Opalescence flicked her ear as she heard a slight creak. It was probably the boutique floorboards underneath somepony’s hooves, like always, which, normally, would be fine. However, it was well past the time that anypony should be in her home, and that meant she had to get up. Which of course she did. It wasn’t like the day hadn’t already been terrible enough after all.
The small, white cat stood up, arching her back as she stretched herself out. Opal could feel where some bits of her fur were still damp, forcing it to clump together. She had thought she’d gotten it all, but… She let out a small, angry meow as she began to move out of Rarity’s bedroom, trying to ignore the water for now.
Her paws made no sound on the hardwood floors, nor the stairs that led to the boutique’s showroom. Such silence helped her ruminate on the day’s events, ranging from a mouse that had evaded her capture, causing her to slam face first into the wall, to the bath that she had been forced to share with Rarity. Sure, she liked having a clean coat just as much as her mother, but it was still infuriating.
Another creak stopped her thoughts dead, and she stayed still before the last bend in the stairs. Whatever was below her was good at sneaking too. Any other time of the day and Opal would be all too happy to have something to hunt. Right now though, it meant danger, and she would need to be on full alert for-
“Boo!”
Opal leapt at the sudden face before her, her tension being released forward in a flurry of claws and fur that was quite different for the cat. Normally she tried to avoid being a brute and voice her complaints, but this thing had caught her by surprise, and that dumb, stupid grin was almost enough to cost it its life!
Fortunately for Discord, he was able to peel the raging feline off of his face, and then keep it at a safe distance with a small, purple bubble. Not that that quelled Opal’s rage, as her claws merely continued to scratch at the bubble in an attempt to burst it.
The draconequus moved back, taking a seat on one of the couches that were placed in the showroom. He wasn’t in a rush afterall, and he wasn’t all that interested in speaking to a cat that currently acted like his death was her number one priority. He had Twilight Sparkle to thank for that lesson.
Opal soon collapsed in the bubble, exhausted from the adrenaline flowing through her body. It didn’t help that she hadn’t slept well, what with the wet fur before bed, and being awoken long before her beauty sleep was supposed to be done. Besides, the reflections of moonlight on the bubble were pretty, and she was happy to watch them shift and sway.
Unfortunately, that stupid face that had startled her before soon came back to see her, and it had an even wider smile now. Why couldn’t she just get to relax already?
Discord patted the top of the bubble with a chuckle, as if trying to pet Opal, before he leaned in even closer, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her closely. “Well, I’ll let you in just a few moments, my dear kitty. I just wanted to talk to you first about a few things. Sound fair?”
Oh great. Now he can read my mind.
Discord let out a small bark of laughter, but it never quite reached his eyes. “Well, how else am I supposed to talk to a cat? It’s not like you can talk. I would love to see that though. One that could actually curse Rarity out when she tries to force it into a dress.”
Or- Opal cut her thoughts off, not wanting her deeper ideas to come to light. Not to this thing. Aren’t you supposed to be clever? Then again, most tricksters claim to be without showing any brains. At least, that’s what Rarity says.
Discord held his hands up as he stepped away from the bubble. “I do suppose you’re right, but I also see no need. I’m not trying to be evil or anything after all, not now that I’m ‘reformed’. However,” he said as he showed an image of a cat bath splashing onto Rarity, “you want this right? To be on the same level as that nasty owner of yours. To be able to show her how much you don’t need her. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
Opal made sure to force a few thoughts to the front of her mind. Stupid things like being able to actually bat at Rarity’s head and make her feel it when the are said something phenomenally stupid. A deeper part of her clamoured for more information, and for her to take it, and the cat could feel a fluttering in her chest as she thought about it more. What’s the catch?
Discord put a hand to his chest as he scoffed at the accusation. “What? Why would I need to put a catch on it?” He then caused a contract to appear in his hand. It was short though, and even Opal could tell the words were much larger than they normally were for such a document. “It’s simple. I want to see what happens, so I give you a body that can speak, be in pony society, etc., and you do as you please. Plain and simple. Besides, if I told you what to do, what fun-”
He was cut off by Opal swiping her paw across the signature line of the contract, and the blinding light that came with it.
======+++++======
Rarity groaned as she felt the first breaks in her subconscious begin. She could just feel that it wasn’t morning yet. In fact, she bet it was somewhere around midnight. Call it an annoyed mare’s intuition if you want. Whatever it was, it wasn’t what she was looking for that night, or any night for that matter.
