After Us

Ellie was not a happy camper. Luna tugged the half-awake human along the corridors of the castle, turning left and right every so often, but clearly they were heading in a single direction. Ellie complained along the way to wherever she was being lead to. Three days ago, Ellie would've broken bones if she couldn't get a good sleep, now she was ready to break bones on the simple matter of her leaving her bed against her will. She loved her bed almost more than canned bacon.

"Where are you taking me..?" Ellie groaned, rubbing her eye again.

"I am taking you to see a mare who is going to help you."

"A mare? Oh, a girl. Why though? I was sleeping, and it's too early in the morning to get out of that sweet bed."

Luna just kept pulling Ellie along. "The train ride from here to Ponyville is a six hour train ride, and this pony did not want to wait to teach you." She answered with a neutral tone, but Ellie heard a bit of snarky attitude to it. What she didn't know was that this was a little past Luna's own time to head to bed.

"Princess!" A woman's voice called out to Luna.

Ellie looked around until she saw a very white pony with curly purple mane. Luna smiled and nodded her head at her. "Greetings Lady Rarity. I do hope your trip here was good?"

Rarity nodded back and approached them. She gave a bow then rose back up, smiling at Luna. "I must say, she looks a lot prettier than I thought she'd be. I guess it does help she almost looks like us." She held out her white hand to Ellie. "Hello, my name is Rarity Belle, but you can call me Rarity if you'd like.."

"Ellie but just Ellie is fine I guess..." Ellie slowly shook Rarity's hand and dropped hers.

"I'll take my leave now that you two have met. Court was long last night, too many complaints to deal with." Luna waved goodbye and left them alone.

Rarity took a deep breath and exhaled. "So, we have a lot to get done today. First we need to get you washed up! Then, we hit the spa before running around town for clothes."

"Right...So, what's a Spa?"

Rarity inhaled with shock, and it took her a few seconds to come to terms of Ellie's culture less life. "Never mind that, for your sake, I shall forget that you said that. Now, for the bath, I was thinking on De'Del'Flure, sound good?"

"Pft, sure I guess. Still have no idea what most of you are saying."

"Now, no more of that Ellie, we have much to do, and all day to do it!" Rarity urged Ellie to follow her down another long hall which ended in two gigantic doors. "You're going to enjoy this day more than any other before it! Come-come!"

"It won't be hard." She mumbled under her breath low enough for Rarity not to hear her smart remark.

Ellie sighed and followed Rarity across the courtyard gates. Rarity was spouting off words and names she had no idea what they were. First she was talking about underwear and bras, she wasn't sure what those were, but she guessed that she was supposed to wear them. Although before she completely tuned Rarity out, Rarity had to say one more thing.

"Oh, I forgot to ask for your size."

"I'm not fat if that's what you're asking..."

"I'll assume you don't know then. Don't worry, Celestia caught me up with much of what is going on, but have no worry, you are safe with me."

"I think that's the other way around." Ellie scoffed. Her chuckles went right over Rarity's head. "You sound way too clean."

Rarity stopped, clutching her hands and taking a deep breath. She stomped a few steps closer to Ellie. "Don't you dare assume who I am! I have aided in the savior of this very land from beings that would make you shit yourself six times over."

Ellie pushed Rarity away. "I've traveled over four-thousand miles through plague infested lands with undead, raiders, murderers, rapists, cannibals, and Fireflies to fucking cure humanity! I'm no stick you walking case of starvation."

"THAT'S IT LITTLE GIRL!" Rarity's horn ignited in a blinding baby blue light, which just faded away. Her horn was sparking feverishly while she huffed and puffed through her snout. Her eyes were closed, so she couldn't see the four guards who were ready to defend Ellie. She drew a finger into Ellie's face and hissed. "You will not ruin this day for both of us. I know of you, your case, and how you're a protected species during your stay in Equestria..." She exhaled and straightened her blouse and adjusted her cleavage. "I will explain how I have become a very well trained mare."

And she did. To Ellie's surprise despite how peaceful everything had seemed, Equestria itself faced the brink of destruction several times over. From the mare who seemed so calm, Luna as Nightmare Moon, to even Discord, the same that was supposed to help her return home. Ellie was curious how he had turned sides, Rarity only said her friend's name. "Fluttershy." It was strange for Ellie, like everything was around her. Even being kidnapped by talking dogs and used as a slave to find and mine gems and other rare minerals Ellie didn't really care for.

There was a colorful looking building far from them that looked too out of place for all the other white marble buildings. It was taller than most of the buildings around it too. Even from afar Ellie could read the sign, Canterlot Carousel. Rarity hadn't said much about where they were going other than a few places she said at the castle. From here, the castle was a looming presence of art and engineering marvel. As it turned out, they were walking to the odd building. Rarity pulled a set of keys from her pocket and stuck it in the door.

"I forgot that I locked it when I went to Ponyville for an emergency supply run. Ran out of the only fabric Canterlot doesn't sell, linen." A click was heard and Rarity pulled the key out an pushed open the door. The room was large but from the size of the odd building, Ellie figured like most clothing stores it was just a front, but she'd see nothing like this before. The entire room was decorated and clean.

She wandered off to the left and slowly walked to a tux suit. She touched the fabric and inhaled through her nose, only to sneeze from the lingering perfume in the store front. She moved on to another analog, this one was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a plad flannel long sleeve t-shirt.

"Joel." She quietly said. She sighed sadly and followed Rarity past a set of doors only looking at the tiled marble floor.

