What was Missing

Canterlot
Morning

No matter how many times she looked at the figures, there was no way they were going to have enough orders to profit off of Winter Wrap-Up stock. Hearth's Warming was approaching and as it was she was struggling to find girls to work on new stock, even if the demand wasn’t there.

Velvet ran a hoof down her face, then used it to prop her head. They just didn’t have the market visibility they needed to sell their lingerie. The ‘escort’ side of business was doing fine, but come the Spring the girls wouldn’t be working turning tricks, and if she didn’t have work for them filling orders and making bedroom wear for the mares that were active during the ‘mating season’, they wouldn’t get paid.

If they weren’t getting paid, they would go somewhere they would get paid and she would lose market share. Again.

Adult novelties and marital aids were still only doing as well as they always did. Whilst it was perfectly acceptable to be seen making a call to one of the Houses, or (to a lesser extent) buying her bedroom wear, it was mostly frowned upon to be seen buying toys.

‘Sitting here worrying about what you can’t change is going to give you wrinkles,’ she thought to herself. ‘Time to take care of what you can do something about.’

Velvet Touch slid from her office chair and trotted over to her door. As she opened it an argument could be heard from further down the hall, and by the sound of the voices, a guard was arguing with her receptionist. Again.

“An’ I said I don’ care none if’n you’re Celestia herself. Mrs Touch ain’t receivin’ no pony that don’t have an appointment, an’, sweety, I ain’t seein’ your name on this here appointment list,” drawled Quill, her receptionist. “Now why don’t you go on back to where ever it was you came from, an’ tell ‘em if’n ya’ want to see Velvet, ya’ got to make an appointment.”

“And I keep telling you, I am under strict instructions to…”

“Problem with one of my girls...?” Velvet interrupted, wandering her way down the hall. She checked his breastplate. “…Lieutenant? You had best hope no harm comes to her…”

“N-no ma’am,” the stallion stuttered, “Missive from Ponyville. I’m to relay that ‘It’ has become active again.”

Velvet stared hard at the armored pegasus. “Quill, honey?” she said, not breaking eye contact. “Be a dear and cancel all my appointments. And get on to Stamp down at Manehattan Central. Tell him I need to be on the next train to Ponyville.”

“And Quill..?” she asked, turning to face her receptionist. “Make sure nopony hears about this. As far as they know, I have a family emergency.”

The russet-maned mare just nodded, and watched as her boss turned tail and returned to her office.

“Well, ya’ heard th’ lady.” she said, turning to the guard, “Make yerself scarce, an’ use th’ back door, don’t want nopony askin’ on whatcha’ doin’ leavin’ after jus’ gettin’ in here, it’s bad fer business. Now skedaddle! I gots me a whole lotta work cos’a you”

***

Westbound
Noon

The meeting with the manager of the new store had gone well. It was previously an owner/operator franchise, but the owner needed cash for his daughter’s wedding and had decided to sell his business.

He had run a tight ship, and Stuart was more than happy to let him continue as the store manager. The big bonus was that a 100% stocktake had just been completed for the hand over, which put him in a good position to carry out his plan.

“This guy sure keeps his books in good order,” commented Matt from the passenger’s seat as they sat idle in the afternoon traffic. “All his staff are on the company recommended award wage and he keeps ‘em happy with a good rotation on the overtime.” Matt nodded approvingly. “I always like it when it’s simple.”

“I can only hope that it’s this simple when we drop by the warehouse tomorrow. Everyone else is holding out on updating their systems so that they can stay online with the old system,” replied Stuart.

“No one wants to be first in case they screw over everyone else. Not that is going to be an issue for us, we own all the stores serviced by our warehouse. We won’t have to worry about other franchises going off line when the warehouse goes over to the new system,” he said, moving the car off with the rest of the traffic.

“And we’ll be the only shopfronts with full access to the storage network and what warehouse is stocking what,” Matt chimed in, “and just in time for the Christmas rush.”