At least, she mused, it wasn’t likely to be all that much of a distraction. She could tell from how the weight on her bed was being shifted that it was just Opal getting back onto the bed. So long as she didn’t have a dead mouse with her or something like that, she assumed her kitten would just nuzzle into her barrel and they could both go back to sleep.
She was even right… about half of it. At first, Rarity just assumed that she would need to put Opal on another diet, as her kitten was sinking deep into the soft, squishy mattress. However, when the white cat laid down, her tail fell onto her Rarity’s face, covering it entirely and causing the mare to breath in about a half dozen long hairs.
Rarity sat up, hacking up the hair as she pushed up her sleeping mask. To say the least, she was ready to scold her cat for sitting on her face, if not revoke her bed privileges. Not that Opal ever listened, but now…
Rarity blinked again, staring into Opal’s large, wide, green eyes. The color wasn’t all encompassing as usual though. Instead, it was just a green ring around her iris, just like Rarity with her purple. At least they had the same catlike feature of being a vertical oval, but they were much larger than she was used to.
In fact, Opal in general was. She wasn’t just a resized cat. No, she was a touch stockier, taking on proportions more akin to a filly, but her legs didn’t end in hooves. She could see paws there, and her face was similar with a small nose, and whiskers that came off of it.
All in all, Opal was about half the size of Rarity, and the mare bet that, if she put her next to Sweetie Belle, they’d be uncomfortably close in comparison.
Rarity rubbed her eyes with one hoof, her head spinning at this point. There were plenty of reasons as to why this may have happened, but it was way too late for her to deal with any of them, especially the most likely. If she could just wake up though-
“Mom, are you okay?”
Rarity slowly lowered her hoof, feeling Opal’s paw on her other foreleg. Her kit-Cat, looked so worried about her. That was… different. Opal sure was a good cat, but concern was not one of her strong suits. Was that what this was about? Somepony tried to swap her cat with this… creature?
Yes, that had to be it. It made more sense then Opal just becoming this and-
“Mom, you’re really tense. Want me to walk on your back to help?”
Rarity narrowed her eyes, her brain feeling like steam had to be coming out of it with how many parts of it were simply short circuited by now. “Okay, enough of that. You aren’t my little girl. That title goes to Opal, my adorable little kitten, not some… thing.”
“Now,” Rarity said as she jumped off the bed, wincing as something told her this was wrong, but she just didn’t know why. “I am going to go and see about fixing this. I don’t care if you follow me or not, but I’m not going to listen to an imposter. I’ve dealt with too many changelings to do so.”
Opal leapt off the bed after her, not daring to go in front of Rarity. She only circled around her mom’s legs when she was standing. Otherwise, especially on stairs, she could end up tripping the mare, or getting stepped on herself. If that happened, she knew she had problems with her temper, and this first impression would be lost. Not that it was going smoothly now. “Mom, please, don’t go. It is me, Opalescence! Can’t you recognize me? I mean, how could you not? I’ve been your fabulous kitten since-”
“No!” Rarity turned her head, though her hooves didn’t stop leading straight out. “My little kitten is a quarter my size, a wonderful brat, and I’m going to go find her before she gets hurt. Then I’m going to make sure you get what’s coming to you.”
Opal flinched at the words, tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes, just like the ones she couldn’t see in Rarity’s. She was Opal, she promised! Why didn’t Discord make sure her mom would be able to recognize her? Was she really that mean normally? Did she look that different? “Please, I can explain, so if you would just listen-”
Opal cut herself off as one of her paws pressed itself against the pavement in front of the boutique, and she reflexively backed away. Rarity had no such qualms though, and continued walking. The cat, standing in her doorway opened her mouth to cry out for her, but stopped, looking to the buildings that were in sight.
And, like a hundred times before, she sat there, watching her mom leave.
======+++++======
Rarity slammed herself against Fluttershy’s door, throwing her full weight into the knock to make sure that her friend would hear it. Unfortunately for the shy mare, she had been up, taking care of small owlets who’d lost their mom, and a slam from within the cottage told Rarity her friend had jumped into her ceiling. Normally, something that might make her giggle, but now only made her cry out, “Fluttershy, I need you!”
Despite the distress in her friend’s voice, Fluttershy still slowly opened the door, looking through the crack at one of her oldest friends. Distressed was an understatement for how Rarity looked right now. She still wore her robe, but half of it had been slung off of her body, and was now covered in dirt, mud and grime. Her hooves were caked in the same sort of filth, probably from the short cut through the park that was between the boutique and her house. A recent rain would explain the mud at least.