In the next room, it was filled with massive stocks of cloth and materials. Her mouth opened a little while she tried to figure out how this all could have got here. She knelt down over a pink roll, pressed her hand on it. It was the softest thing she had ever felt in the world. She grabbed it and pressed it against her face, rubbing in.

"It's so soft!" Ellie shouted, catching Rarity's attention.

Rarity used her magic and pulled it away from her. It floated back to Rarity where she dropped it in her hands. "You like this? For such a ruffian, pink is your color?"

"I'm still a girl." Ellie huffed, standing up and nodded to it. "Can you make me a strap with that?"

Pursing her lips, Rarity tugged lightly on the fabric, it was her last roll of pink dyed spider silk from Saddle Arabia. "I-...I suppose I could...Before I do anything with spider silk, I must know what this strap is for?"

"A six string."

Rarity's eyes widened in surprise. "A guitar?"

"I guess, I play, and it would be better than leather sucking the life out of my neck." Ellie rubbed her neck slightly and turned away. "Joel taught me how to play to pass the time between stops when it was safe. Infected are drawn by the slightest of sounds from a couple hundred yards away. So they were pretty remote."

Ellie's request wasn't much, it wouldn't be hard, but now she had to get a guitar that fitted her size and measure it. It was a slight annoyance at best if push came to shove. With a defeated sigh, Rarity nodded. "Alright, I can make you one, but we'll need to stop at a band store in order for you to get a guitar. And I won't buy one unless I know you can play,...well. This spider silk was a gift, and while I may be the element of generosity, I won't be so willing unless you play well and I mean well."

Ellie saw Rarity's words of uncertainty as an insult. She knew well she could play, many of the small town she lived in liked her songs, while others sought to it as a moral booster during hard times. Joel knew well, and taught her much as if he were her father. But Ellie wasn't quite willing herself to allow Rarity to know. She trusted Luna, kinda, she was nice.

"Well then, let's find out once and for all shall we?"

"And if I do play great Rarity, you'll learn to play as well. You pissed me off when you said I couldn't play."

"I never-"

"You implied it. Now take me to the wherever this band store is."

Rarity huffed. "Alright, but with those small hands, I don't think you can."

Ellie smirked.

Stepping inside the band store, a white mare with electric blue mane raised her head and saw Rarity, and a creature she did not know. "Rarity? What in Hades are you doing here? And who's that?"

"This is Ms. Ellie, she would like a guitar."

"All we got are electrics. Sold out our last woody was maybe two weeks ago. Our supplier got pissed at Octy for not hanging with him after midnight."

"I'm so sorry to hear that Vinyl, I'm sure your wife is alright?"

Vinyl nodded and held a hand out to Ellie. "Vinyl Scratch, a pleasure."

Ellie raised a brow then took her hand and shook it. "Yeah, so you have electrics but no acoustics?"

"A bummer, I know. Octy is a classy mare unlike me. If I had that offer and wasn't married to her, I would've taken him over again for a free shipment." She stood up from a stool and motioned for them to follow her. "Come on, I'll take you to the studio. We have a acoustic that you can use but not buy."

"Not a problem." Rarity smiled gently and pulled Ellie along with her to the sound room.

The room itself had a large desk with a large number of dials, nobs, and switches Ellie had no idea what they were used for. There was a large frame of glass and a door way leading into another room with walls that looked like spikes. Inside this other room was a stool, and a hanging microphone. Vinyl told Ellie to step through the door into the other room while she 'set-up' some things. Rarity just smiled and prodded Ellie along into the room and left her in there alone. In the back left corner of the room was a polished golden guitar with six silver strings.

She looked back through the glass and Vinyl held a thumb up. Picking up the guitar, Ellie sat down on the chair and set herself up by plucking each of the strings. First plucking the thick E string, she noticed that it was in tune. Then A which was slightly sharp, next was D and that was sharp as well. On went strings G, B, and finally the thin E string, those sounded fine enough for play. A small ding and Vinyl's voice came through.

"Okay Ellie, just play and that microphone will pick up your song. Don't be afraid to sing if you feel like wanting to. I can't sing for the life of me." Ellie smirked and gave a nod to the mare.

So she began to play . Rarity was in awe at how intense she played as she got into the song. Ellie moved a lot while she played, rocking back and forth, and felt angry and sad. Vinyl's head rocked as she added just a bit of drums, using her musical talent to determine the drops and rises as Ellie played on. And just as she hit a big rise, she felt quickly into a last string of notes.

She set the guitar down and covered her eyes, sighing deeply. Emotions that were summoned during the song were hard to rid herself of. Another ding caused her to look up and Rarity opened the door. She stood up and looked back at the guitar before she left the room, closing the door behind her.

"That was pretty good Ellie. I'm actually impressed, and I'm sure Octy would like it too since it isn't electronic." She stood up from a spinning chair and grabbed a blue card from a small circular table under some gold records. "If you ever wanna become famous with that talent, come see me, I'll set you up with a great future."

Ellie took the card of Vinyl and saw the address of the studio along with Vinyl's name. "Vinyl 'Melody' Scratch? Scratchy Studios... I'll...um...think about it."

Vinyl gave Ellie a beaming smile. "That's all I ask."

Rarity tapped Ellie's shoulder. "I guess I owe you that spider silk strap. Now, let's go finish our day." She turned her head to Vinyl. "Thank you for allowing her to use your studio."

"No, thank you for showing me a piece of that awesome talent. Come around again, even if it's just window shopping."

With that, they said their goodbyes and Rarity and Ellie were on their way to a spa. Ellie looked at the card while they walked, actually thinking about it. This new world, as calm it seemed to her, she guessed some excitement could actually come to her. She thrived on it.