It was an uneventful day for the drake household. Nathaniel, Mary, their sixteen year old Stephanie, and their six year old Cedric were relaxing in their living room and preparing to watch a movie.

Nathaniel Drake was one of the head programmers for the software division of one of the companies which furthered the use of Full Dive technology which most people in the world use to interface with computers instead of a standard laptop keyboard or mouse. It’s known across the worlds as different things thanks to branding and such but, the premise was always the same.

Get you as close to the action of whatever you're doing as possible without harming you. This also had the side effect of creating a rather large and expensive network of ‘Fan Planes’ which were digital domains where people could create, enjoy, and fulfill their every desire.

To say that the Drakes were well off wouldn’t be a stretch but, sadly money can only stretch so far and software techs are paid by what they sell, so every bit of money had to be kept in check. Though that didn’t mean they couldn’t splurge every now and again, which is what they planned to do as they sat in the living room of their family’s personal Dive Hub.

The Dive Hub is a localized Server which copies your approximate location up to one hundred meters in all directions, this allows even for large houses and manors to be completely contained within the dive hub.

The topic for tonight? Where would the family take their yearly vacation?

“Well, I think we should visit Stonehenge. It’s a historical site and I really think Cid should see it at least once in case those balding punks in parliament get their way to tear it down.” The voice of Stephanie sounded out, she was sixteen, with brown hair and green eyes, just like her father.

Mary the mother of the household looked at her and sighed. “But, dear there’s all kinds of ruffians out there trying to protest Parliament's decision. If we go there we might get attacked or something.” She said trying to dissuade her daughter’s reckless choice of vacation.

The blonde haired and green eyed woman looked as if she was a well cared for wife and mother, with a generous figure that was slightly heavy, she definitely showed her Italian descent when she cooked, making sure everyone had plenty to eat.

“Come on mom, don’t tell me you're scared of some hippies?!” Stephanie spat out with a derisive tone and a cheeky smirk on her features.

Nathan was busy trying to keep his wife and daughter from verbally and likely digitally tearing each other’s throats out as they began to escalate more and more when he noticed Cedric was busy talking to what looked like some sort of digital stallion from an ad.

“Oi! Who’s your friend sport?” Nathan asked as he got up and approached the stallion and found that his son had entered into a program for buying cloned consciousnesses. These things were extremely popular with the furry crowd or those with disposable income as he walked up he noticed that the stallion walked over to him.

“Ah, hello there. You little colt was telling me that you were interested in a live in tutor and child care provider?” The stallion asked with a smile that seemed to just scream ‘And wait, there’s more!’ at Nathan.

“Well, we are in the market for one, how much would one of yours cost?” He asked looking at Cedric who was currently holding his father’s hand, in a manner that showed shyness.

Cedric was always a quiet boy, timid to the point of refusing to speak though this was likely due to the fact he had a strange genetic condition due to the heavy smog of the area that made several children his own age pick on him. His bright green eyes seemed to be slitted in the pupils as if they were the eyes of some form of reptile.

The stallion looked at Nathan and began his pitch. “Well at Vogon Biotech we produce only the finest helpmates available for any need you may require, they’re fully functional, completely reliable, and most importantly they bond for life at the first touch.”

Nathan sighed and looked at the stallion. “Right, I get that… but, how much and can I add in special requirements for what they might need to do?” He said realizing that he could no longer hear his wife and Daughter arguing and that by conversing with the stallion he must have entered a different domain.

“Of Course, of course. At Vogon Biotech we aim to please. So Mr. Drake, is there anything this humble sales program can do for you?” The stallion said rubbing his palms together, anthros were always a weird thing for Nathan, though he wouldn’t admit to it he had been one of those who wanted to try the cloned consciousnesses to create a new body when he was in college, only to learn the process was far too expensive at the time… and when he could afford it he didn’t care too.

“Right, let’s see what you have then?” He asked and the stallion snapped his fingers, causing curtains to appear and rise, there were several gaps where plaques were placed behind them showing that something was supposed to be there but, everywhere else was ponies, ponies, as far as the eye could see.

“What we’re selling is a living fantasy and so much more, our helpmates are designed to cater to the whims of what memories they are assigned. From your publicly posted background I believe you’re aware of how helpmates function?” The stallion inquired to receive a nod from Nathan.

“One of my friends from university has a Helpmate, some anthropomorphic bat woman who’s obsessed with gems. Though the ones you’re selling appear to be from…” his interrogation was interrupted by the sound of a button being pressed.

Cedric had wandered to two pictures standing side by side of the same purple pony, she had darker purple hair with a pink stripe in it. The weird thing was that one of the pictures had wings and one didn’t.

