Adagio looked at the statue standing there. The large sculpture of Princess Celestia was gone, but the one Dave had made of her, it was still there. While he didn’t want her undressing for other reasons he seemed to be fine with it when he was creating the molds for the statue. He actually created two of them, and the second one was fully painted, looking exactly like she looked when she modeled for him, but the one she was looking at now, it was far different. She grinned at its polished and smooth surface. Even though the surface was smooth she could see the lines of her fur on it.

It was truly a wonderful work of art, and yet she felt somewhat sad as she looked at it. She looked sad because of the body language and expression on her face that Dave had used for the sculpture. She looked, uncertain, worried, and slightly depressed. He captured her natural beauty, she could see that.

Every curve, every imperfection, every part of here was there, laid bare before the world, and while she couldn’t help but admire the beauty it was the expression that held her. Was she that upset? Was it possible that she truly was that lost without the music? Bob, Dave’s Digital Assistant had said that one doesn’t stop being an artist, and that felt true. Without her music she felt as if a piece of her was missing.

“Seems to turned out purty good huh?” Dave asked as he neared her.

“It’s beautiful,” she responded.

“The gallery in Houston is wanting to buy the painted sculpture, but I wanted ta make sure ya weren’t gonna be upset if’n I sold it,” he said.

“Of course not, why would I be upset about sharing the perfection of my image with the world. Especially since you captured my hips so well,” she said flicking her tail and shifting her hips as if to accentuate the point.

He laughed a little and nodded. Then he looked at her.

“How would ya like ta go into town with me? I’m gonna meet the representative for the gallery there, and he’s taking it on back by train. Figured that ya could get a chance to look around a bit more than just around this old salvage yard,” he replied.

It was actually tempting. True, her first visit to this town hadn’t been exactly what she would call pleasant, but since that time she had actually found somepony who was nice enough to help her. After a bit of a mental debate she nodded. Going would be good, and besides, the clothes she was wearing now seemed to be a bit big for her. Not that she minded wearing some of his clothes, but finding something that would fit a bit better did have a certain appeal to it.

He smiled, nodded, and they walked out to where he had the other sculpture loaded into the back of his pieced together carriage. He opened the door for her, and she gave him a slight nod, a smile, and stepped into the carriage. It was warm, which was wonderful since the winter outside seemed to be colder than a Windigo’s teat. He stepped into the carriage, and she felt it lurch forward before moving.

The yard looked beautiful with the snow covering everything. Thick icicles hung from some of the higher stacked carriages, and it looked as if the entire yard was more than a place where aging carriages were stripped down for the metal and parts they had. It looked as if it was a winter wonderland. A soft sigh escaped her as she marveled at it.

“Everything alright?” Dave asked.

“It is. This… It looks amazing,” she said as they left the drive of the yard and headed down the stretch of dirt road leading them toward the paved road.

“It is purty. My mom, she once told me that artists had an easier time of understanding nature, and the reason was ‘cause nature, all of it, was an artist too. I dunno if she was right, but I kinda think that she was,” he said.

Adagio had to agree with his mother’s words. There was a certain artistry in the winter landscape. It did look as if a master artist had carefully crafted the scene on canvas and left it out for the world to see. The change in the scenery only changed the way nature had painted her landscape. Where there had been trees, and a field full of carriages covered with ice and snow there was now several buildings with frosted windows, snow covered roofs, and recently scraped sidewalks.

The rhythmic sound of the carriage seemed to put her at ease as they headed toward the train station. Dave pulled up to the older station and parked. She watched as he got out, and in a few minutes a blond stallion walked with him. She noticed that even though it was a stallion he was very… feminine. She got out and watched as the stallion observed the piece.

“It is quite nice. I must say that you’ve captured something very special here,” he said as he looked at it, “Of course seeing your sculpture that was done for the Presidential Gardens only made this decision easier.”

“Thanks. Ya got somebody to help unload it fer ya right?” he asked.

The other stallion nodded and she watched as a strange looking machine rolled toward the back of the carriage, slipped two tongs under the pallet the sculpture sat on, and then lifted it up.

“It was very good doing business with you Mr. Johnson,” the stallion said.

“Thank you Mr…” Dave started before the other stallion stopped him.

“Just call me Surge. I feel so much more liberated without having the chain that was my former last name around my ankle,” he said with a laugh.

“Okay, thanks Mr. Surge. It was right nice being able to make this fer ya,” he said.

He looked at Adagio and gave her a slight grin, “That’s how you can tell a true artist. It’s never about the business, it’s always about the art.”