More so than just that, Stuart knew that even if, no, when the other stores figured out what he was up to, no one in their right mind would switch systems this close to the busiest time of the year. They were set for a massive advantage over the other stores, and were a shoe-in for raking in a good portion of the sales estimates over the next quarter.

“You still going on leave at the end of the week?” asked Matt.

Stuart nodded and a gave a small smile. “Always do. You guys can hold down the fort without me for two weeks at least, right?”

“Sure, sure.” Matt waved him off, “Wouldn’t want to ruin the only break you ever take for yourself.”

No matter what, Stuart had always taken the holidays off to spend with his father. It was the only time they could ever agree to be in the same place at the same time. His father would always be off chasing some minor lead to do with his mother, and he would always either be working or too busy when he was around.

They would take this time to reconnect with each other, even if just a little. There would be no talk about work, or the increasingly weird and farfetched clues to his mother’s whereabouts. And wow, towards the end, they were out there…

‘More out there than magical transforming unicorn mares…?’ he thought to himself, shaking his head.

“Anywhere in particular you want to stop off for lunch?” he asked, switching gears in his head to keep himself on track. “I figure whilst we’re out we may as well eat.”

“Nah, I’m good, I just want to get back and file this stuff,” Matt replied, not looking back up from the notes.

“You sure?” he asked, looking back over at Matt as he continued to stare at the paperwork in front of him.

“Yep, I’m good,” he replied, looking back up at Stuart. “But hey, do you need me at the warehouse tomorrow? I’m playing catch up as it is and you really don’t need me there, so…”

“Nah, it’s fine, I’ll take Brian, he and the warehouse manager can talk shop and switch over to the new program. The warehouses already run it to talk to each other, but the shopfronts are riding piggyback off the old system. We just have to upload our recent stock takes to the new in-store systems and adjust for the interim takings, and we’re golden.”

“Ok, sweet. Anything else you need to pass on before you hand over and go on leave?”

Stuart pondered this for a bit. “Shouldn’t be, I’ll get everyone together before I leave for final points, and make sure I’ve signed off on everyone’s bonuses. That should be it.” Stuart nodded, making his way through traffic back towards the office.

‘It’ll be good to get away for a while after all this’

***

Terrace Rental
3pm

She’d been seething when the police had dropped her off at home, and decided that the last thing she wanted to see was Julie’s stupid face, and had gone straight to bed. Marcy had rung the council offices in Glenmour and put the payment to rest, and by the time she had made it back out there by taxi, the clamps were removed.

And now she was officially broke. This did little to fix her sour mood as she waited for Julie to came home from her classes. I mean, seriously, how hard was it to come out and pick her up!?! Marcy continued to stew until she heard a rattle of keys in the door and said roommate made her way in through the front door.

“Hello… Judas.” Marcy scowled as Julie look up, adjusting her glasses that had slipped to the end of her nose.

“Oh. Hello,” Julie replied, shying away slightly from Marcy’s aggressive tone.

Marcy growled, standing from the couch. “You just left me stranded in Glenmour, at night, with no way home!”

“Oh, yes, well, you seem to have gotten home ok, and your car is out front so I guess everything turned out alright,” she replied meekly, turning to make her way to her room.

“Only because I got a lift from the cops!”

Julie blinked owlishly back at her, “Oh, did they find you standing on a street corner?”

Marcy’s blood ran cold. “What…” she replied, barely above a whisper, “What did you just say…?”

“W-well, you had to be doing something illegal for the police to bring you home, so I just thought…”

“That I was selling myself…?!” Marcy yelled. “Spreading my legs for money, is that what you thought?”

“Loitering…” Julie squeaked, “I-I thought they picked you up for loitering…” She flinched as Marcy loomed over her.

Marcy blinked down at Julie’s cringing figure and stepped back, swallowing thickly.

