Rarity was often stressed, and Twilight could relate to that, so as she stood outside Rarity’s Boutique with the animal on a leash she felt somewhat insensitive. She knew Rarity was working on a big project, but she had ordered a scarf for the autumn. Rarity had told her to come by when she had the chance and pick it up, so here she was, half a day into caring for a strange, two-legged and curious animal and about to walk into a house full of expensive and easily torn fabric.

Twilight would have just left the thing outside, but she didn’t want it scare ponies. It had already shown an aversion towards potentially hostile actions and/or loud noises. Rainbow’s intrusion hadn´t been under the most ideal of circumstances for adequate and definite conclusion. All she knew was that it attacked Rainbow. It hadn´t attacked her or Fluttershy, so something about Rainbow or her entrance and subsequent shouting had warranted an aggressive respond. It could have just been her mane colour, Twilight had no sure-fire way to know.

While Twilight was thinking, the animal had moved up to the Boutique’s wall and begun inspecting it. Twilight noticed this and watched silently as it looked up at the small front door overhang and looked about to jump, when the front door opened all of a sudden and Rarity was about to step outside.

“Why, good morning Twilight. I wasn´t expecting you this early.” When Twilight seemed about to apologise she cut her off with a hoof. “Don´t worry about it darling, as you can see I was awake and about. Now, you´re here for your scarf I presume. I have it hanging just her on the coatrack.”

As Rarity spun her head and grabbed the scarf in her magic Twilight was finally able to get a word in. “Yes, thank you, I am here for the scarf. Um… So, ahh… Yes! I´ll just take the scarf and… Wait no! Stop that!” Rarity was about to ask her what was wrong when something grabbed her horn and her magic fizzled out from the surprise.

She tried to spin her head, but was unable to. Twilight was frantically yelling at something beside her, but Rarity couldn´t see it. She was about to voice her concerns when something wrapped around her throat. Her words caught in her throat and she looked on as Twilight sprayed whatever held her with water.

“No! Bad! Let go of Rarity! Don´t force me to use my magic!”

Rarity would have probably laughed had she understood the situation better, but as it was she was slightly afraid of being mauled by some large dog Twilight was for some reason with. She noticed the leash floating in Twilights magic and the magical fabric stretched to somewhere outside her vision.

It was only when something started rubbing into her mane that she became truly frightened.

She struggled against whatever held her and started frantically yelling. “Twilight! Could you please get your pet off of me! It´s ruining my mane!” But Twilight wasn´t doing anything. She just stood there with the spray and leash in front of her and surprise on her face.

“Um… I´m sorry Rarity, but I´m going to have to watch this for a minute, this is very interesting. You´re not in any danger don´t worry. It seems to like you, which means I can probably tick loud noises of the aggression list and…” Twilight response slowly devolved into mumbling as she pulled out a notebook from nowhere and started writing, shooting Rarity a few glances now and then.

Rarity didn´t like it, but she stood there and let whatever it was rub her mane as it liked. It stopped after a while but kept something pressed into her mane. It was only then that Twilight finally intervened and her horn lit up brighter than before.

Rarity felt the thing pull on her as Twilight was undoubtedly trying to pry it off her at last. It was stubborn but let go when the pressure was becoming uncomfortable for Rarity.

At last she could get a look at it and it was… strange. It struggled in Twilight’s grasp, waving it´s appendages at Rarity. It made obvious sounds of frustration and effort as it tried to reach her. When it finally gave up its appendages slumped down at it looked at her with sad eyes and a quivering lip.

Twilight was still writing in her notebook and Rarity was getting a bit restless so she decided to risk her neck, and more importantly her mane, and approached the thing. It didn´t seem dangerous, it had had her at its mercy and just… rubbed her. It had also grabbed her horn. Rarity came to a stop in front of the creature and watched as it stretched its appendages towards her in an obvious attempt to touch her mane.

Twilight stopped writing to watch the exchange. “It seems to REALLY like you. You don´t usually have the most luck with animals, did you put some special shampoo in your mane?”

Rarity answered with a slight shake of her head. “No I haven´t. But, if I may be so frank, what is this thing? It’s like nothing I´ve ever seen before.”

Twilight scratched her head and looked at the creature while she drew a breath threw her teeth. “Well… I don´t really know, it resembles the primates of Zebrica, but it´s legs resemble a dragon’s slightly. The only think I´m completely sure of is that it´s female and that it´s not a vegetarian, but an omnivore.” The look on Twilight’s face told Rarity that this creature was her newest obsession.

Rarity had to act quickly or Twilight would start ranting about her theories of the creature, not that Rarity didn´t like to hear Twilight talk about her interests. She just didn´t have the patience right then and there. And the creature was still trying to touch her.

“I was going to have breakfast at Sugercube Corner, would you perhaps like to join me?” Twilight’s eyes lit up at the prospect and she dropped all thoughts of vague theories for now.

“I would love to! I’m sure Pinkie would love to meet our new friend. Let’s go!” Twilight looked at the creature attempting to reach Rarity still and smiled. “It might even switch its attention to Pinkie instead, her mane is really soft as well. She would love the attention. Oh my gosh! This is so exciting!” Twilight was quick to turn in Sugercube Corner´s direction and Rarity followed as Twilight walked with a noticeable skip in her step towards potential discovery and sweets.

Twilight was so occupied with her thoughts that she forgot about keeping the animal suspended.

“Twilight help me! It´s messing up my mane again!”

Oh my dear god, this is the softest thing I have ever rubbed my face into.

Author's Note

Hm. 95 weeks since the last chapter. This is probably worse but hey, I wrote something that wasn't COMPLETE garbage, so there's that. Enjoy? Sorry if this doesn't meet your expectations, I´m really rusty.