Exie stormed through Ponyville, not stopping for anything that got in her path.
What she was looking for, nopony knew. And from the look on her face, most didn’t care to know. Having just moved into Ponyville yesterday, no one knew a lot about the peach colored mare other than the fact that she could apparently throw a really good party to celebrate moving to a new town.
At least, the few ponies that could remember the party that is.
Exie was surprised that she could remember the party as well as she did. Judging from the hangover that she had, she shouldn’t have been able to remember the party at all. But that meant she could also remember one fact very clearly.
Last night she was not missing one of her boots.
Obviously, somepony from the party had stolen it. And through all of the complements that she had received, whether they were about her new house, or her sexy looks, or even her abilities in bed, there had only been one mare that had complimented her boots specifically.
As Exie turned down another street, she could see that no good boot stealing mother bucker.
“Rainbow Dash, you get your sorry ass down here RIGHT NOW!” Exie yelled up at the cyan pegasus that was napping on a low-flying cloud.
Rainbow Dash, with all of the grace of a pudding filled sock, rolled off the cloud in confusion and fell straight into the ground.
“Ouch,” she mumbled to herself as she looked up toward Exie. “Whataya want?” she asked in a clearly dazed and hungover voice.
Feeling no sympathy for the pegasus, Exie practically yell at her. “Tell me where you hid my boot! I know you took it!”
“Wha?” Rainbow took a closer look at the pony standing over her. “… Oh, you’re that pony that moved into town yesterday and threw that party last night. Sweet Celestia, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more hungover than I do now.”
Rainbow slowly stood up, being careful not to do anything to make her head hurt more. “Now, what did you say about a boot?”
Exie took a deep breath and slowly explained it to the hungover pegasus. “Last night, one of my boots disappeared. You were the only one who expressed direct interest in them, so I’m going to ask you again. Where did you take my boot, because I want it back.”
“Well, I can’t argue the fact that I was the only one to show interest in your boots, mostly because I can’t really remember anything, but if I did want to steal them, why would I only take one?”
That caused Exie to stop and think for a second. Why would somepony only take one of her boots? In her angered (and hungover) state, she never thought about that.
“Look,” Rainbow Dash continued, “I’m hungover right now. Like, really hungover, and you look like you are too. If you want help finding your boot, I would suggest talking to Pinkie. If there is one pony in Ponyville who can pull that boot out of thin air, it’s her.”
“Pinkie…” Exie mumbled to herself. She was sure there had been a pony at the party with that name…
“She’s the one who sneezes confetti,” Rainbow said.
Right. How could anyone forget that pony? “So she’ll be able to help me find my boot?” Exie asked, the doubt in her voice obvious.
Rainbow shrugged as she flew back up to her cloud. “I duno, but I’d say she’s your best bet.”
Exie walked into the Sugarcube corner and sure enough, the pink confetti-sneezing mare from last night was hopping around, singing a song to herself.
How anypony from the party could be so cheerful the next morning was beyond Exie’s understanding.
According to Rainbow Dash, this was the mare to help her find the boot that she must have somehow misplaced last night. Exie tried to think of a way to approach her and interrupt the song without seeming rude, but Pinkie saw her and beat her to it.
“Oh, you’re that new mare who just moved into town last night and threw that totally funariffic party for everypony!” she said right in Exie’s face.
“Uh, yes. I am.” This pony didn’t seem to be shy in the least.
“Wow, like, you throw really good parties, you know that? That was the best party that I’ve been to in a really long time. Those were some really interesting drinks that you had there; I’ve never tasted anything like them before. They left a real ting in my mouth every time I took a sip. At least, I think it was a ting. I think sometimes it was a burn. Or maybe it was a-”
Is… is she talking about the alcohol? A mare this clueless about alcohol isn’t hungover after drinking as much as I saw her drink last night? How is she not stuck in bed with a raging headache right now? I- I don’t think this is possible… Exie shook the thoughts from her mind. It would be best not to think about those kinds of things while she was still hungover herself.
“Ummm… right,” Exie said, cutting Pinkie off so she could speak. “So, your name is Pinkie? Rainbow Dash told me that you might be able to help me find something that I seemed to have misplaced last night. You see-”
“Your boot!” Pinkie said excitedly.
“… Yes. How did you know?” This mare was starting to freak Exie out.
“Well, I saw somepony walking off with it last night, so whoever it was that had it probably still has it!”
It seems that Rainbow was right. This mare may have been a little strange, but she was helpful.
But there was something even more important. Exie had been right in the first place! Her boot had been stolen!
“So you know who took it!?” she asked.
“Nope.”
Exie’s face fell flat. “But, you just said you saw who took it.”
