*bzzz* *bzzz* *bzzz*
Ralph Springsteed sluggishly got out of his bed. He slammed the top of his alarm clock, silencing the annoying buzzing noise. Temptation set in to crawl back into his warm, cozy bed.
“It would only be more a few minutes…” he reasoned with himself. He laid down back into his bed and began to bring the covers over the top of his head.
“...you’ll never accomplish anything if you sleep all the time, darling…”
Ralph cautiously sat up in his bed. Did he just hear a voice? There was no one else in his small apartment. He figured that it could have came from someone outside, but for some reason, he couldn’t get past the feeling that the voice had directed their words towards him.
Whatever it was, it had destroyed Ralph’s interest in falling back asleep.
“Besides,” Ralph muttered to himself as he got out of bed, “I need to get ready for class anyways…”
He headed into the kitchen and downed some cups of week-old yogurt and called it a breakfast. He meandered into the bathroom to finish up his normal “morning” routine. He paused to observe himself in the mirror. He was a little bit over six feet tall, and while he wasn’t the most jacked guy around, he would call himself well-built. His blonde hair was kept out of his way due to his shaved hairstyle. Speaking of shaving, his face with littered with blonde stubble from neglecting to shave for a few days.
“...ugh, there is nothing worse than a man who refuses to shave…”
Ralph paused. There was that voice again. He wished it was louder so he could hear where the sound was coming from. It would also be easier to hear what it was saying. Did it say something about shaving?
Ralph observed himself in the mirror once again. The more he looked at his “facial hair”, the more he began to dislike it. It was the horrid in-between of clean shaven and facial haired...if that was a word. He pulled out his razor and gave himself a nice shaven look.
“Hmm…” Ralph studied his appearance for a bit in the mirror, “this does look better! I wonder if I would have thought about it if that voice wouldn’t have made me think about it.”
He still hadn’t figured out anything about this voice. For some reason, the mysterious and sudden appearance of this voice wasn’t alarming to him. He felt like it should be and, if anything, the fact that it wasn’t alarming to him was more alarming to him than the voice. Maybe he wasn’t alarmed because the voice wasn’t harmful. If anything, it was helpful.
However, standing around figuring out whether the voice was helpful or harmful was harmful to his attempt to arrive at school on time. He rushed through the routine of brushing his teeth and washing his hands and ran back to his bedroom. He grabbed a random t-shirt and a random pair of jeans off his floor, and after a quick sniff, decided that both were clean enough for his liking.
“...clothes tell so much about a person, darling. Why don’t you take a moment to realize the message your clothes are saying about you?”
The voice had spoken once again. Something about...his clothes?
“Sorry voice, but I can’t worry about my clothes right now,” he muttered to himself as he stuck one leg down a pant leg. “I have to get to-”
Ralph caught himself explaining himself to himself. Maybe he was going crazy...it would explain a few things right now.
Mentally shoving that thought aside, he returned his focus back on the matter at hand. He slipped on his shoes and ran out the door to compete against the clock.
Ralph grumbled as he finally arrived back home after the day’s classes. It was his first time back in school in almost four years. He had been working at a carpenter’s shop right out of high school. The work had paid the rent just fine, though he felt like there was no way he could get away with doing that all his life. He had seen a lot of people that he had known in high school get better paying jobs because they had gotten a college degree. This fact was what had slowly eroded his distaste for college in the first place.
And so, he had applied for a local tech college in an attempt to get a degree in something to help him make a bigger paycheck. Although, after a week of schooling, he was already starting to regret the decision.
“...education is important no matter what you go into…”
Ralph groaned as he heard the voice speak again. He had had enough of its constant tips. It had been giving passive-aggressive remarks every time Ralph made a decision. He couldn’t fully hear what the voice was saying, but it sounded like he was being constantly judged. What had he done to deserve such an annoyance?
Ralph threw his backpack down behind his sofa and sat down in front of the TV. The plan for tonight was to watch basketball until he was too tired to do anything more. He had totally earned this from the work he had put in the past week.
“...you cannot simply ignore the homework that you were given...”
Ralph scoffed at the voice. He laid back against his couch and clicked on the TV.
“Watch me.”