What worried Fluttershy the most was Rarity’s eyes. Now, to say her friend was dramatic was an understatement usually. In fact, she was so good at fake crying, she could make sure her makeup didn’t smear, and her coat stayed clean.
Now though? There weren’t trails leading down Rarity’s cheeks, but curtains. From her eyes to her chin, straight waterfalls of stains. Her eyes themselves were red and puffy, and her whole body shook. If Fluttershy didn’t know better, she thought Rarity must have… “Oh no. Where’s Opal?”
For a moment, anger flashed through Rarity’s eyes, but it was a thin curtain, a coping mechanism for the thoughts actually going through her mind. “Something… something must have taken her. She… she’s gone, and something claiming to be her replaced her. It didn’t fool me though. I know my kitten, and it was too big, too heavy, and too nice.”
Fluttershy opened the door the rest of the way, but Rarity refused to go in. Instead, she stomped a hoof, trying to keep what fire was in her up, lest she actually break down, just like she almost had many times on the way here. “W-we need to go find her. My little kitten needs help, not something claiming to be my… daughter. Not even Opal is that.”
Fluttershy frowned as she watched Rarity look around. She hadn’t ever… No, she could think of one time when she had been like this. Scared, irrational, and panicked. And, just like now, it had to do with Opal. “I can go grab my treats and try to lure her out of hiding, but unless you have an idea as to where she might be-”
“Changelings, Discord, I… I don’t know!” She slammed her hooves down again, actually cracking the wood this time.
Fluttershy stepped closer to her, putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Rarity, calm down. She won’t live if you keep panicking like this.”
“How do you…” Rarity stopped her screaming a wave of shame running through her as thought about what she was about to say, and why her friend had said what she had. “It’s just… I taught her better, and to think some imposter could snatch her…”
Fluttershy wrapped a hoof around her friend, her eyes scanning the dark beyond. Fortunately, she had plenty of moonbulbs planted in her garden, so her yard was always lit at night. At the moment, she saw nothing. “Where is this thing right now?”
Rarity looked back, mumbling, “It should be right… behind me.” Rarity slowly turned her head back and forth, scanning the night herself. She saw nothing too. “No. It might have gone to steal somepony else’s pet. I… I need to go home. Now.”
She turned, beginning to yell something, but got stopped by Fluttershy’s hoof. When she looked back, her friend had a nervous frown etched deep into her face. “What’s wrong?”
Fluttershy glanced back at the woods, before whispering, “Just… You came here in a panic Rarity, and, as smart as you are, you jump to conclusions too fast.”
“It’s about Opal, how could I not?”
“It’s also about her calling you her mom, and…” Fluttershy bit into her cheek, breathing in deeply as she thought about what to say. She had seen too many moms reject their young because they no longer recognized them for that not to have stuck with her. “All I ask is that, if it’s still there, you ask why it didn’t leave, and actually listen. Alright? You don’t freak out, or get defensive, you listen. Please.”
Rarity looked at her friend for a couple more moments, before scowling and running off, saying nothing as she went to fix this herself.
======+++++======
“Change me back.”
Discord, who had been hanging out on a shelf, glanced over to the rather angry cat that was below him. With a small sigh, he shut the magazine he’d been reading moved to the edge of the shelf. “And why should I do that? I mean, I had expected her to react poorly, but this poorl-”
He didn’t get to finish as Opal, with the skill of a cat, and the power of her size, leapt up the four feet to the shelf and smashed her paw into his side, flinging him into the wall. One of his eyes swiveled back as the rest of him became goo, noticing that the cat was ready to pounce at him. Fortunately one of his hands popped off of the wall, snapping in the process.
This time, Opal was in for the rude surprise, crashing into his hand as he stopped her. Fortunately, Discord didn’t make her just fall, but instead teleported her to the other side of the room. When she turned back to him, she let out a long hiss while he straightened out his neck.
Discord stretched out, making sure every joint was in place, before raising an eyebrow to the cat. “What? She’ll come back and everything will be fine.”
Every hair on Opal’s back rose in unison as a small, high pitched whine escaped her. She didn’t dare leap at him again though, not while he was paying attention to her. “You made my mom hate me. I have killed for less.”