“Well I didn’t SEE see them,” Pinkie explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It was really dark out. I think they may have been blue though. Or maybe they were orange. WAIT! They were yellow, I’m sure of it. Hold on, no they weren’t…”
Exie sighed. “Do you know anything that could help me find who took it?”
“Hmmm... Nope.”
Exie tried again. “Do you know anyPONY who could help me figure out who took it?”
“Oh! You could try asking Twilight!” Pinkie ran to a window and pointed towards the giant tree-library that was in the center of town. “She lives right there!”
Exie was dumbstruck. “Twilight? Like, THE Twilight, recently crowned princess? That one?”
“Yup!” Pinkie chirped before going back to bouncing around the kitchen and singing some random song.
A princess. Well, there was no doubt that a princess would be able to help her out in some way. Assuming that this pony wasn’t totally crazy and the princess really did live in the giant tree right in the middle of town.
“Well, thanks.” Exie tried to think of something else to say, but nothing came to her mind. She just kind of awkwardly turned around and started to walk out.
“Make sure to throw another party soon!” Pinkie yelled as Exie was about to close the door. “Yours are super-fun!”
*Knock Knock*
“Come in!”
Exie walked into the library. She was immediately greeted by the site of a purple alicorn re-shelving books. “Well I’ll be damned,” she mumbled to herself.
The alicorn finished putting the last book in place and turned to greet her guest. “Welcome, can I help you find anything? Do you maybe need a recommendation?”
Exie was a little more nervous than she would have expected. I mean, it wasn’t like she was talking to a princess or anything.
Oh wait, yes she was.
“Er, hi. Uh… My name is Exie. I just moved here yesterday and the pink pony down the street said that you might be able to help me with something.”
“You mean Pinkie Pie?” Twilight sounded a lot less… royal than Exie had expected. She talked just like any other pony would, and this went a long way to help Exie calm her nerves.
“Yes, Pinkie. You see, last night I threw a party so I could get to know some of the ponies in town-”
“Oh, you threw that party!” Twilight interrupted. “I heard about it. It sounded quite... er, interesting.” There was no mistaking the blush on Twilight’s face. Whether it was from the embarrassment of accidentally interrupting a guest or the details of her party though, Exie couldn’t tell.
“I suppose it was…” Exie said, not sure what else to say about it. “But you see, one of my boots got stolen sometime during the night. Pinkie saw somepony taking it, but wasn’t able to tell who was, so she suggested that I ask you for help.”
“Oh, well I’m sorry Exie, but there isn’t a whole lot that I can do,” Twilight said. “Short of calling Princess Celestia herself to cast some kind of… searching spell I guess, there isn’t any way that I know of finding it.”
Exie sighed. “I figured as much. Of course a princess wouldn’t be able to really do anything without making a bigger fuss than there needs to be. It is just a boot after all.”
“I’m really sorry, but-”
“No, it’s alright.” Exie interrupted her. “I understand, believe me. I might be hungover, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand the reasoning.”
“Twi, ah got that book ah borrowed last week,” an orange earth pony said as she walked in. “Where would you like- Oh, ah’m sorry. I didn’t realize that you were talking to someone.”
“It’s alright, I’m done here,” Exie said as she started walking toward the door. “I just kinda forgot for a bit that finding a stolen boot isn’t something you go to a princess for.”
She was almost to the door when the orange pony went, “Hold up there. Did ya’ll say a stolen boot?”
Exie turned toward the farm pony. “Yea. Last night. I was having a party and somepony took it.”
“Well, she ain’t the kind who steals stuff, but I saw Rainbow Dash flying over town ‘bout an hour ago with a boot. Looked like black leather to me. Maybe she found-”
Applejack didn’t get to finish. Exie was already running through the town, muttering some very unkind thing about the rainbow maned pegasus under her breath.
“Rainbow Dash, get your sorry ass down here RIGHT NOW!”
Unlike earlier that day, Rainbow managed to actually get up and fly down to Exie instead of letting gravity do the job for her.
“What do you want now?” she asked, clearly annoyed and still hungover.
“I know that you have my boot,” Exie said as she got in Rainbow’s face. “Don’t deny it, Pinkie said she saw somepony leave the party with it and another pony actually saw you flying around town with it! Not only did you steal it, but LIED TO ME TOO!”
Rainbow backed off a little, fully aware of the trouble she was about to be in. “Hold on, it isn’t what you think.”
Exie took another step forward. “Isn’t it?”
“No,” Rainbow said, “just listen. I’ll admit, I did take your boot, but not because I wanted to keep it or anything. I guess you don’t remember, but one of the straps broke last night. I have a friend who makes dresses, and I figured she might be able to fix it for you. I had plans of returning it to you this afternoon, I swear. I didn’t even think you’d notice it was gone before tonight.”