*bzzz* *bzzz* *bzzz*
Ralph stumbled out of bed and turned off his alarm. He yawned and meandered into the kitchen. He paused mid step when his sluggish brain realized something.
“Wait...I thought I fell asleep on the couch…” he thought, looking towards the couch. He paused for a moment. He shrugged. “It must have been so late that I just don’t remember it…”
“You’re right, It was almost one o’clock when I could finally convince you to head to bed.”
There was the voice again. Ralph was caught off guard about much cleared the voice was this morning. He could actually understand every word being said now, though it was still a tad quiet. This didn’t help the high pitch voice from being any less annoying.
“Annoying? Is that how you treat a lady that is trying to help you?”
Ralph was silent. This voice could hear his internal monologue?
“Yes, I can hear your thoughts, darling. It’s how I communicate with you.”
Ralph remained silent. “I think I must be on something…” he muttered after a moment.
“Hmph, I am not the result of some drug, thank you very much. My name is Rarity, and as stated before, here to help you put your life together. However, if you’re just going to insult me, I’m more than happy to watch you ruin your life in silence.”
And so it was. He waited in silence for almost three minutes before attempting to start moving again. He mindlessly adjusted his loose clothing as he made his way towards the fridge to get some food. His thoughts were still thinking about the voice. What had the voice named herself? Rarity? Strange name. Maybe it only came to certain people, which was why she was a rarity.
Ralph forced his thoughts to stop. Was he seriously thinking that this voice was real? People do not randomly get female voices nagging inside their heads. On the flip side, people don’t normally imagine female voices nagging to them. Both ways sounded equally nonsensical. He decided it was probably the best course of action to go with the fact that it was real, rather than fake.
“Tad insulted that this random voice thinks my life needs improving though,” Ralph muttered. “Who’s she to judge my life?”
He glanced at the bathroom mirror to see how he was going to look for the day. He reached down to grab his razor to begin to shave, only to be surprised by the fact that his face was hairfree. Usually, his face needed some trimming if he was going to go clean shaven. This was a nice bonus. He quickly combed his dirty blonde hair and headed towards his small closet.
“You should always look professional, no matter where you go. Wearing a suit and tie will get respect from your peers. It will do you much better that ragged t-shirt you donned yesterday.”
Ralph rolled his eyes. So much for the voice being silent.
“It would be against my whole being if I allowed someone to make such a horrid fashion mistake again!”
Ralph rolled his eyes again. He reached to grab his normal gap of a t-shirt and jeans. He paused, thinking about Rarity’s words once more, before grabbing a polo instead of a t-shirt. He ignored the fact that it was a little big on him for he realized that he had ran out of time and hurried off towards school.
“Everything today has some part of it within business, why not go for a business degree?”
Ralph sighed as he slammed the door to his apartment. Rarity had turned out to be real alright. What also turned out to be real was the fact that she was here to help him improve his life, whether Ralph wanted it or not. She had spent the whole class time talking about different jobs Ralph could presuit, different ideas Ralph could look into, different degrees he could acquire. It made it impossible for Ralph to pay attention to anything that was talked about in class.
“Don’t worry about that, darling. I knew everything the teacher was talking about already. I can just tell you that information when it becomes helpful later.”
That...that was actually really beneficial to hear.
“So,” Ralph questioned Rarity, “could you just do my homework for me?”
“Would that help you learn the information?” Rarity asked back.
“...maybe?” Ralph attempted.
Rarity gave an annoyed “hmph” and went silent again. Ralph placed his backpack down and his eyes drifted towards the TV. He remembered that there was another basketball marathon tonight
“Oh no, you are not destroying another night looking at that pointless waste of time! You have important homework that you have to clue about that needs to get done right away!”
Ralph scoffed. “What are you going to do about it? All you can do is whine about it…”
“I am not ‘whining’. I am complaining. Do you want to hear whining? This is whining! Ooohhhh! You ignore all my ideas! Why don’t you listen to me? Can't you admit that I’m right? OH!”
“Enough!” Ralph screamed. “Fine! I’ll do my homework. Could you at the very least help me a little bit with it?”
Ralph could almost hear Rarity smile. “Yes, I would love to help you.”
*bzzz* *bzzz* *bzzz*
“Morning sunshine! We’ve got another important day ahead of us!”