He gave them a wave, barked an order to the stallion driving the strange machine, and then headed back into the station.

“Well, now that we’re done here I think we could look around town a bit. I figure ya might want ta git a couple changes of clothes,” Dave said.

Adagio nodded, climbed back into the carriage, and felt the warm of it cover her. The first time she had ridden in the carriage she had been surprised about how comfortable it was. The carriages she remembered from Equestria had been stiff, stuffy things that tended to reflect every bump in the road, but this one felt almost as if every road was smooth and freshly paved, or at least as close to that feeling as she’d ever felt.

She felt the carriage come to a stop, and she looked out to see several buildings next to each other. The rhythmic rumbling of the carriage quieted completely, and she noticed that the warm air that had been flowing from below had stopped. She looked at Dave who gave her a bright, toothy, and genuinely happy smile before opening his door. The rush of cold air filled the inside of the carriage. She climbed outside, feeling the intense cold cutting through the solid blue sweater Dave had let her borrow. Instantly she wished she had a jacket, or a nice heavy coat.

“I figured ya might want ta start here,” Dave said.

She followed him into the building and felt the wonderful warm air. She could see several vending machines. Dozens of them, all filled with various clothes. In the middle was a strange looking black booth, which looked like an old photo booth, with a curtain for the door.

“I’ve been here a few times, and all ya gotta do is step inside, follow the directions, and it’ll figure out yer sizes from ‘em,” he said.

She swallowed back some of her nervousness, stepped into the booth, and instantly she saw a light appear.

“Welcome to The Right Fit. Please strip off, announce when you are ready to be scanned, and stand still. The scanner will quickly, and promptly scan your measurements. When it is finished your sizes will be recorded to your thumb print identification. Before we begin, are you male or female?” a soothing voice said.

“I’m a mare, a female,” she said.

“Ah, female. This has notation has been recorded for your purchases. Please, strip off all clothing, you may place said clothing on the shelf behind you, and announce when you are ready to be scanned,” the voice said.

She followed the direction, feeling Dave’s borrowed clothes coming off, and after a moment she faced forward, breathed out, and looked ahead.

“I’m ready to be scanned,” she said.

The light she saw earlier moved down, becoming a complete and total circle of light. it moved down her, and as it did she noticed a screen where a model was being created. She watched as the model was formed, measurements listed by each section, and she felt a little offset at the measurements themselves.

“twenty, eighteen, thirty,” she read with some distain.

“Your measurements have been saved. You may now redress, exist the scanning booth, and purchase your clothing choices from the vending machines in the lobby,” the voice said.

She grabbed the sweater, decided not to try to slip back into the sweatpants, because it had taken a ridiculous amount of time to pull the string taut enough to keep them up, and pulled the sweater over her head. She trotted out, her tail lifting the back of the sweater just enough to give a slight view of what was under the sweater. She felt eyes on her as she walked, and a small satisfied smirk fitted smugly upon her lips. She had seen very few people outside, and none of them had been near this store.

There was no doubt in her mind that Dave was watching her. In truth she enjoyed having him watch her. She still craved attention, she still desired to be adored, and feeling his eyes on her made her feel oh so good. She bent over, knowing that he undoubtedly would be able to get a better view, and examined the clothes in the first vending machine. The clothes themselves seemed fairly simple. Denim jeans, various basic style t-shirts, panties and boxers, and a collection of socks.

A memory of being dressed in nothing but long nylons, topped with red bows, came to her mind. It was shortly after their fall, and it was the first time she had traded herself for food. The stallion seemed to think that she looked amazing in the nylons, and while she knew that Dave would never make her do anything like that for the necessities, she did wonder how he would react to seeing her in a similar state. She quickly put the thought out of her mind.

He was a good stallion, hard working, and generous to a fault. Teasing him would seem wrong, and she knew it. Still, it would be interesting to see, so she searched the vending machine, found a set of fish net stockings with little red bows on them, and selected them. She watched as a set fell, and then she selected a pair of lacy white panties, a pair of basic blue denim jeans, but it was a white blouse that caught her attention.

It looked soft, comfortable, and stylish. She checked, double checked, and smiled as she selected it. She watched as a package fell and then grinned to herself. She pulled out the clothes she had selected, and decided to change where she was. She stripped the sweater off, looked behind her to see Dave fighting a losing battle with himself. She wanted to think that it was odd that he was so able to look at her in the nude while she was modeling, but looking at her now, while she was getting dressed, seemed to be something that he wasn’t comfortable doing.