“Well, I mean, you’re a house cat. If you hadn’t I’d be more surprised. However,” he said as he brought out a pipe to smoke bubbles out of her, “Mom? Sorry, but even as you are now, Rarity couldn’t possibly be your-”
“Liar!” Opal didn’t care now. She would take a hundred hits so long as she took him down. No one accused her of not being Rarity’s daughter and lived.
Fortunately for the draconequus, the door opened at that point, and Opal skidded across the floor in order to turn towards it, giving him a chance to teleport away before he was seen.
Standing there was Rarity, and, as much as she didn’t want to, Opal lowered herself, her ears pinned down as she looked up at her mother. A good cat didn’t run around like a maniac, a rule she’d broken too many times to count, and she’d just been caught doing just that.
Fortunately for Opal, this was a scene Rarity was all too familiar with, due to all the times she’d come home to her kit-cat running around. Only question usually was why she was doing that. Now though, Fluttershy’s question came to mind. Not that it mattered. This wasn’t her kitten. Still… “Why are you still here? Don’t you have other pets to steal?”
Opal flinched, feeling the tears she had managed to stop before come back. She was still angry, and nopony had been able to calm her. Why hadn’t Discord just changed her back? “I-I wanted to be a good cat, and good cats don’t leave without permission. Otherwise, they might get lost or hurt. Right, m-mom?”
Rarity blinked. The words sounded so familiar to her, but it had been at least two years since she’d said them. In fact, when she had always been saying that was because…
Rarity looked at Opal, just staring at her as she said, “You didn’t even call for me when I left. Why?”
Opal noticed the change in her mom’s voice, and let her ears rise a little. “I-it’s rude to the neighbors, and good cats know when to be quiet.”
Rarity took a step closer, her talk with Fluttershy coming back to mind, along with a lot of memories she had been trying not to think about that night. Memories she usually never thought of. “Nopony should know those lines. How… how do you know about them?”
Opal looked up, tears now coming down her cheeks. She seemed to be getting closer, but she was also afraid that Rarity might just go right back to being the mean mare she had been before. “You taught me them, when… when I was only a kitten. Back when I thought all kittens learned these things.”
Rarity blinked a few times, tears touching the edges of her eyes as she lowered herself to be able to look Opal right in the eyes. The same eyes she had looked into hundreds of times. The same eyes that, despite the fact that it’d been attacked so recently, looked at her as if looking upon the greatest thing in the world.
Rarity finally remembered why Opal called her mom. It had been a stormy night in Ponyville, and Rarity, maybe three years ago, had heard a small mewling. When she followed it, she found a tiny kitten next to pile of meat and bones, torn apart by Timberwolves most likely. The white kitten had a tear in its side, and couldn’t walk.
She’d taken the kitten to Fluttershy’s as fast as she could, but for over a day, neither knew if it would live. Rarity didn’t remember sleeping during that whole time, just sitting next to the kitten who always seemed to like the sight of her. It seemed to comfort it, and it filled Rarity’s heart with warmth.
It wouldn’t be until a week later that Rarity would take the kitten away from Fluttershy’s house, and another week before the kitten played with her gems, and earned the name Opalescence because she seemed to especially like how the opals shined.
And, most importantly as Rarity wrapped a hoof around her little kitten, Fluttershy had warned that it may have attached itself to her, since it lost its mother while so young.
The mare looked down, feeling the soft paws wrap around her, before whispering, “I’m so sorry, my little kitten. I was tired, and… and I had forgotten that you were my little filly, not just my kitten. The prospect of being a mom though…”
Opal looked up, placing a paw on Rarity’s chest and kneading her claws into her mother’s coat. “Wh-when was the last time you dealt with a s-surprise job well?”
Rarity shook her head, putting a hoof through Opal’s fur as she said, “No. You aren’t a job. You’re my Opal, and I love you. Now and always. I just wish I hadn’t scared you like I did.”
Opal didn’t hold her tears back now, curling up in Rarity’s arms and closing her eyes, just like she did when the two curled up for bed. The night had been long, and she was tired. “It was… It’s touching, now that I think about it, to know you would be that upset if I just left.”
Rarity laid down, not caring for how destroyed her back would be in the morning. If this was where Opal wanted to sleep, she would sleep here tonight. “Well, it shouldn’t ever need to happen again, because you should never have a reason to leave me again, my little kitten.”
With one last purr, Opal let herself go to sleep, all too happy that the chance she’d taken had indeed paid off. She might not even have to brain Discord next time she saw him, she was so happy to finally be able to talk and be with her mom like this.
Like she’d always wanted.