Ralph felt almost being pulled out of his bed. He glanced back down at his bed to see his arms making his bed nice and tidy. He jolted his arms upwards and they stopped moving.
“Ralph, why did you stop me from making your bed?”
“Wait...you can move parts of my body?” Ralph stared down at his arms in confusion. This was too much for him to comprehend this early in the morning.
“I’m extending my magical influence on you every day to help improve your life,” Rarity explained nonchalantly, as Ralph’s arms finished up making his bed.
“Say what now?” Asking more questions was only making Ralph more confused. Thus, he was a little bit glad when he got no response back. These last two days had been strange, and now they were somehow getting even more strange.
Ralph felt like being on autopilot as he moved into the kitchen. It was bizarre feeling. He wondered if he should be more concerned about all of this, but knowing that he could over-write any action that he didn’t want to do settled any of those thoughts. And so, he let Rarity stay in control.
Rarity walked over to the fridge. and to Ralph’s surprise, pulled out some fresh apples. Ralph knew that he hadn’t bought any fresh fruit in almost a month, how did those apples get there?
“Magical influence, darling,” Rarity simply responded. She pushed a few strands of loose brown hair behind his ear to help her focus on cutting an apple. “Woah,” was all Ralph could say to that. How far did this “magical influence” reach?
“You now have accomplished one year of college prior and are halfway to a degree in business management,” Rarity replied as she began to dainty bite into the apple slices. “You don’t have to thank me for doing so, darling. I have already told you that I wanted to help improve your life.”
Ralph replied with silence as Rarity made her way into the bathroom to prepare for the upcoming day. She glanced at the mirror and began to try and figure out what to do.
“You really need to figure out what look you are aiming for Ralph,” Rarity commented as she began to try to organize his shaggy brown bangs. “There are tons of styles you could go with, though I doubt you could get away with anything heavily masculine.”
“Well that was uncalled for,” Ralph muttered. He interrupted Rarity’s grooming by flexing in order to try to show off his muscles to silence this unbeliever. The mirror, however, seemed to agree more with Rarity. His reflection showed a scrawny man in his twenties, with shaggy brown hair and clothes looking two sizes too big. Ralph was puzzled. Hadn’t he been muscular? Actually, hadn’t he been bigger in general? It almost looked like he had lost some height as well…
“I’m sorry, it wasn’t meant to be an insult against you,” Rarity replied as she went back to stylizing his hair. “It’s just that everyone should try emphasize their strengths, rather than to highlight their weaknesses. For example, you have a luscious head of hair here, darling. If I had only more time, I could make you look wonderfully stylish.”
Ralph grumped a response as Rarity strutted off to the bedroom. She opened up the large closet. Ralph cut her off before she could do more.
“Oh no you don’t,” Ralph stopped Rarity’s hand from reaching for some dress pants. “We’re not doing anything fancy. It’s just school, don’t you understand that?”
He quickly snatched a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. However, as he put them on, something felt...off. He could barely get his jeans on, for they strangled his thighs and butt, almost cutting off blood flow. At the same time, they were too long in length, causing Ralph to almost trip over the legs every time he tried to take a step. His t-shirt swamped his upper body, draping down almost to his knees. It almost could have been mistaken as a short dress.
“How about we compromise?” Rarity offered, making no comment about how ill fitting Ralph’s choices were. She pulled out a purple polo and a pair of khakis. “Not too casual, not too fancy.”
Ralph reluctantly donned himself in Rarity’s choice and found that they surprisingly fit perfectly. He walked back into the bathroom to check out how he looked.
“I have to admit…” Ralph started, as he twisted and turned to get a good full body view, “this looks pretty good actually. Thanks Rarity.”
“You are very welcome,” Rarity answered sweetly.
Now ready for school, Ralph picked up his backpack and strolled out the door.
“Why on earth do I have a fashion minor Rarity!?” Ralph screamed as he slammed his door shut.
Ralph knew that the fact that he had gotten a year of college completed for basically nothing was too good to be true. He knew that there had to be some catch down the line.
“It’s with a business major, remember that,” Rarity countered. “And besides, fashion is what I know best! It’s not like you have enough knowledge to create a different minor.”