“O-oh, ok, I guess… that makes sense…” she replied, blinking owlishly back at her, feeling the uncomfortable heat of embarrassment rising in her cheeks.

“Ok, so I’m just gonna…” Julie squeaked, backing away towards the door to her room, looking up at her in fear.

“Oh? Umm, yeah. S-sure. You go…” Marcy waved her off, looking down and ashamed, the door closing with a soft ‘click’.

Slumping back down on the couch, Marcy covered her face with her hands. She’d let something like that get under her skin again! She hated being called, or even implied that she had loose morals.

Marcy’s issue was she found herself constantly reminded of the one thing she hated most. Her mother was left a penniless single parent with no idea where Marcy’s biological father had gone, and if she was to be believed, even who he was. Her relationship with her mother had suffered substantially on the subject of her father alone, and that was without the usual falling outs that happened between mothers and their daughters.

It was something she had tried to distance herself from by ensuring she had good job prospects and committed relationships. Which was one of the main reasons that she was was so pissed at that smug not-returning-her-phonecalls jerk up in Glenmour.

Marcy sighed and stood back up again, pacing the room. She was still too worked up to sit still, she had to do… something! But what?

The answer always came down the same question. What would Pinkie Pie do? She had fallen in love with that character, more so as the seasons of My Little Pony continued. There was just… something that reached out to her. Made her feel… normal? ‘After all, if someone as crazy as her could, even fictionally, live a relatively normal life, then why can’t I?’

‘Well, the obvious choice is a party, but that would get me nowhere, and using it for an excuse to apologise to Julie… Crap! I need to apologise to Julie!!!’ She facepalmed at the obvious faux pas. ‘I guess… a cake? Yeah, that should do it.’ She smiled to herself. ‘Everybody loves cake!’

***

Middlemis Holdings
Midafternoon

“Psst! Hey Trace, what do you think about the boss and lover boy coming back from the new place so early?”

Tracy raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her seat. Bree was poking her head around the divider, a mischievous smirk all over her face.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, they’ve got plenty to do before the big sales and not much time to do it, is all,” she mumbled dismissively.

“But they’re back right on lunch break, you would have thought that they would have at least had lunch together…” shot back Elle from the other side of the four-way divider.

A dreamy sigh came from Bree’s side, “A romantic lunchtime rendezvous, just the two of them…” she tittered, her face flushing at the thought.

“Seriously, you girls need another hobby. Shipping our bosses is going to get us into trouble one of these day.” retorted Tracy, looking to make sure that no one else was in earshot.

“Besides, who said they didn’t finish early and stopped off at a hotel and went at it like a pair of wild buck stallions.” she finished with a mischievous grin.

This caused a tide of barely restrained laughter between the girls that led to a string of like-minded quips between them, until they were shot an annoyed look from out of Tracy’s bosses office.

“It sounds like I’m missing out on something entertaining out there ladies, is it something you’d like to share, or are you going to let the rest of us work in peace?” asked Brian through his open door, in a none too subtle hint to keep the chatter down.

“Nope, sorry, the girls were just being… themselves, I’ll get them to keep a lid on it!” she called back, as the other three ducked back behind their respective partitions and held their hands over their mouths and to suppress another round of giggles.

***

Glenmour Post office
5:30pm

Stuart was on the receiving end of a rather pointed stare from the elderly female postmaster as he signed for the two parcels that were too large to fit in his small post office box. ‘Never believe what they tell you, post office staff know what’s in your mail.’ he thought to himself as he returned the small electronic signature device back to it’s owner.

As he walked away, he turned one of the non-descript parcels over in his hand. Sure enough, it only had the corporate return address, but seeing that increasingly people tended to shop online for things like what was in his hands, it was no surprise that she recognised who it was from.

He tucked the parcel under his arm alongside its counterpart and set off for home, on the outskirts of town. He enjoyed the walk and tried to do it as often as the weather allowed, as it gave him time to think.

