped mid word and let out a loud gasp. “Darling! What are you wearing!?”

I looked up from my position on the floor and saw Tzana standing in the middle of the room. She had her left eyebrow raised and slowly looked between Rarity, me and something next to me.

“Am I interrupting something?” She asked, looking Rarity in the eyes.

Perplexed, I looked to the side, where Tzana was looking a moment ago, and saw... Were those the fishnet stockings? And I already was wearing a corset...

Whatwassheplanning!?!?

“What? No... I... you... darling...” Rarity stumbled on her own words staring at the clothes that the earth pony wore.

“Look, ponies at the market told me that this is the place to get a sawing kit.” Tzana said, taking a step back from the strange unicorn. “I need it to repair my jacket.”

“That is a trench coat darling.” Rarity mumbled in a monotone voice. “Yes. I have one. Let me get it for you.”

As she stumbled her way out of the room, I finally managed to undo the strings on the corset and tore it off as fast as I could, gasping for air. When I looked up I saw Tzana giving me a hoof, I took it and she helped me to get up.

“So this is a trench coat? Huh, who knew? I’ve been calling it a jacket for years.” She said, probably to herself, as she released my hoof. Then she looked at me with a smirk. “As for you. You better get going, before your kinky friend returns.”

She nodded at the corset and the stockings.

My face burned red.

“T-that’s not what it was!” I stammered.

“Yeah, tell me about it.” She grinned.

“W-whatever.” I muttered, not wanting to argue. “But you’re right. I must run. I wasted too much time as is.”

I grabbed Spike with my magic and run from the boutique as fast as I could.