“You could have just done a business major with no minor!” Ralph attempted. “Why go the extra effort to complete courses for a minor that has no relevance?”
Rarity gasped. “You take that back!” she screamed as she attempted to point a finger threateningly at him, to find out that that idea simple did not work. She huffed at the result of her actions and placed her bag down and started to pull out some books.
“Umm…” Ralph began, forgetting their previous conversation, “what are you doing?”
“I’m going to be a good student and do my fashion homework now,” Rarity responded with a hint of anger intertwined with her words. “You obviously have no time to focus on this worthless material, so I’ll just do it now and get it over with.”
“Could we take a break first?” Ralph asked, making Rarity pause. “I mean, we've just spent most of the day so far learning about this stuff. Could we watch some TV first to relax? I don’t want to sit here and just watch you do all this stuff that I don’t understand.”
Rarity sighed. “There is no time for taking a break, darling,” she explained slowly, trying to keep her composure. “If you had paid attention in class, you would have known that there is quite a lot of work to get done before tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure that an hour of TV would hurt no one,” Ralph countered. He started to put the books back into Rarity’s bag. Ralph hadn’t noticed how the bag now looked more like a purse than a backpack.
“No…” Rarity replied coldly. “We’re doing this now.”
And so, a sort of tug-a-war broke out between the two of them. Rarity would take the books out of her bag, while Ralph would put them right back in. This continued for almost fifteen minutes.
“Gah!” Rarity yelled as Ralph returned her books back into her bag once more. “You are being so annoying right now Ralph! You are helping no one by doing this! Would you just let me do homework in peace?”
Ralph scoffed. “What can you do about it? All you can do is whine…”
Ralph’s voice trailed off. He suddenly couldn’t focus on anything.. He felt really tired, drained of energy. He was feeling perfectly fine before. Had his recent lack of sleep caught up to him?
As Ralph started to slip from consciousness, Rarity took out her books out of her bag one final time.
“That,” Rarity said with a snarky tone, “that is what I can do.”
*bzzz* *bzzz* *bzzz*
Ralph woke up, or at least he believed he did. Everything seemed foggy, in a cloud. He could make out bits and pieces of what was in front of him, but nothing clear. Everything was covered in a haze.
He was moving, but at the same time, he wasn’t. Any motion he tried to make was ignored. It felt like he was moving on a set path, almost like an amusement ride. And so, he drifted along, trying to take in the sights that flowed past him.
It almost looked like he was still in his apartment. It had a similar layout and a similar size, but it all seemed a little different. He wasn’t sure how to describe it. It was decorated fancier, grander, and...more feminine? Ralph guessed that it looked like that a fancy girl was currently in this apartment.
He traveled over to the fridge and watched a hand open it up. It wasn’t his hand. The fingers were long and delicate, tipped off with glossy fingernails. This hand reached into the fridge to pull out a pre-made salad.
“Ugh,” Ralph thought randomly. “I hate salads.”
The hand paused. It reluctantly reached over and pulled out some Greek yogurt instead. The yogurt was gone after a few moments and Ralph felt carted along towards the bathroom.
He saw a mirror approach him, finally allowing him to get a good look at whoever he was with. He tried to gather details of her through the fog, to see if he had ever seen her before in his life. She looked a little taller than five and a half feet. Her face made him want to guess that she was in her late teens, but if she was, she was a underdeveloped for her age, as she had little curves and small breasts. Ralph couldn’t think of anyone he knew that looked like this.
After the lady had finished putting on her make-up and stylizing her navy blue hair, she left the bathroom and headed back towards the bedroom. She opened up her double-door closet, allowing Ralph to see it overflowing with different styles of clothes. There were even clothes that Ralph thought that the girl couldn’t even wear. They looked like more his size.
The lady grabbed a purple blouse and a white skirt and slipped them on. She made poses in front of the mirror attached to one of the closet doors.
“Why, I look absolutely gorgeous in this outfit!” Ralph tried to hear what the lady was saying. “I must remember this outfit for the future!”
That voice. Ralph had heard it somewhere before. Where had he heard it? He wished he could hear it better. It, like everything else he was experiencing, was dampened by some unknown source. Even the simple process of thinking was, for some reason, harder than he remembered.
Ralph was still trying to process the voice as the lady picked up her purse and strutted out the door to her apartment.