Exie backed off a little. Now it all made sense. That would explain why only one boot was taken.
Rainbow continued, “I wanted it be a surprise. A welcome present I guess. It probably would have been a better idea to just ask you about it in the first place, but I think the alcohol was doing most of the thinking at the time. So when I woke up this morning, I figured that since I had the boot, I may as well go through with it. It didn’t occur to me you might be a little angry over losing your boot until you nearly tore my head off earlier today, and by then I had already given it to my friend so I just kinda sent you Pinkie to kill some time until it was finished.”
To Dash’s surprise, Exie gave her a playful punch on the shoulder. “I’m not usually one to be sappy, but I guess I can’t be too mad at you right now. I can’t say that I was expecting such a warm welcome last night, and finding out that there are actually ponies here that’ll steal your stuff so they can fix it is pretty neat.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Rainbow said as a slight blush came across her face.
“No, it means something that you were going to do that for a nearly complete stranger,” Exie insisted. “In fact,” a sly grin came across her face, “maybe I can thank you personally,” she said as she walked by and flicked her tail at just the right moment, leaving nothing to the imagination of the pegasus.
Rainbows blush nearly set her face on fire as she scooted back a few steps. “H- Hold on there kid! Don’t get me wrong, you’re nice and everything, but I just… I… I don’t swing that way.”
“Oh,” Exie remarked as she turned back around. “Sorry about that, I honestly thought you were bi. I could have sworn I saw a couple mares hitting on you last night.”
“Uh, yea,” Rainbow just kind of mumbled. “A couple did, but that doesn’t mean I’m not straight. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with ponies that are gay or bi, but I’m just not one of them. I don’t know why mares enjoy hitting on me to be honest.”
Exie nodded, more than a little embarrassed herself for the mix-up.
The two just kind of stood in an awkward silence until Rainbow finally spoke up. “So, I guess you’d like to get your boot back, huh? It shouldn’t be too much longer before it’s done.”
Exie heard a bell ding above her head as she walked into the Carousel Boutique. She saw a white unicorn with a mouth full of pins motion to her from another room.”
As she stepped through the doorway, Exie was greeted by the kinds of dresses that reminded her of those snobby ponies from Canterlot.
If this was the pony that Rainbow Dash had asked to fix her boot, Exie could only imagine how awkward it was going to get. If she had learned one thing, Canterlot snobby plus anything she wore usually don't mix.
The unicorn finally finished pinning up whatever it was that she was working on and spit the rest of the pins out of her mouth. “Sorry about that darling, I just needed to get that done. Now, what can I help you with?”
Darling. Yep, Exie knew that she was going to be in for a hard time. She decided to try and make things as normal as possible.
“Well, Rainbow Dash said that she stopped by earlier and dropped something off for you to fix. She also said that you said it should be done by now and I’d like to pick it up.”
“Of course, right this way darling,” Rarity said as she lead Exie into a different part of the shop. “I don’t usually accept items like this you know. I have a reputation to hold up with my consumer base. It’s hard enough being in a small town, if word got out that I started doing a lot of items like this, I would probably lose most of loyal customers. But I just couldn’t turn away one of my friends now, could I?”
Rarity lead Exie into one of her rooms and then closed the door using her magic. Exie became a little concerned when she heard it lock.
“Uh, Rarity was it? Why did you just lock the door behind us?”
“So that nopony can wander in and see what I’m about to get out,” she said as she started digging through a large, walk in closet.
“Interrupt us as you get my boot out of your-” It was this moment that Exie realized that they were in a bedroom. Probably Rarity’s personal one. “…personal closet?”
“Oh no, your boot isn’t even in this room,” Rarity called out from the closet.
“So… why are we in here?”
Rarity stepped out of the closet and Exie’s jaw nearly fell off after seeing what the unicorn had changed into.
It was simple, but effective. The black leather corset gave off a slight gleam in the light, the straps pulling down and securing to the garter belts, framing the skimpy G-string that just barely covered her marehood. On her legs were matching thigh high boots, not too different from the ones that Exie herself wore. A riding crop and saddle levitated right next to her, ready for use at a moment’s notice.
“We’re in here because I need to show you what happens to naughty little mares that break their boots and need to get them fixed.”
It was at this point that Exie was glad Rainbow Dash had taken her boot. Did the pegasus have any idea her friend was into this kind of stuff? Exie was pretty sure she didn’t. Did she really care at this point? Not really.
She was just happy that the move to Ponyville seemed like it was going to work out just fine.
END