On this occasion, his mind drifted back to his mother and the strange magic that was sitting in his backyard. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that her disappearance and the cave were connected. He also suspected that his father likely thought something along the same lines, which would explain some of the more bizarre conclusions he seemed to make towards the end of his search, and the lonely days he sometimes spent just sitting out in scrub behind the house apparently staring at nothing.

‘Well, not so much nothing as something that no one else seemed to know was there,’ he thought to himself.

But it begged the question; if he knew about the cave, why didn’t he just dig it up? The logical conclusion was it had been covered by a earlier landslide, but if that was the case, it would have been one of the first places a search would have been carried out, wouldn’t it?

And surely he would have heard of it, at least from the people in town. He had heard pretty much all the rumors about her death, mostly from the other kids at school when it seemed pertinent to tease him, but also as he grew older. But none of them mentioned a landslide, or a cave.

Stuart frowned as he stood at the front of his gravel drive overlooking his house and gorge behind. He definitely needed to go back down there, but first, he had a few things that needed doing.

He made his way through the house and down to his room at the end of the hall. Plonking unceremoniously on his bed, he tore open the plastic shipping bag to see what had arrived. Being the heavier of the two, it contained two sets of female jeans and some basic girls t-shirts, which he shook out and had a quick look at.

The shirts had a v-neck and were shorter in the arms than he was used to, but other than that, they looked the same to his untrained eye. The same with the jeans, he could tell they wouldn’t fit him as he was just by looking at them, but there was not much else other than the size to tell them apart from a male set.

He placed them aside as he reached for the second package. This one was much smaller and tearing it open revealed three bras and a five-pack of panties. The bras were fairly simple affairs, one white, one naked beige (which, thinking back, made little sense as a purchase on his part…). The final bra was a little more lacy than the other two. It was a darker orange than his coat when transformed just to add a nice contrast, because, you know, why not, right..?

The panties were inexpensive cotton g-strings in basic primary colours. Stuart rolled them out of the plastic packaging and held one up to see how they looked. There… wasn’t that much to them. At all.

‘Well, at least they should fit under my tail, and it beats having to figure out a comfortable way to clip and unclip them all the time…’ he thought to himself. ‘But first off, will they fit?’

Stuart gave a sly smile as he mentally reached for the tingling sensation behind his forehead. He had it down enough now he could even manifest a little control over his transformation, and tried to make it a personal challenge to do so as nonchalantly as possible. Double transformation points if he could do so whilst multi-tasking.

He slipped his shoes off as his horn made it’s way forward from his brow, and stood as he unbuttoned his jacket and hung it from a hanger on his wardrobe door. He figured that if he could get the most distracting parts done first, then the rest should follow easily enough.

Stuart flinched at the metallic taste filling his mouth as his muzzle formed, and noticed several odors that were previously masked as his senses improved. Static filled his ears as they migrated their way up the sides of his head and stretched out, forming the blunt point of those belonging to a pony. These were the worst parts of the transformation, so he just closed his eyes and distracted himself unbuckling his belt and unbuttoning his shirt until they all played out.

A brief prickly sensation across his face signaled the growth of soft orange fur, and he opened his now much larger eyes as he gave his wide ears a flick, gazing out over his short orange snout. He finished removing his business shirt, and disposed of it into the laundry basket as the prickle of his ever-growing fur spread down his neck and over his slimming shoulders.

As he lifted his arms to remove his singlet, they brushed lightly against his small but slowly growing, breasts; they tingled slightly as a light coat of fur spread across his body and and made it’s way down his now more slender arms.

By the time the singlet had followed the shirt, his breasts were full and round. He took a moment to give them a quick nod of approval before unbuttoning his pants as his hips began to widen. Slipping his pants over his feet, with his boxes quickly following, he got to watch as his favorite part of the process began.

His organs began to shift as his hips continued to slowly grow, making room for what was yet to come. As his genitals withdrew, a sharp tingle behind them announced the arrival of his new sex, quickly followed by his crotch becoming covered in downy orange fur. There was almost nothing as satisfying as this point in the change for him.