Ralph was disappointed that he was nowhere closer to solving the mystery of who this lady was. He felt like he should have. It would seem impossible for him not to hear this lady’s name at least once, but he never did. Every time it seemed like someone would begin to say her name, Ralph would miss it. It was almost like someone or something was preventing him from finding out her identity.
She had visited Ralph’s school, one fact that Ralph had gathered that could somehow connect this lady to him. She didn’t stay there long though, for she had an internship at a local clothing store nearby. She was being taught the ins and outs of the fashion world there. Ralph could notice that she was quite outstanding at the whole fashion business. Did he know anyone who was really into fashion?
A name came to him, but was quickly pushed away. He could no longer grasp what name he had thought of. He figured that it couldn’t have been that important.
The lady had quickly sat down at her fancy dining table to begin doing some work that the owner of the clothing store had given to her. Ralph could tell that it was very business term heavy. He could make out the words like “pro forma invoice”, “horizontal integration”, and “taxes”. However, this lady seemed to be handling this work with ease. Did he know anyone who was also into…
“I got it!” Ralph screamed. “I finally figured it out!”
Ralph couldn’t notice it, but the lady had stopped going through the papers and began to smile to herself.
“I know who this lady is!” Ralph was so excited that he finally had figured out the riddle that had bothered him all day. “She is….”
*bzzz* *bzzz* *bzzz*
Rarity rolled out of her bed and stretched, trying to get ready for the day ahead of her. It had been a chaotic last few days, going from the land of Equestria to making a new life on Earth. She didn’t know how long she would be here, but it seemed now that her life would now be at least somewhat stable.
Her original plan was to help Ralph achieve his goals, it really was. She had hoped that they could live together, side by side, and make each other better. She quickly realized that this wouldn’t be the case after his reluctance to do such simple work. Laziness was not something that Rarity could tolerate, especially in this sort of situation.
She strolled into the kitchen and decided on making herself a salad for breakfast. It would be the healthiest meal that she had had in the past few days. She was no longer under the influence of any source. She could finally make decisions that were fully her own.
After eating her breakfast, she headed over to the bathroom to get herself ready for the incoming day. When she reached the mirror, she squealed with glee.
“Oh thank Celestia, I’m absolutely gorgeous!” she exclaimed, contorting herself to get a better view of her body. “I was so nervous that the body I had yesterday was the one I was going to be stuck with.”
A beautiful woman was staring back at Rarity from within the mirror. Rarity guess that she looked like she was in her early or mid twenties. Her purple locks of hair gently twisted and turned as it gracefully flowed down her back. Her body was not tall, barely reaching the five and a half foot mark, but was slim and elegant. Her wide hips and slim waist emphasized an hourglass figure. She also had a petite face and perky breasts, to top it all off.
“I absolutely must try on some dresses later with this body!” she cried with a giant grin across her face. She gave a quick gasp. “What does my closet look like?”
She zoomed back to her bedroom and threw open her closet doors. She was met with the magnificent sight of rows and rows of blouses, skirts, accessories, and most importantly, dresses lining the length of a walk-in closet. She squealed with excitement. Before she could get a better look at the treasures inside, she heard a buzzing noise coming from behind her.
It was her cellphone. She picked it up curiously and saw that she was getting a call.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Rarity! Good news!” the voice exclaimed cheerfully. “You just got another commission to do another dress design for the big upcoming fashion show at The Women’s Center! We’ll need you down at the Elusive Boutique as soon as possible!”
“That’s great news!” Rarity replied, piecing together the new information. The woman on the other end hung up before Rarity could say any more.
Rarity had almost forgotten that her double major in both fashion and business had gotten her the position of part owner in a local downtown boutique. And, by the sound of it, people were craving her skills.
She was a little disappointed that now she would be unable to try out all of her newly acquired clothes today. As she started to put on a long and graceful purple dress, she reminded herself of an important fact.
“This is my life now,” she stated, looking at herself one more time in the mirror. “And it is looking absolutely gorgeous.”
She slipped on a pair of high-heels and headed towards the door. She would no longer be leaving Ralph’s apartment, but rather her own.
Three TV Tropes
Slow Transformation
Gender Bender
Loss of Identity