“Dad can we get the purple one?” He asked pointing to the image of the purple mare with wings tapping the picture and unfurled to show the mare in her anthropomorphic state. To say she was easy on the eyes was an understatement, but honestly Nathan knew his kids needed someone’s guidance more than he did.

Nathan sighed. “Well, we’ll have to see. How much are you charging for one of your help mates?”

"That's always the rub isn't it? This is Princess Twilight Sparkle. She’d be twenty-two thousand credits. It might sound steep, but consider what you are purchasing. It's not a machine, but a living breathing fantasy. She will eat, sleep, sweat, and even bleed. Everything she feels when she wakes up is real. There is no preprogrammed emotions in her. Oh, she'll have memories, slightly altered to match her new body, of her world, friends, and family. Everything ever written by the creators of the show known as friendship is magic will be given to our fair lady, and of course any of the fan based content you would like us to consider, will be added to her memories. But beyond that all of her experiences and new memories will be completely of your and her making” He said with a smile that seemed to just grow wider.

“She looks nice. Like mummy does when she tucks me in.” Cedric said as he watched her for a moment before he realized that his mother must be looking for them now. “Daddy I’m gonna go back to mummy now take care!”

With those words it was just Nathan and the Stallion, which was a relief due to what came next.

“I see, well I’ll take her, but I want to make sure I specify something. My wife and I are worried that due to my wealth and position that we might become the target of someone who wants me out of the way of their path to the top. So in the event of our passing I’d like Miss Sparkle here to raise my children, it’s better than having them get sent to the Orphanarium.” He explained as he extended his hand to the Stallion.

“I take it you’d like whatever fiction would best help her adjust to that role added to her internal memories?” The stallion asked shaking hands as Cedric came back in and gently started to tug on Twilight’s hand.

“Cedric what are you doing?” Nathan asked as the mare looked at his son briefly.
“I’m gonna show the nice lady to mommy so she can see.” He said with a smile before she looked like she smiled and faded away.

“Where did she go?” Nathan asked as the mare faded away taking the other picture of her without wings as she vanished.

“She’s currently being prepared for your family, your little colt happened to make his wish for her to join it quite clear to the system. Now remember you are getting THE Twilight Sparkle, not just a copy. There will be no others made, and not even the alternate version of her as a regular unicorn will not be produced.”

Nathan nodded. “I see, well then… would you be so kind as to include any clothing she may require that would allow her to fit in here? I’m sad to say a princess’s gown doesn’t exactly fit in here.”

“Well we have various outfits in stock and I would have had you select one prior… would you mind choosing?” the stallion asked with a smile.

Cedric tugged on his father’s sleeve. “Daddy what about the outfit the nice lady at the library wears? It would look pretty.” He suggested causing an image of the outfit to appear, a pair of pants under a skirt, a long sleeved shirt and a sweater as well as a pair of square glasses.

“Yeah that one! How’d you do that?” Cedric asked now looking confused.

“Image tagging on Facebook.” The stallion said with a smile. “And I believe it will be manageable. Thank you for your patronage, she will arrive three months from today.”

Cedric waved to something in the background that Nathan couldn’t see and spoke out. “Okay we’ll take care of her for you Mr. Big tooth!”

With that Nathan and Cedric found themselves back in the Dive Hub and they were confronted by a mad looking Steph and a concerned looking Mary.

“There you two are, sheesh what were you two doing you were worrying mom sick!” Steph said as she got a ping. “Annnnd that’s my Jeffery… I’m gonna head to bed everyone, I’ve plans with him tomorrow.”

Mary blinked and turned to her daughter. “And these plans involve you going to Stonehenge hmm?” An accusatory tone thick in her voice to which her daughter only gave a sheepish smile before logging out.

“Well, it could be worse, she could have tried to drag us to the U.S. or something at least Stonehenge is local.” Nathan said as he tried to calm his wife seeing what could only be called Maternal fury at their daughter’s antics building.

“Yeah mummy. Besides Stonehenge is supposed to have Aliens!” Cedric said with a smile that seemed to only appear around their family.

Nathan and Mary smiled and laughed at that. “Well, I guess since it’s local it means it would be cheaper… let’s go to bed, tomorrow we’re going to visit stonehenge.” Mary said with a smile.

As they logged out they wouldn’t notice the slightly sad looking pair of eyes watching them from where the ad was for their owner knew that the man had made a very smart call in having Twilight ready to assume a motherly role…

They just didn’t know it yet.

Author's Note

Here's the first chapter of the story... and honestly I'm not sure if it's all that good compared to the story that inspired it but, I gave it my best shot.