“You don’t have to look away,” she said.

“I dun want ya ta think that I’m some kind of pervert. It ain’t right to oggle a lady,” he replied.

She felt her heart warm from his words. He thought of her as a lady, he was kind, and it was obvious that he was interested in mares. Somehow she had found a straight gentlecolt. She studied him for a bit, pulled on her panties, her jeans, and then slipped on her blouse. She walked to him, leaving the bottom half of her blouse undone, and kissed his cheek.

“What was that fer?” he asked.

“That was for being such a wonderful gentlecolt,” she said before she gave him a slightly longer kiss on his lips, “and that, that is because I like you.”

She leaned against his chest for a moment. She did like him, quite a bit, but she was being a bit forward. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been forward before with a stallion, but being this forward… She felt a tiny, and fleeting, brush of panic rush through her. The last time she had been this forward had been because she was in heat.

She eyed him again. Here he was, a stallion, who was kind, who had opened his home to her, and now… Now she had a decision to make. Granted, at one time she might have used him, enjoyed what he had to offer, and then left him with little more than a wonderful memory. But she had changed, or least she believed she did. She wasn’t really connected to her siren magic anymore, but it was more than that. She wanted to believe that she had become a better pony.

Slowly, another question came to her mind. There had been a string of… she couldn’t call them lovers, but what else would fit? Some had been simply a means to an end. Somepony who was needing relief, something she was willing to give, and in return she had gained enough bits to cover for her, Sonata and Aria. The memory of the Saddle Arabian had been the worst. He was so demeaning, degrading, but she had taken it. Everything he had done she forced herself to deal with, and in the end it gave the three of them a place to live, and enough food, for a couple of months.

Still, this was a different place. She wasn’t expected to give herself over for a place to stay, and the most she had been asked to do was to model while Dave had sculpted her likeness. She liked him, perhaps, even growing more than a simple liking. He was indeed growing on her, becoming special to her, even if he did enjoy teasing her about Tacos. If she lived a thousand more years and ever saw another taco it would be too soon.

Her mind traveled, far too quickly, from Sonata’s favorite food to considering the various ways she could make Dave moan out her name. She stopped herself there. Dave had said he was a fan of hers. That he loved her singing, but appreciating her artistic talents, and desiring to to rut her until she couldn’t walk straight were two different things. She barely noticed that she had dressed herself while thinking about everything. She turned and saw Dave, his eyes trying to look somewhere else again.

He was sweet, and easy to embarrass. It was hard to deny that he had a charm about him that she found positively intoxicating. Not to mention at the moment he smelled so positively male. Strong, virile, and fairly easy on the eyes. She thought of their home, his bed, the ruffled sheets, and she stopped there. She couldn’t do it. Not that she couldn’t have him rut her. The ability would be easy, but she couldn’t use him like that.

“Adagio, ya alright?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m fine actually,” she replied, “I think that I’ve got enough clothes.”

He looked at the clothes she picked out. A suit she was wearing, another couple suits of clothes in bags, but that was it. He wasn’t going to try to understand all that was going on. He’d once heard someone say that it was an impossible task to try and understand a woman. He agreed, slightly, but he also felt that it was better to accept that Adagio was Adagio. He wanted to feel that he was understanding her, but he wasn’t going to assume that he knew all about her.

He opened the door for her, watched as she walked out, and followed her. He felt her tail brush his leg, he smiled, and then he saw a little three year old girl. She was wrapped up in what had to be the most layers of clothing he had ever seen.

“Yer real purty,” she said to Adagio.

He watched as she knelt down and gave the little girl a smile.

“Thank you, and you look adorable,” she replied.

“Boy, ya better take yer black ass and that freak on down the fuckin’ road. That thing there is an abomination!” a man shouted as he ran toward them.

He grabbed up his daughter and looked at Adagio, “Fuckin’ pony freak. You stay away from my daughter. You keep yourself and your house nigger away from her you hear! I don’t want none of your… whatever the hell you have getting on her!”

She watched, her jaw practically hanging open, and she felt her heart break. She wouldn’t have hurt that little filly. She wouldn’t have harmed a hair on her head, but… she looked back at Dave to see a slight frown on his face. Gently touched his hand,

“Dave?”

He looked at her and gave her a small gentle smile.

“Sorry about that…”

Author's Note

And there’s chapter three!!! Sorry for the long time between updates. We’re hoping that having the last chapter and this chapter make up for it. Again please give some love to the other authors working on this:
RonJeremyPony
&
L0rd0f7hund3r