It was the point where he became her, the Stuart Middlemis that all this magic wanted her to be. She bought her knees together and rubbed her inner thighs against each other, revelling in the sensation of not having anything out front, and confirming to herself she was complete.

However, whilst her favorite part was over, the most satisfying part had just begun. She reached down and balanced on one leg as she removed one sock at a time, watching between her legs as her tail lengthened and filled out.

Now this was something to be proud of. She gave her multi-toned blue tail a swish in time with her hips, eliciting a girlish giggle, another thing she was getting used to. Stuart loved her tail, and found it’s presence comforting, missing it when it was gone. She had even caught herself trying not to sit on it when it was hidden away in her male form.

She steadied her stance as she was forced onto her toes and her feet swelled out and hardened at the end, becoming marshmallow-like orange hooves. Giving them an experimental tap against the floor, she turned to the mirror against the wall and placed a hand on her hips as they jutted to one side.

“Well hello, sexy, welcome back,” she purred, taking in her naked form. Her two-tone blue mane spilled down past her slender shoulders. Her large expressive eyes were now a light turquoise colour and lidded with long dark lashes. She wore a confident smirk on her muzzle as her eyes traced down to her round breasts and trim midriff.

Her thighs flared out and were cocked to one side, leaving plenty of room to rest her orange-furred hand upon. There was a small tuft just above her crotch, and her tail spilled gracefully towards the floor behind her, in the same tones as her mane.

She stood on long supple legs ending in hooves, making her feel as though she were standing in heels. With a nod, she turned back to the bed and selected a white set of the panties. Stepping through the holes, she wiggled her way into them, adjusting them so they rode high on her hips and sat so that they were not bunching up her fur.

They came a little higher than she would have liked up under her tail, but she found that if she lowered them on her hips a little, it was more tolerable. They caused her tail to perk up a little more, but other than that, they seemed to fit pretty well, even if the ‘floss-like’ feel of the string up her butt crack was a little… different.

Now it was time to tackle the bra. She had watched plenty of online video guides, and even practiced a little with the smaller bras left by some of her ex-girlfriends, but it had been a painful and uncomfortable experience of pulled fur and pin-bending tightness.

Stuart adjusted the straps out before shrugging her way into the bra. Flipping her mane over her shoulder to keep it out of the way, she reached behind her to clip the hooks into the rings. Thankfully, the two met halfway and mated without effort. The fit still felt a little loose, so she tightened the clip positions until the bra hugged her firmly but without pulling at her fur.

She tucked her breasts into the cups as the videos had shown her, and then re-tightened the straps at the side and… ‘Holy freakin’ crap that feels amazing!’ Stuart thought to herself.

Suddenly bras actually made sense to her. Her breasts were cupped comfortably in the bra, and were supported by the straps, making them feel weightless and secure. ‘And that cleavage, would you look at that, it’s freakin’ awesome! Holy crap, bras rock!!!’ she thought as her smile made its way to a toothy grin.

“Annnnd now I’m standing here wearing women’s underwear and ogling myself. Good thing that’s not creepy…” she said out loud, spinning on the spot and taking up one of the shirts. It was a light turquoise blue to match her mane but still lighter than her eyes, and after a quick pat down to smooth out any ruffled fur, fit her well. The v-neck plunged down far enough to show off her cleavage, but not her bra.

As she suspected, the sleeves didn’t go as far down as she was used to, but then, they did show off more of her arms and accentuated her svelte shoulders. The shirt also didn’t go down around her waist as far as a male shirt would have, leaving her panties still exposed. With a dismissive shrug, she fetched the jeans from off the bed and turned them to the rear.

“Alright, jeans, surgery time. Time to see if my cunning and devious plan for you bears fruit, or if I’m about to irreparably demolish a $100 pair of jeans.”